Natasha Bertrand, writing for Politico, says that conspiracy theories promoted by a “former economic policy adviser” to Putin “raise the specter of Russian attempts to sow chaos and doubt in the legitimacy of US elections.”
NEW: The Cato Institute is investigating a blog post published by one of its senior fellows, a former economic policy adviser to Putin, that contains conspiracy theories about the election and defends pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol last week. https://t.co/kUtnFzVSGY
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 12, 2021
Said conspiracy theories refer to a Jan 8, 2021 blog post entitled “Burning of the Reichstag 2021” on his Russian language LiveJournal blog, which is more or less what it says on the tin.
Andrey Illarionov is an emigre Russian libertarian economist who broke up with Putin in 2005 over his opposition to the Yukos case against Khodorkovsky.
At the time, Western journalists were shocked and aghast over his removal as an economic advisor to the President. Kirill Pankratov, writing at the erstwhile eXile, compiled some of the reactions:
-
“…the very fact that Mr. Illarionov was driven to such unusual defiance confirmed that dismay over Mr. Putin’s course is not limited to political opponents or foreign critics…It would be a terrible mistake to gag the very people Mr. Putin prized for their candor” (NY Times);
-
“…These reformers were pushed out when Mr. Putin secured his second term and started to reveal his true stripes. Mr. Illarionov’s pep talks abroad could no longer disguise the real Vladimir Putin. …showed that rule of law and property rights stand no chance in Mr. Putin’s Russia …should destroy any lingering delusions about Mr. Putin. The Russian leader is no democrat or reformer. It also suggests that some ambitious Russians believe that the time may be ripe to stand up and fight Mr. Putin” (Wall Street Journal);
-
“The outspoken silenced… Marginalising one of the few liberals left in the Kremlin… It is time to see Mr. Putin as a challenger, and not a friend” (The Economist);
-
“…another ominous sign that Putin, a former KGB officer, will tolerate no further dissent…” (Knight Ridder Newspapers);
-
“…Kremlin is becoming a closed box to even the most seasoned Russia watchers, one of the few administration insiders who has openly expressed his views is being punished for doing so.” (Moscow Times)
(As Pankratov points out, there was no similar din and seethe when G.W. Bush dismissed his economic advisor Larry Lindsey for not quite being enthusiastic enough about the Iraq War on account of the $200 billion that he estimated it would cost. An extreme underestimate, as it would turn out. But he was out).
After his ejection from the Russian government in 2005, Illarionov spent the next 15 years criticizing Putin and Russia at the CATO Institute – up to the point of demanding sanctions against Russia and advising the US on how best to implement them on the pages of the NATO/Western arms manufacturer-funded Atlantic Council.
Now I suppose it’s too much to expect a Western hack all these somewhat relevant details when pushing the next Russiagate “drop”. (Russiagate being just a slightly less insane but infinitely more handshakeworthy version of Qanon but for libs).
As it is, this scandal hasn’t worked out well for Illarionov, who is just the latest Russian opposition activist to personally explore American limits on freedom of speech:
I don’t work at the Cato Institute anymore.
As the vice-president of the institute told me, the reason is the content of the postscripts attached to my post “Burning of the Reichstag” – 2021 on this blog. When I was invited to work at the Cato Institute, to regularly asked questions about the position of the Institute on this or that issue, the answer was always the same: “The Institute has no other position except for the protection of individual liberty. On any issue there is not the position of the Institute, but there are different positions of the Institute’s employees, for the expression of which they have every right.”
Now this approach has changed.
As I have said more than once, freedom of speech is the foundation, the starting point, of a free society.
I suppose that Illarionov’s “problem” so far as a sustainable career in the US goes is that he is a typical 2000s American right-wing libertarian, characterized by mostly neocon takes on Russia and US foreign policy, support for the Tea Party and opposition to Obamacare and the Kyoto Protocols (a “global Auschwitz” for the world economy), and even open discussion of FBI crime stats in the context of Black racial grievances.
