The Roundup
2024 predictions from a recently killed propagandist, protests in the US and Georgia, Kremlin propaganda disguised as a video game, a new song from North Korea praising Kim Jong-Un, and more
2024 Predictions From a Recently Dead Pro-Russian Propagandist
As you may have heard, Russell “Texas” Bentley, the American-born man who moved to the Donbass region of the Russian occupied part of Ukraine where he became a pro-Russian propagandist and onetime viral video star, initially went missing but it was later revealed that he was killed by Russian forces.
The Daily Mail has a story about him that mentions one thing about his death that I didn't know about before. Quoting another story in The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Mail claims that Bentley had been involved with Russian ultranationalist circles and his death has made him the latest in a number of leaders of the annexation of eastern Ukraine to show up dead. The ultranationalists had felt that Russia was not moving aggressively enough in its invasion of Ukraine.
This group also included the late Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had a falling out with Vladimir Putin after he had the Wagner Group organize an attempted coup against Moscow last year that ultimately failed. Prigozhin died in a plane crash one month later. Since then a number of ultranationalists have fallen out of favor with Putin and many of them have turned up dead. Bentley was the latest ultranationalist to meet his demise.
As I was going through some related Bentley links last week I found this curiosity that I thought it would be worth sharing. Bentley had written an article for Sputnik, the Kremlin media outlet where he was a regular contributor during the last 10 years of his life, where he gave his Top 10 Predictions for 2024. He was completely correct in his prediction that Vladimir Putin would be reelected as president of Russia. (I had predicted the same.) I'm hoping that he correctly predicted that Donald Trump won't be elected president in November. As for the others, well, let's say that they are interesting to say the least, especially his prediction of who will be the next US president (and it won't be Joe Biden or Donald Trump).
Then there is this music video where he plays what is supposed to be an original song called “Sweet Home Novorossiya,” where he basically ripped off the melody from Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Sweet Home Alabama.”
Given the trajectory of this man's life (from being born into a wealthy family to reading the works of Che Guevara at an early age to becoming a pothead who dropped out of high school to serving in the US Army to working a variety of odd jobs to becoming a pro-marijuana legalization activist to serving time in prison on drug distribution charges to making his fateful move to Donetsk), I wouldn't be surprised if Hollywood attempted to make a movie in the future—either a straight biopic or a fictionalized version—of his life story. He left behind enough writings that anyone can use as research into his background. There's his Instagram account where he had posted pictures of his life in Donetsk but he hadn't posted there since 2019. There's his blog, which he hadn't updated since 2020, where you get to read about things like his belief that the COVID-19 pandemic was a manufactured crisis. There's also his Telegram channel, which contains his more recent writings until the day before he disappeared and was announced to be dead eleven days later. There's even a book that Bentley wrote called The Donbass Cowboy, which was based on his own experiences fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The biggest irony is that he was thrown off of Twitter nine years ago, which was long before Elon Musk purchased that platform and began to reinstate previously banned accounts. For some reason Bentley's account wasn't reinstated but he was allowed to create a new account just a few weeks before he was killed.
Russian Soldiers Tortured One of Their Own
Speaking of the late Russell Bentley, recently The Daily Mail had a story about a Russian man named Ruslan Khammatov who had a similar experience to the way that Bentley died except Khammatov managed to survive his ordeal.
He was kidnapped near a key airbase and was accused of being a Ukrainian spy. He was beaten, threatened with rape, and was threatened with having his testicles cut off. It was only when his captors made him unlock his smartphone and they looked through its contents that his interrogators realized that he is a staunch supporter of Vladimir Putin and supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Khammatov's case he was let go and he ended up being hospitalized for his injuries.
Video Gaming as Kremlin Propaganda
Apparently Russia has just come out with its own video game and it's a very far cry from Tetris. It's called The Best in Hell and it's based on the war in Ukraine. In the game players have to go through a completely destroyed Ukrainian city looking for so-called “Ukrainian Nazis” to kill and they can kill a Ukrainian every few seconds. Players even get a chance to be led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of both the Internet Research Agency troll farm and Wagner PMC who died last year in a plane crash. The screenshots I've seen online looks like it's similar to Call of Duty.
As of this writing there's no word on distribution plans for The Best in Hell or if it will even be available in Western countries outside of Russia.
