The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby BenDhyan » Sun Jun 09, 2019 10:30 pm

"This was a side effect of the operation's actual functions for the various parties involved in it, which was never to "illegally overthrow the Trump" "presidency." "

So if I understand you correctly, you are saying that the DS operation never meant to illegally overthrow the Trump presidency, but what is not yet clear to me, do you accept that inadvertently illegal activities did take place which AG Barr apparently is about to expose?
Ben D
User avatar
BenDhyan
 
Posts: 867
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:11 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby JackRiddler » Mon Jun 10, 2019 8:56 am

If you understand this correctly, then you understand I'm not interested in time spent engaging a simplistic and biased framing of any of this -- "DS" as if it's one thing, the "operation" as if it was one thing, your understanding of what parts were "illegal" or "inadvertant," your framing the Trump operation as if it constitutes a "presidency," your presentation of Barr (the Iran-Contra coverup man) as if he is a legitimate truthseeker without his own evident agenda, your misinterpretations or instrumentalizations of whatever I post, your transparently partisan pretense of having a non-partisan stance, etc. You and I are done here.
Last edited by JackRiddler on Mon Jun 10, 2019 10:53 am, edited 2 times in total.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 15983
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Belligerent Savant » Mon Jun 10, 2019 10:47 am

^^^^^
In agreement* with your over-arching premise(s) on this and related machinations. One query that you may opt to indulge:

"framing the Trump operation as if it constitutes a 'presidency,' "

- I offer that this same framing can apply to others. How many of his predecessors have benefited by certain manipulations to be placed in the oval office? Some more egregiously than others, surely -- a matter of degree.


*not that it matters
User avatar
Belligerent Savant
 
Posts: 5214
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:58 pm
Location: North Atlantic.
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby JackRiddler » Mon Jun 10, 2019 11:23 am

Belligerent Savant » Mon Jun 10, 2019 9:47 am wrote:^^^^^
In agreement* with your over-arching premise(s) on this and related machinations. One query that you may opt to indulge:

"framing the Trump operation as if it constitutes a 'presidency,' "

- I offer that this same framing can apply to others. How many of his predecessors have benefited by certain manipulations to be placed in the oval office? Some more egregiously than others, surely -- a matter of degree.


*not that it matters


Sure. Hard to say there's been a remotely legitimate election since that of November 22, 1963. Also hard to say there's been an actual president since Nixon. Carter tried but failed as a crisis manager. Since then the White House has mostly functioned as the entertainment office of the government. It sets some policy guidelines and provides daily drama, comedy or soap opera. Entertainment obviously remains the main WH function at this point in the Trump occupancy. It's a lightning rod, it's a safety valve, choose your metaphor.

Obscured permanent bureaucracies (most of them corporate captured), private-public boards and agencies like the Fed, spook and third-sector/corporate networks, and private contractors administrate the empire and monetary policy, run covert actions and propaganda campaigns, and bring on the successive waves of neoliberalization (class war, deregulation, privatization, rationalization measures, surveillance and ratings economy, etc.). Military and natsec contracting especially is where the federal government and the productive corporations are married, the American version of European style industrial policy and subsidy that produces technological development and of course spawned the new bleeding edge of IT (contrary to its libertarian mythology). War is the apex driver. (Rather than go into more detail than any of us need on that truism: Have you noticed the black flag that flies under the Stars and Stripes on every government flagpole? It cannot be questioned, any more than all the militaristic holidays and anthems and militarist rituals. That's the flag of our pure insanity. We the Imaginary Victims, We the Unhinged of the World.)

Having policy formulation run along so many obscured paths without either substantive public policy debate or a top-down technocracy eventually rots the substance, however. Power and wealth have never been as concentrated in class terms, with an effective 0.1% having much say left (in the absence of periodic popular upheavals). But with the real power deliberations having been invisibilized there is a separation of management from overt leadership functions, and a general fragmentation of both. This has gotten progressive worse since the end of the postwar corporate-government condominium under the New Deal rules and the advent of neoliberal "every unit for itself" ideology. (This is also partly the product of over-centralization in a single executive person-symbol that could never oversee a government or society this large and complex.) As a result, the political-economic machinery increasingly produces no plan, no systemic maintenance, no rationality.

