Have You Now, or Have You Ever Been, a Secret Agent of Vladimir Putin?

This essay is absolutely outstanding. It completely destroys the normalization of the police state, the ‘Russian’s did it’ meme, and American Exceptionalism in general. Please read the whole thing.

The strange sight of liberal America participating in a neo-McCarthyite assault on Trump appointees, not on the grounds not of their inherent racism and stupidity, but because they have contacts with Russia, is among the more surreal spectacles of modern political history. At what point did Russia become the official enemy of the U.S.? Wasn’t it just yesterday that Bush Jr looked into Putin’s eyes and declared him a honorable man? The truth is, of course, that Russia never stopped being the enemy. The internalized ethos of the cold war, the anti communist hysteria of post WW2 has always been there. The resentful flinty heart of America tolerates no disobedience. No country exhibiting the slightest autonomy is allowed to escape punishment and censure. The shining light on the hill symbolism is one that demands nobody else dare to exhibit anything that resembles their own leadership role globally.

The current animus toward Putin can be traced back to several clear sources, though, as Justin Raimondo points out…

“When Putin came to power one of the first things he did was go after the infamous oligarchs who had backed – and manipulated – his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Under the drunken Yeltsin, these “entrepreneurs” had used the State apparatus to “privatize” (i.e. loot) what had previously been the State-owned economy, gobbling up entire sectors at unbelievably cheap prices. Putin moved to disassemble what was a competing power center, and the result was the flight of the oligarchs to the West.”

And he adds the Israeli lobby (AIPAC et al) and the influence, however mediated these days, of Saudi Arabia. Both have a vested interest in keeping up a Russophobic slant to government policy and rhetoric. Israel long wanted Assad gone. Russia was getting in the way. Now there is also the rather obvious uses that blaming Russia serves for the DNC and its various funding sources. The fact that the Democratic Party snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by running a wildly hated and corrupt candidate in Hillary Clinton, needs an explanation. And that explanation is Putin and Russia. The idea that somehow Trump is a Putin puppet and that the Russian state has manipulated a national election, is itself stunningly contradictory. It suggests a degree of power and cunning for Putin and Russia that is at odds with the America is the great-and-good-and-powerful symbolism. As a desperate reflex excuse for losing what was supposed to be a cake-walk for Hillary, it is sort of understandable. But what isn’t understandable is how so many otherwise seemingly rational people buy into this fantasy.

~snip~

More: http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/06/have-you-now-or-have-you-ever-been-a-secret-agent-of-vladimir-putin/

Cross posted at JPR.

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Lookout's picture

Thanks for the link!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Big Al's picture

follows that liberal America or liberal democrats would follow his lead, like they did with the wars in Libya and Syria, the war OF terror, Afghanistan, drone war, etc.

At the end of the article:

"All that matters is that this pathological war machine, this imperialist drive for global hegemony be stopped."

Might be a wise thing to organize a movement around at this time.

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riverlover's picture

@Big Al Have we ever been peaceable with all? These Bogey-States are shoved in our faces, I mean Vietnam? OK, that was "Communists" and probably China, but why did we care except already having decided to the LEO of the World. And it continues.

I wonder if the propaganda fear-factor were eliminated if most Americans would vote FOR being the largest police force on the globe "spreading Democracy"? And paying for it?

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Big Al's picture

@riverlover you'd think it would all fall apart.

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CB's picture

@riverlover
there was a dramatic increase in the supply of advanced military equipment and training by the Soviets. It was due to this aid that the Vietnamese started to really kick American ass. Bomb Bomb McCain was brought down with a Russian SA-2 (same missile that brought down the U-2) in 1967 and he subsequently spent 5 1/2 years in captivity. This is most likely why he hates Russia so much - his brain was permanently fucked. After the Sino-Soviet split in 1968, support from China dropped while Soviet aid increased dramatically.

Here's the story which few Americans speak about.

Vietnam War: The critical role of Russian weapons
Exactly 40 years ago the Vietnamese burst into Saigon, catching the Americans in their underpants. As well as mounting a brave defence of their country, the Vietnamese used one superpower’s firepower to defeat another.

To get a sense of how viciously the Vietnam War was fought and – more importantly – the sweeping nature of Vietnamese victory, chew on this: during the conflict the Americans lost more than 2,000 aircraft; the Vietnamese lost just 131 planes.
...
Russia military supplies completely transformed the nature of the war. Unlike what they show you in Hollywood movies, the Vietnamese did not fight with just cunning and camouflage, they hit the Americans with firepower on a staggering scale. Their arsenal included 2,000 tanks, 7,000 artillery guns, over 5,000 anti-aircraft guns and 158 surface-to-air rocket launchers.

