We are only one full week past the election. But we already find ourselves having to deal with Russia meddling in our politics by openly challenging President-elect Donald Trump to fulfill obligations they say he now owes. Before even considering Russia’s latest propaganda bomb, let’s accept that given Trump’s surprisingly clear victory it is highly unlikely that Russia played any meaningful role in the result. This truth is established without regard to any Russian plan, actions, or intent. But that doesn’t mean that Russia isn’t willing to make it appear as though they put Trump in office to serve their purposes, to throw us into a spiral, and put Trump himself in a no-win position. On that the Russians have already started with breathless clarity.
It is absolutely critical to our democracy that we start with the likelihood that the Russians played no role in anything and made no effort to assist Donald Trump’s campaign. Leave any possibility of such set aside as blank forever unless concrete evidence arises. Assumptions otherwise hand Putin a win without needing to lift a finger.
Russia certainly wants a psychological battle with the nation’s head. All interviews involving top Russian officials discussing the election come with two certainties; The quotes have Putin’s blessing and second – we are meant to hear the message. To that end, according to Frank Kaplan writing in Slate, Russia’s intelligence chief Nikolai Patrushev made the following comment on Monday when interviewed by the Moscow newspaper Kommersant. We are meant to hear this.
Take note of the clarity of the message. Patrushev ensures there will be no confusion:
“The election campaign is over. To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
To which Kaplan writes:
This is a mind-blowing bit of psychological warfare! The Russians are basically telling Trump: We put you in office. Now it’s time for you to pay us back.
 if Russia possesses some other form of kompromat (compromising material) on Trump, Patrushev’s message constitutes an extraordinarily bodacious threat of blackmail, delivered in public, against an American president-elect.
We spent five years waiting on some kind of proof that Russia held something over then President Trump. It never materialized. Not only did our security forces not find a thing but neither did the rest of the world. That matters. Think about China’s gain if it exposed both its adversaries as hopelessly intertwined. Again, assume nothing or they all win.
To the extent that any of us are sure in our hearts that Putin holds something it demonstrates just how effective Russia can be in the psychological warfare mentioned above. If you think that Christopher Steele’s dossier had to have contained a lot of truth you’re setting aside the very real possibility that Steele himself was compromised and was doing Putin’s bidding – convincing Americans that their president was compromised. Every assumption must be left open until proven.
The only thing one can know with certainty is that the head of Russian intelligence is willing to come forward and lob a propaganda grenade right into the transition process. That much we know. It happened. The quote above is for your consideration. It is fact. But its interpretation plays its own role. So don’t serve it.
Remember, propaganda isn’t meant to convince you of any one thing, any one fact. No – propaganda is meant to have people give up their faith that the truth exists or is knowable. Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth” was meant to be laughed at not “analyzed.” It was indicative of nothing, not worth anyone’s time. Every source has an angle, nothing really happens as reported, no one can ever say anything with certainty, and you can’t rely on anything. Any claim has already been mixed with so many competing agendas that you’re better off not even paying attention. Sucker.
Now read the quote about serving certain obligations again. Does the quote itself contain any truths? That is not the point. You can’t know. They won’t show it. This is propaganda and no one does it better than the people who invented it – the Russians.
Did Putin play a role in the most recent election? We have no evidence. Do they control or manipulate President-elect Donald Trump? Dunno – ask him. Does Russia even have anything to hold over Trump? We only know that they haven’t shown it. Don’t know, Don’t know, Don’t know…
See? The “truth” regarding Russia’s role already seems unknowable. They throw out one quote leaving you with their truth. The one thing we know with any certainty is that they’re already willing to make it sound as though Trump owes them. Take that and consider it because that truth is definitely worth knowing. They did it for a reason.
That’s it. And yet we’re already wondering, “What are these obligations he’s talking about… ” Recent history indicates we will never know – we’ll only see what results. One result we’ve already seen is that it leaves us more cynical, less unified, pointing at each other as “the enemy,” left us with dangerous raw hatred toward each other… All the while Putin sits back, smiling – plotting. No one does it better than the Russians.
God Bless:Â I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak
Given the blatant stupidity, the ignorance of history, the willingness to piss on the graves of all those who handed us and preserved our freedom, and the craven worship of money and lies…who needs putin to destroy us? We are America goddamnit and we are perfectly capable of cutting our own throats.
Kruschev in the 1950’s promised to “bury” us. How? First put doubt about our governmental agencies in the minds of the weak. Done. Vlad, knowing how to use psyops has done that. Now, destroy said governmental agencies – do you see who is being promoted for positions. Gabbard, who is under investigation for Russian ties. Gaetz. The only one so far that surprises me is that Jim Jordan has not been put forth for anything. But our RW congress folks have all been bought anyway.
It’s 2024 and this plan has been in the works for almost 70 years. I’m not surprised. We ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
There are many books of very impressive investigative reporting, meticulously documented, plus our own eyes and our own ears, to inform us in no uncertain terms that Trump has been doing Putin’s bidding for forty years on an ever-escalating scale. Because obviously he could do a hell of a lot more once he became president, and even as ex-president.
I do think you are right that Russia did very little in this year’s camaign. You might say they were preoccupied with other things. But you might also say that they didn’t need to, because they had already done the main thing: They helped a great deal over the years to destabilize this country and build the MAGA movement. So Putin wasn’t completely off base, because without their long-term help in melting down the American mind, Trump wouldn’t have been re-elected — even if most of it wasn’t done very recently. To me, that isn’t even a question.
And in saying what he said, Putin himself is only confirming what Trump has fervently denied over and over, and what anybody whose been paying attention knows is true, that there was COLLUSION, and plenty of it.
The real question is, why did Putin wait until now to finally have had enough of Trump? Actually, do you remember when he said he was endorsing Kamala Harris? Of course that was meant as a joke, but Trump took it seriously, and in a way I think there was something dark behind it, that Putin was saying he’s sick of Trump.
Putin knows Trump is past his shelf life. Now recently it’s been revealed that Musk has been talking to Putin … a lot. So I wonder if what we’re seeing is the preparation to dump Trump, which many are already speculating about. Maybe we’re seeing that Putin is in on it and is signalling that he’s fine with it.
That being said, I’ll tell you who it’s not going to be fine with: The great majority of Americans, INCLUDING the diehard Trumpies. If they try to go ahead with it, the fascist-technocrat set are going to find out pretty fast that they have very little popular support. They’re going to find out that if they ditch Trump, they’ll be killing the golden goose.
So maybe they won’t ditch him. Maybe they’ll just keep doing what they’ve been doing, especially now they have their hands on the levers of control. Except in reality they don’t. Trump is losing his grip on congress, we already saw that today. So I think the clown show will continue and may actually get funnier.