Democrats Wastin’ Time: Impeachment the refuge of Sore Losers

Well thanks to the disingenuous, undemocratic Wall Street Bankers’ party, the Democrats are cruising for a losing in the 2020 election.  Since taking over the gavel in 2016 they have done nothing to address the extreme distress the American people have been suffering since the financial meltdown of 2008.  The new Democratic Party couldn’t care less about America or the American people.  The sore losers are just wastin’ time on impeachment as a way of achieving that which they couldn’t in the election.  The media has already winnowed down the DNC 2020 roster of candidates to a group of about five bankers’ handmaidens to go up against President Trump. 

The latest undemocratic Democrat to join fray is the lying, corrupt, fake “lunch box” candidate Joe Biden.  His laughable disingenuous film clip condemning Trump for “supposed support of Nazi’s” in Charlottesville is hilarious given Biden’s support for real Nazi’s in Ukraine.  In 2014 as Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden and buddy Victoria Nuland instigated a bloody coup against the elected government of Yanukovych after he rejected a Biden-negotiated World Bank loan that would enslave the people of Ukraine.  From Mint Press:

Excerpt:

Joe Biden Launches Campaign with Charlottesville Condemnation after Supporting Neo-Nazis in Ukraine

While working behind the scenes to shape the post-Maidan Ukrainian government to their liking, powerbrokers in Washington — Biden included — have done all they could to downplay the U.S. role.

Former Vice President Joe Biden launched his candidacy for the American presidency on Thursday morning with the release of his first campaign video, ‘’America Is An Idea.’ The first word from the candidate’s mouth — “Charlottesville,” a town now synonymous with neo-Nazi hate in the U.S. — is the overwhelming focus of the ad, which attacks Trump for his widely criticized “moral equivalence” between neo-Nazis and anti-fascists.

Biden argues that “We are in a battle for the soul of this nation,” after bloviating over b-roll of the infamous torch-lit march the night prior to the murder of activist Heather Heyer by a supporter of Adolf Hitler. “Folks, America is an idea,” Biden says.

Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, seemingly condemned the exploitation of her daughter’s untimely demise, saying “I wasn’t surprised. Most people do that sort of thing. They capitalize on whatever situation is handy.”

Biden’s centering on the neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville has also been roundly denounced by Charlottesville locals and activists who bore witness to it on Twitter and other social media. Yet, the candidate has received little scrutiny over the years for his role in abetting the neo-Nazi renaissance in Ukraine that followed the fascist takeover of the government, known as the Euromaidan.

Blowback from the U.S. government support for the far-right coup has already struck Charlottesville. The U.S. previously gave military assistance to the Azov Batallion, a neo-Nazi paramilitary organization that has been incorporated into the Ukrainian national guard. One neo-Nazi contingent present in Charlottesville, comprised of four men indicted by the FBI last year, trained under Azov…

Meanwhile, the slayer of 50 Muslims in a white supremacist attack on a mosque and Islamic center in New Zealand earlier this year claimed in his manifesto to have trained under Azov and had a symbol associated with the group on his flak jacket.

 Biden’s role in fueling the revival

It is widely known by international observers of Ukraine that Joe Biden, as vice president, served as Obama’s chief operative when it came to matters pertaining to the country.  In late 2013, Biden seemed to have been a key player in former President Victor Yanukovych’s bid to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Later, Biden would go on to boast that, “after three months into the demonstrations,” he personally told Yanukovych to “walk away” from Ukraine. Yanukovych has lived in exile in Russia since the takeover.  As the U.S. and violent protests were turning up the heat on the government, the U.S. was doing all it could to mold the government to its liking, and Biden played a pivotal role in this process.

In February 2014, leaked recordings emerged of Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, plotting to unite the Ukrainian opposition to take over the government. They sought to use Biden as an intermediary with the three main leaders of the opposition, hoping he could get the details of the U.S. plan for the country to “stick” with the trio.  “So Biden is willing,” Nuland assured Pyatt.

Washington had its favorite of the three picked already. The most popular of them had little political or economic experience (he was a professional boxer), while the other guy, Oleh Tyahnybok, had longstanding ties to neo-Nazis, which would have legitimized Russian claims that the uprising was of a fascist nature. Tyahnybok is the leader of the Svoboda Party, a fascist organization that refers to the Holocaust as the “light period” and bans Jews from participation…  This is the plan that Nuland said Biden was “willing” to help further.

By April, Biden was delivering aid packages personally to the opposition. In Ukraine, he met with “leading members of parliament, including several candidates for the presidency — speaking to them of Ukraine’s “heroism” and humiliations. “We want to be your partner, your friend in the project. And we’re ready to assist,” Biden reportedly said.  Among those he met with: Oleh Tyahnybok…

Continuing corruption after the coup

Like his stance on neo-Nazism, Biden’s stance on corruption seems to change with the political winds.  As journalist and lawyer Kevin Zeese recently noted, WikiLeaks previously reported that Biden “pledged U.S. financial and technical assistance to Ukraine” for fracking projects.

Just months after Yanukovych was ousted and forced to flee to Russia, Biden’s son, Hunter, was put on the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, the largest private gas company in the country.

As the coup ended, the Washington-backed government eventually took shape under the auspices of billionaire Petro Poroshenko, who became the president in June. Biden may have gotten what he wanted — an ostensible end to corruption in Ukraine’s energy sector. At least that was the goal of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who opened an investigation into Burisma Holdings.

And so daddy came to the rescue. Here is Joe Biden, in his own words:

I got all the good [assignments]. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team, our leaders to — convincing that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn’t…I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch — he got fired…

Yep, Joe Biden’s coke-snorting loser son Hunter was placed on the Board of Directors of the  Ukrainian energy corporation Burisma Holdings along with John Kerry’s stepson Chris Heinz.  Once the Ukrainian State Prosecutor started looking into the corruption at Burisma old black hearted Joe bribed the unelected, illegitimate, US installed government to fire the prosecutor.  According to Zero Hedge:

Excerpt:

Biden Funneled $1.8 Billion To Ukraine While Son Bagged 'Sweetheart' Government Deal: Report

Joe Biden allegedly directed $1.8 billion in aid money to Ukraine as Vice President while his son Hunter received millions of dollars from Ukrainian energy giant Burisma Holdings, according to Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and senior Breitbart editor-at-large.

As The Hill's John Solomon reported Monday, Hunter Biden was paid upwards of $166,000 per month to sit on the board of Burisma from spring 2014 through fall 2015…

"There’s all kinds of questions and implications. Is there a Russian component to this, because Burisma is such a corrupt company?" Schweizer added.

"The bottom line is Joe Biden was the Obama administration’s point-person on policy towards Ukraine," said Schweizer. "He steered $1.8 billion in aid to that government and while he was doing so, his son got a sweetheart deal with this energy company – that we’ve been able to trace over just a 14-month period – paid $3.1 million into an account where Hunter Biden was getting paid." 

Schweizer highlighted Hunter Biden’s lack of professional or experiential bona fides in terms of his board position at Burisma Holdings.  “Suffice to say, Hunter Biden has no background in Ukraine,” stated Schweizer. “He has no background in energy policy. There’s really no legitimate explanation as to why he got this deal with this energy company, other than the fact his father was responsible for doling out money in Ukraine itself.”

Schweizer went on, “It’s a huge problem, and it goes to this question of corruption and potential payoffs and bribes that these foreign entities were making to the Bidens in exchange for hopefully getting favorable treatment.”

Despite the Robert Mueller-led operation’s ostensible pursuit of “collusion” between President Donald Trump and the Russian state, Schweizer noted actual financial dealings between the Biden family and foreign interests. -Breitbart

"One of the phrases that has been tossed around as it relates to the Russian collusion hoax was ‘obstruction of justice’ by Trump, and there’s been no — at least in my mind — evidence that that ever happened, and it doesn’t seem that Mueller felt any charges should be brought on that count.

But in this case, you would have a pretty clear-cut case of obstruction of justice, where Joe Biden is saying to Ukrainian officials, ‘We are not going to give you this billion-dollar loan guarantee unless you fire this guy.'" added Schweizer.

Ha, ha.  Where’s the charges of obstruction of justice against the corrupt Biden cabal?  That is the problem with the Democratic Party, they are not democratic.  They are the opposite, they have done more to destroy America than any foreign power.  It was the Democrats like Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer who eagerly destroyed the global banking system through deregulation. 

The Democrats never launched impeachment hearings against George W. Bush for lying America into war in Iraq.  There were never hearings regarding the Bush Administration’s failure to protect America from the 911 attacks after numerous warnings.  Not only was the Bush Administration not held accountable for their crimes, but under the Obama/Biden regime the crimes and illegal wars escalated to new heights.   

There were never impeachment hearings for Obama after allowing “Fast and Furious” illegal gun running, bailing out the corrupt bankers and paying them bonuses out of taxpayer money or the myriad of unconstitutional, criminal activities.  Why?  Because they are but one corrupt party. 

This “new” Democratic Party continually slaps down any populist agenda that the new members pursue.  They have unapologetically supported every trillion dollar expansion of the military industrial budget while slashing funds for education, social security, healthcare and jobs.  The Obama era was more anti-union than any administration before them.  From The Intercept:

Excerpt:

JOE BIDEN KICKS OFF CAMPAIGN WITH UNION FACING PENSION CUTS DRIVEN BY OBAMA-ERA LAW

JOE BIDEN IS kicking off his presidential campaign Monday afternoon alongside a local labor union in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as part of his strategy to engage working-class voters in states that Hillary Clinton lost in 2016. But even as Biden basks in their image, the workers in the local union are locked in a battle with their bosses over cuts to their pensions — cuts enabled by a law passed during the former vice president’s time in the Obama White House.

Biden will speak to members of the Teamsters Local 249 alongside United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, a man Biden has previously said he “work[s] for.” Gerard himself opposed the Obama bill, and the USW has since called on Congress to pass legislation to protect benefits with alternative funding. Gerard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former President Barack Obama signed the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 into law as part of an omnibus spending bill that also rolled back some Dodd-Frank consumer protection regulations on Wall Street and lifted limits on campaign contributions to national political parties. The measure allows sponsors of pension plans who can demonstrate they are in declining or critical financial condition to cut promised workers’ benefits in order to remain solvent.

Thanks to that Obama-era law, members of the Teamsters Local 249 are facing up to 30 percent reductions in their retirement benefits — the type of economic setback prone to produce the anxiety so heavily discussed in 2016. All participants in the plan will have the chance to vote on it, but the Treasury Department has the power to veto that decision if employees reject it. Many unions backed the plan as the only way to save retiree pensions in the long run, but individual workers have expressed frustration when faced with the prospect of cuts and have since called for revisions to the original bill allowing for cutbacks.

Biden’s campaign and his supporters peddle the former vice president as an antidote to President Donald Trump’s right-wing populism, a role he plays not with sweeping policy proposals designed to take on the malefactors of great wealth, but largely through tough-sounding rhetoric. He famously threatened to take Trump “behind the gym.” His trip to Pittsburg fits with an archetypal tour of working-class areas that conjure Biden’s nostalgic image of the United States, a journey that has also included Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Youngstown, Ohio, where Trump won in 2016.

Biden situates himself in the rust belt by citing his ties to Scranton, Pennsylvania; his working-class upbringing and Irish Catholic heritage. The idea is that the six-term Delaware senator can use that special connection to repurpose the burgeoning class anxiety Trump was able to tap into and translate it back into energy for the Democratic Party. But in the same way that Trump styled himself as a working-class hero despite his massive inheritance and a career of reckless investing and wage theft, Biden’s desired image stands in stark contrast with his political record — and the elite and anti-labor interests backing his 2020 bid.

Despite some union backing for the law, a significant number of Democratic senators opposed it in 2014, including Sen. Bernie Sanders — one of Biden’s top opponents for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar all saw fit to oppose it.

Sanders has repeatedly proposed legislation to repeal the provision that allows hard-won pension benefits to be cut. Sanders introduced the 2017 Keep Our Pension Promises Act with Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, with Democratic Senate co-sponsors Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown, Amy Klobuchar, Gary Peters, Jack Reed, Debbie Stabenow, Sheldon Whitehouse, and former Sens. Claire McCaskill and Al Franken.

“Before the law was changed, it was illegal for an employer to cut the pension benefits retirees have earned,” reads a statement on Sanders’s website issued alongside the proposal. “The new legislation establishes a legacy fund within the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to ensure that multi-employer pension plans can continue to provide pension benefits to every eligible American for decades to come. This legislation is paid for by closing two tax loopholes that allow the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.”

The looming pension issue illustrates a fundamental distinction in how the two septuagenarian politicians approach labor issues. “If Congress could bailout Wall Street and foreign banks throughout the world, we certainly can protect the pension benefits of American workers,” Sanders wrote in a statement on the legislation.

