Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Dark Side: The Greek Tragedy, Hillary Hysteria and the Trump Conundrum



“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
― 
Alexis de Tocqueville

When did America cease to be good?  When did America go to the dark side?  I would posit that happened December 12, 2000 when America’s Democratic Republic was overthrown in a coup.  A coup orchestrated by a convergence of the Republican and Democrat members of the U.S. Senate, Supreme Court and American Think Tanks funded by the military industrial complex calling the shots out of the bowels of the Pentagon. 


The great American experiment descended into the depths of darkness taking the entire world along with it.  On December 15th, 2000 the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was signed into law and drove a final stake through the heart of democracy, America ceased to be great, the die was cast, the curtains came down, America was no longer good, America was no longer great, America was no longer.


The creature from Jekyll Island was unleashed on the world, like a syphilitic junkie looking for its next fix, the predator was let loose.  Let loose on the world, like a serial killer and each kill became more violent, more depraved and would escalate until the monster was stopped if it could be stopped.



So when I read this article in The Intercept entitled “Institute of Peace’s Hawkish Chairman Wants Ukraine to Send Russians Back in Body Bags” it sent chills down my spine.



Excerpt:


The United States Institute of Peace is a publicly funded national institution chartered by the U.S. government to promote international peace through nonviolent conflict resolution.


But its chairman, Stephen Hadley, is a relentless hawk whose advocacy for greater military intervention often dovetails closely with the interests of Raytheon, a major defense contractor that pays him handsomely as a member of its board of directors.


Hadley, the former national security adviser to President George W. Bush, was an advocate for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and more recently appeared in the media to call for massive airstrikes in Syria. Over the last year, he has called for escalating the conflict in Ukraine.


In a speech at Poland’s Wroclaw Global Forum in June, Hadley argued in favor of arming the Ukrainian government in part because that would “raise the cost for what Russia is doing in Ukraine.” Specifically, he said, “even President Putin is sensitive to body bags — it sounds coarse to say, but it’s true…


Hadley also called for European governments to broadly boost military spending, ideally doubling it. “You know, let’s show that Europe is going to have real commitment to military forces,” he said.


The call to flood Ukraine with weapons not only contrasts sharply with the stated mission of the Institute of Peace…  but many scholars believe doing so would provoke more conflict….


…by the law that established it in 1984, it is also bipartisan: No more than eight voting members of board of directors can be from the same political party.


So who do you think are the Democrats that are part and parcel to this cabal?  Let me give you a hint, remember the 2000 election Al Gore was forced to take Joe Lieberman as his running mate?  When Bush lost the election to Gore, Joe Lieberman helped to sabotage the election.






WASHINGTON, July 14— For many Democrats immersed in Florida's disputed presidential election, there was no worse moment than the one on Sunday, Nov. 19, when Senator Joseph I. Lieberman appeared on national television and said that election officials should give the ''benefit of the doubt'' to military voters.


Until then, the Democrats had conducted a full-scale effort to persuade counties to disqualify any overseas ballots that lacked postmarks or witness signatures. But on that morning, with Republicans attacking the Gore-Lieberman campaign for eliminating the votes of hundreds of men and women in the armed forces, Mr. Lieberman effectively disavowed the strategy.


Yes, Lieberman wanted Bush ballots that “lacked postmarks or witness signatures” to be counted.  Hmmm, I wonder why.  That decision assisted the overthrow of the elected government in the United States on December 12, 2000.  That decision installed Stephen Hadley in the State Department and later became Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice’s number two in the State Department.


So how did Hadley come to be the Chairman of the United States Institute of Peace?


Hadley was nominated to the institute board by President Barack Obama in February 2013. He joined the institute in August and was elevated to chairman of the board in January 2014.


Well, well, well.  Imagine that, Barack Obama who lost the primary to Hillary Clinton until the big heist in Florida in 2008 that installed BO as President with his self-proclaimed Zionist Vice President Joe Biden, nominated the uber-hawkish Stephen Hadley as chairman of the Orwellian U.S. Institute of Peace’s chair.





Remember the primary race of 2008?  The Bush Administration was a disaster for America and people longed for the return of financial stability and prosperity of the Clinton years.  This is what Donald Trump had to say in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN in 2004:  


When the 2004 election came up, Trump said he identified "more as a Democrat." Blitzer asked him to clarify if he meant he was socially liberal. Trump replied: "I've been around a long time. And it just seems the economy does better under the Democrats than under Republicans."


But in 2004 the fix was in John Kerry would take a dive and Bush would be reelected.  And the fix was in during the Democratic Primary of 2008.  The Democrats like Joe Biden, Joe Lieberman, Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer along with a compliant corrupt media screamed that “Hillary can’t win she doesn’t have the delegates”.  “She has to get out of the race or she’ll hurt Obama”.   


But Hillary didn’t get out of the primary race, she kept on going and kept on winning, state after state and all the way to the commonwealth of Puerto Rico; Hillary won racking up over 18 million votes.  The Democrats’ golden calf Obama was turning out to be a tin cow.  He couldn’t close the deal so the Democrats had to throw the primary election at the Democratic Rules Committee in June of 2007.  From Washington Post:


Excerpt:


Florida Lawmakers Sue Dean, DNC


A federal lawsuit to be filed tomorrow by Florida lawmakers against Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean alleges that Dean and the national party are violating the equal protection provisions of the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act by refusing to recognize the state's Jan. 29 presidential primary.


In a draft of the lawsuit circulating among congressional aides and legal experts, Dean is accused of disenfranchising more than 4 million voters in a scheme that the lawsuit contends would also reduce minority voting. The DNC and the Florida Secretary of State are also named in the suit.


Sounds like Deja vu all over again.


"The defendants have combined to create a Presidential primary election with a stunningly anti-democratic scenario - every one of the more than 4.25 million registered Democratic voters in Florida will be completely disenfranchised and their constitutional rights with respect to that election will be rendered meaningless," the suit alleges.



The suit is being filed by Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Alcee Hastings in response to the DNC's decision last month to disqualify all of Florida's delegates to next year's national party convention.


So the DNC endowed Obama with the nomination even though he didn’t have enough delegates to be the nominee.  That would be the delegates apportioned according to the votes of the Democratic citizens, so he was awarded the “super delegates”.  What are super delegates you may ask?  They are members of the DNC whose votes supersede those of the voters.


Now, there was a problem.  Hillary could take the vote all the way to the convention floor on live TV where she would undoubtedly win the nomination, but the DNC like cockroaches can’t tolerate the disinfectant of sunshine.  So the Grand Dame of the U.S. Senate, Diane Feinstein had to get together with Hillary and Obama to grease the skids for Obama’s ascension to the nomination. 


Of course this is all conjecture on my part, but here’s what I believe went down.  Hillary would step out of the way and would become Secretary of State with a lot of autonomy and latitude.  After all, the Secretary of State is kind of like a co-Presidency and is in the line of succession to the White House.  That had to piss off the U.S. Institute for Peace, they had big plans for the Obama Administration and self-declared Zionist Veep Joe Biden.


All their big plans for hegemony and world dominance were delayed for four years while Clinton was Secretary of State, and that is why Secretary Clinton had a separate e-mail account that the Pentagon and U.S. Institute of Peace didn’t have access to.  That is why the Obama Administration, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the whole cabal are working overtime to leak stories about possible indictments against Secretary Clinton to destroy her candidacy for President.


But I digress, so back to the Intercept article on Stephen Hadley, Obama’s man heading up the U.S. Institute for “Peace.”


But it’s not the first time the institute has served as a platform for American hawkish foreign policy. Robert Turner, the first president of the institute and an appointee by President Ronald Reagan, voiced support for the right-wing death squads in Nicaragua known as the Contras


Hadley also serves as a highly paid board member of Raytheon, a company that stands to gain from increased military assistance to Ukraine. Hadley has been a Raytheon board member since 2009 and was paid cash and stock awards worth $290,025 in 2014 alone.


For companies like Raytheon, global instability and intervention have been good for business.



Indeed, “for companies like Raytheon, global instability and intervention have been good for business.”  So when I read this article about Syriza Party in Greece at the site called The James Petras Website it was stomach churning: 


Excerpt:


Syriza: Plunder, Pillage and Prostration. (How the ‘Hard Left’ embraces the policies of the Hard Right)


The North American and European Left celebrated Syriza’s election victory as a break with neo-liberal austerity programs and the launch of a radical alternative, which would implement popular initiatives for basic social changes, including measures generating employment, restoring pensions, reversing privatizations, reordering government priorities and favoring payments to employees over foreign banks…


However, prior to, and immediately after being elected, Syriza leaders adopted three basic decisions precluding any basic changes: Indeed, these decisions set it on a reactionary course.


First and foremost, Syriza accepted as legitimate the foreign debt of over $350 billion dollars, although most had been signed by previous government Kleptocrats, corrupt banks, business, real estate and financial interests. Virtually none of this debt was used to finance productive activity or vital services which would strengthen the economy and Greece’s future ability to pay back the loans.


Hundreds of billions of Euros were stashed away in foreign bank accounts and foreign real estate or invested in overseas stocks and bonds. After affirming the ‘legitimacy’ of the illicit debt, Syriza followed up by declaring its ‘willingness’ to pay the debt…


Secondly, and related to the above, Syriza declared its determination to remain in the European Union and Eurozone and thus accepted the surrender of its sovereignty and ability to fashion an independent policy… and make further concessions to the EU overseas banks in a totally one-sided process…

Thirdly, on taking office, Syriza negotiated a coalition with the far-right, pro-NATO, xenophobic, anti-immigrant Independent Greeks Party, guaranteeing that Greece would continue to support NATO’s military policies in the Middle East, the Ukraine and Israel’s brutal campaign against Palestine….


The worst betrayals include: (1) not restoring pension payments; (2) not restoring the minimum wage; (3) not reversing privatizations; (4) not ending austerity programs; and (5) not increasing funds for education, health, housing and local development….


