A State Dept-supported Ukrainian NGO adds me to its 'enemies list'
They want to bully people into supporting The Current Thing.
So today I learned that I’ve been added to a list of American citizens who have been deemed insufficiently supportive of Ukraine.
And apparently, this Ukraine-based operation has previously received funding from USAID and the State Department.
I just love paying taxes so that my own government can send my money to people who seek to delegitimize my independent standing and declare The Dossier a mouthpiece for [insert your foreign leader here].
Anyway…
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), who has been nice enough to spar with the Biden Admin over this issue, has the relevant details on the Ukraine-based operation:
“TEXTY was founded by Anatoly Bondarenko in 2010. Mr. Bondarenko worked as a trainer in a U.S. State Department program called TechCamp in 2015. More recently, USAID selected TEXTY as one of the six "implementing partners" on its Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services program. Mr. Bodarenko's NGO recently published a report titled "Roller Coaster: From Trumpists to Communists. The forces in the U.S. impeding aid to Ukraine and how they do it." According to the report, the individuals on the list "oppose supporting Ukraine," and many "echo key messages of Russian propaganda aimed at depriving Ukrainians of the ability to defend themselves." Seventy-six organizations and 388 individuals appear on the list, including President Donald Trump and 116 members of the House of Representatives…”
A true testament to the sloppiness of the NGO-bureaucrat handout class, the State Dept-backed Ukrainian NGO has linked yours truly to a variety of organizations through which I have no affiliation.
At least I’m in good company, having been joined on this list of 388 individuals by the likes of Elon Musk, JD Vance, Peter Thiel, Ron DeSantis and many others who remain critical of the blank check for Ukraine policy.
They’ve determined that I am connected to Breitbart News, Conservative Review, and Ron Paul.
I haven’t been with Breitbart since 2016 and haven’t written for them since. I have no affiliation with Breitbart News, though I greatly admire the late Andrew Breitbart and the media empire he built.
I left Conservative Review four or five years ago when they merged with The Blaze. I have no affiliation with The Blaze, but I think they have a fantastic operation in place there.
The supposed Ron Paul connection is established because his website reposted one of The Dossier articles on Ukraine. I have nothing to do with Ron Paul or his organizations.
These are the two articles cited in the report to determine that I am insufficiently supportive of Ukraine. Feel free to read them for yourselves and determine if this makes me a Ruble-rich Russian agent:
My position, which I’ve written about at length, is one of empathy for the Ukrainian people, who I believe live under an increasingly authoritarian leadership regime in Kyiv, and remain stuck between a rock and a hard place. For Ukraine to survive and thrive, their leadership must embrace realpolitik and come to terms with Russia. That’s not “Russian propaganda,” but a geopolitical reality they must acknowledge sooner rather than later. I consider myself an ally of the Ukrainian people, as do many on this smear list. And it does a great disservice to their supposed mission to alienate allies who support Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty.
My position on Russia is very similar, but adjusted for their position in the world and their massive nuclear arsenal. I value Russia’s modern and historic cultural and societal contributions to the world, but I’m not particularly fond of the authoritarians who run the Kremlin.
From here across the Atlantic, I especially don’t want to send hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine, so that Ukraine can continue to lose more slowly instead of coming to an agreement with their much more powerful neighbor. Throwing money at the problem will not resolve anything. It will just make matters worse.
These attempts to deprive independent thought and agency are both boring and tiresome. It’s not just shoddy analysis, but a seeming purposeful attempt to smear those who won’t conform with the Current Thing.
The truth is irrelevant. The point is empire. Any lie that serves the empire will be repeated as if it were truth.
For that matter, nobody in Washington, nobody in Brussels, nobody in Kiev, none of them care in the least for Ukraine or Ukrainians, except to the extent they are useful to the empire as enemies of Russia.
This is all part of an increasing censorship campaign against influencers.
I stand with you in being against this proxy war that we started by violating terms of a number of treaties we (as a member of NATO) had with Russia until Russia was forced to push back. And we seem to be doing our best to escalate things by providing advanced weapons, CIA and IC assistance, and pretending there aren't kickbacks involved.