Galactic level trolling by Russia

Oh Dear. This is galactic level trolling by Moscow…pic.twitter.com/OmSWagloy0

— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) June 15, 2023

German declares war on Russia ... again

German foreign minister declares war on Russia pic.twitter.com/C4cAqnZXhD

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 25, 2023

The New Kremlinology: Reading the New York Times

 

Matt Taibbi

On Monday, the New York Times ran a story pegged to a new poll, showing Joe Biden dragging a sub-Trumpish 33% approval rating into the midterms. The language was grave:

Widespread concerns about the economy and inflation have helped turn the national mood decidedly dark, both on Mr. Biden and the trajectory of the nation… a pervasive sense of pessimism that spans every corner of the country...

The article followed another from the weekend, “At 79, Biden Is Testing the Boundaries of Age and the Presidency.” That piece, about Biden’s age — code for “cognitive decline” — was full of doom as well:

Mr. Biden looks older than just a few years ago, a political liability that cannot be solved by traditional White House stratagems like staff shake-ups… Some aides quietly watch out for him. He often shuffles when he walks, and aides worry he will trip on a wire. He stumbles over words during public events, and they hold their breath to see if he makes it to the end without a gaffe.

Biden’s descent was obvious six years ago. Following the candidate in places like Nevada, Iowa, and New Hampshire, I listened to traveling press joke about his general lack of awareness and discuss new precautions his aides seemed to be taking to prevent him engaging audience members at events.

Conversations: With Peter Hitchens, Journalist, Author, and Broadcaster

Great summary of Russia-Gate by Mollie Hemingway

Accurate, concise statement of what happened...https://t.co/XrrMCvJ4PQ

— Byron York (@ByronYork) August 15, 2020

Media Silent As Christopher Steele ‘Hero’ ‘Spymaster’ Narrative Crumbles

Mollie Heming way names names. 

 The media liars who peddled the Russia hoax. 

 Read the whole thing. 

 For years, the media assured Americans that the dossier alleging treasonous collusion between Donald Trump and Russia was based on the scrupulous work of a mastermind British ex-spy and his vast network of credible and well-connected sources spread throughout Europe. 

It wasn’t true. Steele did not personally collect any of the factual information in his reports. 

The “vast network” was instead a “social circle” of an American-based former Brookings Institute junior staffer, recently identified for the first time as Igor Danchenko. 

The friends didn’t have well-documented claims so much as rumors, drunken gossip, and outright brainstorming, conjecture, and speculation. 

Even that information was “multiple layers of hearsay upon hearsay” before it got to Steele, who then hyperbolically overstated it. 

And the damning claims of “collusion” appear to have been scandalously misattributed or invented out of whole cloth. 

With such shoddy information collection and analysis methods, there was never any reason to give credence to any of the salacious allegations in the dossier, whether it was claims of secret deals with Russian oil concerns, secret meetings in foreign capitals, prostitutes urinating on Moscow hotel room beds, files of compromising information, or the careful cultivation of Trump, yes Trump, into the most effective Russian agent in history. 

Here are the 21 primary liars that participated in a treasonous coup attempt to overthrow an elected American President.

1.  Adam Goldman 
2.  David Corn 
3. Michael Horowitz 
4.  Michael Isikoff 
5.  Evan Perez 
6. Jim Sciutto 
7. Jake Tapper 
8. Carl Bernstein 
9. Michele Neubert 
10. Ken Dilanian 
11. Cassandra Vinograd 
12. Tracy Connor 
13. Bradley Hope 
14. Michael Rothfeld
15.  Alan Cullison 
16. Scott Shane 
17. Matthew Rosenberg 
18. Luke Harding 
19. Jane Mayer 
20. Natasha Bertrand 
21. Christian Caryl

Too Many Vested Interests Against Peace With Russia

Conclusion: True

Peace comes only when the balance of power is found or one side in a conflict defeats the other. It is obvious that neither Russia nor the West is going to defeat the other, so a solution in Ukraine and other conflicts must be found.

Currently we are in the middle of a real reset, not one of the Hillary Clinton variety, but a reset of expectations after the disastrous weakness, appeasement and outright deception of the Obama years, an example of the floundering Jimmy Carter presidency on steroids and anti-Americanism at its finest.

