Exclusive: The Senate Intelligence Committee launched its Russia-gate investigation by inviting some “experts” in to rant about how everything that goes wrong in the United States is the fault of the Russians, observes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
It’s almost getting comical how everything that happens in the United States gets blamed on Russia! Russia! Russia! And, if any American points out the absurdity of this argument, he or she must be a “Moscow stooge” or a “Putin puppet.”
The FX series, “The Americans,” a spy thriller about two deep-cover Soviet spies in the 1980s.
When Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign fails seemingly because he was a wet-behind-the-ears candidate who performed like a robot during debates repeating the same talking points over and over, you might have cited those shortcomings to explain why “Little Marco” flamed out. However, if you did, that would make you a Russian “useful idiot”! The “real” reason for his failure, as we learned from Thursday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, was Russia!
When Americans turned against President Obama’s Pacific trade deals, you might have thought that it was because people across the country had grown sick and tired of these neoliberal agreements that have left large swaths of the country deindustrialized and former blue-collar workers turning to opioids and alcohol. But if you did think that, that would mean you are a dupe of the clever Russkies, as ex-British spy Christopher Steele made clear in one of his “oppo” research reports against Donald Trump. As Steele’s dossier explained, the rejection of Obama’s TPP and TTIP trade deals resulted from Russian propaganda!
When Hillary Clinton boots a presidential election that was literally hers to lose, you might have thought that she lost because she insisted on channeling her State Department emails through a private server that endangered national security; that she gave paid speeches to Wall Street and tried to hide the contents from the voters; that she called half of Donald Trump’s supporters “deplorables”; that she was a widely disliked establishment candidate in an anti-establishment year; that she was shoved down the throats of progressive Democrats by a Democratic Party hierarchy that made her nomination “inevitable” via the undemocratic use of unelected “super-delegates”; that some of her State Department emails were found on the laptop of suspected sex offender Anthony Weiner (the husband of Clinton’s close aide Huma Abedin); and that the laptop discovery caused FBI Director James Comey to briefly reopen the investigation of Clinton’s private email server in the last days of the campaign.
You might even recall that Clinton herself blamed her late collapse in the polls on Comey’s announcement, as did other liberal luminaries such as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. But if you thought those thoughts or remembered those memories, that is just more proof that you are a “Russian mole”!
As we all should know in our properly restructured memory banks and our rearranged sense of reality, it was all Russia’s fault! Russia did it by undermining our democratic process through the clever means of releasing truthful information via WikiLeaks that provided evidence of how the Democratic National Committee rigged the nomination process against Sen. Bernie Sanders, revealed the contents of Clinton’s hidden Wall Street speeches, and exposed pay-to-play features of the Clinton Foundation in its dealings with foreign entities.
Boris and Natasha, the evil spies from the Rocky and Bullwinkle shows.
You see the evil Russians undermined American democracy by arming the American people with truthful information! How dastardly is that! Could Boris and Natasha do any better or worse? And although the Soviet spies in FX’s “The Americans” were in their prime in the 1980s and would be pretty old by now, do we know where they are in the present day? Though WikiLeaks denies getting the two batches of emails – the DNC’s and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s – from the Russians, have we ruled out that the emails might have been slipped to WikiLeaks by the FX characters Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, presumably in disguise?
Oddly, too, when similar factual revelations come from Western-favored leaks, such as the purloined financial records of a Panamanian law firm known as the “Panama Papers,” we hail the disclosures regardless of the dubious methods that were used to steal them, especially if the contents can be spun to undermine disfavored governments like Russia (while also inconveniently embarrassing a few unimportant “’allies”).
But if you make that comparison or you note how the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. government-funded National Endowment for Democracy have supported various “independent” journalists and news outlets to advance U.S. propaganda, that makes you guilty of “moral equivalence,” another serious offense.
Crazy Talk
So now that you know how the game is played, you had the Senate Intelligence Committee eliciting testimony from people like media watcher Clint Watts, who seems to believe that any criticism of a U.S. government official (at least anyone he likes) must be directed by Russia!
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin
“This past week we observed social media accounts discrediting U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan,” said Watts, who is billed in The Washington Post as “an expert in terrorism forecasting and Russian influence operations.”
Gee, I know you might say that you went on Facebook last week to criticize Ryan for bungling the “repeal and replace” of Obamacare by proposing a scheme that managed to alienate both right-wing and moderate Republicans as well as all Democrats. But that only proves you are indeed a Russian disinformation agent! (Watts also claimed that Sen. Rubio’s presidential bid “anecdotally suffered” from an online Russian campaign against him.)
As Watts describes these nefarious Russian schemes, they are so nefarious that they don’t have any discernible earmarks or detectable predictability. In his view, the Russians don’t want to help any particular person or group, just undermine America’s faith in its democracy.
As Watts puts it, Russians attack “people on both sides of the aisle … solely based on what they [the Russians] want to achieve in their own landscape, whatever the Russian foreign policy objectives are. They win because they play both sides.” In other words, any political comment that an American might make might just prove that you’re a traitor.
But Watts singled out President Trump for special criticism because he supposedly has tweeted about Russian-planted conspiracy theories. “Part of the reason active measures have worked in this U.S. election is because the commander-in-chief has used Russian active measure at times against his opponent,” Watts said, citing Trump’s bogus claims about 2016 voter fraud and his earlier silliness about President Obama’s Kenyan birthplace. Yes, as we all know, every goofy idea is manufactured in Russia. Americans are incapable of developing their own nonsense.
Watts then suggested that some kind of Ministry of Truth is needed to stamp out unapproved information. “Until we get a firm basis on fact and fiction in our own country, … we’re going to have a big problem,” Watts said. He warned of a dangerous future from Russian information: “Somewhere in their cache right now there’s tremendous amounts of information laying around they can weaponize against other Americans.”
Perhaps what is even more frightening than the Russians letting Americans in on how Washington’s political process really works – by somehow slipping WikiLeaks some evidence of Democratic Party bigwigs tilting the Democratic primaries to ensure Clinton’s nomination and revealing what Clinton told those Wall Street bankers – is the idea that the U.S. government should be enlisted to enforce what Americans get to see and hear.
The PropOrNot Smear
Watts and his alarums showed up in another context in the weeks after the 2016 election when The Washington Post ran a front-page story highlighting the claims by an anonymous group, PropOrNot, which was pushing a blacklist of 200 Internet news sites, including such independent sources of information as Counterpunch, Truthdig, Naked Capitalism, Zero Hedge, Truth-out and Consortiumnews.
The Washington Post building in downtown Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Washington Post)
Though the Post granted PropOrNot anonymity so it could safely slander independent-minded journalists, the Post turned to Watts to bolster PropOrNot’s case. “They [the Russians] want to essentially erode faith in the U.S. government or U.S. government interests,” Watts said. “This was their standard mode during the Cold War. The problem is that this was hard to do before social media.”
The Post then linked to an article that Watts had co-authored entitled, “Trolling for Trump: How Russia Is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy.” which, in turn, cited as proof RT articles that mentioned Hillary Clinton’s health problem last September (which was later acknowledged to be a bout with pneumonia) and that discussed the vulnerabilities of the Federal Reserve (in an age of escalating public and private debt). Both might seem to you like reasonable topics for journalists, but you must understand that RT – because it is Russian-sponsored – has become the favorite whipping boy of anyone trying to make the case that America is besieged by Russian propaganda. And don’t you dare mention that almost no one in America actually watches RT or you might end up on PropOrNot’s list, too.
Watts and his cohorts continue: “Social issues currently provide a useful window for Russian messaging. Police brutality, racial tensions, protests, anti-government standoffs, online privacy concerns, and alleged government misconduct are all emphasized to magnify their scale and leveraged to undermine the fabric of society.”
And, we know for sure that you’re a Russian agent if you express any concern that the heightened tensions between the U.S. and Russia might lead to nuclear war. As Watts and friends write, “More recently, Moscow turned to stoking fears of nuclear war between the United States and Russia” – and their “proof” was a link not to RT but to the financial Web site, Zero Hedge, which already had made it onto PropOrNot’s black list.
So, let’s see if we got this right: We are not to worry our pretty little heads about nuclear war or a future financial meltdown or police brutality toward racial minorities or race relations in general or armed right-wing clashes with authorities or spying on our Internet use or any government wrongdoing at all or even citizen protests against that wrongdoing. Because if we debate such issues – if we even read about such issues – we are playing into Vladimir Putin’s evil plans.
What Democracy?
Which makes me wonder what kind of “democracy” these brave “defenders of democracy” have in mind. The New York Times, The Washington Post and some establishment-approved Internet sites already have begun work on establishing standards for what information the American people will be allowed to see and hear – with disapproved sources of news marginalized by Internet search engines or prevented from earning any money by exclusion from Google and other ad programs.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presents a dummy vial of anthrax on Feb. 5, 2003, during a speech to the UN Security Council outlining the American case that Iraq possessed forbidden stockpiles of WMD.
Presumably, the 200 or so Web sites on PropOrNot’s black list would be the first cut for the new Ministry of Truth since many of them have published articles that raised questions about the accuracy of claims made by the U.S. State Department or they have expressed the belief that there may be two sides to complex issues – when Americans are supposed to hear only the side that Official Washington wants them to hear.
Some of these “Russian propaganda” Web sites – prior to the Iraq War – even raised doubts about the U.S. government’s certainty that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of WMDs. Thank goodness the Internet wasn’t as widely used back then or perhaps many Americans would have doubted the truth-telling by The New York Times and The Washington Post, which dutifully passed on the U.S. government’s pronouncements about Hussein’s secret WMDs.
