Republicans spreading Russian propaganda

[just-jim]

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I was reading another piece where Vladimir Lenin called people - like MTG - who willingly repeat the Moscow party line: ‘Useful Idiots’.

Seems apt.
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[Rideback]

Testifying before Congress Prof Tim Snyder responds to MTG
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/04/marg ... or-timothy

[Rideback]

Moscow Marjory is getting called out by both Fox and Murdoch's NY Post

https://crooksandliars.com/2024/04/mosc ... ms-ny-post

[just-jim]

You mean like “the laptop was Russian disinformation”? Or are you talking
“Trump colluded with Russians”? Which ‘disinformation’ are you referring?

If you you are attempting to put together a cogent argument, many people find it useful to actually read the links that are provided.
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[Rideback]

The most glaring of the Russian propaganda that House Reps insist on backing revolves around Ukraine. MTG continues to regurgitate the lies straight off the keyboards of the Russian troll farm. https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylo ... m-ukraine-
nazi-1891524

And I saw an interview with another Rep who said that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was because Ukraine refused to join NATO. She was fact checked by the interviewer but refused to back down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine%E ... O%20member.

[dorankj]

You mean like “the laptop was Russian disinformation”? Or are you talking
“Trump colluded with Russians”? Which ‘disinformation’ are you referring?

[just-jim]

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Historian Timothy Snyder on Russian and Chinese propaganda being spread by members of Congress.

His Congressional testimony this week:

https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/ ... d-congress

“ Insofar as legislators such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and J.D. Vance are vectors of propaganda, they are themselves playing a part of the Russian (or Russo-Chinese) operation. As such they are not merely spreading fictions; they are also modelling a "Russian" style of government, a politics of impotence, in which big lies are normal, corruption is thought to be routine, and nothing gets done. Russian lies about Ukraine are meant to prevent action to help Ukraine; but in a larger sense they are also meant to spread the view that those in power are incapable of any positive action at all.

When legislators embrace Russian lies, they demobilize the rest of us, conveying the underlying notion that all that matters is a clever fiction and a platform from which to spread it. A first step legislators can take is to cease to spread known propaganda tropes themselves. Russian (or Russo-Chinese) memes work in America when Americans choose to repeat them.”
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[just-jim]

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And on it goes….

“Under its new co-chairs, Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Trump loyalist Michael Whatley, the Republican National Committee last week sent out a robocall to voters’ phones saying that Democrats committed “massive fraud” in the 2020 presidential election and that “If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled out by someone who isn’t even an American citizen.” This is a straight-up lie, of course—Trump and his loyalists have never produced any evidence for their accusations and lost more than 60 court cases over it—but Trump clearly intends to make it a centerpiece of his campaign.

While Republicans are pushing the Big Lie, in The Bulwark today, conservative commentator Mona Charen noted that Ukraine president Volodomyr Zelensky this week warned the U.S. that Ukraine will lose the war against Russia’s aggression if it does not get U.S. aid.

“Putin seems to have pulled off the most successful foreign influence operation in American history,” Charen wrote. “If Trump were being blackmailed by Putin it’s hard to imagine how he would behave any differently. And though it started with Trump, it has not ended there. Putin now wields more power over the [Republicans] than anyone other than Trump…. [T]hey mouth Russian disinformation without shame. Putin,” she said, “must be pinching himself.” “

https://open.substack.com/pub/heatherco ... il-11-2024
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[just-jim]

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“Mike Turner, the chairperson of the US House intelligence committee, says some of his fellow Republicans are “absolutely” repeating Russian propaganda on the chamber floor, echoing a similar claim made recently by another rightwing American lawmaker.

“It is absolutely true we see, directly coming from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor,” the Ohio congressman told CNN’s State of the Union show.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... propaganda

Turner is one of that rare breed - a Republican with a spine and a sense of duty toward country.

Interestingly, Historian Timothy Snyder is now calling the far right republican members of the House - “the Putin-ist wing of the U S House of Representatives”, for their refusal to back Ukraine.
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