This blog is a mix of politics, humor and far-out philosophical musings.
I start with some Loudon Wainwright III political humor to prepare
myself for what's to come from President Trump, Religious Right,
Putin, Netanyahu, Alex-ander "Zoolander" Jones.
"In Russia, farms of online trolls systematically harass democratic
voices and spread false information on the Internet and on social
media" - Eric Schmidt CEO, Alphabet (Google)
The above is far from confined to only Russia's local internet...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/17/how-pro-trump-twitter-bots-spread-fake-
news.html?via=desktop&source=twitter...Gideon Resnick
The Paranoid Style As Weaponized Disinformation:
"In fact, the idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would
have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were
applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the
use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal
people that makes the phenomenon significant."
...The Paranoid Style in American Politics”, Richard Hofstadter, 1964
http://www.cjr.org/analysis/breitbart-media-trump-harvard-study.php
From the above Columbia Journalism Review March 3, 2017:
"What we find in our data is a network of mutually-reinforcing hyper-
partisan sites that revive what Richard Hofstadter called “the paranoid
style in American politics,” combining decontextualized truths,
repeated falsehoods, and leaps of logic to create a fundamentally
misleading view of the world."
"“Fake news,” which implies made of whole cloth by politically
disinterested parties out to make a buck of Facebook advertising
dollars, rather than propaganda and disinformation, is not an
adequate term. By repetition, variation, and circulation through
many associated sites, the network of sites make their claims
familiar to readers, and this fluency with the core narrative gives
credence to the incredible" ...benkler-faris-roberts-and-zuckerman,
Columbia Journalism Review
have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were
applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the
use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal
people that makes the phenomenon significant."
...The Paranoid Style in American Politics”, Richard Hofstadter, 1964
http://www.cjr.org/analysis/breitbart-media-trump-harvard-study.php
From the above Columbia Journalism Review March 3, 2017:
"What we find in our data is a network of mutually-reinforcing hyper-
partisan sites that revive what Richard Hofstadter called “the paranoid
style in American politics,” combining decontextualized truths,
repeated falsehoods, and leaps of logic to create a fundamentally
misleading view of the world."
"“Fake news,” which implies made of whole cloth by politically
disinterested parties out to make a buck of Facebook advertising
dollars, rather than propaganda and disinformation, is not an
adequate term. By repetition, variation, and circulation through
many associated sites, the network of sites make their claims
familiar to readers, and this fluency with the core narrative gives
credence to the incredible" ...benkler-faris-roberts-and-zuckerman,
Columbia Journalism Review
Ashton B. Carter lashed out at Russia on Wednesday, accusing the
government of President Vladimir V. Putin of demonstrating a “clear
ambition to erode” international order and warning Russia to stay
out of the American elections. Russia plainly ignored that admonition."
https://www.buzzfeed.com/miriamelder/trumps-critics-are-letting-the-
bigger-russia-story-slide?utm_term=.ivkEvpYmK#.hcPWrde61
THE UNPOSSIBLE FILES:
IMO, this has been happening for a decade. Russian troll network
disinformation merging their message with elements of the U.S.
and Israeli Religious Right, the Trump friendly National Enquirer,
Murdoch media empire (worldwide tabloids, Fox “News”),
Alex Jones intentionally or unintelionally merged with Russian
troll farm disinformation long before prominent Republican/
libertarians like civilian Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, Rudy
Giuliani, Ralph Peters, Gen. Mike Flynn, Rep. Steve King,
Franklin Graham, Jim Bakker and the religious right praised
Putin in 2014 for his moral and political leadership. How many
other elected Republican conservatives like then newly elected
Senator Rand Paul lent the power and influence of their office
and family to aid Russia and undermine the Obama administration
in 2013? The same year contractor Ed Snowden gave away the
NSA store to Russia where he now lives.
GOP Senators and Representatives like Dana Rohrbacher hiding
support and influence due to negative impacts on future election
chances? IMO, influential Republican proxies and electeds
like those named are likely years ahead of Mueller’s investigation
into Russia’s influence on the 2016 election. Russia, who wanted
to be caught undermining U.S. elections will, IMO, arrange for
people to be killed and actual evidence implicating Trump made
to be deniable. I wish Mueller luck. Snowden journalist, Russia
defender and new Fox News star guest Glenn Greenwald appears
confident when on Fox News. He has been low profile lately in
early 2018 for good reason. Maybe he’ll go on to have his own
show if collusion charges aren’t proved.
Putin is Christian. At least he says he is. The aforementioned
more than take his word while in 2014 they questioned their
own leader's religion and citizenship. None dare call it_____(guess).
disinformation merging their message with elements of the U.S.
and Israeli Religious Right, the Trump friendly National Enquirer,
Murdoch media empire (worldwide tabloids, Fox “News”),
Alex Jones intentionally or unintelionally merged with Russian
troll farm disinformation long before prominent Republican/
libertarians like civilian Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, Rudy
Giuliani, Ralph Peters, Gen. Mike Flynn, Rep. Steve King,
Franklin Graham, Jim Bakker and the religious right praised
Putin in 2014 for his moral and political leadership. How many
other elected Republican conservatives like then newly elected
Senator Rand Paul lent the power and influence of their office
and family to aid Russia and undermine the Obama administration
in 2013? The same year contractor Ed Snowden gave away the
NSA store to Russia where he now lives.
GOP Senators and Representatives like Dana Rohrbacher hiding
support and influence due to negative impacts on future election
chances? IMO, influential Republican proxies and electeds
like those named are likely years ahead of Mueller’s investigation
into Russia’s influence on the 2016 election. Russia, who wanted
to be caught undermining U.S. elections will, IMO, arrange for
people to be killed and actual evidence implicating Trump made
to be deniable. I wish Mueller luck. Snowden journalist, Russia
defender and new Fox News star guest Glenn Greenwald appears
confident when on Fox News. He has been low profile lately in
early 2018 for good reason. Maybe he’ll go on to have his own
show if collusion charges aren’t proved.
Putin is Christian. At least he says he is. The aforementioned
more than take his word while in 2014 they questioned their
own leader's religion and citizenship. None dare call it_____(guess).
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-13/will-putin-
and-trump-bond-over-oil
What else do all of them have in common? Many are funded by oil
and might want the price of same to go to "at least" $100 a bbl. to
bailout oil economies of Texas, Alaska, Oklahoma, Russia, Iran,
Saudi Arabia and Russia friendly Venezuela. Putin’s Russia wants
Antarctica to melt for it's oil which means, at least for them and for
oil red states, global warming doesn't exist. They all know that it's
caused by humans but economics causes them to "unknow" and
deny that which is inconvenient. Like facts.
Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas doesn't look like a genius
promoting tax cuts and supply-side economics for his state.
He recently quit as Governor to take a job with the Trump
administration. It doesn't hurt that his state of Kansas is the
Koch Brothers home base. The right wing put their faith in oil,
in Putin, Koch, Exxon CEO and former Sec. of State, Rex Tillerson,
in Donald Fucking Trump and, last but not least, in fear and doom
ultra-nationalism. A potent combination. A vindication of Czar Putin,
Trump's financial, cyberpathic hacking and financial backer of last resort.
They won. They lost the popular vote (again) but they won.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/documents-show-how-russias-
troll-army-hit-america?utm_term=.jk5zk40jLb#.tjb1wYQJ26
"In a report dated May 21, Internet Research Agency commercial troll-army-hit-america?utm_term=.jk5zk40jLb#.tjb1wYQJ26
director Svetlana Boiko discussed the progress of the trolling
project’s $75,000 trial period, which began April 10. The report
says that during that period, the trolls left more than 2,500
comments on 30 different news websites, tweeted 1,220 times
from 12 accounts, wrote 85 Facebook posts, posted 175 times
in an unspecified number of forums, and made five bizarre
YouTube videos attacking the U.S. government."
"Bizarre" YT videos attacking U.S. government? Deliberately
using "bizarre" "paranoid modes of expression" as a means of
spreading not misinformation but disinformation by Psy-war
troll farm networks whose deliberately demented content is
offset by shear numbers of You Tube channels, deliberately
psychotic You Tube supporting comments and further offset
by officious British accented narrators. Thousands of bogus
"alternative" YT channels, fake comments, blogs, fake news,
bogus forums (Above Top Secret) and websites with "news
government (always stating or implying the U.S. government
not the Russian Big Brother surveillance state) doesn't
want you to know."
That last is now referred to as U.S. Cold War paranoid
McCarthyism by so-called journalistic gatekeepers like
Glenn Greenwald and Max Blumenthal. The term
Russophobia is seen in what's left of comment sections
used with exaggerated formality, feigned insult and pointed
accusing finger of fake political correctness thrown back at
US liberals. Only slightly exaggerated: "At the end of the day sir,
have you no shame with your insulting Russophobic baseless
accusations. Where's your proof? It is indeed a sad day."
IOW, trolling Joe McCarthy beyond satire and sarcasm.
Which aligns perfectly with the Greenwald defense of Russia
when he repeats the charge of McCarthyism over and over at
anyone who dares say the word collusion.
using "bizarre" "paranoid modes of expression" as a means of
spreading not misinformation but disinformation by Psy-war
troll farm networks whose deliberately demented content is
offset by shear numbers of You Tube channels, deliberately
psychotic You Tube supporting comments and further offset
by officious British accented narrators. Thousands of bogus
"alternative" YT channels, fake comments, blogs, fake news,
bogus forums (Above Top Secret) and websites with "news
government (always stating or implying the U.S. government
not the Russian Big Brother surveillance state) doesn't
want you to know."
