Suspending him had nothing to do with falsifying a report on Trump and Michael Flynn, everything to do with getting caught red-handed, causing a furor at the same time – the network uncomfortable about making news about its fake news reporting.

If ABC were serious about the infraction, they would have fired Ross. But lying is the mainstay of imperial news.

All Western media operate the same way – disinformation, Big Lies and fake news standard practice on major issues, especially geopolitical ones, notably covering US-dominated NATO imperial wars of aggression, claiming they’re liberating ones, along with anything relating to Trump and Russia.

Ross is ABC’s chief investigative reporter, suspended for four weeks without pay – a meaningless slap on the wrist.

He falsely claimed former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn would testify that candidate Trump directed him to make contact with Russia – his disinformation report typical of how Western media operate, why I call them scoundrels. They suppress vital news, information, and analysis everyone has a right to know, operating as press agents for wealth, power and privilege, sanitizing their print, on air and online reporting.

What’s not reported is most important of all – why it’s suppressed.

In testimony given special council Robert Mueller’s witch-hunt inquiry, Flynn explained president-elect (not candidate) Trump instructed him to contact Russia, aiming to initiate a process for improving relations. It was undermined by false accusations of Kremlin interference in America’s electoral process, along with phony claims of “Russian aggression” in Ukraine and nonexistent threats against other countries.

The fabricated Russiagate case hinges on proving illegal or improper Trump team collusion with Moscow during the presidential campaign. Not a shred of evidence suggests it. Post-election, presidents and administration officials have direct contacts with numerous countries – part of their jobs, the way most nations operate.

ABC retracted the story when caught red-handed lying. Otherwise, it would have stood as misreported.

Ross is no outlier. All establishment on air and print reporters operate the same way – suppressing hard truths on vital issues, lying to viewers and readers, what they’re instructed to do.

Suspending Ross for four weeks was laughable. He’ll be back in short order to misreport again. If he and others like him diverged from the official narrative, they’d be fired and replaced straightaway.

Western media lack credibility, alternative sources the only reliable ones, especially online, reporting real news, information and analysis – the antidote to media scoundrels’ misreporting.

The system that deported a person, allowed him back into the country, deported him again and allowed him back in again, deported him again and allowed him back in again, and then deported him again and allowed him back in again..oops, one more deportation and allowance back in, goes totally unquestioned by both the “get the immigrants” brigades and the “protect the immigrants” legions. Whether this immigrant was the sweetest human being on the planet or a nasty individual hardly matters more than that an innocent human being would still be alive if he had not found, fumbled with and triggered a shot that killed her. Bulletin: he could not have done so if he had not been in America. Duh? His intent, alleged by some, or innocence, understood by some who considered evidence over opinion, was secondary to the actual systemic crime of allowing the person repeated illegal entry into the country not once, which would be bad enough, but five times. She would still be alive if he had been treated legally by a just and fair system that put people before profits, and that is the most important matter to be dealt with. Don’t hang by your lip waiting for the legions of “ immigrants r us and trump is a mass murderer” or “immigrants are a curse and trump is the son of god” population to come to that conclusion. Especially when the consciousness controllers and mind managers that run our “democracy” for our minority owners remain the only source of information (?) and opinion (based on the same?) that enters the minds, and souls, of all americans in the only expression - outside of a mall –in mass participation in what makes the country supposedly work: joining in the consumption of goods, services and assaults on morality that we call our special-to-the-world nation.

But the president and millions of others who argue against unlimited immigration, some of whom are bigots and most of whom are just decent people absorbing the social costs that immigration brings to benefit the private profit crowd are all labeled enemies of all that is good, wholesome and sweet, while an opposition that tolerates or helplessly allows mass slaughter of human beings in foreign countries and lowers to destitution hundreds of thousands at home clucks in superior contempt. Is this any way to run a country? It is, if you want to instill conscious support for private profit at all costs, or unconsciously speak against profit when you believe or are manipulated into seeing it as negative, and unconsciously enjoy it when it is beneficial and you are manipulated into believing it is so even as you wallow in debt, live in fear of terrorism but remember to stand with your hand over your heart, wallet, or crotch when a flag is waved or an anthem sung.

It takes a nation to create a people, to paraphrase a famous servant to capital’s best selling market hustle, and until we transform ourselves from a gang of i-me-mine and only us when like i-me-mine to a people exercising unity beyond the ends of our noses or identity groups, we will see our divisions become greater, the market become more dominated by the richest humans in the history of humanity, and our planetary homeland – whether we believe or disbelieve the brand name “climate change” – become unlivable.

