The Russians

[Schlank]

Trump’s own officials just confirmed that Russia is amplifying his lies


It isn’t just that Russian disinformation echoes what Trump has said about vote-by-mail due to coincidentally overlapping interests. It’s that Russian disinformation appears designed to assist in Trump’s effort to corrupt the election. And this is the case in several ways.

First, both Russian and Trumpian disinformation are trying to undermine confidence in the result itself. As ABC reports, the memo points to numerous ways vote-by-mail can supposedly get corrupted, say, through ballots sent to ineligible voters.

This is something Trump claims constantly, while he also insists both that extensive mail-balloting will inevitably taint the outcome and that the result will only be legitimate if Trump wins.

In this sense, in laying the groundwork to undermine public confidence in the validity of the outcome, Russian disinformation is trying to accomplish the same goal Trump is. Even if Trump cannot ultimately keep himself in power by casting doubt on the outcome — after all, what matters is the vote totals, not what Trump says about them — Trump’s own words indicate that he’s likely to tell his supporters the election was stolen from them if he loses, potentially fueling civil violence.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...confirmed-that-russia-is-amplifying-his-lies/

 

[Schlank]

How Russian trolls wrecked a disabled woman’s life

Jacinda Chan was hired to work for a website called Peace Data, which let her write about human rights and Latin American life, the Daily Beast reported.

She was born with spinal muscular atrophy and is a quadriplegic, but it doesn’t mean she can’t write and contribute to the political debate.

“I have difficulty finding employment in the USA because people look at me and wonder how I can work if I’m on a respirator,” she recalled writing to an editor at the site just months ago. “That is why I like this job. Nobody questioned my ability because I’m disabled. I just got the money.”


Facebook then revealed that Peace Data was fake. The FBI and an internal investigation found that she was linked to the Russian Internet Research Agency, a troll farm known for meddling in the 2016 election.


“The site used a mixture of fake personas and real, unwitting journalists tricked into believing the site was a legitimate outlet for human rights journalism,” wrote the Beast. “A number of the contributors have since come forward to share their stories about being exploited. But of all the people who’ve written for the site, Chan appears to have suffered the most from the troll farm’s ruse.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/ho...ed-womans-life/?utm_source=push_notifications

 

[Spandex_Girl]

Russia has targeted over 200 organizations involved in the election so far: Microsoft


Most attempts haven’t been successful, but it certainly validates leaked national security reports that the 2020 election was under attack by Russia.


“It is critical that everyone involved in democratic processes around the world, both directly or indirectly, be aware of these threats and take steps to protect themselves in both their personal and professional capacities,” said Tom Burt, Microsoft’s vice president.

Microsoft was able to track a Russian affiliated with the military intelligence unit, the same group that hacked Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair.


https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/ru...ns-involved-in-the-election-so-far-microsoft/

 

[allison22]

Trump is Putin's 'useful idiot'

Alexander Vindman, a key witness in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, says that the president is a “useful idiot” to Russia, in his first interview since the impeachment trial.

Mr Vindman, formerly of the US Army and National Security Council, spoke with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, author of the recent bombshell article about the president’s disparaging remarks about the military and war dead.

Mr Goldberg asks Mr Vindman whether he believes Trump is a Russian intelligence asset.

“President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveller, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,” says Mr Vindman.

Clarifying the terms, Mr Goldberg explains that a useful idiot is a term commonly used to describe “dupes of authoritarian regimes”. A fellow traveller is a person who shares Putin’s loathing for democratic norms.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...idiot-putin-russian-intelligence-b437490.html

 

[KeithD]

So, Putin wanted him to do everything that I just listed? That's rather...unlikely, to put it charitably.

I've stopped reading most of your rants. They tend to be irrelevant to the "now."

 

[SevMax2]

Meaning that you cannot answer my point.

I've put KeithD on ignore because he won't actually answer a damn good question. That's intellectual cowardice in my book.

 

[The_adorable_slut]

Trump’s own officials just confirmed that Russia is amplifying his lies


It isn’t just that Russian disinformation echoes what Trump has said about vote-by-mail due to coincidentally overlapping interests. It’s that Russian disinformation appears designed to assist in Trump’s effort to corrupt the election. And this is the case in several ways.

First, both Russian and Trumpian disinformation are trying to undermine confidence in the result itself. As ABC reports, the memo points to numerous ways vote-by-mail can supposedly get corrupted, say, through ballots sent to ineligible voters.

This is something Trump claims constantly, while he also insists both that extensive mail-balloting will inevitably taint the outcome and that the result will only be legitimate if Trump wins.

