Russia infiltrates American blog

I find stories of Russian hackers believable, but it's even scarier that Russian have targeted my favorite political blog. (It's my favorite not because I highly agree with it, but because it is more frequently readable and interesting.)

The number of pro-Russian commenters on this post is terrifying. Furthermore, they are well armed with talking points: we have to avoid a confrontation that would lead to WWIII, NATO wastes so much money on unneeded defense, Russian isn't threatening or expansionist, it's the governments in ex-Warsaw Pact nations that pushed to join NATO, not the people, etc.

I'm not going to list and debunk all their arguments because that takes a hell of a lot of effort, as you'll see if you read the comments. Suffice to say, the Russian shills are persistent.

What does it mean that there are so many Russian shills on this one thread? How many are commenting here and elsewhere, often pretending not to be Russian, and trying to influence US opinion? To me, it's very worrying indeed. Back in 2012 I detected what I thought were anti-Obama commenters, particularly people pretending to have voted for him in 2008 but deciding against him in 2012.

These Russians are more numerous than those anti-Obama fakers, and the stakes are higher. I'm seriously worried that US policy against Russian could weaken, and leave Russia emboldened to retake lost territory. I wasn't horrified by them taking the Crimea because it was traditionally Russian, and ended up in Ukraine when maps were redrawn (if the capsule history I read was accurate).

But if Russia has its eye on territory in the Baltic regions, that will be very nasty. An invasion there would have been unthinkable a few years ago, but no longer with a Putin-worshipping idiot president (Trump) in the White House. Or Russia might do something else somewhere else. I don't know what to predict, but they must be held in check for the good of the rest of the world. A muscular Russia has rarely been a boon to the world, and I'm not betting it will be better now.

Also very scary is how many on the right are repeating Russian talking points. The right wing media has turned people into parrots. They are such dutiful parrots that they don't even recognize or remember that Russia and its totalitarianism is an enemy. I wonder whether the leaders of the right-wing media have forgotten that too. Maybe they've been bought off, blackmailed, and have gotten so stupid that they don't remember either. Twits... or worse.

Image: dailymail.co.uk

Extras. Here are the names of the Russian shills commenting or upvoting on the discussion thread connected to this article. I'll be watching for their activity elsewhere, and adding to the list as warranted.

Likely Russian shills without Russian names. Many don't write, but upvote and therefore may be shills-in-waiting.

1. R.W. Emerson II
2. EmilyEnso
3. aprecoup
4. Styx
5. Aldous Huxley
6. Southern Cross
7. michaelbarningham
8. Kapricorn4
9. John
10. Bob Belz
11. Juan Pablo
12. fafniro
13. JOSEPH
14. helena violet
15. Theodora Angelina
16. NATOcracy
17. Popcorn (probably not--his comments as of 2/13/18 seem very independent)
18. Che Guevara
19. ES71
20. Enrique Costas
21. Ron Halaka
22. lawfrench
23. Go Wild Rose
24. Big John
25. Jim Jacobson
26. Gary Sellars
27. BlackRoseML
28. Doom Sternz
29. George Evans
30. Dig 'Em
31. Maelstrom_19
32. ApqlA
33. Lord Lemur
34. MR
35. ed H
36. Zack Smith
37. Kimo Krauthammer
38. Goldenah
39. drkkrw
40. Mirumir
41. Saint Jimmy (Russian American)
42. chris chuba
43. Anja Boettcher
44. dorotea
45. Leftofleft
46. Qephetzial
47. Jav
48. shmaktastic
49. Bruno Clabot
50. Huaimek
51. Hedel
52. Timo Okello
53. Eugen Hartescu
54. Martin Alfven Haider
55. Maji_Baridi
56. Aaron Kirsch MDPhD
57. Phil
58. Stelios Touchtidis
59. roberto
60. nick1111
61. Ramnik Singh
62. Dan Delgado
63. Ztop
64. Atlas
65. Southern
66. Winston_S_43
67. Leonardo Giuseppe Masia (Italian but still a shill)
68. Nomadic Man
69. Savage Savant
70. Farmer Scott
71. Attila
72. Diego Van (mixed signals earlier, but lately very shillish)
73. John
74. EF304
75. Mark Thomason
76. JAMES PETKOVITS
77. experience
78. Rock IT!
79. Carl Tycon
80. Arthur
81. toucheamigos
82. Winton
83. terry
84. Sean.McGivens
85. Puigdemont Catalan
86. timepass?
87. KissMyAss88?
88. Tokaro?
89. Bankotsu - it's a Japanese name, but many shill-like activities. Sometimes he seems independent, and sometimes like a highly paid, highly intelligent shill. Note: He's identified himself as Chinese. 
90. tweets 21 (maybe not--seems more logic-based)
91. Power Girl (probably not--pattern of comments is ad hoc, like a real person)

Russian shills with Russian/Slavic names:

1. Putler Polak (weird name, but uses Russian)
2. Kalinin Yuri
3. Gazpikae (with a Romulan avatar)
4. Jozsef Volgyi
5. Sergey Tokarov
6. Andrey Koleshov
7. novychelovek
8. German Yakovlev
9. Jew from Russia
10. Keruzkho
11. Victor Krachkovsky
12. stephen kulodrovic
13. Dmitry Vakin

Weirdos spouting pro-Russian talking points:

1. anonaccount - comments on lots of topics, usually with an alt-right spin. Wrote that whites are superior.
2. Pseudo Turtle - sounds reasonable sometimes, but hates libs and wants his country back.
3. profwatson - a very strange commenter with a lot of craziness (Porklandia) but also tried to be serious at times. He upvotes a lot of Russian shills.

Chinese shills:

1. discoverer

Iranian shills (added 10/24/19)

1. Soldiers spies traitors books
2. Mike
3. James

And, here I am, burying the bombshell, except that it isn't a bombshell for most of us thinking people on the center or left. I worry that Putin is hoping to split the Europe into two camps, and maybe he thinks he has found the partners who'll make that deal--Trump and the stupid American right-wingers. It's a scary reminder of the Hitler-Stalin deal, and I sure hope that it doesn't happen. But I worried and I'm going to be vigilant and outspoken.

Update 11/9/17. Putin had a press release/speech published in Bloomberg View. The good part was that comments weren't disabled, so people went to town. I argued with a bunch of Russian shills including their top gun Emerson. Nothing new really. The same talking points about Russia being good, Ukraine being corrupt and full of Nazis, armies at the doorsteps, etc. I added some new shills to the list.