The new weapons – although not the latest in Moscow’s arsenal – were more advanced than the American ones, leading to many battlefield routs of US military forces. American aircraft ran into skies streaking with SAMs and thick with ack-ack salvoes.

Entire waves of American aircraft were blasted out of the skies because the Vietnamese fired ceaseless barrages of SAMs, knowing more Russian supplies were on their way. “In August 1965, the first SAMs were fired at four F-4 Phantoms over Vietnam, shooting down three. This marked the first time that US planes were attacked by SAMs,” writes Blagov.

US strategic bombers tumbled out of the skies after being hit by Russian-supplied SAMs (the granddaddies of today’s S-300 and S-400 missiles). Russian crews fired SAMs at the B-52 bombers, which were the first raiders shot down over Hanoi. A Soviet rocketeer told Russian Radio: “After our arrival in Vietnam, American pilots refused to fly.” (However, after 1966, no Soviet troops directly participated in combat because the Vietnamese forces had been trained to handle the Soviet equipment, the Russian magazine Eko Planety – Echo of the Planet – says.)
...

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@Big Al

opposite! But, Her messed up that whole, incredibly dumb "reset button" thing. So, it was either restart the Cold War and make Her seem prescient in hindsight, or acknowledge how pathetically unqualified Her was.

The irony would be hysterically funny if it were unimportant. During the 2008 primary, Her pretended that being FLOTUS somehow helped qualify her to be POTUS. Obama correctly called her out on it, inspiring Her infamous airport lie (not to mention the pretense that being fired on abroad somehow equates to foreign policy expertise). But, then, he appointed Her to the Cabinet position that most requires foreign policy expertise--and Her immediately messes it up--and with the only other alleged super power on the planet! With clown props, no less. Good times.

First, watch Her mess it up.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GdLClHAMB0 width:400 height:400]

Then, watch Her brazenly, not only refuse to take responsibility for messing it up, but trying to spin her awkward error into some brilliance, like Rumpelstiltskin, only that troll, unlike the Her troll, really could spin straw into gold. (Note Her blink rate, a "tell" for deception. Of course, with a Clinton, even lips moving is a tell for deception, though their deceptive responses do not tend to brevity. https://www.truthaboutdeception.com/lying-and-deception/detecting-decept...)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHp_XQFGb7U width:450 height:450]

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@Big Al

Charm can do no wrong. swoon, swoon

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Obama and Clinton saw a potential big opening in Trump's overture to Russia. Perhaps this could be the issue and they could pin soft-on-Putin around Trump's neck.

This was a big gamble and it didn't work. The topic gained no traction except with the party faithful who jumped on it only because it was anti-Trump. The downside is that they made Trump seem reasonable, "wouldn't you rather get along with Russia" and try as hard as they could they never found any smoking gun, since of course there was no collusion only normal diplomacy. If it turns out that the Obama Admin did tap Trump Tower to find that smoking gun then Obama and his minions are in deep trouble.

Did anyone in the Democrat Party consider that turning up the hostility to Russia is enormously risky as they are an equal major nuclear power with a huge number of thermonuclear warheads pointed at us. We are only a few hour away from total destruction of the USA. IN an atmosphere of hostility one simple mistake could balloon into nuclear war, as almost happened in the Cuban Crisis. The parallels are scary. It seems like this risk was worth it for the Democrats to get Hillary into the White House. Consider their actions of putting all of our lives at risk to get their candidate elected.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

@The Wizard
and enthusiastically joined forces with fanatically anti-Russian militarists, apparently for the sole purpose of opposing Trump! The D Party seems oblivious to very the clear and present danger of provoking and threatening Russia militarily. To remain unaware of this danger is to be willfully blind, yet the D's now participate wholeheartedly in msm's Russophobic fear mongering, and in its promotion of propagandistic falsehoods. Objective and fair-minded analysis of US/Russia relations gets ignored, in favor of scoring cheap political points, frequently making blatantly obvious, and often preposterous attempts to demonize Putin.

In the very same way that Assad has been demonized, and Gaddafi was demonized, and Saddam before him. Despite the fact that none of these dictators ever actually threatened America, it was made to seem as if they did. Made to seem as if somehow, America had a moral obligation to depose them. And now they've put Putin in their cross-hairs, which might be considered the very apex of hubristic folly.

Will D Party loyalists ever cease supporting and excusing this nation's endless and needless foreign wars? Will they ever awaken from their deadly, and seemingly interminable slumber? If these "patriotic" and "liberal" collaborators with the MIC don't snap out of it and get their act together fairly soon, it may be too late.

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native

Song of the lark's picture

@native it's hard to believe you would hold up Saddam, Assad, and Ghadaffi as victims and some sort of paragons of virtue.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@Song of the lark

it takes a little more poison to sabotage a discussion at Caucus99, and a little more effort to smear a participant.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Song of the lark Why do those two things always go together? What is this ridiculous assumption that, to be a victim, one must also be virtuous, pure, or good at all?

The Christ story is not the only story in the world.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Azazello's picture

@Song of the lark
Even if you believe that Saddam, Assad and Qadaffi were/are "brutal dictators" and deserved/ deserve to be killed, what about the people who live in Iraq, Syria and Libya ? Were they "brutal dictators", did they deserve what was done to them ? Aren't the hundreds of thousands killed and the millions driven from their homes by US wars of aggression victims ? Do you see where your lack of critical thinking skills has taken you ?

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

@Song of the lark
Assad and Gaddafi to be paragons of virtue! What makes you assume that I do? Yet if we look honestly at what life was like for the people of Iraq, Syria, and Libya before the "brutal dictators" were forcibly deposed, and compare it to what life is like for these people now, one inescapable conclusion must be recognized -- they have all suffered utterly disastrous consequences from the "regime changes" they have experienced, and are still experiencing. Something similar is happening in Ukraine, which is now tearing itself apart, and in all these cases "the West" has been instrumental in fomenting, aiding, and abetting revolutionary forces that have all but eliminated any semblance of peace, law, and order from these nations.

It's all very well for Americans to champion their ideals of "democracy" and "freedom", from the comfort of their well-insulated living rooms, but efforts to export these rather abstract concepts wholesale to the Middle East have been an abject and obvious failure. Every project of regime change, no matter how ostensibly well-intenioned, has resulted in little more than bloody chaos, anarchy, sectarianism, and internecine warfare. These are the facts ma'am, just the facts.

Not only have the people of these regions suffered greatly, civilization itself has suffered. Islam as a whole has suffered, and the social fabric of "the West" has suffered along with it. All this, in order to depose certain selected "brutal dictators"? Tell me if you can, how are Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine any less brutal now, than they were before we interfered on their people's behalf? Are Iraqis any better off now that Saddam is gone? Are Libyans prospering, now that we have so generously freed them from Gaddafi's tyranny?

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native

@Song of the lark Iraq, Syria an Libya as victims. Remember Madeleine "special place in hell" Albright proclaiming that the price of an estimated 500,000 innocent children who died in Iraq because of American sanctions was "worth it." That's not counting civilians killed, wounded and displaced in the war.

Would anyone care to argue that American intervention has improved the lives of people in those countries? The US destabilized three secular dictatorships that used vicious tactics to maintain order in countries where factions were poised, as has now been demonstrated, at the edge of civil war. In spite of the dictators' tactics their countries had a significant degree of freedom of worship. Iraq in particular was a model for women's rights in the region. It isn't now.

First do no harm.

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@Song of the lark

When we went in to turn Libya into a terrorist-breeding hellhole, Libya was the richest country in Africa, with free medical care and free education up through medical school. No more, of course. Was Qaddafi a nice guy? Nicer than us, apparently. The whole country was our victim.

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ZimInSeattle's picture

@native

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

@The Wizard

Luckily, the Parasite Class is all ready at a moment's notice to run to New Zealand, where they can sip champagne On The Beach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNju8IjExn4

On the Beach 1959 Ending
Robert Allen

Published on 1 Jul 2015

After a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.

Very romantic ending - much nicer than watching them horribly perishing from radiation poisoning, lack of food/water/oxygen from global dimming and all the rest...

And she says 'God forgive us' when some religious nuts believe that their god will be happy that they've destroyed his creation in order to make Super-Jesus swoop down to save only them at the last instant and bring them up bodily to a heaven where there is presumably no corporeal reality, according to their own mythology... silly, crazy buggers...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Do I never get to live that down? After all, until Vlad's fangs penetrated my neck, I was rooting for the Ottomans!

But....who can blame me? I mean, once you get past the rather pronounced underbite, hubba hubba! Amirite?

(And portrait artists tried to idealize their subjects, especially the ones with a reputation for impaling severed heads. Yikes!)

Although I will grant you, getting past an underbite can be an issue. If he misses your carotid, he will keep trying until he gets it. And, it ain't fun after the first few times, I can attest to that! Ouch!

What? Vlad Putin has nothing to do with Vlad Dracul III? My mistake!

Never mind.

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CB's picture

Just think of it. The US has invaded dozens of countries, both overtly and covertly, spending untold trillions of dollars, killing tens of millions of innocent people, to affect regime change, leaving death and destruction in its wake that continues to this very day.

Putin managed to affect regime change in the most powerful country in the world without firing a single bullet or causing any collateral damage to the innocent whatsoever. It has been estimated the cost to Russia was considerably less than the cost of a new American car (mainly for pizza and coke takeout).

You are probably wondering how Putin managed to accomplish this amazing feat? The truth is Putin has mastered The Force and is now expert at performing Jedi Mind Tricks. Most Americans are extremely vulnerable to these mind tricks - especially Clintonian democrats.

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@CB "It has been estimated the cost to Russia was considerably less than the cost of a new American car (mainly for pizza and coke takeout)."

I keep trying to reach the DNC to have them hire Putin as a consultant. He unlike the democratic party establishment knows how to win American elections. For gawds sake, he unlike the establishment democrats even realized the Electoral College choses the president.

And the cost? Pizza and warm beer. Well, maybe some beet soup added in.

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@MrWebster
of having Jack Daniels superseded by Stolichnaya as the national drink of choice. The DNC is now setting up a Congressional Committee to investigate Trump's connection to the Russian vodka industry.

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native

CB's picture

@MrWebster
Her can't say she wasn't forewarned.
Putin spelled it out back in 2010 when he was intervened by Larry King:

"Now, as regards to democracy, this has been a long-term dispute with our American colleagues," Putin said. "I'd like to recall the fact that twice, twice, in the history of the United States of America, there were cases, the candidate to the presidency who subsequently became president of the United States, who was voted by majority of electorate, with the delegates presenting the lesser number of electorate as a whole. Is that democracy?"

It is obvious that Putin knew exactly where to 'slip the knife in'(an old KGB saying).

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Azazello's picture

should be on the Op-Ed page of every newspaper in the country.
Like that's gonna' happen.
Thanks for linking it here.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

On Feb 23, Glenn looked to I. F. Stone and how Russia was portrayed during the Cold War in order to see the parallels to today.

The Increasingly Unhinged Russia Rhetoric Comes From a Long-Standing U.S. Playbook

FOR ASPIRING JOURNALISTS, historians, or politically engaged citizens, there are few more productive uses of one’s time than randomly reading through the newsletters of I.F. Stone, the intrepid and independent journalist of the Cold War era who became, in my view, the nation’s first “blogger” even though he died before the advent of the internet. Frustrated by big media’s oppressive corporatized environment and its pro-government propaganda model, and then ultimately blacklisted from mainstream media outlets for his objections to anti-Russia narratives, Stone created his own bi-monthly newsletter, sustained exclusively by subscriptions, and spent 18 years relentlessly debunking propaganda spewing from the U.S. government and its media partners.

What makes Stone’s body of work so valuable is not its illumination of history but rather its illumination of the present. What’s most striking about his newsletters is how little changes when it comes to U.S. government propaganda and militarism, and the role the U.S. media plays in sustaining it all. Indeed, reading through his reporting, one gets the impression that U.S. politics just endlessly replays the same debates, conflicts, and tactics.

Then today he has another article on the topic

Democrats Now Demonize the Same Russia Policies that Obama Long Championed

When you don't want to acknowledge the collapse of the party, you try to change the subject. This one is a dangerous gamble and it does not appear to result in better ratings of the democratic party. When the issue is power, the establishment does whatever it takes to keep the game alive.

ONE OF THE most bizarre aspects of the all-consuming Russia frenzy is the Democrats’ fixation on changes to the RNC platform concerning U.S. arming of Ukraine. The controversy began in July when the Washington Post reported that “the Trump campaign worked behind the scenes last week to make sure the new Republican platform won’t call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces.”

Ever since then, Democrats have used this language change as evidence that Trump and his key advisers have sinister connections to Russians and corruptly do their bidding at the expense of American interests. Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke for many in his party when he lambasted the RNC change in a July letter to the New York Times, castigating it as “dangerous thinking” that shows Trump is controlled, or at least manipulated, by the Kremlin. Democrats resurrected this line of attack this weekend when Trump advisers acknowledged that campaign officials were behind the platform change.

