Keeping the Cold War alive.

Eric Zuesse has written the clearest and most insightful analysis of Collusiongate and Skripalgate I've run across.

The details of

• the Dirty Dossier and its provenance; 
• the way in which the CIA, FBI, and DOJ colluded to commit fraud on the FISA Court; 
• Hillary Clinton's involvement; 
• the role of Crowdstrike, Fusion GPS, Orbis Orbis Business Intelligence Perkins-Coie, and the DNC; 
• MI6's involvement in the Dirty Dossier and connection to Serge Skripal (as can be seen in Pablo Miller's employment in Orbis, compiler of the Dossier); among other things, 

are mind numbing even to this sorta kinda observer.

Before I zoned out, I read various accounts of aspects of this and tried, without much success, to understand (partial list)

• the forces at play,
• the asinine hyperventilating about Russia!! (as Tucker Carlson likes to say it),
• our lunatic "public debate" and media betrayal,
• Mueller's odd appointment and bizarre choice of staff,
• the contrived rush to extend NATO to the Russian border,
• our mysterious hyperinterest in involving ourselves in Georgia and Ukraine,
• our lies about Russian aggression in Crimea,
• our shameful responsibility for the murder of Gaddafi and jihadi scum destruction of Libya,
• our moronic obsession with the Mad Dog Ophthalmologist in Syria,
• our fanatic determination to keep our borders wide open, and
• the ultimate objectives of this massive, sustained assault on Trump and on what remains of our representative republic. 

The article does answer all my questions but I think it shines a light squarely on the problem. Here's perhaps the money quote, though there are many in Zuesse's article:

But the historical background of this entire matter — both Skripal and Trump-Russiagate— is obvious: MI6 is Britain’s equivalent to America’s CIA. That was Obama’s CIA. This was entirely a MI6-CIA disinformation campaign, which was an extension from Obama’s (and the UK Government’s) participation in US President G.H.W. Bush’s decision, on 24 February 1990, to continue the Cold War until Russia becomes swept up in, controlled by the US[.]^[1] And Britain’s Guardian served the Deep State as the core conduit for disinformation to the public on this particular operation (Russiagate-Trump — Obama’s operation to make irreversible Obama’s public restoration (most obvious in Ukraine) of the Russia-is-America’s-top-enemy meme), for and on behalf of the Deep State, so as to continue G.H.W. Bush’s Cold War, inside the US — never to reverse it, until ‘victory’ is achieved.

The “special relationship” between the US and UK (CIA and MI6) is obviously to assist each other in deceiving the other’s public. (Not only did MI6 participate in deceiving UK’s public to fear and despise Putin, but it was crucial in deceiving the US public that Trump was Putin’s stooge.)^[2]

So we're chasing our tail in this new, bright age of American exceptionalism (why not "saintliness"?) and two of the greatest nations of the Anglosphere are playing stinky games with each other to concoct greasy playlets that are an insult to their citizens.

Zuesse's views on the state of American representative system are chilling:

[Ever] since at least 1981, only Deep State controlled people have lived in the US White House and controlled Congress. As a group, they have perpetrated incalculable harm (such as this) to the entire world. Their only masters have been America’s billionaires. America certainly is a dictatorship, no democracy — [it] represents only its hundreds of billionaires and their millions of agents, no public at all it. The two Parties represent the two factions into which America’s aristocracy have divided themselves. Neither^[3] represents the public.^[4]

What is left of British and American political legitimacy? Personally, I despise the vast majority of ciphers, grifters, fools, sociopaths, and psychopaths at the highest levels of the U.S. federal government and the media.

Ain't NObody mindin' the store who's worth a damn. Pretty much.  

Notes
^[1] Does Mr. Zuesse mean "becomes swept up and can be controlled by the US"?
^[2] "Mainstream Media Hide Skripal’s Connections to Russiagate-Trump Case." By Eric Zuesse, Strategic Culture Foundation, 7/15/19.
^[3] Link is dead. This "Wayback Machine link worked for me. Article is "Jimmy Carter Is Correct That the U.S. Is No Longer a Democracy." By Eric Zuesse, Huff Post, 8/4/15.
^[4] Zuesse, "Mainstream Media Hide Skripal’s Connections to Russiagate-Trump Case," supra.

H/t: ZeroHedge.