Surely, in 2002-03, the Russians must have been behind the resistance by those few Web sites to the WMD group think that all the respectable people just knew to be true. How else can you explain the skepticism? And maybe Russia was responsible for the U.S. government’s failure to find any of those WMD stockpiles. Curse you, Russia!
With the Senate Intelligence Committee’s hearing on Thursday, this determination to squelch any dissenting American views as “Russian disinformation” moved up a notch, beyond some think-tank chatter, some newspaper articles or some initial planning for private-sector censorship.
The craziness has now become the focus of an official Senate investigation into Russian “meddling” in American political life. We have taken another step down the path of a New Cold War that blends a New McCarthyism with a New Orwellianism.
[For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com’s “The Orwellian War on Skepticism” and “How US Flooded the World with Psyops.”]
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).
I think Carl Bernstein’s summary is a great place to begin: “There’s a cover up going on. We can’t tell yet what the cover up […] is about. […] People are trying to keep us and investigators from knowing what all of these goings on [with Russians] are about …” […] but clearly they don’t want us to know a damn thing.” While I have no doubt the Dems are red baiting for all it’s worth, Donald Did a Deal with Putin. I believe there are two “Russia-gates” the red herring about “hacking” the election and the very real possibility Trump & Co. committed treason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34SlZH7r8LE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr-gL7forGQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_zIgFWRuhE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnQHPvaArU4
This is old however on anther topic MH 17 i found and old bookmark.
This was on the 21 st July 4 days after the 17th Crash/kill. It was opinion that it was deliberate. The sound tapes which were doctored can prove prior planning, and so culpability.
http://truthfrequencyradio.com/downed-airliner-fake-audio-tape-shows-us-backed-hit-to-frame-russia/
If tapes were engineered before MH 17 happened, then you got your perpetrator.
“Russiagate” certainly scares some people! Hardly a day passes now without at least one article somewhere on the American internet trying to sweep it under the carpet! What if Putin turns out to be Trump’s 9/11? Trump is making a monumental mess of his presidency, far worse than Bush the Son. The latter was rescued by 9/11. A war would certainly suit Donald. Candidates? North Korea? Too dangerous. They’re unpredictable screwballs. China? Too solidly established. Nobody feels threatened by China. And the winner is … our friend Vlad! The creaking, rickety cold war dinosaur that is Russia is a perfect target. Putin’s quaint, 19th century, world view and his brutal KGB style make him a threat to Europe. And to Israel. Putin has discredited Israel’s American protector and NATO, the instrument of that protection. He is propping up Israel’s enemy, Assad, and snuggling up to Israel’s designated enemy no.1, Iran. Getting Putin out of Ukraine would kill several birds with one stone and it’s hard to see who would object (other than Putin and the gangsters behind him!). Even the peoples of Russia would probably be very glad to see the last of aforementioned gangsters, who’ve been robbing them blind for the last 25 years!
I hear you man: http://www.newamericanjournal.net
“And don’t you dare mention that almost no one in America actually watches RT ……………..”
Sure about that?
“The study was conducted by the world’s third largest market research company, based in France, in 38 countries out of the 100+ where RT programming is available. The survey was taken between August-November 2015, just as RT was preparing to mark its 10th anniversary.
“Ipsos has decades of experience in international audience measurement, and we’ve worked with dozens of premier broadcasters from around the world. We are happy that RT chose Ipsos to conduct their biggest audience survey yet,” said Ipsos Connect MENAP CEO, Elie Aoun.
“In the US, RT’s weekly audience is above 8 million viewers, the study showed, which places the broadcaster among the top-5 international TV news channels.”
I forgot to leave the link. It’s https://www.rt.com/news/335123-rt-viewership-ipsos-study/
Look At The Picture;
be afraid.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/2017-03-10/russia-trump-and-new-d-tente
Aloha, this whole thing is the usual look over here, deflecting attention from what they dont want u 2 c or know hb
The Putin/Russia demonization is just Weapons-of-Mass-Baloney & the Iraq War-4-Israel in a new suit. No facts. No logic. Just fear & tribal loathing. Our rulers & their stink-tanks detest Trumpkins because they don’t control him and won’t get their new war-4-Israel in Syria. Just ask Richard Nathan Haass; remove Assad, Khamenei & Putin? And it’s Ponies for Everyone! Just like what happened when we pulled the Saddam Hussein statue down. Moses & Baby Jesus will smile down on us all again. Richie couldn’t get his Syrian War-4-Israel with President Barry which is why, this time, he & his bosses weren’t screwing around – it would be Hillary and all-war-all-the-time. Or nothing. Except they forgot about Pennsylvania, Ohio & Michigan, I guess.
We are ruled by seriously dysfunctional & truly horrible persons.
While I usually agree with a lot of what you say , in this case: “Methinks thou dost protest too much”
From minute 3:11 – see
https://youtu.be/ZPpt7-QOGKc
Such hysteria reflects a tremendous insecurity in the political and associated influence spheres in America, exposed and exacerbated by the result of the presidential election. Hillary was supposed to be a sure thing, the safe bet, the continuity for normalized neoliberal policies. The slick humming machine of two-party lesser-evil politics backed by the greatest information control system in human history was to produce the desired result, but it didn’t. What is confirmed by the Russia hysteria is there was no Plan B, and the fear underlining these hysterics is not of Putin but the American people themselves. Trump’s persona and clumsy libertarian policies will introduce actual politics back into the system, which has been absent since somewhere soon after the Kennedys were murdered.
People,
Indicators tell us that in order to cope with the Washington paranoia we’re going to have to drop a large quantity of Thorazine into the drinking water.
I think overall that we are constantly being pounded with whom to hate. The bad guys in our tv shows, movies etc. are likely Muslims (such as Iranians etc.), Russians, North Koreans, Chinese etc.and even the Guardian (among others) have done articles about the close relationship between the CIA and Hollywood. Add that on top of what you hear daily from the news then it is a full court press of hate. One other thing that I found interesting when I heard about the report about Russian spying and the dangers of RT was that RT did stories about:
1) Fracking
2) Black Lives Matter
3) Gave 3rd Parties a platform to debate
4) Police Brutality
Really, so basically RT is reporting on what the US mainstream media largely ignores but are of real interest to the American people. Isn’t that all stuff that people should know about? I guess maybe the mainstream media believes that ignorance is bliss…
I watch RT daily. They are so good at it, that I had no idea I was being Russian-propagandized by watching Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, Tyrel Ventura, Chris Hedges, Max Keiser, et al. – all of whom, I’m sure, would bridle at being called Russian stooges. RT is not being vilified because it’s “Russian propaganda,” but because it tells stories that American MSM can’t tell for fear of offending corporate sponsors or that they will lose access to all those “anonymous sources” that make up so much of what they call “news.” If I see stories on RT that I think might be skewed to one side or another, I am fully capable of doing a little research and deciding for myself what to believe – based on years of reading and study about both our national and foreign policies. I don’t need a “ministry of truth” to tell me what to believe, and neither do most Americans.
Patricia – very well put. Yes, we all must do our own research, look at both sides of an issue. I don’t want any government trying to figure this out for me. I’ll do it on my own.
Moreover, I don’t see anything less than objectivity when RT reports on news from America. It doesn’t hide or distort America’s successes in weapons development, space exploration by NASA, progress in computer technology or biomedical advances. Those are simply objective facts which are given their due, just like America’s crumbling infrastructure, poor race relations, and ponzi scheme economy. American reportage seems more like propaganda, especially in terms of what is purposefully omitted and hidden from the public. Sure, Russia has an editorial opinion on world events, especially in its strained relationship with the United States, but what is fact and what is opinion or perception seems fairly delineated to me on RT, Sputnik and even Russian Insider (which takes a transparently sarcastic tone in response to American bombast).
Patricia, you are one of the many wise women who post on this site. This seems to be where all the smart people come, looking for sanity on the internet.
R.Parry: “Though WikiLeaks denies getting the two batches of emails – the DNC’s and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s – from the Russians… ”
Who is “the Russians”? When J.Assange expressed himself on the origin of the leak, he was very exact in his wording. He said: “Wikileaks did not receive the information from the Russian State. Nor any state.” And he referred further to the strict protection of their sources. However, journalists keep repeating that “it was not the Russians…” – meaning what? Putin’s orders? The Russian Secret Service? Any individual Russians working on their own anywhere in the world?
By the way, a bit off-topic, but relevant to the future of J. Assange: tomorrow April 2nd there will be the second round of the presidential election in Ecuador, between the two candidates who got most votes in the first round. One of the candidates has declared openly that if he wins, he will kick out Assange from their London Embassy.
In this connection it may be noted that the Swedish prosecutor has needed almost three months to study the memorandum of the Ecuadorian prosecutor, from the Assange interview in November, to determine whether there are any grounds to pursue the investigation further. The material is in Spanish and the translation has taken this long (from Jan.5th). Now they inform that the translation is nearly finished and for security reasons they cannot disclose what their next steps will be.
My uninformed guess is that the Swedes have been dragging their feet in this investigation as they are hoping and praying for this unfortunate issue in their hands to be solved without their decision.
But who cares about Assange – he is just one of the numerous Russian puppets… right?
Lisa – in my mind, the Swedes are as culpable as the United States. Despicable! Assange was set up. I will never set foot in an Ikea store again! Everybody should outright boycott anything Swedish.
My record of never purchasing an IKEA product remains perfect after seven decades. I always bought my cheap furniture that needed assembly from Kmart, Woolco, Sears or Service Merchandise. See what’s happened to them…
I can only imagine how scary it is for the rest of the world to see the great USofA go through such an internal spasm with such a vast quantity of nuclear weapons at hand. And of course, scary for us too. The neocons and the Deep State are becoming unhinged; and we have maniacal, narcissistic, realityTV-star with a single digit IQ as head of state. Can it get any worse? Nobody could make this s**t up. And here we are, the ones that see through the BS, sequestered (as a fellow CN commenter said) in a “sound-proof free speech zone”.
