[Peace-discuss] Russiagate: The distraction continues from the US State Dept.

[J.B. Nicholson]

A day without the US continuing the baseless conspiracy theory known commonly as 
"Russiagate" is like a day without sunshine. What began as Hillary Clinton and the 
Democrats' excuse for losing the presidency to a TV game show host has become many 
other things including a huge shifting of the goalposts (remember that the phrase du 
jour was "Russian collusion" where Russian state influence somehow put Donald Trump 
in office and how the establishment media quit saying that phrase after multi-million 
dollar investigations couldn't prove that case). Russiagate rationale has become an 
ostensible purpose for anti-Russian sanctions (which intentionally hurt the poor and 
constitute a form of war). Russiagate objections (no matter how unbased in fact) are 
the reasons for denying RT's journalists access to White House briefings (getting 
RT's press credentials pulled and forcing RT employees to do FARA registration).

Many establishment news articles that fall apart on investigation -- Rachel Maddow, 
who made a career out of Russiagate support, claimed that Russia was going to turn 
off American's heat in the wintertime, the Washington Post claimed that Russia 
infiltrated America's power grid system via a Vermonter's laptop connection to the 
Internet. And now we're back to Russiagate's vague reports about how untrustworthy 
Russia is (each report offering either no evidence or claims that don't amount to 
evidence, each report raised without pointing out how untrustworthy the US government 
is).

Here's the latest:

Global Engagement Center's Special Report: Russia’s Pillars of Disinformation and 
Propaganda introduction page
https://www.state.gov/russias-pillars-of-disinformation-and-propaganda-report/

The Report
https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Pillars-of-Russia%E2%80%99s-Disinformation-and-Propaganda-Ecosystem_08-04-20.pdf

Lea Gabrielle briefing transcript
https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-special-envoy-lea-gabrielle-on-the-gec-special-report-pillars-of-russias-disinformation-and-propaganda-ecosystem/

RT's responses
https://www.rt.com/russia/497231-us-russian-disinformation-report-stop-normalisation/
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=0ISZtB6SttQ

And the last time I saw Russiagate polled, it ranked dead last in terms of items of 
importance to most Americans. I'll bet that's still true now.

Regardless of what you imagine Russia did, Russia didn't prevent Americans from 
receiving a UBI or Medicare for All in the midst of a pandemic. Russia didn't force 
bipartisan support for denying Americans a UBI or Medicare for All. Russia didn't 
compel the US from giving trillions to the wealthiest people and individuals and 
virtually nothing to most people who are in dire need of money to prevent 
homelessness, incurring medical debt, and to feed their families. What a distraction 
Russiagate is!

-J