Stephen Lendman

Fake news is a US government, scoundrel media specialty - proliferating managed news misinformation agitprop, truth-telling suppressed on issues mattering most.

Propaganda wars precede hot ones. Deception, popular fiction and Big Lies launch them. Intense Russia bashing risks world peace, stability and security.

Washington’s imperial war machine is humanity’s greatest threat. Is Trump up to taming it? Will he try once in office?

Or were his campaign pledges just bluster? World peace and stability depends on which way he goes - along with whether he’ll defend waning freedoms or eliminate ones left, making America more of a police state than already.

A previous article discussed House passage of the draconian US Intelligence Authorization Act, calling it a huge leap backwards, Senate passage and Obama signing it into law virtually certain.

It aims to counter nonexistent “measures by Russia to exert covert influence, including exposing falsehoods, agents of influence, corruption, human rights abuses, terrorism and assassinations carried out by the security services or political elites of the Russian Federation or their proxies.”

It calls truth-telling by writers like myself and many others “fake news.” It threatens speech, independent media (especially online) and academic freedoms - the hallmark of a fascist dictatorship, wanting information and views contrary to official ones suppressed.

Does supporting Russia’s good faith efforts to resolve conflicts in Syria and Ukraine equitably make me a Kremlin agent or propagandist? Does praising Putin for wanting peace, not war, multi-world polarity, and mutual cooperation among all nations?

Does opposing Washington’s imperial war machine mean I’m unpatriotic? Does patriotism require supporting lawless government policies?

Does opposing might makes right make me an enemy of the state? Does wanting real democracy, not America’s fantasy version? Does believing in the inviolability of international and constitutional law principles?

Does wanting peace and security, imperial wars ended? Does believing in equity and justice for everyone, not just America’s privileged few?

Am I and many others like me endangered if we pursue truth-telling? In 1893, Finley Peter Dunne (1867 - 1936) said “(t)he job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

He said it before the electronic media age, including the Internet, letting activist writers express views freely.

Will the US Intelligence Authorization Act change things? Are First Amendment rights threatened with annulment?

Will fascist tyranny replace remaining freedoms? Will truth-telling be criminalized?

Are my days able to write and speak freely numbered - despite committing no wrongdoing now or earlier? Just truth-telling on vital domestic and geopolitical issues, what journalism is supposed to be all about.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
http://prn.fm/show/progressive-radio-news-hour/