92

Trump’s Treasonous Traitor Summit or: How Liberals Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New McCarthyism

CJ Hopkins

This is completely rational and not at all hysterical or strange.

So it appears America and democracy have miraculously survived the dreaded Trump-Putin summit … or Trump’s meeting with his Russian handler, as the neoliberal ruling classes and their mouthpieces in the corporate media would dearly like us all to believe. NATO has not been summarily dissolved. Poland has not been invaded by Russia. The offices of The New York TimesThe Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC have not been stormed by squads of jackbooted Trumpian Gestapo. The Destabilization of the Middle East, the Privatization of Virtually Everything, the Conversion of the Planet into One Big Shopping Mall, and other global capitalist projects are all going forward uninterrupted. Apart from Trump making a narcissistic, word-salad-babbling jackass of himself, which he does on a more or less daily basis, nothing particularly apocalyptic happened.

And so, once again, Western liberals, and others obsessed with Donald Trump, having been teased into a painfully tumescent paroxysm of anticipation of some unimaginably horrible event that would finally lead to Trump’s impeachment (or his removal from office by other means) were left standing around with their hysteria in their hands. It has become a sadistic ritual at this point … like a twisted, pseudo-Tantric exercise where the media get liberals all lathered up over whatever fresh horror Trump has just perpetrated (or some non-story story they have invented out of whole cloth), build the tension for several days, until liberals are moaning and begging for impeachment, or a full-blown CIA-sponsored coup, then pull out abruptly and leave the poor bastards writhing in agony until the next time … which is pretty much exactly what just happened.

In the days and weeks leading up to the summit, the global capitalist ruling class Resistance deployed every weapon in its mighty arsenal to whip the Western masses up into a frenzy of anti-Putin-Nazi fervor. While continuing to flog the wildly popular baby concentration camp story (because the Hitler stimulus never fails to elicit a Pavlovian response from Americans, regardless of how often or how blatantly you use it), the corporate media began hammering hard on the “Trump is a Russian Agent” hysteria. (Normally, the corporate media alternates between the Hitler hysteria and the Russia hysteria so as not to completely short-circuit the already scrambled brains of Western liberals, but given the imminent threat of a peace deal, they needed to go the whole hog this time and paint this summit as a secret, internationally televised assignation between Hitler and … well, Hitler).

In order to render them even more repugnant in the eyes of Western liberals (as if being two Hitlers wasn’t repugnant enough), The New York Timesproduced this short porno graphically depicting Trump and Putin as insatiably horny homosexual lovers. A fusillade of apocalyptic op-eds followed, the most shamelessly paranoid and hysterical of which was Roger Cohen’s experimental dystopia, in which “The Alliance of Authoritarian and Reactionary States” trick the inherently fascist Europeans into launching a Second Holocaust with a “fake news” story about Moroccan migrants abducting poor little “Tatiana” from a beach resort in Fuengirola.

While faithful New York Times-reading liberals were still struggling to regain control of their sphincters and doubling up on their alprazolam prescriptions in a desperate attempt to banish these visions of the coming butch-gay Putin-Nazi Reich, go-to propagandist, Jonathan Chait, who has obviously been watching way too much Homeland, published this paranoid spec-fic novella (complete with a “Carrie is off her meds” flow chart) about how Trump has probably been “a Russian intelligence asset” since 1987. At the same time, MSNBC’s Malcolm Nance took to Twitter to denounce Glenn Greenwald as a treasonous “agent of Trump and Moscow” for physically traveling to a conference in Russia and speaking with several Russian people. Nance, who usually just makes things up, was actually telling the truth this time. Greenwald really did visit Russia, and was selfied in the company of Edward Snowden, on top of which he’s totally gay, and God knows what kind of Commie orgies go on in the Kremlin dungeon!

And the neoliberal “Resistance” was just getting started. As Trump was arriving at Stansted Airport to begin his “destruction of British diplomacy” (and possibly poison the Queen with more of that Novichok oatmeal that has been plaguing the UK), The Guardian‘s Owen Jones was personally preparing cells of the “London Resistance” for “the biggest demonstration in British history,” or “the biggest weekday protest in British history,” or a very large protest in any event. The London Resistance’s secret weapon was the baby Russian Agent Hitler blimp, which forced Trump and his Nazi goons to retreat to one of his Scottish golf resorts, but not before humiliating America, and horrifying The Washington Post, by failing to grovel before the British monarch. Still, the point is, London was saved. The forces of hatred, bigotry, and Russianness were roundly defeated by the forces of love, and goodness, and democracy, and tolerance, and whatever. If only the French had been willing to deploy a baby Hitler blimp in 1940 … or had been able to unite the corporate media, the intelligence agencies, the capitalist ruling classes, and thousands of virtue-signaling liberals to disapprove of the original Hitler!

But that wasn’t all … oh no, far from it. No, the weeks of white-eyed editorials warning us of the dangers of peace, the neo-McCarthyite smear campaigns, the virtue-signaling Stop Trump protests, all that was just an extended edition of Orwell’s famous Two Minutes Hate, designed to generate mass hysteria and paranoia in the run-up to the summit. By Friday, the Intelligence Community was issuing warnings of imminent Russian “attempts to undermine America” with September 11 scale “cyber attacks!” National Intelligence Director Dan Coats personally told the AssociatedPress that the little “Imminent Russia Attack” lights he has on his desk were all “blinking red.” Apparently, Trump and the Putin-Nazis are preparing “a crippling cyber attack” against “critical US infrastructure,” like “a power outage in New England in January,” or even “a cyber attack on banks” that will erase Americans’ entire life savings but somehow spare all the Russian accounts, or at least another devastating round of division-sowing Facebook ads!

Then, just in time for the corporate media to milk it throughout the weekend, special counsel Robert Mueller, III released a 29-page indictment accusing a bunch of Russian spies of, well, basically, being Russian spies. The indictment alleges that these Russian spies destroyed the campaign of Hillary Clinton, who everyone knows is supposed to be President, by “hacking” the Democratic Party’s servers and stealing and disseminating emails revealing both Clinton and the Democratic Party to be the soulless neoliberal hypocrites most people already knew they were. The indictment of these Russian intelligence officers (and no Americans, nor any other parties who can ever actually be brought to trial, requiring special counsel Mueller to offer evidence to support his allegations) was followed up by a chorus of voices demanding that the summit be cancelled and that Trump slink home in complete disgrace to confess his crimes to a vindicated nation, and then presumably fire his entire administration, resign, and appoint Hillary Clinton President.

Sometime early Sunday morning, after hours of careful deliberation over cheeseburgers and sodas on Air Force One with the Gorilla Channel streaming on his smartphone for ambiance, Trump decided to go ahead with the summit. This left the Resistance no other choice than to turn up the dial on the manufactured hysteria by repeating the words “treason,” “treasonous,” and “traitor” as many times as humanly possible on every news site, television channel, and social media platform in existence, and just generally running around like lunatics shrieking about an “IMMINENT RUSSIAN ATTACK!”

On the morning of the summit, Charles M. Blow, maestro of alliteration and subtlety, in The New York Times (which, we must remember, holds itself to the highest journalistic standards and in no way resembles a rabble-rousing tabloid), published this impassioned piece entitled “Trump, Treasonous Traitor,” accusing the President of “betraying the nation,” and basically demanding that he be tried for treason. “America is under attack,” Blow announces, “and its president absolutely refuses to defend it.”

If Mother Jones‘ David Corn has his way, Senator Rand Paul, who Corn denounces as “a traitor,” would also be taken outside and shot for the crime of noting that the Attack on America® Russia allegedly perpetrated is fairly standard clandestine behavior, engaged in by most developed nations, including the United States of America, whose history of election interference, coup-fomenting, assassinations, and other, more hamfisted forms of regime change is common knowledge, or at least it was, until the ruling classes and the corporate media turned the majority of Western liberals into paranoid McCarthyite fanatics denouncing anyone who questions the honesty of the US Intelligence Community as a “traitor,” and seeing Russians and Nazis coming out of the woodwork.

In the wake of Trump’s Treasonous Traitor Summit, which Garry Kasparov has called “the darkest hour in the history of the American presidency” (darker than Truman dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki!), the neoliberal establishment and the corporate media appear to have gone full Joe McCarthy. Virtually every establishment mouthpiece, former spook, official state clown, from Thomas Friedman to Stephen Colbert, have been braying about “treason” and “traitorousness,” and suggesting that Donald Trump be removed from office by, you know, whatever means necessary. At least David Frum, senior editor at The Atlantichad the balls to openly call for a CIA-orchestrated military coup, because we can’t afford to wait for the legal process to take its course this time, as we are “facing a national security emergency!”

God knows where we go from here. It’s hard to believe the ruling classes can keep teasing liberals, and other Trump-obsessives, over and over and over like this, without eventually impeaching or shooting the guy … but then again, maybe they can. Perhaps they intend to continue conducting this experiment all the way up to 2020, just to see how paranoid and mindlessly conformist they make the majority of the Western public. In any event, if they decide not to impeach him, and then try him for treason, or just kill him, or whatever, the Democrats at least have a new campaign slogan that they can use in 2018 and beyond … “NEXT TIME VOTE FOR WHO WE TELL YOU TO, YOU RUSSIA-LOVING NAZI SCUM!” It kind of has a ring to it, doesn’t it?

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Antonyl
Antonyl
Jul 23, 2018 8:55 AM

July 16, 2018 Statement from DNI Coats

The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the President and policymakers. We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security.

Daniel R. Coats, Director of National Intelligence

This was simultaneous with the Helsinki summit on July 16, 2018. Comparing the Russian and US deep state’s efforts to undermine US democracy, I have to say that the latter wins hands down.

john2o2o
john2o2o
Jul 21, 2018 9:48 PM

Love this article. One of the best the OG has published IMHO.

BUT, just one criticism: not “West” and “Western” – you should say “America” and “American.” We in most of Europe are also the “West”. Don’t tar us with the same brush!

Maybe even the author cannot bring him or herself to fully accept that this lunacy is 100% of American manufacture. Just as the election of Donald Trump as America’s president is 100% the fault of the very flawed American system.

And we in Europe are just not that stupid. Sorry Americans, I know the truth hurts, but you really are that dumb.

john2o2o
john2o2o
Jul 21, 2018 9:41 PM

Love this piece – one of the best that OG has published IMHO.

BUT just one criticism. Not the “West” or “Western” – you need to say “America” and “American”. Don’t tar us in Europe with the same brush!

Maybe even the author just can’t quite accept that this lunacy is 100% of American manufacture.

The European countries also call themselves the “West”, but they aren’t as stupid as Americans. (Sorry, guys – I know the truth hurts). Though, admittedly our British government and media is doing it’s best to join in!

systemicfraud
systemicfraud
Jul 21, 2018 3:22 AM

“Russia Russia Russia!!!” is all we’ve heard for the past few days–how many members of the media or former defense/intelligence officials are screaming about Boeing executives signing about $40 billion in contracts with Russian companies over the same period?

The US also criticized Germany for their NordStream2 pipeline–but Boeing is selling Russian companies freight jets which will primarily be used to transport oil equipment.

Notice you must visit 2 Russian sites (RT and Sputnik) to piece the deals together to get the $39 billion total…no US MSM has covered these deals in their totality. Search: Boeing Russia https://duckduckgo.com/?q=boeing+russia&t=ffsb&ia=web

Boeing Signs $12 Bln Deal to Sell Giant Cargo Planes to Russian Freight Firms: https://sputniknews.com/business/201807171066439769-boeing-cargo-planes-russia/

A Russian company, which specializes in transporting enormous items such as military and oilfield equipment, has signed a deal to buy $12 billion worth of cargo planes from Boeing. The planes will replace Volga-Dnepr Group’s aging fleet of Antonov aircraft.

The deal, announced at the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow in Britain, includes an order for five Boeing 747-8 Freighters — worth US$2 billion and a letter of intent to acquire 29 Boeing 777 Freighters, worth US$9.8 billion.

Volga-Dnepr Group and its UK-based subsidiary CargoLogic Holding also signed a package of agreements with Boeing for crew management and future development.

Volga-Dnepr Group is known for its fleet of huge Antonov An-124 Ruslan planes, but the Ukraine-based company, who date back to the Soviet Union, have closed down production and forced Russian companies to look elsewhere.

Boeing plans to spend $27bn on purchases in Russia: https://www.rt.com/business/433562-boeing-plans-purchases-russia/

American aircraft giant Boeing will spend billions of dollars in the next 30 years on direct purchases in Russia, President of Boeing in Russia and the CIS Sergey Kravchenko told TASS.

“Out of $27 billion that we are planning to spend on direct purchases in Russia within the next 30 years, $18 billion accounts for titanium purchases,” he said.

At the moment, the company buys most of its titanium products from Russia’s VSMPO-Avisma, which is the world’s largest producer of titanium and titanium parts. The contract expires in 2022…..

According to Kravchenko, Russian titanium will be mainly used for the production of the B777 and B787 Dreamliner…..

rilme
rilme
Jul 20, 2018 9:08 AM

Someone gave me a little magazine called “Review”, but it also says “The Guardian” at the bottom of the front cover. In the cover story, Michiko Kakutani, who wrote for the NY Times for a long time, attacks Donald Trump.

The story is peppered with holocaust this and “nazi” that, but soon Kakutani accuses Trump of lying: “Trump’s lies – about everything from the investigations into Russian interference in the election, to …”, and “Trump’s lies – about Russian interference in the US election …”. But then she doesn’t describe the lies; that’s all we get.

Kakutani writes well. She certainly knows that lying about interference is different from lying about an investigation, but she doesn’t state which words Trump used to lie about both those things. As an accusation it is insufficient.

Antonyl
Antonyl
Jul 20, 2018 9:00 AM

Ex boss FBI, James Comey: “If You Don’t Vote Democrat, You Don’t Believe In This Country’s Values”
http://thewashingtonstandard.com/james-comey-if-you-dont-vote-democrat-you-dont-believe-in-this-countrys-values/

March towards the One party state – permanent power – no more election nuisance.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 21, 2018 1:01 AM
Reply to  Antonyl

US ‘values’. My Lai and scores of other massacres in Vietnam. Secret bombing of Cambodia, killing hundreds of thousands. 200 years of supporting fascists and training and arming fascist death-squad butchers in Latin America, Dropping two A-bombs on defenceless civilians, to threaten the Soviet Union. Supplying fascist guerillas in Ukraine long after WW2 ended, and giving a refuge to Eastern European fascists for forty years. Genocide in Korea, Iraq, and Germany after WW2 (a well suppressed one). Genocide throughout the poor world by the imposition of the Washington Consensus of ‘Free Market’ capitalism. Overthrowing, subverting, sanctioning and otherwise INTERFERING in more countries, by orders of magnitude, that the rest of the world combined. Creating a society of VICIOUS inequality, social sadism, mass incarceration, police brutality, low-paid and precarious work, unaffordable heath-care, mass drug addiction, debased popular culture and social brainwashing unrivalled in history. I could go on all day. There are your really existing US values, red in tooth and claw.

paul metcalf
paul metcalf
Jul 20, 2018 8:24 AM

it is bad enough listening to mark regev never mind watching him.

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 20, 2018 7:37 AM
vexarb
vexarb
Jul 20, 2018 7:32 AM

The real traitors to the U$A are Obomba and the Klingons. Here is the disastrous result of their Enduring Resolve in Syria. If Trump had not won, his country would have suffered even more diplomatic humiliation and economic setback by now, with Obomba’s First Strike against Russia and Killary’s Pivot to China:

TEP btl SyrPer 1 hr ago:

“Syria has suffered terribly these last 7 years, .. but .. just consider the karma regarding Israel-U$ & Confederates: In attempting to destroy Syria they suffered considerable financial losses. U$ Billions spent on terrorist support & training, now buried with dead terrorists.
U$-Israel I$I$-AlQaeda regime-change tool has been largely destroyed.
U$ Billions spent on supplying terrorist weapons now belong to Syria, and combine with Russian AA to significantly boost Syrian defense. Instead of destroying Syria they have made her much more powerful.

The U$ has significantly lost influence and allies in the Middle East
Without the U$ presence, Israel is now significantly weakened
The Gulf vassal oil-monarchies have been exposed & may be in their last days

History may record this Syrian-Lebanese-Iranian-Russian victory as the end of the AngloZionist empire”
+16

[If there are any Yanks who really do believe that Russian President Putin helped Trump to defeat Obomba and the Klingons, then they must Thank God for Putin. Because if Killary Klingon had triumphed after her distastrous Syrian misadventure, the U$ sure to God would not now be considering the word Peace as the theme for a meeting between Putin and the POTU$.

kingfelix
kingfelix
Jul 20, 2018 5:00 AM

Would be a funnier piece if it were shorter, but nobody who writes regularly for Counterpunch appears to be capable of brevity.

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 20, 2018 12:26 PM
Reply to  kingfelix

@Felix. Yes, when working up such thin material it is better to use a Light Touch, not overwhip the souffle’e. Also by focussing his undoubted satiric talents on the froth, the author missed the best joke — the only piece of solid Intel in the whole affair: some money really was sent from Russia to influence the U$ election — but it was wired by a wealthy Jew to promote Trump’s opponent!

Of course it was Russian Intel who enlightened Trump, because U$ Intel hid that info from the POTUS. Another really funny fact from Putin’s real-world Intel (shoot me if I got it wrong!); it sems to me that the name of the Jew who wired anti-Trump money from Russia (a Bill Browder?) has popped up in OffG re two other sinister anti-Russian farces: StTheresa’s Skripal Farce and Jeremy Corbyn’s Magnitsky Farce, both currently running at the Westminster Theatre of the Absurd.

jazthings656986293
jazthings656986293
Jul 20, 2018 4:39 AM

wake me up when that happens!

Savorywill
Savorywill
Jul 20, 2018 2:19 AM

I used to regularly read Counterpunch. How disappointing it has become, especially since Trump. The articles cannot even criticize the current irrational hysteria about Trump cozying up to Russia, as if that could remotely be considered bad, without the obligatory rant about how terrible Trump is. It is like they feel they have to apologize for seeing anything positive in his presidency.

Actually, even since Alexander Cockburn passed away, the site plummeted away from honesty. Cockburn wasn’t an ideologue and unhesitatingly attacked anything that didn’t add up. He even had a go at AGW, which got him into a lot of trouble with the readers!

kingfelix
kingfelix
Jul 20, 2018 5:03 AM
Reply to  Savorywill

Agreed, CP went downhill right along with The Intercept. Would help if CP’s typical articles were not unedited, thesis-length efforts, prone to binges of political theory.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 20, 2018 8:53 AM
Reply to  Savorywill

Alexander Cockburn was excellent, but his anthropogenic climate destabilisation denial was embarrassing. Perhaps, if he was alive today the huge weight of evidence from reality would have made him change his opinion, to more closely approximate to reality.

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 20, 2018 12:47 PM

@Mulga. Re benefit of the doubt, thanks from another slow convert to the reality of Global Warming. There is hope for homo sapiens yet, it seems we may have a century left in which to convert enough believers to reverse mankind’s present proflgate combustion of Carboniferous compounds.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 21, 2018 1:04 AM
Reply to  vexarb

Here’s hoping.

savorywill
savorywill
Jul 20, 2018 2:26 PM

Sorry, I am not with you about the certainty of AGW. Granted global warming does happen, in fact there have been at least 4 ice ages, or more, each followed by long periods of global warming with no humans whatsovever to blame for that. I think these ‘climate scientists’ just cherry pick the data so they can keep their jobs!

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 20, 2018 6:45 PM
Reply to  savorywill

@Will, I would like to post you a copy of the ms which converted me. There have been 5 Mass Extinctions in the Earth’s lifetime, each one associated with a rise in atmospheric CO2. All previous MEs were due to Acts of God ie, volcanic eruptions. This one (unless we stop burning Carbon and eating meat) will be the first ME due to Acts of Men and Women. We are already committing a global atrocity known as Anthropophecene Mass Extinction of Non-Human Species; but it may go down as The Anthropophocene Mass Suicide Event; the first time in the Earth’s long history that an entire species namely, Homo Sapiens sapiens, ,has voluntarily attempted to commit suicide.

When my physicist friend, Dr.Colman Altman has published his review on CO2 in the 5 previous MEs, I shall post a Link in OffG.

rilme
rilme
Jul 20, 2018 10:14 PM
Reply to  vexarb

“voluntarily attempted to commit suicide”
No problem with that.
Shame about the big cats.

savorywill
savorywill
Jul 20, 2018 10:36 PM
Reply to  vexarb

Actually, I am a teacher and I sometimes ask my students what the percentage of the atmosphere is CO2, this dangerous greenhouse gas. The replies are always hilarious. I write their answers on the blackboard and they range from 10% to 50%, sometimes down as low as even 1%, which is rare. Then I explain that the percentage is 0.04% and it used to be 0.039% 40 years ago. It is this increase of 0.001% which is of such concern to the ‘climate scientists’. Doesn’t seem like much, does it? They are always astonished when I write that number down. I then explain that actually plant life, upon which we all depend, breathes CO2 and exhales oxygen, whereas we breathe oxygen and exhale CO2. Kind of a nice exchange, I think. The carbon we release through our industrial activities, just causes it to recycle through the system. Nothing gets lost, after all, as Earth is in a vacuum with nothing leaving to go anywhere.

Climate scientists would all lose their jobs if it was proven that global warming and cooling is out of human hands. Probably it is more likely the influence of the sun, but that is just guessing.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 21, 2018 1:26 AM
Reply to  savorywill

That you claim to be a ‘teacher’ perhaps explains the UK’s dreadful educational standard. The gibberish about CO2 levels in the atmosphere is one of the crudest and stupidest denialist canards of all time, one refuted by science 200 years ago by the likes of Fourier, Tyndall and Foote. The process whereby CO2 molecules trap heat in the Earth system is settled science, basic physics, and why, in part, Earth is fairly warm, and Mars a frozen desert and Venus a fiery Hell, and if you are not teaching your students such basic physics you are not a good teacher-but I somehow doubt that you really are. The anthropogenic climate destabilisation thesis is agreed to by ALL the Academies of Science and ALL the scientific societies on Earth, and against that consensus (and that of 99% of actively publishing climate scientists) we have one so-called ‘teacher’ accusing them all of being wrong or lying. It’s not just preposterous-it’s criminal.

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 21, 2018 7:22 AM
Reply to  savorywill

Will, this is not the place to debate global warming. But re that figure you give out, the rise of atmospheric CO2 from 300 parts per million to nearly 400 ppm may look small to you but it worries Dr.Altman. Here is a clip from his article:

“It seems that mass extinctions may occur whenever there is a massive volcanic lava outflow through a crust rich in carbonates (limestone or coal), releasing CO2 with ensuing global warming, or through sulfate bearing strata, such as gypsum, releasing hydrogen sulfide which is poisonous to all forms of life.

During the last 650,000 years atmospheric CO2 concentration never rose above 300 ppm. Today the CO2 concentration has already reached 400 ppm, CO2 continues to pour into the atmosphere and the increase in its concentration is unchecked. We have never had such a high level of CO2 in the last 20 million years. This rate of CO2 emission is now accelerating…

In the last 10-15 years scientists were of the opinion that 350 ppm was the upper limit, beyond which climate warming would rise uncontrollably. Some scientists predict that by the end of the century the CO2 concentration will exceed 1000 ppm”.

Thank you, Will, for your figure of 0.001% ie, only 1 part per million per 40 years, so it would take 40 * 600 = 2,400 years for CO2 levels to reach the 1000 ppm which some scientists predict; so, plenty of time. I shall be keeping a more watchful eye on the CO2 charts from now on. I am glad your pupils were stimulated to watch CO2 in addition to Pop charts).

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 21, 2018 8:01 AM
Reply to  vexarb

Oops! 24,000 years! Even more time.

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 21, 2018 8:35 AM
Reply to  vexarb

Oopsy Oops! My original calc 2,400 years from Will’s figures was correct. Compare with some warnings of only 100 years to reach 1000 ppm atmospheric CO2. Watch the charts to learn the facts; June-July measurement on the Earth’s Home Page around 410 ppm.

https://www.co2.earth/

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 21, 2018 2:04 PM
Reply to  vexarb

Will, where did you get that data which you show your pupils, only 10ppm rise in 40 years? Link below shows 80 ppm rise from 1978 to 2018. And accelerating; from which it would take only a century or two to reach 1000 ppm. Not being a climatologist, your 10 ppm means as little to me as their 80 ppm. But which one is the fact?

“Only the facts, Ma’am, just gimme the facts” — Dragnet

rilme
rilme
Jul 23, 2018 1:01 AM
Reply to  vexarb

You are right. The teacher should apologise to his students.

This graph shows the rise in CO2 from 350 ppm (0.035%) in 1978 (40 years ago). This increase of 0.005% is 400% bigger than the increase of 0.001% the teacher explained to his students. It is a huge mistake.
https://skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=433

Numeracy aside, for the sake of young minds the teacher needs to recuse himself from discussing science. As Todd Rundgren’s Heavy Metal Kid said: “Go on and poison all the water, use up all the air. Blow your stupid heads off; see if I could care.” Yes, we depend on plant life, and there is a (delicate) balance between the breathing of a billion rather large mammals (us) and the CO2 output of plants.

But now, suddenly, we are seven billion. We burn plants. We burn forests. Can you spell defoliant, agent orange, 2-4-5-T, dioxin, glyphosate, herbicide? We dig up coal, oil, methane and burn those, too.

It’s like I come into your house and burn all the furniture: No Problem! we keep the windows closed so nothing goes in or out. “Nothing gets lost, after all,”

Poor kids!

Savorywill
Savorywill
Jul 23, 2018 1:57 AM
Reply to  rilme

The difference between the percentages you state here, whether the increase was 0.005% or only 0.001% (mostly based on tree rings, or other questionable methods), the point is that CO2 is actually a very minor gas, compared to huge amount of Nitrogen and Oxygen, which constitute the nearly 80% and 20% of the Earth’s atmosphere respectively.

My point is that my students had the impression that CO2 being a big cause of global warming constituted a much larger percentage of the atmosphere than it is actually is. That is why the climate scientists prefer saying 350 ppm or 400 ppm because it sounds a lot more impressive than 0.0035% or 0.004%. That is probably why my students often said 35% or 29%, numbers such as those, from seeing the 350ppm type numbers used.

rilme
rilme
Jul 23, 2018 9:52 AM
Reply to  Savorywill

You, not the climate scientists, are trying to impress. You tell your students 0.0035%, even though that is harder for them to understand than 350 parts per million. Scientists are trying to clarify; you are talking about ten-thousandths of one percent, thirty-five of them.

So much for your (appallingly bad) numerical presentation of data. Your point about CO2 being a “minor gas” is truly pathetic. I’m not going to teach you.

Please stop talking rubbish to your students: stick to what you know.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 23, 2018 9:54 AM
Reply to  Savorywill

Your LIE about being a teacher is SO transparent that it is laughable. No education system anywhere would allow a ‘teacher’ to poison his pupils’ minds with such garbage. There are such things as curricula and inspectors who would root out this pernicious garbage, the type that high school chemistry and physics refute.

rilme
rilme
Jul 26, 2018 12:09 AM
Reply to  Savorywill

Since I said the graph shows the rise in CO2 since 1978, why would you imagine the scientists were measuring tree-rings?!

My guess is that you were in such a hurry to blurt more sci-nonsense that you didn’t look at the chart I linked to.

