I recently wondered whether John Mappin was a Russian Propagandist, Nazi or Fool (or all of the above)…
He seems to have eliminated one of the categories and doubled down on the other two.
Apparently, he is not a Nazi. His reference to being a Pureblood, smacked of naziism, so I wondered. It’s apparently code for “COVID unvaccinated” — a poor choice of word to use under any circumstance, but hardly a big shock that those who use it wouldn’t find it objectionable.
But he did announce himself loud and proud as a Russian Propagandist with this social media rant:
For heaven’s sake Mappin, are you unaware that Zelensky is a Jew?
This “surgical military operation” being conducted by Russia — with a million innocent people fleeing the country and civilians, including children being massacred in bomb strikes on apartment complexes and hospitals — is surgical?
The conspiracy against Russia by the “criminal elements,” “Deep State” and NATO is literally a Kremlin talking points list.
Always remember, don’t ever forget, Putin was/is KGB. You never truely get out of that. Look up who the KGB was/is if you forgot.
There is absolutely nothing good about the KGB.
Here’s a video that provides a glimmer of hope that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine might end in some kind of negotiated settlement. Russia like the US and other countries relies on parts, particularly tech parts, from other countries to keep things moving and running. With the almost universal condemnation of his invasion and countries refusing to do business with him he will run out of parts, maybe soon, and maybe settle for some concessions from Ukraine. Despite loud cries from the US and others that “Ukraine Deserves Freedom and Democracy!” maybe Zelinsky will make some concessions to allow Putin to withdraw while saving (some) face. One can hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV_4M9R8Ggs
(17 minutes long)
Leaving aside politics, leaving aside religion, I really, really, really, really really don’t understand how anyone – Americans, Europeans, Asians, anyone, anywhere – can LOOK at what Putin is doing in Ukraine, understand what Putin is doing in Ukraine and withal, approve of what Putin is doing in Ukraine.
Anyone who is not misinformed, anyone who can’t claim ignorance, anyone who looks and understands and then says, “Yes, this is right; this is what should be done, Putin is doing the right thing” is, IMO, insane.
You’ll note that I made a distinction between Putin and the Russians themselves. I am not painting all Russian with the same broad dirty brush. Apparently there is a not-insignificant portion of the Russian people who are vocally against this war, openly protesting it, and he, Putin is busy locking them up – thousands of them, apparently. God bless these Russians for their courage and integrity.
Isis, fuck you.
Qanon is still closely tied to anti-semitism and nazism, and implicitly if not explicitly targets Jews in those it demonizes – Soros, Rothschilds, Hollywood, etc.. The opposite of ‘pureblood’ is ‘mongrel’, so anyone using that type of language is engaging in a form of chauvinism and supremacy, even if not one clearly or openly bigoted and targeting any particular group seen as inferior, dirty, etc – yet.
QAnon | #TranslateHate | AJC – American Jewish Committee
> https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/QAnon
ADL – QAnon’s Antisemitism and What Comes Next
> https://www.adl.org/resources/reports/qanons-antisemitism-and-what-comes-next
Qanon…what a disgusting, doomed lot they are.
In my view, it was always insanity to deal with the Russians. After the Viet Nam War, I was fluent in Russian. I spent about eight months wandering the country. They loved me because of nearly perfect pronunciation. I managed to hook up with a film company but it did not work out. Had a great girlfriend who worked for Mt perfect Russian got me out by perfect luck in Finland
Goodness me, what a nasty creep!
War, any war is a horror that self perpetuates atrocities until the combatants on either side become immune to sanity and just go about the business of death until somehow hostilities come to an end. It is appalling that civilians have become soft targets so quickly, but for heaven’s sake, military personnel are human too!
It was a dark, dark day when that invasion began and every day it just gets darker & darker.
The first casualty of war is always the truth – it’s insane that so many have to die or have their lives shattered forever because of lies and hidden or criminally insane agendas created by some very insane people in positions of power. Farmers, bakers, clerks. lorry drivers, cooks, housewives etc don’t start wars.
tonyortega.org appears to be down: can anyone else get through?
Never mind, it’s working for me again, maybe just my connection
I’m sorry, but who the bleep is “John Mappin”? And why would anyone care about the drivel that dribbles out of his smirk? I just don’t get why even a COS person would listen to him. Like “Q” of Q-Anon, he is a mysterious, un-named, unknown source of opinions.
…Aren’t people like this supposed to be the actual cause of unresolvable disputes …including wars? Just possibly.
And so the question remains:
Just who the bleep is John Q. Mappin, anyway?
Karl – Mappin is a practicing or maybe non practicing Scientologist. There are fringe nutcases in all religions as well as nutcase atheists. What’s new?
