In their eagerness to defeat Trump, liberal pundits are reviving a damaging discourse.
FLASHBACK: President Kennedy’s American University Address of June 1963
55 years ago this week, President John F. Kennedy gave a landmark address calling for peace between the world’s two nuclear superpowers. Said Kennedy, “No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue.” Were he alive today, would Kennedy be able to utter such a sentiment and not be condemned as a ‘useful idiot’ by CNN, MSNBC, Mother Jones, The Atlantic, The New Republic, National Review and The Washington Post?
Intel head cautions against ‘hyperventilation’ over DNC breach (The Hill)
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Thursday said that reports treating Russian involvement in the hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as fact are getting ahead of themselves, and he urged calm regarding the data breach.
Aaron Mate: The Mueller Indictments Still Don’t Add Up to Collusion
A year of investigations has led to several guilty pleas, but none of them go to the core of the special counsel’s mandate.
Is there a Russian master plan to install Trump in the White House? Some intelligence officials are skeptical. (WaPo)
“We have not drawn any evidentiary connection to any Russian intelligence service and WikiLeaks – none,” said one U.S. official.
Katrina vanden Heuvel: The Trump spectacle is overshadowing the more urgent scandals of this administration
More than a year into the special counsel’s inquiry, the Trump-Russia story continues to receive a disproportionate amount of the media’s attention.
PODCAST: Neo-McCarthyism and Olympic Politics as More Evidence of a New Cold War (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. Cohen notes that it seems Mrs. Clinton intends to run against Trump-Putin. If so, the new Cold War can only become more dangerous, especially if she wins and if this McCarthyite tactic reflects her hawkish views on Russia, and the wildly demonized Putin in particular.
John Pepper: Reflections on Michael McFaul’s New Memoir
Former Procter & Gamble CEO and ACEWA Board Member John Pepper shares his thoughts on Ambassador Michael McFaul’s new memoir, From Cold War to Hot Peace. [Read more…] about John Pepper: Reflections on Michael McFaul’s New Memoir
The rush to blame Russia for the DNC email hack is premature (The Guardian)
Since WikiLeaks published the DNC’s hacked emails on Sunday, there has been a flurry of accusations – including from the Hillary Clinton campaign – that Russian president Vladimir Putin orchestrated both the hack and the leak, in an attempt to help Donald Trump win the presidency.
Paul Pillar: On Trump’s Proposal to Bring Back the G8
Trump’s proposal to readmit Russia to the G-7, making the group once again a G-8, may have been as little thought out as many of his other moves; reportedly, officials of the National Security Council were taken by surprise. But the proposal has validity for the same reason it made sense to admit Russia in the 1990s
VIDEO: Glenn Greenwald on the DNC/Russia “Hack” Story on CNN
From CNN: He won a major journalism prize for reporting on a massive leak of American intelligence. Now, Glenn Greenwald speaks to us about what. could be behind the Democratic Party being hack.
Robert Merry: Enough: The DOJ Must Show Its Cards to the American Public
The country is heading for a constitutional crisis, and only clarity can resolve the two competing Russia narratives tearing us apart.
The Hawks’ Election Strategy: Pushing a New Cold War (David Bromwich)
Yale’s David Bromwich writes that “to picture Trump as an agent or enabler of Vladimir Putin—and to insinuate that anyone who seeks diplomatic arrangements with Moscow in preference to a new Cold War must be “soft”—does nothing to elevate the political discourse of the moment. It takes us out of the sewer and leads us into the cesspool.”
Paul Robinson: Russian Soft Power
This week I had the opportunity to attend the first International Forum for the Development of Parliamentarism in Moscow.
How US Propaganda Fuels New Cold War (David Swanson)
The anti-Russian propaganda across the U.S. political-media system is so pervasive that even members of Congress know little about the events that launched a new Cold War, as Elizabeth Murray learned and David Swanson reported.
Gordon Hahn: Snyder’s Distortions of Ilyin
Timothy Snyder has put out an incoherent video interpretation of Ivan Ilyin, of whom Snyder claims Putin is an admirer, offering no evidence.
With DNC Leaks, Former ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Is Now True––and No Big Deal (Adam Johnson)
FAIR’s Adam Johnson observes, “The DNC leaks as Russian spy operation was the preferred talking point of the day, omitting or glossing over what the leaks actually entailed. The actual culpability of Russia for those leaks, it’s worth noting, is still unproven..”
Pepe Escobar: How Singapore, Astana and St Petersburg preview a new world order
Key economic forums in cities across Eurasia point the way to new power structures rising to challenge Western dominance.
Former Defense Secretary: Next president must “lay down a line” with Russia (CBS NEWS)
Former Defense Secretary advocates a ‘tough line’ on Russia in an interview with CBS News. GATES: I think the new president is going to have perhaps a tougher line toward Russia than has been the case recently. The notion that we just continue to let the relationship deteriorate, or that we tolerate whatever Putin wants to do, I think both of those are unacceptable.
Kris Osborn: The Army Has a New Plan to Fight a War Against Russia
The Army’s new “Vision” for future war calls for a fast-moving emphasis on long-range precision fire to include missiles, hypersonic weapons and extended-range artillery — to counter Russian threats on the European continent, service officials explain.