Exclusive: Despite conflicting accounts about who leaked the Democratic emails, the frenzy over an alleged Russian role is driving the U.S. deeper into a costly and dangerous New Cold War, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
The rising hysteria about Russia is best understood as fulfilling two needs for Official Washington: the Military Industrial Complex’s transitioning from the “war on terror” to a more lucrative “new cold war” – and blunting the threat that a President Trump poses to the neoconservative/liberal-interventionist foreign-policy establishment.
By hyping the Russian “threat,” the neocons and their liberal-hawk sidekicks, who include much of the mainstream U.S. news media, can guarantee bigger military budgets from Congress. The hype also sets in motion a blocking maneuver to impinge on any significant change in direction for U.S. foreign policy under Trump.
Wintery scene at Red Square in Moscow, Dec. 6, 2016. (Photo by Robert Parry)
Some Democrats even hope to stop Trump from ascending to the White House by having the Central Intelligence Agency, in effect, lobby the electors in the Electoral College with scary tales about Russia trying to fix the election for Trump.
The electors meet on Dec. 19 when they will formally cast their votes, supposedly reflecting the judgments of each state’s voters, but conceivably individual electors could switch their ballots from Trump to Hillary Clinton or someone else.
On Thursday, liberal columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. joined the call for electors to flip, writing: “The question is whether Trump, Vladimir Putin and, perhaps, Clinton’s popular-vote advantage give you sufficient reason to blow up the system.”
That Democrats would want the CIA, which is forbidden to operate domestically in part because of its historic role in influencing elections in other countries, to play a similar role in the United States shows how desperate the Democratic Party has become.
And, even though The New York Times and other big news outlets are reporting as flat fact that Russia hacked the Democratic email accounts and gave the information to WikiLeaks, former British Ambassador Craig Murray, a close associate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, told the London Daily Mail that he personally received the email data from a “disgusted” Democrat.
Murray said he flew from London to Washington for a clandestine handoff from one of the email sources in September, receiving the package in a wooded area near American University.
Former British Ambassador Craig Murray
“Neither of [the leaks, from the Democratic National Committee or Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta] came from the Russians,” Murray said, adding: “the source had legal access to the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks.”
Murray said the insider felt “disgust at the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the tilting of the primary election playing field against Bernie Sanders.” Murray added that his meeting was with an intermediary for the Democratic leaker, not the leaker directly.
[Update: Murray subsequently said his contact with the intermediary at American University was not for the purpose of obtaining a batch of the purloined emails, as the Daily Mail reported, since WikiLeaks already had them. He said the Mail simply added that detail to the story, but Murray declined to explain why he had the meeting at A.U. with the whistleblower or an associate.]
If Murray’s story is true, it raises several alternative scenarios: that the U.S. intelligence community’s claims about a Russian hack are false; that Russians hacked the Democrats’ emails for their own intelligence gathering without giving the material to WikiLeaks; or that Murray was deceived about the identity of the original leaker.
But the uncertainty creates the possibility that the Democrats are using a dubious CIA assessment to reverse the outcome of an American presidential election, in effect, making the CIA party to a preemptive domestic “regime change.”
Delayed Autopsy
All of this maneuvering also is delaying the Democratic Party’s self-examination into why it lost so many white working-class voters in normally Democratic strongholds, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Rather than national party leaders taking the blame for pre-selecting a very flawed candidate and ignoring all the warning signs about the public’s resistance to this establishment choice, Democrats have pointed fingers at almost everyone else – from FBI Director James Comey for briefly reviving Clinton’s email investigation, to third-party candidates who siphoned off votes, to the archaic Electoral College which negates the fact that Clinton did win the national popular vote – and now to the Russians.
FBI Director James Comey
While there may be some validity to these various complaints, the excessive frenzy that has surrounded the still-unproven claims that the Russian government surreptitiously tilted the election in Trump’s favor creates an especially dangerous dynamic.
On one level, it has led Democrats to support Orwellian/ McCarthyistic concepts, such as establishing “black lists” for Internet sites that question Official Washington’s “conventional wisdom” and thus are deemed purveyors of “Russian propaganda” or “fake news.”
On another level, it cements the Democratic Party as America’s preeminent “war party,” favoring an escalating New Cold War with Russia by ratcheting up economic sanctions against Moscow, and even seeking military challenges to Russia in conflict zones such as Syria and Ukraine.
One of the most dangerous aspects of a prospective Hillary Clinton presidency was that she would have appointed neocons, such as Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and her husband, Project for the New American Century co-founder Robert Kagan, to high-level foreign policy positions.
Though that risk may have passed assuming Clinton’s Electoral College defeat on Monday, Democrats now are excitedly joining the bash-Russia movement, making it harder to envision how the party can transition back into its more recent role as the “peace party” (at least relative to the extremely hawkish Republicans).
Trading Places
The potential trading places of the two parties in that regard – with Trump favoring geopolitical détente and the Democrats beating the drums for more military confrontations – augurs poorly for the Democrats regaining their political footing anytime soon.
Red Square in Moscow with a winter festival to the left and the Kremlin to the right, on Dec. 6, 2016. (Photo by Robert Parry)
If Democratic leaders press ahead, in alliance with neoconservative Republicans, on demands for escalating the New Cold War with Russia, they could precipitate a party split between Democratic hawks and doves, a schism that likely would have occurred if Clinton had been elected but now may happen anyway, albeit without the benefit of the party holding the White House.
The first test of this emerging Democratic-neocon alliance may come over Trump’s choice for Secretary of State, Exxon-Mobil’s chief executive Rex Tillerson, who doesn’t exhibit the visceral hatred of Russian President Vladimir Putin that Democrats are encouraging.
As an international business executive, Tillerson appears to share Trump’s real-politik take on the world, the idea that doing business with rivals makes more sense than conspiring to force “regime change” after “regime change.”
Over the past several decades, the “regime change” approach has been embraced by both neocons and liberal interventionists and has been implemented by both Republican and Democratic administrations. Sometimes, it’s done through war and other times through “color revolutions” – always under the idealistic guise of “democracy promotion” or “protecting human rights.”
But the problem with this neo-imperialist strategy has been that it has failed miserably to improve the lives of the people living in the “regime-changed” countries. Instead, it has spread chaos across wide swaths of the globe and has now even destabilized Europe.
Yet, the solution, as envisioned by the neocons and their liberal-hawk understudies, is simply to force more “regime change” medicine down the throats of the world’s population. The new “great” idea is to destabilize nuclear-armed Russia by making its economy scream and by funding as many anti-Putin elements as possible to create the nucleus for a “color revolution” in Moscow.
To justify that risky scheme, there has been a broad expansion of anti-Russian propaganda now being funded with tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money as well as being pushed by government officials giving off-the-record briefings to mainstream media outlets.
However, as with earlier “regime change” plans, the neocons and liberal hawks never think through the scenario to the end. They always assume that everything is going to work out fine and some well-dressed “opposition leader” who has been to their think-tank conferences will simply ascend to the top job.
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, on Feb. 7, 2014. (U.S. State Department photo)
Remember, in Iraq, it was going to be Ahmed Chalabi who was beloved in Official Washington but broadly rejected by the Iraqi people. In Libya, there has been a parade of U.S.-approved “unity” leaders who have failed to pull that country together.
In Ukraine, Nuland’s choice – Arseniy “Yats is the guy” Yatsenyuk – resigned amid broad public disapproval earlier this year after pushing through harsh cuts in social programs, even as the U.S.-backed regime officials in Kiev continued to plunder Ukraine’s treasury and misappropriate Western economic aid.
Nuclear-Armed Destabilization
But the notion of destabilizing nuclear-armed Russia is even more hare-brained than those other fiascos. The neocon/liberal-hawk assumption is that Russians – pushed to the brink of starvation by crippling Western sanctions – will overthrow Putin and install a new version of Boris Yeltsin who would then let U.S. financial advisers return with their neoliberal “shock therapy” of the 1990s and again exploit Russia’s vast resources.
Indeed, it was the Yeltsin era and its Western-beloved “shock therapy” that created the desperate conditions before the rise of Putin with his autocratic nationalism, which, for all its faults, has dramatically improved the lives of most Russians.
Bright lights on Red Square, Dec. 6, 2016. (Photo by Robert Parry)
So, the more likely result from the neocon/liberal-hawk “regime change” plans for Moscow would be the emergence of someone even more nationalistic – and likely far less stable – than Putin, who is regarded even by his critics as cold and calculating.
The prospect of an extreme Russian nationalist getting his or her hands on the Kremlin’s nuclear codes should send chills up and down the spines of every American, indeed every human being on the planet. But it is the course that key national Democrats appear to be on with their increasingly hysterical comments about Russia.
The Democratic National Committee issued a statement on Wednesday accusing Trump of giving Russia “an early holiday gift that smells like a payoff. … It’s rather easy to connect the dots. Russia meddled in the U.S. election in order to benefit Trump and now he’s repaying Vladimir Putin by nominating Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.”
Besides delaying a desperately needed autopsy on why Democrats did so badly in an election against the also-widely-disliked Donald Trump, the new blame-Russia gambit threatens to hurt the Democrats and their preferred policies in another way.
If Democrats vote in bloc against Tillerson or other Trump foreign-policy nominees – demanding that he appoint people acceptable to the neocons and the liberal hawks – Trump might well be pushed deeper into the arms of right-wing Republicans, giving them more on domestic issues to solidify their support on his foreign-policy goals.
That could end up redounding against the Democrats as they watch important social programs gutted in exchange for their own dubious Democratic alliance with the neocons.
Since the presidency of Bill Clinton, the Democrats have courted factions of the neocons, apparently thinking they are influential because they dominate many mainstream op-ed pages and Washington think tanks. In 1993, as a thank-you gift to the neocon editors of The New Republic for endorsing him, Clinton appointed neocon ideologue James Woolsey as head of the CIA, one of Clinton’s more disastrous personnel decisions.
But the truth appears to be that the neocons have much less influence across the U.S. electoral map than the Clintons think. Arguably, their pandering to a clique of Washington insiders who are viewed as warmongers by many peace-oriented Democrats may even represent a net negative when it comes to winning votes.
I’ve communicated with a number of traditional Democrats who didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton because they feared she would pursue a dangerous neocon foreign policy. Obviously, that’s not a scientific survey, but the anecdotal evidence suggests that Clinton’s neocon connections could have been another drag on her campaign.
Assessing Russia
I also undertook a limited personal test regarding whether Russia is the police state that U.S. propaganda depicts, a country yearning to break free from the harsh grip of Vladimir Putin (although he registers 80 or so percent approval in polls).
Couple walking along the Kremlin wall, Dec. 7, 2016. (Photo by Robert Parry)
During my trip last week to Europe, which included stops in Brussels and Copenhagen, I decided to take a side trip to Moscow, which I had never visited before. What I encountered was an impressive, surprisingly (to me at least) Westernized city with plenty of American and European franchises, including the ubiquitous McDonald’s and Starbucks. (Russians serve the Starbucks gingerbread latte with a small ginger cookie.)
Though senior Russian officials proved unwilling to meet with me, an American reporter, at this time of tensions, Russia had little appearance of a harshly repressive society. In my years covering U.S. policies in El Salvador in the 1980s and Haiti in the 1990s, I have experienced what police states look and feel like, where death squads dump bodies in the streets. That was not what I sensed in Moscow, just a modern city with people bustling about their business under early December snowfalls.
The police presence in Red Square near the Kremlin was not even as heavy-handed as it is near the government buildings of Washington. Instead, there was a pre-Christmas festive air to the brightly lit Red Square, featuring a large skating rink surrounded by small stands selling hot chocolate, toys, warm clothing and other goods.
Granted, my time and contact with Russians were limited – since I don’t speak Russian and most of them don’t speak English – but I was struck by the contrast between the grim images created by Western media and the Russia that I saw.
It reminded me of how President Ronald Reagan depicted Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua as a “totalitarian dungeon” with a militarized state ready to march on Texas, but what I found when I traveled to Managua was a third-world country still recovering from an earthquake and with a weak security structure despite the Contra war that Reagan had unleashed against Nicaragua.
In other words, “perception management” remains the guiding principle of how the U.S. government deals with the American people, scaring us with exaggerated tales of foreign threats and then manipulating our fears and our misperceptions.
As dangerous as that can be when we’re talking about Nicaragua or Iraq or Libya, the risks are exponentially higher regarding Russia. If the American people are stampeded into a New Cold War based more on myths than reality, the minimal cost could be the trillions of dollars diverted from domestic needs into the Military Industrial Complex. The far-greater cost could be some miscalculation by either side that could end life on the planet.
So, as the Democrats chart their future, they need to decide if they want to leapfrog the Republicans as America’s “war party” or whether they want to pull back from the escalation of tensions with Russia and start addressing the pressing needs of the American people.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
When I think about what the Neocons have done to the Mid East with their goal to change regimes that we do not approve of it makes me shudder. I wonder why there are not protesters in the streets like there was in Vietnam Nam. Why isn’t there more news agencies protesting our actions? Why isn’t George Bush being tried for war crimes by world or US courts? Trump talks about building up our military. I hope this will not lead to more conflicts and an increase in our national debt. Why can’t there be a larger effort to print the truth about Putin and Russia? Keep up your efforts to spread the truth. Thank God that Hillary was not elected.
Refreshing article among all the post Trump election hysterical propaganda. Particularly telling for me because I have been one of those lured in thinking that a regime change in Irak could not be worse than what was happening, Kurdes being gased by the hundred of thousand, Israel being attacked with incentives given by Saddam to terrorists, and soon the French giving him access to their nuclear program, plus naturally the WMDs…. I know now that it was wrong, and that we have enough domestic problems to fix before trying to interfere into foreign complex cultural grounds.
Yet I think that the biggest element that can explain Clinton’s defeat is the massive demographic miscalculation the Democrats have been making for decades. They came up with this crazy strategy of dividing the American People into more and more competing minorities, prying electorally on real and invented specialty oppressions, pretending that only them could champion the oppressed in exchange for their votes. Doing so, they did not see that they were collaterally creating a class of oppressors, who they would depict, on and on, as bigots, uneducated, bigots and the soon-to-be-electorally-irrelevant white class.
This strategy backlashed, in a revolt of these “whites”, and more importantly showed that what they wanted to consider as a separate voting class, the “hispanics” voted like “whites”…Because they feel and are white!
I was not surprised by this brutal correction of what was only a narrative supporting a populist electoral strategy. I live in Florida, immersed in these “hispanics”, but overall because I am European, I saw from there beginning the artificiality of the stratagem. Try in Europe to call the Spanish and Portuguese people “hispanic, or to enroll the Greeks, the Corsican, the Italian in a non white minority, Not only people would laugh, but they would call you a racist.
