136 Comments
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CUNAEUS's avatar

Hey sometimes you have to detain a few journalists to protect Democracy.

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Yuri Bezmenov's avatar

Or kill them like Gonzalo Lira.

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CUNAEUS's avatar

Thanks for reminding us. How long can the Poltroons kill the heroes until there are no heroes left and only the Poltroons?

RIP Gonzalo Lira, a Chilean-American war commentator known for his critical views on the Zelensky regime and Russia-Ukraine conflict, passed away on January 11, 2024, in a hospital in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Lira's death followed an eight-month imprisonment on charges of ”justifying Russia's military actions in Ukraine”, sparking international controversy and raising questions about freedom of speech and human rights during wartime.

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Daily Growler's avatar

US seems to have done nothing to get Gonzalo Lira released by the Ukrainians, although just one phone call from Biden or Blinken would likely have done the trick. Contrast the State Dept's and media's "treatment" of Lira with the ruckus they raised about the female athlete detained in Russia for having drugs in her baggage, and cry.

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CUNAEUS's avatar

These are venal men who can't be bothered to put their pen to paper unless it's about filching wealth and power to themselves.

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ChrisC's avatar

If you are not a Qatari intelligence with ghost written articles appearing in the WaPo, then you don't count.

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bestuvall's avatar

and if they die. meh...

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

Sometimes you even have to arrest them.

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CUNAEUS's avatar

Well no cost to other men is too great for me to sacrifice for Democracy. No other man's child or wife or husband is too great a price for them to pay, according to me.

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

Ah, so. The Sacred Democracy--One Oligarch, One Million Votes. Not since the Etruscans has there been such a fervent service to the Gods . . .

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Eaton Moregina's avatar

This is the next step in protecting democracy--flows naturally from cancelling elections (because-- democracy).

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CUNAEUS's avatar

It's not like we had to extrapolate it, they are saying it publicly, like Pelosi did at the Oxford Union. Maybe I would be okay with some benign king stepping in and suspending everyone's democratic rights because it had been determined that the world had gone mad and couldn't vote their way out of their madness. But I am certainly not going to capitulate to the likes of Nancy Pelosi who is like some wine sopped Grandma who's thought processes reveal another agent whose mind has deteriorated beyond repair. They can't accept new information or inculcate them into their crystalized minds, in a world where information has become all the rage.

'

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Feral Finster's avatar

Now, pretend that this had happened in Russia or any other country that the Empire doesn't like.

The worldwide howls of outrage would be deafening. MSM mouthpieces would be slathering fawning praise on Syrotiuk and would hasten to assure us that any threat to his freedom is a threat to us all. "I am Bogdan Syrotiuk!" would be on everyone's lips.

But since Ukraine is an American pet, nobody dares raise a peep, lest wrongthink ensue.

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Kurl Malone's avatar

This article must be a lie!

Ukraine is a democracy, not a neoliberal fascist oligarchy!

You're a liar! Joe Scarborough told me so!

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Josh Wilson's avatar

Joe Scarborough fields, forever!

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

Are you saying that Scarborough ain't fair?

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme?

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raa's avatar

Matt, congratulations on writing articles like this and I hope you keep up this kind of reporting. I also hope you have some great defense lawyers on speed dial in case you get an early morning knock on the door by the FBI with CNN reporters filming.

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Rfhirsch's avatar

Or, "early morning knock on the door by CNN reporters with the FBI filming."

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Steve Vivian's avatar

Exactly. At first glance, it's absurd to imagine Matt being arrested and escorted, perp walk style, in front of CNN cameras. But at second glance: not absurd. Dark Times.

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Nonothing's avatar

Knock on the door? We're not far away from midnight 'vanishings' a la the Soviet Union, circa 1938. I say by 2026.

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feldspar's avatar

Or a late night knock on the door from Fox executives with the FBI filming.

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Sera's avatar

The level of shade that the MSM keeps its readers in is staggering. In the NYT I made the innocuous, and truthful, observation that Zelensky is no longer president of Ukraine and was hit with several scolding replies inquiring as to my citizenship status in Moscow, and how my Russian was coming along. They not only can’t handle the truth, they make fun of it.

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Paul Harper's avatar

That rag is exhibit A in the case that the US press serves as the mouthpieces of the US security state.

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feldspar's avatar

"A" mouthpiece not "the" mouthpiece "for" not "of" the US security state.

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Paul Harper's avatar

My construction carries my point much more forcefully. Yours implies an independence and separation between the press and the security state which I and others contend no longer meaningfully exists. But thanks!

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feldspar's avatar

Independence and separation between the press and the security state which you and others contend no longer meaningfully exist is a charming and sentimental notion, but, at bottom, is a phony construction, a chimera, and always has been.

Independence and separation between the press and the security state couldn't possibly exist---save for in the minds of dreamy romantics, third-rate editorial writers, and elderly bachelors wearing velvet suits. You're welcome.

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Paul Harper's avatar

This is very good. However, I'm an incurable optimist and will continue to insist we strive for better.

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jbt1980's avatar

Did they ask you about the weather in St. Petersburg? I got that one often when poking fun at their lemming-like idiocy.

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Moondance1's avatar

What has possessed these people to turn into outright nasty, mean, rude, arrogant, incurious, ignorant, close minded, know it all .... idiots?

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

High tax brackets and degrees from the Ivies and their "journalism" schools.

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John Kirsch's avatar

But it's okay because we're defending democracy in Ukraine.

And Ukraine was so nice to Gonzalo Lira.

So I don't think there's anything to worry about.

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whippingstar's avatar

So what you're saying is Ukraine is still the most corrupt shithole country in Eastern Europe?

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Seldom a great notion's avatar

Thank you for writing this depressing article.

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

exactly.

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Eastern Rebellion's avatar

I'm sure there are many politicians (and their journalist lackeys) in Washington right now who would love to be able to do the same thing in America. I suspect that the time is coming when they may try (in the interests of National Security of course).

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Inverted Pyramid's avatar

Scott Ritter’s passport was yanked by our government before he was to fly to Russia. I don’t have any other information...

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MS's avatar

I am so glad you wrote about Texty.org.ua. Per Anitwar.com, "A State Department-linked Ukrainian NGO published a study on June 6 that listed hundreds of individuals and organizations that oppose aid to Ukraine in an effort to smear them as spreading “Russian propaganda...The American Conservative, which was also included in the list, reported that Texty.org.ua was co-founded by Anatoly Bondarenko. Bondarenko has worked as an instructor for a State Department program known as TechCamp, which provides training for foreign journalists and activists." It seems as though everybody and their mother is listed by this group, "from Trumpists to Communists". This is so out of contol, but thank you for staying on top of these hydra headed, continually proliferating shady organizations.

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Gilgamech's avatar

So the Ukrainian Nazi government wants TAC writers murdered??

Anyway I see a House committee is at least demanding this spook front is defunded. But a dozen others will spring up in its wake like cockroaches.

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David Cashion's avatar

Now that the Ukrainian Nazis are funded and backed by America, is it still OK to shout, gas the nazis ?

Asking for a friend.

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Meth Bear's avatar

Not all Nazis are created equal in the eyes of the national security state and its media lackeys. Ukrainians who wear Nazi symbols and name their paramilitary units after Nazi collaborators are not actually Nazis. Americans who support the wrong major-party candidate or express views that were mainstream until 5 years ago are the REAL Nazis.

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David Cashion's avatar

I heard they all hide orange hair.

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kass's avatar

Ukraine has been torturing and murdering dissidents and Russian speakers for 10 years without a peep from the Western Press. I'm not even sure they reported the daylight assassination of a Ukrainian peace negotiator at the beginning of the SMO. It's impossible to get search engines to pull up stories from the independent press, but I recall that at least one independent Western journalist besides Lira was murdered, a French journalist was beaten up, and a Spanish journalist working in Ukraine was held in a Polish prison.

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Ashe's avatar

Matt—do you have these details?

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

That's because the press has been running interference since Zelensky was anointed as the boss after the US-backed "regime change" (yet another disgusting euphemism for "coup") deposed Yanukovych.

Yanukovych may have been a typically corrupt Ukrainian politician, but it's clear why Z. gets only good press.

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So Many Questions's avatar

This article raises the question of which country, Russia or Ukraine, is least ripe for an infusion of liberal democracy and becoming a stalwart member of the rules based order.

Maybe I'm just dumb, but suspect nothing good will come from our involvement in the current Ukraine carnage.

For comparable follies, what good ever came from our involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Chile, Viet Nam (in the 60s), Iran (in the 50s) and all the other places the US tried to plant its flag. Maybe I'm just missing the point.....

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Ashe's avatar

Nigeria

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

"Nothing good" includes WW III.

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Bill Astore's avatar

It's so sad to see peace activists identified as "enemies of the state." Not only peace activists, but people calling for negotiation, compromise, and an end to the war with all its murderous destruction.

Yet, if you're for endless war in Ukraine, you're saluted! WTF is wrong with us?

Who knows: maybe people will jump for joy when nuclear missiles start flying. That'll show Putin! (And us.)

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