The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby JackRiddler » Sat Jul 21, 2018 6:40 pm

Elvis » Sat Jul 21, 2018 5:21 pm wrote:
liminalOyster wrote: I am perhaps too catastrophic in my own thinking because I see a passion play designed to hold the equilibrium of the status quo and its supporting political field by offering a release valve on populist rage by symbolically enacting the slaying of a dragon.


Whatever the design, that's the effect. I picked up this following piece from the FB comments at Luther's link above:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/19 ... residency/

July 19, 2018
The Blue Pill Presidency
by Jennifer Matsui


Image
Photo by nguyengurl | CC BY 2.0


Who would have predicted that in 2018, the FBI, the CIA, John McCain, Jeff Bezos, and now the monarchy would be be feted as the vanguard of ‘The Resistance’ by the American ‘left’? Suddenly Trump’s presidency makes sense. To paraphrase a leaked Deep Squid memo from the deep swamps of Deep Space: “When they are forced to eat shit sandwiches around the clock, eventually deep fried vampire squid will appear delectable by comparison. Mission almost accomplished. Mwaah ha ha . . . !”

[...]

Notice how the Left establishment is suddenly enraged that a ‘classless’ dotard Bingo hall barker doesn’t know how to curtsy all proper-like on his tax-funded tour of Downton Abbey. Fancy that! Ten million slated to die of disease and starvation in Yemen? Whatever . . .



Satire, I get it, I get it, but this abuse of "left" has got to stop. There is no "Left establishment." She's talking about the Democratic party leadership, some of the rich, the corporate media and (non-leftist!) segments of the celebrity and donor classes. Who the hell adopted Bezos as part of the "Resistance"? They are not left. Left is the awesome strike wave against Amazon in multiple countries. The CIA is not "left." Just because FOX or something calls some part of the anti-Trump world left, they certainly don't call themselves that! They don't even call themselves liberals. They are neoliberal technocrats, sure, but they call themselves shit like bipartisan, moderate, third way, responsible, centrist, grown-up, etc. etc. etc., even conservative. We should not be contributing to the confusionism. I hate that Counterpunch contributes plenty to the mischaracterization and even quasi legitimation of Clinton et al. as "left." And it's time to stop slagging superfluously on the pussyhat brigade, who aren't simply this cliche as done up by the "left"-bashers, and are correct to march even if they don't march for everything they should march for (as none of us do).

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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Elvis » Sat Jul 21, 2018 7:12 pm

JackRiddler wrote:Satire, I get it, I get it, but this abuse of "left" has got to stop. There is no "Left establishment." She's talking about the Democratic party leadership, some of the rich, the corporate media and (non-leftist!) segments of the celebrity and donor classes. Who the hell adopted Bezos as part of the "Resistance"? They are not left. Left is the awesome strike wave against Amazon in multiple countries. The CIA is not "left." Just because FOX or something calls some part of the anti-Trump world left, they certainly don't call themselves that! They don't even call themselves liberals. They are neoliberal technocrats, sure, but they call themselves shit like bipartisan, moderate, third way, responsible, centrist, grown-up, etc. etc. etc., even conservative. We should not be contributing to the confusionism. I hate that Counterpunch contributes plenty to the mischaracterization and even quasi legitimation of Clinton et al. as "left." And it's time to stop slagging superfluously on the pussyhat brigade, who aren't simply this cliche as done up by the "left"-bashers, and are correct to march even if they don't march for everything they should march for (as none of us do).


You are quite right, er, correct. I overlooked that aspect, focusing on what will be left, er, will remain, after the current fog clears.


Forget the left for a moment. We need to peer through the haze and take a serious, honest look at what's happening, whether it agrees with our preconceptions or not. It's time to admit—uncomfortable as it may be—that yes, the President of the United States is controlled by a corrupt foreign leader with regional imperialist ambitions and fascist tendencies.



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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby dada » Sat Jul 21, 2018 7:17 pm

Elvis wrote:To paraphrase a leaked Deep Squid memo from the deep swamps of Deep Space: “When they are forced to eat shit sandwiches around the clock, eventually deep fried vampire squid will appear delectable by comparison. Mission almost accomplished. Mwaah ha ha . . . !”


Which one of you traitorous space squids leaked that! Quick, lock down the base, sound the alarm.

Don't panic, I'm on the case. I will get to the bottom of this.

