Рельсы и шпалы

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На фоне фашизации американской политической культуры накануне выборов в Конгресс происходит небольшое вливание антисемитизма. Как говорил когда-то комедиант Крис Рок, «этот поезд никогда не опаздывает».

Politico’s Jonathan Lemire put Trump’s latest threat in context:
"This tweet comes at a moment where bias incidents and hate crimes, anti-Semitic incidents are already skyrocketing, they have been on the rise in recent years, and it feels like we know the president has inspired the violence of January 6th, called for supporters to be violent other times, related to the Mar-a-Lago case, sending out warnings, and threats to the FBI, and the fear here is this could be interpreted by his followers as a moment to potentially commit violence against Jews, and that is deeply worrisome…"
Trump’s outburst also came amid Kanye West’s ongoing anti-Semitic meltdown.
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, the GOP nominee continues to send out anti-Semitic signals, which is hardly surprising, given Mastriano’s track record.
Democrats have highlighted Mastriano's ties to white supremacists and antisemites - in particular Gab, the social media platform that serves as a haven for the far-right - in hopes of swaying independent voters. Gab founder and CEO Andrew Torba is the co-author of the just-published book “Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide to Taking Dominion and Discipling Nations” that has recently been among Amazon's best-sellers.
The reaction?
Even amid evidence of rising anti-Jewish violence, the normally voluble right-wing media could not even be bothered to shuffle its feet. Elected Republicans could hardly muster a tired shrug among them; they are, apparently, too worn out, beaten down, and numbed to be outraged.
Fox News ignored, or shrugged off, the whole thing. Tucker Carlson edited out Kanye’s anti-Semitic rants from his broadcast interviews. The Daily Wire’s Candace Owens jumped to his defense, while her boss, Ben Shapiro, explained that Kanye’s anti-Jewish rant was “clearly anti-Semitic” and “disturbing,” but, but, but, “Kanye’s moves toward pro-life, faith, and family conservatism are encouraging.” Days later, Kanye announced he was buying the right-wing troll platform Parler (whose CEO is Candace Owen’s husband). After that news broke, Politico reports, Kanye and Trump spoke by phone. “West placed the call, during which the two confirmed plans to have dinner though nothing is currently scheduled.”
Meanwhile, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has speculated about Jewish Space Lasers, continues to rise in the GOP ranks and is poised to assume a much larger and powerful role in a GOP-controlled Congress.
https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/the-right-normalizes-anti-semitism



Об истории взлёта Марджори Тэйлор Грин, одного из заметных представителей американского антисемитизма, рассказывается в новой книжке "Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind". Когда Грин лишили членства в комиссиях Конгресса, в том числе за антисемитские высказывания, они объяснила коллегам, что в объятия культа QAnon ее подтолкнуло расследование Рашагейта.

A week after Greene’s past musings were disclosed, the House G.O.P. conference convened to discuss whether to remove Liz Cheney from her leadership post after she voted to impeach Trump. But midway into the four-hour discussion, the other elephant in the room stepped up to the microphone.
“Well,” Greene began, according to a recording of the meeting I obtained, “many of you I’ve enjoyed getting to know in my one month that I’ve been here in Congress. But there’s also many more of you that I haven’t gotten to meet yet, and you haven’t gotten to know me. Some of you attack me every single day, and usually I find that it’s those of you attacking me are the ones that don’t know me, and that’s unfortunate.”
Greene then tried to explain how it was that she came to embrace the conspiracy theories of the QAnon community that now scandalized the Republican Party and jeopardized her political career. “I was upset about Russian collusion conspiracy lies that I was seeing on the news every single day,” Greene recalled to her colleagues. “So I looked into the internet - and was like, ‘What is going on?’ I stumbled across something called QAnon. Yep, I did. I read about it, I posted about it, I talked about it, and I asked questions about it.”
Here, more precisely, is what she did: By the summer of 2017, Greene had made contact online with a counselor in the New York public school system who shared her affinities for both President Donald Trump and dark conspiracy theories. That July, she began writing for the counselor’s online publication, American Truth Seekers, under her great-grandmother’s name, Elizabeth Camp.
Greene’s argument was that the “Russian collusion conspiracy lies” had created a kind of permission structure in her mind. As she would say on the House floor, “I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true.”
In this passive-voice explanation, Greene was “allowed to believe” that a Democratic staff member named Seth Rich had been murdered by Hillary Clinton’s top adviser, John Podesta, in order to cover up the fact that it was Rich, not Russia, who had leaked Democratic emails to WikiLeaks. (Later, Greene would modify this conspiracy theory: It was the Latino gang MS-13, “the henchmen of the Obama administration,” who had murdered Seth Rich.) Greene was “allowed to believe” that Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Trump’s ties to Russia, was actually quietly working to bring down the Clintons. And that “many in our government are actively worshiping Satan.” And that Trump was single-handedly battling evil - that, as she reposted from the website MAGAPILL, “thousands of Pedophiles and Child Traffickers have been arrested since Trump was sworn in.” This “Global Evil,” she was allowed to believe, was all being funded by the Saudi royals in concert with Jewish billionaires: George Soros and the Rothschild family.
Greene believed all this, she claimed, not only because the media had made up lies about Trump but also because in some dark corner of the internet, an anonymous person claiming to have military intelligence “Q clearance” had said so.
She concluded her monologue to her new G.O.P. colleagues with an admonition: “Let’s make sure we keep our eyes on the enemy. Because they’re really wanting to take all of us out.” About a third of her colleagues rose to applaud her as she took her seat among them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/17/magazine/marjorie-taylor-greene.html



В обычном политическом климате можно было бы ожидать, что начинающий член Конгресса, лишенный членства в комиссиях и таким образом полностью отрезанный от законодательной деятельности, потеряет поддержку избирателей и не будет переизбран. Но это не то, что произошло с Грин - в мире трампизма своими клоунскими выходками она превратилась в звезду первой величины, которая ожидает триумфального возвращения в Конгресс, законного места в руководстве партии и, может быть, даже номинации в вице-президенты.

Draper also confirmed rumors that Greene could be Trump’s running mate in 2024. The idea has been “discussed since February of this year, and it’s been discussed repeatedly. Now, to be fair, I mean, how many of these conversations has Trump had with other people?”
However, what Greene has above the others, Draper says, is that “she has been unflaggingly loyal to Trump throughout. What is Trump concerned about most of all in a VP after the Mike Pence experience? Loyalty. He knows that if he needs someone to fight for him to overturn a presidential election. He has every reason to expect that Greene would be by his side and would be his proximate warrior.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-is-the-brawler-the-maga-base-wants



Между тем ожидании электорального триумфа между опытными республиканцами идёт подковерная борьба за места в руководстве Палаты представителей. После остракизма Лиз Чейни на место третьего человека в партии - парламентского организатора (majority whip) претендуют несколько кандидатов. Наилучшие шансы пока что у конгрессмена из Индианы Джима Бэнкса. Бэнкса поддерживает сын Трампа, а его главным пиарщиком работает сын Такера Карлсона.

The House Republican making the most noise in the race is Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks. The Indiana Republican raised eyebrows in Trumpworld after Axios reported on the launch of a Banks-friendly PAC-spearheaded by longtime Donald Trump Jr. confidant Andy Surabian and James Blair-just weeks before the midterm elections. <…>
“Deep down, he dies to be liked by the Establishment. He hires Tucker Carlson’s son, a 24-year-old kid, to be his communications director,” the first GOP strategist said, referring to Buckley Carlson, whom Banks hired in 2019 as a staff assistant and who is now actually 25.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-trumpworlds-dark-obsession-with-the-gop-whip-race

Бэнкс был единственным конгрессменом из Индианы (где проживает много выходцев из Восточной Европы), который в числе 57 других республиканцев голосовал против помощи Украине. Вслед за Кевиным Маккарти, который ныне примеряет мантию спикера, Бэнкс объявил, что урезание этой помощи станет одним из приоритетов для республиканцев после их прихода к власти.

. @GOPLeader is exactly right:

Congress needs to prioritize fixing America’s problems first.

We can’t lead abroad while we are so weak at home! @IngrahamAngle pic.twitter.com/3kimJBtTVx
- Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) October 21, 2022

В деле фашизации Америки и других стран приобретение компании Твиттер Элоном Маском может сыграть ту же роль, которую в своё время захват компании НТВ сыграл в путинизации России https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%BE_%D0%9D%D0%A2%D0%92

Маск принял участие в недавней инъекции антисемитизма, приветствуя возвращение в Твиттер Канье Уэста и размещая (ныне стертые) кринжевые мемы с самим собой, Уэстом и Трампом в качестве трёх мушкетеров. Он также нашумел распространением нашёптанного Путиным плана об окончании войны путём раздела Украины.