I think he owns a hotel which gets terrible reviews for exceptionally poor accomodations and service. A follow up on his social media might include references or promotion of his hotel with him hoping to attract fringe element customers. Renting a room in a hotel full of those people would certainly be an “unusual” experience. A place to greet and meet. Lol
He is very much a prcticing and celebrated scientologist in the UK. The only “celebrity” they have. He got his money from his family jewelry business which is well known (Mappin and Webb) with Royal Warrants.
Thanks Mike.
I suspected something like that in his background. Perhaps that is why he is believed to be naturally endowed with Wisdom by the brainwashed.
And wow. His family business has “Royal warrants”, yet.
I guess that means that the Queen approves.
But wait! Hasn’t everyone been trying to figure out who “Q” is ????
All indications are that “Q” is a blown Scientologist. They get rather spinny after they blow. I’m narrowing down my search. . . . . . . . . . .(joke)
Mr. Google says:
What is meant by Royal Warrant?
Image result for royal warrant
A Royal Warrant of Appointment is granted as a mark of recognition to people or companies who have regularly supplied goods or services to HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh or HRH The Prince of Wales or their Households. The Monarch decides who may grant Royal Warrants. These are known as the Grantors.
Speaking of hotels (not really, just an aside) in the 1970’s for a few months I rented a room at the Celebrity Center in Los Angeles when it was still called The Manor Hotel and undergoing renovations. In hindsight I might concede that I was part of a fringe group. There were probably some conspiracy theories going on but they were not too radical, maybe a few things like don’t trust the media and that something was going on on planet earth but it was very general. At any rate it was fun hanging out with a bunch of like minded Scientologists.
After posting this I started recalling other scn enemies on Elron’s list including the American Medical Association, psychologists, psychiatrists, various government agencies and so on. In the course of his meanderings he probably had a beef with damn near everyone who didn’t totally agree with him
In my experience of auditor training they weren’t dwelled on and the emphasis was on training and auditing and getting to the Examiner after an auditing session with a Cognition and a Floating Needle. I figured defending scn was up to the Guardian Office or whatever it was called, not my job – man.
A lot of religions and other organizations have divisions or parts designated to defend against real or imagined defamation. When NYC was cracking down on organized crime some Mafia guy started up an Italian anti defamation league or something like that. It’s hard to know how much of what he collected went into his pocket instead of promoting the good citizenship of Italian Americans, kind of like people with good intentions donating to BLM.
End of off topic commentary.
We live in a world where people get their news from sources they tend to agree with, and computer algorithms push more such sources toward them. I think John Mappin’s take on things is simplistic and inaccurate, but it just as bad to blindly believe the other side. For what it’s worth, my favorite YouTube analysts are:
Patrick Lancaster (on the ground reports from Donbass)
Jimmy Dore (American comedian)
The Duran / Alexander Mercouris / Alex Christoforou
Felix Rex
Gonzalo Lira (on the ground reports from Kiev / Kharkiv)
Russell Bentley / Regis Tremblay (long time expats in DPR and Crimea)
We all left a destructive cult, let’s learn to question everything else just like we question LRH.
Regardless of Putin’s motives, it is a fact that neo-nazi/nationalist groups such as C14, Asov Batallion, et al., have considerable influence within the Ukraine government and its military. Zelensky has a complex relationship with these groups and it’s not wrongthink to point this out – even if it is, in part, a “Kremlin talking point.” To dismiss it as such could just as easily be argued a “CIA talking point” and is equally as absurd. It’s just a smear. And a thought-stopper.
It was only a couple of years ago when the likes of Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and other anti-war voices were smeared by their opponents (primarily from within their own party) as “Assad apologists” and using “Kremlin talking points” simply for criticising US involvement in Syria. I’m assuming most here are old enough to remember what went down with Iraq. As ex-culties, we should have a degree of scepticism and an awareness of biases when it comes to “authority narratives.” Geopolitical history gives us ample reason to question said narratives and to retain our critical thinking.
There are few, if any, good faith actors when it comes to geopolitics. Simplifying highly complex issues – that rarely have much to do with what’s actually being propagated – into an “us vs them”, “good vs evil”, black-and-white heuristic is reductive, unnuanced and illogical.
Tulsi Gabbard is from a cult that mixes surf-Nazi ideology with heretical Hare Krishna thought and Scientology. Kris Butler a/k/a Jagad Guru takes from Hinduism only the racial supremacy of “Aryan” people which for him includes Polynesians as well as blue-eyed blondes folded into the original sense of upper-caste Indians and Iranians; he attempted to take over the Hare Krishnas during the spiritual knife-fight when A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada grew old, but Prabhupada excommunicated him and he then renamed his group “Science of Mind” borrowing Hubbardian pseudo-scientificky talk and high-control practices such as forced labor and family disconnection. His alliance with the Modi faction in India and the Shi’ite side of the Islamic schism is what made Gabbard side with Assad and Putin. Rather than “smear” Gabbard, the media has seriously understated the depth of the evil ties she has.
