HoltesThoughts: Russian Agents, Gaslighting Spun News and Ongoing Active Measures

Steele Dossier Page 15: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html

The Trumpian movement to create a Domestic Brownshirts force is moving along. Fortunately it's not attracting mass crowds because, maybe, rank an file Trumpeters might be figuring out that Trump is breaking his promises on health care, is a narcissist and serial liar. I don't have confidence, however, that Trump will fail. He has dedicated cadres of agents with links to the Russian Far Right, and maybe to Russian Intelligence.

25th of June Rally

I wrote this on 6/24/2017:

On Sunday the 25th of June the Alt Right will be holding a rally, designed to paint themselves as innocent victims of left wing violence in front of the White House. I suspect they'll get their friends in the Anti-Fa Movement to stage a mock fight so they can sound credible. Wouldn't be the first time. I suspect they are all agents of Russia engaged in Active Measures. But of course that is just my opinion. I wouldn't want to get sued for a suspicion. As usual the Far Left finds willing allies with foreign countries and the far right. The flying monkey types hate "bourgeoisie society" and the Establishment. They find causes and fearless leaders to propel them to power. At which point they become a new totalitarian establishment and start eliminating each other.

I hope we can avoid that future. The people on this list, are doing their best to bring it about. Whether they work for the Russians or are just RWNJs I can't say. I have my suspicions.

But the Sock Puppets are real!

Usual Suspects

Active Measures and Movements

This post contains material I gathered starting in April. So forgive me if it rambles a bit in the body. It's a big subject.

This is a follow up to more than 3 Related Posts: Active Measures and the Left; Kompromat Hybrid Warfare & Active Measures; Kompromat-penetration-and-treason.html; Active Measures and the Right Wing; We gave the Russians Oligarchs

As time goes by. I'm more and more convinced that we didn't lose the 2016 election through majority rule. We lost the election due to a multi-pronged active measures campaign by the alt right, the alt left and Russian Agents. Proving that is up to the FBI and CIA (Heaven Help us) but that is my opinion. I got clued to this just before the election. It was an active measures attack. But not just by Russians. We have domestic activists right and left who have their own active measures. Whether they actually directly worked with the FSB I have no idea. But there is circumstance. In April I wrote about Cassandra Fairbanks, "Proud Boys" and other people's involvement with a psy-ops effort to pit "antifas" anarchists & lefties against "Proud Boys" Trumper Blackshirts at Berkley. Both groups were encouraged to purchase black body armor and black bicycle helmets.

She went on from there to trying to "prove" to the gullible, that there was truth the allegations regarding Seth Rich's murder, that he was a wikileaks/Russian source for the info that they used to target democratic voters. And most absurdly that Seth Rich was killed by Hillary Clinton and her Campaign Manager.

Beyond Controlled Opposition?

The tools of the Spy trade involve "turning people via:

Money

Ideology

Compromat (compromising material such as evidence of crime

Ego

MICE is the CIA Term

Another formulation of recruiting tools is to use:

Reciprocation, Authority, Scarcity, Commitment and Consistency, Liking, and Social Proof.

Social media, networking and instant communications, it turns out, are perfect tools for recruiting people. Even if they don't realize they are being recruited themselves. Anyone who enjoys a good spy thriller knows that recruiting often goes both ways. While our agents recruit them, their agents are recruiting our agents. It can get quite messy. I'm scared to death of the kinds of people who love this stuff.

But the point is that we have groups recruiting to subvert our country. They may or may not work for Russian Agents. They seem to be "under the influence" of Russian Agents. And it is wise to be careful of them!

Read on Sock Puppets and the role of various types of trolls in what is going on:: Bots Sock Puppets, Oh My! (Readon and Justice Blog)

Beyond Controlled Opposition?

