Saturday, November 11, 2017

The Art of Influencing Elections

We've been worried. Then we laughed. We are now facing consequences. We're seriously worried!

We have been following US Politics ever since an orange headed billionaire stood for and then against all odds,  took office as the POTUS! A strange dysfunctional family moved into the White House. The fate of the world now lies ever so much on a person who knows nothing much about it,  whose actions could alter the face of the entire planet, if not wipe everything off it. And while we deliberate whom we should blame for this impending disaster of a choice, and it seems like the American people (who voted for him) are the obvious culprits, we are suddenly confronted by BREAKING NEWS.
It wasn't the Americans.

It was the RUSSIANS!!!

Television channels scream  of US accusations of Russian interference in the US elections.

The Russians effectively interfered and helped Trump win,  they convincingly claim.

The Russians actually were able to influence Americans to vote for Trump by discrediting the Democratic nominee.

Did they play mind games? Hypnosis? Abracadabra - Vote for Trump - How did they do it?

In search for answers, the US appoints a special counsel to probe Russian interference.

How the Trump electoral machine colluded with Russian hackers or internet manipulators to influence  the outcome of the US Elections.

The usage of Russian cyber whizes to influence gullible American voters and thus alter the fate of America..  and the whole world too  This did sound sinister and treacherous! 

Sinister and Treacherous?

If you've grown up in the era we have, you wonder? CIA & KGB and James Bond are the immediate thoughts.

And back to reality you consider the accusation - Regime change influenced in the US of A by the Russians.

Hang On! My 1963 born mind cautions me.

The Russians haven't invaded the US.
Did they parachute in. Were guns fired? Hope no Nukes or Chemical weapons were used!
How many Dead?
The Russians haven't sent cold war era type of KGB spies or infiltrators or hired double agents. No spy thriller here. 

The how did they do it -

They just posted fake adverts, targeted at "swallow-everything-you-see-on-Television" American populace.
They swallowed! And we're getting screwed""

WTF are we talking about here?

While Robert Muller goes about his task , lets retrospect a bit on Regime change.

And as we delve into history on the means used by this very same United States of America using force, politics, money and subterfuge to interfere in other countries political futures, we wonder, on what grounds are the Americans crying foul of Russian interference in their elections. 

Its almost surreal. they're spending billions of Dollars investigating the Russian influence. And they are upset their population swallowed these fake news articles strategically placed by a far more intelligent being. Whether cyber transgression constitutes regime change may be debated - but for a country that has performed surgical, aggressive, violent and blatant regime change for more than half of its being, to complain about something I would blame on the low IQs of the targeted audience, is ridiculous. I googled "Regime Change Efforts of The United States of America" and was quite 'amused' to read the Wikipedia article. I quote from several paragraphs here :- 

(Source : Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

United States involvement in regime change has entailed both overt and covert actions aimed at altering, replacing, or preserving foreign governments. In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. government undertook regime change actions mainly in Latin America and the southwest Pacific, and included the Mexican-AmericanSpanish-American and Philippine-American wars. At the onset of the 20th century the United States shaped or installed friendly governments in many countries including PanamaHondurasNicaraguaMexicoHaiti, and the Dominican Republic.

Read  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations#Extraterritorial_and_major_domestic_deployments ( A detailed list of US Military Interventions )

The first article goes on to detail every US Intervention , highlighting US Efforts in Russia, Cuba during the cold war era, to the more recent interventions against a falsified Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) search in Iraq, to a hunt for Bin laden in Afghanistan and Pakistan, regime change in Libya and more recently in funding an opposition with arms and a battle in Syria - the effects of which have been a complete destabilization of the entire region and the fall out in the refugee crisis in Europe and the Arab peninsula region. They have escalated the South China Sea dispute to one on the brink of a Nuclear war. All blatant Interference in Political outcomes of other sovereign nations. 

The second article simply lists the hundreds of military interventions by the US that resulted or attempted regime change through use of force.

And the irony of it all is that they are crying foul about a relatively effective, peaceful, insignificant No Guns, No Blood, No War cyber attack on the limited IQ of a few million gullible American voters via the Internet!!

Am I missing something here?