That last is now referred to as U.S. Cold War paranoid
McCarthyism by so-called journalistic gatekeepers like
Glenn Greenwald and Max Blumenthal. The term
Russophobia is seen in what's left of comment sections
used with exaggerated formality, feigned insult and pointed
accusing finger of fake political correctness thrown back at
US liberals. Only slightly exaggerated: "At the end of the day sir,
have you no shame with your insulting Russophobic baseless
accusations. Where's your proof? It is indeed a sad day."
IOW, trolling Joe McCarthy beyond satire and sarcasm.
Which aligns perfectly with the Greenwald defense of Russia
when he repeats the charge of McCarthyism over and over at
anyone who dares say the word collusion.
FROM THE ABOVE 2014 BUZZFEED LINK
(prelude to much wider coverage):
(prelude to much wider coverage):
"Russia’s campaign to shape international opinion around
its invasion of Ukraine has extended to recruiting and training
a new cadre of online trolls that have been deployed to spread
the Kremlin’s message on the comments section of top
American websites."
"Plans attached to emails leaked by a mysterious Russian
hacker collective show IT managers reporting on a new
ideological front against the West in the comments
sections of Fox News, Huffington Post, The Blaze, Politico,
and WorldNetDaily." (Fake newspeak: "shocking, appalling
and cause for concern")
"The bizarre hive of social media activity appears
to be part of a two-pronged Kremlin campaign to
claim control over the internet, launching a million-
dollar army of trolls to mold American public
opinion as it cracks down on internet freedom at home."
its invasion of Ukraine has extended to recruiting and training
a new cadre of online trolls that have been deployed to spread
the Kremlin’s message on the comments section of top
American websites."
"Plans attached to emails leaked by a mysterious Russian
hacker collective show IT managers reporting on a new
ideological front against the West in the comments
sections of Fox News, Huffington Post, The Blaze, Politico,
and WorldNetDaily." (Fake newspeak: "shocking, appalling
and cause for concern")
"The bizarre hive of social media activity appears
to be part of a two-pronged Kremlin campaign to
claim control over the internet, launching a million-
dollar army of trolls to mold American public
opinion as it cracks down on internet freedom at home."
Not to mention an army of Russian hackers and trolls
influencing the 2016 elections with help from the RNC,
Wikileaks, and DNC incompetence in failing to heed
repeated FBI phone calls in Sept 2015 that high ranking
DNC computers and emails had been breached.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-
hack-election-dnc.html?
_r=0
https://newrepublic.com/article/138019/right-giving-democracy
Explaining evangelical support for Trump via Jeet Heer of
The New Republic: "More recently, a virtual Vladimir Putin
cult has arisen among religious conservatives longing for a
return to cultural purity."
Disinformation soft news and comments on YT videos and
on HuffPo’s old comment sections are the least of new Cold
War blizzard of lies tactics. They are way down in terms of
importance. Sowing fear and doubt by increments: hacking
the internet, large corporations, banks, candidate emails.
Soon to come: possible political blackmail of the Trump
White House via Wikileaks, Stormy Daniels, right wing
governments on Russia's border, a "big emergency" possibly
involving domestic terror in the US to reverse Trump's sinking
poll numbers or an emergency of the kind that will spike the
price of oil upward.
The 2016 NYC pre-election explosions on 23rd Street three
blocks from where I live where no one was killed and all
injured were released from the hospital the next morning
was prelude to something worse. The Nov. 8th election of
Donald Trump.
The fact that the explosions occurred across the street
from the home of TPM editor and virulent Trump foe,
Josh Marshall and his family has to be an unfortunate
coincidence. He and his family were elsewhere
at the time. Marshall was writing editorial after editorial
critical of Putin's relationship with Trump and Russian
backing of New York City's Trump Soho hotel.
Now the Republican base grinds clenched teeth as a
Trump regime takes shape. As liberal Keith Olbermann
and conservative David Frum have recently tweeted, the
25th Amendment Article 4 will be getting a lot of scrutiny
even as Trump concedes $25 million in restitution
regarding Trump U to NYS AG, Schneiderman. The only
reason it wasn't bigger was because statutes of limitations
had run out. If Trump had been defeated he wouldn't have
paid the 25 million.
My personal nightmare continues for four or eight more
years with Trump's Republican Party much more of a
danger than he is with legislative powers much greater
than the last time they lost the popular vote and assumed a
mandate to govern. They will do so with or without the
Soprano level R/ E gangster unless he has something really
terrible on them or Fox News.
