Thread by @ggreenwald

Beyond the banal but sleazy corruption, Burisma's payments to Hunter Biden reveal who elites in Ukraine recognize wield the real power in their country. They didn't pay the son of a Ukrainian official, but Joe Biden's son. So of course CNN bans any guest from mentioning this:👇

https://twitter.com/NewsPolitics/status/1501681994865987584

I cannot recommend highly enough the 2015 Oliver Stone doc on the history of Ukraine and the 2014 regime change to a more pro-US/EU government. After Rumble uploaded the film following Google's removal from the producer's page, it's been viewed 500k times

https://twitter.com/lopatonok/status/1502027062747435030

As @SusanSarandon says, what is Google so afraid of with this film? Suddenly, after *6 years,* it decides the film contains footage "too graphic" to allow? Numerous films/reports on Ukraine aligned with the US/NATO view are just as graphic, yet remain:

https://twitter.com/SusanSarandon/status/1502433007721799680

One of the film' key revelations is to show who has been in charge of US policy on Ukraine for a decade: hard-core neocons like Victoria Nuland (Dick Cheney's War on Terror adviser, key architect of the Iraq War) and unhinged fanatics like @McFaul.

The neocon strategy always:👇

In 2013/14, Ukrainians were split: many wanted the current government, others wanted a change. Protesters were real. But there's no denying the gigantic role the US played in fostering regime change. Senators streamed in. State Dept. financed it all. Nuland picked their leader.

It's unsurprising liberals now revere Cheney adviser Nuland and her policies. Neocons migrated back to the Dem Party. Long before Trump, Nuland's husband - supreme neocon Robert Kagan - signaled neocons would support Hillary, who adores Nuland. NYT, 2014:

nytimes.com/2014/07/06/opi…

Beyond Nuland - Cheney's adviser fo Iraq and War on Terror 🇺🇸- the most influential media voice on Ukraine is Obama's former Amb. @McFaul.

Last night, he said Putin is *worse than Hitler* because Hitler didn't murder Germans. Maddow's show helpfully
erased it from the internet:

Many now think it's a new RT invention that Russians (and their Ukrainian allies) see NATO expansion as gravely threatening. They - with US officials and scholars - were saying this for 2 decades.

From the 2015 film: *gives insight into how to negotiate an end to this war*:

After a huge backlash, @McFaul retracted these comments last night, blaming fatigue, but he's still saying he wants to see "scholarly readings" to confirm that Hitler really did murder ethnic Germans.

These are the mad bloodthirsty manics shaping your media diet on Russia:

One can't count the number of times @McFaul - with his mask dropped without a State Dept. script, on cable and social media - had to retract his mad utterances.

Last week, he declared "there are no more innocent neutral Russians anymore": from @DavidFrum's War on Terror script:

It's no coincidence that neocons are who liberals now must adore and follow. Nuland's worldview is theirs. They especially revere @DavidFrum, because the defining coercive binary he wrote for George W. Bush is now their North Star, with "terrorists" replaced by "Russians."

McFaul didn't just say *Hitler was better than Putin* because at least Hitler didn't murder ethnic Germans. He didn't just proclaim there's no such thing as an innocent Russian now. He cheered the coup in Bolivia (then deleted that, too), as well as this 2021 gem to a critic:

If you live in the West and have strong views on war in Ukraine - fine: maybe you're 100% right - but it's vital to recognize you live in a closed propaganda system. Google & FB monopolies have imposed an unprecedented censorship regime. The 2 parties & US media are in lockstep:

The more important an issue is -- and nothing is more important than a war involving the world's two largest nuclear powers -- the more crucial it is to hear challenges to the consensus. Beyond Stone's doc, this 2016 article by Lev Golinkin is essential:

thenation.com/article/archiv…

Many have been convinced it's a new RT invention to say NATO expansion is gravely threatening to Moscow, even though Russians -- and US officials and scholars -- have been saying this for 2 decades.

From the 2015 film: *vital to explore a way to end this war through diplomacy*:

The key point: apprehending the war's moral dimensions doesn't take you far. Getting red in the face, saying how much you hate Putin, how evil the invasion is, leaves unanswered the key questions: the US role, efficacy of sanctions, risks of escalation, and how to stop this war.

I'll end the thread (for now) with a reminder of what former President Barack Obama said in 2016 -- after the Russian invasion of Georgia, after Crimea, after Russian support for Eastern Ukrainian separatists -- about his view of Ukraine, Russia and the US (echoed by Trump):

For those asking, here's the link on Rumble to the 2016 Stone film on Ukraine, removed by Google from the long-standing YT page of its producers. It has a point of view, so judge it with a critical eye (like everything), but it's *very* worth watching:

rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine…

On Nov. 10, 2021, the US State Dept posted the "US-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership," the first such since 2008, when NATO membership for Ukraine was first encouraged. It reaffirmed those NATO aspirations and pledge extensive military cooperation.

state.gov/u-s-ukraine-ch…

None of that justifies the Russia invasion or even necessarily is the big factor, etc. etc. But it's certainly something Americans should know in terms of US involvement in Ukraine. Read @fbfsubstack on that document and other key events regarding the war

niccolo.substack.com/p/saturday-com…