Oh and here is a link to the article in the Daily Mail UK that Ex-British ambassador, who is now a WikiLeaks operative, claims Russia did NOT provide Clinton emails – they were handed over to him at a D.C. park by an intermediary for ‘disgusted’ Democratic whistleblowers:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4034038/Ex-British-ambassador-WikiLeaks-operative-claims-Russia-did-NOT-provide-Clinton-emails-handed-D-C-park-intermediary-disgusted-Democratic-insiders.html
Excellent article, Mr. Parry.
I was in Russia not so long ago, and I had some observations to make in this brief essay, “The Russians Are Coming … Again?”
http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/18968
What worries me so tremendously is the simplistic barbarism of these attacks on Russia: pure jaded propaganda, which, sadly and unbelievably enough, too many people are too eager to swallow.
The surest sign that the NYT and the rest of the MSM are in the bag with regard to the “blame Russia” campaign is their failure even to mention (at least to my knowledge) Craig Murray’s claim that he received the DNC info from a leaker inside the organization. This claim may or not be true, but it is at least worth reporting and considering as a possible explanation for how Wikileaks came to possess the material. That said, the manner in which Wikileaks released the information so as to maximize damage to the Clinton campaign makes me wonder about the mental health of Julian Assange. Four years of confinement to a room can mess with your mind.
Not only the story Craig Murray but how about the story of Podesta having willingly surrendered his password to a (the) hacker. If the contents of a hack are true, what’s the hullabaloo all about.
Thanks for this article. I never believed this crap about the Russians hacking the election. The U.S. Election process is a sham which disenfranchises voters across the board. I believe that both parties have their hands in these elections right down to the Board of Elections and electoral colleges in each of these states. When Bernie Sanders ran in NY, I believe the Demorcratic Party and the Board of Elections especially in NYC made it hard for him to get elected. All of a sudden in Brooklyn registered voters were not found, like 125,000 voters…. Really? NY was a state also named with Southern states in the 60’s as a state that disenfranchised voters. I am not surprised. I am not a fan of Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton. They definitely have not improved the lives of African Americans or any other Americans. Only the lives of those within their inner circle. They are exploiters to the highest degree. She lost because Americans rejected her and her ideals. They said enough. We don’t need another Clinton in the White House to do Part 2 of how to disenfranchise and destabilize American people. I am not a Trump fan either, but if he won the election fair and scare I can’t argue with that. The Democratic and Republican parties are not in touch with the American people. The election process needs to be reformed where if you don’t have money, you don’ t have influence. They are corrupt on both sides. It is pay for play and I am sure that is not how the forefathers intended this to be or maybe it was….. Time to clean house and that is on both sides. Whether they are White, Black, or any other persuasion, they are corrupt. Rome is Burning!!
Russia may have tried to influence the election, it might be a frame job, or it might be a collaborator in this election. It does not matter. I suspect the election really was rigged ( the fbi’s comey did his part ) but it was rigged in favor of trump
When I see someone pointing and yelling “crook!” as trump did, I always suspect the yeller (trump) is the one causing the problem. Remember gingrich complaining about clinton’s morality and pointing the finger with disgust? He should have resigned since he was cheating on mrs. gingrich AND kept it a secret while on his moral crusade. I have not been wrong yet when I see this behavior.
The cia with a suspected history of interring with other nations is complaining about russia’s interference? We must be in trouble.
This was not an election. It was a coup to elect the new puppet president trump. We need to expose the puppeteers.
Obama today: basically all the messes, conflicts, disputes, wars and so on that he has created in the world, and the reason Hillary wasn’t given “her turn,” are OUR fault because we can’t accept the lies he promulgates on the mainstream media and we insist on going to alternate sources. And, of course, extrapolating that logic will justify commiting an act of war against Russia, which he promises to do.
https://news.grabien.com/story-obama-blames-talk-radio-domestic-propagandists-rise-state-sp
How can we get this guy outta there before he blows up the planet? Trump must take to the airwaves to defend himself against the accusations or possibly be removed in a coup being orchestrated by this sullen hater. This is spiraling downhill fast and, from the comments on internet forums, war fever is in the air, proving Obama is more dangerous than any “fake news” outlet.
There is an uncomfortable truth about those who led the Old Bolsheviks and their b;loody terrors, who looted Russia under Yeltsin, and who leads the neoconservative core of the anti-Russia pundits:
http://www.softpanorama.org/Skeptics/Pseudoscience/harvard_mafia.shtml
They were and are disproportionately Jewish, but we are not supposed to note it, lest this curious FACT “offend” someone who is offended by…. the truth.
So, we can’t talk about a major [though not necessarily predominant] element of who is leading the anti-Russian rhetoric in DC and media…so let’s pretend it isn’t playing a role here.
Why are we so concerned (as per Pres. Obama’s press conference this morning) about the unproved possibility of a foreign power’s (like Russia, for example) influence (if true, it was positive) on our election, when Israel, through AIPAC and the American Jewish Communuty, etal., ALREADY HAS a far greater influence (especially being negative) on our elections. Another example of an egregious double-standard being applied to Israel. In fact, Israel is just sort of a co-partner here in the U.S.. Why is a foreign-born, Israeli dual-national, former Governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fisher, the 2nd man at the Federal Reserve?Why were we pretending that Jonathon Pollard was a spy? What is the average percentage of votes in the Congress on legislation relating to Israel? To which country do we give more Foreign Aid than any other country even though “Aid” denotes, not connotes, that the country is “needy”. To which country did we just sign a $38 billion (10-year) Charity package, which purports to be Military, but is highly fungible, meaning that can be used for the financing of settlements or whatever the f**k they want to use it for, like, haredim welfare. Bottom line:President Obama and all the Neo-Con Russia bashers are first class hypocrites, trying to exorcize (or exercise) an historic grudge against the Russian Tsars. Why is this country being pushed into wars that do not concern us, but rather a country with a wall around it that wishes to expand its borders, because our Congressmen and President are owned by them?
Brilliant article and some brilliant comments. We live now in a very small world and if you can’t see your connection to your neighbour wherever and whoever that may be you are not awake. I drive a car so I have to think about that and notwithstanding the necessity of that I have to think about the bigger picture and maybe next year it should be an electric car , or no car . This whole fabrication about the Russians simply isn’t washing with us common people, so the perception management of not just the Democrats , but politicians in general is so wide of the mark after Trump and Brexit they just don’t know what to do. They thought they had it all wrapped up and then along came the Internet………..
A good article and maybe demonizing Russia for the wrong reasons. But lets not forget that Putin is running a kleptocracy. There is no freedom of speech. Certainly no paper that can speak out against him or the Russian government. The anti gay laws are terrible. You were only in Russia for a short time. I don’t know if you can gauge much just from walking around Red Square. And while there didn’t appear to be a big police presence I am guessing it was there and you were unaware. I am assuming that your passport says you are a reporter. No doubt some one was probably watching where you were going and who you might be talking to.
Wow this is the arrogant way of thinking that is at the root of world problems
What has their form of govt got to do with you.???
The Russian people have shown over the years that they don’t take any nonsense and if the feel their govt is not working for them they will make themselves heard.
Is this article a joke? So this guys walks around Moscow for a day speaking no Russian and is able to ‘deduce’ that Russia is like any Western democracy, with Putin its misunderstood, magnanimous ruler. And this allows him to claim to know better than Russian dissenters or Western journalists who actually speak Russian and understand its propaganda. No wonder this site was listed as a Russian stooge. And all the commenters praising his acumen (he went to a Russian starbucks, wow!) is even funnier…
You assholes from Langley here taking names or something? Go tell your sycophantic acting boss Michael Morell that he’s not funny, he’s psychotic.
@Realist,
Michael Morell was another shadowy figure that was insistent that Hillary Clinton deserves to be anointed POTUS and leader of “the Free World” (only the USA is free, not Finland, Sweden, Netherlands or anywhere else knows what ‘democracy’ really is). Did you know that Mike Morell actually said we should be killing Russians in Ukraine? He openly said that. When I heard him say that, as opposed to something I would have said, like “I want Russia to join NATO. I want to have joint military operations with Russia. I want to have a joint counter-terrorist command. We can and should be fighting Wahhabi terrorists together.”
Mr. Morell openly approves of murdering Russians wholesale, whenever they are found outside the borders of their country (which Mike Morell wishes would recede even further, to shrink Russia as much as possible). There were no consequences for his genocidal and violent hate speech, which I would expect from a Salafist minister, not a former Acting Director of the nation’s premier ‘intelligence’ agency. The word intelligence being used in the loosest manner as all possible.
Realist, whoever you are, why should I or anyone trust the CIA about this past election? Seriously, the CIA is the master at electoral rigging, psychological warfare, deception, counter-operations, and murder. For decades, the CIA rigged the elections of Japan so that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP being the CIA approved polity in Japan) would win ever single time. And the LDP has ruled the county almost uninterruptedly, with an exception when, for a short time, the opposition party (the Democratic Party) had a majority before being brought down by corruption scandals.
Or what about all the election rigging that the CIA performed in Italy during the 1950ies? I could go on, but the CIA has a long history of “hacking” elections and controlling the polity of other nations, through rigging, murder and coups.
That’s why I mentioned Morell rather than Brennan. You caught my drift. Good.
Just wondering, Is the world better off now or changed for the better since the a-holes started the war with Iraq?
It’s just so bananas, it’s hard to put into words how so much of the mainstream press is lapping up and disseminating the drivel that “Putin/Russian gov’t hacked the election to tilt it to Trump!” The hysteria is strikingly similar to what went on in 2003 during the run-up to the Iraq war debacle. Repetition is hardening into orthodoxy in some quarters and smart liberals should know better than to give these insane charges the veneer of credibility.
It’s crucial to note that what’s been going on over the last month or so is that there’s a serious battle being waged amongst our ruling class behind the scenes (sometimes referred to as the “Deep State”). From what I can make of it, on one side sits Trump, Big Oil and elements of the FBI versus virtually all of the establishment mass media and press, DNC insiders, much of the CIA, and elements of the Zionist power configuration and Saudi terror network who want war on Iran – not market driven empire building with Iran which is what Tillerson’s likely to propose. Of course another element of the Zionist power configuration is quite pleased that Trump’s appointing Palestinian land grabbers too.
This internecine battle being waged between our elites is incredibly fascinating to witness. Of course that it has the potential to spiral out of control is undoubtedly worrisome and means true progressives and lefties have their work cut out for them over the coming months and years.
Deep State is true – two sides in the Deep State is not true. Is the FBI really opposite to the CIA – no, the FBI is the CIA security force. It has never prosecuted any CIA related “crime” except for whistleblower leaks. Why doesn’t Trump “side” make the point that the news story in the leaks was a fraudulent – and probably criminal – sabotaging of Sanders’ campaign, which the DNC is hoping its members will forget about? That is very damaging to the DNC…why are all the Republicans so quiet about it?
War/security state money benefits from war or heightened readiness for war. It is constantly looking for boogeyman threats to justify more spending on the security state. No matter that US produces over 95% of the world’s weapons. No matter that US defense budget is greater than next 7 states combined. We need more of that $$$ security. Lot of threats don’t you know. Russia – it is alleged without proof – might sneak in and tell us about how corrupt our 2 political parties are. Can’t have that.
President Obama is just caving in all over the place like a blob of jello (no excuses for mixing metaphors here when the issue is so egregious)-too many instances to even itemize here, let alone comment on. One incident, though, I remember seems to symbolize his lamentable state of mind: when he pulled up to the welcoming (some welcome) stand in Beijing several months ago. Surprise: no red carpet like the other Heads of State. A deliberate slight? Absolutely. How did he react. Like a President of the United States? Absolutely not! He dropped the stairs that AF One carries in its nose for just such occasions and sortied as if nothing had happened. In fact, what had happened is that he had sloughed off the insult like a Black man because he couldn’t do anything about it, when he should have sat tight until a red carper appeared, or left, and the United States had suffered a huge hit to its prestige. Childish? I don’t think so. If he had stayed put, that red carpet would have appeared. So the problem is that Barack Obama does not represent the people he purports to, because he cannot identify with them. Bottom line: this country cannot have another President from a minority group. let alone a disadvantaged one. We have now had our Black president, just like we had our Black mayor of NYC. It won’t happen again, but it’s good that it happened once to show why it won’t work, and hopefully will put a brake on the multicultural hype. We would wager that the Jews would never be so stupid as to allow one of theirs to be our President.
I would like to know many posters on this site support this racist rant. If you do support it please post your support of it along with any other minorities you hate.
The posting should read: “I would like to know how many posters . . . . Sorry for the typo
I’m not sure I agree about motives.
Consider this recent statement by Obama concerning “hacking”: ‘We need to take action and we will at a time and place of our choosing’
It just does not come more completely brainless than this.
And, given his powerful position, more irresponsible.
Take revenge?
For what?
For someone’s assertion, unsupported by a scrap of proof?
An assertion by one political appointee at CIA who is not supported by any of the sister intelligence agencies or any physical evidence whatsoever? Even the otherwise pathetic John Kerry has backed off confirming this rubbish.
An assertion whose obvious motive is to get back at the winning candidate, someone you don’t like?
This sick man, Obama – a failure in virtually everything he has attempted as President from domestic policy to foreign relations, and a man who has killed hundreds of thousands of innocents abroad, too – is also trying to get back at the government which thwarted his bad intentions in Syria and in Ukraine.
That government embarrassed him before the entire world in his pursuit of ill-considered policies.
Of course, he is trying to get back at Trump because Obama knows Trump is going to quickly extinguish most of what he has done, his sad little pile of stuff, his so-called legacy.
Well, here’s Obama’s real legacy, making threats and calling names, threatening innocent people with an abuse of power. Of course, I think we can all agree that while profoundly stupid, this behavior of Obama seems almost elevated compared to his construction and oversight of an entire machinery for extrajudicial killing in many lands.
I am beginning to think Obama has gone mad, just adding to all the other deficiencies of his character and personality. Can he not see how ridiculous he is making charges and threats like this? Apparently not, which is a strong indicator of irrationality.
Here is a 2016 version of drunken old Senator Joe McCarthy waving handfuls of blank papers he calls lists and threatening what he calls traitors in the American government. Only the 2016 version sits in the Oval Office, and he has access to the nuclear launch codes.
This is deeply concerning behavior from a man in such a position.
And if the mainline press were not totally biased towards the war party of the neocons and its defeated candidate, the most corrupt and vicious person ever to run for President, it would be saying so, not giving credibility to blubbering insanity by covering it as though it were sound speech.
The latest breathlessly broadcast news from CNN, BBC and all over print media this morning and without one shred of proof presented I might add) is that Putin himself signed off on the interference in the American Presidential election.
