Shot in the Dark

Lies

Joe Doakes from Como park emails:

One of the most frustrating things about the Ukraine situation is sorting truth from lies, made harder ever-changing lies.

For example, Russia initially claimed it was invading because the US secretly funded bio-weapons research labs in Ukraine, a charge the US hotly denied as Russian propaganda. Until Saturday, when the US admitted it secretly funded bio-weapons research labs in Ukraine but they were not Offensive bio-weapons, only Defensive bio-weapons, so plainly Russia’s claims were mere propaganda.

For another example, Russia claimed it was invading to ‘de-Nazify’ the break-away provinces of eastern Ukraine, a charge the Ukrainians hotly denied as Russian propaganda. Until Saturday, when President Zelenskyy was asked about the Azov Battalion being Nazi-affiliated and shooting Russian prisoners, and he admitted “they are what they are” and justified their actions because they were defending Ukraine, so plainly Russia’s claims were mere propaganda.

The lies keep changing but not on Russia’s side. Doesn’t prove the invasion is legally or morally justified but it justifies asking hard questions of the liars. What else are they lying about?

Joe Doakes

The fact that the Azov Battalion was of European far right white supremacists sympathy was an open secret. The fact that they’ve been in action for eight years, and have been pressed into service by an initially fairly desperate Ukrainian military, is not a huge surprise, unfortunate as the fact is.

It’s also been, if not an open secret, at least not a complete shock that the US farmed out a lot of less savory activities – including CIA “black sites“ for interrogating terrorist suspects Dash to Eastern Europe, taking advantage of the lax or nonexistent laws on the subject.

Both are certainly moral defects that are easily turned into pretexts by even less above board regimes.Or at least that’s what it smells like to me…

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Mitch Berg

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29 responses to “Lies”

  1. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Putin claimed his war goal was Ukraine’s neutrality — instead he gets Finland and Sweden in NATO. Hard to screw up that badly even if you try.

    Both Sweden and Finland should announce their intention to join NATO together, and be confirmed as full members. Timing it for Putin’s May 9 celebration would be style points.

  2. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    Putin has Nazis on the brain.
    He is said to be obsessed with a Soviet produced, 1970s- era television miniseries called “Seventeen Moments of Spring.” Its hero is a Russian spy who breaks up an American plot to join with Hitler’s wermacht and attack Russia in the Spring of ’45.
    Putin is nuts. World War Two started when Stalin gave Hitler the green light to invade Poland. Anyway, Putin has been dreaming of restoring the USSR’s pseudo empire in Eastern Europe for years. His enabler is in the White House.
    If you don’t want blood on your shoes, don’t go for a walk in Eastern Europe.

  3. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    A follow-up to an earlier post (link is in the text) that you may find interesting.

    https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine-an-update/

    I can’t speak to the veracity of what the author discusses but by all appearances he seems authoritative. He is google-able, especially if you speak French. As with everything else about this conflict, YMMV.

  4. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    I recall reading, years ago, about how the Russians in the Crimean war lined up their infantry five deep and couldn’t understand how the British could hold the line only two deep. At the time the Russian soldiers were mainly serfs and I wonder if this is something fundamental about the difference between a free society and an autocracy. A free society brings up people to take control and be ready to use their initiative and that’s the last thing an autocracy wants. Developing the kind of military that Ukraine has would simply be impossible for Russia without the kind of change that would turn it from an angry bear into a friendly Paddington and that’s not going to happen any time soon. It is so ironic that effectively Putin has been beaten by democracy.

  5. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Lies, lies and lies. Zero statistics. All propaganda all the time. On both sides. But you dare not question the narrative!

  6. Blade Nzimande Avatar
    Blade Nzimande

    The Askov Battalion was reportedly the best fighters in the Ukraine army; they were all but wiped out in Mariupol, and the rest have scattered.

    I’ve read that Ukraine is fixin’ to draft 13 – 70 year old men. They’re down to ~ 15% of their APC’s, 12% of their artillery, 2% of their helicopters, 0% of their operational planes and 5% of their mobile armor. It’s up to the old the young and the trannies… even wearing a dress will not keep a guy out of the meat grinder.

    The West has lost interest; the virtue signaling TwitR nitwits don’t even care anymore. It’s pretty much a mop-up operation from here on out.

    When the dust settles, the Donbass region will be autonomous and aligned with Moscow, which will provide Russia with a land bridge to Crimea. Russia will hold most of the Black Sea ports to keep Zelensky’s replacement in line. Russia will have cemented economic and trade relations with China, the Middle East and South America.

    It’s going to be a cold, miserable winter next year in Germany.

    All this was foretold the first week of action; by me.

  7. kinlaw Avatar
    kinlaw

    Threadjack, but the e collective is on this thread, so I have to respond to his incredible error.

