“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution…”
– James Madison
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While it’s all the rage in many news outlets these days to criticize President Trump – this article will provide ample evidence for his praise.
It will do this by using exclusive research to provide a series of contrapoints that illustrate how he has displayed a high degree of personal and Presidential civility in his handling of three current events:
- The Transgender Military Ban
- Chelsea Manning’s incarceration for refusing to speak with Grand Jury investigators
- Nicolas Maduro’s impending departure from power
In addition to demonstrating how Donald Trump has embodied professionalism and the type of nationalistic paternalism appropriate to the Office of the President, it will also illustrate how these three examples are connected to ongoing intelligence operations by the government of Nicolas Maduro to spread misinformation and disinformation, to encourage espionage and civil unrest, and even to facilitate it.
In short, this will show the claim of Laura Durso, Vice President of the LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress, that this ban “undermines military readiness and perpetuates the fear across the transgender and allied communities that this government will not protect them, not even those who would sacrifice everything to protect our nation” – along with similar claims made by others are motivated not by a desire to speak the truth but to spread an uninformed, hateful view of President Trump.
Trans-Soldier Ban & Trump’s Presidential Civility
Other commentators hint that the real reason for the ban is not because of financial costs but due to discrimination, prejudice or hate.
They are right the official government line is not true, but not because of those reasons.
Instead, the real reason for the Trans military ban stems from President Donald Trump’s genuine sense of love for the Americans that serve in the United States military.
Why is that?
By not sharing with the public that the real reason for the ban was due to a long-term espionage operation targetting Trans military personnel by Venezuelan Intelligence, President Trump absolves himself of divisive accusations that he questions troop loyalty or that he is any way giving cause for yet another mentally unbalanced person to baselessly attribute violent crimes to him.
Venezuela’s Counterintelligence Campaigns: Control Public Perception
During the Cold War the Soviet Union sound to disrupt U.S. international relations and undermine U.S. power in the world and undermine the appeal of U.S. democracy to other countries. Since 2002, Venezuela has sought to do the same through a variety of methods. Having state media employees at TeleSUR work full time to monitor certain Wikipedia entries is just one minor example. They have their own state media company as well, and it has numerous partners -such as Russia’s RT, Ruptly, Redfish and Sputnik, as well as Nicaragua, Cuba and Iran’s iterations of the same. And they are also connected to numerous “private” outlets in the U.S. as well – such as The Real News Network, WSWS, Teen Vogue, MintPress News, Democracy Now, etc. And there are also numerous independent journalists that have also gotten in on the act. I write about some of these journalists here, but in this article, will focus on Facebook as it’s quicker to illustrate my points as it relates to President Donald Trump’s civility.
Venezuela’s Honey Traps
Anarcha-Transfeminism is one of at least 300 Pages on Facebook that is moderated and operated by accounts promoting Venezuela’s anti-American worldview. While the above shares of official Venezuelan government websites and accounts make this easy to see, other content includes generalized incitement to violence, anti-voting messaging, disinformation and misinformation, and other forms of content designed to increase polarization.
The Great Sh!tpost Army
In addition to “Occupied” Facebook pages and numerous social media action centers in Venezuela that monitor and operate on Twitter and Facebook groups there is also an auxiliary force of voluntary shi!tposters, sock puppets operators, link-spammers, and others. Their goal is similar, to agitate online – Terms of Service be damned.
In the new world of digital media activism, one’s courage is determined by how many Facebook bans that you’ve come back from.
Appeals to Abstract Notion of Solidarity
How do they do this? For one by structuring images that help create a sense of belonging where there was once none and a sense of security where there was once none. This combined through the promotion of “solidarity” in a manner that simplifies the history and politics of Venezuela allows for deep-personal identifications to be made.
Considering how my other reports based on observation of official and non-official public groups and pages related to Venezuela’s intelligence operations show that sexism, transphobia, racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism are still quite alive despite their implications that it’s not – this is ironic, but that is really besides the point.
By collapsing the myriad complexities involved in any discussion of Venezuelan-U.S. relationships in this manner is a form of distortion, but one with potentially powerful emotional resonance.
Recruiting Trans People Online & In Real Life
Venezuelan accounts and Socialists sympathetic to them aren’t just engaged in trivial online behavior.