During the election I wanted to post on parallels between what was going on then and the Book 1984. I couldn't do it, not because I didn't have an argument, but because all my arguments tended to look like the arguments that the Right Wing was using to gaslight the subject and George Orwell used a Jewish name, Emmanuel Goldstein, for his Controlled opposition leader and I didn't want my arguments to be used by, or tainted by, anti-semites and bigots. But since the election, the Russian connection revelations revealed that what was going on, at least with the Green Party was "controlled opposition!" And it was't only the Green Party, there is evidence that elements of the Bernie Sander's campaign were also controlled opposition. Bernie did stay with US Democrats, but many of his followers actively revolted against the Democratic Party and focused bile and hate on Hilary Clinton, long after the primaries were over. Some of his online followers were agent provocateurs, others were "fellow travelers" recruited with "from the left" propaganda ===> over a period of years!

And thanks to internet trolling I've seen trolls at work trying to incite controlled opposition. The list of people at the top of this page, include people who've been "caught on camera" manufacturing incidents. And I'm not even including O'Keefe. I suppose representatives of his bunch will be there at the White House too. They just didn't make the list.

Antifas versus "Free Speech" "Proud Boys"

When I wrote about Cassandra Fairbanks involvement with a psy-ops effort to pit "antifas" anarchists & lefties against "Proud Boys" Trumper Blackshirts. A twitter feed shared photos of how both groups were encouraged to purchase black body armor and black bicycle helmets. To me it looks like both groups were infiltrated by people whose real aim was to stir up fights to feed into a narrative of an oppressive establishment and the "other guy" as evil, depending on whether you were a "proud boy" Trumper, or a "anti-Fascist" faction members. Both stirred up by the same group of provocateurs. I'm interested to see if they do that Sunday.

Seth Rich

She went on from their to to trying to "prove" to the gullible, that there is truth the allegations regarding Seth Rich's murder, that he was a wikileaks/Russian source for the info that they used to target democratic voters. That effort collapsed due to lack of evidence, opposition from Seth Rich's family. And Intelligence revelations of the extent of Russian Active Hacking.

What is Controlled Opposition?

In "1984" Goldstein was a ostensible opponent to Big Brother and reformer, but actually was an ally of Big Brother and his organization had the purpose of ferreting out potential opposition for arrest and "re-education". Masha Gessen and others tell how Vladimir Putin used controlled opposition agents to sabotage, discredit and incriminate people trying to resist him. I suspect that is going on now. All these fictional and non fictional narratives and studies of the 30s take on a disturbing quality as I find myself threading resistance groups and finding that people I considered reliable yesterday are actually sabotaging the effort. Totalitarian groups use agent provocateurs to sabotage the ego of people who see something wrong. They back people who betray them. They get suckered into violence or criminal behavior and get arrested. It's not new but the tool is rearing it's ugly head again.

Hybrid Warfare and Sophisticated Spycraft

The USA has always been at its best when it could play to its strengths, stand on principle, and champion "the whole people" over perverse factions. We've had trouble being Machiavellian or doing real-politik, even when the inventors of some of the strategies were USA people. Russia has a past that draws its reality from repeated atrocity. Huns, Pechenegs, Goths, Russ, Magyars, Mongols, Turks, all left a legacy of brutality that necessitated Brutal leadership at times. At least in Russian Minds, from Ivan the Terrible to Stalin, the advice of Machavelli seems moderate. Ruthlessness seems necessary.

And now we have Vladimir Putin. He's taken notions of modern warfare, lessons learned from the World Wars and psychology and politics to a whole new level.

I remember when the old KGB was famous for being Brutal, Devious and not very bright. But the modern FSB actually has it's own University (advanced degrees and a depth and breadth that puts Quantico to shame), and that what they are doing now is, still brutal, but much more sophisticated. The merger of Mob and Government is epitomized in Russian Strategy. In Hybrid warfare, controlled opposition is far more than buying candidates with Kompromat material. They also can use subtle techniques to keep people in line, as well as the old fashioned technique of paying people. In the USA both Russian Television (RT) and Sputnik News are both direct agencies of Russian Foreign intelligence and semi-independent news organizations that try to look like they could be NBC, BBC, ABC or Disney. And like those others, when someone is hired by them they must make compromises with management.

