Caitlin Johnstone: Democrats ignore US army’s refutation of ‘Russian bounties’ story

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The US army has been unable to seek out any proof that Russia paid bounties on US troops to Taliban militants, confirming what was apparent to anybody who hasn’t had their mind stem hijacked by mass media-induced Russophobia.

NBC Information stories the next:

Two months after prime Pentagon officers vowed to resolve whether or not the Russian authorities bribed the Taliban to kill American service members, the commander of troops within the area says an in depth overview of all out there intelligence has not been capable of corroborate the existence of such a program.

“It simply has not been proved to a degree of certainty that satisfies me,” Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, informed NBC Information. McKenzie oversees U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. continues to hunt for brand spanking new info on the matter, he mentioned.

“We proceed to search for that proof,” the overall mentioned. “I simply haven’t seen it but. However … it’s not a closed situation.”

McKenzie’s feedback, reflecting a consensus view amongst army leaders, underscores the shortage of certainty round a story that has been accepted as reality by Democrats and different Trump critics, together with presidential nominee Joe Biden, who has cited Russian bounties in assaults on President Donald Trump.

Like many different vital voices, I mentioned from the start that there was no cause to consider the Russian bounties narrative and that the mass publication of baseless and nonsensical claims circulated anonymously by US intelligence operatives constitutes journalistic malpractice. There is no such thing as a excuse for a reporter to ever current nameless CIA press releases below the guise of stories, particularly once they make no sense; the US-centralized coalition in Afghanistan is a hostile occupying power and there’s an basically limitless variety of individuals there who require no monetary incentive to assault them.

However that is precisely what occurred. As soon as the information media had reported the unsubstantiated rumor given to them by nameless spies, spinmeisters like Rachel Maddow started presenting it as an goal reality that had been absolutely authenticated, and from there the whole Democratic political/media class started months of loudly babbling about how suspicious it’s that the US president hadn’t confronted Vladimir Putin and sanctioned Russia in response to this verified reality.

And it was by no means something of the type. It was faux. However now aggressions have been ramped up towards Russia, Trump has been painted as a Putin puppet who hates the troops, Senate Democrats have launched a invoice mandating sanctions on any Russians concerned on this imaginary conspiracy, and laws has been handed making it more durable for Trump to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

The story did its job, and now that it’s confirmed false the identical individuals who promoted it are uniformly ignoring the brand new proof which clearly exhibits it to have been bogus.

This story has been so ubiquitously promoted inside the institution liberal echo chamber that it’s unattainable to listing all of the dishonest portrayals it’s been given since June, however to choose just some latest examples:

  • Right here’s a latest viral interview by Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum with former FBI agent Peter Strzok wherein he falsely cites Trump’s refusal to strike again at Russia over the Taliban bounties as proof that the president is “compromised” towards the Kremlin.
  • Right here’s Biden falsely attacking Trump for not confronting Putin concerning the bounties story.
  • Right here’s sitting US Senator Richard Blumenthal falsely claiming “Intelligence powerfully exhibits that the Kremlin provided the Taliban bounties for killing People in Afghanistan.”
  • Right here’s sitting US Senator Tammy Duckworth falsely saying “Donald Trump has gone 80 days with out condemning Putin for placing reported bounties on our troops.”
  • Right here’s sitting US Congressman Ted Lieu falsely claiming “Putin paid cash to the Taliban to kill US troops.”
  • Right here’s MSNBC star Pleasure Reid falsely asking why the president gained’t “condemn Russia for placing bounties on our troops.”
  • Right here’s famend Harvard professor Laurence Tribe falsely claiming that Putin “provided bounties on American troops killed in Afghanistan.”

Once more, that’s only a only a few very latest examples. Now that their claims have confirmed false, what number of of those extremely influential individuals do you assume are utilizing their large platforms to unfold consciousness of this reality? Take a wild guess.

In the event you mentioned zero, you might be appropriate. The truth is Democratic Get together influencers are even persevering with to advertise the debunked Russian bounties story many hours after the report debunking it grew to become out there on mainstream platforms. Andrew Bates, Director of Fast Response for the Biden marketing campaign, simply tweeted that “Trump is giving Russia a go for placing bounties on the heads of American service members.”

Once more, that is hours after it’s been public data that this can be a utterly false factor to say.

And we are able to completely anticipate this to proceed. We are able to completely anticipate institution Democrats to proceed bleating about Russian bounties in Afghanistan for so long as it’s politically handy to take action. They by no means let the shortage of proof for his or her place get in the best way earlier than, and so they gained’t let it get in the best way now. The arguments that they make for his or her power-serving place are usually not designed to mirror reality or actuality, they’re designed to serve energy. That’s precisely what echo chambers are for.

An e mail printed by WikiLeaks in 2016 was despatched by Democratic Get together insider John Podesta to billionaires George Soros, Peter Lewis, John Sperling, and Herb and Marion Sandler in 2007 with an in depth and structured overview of fabric the group had coated throughout a gathering they’d had in September (to learn the e-mail click on ‘Attachments’ after which ‘2008 Mixed Fundraising, Message and Mobilization Plan’). Among the many issues these highly effective manipulators mentioned was the creation of a “strong echo chamber” for use within the celebration’s pursuits.

On web page two of the attachment:

“Management the political discourse. A lot effort over the previous few years has been targeted on higher coordinating, strengthening, and creating progressive establishments and leaders. Now that this enhanced infrastructure is in place — grassroots organizing; multi-issue advocacy teams; assume tanks; youth outreach; religion communities; micro-targeting outfits; the netroots and blogosphere — we have to higher make the most of these networks to drive the content material of politics by a powerful “echo chamber” and message supply system.”

And on web page 4:

“Create a strong echo chamber with progressive messaging that spans from the opposition campaigns to exterior teams, educational specialists, and bloggers.”

Often once you see the names Podesta and Soros offered collectively it simply means you stumbled into a nasty nook of the web pervaded by sloppy considering and an irrational belief in nameless 8chan posts, however on this WikiLeaks e mail we really get a helpful glimpse into the explanation individuals can preserve babbling about one thing that’s utterly divorced from the reality with out being smashed by cognitive dissonance. The truth that echo chambers are actively created by institution manipulators permits establishment-friendly narratives to stay afloat lengthy after proof ought to have sunk them.

A number of weeks in the past I tweeted “It’s clear that ‘Russia paid bounties to Taliban fighters’ is a kind of narratives the propagandists determined to ram into mainstream consciousness till they power it to turn out to be consensus orthodoxy by repetition and sheer power of will, with zero curiosity in information or proof.”

This has certainly occurred, and it’ll proceed to occur. The oligarchs who rule over us have so completely divorced the data ecosystem from reality that they’ll get individuals to consider absolutely anything. They do that as a result of they perceive that people are storytelling animals and also you management the people by controlling the tales. We shall be unable to combat lies with reality till we collectively perceive this reality in addition to our oppressors.

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