I'm not real familiar with Chris Hedges; and I find it laughable that Hedges frames; " *RT America, Al Jazeera, "TruthDig" *(Whatever the Hell that is!)* and Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! as the only two electronic outlets with a national reach that are willing to give a platform to critics of corporate power and imperialism"! *
No matter, Hedges' 8 January article proved to be prophetic! On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 12:46 PM, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > > Jan 8, 2017 > > *The Real Purpose of the U.S. Government’s Report on Alleged Hacking by > Russia *By Chris Hedges > > Some thoughts on “Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 US > Presidential Election,” the newly released declassified report > <https://www.scribd.com/document/335885879/DNI-Declassified-Report-on-Russian-Hacking#from_embed> > from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. > > 1. The primary purpose of the declassified report, which offers no > evidence to support its assertions that Russia hacked the U.S. presidential > election campaign, is to discredit Donald Trump. I am not saying there was > no Russian hack of John Podesta’s emails > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podesta_emails>. I am saying we have yet > to see any tangible proof to back up the accusation. This chargeSen. John > McCain has likened the alleged effort by Russia to an act of war > <http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/30/politics/mccain-cyber-hearing/>is the > first salvo in what will be a relentless campaign by the Republican and > Democratic establishment, along with its corporatist allies and the mass > media, to destroy the credibility of the president-elect and prepare the > way for impeachment. > > The allegations in the report, amplified in breathtaking pronouncements by > a compliant corporate media that operates in a non-fact-based universe > every bit as pernicious as that inhabited by Trump, are designed to make > Trump look like Vladimir Putin’s useful idiot. An orchestrated and > sustained campaign of innuendo and character assassination will be directed > against Trump. When impeachment is finally proposed, Trump will have little > public support and few allies and will have become a figure of open > ridicule in the corporate media. > > 2. The second task of the report is to bolster the McCarthyist smear > campaign against independent media, including Truthdig, as witting or > unwitting agents of the Russian government. The demise of the English > programming of Al-Jazeera and TeleSur, along with the collapse of the > nation’s public broadcasting, designed to give a voice to those not > beholden to corporate or party interests, leaves RT America and Amy > Goodman’s Democracy Now! as the only two electronic outlets with a national > reach that are willing to give a platform to critics of corporate power and > imperialism such as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Ralph > Nader, Medea Benjamin, Cornel West, Kshama Sawant, myself and others. > > Seven pages of the report were dedicated to RT America, on which I have a > show called “On Contact.” The report vastly inflated the cable network’s > reach and influence. It also included a few glaring errors, including the > statement that “RT introduced two new shows‘Breaking the Set’ on 4 > September and ‘Truthseeker’ on 2 Novemberboth overwhelmingly focused on > criticism of the US and Western governments as well as the promotion of > radical discontent.” “Breaking the Set,” with Abby Martin, was taken off > the air two years ago. It could hardly be tarred with costing Hillary > Clinton the election. > > The barely contained rage of Director of National Intelligence James > Clapper at the recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on foreign > cyber threats was visible when he spat out that RT was “promoting a > particular point of view, disparaging our system, our alleged hypocrisy > about human rights, et cetera.” His anger was a glimpse into how the > establishment seethes with hatred for dissidents. Clapper has lied in the > past. He perjured himself in March 2013 when, three months before the > revelations of wholesale state surveillance leaked by Snowden, he assured > Congress that the National Security Agency was not collecting “any type of > data” on the American public. After the corporate state shuts down RT, it > will go after Democracy Now! and the handful of progressive sites, > including this one, that give these dissidents space. The goal is > censorship. > > 3. The third task of the report is to justify the expansion of the North > Atlantic Treaty Organization beyond Germany, a violation of the promise > Ronald Reagan made to the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev after the fall > of the Berlin Wall. Expanding NATO in Eastern Europe opened up an arms > market for the war industry. It made those businesses billions of dollars. > New NATO members must buy Western arms that can be integrated into the NATO > arsenal. These sales, which are bleeding the strained budgets of countries > such as Poland, are predicated on potential hostilities with Russia. If > Russia is not a threat, the arms sales plummet. War is a racket. > > 4. The final task of the report is to give the Democratic Party plausible > cover for the catastrophic election defeat it suffered. Clinton initially > blamed > FBI Director James Comey > <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/us/politics/hillary-clinton-james-comey.html> > for her loss before switching to the more easily demonized Putin. The > charge of Russian interference essentially boils down to the absurd premise > that perhaps hundreds of thousands of Clinton supporters suddenly decided > to switch their votes to Trump when they read the leaked emails of Podesta. > Either that or they tuned in to RT America and decided to vote for the > Green Party. > > The Democratic Party leadership cannot face, and certainly cannot publicly > admit, that its callous betrayal of the working and middle class triggered > a nationwide revolt that resulted in the election of Trump. It has been > pounded since President Barack Obama took office, losing 68 seats in the > House, 12 seats in the Senate and 10 governorships. It lost more than 1,000 > elected positions between 2008 and 2012 nationwide. Since 2010, Republicans > have replaced 900 Democratic state legislators. If this was a real party, > the entire leadership would be sacked. But it is not a real party. It is > the shell of a party propped up by corporate money and hyperventilating > media. > > The Democratic Party must maintain the fiction of liberalism just as the > Republican Party must maintain the fiction of conservatism. These two > parties, however, belong to one partythe corporate party. They will work > in concert, as seen by the alliance between Republican leaders such as > McCain and Democratic leaders such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, to get rid of > Trump, silence all dissent, enrich the war industry and promote the farce > they call democracy. > > Welcome to our > > *annus horribilis. > http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_real_purpose_of_the_us_governments_report_on_alleged_hacking_by_russi > <http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_real_purpose_of_the_us_governments_report_on_alleged_hacking_by_russi> > * > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "PoliticalForum" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