It's become a tradition for Republican's to use the #1 spot
as a foil to distract while the big boys, in this case Pense,
Nunes and Grassley, McConnell run the show. While the
compliant mainstream and the subservient to insanity
right wing Enquirer, Globe, Breitbart and Drudge play
“what will Donald J, FLOTUS Mel and First Daughter
Ivy Tweet today?"
influencing the 2016 elections with help from the RNC,
Wikileaks, and DNC incompetence in failing to heed
repeated FBI phone calls in Sept 2015 that high ranking
DNC computers and emails had been breached.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-
hack-election-dnc.html?
_r=0
https://newrepublic.com/article/138019/right-giving-democracy
Explaining evangelical support for Trump via Jeet Heer of
The New Republic: "More recently, a virtual Vladimir Putin
cult has arisen among religious conservatives longing for a
return to cultural purity."
Putin’s macho bearing, his hostility to LGBT rights,
and his fusion of nationalism with support for the
Russian Orthodoxy all make him an attractive
figure to right-wing Christians disenchanted
with Obama’s socially liberal America.
and his fusion of nationalism with support for the
Russian Orthodoxy all make him an attractive
figure to right-wing Christians disenchanted
with Obama’s socially liberal America.
Franklin Graham, heir to the most influential
American evangelist, says Putin should be
celebrated for taking “a stand" to protect his
nation’s children from the damaging effects of
any gay and lesbian agenda,” even as “America’s
own morality has fallen so far on this issue.”
Rush Limbaugh cheers Putin for opposing “a
full-frontal assault on what has always been
considered normalcy.” Religious Right stalwart
Bryan Fischer, host of the radio program Focal
Point, has hailed Putin as a “lion of Christianity.”
Sam Rohrer, president of the America
Pastors Network, calls the Russian president
“the moral leader of the world.”.....Jeet Heer Oct 24, 2016
American evangelist, says Putin should be
celebrated for taking “a stand" to protect his
nation’s children from the damaging effects of
any gay and lesbian agenda,” even as “America’s
own morality has fallen so far on this issue.”
Rush Limbaugh cheers Putin for opposing “a
full-frontal assault on what has always been
considered normalcy.” Religious Right stalwart
Bryan Fischer, host of the radio program Focal
Point, has hailed Putin as a “lion of Christianity.”
Sam Rohrer, president of the America
Pastors Network, calls the Russian president
“the moral leader of the world.”.....Jeet Heer Oct 24, 2016
Disinformation soft news and comments on YT videos and
on HuffPo’s old comment sections are the least of new Cold
War blizzard of lies tactics. They are way down in terms of
importance. Sowing fear and doubt by increments: hacking
the internet, large corporations, banks, candidate emails.
Soon to come: possible political blackmail of the Trump
White House via Wikileaks, Stormy Daniels, right wing
governments on Russia's border, a "big emergency" possibly
involving domestic terror in the US to reverse Trump's sinking
poll numbers or an emergency of the kind that will spike the
price of oil upward.
The 2016 NYC pre-election explosions on 23rd Street three
blocks from where I live where no one was killed and all
injured were released from the hospital the next morning
was prelude to something worse. The Nov. 8th election of
Donald Trump.
The fact that the explosions occurred across the street
from the home of TPM editor and virulent Trump foe,
Josh Marshall and his family has to be an unfortunate
coincidence. He and his family were elsewhere
at the time. Marshall was writing editorial after editorial
critical of Putin's relationship with Trump and Russian
backing of New York City's Trump Soho hotel.
Now the Republican base grinds clenched teeth as a
Trump regime takes shape. As liberal Keith Olbermann
and conservative David Frum have recently tweeted, the
25th Amendment Article 4 will be getting a lot of scrutiny
even as Trump concedes $25 million in restitution
regarding Trump U to NYS AG, Schneiderman. The only
reason it wasn't bigger was because statutes of limitations
had run out. If Trump had been defeated he wouldn't have
paid the 25 million.
My personal nightmare continues for four or eight more
years with Trump's Republican Party much more of a
danger than he is with legislative powers much greater
than the last time they lost the popular vote and assumed a
mandate to govern. They will do so with or without the
Soprano level R/ E gangster unless he has something really
terrible on them or Fox News.
It's become a tradition for Republican's to use the #1 spot
as a foil to distract while the big boys, in this case Pense,
Nunes and Grassley, McConnell run the show. While the
compliant mainstream and the subservient to insanity
right wing Enquirer, Globe, Breitbart and Drudge play
“what will Donald J, FLOTUS Mel and First Daughter
Ivy Tweet today?"
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