The separation contributes to decays in cohesion and coordination, increasing loss of vision, and ever less ability to respond rationally to the various global crises. There is a lot of self-service policymaking. Foreign policy especially is an enormous machinery with many groups trying to run the show. Again, this fragmentation and to a degree competition of some groups within the allowable policymaking horizon must not be confused with the myth of "pluralism," as the minimum threshold for access has only gotten higher. More than ever running policy is a game for the uppermost classes and biggest units only, but the various players are more self-centered, more clueless, and also more scattered around the globe (metaphorically and physically) than ever before in the postwar period.

The market religion is entering a kind of endstage now where even many people who are sincere and not denying the ongoing extinction event are still incapable of imagining or proposing a way out of it that doesn't somehow spontaneously form out of aggregate marketplace choice models. The idea of society reaching a different consciousness and form through market action is taken seriously although it is far more absurd than the spontaneous formation of class consciousness in Marxist stage theory, which is mocked. The idea of a society and polity debating and deciding its investment decisions as a democracy remains inconceivable. People still seriously believe the economics religion and the idea that the market on its own somehow steers toward rational outcomes non-arbitrarily.

As a response to the 1970s crises, the Bush mob presidencies featured a kind of executive cartel or board of spook all-stars who could and did run their own war and intervention operations (of which the "Reagan presidency" was the first and most successful). They were pirates all the way, and the Trump crew is like a caricature version of the Bush mob run by hobbyists from a small town (which happens to be Forest Hills, Queens).

The Democratic occupants have been representational-inspirational careerist types pulled out of vague backgrounds and shot up to prominence very rapidly. (This is why Mayor Pete is the hidden ABB favorite for 2020.) Note the continuity of personnel between the two D phases in the neoliberal era. It is parallel to that we see with the Bush mob presidencies, really two exclusive technocrat-operator pools. Both D tenures started with the promise of "Hope and Change" (or "Change and Hope") and acted as sound managers and consolidators of the criminal achievements of their immediate predecessors. Bushes broke shit. Clinton and Obama teams provided a one-day cathartic rejection (a.k.a. "election") and then put the newly achieved barbarisms on a legal footing. If the two Ds had not been put-up jobs in the first place, they still would not have been allowed or dared to deviate from imperial-neoliberal orthodoxies. (I will contradict this a bit in the last paragraph, below.)

Alternation of parties is essential to maintaining the system, but it doesn't mean the teams don't think of themselves as real. Actual difference is essential: Rs hold large, relatively less powerful-privileged population segments hostage with genuine threats to their rights and livelihoods, as well as a drumbeat of constant rhetorical attacks and contempt. That allows Ds to offer alternatives at least in the social rights realm that may be lousy or minor, or genuine but insufficient, but objectively mean a degree less brutalization. This creates hostage voting clienteles, and as we expect, the hostages come to love it or lump it since they have precious little choice. (Note: They don't, really.) Rs then get to woo the ethnic majority with identity politics and appeals to white male victimology. The R ideology requires a lot more propping in this scheme. It is relatively idiotic, repulsive, atavastic, militarist, mystic and irrational. It is a laughable desecration of the family and tradition it claims to represent, since the answer is always to let business do what it wants, and business wants to cannibalize family and tradition. The R ideology is also indispensable. It has to figure as the American bedrock against which all else, even the Ds, appear either as crisis responses or foreign viruses. The Ds can only work if their constituent groups fear the Rs more than they want basic social justice. The Rs have to look stronger, always. (#Russiagate was a guaranteed loser -- well, unless it had actually been true, but there was never fear of that -- because it fought on the accustomed Republican battleground.)

