It's Yakov Smirnoff, on Joe Rogan!
I'm cuing it up to the beginning of his story of leaving the Soviet Union:
28 సెప్టెంబర్, 2026
"They would jam Voice of America, but my dad would wake up like in the middle of the night. He wanted to know what's happening out there."
"And he would sit there and listen to that quietly. And I remember as a kid, I asked dad, 'What are you listening to in the middle of the night?' And he goes, 'Shh, don't let neighbors hear us. This is Voice of America. We're not allowed to listen to it.' Wow. So, you had to keep it secret.... They would jam it during the day, but at night time, they didn't think anybody would wake up at 3:00 in the morning and sit there and listen to it.... I would then start also waking up and listening, and it would be just standard American thing: Give me your tired, your hungry, your poor.... There's a Statue of Liberty waiting to greet you if you come to the United States. And he would always say, 'You know this this would be something that I would love you to experience.' And my mom hated that because she was afraid that we'll get in trouble and so she didn't want to even talk about this. So, if I drew a picture as a kid, I would draw a picture of Statue of Liberty. And she would like, 'Don't do that. Don't let anybody see this. We'll get in trouble.'..."
పోస్ట్లు
34 కామెంట్లు:
Now we have Pravda Social.
There are young men all over the Middle East dreaming of coming to the US -- but probably for reasons different than Smirnoff's...
Soviet Union…what a country.
"There are young men all over the Middle East dreaming of coming to the US -- but probably for reasons different than Smirnoff's.."
Maybe if we stopped bombing them, and killing family members and friends they wouldn't be so angry.... Nah! That's crazy talk!
…that’s the forever dad joke innit?
The Left in the US or the USSR operate the same way. The free exchange of ideas cannot be tolerated. It must be censored. Dissidents must be destroyed.
Recall how old Twitter banned Trump for life. How Facebook suppressed dissidents. Heck, all my AMZN book reviews got disappeared because I don’t believe in CAGW.
The tyrants and authoritarians are all on the Left.
…UK, other EU, too…
Cnn and msnbc have the same function
**Maybe if we stopped bombing them, and killing family members and friends they wouldn't be so angry.... Nah! That's crazy talk!**
We were doing none of those things in 1979. Actors on the world stage have appetites interests that don't necessarily depend on what Uncle Sam is doing at the time.
Timmie has a phd in missing the point
In Soviet Union, radio listen to you!
Lol, yes Ame4ica in 2026 is known for free speech and open non-violent discussion of political issues...
Lol, over to you professor...
"We were doing none of those things in 1979."
Except that we had backed a coup in 1953 that overthrew Iran's democratically elected government and installed the Shah as their ruler, who used SAVAK to brutally maintain, though torture even, our control of their oil, which they had taken back with their election.
So many of you claim to like history, and this history is openly available to read, Project Ajax, SAVAK, even the BBC documentary A Very British Coup.
Prevented the tudeh from takingover then jfk promoted land reform get a clue
In an alternate universe, Zelenskyy has a steady gig in Branson.
"Prevented the tudeh from takingover then jfk promoted land reform get a clue"
Taking over what? Aramco's oil concessions? Is that a justification to brutalize a population for nearly three decades? Of course it is. And they should not hate us for it, we are taking their oil for their own good!
Thank you imtay for the history lesson.
Ann was busy studying art in college and meeting her husband. Nttawwt, but she is uninformed on issues of history or justice... it shows, to any independent reader...
Her parents made coffee in the war and pushed papers, so she is a true undereducated 'American, blindly loyal to the new Israel-Amerocan alliance
The kids coming up know world history not just the tripe fed to lil boomers like Annie about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree.
Critical thinking matters,
As does free speech,
And open criticism of our once tenured elites...
Don't be afraid. ✝️
I guess I should study our propaganda more carefully, accept the premises that we are presented and reason from the facts asserted by the people who drag us into wars.
"The Kennedy administration actively pushed land reform in Iran as a way to stabilize the Shah’s regime." - Grok
So it was all about keeping our puppet in power.
