Kudos, Celia, for expanding your journalism or business operation to include other voices. Your words about the importance of publishers "allowing" other writers to ... write ... resonated strongly with many of us.
If only the world's mainstream publishers and editors also thought like you do. Their view is, "If you don't think like we do, you don't get to work - or write - here."
Celia, what I admire about you is you wanting goodness and justice in the world and making room for more of those opportunities from others who can also contribute to that. Welcome Manorborn.
There are so many talented writers with valuable insights who never get the chance to have their writing published anywhere where it would be read by a decent-sized audience.
I'm a "freelance journalist." I know from experience how few sites will publish "contrarian" journalism like my own. This is why I had to start my own Substack newletter.
I also note all the brilliant people who don't write for a living ... but make astute and interesting posts (and add important links) in the Reader Comments sections.
Substack's uncensored Reader Comment section - widely read and enjoyed - might be this writer platform's greatest contribution to free speech and real public debate.
Great writing Manorborn. Hit Home! So what is the real death toll for those who had an appetite for war? The Nulands, Lindsay Grahams, McConnell, Bidens's, Lockheed Martins, Raytheons, the yellow and blue flag waving chicken hawks?
It would be helpful to have a list of those "the Nikki Haley" types that we could send to the Ukrainian widowed mothers who lost everything and state very clearly "in Ukrainian" ---These are the Americans who were so pleased you were doing the dying for us".
Thank you for your service and you strengthened our economy.
Perhaps Manorborn can help me. I'm looking for adequate evidence of a "war" in Ukraine. Adequate evidence would be video footage of an actual war -- not promotional videos of drones or tanks; not footage from Syria decades ago; not cool graphics or satellite photos showing trucks driving on roads from high above.
I guess you are American or from one of Britain's island ex-colonies or you wouldn't ask that. Necessarily everything is just video unless you decide to travel and see. But here in Europe you only need get on a train and go to Ukraine or better still, take the bus through Turkey to Georgia and enter Russia, then Donbass, through the back door. Something I have been doing since 2015. Yes Virginia there is very much a war on, sorry to tell you, and it ha been ongoing since a year before my first visit.
What are you asking for? Hand-to-hand combat in the streets of Kiev? Have you fought in a war recently?
Do you realize the role that drones now play in ground/trench combat? I recently (maybe two months ago) watched a lengthy overhead video of Russian infantry methodically wiping out Ukrainian infantry who were moving along a trenches and bunkers line, using overhead drones to drop ordinance on the Ukrainians. Toward the end of the video, the drones zoomed in on all of the dead Ukrainians. If I run into this video again, I will post it for you.
In the meantime, if you prefer to see the war from the West's perspective, you can watch this BBC piece:
Ukraine frontline: street fighting as Russian troops attack Bakhmut - BBC News
and realize that in addition to fighting close enough to be throwing hand grenades, the Ukrainians are also fighting against Russian ground troops which are 2 kilometers distant. Is this war enough for you?
One of the best outlets for war news was SouthFront.org, which I've been watching for years, at least as far back as our entry into Syria. However if you go to this link:
Southfront Website is Shut Down by FBI, Hopeless Maneuvers Of The Ukrainian Military
and read the text below the video, you will learn that our FBI, in August of 2023, basically shut down SouthFront.org from "...YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other mainstream social media..."
In my opinion, the U.S. government does not want ordinary Americans to know how badly the Ukrainian military is being (has been) crushed by Russian forces. In fact, according to former CIA intelligence officer Scott Ritter and retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor. Russia has won.
If ordinary Americans fully understood how our tax dollars are being wasted (and laundered) on a war that Russia has for all intents and purposes already won, we would be demanding that some heads in government be severly punished...some for treason.
Your quote from Zaluzhnyi proves nothing. March 28, 2022 is a long time ago. You would need to research whether investigations by either country since then have proven whether the Russian POW abuse in this video is real or contrived.
From the same NYPost article as your Zaluzhnyi quote:
"But reports suggest the Russians seen in the clips were members of a (Russian) reconnaissance team captured in the Kharkiv region" "...A.I. Bastrykin, head of the Russian Federation investigative committee. “According to some reports, illegal actions took place at one of the bases of the Ukrainian nationalists in Kharkiv region,” he added,."