As such, as he was very much out of tune by mid-2000s Russia, when Putin had finished up with market reforms and started re-consolidating state authority over the Yeltsin-era oligarchs and drifting out of the 1990s America cargo cult. But by this same token of ideological inflexibility, Illarionov remained in that 2000s right-wing libertarian time warp while his host country moved on. What used to be perfectly mainstream conservative positions under G.W. Bush started becoming inconvenient and cringe under Obama and outright unhandshakewothy under the late Trump.
Now to be sure, Illarionov remained very useful for the American elites for his promotion of anti-Russia sanctions and championing of the Ukraine against “Russian aggression”. But the rants against Greta Thunberg and BLM were now seen as awkward, though his superiors were able to turn a blind eye to them by dint of most of them being confined to his Russian language blog. But “[fueling] hatred and insurrection”, in the words of Ilya Zaslavskiy – the person who did most to raise attention to Illarionov’s problematic blog posts to CATO’s managers – was evidently a step too far. At this point, he needed to be canceled and shut down.
Ilya Zaslavskiy, a researcher on post-Soviet kleptocracy, called Illarionov’s posts “downright dangerous,” .. they are shared within Russia and among Trump supporters. “Appearing academic and analytical, he fuels further hatred and insurrection,”.https://t.co/hW1GMVOL8H
— Ilya Zaslavskiy (@IZaslavskiy) January 12, 2021
Ilya Zaslavskiy’s bio on Twitter describes him as a Senior Fellow of the Free Russia Foundation, which is sponsored by the anti-Putin emigre oligarch and tax fraudster Khodorkovsky. He runs some grift NGO outfit called the Underminers (I assume it’s a grift based on its having just a couple dozen blog posts and one “research note” on its website over the eight years of its putative existence). Illarionov, at least, was highly “energetic” in his blogging. But there’s limited room at the US State Department & Co. feeding trough.
Please keep off topic posts to the current Open Thread.
If you are new to my work, start here.
Commenting rules. Please note that anonymous comments are not allowed.
Google’s translation skills are pretty phenomenal these days (unless the author posted his own English version of his Russian original):
https://aillarionov.livejournal.com/1215661.html
Ha ha. This is what human stupidity is. They will be eaten by the Empire they tried to prop up.
Illarionov is really screwed right now, cause I doubt that any Western institution will want to employ him. His few career options include getting a tenure at Higher School of Economics and starting his own Youtube channel.
Great recap of yet another ludicrous episode of the insanity reigning within the increasingly ironically named “United” States.
IMO there’s a good chance that the Q Anon dumpster fire conspiracy is being pushed covertly by the same folks pushing Russiagate overtly: the FBI/CIA/neoliberal elites.
Cass Sunstein, the Harvard Law professor husband of ex-UN Ambassador Samantha Power (a neoliberal hawk who advocates war on the basis of a “responsibility to protect” and is now poised to take over USAID to sprinkle sugary freedom world wide – and carrying with it the same deadliness as diabetes), is a noted scholar on Conspiracies who suggested the Government deliberately infiltrate groups that dissent from the establishment – which he implies are necessarily conspiracy theorists in the pejorative sense – to introduce wild conspiracies to then be able to discredit the group when they take over rational discourse. (He put it in more polished terms but that’s the gist of it)
Whatever the truth, the reality is that Russiagate and Q Anon have pushed rational discourse off the table and allowed unprecedented restrictions on civil liberties and free speech, with the DC political/bureaucratic/intelligence class and their corporate allies including in media and Big Tech the big winners, and principled dissent and the ability to expose elite corruption the big loser.
The basic premise of Q anon, that US is led by morally deprived and criminal elite, seems correct to me. Now, they may be wrong about some (many) details, but at least we can say that their heart is in the right place.
On the other hand we’ve seen government officials and thought leaders across the West rant about “Russian interference” for the past 4 years. Like this is actually a thing…It’s fucking scary.
The United States of America are neither United, nor States, nor American.
I’d agree that the power elite in the US are depraved and corrupt (probably as much as those of most countries if not more so given their global power), but Q Anon goes further and essentially claims that Trump is some sort of messiah playing 42D chess to ultimately expose these corrupt elites and send them all to jail/Gitmo, so that an era of rule for the people by the people can finally emerge. This is real religious stuff.
