Exclusive: The Russia-gate hysteria has jumped the Atlantic with Europeans blaming Russia for Brexit and Catalonian discontent. But what about Israeli influence operations or, for that matter, American ones, asks Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
Ever since the U.S. government dangled $160 million last December to combat Russian propaganda and disinformation, obscure academics and eager think tanks have been lining up for a shot at the loot, an unseemly rush to profit that is spreading the Russia-gate hysteria beyond the United States to Europe.
British Prime Minister Theresa May.
Now, it seems that every development, which is unwelcomed by the Establishment – from Brexit to the Catalonia independence referendum – gets blamed on Russia! Russia! Russia!
The methodology of these “studies” is to find some Twitter accounts or Facebook pages somehow “linked” to Russia (although it’s never exactly clear how that is determined) and complain about the “Russian-linked” comments on political developments in the West. The assumption is that the gullible people of the United States, United Kingdom and Catalonia were either waiting for some secret Kremlin guidance to decide how to vote or were easily duped.
Oddly, however, most of this alleged “interference” seems to have come after the event in question. For instance, more than half (56 percent) of the famous $100,000 in Facebook ads in 2015-2017 supposedly to help elect Donald Trump came after last year’s U.S. election (and the total sum compares to Facebook’s annual revenue of $27 billion).
Similarly, a new British study at the University of Edinburgh blaming the Brexit vote on Russia discovered that more than 70 percent of the Brexit-related tweets from allegedly Russian-linked sites came after the referendum on whether the U.K. should leave the European Union. But, hey, don’t let facts and logic get in the way of a useful narrative to suggest that anyone who voted for Trump or favored Brexit or wants independence for Catalonia is Moscow’s “useful idiot”!
This week, British Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of seeking to “undermine free societies” and to “sow discord in the West.”
What About Israel?
Yet, another core problem with these “studies” is that they don’t come with any “controls,” i.e., what is used in science to test a hypothesis against some base line to determine if you are finding something unusual or just some normal occurrence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on March 3, 2015, in opposition to President Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran. (Screen shot from CNN broadcast)
In this case, for instance, it would be useful to find some other country that, like Russia, has a significant number of English speakers but where English is not the native language – and that has a significant interest in foreign affairs – and then see whether people from that country weigh in on social media with their opinions and perspectives about political events in the U.S., U.K., etc.
Perhaps, the U.S. government could devote some of that $160 million to, say, a study of the Twitter/Facebook behavior of Israelis and whether they jump in on U.S./U.K. controversies that might directly or indirectly affect Israel. We could see how many Twitter/Facebook accounts are “linked” to Israel; we could study whether any Israeli “trolls” harass journalists and news sites that oppose neoconservative policies and politicians in the West; we could check on whether Israel does anything to undermine candidates who are viewed as hostile to Israeli interests; if so, we could calculate how much money these “Israeli-linked” activists and bloggers invest in Facebook ads; and we could track any Twitter bots that might be reinforcing the Israeli-favored message.
No Chance
If we had this Israeli baseline, then perhaps we could judge how unusual it is for Russians to voice their opinions about controversies in the West. It’s true that Israel is a much smaller country with 8.5 million people compared to Russia’s 144 million, but you could adjust for those per capita numbers — and even if you didn’t, it wouldn’t be surprising to find that Israel’s interference in U.S. policymaking still exceeds Russian influence.
Russian President Vladimir Putin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on May 10, 2015, at the Kremlin. (Photo from Russian government)
It’s also true that Israeli leaders have often advocated policies that have proved disastrous for the United States, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s encouragement of the Iraq War, which Russia opposed. Indeed, although Russia is now regularly called an American enemy, it’s hard to think of any policy that President Vladimir Putin has pushed on the U.S. that is even a fraction as harmful to U.S. interests as the Iraq War has been.
And, while we’re at it, maybe we could have an accounting of how much “U.S.-linked” entities have spent to influence politics and policies in Russia, Ukraine, Syria and other international hot spots.
But, of course, neither of those things will happen. If you even tried to gauge the role of “Israeli-linked” operations in influencing Western decision-making, you’d be accused of anti-Semitism. And if that didn’t stop you, there would be furious editorials in The New York Times, The Washington Post and the rest of the U.S. mainstream media denouncing you as a “conspiracy theorist.” Who could possibly think that Israel would do anything underhanded to shape Western attitudes?
And, if you sought the comparative figures for the West interfering in the affairs of other nations, you’d be faulted for engaging in “false moral equivalence.” After all, whatever the U.S. government and its allies do is good for the world; whereas Russia is the fount of evil.
So, let’s just get back to developing those algorithms to sniff out, isolate and eradicate “Russian propaganda” or other deviant points of view, all the better to make sure that Americans, Britons and Catalonians vote the right way.
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).
This article typifies fake news at it’s height. It’s a fake and ludicrous assumption(that Russia had any significant impact in this area). Beat on like a dead horse by mainstream and non-mainstream media, the propaganda machines of a corrupt, totalitarian, police-state, government.
haha! brilliant piece Mr.Parry! keep up the brilliant mythbusting and muckraking you and your team at Consortium News are doing :)
I am certainly in agreement that US and other “allies” have probably (most certainly) engaged in behavior to undermine other countries. I am not proud of this history nor in favor of it continuing. There also may be an exaggerated Progressive/left-wing response to the “Russia-gate” stories. And I again agree with Mr. Parry’s long held distrust of US intelligence agencies. He has proven in the past that they can and will engage in deception themselves, and also spread false narratives to further policy. But there is something more to this story — it cannot and should not be just brushed off as “Russia-gate”. Nor should readers of this site blindly follow the postings here, no matter how distinguished the author may be. There is data to show that a massive campaign of data distribution exists still on the web, and the numbers that this information reached is far larger than the numbers reported by Facebook and others — see article at Medium.com from Nov. 8 by Jonathan Albright. This article suggests that perhaps the campaign was to affect the election of President Trump, but maybe it was just to spread divisiveness and propaganda content. Millions upon millions of people saw this content and interacted, either thru a “like”, “re-tweet”, reply to post or share of the content. It is far too simplistic to shrug it all off as MSM hysteria or using “Russia-gate” as the tool to try to oust President Trump. While I am 100% in favor of anything that would end the Trump presidency, the bigger picture is that what happened in 2016 can happen again. If we have millions of citizens who receive news and commentary from social media, and the social media content cannot be verified as to source or legitimacy, then our problems are far bigger than just a single Trump presidency. We need to take this topic very seriously. I cannot begin to have solutions at this point. But the first step is always to look at the data with discerning eyes and then try to reach conclusions about what this data says. I have long believed Consortium News to be one of the better sources for truth, healthy skepticism and reasoned debate. I have read far too many people on this site that are ready to abandon all that and claim “Russia-gate” a non-story and a MSM myth. I am surprised to hear such response from readers of this site. I would also welcome Mr. Parry to answer to the growing data set as evidenced by Mr. Albright.
James-
I looked at Mr. Albright’s article, and I see no there there. He talks a lot of numbers, but says nothing about content, or if he suspects these people of being agents of the Russian government, or just Russians. Are all Russians to be excluded from social media? And sorry for my ignorance, but I thought IRA was either a retirement account, or the Irish Republican Army? Nowhere in the article does it explain what IRA stands for.
I still see Russiagate as a completely bogus attempt by the DNC and our intelligence agencies to divert attention away from the very real subversions of our democracy by the DNC, the Hillary camp, the MSM, the Deep State, etc. etc. Hillary lost because she is a lying shill and a warmonger, and everybody knew it. I don’t think the leakers of the emails to Wikileaks were agents of the Russian government, but if they were, I say “Thank you, Russia.” I suspect Mr. Albright is just another cog in the propaganda machine. His modus operandi appears to be “If you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance, baffle ’em with BS.” Evidently the evil Russian Conspiracy is insidiously trying to contaminate our “precious bodily fluids” and destroy our “purity of essence.”
Here is what really happened:
“FBI Director Comey, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Julian Assange all colluded against me as a woman.”
– Crooked Hillary
2017 A. D. DIAGNOSIS= MENTAL CONSTIPATION=VERBAL DIARRHEA
There is a very interesting report about the Maidan shootings in Kiyiv from 20st Feb. 2014. Three Georgians have apparently admitted to have be shooting on both the police and demonstrators to cause confusion and to escalate the situation. Those Georgians were apparently deployed by Ukrainian opposition politicians and also a certain Saakashvili may have had links to that. The mainstream media do, of course, not report this, the wrong news about the wrong subject. Perhaps Mrs. Newland ordered to f**k the report. The report is in Italian so anyone being able to understand it, have a look at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZESNWGRNQMs
the last gasp of empire. blame everyone except yourself. unfortunately the blame game has turned to the use of weaponry, death, and the guilt (whether conscious or unconscious) that pervades the dimness of the apparatchik mind of u.s. officials. it is astounding.
These Propagandists are assuming the masses are as ignorant as a monkey in geopolitics.
I’m beginning to wonder what I should do if suddenly there is no email from consortiumnews.com in my mailbox, and I keep getting “page not found” messages when I try to access it online. Will I ever be able to find out what happened to Robert Parry and the other writers? Will they be “disappeared” or put on trial for “show”? Of course, I hope it won’t come to that, but as a person of conscience I feel that I should start encouraging myself just in case.
