FIRST THEY CAME

Trump Hugging the Flag

Credit: nymag.com

First, they came for the news media, crying "fake news," promoting "alternative facts" and denying the reality of any unfavorable reports or evidence, and we did nothing.

Then they came for the "aliens" and immigrants, and though concerned, we did nothing.

Then they came for judges whose legal rulings prevented the separation and caging of migrant children at the border, and, though protesting, we did nothing.

Then they came for Homeland Security officials whose warnings of Russian election interference they rejected, and though surprised, we did nothing.

Then they came for the FBI Director who would not pledge complete loyalty, but it was 'complicated', and other concerns were cited, and we did nothing.

Then they came for the Attorney General whose required recusal opened the door for the Mueller Investigation, and who was no Roy Cohn, and, we did nothing.

Then they came for the Investigators themselves, accusing them of being "deep state"agents and labeling the investigation a "total hoax," and we did nothing.

Then they came for the "whistleblowers" who revealed corrupt dealings with a foreign power to undermine a potential political rival, and we, ultimately, did nothing.

Then they came for the Inspectors General in every Federal agency where questions were raised about administrative corruption, and we grumbled, but did nothing.

Then they came for the Public Health experts and officials, charging a "cabal" of scientists with undermining the President by promoting the "hoax" of a pandemic and the wearing of masks, and we've done nothing.

Then they came for peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors, smearing them as "subversives" and "anarchists" bent only on destruction, deserving of "retribution," and threatening to charge them with sedition, and we've done nothing.

Finally, they came for the Electoral System, claiming it to be "rigged," against them, suppressing voting, cutting short the census, shrinking the Postal Service, and undermining public faith in the integrity of the most basic mechanism of a functioning democracy, and so far, we've done..... 

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Les Adler

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This piece was inspired by Martin Niemöller, a prominent Lutheran minister and courageous opponent of Adolf Hitler. Niemöller survived seven years in Nazi concentration camps.

TROLLS IN TURKMENISTAN?

We've been hearing about Russian meddling in our elections and our national discussion for years now. I wrote a blog post about it in 2018, spurred by an excellent 35-minute video from the New York Times tracing Soviet and more recently Russian disinformation campaigns back five decades. The video is well worth watching to grasp the scope and depth of this ongoing program. The basic goal of these campaigns is to stir up disagreement, foment polarization, and undermine the target's (read the US) social cohesiveness and institutions from within.

I want to add a tiny bit of data to this issue.

Is this one of my Turkmenistan trolls?

Credit: maritravel/Pixabay

You're reading a post from my blog, zerospinzone.blogspot.com. I've been posting here since 2006, a mixture of reportage about scientific and technological advances that catch my eye, along with commentaries about issues that I think are important, such as policing, gun control and the environment, and, at times, my political opinions.

Google provides the platform that hosts my blog (and, I assume, millions of others). One of the helpful bits of information it provides bloggers is a map showing where readers are checking in from.

I write in English and from an American perspective, so you'ld expect that the bulk of my readership would be in the US, perhaps with a smattering of readers from other English-speaking countries. That was the case until 2016.

At first it was just a curiosity. In 2016 I began to get a lot of hits from Russia. Quite often far more than I was getting from the US. Those hits usually came in bursts, roughly once a week. I gradually got the impression that every so often someone or some group somewhere in Russia was going through a large number of my posts. I had no idea why.

However, as all of us who are not committed Trump supporters know, it gradually came out that Russia was carrying out a concerted digital effort to tilt the election towards Trump, and, more generally, to stoke division within the US. I'm guessing that my blog was just one of thousands or millions of sources that Russian trolls combed looking for issues that they could use to polarize people and groups here in the US.

After the 2016 election, Russia pretty much dropped off the map of my readers.

However, it's now another election year and guess what--not Russia, but this time around I've gained a big following in the ex-Soviet state of Turkmenistan. For example, during this past week I've had 10 times as many hits from Turkmenistan than from the US and Canada combined.

So now, I have a surprising number of devoted readers in far-off Turkmenistan. I doubt that they are really interested in my posts about the demise of coal, about whether the universe is spinning or not, or the importance of exercise for seniors. They may well be interested in divisive issues such as how well Trump is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic or climate change, or about other controversial issues here in the US such as sanctuary cities, gun violence and racism.

To get an updated example of how commentary from the US can be amplified or weaponized by foreign trolls and fed back into the US, please read this recent NYT piece.

So, unlike Trump who famously said, "Russia, if you're listening . . ." and invited them to hack Hillary's emails, I'm telling my new troup of trolls, "Turkmenistan, if you're listening, bug out. My blog is none of your &%$#@#! business."

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REA

THE BIG PICTURE-THE HISTORY, SIZE, SHAPE AND IMPACT OF RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION

If you're like me, every so often you come across something--an idea, a talk, an event--that ties all kinds of things together and makes them perfectly clear. This 47-minute video from the New York Times entitled Operation InfeKtion did that for me, putting the drip-by-drip revelations about Russian intervention to divide the US and help elect Trump into the context of Russia's, and before that the Soviet Union's multi-decade practice and perfection of the art of disinformation.

 

Remember Pizzagate?

Just one of many disruptive interventions. 

Photo credit: Blink O'fanay

 

I don't usually take the time to watch videos, but this very clear, well researched and well made piece from the Times was worth every minute. If you want to understand the origin, goals, scope and sophistication of Russia's disinformation apparatus, and how that all came together to stir up confusion and division among Amerians, denigrate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump, click here and watch the video. As I post this piece, the video has been watched by just 145,000 people. It needs to be seen by 145,000,000.

As many commentators have pointed out, the US is far from innocent when it comes to intervening in other nation's elections and internal affairs. Just note the 800 military bases that the US maintains in some 70 countries. However, that fact doesn't relieve us of the responsibility to understand what has been and is still being done to us by a very skillful, practiced and determined adversary, or to at least start to learn how to counter it.

The report reverse-engineers seven key ingredients to a successful disinformation campaign. Once you've seen the list, you'll start to see them everywhere, contributing to the miasma of misinformation and disinformation that we are immersed in. Here they are:

1. Find the cracks in the targeted society.
2. Create a big, dramatic, emotionally charged lie.
3. Wrap that lie around a kernel of truth.
4. Conceal your hand.
5. Find some "useful idiots" to back it up or propagate it.
6. If you're exposed, deny, deny, deny.
7. Play the long game.

To which I would add, in this era of social media, "Repeat, repeat, repeat on as many platforms as possible."

Russia's "meddling" in our 2016 elections may have been their most successful disinformation program, but this documentary shows that it was far from their first, and will not be the last.

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L'ETAT C'EST MOI--TRUMP'S IDENTITY PROBLEM

“I believe it hurts our country terribly, because it shows we’re a divided, mixed-up, not-unified country. And we have very important things to be doing right now, whether it’s trade deals, whether it’s military, whether it’s stopping nuclear – all of the things that we discussed today. And I think this shows a very divided country."

-----President Trump, commenting on the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the U.S. elections

"I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department."

-----From Trump's interview with the New York Times, 12/28/17 

If someone is a narcissist, it's all about him or her. Narcissists are notorious for having no boundaries--you're cast for a role in their drama whether you want to be or not.

One corollary is that if you've done something that reflects well on them, for the moment you're their best friend; but if you've done something that fails to feed their ego, or worse yet, threatens it, you're instantly their enemy.*

Another corollary is that they can't ever be wrong; so if something goes wrong, it's always someone else's fault.

It's safe to assume that to a narcissistic ruler, there are no boundaries between himself and his realm. The poster child for this, at least until now, has been Louis XIV of France. He's famous for proclaiming, "L'etat? L'etat c'est moi,"--"The State? I am the State."

Louis XIV of France--The Sun King in full regalia
Author: Hyacinth Rigaud
Musee du Louvre

It's no secret that our current president has the same proclivity. From his point of view, it's his country, his military, his secrets to share or withhold as he wishes, his realm to do with as he pleases. The Constitution, the rule of law, checks and balances, Congress and the courts are irrelevancies that had best get out of his way.

There's no doubt that the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel is bad news for Donald Trump, and as Mueller's investigation develops, it may well hurt Trump terribly.

However, given his narcissism, it's not surprising that he experiences this threat to himself and his presidency as a threat to the nation. It's also predictable that as he experiences further ego-threatening narcissistic injuries, he will be driven to strike out in narcissistic rage at his enemies, actual and perceived.

Angry Trump caricature
adapted from Gage Skidmore's Flickr photosteam
by DonkeyHotey

In relationships, the targets of narcissistic rage are often advised to walk away, then later try to define and defend the boundaries of what they will or will not take. Unfortunately, none of us here in the U.S. or the rest of the world can just walk away from a wounded and enraged President with the ability to lash out within the country or abroad with the full power of the state.

Still, even if Trump can't tell the difference between himself and "our country," we can. Because it truly is our country, not his.

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For an analysis of the implication ofTrump's narcissism from the point of view of a neurolinguist, you can navigate to an excellent post by George Lakoff at this URL.

*Click here for a Yale psychiatrist's discussion of this pattern, and its impact on Trump's followers and on the nation as a whole.

And here for a more detailed disucussion of this problem as of 9/15/19 by professor Steve Hochstadt.

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