Monday, May 30, 2022

Following the Wars

 Russia is at war with Ukraine and America is at war with itself. As a news junkie, trying to keep up is a major effort on a daily basis, though sometimes I just say to hell with it and delete all my news emails and skip all the news items on my Facebook page. But not often.

For news on Ukraine, my first choice is Kyiv Independent kyivindependent.com. They also have a daily newsletter which you can sign up to for free though I support them with $10 per month on Patreon. 

Euromaidan Press euromaidanpress.com/ is another excellent source of up to date news on the war. They also reprint the daily detailed updates from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). I find them on my FB feed.

Reuters www.reuters.com/ is another good source. They also have a daily newsletter at no charge.

See also Al Jazeera www.aljazeera.com, Ukrinform www.ukrinform.net and Atlantic Council www.atlanticcouncil.org/category/blogs/new-atlanticist

Twitter is another source of up to the minute news and commentary. There are a few lists of people who post on the war and once you are familiar with the names you can start following individuals.

Substack has several writers who comment on both wars. Timothy Snyder, writing on "Thinking About..." snyder.substack.com  is a well known historian of Eastern and Central Europe. All Substack writers whether you pay or not if you sign up, will be delivered to your inbox.

Other sources are the usual MSM: WaPo, NYT, The Economist but I put more faith in the above.

For the American war, seemingly of all against all as I believe Hobbes put it, the first person I follow is Heather Cox Richardson at Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com. HCR is an American historian with a following on Substack and on Facebook in the hundreds of thousands. She posts 6 days a week tying the days happenings to American history. I have a paid subscription.

Next on the list is TCfromLA (Thomas McKelvey Cleaver) who writes at "That's another Fine Mess"  tcinla757.substack.com. He is an other of several books on the wars in the air of WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War of which I have three so far. He will comment on both American and Ukrainian wars. I am a paid subscriber.

Third would be Thom Hartmann who writes the Hartmann Report at hartmannreport.com Thom is a broadcaster and author. I subscribe for free but would take a paying subscription if I could afford it.

Fourth is Julian K Truscott IV who writes the Lucian Truscott Newsletter at luciantruscott.substack.com He is a fourth generation military man with an incredible pedigree. He writes knowledgeably about anything military including Ukraine. I have a free subscription.

Others that I have free subscriptions to include PREVAIL by Greg Olear gregolear.substack.com, Terri Kanefield, Author and Lawyer at terikanefield.com, John Ganz who writes Unpopular Front at johnganz.substack.com, Spencer Ackerman at Forever Wars foreverwars.substack.com, Ruth Ben-Ghiat at Lucid lucid.substack.com

There are several other news letters that are free if you subscribe to The Atlantic (I don't). You can find them here: ww.theatlantic.com/subscriber-newsletters 

Check all these references out and sign up for those you can afford or are interested in. No excuse for saying "I have no idea what is happening". Actually I sign up for all the ones listed and still have no idea what is happening. 

27 comments:

  1. I don't subscribe to or read any online news sources/opinion sources. I get all the depressing international, national, provincial and municipal news I need from TV. Even that's too much some days.

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  2. I watch P.B.S and like Sunday morning they have mainly uplifting story. Facebook is where I take news with grain salt.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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    1. I could use a few uplifting stories. You are wise

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  3. I can only take the news in limited doses these days. Particularly for events I cannot change. Sadly the wars in Ukraine and America fall firmly into those cagegories. For the Ukraine I donate to Doctors Without Borders. For America I can do nothing.

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    1. Thank you so much for your donations to Doctors without Borders. That helps many people in many countries. I feel the same way about America. I can only watch it burn

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  4. All this can provide info abouit this minute news...
    but hardly can help with understanding of deeper historical reasons.
    And that's when Putin War Against History facts kicks in.
    Like with his claims and widely spread slur of Ukrainians being "inherently anti-semitic".
    Or, as Hitler, riding on that same wave of Russian anti-semitism, slurred jews being "inherent zionists".
    And etc.

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    1. True. I have read a great deal about the history of Ukraine and Russia and about Putin's underlying reasoning. He hates Ukrainians and Poles like Stalin hated Ukrainians and Poles. As to anti-Semitism in Ukraine, I have never seen it myself. People are aware of who is Jewish in the same way they are aware of everyone's ethnicity. "That singer's mother was Armenian and father Georgian".

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  5. vox, POLITICO, The Intercept, are good online sites as are The New Yorker and The Atlantic. I appreciated the sites you provided for the best coverage of Ukraine and war waged against the country by Putin.

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    1. I read articles from those sites if they show up in my news feed. The New Yorker is excellent. Wish I could afford it.

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  6. We get snippets of news from NPR and occasionally from the CBC, but I've hit the point where I'm avoiding news in general. It's all too damn depressing. Do wish more people read Timothy Snyder, though, because he's both knowledgeable and realistic.

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    1. I certainly agree with you about Timothy Snyder. I have read Bloodlands and Black Earth and a couple others as well as his Substack posts

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  7. news sites that I use frequently:
    https://www.vox.com/
    https://www.vox.com/pages/newsletters
    https://www.politico.com/
    https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/
    https://www.newyorker.com/
    https://theintercept.com/

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  8. I'm with you, I never use tv for news. I like to read from various sources and assimilate everything myself. Victoria, aka bornfreev@gmail.com

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    1. That is a good way to manage. Sorting out conflicting interpretations usually requires more than a couple sources and more time to see what new information comes to light

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  9. I follow a number of news sources using Feedly as an RSS feed aggregator. But I only read news in the morning so I have the rest of the day to recover. If I read it in the evening, I lie awake for hours feeling sick. These days the news just makes me want to secede from the human race.

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    1. You are wise. I check Twitter in the wee hours to see what is happening at home. Then I am tired all day. AS George Carlin said, "Think how stupid the average person is and realize that half the population is stupider than that".

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    2. Okay, now you're just scaring me.

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  10. Thanks for the list of information sources. I use some already.

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  11. if America loses the war with itself to the white nationalist..we won't need any news.

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  12. I wasn't able to comment this past Tuesday. I got so busy with all my lab tests and all. This list is awesome. Thanks so much for passing it along. I just donated another $200 to WCK/Ukraine, it's not much but it is something.
    To let you know, I was so worried for you and Tonya when things started getting bad. I was hoping y'all would make it out and you did. I am so thankful you both are safe now.

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  13. Thank you for all your research. Sorry for you loss because of war. So far most of my Ukrainian are still alive by displaced. Ed Berry

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