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612 - Half Baked (3/21/22) (Patreon)

Published:
2022-03-22 00:30:15
Imported:
2026-06

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We continue to look at the domestic media response to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. This time, we’re talking about “the left” and how some of their “half-baked” ideas about foreign conflict lack serious intellectual rigor and nimbleness, curtesy of an article by “fully baked” author Eric Levitz. 

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Comments

jonah peters

uhhhhhh fuckfuckfuck first????????

Major bit me

Listen to Potap and Nastya on Spotify they are the best Ukrainian pop duo in all of Ukrainian history

Grant

The show in Dallas was an absolute blast

justdave

I had a first once, but the lights burned too hot and I deleted in shame- true story

Tim Smith

My heart sank when I skimmed the title, and I thought for a couple minutes you had this shithead on to cry about the IC being tankies; I much preferred what actually followed.

Shimosanz (Brian Sanchez)

Yea as Will alluded to, the media has been very antsy about Mexico as of late. Given the government intends to nationalize lithium, uhhh probably time to get nukes.

Thom

John Walker Lindh vindicated

Lexe

At last, a freshie!

William

As far as any opinion outside the national security council and related groups matters, the only truly moral position I can think of is an immediate diplomatic effort to end hostilities. Most of these fucks stood by and didn't call for any intervention even though they supposedly "knew" (in the same way that a broken clock knows the time) what Russia is going to do. Still, if you want to know the playbook, read about any European country after WW2 and substitute "Russia" for the USSR

John

Will visiting Cavender's Boot City like it's Houston's Mall of America

etienne

guys every time you post an ep recorded in a single room it's actually more good than usual. I don't want to be a Retvrn to the office type of guy but it might be time to consider a weekly or biweekly trek to the trap mansion, for the sake of Content

Gengeros

I’m coming from this from a maoist third worldist perspective so I have a unique take on all this. My position, like with all imperialist historical dominating ethnic groups is they must apply for citizenship to stay in their historically colonized lands to the most marginalized groups. Example in us context is white people applying for citizenship to the natives to stay in turtle island/former usa and they will get to choose if you stay or go. Same thing applies in the Russian context. Russian chauvinism, along with Han chauvinism was a big problem for the socialist states, which is why they had so many ethnic problems, which became manifest in the 1980s in the ussr. I think one huge problem was the were birthed out of giant empires like the Qing dynasty, Russian empire, Ethiopian empire, etc. where one ethnic group ruled everyone else and these empires have largely remained intact to this day leading to all kinds of problems. The socialist governments of their time didn’t do enough to decolonize, the Hegelian concept of the nation state is fundamentally flawed at best and horribly racist at worst. The Russians must apply for citizenship to the Crimean tatars, Ukrainians, Kazakhstanis, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Chechens, Ingush, Cossacks, etc. Russia is simply doing the American play books, instead of American exceptionalism its Russian chauvinism. I don’t like people who say “well Russia can do what it wants in Ukraine like the USA in Latin America, it is in its backyard”. It’s that arrogant imperialist mindset that we can just carve out territories near and say x country has influence here. One of the biggest lies of the UN charter is pretending we ended wars of aggression or spheres of influence in the post war environment. If anything we have learned is this, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in a treaty signed by usa, uk and Russia for security guarantees. Look at how well that little piece of paper worked out for them as compared to DPRK, which has nuclear weapons. Don’t see any invasions or coups happening there. Power and ignorance of where power lays is why we are in the situation we are in.

WillyGetSilly

“People say they hate subway, you made the sandwich”

Gengeros

Based off what I’m seeing, with mercenaries from Chechnya (kinda amazing considering what Russia did to them) and Syrian are being deployed to Ukraine for “counter insurgency”. If you have even the most basic knowledge of what counter insurgency entails (read some books about history of counter insurgency under British) your heart will sink in pure terror. Imagine you are an insurgent fighter. Now imagine everyone you know and love dies. That’s how it goes. Looks like the worst possible outcome is happening in Ukraine with Russia under this Duginite Eurasianist great Russian chauvinist Z shit is pushing to make Ukraine a colony though straight up massacring pretty much everyone. I mean when the largest cities and most aggressive fighting in Ukraine happening is in Russian speaking majority Ukrainian cities your propaganda argument for interning on their behave loses all air out of the ballon. But yea I’m having a lot of Chechen war flashbacks all of a sudden. Get ready absolute worst result possible, with decades of bloodshed and spill over.

Sam Zeng

We are living in Poppy pt.3

Brett

Was the Afghanistan airport bombing actually MI6 Lmao?

Kelvin Thomas

Wow that article was like a snake eating it's own tail, made for a tough listen.

Major bit me

I’m fucking unsubscribing, you think we can just let them declare war on Serbia and get away with it? I have so much faith in this new generation, if we stick some ar-15s in the hand’s of Ukraine’s high school class of 2020 they’ll settle this for us on the battlefield, and I’ll be here cheering them on and waving a Ukraine flag from my mixed use apartment complex in suburban Atlanta

Ben T

i'm fully baked if you konw what i'm saying

Kate Baldwin

The weirdest part of that ferris wheel is that it's the Aquarium.