...What? Did I ever see 'Investigation of a Squid Above Suspicion?' Just what are you implying, soldier?

liminalOyster wrote:But the point of the Spectacle is the onset of an infinitely regenerative techno-media sublime within which we can't function as rational actors or continue to believe we are the same kind of subjects/agents. There's no way to "reject" it nor an official version of it (vs a grassroots one, for instance) which we can parse, compartmentalize and decide to discard or what to otherwise do with.


You know, you're right. It is kind of stuffy in here.

I want it stuffier, though. No air at all. Then it will be just like space.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby dada » Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:41 pm

So Elvis, this Donald is Bibi's puppet thing..

I get that you were going for funny, to make a point. The point being that it's absurd to say Donald is Vlad's puppet, as absurd as saying Donald is Bibi's puppet.

Far be it from me to criticize, since I play to the bottom denominator, don't do anything to help raise the level of discourse on RI. There's just I don't know, something so social media about it.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Grizzly » Sun Jul 22, 2018 1:08 am

“He Fears For His Life”: President Trump Trying His Best to Not End Up Assassinated Like Kennedy
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Elvis » Sun Jul 22, 2018 3:38 am

Grizzly wrote:“He Fears For His Life”: President Trump Trying His Best to Not End Up Assassinated Like Kennedy


Most interesting, thanks. I don't know who any of the people are in the clip, but something I've noticed about exchanges like this among Russians is the mutual respect shown by the participants. The first speaker in the clip is allowed to talk almost completely uninterrupted for nine minutes, and the other 'panelists' are really listening. On CNN or Fox Noise he'd be interrupted after 20 seconds, and soon gone to commercial.

It strikes me as far more thoughtful than anything on Murkin teevee, in spite of being part of Russian state media. The film director guy Shakhnazarov, the first speaker, gives a pretty good overview of the situation, the host disagrees but also has worthwhile comments; in any case, for me who listens to NPR and BBC, it's all a refreshing perspective. Like CNN or anywhere, I'm sure the speakers all know the limits. Do they criticize Putin on this or other VGTRK (All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company) shows? I didn't really hear it here, but Putin is very popular in Russia.

(Slightly curious absence of any women in this clip, and interesting that they're standing, not sitting.)

I looked up Vesti, I think this is the same channel;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia-24

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Vesti (TV channel))

Russia-24 (Russian: Россия-24) is a state-owned Russian-language news channel from Russia. It covers major national and international events as well as focuses on domestic issues. It is owned by VGTRK.[1][2]

History

The broadcast began January 1, 2007 in Russia, February 7 - on the West Coast of the United States, May 19, 2008 - in Serbia, October 9, 2008 - in Kyrgyzstan. VGTRK Crimea started broadcasting on March 10, 2014.

The editor-in-chief of the channel is Evgeny Bekasov (since 2012).


The channel aspires to give a broad and impartial [2] outline of life in all of Russia’s regions from its European exclave of Kaliningrad to Vladivostok in the Far East.

The channel was named Vesti until 1 January 2010, when the public-owned VGTRK rebranded its channels.

The channel is banned in Ukraine.




So much for freedom in Ukraine. Hah!
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Grizzly » Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:02 am

The channel is banned in Ukraine.

HA! This is my surprised face ...lol
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Sounder » Mon Jul 30, 2018 6:22 am

People that support Western 'interventions' are an odd bunch. One person here says that Putin and Assad are class enemies. To my mind, this is clear support for 'intervention'. All the 'deep-state' is, is an expression of widespread unconscious programming that is refused recognition.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/434240-iran-regime-change-us/

It also follows US top diplomat Pompeo launching a new American-government media campaign to target the Iranian population with agitation against the Iranian authorities. Reuters reported that the new US media campaign, including Farsi language broadcasts 24/7, is to “erode support for Iran’s leaders.”

This is an influence campaign at the highest level, openly touted by Washington, without a hint of embarrassment over its hypocritical allegations leveled against Moscow for “meddling” in US internal politics.

Washington claims that its “right” to confront Iran is due to Tehran’s “sponsorship of international terrorism.” This is simply American and Israeli bombast, never substantiated beyond caricature or wild assertion. Such allegations by Washington are in reality more befitting of its own criminal conduct in the Middle East where it has created whole armies of terrorist proxies, along with its NATO partners and client regimes in Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The arrogance of America’s political class and its servile news media is staggering.

