What the heck is up with Russia?

[Even Steven]

To be fair, it's the ones who won the election that are now confirming that these hacks occurred.

I was more talking about Twitter/Facebook campaigns that were supposedly run by Russian govt (like they don't have anything better to do) in order to influence the elections. That seems extra laughable to me. The worlds strongest nation brought to its knees by Facebook ads? Who comes up with this BS?

[Omnitheo]

Propaganda can take many forms. And nations have been brought to their knees by it before. All throughout history. Social media offers a very efficient means of mass distributing propaganda, and foreign nations can take advantage of that to suit their needs. There are literal “troll factories” multi story office buildings full of full time employees who’s job it is to distribute false information in comments to news articles, news videos, on forums, to organize Facebook groups to rally people.

[burnedatstake]

when people talk about russia its hard for me because they only see the country in the cultural microscope we have been in since say ww1. we are prisoners of our western perception. people bring up ukraine and dont realize the long history that russia has had in regards to the country. fighting alongside the country against foes - and with factions for hundreds of years. crimea is another example. when america annexes guantanamo (declaring military strategic importance) does canada react with outrage? i havent seen it if they have. or essentially annexing land with military bases to keep countries and regions well heeled - we have no problem. yet russia annexes crimea - which has had military strategic importance longer than america has been a nation - and it is a scandal. do i like that it happened? no. but id have to be a fool to think russia would walk away from a region that is that important to their national interests and security. do you think america would just walk away from their base in germany? or in japan? or in south korea? or now in afganistan? or more recently in iraq? never in a million years. yet we in the west feel we can win a morality play in these regards.

as far as the meddling in US elections i wring my hands in glee. americans have finally felt the sting of outside interference like never before. and with all the interference and meddling they have had a hand in for about a century or more - it was bound to happen sooner or later. like in south america or africa or europe. it was right as rain if it was our side doing so. but the moment russia has blatantly done so - its scandalous.

face it - things are changing. the tide is shifting. russia is responding militarily for its strategic and economic interests. china is responding militarily and economically for their military and economic interests around the globe. we have india that is growing militarily and is interested in protecting their economic interests. how much longer does the west think that they will be able to dictate the moral and economic compass of the globe - because it is getting dimmer by the day. the middle class (as we know it here in north america) in india is 350 million people strong. very well educated people who are driving the economy of india each and every day. that in itself is the entire population of america. that is some serious buying power. and then who could forget china. who basically became an economic powerhouse like no other. the wild west of making money. who has economic and strategic and military ties to russia. and also has economic ties in india. by themselves india and china have almost a third of the globes population. do you think they care that we run trade deficits? not a chance. especially china. who were locked into exploitative 100 year long trade deals by the uk and america and many others - which started to end in 1997 with hong kong. as a result you hear about brics development bank and infrastructure fund. all backed by these 3 important countries and more - like brazil. the US dollar has competition which will serve other nations interests at last.

anyways when i see all this i think of rome. around 400 ad they became so corrupt and complacent that they didnt see themselves being eclipsed by other countries. as such they were pulverized militarily and liquidated economically. in ways that they perfected - and learned by the other countries - and used against them in the end. it will be interesting to see what happens the next 100 years. there was a huge turning point around ww1 around the globe in regards to russia on a global stage. and the same can be said now in 2018. there were wars and rumors of wars the whole time. and im sure that it will be the same for the next 100 years. and world powers and leaders will jostle for power, riches and glory. its a circle of life thing.

[Jack DeBear]

http://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday

Countering the growing threat of Russian disinformation in Canada

The Russian government is paying off Canada’s largest media companies to expose unsuspecting television subscribers to regime-sponsored disinformation in what amounts to a surreal 24 hour propaganda informercial.

<snip>

Russia Today, or RT as it’s known today, has been churning out pro-Putin propaganda, conspiracy theories and outright disinformation to support and advance the Russian regime’s foreign policy objectives since 2005.

Most viewers take RT’s news reporting far less seriously than the satirical news featured on Saturday Night Live, yet the threat posed by RT and other nefarious state-sponsored media, should not be taken lightly. The confusion and discord they aim to promote, here in Canada and elsewhere, represents a serious challenge to our democracy, institutions and values.

<snip>

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contrib ... anada.html

[Jack DeBear]

For sale.

Help Canadians prepare for the invasion.

http://www.RussianCDDVD.com Learn Russian by watching translated movies and reading subtitles.

Movies Translated and Dubbed into Russian with subtitles.

[Jack DeBear]

http://www.youtube.com/user/currenttimetv

America’s answer to Russian propaganda TV

Current Time broadcasts in Russian from Capitol Hill

IGOR TIHONENKO, green-eyed, with sandy blond hair and a trim beard, looks into the camera and intones, “I took his words as a direction.” He is paraphrasing the explosive testimony of the former FBI director, James Comey, about President Donald Trump. Mr Tihonenko, a native of Belarus, is broadcasting live in Russian on the day of the Comey hearing to an audience in Russia and the states on its periphery. Shortly afterwards his Russian colleague, Roman Mamonov, checks in with a correspondent at one of the Washington bars that opened early to allow political junkies to drink along with the testimony. The hearing was broadcast in its entirety on the network (and on Facebook) in simultaneous Russian translation

This is American state television, beamed from a studio beside Capitol Hill. Mr Tihonenko and Mr Mamonov are two of the youthful faces of Current Time, America’s answer to Russia Today (RT), the Kremlin’s propaganda network. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has started a 24-hour Russian-language TV channel to counter the rise of RT and Sputnik, another pervasive Russian broadcaster. Viewers of Current Time in Russia proper cannot be many—it started quietly in October, and is available there only online or by satellite. No cable providers will carry it.

<snip>

http://www.economist.com/news/united-st ... propaganda

[burnedatstake]

I do not think that the Third World War will begin. Everyone understands that it will be the last in the history of mankind. It's just politics and internal problems of Russia, from which the authorities thus distract their population)

i think there is merit to this opinion. i look at what is happening today - and see similarities to the time of exploration and conquest. only the exploration is facilitated by the world wide web - and the conquest is all about economy and share. russia is a distraction because they dont fight with "honor" (or like red coats) and line up to be shot. as such there is less control globally in regards to russia and for that matter china. and this is demonized by the west.

[Bpeep]

I do not think that the Third World War will begin. Everyone understands that it will be the last in the history of mankind. It's just politics and internal problems of Russia, from which the authorities thus distract their population)

Considering that at any time for many years, there has been much less than 20 countries at any time not engaged in conflict, and a "world war" is defined as large scale war involving many of the countries of the world or many of the most powerful and populous ones, its safe to assume we are, and have been for a considerable time,mired in the midst of ww3.
Wws 1 and 2 have been recognized retroactively as such, but ww3 is very different than the last two have been.

Ww3 is an economic war, a war driven by greed and profit by the largest business interests on the planet.
It's a war that isn't and won't be defined with a beginning or end, the winners are economic interests but they will never be declared as winners, the losers are the world's poorest, they aren't declared losers but instead are victims.
Few geopolitical boundaries will change.

Many may disagree, but if one considers what defined the first two world wars as world wars, you'll recognize that the global situation as it has been for quite some time fits, indeed exceeds the same criteria.

The world's largest interests have the very people who are paying for (and providing the profit that comes with it) duped, pacified into thinking that the expendable corporate pawns fighting this war are "heroes" and are "fighting for our freedom".
The same interests waste munitions in order to justify continuing to buy more from the very companies they and their cronies control, all with tax dollars, justified with whatever story necessary to spoon feed the public and garner support for their money.

The first victim of war is the truth, and mainstream media in the western world is tightly controlled by political interests.
Flipping back and forth between CNN and Fox should be enough to give example.

The incredible size of the economy of war dictates that ww3 will not only continue, but it is impossible to end it without world wide economic disaster.
The economy of war is up there in scale with that of the economies of iron and oil.
The"leaders" (who are controlled by the very interests financing, supplying, and profiting on ww3) will never expose to their subjects anything more than the propaganda needed to maintain public support for the expenditures close to what economics can justify taking.
China will be manufacturing more of their own munitions and buying less from companies like Boeing . As a result the USA must increase its military budgets to offset the loss of sales to the chinese- which is happening now.
It's all, and only, about the money.

It's not about conquering, it is exclusively about the expenditure and use of insanely valuable assets and munitions, and the repeated production and sales of them.
I think the current price tag on a tomahawk cruise is about 1.8 million USD.

The theaters of war are in the countries with little assets owned by the elite who pose little threat to the interests.
Ww3 will never be fought in the countries containing significant special interests assets or in countries that pose significant threat to those interests.

The people are duped.
Fooled and lied to by the very institutions they are convinced to trust.

What constitutes ww3?
Bombs going off in your neighborhood?
Nukes?
How about gauging it with the same criteria the first two were?
Ww3 has been going on for a long time.
And it very likely won't end in your lifetime.
Don't go fooling yourself.

[Queen K]

It's a frightening thought to go back to days of.....just conversing with neighbours and people you know and met.

Seriously, I feel as though the on-line community is more informed and better connected than most of our grandparents were on any given day considering how limited they were in scope.

Those who have mastered the art of using solar electricity and solar chargers will be marginally better than those who never gave it a try or thought.

Those who have land, as in a yard geared to growing food, had better be prepared to protect it. And know-how. I predict canning jars and know how would be at a premium. And God help those who just depended on the internet for information.

[Bpeep]

https://www.castanet.net/news/World/223 ... king-Syria
The USA tossed 47 million dollars worth of stale dated tomahawk cruise missiles on a single airstrip in Syria last year and caused minimal damage. Lol.

And now those missiles are costing you an extra mill each .
It's a no brainer why they're at it again.
There's not a word you read in the media about these issues that carries an iota of truth.
It's all to spoon feed the taxpayers to maintain consent.
It's hard to get money from a society in a tax revolt.

There's a lot of money in this game.
For a lot of big players.