I’m reminded of the movie “The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Russians_Are_Coming,_the_Russians_Are_Coming
What offends me most about this absurdity is that it’s an insult to the intelligence of average people that we are considered so stupid, so easy to manipulate, so ignorant, so naive as to be suddenly (the moment Hillary is close to being crowned Queen) we become hypnotized by Russia, somehow magically able to ignore the heavy hand of our own culture’s daily barrage of propaganda (think TULTZ) and to fall for the POWERFUL, HYPNOTIZING propaganda of ONE OTHER SPECIFIC COUNTRY which, if for a moment, one thinks just about, for example, Russia’s long cultural focus on the performance arts like ballet and music, is not a monolithic monster like some would have us believe.
gimme a break……
So you don’t think the Americans are engaged in a struggle in which one team ( the neo-cons and neo liberals) would surround Russia with bases to contain and exploit them, while another less astute faction of con men and feebs sees the US joining the Russians in dividing the world between them? it seems obvious that this is what’s happening. especially when you consider the Trump inner circle and Russia seem to have embraced global warming as a chance to exploit new resources to their advantage while the neo-libs and neo-cons attempt to contain Russia, who admittedly have a reason to fear being contained.
Note there is a strain in the comments that Russia is not innocent of trying to influence our elections. Since all of politicians are bent on punishing and demonizing Russia, undoubtedly Russia would like to influence our politicians in the direction of sanity. But the point is that we and other countries do significantly more through lobbying, disinformation, and money to influence our elections and manage our politicians.
Russia’s interference in our elections, if it exists, is miniscule to what we do all over the world, including inside Russia.
No one has produced evidence that The Russians were successful in ensuring Trump’s win, but Trump has sure been successful in making it look like Putin has his balls in a sack.
So….are the allegations about Russia true or not? The whole “but we did it too” argument appears to be a deflection unworthy of a high school forensics debate.
Read the article and make rational comments or get lost.
You are out of your depth with the commenters here.
I did read the article. I’m asking questions but you don’t seem capable of answering them. It’s hilarious that you think I’m a Zionist troll. I think those of “god’s chosen ones” have seriously lost their way with regards to the Palestinians, Iranians Syrians and Lebanese among others, and would love to see Netanyahu ass-fucked with a pitch fork because he is personally a shithead. It’s the man I have a p[problem with. You and most of the posters here? Sorry,the anti Semitism here is astounding. The US, for the most part appears to actually call the shots and gets political cover when it lets the leadership in Israel follow their whims which happen to be our unspoken desire-there are countless examples of this. And finally, Anon-a-mouse…get lost,huh? why don’t you simply show me the error of my ways? Show my why you aren’t simply another anti Semite? produce facts about people and motives, not the cover it all paranoid Zionists are in all the bushes shit ever second poster relies on here. It seems like the Alt right might be the most common fan of Consortium news these days.
The ruling elite are spreading McCarthyism and Russiagate all over the world
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/16/eufa-n16.html
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/16/eufa-n16.html
Unless there is massive organizing, street protests and a global movement, we lose
Why this insistence on Russian innocence? We would have to be very naïve to believe that Russia does not seek to influence opinion in other nations through dissemination of propaganda by all the same means that the US uses. Or is there actually a form of Russian exceptionalism?
+1! it certainly appears that Trump and his people are financially involved with the highest levels of the Russian Government/Kleptocracy and it’s kind of had to believe that participation in business with these serial money launderers doesn’t expose key players in the campaign and the administration to Kompromat. The answer here at Consortium News is always “but Israel and the United States influence other countries elections.” I have no doubt that that is true, but it fails to answer the question. Also, push come to shove, where one nation compromises or influences another, I’d rather be a hammer than a nail where Vlad Putin is involved. he’s,to quote a former US president, a “first class A hole”
Jim-
I am curious as to the source of your vitriol when it comes to Putin. I read Putin’s speeches and interviews, and he seems to me to be a rational man who has the best interests of his country in mind. He has a 60-80+ percent approval rating inside Russia during his entire tenure. Pussy Riot does not speak for the majority of the Russian population. I also see no sinister motives from him regarding the US. I think he just wishes to be treated fairly in the international arena. Despite our best efforts to undermine him, he has improved the lot of the average Russian citizen. Did you watch Oliver Stone’s Putin interviews?
There is an economic battle going on between western based multi-nationals (our oligarchs) and the Russians, China, etc. I think it would be in the best interest of the world’s citizenry to learn to cooperate. The PNACer’s still seek a uni-polar world with the CIA and the US military acting as enforcers. Read John Perkin’s “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”.
We must learn to wage peace in a multi-polar world or we are doomed as a species. I think Putin is ready to be a cooperative partner rather than an adversary. But he will not allow Russia to become another “vassal”, which was the direction she was heading in under Yeltsin.
“jim” is another name for our zionist troll as shown by his comments above, likely the same person as “jakester48” whom he approves. Russia-bashing is his job; no evidence or argument forthcoming.
No CN article or commenter has insisted upon Russia innocence in the mutual influencing of elections, only that
1. Russian influence is apparently minimal;
2. Israel controls US elections and mass media; and
3. the US does far more influencing than Russia.
So where do you find this “insistence”?
Hasbara propaganda and pro-Israel Lobby influence has spread to Europe:
“A proposed law at the Italian Parliament is set to punish the boycott of Israel. In the past, such an initiative would have been unthinkable. Alas, Italy, a country that had historic sympathies with the Palestinian cause has shifted its politics in a dramatic way in recent years. Most surprisingly, though, the Left is as implicated as the Right in the rush to please Israel, at the expense of Palestinian rights.
“The sad reality is this: Italy is moving to the Israeli camp. This is not only pertinent to political alignment, but in the reconfiguration of discourse as well. Israeli priorities, as articulated in Zionist hasbara (official propaganda) have now become part of our everyday lexicon of Italian media and politics. As a result, the Zionist agenda is now part and parcel of Italian political agenda as well.
“Italy’s anti-Fascist, anti-military occupation and revolutionary past is being overlooked by self-serving politicians, growingly beholden to the pressures of a burgeoning pro-Israel lobby. […]
“Zionist groups constantly try to sway Italian public opinion. Their strategy is predicated on two pillars: infusing Israel’s sense of victimhood (as in poor little Israel fighting for survival among a sea of Arabs and Muslims) and injecting the accusation of anti-Semitism against anyone who challenges the Israeli narrative.
“The hasbara instruments are working, as Italian politics and even culture (through the media) are increasingly identifying with Israel. Worse still, the pro-Israel feeling is now completely accepted among left-wing political parties as well.
“According to Ugo Giannangeli, a prominent criminal attorney who devoted many years to defending Palestinian’s rights, the Italian Parliament is working on several laws, with the sole purpose of winning Israel’s approval.
“One of these initiatives is Draft law 2043 (Anti-discrimination act. It ought to be called the Anti-BDS act. The signatories compare boycott of Israel to ‘disguised anti-Semitism’. If approved, the legislation would provide exemplary punishment for BDS campaigners.”
Anti-BDS Laws and Pro-Israeli Parliament: Zionist Hasbara is Winning in Italy
By Romana Rubeo and Ramzy Baroud
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/17/anti-bds-laws-and-pro-israeli-parliament-zionist-hasbara-is-winning-in-italy/
The american and European govts. Are all bancrupt and attack Russia as a way to take their populace eyes off the fact. They would take sanctions against China and India but dare not as all manufactured products come from there. Also so in debt to China who now insist on payment in their currency or gold. Hate Russia for bringing the war in syria to an end. Whilst america still in Libya and Afghanistan and also attacking Venezuela. Want control of all oil rich countries. Trump and tillerson on arms sales to east and nordick countries selling their defunct military equipment. Pitiful bunch of Oligarchists
Mr. Parry”
“Now, it seems that every development, which is unwelcomed by the Establishment – from Brexit to the Catalonia independence referendum – gets blamed on Russia! Russia! Russia.”
Absurd? Yes. Done with malice of forethought? Yes. The inexplicable acceptance by all classes of people and the Parry’s of the world must harbor the thought, is it me? Am I wrong and they, the tellers of clever lies and half truths, correct? What is reality. Sadly, it is what drives us to do evil things, and that is reality. Agenda driven reality that has led tens of millions to their deaths, innocent of just why it was necessary that they die in the name of lies and half-truths.
Eduard Bernays may not have invented it but he was one of the first to make the formula for manipulation public, that you can make people do just about anything.
WE HAVE “SEEN THIS MOVIE”
Almost exactly the same developments were the hallmark
of a Democratic President. For complete doc umentation
see Joyce and Gabriel Kolko, THE LIMITS OF POWER.
As the Kolkos document, virtually all US (and the USD-
built West) was built on the basis of “anticommunism” (etc. etc.)
The horrible dictator of the USSR was our major ally in
World War II. The USSR lost 22 million lives (not to
mention much of its infrastructure. (By contrast the
US lost about 4 million lives, the UK lost a bit over 3
million.)
Without the cooperation of “Uncle Joe” (Stalin) would
the Anglo-Americans have won WWII?
There was no talk about “Uncle Joe” and progroms.
Or show trials? Or anti-semitism? Or brutal dictatorship.
kAfter WW II, Uncle Joe became enemy no ONE. If
legislation or activity would not be shown to be
“anti-communist”, it would inevitably fail.
My Dad, a (coerced) signer of a “loyalty oath” to
work for Truman, proudly introduced himself
as “a member of the non-communist left.”
