A fellow traveler is someone who sympathizes with a foreign adversary, but a fifth columnist is far worse: the fifth columnist takes active steps in support of his or her disloyal sympathies. Trump has spoken favorably of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on many occasions, yet he has done far worse: he has acted in ways that actively…
Putin
Foreign Affairs, History, Propaganda, Putin, Trump, Trump-Russia
Trump Parrots Putin’s Lies About the Soviet Afghanistan Invasion
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Never Trump, Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
On Trump-Russia, Right from the Very Beginning
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images Virginia Heffernan reports Early on, Trump-Russia obsessives were marginalized; they’re prophets now: “I felt like the guy in ‘Rear Window,’ ” David Corn, the coauthor of “Russian Roulette,” told me this week. Corn was referring to his affinity for James Stewart’s character, L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece film. Jeff witnesses…
America, Mendacity, Propaganda, Putin, Russia, Trump
Operation InfeKtion: The Worldwide War on Truth (Part 3 of 3)
by JOHN ADAMS •
? Russia’s meddling in the United States’ elections is not a hoax. It’s the culmination of Moscow’s decades-long campaign to tear the West apart. “Operation InfeKtion” reveals the ways in which one of the Soviets’ central tactics — the promulgation of lies about America — continues today, from Pizzagate to George Soros conspiracies. Meet the KGB…
America, Mendacity, Propaganda, Putin, Trump
Operation InfeKtion: The Seven Commandments of Fake News (Part 2 of 3)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Russia’s meddling in the United States’ elections is not a hoax. It’s the culmination of Moscow’s decades-long campaign to tear the West apart. “Operation InfeKtion” reveals the ways in which one of the Soviets’ central tactics — the promulgation of lies about America — continues today, from Pizzagate to George Soros conspiracies. Meet the KGB spies…
America, Mendacity, Propaganda, Putin, Trump
Operation InfeKtion: Meet the KGB Spies Who Invented Fake News (Part 1 of 3)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Russia’s meddling in the United States’ elections is not a hoax. It’s the culmination of Moscow’s decades-long campaign to tear the West apart. “Operation InfeKtion” reveals the ways in which one of the Soviets’ central tactics — the promulgation of lies about America — continues today, from Pizzagate to George Soros conspiracies. Meet the KGB spies…
Elections, Mendacity, Propaganda, Putin, Russia, Trump-Russia
Russian disinformation campaigns
by JOHN ADAMS •
Alina Polyakova asks What do Russian disinformation campaigns look like, and how can we protect our elections?: As technological capabilities progress, the threat of political warfare is becoming an even more serious threat to democratic elections. David M. Rubenstein Fellow Alina Polyakova analyzes past disinformation campaigns and political warfare tools employed by hostile foreign actors…
Propaganda, Putin, Russia
Hardly New
by JOHN ADAMS •
Hardly new. It was developed to combat the truth being available on the internet in Russia, instead of China-style censorship. Then it was exported against Russian-speaking neighbors and then used globally by 2015. https://t.co/qEohvkRDIy — Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) September 9, 2018
Documentary, Film, Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
Review: Active Measures
by JOHN ADAMS •
Active Measures is a 2018 documentary describing Russian (derived from Soviet) techniques to undermine American democratic institutions, and those of our democratic allies. (Active measures: “A Soviet term for the actions of political warfare conducted by the Russian security services to influence the course of world events.”) The film is now in limited theatrical release,…
America, Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
Another Fellow Traveler Heard From
by JOHN ADAMS •
A fellow traveler is someone who supports a group – typically used pejoratively as a group adversarial to one’s society – without being a member; a fifth columnist takes active, but hidden, steps to undermine one’s society on behalf of a foreign adversary. (Neither term, of course, applies merely to people who like to vacation abroad…
America, Foreign Affairs, Putin, Russia, Trump-Russia
We Unhelpful Many
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at The Atlantic, Danielle Pletka of the conservative American Enterprise Institute scolds critics of Trump, as she believes The Anti-Trump Hysteria Isn’t Helping: President Donald Trump’s press conference with Russia’s Vladimir Putin was a debacle. The president went from an anodyne prepared statement to a question-and-answer session that ping-ponged between stunning and appalling (with…
Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
Senate Panel Confirms the Obvious: Putin Tried to Help Trump
by JOHN ADAMS •
Via The Committee to Investigate Russia. Intel Committee Releases Unclassified Summary of Initial Findings on 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment Press Contact: Caitlin Carroll (Burr) (202) 228-1616 Rachel Cohen (Warner) (202) 228-6884 Intel Committee Releases Unclassified Summary of Initial Findings on 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment WASHINGTON – Today, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr…
America, Foreign Affairs, Military, Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Return of the Second Fleet
by JOHN ADAMS •
Russia, ruled by a dictator and oligarchs friendly with Trump, has made herself a political and military adversary of the United States. One reads that The Navy is resurrecting a fleet to protect the East Coast and North Atlantic from Russia: The U.S. Navy has reactivated a fleet responsible for overseeing the East Coast and North…
Authoritarianism, Bigotry, Putin, Trump, Trump-Russia
America, Russia…
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s true that a well-ordered society would not be governed by (an unrepentent) former KGB agent. It’s just as true that a well-ordered society would not be governed by a bigoted, autocratic, dissolute liar. Yet here we are, and there they are. .@tolokno was imprisoned for speaking out against Vladimir Putin's presidency in Russia. She…