One thing I really do not understand about the denials and such. These people were ultimately paid by the Russians, and they claim they didn't know that -- they were "victims." OK, but hang on. Somebody says to you, "Hey, I know you don't like Joe Biden. How about I pay you $100,000 to say that the following things about him are true." If you take that money, just what exactly do you think you're doing? You're doing paid propaganda for _somebody_, and using it to alter ('influence') how your audience thinks. Does it really matter whether your client is Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un or Donald Trump or Joe Monsterlooneywhackjob?
Makes one wonder if she might actually be on Putin's payroll or if she does it for LOLs or for free, just because that what all the cool kids are doing (and getting payed for)?
It’s a circle. The people that she “represents” get the “deep state” info from Russia and she parrots the line. They give her money for affirming what they already believe. She gets paid either way.
I STILL believe that she is the one who planted the bomb around Jan. 6, why else would someone who was just elected but not sworn in yet ask for a presidential pardon?
The mere fact that DOJ is on this gives you an idea of how long this shit has been going on if Merrick is making moves. These people are treasonous assholes not ‘VICTIMS’. Seriously that is so over played by the biggest whiner of all djt.
Not sure what the big deal is here. It's payment to Youtube personalities. AIPAC bribes government officials. Have you and the author lost all perspective?
I meant perspective as sense of relative scale, not the ability to see something. Did you really not understand that? We have both parties taking corporate bribes, both parties supporting genocide, and you want me to worry about a couple of idiot breadtubers and their teen fans?
‘Those people’ vote and influence others to vote for who they say as a result of a TRANSACTION not of conscience.
‘Both parties’ is a false equivalency. One party represents democracy, the other autocracy, they are light years apart. You can condemn and represent both parties as equivalent but they are not your argument is bullshit and ignores too many factors that exist because you think they’re teenagers…they are manipulated by money and to ignore that is WILLFUL IGNORANCE.
I did not say the 2 parties were exactly the same. I pointed out 2 important things which were currently identical. Two very important things. One of them an immediate red line matter for people with humanity.
In relation to those two important things, the breadtube scandal is trivial, even though I agree Pool, Rubin and the whole lot are reprehensible. Even before the funding story broke, I had pretty much the same opinion.
Hopefully that explains my position more clearly and you won't go off on another tangent.
Excellent breakdown. And let’s not forget that mainstream media (eg the NYT/CNN/WaPo) has been parroting the GOP/Putin talking points repeatedly and amplifying “dissenting” voices (ie angry white people - often men).
Things haven't changed much since the Cambridge Analytica days, have they? The methods use more of what we call in the software world, "brute force," but Putin is still at it as much or more than ever.
Stories are Weapons and the Psychological Warfare of the American Mind, by Analee Newitz chapter 3 is the best summation of the Cambridge Analytica’s influence in the 2016 election for Cheetolini. Their tactical algorithmic targeting of individuals based on Facebook data, was definitely brilliantly implemented, but consequently evil.
More research also needed into Fox News, OANN, Newsmax, MAGA individuals, social media….the weave of Russian propaganda and brainwashing has been with us for years.
Case in point: the trained marketing shills that brought us America’s opioid epidemic. It was a hugely lucrative career that roped in the entire medical field. It was not politically treasonous but tell me the same financial incentives were much different than what’s at play here. In both cases people have died and lives ruined and again in both cases the damages are ongoing. Identifying the culprits is essential but only a first step. Unwinding either/both mind numbing messes gonna take awhile and the respective outcomes uncertain 🤨
Dang Steven you have succinctly summarized this dilemma. Less govt regulation (the boilerplate R “policy remedy”) automatically worsens any sense of public safety that already sucks. Talk me off the ledge lol
Thanks for the feedback on that Steven. It’s more than disturbing to see how greed of money warps sense of moralities. It seems to follow an insidious pattern of relativistic modulation until evil sets in. And self-awareness of the peril — the tangled web getting woven in having sold out — gets tossed. Sigh
Similarly, without robust government oversight and the threat of fines, there is a substantial portion of business owners who will not take safety seriously. They will run unsafe workplaces that maim or poison or kill their workers. They will use unsafe food additives that cause cancer. All just to make a tiny percentage more money than by making sure the risks to workers and customers are minimized. These types of business peers and managers would happily cut corners if OSHA and the EPA didn't exist. Heck right now we have businesses that do the wrong thing in spite of OSHA and the EPA, because the chance of getting away with violations of regulations is very good unless someone actually dies or loses a limb, bring ing the regulators down on a scofflaw company.
The ‘some people will do anything for the right amount of money’ crowd has never been more apparent than it is right now in Congress. The
entire republican party is corrupt. The fec
republican appointees were corrupt—they’ve since left their fec jobs. The R majority on the Supreme
Crt are corrupt—including Chief Justice Roberts. (I’m not 100% sure Amy Coney Barrett is corrupt.)
But the conservative majority on the court have something else in common—they are either members of Opus Dei, or very close to members of
Opus Dei. Coney-Barrett was raised in a cult called
“People of Praise.” She and her entire family are still
members. Former AG Bill Barr and Heritage Foundation’s Leonard Leo are longtime Opus Dei members.
A major vehicle for corruption in Congress is private campaign contributions. It’s pretty obvious that campaign donations are laundered through shell corporations, straw man donors and superpacs that don’t have to report the source of the donations.
It seems obvious to me, the first thing to do—if Dems
are the majority in both the House & Senate—and if
Harris wins, is to make all private campaign donations illegal. That would cut off a major source of corruption.
Only public money should be allowed for campaigning. There should be a line item in the national budget for funding campaigns.
Geezus. Of all the players moron musk poses the biggest threat with his insider access to the govt via his gov contracts. The US should seize everything, Space X, Starlink, Twitter, everything, since it’s suspiciously tied to illegal Russian money. Then let’s see how his traitorous arse uses his billions to wiggle himself free.
And how does Ukraine rid itself of the problematic Starlink network? Can it? Can anyone on this planet avoid the 6,000 or so Starlink satellites up there?
I don't really care who is paying these fools. In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty much nothing compared to the corporations (and AIPAC) bribing ALL of the politicians, regardless of how a few idiots may or may not have been influenced to vote.
While I also called this treason, in a roundabout way, I do have to ask, is it really treason? We're not (yet) at war with Russia, though the country needs to be considered an adversary at least until someone nudges Putin out the window and likely even after that man does his best Peter Pan impression.
Taking money from Russia is defiantly shady, of course, and everyone involved needs to be charged with....I don't know....something. Is being a deliberately clueless shill for an adversarial foreign entity a crime? I'd like to think so.
I’m pretty old, there has been no time in my life when Russia has not been an adversary with the exception of two years after the Berlin wall came down. Putin since that, he’s KGB !
If Russia paid an American influencer to incite civil war, I have to think it's more than just an adversary. I'll be interested to know more specifics about the indictments.
It’s still that Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, with Russia added into the mix that many of us have been aware of for decades now. I heard Nikita Kruschev say that Russia would bury us so it’s not like we weren’t warned. We’ve just gotten sloppy and let the Bear in the door via unregulated social media.
Just google "Kruschev banging shoe" - it was at the United Nations General Assembly held in New York City on 12 October 1960. He is reported as saying "We will bury you."
I lived in TN from 2007 to 2017 and I recall Maria Butina visiting TN politicians quite a bit from 2015-2016. She was photographed with them and with others around the country , all GOP and all either State Representatives or Senators. She was later identified as a spy and so my question is and has been. WHAT EXACTLY WAS SHE DOING? I always felt she was setting up pay offs. Has anyone investigated the connection she has? I bet if I did a google search with her name and who she visited, it would be a ' who's who' of the Republican party.
Not buying for one minute that these jokers are "victims." I sincerely hope they're tracking bribes from Russia to the MAGAs in Congress. It's been clear all along that some are Russian tools, now we need the financial proof.
One thing I really do not understand about the denials and such. These people were ultimately paid by the Russians, and they claim they didn't know that -- they were "victims." OK, but hang on. Somebody says to you, "Hey, I know you don't like Joe Biden. How about I pay you $100,000 to say that the following things about him are true." If you take that money, just what exactly do you think you're doing? You're doing paid propaganda for _somebody_, and using it to alter ('influence') how your audience thinks. Does it really matter whether your client is Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un or Donald Trump or Joe Monsterlooneywhackjob?
Right.
It was not their original content, they didn't research, write it, or fact-check it.
They were paid to disperse the information and didn't question the information or who paid them.
Now they're pretending to have no knowledge of where the money came from?
Please.
It doesn't matter who paid them to distribute propaganda, but the fact that it's Russia just makes it worse.
Ignorance of the law is not a viable defense.
Right. The "plausible deniability" is just not all that plausible.
All the while these people claim to be freethinkers, when they just admitted they just regurgitated spoon fed content.
Good point!
What amazed me is how paltry the total sum of money is! Ten million dollars? Not billion, just million?
Wow, it appears people are willing to sell out their country for CHEAP!
It appears everyone is scrambling these days for a piece of the "pie"!
All that matters is the money.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-Moscow). <-- OMG LMAO!!!!
KUO WINS THE INTERNET TODAY WITH THAT ONE!
Not the first time he's labeled her as such.
That is hilarious and also kind of terrifying.
Makes one wonder if she might actually be on Putin's payroll or if she does it for LOLs or for free, just because that what all the cool kids are doing (and getting payed for)?
She's incredibly easy to manipulate. Useful idiots I think is the phrase the cool kids use.
It’s a circle. The people that she “represents” get the “deep state” info from Russia and she parrots the line. They give her money for affirming what they already believe. She gets paid either way.
Well, selling out your country and not even getting payed does sound idiotic.
Hence term useful “idiot” — today’s narcissists seem to be ok with just frequent unpaid face time since the advent of the 24/7 news cycle
I STILL believe that she is the one who planted the bomb around Jan. 6, why else would someone who was just elected but not sworn in yet ask for a presidential pardon?
I don't doubt some people think playing double agent is fun.
I'm wondering what besides voting her out can be done? She's obviously not doing her job.
I recently checked the polling on her—bad news!
She’s waaay ahead of her rival.
I know! Right?!
Thats what I say too
The mere fact that DOJ is on this gives you an idea of how long this shit has been going on if Merrick is making moves. These people are treasonous assholes not ‘VICTIMS’. Seriously that is so over played by the biggest whiner of all djt.
The earliest accusation of foreign influence I've seen is Ron Paul. I can't find the original material that I'd have read around 2016, but this medium article seems to get some of the suspicions across. https://medium.com/@mayflower.twentytwenty/was-ron-pauls-2008-campaign-an-early-trial-run-for-russian-influence-4952f8269da
Thanks for that. It was definitely worth reading.
That explains some of Rand’s behavior.
Thanks for the lead. Interesting article.
Not sure what the big deal is here. It's payment to Youtube personalities. AIPAC bribes government officials. Have you and the author lost all perspective?
No but we do have a perspective, perhaps you don’t…looking the other way or approval of spreading PROPAGANDA isn’t a perspective it’s a crime.
I meant perspective as sense of relative scale, not the ability to see something. Did you really not understand that? We have both parties taking corporate bribes, both parties supporting genocide, and you want me to worry about a couple of idiot breadtubers and their teen fans?
‘Those people’ vote and influence others to vote for who they say as a result of a TRANSACTION not of conscience.
‘Both parties’ is a false equivalency. One party represents democracy, the other autocracy, they are light years apart. You can condemn and represent both parties as equivalent but they are not your argument is bullshit and ignores too many factors that exist because you think they’re teenagers…they are manipulated by money and to ignore that is WILLFUL IGNORANCE.
I did not say the 2 parties were exactly the same. I pointed out 2 important things which were currently identical. Two very important things. One of them an immediate red line matter for people with humanity.
In relation to those two important things, the breadtube scandal is trivial, even though I agree Pool, Rubin and the whole lot are reprehensible. Even before the funding story broke, I had pretty much the same opinion.
Hopefully that explains my position more clearly and you won't go off on another tangent.
FACTS are not tangents. I was responding directly to your comments, perhaps more care should be taken when posting.
Excellent breakdown. And let’s not forget that mainstream media (eg the NYT/CNN/WaPo) has been parroting the GOP/Putin talking points repeatedly and amplifying “dissenting” voices (ie angry white people - often men).
YES THEY HAVE! It's getting worse.
