RUSSIA MANEUVERS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND IN VOSTOK?

            Its been hard to miss the hype over the past 24 hours about the Russians. The largest Ground “Exercise” since the Cold War. Then news of the Russians expanding their fleet in the Med with everyone saying it’s a counter to the US and Ally ships showing up near Syria…..oh ya…. I forgot to add the rumors of the US preparing to strike Syria over a pending chemical attack. Now, if you spent most of your day reading Facebook or Tweeting, you might see these two stories and think, good grief, that’s bad, real bad….oh…..look….Sally posted a new picture of her 3 year old! Even this morning, I sat and waited for CNN or MSNBC to run a story about how both these events are The Donald’s fault, but it seems the Russian collusion, obstruction of justice, paying hush money to Porn Stars is still the objective. Don’t worry though, you can rest assured if something does happen between the Russians and the US, it will be Trumps fault, why, CNN and their fellow Journalist may already have that story written. So, what is going on here? Why this impression of such a show of force by Putin? I will give you a better question to contemplate. Why not?

The Danger of Disunity.

            Has the US always been unique because of its ability to have a diversified government? Balance has been a key to stability in any Democracy. When the American people are split almost down the middle on the performance of the current party in power, that’s always been a sign of a “Healthy” government, right? Is that where we are today? Are we not just simply conducting business as usual? Nothing’s really changed, right? Wrong. Things have changed and they continue to change and those “changes” need to be recognized soon.

            How many times have your read about the “changes” to society brought on by the internet, social media, video games ect..ect…? How consumed are everyday people with issues that will not impact them? “News Alert….School Bus overturns in Illinois, five injured”. The public is bombarded with data from the moment they wake up until the minute they fall asleep, if they can sleep. When consuming large volumes of useless information becomes the norm, then it becomes very difficult to predict what impact that will have to society as a whole. Yes, some “experts” are writing books about this “change”, but the “change” is still taking place, even as they write. Just how much information about everything going on everywhere is enough? The Russians sailed three ships into the Med? It was all over Twitter and every other social media network all day long. So what? The Russians move three ships and it’s time to worry about war? Here is what worries me the most about the age of information overload. Are people ready to come to a conclusion within seconds in order to free up the time needed to go read or watch the next issue? Trump has been guilty of Collusion, Rape, Abuse of Power, and who knows what else since the day each story broke. Facts? No one has time for facts anymore. Ready Fire Aim….that’s the way we are heading. You take the historical balance of opinions in the US and you immerse it in the 21^st Century Social Media madness and you may no longer have a formula where “balance” creates stability. Balance becomes nearly impossible to maintain when the speed required changes by the minute. Wait…. I just got another new alert!

The Media:

            There was a time when the professional Journalist, working for privately owned companies, controlled the flow of information in the US. There was a time when a “good story” meant it would have to be backed by facts, things the Journalist could defend. There was a time the media didn’t look for a party slant, they just looked for the story. They were the Fourth Estate. They were seen as the guardians of truth. Simply put, the clear majority of the US public believed the media. Then the Fifth Estate came along. Yep….change. 24/7 cable news…..bloggers and then the real weapon….. social media. It was soon clear the ability for one party to gain and then stay in power would rest with controlling the message. That part of politics has not changed for thousands of years, but what did change was the type of weapon used to make it all work. People who wanted to influence the public’s opinions found their champions. They found their Billionaires that could create their own version of the media. Remember who started CNN and remember who he was married to, just an example😊. Cable news became the new political weapon and the Journalist needed to make these new networks work were students when? Yep. The 60s. As soon as the concept of this new form of information control was realized, the other side had to come up with their response. Yep. FOX news. From that point on, it wasn’t about truth, it was about ratings and power. Cable news could feed the US public 24/7 any message they wanted, and it worked, but then Social Media came along and with that the ability to control the message was lost. Not only was control lost, but more importantly, the ability to control volume was lost as well. By 2018, you could get alerts on bus crashes in India with no injuries within 5 min of the event. You could even watch the rescue taking place live.

Information as a Weapon:

            The concept of Information as a weapon has been around for thousands of years, but never has the weapon been so cheap and so powerful. In a society, such as the US, where people pride themselves on free speech, the ability to manipulate arguments gained a whole new level of importance. Balance of opinions became target. If the US population was always split, then how can that split be utilized to destabilize the nation? Answer, the constant flow of information that is one, worthless to day to day life and two, controversial to one side or the other. Yes. The weaponization of social media and the internet became a top priority. Why attempt to defeat the US on the battlefield, when you can get them to tear themselves apart from within?

            I’ve said this before and I will say it again here. The Russians and “others” goal was not to “own Trump”. Their goal was to disrupt the nation itself. Hillary’s Team was so confident and arrogant about the race they never paid attention to the fact they were manipulated. Trumps and his team were so arrogant and ignorant on how the process worked, they to were manipulated. What was the goal here? The further decay of the US social balance. What was the weapon of choice? The internet and social media. Here is the scary part. It worked far beyond the wildest dreams of those who plotted the event. The US population is no longer balanced. The desire by 90 percent of the media to see Trump removed has the other part of the nation just waiting to see if the process starts. If you are as old as I am, then you remember 1968, 69. I remember my parents thinking the country was coming apart. The difference was, most of the nation blamed an outside force, Communism. Today, we blame each other.  So, what does this all have to do with the Russians show of force in the Med and their largest military exercise in forty years?

It’s a Test:

            Years ago, the West and the Soviet Union use to do what we called, “Wire Runs”. Each side would spin up a full scale exercise and run right up to the dividing line…the wire. Yes, it helped each side work out the bugs in their battle plans, but it also had another goal. It allowed each side to see how the other reacted. It allowed each side to gauge just what the other side was thinking. So, you see, this is a Wire Run. The Russians have not done one in years, but that was then, and this is now. Are they looking for how NATO responds? Are they looking for what electronic tricks the IC uses to assess the event? Yes, but that’s not the real objective. The real goal is to see what reaction takes place inside the US population. It’s hard to pull CNN and others away from hunting Trump right now, but let a US and Russian Navel vessel bump each other, another Cold War test, or fire near each other, we can both miss if we want to, and let’s see what message comes across CNN / FOX / MSNBC and social media.

            How bad are things really? Just how divided are the US people? What message would the major cable news networks put out if a near crisis event took place? How fast would CNN and MSNBC blame Trump….the same Trump they claim is Putin’s Lapdog? Would the US population support their President in a war? What good is the might of the US military if the nation will not support the Commander in Chief? Is the US a Paper Tiger? That’s what this is all about, well almost. Let me end this rant by making a point the media has once again missed. Where is this largest military exercise in the past forty years taking place? Vostok! Where is Vostok? Near any NATO forces? Let me approach my point in a different way. Who use to own the area of Vostok? From the viewpoint of President Putin, who is this exercise really for? What is the real message? I know, the Chinese have been invited to take part. That makes the message even more intriguing. The location of the exercise is not lost on the leaders in Beijing.