A talented Russian propagandist. Covid couldn’t come to a nicer guy. A liberal I love – until they disown him.
20231023
I got what I asked for. Russian stooge Col. Douglas McGregor is a total nincompoop. I asked if there were any Russian propagandists who did a more credible job. Bill from Florida recommended Simplicius.
Yes! He is what a propagandist should be. He demonstrates that he is well informed. In this piece on the current battle for Adiivka he shows a knowledge of the Allied forces tactics and strategy in the Normandy invasion. He employs a broad vocabulary of words that we commoners have to look up such as bocage and caponier.
Your browsers may recognize that this is on my own web site, grahamseibert.com, and not want to open it. Unfortunately, Substack does not support the format I need – a table including Simplicius’ photographs. Ask and I’ll send it by email, which should get through. Here is the original post, without my comments.
Simplicius employs a time-honored approach - “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” The piece here is incredibly long. It seems to ramble – much of the time he doesn’t seem to be making much of a point.
He is outright wrong on a couple of points. He claims, with no support, that Russia had no intention of winning the Special Military Operation in three days. He claims, with no caveats, that it was the Ukrainians who blew up the Nova Kakhovka dam. In my mind it is established that it had to be the Russians. The massive amount of explosives could only have been planted within the dam itself, and that could only have been done by the Russians who controlled it at the time.
The most significant error is to claim that Russia has seized control of the Terikon slag heap, the high ground above Adiivka, and that they therefore have fire control over Ukraine’s MSR, or main supply route. I think (1) he overrates the strategic importance of this hill, but (2), most important, Ukraine still controls it, per Denys Davidov and Reporting from Russia. This is not the kind of thing these Ukrainian bloggers misrepresent.
These quibbles notwithstanding, if you are looking for the best available Russian propaganda, not the crap that Macgregor pumps out, Simplicius is your guy. He lies with grace and style, and tells the truth often enough to lure the gullible into believing what is not true.
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Here’s a heartening piece. Vaccine cheerleader and presumably vaxxed and boosted comedian (some find him funny) Stephen Colbert is down with Covid. Again. It is serious enough to stop filming his show. Wish him a speedy recovery. Oh, wait! You don’t get over the spike protein. Anyhow, wish him health.
Chasing links from the above, you get to a piece that Colbert did touting the Covid vaccine on June 21, 2021. A totally obscene bit called the Vax-scene, making outrageous assumptions about the stupidity and gullibility of his audience. I wonder how well he was compensated, with your tax dollars, for shilling for big pharma? It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.
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But there are liberal icons I love. Here’s Bill Maher on why American youth should not go to college. I’m going to borrow from Maher for my upcoming Toastmasters speech on why Ukrainian youth should not go to American colleges.
That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone, where Dad and the three kids spent yesterday at Kyiv’s Museum of Natural History. A great and wonderful place, where Eddie and I could have spent the entire day. The girls, however, at 3 and 6 were bored after an hour and a half. We had a pepperoni pizza and fries at Dominos. As the kids chowed down, Oksana’s voice echoed in my mind, reminding me what trash this stuff is. Though still not healthy, Ukrainian fast food such as shawarma/shaurma has to be better for you. I wondered, as I noshed it down, exactly what the pepperoni was made of. Not a good question to ask.
Just to add, I've been looking through Simplicius's substack. Looking through his articles. it's amazing how long Russia has been winning and how long Ukraine has been collapsing. And yet Russia still hasn't actually won? How odd.
Thinking about Covid and the vaccines, this is a grim news article. The 8 year old boy who was the 'face' of the vaccine publicity campaign in Israel has just died of a heart attack.
An 8 year old had a heart attack.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/10/22/auto-draft-80-n1737099
I'm not an anti-vaxxer but there are too many straws in the wind when it comes to the MRNA shots.