Pekka Kallioniemi PhD, Human Computer Interaction
Chef
Tampere University Soup Central
Finland
Exposing members of the Russian government’s paid influencers program and all purveyors of Russian propaganda, Pekka Kalliomiemi is making a difference.
About :
Vatnik Soup – the Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation
Kyiv Post interviews Pekka Kallioniemi, the author about some of the shocking consequences of Russian disinformation
Donald Trump’s antagonism toward Volodymyr Zelenskyy is often framed as a recent disagreement about Ukraine aid, NATO, or the war. That explanation is wrong. Trump’s war against Zelenskyy is personal, and it began in 2019.
That year, Ukraine had just elected a new president. Zelenskyy, a political outsider running on an anti-corruption platform, promised to move Ukraine away from oligarchic politics and toward democratic accountability. For Trump, he represented leverage.
As the 2020 U.S. election approached, Trump and his emissaries pressed Ukraine to announce investigations into Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The goal was political ammunition, not justice. Trump wanted a public claim he could weaponize.
But Zelenskyy refused to play along.
Trump responded by freezing nearly $400M in congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine, assistance vital to resisting Russian aggression. The July 25, 2019 phone call made the stakes clear. Trump asked Zelenskyy for “a favor” while the aid remained on hold, reducing Ukraine’s security to a bargaining chip in his reelection campaign.
The scheme unraveled after a whistleblower alerted Congress. Trump was impeached by the House for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Although the Senate acquitted him along partisan lines, the facts were never seriously disputed. Trump had subordinated U.S. foreign policy to his own political interests, and Zelenskyy had refused to enable it.
That moment explains Trump’s continuing hostility. Zelenskyy is a reminder of a loss, a moment when pressure & threats failed.
Trump also understands that Ukraine enjoys bipartisan support in the United States & that Zelenskyy is admired by many Americans for his courage and resolve. He cannot openly oppose Ukraine without political cost. Instead, he balances between claiming to support Ukraine and its people while resisting real help for those fighting Russia’s invasion.
The contrast between the two men is stark. Trump’s politics revolve around personal legacy, enrichment, and loyalty. Power exists to reward allies, punish enemies, and protect himself.
Zelenskyy represents the opposite model. Since 2022, he has remained in Kyiv under constant threat, rejected evacuation offers, and led a country fighting for survival. His leadership is rooted not in bravado, but in empathy for soldiers, civilians, and families shattered by war.
Crucially, Zelenskyy understands something Trump never has: real leadership often ends political careers. If Ukraine survives this war, Zelenskyy’s presidency will almost certainly be his last act in politics. Reconstruction will be painful. Compromises will anger voters. Wartime unity will fracture in peacetime.
He knows this, and he leads anyway.
That is why Trump’s war against Zelenskyy endures: he embodies qualities Trump lacks and resents: integrity, courage & empathy. In 2019, Zelenskyy refused to lie for Trump.
And Trump has never forgiven him.
Comment from :
The contrast between the two is stark: One is a convicted felon who is motivated by the accumulation of obscence amounts of wealth for himself, family members, and cronies. The other is a statesman who serves his people under the most challenging circumstances. Europe is supporting the right cause.
Why would any normal person want to extend a red carpet to a confirmed war criminal. They are both past their sell-by date.
Alex Marten
The real reason for trump’s first impeachment. That and the fact that Zelenskyy is a true leader and hero. Slava Ukraini.
Graeme Oliver
A New Year’s wish for the world to see the end of the Trump/Putin regimes. We can live in hope!
Graeme Oliver : be careful what you wish for Graeme: Trump as a lame duck president or replaced by the idiot vice president and Putin could be replaced by someone even worse – a new Vlad the bad!
Pekka Kallioniemi, its not about Zelensky. Its about Trumps personal and business ties with Russia and Putin. Read: ‘ Collusion’ by Luke Harding Jörg B. Schultz, Christopher J O’Shea
And here is the Maga view, elegantly presented by :
Hey chef, your pie hole is dribbling crap! In typical fashion, your are a European liberal who hates DJT because he did not go along with the blank check Europe has been cashing for 80 plus years. It’s time for you and European friends to defend yourselves.
