The Big Lie Claiming Russia Aided Trump’s Candidacy Persists

[image: © Reuters / Sputnik]Lies repeated often enough get most people to believe them, especially when regularly featured in so-called news reports.

From the time Trump announced his candidacy in mid-June 2015, The NYT has been his lead antagonist, providing press agent services to Hillary throughout the campaign.

Its relentless attacks on Trump continued post-election and inauguration without letup. Daily reports blast him no matter what he does or doesn’t do.

There’s ample just cause to criticize his agenda, red meat material on his imperial wars, the harm they’ve inflicted on countless millions abroad, along with domestic policies serving wealth and power interests exclusively, ignoring the general welfare while falsely claiming otherwise.

A similar campaign targets Russia, featuring a steady drumbeat of disinformation claims, notably alleged US election hacking and improper or illegal ties to Trump’s team.

The common Russia/Trumpgate media-mongering thread is disinformation viciousness to denigrate, weaken and remove him from office, along with preventing efforts to improve US/Russia relations.

The latest from The Times claims Donald Trump Jr. met with Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya for “promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign” – according three unnamed sources, a Times specialty.

The Kremlin knows nothing about this woman. It’s unaware of any meetings she may have had with members of Trump’s team.

A follow-up Times report claims Trump Jr. was told by email of Russian efforts to aid his father’s campaign – again according to unnamed sources “with knowledge of the email.”

According to The Times, it “was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter,” adding:

“Mr. Goldstone’s message, as described to The New York Times by the three people, indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information.”

The Times report contradicted itself, claiming Goldstone acknowledged information coming from the Kremlin – then quoted him saying he has no knowledge of a Russian connection.

Attorney Veselnitskaya has no ties to the Kremlin. She provided no damaging information about Hillary. She indicated nothing about alleged Russian support for Trump.

The Times report is bizarre and unworthy of publication at minimum, willful disinformation at worst as part of its anti-Trump/Russia jihad – more evidence of its disreputability either way, its news unfit to print or read.

Throughout many months of reporting on the so-called Trump/Russia connection and Kremlin US election hacking, not a shred of evidence proves it, just baseless allegations and accusations with no credible corroboration.

The Times represents establishment interests opposed to Trump, along with wanting improved US/Russia relations prevented.

Its latest report on lawyer Veselnitskaya and Goldstone is part of its relentless smear campaign serving dark force US interests – at the expense of journalism the way it should be.

NYT Editorial on Afghanistan Misses the Key Point

Perhaps US aggression in Afghanistan, along with destroying the cradle of civilization in Iraq, most stand as modern examples of the nation’s depravity.

Destroying Iraq began with the Carter administration instigating the 1980s Iran/Iraq War, followed by the 1991 Gulf War, years of genocidal sanctions, then Bush/Cheney’s war – continued by Obama and Trump.

Begun in October 2001, planned months in advance, Afghanistan is America’s longest war, lost long ago, ongoing endlessly with no possibility of resolving it militarily.

Yet hawkish generals running US warmaking intend sending thousands more US combat troops into its cauldron – a way to escalate conflict more than already.

Highlighting the ongoing war, Times editors said it’s now Trump’s – without explaining launching and continuing it reflect naked US aggression against a nation threatening no one, not America or any other country.

Criticizing Trump as America’s “delegator in chief” misses the broader issue – the key one in all US wars.

They’re all lawless against nonbelligerent nations – waged without Security Council authorization, flagrantly violating international, constitutional and US statute laws relating to warmaking.

Not a word from Times editors explaining what’s most important – the broadsheet supportive of all US imperial wars, instead of responsibly denouncing them.

America’s military presence is lawless and unacceptable, assuring endless conflict, perhaps for another 16 years or longer in Afghanistan.

The same goes for all other US war theaters – forever ones, feeding the nation’s military/industrial complex, spending countless trillions of dollars for mass slaughter and destruction, world peace considered anathema.

Times editors: Sending more US forces to Afghanistan “would…reverse the drawdown…Obama put in place and set a new policy of expanding (US) involvement in (the) war.”

In December 2009, Obama announced a surge of 30,000 additional US forces to Afghanistan – after pledging as a candidate to end the war entirely “and get our troops home.”

Repeatedly promising to end US military involvement in the country and Iraq were Big Lies – including his pledge to close Guantanamo within a year after taking office.

He later bragged about being at war throughout his entire tenure. GW Bush bragged, saying “I’m a wartime president.”

Trump promised one of the “greatest military buildups in American history.”

Times editors criticized him for the wrong reasons. Instead of demanding US imperial wars end, they questioned his policy on Afghanistan.

They support endless conflicts in all US war theaters. Asking “what to do about America’s longest war” ignores why it’s being waged in the first place – along with all other US wars of aggression.