Its title is “Measuring CO2 levels from the volcano at Mauna Loa”. Now you might think that the CO2 is coming out of the volcano, but that’s not how it works. Tree rings!

rilme
rilme
Jul 23, 2018 1:53 AM
Reply to  vexarb
Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 21, 2018 1:17 AM
Reply to  savorywill

Unfortunately the current period of warming and climate destabilisation is not natural, as the examples you cited were. In recent times we have gone in and out of Ice Ages because of the Milankovitch Cycles, of changes in the Earth’s orbit and in the angle of tilt of the axis of rotation etc. These drive slow, centuries long, changes in climate, and the warmings out of Ice Ages are exacerbated by rises in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, principally of CO2.
This time, in contrast, the warming and destabilisation is being driven by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, and ancillary changes like deforestation. This anthropogenic change is occurring at least ten times faster than the natural processes of Ice Age turning to Interglacial, and back again.
There have been ‘natural’ occurrences like this, where greenhouse gas emissions, from huge volcanic eruptions like those that created the Siberian and Deccan Traps raised CO2 levels greatly, often accompanied by huge emissions of methane, and the world went into the hot-house for millennia, and the oceans warmed, stagnated, de-oxygenated and began belching hydrogen suplhide from anaerobic bacteria, and Life on Earth suffered one of its five (now six) mass extinction episodes. We have now entered such a state, even more rapidly than almost ever in the past (the only more rapid mass extinction came after the meteor/comet strike in Yucatan that finished off the dinosaurs)and no amount of denialism is going to change that reality.

savorywill
savorywill
Jul 21, 2018 1:44 AM

Just search Alexander Cockburn, global warming, on Counterpunch and read what he had to say about it. It was reading his questioning on this topic, over 10 years, which made me look more deeply into this. There was a big scandal a while back where the current findings of arctic ice thickness, etc., were not supportive of the theories, so the ‘climate scientists’ tried to hid the data.

I also recommend listening to James Corbett, on the corbettreport.com, about this. He carefully debunks it all, if you don’t mind being disillusioned from time to time (I find it refreshing, actually!).

Here is a link from Alexander Cockburn on this:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2007/06/09/dissidents-against-dogma/

savorywill
savorywill
Jul 21, 2018 1:48 AM
Reply to  savorywill

Actually, just search for the dialogue between George Monbiot and Alexander on this topic. It was all published on Counterpunch back then. It was hilarious! George Monbiot is ‘Mr. AGW’ and a fervent believer in this theory. Who knows why? But Alexander smelled a rat and he never backed down from confronting dogma, from whatever direction. His passing was the end of Counterpunch being worth reading, in my view, for the most part.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 21, 2018 10:08 AM
Reply to  savorywill

Monbiot believes in anthropogenic climate destabilisation because he believes in science and can open his eyes and mind and see the irrefutable evidence. What is bizarre and criminal to an unprecedented extent is to deny the unarguable evidence of rapid climate and weather destabilisation. That truly defies belief.

Savorywill
Savorywill
Jul 22, 2018 2:03 PM

Monbiot is an insufferable fool, so full of himself. He gets hammered all the time here on OffG. After the Fukushima nuclear meltdown he stated that he was more sure than ever that nuclear power was the way to go, to stop global warming!! I was disgusted to read that. Probably these AGW pushers are in the pocket of the nuclear power industry. And who does pay the salaries of all those ‘climate scientists’, out of our taxes, no doubt. So, we’d better believe in AGW to justify it!

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 22, 2018 11:41 PM
Reply to  Savorywill

Yes, Monbiot is stupid re. nuclear power, in my opinion. But no-one is correct about everything, or incorrect. Why, even you might be sane and balanced on other subjects than anthropogenic climate destabilisation. I actually see nuclear as not just unnecessary, given renewable energy progress, not just dangerous, not just far too expensive, not just uninsurable, but also as a stalking-horse for fossil fuels, a vastly greater industry. Money wasted on nuclear instead of renewables is money wasted that delays the advance of renewable energy to fossil fuels’ advantage. What is your position in regard to renewable energy? And do you actually expect scientists to work for nothing? Are there any other occupations that you think should be unpaid?

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 21, 2018 10:04 AM
Reply to  savorywill

Utter gibberish! Why listen to Cockburn and Corbett, both non climate scientists, and NOT to ALL the Academies of Science on the planet? And the evidence from reality is overwhelming-record hot years, El Nino and La Nina. Record coral bleachings, worldwide. Highest ever recorded sea temperatures. Hemisphere wide heat-wave, at present, in the Northern Hemisphere. Record deluges and floods due to increased atmospheric water vapours (a powerful positive feed-back). Montane glaciers disappearing everywhere. Arctic sea ice disappearing in summer. Antarctic ice melting MUCH faster than predicted, and the same situation in Greenland. Exploding methane pingos detonating across Siberia as the perma-frost melts. The line of permafrost retreating northwards, rapidly. Record megafires everywhere, even above the Arctic Circle, and in far north Sweden. Are you going to deny ALL that?

savorywill
savorywill
Jul 21, 2018 11:41 AM

Both Cockburn (who sadly is no longer with us) and James Corbett (who luckily is) look at the issue with eyes open, climate scientists or not. And, remember that without humans being responsible for climate warming, and the studies to prop up that notion, all those climate scientists would out of a job. That is certainly something to consider.

By the way, if you actually read the link I posted here, you will see that Alexander Cockburn does use legitimate scientists as references.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 22, 2018 1:00 AM
Reply to  savorywill

I know the Cockburn garbage from when it was published. Cockburn was probably the last ‘Leftist’ denialist. It is entirely Rightwing paranoia, ideological fanaticism and hatred of Life on Earth, now. Your two citations, Cockburn and Corbett, somehow in your ‘teacher’s’ mind (God help the children) outweigh ALL the Academies of Science on the planet. Why on Earth is that so, if ideological fanaticism is not involved? What sort of denier are you? One who simply denies the FACT of near universal scientific consensus, and gibbers rubbish about scientists daring to be paid for their work, while ignoring the tens of trillions in fossil fuel assets and tens of billions in annual profits? Or one who, in some delirium of egomania, thinks he knows better than the scientific community, who are all fools? Or a paranoid Rightist who, without a scintilla of evidence, with not one whistle-blowing scientific defector to hang your conspiracy theory on, declares that tens of thousands of scientists, across the world, and numerous scientific organisations, are ALL involved in a massive conspiracy? And all this sordid imbecility is in the service of trying to prevent humanity from saving itself from an apocalyptic catastrophe. Wickedness does NOT come deeper than this.

Savorywill
Savorywill
Jul 22, 2018 2:08 PM

It is amazing how people resort to name calling when intellectually challenged nowadays. It is sign of weakness, a childish, immature way to discuss issues, but it seems to be more and more the norm in these confusing times.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 22, 2018 11:47 PM
Reply to  Savorywill

You couldn’t ‘intellectually challenge’ Gavin Williamson. ‘Intellectually challenged’ is far more like your position. This is plainly the most vitally important question in all human history, and intellectually and morally challenged (and FAILED) creatures like you with your irrational, anti-scientific, paranoid and just plain stupid disinformation are doing your worst, for reasons that defy comprehension by the morally sane, to prevent humanity acting to avert the greatest catastrophe, perhaps, the last, in human history. So, be assured, I hold you in very great disdain and contempt.

rilme
rilme
Jul 23, 2018 1:39 AM
Reply to  savorywill

“all those climate scientists would out of a job”
Seriously, savorywill, that is a throwaway line. I expect that’s how you speak to your students, and you really shouldn’t. It is wrong on many levels, and rather implies that the scientists are being self-serving and dishonest, maybe even lying to get their grants or keep their jobs. Your “all” means 100% of them, which cannot be true; in my most cynical moments I might agree to 5%.

We need climate scientists. Even if the climate is not changing. Even if it is changing, but not due to humans burning everything in sight. And even if it is changing because of all those stupid asphalt car parks. (That’s a point, actually, if you don’t think humans change the climate, go and stand in a sunny car park for your lunch hour. It’s not a punishment, but an education.)

I’d like to thank these climate scientists for their research, their honesty, their clear exposition, and beautiful logic:
https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Savorywill
Savorywill
Jul 23, 2018 2:36 AM
Reply to  rilme

If climate scientists challenge the narrative of AGW in any way, they are most certainly out of job, which is a huge deal when your occupation is based on that. Watch this link of one errant climate scientists who had her doubts and got severely hammered for daring question the orthodoxy:

rilme
rilme
Jul 23, 2018 9:59 AM
Reply to  Savorywill

OK, Savorywill, go ahead and listen to all kinds of twits Twittering. Meanwhile, back in the real world:
https://russia-insider.com/en/arctic-warming-cuts-eu-shipping-time-asia-50-russia-big-winner/ri22004

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 23, 2018 10:01 AM
Reply to  Savorywill

You omnicidal denialist zealots are NOTHING if not fanatic. There have been no defections from the climate consensus save for a few, mostly old, renegades, many on the fossil fuel payroll and some graduates of the tobacco harm denialist industry. And there are a few who misrepresent the science for clearly ideological reasons, and then there is the 99% plus consensus position. You creatures never give up, do you.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 23, 2018 10:03 AM
Reply to  rilme

He doesn’t have any ‘students’. He’s just another vile denialist inventor. These creatures often claim to be scientists and the like, and ‘teacher’ shews some inventiveness.

Savorywill
Savorywill
Jul 24, 2018 12:15 AM

Mulga, you are an obnoxious person, whoever you are. There was no need for you to resort to denigrating me, not knowing who I am, simply because I challenged the AGW narrative. It is like you are one of the self-proclaimed priests of orthodoxy and how dare I challenge you, as if I have violated the sacred creed of faith that you so religiously uphold. That is what Alexander Cockburn got in trouble for doing, and after his run-in with his co-editor, Jeffrey St. Clair, over this very topic, he published less and less until his death. And, you can see what has happened to Counterpunch, where anyone who questions the prevailing narrative (like Diana Johnstone) is not published, unless they preface their comments with assuring the reader that Trump is a racist pig, especially if the article contains any necessarily muted praise of even something so obviously good as Trump directly communicating with both Kim Jong Un and Putin.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 24, 2018 12:36 PM

UNSavoury-anthropogenic climate destabilisation is the greatest threat to human survival ever. To actively lie and distort the evidence for its rapid progress, even its existence, is Evil far, far beyond the Evil of Holocaust denial. That is because the victims are not yet dead, and might yet be saved, and number one hundred times as many as all the victims of Nazi crimes and WW2. There is a slightly reduced level of Evil involved in stupid and ignorant disinforming based on stupidity and ideological fanaticism. You know which type of criminal you are, and I don’t really care. Both are loathsome and wicked, and you thoroughly deserve denigration, or, to be more accurate, description.

timfrom
timfrom
Jul 20, 2018 5:52 PM

Patrick Cockburn’s worth checking CP for. And Robert Fisk. In fact that’s where I first saw this article the other day. Didn’t know they’d purged Diana Johnstone and Andre Vltchek (see Gary Weglarz below). That’s a shame. Johnstone did some cracking pieces on Killary.

rilme
rilme
Jul 22, 2018 7:24 AM

But Mulga, isn’t it possible that digging up millions of tons of coal, billions of litres of oil, and billions of cubic metres of methane — and burning them — could have little or no effect on Earth’s climate?

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 22, 2018 9:09 AM
Reply to  rilme

Only if you prefer ideology to science-then you can burn the lot, and it will just be ‘plant-food’. As we will be, if any plants survive.

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jul 20, 2018 3:45 PM
Reply to  Savorywill

Counterpunch hasn’t just gone downhill, it has free fallen into the abyss. Within the last year they stopped carrying the excellent anti-imperialist work of both Diana Johnstone and Andre Vltchek, while publishing the odious pro-CIA war narratives re: Syria of Melvin Goodman and Louis Proyect. Really? C.J. Hopkins and John Steppling are the ONLY reasons I bother to check the Counterpunch site anymore, and John hasn’t been published there since April, so I’m wondering if he too may have been quietly “disappeared” by the oh so progressive editors as perhaps “too progressive” in calling out imperial war mongering. Very sad. C.J.’s commentary on our U.S. Russiagate hysteria is a true bright spot always worth reading. One can also follow him at his own website for these updates on our ever growing collective madness here in the U.S.

vierotchka
vierotchka
Jul 20, 2018 12:10 AM

CJ Hopkins, you do have a way with words! I loved it!

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Jul 20, 2018 12:04 AM

Trump’s hubris will not allow him to believe that the Russians ‘influenced’ the election.
Trump’s hubris does not allow him to tolerate instructions or advice from anyone.
(The last person to tell him what to do was probably his mother. And that was at least sixty years ago).

axisofoil
axisofoil
Jul 20, 2018 12:18 AM
Reply to  Fair dinkum

Good. I like hearing that there is an individual, rather than a Pentagon puppet as commander in chief. Peace rather than war is certainly an idea outside the box.Maybe now we will at least slow down our funding of terrorists, Nazi’s and death squads and start doing something constructive.BTW…What was the exact wording of the apology given the Iraqi people for having believed our intelligence community about WMD’s? I can’t remember.

rilme
rilme
Jul 20, 2018 3:12 AM
Reply to  axisofoil

Exact wording: “USUK never apologises, but we are very sorry for destroying your country and murdering the president. Colin Powell held up that little thingy and said it proved you had nukes, and we believed him. “Tony” B Liar said he had “seen the evidence”, and we believed him. Sorry about that. Still, at least war-criminal Ari von Windsor didn’t visit Iraq to pop off a few natives, like he did in Afghanistan. I guess we’ll have to not apologise to them, too.”

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Jul 20, 2018 3:36 AM
Reply to  Fair dinkum

To clarify:
The US elections are rigged by only one group: The One Per Cent. It was ever thus.
Trump’s vanity precludes him from believing the lies of the ‘intelligence’ agencies.
He prefers to wallow in his own cesspool of vainglorious victory.

axisofoil
axisofoil
Jul 20, 2018 5:09 AM
Reply to  Fair dinkum

Are we saying here that one mans vanity has trumped the 1 per cent? They must be perplexed at their choice, confused with their naivety and squealing about their loss of control. Poor things. Someone is going to have to die now. Maybe a bunch of people. Wonder what they will come up with.

Baron
Baron
Jul 19, 2018 10:37 PM

One of the most enjoyable pieces on the madness of the progressives, thank you Mr. Hopkins.

What those pushing the idea of the Russian hacking of the DNC servers are forgetting is that it furnishes a powerful evidence (if true) that the 17 US security agencies aren’t really fit for purpose if they allowed it to happen.