These people STILL believe that with 5 days to go Biden won’t be sworn in and that Trump will reverse the whole thing (kind of like Jesus rising from the Dead). No doubt on Jan 21, a new mythology will be spun to explain the reality (perhaps that Trump is running a shadow cabinet. They should hire the writers of Lost)
So basically conservative dissent against the corruption of the elite – a theme universally common across the world – has been conflated with the crazier theories generated by Q Anon, thereby discrediting this dissent.
This is why I feel that there’s a good chance that Q Anon – with its cryptic mythology – has been deliberately introduced by the elites : to both being false hope to many while giving a perfect excuse to write off dissent. For example when Tulsi Gabbard objected to Netflix Cuties as barely acceptable porn, she was attacked as being a Q Anon adherent without addressing the substance (right or wrong) of her concerns (echoed by million BTW).
People underestimate just how brittle US regime is. A regime that has confidence in itself wouldn’t flood its capital with troops and enforce curfew. This regime is extremely insecure. And persecution directed against Q anon is just another way this insecurity manifests itself. They are mental, and I’m not talking about Q-anoners.
The collapse of American power will happen during the Biden regime. Unilateral Free Trade ( aka Globalism) and offshoring of jobs have hollowed out the American economic base. The only thing stopping it from collapse has been the position of the Dollar as the World’s reserve currency, which won’t last much longer.
For all his faults, I would not have wanted this to happen during Trump’s tenure. For Biden, it will be very apt. He has been a Senator for decades and at the centre of power for almost as long. He and his ilk richly deserve it.
I read it differently: the elites want to demonstrate their absolute power by calling in the Army – with Pelosi doing what seemed to be an inspection like the tin-pot authoritarian she is. All the military chiefs – including the chief of the newly commissioned Space Force – were made to sign a letter pledging their “commitment to Democracy” (ie whatever passes for that simulacrum) and denouncing the Capitol Riots as “insurrection”.
They are reminding everyone they control the key levers of power: the intelligence agencies, the courts, the military backed by the corporate world and media. (Ironically this is what the West accuses of Putin or Lukashenko of controlling.). There is zero chance of a real insurrection outside of Q Anon fantasies.
I would say all this demonstrates the hollowness of US claims of “democracy” (which was always questionable to begin with as a Princeton study done years ago concluded), but not necessarily its brittleness. Having an accidental anti-establishmentarian like Trump beat the system once was an aberration: the system will try to ensure no such accident occurs again.
You would like this joke on Runet in the last week, a twist on well-known anti-soviet one:
Встречаются русский и американец:
“У нас свобода” – говорит русский.
“Я могу в соцсетях писать о том, что в России выборы сфальсифицированы!”
LOL
ON this prick Illarionov- he is a regular on Ukrop political tv shows like Shuster – the “honour” of Banderastan citizenship and residence is calling for him
Missing a verb in there somewhere?
By the way, I just want to take the opportunity to thank you for your blog. You (and to lesser extent The Saker) are the only English language writers explaining Russia as it actually is. This is valuable by itself, but in an era when every psychopath in government is using false caricatures of Russia to advance lunatic plots in freelance nuclear brinkmanship, it is positively a blessing.
Neoliberals/neocons like Illarionov were clowns. He was stupid enough to bite the hand that feed him. His ideology blinded him.
It’s tempting to believe that we have seen the end of the Greta phenomenon – that they can only successfully make a celeb out a teenage eco-warrior once, before the novelty wears off – and that they’ve already shot their bolt. But, then again, maybe it is hard to make new celebrities because of Covid.
Personally, I think the appetite for green doomerism will decrease, as the West declines. Some predict the opposite effect: that a green vision appeals to people who realistically have no other hope about the future.
At this point I’m ready to believe that under those COVID masks (or two; upcoming recommendation apparently is to wear two masks; yes, at the same time, on the face) the Elite Lower Jaws are being transformed into Chtulhuesque squirming masses of tentacles that they are not yet ready to show openly. It would make a good movie.