More Protests in Georgia
For over ten days protesters have been bringing the traffic inside of the capital, Tbilisi, to a standstill. They have been protesting the controversial “foreign agent registration” law that's similar to a law in Russia that the government uses to crush dissent. So far the protests have shown very few signs of abating.
More Pro-Palestinian Protests
There is currently this huge student protest encampment on the campus of Columbia University that has gotten worldwide attention while it has also spread to other US universities like Yale and New York University. These encampments are so reminiscent of the Occupy Wall Street encampments that protested income inequality from over 10 years ago, but I digress.
These campus protests have led to a number of arrests at Atlanta's Emory University and the University of Southern California. The protests have led the latter to cancel its main commencement ceremony that was originally scheduled for May 10.
Some of these protesters have carried signs that make others go WTF?!? The sign below is a perfect example. It says “You're either on the white or the right side of history.” Sure the words “white” and “right” rhyme but it doesn't make sense. One of the flags depicted on the “right side of history” is a Sudanese flag. If you look on a map, you'd know that Sudan is in Africa, not the Middle East. As the tweet that accompanied the photograph of that sign puts it, “What even is this sign? One of those is a Sudan flag on there. Is this satire in these protests? Do people really think this is about “white” versus “POC” [people of color]? This is the most ridiculous thought pattern. What is wrong with this movement?”
There were other places where the pro-Palestinian protesters had unexpectedly shown up as well. This week there was a cherry blossom festival and parade in the Japantown area of San Francisco. The parade was blocked off by pro-Palestinian protesters. One person who tweeted about this incident likened these protesters to the ones affiliated with the notorious Westboro Baptist Church where they disrupt apolitical events. The poster noted the irony that Japan had voted to recognize Palestine as a nation at the UN yet these protesters had blocked a Japanese festival. He also mentioned that the protesters have become so obnoxious that he wondered if they are being funded by the other side in order to make the pro-Palestinian side look like belligerent idiots.
I also came across this editorial that was published in Newsweek that was written by a Palestinian from Gaza City named Hamza Howidy titled “Message From a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause.” He gives a very thoughtful critique of the pro-Palestinian movement on the US campuses that should be read by everyone who is currently active in that movement, especially college students.
Another Reason to be Leery About Joining Just Any Pro-Palestine Movement
There's a Twitter/X account known as Defund Israel Now whose content suggests that they are only taking the Palestinian side because it gives them the chance to hate Jews. How else can you explain this post they made on April 20, which is the date of Adolf Hitler’s birthday, where they wrote, “Happy birthday to the legendary Adolf Hitler” and included a photo of Der Fuhrer.
A New Song Praising Kim Jong-Un
Donald Trump has long admired authoritarian dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un. Of course there's the irrestible lure of people doing everything that you tell them to do while threatening punishment to anyone who refuses to follow orders or does a bad job at carrying out those orders.
Then there is the opportunity to have people write and sing glowing songs in your honor instead of having to sit in a courtroom dealing with one of your many criminal charges. Right now there's a new official North Korean song that has just been uploaded on YouTube called “Friendly Father” and it's a tribute to Kim Jong-Un. This version of the official music video has English subtitles.
I'm sure that Donald Trump is dreaming of the day that he wins the election in November so he can go through with his threat of ruling as a dictator (only on Day One, as he promised) and have people write and sing songs that praise him.
Incredibly Bad Propaganda
I came across this tweet on Twitter/X from this person who posted this meme outlining the so-called “real reason” why the United States is so concerned about Ukraine. This graphic has the kind of information that a totally paranoid person with a bare grasp of sanity could have dreamt up including money laundering for the most corrupt American political families, a place to harvest fetal stem cells from Ukrainian babies, and more! Ukraine was even blamed for Donald Trump getting impeached twice, which is an exaggeration. (Trump was impeached the first time because he attempted to blackmail Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into finding dirt on both Joe Biden and his son Hunter in order to get that promised shipment of defense weapons. The second time was for his role in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, which didn't involve Ukraine at all.) And, no, the 2020 US election wasn't stolen nor was Ukraine involved at all. I'm only surprised that President Zelenskyy isn't mentioned in this graphic at all.
A Short Animation Making the Case for Returning Crimea to Ukraine
Check out this United24 YouTube short that makes the case for Crimea belonging to Ukraine. It dovetails nicely with my attempt to write some historical background about the peninsula last fall.
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