Matt

My father called me son. My mother called me darling...

[Matt @mjdwyer]

@RealPepeEscobar Same Russians who couldn't prevent regime change in Syria will apparently be able to wave their magic wand and prop up Iran...

[Matt @mjdwyer]

Sadly, his last film was The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...

[The Curious Pollster @PollSter_Mike1]

Can you name ONE movie for Sean Connery that is NOT Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989, The Rock 1996, or James Bond Franchise'?

[mitchellbeer @beermitchell]

Not many mornings you can wake up and say you drove it better than Tiger.

[Matt @mjdwyer]

Genuinely confused as to why anyone would invest in a media company headed by this man.

[Piers Morgan @piersmorgan]

Another dire drubbing.
Come on @englandcricket - we need a better fight than this. Australia aren’t a better team, they’re just playing with more brain-cells - which given they’re Australians, is inexplicable. Wise up, fast.

[Matt @mjdwyer]

@MarcusBurelius @piersmorgan @benstokes38 Definitely. After all, you've been saving that third win at the Gabba since WW2 until AFTER you lose in two days in Perth.

[Matt @mjdwyer]

NARRATOR VOICE: England did not actually win.

[Piers Morgan @piersmorgan]

We’re going to win.

[Matt @mjdwyer]

@RitaPanahi Did Russell Jackson ever apologise or note his role in this? He seems to have blocked most people who ask him... 🤔

[Better Way @betterwayUK]

Health services in New South Wales, Australia, will be forced to reduce their planned spending on palliative care amid $150 million of cuts. Critics warn this will lead to more assisted suicide referrals because patients' palliative care needs are not met. https://t.co/e5sPbJojz3

[Matt @mjdwyer]

Disappointing to see someone who is allegedly concerned about disinformation and conspiracy theories unironically quote Shane Dowling and Kangaroo Court like this.

[Victoria Fielding @DrVicFielding]

ICYMI @Kangaroo_Court is reporting very concerning conflicts of interest between Peter Dutton, Jacinta Price and her mother Bess Price over lobbying for $12 million for Yipirinya school where Bess works. Interesting that News Corp were also pressuring govt to fund this school.

[Bad Baltic @BadBalticTakes]

Some of the worst western Kremlin propagandists have fallen out with each other. Firstly - and this can’t be emphasised enough - this is absolutely hilarious.

But let’s analyse it a bit more.

There are layers of hypocrisy here that reveal so much about the character of grifters who shill for autocracies despite having all the benefits of coming from democracies.

The Grayzone, which Max edits and Ben was once part of, is a far left American site that supports russian imperialism and every repressive non-western regime. It spreads conspiracy theories to deny their atrocities, as well as all kinds of genocidal hate. Their key contributors have repeatedly referred to the people of the Baltic countries as non-humans who deserve invasion next.

Their organisation is being torn apart because Max and Ben took opposite extremes of a wedge issue, which is hilarious because it was their job to tear apart society by pushing people to those extremes. How the turn tables. Max embraced covid conspiracy theories more popular among pro-russian extremists while Ben took the official Chinese line that China does a great job fighting covid.

So this is basically like a modern Sino-Soviet split in miniature.

The Grayzone has been very keen to present itself as pro-freedom of speech. Of course, not for non-westerners living under oppressive regimes, but for its own wealthy, privileged grifters who want to continue operating from within the comforts of the democratic world it seeks to overthrow. Yet Max is in such a rage that he didn’t think twice about revealing the Grayzone has incredibly strict censorship rules against its own staff in an attempt to prevent them getting high on their own supply of polarising discourse.

The most tone deaf part of all this though is the naked greed of these comrades.

They accuse NAFO activists of being secretly financed - unable to get their head around the fact that many millions of people impacted by russian imperialism do have agency and do have voices - yet these comrades are squabbling over decent sums of money being made in just one small part of their grifting-for-autocracy operation then have the audacity to whine about it in front of the world and chase each other around the world over it. Of course, they also use the American legal system where they can pay huge bills.

Imagine being on that bus in Nicaragua when a bunch of already very wealthy westerners start using it for a furious argument about how to split up a pile of money that is many, many times the average local salary.

They are almost a cartoon caricature of out of touch Champaign socialists with every worst possible trait.

Max doesn’t actually have much of a case here. His smoking gun is screenshots of a letter from his own lawyer, which any lawyer can tell you does not mean much. Ben is now in China. Yet despite the Grayzone’s love of China’s regime, I think Max is unlikely to travel to China and try to either cause a scene like this there in public or make use of the Chinese legal system.

The main lesson of all this:

Kremlin propagandists try to build up their mythology and try to seem intimidating. But they are just people, sad ones in their case. Russia is not luring the brightest and best people to shill for it. It’s stuck with people like Max who seriously thought this meltdown highlighting so many of their hypocrisies was a good idea.

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

These are dark, dark times. Check out the latest disturbing video from @LiveAction

[David Burge @iowahawkblog]

You can LOL about "underwater basket weaving" and whatever, but there's an entire industry dedicated to convincing 18 year olds that a college degree - any college degree - is their only ticket out of a life sentence to wander among the Degreeless Ick People.

[Matt @mjdwyer]

@P_Kallioniemi Is Pepe Escobar one of the nine...?

[Matt @mjdwyer]

The problem with these Russian fan boys is they constantly undermine themselves. To wit, why would Wagner - who allegedly fought all of NATO and won - need more training? 🤔

[The Same Drugs @thesamedrugs_]

The claim that porn mitigates sexual violence is provably untrue. In fact, the stats imply the opposite. Watch @meghanemurphy's full interview with @_DanielPrincipe of @collectiveshout
now on Patreon: https://t.co/wzwHO2Tr6y

[Mitch @mitcheels1]

A bull got loose and started chasing players around the field during warm up for the Catalans vs St Helens game overnight.

If this isn’t now part of Magic Round festivities this afternoon, the NRL is deadset not even trying. #innovation #NRLMagicRound

[The National Interest @TheNatlInterest]

Is Russia an albatross around China's neck? Or, alternatively, is Russia's weakness providing a wealth of opportunities for China to secure its own national interests? https://t.co/IxbW9SufKO

[Calvin and Hobbes Fan Account @Calvinn_Hobbes]

LOL #CalvinandHobbes

[Matt @mjdwyer]

@michaelsnape @rohancct @GrayConnolly @JoshButler I think the implicit subtext is that the Suns might be relocated / get the chop.

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

Meet Kamala Harris's 6-Year-Old Speechwriter