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Russians Reveal the Game


The GOP has been infiltrated by Russian propaganda, which now controls Republican politics in the United States.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and his boss. 

America is awash with Russian propaganda that has affected every area of American life from politics to medicine and everything in between. Certainly, every country has propagated its own views and ideas since the time borders and nations began, but in the age of the internet and social media, Russia currently reigns supreme in the propaganda wars. Propelled by the success of their interference in the 2016 United States presidential election, Russian propaganda machines have only strengthened their resolve over the years with America and the rest of the free world caught in the crosshairs. 

Recently, Russian senator Dmitry Rogozin gave a lecture while at MGIMO University of the Russian foreign ministry. The senator gave away keen insight into the world of Russian propaganda and troll farms, 

"Victory in war primarily depends on discrediting the enemy's political and military leadership. Therefore, portraying them in the eyes of their own people as inept individuals who have undeservedly risen to power and thus are leading their society toward ruin and death - becomes a crucial tactic. The second method to discredit the enemy's leadership is with accusations of corruption, employing vast amounts of deepfakes to depict certain figures on the enemy's side as mere thieves and corrupt officials - basically to show them as untrustworthy. This strategy primarily targets their most influential and popular figures. Additionally, intimidation tactics can be employed, by showcasing the strength and the unwavering determination of one's own army in achieving its goals." 

This all probably sounds all too familiar. Russia has been able to dictate the social media landscape unchecked, platformed by social media giants like X, TikTok, and Facebook for nearly a decade now. This is why your uncle's Facebook page looks like a Kremlin directed media campaign against President Biden, Secretary Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, Volodomyr Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, or whomever Russia's targeted enemy is at any given moment. 

As primitive as these posts may look to the politically literate, their dissemination is highly sophisticated. These propaganda points come directly from the Kremlin, to be spread and defended by an army of paid Russian internet trolls. The propaganda evolves from ridiculous to perceived as factual, spread by the voting populace, who in turn push their representatives to fall in line with the Kremlin agenda. Universally, the West and in particular the United States and NATO, are demonized while Russian "values" are glorified.

Take this video from sister of Trump sycophant and disgraced United States general, Mike Flynn. We've all seen ridiculous takes such as these on social media. Rational people often discard them or laugh them off with disdain and mockery, but this movement is growing and along with it, dangerous Russian propaganda now believed by millions. 

"Why do you think they've got to bring in more children? There are so many nefarious things they are doing and the bottom line gets to - the final phase is organ harvesting. So, we have children being used for certain things - the abuse and sex trafficking, but then we have a whole top organization of criminal entities that do things to make money. Whether or not people want to believe this - I think in Maryland, they just had a manufacturing plant of adrenochrome. They've got two plants in California."
 

Child sex trafficking. Adrenochrome plants. Organ harvesting. All of this, of course, without any substantive proof, yet these Russian manufactured lies are freely disseminated to millions, and again with no repercussions from social media giants like X or TikTok. The consequences of such messaging is grave, as the conspiracy riddled and propagandized are the Republican party's primary base, the people whom GOP representatives...represent. 

Russian writer, Mikhail Shishkin, provides an excellent example for why Americans should tune out any Russian influenced information, 

"In the West, we're used to listening to words. The difference is that in Russia, words mean nothing. In Russia lying is so ingrained. For generations, we've all been so used to living a lie." 

And if the Republican party gets its way, the American way of life will follow suit. 

Tasked with protecting the United States against such attacks, the GOP has fallen almost entirely to Russian propaganda. Republican congressman Michael McFaul summed it up in the following, "I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it's infected a good chunk of my party's base." According to McFaul the party is being overrun by anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian messaging, which has even made its way as far as the floor of the United States Congress. Here we thought January 6th was the last in a long line of indignities that the People's House would have to endure at what was once the party of Abraham Lincoln. 



Former Republican representative Ken Buck pointed fingers directly at Marjorie Taylor-Greene. The representative from Georgia frequently parrots Kremlin talking points, even recently suggesting that she wishes January 6th insurrectionists had been successful in their attempt to interfere with the 2020 presidential election and overthrow the democratic congress. Taylor-Green's adherence to Kremlin propaganda is so egregious that Buck came up with a nickname for her: "Moscow Marjorie." 

How entrenched is Russia in the Republican party and just how powerful is Russian propaganda? Take United States representative, Victoria Spartz, for example. She is the only Ukrainian born member of congress and once called Putin's invasion of Ukraine, "A genocide of the Ukrainian people by a crazy man." Only now, pressured by her base, Spartz has turned her back on the Ukrainian cause for survival and the people of her birthland. Spartz has recently announced that she will not be voting for desperately needed Ukranian, with no regard for her own background and earlier promises to stand with the country. 