This was to be expected following the defeat of the CIA funded, trained and armed Terrorists in Syria. to attempt to lay the blame on anything else is to attribute the ability of the American Government and it´s multitude of intelligence agencies with an attention span that is longer than a single news cycle. Every setback must be met immediately with a deluge of hysterical propaganda against someone in a foreign country, the current enemy du jour being President Putin.
In short, the !/10 of 1% Elites in the US did not get the coronation of the President they wanted. Now they are more than willing to take the country to the very brink of nuclear war to make sure that the electorate gets back in line and marches to the Elite´s tune. For sure they will not risk the Hamptons in a nuclear war, but will push the envelope right to it´s breaking point. The great unwashed in the USA has risen and now must be pushed back into their former prostate position, and begging for handouts from their criminal Elite. For the Elites, their worse fear has been realized.
Mr. Kuhn, you make incredibly astute points.
I can’t believe this wave of propaganda we’re witnessing. And millions of my fellow American citizens will lap all this up.
Thank you, Vladimir Putin for having helped defeat Hillary Clinton and installed Donald Trump in the White House, and, by the way, congratulations, for having had the effrontery to protect your own national security and taken back Crimea from the Neo-Con State Department-backed coup-plotters. We support you, our Christian brothers. Please continue with your sensible policies.
The Real American People
Thank you, Robert and Consortium News. As a Russian born, now Russian-American citizen, I am left aghast by the self-serving incitement of the media. Your reporting is a an island of reason and reassurance for me, as I watch New York Times, NPR and the rest tie up my homeland to the whipping post.
I return to Russia nearly every other year to both my rural hometown and metropolitan Moscow. Moscow is the only place in the world where I was served a $9 cup of coffee. Russia is and has been flourishing for decades. For a long time, Russians were interested in the United States and appreciated the western model of capitalism. Various civil groups have been organizing exchanges between the two countries with great fervor. From ballet schools in New York City to forestry crews on Lake Baikal, Russians were eager for a warmer and open relationship with the United States.
There is a Russia beyond Putin that few dare to speak of. It is the country I know. It is the country where school children put on monthly plays and begin to recite poetry in first grade. It is the country where women receive generous government sponsored child-rearing subsidies to stay home longer. It is a country where those mothers then mourn, and have been mourning, the tens of millions of soldiers who never came home during the World Wars as well the modern, bloody political games with neighboring Chechnya, Ukraine and now, Syria.
Russians are, too, spoon-fed typical nationalist propaganda. Many, including myself, are now wondering about the US and its intentions. Many didn’t like the impact of sanctions on the price of groceries and gas. Russians don’t understand why America all of a sudden hates them so much. Many mothers are scared. They don’t want another world war.
Is this all in the name of democracy and human rights? As someone who works with homeless youth and adults in rural New England, I’ve got a lot to say about that.
Thanks again, Robert.
I can see how you would be confused by the actions of your new country against your native land. It was unconscionable how Obama’s state department set Ukrainians against Russians in a coup meant to expand NATO and the EU, to snatch the naval base at Sevastopol away from Russia, and to station missiles pointed at Moscow only a few hundred miles away. The deadly putsch, the fire bombings of Odessa and the rocket attacks on the Donbass from Kiev were all totally uncalled for simply because Yanukovich decided that Putin had offered a better financial deal than did the EU and the IMF. But America is very proficient at demonizing any leader or government they want out of the way. I’m surprised you haven’t come to hate America for persecuting your people. I know that I hate what we do to numerous other countries, and I hate heartless bastards like Obama and Clinton who make it all happen without the slightest compunctions. America owes Russia a big apology for what we have been doing to that country, but, knowing Americans, never expect one. We are the most self-righteous, “persecuted,” paranoid, entitled, loud-mouthed, arrogant people on the planet… but far from exceptional. The people who are exceptional are those whom we tread on and yet prevail.
It is the country where school children put on monthly plays and begin to recite poetry in first grade.
How about the teachers? Do they carry guns to school so they can have a shootout with some crackpot having easy access to guns? Or, is this another area where Russia lags blissfully behind the US?
To my fellow Americans,
I am begging you, ALL of you, whatever your political stripe, whatever your social status, whoever you are: Female, Black, Native American, Jewish, Gay, Transsexual/Transgender (and fuck yeah, I support all minorities and all peoples, including race, sex and gender). Whoever the fuck you are; DO NOT fall for this Russophobic, Anti-Russian bullshit. I beg of you. This is a concerted effort by the West to demonize Russia and paint Vlad Putin as a James Bond-esque villain. They want you to swallow this shit up whole, so you will be distracted from the fact that your overseers (the Powers That Be, the political and financial elite) continue to blight your lives as they exploit you and you languish in suffering.
Russia is not to blame. Vlad Putin, whatever one makes of him, is not to blame. And look, I don’t like Putin for a variety of reasons. He has continued the Corporatocracy set up by Boris Yeltsin and ‘the Family’. He continues to support a particularly cruel form of capitalism. He also supports what could be called Eastern Orthodox fundamentalism. He conflates homosexuality with pedophilia/hebephilia/ephebophilia. But we should not go to war with Russia or make an enemy out of Russia. Vlad Putin is not to blame for Western aggression.
Don’t allow our leaders to sell this message. Tell them, we aren’t buying and we are not going to creep into a New Cold War, let alone support sending the sons and daughters of other people to their deaths in a hypothetical war with Russia.
President Barack Obama is a fucking failure, the failure of all failures, as are his cohorts including Hillary Clinton. President Barack Obama’s legacy is not reforming healthcare, assassinating Osama bin Laden, trade deals or ending the occupation of the Republic of Iraq. No, that’s not what his legacy will be, regardless of how many Nobel Prizes he nets during and after his presidency. Nope, his legacy will be the eternal expansion of drone warfare. Barack Obama’s legacy is drones. Creating a narrative about Russia (and specifically Vlad Putin) is a distraction, a real red herring, to draw attention away from President Obama’s truly (and epically) sinister legacy. It also draws attention away from the fact that 51% of our country is in poverty, and the global situation is even more grim.
The West has gone absolutely batshit over the impulses of change, blaming everything on Russia. It is an understatement to say that Russia (and Vlad Putin, specifically) are the scapegoat of the West. If I slip on a banana peel, I can blame it on Putin and the political elites, the Powers That Be, will reinforce my accusation and applaud me for saying it.
Russia has been blamed for Hillary Clinton’s loss of the US election, Russia is blamed for the Brexit vote, Russia is blamed for the German election. The German authorities are saying that the reason Angela Merkel had a less than stellar performance in the recent federal elections is because of Russia. Do you have a toothache? If you do, it’s Russia. Vlad Putin, we are told, has control over the “free elections” of the world.
This is hysteria, it’s mental illness on a global scale. When rulers and their ruling parties or factions suffer any loss, in the polls or in popularity, it’s Vlad Putin’s fault, so we are told. They are hammering this universal “it’s Russia’s fault” meme as the new State sponsored ideology. Anyone who even doubts it in the least aspect is considered treasonous.
I shouldn’t have to tell you, Russia did not hack the US election for Donald Trump. Russia did not hack the UK election for Brexit. Russia did not hack German voting machines so that Angela Merkel’s total percentage would be less than projected.
The truth is much less like a Cold War dream fever dream. Yet our society controllers are trying to create the “justification” for a New Cold War and the latest Red Scare. All this nonsense about Russians rigging the election, from the very people who scoffed at and heavily criticized Herr Trump for suggesting an election could be rigged, something the Democrats said was “impossible”, including El Presidente Barack Obama. The anti-Russian craze is truly terrifying to me.
Remember what President Barack Obama said around the time that Jill Stein began working feverishly to throw the election for Hillary Clinton (someone she pretended to despise)? He said there was no evidence of election tampering and that he had confidence in the integrity of the election results.
A few weeks later, because he’s a lying son of a bitch, he completely contradicts himself and reinforces the idea of Russian interference and hacking in the election.
Obama is a LIAR!
Another piece of news (to me, at any rate): Obama just allowed the continuation of economic sanctions against Iran recently passed overwhelmingly in both houses of congress to become law. Ending the sanctions was supposed to be our part of the treaty with Iran for their promise never to develop nuclear weapons. This obviously reneges on that agreement and proves to Iran that America’s word is worth shit. Yes, the congress had plenty of votes to over ride any veto that Obama may have placed upon the bill, but the craven snake should have at least gone through the motions to show Iran that HIS personal word was sincere, even if his country was duplicitous. Instead he walked away from partners in a deal that took years to craft because of some mindless spiteful pressure from congress at the very end of his term. The man will fight with no one except Putin and Russia (who are easy targets in Russophobic America) because he has no principles and no courage. The sooner he slinks off into the shadows the better. Get out of the people’s house, you rat. This makes me as angry as the revenge he has just vowed against Russia for purportedly “hacking the election,” in spite of zero evidence.
@Realist,
Thanks for letting me know about this. It doesn’t surprise me at all. The situation is taking a turn for the worst. Have you seen the news of President Barack Obama promising to take “action” against Russia? It hurts me that the United States is so unbelievably hostile and belligerent. We should be allies with Russia, it’s a great country and a great people. If I were POTUS, I would actively be courting the Russian people (not just their administration or President), reaching out and appealing to them. I would even love to have Russia join NATO. I see Russia as a friend and I’m speaking as an American citizen. I cannot understand why so many Americans are obsessed with casting Russia as the eternal villain. I can only surmise that it is a core tenant of ‘neoconservatism’ that an enemy must always exist to explain away the costly and ever growing military-industrial complex.
https://www.rt.com/usa/370507-obama-russia-hack-action/
@everyone,
This is surreal.
Report: Hillary Clinton Says Putin Grudge Caused Russia Hack
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2199450-report-hillary-clinton-says-putin-grudge-caused-russia-hack/
There was no Russian hack. Hillary Clinton will blame everyone but herself for losing Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. She is so corrupt. President Barack Obama is so corrupt. They claim Vladimir Putin and his cabinet are corrupt, they claim that Russia is a “mafia state” and Putin is “the Godfather” of this “mafia state”. Those saying this, at the highest levels, are the most corrupt in all the world. I think the Democratic Party is one of the most corrupt parties in the world today, perhaps even in all of history.
Yes, Josh, as I reported from Antiwar.com last night, Obama is planning a strike, a cyberattack, literally an act of war against Russia based on unfounded allegations.
“U.S. intelligence officials believe that Putin *may* (emphasis mine) have directly ordered the hack, according to NBC. On Thursday, NBC reported that government sources said that the Obama administration decided against responding to Russia before the election for fear of a cyber-war. The White House also did not want to appear to be intervening in the election and believed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would win.”
This is just so much BS. He kills people as part of his routine… and he didn’t want to “appear to be intervening in the election”… because he though Hillary would win. In other words, he didn’t think something that *may* not have happened at all was worth starting a world war over. Since Hillary lost (without proof that it was due to ANY hackers, let alone “Putin’s” hackers) now it’s suddenly okay to threaten an act of war.
I hope that Russia does not underestimate the treachery of this street punk and have their finger on their own button to retaliate against yet more naked American aggression. This is a straightforward threat of major violence, the least that Russia should be doing is taking the case to the United Nations. If Obama does this, you can kiss the amenities of civilisation goodbye, including electricity and the internet if he does something insanely rash like crashing Russia’s power grid, which will be avenged, maybe via an EMP over the entire East Coast.
Russia want to kick our terrorist out of Kosovo twenty years ago now Russia kicked our terrorists out Aelopo . You can’t blame our president for being mad he wanted our head choppers to win . They didn’t and we can’t do anything about it .
Thanks for that. It needed saying.
Russia did not hack German voting machines so that Angela Merkel’s total percentage would be less than projected.
But the US National Security Agency tapped into her personal phone, one of countless similar incidents completely ignored by the talking heads and print hacks demonizing Putin and Russia.
I wanted to add a few more things about bring in Russia last year. The young man who was my guide in Moscow was openly gay and lives with his partner in an apartment they share in one of the famous Stalinscraper buildings in central Moscow. He found the idea that there was oppression of gays completely inaccurate. He said their may be discrimination in remote rural areas, but certainly not in the cities. We talked openly about this in a cafe not far from the Russian History Museum on Red Square, which is the gailly illuminated building in one of the photos you shared.
I was in St. Petersburg for one week. My hotel was just two blocks from Palace Square on Nevsky Prospect. I did not see a single homeless person the entire time I was there. I saw police only a time or two, and I walked around a lot. The police walk in pairs. They do not have guns, but each just has one small walkie talkie on their belt, in strict contrast to American cops who look like they just walked out of a Star Wars movie.
I did see one older woman on Nevsky selling mittens she had knitted from a cardboard box.
Hillary could lose a lot of support if the truth about Russian gays ever came out…here is a link to a report that gives statistics and talks about the gay situation in Russia.
http://static.prisonplanet.com/p/images/february2014/white_paper.pdf
Russia does not sell marriage liciense to gay couples So the U.S says that oppression . I think we voted marriage was between one man and one women but that was oppression
here and made illegal Even California voted the same way Russia has it Really no human rights in Russia . Sounds pretty bad no human rights just terrrible
Obama has totally lost his mind. I just read this on the Antiwar.com site. Speaking on NPR, he blamed Putin personally and totally for “hacking the American election” and vows a “retaliatory strike,” which the article claimed may be a complete knock-out of Russia’s electrical grid.
Excerpt from story: “Irrespective of the lack of evidence and despite nebulous motives, however, President Obama did vow that the US would carry out some form of retaliatory move against Russia, saying he would do so ‘at a time and place of our own choosing.’ ”
This hateful maniac is threatening to start World War 3, while at the same time trying to prevent the president-elect from taking office using baseless allegations of hacking to fuel a coup. What mechanism does the constitution provide for stopping a madman? The coup to slip Hillary into office is bad enough, but this threat of an attack on a sovereign nuclear power without extensive justification beyond his personal animus towards Putin, including irrefutable public documentation of all charges, is simply beyond all reason, it is naked barbarism. This man needs to be medicated and put in restraints while crazy Joe Biden serves out the last month of his term, and if Biden persists in the madness, we move on to Paul Ryan.
Here’s the link: http://news.antiwar.com/2016/12/15/obama-vows-revenge-against-russia-for-election-hacks/
Remember when Obama and the whore went off by themselves for a day or two? Did you wonder what they were plotting? Now you know!
I caught something a little while ago when I was half-listening to CNN. Apparently, Putin or some Russian official told Obama to put up some evidence or shut up. A little dose of straight talk in a program otherwise devoted to speculation and insinuation.
Here’s one report of the very real, rather annoyed response.
http://russia-insider.com/en/kremlin-lashes-out-white-house-put-or-shut-hack-evidence/ri18231
Apparently, many high level officials in the Russian government are speaking out publicly on the matter, including Putin’s Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russian Foreign Ministery spokesperson Maria Zakharova, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. All call it an outrageous accusation and put up or shut up with regard to the non-existent evidence.
