John Helmer playing the antisemitic card? Or "just" a general conspiracy theory card?

That's per this piece of his from June 5, about Ukraine essentially trying to redo, or renege on, its grain export deal with Russia, which said that in exchange, a Russian ammonia pipeline (for fertilizer) to Odessa would be unblocked as well, and other reciprocal items.

Helmer's not the only, or first, person I've seen write about this. He does add more about the UN background on the deal, and about the UN allegedly putting its thumb on the Ukrainian side of the scale, starting with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres himself. And, that may include assistants at the UN Secretariat being his flunkies.

But, note one thing in this paragraph?

Reinforcing Guterres in these schemes of deceit have been his spokesman, American and Frenchman Stéphane Dujarric (Rothschild), Argentine Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); and the negotiator of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, British lawyer Martin Griffiths (lead image, right) and https://twitter.com/.

Gee, "Rothschild." Wonder how that "just slipped in there"?

Actual background of Stéphane Dujarric? His mother, née Anka Muhlstein, is the daughter of Anatol Mühlstein and Diane de Rothschild. The senior Mühlstein (Wiki has his daughter without umlaut) is also Jewish, but doesn't have a famous, "triggering" name like Rothschild. (And, yes, Diane is from the French branch of "those" Rothschilds.) Given that Dujarric has never worked for any branch of Rothschild banking, and that Helmer neither mentions family history names or previous employers of the others in that paragraph, I have little doubt he's playing "that" card."

Also sadly, the likes of Yves at Daily Capitalism was among the rebloggers/reposters of this. Besides the rebloggers, a conspiracy theory-hinting piece like this from last November was at the top of what Google retirned when I had nothing in quotes.

His response:

Oops, Sokkie -- the reference is to the long and well documented history of the Rothschild family financings of war against Russia -- French, Prussian, Japanese. Didn't you know?

— Dances_with_Bears (@bears_with) June 13, 2023

That may lessen the antisemitic angle, but given the Rothschild family has multiple branches and has financed many wars, in many cases either not involving Russia or if they did, not against Russia, it now comes off as pushing a Russian conspiracy theory. (I had the middle part of that sentence in my response to him.) For example, Nathan almost entirely financed the tail end of British effort in the War of 1812, which ... Russia was on the winning side of! (And, since the US declared war on Britain, Nathan indirectly financed the British burning Washington, DC! See how that works, John! There's even a good conspiracy theory tying THAT to the First and Second Bank of the US. 

And, tied to Russia, per a section of the Wikipedia entry on the Austrian family, this:

Further, in 2001, files involving more than 40,000 papers taken from the Rothschild family in Vienna by the Nazis, were voluntarily returned by the Russian government to them from the State Military Archive in Moscow. The Russian government inherited the papers from the Soviet Union which obtained the papers during the fall of Berlin during World War II.

Russian-favored! (I will not link to conspiracy theories that claim they financed the Bolsheviks.

Of course, although they began in France, we know where the Protocols of Zion took off. Tied to that time, World War I actually shattered Rothschild transnational fraternity. And, of course, the Nazis hammered the Austrian branch and Vichy the French branch 20 years after WWI. Otherwise, from what I can tell, read Vol 1 and Vol 2 of Niall Ferguson's family biography. Vol 2 notes that never putting a branch in the US, conspiracy theory above aside, was their downfall, relatively speaking.

In response to my nickel-version of all the above, he replied:

How kind of you -- or is it cowardly? -- to retract your anti-semitism slur by advising me how to write, and also how to read the history of "MANY wars".

— Dances_with_Bears (@bears_with) June 13, 2023

So, I fired back asking if he liked promoting Russian conspiracy theories and was thin-skinned. He's obviously not actually sorry, and doesn't seem to care what conspiracy theory he promotes.

Beyond that, the rest of the paragraph has other bits of conspiracy theory. Yes, Musk owns Starlink, but at least nominally, it's totally separate from his Twitter ownership. And, he's trying to get Warmonger Joe to pick up more of the Ukrainian Starlink bill.

Helmer is informative about the Russian side of things. But, far more than a Mark Ames, he sounds like he's sometimes in the tank. And some of his posts related to that are just silly, like this one claiming "Sweden Wants to Reverse the Battle of Poltava." Really? It's got a 300-year-old grudge? (And, June 12, per that piece was Monday; no word of the Swedes sneaking their Gripen airplane into Ukraine as of today.) 

And, if I wanted to go conspiracy theory, no wonder that, just before the fall of the USSR, it was alleged he had been recruited as a KGB agent.

Beyond that, his cohost on his analysis radio talk show, George Eliason, is a wingnut pure and simple. And, the TNT Radio that hosts both is versed in conspiracy theory.

I may unfollow him on Twitter, and likely will delist him. And, if I wanted to start conspiracy theories, I'd start one about him based on his Wiki page having a claim, rejected by other Russians, that he was once recruited as a KGB agent.

Meanwhile Mark Ames on Wednesday refuted the chuds who claim he's a Russian agent by posting on Twitter this Reuters story about Ukrainian advances and Russian casualties.