Here's another "staged" video (snark), where they spent some time digging a trench and then "staged" a guy getting wounded and likely killed in the trench...all to make you believe there's a war going on.
I can see why you don't give your real name on substack. This enables you to be an unidentified doofus.
Watch: Ukrainian soldier’s final heroic stand against Russian troops in trench
It's the f'ing BBC, Hesperado. If you think there has been no war going on in Ukraine for the past two years, I don't want to deal with you, because you are out of it.
What the heck have you been doing for the past two years? Have you been waiting until now to ask yourself this question? Do you think the whole f'ing world is talking about a war that doesn't exist?...Including how many different multimillion dollar weapons each country has given and is going to give to Ukarine?
What about the other video I gave you where the alleged Russian soldier allegedly blasted four Ukrainian soldiers with the drone bombardment? You think they set that up to fool YOU into thinking that there is a war going on? - Excuse me, but piss off.
I'm now starting to consider again that you are a simpleton troll, just coming on again to screw with us.
There is no war in the Ukraruine, and you need no vids as proof: No war has been declared. Russia is engaged in a SMO on its territory that has been invaded by terrorists. Occasionally, Russia performs anti-terror, punitive strikes deep in the Ukraruinian territory. That is all.
Also, if you look around, you'll find lots of video like this one, where Russian troops are killing Ukrainian forces with drones. This one is very brief. I've seen some where dozens of Ukrainians are killed in this manner. - Not my cup of tea...
Watch Russian Paratroopers Decimate Ukrainian Infantry Near Donetsk
Get a rope and stretch his puny ass. Zelensky that is. The Putin slow hand reclaims their people.
No mercy. What some 500,000 Ukrainians have died for a war that was a lost cause to begin with.
Good for the stealing of monies, our OUR money.
Good for the distribution of military equipment to terrorist. Bleed the vipers of their cash, biolabs, adrenochrome, and any remaining dignity. Btw F Sean penn.
The only real war movie I ever saw, I advise you to watch it.
It is in Russian, about the wholesale extermination of a village in Bellarussia which spellcheck says u spelled wrong.
My words wholesale extermination are shoddy and elitist, sorry.
They brought the folks into a barn, all the villagers, and burned them to deathalive.
I doubt I spoiled the movie, so please watch it, Come and See.
Watch Come and See and you won't worry about elenskies.
Note, I saw that mercouris Alexander thing your author mentioned,maybe he had repeated that thought, but A M had voiced it just a few days ago, speaking of time .
I dreamed my car was stolen and the police didn't want to take a report, this morning, and my housemate couldn't understand what I was panicked about in dream.
Amazing! Thank you, Celia for bringing this poignant, insightful piece. You will absolutely succeed going forward as a publication. I have lived my entire life surrounded by very political people, activists, folks to dedicate themselves to the 'cause du jour' with aggression, so I've always felt that I 'knew less', about the mechanics of politics. However, I lived through the coup in Chile an escaped with my siblings; I was very young. But I dedicated my life to art, had a child very young, so I turned my back on politics. However, in spite of my ignorance, my instincts and curiosity are sharp and unobstructed by loyalties, which I see turn people blind. I was always repelled by Z, in spite of how everyone in 'Liberal' SF hung his flag in front of their pretentious galleries and so on. When all of Wa., greeted him, the sight of Pelosi clapping in a room full of trained to clap seals, I felt repulsion. When I heard Sean Penn, (who as a footnote was equally repugnant to the vaxxed) I felt the same repulsion. My gut never lies to me.
Zelensky never had an appetite for war - but he does like a man in a uniform.
Putin’s 'proverbial slow hand': the war in Ukraine has been going on for ten torturous bloody years.
Putin has been criticised many times -by those he is allegedly defending- for deliberately prolonging the conflict.
Ukraine's verdant fields are already polluted - and not with the bodies of the fallen but with GMO: 1.6 million hectares of Ukraine were taken over in 2014 and are under the control of foreign-based corporations including bio techs Monsanto, Cargill, and DuPont.