Perhaps nothing more accurately captures Biden’s essence in the tradition of corporate-friendly Democrats than the high-dollar fundraiser he hosted to kick off his campaign with help from Republican donors and corporate lobbyists. Or the one he held last Thursday at the home of Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen in Philadelphia alongside Steve Cozen, founder of the union-busting law firm Cozen O’Connor. Biden plans to hold another elite fundraiser in Los Angeles next month with DreamWorks co-founder Jeff Katzenberg; actor and director Rob Reiner; entertainment investor Peter Chernin; and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Biden’s campaign didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The Western Pennsylvania Teamsters and Employers Pension Fund, which sponsors pension plans for members of the Local 249, applied in October for permission to cut benefits to more than 21,000 people working in the Pittsburgh area. The Treasury Department will rule on the application by May 7, and any approved cuts would be effective August 1. The Local 249 represents United Parcel Service employees, freight workers, and school bus drivers. Other participants in the Pension Fund include toll workers, prison staff, food service employees, and mechanics.

Yes, old black hearted Joe, touting his “every man” persona is really a bankers’ bag man who has nothing but disdain for “working folks.”  A word to the wise any politician who refers to American citizens as “folks” are fakes.  We are not “folks” we are hardworking people.  Joe Biden has done more to destroy the working class and middle class than any other politician.  From Stephen Lendman:

Excerpt:

Biden represents virtually everything ordinary people deplore, a longtime establishment figure hostile to peace, equity and justice for all.  His political career spans over four decades, serving wealth, power, and privileged interests exclusively, including two terms as Obama regime vice president.

Between them, they did Lincoln one better, fooling most people most of the time, promising hope and change, delivering betrayal.

They spurned popular rights and well-being, looted the nation’s wealth for Wall Street and other corporate favorites, wrecked the economy for ordinary Americans, consigning millions to unemployment, underemployment, and poverty — the nation’s leading growth industry on their watch.

They institutionalized tyranny beyond Bush/Cheney destruction of fundamental rights — on the phony pretext of combatting international terrorism the US created and supports.

They targeted more whistleblowers than all their predecessors combined, deported more unwanted aliens than any previous US regime, terror-bombed seven countries in eight years and bragged about it, ignoring their responsibility for mass slaughter and destruction.

They were money power’s point men, force-feeding neoliberal harshness on the nation’s most disadvantaged when economic stimulus was needed to help them, prolonging main street Depression conditions throughout their tenure, continuing under Trump/Pence.

Like their predecessors and DLT et al, they’re serial liars and moral cowards. Their notion of “shared sacrifice” was letting wealthy Americans share at the expense of ordinary people sacrificing to more greatly enrich them.

As Delaware’s longest serving undemocratic Dem senator, Biden twice failed to become party standard bearer for president.  Will he be third time lucky or a three-time loser? Establishment media are promoting him over co-frontrunner Bernie Sanders — for not being undemocratic Dem enough.

Biden fits the bill. He’s polar opposite “hope and change.” He’s everything that political corruption too debauched to fix is all about.   As a longtime Delaware pol, his top priority was and remains serving banking and other financial industry interests, as well as other corporate favorites, supporting legislation serving their interests.

He represents what the late Gore Vidal meant by saying: “By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he’s been bought ten times over.”  Biden long ago sold his soul to powerful interests that own him —  that could propel him to the White House, knowing he’s safe.

He’s an anti-populist closet neocon/law and order hardliner supporting wars of aggression, corporate handouts, neoliberal harshness, and intolerance of dissent.  He’s polar opposite the lunch bucket/middle class Joe image he tries to portray, everything progressives deplore, beholden to interests harming ordinary people.

Biden never met a war of aggression, corporate handout, or police state law he didn’t wholeheartedly endorse and cheerlead.  A closet racist, he opposed busing and school integration. As Judiciary Committee chairman in 1991, he prevented testimonies from key witnesses, corroborating Anita Hill’s accusations of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings — letting a supremely unqualified right-wing extremist join the High Court, spurning justice instead of affirming it.

He cheerled US/NATO naked aggression in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, supported three preemptive Israeli wars on Gaza, and joined the Russia bashing crowd following the Obama regime’s 2014 coup in Ukraine, replacing democratic governance with Nazi-infested fascist rule.

Endorsing super-wealth, he once said “I don’t think five hundred billionaires are the reason we’re in trouble. The folks at the top aren’t bad guys.” They amassed super-wealth the old-fashioned way — by grand theft and other devious means.  Biden relies on deep-pocketed donors for support, courting them rabidly. They love him for backing their interests at the expense of ordinary Americans he and they deplore.

Among an array of about 20 undemocratic Dem aspirants for the nation’s top job, it doesn’t get any worse than creepy Joe.  None deserve support, Biden least of all. What ordinary people value most, he opposes — notably peace, equity, justice, democracy the way it should be, human and civil rights, collective bargaining rights, affirmative action, a woman’s right to choose, gender equality, elder rights, along with governance of, by, and for everyone, not just the privileged few.

Anybody but Joe and DLT in 2020 — even though no duopoly standard bearers deserve support in a nation where democracy is pure fantasy, never the real thing.

Amen, Brother Stephen.  All the Dems are doing is wastin’ time there will be no impeachment.  It is all a big scam to weaken Trump before the 2020 election.  From Jonathan Turley:

Excerpt:

The Black Jersey: How Trump And Congress Are Competing For Last Place 

In Washington, the race is on for the “black jersey.” That was the jersey awarded in the early 1900s to the slowest rider in a bicycle race. The renowned champion, Luigi Malabrocca, took so long to race a course after stopping for lunch and an aperitif that most of the fans went home before he crossed the finish line. But Malabrocca is about to be outdone, as both Congress and the White House strive to slow down investigations to prevent any real impeachment.

The hope is that the public will eventually go home, or at least to the polls, with the prepackaged narratives of the two parties. From privilege fights to legislative investigations, the goal is to slow down the impeachment process without appearing to do so.

President Trump is promising to challenge any impeachment proceeding. It would be a meritless claim, but the White House is likely more interested in the ultimate delay than the ultimate decision. While I do not see a compelling case for impeachment, this would constitute a frivolous challenge to Congress under Article I.

Impeachment, after all, is a process that the framers left to Congress, and there is little basis for judicial review or intervention. The White House knows that, but it also knows it has key allies in slowing down impeachment. Those allies are the Democrats.

It has been apparent for months to many of us in Washington that the Democratic leadership is opposed to actually impeaching Trump rather than simply going through the motions of investigations...

The great danger is that House committees could inadvertently stumble over an impeachment offense that forces their hands. However, with all of the mutually desired litigation, the calendar is likely to protect members from actually having to fulfill their pledges.

The strategy is to continue investigating as a matter of oversight rather than impeachment. This will eat up time while hopefully damaging, but not removing, Trump. Pelosi can then claim at the end of the year that there is no practical time for impeachment. It is all meant to satisfy Democratic voters still being told that the party wants to impeach, if only there was more time or evidence. 

