#GOP Russia

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jay Kuo at Think Big Picture:

For years, critics of Vladimir Putin have been warning that the Russians have taken over parts of the Republican Party. They raised the alarm as Republicans defended the Russian leader, parroted clear Kremlin talking points, and became mules for disinformation campaigns. In recent weeks, that criticism has shifted to include not just Republicans who have left the party, including former representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, but current GOP members. Recently, two powerful Republican chairs of the House Intelligence Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee warned openly about how Russian propaganda has seeped into their party and even made its way into speeches on the House floor. Other members are now even openly questioning whether some of their fellow officials have been compromised and are being extorted. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) suggested in a recent interview that the Russian spies may possess compromising tapes of some of his colleagues. It’s unclear where he’s getting his information or how accurate it is.

And then there’s this: According to a report by Politico, a number of European politicians were recently paid by Moscow to interfere in the upcoming EU elections by Russians pretending to be a “media” outlet called “Voice of Europe.” The Kremlin-backed operation used money to influence officials to take pro-Russian stances. Authorities have conducted some money seizures and launched an investigation into which members of the European Parliament may have accepted cash bribes. This in turn raises an important question for our own politics: Are the Russians doing the same with U.S. politicians, directly or indirectly? This piece walks through the three types of compromise—disinformation, extortion, and bribery—to give a sense of what we know and what we don’t really know, and, importantly, where we should be on our guard. As this summary will show, from the 2016 election till now, there’s enough Russian smoke now to assume there is a fire, one that compromises not only the integrity of our own system of elections, but the safety and security of the free world. Duped.

Over the past year, we have witnessed two distinct kinds of Russian propaganda in action. Both use our own elected officials and intelligence processes to amplify and even weaponize disinformation. The first kind originates online through Russian-backed internet channels. Information operatives begin spreading false rumors, for example about Ukraine, that then get repeated within right-wing silos before reaching willing purveyors of it within the halls of Congress. A chief culprit in Congress is Georgia’s Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Among the Russian-originated false narratives she has uplifted is the patently false claim that Ukraine is waging a war against Christianity while Russia is protecting it. On Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, Greene even claimed, without evidence, that Ukraine is “executing priests.”

Where would Greene have gotten this wild, concocted notion? We don’t have to look far. Russian talking points have included this gaslighting narrative for some time. The twist, of course, is that, according to the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance, it is the Russian army that has been torturing and executing priests and other religious figures, including 30 Ukrainian clergy killed and 26 held captive by Russian forces. The Russians have also targeted Baptists, whom they see as U.S. propagandists, according to an in-depth Time magazine piece on the violence and death directed toward evangelicals. The Congressional propaganda mouthpieces for Russia aren’t limited to the U.S. House. Over in the Senate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance was also recently accused of spreading Kremlin-backed disinformation about Ukraine, this time over spurious allegations that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy siphoned U.S. aid to purchase himself two luxury yachts.

[...]

The accusation that Russians are presently extorting and blackmailing U.S. politicians into supporting Russia’s agenda has some broad appeal. It would help explain some mysteries, including why people like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suddenly is no longer as supportive of Ukraine as before and constantly kisses the ring of Donald Trump these days—after presciently saying in 2016 that the GOP would destroy itself if it nominated him. 

The problem has been that these accusations aren’t supported by much evidence. That means that political extortion by the Russians is either not a very prevalent practice, or it’s so effective that no one dares expose it. Either way, we’re left without much to go on. The Russian word kompromat came into common parlance around the time that Buzzfeed published a salacious story about another intelligence report back in early 2017. In that instance, the author, a former British intelligence officer named Christopher Steele, was concerned Russia had compromising data on the soon-to-be president, Donald Trump.

That report never wound up being substantiated, and its sources and funding came into question as well. But intelligence agencies are in general agreement that obtaining kompromat is standard practice by Russia, and someone like Trump could have been an easy mark considering the company that he kept (e.g. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell) and the projects he was involved with (e.g. the Miss Universe contest). Lately, the notion of kompromat emerged once again, this time not from Democratic-paid outfits but from within the GOP itself. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) is one of the more “colorful” characters within the GOP, primarily known lately for being one of the eight members who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and even for getting into public jostling and shouting matches with McCarthy.

The Republican Party (or at least its pro-MAGA faction) is compromised by Russian kompromat.

[defiantart]

[sher-ee]

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

On 7/31/2019 Trump has a private meeting with Putin. On 8/3/2019, just 3 days after his private meeting with Putin Trump issues a request for a list of top US spies. By 2021 the CIA reports an unusually high number of their agents are being captured and/or being murdered. During the search executed at Mar A Lago the FBI find nore documents with lists of U.S. informants on them.

A Timeline

• FBI wiretapped Russian gambling ring headquartered at Trump Tower for two years - March 21, 2017

• Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador - May 15, 2017

• Trump, Putin Meet For 2 Hours In Helsinki - July 16, 2018

• Rand Paul Goes To Russia And Delivers Letter For Trump, Marking Our Era Of Irony - August 9, 2018

• Following the Money: Trump and Russia-Linked Transactions From the Campaign to the Presidential Inauguration - December 17, 2018

• The US extracted a top spy from Russia after Trump revealed classified information to the Russians in an Oval Office meeting - September 10, 2019

• Trump’s Loose Lips Force US to Extract Spy From Kremlin - September 10, 2019

• Was Mar-a-Lago Trespasser a Tourist or a Spy? A Judge Said Her Story Didn’t Hold Up. - November 25, 2019

• Trump downplays massive cyber hack on government after Pompeo links attack to Russia - December 19, 2020

• Russia has been cultivating Trump as an asset for 40 years, former KGB spy says - January 29, 2021

• There was Trump-Russia collusion — and Trump pardoned the colluder - April 17, 2021

• Longtime GOP operatives charged with funneling Russian national’s money to Trump, RNC - September 20, 2021

• Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants - October 5, 2021

• Files Seized From Trump Are Part of Espionage Act Inquiry - August 12, 2022

• Ex-Clinton aide implies 'President of France' file found at Trump's home during Mar-a-Lago raid could be valuable to Putin as 'kompromat' - August 13, 2022

• Inventing Anna: The tale of a fake heiress, Mar-a-Lago, and an FBI investigation - August 22, 2022

• Russians used a US firm to funnel funds to GOP in 2018. Dems say the FEC let them get away with it - October 30, 2022

• Trump makes shocking comments about trusting Putin over US 'intelligence lowlifes' - January 31, 2023

• Russia's Prigozhin admits links to what US says was election meddling troll farm - February 14, 2023

• GOP operative sentenced to 18 months for funneling Russian money to Trump- February 17, 2023

• Trump allegedly discussed US nuclear subs with foreign national after leaving White House: Sources - October 5, 2023

• 'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president - April 24, 2024

🤔🤔🤔

[hussyknee]

Once I stopped wheezing, I went looking for what inspired this tweet. Apparently anyone consistently ripping into Biden and telling anyone why he's trash is "voter suppression". Liberals have all lost their goddamn minds.

[relaxedstyles]

Big endorsement week for Kamala:

Dick Cheney

Vladimir Putin

- Sounds like The Bush family are on board too 🥴

[meret118]

The Russian disinformation plot revealed in a Justice Department indictment this week may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to newly unsealed court documents.On Wednesday, the DOJ announced it would seize 32 internet domains linked to a larger Kremlin scheme to promote disinformation and influence the 2024 election. The Russian campaign, known as Doppelganger, uses AI-generated content to create “fake news” boosted through social media with the aim of electing Donald Trump.

“Today’s announcement exposes the scope of the Russian government’s influence operations and their reliance on cutting-edge AI to sow disinformation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement about the charges. According to records, the plan was well known at even the highest levels of the Russian government—and Russian President Vladimir Putin himself may have been aware of the campaign.

Of particular note, the documents released Wednesday included an affidavit that noted a Russian company is keeping a list of more than 2,800 influencers world wide, about one-fifth of whom are based in the United States, to monitor and potentially groom to spread Russian propaganda. The affidavit does not mention the full list of influencers, but is still a terrifying indicator of how deep the Russian plot to interfere in U.S. politics really goes.

The Doppelganger program and its “Good Old USA Project” aimed to mimic mainstream media outlets to push pro-Russian policies through fake social media accounts. Documents show that the Kremlin specifically targeted Trump supporters, minorities, gamers, and swing-state voters by spreading far-right conspiracies and capitalizing on existing divisions in U.S. politics.

[eugenedebs1920]

Alright MAGA. Enough is enough! Are you Americans or are you Russians? Do you stand with the Constitution and the freedom & liberty granted to you within it, or do you want to hand this nation over to Putin? To many of us it’s been clear since at least 2015 or prior that Trump had ties to Russia, I would recommend glancing at the Muller report. Micheal Flynn went to prison for collusion with Russia. Could have been a coincidence I suppose. The meddling in the 2016 election by Russia, I guess Trump didn’t ask them supposedly (technically he did with the Hillary emails thing, but). Then there was his first meeting with a foreign government official he had at the White House, that happened to be, you guessed it, a Russian official. In that meeting Trump cleared the room, upon its completion, being the dumbass that he is, inadvertently told reporters he gave sensitive information to them. Then there was the Helsinki meeting. You couldn’t tell if Trump was nervous, excited or if he wanted to blow Putin. Then it comes out, that at the hype of the covid pandemic, when the medical testing supplies were in short supply, Americans were unsure, scared, dying by the thousands, and instead of ensuring these supplies went to Americans, he sent large shipments to Putin. Then, after he knew he had lost the election, he took a plethora of classified documents, war plans, state secrets, and tried to hide them at his various residences. Why? I’ll give you 3 guesses. Putin. Russia. Kremlin. A while later Putin’s buddy Orban makes a stop at maralardo, coincidentally directing after meeting up with Putin. A little after that reporting comes out that Trump has had numerous calls with Putin where he had everyone clear the room for him to talk. Recently, All the sudden, out of nowhere, an unlikely oligarch, who Trump has criticized in the past, Trump has nothing but disdain for electric vehicles, or any renewable energy for that matter, a guy who Steve Bannon, trumps lieutenant, despises and ridicules, Elon Musk, becomes homies with Trump. NOW, it turns out Musk and Putin have been in cahoots for years! Let me spell this out for y’all again. TRUMP IS A RUSSIAN ASSET. It’s Plain as day! So stand with your country. Drop the spite for “woke” and the whole “owning the libs” thing. This is your damn country for Christs sake! Show it some appreciation! What more do you need to understand the Russian threat Trump poses! Do you need a picture of him cuppin the bawls before you’ll believe it?! Be an American, use your head and dump Trump! For the love of god man!

