Seth Rich
This is unsurprisingly getting zero mainstream attention, but all the Russia hysteria that has engulfed American discourse has actually placed all terrestrial life in grave danger. Dr. Stephen Cohen, easily the foremost American authority on US-Russia relations, said in an interview with RT last week that this may be the most dangerous that tensions between the two nations have ever been in his lifetime. Cohen was born in 1938.
After exchanging a few wisecracks with the host about mainstream America's attitude towards RT (friendly reminder for perspective that CNN recently staged a fake interview featuring a seven year-old girl reading scripted war propaganda to manufacture consent for regime change in Syria), Cohen said the following:
"You know it's easy to joke about this, except that we're at maybe the most dangerous moment in US-Russian relations in my lifetime, and maybe ever. And the reason is that we're in a new cold war, by whatever name. We have three cold war fronts that are fraught with the possibility of hot war, in the Baltic region where NATO is carrying out an unprecedented military buildup on Russia's border, in Ukraine where there is a civil and proxy war between Russia and the west, and of course in Syria, where Russian aircraft and American warplanes are flying in the same territory. Anything could happen."Again, this man is an internationally renowned expert in this field. If you disagree with what he's saying, you can safely assume that you are wrong, get the heck over yourself and start absorbing this new information. Cohen is a member of the US Council on Foreign Relations, has authored countless books, articles and essays about US-Russia relations, and has served as a consultant on Russian affairs for major news networks both on and off camera. When he says we should be getting nervous about the possibility of near-term human extinction because of tensions along these three cold war fronts, we should listen to him.
The still unproven accusation that the DNC emails released by WikiLeaks were originally taken by Russian hackers was what began the manufacturing of support for these escalations. Americans generally didn't think much about Russia until the mainstream media started telling them to, but now even local town halls which have nothing to do with foreign policy are dominated by this dangerous Russia hysteria. It was these hacking allegations that manufactured support for Obama's provocative sanctions and increase of troops along Russia's border at the end of his term, which Rachel Maddow has openly said cannot be pulled back without making Trump appear guilty of collusion with the Kremlin.
Do you see how this works? Does anyone get this? The fact-free Russia hysteria is being used to pressure Trump into maintaining these omnicidal tensions in the Baltic region, Ukraine and Syria which could blow up any second and lead to a chain of events which see a nuclear warhead being deployed by either side accidentally, on purpose, or a mixture of the two in the chaos of armed conflict, and once one goes off, they all do. As Cohen rightly pointed out in an interview last month with Democracy NOW, imagine how much more dangerous the Cuban Missile Crisis would have been if Kennedy had had to deal with such a situation while also juggling insane pressures to never back down in any area from his own government?
A 2014 report published in the journal Earth's Future found that it would only take the detonation of 100 nuclear warheads to throw 5 teragrams of black soot into the earth's stratosphere for decades, blocking out the sun and making the photosynthesis of plants impossible, starving every terrestrial organism to death that didn't die of radiation or climate chaos first. The United States and Russia currently have about 7,000 nuclear warheads apiece that we know of.
And this is why it is frankly irrelevant what Seth Rich's family thinks of the public interest in his case. Obviously yes, leave the family themselves alone; don't contact them, don't harass them, leave them be. But if Rich was the DNC leaker, the life of every single living organism on earth may depend upon the public gaining access to that knowledge. This is infinitely more important than one family's feelings about American public discourse. If there's even the slightest chance that these dangerous escalations can be drawn down by the public learning that Russia was not the source of the DNC leaks, no one on earth has any business telling us to stop looking into that possibility.
So keep talking about Seth Rich. If anyone tries to tell you not to, ask them if they're willing to risk the life of every living organism on earth in order to silence this controversy. If they bring up WaPo's article about his parents or the factually erroneous statement given to Fox News by Aaron Rich, ask them if a family's feelings and opinions are more important than the life of every terrestrial life form combined. Push this issue. Insist that they address it clearly and rationally. Make them explain in detail why a family's feelings should take precedence over this very real risk.
