Special Report: As the U.S. government doles out tens of millions of dollars to “combat Russian propaganda,” one result is a slew of new “studies” by “scholars” and “researchers” auditioning for the loot, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
The “Field of Dreams” slogan for America’s NGOs should be: “If you pay for it, we will come.” And right now, tens of millions of dollars are flowing to non-governmental organizations if they will buttress the thesis of Russian “meddling” in the U.S. democratic process no matter how sloppy the “research” or how absurd the “findings.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, following his address to the UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, 2015. (UN Photo)
And, if you think the pillars of the U.S. mainstream media – The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN and others – will apply some quality controls, you haven’t been paying attention for the past year or so. The MSM is just as unethical as the NGOs are.
So, we are now in a phase of Russia-gate in which NGO “scholars” produce deeply biased reports and their nonsense is treated as front-page news and items for serious discussion across the MSM.
Yet, there’s even an implicit confession about how pathetic some of this “scholarship” is in the hazy phrasing that gets applied to the “findings,” although the weasel words will slip past most unsuspecting Americans and will be dropped for more definitive language when the narrative is summarized in the next day’s newspaper or in a cable-news “crawl.”
For example, a Times front-page story on Thursday reported that “a network of Twitter accounts suspected of links to Russia seized on both sides of the [NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem] issue with hashtags, such as #boycottnfl, #standforouranthem and #takeaknee.”
The story, which fits neatly into the current U.S. propaganda meme that the Russian government somehow is undermining American democracy by stirring up dissent inside the U.S., quickly spread to other news outlets and became the latest “proof” of a Russian “war” against America.
However, before we empty the nuclear silos and exterminate life on the planet, we might take a second to look at the Times phrasing: “a network of Twitter accounts suspected of links to Russia.”
The vague wording doesn’t even say the Russian government was involved but rather presents an unsupported claim that some Twitter accounts are “suspected” of being part of some “network” and that this “network” may have some ill-defined connection – or “links” – to “Russia,” a country of 144 million people.
‘Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon’
It’s like the old game of “six degrees of separation” from Kevin Bacon. Yes, perhaps we are all “linked” to Kevin Bacon somehow but that doesn’t prove that we know Kevin Bacon or are part of a Kevin Bacon “network” that is executing a grand conspiracy to sow discontent by taking opposite sides of issues and then tweeting.
The New York Times building in Manhattan. (Photo credit: Robert Parry)
Yet that is the underlying absurdity of the Times article by Daisuke Wakabayashi and Scott Shane. Still, as silly as the article may be that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. The Times’ high-profile treatment of these gauzy allegations represents a grave danger to the world by fueling a growing hysteria inside the United States about being “at war” with nuclear-armed Russia. At some point, someone might begin to take this alarmist rhetoric seriously.
Yes, I understand that lots of people hate President Trump and see Russia-gate as the golden ticket to his impeachment. But that doesn’t justify making serious allegations with next to no proof, especially when the outcome could be thermonuclear war.
However, with all those millions of dollars sloshing around the NGO world and Western academia – all looking for some “study” to fund that makes Russia look bad – you are sure to get plenty of takers. And, we should now expect that new “findings” like these will fill in for the so-far evidence-free suspicions about Russia and Trump colluding to steal the presidency from Hillary Clinton.
If you read more deeply into the Times story, you get a taste of where Russia-gate is headed next and a clue as to who is behind it:
“Since last month, researchers at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan initiative of the German Marshall Fund, a public policy research group in Washington, have been publicly tracking 600 Twitter accounts — human users and suspected bots alike — they have linked to Russian influence operations. Those were the accounts pushing the opposing messages on the N.F.L. and the national anthem.
“Of 80 news stories promoted last week by those accounts, more than 25 percent ‘had a primary theme of anti-Americanism,’ the researchers found. About 15 percent were critical of Hillary Clinton, falsely accusing her of funding left-wing antifa — short for anti-fascist — protesters, tying her to the lethal terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 and discussing her daughter Chelsea’s use of Twitter. Eleven percent focused on wiretapping in the federal investigation into Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, with most of them treated the news as a vindication for President Trump’s earlier wiretapping claims.”
The Neocons, Again!
So, let’s stop and unpack this Times’ reporting. First, this Alliance for Securing Democracy is not some neutral truth-seeking organization but a neoconservative-dominated outfit that includes on its advisory board such neocon luminaries as Mike Chertoff, Bill Kristol and former Freedom House president David Kramer along with other anti-Russia hardliners such as former deputy CIA director Michael Morell and former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers.
Neoconservative pundit William Kristol. (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)
How many of these guys, do you think, were assuring us that Iraq was hiding WMDs back in 2003?
This group clearly has an ax to grind, a record of deception, and plenty of patrons in the Military-Industrial Complex who stand to make billions of dollars from the New Cold War.
The neocons also have been targeting Russia for regime change for years because they see Russian President Vladimir Putin as the chief obstacle to their goal of helping Israel achieve its desire for “regime change” in Syria and a chance to bomb-bomb-bomb Iran. Russia-gate has served the neocons well as a very convenient way to pull Democrats, liberals and even progressives into the neocon agenda because Russia-gate is sold as a powerful weapon for the anti-Trump Resistance.
The Times article also might have mentioned that Twitter has 974 million accounts. So, this alarm over 600 accounts is a bit disproportionate for a front-page story in the Times, don’t you think?
And, there’s the definitional problem of what constitutes “anti-Americanism” in a news article. And what does it mean to be “linked to Russian influence operations”? Does that include Americans who may not march in lockstep to the one-sided State Department narratives on the crises in Ukraine and Syria? Any deviation from Official Washington’s groupthink makes you a “Moscow stooge.”
And, is it a crime to be “critical” of Hillary Clinton or to note that the U.S. mainstream media was dismissive of Trump’s claims about being wiretapped only for us to find out later that the FBI apparently was wiretapping his campaign manager?
However, such questions aren’t going to be asked amid what has become a massive Russia-gate groupthink, dominating not just Official Washington, but across much of America’s political landscape and throughout the European Union.
Why the Bias?
Beyond the obvious political motivations for this bias, we also have had the introduction of vast sums of money pouring in from the U.S. government, NATO and European institutions to support the business of “combatting Russian propaganda.”
President Obama in the Oval Office.
For example, last December, President Obama signed into law a $160 million funding mechanism entitled the “Combating Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act.” But that amounts to only a drop in the bucket considering already existing Western propaganda projects targeting Russia.
So, a scramble is on to develop seemingly academic models to “prove” what Western authorities want proven: that Russia is at fault for pretty much every bad thing that happens in the world, particularly the alienation of many working-class people from the Washington-Brussels elites.
The truth cannot be that establishment policies have led to massive income inequality and left the working class struggling to survive and thus are to blame for ugly political manifestations – from Trump to Brexit to the surprising support for Germany’s far-right AfD party. No, it must be Russia! Russia! Russia! And there’s a lot of money on the bed to prove that point.
There’s also the fact that the major Western news media is deeply invested in bashing Russia as well as in the related contempt for Trump and his followers. Those twin prejudices have annihilated all professional standards that would normally be applied to news judgments regarding these flawed “studies.”
On Thursday, The Washington Post ran its own banner-headlined story drawn from the same loose accusations made by that neocon-led Alliance for Securing Democracy, but instead the Post sourced the claims to Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma. The headline read: “Russian trolls are stoking NFL controversy, senator says.”
The “evidence” cited by Lankford’s office was one “Twitter account calling itself Boston Antifa that gives its geolocation as Vladivostok, Russia,” the Post reported.
By Thursday, Twitter had suspended the Boston Antifa account, so I couldn’t send it a question, but earlier this month, Dan Glaun, a reporter for Masslive.com, reported that the people behind Boston Antifa were “a pair of anti-leftist pranksters from Oregon who started Boston Antifa as a parody of actual anti-fascist groups.”
In an email to me on Thursday, Glaun cited an interview that the Boston Antifa pranksters had done with right-wing radio talk show host Gavin McInnes last April.
And, by the way, there are apps that let you manipulate your geolocation data on Twitter. Or, you can choose to believe that the highly professional Russian intelligence agencies didn’t notice that they were telegraphing their location as Vladivostok.
Mindless Russia Bashing
Another example of this mindless Russia bashing appeared just below the Post’s story on Lankford’s remarks. The Post sidebar cited a “study” from researchers at Oxford University’s Project on Computational Propaganda asserting that “junk news” on Twitter “flowed more heavily in a dozen [U.S.] battleground states than in the nation overall in the days immediately before and after the 2016 presidential election, suggesting that a coordinated effort targeted the most pivotal voters.” Cue the spooky Boris and Natasha music!
Boris and Natasha, the evil spies from the Rocky and Bullwinkle shows.
Of course, any Americans living in “battleground states” could tell you that they are inundated with all kinds of election-related “junk,” including negative TV advertising, nasty radio messages, alarmist emails and annoying robo-calls at dinner time. That’s why they’re called “battleground states,” Sherlock.
But what’s particularly offensive about this “study” is that it implies that the powers-that-be must do more to eliminate what these “experts” deem “propaganda” and “junk news.” If you read deeper into the story, you discover that the researchers applied a very subjective definition of what constitutes “junk news,” i.e., information that the researchers don’t like even if it is truthful and newsworthy.
The Post article by Craig Timberg, who apparently is using Russia-gate to work himself off the business pages and onto the national staff, states that “The researchers defined junk news as ‘propaganda and ideologically extreme, hyperpartisan, or conspiratorial political news and information.’
“The researchers also categorized reports from Russia and ones from WikiLeaks – which published embarrassing posts about Democrat Hillary Clinton based on a hack of her campaign chairman’s emails – as ‘polarizing political content’ for the purpose of the analysis.”
So, this “study” lumped together “junk news” with accurate and newsworthy information, i.e., WikiLeaks’ disclosure of genuine emails that contained such valid news as the contents of Clinton’s speeches to Wall Street banks (which she was trying to hide from voters) as well as evidence of the unethical tactics used by the Democratic National Committee to sabotage Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign.
Also dumped into the researchers’ bin of vile “disinformation” were “reports from Russia,” as if everything that comes out of Russia is, ipso facto, “junk news.”
And, what, pray tell, is “conspiratorial political news”? I would argue that the past year of evidence-lite allegations about “Russian meddling” in the U.S. election accompanied by unsupported suspicions about “collusion” with the Trump campaign would constitute “conspiratorial political news.” Indeed, I would say that this Oxford “research” constitutes “conspiratorial political news” and that Timberg’s article qualifies as “junk news.”
Predictable Outcome
Given the built-in ideological bias of this “research,” it probably won’t surprise you that the report’s author, Philip N. Howard, concludes that “junk news originates from three main sources that the Oxford group has been tracking: Russian operatives, Trump supporters and activists part of the alt-right,” according to the Post.
The Washington Post building in downtown Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Washington Post)
I suppose that since part of the “methodology” was to define “reports from Russia” as “junk news,” the appearance of “Russian operatives” shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but the whole process reeks of political bias.
Further skewing the results, the report separated out information from “professional news organizations [and] political parties” from “some ‘junk news’ source,” according to the Post. In other words, the “researchers” believe that “professional news organizations” are inherently reliable and that outside-the-mainstream news is “junk” – despite the MSM’s long record of getting major stories wrong.
The real “junk” is this sort of academic or NGO research that starts with a conclusion and packs a “study” in such a way as to guarantee the preordained conclusion. Or as the old saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.”
Yet, it’s also clear that if you generate “research” that feeds the hungry beast of Russia-gate, you will find eager patrons doling out dollars and a very receptive audience in the mainstream media.
In a place like Washington, there are scores if not hundreds of reports generated every day and only a tiny fraction get the attention of the Times, Post, CNN, etc., let alone result in published articles. But “studies” that reinforce today’s anti-Russia narrative are sure winners.
So, if you’re setting up a new NGO or you’re an obscure academic angling for a lucrative government grant as well as some flattering coverage in the MSM, the smart play is to join the new gold rush in decrying “Russian propaganda.”
[For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com’s “The Rise of the New McCarthyism”; “WPost Pushes More Dubious Russia-Bashing”; “The Crazy Imbalance of Russia-gate”; and “More Holes in Russia-gate Narrative.”]
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).
“Russia is now the only country in the world to have good relations with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Iraq and, of course, Syria.”
Says it all
Who’d have ever thunk that Russia would become the Right’s new best friend? Richard Spencer and his merry band of Neo-Nazis were just down in Charlottesville chanting “Russia is our friend.” You don’t suppose Vlad is sending a little money their way?
