US intelligence: Russia plans to attack Ukraine early next year

Anthony Weiner called Breitbart a liar. People doing wrong tend to do that. The media (monolith that it is) did not call Breitbart a liar about information they couldn't possibly know was true or false. Instead, they investigated the story before running it, something Breitbart should do more. That story turned out to be true, and that's why every outlet from ABC to CNN, to NPR ran stories about it.

 

Back to Ukraine. Prayers to the valiant folks involved in this crisis, both defending the country and refugees that are experiencing this event. The children are my main issue. The horrors of war may never be erased.

 

Амінь! (Amen!)

 

This is the very sad truth! The statistic is about one child a second is turning into a refugee from their Ukrainian homeland. All those families being torn apart is hard on everyone but the hardest and longest lasting on the children!

 

Here's what Dustin said.

"Any sentence starting with "Breitbart said" can be safely dismissed. If the information is correct, it will be repeated by a more reputable outlet. More likely, like most of what Breitbart writes, the truth will be extracted from the sensational by actual journalists and the rest will be ignored."

It seems like a very simple assertion. You're what about Weiner "comeback" is irrelevant. Regarding what Dustin said again, I'm not sure how I could make it anymore plain. Your Weiner "comeback" only proves Dustin's statement true. Notice this part of Dustin's statement, "If the information is correct, it will be repeated by a more reputable outlet." Must I point out the many far more reliable outlets that carried the Weiner story?

 

It's likely not too appropriate for a known threadjacker like mysaelf to ask, but - Please - can we now "bury the sad Weiner" and get back to Ukraine in this thread. If we can't, can we lock this one down -or at least spinoff and divide the topics?

I'd be perfectly OK with a "Breitbart / Weiner" thread and a Ukraine thread.

 

I don't think I've seen RELIABLE reasons to single out Soros as a bad guy; I mean more than any of the other financial speculator billionaires (which should not exist, as a group). His charity did supplement incomes of several schoolteachers I knew (including my 8th grade Physics teacher, who was the most dedicated and creative educator I've met through my almost 20 years of formal education). Also, Russian conservative circles hate his guts and blame him for collapse of Soviet Union. If they are right, that would make him "one of the good guys".

 

I seriously hope you would explain to my why good people would engage in direct propaganda efforts. Because that's what you are doing now, and I don't believe you are being paid for it. To wit:

Andrew Breitbart was a conservative activist (ideology that makes my blood boil, but in itself, not morally wrong. People are allowed to have and spread wrong beliefs). This fact makes a media outlet he creates anything BUT a "news service". Again, nothing wrong with putting up an online pamphlet dispensary (as long as pamphlets are TRUTHFUL. It is an easy mistake to believe they are "news"; fine folks at Fox "News" Channel moved the border far enough. What is NOT an easy mistake to make is failing to mention that Breitbart News is not Andrew Breitbart's to run; Andrew Breitbart is dead. In fact, current joint is shaped by Steve Bannon, and it is shaped by Steve Bannon to be a platform for alt-right. He was open enough about it. Putting up Andrew Breitbart as a screen is intentionally misleading.

Here is another one. Faux outrage on being called "racist" is one of the more common tricks. (Note: I don't think you use "apathetic" right)
This is a trick especially common among newer crop of racists in the "alt-right" community. Like Mr. Bannon. Here's the thing: being called "racist" is only unfair if IT ISN'T TRUE. There's plenty of reasons to call Breitbert media, or Tucker Carlson for that matter, sympathetic to white supremacist ideology. In response, they often yell "how dare they call me racist!" and "cancel culture!!!1111oneoneone.

No they don't. It's a fake argument.
Let me tell you what makes an outlet biased: an outlet is biased if it reports things because they advance their agenda. Take Weiner: in addition to being a prolific d*ck pic artist (an art form that is also a kind of sex assault: hence the conviction), he is an establishment New York liberal and someone who used to have a close personal connection to Clintons' inner circle. The fact that Breitbart reported on his hobby does not show that he/they are not biased (granted, in isolation, it doesn't show the opposite either, because it's true).
Now let's move to the real bad actors. Any kind of a bullshit factory (whether a hostile infowar weapon like Russia Today or a neo-supremacist recruiting tool like Bannon's Breitbart News) is NOT here to spread lies; it is here to spread anything that advances their cause. Individual article/video can be true, false, of a toxic combination - exactly like the thing you linked to. What they try to do is convert, not inform; having to lie is just the function of their core cause being evil. So, again, I wouldn't consume even the time/date widget on their page, even if it's just a script that gets time from time.gov.