**Except that we had backed a coup in 1953 that overthrew Iran's democratically elected government and installed the Shah as their ruler, who used SAVAK to brutally maintain, though torture even, our control of their oil, which they had taken back with their election.**
Except nothing. You're right about one thing -- the events of 1953 happened. I was around in 1979 and the Carter administration did nothing to defend any of that history. It does not follow that the antidote to that history is the reign of terror that the mullahs have unleashed on the world since then.
Another question - who are "they" in this instance? The Persian/Iranian people? Or the mullahs?
Perhaps you can also explain how SAVAK was worse than the IRGC. Are you still pissed at Fulgencio Batista, too?
Excellent. These insiders can tell the truth about Communism. The primary is where we vote out RINOs and the election is where we vote against Commies. Commies will NEVER bring gas prices down no matter what they promise.
Imtay is an imbecile:
**Maybe if we stopped bombing them, and killing family members and friends they wouldn't be so angry.... Nah! That's crazy talk!**
We had not bombed any country when the Barbary Pirates attacked our ships and demanded a kafir tax. Since then the barbarian colonists have infested many countries killing as they go. They come to conquer and lil Timmy would like to surrender. That’s not in America’s interest.
Go cry a river over all the victims of Mohammedan violence, which is nearing Stalin and Mao proportions. Stop simping for America’s enemies, who also are Civilization’s enemies.
I miss shortwave. The end of the Cold War and the advent of the internet killed it off. The US still broadcasts (I think) to Russia, China, and Africa, but nobody broadcasts to us. One cheap receiver could give you the world -- and it didn't take over your life the way the internet did.
Yakov Smirnov should sue Gary Shteyngart for stealing his "dumb Russian" shtick.
Naw yakov was full of awe shteingart is well just full of
...
The barbarians installed a colonizer government in 1979 overthrowing the duly elected government. Tim approves of colonization by jihadists.
Tim in Vermont would prefer a Soviet take-over of information so only Israel-hate and blame can be broadcast.
The Dem - Neo-Nazi party forever!
Tim in Vermont must love the scary crap coming out of Obama's mouth.
Actual genocide in Sudan - ignored by the hack D press and I am tay tay.
Althouse perhaps it’s just me but your cue command didn’t work. If others find the same thing, the Voice of America story starts at about the 50:00 mark.
What’s really striking to me in all of this is the apparent TrumpWing cluelessness in forgetting that just a year ago, Trump and “DOGE” were doing everything they could to shut down, de-staff, and otherwise undermine Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and nearly all of USAGM. The international watchdog group State Media Monitor now, for the first time ever, classifies VOA as “state media.”
An utterly shameful turnaround from the hopeful story that Yakov Smirnov tells from 60 years ago.
And another clown steps in
Glad to see you are put of rehab, Chuck. However, you still sound really bitter and angry at Althouse.
The Shah was a bad guy, but that doesn't make the regime that replaced him the good guys. The Islamic regime's death toll is far, far higher. Their numbers of political prisoners is far, far higher. The Shah's secular authoritarian government focused on political control and modernization. The Islamic regime and it's religious laws reach much more broadly into every aspect of daily life with ongoing high levels of repression.
I don't really care what the mullah's reasons are for waging war against the US and the western world. I don't care about their grudges. I don't think that's their primary motivation anyway. I think they are motivated by their interpretation of their religion and they don't simply want to be left alone.
America has been using the the US military to fight Islamic foes and others to keep trade routes open and enforce the laws of the sea since Jefferson's time. IMO, that's what we're doing now. The current conflict with the mullah's is not the same as our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s off topic for this post, I regret, but the reason I popped back to the Althouse blog today was to check on whether Althouse had blogged this story:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1Goaai2CCH/?mibextid=wwXIfr
“Free Beer Day” has got to be the greatest euphemism of this young century. Move over, “Let’s go Brandon.”
Put the maple syrup down, Tim.
Fuck off, Chuck.
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