72nd United Nations General Assembly: Neocons gone wild, Rocket Man vs. the Dotard

“It is of first importance that the military be subordinate to civilian government”

― John Rawls

The 72^nd meeting of the United Nations was destined to be an absolute fiasco with Trump’s foreign policy abducted by the same war mongering lunatics that populated the George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations.   The agenda for Trump’s debut as Leader of the Free World, was laid out in advance by U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Trump National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. 

With absolute zeal and elated excitement of kids on Christmas Eve knowing they are about to get everything they ever wanted, Haley and McMaster laid the groundwork for what would be an unmitigated disaster at the U.N., “Neocons gone wild, Rocket Man vs. the Dotard.”

In a televised press conference, McMaster and Haley teased out the neocon’s highlights of what could be expected at the UN with neocons in complete control over American foreign policy.  According to McMaster, Trump’s neocon written speech will lecture the attendees on 1) promoting peace, 2) promoting prosperity and 3) upholding the sovereignty and accountability of all nations. 

These 3 pillars are in direct contradiction to every action taken by the neocons since they seized control over the American government in 2000.  The speech should have been entitled “Do as I say, not as I do.”  From Paul Craig Roberts:

Excerpt:

Trump’s UN Speech

I listened to part of Trump’s UN speech this morning. I was so embarrassed for him and for my country that I had to turn it off.  I wonder if whoever wrote the deplorable speech intended to embarrass Trump and inadvertently embarrassed America as well, or whether the speechwriter(s) is so imbued with the neoconservative arrogance and hubris of our time that the speechwriter was simply blind to the extraordinary contradictions that stood out like sore thumbs all through the speech…

Trump went on at great length about how America respects the sovereignty of every country and the people’s will of every country, and how the US, despite its overwhelming military power, never tries to impose its will on any country…

What about Yugoslavia/Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Crimea, Ukraine, Venezuela, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, just to mention countries in the 21st century that have been subjected to US military attacks, government overthrows, and removals of political leaders who did not conform to US interests..?

I heard Trump complain that the UN Human Rights commission had as members countries with the worst human rights records of our time, and I wondered if he was talking about the United States.

Clearly, Trump, the speechwriter(s), the State Department, the National Security Council, the US Ambassador to the UN, indeed the entire administration, do not think that the endless slaughter, maiming, orphaning, widowing, and dispossessing of millions of peoples in many countries, producing waves of refugees, comprise human rights violations.

The arrogance conveyed by Trump’s speech is unprecedented. 

The Trump of today is sounding a lot like George W. Bush and Barack Obama, advocating for more war, extended war in Afghanistan, expanded war in Syria, urging war with North Korea, demanding war with Iran.  So what happened?  Trump is being held hostage by the generals who have successfully conducted a military coup in America.  The Military Industrial Complex’s handmaidens, the generals have now taken over the American Government.  From Mint Press:

Excerpt:

Let’s Call “Trump’s Generals” What They Are: A Military Junta

Trump is fond of boasting about “his” generals. But over the short course of his presidency’s first months, the possession and control have reversed themselves. Mattis, McMaster, and Kelly have banished all opposition and now pour the neo-con agenda straight into Trump’s ear.

WASHINGTON – The U.S., long known for its meddling in the affairs of other nations, also has a long and sordid history of supporting military juntas abroad, many of which it forced into power through bloody coups or behind-the-scenes power grabs…

Finally in 2017, karma appears to have come back to roost, as the current presidential administration has now effectively morphed into what is, by definition, a military junta.  …in the administration of President Donald Trump a group of military officers has gathered unprecedented power and, for all intents and purposes, rules the country.

Three generals at the center of power

In a recent article in The Washington Post, titled “Military Leaders Consolidate Power In Trump Administration,” Post reporters Robert Costa and Philip Rucker noted that “At the core of Trump’s circle is a seasoned trio of generals with experience as battlefield commanders: White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

“This is the only time in modern presidential history when we’ve had a small number of people from the uniformed world hold this much influence over the chief executive,” John E. McLaughlin, a former acting director of the CIA…

Although Trump is fond of calling them “my generals,” they now… “manage Trump’s hour-by-hour interactions and whisper in his ear – and those whispers, as with the decision this week to expand U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, often become policy…” “The Generals Have Trump Surrounded.”

Also notable is the fact that this trio of generals has overseen the firing of more independent, “outsider” voices, notably Derek Harvey and Steve Bannon. Bannon, in particular, was a thorn in the side of the generals, in light primarily of his staunch opposition to the American “empire project” and new wars abroad… The New York Times referred to McMaster as Bannon’s “nemesis in the West Wing,” precisely due to McMaster’s commitment to American empire building.

With Bannon’s relatively recent departure… the Trump administration – now unequivocally ruled by “the generals…” as illustrated by Trump’s decision to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan, a measure both Bannon and Trump himself once opposed…  Politico published a report detailing the control exercised by Kelly over the president, as he personally vets “everything” that comes across Trump’s desk.

Politico referenced two memos that laid out a system “designed to ensure that the president won’t see any external policy documents, internal policy memos, agency reports and even news articles that haven’t been vetted…”

H.R. McMaster, who took control of the National Security Council (NSC) following Flynn’s ouster in February, has been… personally controlling the flow of national security information that makes it to the president…  McMaster has drawn more ire than any other of “Trump’s generals… and has actively pushed for a ground war in Syria and a massive 50,000-troop surge in Afghanistan. 

The new model of command that arose involved “pre-delegating authority to Mattis… Since the great “war power giveaway,” Mattis has overseen the expansion of every theater of war Trump inherited from his predecessor…

This likely owes to both Mattis’ and McMaster’s allegiance to notorious neo-cons and war hawks…  Though the generals are in control and their junta established, they are not the ones calling the shots…  The military-industrial complex and the ever-hawkish neoconservatives have taken over, refusing to let the anti-interventionism the American people voted for make itself heard…

By dehumanizing others, among many other things, these people are also aiding the neocons and other forces of darkness to justify more war, more suffering, and more destruction. ~

Mohammad Marandi

The extent of the lunacy of “The military-industrial complex and the ever-hawkish neoconservatives” was on full display at the United Nations meeting.  The sophomoric peppering of President Trump’s speech with the pejorative “Rocket Man” insults hurled at North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, exemplified the disdain the neocon’s hold, not only for other world leaders but for peace itself.  From Aljazeera:

Excerpt:

'Tensions to rise' after Trump's North Korea comments

Analysts say US president's fiery language against North Korea and its leader distances the prospect of negotiations…  Using what was described as "unprecedented" language, Trump made his debut address at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday.

In a wide-ranging 45-minute speech, the most anticipated foreign policy address of his tenure, Trump vowed that the US would "totally destroy" North Korea if it is forced to defend itself or its allies.

He also mocked Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, saying: "Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully, this will not be necessary."

"I expected him to talk tough and strong - but I did not expect him to talk quite that tough and quite that strongly," said Donald Kirk, a journalist and author of several books on Korea.

He said Trump's remarks made the prospect of negotiations extremely unlikely.  "North Koreans are not going to back down - if anything they are going to increase the tempo of their programme," Kirk told Al Jazeera from South Korea's capital, Seoul. "I think we can forget about North Korea saying, 'let's go to negotiations.'"

Kirk also said he expected that Trump's fiery approach would not be adopted by other leaders who are otherwise highly critical of North Korea's actions…

'Neoconservative line'

Mark Farha, assistant professor of international relations at the Doha Institute, said that Trump had - once again - embraced an interventionist foreign policy...  he adopted squarely a neoconservative line of regime change and war in fact," Farha told Al Jazeera.  "He is trying to square the circle, because ... IF YOU HAD A POLL [IN THE US] 75 PERCENT OF PEOPLE WOULD BE AGAINST ESCALATION against Iran and North Korea, but here is Trump harking back to the neoconservatives…"

"North Korea now has the script and the excuse to why they need the [nuclear] programme," he told Al Jazeera. "If they haven't got one they need to work very quickly to develop one if they have that direct threat."

As was perfectly predictable, Kim Jong-Un responded in like.  From Slate:

Excerpt:

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un Responds to Trump, Calling Him a “Mentally Deranged Dotard”

On Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un responded to President Trump’s United Nations address in the pair’s escalating nuclear rhetoric, saying in a statement that Trump would “pay dearly” for his speech where the president referred to Kim as “Rocket Man” and threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea.

“I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire,” Kim continued in a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The neocons and the generals used the 72^nd meeting of the United Nations to spit in the face of the world, who was awaiting President Trump’s debut on the world stage.  Much was anticipated from the President who was elected on a platform in direct contrast to the warmongering globalist agenda of Bush/Obama.  Trump promised to “Make America Great Again” by putting America and the American people first.  But Trump’s agenda has been trashed by the generals and neocons who desire stealing trillions from the American treasury to wage wars of aggression. 

One could say that the current crisis in North Korea was created by Bush and Obama’s fealty to the neocon agenda.  Just look at the fate of countries who agreed to give up their nuclear ambitions.  From The Intercept:

Excerpt:

TRUMP INTEL CHIEF: NORTH KOREA LEARNED FROM LIBYA WAR TO “NEVER” GIVE UP NUKES

THE MEDIA IS NOW filled with headlines about North Korea’s missile test on Friday, which demonstrated that its ICBMs may be able to reach the continental U.S. What isn’t mentioned in any of these stories is how we got to this point — in particular, what Dan Coats, President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, explained last week at the Aspen Security Forum.

North Korea’s 33-year-old dictator Kim Jong-un is not crazy, said Coats. In fact, he has “some rationale backing his actions” regarding the country’s nuclear weapons. That rationale is the way the U.S. has demonstrated that North Korea must keep them to ensure “survival for his regime, survival for his country…”

In particular, “The lessons that we learned out of Libya giving up its nukes …  is, unfortunately: If you had nukes, never give them up. If you don’t have them, get them.”

This is, of course, blindingly obvious and has been since the U.S. helped oust longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. But U.S. officials have rarely if ever acknowledged this reality. Here’s the timeline:

In December 2003, Libya announced that it would surrender its biological and chemical weapons stockpiles, as well as its rudimentary nuclear weapons program.

In celebrating Libya’s decision, President George W. Bush declared that the rest of the world should take away the message that “leaders who abandon the pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and the means to deliver them, will find an open path to better relations with the United States and other free nations…”

In 2011, the U.S. and NATO conducted a bombing campaign to assist Libyan rebels in overthrowing the Gaddafi government. Gaddafi himself was captured by one rebel faction, who apparently sodomized him with a bayonet and then killed him…

And, indeed, North Korea said this explicitly at the time. Its foreign ministry stated, “The Libyan crisis is teaching the international community a grave lesson,” which was that the deal to rid Libya of weapons of mass destruction had been “an invasion tactic to disarm the country.”

The neocon’s presentation at the 72^nd meeting of the United Nations was a disgusting, belligerent, ignorant neocon view of a subservient world, cowering before an imperialist master, America.  What the world hoped for at the UN Meeting from President Trump was a vision of a new world of peace, cooperation and rebuilding but what they got was “Neocons gone wild, Rocket Man vs. the Dotard.” 

By Patricia Baeten

On eve of UN General Assembly: America $20 trillion in debt threatens to cut China off from “Petrodollar” over sanctions

After tuning in to hear President Trump’s National Security Advisor, General H.R. McMaster and nitwit UN Ambassador Nikki Haley lay out Trump’s goals for the 72^nd United Nations General Assembly meeting, I thought I was watching a Saturday Night Live skit.  A bespectacled McMaster trying to sound authoritative stated, “Trump’s goal at the UN meeting is to promote peace, promote prosperity and uphold sovereignty and accountability.” 

How those clowns keep a straight face as they spew out lie after lie actually believing that they have any credibility in the world is just amazing.  What’s even more astounding is with America $20 trillion in debt, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is threatening to cut China off from the dollar!  How stupid is that?? 

This idiot is our Treasury Secretary??  According to Information Clearing House, “Washington runs a $350 billion annual trade deficit with Beijing. China also holds $1 trillion in US debt, which amounts to 28 percent of US Treasury bills, notes and bonds held by a foreign government.  Criminy, from Paul Craig Roberts:

Excerpt:

An Economic Lesson for China and Russia

Is there anyone in Trump’s government who is not an imbecile?

After years of endless military threats against Russia—remember CIA deputy director Mike Morell saying on TV (Charlie Rose show) that the US should start killing Russians to give them a message, and Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley threatening “We’ll beat you harder than you have ever been beaten before”—now the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin threatens China.

If China doesn’t abide by Washington’s new sanctions on North Korea, Mnuchin said the US “will put additional sanctions on them [China] and prevent them from accessing the US and international dollar system.”  Here is the broke US government $20 trillion in public debt, having to print money with which to buy its own bonds, threatening the second largest economy in the world, an economy on purchasing power parity terms that is larger than the US economy.

Take a moment to think about Mnuchin’s threat to China. How many US firms are located in China? It is not only Apple and Nike…   What if China responded by nationalizing all US factories and all Western owned banks in China and Hong Kong?

Mnuchin is like the imbecile Nikki Haley. He doesn’t know who he is threatening. 

Consider Mnuchin’s threat to exclude China from the international dollar system. Nothing could do more harm to the US and more good to China. A huge amount of economic transactions would simply exit the dollar system, reducing its scope and importance.

Most importantly, it would finally dawn on the Chinese and Russian governments that being a part of the dollar system is a massive liability with no benefits…

If China and Russia want to be sovereign countries, they must pray that the imbecile Mnuchin does cut them off from the dollar system that exploits them. Then Russia and China will have to put in place their own system…

Well Dr. Roberts, China and Russia have started their own payment system and bank.  It is called the BRICS bank.  While dumb ass Mnuchin threatens China for not taking drastic enough steps against North Korea, Russia and China are wiping up the floor with U.S. dollars. From LaRouchepub:

Excerpt:

BRICS Summit and Eastern Economic Forum Give Hope to Mankind

The western financial system is facing a catastrophic collapse, exceeding by an order of magnitude the crisis which began in 2007. Faced with this looming disaster, the British Empire, through its financial centers in the City of London, Wall Street, and across Europe, is resorting to extreme measures to sabotage this move by the majority of the world’s nations.

The Chinese and Russian-led process, in rejecting the “Washington Consensus…” is instead engaging in the “win-win” policies of the China-Russia New Silk Road (Belt and Road Initiative), offering nation-building through infrastructure and industrial development, without political dictates.

Perhaps even more frightening to the Lords of London and Wall Street, is the intention of President Donald Trump to join in this New Paradigm, to break the imperial East vs. West divide in favor of friendship with Russia and China, both in combatting international terrorism and through participation in the New Silk Road—including welcoming Chinese help in rebuilding the crumbling U.S. industry and infrastructure.

THIS IS THE CORE MOTIVATION DRIVING THE BRITISH-DIRECTED COUP ATTEMPT AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP...

Xi Jinping’s address to the BRICS Business Forum, which included business leaders from the BRICS and 20 other countries, praised the role of the BRICS over the past ten years, which held steady against the global economic crisis unleashed by the bursting of the speculative bubble in the US and Europe in 2007-08…

A major topic of discussion at the Summit was the functioning of the New Development Bank (NDB), the BRICS bank set up at the BRICS Summit in Brazil in 2014, which has begun lending over this past year, beginning with four infrastructure investments in Russia, China and India, totaling $1.4 billion. The first regional center of the NDB, the African Regional Center, was established in South Africa in August…

He added that the NDB will oversee the establishment of a BRICS rating agency, to provide an alternative to the London-New York agencies Standard and Poors, Fitch, and Moody’s…

Immediately following the BRICS Summit, over 3,500 people from 60 countries gathered in Vladivostok, Russia, for the third annual Eastern Economic Forum, targeting the development of the vast, resource-rich, but underdeveloped and under-populated Russian Far East.

