"Reminder that there are two kinds of Trump-Russia stories: those we pay attention to because they serve a narrative, and those we ignore because they don't," tweeted The Real News' Aaron Maté yesterday in response to the news that the Trump administration had authorized the sale of hundreds of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. "This one falls into latter category."
"That piss-tape kompromat surely dropping any day now," added journalist Mark Ames, a sarcastic reference to the fact that backing off on calls to arm Ukraine was an explicitly named part of the allegations in the notorious Steele dossier as one of the benefits Russia was supposed to have received from its "collusion" with the Trump campaign.
"If US media attitudes re: Russia weren't so hopelessly blinkered, this could be identified as the dangerous escalation that it is -- rather than ignored or spun because it doesn't comport with the narrative that so many are now wedded to," said The Young Turks' Michael Tracey.
These commentators are all pointing to the now-undeniable trend of mainstream media outlets ignoring all of this administration's many, many world-threatening escalations against Russia while hastening to label any slight inertia towards even more escalations as evidence of collusion. These extremely hawkish provocations against a nuclear superpower are an issue on which Trump could very easily be attacked from the left in opposition to a possible third and final world war, but instead they choose to attack him from the right and help increase the probability of one.
To recap: in addition to facilitating the years-long neoconservative agenda to arm Ukraine against Russia (a move the Obama administration resisted for fear of needlessly angering Moscow), this administration has killed Russians in Syria as part of its insane regime change occupation of that country, espoused a Nuclear Posture Review with greatly increased aggression toward Russia and blurred lines between when nuclear strikes are and are not appropriate, sent war ships into the Black Sea "to counter Russia's increased presence there," forced RT and Sputnik to register as foreign agents, expanded NATO with the addition of Montenegro, assigned Russia hawk Kurt Volker as special representative to Ukraine, shut down a Russian consulate in San Francisco and thrown out Russian diplomats.
But none of that is enough for these seething empire loyalists, including (and this should come as no surprise at this point if you've been paying attention) TYT boss Cenk Uygur.
Throughout a panel segment titled "Trump Silent After Putin Demonstrates Missile Attack On US", a reaction to the announcement of new advancements in Russia's nuclear arsenal, Uygur is careful to assert over and over again that he is a progressive and does not want a war with Russia from one side of his mouth while toeing the line of the neoconservative center with the other side.
"So what is it that people are looking for?" Uygur rhetorically asked Katie Halper, the only progressive on the TYT panel to push back against the segment's overall hawkishness. "We're looking for some sort of sign that Donald Trump is not in the tank for Russia. It's not because I want him to go to war with Russia, it's not because I want him to even create more hostilities or do any of the stupid tweets he does with North Korea. It's that I want to have some degree of certainty that he is not in the pocket of another country. Now people might think that that's overblown. I don't think it's overblown at all."
How many more signs are you asking for, Cenk? A nuclear strike on St. Petersburg? The US and its allies are already dangerously close to a direct military confrontation with Russia along multiple fronts that are fraught with ongoing hot war conflicts, things keep escalating on an increasingly frequent basis, and you want Trump to give you a sign that he's not on Russia's side??
We shouldn't have to share a planet with these omnicidal propagandists.
"In one of the articles here they said Trump rarely criticizes Putin," Uygur added. "No. He never criticizes Putin. And he hasn't done the sanctions, he hasn't done anything. And that doesn't mean I think the sanctions are wonderful, it's just obvious that there is something going on with Putin and Trump, and hence I'm not sure that Trump represents our interests above Putin's."
Throughout the segment Cenk takes great pains to say he doesn't want war with Russia, but saying that while demanding even more "signs" that this administration isn't beholden to Putin is like saying you support racial segregation but oppose racism. You can't have your cake and eat it too, Cenk. You don't get to keep the progressive face you've built your career on while advancing the neoconservative narrative that has neutered all opposition to this administration's world-threatening escalations against a nuclear superpower.
You don't get to feed into the Russiagate narrative while denying that you support escalations with Russia, because escalating against Russia is exactly what Russiagate is for. By feeding into the Russiagate conspiracy theory you are already helping to facilitate those escalations, as evidenced by the abundantly clear and undeniable fact that Trump's escalations against Russia go ignored by the Rachel Maddows and Cenk Uygurs of the mass media machine while any slight inertia towards those escalations is treated as suspicious at best and treasonous at worst.
As I noted recently after Hillary Clinton lent her voice to shaping the narrative that Trump isn't hawkish enough toward Russia, world renowned US-Russian relations expert Stephen Cohen has been warning for a year now that we are at a point which rivals the Cuban Missile Crisis in terms of the threat of nuclear war. This is because the mounting political pressures being placed on Trump to escalate when he should de-escalate and step forward when he should step back are shoving the sitting president toward direct confrontation with Russia in a way that no Commander-in-Chief including Kennedy has ever had to deal with. Add that extremely dangerous dynamic into all the many moving fronts and proxy wars this new cold war is being fought along and we've got a situation where a nuclear warhead is increasingly likely to be deployed in the chaos at any moment, setting Mutually Assured Destruction into motion.
Our species barely survived the last cold war, and people like Cenk Uygur are helping to shove us deeper and deeper into the new one when we should all be resisting it tooth and claw. Thanks Cenk.
