The American press has been in the business of keeping readers ignorant since the Cold War—its most essential responsibility turned upside-down—and in our time it gets worse, not better.
Putin and Lavrov. (UN Photo/Cia Pak)
By Patrick Lawrence
Special to Consortium News
Vladimir Putin’s annual state-of-the-nation speech, delivered before the Federal Assembly in Moscow last Wednesday, is an occasion we must not miss for its very considerable import. The Russian president confirmed in maximally explicit terms that we have entered a new era in U.S.–Russian relations. It’s more dangerous than one would wish, but is an interim through which we must pass on the way to achieving our century’s primary imperative, global parity between the West and non–West.
Putin’s remarks to the assembly comprised of the Duma and the Federation Council (the lower and upper houses of the national legislature) struck an interesting balance. Three-quarters or more of the speech was devoted to domestic affairs—infrastructure budgeting, climate emissions, prices and family incomes, subsidies for everything from single mothers and “sick pay” to cultural centers and university places for those in underdeveloped regions, and so on through a long list.
Holding together a nation with a sharp urban-rural divide and all the associated imbalances was, per usual with Putin, a major theme. “The country is developing and moving forward,” he said, “but this is only taking place when the regions of the Russian Federation are developing.”
This is a man who spends most of his time looking inward, still preoccupied with remedying the mess Boris Yeltsin and savage brigades of Western venture and vulture capitalists handed to him 21 years ago.
Plainspeak
Putin’s comments on Russian foreign policy and global affairs came last in his speech and are to be understood in this context. They were nothing if not forthright, a refreshing respite from the Newspeak President Joe Biden and his national-security lieutenants serve up incessantly.
Here are a few of the more compelling passages:
“Unfortunately, everyone in the world seems to be used to the practice of politically motivated, illegal economic sanctions and to certain actors’ brutal attempts to impose their will on others by force. But today, this practice is degenerating into something even more dangerous—I am referring to the recently exposed direct interference in Belarus in an attempt to orchestrate a coup d’état and assassinate the President of that country. At the same time, it is typical that even such flagrant actions have not been condemned by the so-called collective West. Nobody seemed to notice. Everyone pretends nothing is happening. …
Some countries have taken up an unseemly routine where they pick on Russia for any reason, most often, for no reason at all. It is some kind of new sport of who shouts the loudest.
In this regard, we behave in an extremely restrained manner, I would even say, modestly, and I am saying this without irony. Often, we prefer not to respond at all, not just to unfriendly moves, but even to outright rudeness. We want to maintain good relations with everyone who participates in the international dialogue. But we see what is happening in real life. As I said, every now and then they are picking on Russia, for no reason. And of course, all sorts of petty Tabaquis are running around them like Tabaqui ran around Shere Khan— everything is like in Kipling’s book – howling along in order to make their sovereign happy. Kipling was a great writer.”
Tabaqui, of course, was the sly, conniving jackal in The Jungle Book, who curried favor with Shere Khan, the tiger who held law and custom in contempt and whose exploits were the pretext for imperial interventions in the name of civilizing others in conformity with the standards of Western colonizers.
And finally:
“We really want to maintain good relations with all those engaged in international communication, including, by the way, those with whom we have not been getting along lately, to put it mildly. We really do not want to burn bridges. But if someone mistakes our good intentions for indifference or weakness and intends to burn or even blow up these bridges, they must know that Russia’s response will be asymmetrical, swift and tough.
Those behind provocations that threaten the core interests of our security will regret what they have done in a way they have not regretted anything for a long time.
At the same time, I just have to make it clear, we have enough patience, responsibility, professionalism, self-confidence and certainty in our cause, as well as common sense, when making a decision of any kind. But I hope that no one will think about crossing the ‘red line’ with regard to Russia. We ourselves will determine in each specific case where it will be drawn.”
Agree or disagree with Putin or Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the ablest diplomat around, they are both literate, thoroughly versed in history and its significance for the present, and capable of discriminating analyses that take account of the perspectives of others. Next to them, those who pass as our statesmen—Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, Sen. Tom Cotton, and other such Scheisse Köpfe—are simply boobs, albeit dangerous boobs.
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I quote Putin at length because you will gain no useful understanding of what he had to say from our “allies and partners”— this endearing phrase Blinken loves to death — in The New York Times and other mainstream media. In the Times account, Putin’s address was “replete with threats against the West” and intended to “fan nationalist flames” because he is “facing an increasingly angry and desperate opposition.”