We can thank the DNC for insisting on such an unsavory character as the Queen of Chaos for our current plight, not the evil Ruskies.
“I can only imagine how scary it is for the rest of the world to see the great USofA go through such an internal spasm (of madness, sic) with such a vast quantity of nuclear weapons at hand.” This is very true, but it suggests that you are a Russian agent trying to scare the US population of nuclear war.
You obviously have a better candidate in mind than the “maniacal, narcissistic, reality TV-star with a single digit IQ” and the “queen of chaos”. Enlighten us please, it can’t be the senile old fool who endorsed the queen after being cheated by her and now also joined in to blame Russia for all US ills?
If there were any better choice than lesserevilism, such candidate would have won.
Seriously, this is the key – the US is becoming a highly unstable country with too many nuclear weapons for the comfort of the World – the US is a potential suicide bomber.
Hi Kiza-
Once Bernie caved to the Hillary machine, I hitched my wagon to Jill Stein and the Greens. I know she didn’t have a chance, but I felt I had no where else to turn. In the past, I have voted for Ron Paul in the Republican Primaries, because he was the only peace candidate. Issues of war and peace have always been my greatest concern.
As for my being a Russian agent because I am afraid of a nuclear war and dare to point out its likelihood, I fail to see how that is a logical assumption. I happen to love my country; the chuckleheads running our government, not so much.
Hello Skip, sorry that you misunderstood my joke. Here is a better one from zerohedge.com comments: “Russian hacking is an act of war, which warrants a nuclear response! There is overwhelming public support for nuclear war with Russia. The only people who don’t want it are Russian agents and fake news journalists!”
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs developed automated voicemail system – please listen (Russian, then English) and tell us your opinion. Feedback appreciated!
“You have reached the Russian embassy, your call is very important to us. To arrange a call from a Russian diplomat to your political opponent, press 1. To use the services of Russian hackers press 2. To request election interference, press 3 and wait until the next election campaign. Please note that all calls are recorded for quality improvement and training purposes.”
“Russia did it by undermining our democratic process through the clever means of releasing truthful information…”
And here Mr Parry hits the nail on the head. One might well ask the various “Russia blamers” “Does it hurt when I press here?” And they would yell and jump about a foot in the air, because it certainly does hurt.
The big question is whether telling voters the truth can ever be wrong. The American political establishment thinks it is profoundly wrong and should never, ever be allowed. That’s what’s really behind their hatred of RT, RI, and all the other truthful sources out there.
How can they maintain their pretence that the USA has a democracy, when the voters are being told the truth? Either they must fool the voters into believing a pack of lies – again – or they will have to bite the bullet and admit that they are running a totalitarian tyranny.
In other words, you can have “democracy”, or you can have the truth; but you can’t have both.
RP rational response to irrational argument based hysteria with hidden agenda of survival of those blackmailed by CIA and IC cowards in congress and media combined with monetary incentives misses the point. No normal person needs to be convinced that Russia did not ruined America, Americans were fully capable of doing it themselves. Case closed. Nothing to add, no need to go on in face of complete lack of evidences or even credible leads.
The problem is as David Hume posited: “If reason is against man, he will soon turn against reason” into superstition and magical thinking and happy soothing, submission to the powers, the only available and acceptable option within totalitarian culture like, an American commercial culture of worshipers of profit.
It is all about new McCarthyism, new campaign of terror and blank, baseless grave accusations against anyone who dares to question supposedly official, MSM spewed stories, viscous campaign of alienation of journalists from their readership under cloud of criminality, spying and FBI investigation against those who do not peddle official narratives who are not buying utter nonsense and who do not draw absurd conclusions based on lies and innuendos without any shred of evidence.
The basic goal of provocateurs is that we accept evidence-free McCarthyite slanderous construct of enemy of America. Only because they say so. Once we accept their lies and their arbitrary determination of who are American enemies we give them credibility and accusatory power, power to accuse anyone of anything since in our own mind anyone behavior or opinions could be consistent with what our enemy would have done or thought, releasing us from a rigor of rational analysis and necessity of evidence based conclusion that is a foundation of any moral judgment.
That’s the real danger of this new McCarthyism to American way of life, capable of tearing fabric of our society down and is a direct threat to the social order and hence must be fought and ridiculed.
I just love all this “Russia blaming”. It provides several good chuckles every day. Writers for comedy shows must be so jealous of what a great job politicians and mainstream media are doing satirizing themselves. Certainly makes Putin look bland and uninteresting.
All this from Hilary’s “Indispensable Nation”. It also makes Australia’s revolving-door do-nothing government look a bit professional. We don’t blame Russia for everything – unions, greens and One Nation also get some blame. They must therefore
be in cahoots with Russia.
Gary, first thing, to my great surprise our current PM, a former director of Goldman Sachs Australia who I deeply dislike, has shied away from legally accusing Russia for the crime of MH17. He and the Liberal Party are maintaining the official Putin-did-it in the media, but they have backed off a state terrorism case in the international court. This means that Australia still respects law unlike US. The PM can maintain the friendship with US by blaming Putin in the media, whilst respecting legalities of the case in secret. Not too shabby a compromise.
Second thing, Australian Government dropped all millions of $ donations to Clinton Foundation right on November 9, 2016.
“We don’t blame Russia for everything – unions, greens and One Nation also get some blame.”
Well, you probably do not watch the SBS television channel (aka Sh* Bullsh* Sh*), because this is where only Russia gets blamed for everything.
“Trump justifiably tweeted ‘(w)hy isn’t the House Intelligence Committee looking into the Bill & Hillary deal that allowed big Uranium to go to Russia, Russian speech…money to Bill, the Hillary Russian ‘reset, praise by Hillary, or Podesta Russian Company. Trump’s Russia story is a hoax.’
Why isn’t House Select Committee of Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes investigating Clinton Foundation racketeering – RICO-level criminality, instead of focusing on nonexistent Trump ties to Russia?
After months of FBI investigatory work, not a shred of anything improper was discovered. There’s plenty of illegality to hold the Clintons responsible for.
So why isn’t it being exposed? Why isn’t the Clinton crime family held accountable for major racketeering offenses, along with all their other high crimes?”
From Stephen Lendman’s article: “No Investigation of Clinton Foundation Uranium Deal with Russia”. Maybe we need a t-shirt that says, “Hillary did it”.
Robert Parry – just an excellent article! Thank you.
I overcooked the pork chops tonight, but I blamed it on Putin. My son left his wet towel laying on the bathroom floor, and I said, “Damn you, Putin!” We need to have some fun with this. Whenever anything happens that’s bad, blame it on Putin.
Don’t shy away from these clowns; send it right back in their direction. If everyone started doing this, they’d soon look like the fools they are. Someone needs to come up with a new “Putin did it” t-shirt.
And we need to remember that just because the MSM is broadcasting Russian and Putin propaganda 24/7 does not mean that everyone is falling for it. They’re telling you that that’s the case, but then again look at the source.
They must feel they are losing their hold on the brainwashed masses (and they are), otherwise we would not be seeing this level of desperation. They are completely desperate at the moment. You can see it in Schiff’s eyes.
Both sides of the aisle are fighting for all they’re worth, fighting against affordable healthcare, fighting for more war, anything to keep their little empires intact. Shame on them all.
Trump is making them show their true colors. He is unmasking them.
Banjos getting louder by the day.
Great Article. Following is the quotation from Martin Luther King’s speech at Riverside Church, New York on April 4, 1967:
“. . . Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise voice against the violence of the oppressed people in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government”.
When I watch the black leaders in the U.S. congress like Maxine Waters, Carl Lewis on TV calling for Trump’s impeachment because he is Putin’s agent, and that Russia interfered in our elections and that Russians are responsible for Hillary’s loss, I feel sick in the stomach. They are so uneducated, and plainly stupid. Then you wonder why the people are electing them time and again for thirty or forty years now.
But they are not alone. With the exception of a few, like Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, Republican Dana Rohrbacher, almost the whole congress almost belongs to that category. Not only Congress; it is the Media, Financial Establishment, and Military Industrial Military Complex, all are actors in this drama. And the worst of all, the Academia by and large is also complicit in it. This is the lowest, the country can get. U.S. is almost in the psychotic stage now. Any slide further may result in some kind of catastrophe for the entire world. It is not a good news. I am not kidding. Militarily, and economically, we are a frighteningly powerful country.
And the citizenry is not informed at all. For a long time now, by design (of the Ruling Classes) the masses have been dumbbed down, and made to believe anything the Ruling Elite churned out. And starting in the 1980’s, they have been ushered into this Neo-liberal, World Economic Order. It has turned their lives upside down. Add to it the very large number of immigration for the last twenty five years, and the resulting cultural/identity shock. They are bewildered and can not comprehend it. And this daily dose of nonstop (24/7) nonsense of “Russia Meddling in the U.S. Election” , and the other such garbage about Trump aimed at them like bullets, is not good for them.
Hearing Judy Woodruff from a distance while I was cooking, on the PBS Evening News which my wife was watching, I thought that this drama will end soon.-they have almost brought it to a stage to impeach the President, and end their suffering. But later on in the news, they showed the reporter talking to the Trump supporters in Allen Park and Novi, Michigan. The Trump supporters still do not believe in this Russia Hacking/Meddling story; and they are sticking to their Man. So, we have not reached that stage yet. Just suffer through this for a little while longer. Remember Collin Powell at the U.N.O., Saddam Hussain’s WMD’s and all that.
