The Russian Government has taken notice of Oakland. Repeat: the Russian Government has taken notice of Oakland. But what does it mean?
The Oakland Downtown May Protest held May 1st was the focus of a video placed on a YouTube Channel called “Ruptly” – here’s the video-blog:
The version of the video that’s on YouTube has a grey banner that reads in plain English “RT is funded in whole or in part by the Russian Government,” and it has a link to a Wikipedia page about what was initially called “Russia Today” and is now called Ruptly. Here’s a few paragraphs of note:
RT International, based in Moscow, presents around-the-clock news bulletins, documentaries, talk shows, debates, sports news, and cultural programmes that it says provide “a Russian viewpoint on major global events”.[4] RT operates as a multilingual service with conventional channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (since 2010),[7] RT UK (since 2014), and other regional channels also offer some locally based content.
And…
RT has been frequently described as a propaganda outlet for the Russian government[12] and its foreign policy.[13][14][15][16][17][18] RT has also been accused of spreading disinformation[18][19][20] by news reporters,[21][22] including some former RT reporters.[23][24][25] The United Kingdom media regulator, Ofcom, has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality and of broadcasting “materially misleading” content.[26][27][28][29] RT’s editor-in-chief compared it with the Russian Army and Defence Ministry, and talked about it “waging the information war against the entire Western world.”[30] September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a “foreign agent” with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Under the act, RT will be required to disclose financial information.[31]
Given the history of what is now called Ruptly, what are we to make of the Oakland May Protest 2019 Video? Well, this Ruptly entry gives some clue as to its intent: “Organised by local activist groups and workers’ unions, this year’s rally centred on immigrants’ rights and a federal hourly wage increase for all the workers.” In other words, because it’s focused on the immigration issue, Ruptly had to go down and make a video.
It looks to this blogger like the Russian Government is at it again: spreading the idea that immigrants are protesting to get aide from the Federal Government. Why? To divide America and to plant the seeds for the same political dynamic that got Donald Trump elected President of the United States in 2016.
Moreover, it appears Ruptly has identified Oakland as the place to go for images that can help advance its strategy. Did anyone happen to tell Ruptly that the protestors were City of Oakland workers – residents of Oakland?
Look at some of the video comments that were posted:
Awesome Jessi
3 hours ago
California is gone. America isn’t our home anymore, our people fought and died, sacrificed and gave everything in duty and love to this Republic. Our home no more. The cushions our sacrifices have made are given to the incompetent and evil. Sad sad days ahead. There is no coming back from this
janice marrin
3 hours ago
Don’t any of entitled people work????
We reached out to Ruptly for a comment, and will inform you of any response.
Stay tuned.