Mueller's report, after a sprawling investigation lasting nearly two years, has exposed the entire anti-Russia narrative as a hoax, perpetrated on the American people in pursuit of reactionary political ends. Journalist Matt Taibbi published an article on Saturday headlined “It’s official: Russiagate is this generation’s WMD,” in which he wrote: “The Iraq war faceplant damaged the reputation of the press. Russiagate just destroyed it… As a purely journalistic failure, however, WMD was a pimple compared to Russiagate.”
Those responsible—from the editorial offices of the major media outlets to the decision-makers in the Democratic Party—knowingly lied, while serving as conduits for factions of the CIA, the NSA and the FBI, whose opposition to the fascistic Trump was of a thoroughly right-wing character. They opposed Trump and sought either to remove him or politically cripple him on the grounds that he was insufficiently belligerent toward Russia and too reluctant to escalate military action in Syria and elsewhere.
The anti-Russia campaign revived the witch-hunting methods of the McCarthyite red scare. Its aim was threefold: first, to create an atmosphere of hysteria to justify preparations for war against nuclear-armed Russia; second, to channel the mass popular opposition to Trump in a right-wing, pro-war direction; and, third, to create a pretext for internet censorship and other attacks on democratic rights.
It was part of a broader, international anti-Russia witch hunt, including the fabricated allegation that Putin was behind the poisoning of Russian expatriate Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England.
The cast of characters instrumental in perpetrating this fraud includes Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee; his counterpart in the Senate, the billionaire tech mogul Mark Warner; the "liberal" MSNBC pundit Rachael Maddow; late-night TV hosts such as Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers; and James Bennet, editorial page editor of the Times, whose father, Douglas Bennet, ran the CIA-backed US Agency for International Development under President Carter.
The director of national intelligence under Obama, James Clapper, who lied to Congress about NSA domestic spying, and Obama's CIA director, John Brennan, who defended CIA torture programs and lied to Congress about CIA hacking of Senate Intelligence Committee computers, have been omnipresent on the airwaves denouncing Trump as a Russian stooge.
These people were engaged in a massive political conspiracy. The Democrats made a decision from the outset—beginning with the election campaign of the favored candidate of Wall Street and the CIA, Hillary Clinton—that they would not oppose Trump on his anti-working-class social policy or his authoritarian hostility to democratic rights and promotion of anti-immigrant racism, but on issues of imperialist foreign policy.
I'm sorry to disagree with Barry, but I do. I've read his article over and over and he does not point the finger at one of the worst s**t stirrers of this hysteria: Hillary Clinton.
In interviews and Tweets, Hillary strirred this s**t up and encouraged it. Do not forget that. Never forget that.
Ahead of the election, Hillary and others made much of the fact that Donald wouldn't promise to abide by the results but, in the end, it was Hillary who refused to abide by the results.
That's a really important detail in this whole issue.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Wednesday:
Join the vigil to remember the victims of the #Mosul ferry disaster. The vigil will be held on Thursday 28th March, 6.30pm - 7.30pm at Trafalgar Square in #London. Everybody is welcome to join the UK's #Iraqi community and show their respects. It's being organised by @icacharity.
Last week's tragedy in Iraq left at least 120 dead. What will the next tragedy be? It's a question worth asking considering the government refused to follow the policies in place that should have prevented the ferry from even being on the water last week. It's a question worth asking as Basra faces rising water.
Water level is still increasıng in the area of "Saybah" in Basra, and people are demanding to take the necessary action before the occurrence of disasters in the area and villages.
.
facebook.com/iraqispringmc/… facebook.com/IraqiSMCEn/pos…
Large agricultural areas have drowned in Basra south of Iraq due to the floods .
Flooding? In the city where clean water is something the government's unable/unwilling to provide.
Unicef reported last year at least 50,000 children fell ill in Basra due to the province’s lack of basic services and toxic water. Iraqi authorities are now being called on to avoid a health crisis bit.ly/2JyWLzy #WorldWaterDay
That was among the reasons that protests started in Basra last July. Over 100,000 (official Iraqi government figure) were hospitalized for drinking the water.
Half of all households in #Iraq are at risk from drinking contaminated water. In spite of the attention that last year's protests and illnesses in Basra brought to the problem, it seems that weak governance is impeding efforts to address it.
The situation for children in #Iraq continues to deteriorate- @UNICEFiraq tells me how 4 year old girl fell ill after coming in contact with contaminated water in #Basra new waves of protests expected as summer nears.
High water levels in #Basra creates this massive foam. Local government warns against potential floods along ShatAlAlarb basin. Some villages were already evacuated. Check the videos!
youtube.com/watch?v=sTlhnY…
The western press may not be talking about it but others are and this is a known in Iraq -- a known that is not being addressed. The government remains non-responsive to the people.
When it is a misfortune and when is it an injustice?
Political theorist Judith N, Shklar grappled with that issue in THE FACES OF INJUSTICE. She noted:
When is a disaster a misfortune and when is it an injustice? . . . If the dreadful event is caused by the external forces of nature, it's a misfortune and we must resign ourselves to our suffering. Should, however, some ill-intentioned agent, human or supernatural, have brought it about, then it is an injustice and we may express indignation and outrage.
Grasp that any misfortune that arises in Basra due to the flooding will not be a misfortune, it will be an injustice. There has been more than enough time to address this. The government continues to ignore it.
The government doesn't do much of anything, do they? They sacked the governor of Nineveh Province over the ferry disaster. Or 'sacked' him.
Dropping back to Monday's snapshot:
Alissa J. Rubin and Falih Hassan (NEW YORK TIMES) report:
In a rare show of deference to the anger of Mosul citizens over government abuses, the Iraqi Parliament on Sunday voted overwhelmingly to remove the province’s governor, citing accusations of corruption, self-dealing and negligence.
Although
Mosul citizens had pleaded with the central government to remove the
governor for more than two years, it was only after a ferry disaster brought angry citizens into the street that senior political figures decided to act.
They note that Nuafal Hammadi "had held the job since 2015." They fail to note how the previous governor departed or that this was not the first government effort to remove Hammadi.
December 28, 2017, KURDISTAN 24 reported:
Following
the no-confidence vote by the Nineveh Provincial Council against the
governor, and the Iraqi Prime Minister’s decision to freeze his duties, a
Kurd was appointed the acting governor.
On
November 1, the Nineveh Provincial Council in majority vote decided to
sack the province’s governor, Nofal Hammadi over alleged corruption and
damaging public property.
However, Hammadi refused to step down and continues to function as the governor of Mosul.
So they actually sacked him in 2017 and he refused to step down? Interesting. You don't suppose he might respond in a similar way today, do you?
So he is again refusing to step down.
Hmm . . .
Oh, they're going to arrest him. Like they did Atheel al-Nujaifi?
If you just asked "who?," then you may be a member of the western press. Atheel was governor of Nineveh. He was sacked. (Replaced with the current governor who refuses to be fired.) And then? Well he's Sunni. So the Shi'ite-based government issued an arrest warrant for him like they do for so many Sunni officials (most infamously with Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi -- Atheel, by the way, is the brother of another Sunni Vice President of Iraq, Osama al-Nujaifi). He was arrested when? Never. All these years later, never.
Arrest warrants are little more than threats in Iraq. For years, the puppet government, at the request of the US government, held one on Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr. The warrant is probably sill around today but it has no legal standing at this point and everyone's long ago grasped that arresting Moqtada would result in rioting and unrest.
Will the arrest warrant be executed on the current I-am-staying governor?
History would indicate "no." However, don't put the Magic 8 Ball down just yet. Adil Abdul-Mahdi isn't have much luck with anything these days, is he?
Like US President Donald Trump, Mahdi likes to pretend that ISIS is over in Iraq. Even though this week saw an attack using suicide bombers (three). It's not over and what it might morph into next is even scarier.
He likes to pretend he can govern. But he still does not have a full Cabinet. More to the point, the security posts of Minister of Defense and Minister of Interior remain vacant. What happened the last time they were vacant? Oh, right, ISIS rose and seized Mosul. He was supposed to have a full Cabinet by the end of October. He did not. He promised it would take place in the next month. Don't know about you, but my calendar shows November to be the next month after October. Then he said it would be in the new year. April is a week away and the posts are still vacant.
He's failed to address corruption. He's failed to address the protests of the people in Basra or anywhere else.
A big for-show arrest might boost his image. So don't rule out an arrest completely.
Let's wind down with this from Burn Pits 360:
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The following community sites updated:
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