An open letter to the Republican Leadership:

Recent years have seen the unfolding of stunning and historic events.

The American experiment, the very foundations of the American Revolution, is in the throes of what may be its most daunting challenge since the Civil War.

Arguably – it is all one struggle, one continuity of purpose that brings us to this place, a struggle for the freedom of the everyday person, not as an accessory of wealth or as a special birthright, but as a birthright for all.

I say to you that any act or practice attempting to repress the voice of “the people,” is in the most clear definition of the word, treason. Whether through gerrymandering, voting laws, or turning a blind eye to informational warfare, it is treason.

Are there not principles that are more important than short term goals? Are there not values to be prized more than political standing? than “career”? Shouldn’t the health of our republic be our first priority?

We cannot know if the 2016 election was materially altered by Russian interference or not. We didn’t have the opportunity to find out.

It is clear to any but the most naïve pundit that Mr. Trump is grateful for Mr. Putin’s support. Mr. Trump clearly fears that evidence of Russian interference undermines his “accomplishment” of winning. It is his ego that poisons his thinking and attracts him to despots who bolster his own sense of importance. He cannot see, or even care, how what feels good to him might somehow be bad for the country. If you question my conclusions go through and review ALL of his statements on Russia and Putin. Anyone can judge this for themselves absent the filter of spokesperson spin.

Let me repeat – Review Mr. Trump’s statements. All of them. The idea that replacing the word “would” with “wouldn’t” substantively alters his statements in Helsinki is absurd. It is a farce – and you – the Republican leadership must, if you’re truly patriots, do whatever it takes to act as a wall against these foreign assaults.

You must explain, in the most clear terms, to your constituents and the world, what is happening and what you are doing to protect our government and our people from Russia. You cannot sit by and do nothing. As long as you fail to defend us, as long as you fail to move against this erosion of our national principles, whatever you accomplish, whatever you “achieve,” is corrupted.

Sutherland, TX - Trolls, Bots - This is War

The Texas Shooting – again – OMG, OMG, OMG!

Let us begin by considering the victims. So much grief, so much horror, how many times will this happen and how many things need to happen to protect us against these overt acts of violence?

Image taken from ABC News - Article linked - Texas church shooting no 'random act of violence' governor says

But adding to the horror of this event is the rapid leveraging of grief by those that would do us harm. Let me be clear, I’m not calling for a halt to a discussion of the real issues that underpin this kind of horror but there are those that would use this against us. Please let there be civil discourse, a real public dialogue – but let us be aware that into this conversation bad actors are looking for opportunities to divide us, to seed hate between us.

“'Very often, hate, anxiety, and anger drive participation with the platform,' said Frank Pasquale, a law professor at the University of Maryland, in the (Pew) report. 'Whatever behavior increases ad revenue will not only be permitted, but encouraged, excepting of course some egregious cases.'"

Quote from The Atlantic - Guys It's Time for Some Troll Theory

--

Troll - a human-managed account, may or may not be who they purport to be, disseminating inflammatory and provocative content with the intent to stir anger, hate, and discontent.

Wikipedia - Troll

Russian Troll – a human-managed account engaging in disseminating inflammatory content at the direction or in the service of Russia.

Bot – Web robot, software that performs automated tasks including fetching and analyzing web content at a much higher rate than humanly possible. Many of the tasks they are used for may be highly beneficial. Bot accounts on Twitter and other social media platforms are used in disinformation and discord campaigns to identify political or social content and reply to such posts in an inflammatory or provocative manner. They are also used to post and spread false information often in a form that mimics the appearance of legitimate news sources.

Wikipedia - Bot

Trolls and Bots are being used to wage war on the American people and to turn us against one another. They count on our, Americans’, trust in media sources. We often respond to bots and trolls without questioning their legitimacy.

Trolls and Bots make posts that are meant to stoke our most emotional responses. They intentionally make outlandish, “beyond the pale” kind of statements, with the understanding that we, their unwitting targets, will attribute these statements to the “other side.” Trolls and bots and their directors count on us painting with a board brush this “other side” and holding them accountable – and building up bitterness and hate – in response to these “beyond the pale” statements.

Right now there are Trolls and Bots leveraging the Texas Church Shooting to stoke discord among Americans. Their directors want us to hate each other. They want there to be violence and they’ve worked very hard to inflame the tensions that will lead to it.

We must wise up. We must be VIGILANT and resist being manipulated by those who would do us harm. THIS IS PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE – BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE - IT IS WAR.

The Daily Beast - Jenna Abrams, Russian Troll

Washington Post - How Russian Trolls got into your Facebook feed

WE MUST PROTECT OURSELVES AND ONE ANOTHER.

Rules I made for myself to do this (and I don’t know if this is the best strategy … I am just now coming to this):

1. If I see a post that pushes my emotional buttons or that seems so outrageous …
a. Look at the profile of the poster – the name, etc. Just because they say they’re a particular person and that they live in the U.S. doesn’t mean this is true. They often claim to be someone with unassailable credentials …
b. I look at their previous posts – are these consistently inflammatory?

2. I consider their strategies in posting – do they continually deflect, shift argument midstream, or go after emotional buttons?

3. Assess if they mostly promote bad feelings or anger toward a particular group(s) (this happens on the left and right) – We tend not to question those posting from “our side.” For instance, there’s been a lot of “body shaming” of right wing women –

4. If it’s all these things I block them and try to ignore it. If I feel absolutely compelled to reply I might call out the body shaming or whatever, post #Troll and then block


I don’t know if this is the best strategy but I don’t want to be “run out” of social media and it makes me feel a bit more empowered and less helpless to have a strategy.