Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
May 10, 2023 19 tweets 9 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a British politician and TV presenter, Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage ). He's best-known for his prominent role in the Brexit campaign, and for his bootlicking of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

1/24 Image
Farage joined the Conservative party at the age of 14. From early on, euroscepticism was at the core of his politics and he voted for the Green Party in 1989 due to their "sensible" policies towards the EU. He left the Conservative party in 1992 in protest to the signing...

2/24 Image
...of the Treaty on European Union, which forms the basis of the EU law. In 1993, Farage was a founding member of the Eurosceptic, right-wing populist UK Independence Party (UKIP). He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 1999, and was re-elected in...

3/24 Image
...2004, 2009, 2014. While in the EP, he exposed various political figures for their shady deals, including Jacques Barrot and the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso. He also attacked Belgian politician Herman Van Rompuy, declaring that...

4/24 Image
...he had the "charisma of a damp rag" and that he looked like "a low grade bank clerk".

In 2009, Farage boasted about using over 2 million £ of taxpayer money in staff, travel, and other expenses. In 2014 he declared 205 603 £ over ten years in gifts.

5/24 ImageImage
A senior member, Kevin Ellul Bonici, of Nigel's parliamentary EU group was known for making trips to the Russian embassy in Belgium and for organizing smear campaigns against Kremlin critics. One former staffer stated that Ellul Bonici returned from each of these...

6/24 Image
...trips with "a bootload of propaganda". Ellul Bonici was also responsible for uploading Farage clips on "many fringe sites".

Since the beginning of his political career, Farage's politics has been all about one thing and one thing only: UK leaving the EU.

7/24
He was one of the main drivers of the Brexit campaign, and was involved in both the Vote Leave and Leave.EU movements. Farage's main financial backer over the years has been businessman Arron Banks.

8/24
When Obama flew to London to "convince" Brits to stay in the EU,Farage called it a "monstrous interference".Ironically,a month later,Farage himself said in an interview with Robert Peston that if"he were an eligible US voter he would vote for Trump in the 2016 presidential..
9/24 Image
... election". Few months later he visited the Republican convention with his aide, George Cotrell, and engaged in discussions with Trump's people. Before they could leave the US, Cotrell was arrested on 21 federal counts, including fraud, money laundering and extortion.

10/24 ImageImageImageImage
In Aug 2016, Farage, his funder Arron Banks, and Andy Wigmore met with Trump at a fundraiser in Mississippi. Later they attended Trump's campaign rally, where he asked Farage to give a speech and introduced him as "Mr. Brexit".

11/24 Image
After Trump won the presidency, Farage stated that he "couldn't be happier".

In the same interview he described Obama as a "loathsome individual" and as "that Obama creature".

12/24 Image
Nigel was listed by the FBI as a person of interest in their investigation on the Russian interference in the 2016 US election due to his connections to Trump, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. One source claimed that "he's right in the middle of these relationships.

13/24 Image
He turns up over and over again. There's a lot of attention being paid to him." Farage had met with Assange and his lawyers, and Assange and his lawyer were even given an opportunity to contribute to the speeches given by the UKIP. In return, UKIP organized people...

14/24 Image
...for a pro-Assange demonstration in London. Documentarian Daniel DiMauro said that Farage had a dinner with Roger Stone and Alex Jones. In Oct 2017, Farage was attending a discussion on LBC radio station where one of the callers suggested that the pro-Israeli lobby in..

15/24 ImageImage
...the US was equally dangerous to the Russian interference in the US politics. Farage called it a "reasonable point", and stated that "there are about 6 million Jewish people living in America, so as a percentage it's quite small, but in terms of influence it's quite big".
16/24 Image
Farage has also appeared alongside conspiracy theorists from LaRouche movement and InfoWars, and shared content from Pizzagate promoter and serial liar Jack Posobiec. He has also described George Soros as "the biggest danger to the entire western world".

17/24 Image
After his Brexit Party didn't gain any seats in the 2019 UK general election, Nigel traveled yet again overseas to work as a warm-up speaker for Trump in his 2020 campaign. In 2021 he did a six-week tour in the US, where he addressed Republican audiences across the country. 18/24 Image
Farage has also suggested that the UK should work more closely with Putin, and that "on this bigger overall battle we need to start recognizing we’re on the same side". If the "same side" he's referring to means that we have to conduct chemical attacks on children and...

19/24 Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Pekka Kallioniemi

Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @P_Kallioniemi

Apr 4
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll introduce a Russian ultra-nationalist propagandist and “philosopher”, Aleksandr Dugin. He’s best-known for his blueprint on Russia’s geopolitical strategy and for his genocidal rhetoric towards Ukrainians.

1/17 Image
In my first Dugin Soup, I covered the man’s 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics — a manual for dismantling the West, breaking up NATO, and building a Russian-led empire. In it, he makes eerie “predictions” that seem to be playing out today.

2/17 Image
Image
Image
Dugin called for destabilizing the US by exacerbating internal divisions. Fast forward to today: culture wars, conspiracy theories, far-right lunatics, and social media algorithms doing half the work for him.

3/17 Image
Image
Image
Read 18 tweets
Apr 3
Tariffs memes are the hottest thing right now, so post your favorites👇🏻 Image
Image
Image
Read 5 tweets
Apr 1
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce Russian propagandist Sergei Tsaulin. He’s best-known for spreading pro-Kremlin narratives in Estonia, fleeing to Russia after breaking several laws in Estonia, and almost getting blown up by a bomb in St. Petersburg.

1/17 Image
For years, Tsaulin was known for organizing marches and events glorifying the Soviet Union. Under the excuse of “remembering history,” these events were nothing more than Kremlin propaganda, wrapped in a red flag with a hammer and sickle.

2/17 Image
One of his most infamous events was the “Immortal Regiment” march, held every 9th of May, where people carried portraits of Soviet soldiers. These marches are used by Russia to push the idea that the Baltics owe their existence to the Soviets.

3/17 Image
Read 18 tweets
Mar 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a podcaster and conspiracy theorist, Joe Rogan (@joerogan). He’s best-known for launching the biggest podcast in the world, promoting various conspiracy theories, his support for Donald Trump and his anti-Ukraine rhetoric.

1/22 Image
Joe Rogan started as a stand-up comedian in the 1980s, found fame on NewsRadio, and became a household name with Fear Factor. But his biggest impact came in 2009 when he launched The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), one of the first major podcasts.

2/22 Image
Image
Image
JRE started as casual but deep conversations, often covering countercultural topics like psychedelics, MMA & hunting. Joe’s podcasting style is largely non-confrontational, often allowing his guests to share their views without significant pushback or critical questioning.

3/22 Image
Image
Image
Image
Read 23 tweets
Mar 27
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce KOOS party leader and Estonian crypto businessman Oleg Ivanov. He’s best known for running shady businesses, spreading Russian false narratives in Estonia, and participating in the pro-Kremlin political party KOOS.

1/18 Image
As a talented youngster, Oleg learned Estonian almost flawlessly, was a promising karate athlete, and landed a job at a law firm at just 20. He caught the eye of Estonian fuel entrepreneur Endel Siff, who quickly took him under his wing.

2/18 Image
Oleg’s father, Vladimir Ivanov, was a longtime politician from the Russian-funded United People’s Party of Estonia. His career at the town hall ended abruptly when he was caught drunk at work. After that, he went into business with his son, Oleg.

3/18 Image
Read 19 tweets
Mar 26
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about the takeover of social media by illiberal, populist influencers. For the last ten years, social media has been dominated by these voices and it is one of the main reasons for the political rise of people like Trump and Orban.

1/25 Image
“Illiberal populists” like Trump reject democratic norms while claiming to speak for “the people.” They centralize power, attack institutions, and push nationalism over rights. Elections exist, but checks & balances erode. This is democracy in name, autocracy in action.

2/25 Image
The media landscape has changed drastically over the past two decades. The Internet and social media have changed how we interact online & how we consume media,but it has also become our main source of news. In many ways,social media companies have control over information.

3/25 Image
Image
Image
Read 26 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(