The corporate media and culture reinforce this dichotomy in every way; there are two basic approaches to politics and life, no more, and their names are "liberal" and "conservative." These exhaust the legitimate possibilities and exist in a permanent antagonism. At the same time, confusionism must also reign: everything must be labeled as its opposite and then relabeled as the opposite of that, ad infinitum, until none of the labels can actually describe political things accurately. The corporate media and hegemonic culture institutions like Hollywood play as "liberal" in style (in which "liberal" is rarely or never distinguished from "left"), and many of them also frequently apologize for it (as if this show element is true). This effectively legitimates the false idea that the "real American" majority is right wing and under siege and the know-it-alls on the coasts are trying to fool or coax them into being less American. The late Sixties script is flipped, has in fact been flipped ever since the late Sixties: Reactionaries and supremacist blowhards are revolutionary outsiders attacking the establishment. This has now reached an unprecedented apogee in which the leading PR product of the ruling class ideology of recent decades -- literally the guy who most often played and was recognized as a self-made billionaire businessman on television -- is presented as the establishment slayer. Meanwhile institutional conservatives get to be portrayed as "liberals" or "the left." People who would be leftist if they could figure out where that even lay end up as staunch republican constitutionalists. (This is never perfect and currently there is an outbreak of genuine labor and immigrant organizing, as in the early 21st C. there was an antiwar wave.)

Ultimately the clowns at the presidential top have the main function of putting on a show, and all of them will sooner or later hang medals around each others' necks. That's generally true to me, but it does not mean that important policy, political signaling and war pushes cannot originate with the WH occupant. I think Trump demonstrates that these can, more than Obama did; but Obama genuinely had less room, not so much because of who held Congress as because D party products are always much more precarious and subject to rapid demolition if they fuck up. Teflon is for Rs only. They come from money. Also conceivable is a Roosevelt option: i.e. the office can again be used as a genuine executive by some future person (who may have to wear not just a vest but the Iron Man suit to survive it this time).

.
Last edited by JackRiddler on Mon Jun 10, 2019 6:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 15983
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Belligerent Savant » Mon Jun 10, 2019 2:16 pm

.

Glad the query inspired such a thorough, well-conceived reply.

Yours is a foundational overview, in many respects a necessary preface to any conversations related to current -- or historical -- political affairs Stateside.

Thanks for sharing this.
User avatar
Belligerent Savant
 
Posts: 5214
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:58 pm
Location: North Atlantic.
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby BenDhyan » Mon Jun 10, 2019 7:53 pm

My sometimes friend Jack, I am not the partisan you imagine me to be, for there are things about the Trump presidency I feel could be in error and other things I think may be appropriate. For example, I do not think the US should be trying to bring about regime change in Syria, Venezuela, Iran, or support Israeli territorial expansion. Regardless, I will try and respect your desire for me to not engage you further for now. :praybow
Ben D
User avatar
BenDhyan
 
Posts: 867
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:11 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:35 am

Thanks, Belligerent, and thank you for your understanding, BD.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 15983
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Elvis » Thu Jun 13, 2019 11:11 pm

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/13/73232085 ... in-the-u-s

NY Times cybersecurity correspondent Nicole Perlroth says...

...the danger of the Internet is that criminals and nation-states route these attacks through servers all around the globe. And attributing them to one group or one nation-state can take a very long time. And in some cases, it's just impossible.



Therefore...if the source can be figured out in a very short time, then the clues were almost certainly "put there to be found," to mislead investigators; did the NY Times ever print that part of the equation?


