The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Foreboding In The Ukraine Crisis

    By Orion on Sat, 03/19/2022 - 6:46pm |

    They say that history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. As I've seen Volodymir Zelensky be venerated by various liberals of the world for standing up against Russia, I kept thinking of another prominent Jewish Ukrainian who took a similar stand over a century ago:

    Both the governments of Kerensky and of Hrushevsky and Vynnychenko were threatened by the Bolsheviks, who sought to foment a proletarian revolution in Ukraine and establish a European-wide Soviet republic. Their leader was Vladimir Lenin, but the face of the revolution in Ukraine and throughout Europe was Leon Trotsky. Born Lev Bronstein to a Jewish family in the Ukrainian village of Yanivka, Trotsky served as Commissar for Foreign Affairs as well as head of the Soviet Red Army. The two positions rendered him, if not more powerful than Lenin, at least more visible. Together with Grigorii Zinoviev, Adolph Joffe, Karl Radek, and Trotsky’s brother-in-law Lev Kamenev, Trotsky represented the revolution to the western world. “Their leaders are almost all of them Jews with altogether fantastic ideas,” wrote Ottokar Czernin, the Austrian nobleman who was one of the first to negotiate with the Bolsheviks. “I do not envy the country that is governed by them.”

    Imagine, for a moment, that history does repeat. It's unlikely that Zelensky would escape to a place like Mexico, but he has mentioned Israel. Much like that part of the world a century ago, it is caught between far right militias and a belligerent Russian military.

    If he were ever to go in to exile, it could again be a cataclysm between the two.

    There was a prominent Trotskyist who warned of just this some time ago:

     

     

    Comments

    It's unlikely that Zelensky would escape to a place like Mexico, but he has mentioned Israel.

    I actually cringed when I saw him talk about that. The reason: the Oppression Olympics will be coming to a street corner or social media near you, and there are sectors on the activist left who think there can be only one winner and it's not going to be Ukraine/Europe against Putin.

    What reminded me - just ran across this because it was retweeted by Strike MOMA who are wokees dedicated to "decolonizing" the art museum world:

    HAPPENING TOMORROW
    NYC Emergency Rally to Support Palestinian Resistance & Liberation By Any Means Necessary.
    4/20 at 5:00 pm
    Meet at the zionist mission: 800 2nd Ave, New York, NY. #DefendAlAqsa #DefendPalestine #FreeThemAll #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/xzC3LiAzsk

    — Samidoun - NY/NJ (@samidounnynj) April 19, 2022

    Here's some more:

    While Your Eyes Stuck On The Fake Ukraine War, Palestine Are Under Attack. Lets Pray For Palestine That Are Going Through A REAL WAR. #Prayforpalestine pic.twitter.com/fmbZxuuYRN

    — Wakky (@WakkyMUFC) April 15, 2022

    Remembering when Leicester players Fofana and Choudhury flew the Palestine flag at the end of the FA Cup final. They were pilloried for this by the same figures who now demand Ukraine flags be flown at every conceivable public event. pic.twitter.com/3cK7oLstRw

    — The Hipster Union Rep (@HipsterUnionRep) April 17, 2022

    Waiting for world leaders to condemn Israel like they did Russia and support Palestine like they did Ukraine! #PrayforPalestine

    — Resham Shahzad (@ReshShahzad) April 16, 2022

    The world was making so much noice on the invasion of Ukraine but they are silent on the attack on al aqsa mosque in Palestine. Isn't it double standard from European side and the world's side?#Prayforpalestine#AlAqsaUnderAttack#Palestine #Israel

    — Hamza Arshad (@HamzaAr61550259) April 15, 2022

    Please don't steal this picture and claim that it's from Russia's invasion of #Ukraine. It's from #Gaza after midnight today where Israeli warplanes targeted several areas.#GazaUnderAttack #PrayforPalestine pic.twitter.com/rh6TotGKlm

    — Photography (@patheditsindia) April 19, 2022


    by artappraiser on Tue, 04/19/2022 - 8:30pm

    Another thing: I was really struck by how ... conservative Rachel Maddow sounded here: 

     

     

    Also Zelensky appears to have some fans in Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-zelensky-prods-israel-for-aid-glory-to-...

    Quite a few Russians are leaving for the Jewish state as well, in hopes of escaping Putinism: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/russians-flee-putin-regime-join-uk...

    A lot of developing countries have strong relationships with Russia, and  if these sanctions we're to break up Russia somehow, who knows how that would impact those relationships? Most likely those countries would continue looking to eastern Europe.


    by Orion on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 9:18am

    Meanwhile


    by artappraiser on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 11:33pm

    also

    (in his tweet, he added italicized text for *all the weapons* which I had to delete that from the code as it wouldn't embed on dagblog, so if you have slow internet you have to wait for the full twitter image to load to get the full text, or go to twitter to see it)


    by artappraiser on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 11:42pm


    by artappraiser on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 3:35am

    Is it okay if I say something that will piss everyone off? I don't want to set the world on fire

    I will link to it and just walk slowly away.


    by Orion on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 6:49am

    good, that gives me a place to plop this:

    One can always check out Sherman, he made some excellent quotes on topic, including this

