Brilliant idea Yasha. I've been thinking a lot about one aspect of this. Consider how the extreme right's intransigence in Venezuela actually blocks the functioning of that country's system. A feature not a bug of course but it highlights how destructive "democracy promotion" can be precisely TO foreign democratic institutions. The empowering of neo-Nazis, ultranationalists etc. is one thing. But even without that it's worth recognizing that all these GONGO enterprises are systematically destructive. They exist to create crises and to use whatever does exist of a civil society to destroy the same. Put another way: Sick game is obvious. Put boot to target country's neck - fund, arm, train opposition - then use media assets to criticize same for turning blue (defending itself and its people.) Same template all over.
Thanks Yasha. You're doing important work. Best of luck!
Harry S. Truman: "A political accident, a back-room politician, a man without vision or courage." - Harry Bridges from the Proceedings of the 1947 Convention of the ILWU.
I was one of those Jewish American kids subjected to weekly sermons about the plight of you Refuseniks. You folks were the cause celebre at summer camp, too.
As part of my Bar Mitzvah prep, I was assigned a pen pal, a kid my age in Moscow. I don't know if he got my dumb letters, I didn't get any back, but when I googled him years ago as an adult he was a West Bank "settler", because of course, just like that lovely Scharansky fellow. I sometimes joked that the reason the USSR was holding Refuseniks back from emigrating was because of a genuine concern for the outside world's safety.
Yasha Levine, I am liking your recent work. We had a semantic disagreement a few weeks ago - water under the bridge. I loved your demolition of Klobuchar this week .
I don’t know if you have been to the Jewish Museum in Moscow .
? A project supported by Putin, some prominent Russian Jewish oligarchs, and the Lauder family. Excellent museum, easily worth a full day there. I think it is pretty fair and scholarly on the phases of Russian Jewish history. As is the Gulag Museum on the Stalin era. Western Russophobes don’t like to publicise these excellent museums, they do not fit the anti-Putin propaganda narrative. Tony Kevin, Australia.
“Thy Will be Done The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil” by Gerald Colby w/Charlotte Dennett is really good too if you ain’t read it already. Just picked it up trying to make some links with ERC/IRC and the amount of info is staggering
Yes good idea. Interesting account of what is was like to a Russian Jewish immigrant. How you would feel grateful at the same time this aid support had it's own agenda.
Yes good idea. Interesting account of what is was like to a Russian Jewish immigrant. How you would feel grateful at the same time this aid support had it's own agenda.
It is impossible to stop stupid people from thinking stupid thoughts. Give up.
Facts and evidence, or lack thereof, does not change their narrative.
Unending hysteria and moral panics accomplish nothing, after many decades of listening to them, I no longer give a shit about any group that engages in special pleading.
Brilliant idea Yasha. I've been thinking a lot about one aspect of this. Consider how the extreme right's intransigence in Venezuela actually blocks the functioning of that country's system. A feature not a bug of course but it highlights how destructive "democracy promotion" can be precisely TO foreign democratic institutions. The empowering of neo-Nazis, ultranationalists etc. is one thing. But even without that it's worth recognizing that all these GONGO enterprises are systematically destructive. They exist to create crises and to use whatever does exist of a civil society to destroy the same. Put another way: Sick game is obvious. Put boot to target country's neck - fund, arm, train opposition - then use media assets to criticize same for turning blue (defending itself and its people.) Same template all over.
Thanks Yasha. You're doing important work. Best of luck!
Harry S. Truman: "A political accident, a back-room politician, a man without vision or courage." - Harry Bridges from the Proceedings of the 1947 Convention of the ILWU.
I was one of those Jewish American kids subjected to weekly sermons about the plight of you Refuseniks. You folks were the cause celebre at summer camp, too.
As part of my Bar Mitzvah prep, I was assigned a pen pal, a kid my age in Moscow. I don't know if he got my dumb letters, I didn't get any back, but when I googled him years ago as an adult he was a West Bank "settler", because of course, just like that lovely Scharansky fellow. I sometimes joked that the reason the USSR was holding Refuseniks back from emigrating was because of a genuine concern for the outside world's safety.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
Yasha Levine, I am liking your recent work. We had a semantic disagreement a few weeks ago - water under the bridge. I loved your demolition of Klobuchar this week .
I don’t know if you have been to the Jewish Museum in Moscow .
? A project supported by Putin, some prominent Russian Jewish oligarchs, and the Lauder family. Excellent museum, easily worth a full day there. I think it is pretty fair and scholarly on the phases of Russian Jewish history. As is the Gulag Museum on the Stalin era. Western Russophobes don’t like to publicise these excellent museums, they do not fit the anti-Putin propaganda narrative. Tony Kevin, Australia.
I found a book you might find helpful, “Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee, and the CIA” by Eric Thomas Chester 1995
“Thy Will be Done The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil” by Gerald Colby w/Charlotte Dennett is really good too if you ain’t read it already. Just picked it up trying to make some links with ERC/IRC and the amount of info is staggering
https://youtu.be/j1_bvHqUjhM IRC/ERC
Yes good idea. Interesting account of what is was like to a Russian Jewish immigrant. How you would feel grateful at the same time this aid support had it's own agenda.
Yes good idea. Interesting account of what is was like to a Russian Jewish immigrant. How you would feel grateful at the same time this aid support had it's own agenda.
It is impossible to stop stupid people from thinking stupid thoughts. Give up.
Facts and evidence, or lack thereof, does not change their narrative.
Unending hysteria and moral panics accomplish nothing, after many decades of listening to them, I no longer give a shit about any group that engages in special pleading.