Hopeless. The American press has been in the business of keeping readers ignorant since the Cold War—its most essential responsibility turned upside-down—and in our time it gets worse, not better.
The trope here is as old as our republic. The Mexicans provoked the Polk administration in 1845–46, and we had to go to war. We had to draw the Iron Curtain to stop the “Soviet menace.” We had to depose Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala because he was a Communist threat on our doorstep. So was Ho Chi Minh’s Vietnam—had to go in.
We are always the innocent, the respondent, the done-to, acting ever in self-defense. We never aggress. This is central to our American creed, our self-image. And let us be mindful: This is what we witness now in our relations with Russia, this is what our most powerful newspapers foist upon us.
It is perfectly plain what Putin said and meant when one reads his remarks without the fallacious mediations of our media. Russia remains open to cooperative ties but, as Patrick Armstrong put it the other day, it “has had enough.”
Had Enough of What?
US-backed, violent coup in Ukraine, 2014. (Wikipedia)
It is plain that Biden and the over-his-head Blinken have made a mess of things in the three short months they have been in office. The former has called Putin a killer, while the two of them have imposed new sanctions and expelled more Russian diplomats on pretexts that are straight-in-your-face disproven. Putin obliquely referred to these things. But we must go back further into the U.S.–Russian story to understand our moment adequately.
The Russian leader mentioned the U.S.–cultivated coup bringing down Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s corrupt but nonetheless legitimate president, in 2014. Russia re-annexed Crimea within two months. He did not mention by name Washington’s overtly covert—or do I mean covertly overt?—intervention against the Assad government in Damascus, but he may as well have. At Syria’s request, Russian bombers responded, alert readers will recall, by beginning sustained sorties against U.S.–backed jihadists on the last day of September 2015—a development that left the policy cliques in Washington reeling. One could practically hear a collective, “Whaaa?”
Your columnist has argued since these events that they bore an import beyond Ukraine and Syria. Without saying so, Moscow had put Washington on notice all those years ago that the era of unchallenged coups and violent interventions on the side of reaction would no longer go without responses. This was a bold challenge to decades of American misconduct. What we heard in Putin’s speech last Wednesday is very simple: He has now said what, since 2014 and 2015, has been left unsaid.
It is a pity that Biden, who carried the Ukraine portfolio for Barack Obama, and those around him did not understand these developments, as even a middling statesman could have. One does not want to bang on unduly about stupidity in Washington, but—it comes down to this—they are simply not smart enough for this.
And so we enter upon our new era. Tumultuous—almost certainly. Dangerous—it is hard to say but probably. Uncertain—without doubt. But it will lead, in the best outcome, to a new time, when Shere Khan is dead and all the petty Tabaquis learn to find their own ways.
Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, is a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer. His most recent book is Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. Follow him on Twitter @thefloutist. His web site is Patrick Lawrence. Support his work via his Patreon site.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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One last thought about some of the comments here that display the emotional partisan attachment, unintended or otherwise, to one party over the other. I say, ” partisan emotional attachment” because for me no other explanation for the so called liberal verses conservative mentality in America exists.
Both parties are right winged lovers of war and all things destructive. Prove me wrong!
See LBJ’s deals with Richard Nixon during the run up to the 1968 election, information that comes directly from White House tapes of LBJ’s and Nixon’s phone conversations, plus others. Ken Hughes, the author, is a specialist at transcribing recording and such for the government., wrote in 2014, “CHASING SHADOWS, The Nixon Tapes, The Chennault Affair, And The Origins of Watergate.
The story of how he came to find these tapes is an eye opener itself.
For me these revelations are the significant proof both sides started openly playing the slow con on us. I find it extremely interesting that LBJ inherited his position through the death of his president. Who as it turns out was murdered in a cross fire that CIA lead the charge to cover up.
I will say this again, for anyone to buy into the two party system as it exists is that individuals first critical mistake. This leads the individual to become susceptible to the Deep States slow con, which CIA, to mention just one of the participating federal entities, is committed to. Once committed to one side or the other the individual becomes a victim of that “Slow Con”.
Think about that. Committing to one party over the other plays directly into the the hands of the Deep State. and the Deep States “boot lickers”. The voter no longer has any leverage over the politicians when the “My party right or wrong” mentality takes over.
Both parties play the voters against each other by creating some perceived great difference, when actually very little difference actually exists.
I am no longer fooled by the ruse.
The way I see it giving in to selecting loyalty to one party over another displays the willingness of the American Voter to buy into feeding from the trough of endless B.S. spewed from D.C. freeing up busy voters to not have to focus on what it is they are eating.
But what ever, be my guest and chow down! One party holds you head under while the other fills the trough.
I’m not sure if anyone here has ever heard of “Hogan’s Goat”, it has been said that goat was F’ed up beyond all reason. Such as out entire political / federal government structure and the election process.
Thanks CN
PEACE
An excellent piece, Mr. Lawrence.
As a member of a once indepenmdent but now feeble, subservient country, Australia, which jumps to the very wishes, oops, demands of a militaristic USA daily, whose country is now viewed as a perfect location for US troops in yet another US foreign base, (adding to the possible 800 US bases worldwide), we are pleased to be able to rely on such writers as seen in this article to maintain a level of reality and truth.
We are also subject to the falseness of mainstream media, virtually under the control of Murdoch. So we are familiar with the New York Times approach to false news as well, a couple of excellent examples given in this article. Fortunately, with access to the likes of Consortium News with its group of intelligent observers and writers, we have access to the truth, daily.
One observation I would make is the fact that to me there is now no difference at all between the two parties in the US and we have almost reached that point out here as well. Pompeo, his arrogance obvious to all as he strutted the world stage, all huff and puff, is being copied by Blinken, armed with the US #1 weapon of choice, SANCTIONS, in a criminal pursuit of world power.
Just observe the pressure being exerted daily on New Zealand to conform to the dictates of the US in its “China-bashing” tirade.
Spot on about the MSM carrying water for the pro-war, especially the anti-Russia pro-war elements in our mess of a media-military-industrial complex. I never understood that what happened in Ukraine was a CIA backed coup in which they enlisted some of the very worst human scum in the effort, until I read this piece from outside of the US curtain of ignorance. I highly recommend it.
hXXps://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2011/S00116/how-the-western-press-lied-about-the-2014-coup-in-ukraine-pretending-that-it-was-instead-a-real-democratic-revolution.htm
Fooled by Joe (neo-JimCrow) Biden. Hardly.
In 2008 there were murmurings about who was the REAL Obama. Those doubts were cleared up the moment he announce his running mate, ol’ JB. This proved Obama to be the fraudulent Obumma, who with JB, made the potent, 2-man, tag-team Wiemar Republic that ushered in His Hairness
“The Times, of course is not alone, but maybe the unofficial head of the media pack.”
Yes. It used to be phrased “the newspaper of record.”
D.H. Fabian,
Right. Putin is always the grownup. But you “disagree with his conservative ideology.” I don’t understand what you mean. When Putin took office, the place was a horrific mess which he turned around completely, bringing millions, the majority, out of poverty and into a middle class. The Russian Federation also has free healthcare and education for all. It’s the U.S. that runs on conservative ideology.
BTW, our MSM forcing a Nalvany narrative down our throats won’t work in Russia. The CIA will try to convince us he’s a good man when in reality he’s, frankly, the most racist man I have ever heard on the subject of how Muslims are like rotten teeth; have to pulled out and thrown away. He’s an opportunist, always, completely immoral. Putin worries about young people being swayed because they have no idea about the history of the USSR. Well, guess you could say the same about our general population.
Mr. Lawrence.
Thanks for an insightful look at Russia vs. the U.S. and Putin vs. any president we might have. You are right on all counts. Every year, I look forward to President Putin’s annual address to the Russian people. Every year I am as impressed as I was the last time I heard him. And every year I think how astonished Americans would be if any U.S. president ever gave an address that came even remotely close to the quality, diplomacy, maturity, sincerity and brilliance of Putin’s addresses. They would faint from shock. The man is smart, which you’ll never hear from our MSM. Another thing Americans don’t know is how much Putin loves the Russian people. They feel the same about him, especially those who remember what it was
Like to live in the USSR.
Your assertion that Putin isn’t all that bad because he talks about such things as “infrastructure budgeting, climate emissions, prices and family incomes, subsidies for everything from single mothers and ‘sick pay’ to cultural centers and university places for those in underdeveloped regions, and so on through a long list,”results is exactly what? Talk to the Russian people . Ask them if they think his words have any validity. Ask them if he’s ever come through with rhetoric about how he’ll take care of his citizens. He takes care of himself, first, last and always. Kinda like our last president.
Biden is no saint. And our media sucks. We get that. But to somehow prop up Putin is painfully ignorant.
Mr. Motta,
You must not travel to Russia very often. .
Your comment about Putin is totally devoid of ANY base in reality.
Period.
If you are speaking to me, my writing is 1) always backed by facts, proof, and 2) you must not have read Stephen F. Cohen, the world’s recognized foremost expert on the USSR and the Russian Federation, my best go-to source. Your comment is the one devoid of any proof or reality.
…and kinda like our last president, Putin is 100% evil and it’s inconceivable that he’d ever do anything to help his people? Even out of political expediency? I ask you, is that a realistic characterization of the man? If you’d drop your prejudices and look into some indices of how things have improved for Russia’s people since the US-piloted sacking of their economy under Yeltsin, you might change your mind. Look at life-expectancy figures, for example. (Hint: the NYT is not the place to look.) But I suspect you won’t.
“The Media’s role turned upside down” – Nicely put. From keeping the public informed to keeping the public ignorant.
We must not forget that the “stupid” leaders also read the MSM.
Dare we say that, on the world stage, Vladimir Putin has been the grownup? I personally disagree with his conservative ideology overall, but he has been the rare voice of reason and restraint.
Absolutely.
Excelente. Don’t mess with Vlad et al.
Recently I received four books from CN, Mr. Parry’s FOOLING AMERICA C 1992, TRICK OR TREASON 1993, LOST HISTORY 1999 and NECK DEEP 2007.
Giving each a quick once over I then started “FOOLING AMERICA”. It didn’t take long before I realized just how far Bob Parry was ahead of the rest of us with respect to his understanding of what so many Americans are clueless of.
I don’t want to get into the weeds about my military service now or here suffice to say that my experience of being in Berlin for 18 months , 1968-1970, was an eye opener, I learned then and there that in the American military’s world in certain instances “No rules existed”.
In part one, chapter two, “The CW Takes the White House” I soon realized that I agreed with everything Bob had to say. Especially what he said about G.H.W. Bush.
On page 49, last Paragraph Tom Wicker quote. “Do Americans really want to elect a former director of CIA as their president?” He was referring to one GHW Bush naturally.
It appears to me that by 1976 CIA owned not only the press but controlled the president who occupied the White House. GHW Bush was Director of CIA from Jan 30 1976 to Jan 20, 1977. He was wearing two hats when he got elected president in 1989 leaving 1993, something Adm. Hyman Rickover took to and art form.
How could this be missed? He flew under the radar aided by the ultimate distraction, the war in Vietnam. Doing so by entering politics in Feb of 1963. He continually orbited CIA circles, engaging them and proof does exist.
To wit, The New York Times published a story July 11, 1988, Section A, page 15. This can be found at
hXXps;//www.nytimes.com/1988/07/11/us/63-fbi-memo-ties-bush-to-intelliegnce-agency.html
The Nation also had a similar story and stories circulate claiming he owned off shore oil rigs that were used by anti Castro Cubans.
We know that during the summer of 1975 During Church committee hearing on CIA. R Helms ferried between Iran and D.C. We also know the from 1971 to 1977 Bill Barr worked as an analyst for CIA, what ever that means.
We know that CIA agent George Joannides returned from retirement to hand select documents requested by the Warren Commission. His work monitored by Allen Dulles. I suspect that Bill Barr performed the same function for either or both Richard Helms and GHW Bush during the Church and Pike Committee tenures.
We also know the Vietnam war ended April 1975.
To not put publicly available info together to form a picture of events during the time span from Feb 1963 to the election of GHW Bush is tantamount to being involved in a criminal enterprise or having personal knowledge of a particular one and not reporting it.
I am damned sure no genius but I know what I see. Now with the release of Josiah Thompson’s “LAST SECOND IN DALLAS” the CIA has been exposed, the agency has been involved in a cover up for more 50 years and is now caught in the lies they used as cover. Especially James Jesus Angleton CIA’s head of Counter Intelligence.
The joint efforts of the many investigators who have hammered away at the JFK murder case have born fruit. It just so happens that this has occurred during the most dismal, shameful, asinine displays of ineptitude by our counties “so called” leadership in my life time and the history of the country.
