Minus Western propaganda what's the real story on the Ukraine?

[Andrew Walker]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/0...nship-00206879

[Random Rooster]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/0...nship-00206879

I read yours....make sure you read mine!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2692244.html

[Andrew Walker]

I read yours....make sure you read mine!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2692244.html

People’s opinions are certainly divisive of her

[Random Rooster]

People’s opinions are certainly divisive of her

she has always been popular in Russia....even when she was a democrat

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2048584.html

[King Salvo]

Old mate Menadue’s been clinging to relevance like a VHS in a Netflix world. Once shuffled around the upper tiers of government because no one could quite work with him or sack him, he’s now reinvented himself as some kind of elder statesman of foreign affairs — despite having been out of any serious strategic role since before most voters were born.

Let’s be real: he was never a foreign policy heavyweight, and even his bureaucratic career ended in a polite dumping to Qantas — not as a promotion, but because privatisation made his role redundant and nobody wanted to deal with the dead weight. His legacy? We literally changed the rules to stop long-term mandarins like him from hanging around out of sheer inertia.

Now? He’s running Pearls and Irritations, a glorified Substack blog wrapped in delusions of policy influence. It’s a who’s-who of washed-up apparatchiks and fringe academics claiming “senior fellowships” at Chinese and Russian “think tanks” that don’t have campuses, students, staff, or even working websites. They’re Potemkin institutions — empty shells that exist solely to give their contributors a fake sense of legitimacy while they launder soft power narratives into Western discourse.

Menadue’s commentary increasingly mirrors CCP and Kremlin talking points — all while pretending it’s some brave counter-current to groupthink. In reality, it’s just the same tired contrarianism dressed up in foreign influence cosplay.

This isn’t thoughtful dissent. It’s boomer nostalgia for a relevance long gone — and the only “seat at the table” he’s got is the one he dragged into the echo chamber himself.

Not sure that Liber Paddo is aware that Menadue was the General Manager of News Limited in Australia - Rupert Murdoch 's media conglomerate.

Menadue was from the old days of the SES ( Senior Executive Service) where they couldn't be sacked and were just moved onto other departments - nowadays they are on contracts and can be terminated at any time especially if a Minister loses confidence in them/ bad press or there is a change of Government as a lot of the appointments are political appointments.

[Paddo Colt 61]

I read yours....make sure you read mine!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2692244.html

I know little about Tulsi but, on the face of it, her comments and positions seem no more than serious reflections and examinations of egregious US propaganda. You, Randy, prefer the later - easy to understand and consistent with all that has gone on since WW2 - "don't worry, the US is the good guy no matter how things might look. Those others are the problem".

"How do you know that it was Assad or Russia...?" seems eminently reasonable to me though it was clearly bad taste to question an obvious propaganda exercise. Probing questions are not treasonous. Oh, I know, those poor little girls. Playing on emotions to denigrate an asker of awkward questions is a well worn tactic. Our msm does it all the time to discredit unpalatable opinions. In this case confusing little girls negates anything else that might have been said.

* Iz's word tsunami does nothing more than illustrate that same kind of obscurantist desperation. It's "Hey, we already know the "truth" of things from our MSM and here is a contrarian publication which questions all of that truth. How dare they! Here we are, all settled on issues (let's ignore the fact that our msm is right wing) and this fake achiever Menadue comes along and upsets the apple cart - appalling!!" .

Iz is an ordinary fella though, admittedly, he has contacts and friends in high places internationally and that sort of association makes his opinions almost unassailable, but when all is said and done, he is, like all of us , powerless - a pawn in the game as Dylan put it, yet committed to the interests of a world hegemon with a startling history of power abuse. It's like that significant addled element in our electorate that, even in the poorest socio - economic areas, vote Tory. They prefer to believe sources like Sky and the broader Murdoch media over the evidence of their own eyes.

[Random Rooster]

I know little about Tulsi but, on the face of it, her comments and positions seem no more than serious reflections and examinations of egregious US propaganda. You, Randy, prefer the later - easy to understand and consistent with all that has gone on since WW2 - "don't worry, the US is the good guy no matter how things might look. Those others are the problem".

Yeah i'm really pro USA....it's easy to see in all my posts in the "off topic" section.

Try responding to the post i did directly responding to your post, because the "easy to understand and consistent with all that has gone on since WW2" jibe just tells me that your argument has run dry.

[Paddo Colt 61]

Being anti Russia is effectively being pro USA. How about this from a former CIA Russia analyst? It's typical of the kind of demented frauds whose opinions are published by Menadue. I think that I might agree with Iz, The KIng and Randy, our msm is far more plausible.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/06...utcome-of-war/

Where is it at, the post that you refer to at #1402?

