As the multiple investigations into Russia's sabotaging of the 2016 elections in concert with Putin pal and moron Donald "Rump" Trump's camp proceeds, new information is coming out about Russia's sinister campaign to further divide the U.S. along racial and religious lines. This past weekend, a few dozen neo-Nazis held a quick, tiki torch gathering in Charlottesville, VA at the statue of Confederate traitor Robert E. Lee, chanting "You will not replace us...We will be back...The south will rise again. Russia is our friend." Indeed, Russia's hand in stoking racial and religious resentments via social media, while boosting the aspirations of neo-Nazi low lifes has moved from fairly casual activity to organized and directed action.
As Think Progress reports, a major Russian effort is supporting neo-Nazi rallies and events in the hopes of stirring up new racial and religious tensions through false-front Facebook pages, such as the scurrilous secessionist "Heart of Texas," a Facebook account operated out of Russia. In May 2016, this false-front promoted a demonstration in Houston outside an Islamic center, complete with Confederate flag-bearing, armed-to-the-teeth white supremacists:
"Not only did the 'Heart of Texas' page call – successfully – for protesters to bring firearms ('concealed or not!') but Russian operatives were able to convince armed white supremacists to congregate in downtown Houston, facing off with dozens opposed to their message. Given recent events in Charlottesville, the fact that Russian operatives organized rifle-toting white nationalists into a confrontation with counter-protesters should give pause to politicians on both sides of the aisle – all the more as one of the comments on the 'Heart of Texas' page called to 'blow … up' the Islamic center.Russia's autocratic kleptocracy, following its success with installing Rump, is aggressively undermining and injecting political poison into our society. Beholden as he is to that kleptocracy not only for his political success but also for financially propping up his business, we can't expect Rump to do anything about this. As the saying goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the more sunlight cast on Russia's sinister attacks on us the better.