Разъяснение Фионы Хилл:

Reynolds: We’ve recently had Elon Musk step into this conflict trying to promote discussion of peace settlements. What do you make of the role that he’s playing?
Hill: It’s very clear that Elon Musk is transmitting a message for Putin. There was a conference in Aspen in late September when Musk offered a version of what was in his tweet - including the recognition of Crimea as Russian because it’s been mostly Russian since the 1780s - and the suggestion that the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia should be up for negotiation, because there should be guaranteed water supplies to Crimea. He made this suggestion before Putin’s annexation of those two territories on September 30. It was a very specific reference. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia essentially control all the water supplies to Crimea. Crimea is a dry peninsula. It has aquifers, but it doesn’t have rivers. It’s dependent on water from the Dnipro River that flows through a canal from Kherson. It’s unlikely Elon Musk knows about this himself. The reference to water is so specific that this clearly is a message from Putin.
Now, there are several reasons why Musk’s intervention is interesting and significant. First of all, Putin does this frequently. He uses prominent people as intermediaries to feel out the general political environment, to basically test how people are going to react to ideas. Henry Kissinger, for example, has had interactions with Putin directly and relayed messages. Putin often uses various trusted intermediaries including all kinds of businesspeople. I had intermediaries sent to discuss things with me while I was in government.
This is a classic Putin play. It’s just fascinating, of course, that it’s Elon Musk in this instance, because obviously Elon Musk has a huge Twitter following. He’s got a longstanding reputation in Russia through Tesla, the SpaceX space programs and also through Starlink. He’s one of the most popular men in opinion polls in Russia. At the same time, he’s played a very important part in supporting Ukraine by providing Starlink internet systems to Ukraine, and kept telecommunications going in Ukraine, paid for in part by the U.S. government. Elon Musk has enormous leverage as well as incredible prominence. Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/10/17/fiona-hill-putin-war-00061894

What the actual fuck is wrong with @elonmusk? https://t.co/A3xOUuF2zR
- Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 21, 2022

Помимо вращения в кругах Питера Тиля и других деятелей Протемнения, Маск водит другие неразборчивые знакомства, в частности с Игорем Кургановым, мутным игроком в покер.

In recent years, Mr. Musk’s middle-aged experimentation has become public knowledge. In 2018, Mr. Musk smoked a joint on Joe Rogan’s show. That same year, Tesla board members told The Times they worried about the way Mr. Musk’s use of Ambien had affected his tweeting, and some were aware that he had “on occasion” used recreational drugs. Mr. Musk likes to share a chart explaining that MDMA and mushrooms are better for human health than alcohol, according to one person he showed it to on a laptop while on vacation.
“I have been with him on mild exploratory journeys,” said David Marglin, a Bay Area lawyer who met Mr. Musk at Burning Man and has been his friend for 20 years. “And he appreciates the value of those journeys. Nothing out of control or wild, but it’s all night, and there’s dancing and revelry.”
Mr. Musk has tried to bring some of the Burning Man spirit into his business life, with sometimes puzzling results.
In July, The Journal reported that Mr. Musk had attempted to put Igor Kurganov, a 34-year-old former professional poker player whom he had met through Grimes, in charge of his charitable giving. Mr. Kurganov had reportedly “bonded” with Mr. Musk over their mutual devotion to Burning Man. Members of Mr. Musk’s inner circle were reportedly alarmed by the prospect of letting a Russian-born former professional gambler with no background in tech, finance, or philanthropy at that scale so close to a $230 billion fortune.
A person with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed that the F.B.I. had made initial inquiries into Mr. Kurganov’s background because of concerns about foreign interference.
(After pressure, Mr. Musk fired Mr. Kurganov from the Musk Foundation, according to The Journal.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/style/elon-musk-social-calendar.html



Точно неизвестно, что именно спровоцировало антисемитскую вспышку Трампа с угрозами в адрес американских евреев.

Предполагаю, что это может быть связано с судебным иском о клевете от изнасилованной им женщины. На прошлой неделе Трампу пришлось подчиниться решению суда и дать закрытые показания под присягой. Дело ведёт адвокат Роберта Каплан, а фамилия судьи по совпадению тоже Каплан.

Former president Donald Trump was questioned under oath Wednesday in Florida by attorneys for an author who in 2019 went public with an accusation that he raped her in a department-store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
The author, E. Jean Carroll, has a pending defamation lawsuit against Trump.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, confirmed that the deposition happened Wednesday as scheduled. The lawyer declined to comment further. <…>
Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who sits in Manhattan, denied Trump’s request to put a pause on proceedings while the appeal matter gets resolved, saying Trump would not be harmed by completing the pretrial discovery process, which had been nearly over except for the taking of the parties’ sworn testimonies.
“Completing those depositions - which already have been delayed for years - would impose no undue burden on Mr. Trump, let alone any irreparable injury,” Kaplan said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/19/trump-author-defamation-case/



В другом суде в это время присяжные полностью оправдали Игоря Данченко. На этом окончательно развалилось расследование прокурора Дюрэма, которое продолжалось много лет и потратило миллионы долларов налогоплательщиков в тщетной попытке откопать свидетельства теории заговора ФБР против Трампа.

В показаниях на суде сотрудники контрразведки ФБР рассказали, что Данченко был ценным профессионалом, который помог им со многими расследованиями о деятельности российских спецслужб.

As a confidential informant for the FBI, Igor Danchenko provided a stream of reliable information on Russian influence activities in the United States, before special counsel John Durham put him on trial for lying to the bureau, an FBI agent testified Thursday.
Special Agent Kevin Helson served as one of two “handlers” for Danchenko, a private researcher on trial in federal court in Alexandria, Va., as part of Durham’s investigation. The special counsel argues Danchenko deceived the FBI and hampered its investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. But the only two witnesses from the agency to testify so far have characterized Danchenko’s contributions to U.S. national security as valuable. <…>
Under questioning from defense attorney Stuart A. Sears, Helson testified that Danchenko’s reports as a confidential informant were used by the FBI in 25 investigations and 40 intelligence reports during a nearly four-year period from March 2017 to October 2020. Helson worked primarily in Russian counterintelligence, and was not part of the Crossfire Hurricane team, he said.
Danchenko, the FBI agent said, was considered “a model” informant and “reshaped the way the U.S. even perceives threats.” Helson said that none of his previous informants had ever had as many sub-sources as Danchenko and that others at the FBI have continued to ask in recent months for Danchenko’s assistance amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Helson said he and another special agent would mine Danchenko for information - and pay him for his reports - in face-to-face meetings in Northern Virginia, the first three of which he recorded. Helson also sought a six-figure payout for Danchenko when his informant relationship was closed in fall 2020, he said.
The FBI agent said he grew concerned when the Justice Department, under then-Attorney General William P. Barr, decided to release a redacted transcript of Danchenko’s initial, three-day interview with agents in January 2017, because it could have exposed Danchenko as a source eventually and threatened his safety, Helson said.
“It was a big deal for the FBI to have access to someone like Mr. Danchenko, wasn’t it?” Sears asked.
“Yes, it was,” Helson said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/13/danchenko-informant-trial-dossier-durham/

Igor Danchenko’s unmasking and indictment is one of the most disgraceful episodes in US judicial history. Igor, a valuable FBI source on Russia, was thrown under the bus for partisan political gain. Imo the only beneficiaries from Barr and Durham’s actions are Putin and the FSB.
- Christopher Steele (@Chris_D_Steele) October 19, 2022

Из этой истории складывается такая картина. Высокопрофессиональный разведчик Кристофер Стил нанял высокопрофессионального аналитика Игоря Данченко с многочисленными связями в России, с помощью которых составлял доклады, вошедшие в знаменитое досье. Не вся информация в досье была достоверной, но главного вывода о связях Трампа с Путиным невозможно было избежать. Стил постарался, чтобы эта информация дошла до контрразведки и была должным образом проверена. В попытке спасти Трампа генпрокурор Барр и республиканские сенаторы спалили ценный источник и тем самым нанесли прямой вред национальной безопасности страны, которую присягали защищать от внешних и внутренних врагов. Липовое обвинение в адрес Данченко грозило ему не только уголовным наказанием, но и депортацией в путинскую Россию, но по счастью развалилось в суде.



В своих обвинениях в адрес Данченко Дюрэм опирался на твиты (не показания под присягой) трампутиниста Сергея Миллиана. Миллиан давно сбежал из Америки и скрывается в неизвестном месте. Из показаний Брайана Отена, руководителя контрразведки ФБР:

Q And, again, I don’t want to discuss whether the information in this email is truthful, okay. But it purports to be an email from Sergei Millian, right?
A 481, yes.
Q Okay. And it purports to be sent on July 15 of 2016?
A Correct.
Q And it purports to be to someone named bridgeusa -
A @aol.com, yes.
Q And the subject matter is Trump?
A Trump, yes.
Q Okay. And do you remember when Mr. Durham asked you questions about if you had certain facts, would they have been material or helpful to you? Right?
A Yes. Yes.
Q Okay. So in July 15 of 2016, again, the same time frame that Mr. Danchenko allegedly received this anonymous phone call, right?
A Yes.
Q If you had known that Mr. Millian was telling people that he would be meeting with Trump and his people, would that be significant to you?
A Yes.
Q Okay. So I’m going to ask you to look at 4 - and that’s what that email purports to say, that Mr. Millian was going to be meeting with Trump and his people?
[snip]
Q Okay. So that would have been material and important when evaluating whether the anonymous caller could have been Mr. Millian? A Yes, this would have been helpful.
Q Correct. Did anybody from Mr. Durham’s team ever show you that document?
A This is the first time I’ve seen this document.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/10/14/as-durham-preps-for-his-closing-report-his-own-withholdings-become-key/

Упомянутый аккаунт bridgeusa@aol.com принадлежал покойному Михаилу Моргулису.



Помимо другой деятельности Моргулис организовал совместный криптовалютный бизнес с флоридскими жуликами и подругой одного из них по имени Юлия Константинова.

On Dec. 22, 2017, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko announced the legalization of cryptocurrency and ICO’s, opening the floodgates for digital coin businesspeople to set up shop in the country and trade in digital assets.
Just one week later, Organic Fresh Coin’s (OFC) website was created, an alleged partnership of Ingersoll, a Russian-born Miami-based entrepreneur named Yulia Konstantinova, and Soviet-born theologian Mikhail Morgulis, who holds the title of Honorary Consul of Belarus in Florida.
One of two websites used by OFC stated that the cryptocurrency aimed to provide transparency to the food supply chain industry by attaching sensors to fish. None of the executives listed in a brochure for OFC, including Ingersoll, Konstantinova, and Morgulis, had any prior public history in the farming or food supply industries. Many of the open-source details about OFC were first discovered by independent researcher @gal_suburban and attorney Jennifer Cohn.
On Jan. 4, 2018, Organic Fresh Coin LLC was incorporated in Florida to the same office suite as Ingersoll’s KI Consulting, which had an active contract with Greenberg’s office.
Numerous social media accounts, websites, and documents belonging to OFC made the remarkable claim that the coin was officially backed by the government of Belarus.
In the company’s “executive summary” OFC states that they are “supported by” and “have a partnership with” the government of Belarus. A YouTube video showcasing OFC declared that the coin was “backed up by the Republic of Belarus” and an Instagram account for OFC posted a photo of Morgulis and Lukashenko with the caption, “OFC advisor with President of Belarus.”
https://forensicnews.net/greenberg-prosecutors-scrutinize-ally-keith-ingersoll-with-eastern-european-ties/

Американский партнёр Моргулиса и Константиновой был недавно арестован по многочисленным федеральным обвинениям в мошенничестве. В расследовании принимала участие секретная служба (US Secret Service).

Orlando, Florida - Acting United States Attorney Karin Hoppmann announces the unsealing of an indictment charging Keith Ingersoll (45, Orlando) and James Adamczyk (64, Orlando) for their roles in an over $12 million fraud scheme and conspiracy. Ingersoll and Adamczyk are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, twenty counts of wire fraud, and nineteen counts of money laundering. Ingersoll is also charged with one count of aggravated identity theft. Ingersoll and Adamczyk are facing up to 20 years in federal prison for the conspiracy count and each wire fraud count, and up to 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count. Ingersoll also faces a minimum mandatory of 2 years in federal prison for the aggravated identity theft count.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/two-orlando-men-indicted-over-12-million-fraud

We want to pump more energy and give less money to Ukraine.

Does Biden think he’s running against Reagan? https://t.co/ydYaLEh2dN
- Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 21, 2022

Арестованный Ингресолл входит в окружение флоридского MAGA-звезды Мэтта Гаетца - одного из тех, кто рвётся вернуться в руководство Конгресса в том числе для того, чтобы урезать финансирование ФБР и помощь Украине.

In the immediate aftermath of Russia invading Ukraine, there was no meaningful partisan divide in the United States. Nearly eight months later, political conditions have changed considerably.
In February, for example, a Pew Research Center poll found only 9% of Republican voters believed the United States was providing too much support to Ukraine. By September, that figure had more than tripled to 32% - which, according to Pew’s research, represented a new plurality in GOP politics.
On Capitol Hill, the trend is similar. Right-wing Republicans like Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene have been overt in their criticisms of U.S. aid to Ukraine, but the congresswoman isn’t alone. Politico reported about a month ago that a growing number of GOP lawmakers are prepared to curtail financial/military support for Ukraine, and Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida suggested that a GOP majority in the House would halt aid to Ukraine altogether.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/putin-reason-keep-close-eye-us-midterms-rcna52780

Нас ожидают темные времена.