With Russia’s failing big winter offensive racking up massive losses the last few days, why don’t we check in on the tankies and see how they’re coping? You can find previous editions of this irregular feature here, here, here, here, and here. As a reminder, a tankie is someone who believes that imperialism is bad, and only the United States can be imperialist. Everything else, and I mean everything, is the fault of the United States. It looks like this:
Let’s start here at home, with New York assemblyman Ron Kim, from NY City. The Democratic socialist did a lot of good during COVID times by exposing former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s coverup of nursing home deaths, and state-policy wise, appears to be on the right side of most things. But he’s a tankie.
There is a real problem when you think “people will criticize my stupid-ass idea” is somehow akin to “authoritarianism.” In Russia, flashing a blank piece of paper is construed as war criticism and leads to arrest and years of imprisonment. That’s what authoritarianism looks like.
No one is saying Kim can’t “ask a question.” He can ask it! Literally no one is stopping him. So why the melodramatic “woe is me” act?
In replies to that tweet, several people pointed out to the letter by the House Progressive Caucus demanding peace talks, and how they were forced to back off after receiving fierce blowback. But, did any of them get jailed for releasing the letter? Fined? No! They simply decided they didn’t want to defend the indefensible! It’s not as if the Progressive Caucus is afraid to take tough positions. They get criticized all the time and they hold firm without retracting. But in this case, they were wrong, and they made the (wise) determination that it was better to retract the letter than to try and stand by it. That’s not “authoritarianism,” that’s just politics.
Not to mention, in our modern discourse, the “I’m just asking questions” dodge is about the lamest piece-of-shit misdirection for spewing bullshit. It’s what the QAnon and MAGA crowds say when challenged on their disinformation, conspiracy theories, and outright lies. It’s how Fox News tries to spread its fake “news” even if there’s nothing there. “People are asking questions about Hunter Biden’s laptop.” What’s wrong with “asking questions”? Are you afraid of what the answers might be?
It’s all such horse crap. I love this response:
We are susceptible in this country to authoritarianism, that’s not wrong. People support Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. That’s all the evidence you need. But if Kim wants to cozy up to Vladimir Putin and his war of imperialism and extermination, then by all means, he’s free to do so! But he needs to stop whining about how authoritarians won’t let him speak truth to power, or whatever fantasy runs through his mind, and be firm enough in his convictions to deal with the criticism from people who don’t think rape and murder are okay.
Imagine writing this, pretending Donald Trump and his ilk don’t exist. Conservatives literally walk around calling each other RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), but sure, the right doesn’t look for traitors. Not saying liberals don’t have their own DINO nomenclature, or spew shit like “fauxgressive.” We can be just as internally corrosive as any other group of people. But the fight for purity isn’t something relegated to just some ideological groups.
Hinkle isn’t a tankie, he’s a reactionary white supremacist. Donbass Devushka is a tankie. Hence, here we have, yet again, more evidence for the horseshoe theory, where the far right and far left are so similar, as to come together in the political continuum.
And seriously, “one of the most consequential terror attack in human history” 🤣🤣🤣. How many people died? Zero. Okay … Well, what about economic damage? Well, you see, Russia had already cut off gas supplies to Germany. So doing the math … carry the one … the economic damage was … zero.
Hunkle and Blumenthal, on the supposed opposite ends of the political spectrum, both jumping on the Seymour Hersh story claiming the United States destroyed the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline between the Russia and Germany.
Here is Snopes on that story:
Hersh uses the testimony of one person, mixed alongside that aforementioned historical or political commentary, as evidence for every significant aspect of the alleged conspiracy [...]
This same source, evidently, is knowledgeable about internal CIA, State Department, and deep sea diver politics in addition to the specific deliberations held by a secret interagency panel. He is, in Hersh's reporting, the sole basis for claims of Norway's knowledge of and involvement in the operation [...]
This story, when deconstructed, is merely a pile of purported second-hand information allegedly collected by someone connected in some unknown way to deliberations of a highly secret, multi-agency task force. Such a story falls prey to the same criticisms of other more recent work published by Hersh, which has relied on similarly questionable anonymous sources.
If the U.S. did conspire to destroy the Nord Stream pipeline, Hersh's reporting has not proved that case. Hersh has, instead, made a very successful blog post that essentially transcribes a compelling story someone unknown to the general public told him.