They are having their Senate hearings, and the Michael Flynn immunity deal, and all that. They will cook some thing.
In the meantime, the masses must have some patience and wait. The Masters who rule know it. They are working on the problem. They will find a solution; they are very good at it. In the mean time, they will keep taking pulse of the Trump supporters, looking for an appropriate time to end this drama.
The most alarming aspect of the “Russia hysteria” is that those segments of our society who are responsible for dealing with these issues seem to be the most taken in by it, i.e. the political and journalistic. These people are the ones that we depend on to keep their cools and analyze the raw date, putting it in a useful, reasonable form on a daily basis. The frightening question that immediately comes to mind is, “Is this the methodology that they are using when treating our domestic affairs? If that is the case, and it obviously is, then, we have our answers to a lot of concerns that we have long been nurturing about these people, because the foreign and domestic are, of course, connected. We should all realize where the real source of our problems is. Maybe our difficulties are not what they are saying they are.
For example, on the domestic side, after seven years of voting to repeal Obamacare by the House, it turns out that they didn’t even have a “replacement” shovel-ready, and, when they finally did cobble one together, it failed miserably. The town moron could have given a better performance, and most of them should, in good conscience, resign. This is big, but, of course, we are not going to hear about it in the MSM, let alone where we should hear about it, in the Congress.
The many reasons why the “Russia threat” is fantastic (not in the “wow”, but literal, sense) have been amply ennumerated by Robert Parry here and in previous articles. They all give evidence of a serious problem of either mendacity, or, more probably, just a basic failure to perceive reality. Remarkably, lack of what passes for intelligence does not seem to be one of the problems when you look at the lineup of the offenders, although ignorance of history may not be an inappropriate characterization. It seems that we are missing an entire social science discipline that could really give us some insight into these transcultural imponderables, whose secrets have not been exposed by the traditional ones that we have thought were serving us so well to date.
It is just not “realistic” to imagine that a country, whose GNP is 5% of the combined GNPs of the US and EU would be able to perform such a feat of political prestidigitation as to exercize such a substantial degree of control over our political life. Our military budget is actually close to a trillion dollars, while Russia’s is closer to 50 billion. We’re selling ten times the amount of arms to the world that Russia is. Mr. PutIn, even though he rides very high in his countrymens’ opinion (75% approval), would have to be a extraordinary and unimaginable genius to pull off such a stunt. Watching and listening to him live and in real time could be an antidote to such outlandish accusations, but, of course, this would never happen for fear that he might lead us astray, as if he hasn’t already. It would seem that our imaginations have got the best of us.
As we let them run wild, let us remember that what we are really doing here is “projecting” our own fears of ourselves; we, who have 800 military installations in 130 countries around the world, while Russia has one in Syria at the eastern end of the Mediterranean in a neighboring country. We have invaded and overthrown countless governments in the past 60 years, causing the deaths of millions of people, let alone meddle in their elections, while Russia has invaded none, unless you call the expulsion of the Germans from the Russian homeland by moving into eastern Europe to guarantee their future security from another western attack, an “invasion”, keeping in mind the countless attacks that they have suffered from the West in the past few centuries. We have attempted in recent years to goad Georgia into anti-Russian provocations and suceeded in fomenting a coup in Ukraine, both former members of the Soviet Union, who have a political relationship with Russia that I dare say we have no real sense of and shouldn’t meddle with. What real interests do we have in these countries other than our own self-aggrandizement.
While we, as a country of crybabies, are joining the “victims” club along with all the other various minorities, it seems strange that we don’t have room for another, the “Russians”.
Lest these thoughts be used as evidence of an attitude of “appeasement” or lack of patriotism, or, as the latest expression has it, Russian “stoogedom”, I would put my personal experience with things Soviet and Russian ands other international affairs up against any would-be critics, who probably have never met a Russian, don’t know a word of the language, have not been to Russia, have not read a book about it, let aloe study it in university, starting along the coastline of its far eastern provinces, where (1956-9) I flew reconnaissance patrols as a US navy pilot, frequently escorted by Mig-17s.
Thank you Robert Keith. I always appreciate your commentary. I’m interested in your thoughts about the shoot down of Gary Powers U2 in 1960… If you would contact me at [email protected]. Thanks.
Robert Keith: With your background, and knowledge of Russia, your comments are very helpful, and carry much weight.
It was very instructive to watch the famous British Journalist Peter Hitchens on You Tube (Super Man) under the Title “EU is the continuation of Germany by other means”, Nov. 2015
It is a lecture and question answer session at Keele University during the Brexit debate in U.K. It is about EU issue. It also deals with Russia and Ukraine issue. Very informative and on the mark.
I have read books on Russian History, and have read many of the books written by Russian writers Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pasternak, Sholokov, and Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. Russia has a very tragic History. Being the eastern most European People, they faced many very brutal Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century. As many Russian Writers/Historians point out that Russia saved Western European civilization by facing the Mongol invasions from the East. Then subjugated by Tatars (Mongolian/Turkic people) of the Steppe, they paid annual tribute to them for more than two centuries. They did not develop like Western Europe; they got influenced by Asians cultures as well. They have been repeatedly attacked from the West. After the despotic rule of the Czars, they suffered through the Bolshevik and Stalin’s terror, during which all private property ownership was abolished, and land collectivized. During the first World War with Germany, they lost more than five million people. In the Second World War, they lost more than twenty five million people, and most of the European part of the country was utterly destroyed. With the sudden break up of the Soviet Union, under the corrupt, alcoholic, charlatan President Yeltsin, the Russian State almost collapsed. Russia needed some help to build new institutions; it’s people needed some rest from their nightmare.
But history does not work that way. Western Europe has been looking for this for a long time. Now they got the opportunity to go at the (wounded) Bear – as they call Russia. And of course, EU, NATO is run by U.S. President Putin is not a likeable person. He is not a smooth, slick PR/TV performer like Obama. Russian State completely collapsed three times before. And each time they resurrected it. Whatever one may think of Putin, he has saved Russia again, fourth time in their history, after almost complete collapse during 1991-2000 period. He is authoritarian, and may be that is what Russia needs at this time of their history. (Peter Hitchens discusses this issue in the Lecture/Question session at Keele University)
Western European Nations and U.S. are Imperial powers. Just 60 or 70 years ago, most of Asia and Africa were the colonies of Western Nations. They lost control of those possessions (for a while only). The West is fighting to reassert its’ complete control over those Asian and African Nations again, make them some sort of economic colonies under this Neoliberal World Economic Order run by U.S. and Western Europe. Emerging China is the real threat. Russia, and the Central Asian Nations are the gateway to China. Once they fall, China is next. And Chinese understand it. Russia is the weakest of all. As history of Western Imperial Nations tells us; they are going to go after Russia. This is not new; this theory is in the the book by Zbiniew Brzezinski, “The Grand Chessboard”. Kissinger has similar philosophy in which China is first on the list. So, survival of Russia this time as a Sovereign Nation is not very certain. They are a very weak nation, Militarily and Economically, compared to the West. If China stands by Russia, they will survive, otherwise they will be another Economic Colony of the West.
This “Russia- Gate” and all that what is going on is just a prelude to it. One has to read the history to see the methods and lies of the Western Nations, for almost five centuries now, to colonize those Asian, African, and South American Nations, and our own lies of Treaties with the American Indian Nations.
It may be entertaining for us to read these articles and write the comments, but it is not so for Russians. It is real for them. With NATO forces/Western Armies once again sitting on their borders, and this nonstop 24/7 “Russia Threat” nonsense going on in the Media here, they have to prepare to defend their Land, once again. They had no time for rest this time in their Sad and Tragic History.
Mr. Keith,
With such a long personal history of educating yourself on these matters and assiduously following historical developments, it must be especially depressing to you to see the promise of the Reagan-Gorbachev agreement to end the Cold War and enter an era of peace and cooperation be so thoroughly dashed by the Great Flim-flam team of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It was a clearly transparent methodical deconstruction by those two of all the cooperation and good will that had been laboriously fostered over a quarter century.
Dubya made a modest start to this deconstruction by abrogating the nuclear missile treaty meant to preclude a first strike attempt by either side. Obama and Hillary clearly wanted to go back to the days when Slick Willy bullied Yeltsin at will and no one in Russia complained as the drunken buffoon jumped to America’s tune. That’s what these con artists really meant as a “reset” with Russia.
Putin never had any intention of re-creating the Soviet Union or invading any other country, not against America’s NATO. The notion is absurd, and Putin is smart not fanatical. Look at the economic and military assets of the two “sides,” all of NATO vs Russia, a country with the GDP of Spain, a population of 140 million vs 743 million in all of Europe, and an army receiving approximately 7% of the money and resources underwriting the NATO juggernaut (Russia’s total military budget= $65 billion; NATO’s total military budget= $920 billion).
Putin is no fool, nor is he a demon as the American media disingenuously makes him out to be. That is all part of the con game, meant to trick the American people and the Western World, in which the American media is simply part of the team of con artists. Every intelligent informed person KNOWS the real truth in spite of the phony narrative that has been fed to the masses and it will embarrassingly come out at some point in the future… if there is a future.
I always thought that my mother, who died in 1987, would have been so surprised if she had lived to see the end of the Cold War, which was totally unanticipated but much welcomed by nearly everyone (except, apparently, the American Deep State). Now I have to contemplate how surprised my father, a lifelong Democrat who died in 2009 at a ripe old age of nearly 90, would have been if he had lived to see this welcomed era of peace being systematically dismantled by craven American politicians like Barack Obama (whom he mistrusted but never lived to see misrule) and his anointed heir-apparent Hillary Clinton totally in the service of a “shadow empire” controlled by money and guns rather than its people. It’s almost like our so-called leaders are constantly receiving orders, usually to the detriment of humanity, whispered in their ears by invisible shadow creatures like the heinous players in the space opera “Babylon Five.”