Russia, and China and Iran for that matter, took full advantage, as any self-respecting totalitarian state naturally would.


So the balance of power has to be found. The issues of Ukraine, of Syria, of cybercrime and of interference in the internal politics of others must be solved. In addition, Russia has to be worried about the consequences of any further malign behavior against the West.

We are not there yet.

We need to find the equilibrium; then maybe we can have peace.

How will we find this nirvana? By talking, of course. Unfortunately, we have to talk softly and carry a big stick.

Our president is prevented from doing so by the rabid, power-hungry cabal of the legacy media and the Deep State. President Trump will not have the respect of other nations while he is still vulnerable to domestic enemies. Therefore, he will not be in a position to negotiate peace until his presidency is accepted and legitimized by our political process.

We aren’t there yet either.

Here is my suggested path to peace with Russia; it won’t be easy.

First, POTUS has to defeat the attempted coup against him. Only then will he be in a position of power to deal with his counterpart in Moscow on the basis of mutual respect. The Kremlin won’t respect a vulnerable president.

Second, unfortunately, we have to continue our military buildup. The peace dividend is gone. We have to keep our economy roaring as the Trump agenda has delivered. We then can deal with our fiscal problems and fund the modernization of our armed forces. Fiscal weakness is just as bad as military weakness. America must once again achieve overwhelming military superiority. Only then will there be peace.

Third, we have to confront Russian behavior that is at odds with our national security and with those of our allies. NATO must continue down the path of increased defense spending. Only when Moscow comes to understand that it will not gain from further annexations or bullying will the balance of power be found. We are not there yet either.

However, just because we have a lot of work to do does not mean that we should not be talking to Russia. We should. There is no downside to dialogue. Small victories can be achieved to slowly increase trust on both sides, or if not trust, then learning how to work together again. Finding a way to facilitate the return of Syrian migrants would be a start. That is a worthy goal that would help all sides, and the only way we will get there is through discussion.

China Showing It’s Real Communist Evil With Threats Against Canada

In addition, we have to be careful not to allow ourselves to be drawn into a conflict with Russia by third parties. The collapse of the Soviet Union is not over. It is still in its death throes. The “frozen conflicts” in Russia’s near abroad need to be resolved. Somewhere in this calculation needs to be an acknowledgment by the West that NATO’s encroachment to the very borders of Russia is obviously seen as a threat by Moscow, bringing up genetically branded memories of Hitler and Napoleon.

So, let’s talk to find that equilibrium.

Although the process I outlined will be extremely difficult, it is a necessity. For although Russia is a major problem and rightly a major focus of our defense establishment, it is not the existential threat to the United States.

China is.

China is steadily carrying out its long-term plan to dominate the West, if not the world. The quicker we realize where the primary threat lies, the quicker we can get to work to ensure peace for the next generations of Americans.

‘Junk News’: Russia Report Done By Anti-Conservative Academics

Sort of what I expected.

A new study has claimed Russia’s online interference tried to aid the conservative movement and Donald Trump. There’s a big problem with that assessment. It comes from a left-wing operation that previously classified more than 11 different conservative outlets as “junk news.” And two of those authors were also involved in this report.

The study was released by the Oxford University Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika. It argued that fake accounts, ads, and tweets “all clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party -- and specifically Donald Trump”

The Oxford University Computational Propaganda Project had attacked several conservative outlets as “junk news” in previous studies. Those targeted outlets include Drudge Report, NewsBusters, CNSNews, MRCTV, Breitbart, the Daily Caller, Free Beacon, LifeNews, National Review, the Federalist, and the Red State. (Three of those are operated by the Media Research Center, which runs NewsBusters.)

The "fake news" MSM and it's supporters in academia strike back.

Ann Coulter reminds us of Democrat Presidents who were cozy with the Russians

With Russia, liberals get an extra bonus of bludgeoning Trump over his nonexistent collusion with Russia -- our greatest enemy since very, very recently.

At least no Democratic president ever publicly embraced a Russian dictator, while handing him all of Eastern Europe at Yalta, so the left's conscience is clear!

Actually, no. Until all the Roosevelt statues come down, liberals need to settle down about Russia. At least Trump isn't calling Putin "Uncle Vlad" and giving him one-third of Europe, as he is being advised by two Russian spies.