In this sense, in laying the groundwork to undermine public confidence in the validity of the outcome, Russian disinformation is trying to accomplish the same goal Trump is. Even if Trump cannot ultimately keep himself in power by casting doubt on the outcome — after all, what matters is the vote totals, not what Trump says about them — Trump’s own words indicate that he’s likely to tell his supporters the election was stolen from them if he loses, potentially fueling civil violence.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...confirmed-that-russia-is-amplifying-his-lies/

FBI director confirms "very, very active" Russian efforts to interfere in 2020 election

FBI Director Chris Wray on Thursday told Congress the bureau has seen "very active efforts by the Russians to influence our election in 2020," primarily to "denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians see as kind of an anti-Russian establishment."

Why it matters: It confirms previous statements from various intelligence officials about Russia's interference activities, which continue with less than 50 days until the election.

The efforts have been through proxies on social media and have aimed to "sow divisiveness and discord," Wray said.

https://www.axios.com/fbi-director-russia-election-ac152f12-a992-4882-8677-b7d5d16dc918.html

 

[jonpatato]

Let’s look at the biggest enemy the United States currently has, the Russians.

The Russians have been around a long time and they’ve been invaded by a lot of different nations. They were invaded by the Finns, they were invaded by the French, they were invaded by the Germans, they were invaded by the Japanese, they were invaded by the Mongols, they were invaded by the Poles, they were invaded by the Swedes, and they were invaded by the Turks.

However, one nation that has NEVER invaded Russia is the United States of America.

Despite this fact, Russian military intelligence officers have hacked American computers, engaged in cyber-attacks against American citizens and stole information from us.

Russian hackers and trolls helped to put an ignorant, intellectually lazy, reckless, emotionally-needy child in the White House, thus causing a huge amount of damage to the U.s economy, U.S. national security and America’s reputation around the World.

We never invaded them. Why are they focusing so much hostility on us?

You have it wrong. Russia invaded Finland and Poland.

 

[Just4AFriend]

You have it wrong. Russia invaded Finland and Poland.

Umm? Check your history we got damn close to them
protecting the Baltic States. We did not start out friendly with the new communist state.

They used to fear war far more than we did after WWII
We have no clue what WAR is

We can’t pull together to beat a virus with tech from 1918

 

[jonpatato]

Umm? Check your history we got damn close to them
protecting the Baltic States. We did not start out friendly with the new communist state.

They used to fear war far more than we did after WWII
We have no clue what WAR is

We can’t pull together to beat a virus with tech from 1918

Nope. The Baltics used to be fought over in Europe for years. Russia invaded Poland and Finland. I do not know where you got your information. Germany and Russia used to go back and forth taking Poland.

 

[SevMax2]

You have it wrong. Russia invaded Finland and Poland.

Also, the United States DID invade Russia...in 1918. Someone really should do their research. An expeditionary force was sent by President Woodrow Wilson (one of the WORST Presidents in history, if you know the actual facts about the guy) to fight the Bolsheviks and their Red Army when Lenin was still busy consolidating his power in the teeth of the White Guards and their quarrelsome commanders.

Also invading Russia in 1918: Great Britain, France, Germany (early part, before Brest-Litovsk ended the Russian Front), and Japan. Yes, Russia was invaded by both the Allied and the Central Powers, and even after Versailles, rogue German units continued to fight Soviet Russia. In the end, the Allied and Central Powers combined couldn't save the White Guards from three things: their disunity of command, their own gross incompetence, and Leon Trotsky's restoration of military discipline to the Red Army. Even now, as a non-Communist state, Russia's military is largely the brainchild of Leon Trotsky, a Communist who was among the first to be purged by Joseph Stalin.

To Wilson's credit (I hate the guy, but credit where credit is due), he responded to the war weariness of Americans about the "Polar Bear Expedition" in northern Russia by withdrawing our troops by May of 1919.

I highly recommend the YouTube "Great War" documentaries, with Jesse Alexander and Indy Neidel. There is a wealth of information in them, the Between Two Wars series, and the World War Two series as well. A history buff like me, despite what I already knew about the world wars and the between period, was still easily more informed than prior to watching them.

 

[allison22]

CIA: Putin ‘probably directing’ disinformation campaign against Biden with GOP’s help

Russian president Vladimir Putin is “probably directing” a disinformation campaign against Joe Biden ahead of November’s election, according to a top-secret CIA assessment.

Two unnamed sources told the Washington Post the Kremlin was attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election through a Ukrainian parliamentarian with ties to President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.


“We assess that President Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia’s influence operations aimed at denigrating the former U.S. vice president, supporting the U.S. president and fueling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November,” the report states in its first line.