However, it will take time, and that is the point. So welcome to the “corsa al ultimo posto,” or the “race for last place.” The sad part of all this is that the voters, as the “marks” in this Washington con game, are likely to buy the whole thing. The key with any good con is to use the fantasies of the marks to carry out the scam. This political shell game is designed to keep voters believing they can still win. There never was an impeachment pea under any of the three shells, but that is not likely to matter in the end.

So while the nation suffers, over $70 trillion in debt, unemployed, underemployed, broke, hungry, crumbling infrastructure, orchestrating a bloody coup in Venezuela, the undemocratic Democrats are just wastin’ time.  Under the undemocratic tutelage of Nancy Pelosi nothing will change.  By the time the 2020 election gets rolls around the Democrats will be lucky if they have any voters left.  We’re sick of it, quit wastin’ our time on an impeachment that will never come.

Think Tanks go nuts after President Trump turns off trillion dollar foreign aid spigot to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador

“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.”  ― George Orwell

I was watching C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and their guest was Benjamin Gedan of the Wilson Center commenting on Trump’s plan to cut aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.  He was adamantly opposed to cutting foreign aid to these countries as the funds go to good causes like “addressing the root causes” of the mass migration from these countries.

He was spewing the usual think tank talking point of “getting to the root causes” of the immigration crisis and how cutting off the foreign aid to those countries will jeopardize all the progress made.  But what progress has been, or will be made?  You have the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and a myriad of NGO’s ensuring continued destabilization, even though it is in America’s interest to have safe, secure, financially stable countries in South America.

If continued foreign financial aid just exasperates the violent situation then I agree with Donald Trump, cut it off, all gone.  From ABC News:

Excerpt:

Trump cuts all direct assistance to Northern Triangle countries Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala

The stunning development came late Friday night.

In a stunning about-face, State Department officials said that President Donald Trump is cutting off all direct assistance to the so-called Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

“At the Secretary’s instruction, we are carrying out the President’s direction and ending FY [fiscal year] 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle,” a State Department spokesperson told ABC News, referring to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “We will be engaging Congress as part of this process.”

These three countries are the primary source of migrants to the U.S., but for years the U.S. has worked with them to stabilize their political environments and economies and end violence and corruption so that migrants wouldn’t leave in the first place.

Trump hinted at the cuts earlier on Friday, telling reporters, “I’ve ended payments to Guatemala, to Honduras, and to El Salvador. No money goes there anymore.”  While the president has threatened these cuts before, this time the administration is actually following through. 

Trump said the funds totaled $500 million, but it wasn’t clear Friday if that figure was accurate. The State Department announced in December that the U.S. would mobilize $5.8 billion in public and private American investment to these three countries.

“We’re not paying them anymore because they haven’t done a thing for us,” he added.  His senior-most advisers, however, have carried a very different tune, talking very often about the importance of this assistance to stem the flow of illegal immigration.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was in Mexico and Honduras this week meeting with their leadership to sign new partnership agreements. Pompeo testified before the House of Representatives on Wednesday about the administration's efforts, saying the president had instructed him and Nielsen to use U.S. funding to "develop a set of programs that reward effective outcomes, that reward good leadership, that get us to a place where we actually achieve the outcomes…"

Trump's previous threats to pull the plug, however, had often left U.S. officials scratching their heads and straining to explain why these funds described as key to stemming migration would be cut off -- as punishment for not stemming migration.

Wow, I bet that came as a shock to the think tanks that have been suckling off the foreign aid teat for years.  Watching this think tank representative on C-SPAN challenging President Trump’s decision to cut off the spigot of foreign aid for the violent, Northern Triangle in South America made me wonder. Just what has our foreign aid done?  After 10 years of pouring money to the Northern Triangle, why has there been no improvement? Before we pour any more money into foreign aid, let’s look at where it is really going and who is benefitting from foreign aid.  My search for the answers took me to an article published in the New York Times in 2014.

Excerpt:

Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks

WASHINGTON — The agreement signed last year by the Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs was explicit: For $5 million, Norway’s partner in Washington would push top officials at the White House, at the Treasury Department and in Congress TO DOUBLE SPENDING ON A UNITED STATES FOREIGN AID PROGRAM.

But the recipient of the cash was not one of the many Beltway lobbying firms that work every year on behalf of foreign governments.  It was THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT, a nonprofit research organization, or THINK TANK, one of many such groups in Washington that lawmakers, government officials and the news media have long relied on to provide independent policy analysis and scholarship.

More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

The money is increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington. And it has set off troubling questions about intellectual freedom: Some scholars say they have been pressured to reach conclusions friendly to the government financing the research.

The think tanks do not disclose the terms of the agreements they have reached with foreign governments. And they have not registered with the United States government as representatives of the donor countries, an omission that appears, in some cases, to be a violation of federal law, according to several legal specialists who examined the agreements at the request of The Times.

As a result, policy makers who rely on think tanks are often unaware of the role of foreign governments in funding the research…  “It is particularly egregious because with a law firm or lobbying firm, you expect them to be an advocate,” Mr. Sandler added. “Think tanks have this patina of academic neutrality and objectivity, and that is being compromised.”

The arrangements involve Washington’s most influential think tanks, including the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Atlantic Council. Each is a major recipient of overseas funds, producing policy papers, hosting forums and organizing private briefings for senior United States government officials that typically align with the foreign governments’ agendas…

Qatar, the small but wealthy Middle East nation, agreed last year to make a $14.8 million, four-year donation to Brookings, which has helped fund a Brookings affiliate in Qatar and a project on United States relations with the Islamic world.  Some scholars say the donations have led to implicit agreements that the research groups would refrain from criticizing the donor governments.

“If a member of Congress is using the Brookings reports, they should be aware — they are not getting the full story,” said Saleem Ali, who served as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar and who said he had been told during his job interview that he could not take positions critical of the Qatari government in papers. “THEY MAY NOT BE GETTING A FALSE STORY, BUT THEY ARE NOT GETTING THE FULL STORY…”

Several legal experts who reviewed the documents, however, said the tightening relationships between United States think tanks and their overseas sponsors could violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the 1938 federal LAW THAT SOUGHT TO COMBAT A NAZI PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN IN THE UNITED STATES. The law requires groups that are paid by foreign governments with the intention of influencing public policy to register as “foreign agents” with the Justice Department.

Foreign Government Contributions to Nine Think Tanks

Foreign governments and state-controlled or state-financed entities have paid tens of millions of dollars to dozens of American think tanks in recent years, according to a New York Times investigation.