Worse still, Syriza has deepened and extended the policies of its reactionary predecessors. (1)Syriza promised to freeze privatizations: Now it vows to extend them by 3.2 billion Euros and privatize new public sectors. (2) Syriza has agreed to shift scarce public resources to the military, including an investment of $500 million Euros to upgrade the Greek Air Force….


Wow, shifting scarce public resources to the military including an investment of $500 million Euros to the Greek Air Force” isn’t that what Stephen Hadley and the U.S. Institute for Peace are demanding?  Talk about a Greek Tragedy.


Syriza’s foreign policy mimics its predecessors. Syriza’s far right Defense Minister, Panos Kammenos, has been a vocal supporter of the US and EU sanctions against Russia…


Syriza has deliberately emptied the Treasury, plundered pension funds and local municipal holdings in order to blackmail the population to accept as a ‘fait accompli’ the regressive policies of hardline EU bankers – the so-called “austerity programs”….


As Syriza plundered the country of resources to pay the bankers, it escalated its international groveling. Its Defense Minister offered new military bases for NATO, including an air-maritime base on the Greek island of Karpathos.


Syriza escalated Greece’s political and military support for EU and US military intervention and support of “moderate” terrorists in the Middle East, ludicrously in the name of “protecting Christians”…


In the end, Syriza has deepened poverty and unemployment, increased foreign control over the economy, further eroded the public sector, facilitated the firing of workers and slashed severance pay- while increasing the role of the Greek military by deepening its ties to NATO and Israel.


To quote Sargent Joe Kenda, oh my, my, my.  And that brings me to the Trump conundrum and the 2016 election.  The fix is already in, now it’s just a matter of creating the illusion that the next leader that has been preselected by the U.S. Institute for Peace and the Pentagon was really the people’s choice.


The GOP dance card was being filled with reliable puppets and the war on Hillary Clinton has been declared.  Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has be spinning tunes about Hillary’s malfeasance and the e-mails that were not classified at the time are now being “retroactively” classified and crimes are being retroactively committed, by Hillary. 


All was going great, the players were taking their places the Murdoch Wurlitzer was spinning out latest hit parade of tunes; Hillary can’t be trusted, Hillary is unlikeable, Hillary will be indicted and then came The Donald.  Oh boy, that wasn’t in the plan.




A billionaire like Donald Trump doesn’t need money and he doesn’t need a pre-recorded, pre-approved script from the U.S. Institute for Peace.  This is not faring well for the GOP nor does it fare well for the new “Democrat” party. 


The Donald drew a crowd of 20 million to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Debate where Murdoch’s carnival barkers tried to destroy his candidacy.  But The Donald spoke of America being restored to greatness.  The Donald has struck a chord and every attack just make people love him more.  And those people are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. 


It’s time to restore America and send back those who have come here illegally.  Remember all those unaccompanied children that were crossing the border in 2013 and 2014?  From Center for American Progress:


Excerpt:


Over the past few years, and in particular over the past few months, the number of children and families leaving the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and arriving in neighboring countries and at our southern border has grown significantly.


Already in fiscal year 2014, more than 57,000 children have arrived in the United States, double the number who made it to the U.S. southern border in FY 2013. The number of families arriving at the border, consisting mostly of mothers with infants and toddlers, has increased in similar proportions.


In fiscal year 2013, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, apprehended fewer than 10,000 families per year; yet, more than 55,000 families were apprehended in the first nine months of fiscal year 2014 alone.


The majority of unaccompanied children and families who are arriving come from a region of Central America known as the “Northern Triangle,” where high rates of violence and homicide have prevailed in recent years and economic opportunity is increasingly hard to come by.


Gee, that sounds like the handiwork of the U.S. Institute for Peace.  And what did Hillary have to say about all those children flooding into America from war torn Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador?  From HuffingtonPost:


Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that unaccompanied minors who crossed the border illegally in a massive influx over recent months "should be sent back" to their native countries, but also that they should be reunited with their families -- which sometimes requires them to stay in the United States.


"They should be sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults in their families are, because there are concerns about whether all of them should be sent back," the potential 2016 presidential candidate said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "But I think all of them who can be should be reunited with their families."



And that is the Trump conundrum.  If the new Democrat party is successful in knocking Hillary Clinton out of the race for President, her supporters will go to Trump.  On Friday The Donald held a rally in Mobile Alabama that drew a crowd of 30 thousand.  One caller to C-Span put it this way, “in Alabama we have three religions, Methodist, Baptist and football, if the rally had been held on any night other than Friday, it would have been 50 thousand people.”


It was a sight to be seen, Trump was all over the map and said nothing particular of substance but that is what makes him a moving target, really hard to hit for the U.S. Institute of Peace.


Trump’s message has been simple “I want to make America great again.”


So there you have it.  America has gone to the dark side and pulled the world into an endless loop, living in a season of hell we can’t get out of. Or, can we?   


The Darkside is coming, now nothing is real,
She'll never know just how I'll feel
From out of the shadow's she walk's like a dream
Make me feel crazy, make me feel so mean.


Nothing's gonna save ya from the love that's blind.
Slip through the darkside and cross that line.  
On the darkside, oh yeah..




By Patricia Baeten


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