As Anti-Trump / Anti-Russia Campaign Fails - Yascha Mounk Feeds New Lies
[Updated at the end (Jul 18, 4:00 am Est)]
The U.S. borg is vehemently trying to set up Russia as an enemy of the "west". Their anti-Russian propaganda has become part of the campaign against U.S. President Trump who seeks détente with Russia. It requires intense efforts to denigrate the country, its citizens and its leaders. Here is an example of how such propaganda is fabricated.
a Lecturer on Political Theory at Harvard University's Government Department, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy of the German Marshall Fund, and a Nonresident Fellow at New America's Political Reform Program.
He is a self declared liberal internationalist who has been published and quoted by lots of international media.
Yesterday Mounk tweeted this:
The Mounk tweet is a series of lies:
Need a reminder of the human cost of dictatorship? All these are journalists who criticized Putin--and died under mysterious circumstances
The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin is dully elected and not a dictator. The Russian Federation may not be a "liberal democracy", but it is a democracy. The picture is old. It shows all Russian journalists who died during their work since 1991. Most of them died as war- or crime-correspondents and were not involved in politics at all. The death of most of those journalists is not mysterious. Getting blown up by artillery during the wars in Chechnya, Yugoslavia or Ukraine is no mystery at all. Most of these journalists never criticize Putin. They were already dead before Putin had any significant political role.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) lists 82 killed Russian journalists since 1992, most of them died due to war or related to civil crimes or corruption. There are about 80 portraits of journalists in the picture Mounk tweeted.
Two recognizable portraits and names therein are of Vlad Listyev, a TV entertainment producer killed in 1995 over some controversy about lucrative advertisement on public TV. Another portrait is of Dmitry Kholodov, killed in 1994 while investigating mafia connections within the Russian military. At the time of their death Putin was a minor bureaucrat in Saint Petersburg. He did not gain power until he became acting president at the end of 1999.
According to the CPJ numbers more Russian journalists were killed during the eight years of Yeltsin's presidency (1992-2000) than in the 17 years of Putin's presidencies since. Mounk claims "All these are journalists who criticized Putin ..." when more than half of them were already dead before Putin became known and to power. It was during the time of the "Harvard boys" who robbed Russia blind that most of these journalist were killed. The Russian system, thanks to the Harvard driven "reforms" and criminal privatization under Yeltsin, is a rough terrain for investigating oligarchs and mafia businesses. But there is no evidence, none at all, that Putin was ever involved in the decease of any journalist.
The first original publishing of the Mounk picture may have been as early as 2009. A piece on journalists remembrance in Russia from 2014 already includes the pic. The reverse image search shows that the picture has been has been used by several news-outlets since.
Every aspect of the Mounk tweet is a lie.
But Mounk's lies have by now been re-tweeted over 22,000 times. Many of those who see it will believe the claims he makes. They will trust a widely publish Harvard academic. But the tweet, as well as nearly all other claims about Russia one sees in "western" media, is pure propaganda. It is like the editorial in today's New York Times that claims "Russia’s oil-dependent economy [is] in trouble" while all Russian economic numbers turned positive and all indicators point to accelerating growth. It is fake news.
The anti-Russian propaganda campaign is now part of the "liberal" campaign against U.S. president Trump. It is failing. Trump's support is steady if not increasing despite daily new revelation about his (non existent) "collusion with Russia" and the (non existing) "Russian interference" in the U.S. election.
The purveyors of the propaganda stories are in despair. Each and every new fire they try to stoke dies off within a day or two. The temptation then is to invent and push ever bigger lies about Trump, Russia and their non-existing connections.
The fake news Mounk spits out, and which disqualify him as an academic, is a sign of their accelerating panic.
Update:
1. Someone translated the above piece into French: Alors que la campagne anti-Trump / anti-Russie échoue – Yascha Mounk raconte de nouveaux mensonges
2. Mark Ames, who then worked as muckraking journalist in Moscow, adds some information about two of the journalists who's death Mounk blames on Putin:
Kholodov [was] killed investigating Yeltsin's Defense Minister; Yeltsin financier Berezovsky suspected in Listyev murder
"Harvard boys" like Mounk were lauding Yeltsin for allowing them to rape Russia. The two journalists were killed for working against the outright thievery. As Yeltsin's successor Putin no longer goes with the program, Harvard scholar Mounks now blames their death on him. That is a quite brazen disregard of any academic standard.
Posted by b on July 16, 2017 at 15:06 UTC | Permalink
amerika is a failed state. if you have a marketable skill move to canada. get out now. and dont look back.
Posted by: bob | Jul 16 2017 15:44 utc | 2
Judging by the comments in "Professor" Mounk's Twitter feed, the vast majority are pretty much wise to the deception. Whether this holds for the retweets I don't know. But I'm pretty sure we are witnessing the decay of the establishment.
Posted by: lysander | Jul 16 2017 16:00 utc | 3
Reminder these journalists and academics are so evil they actually want to repeal and replace the historic American nation with a variety of mystery meat immigration (invasion).
Posted by: Lemur | Jul 16 2017 16:12 utc | 4
Here is the best discussion of the Trump Jr. nonsense available: https://necpluribusimpar.net/trumps-collusion-russia-add-nothing-nothing-get-still-nothing/
Lemoine (http://www.twitter.com/phl43) destroys the liberal media bullshit narrative piece by piece. I haven't found a more thorough discussion anywhere else online. It's well worth reading just for its clarity and strength of argumentation.
Posted by: Anon | Jul 16 2017 16:13 utc | 5
There are journalists killed during the 1980's in that room, too. Here is a higher resolution version:
http://newsprom.ru/i/n/845/205845/tn_205845_12517dfa330f.jpg
Apart from the two you mentioned, you can make out several other names right off the bat, like Soviet journalist Alexander Kaverznev who died in 1983 and Gennadiy Kurennoy who died together with colleague and fellow Gosteleradio SSSR journalist Viktor Nogin in an armed ambush in Yugoslavia, during the war in 1991. Also visible is Andrey Pralnikov, who died in 1997 after finally succumbing to radiation injuries he sustained in 1986 during his on-site coverage of the Chernobyl accident (he wrote a book about, too).
In short, the portraits in that room are just Soviet and Russian journalists that have died on the job, regardless of how these deaths occured, and it goes back to the 1980s at least. Quite obviously, of the actual violence-related deaths the vast majority are from the 1990's, since there's been a rather dramatic downwards trend since Putin assumed office.
On his blog (I don't know if it's still up) Fedia Kriukov did an in-depth assessment of the cases post-2000 (i.e. the ones actually "under Putin") and found that several had nothing to do with the journalists' professional activities, but were just the results of them dealing with the criminal underworld themselves, some were the results of violence not targeting them but targeting people they happened to be covering at the time (e.g. Scott in 2002 and Khasanov in 2004), some were just pure bad luck, and out of the very few that actually were clear targeted killings it always had to do with organized crime (Domnikov, Politovskaya, Klebnikov).
And this is where the aforementioned downwards trend comes in, because the only correlation between journalists being murdered and the Putin period is strongly negative, and the reason is that the chief cause of investigative journalists being murdered - rampant organized crime and corrupted local law enforcement and officials - has been tackled rather successfully since 2000.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 16 2017 16:20 utc | 6
Illuminating how widely quoted and passed on is the rubbish of Yascha Mounk, and 'et al'. What does this say about the publications and outlets that give such dishonesty a megaphone? They must lose credibility.
Paul Craig Roberts has written at various times words to the effect that just about all public and private institutions in the US are now corrupt. It's hard to find examples that refute that thesis.
I interpret PCR's words to at core mean that dishonesty, including evil omission, is now in the United States pervasive, normalized, institutionalized, 'mandatory' for those who want to remain 'gainfully employed' or accepted by those institutions.
That famous quote often identified with Orwell "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act" is the opposite side of that same coin.
This culture of bs is of course much broader than the US. We have the now famous confession by Udo Ulfkotte that much German media is corrupt, CIA controlled, bought and paid for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1lWKyRI10w
Another obscure but telling example: we have in Canada a book by Dr. Chopra titled 'Corrupt to the Core', detailing the situation at Health Canada during Chopra's long employment there.
And the WHO has been a snake in the grass for example when it comes to radioactivity and human health, for two generations allowing the nuclear powers that in effect act as censoring and misleading gatekeepers for material on that subject emanating from the WHO.
http://mondediplo.com/2008/04/14who
Perhaps I am engaging in wishfukl thinking but it seems to me we are seeing more and more signs of the breakdown of that systematic and comprehensive dishonesty machine that has infiltrated so many institutions and required and rewarded dishonesty in so many people? And along with that breakdown, the declining power of even so-called 'distinguished' institutions to wield power on behalf of lies. The 'appeal to whatever authority' seems to be losing much of its previous punch.
The recent increase in disclosures and public awareness of institutionalized pedo-predation is an example. Trump's election in the face of an unprecedented media and elite hostility, and extreme by same support for Clinton, to me suggests there is more than just a leak in the disgusting dike sustaining dishonesty as default position.
And when it comes to Putin, his popularity not just in Russia has been sustained or even grown in the face of an extreme mass media demonization effort.
The process puts me in mind of that scene from the Wizard of Oz where the wicked Witch is melting away, truth/water as deadly nemesis.
Posted by: Robert Snefjella | Jul 16 2017 16:29 utc | 7
so this is what Harvard has to offer. and to think having a Harvard education used to mean something.
two are the choices here, either malice or incompetence. I want to believe it is merely because he is incurious and is getting enough positive feedback from his echo chamber but fear he knows full well what he is doing.
What is the endgame? How will rotten relations with Russia improve the lives of US citizens? If not the general population, then who stands to gain?
Posted by: dan of steele | Jul 16 2017 16:40 utc | 8
Hit these academic thugs where it hurts. Cut off their funding. The main reason they do this lying is because it pays. If the only reward was doing the right thing or speaking truth, then this Harvard Hack wouldn't be bothered. So, no tenure for you buddy. No nothing. Now go write your head off.
Posted by: Robert McMaster | Jul 16 2017 16:53 utc | 9
List of assassinated American politicians
Nothing like good old cold war propaganda. Ah the memories ....
Has Putin stopped talking about "our American partners" yet?
Posted by: somebody | Jul 16 2017 16:58 utc | 10
Thanks to the commenter above for sharing my post and for the nice words he had about it. People here may also be interested in the 3-part series of posts I wrote about the attack in Khan Sheikhoun. The first part is here and there are links to the other parts at the bottom of the post. I think it's the most thorough discussion of this attack, but I also discuss other similar incidents. I carefully document a shocking amount of bias and incompetence on the part of journalists. I also wrote a 4-part series of posts on this whole Russia/Trump nonsense back in February, which I think is still very relevant today. The first part is here.
Posted by: Philippe Lemoine | Jul 16 2017 17:07 utc | 11
thanks b... fascinating how a guy from harvard is oblivious to harvards historical role here in the phase of ripping off russia during and after the transition in 1991... great quote from you here - "It was during the time of the "Harvard boys" who robbed Russia blind that most of these journalist were killed. The Russian system, thanks to the Harvard driven "reforms" and criminal privatization under Yeltsin, is a rough terrain for investigating oligarchs and mafia businesses." why would this dipshit Yascha Mounk say all this? who pays him to lie? he is completely discredited here.. someone ought to send him a link to your article so he can see what an ignoramus or con man (it is one of the other) he really is..
Posted by: james | Jul 16 2017 17:25 utc | 12
The Mythbusters motto was:
"If a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing."
Considering that Mythbusters were in the business of exposing and/or confirming popular myths & memes, the "overdoing" aspect was typically confined to exploring the limits to which the counter argument might prove to be valid.
The derision which the program attracted from edu-phobic 'purists' was regularly discredited by fulsome praise from scientists who pointed out that Mythbusters' exploration of the counter-argument demonstrated text-book faithfulness to The Scientific Method.
I'd love to hear what Mounk tells himself in order to anesthetise his conscience when embracing The Un-scientific Method to spread infantile, un-researched crap in the name of Harvard, Science and Mounk?
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 16 2017 17:29 utc | 13
Yascha Mounk's book is titled, Stranger in my own country - a Jewish family in modern Germany.
Posted by: Tim | Jul 16 2017 17:30 utc | 14
Nice to see at least one US Journalist take on and destroy two prominent Neocons. Here Tucker Carlson takes on Lt Col Ralph Peters and Max Boot. http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2017/07/13/tucker-carlson-neocon-slayer/
Posted by: harrylaw | Jul 16 2017 17:45 utc | 15
The Corporate Media is owned by 6 corporations as a result of (liberal?) Bill Clinton admin enacting Republican (with Democrat Complicity) "Media Consolidation" aka monopolies.
One Media owner is GE which also manufactures aircraft engines and weaponry and seeks government contracts for same.
Liberal? ideals regularly featured are "Austerity For the Commons" and Tax Cuts for the rich with "Trickle Down" as the prevailing economic model for the past 40 years. And warmongering.
The MSM has never openly opposed any US war and it has, in fact, provided justification for all US invasions.
Liberal - Conservative labeling is a tool to divide the commons.
Posted by: fast freddy | Jul 16 2017 17:56 utc | 16
The Corporate Media is owned by 6 corporations as a result of (liberal?) Bill Clinton admin enacting Republican (with Democrat Complicity) "Media Consolidation" aka monopolies.
One Media owner is GE which also manufactures aircraft engines and weaponry and seeks government contracts for same.
Liberal? ideals regularly featured are "Austerity For the Commons" and Tax Cuts for the rich with "Trickle Down" as the prevailing economic model for the past 40 years. And warmongering.
The MSM has never openly opposed any US war and it has, in fact, provided justification for all US invasions.
Liberal - Conservative labeling is a tool to divide the commons.
Posted by: fast freddy | Jul 16 2017 17:56 utc | 17
Meanwhile the list of those killed directly by the USG in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Syria. Or indirectly by arming the murderers of the Yemeni, Ukraine and on and on and on, whose names we don't and may never know. "Their name is Legion". He's a bullshit academic who should participate in the wars he wants others to fight to prove 'his theory'.. He can put his own skin in the game.
Posted by: stevelaudig | Jul 16 2017 18:02 utc | 18
It is worth noting that 10 journalists and media persons have been killed in the Ukraine since the glorious revolution in 2014 against only 2 in Russia over the same period. This of cause is of zero interest to the western MSM.
Posted by: Sven Lystbak | Jul 16 2017 18:23 utc | 19
The WSJ held an interview with Peter W. Smith and published an article by Shane Harris on June 29 titled "GOP Operative Sought Clinton Emails From Hackers, Implied a Connection to Flynn".
○ Peter Smith Tapped Alt-Right to Access Dark Net
Charles C. Johnson said he also suggested that Smith get in touch with Andrew Auernheimer, a hacker who goes by the alias 'Weev' and has collaborated with Johnson in the past. Auernheimer--who was released from federal prison in 2014 after having a conviction for fraud and hacking offenses vacated [on appeal - May 2014] and subsequently moved to Ukraine.
See Part 1 - GOP Operative Peter Smith's Death Ruled A Suicide
The conflict is not between Russia and the West. It is not even between the West and the East. It is between Modernity and Post-Modernity.
- Russia, secular Arab Socialist Syria, and Trump present Modernity.
- The War Party, Identity politics, transsexualism, ISIS, and The Resistance present Post-Modernity.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jul 16 2017 18:38 utc | 22
@ 12
Interesting article on the subject :
How Harvard Lost Russia.
The best and brightest of America's premier university came to Moscow in the 1990s to teach Russians how to be capitalists. This is the inside story of how their efforts led to scandal and disgrace.
Posted by: mh505 | Jul 16 2017 18:42 utc | 23
American lies should be put in context. The USA is a dying country, that is all but unmanageable, in the midst of its second Civil War (fought mostly in the media now, but the erosion of country's national fabric is immense and keeps worsening). In such circumstances, finding external enemy in order to redirect the destructive energy outward is simply a matter of national survival. That's why we have the anti-Russia frenzy. It'll fail because Russia is militarily unassailable, and because continuing with the campaign is not only not helping with the domestic politics, but is scrambling America's geopolitical calculations. It's a geopolitical dead-end.
All in all, what we are seeing in the US is a full-scale panic of the establishment, with the MSM arm simply putting it all out there, no matter how preposterous or inaccurate, in a desperate bid to salvage something that is fundamentally unsalvageable.
That's how great countries fracture and disappear. It' ugly, and will only get uglier.
Posted by: telescope | Jul 16 2017 18:45 utc | 24
@16 fastfreddy.. yeah, that is worth repeating...
@ 23 mh505... thanks.. that is a good link for getting a better understanding.. i wonder how Yascha Mounk perceives all this? surely he can't be ignorant of it.. is someone paying him for his propaganda? what a waste of money it is!!!
Posted by: james | Jul 16 2017 19:17 utc | 26
Also another thing (I'm #6) again...
So, going back to the photo. There are 8 chairs/portraits in each row, and about 10 rows, so that's roughly 80 people affiliated with journalism that have died one way or another that might or might not be connected to their work, in 37 years (if we just assume it starts at 1980, seeing as there is a 1983 case in direct view...)
Considering that we clearly have journalists that have died while reporting from combat zones (see my earlier comment) as well as journalists that have died due to injuries received while reporting from dangerous "civilian" situations, it all comes across as pretty unremarkable.
Mind you, between 1980 and 1991, the USSR was a country of nearly 300 million people, and the Russian Federation has been hovering in the 140-150 ballpark since 1991.
Mind you, that the USSR was getting increasingly lawless towards the end, and pretty much all successor states were in a state of anarchy for at least a couple of years past the Soviet demise (some longer than others, Russia longer than most thanks to Yeltsin and the total carnage that the West supported)
Mind you that multiple armed conflicts occured during this time, both domestically (Chechnya 1 and 2 for instance, in which a number of journalists were injured or killed) and in the near-abroad (the Georgian/Abkhazian/Ossetian/Ajaran conflicts, the Azeri-Armenian conflicts, the numerous Central Asian conflicts, the the brief Moldovan warm, the Yugoslav wars etc)
...All things considered, 80 journalists dead over all this time is nothing compared to say Mexico. And Russia's also known to have way more journalists per capita than most countries, which further adds to how underwhelming these statistics really are. The final nail in the coffin is, of course, that all these scary statistics sank like a rock after Putin took office and Russia has never been as peaceful, free and civilized as it is right now. But we've been through that.
Somebody should compile all the relevant information on this and make a glossy report, to be honest. I mean, it's all out there, it's just that they get away with outright lying about it because people don't bother doing any research on their own and they know it.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 16 2017 19:49 utc | 28
@ 26 james
You can be entirely certain that the guy does not believe his own drivel. But: he may lose his job otherwise, which some would consider attenuating circumstances.
To me, he is not the worst among those Harvard boys. A hypocrite of a much higher magnitude has to be Jeffrey Sachs, who was among the most diligent drivers behind the destruction of post-communist Russia; yet today acts as if he never was even there. A Saulus turned Paulus, except no atonement in any way
Posted by: mh505 | Jul 16 2017 20:03 utc | 29
Did a Google News search on Yascha Mounk.
First, his publicity is based on some fairly bogus research on "millenials abandoning democracy". The WaPo ran a decent article discrediting it, worth noting since the guy seems to have a taste for spinning data for political reasons:
. . .scary-chart-about-the-future-of-democracy-is-pretty-misleading/
Second, he calls for a "Cold War mentality", putting him in with the likes of Clinton & McCain & Bush-Cheney, Gary Kasparov, etc. It's pretty boilerplate neocon/neolib thinking, here's a taste:
It’s time to return to a Cold War mentality
By Yascha Mounk, Slate Mar 2017
Two years ago, when Garry Kasparov, the chess champion turned political dissident, began to warn that Vladimir Putin sought to undermine liberal democracy—not only in neighboring countries, but all over the West—he was widely written off as a crank. After Russia managed to hack the servers of the Democratic National Committee and spread fake news on an industrial scale, his warnings were finally recognized as all too prescient. But it is only over the past weeks, as journalists around the world have broken dozens of stories about Russian meddling in the democratic process, that the sheer scale of this effort has become apparent.
The last time there was such a massive PR push inside the USA on a foreign policy issue was during the 2002-2003 runup to the Iraq invasion, based on an equally bogus story as the Russia bogeyman one, i.e. Iraqi WMDs.
The fact is, a multipolar world without "American exceptionalism" will be a better deal for the average American citizen, if not for the Washington circle of trough-feeders. This is a basic truth that the neoliberal empire-builders just can't handle. Of course, the big academic institutions are on board with endless military-industrial budgets, NATO expansion, regime change. Just as academic institutions in the old Soviet Union always went along with Central Committee PR lines.
On the other hand, on domestic policy? If you look into details, Clinton and Trump are not so different here - basically it's corporate rule, Trump and Clinton have similar numbers of Goldman Sachs people on their teams. Equally disastrous policies on the fundamentals like infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, etc. We'd be better off just giving our tax dollars to China to have them rebuild our infrastructure, it's that pitiful.
Maybe Trump should just spend the next four years abroad, running around with world leaders having a good time, ignoring all the neoliberal establishment pleas for regime changes and NATO wars, completely ignoring the domestic situation? The corrupt federal government in Washington can fight itself to death, and the states can run domestic policy instead?
Posted by: nonsense factory | Jul 16 2017 20:16 utc | 30
A good example for "whataboutery" is the constant worry about the health of democracy in Venezuela, and none about Colombia. In the last 5 years, Committee to Protect Journalists identified 5 murders of journalists in Colombia, and 1 in Venezuela. And that does not count journalists the who were intimidated into exile (by very credible death threats).
Russia in the same time is at par with Ukraine where a spate of murders followed --- you have guessed it --- "Maidan revolution" (keep in mind three times smaller population in Ukraine).
