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In-Depth Interview: Author and Attorney Dan Kovalik Challenges Trump/Russia Narrative

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Dan Kovalik is a labor lawyer and author from Pittsburgh, and he stopped by for another interview about his book, The Plot to Scapegoat Russia.  We apply skeptical thinking to the recent developments in the consensus narrative that Russia meddled in the 2016 elections.Kovalik was interviewed here a couple of months ago, and returns with fresh comments on the “Russiagate” meme.  We talk about The Nation’s coverage of the VIPS memo which advances an alternate theory: that the DNC servers were not hacked, but were subjected to leaks by an insider. We contrast The Nation’s journalistic approach with the one-sided, “movement media” presented by MSNBC and the major newspapers.

We quote from a column by Anne Applebaum in today’s Washington Post, which treats with certainty claims that are later admitted to be merely circumstantial evidence.  The column ends with a remarkable, McCarthyesque comment.

We also discuss other aspects of the narrative, including the latest exaggerations about the influence of paid Facebook posts reportedly generated by a Russian outfit, and we talk about this BBC video report about Cambridge Analytica, indicating that the Trump campaign spent $85 million on paid Facebook posts.

Kovalik also comments on recent developments in Venezuela.