Pensées (41)
Cultural War trolls; Philistines; How could we have known?
⚡️GOP (and particularly its Freedom Caucus) used the Cultural War Troll political strategy to win elections.
Divide voters over entirely concocted and highly cynical anti-human rights issues was Pat Buchanan's (who invented the Cultural War troll in 1991) offering to Ruschism.
Now, GOP, Netanyahu, English Brexiteers, and Ruschist Putin have ruined themselves and their countries through promoting division.
Recognise that ANY politician promoting the Cultural War troll (eg. anti-Trans, misogyny, anti-intl law's primacy over municipal law, anti-woke,..." will RUIN your country.
No election ever won after Cultural War troll was promoted by its winners yielded a better governed state. Not one. Ever. It’s an entirely negative ideology.
⚡️The "Philistines" of the bible who occupied historical Palestine are an Indo-European people (probably from Aegean islands around Greece), who, along with other Sea Peoples, arrived in the Fertile Crescent around 100 BCE.
At some point these Philistine occupiers began to speak a semitic language.
Though we know from ancient Egypt's Amarna letters (1,400 BCE) that even at that time Indo-European kings ruled certain cities in Judea, including Megiddo (of Armageddon fame). So even so-called semitic languages are themselves influenced by early Indo-European languages.
Philisines' pit grave burials mark them out as descendants of the Ancient Ukrainians who forged the first Indo-European language before 2,500 BCE in the area around which Ruschia blew the dam.
⚡️"Avdiivka is a village of 3m, Herr Fuhrer. Our losses this week - 9,770 Ruschist killed (RIP), 4 234 tanks, 4 483 armoured vehicles, and 4 318 arty/MLRS - are well worthwhile sacrifices. If we can just take Avdiivka, Berlin will be next."
⚡️ How could we have known?
Unlike during the Holocaust, from even before Ruschia’s full-scale invasion on 24th February 2022, we have had credible warnings of what Ruschia’s occupation would consist.
See for example this 20th February 2022 letter by a United States ambassador: https://x.com/decodingtrolls/status/1504076185369731078?s=46
It and indeed I inside the diplomatic organisation in which I worked in Ukraine warned again and again Ruschia would try to kill EVERY Ukrainian leader and intellectual. Many had a mental model of an invasion in which Ruschists would simply take over institutions and things would continue largely as they had before.
Because of such warnings (and I kept the receipts) those who continued (and in some cases still continue) to preach to Ukrainians that they should simply surrender are either negligently or actively complicit not only in Ukrainians’ genocide, but also in the genocide of ALL Europeans that would result unless Ruschist force power is destroyed. Utterly destroyed.
⚡️Ruschia's Conquest Model:
Occupy Luhansk / Crimea. Use Disinfolklore to convince Ukrainians there, their fellow Ukrainians want to kill them. Coerce Ukrainians in Russia-occupied Ukraine into Meat Assaults.
Occupy ALL of Ukraine..."""... """... Coerce Ukrainians in Russia-occupied Ukraine into Meat Assaults against Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Baltics.
Occupy ALL of Europe..."""..."""...
Coerce Europeans in Russia-occupied Ukraine into Meat Assaults against USA...
Decision-makers who think it's The Right Thing to Help Ukraine are wonderful.
What would be more wonderful is:
Decision-makers who get that helping Ukraine is a matter of survival - for our civilisation.
Nobody can credibly say: “We did not know!”
45 countries established OSCE Moscow Mechanism mission (MMM) on 3 March 2022. To investigate Russia's behaviour in Ukraine.
My work cataloguing the barbarity of Ruschia’s war crimes from the very beginning of its unlawful full-scale invasion was acknowledged by the OSCE MMM when it reported on 13 April 2022.
This was the first report (https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/f/a/515868_0.pdf) for the international community of 45 states including USA, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Poland to document Ruschia’s war crimes. It is therefore a document of historical importance - after April 13 2022 nobody had the right to claim they Did Not Know of Ruschia’s Nazi-like tactics and War Crimes.
I first created this montage at the end of March 2022. I published it for example here: https://x.com/decodingtrolls/status/1514276696446447627?s=46
After I created that montage, Ruschia continued to kill native Russian language speaking Ukrainians by carpet bombing Mariupol - over 100,000 were killed before June 2022. By July 2022 over 10,000 native Russian language speaking Ukrainians were killed by Ruschia in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk where I had lived for three years between 2015 to 2018.
Then, in October 2023 a further report was published by the United Nations after further rigorous investigations and hundreds of interviews.
"[Russia's] targeted killing, enforced disappearance or abductions of civilians, including journalists and local officials, are likely to [be patterns of violent acts violating International Human Rights Law]"
"MMM found credible evidence suggesting that such violations concerning even the most fundamental human rights (right to life, prohibition of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment) have been committed,..."