If there is a motivation to clear Ukraine -as appears to be the case- then this ethnic cleansing is being driven by the same people committing genocide in Gaza:
2014 Israel’s Secret Plan for a Second Israel in Ukraine.
As much as I want Russia to 'win' this conflict (a probable oxymoron if ever there was one) I can't help but agree with you about Putin and Israel. Actually, it's a news clip of a smiling Putin and Netanyahu together looking so relaxed in each others company. It was about 5 years ago though I can't recall the rag. I still can't shake it, in reference to Alexandra Tejeda Rieloff's aforementioned 'gut' talk. Somehow,on some level, I think they're all in this together. The rosary beads will be working overtime this year, methinks
Every couple of years a new group of Western citz are indoctrinated into the pro-Putin fan club. Dazzled by the display of diplomacy that is lacking in their own politicians, what they really buy into is the defence of traditional values trope..and they naively believe he stands against The New World Order.
They are also under the illusion that Russia and Israel are enemies, They are nothing of the sort.
The Ukraine conflict could have been ended years ago.
Putin drags his heels in Ukraine, just as he dragged his feet in Syria.
This is a case of meaningfully running down the clock.
I hear you. Here is a piece from Syrian Farrah Hassen writing in a Letter to the Editor forum in Counterpunch Volume25 Number 2 in 2018-
" Syrians are beyond tired of war. And we are tired of dictators, interventionists, opportunists, and lackeys, spanning across all borders and political affiliations. Every time I hear about one of these attacks ( me: think Ukraine and Gaza now) I want to scream : You want to help? END THE WAR DON'T PROLONG IT! The US has never had a real "Syria policy" that elevated concern for human rights, development and progress. And Congress? Their concern in the past was to sanction Syria and isolate the country( in part because that special lobby told them to) So now they're horrified? Now they care about my relatives and friends over there, who have suffered for far too long?? Nope". And just a side note: Roughly a week after 7 Oct and the Israeli response, stocks in Raytheon, BAE, Lockheed Martin, Boeing went up by 10 to 15% collectively, which is why, and sad to say to Farrah, this 'game' will never end while it's so bloody profitable.
Kudos, Celia, for expanding your journalism or business operation to include other voices. Your words about the importance of publishers "allowing" other writers to ... write ... resonated strongly with many of us.
If only the world's mainstream publishers and editors also thought like you do. Their view is, "If you don't think like we do, you don't get to work - or write - here."
Well said Bill!
Celia, what I admire about you is you wanting goodness and justice in the world and making room for more of those opportunities from others who can also contribute to that. Welcome Manorborn.
There are so many talented writers with valuable insights who never get the chance to have their writing published anywhere where it would be read by a decent-sized audience.
I'm a "freelance journalist." I know from experience how few sites will publish "contrarian" journalism like my own. This is why I had to start my own Substack newletter.
I feel this, as a pain in my heart.
If you don't bow to the "powers" in any walk of life you will be marginalized.
Thanks for opening a door you can open to Manorborn. Who I'm wondering if indeed is to the manor born?
Really great article. Looking forward to more.
Your story on your contrarian journalist friend who tried to expose the jet-airliner shoot-down scandal really hit home with me and hurt my heart.
The "good guys" in our profession are often punished for trying to do the right thing.
I also note all the brilliant people who don't write for a living ... but make astute and interesting posts (and add important links) in the Reader Comments sections.
Substack's uncensored Reader Comment section - widely read and enjoyed - might be this writer platform's greatest contribution to free speech and real public debate.
...Or anywhere else, if they have the power or influence to prevent it.
Welcome Manorborn - let's see whatcha got. If noticed by Celia, you've got sumpin.
Zelenskyy only needed an appetite for as much money as he could steal.
Welcome, Manorborn! Exciting and looking forward to reading your posts 👍
Great writing Manorborn. Hit Home! So what is the real death toll for those who had an appetite for war? The Nulands, Lindsay Grahams, McConnell, Bidens's, Lockheed Martins, Raytheons, the yellow and blue flag waving chicken hawks?
