You’re wrong about the reason we need to cease kvetching about Russian interference, and you’re wrong about the reason for hothouse Russophobia. We don’t need to cease complaining about Russian interference in our election because it could risk a nuclear war, or escalate the existing conventional wars in the Ukraine and Syria. That would imply that there was something wrong with Russia that we need be concerned about, but that the risk of pursuing it outweighs the gravity of their sin. From our perspective, there is nothing wrong with Russia, rather there is a great deal right with Russia, and we need to partner with them in Rapprochement (of course, from Russia’s perspective, there is a great deal which needs to be improved about Russia). One of the things that’s right with Russia is their agricultural sector, which is more biodiverse and sustainable than ours.

Another is that, for all its faults, the soviet model [has been demonstrably more successful] (https://www.opednews.com/articles/Red-Hangover-by-Kristen-G-by-Deena-Stryker-Authoritarianism_Capitalism_Democracy_Far-right-180104-713.html) at providing employment, health care, community and cultural preservation, than the neoliberal model now ascendant.

The notion that [we’re going after Russia to get to China] (https://medium.com/@johnmensing/youve-gotten-yourself-into-a-false-dichotomy-here-which-started-by-my-reckoning-when-you-bought-8e89445dc6fb) persists in your analysis. If we wanted to hobble China, we could have enacted sanctions when they began ringing Indochina and Southeast Asia with military installations. Instead, President Clinton was more interested in collecting donations from the Lippo Group. If the U.S. business elites were interested in curtailing China’s rise or confronting China, they could have ended technology transfers and enacted tariffs to enforce parity with labor practices and workplace standards (as Dennis Kucinich called for during his Presidential campaign).

China and Russia compete for influence. If the U.S. hobbles Russia, it helps China.

You’re quite right in calling Russophobia nonsense. I don’t know how to fix it, but proceeding with a flawed analysis as to why it is the hate week rhetoric du jour makes for an inauspicious foothold. You’re also quite right — and have been quite right all along — in calling out David Brock, Correct the Record, and, in the wake of Trump’s ascension, the rump of Mrs. Clinton’s coterie, for engaging in exactly the kind of shenanigans they are accusing Russia of. Caught by Wikileaks and an internet savvy public with a knife in their hands and their clothes covered in blood, they point to Putin and scream, “He did it!”