Words of Wisdom
“He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.” - Friedrich Nietzche
What’s on my mind
The Canadian Parliament Gave an SS Nazi a Standing Applause: This is true and hopefully wakes people up to the absurd impacts the Ukraine War has had on Western politics, which of course began with Russian athletes being banned from sporting events and symphonies that used Russian composers getting canceled.
But recent developments expand the absurdity. Because Putin said part of rationale for invading Ukraine was to rid it of Nazis, the Western media immediately laughed and declared there were no Nazis in Ukraine.
(Side note: On the New York Times’ “The Daily” a reporter was asked why Putin was even making such claims, “Because he’s crazy!” the reporter replied. Which was odd because it was only a few years prior that The New York Times itself was describing Ukraine’s Azov Battalion as “Neo-Nazi”. After the Russian invasion, they stopped calling the Azov Battalion Neo-Nazis and simply said it was “right wing.” And people wonder if the West has propaganda?)
Anyway - to the North! Canada found a 98 year old Ukrainian who said he fought the Russians in the 1940’s and its important that we fight them again today! They flew him to Ottawa and the whole Parliament stood up clapping and weeping tears of admiration as he spoke. I have to believe at least one person there quietly thought to themselves (Wait a minute, weren’t the Russians on our side during the war? Because we were all fighting… oh shit!)
Oh shit indeed. Their special guest is named Yaroslav Hunka. He is described as having for “the First Ukrainian Division” which, as described by The Forward, “is another name for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the military wing of the Nazi Party; the unit was also called SS Galichina.” The Foward also notes the unit was armed and trained by the Nazis and commanded by German officers, including a special guest appearance from Heinrich Himmler. After the war, the Nuremberg Trial found this Ukrainian group responsible for “persecution and extermination of the Jews, brutalities and killings in concentration camps, excesses in the administration of occupied territories, the administration of the slave labor program, and the mistreatment and murder of prisoners.”
I don’t know if the Canadians are incompetent or just don’t care. And while we certainly don’t have to worry much about the 98 year Nazi that Canada saluted, there are still a lot of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine. They command battalions and wear Nazi gear and do Nazi salutes and generally like all things Nazi. This has become a problem even The New York Times can’t ignore any longer. In 2022, the Times published an article “How the Russian Media Spread False Claims about Ukrainian Nazis”, a year later, “Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History” with a sub-header “Troops’ use of patches bearing Nazi emblem risks fueling Russian propaganda and spreading imagery that the West has spent a half-century trying to eliminate.”
The point here isn’t to justify the Russian invasion or to suggest the Neo-Nazis groups fighting on Ukraine’s front lines are going to turn into the next Third Reich. But it should open peoples’ eyes to the kind of gaslighting we are getting through the press and through the White House, of this being an existential crisis between good and evil, freedom and fascism. It turns out, to paraphrase Trump, there may be very fine people on both side and some very bad people. As an American citizen paying for this war, you ought to be getting the truth and making your own decisions.
Because do you really want to find yourself in the same position as those moron MPs in Canada, someone who fought in a group overseen by Heinrich Himmler and was condemned by the Nuremberg Trials?
What else is going on
Another new poll shows pretty bad news for Biden
A Washington Post/ABC poll looks bad for Biden, especially since it came after similar numbers from a Harris/Harvard poll last month. In the Post poll, Biden is trailing Trump by 10 points. That may be an outlier (the Harris poll had Trump up by 5 points, others show a dead heat.) But on every issue voters say Biden is doing a bad job - from the economy to immigration to foreign policy - and most say the economy is bad, while the country is on the wrong track.
A government shutdown is looming
Here in rainy D.C. we are looking at a shutdown of the federal government if Congress cant pass a funding bill by October 1 (aka Sunday). At the moment it does not look like they will get it done, because Kevin McCarthy cannot get the requisite votes, he needs from House Republicans and knows if he tries to pass the bill with a mix of Republican and Democratic votes, his perch on the Speakership is over. Given that the polling mention above may create an incredibly favorable climate for Republicans next year, this kind of dysfunctional dynamic is pretty odd. On the other hand, McCarthy made a lot of promises to people to get his Speakership that he has since ignored, and it looks like some of those people are a bit angry and using the little leverage they have to get what they want.
The New York Times is getting better at pushing back against war propaganda.
On Sept. 6, a missile hit a village in eastern Ukraine, killing 30 people and injury 15 others. Zelensky immediately blamed Russia, expecting many people in the media to breathlessly repeat that claim, as many did. The New York Times actually decided to look into it, analyzing “missile fragments, satellite imagery, witness accounts and social media posts,” which all “strongly suggests the catastrophic strike was the result of an errant Ukrainian air defense missile fired by a Buk launch system.” There is even a video of the missile coming into the village, and its coming from Ukrainian held territory. So it probably was an accident, accidents happen in war - thats why war is bad and dangerous. But what it also looks like is Zelenesky thought he could lie about it, cast blame on the Russians and not be challenged by the media. Indeed, he is supposedly mad at the New York Times now. Awkward. But good on the Times for pushing back on the bullshit.
This week both President Biden and former President Trump will travel to Michigan to give speeches and meet with autoworkers. I believe Biden is going to “walk the picket line” (hope he is health for it) while Trump is just going to make a speech. Biden has been pretty explicit in his support for the UAW, Trump has not gone as far. But it’s an interesting political dynamic. Michigan is a critical state. Biden and his Administration have been pretty darn good on unions, which have historically been a target Republicans want to destroy. But many union guys in Michigan are white working class and a little Trumpy. So in a way, the workers are kind of up for grabs in this election (the union itself will likely endorse Biden but individuals can vote for whomever they want.) My guess is that Trump wants to signal to them that he’s on their side without making any concrete promises on helping unions - after all his Administration was not good to labor at all. Biden has a stronger hand to play, but can he do it? We’ll see.
What’s coming up
Last week I recorded a podcast with The Grayzone’s Liam Cosgrove, where we talk about his fun times in the Pentagon and State Department press rooms asking important questions and getting lots of deflections.
The pod comes out this Wednesday so keep an eye out.
Wind down trivia
It’s commonly said that the reason DC has no tall buildings is that Congress legislated that nothing could be build that exceeds the height of the Washington Monument. But that is a myth, the law says no such thing. It just gives specific dimensions and measurements which have been amended a number of times - and probably should be again today!