"Russia ~ If You're Listening?" is an oxymoron

Russian operatives are always listening. In fact, Russia may even have put a "bugging chip" in the soccer ball given to Donald Trump by Vladimir Putin at the "Helsinki-knee" kowtow conference. "Where there are Russians, there are also audio 'bugs'". Donald Trump didn't need to ask "Russia, if you're listening?". They were already doing so. Surveillance began in earnest at the 2013, Miss Universe pageant, in Russia, near Moscow.

Echo Opinion published in the Pennsylvania newspaper "The Intelligencer", by Kathleen Parker
Opinion

Vladimir Putin gives a World Cup soccer ball (with a "chip" embedded into it)  to Donald Trump, during a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday, July 16, 2018.

Kathleen Parker asks:  "... the question has to be: Why, if there’s no concern about collusion, would Trump keep pounding Mueller while defending Putin?"

WASHINGTON — It’s a given that political candidates will target each other with as much oppositional propaganda as they can get away with. But with the Kremlin now playing a third-party shadow role in U.S. elections, the usual game seems to be shifting from blood sport to cold war.

Given Russia’s well-established (and admitted by Vladimir Putin) preference for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016, it’s possible, if not likely, that the next round of election meddling will be geared toward keeping the Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

For Democrats, this added pressure from Russia could easily begin to feel like a threat. Imagine believing that you’re not only running against a Republican but also against a former KGB agent who seems to be in cahoots with your very own president.

What else should one think?

During a rally Thursday evening in Pennsylvania, Trump once again referred to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as the “Russian hoax.” This, amid the intelligence community’s stepped-up warnings about new Russian interference. 

And, let’s not forget the 12 Russians whom Mueller indicted last month for hacking Democratic Party computer networks.

Mueller is not generally known as a hoaxer.

But Trump remains the slick salesman, entertainer and pot stirrer he’s always been. Just hours before his stick-it-to-’em jamboree, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and several national intelligence officials convened a media briefing to address Russian attempts to impact the midterm elections.

That is, with a slight modification. In her statement, Sanders assured gathered media that the administration “will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation-state or other dangerous actor,” clearly indicating that the focus would not be only on Russia.

As it should be, given that others would also like to meddle in our affairs. But as the gathered officials made clear — including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — Russia is of central concern here and now. Wray said that Russia “continues to engage in malign influence operations” that target “the integrity of our democratic institutions.” Coats said: “We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States.”

Then why is the president undermining his own advisers?

Although Trump is referring primarily to Mueller’s core mission — to determine whether the Trump campaign was involved in the Russian interference — he seems more than willing to minimize the importance of what we already know. Thus, the question has to be: Why, if there’s no concern about collusion, would Trump keep pounding Mueller while defending Putin?

One can only conclude that either there’s a little smidge of guilt, a problematic family connection, a dossier embarrassment — or the president of the United States doesn’t care that Russia tried to ruin Clinton so that he could become president. He seems to care so little, in fact, that he’s essentially calling America’s intelligence community a pack of liars and Mueller a hoaxer. Meanwhile, last month in Helsinki, Trump said Putin was an “extremely strong and powerful” denier. (Have these guys exchanged jewelry yet?)

If Putin says he didn’t do it, then Trump takes him at his word? Yet, when teams of skilled, honorable investigators tackle the problem and present indictments based on facts, Trump insinuates that they’re making it up?

This reversal of loyalty to his own people, not to mention the country he is tasked with leading, is so preposterous that normal people are at serious risk of joining lemming colonies. It isn’t possible to use logic with the illogical; it’s futile to explain the obvious to the willfully thick; and when it comes to Trump’s base, witness only the rally last week in Florida where CNN reporter Jim Acosta was the target of dozens of Trumpers extending their middle digits and shouting, among other salutations, “You suck!”

Perhaps, some in Trump’s camp see things like steady job growth and low unemployment and say to themselves, Who cares how he got elected? And if Russia likes Trump, why is that necessarily bad? The president, they would note, has been checking off his list of campaign promises without so much as changing his expression.

One could make such an argument, but this would be a narrow view and an unserious response to other facts. These include what almost any Russian would surely tell you — that Putin is playing Trump like a fiddle — and that something was stinky in Helsinki.

MaineWriter note~  Russia continues to listen. (As a matter of fact, Russians who are reading this echo opinion.)  Donald Trump is counting on them to pull off the shadow election in the fall, like they did when the 2016 campaign was maligned by the cyber attack on American democracy.  "Russia, if you're listening" is a classic oxymoron.  Russians are always listening and now the cyber attackers are also invading our nation.

Kathleen Parker ~ Her email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.

M16 operative Steele dossier summary

Christopher Steele is a former British intelligence M16 operative who was hired to write a report about Donald Trump's behavior in Moscow, while he was being compromised by the Kremlin, during the 2013 Miss Universe Contest~ Steele was a spy.

Nine months after the publication of an explosive and salacious dossier detailing allegations of collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia, its claims are the subject of intense scrutiny. Indeed, the investigation into the document compiled by a former British intelligence operative, Christopher Steele, has only increased in scale.

Newsweek's summary by Jason Le Miere

According to reports in recent days, not only has the investigation of the document been turned over to the man leading the Trump-Russia probe, but Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team recently met with Steele. Trump may have called it “totally made-up facts by sleazebag political operatives,” but it is clear it is not going anywhere anytime soon, and continue to plays an important role in the wider investigation into allegations concerning Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Here’s what you need to know:
How Did it Come About?
Congressional committees have been keen to discover the answer to that very question. Delivering an update on the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation Wednesday, Chairman Richard Burr said the panel “cannot decide the credibility” of the dossier without first knowing its sources and financers. 

Various reports, however, have been consistent that the dossier was first paid for by anti-Trump Republicans and then Democrats took over its financing as the 2016 election campaign progressed.

Who Compiled it?
The U.S.-based research firm Fusion GPS hired Steele, a former MI6 spy, to compile the dossier. During his stint with the British intelligence agency, Steele spent time working under diplomatic cover in Moscow toward the end of the Cold War. 

Steele was said by British news reports to be a Russian expert who worked on the high-profile investigation into the 2006 death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London. After leaving MI6 in 2009, Steele founded a London-based private intelligence firm. Intelligence historian Nigel West, who worked with Steele, described him as “James Bond.”

What’s in the Dossier?
The 35-page dossier is a collection of memos concerning Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election and claims that the country has been supporting Trump for at least five years. While it notes that Trump had rejected several Russian business deals proposed in order to curry favor with the then-presidential candidate,it says his campaign did accept information on his opponents. More specifically, it alleges contact between Russian officials and a member of the Trump campaign, notably that Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen helped facilitate the arrangements.

What caught most people’s eyes when the dossier was published by Buzzfeed News in January, though, were the more salacious allegations. Although Steele’s findings assert that Russia attempted to collect compromising material on both Trump and his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, the Kremlin is said to have been far more successful in its attempts regarding the Republican candidate. Indeed, the dossier claims that the Russian FSB spy agency possesses a video of Trump successfully requesting prostitutes to urinate on a bed while staying in a Moscow hotel room once occupied by the former president and first lady, Barack and Michelle Obama.

Is it True?
There have certainly been plenty of vehement denials. Trump has on multiple occasions ridiculed both the dossier’s findings and its author, who the president called a “failed spy.” Cohen sent a letter to Congress in August strongly denying the allegations made against him, although he did not mention the personal claims made against the president. And this week three Russians named in the dossier filed a lawsuit in Washington claiming their reputations had been ruined by the claims.

But there is growing evidence that investigators are taking the dossier far more seriously than was initially believed. 

Although the particular claim that saw the report nicknamed the “golden shower," or “pee tape,” dossier has not been verified, the intelligence community has corroborated the broad assertion about Russia’s attempts to interfere in the election, CNN has reported. Officials have also agreed that the communication between non-Americans contained in the report did in fact take place. 

What Trump has called “fake news” would appear to be, at least in part, far more real.

Russian fake news - the story of Sasha Grey

"(Donald Trump)...he's not making a country for you, (rather) he's making a country for himself...."- Sasha Grey.

Sasha Grey- a popular Russian porn actress who was the victim of fake news

Regardless of whether or not Donald Trump was involved in an international espionage campaign to smear him for the purpose of blackmail by Russia, the fake news cottage industry is thriving.

Perhaps Donald Trump is completely innocent of engaging in salacious and lewd behavior when he was in Moscow with the Miss Universe pageant. Doesn't matter. Fake news about his unsubstantiated conduct while in Moscow are now among headlines read around the world.  His "locker room talk" reputation has served as a platform for the purpose of suspecting a seed of truth might be at the root of the x-rated story.  Surely, Trump's sainted mother Mary Anne taught him to watch who his friends were. Nevertheless, Trump tried to get in bed with the Russians and now he's been burnt by their clandestine espionage. True or not- doesn't matter in the forum of public opinion. 

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

Now, a former Russian prostitute described to The Daily Beast  and other news sources, about how Russia created fake news. Like the time they created Sasha Grey's obituary- reported by Marlow Stern.

On the morning of February 18, 2015, Sasha Grey learned she had died.

“This seemingly fragile, yet strong young woman, has saved wounded fighters at the front. She was said to have nursed even the most hopeless cases back to health. But she herself did not return from the front,” read her obituary.

It was, by most accounts, a gruesome end. A petite Russian nurse, she had ventured straight into the heart of the battle between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists. While tending to her wounded comrades, she was snatched up by the Ukrainians and taken to a bivouac, where she was beaten, raped, and decapitated with an ax.
The tragic tale spread like wildfire across VK (VKontakte), Russia’s answer to Facebook boasting close to 400 million users. She was hailed as a martyr—a symbol of Russian courage in the face of Ukrainian terror.

Only Sasha Grey, the extreme porn star turned Hollywood actress, is very much alive. “I was Russian fake news,” she tells me, laughing hysterically—or as Karl Marx once said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”

We’re seated across from one another at a Los Angeles coffee shop, where she’s recounting the unfortunate series of events that led to her image being used in Russian propaganda—a harbinger of a presidential election awash in fake news and, if our intelligence agencies are to be believed, a Kremlin-backed hacking and disinformation campaign with the intent of propelling the Russia-friendly Donald Trump into office over rival Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump didn't go to Moscow in 2013, without some incentive. So, what was it? 

What apparently happened was users of the image board 2ch.hk—an offshoot of 2ch.ru, or Russia’s version of 4chan—launched a gullibility campaign to test whether or not Russians would fall for bogus stories of pro-Russian “fallen heroes” of the War in Donbas. In addition to Grey, who was given the name Sasha Serova (which roughly translates to “grey” in Russian), the online trolls also floated a picture of Josef Mengele, the sadistic Auschwitz concentration camp physician, granting him the identity of “Yegor Mangelov,” a field surgeon killed by Ukranian troops.

Grey unleashed the following response:

“It’s strange!” she says of the viral obit. “It’s really strange. But it’s not something you can control.”

Though she’s achieved fame stateside, starring in hundreds of adult films, Hollywood features like The Girlfriend Experience, and a 6-episode arc on the HBO series Entourage, Grey is most famous in Russia, where she holds near-icon status. Though she’s never met Vladimir Putin, the 28-year-old has paid many visits to Russia over the years, always warmly greeted by her army of fans.

“It’s Imagery,” she says of her Russian popularity, alluding to her name and look. “Social media is a huge influencer. One of the last times I was there, one of the people said, ‘You know, when you first became famous here you were this hipster girl, and now it’s changed.’ That American Apparel thing is why it all started, is what I was told.”

She’s evolved from that “hipster girl” into a symbol of sexual rebellion whose raison d'être stands in stark contrast to the conservative Putin regime.

“I was there for the movie Open Windows, and the producer told me I was named one of the ‘13 Friends of the Junta,’ and they were all these people that were supposed to be anti-Christ and against the government,” she says. “I’m always told these things, but I never see them. It’s all bullshit propaganda. A few visits before that I was told that there were Christian protesters out there protesting against me, and I’m like, um, no there’s not? I’m here!”

The Sasha Grey mythmaking began early on. Born Marina Ann Hantzis, the Sacramento native dove into the porn industry headfirst in 2006, making her debut at the age of 18 in an orgy sequence opposite the notoriously rough Rocco Siffredi. During the scene, Grey yelled at Siffredi to punch her in the stomach, thus establishing herself as the most boundary-pushing woman in porn.

