The Marginal But Significant Impact of This Blog and It's History
Reflections on the State of the US and Americans from someone who is leaving--
August 1, 2021
I thought I would share this screen shot of the stats on my blog, "The Rosen Report". As you can see, the numbers are small, very modest, as I have primarily made it available to my Facebook Friends and deliberately kept a low profile, having done nothing on Twitter or YouTube to generate views. I wanted to operate below the Radar and reach a select audience, which included friends and family, policy makers, think tanks, investigative journalists, and people with ties to the intelligence community, civil rights and human rights groups, as well as like minded people in the foreign policy establishment. The reason for that was my reluctance to invite retaliation and harassment against Martha and myself from my old political collaborators and other adversaries who I was currently exposing as Russian assets allied with Trump and Putin.
Four years ago I was highly, highly alarmed. I saw clearly in my mind what Trump would do, or attempt to do, and here I was, a 35 year long slightly burned out semi-retired veteran of political organizing, having walked away from it in 2012, and I had virtually no one to work with, no organization, no money, no intelligence sources, and no network of activists to mobilize.
I started writing on Facebook with no real objective other than to share my insights and knowledge developed over many years, with a special emphasis on my background with Russia issues, and how that related to the symbiotic relationship between the fascist/populist Trump, and his game master Vladimir Putin.
After the failure of the second Impeachment I knew I had to make some sort of political intervention, even though I was sitting here with nothing in the middle of an exploding Pandemic, with plans to retire in Mexico. That intervention was my 12 part special report: "Trump's Really Good People- Nazis, Separatists, Secessionists, Militias and Boogaloos: Russia's Fifth Column to Disrupt The Election". I had tremendous help in putting this together with daily input and research (and ass-kicking encouragement) from my wife Martha, and a dear mutual friend who took on the gargantuan task of editing my "run-on" contorted writing style of over-punctuated gobbledygook to make it a bit more readable. For every "view" of the report itself, there may have been 5 times the number of reads of hard copy which we bulk mailed to our selected list of policy makers who in turn passed it on, complete with old fashioned yellow sticky notes, highlight markers and dog earred pages. Also very exciting personally was that it was read in dozens of different countries, including in Eastern Europe and Russia.
We were able to get some positive confirmation that this report found its mark and had substantial impact on people in the Democratic leadership, retired military, certain writers and journalists, and organizations which were preoccupied with defending the vote. There were a few high profile personalities and nationally syndicated writers who quoted from it almost verbatim and did so within the context in which it was written, echoing back their acknowledgment that it was being discussed. I've had some private correspondence with several who also confirmed that they found it useful and important.
The bottom line was that in the most dangerous Constitutional Crisis since the Civil War, certain people acted in a timely fashion to force Trump to leave, and made a transition happen. One General, (JCS Chair Mark Milley) and one 80 something year old very special woman, (Nancy Pelosi) took actions which may have saved the United States. And a large number of the rest of us did our bit to help. When the history is written, I think it might be seen that way.
The Stat line on my Blog shows two spikes. In early September of 2020, coincident with the release of the Russia report, and January of 2021, after the Insurrection. The January spike was generated by people who had read my reporting in the previous Summer, remembered my analysis and forecast, and began circulating and sharing it among co-workers, networks friends and family. That was exactly the effect I was aiming for. It was never about recognition.
It was always about trying to be your "smoke alarm", making as much noise as possible to get people out of bed, to get up and take a look around the house and see what's up. I knew I would piss people off, be annoying, invite arguments, trolls, and accusations of arrogance. But it was all I could do with what I had.
Now I have a bleeding ulcer thanks to Trump. And you know what? I'm proud of it, it's my "Red Badge of Courage". And I've never been more content with who I am. I hope that what I have written will be of use as a reference for whatever has happened or might happen in the future. And I'm not done yet. I do however need a break. I love you guys, hope to see some of you soon.