It seems that the record total for the last decade is in Philippines, where 47 journalists were murdered, 33 of them in a single massacre (but even without that massacre it may hold world's record, it is hard to tell without a good spreadsheet.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 16 2017 20:32 utc | 31
When a storyline's created, it must be fleshed out so it becomes believable. The storyline starring Russia was begun long ago prior to the Communist Revolution when the UK battled Russia in The Great Game. Parts of it were picked up for domestic use within the Outlaw US Empire, particularly immigrants from there not fitting in because of numerous factors, primarily anarchism and socialism. And vilification of Russia has snowballed ever since, spurred on mightily by the, at times, very intense Anti-Communist Crusade--Think of the morals within a society promoting the idea it's better to be Dead than Red and the intellectual force needed to make that sentiment mainstream. It's actually much worse when you know/discover what that idea was built upon. That The Outlaw US Empire championed itself as the Moral Leader of the Planet is perhaps the Biggest Lie of All Time given the nature of its extremely violent homegrown behavior and associated justificational immorality.
Instead of it being "The Ugly American," it ought to have been--and still most certainly is--Ugly America. Mounk is yet another two-bit actor amongst thousands that came before him. That such monsters are given prominent platforms to spew their vile storyline in-sync with government propaganda is a very powerful argument to prove the Outlaw US Empire is now and has always been an oligarchy opposite in its nature to the Liberal Democracy it touts itself as. And this isn't anything new since numerous books explore the subject to deprogram and educate the citizenry. Unfortunately, nowhere near enough citizens know the true story of their own nation in all its ugly blood-soaked gore.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 16 2017 20:45 utc | 32
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 16, 2017 4:45:48 PM | 32
Actually, the guy is German ....
Posted by: somebody | Jul 16 2017 20:57 utc | 33
b, once again: thanks for your work. At times it may seem futile to argument against the kind of wide-spread lies that you debunk. But if one chooses to contradict mainstream lies, he can rely on your work and just link to the facts. This is very valuable. There are many comment sections attached to mainstream news sites and being able to just link to your articles is a great thing to have.
Posted by: radiator | Jul 16 2017 21:00 utc | 34
Anonymous @ 28
Good point about the journalists killed in Mexico!
Covert US policy has been to consolidate the Mexican drug cartels into one organization so it could be dealt with as just another corporation, not unlike the AMA physicians creating over 50 million oxycodone addicts. Here is a List of about 200 Journalists killed in Mexico during the drug war since 2007:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_and_media_workers_killed_in_Mexico
To be fair the wildcat tapping of PEMEX pipelines have recently created a massive war between the cartels, independent operators and the Mexican army. Thus far the Mexican army is outgunned and poorer trained than the cartel soldiers. In addition, the cartels pay well for those US trained Mexican soldiers to switch sides.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-oil-theft-from-pipelines.
Posted by: Krollchem | Jul 16 2017 22:04 utc | 36
somebody @33--
Once somebody becomes a servant of Empire, it no longer matters what their ethnic heritage is; although, it can impact the virulence of the person's lies, as we see with Canadians of Ukrainian descent. In that one sense, the Outlaw US Empire is a melting pot. One sells one's soul to the Imperial Devil. As with The Borg--they get assimilated. Colin Powell is African/American as is Barak Obama, but they're no different from their Anglo-Zionist peers.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 16 2017 22:15 utc | 37
Yascha Mounk will never report that the second most dangerous place for journalists is Israel (after Mexico) when one adds in uncounted Palestinian journalists. It is very hard to obtain a list of journalists killed by the Israeli military given the controlled US press:
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-worlds-second-most-lethal-country-journalists-2014-watchdog-says
Posted by: Krollchem | Jul 16 2017 22:18 utc | 38
By contrast, most American so-called journalists are perfectly safe as long as they remain stenographers for the PTB. Just don't even think about stepping out of line like Michael Hastings had apparently been thinking.
Posted by: fast freddy | Jul 16 2017 23:57 utc | 39
Hypocrisy knows no limits:
Wikipedia has an attenuated list of journalists killed in the United States. Attenuated, as in for example apparently Michael Hastings was either not a journalist or was not murdered in a standard manner, since he is missing from the list. He was just about to tell a big dangerous story, and was assassinated by his exploding vehicle, which can hardly be deemed murder, cars being ethically neutral, more or less.
However, if one expands the category to include other Americans who died while about to reveal important forbidden information the list grows long, very long: for example, death via having crossed the Clintons ("Klaus Eberwein was a former Haitian government official who was expected to expose the extent of Clinton Foundation corruption and malpractice next week. He has been found dead in Miami at the age of 50."http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-16/haiti-official-who-exposed-clinton-foundation-found-dead )
or Andrew Breitbart after having tweeted "How prog-guru John Podesta isn't household name as world class underage sex slave op cover-upperer defending unspeakable dregs escapes me."
or suicided folk like Vince Foster
( https://www.amazon.ca/Strange-Death-Vincent-Foster-Investigation/dp/074324253X )
or murder-esque end of notables like CIA's William Colby,
or mysterious uncanny deaths relating to 9/11 ( https://wearechange.org/mysterious-911-witness-deaths/ )
or the multiple gunshot murder via 'official suicide' of upstanding Terry Yeakey re the Oklahoma City false flag atrocity,
or Seth Rich,
or let us cast our minds back to the whistleblower Karen Silkwood, silenced; and the very many 'mysterious' deaths subsequent to the JFK coup.
And then turning to the planet outside the United States, how many courageous common voices or journalistic voices have been murdered directly or by proxy by the Empire? "The Arab satellite television channel al-Jazeera is to pull its reporters out of Iraq after one of them was killed during a US air raid on Baghdad."
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/apr/09/pressandpublishing.Iraqandthemedia
Posted by: Robert Snefjella | Jul 17 2017 1:13 utc | 40
Who the fuck is Yasha Mounk?
Sorry for interrupting the circle jerk.
Posted by: peter | Jul 17 2017 1:56 utc | 41
Russia is perhaps not "free speech paradise" (in particular, geographically it is no closer to Heavens than USA), but it is interesting to compare "harrowing stories". Some of the worst atrocities are not performed by central governments, but by local strongmen who are "empowered" by the central government in part because it has limited ability to rule without them. Mount cites this story:
7) And read some of the harrowing reports about the state of affairs in Russia. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/world/europe/moscow-kremlin-silence-critics-poison.html …
A journalist who reported on police corruption has been killed in the Russian city of Minusinsk.
Dmitry Popkov, editor-in-chief for local newspaper Ton-M, was found dead in a traditional Russian bathhouse close to his home, the Sreda 24 news outlet reported. Police found several gunshot wounds on the 42-year-old's body.
======
I guess, everybody knows where Minusink because of famous archaeological discoveries in its area. Nevertheless, it is a bit remote place from Moscow perspective, ca. 2200 miles away, and a rather middling city at that. Popkov was an opponent of the mayor and was removed few years ago from the city council because of some criminal charges that he claims were made up. Apparently he "did not give up a fight" but created a newspaper, as we may expect to happen under a dictatorship. Then his death was reported my Times of Moscow that are edited not in Moscow, Idaho but in Moscow, Russia, again, under a dictatorship. I get the impression that the "independent press" lacks popularity in Russia because, well, an insufficient number of people finds it interesting, but it surely exists, both in the capital and in "the provinces". So NYT slaps the the title "Kremlin silences critics" on events that are very weakly related to Kremlin.