“I asked him to do it—but he didn’t do it,” she says of the sex-punch. “It was dirty talk, you know? If anyone who’s into dirty talk hears this it makes sense, because it’s not literal. But at the same time, if I wanted that, who’s to say there’s anything wrong with it?”

As a tiny, flat-chested brunette, Grey stood out physically among her busty, bottle blonde peers—and intellectually as well. She played music, quoted Wilde, and worshipped at the altar of Godard; she was the sole avant-garde porn goddess.

“During that time of my life, I was strongest when I was on set and I was working,” recalls Grey. “That was where all my personal power existed in life. I would always tell the directors what I wanted and didn’t want. So no one tried to fuck with me.”

Though she exuded confidence onscreen, Grey was a mess off it, trapped in a violent and abusive relationship with then-boyfriend Ian Cinnamon. She broke off the relationship in 2012, one year after publicly announcing her retirement from porn (though she hadn’t performed a scene since 2009), and securing a restraining order in 2014 after receiving a series of threats from her ex, including photos of him brandishing handguns.

“There was a restraining order. Things always get taken out of context, and I don’t really want to go into it too much, but it was a very bad relationship. I made a lot of excuses and finally got my shit together,” she shares.

“I just took too long to leave. You know when you’re in a situation and you know you need to leave it but you don’t have the confidence to do it?” adds Grey. “And it was really hard because on the outside I’m super confident—creatively-speaking—and if I’m working with someone professionally I’ll give it my all, and on the other hand, I had this thing that I had to find a way to get rid of. And I was scared, because I didn’t know how.”

Grey quit shooting porn in 2009, the same year she starred as the high-class escort Chelsea in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience.

“I didn’t want it to be a big deal—because it wasn’t a big deal,” she says matter-of-factly. “But it was scary when I decided to, even though it had been two years since I’d done it. I was leaving my bread-and-butter, and something I was comfortable with and good at, and didn’t know if I would succeed. But I had to take the risk.”

In addition to her work in porn, Hollywood films, music, and photography, Grey is the author of soon-to-be three books in her series The Juliette Society—following a woman’s kinky journey into the BDSM underworld. She’s already been commissioned to adapt the series into a screenplay, which she’s completed.

The first novel in the series, released in mid-2013, contains a prophetic passage about Grey’s character’s absolute worst nightmare: having sex with Donald Trump in his private jet whilst flying over St. Tropez.

Now, of course, he is President-elect Trump.

“It really is surreal,” she says of the election result. “It’s scary. The most disappointing thing, for me, is that as a society—as a country—we’ve all become intellectually lazy. That’s why this is happening. People are not looking into things they post and share, especially on social media, so they’re spreading ignorance and false truths, are blind to the reality of what’s going on, and then voting for false promises. People can then argue, ‘Oh, that’s the way it’s always been,’ but no. This is very different.”

“People were blind to the most obvious thing: he’s not making a country for you, he’s making a country for himself. And now he’s appointed a cabinet that’s entirely the 1 percent.” She chuckles. “I’m laughing because I’m really fucking nervous.”

You’re certainly not his type, I say in jest. “Oh, I can tell you that for sure,” she fires back. “I’m too strong for him.”

These days, in addition finishing her trilogy of books, trying to direct, and recording more music, Grey is developing a television series that she describes as “an art series that appeals more to young people—that’s not so highbrow, pretentious, and makes you want to yawn.” The first episode was inspired by the scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo where the camera tracks Kim Novak around the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, and each episode will consist of Grey navigating a museum or work of art, as her inner thoughts play in voice over. She thinks the show would work best on Netflix or Amazon because it’s dreamlike and soothing.

“I knew I was setting myself up to be an outcast,” she says, reflecting on her professional path. “And in the end, it ended up doing a lot of good for me.”

So, in conclusion, Donald Trump didn't make a big deal about being in Moscow unless there was something interesting for him to experience while there. After all, it's not like winning a trip to Tahiti. When Donald Trump was in Moscow, he became the victim of a campaign to create fake news about him, just like what happened to Sasha Grey. Whether any of the salacious intelligence was true or not, doesn't matter.  Unfortunately, Donald Trump's reputation is already branded by locker room behavior leading up to this lewd story. Where there's smoke, there's fire.