Mr. Parry, I appreciate your articles. They are well researched, logical, and well written. Please, however, in future, use some other picture of Paul Ryan – every time I see the one you used in this article, and some others in the last weeks, I immediately want to go and read MAD Magazine, because Ryan looks so much like Alfred E. Neuman (What? me worry?), he could be AEN’s incarnation. Thanks.
My wife and I in Paul Ryan see Little Eddie Munster all grown up, and yes I can see the resemblance to Alfred E Neuman. Also consortiumnews isn’t going to win awards for it’s photo library. In fact let’s all go read a MAD magazine because MAD makes more sense than Washington these days. Thanks for the laugh Gregory.
What is so disorienting about the liberal Democrats embracing the absurdity of “Russia stealing our election” (or Russia even wanting to take any stand whatever on our election) is the fanatical zeal with which they have adopted the old red-baiting McCarthyist tactics of the 1950’s, which the whole country came to look back at with justified shame. Parry describes that mind bending act of collective madness to a tee, but what’s most interesting to me is that the same cast of characters now carrying the torches and pitchforks, roving the countryside looking for heretics to burn, condemned the Republicans for the same fanatical mass behavior back during the Dubya years and their unstoppable warmongering built upon lies and fear. It was names like Al Frankin, Randy Rhodes, Paul Krugman, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow shouting wait! Where’s the evidence behind the preposterous narrative that Saddam Hussein is building nukes, has other WMD’s, and masterminded the 9-11 attacks, so therefore we have to wage all out war, not only against Afghanistan for harboring a bunch of Saudi terrorists, but we have to overthrow Saddam plus destroy the last vestiges of civilisation and modern technology in his country to teach all the other terrorists in the wide world that America is not to be messed with.
Back then, those media tools seemingly had brains and applied logic to the major issue of the day that was alienating more people in the world AGAINST America than recruiting them to our side. Some of their number, like Frankin, even used “the cause” they fought for as a springboard to a political career. What have most of those people (except for a small number like Cenk Uygur, Jimmy Dore and Ed Schultz who cling to sanity) done now, basically because Hillary and the Democrats lost an election they should have won? They’ve lost their fricking minds is what, and are now guilty of the same war fever and demonization of foreign leaders built from an entire fabric of lies, for which there is NO evidence ever presented and, to boot, which makes no goddamn sense whatsoever.
These maniacs are willing to put the entire future of the whole human race at risk in a nuclear war with Russia (and maybe China too, if they really get their way!) for what? To stop something (a scenario of Russian aggression which THEY invented) that was never going to happen in a million years? For Russia to invade Poland or its fellow paranoids in the Baltics (all with the privileges of NATO membership conferring the ability to instigate World War III) would make as much sense and be about as likely as Mexico invading Texas and California to get its stolen land back. The probability of success would be comparable, however, because of Russia’s special privileges as the designated target of all NATO enmity, its consequences would be immeasurably worse–probably a taste of that much discussed American first nuclear strike.
If Frankin, Maddow and the rest of the suddenly-gone-batshit-crazy-club has any real evidence that such a scenario is even vaguely plausible, that mass suicide by the Russian nation can be entertained as a real possibility, and that they have ANY real hard evidence of the Russian intrigues against the American state that they repeatedly allege, they need to put it out there, in a way that can be believed, not just “assessed” with “high confidence” by spooks with the established credibility of Tricky Dick, Slick Willy, Kenny Boy Lay and Bernie Madoff rolled into one. They need to provide real names, places, dates, corroborated with documents and witnesses. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. These unhinged hysterical fanatics provide preposterous unbelievable claims with NO proof. Time for these bullshitters to be told to start walking. They all ought to lose their cushy well-paid jobs for wasting our time, riling up the populace and putting the entire world at risk of a civilisation-ending nuclear war. Frankin (D-MN), his fellow Minnesota looney tune Amy Klobachar, Chuck Schumer (Idiot-NY) and most of the Democratic caucus-turned-insurrectionists ought to be “shellacked” a third time come 2018. Maddow, Krugman and the rest of the fourth estate who have found a new cause in propagandizing and warmongering should face investigations for willfully misleading the public with intent to foment violence. If that doesn’t square with the first amendment (which I think they ceased to care about), they should each get a paragraph in future U.S. history books in the chapter on “fake news” during the early 21st century. Their names deserve to go down in infamy alongside Brutus, Cassius, Judas, Benedict Arnold, and Quisling.
Because this Russomania began as a way to shield Hillary Clinton from her epic failure of campaign strategy, the remedy for it seems to be to charge her under the Espionage Act for the crimes delineated by James Comey, and also charge anyone who aided or shielded her. Boom. Discovery. Evidence. Seize the DNC servers. Show the facts of the matter. And if the Hillary camp screams, then open up the Foundation investigation and begin charging for money laundering donations to the Foundation that were made in payment for favors sold by Secretary Clinton. Let justice roll down. Those who lie for her would flee.
Sometimes, I think about the authors and signers of the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights, and how after their historic declarations they arrived home for dinner to then look at their own wives, sisters and mothers, and say, “.. You didn’t think that we were talking about you. .. Did you???”
In July 1944, all 44 Allied Powers met at Bretton Woods to set up a system of rules, institutions, and procedures to regulate the international monetary system, these accords, established the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The United States, which at the time controlled two thirds of the world’s gold, insisted that the Bretton Woods system rest on both gold and the US dollar. Some of J. M. Keynes’ proposals would have established a world reserve currency (which he thought might be called “bancor”) to be administered by a central bank vested with the possibility of creating money and with the authority to take actions on a much larger scale; however, the United States objected and it was their request that was granted, thus making the “world reserve currency” the U.S. dollar. Soviet representatives attended the conference but later declined to ratify the final agreements, they charged that the institutions the US had created were “branches of Wall Street.”
The great William Kurt Black told us that ‘The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One.” .. Well, who do you call if the bank is partially or wholly owned by the citizens of a another Country?? .. And yes, true to the form of this lowest common denominator in US wars and aggression since ww2, half of the profits from the Russian Central Bank is the property of the the Russian People.
Back to those “Originalists.” Our ancestors fought for 225 years to give us all the First Amendment Right to vote. .. But, in this current age of hyper monopoly capitalism, how far have we come in our pursuit of our “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” to have an have equal opportunity in the market place? .. In order to continue their ongoing fomented war, the very first war the establishment owners want to make is to replace our good will, love and affection towards our neighbors, family, etc., with their partisan prejudice and ignorance. .. Why else would they kill Laws like “The Equal Time Rule” and “The Fairness Doctrine?”
Thank you cmp, you make some very important points. I have been following Ellen Brown’s thinking about local banking and I’m convinced that that is one very important way to improve our decaying infrastructure and provide more stable growth and jobs. Russia has figured this out. China too, probably. We need another Bretton Woods that fairly addresses our Contemporary World.
I was impressed by an article this morning at Off Guuardian that I will link below that fairly expresses our situation. Thanks…
https://off-guardian.org/2017/03/31/fake-news-the-unravelling-of-us-empire-from-within/
wow.. wow .. wow!!! Bob, Thank You!!!
I have never heard of Prof. John McMurtry. I love the way he included ecology and the war on Mother Nature. I also, love the way he describes Trudeau and Trump. .. In 2007, when Obama stumped NAFTA, Harper immediately reacted with “Sure, let’s talk about how we move the energy…” .. And, with Trump stumping NAFTA in 2016, Trudeau & Nieto, are eerily quiet. .. Could it be that a new mutual “Art of the deal” is in store for the “Black Gold?” … But, what a great article that so articulately describes how so many us are thinking and feeling.
And, yes. I ‘am a big fan of Ellen too. When she came out with “Web Of Debt,” I ran straight out to order it from my local Barnes & Noble. And, I remember that when it arrived at their store for pick up, I requested the manager and opened the box in front of him, and with a smile, I recommended that they stock the book on the shelves. (.. I had to do it. (..smile..)) .. And, as you very well know, “The Public Banking Solution” is another fantastic book of hers; as well.
Hey – I did a quick search on John, and I see back he served as Chair of Jurists, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Tribunal at the Alternative World Summit in Toronto, 1989. .. Well, it just happens that PBS is running a series today in my locality (Phx, AZ), called “Dead Reckoning: War, Crime, and Justice from WW2 To The War On Terror.” .. It is running in 3 one hour segments: {1 – The General’s Ghost #101}, {2 – The Blind Eye #102}, {3 – In Our Time #103}.
Thank You Again Bob!
(.. I wish I could buy you a beer! (.. or a tea!))
Mike
Thank You Mike, your response is more than enough thanks. I often thank all concerned, plus Robert Parry because it is maddening to exist in our OZ like world. It’s invaluable to have a site to go to that has thinking people. So thank you for paying attention and keeping a clear mind.
It would be coffee… And I will follow up on John McMurtry, he sounds like a person to follow.
I read this on Counter Punch the other day and was blown away. Outstanding article!
Thing is Russia gets in the way of our oil interests. Crimea maritime rights in Black Sea and Syria oilfield in the annexed Golan Heights whose rights have been provided to Genie Energy owned by Cheney, Woolsley, Summers, Murdoch. Both Ukarine and Syria are also keys for providing a route to Europe for oil and gas (in Syrias case from Israel and Iraq to Turkey). Russia is countering the Ukraine loss who they accuse of diverting gas sent from Russia to Europe with a pipeline through the Baltic Sea which would cripple Ukraines economy.
“Thing is Russia gets in the way of our oil interests.”
There ya go, pft! What we’re really witnessing is a war between IMF and BRICS.
