Russian Bounties you say?

As Jane's Addiction sang it many years ago, Nothing's Shocking anymore. Making this statement, unproven assertion perhaps, you could infer a myriad of meanings to it. Am I referring to police riots or extrajudicial murder by police? Am I referring to the economic collapse? Continued pandemic? The unbelievable fact that doughfacedonny still has support in whole numbers? Any one of those things should be utterly shocking but we have all been slammed so hard with catastrophe after catastrophe that so many Americans are just bewildered and overwhelmed. As citizens of a republic though it is our duty to think about current events and our country, to abdicate this responsibility is to leave the future to the lowest among us. But no, what I am failing to be shocked at is that mob Russia has been caught paying bounties to militants to kill American soldiers. I also cannot muster outrage that doughfacedonny's administration knew about this and did nothing. And finally, I will not be shocked when America's veterans fail to abandon their support for trump and the republican party. 

Clausewitz theorized that war is the continuation of political intercourse and policy with the addition of other means. I recently reviewed an excellent book on the continuity of policy in Russia vis a vis the West that is due to be released tomorrow called Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference that I cannot recommend highly enough. To begin in 1917 with the Russian Revolution really doesn't convey the century's long effort by that country to undermine and challenge the West, though but it still demonstrates the long standing policy of Russia to try and mess with other countries' elections. Rigged is a shocker that can punch through and remind all of us that RUSSIA INTERFERED IN OUR 2016 ELECTION AND PUT DOUGHFACEDONNY WHERE HE IS! I doubt Putin could have imagined a military battle with America that could kill over 120,000 of us, collapse our economy, multiply by several orders of magnitude our national debt, destabilize and polarize Americans to the point of Civil War, and have a puppet who will do his bidding. This is Russia's policy and is being carried out by means other than those of civilized nations. It is akin to a war for them, and we are failing to fight back. 

So, as if to really drive the point home about how far we are at Russia's mercy, the NYTimes and others break the story that Russia was/is paying bounties to Taliban fighters for killing Americans. Though it could prove the hubris that breaks the authoritarian back, at the moment there is simply generalized outrage that doughfacedonny did nothing to answer this bombshell. Lies, lies, and more lies is what we are likely to get from both authoritarians but the Russian embassy thinks throwing insults at American intelligence and media is funny too.

In the absence of reasons to #BlameRussians, @nytimes is there to invent new fake stories.@mschwirtz @EricSchmittNYT @charlie_savage obviously lack information on cooperation between Russia and #US on the Afghan peace process, on Syrian, North Korean, Venezuelan, Iranian agendas pic.twitter.com/tqO7hVRVGv

— Russia in USA 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbUSA) June 27, 2020

The Russian Foreign Ministry has rejected a @nytimes report claiming Moscow offered to pay jihadi militants to attack US soldiers in Afghanistan. It said such 'fake news' merely betrays the low skill levels of US spy agencies (which is quite a burn). https://t.co/xPPbpWEPGu

— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) June 27, 2020

If you're shocked, you haven't been paying attention. But I forgive you because better to get to the battle in progress than not at all. Any decent, self-respecting veteran would drop donny and the death cult of human suffering he represents like a soiled, maggot-filled diaper. But most of them will not, and I think it right to explore why. The first step in authoritarian follower rationalization is simply denial, donny was too busy with the economy or his magnificent pandemic response to know about some chatter from a long-forgotten war. You know how the deep state has relentlessly pushed the fake news of Russian interference anyway right? Then they will take marching orders, like during the Iraq War, about how every soldier is a volunteer and knew what they were getting into. What's the difference if Russia paid them? Islamists are genetically programmed to be violent and want to kill Americans, so they were gonna do it regardless. Then the aggression will kick in. Something something, you liberals want to kill our troops or leave them out to dry. Why don't you move to a socialist country, you mask-wearing sissy. How they will finally brush it off and make this somehow Hillary Clinton's fault is going to be an amazing performance of authoritarian discipline.

If this is your first time witnessing the depravity of right-wing authoritarian followers, well I guess I envy you because there is no low to which they will not sink to defend the indefensible. How could veterans throw their brothers and sisters under the bus like this? Well, the point of military indoctrination is to wear you down, destroy your individuality, and fill you back up with discipline and sycophantic devotion to the chain of command. Some people, like me, bounce back after that initial indoctrination, for the same reasons Dr. Bob Altemeyer lays out for low RWAs. Namely, we've seen those authority figures screw up, we've broken the rules and got away with it once or twice. But I highly recommend you go to the authoritarians site and read the book (it's free). I have always been fascinated by his research on the ability of high RWAs to compartmentalize ideas and turn on an ideological dime when their leaders demand it. 

How do I know high RWA veterans will throw non-RWA veterans under the bus? Because they do it all the time, they did it to me. I wouldn't toe the line and suddenly my service didn't count. I had the nerve to ask a question and Army buddies' removed me from their contacts and blocked me without a second thought. You're either with them or against them, and the worst traitor in high RWA's estimation is the apostate, the one who "should" be in their tribe but isn't.