OW | A Parry Anniversary

ROBERT PARRY
06.24.1949–01.27.2018

I want to alert readers to the one-year anniversary of this excellent piece written by investigative journalist and Consortium News editor Robert Parry.

Parry, who died this past January at age 68, touched on a lot which has turned out to be accurate. I think it is worth sharing.

(Note: I added Consortium News to the sidebar “Recommendations” list.)

Democrats Trade Places on War and McCarthyism

By Robert Parry
March 23, 2017 | Link

Caught up in the frenzy to delegitimize Donald Trump by blaming his victory on Russian meddling, national Democrats are finishing the transformation of their party from one that was relatively supportive of peace to one pushing for war, including a confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.

This “trading places” moment was obvious in watching the belligerent tone of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee on Monday [March 20, 2017] as they impugned the patriotism of any Trump adviser who may have communicated with anyone connected to Russia.

Ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff [D–California #28] acknowledged that there was no hard evidence of any Trump–Russia cabal, but he pressed ahead with what he called “circumstantial evidence of collusion,” a kind of guilt-by-association conspiracy theory that made him look like a mild-mannered version of Joe McCarthy.

My reaction, on Election Night 2016, was that the Democrats blew it with nominating Hillary Clinton. That is because, as I looked at the exit polls from the Rust Belt trio of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan—particularly with a focus on the gender vote from each (which put all three initially in tossup mode)—I could tell that Donald Trump’s path to victory was with his Republican pickups of all three. And, well, after it happened, I thought to myself, “While I did not want Donald Trump to be president of the United States, I also did not want Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States.” Now, I think: “It is not good Donald Trump is president. But, it is good Hillary Clinton is not president.”





Side Note: Sunday [March 25, 2018] marks the six-month anniversary of Progressives Chat. It launched [Monday,] September 25, 2017 here: Progressives Chat — ‘Day One’. The weekend leading into that first official day was this preview: Progressives Chat — ‘OPEN’. That time flew by. I’m glad for this blog. And for the people here. I don’t know how long it will last. I will continue to appreciate it while it does. Thank you, everyone, and particularly cathyx, who helped guide me with the creation of this site (for example, with how to do the layout). Progressives Chat is my first blog.




And now for this Open Weekend [OW]…