The Truth Factory - Russian and why Hillary Lost the Election

Russians used social media to disrupt U.S. energy industry, report says

In the media reporting on Russian meddling in American political issues, this subject is lost: the Russians have been meddling in lots of ways to stop the development of American energy resources.

The same Russian-backed propaganda groups accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election used social media to try to disrupt U.S. energy policy, including inciting protests against pipeline projects, according to a new congressional report.

The House Science Committee report says it found evidence that Russian-sponsored agents used Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Instagram to suppress research and development of fossil fuels and impede efforts to expand the use of natural gas and fracking in the U.S.

The groups targeted Energy Transfer Partners' (NYSE:ETP) Dakota Access pipeline and TransCanada's (NYSE:TRP) Keystone XL pipeline, as well as projects by Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) and other companies, according to the report.

"The Kremlin has a motive to disrupt U.S. energy markets and influence domestic energy policy, since American energy represents a direct threat to Russian energy interests," the report says.

The reason this does not get any press play? The press opposes energy development because it supports the Global Warming hoax.  That's why you won't see the NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, PBS and the other alphabet networks give time or space to this.

Putin's Master Plan to Install a Pawn In the White House Who Would Greatly Amp Up Energy Production and Thereby Decimate the Russian Oil-Based Economy Is Nearly Compete

Ace of Spades

Some NeverTrumpers immediately objected to this development, noting that as the US becomes energy-independent it gives them less pretext to start and lose wars in the Middle East.

Oh, and also Russia Something Kompromat.

AT THE WASHINGTON POST, IF IT MISLEADS, IT LEADS

Powerline:

The lead headline on the Washington Post’s web page right now is: “Putin thanks Trump for CIA intel that foiled a planned terrorist attack in Russia.” The story isn’t earth-shattering but has the virtue of enabling the Post to write a lead headline that includes “Putin” and “Trump.”

Post reporter David Filipov characterizes Putin’s call as “unusual.” He says “countries share intelligence all the time, but presidents rarely publicly thank one another for it.”

In this case, though, the intelligence the U.S. supplied enabled the Russians to thwart a terrorist attack. Seven members of an Islamic State cell reportedly had planned a suicide bombing this weekend at Kazan Cathedral, a St. Petersburg landmark located on Nevsky Prospect, the city’s main thoroughfare.

Putin told Trump that the information provided by the CIA allowed Russian law enforcement agencies to capture the terrorists just before the planned attack. Lives were saved as a result.

Is it unusual for the leader of one country to thank the leader of another country in these circumstances? Probably not. Filipov provides no evidence that it is.

Filipov notes that this was the second conversation between Trump and Putin in the last few days. Filipov says that during the first call, Trump thanked Putin for remarks he made “acknowledging America’s strong economic performance.”

The reader is left with the impression that this is what the call was about. In fact, though, Trump and Putin also discussed the small matter of North Korea and its nukes. Russia’s state-run Kremlin news service reported that there was “an emphasis placed on settling the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.” The White House said the two sides “discussed working together to resolve the very dangerous situation in North Korea.”

The dishonest Washington Post keeps its readers in the dark (or should I say darkness?) about this important fact.

There is no reason why Trump and Putin shouldn’t be talking. There is no reason why they shouldn’t talk about North Korea, which probably poses the greatest threat to America’s security right now. There is no reason why Putin shouldn’t thank Trump for information that likely saved Russian lives and preserved a national treasure.

There is no reason, other than raw hatred of Trump, why the Washington Post should treat Putin’s latest call to Trump as “unusual” or provide a misleading account of Trump’s latest call to Putin.

When it comes to President Trump, if it misleads it leads at the Washington Post.

2017: The Year of the Headless Liberal Chicken

Russia Insider.  I believe this is a Russian propaganda organ but it makes more sense of the Bi-Partisan American Establishment than most publications in this country.

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2017 has been the Year of the Rooster. Myself, I’ve decided to designate it the Year of the Headless Liberal Chicken. I don’t mean that to be insulting … or, all right, I guess I do, a little. But my heart goes out to liberals, seriously.