Quite frankly Seventy-seven million Americans could give a crap about protecting you any longer. I served and sacrificed 10 plus years of my life protecting ungreatful, arrogant idiots just like you. No more chef. Drop your pot, grab a rifle and protect yourself.
………………….
The US allegedly offers up to $100,000 to Greenlanders for joining the United States
$100,000 seems like a lot of money, but let’s do the math.
Using Danish state average benefits per person:
- Free healthcare
- Free education
- Pensions
- Unemployment & disability support
- Family & social benefits
Average value: ≈ $30,000 per person per year
So what does a one-time payment buy?
- $10,000 → ~4 months
- $50,000 → ~1.6 years
- $100,000 → ~3.3 years
Even at the maximum amount, this equals about three and a half years of Danish welfare benefits – not a lifetime, not even close. After that, you’d be without universal healthcare, free education, and the broader social safety net.
And if history is any guide, look at US-administered territories like Puerto Rico, where poverty rates are multiple times higher than in Denmark, and federal support has not prevented long-term economic insecurity.
……………….
The rise of the uncancellable
There is a new survival strategy in politics and social media: become uncancellable.
The clearest embodiment of this is Donald Trump. Nothing sticks. Not the Epstein scandal. Not 37 felony convictions. Not being found liable for sexual abuse. None of it meaningfully dented his career or his base. For his audience, reality itself is optional.
This approach didn’t appear out of nowhere. Trump was mentored early on by Roy Cohn, whose core lessons were simple: never admit fault, attack relentlessly, and frame all criticism as lies. That playbook was later weaponized for the political environment by Roger Stone and for social media by Steve Bannon, turning outrage into fuel and conflict into constant visibility.
We’re now seeing the same model replicated by prominent social media influencers.
Take Tim Pool and Benny Johnson. Both were funded by the Russian state via shell companies, a fact established by U.S. authorities. And yet, their audiences didn’t log off. They didn’t revolt. Their platforms didn’t collapse. In fact, they’re bigger than ever.
Why? Because cancellation only works if your audience still shares a common reality with your critics.
These figures operate inside tightly sealed information bubbles, amplified by algorithmic reach and platform incentives that reward engagement over accuracy. Critical reporting never penetrates. Dissent is filtered out. Everything uncomfortable is reframed as an “attack,” a “psyop,” or proof that they’re “over the target.”
This is the “just lie” doctrine: create your own reality and live in it permanently.
Comment from :
This strategy works because modern platforms are built to reward engagement, not truth. Algorithms don’t care whether something is accurate, ethical, or grounded in reality. They care whether people click, comment, argue, share, and stay angry. Confusion, outrage, and conflict reliably outperform calm explanations every single time, so the system quietly promotes whatever generates friction. Uncancellable figures understand this perfectly. They don’t try to win arguments. They try to keep the fight going. Every scandal becomes content
In an article posted yesterday by veth, headed :
“He only has one”: Trump said Zelensky “had no cards from day one”
Trump said :
“I’ve had cases where I’d already decided everything for Putin, but Zelenskyy didn’t want to make a deal, which shocked me. You saw a small example of that, sitting right here. Then there were cases where it was the other way around. I think now they both want to make a deal, but we’ll figure that out,” the politician noted.
He also answered the question of whether the US is prepared to rearm Ukraine if Putin rejects the “peace plan”:
“I don’t want to say that. I just don’t want to be in a situation where I have to say that, because I have to see if I can save lives. You know, war doesn’t cost us anything. We’re making money off of war now, and even after Biden spent $350 billion, which I think is a significant amount, you know, I made a deal.”
He still puts out the naked “$350 billion” lie without contradiction, which does incredible damage to Ukraine and is still content to flout his blatant putlerism.
In the coming days, he will attempt to again force Ukraine to give land to child-murderers.
To commenter Ken Hinson, who said :
“Hey chef, your pie hole is dribbling crap!”
He isn’t a chef, you dumb fuck, he’s a PhD who publishes Vatnik Soup, one of the best debunkers of putinaZi propaganda anywhere.