It’s amazing what Obama thinks he can slip past world observers. The American people? They’re used to being lied to and never seem to catch on, which is what Obama and Clinton hope results in an overturned election–regardless of the motives they profess (just wanting to know the truth, yeah sure!). Based on comments dropped all over the internet, it looks like Obama’s lies are gaining wide currency (except here), even on comic strip forums. Just gratuitous Russian bashing all over the place. How dare they steal our election!!! Never the more pertinent, “just how did they expect that longshot to succeed?” Or, “I’ll believe it when I see the evidence, not just a proclamation.”
I am of a Eastern European background who has grown up in the west. I saw the country I was born in destroyed by the US and my nephews nearly killed b bombs outside the areas CNN reported. I have lived with the lies the west spinned about the Balkans for 20 years. It broke my father and he never really go over it. In all the years that followed I never hated and thought my daughter not to hate. Now I see the same being to done to Russia. The people of eastern europe have not forgotten and this time its is really far worse. The hatred that has been festering in eastern Europe against the EU and the US is dangerous. Has the US become so blind. This could easily become very dangerous and I hope articles such as this one will help the people of America understand why this Russia bashing has to stop..
Yes, it was Hillary’s husband who bombed your homeland as he took NATO out for a test spin after converting what was meant to be solely a defensive alliance against the Soviet Union (which no longer existed) into a useful new tool of American military aggression all over the globe. Maybe he thought that Serbo-Croatian sounded or was spelled a lot like Russian. Dubya totally confused Afghanistan and Iraq with the extinct Soviet Union, and Obomber (with Hillary riding shotgun) must have thought that Libya, Syria and Yemen were surely populated by Soviets. I think the great peace-maker (Nobel Prize and all that) droned Pakistan and Somalia without the help of NATO… but, you know, if the godfather asks a favor, those countries had better do what they are told. It’s how we role: I think the Cosa Nostra is our model.
During that time NATO came close to triggering a war with Russia. Russian forces moved into an area to protect some Slavs. US General Wesley Clark ordered British General Sir Michael Jackson to oppose the Russians. Jackson refused saying he was not about to start a war with Russia.
The Clinton family is by far the most hated US politician family in the Balkan Region. (with the Bush one coming close second)
Clintons completely destabilized the South East Mediterranean creating a whole vacuum of Islamic extremism, failed states and botched bilateral relations. Bill Clinton completely destroyed the Greek Foreign policy by putting pro-Israel governments in the Greek leadership and evaporating 40 years of excellent relations with the Arab Countries which were receiving a lot of our exports in exchange for oil deals and shipping benefits (Egypt letting Greek ships pass through Suez without customs).
I sincerely hope something changes cause atm US has completely lost the trust of the world imho….
“If Murray’s story is true, it raises several alternative scenarios: that the U.S. intelligence community’s claims about a Russian hack are false; that Russians hacked the Democrats’ emails for their own intelligence gathering without giving the material to WikiLeaks; or that Murray was deceived about the identity of the original leaker.”
A 4th possible scenario is that it benefits Putin to play the Iron Sheik character alongside the CIA’s Hulk Hogan…In other words, promoting conflict and raising the statist security profile benefits Putin in Russia for the same reasons you notice that it benefits the CIA & Pentagon in the US, so they play along together…..”Oh that is great fun game we having with phony American wrestlers”. I mean, why exactly are the US & Russia both supporting the incendiary destruction of Syria? In 2010+ it is no longer strategic to begin with & there will be nothing left of it by the time they both get through. But lots of arms makers/contractors/etc. moved product,. and political foes were sidelined. In the Ukraine, the CIA staged a coup in 2013-14 and Putin got a little piece too. Iran got money and nuclear fuel, and Putin got some biz there too. It looks like a thriving partnership.
Question for all of you lawyers and (ex?) insiders: Is not what the CIA has done here not only reprehensible (etc.) but illegal? I hope the first swamp Trump drains is Langley, and all its tributaries like the NYT and WaPo.
How come these super intelligent findings on Russians hacking DNC and John Podesta e-mails were not applicable to Hillary’s private server ?
I never fail to be amazed by the treachery of Hillary Clinton. Being a merciful person, a few days ago I was relieved when Donald Trump admitted that his threats to prosecute Hillary for numerous crimes were just so much campaign rhetoric. Nobody likes to see an infirm old lady locked up for the rest of her life. But the way her supporters from both parties have been going after Trump’s hide by making very serious but baseless allegations against Putin and then conflating them with Trump is truly vicious and the epitome of attempted self-aggrandizement at the expense of the country’s well-being. Assuming Trump is allowed to take the oath of office in the aftermath of these broad spectrum attacks through elected politicians, federal appointees and the media, I would suggest he change his plans for Hillary, Bill and whomever else (John McCain, John Brennen and Michael Morrel, for starters) has been involved in this attempted coup. Seriously, they are attacking the next head of state, if not to remove him then to emasculate him as a leader. Isn’t it the old saying that if you attack the king you must kill him or forfeit your own life? Hillary is apparently going for broke. She deserves the gallows.
If ever there was a way to measure bad Hillary just flew past Richard Nixon at supersonic speed.
Murray more reliable and a real truth teller. He’s not a careerist. He has ethics.
Tells it like it is:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jul/15/foreignpolicy.uk
The envoy who said too much
One minute he was Our Man in Tashkent, the next he was a major embarrassment for the Foreign Office. Craig Murray, ambassador to Uzbekistan, talks to Nick Paton Walsh about his turbulent year
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-445896/How-I-know-Blair-faked-Iran-map.html
How I know Blair faked Iran map
By CRAIG MURRAY, Former Ambassador to Uzbekistan and Head of the Foreign Office’s Maritime Section
Murray more reliable and a real truth teller,. He’s not a careerist, he has ethics.
Tells like it is:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jul/15/foreignpolicy.uk
The envoy who said too much
One minute he was Our Man in Tashkent, the next he was a major embarrassment for the Foreign Office. Craig Murray, ambassador to Uzbekistan, talks to Nick Paton Walsh about his turbulent year
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-445896/How-I-know-Blair-faked-Iran-map.html
How I know Blair faked Iran map
By CRAIG MURRAY, Former Ambassador to Uzbekistan and Head of the Foreign Office’s Maritime Section
Mr Perry don’t fall for the establishment diatribe. “putin autocratic style and all its faults” . Follow up ur statements with verifiable facts . Or else u r just part of the modern journalistic problem of western fake news. Still i concur with the majority of ur article. The Russian federation is run just like the west. It is a federated state and is a capitalist economy. Has a federal bank has democratically elected officials at the DUMA . Putin resuscitated Russia, and has brought some needed law and order . Post USSR russia resembled the US during the mob years of the 20 and 30’s. Now their is a citizenry who take pride and responsibility of their civic duty, crime has been reduced and graft and corruption being hit on from all levels of russian society.
Exceptionally well written exposé of the madness permeating most of the factions wielding clout in this country by a professional journalist par excellence. An equally perceptive addendum from businessman Gary Hare. If more people were aware of the described realities, perhaps we’d stop digging our own graves, or at least slow down to question our actions.
Robert I visited Moscow and St. Petersburg about one year ago. You should visit St. Petersbug. While Moscow is nice and drastically changed from when I was there 30 years ago, St. Petersburg, where Putin spent years as deputy mayor, is even nicer. My guide and chauffer could not understand why the US wanted to try and hurt them with sanctions. They agreed that they liked and respected President Putin and that they could never be influenced by the “silly” sanctions that “might raise the price if tomatoes ten kopecks.”
Rare but needed voice of sanity in this world of McCarthyite hysteria. Will electors hear this voice and understand that by “flipping” their votes they a liable for participating in a form coup d’etat i.e. letting rough government security agency, CIA and their secret unsupported by facts accusations to change the outcome of the however undemocratic and flawed electoral system we have, a system that gave us Trump inadvertently or not, with huge contribution from Hillary’s unquenched hubris and disregard for American economic reality.
Placing nuclear weapons on the border of Russia is not “the new cold war” get over it and stop with this misleading, at best, phrase. This is not 1955. The circumstances are different now, this is about US demand for Global Full Spectrum Domination – Project 2020. There is nothing cold about it except the cold calculations of nuclear war. The Pentagon talks of low yield half ton nuclear weapons being “usable”.
If the hawks gain control, war with Russia and China are inevitable in the coming decade. The Imperial US will not stop I doubt Trump can stop them.
“If the hawks gain control, war with Russia and China are inevitable in the coming decade. The Imperial US will not stop I doubt Trump can stop them.”
I believe that there are certainly people who want this, and who also believe that it could be won. a
I also believe that there are enough rational (I use that term loosely) senior members of the military who realize that it could not be won, and therefore, likely it wont happen.
Look up Eva Bartlett [Canadian journalist]—she spoke[12/9/16]. at the UN Press conference concerning Syria-Sovereignty and Peace.There also were 3 other speakers there—all were very interesting to listen to. TRUTH WAS SPOKEN about Allepo. The corporate news media, bombards you with nothing but lies on a daily basis, just like they did about WMDs
Ms Bartlett is one savvy and brave lady!
Mainstream Media lies about Syria exposed by Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueyWGyddepw
EVA BARTLETT, INDEPENDENT CANADIAN JOURNALIST
Press Conference at the United Nations
Dec. 9th 2016
See the outstanding Off Guardian website for an article about BuzzFeed’s attempted smear job of her.
Also this woman in the linked video below — incredibly brave, actual witness to the fall of takfiri and mercenary forces’ occupation of E. Aleppo. SAA and Russian helpers are humanitarian heroes — but listen to the MSM line spewing from the guy from The Hill — and the UNdiplomat, Samantha Power, should be drawn and quartered for her totally irrational spewing of hate and lies at the UN the other day.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46050.htm
One reason the MSM has come to literally hate Trump is his determination to talk around them using Tweets and other “social media” mongering. He knows that becoming President might render him a captive of enemies and is, no doubt, taking steps to prevent that. Interesting that he is not moving his wife and young son into the White House.
Looks like the 6 majors no longer control all the messaging anymore, and many of their “talking heads” really do take it personally — you can tell it in their voices as they spew out their daily “talking points.” Nora O’Donnell (CBS) was literally spewing lies and hate (from both her mouth and her eyes) for Dr. Assad this very morning!
I believe this is going to end badly. The corrupt establishment are terrified that Donald Trump will “drain the swamp” and expose years of malfeasance. That is why the propaganda pushers in the corporate media are in a raging frenzy against Trump. I will be surprised if he is allowed to become President. The war criminals have opened the gates of hell around the world. Nuclear war could be perpetrated by the present lunatics running the corrupt system. Read more at link below:
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/12/the-war-criminals-that-opened-gates-of.html
Remarkable comments for a remarkable article-thanks, Mr Parry.
To state the obvious, a coup clearly is underway, led by Brennan at CIA. However, some are finding some optimism, such as Larry Johnson at:
http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/79469/john-brennans-failed-soft-coup/.
Johnson is former CIA and rails at Brennan for taking down the reputation if that were possible.
On the plus side, we have the lack of support from Clapper. We have the failure to show up to brief congressional committee on the “hack.” We have the Intelligence Professionals (of which Johnson is one) completely shredding any assertion that the information was hacked. We have Craig Murray stating that he knows who did the leak, and Wikileaks denying any input from the Russians. I am waiting for more info to come out from disaffected CIA or former CIA. The FBI and Comey are deadfast set against any evidence of a hack.
But on the other hand, we have the brain dead MSM and neo con handlers ready to continue to do the bidding of the elite, deep state, establishment or whatever. And we have the profile in courage sitting in the white house equally ready to the bidding of the elite … and the bidding of the neo cons.
I see the justified concern in the comments above. To cap this rambling comment, I do not know nor does anyone else how this will come out but at a minimum, trump will have a difficult 4 years. To me, it absolutely criminal the mis-characterization of Russia and even more criminal, not allowing anyone to take that first major step in restoring a working relationship with Russia.
If trump is able to accomplish just one thing, for me it would be a major plus: stop the neo cons and stand up to their continuing attempts at infestation of major govt positions, think tanks, political sychophants,
Excellent link Taras77. Thanks…
Sometimes things backfire; sometimes badly, sometimes hilariously…
It is reported that some 40 electoral electors have signed on to demand official (hoped to be reliable) information about the allegations of “Russian”, “Russian!”, ‘Russian’, Russian, and now “Vladimir Putin’s Personal!” “hacking” of, no longer computers, but “The U.S. Election!”. The number might be still rising.
Of the known ones, who signed on a letter, most are Democratic electors.
Outraged Neo-Cons and an at least “fellow-traveler” Harvard Attorney have been pushing a “Hamiltonian Interpretation”, claiming that this interpretations makes it ‘OK’ for electors to violate the contract of their agreements with their states and state-party’s to vote for the candidate winning the presidential race in their state [Presidents, as the electoral college system indicates, are elected by the states of the United States (or the majority of the states’ electors) to be ‘President of the United States’, rather than ‘President of the People of the United States’].
I find myself, from these given facts and analysis of them and the situation, perceiving that there seem to be more Democratic Electors listening to, and hearing, the Siren voices of the “Hamiltonian Interpretation Loreleis, and suspecting that there may be more Democratic electors giving consideration to switching their votes than Republican electors.
Imagine a “landslide” for Trump in the Electoral College. Imagine the potential effects:
Imagine the already hyperventilating going into overdrive… Imagine the Hilaryatti, already prostrate and in counseling, having to deal with… No, I am getting into the impossible, beyond the unlikely…
The Electoral College should nominate Bernie Sanders for President. He leads in all the polls and would be the best thing for The United States of America.
O Pablo–that is totally Diablo! And I completely agree. Go Bern.
The drama triangle is the oldest play in the book….Google “drama triangle” .The question is who are the money players….who would benefit from a world wide socialist system…I know we have the jewish scumbag George Soros betting against anything that makes him more wealthy. I will travel 1000 miles to piss on his grave…His time is up very soon !! The question remains unanswered…who would have benefited monetarily under the hag Hillary…….Follow that money line to the mother load or continue to use fake news (another Zionist tactic) toward OZ….Do you people have a strategy for your own salvation ??? I’m thinking no……
Parry, Are you the only real journalist left in this country? Thank you for always telling the truth. I’m donating immediately.