Small countries are finding that they can gain big clout by teaming up with American research organizations. Perhaps the best example is Norway.  As one of the world’s top oil producers, a member of NATO and a player in peace negotiations in spots around the globe, Norway has an interest in a broad range of United States policies.

The country has committed at least $24 million to an array of Washington think tanks over the past four years, according to a tally by The Times, transforming these nonprofits into a powerful but largely hidden arm of the Norway Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Documents obtained under that country’s unusually broad open records laws reveal that American research groups, after receiving money from Norway, have advocated in Washington for enhancing Norway’s role in NATO, promoted its plans to expand oil drilling in the Arctic and pushed its climate change agenda…

Norway has also funded Arctic research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, at a time when the country was seeking to expand its oil drilling in the Arctic region…  Norway’s government soon began sending checks to the center for a research program on Arctic policy. By 2009, after the new Norway-supported Arctic program was up and running, it brought Norway officials together with a key member of Congress to discuss the country’s “energy aspirations for the region.”

IN A MARCH 2013 REPORT, SCHOLARS FROM THE CENTER URGED THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO INCREASE ITS MILITARY PRESENCE IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, TO PROTECT ENERGY EXPLORATION EFFORTS THERE and to increase the passage of cargo ships through the region — the exact moves Norway has been advocating…

But three lawyers who specialize in the law governing Americans’ activities on behalf of foreign governments said that THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT AND BROOKINGS, in particular, appeared to have taken actions that merited registration as foreign agents of Norway. The activities by THE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES and the ATLANTIC COUNCIL, they added, at least raised questions.

“The Department of Justice needs to be looking at this,” said Joshua Rosenstein, a lawyer at Sandler Reiff.  Ona Dosunmu, Brookings’s general counsel, examining the same documents, said she remained convinced that was a misreading of the law.

Norway, at least, is grateful for the work Brookings has done. During a speech at Brookings in June, Norway’s foreign minister, Borge Brende, noted that his country’s relationship with the think tank “has been mutually beneficial for moving a lot of important topics.” Just before the speech, in fact, Norway signed an agreement to contribute an additional $4 million to the group.

C-SPAN also has that same “patina of academic neutrality and objectivity” that these stink tanks enjoy.  It’s all a façade.  We are told C-SPAN is funded by a few pennies added to your cable bill each month.  That is probably true, but C-SPAN covers every Think Tank event, white paper, every editorial, every cause, every meeting, every debate, every war rally and everything else 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  C-SPAN introduces their “fellows” as experts in foreign policy.

C-SPAN played a huge roll in selling the Iraq War.  Twenty-four hours a day, stink tanks from the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, Brookings, Council on Foreign Relations, Wilson Center, the Atlantic, RAND Corporation, Mercatus Center  and countless others spewed their lies on C-SPAN unchallenged. 

But setting aside the think tanks’ total control of C-SPAN it is frightening to know that none of the foreign policy decisions being made are in America’s interests.  How can supporting fascist oligarchies in South America be good for America?  From Strategic Culture:

Excerpt:

Bienvenidos PROSUR: a Return to Fascist Oligarchies in South America

With more than a “wink and a nod” from their collegial “caudillo del Norte,” Donald Trump, seven right-wing South American leaders have launched the Forum for the Progress of South America (PROSUR), which aims to eradicate all vestiges of Venezuela’s late president, Hugo Chavez, and Brazil’s wrongfully-imprisoned past president, Inacio Lula da Silva.

PROSUR seeks to replace the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), which was created by Chavez and Lula in 208 to counteract traditional American hegemonism in Latin America enforced by the neo-colonial Organization of American States (OAS).

Leaders from seven right-wing South American governments – Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, and Guyana – recently gathered in Santiago, Chile, under the auspices of billionaire Chilean president Sebastian Pinera, to sign an accord creating PROSUR.

One of the goals of the new bloc is to integrate the defense, security, and crime prevention infrastructures of the members. If that sounds like an embryonic recreation of the infamous Operation CONDOR of the 1960s and 70s, it very much has such potential.

CONDOR was an alliance of the intelligence and security services of South American military dictatorships, nurtured by the CIA, that is believed to have been responsible for 60,000 murders, 30,000 “disappeared,” 400,000 wrongful imprisonments, and countless acts of torture.

Bolivia and Uruguay, members of UNASUR that support Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro, against the Central Intelligence Agency-groomed and -installed presidential pretender, Juan Guaido, did not join PROSUR, and, instead, elected observer status in the group.

Pinera and Colombia’s right-wing and narco/paramilitary-backed president, Ivan Duque, were the architects behind PROSUR. Seeing a chance to bury the legacies of Chavez and Lula, the two presidents invited all but Maduro’s government to join the pact.

Ecuador, which joined PROSUR, served as the headquarters of UNASUR. In 2014, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa opened the $65 million headquarters in Quito. Today, with right-wing governments and, as with the cases of Brazil and Colombia, far-right wing governments, taking over most of South America, the UNASUR headquarters sits largely abandoned.

Moreno ordered UNASUR to abandon the building and promised to turn it into a university. After UNASUR Secretary General Ernesto Samper left his post in 2017, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru suspended their membership in the bloc, dealing it a fatal blow.

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno quickly abandoned his commitment to the ideals of Correa, Lula, and Chavez and embraced the caudillo politics of the right-wing South America presidents. Moreno, whose first name is in honor of Vladimir Lenin, plunged a knife into UNASUR when he said it was the creation of “perverse politicking of the self-styled 21st-century socialists.”

After Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru withdrew from UNASUR, with the obvious prodding of the Trump administration, the stage was set for creating a new right-wing and pro-US alliance of neo-fascists, grifters, and oligarchs.

Moreno, who served as Correa’s vice president, has abandoned the socialist policies of his predecessor. Moreno not only welcomed US Vice President Mike Pence to Ecuador with open arms but sought the re-opening of the former US intelligence airbase at Manta, which had been closed by Correa in 2009.

Moreno’s defense minister announced that what would replace the Manta airbase would be a “Security Cooperation Office.” In 2018, Moreno withdrew Ecuador from one of Chavez’s most-prized creations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

Ironically, Moreno, who bears the first name of the founder of the world’s first Communist nation, reversed many of Correa’s policies aimed at reducing the influence of Ecuador’s oligarchs and banks. Correa, who now lives in exile in Belgium, faces imprisonment in Ecuador in a political jihad launched by Moreno that is not unlike that of the Brazilian right-wing that targeted Lula and his successor, Dilma Rousseff.

