In today's #vatniksoup I'll introduce an American politician, lawyer and Florida Man, Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz). He's best-known as the US representative for the Republican Party, being a close ally of Donald Trump, and for voting against any aid for Ukraine.
1/23
Gaetz is a lawyer by profession. He earned his Juris Doctor from the William & Mary Law School in 2007, and was admitted to the Florida Bar in Feb, 2008. In Oct, 2021, he was suspended from practicing law in Florida due to unpaid fees.
2/23
During his career in politics, Gaetz has promoted several white nationalist figures.
In Jan, 2018, Matt invited holocaust-denier ("I agree with David Cole about Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real", as he put it) Charles C. Johnson to attend Trump's State of ...
3/23
the Union address. Johnson is known for raising money for the neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer, and being banned from Twitter after asking money to take out BLM figure DeRay Mckesson.
In 2018 and 2020 he attended political rallies with members of the Proud Boys, a ...
4/23
...far-right organization designated as terrorist group in Canada and in New Zealand.
In 2021 he toured with Marjorie Taylor Greene in their nationwide "America First Tour". The tour was all about the "stolen election" of 2020, and they went as far as saying that...
5/23
..the 2nd Amendment was for "maintaining,within the citizenry,the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government,if that becomes necessary."
In Feb,2023,Gaetz invited an accused murderer Corey Ryan Beekman to lead a pledge of allegiance at a judiciary hearing.
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In Apr, 2020, he spent almost 200 000 USD of taxpayer money to rent an office from his campaign donor and real estate developer friend, Collier Merrill. He paid below-market rent for the space.
7/23
In the same year he spent tens of thousand of dollars for speech-writing consultation, which is prohibited by the House rules. His office claimed that it was a "clerical error".
In Feb, 2021, Matt and many other Republicans skipped voting and enlisted other people to...
8/23
...vote for them while citing on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The real reason why they couldn't vote was because they were attending the Conservative Political Action Conference.
So, like most politicians, Gaetz could be described as a pathological liar.
9/23
As is tradition with US politics, Gaetz diminishes politics into "Us vs Them" rhetoric, and his main pet peeve is "antifa". He's called for "patriots" to defend America against the "mob" (meaning antifa) who is trying to "destroy America".
10/23
During the nationwide BLM protests, Gaetz tweeted, "Now that we clearly see antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?" He blamed antifa for the US Capitol attack, suggesting that they were "masquerading as Trump supporters".
11/23
Incidentally, Joel Valdez, Gaetz's senior communications aide was heavily involved in live reporting of the Capitol attack.
12/23
In 2020 Gaetz got caught in the middle of a sex trafficking investigation, when his old pal, tax collector Joel Greenberg was indicted on sex trafficking a 17-year old girl and creating fake ID's to facilitate his sex trafficking activities.
13/23
This led the investigators to look into Gaetz's activities, and later that year the Justice Dept. opened its investigation of Gaetz for allegedly sex trafficking the same 17-year-old girl.
Greenberg had written a confession letter in 2021 that said he and Gaetz paid to...
14/23
...have sex with multiple women, including said 17-year-old. Venmo transactions showed that Matt had transferred 900 USD to Greenberg which was then send to three young women the next day. Greenberg's confession letters also stated that Gaetz had allegedly asked him to ...
15/23
..."hook up with college students" on a regular basis. The same investigation also revealed that Gaetz had snorted cocaine at a party with an escort who was hired with taxpayer money for a "no show" job at the Florida county office.
16/23
Matt and his pals also made a trip to Bahamas in 2018. During the trip they hung out with many young women and also allegedly paid for sex with them.
17/23
Matt ultimately evaded the charges in sex trafficking probe, and was not charged of these crimes despite the overwhelming evidence. Prior, Gaetz had even asked privately Trump for a blanket pardon for all of his and some of his unknown associates crimes.
18/23
Trump denied that Gaetz had asked him for a pardon, but a day later it was revealed that he had reportedly wanted to defend Matt, but his advisors talked him out of it because of seriousness of the allegations.
19/23
Greenberg also tried to get a pardon from Trump through a political consultant, Roger Stone, but was ultimately sentenced to 11 years in prison.
When it comes to Russo-Ukrainian War, Matt has clearly picked a side: in Feb, 2023,he, along with 10 other Republican members,..
20/23
...introduced a "Ukraine Fatigue" bill. The bill would formally call for and end to all aid from US to Ukraine. Before this, he's voted against every bill that has been either for support of Ukraine or for condemnation of Russia's actions.
21/23
In Feb, 2023, Gaetz referred to an article published by a known Chinese-state controlled media, Global Times, suggesting that the "Azov Battallion had access to US weapons since 2018".
22/23
The under secretary of defense for policy, Colin Kahl, replied that "as a general matter, I don't take Beijing's propaganda at face value".
Lauren Boebert wants Trump to pick Matt as his running mate, which - as scary as it sounds - wouldn't be a big surprise.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.
1/20
On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.
2/20
What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.
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: