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‘Occupy San Diego’ Facebook Page Occupied by Troll

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If you’re one of the 2,233 people who’ve followed the ‘Occupy San Diego’ Facebook page over the years, you might want to reconsider your relationship.

Based on what I can tell from comments posted at the site over the past 24 hours, the site is now run by somebody who’s out to mock and troll people of the progressive persuasion.

On Monday a post attributed to a follower of the bizarre conspiracy called QAnon disparaging Dr. Christine Blasey Ford appeared. Based on the comments this person or persons posting as OSD, i.e, “Liberal tears, haha,” it is clear the site no longer represents any aspect of the movement against Wall Street that inspired it.   [Read more…]

Trump Endorses in 49th, Russian Hackers in Action. Keep Your Eye on the Prize

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Republican Diane Harkey, the Darrell Issa-endorsed candidate in the 49th Congressional District received the blessings of President Donald Trump via Twitter late yesterday.

Nobody should be happier about this news than her Democratic opponent, Mike Levin, although his campaign showed remarkable restraint in responding to the announcement.

Polling by the Public Policy Institute of California three months ago showed just 39% of voters in the two counties included in the district approve of the job Trump is doing as president. Hillary Clinton won the 49th by seven points over Trump, and Issa’s re-election margin was the closest of any House incumbent in 2016.
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The Spy Who Loved the NRA | Video Worth Watching

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Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee highlights the peculiar relationship between an alleged Russian spy and the NRA. She also pointedly notes that the NRA, which typically blasts back at the slightest intimation of criticism, has been markedly silent on this issue: no comments since the news broke on July 17th with the indictment of Maria Butina by the Justice Department. Hmmm.   [Read more…]

Russian Spy Maria Butina, Donald Trump, the NRA, and Republican Politicians at All Levels

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By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

On Monday, Russian pro-gun activist and lifetime NRA member Maria Butina, was arrested on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and acting as a covert agent of the Russian government.

The indictment against Butina, on the same day that Donald Trump so weakly acquiesced to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, came after years in which the Russian agent openly presented herself as a gateway between Republican causes and Russia. During that time she not only supported the candidacy of Trump, but worked with other prominent members of the GOP, promoted Republican visits to Moscow, and secured pro-Russian statements from right-wing politicians up and down the line.

Butina has been a prominent and vocal presence in the link between the National Rifle Association and Russian pro-gun groups. But she has also inserted herself into other lobbying efforts, both for guns and for Russia. That includes open claims that she was a conduit between the Russian government and the campaign of Donald Trump.   [Read more…]

27 Things You Need to Know About Mueller’s Latest Indictments

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By James Dunlap / Facebook

Ok, so I’ve actually sat down and read the entire 29-page Mueller indictment (PDF) against the 12 Russian intelligence officers, and it is totally insane. I literally can’t believe the scope of this thing. I’m making this status public (i.e., shareable) because people need to know about this shit.

There is no way you can read the actual indictment and not conclude that

1) there WAS a RUSSIAN conspiracy;

2) that the scope of that conspiracy was GARGANTUAN;

3) that it was organized BY THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT (i.e., there’s no way Putin didn’t know about this);

4) That people connected to the Trump campaign (and, shockingly, other U.S. Gov’t officials) WERE INVOLVED; and

5) this is just the beginning. 

If Mueller has already uncovered this amount of information with such specificity regarding the goings-on in far-away Russia, there’s NO WAY some serious shit isn’t going to hit the fan going forward right here in the U.S.

So, without further ado, here are the highlights:   [Read more…]

Russian Internet Schemes Reveal a Brave New World of Manufactured Dissent and Consent

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Reporting by the Associated Press released on Thursday reveals the extent of Russian internet ‘active measures,’ with detailed forensic evidence of worldwide operations between March 2015 and May 2016 aimed at “a master list of individuals whom Russia would like to spy on, embarrass, discredit or silence.”   The Wall Street Journal says the Justice Department has identified “more than six members of the Russian government” who were allegedly behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee.   

Executives from companies with a major presence on the internet have testified before House and Senate Committees this week. It’s safe to summarize their positions as: We’re sorry about the Russians exploiting our services, it’s not that big a deal, and we alone know how to fix this.

The Russia story, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. The declining cost of technologies involved in manipulating social media content is making these sorts of activities affordable to non-state entities. In Poland, bots have already been used to spread propaganda on behalf of pharmaceutical and natural resource companies.   [Read more…]

Trump’s Fog Machine

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Robert Reich / RobertReich.org

Trump’s technique for dealing with bad news is to create enough confusion and partisanship to envelope it in dense fog.

Consider the most explosive news to come along in recent history – that the FBI has commenced an investigation of Trump aides to find out if they colluded with Russian agents to throw the election to Trump.   [Read more…]

Attorney General Sessions: The Latest of Trump’s Russia Troubles

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Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, former Senator from Alabama, campaign advisor, and current Attorney General is generating the latest waft of smoke from the smoldering garbage fire, also known as the Trump administration’s Russia scandal.

During his nomination hearings, the then-Senator from Alabama failed to disclose two occasions when he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to the Washington Post.

A New York Times story published today adds more fuel to the fire, saying European intelligence agencies warned the US about meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump.   [Read more…]

Why The Left Should Worry About Russian President Vladimir Putin

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By Ed Merta

In the age of Putin and Trump, the left is divided over what to think about reports of Russian interference in the 2016 elections and the new U.S. President’s ties to the Kremlin. Are the reports credible? What do they mean for those who’ve always been skeptical of U.S. actions toward Russia? Should the reports be dismissed, given the U.S. record of (among other things) sabotage in foreign elections, pervasive cyber-intrusions around the world, support for needlessly provocative NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, and complicity in robber baron plunder of Russia after the collapse of Communism?

Understanding possible answers to these questions requires first looking at the history behind them. Learning from that history depends on an act of faith: believing in whatever truth emerges, even when it conflicts with what our faith has taught.   [Read more…]

Up is Down and Flynn is Out: More Complicated Than It Seems

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On Monday evening the President of the United States accepted the resignation of his national security advisor, Ret. General Michael Flynn.

The oft-stated scenario has Flynn falling on his sword following news accounts calling into question his ties with the Russian government and the Trump administration’s refusing to acknowledge there might be a security problem because of the relationship.

There is, as you will see, a three-dimensional chess game going on in world politics, and this incident is just the latest move.   [Read more…]

Music as Self-Expression: Hershey Felder in ‘Our Great Tchaikovsky’

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By Yuko Kurahashi

The world-premiere of Hershey Felder’s Our Great Tchaikovsky (directed by Trevor Hay and dramaturged by Meghan Maiya) at the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum Stage portrays Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s life (1840-1893) and music.

During the show’s run (January 12-February 12), the Repertory Theatre is also exhibiting the work of Boris Malkin (1908-1973) in its newly renovated gallery. A Belarusian (formerly Soviet Union) artist, Malkin created hundreds of works ranging from oil paintings, watercolors, drawings to wood sculpture and scenic design. The exhibition serves as a wonderful preshow.   [Read more…]

Donald Trump Was Bailed Out of Bankruptcy by Russia Crime Bosses

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By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. attended a real estate conference, where he stated that

Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.

As it turns out, that may have been an understatement. Human rights lawyer Scott Horton, whose work in the region goes back to defending Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet dissidents, has gone through a series of studies by the Financial Times to show how funds from Russian crime lords bailed Trump out after yet anther bankruptcy. The conclusions are stark.   [Read more…]

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