I think many are missing the real underpinning of the Fake News propaganda assault and the Russia hysteria. The rhetoric is all coming from the Clinton media support system otherwise known as the MSM. The rhetoric coming from the Trump transition is anything but cold war. I think what the progressive media are failing to recognise or perhaps just don’t want to talk about, is that the MIC is in the middle of it’s own civil war. I think it’s fairly certain, reading between the lines in the articles a few weeks ago, that General Rogers at best deliberately ignored the DNC hack, and almost certainly had a direct hand in Comey’s decision to drop the metaphorical grenade on the Clinton campaign in the final week, which many, including myself believe really cost her the election in the end. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think, as Steve Pieczenik stated (and who knows what side that guy is on if you read his bio) there really was a counter coup. My guess is that apart from Rogers, Kelly, Flynn, Mattis and maybe McChrystal were the larger part of it.
What’s really interesting is that all of these guys (apart from McChrystal) made their way up the ranks from the bottom; their daddies weren’t admirals or senators; they all saw front line action and have continued to join their troops at the front. I’ve listened to their interviews, NOT the Fox News soundbites, but extended interviews on YouTube and none of them are bloodthirsty hotheads. Mattis is particularly impressive in terms of his breadth of knowledge with a number of talks to right wing think tanks online. I would highly recommend Flynn’s long interviews on Al Jazeera and RT. I think it’s interesting Flynn is under fire today for undermining the CIA especially having listened to his interviews, which are surprisingly candid. Flynn expressly warned against those in Washington who advocate continuous war. He also showed contempt for drone warfare, like many in the military, probably because the CIA are calling the shots, literally, whilst the military leaders have to take the fall for their mess ups, just like in the military prisons. These generals have all made statements against torture, and talk (at least) impressively about women’s rights and the scourge of trafficking, including human trafficking; and while they use typically measured language, it seems apparent they are under no illusions as to Administration’s collusion in what most people would categorize Organized Crime.
When you actually listen to them, it is clear these old-school generals want an “end game”, specifically the end for them is the fall of theocracy, a goal which Putin would undoubtedly share. Russia only supports Iran for geostrategic, not ideological reasons, especially since everyone is aware Iran is still playing the same old despicable duplicitous games with the CIA that started under Reagan. I think they’re counting on if Iran falls, all the Sunni theocracies who essentially hold the rest of the Islamic world will fall into line and secularize. So if the generals remain in power I think that’s where they’re going. Their other aim is to split Russia from China, which probably won’t be difficult because China wont share their technology with anyone, and they are leaping way ahead of the rest of the world with alternative energy, and Russia has never trusted China historically, and vice versa. Russia has a lot more in common with the US than anyone cares to admit openly. Russia for these guys makes far more sense as a first line frenemy than Europe or China, Europe being far too social democratic, and China being too autocratic. These generals aren’t infected with the generations old Slavophobia that seethes out of Westminster and their American aristocousins.
This policy shift would drive CIA/MI6 “business interests” (their raison d’etre) into the ground, especially since Rogers seems to be breaking up the NSA and who knows what that means for the lucrative privatized end of the cyberwar community. Jobs for Russian hackers? You laugh but Dulles was happy to bring in the Nazis after the war. That, in my opinion is what’s behind the current media meltdown. It’s obvious that the CIA/MI6 are blatantly weaponizing the MSM and using Russia to attack the Trump transition at a level never seen before because the CIA heads are seriously under threat for the first time since the 60s. Rumours abound that Trump is going to be deemed unfit for office before the inauguration, in which case, bunker down. Don’t get me wrong however: I don’t think Trump’s generals are nice guys, and I’m not advocating for them. Although they have all expressed a desire to move to alternative energy, they want to ramp up domestic fossil fuels in the “short-term” as a way to bury the power of the Saudis, and undoubtedly they will start a war with Iran, two reasons to be scared as hell, because that means either conscription or “tactical” “mini” nukes. The alternative is CIA continuous proxy wars and “Global Initiative” organized crime/trafficking, weapons of mass migration, and no difference over climate change, except the utter insanity of Brennan’s geoengineering strategy (see his C-SPAN CFR speech) which makes the new CIA chief look reasonable by comparison. That’s how fucked-up things are – Pompeo is the preferable choice.
“We the people” therefore continue to be between a rock and a hard place, i.e. we’re screwed either way. But those regular folk seeking to topple Trump should be careful what they wish for, and people need to wake up to what’s going on. If the CIA is intent on another coup before January, there really would be a massive crackdown in this country. No commission could cover it up, so it would mean the end of free speech and the Internet as we know it. The last nail in the coffin.
Hmmm. Hope you’re wrong about most of that stuff in your last two paragraphs. The rest hangs together like it might be plausible.
When do they count those damned electoral votes that are cast four days from now? That might be the last day of our republic as we have known it for 228 years. If there’s a coup, there will be blood.
Here is the schedule as published in the Federal Register:
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/key-dates.html
It seems to me that Russia and China have finally understood that they are either going to stand together against America or fall separately.
Your premise implies that 1) Americans can be trusted, which is demonstrably false, and 2) the Russians are stupid enough to believe #1 is true.
No way Russia abandons its allies to make friends with us. For to do so would be suicidal.
your wrong Russia and China are together We shot a missile into the Chinese Embassy and killed a few Chinese in Yugoslavia Bill Clinton apologized and said this was a accident . However when George Tenet testified before congress that we picked out the Chinese Embassy for a target China knew Bill Clinton had lied to them
Yeltsin had promised Milosevic that Russian troops will come in with NATO forces and protect the Orthodox Christians in Kosovo . So Milosevic agreed to end the war and bring his troops home . But when Russian troops landed U.S. general Wesley Clark issued orders to shoot the Russian soldiers The British troops refused the order but the Russians were unable to protect the Christians This failure in
Yugoslavia brought down the whole Yeltsin government in Russia and Solzhenitsyn install Putin to lead Russia . This is the kind of mistakes a stupid super makes Both Russia and China were unable to save the only non NATO European country that they felt treated them on a friendly bases With the enemies Russia and China learned they have they decided they better stick a lot closer together . Since this time Russia has tried to strengthen China any way they can . And I don’t know but I think China will reciprocate and act the same way towards their friend Russia . China told us only a few years ago they have not forgotten or forgiven what happened to them in Yugoslavia .You are right Russia should be a natural friend with the United States the two most Christian countries in the world .But these are the kind of mistakes it is impossible to forgive and forget . I don’t think it is possible for the United States or any NATO country to get between Russia and China . They both know what happened to Yugoslavia . And they don’t intend for that to happen to them ..
Amazing.
We have the choice of a 50/50 chance of bigger war with Trump, or a near 100% bigger war with Hillary and US elites want the latter.
They are using the CIA to attempt a coup to overthrow a US national election.
The US looks like the biggest banana republic in history.
With the MSM carrying water for the elites I feel like the future in the US is hopeless.
While the US will keep killing more millions.
My last hope is that the Eurasian powers will stop the US cold.
“They are using the CIA to attempt a coup to overthrow a US national election.”
“The US looks like the biggest banana republic in history.”
“With the MSM carrying water for the elites I feel like the future in the US is hopeless.”
Really like these three sentences.
The Democratic Party (and those who are connected to the establishment) may desperately need to do an autopsy on their election loss but the people are desperate to rid themselves of these two wings (Republican and Democratic) of the same vile bird of prey (Upton Sinclair).
Achtung, all Aryan women! Beware of Russian-backed Arab rape-gangs!
Gustav Gressel from the George Soros-funded European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) warns of the possibility that Russia might encourage refugees to carry out sex attacks in Germany in order to influence the federal election there next year.
“What would happen, for example, if a similar event to [the mass sex attacks on New Year’s Eve] in Cologne were repeated at a summer festival before the election? How would Merkel stand then? What would be the consequence for the Bundestag election? Of course, this is an extreme example, but it is within the range of possibility,” he said.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/12/13/think-tank-warns-russia-sex-mobs-germans/
Gressel refers to the attacks in Cologne on New Year’s Eve last year as an example of what the Russians might organise. However, it turns out that there was a lot of misreporting of those attacks. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/11/05/hamb-n05.html
Originally reported in the Bild, Germany’s biggest tabloid newspaper.
(in German) http://www.bild.de/politik/inland/wladimir-putin/propaganda-putin2sexmobs-49205588.bild.html
Also in the Daily Mail and the Sun in the UK.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4032432/Pro-EU-think-tank-says-Russia-Syria-orchestrating-migrant-sex-attacks-swing-upcoming-German-elections.html
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2400317/russia-may-organise-migrant-sex-attacks-in-europe-to-make-angela-merkel-lose-german-elections-eu-experts-claim/
AWESOME! Robert. Write on!
It’s not just Russia they’re tackling.
US admiral pledges to confront China in South China Sea
This Admiral Harris has been making the news lately. At a speech at Pearl Harbor he took the opportunity to dump on Colin Kaepernick, and the Pentagon gleefully touted this until somebody remembered that the US Navy had a dreadful race record during WW2. When I checked into this hyper-heroic Admiral, I learned he was one of the commanders at Guantánamo. When three of his victims “died suddenly and violently” this gold-dripping jackass declared that the dead people had engaged in “an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us”.
There is no telling what Trump is going to do, but if he encourages this crap, all his election promises about not getting into needless wars will be for nothing.
Your posts are always good and reflect good thinking skills. It never hurts to look at both sides of a situation. A lot of the posters on this site haven’t examined what this country is in for with a Trump presidency. Hope SS isn’t their only means of retirement. I hope they all have a good health plan. We have to cut taxes for a lot of the war mongers. What was it that Pogo said? “We have met the enemy and he is us.
Could the election hysteria get any weirder, or the “deep state” any more desperate? Probably. But, what would it take? How about…a fake alien invasion? If pale cadaverish white men with crew-cuts, black suits and homberg hats start showing up in your neighborhood wearing horn-rim Ray-Bans, don’t automatically assume they’re really the “Men in Black”. They might correspond to Carl Schmitt’s “different and alien”, but take my advice. Look for dandruff. It’s a dead giveaway for fake aliens.
Great article, Mr. Parry!
“pale cadaverish white men with crew-cuts, black suits and homberg hats start showing up in your neighborhood wearing horn-rim Ray-Bans, don’t automatically assume they’re really the “Men in Black”
I’ll tell right now if these guys show up at my house I’m inviting them in, setting up my drums, (I hope they brought a sax and keyboard) and we are jamming….if everything goes down the way I hope, me and my Men in Black will have a soon to be released hit album for sale on iTunes.
I’m expecting Putin to show up at my house with zombie Hitler riding a T-Rex.
John Kerry did visit Antarctica during the presidential election.
Das ist das Ende.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmilvm3KIgw
If we count all the illegal aliens that voted for hillary then yes, she did win the popular vote. The ” recount ” has exposed massive fraud that benefited hillary in Michigan and other places . The e-mails were leaked not hacked. RIP Seth Rich. All one has to do is look at Trump rallys vs hillary rallys. There is no way hillary won the popular vote.
By calling the Electoral College archaic is simply wrong. It avoids mob rule by giving equal voice to all the country not just LA, DC,Chicago, San Fran, Seattle , NYC and Miami and south Texas.
As I’ve said before Russia is not really an enemy of the US unless provoked into hostilities be inept government officials. The one main thing about Trump is his softer stance of Russia and Putin. Hopefully this will hold up as I’m sick and tired of hostilities created by the neocon establishment and all their warmongering actions. It’s kind of like the anti-war movement during the ‘Nam; give peace a chance. I just hope Trump can stand up to all the hawks in Washington, we’ll see. However the anti-Russian propaganda may be tough to over come and end up escalating into a cold or even a hot war which we’ll lose because Putin is well ready for an attack. I wish for peace which has always been my stance. I just hope reason and sanity rules out over provoked hostilities. But the odds are probably against this dream of mine and others for sure.
For some reason this mendacity-laced Russia bashing brings to mind the yellow journalism promoting the war against Spain after the sinking of the USS Maine.
The chaos that is currently evolving should come as no surprise when we consider the sizable number of people who considered that the two candidates representing the Democratic and Republican parties for president were equally atrocious if for different reasons. That is one of the consequences of voting the perceived lesser evil from two corrupt parties. The evils became progressively more so with each quadrennial charade. The American people are responsible in part for this ominous predicament which may mean an enlightened resolution to this conflict is highly unlikely.
Just wondering why doesn’t Craig Murray release the name of the “Dem” leaker. Wouldn’t that settle the Russian hacking story and stop the guessing. All other leakers usually reveal their name.
Daniel – I believe Craig Murray said that he was given the documents by an intermediary, on behalf of someone else. One leaker was probably Seth Rich, the murdered DNC staffer. Julian Assange offered a $20,000.00 reward for information re Seth Rich’s death. Why would Assange do this if Seth Rich hadn’t had something to do with the leaks?
“Re supposed Russian hacking, Karl Denninger (who does know his Internet technology), has a post entitled “So It WAS NOT Hacking”. Karl quotes the Daily Mail in U.K. and Craig Murray’s involvement:
“Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and associate of Julian Assange, told the Dailymail.com he flew to Washington, D.C. for emails.
He claims he had a clandestine hand-off in a wooded area near American University with one of the email sources.
The leakers’ motivation was ‘disgust at the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the ’tilting of the primary election playing field against Bernie Sanders.
Murray says: ‘The source had legal access to the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks’.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4034038/Ex-British-ambassador-WikiLeaks-operative-claims-Russia-did-NOT-provide-Clinton-emails-handed-D-C-park-intermediary-disgusted-Democratic-insiders.html
And then Karl says:
“The source gave it to him.
There was no hacking. There was instead a disguntled Democrat operative who had access to the data, dumped it, and turned it over.
This is a guy who (1) claims to have met the actual source, (2) received the actual data and (3) got the data because the person who took it was*****ed off that the Democrats stole the nomination from Sanders.
The “Russian” claim just went up in smoke.”
Then Karl (who is not a fellow who is into conspiracy theories at all) says:
“PPS: Was his name “Seth Rich”? Because if so then every single person supporting the “hack” narrative, repeating it or cheering it on is in fact cheering on murder and it is my sincere wish to each of you, collectively and individually, that you burn eternally in Hell for your open and outrageous support of both corruption and murder.”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231717
If it was Seth Rich why isn’t Assange giving the $20,000 to Craig Murray? I am sure you remember Vince Foster. Who was the person that had him Killed? Oh by the way Craig Murray was relieved of his British post. Not quite sure why.
Oh by the way Craig Murray was relieved of his British post. Not quite sure why.
Briefly, he was outspoken in criticizing torture in Uzbekistan. Do an internet search for “ambassador craig murray uzbekistan” for more information.
Daniel Foley – I believe the $20,000.00 reward was for information on who was responsible for Seth Rich’s murder, you know, hopefully to catch the killer. Craig Murray is a pretty credible person. Google him.
Knowing the nature of the yankee legal and political system, it would be death or imprisonment for the leaker. That is why the intermediary was necessary, and, knowing these facts, that is why the democrats are cynically blaming Russia and revealing their true nature as having evolved into gangster-fascism since the DLC-Clinton hostile takeover of 1990 or so.
