“They can use Russophobia to silence the left, distract from the Democratic Party’s payment for the Steele dossier, and whip up war propaganda all at the same time.”
Hillary Clinton is the author of Russiagate. She created the scandal to cover up Clinton Foundation dealings with the Russian government. As Secretary of State she approved a deal shepherded by Bill Clinton that gave Russia control of 20% of America’s uranium supply. The foundation received $145 million in pledged donations from persons associated with the Uranium One consortium and Bill Clinton personally received $500,000 to give a speech in Moscow after the deal was done. Because the revelation would have been problematic during her presidential campaign Clinton chose to project her own corruption onto her opponent Donald Trump.
The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid $160,000 to British former spy Christopher Steele to dig up dirt on Donald Trump and his dealings with Russian nationals. Steele cultivated the press to help spread his unverifiable dossier as fact and was for a time also being paid by the FBI for his services. Throughout 2016 he leaked his story to the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and the New Yorker among other outlets but lied to the FBI about doing so. The conflicts of interest are obvious but as Steele was in bed with the press the full story is unlikely to see the light of day.
“Mueller trotted out a rehash of a story first revealed by the Russian press about social media posts from the Internet Research Agency.”
If anyone ought to be indicted Hillary Clinton and Christopher Steele certainly should. Instead, special counsel Robert Mueller carried out a meaningless indictment of thirteen Russian nationals. After a year-long investigation he trotted out a rehash of a story first revealed by the Russian press about social media posts from the Internet Research Agency. But Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was forced to admit, “Now, there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.”
The indicted individuals will obviously never set foot in the United States but that is the beauty of Mueller’s actions. They can use Russophobia to silence the left, distract from the Democratic Party’s payment for the Steele dossier, and whip up war propaganda all at the same time. It is an evil trifecta indeed.
The indictment also goes out of its way to mention Jill Stein and Bernie Sanders. Stein is punished for being on the left and for daring to run for the presidency. Sanders gets the side eye for daring to challenge Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. Neither one of them is responsible for Donald Trump’s victory. Of course an effective campaign and a fight against vote theft would have given Clinton the victory. She may in fact have been the winner. But that is precisely why Stein and Sanders are being dragged into the mess. The corrupt corporate Democrats are in dire need of scapegoats.
“They are in full attack mode against the Russian government and anyone who won’t parrot their lies.”
It is sad and terrifying to watch the reaction from media elites and Democratic politicians. They will allow no counter narrative to see the light of day. After all, they are the ones who made sure that any such questions were disappeared from public discourse. Now they are in full attack mode against the Russian government and anyone who won’t parrot their lies.
At least one Democratic congressman, Jerrold Nadler of New York, makes the claim that Facebook posts are akin to the attack on Pearl Harbor. When his questioner pushed back he persisted in making the comparison. That can only mean that he and others think that an actual war against Russia is a reasonable course of action.
Democrats, their pundits and think tanks are doubling down. They are accusing Bernie Sanders of doing Russia’s bidding, despite the fact that he was equally willing to blame that country for Trump’s triumph. All of his post sheep dog genuflecting has done him little good. He endorsed Hillary Clinton and campaigned with her. He told his people to stand down and most of them did just that. He shouldn’t have bothered though, because he is now getting the same treatment as Jill Stein.
“They are accusing Bernie Sanders of doing Russia’s bidding, despite the fact that he was equally willing to blame that country for Trump’s triumph.”
The beat down of Sanders and Stein is a lot more troubling than mere blame shifting and finger pointing. The goal of vilifying them is to clear the field for a rightwing Democrat in 2020 and to silence all dissent. The Democrats are making sure there will be no voice for even the incremental and minimal reforms championed by Sanders. As for the Green Party, the Democrats intend to put them out of business altogether.
What they don’t intend to do is give their voters anything that they need. They don’t even help them to cast their ballots. Republicans schemes like Cross Check vote purges elicit not so much as a peep from the Democrats. Obama’s past, current and future spokesman David Axelrod directly blamed Jill Stein for taking votes from Clinton in Michigan. Michigan also lost more than 400,000 votes due to Cross Check, but Axelrod says nothing about that. Facts are not the issue. Beating down the left most definitely is.
The Democratic Party had every opportunity to put together a winning strategy, even with their weak candidate. But they focused on treating Bernie Sanders like an irritant to be gotten rid of and not as the oracle whose popularity told them they were in trouble.
“Michigan also lost more than 400,000 votes due to Cross Check, but facts are not the issue.”
Now the elite media are treating Sanders like a Putin-spawned pariah and making a mockery of his decision to sheep dog to Hillary and try to drag her over the finish line. Russian memes that labeled Hillary Clinton a demon were not far from wrong. The country is facing an unnecessary legal and political crisis which will end up putting Democrats in the loser column once again.
Democratic Party defenders are correct about one thing. No one knows where Mueller’s investigation is headed or whom else will be indicted. But it is clear that the investigation is political and Trump is not the only target. Democracy itself is under attack. The right to speak out against and organize against the duopoly is under attack. The enemy of one’s enemy is not necessarily a friend. The FBI isn’t our friend and neither is the Democratic Party. They all want silence and acquiescence to whatever the system chooses to mete out. Mueller’s end game will be bad news and not just for Trump. At the end of the day anyone who speaks out for true democracy, rule by the people, will also be in the cross hairs.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com . Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.co
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