Outed: Russia Today (RT), Long Russian State Propaganda, an Arm of the FSB & Simply Putin's Mouthpiece

I had discussed this on this blog in 2017 (I wasn't the only one who noticed), but I had complained about it years before that. That RT (Russia Today) was a tool of the Russian government, If not a branch of Putin's FSB, it was certainly his mouthpiece. I was stunned to find ANY American personalities or professionals would sign up for what was obviously just Russian State TV, regardless of their incessant denials.

Among the channel's shows were + One with Dennis Miller, CrossTalk with Peter Lavelle and The Keiser Report with Max Keiser. Other shows included News with Ed Schultz (2016–2018) and Larry King Now (2012–2020). Bizarre. Aiding and abetting the enemy.

It was also bizarre to find RT, which they changed to after "Russia Today" became too problematic, was touting a line curiously similar to American right-wing (nut) propaganda as on Fox News (a huge flashing light in both directions), touted by the Republican Party extremists and eventually and clearly by Donald Trump and his MaGA adjunct to Russian disinformation. Something Newt Gingrich began to make popular since the early 1990s.

None of this was difficult to see. Certainly not for any of us who had for decades, followed Soviet and then Russian disinformation campaigns worldwide. All of which became clearer as now war criminal Putin turned more and more into a despot and faux democratic leader of Russia.

Finally, the American government is being overt about it too:

Alerting the World to RT’s Global Covert Activities:

"Today, the United States is designating three entities and two individuals for their connection to Russia’s destabilizing actions abroad. According to new information, much of which originates from employees of Russian state-funded RT (formerly “Russia Today”), we now know that RT moved beyond being simply a media outlet and has been an entity with cyber capabilities. It is also engaged in information operations, covert influence, and military procurement. These operations are targeting countries around the world, including in Europe, Africa, and North and South America.

"RT and its employees, including Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, have directly coordinated with the Kremlin to support Russian government efforts to influence the October 2024 Moldovan election. Specifically, in coordination with the Kremlin, Simonyan leverages the state-funded platforms for which she serves in leadership positions – namely RT, Sputnik, and their parent company FEDERAL STATE UNITARY ENTERPRISE INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION AGENCY ROSSIYA SEGODNYA (ROSSIYA SEGODNYA) – to attempt to foment unrest in Moldova, likely with the specific aim of causing protests to turn violent. RT is aware of and prepared to assist Russia’s plans to incite protests should the election not result in a Russia-preferred candidate winning the presidency." For more see the article...

The U.S. government's release on RT’s global covert activities reveals that RT is part of a state-backed disinformation effort, promoting pro-Russian narratives and undermining Western democracies. This covert strategy aims to spread divisive content globally under the guise of independent media. 

Regarding Fox News, while they operate in a commercial, non-state-backed capacity, both networks share similarities in fueling skepticism toward U.S. government institutions and amplifying anti-establishment views. RT strategically exploits Fox's narratives when they align with Russian interests, particularly regarding foreign policy, media distrust, and cultural conflicts.

Wishing you all, all the best!

Walkabout Thoughts #50

Wow. My 50th "Walkabout Thoughts" Blog today! Cheers! Slainte! I have about 1500 total blog articles on this since about 2010. I started having 2 daily blogs 7 days a week, got down to once a week, now it's kind of intermittent (thanks long covid!). But I've tried to do every other day (we all have to have something to shoot for) OK, let's get started... .

My thoughts, Stream of consciousness, rough and ready, while walking off long Covid and listening to podcasts… July 9, 2023, Sunday

Weather for the day… sunny and 57° but 71° by time I got home.

Podcast Pod Save America

Regarding the student loan issue, how do you think, since we give K-12 "free" (nothing's free but we use our taxes for this since the 1700s: "In 1790, Pennsylvania became the first state to require some form of free education for everyone regardless of whether they could afford it."), we should appropriately fund that and end this charter school bullshit nonsense. We should extend that to K-14 so everyone can afford to get a basic education before becoming an adult at 18 and potentially moving out of their parent's house. Receiving then at least two years of vocational. or community college education toward a better job. Originally it was thought 12th grade would be good for a kid to get a job. Times have changed and our education hasn't caught up, and esp., Republicans have crippled our education system for divisive reasons. K-12 should service us better toward being ready for the job market. When I graduated high school in 1973, I knew full well I wasn’t prepared. I got a very basic job in an insurance company, in the mail room. I covered all the odd jobs beyond that they would come up, with such as moving things and delivering insurance forms to all the schools in the school district, in the fall,in Tacoma, Washington. But it seems to be a viable adjunct to school loans. Forgiveness could be not requiring payment until graduates get settled and have a job they can afford to live on and pay the loan back. I also don’t think we should be paying interest. Or interest should be so low it’s reasonable. wholesale. The amount of student loans we’ve heard some people have to pay back is ridiculous. Especially for those who can’t find a job that’s paying well enough to pay the loan back and not be such a burden it breaks people. A student loan should never lead to economic devastation of the individual.

I’ve said this before, but at least half of the people I see walking this road for exercise, don’t walk against traffic, as is legal... and kind of rational. I just walked by a small family with one child walking with their back to traffic. Strikes me as odd. Which, strangely enough reminds me of the TV show "CB Strike". The lead actor on that, who I just realized is on the show I'm watching about fighting the occasional apocalypse and world ending event, through a strange form of time travel ("The Lazarus Project" on TNT). Kind of entertaining Brit show. Yeah, no idea why I thought of that... but, there it is, this is a blog on my stream of consciousness.

Jon Lovett on the podcast asks, what do you think about “Barbie Oppenheimer“? I don’t know, but the Barbie movie oddly enough looks interesting in its bizarre comical fashion. I’ve also always been interested in Oppenheimer and the bombs that ended WWII on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On that, I’ll never get it out of my head. A documentary I saw years ago where one of the top Japanese generals said, and I saw him say it (translated from Japanese), that for those who say we shouldn’t have dropped the bomb, or that we didn’t have to do that, from where he was standing with others running the war, he said had we’re not dropped the first bomb, they would’ve never believed it, and it wasn't until we dropped the second one that they began to believe the reports. That, indeed was what made them want to end the war under threat of such overwhelming power they had trouble assimilating it.

Oh my God, the cocaine found in the White House was in an area where visitors are asked to leave their cell phones and things in a cubby. A public area and conservatives are making a big deal about this specifically having to do with the Biden White House? That’s just embarrassing... for them and humiliating for America, again.

Cocaine in the White House? Remember that moniker for old Senator Mitch McConnell “cocaine Mitch”? That’s all I’m saying…

As for cocaine in the White House… Again… Seriously, who looks more like he uses cocaine? Trump and his family, especially druggie Junior? Or Joe Biden who even Trump called "Sleepy Joe", so...not a cocaine moniker. I would argue Joe’s not sleepy, but laid-back. Anything we could use from the Trump dumb cluck once POTUS45, orange clownish fat and lazy golf whore, is well...you know I’m talking about.Nothing.

I have to say, Donald Trump reminds me of a cocaine freak, like his son, Junior, but acts like a meth head, even if he is just an Adderall freak.

Podcast is over, switching not to The Beat with Ari Melber. Apparently somebody was trying to set up a military coup when Trump was president?

Let’s be clear about something regarding drugs. People can use drugs as they use alcohol …sensibly. Yes, the issue is people who get carried away and addicted or cannot handle anything sensibly. No I don’t want drugs in the White House and I grew up in the drug culture years of the 60s and 70s, and 80s. But I would rather deal with a same person, reasonably on drugs, then someone like Donald Trump, who OD'd on autocracy and oligarchy and his Russian connections Or Richard Nixon as POTUS addicted to paranoia. Somebody a little high on drugs can still make sane and rational decisions. Sometimes the drugs actually help them with the stress to do so. No, I’m not advocating people in positions of power use drugs. But let’s face it. Plenty of people are on so-called legitimate, prescribed by a doctor drugs, or “medication" if you prefer, because of the amount of stress they’re under. This' s why it’s bad to throw somebody in as president like Donald Trump, as opposed to a career professional politician like Joe Biden who has learned through decades how to acclimate, maintain and manipulate, and maneuver within a political environment. Whereas Trump in being a criminal, simply did whatever he wanted with no due respect in trying to break every law he could in order to get whatever he wanted to make himself evermore wealthy. What kind of an ignoramus or worse, idiot, would vote for Donald Trump? It boggles the mind. Or maybe you just can't see it, until you can, and then you can't NOT ever not see it again.

Yes, a couple of things about the military. They do not, and should not follow illegal orders, such as Trump wanted to give. Because of things like Posse Comitatus, they cannot and should not be used within the interior of the United States or protectorates. That’s what the state's National Guard is for. And again, mostly and only for protecting the people. Donald Trump is not and was not, never will be there to protect the People. He’s there to protect his interests and his interests alone and when that matches up with the People, well then you’re just lucky (even a broken clock is right twice a day) and he will turn on a dime to benefit himself. Something a government should never do. Except in moments of disaster. Not as the Republican Party and conservatism anymore teaches every fucking moment of every fucking day. It is not as they keep lying...disaster time. Just because someone disagrees with you or has a different orientation in life or government, does not mean it’s a disaster, or a war is necessary. In their case their orientation and ideologies are simply out of step with the country, anachronistic and essentially utterly wrong.

I’ve seen today's faux conservative ideology, and them some real conservative ideology, historical concepts of conservative ideology within the Democratic Party and I've seen it in the Republican Party for decades and invoked when necessary, as human decency and the US Constitution requires and demands. But what is going on today with faux conservative ideology as having been subverted by Trump and his minority of the Republican Party, his MAGA elements, as they try to kill the GOP and America. So like seriously people...WTF?

Two hours after the failed military coup planning meeting in the oval office that ended at 1 o’clock in the morning, on December 19, 2020, Trump sent out a tweet that Peter Navarro had reported it was statistically impossible for Donald Trump to have lost the election. Uh huh. Right... There, is the Big Lie. Yes, evidence of all this is available to Jack Smith, Special Prosecutor who has indicted Donald Trump with more to come. If you’re a Trump supporter, I’ve been telling you since 2016, get off that clown wagon, and now  sure as hell. Though I know some of you will go to your death quietly, supporting a criminal and a stochastic and real terrorist and a treasonous criminal SOB and failed businessman... Donald Trump.

I need to be sure that the work I did on my blog at murdocknations.com, has the Google ads designator properly embedded to where I’m receiving appropriate accounting for viewership. [I checked, it is] I had that originally set up back around 2010, but they recently broke it in updating and upgrading it or something.

Donald Trump loves loudmouths just like him, especially when they are criminally, ethically and morally compliant to his wishes and have a sliding scale of those things that he has been given free and open reign to update at his whim. Just sayin'...

Donald Trump got elected in 2016, something wherein had everything been running correctly, as he complains about now in the 2020 election, he would not have been elected. But he was elected, as underhanded as it was, and with help by a foreign enemy. He then hired by his own word “the best people“ and the “smartest people”, many of whom took the job because of the White House, not Donald Trump...a few because of Donald Trump, but others because they feared for America with Donald Trump as POTUS. With them there they could at least they thought, curb him, indoctrinate him, help the oval office to do what it does, which is form new presidents on the "anvil" of the importance of that office (which I question if Trump ever truly felt even one). after seeing how useless it was trying to herd the Trump "cat mentality". So some quit, some resigned, others were fired. And that began the Lazy Susan clown carousel of Trump replacing the better with the worst until he got people who are nothing but “yes men “. And women. I get men being corruptible, but it’s sad to see how women are catching up to them.

I just want to mention that as I "voice to text" transcribe, that is dictate on my iPhone 11, the software does a pretty good job. I can see it correcting what it thinks I said by context. But I wish it did that more correctly. At the very bottom of my file I am writing "2". I keep a log there that just says "mile:". At the beginning there is always a "1". After I walk a half mile, I turn around and walk it back and I add "2" until I get up to "5". I finish that 5th mile and head home. If I didn’t do that, and I’ve done this before, which is why I started doing this, exercise is one of those things that, as in life in general, as I see it, is being smart, not hard. I’ve known plenty of people who worked very hard in life and got nowhere. Because they weren’t paying attention. They were actually working dumb. Yes, work hard at exercise. Getting a good work out is important. But working out hard in the wrong ways is working out dumb and you can end up working harder to your detriment. Better to work out smart, and do the exact amount of exercise you need to achieve the goal you’re seeking. I can quickly lose track within even 100 yards on this mileage issue, wondering what mile I'm on? But I would rather walk an extra mile, then less 1 mile. You don’t scam or scrimp on exercise. Because you’re only scamming yourself and your health. Esp., with long covid which adds some import to it all. Trust me.

I switched over to the "Strict Scrutiny" podcast episode, "What else can the Supreme Court get away with?" This podcast is from Crooked Media who brings us "Pod Save America" et al, with three women knowledgeable in their areas, who decided to take a moment and do what I do in these "Walkabout Thoughts" stream of consciousness blog articles. More stream of consciousness, more what my true feelings are and covering topics I find are relevant and important. In this case, this episode, they’re discussing, SCOTUS. Oh, fun...

I didn't know these ladies but I LIKE them after listening to this podcast! Here is who they are:

Strict Scrutiny is a podcast about the United States Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it.

Hosted by three badass constitutional law professors-- Leah Litman, Kate Shaw, and Melissa Murray-- Strict Scrutiny provides in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities. Each week, Leah, Kate, and Melissa break down the latest headlines and biggest legal questions facing our country, emphasizing what it all means for our daily lives.

I weighed myself the other day in the high 220 pounds. That has to stop. So I’m cutting out the sweets again, completely this time. Thought I could do at least a little bit but not now until I get a downward trend going. Also diet, it’s going to become a little more spartan. Onward and downward!
Yay! I finished my 4th mile and I’m starting my 5th. It’s starting to warm up, it’s 10:10 AM on Sunday now. But it feels so good to be outside in nice weather getting some exercise. This last winter has really made me appreciate this even more. I do miss my younger decades where I could go out and be more physical in  duration and intensity. But I have to say, of all the times I missed getting to do that because of my job, my family, etc., lack of time and so on, just as I took time to spend with my kids, regardless of my busy schedule and career, I’m glad I took time for both. Where I’m sad is I wish I could’ve taken my kids more trips to the mountains and into places I had gone when I was younger. But we did get some interesting vacations. My wife back in the 90s was a professional horse trainer and riding instructor and horse show rider and we would take working vacations. She’d work and see us when she could and I'd take the kids and we'd do things. Reno, Nevada was like that. That was a great time. Except for one incident. I was helping her with a horse to give her female hormones because of the nearby studs, as they’re all grouped together too closely. I asked for gloves got cloth gloves. Stunned, as I tended to be with these horse show people, because they only seem to have half a brain half the time, but then a lot of the time they were exhausted. In hoping for surgical gloves of some sort, I got white cloth. Then I accidentally spilled the hormone all over my hand. For reference, which I suddenly realized in the moment, a cloth glove does nothing more than hold something spilled on them, longer against your skin. It took a moment because I had to do something with the open bottle of horse horror, I mean horse hormone so that I didn’t spill or waste any and had to do something with the hypodermic. I was pouring it a big one just to easily squirt into the horses mouth. It took a moment to get the damn glove off because it was wet and then there was nowhere to wash my hands off right away. And so over the next three days I experienced the worst of what a woman’s worst monthly menstrual cycle (Yes, yes, minus cramps) must be like, only literally on steroids. Or hormones anyway. For three days, I thought I was going insane. On the second night I lied in bed next to my wife, contemplating suicide. I could hear a train going by, half a block away and considered walking in front of a train. This was at The Sands hotel in Reno, Nevada. But instead, I went inside the casino at 2AM (so weird how 24 hours that town is) while my wife and two kids slept. I sat at a bar having drinks and playing some game at the counter until I could calm down enough to go back to bed, hopefully, to sleep. It wasn’t until days later I realized what had happened. Every toxically masculine guy should have to go through that. It’s a real fucking eye-opener. I’ve told this story before in more detail. But I think it enlightening to mention it every once in a while as I’ll never forget the experience. So when you get on the subject of trans people who say they feel like they’ve been insane all their lives until they got the healthcare they needed where at least some of their situation could be alleviated (like hormone blockers or hormones), when they start to feel sane for the first time in their lives? I can at least somewhat comprehend what they must go through, only from birth. For me... it was only three days. Three days of madness.

As far as weight loss goes and exercise, I know it takes two or three weeks to see results. It’s going on the third week maybe of doing 5 miles about every other day. As it's warmer than I’m used to, this is a hard 4th and 5th mile. But it’s not long Covid hard. It’s just old guy hard who’s trying to get into shape again. And that's... a joy.

SCOTUS Justice Sam Alito, or “scamAlito”? Or Sam "ALeak-o", about an alleged action of tipping off the "Right" about the Hobby Lobby SCOTUS ruling and how he has a too cozier relationship with the Wall Street Journal, who seems to know things at times that they just shouldn’t.Who told them? Huh, Sam?

Kudos to most prepared and educated Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson. Who has these women on the podcast indicating how she hit the ground running rather than join SCOTUS and then just sit back for a while to read the room and see how things are before incorporating her participation. The woman is a force to reckon with!

I’ve heard people in my life say that as you walk through life keep your head up. OK, well that’s a metaphor, or an allegory? Something like that. It’s not literal. All my life since I was a child, I’ve kept my head down while being fully aware of my surroundings in a martial arts, Zen kind of "Zenshen" (or “total awareness“), or at least attempting that. And my life has been all the richer for it. Back in the 70s you could things on the ground as you walk along a sidewalk or someplace, finding spare change, random joints (cannabis cigarettes) on the ground (do I really have to define that to anyone in 2023?). I found money and all kinds of things on the ground over the decades. Since moving here I found two ancient hand tools which I’ve detailed in a blog elsewhere. I have not detailed the latest one I found a couple of weeks ago. Within a city... I found rock tools... that could be from hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago. The first one I wrote an entire blog about. I actually had a archaeologist verify it as an ancient tool. You can tell because if it fits your hand. Rocks don’t usually just show up that way, they have to be formed. And you can often see, maybe using a magnifying glass if nothing else, chip marks that helped form it that way. Type of rock also has something to do with it. So keep your awareness of your environment, metaphorically and literally, but also keep your eyes on your next step. I wonder how many people who stepped into so-called quicksand wouldn’t have if they were just paying attention? There’s a lot of different kinds of "quicksand" in life. And there’s a lot of people out there trying to scam us and some of our trusted leaders. Some of whom should never be trusted. One in particular comes to mind...

A moment to respond to the situation of black culture in America. I believe that 13.6% of the American population is Black. I have long agree that should be reflected nearly everywhere which is what affirmative action was about. Rather than zero Black people in a university, or 5% where some colleges had 9%. It should’ve been 13%. However, for those who say they seem to see Black people everywhere nowadays, I would just like to mention that when you’re 13% of a population, but your culture has had such an impact that it in part spawned a Civil War which almost tore this country apart and did for a while, your relevant  impact on this culture and society, this nation, is actually greater than 13% and should so be reflected.

So my left ankle is acting up again as I’ve detailed in the past. I had surgery on that arch in 10th grade in 1970. I had an interesting history in the Air Force because of my flat feet. A doctor told me as a child, I had “loose joints“ that would cause me problems when I got older. I’ve had knee surgery on both knees, not replacements, I’m too young for that 67. Or so I’m told by the VA. But it feels like there’s not much in my ankle. The doctors claim without I think appropriate imagery, that it’s normal wear and tear. Uh huh. Right. That seems ludicrous. But there it is. America’s marvelous healthcare. Which for too many of us is priced right out of our using it. Then, let’s talk about how dangerous childbirth is in America for women and more so for minorities, and blacks…what the hell is THAT about?

See Judge Reeves on second amendment, putting that issue in its place.

I agree with one of the women on the podcast that Justice Clarence Thomas is someone who should not be anywhere near a life long term on SCOTUS, but should be in some serious therapy for the truly serious damage he received as a child, and the trauma that he is now serving up to America, because of his own pain from HIS childhood. I can't stand people who take their pain and share it to others and shove it into their lives. Deal with it, pal. Suck it up. Maybe hanging with all those wealth people compromising your career can help, have helped?


Cheers! Sláinte!

America's Dezinformatsiya and компрометирующий

I've been avoiding political blog postings for a bit but now it's time to revisit that. I'm busy working on my re-draft of The Teenage Bodyguard with a Hollywood producer and I'm approaching the end of principal photography on my project from one of my previously published short stories ("Gumdrop City"), titled, "Gumdrop, a short horror". You can see shots on my Instagram account of some production stills from the set.

Okay, first for a little background.

Beginning in the early 80s when I was at Western Washington University, I began to notice some odd things. I was doing a lot of research in the University Library toward my psychology degree. One day I was talking to someone and they pointed a certain book out to me. They said I could find it in the library where I was spending massive amounts of time.

WWU Library

There were days when I got out of class, went to the library and was there until closing and went home and continued studying with my girlfriend who lived with me. We were a team. We amazed even our departmental advisor. We studied together, were in some of the same classes and could finish one another's thoughts to a dazzling degree.

WWU campus in Bellingham, WA

This was noticed one day by said professor who was himself one of our top professors in psychology nationwide. We were focusing in our studies on the theoretical of phenomenology and of processes and systems. This professor one day tested us in front of the class and we proved ourselves valid and highly functional. My point being, we were advancing faster together than most students and were told we were at the very top of our class, even across the nation.

One day I got into that book. I looked up a corporation on my and who actually owned it and fell down a kind of corporate rabbit hole that led to some very interesting and disturbing connections. I traced who owned that corporation, and who owned that one and in the end, I was stunned by who owned that primary umbrella corporation. Then I checked others. The more I checked the fewer I found. And the more disturbing connections popped up.

Meaning that many corporations were owned by a few, or one entity and some foreign corporations, leading to other questions. Now, many do know about that. Many would say, "Yeah, sure, so what?"

But it was about more than that. It was beyond disturbing to at times, frightening. But I dropped it, as it would have taken all my time and I had little time as it was to get my studies done, my papers written and turned in. But I kept an eye on things over the years, over the decades. And what I was seeing became ever more and more concerning...bringing us up to, today.

Over that next year or so I continued to look into it on the side as I had time. When doing my research I would stumble upon something, spend fifteen minutes going down that rabbit hole then go back to my primary effort for classes toward my whatever article I was preparing toward my psych degree.

My best effort in psychology may have been a paper I delivered in my final year on schizophrenia and synesthesia, about how one might help the study of the other. When I delivered it in my senior seminar on abnormal psychology it stunned both my class of eight and our prof. There was not a lot on synesthesia back then.

It is now available today to everyone, all these many years later, as an ebook and an audiobook. Of course, it doesn't have the same punch or import today as it once did in 1984 but the concept of using one toward another is and it has been my most downloaded ebook for years.

Years before that after graduating high school in 1973 I was planning a career in espionage (I eventually entered the USAF and at the end of my first term was accepted into the OSI), I had started studying the Soviets, KGB tactics, and the history and nomenclature and tactics of espionage.

Back in the early 1970s I read a book by a general who pretty much ran the Vietnam war. I believe it was Gen. William Joseph Westmoreland. A very respected general who went down his own rabbit hole and because of rather a laughing stock.

In reading his book and looking into his contentions I discovered not his veracity but my first conspiracy theory. I believe it was published by a small publisher who published such books and I can now, not find a copy or reference to that book anywhere. Which is telling.

However, rather than many would do in looking deeper and deeper into HIS conspiracy, perhaps allowing cognitive bias to enter the picture, I instead began studying what conspiracies and the theories themselves actually were.

I found most of them are nonsense. But I discovered the dynamics of conspiracy theory and those it affects and did my best from then on to avoid that nonsense but to do actual research and adhere to research methodology and reality itself. That has put me against a lot of people over my lifetime who believe in utter nonsense. And it has gotten only worse in recent times and since the advent of the internet to the general public and the world.

There is a way to research these conspiracies. Something most conspiracy theorists fail to follow and thus, fall down their own sad rabbit holes. The advent of the internet has merely exacerbated that syndrome.

I've used due diligence to avoid that myself and also in being a university-trained researcher and not some armchair nutcase political quarterback and have done well having debunked many conspiracy theories rather quickly. Which always amazed me how others do not see the obvious but continued instead on along their dark paths utterly wasting their time. QAnon is a recent addition to the white noise of conspiracy theories.

QAnon terminology

I began telling people what I knew about what I had found regarding corporations. My older brother still remembers me after college telling him to stop looking at what he had been and at countreisa and start watching what multinational corporations were doing.

I then began to notice a convergence of Soviet/KGB tactics and corporate actions. In the 1990s I began to notice the Republican party stepping over the line of spin and politics and enter the shady realms of social engineering in KGB style tactics which they have continued and multiplied against the American people, to this day and in that direction. Because these tacts are effective.

With great reticence I watched Putin become the leader of Russia in 1999 and worried openly to others about it ever since. He has maintained power against all reality and odds, greatly to the detriment of not just the Russian people, but all of America and western democracy.

After 9/11 the GOP fell down its own rabbit hole as if a gift handed to them and aided by their leaders and others, as in the NRA and as in Russia. This is not a conspiracy. It's facts, it's public knowledge and it's actions compiled together as we get a picture of the forest for the trees and not really missing anything in the process.

Many refuse to believe any of this because it is so open and obvious and so they believe, it simply cannot be. But the best covert actions are held in public view. From one of my great authorial heroes:

"The best place to hide is in plain sight. – Edgar Allan Poe, in The Purloined Letter"

Another favorite of mine and I have his books too, is the British magician who helped in the WWII effort as his father and grandfather before him had done in their wars, Jasper Maskelyne. The Fischer book, "The War Magician" is a good read, but factually errs fairly often apparently.

I mention all this because "magic", camouflage and covert ops are best done in the open leading to an innate disbelief in what they are actually doing. So what? Well, we now have a president doing all this in plain sight and his supporters cannot believe the contentions against him. Some quite well proven by now. We have multinational corporations doing this. and we have the Russian cyber machine doing this to destroy confidence in America regarding our culture and elections.

Russian intelligence and their organized crime connections, always a branch of the Soviet and then the Russian government and now along with the internet, have allowed for fairly cheap, enhanced covert operations... from afar.

The GOP and the Russians began to converge now many years ago. When I say "Russians" I mean, their government in Putin, his Oligarchs, the Russian mafia interests, Russian intelligence services, and yes...multinational corporations.

Because they are all in this together, apart. And that is what makes all this very difficult to "see" or believe. Or to counteract. While our intelligence services know of it all, or much of it, laws and leadership deny too much of it all and little and at times nothing, gets done to counter it. Though we are catching up...finally.

Still, it is criminal activities like this in America that led to our need to create the RICO laws. And so now too we need new laws and processes to cover this kind of multinational anti-American activity.

It is very likely that in many cases, the Russians, the GOP, and corporations were working apart, separately, just on similar agendas but for perhaps, very different reasons. Though it matters little when the damages done are so very much the same.

One does not avoid someone like the Russians when using their tactics. As eventually, you will find yourself in bed with them. Even if you never talk together. It wouldn't be unusual for those types to rationalize their behaviors as "absolutely not", Russian, or in the Russian interset. Or the old Soviet interests. But that is indeed the mindset of criminals, and bad people everywhere in thinking they are good while doing bad all along.

Then Trump arrives on the scene as POTUS and... now we've come full circle.

This is by no means a conspiracy theory. Some just want you to believe that. It's not a Hollywood spy movie. It is not just grand gestures by a James Bond/Ian Fleming style "worldwide evil" organization.

In many cases it is individuals, it is faint actions nudging things in a certain direction for varied reasons. Not coordinated, rather just an agenda and an ideology. It is essentially, greed. And in some cases in as Putin, hatred, of western democracy and a loss of Russian stature. It is desire. For money, for power, for position. For Nationalistic pursuites. For racist pursuits. For the worst of us, not the best, but in believing in ones' own tribe that it is the best. That is the White Supremacist's belief after all.

"Terrorism: Ideology w/out grievances doesn't resonate & grievances w/out ideology are not acted upon. Indeed, there be 2 sides to this coin." - Mubin Shaikh

Ideology without grievances is very little, just as grievances without ideology are nothing. But together, as we've seen through Donald Trump, they are a powerful force toward putting a minority against the majority and then against all odds, to see themselves in positions of power.

It is how fascism and such have always things worked. It is how they are working today.

This is our New Reality. Forged by the GOP. With help from American multinational corporations, or at least those in control of such entities. And it is something our friendly-nation friends like the UK, France, Germany, and others have actually warned us of! Repeatedly. While many of our own, mostly conservatives leaders have denied again and again and again.

Our own people in intelligence, who do not deal in FAKE NEWS, but rather raw intelligence and solidified information, know much of all this.

There is indeed FAKE NEWS, but it is merely real news that some like Trump simply do not like as it uncovers their actions so often hidden right there before us in plain site. There is disinformation (dezinformatsiya) and compromising information (компрометирующий), and there is more going on than most of us aware of all this, are even aware of. But it will all, ore mostly, come out, eventually. It always does. 

Our own intelligence agencies have tried to inform us, but they are constrained by the nature of their jobs and by those in power who do not wish to be exposed, in restraining them. Those such as Donald Trump, to be sure. And such as we've now been seeing, in Mitch McConnel, Senate Majority Leader. Sadly.

To be fair, McConnell and many Republicans today were off on the wrong foot from day one in their platform, their confused and misled conservative agenda, their mistaken ideology. Yet, it's odd how closely aligned it is or has become, with the Russians.

Not (most of) the Russian people, but Putin and those of his, in power. Those who refuse to give the Russian people a free and fair society. And like us, they want one. Those people in power claim they are what we aren't and aren't the crazed Americans with their racism.

Because Putin, just like Trump now, fears to leave power to then be available for prosecution. Putin has been winning, but Trump is in America and we do yet still have a chance at bringing him down for any criminal activities he has been involved in, or is still involved in.

Again, this is not a conspiracy. The information is mostly out here for us all to see. We just have to, if not want to see it, allow ourselves to see it. Before it's too late. And it may already be. Just as with climate change that has been sped up through human mechanized actions since the 19th century.

We are all seeing it plain as day while it is to far for too many as it somehow means it's all not real. To them it's just diatribe, partisan smear campaigns. And yet, these things are still happening, the intelligence agencies continue to accrue this information as we strive to bring it to light through Congressional action, if not now through legal judicial means and impeachment.

All while Mitch McConnell does what he can to avoid that. Why? Because he is in this for himself, for Trump, for Russia, Putin? Or for America?

And now we have new issues to be concerned with as one leaked executive order indicates that it would let US Government control our social media. As the article indicates:

"Trump wants to do something most Twitter users could only dream about: enlisting the federal government to make sure his posts get more engagement."

What?

So, now what do we do? We end this regime and replace it with an American one. A fully American one.

And that includes what is going on with the NRA. As well as the GOP. We should obviously keep an eye on the DNC. But to be fair, they are already headed in a very American direction of inclusivity and diversity. They always have been more so than the GOP in recent decades for that matter.

America is here, still.

We just have to continue to fight for her. And for US all. 

Middle East, Vietnam, All Over Again?

As a fiction writer, horror and science fiction writer and filmmaker, I wish you all a very Merry (or, Scary) Christmas Eve Day. Scary for fun. Not the scary reality we feel crushing us from every direction.

We do live in interesting times.

I had thought America lost its taste for war and playing chess with another country during in Vietnam. Although today with a ridiculous Pres. Donald Trump, we can all see we are now playing checkers... and losing.

And yet, Iraq. And then, Afghanistan. And illegally, Iraq and so on now within and all over the Middle East. Interesting times, indeed.

It feels like Russia and America are simply trying to sow chaos throughout in the Middle East for reasons of unethical self-interest. All when we should be trying to solidify the region and get the hell off fossil fuels, the Middle East's primary source of wealth.

In 1984 I wrote a screenplay. My first. It was titled, Ahriman. He was a prince/prophet on a violent desert planet who was trying to lead his historically extremely violent people to peace.

Not unlike sectors of the Middle East and even America today in many hating the idea of peace and many luxuriating in the cathartic concept of...hating.

I set it on that desert planet for the interaction between them and earth. I got two professors to let me write it as a self-study class I'd get credit for, and so I'd leave college with a full screenplay. I got two A's on it.

After a year of a special team script/screenwriting class toward my minor (psychology being my major), I was selected with seven others from my playwriting class. A class I was sent to by my intro to fiction writing professor to improve my short story dialog. Even though I was one of the top two top writers in the class.

At the end of my college career that spring, I was surprised to realize I still didn't have a full feature screenplay to leave my university with. Just short plays and TV scripts.

One of my university professors read it and asked, "Why a desert planet?"

I said that it fit what I was trying to do in using the ancient middle east religions and associations. I was concerned at the time about Dune, in having just come out as I was NOT trying to associate with that film.

Though I didn't see the film Dune until months after finishing the screenplay, I had heard about it and had loved the book when I first read it in 10th grade in high school. Which led to me finishing the book and writing my first ever short story, a science fiction story of an assassin school and one student's coming of age and realizing that the authorities were not what he had been led to believe.

As was happening to America at that time in 1970 with the Vietnam war and so many other things. Eventually, I did see and like the film and so I am now and ever since a David Lynch fan, who directed the film. I must say I would have loved to see the film that it almost became in having Alejandro Jodorowsky direct it, a project which fell through.

My professor thought about it for a moment and then said, "Well, desert or jungle, I guess you could go either way." And I didn't want to go jungle.

Which brings me back to the Vietnam jungle war and now these desert wars, and these problematic desert religions of Judaism, Catholicism and the youngest sibling, Islam. None of them towers of intellect or humanity as we've seen. And most recently in the actions of sectors of the Islamic Jihadi actors. Not to blame an entire religion for the actions of a few fools.

Our, Humanity's need or desperate lack of need for religion in today's modern world is another topic for another time. One which I've covered extensively in past blogs.

The Middle East did not just do all this to themselves. I'm just unsure now if we are trying to clean it up and retract to leave them to their own devices as should be done. We are seeing some behind the scenes defensiveness going on. But with this President Trump, not so much behind the scenes really. We are seeing clearly some of his actions as being for himself and that in any president is a serious if not a treasonous issue.

Or are simply disingenuously continuing the madness for fun and profit. Of which I assume we are and will continue do in following our trail of destruction of the latter. Along with the primary actors of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran. And how (or where) is China not surreptitiously involved?

The president's own party is not with him any longer.

Description

John Michael Mulvaney is an American politician of the Republican Party who is serving in President Donald Trump's cabinet as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, who called Trump a "terrible human being" on video, leading up to the 2016 election.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has just said: "It could be a costly mistake." And that it, "...not only threatens the safety and security of the United States, but also emboldens ISIS [which Mr. Trump just said was gone and we won the war against them, which is patently not true], Bashar al Assad, Iran, and Russia."

People elected Donald Trump to break the nonsense. To shatter the status quo. Oddly enough, maintaining a now gone perceived status quo is also the primary goal of conservatives who voted for him. That pretty much sums up the confusion of conservatives and the Republican party. And in part why we are in this mess in the first place.

Indeed, Donald Trump has shaken things up. Which in some ways is good. But that was incidental and truly not his plan, if he even had one. Which he does not. He has not. He's simply injected even more nonsense into an already self-induced mess. And for his own devices and profit. In fact, he has done far more damage than anyone could foresee. Except those many who would never vote for him.

What we need now is a real POTUS. One who will look around and fix this mess. For America. Not for one man. Putin. Or Trump.

We need to bring back America. Bring back sanity. Return democracy to the world and America in a better format.

And give the world once again, Peace. War, it is said, is failed politics. We need to elect high-quality politicians from here forward. Purge our ranks of these failed politicians.

I wish you all an island of peace in all this in this holiday season. A brief moment where you can look down and see you are all right. Your loved ones alive and hopefully well and around you.

All the best this season. We deserve a break. We deserve peace and a humane world.

It will come to us if we want ti enough. It will take time to be sure.

It will arrive sooner, if we pay ever more attention to it, nurturing it to move toward us every day, in ever action.

America's First & Necessary Post POTUS Execution

Is there an argument for the State execution of Pres. Donald Trump, once he is removed from office? I believe the consideration it is now rapidly being approached and very likely will soon be surpassed.

Why do I keep thinking of the French Revolution of 1789 – 99? And, "Why [does] President Trump resembles a pre-revolution French monarch."

Either way, treating our abusive leader appropriately, is really my point in all this.

The Donald, or The Don?

The argument against it is far less strong with each passing day. Not to mention Mr. Trump's own orientation on the death penalty being required for certain crimes. It's not a long stretch to consider if he were on the other side and himself were his enemy, he too would be calling for the execution of a traitorous POTUS. Especially if he could have pushed for that against an obviously far better president in Barack Obama.

Where there is this much smoke...there's fire.

First off, IF we allow this kind of abuse to go unpunished, we are essentially following the Donald Trump foreign policy for his beloved dictators and the abuse of national leaders' own citizens as in Syria or even as with Saudi Arabia against a journalist: "Oh well...."

We have GOT to send a strong message to not just Donald Trump AND his people who appear to be dropping like flies in a firestorm. And the vapid and zombie Republican party for this manufactured nightmare. But also to ANY other party (or foreign actor) in the future who may consider similar actions against the American electorate in their desire for power and position, or simply...chaos.

Putin loves western chaos, not Trump

That includes Vladimir Putin as a foreign actor against America and as well against his own country. Putin needs to be removed. I can't say that enough and I'm sick of saying it as I have since about the year 2000, a year after he took power.

Perhaps, had we better helped and made better decisions along with Mikhail Gorbachev in the bringing down of the Iron Curtain, we would never have seen a coup that replaced him with the alcoholic criminal Boris Yeltsin. Who then put Putin into power to protect him and his family from prosecution once he left office. It is a chain of authority from a decent path to a criminal path until today we have a State Criminal in Putin and a government he crafted in his own ex-KGB image.

Obviously, we need the appropriate and legal proof against Donald Trump to act upon it. The last thing America needs now is more illiberal or criminal actions in our government. We need to not follow in the footsteps of Russia.

Or China for that matter in their recently giving Pres. Xi a position for life. A stupid move. A very stupid move for any country to do. And a sign that something is very wrong. One that other nations need pay attention to and in their dire fortune if they ignore it. As they are doing. As we are all doing.

We must also take a stand against presidential plausible deniability. A tough thing to accomplish.

Which one should suspect Mr. Trump has already screwed up anyway and may prove not to even be a concern for us. Mostly because of his innate ineptness and that of his crew along this path he has taken these past decades.

The president is indeed held to a different consideration than the rest of us. And rightly so. Up to a point. Therefore he (or hopefully soon, she) needs and, especially this president Trump, needs to be held to a different judicial consideration.

We obviously have to be sure what we're doing. That is, to be transparent. As there will always be those who believe this is being done TO the POTUS  and somehow had not been done BY him and to himself and therefore, to America at large.

These are difficult times to be sure but we're up to the occassion!

That being said, IF Mr. Trump did these things, IF we cannot prove it in the normal ways, then it needs to be proven in an appropriate enough way to succeed in finding a ruling that should be found in considering just what he has done. Leaving things like plausible deniability by the wayside. We need to protect the citizens by rule of law. But we also must protect the nation by rule of reality.

Presidents DO need that capability at times in plausible deniability, in order to not be held accountable. There IS  a legit reason for its existence.

But FOR the American nation, the American people, and not against them as Mr. Trump has apparently done. All for wont of money and power, to satiate his defective ego and personality. That is no longer in question. Mr. Trump obviously has some serious defects. Defects that should have disallowed him ever to become POTUS. We have damaged the office of president, ourselves in allowing such a man to enter into it.

In actuality, our least hardworking POTUS in history

Otherwise, we will have allowed ourselves to continue to be dupes to what and who is basically a conman in a Donald Trump as president.

However, if all this happened as we're seeing it, but Trump is technically "clean" though obviously not, as a nation we have got to demand appropriate repercussions. We cannot let a conman slip through our fingers because he is the president.

Just as being POTUS should have certain protections, so too it should not have certain protections because of a situation just as we're seeing before us now. The loopholes have been found by the Republican party and Donald Trump. When that happens sometimes you have to step sideways and correct an abusive action, in the most powerful and democratic ways available to us.

IF for no other reason than not being seen worldwide as the fools we are now being seen as!

Otherwise, we will inevitably see this action again and again, over and over again, against us. These conservative Republican abuses will continue against America (potentially and quite plausibly with the aide of one foreign entity or another), UNTIL we do something aggressively against it in order to once and for all, stop it.

We have got to end all this nonsense now! End all the extremist conservative right wing abuse from the GOP, from the NRA (which reportedly now may no longer be with us anyway), from Russia, from criminal types like Putin, from THIS president...once and for all!

Saying that this is treason, is actual and real patriotism. Unlike the fake forms of nationalism we've been seeing from the far right and not so weirdly enough, also from Russia who has been backing them.

When Nixon was pardoned by Press. Ford, I was like many, angry at the time. But eventually, I came to see Ford's reasoning. in order to protect the office of the president.

That certainly is not the case any longer. Quite to the contrary, this is exactly and specifically not that case.

Through this process, we have also got to work toward putting an end to this bacterial infection of authoritarianism worldwide. We need to end the greater potential we see for war today and the abuses from our wealthy who are involved, our military-industrial and our corporate sectors who have all had a stranglehold on what IS after all, OUR government.

It's time to clean things up. To truly empty the swamp Trump was foolishly elected to empty and instead, filled to the brim and overflowing with his political appointees. In the cabinet, in his offices, in our judiciary. And not for partisan, organizational interests, but for his own personal financial gain and empowerment. Never satiate an egotist's personality, that never goes well for anyone involved.

And yet we've force-fed Mr. Trump at his request again and again.

Trump is not the last, but merely the first domino. We need to flick his blank piece, executing the beginning of the end for as many of our ongoing nightmares as we can effectuate. Now!

We are and should be in control. We just need to start acting like it! An America for all. Not just a few.

Is Russia Steering the America Ship?

We have an interesting situation here. From an espionage POV anyway. Russia hacked America in 2016 and helped, did what they could for Trump to become POTUS and whatever they could do to hinder Hillary.

Their goal is not to support Trump. It is to destabilize western democracies. Mainly, America. Just because, we're US.

So to follow Putin's plan, destabilization, make some nonsense POTUS, by supporting Trump. In 2016 they hacked the DNC and others, including RNC associates.

Now we see the NRCC has been hacked by "foreign actors".

The pattern would be, should be, now to destabilize the Republican party, not the Democrats. it's a basic rock the boat enough, it sinks.

BUT, they can't. Because if they do, if they support the Democrats, they are not happy at all with Russia, like Republicans are. They are pissed off, worried, and want to stop the madness, not accelerate it as we're seeing from Trump and the GOP.

So what do you do? Yeah, what?

When you can't rock the boat to sink it because if you do you will go down with it, all you CAN do is to steer the boat where you want. At least for now, so maybe you CAN start rocking the boat at some time in the near, or far future.

THAT is how Russia does things, that is how they work.

So the NRCC was hacked. IF that's wrapped up in this and since the RNCC has spent a lot of money now after discovering the hack, to pay for damage control (why?), this information begs the question.

Does the NRCC know they were hacked and now compromised because of it? Can they not know that?

Is someone else now steering the boat that is America? At least from the Republican side, the Trump side? Because up to now they have been but losing control. Did they just reassert that control?

Could they have not?

So...this whole Trump thing.

This is starting to look like Russia gave Trump a good deal (Trump Moscow building), then Trump and friends bailed when they (FINALLY) realized they were compromised because of a Russian Kompromat operation against them and therefore in this case, the US.

That's, US.

I'm not the only one seeing this. And, there's more....they didn't bail because they realized the op was in progress. That would mean they could extract themselves safely. They didn't realize until they found they had done things that could be held against them. It didn't even matter if it WAS illegal or NOT. Once you have Kompromat over someone, it means by definition they will do what you ask of them so you don't use that Kompromat against them.

There are several ways that kind of thing can be used against you if it is revealed. It can ruin you, or get you killed or if you're lucky, just imprisoned. These Russian are the definition of world class players.

Once not Trump but his people, figured that all out, they convinced Trump to bail on the deal. I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't see it being done to them for the typical reason any con's mark can't. Greed.

So yes, much Trump says about this now is true. He didn't do the deal, decided not to do the deal, he says. It's not an issue. But not because of anything other than they had to drop it... once they realized they were completely screwed and shot into damage control. But that's not how you get out of a Russian operation like that. You don't get out of it. Tell the truth, tell the FBI. That's your choice. Or....

That's the genius part. It didn't matter. That's what Russian is so good at, what I've been talking about for years.

Once Trump realized they'd been targeted by Putin, it was too late, they were already fully compromised. Trap set and accomplished. And so the next step was to distance yourself and...become president.

You get no choice. Putin put a lot of time into this, Russia even more. Maybe going back to the early 80s. But by this point, you can't really distance yourself. And yet, you have to.

How do you play that? You just, run for president and try hard to blow the deal. I remember we kept saying, stunned at some new Trump antic we thought was just Trump... "What is he trying to do, blow the election and lose?" Yes, most definitely. Not that he wanted it to begin with. But now he REALLY didn't want it.

Go back and look at recordings of Trump. How long did you think that love affair would last as a Putin buddy? How would that make Putin feel about Trump? Obvious, he's a KGB agent and Trump is his useful idiot. Literally. Trump the Chump. And once a KGB agent, always one. That's a well-known thing. Ask any ex KGB agent. Or opposite number in any foreign service.

Now what? Well, we're all watching now what, that's what.

I know some conservatives who, once Trump is locked up, will call it a witch hunt and that their president was railroaded out of office maybe into prison. WE never liked Trump, they'll say, WE never gave him a chance. Just did all we could to rake him out!

Okay, except this is exactly what the GOP did to Obama. Literally. And actually. All they could do to bring him down and... Fail!

Besides, we haven't even really tried. We've .just been pissed off mostly BECAUSE the guy now going down was the guy we saw him to be and THAT was why we didn't like him. Because he IS the guy we just assumed he was.

WE didn't do this to Trump.

Trump did this to US!

#Trump #realDonaldTrump @realDonaldTrump #conservative #Republican #POTUS #GOP