Comments by "Ash Roskell" (@ashroskell) on "Channel 4 News" channel.

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  40.  @stephenorourke9896  : I know you won’t reply to what I’m about to explain to you, (how could you?) but just maybe it will give you pause, even for a moment? Read a little history, son? Start with a little incident they called The Cuban Missile Crisis? There you will see all the differences between both America’s position and that of Moscow’s, right now and then. America never invaded Cuba, which is still a communist dictatorship 30 miles off the coast of Florida, to this day. Ukraine has never expressed any hostility to Russia, not even a desire for association, just independence. It is still communist doctrine to destroy all of the pillars of capitalism globally, you know? But the usual greed and hypocrisy that emerge in every communist state are what keeps the proximate threat of Cuba’s doctrine at bay nowadays. Not gunfire. And of course, back then, Russia was genuinely installing REAL nukes into Cuba, not the made up propagandist, juvenile ravings of an implausible gangster, as Putin imagines (or says he does) now in Ukraine. And with what imagined slight has, “the west,” so offended Prickly Putin this time? Preventing him from overrunning every country on Earth and sucking it into his Evil Empire? Maybe it was simply blocking his plans to prevent Ukraine from becoming a bigger energy exporter than Russia? Because Shell & Exxon are convinced they have more gas and oil than Russia. But, Putin knew that already, which is why he took the very places where those reserves are: Crimea, Donbas, and now Western Ukraine. Forget too that silencing news, murdering the truth tellers and journalists he fears, and spending at least a $trillion on lying propaganda is tantamount to a confession of pure, undiluted evil. You would have to be either historically illiterate, or plain stupid to believe your own words. Worse still, you would have to that perennial combination of the two; the sort of stupidity and evil that makes people willing to sell their souls for just a little cash, so you can troll for the idiots who paid you to . . . I would pity a fool like you, if it wasn’t for the fact that all that hate in your heart soaks up finer feeling like a black hole. The event horizon of your heart has already been passed. And you probably didn’t even feel it.
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  85. And it’s so gladdening to my heart that this is what people want to talk about, FINALLY! Andrew Marr excused himself from even discussing that topic, with a hand wave, saying, “They’ve always done it like that.” But he gets his residual pay,ents for his books and documentaries from the BBC, so that’s not hard to understand. Especially when you consider that anyone who takes a more lucrative job at another outlet still relies on their, “network,” of contacts for those big interviews that draw the punters. The whole topic of corrupt appointments has been subject to Omertà within the BBC because they don’t want to rock their leaky boat. But, a system that no one would bat an eye at in the early 1930’s, The State appointing State Radio Management, which was made even a necessity during the war, already looked outdated by the 1960’s and unfit for purpose by the end of the 80’s. Now it’s just an invasion by stealth, dismantling its values, public trust and its future viability by putting more and more Tories at the top, whilst using those positions to fish around for Tories among their presenters who might be stupid enough to allow themselves to be persuaded to shill for the government, like Fiona Bruce. And that’s not her first offence either, shilling for Johnson’s wife beating dad. I’ve literally watched her agog, on Question Time, stating the government’s arguments for them, because the Tory MP on the panel was refusing to. If anyone should be like a royal, taking their political biases to their graves with them, it’s political and news presenters. But Andrew Neil was never even questioned for starting his own right wing news outlet! The hypocrisy is palpable and shocking. Damn, I could site example after example, but it would be too long for a YouTube comment and it would leave all decent people feeling sicker than they already do.