Assange has since stated that only he and a select few (not including Murray) https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/809366908470525952
It is possible the Murray stuff is disinfo intended to discredit Wikileaks which as you may know, has a perfect record of accuracy. I would stick only with what Assange says, for now.
Assange has maintained since the emails went public, that they were leaked to WL and not the result of “Russian” or anyone else’s hacking. https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/809722357430398976. He also hinted very strongly in a Dutch TV interview that Seth Rich was the source. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7FkLBRpKg
With Israel Russia relations now quite good, have to wonder why Israel first US neo cons hate Putin and Russia so much.
The Israel First US neocons hate Putin and Russia so much because they are just puppets in an Imperial Play. The string-holders are much higher up in the pyramidal hierarchy of World Dominion. The entire Zion Project is the creation of Cecil Rhodes’ RoundTable Group in the late 19th century. It, along with SME (Synarchist Movement for Empire) intends to secure World Empire for “Eurogarchs”, ancient Imperial families (some with old Roman roots, many with Holy Roman Empire roots) and their Managerial Elite in the banks and corporations (this is the essence of fascism; simply the modern version of old ancient Empire, which, like war, is also a racket, with imperialists being highly-polished racketeers). The RoundTable Group had as its’ primary goal the re-capture of its’ “Rogue Colony” USA through its’ Wall Street asset (mission accomplished), gradually defeating all tendencies towards a Constitutional Republic (lethal ideas for racketeering Empires). The primary relationship to be blocked at all costs is friendship with Russia (“the big one that got away”). India got to share colonial status with the same Imperial Masters as do we (City-of-London). China had opium wars foisted upon them by the same Imperial Masters (C-of-L), AND haven’t yet wised up to the booby trap that is Hong Kong (C-of-L’s eastern asset like Wall Street is its’ western asset. Ahh but there lies Russia, always befriending and defending revolutionary/republican USA since the days of Catherine the Great (ever wonder WHY Russia sold us Alaska?). The day that Russia and USA become firm friends and allies is the day that Empire dies…and THAT is why Israel First (C-of-L), US (C-of-L-via-Wall Street asset) neocons hate Putin and Russia so much…they simply must, to keep Empire alive.
P.S. Israel-Russia relations are so good BECAUSE they know which way the “geopolitical winds” are blowing.
Well that day is going to officially take place in about thirty days or so you should be very happy ps unless some thing big happens in the next thirty days or so
I have had seventeen years working at local executive level for two large US Corporations – IBM and Raytheon. I was CEO of a small start-up living in the US for two years. So I have had plenty of opportunity to observe the US psyche close up.
It has been my experience that too many US citizens exist under this “perception management” syndrome that the USA is exceptional, is always right and good, and is the only model for how a society should function. I have always been able to work with people who are ignorant. You merely have to educate them properly. I can work with people who are arrogant. You only have to put into their minds concepts that they mistakenly think they originated. But I have always found it impossible to work with people who are both ignorant, and arrogant.
The “perception management” tool you highlight produces business and political elites who are both alarmingly ignorant (of other viewpoints) and extremely arrogant (I am a US citizen – ergo, I must be right). How else could it be possible for a voter to be given the choice between two such flawed characters to lead their country, and sadly to exercise so much influence over the rest of the world? And does this not reveal the gross shortcomings of the field they beat to contend for this top job? And the party apparatus that put them forward?
Trump is clearly arrogant. I can only hope he is also not ignorant. The flaws in US policies are so easy to see, that he does not need “insider briefings” to appreciate them. But who among the elites are sufficiently impervious to “perception management” to be able to implement sensible policies, even if Trump is able to articulate them?
It seems to me that the US is on the verge of dying from the virus of believing its own propaganda.
Like you, I recently spent nearly two weeks in Russia, but only in Moscow and St. Petersburg. So admittedly, my experience is skewed. I was surprised by the number of young people who spoke English, and who admired Putin for the simple reason that Putin can explain to them the rationale for his policies, and can demonstrate success in most of them. He typifies leadership. The US tendency to want to vilify Putin is counter-productive, slanderous, transparently unfounded and obviously childish. Sensible people do not take it seriously. But who in the US political elite is sensible?
Gary Hare…. well spoken and a real joy to read. When I look at a web site that has comments, after reading what the article is about I usually start to read comments . There are such a variety of comments for almost any subject, but more often then not the comments devolve into worthless drivel Once that happens I leave…although if I read say 20 comments that would be a lot. There is much to be learned by reading intelligent comments , and the followers of Consortium News make it a place to learn.
Seldom in history/herstory, could there be a place so self deluded. (whatever that means… ) But no, it isn’t funny, The BS about the Russians hacking to skew the election promoted by the loosers/Democrats, (I was one once), is awful.
Americans are in a strange place now. If Trump goes hard against SS, and medicare, and unions, oh boy!
I don’t expect Trump to go against social security and medicare although I have heard a lot of republicans claim they have too because the money will be gone .. I sure don’t like to hear this coming from republicans Reagan a great republican increased the social security contribution so he could cut the top income tax rate . there by shifting the burden from the wealthy people to the poorer people This made him a great republican . I think Trump realizes he was elected by the working people and will work for us . But he a republican and that scares me a little . I’am expecting medi care for everybody and this time the republicans will vote for it I just hope the democrats vote for it too . . This is the program Hillary wanted for many years . I don’t think Trump is a typical republican . I can not think of anything that controls costs better than medicare for everyone . The healthcare industry will fight medicare for every one but bogus billing has no place in healthcare .. When I say medicare for everyone I mean everyone I mean congress and all government employees every one .
It’s truly maddening having ones perception managed. Thank you Robert Parry for helping us resist such management with the only weapons we have and that is our experience and ability to decipher what we read. These are frustrating times because powerful special interest forces are at war with each other and it becomes nearly impossible to discern fact from fiction. Fortunately we have your reputation for reporting factually to guide us through this unbelievably dishonest period of our democratic experience.
There is a good exchange between Professor Stephen Cohen and Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch on Democracy Now at the following link. I would encourage those not familiar with these observers to look up their history and judge their statements for yourselves…
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/stephen_cohen_the_new_york_times_is_enabling_a_new_20161215
I spent 3 weeks in Russia and was amazed by what I saw. Sanctions are a joke. Russians have just simply replaced Western goods with their own, which in many cases are of better quality. The only shortages I noticed were of American crap. Two things stood out about Moscow and St. Petersburg vs. New York City where I live: 1) everything was so clean and spotless, hardly any graffiti; and 2) how clean and efficient (and cheap) their subway system was relative to NYC. Some of their stations look like museums, spotless and no rats. Also, trains that run on time and no delays due to “sick passengers” or “train traffic ahead” and free wifi everywhere including trains and not just on select stations. Russia isn’t perfect of course, but it is far far far from being the dungeon depicted in the US media. On the contrary Moscow and St. Petersburg are in many ways better places to live than New York.
Hear, hear — I, for one, know exactly what you mean. My wife and I are western Europeans (Germany / UK) who, beginning in the early 1970s, ended up spending half our lives in the very heart of Manhattan. That was great, as far as it went. But then in 2002, upon returning home from almost a month spent in Russia with my elderly father (who, as a UK Russophile, had visited the USSR + Russia by then well over a score of times, beginning as a seaman during WWII), I felt compelled to admit to my dear Frau that, had things only been a lot different back in the ’60s & 70s (viz., the Cold War!), we’d have done much better for ourselves to have headed east, rather than to have ever gone west. After all, Russia has true culture and — in its own unique way — just the kind of fine taste that one encounters in, say, Italy, France, or Spain. Moreover, the common folk are so very much more ‘honest-to-goodness’ and ‘for real’ than, typically, one finds in the west. —– Those who have never visited Russia and are consequently clueless about its current cultural ambience might do well to go check out on YouTube the some two dozen postings of the Moscow girlie-trio, YOUNG ADULTS. A few of their videos indicate their (understandable enough) roots in and devotion to Russian musical traditions; but, for the most part, their repertoire attests to their pro-active reverence for modern western (US + UK) music (featuring their astonishing covers of recent classics from the likes of, e.g., the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pharrell Williams, the Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, and Amy Whitehouse). Improbably and extraordinarily, almost always the YOUNG ADULTS manage to exhume and tease out the real music buried and entombed in the often raucous and vulgar renditions of the chosen songs’ originators (!!!); but, in any case, the tender-loving-musical-care that they invest in everything they do attests to their respect and reverence for western music, and even the very culture that has begotten it. —– Oh that the United States and Europe would similarly partake of, share in, regenerate and propagate that essential magnanimity of the great Russian people. — And thanks again Randy for your post.
Deconstructing Russophobia
https://off-guardian.org/2016/06/16/deconstructing-russophobia/
Imagine that Vladimir Putin were not a murderous autocrat and kleptocrat who has spent his fourteen years in power living up to his KGB past and dragging Russia ever back towards Communist autocracy, illiberalism, and expansionism. Imagine that instead he were one of the greatest leaders that Russia has had, whose policies have helped produce a massive rise in living standards and life expectancy, recuperation of national pride, and enforcement of the rule of law, who has tackled kleptocrats and gangsters wisely and well, whose foreign policy has on balance been realistic, diplomatic, and conducive to peace, who has presided over a country of which the human rights record is considerably better than that of the United States and in which civil rights are improving, and who richly deserves the steady support of 65% – currently at a Ukraine-related high of 83% – of the population that he possesses. It is my understanding that the reality is closer to the second scenario than the first – and I may note that I say this as someone with no ethnic, financial, professional or political ties to Russia whatsoever. It follows that I am not a Russian expert – but nor am I, on the other hand, parti pris. I am a friendly, distanced observer of the country.
Let me start by explaining the history of my connection to the country. ….
Thank you, hyperbola, for this link. Didn’t know about Off-Guardian. Every major newspaper needs a dedicated “Off” site. The NYT used to have “Lies of Our Times” but it folded after a couple of years and was never big enough to keep up with the propaganda pouring out of the Giant Wurlitzer. Times are different now, with the internet. I would love to see at least one Off site for every “news” outlet, and even though it would be impossible to do that for tv and radio, having the “paper record” consistently deconstructed would be a huge step forward.
“Imagine that Vladimir Putin were not a murderous autocrat and kleptocrat who has spent his fourteen years in power living up to his KGB past and dragging Russia ever back towards Communist autocracy, illiberalism, and expansionism.”
Who said that? I never thought that. Did the neocons say that? I was thinking lately that probably Stalin wasn’t really as bad as I was brought up to believe. In fact I hardly believe anything our government says anymore.
“Deconstructing Russophobia” is a superb account from British academic Catherine Brown. As always, thanks to OffGuardian.
Highly recommended:
Canadian independent journalist Eva Bartlett cuts through the war propaganda on Syria
https://off-guardian.org/2016/12/16/eva-bartlett-on-syria-responding-to-buzzfeed/
You seem like a smart man but Putin was not the ruler for 6 of those 14 years . Medvedev was and he also was a good leader like you described Putin might be . It was Medvedev that said No when Georgia attack south Ossettia . It was Medvedev that showed the world the bear was back . Ever since we attacked Yugoslavia and fired a missile into the Chinese Embassy accidently on purpose than issued orders for NATO to shoot Russian soldiers because they will try to protect Christians . Ever since these stupid power mistakes Russia and China have had our number . They are together and looking for chance to get even . Humiliate us like we did them , They have been working together for 17 years with this goal in mind . Now they are in Syria with their new weapons doing what they want to and humiliating us . I say good they are finishing the war we started and are doing what we should have done congradulations Russia and Putin and thank you very much
Apparently Churchill once said: “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it”. The American version of this quote? – History will be kind to us, for we intend to repeat it.
That pretty much sums up the current drive for starting Cold War 2 by the Americans (They were responsible for starting the first one too, by the way). Their way of thinking is – Cold War 1 took care of the Soviet Union, so hopefully Cold War 2 will take care of Russia. Not so fast amigos.
Americans repeat history not because they didn’t learn something from it, but because they draw wrong conclusions from it. Just because they “won” the Cold War 1, it doesn’t mean that they should expect to “win” a second one too. The stakes are much different now. It’s much easier to give up on ideology than it is to give up on the place where you live.
Or maybe the Americans decided to tweak a little bit another saying: “Insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”. I actually think that repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results is equally insane. Circumstances change, you know, the world is not an isolated laboratory where you can eliminate external factors. The experiment might fail this time. But don’t listen to me, go about your business.
The Union for Concerned Scientists has joined in this hysteria in a press release about Trump’s appointment of Exxon CEO Tillerson as Secretary of State. UCS President Ken Kimmell states: “This position calls for someone able to put national security and the well-being of Americans first and foremost. But Tillerson’s close ties to President Putin and Russian oligarchs call into question his ability to deal firmly with Russia, which attempted to disrupt U.S. elections according to U.S. intelligence agencies.”
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/secretary-of-state-pick-cements-governance-by-oil
The main concern Kimmell raises in the press release is climate change, and I can certainly understand an environmental group being concerned about an oil exec as Secretary of State with climate negotiations in his portfolio. However, a new Cold War is the last thing we need if we want reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and détente with Russia could enable cooperation on climate change. Decades of inaction ago, Robert Redford called this “Greenhouse Glasnost” in his book of that name with articles by U.S. and Soviet climate scientists.
UCS also works on risks of nuclear power and nuclear weapons, which are related concerns on which we international cooperation not a new arms race and more proxy wars.
I learned about the UCS press release in an email from a local environment group which repeated the gratuitous attack on Russia in seeking donations. It is sad to see this meme spreading among people that should be thinking deeper about the implications of détente versus cold war.
Human caused warming of the climate is the ultimate danger facing the planet, and it is entirely appropriate for those who recognize this fact to be alarmed that our next Secretary of State will be a person whose entire career has been devoted to extracting fossil fuels from the earth and burning them. Moreover, there is strong evidence that Tillerson and Exxon were well aware of the deleterious effects of greenhouse gases, even as they were minimizing those risks to the public. This is the basis for the “Exxon knew” campaign, which is getting little attention in the press (unsurprisingly.)
Which raises the obvious question: Could Donald Trump not have found someone other than a climate change denying, fossil fuel extracting corporate titan to run the State Department and lower tensions with Russia? Of course he could have, but he didn’t, because Trump himself does not accept the reality of global warming. Thus we should not be surprised by his appointment of Tillerson to State or oil industry tool Greg Pruitt to the EPA. Trump’s motto might as well be “screw the planet.”
No Trumps motto is screw the liars
This article was so over needed. While the content within won’t make it to any MSM report (until, perhaps, months/years down the road), I was sure — as an adamant progressive with cyber security background — to post it to every social media outlet I use and send to email chains where it’s me vs a bunch of “liberal-hawk” friends.
