Letter to my rep about Russiagate

Russiagate is a scam by the "centrist" neocons to pursue endless imperial dominance, including war with Russia, and "centrist" neoliberals to deny the unpopularity of neoliberal candidates like Hillary Clinton and policies like those of her husband, in particular.  One of the best places to read how much a scam this is has been ConsortiumNews.  The legendary Robert Parry was exposing the Russiagate flimflam daily until his recent death.  He was fully backed up by the likes of Edward Herman, co-author of Manufacturing Consent.  Now Caitlin Johnstone is one one of the best debunkers of Russiagate.

I am very sorry to see that otherwise progressive Representatives such as you and the Senator I supported for President in 2016, Bernie Sanders, have jumped fully in the arena on this.  I have always voted for and supported you and intend to continue doing so, despite this terrible mistake, for your essential goodness in other areas.  But I do believe the party and the people will ultimately pay a price, both for perpetuating this nonsense and for not focusing completely on stopping Trump in the here and now with the most progressive policies, like those of Bernie Sanders, which have proven popularity.  We need to flip the switch back to the New Deal and Great Society, but ultimately further, with single payer healthcare for all, which had been the hopes of FDR and Johnson.  There is no middle ground worth considering, and middle grounds don't sell anyway.

We ought to eliminate sanctions on Russia.  Russia's influence is almost nil, and besides Russians should have free speech just as anyone else.  We've been influencing the governments of other nations around the world to a far greater degree for decades.  This is hypocrisy beyond imagining to the knowledgeable.  BTW, RT shows many of the best US journalists our military-industrial-corporate media won't include.  If that's what we did in other countries, I'd be proud.  We spend billions a year on programs such as USAID and NED to "influence governments."  And that's not counting the way we influence Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and many other countries by violence.  Meanwhile, one headlined report that clogged our newstime for weeks was about a private Russian corporation spent less than $50,000 in Facebook ads before the election, which were not ever directed and candidates and only partly having political messages.  In the State of Michigan, the amount spent on political message ads was much less than $100.  How many other non-US-citizen actors were spending far more?

We should be more concerned about the endless influence Israel and Saudi Arabia have on our government, as well as multinational corporations and the super wealthy.  Disposing of Citizens United would be the biggest and most important step in restoring a bit of Democracy here, not obsessing over Russia.

Respectfully.