Stephen LENDMAN

I’m old enough to vividly recall Joe McCarthy’s demagogic smear of prominent and other figures, baselessly slandering them, ruining careers — using mass deception to further his political ambitions.

I watched some of the 1954 Army/McCarthy witch-hunt hearings on national television, a deplorable spectacle that helped bring him down.

Targeted enemies were falsely called “card-carrying communists,” others smeared as “loyalty risks,” including hundreds of actors, authors, directors, and others on the so-called Hollywood blacklist.

Notably, McCarthy accused General/Secretary of State/Defense George Marshall of being soft on communism, calling it part of “a conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man (sic),” adding:

Decisions on his watch “aided the communist drive for world domination (sic),” implying Marshall was a traitor.

Separately he said: “The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency (sic) is not because the enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions (sic) of those who had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer – the finest homes, the finest college educations, and the finest jobs in government (and the private sector) we can give.”

Mass communist witch-hunt hysteria characterized his early-mid 1950s Senate years, eventually falling from grace by way overstepping.

McCarthyism represents the worst of politicized character assassinations by baseless accusations, allegations, and publicized witch-hunt investigations.

Former Harvard Law School dean Ervin Griswold called McCarthy “judge, jury, prosecutor, castigator, and press agent, all in one.”

Russiagate and its spinoff Ukrainegate are McCarthyism’s modern-day versions. The former should have been called Hillarygate, the latter Adam Schiffgate or Schiff/Bidengate.

There’s plenty about Trump to criticize, just cause to impeach and remove him from office for high crimes of war and against humanity alone.

The same goes for most of his predecessors, notably Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Bill and Hillary Clinton co-presidents — Bush/Cheney, Obama/Biden, and the current incumbent for real high crimes, not fake ones.

In dealings with Ukraine’s president and his other foreign counterparts, Trump acted largely the same as virtually all his predecessors in the modern era — other than his style.

The unredacted transcript of his conversation with Zelensky included no blackmail threat, no quid pro quo, no conspiracy. Schiff’s false accusations reinvented reality, an exposed liar never to be believed or trusted.

Trump may be right, claiming Schiff wrote the so-called “whistleblower” complaint, or perhaps collaborated in its preparation — what I call baseless character assassination, not legitimate whistleblowing about government wrongdoing, especially in high places.

The NYT reported that Schiff knew about the so-called “whistleblower” complaint weeks in advance. It’s based on hearsay, not direct knowledge of the Trump/Ukrainian president Zelensky’s phone conversation in question.

Was Schiff directly involved in the complaint’s preparation? GOP spokeswoman Elizabeth Harrington called him a “(d)isgraced liar,” his anti-Trump campaign a “total CON JOB,” adding:

“(P)eople should take CIA coup attempts very seriously!”

The late William Blum published a “master list” of successful and unsuccessful CIA attempts to topple foreign governments in the post-WW II era through 2014.

Scores of instances were listed worldwide, replacing Iran’s democratically elected government with US-installed fascist tyranny in 1953 the first successful coup with many more to follow.

Russiagate crumbled under the weight of its misinformation, disinformation, and Big Lies — despite the long ago debunked false accusation of Russian US election meddling refusing to die.

Schiffgate/Bidengate likely is heading for the same fate, enormous damage likely while it remains active.

Who’ll hold Schiff, Biden, Pelosi, other Dem co-conspirators, and their press agent media accountable for politicized mass deception/character assassination?

Notably, who’ll hold Joe Biden accountable for pressuring US-installed Ukrainian president Poroshenko to fire his regime’s prosecutor general Viktor Shokin — for investigating his son Hunter’s dubious involvement as a highly-paid figurehead board member of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, with ties to notorious Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky.

In a sworn statement ignored by US establishment media, Shorkin accused Biden of “directly manipulat(ing) the political leadership of Ukraine on false pretexts…”

Biden publicly admitted blackmailing Ukraine’s government in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations, saying:

“If the prosecutor general is not fired, you’re not getting the money” — referring to a US billion dollar loan guarantee for Kiev.

Biden added: “Well, son of a bitch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time (sic).”

His blackmail threat got the probe of son Hunter’s involvement with Bursima’s dubious dealings dropped.

Trump’s team has lots of ammunition to turn allegations directed at him against his accusers and make them stick — enough perhaps to undermine Biden’s presidential aspirations and take down Schiff at the same time.

stephenlendman.org