Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia and also Russia.

Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov watch military exercises.
Image Source:  (Asian Review) Japan woos Russia for its own security

Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia and also Russia.

Did you know there's an ad hoc American "Committee to Investigate Russia"?  "For generations, people have fought to protect democracy. Now it is our turn." It claims to be non-partisan, but it's rabidly anti-Trump and scared out of its britches about Russia (or else Russia is just an excuse for what they really want, which is impeachment of Trump).

Their headline dated today says: Cohen Ready to Say Trump Knew of June 9 Meeting
Sounds as if he's already said it. Wonder what got him so ready? Probably nothing that would benefit the average American, and not likely motivated by a desire to protect anything other than his own hiney.
 
The CIR can't let go of the Russian hacking meme, but, if you haven't already seen this Fox News video: [Former CIA Director] James Woolsey on the Russians' efforts to disrupt elections", please watch it through to the end, where he says America only does it for "a good cause".

They also can't let go of the chimera of the non-existent "Gerasimov Doctrine", about which even the most frantic of corporate media have given up screeching. 

Thing is, even Mark Galeotti, the journalist who originally coined that term, has retracted it in his book: The mythical ‘Gerasimov Doctrine’ and the language of threat

RT puts it simply:

• Rather than laying out some hypothetical Russian doctrine of hybrid war, as the academic quoting the translation increasingly believed, Gerasimov was actually describing the consequences of actual Western policies in places like Yugoslavia, Libya and Syria. RT columnist Bryan MacDonald pointed this out long before Galeotti made his admission.

But as recently as March 22, 2018, the Telegraph was spewing this vitriol about "the Doctrine":

• Just over five years ago, the head of the Russian armed forces, General Valery Gerasimov, gave a speech in the Kremlin about the future of warfare. You don’t need guns and tanks to defeat an enemy, he said: there are, nowadays, more effective ways of winning. Computer hacking, TV propaganda, criminal skullduggery – all can unnerve an opponent and weaken alliances. This became known as the Gerasimov doctrine, and its latest victims are still lying in Salisbury hospital. Not so much a declaration of war, but a reminder of one already underway.

If you are not shocked and sickened by the ghastly crimes committed by the US and NATO in the countries mentioned above (and in so many others), the obscene destruction of whole ways of life, the creation of weak, mortally injured, now directionless societies, then just go watch TV and eat doodles, or whatever they're called.

As for myself, if Russia has decided to step in when the US invades, as it did in Syria, I say more power to them, and shame on Canada for patting itself on the back for taking in the refugees whose homes we might have helped save had we not been slaves to American hegemony and its utterly gross brutality!

But, if you'd like to learn something of the reality, then take the time and trouble to watch "Putin's annual address to Federal Assembly" (4 months ago) [YouTube]

Yes, it most definitely ends with a demonstration of Russia's high tech weaponry, but the look on the faces of Putin's Russian audience is not malice, but relief that they have a good defence system if America goes farther off the deep end. Take a good look and think about it.

Russia, and therefore her people, is constantly vilified and threatened by the West. They need to know that, if worse comes to worst, they have a means of protection.

As Paul Craig Roberts has said:

• "[If] the Russians do not now realize that the only terms on which they are acceptable to the West is as a vassal state of the West, they are beyond all hope and will be destroyed.

I think they do realize that.

Meanwhile, the Western media try always to prove that we are the ones under threat, to whip us into irrational hatred and acceptance of unending war. They vilify Russia as totalitarian and despotic, but read the following if you want to know what totalitarian looks like:

CBC: U.K. Supreme Court rules woman must stay in unhappy marriage

Now, listen to Putin as he outlines humanitarian projects for his people, concern for the unemployed, for protecting the health of Russia's increasingly aging population (although I think I would resist the annual compulsory medical checkup), for maternity/paternity leave and child care facilities, education, fair wages, and increased means of productivity.

Some despot, eh?  You'll almost think he's in his right mind! Sure, he's a politician, but that's exactly my point. He expresses no different concerns about his country's welfare than any other head of state.

And, not that's it's entirely relevant, but Putin's got way more sex appeal than just about any western politician you can name. Ask any woman who's listened to him speak for any longer than half an hour. Watch the way even a hardened Western female interviewer looks at him - and he at her - after "working" together all day and the evening before (as Putin smilingly makes clear).

Western politicians tend to be glad-handers, showoffy, demonstrably narcissistic. By contrast, the gentlemanly, cultured, calmly straighforward nature and speech of both Lavrov (YouTube: Interview with Larry King) and Putin are actually secretly preferred traits, and make the western dudes appear mentally dull, juvenile, crass and, above-all, untrustworthy.

Putin's address to the Russian Federal Assembly is long, a tiring speech even for himself, but his audience never shows a moment of inattention or boredom, nor should we, that is if one really wants to glimpse Russian life, aspirations and attitudes. It's well worth the time and mental effort.

Now ... speaking of crass, glad-handing politicians, and "totalitarian" Russia:

Guardian: ... one of the French president’s top security officers was filmed hitting and stamping on a young man at a Paris demonstration while dressed as a police officer.

Below Image: 'Does he think we are idiots?' – La France périphérique sours on Macron