HoltesThoughts: Active Measures and the Left

I wasn't surprised by the revelations of "active measures" involving Right Wing Organizations and Donald Trump [see Psyops & Trump]. What dismayed and alarmed me was that the Russian FSB directed it's active measures efforts at US reformers, liberals/progressives and "the left."

Active Measures are the agitation and propaganda, electoral, terrorism, activism and other "less lethal" efforts of a spy service, directed against its "frenemy" neighbors around the world. Active measures support rebels and undermine the legitimacy of target nations.

Why Russian Active Measures?

Active measures from the Russians, in General, and specifically the efforts of Vladimir Putin, were aimed around the world with the goal to reconstitute the Soviet Union by subverting, overthrowing, sponsoring rebels and invading his neighbors. Putin had interfered in the government of or invaded Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia. He'd invaded, conquered and violently subdued the Chechens, using their own violent response to justify draconian actions at home and abroad.

When Barack Obama and his administration took measures to stop this imperialism they began ramping up their active measures against US. Russians had active measures in operation dating back to before the Cold War officially started, so this was a trivial thing for them. The current effort was aimed at stopping sanctions from the USA and influencing our Government to accede to their efforts. Some of these active measures were aimed at preventing Hillary Clinton from being nominated, being the Democratic Champion, winning election, and barring that; electing Bernie Sanders, Dr. Jill Stein, or Donald Trump --> to become US POTUS!

The parallels between the 2016 election and the 2010 election in Ukraine which led to the "Maidan" revolution are spooky. I talked about them in this post:

Parallels Post

And it shouldn't be surprising that the Soviets would Target us with Active Measures. Our Business elites got them good in the 80s & 90s and they owe us. See:

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/03/we-gave-russians-oligarchs-now-they-are.html

Deeper Strategy

Be that as it may, "active measures" also embody deeper strategy. Our "Voice of America" and "Radio Free Europe" efforts in the 50s-80s were essentially active measures efforts. The strategies of promoting ideological, and potential, allies is as old as the Ancient Greeks. Our own efforts to build democratic, republican, effective confederations ("free trade") involved active measures. The left's dream of a communist paradise also was promoted by active measures agents. Active measures are also employed to get targets for economic takeover to think that they will benefit from that takeover. This is true whether it is an oil or Gas company seeking extraction, or a neo-colonial/neo-liberal bank seeking to make predatory loans. Active measures involve, however, agents of a foreign government, and as such they are by definition a form of subversion, connected to spying, special ops and treason. This is especially true if the goal (or effect) of the active measures is to destroy, degrade or harm the targeted peoples.

Vladislav Surkov

Behind the Russian Active Measures subversion campaign is the ideology of a man named Vladislav Surkov. I'll be talking about him more later.

The Et Tu Brute thing

For several years now, some of my favorite people have surprised me with some of their behavior. I had suspicions, as most of them had relations with either RT or Sputnik news, were reformers, and were pro the network of leftist activists and rebels around the world -- and were defensive about Russian misbehavior. They would kind of clam up or start mumbling when the subject was something that people on the left or Russia did wrong. This should have clued me, but I trusted their judgment on most things and so gave them the benefit of the doubt.

I was wrong

Sliding towards Oligarchy

What I'm finding out is that RT & Sputnik ran a fairly sophisticated Press Corps in the USA as a front for spy operations, and they didn't mind US reformers, muckrakers and pundits talking about anything as long as they didn't criticize Putin seriously or challenge Russian Interests. We progressives lost a war of financing reformers, when the right did in Air America. The left turned to either RT or Al Jazeera, because those became part of the remaining choices for an outlet. In short, we are becoming more like Russia without even knowing it. Each of the oligarchs who control our media impose their own strictures. Why? Because they can. That is why folks associated with RT are loathe to even admit that the Russians were engaging in "Active Measures" in this country. This is very disappointing to me, as I'd come to rely on some of the alternative left news sites for truthful information.

But meanwhile Trolls both American And Russian are having a ball gaslighting everyone!

Active Agents and Trolls in USA

This is going to be a series of posts. This is a list of twitter accounts and people's names, who seem to be involved in trolling for conflict and supporting Trump's "Brown Shirts" creating activities. Some of these people may be multiple accounts for the same person.

Incomplete Suspect List:: Mike Cernovich; Lauren Southern; Cassandra Fairbanks AKA Cassandra_Rules; Lauren Feldman; Baked Alaska; James O'Keefe III @Project_Veritas; Jim Hoft [Gateway Pundit]; Richard Spencer; Gavin McInnes (co founded Vice, claims to be antifa and a "proud boy")[https://twitter.com/Gavin_McInnes]; Milo Yianopoulos; Scott Adams

Big League Politics and [Un]Real News

At this time as I write, most of the folks in the suspect list I wrote gathered in a "A Real News Party" gathering of the biggest purveyors of Fake news. This went on simultaneously with the White House Press Dinner, Trump's Pennsylvania rally and Samantha Bee's roast of all of it. It featured videographers, RT/Sputnik Vets and Russian Agents. They charged 100$ a plate, so maybe they aren't as well funded as they seem.

Cassandra Fairbanks

Cassandra Fairbanks who wrote for Teen Vogue and Sputnik and who now writes for Big League Politics was there. I first ran into her during the Fergusson riots where she was covering police abuse there. As soon as I started digging into what is going on with Sputnik and "Active Measures" she blocked me. At the moment she's associated with Big League Politics [http://bigleaguepolitics.com/] She's associated with everything that seems to be going on in Berkley, DC, and around the country, that looks like active measures.

When she wrote for Teen Vogue, she sometimes sounded like any other Progressive. For example she wrote:

"The 10 Most Interesting Moments of President Obama's State of the Union Speech"

Which was a rather uplifting statement of what he was up to.

http://www.teenvogue.com/contributor/cassandra-fairbanks

Her articles with sputnik: https://sputniknews.com/authors/cassandra_fairbanks/

Posing as a Bernie Supporter

She posed as a Bernie Supporter in 2015. In 2016 she attended the GOP convention where she:

dated "Brandon Darby, the FBI informant who exposed molotov cocktail possessing radicals at the Minnesota Republican Convention and eventually became a Breitbart contributor." Source: https://www.everipedia.com/cassandra-fairbanks/#ixzz4faJqWrpV

Agent Provocateur

Brandon Darby was a "left wing radical" who turned out to be an anti-left wing agent who encouraged people do break the law and then helped the police arrest them. Brandon Darby was labeled a leftist. But what he actually is is an anarchist. Anarchists, libertarians and Right Wingers form a spectrum of beliefs with the radical left and it can get confusing. But for someone trying to start fights, their apparent differences become fodder for propaganda.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/brandon-darby-anarchist-fbi-terrorism
The Steele Dossier Documents efforts to keep Bernie and Hillary supporters at odds (page 17).: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html

Dumping on the Left

In June 2106, she dumped Brandon Darby for Mike Cernovich and the left for Donald Trump. Brandon would write an article attacking Cassandra Fairbanks:

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/06/27/pro-hillary-feminist-attacks-trump-supporter-big-boobs-video/

Note the article was written for Breitbart that he seems to be more upset about her deserting him than deserting Bernie. It turns out Darby was never a lefty. His attack on Cassandra might have had more to do with other matters than pure politics. Darby now writes favorable articles about Donald Trump and is a pro-Trump supporter, for Breitbart.

"Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon."

Don't forget Stephen K. Bannon is Trump's man.

Staged Fights in Berkley

In Berkley there are fights between "antifas" radicals and "free speech" radicals. As I've shown Both seem to be directed by the same folks. Jim Hoft and Gavin McInnes claim to be on opposite sides -- yet both are working together, partying together, and encouraging followers to dress alike, wear body armor, helmets and carry clubs. Both groups, and the folks at Project Veritas, seem to be working together to use agent provocateurs & doctored videos to attack establishment journalists, activists and politicians. Last Night they were dancing together in DC, but they interact directly on twitter and in other places. When they put out propaganda that somehow the "antifas" folks are attacking "free speech" and are on different sides, they are playing us. It looks like gaslighting to me.

Conclusion

Why would operatives play all sides of our political struggles? Is it for attention? Kicks? Are they paid to do it? I mentioned Vladislav Surkov, though the strategy is old. Before Mussolini invented Fascism he was a champion of the Italian Left. The ideology of the Far Right radical meets that of the far left on so many points that it is not surprising that radicals go off the deep end regularly from left to right. But there is more involved in this too. Zurkov

" the architect of “post-truth politics” where facts are relative, a version of which some have suggested has now taken hold in the west." [Guardian]

He does that by "managing" news and activist behavior so as to thoroughly confuse and gaslight potential enemies. He gets help from folks who see politics as a fun game where changing sides is profitable and nothing really matters.

I could spend more time on this post, but I'm tired and it's a "bigly" subject. So continue reading:

From Steele Dossier

Page 15

HoltesThoughts

Sunday, April 30, 2017

Active Measures and the Left