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  94.  @TFx2TV  : Why so defensive? I think anyone who bothers to read our discourse will note for themselves the defensive, antagonistic and, at one point, devious tone of your, “argument,” but, since you’re having such difficulty following it, I’ll make real simple for you. There was nothing in my words from which you could infer ANYTHING about what I find, “sexual.” That much will be obvious to that person with too much free time on their hands who bothers to follow this discussion. They will simply see you wriggling on a hook of your own making, going for some low blow, to divert attention from the weakness of your position. My point: There is no benefit from using cultural stereotypes as an educational tool, UNLESS that education is focussed on the issue of the sexual stereotypes being put to use. Which, in this case, it is clearly not. It is, however, an attempt to, “normalise,” it. His word, not mine. My question would be, “Normalise what?” To which he would probably answer, “Difference?” I could then poke so many holes in the use of this particular medium that I doubtless wouldn’t get much more than angry obfuscation in return, if he was anything like you. Perhaps you’d prefer a question or two? Maybe consider what you’re babbling about, instead of locking on to the least relevant part of the argument, “little Timmy,” about whom you seem so passionate? What is the benefit of having a drag artist as a teacher? Why use one at all? For the same reason they would hire a clown? These are not healthy depictions of femininity. What is the point of using a grotesque when the mere fact of his grotesqueness is not even under discussion during the class. Do you honestly believe it doesn’t raise any questions in the minds of these kids? Inform their opinions about women? You seem to be denying that drag artists do show an unhealthy obsession about makeup, shoes and jewellery? Even though that is part of the point of them. Otherwise it’s just a cross dresser, selling himself as a drag artist, under false pretences.
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  107. @Stefan Parocki : Why is the prefix of the definite article an, “insult,” as you say? If so, I never heard that before. To us in the west right now, Ukraine is, “THE Ukraine,” as in, “We salute you.” You know Angela Merkel is history now, right? Olaf Scholz (of the SPD) is Germany’s current Chancellor. I was re-reading up on the famine, recently. After seeing a pretty good Vox video on YouTube about it. Stalin nearly wiped Ukraine’s people off the map, and he almost got away with covering the entire thing up! For all it matters, he did get away with it successfully, with barely a word of response from a sceptical west, which (once the proof had been rubbed in the western leaders’ faces) induced a coma of none committal and pusillanimity. It seems to me that the last 100 years of history in Ukraine has been about withstanding Soviet (and now Neo-Soviet) aggression. The more I learn about them, the more my admiration spirals out of all proportion! Of all countries in the western world, Ukraine deserves our gratitude as well as our frank, uncomplicated admiration and committed support. Since their rejection of Putin’s puppet dictatorship and their loss of Crimea, they have shown nothing but sheer unalloyed courage in the face of all but hopeless odds. And the average people of west are still not fully aware of how much their sacrifices have served to buffer the rest of the free world from Neo-Soviet expansion. The way I see it now, we simply cannot and MUST NOT allow Putin to, “save face,” as he retreats. Crimea HAS TO go back to Ukrainian hands and be protected by the UN. And the coal, oil and gas of the whole Donbas region (Putin’s real objective in both areas) must be rendered off limits to him. If Putin loses more than he began this murderous slaughter with, and cannot maintain a plausible lie of, “victory,” to his own people let alone the rest of the world, we will be doing more to secure world peace and make Dictatorships think twice before attacking defenceless neighbours, than has been achieved since the end of World War II. Ukraine has sacrificed too much for us all, for anything less to be acceptable now. We have the advantage and MUST press it home at all costs. And the gains from doing so will be both moral and strategic. That’s my view, at any rate. Do you agree?
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  143.  @armstrongcatherine  : Surely there are no scales in which to weigh the balance? In every single war we learn of some war crime or other, committed by our own side, as we do here. It is to be expected from those who are walking among their own dead relatives in the rubble of their own homes, as much as it was from those who’d survived Hitler’s Blitz on London when they got to Berlin. The difference, then as now, is that the Russian army uses rape, looting, torture and murder as their METHOD of warfare. And the very fact of their instantaneous gaslighting denials, before they could possibly have enough information to evaluate the truth of allegations, tells you all you need to know. Like our own armed forces, the Ukrainians must expect an occasional war crime, and they do, as we saw, acknowledge it, and deal with it through Courts Martial. They treat it as the, “exception,” because that’s what it is. The Russian army (and I say this without value judgement) is made up of largely under educated, poverty stricken young men, with a Third World mentality. Russia still has the highest stats on alcoholism in the world, to boot. They see acts of terror and cowardice as, “normal,” not exceptional, and they believe that conquering a city grants them the right to rape, loot and murder. And their military culture is built around, “the spoils of war,” like medieval bandits. They are so unlike us in their thinking and superstitious belief systems as to be practically aliens. And it must be GALLING for Zelensky’s advisor to have to even tolerate such a badly put question with its false equivalencies, its utter discounting of the suffering of Ukrainian citizens and its almost brutal blindness as to how it offers assistance to the Russian enemy by drawing those false comparisons. It’s not the question that was wrong. It needed to be highlighted, to draw out the differences between the two armies for the world to see. It was the blundering, aggressive and frankly obtuse manner of its asking that was so offensively wrong headed.
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  229. Well put. Totally agree. Please write to your representatives and demand that NATO gives the formal invitation to join NATO today! Keep in mind that the process can still take as long as NATO wants after the invitation is proffered, but it gives the unequivocal and unambiguous signal that NATO is committed to Ukraine WINNING this war! That’s the one message that the west has stopped short of, “because escalation,” blah, friggin’ blah. Putin has ALWAYS backed off when faced with a GENUINE red line. Every single time! Just look at the Wagner Mutiny? Putin fled Moscow for St Petersburg! Even though the Wagnazis didn’t even reach the outskirts of the city! Prigozhin is ignoring his exile, swanning about Russia, free as a bird, while Wagner STILL refuses to carry out Putin’s direct orders and join the regular armed forces! He’s not even IN, “control,” of Russia! We should NOT fear a deliberate nuclear attack, but we SHOULD fear the possibility of nuclear ACCIDENTS, which Russia has a legendary record for! As the chaos continues, the chances of that go up. Western intervention is necessary for peace, yet NATO has just told Putin that he might still find a way to get a, “draw,” out of this. NATO has just prolonged the war! Please? If you care about world peace, the future of Europe, or the plight of Ukraine, just drop a line to your representative and DEMAND action! Let them know it is an election issue. Save Ukraine and we save the world . . . at least, we save it from one of the three biggest threats, (China and the Middle East remaining as troubling as ever, but not actively making war on Europeans!) and saving Ukraine could potentially neutralise Russia as a threat to the world, possibly forever?
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  264. I have such admiration and gratitude to Channel 4’s journalists, who (let’s face it) have easily surpassed the BBC: a thing I genuinely did not expect to see in my lifetime. It’s not just that these journalists are clearly well educated, able to put this news into context for us, give an informed perspective and use that educated perspective to inform how they focus the aspects of this news that are important to pass on to us, the general public. It’s their gallantry in the face of danger. Being shot at by a sniper would be enough for most sensible people to leave the country for good. But such thinking does not even occur to a person like Lindsay. All it seems to have done is legitimise her coverage and focus her attention on the plight of those who, “don’t get to go back to their hotel and have a drink.” Her empathy and courage genuinely moves me. But, set ALL OF THAT aside and just ask yourself, which of the main British channels can you turn to for in depth, on site, up to date INFORMATION out of Ukraine and analysis of events? It used to be The BBC, no question. On this particular story, Ukraine’s war, that is not the case any longer. Channel 4 is just better, more comprehensive, more detailed, more up to date, etc, etc. I so hope that she and Channel 4 get some recognition amongst their piers for this coverage. They deserve accolades. It’s THE single most important issue in the world right now; from the reason we’re all paying more for fuel and heating, and facing a recession, to international politics and trade, to the fact that the world is dealing with the biggest threat to democracy in its history, certainly since WWII. The answers to all your big political questions are being determined on the battlefields of Ukraine. Anyone who thinks that’s misinformed has not been paying attention.
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  311. Please write to your representatives and demand that NATO gives the formal invitation to join NATO today! Keep in mind that the process can still take as long as NATO wants after the invitation is proffered, but it gives the unequivocal and unambiguous signal that NATO is committed to Ukraine WINNING this war! That’s the one message that the west has stopped short of, “because escalation,” blah, friggin’ blah. Putin has ALWAYS backed off when faced with a GENUINE red line. Every single time! Just look at the Wagner Mutiny? Putin fled Moscow for St Petersburg! Even though the Wagnazis didn’t even reach the outskirts of the city! Prigozhin is ignoring his exile, swanning about Russia, free as a bird, while Wagner STILL refuses to carry out Putin’s direct orders and join the regular armed forces! He’s not even IN, “control,” of Russia! We should NOT fear a deliberate nuclear attack, but we SHOULD fear the possibility of nuclear ACCIDENTS, which Russia has a legendary record for! As the chaos continues, the chances of that go up. Western intervention is necessary for peace, yet NATO has just told Putin that he might still find a way to get a, “draw,” out of this. NATO has just prolonged the war! Please? If you care about world peace, the future of Europe, or the plight of Ukraine, just drop a line to your representative and DEMAND action! Let them know it is an election issue. Save Ukraine and we save the world . . . at least, we save it from one of the three biggest threats, (China and the Middle East remaining as troubling as ever, but not actively making war on Europeans!) and saving Ukraine could potentially neutralise Russia as a threat to the world, possibly forever?
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  312.  @BlinkonceforU  : There are many differences between the two events, as was pointed out by Jake Broe on his YouTube channel, from which I took this comparison. Yet it is an apt comparison nonetheless; especially for the type of warfare we are seeing. As to the location of Russia’s, “first line of defence,” you know as little of that as I do, which is considerably less than a Ukrainian general. I trust that they know what they are doing and will succeed, as they have at all other points in this war. I must take issue with your statement that, “this is not a world war,” as it clearly is. Just because it is only being fought in Ukraine, doesn’t make the stakes any less high. Every country in the free world has a dog in this fight. And this is the World War Three that the world gets when the protagonists on both sides are unwilling to use their nukes for obvious, not being suicidal, reasons. Russia is not alone in its, “axis of evil,” as China has been backing them both overtly with words and covertly with resources, along with Iran (directly with weaponry) and other countries. While Ukraine is supported by the entire EU and the Five Eyes states, because we value freedom and democracy as much as we value life. That is another respect in which we can draw our comparison with the battle against Nazism. The casualties were high on D Day and in the coming months afterwards, but they were expected to be high and that high casualty rate was built into the calculations of the allies, as it is in Ukraine. I do not say this is a, “good thing,” just a reality of war. Yes, I would love to see Ukraine get a fleet of F16’s. I write to MP about that! Do you write to your representatives? Anyone who tells you that’s a waste of time is plain wrong. Demand the tools for victory and help speed the process! But, keep in mind that what the world’s leaders are saying and what is happening are not always the same thing. They don’t necessarily want Russia to know about much of the hardware that is already in Ukraine, or the shadow dropping of some jets, via Poland and other allies. I promise you, Ukraine WILL WIN. The question is how long? And how many casualties must they take. We can influence the answer by demanding more from our representatives. That’s your role in this. On top of donating money and supporting correspondents who get the truth out there, you can persuade your own politicians.
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  343. In fairness, an all out war between the west and Russia would have no end in sight and could result in nuclear conflagration, either deliberately or by accident. So it has to be the very final resort. But consider what this war is actually about? Putin is desperate to seize control of the massive gas and oil reserves in Ukraine, because they have enough sitting under their country to rival, if not outstrip, Russia’s. So far, Putin has managed to scare off Shell and Exxon, who bought the rights to develop the biggest reserves in (you guessed it) Donbas and the Crimea. And now they’ve confirmed yet more massive reserves in the west of Ukraine, by the Carpathian Mountains. Putin can’t reach those and he has decided he must steal the entire country to maintain his stranglehold on Europe’s energy reserves. Naturally, he knows the west would rather buy from Ukraine, a democracy with free speech and free trade, closer to Germany than Russia, which is way better than propping up a dictatorship, which has already threatened to cut off the gas lines in the past. So this is a desperate panic move, caused by the coming financial hit we’re all going to suffer worldwide. We think it will be painful in the west, but Russian people will wind up going back to mile long cues for a loaf of bread, and getting locked up for complaining about it. All we really need to do is play the long game, let Putin sink what remains of his ailing economy into his Vietnam in Ukraine and squeeze his economy until his own people snap and bring him down. I know that sounds brutally cold, and doesn’t help the people of Ukraine, but it may well result in fewer deaths world wide? And we can maintain supplies and money to the Ukrainian armed forces in the mean time. Historically, in over a hundred years (basically since it became an issue) the west has NEVER allowed themselves to lose control over energy supplies. In that respect, I don’t believe Putin is going to be a special case. We certainly need to do more. I hope you are writing to your politicians and demanding they seize ALL Russian assets, deport ALL Russian oligarchs and use their resources to pay for the weapons and resources to fight their own Russian army? I am.
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