‘Red Scare 2′, Russia and the 2016 US election

Written on November 8th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on RT, Nov 6, 2016.

Among the many ways in which the 2016 US presidential election has been out of the ordinary is the invocation of Russia as a looming threat to American democracy, basically putting “Putin on the ballot” in the words of the Washington Post.

Russia was the topic that attracted the most attention during all three presidential debates and the vice-presidential one, easily surpassing every other subject by a wide margin. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) was a distant second, while taxes brought up the third place.

(chart: total mentions at the debates)

Consider Hillary Clinton’s spin in the third debate, on October 20, when instead of responding to a question about a particular phrase in one of her paid speeches to Wall Street, she blamed Russia.

“What’s really important about WikiLeaks is that the Russians have engaged in espionage against Americans,” Clinton said, accusing the “highest levels of the Russian government” and “Putin himself” of the cyberattacks on the US. “They have given that information to WikiLeaks for the purpose of putting it on the internet.”

“That was a great pivot,” Clinton’s Republican rival Donald Trump shot back. “Off the fact that she wants open borders. How did we get on to Putin?”

“He’d rather have a puppet as president,” Clinton said.

“No, you’re the puppet,” Trump responded.

Lost in translation: … //

… DNC hack and the ‘Red Scare’: … //
… Breedlove, Powell and DCLeaks: … //
… Publishing Podesta before WikiLeaks? … //
… Trump’s Putin ‘bromance’: … //

… One of the Podesta emails appears to corroborate this explanation. On December 21, 2015, The Hill columnist Brent Budowski advised Podesta to deflect uncomfortable questions about ISIS by going after Russia.

“Best approach is to slaughter Donald for his bromance with Putin, but not go too far betting on Putin re Syria,” Budowsky wrote.

The rest is history.

(full text).

This Election Related Links:

Divers searches:

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Not Markets Alone but Creativity and Innovation for Development, on Dissident Voice, by Mateo Pimentel, Nov 6, 2016;

Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, MST Under Attack By State Police, 7.40 min, on The Real News Network, Nov 4, 2016:
Joaquin Pinero, a member of the MST directorate in Rio de Janeiro says this type of repression and false allegations of social movement leaders has become rampant in Brazil since the Temer Government took office. MST has been organizing a national general strike that will take place on November 11th;

Clinton Versus Trump, The Script of a Real-Life Tragedy – part 1, on Spiegel Online International, by Markus Feldenkirchen, Ullrich Fichtner, Veit Medick, Philipp Oehmke, Gordon Repinski, Thomas Schulz and Holger Stark, Nov 4, 2016: Trump versus Clinton will go down in American history as the dirtiest campaign of all time. It seemed at times as though script writers had let their imaginations run wild. But the consequences for democracy in the United States will be long lasting, (Photo Gallery … Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have managed to drag US politics — already not the purest of spectacles – into the muck during this election cycle. With the help of the hysterical media, they have transformed the race into a soap opera, and this time, reality has far exceeded even our wildest imaginations);
Part 2: The Dark Art of Character Assassination;
Part 3: Explosive Scandals Mar Final Stretch;

Economic Update: Economy, Psychology, Mental Health, 55.04 min, uploaded by Democracy At Work, Nov 3, 2016 … updates on Harvard’s greed, corp megamergers, Germany outlaws GMOs, campaign fund-raising, Koch brothers fund Catholics fighting Pope’s views, Portland, OR to tax high CEO pay, prison strikes, and foreign min wages. Interview Dr. Harriet Fraad, mental health counselor: mental health implications of capitalist vs worker-coop enterprises;

Syria – reasons for failure, on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Bassel Oudat, Nov 3, 2016: there have been almost a dozen separate initiatives aiming to resolve the Syrian crisis, but all of them have ended in failure. Just months after the start of the Syrian Revolution in 2011, the regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s insistence on military suppression and growing regional and international concerns led to initiatives aiming to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis …;

Global Capitalism: A Looming Economic Crisis [OCTOBER 2016], 96.33 min, uploaded by Democracy At Work, Oct 12, 2016 … special thanks to Bill and Cathy from Maryland who have sponsored this month’s episode …;

Depression and spiritual awakening, two sides of one door – Lisa Miller, 15.52 min, uploaded by TEDx Talks, July 24, 2016 … TEDxTeachersCollege;

Mysterious Disappearances – David Paulides and George Knapp, 114.06 min, uploaded by George Knapp, June 22, 2016;

Vom Beleidigen und von Macht, 3. Feb 2006;

The Cyber Vault, on National Security Archive NSA /about the project;

… and this:

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