Present at the inauguration of PROSUR in Santiago was Argentine president Mauricio Macri, the one-time business partner of Donald Trump, who has done everything possible to imprison his predecessor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Now an Argentine senator, Kirchner and her husband, the late President Nestor Kirchner, were partners of Chavez, Lula, and Correa in creating UNASUR…

Presidents Mario Abdo Benitez of Paraguay Martin Vizcarra of Peru have also steered their countries firmly into the right-wing camp. Both presidents joined their colleagues in Santiago for the PROSUR summit.

One surprise leader who signed on to PROSUR in Santiago was David Granger, the president of Guyana. Granger, as a former Brigadier General in the Guyana Defense Force, likely felt at home with individuals like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, a former Brazilian paratrooper whose spoken Brazilian Portuguese reflects that of an uncouth Army veteran combined with a street thug.

Granger has made common cause with ExxonMobil to lay claim to oil reserves in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone, which are also claimed by Venezuela. GRANGER HAS BRANDISHED HIS RIGHT-WING ALLEGIANCES BY IGNORING GUYANA’S CONSTITUTION AND POSTPONING A MARCH 19, 2019 REQUIRED ELECTION TO 2020.

It was the defection of Granger’s coalition government’s parliamentary backbencher, Charrandas Persaud, to the opposition in a no-confidence vote that originally triggered the election. Rather than comply with the Constitution, Granger’s government, accused Persaud of being a US citizen, not eligible to sit in parliament. Persaud also received death threats. Yet, according to the Western corporate media, Guyana is being threatened by an “undemocratic” Maduro government in Venezuela.

Just as PROSUR seeks to eliminate the vestiges of Chavez, Lula, Correa, and Kirchner in South America, there has been an attempt by Washington to also wipe out two other Chavez regional projects, ALBA and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

Both organizations include Venezuela’s allies in the Caribbean region. Trump recently invited the leaders of five Caribbean nations – Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia – to his Mar-a-Lago billionaires’ club in Palm Beach to seek their commitment to isolate the Maduro government of Venezuela AND SUPPORT THE GUAIDO PUPPET REGIME.

In order to entice the leaders to sever all financial links with Venezuela, including their participation in the PetroCaribe program that provided them with subsidized Venezuelan gasoline and oil, Trump offered nebulous loan guarantees through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a Wall Street contrivance with major national debt pitfalls attached.

Trump has a major real estate project in the Dominican Republic. Allen Chastanet, the prime minister of Saint Lucia, is the incoming chairman of the Caribbean Community. He will be expected to wean away from Venezuela its last remaining allies in the organization.

Trump and his team of neocons, including national security adviser John Bolton and Venezuela regime change envoy Elliott Abrams, who was convicted in the Iran-Contra scandal and who benefited from a cover-up bolstered by Attorney General William Barr, will now concentrate their efforts on overthrowing Maduro and subjecting his last remaining allies, Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, Uruguay, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada to regime change operations.

Gee, what a conundrum, what to do.  Should you stick with Maduro and enjoy all financial links with Venezuela, “including their participation in the PetroCaribe program that provided them with subsidized Venezuelan gasoline and oil” or should you take Trump’s offer of “nebulous loan guarantees” (probably from Wall Street Vultures like Paul Singer) through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a Wall Street contrivance with major national debt pitfalls attached.

Oh so torn.  So if the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia refuse Trump’s offer of “nebulous loan guarantees” instead of subsidized Venezuelan gasoline and oil” they will be targeted for “regime change” operations.  Also, Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, Uruguay, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Granada are already on the regime change list.  How the hell is that lunacy in America’s best interests?

If anyone has any delusions that the Democrats are going to step in and stop this madness they are sorely wrong.  From Stephen Lendman:

Excerpt:

US VERDAD Act: Senate Support for Regime Change in Venezuela

Seeking dominance over all other nations is imperialism’s defining feature – by brute force if other tactics fail.  That’s how the US has operated throughout the post-WW II era – beginning with naked aggression against North Korea from 1950 – 1953, followed by a decade of Southeast Asia war from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, the rape of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, things greatly escalated post-9/11.

The mother of all false flags launched endless US wars of aggression against nations threatening no one – continuing with no prospect for resolution in line with Washington’s permanent war on humanity agenda. 

When it comes to endless wars and other imperial tactics, Republicans and undemocratic Dems are on the same page, raping and destroying one country after another for nearly 75 years. 

With no end of it in prospect, they continue on the phony pretexts of humanitarian intervention, responsibility to protect, and democracy building – a notion US policymakers revile, tolerating it nowhere, especially not at home and in oil-rich Venezuela, Bolivarianism considered the threat of a good example.

It’s why four US regimes sought to eliminate it, beginning with the Clinton co-presidency, greatly escalated by Trump hardliners, going all-out to replace Bolivarian social democracy with US controlled fascist tyranny.  Their eyes are on two prizes -gaining another vassal state, along with control over Venezuela’s oil and its other valued resources, its people exploited as serfs.

On Wednesday, 15 bipartisan neocon Senators introduced the so-called Venezuela Emergency Relief, Democracy Assistance and Development (VERDAD) Act (sic) – supporting regime change in the hemisphere’s preeminent democracy they want eliminated.

The bipartisan gang of 15 includes John Barraso, Michael Bennett, Ben Cardin, Bill Cassidy, Chris Coons, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Tim Kaine, Marco Rubio, Jeanne Shaheen, and Todd Young.

The measure calls for providing another $200 million for regime change efforts, $200 million more to Colombia and Brazil, blood money for hardening their support for the scheme, on the phony pretext of providing support for Venezuelan “refugees” in their countries.

THE MEASURE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH “RESTOR(ING) DEMOCRACY AND PROSPERITY” in Venezuela (sic), nothing to do with humanitarian aid (sic), everything to do with supporting the Trump regime’s diabolical coup plot. 

Other provisions call for revoking visas for relatives of illegally sanctioned Venezuelans and removing sanctions from others willing to recognize designated puppet/usurper in waiting Guaido.

The legislation urges nations complicit with the coup plot to act against Maduro’s legitimate government the same way.  It requires support from international financial institutions to fully go along with the scheme. It calls for State, Treasury and Justice Departments to wage toughened financial war on Venezuela…

Passage of the measure in both houses overwhelmingly and signed into law by Trump is virtually certain. Menendez said the following about the legislation:  “(T)he United States Congress is coming together in a bipartisan manner to put teeth behind our support for the Venezuelan people (sic) as they seek to restore democracy (sic) and address a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions in our hemisphere (sic).”

Rubio has been waging near-daily Twitter war on Venezuela, conducting his own campaign for regime change, notably pushing for US military intervention. He turned truth on its head, saying:

“As Maduro and his gang of narco-terrorists thugs (sic) continue holding the Venezuelan people hostage (sic) under their failed socialist regime (sic), the United States Senate is sending a clear bi-partisan message by introducing the VERDAD Act…”

Other co-sponsors issued similar remarks. The measure is the latest US effort to increase pressure on Maduro.

