SCUMWATCH

MIKE SIEGEL—The proposed bill would create a broad definition of “domestic terrorism” to include any attempt to “affect” or “influence” government policy or actions. And it would include property damage—even attempted property damage—as a terrorist act subject to a 25-year prison sentence. In other words, if you opposed the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock and wanted the government to revoke the pipeline permit, you might be considered a terrorist. If you painted “Black Lives Matter” on a wall to advocate against police violence, that could be terrorism, too.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—For the rest of Trump’s speech he very tediously introduced all his loyal sycophants backing his Venezuela agendas, he bloviated repeatedly about the horrible horrifying terror of socialism, he kept referring to Venezuela’s elected leader as “Dictator Maduro” and some rando that fewer than one in five Venezuelans had even heard of until last month as “President Guaidó”, he tossed out nonsensical red herrings about Venezuela being controlled by Cuba, and he repeated his administration’s braindead talking point about the Venezuelan government refusing to let in US “humanitarian aid”, which the Red Cross, the UN, and even war-happy NPR recognize as a transparent ploy to foment regime change.

The Perepilichny case is symptomatic of the torrent of “fake news” that has dominated the anti-Russia campaign: concocted by the US state apparatus and intelligence, its media lackeys and oligarchs who have been deprived of money and opportunities to enrich themselves by the Putin-regime and the oligarchs around it, this campaign is built on nothing but lies, half-truths and fabrications, aimed at creating the climate of confusion and reaction necessary for settling issues over foreign policy within the ruling elites in the US themselves, preparing a violent removal of Putin, and escalating military aggression against Russia.

PAUL EDWARDS—After decades of proven baldfaced crime, deceit and the dirtiest pool at home and abroad, the CIA, FBI, NSA, the Justice Department and the whole foetid nomenklatura of sociopathic rats, are portrayed as white knights of virtue dispensing verity as holy writ. And “progressives” buy it.

JAMES PETRAS—The politicians and propagandists in Washington can blather about Russia’s interference in the US’s corrupt electoral theater and scuttle moves to improve diplomatic ties, but they cannot counter Russia’s growing influence in the Middle East and its expanding trade with Asia, especially China.