     


    by artappraiser on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 7:06am

    More clickbait - try CNN's from Mar 30: "... in 2019, Azov's political wing only won 2.15% of the vote, and Biletsky lost his seat in parliament", or from Wikipedia "Members of the battalion came from 22 countries and are of various backgrounds.[25][26] In 2017, the size of the regiment was estimated at more than 2,500 members,[27] but was estimated to be 900 members in 2022.[28]" or a 2021 fretting over Telegram's "Nazi problem" - "While as many as 1,500 people had turned up in previous years, with Covid-19 restrictions preventing large gatherings, this crowd was a fraction of the size."
    The WaPo is noticeably lacking actual numbers. All this article is doing is wanking a bunch of "maybes" to create some flurry of interest - there is absolutely nothing to get teeth into here - yes, leaders of controversial groups make outlandish statements hoping someone will repeat or start following - it would be great, Orion, if you fretted less and researched more - certainly there's bad stuff going on in the world, but amplifying small trends into disasters is the job of chaos theory ("wings of butterflies in the South Pacific cause tornadoes in the SouthEast" kind of stuff - of course not provable nor debunked because the measurement of global microflows is too huge a modelling problem - or at least was when this came into fashion 40 years ago).


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 7:59am

    I would say that it seems like a group that is more prepared more for military situations than political ones, but advice noted.


    by Orion on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 10:51am

    both sides really do do it here! it's an extremist sub-culture crossing nation-state borders like many others -


    by artappraiser on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 3:08pm

    Analysis of Ukraine situation from perspective of popular Cold War historian: 


    by Orion on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 10:52am

    just two interesting points:


    by artappraiser on Sat, 04/23/2022 - 10:07am


    by artappraiser on Sat, 04/23/2022 - 11:18am

    I don't necessarily agree with this, but this really brings home that it's all often about what your definition of "fascism" is -

    and we'd all probably be better off leaving that loaded, now confusing and confused word behind!

    It should be something more like: who's your worst bogeyman? what ideological attitude would you loathe having a lot of power in the world? getting carried away with the word "fascist" is just ad hominen at this point?


    by artappraiser on Sat, 04/23/2022 - 7:35pm


    by artappraiser on Sat, 04/23/2022 - 7:41pm

    just f.y.i., just noticed this far left group I've been following for a while is putting out pro-Putin messages:

    they have a dot org and solicit donations. I think the general ideology is that "the white west" must go because of itd evil colonialist history and reluctance to pay sufficient penance to the long suffering minorities of the world, something along those lines...

    just so you know far right extremists are not the only ones.


    by artappraiser on Sun, 04/24/2022 - 9:54pm

    a growth business:


    by artappraiser on Mon, 04/25/2022 - 12:21am

    Voice of  America, literally and figuratively:


    by artappraiser on Mon, 04/25/2022 - 1:55pm

    and the U.S.'s Defense Dept is arguing that they are going as "gung ho" as humanly possible:


    by artappraiser on Mon, 04/25/2022 - 11:46pm

    from an anti-woke outfit in the UK that I follow:

    Part 1/4 Special Ukrainian Mini-Series - We should not believe those who tell us that our own history, culture and politics are morally indistinguishable from those of Russia today, and just as compromised by falsehoods and delusions. Corrosive cynicism... https://t.co/IS76iNdJnb

    — History Reclaimed (@History_Reclaim) April 27, 2022

    (edit to fix typo)


    by artappraiser on Wed, 04/27/2022 - 2:26pm

    I think you will find this long personal Twitter thread by a bilingual Ukrainian raised in a Russian-speaking family in Kyiv very very helpful. He goes back to the 19th century, explaining the cultural differences between Ukrainian speakers and Russian speakers, and with each historic change, including the Soviet days, what happened culturally and why certain Ukrainians started speaking Russian

    The language context of Ukraine can be a tricky topic for any outsider. In this long and personal thread, I’ll illustrate the relationship between and languages in Ukraine using my family’s history. I’m a bilingual Ukrainian raised in a Russian-speaking family in Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/WtXCSr8ti8

    — Stas Olenchenko (@TheStanislawski) April 30, 2022

    by artappraiser on Sun, 05/01/2022 - 9:48am

    Kirill Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian Military Intelligence (GUR), sat down with NV for a rather long interview. Here are some of the key takeaways for me. /1https://t.co/9LdSlRF4wS

    — Mattia Nelles (@mattia_n) May 2, 2022

    Hello, you can read it here: https://t.co/eBrwOvCgjj Talk to you soon.

    — Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) May 2, 2022

    by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 7:51pm


    by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 3:23am

    Warning on this - really distressing, evil stuff.

     

     


    by Orion on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 12:52pm

    this certainly illustrates past is prologue


    by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 5:01pm


    by artappraiser on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 9:46am


    by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 1:41pm

    Finland leaders announce decision to apply for NATO membership

    Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced on Thursday their intention to submit an application to join the NATO military alliance "without delay". Russia, which shares an 810 mile border with Finland, classified the country's decision as a threat. Sweden is expected to decide if it is also applying for membership in the coming days.


    by artappraiser on Thu, 05/12/2022 - 2:39pm

    Looks like the U.S. Air Force is testing some new toys, just sayin'

    maybe they do that a lot, dunno!


    by artappraiser on Mon, 05/16/2022 - 8:54pm

    The Azov group are NOT neo-nazis according to Tablet Magazine which describes itself as a "hub of Jewish life" (and do note this is labeled "news" not an op-ed)

     


    by artappraiser on Fri, 05/20/2022 - 12:02am

    The NYTimes editorial board expressed foreboding and the Kyviv Independent responds:


    by artappraiser on Tue, 05/24/2022 - 3:12pm


    by artappraiser on Fri, 05/27/2022 - 5:00pm