Don't forget Nikki Haley
It would be helpful to have a list of those "the Nikki Haley" types that we could send to the Ukrainian widowed mothers who lost everything and state very clearly "in Ukrainian" ---These are the Americans who were so pleased you were doing the dying for us".
Thank you for your service and you strengthened our economy.
💔
Perhaps Manorborn can help me. I'm looking for adequate evidence of a "war" in Ukraine. Adequate evidence would be video footage of an actual war -- not promotional videos of drones or tanks; not footage from Syria decades ago; not cool graphics or satellite photos showing trucks driving on roads from high above.
I understand what you are asking.
I guess you are American or from one of Britain's island ex-colonies or you wouldn't ask that. Necessarily everything is just video unless you decide to travel and see. But here in Europe you only need get on a train and go to Ukraine or better still, take the bus through Turkey to Georgia and enter Russia, then Donbass, through the back door. Something I have been doing since 2015. Yes Virginia there is very much a war on, sorry to tell you, and it ha been ongoing since a year before my first visit.
What are you asking for? Hand-to-hand combat in the streets of Kiev? Have you fought in a war recently?
Do you realize the role that drones now play in ground/trench combat? I recently (maybe two months ago) watched a lengthy overhead video of Russian infantry methodically wiping out Ukrainian infantry who were moving along a trenches and bunkers line, using overhead drones to drop ordinance on the Ukrainians. Toward the end of the video, the drones zoomed in on all of the dead Ukrainians. If I run into this video again, I will post it for you.
In the meantime, if you prefer to see the war from the West's perspective, you can watch this BBC piece:
Ukraine frontline: street fighting as Russian troops attack Bakhmut - BBC News
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?ei=UTF-8&n=10&p=southfront+ukraine+news&vst=0&vm=i#id=2&vid=4367164b1b52cee86edae758c37f95e4&action=click
and realize that in addition to fighting close enough to be throwing hand grenades, the Ukrainians are also fighting against Russian ground troops which are 2 kilometers distant. Is this war enough for you?
One of the best outlets for war news was SouthFront.org, which I've been watching for years, at least as far back as our entry into Syria. However if you go to this link:
Southfront Website is Shut Down by FBI, Hopeless Maneuvers Of The Ukrainian Military
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkIK0Xua47g
and read the text below the video, you will learn that our FBI, in August of 2023, basically shut down SouthFront.org from "...YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other mainstream social media..."
In my opinion, the U.S. government does not want ordinary Americans to know how badly the Ukrainian military is being (has been) crushed by Russian forces. In fact, according to former CIA intelligence officer Scott Ritter and retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor. Russia has won.
If ordinary Americans fully understood how our tax dollars are being wasted (and laundered) on a war that Russia has for all intents and purposes already won, we would be demanding that some heads in government be severly punished...some for treason.
Ukraine frontline: street fighting as Russian troops attack Bakhmut - BBC News
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?ei=UTF-8&n=10&p=southfront+ukraine+news&vst=0&vm=i#id=2&vid=4367164b1b52cee86edae758c37f95e4&action=click
This video is not adequate evidence. It only shows
1) individuals running along dirt roads with body cams firing at invisible targets
2) a few soldiers in a trench surrounded by snow in the woods firing a missile 2 or 3 times
3) a wounded soldier in the trench
4) then scenes from a building & a hospital showing body bags --
all the while an authoritative female journalist narrates with a British accent.
This could be footage of an actual war going on -- or not. More is needed to determine if it is. Narrators intoning that it is, is not sufficient.
Okay, last one...can't help myself. The New York Post concocted this one for lobotomized doofuses.
This is from March, 2022, which was seen all over the globe...the first video on the page. There's an ad that plays first.
Ukraine to probe after videos show alleged Russian POWs shot, abused
https://nypost.com/2022/03/28/ukraine-to-probe-after-videos-show-alleged-russian-pows-shot/
Well, well, a General in the Army of the country Biden's Handlers have sent over 100 billion $$ to must be a conspiracy theorist! :)
"Ukrainian military commander Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi accused Russia of “staging” the videos and warned the public to only trust “official sources.”
