Patty-Cakes with Skulldugery...

I hear the name "Smirnov," and I flash on that time my partner and I, (this was the long ago, in a land far away), polished off a bottle of Vodka, while playing an intense, deep into the night, marathon game of Risk. As I recall, we were both hung-over & sick for three days after that binge and bender. Yikes. Thankfully those days are long gone.

But, of course, Smirnov and Smirnoff are not the same thing at all. This latest Smirnov is "an FBI informant," who has just been arrested in Nevada, a person who has had "extensive" contacts with Russian intelligence agencies. Smirnov appears to be a pawn in Vladimir Putin's own personal game of Risk, and his brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Turns out this "informant" is the main source of lies about Joe Biden and his son Hunter, which he has been feeding to prominent folks in the GOP. Republicans like Jim Jordan, James Comer, Bill Barr, Rudy G, GOP Senators like Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley have been mainling these lies into the American politcal bloodstream. Total Russian disinformation filtered thru the Repbulican Party! Oh yeah, and don't forget fat-boy-slim Donald Trump sitting on top of the swamp. These folks are either willing agents of Russia or  supremely "useful idiots." 

I would hazard the guess: Maybe both?! 

I am not one for conspiracy thinking. I don't think it's a smart or healthy way to parse what's happening in the world of human affairs. Conspiracy-minded thinking seems lazy and paranoid, and usually pretty stupid too. BUT of course, sometimes folks do conspire. Sometimes there really is a "there, there."

So, yes, we have evidence of a coordinated campaign, a multi-years long campaign, since at least 2016. It truly is "Russia, Russia, Russia." The mind reels. Many folks in that "grand old party" the GOP, the Repbulicans, have been actively spreading Russian disinformation as their primary tool to corrupt our American Presidential Elections in 2016, 2020, and now 2024. Republicans seem to have given up on Democracy, and winning votes with their policies, instead they turn to Russian Disinfo to lie, confuse, and and cheat to win. A sad, tragic, deadly-comic turn of events.

It been so ubiquitious & obvious. So obvious, like the air we breathe, it's almost invisible. Well it is not invisble anymore. There is a whole contingent of folks who have poisoned themselves by playing paddy-cakes with the worst of Putin's skullduggery. 

BTW - For those who want to know more about this cooridnated Russian Disinfo campaign implicating prominent folks in the GOP check out this handy Q & A with the fabulously great Marcy Wheeler.