You might have been under the impression that the brouhaha over NFL players protesting during the national anthem was caused by Trump's stupid tweets, but trust me the NY Times knows better than you. Once again Russia's to blame.

A network of Twitter accounts suspected of links to Russia were used this weekend to stoke the controversy over whether NFL players should stand for pregame performances of the national anthem, The New York Times reported late Wednesday. The accounts pushed both sides of the debate, using hashtags such as #boycottnfl, #standforouranthem and #takeaknee, the newspaper reported. [...] Researchers at the Alliance for Securing Democracy have been monitoring 600 Twitter accounts they have linked to Russian influence operations. Those accounts, operated by human users and suspected bots alike, pushed the opposing messages surrounding the NFL and the playing of the national anthem, researchers said.

Six hundred Twitter accounts - that obviously are under the control of Putin - are destroying America. Just take the word of a bunch of former Bush, Obama and Clinton neocons. The Times does.

Unfuckingbelievablke! (Yes that's a word or it should be). I heard about this on NPR while driving home this afternoon. No evidence is presented in the Times article regarding the validity of these new "Russia did it again" allegations. No, the Times' reporters simply takes the word of a shadowy new organization, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which is the sole source of their report. This patriotic non-profit organization just happened to be created in July of this year. And guess what? The people behind it are the usual suspects. Take a gander at the allegedly bipartisan "Alliance for Securing Democracy," the NY Times source for this McCarthyist twaddle:

The Alliance for Securing Democracy is a national security advocacy group, that describes itself as a bipartisan transatlantic initiative, with a stated mission of countering what it describes as an "unprecedented attack" on United States democracy by Russia. The alliance is chaired and run primarily by former senior United States intelligence and State Department officials. Its daily operations are led by Laura Rosenberger, a former senior State Department official in the Obama administration, and Jamie Fly, former national security counselor to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) The membership of the advisory council has been described by the Washington Post as "a who's who of former senior national security officials from both [the Democratic and Republican] parties." The Intercept, an adversarial journalism site, notes the influence of neoconservatives in the Alliance for Securing Democracy. Advisory council member William Kristol and one of the two day-to-day directors, Jamie Fly, have previously cooperated closely on neoconservative causes. The other director, Laura Rosenberger, served as a foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and was chief of staff to two Obama national security officials.

William Kristol and people affiliated with Obama, Clinton and Marco Rubio? What a surprise! Here's their mission statement for you, if you had any doubt about their "bipartisan" agenda:

The Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative housed at The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), will develop comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions. The Alliance will work to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin’s ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe.

Sounds eerily similar to the Morgan Freeman video released by the also newly formed Committee to Investigate Russia, doesn't it? And their agenda apparently includes federal regulation of the internet, which the national cyber-security expert interviewed by NPR's anchor this afternoon stated was necessary to defend us against the evil Russians and their new "cold war" propaganda campaign to rip apart the fabric of our society, even to the extent of inciting Americans react with violence against one another (yes, he actually said as much) Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook has already been put on notice that Congress is coming for him.

The push to regulate Facebook is on in earnest in Washington, DC—and the company seems resigned to the idea that more oversight is inevitable. Two Senate Democrats are circulating a letter on Capitol Hill, hoping to drum up support for a bill that would make the social-media giant disclose more information about who is buying political ads on its platform and whom those ads target. Quartz has seen a copy of the letter, dated Sept. 21 and signed by Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Mark Warner of Virginia. “Facebook now seems to realize there is a major gap in transparency and accountability for digital ads,” it reads. Asked about the letter, a spokesperson for Facebook said that the company is “open to reviewing any specific congressional proposals.”

The Times article notes with glee that Twitter is about to receive the same treatment, and as a result both social media giants are asking for the help of the US Intelligence community to ferret out all the "fake News" bad guys.

“I think right now the public is aware of only a subset of a subset of Russian activity online,” [Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee] said in an interview. He said Facebook long denied that there had been Russian exploitation of its system, before reversing course on Sept. 6. Mr. Schiff said the tech companies have asked for assistance from American intelligence agencies in trying to find and stop illicit interference from other countries, a request he said he supports. The House Intelligence Committee announced on Wednesday that it would hold a public hearing on the matter of Russian influence next month, and a Senate aide said Facebook, Twitter and Google have been invited to testify at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Nov. 1.

Gee, I can't imagine what Facebook, Twitter and our alphabet soup of intelligence agencies could gin up to justify censorship by Congressal legislation that could impact individuals and websites that dare to post Fake News rather than the official authorized narrative we receive from our "trusted" media sources like the NY Times, The Washington Post and, of course, the compliant broadcasters at NPR.

The US is ever more rapidly resembling the world George Orwell envisioned in 1984. He just had the year wrong. Should have called it "2017."