Jessica S

New Chapo, oh frabjous day!

Gabriel Bowater

Very much enjoying Felix's only points of reference becoming From games, much relate

Jason Weiser

Get Jerry Falwell Jr on for the poppy p3

barry

Just disable the Patreon comments man, this sucks

Gengeros

The fact we have a system of capitalist imperialism that caused two world wars, a billion proxy wars, and moving towards World War III is the elephant in the room nobody is talking about. All this shit just doesn’t go away with institutions like the League of Nations or UN. The socialist movement and socialist bloc bought us decades of peace, at least when capitalists nations were attacking them. It’s been over 30 years since the collapse of the ussr. Russia has been capitalist over 30 years now, and the centralization and monopolization of capital leads to imperialism its highest stage. I guess we are just gonna have to face another world war because we haven’t learned our lesson yet.

Jessica S

People like Levitz who try to launder their imperialist views by saying they’re Serious leftists, haven’t even uttered the word diplomacy except when used to castigate the principled left. Phyllis Bennis, who has written several great books on US imperialism and foreign policy, once said that all wars end in diplomacy, so it’s just a matter of how many lives are lost before you get to that point. As pointed out, that seems to be an indeterminate number for ghouls such as Levitz.

Gengeros

Levitz is taking a page out of the Nazi play book. For the Nazis, one of the prime reasons they argue for the lose in World War I was the collapse of the home front. So in World War II, they fought bitterly to the fucking end. 500,000 German troops died in January, 1945 alone. 22,500 German soldiers were sentenced to death for “defeatism”. For levitz it’s the same thing. Any dissident to us imperialism is “defeatism”. Any calls for ending U.S. domestic economic production is defeatism in their eyes. The home front, keeping Americans in line to prop up the empire, is key.

AKorgar

Posting first is like cumming first a courteous person does not do it

AKorgar

He beat Saddamn but he didnt take all the oil the end

AKorgar

All the bullshit about "tankies" over the last few weeks have been making my heart cry

Erik Weissengruber

Yasha Levine — somewhere — brought up George Kennan’s long-term plan for containing and dismembering the USSR. I think that, somewhere in some institute, someone imagines that NATO can repeat this process for both Russia and China. A PPS23 mindset but for the multipolar world.

Matt Crossin

levitz isnt exactly unreasonable in that article 🤷🏻‍♂️ seems you were looking for an argument to critique that wasn’t really there

Kentucky Shitlib

Thanks for the non-live, non-this-is-sus episode.

Patrick

I second this they are way better when together in person

Patrick

Lmao for real

IHaveHemorrhoids

Lots of hilarious nuggets in that article but "ideologically unprepared" is the best lmao

B2B Commuter

Levitz did solid work here, but I feel like he left some money on the table by not accusing the left of being anti-worker for not supporting billions being spent on guns, bombs and drones because, after all, are they not made by workers?

The Lomax Chronicles

Trust me on this if you are staying in Houston tonight -- go to the bar Notsuoh. It's the kind of place Ashley Biden might go with James Franco if they were looking for shrooms in a strange town.

Matthew Waterman

I don’t really agree with Levitz’s positions but you guys were incredibly unfair to him and it was really hard to listen to. For example he says one could reconcile support for BDS with opposition to sanctioning Russia by saying that the Israeli government has democratic accountability to “some” of its population. He literally says the word “some,” because he understands the fact that Palestinians under occupation have no voting rights. Then Felix tries to “own” him by implying that he called Israel democratic, when Levitz is making an argument that BDS leaders make CONSTANTLY. You guys also seem to embrace the incoherent argument that the war was directly caused by NATO expansion, yet simultaneously, everyone always knew that Ukraine would never be admitted to NATO. You can certainly connect the general buildup of US-Russia tensions to NATO expansion, which should absolutely be opposed for multiple reasons, but obviously if you think it was clear to everyone all along that Ukraine would never join NATO, you cannot go on to say Putin invaded Ukraine because it was about to join NATO. My other favorite part is when, halfway through treating Eric Levitz like he’s a neocon dummy, Will concedes his main argument by admitting he was in fact misled by “ideological rigidity” to doubt the expectations of an invasion. Okay, so maybe show an ounce of humility when discussing a region you clearly know very little about and have recently been proved wrong about? The reason Eric Levitz has a point, even though I don’t really agree with him about arming Ukraine, is that American leftists, like other Americans, don’t actually know that much about the world, particularly Eastern Europe, and when they do talk about the world their whole discourse is US-centric. So yeah, frankly a lot of US left commentary on Ukraine has been half-baked, and has resorted to conservative realist talking points because leftists don’t currently have a compelling vision for what the world order should be. So they fall back on “multipolarity” to keep US power in check, ignoring the fact that multipolar imperialisms will exhibit the same basic problems as unipolar US imperialism.