It is indeed a Kremlin talking point to pretend that neo-Nazis have influence on the Zelenskiy government. In the election which brought Zelenskiy, a Jew, to the Presidency, the Right Sektor party fell below 3% of the Parliamentary vote, entitling them to 0 seats. The rightist Svoboda party, which renounces Nazi imagery but is suspected of secret sympathies, did a little better but only got 1 seat. Neo-Nazis are, frankly, more influential in the US, Tulsi Gabbard being a prominent example.
You are smearing someone for “being from a cult” they have long since departed (and publicly renounced). I want you to think on that as you happily read/post to the blog of the former CO of the Church of Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs.
And to assume political/military influence in Ukraine begins and ends with electoral votes is absurd. Ukraine’s military forces are historically weak and governments have relied heavily on ultra-nationalist paramilitary groups and volunteers to fight against pro-Russian separatists. This is as true today as it was in 2014. Asov’s influence, for example, is hugely significant – and far from “pretend.” As an official unit of the National Guard, Asov has formal ties with the Interior Ministry and the police. And its activities have been well documented.
– https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/04/nazis-ukrainian-war-russia/
– https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion
Her claims no longer to be affiliated with Jagad Guru are simply dishonest. All of her staff is from active cult members and she made an internal PR video for the cult.
“Ukraine’s military forces are historically weak” Not any more, now. “This is as true today as it was in 2014.” The Russians have found out otherwise. “Asov’s influence, for example, is hugely significant” No, it really isn’t. “In 2017, the size of the regiment was estimated at more than 2,500 members” but it has shrunk since: it is about 1% of the Ukrainian military. Azov’s importance to Russian propaganda is hugely significant.
Irrespective of her cult roots, and putting aside whether or not she has renounced them, Tulsi Gabbard, in present time, has exposed herself to accusations of being a Putin lover and decidedly pro-Russian and anti-Ukraine. On Fox News she has publicly called for the US to ensure that Ukraine never joins NATO, and she has also accused the Biden Administration of being glad that Russia invaded Ukraine because now the US has a good excuse to impose sanctions on Russia. She pretty much parrots Kremlin’s talking points on Fox.
My own personal opinion of her is that she is an attention-whore who, along with her telegenic looks and as a Democrat on regularly on Fox News, employs the dubious art of making controversial statements to get the attention she avidly craves. And her stratagems seem to work. It would appear that a not-unsubstantial portion of Republicans just love her for this and believe that she is actually some kind of “closet” Republican who could, should and will (they hope) switch parties.
My take on this woman is she will never do this because she gets more attention as a camera-worthy Democrat on Fox News bucking her own party than she would as a Republican in competition for attention with the likes of Lauren Boebert and Margorie Taylor Greene, both of whom are seriously tough acts to follow controversial-statement wise. But that’s just my opinion.
“…she has publicly called for the US to ensure that Ukraine never joins NATO, and she has also accused the Biden Administration of being glad that Russia invaded Ukraine because now the US has a good excuse to impose sanctions on Russia.”
A totally valid point. What’s the problem?
What specifically is the “totally valid” point to which you refer?
1) That the US ensures that Ukraine never joins NATO, or
2) The accusation that the Biden Administration is glad that Russia invaded Ukraine so that the US has a good excuse to impose sanctions on Russia?
– Guilt by association. That she still has “cult” connections is clearly an issue for you. Question her integrity, by all means. It has no bearing on the validity of her specific statements – or indeed those of other anti-war voices – regarding US foreign policy. Dismissing/positioning inconvenient truths as “pro Russian” or a “Kremlin talking point” is demonstrative of ideological attachment. Culty, in other words.
– Argumentum ad numerum. Size ≠ significance. Try again.
I don’t agree with your evaluation as regards my mindset. Tulsi Gabbard’s cult roots are not an issue for me. People can and do change. What a politician says and does in present time are issues for me. As for characterizing her as “pro-Russian” and as parroting “Kremlin talking points” I plead guilty as charged. That said, I “dismissed” nothing. I merely observed her very positive statements which aligned with what Russia has been saying about Ukraine. The validity of the talking points themselves was not in question. That’s another issue. You know, I could say, “I like Donald Trump. He’s a terrific guy and a smart businessman” and those would be pro-Donald Trump remarks, would they not? Now, is he a terrific guy and is he a smart businessman? Well, if I said those things it could be assumed that I thought so! Now as to whether or not he actually is a terrific guy and a smart businessman, that could be debated. But my opinion of him is my opinion, which may or may not be valid. Cappice?