This article is long on sarcasm and short on facts. I’m disappointed by Parry.
Erica, thanks for that! The empire is falling apart, as you say.
I don’t blame Putin. I see some hysterics. I don’t mourn the effects of this current scandal on the operation of our democracy. I don’t believe we have a democratic republic. I don’t believe we’ve ever had privacy on the Internet. I believe this country was created and sustained for and by the moneyed elites. Democracy is a dream. The law is but a cudgel to keep the masses in line. The representative government by and for the people has always referred to the propertied class and not the mass of men comprising labor. A little hysteria about Putin for the moment is much ado.
President Trump is a despicable human being, a con artist, and a low grade human. Trump is making a mockery of the systems and procedures of government. So what? You mean that government that has served the interests of middle class Labor so well is being damaged by a billionaire con man? How can you tell? From Coca Cola to GE to Monsanto, these billionaire monoliths have been robbing you, killing you, using child and slave labor, poisoning your air and water and cultivating you as consumer cattle but somehow Trump stepped over some line of incredulity? Talk about non issues.
Hello there Robert Perry, still with us I see, trying our best to make sense. I finally becoming clear, the unmentionable are now confused stumbling over their own crazy answers to fact that are not supposed to come out that way??? It is so big now hat Mafia style, Organized crime. The people want their country back guys, tired of your garbage. So, nothing new to us really, BUt, the Gang is braking down and facing exposure are now fighting each other. Who did ISIS???OH my ir was so obvious at first, except the the Leader lost control of his monsters he was training and using to terrify the People. So far i recognized the “ways it is done in the USA” as a Jewish Russia Mafia in the West told a reporter. I see the foot prints of Jewish/Russia Mafia, the Drugs cartels, the political cartels…the “what in it for me”. All blaming each other until they get together with the proper trick. Easier for me now I turned 90 and every one is sure old people’ brain are dead. Wrong again with our jobs the brain works better with memory and experience, it is the bones that slow down,”hey I was there I remember that…… As I told some one when the FBI Bus started mumbling non sense, “you are at the gate fellow, they will trough every thing they have at you” and they, and getting more crazy as wed go. “Just start war fast the enemy i coming…” And a war to stop the exposing of this obscene convergence of evil” is as old as time itself.
Erica because of your experience and sharpness is why I still employ a one time customer of ours to work for us every Wednesday, if he’s up to it, and he always is unless he volunteers to drive a kid to hospital, as he is 87 still will on occasion wear a suit and always has shiny shoes, I bring this up so you know how I was brought up to respect age. That doesn’t mean as a youngster I didn’t piss off a few adults, just to be clear. Like my 87 year old employee tells me, the day he can’t find his way home from work will be the next day I won’t need to pay him no more. You have heard the saying, if it ain’t broke then it don’t need fixed, well in my friends philosophy if it ain’t broke then let’s use it.
I agree Erica that what we are watching today going on in our government is a fight to the finish, and between at least two different groups of different persuasions inside the castle of powers. No matter which side wins it is a risky prediction to make to how the masses of the citizenry will benefit. Like everything important where they the powers need a positive outcome for their desires to be met, we the public are bombarded with all sorts of nonsense news, and there in lies our demise towards seeing things for what they are.
I’m currently watching the Senate Russian & 2016 Elections hearings, and I must say, that if guys like Clinton Watts worked for me I’d fire him. If our company has sales and quality control problems, and you come in here telling me how our competition is hurting our company’s morale, you better have some serious evidence to base that on, or you are gone. Especially if you came to this conclusion without investigating our own in house quality processes of product coupled with integrity of customer service and delivery which includes pricing matrix formats, well then you didn’t do anything but confuse the picture…likewise America if it wants to improve itself America needs to start looking inward.
This was a good survey of the dominant meme in the current Deep State propaganda environment. There is no mention of the endless front page attacks on Nunes for “violating protocol” of that august matador State organ, the House Intelligence Committee (HIC). The HIC is the only organization in the World that makes the Senate Intelligence Committee look like a serious group with a backbone. Why was Nunes action so important? Can he stop the FBI from investigating? No. Can he alert Trump to something so Trump runs and burns the documents with a lighter? Not lilkely…Trump has legal authority to request and view whatever it is that Nunes saw. So why did talking to Trump matter? It didn’t. What mattered to the Deep State was making an example of Nunes for crossing them politically, and the MSM – in current partnership with the Deep State, politically and financially – was more than happy to throw a lot of wood and lighter fluid on the political bonfire. It was, in its way, a very impressive show of political power. “Don’t anyone dare stand with the POTUS against the Deep State and its allies! The next person who even thinks about doing that has been warned.” Control of mainstream media spin is a dominant form of power. Much of the spin we are seeing nowadays is obviously biased, blinded to conflicting facts, uniform, and without content. I believe that it is mistaken to attribute this to psychological blindness of the executive editors calling these shots. When the story is ultimately told, it will turn out that they are being compensated for running propaganda, in some way shape or form – probably indirect financial payments. The US law called the Smith-Mundt act which had previously made it formally illegal for the CIA/DOD/State Dept, etc. to target the domestic US market with falsehoods was repealed in 2012. They are now free to pay to the The New York Times, CNN etc. to lie or shape the news narrative in particular directions if they feel that is good for national security. IMO, that is the phenomena that we are seeing. It is not a psychological blindness to the weakness of HRC’s candidacy.
Yes, David, read a few books on the real legacy of the CIA, “The Brothers” by Stephen Kinzer, “Legacy of Ashes” by Tim Weiner, “The Devil’s Chessboard” by David Talbot. And how about the WMD story that got us into the wars of the ME, now never ending?
Two weeks ago it was reported that radionuclide I-131 had shown up in several countries in Europe, and there were articles speculating that Putin might have detonated a bomb in the Arctic, which Russia denied. I follow the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which is truly a massive planetary emergency, and I-131 is one of the nuclear isotopes emitted as discussed in reports. The air and water are contaminated and ongoing right now, and wind would carry them around. But no, the journalists went right for “Blame Putin”! They report not one word about a massive emergency, Fukushima, which could lead to the death of our ocean!
Great list Jessica K, let me add “The CIA As Organized Crime” How Illegal Operations Corrupt America And The World, by Douglas Valentine which I’m finishing now, but let me warn everyone that it’s convincing and depressing…
https://www.amazon.com/CIA-Organized-Crime-Illegal-Operations/dp/0997287012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491009338&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cia+as+organized+crime+douglas+valentine
I second the warning and still have yet to read final chapters beginning with Obama’s dirty wars.
Clearly true. I haven’t read the book, but have known for many years about CIA drug running. Taking out a mafia is not for the faint-of-heart. We can see their hysteria in the absurdities they keep shouting and their desperate efforts to shut off any other narrative, as the heat under them is turned up. It’s a war, in which we had better expect casualties, but nothing less than the survival of the US is at stake here. The Deep State and the the United States have become an existential threat to each other.
I believe, the ruling scumbags of the western world (past and present) are using Russia as a diversion for their own crimes against humanity. See link below
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/03/the-scumbags-of-western-world-and-their.html
Interesting article at link below:
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Is Putin the ‘Preeminent Statesman’ of Our Times?
Thursday – March 30, 2017 at 8:35 pm
By Patrick J. Buchanan
http://buchanan.org/blog/putin-preeminent-statesman-times-126734
Once again, a perfect article by Robert Parry.
Every time I listen to politicians on the MSM, I wonder, “How do these people get elected. They are so very stupid.” Just baffles me.
“How do these people get elected. They are so very stupid.”
They get elected because they know nothing. But they are willing and able to do and say what they are told!
‘So when all the yielding and objections is over, the other Senator said, “I object to the remarks of a professional joker being put into the Congressional Record.” Taking a dig at me, see? They didn’t want any outside fellow contributing. Well, he had me wrong. Compared to them I’m an amateur, and the thing about my jokes is that they don’t hurt anybody. You can say they’re not funny or they’re terrible or they’re good or whatever it is, but they don’t do no harm. But with Congress — every time they make a joke it’s a law. And every time they make a law it’s a joke’.
– Will Rogers, Ambassador of Good Will, Prince of Wit and Wisdom (1935)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Rogers
That’s beautiful!
The US/Western Establishment is in the midst of having a nervous breakdown. The New Silk Roads economic integration is coming to fruition making the centuries old Euro/US Empire tremble with fear of losing its grip on the planet. They need a boogieman to blame for the coming collapse.
Anyone buying in to this insanity is seriously in need of deprogramming. Unfortunately, that appears to be millions of people.
It truly is millions.
A recent CBS poll shows that 67% of Democrats think Russia interfered in the election to help Trump, while only 13% of Republicans believe the same. (CBS News)
Let us do the maths, assuming 1/2 Democrats and 1/2 Republicans, this is 40% of the US voting population believes in the Russian interference in the election to help Trump. Are so many US people just so plain dumb or is the US Deep State so mighty?
Too many people still take the word of officialdom as the truth. Whether it be intelligence agencies, congress people or the corporate media, collectively they make up what passes for the official narrative. Most people also don’t bother to look further than those “sources” for information so they get a very narrow view of events.
There does also seem to be a deep resistance to independent sources. Notice how the Prop or Not fake news charges against independent news sites were swallowed whole by the public. I tried to reason with a lot of family and friends over the unreliability of the corporate press to no avail. I can’t figure out what they’re so afraid of.
