Category Archives: Conflict – Culture – Language – Psychology

(Soviet Era Russian) Heroic Realism

26 Sunday Mar 2023

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***

The search string, “Soviet Era Heroic Realism” yielded the second image–it helps to knowingly guess what one is after–which has the caption, “Post World War Two Russian Post–Young builders of Communism, go forth toward the new heights.”

We know how that worked out, and Stalin, at least in atrocious facsimile, appears to be with us yet.

Regarding Trump’s depiction, I have commented via Twitter (on Brigitte Gabriel’s feed) already this morning on Moscow’s Trojan Horse–he’s about that large too–in the Grand Old Party (of Greed), and here will relay the cannon fire in plain text and in a manner more easily accessed–>

***

Independently judge his character-https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/;

Consider his attacks on our Free Press-https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/10/23/fake-news-genuine-fake-news-the-real-fake-news-get-your-fake-news-here/;

Look at his closest advisors-https://conflict-backchannels.com/2023/02/07/janus-notes-trumps-arrival-and-perhaps-departure-manafort-to-kise/

#PolitCrims; follow the money-https://conflict-backchannels.com/2021/10/09/trumps-america-in-retrospect-russian-real-estate-entanglements/;

Note how he does business-https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/10/10/trump-corruption-narcotics-russia-a-glance/

***

Don the Con’s base or cult would in their own self-interest do well to recall his track record as an American businessman: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/09/27/djt-the-success-at-failing-two-tweets/.

***

The #GOP’s greatest issue?

Too many in the GOP appear to have stopped working for the United States of America and with fealty to the nation’s Constitution and the laws that have flowed from it and informed #Americans as a coherent and cohesive national community absolutely breathtaking in its compassion, inclusiveness, and vision. While some #Democrats have gone in for petulant historical exhumations and quests for restoration, the whole plus moderate and modern #Republicans have chosen–to judge by the last election–the more traditional American way forward, i.e., by elections fair, free, and secure and with affairs conducted honestly, openly, and with integrity.

“Trump is doing what he has always done. He walks to the line of openly calling for violence and stops just before making overt directives,” Kurt Braddock, an American University professor who studies far-right extremism and the ways in which communication and propaganda contribute to political violence, told Insider.

“In many ways, the implications are the same. His supporters who are looking for an excuse to turn to violence will see this as his implicit approval,” Braddock added.

Haltiwanger, John. “Terrorism experts say Trump’s ‘dangerous’ rhetoric offers his extreme followers ‘an excuse’ for violence if he’s indicted.” Business Insider, March 24, 2023.

Related Online

Bradner, Eric and Kate Sullivan. “Trump baselessly rails against ‘prosecutorial misconduct’ at Waco rlaly as investigations loom.” CNN Politics, March 26, 2023.

Haberman, Maggie, Jonah E. Bromwich and William K. Rashbaum. “Trump, Escalating Attacks, Raises Specter of Violence if He Is Charged.” The New York Times, March 24, 2023.

Haltiwanger, John. “Terrorism experts say Trump’s ‘dangerous’ rhetoric offers his extreme followers ‘an excuse’ for violence if he’s indicted.” Business Insider, March 24, 2023.

Guasco, Michael. “The Misguided Focus on 1619 as the Beginning of Slavery in the U.S. Damages Our Understanding of American History.” Smithsonian Magazine, September 13, 2017.

Oppenheim, James S. “Anthropolitical Psychology.” BackChannels. The page supports a number of URL avenues for further exploration of Donald Trump’s autocratic mentality and the too easily led disposition of his followers.

Oppenheim, James S. “Trump and the Question of Insurrection.” BackChannels, January 9, 2021.

Smith, David. “Trump describes 2024 election as ‘the final battle’ from podium in Waco.” The Guardian, March 25, 2023.

Subramaniam, Tara and Daniel Dale. “Fact check: Trump repeats false claims during rally in Waco, Texas.” CNN Politics, March 26, 2023.

Practically an Afterthought on Donal Trump’s Anti-Democratic Authoritarian Narcissistic Mentality

–33–

#GOP: #NoConscience, #NoShame

22 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, United States of America

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Alluded to in the above tweet–>

Trump’s America in Retrospect: Russian Real Estate Entanglements
Trump, Corruption, Narcotics, Russia-A Glance
#DJT The Success! (At Failing): Two Tweets

#ModernAmericans should not be waking up to a daily feed of vitriol for and against #DJT who has proven himself time and again aligned with Moscow (video: “Helsinki Moment”), dependent on Russian wealth for bailouts or profits, incapable of running a straight show, and apparently bereft of such human basics as conscience, ethics, integrity, and normal moral principles and values (take the URLs as suggests: the themes are the thing and may be easily and exhaustively researched online).

