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CLINT WATTS' LATEST -- THE KREMLIN PLAYBOOK 2020
Clint Watts is solid.
DU needs to review his latest advice for the Primaries and General.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlins-strategy-for-the-2020-us-election-secure-the-base-split-the-opposition
I urge DU and beyond to read the whole article. When it comes to Truth manipulation, Putin and Kremlin are chess players.
Modified Excerpts
From Russia’s perspective, the American 2020 election will require a lighter touch than 2016.
1. Their troll farm and state-sponsored news outlets won’t need to make “fake news”; America’s candidates and political parties will make plenty for American audiences.
2. Most American discussions of Kremlin influence see Putin's stance as pro-Republican and anti-Democrat.
That’s not correct.
The formula is pro-populist, anti-establishment.
On the whole, populist movements may be healthy injections of political participation...But for the Kremlin, they offer a disorganized, easily infiltrated counter to establishment governments that check Putin’s power.
Why? Because Populists often lack sufficient foreign policy knowledge; so their inexperience leaves them ill-equipped to react to Putin maneuvers.
3. In 2020, Kremlin propagandists will seek to connect populist right and populist left audiences through shared narratives designed to
-- normalize Russia’s agenda in America,
-- demoralize democratic constituents and
-- neutralize political establishment counters to Russian advances abroad and inroads into American society.
The Kremlin wants Americans on both sides of the political spectrum -- far right, far left -- using the same talking points even if they have drastically different ideologies:
-- America should withdraw from foreign battlefields and global markets, and
-- democracy is a corrupt sham that can’t be trusted.
1. Their troll farm and state-sponsored news outlets won’t need to make “fake news”; America’s candidates and political parties will make plenty for American audiences.
2. Most American discussions of Kremlin influence see Putin's stance as pro-Republican and anti-Democrat.
That’s not correct.
The formula is pro-populist, anti-establishment.
On the whole, populist movements may be healthy injections of political participation...But for the Kremlin, they offer a disorganized, easily infiltrated counter to establishment governments that check Putin’s power.
Why? Because Populists often lack sufficient foreign policy knowledge; so their inexperience leaves them ill-equipped to react to Putin maneuvers.
3. In 2020, Kremlin propagandists will seek to connect populist right and populist left audiences through shared narratives designed to
-- normalize Russia’s agenda in America,
-- demoralize democratic constituents and
-- neutralize political establishment counters to Russian advances abroad and inroads into American society.
The Kremlin wants Americans on both sides of the political spectrum -- far right, far left -- using the same talking points even if they have drastically different ideologies:
-- America should withdraw from foreign battlefields and global markets, and
-- democracy is a corrupt sham that can’t be trusted.
How? the Kremlin will simply amplify the readily available American-made content to further divide the U.S. electorate.
Putin’s propagandists will employ the “Five R’s” on American conservatives:
-- remind Americans of their missteps,
-- repost (reshare & retweet) organic American content supporting Russia’s agenda,
-- repurpose vitriolic American narratives to manipulate unwitting audiences,
-- repeat White House attacks on other Americans, and
-- route conspiracies and alternative content through fringe populist information sources.
Putin’s propagandists will employ the “Five R’s” on American conservatives:
-- remind Americans of their missteps,
-- repost (reshare & retweet) organic American content supporting Russia’s agenda,
-- repurpose vitriolic American narratives to manipulate unwitting audiences,
-- repeat White House attacks on other Americans, and
-- route conspiracies and alternative content through fringe populist information sources.
As Malcolm Nance said at USC recently, first Putin creates the Big Frame (e.g., "We Told You So"
for US right wing media.
To start: It's FRAME Russian Innocence, then FLOOD American Perfidy and Doubt.
In April, when no Mueller Report had reached Congress, Putin, echoing Barr andTrump, told an audience in St. Petersburg, which got reported by both left and right media here:
-- “We said from the start that this infamous commission of Mr. Mueller’s would not find anything because
-- nobody knows this better than us.
-- Russia did not meddle in any elections in the United States.
-- There was no collusion, as Mr. Mueller said, between Trump and Russia.”
Breitbart, Fox News, the One America News Network and the Daily Caller echo Putin. Oleg Deripaska gets some op-ed space, too.
More surprising and striking success for Russia’s disinformation are the machine repeats of Kremlin narratives by the White House itself. President Trump repeated on at least three occasions highly specific pieces of Russian propaganda alleging
-- Polish aggression toward Belarus,
-- claiming Montenegro to be an aggressive country and offering
-- that the Soviet Union went to war in Afghanistan to stop terrorists. These claims are not only false positions crafted by the Kremlin, but Trump is taking Putin’s side against U.S. allies and America’s own previously held positions.
With this many conservatives mainlining Russian thinking into American minds, the Kremlin won’t have to do much with them in 2020.
for US right wing media.
To start: It's FRAME Russian Innocence, then FLOOD American Perfidy and Doubt.
In April, when no Mueller Report had reached Congress, Putin, echoing Barr andTrump, told an audience in St. Petersburg, which got reported by both left and right media here:
-- “We said from the start that this infamous commission of Mr. Mueller’s would not find anything because
-- nobody knows this better than us.
-- Russia did not meddle in any elections in the United States.
-- There was no collusion, as Mr. Mueller said, between Trump and Russia.”
Breitbart, Fox News, the One America News Network and the Daily Caller echo Putin. Oleg Deripaska gets some op-ed space, too.
More surprising and striking success for Russia’s disinformation are the machine repeats of Kremlin narratives by the White House itself. President Trump repeated on at least three occasions highly specific pieces of Russian propaganda alleging
-- Polish aggression toward Belarus,
-- claiming Montenegro to be an aggressive country and offering
-- that the Soviet Union went to war in Afghanistan to stop terrorists. These claims are not only false positions crafted by the Kremlin, but Trump is taking Putin’s side against U.S. allies and America’s own previously held positions.
With this many conservatives mainlining Russian thinking into American minds, the Kremlin won’t have to do much with them in 2020.
In 2016, Populists on the political right were the primary focus, with the political left getting the remainder.
In 2020, this formula will likely reverse.
...identify, highlight and empower the unwitting and the like-minded on the political left. (Relevant examples of their engagement from 2016: the open courting of former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, and pursuit of the NRA and Christian communities...)
Tulsi Gabbard fell into this crossfire with her meeting with and support of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. It situated her as a bridge between anti-Israel activists of the political left and white supremacists like former KKK leader and GOP Louisiana state representative David Duke, who tweeted, “Tulsi Gabbard is currently the only Presidential candidate who doesn’t want to send White children off to die for Israel.” Alt-right leader Richard Spencer and the nationalist Mike Cernovich also fanned support for Gabbard in January 2019. We shouldn’t forget Steve Bannon sought Gabbard out for a meeting with President-elect Trump in November 2016.
Online and on-the-ground convergence between the populist right and the populist left is happening in plain sight—all the Kremlin has to do is help it grow.
Beyond Tulsi Gabbard, Russia’s propagandists will seek agents-of-influence, individuals inside the American government and media able to influence national policy. The agents they seek this time around will largely be across the political left, seeking to amplify and connect their preferred Kremlin message with that of the right.
Putin wants Americans to hear from Americans
-- that America is littered with infighting and violence between identity groups;
-- that capitalism a corrupt system empowering elites over the people;
-- that the U.S. an imperialist war mongering country,
-- that democracy is a fraud perpetrated by competing elitist factions and
-- that the nation is destined for a divided dystopian future.
In 2020, this formula will likely reverse.
...identify, highlight and empower the unwitting and the like-minded on the political left. (Relevant examples of their engagement from 2016: the open courting of former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, and pursuit of the NRA and Christian communities...)
Tulsi Gabbard fell into this crossfire with her meeting with and support of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. It situated her as a bridge between anti-Israel activists of the political left and white supremacists like former KKK leader and GOP Louisiana state representative David Duke, who tweeted, “Tulsi Gabbard is currently the only Presidential candidate who doesn’t want to send White children off to die for Israel.” Alt-right leader Richard Spencer and the nationalist Mike Cernovich also fanned support for Gabbard in January 2019. We shouldn’t forget Steve Bannon sought Gabbard out for a meeting with President-elect Trump in November 2016.
Online and on-the-ground convergence between the populist right and the populist left is happening in plain sight—all the Kremlin has to do is help it grow.
Beyond Tulsi Gabbard, Russia’s propagandists will seek agents-of-influence, individuals inside the American government and media able to influence national policy. The agents they seek this time around will largely be across the political left, seeking to amplify and connect their preferred Kremlin message with that of the right.
Putin wants Americans to hear from Americans
-- that America is littered with infighting and violence between identity groups;
-- that capitalism a corrupt system empowering elites over the people;
-- that the U.S. an imperialist war mongering country,
-- that democracy is a fraud perpetrated by competing elitist factions and
-- that the nation is destined for a divided dystopian future.
Dystopia and its people:
?1530281580
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