The Russian Far East, together with the Arctic, can be considered the last New Frontier on Earth, comparable to the development of the American West during our first century as a nation…

The western media (and most governments) are warning that a war between the U.S. and North Korea is nearly unavoidable. This is not the view in Asia—including in South Korea.

The new South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, held a long meeting with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Forum. Speaking to the press afterwards, the two men presented an inspiring vision, and several concrete programs, for working together towards the transformation of the Russian Far East, while creating the conditions for a solution to the escalating crisis over North Korea.

During the McMaster-Haley press conference to outline President’s objectives for next week’s United Nation McMaster said,

“Sovereignty and accountability are the essential foundations for peace and prosperity.  America respects the sovereignty of other countries, expects others to do the same and expects all governments to be accountable to their citizens.”  “That accountability has broken down in Venezuela and Syria…

Oh that’s rich “America respects the sovereignty of other countries” and then McMaster cites as examples Venezuela and Syria.  Two countries the CIA has been attempting to overthrow their elected governments since the Bush Administration.  Well Venezuela is fighting back.  From The Free Thought Project:

Excerpt:

Venezuela Just Stopped Accepting US Dollars for Oil As Countries Join Forces to Kill US Petrodollar

Venezuela just announced they will no longer accept US dollars for oil, as Russia and China create a system to bypass US petrodollar hegemony.

Caracas, Venezuela – In what is the latest move to undermine the imperial world order maintained by the United States, which is underpinned through use of the petrodollar as the world reserve currency, the Wall Street Journal reports that Venezuelan President Maduro has officially followed through on his threat to stop accepting US Dollars as payment for crude oil exports in the wake of recent US sanctions.  Last Thursday, President Nicolas Maduro said that if the US went ahead with the sanction, Venezuela would “free” itself from the US Dollar…

According to Reuters:

“Venezuela is going to implement a new system of international payments and will create a basket of currencies to free us from the dollar,” Maduro said in a multi-hour address to a new legislative “superbody.”

Unsurprisingly, Maduro noted that his country would look to the BRICS countries, and begin using the Chinese yuan and Russian ruble instead — along with other currencies — to bypass the US Dollar stranglehold.  “If they pursue us with the dollar, we’ll use the Russian ruble, the yuan, yen, the Indian rupee, the euro,” Maduro said…  Venezuela has told oil traders that it will no longer send or receive payments in dollars, according to people familiar with the new policy.

Oil traders who export Venezuelan crude or import oil products into the country have begun converting their invoices to euros…

Interestingly, the decision by Venezuela – the nation with the world’s largest proven oil reserves – comes just days after China and Russia unveiled an Oil/Yuan/Gold plan at the recent annual BRICS conference. This plan would strongly undermine the hegemonic control the US enjoys over the global financial system…

The Neolibcons in Washington – bent on eventual regime change in Russia and China – are in for an extremely rude awakening.  

The DC War Party’s petrodollar imperialism, which funds the US war machine and allows for a constant war footing, is quickly running out of allies to maintain its global hegemony.

While the Trump Administration speaks to the UN Assembly about promoting prosperity, and countries being held accountable to their people, let’s take a look at America’s record on these matters.  From Veterans Today:

Excerpt:

The Hurricane of our Lives – America goes broke and nobody seems to care

The Ruling Cabal has just about completed their 100-year plan to asset-strip America bare...  The working men and women of America have been asset-stripped bare since the recession of 2008.

After 2008, CD interest rates have fallen from 6% to the current 1/2% – 1%, and the middle class has lost an estimated 42.5% of their accrued assets.  Many in the middle class are now running bare, with no more savings at all and scraping to just survive and keep the lights on.

The stock market has been artificially “kited up” by the secret “plunge protection team” which shortstops all electronic stock purchases for an instant; it is calculated, and then buys or sells to attain its goals…

Soon the market will drop substantially, and many of the big boys will make huge fortunes by selling short, because they know when it will drop. Can you say “insider trading”?..

The upper middle class and the rich will be the last to be squeezed by falling wages due to a worsening economy; and many feel a false sense of security. But as time goes on, their sources of income will dry up as the middle class shrinks and loses discretionary income…

Physician incomes (especially family practice) have become reduced due to the corporatization of medicine. Most large health insurance providers are now for-profit instead of non-profit, with their CEOs often making an income in excess of 100 million USD per year. This would pay for about 20,000 employees, or could be used to greatly reduce premiums...

All Pension funds in general are soon to be a sinking ship and cannot be saved from implosion, even government funds – unless the private Federal Reserve System is eliminated and all their assets are seized and clawed back into the US Treasury…

The Black Budget is the major factor in this massive and unprecedented asset-stripping of Americans.  Add to this the secret Black budget for spying, surveillance, Deep Underground Military Bases (DUMBs), and the Secret Space War program, which total between 1.75 Trillion USD and 2.0 Trillion USD against a federal budget of about 3.3 Trillion USD. You can see why Americans are being asset-stripped bare.

These Deep State holdovers from the W. Bush and Obama Administration never change their agenda according to the reality on the ground.  On the eve of the UN General Assembly is it wise to barge in, demanding to reform the United Nations into a more pliable tool for American hegemony? 

With America $20 trillion in debt is it wise for Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to belligerently demand unquestioning support from China for draconian sanctions that will do nothing to defuse the situation nor promote a peaceful resolution.   While America sashays around the UN blathering platitudes about peace, prosperity and sovereignty with accountability, people around the world know, America is not peaceful, prosperous nor accountable. 