It is disappointing to me that such a fine and noble adventure as Consortiumnews has dedicated its efforts entirely to diminishing and “debunking” the real and serious efforts of the Russians to affect public perception and political outcome in the US. I’ve been reading your articles for many years and occasionally giving money to your project because I believe in it. However, making statements like the opening of this article that are preposterously hyperbolic just makes me sad. You are claiming that all of this is Russian hysteria and that the Russians are being blamed for “everything that’s wrong in the country.” Wow that is spectacular. You are so wrong that it is crushing to me. As a journalist, I would expect you to deal with the facts that are so obvious that this is a massively important issue. Of course it is true that intelligence agencies engage in nefarious covert ops and practice misinformation strategically, but it is also true that our intelligence community has a big role in protecting us as well. I think you are missing the boat and overstating your emotional attachments in this case. again, very sad.
Does it make you sad…….shame on them….okay …being sad is okay…..do you feel better…… end of your sad story
“As a journalist, I would expect you to deal with the facts that are so obvious that this is a massively important issue.”
If you have the “facts”, why not present them?
“…our intelligence community has a big role in protecting us as well…” Really? How are they protecting us? I do not want to be protected by them. I want to be protected from them!
I think our own corrupted members of government and news agencies are the cause of chaos in this country and many others.
What kind of a journalist are you? Where do you write your beliefs? In what respectable paper?
I’m not a journalist but I’m at least literate. You are so immersed in your view that you misread a simple English compound sentence. Notice the comma after the “as a journalist” part? That should lead to to read the rest of the sentence differntly. I was considering Robert Parry a respectable journalist who should know better. I am a medical doctor and scientist, and I believe in the power of evidence and deduction. All of which depends on careful reading. Something you and the commenter below you have failed to do.
Dear trust-me-I am-a-doctor scientist doctor, the powerful evidence supporting your point of view and opposing RP’s point of view which you are presenting is … we are still waiting in suspense even for your first shoe to drop.
Now, now, we have evidence . . . some evidence, I think (what’s that, oh there is NO evidence? okay then) well, we should have evidence soon, we think, it’s only been about eight months . . . after all the intelligence agencies (some of them) had “high confidence” assessments that it was all true . . . you know, based on, based on, ah, well I mean it’s them Russians! The facts, yes, ah . . . Shoot, what do you need? Really, why are you so stubborn?
PS April 1 Zero hedge story reveals Russia satirizing itself on this story:
“You want Russia to interfere in your election, press 3.”
There it is! Evidence at last! They’re admitting it!
David, you’re not grammatically correct here. The mistake is called a “dangling modifier.” Since you are not the journalist, you can’t begin the sentence “as a journalist,” followed by “I.” Sorry to be meticulous and dogmatic on you here, but being meticulous versus justifying your mistake seems appropriate. Your heartfelt comment on the duty of our intelligence agencies is apparently steeped in blind obedience, whereas our history tells us this is not a good idea. Questioning is essential to keep the effort at democracy going. The question is what is the evidence that indicates Russia did it? It’s a simple question, and it has not been answered. As an intelligent man why do you not hesitate on this fact? And this is the only fact we have.
It is also not a compound sentence, which is a sentence composed of two or more independent clauses.
” I am a medical doctor and scientist, and I believe in the power of evidence and deduction.”
No, you’re not.
David, I can only speak for myself, (obviously).
But living in this country and barraged day after day with the hysteria about Russia (that is, if I turn on the television) to the exclusion of much more important stuff than whether or not Russia tried to do whatever to the minds of American voters…..
1. Long before Election Day, a huge swath of voters had become disgusted by the endless regime change wars and the financial corruption thru predatory deregulation and the buying of politicians via “corporations are people my friends” and runaway campaign finance shenanigans.
So bottom line, it’s an insult to American voters to try to persuade us that we’ve been had by the Russians.
We’ve been had all right but the perpetrators are closer to home.
I am glad you are not a journalist. My bad for misreading your: “as a journalist, you should have read the sentence “differntly”.
I won’t explain your misuse of grammatical structure, so never mind, but I am still curious, since you claim to have the “power of evidence and deduction” (as a medical doctor and scientist, no less.), what facts you have.
Unburden yourself, you might feel less sad!
David, you’re a journalist? Your comment about the article: “You are claiming that all of this is Russian hysteria and that the Russians are being blamed for “everything that’s wrong in the country.”
I think you are deliberately distorting what Parry had to say. If not, you would have understood the tongue in cheek ad adsurdum nature of his comment, and that what he had to say about Russian hysteria is true. What he is trying to tell us that what is going on is extremely dangerous for democracy and reckless regarding our survival.
As to the CIA some examples of how they have protected us are in order. “Very sad.”
“I think you are deliberately distorting what Parry had to say”.
So he’s a journalist. And he’s distorting what Mr Parry had to say. Isn’t that *exactly* what you would expect?
Indeed, isn’t that probably part of his job?
I rarely call anyone an idiot….but….really?
But perhaps you truly are clueless….This book and page lay it out nicely “The CIA As Organized Crime”: http://www.claritypress.com/Valentine.html
David your comment made me read Robert Parry’s article a second time, and in my estimation Parry never exaggerated from any fact or event he couldn’t link his opinion of the truth too. Like Parry bringing up FBI Special Agent Watts telling Rubio how the Russians very well could have been behind Rubio’s loss. Like what happened to Hillary, Rubio loss his election all on his own. At least in my mind Robert Parry makes a good case that with rhetoric such as the kind Agent Watts is warning us about could lead us towards a rash decision to infringe upon our First Amendment rights, and as you will no doubt agree this is one of those slippery slopes if ever there was a hill to slide down on, which we may want to avoid.
You mention how our security mechanisms are protecting us. Well if having our security agencies working day and night on such a problem that is made of accusations based on slim accusations with no real smoking gun evidence is worth the time, then okay then. Only what if this 24/7 media bilitzkreig and all these hearings serves for some nefarious politicians as a cover to obscure them passing draconian laws, while for other even more nefarious politicians are playing a ‘Russian did it blame’ game only to hide the real reasons the Democrate’s loss in 2016 Presidential Election was all for not having a rotten candidate. Unless the media start drilling down on the draconian law crowd and what their doing, and until the Democrate’s come to the realization how by their screwing Bernie and that’s why they loss the White House, well nothing of any real value will get done.
I’m leaving a link to an article written by Carl Bernstein. (If you are familiar with it forgive me I mean no harm) Bernstein speaks too how for a very long time the CIA and working Press have worked hand in hand. I personally believe that not only is the CIA working with our media, but that there is a rogue element which prevails over every crack and crevice of our government working against another league of special interest people, who all in total are fighting each other and playing a desperate round of tug of war for power. I know I am a conspiracy theorist with my opinion, but you can’t say that with the world’s largest military, and the even larger world banking system, that this wouldn’t bring about the undercurrent of the world to fight and lie to grab to get to the top….it’s not about the Russians, we need to focus on Americans.
http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php
David, I did misread as a journalist as stating you were one. My mistake. Hope you understand how that could happen. As to your comment about Robert Parry’s journalism, pretty weak, misleading, and “very sad”. Finally, repeating what I said earlier, the statement about being protected by the intelligence community, when did that happen. Perhaps you know something the rest of us do not.
I feel a little bad about everyone jumping on your comments. But your comments did lack substance and relied on an ad hominem attack of the writer which is always suspect as to motivation.
As Parry and Chomsky explain even if Russia did all they are accused of its negligible compared to what the USA does as constant policy.
Navalny graduated from Yale, institution of Skull and Bones, and he has been on the payroll of the CIA propaganda agency, NED, so-called National Endowment for Democracy, in 2007-2008 admitted by Navalny but not by NED,which does not admit on their records who work for them. Plus, he is linked to William Browder, a British businessman involved with the criminal oligarchs who were thrown out of Russia by Putin when he cleaned up the mess Yeltsin had made by selling off Russia, which left them in a Depression some say worse than the US Great Depression.
Tonight on NPR 5pm news was reported that “the Pentagon is reporting they are concerned Russia may be working with the Taliban”. Makes a lot of sense, after the Soviet Union’s failed Afghanistan occupation and withdrawal in the ’80s after getting nowhere, and now this Russian mania, why would they do that? Notice it’s the US bogged down in Afghanistan, who is to blame?
Early in year 2000, I met two very nice English secondary school boys of about 18. They just came back from Russia. What impressed them the most was that they hired as a private guide a Russian secondary school professor/teacher of history and art, thus they got the most knowledgeable guide they could ever dream of (you know who usually works as a tourist guide). This divorced female secondary school teacher was working as a tourist guide because her government school salary has dropped down to US$5 per month. The only way for her and her child to survive was to work as a guide for young Westerners for US$8 per weekend.
This is only one of the millions of stories of what Yeltsin and his Western (Ziocon) advisers=puppeteers have done to Russia.
This is also why Russia has been completely immunised against US regime change/color revolution.
We are lucky that a lot of people could and did visit Russia when she was down and could see with their own eyes what had happened, how the people of Russia coped (far more resilience to begin with than America can hope for), and if they maintained friendships there into the current century, how Putin surprisingly made a big difference to the well-being of the average citizen of that country. There are too many of us for them to stifle, and I’ve noticed that continuing to speak the truth quietly does bring people on board eventually. At first, they seem to think you are joking.
When I visited Russia, part of the reason was mutual immunization against polarization. I don’t know whether sanity can be restored before America goes and does the unthinkable, but I’m willing to risk mischaracterization, slander and libel in the effort.
I am just amazed about the ignorance of western media about the nieuws of the week: Russia has cut its defecne budget by 25.5%! http://www.janes.com/article/68766/russia-announces-deepest-defence-budget-cuts-since-1990s. They don’t like it in Washington, in Berlin or in London, do they? It has to be surpessed, it does not fit in! How can you argue to increase military budget spending when the Russians have decreased it by 25.5%? You just can’t. The Kremlin is holding out to us the hand and we just ignore it. That will have consequences. The western facvoured Nawalny is a Rsussian nationalist, he wants to re-establish a great Russia including Ukraine and Belarus, if he gets to power we really have a global problem. But that is what the McCains and Cheneys obviously want. Warmongers!
