If you really wanna go - alive or dead my friend

[Marky Dread]

Humanity losing this fight all over again. Propaganda and hatred are the enemy. When will we as a species learn. There are times when I have to wonder if we even deserve this planet.

Still from the heart we have to believe that people are good and we will eventually get it right.

[Marky Dread]

Regards the Azov they are some nasty fuckers with awful idealism.

I can only imagine the National Front or the BNP being a part of the British army here. The far right are at large all over the world but being an integral part of an army is some scary shit!

[revbob]

Thanks for the info HB/RB

[Sparky]

Regards the Azov they are some nasty fuckers with awful idealism.

I can only imagine the National Front or the BNP being a part of the British army here. The far right are at large all over the world but being an integral part of an army is some scary shit!

I agree 100%, the world doesn't need anymore far right bullshit. The part I don't understand is how Zelensky could allow a battalion such as the Azov to exist given that he's of Jewish faith and lost family in the Holocaust.

[Marky Dread]

Regards the Azov they are some nasty fuckers with awful idealism.

I can only imagine the National Front or the BNP being a part of the British army here. The far right are at large all over the world but being an integral part of an army is some scary shit!

I agree 100%, the world doesn't need anymore far right bullshit. The part I don't understand is how Zelensky could allow a battalion such as the Azov to exist given that he's of Jewish faith and lost family in the Holocaust.

I can only assume he had little say. Otherwise that is very odd indeed.

[revbob]

An oldie but a goodie, or at least accurate "politics make strange bedfellows "

[tepista]

[Sparky]

That's awesome! Good for Dee!

[Marky Dread]

That's awesome! Good for Dee!

...and yet whenever I hear "We're Not Gonna Take It" I wanna put on some platform boots and stomp my feet. It's a strange old world.

[Howard Beale]

Long, thoughtful post. Thanks for engaging. Just wanted to acknowledge it, especially since I'm directly quoted in a couple spots, and promise a response in the next day or two. Given the time you put in, I want to make sure I give the respect of a thoughtful and considered response (and I think I'm familiar with most of your sources you cite, but I want to revisit them as well).

No rush.

In any case, I certainly appreciate you stopping back in. And for the thoughtful dialogue. I think I said this on Twitter the other day, but, y'know, it's not like discussion online I about changing policy or influencing decision makers. Hopefully it's just about considering our own understanding of the world and working to articulate some truth and moral clarity. Appreciate your engagement with, I think, that spirit in mind.

For sure, man. My post certainly wasn't in the spirit of "I'm right, Person [X] or [Y] is wrong," but just to hopefully broaden the scope of the discussion—and again, always appreciate your insights.

Thanks for the info HB/RB

No prob, and hey, I'm always learning right along with everyone else, so I encourage everyone to do their own research. The more knowledge we all have, the more we can fill in each other's blind spots.

I'd prefer it if the nations of our world would somehow learn to peacefully coexist, live and let live, allow each country to do their own thing, provided they're not trampling on any other nations right to peacefully exist. Perhaps that's a naive wish given the politics, egos and greed that seem to be ruling the world today, but I can dream.

I'm with ya brother, that's the world I want to live in. If enough people wake up, it might just be achievable. I hope that doesn't sound too utopian.

Loathe to get too deep into it too as don't feel i have the in depth knowledge to dissect things, didn't even think putin would go this far so not had a good handle on it. But will say some of the coverage I'm watching is grim and infuriating, especially when you see a guy interviewed on the bbc weeping because "European people with blue eyes and blonde hair" are being killed and nobody thinks this sentiment is worth challenging in any way.

This has brought about quite a few of these self-unmasking moments lately.

Regards the Azov they are some nasty fuckers with awful idealism.

I can only imagine the National Front or the BNP being a part of the British army here. The far right are at large all over the world but being an integral part of an army is some scary shit!

I agree 100%, the world doesn't need anymore far right bullshit. The part I don't understand is how Zelensky could allow a battalion such as the Azov to exist given that he's of Jewish faith and lost family in the Holocaust.

