Is Trumps Chaos Tornado a Move From the Kremlins Playbook?

"It’s terrifying to think that the Trump administration is simply winging it, in a swirl of lies, contradictions, and Twitter rants. A scarier possibility is that there is, in fact, a plan, taken straight from Putin 101.

The Trump team, both during its transition to power at the end of 2016 and in the early stages of its administration, can come across as an indecipherable swirl of contradictions, conflicting reports, and apparent hypocrisies. This can seem, at first blush, like the obvious result of an inexperienced, seat-of-the-pants president and a leadership style that favors flash over substance. We hear talk of draining the swamp, yet billionaires and special interests seem to have quickly infiltrated a White House that Trump assured his supporters would disavow elites. As former Federal Election Commission member Ann Ravel put it in November, “The alligators are multiplying.” Meanwhile, as controversial Cabinet picks like Jeff Sessions, Scott Pruitt, and Rex Tillerson went through the confirmation process, Trump continued sucking up media attention, picking fights on Twitter, doubling down on long-discredited lies, and sparking biweekly conflagrations. The effect is a permanent state of disorder: a de-stabilized media, an exasperated citizenry, and a fractured opposition, divided and pulled into mudslinging sideshows. In some ways, it resembles Surkov’s non-linear warfare.


TRUMP’S TEAM IS FINDING WAYS TO APPROXIMATE PUTIN’S CAPACITY TO CREATE AN ALTERNATIVE REALITY.
What if all the Trumpian chaos that the “mainstream media” have come to take for granted as pugilism and vanity was part of a more cunning plan? What if Trump and chief strategist Steve Bannon were actually drawing from a sophisticated postmodern propaganda model developed by none other than Vladimir Putin, Vladislav Surkov, and their political technologists at the Kremlin? While Trump may not have state-controlled media at his disposal, as Putin does, to serve as 24-7 propaganda organs both domestically and abroad, his team is finding ways to shrewdly approximate Putin’s capacity to shape narratives and create alternative realities.

Trump and his team’s espousal of fake news, embrace of “alternative facts,” and relentless lying to reporters, political adversaries, and the American people sabotage a democratic playing field that has existed in this country for more than two centuries. Trump’s use of Twitter is equally destructive. By hijacking headlines and warping the news cycle through sheer gravitational force, Trump is rupturing the journalism landscape, one land-mine tweet at a time. The effect, it would seem, is to undercut any attempt at vigilant analysis or coherent investigation into his administration. He is the Distracter in Chief, a decoy in the bully pulpit whose self-perpetuating charade provides the perfect cover while shadier actors systematically transmogrify the democracy concealed in his prodigious shadow."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/is-trumps-chaos-a-move-from-the-kremlins-playbook/amp


So, are we playing into his hands by going ballistic every time he tweets bullshit?

When he picks fights with NFL players, or Gold Star widows, are we throwing gas on the fire he started by reacting?

Or is it just as dangerous to ignore his horrendous behavior?

And Putin, no doubt, is enjoying watching us twisting on the horns of this dilemma.

Is it time to work harder on getting out the vote for 2018, in which our victory will mean the impeachment of this cancer of a man?

Perhaps that is the most productive place for our focus.