Cassandra Fairbanks work for Sputnik

I first ran into her covering the Fergusson Mess in 2014. Her cover was that she was working

"for the Free Thought Project, a site focused on "the promotion of liberty and the daunting task of government accountability." [Cosmo]

Sputnik News = Russian Agents

But she was really working for Sputnik news, the Russians. I didn't know that. But I remember when:

"She posted photos and videos of the protests on Twitter and shared selfies of her red, bleary face after she was pepper-sprayed by a cop.[Cosmo]

And I remember this tweet:

“Police are a fucking gang,” Fairbanks tweeted in December 2014. When an officer accidentally pepper-sprayed himself: “FUCK YES.” [Cosmo]

She seemed like a 'normal' progressive reformer.

"A year before that, she was a sound technician living in Pittsburgh and organizing protests to call attention to the young woman in Steubenville, Ohio, who was repeatedly raped by two high school football players. She was active in Anonymous, a hacktivist collective, and helped run a popular Anonymous Twitter account. The collective’s biggest aim, Fairbanks told Glamour in a 2013 story about anti-rape activists, was “to let rapists know: If you guys do this, we will see you. And we’re going to make sure everyone else does, too.” [Cosmo]

Even Admireable.

Failure of USA Independent Press

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.

RT, BBC, Al Jazeera, are here for legitimate reasons, but they wouldn't have the power they have if it weren't for the spread of Oligarchy in the governance of our press. At times ABC, NBC, CBS act nearly as corporo-partisan as Fox news. Each of these is a near monopoly and in many rural or isolated markets Fox news is nearly a monopoly carrier. Reformers, muckrakers, critics and independently minded progressives got attracted to RT due to the failure of Air America and other progressive media to get financing. Many people see RT and Sputnik, even the Russians, as "fellow travelers", because the Russians encourage and publicize criticisms of our government; legitimate, exaggerated, subversive or or downright aimed at destroying our democracy. This gave an in to RT into the circles of the left as well as the circles of the Right they gained access to through Perestroika.

Hacking our Election

For more on the Right Wing issues see:

How the Right Hacked our Election

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/04/gop-russians-worked-together-to-defeat.html

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/04/levashov-and-project-alamo-spamming.html

RT As Controlled Opposition

I'm pretty sure that the candidacies of Stein and Bernie were controlled opposition. Better than 80% confidence with Bernie and 99% confidence with Stein. The image of her with General Flynn cinches it in my mind. And it doesn't matter if the folks who benefited from Russian interference later are the loudest claiming to decry it. That is part of how the standard ops for Active Measures works. Uncertainty makes the brain vulnerable to fear messages. The term is gaslighting.

The problem is that while Russian Television (RT) presents itself as an ordinary TV channel that happens to champion USA dissidents who can't get establishment backing. They are, allegedly, filled with Russian Agents. I read somewhere that "they left us alone as long as we stayed away from certain subjects." People working for, or who worked for RT in the past. Have a way of denying that Russian Hacking occurred. Attacking the USA while sparing our enemies. And hating the Democratic party and its leaders. There are certain themes that have developed over the years that the Russians champion. And those working for RT have a habit of championing those themes.

Was Bernie Controlled Opposition

To the simmering hard core hard left, Bernie was definitely "controlled opposition" -- by Hillary! An Article from Medium's Kevin Sarpei claims this based on Bernie's unwillingness to go for the jugular and supporting her in the general election. The fact that he criticized Bernie for not being active measures shows just how penetrated the Bernie Brothers, Busters, whatever you want to call them, are. He did have a non aggression pact with us Democrats, for the simple reason that he wanted to use the Democratic party to run for POTUS! He also has ignored his side of the agreement and spent all his time attacking the Democratic party, its leaders, its emphasis on Women, minorities an human rights, and its failure to embrace Soviet Style Socialism. We weren't going to let him run in our party unless he at least behaved civilly towards our party. He promised to. He also broke that promise. To Sarpei, who wanted Bernie to take down the party, he wasn't radical enough.

Soft Treason

Thus whether Bernie himself is "active measures" or "Kompromat" his movement was coopted and is still generating havoc within the party. Such is what controlled opposition does. It is designed to divide and paralyze enemies and potential enemies.

The People who want to take down the Democratic party, but claim that they are somehow progressives, might as well be Trumpian or Russian Agents. Medium is full of articles attacking the very legitimacy of a Democratic party, as are a number of "far left" fake news Russian sponsored sites. That is controlled opposition. It is a form of Soft Treason that the people engaging in it might not even realize they are doing.

The numerous articles that claim that Bernie was "controlled opposition" for not being on Trump's side, against the "Evil Hillary" are themselves a form of damage control for the far left, who don't want to admit that they have been controlled opposition for the right. I don't know what is going on with Bernie. He's always been a hyper-critical, stand-offish, perfectionist who sees himself at war with the "Establishment" Democrats. And he's been that way since his college days when he left the Civil Rights movement to campaign for Pot and Socialism and then finally won the job of Mayor of Burlington Vermont. Controlled influence is more what is going on. The Russians like Bernie Sanders for nostalgia reasons. He was their man when they were still technically Bolshevik. The Russians have carefully cultivated the American left since the 30s. And with RT and Sputnik news, the goal is to nudge people into anti-US tropes, hating top Democrats and away from critical thinking about Russia. With lefties that is an easy job.

Was she Banned or Wasn't she?

The Ann Coulter Berley incident is an example of how disinformation campaign. Ann Coulter announced she'd been "banned" from Berkley on April 19! The word "banned" got her considerable attention.

“Yes, it was officially banned”, Coulter said, according to the report. “But they can't stop me. I'm an American. I have Constitutional rights.” The Hill

But they had never banned her in the first place! They had asked her not to attend the April 27th event due to violence they were afraid was scheduled on that date. They tried to reschedule, but she would rather make political hay.

“In a letter to Berkeley College Republicans, who invited Coulter to speak, university officials said they were unable to ensure the safety of the speaker, audience members or protesters who would be at the April 27 event, according to a report by the Associated Press.” The Hill

Interestingly enough April 19th is both the aniversary of the day that Tim McVeigh bombed a Government Building [along with a nursery] in Oklahoma, and "Patriot's day" for Right Wingers. I wonder if the connection is intended? Anyway. She first said she'd attend anyway. Berkley offered to reschedule the speech, but she had all the hay she needed to bash the University, and has gone off attacking them ever since.

Berkley as Controlled Opposition

In my post "Active Measures and the left": [Active Measures Post]. I was failing miserably in explaining what is going on at Berkley to a man who was proud of Free Speech and pointing to Robert Reich's very brief debate with Ann Coulter as illustrating the importance of Free Speech. But both Reich and this guy, David Galiel, were accepting Ann Coulter's arguments on their face. To do so was giving a false equivalence between a provocateur and someone whose speech is provocative but factual. Ann Says the University refused her visit because lefties won't let her talk. I tried to explain to him that nothing of the sort had happened and that, on the contrary, the "free speech folks" read her speech at a rally, that she'd never been in danger, and she'd cancelled her own visit. The story on Robert Reich's debate is here:

Reich Trump Media War

Not getting it

They accepted her assertion that her speech was repressed on Face Value:

“Universities ought to be places where I am not the only conservative most students will hear in four years of college,” she opined. “This whole incident shows the radical insulated left on the college campuses. And the entire left wing, including President [Barack Obama] and Bill Maher, are on the other side.” [Reich]

“And what useless institutions our universities are,” she continued. “The lefties are on the side of the thugs. They’ve taken over the universities. I don’t think anyone learns anything at college anymore. It’s a four year vacation. And I think that’s what people ought to be looking at because the taxpayers are supporting these universities.”[Reich]

And instead of defending the University Reich deflected, and rawstory celebrated that as a victory!

“The libel laws should not be widened [as Trump has suggested],” Reich explained. “We really do need a free press. One thing that concerns me about the present administration is the willingness of the administration to not only talk about widening the libel laws and also criminal laws — flag burning — but even the president of the United States, last night, using a [rally] in Harrisburg to summon his supporters and criticize the press once again.”[Reich]

When Trump talks about "widening libel laws" he is talking about amending or repealing the first amendment. "widening" is a Euphemism!

“This is dangerous,” Reich added. “I mean, if we believe in the First Amendment, we believe in a free and independent press.”[Reich]

Staged Fight

Darn Right it is dangerous.

Some of the "antifas" were anarchists, who oppose Trump and anyone in government. Some are threatened minorities. But many were fascists posing as "antifas." This article explains the anarchist component:

"In recent years, conservative pundits have tried to paint the mystery people in black at various times as representatives of the Occupy movement, supporters of Barack Obama, minions of liberal billionaire George Soros, and opponents of Donald Trump, and mainstream publications are occasionally wont to refer to a "Black Bloc," as if there was a registered 501(c)(3) dedicated to assaulting newspaper boxes." [http://dcist.com/2017/01/black_bloc_explainer.php]

However, much of the stunt at Berkley is an extended cosplay between allied Right Wing groups and has nothing to do with "the left" except with those mislead by the dramma and storminess. (Sturm and Drang) Free speech was never in danger "from the left" --> but radicals wanted to make it look like it was. As early as April 25th it was obvious what was going on:

Genuine Free Speech or anti-Fascist advocates don't burn the Flag or burn a Sign saying "free Speech."

The "free speech folks" were pitted against "antifas" leaders like Yvette Felarca of BAMN. But the "antifas" were also infiltrated by right wing agent provocateur's and most of the provocateurs on both sides wore masks and the same gear. RVAwonk investigated them:

She produced this Storify Video

https://storify.com/Kathy_Scheidel/trumpnuts-planned-berkley-violence

She went on to note how the Trump Administration:

"has been nudging them [RW Nationalists] to commit violence." https://t.co/8No65bBDlD

Vladislav Surkov and Controlled Opposition

For more on this see Vladislav Surkov, and how when he was helping Putin get to power, used controlled opposition in a myriad of ways to divide and defeat enemies and to keep the opposition off guard That is what is going on now!

Deeper Strategy

"Active measures" are part of a deeper strategy to transform our norms and get us use to authority. While Our "Voice of America" and "Radio Free Europe" efforts in the 50s-80s were essentially active measures efforts, they mostly were on behalf of genuine principles of democracy and openness. This is different. Trump uses simple language to get people to accept his many lies as truths. He discredits journalism an journalists. Gaslights his followers. And if one isn't prepared for what he's doing, upends people's notions of civic virtue and how government should work.

Big League Politics and [Un]Real News

Back In April 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.

And almost the Same people are showing up in DC tomorrow.

Who is 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. More recently 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

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.

What is Controlled Oppositio

In "1984" Goldstein was a ostensible opponent to Big Brother and reformer, but actually was an ally of Big Brother and his organization had the purpose of ferreting out potential opposition for arrest and "re-education". But what is going on now, makes 1984 both prescient and almost naive. I remember when the old KGB was famous for being Brutal, Devious and not very bright. But the modern FSB actually has it's own University (advanced degrees and a depth and breadth that puts Quantico to shame), and that what they are doing now is, still brutal, but much more sophisticated. The merger of Mob and Government is epitomized in Russian Strategy. Controlled opposition is far more than buying candidates with Kompromat material. They also can use subtle techniques to keep people in line, as well as the old fashioned technique of paying people. In the USA both Russian Television (RT) and Sputnik News are both direct agencies of Russian Foreign intelligence and semi-independent news organizations that try to look like they could be NBC, BBC, ABC or Disney. And like those others, when someone is hired by them they must make compromises with management.