[7itch0zero]

[goldkirk]

also, I UNDERSTAND. I understand how ineffectual and morally and ideologically sold out the democrats are. I don’t want them either.

but I LIVED THROUGH a mayoral election during a race where the vote split. The forces of moral uprightness vs the corrupt selfish evil. Whatever you want to call it. It was like that.

there were three main players:

the industry plant: a long time (32 years) city council member, the endorsed (and spiritual) successor of the man who’d been our mayor for years and years and years—that mayor was very ethically and financially corrupt, and also groomed and molested me between the ages of 4 and 7.

just some guy: a man who was not corrupt like industry plant but wasn’t super anti-corruption and such. more chill go with the flow, somewhat able to be bought, not corrupt like our local government officials currently were though.

a woman with backbone: Track record as a former city council member who actively fought and called out corruption and under the table dealing and refused to be bribed, which obviously won no coworker favors but did endear her to a lot of citizens who found her championing city funding transparency or things like adding sidewalks

The endorsed man had the full weight of the local political machinery behind him. The other two had the majority of the common citizens.

The man didn’t drop out because he believed the woman wasn’t capable of winning and he’d do it best. The woman didn’t drop out because she didn’t believe the man was resistant enough to corruption. (These are heinous oversimplifications. I understand. I’m trying to make a specific point, so allow me this for now.)

On election night, guess what happened?

The man who ran with the machine behind him got the votes he expected. Not quite the majority, but a lot.

The rest of the populace had split.

Some voted for the other guy. Some voted for the woman. (Many, as usual, didn't vote at all, unlike the local corrupt labor union bloc that turns out in force every cycle for their chosen machinery candidate.)

The majority vote did NOT go to a candidate most citizens wanted.

the vote was split almost in thirds. and you know what?

I watched the sliiiiiiightly largest third win, and saw a man celebrate who was chosen for the King of The Whole City position by a man who sexually abused me and used his local-kingly-powers for personal gain and under the table dealings before I was tall enough to go down a water slide.

37% of the vote was enough to elect the nominated successor of my childhood sexual abuser into office without term limits. He then proceeded to reign as mayor for multiple terms, and the city stayed as corrupt as ever instead of having ANY alternate instead.

No, it’s not exactly the same in this election. But it should be enough to make us ask questions, plan, and organize from the ground up without moral infighting when the stakes are so high.

We’re all tired. But not all of us are in the same amounts of danger from different outcomes. It MATTERS.

Who’s the up-next four year old you might be able to save from abuse by voting, you know?

better financial and societal policies come AFTER immediate scene-is-on-fire safety is secured. in the middle of a crisis, and this is by far a crisis, you choose the next thing that keeps you ALIVE and you plan bullet points and strategies for what comes NEXT after you’re not about to die every other block going down the street, metaphorically.

[izooks]

Asked on a podcast if he thought it possible Trump was a Russian asset, Andrew McCabe, who Trump fired as FBI deputy director in 2018, said: “I do, I do.”

He added: “I don’t know that I would characterize it as [an] active, recruited, knowing asset in the way that people in the intelligence community think of that term. But I do think that Donald Trump has given us many reasons to question his approach to the Russia problem in the United States, and I think his approach to interacting with Vladimir Putin, be it phone calls, face-to-face meetings, the things that he has said in public about Putin, all raise significant questions.”

[defiantart]

[zvaigzdelasas]

Thoughts on if the USA will pass Israel 'aid' separate from Ukraine 'aid'?

Think the Dems would much rather give concessions on the border wall or abortion rights than allow anything to impede either war, think GOP would rather force concessions on the border wall or abortion rights than to do anything more than huff and puff about Ukraine

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[deadpresidents]

Trump says that Russia took Georgia under President Bush, took Crimea under President Obama, and took Ukraine under President Biden but didn't take anything from President Trump. They didn't have to. Trump gave Putin everything he ever wanted. And I distinctly remember Putin taking Trump's dignity, manhood, and probably lunch money when they met in Helsinki in 2018. And Trump DID take something from Putin, but unfortunately it was the word of Russia over the findings of Trump's own CIA, FBI, and intelligence advisers regarding a situation that was critically important to national security.

[tomorrowusa]

"MAGA Mike" Johnson needs a ride (to Mar-a-Lago) not ammo.

Vicariously, Vladimir Putin is House Speaker these days. 😡

Why do MAGA Republicans hate freedom?