Fake News
Hummmm
Sounds like Rfussia’s assertion:
THE TALIBAN ARE MUSLIM
THERE IS NOT ONE OPIUM POPPY GROWN
UNDER TALIBAN CONTROL
Errrr Russian Weapons Trades?
How do Taliban pay?
US State Dept says 4,800 Metric Tons of Heroin
Russian Mafia/Putin clears $88 Billion
Money Laundry by Trump=Racketeering/RICO
Putin $ shown in Panama Papers? Fake News?
Felix Sater – did he know DJT?
Where’d all the Russian $ come from, Ukraine?
If Pushkin & Obama are both part African, why
can’t Rus & Am be friends? In a marriage is
Only one side guilty?
Your Pro-Rus assessment is Ad Hominem Rheto
I’m looking for a link to donate with PayPal. Nowhere to be found.
The writers of “Designated Survivor” are on the demonize Russia bandwagon this season. I got halfway through the first episode and turned it off.
“And, if you think the pillars of the U.S. mainstream media – The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN and others – will apply some quality controls, you haven’t been paying attention for the past century or so.”
FTFY
Russia is just this mystical force we can blame all of our problems on or people we disagree with we can say are compromised by the Kremlin. Jill Stein was freaking brought up in this investigation for collusion for god’s sake. This is madness.
I personally think Robert Parry is a national treasure. If there were ever “real news” Robert Parry would be it. Robert Parry is a world class investigative reporter.
That is what makes it so confounding that he seems to have swallowed the whole 9/11 official narrative hook, line and sinker. He has gone out of his way not to look at the evidence that is in great tension with the “official story”, or worse has mimimize and berated it in the most condescending way.
I cannot understand how someone so deeply informed and intelligent who can call out the Neo-cons time and again at their game (as he correctly does in this article), and understands exactly what they are capable of…….somehow thinks they are telling the truth about 9/11??
With 2,900 architects and engineers challenging the fundamental physics, chemistry and forensic science of the collapse of all three WTC skyscrapers. With ten books by David Ray Griffen poking holes in every part of the story and showing trhat no matter where you look, every part of the story is so deeply problematic. Then there is the Anthrax Attacks which is even more obvious than 9/11 as if that is even possible. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahey get Anthrax letter right before the vote on the Patriot Act??
Not even Tom Clancey would be so bone headed to try to sell that one as plausible.
I just don’t get it Mr. Parry? Two thirds of the founding members of the future Bush administration (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz etc) actually write about how difficulft it would be to impliment their agenda, “abscent some catalyzing event like a New Pearl Harbor”, in their PNAC documents, and then when they are in powder thats exactly what happens nine months later.
Mr. Parry, you act like, “no they would never do that”, but you seem to think (and I agree) that they are capable of any sort of other deception to impliment their agenda……..except 9/11.
Stay on the subject or get lost.
I think it funny that these researchers are accusing “Russian trolls” of stoking the NFL anthem controversy when it was the mainstream media who was doing the stoking. I was seeing daily emails from the Washington Post about the NFL anthem controversy. If there were actual Twitter trolls, the trolls probably saw this and thought they could make some money. So the mainstream media has no one to blame but themselves for the NFL anthem controversy stoking. So does this mean that the mainstream media is filled with Russian agents?
Apart from monetary incentives, there could be another reason behind this mad rush to blame Russians: Many mainstream US journalists are ether involved in or are covering up for the pedophile racket in Washington DC.
“I was looking forward to showing Putin that his efforts to influence our election and install a friendly puppet had failed.”
– Crooked Hillary
Murray Rothbard discusses this topic in his essay Anatomy of the State. He argues “…any government (not simply a ‘democratic’ government) must have the support of the majority of its subjects…else the minority of State rulers would eventually be outweighed by the active resistance of the majority of the public…[so it purchases] allies among important groups in the population…[T]he majority must be persuaded by ideology that their government is good, wise and, at least, inevitable, and certainly better than other conceivable alternatives. Promoting this ideology among the people is the vital social task of the ‘intellectuals’. For the masses of men do not create their own ideas, or indeed think through these ideas independently; they follow passively the ideas adopted and disseminated by the body of intellectuals. The intellectuals are, therefore, the ‘opinion-molders’ in society…[In turn,] the intellectuals will be handsomely rewarded for the important function they perform for the State rulers, of which groups they now become part.”
Every Neocon, ALL those of the Project for a New American Century (now called the American Enterprise Institute) Kristol, Kagan, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Abrams,Powell, Rice, Silverstein, et al and their Zionist Israeli Cabal of 9-11 Conspirators like Netanyahu, Ohlmert, Sharon et al should have been years ago and now summarily EXECUTED for High Treason, Mass Murder, Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Massive Theft etc.
These ARE the Criminal Mass Murdering SCUM that should be exiting the micro anuses of mounds of maggots for so long now and still they live, breathe and squander Americas stolen wealth and resources while pissing on the graves of murdered Americans, Afghanis, Iraqis etc, both military and civilian and have the balls to prepare to do more?
Their Zionist Jew World Order MUST be stopped by ALL means necessary and a good place to start would be by delivering a Neutron Bomb or two or ten to Israel and a suitcase nuke to the U.S. Congress while in Full Session to vaporize at least 95% of these Traitors and thieves who have sold America to the highest bidder. These Illegal and Un-Constitutional Wars for Israel and their “Greater Israel Project” MUST be STOPPED. The reason for the Second Amendment must be brought to bare upon this U.S. Government “Cabal/Regime” by an Armed American People and take back what has been stolen from us So Long Ago NOW!!!
“Lawrence Mulqueen” is the latest Hasbara propaganda troll to attack the comments at CN:
“Zionist Israeli Cabal of 9-11 Conspirators like Netanyahu, Ohlmert, Sharon et al should have been years ago and now summarily EXECUTED”
“Zionist Jew World Order MUST be stopped by ALL means necessary and a good place to start would be by delivering a Neutron Bomb or two or ten to Israel and a suitcase nuke to the U.S. Congress while in Full Session”
“‘Greater Israel Project’ MUST be STOPPED. The reason for the Second Amendment must be brought to bare upon this U.S. Government ‘Cabal/Regime’ by an Armed American People”
Really, really obvious
https://blog.codinghorror.com/content/images/2015/04/obvious-troll-is-obvious.jpg
Inverted Hasbara – false flag “anti-Zionism” and fake “anti-Israel” extremism – is one of Israel’s tools of deception in its propaganda campaign against the BDS movement, Palestinian human rights activism, the campaign to end Israel’s illegal 50-year military occupation of Palestinian territory, anti-Zionist activism in general, and opposition to the Israel Lobby cheer leading for “regime change”
Inverted Hasbara is pro-Israel propaganda masquerading as “hate” and “extreme criticism” for Israel and Zionism.
The false flag “anti-Israel” and “anti-Zionist” deception of Inverted Hasbara often uses overt “anti-Jewish” and “anti-Semitic” racist statements.
The usual online targets for these “passionate” expressions of false flag “hate” are independent investigative journalism sites and political blogs that examine the policies of the state of Israel, Israel’s military actions and illegal 50-year military occupation of Palestinian territory, the workings of the Israel Lobby and its influence on American foreign policy in the Middle East.
The obvious question about Israeli propaganda’s campaign of false flag “hate” is: why the masquerade?
The purpose of Inverted Hasbara is two-fold:
1) To discredit real anti-Zionist activism, true independent journalism, and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and the Israel Lobby
2) To promote enactment of laws to suppress “hate speech”
Why should this be of concern?
Because “hate speech” laws are being used to outlaw activism against Israeli policy and critical journalism on the grounds that it allegedly constitutes “anti-Semitism” and hatred against people for their national origin.
This is already happening in Europe, where BDS activists have been convicted of “inciting racial hatred” for actions as innocuous as applying boycott stickers to produce imported from Israel.
The Israel Lobby desperately wants U.S. officials or courts vested with the power to ban “hate speech”.
Efforts to suppress alleged “hate speech” has been examined Glenn Greenwald of the Intercept:
https://theintercept.com/2017/08/29/in-europe-hate-speech-laws-are-often-used-to-suppress-and-punish-left-wing-viewpoints/
Inverted Hasbara propaganda operatives busy generating examples of “hate” for “Israel, Zionism and the Jews” that judges or officials can wave before passing legislation to “regulate” the alleged problem of “widespread” online “hate speech”.
“Lawrence Mulqueen” isn’t merely “strongly criticizing Israel”.
That murderous troll rant is designed to supply yet another example of “hate speech” to help enact draconian laws to suppress legitimate journalism and rational criticism of the Israeli government and the Israel Lobby.
Parry is waging a heroic and unfortunately almost one-man campaign against this truly evil CIA/neocon/MSM conspiracy to demonize Russia and risk nuclear war. Every day, as he says, there are new and well-funded efforts to contribute to this warmongering, e.g. the Committee to Investigate Russia and the new organization Parry mentions, the “Alliance for Securing Democracy,a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative housed at The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF),” as they describe themselves, which is also active in Europe (e.g., in promoting the same drivel about “Russian influence” in the elections in Germany and Catalonia).
Small note: “Russiagate” has caught on but I think “Russia bashing” is more accurate (cf. “Paki-bashing” in Britain), or maybe better yet “anti-Russian hate speech” (since hate speech is a crime).
Yes, Mr. Parry and CN are essential sources. I use “Russia-gate” to identify the real issue as Israel-gate, and to focus on the absurdity of the Russia focus, when clearly the story is oligarchy, and the corruption of democratic institutions by economic power.
If these “researchers” would come out of their ivory tower for a minute, they might realize that in the real, messy and slimy world of social media you can buy or rent packs of twitter and facebook accounts to broadcast any message for any period of time. And realize that some home grown PR agencies are paid by US citizens to broker these deals. And then to find out some of the packs are controlled by hacker groups all over the world to pimp out for this very generic purpose This would mean yes their surely there are links to the Russia Federation but no, that doesn’t mean necessarily anything at all.
Another home-run by Robert Parry.
Having just watched the episode of Oliver Stone’s excellent Untold History of the United States which deals with the earliest historical political period which I can remember from first hand experience, I found the revisiting of Ronald Reagan’ bald-faced lies delivered with absolute seeming sincerity to be truly frightening. He was either a truly underestimated first-rate actor, a complete psychopath, or he really was just a carefully picked figurehead. Perhaps it really was as intimated in the episode that it was more a Bush II/Cheney sort of thing, the first two options sort of meld into each other if the lies he repeated were done so knowingly and he just didn’t seem to have the intellectual capacity for much of anything arduous like being an actual Machiavellian.
The most important thing about this was just how easy it was, at the time, to just take the edifice of lies at face value. I was in my teens at the time, but I did consider myself to be of a rather independent mindset and much of what was bandied by these Republican Party Reptiles (not a funny proposition at all really in the end despite O’Rourkes’s seductiveness) rang false. That did not stop them from acquiring the patina of Truth, albeit ever so superficial, due to the hypnotic ‘authoritative’ method of their delivery. I’m glad I properly ‘discovered’ the work of Robert Parry even if it is belatedly, due to my own Sleep of Reason because of this saturation of falsehoods despite his tireless work along with other similar-minded people. I can sense some frustration here in his phrasing with the seeming lack of difference this tireless work seems to be making to the general perception but I am grateful for his lucidity, which contributes to mine. How long will such lucidity be allowed to be disseminated, one can only wonder.
March 3, 2017
Is Blaming Russia a Diversion, Designed to Hide the Treachery of Western War Criminals?
[much more info at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/03/is-blaming-russia-diversion-designed-to.html
January 10, 2017
“Blame It” On Putin
There is endless wars and devastation around the world
Western war criminals have their war banners unfurled
Millions dead and many millions uprooted
And the financial system is corrupted and looted
“Blame it” on Putin
The war criminals are free and spreading bloody terror
And their dirty propaganda says Putin is an “aggressor”
These evil plotters of death and destruction
Should be in jail for their abominable actions
But, “Blame it” on Putin.
The American election is won by Donald Trump
Hillary Clinton loses and gets politically dumped
The media is frenzied and foaming at their mouths
They are crying and lying, these corporate louts
They “Blame it” on Putin
Hollywood, too, is getting in on the act
The B.S. merchants are able to twist facts
In their fantasy world of channel changers
They do not approve of a political stranger
They “Blame it” on Putin
The spymasters and their grovelling politicians
All agree that “their democracy” is “lost in transmission”
Their comfortable and controlled system is now in danger
And these powerful parasites are filled with anger
They “Blame it” on Putin
One loose canon talks and babbles of “an act of war”
Could nuclear hell be started by a warmongering whore?
If the madmen of the establishment get their way
Could we all be liquidated in the nuclear fray?
“Blame it” on Putin
There is no doubt that the ruling class
Are all worried about saving their ass
Could there be huge changes and still more coming?
Is the sick and depraved society finally crumbling?
Hey, “Blame it” on Putin …
[more info at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/01/blame-it-on-putin.html
Much of this could equally apply AGW alarmist propaganda…
don’t go there.
Ah, so far inside the system you think you are above it!
was that meant for me?
i was just warning mr. woods that he will be attacked for such a statement. i actually agree with him.
Often with such propagandistic allegations – be it WMD in Iraq or “Russian meddling” -, there are problems that go beyond the lack of evidence. People without access to secret information could not know, of course, whether these was a good basis for the allegations about WMD. Certainly, people should have demanded that some of the evidence is made public, but even if someone accepts that some things must remain secret, it simply did not make sense to use the presentation of Colin Powell before the UN as a basis for starting a war. It could have been a basis for intensifying the inspections – and at that time, after some pressure, the Iraqi government allowed inspections everywhere -, but it certainly was no basis for stopping the inspections and starting a war of aggression.
Similarly, it is clear that those who put forward allegations about “Russian meddling” (some are regularly retracted, some aren’t and their status remain unclear) have the burden of proof. But the problem is not just that evidence is lacking, but many of these allegations are not very plausible and make little sense.
The first problem is that many statements in US media presuppose a worldview of international politics as a kind of zero sum game and don’t even ask the question whether such a worldview is appropriate and whether it is common in Russia. It is just assumed that Russia and the United States are “enemies” and that anything that is bad for the United States is good for Russia and anything that is bad for Russia is good for the United States. Of course, there are areas in international politics where the United States have conflicting positions, but such a worldview based on a zero-sum game is far from obvious. What exactly should be the advantage for Russia when internal divisions in the United States are increased? Is it plausible that the United States is more likely to take the Russian perspective more seriously or be ready for compromises if it has more severe internal divisions? Not necessarily, I would even think that the opposite is more likely. Probably, the proponents of this theory could come up with a story why in that case it would make sense for Russia to increase internal divisions in the United States, but mostly, this question is not even asked, and these stories look more like an ad-hoc justification for a preconceived story.
Then, ignoring the doubts whether it would really make sense from a strategic point of view for Russia to exacerbate internal divisions in the United States for a moment, what would someone who, indeed, has the goal to increase internal divisions in the United States do? At first sight, it might seem that supporting both sides in existing conflicts (e.g. for and against BLM, for and against gun rights, for and against NFL players kneeling down etc.) may make sense. But the problem is that such a line of reasoning ignores the question of effectiveness. As far as these matters are concerned, there are already many US citizens who passionately support one of the two sides, and there are US donors who are ready to support one of these sides. If, in addition to those passionate supporters of one side, someone who is interested in increasing the divisions also supports both sides, the effect relative to the resources that are needed is relatively small. This may not be a strong counter-argument if we were talking about a large rich country attempting to meddle in a small poor one, but that is hardly an adequate description of the relationship of Russia to the United States. Certainly, on the whole, the Russian state still has quite a lot of resources, but if it had the goal to increase internal divisions in the United States, adding a bit more to both sides of existing conflicts about which many Americans are so passionate that they are ready to use time and in some cases money to support one of the two sides would probably so ineffective that it would hardly make sense. Attempting to create new conflicts could theoretically make sense – then, we should see ads and social media campaigns about conflicts that are not very prominent in public discourse (I don’t know about any evidence or even indications that this is actually done) -, but when there are just ads and social media messages from fake accounts for both sides of common existing conflicts, other explanations are more plausible. For instance, it can be that it only seems that they come from a common source because of some superficial features, but are in fact from opposing sides (i.e. people who want to support one of the sides in the conflict, not to increase the conflict by supporting both sides), or it could be that there is a common source, but that the common source is a commercial entity that conducts campaigns for both sides for money (and maybe there are some people who use Russian language settings or some parts of that business are in Russia).
To expect most American citizens to think rationally is to expect the impossible. Not only were they not taught to think critically; they were taught not to do that.
And because of that deficiency in the public, if we wish to effect some change in their thinking, we are reduced to employing the same emotion based methods that have proven so successful for the establishment and it’s propagandists. The simple truth has zero effect on the typical American Zombie – he is too dead sure that his conditioning trumps reality.
It is almost amusing, as with this mainstream “analysis” from CNN (Sept 26), that states the FB ads were meant to sew divisions and “chaos” in the electorate, with many of the messages at cross-purposes.
h*tp://money.cnn.com/2017/09/26/media/facebook-russia-ads/index.html
“The apparent goal of the ads, the sources who spoke with CNN said, was to amplify political discord and fuel an atmosphere of incivility and chaos around the 2016 presidential campaign, not necessarily to promote one candidate or cause over another.”
This assessment is spoken with great seriousness and a recommendation that these ads be made accessible to the public. This MSM report also assumes that the “Russia-bought accounts” stem from official Russia or the Kremlin, with no further discussion. A CNN poll claims 54% of Americans believe Russia interfered via these FB ads. Further breakdown in that polling indicates the lion’s share comes from whites who believe this.
But as you point out, Adrian, the body politic is (and was during the election period) already riven and in a state of “incivility” (another claim of the purpose of these FB ads) as we could see by reviewing behaviors in the election itself, to include Trump’s statements at his rallies and Hillary Clinton’s actions in consort with a corrupted DNC. Common sense would indicate these widely exposed rogue behaviors at the time would out-do a mere 100,000 spent on FB, as has already been pointed out, so the CNN report is in danger of desperate exaggeration.
As far back as 2014 surveys of that time indicates the American public’s trust in MSM had plummeted to something like 40%, and although I cannot find current figures on this (in 2016 RT found that only 6% of Americans trust MSM, but that’s RT) but especially given the fiasco of the 2016 election, plausibly, that sense of trust is not increasing much. So that, given the already fractious and uncivil state of the country in many respects what we’re seeing is a continuation of desperate efforts to use the Russia did it meme for various political and opportunistic purposes. Further, MSM besides in the employ of special interests, has a naturally in-built bias toward presentation of dramatic, simplistic viewpoints that incite emotionalism and nationalism.
As I noted yesterday, the NFL controversy currently includes, with a straight face, scantily dressed female football players of the Lingerie Football League claiming that the flag is “too sacred” to be protested as they stand there with their booties exposed in the wind clutching their chests with straight faces. This sort of high drama is surely could for MSM audiences and ratings.
As to why a lot of Americans don’t think critically about these matters there are, again, the problems of survival, job-holding, paying rent, dealing with an outrageous health “care” scheme which treats them as profit opportunities, increasing police management, and rising inflation, let alone the morbidity and turn-off that considering politics has become.
Methinks the MSM furor now turning to FB in its puny weight to be taken seriously is getting more and more desperate–and ridiculous.
D5-5 –
Your comments: ” As to why a lot of Americans don’t think critically about these matters there are, again, the problems of survival, job-holding, paying rent, dealing with an outrageous health “care” scheme which treats them as profit opportunities, increasing police management, and rising inflation, let alone the morbidity and turn-off that considering politics has become.”
You have summed up the state in which an average person lives here now.
ok, i have to say it.
everybody is stupid. all over the world. and yet….everybody is a genius. even though i partake in this complaining about how
stupid people are sometimes. it’s really not true. people are smart. just easily led.
i find that americans are just used to being propagandized. it’s a habit. that only some of us are starting to come out of. if the workings of propaganda and advertising were taught in school, at a young age, the world would be a better place. i think most of the commenters here at consortium news have probably made that jump from believing the media blindly. but we are still a minority. and to be honest, some views i see repeated here still seem to reflect this instinctive belief in doctrines put forth in the media. remember that it’s only been about 8 generations of people since we threw off the monarchy here. talk about indoctrination……that’s really not a long time. the history of kings/queens as rulers takes up a much larger part of the history of human existence. one could even say it’s in our genes…..epi-genetics……
modern propaganda is only 100 years old or so.
so a modern antidote should be thought of.
we’ll hopefully figure it out.
One antidote is to make the results of informed debate available on all subjects to all citizens. I am proposing a College of Policy Debate/Analysis which will conduct text-only debates in all policy areas and regions, ensuring that every viewpoint is represented and every issue examined. It will produce commented debate summaries available by internet, with mini-quizzes to self-test and qualify as a commenter in the public-access area.
Congress has failed throughout its history to debate even superficially the major issues of the times, preferring speeches, bargaining, and vote manipulations. It has never been part of the public debate, and the mass media are mere propaganda operations. If citizens turn to the CPD to see every viewpoint on every issue challenged and defended, it will be difficult for corrupt politicians to maintain credibility with bribed viewpoints, and difficult to fool the people.
Dave, I’m privileged in being able to spend so much time here in this forum and do some thinking. But out on the street I find a different situation than what we’re discussing here so often with (including myself) the tendency to talk of the American “sheeple” and “stupidity” and such. I find people in supermarket parking lots in a state of despair, asking me for a quarter, their misery plain on their faces. I’m told 45 million Americans are on the verge of poverty and in poverty. Where I go, too, I find my community members trying to be civil, most of them, and there’s not a whole lot of political talk at the cashier stands in the grocery stores. I despair that this beautiful country, which still has a great deal going for it, is knuckled under to the worst political system I’ve seen in my lifetime going back decades. I do not understand that an opposition party could become so inept and corrupted into incompetence, and the ruling party in a state of incoherence and stupidity. And yet I can give all this sort of thing time and thinking, but how many can? I love this country and the people, and am very saddened at the travesty, and where we now stand in world opinion.
The researchers defined junk news as ‘propaganda and ideologically extreme, hyperpartisan, or *conspiratorial political news and information*.’
I face-palmed when I read this. The lack of self-awareness on the part of the “researchers” is truly amazing.
NPR is complicit, giving Mark Jacobson of Georgetown a platform on Sept. 28 ‘All Things Considered’ to pontificate about how Americans are falling prey to Russian disinformation. This entire sequence has drained me of any faith in American Intelligence operations, and MSM.
I have always wondered why you seldom get reflections of the illness in American society, after reading articles like this. Trump is mad, Hillary is evil, the MS media is corrupt and dishonest. But its American culture that is responsible for this…these arent accidents or untypical. Self-honesty is the least common of all American characteristics. Hunting for excuses and boogeymen, one of the most common.
The tacit belief in our exceptionalism makes us immune to self-criticism. Another name for American Hubris. Our belief that we are God’s chosen ones explains in part our strange affinity with Israel.
The “American Culture” was concocted with Malice Afore Thought by the Congress of Cultural Freedom (CCF) starting in the Post-War years: from EIR search box; “Congress of cultural freedom; making the world safe for fascism”, also from search box; “Synarchy against America”.
Trust me – as an Amerikanska in Russia – I think some Russians are hating me when they hear me speak some English while from the other side –America – I no longer get e-mails from — Anyone. I understand where the Russians are coming from because I see the demonization of their country coming from the Americans and their axis, but to see the Americans get sooo programmed in propaganda that they can’t even listen to someone they’ve known for decades — is pretty disgusting , especially when some of them are/ used to be – rather intelligent. Spacibo Mr. Parry and commenters.
Why Americans ever put any stock in the self-serving propaganda put out by the wealthy owners of the major media is a mystery, until you consider all the false ideas about America that have already been shoveled into their heads by their long public education brainwashing and numbing experience. The basic idea promoted by our culture is just shut up and accept whatever garbage you are told, and you will get along fine (conform). Start asking a lot of challenging questions, and you are in for a lot of trouble. I know this from personal experience, I was always in a lot of trouble with the self-satisfied authorities in my life, including my parents and teachers. I am forever grateful that I stubbornly persisted in questioning authority, in spite of all the difficulties it has caused me.
The football players who are “taking a knee” during the playing of the national anthem, are experiencing the fury of those who clutch their societal group-think like a precious security blanket. Our public opinion manipulator in chief D. Trump is making it clear why it was said that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. Score one propaganda ploy for the scoundrel in chief.
Yes all this nonsense while at the same time, once again I might add, the 1st Amendment takes a backseat to Private Ownership….now stand up damn it.
Yes, the groupthink of mass media is accepted by most for personal security.
Mass media tell them the oligarchy line as “what other people think” so they dare not disagree.
Mass media say that all are unethical so why pay a price to be good citizens.
But it is very significant that the football players refused to display nationalism.
It is also significant in signaling automatic (pavlovian) behavior, no questions asked, and right in line with “my country right or wrong” and “blind obedience, attitudes historically is associated with autocracy and repression. I have yet to see any commentary on what the flag means, or possible contexts of meaning, including that it stands for the current governing system, as well as for historical considerations. Sorry to harp on this, but the scantily dressed females of the Lingerie Football League in stating the flag is “too sacred” evidently found no inconsistency in their salutes with serious faces while scantily clad. This seems to me akin to going to church in a bikini and somehow contradictory to “sacred.” But “sacred” in itself hearkens back to the 1690’s and the Salem witch trials before separation of church and state became understood as more rational. Any kind of worship can be taken too far into mindlessness, which is contradictory to the ideals this country was founded on in terms of “equality” and the first amendment. Beware of the scoundrels indeed.
The first amendment goes both ways. It is the right of the football players to take a knee, but others have a perfect right to disagree with their actions. Just like Trump is attacking the football players for their opinions, you are attacking those who disagree with them, but saying they are all Trump supporting group thinkers.
He didn’t just attack their opinions; he said they should be fired for expressing those opinions. He has no respect for freedom of speech.
This Spanish Inquisition being run by the Congress is getting to the point of absurdity. They ought to be prosecuted for trying to deliberately deceive the public, and simply for insulting the intelligence of everyone on the planet earth.
RT reports the following, they are usually spot on accurate with their reporting since Washington is always trying to debunk them:
“Earlier this month, Facebook said that it had identified up to $150,000 in advertising, purchased between June 2015 and May 2017, that was connected to roughly 470 “inauthentic” accounts and pages that were “likely operated out of Russia,” Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos wrote. Stamos admitted that the “vast majority of ads run by these accounts” had nothing to do with the election, voting, or a particular candidate.
Google said it had failed to unearth any facts that would implicate Moscow in exploiting advertising to manipulate the election. “We’re always monitoring for abuse or violations of our policies and we’ve seen no evidence this type of ad campaign was run on our platforms,” Google said last week, according to Reuters.”
“During the 2016 election, Twitter said they deleted thousands of tweets and accounts that attempted to “suppress or otherwise interfere with the exercise of voting rights, including the right to have a vote counted, by circulating intentionally misleading information.” This included tweets that told users they could cast their ballots by text or tweet, which is not true. Twitter also said that they shared the content of deleted tweets with investigators on Thursday. The company however noted that they did not find any of those accounts had “obvious Russian origin.” All these things were presented before Congress on Thursday.
So, Facebook, Google and Twitter all provide scant evidence, if any, that Russia or Russians directed any disinformation at the American voter to try to sabotage our democracy. If anything of the sort got through, it was certainly like a single tear drop in the deluge of mud-slinging that the American candidates and their two parties constantly cast at one another. Any sane person would realise nothing consequential was or really could be attempted against that torrent of genuine American-made bullcrap, so there was zero motive to do so, and we know that Putin is no fool to waste his time or resources. Yet, Adam Schiff presents his hideous visage, peanut brain and deceptive words on American network television yesterday and claims that it’s certain fact that the Russian government sabotaged our election by purchasing ads on Facebook and tweeting mean things about Hillary Clinton on Twitter. For good measure, he says Russia is also guilty of stirring up the whole “Black lives matter” campaign and the bruhaha about taking a knee during the national anthem played at sporting events. They wouldn’t try making this stuff up even in Alice’s Wonderland. It would fail to get a laugh in the Onion, even on April 1st. These people are a national embarrassment for being so blatantly and shamelessly dishonest. These are the same knuckleheads who thought Baghdad Bob was the propaganda parody to end them all, and they’ve gone him one better… far better.
I eagerly hope to see examples of the handful of ads and tweets that the conspiracy freaks in the Congress have made the centerpiece of their case against Russia. But if they are nothing more than blurbs advertising their media productions (like “watch Larry King, Ed Schultz or Tom Hartmann”), I doubt we will ever will. Or, maybe they said something extremely provocative like “watch RT and evaluate the facts for yourself.” Wow, that would be tantamount to an act of war (in the minds of neocons), but still not enough to warrant a viewing by the American public which still might harbor some sane individuals.
Realist – Your comments are on the spot on everything you wrote. The absurdity of it is mind-boggling. Can we really call these legislators like Adam Schiff and others – it includes most of the Ruling Elite – sane people? It is hard to comprehend how low the Country has sunk. And there seems no end to it. It is going to get worse as they really get into the act of removing Trump from office. Watching MSNBC today, it seems like Mueller is tightening the noose step by step.
I would like to recommend George Orwells collection of essays,” All art is propaganda”, it is not so much of a heavy read as it is time consuming as so many essays when finished invade one’s mind that one pauses to assimilate and judge the content fully before beginning next.
As for slime:
It is said that government began in Mespotamia and it was quite a model for each following social order; That is until the Greeks invented politics and since them chaos reigns.
Politics defy treason and logic as well as natural physical laws.
For unlike in nature’s scheme of things pond slime sinks to the bottom. Whereas in politics the slime raises to the top.
Not of Orwell’ s caliber of writing, just my own observation of USA politi Al system.
The original inveztigation was begun by a man since fired, N. Y. STAtes attorney General, and it had to do nothing at all about election interference by Russia proper,:It was about Trumps illegally laundering Russian Oligarchs stolen funds from Russia.
Trail led to and thru AGI bank of Germany and off shore banking in Bahamas. Same facility’s Clinton Foundation uses.
This got into a cluster fu.. when Feds and Congress intervened. As the Investigation also uncovered many a counts to politicly connected elected and appointed officials who like as Russia showed Mc Cains letters Doing for contributions from high ranking Russians during his run for Prez.
Same formula as used clear back to Arizona 5’s embezzlement of Fed HUD and FHA funds and
original Clinton’s when in Arkansas of same embezzlement that got sidetracked into a Lie about a BJ in white house by girl.
Smoke and mirrors have hid many many a prominent and financial miscreants deeds in US.
Yet the brain washed still a t as if they live in a
Democracy, And like Little Ikemens salute the flag and let children never learn difference of indoctrinated Nationalism from Ideals of
patriotism.
Dumb As Rocks Spout, “Support The Troop, But Not The War”, As the volunteer troop slaughter hundreds of thousands and displace millions.
into eternal poverty by just following orders.
Go watch your military recruitment indoctrination and show your loyalty to permanent warfare as millions of Americans suffer from your as S ki
Sorry to say, the same phenomenon has been at work in climate science for quite some time.
Apparently it’s all about providing fodder for propaganda outlets and requiring conformity on the part of the white collar set.
Whether or not it’s convincing to the masses is not an issue.
Russiagate will be easier to fudge over the long term, and short of an upset in the power structure may prevail for some decades until revision finally takes place.
It all reeks of desperation on the part of the Empire’s power trippers. They know in the back of their minds that their criminal racket is faltering. Russiagate is the duct tape holding the house of cards together. At least until they can finish looting every last drop of profit from as many colonies (including this one) as they can.
Well put.
Russia is all about protecting its buffer zone & rightly so. The West plays the “Great Game” while an unwitting public buys the rationale for standing up to Russia, China, Iran etc. Why wouldn’t the Russians use the Trump admin to shore up its borders to protect them from NATO expansion? Trump is surely engaged in laundering the Russian oligarchs’ money. How else could it be after the US did everyting it could to cause the collapse of the Soviet Union & let it be taken over by industries privatized by Yeltzin as a schill for America. As Putin has pointed out, the collapse of the SU was the worst thing that happened in the 20th cent.
As far as I know, Putin did not say that the collapse of the Soviet Union was “the worst thing” that happened (to Russia?) in the 20th century. That would hardly be plausible – even if the 90es were very bad for Russia, the Holocaust and Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union with about 20 million Soviet victims was almost certainly worse. Also the crimes of Stalinism are certainly on a larger scale than the collapse of the Soviet Union.
What Putin said was: “Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and co-patriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself.”
“a major geopolitical disaster of the century” does not necessaily mean “the greatest geopolitical disaster of the century”
As with some other statements (for example the canard that Putin allegedly praised Trump as a genius in December 2015), the basis of the claim is a translation problem. This question is discussed here: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/10457/what-is-the-basis-for-putin-describing-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-as-the/10549 Putin used a superlative form “krupneyshaya”. The meaning of this form is similar to the Italian “grandissima” and means “very big”. But it does not necessarily mean “the biggest”, although it could in some contexts.
i like your comment. well researched.
The crimes of Stalin did not leave the country – USSR or Russia – a moribund state. The population was increasing in the end of the 30s and the country was an industrialized power that could not be easily threatened by other frces, short of being hit by the most powerful army in the world (which is what happened). Russia by the late 90s was a post-apocalyptic gangland with a fast decreasing population and a swiftly unraveling state and society. That was a product of the collapse of the USSR and the ensuing neoliberal ”shock treatment”.
Since the country’s descent into the abyss was stopped by Putin & Co, it goes without saying that this was the cause of the recent outburst of Putinophobia.
Slimy business has been going on too long…….To anyone with an open ear, the door closes on 9/30/2017………
Which door closes and why then? Q3 financials?
While it may appear to become a nuisance after more than a year, it may
also become very dangerous. It could be a serious effort to get the
populace to condone an illegal war in Syria involving Russia. People
don’t pay much attention to Assad and the Syrians, but the Russians
are already complaining about US forces working with ISIS. If those
reports are true the ‘plausible deniability’ will work if the people are
preconditioned to disbelieve whatever comes from the Kremlin.
Washington accuses others of nefarious tactics it employs itself. Now Washington accuses the Syrian Arab Army of colluding with the wahabist militants bent on genocide in Syria. This accusation alone informs the audience that Washington is in collusion with the wahabist militant gangs operating across the globe.
In the link you will see how the SDF seems to cut through wahabist gang territory like a hot knife through butter. Easily securing the region north of Deir es-Zor, and are currently cutting west across the desert as fast as those ubiquitous toyota trucks can carry them … without showing any evidence of fighting, according to Russian surveillance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhWoaNWw4Dc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJDVOq2LP_k
As the rest of the world also sees the US fabrications, American may one day find itself under fire from many directions. No one likes a dirty player.
The motivation of the neocon NYT is worth speculating about. Yes, they’ve been wanting to smash Muslim nations for israel for ages. What other possible motives might there be?
“Why are these billionaires doubling down on Israeli Investments?”
What do Bill Gates, Carlos Slim Helu, Mark Cuban, Donald Trump, and Warren Buffett all have in common?
Speculation – it might be as simple as money. Remember, Israel OWNS the US Congress, and has managed to put the fear of God into every last one of them. This unprecedented influence could easily be translated into some enormous financial benefits for those Rich Guys who suck up in the proper and approved manner. It would be as simple as slipping in some innocent-looking phrases into some of the boring legislation hardly anybody reads. You can bet that it would pass, and you can also bet that the Corporate Media will keep their yaps shut about it.
So that’s another theory – plain and simple corruption midwifed by the thieving and murdering little shithole of an apartheid nation.
http://blog.ourcrowd.com/why-are-these-billionaires-doubling-down-on-israeli-investments/
I seem to have forgotten to mention that Carlos Slim is supposed to be a major stockholder of the neocon NYT.
Please do some reading. Your first stop should be the Koch Bros who own the largest track of Canadian Tar Sands, and are potentially going to be twice as rich, after Trump approved the Keystone Pipeline, from Canada through the middle of America all the way to the flooded and toxic plains, to Houston (final destination Asia). You’ll find they already own most of the global warming denying Congress (not Israel), and their next extraction site will probably be the Grand Canyon. After you have read up on the Koch’s, check out the Mercers.
“koch Bros”
“Canadian Tar Sands”
“Keystone Pipeline”
“Mercers”
The connection of these places and people to the BS peddling by the NYT isn’t entirely clear to me.
The connection is that this modern Roman Empire is very big: the inheritors of the Roman Empire (France, Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, and so on…) have been wanting to smash Muslim Empires for 1500 years, having lost their M.E. and N. African Provinces to them. Since the Zion project was hatched by Cecil Rhodes RoundTable Group in the19th century, the Israel Project is a project of the British Province of the modern Roman Empire, which ALSO commands considerable influence in its “Western Provinces” Canada and USA, hence: Koch Bros.,Canadian Tar Sands, Keystone Pipeline, Mercers. Of course I’m talking about the integrated community of 1%er Oligarchs, NOT The People of these “Provinces”. Corbyn and Sanders (and whoever the Canadian and Israeli equivalents would be) can throw a gigantic “Monkey Wrench” into these imperial shenanigans
Israel is a way of continuing the smashing process of Muslim Empires by the modern Roman Empire, and I forgot to say that Germany is also a very big part of the modern Roman Empire, which carried the name “Holy Roman Empire” up to Napoleonic times (which, BTW, ole Nappie himself became their model for a modern Fascist Roman Emperor, as his Generals and extremely regressive factions within the Catholic Church hatched the Synarchy Internationale Project mid-19th century).
ok, you brought it up, so i will run with it…..
bringing it around full circle.
modern roman empire. yes. agreement . but
only british monarchy. with allies, not partners. why is this important? if one looks at the history of the royal institute for international affairs, one can see that the crown had to figure out how to maintain control of their assets. fast forward to the american branch. it’s called the council on foreign relations. the number of members in our government over years and years is staggering. just keep that in mind.
there is ample evidence of british involvement in the us war of northern aggression. and not just because they traded with the south. did you know that the monarchy’s cousins, the russian crown, sent warships to california in defense of the union?
it’s my opinion that this act is what sealed the fate of the romanovs in 1917. payback. for whatever reason the british crown holds grudges. i’m irish. not sure what my ancestors did to piss them off but they haven’t let off on our people in a thousand years……
this anti russia thing started before obama although it was not as overt.
the orange color revolution happened in (wait for it…….) ukraine under bush. and while not reported as a cia supported venture, i think we know what happened.
does anyone remember 8/8/08? opening day of the olympics in china. but a mini war was started in south ossetia. american media initially reported that russians had attacked un soldiers there.
the present anti russian hysteria started when putin checkmated the neo libs/neo cons when their attempt to destabilize syria failed. that’s when i observed the overt media attacks begin.
funny thing. i have actually been to russia and ukraine. in 1979. it was the first time in my life that i had been outside of the usa. the government propaganda of the previous 60 years had made me think of all russians as evil bond villians. it was eye opening to finally meet real russians. understand they were just people like me. i was 16 and it was the first time i had the blinders lifted. a real learning moment.
so, i guess that makes me guilty of collusion. sorry to you hillary supporters.
Yes, hated, I agree with you on all points. Czar Alexander II was killed (he was Lincoln’s Ally against British and French plans to join battle with Davis against Lincoln. Lincoln was killed for the “Greenback” maneuver around British monetary control (a Venetian style of Empire via monetary control & manipulation). Lincoln’s “war of agression” was a war against the superpower British Empire and its puppet the Confederacy (Planter Oligarchs), Wall Street assets (J.P. Morgan & Co., money handlers for the Planters), and the “Essex Country Junto” (New England “Blue Bloods” in shipping for the Empire’s slave and Opium trade). The Planter oligarchy was crushed. The Wall Streeters lived on (“Essex County Junto” bluebloods too…our Axis of Evil against the Republic, and Independence from Empire). Lincoln’s “GreenBacks” was a typical example of the American Credit System of Political Economy (control of economy by a Sovereign Nation-State’s Government in the hands of We The People via House of Representatives, a deadly threat to the British-Style of Empire via a Venetian Monetary System manipulated & controlled by oligarchs. Russia always supported USA Revolution as a counter-balance to British Empire designs on Russia (enemy of my enemy is my friend),(and French Empire and Ottoman Empire too, as evidenced by Crimean War 1856).
British Crown is “Princeps”? (First among “Equals”)
I’m of Welsh-Irish ancestry (Irish on my mother’s side). Her grand father came over as a stow-a-way to flee the potato famine (“neo” liberal economics at its purest…ancestor of TINA Thatcherism and austerities, deficits, balanced budgets and suchlike wicked gaming with people’s lives (but Banks and MIIC are too big to fail of course). Lincoln would have just GreenBacked his way out of Depression and imminent economic collapse (a Credit System recognizing it is LABOR upon raw materials that is the SOURCE of ALL wealth, NOT Venetian Fondi in an oligarch’s off-shore piggy bank). The grudge against the Celtic Fringe (Welsh and Scotts too) comes from the fact that we were on the the Islands first, by many Centuries before the Angels, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians showed up. This is just flawed human nature in action. I suppose the Picts can claim the same grievance against us Celts; American Indians too. The enemy is Oligarchy. It s class warfare, not Tribal warfare, and THEY are masters at divide-to-conquer, seeking out all useful flaws and weaknesses.
mr. owen,
i appreciate your well researched insights. and your demeanor. i wanted to thank you for reminding me about the crimean war….or the “nato” war of aggression of the time. so misunderstood and still so hard to understand. just another stab wound from the crown to russia.
i still don’t buy the grudge against the celtic fringe that you posed. not that the idea isn’t logical. it’s just seems in my mind that there is something deeper there. but maybe lost to history.
America is stumbling into a diystopic future with a clueless public and a corporate fascist government.
Agreed.
Bad enough on my safe space that I have Paul Craig Roberts harping on these same issues, now Parry joins the fray. I need to be reassured that there is no profit in a nuclear wasteland and even political sociopaths and the bankers that own them have an instinct for survival. In the back of my head I keep hearing George C. Scott’s character in Strangelove saying, http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003295/quotes
WaterCloset, a courtesy flush please?
Good one. :) But you can’t flush the level of BS that has been fed to the public over the past number of years. That’s why Trump the plumber was elected, to drain the swamp etc.
So now what happens? 20+ trillion in debt with 100+ trillion in unfunded liabilities, let alone off-shoring all those jobs is a fairly good indicator the shit is backed up to the ceiling. If we are to believe Trump actually makes any decisions, what are his choices? QE4? Austerity to piss people off even more? Or start another war someplace to take people’s minds off the collapsing economy?
To quote Bachman Turner Overdrive – “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”.
Right track wrong track polling, links now waiting moderation, show in the 60 percentiles America on “the wrong track” in successive years. In pursuing this type of polling I find in similar sources, consistent over the past year, discontent with the government spending time on the Russia conspiracy instead of getting after health care and other issues considered more important. I also find 84% currently support the NFL athletes right to protest, but only 39% think taking a knee is acceptable. Also found a somewhat amusing reference to the “Lingerie Football League,” which I’d never heard of, females playing football in skimpy outfits, and this (should I say “body”) states that the flag is “too sacred” to be protested. Well, the Russkies didn’t get to these lingerie football players yet, I am relieved to report.
I found results in duck duck go under right track wrong track polling and do Americans believe in Russia-gate and do Americans support NFL players protesting.
I think 12% of Americans favored the R health care plan. They have spent 9 months on it, and haven’t given up. Two years pitching Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi as a complete fabrication, so what is your point again? Further, check your data on the Russian investigation again. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t support the investigation and Rachael Maddow is now #1 on cable news (from 3rd), and that’s all she talks about.
This comment appears to be typical of your thinking, Robert, and I’m sorry to say it does no credit. You have taken what I said and twisted it. According to poll reports I was looking at earlier, and some of these are now “waiting moderation” 65% of Americans felt the emphasis on Russia-gate overdone and want the government to spend time on more important matters, such as health care, which you dismiss here as outright incorrect. In your previous reply to me you revealed what your certainty about “fact” rests on: in your own words that is “hunch.” Well, hunch won’t do it for the critical thinking you’re calling for, Robert, which I respectfully suggest you do more of. Your cred here is pretty low at the moment. I mean no malice by saying so.
R. Golden, Here are some facts: Healthcare for all citizens in this country would be half the cost for twice the care. Period. Read T.R. Reid’s book, investigating other countries with free health care for all. It is amusing that Fidel Castro once pointed out the Cuban education and health care systems compared to the US.
All citizens want healthcare for all, except those few who are made wealthy keeping the status quo (pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, those doctors in the AMA who are paid off for supporting certain markets in the medical fields and encouraging use of certain drugs, and paid-off politicians who lobby for these thieves and get funding for their elections). Why should those handful of money hungry men control our health system? You may be interested to learn that the people in the medical field who actually care about patients, the vast majority, want Medicare from birth forward.
R. Golden, Rachael Maddow has lost her creditability with her rants about Russia and pro-militarism, neither stance defendable. If she’s now ranked 3rd, that is indicative of the low level of intelligence and critical thinking in the country. After all, Russia/Putin is innocent until proven otherwise (not by guesses, hunches, innuendos, suggestions, quotes by unnamed “officials,” and outright lies). After all, ALL our wars since WWII have been illegal and against international law, and are engaged with false flags. Should we support soldiers who are sent into battle to murder innocent civilians in sovereign lands? No. That would be insanity.
right track wrong track polling with current sept figures
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/right_direction_wrong_track_25
right track wrong track polling shows similar to above a year ago
https://realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html
“PropOrNot’s […] Tweet on November 7 indicates that the research of Peter Pomerantsev, a Senior Fellow at the Legatum Institute in London, who has also been cooperating on research with the Information Warfare Project of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, D.C, inspired its efforts. […]
“CEPA’s website indicates that on May 10 it hosted Senators Chris Murphy and Rob Portman to discuss ‘Russia’s sophisticated disinformation campaign.’ CEPA’s President, A. Wess Mitchell is quoted as saying: ‘What’s missing is a significant effort on the part of the U.S. government. Not nearly enough has been done.’
“Six days after Washington Post reporter Craig Timberg ran his first PropOrNot story, he published another article indicating that ‘Congressional negotiators on Wednesday approved an initiative to track and combat foreign propaganda amid growing concerns that Russian efforts to spread ‘fake news’ and disinformation threaten U.S. national security.’ Quoted in the story was none other than the very Senator who had met with CEPA in May on that very topic, Senator Rob Portman.
“Portman is quoted as follows: ‘This propaganda and disinformation threat is real, it’s growing, and right now the U.S. government is asleep at the wheel.’ Among Portman’s top three donors to his 2016 Senate race were Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, two Wall Street behemoths that would very much like to pivot the national debate to anything other than Wall Street power and corruption.”
Who’s Behind PropOrNot’s Blacklist of News Websites
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/12/whos-behind-propornots-blacklist-of-news-websites/
If ever an abundance of caution, patience and reserve was in order, it should be utilized over the issue of Russian “meddling” in our election and/or collusion between Russia and Trump into the 2016 election. Truth be told this is an ongoing investigation, in which the citizenry are not privileged, to ascertain the progress or the facts. Therefore it is understandable that bits and pieces are assembled, to create an imperfect picture, and an inexact scent. Nevertheless, we should all be thankful that experienced, legal minds are working on behalf of our laws and what the Koch’s, Mercer’s, and other reactionary, right-wing billionaires have left of our democracy.
To say there is “no proof” of mischief is a conclusion that defies logic and fact. Firstly we have every right to investigate this issue, and secondly Trump operatives and Russian behavior created this investigation, not the other way around, and the evidence appears to be growing. The investigation doesn’t rely on the scholarship of the MSM, rather it relies on the thoroughness of our professional investigators. No one is “ready to exterminate life on the planet” over this issue, as the author repeatedly suggests. Further still the author suggests there is no evidence, and by implication these investigators are all stupid. Everyone should rest assured, the Republican Congress is not going to impeach Trump, without evidence, and everybody understands this reality.
On other points the author’s narrative continues to display a type of logic that is based upon pure fantasy. Russia and the US do have diametric values and conflicting, geo-political interests in the Middle East, that have nothing to do with Israel. Even if Israel didn’t exist, Russian-US conflicts would. It was only a few years ago everyone understood that Syria was a client of Russia. Nothing in that respect has changed. With the same type of intentional, irresponsible accusations the author doesn’t bother to note that any wiretapping of Manafort that picked up Trump was incidental to the legal wiretapping of Manafort. Why bring H. Clinton into this?
On a final note I think combating all types of propaganda is important, especially in our electronic and social media culture. Messages are instant and heard over vast networks. Focusing on Russia is incomplete, when we are confronted with so home grown propaganda. We desperately lead to modernize and build institutional safeguards to counter and check false news. Bring back the equal time provision and the fairness doctrine, and spend money on a good civics education, throughout the levels of our education system. Critical thinking is the best antidote to fake news, and illogical thinking. Fake news is fake news. It is not news that researchers don’t like. It’s news that didn’t happen, that no one observed, and that flies in the face of objective facts.
“To say there is ‘no proof’ or mischief is a conclusion that defies logic and fact.” Start here, please, and develop this thesis with evidence of logic and fact to honor your call for critical thinking.
D5, I think you misunderstood my point. Like you, I’m not privy to the investigation, and all I can do is develop a hunch about what I have personally observed, and what has been revealed by Republican government officials to be facts, like the intrusion of voting machines in 21 states, the meetings with Russians arranged by Jr, who later lied about their purpose, and who attended, as well as the efforts by Sr. to obstruct the investigation, by first pressuring high level intelligence officials, and then publicly admitting he fired Comey, due to the pressure of the Russian investigation. I could go on and on, just based upon what I have observed, but I don’t have the investigative powers available to the Mueller staff, although I wish I did.
To me, it did appear that the hacked e-mails and Trump’s closing arguments in the election, were coordinated. There are lots of clues, in my opinion. If I were Mueller I would investigate Trump’s attack on a Syrian airfield, that seemed to serve no strategic purpose, and may have been based on erroneous, or at least poorly vetted info. The whole 150M fireworks show seem to serve no other purpose than distracting the public from the Russian investigation and flexing Trump’s power as POTUS.
Nobody knows outside of this investigation what the facts and evidence are, and how this relates to our laws, so why criticize the investigative process? It is certainly a serious issue, and there does appear to be plenty of smoke? On the other hand, if Mueller has a strong case against Trump, and/or his admin let’s take appropriate actions so it never happens again. If unrelated crimes are divulged as a consequence of the investigation, as they were with Clinton, I believe as a matter of equal enforcement of the law, these people, whoever they are, should be held accountable.
Clearly propaganda works. People rage against the empire and then swallow whole its fear mongering and demonizing of Russia ultimately siding with the Empire.
There are so many people journalists and persons loved by the left who have clearly now sided with the Empire big names who just cave in and say oh just one more election in our wonderful “democracy” please it’s pathetic. There is no such thing as democracy in an Empire.
“what has been revealed by Republican government officials to be facts, like the intrusion of voting machines in 21 states”
One should be very careful about such “facts” – much of it has been retracted, and usually the retraction receives much less attention than the original allegation. As far as Wisconsin is concerned, the allegations have already been retracted: https://www.apnews.com/10a0080e8fcb4908ae4a852e8c03194d “Based on our external analysis, the WI IP address affected belongs to the WI Department of Workforce Development, not the Elections Commission,” said the email from Juan Figueroa, with Homeland Security’s Office of Infrastructure Protection.” So, while the attribution of the source of the probing to the Russian state is speculative, in the case of Wisconsin, the target was not even the elections commission, but the department of workforce development.
Of course, not everything has explicitly been retracted, but when we look at this pattern of allegations about Russia (like that they hacked the electric grid in Vermont) that are later retracted, that should rather lead people to be skeptical about all these allegations.
Your very mention of ”hacked” e-mails reveals your extreme bias on the issue. In your view, it would be impossible to expect one or more individuals with integrity in the IT department of the DNC being horrified by the revelations and the dealings these revealed about the pre-selected candidate Clinton. Some people may have been genuinely outraged by the attempt of the DNC establishment hacks to undermine Sanders in violation of the party’s own rules and proceed to leak this sensitive info to Wikileaks. But for people like you it had to be Russia.
If anything, the pitiful arguments and non-facts used to promote the fake ”Russia-gate” scandal further reinforce the certainty that this was concocted to attack Trump’s presidency. And what people like you fail to understand is that had a leftist candidate won the elections, one who would be sincerely interested to change the course of the US in numerous aspects of domestic and foreign policy, such an individual would face the same implacable hostility by the neoliberal establishment.
And it is the servile mentality of a large number of the US/western citizenry – to which part you obviously belong – that allows the same people who have spewing lies and fantastic narratives that serve the country’s corporate oligarchy to get away again and again and proceed to do so in every occasion it is required of them. There are no consequences for deliberately spreading falsehoods and it always works.
As for the threat of an armageddon, if you honestly believe that penalizing diplomacy with Russia (a fantastic achievement that was not seen during the Cold War) doesn’t carry any dangers, you have an extremely limited perception of international politics.
Thank you Constantine for your excellent rebuttal of Robert Golden.
Mr. Goldman, your comments on this site are entertaining and obfuscating at once. You say, as though speaking truth, “…it did appear that the hacked e-mails and Trump’s closing arguments in the election, were coordinated.” What “hacked emails?” There were no hacked emails, though, like you, newspapers repeat that phrase to establish it as a given in people’s minds, cementing the propaganda at which point it is no longer questioned. See…it worked with you. Hacking and leaking are entirely different processes. The emails were LEAKED from the DNC to Julian Assange/Wikileaks. Period. Provable. Fact. Ground zero is the leaked emails…proving Hilary wanted to discredit Sanders as an opponent, move forward on war with Iran and Russia (both would be as illegal as all our other wars in the past 70 years), strengthen her connections with the banking world, and become president. Since you say you want facts to prevail, let them.
I think this person is a True Believer in what is the logical extension of the Cheney Doctrine. <and here I've been saying that the BushBots were all gone!) From the wiki:
In other words, the Bushies were going to do what they damned well pleased. Fast Forward to 2017. From the essay above:
As Mr. Golden says, it “defies logic” not to treat this as a genuine Threat To American Democracy. Approximately 1/10,000th of 1% of Twitter accounts are in on this scheme – Mr. Parry is clearly being a contrary stick-in-the-mud for denying evidence which is perfectly obvious to the most casual observer.
Firstly I didn’t comment on this obscurity. That was the author. Secondly, I went out of my way and said that unlike the author, no one is talking about a nuclear response. My point is the investigation is entirely appropriate, and the least we can do is be patient and reserved, since we haven’t been presented. with any conclusions yet.
Do you type with a straight face?
From your previous post:
“Trump operatives and Russian behavior created this investigation”
Trump almost single-handedly kept the Russia investigation going. Have you forgotten? Without his various claims and admissions, Congress would have no doubt been happy to let the whole thing slide. Trump made that pretty much impossible.
More propaganda from the zionist scammer Golden:
1. The “professional investigators” did any usable internet tracing in 2016: routers do not have second thoughts; the investigators made serious and amateurish mistakes and false statements recently;
2. An “abundance of caution” was allowed in 2016 and is propaganda now;
3. It is absurd to say that statements of the lack of evidence “defy logic and fact” and then be unable to cite a single bit of evidence;
4. More zionist lies pretending that the US Mideast policy is not dictated by Israeli bribes;
5. More zionist lies that Russia and the US have conflicting, geo-political interests in the Middle East, that have nothing to do with Israel”
6. Spare us the “fantasy” and stick to the facts or go preach to your zionist paymasters.
“and the evidence appears to be growing”
I’m no mathematician, but pretty sure no 0 can have a value greater than any other 0.
Essentially, in other words, the CIA’s having another recruiting drive to further undermine what little remains of honest, deeply investigative journalism within the Outlaw US Empire. The Big Black Hole gets dug deeper daily. The success of CIA brainwashing can be seen by the number of people denouncing those Taking a Knee.
Quote: And right now, tens of millions of dollars are flowing to non-governmental organizations if they will buttress the thesis of Russian “meddling” in the U.S. democratic process no matter how sloppy the “research” or how absurd the “findings.”
Ha!ha! You know what’s funny about this? It’s that all the money poured into the NGOs in Russia in the past quarter century that was intended to, not just meddle in, but to shape the Russian political, social, and economic realities has, under Putin’s wise and delicate rule, been squeezed into an ineffectual state of presence. And because their attempts on the ground in real life have failed over there, a theatrical inversion of reality has to be created over here.
Ah!ha!ha! This is SUCH an amazing movie. And, better when wearing 3-D glasses! Can’t wait to see how it ends.
Your right, Putin seems to out smart these clever American instigators every step of the way. I will now take a knee for injustices committed against Blacks, and Native-Americans (remember Dakota Access), and stay down on my knee a little while longer with the hope that my beloved USA may come to it’s senses, and that my country will finally wise up.
Joe,
I appreciate your ‘taking a knee’ for injustices committed against certain of those who share this continent with us English-speaking peoples (who seem to have have claimed it as our own), as I have long appreciated the tone and substance of your comments on this site.
So, I’m gonna quibble (in a friendly way) with you on the idea that Putin ‘out smarts’ American instigators at every step. I’ve been spying on that guy for about three years, now, and I’d say it’s just that he’s playing a different game. One the American players don’t understand, and don’t believe even exists … or maybe they’ve heard rumours of such a game, but they think it’s mythical.
See: our people — yours and mine: your beloved USA and my Canada, heirs of the British Empire — our people make war for fun and profit. Always have done. We rule the waves, and privateering is our game.
Putin’s people, on the other hand, have occupied the crossroads at the centre of the major overland trade routes (north-south as well as east-west) since ancient times, and, due to the geography and the demographics, have been fighting off invaders from all direction the whole time. It’s a whole different game.
And, it’s a game VV Putin takes seriously, ’cause he has no other choice. After perestroika, after ‘the Harvard boys [did] Russia’ ( ref: https://www.thenation.com/article/harvard-boys-do-russia/), that huge nation (11 time zones!) was on the brink of total collapse and dismemberment. For the stability, security and prosperity of (what was left of) his people and the 1000-year history of the nation, he just couldn’t afford to make any mistakes or false steps.
For him and his team (Putin doesn’t work alone by any stretch of the imagination), this isn’t a pissing contest. It’s the life of their nation.
Whole different game.
I hope our countries wise up, too. We’re really blowing it.
There are two things here I see as interesting, and possibly crucial, laninya.
One, is the U.S. and Canada by the standards of a country’s age are fairly young. In fact Russia got our countries beat by, probably would you say 4 fold? Anyway, our time at bat as being an Empire of somekind would even be shorter by the standards of empire time. So for America being stupid and young enough to be excused for at least this kind of uncontrolled blind patriotism we have seen of late in the U.S., added to the total absence of attentioned paid to all these American instigated wars, why us Americans are like distracted children in a playground, so our youth is our only plead. I could be wrong, but this collective mindset in our society here, makes me believe we need to do a lot of growing up in this nation, and the world will be happy to throw the U.S. a coming of age party if peace is the prize.
The second matter is, is that I agree that Russia by having a defense oriented military strategy is in better shape than like the U.S. having ourselves stretched out all over the global network we have wove. You see I don’t trust big, and I’m leery of to much technology as well…but that’s me. In fact, if a body existed like the UN who had some real juice were to laid down some enforceable laws, I would then hedge towards them making nations have their militaries situated more like the Russian Federation does….defensive. With the NFL in the news so much these days this ‘Good Defense’ thinking should make sense to no matter who stands or kneels.
Lastly, the U.S. has already over spent itself on war, now the U.S. only needs to go on a frantic rampage of somekind….let’s hope it just boils down to rhetorical saber rattlings, and the world laughs with us…. Kim looks to be having a ball. I shouldn’t have said that, but sometimes a little humor lightens the reality….oh it’s very American to laugh when we should be worried, but I digress…..
Big isn’t always better. You may look better in a $1,000. 00 suit than I do in my $10,000.00 suit, and oh by the way these clothes we have on are still suits.
Nice conversation laninya. Joe
Joe,
Yeah, thanks for the convo.
One more thought about the movement now expressing itself by ‘taking a knee’ for a righteous cause. This visual of a line of players down on one knee through the playing of a national anthem melds in my mind with the image of Tommy Smith and John Carlos humbly yet defiantly raising their fists at the 1968 Olympics. The year fast approaching will mark 50 years since that Black Power salute on the Olympics podium shook everybody up.
Fifty years is time aplenty for a population to get serious about addressing its own realities, I should think. And, I’d really like to see us do that before the rest of the world feels they have no choice but to close us down. A Truth and Reconciliation process is more than overdue for our English-speaking nations (the “Five Eyes”).
Yes laninya until the citizens of our nations face the fact that our country’s have inflicted a lot of pain on the worldwide citizenry nothing going forward will make much of a difference. My hopes for this admission is not high, but I do still have faith in the younger generations coming up. This MSM campaign against ‘fake news’ may try to end any hope of the truth being known, but as my mother had said to me time after time when I tried getting over on her, ‘that one lie only leads to another lie, until the truth jumps up and bites you in the ass’. So, because my dear sweet mum never lied to me, I’ll still take stock in her warning, and hope that the truth will be widely known.
It has been a great pleasure to converse with you laninya. Joe
Laninya, there is a sad and instructive addendum to the Tommy Smith, John Carlos story: https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/08/07/the-forgotten-story-behind-the-black-power-photo-from-1968-olympics.html
replying to witters and the link about Peter Norman–
I kind of prefer the article Dave Zirin wrote about him on the occasion of his passing in 2006 ( http://www.edgeofsports.com/2006-10-09-202/index.html ).
By the quote I’m going to paste below, it sounds like Norman totally understood what he was doing and continued standing in solidarity with his podium mates and the cause of justice without regret. That’s the thing about standing up to injustice: injustice is, by definition, brutal and calloused. And if you’re going to stand up to it, you have to expect to have to pay a price (sometime with your life).
Here’s the quote I like from Zirin’s article (titled ‘Brother of the Fist’):
Norman never strayed from a life of humility. When a sculpture was unveiled of Smith and Carlos last year in California, Norman was left off, the silver medal platform purposely vacant so others could stand in his place. Smith and Carlos protested it, feeling it fed the false idea of Norman as political bystander. But Norman himself who traveled from Australia to California for the unveiling said, “I love that idea. Anybody can get up there and stand up for something they believe in. I guess that just about says it all.”
Ianinya – An excellent analysis. Right on the mark. Putin is not a dictator as they malign him in the Media in The West. He is leading a team – very astute and shrewd team. For Russia it is an existential struggle – a fight they can not lose.They have been subjected to it during their entire History as you pointed out.
Americans – even our politicians and experts – do not have much understanding of other peoples history – they do not understand Russia.
Dave,
Well, it’s interesting what a person can learn these days just sitting in a chair, poking at a few buttons on a keyboard. Never in the history of the world have ordinary people had so many resources at their disposal and so much information at their fingertips. Yet, your last sentence still seems accurate.
Why is that? In the US and Canada, we do have experts who are very knowledgable about other people’s history and culture, including Russia’s. But, for some reason or another, there are times when we just collectively choose to sideline and ignore them. In the US you have Stephen F. Cohen Jack Matlock, and Sharon Tennison, among others, who can speak intelligently about Russia. In Canada we have the voices of Patrick Armstrong, Paul Robinson, and the blogger Mark Chapman (The Kremlin Stooge). Armstrong and Robinson both come from a military background, both also publish easily accessible blogs.
I believe it was thanks to a commenter over at the Kremlin Stooge that I discovered a book, then newly available in English translation, titled “Russia and Europe / The Slavic World’s Political and Cultural Relations with the Gremanic-Roman West” by Nikolai Danilevskii, originally published c.1868.
Let me show you a quote from that book. A hundred and fifty years ago, Danilevskii wrote this:
“It is still in fashion among us to attribute everything to our unfamiliarity with Europe, and to its ignorance concerning Russia. Our press says nothing, at least until recently, but our enemies slander us. How would poor Europe learn the truth? It is shrouded in fog and befuddled. Risum teneatis, amici; or, as we say in Russian, it would make a chicken laugh, my friends. How could Europe — which knows everything from the Sanskrit language to the Iroquois dialects, from the laws of motion of complex solar systems to the structures of microscopic organisms — not know a thing about Russia? … Such excuses — ignorance, naivety, and gullibility, as if we are talking about an innocent schoolgirl — are laughable coming from Europe, shrewd as a serpent.”
Funny, eh?
laninya,
The last paragraph in your comments, quotation from Danilevsky is very interesting. Yes, you are right. There are quite a few people in academia and outside, like Stephen Cohen, Matlock, and others. Matlock has been trying to calm the waters with his appearances on RT, and a few other places, and also at the Valdai International discussion club forum. But they have no power.
Just about all the power – finance, media, TV, entertainment industry, foreign policy, and to a large extent defense policy – in the U.S. is in the hands of the Neo-Cons in complicity with Israel.
You mentioned the Harvard Boys doing all this financial engineering in Russia during 1990’s under that charlatan Yeltsin in U.S. hands. I really thought the West has finally finished Russia off – and that Russia can not recover in hundred years , as the media was proclaiming here. Putin and his team has resurrected Russia again – it is almost a miracle. They – Russia – are not in good shape yet, but it seems like they can defend themselves.
As you wrote, Russia, being at the cross roads, has faced invasions, and dangers throughout its’ history – Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, under Tatar yoke for two centuries, nomads from the steppes and Central Asia, Turks from the South, and from Caucasus warrior tribes. From the West – Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, and France.
Russia has been under constant existential threat through out its history, and so is today under threat form U.S., and the other West. West’s intervention in Syria for regime change, and Iran as target is all aimed at Russia. Russia had no other recourse but help Syria against the Jihadi’s armed and supported by The West.
But Syria still is not out of danger. There are some articles in the Saker today related to it and Kurdistan issue. In Syria , it seems like U.S., SDF, and ISIS are working in tandem to stop the advance of Syrian Army supported by Russia. Links below:
https://thesaker.is/kurdistan-the-final-chapter-of-the-empires-plot-against-the-middle-east/
https://thesaker.is/very-dangerous-escalation-in-syria/
My comments have been in moderation for couple of hours, may be due to links to The Saker I put in. I am posting it again without the links.
laninya,
The last paragraph in your comments, quotation from Danilevsky is very interesting. Yes, you are right. There are quite a few people in academia and outside, like Stephen Cohen, Matlock, and others. Matlock has been trying to calm the waters with his appearances on RT, and a few other places, and also at the Valdai International discussion club forum. But these people have no power.
Just about all the power – finance, media, TV, entertainment industry, foreign policy, and to a large extent defense policy, in the U.S. is in the hands of the NeoCons, mostly Zionists, in complicity with Israel.
You wrote about the Harvard Boys doing all this financial engineering on Russia during 1990’s under that charlatan Yeltsin, who was in U.S. hands. I really thought The West has finally finished Russia off – and that Russia can not recover in hundred years , as the media was proclaiming here. Putin and his team has resurrected Russia once again – it is almost a miracle. They – Russia – are not in good shape yet, but it seems like they can defend themselves.
As you wrote, Russia, being at the cross roads, has faced invasions, and dangers throughout its’ history – Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, under Tatar yoke for two centuries, nomads from the steppes and Central Asia, Turks from the South, and from Caucasus warrior tribes. From the West – Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, and France.
Russia has been under constant existential threat through out its history, and so is today under threat form U.S., and the rest of The West. West’s intervention in Syria for regime change, and then Iran as target is all aimed at Russia. Russia had no other recourse but help Syria against the Jihadi’s, armed and supported by The West.
But Syria still is not out of danger. There are some articles in the Saker today related to it and Kurdistan issue. In Syria , it seems like U.S., SDF, and ISIS are working in tandem to stop the advance of Syrian Army supported by Russia.
Hey Dave,
Glad you tweaked to the Danilevskii quote. When I read it, I thought: wow! has time stood still?
Let me address what you said about power, though. You wrote:
“But these people have no power…. Just about all the power – finance, media, TV, entertainment industry, foreign policy, and to a large extent defense policy, in the U.S. is in the hands of the NeoCons, mostly Zionists, in complicity with Israel.”
See, I don’t go along with that cop out. The population at large has the power to make or break any of the entities listed above. If Neocons have power, it’s because people are buying what they’re selling. Stephen Cohen and Jack Matlock do not because few want to hear what they have to say right now.
As I said above, our Western economy was built on privateering. We know what butters our bread (plunder), yet we also want to present ourselves as being on the side of the angels. So we give power to the murders and thieves among us and then pretend we’re not responsible for what they do. I read that as being the “shrewd as a serpent” part of what Danilevskii was talking about.
As for the Saker, I frequent the Vineyard myself.
Thanks for the conversation.
That’s what I wonder, what Steve said, “Are there any accurate polls of what the general public thinks of this?” We don’t seem to be hearing about it, just the nonstop propaganda from Babble-on.
Jessica, funny you should ask, because at this very moment that’s what I’ve been trying to search for, and the polls I keep coming up with are either old, or the polls don’t necessarily address this specific question. Maybe Abe, or another comment poster could do better, because I’m not claiming I have any superiority doing internet surfing to find qualified polling. But since you brought up the question I thought I’d leave you my report. Over and out. Joe
The only poll I know about was an internal Democratic Party poll showing that rank and file Democrats resented the incessant “Russia did it” mantra as not responsive to their concerns. I don’t remember whether people believed it or not but they definitely through it was getting too much attention from Democratic leaders at the expense of more important issues.
This Democratic voters resentment against all this blame Russia nonsense is going to annihilate any chances the party of the people will have had to capturing the majority of seats in our governments congress, not to mention regaining the office of the presidency. It will serve the Democrates well, for allowing themselves for being used as a tool for the Shadow Government.
Hi joe,
I have no idea how old you are , or what your worldly experiences are. I grew up in Munich Germany 1968-1982, and there really was a cold war. Too young for Vietnam but old enough to protest in Munich 1978 the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. Back then , I thought , holy shit, the soviets are … See, I never saw the Russians or soviets as bad people, because I went to school with them. Now , today 2017 I say just stop it. . All sides , just stop.
The closest I was to you when you were in Munich I was about 20 years old in the Navy where at the end of our Med Cruise, we tied up in Golfe-Juan, France, for 3 weeks and oh we were the first cruise where when we hit the French Rivera we were encouraged to wear civilian clothes….ah, memories of yesterday when I was young, was a big hit by Roy Clark at the time, and it befits by older age now. I taught the French Pittsburghese.
On a serious note, all of us right now should pay attention to what, or rather what isn’t going on, to getting relief to Puerto Rico, and the surrounding islands. Now would be a great time to hook up with Cuba, and help each other out here, logistically and provisionally. Now is the time to deploy a military, and I hope the Calvary soon shows up in Puerto Rico, and etc., inhabited and maybe even uninhabited places, but to do some humanitarian good, right now! This should be easy for a nation who out spends the next eight nations on defense budgets, so let’s get to it. Hoorah!
Sorry tina, got carried away, and too your concern about all this war….I always say, the world has grown to small for war. In fact when you come to think of it, all this fighting for what? For what, when they the Establishment could have divided up all the world’s resources in a Boardroom somewhere. Come to think of it, the Boardroom is where the final decisions get made anyway, so why the war? I won’t say the word ‘profit’ if you don’t.
I know I’m a Purist, but a purist that knows enough that my wishful ideology cannot be in this world, but as a Purist I still can wish, can’t I? Shhhh….. Joe
For your pleasure, Joe…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEY4LxORCeo
“Hier Encore” (“Only Yesterday”) was a song by French singer and songwriter Charles Aznavour that was released in September 1964.
It was subsequently recorded in English as “Yesterday, When I Was Young” by country music performer Roy Clark and released in May 1969
Clark’s version became his biggest hit up to that time on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, peaking at No. 9 in August 1969, and indeed, it became his only top 40 pop hit.
Up until 32 years ago I lived nearby to Golfe-Juan, in Cannes. It was another Cold War then, one which I was relieved to see end, unaware that this End of History would spur a PNAC-led rampage by what I still considered back then to be the ‘good guys’. Now the Chinese are being squeezed as well in this new Cold War/Pivot revival by the psychopaths who emerged brazenly during the intervening years, even my Australian homeland isn’t safe from the threat of falling ICBMs. In the vein of the previous answer to your comment, this piece of nostalgia more appropriate to my own years on the Côte d’Azur in Beverly Hill’s Twin City may bring back some of your own memories of the Land of Topless Sunbathing. Ah to be young and stupid again indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2w0rbp6J9Y
There goes the charabang!
Joe – “This Democratic voters resentment against all this blame Russia nonsense is going to annihilate any chances the party of the people will have had to capturing the majority of seats in our governments congress, not to mention regaining the office of the presidency. ”
It does not make an iota of difference which party is in power. “The party of the People ” was in power, when Obama took office. Look what happened. They started more wars, finished off Libya as a Nation, started the destruction of Syria, started extermination in Yemen . . . . Obama set up more U.S. bases in Africa – the land of his ancestors to bring them back under control. And don’t forget the Drone Wars of Obama.
All this Russia Gate mess was started by Obama, and largely fueled by The Party of the People. If they come to power, they are going to double up on it. Don’t we watch the likes of Adam Schiff On TV every day spitting out their lies and and hatred towards Russia! The party of Bill and Hillary are clamoring for more action – like setting up no Fly Zones – in Syria. They want to subjugate Russia.
The way the things are in the country, of all the bad options available, Trump probably is the best to have – he can not make the case for more wars effectively, like the slick politician Obama did.
Mike K. in his post yesterday under “Rise of New McCarthyism” had this link to an interesting article on the Neocons.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article178638.html
Dave you are right. The reason I mentioned the Democrates was because they were the last party that I can recall who did once stand for the ‘we the people’. My memory also can recall how even when at their best the Democrates weren’t all that great to living up to their overrated motto. So what I was referring too in many ways doesn’t exist, and some would say never did. These presidents we all find fault with, in my mind are only front people for our Shadow Government (look up YouTube of Kevin Shipp). In fact watching Trump turn over his staff, and his redo of his campaign promises, is like seeing the Shadow Government take over in real time. You and I Dave are most definitely living inside of the matrix. Thanks Dave for moving this conversation along in the right direction. Joe
Yes Joe. There was lot of good in that old Democratic Party of the 1960’s and 70’s – my wife and I took part in the McGovern’s campaign. And in those days, in old main street type conservative Republicans, I found lot of good too. In fact, when I came to this country during mid 1960’s, the city council of Ann Arbor was Republican, and they were good people. And now the city council of Ann Arbor is in Democratic Party hands – all Hillary supporters, and Russia bashers too.
I wonder what they are teaching in these schools now. This is what this very effective propaganda machine of this new age Edward Bernays is doing to the young minds and to the public at large.
Dave you bring up the 1972 McGovern presidential run, and the way that all went down. I quit voting after that all took a turn for the worst, and for the following next twenty years I stayed away from the voting booth. That no doubt wasn’t a smart way of dealing with my disappointment, but at that time I thought it appropriate because I could see then that I didn’t necessarily agree with the majority of my fellow countrymen and woman. No big deal, I just did what needed done to get my family food on the table. To be honest Dave, I still don’t know why I vote. Although you are right the Democrates aren’t in anyway much better than the Republicans, and with that we all suffer. Joe
Hi Joe-
I agree that it is questionable to even vote in a general election. I usually do it more for the ballot initiatives they have in Arizona, as opposed to favoring any politician. However, I always make the effort to vote in the primary. Usually there is one peace candidate on one side or the other, and I often even switch my party registration to be able to vote for that candidate. In the general election, I almost always go 3rd party as a protest vote against the war machine.
Money controls everything. ETHICS DOESN’T STAND A CHANCE IN COMPETITION WITH MONEY. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ WELCOME TO THE WONDERLAND OF Capitalism, where you can have anything you want, if only you have the MOOLA! Souls for sale here – CHEAP!
Just sign here in blood, and have we got a deal for you……….
If there is any comfort to be found in any of this, all this blaming Russia on everything and anything is getting all to outrageous as each day goes by. In other words the MSM overkill on this Russia-Gate silliness, is losing it’s credibility, with all this nonsense and coverage saying so.
What happened to little rocket boy? One week ago, we were on the brink of war with North Korea. Today it is the NFL that we are war with. What is next? I think djt is unfit to be president, but he loves to be adored and worshiped, Dictators have no bounds. DJT believes he is the President, and by virtue of that office, you must respect and obey. Russia has nothing to do with this, neither does the deep state, We as citizens are responsible for djt. I hate the motherfucker but we (collectively) voted him into office. I did not vote for him, but he won the electoral college. And now , all of us have to clean up his mess.
I hear you tina, having the reality tv star for president, is like us all being trapped inside of a continual reality show in and of itself. With the kneeling for BLM now being turned into a patriotic narrative the escape from this political madness door has been sealed shut. I guess we shouldn’t complain, because after all there must be some pain to ‘making America great again’, and we doubters of this should know better. Of course I’m joking, but I’m hoping you tina will find away to hang in there with all this craziness. After all, it’s only politics…right? Stay well tina. Joe
Ps tonight during the National Anthem on Thursday Night Football the Packers and the Bears linked arms and the fans were instructed to do likewise, this per the Divider and Chief. Well at least this linking arms tribute should make Trump happy, and that’s all that counts when yielding to a narcissist.
Hi Joe,
From Wisconsin. I live here and I saw that. I guess some fans do not want to link arms. I did link arms with my friend. He thought it was about the flag, I thought it was about injustice, but we linked arms ,and we were ok. Thanks Joe, you always seem to be a voice of reason.
You and your friend linking arms is the real reason for communal activities, and it’s a great sign of progress for peace. You go girl! Oh and your friend too.
“RUSSIANS ARE COMING” DISTRACTS US ALL FROM THE POINTS AT ISSUE
Forgotten are the points being expressed by the NFL “take a knee”
protesters: racism, inequality, indiscriminate death by authorized
police force to take some examples. How much more comforting for
(usually) white and well-off Americans to blame Russia. Forget the
young girls and boys raped and harrassed with impunity by cops.
(If they were in a Middle Eastern nation we would call them government
“thugs” etc.)
I see precious little “democracy” here.
If members of your family arguments about our innocent democracy
are unconvincing., would they be the same if a member of your family
(any age) is incarated.
Not to deny that there is black-on-black crime. However the measures
understaken by the police are NEVER ordinary daily occurrences on the
tree-lined streets of our white suburbs.
(For an excellent perspective see James Foreman Jr’s recent
book, LOCKING UP OUR OWN…)
Perhaps those in small towns and rural America have different
views because the police do not descend on them and yell “Assume
position”. Or perhaps they do. At any rate, as we all know, few
whites end up incarcerated for which there is most probably
a reason.
Let us all admire the courage of those players/entertainers
for trying to focus our attention on facts which are uncomfortable
for too many Americans,
Of course…it is all Russia’s fault.
(See also Gabriel Kolko’s work, MAIN CURRENTS IN MODERN AMERICAN
HISTORY, (1976), Chapter 5, especially subsection “Violence and
Social Control”)
One comment to Robert Parry’s piece above: It plays on the belief
in the entitled supremacy of “democracy” in America. Things certainly
seemed easy and always innocent when I was a little boy! But we now
know that this wasw and is a fabrication.
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
Peter, having compassion for the victim of the ‘bad apple cop’ is prove positive that you still have a soul, and your head is screwed on right. Why, in any normal thinking society where unarmed suspects of driving violations, like broken tail lights, are shot and murdered by a law enforcement official would most certainly fall on the side of justice for the deceased unarmed citizen. So what has happened in the U.S.? I’ll tell you what happened Peter, America the USofA turned into a fascist police state. For some of us we have seen this coming like a slow train wreck, for others like maybe the sports fan who burned their sports memorabilia this past weekend they still haven’t noticed. This ignorance is unfortunate, because at this very moment we should all be taking a knee. I pity the poor grandchild of these misguided patriots for the day is coming when a ‘bad apple cop’ takes the life of that ‘white’ pieced nose tattooed grandchild who gets pulled over for a broken tail light. Now, where exactly did I put that U.S. Constitution?
it’s conflation at it’s worst.
the taking the knee thing was a bad idea. there was no good that could come of it. i’m not saying that because i give a crap about the flag or the anthem. because, to me, they are just window dressing. things, if you will.
BUT
if people can’t see that this was going to blow up, they are naive.
many, many people, including the president, and especially veterans have a point of view about the flag and anthem. protest all you want but hands off that.
nobody’s wrong here, but nobody’s right either.
because the mindset that makes it ok to take a knee is the same for criticizing such an action.
they are both equal. it’s speech.
Take consolation in the fact that The Dragon Lady isn’t president…
I wish you were right. Unfortunately, here in Europe, there are still a lot of countries which blindly follow whatever the USA think or do, particularly with NATO which would so like to step “by mistake” of course across the Baltic and Polish borders. I must say that I admire
the strength of Putin’s nerves. How long will it last? Also there are elections next year, and we can observe that Washington is arleady trying to plant seeds of revolution. I don’t think it’ll work. According to Xavier Moreau a French political observer living in Moscow, Putin enjoys a popularity that lots of foreign politicians would be envy!
I wish eole, likeminded Europeans and us in the U.S. were to band together to protest, and petition, our governments to stop with all this warring madness. From the Donbass, to Deir Ezzor, and all the way across the globe to Seoul Korea, we the people for peace should stand arm and arm to defy this ugly monster who’s only goal is to marginalize us citizens with their ultimate military strength towards having their ownership over all of the world’s precious natural resources. All this to make a few bankers rich. Joe
At some point, you would like to believe that this stuff is so over the top, it would be self-defeating. Are there any accurate polls of what the general public thinks of all this? If it weren’t for the threat of a thermonuclear armageddon, it would only mean more resources wasted on the ‘war party’ and less for social security, etc. Russia is not going anywhere, and I believe is beyond our ability to harm it, unless said nuclear holocaust ensues. Our attempts to ‘isolate’ Russia are doomed to fail.
Yes, the charade is doomed to fail to persuade, let alone hurt Russia, but will succeed in creating the foreign monster needed by tyrants to demand domestic power. In our modern witch hunts we all know that there are no witches – the whole performance is a declaration of tyranny over public information, a statement to the common man that he must follow his master the mass media, he must avow that he is the slave of the rich, and pretend that the declared enemy is his own. He must praise the flag betrayed by his masters the oligarchy.
That’s IT in a nutshell!
is it possible that the left is being played? is it possible that the media who almost exclusively report what the establishment wants are being told to report bs?
is it disinfo campaign aimed at ruining the lefts’ chances of coming back to power?
i know the public can easily be made to have their collective heads explode over anything but are journalists that brainwashed too?
i’m starting to see a birther parallel here. ouch….is that ironic or what?
During a discussion with The Nation concerning the documentary series The Putin Interviews, first broadcast in June 2017, Academy Award winning film producer Oliver Stone addressed the “hacking” allegations and questions of influence on the American election:
“The influence on the election from the Russians to me is absurd to the naked eye. Israel has far more influence on American elections through AIPAC. Saudi Arabia has influence through money… Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers have much more influence on American elections… And the prime minister of Israel comes to our country and addresses Congress to criticize the president’s policy in Iran at the time – that’s pretty outrageous.
“Our country is very much in the grip of a dictator: The dictator is money, the military-industrial-complex… It’s beyond absurd to have this kind of expenditure every year on military.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/oliver-stone-talks-to-the-nation-about-his-new-documentary-the-putin-interviews/
“Wall Street, Not Moscow Controls the White House
“The United States possesses over 800 military bases worldwide, with a military operating on a budget that eclipses the combined military budgets of the next 7 leading nations, including Russia and China. Of the top 10 Fortune 500 international corporations, 4 are American, none are Russian.
“While the Russian Federation protects its interests with a formidable nuclear and conventional military, a respectable stake in the global energy sector, and strong diplomatic ties with other alternative centers of power, it lags far behind in military and economic clout, ranked 12 by GDP behind nations like South Korea, Canada, Italy, and Japan, and obviously behind larger emerging nations including Brazil, India, and China.
“The Russian military budget, estimated at around $70 billion, when compared to the annual net sales of a single Wall Street defense contractor – like Lockheed Martin for example at around $50 billion in 2016 – helps further put the actual ‘reach’ of Russia in perspective versus interests upon Wall Street.
“In fact, US policy think-tanks like those chaired by the […] Neo-Conservatives, are sponsored by some of the largest corporate-financier interests on Earth, who with their combined resources and influence, eclipse even the most fantastic claims made regarding Russia.
“Not only do US corporations and financial institutions possess an immense advantage in resources and influence in general, they also enjoy the benefit of proximity – many operating offices or employing lobbying services located directly in Washington D.C.
“Wall Street also possesses immense influence over the Western media, often controlling media platforms on both the left and right of American politics, controlling narratives that safely divide Americans against one another and leave special interests on Wall Street in a convenient and well protected void of impunity.
“The administration of current US President Donald Trump consists of representatives from these Wall Street corporations and financial institutions – many of them representing the same interests who composed former US President Barack Obama’s administration and who would have composed Hillary Clinton’s administration had she prevailed in the 2016 election.
“These interests include large banking institutions, the defense industry and big-oil. While supporters of President Trump blame the ‘deep state’ for his inability to make good on campaign promises, and opponents of President Trump blame ‘Russians’ for his apparent disregard for America’s best interests – it is clear that Wall Street is responsible for both – as it was during President Obama’s administration before him and for decades before him – and as it would have been had Hillary Clinton won the election.”
Wall Street Vs. Kremlin: Who Really Runs the White House?
By Tony Cartalucci
https://journal-neo.org/2017/09/30/wall-street-vs-kremlin-who-really-runs-the-white-house/