Yes, I get it. A lot of people want to remove Donald Trump from the presidency for a lot of understandable reasons: his breathtaking incompetence, his relentless narcissism, his destructive policies, etc. But he was elected under the U.S. constitutional system. He may have lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly three million ballots but he did prevail in the Electoral College.
Thanks to CD for posting this piece by Robert Parry. Mr. Parry is among a small courageous group of reporters who dare tell the truth about Russia Gate. The spectacle of “progressive” McCarthyism is breathtaking in its almost universal adherence by established contemporary commentators. I’ve seen nothing like this in my lifetime.
Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. But I’m afraid lib/progs and even leftists have already embraced the New McCarthyism by the relentless drumbeat of ALL-TRUMP-ALL-THE-TIME hate ala 1984.
Witness:
More than 50% of today’s headlines and more stories on CD are focused on getting Trump rather than organizing for power and or writing a reality analysis like Parry does. Similar (or worse) numbers can be found on lib/prog/left websites like Truthout, Counterpunch and Z Mag.
So shouldn’t Trump be gotten? Of course. But he is self-destructive and his own people will get him before the year is out. The only reason he is is still Prez is that he is an extremely effective Weapon of Mass Distraction.
Meanwhile, not only are lib/prog/leftist media people in the U.S. All - A - Twitter - About - Trump, they aren’t seriously enough focusing on useful organizing, party-building, creating alternative visions and realities, etc.
And worst of all, as Parry says, they are red-baiting freelancers, rank-and-file activists, working-class people and others who don’t get on their bandwagon – even though all of its tires are flat.
Thanks, Robert Parry.
Rather than identifying their failure to promote economic and social justice, environmental sustainability, domestic and international peace, the Democrat power structure is promoting the fallacy that Russia is the root of the Trump victory. Many in the Democrat power structure have worked hard to prove that they could be even bigger war mongers than Republicans. Now, In their fervor to unseat Trump, they are embracing the espionage sectors and are lashing out, not only at progressives who reject lesser evilism, but against anyone who dares call into question the Democrats right leaning orthodoxy.
At a grassroots level, I see greatly increased community based organizing. We have to work hard to make such that these efforts not undermined by the Democrat power structures opportunistic vie for political gains.
Parry has fallen far from the standard he set when reporting on the Contras. What gives with him now? Maybe a full disclosure statement would be in order but regardless, he is shilling for the administration and the bizarre defense of malfeasance, corruption and deceit by this administration and its often surreptitious connections with a foreign power.
It should be noted that such goings on of our government officials with any foreign power even if an ally would still be cause for investigation and perhaps prosecution by the appropriate departments. Somehow there has arisen a relatively sudden online presence of those insistent on excusing Russia and accusing the Dems as if the wrongdoing roles had been reversed.
Progressives should note that it is a republican administration that stands accused (and taking the fifth) and not the Dems! A surprising number of bloggers seem outraged that the Russians be accused of anything or that Putin be made to appear to be anything less than a hero of the left.
Give me a break!
If deep manipulation and propaganda were bluntly obvious then it wouldn’t work! Do you somehow feel that Putin is kind of like a good guy unjustly treated? Lol. Do you come away feeling that a foreign power insinuating its presence (secretly) and exerting a corrupting influence in your government (even if it is a republican dominated one like at this moment) is somehow okay? That maybe such a corrupting influence might be for the best or at least foster the cause of peace in the world?
If you do then some very intelligent hard boiled people are laughing themselves to tears. Meanwhile your neighbors and fellow citizens are beginning to weep at the damage to our country being done by this corrupt and evidently unscrupulous autocratic administration.
Trump is an autocratic oligarchist.
Putin is an autocratic oligarchist.
Putin is far more competent and the smarter of the two!
New McCartyism is hard to swallow for me. There is a difference between accusing someone of being a communist and seeking to overthrow the govt. and someone who is a profiteer seeking money from Russian gangsters.
Nor are they informing the public of all the under-their-radar machinations that the Orange Cabal is really putting into motion. They might address a few, but documented info, analyses, ramifications, etc. that are so desperately needed by an under-informed, overwhelmed (because of information glut) American public are not happening, imo.
An admittedly over-simplified “alert bell” for me was/is the MSM’s unanimous persistent use of the terms “meddling in our election” and “interfering in our election [or democracy]” that aims to frighten the audience and demonize the Russians. Furthermore, they’ve conveniently ignored our country’s long history of far more destructive, if not lethal, very real interference in other countries’ affairs all over the globe. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, especially when nuclear weapons are a dare or a madman’s mood away.
Now there’s an interesting way to dress up potential TREASON in the White House. How about we let all the investigations run their course before casting aspersions? This is an historic moment in the nation’s history and most assuredly NOT business as usual. Stay tuned.
The cheater (*) did not really win the election, not even in the electoral college. Republicans rigged the election. In Wisconsin, they did it with a voter ID law; see https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/05/09/wisconsin-id-law-kept-200000-voters-polls-and-trump-won-just-22748-votes.
Voter-ID and other voter suppression laws were not the only methods. Greg Palast has reported on how Republicans in certain states systematically arranged to take over a million Americans off the voter lists, mostly members of minorities that usually vote Democrat. See http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=33e4ec877eed6a43863a4a92e&id=3a5e219073&e=8283eff9b8.
It is clear that, absent this rigging, Clinton would have won the electoral college. Not that I’m a supporter of Clinton. It was clear all along she was no progressive.
Republicans are barely hiding their intent with these laws–well, they really aren’t. Look what happened in North Carolina.
Now is not then. Times are different and new technology casts a warning shadow on all of our actions. We have to be more cautious in 2017 than in previous decades about the depth to which we’re vulnerable w/re to foreign interferences.
Journalism, too long prostituted with few exceptions, is now waking up to the fact that readers are watching. Yes, there remain strong agendas and that’s not going away soon. Just as Trump loves to be stroked for his message, so does the Washington Post (30,000 comments on one article?).
But we ARE watching. And we ARE vetting. They know this. Even Fox.
Therefore, we have new tools at our command, and casting a critical eye on our exchanges with an old foreign “enemy” should be encouraged. It’s time to wake up.
That said, Parry makes excellent points. This is true journalism, constantly questioning and holding up mirrors. We NEED this. It should not be scorned, nor discouraged.
I never thought much of the Russia argument. We have too much bad karma from foreign policy to be pointing fingers. We the People have much more solid arguments against a corporate leveraged buyout of our country, masquerading as “political policy.” We should not be distracted from Trump & Co.'s reprehensible domestic policies, which I find equally treasonous.
I believe that if Trump goes away prematurely, it will probably be from early-onset Alzheimers, like his father. Stress exacerbates troublesome behavior, although his handlers will try mightily to mollify and obscure this. Then we will be having an entirely different conversation . . . one that bridges political polarities.
I was heartened to see this piece. I have been referring to the Morning Joe program as “Morning McCarthyism” since their meltdown seemingly triggered by the Trump tweet about Obama wiretapping him. I thought I was the only one who noticed.
