Coach Red Pill was Murdered by the US Government

I wrote the best analysis of the death of Coach Red Pill, but this piece from Tarik Cyril Amar over at RT is worth sharing some of.

(Plus it’s easy filler on a day when I am swamped with the project of trying to get the site upgraded and all fixed up.)

RT:

So, Gonzalo Lira is dead. As he warned in his last video message before being disappeared (this time, as it turned out, forever) by the Ukrainian regime, his political journalism has cost him his life.

A successful social media commentator and American citizen, Lira died while incarcerated by Ukraine’s repression apparatus for his criticism of the Western and Ukrainian position on the war against Russia. His terms were often direct, even harsh and polemical. But he was not a spy or some sort of subversive influence agent. He was transparent and open to a fault, standing with his own name – and life – for everything he said. He was a political prisoner (yes, I agree with Tucker Carlson on this one); the official Ukrainian charges against him are a ludicrous disgrace.

The immediate cause of his death is virtually certain to have been severe, prolonged, and systematic neglect, which led to his indirect killing – fully deliberate or not – by a condition (pneumonia and complications) that is perfectly treatable. In legal terms, this qualifies as, at least, manslaughter or even murder, committed by Ukrainian officers of the “law” and those issuing their orders.

According to what Lira stated when he could still communicate, he was also tortured in a more hands-on fashion, so as to plunder his personal wealth. If you know how Ukrainian politics and authorities operate, there is no reason at all to disbelieve him.

In spite of laudable efforts by fellow American citizens as prominent as Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk to help Lira, the US government made itself a de facto accessory in his killing by refusing to assist one of its own citizens who was, obviously, in extreme danger. Lira, by the way, told us he had heard from people in the know that Victoria “Neocon Cookie Monster and Queen of Coup and War” Nuland herself knew about his case and “hated his guts.”

At a time when the West is accelerating its habitual spreading of war and even genocide, it may seem almost odd to dedicate a text to a single life taken. All human lives have exactly the same absolute worth, a truth every decent person accepts and, more importantly, practices, whether religious or not. And yet, due to the way power works in our thoroughly fallen world, it does make sense to speak about Lira.

First of all, to pay our respects. It is true that Gonzalo Lira was no saint (just like the rest of us, by the way). He had things on his CV (operating as a “dating coach,” for instance) that he, like everyone else, should have had a full life to come to regret. He also had political views that I, for one, heartily disagree with, such as his own brand of libertarianism and an apologetic attitude toward Chile’s abysmal Pinochet dictatorship.

And so what? He was unusually courageous, which, in the end, cost him his life. And he had the extraordinary honesty to not only understand just how wrong the US-NATO proxy war in and via Ukraine was, but to say so loudly and very publicly. While based in Ukraine. (And full disclosure again, I had the genuine honor and pleasure to be invited onto his program on YouTube, where he was a smart and gracious host with an irreverent sense of humor.)

In a world of cowardly careerist underhandedness (looking at you, Olaf Scholz, Robert Habeck, Annalena Baerbock, for instance…) and habitual, crass lying (your turn, Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, and, yes, Vladimir Zelensky), Gonzalo hollered the truth where it mattered and it took guts.

That’s why Stella Assange, the wife of the single most important political prisoner in the world, Julian Assange, has tweeted about Lira’s death, correctly pointing out the responsibility of the US authorities.

We will never forget the Coach.

His stunning commentary such as “Ukraine is not actually a democracy” and “never stick your dick in crazy” are pieces of wisdom that will stay with me until my dying days.

Seriously though, this case is really important, because the US did basically murder a US citizen because they didn’t like his politics.

(We keep saying “US citizen” as if he was foreign born, but the situation is that his parents were from Chile and he was born in the US. So he was American born.)