[caz]

Being anti Russia is effectively being pro USA. How about this from a former CIA Russia analyst? It's typical of the kind of demented frauds whose opinions are published by Menadue. I think that I might agree with Iz, The KIng and Randy, our msm is far more plausible.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/06...utcome-of-war/

Where is it at, the post that you refer to at #1402?

no. it's like taking a look at the cold war. looking back, you can criticise the soviet union for its lack of competence and perverting the international left towards a soviet agenda; while acknowledging that the u.s. had its own selfish agenda which created the taliban and propped up authoritarian regimes in the middle east.
none of the bastards are any good

[Mickie Lane]

Yeah i'm really pro USA....it's easy to see in all my posts in the "off topic" section.

Try responding to the post i did directly responding to your post, because the "easy to understand and consistent with all that has gone on since WW2" jibe just tells me that your argument has run dry.

You're very good in how you debate RR,
If I had your knowledge which comes from researching (reading), listening to what you hear & see on TV or from the internet & being able see through a lot of the spin that political leaders speak, I would debate how you do.
I really admire you RR & how you have progressed in your life. Bankstown to Vaucluse is one hell of step up, well done man.

[Paddo Colt 61]

Fair comment but RR probably married money like I did.

I can honestly say that University set me up for life but not due to any qualifications. Back then there were only 2 universities and most students were well off middle class and half of them were chicks. Working class braggadaccio worked a treat. Eventually marrying one, I never suffered the anguish of affording a house, rate rises etc but there is something in marrying for love I'll give ya the tip.

I do feel a bit guilty that I never suffered - Catholic bullshit.

I do also, wonder at The King's similar situation - House Hubby? Not much to do but google? Gotta be Opus Dei.

[ism22]

I back RR’s posts — solid takes and grounded arguments backed by actual engagement with history and policy, not recycled talking points. But let’s not kid ourselves: old mate banging on about Cold War conspiracies doesn’t make him well-read, just well-rehearsed in talking in circles. He clings to John Menadue like it’s some secret diplomatic briefing, when in reality the bloke hasn’t held a serious foreign policy role since the Fraser era, hasn’t left the country in over 30 years, and now runs a blog that acts as a mouthpiece for anyone vaguely anti-Western with a Wi-Fi connection.

It’s not insight — it’s just delusion in longform. If you want genuine analysis, there’s a big difference between reading primary sources and quoting Menadue like he’s the oracle of Canberra.

[ism22]

Re old mate's ramblings about people being anti-Russia...

---

Ah yes, the Cold War — that thing that ended checks notes over 30 years ago. In 2025, calling out Russia for invading sovereign countries, jailing dissidents, or poisoning journalists isn’t “being pro-USA,” it’s just having a functioning moral compass. But sure, keep pretending everything is still a CIA psyop so you don’t have to admit the guy launching drones at apartment blocks might be the problem.

[Random Rooster]

You're very good in how you debate RR,
If I had your knowledge which comes from researching (reading), listening to what you hear & see on TV or from the internet & being able see through a lot of the spin that political leaders speak, I would debate how you do.
I really admire you RR & how you have progressed in your life. Bankstown to Vaucluse is one hell of step up, well done man.

Geez Mickie, that's very nice of you to say. I showed my missus your post and she asked if i had another account called Mickie Lane. I do my best for my kids.... it's my only achievement in life that means anything to me. The rest is fluff!

[Paddo Colt 61]

Re old mate's ramblings about people being anti-Russia...

---

Ah yes, the Cold War — that thing that ended checks notes over 30 years ago. In 2025, calling out Russia for invading sovereign countries, jailing dissidents, or poisoning journalists isn’t “being pro-USA,” it’s just having a functioning moral compass. But sure, keep pretending everything is still a CIA psyop so you don’t have to admit the guy launching drones at apartment blocks might be the problem.

Oh yeah? I suppose that the "functioning moral compass" takes a break when the US "invades sovereign countries and jails dissidents". "Poisoning journalists" is straight out propaganda, unworthy of comment. The same level of denigrating Western propaganda has been stock in trade since 1917.

Is "the guy launching drones at apartment blocks" the same one who is launching US supplied weaponry at apartment blocks in Gaza where US supplied ordinance has murdered over 50,000?

King ridiculed CIA involvement in Maidan (he'd seemingly never heard of it) and you joined in when I referred him to the Victoria Nuland correspondence, waiving it off as though it was irrelevant. Unforch for your general evil Russia argument, it is/was proof of CIA involvement as instigators of the catastrophe that now persists. Then again, you most likely don't see any problem with CIA involvement because they're fighting the good fight aren't they? Whom is really back in the Cold War days ffs?

How on Earth did you manage a Law qualification? Macquarie? There was a time not so long ago that Macquarie dispensed with Law exams. Easy peasy!