But surely, if Kremlin were opposed to police corruption it would cease to exists! As we see signs of corrupt, even murderous behavior, we can conclude the malevolence of the federation government. QED!!
However, such conclusions are not postulated in the case of horrific massacres that are most plausibly perpetrated by local authorities in Philippines and Mexico. And in USA, we can read in the same NYT (and more in The Guardian that more eagerly depicts the barbaric state of the rebellious colonies) about cases of murderous behavior of local police that was tacitly approved by Department of Justice under Obama. In most cases the policy was not to do anything, presumably because near impossibility of achieving positive results and political troubles that would ensue. And to compare again, Trump is simply enthusiastic about police brutality -- because it gains votes.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 17 2017 2:32 utc | 42
Maybe someone could tweet a picture of US Soldiers returning in flag-draped caskets with a similar derogatory caption.
Posted by: stumpy | Jul 17 2017 4:05 utc | 43
The person in the third row, second from the right, is Alexander Sidelnikov, (Александр СИДЕЛЬНИКОВ), who was killed in 1993 (the same photo of him is used here, and it gives the circumstances of his death: https://rorypecktrust.org/about/we-remember#Alexander-Sidelnikov ).
This article covers what was going on at the time:
Sidelnikov was one of the people who died in the conflict between the Yeltsin government and the Communists. It is highly doubtful that Putin was responsible for Sidelnikov's death.
Posted by: Daver | Jul 17 2017 5:02 utc | 44
@29 mh505.. jeffery sachs looks like a bernie madoff type, prior to the mask coming off... wonder if someone call pull it off and do everyone a favour?
Posted by: james | Jul 17 2017 6:34 utc | 45
Thanks Philippe for your good articles. And Moon of Alabama for same. First time poster but it's a bit encouraging to find that there's some very, very, very good push-back against the US government/MSM narratives. Unfortunately at current 90% of MSM pundits/faces seem to be Judith Miller clones*. And sadly few are paying attention to alternative media/narratives (which are more factual) so I'm heavily reminded of that time in '03. When I guess the likes of Scott Ritter and Mohamed ElBaradei were seen as irrelevant. It's even worse now. If those two had broke against the propaganda wave, a thousand articles would be written about them being seen together with an Iraqi slightly connected to Saddam.
Lessons don't seem to be learned by a lot of groups: Well, lessons learned by the MIC is that this is another opportunity to wage reckless war and destablize things; that group has won big-time. But more damning are lessons not learned by the MSM (either didn't learn it or are wilfullly ignorant), and the public (either ignorant, or if given facts, don't give a shit about things such as say, a current genocide in Yemen, or too damned poor and working too many hours to even think about or able to really get into the nitty-gritty about what their country does overseas while using every hour of their lives working or cooking or providing.)
I wonder if there's a causative correlation between poverty, ignorance, and US/MSM propaganda.
*As in any transition from one party's President to the next, the silver lining is in seeing who actually is objective/cares about something, and who is simply a tribalist. One obvious person this has exposed so far in this cycle is Rachel Maddow. Perhaps the "Judith Miller" example of this current insane MSM.
Not that I claim Trump's hands are clean just as an argument against the current media blitz. He could've been doing some crime (yet really, unmentioned actually, and specifically) with Russia/Putin. And sure, Saddam could've had WMDs. But both would be coincidental facts unrelated to the fact-free parades of BS that justified war on Iraq, and now impeaching Trump (who is an utter piece of shit, as was Saddam, imo).
Bring indict or war based on proven things. Not based on throwing darts on a board and seeing what types of BS sticks. Not be death of a thousand BS cuts. There's one thing that doesn't change per cycle--the MSM utterly failing and sucking. Thanks for folks like you who stick to the same logic and principles no matter who's Head Tribalist.
Posted by: Soft Asylum | Jul 17 2017 6:45 utc | 46
Soft Asylum | Jul 17, 2017 2:45:08 AM | 46
The difference between then (Iraq/WMD) and now, is Russia is back in the game.
Posted by: Peter AU | Jul 17 2017 6:54 utc | 47
Let's also say a picture was posted of Berta Carceras alone in a chair (of course, not the only environmentalist to die there). That would more properly indict and be currently relevant as to who has killed or helped to kill than this mush. Guess Sanders should've done that.
https://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/4/remembering_berta_caceres_assassinated_honduras_indigenous
Not that I advocate Democracy Now as objective, but this is simply a transcript.
Posted by: Soft Asylum | Jul 17 2017 7:28 utc | 48
Thanks Peter, that's a good point. An actual (nuclear powered) wall against US imperialism. Stymied now in Syria.
What are the PNAC's to do after this? They tried to turn MEK/Maryam Rajavi into their new go-go Iran opposition, ala Chalabi. No Iranian obviously buys that, and MEK is even more vulnerable to even a few objective media folks re "WTF" than Chalabi was. Haven't seen much media presentation of "those poor MEK souls only seeking to bring democracy to Iran" (thank god.)
Hopefully Assad, shit that he may be, wins, and this still foolhardy trillions dollar domino game (not of course for democracy) fails. And hopefully without all these ridiculous "concessions" about dividing that territory. Including of course the Kurds. Sold out and used by the US since 1990 along with the marsh Arabs.
Why do Kurds keep being puppets to higher powers which don't give a shit about them? Well, desperation might be a reason, but aside from Saddam the Kurds in their area haven't actually faced much atrocities (aside from occasional Turk bombing etc.)
They already (I may be ignorant) have a de facto state. Which I think decades of actions makes it obvious neither Turkey, the US, Iraq, etc. would ever want them to have an actual political state. They've hoped for a generation at least, an active generation, and a complicit generation in whatever their hoped-state desired.
Posted by: Soft Asylum | Jul 17 2017 7:42 utc | 49
Meanwhile, another western MSM disinformation lie gets busted:
CNN Caught Faking News Again: Now It's The UAE, Not Russia, Who "Hacked" Qatar
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-16/cnn-caught-faking-news-again-us-intel-accuses-uae-not-russia-orchestrating-qatari-ha
Posted by: Anon | Jul 17 2017 9:57 utc | 50
peter says:
Who the fuck is Yasha Mounk?
Sorry for interrupting the circle jerk
since you obviously didn't read the post one must assume that the circle jerk is the only reason you're here...
which makes your apology disingenuous.
Posted by: john | Jul 17 2017 10:03 utc | 51
It appears there is a new fashion trend emerging. CBS's "warzone" reporter, Richard Engel, produced, as part of a series on Russia, the following section: "Alarming pattern of Russian political deaths". The narrative is quite predictable, but the presentation rather alarming. In citing a piece of research, "...in just the last three years more than FORTY people, critics, untrustworthy insiders, and those who just knew too much about what happens inside the Kremlin, had been murdered, or died in mysterious circumstances.", a collage with faces of the proposed victims is progressively introduced. Very soon, top-right of the collage, the face of Vitaly Churkin (former Russian Permanent Representative to the UN), can be clearly seen. Of course, in line with the fashion trend, there is no need on the part of CBS (nor Engel) to explain how he was murdered, or alternatively, the exact nature of the "mysteriousness" of his death. Putindidit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCx9_c8fS48
(the collage is at 01:50)
Posted by: etienne marais | Jul 17 2017 11:52 utc | 52
etienne marais | Jul 17, 2017 7:52:38 AM | 52
The one thing the U.S. deep state is good at is psyops dis-information.