Ukrainian born Victoria Spartz has turned her back on the country of her birth even after visiting and promising to support Ukraine.
Ukranian born GOP representative Victoria Spartz feigning concern over Russian destruction in Ukraine

Despite Russia's inferior economy and subpar military capabilities, Republican congressman Jake Sullivan is downright terrified of Russia's capability to destroy the United States with nuclear weapons. A terrified Sullivan made the claim that Russia would preemptively strike the United States with a nuclear weapon, if Ukraine aid continued. All of this, of course, is parroted Russian propaganda designed to cause irrational fear and an overestimation of Russian military capabilities. When the cancer that is Russian propaganda spreads freely through an entire political party - the majority party in the United States Congress, then we all live in dangerous times indeed. As for Sullivan and Spartz' increasingly common Republican cowardice, Ronald Reagan undoubtedly turns in his own grave. 

Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson's campaign, was like Trump's, funded by Russian money. It doesn't go unnoticed that Johnson has delayed voting on Ukranian aid for more than six months, costing Ukraine thousands of lives and untold millions in economic damage. Johnson's act of cowardice has allowed Russia to attack Ukraine without risk of reprisal. Weapons are running out, food is scarce, and much of the country is in the dark with no power, while the United States sinks in the muck of Russian propaganda. This, of course, only strengthens Russia's resolve. Ukraine gave up its advanced weaponry and nuclear arsenal in 1994, after making an agreement (The Budapest Memo) that included America's protection from Russian aggression. Congress' impotence only strengthens Russia's talking point that the United States is no longer a powerful ally that can be trusted, but an untrustworthy and weak nation that can no longer keep its agreements to allies. 

An unnamed Republican staffer recently admitted to the Washington Post, 

"It is Russia's top priority to stop the weapons, so they are throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. We are seeing a broad-based campaign that has multiple lines of effort, some of which work better than others. The Russians don't care. They are just trying to seed the environment."

Speaker Mike Johnson's wall is exceptionally sticky. 

Independent United States Senator Angus King suggests that Putin's propaganda campaign against the United States today, isn't all that dissimilar from tactics used by the Nazis in World War II. 

"In the late 1930s, there was a very deliberate and sophisticated Nazi propaganda effort in the United States, up to and including members of Congress, to effect American opinion and political opinion toward the Nazi regime and the defense of Europe. And it worked until Pearl Harbor."

King asked U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin if the Russians are running a similar campaign to alter both public and congressional opinion in regard to Ukraine. King asked Austin if such a campaign was a danger to America and its citizenry, to which Austin replied, "Absolutely Senator and that danger increases on a daily basis." Austin's words are haunting.   

The Washington Post was able to obtain classified Russian documents, which showed a sophisticated and coordinated campaign to discredit Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as corrupt, just as General Rogozin suggested. The content is pushed every day, its results evident among the American voting populace and within the halls of the United States Congress. 

Why is Russia trying so desperately and so fervently to spread propaganda like never before? According to United States military officials, Russia will likely lose its war in Ukraine, but only if the U.S. can keep from falling prey to the Russian misinformation game. With the current crop of Republicans in Congress, overrun with irrational fear and beholden to propaganda, loyalty to country is a tall order. The GOP, once instrumental in standing up to communist Russia, has become a do-nothing party incapable of anything outside of obstruction, its legitimacy entirely neutered by Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. 

EU Foreign Policy Chief, Joseph Borrell contends, "If we don't support Ukraine, Ukraine will fall in a matter of days." 

All of this comes down to the Republican led Congress and whether or not they will stand by agreements made to an ally and approve a new spending bill for military aid to Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky cuts right to the chase, 

"If Congress does not help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war, and we need to find a public format for this. If Ukraine, loses the war other states would be attacked."

Those other nations include NATO countries like Poland and if those NATO countries are attacked, the United States would be dragged into a conflict that would very likely inevitably result in World War III. Or we could just help Ukraine now, and if not for Speaker Mike Johnson's reluctance, we most certainly could turn the tide in this war. We could if we still honor our treaties and agreements with other nations at all that is. Currently, the Budapest Memo comes into question, but so does everything else when you have Senators like Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who recently suggested that Russia should be able to select the countries in NATO. 

Political experts believe that if a Ukraine package came to the floor of the United States Congress, it would pass, even with the objections of many in the Republican party, who are too perverted with Russian propaganda to actually do the right thing in support of American allies and ideals. 

In the meantime, Mike Johnson can be reached at the following number: (202)225-2777


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Location: Chicago, IL, USA

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