 

An excellent example of Breitbart spreading lies is Charles Fout's post. He stated a lie by Breitbart. Okay Breitbart didn't explicitly lie they instead mislead Charles Fout into believing the lie about what the Ukrainian president said. He got sucked into their trickery so whole heartedly that he told the flat out lie in this thread. You see Mr. Fout, it's further proof that Breitbart news is a questionable news source. Breitbart is off the chart extreme in their spinning of the news to fit their agenda.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/breitbart/

 

It remains to be seen if the use of the ironically named Moscow Mechanism (based on the mechanism being developed at the Moscow Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension in 1991) will provide solid evidence of the widely-reported human rights violations like Russia bombing a maternity hospital.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-foreign-minister-praises-fox-news-for-ukraine-coverage-184200756.html

"

Russian foreign minister praises Fox News for Ukraine coverage

Niamh Cavanagh
·Producer
Fri, March 18, 2022, 11:42 AM



After three weeks of bitter and barbaric fighting in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised the coverage of the war from one American media outlet: Fox News.

Lavrov said Fox News has been “trying to represent some alternative points of view” in its coverage of the war.

“We understood long ago that there is no such thing as an independent Western media,” he said in the Friday interview, which was conducted in English.

He went on to denounce the social media ban of former President Donald Trump and appeared to criticize the labeling of Jan. 6 insurrectionists as terrorists.
“But when you watch other channels, read the social networks and internet platforms, when the acting president was blocked and this censorship continues in a very big way. The substitution of notions whenever something is happening by the way of mass protest, mass demonstrations, which they don’t like, they immediately call it domestic terrorism.”

He added: “So it’s a war, and it’s a war which involves the methods of information terrorism.”

Last Friday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested that U.S. government officials wanted a war between Russia and Ukraine in a bid to “grab more power.” While otherwise denouncing the Russian invasion, Carlson theorized that the U.S. helped provoke the conflict after emergency powers enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic had come to an end.

“At exactly the moment when the emergency powers they awarded to themselves to fight COVID started to wane, our leaders began pushing for conflict with Russia,” the Fox News host said."

 

I have some colleagues in Lviv. Yikes. We'll see if they'll be online on Monday

 

The Republican party used to be very suspicious of Russia. After Trump's influence there's a good portion of the Republican party that seems to adore Putin. I'm not sure if I'm more confused or more suspicious. Probably more confused in general but then more suspicious of specific actors like Trump and Tucker Carlson.

 

That's a pretty apt statement, Bill. I believe confusion and suspicion are symbiotic. They not only feed on each other, they generate each other. Much like the clips of bad news sources. Indeed the reproductive lives of these emotions (and bad news clips) are ... confusing and suspicious. Nefarious, too. That's why they do it in the dark.

 

I have a hard time believing that what I just read is actually true. It claims that thousands of citizens of Mariupol have been captured and shipped off to remote Russian cities against their will.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-03-19-22/h_2e9c8826cd040f8dd4d8a21c5b3b6283

A despicable new low, if true.

 

I was watching live report on Israeli Ch9 TV its a Russian speaking TV station from Israel. Program called From Sabbath to Sabbath.
They have reporters and contacts in Mariupol, Lviv, Kyiv etc.
One reporter live from Kyiv who escaped Mariupol basically compared the situation to blockade of Leningrad. People suffering constant bombardments, no water and food.
Authorities in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol say that the Russian military has bombed an art school where about 400 people had taken refuge.
Local authorities said Sunday that the school building was destroyed and people could remain under the rubble. There was no immediate word on casualties.

https://www.9tv.co.il/

 

Beyond - Kyiv Calling

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/putin-says-russia-switch-gas-142010187.html

Putin wants 'unfriendly' countries to pay for Russian gas in roubles

 

Forceable population removal is one formal definition of genocide, something many Americans would rather forget.

Oh, sorry. Teaching some Critical Race Theory there.

Making the West pay in roubles is an interesting move. Given the serious fall in the value of the rouble and its less than stellar position as a global currency the result might be a large price break for consumers. On the other hand Putin might be trying to escape the West's financial sanctions by avoiding dollar and euro transactions while offering some price support for his own currency. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.