Caitlin Johnstone lambastes Democrats’ hypocrisy after their relentless accusations of Kremlin loyalty against political opponents.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
Democratic Party royal family member Chris Cuomo delivered a pearl-clutching, hand-wringing monologue on CNN on Jan. 9 about how appalling and outrageous it is for Republicans to accuse Democrats of having covert loyalties to a foreign government.
Cuomo, who is the son of a Democratic New York Governor and the brother of another Democratic New York Governor, began his “Closing Argument” segment rationally enough, berating the 194 Representatives who voted against opposing Trump’s ability to initiate an Iran war without congressional approval. Obviously the more resistance there is to Mike Pompeo manipulating the highly suggestible commander-in-chief into any more reckless warmongering against Tehran, the better.
But then, without any coherent segue, Prince Fredo began babbling about Republicans leveling baseless accusations about Democrats having loyalties to Iran.
"Shame on you and every Trumper and never-Trumper who voted against this."@ChrisCuomo addresses those who voted against the Iran War Powers resolution and those in the GOP who aim to divide the country when unity is a life and death matter. pic.twitter.com/kNMnXEeTdJ
— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) January 10, 2020
“They’re in love with terrorists,” we see Republican Representative Doug Collins saying in Cuomo’s clip. “They mourn Soleimani more than they mourn our Gold Star families, who are the ones who suffered under Soleimani. That’s a problem.”
Cuomo made some sputtering outraged face noises about Collins’s comments, then highlighted Republican Representative John Rutherford’s tweet accusing Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal of belonging to a “squad of Ayatollah sympathizers” for her condemnation of Trump’s indefensible assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. Democrats were quick to condemn Rutherford’s obnoxious accusation on Twitter.
Cuomo also highlighted a tweet by Republican Representative Mark Meadows claiming that “Democrats are falling all over themselves equivocating about a terrorist” (which also drew angry Democratic backlash on the platform), and expressed astonishment at war crime fetishist Nikki Haley’s ridiculous claim that “The only ones that are mourning the loss of Soleimani are our Democrat leadership, and our Democrat presidential candidates.”
“So on the right, stop spreading toxic gossip about who likes terrorists,” Cuomo bloviated in a long-winded conclusion, making no mention at any time of the fact that Democrats have been spouting this exact same sort of “toxic gossip” for more than three years now.
If only we had a word for this — something-ism https://t.co/ubMlhdqGj2
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) January 9, 2020
President Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy kicked it up even further than Cuomo’s examples, on Thursday openly accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of “defending Soleimani” with criticisms of Trump’s drone strike assassination.
“I never thought there would be a moment in time that the Speaker of the House of Representatives would actually be defending Soleimani,” McCarthy said, adding, “Did you listen to what the Speaker just said? ‘Soleimani was a bad person, but…’ There is no ‘but.’”
“If only we had a word for this — something-ism,” quipped notorious Russiagater Jonathan Chait of McCarthy’s comments. The joke, obviously, being that [Kevin] McCarthy was practicing [Joe] McCarthyism by accusing political rivals of having loyalties to a hostile foreign government.
This would be the same Jonathan Chait who authored what was arguably the single most insane Trump-Russia conspiracy article that ever made it past the editors of the mainstream press in a 2018 New York Magazine masterpiece titled “What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?,” which was just as crazy and full of baseless speculation as the headline suggests. McCarthyite Russia hysteria was being mainlined into the veins of rank-and-file Democrats so aggressively at the time that Chait was subsequently granted a (serious, non-mocking) interview with Chris Hayes on MSNBC to expound upon his fact-free conspiracy theory.