Mark Schneider

And the ironic thing is that Kennan was one of the more pragmatic, "realist" scholars of US Empire, actually told the Empire not to overplay a weak hand, a lesson completely ignored by the bipartisan Foreign Policy, Think Tank Borg that arose once the Clintons took the White House & Dems no longer even feigned listening to Dem voters who didn't want endless imperial wars (few of those remain, evidently, esp. since Obama.) Arrogance = failure, as we're seeing the US NatSec domination of the planet collapse, the same way Britain's did when Eisenhower ordered them and the French and Israelis to drop their failed attempt to take the Suez canal in early 1950s!!

Chad Dopamine

As someone who lived in Dallas and Houston, I approve of these Texas bantz

NYCM&AHole

Eric Levitz is a cuck.

NYCM&AHole

Lots of questions that point in that direction

NYCM&AHole

You gotta say it like slavoj does though

Null_null

Weird. I thought they were super generous to Eric. I'm not sure using realpolitik as a lens for viewing and analyzing a conflict from the outside is necessarily conservative in and of itself. I think it's important for understanding the US/NATO's responsibility in stoking this conflict. I don't think they're using that as a pretext for pushing some kind of conservative position or excusing Russia's war crimes. The real problem is less that Americans don't know anything about Eastern Europe and more that people like you and Eric are using this conflict as a means to scold people who haven't come to the same conclusion you have and telling them they're dumb fat Americans or whatever.

Sifl

I think the Left has had some pretty terrible takes on the war in Ukraine and has lacked self awareness over how their pet political projects have tainted their objectivity. It seems like every take on the left has been "Yes, the Russian war in Ukraine is horrible and a crime against humanity, but (insert pet political project here)". Taibbi and Greenwald have put the censorship of RT front and center, with Greenwald even falling for a bogus story about biological weapons facilities in Ukraine, despite the high standards for sourcing and fact checking that he rightly holds the main stream media to. Most other commentators on the Left have taken the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to bust on neo-liberal support for NATO expansion and US imperialism. But this is done without objectivity as the evidence that Putin was acting in response to NATO expansion is actually scant. Prior to the invasion, Ukraine was not pursuing any concrete steps towards joining NATO and NATO states were not pushing expansion in any concrete fashion. I think there are two issues that some on the Left have identified that need more air time and deeper consideration. Boris Kagarlitsky had a very insightful interview on Suzi Weissman's podcast on Jacobin. His theory is that NATO is a pretext for Putin. Putin's real concern is keeping the Russian people in line and avoiding a revolution against him. Russia's economy has been terrible since the oil glut of 2014-15. During that economic crash, Putin made his move on Crimea and his popularity soared as a result. Putin has done a terrible job managing the pandemic and the Russian economy is not recovering. Putin saw the revolt in Kazakhstan and rebellion in Belarus as warning signs that Russia might be next and decided that war on Ukraine was his best chance at getting the Russian people on his side and distracted from the terrible economic conditions. This is an important point because many on the Left paint the war in Ukraine as being all about NATO and believe that NATO has the power to solve the dispute by making concessions. That may not be the case. It may very well be that Putin is going to go through with this and doesn't care whether he gets every concession possible from NATO. To the extent NATO is relevant, the Left has not identified the real issue at play in NATO. Russia has no concerns about its territorial integrity. Russia has nukes. If NATO troops amassed in Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, etc., Russia would not have a care in the world because it would vaporize London, NY, Berlin, etc. as soon as NATO forces crossed the border. And if NATO won't even send Ukraine a few old Russian Migs because of the nuclear deterrent, they certainly will never attack Russia proper. The real NATO issue is missile "defense" systems. Chomsky correctly noted years back that missile defense systems on Russia's borders are first strike weapons in that they give the US and other nuclear powers the ability to hit Russia without facing a counter attack. This is why Russia has developed hypersonic missiles (unclear whether they can be used to deliver nuclear warheads) and does not want NATO on its borders. For Russia, the nuclear stalemate enables it to assert itself in the Middle East on behalf of its client states (Syria and Iran). The Russian involvement in the Syrian civil war earned it a spot in OPEC and got Putin a meeting with MBS. This is critical for the Russian economy because the Saudi's penchant for protecting market share by flooding the market with supply has crushed the Russian economy. As long as the Left is speaking about NATO in terms of territorial imperialism and not raising the issue of missile defense systems and nuclear deterrence, we may never get to the heart of how NATO can help bring the Ukraine war to a close. NATO and the US at the moment will not even consider anything related to its missile defense systems in Europe and has even moved Patriot missile batteries into Poland (although Patriots are not a defense to ICBMs, but who knows what is really being sent to Poland). NATO claims that missile defense systems are necessary to protect Europe from Iran. But if you look at any map of intercept capabilities, every launch from Iran is intercepted over Russia. Finally, the Left has not been willing to call out the Russian invasion for what it really is. Russian very quickly went from a blitz strategy to a Grozny strategy. The Left was outspoken against Russia's campaign in Grozny during the Chechen war and rightly called BS on the Russian war on terror justification. Russia laid waste to Grozny, bombing out just about every single structure in the city instead of actually doing the hard work of engaging separatist forces in urban combat. In Ukraine, Russia is not even going to try to engage Ukraine forces in urban combat. They are just going to bomb Ukraine cities until there is nothing left to bomb. While pacifism is an important and admirable principle, so is pragmatism. The reality on the ground in Ukraine is that Russia is going to turn cities like Kyiv and Mariupol into Grozny and Aleppo. Ukraine's government is not going to surrender or offer a partition of the country. They are going to fight. If you are going to be pragmatic and look for the outcome that will minimize destruction and loss of life, you do have to consider whether Ukraine' armed forces may actually be able to prevail against Russia or at least raise the costs so high that Russia's advance into Ukraine crumbles due to economic pressures. Thus, it at least merits a serious debate whether letting Russia turn every city and town into Grozny is better than providing some limited military assistance (basically Bernie's approach) that may stop Russia and end their campaign before the entire country is no longer inhabitable. When you consider Kagarlitsky's analysis of Putin, you have to seriously reconsider whether starving Ukraine of military support will lead to the best outcome. I am not convinced one way or the other. But the Left is not doing a good job of considering everything that is at play in the Ukraine war and needs to stop sitting back on its usual analysis of imperial power conflicts.

Null_null

Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald are not leftists. I'm pretty sure they'd even say they're not leftists. // Then you're citing an interview in Jacobin and a widely shared (on the left) interview with Chomsky as good and/or relevant takes. Are they not left takes? Do they not help define and color the left position on this issue? // I'm so confused as to why everyone wants to use the issue of Ukraine, Russia, and the US and NATO as an opportunity to scold their fellow "leftist" for having the wrongest or most ignorant take.

Samuel Cain

Takes aren't good for anything, here. Who's take will affect the conflict? It doesn't matter. I think that if you ask an avg leftist it's concern for all angles of the conflict, but America could've 100 percent resolved this conflict years ago and the result of neglected diplomacy is a Spy vs Spy fight on MAD TV. If you advocate for troop presence or arming, I'm not going to blame you when white ISIS starts beheading people in impoverished Europe, but A. You nor I have autonomy B. You and I didn't cause this and C. The connected world means that we are effectivly hurting ourselves in so many ways.

kitty pavlova

I ain't reading all that. I'm happy for u tho. Or sorry that happened

Erik Weissengruber

Canada's ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae, is continuing his father's role: gentle feelgood spokesperson for US hegemony. Bob doesn't need to fume about blasting such and such a nation from the face of the earth. He doesn't even have to go on about Responsibility to Protect. He will persistently draw attention to the human rights abuses of a target regime and ask "Will something not be done? Something MUST be done." Baron Ignatief's descendent, Michael, invokes the hard fully-baked policy of Responsibility to Protect. And it is only in the op-ed page of Toronto's Globe and Mail that you get the straight goods on isolate/propagandize-destabilize/regime change strategy. Authoritarians and the rules-based international order are not compatible, so a long 2-front Cold War vs. Russia and China is the proposed solution. Already, respectable conservative opinion has concluded that Canada can have both guns and butter and that wasteful public spending must be curtailed for necessary military spending. The Alberta wing is calling for a wartime economy (without rationing and heavy taxation) led by businessperson politicians like C.D. Howe (after whom a baleful think tank is named). In short: raw maple suckage.

etienne

yes small arms work great against infantry and armor which is why the russians are pivoting to siege and artillery. having manpads and javelins isn't gonna save you from a battery that's 50k outside the city limits

Simon

*starts the longest comment I have seen on Patreon about what "the left" believes by referencing the opinions of Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibi* me: yeah, I'm not reading the rest of that

Andy West

The Chevron building is the former Enron headquarters, so of course it has cursed vibes, and Downtown is always deserted on Sunday. We do have an I.M. Pei building Downtown (Chase Tower), and a couple of Philip Johnsons (Bank of America Tower & Pennzoil Place).

