Russia Collusion Hoax 2.0 Is Here

Daniel Miller gives this episode over to a single recurring tactic of the opposition, the claim that Texas independence is a Russian operation. The trigger was a Newsweek article built around Russians being gleeful over the US border crisis, which quoted anonymous social media posts supposedly from Russian accounts cheering Texas on. Miller notes what the piece left out. Not one of those quotes was linked or attributed to a real account. When the TNM’s communications team emailed the reporter and asked them to either link the posts or rethink a headline that misleads readers, the answer was silence and no correction. His read is direct. A narrative that refuses to show its evidence is not journalism. It is propaganda.

The sharpest moment is former Congressman Adam Kinzinger publicly branding a real TNM supporter a Russian bot. The supporter, a flesh and blood Texan named Jason whom Miller met at a Texit conference, had simply noted that Texas has warm water ports while explaining why it is well positioned to be a self-governing independent nation. Miller points out that warm water ports are a standard consideration in any serious self-determination discussion, and that smearing a named, real person as a Russian asset over a single phrase is both false and beneath a former member of Congress. He calls on Kinzinger to apologize publicly.

Miller frames all of it inside what he calls Project Fear, the subject of a chapter in his book on Texit. He walks through how the opposition runs the same scare narratives on a loop, from claims that retirees would lose Social Security to warnings that taxes would skyrocket, and he answers them with facts. Federal pension benefits follow eligible recipients no matter where they live, and Texas already overpays the federal system by an estimated 103 to 160 billion dollars a year, money that would stay home. He reminds viewers that the TNM was the original test case for the Russia collusion story later aimed at Donald Trump, and that the movement has answered the charge head on every time it has been raised. His closing argument is that this is information warfare, that repetition is the only weapon the other side has left, and that Texas wins by refusing to play the fool’s game.

In this episode

• The Newsweek article that tied Texas independence to Russia using unlinked, anonymous posts
• The TNM communications team’s email to the reporter, and the silence that followed
• Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger calling a named TNM supporter a Russian bot over the phrase warm water ports
• Project Fear and the opposition’s recycled scare narratives on Social Security and taxes
• The facts on federal pension portability and the billions Texas overpays Washington each year
• Why the TNM was the original test case for the 2016 Russia collusion story