One of the terrible contradictions of a system that only creates wealth for some by creating poverty for others, with the first group getting smaller and the second larger by the minute, is to import cheap labor for greater profits. The immigrants have little to no control over their status as such, but systemic powers, the kind that allow some into the country illegally and provide housing, jobs and education for them, however low on the economic scale, while crowding prisons with hundreds of thousands of native born denied and locked out of housing, jobs and education, are systemic powers that must be changed democratically. That takes unity among people identifying common problems, and that’s why we are kept in divisive sectors looking out for only “us”, in the selected minority of one or another identity group which may suffer for that identity but suffer even more for allowing ourselves to be kept in it.

Being put against one another over issues of individual immigrants while remaining unconscious to the political economic reality of immigration is what our minority rulers want. As long as we cooperate, as we are doing at the moment, we play into their hands, and endanger our majority’s future.

email: fpscott@gmail.com.

The media hullabaloo over Flynn’s plea is more proof of the colossal Russiagate scam.

He pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, relating to conversations he had during the transition period with former Russia ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak. Many congressional members had personal contact with him, part of their job and Flynn’s as a key member of Trump’s transition team at the time.

Through its ambassador, he reportedly tried urging Russia to hold off expelling US diplomats in retaliation for Obama administration expulsions, along with opposing last December’s SC Res. 2334, declaring Israeli settlements illegal, flagrantly violating international law. The vote was 14 – 0 with Washington abstaining. It broke longstanding US tradition, vetoing over 40 SC resolutions hostile to Israeli interests.

Flynn technically violated the 1799 Logan Act, amended in 1994. It prohibits unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments – considered an attempt to influence bilateral relations. The act remained unused since passage, no one prosecuted under the law in over 200 years. Legal experts suggest it’s unconstitutional. It’s been used more as a threat than justification for prosecution.

Why did the FBI question Flynn about anything relating to his transition team job, specifically contacts with foreign officials, namely Kislyak? His only offense was telling what amounts to a white lie, nothing warranting the witch-hunt investigation he was put through, resulting in his guilty plea over nothing. The aim, of course, was trying to build a case for nonexistent Russian inference in America’s political process, along with anything suggesting illegal or improper Trump dealings with Moscow.

After months of House, Senate and special council Mueller investigations, not a shred of proof was found making either case – just baseless allegations and accusations, no evidence supporting them. The neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post jumped on Flynn’s plea, ludicrously saying “the Russia affair just got bigger,” falsely claiming “Flynn…sought help from the Russian ambassador in undermining the Obama administration’s policies.”

His contacts with Kislyak had nothing to do with “undermining” anyone. Reportedly, Jared Kushner asked Flynn to urge Russian opposition to SC 2334, not a crime by either individual. WaPo: “In negotiating with the Kremlin before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the Trump transition team undermined the foreign policy of the sitting president.”

“What’s more, the Obama administration designed its sanctions against Russia as retaliation for election interference.”

“Mr. Flynn apparently promised that the next administration would review those sanctions – meaning Mr. Trump’s advisers sought to weaken the US attempt to hold Russia accountable for its meddling.”

Fact: Nothing was done by Flynn or any other Trump transition member to undermine Obama.

Fact: No Russian US election interference occurred.

Fact: Unilaterally imposed US sanctions on Russia or any other countries are illegal, flagrantly violating international law.

Fact: If Flynn supported lifting them, he warrants praise, not condemnation.

Endless witch-hunt investigations continue, wasting time and money, proving nothing except more evidence of America’s deeply corrupted political system – far too debauched to fix.

By Joseph Kishore, wsws.org

The Trump administration is escalating its incendiary threats against North Korea in the wake of the test Tuesday of an intercontinental ballistic missile reportedly capable of reaching the east coast of the United States.

Can a certifiable moral sociopath be also insane? Nikki Haley presents us with this interesting question, serving a regime whose values she mirrors to perfection.

At an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, warned that “if war comes, make no mistake, the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed.” The “utter destruction” of the regime can only mean a genocidal war against the country of 25 million people.

Haley directed her fire as much toward China as toward North Korea, reporting that President Trump had called Chinese President Xi to demand that China cut off all oil exports to the impoverished Asian country. “China must show leadership and follow through. China can do this on its own,” she said, “or we can take the oil situation into our own hands.” What precisely was meant by this threat, Haley did not elaborate.