NYTimes RUSSIA.jpg
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” ― Joan Robinson
User avatar
Elvis
 
Posts: 7411
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:24 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby RocketMan » Sun Jun 16, 2019 4:45 pm

I have to say I almost did a spit take when THE NEW YORK TIMES reported that the US is ramping up its efforts to infiltrate the Russian power grid. And Trump is apparently being kept in the dark on essential parts of the operation for fear that the will blab about it to some foreign leader or, heaven forfend, overrule those running the op. Jesus Fucking Christ.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
-I don't like hoodlums.
-That's just a word, Marlowe. We have that kind of world. Two wars gave it to us and we are going to keep it.
User avatar
RocketMan
 
Posts: 2812
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:02 am
Location: By the rivers dark
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Elvis » Sun Jun 16, 2019 6:53 pm

If Trump hears about this (can Fox ignore it?) he'll be livid. Let the fun begin. We know who'd win this one.
“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” ― Joan Robinson
User avatar
Elvis
 
Posts: 7411
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:24 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby JackRiddler » Sun Jun 16, 2019 8:17 pm

Your Daily War Propaganda IQ Puzzler

1. Pentagon and intelligence "sources" told their favorite mouthpiece at The New York Times, David Sanger, that the military is conducting “deployment of American computer code” that "can be used for surveillance or attack inside the Russian [electric power] grid."

2. For the moment, the Times has headlined this story honestly: "U.S. Escalates Online Attacks on Russia’s Power Grid." (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/us/p ... -grid.html).

3. Now don't tell anyone you read this, okay? It is a secret! It is so very secret - burn before reading! - that the "sources" say they try not to tell Trump anything about it, because he might reveal it to the Russians, who get all their information from him. Poor "sources." All they can do is tell The New York Times. Now you readers know to keep quiet, and say nothing about it to Trump. Or Putin. Okay? (CHILDREN! CLAP YOUR HANDS SO THAT TRUMP DOESN'T HEAR US!)

4. "Sources" also tell the Times it's better not to let the President know about this, because he might "countermand" the program. Watch out: this guy's so unhinged, he occasionally believes he's the elected civilian executive of the federal government with authority to order our blessed military not to attack Russian power grids whenever they decide to do so. (TREASON!)

5. No worries, says the Times, Orange Guy approved an executive order last year, which he must have signed when he wasn't reading, "a still-classified document known as National Security Presidential Memoranda 13, giving General Nakasone [of the Pentagon's Cyber Command] far more leeway to conduct offensive online operations without receiving presidential approval." Also, "the military authorization bill passed by Congress last summer... approved the routine conduct of 'clandestine military activity' in cyberspace, to 'deter, safeguard or defend against attacks or malicious cyberactivities against the United States.' Under the law, those actions can now be authorized by the defense secretary without special presidential approval," writes the Times.

6. This is an act of war, the same one we have been told repeatedly the insidious Russians have been doing to the U.S. in recent years. Wait, it may not actually be true that the Russian state ever did this, but "sources" have told us that Russians might like to do it, or conceivably could do it, because it can be imagined. Macedonian teenagers could also do it, so why not Russians? And if they were to have done it, it would have been an act of war, by golly! We'd better retaliate preemptively, before they get any ideas. Right? (They're Russians, for chrissakes. What are you, a Putin lover?)

Can you solve today's puzzler? Send your answers to bestandbrightest@willbelieveanything.pwn

SOLUTION TO YESTERDAY'S PUZZLER: Team Bolton with an MEK missile in the Japanese tanker. (Message to Abe: Your peace plan sleeps with the fishes.)

JUNE 15, 2019 6:31PM ET

Pentagon Keeps Trump in the Dark About its Cyber Attacks on Russia
“Intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with [the president] about operations,” the report said


By PETER WADE

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... ia-848695/
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 15983
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby JackRiddler » Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:06 am

This is fucking spectacular.

Every one of the sources is linked if you want to check.

March 27, 2019
A Very Incomplete List of Sinister Things Vladimir Putin/Russia/‘the Russians’ Have Been Accused of Doing

According to the finest minds of Western media and political life, “The Russians” have been responsible for everything from sowing discord with sex toys to weaponizing humor, sexual assault allegations, and “black America’s experiences.”

Editor’s note: A friend of the site has been keeping tabs on everything that Russia, “The Russians,” and Vladimir Putin have been blamed for in the past two years or so. We thought this list was a perfect window into the hysteria of Russiagate and published it with a few additions of our own.