If you didn’t catch Snopes’ subtle sarcasm, the idea that a single person would know about deliberations inside the CIA, State Department, the planning room at the unit of divers who supposedly carried out the mission, and Norwegian internal deliberations, is ludicrous on its face. Even if his source was CIA Director Bill Burns, would he know or care about the intricate internal politics of the deep sea diver community?
In any case, there’s a reason why real journalism requires multiple corroborating sources, and Hersh doesn’t even bother to try. Blumenthal, who once fancied himself a journalist, doesn’t care. Some random guy, who knows everything, told him some shit. It was a cool story, bro.
So no, The NY Times won’t cover that, Max. Even with all its faults, and the paper has many, this would be too ridiculous even for them.
Oh this aged so well…
Here’s video of all the failed attacks and the aftermath. New video from Vuhledar shows that whatever is left of that Russian naval industry has run out of armor, and are now doing Bakhmut-style human-wave attacks:
It’s not just that the Russians With Attitude account was wrong, we all get stuff wrong in the fog of war. It’s just how confidently wrong it was. They never hedge or say things like “this video doesn’t support their claims.” They decide they know the truth, and whether it has any bearing to reality is irrelevant.
Meanwhile, tankies are the dumbest people in the world.
Mongolia’s lack of access to the sea is a geopolitical cruelty.
Russia and China — it’s time you resolve this by donating your coastlines.
Seriously, what is it with these supposed “anti-imperialists” who are obsessed with enabling Russian (and Chinese) imperialism?
Now, imagine being so far gone, that even when real Russian nationalists tell you the truth, you refuse to believe it.
Prigozhin is the war criminal CEO of Wagner mercenaries (many recruited directly from prison) spreading death, torture, and mayhem throughout Africa, Syria, and Ukraine. He was a Kremlin caterer known as “Putin’s chef” who somehow ended up building his private army, one that is now in open conflict (both rhetorical, and reportedly in the field) with Russia’s defense ministry.
He is also the architect of the strategy of sending waves of unprotected infantry until they eventually overwhelm defensive positions, forcing Ukrainian retreats to the next prepared defensive line. His troops have made some territorial progress around Bakhmut in the last two months (after 8 months of nothing), but at the costs of thousands of dead per kilometer gained. For a Russia desperate for any victory, they think the blood sacrifice is worth it. But it’s obviously unsustainable, and Prigozhin, who has been cut off from further prison recruitment, knows it.
Therefore, he says it’ll take two years to conquer the Donbas, three to the Dneiper. At current rates of advance, that timetable is ridiculously optimistic. It would likely take decades, at a cost of hundreds of thousands more dead. (It’s Sunday, so too lazy to do the precise math.) But at the very least Prigozhin acknowledges that any dreams of a quick Russian victory are long gone. Any further advances will be attritional and, given Russia’s inability to wage efficient war, time consuming.
And this tankie is like IT’S A JOKE GUYS HA HA HA HA IT’S FUNNY HE’S JUST MAKING A FUNNY.
Okay then…
To hear the Glenn Greenwald-Putin apologists, everything is Azov and it’s all just a bunch of neo-Nazis running around Ukraine. The fact that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish is an inconvenient fact that must go unmentioned, of course.
That Azov was founded as an anti-Russian resistance movement in 2014 by white Nazi nationalists is true. No one disputes that. But as CNN notes in this story, Azov’s military and political wings parted ways in 2016, as the military unit was assimilated into Ukraine’s National Guard. The political wing, the National Corps party, is a fringe movement, garnering only 2.15% of the vote in the 2019 parliamentary elections. Glenn’s idea that they were “the most dominant” group in Ukraine is laughable on its face. In European terms, where far right movements have much more steam in places like France, Italy (they’re in charge!), and Germany, this is a pittance of a showing.
There are likely still Nazis in the unit, just like we have them in our own armed forces. But the Azov regiment has been fully assimilated into the Ukrainian army and dramatically expanded during this war, from regiment to brigade—a threefold increase. The unit gained legendary status for its early-war defense of Mariupol, helping recruitment among rank and file Ukrainians (well beyond its founding neo-Nazi roots). Since then, it has played a major part in the liberation of Kharkiv oblast, and is currently in Bakhmut.
Of course, no one is “worshipping” Azov. Greenwald is so melodramatic. But no one can doubt that their defense of Mariupol was the stuff of legends, and that has bred respect.
One more:
I can’t even.
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