For the past five years, the media and government have lied extensively about RussiaGate, Covid and almost everything related to Trump. Why do we suddenly find media trustworthy? Everyday new stories out of Ukraine embroil us towards Putin and Russia while simultaneously evoking great sympathy out of the west for President Zelenskyy and Ukraine. But are the stories true? The short answer is, No.

There are four primary actors in this conflict: Russia, Ukraine, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Before addressing the stories of Ukraine, let me clarify some things about the actors. Putin is a thug. Zelenskyy is a thug. Biden is a thug. The people of Russia, Ukraine and the United States are not thugs.

Putin is a thug is seemingly obvious. He is rolling into a sovereign country and dealing harshly with its people, killing many of them. I am not going to deal with Russian propaganda for two reasons: 1) As much as we have heard the past five years about “Russian disinformation,” it turns out Russia is actually not as good at spreading propaganda in this matter. 2) There are not as many people pro Russian. I do not find Russian propaganda to be as dangerous as Ukraine propaganda at this time.

I am skipping to Biden because I want to spend more time on Zelenskyy. Biden is a thug. It was not too long ago that we learned that the Biden family were enriching themselves off of Ukraine, getting 50k a month just for influence in some instances. President Biden also paved the way for Putin to invade due to 1) reducing oil production in the U.S. 2) lifting sanctions on Nord Stream 2 and 3) nixing our own Keystone Pipeline. All of these gave Putin pallets of cash he did not have access to before.

All the presidents from Clinton to present day, except Trump, have in one way or another ceded ground to Putin and unnecessarily provoked him. The Clinton administration convinced Ukraine to give up its Nuclear weapons in 1994 with the promise to protect it and they gave them up. From Pedro Gonzalez, “George W. Bush’s administration supported integrating both Georgia and Ukraine into the alliance (NATO) at the summit.” (https://contra.substack.com/p/how-the-west-sowed-the-seeds-of-war?s=r) Imagine China forming a military and economic alliance and then inviting Canada and Mexico to join. Would the United States consider that a threat? It did during World War One when Germany asked Mexico to join the Axis Powers. How did Zelenskyy even come to power? Obama. Color revolution. But Putin is the sole aggressor and responsible party? Please, give me break.

Now to Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy is a thug. While every war produces propaganda, Zelenskyy not only lies about what is happening, he lies in order to draw the West into a major, open conflict with Russia. Zelenskyy’s propaganda is not only a stretch of the truth, but they are many times far from it. It has been reported and repeated that Ukrainian forces are holding steady and slowing down the Russians, that the Ukrainian people are holding their ground. Maybe that is true, however, even if it is, Ukraine is not winning. At this time, Russia controls territory North, South, East and West of Kyiv. They are seemingly choking out Zelenskyy through isolation. Zelenskyy knows the only way he stays in power is if the West saves him. Therefore, Zelenskyy is using whatever he can to garner sympathy and support from the West, up to and including outright lies.

Here are three quick ones. 1) The Lie: Troops defending Snake Island responded to requests from Russian battle ships with, F*** you! And were massacred. The Truth: The soldiers stationed at Snake Island surrendered and were surprised that they had been declared dead by Ukraine officials. 2) The Lie: Former Ms. Ukraine reported that she was swapping out her heels and dresses for guns and ammo, complete with an epic photo op of her posing with a tactical-long rifle and tactical gear. The Truth: While she may yet take up arms, the now famous photos are of her holding an air-soft rifle. The photos are designed to generate awe and patriotism for Ukraine. They do, they just are not a true depiction of reality. 3) The Lie: Ukraine reported that a nuclear power plant was on fire and that the Russians were continuously bombing it. It was reported that Russian tanks were targeting nuclear blocks with heat-seeking technology and that the nuclear fallout would be 10 times worse than Chernobyl. The Truth: There was fighting around the nuclear compound. One of the administrative buildings caught fire. Fire fighters were able to put out the fire.

These are not the only examples. The point is that Ukraine is using its propaganda for nefarious purposes and it gets repeated often by all sorts of media outlets, pundits and politicians. Zelenskyy wants the West and the United States to intervene so he can stay in power. That is the game. Almost any type of support is only going to make Putin feel more threatened and escalate the situation. No fly zone (which means creating a space where enemy aircraft will be automatically shot down)? Escalation. Supplying missiles, aircraft and other supplies that are then used against Russia? Escalation. And who would fly those planes or use that equipment? Ukraine really has pilots and people who know their way around a cruse missile just sitting around waiting?

I sympathize with the Ukrainian people. They are being used and many of them will be hurt or killed. Putin is unjustly marching through their land and committing great atrocities against them. That does not mean that this conflict ought to be ramped up into a massive conflict involving multiple countries. Especially, since that the United States is currently writing 22 million dollar checks to Russia every day by buying oil we can produce ourselves.* The United States could in fact produce enough oil to supply other countries so that no one would have to buy Russian oil. We were doing this less than a year ago. In fact, this entire conflict could be unwound by flexing economic power without dropping bombs, without putting boots on the ground, without starting WWIII.

The media lies. Presidents lie. It is hard to know what is real and what is fake. A soft litmus test would be if you hear something being trumpeted by mainstream media, the media who spent the last five years peddling lies, is that who we trust? It is tough, because sometimes, even reputable people fall for propaganda. Two solid sources for information are Pedro Gonzalez and Jack Posobiec. Frankly, good information is hard to come by and even harder to verify. As we hear of grand atrocities in the coming days, our response as a people needs to be calm and collected. It is hard to get a bullet back in the chamber. May cooler heads prevail.

“Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge…Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly. A heart at peace give life to the body…”

Proverbs 14: 26-30 NIV

*Footnote: President Biden has since declared a ban on buying oil from Russia, yet insists on buying it from other nations sympathetic to Russia such as Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia.