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Is Putin supporting Trump?
Naw, Putin could care less.
Trump’s a pawn Putin is using to attack the US on 2 fronts. /1
Naw, Putin could care less.
Trump’s a pawn Putin is using to attack the US on 2 fronts. /1
Everyone knows about Putin’s alt-right pro-Trump trolls. He's using left-wing anti-Trump trolls too. Exhibit A: meet @MarcusC22973194 /2
At 1st glance Marcus looks like an everyday liberal American - Obama supporter, says everyone’s equal & wants Trump brought to justice. /3
Marcus grabbed a great handle, NotMyPresident. Looking like the perfect #Resistance liberal, he's amassed 16,500 followers in 9 months /4
including @bernstein_evan @donnabrazile @JohnLeguizamo @RVAwonk @Spicerlies @TrueFactsStated among many many others. /5
Marcus has gotten lots of peeps to engage w/ him including @20committee @pwnallthethings @Shondi99 @Spicerlies @TrueFactsStated. /6
Marcus is getting to be a big deal. With a Klout score of 70, he's more influential than @SallyQYates (58) @renato_mariotti (63)... /7
...@AshaRangappa_ (67) @TheViewFromLL (67) @jacklgoldsmith (68) @john_sipher (68) or @charlie_savage (69). /8
Marcus is as influential as @AngrierWHStaff (70) & @DavidPriess (70) & close to & gaining on @CarlBernstein (71) & @TheRickWilson (72). /9
But Marcus is a Russian troll - a controlled online agent of influence for Russia's intelligence services & hostile to the US. /10
Let’s talk about how we can tell Marcus is a Russian troll (Part 1), then what this all means & why’s it’s important (Part 2). /11
So how can we tell Marcus is a Russian troll? We can tell by his profile, how much he tweets, where he tweets from, when he tweets,... /12
his problems with English, how he can’t keep his cover story straight, how he plagiarizes others, the threats he makes, the bizarre... /13
things he says, how he’s too good to be true & how he pushes Kremlin propaganda. /14
Like other Russian trolls, Marcus is anonymous - fake 1st name, no last name, uses a serial # typical of many Russian trolls. /15
Like other Russian trolls, Marcus has no personal photo & gives no location or identifying info in his bio. /16
Like most Russian trolls, Marcus tweets a LOT. 107,000 tweets since his 1st tweet on 11/24/16 = 413 tweets/day. /17
Like other Russian trolls, Marcus hides where his tweets. Tweeting from Moscow or Olgino would give the game away, wouldn’t it? /18
Yet Marcus, like other Russia trolls, can't hide when he tweets. He tweets when Americans are sleeping. moz.com/followerwonk/a… /19
The timing of Marcus' tweets is consistent with someone working paid shifts at a Russian troll factory. archive.fo/s40DH /20
Like other Russian trolls, Marcus repeats the same mistakes native Russian speakers typically make when using English. /21
Russian doesn’t use definite & indefinite articles (the/a/an) so native Russian speakers tend to forget them. archive.is/EZlnR /22
Marcus keeps making this mistake. “You are little scared chicken shit” archive.is/ciBwb /23
“You are draft dodging coward” archive.is/qA8Bx /24
“you are CHUMP” archive.is/aXdq8 If you listen closely, you can almost hear Boris Badenov’s voice. /25
Since Russian omits “to be” in simple present tense (what linguists call a zero copula be language), native Russian speakers often use /26
incorrect subject-verb agreement in English.
academia.edu/16758421/An_Ov…
Marcus makes this mistake a lot. /27
academia.edu/16758421/An_Ov…
Marcus makes this mistake a lot. /27
“16 US Marines was killed” archive.is/T79sp
“Everyone with half a brain know this to be a lie.” archive.is/kkOZw
/29
“Everyone with half a brain know this to be a lie.” archive.is/kkOZw
/29
“There seems to be idiots who thinks he can share intel with Hostile Intelligence Services.” archive.is/hWLTM /30
“Nazis doesn't believe that Jews are the only ppl who needs to be murdered” archive.is/7h114 /31
Russian speakers also have trouble making the association between “to have” & the Russian equivalent. archive.is/EZlnR /32
“Have Trump produced any evidence to prove their claim…” archive.is/oEinM
“Havent McMaster... ” archive.is/tS1mu
/34
“Havent McMaster... ” archive.is/tS1mu
/34
Marcus claims to be American but constantly uses British spellings revealing he didn’t learn to speak in the US writing things like... /35
behaviour colour glamour honour humour labour neighbour rumour saviour archive.is/vVk6s, and also things like... /36
cheque centre theatre dialogue monologue cancelled counsellor realise defence offence & programme. archive.is/VWlrB /37
Marcus’ phrasing is often awkward - an American would say “I’m a dual citizen” not “I am of Dual Citizenship” archive.is/N2qEY /38
Other times it’s just plain wrong. “It needs to be a record, there isnt” archive.is/4iwNC /39
“Even if i grant your premise, i doesn't take away this to be true.” archive.is/MzhBP /40
Like someone who learned English as a second language, Marcus confuses “no” “now” & “know” saying things like... /41
“they are know deposable” archive.is/E19uw & “we threw out the british. no throw out the russians.” archive.is/xqNlj /42
He repeatedly makes lots of other mistakes showing English isn’t his native language:
“alright” archive.is/OZ8Oe
/43
“alright” archive.is/OZ8Oe
/43
“it self” archive.fo/1zrrO
“loose” as in “he will loose” archive.fo/zcia8
“payed” archive.fo/7GVIl
/45
“loose” as in “he will loose” archive.fo/zcia8
“payed” archive.fo/7GVIl
/45
“violance” archive.is/mFwfZ &
“where” instead of “were” as in “you where briefed” archive.is/lhuvd /46
“where” instead of “were” as in “you where briefed” archive.is/lhuvd /46
Marcus calls himself a “divorcee” archive.is/dU8jp - something most American men would never say. /47
Instead of calling the USSR premier “Khrushchev” like Americans would, Marcus uses “Chrustjev” like a Russian. archive.is/m3xJD /48
Like other Russian trolls, Marcus can’t keep his cover story straight. /49
Marcus claims to live in NYC & Stockholm archive.is/8yZUs & also talks about Dallas as “our city.” archive.is/Kx1bp /50
Marcus trades in stolen valor, often claiming he's a Navy Seal archive.is/LPwMp & fought wars for the US. archive.is/4o4Hd /51
But Marcus never posts any photos of himself in service or says where or with which unit he supposedly served. /51
Marcus claimed he got this as a "cool" tattoo. archive.is/goEfn Most guys would post a pic to show off his tat. Marcus didn’t. /52
Marcus can’t keep straight whether he’s still a member of the military archive.is/Xg2qW or a former Seal archive.is/wFEkt /53
LOL Marcus also claims he served 2 tours as a Marine. archive.is/r0paD Which is it, Marcus? /54
What Navy Seal or Marine would refer to naval aviator John McCain as a “soldier”? archive.is/FrWrg /55
What American service member would quote Douglas MacArthur’s farewell address as “Duty Honour [sic] Country”? archive.is/7UwOl /56
One moment Marcus says his (made-up) mother lives in Stockholm... archive.is/fN527 /57
yet just 2 weeks later he’s talking about her as though she’s dead. archive.is/MgbfN Sorry for your loss, Marcus. /58
Marcus often tweets about “Frank Skogsberg” from Winnebago, Illinois. Sometimes he says Frank is “a very close relative of mine”, other /59
times he says Frank’s his grandfather. archive.is/oufXN Either way there’s no record of a Frank Skogsberg from Winnebago. /60
Marcus repeatedly claims Frank joined the “US Airforce” in 1942 archive.is/EgEVP but it’s the Air Force & it didn't exist til '47 /61
Marcus said Frank died in WWII archive.is/HZTfS then says Frank survived the war & raised a family. archive.is/CtQ73 /62
Some things he says are weird. Replying to a tweet about Hungary, Marcus said he'd been engaged to an Hungarian archive.is/40jZb /63
While I guess anything’s possible, what are the odds that Marcus, who tweets 400x/day during working hours in Russia & who writes /64
English like a Russian, really is an American-Swedish dual national who lives in Sweden & NYC & Dallas too who’s a Navy Seal /65
who’s both active duty & retired who also served 2 tours as a US Marine whose mother is both dead & alive & whose grandfather both /66
died in & survived WWII & on top of all that who was engaged to a Hungarian lady too? /67
Oh don’t forget Donald Trump was at Marcus’ “party of my 35th birthday” at the Plaza. archive.is/euZpX Cool story bro! /68
Russian trolls have strict quotas - they need to post 100+ times/day. archive.fo/TlB5x This hard when you’re English not great. /69
So trolls steal other ppl's work & pass it off as their own. Marcus does this faster than a cop hands out tickets on the 31st. /70
Harassment is SOP for Russia's troll army. nytimes.com/2016/05/31/wor… Like many Russian trolls, Marcus can’t help himself from threatening /72
others, boasting about reporting people to the FBI IRS ABA etc archive.is/6vs5Z, digging up dirt on reporters like @jbarro /73
& ppl he disagrees w/ archive.is/6Yrq4 even threatening to go after their family friends parents & kids. archive.is/6EsSp /74
Russian trolls spread hoaxes. It’s what they do. pbs.org/newshour/bb/ru… /75
Like other Russian trolls, Marcus’ tweets are often bizarre like suggesting John Wilkes Booth was a Republican archive.is/OjGkr /76
or saying the Patriot Act authorizes military action archive.is/355it /77
As soon as you recognize Marcus is a Russian troll, his too-good-to-be-true tricks become obvious. /78
Marcus tweets a LOT about how much he loves Obama. 1000+ times. That’s 4x per day. /79
Marcus says he volunteered for Obama since 2004 archive.is/qLCsP - or was it since the beginning of ‘03? archive.is/BDrrK /80
Marcus even RTed Obama’s entire 2004 DNC keynote address. archive.is/6Jg2J /81
Yet Marcus can’t even spell Obama’s name correctly, calling him "Barack Husein [sic] Obama." archive.is/m8uA4 /82
Marcus tweets lots about how he likes Hillary too. 100s of times, on average about 1x per day. /83
Marcus even claims he has a Hillary quote framed above his (fictitious) 6 year old daughter’s bed. archive.is/BPRc4 Really? /84
Marcus keeps quoting the Declaration of Independence archive.is/iBKYG & explaining E Pluribus Unum archive.is/Lm4p7 as if /85
they’re incantations that'll magically make him into an American. /86
Marcus tweets tons about health care. I guarantee you - neither Marcus nor Putin cares about Obamacare. He does this to get followers. /87
Like every Russian troll, Marcus pushes the latest Kremlin propaganda. He's no different from Pravda & Russia Today. /88
It’s no coincidence that Marcus’ very 1st tweets pushed @DrJillStein’s #AuditTheVote. archive.is/KoqAA /89
And it’s no coincidence Marcus kept pushing #AuditTheVote in 277 tweets over the next 2 weeks, saying Russia hacked the election. /90
And it’s no coincidence Marcus keeps pushing the line that Russia stole the election for Trump. archive.is/SOFxz /91
It’s simply the continuation of Putin’s campaign to undermine public faith in the US democratic process. documentcloud.org/documents/3254… /92
And it’s no coincidence Marcus repeatedly predicts & calls for a civil war in the US. archive.is/pIyqD /93
This is the same BS that Russia’s alt-right trolls are pushing. dailykos.com/stories/2017/8… /94
So looking at all these facts - Marcus' profile, how much he tweets, how he hides where he tweets from, when he tweets, /95
his problems with English, how his cover story breaks down, how he steal from others, the threats he makes, the bizarre things he says, /96
how he’s too good to be true & how he pushes Kremlin propaganda - Marcus is a Russian troll. He's paid by & works for a hostile nation. /97
Marcus is not alone. Russia is running tons of trolls - not just alt-right ones but left-wing trolls too. Marcus is simply an example. /98
H/t to @LouiseMensch for calling Marcus a putinbot in February archive.is/6e6GZ (as I discovered as I was researching Marcus). /99
That’s it for Part 1. In Part 2 we’ll look at what all this means & why it’s important to realize Putin is using left-wing trolls too.
