Thomas Frank on Russian bots, etc.

PA Ram wrote:

I love Thomas Frank.

I have been saying from day one that the Dems just have not come to grips with the fact that Clinton lost because she was a TERRIBLE candidate and because we have an electoral college system that is flawed. It isn’t any more complex than that. The Russians did not decide the election.

That narrative is way over the top, IMO.

Also–no mention of the use of dark money in influencing elections. That comes from everywhere.

That’s an even BIGGER issue.

But–nothing.

I do not believe it is worth starting WWIII over.

And of course we do it too in various ways.

Having said all of that, Trump is probably the most corrupt president we’ve ever had an if some of his crimes are exposed–so be it. Also–if they are able to safeguard election systems from foreign interference it is also a good thing–and by that I mean voting machines and the like.

And of course–my past posts say all I need to about how I feel about Putin. He is Al Capone. He is what he is.

But this Russia hysteria about some sort of stolen election is nonsense.

I may not like the way the game is played(but the primary and the whole superdelegate process for the Dems is no fair process either)but she knew the rules. Clinton screwed up. She thought she was owed something. She wasn’t.

Well said, PA. Yep. Frank is excellent. My own views about how society should be organized are to his left, but I don’t think there’s a better “liberal” critique of current politics than his.

As in, I think we basically sync right up with the “is” part. But I’d go much further on the “ought” part. Regardless, I respect him and think his voice is very important. It’s up there with Hedges and Chomsky, though they all have different areas of interest and expertise, obviously. We go to them for different reasons, etc.

My own view of the WWIII thing . . . I personally don’t see that as even a possibility, especially due to the Russian probe. My gut tells me Putin couldn’t care less that we talk about “Russian meddling,” etc. etc. We’ve done so for more than two years and what has changed on his part? Are we really closer to a confrontation because of that discussion? I don’t see it.

I see us being closer to proxy battles because Trump escalated in Syria, not the Russian probe. In fact, our troops and theirs have actually engaged directly (in recent days), with casualties. If anything is going to start a hot war, it’s the expansion of military engagements by Trump, after Obama expanded them over Bush, after Bush expanded them over, etc. etc. etc.

As in, I don’t agree that we’re in a new “cold war” with Russia, especially not due to the discussion of Russian meddling. When have we not been in the midst of serious tensions with them? When has American foreign policy not been all too aggressive with regards to Russia (and most of the rest of the world)? When has Russia not sought the expansion of its empire as well?

Also, in a related angle:

I think too much of the critique regarding the existence of media’s focus on Russia-gate overlooks another obvious fact:

The GOP and Trump run the entire show. If we’re in the midst of tensions with Russia, they’re in charge. Not the media. Not the Dems. The GOP and Trump run the entire government, make all the policy, control all the levers of power. They even control most states.

This, to me, is totally separate from the rottenness of the Clinton campaign, the idiocy of running her, the Dems’ longstanding betrayal of the working class, etc. etc. None of what I mention in any way, shape or form absolves a single Democrat for what they’ve done or have failed to do.

I’m just saying that the reality of our governing situation is that the GOP has controlled Congress for . . . what? Eight years? And for the last year plus they’ve had the White House too. I’ve lost track of how long they’ve had the majority in the Supreme Court, but it’s been more than ten years, right? The states are dominated by the GOP as well.

Boiled down, any critique of the focus on Russia is missing a major part of the context if it doesn’t talk about the governing power in place right now.

wv wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

When you get the time… How is the system taking advantage of this? Do you see it as a similar opportunity to 9/11 and Bush and company’s exploitation of that?

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Yes. I think its just like the 9/11 thing — yes, the US was attacked…but the system ‘used’ the incident to do all kinds of hideous things, from war, to Patriot Act, to McCarthy-izms galore, etc.

I see the same thing happening with russia-gate. I mean even after 9-11 the corporate-internet didnt suppress TruthDig.

w
v

I can see that. Getting rid of Net Neutrality might be the first step. Surveillance will step up across the board, too. It’s going to take a LOT of pushback from activists to prevent a tiered, balkanized Internet, radically unequal, and geared toward the affluent, only. Signs have been pointing in that direction for years now.

On Truthdig: It has a lot of good articles right now, including Hedges on fighting fascism.

How We Fight Fascism

Did it win a court battle to return to search engines like Google? I missed what happened. I use duckduckgo instead of google, and got to it with no problem a moment ago.