I somehow forgot to commemorate the recent one-year anniversary of one of the most important journalistic works ever: @jonathanchait’s “What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?” Shout-out to @chrislhayes for promoting this stellar reporting: https://t.co/05nInIwr1J pic.twitter.com/lVokshKidN
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) August 20, 2019
None of this, of course, is to defend any of the vile Republican comments listed above. Accusing political adversaries of being soft toward a targeted government in order to shut down dissent and pressure them to espouse a more militaristic position is absolutely despicable. It’s a very typical right-wing tactic which is designed to shrink the Overton window of acceptable debate into the most hawkish and jingoistic ideological corner of political discourse possible. Which was why anyone to the left of Hillary Clinton found it extremely shocking and creepy when Democrats began making it their entire political strategy after their loss in 2016.
Democrats’ baseless yet relentless accusations of Kremlin loyalty against political opponents, from “Moscow Mitch” McConnell to “Putin Puppet” Trump, have sucked all oxygen out of the room for progressive reform and created political cover for this administration to freely escalate cold war tensions with Russia more aggressively than any president since the fall of the Berlin Wall. So it has been a relief to see Democrats and liberal pundits like Cuomo and Brian Stelter set aside the jingoism and McCarthyism to actively protest the warmongering of this Republican administration.
But I’ll make you a bet right now, and I doubt anyone will take me up on it: I bet you it won’t last.
I bet you that in the coming weeks, after the dust settles from this past week’s horrifying ordeal with Iran, that the Democratic establishment and its allied media narrative managers will pace their herd into forgetting all about opposing the US war machine and set them right back on track with impotent nonsense about Russia, Ukraine, and impeachment proceedings that will never remove Trump from office.
The News Churn Memory Hole: How The MSM Lies Even When Telling The Truth
"It’s not enough to simply expose the truth. You must also fully, repeatedly and consistently expose the ones who are telling lies."https://t.co/OSW6eFQVAn
— Caitlin Johnstone ? (@caitoz) December 18, 2019
Mark my words, and mark your memory. Hold on to your memory of how scary this past week was and what a big deal it’s been, and then watch carefully as the narrative managers memory hole the entire thing like it never happened, even as the military situation between the U.S. and Iran remains as precarious as ever. Let the contrast between your memory of what happened and their subsequent behavior inform you of what these people really are, and what they really stand for.
Don’t believe their sudden espousal of anti-war values and skepticism toward establishment war narratives. Ignore their stories about themselves and what they value, and watch their actions instead. It is a very safe bet that their words right now and their actions in the coming weeks will tell two very, very different stories.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a new book “Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.”
This article was re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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It’s perfectly obvious that both parties arr loyal only to money and to blood lust.
As usual, Ms. Johnstone nails it.
Still nothing but crickets, not a sound from Democrats about Trumps Deutsche bank problems, connections to the Russian state owned bank VTB and the ongoing money laundering investigation by the FBI.
Move along here there is nothing to see.
The height of hypocrisy as both parties slavishly serve the interests of Israel.
Yes, we learned how the FBI detected sting-ray devices in and around the WH planted by Israel.
Were they removed ? How many officials know about this, and all those intel agency members
need to make a public statement on why this spying is allowed to continue . How is it that the president
when notified as he was about this , made a statement that he didn’t care ? If Russian spying is
a national concern, Israeli spying should be more of a concern. Lets not forget that Jonathan Pollard gave up our entire nuclear attack strategy to his handler Rafi Eitan, who, along with Netanyahu’s consent, then sold it over to Putin and the Russians .
What makes U.S. officials think this sharing of classified information by Israel to Russia has stopped ?
Very likely this continues and people like Lindsey Graham and Adam Schiff and McConnell and Pelosi
need to make a statement on why this topic of utmost importance to national security isn’t publicly being argued or disclosed ? The insanity of giving Israeli computer firms contracts handling sensitive military information continues, adversely affecting all Americans . They already continue enjoying a direct pipeline to unvetted raw NSA data on private U.S. citizens . Started in 2009 under Obama . Isn’t this aiding terrorism as written in the NDAA ? Finally, the public needs to see the evidence held by the FBI on what was found on Epstein’s properties. Who has those video tapes and when can the public discover who in Congress or other officials appear in these tapes having sex with children ?
“So it has been a relief to see Democrats and liberal pundits like Cuomo and Brian Stelter set aside the jingoism and McCarthyism to actively protest the warmongering of this Republican administration.”
Meh. Democrat media figures reflexively opposing Trump is not newsworthy. But three cheers for Tucker Carlson, who has been very consistent the past few years in opposing new wars. What makes Tucker especially valuable is that many experts think that Trump is a regular watcher. If so, Tucker may well be the ONLY war-skeptic that the president regularly hears from. For all we know, Tucker could possible be the main reason Trump did a U-ee and decided to de-escalate.
Yes, for unknown reasons, Mr. Carlson has been allowed to express an anti-imperialist viewpoint. There was a time when Americans of various parties and classes condemned imperialist warmongering as a betrayal of the revolution of 1776, specifically individual’s right to life and liberty and prople’s right to self-governance.
I think Caitlin is spot on with her pessimism concerning the “memory hole”. A fascinating study in psychology. How many times can someone be lied to and continue to drink the kool-aid? The general public seems to be brain-dead, but I think there’s hope.
I scan (not read) the MSM news just to see if anything has blown up, and note what they are selling (then I don’t want it), like a negative market indicator. There is also the general tone of it all. Right now it feels like the media is back-pedaling because a % of folks are not buying into their narrative concerning the wisdom of the assassination of the gentleman general. The same thing occurred at one point when Russiagate became so cartoon-like even the NYT reported some objective views because they knew they were loosing readers. Polls.
Even some of the kool-aid slurpers have become aware of the duplicity of the mainstream narratives. I hope more folks are waking up.
Still, I remain as pessimistic as Caitlin here and as sarcastic as Lee Camp. On that note, we need more humor. Tyrants REALLY loath being made fun of!
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”? Mark Twain
The continual repeating of the Big Lie was a basis of NAZI propaganda, and was perfected in Russiagate, where all the facts and evidence was hidden– “National security”– and the MSM kept the narrative going for three years followed seamlessly by Ukrainegate where Trump withheld money for a day from the Ukrainians fighting Russians (including 17% of Ukraine’s population); Obama refused to give the same aid (obviously Obama, and Hillary, were in Putin’s pocket!)
Pompeo has revived the approach, arguing that the Iraqi claims that Soleimani was invited as a diplomat are just Iranian propaganda. No evidence is needed any longer post-Russiagate and if Iraq produced any, it would be dismissed as fake. As Head of the CIA, Pompeo noted ‘the agency especially trains employees to “lie, cheat and steal.” ‘ Of course the MSM runs with whatever narrative is handed down from above; only their lucrative careers as teleprompter readers matter .
Any criticisms of the dimwitted Bush, the silver-tongued Obama, and the narcissistic Trump quickly become partisan ad hominems (or “racism!” in Obama’s case). And with the increasing secretive nature of government since 9/11 , the facts and agendas are carefully hidden and neither discussed nor ridiculed in public. MSM self-censors embarrassing news (the Afghanistan Papers seem to have disappeared already). Our Police State makes the Stasi look like bumbling, obvious amateurs.
I concur wholeheartedly, Mark Stanley. Good post! They are indeed a laughingstock and sometimes, the only thing to do in this chaotic, repulsive mess they continually make of our world, is to laugh at them.
I could not agree more.
Especially when this little nugget is floating around.
See: forensicnews.net/2020/01/03/trump-deutsche-bank-loans-underwrtitten-by-russian-owned-bank-whistleblower-told-fbi/
FBI claims to be investigating trump loans at Deutsche bank and money laundering.
I’d say that has as much to do with Trump offing the Iranina General as anything.
Several copies of related documents are included with this article. The whistleblower is the son of suicide victim who was a senior Deutsche band exec. Very damning stuff indeed!
All this while the New York City Bar Association calls for investigation into Bill Barr.
Bad things man, very bad things.
Shallow-minded usually means that the person doesn’t think
much beyond Superficialities and Surface meaning.
It connotes that the person lacks intellectual depth and curiosity.
Intellect has been deconstructed into “Tweets”and Trump-isms
While the World Deconstructs/Reconstructs into a Renewed Age
of Racial Superiority Re-Established under Trump as Feudalism. …
[Please see “Blacks Law Dictionary” SIXTH EDITION pg. 621-623)
Sounds as if it’s time for another cargo plane load of currency for Tehran. Beam me up Scottie!
That money wasn’t the US’s money to give. It was frozen Iranian assets we seized decades ago. They demanded we return some of their stolen property.
A plague on both houses.
What utterly empty politics America has.
A reflection of the centrality of empire.
Empire and its attending interests bend and distort everything in the country.
Almost nothing worthwhile ever gets said or done.
Arms and armies and secret services dominate American government and society.
A government for by and of privileged elites and their imperial drives.
These parties simply do not reflect the needs or desires of the great mass of Americans.
Well said sir. And, like Rome in its decline, when Emperors often lasted maybe a year or two, every Tom Dick and Harriet thinks they can become President.
Remember Neos are War Mongers whether Cons or Libs.
R or D they know War is $$$.
Obviously we now need a three year investigation of these Democrats and DNC fawning MSM and CIA figures in the Ayatollah’s pockets! (Bet they have pee tapes!) To investigate this time, we will need a Brain-dead Democrat head (perhaps Joe Biden?) leading about 100 Republican neocon fascists to harass and get the DNC in line, using every spy trick they can come up with! We cannot have any questioning of the Israels and Saudi leading us into WWIII with Iran, anymore than we can have any questioning of Ukrainian neoNAZIS leading us into WWIII with Russia! After all, what’s good for the goose (Democrats) is good for the gander (Republicans). If it’s not racist to stop overtures for peace with Russia, it cannot be xenophobic to stop overtures for peace with Iran. McCarthyism has been revived over the last three years, why stop now?
Heard Jake Tapper on CNN literally say this week : ‘Suleimani had American blood on his hands the same way as Putin has American blood on his hands’. All expert analysts on the panel smiled and life in their little bubble seemed perfect.
I guess these individuals do not believe in cause and effect and that the biggest instigator of systematic mechanised violence and mass murder around the globe has clearly been the warmongering Americans. Everyone else seems to be faced with defending themselves as best they can or perishing at Washington’s whim. Those panelists, be they journalists or pols, were psychopaths, following their ingrained instinct to either believe their own insane delusions or lie about them to normal people. Sadly, they will be rewarded by the centers of power and everyone else will end up paying the consequences.
A couple nights ago PBS ran a fairly good McCarthy docu. I couldn’t help but put the name “Maddow” in place of McCarthy for a few portions of the film.
His brutal methods may well have been inspired by Lyndon Johnson’s attacks on Leland Olds which took place the previous year.
Robert Bryce writes in his book about the role of big oil in Texas:
“Johnson saw that the best way to take care of Olds was to brand him a Communist. In the 1920s, Olds had worked for a wire service, and during that time he’d praised some aspects of the system of government in Russia.” Olds was forced to resign. Ronnie Dugger pointed out that by joining in the political crucifixion of Leland Olds – driving in the nails himself – Johnson had used most of the tricks of what would come to be known as McCarthyism, and he nauseated some of his colleagues, but he had achieved his purpose – he had convinced the oilmen back in Texas that he was their man.”
Olds had managed to lower the price of electricity which adversely affected LBJ’s financial backers in the oil industry.
Much of McCarthy’s ‘information’ came from J. Edgar Hoover. In David Talbot’s book about Allen Dulles, he makes it clear that Hoover regarded the CIA as a rival organisation and so he passed information to McCarthy about the background of some of its staff. Some of them had started out on the left. Thus Hoover was able to damage his competitor.