—Peter Loeb, Bostopn, MA, USA
Casualties from WWII:
Country: Military Deaths; Total Civilian and Military Deaths
Soviet Union: 8,800,000-10,700,000; 24,000,000
United Kingdom: 383,600; 450,700
United States: 416,800; 418,500
Yugoslavia: 446,000; 1,000,000
I’ve never before seen numbers like those. The estimates for the Soviet Union run from 27 million to 50 million dead. For a number of reasons I’m inclined towards the higher end of the range.
I’ve never seen any totals for the US exceeding 1/2 million.
Brilliant article. So on point !
I think it is certainly worth pointing out the big amount of Israeli meddling in US politics. But I think that is a separate subject. I personally think it is not a problem when people express their opinions about political processes in other countries – on the contrary, this is a good thing. But I think that there are limits to what is good, and meddling in the US from Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf States (via think tanks and other kinds of lobbies) probably goes too far, as well as US meddling in a number of countries. That is an important topic. But I think no one who rationally looks at the facts even remotely considers Russia has such an outsized influence in the United States like Israel or the Gulf states, that seems too far-fetched, and if someone makes such extraordinary claims, certainly strong evidence would be needed.
While this outsized influence of some countries is an important topic, I think as far as Russia is concerned, it would be, above all, important to establish a baseline of what social media interactions should be expected, and I think it would be better if as a basis for comparison non-English-speaking countries that are also large and that are usually not suspected of “meddling” in the US (and for which discussing “meddling” would not lead to such acrimonious debates as in the case of Israel). My suggestion would be to take Brazil, Japan, the Philippines, and Germany in addition to Russia. Then, it should be determined with exactly the same criteria which account is Brazil-linked, Japan-linked, Philippines-linked, Germany-linked, and Russia-linked. Then, it can be determined how actively these X-linked accounts were in debates concerning the United States (or Spain/Catalonia for that matter). If Russia is really far above the others, we might discuss whether “troll farms” or whatever might be the explanation. But unless it is determined that Russia really is above the others, it is not known whether there is a phenomenon to explain, at all.
Obviously, many kinds of experiments are completely useless without a control group. Equally, it is obviously absurd to pretend it is a scandal that some accounts that are in any way “linked” to Russia made some posts related to activities in the United States (or Spain/Catalonia), unless it is know how much social media interaction from one country about political processes in another country usually occur.
I have utter disgust for this type of “liberals” who pretend that, unlike these “deplorables” of the right, they are on the side of science or rationality, but when it fits their prejudices, they are ready to go along with the most irrational things (and in this case, it is not even “liberal” or “progressive” prejudices that make them accept irrational ways of thinking, but the kind of demonization or hatred of another country that is usually associated with the far right).
By the way, this article at least contains “Europe” in its title, so it is not necessarily “meddling” in something foreign when I write a comment. But I certainly have written comments about topics that mainly concern other countries than Switzerland (and I certainly invite people from other countries to make comments about Swiss politics, if they have some degree of knowledge about it). That would probably be considered “Swiss meddling” from a “Switzerland-linked” account (depending on the network and the exact rules, it might even be counted as “Russian meddling” since I studied Russian, sometimes use the Russian language, and may have logged in to some networks during visits in Russia, but that is a different topic). It might be interesting to count “meddling” in the US from “Switzerland-linked” accounts and to compare it to “meddling” from “Russa-linked” accounts. Switzerland, of course, has far less inhabitants than Russia (it would rather be in the same ballpark as Israel), so the absolute numbers would probably be lower for Switzerland. But I would not be surprised if, when compensating for population size, it turns out that there was far more Swiss meddling in the United States via social media networks than Russian meddling.
Thanks for your comments, Adrian.
A couple of thoughts:
Pro-Israel Lobby meddling certainly is not limited to country-linked accounts.
Hasbara troll army “meddling” via social media networks involves both individual users and automated accounts in the United States as well as abroad.
In fact, Hasbara propaganda focuses on making “the case of Israel” a “foreign” and “separate subject” in order to avoid any of those pesky “acrimonious debates” about Israeli meddling in US politics.
Hasbara trolls no doubt consider it “interesting” to push the matter of Israel-linked meddling far into the outfield of a Swiss “ballpark”, and even disregard how many “friends of Israel” in the United States and Israel “use the Russian language”.
Hasbara propaganda ties to equate questions about Israeli influence with “demonization or hatred”, “prejudices” and “the most irrational things”.
When Israeli meddling in US politics is pointed out, Hasbara trolls insist that “it is not known whether there is a phenomenon to explain, at all”.
Turns out that there was far more Israeli meddling in the United States via social media networks, and media, and bought-and-paid-for politicians, than Russian meddling.
In fact, turns out that Russia-gate is designed to knock Israel-gate completely out of the “ballpark”.
Surely you see the phenomenon, Adrian.
Why is Israeli meddling a separate subject? Didn’t Netanyahu openly campaign against Obama and his Iran nuke deal, as he continues to do today? The new Trump cold war against Iran and the possibility of an attack on Iran is the product of this meddling . If any country were to do that in Israel, their would be an outpouring of outrage from Israeli government and media.
Israel is of course an absolute law onto themselves and supported by the US and their puppets. There is absolutely nothing you can do about that while their governments control the main stream media. There doesn’t have to be a war just a method of getting the majority of people to understand an believe the truth. Then, and only then, will the corrupt and dangerous politicians currently dragging us towards total destruction be controlled or removed.
What I find funny about this, and CBS even told it in their new Vietnam War documentary, that the USA thought the anti-war movement back then was instigated by Soviets and other communists. Yet back then they at least accepted that there was no proof for that, but still drove millions of people to their death, just to try to save their face.
The anti-war movement experienced a wedge created by the Nixon back-room to separate the student anti-war movement from labor, and very successful it was…
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We are living in dangerous times, unprecedented in human history? George Orwell’s novel of 1984, in which he graphically described a dystopian future in which mankind is reduced to a conforming, dehumanised rabble at the mercy of a repressive Obligarchy Govt is now coming true? This big brother, oppessive Govt with its constant surveillance state apparatus are masters of propaganda & specialise in fighting neverending, constant wars as a means of population control & war profiteering? 1984 was a work of fiction written by George Orwell as a warning to people, however this book can now be classed as a work of non-fiction as evidenced by the behaviour of these Russophobia lunatics & their constant lies? Orwell stated that ”Political language is designed to make lies seem truthful & murder respectable & to give a appearance of solidarity to pure wind” & that is the situation we face today in 2017. Devious Politicians like Theresa May & her kind spout lies that they dress up as the truth, making murder in endless wars respectable? Thank you, Mr Parry, you are informing & warning us, just as George Orwell did, to shine a light & expose these corrupt & immoral “Ministry of Truth” troglodytes, such as Theresa May & for completely debunking the phoney Russiagate, propaganda nonsense!
Russia-gate is one facet and means in the current demonising of and Cold War against Russia, right? Doesn’t in fact the complete lack of evidence for meddling there and here keep us in suspense and. serve the purpose of perpetuating the attention to the “Russian threat” and so stoke the aggression?
Hardly need algos to see that Netanyahu openly and very publicly campaigned with and for Romney when he ran against Obama, with N also appearing before Congress to lobby against the Iran nuke deal (and is still doing it via Trump). That has to be the most flagrant meddling in US elections by any foreign country, but there were absolutely no calls for investigations or sanctions.
According to fake news, Russian politicians are in charge of USA politics.
that case: might as well annex Russia as 51st USA state.
save everybody a lot of trouble.
You are on point again Robert Parry. Good article. Israel seems to shape the U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. This is made worse given the fact that Saudi Arabia and Israel have formed an alliance against Iran, and all the other countries in the region that are friendly with Iran. The new Saudi Crown Prince has taken a very aggressive stance in his contempt of Lebanon. He may, with the participation of Israel, launch an attack on Lebanon to settle a score with Hezbollah, which came to the aid of Syria to fight against the terrorists. Terrorists who were backed by Saudi Arabia, other gulf states, Israel, and the U.S. I believe the young Crown Prince is humiliated with the results of his war on Yemen. Israel and Saudi Arabia are spoiling for a wider war in the region where they both would like the United States military to jump in with guns blazing. Without direct U.S. military support, this may not come to pass. Among the players in this alliance from hell, I am not sure if there are leaders with enough sound mind and good judgement to give peace a chance.
A good article today by The Saker on this topic today…
http://thesaker.is/a-ziowahabi-attack-on-hezbollah-and-iran/
Read this, this is what it is like to be proactive. Progress shouldn’t be evaluated by military exploitation.
https://journal-neo.org/2017/11/16/russia-china-build-up-a-new-economic-geography/
Thanks Joe, or The New Deal….
Oh what totalitarian times we live. Orwells and Mussolini’s dreams coming true in spades . One 1984 novella and the other Lo Stato Corporato. Coined by Il Duce himself in is parliament address to the State The corporate State fascism 101. Can anybody in the west with a straight face make reference to our state of affairs as resembling anything democratic free and fair. What a terrible miserable mess we as sheeple have cornered ourselves in. Never in our modern history more people have a tertiary education but somehow have no critical thinking in their process on reading and writing. We have entered a groupthink mentality and dangerious mindset that is easily manipulated by the 1 percent to suit their agenda and their needs. Still to this day our infrastructure is crumbling our bridges are failing our rail system is failing our healthcare system is failing the wage gap is increasing and exceeding the levels of the Gilded age but wait the Russians ate my breakfest and made Trump the frump our Potus. Yeh it was the Russians who invaded ,occupied and bombed the hell out of Irq on fabricated lies of WMD’s. It was the Russians who made the richest per capita country in Africa into a failed State (Libya). It was the Russians who aided trained and armed the demonic f mostlyforiegned manned terrorist organization against a sovereign State of Syria. It was Russia who mandated a land for eastern europeaqn jews on Arab semitic land of Palestine. It was Russia that bombed the DPRK in the 50’s to the stone age and further used chemical weapons against their citizens. It was Russia whom bombed and used chemical weapons on the Vietnamese people. It was Russia who created the biggest economic crisis since the great depression.
as always good analysis and info to compel us to think. i have been wondering why members of congress, appointed administration officials and others in key government posts do not have to disclose if they have dual citizenship and with what country or countries. australia is dealing with this question at the moment but nothing but silence from usa.
Trump Pushes War with Iran
By Finian Cunningham
November 08, 2017 “Information Clearing House”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48158.htm
More war coming? See link below:
————————————————————-
Israeli general in unprecedented public offer to share intelligence with Saudi Arabia as alarm grows over Iran
Raf Sanchez, jerusalem
Josie Ensor, beirut
16 NOVEMBER 2017 • 4:43PM
…
The Trump administration is eager to see Israel and Saudi Arabia, who are both American allies, work together against Iran. Gen Eisenkot said Donald Trump’s presidency created “an opportunity to build a new international coalition in the region”….
[read more at link below]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/16/israeli-general-unprecedented-public-offer-share-intelligence/
January 10, 2017
“Blame It” On Putin
There is endless wars and devastation around the world
Western war criminals have their war banners unfurled
Millions dead and many millions uprooted
And the financial system is corrupted and looted
“Blame it” on Putin
The war criminals are free and spreading bloody terror
And their dirty propaganda says Putin is an “aggressor”
These evil plotters of death and destruction
Should be in jail for their abominable actions
But, “Blame it” on Putin.
The American election is won by Donald Trump
Hillary Clinton loses and gets politically dumped
The media is frenzied and foaming at their mouths
They are crying and lying, these corporate louts
They “Blame it” on Putin
Hollywood, too, is getting in on the act
The B.S. merchants are able to twist facts
In their fantasy world of channel changers
They do not approve of a political stranger
They “Blame it” on Putin
The spymasters and their grovelling politicians
All agree that “their democracy” is “lost in transmission”
Their comfortable and controlled system is now in danger
And these powerful parasites are filled with anger
They “Blame it” on Putin
One loose canon talks and babbles of “an act of war”
Could nuclear hell be started by a warmongering whore?
If the madmen of the establishment get their way
Could we all be liquidated in the nuclear fray?
“Blame it” on Putin
There is no doubt that the ruling class
Are all worried about saving their ass
Could there be huge changes and still more coming?
Is the sick and depraved society finally crumbling?
Hey, “Blame it” on Putin…
[more info at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/01/blame-it-on-putin.html
So, is Kushner an agent of this Israeli cabal? Sure looks like it. Wouldn’t that lead back to the strong possibility that outside agents…Russian/Ukrainian/Israeli…were involved in manipulating leaks or disseminating false or harmful information against a candidate to further their foreign policy goals?
This “whatabout” stuff….I’ll tell you. Using the same language as the worst of the worst kinda puts you in the same basket, Parry. Maybe a couple more “groupthinks” or “fake news” and a heap of “Russiagate” and people will take you more seriously ;>) I’ve been sending some people over here to check you out. The consensus is, you’ve gone to seed
From earlier in the year:
From here it kind of looks like the ‘petty little stabber’ did just that.
:)
The Hasbara troll army keeps on “sending some” over to ‘splain’ matters.
Maybe they imagine a couple more Conventional Hasbara “bourgeoisies” or “New York Jews” and a heap of Inverted Hasbara “hate” and people will start to take them seriously.
The consensus is: Nyet.
Russia-gate definitely leads back to Russians and Ukrainians in the US and Israel.
Sorry, comrades. Your party will soon be over.
” If you even tried to gauge the role of “Israeli-linked” operations in influencing Western decision-making, you’d be accused of anti-Semitism. And if that didn’t stop you, there would be furious editorials in The New York Times, The Washington Post and the rest of the U.S. mainstream media denouncing you as a “conspiracy theorist.” Who could possibly think that Israel would do anything underhanded to shape Western attitudes.”
This is exactly right–just watch MSNBC, and especially “Morning Joe” and it’s evident how tilted every political analysis or perspective is in favor of all things neoconservative and Israeli, while being vehemently Russophobic. It’s obvious, that the resentment towards Russia is directly related to Putin hindering regime change in Syria–that was a neoconservative “no no.”
As a scientist I appreciate the attention to the use of controls. Excellent point. I would like to add that the continuing assault on any news not conforming with gatekeeeper guidelines is going to get much worse as billionaires consolidate their control over media, regulatory agencies, courts, education and government. The main question now seems to be what forces could possibly counteract the oligarch’s control? Government, courts, police and media are complicit now, so who is left to provide any counterbalance? I predict that Congress will, in the near future, find it impossible to contain corporations in any meaningful way, and will become impotent with regard to managing our country. The question is, what happens then?
People need to withdraw their energies from the system. One need only look at the countless number of times that the entirety of our “economic system” rests on but mere “confidence” in said system. It only exists because we allow it to exist, we have some sort of “confidence” in it. Perhaps no more trenchant assessment of what lie ahead than that given by the late Frank Zappa:
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
The question will be that of what the people will do when they see the brick wall.
John-
“I predict that Congress will, in the near future, find it impossible to contain corporations in any meaningful way, and will become impotent with regard to managing our country.”
I would argue that we’re already there. As to what happens, I would say probably economic collapse and/or Nuclear War. The repeal of Glass-Steagal and the resulting crash was just a preview. The MIC’s stranglehold on legislators, The MSM’s kowtowing to their corporate owners/advertisers, and the Citizen’s United ruling are all evidence that corporate control is a fait accompli.
While the evidence of the Russian government’s direct involvement in organizing a disinformation campaign is weak and the U,S, objections are undeniably hypocritical, it seems to me that there is a more most central question. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that all the ads and trolls were dispatched under the direct orders of Vladimir Putin for the purpose of swaying the U.S. election, do we want our government, or private entities working at their behest, to suppress that information? The1st Amendment is not ambiguous in this question, it does not make exceptions based in the identity of the source or the content of the information. It is intentionally absolute because the framers understood that opening the door to exceptions would defeat the protection. The only recognized exception is imminent physical danger, which despite the recent speculation to the contrary. has been very narrowly applied. We have made the decision as a country that disinformation and bad ideas are best defeated by discussion rather than suppression, and, more importantly, that government control of information leads inevitably to tyranny. Now we have Senator’s openly calling on private companies to censor the flow of information in accordance with their agenda and, for the first time, a media organization has been ordered to register as a foreign agent. The reaction of the press and the left has been disheartening. For some the campaign to portray dissent as an existential threat to democracy has been successful. Others may fear reprisal. My deepest respect to this site for refusing to be silenced.
Well said.
Amen.
“My deepest respect to this site for refusing to be silenced.” Totally Agree… Thank You Kathy Woods
Parry’s Israel analogy is important.
One of the most convincing reasons for my never having taken the threadbare Russiagate discourse seriously is precisely because it is abundantly clear that the Kremlin hasn’t made a serious (or even a superficial) study of that American Achilles heel called Israel. If you are a nation that wants to negatively influence US elections and/or even “destroy American democracy,” as Hillary hysterically claims, first of all, take a number. Because Americans are well on their way to destroying it themselves (e.g., the GOP disenfranchisement project on the [invented] excuse of voter fraud; and the Dems abandonment of the American working and lower-middle classes for the glitz and glamour of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and their bottomless financial resources).
Secondly, Israel has had a far more negative impact on American democracy than even the Russians’ Soviet forebears did. A large part of the colossal American national debt is due to the grip Israel has on Washington’s balls. America bankrolls Israel’s 50-year illegal occupation of the West Bank and similarly illegal siege of the Gaza Strip; and America’s wars of choice in the Middle East are not Washington’s choice (much less the choice of the American people), but rather, Israel’s. Any seriously aspiring destroyer of American democracy would have Israel and its wily prime ministers as role models, without which no one should take their democracy-destroying aspirations seriously.
When we demonize Russia, and turn that country into a monster, it invariably makes us look better. It’s like a homely woman dragging around an old, and ugly hag, so her imperfections go unnoticed.
A quote from Norm Chomsky, “……..So, if someone refers to you as a conspiracy theorist, take it as a compliment, because that likely means that you have a greater understanding of how the world works. As Jason Hairston said, “Being considered ‘crazy’ by those who are still heavily culturally conditioned is a compliment.”
………………
The EU claims Russia influenced the events in Catalonia. So, the EU promotes the neocon fairy tale of supernatural and infinitely superior cunningness of Russian propaganda. We must all be alert to this menace! Also, they demonstrate a lack of respect for the faculties of Catalonians to think independently .
“Just who is that arbiter of truth today?”
Well: “Israel ready to share intelligence on Iran with Saudi Arabia – IDF chief.” https://www.rt.com/news/410049-israel-share-intelligence-on-iran/
The “most moral” and “most democratic” is coming into collaboration with a Wahhabi kingdom in order to continue the slaughterous war against sovereign Syria. Murderers. Bloody murderers blind with their old hatred towards their Arab cousins.