For the past year and more, Washington has been convulsed by self-righteous claims of “Russia interfering” in its internal affairs. No evidence has ever been produced to lend those claims any credence. But from the way the US political class has reacted hysterically to the mere claims, one would think that Russia committed the worst transgression in modern history.

Meanwhile, with casual, rampant hubris, the American political class openly ponders the pros and cons of pursuing regime change in Iran.
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby JackRiddler » Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:31 pm

.

Of course Putin is a "class enemy," if you prefer that term, or a "plutocratic authoritarian," if that's more your style of rhetoric. And in any case, of course he is the ringleader of a tight and pretty criminal (criminal in the conventional sense) oligarchy. And of course he is the head of a modified neoliberalism that has maintained and solidified awesome wealth inequality; and a caterer to all that is culturally and socially regressive in his country, including a vicious anti-gay campaign, religious obscurantism, violent xenophobia, extreme nationalism, arms race, and a police state; and a spookmeister installed by his country's very own 9/11 back in 9/99 and now running a comprehensive op on his people for going on 20 years. And of course saying so does not make you pro-interventionist or anti-Russian! Quite the contrary.

And of course saying so every day in every way while Being American (or European) makes you a patsy for the U.S.-Western/NATO and alphabet agency campaign to demonize and conjure the new global enemy that justifies U.S. imperialism and rising fascism, and is supposed to Russiawash away everything wrong and native to United States and Western societies today. And of course throwing in the Louise Mensch add-ons to legitimate criticism of Russia makes you a moron as well, or a spook. And of course you should turn that harsh gaze on your own society first, because that is where you are and might manage to do some good.

And of course Russian developments since 9/99 are also a reaction and bizarrely enough an improvement on the Yeltsin era, with some features of the Putin order genuinely driven by the necessity of defending against both a global capitalist-imperialism that would have dismanted the country and a mounting and unjustified Western assault. And of course saying so does not make you a Friend of Putin.

All this is kind of obvious from where I stand, but I'm not here to please or, unfortunately, to win friends. If I can influence people, that's good. (Regarding Assad: it's even more complicated. A bubble of different system once insulated from the world political-economi system in which Russia and U.S. are equally integrated.)

Now, returning to the thread topic, this:

me elsewhere wrote:
Got Leftists?

System not delivering the former goods? Country's self-image falling apart? World no longer believing your bullshit? Did you just create total chaos in the Middle East over a 20-year process of war with millions dead and no end in sight, destabilizing your empire and losing credibility on a global scale? Are many nations no longer fearing your power? Has your power elite lost any vision of the future at a time when your permanent-growth industrial system is eroding the basis of your civilization and vertebrate life generally? Thanks to your money-soaked, arbitrary, Reality TV election process and "Electoral College," did a sizable minority of yahoos who believe they are the Real Americans elect a sociopathic, money laundering, scam-artist New Yorker (!) and rapist on a fascistoid, fake-Christian, xenophobic, Know-Nothing, violent, racist appeal? Is this buffoon not only overseeing the implementation of extremist barbarities by a crew of pirate-style billionaires in the cabinet positions, but otherwise doing stupid shit every day, openly accelerating the decay of your 70-year "postwar order"?

Have I got a plan for you!

1. Project everything true and bad about the United States and the All-American reality of Trumpian neoliberal-fascistoid brutality--the reality of American decay, magnified, turbo-charged, and minus the fake-civility and the exculpatory bullshit--on to a fictionalized RUSSIA. (As if the real plutocratic-nativist-anti-gay Russia does not suck enough, but that's beside the point.) Enemizing "Russia" has been done in the past, and it's usually worked!

1a. The psychology of denial: This is not "US" doing these things! This is not the US in which all this is happening! It is THEM. It comes from THERE. "Russia" takes on the role of external enemy that Mexico and China occupy in the Trumpian worldview. Not we, but THEY are responsible for this frightening reality. THEY elected a President Trump. He is not the 14-year veteran star of The Apprentice, he is THEIR agent. WE cannot acknowledge that we have been heading in this direction for decades, that earlier versions of this kind of eruption have already happened, with Nixon, with Reagan, with Bush the Lesser. WE cannot acknowledge that Trump won the nomination by speaking to the actual GOP voters as attracted and mobilized by decades of GOP dogwhistle campaigning. We cannot acknowledge Trump is a natural (if not inevitable) product of the American system of power and rule. We cannot acknowledge that his "rise" is a product
- of kleptocratic capitalism, of a money-driven "democracy";
- of the intentional miseducation of the people, of decades of propaganda training, of a never-ending celebration of assholes and blowhards who are "successful" as measured in money and fame only;
- of contempt for the poor and the other and the weak and the non-normal, of contempt for our own typical life-circumstances as workers, as average men and women, as schlubs on the lower ends of consumerism;
- of exceptionalist and hypocritical, fake patriotism, of suspicion of ideas generally and especially "foreign" ones, of worship of the "Founders" and presidents;
- or of corporate control of all aspects of everyday life, coupled with the boss-is-always-right mentality.
Most of us in the 3/4 of the population who did not vote for him don't deserve Trump. The system that produced him as a product alongside his former hang-out friends, the Clintons, certainly deserves him.

2. Now associate the total evil of "Russia" with "dividing" America. In practice, the "division" is defined to include any disagreement that "America is Already Great." America is the great light of the world, the country that created and paid for the global order that sustains peace and prosperity, the country that did so because it is good and noble. It's traitorous to say otherwise. The struggle to save this "America" comes from the establishment represented by Clintons, Bushes, old Republicans (as if these were any less willing to organize the racist vote than Trump is), the CIA and the criminal "intelligence community," Pentagon imperialism and wars, the old neocons, the more enlightened precincts of Wall Street, the better sort of billionaires like Jeff Bezos, and the non-Trumpian corporate media (i.e., most of the corporate media). These are even branded as "Resistance." At the same time, actual resistance to Trump (and to all of the above) is ignored or reviled as "divisive."

3. Indeed, associate this division not so much with the Trumpian followers--who are poor poor well-meaning hard-working white people who need our "understanding"--as with the left and with progressive-socialist movements in or near the Democratic Party. Jill Stein, Sanders, Ocasio, also a grab bag of everything from non-voting millennials to BLM to Assange and Snowden: everyone is the enemy who is falsely blamed for having facilitated the election of Trump by not assimilating fully to Clintonian definitions of reality. The hated conspiracy theory is recast: a conspiracy theorist is anyone who doesn't acknowledge the omnipresence of a Russian conspiracy.

4. Repeat #1, the part about "Russia" taking over the United States, 24-7-365, as if it is self evident and anyone not fully participating in the chorus at every turn is a fool or a traitor. Say, "mountains of evidence" every four minutes. Mountains of evidence! Any time the media focus is temporarily on the actions of non-establishment liberals or the left, recuperate by repeating #3. Any association with Russia will do, by the way: this works emotionally more than rationally. Slap a hammer-and-sickle (which has nothing to do with Russia today but evokes a Russia of old) on a picture of your targets and voila: they too are THEM.

Russia Russia Russia! And if it means at risk of nuclear war, so be it.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby Grizzly » Tue Jul 31, 2018 3:47 pm

Noam Chomsky says Russian Interference is nothing compared to Israeli interference in American Govt.




The New York Times reports special counsel Robert Mueller is scrutinizing President Trump’s tweets as part of Mueller’s expanding probe into Trump’s ties to Russia. This latest revelation in the Mueller investigation is part of a nearly 24-hour stream of headlines about Trump, Russia and the administration’s various scandals. But is the mainstream media missing the real stories amid its obsession with “Russiagate”? For more, we speak with world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author and professor Noam Chomsky on media manipulation in the Trump era.


Note

MSNBC Has Done 455 Stormy Daniels Pieces This Year—ZERO on US-Sponsored Genocide in Yemen.

Surely we'll be hearing from Brennan and Clapper and the boys soon.
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby liminalOyster » Wed Aug 08, 2018 12:53 pm

Green party spoiler candidate in Ohio election whose 1,100 votes could tilt outcome says his ancestors were from another planet and can't remember his own campaign website address


Joe Manchik played spoiler Tuesday in Ohio, taking nearly enough votes in from the Democrat in a special election to trigger a statewide automatic recount
The native of Hell, Michigan says his ancestors came from a distant planet and couldn't remember his own website address during an interview this year
He claims marijuana is the solution to opioid addiction and says he speaks 19 languages including 'Spanglish' and 'Sheet Music'
Calls Israel's prime minister a 'war criminal' and says every American should be required to grow hemp
There are still thousands of absentee and provisional votes to count, nearly 5 times the Republican candidate's apparent margin of victory
Ohio law says officials can't start counting them for 11 days
By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 09:38 EDT, 8 August 2018 | UPDATED: 12:13 EDT, 8 August 2018

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A Green Party candidate for Congress in Ohio's nail-biter contest who won nearly enough votes to throw the race into an automatic recount – gave a speech-slurred interview this year in which he couldn't remember his own website address.