–33–

National Security and Drowned Tweets: The Way Twitter Works

09 Thursday Mar 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green, Political Psychology, Russia, United States of America

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#Corruption should have been #CorruptionGreedKompromat.

#ModernAmericans may have a choice right this moment between a “hollowed-out democracy”–a democracy in superficial appearance only–or an authentic democracy, for the above-mentioned hash tag might get at the truth. Our #UnitedStatesOfAmerica just hasn’t been herself lately, and as one must know that Corruption is the Cancer of States, there might be an answer having to do with it.

Where are America’s sworn counterintelligence professionals on the possibility that we might have been compromised by our own tendencies with money and pleasure?

I’ve posed the question.

Has anyone answers?

*

I’ve noticed with my most cogent tweets embedded with BackChannels URLs that . . . no one picks up. For the qualities, which are very good, very few eyes seem to see https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/07/19/detecting-post-soviet-russias-black-narrative-of-revenge-for-89-and-91/ on the Post-Soviet or Cold War Era, 1992-2022 or, on the Orange AntiChrist (#OrangeAntiChrist) https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/10/10/trump-corruption-narcotics-russia-a-glance/ .

#WTF indeed.

Probably, if not “shadow banning”, the numbers in other twitterati simply swamp individual expression or voice. Individually, we no longer matter, and collectively, we don’t seem to count.

Related Online

Trump’s America in Retrospect: Russian Real Estate Entanglements
Published here October 9, 2021.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/1163931/jeffrey-epstein-boasted-putin-millionaire-secrets/ – Jeffrey Epstein visits Putin.

There’s hardly point in chatyping since my most of my posts, including the above mentioned, convey reference that leads to more reference.

#ModernAmerican #RealAmericans and, for each of us, all our old friends who really believed in democracy in support of rational, responsible, and responsive governance, some way of coming together, of organizing, of being together, would be helpful.

–33–

#HavanaSyndrome Havana Syndrome – A Small Disagreement with ‘Findings’

06 Monday Mar 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, United States of America

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I had caught a glimpse of a now truncated Wikipedia page for the Navy’s first and foremost Science and Technology organization prior to the establishment of the Office of Naval Research, i.e., Office of Scientific Research and Development, so there’s no point now in putting in the URL as a response to the search term “psycho-acoustic research, conscientious objectors” would no longer be found there. That Orwellian absence will, of course, thin support for the contention to nothing.

Almost.

Since when has tinnitus ever been associated with Covid?

And just like that, all of a sudden?

And since when has any “mass psychosis” been associated with unusual experiences of sound?

Oaths of Office

Government officials and military officers in the United States of America take a very special oath of office in their commitments to public service at the executive level. It is an oath not to any agency or person but a pledge to defend the Constitution of the nation itself. Implicit in that pledge is the promise to defend democracy, dignity, freedom, and humanity itself in a structured way envisioned by the Founding Fathers. It seems a long way from those 18th Century visionaries to ourselves now mired in division and suspicious of government, but there is this moment (must I take a screenshot?) on the public page of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence a statement about Truth: “We seek the truth; speak truth to power; and obtain, analyze, and provide intelligence objectively.”

So says the DNI, whom one might remind of Cromwell’s dictum, ““Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”–Lord Acton to Bishop Creighton, 1877.

I would press for further review, and in secret if needs be, of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of Naval Research in relation to what has come to be called and puzzled as “Havana Syndrome”.

This morning, I tweeted the following to investigative journalists Michael Isikoff and John Hudson who have recently published on the topic in Yahoo News and The Washington Post.

I wish not to see Americans enslaved — yet another medical mystery! — by a phenomenon as yet unproven to have any basis in biology (oh, well, maybe that will show up tomorrow in new “research”).

My friends who have had tinnitus have associated it with loud music; others have perhaps had some damage related to combat or some macho hours or years at the firing range, and we all do age and may experience some hearing loss, but this seems different and the findings dissatisfying.

Three of the Morning’s Tweets

1.

2.

3.

The intrepid may wish to check on Kent Taylor’s stay in Bermuda. I thought I had read that somewhere but can’t find my source online–and not too much into this issue, I hadn’t saved it address. In any case, at the time of his travail, the phenomenon was not so widespread nor so variously described.

Addendum – Occasional Added Reference

Achenbach, Joel and Shane Harris. “NIH probe of ‘Havana syndrome finds no sign of brain injuries.” The Washington Post, March 18, 2024.

