Not P.....but Seymour Hersh admitting his self-blocked blindness....

Sat Jan 3 16:39:04 UTC 2026

Thanks for your efforts on behalf of history in the name of sanity. The
only adequate response to JT’s all-encompassing, ahistorical madness that I
could come up with at the moment was a slack-jawed, bug-eyed, unbelieving,
shock-induced silence.

It has GOT to be an act, right? A put-on of some sort? Because it… it just…
wow.

YOPJ

On Saturday, January 3, 2026, Martin Dietze <
pynchon at the-little-red-haired-girl.org> wrote:

> Part 1 of my respose, I name it what Ukraine allegedly is or does.
>
> Here I am referring to your short first paragraph (which actually already
> contained most of what the long part then was about). Apologies for this
> all getting overly long. I hope to keep it readable by dividing it.
>
> On 3. Jan 2026, at 07:06, J Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Democratic nations don’t rob their people by the billions, ( read the
> latest news from Ukraine).
> One does not relate to the other. There are many examples of democratic
> nations with a corruption problem. However in Ukraine the civil society
> actively opposes it and keeps up the pressure on politics. In the last 25
> years a lot has changed already, but there is still quite a bit to do.
>
> Now let’s look at Russia. It is far more corrupt than Ukraine, and there
> is no change in sight. The civil society is completely silent. Putin has
> built a power and wealth pyramid since having taken power about 25 years
> ago. He is by quite some margin the richest man on earth.
>
>
> > Democratic leaders don’t cancel elections knowing they are widely
> unpopular and hated,
> I guess you are referring to Zelenskyi here.
>
> (1) Zelenskyi (and his government) never canceled elections. Because the
> country is in a state of war, elections are illegal at this time and would
> require a change to legislation. Not holding elections as long as Russia is
> waging its war against Ukraine is the only legal option.
>
> (2) Zelenskyi is not widely unpopular and hated. According to the last
> polls I am aware of (May 2025, https://censor.net/en/news/
> 3552156/level-of-trust-in-zelenskyy-rises-kiis-poll) had the support of
> 74% of the Ukrainian people. If you have more recent and trustworthy polls
> at hand showing the opposite, I’d be interested to take a look.
>
> Note that in the history of independent (about 35 years) Ukraine only one
> president has been reelected.
>
> In contrast, Putin has been in power for about 25 years now (spending 4
> years as prime minister but still pulling the threads), had the
> constitution changed so that he could stay president for the rest of his
> life.
>
>
> > don’t destroy dissident news outlets or opposing partiesengagement
> Ukraine did forbid parties collaborating with the enemy. In this they are
> in line with other democratic governments in history, like Britain which
> banned their national Nazi party when at war with Nazi Germany.
> Apart from that in Ukraine there is a lively opposition both in and out of
> parilament.
> The Ukrainian press keeps crtisicising the government.
> Limits apply in the usual way for countries in war.
>
> Conversely Russia is not in a state of war (actually calling the war war
> gets you in jail). There hasn't been any real opposition for many years.
> Political parties in parliament are hardly more than a facade.
>
>
> > Decent societies don’t wear nazi symbols and celebrate collaborators
> with Hitler
> Really? Let’s take a look.
>
> Finding this (USA) took me hardly more than 2 minutes:
> https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/red-skull-masks-
> swastikas-racial-slurs-neo-nazi-group-marches-in-ohio-7040054 or
> https://www.armytimes.com/flashpoints/extremism-disinformation/2024/03/26/
> army-investigating-social-media-post-showing-nazi-symbol
>
> And of course Russia:
> Rusich (they were part of Russia’s invasion force to Eastern Ukraine from
> 2014 and are still active): https://greydynamics.com/
> dshrg-rusich-sabotage-assault-reconnaissance-group/
> Video on Putin’s neo nazi helpers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
> v=XQc6mJ7u8gQ
> Wagner: https://www.reddit.com/r/IronFrontUSA/comments/1mfc0b1/
> russian_soldiers_with_neo_nazi_symbols/
>
> In Ukraine, far-right parties have not even made it to the parilament for
> many years (which cannot be said about most Western democracies). And even
> if Thomas will happily assist us with anecdotal evidence that there are neo
> nazis in Ukraine (I never doubted this), the existence of such people or
> groups is nothing extraordinary at all.
>
>
> >  don’t come to power in a murderous  US sponsored coup,
> You want to learn what a “coup” is. Let's have a definition (
> https://www.dictionary.com/browse/coup-detat):
>
> A quick and decisive seizure of governmental power by a strong military or
> political group. In contrast to a revolution, a coup d'état, or coup, does
> not involve a mass uprising. Rather, in the typical coup, a small group of
> politicians or generals arrests the incumbent leaders, seizes the national
> radio and television services, and proclaims itself in power. Coup d'état
> is French for “stroke of the state” or “blow to the government."
>
> This alone shows how far-fetched your “coup” related to events in Ukraine
> is.
>
>
> > don’t start or make war on their own citizens
> Which Ukraine did not do. I know, you’re referring to the eventsin Eastern
> Ukraine 2014. What actually happend was Russian special forces without
> national insignia entering the country and staging a “rebellion”.
> Igor Girkin, one of their leaders was very open about this (e.g. Russia’s
> Igor Strelkov: I Am Responsiblefor War in Eastern Ukraine:
> https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/11/21/russias-igor-
> strelkov-i-am-responsible-for-war-in-eastern-ukraine-a41598/pdf).
> Ukrainian authorities did what every normal government would do: try to
> restore public order. As Russian forces (with some local militia) responded
> with heavy weapons this turned into a war.
>
> By the way you keep assuming LNR and DNR to represent the people from the
> donbas. Don’t be so sure. The people there never had the chance to voice
> their opinions, because Moscow had created environments in which any
> opposition was life-threatening.
> Even children were tortured and killed simply for displaying Ukrainian
> symbolism, like then 14 year old Stepan Chubenko:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Chubenko
>
>
> > or seize churches.
> I guess you're referring to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow
> patriarchate here.
> No churches were seized. Many local parishes decided to switch from the
> Moscow partiarchate to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (under
> Constantinople) because they did not agree with their church's politics. In
> other cases, like the lavra monastry in Kyiv, the government terminated
> leases returning properties to state control. There is nothing unlawful
> about this. As parish members are concerned, the affiliation to one or
> another partiarch is simply a political one as there is no theological
> difference between the various orthodox churches - if you're orthodox then
> you're orthodox, that's it.
>
> Conversely, actual seizures of churches have been widely reported from the
> Russian occupied territories since 2014 (e.g. Russia’s Donbas proxy
> ‘republic’ seizes Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the Moscow Patriarchate:
> https://lockedfaith.org/en/p/55).
>
>
> > Honorable nations don’t sign treaties they intend to break.
> I assume you are referring to Minsk I and II here. I have already
> responded to this earlier: both Minsk agreements were broken immediately
> after signing by the Russian side: the Donetsk airport after Minsk I and
> Debaltseve after Minsk II, both involving local militia and regular Russian
> army units.
>
> Long story short: practically everything you blame on Ukraine actually
> applies to Russia rather than Ukraine.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Martin
>
>
>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>