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Active Measures, Disinfo, Propaganda

Grandioso

By Grandioso
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956 Worldwide
956 Worldwide

A classic of the genre, “can you listen to a 2:45 minute stream of bullshit and refute it point by point?” Benz lies within his opening salvo by claiming that the United States overthrew the gove

Pam Cummings
Pam Cummings

String them up. Seriously. You have to make an example out of traitors.

956 Worldwide
956 Worldwide

“We spew Russian talking points totally organically, the Russian money doesn’t change our ideas” isn’t the defense Watters thinks it is. 

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Yuk

Yuk 1613

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Posted
33 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Didn't Kilimnik have ties to Manafort?  Or one of those in the dotard circle?

Yes, Gates testified that Gates/Manafort gave Kilimnik (GRU) the Trump campaign internal polling data, allowing Russia microtarget voters in swing states with the best info available to the campaign.

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pyrohornIII

pyrohornIII 4846

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I 

49 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

I'm dropping this here; I think it's going to be a worthwhile addition to the info out there.

 

This looks good, but an uphill battle for google hits among all the other Lucids out there.   I couldn't find a way to subscribe for the free editions?  I'd rather not commit to something without having the option to read a few pieces first.   I found the archives and if I'm doing this right, there's only one piece so far?

https://lucid.substack.com/p/drain-the-swamp

 

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pyrohornIII

pyrohornIII 4846

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It's well done.   Here's the first article.  Facts and well written without sounding like a thesis paper.

Quote

"Drain the Swamp"

And Other Myths That Cover Up Authoritarian Crimes

https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-43
Mar 31 6 7  
 
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"Drain the Swamp," And Other Myths That Cover Up Authoritarian Crimes

As authoritarianism spreads around the world, we see its cherished myths and themes gain new life. Holocaust denial is on the rise, as is attraction to strongmen leaders. Two propaganda points have been particularly influential over a century. First, the idea of authoritarianism as an efficient form of government. Second, the presentation of illiberal leaders as reformers who will crack down on crime. Far from cleaning up the country, "drain the swamp" campaigns have targeted those who call out the leader's lawlessness and corruption.

Mussolini the "Modernizer"

The first leader to convert a democracy into a dictatorship, Benito Mussolini (1922-1945) marketed Fascism as a modern and efficient political system. As he claimed in his 1926 autobiography, having one individual who implemented the national will ended the tedium of consensus politics and the "childish game" of voting. Abolishing worker rights? A sound management strategy. "We do not waste time in brawls and strikes which...imperil our strength and the solidity of our economy," he wrote.   

The idea that Mussolini made the trains run on time depended on the suspension of press and other freedoms for its credibility. Journalists were banned from mentioning accidents and delays, and official statistics communicated "not so much the actual state of things as what the regime would like the people to believe,” as the anti-Fascist Gaetano Salvemini observed. Trains running on tourist routes were prioritized, though, and the Fascists tried to keep violence out of sight in tourist areas. The exiled Italian scholar G.A. Borgese grew tired of hearing Americans return from vacation and praise Mussolini for making Italy "safe and clean."  

https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-43 Mussolini in Aprilia, July 1938.

Mussolini literally drained the swamps, impressing millions as he transformed the Pontine Marshes into New Towns like Aprilia, where he made a shirtless appearance in 1938. Yet the Fascists' 1924 murder of Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti to prevent him from exposing Fascist Party corruption revealed their true priorities. Likewise, Mussolini made headlines with his crusade against organized crime, but fired the official who discovered collaborations between the Mafia and the Fascist Party. Fascism not only did not defeat the old Mafia, but added a new one that operated under state authority - a precedent for today's authoritarian states. As the assassination of Boris Nemtsov and poisoning of Alexei Navalny suggest, Putin has followed Il Duce's approach: preach against corruption in public, facilitate it in private, and silence those who investigate it.

Putin the "Dynamo"

Putin came to power in 2000 as a modernizing reformer, his tough-guy talk and physical fitness presented as evidence of his dynamic approach to governance and life. Yet his energy has been primarily directed toward building a kleptocracy and a media environment that conceals it through censorship and information manipulation.

https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-43 Putin at a motorbike festival in Novorossiysk, August 2011.

That's why we don't hear enough about how clan networks allied with the Russian government prey upon and persecute businesspeople. Thousands of business owners have gone into exile, escaping the fates of over 70,000 others who were jailed or faced criminal proceedings from 2002 to 2012 on technicalities or fabricated charges like tax evasion. By 2018, one in six business owners faced prosecution. By 2019, 3% of the population held 89% of the country’s financial assets.