The same Jewish visceral hatred has been exposed towards Russia that has suffered immensely from the Bolshevik revolution which produced a government that was 80% Jewish. Today it is a turn of the US and EU to learn the “experience”
“Jews are indigenous to that bit of land.”
Are you talking about Milikovsky (Netanyahu) from Poland or Avigdor Lieberman, a Moldovan thug?
“It takes everything Israel has got, just to survive.” Does this also take the ongoing genocide of Palestinians and Syrians? Israel has cooperated with Saudi Arabia (the main sponsor of Middle Eastern terrorism) and with ISIS, whereas American Israel-firsters, specifically the ziocon Kagans’ clan, has been partnering with Ukrainian neo-Nazis. There is zero (0) moral capital has left for members of the Jewish Lobby and Knesset. The moral relativism of Israel and the Lobby has destroyed any vestiges of morality used to be assigned to the tribe. As for your Arab cousins, the ongoing interventions, pushed by the US/UK neocons and ziocons, have produced a slaughter of some 4 millions people of all ages, including children, a lot of children.
Moreover, Israel and Israel-firsters have formed a vicious parasitoid on the body of the US. Enough already of your quetching: http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/israels-money-machine/
A few days ago we learned that Russia-linked accounts put out 1.4 million election-related tweets from September through November 15 last year. Wow, it sounds a lot, but is it?
At http://www.internetlivestats.com/twitter-statistics/ you can find the number of tweets being send at each moment. I just checked and it took less than three minutes for the counter to increase by 1,4 milion. At that link you may read the following: «Every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter, which corresponds to over 350,000 tweets sent per minute, 500 million tweets per day and around 200 billion tweets per year».
If all the evil russians could do was produce 1,4 milion tweets in 2,5 months, it sounds pretty obvious that their influence on the outcome of the elections was irrelevant.
The terrible thing is that such an enormous lie — attributing Trump’s victory to the Russians — must be proportional to whatever it is that the lie serves to hide.
Exactly: the lie is proportional to what the lie serves to hide, which is the corruption of the DemReps, all branches of federal government, and the mass media.
This is what I love about Parry’s work. He critically dissects the BS reporte that come out, e.g. McClaren report. This blaming of Russia for everything is designed to legitimate the Nato buildup, itself designed to pressure to Russia to recoil from the international stage, especially after Putin’s war- block in Syria 2013. The Kiev coup was revenge. The message is clear: know your place, barbaric easterners. Western arrogance is seemingly limitless!
As the US is not affected by Russia in any area, the propaganda is intended to “pressure to Russia to recoil” only in the Mideast. It serves only Israel, to gain zionist campaign bribes for corrupt US politicians.
Israel-gate spreads to Europe:
The pro-Israel Lobby uses Hasbara propaganda tactics and political manipulation to influence elections and manipulate legislation in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and other countries.
Israel is influencing student, activist and parliamentary groups in the UK, offering financial and strategic assistance in order to shape UK politics:
http://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/thelobby/.
An Al Jazeera Investigative Unit undercover reporter infiltrated pro-Israeli groups working to influence UK politics.
The investigation uncovered a close link between a senior political officer at the Israeli embassy in London, and a network of politicians, activists and analysts in Britain who are sympathetic to Israel.
For example, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit discovered that the Union of Jewish Students in Britain not only received money from the Israeli embassy, but also attempted to oust the president of the National Union of Students, which represents more than four million British university students.
Pro-Israel Lobby groups make extensive use of the “Anti-Semitic” trope to bully groups and manipulate political leaders.
The Al Jazeera Investigative Unit six-month undercover investigation reveals how Israel penetrates different levels of British democracy.
Russia-gate is a deliberate diversion from the real issue of “influence”, the growing scandal of Israel-gate.
Exactly.
“The scandal surrounding Priti Patel, who was forced to resign as Britain’s international aid minister last week after secret meetings with Israeli officials during a ‘family holiday’, offers a small, opaque window on the UK’s powerful Israel lobby.
“Patel’s off-the-books meetings with 12 Israelis, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were organised by a British lobbyist in violation of government rules requiring careful documentation of official meetings. That is to prevent conflicts of interest and illicit lobbying by foreign powers.
“Government protocol was flouted again when Patel headed to the Golan Heights, occupied Syrian territory, escorted by the Israeli army. There she was shown an Israeli military field hospital that patches up Syrians, including Al Qaeda-affiliated fighters, wounded in Syria’s civil war.
“Afterwards, Patel pressed for the Israeli army, one of the most powerful in the world, to receive a chunk of Britain’s overseas aid. Meanwhile, she has sought to cut aid to the Palestinians, including to vital projects in Gaza. A clue as to how she reached such absurd ‘humanitarian’ priorities is provided in the figure of Stuart Polak, mentor on her Israel ‘holiday’.
“The honorary president of Conservative Friends of Israel, Lord Polak has recruited four-fifths of Conservative MPs, and almost every government minister, to a group whose explicit goal is to advance Israeli interests in Britain. The prime minister, Theresa May, is regarded as one of Israel’s most fervent supporters in Europe.
“That should be a cause for public indignation – no other foreign state enjoys such unabashed, high-level political support. […]
“The Israel lobby’s dirty tricks in the UK were exposed earlier this year too. An Al Jazeera TV documentary showed Conservative party officials colluding with the Israeli embassy to “take down” Alan Duncan, a foreign office minister who supports the Palestinian cause.
“It is noteworthy that Ms Patel’s downfall came about because of social media. Israeli officials like police minister Gilad Erdan were so unused to scrutiny or accountability themselves that they happily tweeted photos with Patel. Erdan is a key player in the lobby, running a ‘smear unit’ to target overseas critics of Israel.
“We may never know why Patel so grossly flouted ministerial rules or what she quietly promised in those meetings in Israel. Colleagues have hinted that, in a pattern familiar from US politics, she hoped to win over the lobby and its wealthy donors for a future leadership bid.
“There is no way to know, given the lobby’s penchant for secrecy, whether Patel simply proved less adept at treading a path marked out by former Conservative and Labour party leadership hopefuls. But it is also possible that the lobby is discovering changes to the political and cultural environment are making its work much harder.
“There is growing hysteria about foreign interference in US and European politics. Is it not time for western states to show as much concern about the malign influence of Israel’s lobbyists as they do about Russian hackers?”
Israel Lobby is Slowly Being Dragged Into the Light
By Jonathan Cook
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/14/israel-lobby-is-slowly-being-dragged-into-the-light/
This helpful list of evils Russia has done is by no means complete, but I’m using it because I’m too lazy to add more. :D
Europe’s refugee crisis.
Giant killer squids.
Fighter jet crashes.
Names.
Brexit.
Poop.
Midlife crises.
Flying planes with transponders turned off because NATO won’t turn their transponders on.
Putin’s popularity.
Information.
Judo.
Miscrosoft Word documents (.doc, .docx).
Too many people.
Financial default.
The Russian language.
Stupidity.
Federalism.
Robotic cockroaches.
Marine Le Pen.
Soviet History.
Photoshop.
Psychiatry.
Ebola.
The election of David Cameron.
Hacking German elections.
Hacking French elections.
Montenegro’s prime minister almost getting murdered.
Wikileaks.
Hillary Clinton being the world’s worst presidential candidate.
h**p://russia-insider.com/en/official-list-things-you-can-blame-russia/ri19034
The European refugee crisis was caused by the Russian war in Libya. That’s probably how Europeans remember that war, since they just yawned and forgot as it was launched and thousands died.
“Today, the situation for Theresa May is obvious – her government is collapsing after proving to be a train wreck from day one, as the Brexit negotiations turned from bad to worse. In this situation May needed an excuse for a radical overhaul of the policies pursued by her government. And she provided one at the above mentioned procession at the Guildhall by subjecting Russian authorities to the strongest criticism during her time in office yet. May would go as far as to accuse Moscow of “undermining free societies.” Thus, she decided that Russophobia would be her fallback since a great many other Western political figures have managed to get away with it. […]
“Eurasia has always been a special attraction for British imperialists, since it not only had greater resources than other regions, but also had a much larger population. As for economic potential, Eurasia has always been far ahead of the rest of the world, since out of a total of the 15 most developed economies, no less that 12 are located in Eurasia. While being unable to compete in any way with the three main political and economic opponents in this region, namely Russia, China and India, London has been actively engaged in creating conflicts along the borders of BRICS countries. The plan was old and simple: to aggravate existing tension that exists within Eurasia and unleash a whole series of regional wars only to draw Russia, China and India into them.
As for Russophobic manifestations in Britain, it should be recalled that London has not just repeatedly used Russophobia in its policies over the past centuries, but has also waged wars against Russia. […]
“Britain fought against Russia from 1807 to 1812 during the Russo-British War, and during the Crimean War of 1853-1856. Russia and Britain were rivals in the late 19th century during the Great Game in Central Asia.
“After the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, Britain took a direct role in the occupation of Russian territories.
“Moreover, as is a well known fact, it was Britain that was behind the creation of the Gladio terrorist network in Western Europe, the main task of which was to organize terrorist attacks in any Western European country threatening to move toward closer ties with the Soviet Union (USSR). It was this network that organized numerous assassinations of leftist activists and politicians who advocated cooperation with the USSR or could come to power as a result of popular support.
“So, even a brief glance at the history books shows that it is not Russia, but Britain that is guilty of ‘undermining free societies’, a fact which Teresa May tries to keep buried beneath the political fever she has found herself promoting.