The International Socialist Organization, the Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and The Workers World Party – which has long been considered connected to foreign political interests – also have their members working in outreach and service organizations, or front groups to recruit.
The connection between this and military operations is yet unceratin, but the above images certainly indicate that espionage and the leaking of classified information to the benefit of military opponents is the goal.
Presumably, part of the investigation now being done in private by the U.S. Military related to the trans ban is not just about medical costs, but is about having American intelligence operatives pose as trans military personnel to determin the extent of active count-intelligence recruitment schemes going on.
Mainstreaming Revolution
Increasingly, this sort of radicalism isn’t just on the fringes either. Lucy Diavolo, the editor for Teen Vogue, frequently curates the writings of Venezuela associated writers like Keeanga Yamahtta and George Ciccariello-Maher.
Divalo, whose first written article for Teen Vogue was in praise of Chelsea Manning and who recently wrote an op-ed against her imprisonment for not cooperating with a grand jury investigation, hints at the extent to which the media has been influenced by Venezuela.
If this seems alarmist, consider the below evidence which indicates it might already have happened.
Celebrating Discharge and Promoting Espionage
After photos of Spenser Rapone stating that “Communism will win” were circulated through Venezuela’s coordinated inauthentic behavior network, they eventually made its way onto the desk of Florida Senator Marco Rubio. This and other veteran’s outcries of lead to Spenser’s other-than-honorable discharge.
Shortly after this, he presented at the Socialism conference in Chicago. The slogan for this event is “Another World is Necessary,” a variation of the World Social Form slogan – an organization founded in part to develop Socialism in America. One of their founders, Chico Whiataker, is currently on the WikiLeaks advisory board.
He also appeared on a new podcast called “unauthorized disclosure,” an obvious allusion to leaking information to the public. Mike Prysner, a former soldier himself, is also the finance of Venezuela spokesperson Abby Martin and a long time co-Producer for Empire Files, a program funded by the Venezuelan government.
While this could all be coincidence and affinities at work, it’s intereting to note that as of Thursday March 21st, Spenser Rapone is friends on Twitter with Ernesto Villegas, who previously had shared his photo on Instagram and Twitter and who is also the Minister of Venezuela’s Department of Popular Power and Culture – the Venezuelan equivalent of the CIA and the government body which also advises the president on how to operate TeleSUR.
Antifa and Nicolas Maduro
Military influence operations are just the tip of a much larger iceberg of Venezuelan intelligence projects in American. Since before 2007, Venezuela has been actively seeking to influence the American political scene.
Since 2010 Nicolas Maduro has been indoctrinating adolescents in Venezuelan collectivos to adopt “antifascism,” funded the development of eco-socialist and antifascism clubs throughout Latin America and in Spain. Though the motivating cause for collective action are different, as do the organizations backing them, there is nevertheless an underlying logic behind it all.
That’s why so many of the people that now make up Antifa are the same people that were previously involved in Occupy Wall Street and before that were in the Global Justice Movement.
The Smash Racism DC organizer, revolutionary communist and Antifa leader Jose Martin – who protested in front of Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s house, berated Sen. Ted Cruz at a restaurant until he and his wife were forced to leave, and was later involved in a fight wherein he yelled racist comments at U.S. troops – is just one of many examples of people radicalized in part by the Venezuelan intelligence operations whose goal is to help develop multiple dual-power, 21st Century Socialist movements in America.
President Trump’s Civic Responsibility in the Face of Fake News
Considering that so many non-governmental organizations, like Laura Durso’s LGBT Research and Communications Project, as well as numerous news and opinion, like the New York Times, CNN, VOX, and Teen Vogue, hire columnists and editorialists that don’t consider research as part of their professional process and that because of this President Trump is vilified, it’s understandable why he would have such disdain for the press.
He is, in this instance, like Batman – absorbing the hate of many people out of his love for the people. Were they informed of the Truth, Donald Trump would be praised for how he has handled Wikileaks/the World Social Forums/Venezuela’s attempts at getting U.S. military personnel – trans or otherwise – to commit acts of espionage.
It’s for these reasons that American’s should give the President due credit for his professional behavior in the face of calumny, and give him support in however he chooses to deal with Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.