Your quote from Zaluzhnyi proves nothing. March 28, 2022 is a long time ago. You would need to research whether investigations by either country since then have proven whether the Russian POW abuse in this video is real or contrived.
From the same NYPost article as your Zaluzhnyi quote:
"But reports suggest the Russians seen in the clips were members of a (Russian) reconnaissance team captured in the Kharkiv region" "...A.I. Bastrykin, head of the Russian Federation investigative committee. “According to some reports, illegal actions took place at one of the bases of the Ukrainian nationalists in Kharkiv region,” he added,."
Here's another "staged" video (snark), where they spent some time digging a trench and then "staged" a guy getting wounded and likely killed in the trench...all to make you believe there's a war going on.
I can see why you don't give your real name on substack. This enables you to be an unidentified doofus.
Watch: Ukrainian soldier’s final heroic stand against Russian troops in trench
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/05/29/watch-ukrainian-soldiers-final-heroic-stand-against-russian/
It's the f'ing BBC, Hesperado. If you think there has been no war going on in Ukraine for the past two years, I don't want to deal with you, because you are out of it.
What the heck have you been doing for the past two years? Have you been waiting until now to ask yourself this question? Do you think the whole f'ing world is talking about a war that doesn't exist?...Including how many different multimillion dollar weapons each country has given and is going to give to Ukarine?
What about the other video I gave you where the alleged Russian soldier allegedly blasted four Ukrainian soldiers with the drone bombardment? You think they set that up to fool YOU into thinking that there is a war going on? - Excuse me, but piss off.
I'm now starting to consider again that you are a simpleton troll, just coming on again to screw with us.
There is no war in the Ukraruine, and you need no vids as proof: No war has been declared. Russia is engaged in a SMO on its territory that has been invaded by terrorists. Occasionally, Russia performs anti-terror, punitive strikes deep in the Ukraruinian territory. That is all.
Also, if you look around, you'll find lots of video like this one, where Russian troops are killing Ukrainian forces with drones. This one is very brief. I've seen some where dozens of Ukrainians are killed in this manner. - Not my cup of tea...
Watch Russian Paratroopers Decimate Ukrainian Infantry Near Donetsk
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240112/watch-russian-paratroopers-decimate-ukrainian-infantry-near-donetsk-1116131007.html
I apologize. I had to edit my post to add the BBC link and some other information.
Get a rope and stretch his puny ass. Zelensky that is. The Putin slow hand reclaims their people.
No mercy. What some 500,000 Ukrainians have died for a war that was a lost cause to begin with.
Good for the stealing of monies, our OUR money.
Good for the distribution of military equipment to terrorist. Bleed the vipers of their cash, biolabs, adrenochrome, and any remaining dignity. Btw F Sean penn.
The only real war movie I ever saw, I advise you to watch it.
It is in Russian, about the wholesale extermination of a village in Bellarussia which spellcheck says u spelled wrong.
My words wholesale extermination are shoddy and elitist, sorry.
They brought the folks into a barn, all the villagers, and burned them to deathalive.
I doubt I spoiled the movie, so please watch it, Come and See.
Watch Come and See and you won't worry about elenskies.
Note, I saw that mercouris Alexander thing your author mentioned,maybe he had repeated that thought, but A M had voiced it just a few days ago, speaking of time .
I dreamed my car was stolen and the police didn't want to take a report, this morning, and my housemate couldn't understand what I was panicked about in dream.
Is my the US dollar the car in question?
What does it mean ?
The other one, next to Come & See, is Ivanovo detstvo (Tarkovsky). Saw it - as a child, in peacetime.
Great introductory article capturing Ukraine's inevitable fate under the strings of the global predators.