Matthew Waterman

Discussing NATO expansion does not, in and of itself, make you conservative. It’s about the way you discuss it. If you’re saying that NATO expansion factors into Putin’s thinking and would be seen as a long-term threat by most Russian leaders, I think you’re right. And you can certainly conclude that Ukraine’s best chance at peace is to adopt a policy of neutrality. But if you’re a leftist, then ultimately you need a more compelling vision for how to realize people’s rights and freedoms than “don’t piss off nearby great powers.” Because the same realist logic would apply to Cuba. You could say that Cuba wouldn’t have suffered 60 years of embargo, attempted invasion and assassinations, and CIA sponsored terror if it had agreed to remain neutral between the US and USSR. And that’s probably correct. But if you’re a leftist, you believe that there are certain circumstances under which weak states should be celebrated for defying imperialists. Obviously Ukraine isn’t socialist, so it doesn’t fully apply. But still, I think if I were Ukrainian I would want my country to have the right at least to align itself with Europe economically and politically, and take advantage of things like free movement through the EU, rather than be a Russian-style authoritarian capitalist state like Belarus. As fucked up and neoliberal and undemocratic as the EU is, Russia is probably worse. So while I think it’s fine to oppose NATO expansion, we should also realize that part of Putin’s motive is to keep Ukraine inside Russia’s economic sphere and to keep it sort of culturally subordinated to Russia. We can’t allow conservative realist thinking to make it seem as if we think that regional imperialisms are an unavoidable tragedy. We have to present a vision for how weak states can exercise self-determination in defiance of great powers, just as we support Venezuela’s defiance of the US. We don’t insist that Venezuela surrender and neutralize itself.

Justin

Just don't fucking look at them. jfc

etienne

by my memory the last time they actually duked it out with critics was way way way way way back when the Trad Caths went at them. They spent more than one whole ep dunking back on them and it was funny! because they were literally tradcaths. Usually when people try to go after them or "the left" as a strawman of them, Will just goes, hey I'm not in power, you are, and I'm not doing journalism, you are; I'm doing entertainment.

Al

@David Koch None come first before the Lord our God, and humbling yourself after a prideful misstep honors him. Jesus only asks that we do our best, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Tim Smith

I mean, if you think 'the US needs to withdraw from actively enforcing its hegemony, because US hegemony has been a disaster' can be dismissed as a 'dumb isolationist position' this probably isn't the podcast for you. Pushing back on 'sensible' left libs finger wagging at the maybe 250k leftists in the US for being insufficiently serious strikes me as a basically reasonable thing to do. I understand why one would want to play chickenshit discourse games in the patreon comments, but if you think US hegemony is good and NATO's slow march to Russia's border is just about altruistically defending self determination in Eastern Europe UwU then own it; you'd have more balls than Levitz and the rest of the concern troll sinecure crew.

Simon

Whether the left has or does not have "a compelling vision for what the world order should be" is completely irrelevant when discussing how things are unfolding in the actual real world as it currently exists right now in this moment Unfortunately - and I can't stress the word unfortunately enough - realpolitik has relevance for how state's interact with each other.

Null_null

All due respect--really, I appreciate your being nice even if I wasn't--look at all the caveats you have here. Look at all the "I know this isn't this and this isn't that." The truth is, the people who wanted to invade Cuba last year and Venezuela before that are the same people who are trying to push this conflict to its deadliest end. And Eric Levitz, useful idiot as he might be, is doing Marco Rubio and co's bidding by treating anything short of arming more Nazis (to fight against a different brand Nazis) as "unserious." // I think that's what's so difficult here. The left is supposed to craft a vision for protecting "freedom" and "self determination" for sovereign nations or whatever. But there is no left in power. So we're supposed to live out this fantasy by supporting the worst hegemonic demon state to ever exist? I just don't see how it's in any way simple. And I don't see how Eric Levitz demonstrates some kind of nuanced take. So I guess there's the confusion from my end.

Damen Irving

What was that about Chelsea Clinton’s husband hedging against Ukraine? Can’t find anything about that

CT

Calm down you dork

Bobi Jon-son Kenobi

I’m seeing too many novella-length comments. We need to drop it down to haiku-length

CT

Guys, stop being mean to Levitz!!

CT

Lol @ these people who leave 20 paragraph diatribes in the comments section. Truly the posting hero’s we need in these desperate times.

Sifl

There have been plenty aside from Taibbi and Greenwald who jumped on the free speech angle (Ball, Kulinski, etc.). If you care about the project of the Left being something more than a bunch of podcasters and academics, you would understand that putting up your absolutist free speech position as being the big issue at a time when Russian forces are bombing civilian targets in a way that would even make the IDF say "that's gangsta" is not the kind of look that is going to win over anyone to our side. Bernie has been fairly spot on in his support for Ukraine as much as possible without risking wider conflict. But many on the Left look to be more interested in their pet projects than actually developing a full understanding of the conflict. This is also tainted by the Left's anger at the mainstream media and neo-liberals over Russiagate. Any concession that Putin is actually dangerous and not a rational actor conflicts with prior positions dismissing Russia's attempts to influence the 2020 election. It is possible that people were wrong about Russia and the 2020 election, but Russia is now doing something very dangerous that will not just burn itself out.

Null_null

Next you're gonna tell me Jimmy Dore has a bad take!

