‘Destined to Fail’: Organized Crime Is Using Active Measures to Try to Steal US Democracy
As doctored videos of Joe Biden populate US media and Russian state TV, we need to not be dumb on the internet and do everything to prevent Putin + US traitors from stealing our democracy… again
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“Trump was destined to fail.”—Steve Wynn in Active Measures
“The Russians have a particular type of mark they go after. They go after somebody who has business resources, perhaps some shady morals so they’re amenable to bribery, or perhaps they’re in a difficult financial situation and/either has political connections or aspirations. I’ve just described Donald Trump, he was the perfect mark for the Russians.”—Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in Active Measures
“Semion Mogilevich made the decision to make the move on Trump after studying his 2004 bankruptcy filings.”—Professor Scott Horton in Active Measures
“Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke…”—Roger Stone indictment
“Putin has worked to undermine democracies across the globe.”—Rep. Eric Swalwell in Active Measures
I want to scream, “Stop being dumb on the internet!” But I know that has no value, so instead, I investigative, research, and revisit my previous reporting. I offer you, my readers, the tools to take back to your networks so we can be more effective in our defense of democracy.
Today, as I wake up to more coordinated lies about Biden, I am rewatching my friend Jack Bryan’s Active Measures documentary from 2018. When it first came out, I had it on a 24/7 loop — it was a balm for my soul.
Currently, we are watching rightwing media manipulate video of President Joe Biden, a public servant if ever there was one, and we are watching Russian state media fan those disinformation flames in order to burn down our democracy. And the thing is, we keep giving them the match. By now, we should know how this works — we’ve seen these devastating plays before and therefore, we need to encourage people to not be so gullible this time.
We’ve witnessed the Russians steal the beauty from a pro-Western politician in Ukraine by poisoning him. Viktor Yushchenko was disfigured and scarred, and the pro-Russian puppet groomed by Paul Manafort, Viktor Yanukovych, became president, sparking a revolution.
Fake Videos
In the country of Georgia, when a weirdo businessman with financial ties to Russia popped up on the scene to challenge President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2012, fake prison abuse videos and ensuing titushky mobs also popped up. By the time Georgia’s pro-Western president Saakashvilli realized the videos had been staged by provocateurs paid to discredit his government ahead of the polls, the damage was already done and the weirdo businessman with the Russian financial ties who vowed to torch the government, Bidzina Ivanishvili, was elected. Oh, and the Russians also pulled a “birther” on Saakashvili by claiming he was Armenian.
Does any of this sound f**king familiar? It should!
“Wake up! Wake up! We are attacked, because we want to be free. We are attacked because we want to build a genuine democracy. If the Americans and Europeans don’t stand up for their own values, for their own principles, then those principles and values will be in danger today in Georgia, tomorrow elsewhere.”—President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2008
Do recall, four years earlier, the Russians invaded Georgia and revealed that their military was weak. Putin told the usual lies, with propaganda pigs like Alex Jones going on RT to back Putin’s lies.
“The allegation that Georgia would attack Russia is so foolish and outrageous and disgraceful, but it’s typical of Vladimir Putin.”—Sen. John McCain in Active Measures
“They began to increase their funding to far-right, nationalistic, white supremacist political parties.”—Hillary Clinton in Active Measures
The b-roll under Clinton’s statement is a who’s who of our current trauma — Putin with Lukashenko, Orban, Farage, Le Pen, Fico, Erdogan, al-Assad, leaders in Iran, North Korea etc…
“It’s far better to expend your energy on getting a Russian friendly government elected than it is to have to build up your military to invade the country.”—Former President of Estonia Toomas Ilves in Active Measures
So those of us who pay attention have seen these moves before and those promoting such cruel lies in the media — outlets like Murdoch’s New York Post and anything that stinks of Alex Jones — need to be shamed and shunned.
‘Would Not Hurt to Suggest…’
Recall the doctored video of Hillary Clinton during the lead up to the 2016 US election? Where rightwing US media and Russian state television were coordinated in their talking points? Recall Roger Stone’s indictment where he and Jerome Corsi are communicating about using the fake video to make it look like Clinton had a f**kin stroke? I do.
“Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke…”—Roger Stone indictment
As I wrote in Part 4 of my 2016 Election Attack series:
So let’s revisit Stone’s indictment, where we learn through communications with conspiracy author Jerome Corsi that targeting political opponents with ageism was part of the ratfucking:
“Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke…”—Roger Stone indictment
The lies about Clinton’s health were then rickrolled around the psychosphere. RT soon reported on Clinton's so-called "bad health," along with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the National Enquirer, and by August 18, Trump started promoting conspiracies about Clinton’s health.
That the Hillary Clinton unhealthy ageism lie was successful — doctored videos of her appeared on all fifth column media outlets from here to Russia — is why this narrative warfare is being rebooted again. This time, targeting President Biden. Same playbook.
The lies for which Stone was convicted reveal the work both Stone and Manafort were performing for the Russians. While Manafort was sharing polling date with an old Russian spy “to get whole” with Oleg Deripaska, Stone was bragging about his contacts with hackers.
I dashed this report off you today so no one would mistake these video lies about Joe Biden as innocuous. These video fakes are part of active measures, operations that are cheap and effective, and those fanning these lies are aiming to torch our democracy.
I need everyone to remain vigilant and informed on how these operations work.
“By the time the lie is exposed, the lie has already become part of the mainstream debate.”—Adam Sybera on Bette Dangerous
We need a department dedicated to defending Americans against disinformation, because brains — and democracies — are a terrible thing to waste.
Until then, you have independent investigative journalists and pro-democracy activists doing the best we can.
As Steve Wynn noted in Active Measures, Trump is destined to fail. It’s up to us to determine how quickly, while we defend our precious, imperfect democracy.
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