This attempt to equate Trump’s opposition to arming Ukraine with some sort of treasonous allegiance to Putin masks a rather critical fact: namely, that the refusal to arm Ukraine with lethal weapons was one of Barack Obama’s most steadfastly held policies. The original Post article that reported the RNC platform change noted this explicitly:

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detroitmechworks's picture

We must not judge people who are Muslim, because they aren't all evil!

Next Breath:
RUSSIANS ARE EVIL! If you say anything good about Russia you're a Russian Agent plotting to overthrow our democracy.

Apparently Bigotry's just fine and dandy as long as the DNC says so.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

I'm a Putin Puppet.
They said so on TOP, so it must be true.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@gjohnsit [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1FLZPFI3jc]

Super dooper!

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

CB's picture

@detroitmechworks @detroitmechworks
Look at all these dangerous Russian troops training for an attack on America.

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@CB
Look at that level of organization!

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CB's picture

@gjohnsit
have been made up to look just like Americans. How the hell are we going to know who the enemy is when they attack us? We need to bomb them RIGHT NOW, before they invade and destroy our freedums.

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@CB
they're just normal people. Don't be fooled by this, what they really want is to sabotage our way of life, and to swarm in vast hoards over all of Europe! And beware of that Gannady Golovkin, he's an FSB agent.

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native

travelerxxx's picture

@CB

Nuke 'um!

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@CB

Hah, if you haven't seen any of those accurate depictions of vicious gang dance-offs, you haven't attended the right gala play opening nights! This is how the worst of the Disposables Deplorables fight among themselves!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

riverlover's picture

@gjohnsit

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

a pretty aggressive move if viewed from the "other" side. As the USSR/Warsaw Pact shrank NATO expanded gleefully to fill the gap right up to Russia's borders. In the military games played all along the NATO side of the border, the aggressor is always Russia. Russia lost well over 20 million people the last time a European power invaded them.
The West has also have a long history of trying to incite and inciting regime change in the area.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

@LaFeminista There has been no reason for NATO for more than two decades now. NATO should have been eliminated rather than expanded. The thought of world peace strikes terror into the heart of the US government and their corporate lords and masters, because their profits would be cut and there would be no smokescreen to hide their incompetence and malfeasance.

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CB's picture

@LaFeminista
to the (mostly Russian) Soviets. The allies faced 67,000 Germans defending Normandy. The Russians faced 390,000 Germans around a single city (Stalingrad). To compare, the US lost just 139,380 soldiers and zero civilians in the European theater.

Yet, the propagandized media has portrayed America as the ones who won the war.
USA! USA! USA!

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@CB Russia not so much.

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@LaFeminista It is worth noting that when the Soviets agreed to pull military forces out of the former Warsaw Pact countries NATO agreed that the NATO boundary would move from the inter German border to the eastern border of a united Germany and no further.

It must be kept in mind that these dangerously provocative Russian actions are occurring off the coast of Crimea and the Baltic States. The Russians aren't flying out of Cuba to buzz American destroyers and engaging in troop movements in Mexico just across from our border.

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@LaFeminista

I must be looking at this from 'the "other" side' because it looks a lot worse than aggressive to me. It looks downright criminal from here.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

shaharazade's picture

thanks for the link. Counter Punch has become one of my favorite sources for non-fake information and good writers. This whole 'wrapping his arms around Putin' meme from even the so called progressive's in the Demoratic party just amazes me. I mean come on people get a grip. Why after all the catapulted propaganda we've been subjected to during and after the cold war would this unbelievable new old enemy get resurrected dusted off and replace 'terrist's who are gonna kill yer family' as the latest threat to our national 'security' work?

Haven't people had enough of misdirected fear and loathing? We seem to have plenty of homegrown fear and loathing right here in the USA! USA! USA!. If most of the so called liberals I live around and know read this article they would tell me it's fake news and written by one of Putin's flying monkey's. I'm more concerned by the level of discourse that so called progressives are calling resisting The Hairball then with the scary shenanigans of the ruling class here in America.

After 16 years of people here being frightened witless of terrorist's I'm skeptical that there is anymore space available to shove Putin under beds that are so crowded with variations of Goldstien. I guess it's easier to fear the latest made up villain then take a good hard look in the mirror and see what this country is up to and that it is now the biggest threat to humanity and the planet.