I can understand/deal with one absurd, hawkish and out of touch/reality party. But, to have both in the same boat, is really, REALLY scary stuff. The stuff that makes a Trump presidency alone seem like a walk in the park.
Interesting article. Clinton, and her echo chamber in the media with all this Russia bashing really are tone deaf.
She misjudged the voter and showed no sense of their concerns.
They were thinking about jobs and health and other concerns, her only policy was more war.
If Trump can stop the neo cons that in itself will be a great achievement for America and the world.
But first Rachel Mddow has to destroy her credibility by hysterically pushing the 3rd way, corporate dem, neoliberal Cold War, CIA driven excuses for losing power to a discredited Rethuglican party over the last 16years.
Trump did stop the establishment of both political parties and that was the neocons too Than he tripped the pope when we learned the Vatican had a wall around it too . Now his only trouble is the FBI and the CIA and they heading for the dust bin of political history unless they can shoot him first .
Thank you for this. Its difficult to sort out sometimes the twists and turns of politics. as a dem/dove who is appalled at what our foreign policies have been, although I don’t like trump, I thought an easing of cold war hostilities with Russia was a good thing. Now I know why. I only voted for Clinton because I thought it was the only way to help further Sanders agenda. I cannot forget that she grinned as she stood behind her husband when he signed the bill that killed Glass Steagal or her support for the first Iraqi invasion and continuing hawkishness. I don’t despise her like some do but I could never really warm up to her. Sanders is very authentic; when asked about human rights for Palestine he was the only politician that at least said they were entitled; all Clinton could repeat was “precautions must be taken”. With HRC she came across as espousing policies to win votes, not that she was passionate or even honest about them.
Patricia Guerrero… It’s good to read that someone is beginning to develop an awareness of what passes for our Govt. today. It is somewhat complicated as there are many layers of that are only interested in their wallets and how far up the power food chain they can go. I’ve tried in vain to describe to several friends some of the reasons why certain events happen and use the analogy of a “Big Puzzle” . It’s my version of critical thinking. Once one starts to look at past and current events (those being pieces of the puzzle) , then things begin to connect and take shape ….as similar to filling in the voids in the puzzle. Your mentioning of HRC standing behind Bill Clinton and grinning jumped out at me….as a person who is on track to seeing what a morass of evil we have for Govt. and the political machinations by the DC insiders. God save the Republic.
Unfortunately Sanders has jumped the shark supporting this effort aimed at demonizing Russia to overturn the election results. It proves he was either weak, a fraud, or both, unfortunately. This will damage the democratic brand long-term, although if Tulsi Gabbard becomes a candidate it may be a way out of the trap.
The Moon of Alabama site has a new post about the motives of this latest “stuff”.
The “Elite” Coup Of 2016
My only quibble with it is that he neglected to mention other people who would prefer President Hillary or President Pence.
German political theorist Carl Schmitt defined the content of politics as opposition to any person or entity that represents a serious threat or conflict to one’s own interests. The “other” or the “stranger” is defined as an “enemy”
For Schmitt, the political is not an autonomous domain equivalent to any other domain, such as the economic, but instead is the “existential” basis that would determine any other domain should it reach the point of politics.
Schmitt defined the enemy as whoever is “in a specially intense way, existentially something different and alien, so that in the extreme case conflicts with him are possible.”
For Schmitt, such an “existential” enemy need not even be based on nationality: so long as the conflict is potentially intense enough to become a violent one between political entities, the actual substance of enmity may be anything.
Leo Strauss, a follower of political Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky, had a position at the Academy of Jewish Research in Berlin. Strauss wrote to Schmitt in 1932 and summarized Schmitt’s political theology thus: “[B]ecause man is by nature evil, he therefore needs dominion. But dominion can be established, that is, men can be unified only in a unity against – against other men. Every association of men is necessarily a separation from other men – the political thus understood is not the constitutive principle of the state, of order, but a condition of the state”
With a letter of recommendation from Schmitt, Strauss received a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation to begin work, in France, on a study of Hobbes. Schmitt went on to become an influential figure in the new Nazi government of Adolf Hitler.
In the late 1930s, as Hitler’s Reich was expanding in Europe, Schmitt developed his concept of “Grossraum”, literally “great-space”. The term has a sense of a “sphere” of influence, and “geopolitical space” may be closer to the meaning.
Schmitt intended the Grossraum concept to grasp an area or region that goes beyond a single state (that is, a specific territory), to comprehend much larger scale spatial orderings, complexes or arrangements.
After World War II, Schmitt considered the United States to be the only political entity capable of resolving what he regarded as the crisis of global order.
Indirectly influenced by Schmitt’s concept of the political, twenty-first century American Superpower “exceptionalism” has no space in its Grossraum concept for a “Eurasia”.
The very enunciation of a “Eurasian” political sphere by Russia and China is regarded by American Superpower as a “terrorist” act. All those associated with such “lunacy” are viewed as geopolitical “enemies” to be annihilated by any means possible.
For more on Schmitt see:
Reading Schmitt geopolitically: Nomos, territory and Grossraum
By Stuart Elden
https://progressivegeographies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/reading-schmitt-geopolitically.pdf
You said, “In the late 1930s, as Hitler’s Reich was expanding in Europe, Schmitt developed his concept of “Grossraum”, literally “great-space”. The term has a sense of a “sphere” of influence, and “geopolitical space” may be closer to the meaning.”
This is the story of America. From the Revolution to Expansionism and then on to Manifest Destiny and our winning position in both World Wars, America has always been about creating geographic space, political space and recently even in Outer Space.
The Star Wars or Space Defense Initiative proposed by Reagan was an attempt to create Space Superiority in Outer Space. They even have a branch of the Air force called Space Command. http://www.afspc.af.mil/. The Mission statement for Space Command defines Space Superiority as the freedom of the United States to defend itself from attack in Outer Space as well as the freedom to attack any target from Outer Space. The targets might be other orbital craft in Outer Space such as satellites or any land based target. Space Superiority is perhaps the ultimate vision of domination. The freedom from attack in Outer Space and the freedom to attack from Outer Space on any land or space based target will mean an escalation of space based weapons which are banned by international treaties like international treaties on Antarctica which declare Antarctica to be free of politically motivated land grabs by any Nation.
I can only imagine what will happen when they find oil under the ice covered Continent once all the ice melts.
What we need is a rational government that is concerned with this inevitable clash of capitalistic goals and the environment.
I think our military is actually concerned about these inevitable outcomes if we continue to fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses. The Navy and the Air force have been actively seeking alternatives to a fossil fueled military but they have been blocked at every turn.
What we really need is a revolutionary fuel source like Fusion to save the day. It might be right around the corner. The military is investing heavily in it. They see the destabilization of the economic and geographic regions of the World due to climactic change as threats to our National Security.
Fission is also realistically possible as an alternative. But political intransigence has stifled progress on that front. Watch “Pandora’s Promise” which is a documentary by ex-antinuclear activists. I’ll sum it up in an epitaph for humanity which reads “They were most afraid of what could have saved them and they were unafraid of what killed them”.
One fact is clear. The future stability of World governments and their populations depends on abundant energy. There is no other single driver of prosperity and stability than affordable abundant energy. It was the driver for the rural electrification program under FDR. Back then they understood this equation and mounted massive public spending to make it happen. The recent rise of southern state populations can be attributed to the development of Air Conditioning which made these regions habitable in the Summer months. Thus was born an economic expansion which drove our former Cotton Belt into a new industrial giant.
Some visionaries have laid plans for a solar based economy which would utilize massive banks of lithium batteries to break the old myth that electricity cannot be stored. Elon Musk is one of those visionaries. Entire cities could be powered at night by batteries.
The global crisis in energy supply is being driven by the same folks who imposed unfair tariffs on goods before the Revolution. They would like none other than to hold us hostage in an oil economy which very well might kill us all.
Modern developments in photo-voltaic cells have resulted in a continuous manufacturing process which utilizes plasma deposition of a multi layered dielectric film onto a substrate such as rolls of steel sheet which results in and amorphous coating capable of rivaling monocrystalline cells. The result is a process which resembles the revolution Gutenberg started with his “printing press”. Instead of growing Silicon Crystals and doping them with rare elements, the plasma deposition process uses a continuous sheet of a substrate passed through an interlock chamber into a high vacuum chamber where various materials are deposited as a plasma onto the substrate in a continuous fashion to produce a finished product which can be cut up into tiles for low cost and installed on roofs to generate electricity. The difference in this technology is akin to a scribe hand copying books verses a Xerox machine doing the same thing. It is the same difference between the time Bibles were the property of the Church and to be caught in possession of one was a capital offense and modern times where paperboys deliver newspapers for cents on the dollar.
Whether it is a Fusion or Fission or Solar or even a tidal based form of unlimited energy, one thing is clear. These technologies are real. They exist. To the extent that we drive our planet into a mass extinction by burning fossil fuels or we transition to clean energy which is abundant and practically free will determine whether we end up holed up in a cave with our guns ready to shoot anyone crossing our sights or whether we transition into an economy where energy is essentially free.
The new administration is increasingly looking like it wants to live in the cage. A cage determined by a global economy based on oil and fossil fuels.
If Donald Trump really wants to create jobs he would be well advised to divest himself from fossil fuels and take a turn toward the future as envisioned by leaders like Elon Musk. The Army did not make their move lightly on the Dakota Access pipeline. They have a duty to defend us from security threats. They take that responsibility seriously. We would be wise to listen to them.
I know that all of the corporate people interested in preserving their economic investments in fossil fuels have to take a deep breath and submerge themselves into the unknown waters of a non-oil based business model. But they need to see the vision. They need to know that their future success depends on it. They need to act quickly and pour their profits int the many available means to provide an energy rich future where many things are possible and opportunity abounds.
There are two kinds of people or for that matter two kinds of corporations or governments. There are those that hold onto old business plans and defend them at all costs believing their old business models will save them and there are those who see opportunity where others see only risk. It is those individuals, companies or governments which see the opportunities for continued growth utilizing new technology who will succeed. Those who are paralyzed by old business models and old paradigms will fall to the wayside.
We don’t want the USA to be one of the losers. If Donald Trump wants to be the “more jobs” president he will embrace new technology and not appoint members of the old guard as the stewards of America’s future.
It is not a matter for debate. The fields of technology will continue to open up potentials for a more stable and economically rich future. These things are real and they are up for grabs. Whoever grabs them first will be the winner. Whoever refuses to grab them will be the loser.
This is an ask. Donald Trump can do it. He is an outsider and not involved in the business of government. Many of his ideas are fresh and hold great promise. Some of his appointment show he might be being blindsided. He should council himself with the members of our National Security Team who want to see a secure future and distance himself from those who want to preserve the old guard.
This sort of advocacy for some technological fix that allows us to go on living in the same, or greater, fashion than we are now, is part of the problem.
We live in a finite space, with finite resources, time to start acting like it.
CitizenOne, your comment is right on topic if the topic is fake news.
“Pandora’s Promise” is a pro-nuclear industry propaganda film. The new pro-nuke missionaries are promoting nuclear material as some kind of savior of the global environment when it is precisely the opposite.
Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and their oligarch chums can blast off to go colonize Mars with Trump, Clinton, and all their wannabe cabinet appointees.
We’ll keep our money and finally build a grid that fully integrates clean energy from abundant renewable resources like solar and wind.
@ Citizen One
Your comments are very insightful since you commented on the most important issue that is at the core of international conflict.
However, if history is any guide, your hopes will unfortunately be nothing more than wishful thinking. The case for my pessimism is none other than the great Nicholas Tesla. Tesla, who by Einstein’s reckoning is the greatest scientific mind that has ever been was wasted by the powers that be because he was on the verge of discovering free and clean energy. He did emulate thunder in his lab. His quest was to harness the electricity in the ionosphere and channel it for human use through a central tower. His research on plasma was way ahead of his time. His reward was an assassination attempt by the energy cabal who were hell bent on keeping their monopoly power through the fossil fuel business. When Tesla’s lab went on fire, it was U.S. Government agents who stormed into his lab and confiscated all of his files, thereby putting a sad end to history’s greatest mind. The silence of history books about Tesla speaks volumes about the matrix controllers’ animosity to this unique man.
To expect from Donald Trump to be a selfless hero is stretching reality over the limit. His presidency did save the world another round of in the White House for the Clinton ghouls. Yet, his potential for reforms is very much restrained since his ascendancy to power came through the ballot box and not through a real revolution.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was conceived by Lyndon LaRouche and his associates was conceived as a strategic flank to prevent those in both the American and Soviet spheres, of launching a “First Strike” thermonuclear attack which was the increasing danger at the time, to which with Obama is a threat as great as ever. Furthermore it was a strategy of helping both the U.S and Soviets out of the economic collapse, which is still occurring, through what would be a cooperative “Science Driver” approach, that would be working on areas of plasma physics and other areas of concerns relevant to a entire revolution of energy production.
It was LaRouche and associates that published a magazine called Fusion, working on advanced nuclear technologies to help
revolutionize mankind’s potential, and break out from the control of the financial oligarchy.
Presently we at the verge of a complete energy revolution through the discoveries of Randy Mills and his Brilliant Light Power Company that has a verified demonstration of a novel understanding of the hydrogen atom, whereby the electron orbit is dropped to a lower spin state, releasing vast amounts of energy.
Well said, citizen one. It all really does boil down to abundant energy, and energy flux density, as Lyndon Larouche says. We wil advance onward through denser energy flux production. It’s what people DO, as naturally as lions hunt and birds fly; technological advancements is what people do, from chipped flint stone tools to fusion-powered space flight to Mars in a weeks time, and beyond that stage too. In this NEXT round of technological advancement, China, India, and Russia will be leading the way, as it is THEY who are now the World leaders. I’m confident we’ll break free of the Imperial Straitjacket that has been affixed upon us by other powers in opposition to our Constitution and republican principles (i.e. Patriots, NOT the Tory-Loyalists-to-Empire-and-“Crowns”, that still infest our nation, doing the bidding of ancient Imperial family lines, seeking to “capture” us and make us their simple-minded beasts-of-burden).
In reply to to Abe. France is not Fake News. They generate 80% of their electricity from Nuclear Fission. Modern reactor designs are safe. There is a word for it, failsafe. Westinghouse invented the spring to close air to open brake and we were all not afraid of runaway trains anymore. Technological advances and really any technological problem is usually a very simple solution like the air brake but now in modern times simple solutions to problems are drowned by politics. That is the thing that makes technology fail fail. The technological solutions are usually sound but where we need them we need to put off the politics live with the occasional unintended consequences and let the inventors course correct rather than condemning failure and halting all progress. Where would we be if, after the first Mercury Rocket blew up, we threw water on space adventure calling it a doomed technology? Luckily that did not happen.
