Today is Childermas.

It sounds like a horror-film version of Christmas—and, in a way, it is.

Every December 28, this day marks a chilling history woven through the ages—from Biblical times to the Blitz and beyond—echoed by some of the most powerful voices of all time.

What is it? Let’s take a look and listen ⤵️ One of the most famous Christmas carols commemorates this day: The Coventry Carol, written in 16th-century England.

It’s been sung by Sufjan Stevens, the King’s College Choir, Alison Krauss, Annie Lennox, and John Denver. Here's a version by Irish group Anúna.

But for a Christmas song… why is it so damn sad? ⤵️

Four polarizing Americans, by attaching themselves to the Ukraine story, have spurred many Americans to oppose Ukraine.

Well, let me show you three shocking little revelations that will change how you see it all. 🧵 next ⤵️ Victoria Nuland: Let Them Eat Cookies

Photos of State Department official Victoria Nuland handing out cookies during Ukraine's 2014 Maidan Revolution became a symbol of America's failed meddling in other countries. The fact that her in-laws, the Kagans, are part of the American philosophical war machine doesn't help the picture.

And so many people readily believe the Kremlin story that this one cookie-lady orchestrated an entire revolution that resulted in the regime fleeing, the police collapsing, and a rejuvenation of local democracy and ancient language.

But here's the truth: Victoria Nuland was not fueling a revolution—she was trying to stop it.

Yes, if you look close at that famous leaked call in which Nuland and another American official are talking about who they want to be in the Ukrainian government, you'll see that see was working to make a deal with the hated Yanukovych regime.

In the end, Ukrainians rejected the deal that Nuland and EU bureaucrats were creating with the corrupt pro-Kremlin government.

If Nuland truly cared about Ukraine, she'd drop the Main Character Syndrome and admit she failed to halt the revolution. next ⤵️

Elon Musk said this week ⤵️ that there are "good questions" to be asked about Burisma. I agree! And there’s one good question no one is asking:

❓Why does everyone—from the leftwing BBC to rightwing Tucker Carlson—call Burisma Ukrainian when it’s actually Russian?

Burisma is Russian?! No way, you say. Yup, it sure is. Hang onto your butts—here’s the reality: 🧵 Burisma. That one word reeks of corruption, insider deals, and everything Americans rightly hate about Washington. elites. As such, 'Burisma' has become a one-word argument against support for Ukraine.

The story goes: Hunter Biden made beaucoup bucks from Burisma, which the media calls “Ukrainian,” so of course that's why Joe Biden is sending money to Ukraine! Aha!

But what if Burisma is the key to Biden's disastrous policy of not letting Ukraine win?

Let’s rewind to 2014 ...

1/ Watch this clip from Lviv, Ukraine: a bar filled with people singing vibrant carols about the birth of Christ.
This is commonplace in Lviv, but you’d be hard-pressed to find such a spontaneous scene anywhere else in our modern world—and definitely not in Russia.
Here’s the story of Russia's war on Christmas: 👇 2/ Did you know Russia is one of the most godless nations on earth? Since Bolshevik and Soviet days, most Russians have celebrated New Year’s instead of Christmas.

That’s right—Christmas has long been cancelled in Russia. For awhile, this attitude affected parts of Ukraine, too. ...

Yes, @ScottAdamsSays, greetings from Kyiv, and thanks for asking what I've observed about drones here in Ukraine.

You’re probably right about those drones over New Jersey: It's the US preparing. But drones aren’t the future of warfare. They’re the foundation of it now.

Ukraine proves it every day.

The U.S.? It’s missing out—bigly. Here’s what I’ve seen: drones built in garages that outperform $1M U.S. models—and a nation innovating faster than the Pentagon can even imagine.

Let me explain. 🧵 Here’s the reality:

95%+ of U.S. drones fail in Ukraine. They can’t handle:

–Jamming
—GPS denial
—Electronic warfare

A U.S. CEO of a successful defense startup told me he was shocked to learn that daily battlefield adjustments are needed to avoid jamming. It sounds too exhausting to Americans ...

I have broadcast live from Ukraine every weekday for 1,027 days of war on Chicago's @wgnradio—the only reporter anywhere to do so. Here are the ten crucial lessons I’ve learned about media, life, war, and resilience. 🧵

📸 Photo: Nikopol ("City of Victory"), 2022—across the water from the Russian invaders. That's me on right. First, a quick background: In February 2022, I was in Ukraine, having stayed through the pandemic because I found this to be a wonderfully free country. They had broken the Soviet chains of oppression.

In the lead-up to the full-scale invasion, I reported on various U.S. media. Only Chicago's WGN Radio invited me back the Monday after.

"You were the only person saying Ukraine would not fall in three days," morning host Bob Sirott said live on-air. "We thought you were crazy. You were right. So now, we’re going to have you on every day.”

🎯 Three huge differences between Russian and Ukrainian culture, as revealed in their languages.

“A different language is a different vision of life,” said legendary filmmaker Federico Fellini.

At university, I immersed myself in Russian literature. Now, reporting live from Ukraine on American radio, I see firsthand how these identities differ—and it’s profound.

This video offers a quick overview, but the thread below dives deeper—and it might just change how you see this war. From my perspective, it's a clash of two polar opposite worldviews: two visions of how societies can be built.