Things haven't changed much since the Cambridge Analytica days, have they? The methods use more of what we call in the software world, "brute force," but Putin is still at it as much or more than ever.
Stories are Weapons and the Psychological Warfare of the American Mind, by Analee Newitz chapter 3 is the best summation of the Cambridge Analytica’s influence in the 2016 election for Cheetolini. Their tactical algorithmic targeting of individuals based on Facebook data, was definitely brilliantly implemented, but consequently evil.
If we are truly concerned with foreign influence, why not talk about AIPAC. This is a trivial sideshow.
More research also needed into Fox News, OANN, Newsmax, MAGA individuals, social media….the weave of Russian propaganda and brainwashing has been with us for years.
Treasonous wouldn’t you say ? Ignorance isn’t a defense, adulting is what makes you !
Yes, they are treasonous…
How could anyone think that these "influencers" didn't know who they were pimping for?
Bridge for sale ! We have a bunch to choose from.
They think we are stupid sheep, and they are the only smart ones. They tell each other so all the time - it must be true! /s
They didn’t care. All they cared about was raking in the dough. (That’s not much different from most salespeople)
Case in point: the trained marketing shills that brought us America’s opioid epidemic. It was a hugely lucrative career that roped in the entire medical field. It was not politically treasonous but tell me the same financial incentives were much different than what’s at play here. In both cases people have died and lives ruined and again in both cases the damages are ongoing. Identifying the culprits is essential but only a first step. Unwinding either/both mind numbing messes gonna take awhile and the respective outcomes uncertain 🤨
Dang Steven you have succinctly summarized this dilemma. Less govt regulation (the boilerplate R “policy remedy”) automatically worsens any sense of public safety that already sucks. Talk me off the ledge lol
Very perceptive about the parallel with the marketing of opioids!
Thanks for the feedback on that Steven. It’s more than disturbing to see how greed of money warps sense of moralities. It seems to follow an insidious pattern of relativistic modulation until evil sets in. And self-awareness of the peril — the tangled web getting woven in having sold out — gets tossed. Sigh
Similarly, without robust government oversight and the threat of fines, there is a substantial portion of business owners who will not take safety seriously. They will run unsafe workplaces that maim or poison or kill their workers. They will use unsafe food additives that cause cancer. All just to make a tiny percentage more money than by making sure the risks to workers and customers are minimized. These types of business peers and managers would happily cut corners if OSHA and the EPA didn't exist. Heck right now we have businesses that do the wrong thing in spite of OSHA and the EPA, because the chance of getting away with violations of regulations is very good unless someone actually dies or loses a limb, bring ing the regulators down on a scofflaw company.
The ‘some people will do anything for the right amount of money’ crowd has never been more apparent than it is right now in Congress. The
entire republican party is corrupt. The fec
republican appointees were corrupt—they’ve since left their fec jobs. The R majority on the Supreme
Crt are corrupt—including Chief Justice Roberts. (I’m not 100% sure Amy Coney Barrett is corrupt.)
But the conservative majority on the court have something else in common—they are either members of Opus Dei, or very close to members of
Opus Dei. Coney-Barrett was raised in a cult called
“People of Praise.” She and her entire family are still
members. Former AG Bill Barr and Heritage Foundation’s Leonard Leo are longtime Opus Dei members.
A major vehicle for corruption in Congress is private campaign contributions. It’s pretty obvious that campaign donations are laundered through shell corporations, straw man donors and superpacs that don’t have to report the source of the donations.
It seems obvious to me, the first thing to do—if Dems
are the majority in both the House & Senate—and if
Harris wins, is to make all private campaign donations illegal. That would cut off a major source of corruption.
Only public money should be allowed for campaigning. There should be a line item in the national budget for funding campaigns.
Geezus. Of all the players moron musk poses the biggest threat with his insider access to the govt via his gov contracts. The US should seize everything, Space X, Starlink, Twitter, everything, since it’s suspiciously tied to illegal Russian money. Then let’s see how his traitorous arse uses his billions to wiggle himself free.
Thank you!! I can’t believe he’s still trusted by our military!!🤬
Sick right?
That Musk made Starlink available to Ukraine early in the war is a Big Problem. I have to wonder at what point Russia got its hooks into Musk?