“All the military chiefs – including the chief of the newly commissioned Space Force – were made to sign a letter pledging their “commitment to Democracy” (ie whatever passes for that simulacrum) and denouncing the Capitol Riots as “insurrection”.”
Not seen that – any links? That’s the kind of thing that if Trump did it would cause outrage at the Guardian/BBC/WAPo/NYT.
The green craze in the West today is mostly a fad and one which taps into people’s “I f*cking love science” mentality, they imagine Tesla cars everywhere and hyper-loops powered by renewable energies. That is nice for sure, but today’s green cause lacks an anti-consumerist mentality, we are still obsessed by increasing economic growth, albeit through green solutions (Green New Deal).
I wonder what would happen if we Westerners just stopped buying useless junk?
The green vision may decline because by and large, Third World peoples do not seem to care much for pollution and filth. Many great natural places of beauty will be destroyed in the coming decades sadly.
Here’s a link https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/01/joint-military-chiefs-condemn-capitol-storming-in-military-wide-letter-call-on-troops-to-obey-lawful-orders/
which has the link to a tweet with a copy of the actual memo
https://twitter.com/jamiejmcintyre/status/1349286762389102592?s=20
Here’s a link https://www.vox.com/22227681/joint-chiefs-letter-capitol-trump
which has the link to a tweet with a copy of the actual memo with all the signatures.
It was widely reported. Google “Joint Chiefs condemn Capitol”.
Brittle it is. Things must be getting serious since age-old props are thrown away and masks dropped. The confidence is gone so pathetic congressmen are hiding under chairs from a noisy theatre.
Whatever else is going on, these are not masters of the universe. What’s left are elderly women (of both genders), confused kids lacking even minimal life experience, and miseducated grifters scared of their own shadow. They can still destroy with their infantile vandalism, but they will not be ruling over anything.
Trump at least had gravitas – that’s why they hate him so much. This will be quite a freak show.
As much as I despise white Anglosphere leftists on an ideological level, I do wonder if they have the right idea from a self-preservation point of view.
In the UK nationalist politics, patriotism and defending British history/being against statute toppling, etc is a social and political dead end. All those who openly support such views are doing is marking themselves out as an individual to be non-personed and eventually marched into re-education/death camps. I gather it’s largely the same situation in the US.
Preorders now starting for Gordon Chang’s new book, The Coming World Domination of China.
https://twitter.com/GordonGChang/status/1349169892386287624?s=20
A man has got to eat!
https://twitter.com/GordonGChang/status/1349771090151829507
https://twitter.com/GordonGChang/status/1349391124868296708
https://twitter.com/GordonGChang/status/1349193853249736704
https://twitter.com/GordonGChang/status/1347642051924516866
He seems to make a tweet like this every other day. Very retarded. How does US keep up the facade that people like him are respected experts?
The anglo discovers the Sikh was the white nationalist all along.
You get what you pay for.
Serves him right. He fully deserves to get a true taste of American democracy and freedom of speech.
Qanon psy-op was targeting Trump supporters as well as Trump to keep them ignorant and blind:
One should ask a question why the plug was not pulled on the Qanon psy-op in 2018 or 2019? The social media could have done it. Apparently Democrats were fine with having their opponents reduced to the level of followers of silly conspiracy theories even if it was helping Trump keeping more voters.
Russiagate was something else. It was much more complex psy-op because its objective was to both compromise Trump via insinuations and innuendos as well as to cover up Israel’s role in Trump ascendance. I suggest reading the transcript of June 16, 2015 presidential announcement speech and recently declassified transcript of phone conversations between General Flynn and Ambassador Kislyak.
I wouldn’t call it gravitas. He had some common sense (street smarts) that allowed him to connect with ordinary people. That’s why he got more votes than the other side both times. The nonentities who hate him have nothing of the kind, so they envy and resent him.
But as far as the real rulers are concerned, Trump’s main sin is that he believes that the US president has some power. Ruler’s choice is a creature who won’t have this illusion. They will have an obedient corrupt and senile puppet, perfect for the games they intend to play.
It is a kind of karmic justice that Russians who most suffer from these arbitrary persecutions are those who most believed in the West there is “freedom” and “rule of law”, like this Illarionov or Butina (though I feel pity for her because she wasn’t a traitor of her own country). Hardcore Putinist are completely covered and non-affected.