At this point, the amount of utterly baseless, contradictory propaganda, mass hysteria, and just flat out insanity the ruling classes have demanded they swallow is more than any human mind, no matter how medicated, could possibly handle. Is it any wonder so many of them of lost it and started seeing Nazis and Russians coming out of the woodwork? Just consider what the average liberal has been forced to try to cognitively reconcile since the tragic events of last November …

First came the overwhelming shock of Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump, a repulsive, word salad-babbling buffoon with absolutely no political experience whom the media had been portraying to liberals as the Second Coming of Adolf Hitler....

Fortunately, just in the nick of time, the ruling classes and their media mouthpieces rolled out the Russian Propaganda story. The Washington Post (whose owner’s multimillion-dollar deal with the CIA, of course, has absolutely no effect on the quality of its professional journalism) led the charge with this McCarthyite smear job, legitimizing the baseless allegations of some random website and a think tank staffed by charlatans like this “Russia expert,” who appears not to speak a word of Russian or have any other “Russia expert” credentials, but is available both for television and Senate Intelligence Committee appearances....

In any event, by January, the media were playing down the Hitler stuff and going balls-out on the “Russiagate” story. According to The Washington Post (which, let’s remember, is a serious newspaper, as opposed to a propaganda organ of the so-called US “Intelligence Community”), not only had the Russians “hacked” the election, but they had hacked the Vermont power grid!

Editorialists at The New York Times were declaring that Trump “had been appointed by Putin,” and that the USA was now “at war” with Russia....

Putin had presumably been “running” Trump since Trump’s visit to Russia in 2013 to hobnob with “Russia-linked” Russian businessmen and attend the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. During the ensuing partying, Trump must have gotten loaded on Diet Coke and gotten carried away with those Russian hookers. Now, Putin had him by the short hairs and was forcing him to staff his Manchurian cabinet with corporate CEOs and Goldman Sachs guys, who probably had also been videotaped by the FSB in Moscow hotels paying hookers to pee on furniture, or performing whatever other types of seditious, perverted kink they were into.

Before the poor liberals had time to process this, the ruling classes launched “the Resistance.” You remember the Pussyhat People, don’t you? And the global corporate PR campaign which accompanied their historic “Womens’ March” on Washington? Do you remember liberals like Michael Moore shrieking for the feds to arrest Donald Trump? Or publications like The New York Times, Salon, and many others, and even State Satirist Stephen Colbert accusing Trump and anyone who supported him of treason … a crime, let’s recall, that is punishable by death? Do you remember folks like William Kristol and Rob “the Meathead” Reiner demanding that the “deep state” launch a coup against Trump to rescue America from the Russian infiltrators?...

Now that Robert Mueller has proved that Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin by obstructing an investigation by Comey into Michael Flynn’s lying to the FBI about not colluding with the Russian ambassador on behalf of Israel at Kushner’s behest, the dominoes are surely about to fall.

Once they all have, and Donald Trump’s head has been mounted on a spike on the White House lawn as a warning to any other potential usurpers, all this Russia and Nazi hysteria that has the poor liberals running around like headless chickens will disappear.

You remember the Pussyhat People don't you?

CLAUDIA ROSSETT ON OBAMA’S RUSSIA “COLLUSION”

In an excellent interview with Ginni Thomas for the the Daily Caller, Rossett explains why Russia does, indeed, pose a serious threat to the U.S. and to world order. She also reminds us of the enthusiasm and flexibility Obama displayed toward Russia until near the end of his two terms, when Russia needed to be viewed differently to serve his Party’s interest.

Rossett cites Obama the hot mic promise of flexibility towards Putin; the shelving of missile defense for Europe in the name of that phony “reset;” the inadequate pursuit of Edward Snowden who is still hiding in Russia; Obama’s fecklessness regarding the “red line” that opened the door to Russia’s dominance in Syria; the Iran deal that advantaged Russia and its allies; and the weak response of the U.S. when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

Compared to this, says Rossett, Trump’s occasional unfortunate comments about Russia and Putin pale. She is right. A few conciliatory comments can’t match nearly eight years of appeasement — a policy Democrats, including those in the media, would still be defending had they not gotten the “cable” sent when top Democrats decided to blame Russia for Hillary’s electoral woes.