Everything thrown at him so far failed, this measure likely to fare no better, as long as Russia is committed to preserving and protecting Bolivarian social democracy – key to defeating the Trump regime’s coup plot.

If Maduro and his administration really were “narco-terrorists thugs” they’d be the US’s most favored trading partners.  But they are not and that is why Maduro must go, he was elected by the people, the poor people who outnumber the oligarchs.  The main thing Maduro has going for him, is the gross incompetence of the “US Cabal of Criminals” in charge of executing the Venezuela coup as laid out by Stink Tanks.   From Lew Rockwell:

Excerpt:

The US Tried to Isolate Venezuela. It has Only Isolated Itself

Alan MacLeod examines how Trump team's increasingly hare-brained schemes at trying to overthrow the government are backfiring. 

It is no secret that the United States has long been plotting regime change in Venezuela. For over 18 months President Trump has been publicly floating a military invasion of the country. At a speech in Florida President Trump recently announced “the days of socialism and communism are numbered in Venezuela” ominously stating “one day soon we are going to see what the people will do in Caracas.”

Vice President Mike Pence declared President Nicolas Maduro a “dictator” and reiterated that self-declared president Juan Guaidó had the “unwavering support” of the American people. In an attempt to destroy the economy and force Maduro out of power, the US has leveled multiple rounds of punishing (and illegal) sanctions on the country, and encouraged and intimidated others to do the same in an effort to isolate Venezuela politically and economically.

The US managed to convince a number of Western European and Latin American states to back their version of events. However, despite the best attempts from an extraordinarily compliant international media to present Venezuela as an isolated nation on the brink of collapse, the US plan is failing badly.

In reality, the international community has rejected the US and its candidate Juan Guaidó, with around 75 percent of countries expressing support for Maduro. Completely unreported in the media was the decision by the UN Human Rights Council to unequivocally condemn the US sanctions, noting that they are targeted at the poorest and most vulnerable Venezuelans.

The UN called on all member states to break them and even discussed the reparations the US should pay to Venezuela. The American Special UN Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas described the sanctions as akin to a medieval siege and accused the US of possible crimes against humanity. This startling news has been widely reported internationally but has been virtually completely ignored by the mainstream Western press. The New York Times, CNN, Washington Post nor any other national American publication has reported it.

Trump’s regime change strategy has been nothing short of comically incompetent.

Marco Rubio’s constant calls for the Venezuelan military to defect and overthrow Maduro have fallen completely flat as the military has remained steadfastly loyal. The UN and Red Cross refused to participate in the charade of American “humanitarian aid” to Venezuela, noting it did not meet the minimal requirements to be considered aid while Maduro’s government has been only too happy to work with those agencies to receive genuine assistance.

The US attempt to force its “aid” through the border and provoke a bloodbath failed, as the supposedly pro-democracy aid workers appear to have set fire to their own aid trucks. Meanwhile, billionaire celebrity Richard Branson’s Venezuela Aid Live concert, headlined by massive stars like Luis Fonsi and Maluma garnered an attendance of barely a few thousand.

Part of the problem is that the group around Trump lacks the discipline and polish of Obama administration and continue to let the mask slip, making it crystal clear none of this is about democracy and human rights. The appointment of Elliot Abrams, a man infamous in Latin America for his role in regime change and genocide was a clear signal to all what was about to happen.

Trump’s special advisor John Bolton said the quiet part loud, letting slip that he saw Venezuela a “big business opportunity” for American companies, noting that “it would make a big difference to the US” if American companies could take over Venezuela’s oil production. Bolton also revealed he was considering sending President Maduro to the Guantanamo Bay torture camp. Meanwhile, Marco Rubio shocked the world by tweeting out pictures of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi’s mutilated corpse, taken on all sides to be a crude statement of intent for Venezuela.

Another embarrassing incident occurred just after Elliot Abrams, a man known for smuggling weapons to Nicaragua under the guise of aid, was appointed. The McClatchy DC Bureau revealed that an American plane from Miami was caught smuggling weapons and ammunition into Venezuela. The plane had made over 40 round trips that year alone. None of this did anything to convince the international community of the good intentions of the US government.

For his part, Washington’s handpicked president Guaidó has not been able to hide his more bloodthirsty, sociopathic side. The man who over 80 percent of Venezuelans had never heard of in January appalled the country by callously labeling the deaths from the clashes “not as a cost” but an “investment in the future”.

The naked brazenness of the coup attempt is a primary reason Guaidó has failed to win over the public. A recent poll showed that over 80 percent of Venezuelans opposed the US sanctions, and even more were against a military intervention. 

The international community is increasingly rounding on the US. At the recent UN Security Council hearing on Venezuela, the US was excoriated by South Africa for “trampling upon the law and constitutional rights of Venezuela” and for “taking away the basic right of the people [of Venezuela] to determine their own future”.

Bolivia accused the US of breaking the most fundamental laws of non-intervention in other countries and violating Venezuela’s national sovereignty. Russia summed up the mood, describing Guaidó as an “imposter” and that the US was making a “mockery” of the constitutional rights of Venezuela, noting that the US’ humanitarian aid stunt would “IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE WORLD BE CLASSED AS TERRORISM.” 

Worse still for the US, even the resolve of the Lima Group – and organization of right-wing Latin American countries set up by the Trump administration with the express goal of bringing about regime change in Venezuela – is beginning to crumble.

Brazil’s fascist president Jair Bolsonaro, who previously claimed he would do “everything” to get rid of Maduro, has backed away from the US; Brazil declared that under no circumstances would it be any part of an invasion. Other key partners Colombia, Chile and Peru made similar statements. Many of the strongest European critics of Maduro, such as Spain and Germany, have also categorically rejected the military option the US is now preparing for.

This is hardly the first time that the US has isolated itself while trying to isolate Venezuela. As I cataloged in my book Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting, the US was completely alone in the world casting aspersions on the 2013 election result and calling for a recount. What is remarkable about this time is how badly the hare-brained scheme is backfiring.

The Bank of England’s extraordinary decision to freeze over a billion dollars in Venezuelan gold was a clear signal to the world that the UK could not be trusted as a neutral arbiter. Italy has reportedly begun discussions to repatriate their gold in Britain. If an allied state such as Italy has done so, the likes of China, India and Russia must be thinking the same.

One of the few industries the UK has left is finance, and this decision could have huge ramifications for Britain’s economy. Furthermore, the government’s acceptance of the Trump regime change plan has sparked a massive uprising across Haiti that threatens to bring down a US-client government.