"By causing a high level of destruction and by interfering with the provision of vital services (education, healthcare), the conflict started by unlawful attack by 🇷🇺 has made it v difficult for 🇺🇦 to effectively respect, protect & fulfil the human rights of its inhabitants..."
"MMM found clear patterns of Intl Humanitarian Law violations by Russian forces in their conduct of hostilities. If they had respected their IHL obligations in terms of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack & concerning specially protected objects..."
"such as hospitals, the number of civilians killed or injured would have remained much lower.... considerably fewer houses, hospitals, cultural properties, schools, multi-story residential buildings, water stations & electricity systems would have been damaged or destroyed..."
"Furthermore, much of the conduct of Russian forces displayed in the parts of Ukraine it occupied before and after 24 February 2022, including through its proxies, the self-proclaimed “republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, violates Intl Humanitarian Law of military occupation..."
"MMM found that while the conflict has affected all the inhabitants of Ukraine, it has exerted and continues to exert particularly negative effects on individuals belonging to vulnerable groups, such as women, children, older persons or persons with disabilities...."
"Intl Humanitarian Law of military occupation is codified... & already applied before 24 February to Russian occupied Crimea and Sevastopol and to Ukrainian territory controlled by the “republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk,..."
"Superiors can be responsible if ... had info which should have enabled them to conclude, in the circumstances & at the time, that the subordinate was committing or going to commit a breach; & superior did not take all feasible measures ...to prevent or repress the breach..."
"According to Intl Humanit Law, conflict parties must take all possible measures ... evacuate dead incl agreeing to set up search teams. If confirmed by failing to collect & evacuate the dead & preventing local population from doing so, Russia violated IHL."
HEALTH WARNING: please skip this story. It’s disgusting.
Yet, SO many people don’t understand the quality of Ruschist occupation. These are not isolated events: these are systemic.
They’re part of the the Ruschist model of occupation. If we don’t arm Ukraine this (which is after all what Germans experienced in Russia-occupied Germany just after WWII and what Baltic countries, Afghans, etc. etc. etc. experienced at the hands of Ruschists is what will happen in our communities when the Ruschists arrive:
⚡️UN Commission:
""Torturers called their victims “Nazis”. One perpetrator called the victim derogatory names, including “Nazi”, and said that “such people should be killed”. Some of the former detainees were forced to learn by heart and sing the Russian anthem. Others had to make declarations on video, including self-incriminating statements or negative utterances against the Ukrainian President. Victims reported threats to the life of their loved ones...In March 2022, a Russian soldier came to the house of an 83-year-old woman and forced her to open the door. He questioned her on whether she knew persons who cooperated with the Ukrainian armed forces and beat her with his rifle. The soldier ordered her to undress, r**** her, and continued to r*** and beat her for several hours. He threatened to r**** the woman’s husband, who lived with a disability and was present in the house. The soldier stole some belongings. The Commission found that, in addition to r****, the war crime of torture was committed against the victim..."
July 2022, a Russian soldier came to the house of a 75-year-old woman, where she stayed alone to protect her property. The soldier attacked her, hit her on her face, chest, and ribs, strangled her, as he was interrogating her. He ordered her to undress and when she refused, he ripped off her clothes, cut her abdomen with a small sharp object and r*** her several times. The next morning, he r**** her and beat her again. The victim had several broken ribs and teeth knocked-out as a result. The Commission found that, in addition to r****, the war crime of torture was also committed against the victim..."
The Commission’s further investigations confirmed that the use of electric shocks was prevalent in the more established detention facilities which it investigated. In some cases, the same victim was repeatedly subjected to electric shocks. Victims reported that perpetrators connected wires or clamps to earlobes, ankles, hands, toes, or genitals. Some perpetrators referred to this method as a “call to Stalin” or a “ride on a tram”. According to victims, in some cases water was poured on them or otherwise used to amplify the effect of electric shocks. A woman who endured the electric shocks stated: “It was so painful that I could not stop screaming like crazy, I was crying”. Her co-detainee described that as a consequence, the victim could barely walk and was “lying for a day as she could not move”. A man explained that during torture through electric shocks, his teeth bit the insides of his cheeks and tongue. His codetainee confirmed that the victim could not eat due to an injured tongue..."“Every time I answered that I didn’t know or didn’t remember something, they gave me electric shocks. […] I don’t know how long it lasted. It felt like an eternity.”
The victim reported not being able to walk properly for days and suffering from deep anxiety in the aftermath. The husband of a victim, confined in a neighbouring cell while she was tortured, said: “I will never forget her screaming of pain”… Way in which torture was practiced, lead the UN Commission to further conclude that its use was systematic…”
51. Victims of torture recounted how severe physical and mental pain and suffering was inflicted upon them during confinement and interrogation. Torture often led to long-term physical and psychological trauma for the victims and their loved ones…”
See: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiukraine/A-78-540-En.pdf