jackie chan
Jackie Chan reads the latest Washington Post nonsense.
Last Sunday, I, like millions of people around the world, was intrigued by the collapse of Hillary Clinton at the 15th 9/11 memorial in New York City.

I quickly visualized ear-to-ear grins on those who were convinced Clinton has serious health problems. 'Vindicated!' I could hear them say.

Next, I turned my attention to the mainstream media, which had just spent the last year arrogantly scoffing at all those 'conspiracy theorists' claiming that Clinton is very (and possibly terminally) ill. I could see them squirming behind their rickety old typewriters, wondering how they'd wriggle out of this one. Belatedly, some in the MSM have now conceded that Clinton's health is a campaign issue.

I predicted that Putin would be blamed. So I waited for the shoe to drop. And I waited. And then waited some more. Hang on, let me scour Twitter again, surely it will be there...

Come on MSM, lift your game! Are you all worn out, bereft of inspiration, or just cringing at the thought of having to trundle out more hyper-russophobic fantasy? We all know the headline you want to write:
"Putin 'did a Litvinenko' on Clinton"
Isn't that the next logical step in your trumpeting of Clinton by demonizing Putin?

'Putin poisoned my president'

Picking up the baton from the shell-shocked MSM, Bennet Omalu - a forensic pathologist recently made famous thanks to the Hollywood dramatization of his theory about American football players developing brain injuries because of repeated concussions (duh!) - who piped up with the 'common sense' the US government desperately needed to get its conspiracy theory going:


For reference (it's surely only a matter of time before the good doctor deletes these tweets):
"I must advice (sic) the Clinton campaign to perform toxicologic analysis of Ms. Clinton's blood. It is possible she is being poisoned."
Then came the punch-line:


"I do not trust Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump. With those two all things are possible."
At least if I ever suffer concussion from repeatedly banging my head against the nearest hard surface every time I'm exposed to this media circus, I'll know who to turn to.

While some of the more "reputable" media outlets understood this to be taking the Putin-as-bogeyman-for-all-seasons script a little too far, there were others in the Anglo-American media who, perhaps seeing this as a way to reframe Clinton's health problems as yet more dastardly Russian hijinks, ran with the story.

Thus we got: While we can dismiss Omalu's incongruous mixing of medical expertise with baseless speculation, we can't be so forgiving of an MSM that is so thoroughly divorced from reality and in a state of stupefied buffoonery.

POTUS calls Putin 'poopy-head'

Next up, the stale, lame-duck, soon-to-be ex-president Barack Obama proved there is virtually no limit on the grubby insults that can be hurled across the Atlantic at Vladimir Putin, whom he compared to Saddam Hussein.

obama
Obama wouldn't know what a 90% popularity rating was if it slapped him in the face
Obama, perhaps overcome with populist euphoria, told the crowd at a Hillary Clinton campaign event in Philadelphia (Since when do incumbent presidents campaign on behalf of candidates?):
"When the interviewer asks him [Trump], 'why do you support this guy [Putin]?' He says, 'He is a strong guy. Look, he's got an 82 percent poll rating.' Well, yes, Saddam Hussein had a 90 percent poll rating."
Having already stooped so low, Obama then warmed to the task, maligning Putin further by saying, without a trace of irony:
"Now their nominee [Trump] is out there praising a guy, saying he's a strong leader, because he invades smaller countries, jails his opponents, controls the press, and drives his economy into a recession."
Obama has decimated whatever remained of his credibility and prestige. He has been cut adrift in the turbulent world of international relations, isolated and bewildered by the deflation of American hegemony. The heady cocktail of the US elections and Cold War 2 is too much to resist, as he desperately lashes out at Putin in an effort to bring his approved successor, Clinton, into the White House.

However, when it comes to outrageous vilification of a world leader, Hillary Clinton beats Obama to the punch. Back in 2014, Clinton compared Putin to Adolf Hitler.

hillary
This is the woman who, never shy with the rhetorical flourishes, said, "We can't cozy up to dictators, we have to stand up to them" (I think she means you, Putin) as she frequently schmoozes with the barbaric dictator-class of Saudi Arabia, who are currently massacring children in Yemen with American weapons and air support.

Also-rans

Then we have Richard McLaren, the "independent" Canadian lawyer who conducted an investigation for WADA into allegations of systematic Russian doping. McLaren relies on Grigory Rodchenkov, an alleged crook, as star witness, doesn't listen to the accused - Russia - and says he has evidence proving systematic Russian cheating, but won't disclose it. What, is this some 'national security', cloak-and-dagger issue that requires information about athletes' medical examination records to remain classified for decades? 'Kangaroo court' and 'show trials' spring to mind.

morell
Michael 'Murder Russians' Morell: Is that Himmler without a moustache?
Here's a man who would send chills up the spine of Darth Vader: Michael Morrell. "Let's kill some Russians in Syria," the former CIA deputy director recently said in an interview.

Throw in some Iranians, why don't you. And, for good measure, scare the hell out of Bashar al-Assad with a good old-fashioned American cruise missile blitz. You might kill some Syrians too, but hey, you gotta send a message to dictators. Wouldn't this guy be fun at a Sunday picnic? Just don't wear any red clothes.

'Putin' to rig US election

Another indefatigable, careerist russophobe, Anne Applebaum, weighed in with a ballistic pre-emptive strike in The Washington Post. Applebaum, doing her best Nostradamus impression, prophetically tells us Russia will (or is that 'may'?) hack and rig the US presidential election in November.

As if conscious of the slippery slope she is about to hurtle down, Applebaum made sure to cover all bases in her paranoid dystopian vision. The highly entertaining and talented Adam Johnson lampoons Applebaum's article, dissecting it to reveal just how unhinged and unbalanced Applebaum really is, and showing how Applebaum outlined all possible aims of any prospective Russian electoral trickery. Tick 'em all and one has to be right, doesn't it?
paul
If you're keeping track, we are now on our fourth layer of assumption. Thus far, Applebaum has speculated: Russia will rig the election โ†’ Russia frames Clinton for the rigging โ†’ Russia "reveals" the rigging at some unknown point โ†’ Trump "emerges" after some constitutional crisis and mass unrest. Whew.

At the end of it all, Russian subversion may not even work; or may not even get off the ground! Oh heaven of all anti-climaxes!
paul
Johnson, as exasperated as myself, you, and the lamp post, tweeted: "Like, how does this get past edits? It's utterly. absurd. speculation."

I
applebaum
Anne Applebaum, CFR member, media hack, rabid russophobe, dual Polish-American citizen, married to former Polish foreign minister Radosล‚aw Sikorski
t gets past editors, my friend, because it's written by someone who was once herself on the editorial board of The Washington Post. And because The Post, like many others, are in the business of 'creating reality', not reporting on it. Trump has already warned that the American establishment will try to rig the election for Clinton - and he's probably right.

If readers want to see real flaws in the US voting system, go straight past the baseless speculation by the likes of Applebaum and plant your eyes firmly on analysis of a deeply compromised voting system done by the likes of Election Justice USA and the Brennan Center for Justice. They examine repulsively anti-democratic (yet very American) electoral issues such as voters purged from the rolls, registration and ballot irregularities, voting problems at polling places, and the security and reliability flaws of outdated voting machines.

Don your helmets and prepare for a bumpy ride as speculation and insinuation about 'Russian hacking' goes into overdrive. We are in russophobic nirvana here and there is no way the squawkers are going to let the US elections slip by without maximum demonisation of the all-powerful, all-evil Vladimir Putin.