Putin also stands for the hypocrisy of "anti-globalists" who rely on global financial institutions and partners to fund their infrastructure projects, store their cash in offshore havens, and launder their assets. Since 2006, Putin and his associates may have removed several hundred billion dollars from Russia. Some of that wealth was likely cleaned with the help of the Trump Organization, given that Russian investors had long been a central revenue source for the company.     

Trump the "Efficient Businessman"

Trump channeled a century of authoritarian propaganda when he claimed in March 2017 that he would streamline the federal bureaucracy and prioritize ethics reform. Of course, his "drain the swamp" slogan and anti-big government ethos also evoked the Ronald Reagan years. Yet they took on a new meaning when harnessed to populist rage about elites supposedly privileging foreign interests over American ones, and Trump's promise to bring corporate efficiency to the White House. "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,” he had boasted in July 2016, accepting the Republican nomination.

https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-43 Trump at the Republican National Convention, Cleveland, July 2016.

As Trump's negligent handling of the coronavirus pandemic made clear, his idea of "fixing the system" had nothing to do with public welfare and democratic governance. Rather, he shared the autocrat's aim of turning public office into a means of generating profits for himself and his family. Until the pandemic curtailed travel in 2020, he spent almost one-third of his time in office visiting Trump Organization properties to promote his brand.

Unsurprisingly, one outcome of "drain the swamp" was Trump’s firing of any official who would not be complicit in his corruption, like FBI Director James Comey and Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. Another was converting federal agencies into easements for corporate plunder, as when a former executive from the Monsanto chemical company took over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And Trump's "anti-globalist" rhetoric fronted an administration whose cabinet officials, like Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, were enmeshed in networks of international capital. The Trump Organization's own business model involves licensing Trump's name globally and carrying loans from Bank of China and other foreign entities.

For one hundred years, strongmen have claimed that authoritarianism is an efficient mode of governance, even as they use disinformation and intimidation to hide the destruction they cause. Certainly, some people prosper: leaders help elites to concentrate capital and privatize public goods. And the stadiums, airports, and highways that proliferate under strongman rule convince many that the leader has improved the country.

Yet such gleaming monuments cannot cover over the catastrophic loss that results from plundered businesses, disappeared people, exiled families, and massacred communities. It is up to us to keep these histories of ruin in the public record. They are a reminder that, far from bringing greatness, authoritarians have a destructive effect on the societies they govern.

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Author’s note

This article is paired with my interview with William Browder, to be published on Friday, April 2, 2021. Browder's companies were raided in 2005 and his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in prison. Browder is currently on Putin's "kill list" for his lobbying efforts to pass the Magnitsky Act that punishes human rights offenders

 

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washparkhorn

washparkhorn 9972

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From @Longhorn_Fan68's link - the top 12 of vaccine hoaxers:

  1. Joseph Mercola
  2. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
  3. Ty and Charlene Bollinger
  4. Sherri Tenpenny
  5. Rizza Islam
  6. Rashid Buttar
  7. Erin Elizabeth
  8. Sayer Ji
  9. Kelly Brogan
  10. Christiane Northrup
  11. Ben Tapper
  12. Kevin Jenkins

I know RFK, Jr.'s work. grrrr.  But I don't recognize the rest. 

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Mrs Whiggins

Mrs Whiggins 13050

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Mercola I am fairly familiar with as he has been an anti-vax grifter and quack for a very long time. He also lives in Florida (surprise!). I brought him up several times in the old Donald Trump 2020 thread. I don't know if he still does, but he used to sell tanning beds as a skin cancer preventative. He has been warned by the FDA on multiple occasions for various quack products and pronouncements but I haven't kept up to see if any of it came to anything. Totally not surprised to see his name there. He is very very wealthy off his grift.

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Mrs Whiggins

Mrs Whiggins 13050

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I don't know if this falls under the 'active measures' part of this thread, but this type of event below seems to be growing? it's not new, but it doesn't seem to be stopping either. How to recruit folks for the diplomatic service, etc when this is a concern must not be easy.

 

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956 Worldwide

956 Worldwide 35589

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Today the FBI and Canadian/Dutch intelligence services seized and dismantled an X bot network that RT was using for influence operations. Exploiting AI.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-leads-efforts-among-federal-international-and-private-sector-partners

Quote

Russia’s State-Run RT News Network Developed and Federal Security Service Operated the Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Bot Farm to Disseminate Disinformation to Sow Discord in the United States and Elsewhere

Note: View the affidavit for search of 968 X accounts here and affidavit for domains seizure here.

