Over the years, as a journalist and newspaper editor, I have been accused of a variety of things, received death threats and even had a National Park Service historian threaten to kill me right in front of my mother (while I shrugged his threat off, she wasn’t amused).
Among the things I have been called is a communist, a right-winger, an anti-Semite and, the latest, working for the Russians. When I wound up on the Washington Post’s PropOrNot list, they couldn’t decide whether I was a Russian agent, on Russia’s payroll (I’ve yet to see a check) or merely a dupe. Having a warped sense of humor, I found all this amusing. But now it’s not just extremist groups or WaPo putting me and/or Intrepid Report on lists where I find myself and/or IR in some impressive company.
So what did I do to raise some people’s ire this time? I dared to repeatedly ask those who have bought into the official whoppers that war with Russia is imminent, because Putin is going to attack Ukraine, what Russia has done to us? So far, no one has told me what Russia has done to us. Instead, when I am not being accused of being a fan of Tucker Carlson or in love with Fox News, I receive long discourses about things Russia has allegedly done over the years. Not one of which tells me what Russia has done to the United States.
I dared last week to criticize Jill Wine-Banks on her FB page for applauding Joy Reid for spewing the official line about Putin and Russia during her appearance on The Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert. How could I do such a thing? All joking aside, I happen to admire Jill Wine-Banks, who was one of the Watergate prosecutors, and Joy Reid and am dismayed at the things they are saying in the absence of any proof.
I also published an informative article by Kate Clark, an experienced journalist, Tales of invasions past: The facts about Russia’s ‘annexation’ of Crimea, only to find someone on Facebook found it funny. Sometimes I wonder if there is any hope for us.
The warmongers in Washington, with the aid of the corporate media, are working even harder to gin up a war with Russia but many Americans are either ignorant, apathetic or indifferent to what they are doing. We’ve seen this movie before: Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq . . . all countries that did nothing to us. If you thought those were bad, consider if the US pushed Russia into a war, that both sides have nukes.
It doesn’t matter what any of us think of Putin or Russia.
Am I wrong trying to get people to think? It’s not hard to put aside preconceived notions and things others tell you and ask questions. Question everything!
Meanwhile, I still have no answer to the question of what has Russia done to us.
There are some who even think those of us who don’t want another war, possibly one to end all life on Earth, regardless of whether we are on the left or right, should be forced to register as Russian agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. What next? Reeducation camps? So much for freedom of speech.
By the way, Russia was our ally in World War II. If it hadn’t been for Russia, we would have lost that war. That ought to send the Russiaphobes screaming into the night.
Bev Conover is the editor and publisher of Intrepid Report. Email her at editor@intrepidreport.com.
But the Russians are guilty of putting their country so close to several hundred of our military bases! Good one, Bev
Hi Bev,
I know all too well what you’re going through. During the Reagan Era, dissent was “treason”; during the Bush Era (I & II) dissent was “terrorism”. Today, dissent is “Russian” in some form or fashion.
To your question, “What has Russia done to us?, the answer is clear: nothing. However, if one were to ask what Russia has done FOR us, I would provide a datum to which most of the US population is unfamiliar–to wit, that Russia literally saved the US by coming to the aid of the Union in 1863. US-Russian solidarity stayed the hands of the British and French Empires, who were about to enter the war on the side of the Confederacy. Russian admirals had sealed orders from the Czar, that they were to place themselves directly under the command of President Lincoln the moment British or French troops joined the fight.
Going back to the War for Independence, Russia persuaded several European countries to stay out of the North American conflict via the League of Armed Neutrality.
Indeed, legend and US propaganda to the contrary, US-Russian enmity is not an original historical circumstance. In fact, the two countries actually share a long history of friendship. – Joe
To the question of what has Putin done to the U.S.A.
Didn’t he work to put Trump in the Oval Office?
I believe he admitted, or said so, when asked by a reporter when both Putin and Trump were in Helsinki.
Putin helped biggly to install a monster as head of the U.S.A. who has worked to dismantle the American Democracy as we know it so that he can benefit from the crumbling of our Democracy.
He may not have bombarded us with nuclear weapons … but he worked to put in place a guy he could manipulate as easily as puppeteers manipulate their puppets.
Where is the evidence of that? How would Americans if Russia put troops and missiles on our southern and northern borders? For its fossil fuel corporate patrons, Washington wants to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany which will allow Moscow to circumvent Ukraine as a route for gas exports to Europe.