Faizel Bham

Likes & RT’s ≠ Endorsements

[Leonid Ragozin @leonidragozin]

Moscow was first mentioned in a chronicle in 1147 while Lviv was founded in the 1250s and why does it matter anyway. The illusionary Ukraine of pro-war propaganda.

[MenchOsint @MenchOsint]

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Ballistic Missile launches towards U.S. Bases this morning.

Ghader, Emad, Kheybar-shekan, Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar were used.

[Collingwood 🇬🇧 @admcollingwood]

The extent to which the BBC and other UK media outlets pick and choose winners in their foreign policy coverage is extraordinary and deeply worrying. Compare the coverage of the Georgian post-election riots to the Albanian flamingo revolution (now in its 41st day). Our media, far from attempting -- through muckraking, investigation and parsing complex issues -- to give the engaged citizen a glimpse of the objective truth, have become mouthpieces of the establishment.

If the foreign policy establishment disapproves of a foreign government, then protests against it will be covered and amplified in the UK media. This, to some degree, will lead to a delegitimisation of that government in the eyes of the British public, paving the way for the UK government to impose punitive measures, from sanctions to coup attempts and war, against it.

Governments of which we approve, on the other hand, can get away with all kinds of oppression and brutality and corruption (see Moldova, Ukraine and now Hungary), and the media will barely cover it, or in fact help frame said oppression and brutality as effective and necessary steps to protect that government against nefarious actors.

I always find it extraordinary how many people who in other areas of life are admirably questioning and heterodox actually fall of this stuff when it comes to foreign policy -- from serious thinkers whom I admire to ordinary posters on X.

More importantly, though, I do not know why the media (both print and broadcast) have fallen into this way of doing things, but it is to their great shame -- and, ultimately, detriment, given it cuts right across the raison d'etre and sine qua non of an independent media.

[Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen]

Anti-Russian propaganda has become a convenient way for British politicians to dodge accountability. Instead of addressing their own failures, they seem eager to blame almost every problem in society on a Putin conspiracy.

[Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled]

Ukraine’s organized crime/gangland problem, already bad before the war, is going to be utterly dystopian after the war. Weak & corrupt central state, and tens of thousands of trained & organized veterans, many from semi-autonomous units indoctrinated in extreme-right ideology.

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

As Soviet troops approached Berlin in 1945, zoo keepers did their best to take care of Berlin Zoo's animals. This shoebill was temporarily housed in his keeper’s home.

[Brian McDonald @BrianMcDonaldIE]

Huge claim from former FSB director Nikolai Patrushev, who says that Osama bin Laden was a US “agent” and was later eliminated only when he began compromising American intelligence services.

He says Russia once helped the CIA locate Osama bin Laden and that the US then refused to strike him.

Patrushev adds that the presidents of Russia and the US [presumably Putin and George W Bush, given he headed the FSBfrom 1999-2008] had agreed an operation to “eliminate” bin Laden, with roles assigned to both services: “On one side, the CIA, on the other, the FSB.”

According to him, the Americans asked Russia to place a beacon at bin Laden’s location because “they were sure we couldn’t carry it out, [but] we carried it out,” Patrushev said.

“We completed the assignment,” Patrushev claims. “We installed the beacon they gave us and said, please, you can verify it.”

He says Moscow told the US bin Laden would remain at that location for three months.

“They didn't dare. They didn't strike.”

Patrushev says he later confronted CIA director George Tenet: “You asked us. We didn't ask you. And you did nothing.”

Then comes the real kicker from Patrushev: “We know that he was their agent, they used him for as long as it suited them. Then, when he became a liability, they eliminated him, as we all saw on screen.”

[The Hormuz Letter @HormuzLetter]

BREAKING: The USS George H.W. Bush is reentering the Gulf of Oman, now inside Iran's missile range and at the shortest distance ever reported from Iran's coast of just 170 km, escorted by two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, per today's Sentinel-2 satellite imagery.

This comes just hours after the USS Abraham Lincoln reentered the Gulf of Oman, with both carriers now positioned as the US appears to be preparing for the imminent reimposition of the naval blockade on Iran.

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

A day in the American Left:

1) Arizona's Young Democrats withdrew their endorsement of progressive challenger Kai Newkirk based on unspecified "concerning patterns of behavior": ones fully retracted by the woman who first made them.

2) An anonymous report claims that progressive recruiter Daniel Moraff (who recruited Platner and others) was barred from Summer Lee's Congressional campaign in 2022 due to claims of sexual harassment.

Because huge parts of the left love denouncing and destroying people above all else, they created a system that makes it extremely easy to do it: accusations are tantamount to guilt. They just fortified that system with Platner. And they love above all to turn it on themselves.

[Joe Colangelo @Itsjoeco]

Bernard Montgomery once picked up a hitchhiking boy during WWII.

He was wearing his full dress uniform and asked, "Do you know who I am?" But the boy did not

"I’m a Field Marshal."

The boy replied, "Oh, I want to go into agriculture too! Do you drive a tractor?"

Montgomery shot back "No, I kill people!" And I forget if the kid screamed to be let out or if he was impressed but the moral of the story is the same that even though Monty was a gentleman's gentleman he knew what business he was in.

No, the below gun was obviously not loaded as the OP says, but the idea that this gun has since been turned over to authorities because it's scary, even though they ostensible purpose of NATO is to wage war (hint - kill people) makes me think European leaders may not know what business they're in the way Monty did.

[Faizel Bham @faiz_bham]

The British govt. can finance foreign wars and ship weapons to other countries, but their PM can’t bring home a ceremonial revolver. What a laughable situation.

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

The Turkish president gave a revolver to every Nato leader, but UK gun laws mean Keir Starmer had to leave his behind

🔗: https://t.co/TGdSNtjhQe

[Seth Frantzman @sfrantzman]

Why are these revolver gifts spotlighted as controversial. It was a NATO meeting, not a meeting of the International Bunny Rabbit Club. It’s a defense alliance. They should be getting swords and weapons at each meeting

[Luke Coffey @LukeDCoffey]

Good grief. People are acting like they were given a nuclear bomb! It’s a pistol. Handle safely and lock it away.

All this drama: “ooh it’s illegal to bring into the country, etc” is so ridiculous.

Personally, it would be an honor to receive such a gift!

[Javier Blas @JavierBlas]

CHART OF THE DAY: Global oil stocks posted an increase in June (entirely due to rising volumes of oil on water), according to @IEA estimates. It's the first monthly increase since the war, and comes after stocks fell ~360 million barres (or ~3.9m b/d) from March through May.

[Faizel Bham @faiz_bham]

Most of them were too scared to even touch the guns.

[Reuters @Reuters]

After NATO leaders gathered for this week’s fractious summit in Ankara, their host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, handed each an unusual parting gift: ‌a vintage revolver, along with live ammunition indicating it was not just for show https://t.co/msmSyz0jvQ

[Faizel Bham @faiz_bham]

European leaders really are quite pathetic.

A simple “thank you” would have sufficed.

[Magyar Péter (Ne féljetek) @magyarpeterMP]

An unusual gift from President @RTErdogan at the NATO Summit: a Magnum revolver with ammunition, engraved with my name…

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

The US men's national soccer team is being subjected to the same kind of legalized plunder that defines too many divorce proceedings in this country.

After grinding through qualifiers, earning their spot in the World Cup, and generating the massive FIFA payout that only the men's game can produce ($12.8 million in this case), the players are now forced to hand over a huge chunk of that money to the women's team under the "equal pay" collective bargaining agreement.

The women didn't play a single minute of those matches, didn't draw the crowds, didn't sell the tickets, and didn't create the revenue - yet they still get a cut of the men's prize money while the reverse transfer remains a fraction. Yes the women are more successful (having won the Women's World Cup several times) but the prize is much smaller. Why? It reflects differences in global interest, sponsorship, viewership and actual performance.

This is all under the guise of "parity" between "equivalent work." But in reality, it's more like subsidizing one program with the output of the other, just like the ex-spouse cashing checks from earnings she didn't generate.

"Equal pay" sounds noble until you realize it erases differences in market value, risk, audience draw, and results. It disincentivizes excellence on the men's side (why push harder if your windfall gets redistributed?) and removes pressure on the women's side to grow their own commercial appeal.

Like divorce settlements that trap high-earners in perpetual support roles, this policy treats men's soccer as a piggy bank for "fairness," not a business rewarding what fans and sponsors actually value.

[MenchOsint @MenchOsint]

Translation: Trump has asked Pakistan & Qatar to work to bring back Iran to the negotiating table.

Why ? He can only afford small tit-for-tat attacks, not a return to a full-scale war ⤵️

[Brian McDonald @BrianMcDonaldIE]

Bill Browder’s claim that Putin demanded “50%” of Russia’s oligarch wealth is obviously total nonsense and very easy to debunk.

If Putin had taken half the wealth of the old oligarch class, he would be sitting on Elon Musk-level money, possibly even more, and where exactly would he hide such a fortune? And how did dozens of billionaires manage to transfer half their assets without bankers, lawyers, auditors, rivals, intelligence agencies or financial journalists noticing? Like, these would be incredible sums.

In the real world, there's a much simpler explanation, which is that Putin obviously didn't end corruption in Russia (of which Mr Browder himself was a major beneficiary in the past), but he did finish off the oligarchs as an independent political class. Since Khodorkovsky’s arrest, everybody has understood that businessmen can be rich, but they can't run the state, and they may eventually be called upon to serve it in some capacity.

Russia still has very wealthy people, but the old 1990s oligarch model, where tycoons could buy media empires, finance parties, dictate policy, run personal fiefdoms and challenge the Kremlin, hasn't existed for about 20 years.

Browder’s line is deeply unserious, and just helps feed dangerously cartoonish depictions of Russia in the West, which have helped to make Western policy on Russia so disastrously self-defeating.

[Iuliia Mendel @IuliiaMendel]

The claim of 30–35 thousand Russian soldiers killed every month in Ukraine is a fabricated figure pulled out of thin air. Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief recently stated that the current Russian offensive grouping on Ukrainian territory exceeds 721,000 personnel. At a rate of 30–35 thousand eliminated per month, it would take Ukraine only 10–11 months to completely wipe out this force. This is especially striking given President Zelenskyy’s own statements that Russia cannot recruit soldiers fast enough to replace those Ukraine eliminates. The losses are being counted by a few media -- see the numbers below.
For context, at the start of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, the Russian troop contingent numbered around 180,000.
You are being sold fairy tales to keep some profiting from this war. The lives of Ukrainians lost and the fate of my country apparently don’t matter for these people. As @JDVance said: the "math does not add up" for Ukraine.