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The white-Left Part 1: The two meanings of white

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

It's still "alleged" Russian interference on Democracy Now

The link to my last post criticizing White House CoS John Kelly's call for "compromise" in the fight against slavery, and this post is:

The US Civil War was about ending slavery, no matter what some people might think it was about, either then or now. The last US presidential election was about denying white supremacists the White House, no matter what some people might think, either then or now, and Democracy Now was on the wrong side of that fight.

Perhaps that is why, inspite of all the direct evidence of Russian state attempts to advance the candidacy of Donald Trump in the United States 2016 presidential election, Democracy Now, along with the Trump administration and the Russian state, continues to deny Russian interference in that election.

In the past year we have seen solid evidence that Russian government hackers stole the DNC and Podesta emails. They had bot armies operating on social media running fake accounts pushing anti-Clinton messages and promoting the candidacies of Donald Trump or Jill Stein. They also bought ads on Twitter, facebook and Google. facebook has said fake US election ads paid for by Russia reached 120 million Americans. Reality Winner gave her freedom to leak a NSA report about Russian attempts to manipulate the voting infrastructure itself. Russia Today, and the many other media outlets under Russian influence, spent hundreds of hours promoting Jill Stein's anti-Clinton campaign. [Would they had been so kind to her if she had been equally anti-Trump?] Now, with the George Papadopoulos Stipulation and Plea Agreement, the Russian attempt to provide the Trump campaign with "dirt" on Clinton is established as a legal fact. Still, on Democracy Now, as if to please Putin, it's still the "alleged" Russian interference. Listen to how they covered Monday's news of the Mueller indictments and pleas on Tuesday's show:
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: President Donald Trump’s former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, and Manafort’s former business associate, Rick Gates, surrendered to authorities Monday morning, after a federal grand jury handed down the first indictments in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Putin would be pleased. Even after all this direct evidence of Russian interference has been building for more than a year it's still qualified as "alleged." It was the only thing so qualified on Tuesday's show. Amy Goodman was even slicker with her "possible collusion" dodge:
AMY GOODMAN: Manafort’s bail was set at $10 million, Gates’ set at $5 million. They’ve both been placed under house arrest.

Meanwhile, observers are closely watching the case against George Papadopoulos, an early foreign policy adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign, who may provide greater evidence of possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. According to his plea deal, Papadopoulos was told that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, and through a series of communications with foreign agents, he tried to facilitate communication between the Trump campaign and Russian agents.
First off, "the case against George Papadopoulos" has already been settled by the plea agreement and the facts of it have already been established. Then Amy Goodman artful leaves out of her reportage of the narrative the one actor that firmly establishes Russian attempts to interference with the US election as a matter of legal fact, and no longer "allegations." Allow me to correct her in brackets:
According to his plea deal, Papadopoulos was told [by the Russians] that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, and through a series of communications with [Russian] foreign agents, he tried to facilitate communication between the Trump campaign and Russian agents.
Amy Goodman is still careful to omit certain facts so that the question of Russian interference in the US elections remains a mere "allegation." She has done the same thing for Bashar al-Assad whenever he has been called out for killing with sarin. It took Marcy Wheeler to leave "alleged" and "possible" out of it, and tell it straight:
MARCY WHEELER: So, Papadopoulos was living in London. He was basically—it’s quite clear from the plea, he was being courted by Russian handlers, by three different Russian handlers, to set up a meeting. They wanted to set up a meeting between Putin and Trump.
It is not at all surprising that Democracy Now would want to question Russia's role in last year's election. When it came to the pro-Jill Stein and anti-Hillary Clinton positioning of Democracy Now's propaganda efforts in last year's election, little daylight could be seen between them and Kremlin directed outlets like RT. Below are examples of "ads" the Russians didn't have to pay for, AFAIK:























Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!

Click here for my posts on the 2016 US Election
Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria
Click here for a list of my other blogs on Libya
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