The Donald should point this out, argue for both the punishment of those in charge of the agencies (the charge: the failure to protect the integrity of the US electoral system) as well as for the complete refurbishment of the lot of them.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 19, 2018 11:25 PM
Reply to  Baron

Yes, but one of the root lies is that the DNC servers were hacked, when, in fact, the e-mails were leaked by an insider.

axisofoil
axisofoil
Jul 20, 2018 12:23 AM

Who was then killed.

eagle eye
eagle eye
Jul 21, 2018 11:44 PM
Reply to  axisofoil

on his way to meet with the FBI, allegedly by muggers who left behind a wallet full of cash and credit cards.
Go figure.

axisofoil
axisofoil
Jul 19, 2018 8:34 PM

I had the unpleasant experience yesterday of being in a home which watched CNN. It is clear to me that if there would ever again be an equivalent of the Nuremberg trials, Anderson Cooper would most certainly get the death sentence.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 19, 2018 11:28 PM
Reply to  axisofoil

I watched five minutes of Madcow, which was HILARIOUS, but even better was five minutes of a far Right nutter called Levin on FoxNews. Levin correctly recognised that the ‘liberal’ fakestream media presstitutes are psychopaths, but lacks insight into his own deep pathology.

axisofoil
axisofoil
Jul 20, 2018 12:20 AM

I totally agree. This is all rhetoric inside an insane asylum.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 20, 2018 8:58 AM
Reply to  axisofoil

‘The persecution and assassination of Jean-Paul Trump by the inmates of the asylum of Exceptionalstan under the direction of the Marquise de Sade-Clinton’.

rilme
rilme
Jul 20, 2018 3:15 AM

This aint no time for levity.

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jul 20, 2018 4:06 PM

having trouble posting this – hope it isn’t a duplicate:

Glad to see people checking out U.S. media to see how absolutely bat-shit crazy it has all become over here. It really gives one a perspective on how difficult and challenging C.J. Hopkin’s job is in trying to actually “satirize” a corporate media that has essentially become a sort of self-parody already.

Our U.S. propaganda apparatus is absolutely the envy of the world. It is seamless. You can listen to or watch your daily “Russiagate” propaganda on right wing Fox News, complete with thinly disguised racism and misogyny, or at more “progressive” MSNBC where Rachel Maddow requires a bib to contain her spittle splattered Russiagate rages. You can get your daily dose at “liberal” National Public Radio with classical music interludes, or at Public television with pretentious blather, or at more conservative Washington Post complete with open CIA connections. One thing is for sure – if you live in the U.S. and you access ANY mainstream media you Will get your daily dose of our Russiagate insanity.

PS – don’t let the fact that we are the most heavily armed lunatics planet earth has ever seen worry you – since we only invade and kill you “because we love democracy,” and “because we’re ‘exceptional.'”

rilme
rilme
Jul 22, 2018 7:04 AM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

The intelligent American might switch off the TV and turn to books. The Oxford University Press sounds like a good publisher, but Lo: it publishes The Scofield Bible. Don’t stop reading: you don’t have to read the whole bloody thing, but everyone should be aware of the conspiracy theory surrounding that very odd book.

Googling “scofield+oup+oxford+university” turns up zilch.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=zionist+scofield+oup+oxford+university&t=h_&atb=v92-2_f&ia=web

Now we see it!

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jul 20, 2018 4:02 PM
Reply to  axisofoil

Glad to see people checking out U.S. media to see how absolutely bat-shit crazy it has all become over here. It really gives one a perspective on how difficult and challenging C.J. Hopkin’s job is in trying to actually “satirize” a corporate media that has essentially become a sort of self-parody already.

Our U.S. propaganda apparatus is absolutely the envy of the world. It is seamless. You can listen to or watch your daily “Russiagate” propaganda on right wing Fox News, complete with thinly disguised racism and misogyny, or at more “progressive” MSNBC where Rachel Maddow requires a bib to contain her spittle splattered Russiagate rages. You can get your daily dose at “liberal” National Public Radio with classical music interludes, or at Public television with pretentious blather, or at more conservative Washington Post complete with open CIA connections. One thing is for sure – if you live in the U.S. and you access ANY mainstream media you Will get your daily dose of our Russiagate insanity.

PS – don’t let the fact that we are the most heavily armed lunatics planet earth has ever seen worry you – since we only invade and kill you “because we love democracy,” and “because we’re ‘exceptional.'”

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 20, 2018 6:52 PM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

@Gary. Dont you Exceptionals ever worry that you might not be so Exceptional? That what goes around comes around? That real war may be coming to a Walmart near you?

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Jul 20, 2018 8:33 PM
Reply to  vexarb

Vexarb – ah, you obviously don’t understand the American psycho, err, uh, rather psyche! Here it is an act of faith among the majority of the population that “we” the citizens = “America” = a nation “for, by and of the people.” And since “we” the citizens don’t really mean anyone ill or harm, when “America” bombs you “we” by virtue of our virtuous good intentions have nothing to do with it, meaning “we” are not really guilty of murder, torture, war crimes, etc. and we are totally baffled as to why you would think we are.

Admittedly this is a difficult concept to grasp for most non-Americans. It is almost a theological position, kind of like the mysterious “three gods in one” stuff with the whole “holy trinity” thing, but hey, trust me on this, most American I know of all stripes don’t miss a wink of sleep over the many tens of millions of deaths our nation is responsible for just in my lifetime alone. This is not because they want others to suffer and die, they simply see themselves as magically totally separate from the mayhem our nation causes daily and they implicitly assume on faith that in fact any such mayhem awareness that slips through the propaganda net and enters their consciousness is always mayhem done only for the good of humanity.

The whole “America is the exceptional nation” and one dedicated to “full spectrum dominance” stuff is of course no different than the Nazi “master race” and “1,000 year reich” nonsense of yore. It is delusional and I dare say certifiably insane (and I say this as a retired therapist). However, if you point this out to the average American he/she will look at you like you somehow just landed from somewhere in outer space. It would be like telling a three-year-old that Santa Claus is dead or is simply a made up fake and then expecting a mature well reasoned response. Trust me, you won’t get one.

We are an armed madhouse and you (the world) should expect nothing rational or humane to emanate from our boarders. The only hope for humanity that I can see is if the rest of the world rallies and together opposes our mass military and economic violence posing as always as – “love of democracy and human rights.” I hate to be a downer, but I hope this clarifies things. I have never seen my nation so totally out of touch with reality. It is quite frightening.

Harry Stotle
Harry Stotle
Jul 19, 2018 8:02 PM

The astonishing convulsions in the media illustrate how divorced the commentariat are from well documented antecedents to US exceptionalism.

Chomsky correctly refers to the US as the world’s leading terror state, a malignant power that has worked against democracy at home and abroad ever since 1945 (including the murder of former presidents, civil rights activists and probably thousands of citizens in NY).

The hand wringing over Trump (admittedly a ghastly figure) is totally denuded of historical reality.
How on earth do any of them expect to be taken seriously, a reason perhaps why the censors and memory hole at places like Guardian Towers have gone into overdrive.

0use4msm
0use4msm
Jul 19, 2018 5:10 PM

In The Guardian, Andrew Gawthorpe endorses a return of political rat-f**king: Remember Nixon. US spy agencies are vital to bringing down Trump. Apparently, only the CIA can save western civilisation now!

But the current hysteria not only brings up memories of the CIA-driven soft coup that was Watergate, but also of the deep state’s outright hatred of JFK. I was struck by a passage about Army Private First Class Eugene B. Dinkin, who predicted JFK’s assassination, tried to warn people and was locked-up in an army psychiatric ward for doing so:

In September, 1963, Dinkin noticed material in the Army newspaper, Stars and Stripes, and other print publications, that was negative toward the president and his policies and implied that he was a weak president in dealing with the Russians. The examples that he found became more negative, the suggestion being that if he were removed as president it would be a good thing.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 19, 2018 11:31 PM
Reply to  0use4msm

Dinkin didn’t ‘predict’ the assassination, but intercepted messages, in his military duties, that revealed the conspiracy. He was lucky not to have simply been eliminated, like so many others. It’s ‘Our Moral Values, don’t you know.

Vlad the Inhaler
Vlad the Inhaler
Jul 19, 2018 4:36 PM

Perhaps Charles M Blow should really be called Charles M Blowhard.

Antonyl
Antonyl
Jul 19, 2018 4:32 PM

https://twitter.com/JohnBrennan/status/1018885971104985093 :
Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???

Brennan, who led the CIA to spy on US Congress while they were investigating CIA’s secret torture and detain program talks about treason? https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/world/senate-intelligence-commitee-cia-interrogation-report.html

How come this clown is not behind bars?

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 19, 2018 11:36 PM
Reply to  Antonyl

Brennan also led the CIA operation to install a fascist putschist regime in Kiev. He is an American Nazi, like so many others. Nazis hate Russians because Russians, or more correctly Soviets, kicked their backsides seventy years ago.

Antonyl
Antonyl
Jul 20, 2018 8:47 AM
Reply to  Antonyl

Brennan walking free, busy on MSNBC, even still having security clearance despite being retired (just like Clapper) says as much about him as about the sorry state of the present American lawmaking / judicial /governmental apparatus.
http://thewashingtonstandard.com/why-do-john-brennan-james-clapper-still-have-security-clearance-while-working-for-cnn-msnbc/

Edwige
Edwige
Jul 19, 2018 4:13 PM

“NATO has not been summarily dissolved”.

More’s the pity….

theroyalsecretinfo
theroyalsecretinfo
Jul 19, 2018 3:33 PM

Hilarious piece. Forget McCarthyism. Forget the Nazis. Liberal fascists surpass all. Having left Putin alone to defeat ISIS and rescue Assad will Trump now settle for peace with Russia and a no go in Iran? The daring duo to save the world. Then what for the liberals? Self immolation one might hope.Hallelujah!

Einstein
Einstein
Jul 19, 2018 8:40 PM

They are an insult to the word “liberal”.
The CIA, CNN and all the rest of the ‘Deep State’ have shown their true colours: intolerant McCarthyists wholly controlled by the banksters, the corporations and the MIC.

vexarb
vexarb
Jul 19, 2018 8:57 PM

@RoyalSecret: “Having left Putin alone to defeat ISIS and rescue Assad will Trump now settle for peace with Russia and a no go in Iran?”

Dr.Assad of Syria and President Putin of Russia are not exactly alone, they have support from other anti-ISIS forces namely Hezb’Allah of Lebanon, the Republican Guard of Iran and the Peoples Army of Iraq — with China supplying financial “soft power” in the foreground and military hard muscle in the background. In 2013 when NATZO lined up its regular army (including the IDF) against Syria but became too scared to use them against Syria + Russia + Iran + China, I predicted that NATZO’s ragtag mercenaries would be no match for the Syrian regular army, and the only question would be: would defeated ISIS terrorists be allowed to retreat to Israel and Jordan where they came from? I guessed correctly in 2013 that Israel was willing to patch ISIS up and send them into Syria, but it would be a one-way ticket.

Canthama of SyrPer reports on the present situation of Obomba’s and Killary’s terrorist children in Syria:

“The northern front line of occupied Golan has the largest numbers of Israeli backed al Qaeda terrorists. These terrorists were denied entry [back into Israeli-occupied Syrian] Golan and forced to be part of a “buffer zone” [outside the Israeli fence across Israeli occupied Syrian Golan]. [The AlQaida terrorists that Israel patched up, armed and supported with the IDF, now face a stark choice] either fight and die for Israel [the Israel that has abandoned them] or take the green buses to Idlib [humanitarian gesture by Dr.Assad and President Putin].

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=pt&lat=33.006936&lon=36.021423&z=11&m=b
+18 ”

I suggest the best thing Trump can do is leave the rest of the world to solve its problems without help from Uncle $cam, and try to solve the U$ own problems with help from Uncle Putin, who is Trump’s (and the U$A’s) best friend, and has given the POTUS valuable info about evil Obama and the Klingons.

Above all, O Great POTUS, O Man from Uncle, Leave us alone — please, please don’t help us. “When the Yanks fired everyone, friend and foe alike, ducked” — WW2 saying.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 19, 2018 11:42 PM
Reply to  vexarb

The bulk of surviving Daash butchers are safe and sound in the illegally occupied US enclave in North-eastern Syria, where they are no doubt being retrained and re-equiped after the US rescued them from the Raqqa hell-hole. The USA has used Islamist Wahhabist butchers as catspaws since the 1970s in Afghanistan, in Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Bosnia, Kosovo, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Chechnya, Xinjiang etc, so why would they ever cease doing so?

bevin
bevin
Jul 19, 2018 2:43 PM

Frum of course is actually from Canada, the son of a successful real estate speculator and, I believe, dentist. His mother was a CBC news ‘presenter.’ His sister if I am not mistaken is an appointed Senator. Naturally he has strong feelings about foreigners interfering in US elections.
The underlying problem is that there really isn’t much difference between Trump and his neo-con and ‘liberal’ critics: in him they see their real unconscious selves- letting them down by refusing to pretend to tick the identity politics boxes in which they anchor their hypocrisy.
Apart from the most superficial image, that they are at great pains to project, they are just like him, greedy, obsequious, unprincipled, dishonest and narcissistic.
It is always best to recollect that McCarthyism was pursued most enthusiastically by liberals and former socialists- it was they, rather than the old conservatives, who felt threatened by the real left which threatened them, and their privileged positions, by pushing for equality and fraternity. The two things that the petit bourgeoisie fears most because they erase the gap between them and the masses.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Jul 19, 2018 11:47 PM
Reply to  bevin

If you listen to Chomsky’s Massey lectures for the Canadian broadcaster, from 1988, regarding the media as propaganda machine, you will hear, during the Q & A session with Canadian media, a pipsqueak accusing Chomsky of being a hypocrite, because he spends so much time agitating for the Palestinians, but none for the Kurds.Chomsky crushes the Zionist insect by listing all the efforts he had made on behalf of the Kurds. That bug was David Frum-it is a delicious moment.

summitflyer
summitflyer
Jul 20, 2018 2:01 AM

Frum is one staunch zionist .I have never found anything said about or by the man to be very impressive.He is first and foremost all about what Netanyahu espouses.Typical from his crowd supporters.

rilme
rilme
Jul 20, 2018 3:22 AM
Reply to  summitflyer

Sort of like Mark Regev, or whatever he calls himself now.