Something felt off about the way that they were promoting cloth shopping bags.
Seems like the environment always takes a backseat to immigration. Probably the trash-strewn streets of black neighborhoods do not speak well to their concern for the environment. Maybe, we ought to try putting embryos of the African mega-fauna on ice.
Another new metric I would like to see in the CIA world factbook is how many NGOs there are per country. I suppose it would be good if they were categorized, and each type given its own index:
That would actually be more per capita, for Russia than India! No wonder Putin has tried to crack down on them. Wonder what the numbers are now.
I’m not sure there’s a stat that captures how corrupt the Beltway is. Perhaps, number of NGOs concerned with foreign policy? Though, maybe, certain players matter more.
When you confront them online with pictures of filthy Third World countries, they usually fall back on the CO2 emissions per capita excuse, never mind that the real issue is not this innocuous gas being emitted into the atmosphere, but things like entire rivers becoming dead-zones and tracts of land being completely deforested and over-farmed.
The shopping bags made of cloth are not a bad idea to be fair, the UK government has created a 5 pence cost for each plastic bag so people either re-use their old plastic bags, or more often, buy sturdier ones. This has had a noticeable effect on the number of plastic bags seen strewn around in parks and other public spaces.
I can appreciate that – I think people are influenced by their environment and a clean one helps create a better mood. (probably no coincidence that cities started to look pretty bad in the ’60s and ’70s.)
My main beef with getting rid of plastic bags is that I’ve seen old people going on walking errands, really struggling with paper bags that have ripped open. I can see how maybe it’s inconvenient to carry around a lot of cloth bags if you might be stopping at different places, or going to church first, or maybe you are looking for deals, and not sure you are going to get anything.
Seems to me like they could just make bio-degradable bags that would be stronger. Though maybe that costs too much or doesn’t solve all the problems. Fortunately, covid seems to have brought them back in a lot of places, at least temporarily.
Flag waving patriot Boris Johnson won a massive majority in the last election.
Ok then, its settled
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1350116536581808128
Just recalled that Czech president Vaclav Klaus had (been) terminated his work for CATO Institute (https://www.cato.org/people/vaclav-klaus) in about 2014 based on his too conservative and “pro Kremlin, i.e. in the times of Ukrainina crisis” views in about 2014 and aleggedly (according to MS media news), it was initated particularly by the person in question of this article – Mr. Ilarionov.
Hipsters call it karma, I think.
Being a US president is like being an executive implementing policies others decided on, but it does leave room for interpretation and details. Trump under-utilised even the power he had, something about deal-making. He forgot Rule #1: you can never make a deal with people who hate you. Now he probably knows.
Biden has been well-trained for 50 years, he will do fine. Except that it’s very likely the coming changes will be so traumatic that a sacrifice will be required. He might be the guy with the shortest string. His Indian-POC sidekick won’t do. If Biden was still coherent (he is not) the latest treatment of Trump would scare him – there is a potential precedent there.
Whether that’s true or not, Mr. Illarionov richly deserves everything bad that happened to him and more. Karma or not, it’s certainly poetic justice when scum suffers.
“Illarionov” sounds like it may mean “son of Hilary”. Hilary of Poitiers is venerated for his having crushed the Arian heresy.
Interestingly enough Andrey Illarionov was involved in the dismissal of former Czech president from the Cato Institute (Klaus as a solution to the ukrainian crisis suggested using the dissolution of Czechoslovakia as a blue print for dissolving Ukraine into two, with the South-East joining Russia and the North-West the EU).
Not that I applaud him being fired (because of the chilling effect of such measures on Russia itself), but still this is worth mentioning.
Here is the original article in czech (it translates into Russian pretty well):
https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/zahranicni/cato-institute-konci-spolupraci-s-klausem.A141222_170538_zahranicni_mlb#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilarion
Voilà.
He can move to the UK. Russophobia is reaching fever pitch. The pay is not so good though. Think Tankism exists but is funded on a shoestring compared to the UK. The House of Lords has received oligarchs for 700 years. Good idea, keeps them in the open. They don’t need think tanks.