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riverlover's picture

@shaharazade The majority of Americans are trying to survive already, and do not need all the outside interference nonsense. Just Fear and Loathing Propaganda (HST, you would be howling). Now, poor Yemeni women and children, fleeing from a bombed out town cannot come here. But why would they want to? The US Government had a hand in the destruction of their lives.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

jobu's picture

Pure and Simple, because triangulation is all they have to offer.

Hence the James Wolcott article in Vanity (not so) Fair. They are going to turn up the heat now that their control of the DNC has been solidified.

Baffling to me why Bernie, Keith, Elizabeth, et al, are allowing themselves to be played by regurgitating the Russia Russia Russia Oatmeal. By using the 'Russia Did It' language they are diminishing everything they have been fighting for from a policy perspective.

All they have to do is stay neutral and evade when probed by our omnipresent corporate-state media (propaganda) flunkies like, well...Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes just to name a few.

Props for the Diggers reference.

[video:https://youtu.be/YwQwA_kFxoE]

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shaharazade's picture

@jobu as I don't believe for a moment that 'Bernie, Keith, Elizabeth, et al' are diminishing 'everything they have been fighting for from a policy perspective.' Have you listened to Bernie or Elisabeth's foreign policy stances? That progressive Sherod Brown just voted along with 16 other Dems. to confirm Ben Carson. The designated Demoratic progressives including Bernie just take turns at being progressive be it in matters of war or economic populism. When push comes to shove they always fold like a cheap tent.

Staying 'neutral' for political cover is their forte, it's their designated role in the Red and Blue partisan kabuki show. They take turns being good cop bad cop. They are all weasel players and none of them gives a rats ass about getting decent democratic policy. If they were actually progressive or cared about policy why should they remain neutral and not fight for decent policy or stand up and obstruct the RW lunatics in the insane media political circus? Cart before the horse politics which is becoming obvious to more and more people.

There is a list in this article of the Democratic senate votes for Trumps cabinet appointee's. It's revealing as they cannot even bother to be the loyal opposition and obstruct The Mad Clown pres. They helped installed him as they needed a 'Pied Piper' to scare the pants off voters who we're once again sick of the lot of them and were balking at crowning the crooked bad ass kisser of Kissinger in a glowing white pant's suit shouting USA! USA! USA!

What the Hell is Wrong with Senate Democrat's
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/27/what_the_hell_is_wrong...

Part of the acquiescence may be explained by the electoral calendar. During Carson’s hearing, two of the Senate’s leading progressives, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, grilled Carson on the minimum wage, fair housing, and Trump’s conflicts of interest. But both voted for Carson anyway. Jennifer Bendery and Sam Stein of the Huffington Post suggest that Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown did so in part because both face re-election next year. “Warren has been criticized back home for being oppositional to Trump, and Brown, like nine other Democrats trying to hang on to their seats in two years, hails from a state that Trump carried in 2016,” they wrote. “For those members, there is some political upside to demonstrating willingness to work with Trump when the time and conditions allow it.”

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snoopydawg's picture

@jobu
exactly what legislation has Warren gotten passed after all of her rantings and ravings against the banks, other financial institutions and the student loan debt.

When Bernie first declared his running for president, I was asking people how they felt about his foreign policy views. He as well as Warren haven't been speaking out against the wars or other interventions.
Warren voted for giving Israel more bombs after they ran out during their mow the lawn campaign that saw thousands of Palestinians killed including women and children.

When the republicans are the minority party they can block any legislation they don't like but when it's the democrats turn to be the minority party they can't block shit. That right there tells me that they are conning us.
The republicans were supposed to be dead in the water for decades after the Bush years, yet it took one election for them to win back the house and two to win all branches of government at the federal level and in many states. And that was under Obamas's watch.
Now I keep reading that the democrats haven't learned their lessons after Hillary lost to Trump. I don't think there are any lessons that they want to learn when they put Pelosi and Schumer in charge and that was verified by Perez being the head of the DNC, the Obama and Hillary faction of the DP.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

CB's picture

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Azazello's picture

@CB
Such irony here. I was waiting for her to say, "We have seen this before. In Soviet Union the mere fact that someone met with foreign diplomat was considered proof that the person had been recruited as spy. Is US now run by NKVD ?"
The totalitarian state portrayed in Orwell's famous novel was not a complete invention by the author. His model was the USSR under Stalin.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

CB's picture

@Azazello
within America so well. The Russian people know the Soviet Union is dead. Americans are still confused.

"Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain." - Vladimir Putin

"I see that not everyone in the West has understood that the Soviet Union has disappeared from the political map of the world and that a new country has emerged with new humanist and ideological principles at the foundation of its existence." - Vladimir Putin

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@CB

…you get to see who's been swimming naked.

I suppose that's the meaning of this time we are living through.

I hope someone is taking notes.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
CB's picture

@Pluto's Republic

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shaharazade's picture

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic I may not always agree with every thing you post but I always am always interested in your take. This sums up what I am thinking.

When the tide goes out you get to see who's been swimming naked. I suppose that's the meaning of this time we are living through. I hope someone is taking notes.

The meaning of this time seems to me to have no meaning. I mean WTF? A lot of Americans both Red and Blue believe what ever their side tells them is reality. The reality were living in is not about the politics of right vs. left or Dems.vs.Rep. It's about the planet and humans vs.the assholes who proclaim they are inevitable and this is the way humans operate. Forever and forever. Don'tchaknow when the tide goes out the naked always claim that they are robed in cloaks that have always been here and will always prevail. The naked stand alone and are scorned as their mutterings are nothing anyone want's to hear.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@shaharazade

…ahead of me in disengaging from the false dichotomy.

The reality were living in is not about the politics of right vs. left or Dems.vs.Rep. It's about the planet and humans vs.the assholes….

I'm still partially stuck in that tar pit, but I am breaking free. I'm just testing the sacred dogmas for unacceptable hypocrisies and inequalities.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

@CB Of the press and their Fake News...

I wish the words coming out of the White House were equally strong and eloquent...
They need to focus on what is important and not come out with meaningless BS that undermines their own credibility...
Trump Tower wiretapped? Aren't we all by Eric Snowden's disclosure?
Donald's 140 characters on Twitter aren't cutting it...
And Sean Spicer is useless...

The DemocRATic National Committee continues to try to wag the dog by the tail with their fake news agenda and friendly fake news outlets spreading the Anti-Russian Rhetoric pushing us into the danger zone...

Shouldn't the DemocRATs drop the fake news to stop undermining their own credibility and legitimately oppose Trump on areas where they should? Right now they just look stupid and crazy...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,

@CB

Thanks - boy, is she ever right!

And if I may, I'd like to add:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfXW_FXxwL4

American Spy Caught in Russia Trying to Recruit Secret Service Members
Patriot News Organization

Published on 14 May 2013

(Reuters) -- Russia expelled a U.S. diplomat on Tuesday after saying he had been caught red-handed with disguises, special equipment and wads of cash as he tried to recruit a Russian intelligence agent to work for the CIA.

Apparently detained in an incongruous-looking blond wig, with props reminiscent of a schoolboy's spy kit, U.S. Embassy Third Secretary Ryan Fogle hardly looked like a Cold War secret agent.

But the announcement still came at an awkward time for Washington and Moscow as they try to improve relations and bring the warring sides in Syria together for an international peace conference. Nevertheless, there was little sign that either country wanted to escalate the affair beyond a minimum response.

More recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9IIykF_7WA

EXCLUSIVE: Report on CIA spies caught with false wigs, beards and dressed as a woman in Moscow
Russia Insider

Published on 26 Jul 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxfftZQxZ8w

'And, You Know, F**k The EU' - Leaked Spy Tapes Embarrass Diplomat
The Young Turks

Published on 8 Feb 2014

"A conversation between a State Department official and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine that was posted on YouTube revealed an embarrassing exchange on U.S. strategy for a political transition in that country, including a crude American swipe at the European Union.

The leaked conversation appeared certain to embarrass the United States and seemed designed to bolster charges - from Russia, among others - that the Ukrainian opposition is being manipulated by Washington, which President Barack Obama's administration strenuously disputes.

U.S. accusations that Russia helped publicize the taped conversation also threatened Washington's already tense relationship with Moscow.

The audio clip, which was posted on Tuesday but gained wide circulation on Thursday, appears to show the official, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, weighing in on the make-up of the next Ukrainian government."* Cenk Uygur, Dave Rubin, Ben Mankiewicz and Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show) break it down.

*Read more here from Doina Chiacu and Arshad Mohammed / Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/0...

I see by the projector's light corporate reps (and corporate media) accusing others of what they do themselves. Intrigue and engage in war-crimes for corporate/military global domination.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

I mean common cause is being made with the worst actors in American politics. And, more, to sanction a public interrogation of whoever they deem hostile to their interests. This is the useful idiot meme on steroids. It is the white liberal class ASKING for totalitarian government.

