Thought Experiment:

What would you do if you were Putin and worried that Twitter would become a hive of citizen investigators probing Trump’s corruption?

Answer: You would employ agents to pretend to do exactly that and instead lead Twitter down endless rabbit holes.

Think about the kinds of people who would be good targets for conversion to disinformation agents: failing authors, comedians, musicians, actors. People who know how to entertain...and distract.

Putin also would want to dominate the market in each Trump topic by being first to market. Think about some of the people who were talking about things like Trump’s mob ties way before anyone else was. And now ask whether they’ve advanced the ball beyond what they said on Day 1.

And if this “first to market” person has no apparent experience relevant to researching and reporting on Trump, ask yourself how they managed to do so and how they arrived so early. And if that person is a failing author/comedian/actor/musician, well now you’ve solved it.

Also, do you sometimes find yourself puzzling over the logical leaps made by the people you follow? You should trust your gut that the person is intentionally misleading you. Follow their logic all the way through the chain. Missing links are signs of deception.

I’m not trying to lecture you on this topic. I’m no better than you. I’ve been fooled many times and gone into many rabbit holes, in some cases even retweeting them. I’ve inadvertently contributed to misleading all of you about some accounts. I’m sorry. I’m trying to fix it.

If you wanted to distract everyone from the counterintelligence investigation and attempts to get Trump’s finances, here are some fake resistance accounts you might want to be first to market with:

1. British woman with “inside info” who gives conspiracy theories a bad name.

2. Former “intelligence officer”/author who pays no attention to anything that matters.

3. Failed lawyer/author who only talks about things already reported by “major media” and who pays no attention at all to SCOTUS cases to get Trump’s financials, except to dismiss them.

4. “Expert” on authoritarianism/author who pretends to have predicted Trump’s rise and calls him out as “an international crime syndicate masquerading as a government” but offers no solutions other than repeated attacks on Dem leadership.

5. “Expert” on the Russian mafia who really doesn’t have anything of value to say until she suddenly reveals the big secret: Trump works for the FBI!!!

6. Lawyer who adds nothing other than *constant* defense of Rod Rosenstein and promotion of his own stupid music career.

7. Wacky paralegal who is completely inarticulate and floods the zone with bullshit about irrelevant cases.

And you might even have these people attack the guy who pays attention to what matters.

I don’t want to get up in Putin’s business, but those are just some ideas.

Also keep in mind that Putin would likely target a lot of narcissists for conversion to disinformation agents. Watch out for people who retweet those who compliment them, or who act like cult leaders and do crazy things like declaring herself to be your “mom.”

Those who watched my old account closely saw it repeatedly bombarded by clearly Russia-backed bots and trolls. I could never figure out why MY account was the only account around facing that kind of attack. Until I realized many other accounts were controlled opposition.