In today's #vatnik soup we'll travel back to Ireland, and get to a know an Irish politician and a MEP, Clare Daly. She strongly aligns herself with another Irish MEP, Mick Wallace. Like Wallace, Daly spends most of her energy appeasing Russia and China and criticizing the US.1/11
After several attempts, she was finally elected to Dáil Éireann in 2011 general election. In 2012, she was accused of misusing travel funds. In the same year, she refused to call for the resignation of her political ally, Mick Wallace.
2/11
Wallace's company forgot to pay 2,1 million EUR in VAT. After the incident, she resigned from the Socialist Party. After leaving, she requested a share of her old party's allowance so that she can fund her activities as an independent MP.
3/11
In Jun, 2013, after the G8 summit, she accused the Irish government of "prostituting" the country to US and Obama. She also called Obama a hypocrite and a war criminal for wanting to supply weapons for the Syrian rebels.
4/11
In 2019, Daly was elected as a MEP for the European Parliament. Soon after Daly was accused of nepotism for hiring her former husband as her assistant, forbidden by the rules of the European Parliament. He had previously also employed Mick Wallace's son.
5/11
In Sep, 2020, Daly's parliamentary assistant accused her of mistreatment and - ironically - having "no respect for workers' rights".
In Apr, 2021, Daly and Wallace visited the HQ of Iran-backed militia group Popular Mobilization Forces.
6/11
In Jun, 2021, Daly and Wallace travelled to work as unofficial election monitors in Venezuelan parliamentary election and Ecuadorian general election, without a mandate or permission from the EU.
7/11
When it comes to Russia, Daly's been busy. Daly and Wallace attempted to remove parts from the EP's report on MH17. She's attended protests supporting Algirdas Paleckis, a politician who was spying for Russia in Lithuania.
8/11
In Jan, 2022, Clare said that the Russian troops on the Ukrainian border were "clearly defensive". She also said that there is "no evidence that Russia has any desire to invade Ukraine".
9/11
She has voted against pretty much every pro-Ukraine vote in the European Parliament,including the declaration of Russia as a terrorist state. Her speeches are filled with whataboutism and accusations of "US imperalism". She's also spouted the regular "proxy war" accusations.10/11
Daly's also been featured a lot in Chinese state-sponsored TV, and she's been featured in more Chinese-language news articles than any other Irish person, with Mick Wallace coming in close second. In these interviews, she often praises China and Chinese politics.
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.
1/5
The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.
These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").
2/5
Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.
1/21
Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.
2/21
Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.
1/21
Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.
2/21
Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.
1/15
Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.
The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.
2/15
The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model: