Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Republicans and the right wing media are doing Putin's work by purposely promoting anti American propaganda while pushing Pro Kremlin propaganda that you see in Moscow. The GOP is party of treason and are nothing but traitors. Ronnie Reagan is turning over in his grave.   

'These people are almost collaborators': Counter-intel expert slams right-wing Putin apologists



Mother Jones reporter David Corn revealed Sunday that Russian officials have been telling state-run media that they must promote Fox host Tucker Carlson's monologues on their channels, as he has been the single biggest promoter of the Kremlin's cause on American TV.

Speaking to MSNBC's Joy Reid, Corn joined counter-intelligence expert Malcolm Nance to discuss the ways in which some right-wing pundits are promoting Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine.

"It's important to know that there's no independent media left in Russia," Corn explained. "They all skedaddled. They were shut down. You could be punished and put in prison for up to 15 years if you report that there is a war."

He told Reid that if you can use someone from the other side to make your point for you, it lends greater legitimacy to your own argument. Thus, people like Tulsi Gabbard, Carlson and Candace Owens are all part of the propaganda effort.

In fact, it was revealed Monday after a state-news editor held up a poster board saying that the war was real, that she was arrested.

"You know the interesting thing about history is every once in a while you get to see it come back," Nance said. "When I was young you would hear about Tokyo Rose, the collaborator who is making radio transmissions in Japan to delegitimize the American soldiers. Lord Haw-Haw did the same thing for the Nazis in World War II. I never thought that these people did not believe what they were saying. They always were very clear that they believed in Nazism and in the imperial Japan strategy. Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Tulsi Gabbard— I think somewhere along the line, they don't believe this, but they think that it's in their interest to say these things."

For Carlson specifically, Nance thinks that it's about helping Donald Trump, even if it means turning against the United States.

"So, long as it gets in the adoration he will do it," Nance said of Carlson. "I don't know if he really loves Vladimir Putin, but I have to clarify one thing. These people are not useful idiots. They are beyond useful idiots. Useful idiots don't know as a term of art in the intelligence world. They don't really know what they're doing. They're just stupid. These people are almost collaborators to a certain extent. They do know what they're doing. I would call them an asset, especially Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard. She's just a moron. But for these people to come up there, we are now seeing a turn that I never thought I'd see in my life. Fifth columnist people who are deliberately working to undermine the American structure."

See the full discussion below:

[Richard Smith]

Send Trump to Moscow and this invasion would end in 24 hours.  He plays Putin like a violin.  He would compliment him and Putin would agree to withdraw.  Results matter in life and death situations.  Words not so much.  But American voters were told that Trump's tweets were "mean" so they put into office a career long establishment politician who has accomplished nothing except to enrich his family.  So the results are predictable.  Disaster after disaster.  It is unfortunate that the people of Ukraine have to pay the price for the media propaganda and hoaxes perpetuated during the Trump administration. 


"The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling, it's an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur.  We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all."

President Donald J. Trump (statement on 02/26/22)

[Rick Plant]

Think of Trump as one of Putin's oligarchs. Everything makes more sense when you do

The former president keeps telling on himself. During an appearance Sunday on Jeanine Pirro’s radio show on WABC, Donald Trump expressed, yet again, his sympathy for Russia’s reigning kleptocrat.

"He's got a big ego," Trump said of Vladimir Putin. “I think what's going on now is hard. I understand he's gotten rid of a lot of his generals."

They wanted to rebuild the Soviet Union. That’s what this is all about to a large extent. And then you say, what’s the purpose of this? They had a country. You could see it was a country where there was a lot of love and we’re doing it because, you know, somebody wants to make his country larger or he wants to put it back the way it was.

Sympathy, yes, but there’s more.

Sympathy is practical.

Whenever Trump is asked to comment on Putin’s 2014 capture of the Crimean peninsula or his invasion of Ukraine now, he gives these odd statements – odd because they never feature principles of freedom, sovereignty or any other aspect of the postwar international order.

His attention is drawn, instead, to strength and weakness, power and powerlessness. In that binary worldview, Putin (and by proxy Trump) is always strong, Putin’s enemies (and by proxy Trump’s enemies) are always weak. Good and bad, right and wrong, mean nothing. What matters is what can be done immediately to satiate insatiable need.

Fascism is practical like that.

As Nathan Crick, author of Dewey and the New Age of Fascism, told me: The Nazis saw practical as “immediately practical and [it] served the most basic needs of life in a tangible and objective way. I need money, I need a home, I need cheap oil prices, I need coffee, I need a family, I need land. Fascism is practical because it basically steals all of this and redistributes it to the chosen people as if they made it themselves.

“It’s basic gangsterism, which is certainly practical.”

Bear this in mind as I tell you something I hope will make all of this make more sense. When I say “all of this,” I mean everything:

Putin’s theft of the Crimean peninsula; Trump’s business interests in Moscow; his run for president; the Kremlin’s cyberwar against Hillary Clinton; Trump’s extortion of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy; his first impeachment; the J6 insurrection; Trump’s second impeachment; and now the invasion of Ukraine and Trump sympathy for the invaders.

Instead of thinking about Trump as a real estate magnate, a reality-TV star or a former president, it’s perhaps more accurate to think of him as a caporegime, or mafia captain. Putin is The Boss. That would suggest Trump, like Roman Abramovich, is one of Putin’s “oligarchs.”

Oligarchs are practical. After they steal money, they hide it.

In America.

The US financial system is one of the most secretive and least transparent in the world. Dirty money is often disguised in real estate deals. The problem is so bad in places like Manhattan that lawmakers are pushing for reform. Brad Hoylman, a New York state senator repping Manhattan, said Sunday of proposed transparency laws that:

“These oligarchs who have stolen money from the Russian people are propping up Putin in the meantime. That money needs to be exposed and returned rather than wage a war against the Ukrainian people.”

Dirty money is also funneled through shell companies linked to super PACs linked directly or indirectly to candidates for public office for the purpose of influencing electoral outcomes in the Kremlin’s favor. Such candidates, it’s widely believed true, include the former president.

“Russian money is unquestionably flowing into the US for political influence,” Anna Massoglia, the editorial and investigations manager at Open Secrets, a nonprofit based in Washington, DC, told me. “There have also been instances in which Russian money flowed into US elections through shell companies as a part of illegal conduit schemes.” (The interview below is with Anna. She knows everything about this.)

Buying influence.

Buying a president.

“It’s basic gangsterism,” Nathan said.

Which is practical.

Do we know concretely that Russian money is flowing into campaigns for public office in the US?

Russian money is unquestionably flowing into the US for political influence but the question of whether Russian money is flowing into campaigns for public office is more complex. Foreign nationals are barred from giving money to influence outcomes in US elections.

We have tracked political contributions from foreign agents who were hired to represent Russian interests in the US as well as contributions from associates of foreign oligarchs, which is generally permissible so long as they are not acting as proxies for Russian foreign nationals.

There have also been instances in which Russian money flowed into US elections through shell companies as a part of illegal conduit schemes.

So there is a circuitous paper trail from Russia to Washington. Along the way the origins of the money is increasingly obscured?

Absolutely.

Russian foreign nationals seeking to influence US elections have a wide range of options through which they can funnel foreign money in support of candidates for public office – with little or no detection.

The 2020 election alone attracted more than $1 billion from shell companies and nonprofits that do not disclose their donors.

It would be nearly impossible to total up how much so-called “dark money,” routed through nonprofits that don't disclose their donors or shell companies, comes from Russian sources. Dark money lacks disclosure, making the source of funds untraceable.

This means foreign nationals are not only able to quietly steer money into swaying the outcome of US elections but they can potentially buy access to public officials, helping them push agendas in the states.

What's the Republican-Democrat ratio?

We can tell how much money from undisclosed sources goes to groups spending to support Democrats versus Republicans.

Traditionally, dark money benefitted Republican candidates more but the tables turned during the 2018 election cycle. Since then, we have seen dark money benefit groups backing Democrats more than Republicans but it still flows into groups on both sides of the aisle. It is still early in the election cycle so we are likely to see more money continue to pour in that may benefit one side over the other, though.

It's legal for lobbyists representing foreign clients, even Russian ones, to give donations so long as they aren't giving on behalf of that client.

But political contributions are a way for donors to curry influence. Giving significant sums of money could give a lobbyist representing a foreign client an advantage when they meet with elected officials.

Most lobbying firms have ended work with Russian clients at this point. As of today, the only entities still registered to actively represent Russian interests under the Foreign Agents Registration Act are LLCs that have been paid as part of Russia's propaganda campaigns.

Maffick LLC, a social media digital content company (that was labeled a “Russian state-backed entity” by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), registered as a foreign agent of Russia’s state-owned media agency in December. It has since terminated their contract, however.

Remaining entities registered as foreign agents of propaganda outlets connected to Russia are Reston Translator LLC, RM Broadcasting LLC, Ghebi LLC and T&R Productions LLC but that may change if new restrictions are put in place and since RT America shut down.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy once said, “I think Putin pays Trump.” Given what you know, how likely is that to be true?

There are multiple reported instances where Russian money has allegedly flowed into groups spending in support of Trump.

Lev Parnas – the former business associate of the former president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani – was convicted on charges related to steering $325,000 from a Russian national through a shell company to a super PAC supporting Trump. Parnas' former business partner, Igor Fruman, pleaded guilty to soliciting money from a foreign national.

There are other examples as well.

Two Republican operatives were indicted last September on charges of allegedly funneling money from a Russian national to the Trump campaign’s joint fundraising committee.

This example is not as clear-cut but the NRA's ties to Russia were probed. The gun rights group ultimately admitted to taking Russian money but claimed the money wasn’t used for political purposes.

This is particularly noteworthy since a report from Senate Finance Committee Democrats found that the NRA acted as a “foreign asset” for Russia in the leadup to Trump’s 2016 election. For context, the NRA spent more than $31 million boosting Trump in the 2016 election.

Any evidence of recipients knowing they’re getting Russian money?

I am not aware of any recent cases where we know the politicians were aware they were getting Russian money but we only know what has been disclosed, not what is happening behind the scenes.

A politician facing allegations of knowingly taking foreign contributions is US Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican from Nebraska. He’s accused of meeting with a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire prosecutors say funneled money through straw donors to him.

Federal campaign finance has a “straw donor” ban that makes it illegal to give money under someone else’s name. One example would be if an individual takes money from a foreign national, then passes it along to politicians, causing the individual’s name to be reported in campaign finance filings instead of the foreign national’s name.

Funds may also be routed through shell companies in some cases, meaning the companies’ name is reported in campaign finance filings rather than the name of who is actually funding the contribution.

This could hide contributions from foreign nationals who are legally barred from giving money to influence US elections.

https://www.rawstory.com/think-of-trump-as-one-of-putin-s-oligarchs-everything-makes-more-sense-when-you-do/

[Rick Plant]

Right wingers can only rant about dangerous and ridiculous conspiracy theories. They have no real issues or ideas to solve real problems. It's time for cable providers to pull the plug on Pro Putin and Kremlin Faux "News". 

Fox Nation host unloads 'bonkers' pro-Kremlin rant claiming Ukrainian forces have 'occult' ties



Fox Nation host Lara Logan asserted on Tuesday that the Ukrainian military has ties to the occult and Nazis.

Logan made the remarks during an interview on Real America's Voice with host Ed Henry, a disgraced former Fox News employee.

Media Matters writer John Whitehouse first flagged Logan's appearance.

"I cannot emphasize enough how bonkers this interview was," Whitehouse wrote on Twitter.

During the interview, Logan insisted that "Vladimir Putin knew exactly what he was doing when he went into Ukraine."

"And there's so much more going on in Ukraine that nobody is talking about. You see such dishonesty when it comes to the history of Ukraine," Logan said. "I mean, you can find pictures of them online holding up the NATO flag and the swastika. And at the same time, their own emblem contains the black sun of the occult, which was a Nazi SS emblem. And it also contains the sideways, you know, lightning insignia of the SS."

She added: "I mean, this is on throughout the Ukrainian military you can see that black sun of the occult on their body armor, even on the female soldiers who are paraded in front of the world as being, you know, such an example of Ukraine's independence and spirit and nobility. Even they are wearing the black sun of the occult."

"Yeah," Henry agreed.

"We don't want to admit this," Logan said. "This was why Crimea voted for independence. This is why Crimea wanted to be with Russia."

"Because we in the media, in the western media and in the west, won't acknowledge the reality of what's gone on: Western Ukraine backed the Nazis. It was a headquarters for the Nazis SS," the Fox Nation host ranted. "There's a long history of the United States and our intelligence agencies funding and arming Nazis in Ukraine. These are not, like, new neo-Nazi groups that sprung up. These are the actual Nazis."

Logan also claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's previous career in entertainment was linked to the occult.

"We're being lied to on an epic scale," she said. "When we're told your only choices, you have to be a hundred percent with Zelenskyy, who's a puppet who you can find on the internet in black stilettos and leather pants, you know, shirtless, doing a spoof Dancing With The Stars kind of entertainment video that's a mock of a Ukrainian group that does this kind of satanic, occult type of music video."

Henry concluded the interview by thanking Logan for "dropping truth bombs."

John Whitehouse+
@existentialfish

Fox Nation host Lara Logan pushed a bunch of obvious pro-Kremlin propaganda in an appearance this morning, including linking President Zelensky's prior entertainment career to the occult. https://mediamatters.org/russias-invasi

https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1503760178658910220

[Richard Smith]

Think of Trump as one of Putin's oligarchs. Everything makes more sense when you do

The former president keeps telling on himself. During an appearance Sunday on Jeanine Pirro’s radio show on WABC, Donald Trump expressed, yet again, his sympathy for Russia’s reigning kleptocrat.

"He's got a big ego," Trump said of Vladimir Putin. “I think what's going on now is hard. I understand he's gotten rid of a lot of his generals."

They wanted to rebuild the Soviet Union. That’s what this is all about to a large extent. And then you say, what’s the purpose of this? They had a country. You could see it was a country where there was a lot of love and we’re doing it because, you know, somebody wants to make his country larger or he wants to put it back the way it was.

Sympathy, yes, but there’s more.

Sympathy is practical.

Whenever Trump is asked to comment on Putin’s 2014 capture of the Crimean peninsula or his invasion of Ukraine now, he gives these odd statements – odd because they never feature principles of freedom, sovereignty or any other aspect of the postwar international order.

His attention is drawn, instead, to strength and weakness, power and powerlessness. In that binary worldview, Putin (and by proxy Trump) is always strong, Putin’s enemies (and by proxy Trump’s enemies) are always weak. Good and bad, right and wrong, mean nothing. What matters is what can be done immediately to satiate insatiable need.

Fascism is practical like that.

As Nathan Crick, author of Dewey and the New Age of Fascism, told me: The Nazis saw practical as “immediately practical and [it] served the most basic needs of life in a tangible and objective way. I need money, I need a home, I need cheap oil prices, I need coffee, I need a family, I need land. Fascism is practical because it basically steals all of this and redistributes it to the chosen people as if they made it themselves.

“It’s basic gangsterism, which is certainly practical.”

Bear this in mind as I tell you something I hope will make all of this make more sense. When I say “all of this,” I mean everything:

Putin’s theft of the Crimean peninsula; Trump’s business interests in Moscow; his run for president; the Kremlin’s cyberwar against Hillary Clinton; Trump’s extortion of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy; his first impeachment; the J6 insurrection; Trump’s second impeachment; and now the invasion of Ukraine and Trump sympathy for the invaders.

Instead of thinking about Trump as a real estate magnate, a reality-TV star or a former president, it’s perhaps more accurate to think of him as a caporegime, or mafia captain. Putin is The Boss. That would suggest Trump, like Roman Abramovich, is one of Putin’s “oligarchs.”

Oligarchs are practical. After they steal money, they hide it.

In America.

The US financial system is one of the most secretive and least transparent in the world. Dirty money is often disguised in real estate deals. The problem is so bad in places like Manhattan that lawmakers are pushing for reform. Brad Hoylman, a New York state senator repping Manhattan, said Sunday of proposed transparency laws that:

“These oligarchs who have stolen money from the Russian people are propping up Putin in the meantime. That money needs to be exposed and returned rather than wage a war against the Ukrainian people.”

Dirty money is also funneled through shell companies linked to super PACs linked directly or indirectly to candidates for public office for the purpose of influencing electoral outcomes in the Kremlin’s favor. Such candidates, it’s widely believed true, include the former president.

“Russian money is unquestionably flowing into the US for political influence,” Anna Massoglia, the editorial and investigations manager at Open Secrets, a nonprofit based in Washington, DC, told me. “There have also been instances in which Russian money flowed into US elections through shell companies as a part of illegal conduit schemes.” (The interview below is with Anna. She knows everything about this.)

Buying influence.

Buying a president.

“It’s basic gangsterism,” Nathan said.

Which is practical.

Do we know concretely that Russian money is flowing into campaigns for public office in the US?

Russian money is unquestionably flowing into the US for political influence but the question of whether Russian money is flowing into campaigns for public office is more complex. Foreign nationals are barred from giving money to influence outcomes in US elections.

We have tracked political contributions from foreign agents who were hired to represent Russian interests in the US as well as contributions from associates of foreign oligarchs, which is generally permissible so long as they are not acting as proxies for Russian foreign nationals.

There have also been instances in which Russian money flowed into US elections through shell companies as a part of illegal conduit schemes.

So there is a circuitous paper trail from Russia to Washington. Along the way the origins of the money is increasingly obscured?

Absolutely.

Russian foreign nationals seeking to influence US elections have a wide range of options through which they can funnel foreign money in support of candidates for public office – with little or no detection.

The 2020 election alone attracted more than $1 billion from shell companies and nonprofits that do not disclose their donors.

It would be nearly impossible to total up how much so-called “dark money,” routed through nonprofits that don't disclose their donors or shell companies, comes from Russian sources. Dark money lacks disclosure, making the source of funds untraceable.

This means foreign nationals are not only able to quietly steer money into swaying the outcome of US elections but they can potentially buy access to public officials, helping them push agendas in the states.

What's the Republican-Democrat ratio?

We can tell how much money from undisclosed sources goes to groups spending to support Democrats versus Republicans.

Traditionally, dark money benefitted Republican candidates more but the tables turned during the 2018 election cycle. Since then, we have seen dark money benefit groups backing Democrats more than Republicans but it still flows into groups on both sides of the aisle. It is still early in the election cycle so we are likely to see more money continue to pour in that may benefit one side over the other, though.

It's legal for lobbyists representing foreign clients, even Russian ones, to give donations so long as they aren't giving on behalf of that client.

But political contributions are a way for donors to curry influence. Giving significant sums of money could give a lobbyist representing a foreign client an advantage when they meet with elected officials.