    The Tea Party was EXPRESSLY all about spending, NOT social issues. At all. End of statement. Mitch will back me up on this if he ever reads his blog. Which I am beginning to doubt.

    Spending, dude. read some history.

    Oh yeah, it’s e.

  8. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Mitch will back me up on this if he ever reads his blog. Which I am beginning to doubt.

    I back you up on the Tea Party.

    I write the blog from 5-6:30 AM. I rarely have a lot of free time during the day.

    #shrug.

    Heckling not needed, thanks.

  9. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Swiftee boasts: “All this was foretold the first week of action; by me.”

    Wow it seems like a SiTD’s armchair general has done an inter-service transfer and become a armchair admiral.

  10. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    Don’t ask questions. Don’t question the official narrative from the people who gave you Hillary’s victory over Trump in 2016, the Russian Collusion hoax, and mask mandates in airplanes and elementary schools.
    Elon Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter is the light that has exposed the cockroaches in journalism. The WaPo, owned by gazillionaire spaceman Jeff Bezos, is now editorializing against rich people buying out media.
    Look for mainstream journalism to discover a “right not to be misinformed.”

  11. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    The Ukrainians have done an amazing job in controlling the narrative. This was helped by the fact that they were being attacked for no valid reason, and that Russia had lied for months about not planning to invade and then…it did.
    Having journalists on the ground to verify claims from each side is important.

  12. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    “Elon Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter is the light that has exposed the cockroaches in journalism.”

    “Funding secured” ~ Elon Musk
    If nothing else, Musk keeps us entertained.

  13. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Once again, Emery, you’re wrong. The Ukrainian propaganda machine is in full swing, too. Zelinsky is almost screaming for help in the form of boots on the ground. He’s getting his ass kicked, despite all of his “heroics”.

  14. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Opinion | A chess master knows how to sacrifice pawns. A war master knows how to sacrifice battleships. ~ SiTD war correspondent BH429

    I love making fun of the “Putin knows what he’s doing” stuff because it’s not specifically right or left or center so much as it’s just stupid.

  15. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    The question is not whether the Russian military has the strength to crush Ukraine, it is whether the Putin regime can absorb whatever losses its ,military suffers in crushing Ukraine w/o losing the political support it needs to survive.
    I don’t think anyone, not even Putin himself, knows the answer to that.

  16. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Russia’s Black Sea Flagship Abandoned, Damaged After Ukraine Claims Missile Strike Sinks It
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-black-sea-fleet-flagship-damaged-evacuated-after-ukraine-claims-missile-strike-11649920914

    No no no. It’s not sinking. It’s submerging. Special submarine operation. 🤣

  17. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    BN, it seems you are drinking kool-aid form the other spigot. I have no idea what the truth is – nobody does, and if they claim they do, they are lying, – but it is certainly nowhere near your numbers. Is it in the middle? 1/3? 2/3? Nobody knows for sure. The only thing I know to be true (first-hand account) is that things in Russia are not going very well and Ivan cannot support this war for much longer. It has to end soon, it cannot be protracted.

  18. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Looked up Swiftee’s claims–keep in mind he’s the one who was telling us the collapse of Mariupol was imminent a month ago–about armored vehicles, and the best source I found was Oryx, along with other sources that indicate that as of late March, Ukraine had more tanks than they’d started with. Nothing anywhere near Swiftee’s numbers.

    Regarding who they’re drafting, I am seeing a fair amount of gray hair among those serving for Ukraine, but we’re talking guys in their forties or fifties, not seventies, at least judging visually from the pictures. Even if there are guys in their seventies serving, that doesn’t mean they were drafted. I’m guessing Swiftee is drinking deeply from fountains of Russian disinformation, as he has been for the past six weeks, really.

    Regarding the claim of bioweapons labs, I’m not seeing any credible evidence from the past month. JD? Got a link?

    Finally, regarding the notion that Ukraine is getting their tuckus kicked, last I read was that it was Russia retreating in most places outside of Donbass. That’s where the clear evidence of Russian war crimes came out. The requests for additional arms are really “this is what we need to advance in the southeast.” Or, put more bluntly, “this is what is needed to relieve my best units in Mariupol.”

  19. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Swiftee appears to parrot political scientist John Mearsheimer.

    Mearsheimer has a long track record of being an apologist for Moscow, and his playing down of chemical warfare and atrocities perpetrated by the Russians and Assad in Syria.

    No serious thinking person believes this nonsense about how poor Putin was somehow forced to invade Ukraine by the nasty and shadowy powers of NATO, the West, the CIA, whatever bogeyman you choose. The Russian regime has showed systematically through its actions over the past 15 years that it is a brutal player that silences internal dissent by murdering political opponents and invading neighboring countries.

