Election Engineering | The Real James Bond | The Militia Menace, and more

But the Cuban missile crisis lasted only 13 days — and it had a happy ending. This crisis has no end in sight. Despite the investigation by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, despite the work of congressional intelligence committees and inspectors general — and despite impeachment — we still don’t know why the president kowtows to Vladimir Putin, broadcasts Russian disinformation, bends foreign policy to suit the Kremlin and brushes off reports of Russians bounty-hunting American soldiers. We still don’t know whether Putin has something on him. And we need to know the answers — urgently. Knowing could be devastating. Not knowing is far worse. Not knowing is a threat to a functioning democracy.

We Live in a Potemkin Autocracy Now (Derek Thompson, The Atlantic)
The White House memo declaring New York City, Portland, and Seattle “anarchist jurisdictions” isn’t federalism; it’s half-baked feudalism.

Around 20 DHS Intelligence Reports Recalled in the Wake of Portland Controversy (Geneva Sands, CNN)
Around 20 Department of Homeland Security open source intelligence reports were recalled in the aftermath of revelations this summer that the department had potentially collected and disseminated intelligence on US journalists, according to a department official familiar with the review.
The intelligence reports, which had already been shared with state and local officials, were pulled back because they didn’t meet the department’s requirements, the official said. Although the nature of the reports is unclear, it speaks to the recent turmoil inside the department’s intelligence division.

The Militia Menace (Tom Mockaitis, The Hill)
On September 17, however, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that “racially motivated violence” primarily by White supremacists posed the most significant domestic terrorist threat. While he also condemned violence by those on the left, Wray described Antifa as an ideological movement rather than a group. His testimony contradicts the repeated assertions of President Trump and Attorney General Barr that Antifa bears responsibility for most of the unrest in American cities.
Today’s militia movement developed in the 1990s in response to some high-profile incidents, most notably the 1992 shooting of Randy Weaver’s wife and son at Ruby Ridge, Idaho by federal agents trying to arrest him, and the 1993 siege of the Branch Dravidian compound in Waco, Texas. The election of Barack Obama, the first African-American president, in 2008 led to an increase in militia membership as many on the far right feared it heralded a coming race-war. Militias are part of a long and ugly tradition of vigilantism that includes the Ku Klux Klan and the Posse Comitatus movement of the 1980s. 
Approximately 181 militia groups currently operate within the United States. Some are independent groups, while others are chapters of national organizations, such as the “Three Percenters” and the “Oath Keepers.”
Not all militia groups openly embrace White supremacy. Some even have a non-discrimination statement. However, many militia members subscribe to that racist ideology, as their posts on group websites and Facebook pages reveal. Militias also recruit from the same demographic as White supremacy groups. Their members are overwhelmingly Caucasian, disproportionately male, predominantly blue-collar, and heavily rural. Groups like the Oath Keepers seek to recruit police and members of the military.

Britain Sent the Real James Bond to Spy on Cold War Poland (Maria Wilczek, The Times)
The name’s Bond, James Bond, and he appeared to have an eager eye for the ladies.
Britain briefly deployed the real-life namesake of Ian Fleming’s fictional spy to gather intelligence on Communist Poland in the 1960s, according to files discovered in the Polish security service archives.
The 36-year-old agent was dispatched to Warsaw on 18 February 1964, nearly 11 years after the publication of Casino Royale, the first Bond novel, but was withdrawn less than 12 months later.
The Polish intelligence service kept a close eye on the new arrival, describing him as “talkative, but very cautious” and noting his “interest in women.”
Fleming, a keen birdwatcher, maintained that his fictional spy had been named after an American ornithologist who had written a definitive book on the avian species of the Caribbean. Two years ago, however, the relatives of a James Charles Bond from Swansea discovered that he had served under Fleming’s command during the Second World War. It has been suggested that the Welsh Bond may have supplied the author with the direct inspiration for the agent’s name.
Dr. No, the first of the James Bond films, had been released two years before his arrival in Warsaw and it is likely that a diplomat bearing the same name would have aroused immediate suspicion.