The highly classified report was reportedly published for agency use at the end of last month, and is based on intelligence gathered by the FBI and the NSA.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/ci...with-gops-help/?utm_source=push_notifications

 

[jonpatato]

Also, the United States DID invade Russia...in 1918. Someone really should do their research. An expeditionary force was sent by President Woodrow Wilson (one of the WORST Presidents in history, if you know the actual facts about the guy) to fight the Bolsheviks and their Red Army when Lenin was still busy consolidating his power in the teeth of the White Guards and their quarrelsome commanders.

Also invading Russia in 1918: Great Britain, France, Germany (early part, before Brest-Litovsk ended the Russian Front), and Japan. Yes, Russia was invaded by both the Allied and the Central Powers, and even after Versailles, rogue German units continued to fight Soviet Russia. In the end, the Allied and Central Powers combined couldn't save the White Guards from three things: their disunity of command, their own gross incompetence, and Leon Trotsky's restoration of military discipline to the Red Army. Even now, as a non-Communist state, Russia's military is largely the brainchild of Leon Trotsky, a Communist who was among the first to be purged by Joseph Stalin.

To Wilson's credit (I hate the guy, but credit where credit is due), he responded to the war weariness of Americans about the "Polar Bear Expedition" in northern Russia by withdrawing our troops by May of 1919.

I highly recommend the YouTube "Great War" documentaries, with Jesse Alexander and Indy Neidel. There is a wealth of information in them, the Between Two Wars series, and the World War Two series as well. A history buff like me, despite what I already knew about the world wars and the between period, was still easily more informed than prior to watching them.

We also gave them weapons and troops in WWII. They killed allied POW's at the end of WWII.
Russia even during the revolution was always trying to expand its borders.

 

[Rightguide]

The narrative that Trump is a pawn or ally of Putin or Russia is a flat out lie. It is a fairy tale designed to fool the unsophisticated voters too challenged to familiarize themselves with history or reality.

 

[jonpatato]

Pootins only interest is to divide America. It's not about who wins or loses.

Yes I agree.

 

[Rightguide]

Trump has all but destroyed Putin and any dreams he might have had for global hegemony. The sanctions Trump has placed on the Russians has diminished the Russian economy and left the majority of it's conventional military capability in ruins.

 

[SevMax2]

We also gave them weapons and troops in WWII. They killed allied POW's at the end of WWII.
Russia even during the revolution was always trying to expand its borders.

I know that America gave Stalin back Russian POWs captured by the Germans, anti-Soviet Russians and other nationalities from the USSR, and a free hand in Eastern Europe. At Yalta, Stalin was led to believe that he had mostly complete authority and control over the Soviet Zones in Austria and Germany and everything east of that line. In turn, he led Churchill and Roosevelt to believe that his would be a light hand on the bridle, more indirect than direct, and that a freely elected Polish government would happen. Neither side kept their word, of course.

To be fair, it is likely that Stalin's motives were more defensive than aggressive. This was a deeply paranoid man, convinced that everyone, including the Western Allies, were out to get him. To also be fair, Soviet co-operation with Hitler during the earlier year or so of the Second World War and partition of Poland with Nazi Germany, not to mention the Soviet aggression toward Romania, Finland, and the Baltic republics, didn't exactly allay Western fears.

It's important to explain and understand motives leading up to the Cold War without actually excusing anything. There was some despicable conduct all around, from the Communist takeover of the various Eastern Bloc nations, one by one, reaching a zenith in 1948, just before Tito and Hoxha began their secession from Stalin's sphere of influence. There was Allied intervention in the Middle East and Greece, including the suppression of the leftist EAM party in the latter with Western assistance.

And the American-Russian push for influence over India and Pakistan didn't help, nor did the failed American support for the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War or the North Korean invasion of South Korea that kicked off the Korean War. Or the Berlin Blockade that forced the Berlin Airlift. Or Operation Paperclip, where the West recruited Nazi scientists and engineers from Germany such as Werner von Braun, the later Americanized brains behind our half of the space race.

 

[The_adorable_slut]

You know who else is Afraid that Trump is gonna Lose?


Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called for a reset on cyber-relations with the United States, and requested that the two countries agree not to influence each other's elections.

"(I propose)... exchanging guarantees of non-interference in each other's internal affairs, including electoral processes, including using information and communication technologies and high-tech methods," Putin said, Reuters reported.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...w-who-else-is-Afraid-that-Trump-is-gonna-Lose

Putin appears to be certain that Biden is going to win and is attempting to ask for a truce between the two nations...worried about the sort of damage Biden would do to Putin if Putin doesn't back off.

Of course, where will Trump go, what will Trump do, if he no longer has Putin in his corner?

Things look bad for Trump. Things look VERY, VERY BAD!

 

[Rightguide]

You know who else is Afraid that Trump is gonna Lose?


Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called for a reset on cyber-relations with the United States, and requested that the two countries agree not to influence each other's elections.