Forcing Donald Trump to hire Rex Tillerson (Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law professor).

Forcing Donald Trump to fire Rex Tillerson (Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law professor, eight days later).

Forcing Donald Trump to give concessions to North Korea (Rachel Maddow, MSNBC anchor).

Meddling in the 2018 Italian parliamentary election (George Soros, billionaire; Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former president of Denmark, former secretary general of NATO; and Michael Chertoff, former U.S. secretary of homeland security).

Winning the 2018 Italian parliamentary election (Haaretz, The Hill).

Hacking the 2017 French presidential election (Michael Rogers, NSA director, Politico, numerous other outlets).

No, really, hacking the 2017 French presidential election (Jamie Raskin, U.S. congressman, after French government denied Russian involvement, stating the hack was “so simple it could have practically been anyone”).

Brexit (New York Times, numerous other outlets).

Helping rise of far-right AfD party in the 2017 German election (Time).

Causing the 2019 U.S. government shutdown (Haaretz).

Making the New York Times editorial board criticize Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko (Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine).

Weaponizing sexual assault accusations in order to attack Kremlin critics (George Takei, Kremlin critic accused of sexual assault).

Weaponizing information (Theresa May, UK prime minister).

Weaponizing misinformation (NPR).

Weaponizing the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe (Philip Breedlove, U.S. general, NATO, John McCain, U.S. senator).

Weaponizing humor (CNN, BBC).

Weaponizing “black America’s experiences” (Slate).

Using the popular cartoon Masha and the Bear as “soft propaganda” to indoctrinate British children (The Times of London).

“Promoting sex toys on Instagram to sow discord in the US” (Quartz).

Influencing the Standing Rock movement (Buzzfeed).

Making “‘useful idiots’ of unwitting environmental groups and activists” (U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology).

Targeting the U.S. embassy in Cuba with “some kind of microwave weapon, that is so sophisticated, that the Americans don’t even fully understand it” (Ken Dilanian, MSNBC reporter) [The microwave weapon turned out to be crickets. As in actual insects].

“Infiltrating” America’s Christian conservative homeschooling movement (Casey Michel, Think Progress).

Inflaming “race wars” across America with Facebook ads (Julia Ioffe, The Atlantic).

Assassinating self-exiled Russian journalist Sergei Babchenko (Ukrainian government) [Babchenko turned up alive the following day and revealed that he had faked his death in cooperation with Ukraine’s security services].

Whatever the hell Jonathan Chait was trying to explain with a Glenn Becksian diagram – “a plausible theory of mind-boggling collusion” (Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine).

Arming the Taliban (John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan; Nick Patton Walsh, CNN) [Nicholson’s claim was debunked by a two star US general speaking under oath. The report by Patton Walsh was thoroughly demolished by Task and Purpose].

Employing U.S. senator Rand Paul (John McCain, U.S. senator).

Interfering in the Catalan referendum (US Congressional Democrats).

Planning to interfere in Israel’s 2019 elections (Israeli Shin Bet General Security Service).

Recruiting Princeton/NYU professor emeritus Stephen F. Cohen to influence U.S. policy (Bill Browder, CEO Hermitage Capital) [Browder’s tweet was deleted after people pointed out that casually calling for Americans to be investigated by the FBI is not a good idea].

Funding The Intercept (Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and DNC head).

Spreading disinformation about Ukrainian neo-Nazis carrying out Roma pogroms (Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and DNC head).

Inflaming the NFL kneeling controversy “to make a big issue seem like an even bigger issue” (James Lankford, U.S. senator).

Inflaming ICE detaining immigrant children in cages controversy – “using the current family separation & immigration debate to sow discord among Americans” (James Lankford, U.S. senator).

Orchestrating the mailing of pipe bombs to Democratic lawmakers and liberal figures (Chuck Todd, MSNBC anchor).