Trump needs to go away and that will not happen until CIA’s dismal history of lies is used to beat the truth out of the agency.
Nothing to fear here for just as they say they can’t suicide us all.
Robert Parry needed help we need to give it to him.
Thanks CN
PEACE
Most welcome, Robert, and thanks back for this thoughtful comment.
Keep the faith, Sir.
Patrick.
In my humble opinion, an individual or entity forced by the negative weight of their immoral, ill conceived policies, plans and actions to maintain their control of said policies, plans and actions by the use of total secrecy prove their own illegitimacy. Until the matrix that is CIA comes to terms with this, the whole barrel will continue to rot.
The most striking thing I’ve noticed reading Mr. Perry’s “FOOLING AMERICA” , “How Washington Insiders Twist the Truth and Manufacture the Conventional Wisdom”, is his unique presentation locking critical events together to paint a colorful history of how GHW Bush, once CIA always CIA, steered Reagan and Company through one illegal military operation after another only to turn the table when Saddam was goaded into invading Kuwait.
The rub was that nothing Reagan did was seen as illegal. Conversely, after State representatives helped set up Saddam and he invaded Kuwait Bush & Co. played their sovereign country card making Saddam out to be the Devil incarnate. Anything familiar to the CIA activities world wide before this event? Regime change. maybe.
Think about the history of this period and according to Parry’s book, how Bush 41 gushed with pleasure over his belief that because of his actions in Kuwait and Iraq the U.S. had “kicked the Vietnam Syndrome” .
Read this history and understand it for what it is, the evolution of the slow con.
Mr. Robert Parry still speaks the truth to us through his history of events here. These events were planned on the move, many time reactionary endeavors resulting from actions taken against targets of opportunity. Actions primarily the result of CIA conspiring against the other.
Decades passed and it appears to me to be 41’s life work. Just as JJ Angleton was a spy master so was 41. In retrospect I’m believing neither one helped “We the People” or their country. Hold your thought and now think “43” and witness the decline of a nation, our nation since “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”.
I’m with Mr. Lawrence on this one the establishment is so stupid it still relies on lies and the only one they fool are themselves.
Thanks CN
PEACE
I hope i am wrong of course but the US will/ is reaching that stage when their pride and prestige and loss of face will leave their insane war machine and equally insane command structure in a Dr Strangelove situation ………….
One can see it, sense it and almost smell it……….
Non-stop militarism has been the U.S. modus operandi since WWII. Eisenhower did warn us in his farewell address in 1961, but that did no good to dissuade the entrenched powers of empire at work in D.C. The 5000 lb. gorilla of the military in Washington will have to be changed to bring some sanity to foreign policy, which will probably take a great deal of time. In the meantime, we hope and pray that no one gets trigger-happy with our combined nuclear arsenals. There are no angels on either side at this juncture.
“…it comes down to this—[Biden, Blinken, U.S. national security state] are simply not smart enough for this…”
Lawrence is a brilliant columnist and an incredibly astute geo-political analyst, no doubt, but he gets this one incorrect.
Our Washington-Zio-militarist imperialists know EXACTLY what they’re doing – they’re advancing the cause of international finance capital at every opportunity, obliterating countries simply for the largesse of the giant defense [sic] contractors, sanctioning sovereign states that support the Palestinians or have the temerity to routinely criticize Israel, and demonizing foreign leaders who run their countries for the benefit of their 99% and not Wall St or the Fortune 500.
Certainly our ruling class might make mistakes from time to time, but their overarching goal which I delineated above is sacrosanct and ferociously adhered to. These warmongering neoliberal functionaries are some of the smoothest talkers and liars in the world today, they’re often some of the best and brightest that American higher ed and Ivy League produce (which is saying something in itself).
They’re not dumb, they’re recklessly amoral in advancing the imperium.
Spot on.
Thank you Mr. Grigera.
Drew Hunkins – I agree with every word you say above, but one in your concluding sentence: They are not recklessly AMORAL, they are recklessly IMMORAL. The word amoral means the individual is not concerned about morality or immorality, one way or the other, good or bad, they are neither. They lack a moral compass. I would say that our Washington-Zio-Militarist imperialists, who know EXACTLY what their are doing, are way beyond that – they are as immoral as any human can get.
Couldn’t be closer to the Truth, Drew (and especially re Palestine – ALL of it and the indigenous Palestinians)…. Grotesque, Barbarian really does not begin to cover the utter conjunction of Moloch and Mammon worshiping…And with the two combined in the west and in their comrades in the ME ….and we have the bloody nerve to point fingers (always based on ZERO or manufactured evidence) at Russia and China???????????
“At Syria’s request, Russian bombers responded, alert readers will recall, by beginning sustained sorties against U.S.–backed jihadists on the last day of September 2015—a development that left the policy cliques in Washington reeling.”
Greatest truly humanitarian intervention since the inestimable Fidel Castro sent the valiant Cuban soldiers into the southern cone of Africa 50 years ago to fight against racist rule.
My but you have an admirable frame of reference, Drew. How well I recall the Cuban presence in Angola from 1975 until Roberto Holden, aka Holden Roberto, one could never get this CIA asset straight, failed in the NE of the country. Then onto Savimbi in the south, of course. I was writing about all that for a once-fine and honorable weekly that succumbed to idiotic left sectarianism and soon enough destroyed itself.
About stupidity in Washington, I don’t think we mutually cancel out. What you say about their obsessive prosecution of empire is correct, of course, and they indeed know what they’re doing. I do not hold this to be a smart thing to do. The obsession itself is stupid, and so is all that flows from it.
Tks for taking the time to write, and the kind words, of course.
Patrick.
Thank you for taking the time to respond Mr. Lawrence. “…I do not hold this to be a smart thing to do. The obsession itself is stupid, and so is all that flows from it.” — very true.
This is an excellent refutation of U.S. government propaganda. As commenters above have mentioned, the U.S. has been attacking Russia since the Revolution of 1917, when the U.S. and other governments of the West invaded the newly formed USSR and attempted instant “regime change”. Without the Soviet Union, the Allies would likely have lost WWII. That is a fact. And how did the U.S. thank them? By dropping atom bombs on Japan to directly in-your-face threaten the USSR with annihilation while actually annihilating millions of innocent Japanese people. THIS is what the U.S. government is about and nothing else. I could go on, but the U.S. and NATO-backed fascist coup in Ukraine on Saint Obama’s watch was a crime.
Thank you Mr Lawrence for this succinct and truthful, insightful piece…Would that we in the west had ONE diplomat, ONE politico with the courage, fortitude, patience, intelligence, knowledge that Messrs. Putin and Lavrov have….
May this western empire quickly, soon go the way all empires go….The world needs relief from forced westernization – usually at the end g a gun or the dropping of a bomb…
“Unfortunately, everyone in the world seems to be used to the practice of politically motivated, illegal economic sanctions and to certain actors’ brutal attempts to impose their will on others by force.”
It’s gratifying to hear Putin emphasize that unilateral sanctions are illegal under international law, it’s something that sometimes gets overlooked when our corporate-militarist media glibly announce Washinington sanctions on this or that sovereign nation.
These illegal acts by Washington are decimating the common working folks of Iran, Venezuela and Syria.
In the latest Defense Intelligence Assessment, it reads:
“The Kremlin likely will seek to avoid provoking Washington, but may do so if it perceives U.S. interference in Russian domestic politics or other threats to Russian strategic interest,..”
Putin’s speech makes that clear, a position he has continually made clear to America and Europe.. But the call for Detente ‘ was clearly the message.
Yet the Times, with its pathological hatred of all things Russian takes what Putin did say about military response to provocation and makes it the story. The Times, of course is not alone, but maybe the unofficial head of the media pack.
Mister Lawrence suggests stupidity might be at play. Possibly, in a way seemingly intelligent people can collectively be stupid. But something pathological has crept into the American psyche since the Russian Revolution over a hundred years ago. We just don’t like or trust the Russki’s. After the USSR sacrificed millions of lives in World War II to along with other things save thousands of young Americans from dying, Patten was pushing to invade Russia.
Despite Russia’s contribution in defeating Hitler we have refused to attend the May celebration of the Russian contribution to defeating the Nazis. How petty can you be!
In the 1960s, when I was in high school, we were told that Pravda, the source of Russian news, was all propaganda and that the Russian people were being lied to. Well, surprise, surprise, guess who is really being lied to? Our mainstream media learned how to manipulate people collectively and has been practicing their deceitful craft on us for decades. When will the masses wake up?