That was a GOOD read... waiting for more. :)
Amazing! Thank you, Celia for bringing this poignant, insightful piece. You will absolutely succeed going forward as a publication. I have lived my entire life surrounded by very political people, activists, folks to dedicate themselves to the 'cause du jour' with aggression, so I've always felt that I 'knew less', about the mechanics of politics. However, I lived through the coup in Chile an escaped with my siblings; I was very young. But I dedicated my life to art, had a child very young, so I turned my back on politics. However, in spite of my ignorance, my instincts and curiosity are sharp and unobstructed by loyalties, which I see turn people blind. I was always repelled by Z, in spite of how everyone in 'Liberal' SF hung his flag in front of their pretentious galleries and so on. When all of Wa., greeted him, the sight of Pelosi clapping in a room full of trained to clap seals, I felt repulsion. When I heard Sean Penn, (who as a footnote was equally repugnant to the vaxxed) I felt the same repulsion. My gut never lies to me.
Zelensky never had an appetite for war - but he does like a man in a uniform.
Putin’s 'proverbial slow hand': the war in Ukraine has been going on for ten torturous bloody years.
Putin has been criticised many times -by those he is allegedly defending- for deliberately prolonging the conflict.
Ukraine's verdant fields are already polluted - and not with the bodies of the fallen but with GMO: 1.6 million hectares of Ukraine were taken over in 2014 and are under the control of foreign-based corporations including bio techs Monsanto, Cargill, and DuPont.
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/corporate-takeover-ukrainian-agriculture
If there is a motivation to clear Ukraine -as appears to be the case- then this ethnic cleansing is being driven by the same people committing genocide in Gaza:
2014 Israel’s Secret Plan for a Second Israel in Ukraine.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/israels-secret-plan-for-a-second-israel-in-ukraine/
The idea seems to have resurfaced recently. Even the Sex Dwarf recently said: I want Ukraine to be a 'Big Israel'.
Lest we forget: the Ukraine Oligarchs are all dual Israeli-Ukrainian citizens; and many 'Israelis' immigrated from Mother Russia.
Putin has a close relationship with Israel.
Perhaps too close,
As much as I want Russia to 'win' this conflict (a probable oxymoron if ever there was one) I can't help but agree with you about Putin and Israel. Actually, it's a news clip of a smiling Putin and Netanyahu together looking so relaxed in each others company. It was about 5 years ago though I can't recall the rag. I still can't shake it, in reference to Alexandra Tejeda Rieloff's aforementioned 'gut' talk. Somehow,on some level, I think they're all in this together. The rosary beads will be working overtime this year, methinks
Every couple of years a new group of Western citz are indoctrinated into the pro-Putin fan club. Dazzled by the display of diplomacy that is lacking in their own politicians, what they really buy into is the defence of traditional values trope..and they naively believe he stands against The New World Order.
They are also under the illusion that Russia and Israel are enemies, They are nothing of the sort.
The Ukraine conflict could have been ended years ago.
Putin drags his heels in Ukraine, just as he dragged his feet in Syria.
This is a case of meaningfully running down the clock.
I hear you. Here is a piece from Syrian Farrah Hassen writing in a Letter to the Editor forum in Counterpunch Volume25 Number 2 in 2018-
" Syrians are beyond tired of war. And we are tired of dictators, interventionists, opportunists, and lackeys, spanning across all borders and political affiliations. Every time I hear about one of these attacks ( me: think Ukraine and Gaza now) I want to scream : You want to help? END THE WAR DON'T PROLONG IT! The US has never had a real "Syria policy" that elevated concern for human rights, development and progress. And Congress? Their concern in the past was to sanction Syria and isolate the country( in part because that special lobby told them to) So now they're horrified? Now they care about my relatives and friends over there, who have suffered for far too long?? Nope". And just a side note: Roughly a week after 7 Oct and the Israeli response, stocks in Raytheon, BAE, Lockheed Martin, Boeing went up by 10 to 15% collectively, which is why, and sad to say to Farrah, this 'game' will never end while it's so bloody profitable.
Clear and succinct. No one spells it out better.
Vera Sharav
https://rumble.com/v455tn5-propaganda-and-its-insidious-tactics-of-persuasion-then-and-now.html
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/usage-free-rein-vs-free-reign
It should be "free rein." Thank you, I will fix it.
While at it, Yevtushenko is a funny spelling for Yanukovych. Needs fixing, too.
Great stuff
Great piece. Thank you for expanding their reach