Read on 🧵 ⤵️ 1️⃣ Victory

For Ukrainians, victory is перемога (peremoha), meaning "beyond ability." It’s about doing the impossible, like an Olympian feat. Hell, victory feels impossible at times, but you keep going, overcome barriers, and find new possibilities. This is exactly what I see Ukrainians doing with Russia's "red lines."

In Russian, victory is победа (pobeda), meaning "after misery." Victory is just surviving suffering. Imagine how this mindset shapes everything else.

Imagine the difference in toasting "after misery" verses "beyond our abilities!"

🎯 I’m an American reporting daily from Ukraine on Chicago’s WGN Radio.

I’ve lived—and escaped—the heart of the Neocon, Paleocon, and Fox News worlds in DC and Austin. I learned the art of communication from the man who helped elect Nixon, Reagan, and H.W. Bush.

But after fleeing Fox News—literally, in a car chase—I rejected the deep state’s manipulation of our politics.

That’s why I understand exactly why many Americans—especially those close to Trump—hesitate to support Ukraine.

What I’m about to share is the Kremlin’s worst nightmare. Save this thread to understand.

💡 Rule #1 of informational war club: Don’t whine about propaganda. Dig into its roots—because the best propaganda always exploits real, justified emotions. There are five myths that turn Americans against Ukraine.

These myths persist because the Kremlin is smart. Moscow anchors its arguments in issues Americans genuinely and rightly care about.

But here’s the twist: Ukraine is actually the key to solving many of the problems these myths exploit. Let’s break it down:

Drip Feeding Weapons is Part of the US Strategy to Slowly Lose the War: That's my contention from Kyiv in this conversation with Jonathan Fink of the UK's @CurtainSilicon podcast. Here's the situation: The Biden White House has given Russia a safe zone, preventing Ukraine from effectively attacking Russian bases, allowing Russia to launch bombs with impunity.

Today President Biden said, naw, Ukraine doesn’t really need to be in Nato. But in a recent conversation with the @CurtainSilicon podcast, Garry Kasparov, @Kasparov63, elite world chess grandmaster, said Ukraine is actually doing what Nato was designed to: protect free Europe from Russian authoritarianism.

Kasparov is one of the few Russian dissidents who believes in victory for Ukraine, so let's take a look at his arguments. In the last post of the thread, you can find a 90-second reel of his Silicon Curtain talk. 1/9: First, Kasparov acknowledges that sometimes Europeans have grown frustrated with Ukrainians, especially, say, Polish farmers, who for many months blocked Ukrainian grain trucks.

“I just want to remind you,” Kasparov says to those protestors, “that you had two choices: Ukrainian trucks with this grain that you hate or Russian tanks on your border. … [Ukrainians] saved your asses.”

Is Washington afraid of free people being armed?

Since 1991, both Republicans and Democrats have worked either to keep Ukraine in Moscow's grip or, barring that, to de-arm the Ukrainians.

DC politicians wave the Ukrainian flags. But is this to cover up their true intentions?

full video linked in comments, followed by a step by step text explanation! I welcome corrections and further insights. 1/18 Here's a History of Washington Elites United Against Free Ukraine | 2 of 18

I've been through some strange events in my life. There's the weird but funny stuff, like a weekend spent at Chuck Norris's house with no food. There's my car-chase escape from NewsCorp. There's three years working for an eccentric billionaire, or the one year traveling America in the former Allman Brothers tour bus as manager of a Irish-Ukrainian rock band.

But these past two years, I've been living in war, here in Ukraine, a country I first appreciated during the pandemic. Thanks to @WGNRadio for giving me 10 minutes every single weekday to report from Ukraine. Thanks to our donors for helping us bring drones, truckers, and more to the front. Thanks to @pravda_eng for our new podcast Land of the Free.

It's been a helluva week with brutal Russian attacks from Kharkiv--destroying among other things my regular coffeeshop--to Lviv, where drones and rockets fell around days ago. But even then the Ukrainians keep signing the songs of this Christmas season. Together everyone here gives each other strength.

Here's a brief look at some moments from the past two years, because years don't matter for me now. It's still February 24.

Joe Lindsley
Ukrainian Freedom News In June, the Russians destroyed the Nova Kakhova dam on the Dnipro River, killing many, perhaps stalling Ukraine's counteroffensive, and destroying the environment for decades. Many in the region still do not have running water.

These photos are from Nikopol, a city on the Kakhovka resovoir. I first visited in July 2022. We could see the russian occupants across the water, where they were ensconced in the largest nuclear plant in Europe. With brave volunteers including an American veteran chef and musicians from Ohio, we held a festival for local volunteers, soldiers, children, dancing and singing in the face of the Russians.

Weeks later the Russians began a nightly and daily bombardment of Nikopol that has continued for 18 months. And when the Russians destroyed the dam, most of that water you see behind us vanished, flooding villages and farms.

War Day 335: Fighting tyranny, with songs, jokes, and tanks… my report from #Ukraine given every weekday since February on Chicago’s @WGNRadio … 🧵 #SuzanneVega made a haunting song about #Mariupol. Some people scoff at celebrity tributes to Ukraine but here is why it matters to Ukrainians:

Although the political class might wear the Ukraine colours, they do not necessarily want Ukraine to win swiftly. Consider the impasse over tanks, with both Berlin and Washington seemingly reluctant to send offensive weapons. ... I encourage the #Davos Blob-sceptics to look more closely at Ukraine. Remember: In 2014, Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity did something more extraordinary than the Ottawa Truckers or the Dutch farmers. ...