The remedy is to be stridently informed of the facts.
Yes, it's a hell of a lot of work, but well worth the effort.
To know is to be free; to be ignorant is to be a slave...
Posted by: V. Arnold | Jul 17 2017 12:38 utc | 53
I would pay good money to watch b demolish one of these neocons in a debate.
Posted by: Morongobill | Jul 17 2017 13:34 utc | 54
@50 anon
So Tillerson spends four days in the Middle East attempting to resolve the so-called Qatar crisis with no discernable results, a crisis precipitated by boy wonder Kushner’s insertion into affairs of the State Dept.. Coincidentally, a couple of days later an article appears in the ‘Pravda on the Potomac’ (as in organ of the state), offering a counter-narrative to the original ‘the Ruskies did it’ story, implicating the UAE.
Are we perhaps seeing a tactical move by the State Dept to not only pressure the UAE, but to more broadly undermine the Kushner led (read Israel) policy realignment in the mid-east.
from the Washington Post article:
“Officials became aware last week that newly analyzed information gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed that on May 23, senior members of the UAE government discussed the plan and its implementation. The officials said it remains unclear whether the UAE carried out the hacks itself or contracted to have them done. The false reports said that the emir, among other things, had called Iran an “Islamic power” and praised Hamas.”
snip
“Intelligence officials said their working theory since the Qatar hacks has been that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt or some combination of those countries were involved. It remains unclear whether the others also participated in the plan. “
One prominent player of this unholy alliance seems to be conspicuously absent, that being Israel which has been instrumental in setting this agenda (via Kushner) and whose hacking skills have been honed from years of practice in the US. Recently hacked e-mails reveal close co-ordination between Yousef Al-Otaiba of the UAE and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a so-called think tank, funded by pro-Israel billionaire Sheldon Adelson and others, all allies of Netanyahu
(ThinkProgress concluded, "Most of the major donors are active philanthropists to 'pro-Israel' causes both in the U.S. and internationally. With the disclosure of its donor rolls, it becomes increasingly apparent that FDD’s advocacy of U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, its hawkish stance against Iran, and its defense of right-wing Israeli policy is consistent with its donors’ interests in 'pro-Israel' advocacy".)
Hacked Emails Show Top UAE Diplomat Coordinating With Pro-Israel Think Tank Against Iran
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/03/hacked-emails-show-top-uae-diplomat-coordinating-with-pro-israel-neocon-think-tank-against-iran/
Israel and the Gulf monarchies have grown closer in recent years, … But admissions of the alliance between the two are still rare in public. One high-level Israeli official, discussing the relationship … laid out the politics of it. “Israel and the Arabs standing together is the ultimate ace in the hole. Because it takes it out of the politics and the ideology. When Israel and the Arab states are standing together, it’s powerful,” .
snip
“The hacked emails demonstrate a remarkable level of backchannel cooperation between a leading neoconservative think tank (FDD) …and a Gulf monarchy (UAE).”
snip
“Otaiba has also developed a close relationship … Jared Kushner. … A Politico article last February described Kushner as “in almost constant phone and email contact” with the ambassador.
So if this is indeed a move by Tillerson against Kushner in regard to Middle East policy, he is simultaneously threatening to derail a carefully crafted agenda involving the realignment of Israel vis-à-vis Sunni Arab countries. Absent Kushner’s ouster from the White House (re: Russiagate), Tillerson is the proverbial ’dead man walking’.
(As an aside, there is also the coincidence of ‘the Ruskies did it’ story originally being reported as a CNN Exclusive. CNN president Jeff Zucker just happens to have strong ties to Israel and also seems to be buddies with none other than boy wonder Kushner himself. (Zucker attended Kushner’s wedding to Ivanka Trump in 2009, and has had lunch with him on numerous occasions.))
Posted by: pantaraxia | Jul 17 2017 14:33 utc | 55
Well, well... the plot thickens as is said. Robert Parry has published what I'd call a Scoop that shines a vastly different light on this whole affair that nobody's yet discussed. His article can be read here, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47444.htm
Simply put, the Magnitsky Act was paid for by a rich criminal and adopted by the Deep State as a tool to use against Russia.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 17 2017 15:00 utc | 56
@52
MSM Topics: Red Scare, Evil Russia, Election hacking, Evil Putin, Dead Russian dissidents.
American Mainstream Media followers (majority of Americans) are believing all this and more.
Many are fearful. Fear-mongering (& war-mongering) are chief goals.
Richard Engel's star has risen. He's as credible to gullible viewers as Dan Rather was in his glory days. (Which is to say - completely full of shit.)
@55 Tillerson may be stepping down sooner rather than later.
Posted by: fast freddy | Jul 17 2017 15:21 utc | 57
@52
MSM Topics: Red Scare, Evil Russia, Election hacking, Evil Putin, Dead Russian dissidents.
American Mainstream Media followers (majority of Americans) are believing all this and more.
Many are fearful. Fear-mongering (& war-mongering) are chief goals.
Richard Engel's star has risen. He's as credible to gullible viewers as Dan Rather was in his glory days. (Which is to say - completely full of shit.)
@55 Tillerson may be stepping down sooner rather than later.
Posted by: fast freddy | Jul 17 2017 15:21 utc | 58
56
Yep. The Magnitsky Act (and the Hermitage Capital Management) are the interesting part of it.
The journalist of the documentary is no Russia apologist. The documentary was produced by Arte, and Arte was forced to withdraw.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 17 2017 15:27 utc | 59
karlof1 | Jul 17, 2017 11:00:21 AM | 56
From Parry's article..
"First Draft’s job will be to serve as a kind of Ministry of Truth and thus shield the public from information that is deemed propaganda or untrue."
The hegemons Ministry of Truth is becoming a very large organisation, supposedly NGO's but funded by the usual suspects NED and Soros. I ran across this organisation the other day.
http://www.poynter.org/about-the-international-fact-checking-network/
Poynter's IFCN has received funding from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the Duke Reporters’ Lab, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Omidyar Network, the Open Society Foundations and the Park Foundation.
Global fact 4 conference... http://about.poynter.org/node/102080
Global Fact 4 will be hosted in partnership with El Objetivo La Sexta and is made possible thanks to funding from the Duke Reporters’ Lab, Google and the National Endowment for Democracy.
We are deep into the fact free, evidence free world.
Posted by: Peter AU | Jul 17 2017 16:02 utc | 60
Outstanding article and outstanding comments. Thank you.
Posted by: Ivan | Jul 17 2017 16:04 utc | 61
Re: Trump Jr meeting:
The Russian Lawyer with whom Trump Jr met represented Prevezon capital in case linked to Magninsky act. She won a very favorable settlement in on May 22. DA was assigned by Preet Bharara.
Link here:
The Russian lawyer represented had recently won a case for her client Preveson
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/offer-too-good-refuse-major-223202521.html
Suspicion is that she paid her debt for this "too good to be true" settlement by acting as a honeypot to drag Trump team into a meeting with "Russians connected to the Kremlin" so to speak, providing grounds for a FISA warrant and providing yet one more Russian connection with which to sway the hill that there was indeed collusion between the Trump team and Russia.
Supporting the larger theory:
- Lynch gave her a visa extension to stay in country.
- Documented White House visits by all key players including the organizer of the Russian meeting and the "Ex Russian deep state operative" who also attended the meeting.
- Connections galore between meeting attendees, including the translator, and Democrat players (White hours visits around the same timeframe).
Summarized here:
https://twitter.com/fredmaske/status/886272644412129281
This was dug up by a lone basement-dwelling teenager who goes by @__0HOUR1_ on Twitter. His stream of consciousness timeline, beginning Friday or Saturday, is entertaining.
Posted by: RT | Jul 17 2017 17:02 utc | 62
@59 somebody
The genesis of Hermitage Capital is itself an interesting story.
Another death under mysterious circumstances, possibly related to Hermitage, probably related to the looting of Russia, is that of Edmond Safra, the billionaire international banker and founder of Republic National Bank in New York.
According to the NYT, it was Safra who first backed Browder by bankrolling Hermitage Capital.
Hermitage started with $25 million from Republic. The fund was so profitable that in its first 18 months it recorded a gain of 850 percent,
It seems Safra was a major player in the looting of the former Soviet Union, using First Republic Bank as a conduit to provide hard currency to numerous Russian ‘banks’ who in turn cannibalized the Russian economy.
The strange case of Edmond Safra (fascinating read)
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/oct/29/features.magazine47
“… the deaths of billionaire banker Edmond Safra and his nurse in circumstances that remain oblique and subject to a multitude of speculative theories…Those (suspects) who were, suggested one newspaper, 'range from the Russian mafia to Japanese investors, through drug cartels and Middle Eastern trading companies'. It seemed that Safra, 67, who was renowned for his protective shield of Israeli bodyguards, was a man with no shortage of enemies.
snip
Yet when the news emerged that Safra was dead, the prime suspects were not embittered former American Express executives or Colombian drug lords, but the Russian mafia, or mafiya .
… Republic's dealings with Russia were well documented. Under licence from the US government, Republic shipped around $10bn of US currency a year to Russian banks. Although perfectly legal, the shipments caused no little consternation among some state agencies. The problem was that many banks in Russia, and up to 50 that Republic was trading currency with, were suspected of being at the very least unreliable and quite possibly fronts for the mafiya…
…but one of them was said to be the Russian accounts that were frozen as a result of Federal investigation into money laundering, which Republic itself prompted by alerting the authorities to its concerns. Observers speedily concluded that a short-changed mafiya chief had sought revenge. Some 90 or so bankers have been killed in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union”
Posted by: pantaraxia | Jul 17 2017 17:12 utc | 63
xymphora linked to this Russia-bashing Taibbi piece, so I read it.
It is about Trumpy J. meet with the Russian lawyer Veselnistkaya, and various matters ‘behind’ all that.
An example of ‘twisting the time-line’, omissions, obfuscations, and relating things unrelated.
The Dima Yakolev law was an unusual piece of Russ. legislation imho, because it included many different matters: some sanctions on some US persons. - Politically active non-profits funded by the US forbidden. - A ban of adopting Russian children by US citizens. In current news, only the sad Russian mistreated orphan babies are mentioned, heh.
The ‘Dima’ law and the Magnisky Act were officialised in December 2012, with a 10 - 16 day gap between them (depending on when exactly one can consider it ‘done’), with ‘Dima’ second. Both these pieces of legislation took quite a long time to be elaborated, proposed - etc. etc. They were working in parallel, so who reacted to whom?
The __"sad life"__ of adopted children in the US has been known since a long time (1990? - me), but not made public. Which is why of course the US attacks back on ‘the poor kiddos.’ Adoption is an industry in the US, with various actors, state and private cos, making money. Ex. Killary-Obama legislation pays states that up their adoption statistics each year, -> child services perform as they want to keep the money coming in to pay their salaries…
A very strange thing happened in 2013. Reuters published an inquiry into child adoption in the US. It reveals some of the mechanisms; condemnation through sensationalism was avoided (to make it credible) and the few numbers etc. quoted are limited hang-out.
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/adoption/#article/part1
It prompted Russia (reaction or excuse) to tighten their legislation further. Lavrov spoke very emotionally. Iirc, it was legislated that Russian children could not be stripped of their nationality (as that change and name change makes them imposs. to follow), and more. (2014.)
Any Russian ‘operative’ who appears to argue for ‘overturning the Magnisky Act’ is presenting a false-cover calling card. Does anyone imagine that some foreign lobbyist(s) with no or little money, relations, not speaking English could be part of a 'grand' team to effect the repeal of that act? Crazy..and Taibbi is a rotten deceiver to pretend it is so.
Any Russians who did enter that fiction would be acting in that way as a wink-wink calling card. This whole story concerns other matters - Trumpy either didn’t get it or refused to do so.
Posted by: Noirette | Jul 17 2017 17:25 utc | 64
The implications of this report and so many other similar reports are clear: that higher education in a class dominated system is filled with both pro-class indoctrination and useful intellectual skills honed by scientific principles and modes of critical thinking--thus, a graduate of one of these educational institutions is no guarantee that they will be free of deceit; the tendency for elite ruling class educational institutions to hire people like Yascha Mounk; and the advanced and dangerous stage of desperation of the ruling class as evidenced by the wide dispersion of Mounk's lies and many other lies about Russia/Putin in their media.
On western psyops,
EXCLUSIVE: Documents expose how Hollywood promotes war on behalf of the Pentagon, CIA and NSA
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/exclusive-documents-expose-direct-us-military-intelligence-influence-on-1-800-movies-and-tv-shows-36433107c307
Posted by: Anon | Jul 17 2017 17:45 utc | 66
Believing Trump's motives for detente with Russia is anything other than his own penchant for avarice, is just a bit naive, or their lack of knowledge about Trump's history.
IMO, Trump is just another sycophant for his class, and will dance to the tune his owners play..
Posted by: ben | Jul 17 2017 17:48 utc | 67
Trump, in spite of promising beginnings, is an utter failure as a leader:
Martin Indyk @Martin_Indyk 22h22 hours ago
More
This is unbelievable! Trump Administration ignored Israel's security concerns in making the Syrian deal with Putin.
Ignoring blood of the children and journalists on the hands of Putin is bad enough, but when you ignore Israel's security concerns, you cross all the lines of depravity. Napkins in D.C. are deployed even as we speak.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 17 2017 17:52 utc | 68
Two remarks:
1. I think that Yasha Mounk is not a member of "academic elite", but a member of "inteli-lumpen-proletariat", one of adjunct lecturers who teach undergrads on semestral contracts so professors can write books rather than tweets (not that the books need to be any better, one should at least admire the brevity of Mounk's post. As I had a look at his Tweets I could see an inexperienced youngster. Imagine that he actually conceded that the numbers of victims were puffed a tad by manipulating the criteria. He seems to be a kind of guy without guts to break the Goodwin Law. This is basically surrendering the argument. Some would invoke Mongol traditions like inviting princes of Rus to their capital for "verification" and poisoning those who failed, in the sense how Russians acquired the style of governance, but good arguments have to assume audience that does not even know who Huns were.
2. Because I do not follow the stories on iniquities of Russian government, the technique of piling assorted "coincidence? I do not think so" reminds me what some people here post about Hillary (pasted from websites that do hardly anything else). Ah, and stories posted about suspicious deaths in Ukraine.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 17 2017 18:10 utc | 69
There is no stopping the ZIONISTS from their GOAL of World DOMINATION, EXCEPT Prison or Death.