Of the seats, yes. Of the vote, no. First past the post distorts the results.
Those our only insidious, lowlife foreign NGO’s attempting subversive and destructive actions in Russia.
Presidential grants from Putin to NGO’s are afew billion roubles for the last 3 years. I think that includes even some foreign NGO’ in that list of receiving presidential grants.
There was a strong counter-reaction against civic participation in society after the sad end of the USSR and the mistaken (and possibly externally manipulated) impression for many was that individualism was king and needed for our westernisation.
Our authorities are trying, and I would say are successfully reversing, this trend…… because they know that increased civic participation to improve the country is good, irrelevant if from state or non-state organisations. So there are many NGO’s involved in ROC or things like road safety, health, adoption, anti-abortion, science/research, music or hundreds of thousand different things.
agree except for beef.
ford foundation needs to be banned in every country.
As Philip Owen said winning a large majority of seats doesn’t mean a massive popular majority.
Following that the astroturfed BLM/Decolonisation movement emerged in the UK, probably as some kind of globalist pushback and attempt to shape the cultural narrative going into the future. This seems clearer the more that you consider the data on the social status and position of the various ethnic and racial groups, actual level of police violence etc.
The feeling that Europe Europa writes about here:
feels like is is partly engendered by the institutional adoption of the BLM and Decolonisation (Anti-Brexit) line and the way it has become so widespread in the media.
Most people in the UK aren’t woke SJW BLM types. They are a small minority, and most Brits are mildly socially conservative.
Boris Johnson is not any sort of social conservative, he played a big role in legalising gay marriage (which was legalised by a Conservative government) and once described himself as “the most pro-immigration politician in Britain”.
Mainstream Conservatives have long since abandoned socially conservative views, there’s now no difference between them and Labour on these issues. People vote Conservative simply in the hope they’ll pay a bit less tax and that their more astute fiscal policies will create more jobs, that’s about the extent of “conservatism” in modern Britain.
Supermarket plastic bags are awesome for getting rid of used kitty litter.
I wonder how much California’s special problem might be related to the elimination of plastic bags.
And now please enjoy these repurposed Soviet Russia jokes:
**
Two guys in jail get to talking.
“What are you in for?”
“Politics. They called me into the Capitol Building to look at their computer network and I said the whole system needs a reset.”
**
So this guy switches on his TV. On CNN is Dear Leader Joe Biden. He groans and switches to CBS—again Joe Biden. ABC—again Joe Biden. He switches to NBC and… sees a fat black woman with an FBI hat bobbing her head at him: “Ya betta watch dat attitude, boy.”
**
“A truly progressive country is one where the means of production are controlled by camwhores.”
Biden Jr.
**
Alexander the Great, Caesar, and Napoleon check out the modern USA.
“If I had Abrams tanks,” says Alexander, “I would have been invincible!”
“If I had Apache helicopters,” says Caesar, “I would have conquered the world!”
“If I had CNN,” says Napoleon, “no one would have ever found out about Waterloo.”
**
Billy and his kindergarten group are taking a walk in the woods and find a hedgehog.
“Ms. Anderson, what is this?” yells Billy.
“Oh come on, Billy, what have we been talking about for so long, all the pictures have I been showing you all?”
A stunned Billy stares at the hedgehog: “This is George Floyd?!”
**
Contest for the best book on elephants.
The Germans present a three-tome series entitled “Brief introduction into the science of elephantology.”
The Japanese present a pocketbook: “What every Japanese schoolboy must know about elephants”.
Israel presents a book “Elephants and the Jewish Question.”
The Americans: “US elephants lead the way in gender affirmative therapy.”
**
Tyrone is made ambassador to China. Walking down the airplane ramp he suddenly stops and yells at the welcoming committee: “Don’t you squint at me like dat, ya crackas.”
**
Biden may have passed away, but his body lives on!
**
What is the difference between Republican dwarfs and Democrat dwarfs?
Democrat dwarfs stand tall.