“It should also be remembered that it’s the sitting British government that is trying to play the Russophobe card to draw public attention away from its own utter failure in its social policy, listing ‘Russia’ as a so-called first-level threat instead.
“But given the utter political confusion Therese May is involved in, it is unlikely that her dodging skills will help her get away with either her government’s shortcomings, or the scapegoats she’s using to excuse them.”
Theresa May Jumps the Russia Bashing Band Wagon, Again…
By Valery Kulikov
https://journal-neo.org/2017/11/16/theresa-may-jumps-the/
To be more exact, it’s London (bankers) that is responsible.
Opium.
We know for facts than desperate America will do anything to obtain Russia total submission. Those US bastards and their european prostitutes collabos want all natural resources stil in that huge country’s ground. Soon or later Mister Putin will have to stop being calm and retaliate. America is Humanity’s greatest enemy. Those US idiotic have a cash register instead of brain; their vocabulary is less than 500 words. They are humanity’ shame.
Putin and Russia need only to do what the Russian people excel at: staying alive. The US and the West WILL collapse: when the underlying economic system is predicated on the impossible -perpetual growth on a finite planet- it’s only a matter of time for that system to collapse, not IF.
The US’s mode of operation is to agitate for a violent reaction so it can unleash it’s “hounds of hell.” Given that the Internet provides humans with the ability to see past the propaganda put out by the US govt the easy tricks aren’t working as readily as in the past (and this is the reason why the big attack on “fake news”- which is an amazing setup by Trump to herd the people into controlling their ability to obtain actual information (and not propaganda).
Seer, yes, “hounds of hell” or soft power. Confiscation of Labor and natural resources, lending that is impossible to escape and local government that is impossible to change…
Yes, but also No… I find that the more one knows, the less one can say anything with complete certainty…
If European citizens prove to be as ill informed, dumbed down and incapable of critical thought as we Americans – the West is likely to lead all of humanity over the precipice. Present day “reality” most closely resembles finding oneself aimlessly wandering through a Theatre of the Absurd performance. I would say we’re in “you can’t make this stuff up” territory, but the fact is that much of MSM reporting is absolutely “made up” – emanating as it does from the bowels of the CIA & State Department. Much of what MSM reports on important matters (i.e. Russiagate, Syria, Iran, Libya, etc.) simply has no basis whatsoever in what many of us fondly remember as “reality.”
The only news I trust from a TV set is local news, and even then they will throw in a few propaganda pieces from the national desk to get to the people like me who turn off the “World News” to keep from vomiting.
We have 12news cablevision,LI,I shout at wife to shut it off.We are represented by propaganda every way.
Israel’s influence even now is leading to the completely unnecessary and damaging attacks on the JCPOA and Iran. Israel’s continuing attacks on Syria, which has suffered mightily for six years and now seems about to finish the devastating war destroying it will extend, with US help the tragedy for Syria. Any beneficial effects of Israel’s takeover of the US Congress are hard to find. Media cannot be said to be independent of this influence, yet it is Russia which has to be punished for deviating from the official line.
Yes, Russia-gate is the coverup for Israel-gate, the corruption of elections and mass media by zionist influence.
Do you think the so called Zionists do this without the permission or knowledge of those who support and depend on our “aircraft carrier in the Mid East”? Are the israelis just a bunch of evil jews plotting against us, or are they ultimately the “gophers” for those who’s geo-political aims they carry out?
Your post shows deception by zionist propaganda:
1. The US needs only oil from the Mideast, which we can buy like anyone else without a policy there;
2. The US has zero economic or military dependence upon Israel;
3. The US has no “geopolitical” aim in the Mideast but to get zionist bribes to politicians;
4. Those who document zionist corruption of US policy speak not of “evil jews plotting.”
Try finding some evidence and argument for those zionist propaganda claims.
My post?
Hmmm…the US needs oil to be sold at whatever price suites our geopolitical needs. for instance, Sadam trys to convert the bourse to Euros, finds himself in a spider hole…it’s always been about controlling the resource either to make money or deny adequate petroleum to our potential enemies.
The Israelis are in fact our aircraft carrier in the sand. To say otherwise is silly.
The work of the Israeli lobby in the US, while certainly benefitting Israel, helps us maintain our aircraft carrier. The Israeli lobby going on and on about their 7 million killed in WW2 keeps anyone from talking about the 40 million+ Russians killed, thus a country bled white by WW2 can be represented by the American security state in the 1950’s and 1960’s as an actual threat.
Who is the monkey and who is the organ grinder?
“We control America. We control Congress, we control show biz, we control the media, we control everything. In America you can criticise God, but you can’t criticise Israel.” – Israeli government spokesman.
How much Political Currency may have been used toward the Propagation of #”Russia-gate Spreads to Europe”?
Ought we be more concerned about Climate Science and the Catastrophic Dangers Looming Over 3rd World Peoples?
Has our film industry played a role in a dumbing-down of critical-consciousness/along with/electronic-communication?
“#Russia-gate” dominates over; Human Beings facing, starvation, assassinations, tornados, tsunami’s, BOMBING’s,
Manipulation of Capital, as exhibited in Paradise Papers, demonstrate A Robust Corporate Power in World Control.
… shhh, (Rothschild’s?)
Complaints from the United States about foreign interference in domestic affairs exemplify hypocrisy in the extreme.
Or self-projection.
Sure but hers the analysis of whether the Russians are having success here, or why that may mean for us?
Been around quite long and yet have never seen a single boggieman my government told me to be on the lookout for.
Being old Gaelic my ancestors told me to watchout for the wee folk and woods fairies, and while I chased rainbows looking for a Lepracauns pot of gold I never seen one of those either.
I did meet a few COMMIES but not a one was packing a gun and later my gov sent me to a green land to kill those evil yellow Bastards, all I seen was a great bunch of people who were pissed because Americans were killing them.
NOT only killing them but turning their homeland into one huge whorehouse of drug and double dealing thieves.
That for some damn reason we in uniform were following their orders and lkilled a couple millions in three yellow mans lands and were
doing the dirty deeds of suit and tie wearing leaders were the reason we lost their war.
Today we are just misguided heros, but not US it seems, for today it is the uniform that is heroic.
After coming back to reality, the real world, I found out reality in my nation was seen through the fantacy eyed nut cases as the norm.
Kruschev was leader of the evil Empire, Soviet Union, and I have never forgot his words:
“WE DO NOT HAVE TO INVADE US, AS IF WE WAIT LONG ENOUGH THEY WILL BE JUST LIKE US”: ; He was wrong as his corrupt political Empire folded but today our Security State is far more corrupt and by far more vicious towards humanity than the Soviets could of ever dreamed of attaining.
Today, unlike in my youth, the boogymen are indeed real and in plain sight within my nation and they are the same Bastard in suit and ties Americans still just follow orders from.
Difference is Russia is no longer Reds nor the Asians invading hordes but both are supposedly evil and now the Blacks and Been people are evil as well.
It is said they hate US because of our Freedoms, but my Freedoms and Liberty seem to be as elusive as that pot of gold of the youthful days when I chased after that end of a rainbow.
I shake your hand.
The Russians are just people, although they do seem to have a knack for being lead by real assholes…could be we are the same, but at least we keep the mass executions on the low down.
Actually, in these modern times, we just export our mass executions to foreign soils . . .
Both the Ds and the Rs have worked relentlessly throughout 2017 to build support for a catastrophic final war, WWlll. Throughout this year, the target has alternated between Russia (driven by the Ds) and China (via Korea, driven by the Rs). While we pretend that the Ds and Rs are two opposing parties, there’s a decades-long record proving that they have worked together (“colluded”) toward implementing the same agenda.
The US government has spent the past century “meddling” in the politics of numerous countries, militarily and economically, bringing us to this point. Our government’s relentless saber-rattling has brought nuclear super-powers Russia and China together, working out their many years of conflict in view of the potential world threat, the US. If we had any sense, we would re-think this situation.
While we pretend that the Democrats and Republicans are two opposing parties, there’s a decades-long record proving that they have worked together toward implementing the same pro-Israel agenda.
This collusion is secured by pro-Israel Lobby influence, warmongering pro-Israel think tanks, and outrageous Israeli interference in American elections.
Israel has spent more than half a century meddling in the politics of the United States.
The pro-Israel Lobby push for conflict in the Middle East has brought us to this point.
Israel is now building support for a catastrophic final war aimed at “securing the realm”.
If America has any sense, we will do much more than re-think this situation.
Rejecting Israeli meddling, saying no to a Third World War on Israel’s behalf, we will truly and decisively drain the swamp.
Hi Abe-
It is a complete illusion that the Democrats and Republicans are opposing parties, at least when it comes to foreign policy. They leave a little “wiggle room” for identity politics and the culture wars, but the necessity of growing our already bloated MIC is a topic that is strictly forbidden. And of course the Forever War, and the ever- increasing distribution of arms to our so-called allies are out of bounds as well. Any notion of seeking detente with the evil Ruskies, or reining in Bibi’s vision of a Greater Israel is seen as treasonous. It really is time for a third party; the D’s and R’s are worse than useless to the average American.
D’s and R’s are bought by the same elite Establishment which also owns the press and much of the American mind.
so you see Obama’s Iranian policy and that treaty as the same as Trump’s desire to undo that treaty? Not that I think Iran doesn’t have the right to build any bomb the Israelis have.
Jim-
That’s a valid point. I don’t like Trump, nor did I much like Obama. I think the Iranians have a genuine beef with us going all the way back to the ’50s. They would be in a much better place today if we had never ousted Mossadegh. I think Obama did go against the “Deep State” with the Iranian nuclear agreement, and also in backing down from the “red line” BS with Syria. But you must remember Obama pissed off a lot of so-called democrats with those decisions as well. Trump seems to be kissing up to the Israelis more than Obama did. But it seems to me that no president can go up against the MIC or the Intelligence agencies in any substantive way. James Clapper getting away with lying to Congress, and the Deir Ez-Zor incident, proves to me without a doubt who is really running the show. And in that regard there is no difference between the “D”‘s and “R”s.
Proof positive that mention of the word “Israel” isn’t necessary for the energetic Zionists to “catapult their propaganda”, to paraphrase the Texas Torturer. In this case it’s just throwing sacks of **** at the fan to keep things all messed up.
If the ‘we’ are the people, yes but the rulers have already thought and rethought this. We are on the verge of massive war from many sides. At this time in history, it is probable that the US will be bombed or invaded.
How is Russia vs China via NK working together? I mean I tend to agree that Democrats -R_ republicans…but they do seem to be drifting apart a bit these days, if only because the Rs are increasingly being led by nut cases with poor strategic thinking. Also, while I have no doubt that the old PNAC agenda is still embraced by the old guard at either party, how is an actual planned global war involving nuclear powers seen by anyone rational as beneficial? Aren’t the Russians and now with Trump, more openly,the Americans seeing global warming’s impending chaos as their ticket to world domination? How does one plan to seal one’s borders and control one’s own populations benefited by a chaotic third world war?
I think the British PM sounded desperate and clueless when she joined the chorus and blamed Russia for her woes,and possibily one of the worst British PMs ever!*!*
Theresa May was just doing a Hillary Clinton in blaming the Russians because she’s in a tight spot having all but lost her majority at the last election and also having lost control of her government and ministers. She really looked quite stupid in making this silly tirade. If she thinks the British people are fooled by this rubbish, then she is mistaken No one believes her and don’t care about it anyway. Whats really worrying the British criminal establishment and got them spooked, is that a very large proportion of British people are now watching RT and hearing another side to the story that these lying bastards are telling them.
Now, that means there’s actually hope!
Sadly, RT itself did a “person on the street” segment in London, and when asked whether they believed a few hundred Russia-linked Twitter accounts could have been the deciding factor in the Brexit vote, all the Londoners said yes!
Yes David, but the question is, how many of those asked were in favour of staying in the EU? The remain people are as completely obsessed and deranged about their loss as are Democrats that Clinton didn’t win the presidency. These losers are really quite disturbed by the unfavourable outcome of the Brexit and presidential elections and I believe they are desperate to find someone or something to blame. Indeed, anything to cling on to which offers some form of explanation. The Russian farce is the ideal scapegoat for them. Had they won, you would hear nothing about Russia from the remain people.
john wilson:
I’m with you 100%. Very, very likely all those interviewed were “Remain” supporters who have willingly swallowed the “Russia did it” diet their media has been feeding them.
One would think that if “Putin’s propaganda” were so effective, it would be making some more headway against the mythology of the All Powerful Twitter Accounts.
i heard british reports of russian collusion in brexit within the first month. so why so long till it caught on? because the media had to wait a while before they realized that it was working on the gullible here. that’s all.
if something works, why not use it? right?
John Wilson,
I’m just wondering if Theresa May just trapped herself. If Russia was involved in Brexit propaganda, then isn’t she, by logical extension, in power due to the Russians? I’d like to see her wiggle out of that concept.
Exactly! She essentially realized that she just stepped into it (pile of poo).
I’d hope that the common British person realized that the real threat is London. As screwed up as the US is it cannot lay claim to hosting London Bankers.
Someone should remind Theresa May of Obama’s visit to UK in April 2016. He openly urged Britons to remain in the EU. Just a thought: maybe his meddling in the UK politics made Britons so furious that they voted “Leave”, just in revenge to the foreign interference?
So actually one should blame Obama, not Russia.
Imagine Putin visiting UK and saying the things Obama had said. You can’t? Neither can I.
Worse than Tony Blair?
I just enjoyed that every idea in this piece was predicated with “if”. What a great way to make an opinion statement point. Perhaps Israel will join the five eyes as a sixth “I”. All these eyes and never any ears to hear the truth.
Just who is that arbiter of truth today? Our liberal bourgeoisie? Israel in particular is an issue that shines a light on the ignorance of our general population. Israel is a tiny country, the sole Jewish nation, surrounded by vast, oil-rich Arab countries, some of which seek a 100% “pure” Moslem Mideast. Jews are indigenous to that bit of land. It takes everything Israel has got, just to survive. The US, of course, is one of the top sellers of weapons to those Arab states. “Nothing personal, it’s just business.”
Want peace in the Mideast? Get US oil corporations out of the region.
The official Fairy Tale has a bloodthirsty group of nomads slaughtering the “indigenous” population in something called The Exodus.
What a novel way to try to change the subject from Israel’s stealing and murdering! How about the little shithole nation paying reparations to the survivors of the displaced victims, and forgetting about the “Jewish State” BS. If the US Congress (both parties, both sections) would divert 100% of the US taxpayer allowance to the Palestinians, that would also be a very good start. Of course, hell will freeze over first, and the army of Zionist hacks and propaganda *hores will continue to throw sacks of **** at the fan to keep things all blurry and in an uproar.
Yes, DH has been a regular zionist troll, offering deceptions instead of argument.
holy shite.
At least oil is useful to us … unlike Israel.
Israel is striving desperately to drag the United States into further destructive wars in the Middle East, and potentially a cataclysmic nuclear confrontation with Russia.
Hasbara propaganda trolls attempt to deceive, distract, divert and disrupt discussion of:
– the workings of the Israel Lobby and Israeli influence on American foreign policy
– Israel’s flagrant violations of basic human rights and its illegal military occupation of Palestinian territory
– Israeli collusion with terrorist forces operating in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq
– Israeli Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD): an offensive arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
– constant Israeli military threats against Iran
The Israeli government, major pro-Israel media organizations, Hasbara troll army “commenters” online weave a dense fabric of deceit.
In 2009, Israel’s foreign ministry organized volunteers to add pro-Israeli commentary on news websites. In July 2009, it was announced that the Israeli Foreign Ministry would conduct “internet warfare” to spread a pro-Israel message on various websites.
The program has expanded to a real Hasbara troll army that promotes pro-Israel policies in the press and online media.
US/Israel-backed al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria advance key geopolitical goals of Israel, including permanent annexation of Syria’s resource-rich Golan Heights area.
The illusion of a “threat” to Israel guarantees an ever greater cascade of military and economic aid supplied by slavishly pro-Israel politicians in the United States.
Hasbara propaganda additionally aims at promoting fake news and conspiracy theories to divert attention from an actual and very public conspiracy: the efforts of the Israel lobby to manipulate politics in the United States.
HASBARA PROPAGANDA FUNDAMENTALS
The basics of Hasbara propaganda are easy to identify:
simplistic phrases, repeated over and over, designed to engage emotions rather than produce rational arguments, all shaped to fit into a narrative of good (Western-oriented Israel, the Middle East’s only true democracy) versus evil (Arab/Muslim terrorists who seek not only to destroy the Jewish state but kill all Jews).
To persuade Americans to accept this impoverished account of the conflict, Hasbara propaganda rewrites history, rejects international law and ignores the struggle over land and resources that is at the heart of the conflict.
Hasbara propaganda relies on public ignorance of basic facts about international law, the history of Zionist land grab efforts in Palestine, and Israel’s wars of aggression in the Middle East
Conventional Hasbara (pro-Israel) propagandists works in tandem with Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” and fake “anti-Zionist”) propagandists
PRO-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA MANUAL
Back in 2009, a propaganda organization known as “The Israel Project” published a manual titled “Global Language Dictionary”
https://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/sf-israel-projects-2009-global-language-dictionary.pdf
Written by Republican pollster and political strategist Frank Luntz, the Hasbara handbook of “The Israel Project” was labeled “Not for distribution or publication”.
The manual published by “The Israel Project” is a treasure trove of scripted propaganda canards. For example, page 96 of the manual recommends: “‘Defensive’ and ‘preventative’ are the words that best describe Israeli military action.”
“The Israel Project” is managed by an American-born Israeli, David Hazony, whose brother is an advisor and speech writer for Benjamin Netanyahu.
Registered as an NGO, “The Israel Project” does not report any details of the origins of its funding.
In addition to managing “The Israel Project”, Hazony is editor for the online propaganda site “The Tower” and a frequent contributor to major pro-Israel media and neoconservative organs like the New Republic, The Forward, Commentary Magazine, Moment, the Jerusalem Post, the Jewish Chronicle, the New York Sun, and Jewish Ideas Daily.
In 2004-2007, Hazony served as editor in chief of the Israeli Zionist journal Azure. He has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.
Hasbara outlets like “The Tower” produce scripted articles, while “staff” from the “The Israel Project” write op-eds and make television appearances to disseminate pro-Israel propaganda.
CONVENTIONAL AND INVERTED HASBARA PROPAGANDA
The comment sections of internet sites that post articles critical of Israel and Zionism are frequented by Hasbara propaganda trolls.
Hasbara propaganda manifests in two forms:
– Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Zionist /pro-Israel) propaganda
– Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Zionist” / “anti-Israel” / “anti-Jewish or ‘anti-Semitic”) propaganda
In the face of a sustained intellectual critique of conventional Hasbara propaganda claims of a “new anti-Semitism”, the inverted Hasbara propaganda activity was developed.
Inverted Hasbara operates based on false arguments advanced by individuals who masquerade as “harsh critics of Zionism and Israel” while spewing “anti-Semitic” epithets and abusive rants about “the Jews”.
The internet is a playground for both conventional Hasbara and inverted Hasbara trolls.
ISRAELI PROPAGANDA AND US POLITICS
In the United States, both the Democrats and Republicans are equally zealous:
– in their loyalty to Israel
– in their demonization of Russia
– in beating the drum for more pro-Israel wars in the Middle East
The pro-Israel Lobby, Israeli influence on both American political parties, and Israel’s constant efforts to direct US foreign policy toward war with Syria and Iran, are manifest realities.
“D.H. Fabian” wants us all to believe that Israel is nowhere in the picture, that it’s merely a “campaign” by “liberal bourgeoisie”.
In fact, the longest, most expensive war in US history, the war that has drained out the US budget, the war that continues to shatter American families and lives, was promoted by pro-Israel warmongers.
The Israel Lobby and pro-Israel politicians are working harder than ever now, beating the drum for more war.
To put it simply, the Zionists riders have flogged and spurred their US horse close to (financial and economic) death, but they still want more and more blood and threasure sacrifice for the cause.
Thank you…. excellent objective summary…..
Yep.Great post.
All true,no doubt, but this Russian thing…It seems like it’s real,even if it is being used to accomplish some other goals (such as turning liberals into Russia hawks, and Wikileaks into a Russian intelligence asset [unless they are…]). For me, it’s somewhat disconcerting to see Trumpkin repeating things Putin says *verbatim.* We’d all like to see the neocon/neo liberal plan to hedge in Russia with US military bases and basal states, but we’d also not like Putin to be successful in his intelligence operations that have great potential for causing us harm. If Putin;s intelligence services had evidence of financial crimes committed by trump, Manifort, Page, Flynnn (see Turkey if the Russian thing doesn’t compel you) et al,wouldn’t they use that? I mean why do these Russian gangsters spend dollars on the penny for Trump projects and properties? Did Manifort launder millions as accused? How would the KGB deal with a similar situation? How about a serious evaluation of the investigations going on here?
What exactly would Putin use dirt on Trump for? Do you think there’ll be evil Ruskies marching on Manhattan? I believe there may be some financial shenanigans between these guys and some Russian oligarchs, but I don’t see any ties to the Russian government. And exactly what great harm do you think the Russian intelligence services have planned for us? I am much more concerned about Israel’s undo influence, and the very real influence they have on our foreign policy and electoral process, and the very real drain they cause on our treasury, both directly and indirectly. I think it’s time to take down the illusion of the evil Ruskies, and learn how to cooperate and treat them fairly in the international arena. There would be much to be gained on both sides by redirecting resources from building bombs and missiles to building a better world.
“We’d all like to see the neocon/neo liberal plan to hedge in Russia with US military bases and basal states…” “We’d ALL..?” Speak for yourself. I wish NATO would disappear instead of (illegally) pushing up against Russia and threatening the Russians who have never attacked us. The whole Russiagate thing has been discredited for lack of any evidence. The US interferes in nearly every election on earth and, as Putin said, why would they interfere since the US foreign policy (hegemony to own all the world’s resources) never changes, no matter who is president. Wonder what the US would do if Russia or China pushed their weapons up against our borders, and spread military bases in every country. Who is criminal here? Certainly not Russia.
What has been crippling my ability to think rationally about the sorry state America’s ruling class has foisted upon the American public (and, as this article suggests, the leadership of Washington’s vassal states) over the past 30-35 years, and especially the last 15—what cripples my thinking about this is the stupid hope that there is a soft landing for our American cousins. I have lived in the U.S. and know from experience that not all Americans are as thick and gullible as they currently appear from outside the country.
I also learnt from my American experience not to raise the question of “national security” while in a gathering of Americans, since what I’d always experienced as down-to-earth, gregarious, blunt-spoken, helpful, clever people could become frightened and anxious to cover up that fear with defensiveness. It took me many years after that to figure out that stirring up those fears is the way America’s political class achieves unity among—and the support of—a comfortable majority of the population. A shooting war and additional propaganda narratives will usually bring the rest of the population on board. It takes a Daniel Ellsberg to break that powerful hold on the collective American psyche.
Two years into the first term of the Second (false) Messiah—Reagan was the First in my lifetime—I began to understand that there really will be no soft landing for Americans. Official Washington would rather ruin a whole class of people than make damn sure that ordinary Americans would never again have to pay the full prince of an astonishingly greedy, lazy, criminal corporate and financial class and the thoroughly corrupted political class that serves those criminals. What chance does an impoverished, psychologically exhausted nation do when up against that? They respond to a Third (false) Messiah who exploits their pain and appeals to the inner Nazi that, in desperation, all humans are capable of hosting.
Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough Daniel Ellsbergs to keep a majority of Americans in a healthy state of skepticism. But there is a vast Internet press seemingly devoted to the psychological welfare of their fellow Americans—an army of propaganda-busters and truth-seekers. However, since this army is the primary target of the Divide-and-Conquer Division of the Department of Propaganda, it becomes less and less clear that this underground press is strong enough to break the death-grip of those propaganda narratives on the psyche of the American public. (Although that Russiagate fantasy is so stupid and full of contradictions, while empty of anything resembling hard evidence that it’s just mindboggling how any American could possibly swallow it. Even the Dems appear to be sipping their own Kool Aid, for crissake!)
Official Washington apparently reckons it can restore tattered American hegemony if only it can either dump Trump or force him into dropping some serious bombs on Moscow or Iran or North Korea or even China—anybody. Just start a major war so that a bamboozled American nation will unite behind a corrupt American state and, as a happy side-effect, the enemy Internet press will lose its audience and die. And all across the planet, people will be so grateful to America for killing off the Russians or the Iranians or the North Koreans or even the Chinese that they will apologize for ever doubting the world-leadership ability of the USA.
Delia Ruhe:
Terrific post! Thank you for investing the time and effort to write it.
Yes, that was a wonderful objective view of America written by an outsider who saw it all firsthand by living amongst the natives–us crazies.
Joe Wallace:
I’ll second that, even at the risk of being unmasked as a Putinbot. I am also impressed by Ms Ruhe’s balanced and lucid, elegant prose. It makes one hope the world may become a normal place again.
Simply a wonderful analysis of our American predicament Delia Rhue, thank you very much. I like to say that the reason TPTB has gone so far into absurdity is that it has become, quite literally, an existential issue with the press and the bureaucrats. Let me direct those interested to an article in Off Guardian this morning that illustrates what I’m talking about. Carefully read the article And the commentary and you’ll clearly see a compromised reporter and newspaper Both fighting for their very lives. Or, or contemporary predicament…
https://off-guardian.org/2017/11/16/monbiot-syria-and-universalism/
My, Delia Ruhe, what a wonderful description of what it takes for one’s thinking to become de-crippled! Thanks for sharing your/our story so vividly.
Great insights, thank you Delia. I came to some of the same conclusions last year or even the projected future which even though a bit different,(Trump vs Clinton) the same forces are at work. This is now playing out, as in this Russian madness to keep the busy majority away from the real truth of what’s going on. Because of US’s leadership being so short sighted the other major player, China, quietly goes about ensuring China’s growing influence on the world stage. “Russia gate” is played as a total distraction and the western powers slide further down the economic scale.
Geez, Western “freedom and democracy” must be a really weak tenuous proposition if mere exercise of free speech is able to unintentionally subvert it. I thought that the basis for deciding policy direction in free societies was meant to be the uninhibited exchange of ideas throughout the marketplace. No one’s contributions are suppressed and the most effective and widely-accepted ideas are the ones ultimately enacted and put into play. But, now we are being told that is all just subversive of what an elite group of insiders have pre-determined to be the rules by which everyone plays, like it or not, whether widely accepted and respected or not. Now, our system has transmogrified from one in which what you say is determinative of its influence on society to who is the person or group saying it. Maybe twas ever thus, but now that hypocrisy is entirely unashamedly out in the open and one of the precepts by which national policy is routinely made by the United States and its Western vassal states. We’ve fallen a long way into a moral abyss, baby.
I recall in 1985 being accused of communism by a senior State-CIA fellow because I had long ago signed a petition (upon personal request at a bus stop) to let Marxists enter a public debate. That reminded me of the story that my mother had been accused of communism in the 1950s by a farmer for suggesting at a PTA meeting the teaching of French and Spanish in local schools.
Some believe the foreign-monster scams of demagogues and agencies promoting their budgets, others are afraid to disagree, and many more are willing to indulge the latest scheme of pseudo-patriotism for promotions and business opportunity. But most know that it is vacuous, and would withdraw their support if it were shown to be foolish.
Mr. Parry’s humorous suggestion of a baseline study of Israeli influence raises the essential issue of verifiability to the point that the scammers may fear the emergence of counterargument.
This is what decline looks like.
Continue, please. Your pedantic monologue was reaching a fever pitch.
Well said, Robert. Thanks.
Robert Parry:
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for continuing to poke holes in Russia! Russia! Russia!
Yes, once more Mr. Parry offers an essential counterpoint to the mass media propaganda.
Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
While Mr. Parry may prefer independence, and we all know the NYT ownership makes it unlikely, and the NYT may try to ignore it, it is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition demonstrates the concerns of a far larger number of potential or lost subscribers.