The Extent of Russian Interference

Chris Hayes just had Christian Picciolini on, the person behind "Breaking Hate", the upcoming documentary about getting young men out of white supremacist organizations.

He made a shocking allegation.

He claimed that many of these hate groups, which seem to be popping up everywhere, grabbing headlines and shooting up synagogues -- from white supremacy to anti-LGBT rights to anti-semites to anti-gun control advocates to many others -- even flat-earthers! according to him -- are all supported by Russian counterintelligence. They're being fanned to foment division in the USA.

Very successfully, one must note.

Huh.  Interesting claim.  I wonder if it can be proven.

And, more importantly, what could be done to correct it.

Laying in bed this morning -- after another day of mass shootings, suicide bombings, white supremicist outrages, Trump administration policy reversals, etc. etc. etc. -- I was thinking about how, even if the Russians are nudging the divisions, it still remains undeniable that a small contingent of people (in this country and around the world) are intent on making the world more miserable.

I don't understand it. I really don't.

"60 Minutes" first story on tonight (11/24) was about how the Russians hacked not only the 2016 presidential election (and how they did it), but also the congressional races and even some smaller local races they infiltrated. Their success in swaying races nationwide is nothing short of jaw-dropping.

More evidence for the Intel Committee. More fodder for the Judicial Committee's articles of impeachment.

I want every US senator -- particularly the Republicans -- to view this program before voting on impeachment.

The thought occurs to me -- a horrible, uncharitable thought, but one I'm having difficulty dismissing -- that even if the Republicans are made aware of Russian interference, because they are the beneficiaries they will be unwilling to do anything about it.  As long as they're in power, such interference will be welcomed.

And if/when the Democrats become targeted by Russian interference, so long as it benefits them nothing would be done then either. Politicians are not known for clean reputations.

Russian oligarchs have a lot of money to launder.

You're best bet is to elect as many ex-military as you can. A lot of them take their oath seriously. Note that all the worst of the worst politicians have never had anything to do with the services.

Rudy Giuliani, Ron Johnson and John Durham are all expected to deliver scathing reports of Hunter Biden's contract with Burisma Holdings between now and the election. 

Their sources are Russian operatives in counterintelligence.  The reports are, in short, nothing but propagandistic Russian disinformation.

It'll be interesting to see how they land.  Will the Democrats pull up their big boy pants and go to the mat?

Mitt Romney is raising alarm bells about what a partisan hack job these are going to be, fueled by Russian disinformation.

Now, will any of the 19 Republican Senators who are about to lose their seats suddenly grow backbones and stand up to Sen. McCarthy?  (This exercise reminds me A LOT of the McCarthy hearings.... except the GOP is siding with Russia in 2020 instead of railing against it as in 1954.)

Quote :

Roger Stone: "Roy [Cohn, Sen. McCarthy's close associate in the hearings, and later Donald Trump's mentor] was not gay. He was a man who liked having sex with men. Gays were weak, effeminate. He always seemed to have these young blond boys around. It just wasn't discussed. He was interested in power and access."^[58] Stone worked with Cohn beginning with the Reagan campaign during the 1976 Republican Party presidential primaries.

I was just getting ready to post something about the GOP in 2021.  Several state legislatures have voted to censure their state legislators to the House of Representatives, like six of the ten who crossed the party line to vote to impeach Donald Trump.

The Republicans in the House refused to condemn Marjorie Taylor Greene's approval of the plan to assassinate Nancy Pelosi.  The Democrats had to act unilaterally to strip her of her committee assignments.

192 House Republicans voted against authorizing the second impeachment trial of DJT -- despite having to cower in their offices to avoid being killed by his supporters.

WTF is WRONG with these people?  The orange cancer is gone, it's time to start pulling the GOP back into reality and viability.

But then it hit me.

Money.  $$$$

These weasels are all scared shitless that "their base" demands absolute loyalty to the right-wing white supremacist Q-Anon wackjobs that ran the party for the past for years.  And by "their base" I don't mean the 34% of voters who get all their news from Fox and NewsMax and OANN.  "Their base" is code for their financial supporters, the right-wing think tanks, the NRA, and other more-secretive organizations.... all of whom derive their income from Russian counterintelligence, whether the Republicans are willing to admit it or not.  They're afraid to piss off their Russian sugar daddies.  They're afraid of being cut off from Putin's financial campaign to destroy America.

Sooner or later I hope this connection becomes common knowledge.  It'll take some prosecutors with cajones to go up against Russian organized crime (which is the same as counterintelligence), and it will result in a lot of heads rolling down the street (literally and figuratively...) but it's got to happen before the GOP regains credibility as a national party.

Well, yesterday we came a lot closer to outing the GOP as Russian operatives.  The unclassified version of the NSA report on 2020 election interference was released, and it's a bombshell.  Putin fed disinformation to Giuliani and a bunch of Republican Senators and Representatives, and they carried coal for him.

Merrick Garland, welcome to your new job!

Oh, the irony of this is delicious. I'll bet Rachel has a FIELD DAY on this tonite.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/17/politics/mccarthy-biden-trump-putin/index.html