Tricking Guardian journalist Luke Harding into writing a questionable, thinly-sourced story in order to make it look like Harding is an untrustworthy journalist (“Alex Finley”, ex-CIA officer writing under fake name).

Using “Soviet-era tricks to evoke racist white fears” (Terrell Starr, Washington Post).

Harvesting “American rage to reshape U.S. politics” (New York Times).

Dividing America (New York Times).

Using “vaccine debate to sow discord” (New York Times).

Sowing discord in the 2018 elections (Dan Coats, director of national intelligence).

Targeting African-Americans to suppress 2016 election turnout (New York Times).

Amplifying “existing divisions in American society” (USA Today).

Hacking “the mindset of the American people” (Malcolm Nance, MSNBC contributor and grown man).

Tricking Americans into thinking Jesus hates Hillary Clinton (New York Times).

Supporting Bernie Sanders (New Knowledge, which was later caught interfering in the 2017 Alabama Senate election).

Tricking Americans into voting for Bernie Sanders, via Facebook ads featuring drawing of buff Bernie Sanders (New York Times).

Turning Jill Stein into a Russian agent (Zac Petkanas, Democratic strategist, former Hillary Clinton campaign director of rapid response).

Is Putin using his influence to support/oppose [insert whatever you want here]? You’re probably right! For more information, please contact the appropriate Putin disinformation warriors:

Anything that can be sprinkled with meaningless terms like “active measures,” “useful idiot,” and “kompromat” and repackaged as expert analysis – Atlantic Council’s Disinfo Portal.

Things even the Atlantic Council won’t touch – Louise Mensch.

Game Theory – Eric Garland.

The Grayzone
The Grayzone is an online news website dedicated to original investigative journalism, news, and analysis, edited by award-winning journalist Max Blumenthal.
https://thegrayzone.com

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 15983
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby liminalOyster » Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:58 am

JackRiddler » Mon Jun 17, 2019 9:06 am wrote:This is fucking spectacular.

Every one of the sources is linked if you want to check.

March 27, 2019
A Very Incomplete List of Sinister Things Vladimir Putin/Russia/‘the Russians’ Have Been Accused of Doing

According to the finest minds of Western media and political life, “The Russians” have been responsible for everything from sowing discord with sex toys to weaponizing humor, sexual assault allegations, and “black America’s experiences.”

Editor’s note: A friend of the site has been keeping tabs on everything that Russia, “The Russians,” and Vladimir Putin have been blamed for in the past two years or so. We thought this list was a perfect window into the hysteria of Russiagate and published it with a few additions of our own.

Forcing Donald Trump to hire Rex Tillerson (Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law professor).

Forcing Donald Trump to fire Rex Tillerson (Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law professor, eight days later).

Forcing Donald Trump to give concessions to North Korea (Rachel Maddow, MSNBC anchor).

Meddling in the 2018 Italian parliamentary election (George Soros, billionaire; Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former president of Denmark, former secretary general of NATO; and Michael Chertoff, former U.S. secretary of homeland security).

Winning the 2018 Italian parliamentary election (Haaretz, The Hill).

Hacking the 2017 French presidential election (Michael Rogers, NSA director, Politico, numerous other outlets).

No, really, hacking the 2017 French presidential election (Jamie Raskin, U.S. congressman, after French government denied Russian involvement, stating the hack was “so simple it could have practically been anyone”).

Brexit (New York Times, numerous other outlets).

Helping rise of far-right AfD party in the 2017 German election (Time).

Causing the 2019 U.S. government shutdown (Haaretz).

Making the New York Times editorial board criticize Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko (Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine).

Weaponizing sexual assault accusations in order to attack Kremlin critics (George Takei, Kremlin critic accused of sexual assault).

Weaponizing information (Theresa May, UK prime minister).

Weaponizing misinformation (NPR).

Weaponizing the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe (Philip Breedlove, U.S. general, NATO, John McCain, U.S. senator).

Weaponizing humor (CNN, BBC).

Weaponizing “black America’s experiences” (Slate).

Using the popular cartoon Masha and the Bear as “soft propaganda” to indoctrinate British children (The Times of London).

“Promoting sex toys on Instagram to sow discord in the US” (Quartz).

Influencing the Standing Rock movement (Buzzfeed).

Making “‘useful idiots’ of unwitting environmental groups and activists” (U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology).

Targeting the U.S. embassy in Cuba with “some kind of microwave weapon, that is so sophisticated, that the Americans don’t even fully understand it” (Ken Dilanian, MSNBC reporter) [The microwave weapon turned out to be crickets. As in actual insects].

“Infiltrating” America’s Christian conservative homeschooling movement (Casey Michel, Think Progress).

Inflaming “race wars” across America with Facebook ads (Julia Ioffe, The Atlantic).

Assassinating self-exiled Russian journalist Sergei Babchenko (Ukrainian government) [Babchenko turned up alive the following day and revealed that he had faked his death in cooperation with Ukraine’s security services].

Whatever the hell Jonathan Chait was trying to explain with a Glenn Becksian diagram – “a plausible theory of mind-boggling collusion” (Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine).

Arming the Taliban (John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan; Nick Patton Walsh, CNN) [Nicholson’s claim was debunked by a two star US general speaking under oath. The report by Patton Walsh was thoroughly demolished by Task and Purpose].

Employing U.S. senator Rand Paul (John McCain, U.S. senator).

Interfering in the Catalan referendum (US Congressional Democrats).

Planning to interfere in Israel’s 2019 elections (Israeli Shin Bet General Security Service).

Recruiting Princeton/NYU professor emeritus Stephen F. Cohen to influence U.S. policy (Bill Browder, CEO Hermitage Capital) [Browder’s tweet was deleted after people pointed out that casually calling for Americans to be investigated by the FBI is not a good idea].

Funding The Intercept (Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and DNC head).

Spreading disinformation about Ukrainian neo-Nazis carrying out Roma pogroms (Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and DNC head).

Inflaming the NFL kneeling controversy “to make a big issue seem like an even bigger issue” (James Lankford, U.S. senator).

Inflaming ICE detaining immigrant children in cages controversy – “using the current family separation & immigration debate to sow discord among Americans” (James Lankford, U.S. senator).

Orchestrating the mailing of pipe bombs to Democratic lawmakers and liberal figures (Chuck Todd, MSNBC anchor).

Tricking Guardian journalist Luke Harding into writing a questionable, thinly-sourced story in order to make it look like Harding is an untrustworthy journalist (“Alex Finley”, ex-CIA officer writing under fake name).

Using “Soviet-era tricks to evoke racist white fears” (Terrell Starr, Washington Post).

Harvesting “American rage to reshape U.S. politics” (New York Times).

Dividing America (New York Times).

Using “vaccine debate to sow discord” (New York Times).

Sowing discord in the 2018 elections (Dan Coats, director of national intelligence).

Targeting African-Americans to suppress 2016 election turnout (New York Times).

Amplifying “existing divisions in American society” (USA Today).

Hacking “the mindset of the American people” (Malcolm Nance, MSNBC contributor and grown man).

Tricking Americans into thinking Jesus hates Hillary Clinton (New York Times).

Supporting Bernie Sanders (New Knowledge, which was later caught interfering in the 2017 Alabama Senate election).

Tricking Americans into voting for Bernie Sanders, via Facebook ads featuring drawing of buff Bernie Sanders (New York Times).

Turning Jill Stein into a Russian agent (Zac Petkanas, Democratic strategist, former Hillary Clinton campaign director of rapid response).

Is Putin using his influence to support/oppose [insert whatever you want here]? You’re probably right! For more information, please contact the appropriate Putin disinformation warriors:

Anything that can be sprinkled with meaningless terms like “active measures,” “useful idiot,” and “kompromat” and repackaged as expert analysis – Atlantic Council’s Disinfo Portal.

