In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American politician, Angela McArdle (@angela4LNCChair). She's best-known for turning the US Libertarian Party into a wing of MAGA Republicans, and for promoting pro-Kremlin narratives about the Russo-Ukrainian War.
1/20
McArdle received her Bachelor's from the evangelical Christian university Biola in 2009 and paralegal certificate through the UCLA extension progam in 2013. She's also trained as a craniosacral therapist through the Upledger Institute.
2/20
She started her political career as the Libertarian nominee in the 2017 California's 34th congressional district special election, finishing the primary with 0,8% of the total vote. A few years later, she had gained popularity within the Libertarian Party,...
3/20
... and was elected as the Chair of the LNC at the 2022 Libertarian National Convention in 2022. She was endorsed by the highly controversial Mises Caucus, a caucus (technically not even a caucus but a PAC) promoting what's called "paleolibertarianism".
4/20
Paleolibertarianism is a strategy that tries to unite libertarians with paleoconservatives. The latter group promotes ideas such as American nationalism, Christian ethics and traditional values, and it overlaps heavily with other right-wing populist movements.
5/20
As the Mises Caucus also won all the leadership positions in the LNC in 2022, they basically took over the whole Libertarian Party, creating an "anti-woke" and conspiratorial group that at this point is basically just an extension of the MAGA Republicans.
6/20
McArdle, together with Nick Brana, Chair of the People’s Party, organized an "antiwar event" called "Rage Against the War Machine" in Washington DC in Feb 2023. Speakers at the event came from the fringes of the conspiratorial extreme left and right of the horseshoe.
7/20
McArdle and other organizers also published a "list of demands", calling for an end of all aid to Ukraine, peace negotiations, disbanding of NATO, abolishment of CIA and "military-industrial deep state", and slashing of the Pentagon budget.
8/20
Some of the speakers at the event include The Grayzone grifter Max Blumenthal, grifter Jackson Hinkle, and Moscow-exile Tara Reade. Convicted pedophile Scott Ritter and CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin were also supposed to speak at the event but cancelled due to protests.
9/20
There was actually so much pushback and criticism, that the Libertarian Party had to publish a statement, in which they asked the twice-convicted pedophile Scott Ritter to "stay home" due to his criminal past and Ritter declaring that "he's not anti-war".
10/20
The same gang tried to organize a similar event titled "Defeat the Deep State" in 2024, but at this point nobody gave a shit and the event was first postponed, and finally cancelled. The speaker lineup was extremely sad, and Angela herself was promoted as the key speaker.
11/20
Angela also strongly promotes the "Great Reset" conspiracy theory, which claims that "global elites" are trying to enslave people by creating a "social credit system" à la the CCP. This theory is also closely related to the "conservative Russia" vs. "decadent West" trope.
12/20
She also writes op-eds for Newsweek. In Jun 2023,the paper published her opinion titled "No, Russia Is Not Committing Genocide in Ukraine". In it,she argued that we shouldn't blame Putin for genocide because the US has also killed civilians in countries like Iraq & Vietnam.
13/20
In her article, Angela also conveniently forgets to mention that the Kremlin has abducted hundreds of thousands of children to Russia, only to brainwash them into believers of their fascist regime. More on the topic here:
Remember when I said that the LP has basically become an extension of MAGA Republicans? In May 2024,it was announced that Donald Trump would headline their yearly convention. Apparently this was protested by some party members, which McArdle called "a small, noisy faction".
15/20
And McArdle isn't hiding her admiration of Trump - she recently told podcaster Austin Petersen that "Donald Trump is a much better person and president than Joe Biden." McArdle later stated that she had extended an invitation to Joe Biden, RFK Jr. and rap artist Afroman.
16/20
The biggest draw of this bunch is of course Afroman, but another interesting addition is RFK Jr. - an antivaxx conspiracy theorist who's often spread pro-Kremlin narratives like the "genocide in Donbas" and "US-orchestrated coup" about Ukraine:
Under the guise of an "antiwar" stance, the hijacked Libertarian Party has been spreading extremely anti-Ukraine memes, even comparing Zelenskyy to Hitler. @LPNH even claimed that "Zelensky is a bigger threat to humanity than Putin is."