As a result of the hare-brained incompetence and the naked audacity of the Trump/Abrams/Bolton regime change gambit in Venezuela, the US now finds itself almost completely isolated in the world. This does not necessarily mean the end of the US attack. The US is the world’s only superpower and can act unilaterally whenever it pleases. But the battle for world opinion has been lost. The battle for Venezuela continues.

All of these plans to overthrow the elected government of Venezuela are the tax payer paid for and foreign entity paid for product of the think tanks.  Naturally the illegal coup and terrorist tactics taking place in Venezuela in the name of the American people aren’t going well.  Fortunately for the think tanks and their spawn residing in the Trump Administration’s Homeland Security, State Department and CIA can count on their think tank dominated media to create their own reality.  From RT: 

Excerpt:

‘Weaksauce’: State Department tries ordering media how to cover Venezuela

With regime change in Caracas going poorly, the State Department is trying to create reality by browbeating reporters into following the official line. Veteran AP reporter Matt Lee was not amused, calling the effort “weaksauce.”

At the press briefing on Tuesday, spokesman Robert Palladino objected to news coverage describing Juan Guaido as opposition leader or self-proclaimed president, rather than “interim president” as Washington has declared him to be.

“Millions of Americans and more than 50 countries recognize Juan Guaido as interim president of Venezuela,” Palladino argued, so to refer to him otherwise “falls into the narrative of a dictator who has usurped the position of the presidency and led Venezuela into the humanitarian, political, and economic crisis that exists today.”

This is, of course, the official line of the State Department, which accuses President Nicolas Maduro of being a “usurper” and claims that Guaido is the legitimate leader of Venezuela. AP diplomatic correspondent Matt Lee would have none of it, however.

“You consider him to be the interim president, and as you say, 50 other countries… recognize him as the interim president. But there are more than 190 members of the United Nations. So your 50 countries is not even close to half of that. Is that correct?” Lee asked.  Palladino’s response was to repeat the “feeds into the rhetoric” talking point and mumble something about those 50 countries being “democracies.” 

Pathetic State Department propagandist demands the US media line in lock-step behind the neocon regime change in Venezuela. Totalitarian! (Plus he is objectively wrong about what happened in Venezuela). Liar. 

Lee has a reputation of being a no-nonsense reporter, known for legendary battles of wits with a long succession of State Department spokespeople. He did the world another favor this time, exposing the complete disrespect of US diplomacy for international law – namely, the division of the world into “democracies” and others.

Later on in the briefing, Palladino is asked about the number of countries that recognize Guaido, and he tries to spin it thus:

You know the number of countries. But we’ve gotten major support in the Western hemisphere, and I would just point that out, as well as Europe. And if we look at the democracies, we’re doing pretty well as well. Okay?

So much for the fancy talk about “rules-based world order” and even President Donald Trump’s proclamations about “sovereignty,” made in last year’s address to the UN General Assembly. Simply put, the US and its allies count as “real” countries, and everyone else doesn’t. And oh by the way, it’s Washington that decides what’s “democratic,” not you – got that?

If US is all for sovereignty, it should stop meddling in other countries’ affairs – Lavrov

To make this even more absurd, Palladino’s key argument for Guaido’s legitimacy is that he invoked the Venezuelan constitution – except that constitution only envisions a 30-day period for an “interim president,” and only in case the normal chain of succession is disrupted, which it manifestly was not. Guaido declared himself president on January 23. His “mandate” has long since expired – on the very day he tried to force the border from Colombia with US “aid” trucks, in fact.

Weak sauce indeed.  But the most important thing is, that we keep plowing more and more foreign aid money into these think tanks who have keep pushing the regime change agenda to enrich themselves and their foreign benefactors while destroying the lives of ordinary Americans.  From Stephen Lendman:

Excerpt:

Trump’s Dystopian Budget Proposal

Trump’s dead on arrival budget proposal to Congress is all about funding greater militarism and belligerence, along with serving corporate interests and high-net worth households – while gutting vital social programs.v  It’s a proposal only Wall Street, the military, industrial, security complex, Big Oil, and monied interests could love.

Totaling $4.75 trillion, Trump wants an increase of $34 billion in war spending, euphemistically called “defense” – at a time sharp cuts are needed.  Washington’s only enemies are invented ones. No real ones exist. He wants $8.6 billion more for wall construction along the southern border with Mexico.

His priorities include slashing Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance, student loans, and other essential social programs – along with big cuts in environmental protection programs.

He wants about $1.5 trillion cut from Medicaid spending in the next decade, $845 million less for Medicare over the same period, $25 billion from Social Security and disability spending, a 9% reduction in non-defense spending across the board – funds shifted to “defense” priorities, corporate handouts, and other initiatives benefitting high-net worth households.

Other proposed cuts over the next decade include $220 billion less for food stamps, $21 billion from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), $207 billion less for student loans, along with billions more cut from housing assistance and other social programs.

NOTE: IN FEBRUARY 2017 DURING HIS FIRST ADDRESS TO A JOINT CONGRESSIONAL SESSION, TRUMP PLEDGED “NO CHANGES” TO SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE.

He said “America must put its own citizens first…Above all else, we will keep our promises to the American people…Our obligation is to serve, protect, and defend the citizens of the United States.”

He broke virtually every positive promise made to ordinary Americans, serving monied interests exclusively. His FY 2020 budget proposal calls for more of the same, disdainful of the general welfare he doesn’t give a hoot about.

He wants funding for renewable energy initiatives slashed by 70% – from around $2.3 billion to $700 million. He favors eliminating the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy altogether, wanting energy innovation left entirely to the private sector at its discretion…

The type society Trump and hardline ideologues in his regime favor is all about serving privileged interests exclusively, wanting ordinary Americans left on their own sink or swim – social safety net spending abolished in their ideal world. 

One way he aims to increase military spending for warmaking is by increasing a so-called overseas operations (slush) fund from $69 billion this year to $165 billion in 2020.  The budget includes $33 billion in greater “defense” spending to counter the “malign influence” of Russia China, Iran, North Korea, and other sovereign independent states…

According to a senior regime official, his budget proposes “more reductions in spending than any (previous US) president in history” – taking pride in what demands shame.

Looking at the Trump Administration’s budget proposal leaves no doubt whose interests are being promoted by these think tanks, “their own.”  It is they who prosper from the finanacial devastation of America, for it is they who call the shots in congress.  It is the Think Tanks that decide if and when America will go to war, and for whose benefit.  Remember the words of George Orwell:

“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.”

Welcome to the Think Tank Utopia, endless war, endless poverty and endless subjugation.  That is Think Tank’s America.  Meanwhile American’s are left with The Workingman’s Blues.