Things even the Atlantic Council won’t touch – Louise Mensch.

Game Theory – Eric Garland.

The Grayzone
The Grayzone is an online news website dedicated to original investigative journalism, news, and analysis, edited by award-winning journalist Max Blumenthal.
https://thegrayzone.com



This is marvelous af. First, because it's a wonderful map of what are likely US mil/intel/industrial best practices and Second, because it proves itself - I can tragically guarantee that sending it to many/most friends/family will have literally zero impact when breaking news reveal Putin's secret gold hot tub is unilaterally responsible for climate catastrophe.
"It's not rocket surgery." - Elvis
User avatar
liminalOyster
 
Posts: 1873
Joined: Thu May 05, 2016 10:28 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby JackRiddler » Sun Jul 21, 2019 11:33 am

Luther! Great to see you!

Luther Blissett » Wed Jul 17, 2019 10:50 pm wrote:Must be really weird to be the kid who did this, likely their only stickup to accidentally escalate, and then have the deed plastered all over the world as a vehicle of intrigue. Must be weird to know that at least 30% of the population would disbelieve your voluntary confession should you make one.


You know something?

This is possible.

Life also works this way.

At your use of 30%, I thought, yeah, that's about the odds in my mind of the scenario you describe - Rich was murdered in a mugging. That is my Bayesian guess, in the absence of access to evidence, based only on my assessment of statements as published by various parties, my sniff test, fwiw, etc. etc.

It's also possible that the DNC leak was a leak, as Binney and McGovern say, and not a Russian hack, as the Crowdstrike firm claims, and yet had nothing to do with the Rich matter, which could have still been a mugging.

The convergence suggests a link but is not definitive. Or dispositive, as the legals say.

It is definitely more interesting & worth taking seriously as a possibility to investigate than the nonsensical sophistry with which the OP of this thread attempts to dismiss the whole idea as yet another "Russian" invention, based on nothing whatsoever.

You want to know what evidence can never be ignored, because it is the contextual surrounding for all of this? The awesome effort and moraline and rhetorical bullying and inverted thinking invested in the construction of #Russiagate out of obviously low-grade bullshit mixed with megatons of hot air, occurring for about three years across all corporate media outlets minus FOX, enlisting countless freelancers hoping to make a career of it like Confessed FBI Informant Marcy Wheeler, including so many spooks and spook-connected think-tanks and dodgy "institutes," and turning a former FBI chief and WMD co-conspirator into a liberal saint.

The waging of this broad-based multi-centered propaganda campaign, comparable in the transparency of its falsehood only to the Red Scares of the past, is certainly sufficient to take all official statements regarding the DNC/Clinton leak-or-hacks and other supposedly "Russian" operations as false until declared otherwise by the unanimous verdict of a randomly chosen international historians' commission, all of whom were born at least ten years from today, who will be given full access to all conceivable evidence, logs from the vatted brains of the principals, and a technology that allows them to observe any and all past events.

Notwithstanding that many of your 30% would be thinking as they do solely because of political team allegiance, does it surprise you that some will never believe the official story on this matter, even upon the confession of a perpetrator? Is it really in any way to their discredit?

.

(cross-posting from the thread about how Confessed FBI Informant Marcy Wheeler and veteran MIC-propaganda shoveler Isikoff have assured all that if you think, for any reason, that the Seth Rich murder might conceivably not have been committed in the course of a random street mugging, then your thoughts are solely the product of a Russian operation to brainwash your very weak and susceptible mind, as proven by the smoking gun evidence that an anonymous entity that could have been a Russian once posted this untrue thing on a board somewhere on the Internet, QED!!! QEDFTW!!!!!!!!)
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 15983
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Spiro C. Thiery » Sat Jul 27, 2019 11:01 am

Seeing the world through rose-colored latex.
User avatar
Spiro C. Thiery
 
Posts: 546
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:58 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

PreviousNext

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 33 guests