**
In the renovated university corridor now hang just two portraits: that of professor Tyrone who invented the automobile, the airplane, and the computer; and that of professor Goldberg, who invented professor Tyrone.
**
A Russian and an American got to talking.
“We’ve got real freedoms,” says the Russian. “For example, I can post on social media that the Russian elections were illegitimate.”
“Big deal,” says the American. “I can also post on social media that the Russian elections were illegitimate.”
**
An American leftist makes an appointment with a Black plumber to cuckold him. The Black thoughtfully looks at the schedule in his smartphone. “Fine. I can bang your wife on March 17th.”
“In the morning or in the evening?”
“What’s the difference?”
“In the morning my wife will be banged by the Black pool cleaner.”
**
An exam on anatomy. The professor asks a student, “Whose skeleton is this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think! What have you been taught for five years straight?”
“Dear Lord! George Floyd?!”
**
An interview with a judge who jailed himself.
“What made you take this step, your honor?”
“Well, I was assigned a case where a transsexual claimed they got attacked by a black man, and the black man claimed he got attacked by the transsexual. I decided to play it safe and just say it was all my fault.”
**
“Comrade speaker, I have a question.”
“Yes?”
“Have we achieved social justice already, or are things going to get even worse?”
**
Biden arrives to Berlin and is met with an honor guard and orchestra. However he walks down the ramp, to the nearest flowerbed, grabs some soil, pockets it, goes back into his airplane, and flies off.
Later the State Department sends a note of apology to Germany: “This unfortunate incident happened due to malicious hackers uploading into the president the program for the Mars Pathfinder rover.”
**
As of today, comrades, blacklists shall be called whitelists.
**
What is the difference between a monarchy and a democracy?
In a monarchy power is transferred from father to son, while in a democracy—from grandpa to grandpa.
**
Scientists discovered a new element—Americanium. The decay rate is 250 years.
**
What’s the difference between systemic racism and social justice?
With systemic racism one race exploits another, with social justice it’s the other way round.
**
Biden in the oval office. There’s a knock on the door. Biden takes out a scrap of paper and slowly reads out loud: “Who’s there?”
**
Reagan comes back from the dead, calls a townhall meeting. “Friends, after reviewing the state of the Union, I have two suggestions. The first is to string up all members of Congress and the second is to paint the White House green.”
Voice from the crowd: “Why paint it green?”
Reagan lights a Chesterfield: “Good, I knew there would be no issues with the first suggestion.”
Karlin stole your joke, and used on twitter to great effect. Congratulations!
So, another used condom. LOL
Nice
I’m not sure if Cass Sunstein’s proposal is not misunderstood (it was always unclear to me, maybe he wanted government agents debate on Stormfront and 911truth.org with the conspiracy theorists instead of promoting implausible sounding conspiracies), but you might be correct nevertheless. I have also long suspected (regardless of what Sunstein meant or didn’t mean) that even Google often promotes the most retarded konspiracy kookery. Though there could be some natural reasons for why the most extreme conspiracy theories win over milder versions, it’s still strange that for example regarding 911 no one asked the basic questions about immigration policy, support for Israel, possible Israeli foreknowledge etc. without immediately jumping to 911 being organized by Dick Cheney and the buildings collapsing due to a controlled demolition type nonsense.
It’s not Gerard’s, it has been making the rounds on Runet for a few days now.
Anyhow that’s his tribute to me for so graciously allowing him post here.
https://twitter.com/mtreskin/status/1349577135195828226
I said most ordinary people, not most politicians. The UK is a moderately conservative society with a progressive leadership.
If Chang has a son, the son should volunteer to lead the charge to defend Taiwan or even invade the Chinese mainland. Otherwise, it’s just another rich elitist asshole volunteering other people’s children to die in a pointless non-defensive war — yet again.
Another remake of a Soviet joke:
An American is interviewed by, say Russia Today and asked about opinion on various issues. But each of his his answer is based on CNN, WaPo and NYT opinions. The reporter gets exasperated and asks him: Don’t you have your own personal opinions?”to which he hears: “Yes, I do but I do not agree with them.”
The reality will be worse than in the USSR. Most people will be so indoctrinated that they will have no opinions left to disagree with.