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/25/europe/ukraine-starlink-drones-russia-intl-cmd/index.html
Yes i remember that very clearly
And how does Ukraine rid itself of the problematic Starlink network? Can it? Can anyone on this planet avoid the 6,000 or so Starlink satellites up there?
YESSSSS!!! What I wanna know it WHAT IS TAKING SO DAMNED LONGGGG!!??
Does it really matter whether they can deny direct knowledge of Russia’s involvement? Getting paid is getting paid.
Chris you said it ALL
I don't really care who is paying these fools. In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty much nothing compared to the corporations (and AIPAC) bribing ALL of the politicians, regardless of how a few idiots may or may not have been influenced to vote.
I was reading this informative piece by Jay and wondering ….when is Tucker’s name gonna pop up.
And….whooooop there it is !
So shocking. Not really. And now I’m wondering about MTG. She sounds like a Kremlin puppet too. Wondering how they are getting their money to her.
He’s always where you’d expect.
Crypto
Through donnie
He skims 50%, congresspeople for sale cheap !
And Ms. Sporktoes is Tokyo Rose - only nowhere near as bright.
Or attractive
All of these traitors belong in their own windowless 8x10 cells on the third sub-basement level of the Florence SuperMax.
While I also called this treason, in a roundabout way, I do have to ask, is it really treason? We're not (yet) at war with Russia, though the country needs to be considered an adversary at least until someone nudges Putin out the window and likely even after that man does his best Peter Pan impression.
Taking money from Russia is defiantly shady, of course, and everyone involved needs to be charged with....I don't know....something. Is being a deliberately clueless shill for an adversarial foreign entity a crime? I'd like to think so.
I’m pretty old, there has been no time in my life when Russia has not been an adversary with the exception of two years after the Berlin wall came down. Putin since that, he’s KGB !
We've been at war with Russia since 1917.
If Russia paid an American influencer to incite civil war, I have to think it's more than just an adversary. I'll be interested to know more specifics about the indictments.
Right! Where’s Joseph McCarthy when you need him? /s
You should read about the federal law enacted by the Foreign Agents Registration Act; you'll definitely learn a thing.
Anyone surprised? Anyone?
Bueller? Bueller?
Nope, surprising thing is this is NOT a story anywhere else. WTF ?!?!
Seriously, do you really expect the MSM to cover this?
That’s CORPORATE media. Look at who owns them
Why not ? I know its tough to sit on the fence 24 hours a day. So many resources, so little result…
The double standard of media coverage regarding the election infuriates me.
Complicit?
Maybe. Wouldn’t surprise me.
NO. SURPRISES. HERE.
Russia is still at it.
"Two RT Employees Indicted for Covertly Funding and Directing U.S. Company that Published Thousands of Videos in Furtherance of Russian Interests"
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-rt-employees-indicted-covertly-funding-and-directing-us-company-published-thousands
The news this week in NY state was that a top official in the governor's office was a spy for China...and so it goes.
It’s still that Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, with Russia added into the mix that many of us have been aware of for decades now. I heard Nikita Kruschev say that Russia would bury us so it’s not like we weren’t warned. We’ve just gotten sloppy and let the Bear in the door via unregulated social media.
Just google "Kruschev banging shoe" - it was at the United Nations General Assembly held in New York City on 12 October 1960. He is reported as saying "We will bury you."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-banging_incident
I can attest to the truth of your comment.
In addition., my recollection is something like, "...get you from within..."
I lived in TN from 2007 to 2017 and I recall Maria Butina visiting TN politicians quite a bit from 2015-2016. She was photographed with them and with others around the country , all GOP and all either State Representatives or Senators. She was later identified as a spy and so my question is and has been. WHAT EXACTLY WAS SHE DOING? I always felt she was setting up pay offs. Has anyone investigated the connection she has? I bet if I did a google search with her name and who she visited, it would be a ' who's who' of the Republican party.
Now she is high up in Russian government last I heard.
Not buying for one minute that these jokers are "victims." I sincerely hope they're tracking bribes from Russia to the MAGAs in Congress. It's been clear all along that some are Russian tools, now we need the financial proof.
Yes. Follow the 💰.