Posted on 02/20/2018 7:19:07 AM PST by Kaslin
According to the indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Russian trolls, operating out of St. Petersburg, took American identities on social media and became players in our 2016 election.
On divisive racial and religious issues, the trolls took both sides. In the presidential election, the trolls favored Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein and Donald Trump, and almost never Hillary Clinton.
One imaginative Russian troll urged Trumpsters to dress up a female volunteer in an orange prison jump suit, put her in a cage on a flatbed truck, then append the slogan, "Lock Her Up!"
How grave a matter is this?
This Russian troll farm is "the equivalent (of) Pearl Harbor," says Cong. Jerrold Nadler, who would head up the House Judiciary Committee, handling any impeachment, if Democrats retake the House.
When MSNBC's Chris Hayes pressed, Nadler doubled down: The Russians "are destroying our democratic process." While the Russian trolling may not equal Pearl Harbor in its violence, said Nadler, in its "seriousness, it is very much on a par" with Japan's surprise attack.
Trump's reaction to the hysteria that broke out after the Russian indictments: "They are laughing their (expletives) off in Moscow."
According to Sunday's Washington Post, the troll story is old news in Russia, where reporters uncovered it last year and it was no big deal.
While Mueller's indictments confirm that Russians meddled in the U.S. election, what explains the shock and the fear for "our democracy"?
Is the Great Republic about to fall because a bunch of trolls tweeted in our election? Is this generation ignorant of its own history?
Before and after World War II, we had Stalinists and Soviet spies at the highest levels of American culture and government.
The Hollywood Ten, who went to prison for contempt of Congress, were secret members of a Communist Party that, directed from Moscow, controlled the Progressive Party in Philadelphia in 1948 that nominated former Vice President Henry Wallace to run against Harry Truman.
Soviet spies infiltrated the U.S. atom bomb project and shortened the time Stalin needed to explode a Soviet bomb in 1949.
As for Russian trolling in our election, do we really have clean hands when it comes to meddling in elections and the internal politics of regimes we dislike?
Sen. John McCain and Victoria Nuland of State egged on the Maidan Square crowds in Kiev that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine. When the democratically elected regime of Mohammed Morsi was overthrown, the U.S. readily accepted the coup as a victory for our side and continued aid to Egypt as tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members were imprisoned.
Are the CIA and National Endowment for Democracy under orders not to try to influence the outcome of elections in nations in whose ruling regimes we believe we have a stake?
"Have we ever tried to meddle in other countries' elections?" Laura Ingraham asked former CIA Director James Woolsey this weekend.
With a grin, Woolsey replied, "Oh, probably."
"We don't do that anymore though?" Ingraham interrupted. "We don't mess around in other people's elections, Jim?"
"Well," Woolsey said with a smile. "Only for a very good cause."
Indeed, what is the National Endowment for Democracy all about, if not aiding the pro-American side in foreign nations and their elections?
Did America have no active role in the "color-coded revolutions" that have changed regimes from Serbia to Ukraine to Georgia?
When Republicans discuss Iran on Capitol Hill, the phrase "regime change" is frequently heard. When the "Green Revolution" took to the streets of Tehran to protest massively the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, Republicans denounced President Obama for not intervening more energetically to alter the outcome.
When China, Russia and Egypt expel NGOs, are their suspicions that some have been seeded with U.S. agents merely marks of paranoia?
The U.S. role in the overthrow of Premier Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, and of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, and of President Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon in 1963 are established facts.
When the democratically elected Marxist Salvador Allende was overthrown in Chile in 1973, and committed suicide with an AK-47 given to him by Fidel Castro, the Nixon White House may have had no direct role. But the White House welcomed the ascendancy of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
What do these indictments of Russians tell us? After 18 months, the James Comey-Robert Mueller FBI investigation into the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails has yet to produce evidence of collusion.
Yet we do have evidence that a senior British spy and Trump hater, Christopher Steele, paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC to dig up dirt on Trump, colluded with Kremlin agents to produce a dossier of scurrilous and unsubstantiated charges, to destroy the candidacy of Donald Trump. And the FBI used this disinformation to get FISA Court warrants to surveil and wiretap the Trump campaign.
Why is this conspiracy and collusion with Russians less worthy of Mueller's attention than a troll farm in St. Petersburg?
Oh please - grow up
Hillary Lost - going to war with Russia is not going to get her into the White House.
Even if everything reported about the trolls it is NOT an act of war. Nations have spied on each other since nations were formed.
If trying to influence citizens of another nation is an act of war what about VOICE OF AMERICA? Heck, what about all the television, movies and books that flow into other nations, they certainly influence people (not always in a good way)
The so-called Democrat process was destroyed when the Obama administration weaponized government agencies to go after the republican campaigns
If the troll farm is an act of war, what do we call it if any EU countries had their mitts in this.. ?
What about the *millions* of illegals from Mexico? Participating in political demonstrations, taking citizen’s identities and contributing to political parties in the US? Or is this just illegal when done from a troll farm and insignificant?
Ask Netanyahu about Obama’s interference in Israel’s elections.
Are several million Mexican illegal immigrants voting in our election an act of war?
So, non-citizens from Russia making political comments here is an act of war.
If we can prove significant illegal VOTING by Mexicans can we go to war against Mexico?
2020: A Democrat victory will lead us to war with Russia. That point should be driven home. The rats have 3 years left to drive their point home and then withdraw the charges to show how they are the party of diplomacy. When will they turn it reverse course? They are counting on short memories of the electorate.
Obama meddled in the elections of other countries, but that’s OK because shut up.
Mueller is just a bad joke after this. With what Soros has been up to for years how can anyone even take these indictments seriously?
Just tell them to knock it off.
That should be enough to get those Troll Farm Boys to pull their pants up and walk home.
Heck yes, and they will be having demonstrations in May. This is an election year. I call it influence. Hopefully this year though, ICE will be close by.
All indicted by this phony investigation will be pardoned.
Mueller et. al. are enemy no. 1.
Every announcement is like watching the next gag in a clown act.
No, both the USSR and US did far worse back in the days and it was okay back then too.
The Russians have been using propaganda to influence American government and elections for 80 years. Why is it such a big deal now?
Don't be ridiculous.
What is so funny about this all is that they said Trump would wage war on all the world so do not vote for him. Now the same people want Trump to start a war with Russia over a nothin’burger???
Well if its an act of war, then get ready to go to war with Canada, Israel, and the UK as well as the E.U. Its hard to imagine a first world country that is not interested in our elections. What the media is calling a troll farm, every one else calls a PR firm. This is standard business now with digital advertising.
I always thought evil was a powerful force on earth. But I’ve come to realize stupidity is far more dangerous .
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