The Roundup
Slovakia held its election, Kremlin propagandists are on the loose, the former Occupy Wall Street site is now a site for the pro-Palestinian movement, a look at a 105-year-old map of Ukraine and more!
Election News
Slovakia had its election last weekend and Peter Pellegrini was elected as the new president. He is also a pro-Russian populist, which is bad news for Ukraine because Slovakia had helped Ukraine in the past by sending its entire fleet of MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine.
The Trials and Tribulations of Trump's RNC
Recently Donald Trump have managed to stack the leadership of the Republican National Committee with people based not on experience but based on their loyalty to Trump (which included hiring Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump as a co-chair of the RNC). It's going about as well as you'd expect, complete with a lack of more experienced RNC staffers who would have deep knowledge about election operations at the Republican Party's central committee. And some prospective staffers aren't into relocating from Washington, DC to the RNC’s new headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida near Mar-a-Lago.
The Past Repeats Itself
Last weekend a group of pro-Palestinian protesters took over Zuccotti Park in New York City, which they said they planned to occupy for the foreseeable future as a “no cop autonomous zone.”
For those of a certain age will remember that Zuccotti Park is the same location where Occupy Wall Street began and the movement branched out to other cities across North America then around the globe. It began in late 2011 with the majority of the Occupy encampments around the world being gone by 2013. Whether this latest Zuccotti Park encampment results in something similar on a national and worldwide basis remains to be seen.
Kremlin Propagandists on the Loose
The Kremlin propagandists are hard at work trying to undermine support for Ukraine in the United States. It looks like they are succeeding among the lawmakers on Capitol Hill since Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has done everything possible to prevent this bill from being voted on. Johnson also has received campaign donations from one of Vladimir Putin's ally Konstantin Nikolaev. Given Johnson's actions in Congress, it looks like that Kremlin money is well-spent.
The Kremlin propagandists are still trying to discredit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They frequently accuse him of being a cocaine addict and sex pervert even though the evidence is totally bogus. (You can see for yourself and laugh at how bad the “evidence” really is in this post that I wrote a few months ago.) I guess the Kremlin propagandists are very slowly realizing that most people aren't buying the accusations that Zelenskyy is a cocaine addicted sex pervert so they decided to try something new—Tucker Carlson had supportedly released a video that shows Zelenskyy being captured and sent to Black Dolphin Prison in Russia. This tweet that was posted on Twitter/X supposedly shows a still from that video.
There was something suspicious about that tweet because none of the mainstream media anywhere around the world had mentioned Zelenskyy being in Russian custody. If that had happened it would be front page news all over the world. In addition, that supposed video still showing Zelenskyy's arrest could've been easily doctored. Clare Fella did an investigation and posted the findings. That still was taken from Season 3, Episode 1 of Servant of the People, the political comedy series where Zelenskyy played the president of Ukraine before he was elected president of Ukraine in real life. (You can view that particular episode with English subtitles right here on YouTube.) The biggest giveaway is the logo of his production company (Kvartal 95) in the top right-hand corner.
Basically some Kremlin propagandist took a screenshot from that episode, superimposed the “Breaking News” and Tucker Carlson picture in that screenshot in Photoshop while neglecting to remove the Kvartal 95 logo and posted it online as “proof” that Zelenskyy had been taken into Russian custody.
Once again the Kremlin propagandists have to use a scene from an old comedy TV show that Zelenskyy appeared in during his days as an actor and comedian to “prove” how horrible he is. If there weren't a devastating war going on in Ukraine, it would all be totally laughable.
O.J. Simpson and the Media
Former football player, sports broadcaster, and actor O.J. Simpson died recently. He was initially a well-beloved personality until he was arrested and put on trial for the brutal murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. It was a grim story that made it worse by the corporate media, which treated this case like it was entertainment instead of the horrible story that it really was. I mentioned the O.J. Simpson murder trial in my longer post on the mainstream media and why they no longer seem to care about even informing the general public about basic information that the citizens should know (such as where a certain candidate stands on a certain public policy issue).
I came across this great and thoughtful discussion on Twitter/X on the legacy of the coverage of the media's coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial and how it led to the media's deferential treatment of Donald Trump. Here are a few excerpts:
If you are on Twitter/X, I highly recommend checking out the discussion right here.
Putin's Problems
A dam that was built in Russian city of Orsk in 2010 has suddenly burst recently, causing the town to flood. The slow government response to that crisis has led to protests against Vladimir Putin, as this video shows.
Maybe Putin's government would have had a faster response to this flood if it isn't so busy with trying to conquer Ukraine, trying to interfere in US elections, and searching online photos posted of Russians trying to look for any slight evidence of any subtle support for Ukraine. One example is this woman named Antonina Smolina, who posted a photo of herself wearing a bright yellow down jacket while she is outside at a beach standing under a bright blue sky on a sunny day. To the Russian authorities who investigated her, she is subtly promoting the Ukrainian flag in that picture.
An Interesting 105-Year-Old Vintage Map of Ukraine
I was clearing my smartphone of old screenshots recently when I came upon this interesting screenshot of a post on Twitter/X from a few months ago. It shows a French language map of Ukraine from 1919.
There are a few interesting things about this 105-year-old map that are worth noting. This map of Ukraine includes the Donbass region, which is the region Vladimir Putin claims that it has always been Russian territory. It also includes Crimea as part of Ukraine, which totally deflates Putin's argument that Nikita Kruschev made a total blunder when he transferred ownership of Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. (If you want to learn more about Crimea, you can check out this post I wrote a few months ago.) The map even includes territory located across the Black Sea from Crimea but is now part of Russia. Vladimir Putin should be lucky that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is only asking for the return of Crimea and the Donbass region because Zelenskyy could easily use this map as a basis to demand handing over other Russian territory to Ukraine.
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