In response to David F:
I suppose then we should all be living in a cave painting the walls with mystical creatures since technological solutions are doomed to failure. Are you living in a cave? I don’t think so. Perhaps you are or should be since you eschew any form of technology, live in a finite fixed environment and are prepared to be a victim of circumstance. That is some kind of crazy world view.
In response to Brad Owen:
I completely agree. Abundant energy is the key to our future growth. Indeed it is what people DO. I also agree that that it is unfortunately what other nations are doing way ahead of us. If we do not get on the bandwagon and decide that the future is all about abundant energy then we will become the losers in the technology front. As I laid it out, the technological means to transform our world into whatever we want it to be are already here. They have been developed and even more are being developed which have the potential to power a bright future like the invention of electric power grids which power industry, economies and enable commerce.
It is time for science and technology to be applied to the problems we face developing new means of energy production that are all around us from solar to battery technology to fusion, biofuels, nuclear fission using safe technology, wind, tidal and even really challenging technologies but if we are not investing in it, then it means we are not investing in any new energy sources.
The history of past inventions was not made by those that said the technology was a fools errand. The inventions were made by visionaries who had the stamina to endure all of those folks who poo pooed the new technology and eventually prevailed.
It is really not a matter of if but when we will enter a new age of abundant energy. Energy drives everything and it also is the most important factor for peace. Abundant energy establishes the wealth of nations more than money. Without it, money is worthless since it cannot be used to purchase the motive driver for creation of goods and services.
The history of the Industrial revolution was driven by energy. Abundant energy.
The Sun fuses ten million tons of hydrogen every second and it will last for ten billion years. How is that for a clue that life on Earth depends on abundant energy. If we were able to fuse even just one ton of hydrogen every second in the production of electricity we would power the entire planet. If we could just convert one percent of the solar energy impinging on our tiny dot of a planet circling around the huge nuclear furnace of the Sun we would power the entire global electricity requirements for a long time to come.
These are the visions we need to be occupied by. Not visions of impending doom or hopelessness.
What we need now is an energy race. An energy race to create a new economy which is driven by safe energy. Photosynthetic cells which are like photovoltaic cells consume atmospheric Carbon Dioxide using solar energy to produce Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen. The CO can be used as a feed stock to produce hydrocarbons which can be synthesized into synthetic fuels which create a carbon cycle which is entirely atmospheric. If we want to reduce atmospheric CO2 we can just pump the fuels back into the ground or use them to produce durable products like cement which can be used for construction.
I know that this might seem like a pipe dream and perhaps it is. It will not be a pipe dream when we feel the full effects of global warming. Then there will be a market for these products.
The politics will reverse as people seek products that enable them to survive. It is what people do. It is what life does. It seeks to preserve itself. Technology will offer appealing alternatives which are even more economical than current energy platforms. It will make economic sense to adopt them.
It made economical sense to adopt our current energy platform and the new energy platforms will make just as much economic sense.
We are already seeing this transition from Coal to Natural Gas driven by the technology of fracking which is cleaner than coal and is now more economically advantageous. Coal is not dying because of government regulations. It is dying because there are cheaper alternatives. Win Win for the environment and the consumers of energy and the producers of it.
But the fracking revolution is just the first wave in new technologies to harvest ever more abundant and cleaner safer forms of energy.
This is not wishful thinking. It has happened with fracking and it will continue to happen with other forms of energy over and over.
Those that see the potential opportunities will become the future energy barons.
I would ask only that we would see the movements by other nations as a shot across the bow that we better get to work. We don’t want to be left behind in the energy bonanza just around the corner.
It is a gold mine out there for the companies that develop the next generation of massive abundant energy sources. They will gain great wealth. They will be viewed like Edison or Fermi. Prometheus unchained.
Do not listen to the hysterical mob. Instead listen to the visionaries who will all get very wealthy with new technological inventions.
It is the way it has always been and so it will be in the future. We never go back. We never force a halt to the current way we do things. We just invent better ways of doing it that make more economic sense and make the old ways obsolete.
Perhaps some might advocate we all return to the caves where we hid from the cold of winter in our elk skin coats huddling over a campfire and drawing pictures of the food we wanted to eat but did not have as we sucked the marrow out of dry bones but I think that is not a future I want to see.
I would rather offer to sell the cavemen guns and ammunition and snowmobiles and portable propane heaters with sofas and furniture for their caves instead. And you know what? They would be lined up around the cave entrance to buy them.
Think about it.
Citizen One, your news about nuclear power in France is fake.
Power generation is down and wholesale power prices are rising due to numerous safety and integrity issues that plague Électricité de France SA’s (EDF’s) nuclear reactor fleet. Carbon segregation in critical nuclear plant components like the steel pressure vessel can weaken the vessel’s structure and breach safety regulations, potentially leading to catastrophic events.
http://www.powermag.com/frances-nuclear-storm-many-power-plants-down-due-to-quality-concerns/
Nobody is stopping free energy development I ‘am from Missouri Free energy will come from free enterprise not government subsidies .. We will have new development and new and better ideas but show me don’t tell me . Scams are scams wether the come from crooks or the government and they often are the same thing .
Thank you for being the voice of reason and truth teller that you are Mr. Parry. I sincerely hope the domestic coup in progress fails miserably and that Trump is able to pursue peace. I am so sick of Neo-cons and what they’ve done to the world.
Thank you Mr. Parry for shining the spotlight on the vitally important topics that you do to keep us informed in depth. As one who tries to see the world through the lens of parity between nation states, I wonder what you (or other qualified folks) could tell us about the efforts we Americans have made and are currently making to influence influence, and very likely undermine, the stability of Russia and President Putin. My guess is we are not without serious complicity in doing the same things as we now accuse the Russians of doing to us, but of course much of this would be classified. I suspect the more holier than thou we are, the more committed we are to destabilizing the so-called “enemy” of Russia (despite our measured provocations to precipitate their alleged aggression(s). Thank you again, have a great holiday season.
Speaking of our “holier-than-thou” attitude, let me relate a personal story that relieved me of this attitude a long time ago. Re cently , I have been vindicated as regards any doubts that I might have had about that change of attitude.
During the relatively early years of the Cold War (1956-59), you know, just before the Chinese split with the Soviets in 1960, the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, and Gary Powers was shot down, igniting the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, it was my job as a Naval Pilot to fly up and down the Far Eastern coastline (12-mile limit) of the Soviet Union (you know, Kamchatka Peninsula) looking for trouble. Didn’t find much, except the frequent Mig-17 flying my wingtips, who might have been wondering what we were doing there BUZZING THEIR SHIPS. No problem, they didn’t shoot me down, for which I am grateful. But I did wonder what WE would have done if THEY had been flying so closely up and down OUR California coast.The American public never heard about these “intrusions” in the Russian “space”. Nor did the Russians publicize them for the obvious reason (embarrassment?).
Come 2016 and OUR ships are cruising around in the Baltic not far from the suburbs of St. Petersburg, when Russian jets come looking for trouble(?) buzzing OUR ships.. And there erupted a hypocritical hue and cry from the DOD, etal. to match the usual black pot and black kettle stories that we hear so often from our powers that be. Not only are we doing the same to them (buzzing their ships once, or we would have heard about them the other times) that we have been doing to them for 70 year, though not on our California or New York coastline, but in their back yard. This is hypocrisy on steroids. This is deeply embarrassing to me.personally. Are we that desperate? Who really are these people who are stirring the pot so vigorously?
“Who really are these people who are stirring the pot so vigorously?”
I assume yours is a rhetorical question.
For: EyesWideOpen
The pot I am referring to is the context in which everything bad is blamed on Russia. In this case, we can buzz, they can’t. If they do it, it’s publicized. If we do it, it’s not.
Yes, I guess that it was a rhetorical question with the implication that the answer should be obvious. All you have to do is read the papers, and it should be obvious who wants to litigate (gossip) this issue to death.
Thank you for your testimony! America’s government is so hypocritical. Our news media is so dishonest in what it filters and chooses to tell the American people. Lies abound, and it is nearly impossible for most people to sort through them.
Correction to my reply: “Not only have WE been doing the same to THEM for almost 70 years right off THEIR coastline, NOT OURS, but WE have complained when THEY did this ONCE to us IN THEIR BACKYARD.”
I guess we funded many ngos to destabilize Russia . So many that Russia has forced many U.S.aid groups to move out of Russia by the end of this year . We funded the Pussy riot girls that did things in the Churches in Russia that would have brought the girls to the insane asylum if they did these deeds in Churches in the USA In Russia the girls got prison sentences So our journalists could write stories about how oppressive Russia .is to people loving freedom . Russia does not allow gay marriage another terrible oppression and black mark on freedom in Russia .. Russia has built more Christian churches than any other country in Europe under Putin’s kGB leadership . Putin is not Satan . The Russian people are proud with him as their leader it is only us that wants to get rid of him .
Thank you for this thoughtful, well-informed post. You are right—many Democrats, and I was one, did not vote for Clinton because she was a war monger. I also felt, that as a woman, she would have to go out of her way to prove that she was as tough as any male.
She obviously learned nothing from her disastrous vote for the war in Iraq, because she influenced Obama to take out Qaddafi. If it were not for her lust for war, I probably would have held my nose and voted for her. And while I did not vote for Trump, I actually breathed a sigh of relief when he won, thinking that he wouldn’t take us into war with Russia.
To date, there’s no proof that the Russians were involved in hacking/leaking this information. But if this is causing such a stir as to have some want to overturn the results of the presidential election, then, by rights, to be morally consistent, they should also push for going back to the Democratic primaries and redoing them as well. Clearly this hacked/leaked information shows that the Democrats interfered with the election of Sanders. That would be most fair, don’t you think?
Parry’s article is again excellent. The lamestream democrats are jumping the fascist shark and putting our future at risk. I also am a lifelong democrat who couldn’t support the harpy because of her obvious hawkishness and status as a war criminal based on her architecture of the Libya destruction. I also think her need to prove herself as tough as any man colors her dangerous political views. I also agree that the fact it was proven that she is a proven war criminal and they gamed the primaries against Sanders should eliminate any support for overturning the election on any basis absent the fact that any success in this endeavour would lead to civil unrest and that what they are demanding, confrontation with Russia, is a threat to our future. Hopefully former peace types still taken in by the klinton koolaid will wake up and restore the Democratic party away from its present incarnation as a fascist militarist threat to our survival.
Good idea Adele, New election, given all the crap Jill Stein found in the very limited recount effort she was allowed to conduct. The election process is putrid rotten! Let er and Gary Johnson into the debates this time around as well.
yes but I’am hoping you made a wise choice . Trump may not be a old fashion vote no on every thing republican I’am expecting good reasonable priced healthcare covering everybody and not costing employers so much they won’t hire any one . That alone might bring back a lot of jobs . I voted with you and now I think we have a better future . Of course we could be friends with Russia . Russia is not communist anymore . They are the most Christian country in Europe and we are the most Christian country in the world . We should be natural friends
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Dmitry Orlov cluborlov.blogspot.com
Dmitri Orlov cluborlov.blogspot.com
With all the compost being forwarded in cyber space it’s refreshing to occasionally read something that’s spot on the money. An article that actually contains real value or what one might call nourishment for the brain. Every so often I’ll read a post that’s near perfection and I just did. It’s by Dmitry Orlov and titled “The Power of “Nyet”. My expressed thanks go out for Dmitrys permission to repost this exceptional piece of commentary.
The Power of “Nyet” Author Dmitry Orlov, Club Orlov Blogpost
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Kerry Putin lavrov The way things are supposed to work on this planet is like this: in the United States, the power structures (public and private) decide what they want the rest of the world to do. They communicate their wishes through official and unofficial channels, expecting automatic cooperation. If cooperation is not immediately forthcoming, they apply political, financial and economic pressure. If that still doesn’t produce the intended effect, they attempt regime change through a color revolution or a military coup, or organize and finance an insurgency leading to terrorist attacks and civil war in the recalcitrant nation. If that still doesn’t work, they bomb the country back to the stone age. This is the way it worked in the 1990s and the 2000s, but as of late a new dynamic has emerged.
In the beginning it was centered on Russia, but the phenomenon has since spread around the world and is about to engulf the United States itself. It works like this: the United States decides what it wants Russia to do and communicates its wishes, expecting automatic cooperation. Russia says “Nyet.” The United States then runs through all of the above steps up to but not including the bombing campaign, from which it is deterred by Russia’s nuclear deterrent. The answer remains “Nyet.” One could perhaps imagine that some smart person within the US power structure would pipe up and say: “Based on the evidence before us, dictating our terms to Russia doesn’t work; let’s try negotiating with Russia in good faith as equals.” And then everybody else would slap their heads and say, “Wow! That’s brilliant! Why didn’t we think of that?” But instead that person would be fired that very same day because, you see, American global hegemony is nonnegotiable. And so what happens instead is that the Americans act baffled, regroup and try again, making for quite an amusing spectacle.
You have got the whole story down right .accept China is standing along side of Russia . They have been ever since we humiliated both of them in Yugoslavia . Now both of them have developed a lot of new weapons and Russia is in Syria with their new planes and missiles 300 and 400 . Putin has told us we can talk about changes that we could maybe make . But the NWO has already decided everything they don’t want to consider any changes . Not for us , Not for Christians , not for Jews , not for Muslims , not for Russians and not for any Chinamen either . They have already made all the orders and rules . Russia said Nyet in Georgia and now Russia is saying Nyet in Syria too . The Russian people are totally behind their government and proud of Putin .The American people have finally caught on they are not proud of what the NWO has been doing they have discarded their NWO government And have selected a new government that is going take power in thirty days . Trump has said he will deal with Russia and China on a equal basis .We are facing a very dangerous thirty days the NWO may do anything during this period to stay in power and implement all the orders they already decided .
“Ditto” to that and Mr. Parry, thank you for the pictures!
Robert Parry, a voice of sanity amidst the McCarthyist hysteria. How ironic this time around the most extreme purveyors of the paranoid style in politics are once-liberal Democrats.
Great article. I’m glad I found this site since it has become clear that I can’t trust the MSM. Even 60 Minutes has become a tool of Washington.
In Obama’s news/press conference on Friday, he said some very unprofessional things about Russia: “they don’t produce anything besides oil and gas…” and “they aren’t innovative”. (By not innovative does he mean they don’t make fake stories like how the Russians hacked the DNC?) This isn’t the kind of thing our President should be saying about foreign countries, especially large ones like Russia. Where does he got off saying this at a news conference? I’m losing respect for Obama by the day. I voted for him and after suffering 8 years of Bush he was the savior at the time. But his shine has tarnished.