the major Russian propaganda, hacking, and election interference campaign maligned by sweaty hate potatoes like greenwald, tracey, and taibbi was in fact very real, episode 7,000: https://t.co/kgNxBZy0a5
— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) July 29, 2022
There are others who will have much more useful opinions about all this, but just to make sure the whole mess doesn’t get overlooked in the general news tsunami…
… As alleged in the indictment, from at least December 2014 until March 2022, Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a resident of Moscow, together with at least three Russian officials, engaged in a years-long foreign malign influence campaign targeting the United States. Ionov is the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), an organization headquartered in Moscow and funded by the Russian government. Ionov utilized AGMR to carry out Russia’s influence campaign.
“Ionov allegedly orchestrated a brazen influence campaign, turning U.S. political groups and U.S. citizens into instruments of the Russian government,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The Department of Justice will not allow Russia to unlawfully sow division and spread misinformation inside the United States.”
According to the indictment, Ionov — working under the supervision of the FSB and with the Russian government’s support — recruited political groups within the United States, including U.S. Political Group 1 in Florida, U.S. Political Group 2 in Georgia, and U.S. Political Group 3 in California, and exercised direction or control over them on behalf of the FSB. Specifically, Ionov provided financial support to these groups, directed them to publish pro-Russian propaganda, coordinated and funded direct action by these groups within the United States intended to further Russian interests, and coordinated coverage of this activity in Russian media outlets. Ionov also relayed detailed information about this influence campaign to three FSB officials…
Early in the conspiracy, senior members of U.S. Political Group 1, UIC-1, UIC-2, and UIC-3 exchanged emails about the fact that Ionov was working on behalf of the Russian government. For example, in September 2015, Ionov paid for UIC-1 to attend an AGMR-sponsored “Dialogue of Nations” conference in Moscow. Upon his return to Florida, UIC-1 reported to the leadership of U.S. Political Group 1 that AGMR is “a solid institution of Russian politic,” and that it was “clear” that AGMR was “an instrument of [the] Russian government,” which, UIC-1 wrote, did not “disturb us.” The following week, in an email discussion, U.S. Political Group 1 leaders observed that it was “more than likely” that the Russian government was using AGMR “to utilize forces inside of the U.S. to sew [sic] division inside the United States.”…
Ionov used his control over U.S. Political Group 1 leaders to foster discord within the United States, to spread pro-Russian propaganda under the guise of a domestic political organization, and to interfere in local elections. For example, in January 2016, Ionov guaranteed financing for — and ultimately funded — a four-city protest tour undertaken by U.S. Political Group 1 in support of a “Petition on Crime of Genocide against African People in the United States,” which it had previously submitted to the United Nations at Ionov’s direction. Later, in 2017 and 2019, Ionov monitored and supported the St. Petersburg, Florida, political campaigns of UIC-3 and UIC-4. In 2019, before the primary election, Ionov wrote to a Russian official that he had been “consulting every week” on the campaign. After UIC-4 advanced to the general election, FSB Officer 1 wrote to Ionov that “our election campaign is kind of unique,” and asked, “are we the first in history?” Ionov later sent FSB Officer 1 additional details about the election, referring to UIC-4 as the candidate “whom we supervise.”
According to the indictment, Ionov’s relationship with U.S. Political Group 1 continued until at least March 2022. Specifically, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Political Group 1 repeatedly hosted Ionov via video conference to discuss the war, during which Ionov falsely stated that anyone who supported Ukraine also supported Nazism and white supremacy. In a report to the FSB, Ionov explained that he had enlisted U.S. Political Group 1 to support Russia in the “information war unleashed” by the West.
Alongside his malign foreign influence efforts with U.S. Political Group 1, Ionov also exercised direction and control over U.S. Political Group 3, an organization based in California whose primary goal was to promote California’s secession from the United States. In January and February of 2018, Ionov supported U.S. Political Group 3’s efforts — led by the organization’s founder (UIC-6)—to orchestrate a protest demonstration at the California Capitol building in Sacramento. Ionov partially funded the efforts and attempted to direct UIC-6 to physically enter the governor’s office. Later, Ionov sent various media reports covering the demonstration and U.S. Political Group 3’s broader efforts to FSB Officer 1, writing that FSB Officer 1 had asked for “turmoil” and stating, “there you go.”
According to the indictment, Ionov also directed the efforts of U.S. Political Group 2, based in Atlanta. For example, as recently as March 2022, Ionov paid for members of U.S. Political Group 2 — including its founder (UIC-5) — to travel from Atlanta to San Francisco to protest at the headquarters of a social media company that had placed content restrictions on posts supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ionov sent UIC-5 designs for signs used at the protest and funded cross-country travel for UIC-5 and other members of U.S. Political Group 2. After the protest, Ionov sent UIC-5 a picture of a Russian news website’s social media page, which displayed a Russian-language news story about the protest.
Ionov is charged with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors…
DOJ just indicted Aleksandr Ionov, one of convicted Russian spy Maria Butina's financial backers, for working with domestic political groups/figures to undermine American democracy.https://t.co/Bk7cqOl9pF
— Luke O'Brien (@lukeobrien) July 29, 2022
Maria Butina cameo:
More details from Treasury: https://t.co/d143xhkOfU pic.twitter.com/MTxjnYtnkx
— Aaron Schaffer (@aaronjschaffer) July 29, 2022
Our 2021 report from @4freerussia_org has everything you need to know about Russia's links with multiple American secessionist groups, and Ionov's leading role therein: https://t.co/6bqPChnkek
— Casey Michel 🇰🇿 (@cjcmichel) July 29, 2022
Not enough of a DOJ whisperer to know what all this signifies, but it seems notable that three different section chiefs agreed to sign the Ionov indictment. https://t.co/dxK9ccNwMm pic.twitter.com/cKnEmpnTUz
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) July 29, 2022
Last year, @elisethoma5
wrote a piece for us on Ionov and his CIPDH group. They're a bonkers group that issues fake passports and license plates around the world. https://t.co/PiRE7FSbzp— Aric Toler (@AricToler) July 29, 2022
Groups #1-2 pushed for reparations, #3 for secession for California. Russia funded groups on the left and right both; anything divisive was good. Sometimes they even partnered: Black Hammer's Gazi Kodzo & Proud Boys' Gavin McInnes agree vaccines are bad. (h/t @EvanAxelbank) 6/ pic.twitter.com/bdCWr4vMVr
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) July 30, 2022
god, just recalling the endless, smug, dismissive substack missives about how the whole Russian influence operation wasn't real, the DNC hacked itself, or the online propaganda campaign was just some bros pushing shitty memes in broken english
— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) July 29, 2022
Chris Gerrib – One Of Our Spaceships Is Missing
JaySinWA
Joe Biden has rebound COVID https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-tests-positive-covid-19-white-house-doctor/story?id=87680588&cid=social_twitter_abcn
Doing well so far
ETA I see this was announced in comments earlier in another post.
UncleEbeneezer
Maybe you could get Adam to do a post on this? I’d love to hear his take.
Matt McIrvin
OK, it’s kind of hilarious that Calexit was straight-up a Russian front.
hilts
h/t https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/30/trump-sorry-cruz-2016-insults-paul-manafort-book
Wapiti
@Matt McIrvin: Didn’t we sort of know that, when the guy who was leading Calexit disappeared and then popped up in Russia?
Confirmation is good, though.
trollhattan
Huh, well I missed this entirely and now am sad. Rooskies in my backyard!
JaySinWA
This indictment reads like an episode of The Americans. Russian involvement in black socialist movements was a key plot point. Of course the whole series was based on fictionalized real life events.
The Calexit involvement is new to me, and the Black Hammer group was just involved in a standoff.
Grumpy Old Railroader
And just released is a report by Yale, Penn and Warsaw School of Economics detailing the implosion of Russia’s economy. It paints a pretty bleak picture for Russia
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4167193
The report is 100 page PDF file but you can skip to the slide deck at the end and see all the charts and Grafs used.
From the Lead-in summary
Spanky
I’m really wanting to know who all the UICs are
ETA- And how long they’ll remain unindicted.
piratedan
kind of nice to see continued vindication of the fact that there was subversion of our elections and who was behind it. Fits nicely in with the realization that our Democracy is indeed under assault and who was doing the assaulting and who is aiding and abetting that assault.
would be nice for those who have been running interference to suffer some repercussions.
zhena gogolia
Also enjoyed the Gaetz hot mic news today (WaPo).
schrodingers_cat
The subversion of our elections and the disinfo campaigns is not over. The money is funneled to both right and the left. Its not a coincidence that we have red hats and red roses both telling us that Democrats suck.
Cameron
Sorry, I’ve got to get hold of myself before I bust up laughing. If the best this bozo could do was to recruit a bunch of fringe lunatics, I don’t really think the Old Republic has much to worry about from him. Ace of Spies he ain’t.
Baud
@Cameron:
Well, these were the ones that got caught.
Ken
@JaySinWA: I understand he’s quarantining again. Personally I think this would be a great time to hold some face-to-face meetings with Senate Republicans to discuss their differences.
Baud
@Ken:
Biological attack!
Ken
@Baud: You might say that. I couldn’t possibly comment.
Besides, most of them still publicly deny the virus is harmful, or even that it exists, so it will be fun to see how they squirm. Then again I’m sure they’ve all had their four shots, and probably a few extras.
zhena gogolia
I wish I could remember which commenter here told me that, for those of us who don’t have a twitter account, when you go to read a Twitter thread and it stops you, all you have to do is hit “Sign up,” then hit the X in the upper left corner of the box that appears, and then you can read the thread. No need to do incognito window or anything. It’s magic! I have no idea why I never tried this.
Mallard Filmore
Oh WOW! I’ve always wanted a passport from the Principality of Unionpenny.
(RIP Vaughn Bode)
mali muso
@zhena gogolia: Going to try this hack asap. It’s become SO annoying trying to read more than 3-4 tweets in a row.
Ken
@zhena gogolia: Do tell, or at least link.
JaySinWA
@JaySinWA: I guess I vaguely remember some of the CalExit stuff, but this is more detail: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/19/hes-the-founder-of-a-californian-independence-movement-just-dont-ask-him-why-he-lives-in-russia/
There’s a lot of info about the Russian connection, apparently he had a lot of RT press. The article has him claiming his wife is still in California at the time, but the Yes campaign says she is with him in Russia.
zhena gogolia
@Ken:
And more. He tells him about what he read about him in the unredacted Mueller report.
ETA: It’s like a roadshow Goodfellas.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Thanks.
Ken
@zhena gogolia: This is wonderful. Now I can catch up on the DPRK News Service. (It, cracked.com, and Balloon Juice are where I get all my news and political opinions.)
Baud
@Ken:
In order of credibility.
dmsilev
Dog worries about consequences of catching car:
Some Republicans fear party is too extreme on abortion and gay rights
Maybe you should have thought about that before, you know, jamming through Supreme Court appointments of ideological fanatics?
twbrandt (formerly tom)
As this is an open thread, the clown show that is the republican gubernatorial primary here in Michigan is getting very entertaining. with five candidates ranging from the not totally insane auto dealer Kevin Rinke to Jan. 6 insurrectionist Ryan Kelly. The DeVos
familycrime syndicate is backing a candidate named Tudor Dixon (yes, that’s her name), who, among other claims to fame, acted in a movie where she was eaten by two zombies, and another where she played a vampire who slashed a woman’s neck with a sword.Dixon, for some reason, leads in polling, so other candidates are running ads accusing her of being backed by “never-Trumpers”, of opposing Donald Trump’s “vision”, of being a RINO, and in voting for Democrats in the past (the horror!, and that they are true MAGA.
So Trump up and endorses Tudor Dixon.
The butthurt from the other candidates is quite entertaining – saying Trump was “misled”, “lied to”, “didn’t do his homework”.
Whoever is the GOP nominee, I think Gretchen Whitmer will do just fine.
(edited for grammar, punctuation)
Ken
Not a subscriber, so I can’t read the article, but were any of them named? Or did they all prefer to speak on condition of anonymity
so they wouldn’t be in the next round of purgesso they could speak frankly about their views?Wyatt Salamanca
Joe Cirincione provides an excellent rebuttal to the disinformation that John Mearsheimer has been spewing about the war between Ukraine and Russia:
What’s Missing from Mearsheimer’s Analysis of the Ukraine War
https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/whats-missing-mearsheimers-analysis-ukraine-war
Another Scott
@Baud:
Obligatory repost WaPo (from May 2017):
Lots of twisty passages interconnecting lots and lots of things…
Maybe the January 6 committee can get Granny Starver to testify about what else went on in the “real family”…
Grrr…,
Scott.
dm
I’ve been pretty impressed the way the right wing has managed to get bits of the mainstream media to both-sides conspiracy-theory lunacy by turning the idea of Russian involvement with the Trump campaign (and the right wing in general) into a “conspiracy theory based solely on the discredited Steele dossier”.
H.E.Wolf
@zhena gogolia: Thank you for passing the info along!
Bill Arnold
Roger Stone was more involved in the 2016 DNC/Podesta hacks and the related election 2016 ratfucking than investigators know; fairly sure. That guy seriously deserves a lot of misery. He should spend his remaining life in prison for his 2016 activities, but if the DoJ nails him on some 2021-insurrection-related charges, that would be acceptable.
Almost Retired
@JaySinWA: Makes me wonder if the Russians are funding the State of Jefferson secession movement from Oregon and California? If it worked, I figure there would soon be a civil war over whether the new state capital should be Redding or Medford.
Bill Arnold
@dm:
Some of the “discredited” parts of the Steele dossier are in fact true. I am fairly sure.
MattF
@Grumpy Old Railroader: And if you want a specific example of Russian economic disinformation getting into western media, there’s this.
MisterDancer
Whew. This is BAD, albeit not unexpected.
The thing I keep coming back to is how this is the first (to my awareness) official acknowledgment of how some of the uglier Black-majority political groups have been suborned. And what’s sad is — I kind of get it.
I mean, we all know about the long-running Soviet program to formet racial dissent in America. Hell, one of my former fave book series, The Dresden Files, features a character who’s the son of black folx who the Soviets basically paid to migrate to Russia.
And I openly and directly compare that, and the findings here, to stuff like the GOP getting column inches in the local newspaper by recruiting (and I use that word with care) my own Mother to “convert”, a few years before she died.
She came over cheap — a lot cheaper than, say, Jane Roe did. I’ll come back to this point.
The thing is, and maybe I’m just biased, it’s hard for me to see most of the people wrapped too far up around, say, Reparations as “evil.” I’ve just personally known too many of them, including, yes, my Mom (although her poison was School Choice), who just grew up under horrific conditions, from Jim Crow to Urban Blight, conditions where the mainstream — including the Progressive Movement, in the main — utterly rejected their pleas, much less gave them a seat at the table.
That set a stage where these forces could sing out to them. My Mother, or my Trump-loving Cousin, think they were/are rebels, the only ones to see the system for what it is. And the people who recruit them, be they internal or external to America, know how to play that, how to redirect their anger. It’s not at the actual real threats, but at Democrats who appear both feckless AND all-powerful, in their twisted-up eyes.
Add to that money enough to get, sometimes, off the ramen train, and yeah, it’s a hot mess. Even without the money, there’s just so many networks of assholes eager to sing in your ear, that once you’re cuaght, even the best of intentions gets it twisted. Add in the money — a little or a lot — and it’s a unholy trainwreak of influence, all too often hidden behind the best of intentions.
I’m not pretending, for a moment, that there aren’t some real bad actors in this bunch. The grace I mention above is hard to extend to these Black Hammer wankers, who decided palling around with The Fuckin’ Proud Boys was a good look.
But, look — I read a lot of the threads linked above, in full, as well as threads leading off of it, and some of the older material background reporting on Ionov and related movements. I see a lot of ugly parallels that we, as a legit Progressive Movement, likely need to be aware and thoughtful of. Beating up on Rose Twitter is fun, sometimes, but we also have to think if some of these people are legit brainwashed by actual bad actors, and what that means for our movement’s long term success.
Bill Arnold
@Wyatt Salamanca:
A-hole Mearsheimer can shut up until he donates both kidneys, 1/2 his liver, 5 units of blood, some bone marrow (for the pain!), and 1000 square centimeters of skin to the needy. (If he is already missing any of these, he can substitute other vital organs).
Martin
I saw the 3 groups and tried to think of which one in California it might be. Minutemen seemed to be long over by then, so my next guess was CalExit. Sure enough…
MisterDancer
I think it’s not paranoia to assume they are, frankly. I think there’s a frothing and unholy mixture of America and Foreign billionaire money, on top of Russian active measures, powering most of these movements.
For Russia specifically, even if 2016 hadn’t been a wild success, they are willing to play a long-assed game with America. And I’d bet anything they are trading some tactics and strategies with the people being hired with billionaire money to suborn and inflate these movements. There’s very likely a general alignment of tactics, if not goals, among all these groups — and the lack of ethics only inflates their ability to work in parallel towards these actions.
Martin
@Almost Retired: Can’t speak for Oregon, but those groups have no pull in CA. They’re good at fucking things up in conservative areas, but everyone else just ignores them.
Grumpy Old Railroader
What??? I thought it was a foregone conclusion that the State Of Jefferson would locate its Capitol in Weed, CA
Almost Retired
@Martin: yeah it’s a total joke, but every six months or so, like clockwork, the LA Times will do an article on the Jefferson movement (or, more recently), the tea party vs. QAon battle in Shasta County. Just like Texas has Austin, California has Redding and Bakersfield.
JaySinWA
@MisterDancer: The WA/OR/BC version of Jefferson is Cascadia. There were a series of investigative articles about the white nationalist influence taking over Cascadia politics here with links back to European Neo-nazis.
I believe there is a lot of Russian influence in the neo-nazi movements in the US and Europe.
trollhattan
@Almost Retired: “Splitters!”
They can “declare” themselves as whatever they choose, but there’s no mechanism for carving a hunk from three states and making a big, mostly Anglo, instant-welfare fifty-first state.
Splitting California in two and even three pieces has been a topic since the nineteenth century. One supposes that is less complicated than the other scenario. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I still say we combine the Dakotas and tack them onto Montana. Then they earn their two senators.
Almost Retired
@Grumpy Old Railroader: I would totally support the establishment of the State of Jefferson if it agreed not to have any Senators and make Weed its capital.
JaySinWA
@Almost Retired: I don’t see it as a joke. All of these movements are being probed for weakness and used to probe for weakness in the states and country. Creating discord and havoc.
See Constitutional Sheriffs, and the Idaho panhandle Republican party extremist takeover. There are real threats out there many born out of ridiculous groups.
CarolPW
@Almost Retired: Bakersfield at least had Merle Haggard, and Weed has (or at least had) a good bakery. Redding has fuckall. Well, Redding does have the sundial bridge, which I admire.
West of the Rockies
@Almost Retired:
I will note that the ludicrous State of Jefferson crap has been a thing since the late 70’s at least. Maybe Russian influence is more recent. 🤔
trollhattan
@CarolPW: We were on the Sundial Bridge on the solstice at 1:00 (solar noon, more or less) totally by accident. It was very cool (TBH it was hot but you already knew that).
dmsilev
@Ken: Actually mostly named sources. Nearly all of whom are consultants and strategists and so forth; Nancy Mace was I think the one GOP Rep quoted in the article.