Aqua, my comment above was directed at Robert. But I appreciate your response and, yes, it is understood.
That being said, if I make a specific comment suggesting there may be some value to certain aspects of scientology, does that mean you can accurately characterise me (free of any ideological attachment or cognitive bias) as being “pro scientology” or “parroting OSA talking points”?
Do you not appreciate how reductive that is, if so, and how such a label can be (and is) used as a smear/thought-stopper? In this regard, aside from its complete rejection of any nuance, it amounts to an association fallacy and is arguably rooted in ad hominem. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_fallacy
It’s odd to me how some folks (particularly yanks) use these black-and-white binary terms when engaging in geopolitical discussion yet rarely, if ever, acknowledge the possibility they could be seen as “US propagandists”, “parroting CIA talking points.” The propaganda and the false narratives are seemingly always “over there” and never at home.
For me, there are no “good guys” involved in this conflict. Just regular, innocent people caught in the middle – as always. But even a basic skim of geopolitical history should tell you to be sceptical of government/media narratives and to dig into the nuance. Things are never black or white.
mwestern, you didn’t answer my question: Which specific valid point?
“Question her integrity, by all means.” I certainly do. There are no truths in her statements, only propaganda on behalf of brutal dictators whom her ugly guru wishes to ally with.
There are no truths in her statements. Okay, dude.
No, you are not at all brainwashed. How silly of me.
The US/CIA are most definitely the heroes of the hour.
US foreign policy should never be criticised/questioned.
Those who engage are clearly propagating the lies of brutal dictators.
Whereas the US definitely doesn’t ally itself with brutal dictators.
They don’t sell/flow arms to a long list of tyrants & terrorist groups.
They don’t initiate coups or groom puppet politicians.
Foreign interventions are never fueled by oil & gas interests.
Corruption, propaganda & censorship only happen elsewhere.
America! F**k yeah!!
In my Denzel Washington voice to Eckert:
“My man.” 😎😉
They once replaced a statue of Lenin with a statue of Darth Vader in Odessa.
I’m going to be denounced as a Nazi for mentioning that.
Why? Darth Vader wasn’t a nazi.
He killed a bunch of children.
True but that doesn’t make him a Nazi, just a Sith Lord.
Wait. They’re actually the one and the same.
Mappin, himself, seems a fool who will try to tear down anyone or anything that catches his eye.
I’m betting that they’re slipping him brown envelopes as a thank you for his ongoing support. He’s a gormless cretin who is driven more by greed than anything else. That post of his seems more like a cut and paste job from a Russian propaganda playbook than a spur of the moment comment. It’s way too structured for Moron Mappin to have created.
They get an order to rant and they rant against anything to hand. Poor clams.
Every Ideal Org probably has a sign out front that says WE STAND WITH PUTIN.
The base ideology of the Qanon and ultra right wing movements is to oppose anything (perhaps ‘anybody’ is more accurate) they perceive as ‘liberal’. I don’t know if Russia ever cast a statue to Lenin’s “useful idiots” but if he did the plaque needs an update to honor these twits.
That should be “dishonor these twits IMO.” They do nothing honorable but follow their marching orders.
Following orders is the powerist thing to do.
Russia thought it could get away with a military action that would last a few days. But it was not so. Nowadays there is very little of ‘surgical’.
Either they conquer the country or find convenient arrangements to end hostilities that can save their face.
This Mappin guy is crazy. Even if it were all true (deep state, NATO conspiracy, etc), nothing justifies what is happening with thousands of deaths on both sides, people who have to escape and abandon everything and even bombed orphanages.
Nothing is sane about Putin’s War, most especially Mappin’s and other apologists’ take on it.
It astounding how inept Russia’s military has been. The word on the street was that they had a capable military. Instead of boosting Russia’s status, the only possible goal Putin might have had, they’ve destroyed it more thoroughly than they have Ukraine. The Keystone Cops could have done a better job.
Putin’s War had little or no thought applied to it beforehand: not a target, or goal, or end game, nor logistics. Running out of fuel, ffs! Particularly so quickly and so close to the border that they smashed through.
And as the Ukrainians have said: To figure out Russia’s intentions, listen to what they accuse others of planning or doing. But NO, Mappin isn’t going to actually open his eyes and look. THAT was knocked out of him by the time he joined his most recent little cult.
And don’t forget the Russian MREs that expired seven years ago.
I recall Wehrmacht logistics were awful as well.
Which is why the Germans lost their war and the Russians are going to lose this war.