Joe Manchik also says he's descended from aliens and hails from the town of Hell, Michigan.

In Tuesday's closely watched special election, 1,127 Ohioans chose him over Republican Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny O'Connor.

Balderson's apparent margin of victory was just 1,754 votes. Presuming Manchik's base would otherwise have been O'Connor supporters, the result without him would have been a hair's-width away from triggering an automatic recount.

Video playing bottom right...
Joe Manchik, the Green Party nominee for Congress in Tuesday's Ohio special election, says his ancestors came from a distant planet and couldn't remember his own website address during an interview this year
Joe Manchik, the Green Party nominee for Congress in Tuesday's Ohio special election, says his ancestors came from a distant planet and couldn't remember his own website address during an interview this year

Manchuk, a native of Hell, Michigan, claims to speak 19 languages including 'Spanglish' and 'Sheet Music' +4
Manchuk, a native of Hell, Michigan, claims to speak 19 languages including 'Spanglish' and 'Sheet Music'

Election officials said Tuesday night that there were still 5,048 outstanding absentee ballots to count, along with another 3,435 provisional ballots.

State law requires officials to wait 11 days before counting any of them, throwing the race into slow-motion chaos until at least August 18.

Manchik's personal Twitter account has 37 followers and is set to 'private,' meaning potential voters can't see his tweets unless he approves them in advance.

'I ♥ G A R B A G E ! ! !' his bio reads. It also promotes a sparsely populated MySpace page.

His campaign-related Twitter account has 220 followers.

On Facebook he writes that he speaks 19 languages including Spanglish, Nicaraguan Sign Language, Trinidadian English and 'Sheet Music.'

The native of Hell, Michigan says he traces his lineage back to a more far-off place.

'My distant relatives originally came to planet Earth from a planet orbiting a star in the Pleiades star cluster located in the constellation of Taurus,' Manchick writes, boasting that he was 'voted "Class Musician" by my High School graduating class.'

He did not respond to a message left Wednesday at his personal phone number, which he posted on Facebook.

During a half-hour interview in March, a speech-slurring Manchik said Marijuana is the solution to America's opioid epidemic and everyone in the country should be required to grow hemp +4
During a half-hour interview in March, a speech-slurring Manchik said Marijuana is the solution to America's opioid epidemic and everyone in the country should be required to grow hemp

Asked for his website address, Manchik was befuddled: 'Uh, no, off the top of my head I don't remember' +4
Asked for his website address, Manchik was befuddled: 'Uh, no, off the top of my head I don't remember'

Manchick has run for Congress once before, winning more than 13,000 votes in 2016.

He gave an interview in March over Google Hangouts to Green Vigilante Media, whose video had been viewed 243 times as of Wednesday morning.

Clad in a rainbow peace sign t-shirt, Manchik spoke for a half-hour about election financing, gun control, the Iraq war, the virtues of single-payer healthcare and growing hemp, the evils of fossil fuels, and the 'war criminal' Benjamin Netanyahu.

He also called the American Israel Public Affairs Committee 'an American-based terrorist organization.'

His solution to America's growing opioid epidemic? More weed.

'The use of opiates has dropped dramatically in Colorado since many people are using marijuana as a substitute.'

With his voice slurring and a bottle of tequila visible in a cabinet behind him, he declared: 'Marijuana isn't addictive at all! ... People go wacky on opiates, and I've seen it happen personally.'

Manchik also praised the Green Party for advocating that every American should be required to grow hemp.

Manchik's unconventional Twitter account has 37 followers and is set to 'private,' meaning potential voters can't see his tweets unless he approves them in advance +4
Manchik's unconventional Twitter account has 37 followers and is set to 'private,' meaning potential voters can't see his tweets unless he approves them in advance

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But the most memorable Borat-style madness came at the end when the interviewer asked Manchik how viewers could donate money.

Asked for his website address, the perennial candidate was befuddled.

'Uh, no, off the top of my head I don't remember,' he laughed.

'Is it manchikforcongress.wordpress.com?' he was asked.

'Forward-slash something. Let me find it here,' he replied, fiddling with his PC and ultimately spelling it out, one letter at a time.

Manchick insisted that 'you can use a credit card, or a PayPal account' to donate, 'or a, another kind of card. What's it called? What do you call those cards?'

Debit cards, he was told.

'Yeah! That's the word I was looking for. Debit card. I don't have one of those so I can't remember what it was.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... bsite.html
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby dada » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:17 pm

Leaving aside speculation as to who the guy really works for, and just taking him as just some goofy, interesting eccentric, I like him. I know I'm supposed to snicker at the way the paper spins it, I tried to play along.

I mean, I read this article and thought he sounds exactly like most other politicians. Better than most, in fact, because he isn't a twittering idiot.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby liminalOyster » Sat Aug 11, 2018 12:25 am

Meh, not so much The Russian Conspiracy today as The Continued Suspicion full Digital Mediation of the Public Sphere necessarily involves coordinated manipulation and perception management thereof including semi-phony events and actors. So ....

Lunatic UFO hemp kook on "the Left," meet wackadoodle conspiracy theorist (complete with adolescent paranoid semiotics of major brand logos) on "the Right"

A California Wildfire Suspect Pushed QAnon And Pedophile Conspiracy Theories On Facebook
Forrest Clark, accused of sparking the 18,000-acre Holy fire in California, shared debunked conspiracy theories, including about pedophiles controlling the world.

Headshot of Jim Dalrymple II
Jim Dalrymple II
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on August 10, 2018, at 7:31 p.m. ET


Digital First Media Group / Getty Images
A man arrested this week for allegedly setting a massive Southern California wildfire has a history of making threats and sharing bogus anti-government conspiracy theories online, including the baseless idea that the world is run by a secret cabal of pedophiles.

Forrest Clark, 51, was arrested Tuesday after investigators concluded he had intentionally set the Holy fire, which as of Friday had burned more than 18,000 acres in Orange and Riverside counties. The blaze has also destroyed at least a dozen buildings and was only 5% contained as of Friday afternoon.

Clark is currently facing three counts of arson, one count of making criminal threats, and two counts of resisting police.

Prosecutors have not said what Clark's motive may have been, but a Facebook page appearing to belong to him suggests he was obsessed with fringe anti-government conspiracy theories. In one instance, on July 17, he shared a YouTube video — which has since been taken down — with the caption "protect our children execute the pedos!"

The post was just the latest of Clark's comments about pedophilia. Earlier in July, he wrote, "hang the pedophile Pope!" And in April he shared a now-deleted YouTube video alleging to reveal indictments of Joe Biden, and wrote "Save our children Save our Country Hang them all."


Facebook
The posts appear to reference a widespread, rightwing conspiracy theory known as QAnon. Subscribers to the theory believe that President Trump is poised to stop a secret group of powerful people who operate child sex rings.

The "Q" in QAnon stands for a person or group of people who posts vague messages online that believers interpret as evidence supporting the theory. Fans also believe, without proof, that Q is a high-placed government official.

Though the theory has thrived on internet message boards such as 4chan and 8chan, it has also prompted some believers to take real world action. In June, an armed man who appeared to reference the theory was arrested after driving an armored vehicle onto a bridge over the Hoover Dam. And in July, a man claiming to have found a "child sex camp" was arrested in Arizona.

Brian Levin, who studies hate and extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, told BuzzFeed News Friday that there "appears to be a link with respect to the location of the wildfires and the use of weapons."

"He's borrowing a certain type of MO from what he sees online," Levin said.

Levin pointed to comments Clark made online about Agenda 21, a UN action plan from 1992 that conspiracy theorists believe is really a pretense for powerful globalists to seize control of land. Clark appeared to draw a connection between Agenda 21 and starting fires.

"The thing I thought was so interesting was he talked about these fire weapons," Levin said. "And he accused the government of using technology, including lasers, to cause arson to advance their Agenda 21."

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Mixed in with QAnon and Agenda 21 theories, Clark also shared a photo of Nabisco Ginger Snaps and wondered on Facebook why the company's logo "has a zeppelin with an antenna/ transmitter as a symbol?" That same day, he speculated that the creases on the top of the cookies could be "Hebrew writing."


Facebook / Via facebook.com
Last November, Clark also posted online about 9/11, saying "THERE WERE NO PLANES!" In October, he described the Las Vegas shooting as an "FBI FALSE FLAG" that included "7 shooters." And that same month, he said the moon landing had been faked. All those claims have been thoroughly debunked.

In the real world, Clark is accused of making threats against multiple people in recent days. Holy fire volunteer Chief Mike Milligan told the Orange County Register that he had received menacing emails from Clark last week, including one allegedly promising "this place will burn."

Court documents also allege that on Aug. 6 Clark threatened to "commit a crime would would result in death and great bodily injury" to a man.

Milligan also told the Register that Clark had a long-running feud with other people in the area.

When police came to speak with Clark at one point on Tuesday, he also reportedly took off his camouflage underwear, leaving him clad only in a large golden medallion hanging around his neck.

The Register reported that he also claimed to be capable of reading minds.

During his first appearance in court Friday, Clark also reportedly made a series of strange comments. When told of his charges, Clark yelled out "it's a lie" from behind a courtroom partition, the Desert Sun reported.

Attorneys on both sides then agreed to postpone the hearing, but when Clark was asked if he understood what was happening, he reportedly responded, "I comprehend. I do not understand. Though, I will say 'yay’ at this time."

He later said that he could post his $1 million bail "immediately" and claimed that he could "have a million right now, easily," according to the Desert Sun.

Levin said that some people are driven to extremism by religious or political philosophies, while others suffer from "cognitive impairment or some other type of impairment." Some people also embrace conspiracy theories as a way of coping with "emotional or psychological distress," Levin said, adding that it's possible Clark "found an ideology that touched a cord with his particular perceived grievance."

Clark also posted extensively on Facebook about suffering from cancer.

For the time being, Clark remains behind bars and crews continue battling the Holy fire, which is one of more than a dozen major wildland blazes currently burning in California.

Levin said that It will take time to fully understand what role extremism played in the Holy fire, but added that the case may illustrate the ways in which a "fragmented society" connects people's grievances with extremism.

"That means we’re going to increasingly see on our radar screen these people who are violent for their own idiosyncratic mix of reasons," Levin said.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ji ... y-theories
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby JackRiddler » Wed Sep 19, 2018 7:47 pm

Relevant:

Real Manafort and "Russiagate" story is out
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=41315
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Re: The Russian Conspiracy as RI subject

Postby liminalOyster » Mon Oct 01, 2018 9:42 pm

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Negative Buzz Amplified by Russian Trolls, Study Finds
OCTOBER 01, 2018 4:31pm PT by Graeme McMillan

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Negative Buzz Amplified by Russian Trolls, Study Finds
An academic paper finds that half of criticism aimed at director Rian Johnson was politically motivated.
Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
An academic paper finds that half of criticism aimed at director Rian Johnson was politically motivated.
Did Star Wars: The Last Jedi destroy the franchise and permanently rupture the fandom as its critics (melodramatically) have accused it of doing? According to a new academic paper by researcher Morten Bay, the answer is clearly no.

The paper, titled Weaponizing The Haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation, examines the online response to 2017’s The Last Jedi, a movie that has come to be considered controversial amongst the larger fanbase of the franchise.

Bay suggests that reputation may not be earned, and instead “finds evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments,” as he writes in the paper’s abstract. He continues, “The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society. Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation.”

The paper analyzes in depth the negative online reaction, which is split into three different camps: Those with a political agenda, trolls, and what Bay calls “real fantagonists,” which he defines as genuine Star Wars fans disappointed in the movie. His findings are fascinating; “Overall, 50.9% of those tweeting negatively [about the movie] was likely politically motivated or not even human,” he writes, noting that only 21.9% of tweets analyzed about the movie had been negative in the first place.

"A number of these users appear to be Russian trolls," he writes of the negative tweets.

Moreover, he suggests, complaints about Lucasfilm’s reported politicization of the franchise by many of the disaffected fans says more about the fans than it does Disney or Lucasfilm’s treatment of it. “[S]ince the political and ethical positions presented in the new films are consistent with older films, it is more likely that the polarization of the Trump era has politicized the fans,” he argues. “The divisive political discourse of the study period and the months leading up to it, has likely primed these fans with a particular type of political messaging that is in direct conflict with the values presented in The Last Jedi.”

In response to a tweet announcing the release of the paper, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson shared the tweet, adding, “Looking forward to reading it, but what the top-line describes is consistent with my experience online.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat- ... ys-1148475
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