And the most useful ones have unblocked Dkos accounts.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

CB's picture

Something really, really wrong with America when the few voices of reason mainly come from Russia. This woman could very well become president of Russia in the future. Maria Zakharova's knowledge, intellect and debating skills far outstrip those of Hillary.

Published on Oct 7, 2016

Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Affairs spokesperson, lets loose on a Western journalist after she is asked "Why is Russia supporting Assad, who is killing civilians?" The problem with Western mainstream media is that it relies on ignorance to create a worldview that consists of a series of RANDOM and DISCONNECTED events taken out of context.

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snoopydawg's picture

@CB @CB
The USA stupidly is worse than terrorism.
And she called out how many Syrians had been killed before Russia even entered the country.
I know how both the article and this video would be received at DK. But it would be fun watching their heads spin trying to debunk both. Smile
I think this sums up quite well what so many so called progressives are doing and defending.

This is the useful idiot meme on steroids. It is the white liberal class ASKING for totalitarian government.

Great article, thanks for the link to it.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

edg's picture

Without an external enemy to distract attention, the United States would collapse under the weight of its own inequality and hypocrisy.

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orlbucfan's picture

word is "Democratic"? Reminds me of the Cheney/Dumbya goons. Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

earthling1's picture

@orlbucfan both versions are destined for the shit hole in 2018 anyway.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

RantingRooster's picture

like Pavlov's dogs, to be come rabid Russian hating zombies, no logic or evidence required, just the "trigger phrase", The Russians did it! But look at all those "democrats" rubber stamping Trump's cabinet picks of the ruling Oligarchy. Even Sanders and Warrne are going along for the rubber stamp ride to keep their paychecks and government sponsored healthcare for life flowing.

No, I am not now, nor ever been a Russian or Putin puppet. But I will tell you this, if there's a paycheck and lifetime free healthcare in it, I'm game! Where do I sign up?

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Song of the lark's picture

Deep state got your numbers.

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CB's picture

@Song of the lark
FEMA camps are now run by the Russians. Diablo

FEMA Signs “Exchange” Deal With Russian Government
Thursday, 04 July 2013

Following outrage and controversy last year over the Obama administration’s unprecedented decision to invite Russian troops for terror drills on U.S. soil, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is now under fire for signing more agreements to “cooperate” with Vladimir Putin’s Russian “Emergencies Ministry” (EMERCOM) in a wide array of fields. Among the controversial deals outlined in an official Russian press release: exchanging of “experts” and “experience,” “provision of security at mass events,” and “cooperation in disaster response operations.” Critics of the scheme reacted with a mixture of fury and deep concerns.
...
Commenting on the FEMA deal with Russian authorities, popular conservative talk-radio host Michael Savage called for the arrest of responsible U.S. officials. “You know who FEMA is — don't you? — the people with the camps ready for you," he said on July 1, also suggesting that Russian troops would be providing “security” at events in the United States in violation of Posse Comitatus restrictions. Throughout the segment on the U.S.-Russia agreements, Savage continually referred to the Obama administration as a criminal regime that needed to be stopped.

“Many people fear that this government is getting ready for some major action against the people, they think that this gang that targeted its political enemies through the IRS and the NSA is getting ready to use foreign troops on our soil who will not hesitate to shoot to kill," he continued. “This is illegal. Whoever signed it for the U.S. government should go to prison... This is what's emerged under this criminal administration... Obama is a gangster — he's running the country like he's a gangster commander."
...

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earthling1's picture

@CB among our own authorities to "shoot to kill".

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

blowing up the world?

If so, count me in.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Теперь мы все русские.

Wink

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Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

@ChezJfrey Будете ли вы следить за нашими выборами в 2018 году и уничтожать наши опасные поддельные СМИ.

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,

to being told that Russians were controlling their vote.

Laughter and annoyance, I suspect. And more loss of (already minimal) trust in those peddling that line.

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@Sunspots

Imagine the reaction of flyover Obama voters who went for Trump

to being told that Russians were controlling their vote.

Laughter and annoyance, I suspect. And more loss of (already minimal) trust in those peddling that line.

Freedom apparently being the state of having nothing left to lose, I'd suspect that they, like many others, are already entirely free of trust in anything the corporate Dems come out with, in much the manner and degree to which the corporate Dems (and corporate media) have sacrificed any remaining credibility in their lunatic claims and agenda.

I iz free, I tells ya, free!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.