JaySinWA
@West of the Rockies: Jefferson dates back at least to the 1930’s and was revived in 1941 with an armed pseudo “rebellion”, Faded out after Pearl Harbor and was revived again later. Cascadia has similar historic routes with different factions taking the name and some of the historic claims, bolting it on to whatever cause they were pushing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_(proposed_Pacific_state)#20th_century
ETA I doubt many of the separatist movements are just Russian influence operations, but I’m sure many are being used to promote discord by Russia.
Almost Retired
@MisterDancer: Yeah, good point. The Jefferson bullshit has been around for awhile, but I had mostly forgotten about it until a few years ago. That could be attributable to the rise of the paranoid right or recent Russian mischief or both.
West of the Rockies
@JaySinWA:
Good info! I only knew SoJ was already a movement when I moved to NorCal in ’74. The local militia movement seems to be part and parcel with it.
CarolPW
@trollhattan: Sacramento has lots of bridges but none of them are particularly admirable. The Jibboom Street Bridge was the best, with a very nice old-time flavor but I see it is no longer in use.
West of the Rockies
@MisterDancer:
I admire your ability to see the humanity in people (even the foolish).
OT, I think it would be great to have a post about how reparations might work. I’d start with free college for all Black and Native folks from year one through Ph.D.
JaySinWA
@West of the Rockies: Cascadia has had 2 or possibly 3 groups try and claim they are the real Cascadia movement, North eastern WA militia groups, Covert Neo Nazis in Seattle and an eco group on the west coast.
Rokka
@CarolPW: Haggard moved to Shasta Lake a long time ago.
CarolPW
@Rokka: My favorite song. He did it better than even Emmylou.
West of the Rockies
@CarolPW:
Yes, Turtle Bay museum is decent (it’s no Exploratorium). I taught for some years at Shasta College. Redding is definitely a notably religious, conservative community.
West of the Rockies
@JaySinWA:
I knew Idaho has had such groups for decades. Eastern WA is definitely pretty damn red. I didn’t know you had your own little secessionist movement.
JaySinWA
Eastern WA and Eastern OR have people including elected politicians that argue we should split the states roughly on the mountain ranges. Economic suicide for them.
Gin & Tonic
@hilts: Manafort lies like you and I breathe.
Kent
@West of the Rockies:
Washingtonian here. Eastern Washington isn’t really *that* red. Just out of curiosity I took the 2020 election results and split the state between east of the Cascades and west of the Cascades. The election totals for all the counties east of the Cascades came out:
Biden: 46.61% Trump 53.39%
That is reddish but hardly deep red. There are a LOT of blue voters in Spokane, Yakima, Wenatchee, Walla Walla, Pullman, and the Tri Cities, basically all the cities in eastern WA.
What is true is that RURAL eastern Washington is bright red. But so is pretty much rural any state in the country outside New England and the Indian reservations
Yes there are secessionist dipshits in both OR, WA, and far northern CA. But they are mostly a bunch of butt-hurt old white assholes who see the world passing them by. If you ask them to actually articulate their grievances they can’t hardly come up with anything other than grumbling about Federal lands management which isn’t a state issue anyway. I know. I’m related to some of them and I put them on the spot whenever I can. They basically got nothing legitimate to complain about except that the states vote blue and there is nothing they can do about it.
West of the Rockies
@Kent:
My sister lived in Pasco about 40 years ago. It seemed pretty conservative then, but I was a teenager, so my perception may have been a tad askew
The sessessionists all seem to be pining for an imaginary America from 1955.
SFAW
“Sweaty hate potatoes”? I don’t know if it should be a rotating tag, or the name for my garage band, or what.
SFAW
@hilts:
Right. Undoctored tapes, or it didn’t happen.
Kent
@West of the Rockies: The city of Pasco went for Biden with 20+ margins. It is largely Hispanic these days. But the surrounding rural parts of the county were bright red. That is for sure true.
The secessionists are just made that they can’t win state-wide elections anymore. They don’t have any specific legitimate complaints about the oppressiveness of Democratically-run state government.
James E Powell
@West of the Rockies:
I remember that State of Jefferson stuff from back then. There were several “redraw the states” proposals floating around with regional rivalries & sarcasm often playing a party in locating borders. I’m thinking it was articles in Harpers, the Atlantic, or maybe Rolling Stone.
CarolPW
@Kent: The Tri-Cities is in Benton County, which went for shit head at 59%, same as it had 4 years before. Not so blue.
James E Powell
@Kent:
I will never understand those guys or how they think they matter so much. I’m an old white asshole & I’m angry about plenty of things, but not the world passing me by. The world passes everybody by, doesn’t make them special.
Kent
@James E Powell: The state of Jefferson bullshit is still going on. The epicenter these days is Redding CA which is a hot mess of evangelical crazies and secessionists that went nuclear when Covid happened. The latest news from yesterday is that Russian agents were funding some of it:
https://www.businessinsider.com/california-secession-movement-was-backed-by-russia-us-alleges-2022-7
Here is some additional reading on the topic
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/23/california-shasta-county-far-right-extremists-politics-pandemic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/07/california-far-right-militia/
Kent
@CarolPW: Pasco is in Franklin County not Benton County.
You can drill down and see the actual votes in each city here contrasted to the surrounding counties. You will see that Pasco is largely blue or purple. Kennewick and Richland are definitely more red.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/upshot/2020-election-map.html
Most of the election maps show results by county not city so the blue nature of some eastern WA cities is hidden. Most of the cities even in eastern WA have a blue core.
If Spokane and the other cities in eastern WA keep growing while the rural areas keep shrinking we could soon see the point at which even eastern WA votes blue in the aggregate. We aren’t that far away as it is. Only about 7 percentage points which is about the same as Florida.
CarolPW
@CarolPW: And Benton County (Tri-Cities) and Franklin County (Pasco) have low to mid 50% covid vaccination rates.
phdesmond
@zhena gogolia:
that’s a nice discovery.
Kent
They actually are funding the state of Jefferson bullshit. That was revealed yesterday
https://www.businessinsider.com/california-secession-movement-was-backed-by-russia-us-alleges-2022-7
Jackie
@CarolPW: I’ve been pushing everyone I know to vote for Doug White. With our jungle primary, I’m terrified we’ll end up voting for Newhouse vs Culp or Sessions. Bad or worse options.
Kent
And there is actually a separate leftwing Cascadia movement to combine OR, WA, and British Columbia together into a single eco-state along the lines of say Sweden: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_(independence_movement)
CarolPW
@Kent: OK, so one of the three cities in the Tri-Cities voted blue. Kennewick was a sundown town, and Richland was Manhattan Project. Pasco has the same Republican US house representative as I do, and Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick each have Republicans in the Statehouse.
Matt McIrvin
@MisterDancer: Reparations are, morally, a good and correct idea. It’s just… politically it seems so hopeless that feeding that hope is fertile ground for grifters and ghouls, I guess.
Matt McIrvin
@Kent: That’s different–the State of Jefferson was a proposal for a new state separating from California, not California seceding from the US.
Kent
@CarolPW: My only point is that there are a LOT of Democrats in eastern Washington that tend to get hidden when you only look at the county-by-county totals because they are concentrated in the cities. Overall the total margins are not that red. But it is like Texas in that the Republicans have just enough of majorities across the region to basically dominate government despite only getting about 53.5% of the vote. That is the difference between a region being all blue or all red. About 7%.
JaySinWA
@Kent:
I don’t see that in the article you linked. They have tied Yes, California and it’s head living in Russia to it, and that was a CalExit movement. They might have a tie in to Jefferson state, but I don’t see it. That doesn’t mean Russia didn’t have fingers in Jefferson.
CarolPW
@Jackie: Voting for and donating to White but if it comes down to another republican vs Newhouse I’ll hold my nose and vote for Newhouse, just like I did for him over Didier. At least Newhouse voted for the same-sex marriage bill, and to impeach Trump the second time. We have had worse.
lowtechcyclist
@twbrandt (formerly tom):
That last one must’ve caught them totally by surprise! Everybody knows how hard Trump works.
Kent
@JaySinWA: Try this
Matt McIrvin
@Kent: I keep thinking about this article I saw about the Vermont secessionist movement, which was this nominally leftist, hippie, environmentalist thing… but whose leaders would go to meetings of secessionist movements from different states and pal around with neo-Confederates. And saw nothing wrong with this. It was about the whitest thing imaginable, I suppose.
RaflW
Karl Bode has become an essential follow (maybe he always was, but somehow it seems he just really picked up steam of late). And ‘sweaty hate potatoes’ is {chef’s kiss}.
mrmoshpotato
@piratedan:
Agreed.
Totally agree.
schrodingers_cat
OT: I am here for the burn, Clyburn! Time interview here
Grumpy Old Railroader
Giving away your age. Only us old timers remember when the I Street Bridge was called the Jibboom St Bridge. It is still in use for both vehicle and railroad traffic. I must have been over that bridge on trains thousands of times before I retired. They are going to build a new rail bridge just to the north. Do not know if that is started or not.
Jackie
@CarolPW: Ditto; I REALLY hope Dems and Independents come through for White!
JaySinWA
@Kent: Tweet links to same article. Still no reference to Jefferson state. Different group.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia:
😯 It’s working! Thanks for passing on this info, and thanks to whomever let it be known!
CarolPW
@Grumpy Old Railroader: I lived in Sacramento and got my Doctorate at UCD, so made the commute a lot. I used the drive time to plan experiments and go over previous findings so did not mind the travel at all, and used to vary my route often. The Jibboom St bridge was the way I would get to the levee road on the south side of the Sacramento River to go to Woodland and then to Davis.
Kent
@JaySinWA: I think the same people from Redding who tried to occupy the state Capital in Sacramento are also part of the northern CA secession movement.
Villago Delenda Est
Tulsi Gabbard, Glemm Greenwald, and Jill Stein all approve in the manner of the Supreme Soviet applauding a speech by Josef Stalin.
lowtechcyclist
Upper East Tennessee has them beat by about a century and a half with the State of Franklin.
Villago Delenda Est
@JaySinWA: Probably involved in the idiotic “Greater Idaho” movement, in which the counties that rely on the Willamette Valley to fund their infrastructure needs seek to bite the hand.
Origuy
Speaking of the State of Jefferson, it’s on fire. The McKenny Fire at the CA-OR state line has exploded to over 30,000 acres. It started yesterday and blew up overnight.
RaflW
The BBC had a pretty keen insight into YesCalifornia way back in 2017.
Yes California
The California independence movement has been spearheaded by a group called Yes California. One of the group’s co-founders, Louis Marinelli, opened a self-styled California embassy in Moscow, and later moved to Siberia.
Marinelli attended a conference of Western secession movements in 2016, along with representatives from similar groups from Texas, Puerto Rico and Northern Ireland. The conference was organised by the Anti-Globalisation Movement, a group that has received money from the Russian government, according to Casey Michel, a reporter for the left-wing news site ThinkProgress.
“It had received funding from the Kremlin to organise this conference to pay for the travel and lodging of American and European secession movements,” Michel says.
Marinelli denies any links to the Kremlin or receiving any money from the Russian government. He tells [BBC]Trending he now plans to return to the United States and rejoin the independence movement which he co-founded.
“I know a lot of people had some problems with us reaching out to Russia, but what we like to remind people is that when the United States was looking to become an independent country, they looked to France,” Marinelli says. “We didn’t ask for financial support or military support from Russia.”
Anonymous At Work
UIC is Un-Indicted or Un-Identified, plus Citizen, Conspirator, or what?
Ken
My prediction for these secessionist movements is that, if any of them ever somehow succeeded, the leaders would be dragged from their new statehouse and beaten to death by a bunch of senior citizens about two weeks after the Social Security checks stopped.
Sister Golden Bear
@Kent:
Fixed it for you.
planetjanet
I am dying to know who was the candidate for governor they were supporting. I checked all the names in that Capitol Hunters tweet, but none of them appear to be the one.
Sister Golden Bear
@Villago Delenda Est:
That’s exactly the same as the Jefferson folks. The North Coast and Cascade regions have a combined population of about 450,000 and most of the area is too rugged to be inhabitable or arable. Needless to say they’re hugely dependent on the subsidies from the urban areas they despise to keep them financially afloat, and provide essential services.
If they actually did secede, I suppose the marijuana industry might keep them afloat — but their leaders would be run out of office the moment they proposed taxing the weed growers.
Jackie
@Kent: This, from the WaPo, reiterates what CarolWP and I have been saying re WA Congressional district 4:
“The district Newhouse represents is so conservative that twice in his four elections the top two vote-getters were Republican candidates in the all-in state primary system, so the November general election was an all-Republican contest.
There is a possibility that could happen again, thus extending his race until November.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/30/republican-candidates-election-primary/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_politics
Benton and Franklin Counties are Redder than you claim.
Redshift
Here in the mid-Atlantic, I don’t think we have any secessionist groups big enough for even Russian support to make anything of. There are periodic weird ideas like proposals for western counties to join West Virginia to escape the libruls, but no ongoing groups.
(Back when the state was still Republican, we used to joke about Northern Virginia splitting off, sometimes to join with DC and the Maryland suburbs. I’m hurt we didn’t merit any Russian support.)
Kelly
The only good thing out of the State of Jefferson thing is Jefferson Public Radio which is good source of local news for SW Oregon and NW California. Good music to.
https://www.ijpr.org/
Villago Delenda Est
@Kelly: JPR is based in commie hippie soshulist Ashland, though.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Villago Delenda Est: Maybe the liberal utopia of Jefferson State should have its capital in Ashland ;P //
Kelly
@Villago Delenda Est: True
prostratedragon
The master of the house live at Legends back in January, when he was a mere 85. “Slippin Out,” “Feels Like Rain,” a voice lesson, and some impressions of other blues greats.
Happy Birthday, Buddy Guy.
Kent
@Jackie: Yes, but the 4th isn’t all of eastern Washington. The 5th which includes Spokane is not so red. It was Trump +9 compared to the 4th which was Trump +39. And the 8th spreads into central WA and it is blue. It was Biden +7. It includes Wenatchee and Ellensburg and all the rural areas inbetween.
My point was that all of eastern WA combined (all counties east of the Cascades) is +7 Republican which is not remotely as conservative as say Wyoming which is +38 Republican, or Idaho, which is +30 Republican.
kindness
I’d like to see the totals of how much Russia bankrolled Jill Stein’s campaign. Or Lindsey Graham’s for that matter. If I’m feeling generous I think they (FSB) have compromising video of Lindsey. Cause otherwise he’s doing it just for the money and that is kinda treason, ya know?
Jackie
@Kent: I guess I’m saying my focus is on the 4th district – where I live and vote. It doesn’t matter that the 5th district is less red – their votes don’t persuade voters in my district. I’m working hard to GOTV to vote Blue and at least get a Democrat on the General Election ballot.
Then pray enough voters are fed up with Trump and are pissed off about women and girls losing full human status to actually vote Blue.
Kent
@Jackie: Likewise here in the 3rd. We are campaigning hard for Marie Gluesenkamp Perez here and I expect/hope she will advance along with Jaime Herrera Beutler to the general. There are no less than 4 MAGA candidates challenging Jaime but I expect they will split all the MAGA vote between them. Marie has the Dem slate all to herself. The only other Dem on the ballot dropped out and endorsed her. His name is still there but any Dem who is paying the slightest bit of attention should know that.
Here there is a chance Marie could actually win if everything goes right. This district isn’t that red. And I think she is a better candidate than Carolyn Long who we had the last two elections as the challenger.
Jackie
@Kent: 🤞🏻🤞🏻
James E Powell
@Kent:
Will this be on the final?
James E Powell
@Kent:
I saw a nice Please Help Marie diary at the GOS, including videos that I think I’ve seen before. I can only wish her luck because I don’t have any more money to donate at this time.
It’s an indictment of the people who live in that district that she isn’t 10 points ahead of any Republican, even the non-MAGA incumbent.
MagdaInBlack
@prostratedragon: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
cain
@Almost Retired:
Funny they don’t talk about Cascadia.
Uncle Cosmo
@Redshift: What happened to all those cretins on the Eastern Shore and their “There Is No Life West Of The Chesapeake Bay” bumpersnickers? The same ones who have that fuckhead Andy Anesthetist-High-On-His-Own-Supply Harris pencilnecked in as their Congresscritter-For-Life?? Haven’t they been pushing to secede from MD since time immemorial??
Geminid
@Uncle Cosmo: Have you read James Michener’s Chesapeake? I thought it was pretty good. Kind of dark, though.
J R in WV
@JaySinWA:
Except that there is nothing “NEO” about the Russians — just stone Nazis from the ground up! As displayed by their behavior over the past decades. Holding foreign visitors hostage for their criminals jailed abroad. Calling in bombardments on the prison camps where some of the bravest Ukranian fighters were captive. Bombing schools, apartment complexes, museums, etc, etc.
Monster Nazis with Russian names.
Miss Bianca
@twbrandt (formerly tom): The name Kevin Rinke is familiar to me…if he’s from the Detroit area, I think I may have gone to school with a Rinke or two. (granted, it’s been 40 years since I’ve had to think about that name, so I could be mistaken.)
Jinchi
It always seemed obvious that the “Russian Hoax” crowd were actually part of it all.
But it’s great to see Proud Boys and Black activists are able to get together in harmony for a common goal. Gives you hope for America’s future.
….. now where did that snark button go?
UncleEbeneezer
@MisterDancer: “I see a lot of ugly parallels that we, as a legit Progressive Movement, likely need to be aware and thoughtful of. Beating up on Rose Twitter is fun, sometimes, but we also have to think if some of these people are legit brainwashed by actual bad actors, and what that means for our movement’s long term success.”
To me, the big takeaway of all of this is that Putin really wants to stop Dems from holding Congress and the Presidency. He wants the GOP in power and we know he has taken active measures to fracture the Left. He knows which groups can help with that based on their deep animosity towards the Dem Party or America. It’s not crazy, at this point, to think that all the handwringing over “Vote Blue No Matter Who” is influenced by Russian efforts. This is why as soon as I start to see any group or person going a little too hard at Dems, blaming America for all the ills of the world and of course spreading voter apathy, it raises my hackles. Good groups with good goals and good people can still be vulnerable to manipulation by Russian influence to damage our Democracy if Russia sees them as having the potential to rat-fuck the Democratic Coalition. This is one of the reasons I have side-eye for any group that doesn’t prioritize maintaining unity of the Dem Coalition and winning elections.
RaflW
@kindness: Lindsey is doing it because he is an empty, almost* tragic figure. He has a deep need to belong and to be the bestie of some strong father figure. When that was McCain, Graham’s total lack of moral fibre didn’t matter very much.
But since he was cast adrift by he better’s death, he’s lapreyed onto the nastiest carbuncle on the ass of the GOP.
*To be actually tragic, there would have to be some inescapable reason that he cannot learn or change. But one can tell, in brief moments, that he knows better. He choses the part of soulless evil.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@UncleEbeneezer: I’ve always wondering if Andrew Yang or any of those third-party people were getting (or hoping to get) Russian money.