The years long Russiagate investigation is responsible for ordinarily sensible people losing their minds. Hardly anyone recalls that the charge of collusion was actually disproven, that Robert Mueller only indicted for process crimes, such as those which occur when people let down their guard and talk to the FBI. Most Americans who know the name Paul Manafort think he was a Russian spy but don’t know that he went to jail for tax and bank fraud. Propaganda works very well when it is repeated over and over again.
Worse than the silly Trump inspired derangement is the way that those
who call themselves left or progressive have chosen to defend federal
law enforcement and bad legislation like the Espionage Act. The
Espionage Act is a relic from the earliest days of the cold war, and
Woodrow Wilson’s infamous Palmer Raids which targeted the left for
persecution and prosecution. Barack Obama used it more than all previous
presidents combined in order to prosecute journalists who published
what the state didn’t want us to know. As for the FBI, its Counter
Intelligence Program, COINTELPRO, created dissension in the liberation
movement, targeted individuals for prosecution, spied on Martin Luther
King and told him to commit suicide, and killed Fred Hampton and Mark
Clark among others. The FBI continues to use informants to entrap Black people in phony terror cases.
It is truly shameful to see Black people exalt the FBI and act as if punishing Trump is the organizing principle of all political activity. The Trump organization is also under investigation by the New York Attorney General and the former president refused to answer questions put to him in a deposition. The right to remain silent is one of the most important in American law and should be used a lot more often. But copaganda television shows and Trump hatred have caused their own form of insanity, and his exercise of a fundamental right was widely lampooned. No one should ever be condemned for utilizing their fifth amendment right, not even Donald Trump.
Of course, this spectacle is also used to deflect from Biden administration failures. His approval rating is still low, for the simple reason that he didn’t do what he claimed he would for American voters. He continues to pour public money into the losing effort in Ukraine and needlessly provokes Russia and China. But who is paying attention if there is speculation that Trump put files in Ivana’s casket?
-- Margaret Kimberley, "Trump Derangement Syndrome Returns" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