There are only PAUSES,otherwise: Norman Finkelstein, proving that VIOLENCE is not only inevitable, it is the ONLY way, because we are dealing with ZIONIST Israeli and American PSYCHOPATHS, whose only INTENTION is domination of the Middle East, by WAR and who only respect FORCE: https://youtu.be/Bqs-OPK7VaE
Norman only failed to mention this Planet is their FINAL target!
As I,personally have stated in numerous comments on several sites, and including, now, "Moon of Alabama".
Posted by: Freespirit | Jul 17 2017 18:14 utc | 70
Thanks to all contributors since mine @56!!
Clearly, there're a bunch of rotten bodies amidst lots of interesting garbage lying underneath the entirety of RussiaGate dating back to USSR's demise. And given the tenacity of bar-fly investigators, more dirty facts will be revealed and further leads uncovered.
Like Parry, I looked for the video and discovered it was posted several times to YouTube only to be censored--removed--by YouTube, which is an important aspect vouching for its being something the Deep State doesn't want anyone to learn about. The Atlanticist mouthpiece The Moscow Times predictably wrote a very angry, negative review of the film after it was shown at the Moscow International Film Festival, which is another point in favor of the films veracity. Fortunately, Gilbert Doctorow saw the film, posted his review to his website, then posted here, https://www.newcoldwar.org/film-andrei-nekrasov-magnitsky-act-behind-scenes/ Alexander Mercouris wrote an item about this about the same time and is worth reading, https://www.newcoldwar.org/the-magnitsky-case-a-trial-at-last/ That the usual censorship suspects have surfaced in getting the film essentially blacklisted but their efforts weren't enough has led to the Deep State using its Rolling Stone mouthpiece Matt Taibbi to try and put an end to the film's attempted resurrection is also noteworthy; his fake news can be read here, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/trump-russia-russiagate-magnitsky-affair-linked-again-w492290
What began as an essay debunking yet another batch of anti-Russian lies has evolved into something much bigger and looks to go deeply into the Rape of Russia by the Outlaw US Empire. Way to go b and fellow barflys!!
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 17 2017 18:24 utc | 71
The Conversation is a site that I look through at times. It is a news site run by a number of universities and many of the articles are written by professors, various academics and so forth.
Although the blurb for the site is -Academic rigour, journalistic flair - only journalistic flair is used. Most of the university types come across similar to Yasha Mounk when it comes to politics.
The site has also joined, or been accredited by NED's (Orwell's?) fact checking organisation.
https://theconversation.com/au
Seems like universities are factories for homogenizing and pasteurizing rather than establishments of higher learning.
Posted by: Peter AU | Jul 17 2017 18:44 utc | 72
71
The Guardian on Bill Browder in 2006 when he still thought he could do business with Gazprom in Russia.
The whole story can only be explained by Russia then needing foreign capital - badly.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 17 2017 18:55 utc | 73
73 - It is amazing to read the old stuff
Given that the head of Russia's largest oil company was tossed in a Moscow jail in late October as part of a government power play, Bill Browder has every right to be nervous. It's not because he's likely to be next. It's that as the CEO of the largest public equity fund devoted to investing in Russia, with more than $1 billion parked primarily in just five energy stocks, he's got more than a lot to lose.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 17 2017 19:14 utc | 74
(((Yascha Mounk))) is another lying Jewish con artist who is angry that Russia isn't under their control anymore, like it was back during Yeltsin's rule.
Posted by: James | Jul 17 2017 20:07 utc | 75
Somewhat OT, but related IMO: Another "fierce critic" of the Clinton Foundation was found most likely murdered just prior to his testifying against it. As notes, "Where have we heard this before? Untimely deaths seem to follow the Clinton’s around, and this one especially is probably something – considering since the mainstream media is silent about this death." http://theduran.com/former-haitian-government-official-ready-to-expose-clinton-corruption-found-dead/
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 17 2017 20:39 utc | 77
So far the MSM has shown us that the only reactive tactic it owns is to turn up the volume of bullshit, together in unison. A singular narrative and colossal fabrication from a one trick pony. The level of shite is breathtaking and ought to come with a mental health warning.
Posted by: MadMax2 | Jul 17 2017 23:35 utc | 78
MadMax2 @78--
WARNING! Consuming Mainstream News Items is Proven to Addle Brains and Lead to False Conclusions that Will Be Hazardous to Your Health AND Pocketbook!
Or some such ala tobacco/alcohol warning label.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 18 2017 0:32 utc | 79
Another war party front:
With New D.C. Policy Group, Dems Continue to Rehabilitate and Unify With Bush-Era Neocons
Posted by: ProPeace | Jul 18 2017 1:52 utc | 80
@56 karlof1... thanks for the robert parry story on the anti-russia act - magnitsky act... that is what i thought, but i had no idea that amount of suppression the western msm, in particular the usa msm - is responsible for, although i am not surprised.. this story really highlights an interesting confluence of players...
Posted by: james | Jul 18 2017 2:01 utc | 81
Thank you, B, for posting my French translation.
And many thanks for your impeccable research. I have been hearing that canard about « the journalists murdered by Putin » for years, including on behalf of people who claimed they supported him. Thank you for putting that one to rest.
Posted by: Lea | Jul 18 2017 13:55 utc | 82
Russia has just startet a PR offensive pushing back against Trump's Polish narrative. Donetzk has proclaimed "Malorossiya".
I wonder what is going on in Syria or Afghanistan.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 18 2017 16:26 utc | 83
Trump’s Foreign Policy Is ‘Buy American’ — Become An Ally By Becoming A Client
The Hamburg summit marks the turning point from the past to the future. The contest to shape that future is the order of the day. In that contest, by its own choice, the U.S. will not only be one among many but, if it continues its present course, one against many, as was the case at the G20 summit.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 18 2017 17:08 utc | 84
Using TinEye.com reverse image search website, the earliest match for the image dates back to the 22 January 2015 on http://newsper.net/ua/newslist/region/3/theme/15?date=2014-12-15&page=4
which doesn't show - page not found in Russian 'Страница не найдена' though does the 'ua' in the url refer to Ukraine?
The next result is on twtter from PBS https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAE__SBWUAANKXL.jpg of 'page crawled' April 7 2015 with no EXIF data or comment. Maybe someone better than me can track down the actual tweet unless it has been deleted as I haven't found it in PBS' twitter stream of april 2015 and eariler.
The next result is on April 28th in an article pointing out the highest mortality of journalists from 1993 to 2102 happened in Dagestan with 16 journalist deaths
http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/217289/
A goggle reverse image search first throws up two russian wikipedia pages on journalists killed since 1993 but curiously doesn't show the image itself (copyrighted?):
&
I wonder where Mounk the Pounk stole the image from? Ah, result at last!
And then as I'm REALLY slow, I reverse image searched it on yandex.ru and it dates to December 2014, В России проходит День памяти погибших журналистов / Remembrance day for dead journalists of Russia on the Union of Moscow Journalists website!
http://ujmos.ru/v-rossii-prohodit-den-pamyati-zhurnalistov-pogibshih-pri-ispolnenii-obyazannostey/
Posted by: et Al | Jul 18 2017 22:42 utc | 85
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Most Trump supporters don't particularly care for journalists, especially American ones. And they loathe Harvard academics. They are more interested in jobs. It's deplorable but true.
Posted by: dh | Jul 16 2017 15:24 utc | 1