Maybe we should come up with a scheme to jam phone lines of Congress and the White House to drive them crazy! Some kind of plan to let them know we’ve had enough. And call the neocons in their offices, call NED, the Pentagon, drive them nuts. Oh, they are nuts! They count on Americans’ fear of surveillance, but this is beyond the pale.
Terrific article! I remember how the US government denounced Fidel Castro for not allowing anti-Castro radio propaganda to reach Cuba from the US. But now, supposedly, RT is nefarious for saying anything that appears to be against official US propaganda. I’ve watched RT occasionally on You Tube, and I have been surprised by the openness of much of the commentary and the willingness to look at all sides of an issue.
I must be a Russian agent for having said that.
Oh yes you are, you must be sitting in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Joking here, the whole thing is really sick and paranoid, we are stumbling in a devastating war if things go on like thist
Effective propaganda is full of truth. Our propaganda is a collection of muddled subjective thoughts and is not effective.
http://www.unz.com/pbuchanan/is-putin-the-preeminent-statesman-of-our-times/
Baxter Dmitri, yournewswire.com :
“The rest of the world is “collapsing in laughter” at the Democratic Party’s attempt to blame “Russian hacking” for Hillary Clinton’s election loss, according to Noam Chomsky.The rest of the world is “collapsing in laughter” at the Democratic Party’s attempt to blame “Russian hacking” for Hillary Clinton’s election loss, according to Noam Chomsky.The rest of the world is “collapsing in laughter” at the Democratic Party’s attempt to blame “Russian hacking” for Hillary Clinton’s election loss, according to Noam Chomsky.”
http://investmentwatchblog.com/noam-chomsky-world-is-laughing-at-claims-russia-hacked-election/http://investmentwatchblog.com/noam-chomsky-world-is-laughing-at-claims-russia-hacked-election/
Sorry for the unintended repetition
And also for the failed link
Here’s the link for anyone interested:
http://yournewswire.com/noam-chomsky-russia-hacked-election/
Here’s the Counter Punch interview with Chomsky
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/most-of-the-world-is-just-collapsing-in-laughter-on-claims-that-russia-intervened-in-the-us-election-an-interview-with-noam-chomsky/
One of each was enough.
And you thought a collapsing Empire would at least make some kind of sense in it’s decline? Think again.
Welcome to the unpredictable chaos we have birthed.
Next thing you know, the Russkies will be trying to contaminate our precious bodily fluids by putting fluoride in the drinking water! Putin is, no doubt, already drawing up evil schemes like this in his Kremlin lair. Our dim-witted congresscritters oughta take a look at that old gem of Stanley Kubrick’s, Dr. Strangelove, whose Col. Jack D. Ripper would fit right in with these New Cold Warriors. Let’s hope they don’t take their madness as far as Col. Ripper did, though. World War Three will not profit anybody.
Thanks, Robert Parry, for this great piece. The greatest problem with all this fake news MSM trashing of Trump and Trump’s collusion with Russia is that all the lies seem to be working. From what I’m seeing/hearing Trump has completely capitulated and in numerous problematic areas around the world is directly clashing with Russia and Russian interests. I’ve also heard that he’s brought on board (or is keeping on board) the Neocon warmongers, the Kagans, Nuland’s, et al. Scary scenario. Very scary.
If this is a realistic picture, these creeps who run the show for the establishment lapdogs have no reason to stop lying and lambasting anyone who dares to call them out for what they are: Traitors and Extremely Dangerous. Will Trump wake up and realize that he’s being had?
What kind of democracy can this be, if it is “undermined” by people talking about topics like police brutality, anti-government standoffs and online privacy concerns?
Exactly. The approved modes of subversion of democracies are money control of mass media and elections, totalitarian secret agencies, and corruption of the judiciary at all levels. These advocates of human rights simply don’t know how to be good gangsters.
I noticed there has been , from my vantage, no publicity of police murdering blacks since theT election.
I believe they are Russia-phobic. Putin gets blamed for everything. When they themselves “in the land of the free” are the problem.
——————————————————————————
“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….
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/01/blame-it-on-putin.html
Clint Watts and Bellingcat: Birds of a feather
https://twitter.com/selectedwisdom/status/847415190463193089
“Much like Watts eagerly tweeted endorsement of Bellingcat and its founder Eliot Higgins of Thursday, under globalist influence geostrategic, intelligence or technical expertise is expended and dumbed down down to the level of ‘hating and fearing the Russians as much as I do’. Gone are the days when you needed Master’s degree or even a PhD and/or some military and intelligence background to sound credible talking about the Big Red Machine on Capitol Hill, as during the Evil Empire era of the 1980s.
“Like the legacy media and Atlantic Council puffed up ‘expertise’ of the former British piece of office plankton turned Youtube certified ‘Syria war expert’ Eliot Higgins, there is no evidence that either Mr. Watts […] speaks Russian, or have ever been to Russia. But the U.S. Senate still treats Watts […] as an expert.”
Clinton Watts’ Con: The Deep State Smears Trump With ‘Active Measures’
http://www.roguemoney.net/2017/04/02/clint-watts-con-deep-state-smears-trump-and-defames-63-million-americans/
Armchair experts Clint Watts and Eliot Higgins have been on the same page for quite some time. From the Financial Times in 2015:
Rise of the armchair terrorist tracker
By Emma Jacobs
https://www.ft.com/content/4db28766-9b0e-11e4-b651-00144feabdc0
The Brown Moses / Bellingcat method of propaganda is explicitly outlined by Higgins in the video that accompanies the Financial Times article:
[minutes 2:15-2:20] “We wanted to establish the rocket launchers were coming from Russia. So we used Google Earth…”
[minutes 5:20-5:55] “There’s been a kind of cultural shift, first with, um, news organizations, activism groups and NGOs, more recently now with governments and policy, to start using this new kind of information. And those kind of, um, videos that were put up three or four years ago, although they didn’t have a huge effect then, they’re part of the bigger picture that results in this kind of shift of thinking And now we’re seeing in other conflicts, this information’s taken a lot more seriously, you know, at the highest levels of government.”
Watts and Higgins collaborate use similar “active measures” in vigorous efforts “to establish” alleged Russian perfidy.
I’m surprised nobody has thought of blaming Russia for 9/11.Now that WOULD be an act of war.
It’s like blaming your evil twin, Skippy, who is the one that always gets you in trouble. Everything bad America does is blamed on Russia. How convenient to have a scapegoat that makes it possible never to be wrong.
Oops, I shouldn’t give them ideas.
Don’t you know that the Russians killed JFK? Putin was on the grassy knoll.
I heard that on the radio today. The Russians killed JFK, because… Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife was Russian and the daughter of a KGB colonel… Russia did it.
Never mind that Oswald was in the wrong place to make the shots.
This is how insane this is. Hillary Clinton is still destroying the Democratic Party.
First the Neocon’s would need to spin this around. Right after the Attack on 911 Vladimir Putin was the first international leader to call President Bush and offer assistance.
http://www.edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/09/10/ar911.russia.putin/index.html
They will be blamed for the next one
Actually, Dick “Russia committed an act of war” Cheney did demand the invasion of Iraq, a country having nothing to do with 911, immediately, and without any evidence. However, Mr. Parry’s brilliant satire neglects to explore one key element: motive. If anything has been revealed it is that what is called “the Deep State,” will stop at nothing to prevent a restoration of friendly relations and cooperation with Russia, and with extension. China. The scene of Senators tripping over themselves only bears out their fear of exposure or worse, expressed by Sen Schumer in an interview with Rachel Maddow, that Trump is “really dumb” in taking on the intelligence agencies which have “six ways to Sunday to get back at you.” As if it’s alright to legitimize 70 years of political tyranny by the FBI, and its complicity in the assassination of political opponents including JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X. So we are now at the point where, as Ray McGovern stated on this site, the future of our Republic may well depend on the refusal of President Trump and his allies such as Cong. Nunes, to be intimidated and back down and instead to “take the road less traveled,”
Thanks RP Great Rant and in other news Russia screws over nato by slashing Russia’s defense budget by 20%. WOW what will those evil Russians think of next?
I would say the neo-conns are back in play and also the last thing congress or senate will do is handle the daily business that effects us 99%.
Those Russkies are up to no good again: they are so evil that they are trying to give to the US population the horrible idea of, wait for it, a balanced budget. They are not cutting only defense then all Russian Government spending. The state income has come down due to low price of hydrocarbons and sanctions, so they are cutting department budgets left, right and centre, instead of printing and borrowing.
Fiscal Responsibility, what will their evil Russian minds think of next.
It is an excellent article.
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
He may prefer to be independent, and there may be better polling websites, but pressure on the NYT to recognize the superior reporting of their opposition is a good thing. I will repeat this post from time to time.
A MINORITY OF…ONE???
I may be a minority of one but I am not particularly interested in
what the Russians did or did not do.
I assume that both Russia and the US spy (an old-fashioned
word) on each other.
Important issues would be Israel’s historic terror, (see
Thomas Suarez: STATE OF TERROR), the war on Syria
and the US’s aggression there, a review of Tim Anderson’s
THE DIRTY WAR ON SYRIA ( which often footnotes
Robert Parry in Consortium), the effects of taxl cuts
(see Jack Rasmus, SPIC RECESSION PRELUDE TO
DEPRESSION) and many other basic issues.
—Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
CORRECTION:
Jack Rasmus: EPIC RECESSION PRELUDE TO DEPRESSION.
—–Peter