Most lobbying firms have ended work with Russian clients at this point. As of today, the only entities still registered to actively represent Russian interests under the Foreign Agents Registration Act are LLCs that have been paid as part of Russia's propaganda campaigns.

Maffick LLC, a social media digital content company (that was labeled a “Russian state-backed entity” by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), registered as a foreign agent of Russia’s state-owned media agency in December. It has since terminated their contract, however.

Remaining entities registered as foreign agents of propaganda outlets connected to Russia are Reston Translator LLC, RM Broadcasting LLC, Ghebi LLC and T&R Productions LLC but that may change if new restrictions are put in place and since RT America shut down.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy once said, “I think Putin pays Trump.” Given what you know, how likely is that to be true?

There are multiple reported instances where Russian money has allegedly flowed into groups spending in support of Trump.

Lev Parnas – the former business associate of the former president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani – was convicted on charges related to steering $325,000 from a Russian national through a shell company to a super PAC supporting Trump. Parnas' former business partner, Igor Fruman, pleaded guilty to soliciting money from a foreign national.

There are other examples as well.

Two Republican operatives were indicted last September on charges of allegedly funneling money from a Russian national to the Trump campaign’s joint fundraising committee.

This example is not as clear-cut but the NRA's ties to Russia were probed. The gun rights group ultimately admitted to taking Russian money but claimed the money wasn’t used for political purposes.

This is particularly noteworthy since a report from Senate Finance Committee Democrats found that the NRA acted as a “foreign asset” for Russia in the leadup to Trump’s 2016 election. For context, the NRA spent more than $31 million boosting Trump in the 2016 election.

Any evidence of recipients knowing they’re getting Russian money?

I am not aware of any recent cases where we know the politicians were aware they were getting Russian money but we only know what has been disclosed, not what is happening behind the scenes.

A politician facing allegations of knowingly taking foreign contributions is US Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican from Nebraska. He’s accused of meeting with a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire prosecutors say funneled money through straw donors to him.

Federal campaign finance has a “straw donor” ban that makes it illegal to give money under someone else’s name. One example would be if an individual takes money from a foreign national, then passes it along to politicians, causing the individual’s name to be reported in campaign finance filings instead of the foreign national’s name.

Funds may also be routed through shell companies in some cases, meaning the companies’ name is reported in campaign finance filings rather than the name of who is actually funding the contribution.

This could hide contributions from foreign nationals who are legally barred from giving money to influence US elections.

https://www.rawstory.com/think-of-trump-as-one-of-putin-s-oligarchs-everything-makes-more-sense-when-you-do/

"The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling, it's an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur.  We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all."

President Donald J. Trump (statement on 02/26/22)

[Rick Plant]

Trump accidentally admits he got played by Putin
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-inadvertently-admits-he-got-played-by-putin/

[Rick Plant]

GOP group torches Trump supporters in scathing new ad set to air on Fox News

A Republican political group is preparing to run a public service announcement (PSA) calling out Republican voters who are well aware of the danger former President Donald Trump poses to the political party.

The ad, which is set to air on Fox News, was created by the Republican Accountability Project. According to HuffPost, the PSA is inspired by the old American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) ads featuring Canadian singer, Sarah McLachlan.

But instead of the video focusing on an appeal to rescue animals from abusive environments, the latest ad is more of a mocking clip focused on Republican votes suffering from an illness described as “Partisan Derangement Syndrome.”

The ad is reportedly scheduled to air for Washington, D.C. viewers next week during "Fox & Friends" ― one of the former president's favorite Fox News broadcasts.

“This ad shows the ridiculous lengths these Republicans will go to try to remain in Trump’s good graces,” Sarah Longwell, the organization’s executive director, said in a news release. “They know Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and actions on January 6 were wrong, but they lack the courage to take a stand and say they won’t support him.”

The latest ad is one of the Republican Accountability Project's many efforts criticizing Republican lawmakers like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) for their continuous enabling of Trump.

Watch the ad below: