Treasure Trove

In the past week, a treasure trove of prestigious new reporting showing how many times in the past 8 years, claims of "Russian Interference" in US elections and other affairs made in US media were bunk.

On top of the list, the Columbia Journalism Review (as in Columbia University) has published a monumental report by former New York Times reporter (he's also been a ProPublica reporter--which I'd consider more respectable)  Jeff Gerth on the journalistic, legal*, and law enforcement malfeasance involved in the endless claims of Russian Interference and Russian Collusion with Trump.  Sadly, Trump was correct in many cases to complain about "fake news" regarding stories concerning his collaborating with Russia.  I've discussed these stories endlessly since 2016 in this blog and with friends.  My primary source has been Consortium News, followed by a long list of independents starting with  Aaron Mate.  I quote from the co-author of Manufacturing Consent back in 2017.  Anyway, many write off my reports themselves as based on disinformation, which is how Consortium News has sometimes or often been labeled.  So now we have lots of new sources opening up, including CJR.  None of my friends realized the full import of Mueller's final report, which itself was whitewash of how much crap all the claims of Russian Collaboration had been.  (Instead, as I'm sure their favorite reporters said, they just couldn't get enough evidence thanks to Trumpian stonewalling.  That could always be expected, but my point is, the other evidence was lacking too, but not the evidence of a project of fabricating false claims.)

(*I was shocked at how much lawyers were involved in all the shenanigans.  A central organization involved was Fusion GPS, founded by two attorneys.  Fusion GPS, hired by the Hillary campaign organization's attorney (so only the attorney ever talked to them, and Hillary could claim she never did) was responsible for the fabrication and dissemination of many fake stories through a network of contacts.  Just as always, both success and failure are achieved with lawyers, guns, and money.  Failure because the loser spends just as much, if not more.  Allen Dulles was an attorney for the US bank that financed Hitler.  I'd bet the CIA has lots of attorneys.  As the spear tip, the CIA is always gunning for more war.  These thoughts are not disconnected.)

And separately Matt Taibbi (from the Rolling Stone way back, his new gig is The Twitter Files) has published a new Twitter Files report showing how the Hamilton 68 Dashboard of Russian Disinformation, used in many news stories and fact checkers, was fake.   Over 94% of the accounts were ordinary US citizens.  Fewer than 6% of the accounts it tracked were Russian, and most of those were associated with RT.  Twitter itself investigated and was concerned about this but chose to do nothing to stop it.  News stories would be written about how Russians were pushing Trump or whatever, and it was really based on a pool of mostly conservative (and a few progressive) Americans  opposed to war.

*****

Speaking of lawyers, a journalist who has for a long time operated just as if he were a "CIA Attorney" has just stepped up to the plate to smear Gerth's reporting.  Joe Conason doesn't contest a single relevant fact, only the interpretation of Mueller's final report.  Conason reads it as a cry about obstruction by Trump and associates.  My argument remains that if you can't get a conviction except by relying on someone to fink on their godfather, you basically have "no evidence."

https://www.creators.com/read/joe-conason/02/23/trumps-flawed-defender

I thought Conason's name was familiar somehow.  I haven't followed him for a long time (actually he's had quite a successful career, it looks like) but he most visibly got my attention in the 1990's as one of Bill Clinton's most vocal defenders specifically in regards to the Whitewater Investigation.  He literally wrote the book (co-authored) defending Clinton, that got made into a movie Hunting the President.

Now, in my own interpretation, the Clinton's could get away with scandalous deals because of one thing.  Their longtime CIA associations.  The Whitewater stuff was all something like cover (and opportunity) for the secret CIA airbase at Mena, which was used to supply the Contras in the 1980's while Bill Clinton was Governor.

https://greensboro.com/mysterious-mena/article_d89de189-1557-578e-82d2-50e6c27330eb.html

Bill's own CIA associations go back to the 1960's, when he "never inhaled."  In fact, as a Fullbright Scholar he spied on many peace groups in Europe.  With literally no previous background as a peace activist, he was welcomed by top peace group leaders, where by many accounts he did little except keep names.

Hillary has similar associations.  After giving a rousing speech in her graduation address at Wellesley, she quickly became a best friend of Henry Kissinger, and was living the life of a DC wonderchild (for example, auditing the super secret Watergate tapes) when suddenly she married Bill Clinton who was on his path to become Governor, (and looking exactly like the "triangulated" Presidential couple the CIA wanted).

But anyway, back to Conason.  Somehow he managed to be in China the night after the Tiananmen Square incident, ready to describe the CIA plotted color revolution to the lefter side of the acceptable political spectrum in just the right shades.