Simon

*proceeds to write a long follow up, strengthening his argument by name checking Krystal Ball and Kyle motherfucking Kulinski* me: reading anymore of this would only waste valuable seconds Fuck Vladimir Putin and his invasion and his entire governance of Russia and his ambitions in the region over the last 20+ years, I hope the Ukrainians demolish him. go write this stuff in Kulinski's comments where it belongs

Kate Baldwin

They kinda cleaned it up. It's a shame.

James Cobrin

American commentators should revisit the "unaccountable weapons shipments" talking point after the first Ukrainian school/mall/movie theater shooting. Pretty rich of American commentators to tell any other country they have too many guns, especially when that country has no history of public gun violence in peace times

KatrinaJadeHelm

I love to lecture other countries on being kleptocratic. I have not looked in the mirror in decades

The Lomax Chronicles

I know that; you know that, but the guys don't. I think it would flip their wigs on their notions of Houston.

justdave

Yur right fella, I deleted out of humility, unlike THIS heathen will ever do!

justdave

'White ISIS' is my rapper name

justdave

A haiku you say? I think I shall write lymrics. They are less tiring

justdave

There once was a man from 'the' Ukraine. He met a man who was a nazi, and insane. They sat and they talked, about the dirty kosack, who lived, just down the block. But, when he started throwing rocks, the two threw up their hands and said, 'We're All The Same! Here in, 'the' Ukraine'

Of course

Ok guys, we gotta lotta work to do to get to TrueAnon's 500+ comments on their The Ukrainazi episode.

Of course

Look up Vanity Fair May 2016 Hillary Clinton's Son-in-Law Just Lost a Big Bet on Greece - but nothing on Ukraine...

Damen Irving

Must’ve misheard. Also I’m gay

Brett

Damn Chapo is the only place I've heard mention it, any resources you know of I could read more up on it?

Mark Schneider

I like TrueAnon and look forward to subscribing some day so I can read that kind of feedback!! I bet there's a lotta dumb pushback like we see above though--" George Bush was right when he said, 'You're either with us or the terrorists!'"-- if you say anything critical of US Empire they'll call you Putin's Bitch and a traitor!! To all you White Saviors of Ukraine, I bet some of you are young, so go sign up as a Merc with Blackwater!! Best of luck learning what's going on over there during your experience.

Friend of Pangolin

Matthew Waterman please change your Patreon name to something like Burnt Covfefe Penis and I will read your incredibly long and tedious comments. Until then, you can't honestly expect me to take you seriously.

Friend of Pangolin

Sifl please see my comment for Matthew Waterman above. Though Sifl is not as bland as say, "Matthew Waterman", it is a real missed opportunity.

Dick Van Sexel

You said you gave mary jane a pearl neckless. How much did that cost Thurgood?!?!

Jonathan G

Anyone need houston ticket? Have an extra

dd

Tooken

dd

Tooken

dd

Wonder who has more drunk drivers though

T

The US dangled NATO membership to the Ukrainians so that the Ukrainians would privatize their agricultural sector. Its no surprise that the invasion occurred right before Zelensky and the Ukrainian government were making the final push to allow the sale of the Ukrainian bread basket to Archer Daniels Midland….

Jayvee Sy

Russia trying to create its own empire. Jesus Christ, what are you guys smoking

Lo

Repeating my assertion that the chapos are roughly as useful for foreign policy dialogue as the NYT/WaPo/Atlantic editorial board. They’re roughly about as correct. Just talk about games, or movies, or TV, or history. That’s all the strengths played well. Spending an entire episode talking about one (1) article you felt called-out in despite it wholly referencing entities that can be freely disavowed is serial-stamped Bitchmade Shit

Bobi Jon-son Kenobi

You did what you said you would do, and you should be proud of that

justdave

There are hills, then there are mountains

Teddy Ballgame

The basic smoothbrain logic from this article is: that even though he openly admit the US did everything it can to provoke the war & out our influence into Ukraine, we now need to pretend & treat Ukraine like a contextless independent country that is getting invaded.

Mauve_Avenger

I followed this guy's advice and can confirm I made the right decision

Gengeros

Pretty sure they said that several times in the episode

Gengeros

The context is completely different, israel id one of the largest trading partners in earth. It is one of the wealthiest countries on earth. And I’m pretty sure nobody there is having to worry about starving, unless you in Gaza. Israel has alliances with the most power nations on earth, including Russia. Russia sure as hell isn’t any of those things. To compare sanctions in Russia to that of Israel is like comparing an apple to an Orange. And another question is: what usage of these sanctions? In Israel, bds, regardless of what you think of it, is the only proven thing to work to stop a genocidial apartheid regime. What is the purpose of sanctions in Russia? Regime change? We have seen over and over that has never worked. Only thing they gave don’t is weaken the nation enough so usa can invade it.

