Of M.I.C.E. and Mendacity
Sleepwalking Into Autocracy
Most background essays on Vladimir Putin portray him as either a brilliant KGB mastermind or a middle of the road spy who was ‘OK’ at his craft. Although in this article entitled “Putin's Declassified KGB Record Shows He Was No High-Flier, but a Solid B,” consider the source. Remember Peter Pomerantsev’s book?: Nothing is True but Everything is Possible
“What this meant was that, in his short-lived tenure as director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), between July 1998 and March 1999, he was by all accounts a supportive but not especially masterful figure. He understood the challenges, and was always enthusiastic and well-briefed, meticulous in his preparations.” –The Moscow Times
Putin’s rise to power and, most likely, the richest man on earth, has come at the expense of thousands of lives and a relentless hatred of the West, coupled with a megalomaniacal desire to make Mother Russia back in his image.
Since entering the US political system, Donald T***p has been rumored to be a political pawn of Putin’s. “No puppet. You’re the puppet.”
After All, He is The Color of Cheese
In espionage, which Putin is indeed an expert, the strategy to take over an asset is called M.I.C.E., which stands for Money, Ideology, Compromise and Ego. When it comes to T***p, all of these are his catnip…and articles have been written at length about how the oligarchs in Russia used T***p Tower in NY as a way-station for cash, paying millions of dollars at a time when not one single US bank would give this sleazebag a loan.
Remember when Eric (the smart one) said: ‘We have all the funding we need out of Russia?’ Because the Russians, ‘Really love golf.’ And let’s not forget the ‘Pee-pee tape.’ That one covers the Kompromat portion of the M.I.C.E. equation.
“Donald T***p was a tool in a long-running Russian campaign to weaken the United States. That’s been documented in Republican-led investigative reports, and now it has been updated with new evidence, thanks to the U.S. Intelligence Community’s assessment of the 2020 election.”I --Slate
This is why hundreds of top US security and foreign policy officials have signed on to letters endorsing Kamala Harris for president. NYT article here.
Extorting the United States
In his newly released book; War, author Bob Woodward states that, “…Dan Coats, Donald T***p's former director of national intelligence, suspects Russian President Vladimir Putin is blackmailing the Republican nominee.” Newsweek
Putin has his hands around the throat of American democracy and is squeezing tightly. It has only been in the past month that the DOJ uncovered a network of US operatives, working for the Kremlin, spreading disinformation. These are far-right, MAGA-influencers peddling Russian propaganda to their audiences for some pretty hefty sums of cash. Some even going as far as publishing propaganda created within Russia. The ‘podcasters’ claim they are innocent victims of scam, even though they were paid millions of dollars to pump out Putin’s propaganda aimed at tearing down the United States.
“An unsealed Justice Department indictment alleged that six content creators who worked for Tennessee-based Tenet Media were, unknown to them, financed by Russian nationals in a scheme to distribute Russian government messaging to U.S. audiences.” --Politifact
This is M.I.C.E. on steroids.
Enter Elon Musk, the largest purveyor of disinformation and lies on the planet. Musk purchased Twitter (XChan) two years ago and turned it into a veritable bullshit factory, personally pumping out, daily, Russian propaganda. He has recently spent millions of dollars micro-targeting voters in swing states…sending anti-Israel propaganda to Jewish targets and anti-Muslim propaganda to Muslim communities.
Elon Musk is playing Jewish and Arab American voters against each other.
Elon, or Leon as T***p calls him, might want to read a little history about how Putin handles his oligarchs. There may be a six-story window in Musk’s future.
Lilywhite Lilith
We must ask ourselves, what is it that we get from a Donald T***p? He is clearly owned and operated by Putin, he is an unintelligent and malignant narcissist…but what does it say about ‘Us?’
Donald T***p shines a light on the darkness, the darkness that is in all of us…’the darkest corners of our psyches.’ If you are a MAGA cult member, he illuminates and inspires the part of you that hates and fears. Hatred and fear of the ‘other,’ hatred of ‘the system,’ hatred that is just blind rage toward anything perceived as ‘unholy’ or ‘ungodly.’ If you want to read more on my take of the disease of religion and T***p, check out: Don’t Count the Catholics Out
If you are someone that has done ‘work,’ or The Work as Byron Katie calls it, he also inspires hatred. Any person that has done even a small amount of self-examination can see right through this con-man. But that doesn’t mean we are free of his influence. The hatred he inspires in us comes from a place of understanding. Perhaps a better word for the hatred is exasperation. It is a difficult thing to attempt to communicate with people who are resistant to looking at themselves clearly and openly. Our entire society is against this concept. We are a culture of ‘influencers’ and narcissists on social media, living avatar lives that don’t really represent reality. It can literally make us “Crazy.”
As Bulwark author, Charlie Sykes points out in his Substack, entitled “To the Contrary:” “We are not the crazy ones.”
Putin knows that the USA cannot survive without two healthy political parties. MAGA has destroyed the Republican party. Even though the country has had numerous soirées into fascism, the one thing it never had was an entire party behind the movement. Last week’s weaving and dodging by the Republican “ministers” regarding T***p’s call to use the military against private citizens should be enough to tell you that we have a serious cancer growing.
There is a meme making its way around the internet stating that November 5th is when we find out what the biopsy says. Let us pray that the United States does not need to consult a pathologist or oncologist.
“She leaves me in my darkness
I have to face, face my fear
And the darkness closes in on me
I can hear a whirring sound growing near…”
Lilywhite Lilith from: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Genesis with Peter Gabriel