The Right Way to Challenge Fake News

Trump is right challenging fake news. It’s about time someone in high office did it. He’s going about it the wrong way.

Without speech, media and academic freedoms, all other rights are threatened.

Barring certain media outlets from attending Friday’s White House press briefing while letting others in was wrongheaded and counterproductive.

The NYT falsely called the move unprecedented, “something no administration of either party has ever done.”

Not quite. In 2009, the Obama White House said it would no longer conduct interviews with Fox News as a member of the press pool, an unprecedented act at the time.

Other media outlets objected. The White House relented. It remained hostile to Fox News criticism of its policies.

On February 24, NYT editors blasted Trump’s move, absurdly calling it “a backhanded compliment to the reporters whose honest work provoked the president’s latest foot-stamping tantrum” – a gratuitous insult, falsely referring to barred news organizations as “trustworthy.”

Far from it! The Times and other media scoundrels feature fake news, suppressing what’s most important to report.

They’re largely anti-Trump, inventing reasons to bash him. Justifiable criticism is warranted. Biased reporting defiles what journalism is supposed to be.

On Friday, Trump called media “the opposition party…mak(ing) up stories and mak(ing) up sources.”

Candidate Trump said he wasn’t “running against crooked Hillary. I’m running against the crooked media,” he stressed – referring to the media as the “lowest form of humanity.”

Throughout the campaign, they went all out to get him, continuing post-inauguration. The power of scoundrel media manipulated public sentiment works.

Fiction substitutes for important facts. News is sanitized, dissent marginalized. Supporting wealth, power and privilege substitutes for full and accurate reporting.

Wars of aggression are called liberating ones. They’re glorified in the name of peace. Civil liberties are suppressed for our own good. Patriotism means supporting what harms the public welfare.

Might is justified as right. Raping nations is called democracy building. Looting them is considered economic development. Free societies are threatened. Tyranny stalks America.

Truth-telling is a vital disinfectant. The way to challenge media scoundrels isn’t by barring them from press briefings. It’s by exposing their fake news with hard, irrefutable facts.

Trump has bully pulpit power. He has over 25 million Twitter followers plus other ways to counter media lies if done responsibly.

On Friday, he tweeted,

“FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn’t tell the truth. A great danger to our country. The failing @nytimes has become a joke. Likewise @CNN. Sad!”

Most Americans distrust the media for good reason. Growing numbers rely on alternative sources to stay informed. It’s the only way!

NYT Big Lies About Trump’s Ties to Russia

(image: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The Times gives journalism a bad name. It’s a lying machine, not a credible source of news, information and analysis.

Paul Craig Roberts asked if it’s being “sustained by CIA subsidies.” The agency has billions of dollars to spend on nefarious activities, unrelated to keeping America safe.

The Times is viciously anti-Russia, anti-Trump. “Bring on the special prosecutor,” it roared in a Friday editorial, outrageously claiming Trump administration ties to Russia, despite no evidence proving any wrongdoing or anything out of the ordinary.

In an effort to undermine or oust him from office, it’s trying to invent a Watergate-type scenario, the way Nixon was wrongfully framed for pursuing anti-establishment policies.

The Times wants an anti-Trump special prosecutor the way Nixon was attacked. It rejects FBI director James Comey’s involvement for daring to question Hillary’s integrity, what she abandoned before and after becoming first lady.

Attorney General Sessions is out for The Times because of his support for Trump.

The Times: “Mr. Trump’s unexplained allegiance to that country and its thug of a president, Vladimir Putin, has been a major concern from the start of his candidacy.”

“But the scope of a potential investigation expanded sharply in the last four days, with the firing of Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, for lying to the White House about his contacts with the Russian ambassador, and the news that members of the Trump campaign’s inner circle were in repeated contact with Russian intelligence agents last year, at the same time that Russia was actively attempting to swing the election to Mr. Trump.”

Fact: No responsible editor would  publish this rubbish. The Times features it.

Fact: Trump deserves universal support by wanting improved relations with Russia – if he means it by following through responsibly, not so far. Rhetoric doesn’t substitute for policy.

Fact: No credible evidence suggests any improper contacts between Trump campaign members and Russia – none with its intelligence.

Fact: Accusations of Russian US election hacking were fabricated – The Times one of the leading proliferators of falsified claims.

Trump has been in office less than one month. Calling for a special prosecutor is a politicized Times effort to further denigrate and undermine him toward achieving its aim of ousting him.

All public officials should be held accountable for their actions – not by inventing reasons to attack them.

The Times went at Trump throughout the campaign this way. It’s continuing the same jihad post-inauguration.

An independent special prosecutor is needed to investigate The Times and other media scoundrels for fake news reporting, not journalism the way it’s supposed to be.