Russian Interference- Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

   In 1958, I was actively but inadvertently involved in the Cold War.  In the secrecy of my parent's basement, I listened to the shortwave broadcast of  Radio Moscow.  I even had a wire antenna running from the Edge of My parents' house to the large Oak Tree in the corner of our yard.  The antenna was visible during daylight hours but barely noticeable at night. . I was more interested on the fact that I could pick up a broadcast from far away than I was the content of the broadcast. Even at the age of 13, I realized that it was propaganda pure and simple. But in retrospect I can understand why today's standards would consider this private activity as collusion.

Radio Moscow
The U.S. was first targeted by Radio Moscow during the early 1950s, with transmitters in the Moscow region. Later Western North America was targeted by the newly constructed Vladivostok and Magadan relay stations.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Moscow 

   At the time I was also guilty of surreptitiously listening to Spanish Speaking broadcast from Cuba, which at the time was not an enemy of America. Since I could not understand Spanish, I have no way of knowing if I was listening to subversive propaganda of Fidel Castro fermenting revolution or just normal broadcast.  I do remember that sometimes the music sounded like a rerun of the Cisco Kid series.

   In the interest of full disclosure, I guess I should admit that I also listened to that far away station WSM in Nashville, Tennessee (240 miles from my basement):   WSM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSM) was broadcast on the AM band of radio (650) and that required that the weather and atmospheric conditions had to be just right to get a clear signal so I could listen to The Grand Ole Opry, and everyone knows how disruptive and subversive country music is. There are those who would say that is where I acquired my disruptive personality, but I think the credit for that goes to the fact that we had prayer in schools back then.

   I did all this using a commercially available radio made by The Hallicrafters Company, Model S-53A.  It was purchased in broad daylight from that subversive company Sears, Roebuck and Company.  I never knew it at the time, but looking back on it now I understand why my father had to be present when I purchased this equipment with my paper route earnings.  I wonder if Sears still has the registration on file for the purchase of this instrument of Espionage and if they do am I responsible for something my father signed on my behalf before I was 18 or 21.

I still have that radio somewhat well worn, but still working.
It is missing the knobs but the off switch is still the second post from the right. A quick turn counter clockwise will render this subversive equipment ineffective. Hallicrafters even had the audacity to label this "OFF." To the best of my knowledge most modern devices also have this same feature in either a knob or a button.

   I also guess I should note that I often listened to the Voice of Americas shortwave broadcast.  VOA was set up to provide "REAL NEWS" to the Soviet Block of countries.  At the time I had no way of knowing that the Ruskies were in fact actively interfering with Freedom of the Airways.  The recent congressional hearings reminded me that we have never been able to trust the Ruskies. They were actively jamming the radio frequencies of our broadcast to that country. And they also had an Iron Curtain, but it was designed to keep the population inside instead of keeping people out. No one was actively trying to get into Russia. Here is the Surprise, Surprise, Surprise part of this post:

Beginning in 1948, the USSR made use of radio jamming to prevent its citizens from listening to political broadcasts of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Voice of America (VOA). Over time this initial effort was escalated dramatically, with the approximately 200 jamming stations with a total between 3 and 4 megawatts of output power in 1952 expanded to about 1700 transmitters with a combined 45 megawatts of output power. By this latter date, the list of jammed foreign broadcasts had been expanded to include not only the successors to the BBC and VOA, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, but also Deutsche Welle, Radio Vatican, Kol Israel, and others. Total electricity consumed in the course of this jamming operation has been valued at tens of millions of dollars annually, exclusive of site construction and personnel costs.

Jamming was initially attempted by means of superimposed random speech which mimicked station interference. Due to the ineffectiveness of this method, however, a move was later made to the generation of random noise to obscure human speech. From the early 1970s, satellites generating swinging carrier signals were used to interfere even more effectively.

Nevertheless, people continued (or attempted) to listen to Western broadcasts. In fact, there was even no jamming of these signals (excluding Radio Free Europe) at all, from 1963-1968, and from 1973-1980. In 1963, a further attempt was made to draw USSR radio listeners from western broadcasts by launching a radio station favoring Moscow city and oblast. The jamming stopped in 1988 (Radio Free Europe was, however, unblocked in August 1991).

http://www.liquisearch.com/radio_in_the_soviet_union/history/radio_jamming

   I guess it is no surprise to note that Facebook used the modern equivalent of Jamming to prevent "Hate Speech" on its platform.   Apparently the idea of Free Exchange of Ideas is Un-American these days. If you don't recognize the two ladies below, it could be because Facebook restricted them even thought they had over a million followers. They were also restricted on YouTube.The ban has since been lifted and they have been before congress testifying about the heavy handed approach by Facebook. They use the Name Diamond and Silk and live in Raeford, North Carolina. They are supporters of Donald Trump and used various platforms including Facebook and Twitter to create a thriving business based on their political viewpoints. Here is an exchange from the congressional hearing. Mark Zuckerberg: Nothing Is Unsafe About Diamond And Silk Supporting Trump

The marketplace of ideas is a rationale for freedom of expression based on an analogy to the economic concept of a free market. The marketplace of ideas holds that the truth will emerge from the competition of ideas in free, transparent public discourse, and concludes that ideas and ideologies will be culled according to their superiority or inferiority and widespread acceptance among the population. The concept is often applied to discussions of patent law as well as freedom of the press and the responsibilities of the media in a liberal democracy.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketplace_of_ideas

   I'm not sure what offends me more:

• The fact we have people dumb enough to believe most of the crap they hear on the news.

• The fact that we have a news media that thinks that most people are dumb enough to believe the crap they report.

   Somewhere along the way we seem to have lost the idea that the individual is in charge over what they choose to believe or disbelieve. Nevertheless, is should come as no surprise the Russian's are trying to interfere with our elections, way of life and anything else they can disrupt for over 75 years or more. The solution is to be very skeptical of anything you read or hear without verifying the facts for yourself. The solution is not to limit speech of any kind because we disagree with it. While the first amendment places limits on the government's ability to limit speech, it is an American principal to allow free speech in the public domain. Companies and private entities limit speech at their own peril since the most important vote an American has is his ability to vote with his feet and his dollars. (I offer no apologies for the generic use of Gender pronoun he or his.)

“If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that can invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.”— George Washington, first U.S. president

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Moscow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSM

http://www.liquisearch.com/radio_in_the_soviet_union/history/radio_jamming

href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketplace_of_ideas">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketplace_of_ideas