    Moreover this idea that they have been “holding back” and now the “gloves come off” or other such BS is absurd — the non-stop indiscriminate bombing and deliberate murder of civilians smack of desperate tactics to try and crush the Ukrainian will to resist because they cannot win in the conventional field of battle.

  20. kinlaw Avatar
    kinlaw

    “”Heckling not needed, thanks””

    Just good natured ribbing Mitch, no offense meant. Certainly did not intend to heckle.

    #jokesamongstfriends

  21. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    bike;
    Here’s one. Right out of the horse’s mouth.

    https://www.americanpartisan.org/2022/03/nuland-exposes-us-as-funding-26-biolabs-in-ukraine/

    I found more.

  22. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Try again, Boss. Try again. Serious security issues with that link. Plus, as I noted above, the claims are above a month old.

    Really, the whole deal regarding “bioweapons” rests on a confusion about the difference between a biolab–pretty much every hospital in the world has one–and a bioweapons lab. Nuland noted the former, not the latter. The concern over Russians destroying one had not to do with attempted or real bioweapons, but rather the pathogens any biolab deals with. Same thing you’d see if Mayo’s pathology labs blew up, really.

    Side note; I’ve done a bit of research about the Azov batallion, and the thing I notice is that their “extremism” seems to be limited to tattoos. No pogroms, busting up synagogues, or even harassing little Jewish kids on the street with ham sandwiches or something. Either they hide their tracks well, or they’re the lamest Nazis ever. (and that’s a good thing, of course)

    And in breaking news, the Moskva has sunk.

  23. Blade Nzimande Avatar
    Blade Nzimande

    Oh. I see.
    Well, on Wednesday, the Pentagon said the the US plans to send 18 155mm howitzers and 40,000 rounds of ammunition, 10 counter-artillery radars, two air surveillance radars, 200 obsolete M113 APC’s, 100 Humvee armored cars (Taliban gives them two 👍🏻), and 11 Mi-17 helicopters to prop Ukraine up.

    Someone should tell the brass Bubba says Zelinsky doesn’t need them. lol

  24. Blade Nzimande Avatar
    Blade Nzimande

    Also Bubba: The Asov lads are mostly peaceful natsies and the Ukrainian bio-labs are just satellite Mayo clinic pathology labs.

    Heh, excellent. The WaPo couldn’t have done better.

  25. Blade Nzimande Avatar
    Blade Nzimande

    But what of Mariupol?

    “The Ukrainian defenders have been fighting to hold parts of the port and Azovstal, a giant steel factory that lies on Mariupol’s eastern outskirts.”

    Oh. Well it seems news of the fall of the city were premature. They’ve still got boat docks and a steel factory. (Snicker)

  26. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong thinks the New World Order’s so-called “Great Reset” plan for humanity now needs war to try and make it work.

    Armstrong explains, “What they are trying to do is deliberately poke the bear…”

    [A list of even more arms being sent to Ukraine]…

    Yay! War!

  27. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Everyone knows the war hasn’t really started until you’ve destroyed half your army and lost your favorite ship. Does Russia still need a port in Sevastopol if it no longer has a Black Sea Fleet?

    I’m not a Biden fan but calling out Putin for what he and his cronies are is at least the truth. Can’t get those heavy weapons in there fast enough.

  28. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    The world is full of really bad guys.
    The Chinese regime is known for its genocide and also for harvesting organs from living political prisoners. Also the Chinese have the same designs on Taiwan that Russia has on Ukraine.
    Yet Biden is strangely silent on Xi. I wonder why? Maybe a journalist could look into that.

  29. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    I suspect this will end up as yet another strategic miscalculation by Xi.

    On the security side, his treatment of Hong Kong has destroyed the “one country, two systems” model, and any hope of peaceful reunification with Taiwan. And China’s expansionist claims and increasingly assertive behavior in the South China Seas and elsewhere already worry many in the region. On the economic side, countries are finding that Chinese investment is often much more exploitative than investment from e.g. Japan. You know things are bad when even the Myanmar junta is worrying about Chinese exploitation.

    Now, Xi’s support for Russia risks compounding security concerns, as abandoning China’s traditional “respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity” will force other countries to look harder at their assumptions about the nature of the security threat. And on the economic side, I expect Xi’s regime will spend the next few years trying to make China less vulnerable to the sanctions imposed on Russia, which means a degree of financial and economic decoupling. Meanwhile, foreign countries worried about their own dependence on Chinese supply chains will encourage diversification, which is likely to benefit many countries in Asia.

    I suspect the overall effect of Xi’s handling of Russia-Ukraine will be to sharpen security concerns and weaken economic ties. Ironically, the latter will make it a bit easier for Asian countries to act on the former. Xi is fecklessly squandering the geopolitical advantage built up by his predecessors.

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