(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Putin Caucus and Its Enablers [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-05 By now, you may have heard about the uproar unfolding on Twitter (fuck you, Elmo, I’m never gonna call it X). It seems that our lovely friends in the Russian propaganda apparatus have been financing “influencers” [sic] to spread Russian bullshit propaganda on the giant media platform. The Justice Department has specifically indicated that Right wing assholes influencers Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, and Laura Southern have been receiving Russian largesse for some time through a company called Tenet Media. CNN reports: The unnamed Tennessee-based company that the Justice Department alleges was being funded by Russian operatives working as part of a Kremlin-orchestrated influence operation targeting the 2024 US election is Tenet Media, which is linked to right-wing commentators with millions of subscribers on YouTube and other social media platforms, according to a US official briefed on the matter. The indictment unsealed in New York’s Southern District accused two employees of RT, the Kremlin’s media arm, of funneling nearly $10 million to an unidentified company, described only as “Company 1” in court documents. CNN has independently confirmed that “Company 1” is Tenet Media, which is a platform for independent content creators. It is self-described as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues,” according to its website, which matches language contained in the newly unsealed indictment. Wired reports: Johnson, Pool, Rubin, and Southern did not immediately respond to requests for comment; none are accused of wrongdoing. “We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment,” Johnson wrote on X, referring to himself and his lawyers, “which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme.” Pool also released a statement on X, saying in part that “should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.” Rubin retweeted Pool’s post. Ukrainian-American Igor Sushko is less certain, shall we say, that these people were simply unwitting victims: x 🚨 BREAKING: Kremlin agents in the US with millions of Twitter followers were paid $10 million by Russia to spread disinformation and rally support for convicted felon Trump on social media per indictment unsealed by the Department of Justice. TENET Media, based in Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/z75aDnS8F8 — Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) September 4, 2024 x Kremlin agent Tim Pool on air reading off of a script supplied to him by Russian intelligence. However, Tim Pool, a gullible American, says he didn't know it was the Kremlin who suddenly started paying him $100,000 per episode of his show.pic.twitter.com/1xGG4NiUh6 — Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) September 5, 2024 And it is SO interesting that the owner of Twitter LOVED to amplify messages from these scum buckets influencers. Elmo is particularly fond of Little Timmy, the Tiny Tiger of Toxic Masculinity: x How many times did Musk promote just one of these Kremlin agents? ALOT. pic.twitter.com/4er8SD60kN — Jay in Kyiv (@JayinKyiv) September 5, 2024 Elmo re-Tweeted Tenet stuff a lot: x Elon Musk naturally promoted nonsense peddled by Tenet Media, which was financed by now-indicted Russian operatives. https://t.co/kzENMUqdxX — Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) September 4, 2024 (Great thread here, btw.) I’ll say this: Elmo seems shook. He posted 82 times on Wednesday. But of course, there is much, much more than just Twitter. The fantastic Mueller She Wrote has obtained a 69 page affidavit by an FBI agent assigned to keep on eye on what are called Doppelgänger Accounts. These accounts, in MSW’s words, are “60 domains made to look like legit media corporations”. Their purpose? To trick people into voting for Trump. From the affidavit: As set forth below, since at least 2022, under the direction and control of the Russian Presidential Administration, and in particular Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko (“KIRIYENKO”),the Russian companies Social Design Agency (“SDA”), Structura National Technology(“STRUCTURA”), ANO Dialog, have used, among others, the SUBJECT DOMAINS, which include “cybersquatted” domains impersonating legitimate news entities and unique media brands created by Doppelganger, to covertly spread Russian government propaganda ******** The first component of the Doppelganger campaign carried out by STRUCTURA and SDA, acting under KIRIYENKO’s direction and control, involves the creation of fake websites that mimic legitimate media outlets. Doppelganger places content on those spoofed websites that promote specific narratives identified by the Russian government to further the Russian government’s objectives, such as influencing the U.S. electorate by targeting specific audiences within the United States and elsewhere. To evade detection, Doppelganger created sophisticated cybersquatted domains (which include the SUBJECT DOMAINS) that appear to be the websites of legitimate news outlets such as Fox News, The Washington Post, and Forward, among others. In general, the cybersquatted domains appear virtually identical to their legitimate media counterparts, including through the use of the same layout and design, as well as the same trademarks, logos, and slogans, and through attributing the false articles found on the cybersquatted domain to real journalists for the legitimate outlet, with the journalists’ names, photographs, and bylines featured on the domain. In addition, links to other content on the SUBJECT DOMAINS re-route the reader to the legitimate news outlet. However, the content published on the cybersquatted domains is not the legitimate journalistic work of the impersonated media outlet and impersonated journalists; rather, the cybersquatted domains publish fake news articles that promote Russian interests without identifying, and in fact purposefully obfuscating, the Russian government or its agents as the source of the content. (Warning: Jesse Watters video in Media Matters link above.) Rupert Murdoch and close friend. Rupert just married a Russian oligarch’s ex-wife. A great many Republican members of Congress have shown sympathy to Russia and/or hostility to Ukraine. RAND PAUL Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., [in April 2022] claimed that Russia has only invaded countries that were once "part of Russia," implying that Ukraine, which is currently under invasion by Russia, might not have the right to self-determine. Paul's strange remark came this week during a heated exchange with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who dismissed Paul's concerns around letting new countries be admitted into NATO by pointing out that Russia has not attacked countries that are in NATO. Specifically, Blinken cited Russia's intervention in Georgia and Moldova. "These are countries that were not a part of NATO," Blinken said. "It has not attacked NATO countries, for probably good reason." This is interesting, too. From Axios: A former senior aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was convicted Thursday after being found guilty of helping to funnel illegal foreign campaign contributions from a Russian national into former President Trump's 2016 campaign. Driving the news: Jessie Benton, 45, orchestrated a scheme to conceal the illegal foreign donation with another GOP operative, per the Justice Department. Benton, the husband of Paul's niece and a veteran Republican staffer, faces up to 20 years in prison. His attorney told the Washington Post Benton "maintains his innocence and plans to appeal." And who can forget Rand’s various services as Trump’s informal emissary to Putin? From Vanity Fair, 2018: On Monday, weeks after Paul made an impassioned speech on the Senate floor in support of Trump’s Helsinki summit—“The hatred for the president is so intense that partisans would rather risk war than give diplomacy a chance”—the Kentucky senator visited Moscow on a private trip to strengthen relations between Russia and the U.S., a matter he called “in­cred­ibly important,” according to The Washington Post. (The U.S. Embassy in Moscow told the Post that Paul was not on an official diplomatic trip, and was traveling privately with a group.) Paul’s Russian jaunt reportedly included a visit with former Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, who U.S. intelligence suggests is a spy, and whose undisclosed meetings with Jeff Sessions and Michael Flynn led indirectly to Robert Mueller’s probe into the Trump campaign. RON JOHNSON Lev Parnas, who worked with Giuliani to dig up damaging information in Ukraine on Joe Biden and his son Hunter in the runup to the 2020 election, mentioned the Oshkosh Republican as he described to the House Oversight Committee efforts from Donald Trump and allies to “manipulate the public” with unvetted information about the Bidens. Parnas told the panel that Donald Trump, Giuliani and “various cohorts of individuals in government and media positions” lied to the public. He said accusations of Biden’s corruption “were untrue then, and they’re untrue now.” “Congressman Pete Sessions, then-Congressman Devin Nunes, Sen. Ron Johnson and many others understood they were pushing a false narrative,” Parnas testified. He referenced right-wing media personalities and Fox News for using “this narrative to manipulate the public ahead of the 2020 election.” "Sen. Ron Johnson was our guy in the Senate," Parnas said later in the hearing. "It was told to me that when we push the information, he's gonna push it in the halls of Congress." TOMMY TUBERVILLE MSNBC reported on Tuberville (whom I have affectionately nicknamed “Shithead”) and his defense of Putin’s motives: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul was surprisingly candid a couple of months ago about one of his party’s serious problems. “I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base,” the Texas Republican lamented. Five days later, House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, echoed the sentiment, conceding that some of his GOP colleagues are peddling rhetoric that’s “directly coming from Russia.” The comments came to mind reading this Daily Beast report yesterday. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) argued Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin—who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 while declaring that the country has no claim to independence and that its people are “connected with us by blood”—doesn’t actually want Ukraine because he already has “enough land.” The Alabama Republican sat down with Steve Bannon and explained his belief that Putin doesn’t really want to wage war in Ukraine. After downplaying Russian attacks in Ukraine from recent months, Tuberville said, in reference to Putin, “He doesn’t want Ukraine. He doesn’t want Europe. Hell, he’s got enough land of his own. He just wants to make sure that he does not have United States weapons in Ukraine pointing at Moscow.” MARSHA BLACKBURN x We have some guesses. Marsha Blackburn's campaign chairman for a decade, Kline Preston, is in cahoots with Alexander Torshin - himself credibly linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency and the old TEN_GOP account. The river of rubles flows right thru our borders, y'all. 🧵 https://t.co/YvnntgCOop — Nashville Resist 🪷 Against Authoritarianism (@NashvilleResist) September 4, 2024 [Fantastic thread] From 2020: [In regard to The U.S. Senate’s Intelligence Committee’s report on Russia and the 2016 election] Though U.S. Senator from Tennessee Marsha Blackburn is not mentioned in the volume (a Nashville attorney who formerly worked for her congressional campaign appears several times), actions she took earlier this year assures the Trump campaign is free to repeat its foreign interference playbook this fall. In February, she thrice effectively volunteered to be the getaway driver for campaign misconduct. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virg., moved to pass three election security bills via unanimous consent. Two took slightly different paths, but both would require campaigns to call the FBI if a foreign power contacts them and offers help. Another funded the Election Assistance Commission and would, among other things, require voter-verified paper ballots and ban voting machines from being connected to the internet (thus making results hacking very difficult). One by one, Blackburn objected—falsely bloviating about a federal power grab. Elections, of course, would remain a state function and insisting on minimum standards, especially for campaign reporting of foreign malign contact should be a bipartisan consensus point. At the same time the third volume of the bipartisan Senate report was hot off the presses, making Blackburn’s move all the more galling. That report raised alarms about our country’s abilities to counter a forthcoming wave of Russian meddling. Further, only the week before Blackburn’s blocking move FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that Russia continued to be engaged in information warfare ahead of this November’s elections. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE AND THE REPUBLICAN ENEMIES OF NATO The gruesome Marjorie Three Toes is so blatantly pro-Russia that even Right-wing media makes fun of her for it. Members of her own party have called her “Moscow Marjorie”. She regularly “parrots Russian talking point(s)”. She regularly embarrasses her party’s leadership. From the AP, 2022: Republican leaders in Congress are torn over what to do with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after the congresswoman spoke at a weekend event organized by a white nationalist who marveled over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the crowd erupted in chants of “Putin!” [My emphasis] House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy called the congresswoman’s speech on the same stage “unacceptable.” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said “there’s no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists.” She has attacked Ukraine’s heroic president Volodymyr Zelensky, saying he “wants our sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine.” Russian state media just loves her to pieces. Russia is writing legislation for her. And in June of this year, Moscow Marjie introduced an amendment to strip NATO of U.S. funding. Although it failed overwhelmingly, 46 House Republicans voted for it. Newsweek published a complete list: Aaron Bean of Florida Andy Biggs of Arizona Dan Bishop of North Carolina Lauren Boebert of Colorado Mike Bost of Illinois Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma Tim Burchett of Tennessee Ben Cline of Virginia Michael Cloud of Texas Mike Collins of Georgia James Comer of Kentucky Eli Crane of Arizona Byron Donalds of Florida Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota Russell Fry of South Carolina Matt Gaetz of Florida Bob Good of Virginia Paul Gosar of Arizona Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia Harriet Hageman of Wyoming Andy Harris of Maryland Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee Kevin Hern of Oklahoma French Hill of Arkansas Wesley Hunt of Texas John Joyce of Pennsylvania Debbie Lesko of Arizona Anna Paulina Luna of Florida Thomas Massie of Kentucky Brian Mast of Florida Mary Miller of Illinois Cory Mills of Florida Alex Mooney of West Virginia Barry Moore of Alabama Ralph Norman of South Carolina Andy Ogles of Tennessee Scott Perry of Pennsylvania Bill Posey of Florida Matt Rosendale of Montana Chip Roy of Texas Keith Self of Texas Jason Smith of Missouri Greg Steube of Florida Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin William Timmons of South Carolina Michael Waltz of Florida I call them the Putin Caucus. Curiously, J.D. Vance has been dismissive of Ukraine’s plight ever since Russian tanks rolled over its borders to wage an unprovoked war. His superheated (Putinesque?) aversion to aiding the besieged country has only grown since the Kremlin invasion. He attracts notoriety as “perhaps the Senate’s most vocal critic” of Ukraine assistance. But why? Politico reported that Vance waded into a group of House Republicans to urge defeat of their Ukraine aid measure. His justifications for essentially greenlighting the authoritarian annihilation of the fledgling democracy range from specious to baseless with a smattering of disinformation. “We simply have no idea where a lot of our money to Ukraine has gone,” he (falsely) tweeted in January. “That has been a consistent complaint of his,” sighed [Dr. George] Jaskiw, [head of a Ukrainian advocacy group] “despite overwhelming evidence from our IG (Inspector General) which has followed the aid to Ukraine, especially military aid, to a greater degree than in any other military support in our history.” Moreover, he noted, “there is no evidence of gross mismanagement or misallocation that we found and we, as a community in Ohio, welcome this kind of diligence and confirmation that the aid is going to its designated place.” There are other figures who feed at the Russian propaganda trough and then defecate Russian talking points all over the landscape. The horrible Tucker Carlson comes to mind. The despicable Glenn Greenwald can always be counted on to attack Ukraine and lick Putin’s feet. Steve Bannon has helped encourage Russophilia. The list goes on...and on...and on. And of course, we all know the biggest Putin fan of them all. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/5/2268007/-The-Putin-Caucus-and-Its-Enablers?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/