Our 2022 Midterms Theme Should
Be: Vigilance based on this story from Business Insider with this
headline – key parts follows:
“Top Senate Democrats sound the alarm about Russian interference in
the 2022 midterms”
Russia's history of
meddling in the U.S. underscores the urgency for 2022, senators say:
In 2016, Russia's interference campaign included hacking into
the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee to obtain
damaging internal emails, attempting to compromise state voter registration
databases, and using bot and troll farms to spread misinformation about the
candidates and sow division and anger among the American electorate on social
media.
Russia also interfered in the 2016 and in the 2020 elections, the U.S. intelligence community (IC) found, by focusing less on cyber
hacking and more on manipulating the information environment through social
media, state media, online journals, and proxies.
As other experts noted to
Insider, Russia's primary goal in interfering in the 2016 and 2020 presidential
elections was not to boost President Donald Trump, but instead to sow
fundamental distrust and undermine confidence in American democracy and
institutions.
Sens. Klobuchar and Reed wrote:
“Our democracy has been a shining beacon for the world and as we continue to
assist Ukraine and our European allies, we must also be vigilant in guarding
against threats to our own system of government. With primaries underway for
the 2022 midterm election cycle and ongoing preparations for the November
general election, it is vital that the federal government does everything in
its power to ensure the integrity of our elections against foreign threats. Russia's
history of interfering in our last three federal election cycles underscores
the urgency of the current warnings.”
As fighting rages on in
Ukraine, Russia is waging an information war both at home and abroad:
Putin has gone to extraordinary lengths to control the flow of
information in Russia amid the war in Ukraine, vying to keep Russians
in the dark on what's truly happening in Ukraine. Moscow has effectively
eliminated the independent press in Russia while criminalizing opposition to
the war. Those who speak out against Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine could
face up to 15 years in prison, based on a law Putin signed making it illegal to
spread fake news on the Russian military.
Meanwhile, Russian state news constantly peppers the Russian public with
outlandish and false claims on the war. Pro-Kremlin propagandists have peddled
a range of conspiratorial narratives to legitimize the invasion, falsely
telling Russian audiences that Ukraine is a Nazi country and that World War III
has begun. Russian state news has also claimed that apparent atrocities
committed by Russian troops, including the Bucha massacre, were staged or
fabricated by Ukrainian forces.
A feedback loop has
emerged between Russian state media and right wing media in the U.S.:
Prominent right wing figures in
the U.S., including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have echoed Russia's
propaganda and disinformation on Ukraine. Russian state TV has recycled and
applauded Carlson's commentary, which reaches millions of
Americans.
For example: As Russia gathered tens of thousands of troops on
Ukraine's border in the lead-up to the invasion in late 2021, Carlson parroted
Moscow by blaming NATO for Putin's aggression toward Kyiv.
Carlson then said: “NATO
only exists to torment Putin, but he just wants to keep his western borders
secure.”
After the invasion, Carlson also
pushed a discredited Russian conspiracy theory that the U.S. was funding
bio-weapons development at labs in Ukraine.
The false bio-labs story also
found an audience on far right social media channels in the U.S., and among
other platforms and forums, highlighting the myriad ways disinformation can
spread in today's world.
Thomas Rid, a professor at
Johns Hopkins University and expert on Russian disinformation, told the New York Times in March: “People are asking
if the far right in the U.S. is influencing Russia, or if Russia is influencing
the far right, but the truth is they are influencing each other. They are
pushing the same narratives.”
There are no signs that the
Ukraine war will end at any point in the near future. As the conflict continues
and the economic consequences of it are felt more acutely by Americans, the
circumstances could provide an ideal avenue for the proliferation of Russian
disinformation in the U.S. — sowing further discord across the country amid a
period of historic political divisions.
Read the original full article at
Business Insider here.
My 2 Cents: Two words
apply to the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential races: Be Cautious.
The above history is clear: The Russians played nasty in 2016 and wanted Trump to win, which he did – then he lost in 2020 and they have been trying everything in their playbook to get him back in power for one reason: He would lift sanctions against Putin and they would be happy clams.
No doubt about that … thus, we must remain alert and on our toes. It’s gonna get very, very ugly.
Thanks for stopping by.
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