America's power establishment desperately does not want you talking about Seth Rich, which is another very good reason to keep talking about Seth Rich. The frantic attempts of the establishment propaganda machine to silence the questions (in a nation which legalized the use of media psy-ops upon its own citizens in 2013, by the way) have already reached cartoonish, hysterical levels; think how desperate they'll get if we keep pushing this thing? We can force them to overextend themselves and do some really ridiculous things, which will expose even more plot holes in their narrative. Already we've got WaPo preemptively claiming that even if Seth Rich does turn out to be the DNC leaker it won't stop Russiagate, and we're just getting started here.
So keep talking about Seth Rich. Remember, the best way to bring democracy and justice to America is to constantly attack the deep state's propaganda machine, and we've really got it against the ropes with this one. Even if it's just tweeting "#SethRich died under extremely suspicious circumstances" every few hours, you're throwing that much sand in the gears of the machine. Every little bit helps.
And of course there will still be accusations of corrupt financial ties between Trump and Russia, and I personally am fine with that. Please investigate any possible improper relations with any foreign governments in all officials in both parties; I think that would turn up a lot of juicy things. Why not take it even further and shine a big bright spotlight on the fact that many of America's elected officials have dual citizenships with other countries, like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and lead Russiagate instigator Rep. Adam Schiff? These men have access to a lot of classified information, and if being a citizen of another nation isn't a conflict of interest I don't know what would be. Investigate all possible areas of corruption and conflicts of interest, just stop the baseless xenophobia and threatening all life on earth by making Russia an enemy for no good reason.
Keep talking about Seth Rich. The reason the American deep state (which the corporate media is generally considered part of) wants you to shut up about Seth Rich is because it is devastating to the Russiagate narrative they've been pumping all their energy into since the November election. Trump has been painted into a corner by America's unelected power establishment where he has to take a strong stance against Russia or it'll be politically disastrous for him; even taking Obama's position on Russian affairs is now unacceptable to everyone riding the Russiagate train. By applying this pressure America's oligarchs can force Trump into pushing toward the Syria regime change they've been salivating over for decades and strangling Russia with sanctions to hurt Putin's popularity so they can depose him.
This goal is an open and established fact, by the way. One of the most aggressive promulgators of the Russiagate narrative in Washington, Rep. Eric Swalwell, told Fox's Tucker Carlson in March that the plan to punish Russia for the unproven hacking offense is to "squeeze their economy" with "tougher sanctions" to the point that it "cuts off Russia from the rest of the world" in order to "hurt [Putin's] popularity". And this is exactly what is happening; Russia has already had to slash its military budget by 25 percent in order to stay afloat under the weight of the crushing sanctions. And you're still supposed to be terrified of Putin.
The American oligarchy wants Putin gone because he pushes back against US attempts to dominate that part of the world. The Crimean peninsula is a crucial strategic location, and at the request of the Crimean people Russia annexed it from America's puppet regime in Ukraine. Syria, longtime ally of Russia, happens to occupy a crucial location in the fossil fuel battles, and instead of bowing to Washington's hunger for regime change Putin is helping Assad kill the terrorist factions that America has been arming and training to destabilize the nation. Finally, Moscow and Beijing have been collaborating to undermine the hegemony of the US dollar in that region, which, since power only exists in the relative absence of power for everyone else, threatens the dominance of the US oligarchs.
The oligarchs want to prevent that, and so they need you to shut up about Seth Rich. That's why they're pumping out a nonstop "shut up about Seth Rich" campaign in the CIA trade rag Washington Post, that's why they're pressuring Fox News to back away from the story, that's why Reddit is saturated in coordinated upvote and downvote brigades on the subject, and that's why all your brainwashed liberal friends keep telling you that you're not allowed to talk about this thing. We've got to keep talking about it though. Our lives may literally depend on it.
You have to admit he has done a magnificent job since interposing himself between the public and the family. I have never seen such great legs on a story hobbled so effectively. He must have called in a lot of favors and flashed a few negatives about in order to pressure Fox and its advertisers to drop it.
Maybe it is wishful thinking but I don't think the lid will stay down forever though. Dotcom is not helping at present but Assange is playing it very close to the chest. This is his usual Modus when about to lower the boom. For me that will be the litmus test. If Rich was the leak, Assange must move. His problem is how to do it without compromising his policy regarding sources.