Matthew Waterman

Jared, my comment was not about that. I was giving an example of how they misrepresented Levitz’s argument. I think there is hypothetically a place for some sanctions in both cases. There are potential downsides in both cases as well. I say hypothetically because the sanctions on Russia have no explicit off-ramp. They seem to be designed as regime change sanctions, which will be disastrous. More limited sanctions with a clear off-ramp could help incentivize a Russian withdrawal. BDS has not been “proven to work” in any way shape or form, but it could be important down the line if the Palestinian national movement returns from the dead. Levitz seemed to be against the sanctions on Russia, so your argument is not with him. He was pointing out that many people have taken the line that sanctions are always brutal and only make things worse, without making an effort to reconcile that with support for BDS.

EUGENE HETZEL

Yall rock on, but my problem with what you say is its.got a big ol' semicolon in it. Seperate sentences. Give that shit weight.

A C

But if USA doesn't do it then someone else will -

B2B Commuter

LMAO!!! God willing, there is an MSNBC producer lurking in this comment section. You deserve a call up to the big leagues for this straw man. Who on earth thinks the issue with pumping guns, bombs and drones is the increased potential for mass shootings, and not, say, those weapons being used to make it impossible for climate refugees from Africa and the Middle East to escape to and thru Ukraine.

Scot Forsythe

NATO as bulwark to a regression to totalitarianism; oh like Poland or Hungary ok got it

Of course

Given that the left has occasionally made headway by exploiting friction and breaks between ruling class competitors, there's a notion that "multipolarity" of several empires or blocs is better than one globe-spanning sovereign.

James Cobrin

Your issue is theoretical future climate refugees? How many guns, drones, and armed vigilantes are patrolling the USA Mexico border and forcing South American climate refugees to indefinitely live in tent cities in Mexico. Americans need to stop criticising Ukraine for issues that are way worse in America. What makes Americans more worthy of having heavily armed police and vigilantes patrolling their borders to keep out refugees than Ukraine? I think all climate refugees should be allowed to go wherever they want but that's clearly not what a majority of Americans think.

Gagortion

what's the mi6 inside job Felix was referring to?

Evan Scott

the bombing at the kabul airport during the evacuation which the US responded to by blowing up an SUV full of children

Harry

Congrats to Felix for learning how to pronounce imgur

CT

So Jayvee, your solution to this would be what exactly? Send in the bastions of anti-imperialism of the west to sort it out?

itsjenjen

nah, more dunks on article people please

K102.1FM Mornings w/ Jonny Corndogs

Not nearly as bad as the soundcloud comments. They got this one guy there that is hate-thirsty for Chapo and nit-picks at least four or so points and goes on and on. He does this for every episode, going back as far as I can remember. Also, no scammers posting URLs with broken english on the Patreon feed. Weird to say, but it's way better here.

etienne

actually it's "I M Gay R"

AbeLinkin

I hope you have diarrhea today

AbeLinkin

Russia is going to use a “tactical” nuke the way we used two on Japan to force a quick surrender and that will be that. I don’t know if there are any easy answers here at this point. All I know is that everything we touch turns to shit so any escalation on our end will only cause more pain.

AbeLinkin

Have you listened to anything Putin has said? That’s clearly on the table. And no, I don’t think “us good, Putin bad,” they’re all craven sociopaths.

danny

made me feel nostalgic for 2018 chapo

Yairo Martis

Ehhhh, actually, it's not Undead Settlement. It's Undead Burg.

Yairo Martis

Isn't that the company Matt Damon informed on and embezzled from in 'The Informant!' ?

B2B Commuter

See, the thing is, you don’t want me to stop criticizing Ukraine, you want me to stop criticizing the idea that my government should be spending billions upon billions of dollars arming them in a conflict that is no business of mine or anyone I know. I don’t want my country to be doing the things they do at our southern border, why on earth would I want to export that terror to another country on our dime? Context clues lead me to think you’re not an American, if you’re so gung ho about arming Ukraine, then I suggest you petition your government to work doing so into their budget.

Yairo Martis

Damn, what's that song in the transition?

James Cobrin

The US official policy of sitting on the fence about the Ukraine NATO question since Bush 2 has basically directly led to this war, so I think the US has a lot of responsibility for the current situation. Any country should practice what they preach. I find it very hypocritical of Americans to tell another country that they have too many guns and they aren't letting in enough climate refugees.

Alistair Page-McGill

@Jonny do you mean that guy Chauncey, or is he only on Youtube? That dude is a fucking mess

Alistair Page-McGill

This episode just further deepens my love/hate relationship with Chapo. They keep talking about Russia's invasion of Ukraine as if it's unprovoked, like there hasn't been a war there for the last 7 years in which Russian speakers have been targeted by Ukrainians who proudly identify as Nazis, for the sins of being Russian and for refusing to accept a coup government. Chapo were quick to take the right side when it was Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia, so what's the difference? Making this all about Putin and his inscrutable ulterior motives is just as baby-brained as making all US politics be about that dastardly cheeto who got his orangeness all over the white house.

Kiel Cone

I saw this glowie on the radio war nerd patreon page also. Just ignore this cop. He probably thinks Ukraine got invaded Bc it’s a democracy lol.

