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The MoA Week In Review – Open Thread 2020-96
Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
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Other issues:
India:
Covid vaccines:
Covid research:
Dystopia:
Swindle:
Use as open thread …
@visak
Anything written in the first person directed to another is communication (similar to this post written by me, directed to you), and since it was deleted so quickly, I think it is safe to say that it was an internal communication not meant for public consumption.
Or maybe the comment was mistakenly posted under the wrong article.
How long have you been reading there? Long enough to detect the change in tone?
I was reading it occasionally a few years back, but have stopped since because I didn’t find it particularly interesting or insightful.
It is unanimous among every author there that writes about the us, that the election was stolen. And they dont just have suspicions about this, they claim the evidence is irrefutable and is so overwhelming only a fool cannot see it.
Well, maybe the guys at The Vineyard are hardcore Trumpists.
Or maybe their anti-imperialism has driven them mad, and they have lost the ability to see reality clearly. Consider another anti-imperialist site, OffGuardian, that went completely crazy in the spring, denying the danger of SARS-CoV-2 and even accusing other anti-imperialists like b of selling out to the Empire. After witnessing the Western MSM lying so much, some people come to a false conclusion that MSM is lying literally all the time about literally everything—which is not true. For example, when Western MSM is writing that the Earth is round, they are not lying. Similarly, when they write that SARS-CoV-2 is deadlier than the flu, they are not lying. Therefore, one can not simply “invert” what the MSM is writing to get the truth. But many people don’t seem to understand that. They think that if CNN says Biden has won, that must mean he lost. That might explain why some people who seemed rational before now post delusional stuff. Again, think OffGuardian—they used to be rational.
Why are all these non us citizens so terribly upset by the results of our election?
My understanding is that The Saker is a U.S. citizen.
Others may be upset because Trump was bad for the Empire (incompetent, bad liar, unlikeable), therefore, good for the world. Imagine living in a Middle Eastern country that is being occupied and heavily sanctioned by the U.S. Now imagine that one of the U.S. presidential candidates calls for “bringing troops home”, while the other calls for “staying in the Middle East to protect Israel”. Who would you root for? These people don’t care about domestic U.S. issues, all they want is for the U.S. to leave their country alone. Maybe if you put yourself in their shoes for a second, you won’t be so angry about them going overboard for Trump.
I would also point out that I contacted them asking what that was all about, they could have easily explained what happened, instead they ignored it. Why is that?
Perhaps they genuinely couldn’t understand what your issue with them was. No offense, but after re-reading your original comment multiple times I still don’t understand exactly what it was that The Saker has written that has convinced you he is intentionally spreading disinformation, let alone working for Russian intelligence services.
I have to say I am unable to come up with any good reason for that, other than an attempt to deceive.
Even if it is true that The Saker is willfully deceiving his audience, that doesn’t mean he’s working for Russian intelligence services. Can’t you see that you have internalized the West’s Russophobic propaganda? “I don’t approve of what this individual of Russian origin is writing, therefore, he/she must be working for FSB/SVR/GU”. Let’s say a woman who has an Italian father lies to you. Would you immediately jump to a conclusion that she is working for Italian intelligence services? No. Why can’t we Russians be allowed to be ordinary people with our own thoughts, acting of our own free will? Why everything we think, write or do is immediately assumed to be some kind of “active measures” approved, no doubt, by Putin himself?
You believe The Saker is doing something nefarious? Very well. Could be true. (Although you haven’t convinced me.) That doesn’t mean he has anything to do with Russian intelligence services. That is my main beef with you comment.
Posted by: S | Dec 9 2020 23:43 utc | 234
@visak #235:
I have stated a couple of time it wasnt a comment under another article, it was posted as an article itself.
Apologies, I have re-read your original comment #194 again and now I get it:
I felt that the tone had changed, but couldnt quite put my finger on it until one night I was reading when a new post from ramin appeared. Before I clicked on the link I noticed ’40 views’ (this might have been 40 comments, but I dont think so, I think their have been some changes to the format since then, but I am not 100% certain).
It was very confusing to read and took me a minute to understand that what I was reading was a response to another person, presumably some inside communication that wasnt meant for public consumption. The part that really stood out to me in his reply was something to the effect of: “Stupid? Stupid!?! You want to see stupid, I can get way more stupid, hows this for stupid …” He then launched into a rant that I had trouble following as I didnt have the proper context, but it seemed that what he was saying that he could write about the opposite of what he had been writing in the weeks prior.
So it was Ramin Mazaheri, a Paris correspondent for Iranian state media PressTV, who has erroneously pasted his private email/chat/forum reply to another (unknown) person into a new article form at The Vineyard of the Saker and hit “Publish”. You and other 40 people then saw this private message of Mazaheri before it was quickly deleted (most likely by Mazaheri himself). The message showed that Mazaheri is not being honest with his audience, writing what he is told by some unknown superiors of his instead of his own personal opinion. Unfortunately, it hasn’t occured to you to make a screenshot of the post, so we can only rely on your words. If you are telling the truth, all this incident shows is that Mazaheri is a paid/controlled writer who gave himself away to you and 40 other people by posting a private message in the wrong browser tab. The incident, as narrated by you, doesn’t show that other authors at The Vineyard and The Saker himself are dishonest, that they knew about Mazaheri’s dishonesty, let alone that The Vineyard is a “Russian ops site”—something you think it is “guilty” of.
As it stands, The Vineyard of the Saker is a blog started in 2007 by a man born in Switzerland in 1963 to a Russian mother and a Dutch father, who (the man) moved to the U.S. in 2002 and is currently living in Florida; later the blog started publishing authors from all over the world—Iran, Lebanon, Brazil, and other countries. There is not a tiniest, flimsiest shred of evidence that The Vineyard is a “Russian ops site”, even if we completely believe everything you’ve told us so far. To claim otherwise without any evidence whatsoever is engaging in McCarthyism 2.0, i.e. furthering the Empire’s narrative.
For those who don’t know anything about The Saker, here’s a quote from a 2015 addendum to his autobiographical piece:
I was born in Zurich, Switzerland, from a Dutch father and Russian mother. My father left us when I was 5, so my mother and my Russian family raised me and this is why I took my mother’s last name. I lived most of my life in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1984 I did my military service in electronic warfare and I was later transferred to the military intelligence service (UNA) as a language specialist where did some work with the Swiss Air Force. I then traveled to the USA where I got a BA in International Relations from the School of International Service (SIS) at the American University and a MA in Strategic Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University. Upon my return to Switzerland, I worked as a civilian consultant for the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service (SND) writing strategic analyses, primarily about the Soviet/Russian military. In the military, I was given the Major-equivalent rank of “Technical Officer”, which is a fancy way of saying that I was an analyst. I also worked as an “enemy operations” (“Red Team” in US parlance) specialist for the operational-level training of the General Staff of Swiss armed forces. I then accepted a position for the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) where I specialized in peacekeeping tactics and operations. This gave me the opportunity to co-author a book on Russian peacekeeping operations with the Major-General I. N. Vorob’ev, of the Russian General Staff Academy. My last work at UNIDIR was about psychological operations and intelligence in peacekeeping which can be downloaded here. At the same time, I also wrote an evaluation of the performance of the Russian military during the first Chechen war for the Journal of Slavic Military Studies which somebody has since uploaded here. The wars in Bosnia and Chechnia really opened my eyes to the real nature of the Empire. Since I thought that I was living in a democracy, I did voice my opinion on these topics and I soon ended up being viewed with suspicion by my former bosses. I quit the UN and took up a position at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which was probably the worst mistake of my life and which I shall never discuss publicly. By the time I got out of that job, I was basically blacklisted as a “dangerous element” (meaning “disloyal”) by my former bosses (my regular contacts with Russian diplomats and my efforts at providing aid to the Bosnian Serbs probably did not help). In total disgust, I abandoned my career as a military specialist and re-trained as a software engineer. When 9/11 crashed the IT sector I was unemployed again and I left Switzerland for the USA where I homeschooled our 3 children while doing odd jobs, mostly as a translator (I am fluent in Russian, French, English, Spanish and German) while my wife worked as a veterinarian (now, that our kids have grown up, my wife and I work together). In 2007 I decided to start an anonymous blog, mainly as a psychotherapy for myself, and I called it “Vineyard Saker” – a simple machine-generated anagram of my full name 🙂
Posted by: S | Dec 10 2020 21:38 utc | 249
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