Shoddy intel which was better than what the FSB had on offer.

Shame that the FSB doesn't have better intel on what's happening in Russia than the CIA.

Perhaps they were too busy tracking the gays after Russia recently labelled the LGBT+ movement terrorists. Perhaps they were tired after ensuring Putin won a sufficient margin against the communists. Or maybe some kid posted a meme on tiktok and they got distracted.

except these Nazis are also somehow Jewish, apparently

The guardian did an interesting piece on that:

The form of Russian fascism Dugin and Prokhanov defended is like the central versions of European fascism – explicitly antisemitic. As Snyder writes, “… if Prokhanov had a core belief, it was the endless struggle of the empty and abstract sea-people against the hearty and righteous land-people. Like Adolf Hitler, Prokhanov blamed world Jewry for inventing the ideas that enslaved his homeland. He also blamed them for the Holocaust.” ... . ... By claiming that the aim of the invasion is to “denazify” Ukraine, Putin appeals to the myths of contemporary eastern European antisemitism – that a global cabal of Jews were (and are) the real agents of violence against Russian Christians and the real victims of the Nazis were not the Jews, but rather this group. Russian Christians are targets of a conspiracy by a global elite, who, using the vocabulary of liberal democracy and human rights, attack the Christian faith and the Russian nation. Putin’s propaganda is not aimed at an obviously skeptical west, but rather appeals domestically to this strain of Christian nationalism.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/25/vladimir-putin-ukraine-attack-antisemitism-denazify

With regards to Belgium: the colonial museum has been revamped, schools teach what happened in the Belgian Congo, and no one's going around defending or idealising King Leopold who presided over the worst atrocities. Belgian nationalism barely exists, so that hasn't been a thing in living memory anyway.

Also, what happened in Congo was widely derided even at the time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casement_Report

To force the population to believe the lie. Out of fear or because they have been brain-washed. A test of loyalty.

Ask them the pin code or credit card number.

When they refuse to give it, reply "So you do have something to hide."

I actually enjoy that sentence, because you can ask them for the pin code of their bank card.

There's a Craig Ferguson interview, where he says one of the secrets of some(!!!) of the most attractive Hollywood actors, is that in real-life they look like bug people. You know, weird looking, big eyes, huge head, tiny body. Looks great on camera and in 2d, not so much in the flesh. Probably also why IRC some Hollywood insiders call actors lollipop people. Stick with a big head on it.

Obviously this sucks, but it's also quite interesting. They call themselves American Banderites. Banderites were far right Ukrainian nationalists, but since WW2 the term has mainly been used by Soviet propaganda and by the Putin regime:

In propaganda the term has been used by Soviets after 1942 as a pejorative term for Ukrainians, especially western Ukrainians, or Ukrainian speakers; under Vladimir Putin-ruled Russia the term was used by state media as a pejorative for Euromaidan activists and Ukrainians who support sovereignty from Russia ... Today, in Russian propaganda, the word is used to refer to all in Ukraine who back the idea of sovereignty from Russia; Ukrainian nationalist collaboration with Nazi Germany is also emphasized

This is why Ukrainians sometimes call themselves Judeo-Banderites, as a joke about how many Jewish people support the supposedly Nazi regime in Kiev and its Jewish president. Obviously, Ukraine does have a far right, but they're incredibly marginalised:

Ukraine does have a far-right movement, and its armed defenders include the Azov battalion, a far-right nationalist militia group. But no democratic country is free of far-right nationalist groups, including the United States. In the 2019 election, the Ukrainian far right was humiliated, receiving only 2% of the vote.

This was a bit of a tangent, but it sounds like these kids may have been influenced by Russian propaganda. Certainly interesting how the far right is divided over Ukraine, with some supporting Russia and some supporting Ukraine, despite the whole Jewish president and relatively pro-LGBT thing.

It's not the size of the rock that matters, it's how you throw it.

I mean, Biden absolutely is wishy washy.

But he also reversed Trump's policy of saying West Bank settlement is legal, and sanctioned violent Israeli settlers.

Obviously Gaza's really bad, but what's happened and happening in the West Bank is also arguably ethnic cleansing. Chasing Palestinians off their land. Trump's a fan.

Capitalism commodifies dissent. It turns protest movements that argue against the unfairness of the current system into a product or marketing campaign to sell their imaginary solutions. The Barbie is a prime example of this.

I liked the I'm Just Ken song though, and it was a fun movie, but still.