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BackChannels Essentials: Post-Cold War Russian Narrative; Russia & Trump

05 Sunday Mar 2023

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🙂

Background On The Post-Cold War Russian Narrative

#PostColdWarHistory, #RussianMafiaState

“Detecting Post-Soviet Russia’s Black Narrative of Revenge for ’89 and ’91.” BackChannels, July 19, 2022.

This post offers in my compressed and distilled style the keys to Russia’s redevelopment as a “mafia state” through the three decades between 1992 and 2022.

“Educate, entertain, and delight” said Aristotle of the purposes of rhetoric, and while I have strove to do that, there is with, well, everything all at once, a lot to unpack–but it’s still good to have the dots and keys arranged, connected, in good order, ready, and available.

On Donald John Trump AKA #DJT on My Twitter Feed

#NoCollusion?

“Trump, Corruption, Narcotics, Russia – A Glance.” BackChannels, October 10, 2022.

I have spent more time posting the above links–or similar in essence–than I have with reading and writing–and that only to be buried beneath the pile no matter what. At the same time, I believe it important to analyze and frame issues accurately, concisely, honestly, and with precision for an American public that has been assaulted by partisan spin and Russian “Active Measures”, efforts intended to destroy our cultural, political, and social coherence as an extraordinary secular democratic republic with a Christian majority and the world’s broadest imaginable and inclusive multicultural assembly in one nation.

Perhaps #ModernAmericans are struggling to become Americans without qualifying adjectives and an increasingly archaic and multi-hyphenated host of identity-related reservations.

Russia, The Jews, and the Palestinians

“Endemic Russian Anti-Semitism – A Note.” BackChannels, February 1, 2021.

“Middle East Conflict: Back to Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter and Forward to the Plundering of Palestinian Misery by Palestinian Leadership Elites.” BackChannels, December 29, 2017.

“Palestinian KGB & The Palestinians – Abused and Plundered by Their Own.” BackChannels, July 26, 2021.

#Tags

To boost notice, of course, I’ve tried to adopt or invent hash tags that signal attitude, statement, and theme at once.

Broadest Frame: #MedievalVModern.

Best discriminator: #ModernAmericans, of course.

Most at risk today: #AmericanCharacterAndIntegrity.

and so it goes.

We may have our own #MafiaState given our indulgences in pleasures / sins that have perhaps too often the hands of the criminal and ruthless in them. We certainly have in our politics the kind of #MaligNarcs and #PolitCrims who preach the virtues while profiting nicely from less virtuous spending.

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Ukraine, One Year Out, Feb. 24, 2022->Feb. 24, 2023

24 Friday Feb 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, North America, Russia, Ukraine

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Posted to YouTube on February 19, 2023, this has seemed to me an extraordinary retrospective for this one-year anniversary–and may there not be another with the conflict ongoing–of Russia’s entirely surreal and unwarranted invasion of Ukraine.

My second-row seat to history, i.e., the modern desktop on the World Wide Web, has been overwhelmed by all of the option, and this day the live “presser”, now a recording for history, by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky-worth every second of its 2:20:55 run time. Also in the audience: The New York Times with its “Live Updates: On War’s Anniversary, Allies Support Ukraine With Words and Weapons.” There’s no waiting on the mail these days as the time between the question asked and answered and its appearance in the most reliable media has a lag time of about 10 minutes (for the typing into publication, no doubt).

For commiseration, memory, and solidarity with Ukraine in the defense of freedom this day: Bucha, Donetsk, Mariupol, etc.

For western can-do obligation, optimism, and spirit related to Ukrainian refugees in a time of war initiated by tyrant deserving of the title, “Tsar Nobody”: UNHCR Data; The Economist on the experience of Ukrainian refugees; and ordinary Americans rising to the occasion to host Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s war.

I have noted with sustained conviction the idea that Putin will not stop his own criminal assaults on Ukraine and against the west in general until stopped, and, frankly, I believe the entire relationship structure of the Russian “Mafia State” must be betrayed, confused, disinformed, hounded, and manipulated into the chaos, collapse, and corruption it has had in mind for all of the rest of the world. Putin, Kadyrov, Prigozhin: political criminals (my two most relevant signatures on Twitter: “#MaligNarcs” and “#PolitCrims”).

For Insight and Related Online

I have been relaying the following URLs for some time and have no longer the patience for typing, retyping, copying or pasting the same damning set of excellent independent research–>

David Satter on Putin’s ascent to power via the Moscow Apartment Bombings: https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/08/vladimir-putin-1999-russian-apartment-house-bombings-was-putin-responsible/

Anna Politkovskaya on the Putin-permitted Russian Army’s brutalizing of Chechen villages during the Second Chechen War: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3617244.html

John Schinder on Al Queda and Aymen al Zawahiri’s stay in Russia, winter 1996-7,in relation to 9/11 and probably a “reflexively controlled” New Nationalism across EU/NATO: https://www.businessinsider.com/exploring-al-qaedas-murky-connection-to-russian-intelligence-2014-6

By yours truly, James S. Oppenheim, on post-Cold War history, 1992-2022, and 30 years of optimistic “peace dividend” cooperation with Moscow even while it grew as a Russian “kleptocracy” (rule by thieves) and resumed its support for dictatorships and terrorist organizations worldwide–https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/07/19/detecting-post-soviet-russias-black-narrative-of-revenge-for-89-and-91/

I think that’s enough to tie Russia’s abysmal purposes in Ukraine to its government’s criminal character at home. Russians have proven weak or bereft of power at home–more the latter, but they have nonetheless painted themselves before the world–and have made themselves ugly worldwide.

–33–

Ukraine: A Scrape on Russian Defections

21 Tuesday Feb 2023

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The scrapes here are dated but cogent. Ukraine has long maintained surrender hotlines for Russian troops intent on surviving Putin’s catastrophe. For defectors, Vladimir Osechkin has been a go-to via his gulagu site–I’d include the .net extension but haven’t been able to reach it myself (related in Wikipedia). What follows: scraped quotes (in no particular order) and additional reference. For philosophy: life is full of leavings, some sad and sweet, some sudden and wrenching.

Note: in the Blogosphere, “scraping” refers to a part of my method, which distills to “Collect, Select, and Opine”–but when one doesn’t “opine” very much, the work amounts to relay with a minimum of commentary, i.e., “scraping”.

So done.

With the Russia v. Ukraine War and Putin’s willful churning of young Russians into fertilizer for Ukrainian soil, Russian motivation for turning against Putin should be powerful in its latency. Indeed, Putin has made his world that of political, practical, and unconscionable criminals making themselves legend for their brutality, dishonesty, greed, ruthlessness, and, ultimately, essential worthlessness.

Caesar said Legion fighters are ideologically diverse but share in fierce anti-Putinism. “Our people hold different views, but we are united in our rejection of the Kremlin dictatorship and the desire to reformat Russia,” he said.

“Our country must become a democratic power, but for this, a reboot of the entire political and social system, lustration, decolonization, de-imperialization and a complete constitutional re-establishment of the state must be carried out.”

Brennian, David. “Russians Fighting for Ukraine Vow to ‘Destroy the Putin Regime'”. Newsweek, October 28, 2022.

Senior Lieutenant at Russian FSB Counterintelligence defected to Europe. Emran #Navruzbekov was to be sent to Turkey & Syria for an operation against Russian citizens wanted by Putin. Instead, he used the opportunity to flee to Europe with a goldmine of intelligence & asked for political asylum.

Emran says the 2nd Service of the FSB essentially controls all criminal activities in Dagestan and Chechnya.

The FSB kidnaps, tortures, & extorts successful businessmen & others who can pay a ransom. The FSB has their own torture chambers across the region for this purpose.

Sushco, Igor. “FSB Counterintelligence Senior Lieutenant defector tells all (Part 1).” The Racecar Driver, December 29, 2022.

“The last 10 years I do a lot of things to protect the human rights and other people. But in this moment, I understood that my mission to help other people created a very high risk to my family,” Osechkin told CNN from France, where he’s lived since 2015 after he fled Russia and claimed asylum. He now has full-time police protection.

He’s become the champion of a growing number of high-level Russian officials defecting to the West, emboldened and disgruntled by the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. He says ex-generals and intelligence agents are among their number.

Bell, Melissa, Saskya Vandoome, Joseph Ataman. “High-ranking Russian officials are defecting. This man is aiding them.” CNN, January 25, 2023.

Igor Volobuyev spent two decades working in the heart of the Russian business establishment, first for Gazprom and then for its affiliate Gazprombank, where until February this year he was vice-president.

Then Vladimir Putin launched his war on Ukraine in late February, and Volobuyev decided he could no longer stand living in Russia. He packed a small rucksack of possessions and a stack of cash, and flew out of the country on 2 March, pretending he was going on holiday.

A few days later, he crossed from Poland into Ukraine, where he spent his childhood years. Now, he spends his days trying to convince officials to provide him with Ukrainian documents and allow him to sign up for military service.

Walker, Shaun and Andrew Roth. “‘I’m never going back’: the high profile Russian defectors rejecting war.” The Guardian, May 15, 2022.

The history of the Cold War and post-Cold War eras is rife with elaborate, almost implausible tales of defectors and double agents, sometimes even triple agents, spies who worked for one or more governments simultaneously for love or money or for the simple thrill of leading a hidden life. There are those with access to state secrets, some immeasurably valuable, who betrayed their country for ideological reasons or, as they often rationalize the treachery to themselves, perfectly pragmatic ones.

And now there is a historic first: the enemy spy who came back to the people who caught and released him.

Weiss, Michael. “Exclusive: Ex-Russian spy flees to the NATO country that captured him, delivering another embarrassing blow to Moscow.” Yahoo News, November 17, 2022.

Related Online

Bell, Melissa, Saskya Vandoorne, Joseph Ataman. “High-ranking Russian officials are defecting. This man is aiding them.” CNN, January 25, 2023.

Brennian, David. “Russians Fighting for Ukraine Vow to ‘Destroy the Putin Regime'”. Newsweek, October 28, 2022.

Bunyan, Rachael. “‘I’m Russian, I kill my countrymen… but they’re criminals’: Soldiers who defected from Putin’s military say they joined Ukraine after witnessing atrocities…and have each killed as many as 18 of their former comrades.” Daily Mail, December 6, 2022.

Dovidka. “Acting in occupied territory.”

“How to surrender: step-by-step instructions for Russians and forcibly mobilized Ukrainians.” Visit Ukraine Today Blog, n.d.

Jackson, Jon. “Putin’s Deserters Poised to Fight Against Him on Front Lines.” Newsweek, February 13, 2023.

Murphy, Matt. “Ukraine War: Russia’s Wagner Group commander requests Norway asylum.” BBC, January 16, 2023.

Pleasance, Chris. “Thousands of Russian soldiers ‘have already called Ukrainian hotline set up to let them surrender’.” October 5, 2022.

Riehle, Kevin. First paragraph: “We are seeing an increasing flow of reports about dissatisfaction among people associated with Russia’s intelligence and security services. Is it just anti-Russian propaganda? Hard to say.” LinkedIn.

Rosenberg, Steve. “Russian army officer admits: ‘Our troops tortured Ukrainians’.” BBC, February 2, 2023.

Stewart, Will. “Officer in Putin’s security service who ‘REFUSED’ to kill Ukrainians and fled to Kazakhstan instead is deported to Russia and now faces up to 15 years in jail.” Daily Mail, December 31, 2023.

Weiss, Michael. “Exclusive: Ex-Russian spy flees to the NATO country that captured him, delivering another embarrassing blow to Moscow.” Yahoo News, November 17, 2022.

Posted to YouTube on February 20, 2023.

–33–

V. Putin, Prigozhen et al.

12 Sunday Feb 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Russia, Ukraine

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Here’s the prompt for this post–>

Racecar driver Igor Sushko has a small history with compiling and relaying Russian FSB documents through his eponymous blog and related Substack. Sans backers myself, I’m feeling a little poor about the requisite spending on curiosity, but I believe he’s on track as regards Putin confidant and Wagner Group commander Yevgeny Prigozhin. This is from The New York Times two days ago (February 11, 2023).

Even the Kremlin appears to be trying to keep Mr. Prigozhin’s political rise in check. Sergei Markov, a pro-Putin political analyst and former Kremlin adviser who appears frequently on Russian state television, said that officials had been transmitting an unusual directive to Moscow’s talking heads in recent weeks: “Don’t excessively promote Prigozhin and Wagner.”

Troianovski, Anton. “Wagner Founder Has Putin’s Support but the Kremlin’s Side-Eye.” The New York Times, February 11, 2023.

Sushko’s YouTube featured yesterday an inside-the-inside look into Putin’s ambitious and rival war circle by Russian human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin:

Related Online

Troianovski, Anton. “Wagner Founder Has Putin’s Support but the Kremlin’s Side-Eye.” The New York Times, February 11, 2023.

Wikipedia. “Gulagu.net”.

Wikipedia. “Ramzan Kadyrov”.

Wikipedia. “Sergei Markov”.

Wikipedia. “Sergey Surovikin”.

Wikipedia. “Vladimir Osechkin”.

Updates to Reference

Stanovaya, Tatiana. “Man vs. Myth: Is Russia’s Prigozhin a Threat or Asset to Putin?” Carnegie Politika, February 13, 2023.

One billion views–what’s one more?

–33–