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Interesting notes on DNC process in the coming weeks: “DNC poised to move forward with virtual roll call after Biden dropout” (Elena Schneider, Politico).
Things are gonna get ugly, of course. Instead of ageism and ableism, we’ll have racism and sexism. And we’ll still have a ridiculously, dangerously bothsidesing press to parrot it all.
I was undecided about whether Biden should step aside, but I trust his judgement on this. He’s a public servant as too few are these days. I am looking forward to Harris’s nomination.
Turned off NPR this afternoon because I am sick to death of the cliched, both-sides genre Let’s Talk to Voters in Swing States. This particular report (on Here and Now) was trying to be original by talking to swing-state voters considering voting differently this year, but it’s still the same old same old. Given the decimation of local news around the country, these national outlets need to do some actual reporting on goings-on outside their usual frames of reference.
The Kremlin switches messages at will to its advantage, climbing inside everything: European right-wing nationalists are seduced with an anti-EU message; the Far Left is co-opted with tales of fighting US hegemony; US religious conservatives are convinced by the Kremlin’s fight against homosexuality. And the result is an array of voices, working away at global audiences from different angles, producing a cumulative echo chamber of Kremlin support, all broadcast on RT.
Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014), act 3, last section.
“Here Come the Russians, Again” by David Corn, Mother Jones, May 24, 2024.
The media has an important role to play. The more attention it can cast upon the Russian efforts, the greater the odds that a slice of the electorate will comprehend the threat and perhaps be inoculated from being unduly influenced by these operations.
Of course, the media is largely failing us on this score.
“Trump’s ‘secretary of retribution’ has a ‘target list’ of 350 people he wants arrested." by Jordan Green, Raw Story, July 10, 2024. – Surreal report. The big orange ass attracts the freakiest henchmen.
“How Charles Holman discovered the Bushes’ ancestors had enslaved his family” (Washington Post) archive.ph/zx17m.
“Scientists identify victim of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in mass grave” (Washington Post) archive.ph/DPC5e.
Delirious Television Propaganda
“Forms of Delirium” is the third act of Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014). Now deep in the section titled “A Brief History of Sects in Post-Soviet Russia,” it dawns on me that this material provides useful context for the bizarre, messianic, wartime rhetoric I’ve heard come out of Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov’s mouth in the television clips that Julia Davis translates for English-speaking audiences.
This is not to say that Solovyov necessarily believes all the poison he spews. The first act of the same book, “Reality Show Russia,” provides plenty of background on that subject, even if it is based on prewar Russia. Still, the combination of mysticism, religion, ethnic Russian nationalism, and ostensibly anti-imperialist imperialism dripping from parts of the final act of this excellent book offers at least some reason for not dismissing a talking head like Solovyov out of hand. He may use the privilege of the fool to say extreme things, but he knows his words are landing.
Russian Hybrid Warfare
“How disinformation from a Russian AI spam farm ended up on top of Google search results” by David Gilbert, Wired.com, via ArsTechnica, July 10, 2024.
In the space of 24 hours, a piece of Russian disinformation about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife buying a Bugatti car with American aid money traveled at warp speed across the internet. Though it originated from an unknown French website, it quickly became a trending topic on X and the top result on Google. . . .
According to the Frankfurter Rundschau today, Russian food producers are adding banned “meat glue” (transglutaminase) to products to increase their volume in the face of the inflation that Putin’s illegal war is bringing them. HT @[email protected]
“We believe Russia is a great empire that other powers want to tear away parts from. We need to restore our power, occupy our lost lands, grab Crimea from the Ukrainians,” the football supporters say, then in the same breath: “We want a Russia for Russians, all these darkies from the Caucasus and Central Asia need to go home.”
This has always been the paradox of the new Russian nationalism: on the one hand wanting to conquer all regions around, on the other wanting an ethnically pure great power. And all that comes out of this confusion is an ever-growing anger.
Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014), act 3, section: “The Call of the Void”.
My Micro.blog-hosted website is not working this evening. Seems to be another SSL connection issue on the server’s end. At least I found the status page and know that it’s not specific to my blog.
How do you build a history based on ceaseless self-slaughter and betrayal? Do you deny it? Forget it? But then you are left orphaned. So history is rewritten to suit the present.
Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014), act 2, section: “Another Russia”.
Got to see a niece today who I hadn’t seen since 2017. She got to meet a niece of her own, my granddaughter.
From a walk on the beach with pleasant cloud cover this afternoon: Nauset Light Beach, Cape Cod National Seashore. This is the colder side of the Cape. Sometimes there are seals, we were told. When that happens, avoid the water because great white sharks might be hunting.
Something I blogged 16 years ago on the basis of documents I frequently taught undergraduates: Received Rights versus Human Rights in the ‘Declaration of Independence’
Important historical context for this week’s unconscionable immunity ruling: Sean Wilentz, “The Dred Scott of Our Time”, NYRB, July 4, 2024, archive.ph/qJ1xx (archived version so anyone can read about this vital topic)
It’s amazing how much hair a bald man can still grow on his head. Beard and hair trimmer died before I was quite done. Fortunately, my better half was able to finish what I had started with a pair of scissors.
The drive down to DC last weekend threw out my back, so I haven’t been able to do anything down here. At least the great nephew I brought with me got a lot out of the trip. Tomorrow, three of us head to Cape Cod to see a younger generation of Stonemans, one not yet 3, and other extended family.