Things aren’t looking great for the Democratic establishment, which recently admitted that it stacks its primaries against progressive candidates and is currently engaged in a desperate, hail Mary lawsuit against WikiLeaks for its factual publications about the party. So of course you know what that means.
That’s right! It’s time for Democratic pundits to begin down-punching Jill Stein.
Jill Stein is on @NewDay right now repeating Russian talking points on its interference in the 2016 election and on US foreign policy.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 1, 2018
WATCH: Jill Stein refuses to condemn Russian election interference in babbling CNN interview https://t.co/klX5ivLLrG
— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 1, 2018
“Jill Stein is on @NewDay right now repeating Russian talking points on its interference in the 2016 election and on US foreign policy,” tweeted CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto today, without shame or self-reflection.
Sciutto was referring to comments Stein made on a CNN interview today about America’s undeniable, entirely factual and well-documented history of meddling in other countries’ elections, including a citation of an ex-CIA Director’s recent admission that the US has interfered in foreign electoral processes and continues to do so to this day.
Because that’s what constitutes a “Russian talking point” these days: raw, easily verifiable facts.
Stein’s interviewer, Chris “It’s illegal to read WikiLeaks” Cuomo, echoed a similar sentiment in response to her points, in essence arguing that only Russians should be stating these blatantly obvious and extremely relevant facts.
“You know, that would be the case for Russia to make, not from the American perspective,” Cuomo said. “Of course, there’s hypocrisy involved, lots of different big state actors do lots of things that they may not want people to know about. But let Russia say that the United States did it to us, and here’s how they did it, so this is fair play. From the American perspective and you running for president, more than once of this country, shouldn’t your position have been, this was bad what they did, they’re trying to do it right now and we have to stop it?”
Right. Because you have so many Russians on your show making that case, do you Chris?
This is absolute lunacy. The implication here is that it isn’t ever okay for Americans to talk about Russia in any other context than how awful and evil its government is; that nobody can speak about how America’s behavior factors into the equation in a very real and significant way. Not because it’s not factual, not because it’s not relevant, but because it’s a “Russian talking point”, and only Russians should be saying it.
And this sentiment being promulgated by these establishment pundits is being swallowed hook, line and sinker by the rank-and-file citizenry who consume such media. Every single day, without exception, I am accused multiple times of being a propagandist for the Kremlin. Not because there’s any evidence for that, not because I’m writing anything that is untruthful, but because I’m writing “Russian talking points”, i.e. arguments that have ostensibly been made at some point by Russians.
And it is, to be perfectly honest, infuriating. These people are actively making the case for willful ignorance and stupidity. They’re actively arguing that facts which don’t support the narratives being promulgated by the CIA and the State Department should be completely excluded from all discussion within the western hemisphere, and that only Russians should be making them. They do this while simultaneously arguing that Russian media is dangerous and should be avoided by Americans. Only Russians should argue against CIA/CNN narratives, and we should never, ever listen to those arguments.
They’re arguing for the deliberate omission of relevant facts from dialogue. They are arguing that we should all be morons, on purpose.
Of course it’s relevant to the discussion that the US interferes with foreign democratic processes far more than any other government on the planet! Are you nuts? Yes, obviously if yours is the primary country responsible creating a climate wherein governments meddle in the elections of other nations, that undeniable fact must necessarily be a part of any sensible analysis of what’s happening and what should be done about it. Anyone who tries to argue that that fact shouldn’t be a part of the conversation is making an argument in favor of stupidity.
That’s not a “whataboutism”, as empire loyalists like Eric Boehlert habitually claim. It’s crucial factual information.
pressed on Russia election interference, Jill Stein on CNN opts for Russian wahtaboutism–America does it too, and even worse!!
she's a self-parody
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) May 1, 2018
The environment that these pundits are creating is itself hostile to democracy. If all “talking points” are excluded from the conversation other than those which lead to continually escalating sanctions, proxy wars, nuclear posturing and brinkmanship, then there’s no way for activism or democracy to tap the brake on the west’s ongoing trajectory toward direct military confrontation with a nuclear superpower.
In her interview, Stein outlined this quite clearly:
“You know, I think that kind of position which says that we’re in a totally different category from the rest of the world is not working. This century of American domination, you know, sort of didn’t play out the way we thought it would, we’re embroiled now — we have the military in practically every country around the world. In the recent taxes that people pay, the average American paid almost $3,500 that went into the Department of Offense, I would call it, not the Department of Defense, $3,500, whereas we put $40 into the EPA.
“You know, 57 percent of our discretionary dollars now are going into the military. It’s part of a mindset that says, we’re always right and they’re always wrong and we’re going to be dominating militarily and economically. We’re in a multi-polar world right now and, you know, we need to behave as an exemplary member of the community and that is by upholding ourselves and leading the way on international law, human rights and diplomacy. That approach is really paying off on the Korean peninsula right now. I think we should be using it more broadly.”
Cuomo, who as the son of a New York Governor and brother of the current New York Governor is as much Democratic Party royalty as a Clinton, had some very interesting facial expressions in response to Stein’s arguments. Whenever an interviewee makes strong points which go against the establishment grain he always looks like he’s taking a really uncomfortable shit:
There have been far too many cartoonishly absurd responses to Stein’s interview for me to address in a single article without putting my laptop through the wall in a fit of rage, but this tweet from MSNBC and Atlantic contributor Natasha Bertrand is really something else.
“Jill Stein just told @CNN that her presence at RT gala in Moscow Dec 2015 wasn’t controversial at the time because Obama ‘was still on track for a reboot’ with Putin,” said Bertrand, adding that “Russia had already annexed Crimea, invaded eastern Ukraine, intervened in Syria for Assad, and hacked the DNC.”
This is actual, real-life “Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia” Orwellian revisionist doublethink. There was no public information about any Russian DNC hack in 2015, and the average American hardly ever thought about Russia at that time. Then-Secretary of State John Kerry personally met with Vladimir Putin in July of 2016 to discuss collaboration against terrorist forces in Syria. Only in the most warped, revisionist, funhouse mirror Orwellian reality tunnel can it be claimed that Stein visiting Moscow in December of 2015 would have been considered shady or controversial at the time.
Jill Stein just told @CNN that her presence at RT gala in Moscow Dec 2015 wasn’t controversial at the time because Obama “was still on track for a reboot” with Putin.
(Russia had already annexed Crimea, invaded eastern Ukraine, intervened in Syria for Assad, and hacked the DNC.)— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 1, 2018
The fact that Bertrand’s tweet was liked and shared thousands of times on Twitter is extremely creepy and disturbing. Establishment media didn’t start indoctrinating American liberals with Russia hysteria until the tail end of 2016, but it’s been so effective that MSNBC mainliners are now gaslighting themselves into a revision of their own history.
This is why people like myself fight the CIA/CNN Russia narrative so aggressively. Not because we’re propagandists, not because we’re “useful idiots”, not because of “Russian talking points”, but because the US-centralized power establishment’s nonstop campaign to manufacture support for its agendas of global hegemony are making us all stupid and crazy.
Stop playing along with this bullshit. Stop letting them make us stupid and crazy. Stop letting them manipulate us into consenting to escalations with a nuclear superpower. Stop. Turn back. Wrong way.
_______________________
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13 responses to ““Russian Talking Points” Look An Awful Lot Like Well-Documented Facts”
Cuomo was McCathyesque in his questioning. Joe would have been proud of him.
“Then-Secretary of State John Kerry personally met with Vladimir Putin in July of 2016 to discuss collaboration against terrorist forces in Syria. ”
Yeah, I remember that. So why did the CIA end up arming & funding said terrorist forces? Oh, right … they were already doing that when Kerry met with Putin.
One excellent write, Caitlin, you are a jewel among journalists who are more like corporate owned rocks! Will share this with my Google+ circles, there are a lot of people out there who agree that this whole mess the DNC started has about run its course, time for people power!
Of course, you are correct. I never did think much about Russia in 2015. Now, however, since Russia has apparently been lifted to significant status (an obvious deduction from all the anti-Russia establishment rhetoric), I have become more and more proud of my Russian heritage. The government, deep state and establishment media have convinced me that Russia is a great and powerful country and one to be feared.
My ancestors migrated from Russia to the U.S., worked hard and made a future for themselves and their then current and future progeny. Attempts to make them the ‘bad guy’ don’t float with me. For, if such a country as Germany grew in disfavor with the American Government it too would suddenly become our to-be-feared nuclear-powered enemy.
It is not enough for people to stop being ‘stupid and crazy.’ They must also learn to think for themselves, to research, investigate and examine the credibility of the nonsense of which we are being spoon fed on a daily basis. They must learn how to ‘feed’ themselves.
They need to discredit Stein and the left politics she represents. They were more successful with this in 2000 when the Democrats were able to blame the Greens for Bush’s election. The Greens were a growing force in the U.S. until that election.
Bertrand makes a fool of herself with Putin annexed Crimea. The people hurled themselves st him en masse. Crimean didn’t refer to themselves as Ukrainian. They were Russians all along. They consider Ukrainians a wannabe nationality that can’t just admit they’re either Polish or Russian. Poland is trying to get Lviv back, actually. That’s how Polish western Ukraine is. My Crimean penpal posted “Now I am son of great nation” the morning after 98% of Crimea voted to join Russia. A minute or two of attention paid to Ukraine’s parliament over the years and you’d know why serious people prefer to get their governing done elsewhere. Multi-party brawls are normal. Men in business suits take umbrellas to sessions as protection in the event a food fight breaks out. Corruption and cronyism were the ruling principles.
Lady , I don’t know how you can stand to do what you do , but I hope you never stop. Thank you.
Brava, Caitlin, Brava! Please keep enlightening us about this craziness out of the US Democratic Party. We are watching the great shift in US politics at this very moment – as happened generations ago when the Republicans went from being (relatively) the good guys – to the baddies – switching places with the Democratic Party – Roosevelt/New Deal -> Jimmy Carter/early Bill Clinton. But it’s all gone arse-up as we might say here in Australia. I’m not saying that the Republicans have necessarily traded places – more that they have aligned themselves into this weird Russia-bashing babble! A hand-wheeling demand that they not be told the truth!
So, do you think that progressives who want to abandon the Democratic Party, should go to the Greens instead? The (Berniecrat) Movement for a People’s Party? Democratic Socialists of America? Socialist Equality Party (WSWS, Trotskyite)? Communist Labor Party? Wikipedia lists 25 active left parties in the US, and every one of them is so tiny as to be almost invisible in national vote counts. How to end the fragmentation, and how to make inroads on the mainstream war parties?
On another topic: I haven’t seen much editorial commentary about the Israeli bombing attack near Hama and Aleppo on April 29. It’s claimed that one of the targets hit was an ammunition depot containing 200 missiles, resulting in an explosion powerful enough to register 2.6 on the Richter scale.
Some sources claim up to 46 Iranians killed, while the Iranian government denies any casualties. According to the NYT, the Iranian government denial means they aren’t obligated to retaliate. But, if it’s humiliating to choose not to retaliate to such an assault, doesn’t it just compound the humiliation to lie about it? Or is the Iranian government just as successful as the West, in its own way, at passing off lying propaganda to their people?
At Veterans Today, they’re not buying the explanation that the Israelis hit an ammo depot. They’re saying that they used a tactical nuclear weapon. VT has no evidence, just guesswork. But if it were true, would we know? Is there anyone on the ground with a geiger counter, looking for radiation? There are known tactical nukes as small as 0.01 kiloton, which is the same yield as the massive MOAB conventional bomb.
Yeah, first it was “Hanoi Jane” now its that pinko “Kremlin Stein”, always knew she was part of the fifth column! Now I’ll have to check under my bed every night, to see if she’s hiding under there with the rest of the Commies!
GIVE IT A F’N BREAK !!!
Well, they always told me to look at myself in the mirror, and if I didn’t like what I saw, I was up to me to change. Apparently, America won’t choose to look until its too late and we’re either collapsed in bankruptcy or civically torn to shreds.
Joined the “troll club” myself this AM, due to someone not agreeing with a minor comment I appended to a WSJ article on Syria. Seems “troll” is the current pop word in our lexicon. Me, I always preferred “running dog lackey”. “Troll” just reminds me of one of those blue haired Smurf dolls.
Today’s “Russian talking points” are yesterday’s “conspiracy theory.” Just a way to dismiss information or ideas and smear the people who propose them without actually considering them.
It’s hard to say anything good
about the awful, evil U.S. government
– except, well, ”We’re exceptional.”
For those of us in the know, all who read independent media, all who read and think, all the young who see the lies and corruption that passes for an economy and govt–this will greatly boost her support. And if anyone in the US reads much of what is going on in Europe, they too will know that she is right, and hopefully more people will hear about the economic proposals of Yanis Varoufakis as well, and we can turn the next election into another shocker, but not with a sickening outcome, but a good one.