"(I propose)... exchanging guarantees of non-interference in each other's internal affairs, including electoral processes, including using information and communication technologies and high-tech methods," Putin said, Reuters reported.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...w-who-else-is-Afraid-that-Trump-is-gonna-Lose

Putin appears to be certain that Biden is going to win and is attempting to ask for a truce between the two nations...worried about the sort of damage Biden would do to Putin if Putin doesn't back off.

Of course, where will Trump go, what will Trump do, if he no longer has Putin in his corner?

Things look bad for Trump. Things look VERY, VERY BAD!

More left wing bullshit. Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid this Russian spy to dig up dirt of Trump. They were the colluders. The Dossier was bullshit:

Source of Steele dossier was investigated by FBI for Russian contacts, Barr says
AG Bill Barr penned a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Brooke Singman
By Brooke Singman | Fox News

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-previously-investigated-steele-dossier-source-as-russian-agent#

 

[Articulate_and_Analytical]

Russians funneled money through Trump’s real estate empire using a money laundering middleman

“There was no need to discuss the criminal connections in either man’s past: Trump’s mobster associates or Felix’s days as a pump-and-dump fraudster. What mattered was that Trump needed money and Felix and his partner, Tevfik Arif, were ideally placed to capitalize on the great shift that would save him: the tide of dirty money,” the book continues.

After 9/11 banks were taking the source of cash more seriously since terrorist groups were using the banks to funnel payments for their plots. So, corrupt international business leaders looked to real estate as a place to stash their cash, and Trump wanted to be their dealer.

“The five families had laundered their criminal proceeds through American property for decades. Now the new kleptocrats followed them,” the book goes on. “Trump’s role would be to rent out his name. As the persona of The Apprentice had elided reality, that name had been reinvented as a success. For a percentage, Trump would append his personal brand to a skyscraper or a hotel. He would make ignorance his business: what one of those who handled the money called ‘wilful obliviousness.’ An architecture of shell companies would keep the money incognito, and if anyone did find out who it belonged to, provide plausible deniability for those who had received it. The projects could go bust—they usually did—but that wasn’t a problem. The money had completed its metamorphosis from plunder to clean capital.”


Options for laundering were everywhere, the book recalled.

“Colombian businessman David Murcia Guzmán pumped the proceeds of his black-market peso scam through the Trump Ocean Club down in Panama,” Burgis wrote. “But the big money wanted to be in the greatest haven of all, North America. In 2008, the Trump SoHo opened. It had cost $370 million. Another $200 million half-hotel, half-condo tower in Phoenix, Arizona, was supposed to follow, but was never finished. Nor was the 24-story tower in Florida. Still, both projects had usefully recycled plenty of money. The partners’ horizons widened. Felix Sater set off for Moscow with two of Trump’s children, Ivanka and Don Jr., to drum up a scheme for a Trump Tower in the Russian capital. For all their wilful obliviousness, Trump and his people showed a pretty clear sense of the sources of the funds: ‘We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia,’ Don Jr. said in an interview published the day Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.”


It explains so much of the questionable business dealings there have been under the Trump Organization.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/ne...ring-middleman/?utm_source=push_notifications

 

[SevMax2]

https://youtu.be/0Wt2WoMsoSE

Kyle Kulinski on RussiaGate.

 

[KeithD]

Nope, the Trump Russia connection/subservience is very real, very obvious, very treasonous, very dangerous.

 

[Rightguide]

Nope, the Trump Russia connection/subservience is very real, very obvious, very treasonous, very dangerous.

You're problem is it exists between the Democrats the Deep State and the Russians.

 

[Stephen_Coyle]

You know who else is Afraid that Trump is gonna Lose?


Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called for a reset on cyber-relations with the United States, and requested that the two countries agree not to influence each other's elections.

"(I propose)... exchanging guarantees of non-interference in each other's internal affairs, including electoral processes, including using information and communication technologies and high-tech methods," Putin said, Reuters reported.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...w-who-else-is-Afraid-that-Trump-is-gonna-Lose

Putin appears to be certain that Biden is going to win and is attempting to ask for a truce between the two nations...worried about the sort of damage Biden would do to Putin if Putin doesn't back off.

Of course, where will Trump go, what will Trump do, if he no longer has Putin in his corner?

Things look bad for Trump. Things look VERY, VERY BAD!

I had always assumed that Trump would flee to Russia after his time in office was up, you know, to avoid a lengthy stretch in prison.

So, what is Trump gonna do if Putin no longer has his back?

 

[SevMax2]

You're problem is it exists between the Democrats the Deep State and the Russians.

Don’t make me put you on iggy as well for McCarthyist paranoia. Both sides sound like Roy Cohn these days.