It's like Watergate, but for morons

Does anyone bother to read beyond the headline anymore?
Consider what Russia is actually being accused of.

Russia for years has conducted information warfare in Europe, running cyber operations, supporting fringe political parties and targeting disaffected populations to sow discord, the House committee said.

Or as the official report put it: "Russia will continue to undermine western democracies by stoking social strife, political unrest, and division."
So how did they do that?
scary_0.PNG
So what were Russia's objectives?

improve bilateral relations; and strengthen economic ties.

Gawd forbid! Improved political and economic relations with Russia? Where is my fainting couch?
Seriously, that is one of the objectives listed behind this Russian konspiracy. This is somehow a bad thing.
The most interesting part is where it talks about RT.

During the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, RT ran stories consistent with its past editorial bias against the West and suggested that the U.S. electoral process had been corrupted.

U.S. elections have been corrupted?!? I really need my fainting couch.
Next thing you know RT will suggest that there is racism and inequality in the U.S.

As for Russian bots, consider what the official report says.

Russian malign influence activities on Facebook were significant but they were not well-funded or large-scale operations relative to the overall scope of election-related
activity on these platforms:

56% of the 11.4 million impressions associated with Russian Facebook advertising occurred after the election

99% of Russian Facebook ads were funded with less than $1,000 and 25% were never seen.

Google also was used as a media platform for Russia's malign influence campaign. The company's investigation revealed that $4,700 was spent promoting 18 channels and 1,100 Youtube videos

In total, 0.0002 percent of 2016 U.S. election advertising was found to be associated with Russian malign actors.

0.0002 percent. That's an ant under a boot size of effort.
Yet we are supposed to take this seriously.

Unfortunately, this is what much of the report looks like.
redacted.PNG
Almost everything about RT was redacted. So I went back to look at the January 2017 report.

RT’s most popular video on Secretary Clinton, “How 100% of the Clintons’ ‘Charity’ Went to...Themselves,” had more than 9 million views on social media platforms.

Yeh, and then it turned out that this was based on fact.

In the 1970s, the KGB recruited a Democratic Party activist who reported information about then-presidential hopeful Jimmy Carter’s campaign and foreign policy plans, according to a former KGB archivist.

That's interesting, but why is it here and not part of the History Channel?

From August to November 2012, RT ran
numerous reports on alleged US election fraud and voting machine vulnerabilities, contending that US election results cannot be trusted and do not reflect the popular will.

Ah yes. You mean the truth. Provable facts and stuff.
And four years old.
It's important that this stuff doesn't get out.

In an effort to highlight the alleged "lack of democracy" in the United States, RT broadcast, hosted, and advertised third-party candidate debates and ran reporting supportive of the political agenda of these candidates.
The RT hosts asserted that the US two-party system does not represent the views of at least one-third of the population and is a "sham."

How horrible! RT helped 3rd party candidates debate issue on the air, like a real democracy!
What's more, they correctly identified that the major parties don't represent at least one-third of the population, like virtually any recent poll will show.
I can certainly see the problem.

RT aired a documentary about the Occupy Wall Street movement on 1, 2, and 4 November. RT framed the movement as a fight against "the ruling class" and described the current US political system as corrupt and dominated by corporations. RT advertising for the documentary featured Occupy movement calls to "take back" the government.

Now I'm getting confused. Is this report supposed to give me reasons to watch RT?

RT's reports often characterize the United States as a "surveillance state" and allege widespread infringements of civil liberties, police brutality, and drone use

RT has also focused on criticism of the US economic system, US currency policy, alleged
Wall Street greed, and the US national debt. Some of RT's hosts have compared the United States to Imperial Rome and have predicted that government corruption and "corporate greed" will lead to US financial collapse

RT runs anti-fracking programming, highlighting environmental issues and the impacts on public health.

It makes me wonder: if they are pointing out RT for covering this stuff, what in the Hell is the rest of the news media doing? Obviously not their jobs as journalists.
rt.PNG

Tags: 
Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Amanda Matthews's picture

I don’t know who said it (some say Mencken) but this has always seemed to me to be the truth:

“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

that has just been formed in D.C., which is going to continue to push this anti-Russia propaganda:

https://russia-insider.com/en/boot-applebaum-kristol-and-bunch-other-neo...

Look at the names involved. Recognize any of them? How many guesses do you need before you figure out what small, trouble-making Middle Eastern country they are affiliated with, and likely working for.

In fact, at the rate Bill Kristol sets up these neocon think tanks (he can't be that wealthy on his own), it makes me wonder if his funding for these neocon think tanks isn't coming from that same Middle-Eastern country and its American-based "helpers" (called "sayanim"), a hypothesis that is largely supported by having a look at this four-part Al Jazeera documentary called "The Lobby":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceCOhdgRBoc

And, for those of you who don't know, Russia has just announced that it is going to be upgrading the Syrians' missile defense systems, which should make any more rogue attacks on Syria from that small, trouble-making Middle Eastern country costly for that trouble-making country:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-26/russia-upgrade-syrias-air-defe...

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-25/russia-send-advanced-anti-airc...

In fact, the people heading that small, trouble-making Middle Eastern country, are none to happy about it:

https://russia-insider.com/en/israeli-defense-minister-vows-crush-s-300-...

No doubt, this small Middle Eastern country's allies here in the American political and media establishments, in bashing Russia, are just doing their part to help out the agendas of their string-pullers and friends back in the Levant.

up
0 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@SoylentGreenisPeople

Not that The Psychocrats That Be will ever admit it, because the Psychocrat in charge there is One Of Them.

up
0 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven

"Bring regime change to a certain small, trouble-making, Middle Eastern country."

Maybe we can start think tanks that support that agenda. Something like, "The Project for the New America First Century."

up
0 users have voted.

@TheOtherMaven do any good unless there is regime change here - and I am not talking about Trump necessarily, because Israel has a stranglehold on both parties.

up
0 users have voted.

dfarrah

A condensed version of their own report words might read:

Russia disseminated minuscule amounts of factual information, and we conclude this undermines both public trust and U.S. democracy.

Of course, the implication being that U.S. democracy relies on overwhelming lies and fabrications to thrive?

Like I said, almost hilarious.

up
0 users have voted.

3 is the number

A new Pew poll on how people think about politics and politicians is filled with not-so-positive nuggets. More than six in 10 say that "significant changes" are necessary in American government. Just one in three have a favorable opinion of the federal government. And so on and so forth.
But, amidst all that bad, one number really stood out to me: 3.
That's the percentage of people in the Pew poll who say they have a "great deal" of confidence in elected officials to act in the public's best interest.
3%!!!!

Meanwhile, 52% have "not too much," and 23% have no confidence at all in elected officials looking out for their best interests. Oomph.
Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat or neither, that number is absolutely awful. It speaks not only to the negative view most Americans have for politicians but also the gulf between what they think is right and what they think politicians care about

(Sidebar: This lack of trust in institutions to look out for the average person is widespread. Just 5% think business leaders act in the public's best interest while 8% say the media looks out for their best interests and 9% say the same of religious leaders. Overall, depressing figures.)

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@gjohnsit

Ugh. This was meant for Mr Webster.

"In the case of Wikileaks release of email and DNC server, every diversion was used to move people off the point that the emails were the actual emails of said dem party officials."

I mentioned this on Amanda's essay on the FBI not releasing the information on CrowdStrike. And one of the reasons for Russia Gate is to keep people from looking at what the republicans are doing behind the scenes. Everyone is focused on what Trump is saying and doing and effing Russia Gate, they no one has been paying attention to what the republicans are doing. What they did during Trump's first 100 days was rolling back the last minute legislation that Obama's administration passed on their way out the door.

Great comment! Great essay!

up
0 users have voted.

Here in the USA arming and funding Israeli genocide and mass murder is perfectly OK, but objecting to it will get you expelled, arrested or deported.

In the case of Wikileaks release of email and DNC server, every diversion was used to move people off the point that the emails were the actual emails of said dem party officials. The diversion which seems to be the main one, if not the only one, is that "propaganda" creates division and discord even though it happens to be true.

Very interesting article I stumbled across that illuminates the attitudes of US State Department over "Soviet propaganda" trying to exploit US "racial crisis" during the 1960's. You read the summary of what the Soviets were broadcasting and its like, hey, most of this is true.

How the Soviets Used Our Civil Rights Conflicts Against Us

What is interesting is that in the report, the Soviets describe what is happening as racism against black people, the State official calls what is happening a "racial crisis", the writer of the article calls it " growing American conflicts over civil rights."

Rather bland, euphemistic phrase. So the conflict was over some disagreement on whether people should have rights or not? Somehow conflict is a blase neutral word.

up
0 users have voted.

@MrWebster reason TPTB pushes the Russia influence stories is so that they can brainwash most people to believe that dissenters are commies and ruskies.

The TPTB is just sowing dissension against dissenters.

up
0 users have voted.

dfarrah

Azazello's picture

RT sows discord by reporting on Arizona teachers.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-1xNA3QMZ0 width:400 height:240]

up
0 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

@Azazello here in Seattle area, I want a Red for Ed shirt.

up
0 users have voted.

Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

dervish's picture

up
0 users have voted.

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Amanda Matthews's picture

@dervish

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.j

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@caitlinjohnstone.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

What I did wrong? That’s funny. I just clicked on your link.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

dervish's picture

@Amanda Matthews The link appears to work now, and I didn't change anything. I'm guessing that it was a DOS attack, which is apparently the penalty these days for telling the truth.

up
0 users have voted.

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."