The Justice Department today announced the seizure of two domain names and the search of 968 social media accounts used by Russian actors to create an AI-enhanced social media bot farm that spread disinformation in the United States and abroad. The social media bot farm used elements of AI to create fictitious social media profiles — often purporting to belong to individuals in the United States — which the operators then used to promote messages in support of Russian government objectives, according to affidavits unsealed today.

In conjunction with the domain seizures and search warrant announced today, the FBI and the Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF), in partnership with Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), the Netherlands General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), Netherlands Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD), and Netherlands Police released a joint cybersecurity advisory detailing the technology behind the social media bot farm, including details regarding how the bot farm’s creators leveraged their bespoke AI system in furtherance of the scheme. The advisory will allow social media platforms and researchers to identify and prevent the Russian government’s further use of the technology. In addition, X Corp. (formerly, Twitter) voluntarily suspended the remaining bot accounts identified in the court documents for terms of service violations.

“With these actions, the Justice Department has disrupted a Russian-government backed, AI-enabled propaganda campaign to use a bot farm to spread disinformation in the United States and abroad,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “As the Russian government continues to wage its brutal war in Ukraine and threatens democracies around the world, the Justice Department will continue to deploy all of our legal authorities to counter Russian aggression and protect the American people.”

“Today’s action demonstrates that the Justice Department and our partners will not tolerate Russian government actors and their agents deploying AI to sow disinformation and fuel division among Americans,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “As malign actors accelerate their criminal misuse of AI, the Justice Department will respond and we will prioritize disruptive actions with our international partners and the private sector. We will not hesitate to shut down bot farms, seize illegally obtained internet domains, and take the fight to our adversaries.”

“Today’s actions represent a first in disrupting a Russian-sponsored Generative AI-enhanced social media bot farm,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Russia intended to use this bot farm to disseminate AI-generated foreign disinformation, scaling their work with the assistance of AI to undermine our partners in Ukraine and influence geopolitical narratives favorable to the Russian government. The FBI is committed to working with our partners and deploying joint, sequenced operations to strategically disrupt our most dangerous adversaries and their use of cutting-edge technology for nefarious purposes.”

“We support all civic engagement, civil dialogue, and a robust exchange of ideas,” said U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino for the District of Arizona. “But those ideas should be generated by Americans, for Americans. The disruption announced today protects us from those who use unlawful means to seek to mislead our citizens and our communities.”

“The disruption announced today is the result of a combined response with our international partners to a serious and unique threat,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual for the Northern District of Illinois. “Multiple U.S. and foreign governmental components worked closely and efficiently to address the threat and develop and execute a mitigation strategy. Through vigorous enforcement efforts and collaborative international partnerships, the Justice Department works tirelessly to disrupt criminal cyber activity.”

 

 

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Longhorn_Fan68

Longhorn_Fan68 34101

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26 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Today the FBI and Canadian/Dutch intelligence services seized and dismantled an X bot network that RT was using for influence operations. Exploiting AI.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-leads-efforts-among-federal-international-and-private-sector-partners

 

cool. I'm sure there are many, many more where that came from.

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Deej

Deej 77803

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We have the right supporting Russia and being traitors, and the current administration being giant pussies and not taking the handcuffs off Ukraine.

Where's the reset button? 

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Covri

Covri 6368

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28 minutes ago, Deej said:

We have the right supporting Russia and being traitors, and the current administration being giant pussies and not taking the handcuffs off Ukraine.

Where's the reset button? 

Explain the bolded as you see it

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Deej

Deej 77803

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, Covri said:

Explain the bolded as you see it

I don't know. Maybe the fact that the biggest gains Ukraine has accomplished have been due to keeping their intentions from the US, or that the refusal to let them strike in Russia with US supplied weapons just means Russia keeps lobbing shit at civilian structures? 

What are we hoping to accomplish?

We have less than 6 months before Comrade Trump could possibly take office.

 

Edited by Deej
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Covri

Covri 6368

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3 minutes ago, Deej said:

I don't know. Maybe the fact that the biggest gains Ukraine has accomplished have been due to keeping their intentions from the US, or that the refusal to let them strike in Russia with US supplied weapons just means Russia keeps lobbing shit at civilian structures? 

What are we hoping to accomplish?

We have less than 6 months before Comrade Trump could possibly take office.

 

So you think we should be more involved and more aggressive? I can get behind that.

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