Arielle Curtin

My dudes! It was Kurt Russel in A Boy and His Dog, not that guy from Miami Vice!!!

Kiel Cone

All the leftist pods have been invaded by glowies. They even said based the radio war nerd Facebook page. They went so hard with flooding left leaning sites. It’s so transparent.

Kiel Cone

You subscribed like a month ago you cop. You freaks all subbed at the same time.

Kiel Cone

Hey dumbass, half the Ukrainian army is on the eastern border. That’s where the civil war has been going on for 8 years. No duh. Actual human shields.

Major bit me

You communists are all the same, you have no sense of commitment to our allies in the face of Austro-Hungarian aggression smh, always whining about the tsar but now y’all are too scared to face down the Austrian emperor

justdave

Honestly man, enjoy your time in the sun, don't be like me

Lo

sick dude, you know exactly as much about foreign policy as much as chapo, which is as much as any listener of RWN can bring to bear You should try doing greentext too, btw

Lo

That was preordained, friend.

Alistair Page-McGill

In Ukraine?! Just have a think about how stupid that would be. Don't assume that everyone is as evil and callous as we are

AbeLinkin

@Alistair yes, in Ukraine. I think the guy who poisons dissidents and pushes doctors out of windows is at least close to the level of evil we’re at. Anyway, it was just my take and I don’t think it’s off the table. Please don’t take this as any way as me advocating that we fight fire with fire. I want it to end and I think that starts by us backing off as much as possible. Maybe offering a cash reward to stop but that’s about it and I’m sure that wouldn’t work.

DopeTipped's Raid:Shadow Lessons

"Downtown Houston; on any given weekday afternoon" is a phenomenon I've had the distinct pleasure of experiencing countless times thanks to a life full of touring playing music. Every time was "They LIVE via the Omega Man", Every street you looked at, accompanied mentally by a single sustained synthesizer note, and felt like at any moment we'd see the empty, lifeless streets flood over with zombie/alien hordes. God Bless that hog-infested, Jesus-loving, speed Smokin city and the state it's in.

etienne

oh fuck you're right he's the guy who was intentionally misrepresenting every word from the last rwn ep in order to just be an annoyance

etienne

i dont really know where to start besides that russia is not gonna use tac nukes

Conor Meaney

Obviously the use of the 2 atomic bombs in Japan were war crimes but going with your prognosis - not exactly tactical when there are other nuclear powers, unlike at the end of WW2.

AbeLinkin

I hope you two dinguses are right and that I, in fact, am the dingus.

Zach Pierce

I worked in a 20 floor building up the block from the Marathon Oil building in the Galleria area of H town. It’s a massive black rock basically

justdave

This is a really cool and smart thing to notice👏 (I didnt) , I worked in lithium/copper mining, and the dark energy of that world flows through everything.

Zach Pierce

Japan was ready to continue the war until 1950 at least. The bomb was a necessary evil. The second one was a possible “war crime” whatever that means, but so was Pearl Harbor, so even Steven

Hall wingfield

He's talking about a tactical nuke, a specific kind of nuke which has a lower yield than strategic nukes. He's not talking about the tactical use of a nuclear weapon.

AbeLinkin

@ Zach Pierce… I think that’s the narrative the US sold to the public. In reality, I think the real reason we nuked them twice so quickly was because we didn’t want the USSR moving in and trying to claim any of Japan’s territories. It was as much a warning to Stalin as it was to force Japan to surrender. The writing was already on the wall for the upcoming Cold War.

Evan Scott

how the hell was pearl harbor a war crime lol

Simon

@zack pierce, the japanese knew the war was lost and were ready to surrender, and had their diplomats doing some initial work on it. the problem is that they weren't quite yet ready for a surrender without conditions which was the United States's demand In addition, with the USSR about to declare war on Japan, there was a worry in the US that if the Japanese surrendered to the Russians, then the Russians might decide to ignore the US's demand for total capitulation

J.P. McD.

Thrilled to have an episode that has brought back the chumps who think posting (on Patreon especially) matters.

Amer Naik

::insert hot take::

Jake

i went to cavender's one time! buddy of mine bought like a $600 pair of boots and the guy running the store kept complaining about mexican restaurants and winking at me. not really my bag but enjoy

Willmc

Can’t be the first time the progeny of a stripper and a president has occurred.

Erik

The last 7 years…. There are Ukrainians who know the effects of the Holodomor and you’re thinking the last 7 years.

Rene Saller

The artist is Jimmy Campbell, in case you're looking for it. A deep cut--kudos to Chris.

Ghordo

@42:32 Who or what is Felix talking about?

etienne

probably ISIS I guess. Israel think tankers are on the record that they want to keep em around because they're convenient

Alistair Page-McGill

I have no idea what your point is. You mean they would remember that the Bolsheviks caused the famine(s)...? They did other things too since then, but the war that is active has been going since 2014

Yairo Martis

Thanks. The song is a banger.