It is clear that the United States is in the advanced stage of planning some form of military operation against North Korea, which, if carried out, would have catastrophic consequences even if it did not develop into an exchange of nuclear weapons.

In a signal that the Trump administration is moving to formally abandon its pretenses of diplomacy, the New York Times reported on Thursday that the White House is planning to push out Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom Trump previously publicly rebuked for “wasting his time” by pursuing negotiations with North Korea. Tillerson had said on Tuesday, following the ICBM test, that “diplomatic solutions remain viable and open for now.”

Scum warmongering politicos like Lindsey Graham, another treasure to the nation from South Carolina, are a clear and present danger to all of humanity. If people would only realize who and what these men represent, their treatment would be drastically different. But that's why we have a whore media, to keep us from realizing who the real enemy is.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, an occasional critic of Trump, solidarized himself with the war threats of the administration, telling CNN Wednesday, “If we have to go to war to stop this, we will. We’re heading toward a war if things don’t change.”

Graham said that Trump “is ready, if necessary, to destroy this regime to protect America, and I hope the regime understands that if President Trump has to pick between destroying the North Korean regime and the American homeland, he’s going to destroy the regime. I hope China understands that also.” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, no doubt channeling information from sources within the military and the state, wrote on Thursday (under the headline “Headed Toward a New Korean War?”), “One lesson from history: When a president and his advisers say they’re considering a war, take them seriously.” Kristof reported that “the international security experts I’ve consulted offer estimates of the risk of war from 15 percent to more than 50 percent. That should be staggering.”

The threats by the United States to obliterate North Korea have been escalating throughout the year. Haley’s comments come just over two months after Trump’s speech before the United Nations, in which he declared that the US was “ready, willing and able” to “totally destroy” North Korea and its 25 million people.

The threats have a logic of their own. Having already declared that the US will take “preemptive” action against North Korea if it develops weapons capable of hitting the continental United States, the administration feels increasingly compelled to carry through on such statements, fearing that any retreat will severely damage the credibility of similar threats by American imperialism in the future.

A war, once launched, also has its own logic, threatening the lives of hundreds of millions throughout Asia and beyond. The demands that China act against North Korea point to the fact that the principal concern of the American ruling class in the region is the growing influence of China. The United States has been systematically building up its military capacity in and around the South China Sea for years, particularly under the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia.” Leading generals and think tanks have already warned that a direct conflict with China is only a matter of time.

China responded to the first Korean War (1950-53), in which the US leveled most of the infrastructure in the northern portion of the peninsula, with a massive military counterattack. The current Chinese government would no doubt see a move by the US to overthrow the North Korean regime as an existential threat to its own strategic interests.

And how will Russia respond to an attack on North Korea, which borders Russia on the east? The country’s top diplomat Thursday accused the US of pushing North Korea into “rash action,” calling on the US and South Korea to cancel military exercises due to begin this week.

The recklessness and criminality of the Trump administration—and the American ruling class as a whole—are astounding. The mad dash to war is proceeding without any significant discussion by either the American media or the US Congress of its real consequences. The former is consumed by an endless series of allegations of sexual harassment, while the latter is preoccupied with the drive to pass a massive tax cut to corporations and the rich, which has sent the stock markets soaring once again. Undeterred by the war danger, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 24,000 for the first time ever on Thursday, with the financial aristocracy licking its chops at its imminent windfall.

The war threats against North Korea intersect with an unprecedented political crisis in the United States involving ferocious conflicts within the ruling class as it oversees a country riven by social tensions. The Trump administration is responding, on the one hand, with the escalation of threats against North Korea, and, on the other, by intensifying its efforts to mobilize far-right forces, expressed in Trump’s retweets of anti-Muslim videos from the fascistic Britain First movement earlier this week.

Trump’s ruling-class critics have sharp differences with the administration over foreign policy. To the extent that they are expressed, however, criticisms within the political establishment over the latest rounds of threats are focused on their impact on the interests of American imperialism. The Democrats are presently engaged in a neo-McCarthyite campaign over allegations that Russia is “sowing divisions” within the United States—used to justify a regime of Internet censorship and to prepare for military conflict with Russia, the main focus of those sections of the military and intelligence establishment that supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

In the final analysis, the divisions within the ruling class are of a tactical character. All are united on the basic strategy of using the military power of the United States to maintain its global hegemonic position.

A quarter-century of unending war has reached a critical juncture. The danger of nuclear war, involving the major powers, is real and present. The independent intervention of the working class against imperialist war and the capitalist system that spawns it is the decisive political task.