Aaron Maté talks about the latest with the Russian collusion investigation, which he looks at skeptically. He observes that the aim of the investigation does not seem to be to get to the truth, but rather to scare people, which generates clicks and views for the media and helps justify the existence of the military-industrial complex. Maté also points out that factually the case doesn’t add up—certain incidents might seem plausible, like Russian hacking of the DNC email server, but each of the allegations of actual collusion between President Trump’s team and the Russians falls apart under close scrutiny. Indeed the whole investigation bears this quality: taken together, the large number of allegations looks very serious, but since each one is flimsy on its own, they don’t add up to much of anything at all. Not to mention the fact that Trump’s policies have been fairly hawkish toward Russia, so it’s hard to claim Putin has a “puppet” in the White House, as Trump’s detractors continually claim.

Discussed on the show:

• “Don’t Let Russophobia Warp the Facts on Russiagate” (The Nation)
• “Collateral Murder” (Wikileaks)
• “Russian propagandists targeted African Americans to influence 2016 US election | US news” (The Guardian)
• “Clinton’s ‘superpredators’ comment most damaging by either candidate” (TheHill)
• “The Death of Ricky Ray Rector” (Jacobin)
• “Bill Clinton’s Sister Souljah moment – JUNE 13, 1992” (YouTube)
• Logan Act

Aaron Maté is a former host and producer at The Real News and writes regularly at The Nation. Follow him on Twitter @AaronJMate.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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