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Cenk is going, or has gone, to the dark side. Thank you for calling him out on this.
Cenk used to be a Republican. I think he's really just an opportunist who saw Bernie's popularity and used that to build an audience for his channel.
I did not know Cenk used to be a Republican. I do know he was a die-hard Democrat since the Bush years. He started his "Young Turks" broadcast in 2002.
Maybe he was Republican pre-Bush, before the GOP became completely co-opted by Neoconservatives and Moral Majority-types?
Cenk is very active in pushing "cool" and "hip" Democrats like Barack Obama (he was huge in the "Change", "Hope", and "Yes We Can!" scene), and Bernie Sanders. Though I don't recall him being as active with The 'Bern than he was with Obama. Admittedly, I stopped paying attention to people like Cenk, Bill Maher, etc sometime in early 2010s.
I'm sure Cenk is at least aware of Jimmy's coverage of this topic. Besides Jimmy's own show, he had Stephen Cohen on Aggressive Progressives, an actual TYT show. So the question then becomes, is Cenk really this stupid or is he paid to have this opinion? I know which way I'm leaning.
He's getting paid.
Ultimately, Cenk is running a business with his own TYT show. He has an audience who believes in "Russian collusion", that and the Democrats and Anti-Trump people are probably offering breaks for saying this.
@caitlinjohnstone very thorough piece but I am not entirely convinced by your line of reasoning .
While Russiagate fever is very real and can be seen with varying degrees on MSM and even on TYT.
Why is it controversial to expect a response from USA president on such a controversial demonstration ( thought it maybe simulation) ? the sharp contrast of Trump's response on N Korea vs Russia on same topic is very clear.
A response doesn't mean a prescribed escalation but atleast acknowleding this new development but the non-response is certainly glaringly obvious.
What are you talking about? He's dangerously and unnecessarily and counterproductively escalating military tensions with both N Korea and Russia.
Maybe he (Trump) is and I have missed those videos, please post links where he is" dangerously and unnecessarily and counterproductively escalating military tensions with both N Korea and Russia"
Specifically with Russia.
I regret that I have but one vote to give. I know that I have said this many times before, but, this is your best piece yet, Caitlin. Thank you so much! This needed to be said.
The Russophobic hysteria sweeping the political and media establishment has to be placed in context. The current anti-Russian propaganda is the product of an empire in decline. Politicians, media pundits and academics of all colours in the U.S. are struggling to come to terms with the decline of their country as the world's policeman. They have no solutions to the existential economic, social, political and environmental crises facing America.
During Cold War 1.0 the U.S. was a power that completely dominated the world economy through the dollars reserve currency status and its industrial might. Now the U.S. is bankrupt and reliant upon other countries, including many of its ''enemies'' like China to buy treasury bonds and effectively bankroll the military industrial complex and handouts to Wall Street.
The coming collapse of the world economy that could be triggered by many things, rising yields in the bond market, a collapse of the derivatives market, rising oil prices etc will burst the balloon of the military industrial complex in the U.S. You cannot buy guns and bombs when the world knows you are bankrupt and are not willing to buy your worthless debt or worthless currency. Russia and China are playing the long game and waiting for their alternative to the dollar system to come to fruition - the one belt and road economic system.
Fascinating article. TYT have been inciting hatred on all sides for a long time now. They claim to want to dissociate themselves from conspiracy theories whilst espousing the most heinous propaganda that is out there. Who is funding them methinks? Nothing but hatred and vitriol runs through the veins of these despots who take no liability for their fear mongering rhetoric. Peace.
Who is funding them, you ask? Jeff Katzenberg, whom Mother Jones has referred to as, "the new George soros". In Woke circles, Cenk is known these days as, "the Katzenberg Kidd"!
Jeff Katzenberg still funnels some of his money through the Clinton Foundation and it's subsidiaries, which makes the Young Turks Clinton Foundation shills by proxy. That is how it's done. Set up hundreds of privately owned tax exempt charities and foundations, and then disperse the money to puppet political organisations and NGO's all around the globe, while saying it didn't come from them directly. These people have completely taken over both sides of the isle, while duping everyone into voting for their 'team' and continuing the perpetual wars on humanity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Katzenberg
This is very true....it was more of a rhetorical question but it is good to know that there are more and more awake people out there. Peace my friend.
Our species barely survived the last cold war?.....
Truth.
We came within an inch of annihilation on more than one occasion. http://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/07/15/the-men-who-saved-the-world-meet-two-different-russians-who-prevented-ww3/
Cenk's getting paid to say this.
Remember
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CENK
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Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
I've stopped listening to that Uygur guy after he went all "I'm with her" during the presidential campaign.
Russia attacks US with 13 Trolls.
Compared to 1/2 a billion in dark money. Who, other than the Ukrainian Government, was paying Manafort and Podesta. Who pays those people in general?
This moment should be about smashing government graft, corporate sponsorship, and dollar diplomacy, it's a completely ripe target, easily tied to corporate sponsors and the Establishment.
Nope! RUSSIA! Left Face... FIRE!
And the war shit... hot war in direct proximity just takes it to such an astonishingly stupid level as to seem unreal. Cenk should be ashamed of himself.
https://steemit.com/life/@leecamp/cia-military-have-infiltrated-mainstream-media-here-s-the-proof