Backbearings

Who's the Russian mole?  Could it be the head of one of Obama's intelligence agencies?

Still it may be profitable in real-life Washington to go back a few years, as Dana Priest in the New Yorker does, to unravel a problem similar to that which baffled Sherlock: why did the dog not bark in the night? Or as Priest puts it,why couldn't the Obama era intelligence community detect Russian meddling.

There are too many coincidences for it to be just bad luck. Some journalists are belatedly realizing they are living through the aftermath of the Big Bang. A huge strike happened without them even being aware of it and the scale of it is boggling. The Obama administration failed to detect the rise of the Islamic state, was surprised by the Russian invasion of Crimea and Putin's intervention in Syria, did not see the rapid development of Kim's nuclear arsenal and, publicly at least, ascribed the assault on the Benghazi consulate to a video -- and as the New Yorker points out, were even blindsided by Russian election interference openly happening on Facebook.

And then, of course we have the famous Romney - Obama debate in which Obama chides Romney “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because you know, the Cold War has been over for 20 years."

Read the whole thing.

Byron York: Spinning in circles on the Trump dossier

Byron York on the "Russian Dossier"

It's always important to understand how you know what you know, or what you think you know. It's particularly important in the case of the Trump dossier.

Consider the increasing number of claims that the incendiary allegations of the dossier "check out," in the words of New York Times columnist Bret Stephens.

...

"What's relevant is [Steele's] credibility, the reliability of his sources and the truthfulness of their claims," Stephens wrote recently. "These check out."

But do they? In reality, most reasonable people not named Mueller would have to say we don't know.

"As it relates to the Steele dossier, unfortunately the committee has hit a wall," Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr noted last month. The committee's investigation, the best probe outside of the Mueller special prosecutor operation, has not even been able to discover who Steele's sources were, Burr said.

So how do outsiders conclude that the document's key allegations check out? How do they know what they know?

...

Voila: Isikoff reported, accurately, U.S. intelligence agencies received intelligence reports on Page's trip. The alleged actions involving Page that Isikoff reported -- attributed to a "Western intelligence source," which was some reporters' shorthand for the former British spy -- lined up precisely with the contents of Steele's dossier. (Even John Sipher conceded that, "Admittedly, Isikoff's reporting may have relied on Steele himself for that information.")

Given all that, Stephens' point that the dossier "checks out" is basically saying the dossier proves the dossier.

Twenty years ago, in Moscow, Matt Taibbi was a misogynist asshole—and possibly worse

From Matt Tiabbi's book.

(And there's more, but it's stomach churning.)



These are the people who have been lecturing real America about its morals.

In other news: Robert Mueller delivering highly enriched uranium to Russia in 2009.

Women’s March Promoted Russian Propaganda

You've probably scoffed at the crazies who claim that all those Left wing movements and rallies are a "Communist Plot."

They're not.

They're actually a Russian plot.

Really.

A popular Instagram account that promoted a militant form of feminism was actually run by Russian operatives, who successfully fooled Women’s March organizers into sharing their content.

The account, which operated under the handle @feminism_tag on Instagram, had tens of thousands of followers.

An investigation into the Kremlin’s cyber operations by Russian media outlet RBC named the account, which has since been deleted from Instagram, as among those operated by the Russians.

The account promoted the view, popular among left-wing feminists, that women don’t have equal rights in America. “We fight to achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women!” the account’s description read.

One post read: “I would rather be the ‘obnoxious feminist girl’ than be complicit in my own dehumanization.”

Another post showed a young, long-haired child holding a sign that read: “I’m the SCARY transgender person the media WARNED you about.”

Archived versions of the account show it had at least 46,000 followers as of March 2017.

The account’s posts were often shared on Facebook.

One post that was shared by Women’s March’s South Carolina branch showed a picture of a girl holding a sign that read: “I need feminism because my 12-year-old sisters already cares about how much she eats.”

The Women’s March page credited the Russian propaganda account for the post, which is still live on Facebook.

The Russians were not trying to get Trump elected; they were trying to get Americans at each other's throats. And when "Hillary The Inevitable" lost the election, the Democrats went for it. They marched to the tune of the Russian drummer. 

The Russians succeeded.   You won't find this in the Washington Post.

Read the whole thing.