I can only assume he had little say. Otherwise that is very odd indeed.

This. Remember, the coup happened in 2014, Zelensky was elected in 2019, so the incorporation of the Azov Battalion into the Ukrainian military didn't happen under him. Actually, I'm hearing now that they want to overthrow him, likely for a variety of reasons, but I'd assume his being Jewish is fairly high on the list.

I will offer, however mildly, that the idea of Ukraine in NATO was always a wretched idea. Go back and read George Kennan's Long Telegram from 1947, where he explained Soviet foreign policy as rooted in the centuries-old Russian fear of invasion and desire for buffer states. Ukraine or the Baltic nations in NATO is placing the rival West right on Russia's doorstep. So I get that and to the degree that I ever thought about NATO's eastward expansion, I thought it a bad idea that was unnecessarily provocative, purposefully or not.

That's such a great point that I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't even really thought of—but hey, I'm just some dude on the interwebs here, it gets a lot scarier when you think about how detached and intellectually incurious members of, say, the Atlantic Council or the US government likely are about the historical/cultural motivations and thought processes of non-Western nations; the Bush Administration's pride in their aggressive ignorance toward having any such knowledge of the Arab world in the lead-up to the Iraq War being one of the more disastrous examples that immediately springs to mind.

Howard, welcome back!

welcome back, stranger!

It's good to be back!

[revbob]

And Im hearing/seeing this sort of thing:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60555650

[Low Down Low]

And Im hearing/seeing this sort of thing:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60555650

Jeez, things must be grim in Poland if Orbans Hungary is being suggested as an alternative.

[Dr. Medulla]

And Im hearing/seeing this sort of thing:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60555650

Poland is run by goons. One of the historians where I teach is a Holocaust scholar, specializing in the Polish experience, and he's been targeted for harassment (and worse; I don't think he can set foot in Poland without being arrested now) because of his work showing the active participation of Poles.

Tangential supplementary: Contrary to Canada's myths, a lot of slaves who escaped via the underground railroad were denied entry into Canada. Presumably it depended on the bureaucrat who dealt with the case. All kinds of reasons were presented, usually health-related, to say, sorry, you'll have to stay in the US; hope a slavecatcher doesn't find you.

[JennyB]

And Im hearing/seeing this sort of thing:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60555650

Poland is run by goons. One of the historians where I teach is a Holocaust scholar, specializing in the Polish experience, and he's been targeted for harassment (and worse; I don't think he can set foot in Poland without being arrested now) because of his work showing the active participation of Poles.

Tangential supplementary: Contrary to Canada's myths, a lot of slaves who escaped via the underground railroad were denied entry into Canada. Presumably it depended on the bureaucrat who dealt with the case. All kinds of reasons were presented, usually health-related, to say, sorry, you'll have to stay in the US; hope a slavecatcher doesn't find you.

The Polish government is dead-set on changing the narrative of their complicity during the Holocaust. It's terrifying.

[Dr. Medulla]

And Im hearing/seeing this sort of thing:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60555650

Poland is run by goons. One of the historians where I teach is a Holocaust scholar, specializing in the Polish experience, and he's been targeted for harassment (and worse; I don't think he can set foot in Poland without being arrested now) because of his work showing the active participation of Poles.

Tangential supplementary: Contrary to Canada's myths, a lot of slaves who escaped via the underground railroad were denied entry into Canada. Presumably it depended on the bureaucrat who dealt with the case. All kinds of reasons were presented, usually health-related, to say, sorry, you'll have to stay in the US; hope a slavecatcher doesn't find you.

The Polish government is dead-set on changing the narrative of their complicity during the Holocaust. It's terrifying.

Not wholly dissimilar to the efforts to write-out racism and slavery (or at least the yucky parts) from school curricula in the US. Really cool that the West won the Cold War, defeating an Orwellian state and all so that openness and truth would flood the globe.