Dear God.
18/20
McArdle's and Mises Caucus' antics have scared away many party members and party donors and some old members have started a new party, Liberal Party USA. On her Substack,Angela has stated that once she reaches 2k/month support through crowdfunding,she'll chair LP full time.
19/20
To conclude, Angela McArdle is a MAGA Republican masquerading as an "antiwar libertarian". Her views have nothing to do with traditional libertarianism, and @GrandTurion has even popularized a term for this type of actors - Kremlintarians:
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the Wagner Group, its founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, and the mutiny they started on 23 Jun 2023. The event marked the climax of the Wagner Group–Russian MoD conflict, and finally led to the deaths of Prigozhin and Utkin.
1/22
Wagner has been used in many conflicts around the world, but they came to global prominence during the war in Donbas in 2014-2015. Wagnerites helped the Donbas separatists fight against the Ukrainians during the conflict, which helped Putin to “outsource” the insurrection.
2/22
The group doesn’t have any central ideology, but many of its members and leaders have ties to various neo—Nazi movements in Russia. For example, Wagner leader Dmitry Utkin had several Nazi symbols tattooed on his body. Neo—nazi group Rusich has also fights as part of Wagner.
3/22
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an Amsterdam-based propaganda channel, Bonanza Media (@bonanzamedia2). It’s best-known for producing & spreading online pro-Kremlin propaganda videos while closely coordinating & collaborating with the Russian intelligence agency GRU.
1/19
Russian intelligence has been extremely active in the Netherlands for a long time. For example in 2018, four GRU agents were caught while trying to hack into OPCW,an organization that monitors the use of chemical weapons. In addition, the International Criminal Court (ICC)…
2/19
…and the MH17 investigation have become targets for the Russian intelligence and propaganda operations. These operations are often complemented with “investigative journalism” media outlets, that often echo the Kremlin’s propaganda and disinformation.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll talk about the recent EU elections and what are their implications for both the Kremlin and Ukraine. Right-wing political parties, some pro-Kremlin, won a lot of seats around Europe, and this result can also change the EU’s stance on Ukraine.
1/19
But before we start, I want to promote a truck fundraiser I'm doing together with the fantastic @ArturRehi and @69thSB.
Our goal is 20 000 USD, and you can contribute to this important fundraiser here:
EU’s support of Ukraine is essential for their survival against genocidal Russia. So far,this support has been delayed mostly by Orban’s Hungary (& to some degree, Fico’s Slovakia). Now, this support will probably be challenged by many new members of the European Parliament.
3/19
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss a specific propaganda/disinformation that the Kremlin likes to use – antisemitism. I also talk about how the Russian society itself has become riddled with antisemitism & how this has led to a decrease in Jewish population in the country.
1/19
Russian antisemitism works on many levels, and their narratives vary depending whether they’re targeting a local audience or people in Europe and the US. For example for the latter, Russia attempts to create a false narrative of Ukraine being an antisemitic “Nazi state”.
2/19
But before diving deeper, let’s look at a survey data of Russians in 2023: Nearly 30 million Russians harbour antisemitic attitudes, and 15% of those surveyed believed that “Jews were responsible for most of the world’s wars.” 38% think that the Jews have...
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian media personality and propagandist, Diana Panchenko (@Panchenko_X). She’s best-known for betraying her own country by peddling anti-Zelenskyy and anti-Ukraine propaganda and disinformation for the Kremlin.
1/22
Panchenko was born in 1988 in the Mykolaev Oblast in Ukrainian SSR in 1988. She studied publishing and editing at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and later graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree in law.
2/22
After graduating, Diana worked briefly for the news site . Between 2010 and 2015, Panchenko was a presenter for KyivTV, but she found her true calling as a pro-Kremlin propagandist after she was hired by a national “news channel” called NewsOne.