Failure of USA Independent Press

How the Right Hacked our Election

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/04/gop-russians-worked-together-to-defeat.html

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/04/levashov-and-project-alamo-spamming.html

I was saying, but didn't blog on, was spot on. I'm pretty sure that the candidacies of Stein and Bernie were controlled opposition. Better than 80% confidence with Bernie and 99% confidence with Stein. The image of her with General Flynn cinches it in my mind. And it doesn't matter if the folks who benefited from Russian interference later are the loudest claiming to decry it. That is part of how the standard ops for Active Measures works. Uncertainty makes the brain vulnerable to fear messages. The term is gaslighting.

Was Bernie Controlled Opposition

To the simmering hard core hard left, Bernie was definitely "controlled opposition" -- by Hillary! An Article from Medium's Kevin Sarpei claims this based on Bernie's unwillingness to go for the jugular and supporting her in the general election. But this was nonsense. He did have a non aggression pact with us Democrats, for the simple reason that he wanted to use the Democratic party to run for POTUS! We weren't going to let him run in our party unless he at least behaved civilly towards our party. But to Sarpei, he wanted Bernie to take down the party. That is the kind of controlled opposition I'm talking about. People who want to take down the Democratic party, but claim that they are somehow progressives. Medium is full of articles attacking the very legitimacy of a Democratic party, as are a number of "far left" fake news Russian sponsored sites. That is controlled opposition.

Indeed the numerous articles that claim that Bernie was "controlled opposition" for not being on Trump's side, against the "Evil Hillary" are themselves a form of damage control for the far left, who don't want to admit that they have been controlled opposition for the right. And anyway "controlled Opposition" is obviously not what is going on with Bernie himself. He's always been a hyper-critical, stand-offish, perfectionist who sees himself at war with the "Establishment" Democrats. And he's been that way since his college days when he left the Civil Rights movement to campaign for Pot and Socialism and then finally won the job of Mayor of Burlington Vermont. Controlled influence is more what is going on. The Russians like Bernie Sanders for nostalgia reasons. He was their man when they were still technically Bolshevik. The Russians have carefully cultivated the American left since the 30s. And with RT and Sputnik news, the goal is to nudge people into anti-US tropes, hating top Democrats and away from critical thinking about Russia. With lefties that is an easy job.

Was she Banned or Wasn't she?

Ann Coulter announced she'd been "banned" from Berkley on April 19! The word "banned" got her considerable attention.

“Yes, it was officially banned”, Coulter said, according to the report. “But they can't stop me. I'm an American. I have Constitutional rights.” The Hill

But they had never banned her in the first place! They had asked her not to attend the April 27th event due to violence they were afraid was scheduled on that date.

“In a letter to Berkeley College Republicans, who invited Coulter to speak, university officials said they were unable to ensure the safety of the speaker, audience members or protesters who would be at the April 27 event, according to a report by the Associated Press.” The Hill

Interestingly enough April 19th is both the day that Tim McVeigh bombed a Government Building [along with a nursery] in Oklahoma, and "Patriot's day" for Right Wingers. I wonder if the connection is intended. Anyway. She first said she'd attend anyway. Berkley offered to reschedule the speech, but she had all the hay she needed to bash the University, and has gone off attacking them ever since.

Berkley as Controlled Opposition

This is a follow up to the post "Active Measures and the left": [Active Measures Post]. Today I was failing miserably in explaining what is going on at Berkley to a man who was proud of Free Speech and pointing to Robert Reich's very brief debate with Ann Coulter as illustrating the importance of Free Speech. But both Reich and this guy, David Galiel, were accepting Ann Coulter's arguments on their surface. Ann Says the University refused her visit because lefties won't let her talk. I tried to explain to him that nothing of the sort had happened and that, on the contrary, the "free speech folks" read her speech at a rally, that she'd never been in danger, and she'd cancelled her own visit. The story on Robert Reich's debate is here:

Reich Trump Media War

Not getting it

They accepted her assertion that her speech was repressed on Face Value:

“Universities ought to be places where I am not the only conservative most students will hear in four years of college,” she opined. “This whole incident shows the radical insulated left on the college campuses. And the entire left wing, including President [Barack Obama] and Bill Maher, are on the other side.” [Reich]

“And what useless institutions our universities are,” she continued. “The lefties are on the side of the thugs. They’ve taken over the universities. I don’t think anyone learns anything at college anymore. It’s a four year vacation. And I think that’s what people ought to be looking at because the taxpayers are supporting these universities.”[Reich]

And instead of defending the University Reich deflected, and rawstory celebrated that as a victory!

“The libel laws should not be widened [as Trump has suggested],” Reich explained. “We really do need a free press. One thing that concerns me about the present administration is the willingness of the administration to not only talk about widening the libel laws and also criminal laws — flag burning — but even the president of the United States, last night, using a [rally] in Harrisburg to summon his supporters and criticize the press once again.”[Reich]

When Trump talks about "widening libel laws" he is talking about amending or repealing the first amendment. "widening" is a Euphemism!

“This is dangerous,” Reich added. “I mean, if we believe in the First Amendment, we believe in a free and independent press.”[Reich]

Staged Fight

Darn Right it is dangerous.

"In recent years, conservative pundits have tried to paint the mystery people in black at various times as representatives of the Occupy movement, supporters of Barack Obama, minions of liberal billionaire George Soros, and opponents of Donald Trump, and mainstream publications are occasionally wont to refer to a "Black Bloc," as if there was a registered 501(c)(3) dedicated to assaulting newspaper boxes." [http://dcist.com/2017/01/black_bloc_explainer.php]

Genuine Free Speech or anti-Fascist advocates don't burn the Flag or burn a Sign saying "free Speech."

She produced this Storify Video

https://storify.com/Kathy_Scheidel/trumpnuts-planned-berkley-violence

She went on to note how the Trump Administration:

"has been nudging them [RW Nationalists] to commit violence." https://t.co/8No65bBDlD

Vladislav Surkov and Controlled Opposition

It turns out Vladislav Surkov, when he was helping Putin get to power, used controlled opposition in a myriad of ways to divide and defeat enemies and to keep the opposition off guard and it is going on now! I'm going to use what happened at Berkley to describe how it works, and how we get played every time!

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

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; Caroline O [@rvaWonk] reported on these folks

I have to add Louise Mensch to the Suspect List, now that Milo Yianopoulos has spilled the beans on her active measures effort to derail "The Resistance" by making up stories of non existent legal proceedings against Trump and his henchmen. She blocked me when I asked her questions and twitter went down while I was reading the findings on her. This is serious stuff.

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

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/brandon-darby-anarchist-fbi-terrorism

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/

"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

Conclusion

" 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]

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

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Russian Agents, Gaslighting Spun News and Ongoing Active Measures

25th of June Rally

Usual Suspects

Active Measures and Movements

Beyond Controlled Opposition?

Beyond Controlled Opposition?

Antifas versus "Free Speech" "Proud Boys"

Seth Rich

What is Controlled Opposition?

Hybrid Warfare and Sophisticated Spycraft

Cassandra Fairbanks work for Sputnik

Sputnik News = Russian Agents

Failure of USA Independent Press

Hacking our Election

RT As Controlled Opposition

Was Bernie Controlled Opposition

Soft Treason

Was she Banned or Wasn't she?

Berkley as Controlled Opposition

Not getting it

Staged Fight

Vladislav Surkov and Controlled Opposition

Deeper Strategy

Big League Politics and [Un]Real News

Who is Cassandra Fairbanks

Posing as a Bernie Supporter

Agent Provocateur

Dumping on the Left

Staged Fights in Berkley

Conclusion

What is Controlled Oppositio

Failure of USA Independent Press

Was Bernie Controlled Opposition

Was she Banned or Wasn't she?

Berkley as Controlled Opposition

Not getting it

Staged Fight

Vladislav Surkov and Controlled Opposition

Deeper Strategy

Vladislav Surkov

The Et Tu Brute thing

Sliding towards Oligarchy

Active Agents and Trolls in USA

Big League Politics and [Un]Real News

Cassandra Fairbanks

Posing as a Bernie Supporter

Agent Provocateur

Dumping on the Left

Staged Fights in Berkley

Conclusion

Further Reading

1 comment: