In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American politician and political commentator, Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard). She's best-known for blaming absolutely everything on the US Democrats and NATO, and for being a fan of totalitarian regimes like Russia and Syria.
1/19
Tulsi was raised up in accordance with the teachings of the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), a religious group described as secretive and abusive cult. Former member has described SIF as "virulently homophobic, often anti-Islamic and misogynist" where its founder,...
2/19
Chris Butler, is "considered to be akin to a God". Gabbard became politically active at a relatively young age, and she was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives when she was 21. She was in a field medical unit and was deployed to Iraq between 2004 and 2005 and...
3/19
...was stationed in Kuwait between 2008 and 2009 as a platoon leader. While in Congress, she was a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) between 2013 and 2016. She later resigned to endorse Bernie Sanders' campaign for the 2016 US presidential election.
4/19
While in Congress, she was a staunch critic of Barack Obama for refusing to admit that the real enemy of the US is actually radical Islam and Islamic extremism, often appearing on Fox News to comment on the issue. Since she started criticizing Obama and picking fights...
5/19
...inside the Democratic Party, she's been praised more by the people like Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson than the Democrats. Gabbard ran for US presidency in the 2020 election. Hillary Clinton described Tulsi as "the favorite of the Russians," and that she was being...
6/19
..."groomed" by the Republicans for the candidacy. Gabbard filed a defamation lawsuit against Clinton, but dropped it five months later. Interestingly, Tulsi used the same law firm that represented Rudy Giuliani and George Papadopoulos during the investigation into the...
7/19
...Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Gabbard was also endorsed by former KKK boss David Duke, and neo-Nazi and conspiracy theorist Richard B. Spencer. After dropping out of the race, she endorsed Joe Biden.
8/19
Gabbard has criticized the "neoliberal/neoconservative war machine", stating that the money the US uses for wars should be used for other stuff, like war against (Islamic) terrorism. Some (well, me) have speculated that this harsh stance against Islam might stem from her...
9/19
...upbringing in a anti-Islamic cult.
Tulsi visited Syria in 2017 in a "fact-finding mission". She had two "unplanned" meetings with Syrian totalitarian leader Bashar al-Assad. Later she expressed skepticism about the Khan Shaykhun chemical attacks, and voted against...
10/19
...condemning the Syrian government for "war crimes and crimes against humanity". OPCW-led investigation later attributed the Khan Shaykhun attack to al-Assad's forces. She also refused to say who paid for her trip to Syria. Gabbard's trip to have a chat with al-Assad...
11/19
..was later praised by our favorite weapons inspector/chatroom-enjoyer, Scott Ritter.
When it comes to Ukraine, Gabbard parrots the same Kremlin narrative: the US and NATO provoked Putin to attack Ukraine, peace negotiations are needed (after Putin got what he wanted, ...
12/19
...as is tradition) to prevent nuclear war, it's a "proxy war" between US and Russia, and sanctions are hurting the West and not Russia. She also blames the "elite cabal of warmongers" for the war. She's said that the war could've been prevented by declaring that Ukraine...
13/19
...can't join NATO, but as those who have read Putin's 2022 essay, "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", it was never about NATO but Putin's obsession over Ukraine being part of Russia. In a recent keynote speech, she also praised the Durham report, ....
14/19
stating that the Russian collusion in the 2016 election was a "manufactured hoax".
She was also one of the speakers at the "antiwar" event Rage Against the War Machine in Feb 2023.
15/19
Tulsi has been careful about commenting on the atrocities and the ongoing genocide, and I couldn't find any mention of Bucha, Izium, Kherson, Donbas, Crimea,etc. I guess she wants to be careful and just defame Biden & the Democrats and disregard the complexity of war crimes.16/19
Gabbard left the Democratic Party in Oct 2022, blaming its leadership for "cowardly wokeness, anti-white racism, (being) hostile to people of faith and spirituality, and dragging us closer to nuclear war". After this, she signed a deal with Fox News and started working...
17/19
...as a paid contributor for the network. She also endorsed several Republican candidates for Senate, including J.D. Vance who has said that he doesn't "care what happens to Ukraine".
18/19
Some have speculated that she'd be a running mate for Donald Trump in the 2024 US presidential election. This would make sense, since these days Gabbard is speaking like any MAGA member would, condemning the "woke mind virus", and outright refusing to condemn Russia's war.
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: