#Russian Election Interference

[socialjusticeinamerica]

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Everyone just shrugs instead of being outraged.

[republikkkanorcs]

[epically-epic-epicosity]

[charyou-tree]

Hey, so this post that's going around telling people not to trust wikipedia because "evil zionists" might be editing it ticks pretty much all the boxes for russian propaganda, while also being an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

The Grayzone is straight up a state-sanctioned disinformation outlet masquerading as a "newspaper", denying the atrocities of their invasion of Ukraine and promoting pro-kremlin candidates in elections around the world. They're banned as a wikipedia source for a reason.

Tying antisemetic fears of "zionists" controlling the media--a very old conspiracy theory--to a prompt to users to go to The Grayzone instead is literally a fascist recruitment pipeline. This is how putin's social media disinformation is radicalizing people: out of concern for the citizens of gaza, misdirected into fear and hate. Russia is waging a hybrid war on the world's democracies, and this kind of social media campaign is one of their weapons.

Don't share this shit.

This is the propaganda that y'all claim you're too smart to fall for. @brandon-the-terrible @theearthmagicguy

[porterdavis]

Yes, it's always Russia, Russia, Russia

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

House Oversight Committee Impeachment hearing produces damning evidence—against Donald Trump.

It is difficult to describe how badly the House impeachment hearing went for Republicans on Wednesday. Republicans produced two witnesses who were supposed to damage President Biden. But the witnesses were jokes. The first—Tony Bobulinksi—famously met with Mark Meadows “under the bleachers” at a Trump rally while wearing a ski mask.  Who among us hasn’t done the same thing when chatting about innocent matters? The second witness testified from prison, where he is serving time for looting the retirement funds of a tribal entity of the Oglala Lakota Nation.

Both witnesses testified to brief meetings where Joe Biden talked about their families and backgrounds. Neither testified that Joe Biden—then a private citizen—was involved in any business dealings with Hunter Biden. And that was the highlight of the day for Republicans.  

Then Lev Parnas testified. If you don’t remember Lev Parnas, he is a Ukrainian American businessman tasked by Rudy Giuliani to “find dirt” on Joe Biden.

Parnas’s testimony was devastating. See CNN, Lev Parnas, ex-Giuliani associate, testified allegations against Bidens are false and 'spread by the Kremlin'

CNN described Parnas’s testimony as follows:

“The American people have been lied to, by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and various cohorts of individuals in government and media positions. They created falsehoods to serve their own interests knowing it would undermine the strength of our nation." “Congressman Pete Sessions [and] Senator Ron Johnson and many others understood they were pushing a false narrative. The same goes for John Solomon, Sean Hannity and media personnel, particularly with Fox News, who use this narrative to manipulate the public ahead of the 2020 elections. Sadly, they are still doing this today as we approach the 2024 elections.” Parnas maintained during the hearing that there was no evidence of Biden family corruption involving Ukraine and that the baseless accusations against the president came from the Russian government.

"The only information ever pushed on the Bidens and Ukraine has come from one source and one source only: Russia and Russian agents.”

So, the guy who was hired to find dirt on Joe Biden anywhere in the world testified that there was none to be found—and that the false allegations came from Russian agents.

At this point, efforts by House Republicans to repeat the false allegations spread by Russian agents should be seen as promoting counter-intelligence and election interference efforts against the US.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[spiderlegsmusic]

We remember 2016 and 2020.

They are at it again.

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Muskrat needs to be removed from public discourse. Oligarchs can no longer be allowed to buy Republicans, influence elections, buy SCOTUS seats, or draft legislation for their Republican puppets to introduce into Congress.

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Russians funding conservative Republicans.

[kevinmmiller]

Foreign Influence Law Protest Erupt in Tbilisi after being passed by Georgian Presidency

Foreign Influence Law Similar to Russia's Law banning the press, was recently passed in Georgia, setting the stage for a summer of conflict, and wars in both Northern Georgia, as well as, more importantly in Azerbaijan, and Armenia. My Analysis is Below:

Foreign Influence Law Similar to Russia’s Law banning the press, was recently passed in Georgia, setting the stage for a summer of conflict, and wars in both Northern Georgia, as well as, more importantly in Azerbaijan, and Armenia. My Analysis is Below: After the morally corrupt, though dubiously effective Saakashvili regime, there needs to be greater accountability for emerging democracies,…

[thedreadpiratejames]

The former FBI informant charged with lying about the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine told investigators after his arrest that Russian intelligence officials were involved in passing information to him about Hunter Biden, prosecutors said Tuesday in a new court filing, noting that the information was false.

Prosecutors also said Alexander Smirnov has been “actively peddling new lies that could impact US elections” after meeting with Russian spies late last year and that the fallout from his previous false bribery accusations about the Bidens “continue[s] to be felt to this day.”

Smirnov claims to have “extensive and extremely recent” contacts with foreign intelligence officials, prosecutors said in the filing. They said he previously told the FBI that he has longstanding and extensive contacts with Russian spies, including individuals he said were high-level intelligence officers or command Russian assassins abroad.

Prosecutors with special counsel David Weiss’ team said Tuesday that Smirnov has maintained those ties and noted that, in a post-arrest interview last week, “Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about Businessperson 1,” referring to President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

[filosofablogger]

Cleaning Up The 'Toon Stash!

Last night I was going to put a music post on today’s schedule … just a redux, but still … a music post.  And then, Covid killed my headphones!!!  (Yes, I will be blaming the damn Covid virus for everything for the next few weeks, until I get my mojo back, at least!) They just went ‘belly-up’ and died.  I have new ones ordered that should be here tomorrow, but it meant I couldn’t do a music…

[porterdavis]

I'm guessing we have a good idea what WH CoS Meadows was burning in his office fireplace and what Trump was eating in his office.

Photo - DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES

[reynard61]