America’s only chance lies with President Donald Trump.  During his campaign for the presidency Donald Trump declared his intention as President Donald Trump to join the New Paradigm ushered in by Russia and China.  President Trump promised to welcome China to help in rebuilding the crumbling U.S. industry and infrastructure.

On the eve of the UN General Assembly we wait to see if Trump is able to overcome the Deep State’s global hegemony and begin a new era of cooperation in promoting peace, prosperity and respect for other countries sovereignty.  It is long overdue and America’s future depends on it.  Can Trump pull it off or will America bite the dust?

By Patricia Baeten

Hurricane Donald kicks GOP congress aside passes short term financing for Hurricanes

What purpose does the United States Congress serve?  It seems that they only serve themselves heaping helpings of government funded goodies while the states they represent lie in squalor.  Both sides of the isle in congress extoll the glories of low taxes but low taxes hurt the American people while providing members of congress lavish lifestyles. 

Every four years the two parties get together and agree on a president to be elected that will continue with the status quo.  That ended in 2016 when Donald Trump burst on to the political scene as a populist running on the Republican ticket.  Trump had kicked aside the GOP choices of the Deep State and ran a campaign against the Deep State and the status quo and won.

Raising of the debt ceiling hurts regular American people while preserving the profits of Wall Street and protecting them from taxation.  The GOP’s plan was to hold the debt ceiling hostage in order to turn the Hurricane recovery funds into a long-term Disaster Capitalist boom.  By passing an 18-month debt ceiling deal, the GOP would be able to safely cruise through the 2018 mid-term election unscathed for their lack of legislative action.  But then, Hurricane Donald hit.  From National Sentinel:

Excerpt:

White House: Yeah, Trump doesn’t care what feckless GOP leaders think about his ‘deal’ with Dems

After some early stumbles, Trump is proving himself a worthy adversary in Washington

(National Sentinel) Politics Unusual: The White House on Friday said that President Donald J. Trump isn’t concerned about butthurt Republicans over his “deal” with Democrats to secure funds for hurricane relief and to extend the debt ceiling for another three months.

“The biggest message is we are a lot less focused on what makes Congress happy and [instead on] what makes Americans better and stronger,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as the Washington Times reported. “He’s going to continue working with whoever is interested in moving the ball forward to help the American people.”  Sanders added that the president’s deal-making abilities are large part of why Americans elected him.

“The president’s focus was doing what is best for the American people. And that’s why he’s the president,” she said. “People wanted somebody to be a leader. They wanted someone who was going to step up and take action, and that’s exactly what the president did.”

Several Republicans — some of the same ones who refuse to get over the fact that he kicked establishment GOP ass last year and, thus, have been working to undermine him and his agenda — were taken aback by the deal. 

They shouldn’t have been, considering the president has been warning them for months he would work with Democrats if his own party continued to treat him like a red-headed step-child. And as if to emphasize the point, 90 Republicans voted against the $15.25 billion aid package including four from Texas.

None of this is to suggest that Democrats will have their way with Trump moving forward, either.  After some early stumbles, Trump is proving himself a worthy adversary in Washington. That’s going to really work out well for we the people.

The Trump White House not only doesn’t care what feckless GOP leaders think about his ‘deal’ with Dems he’s further putting the GOP on notice, work for the American people or get out of the way.  From The Hill:

Excerpt:

THE MEMO: Trump puts the GOP on notice

President Trump’s shock deal with the two top Democrats in Congress was a shot across the bows of his own party — and the after-effects are reverberating.  Some insiders forecast that Trump is headed for a definitive break with Republican leadership, seeking to forge a new political identity after a divisive first stretch in office…

The deal, struck in a White House meeting and passed by Congress, funds the government and raises the debt ceiling for three months, exactly the terms sought by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Trump backed them… over the wishes of his own party, and his own Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin…

One aide to a conservative House Republican, who asked for anonymity to discuss the matter candidly, lamented that the GOP as a whole “did not have a game plan” to deal with the debt ceiling…

Said Democratic strategist Tad Devine…  “I think he wants to get back to using the power of the presidency to his advantage, and it doesn’t matter to him if it’s to the Republican Party’s advantage or not…   

Trump had an uneasy relationship with the GOP establishment during his campaign.  After he won, he watched Congressional Republicans fail ignominiously to repeal and replace the Affordable Act — also known as ObamaCare — despite having promised voters they would do just that since the law’s inception in 2010…

Still, there is wariness from virtually every quarter about trying to predict Trump’s next moves… 

Trump “is himself like a hurricane,” said Tyler. “There is this enormous cone of uncertainty…  Brad Blakeman, a GOP strategist who served on President George W. Bush’s White House staff, said Trump was motivated above all by a need to expedite aid in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

At the least, however, the most unpredictable president of recent decades has scrambled the political deck of cards once again...  Devine, the Democratic strategist, argued that Trump might ultimately be considering running for reelection outside of the traditional two-party system, gambling that his base would be big enough to prevail in a three- or four-candidate race.  For now, Devine said, it looks as if Trump is trying his own brand of the “triangulation” practiced by then-President Clinton in the 1990s.

Interesting concept, Trump running for reelection outside the traditional two-party system.  The two parties have become useless with each individual having to please his or her financial backers against the interests of the American people.  It is no secret that the GOP party elite despise President Trump.  From PatrickBuchanan:

Excerpt:

Trump Dumps the Do-Nothing Congress

Donald Trump is president today because he was seen as a doer not a talker. Among the most common compliments paid him in 2016 was, “At least he gets things done!”

And it was exasperation with a dithering GOP Congress, which had failed to enact his or its own agenda, that caused Trump to pull the job of raising the debt ceiling away from Republican contractors Ryan & McConnell, and give it to Pelosi & Schumer…

Returning to D.C. after five weeks vacation, with zero legislation enacted, Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were facing a deadline to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government.  Failure to do so would crash the markets, imperil the U.S. bond rating, and make America look like a deadbeat republic…

Yet, every year, it seems, Congress goes up to the precipice of national default before authorizing the borrowing to pay the bills Congress itself has run up… 

Will he give up on free-trade Republicans to work with Democrats to protect U.S. jobs and businesses from predator traders like China?  Will he cut a deal with Hill Democrats on which infrastructure projects should be funded first? Will he seek out compromise with Democrats on whose taxes should be cut and whose retained?

We could be looking at a seismic shift in national politics, with Trump looking to centrist and bipartisan coalitions to achieve as much of his agenda as he can...  The Congress of the United States, whose powers were delineated in the late 18th century, may simply not be an institution suited to the 21st.

A century ago, Congress ceded to the Federal Reserve its right “to coin money (and) regulate the value thereof.” It has yielded to the third branch, the Supreme Court, the power to invent new rights, as in Roe v. Wade. Its power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations” has been assumed by an executive branch that negotiates the trade treaties, leaving Congress to say yea or nay.

Congress alone has the power to declare war. But recent wars have been launched by presidents over Congressional objection, some without consultation…  Result: In a recent survey, 72 percent of Americans expressed high confidence in the military; 12 percent said the same of Congress.

The American people are sick to death of the congress that was elected by billionaires’ money to serve those billionaires.  We know we have no say over who is elected to our government.  Sure we are given a roster by the two parties of candidates who profess their loyalty to their financial backers.  If congress wanted to immediately fund aid for the victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Katia they could.  But they don’t want to. 

If President Trump is considering starting a new party for his reelection in 2020 he might look to forward thinkers like Senator Rand Paul.  From The Daily Caller:

Excerpt:

Senate Tables Amendment Calling For Harvey Aid To Be Taken From Foreign Aid Fund

The Senate voted to table an amendment aimed at paying for Hurricane Harvey relief using cuts to foreign aid in an 87-10 vote Thursday.

The “America First” amendment — introduced by GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — would have offset the House-passed $7.85 billion aid package while providing an additional $2.5 billion to be used for Harvey recovery efforts or preparation for Hurricane Irma.

Paul’s office noted that the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) latest information shows that roughly $20 billion in unobligated foreign aid is currently available, which the senator believes would be better spent on domestic emergencies.

“There have been people who argued that our $20 trillion debt is the number one threat to our national security. So what I am asking is: Why don’t we pay for this?” Paul said on the floor ahead of the vote. “Why don’t we simply take some money that we were going to spend someone else for something not as valuable in another country and why don’t we spend it here?”

The Senate is slated to take up the lower chamber’s Harvey relief legislation, where it will attach a continuing resolution to keep the government funded and language on a raising the debt ceiling to the bill before sending it back to the House.

Yes, that’s our congress.  Money for all their myriad of special interests but nothing for America.  Senator Paul says “the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) latest information shows that roughly $20 billion in unobligated foreign aid is currently available, which the senator believes would be better spent on domestic emergencies.”

So USAID has $20 billion just gathering dust and congress won’t allow those funds to be used for Hurricane relief in America.  So where does USAID spend the money congress generously slathers them with?  While this article is from 2014 it gives a really good picture of what congress wants to spend that $20 billion on compared to relief here at home.  From Pando:

Excerpt:

The murderous history of USAID, the US Government agency behind Cuba's fake Twitter clone

“In a number of countries, including Venezuela and Bolivia, USAID is acting more as an agency involved in covert action, like the CIA, than as an aid or development agency…”

Last week, we learned from the Associated Press that USAID (United States Agency for International Development) — the government agency which manages billions in overseas “humanitarian” aid programs — plotted to overthrow Cuba’s communist regime…

What really seems to be weirding people out here is the shock realization that USAID — the nice, humanitarian, democracy-promoting arm of American idealism — also engages in sleazy regime-change and subversion… now’s a good time to refresh our memories about USAID’s dark past.

Former New York Times correspondent A. J. Langguth wrote that the “the two primary functions” of the USAID police training program were to allow the CIA to “plant men with local police in sensitive places around the world,” and to bring to the United States “prime candidates for enrollment as CIA employees...”

Dan Mitrione wasn’t a CIA man himself. Mitrione was a small-town cop and a family man from Richmond, Indiana, who joined the FBI, and was sent to Brazil in the early 1960s under USAID’s Office of Public Safety to train the fledging democratic government’s police force. A few years later, in 1964, a US-backed coup overthrew Brazil’s democratically-elected president Joao Goulart, and installed a right-wing military dictatorship…

By the end of the 1960s… USAID had trained over 100,000 of Brazil’s police in the dark arts of rule-by-terror; another 600 Brazilian police were brought to the US for special USAID training in explosives and interrogation techniques…

I don’t want to get into the weeds too much with USAID but you get the point.  In addition to the three-quarters of a trillion dollar annual budget for the Pentagon, secret unaccountable funds are funneled through USAID and the Overseas Contingency Operations to overthrow elected governments across the globe.  Congress, when faced with horrific natural or unnatural disasters in America refuse to touch any of the trillions in funds for war and terrorizing resource rich, cash poor countries to help their own country.

When our military is sent to fight these corporate wars for profits, they return home, broke, injured, ill and many times homeless and hopeless.  But once they have served their usefulness to world hegemony, congress discards them like toy soldiers.  From Veterans Today:

Excerpt:

NEO: The Unseen Victims of America’s War Machine

In 1938, disabled veterans were an inconvenience. They still are, except at election time when each new candidate promises to address the wrongdoing of their predecessor and, of course, in the end, nothing whatsoever changes.

The Trumbo novel, fiction, is almost identical to the scandal at the massive Walter Reed complex where members of congress receive their medical care. The rundown and rat infested buildings at Walter Reed, during the Bush 43 administration, were used to store disabled military, until the Washington Post found out about it anyway.

In a facility where there are luxury suites for members of congress to receive the most expensive medical care in the world, free of charge, paid for by American taxpayers, disabled combat veterans lived in filth, in many cases medical treatment withheld until they agreed to sign away their rights to disability pension benefits…

When illegal weapons are used, nuclear, biological or chemical, the military veterans who become victims are forced to die from the disease of official denial and anyone who thinks nuclear, biological and chemical arsenals aren’t deployed against targets in the Middle East is a fool…

There are two basic business units for what is now called the Department of Veterans Affairs. One unit denies claims, loses paperwork and has built the largest “Skinner Box” in history to force the sick and disabled to simply “go away...”

The other is “medical mistreatment…”  Care is rationed with waiting lists for things like expensive dental work or knee replacement surgery taking more than a decade.

What is really being hidden is the cost of America’s wars.

You see, the new professional military that Nixon gave the US after Vietnam is a “garrison army,” not a combat army…

When, because of physical or psychological conditions which will invariably result from multiple deployments manifest, these soldiers are more often forced out – charged with an offense of some kind, or disallowed from continuing service and receiving a retirement pension.

This places those who qualify – and not all qualify – in a medical system designed to make dying seem attractive.  Certainly Israel provides far better medical care to al Qaeda and ISIS fighters than America does to her own troops.

The American people are sick of the “America last” congress and stand behind Donald Trump.  When Hurricane Donald trumped the GOP the media and the Deep State tried desperately to put lipstick on the pig.  From TheTrumpet @ Hillary is 44: 

Excerpt:

On Wednesday, Paul Ryan, King of the Ant-Trump RINO GOP Establishment, denounced the idea of a three month extension on the debt ceiling as “ridiculous and disgraceful.”  Paul Ryan and the GOP establishment made all sorts of grand promises early in 2017 of how they would get ObamaCare repeal done and all sorts of other President Trump promises passed – by August! It would all be done we were told early this year…

The problems are that their agenda is not the Trump Agenda…  President Trump knows he is dealing with treacherous establishment liars and users. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell along with the rest of the GOP establishment lie to the voters to get elected and they thought they could do the same to President Trump. But President Trump understands what kind of treacherous creatures he is dealing with:

Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, the GOP establishment thought they could passively aggressive beat President Trump in the art of the deal. Then President Trump schlonged them all, as we predicted in our article below.

President Trump made a better deal with cryin’ Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelousy. It was right out of the Bill Clinton triangulation playbook. President Trump schlonged the GOP establishment. President Trump used cryin’ Chuck and Pelousy to schlong Paul Ryno and the GOP establishment. Big Media and the schlonged tried to claim that President Trump was used by the Obama Dimocrats. To the contrary, President Trump let everyone know he will get his way one way or the other…

President Trump wants to get things done. Paul Ryno and in the Ditch Mitch lied to President Trump about how hard they would work to get the Trump Agenda passed as they pretended their agenda was the Trump Agenda. Paul Ryno, in the Ditch Mitch, and the rest of the GOP congress instead of working hard went on vacation. Weeks of vacation.

They got nothing done for President Trump as they had promised weekly since the beginning of the year. Paul Ryno and in the Ditch Mitch did in fact get a lot done – they blocked President Trump at every turn. So they rewarded themselves with many weeks of vacation.

Paul Ryno and in the Ditch Mitch thought they could keep on getting nothing done and then at the last moment go to President Trump and once again tell him “this is the best we can do so you better sign it” as they present garbage bills for the President’s signature…  But instead President Trump schlonged them all.

With the three month extension of the debt limit and the passage of hurricane relief aid President Trump has placed congress in the position of getting work done or missing their Christmas vacation…

If these treacherous manipulators want to go on vacation they will have to do what President Trump wants. They now know that President Trump will not stand like a doofus as they get nothing done on the Trump Agenda.

Ahh, when it comes to the art of the deal, nobody does it better than Trump.  Hurricane Donald kicked the lazy billionaire funded congress aside and passed a short term financing bill for the hurricanes ravaging America.  That is just a start, with fires devastating the Pacific Northwest there is much to be done and it’s going to take hundreds of billions of dollars. 

Trump has sent a message loud and clear, he will work with whomever it takes to pass the agenda of the American people.  That agenda is to “Make America Great Again” at all costs.  Hurricane Donald’s message “get to work and get things done or I will.”  Nobody does it better that’s why Trump is president.

By Patricia Baeten

Labor Day for Hurricane Harvey: Disaster Capitalism vs. Working Class rescue

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.   Franklin D. Roosevelt

Alas it is hurricane and disaster season again which means there will be horrendous suffering for people and tremendous profits for Disaster Capitalists, both brought on by a bought-and-paid for congress who cares nothing about America’s people.  Disaster Capitalists are lining up at the trough for Hurricane Harvey just like they did during Katrina, Rita, Deep Water Horizon and Sandy.  What is different now?  Well the election of Donald J. Trump as president by the working people. 

Trump was elected by the working people, for the working people.  While the usual suspects convene meetings and argue about financing and whether or not the government should help, how much should they help and who pays, the working people descended on Houston to save their brothers and sisters.   Using their own equipment at their own expense to save the people of Houston these everyday heroes put FEMA and the non-profits (?) to shame.  From World Socialist Website:

Excerpt:

The working class responds to Hurricane Harvey

The flooding, however, has produced an overwhelming response from workers in Texas and throughout the region, who have rushed to volunteer for rescue operations, using their own equipment and receiving nothing in return.

The New York Times, which generally refers to the working class only to disparage it, wrote on Wednesday that “the response to one of the worst disasters in decades has been, in many ways, improvised.” The article continued: “Recreational vehicles—airboats, Jet Skis, motorized fishing boats—have rushed to the aid of people trapped in their homes, steered by welders, roofers, mechanics and fishermen wearing shorts, headlamps and ponchos. The working class, in large part, is being saved by the working class…”

As always, it is the working class and poor, of all races and ethnicities, that are the hardest hit. It is they who are either without insurance or face insurance companies that refuse to cover damages. It is they who will see the media and ruling class politicians depart as the flood waters recede and the major industries resume operations…

At the same time, the response of workers to the hurricane expresses a basic class consciousness and solidarity that the ruling class works so hard to undermine. Contrary to the claims—promoted in particular by the Democratic Party—that American society is riven by racial hatred, the emergency operations have involved white, black and Hispanic workers on both sides—in the boats and in the stranded houses…

If workers had been involved in decisions over how to allocate resources, the level of preparation for the hurricane itself would have been far more advanced. Trillions of dollars would be allocated not to bailing out Wall Street and financing the American military machine, but to building social infrastructure. The flooding, after all, was neither unforeseeable nor unforeseen—it was just not planned for.

The case for socialism—and inextricably bound up with this, economic planning—is made not by utopian dreams, but by the concrete demands of social development. 

In every aspect of social life, the working class must take matters into its own hands, through the organization of workers’ committees in factories, workplaces and neighborhoods to assume control over the production and distribution of resources. These organizations must begin with the needs of the working class and be democratically controlled by the working class.

They must take ever greater responsibility for unifying workers and organizing their common struggles against the capitalist class and its political representatives.  The establishment of genuine democratic control over production and economic organization is the necessary basis for the development of a rational plan to replace the anarchy of the market and ensure that all decisions are based on social need.

Yeah no kidding, “If workers had been involved in decisions over how to allocate resources, the level of preparation for the hurricane itself would have been far more advanced and trillions of dollars would be allocated not to bailing out Wall Street and financing the American military machine, but to building social infrastructure.”  The last thing the Disaster Capitalists care about when making decisions is “social need.”

First of all, Houston was a disaster waiting to happen.  Many attempts, one most recently by Rep. Al Green of Texas, to appropriate funds to mitigate the flooding danger in Houston have been met with deaf ears while the Pentagon is engorged with unaccountable trillions of tax dollars.  Disaster Capitalists are firmly in control of congress.  From LaRouchepac:

Excerpt:

No More Houstons: Lyndon LaRouche Says What Must Happen “Right Now”

The catastrophe in Texas is a man-made disaster accomplished by the criminal negligence of this nation’s elected officials, who have continued to support Wall Street’s speculative economy and imperial ambitions while arguing that the nation cannot afford to rebuild and replace its ancient and broken-down economic infrastructure.

For the third time since 2005, major American cities have been flooded and their people devastated, because the plans for new infrastructure to protect the people, requiring tens of billions in investments, have been ignored and turned down. Hurricane Harvey now looms as the worst national disaster in our nation’s history and it is a disaster which did not have to happen.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 2,000 people and wreaked $130 billion in economic losses. Only then, slowly, new flood-control and seagate infrastructure was built—at last—for New Orleans, at a fraction of the human and monetary costs of the damage inflicted by the storm. How many unnecessary deaths and suffering could this project have averted?

Four years later, the American Society of Civil Engineers met in Manhattan to discuss several storm surge barrier options for the New York City region. The estimate for the largest of these was $9 billion. The government decided to do nothing. Then, in 2012 Superstorm Sandy killed more than 100 people and caused $65 billion in economic losses.

New York area residents now are going through a "Summer of Hell" as the 100-year-old regional transportation system, flooded and damaged five years ago, also was not repaired or replaced at the necessary pace…  Plans for a new system for the Houston area had been drafted, but their $25 billion cost was deemed "too high" a price tag  for our Wall Street–dominated agencies and elected officials. Now, hundreds of billions of dollars, and priceless human lives, are lost…

Wall Street, which has been bailed out repeatedly to the tune of trillions of dollars, with nothing but increased impoverishment of the American people to  show for it, must no longer be allowed to dictate the economic policy of the United States of America.

If there is one thing that the working people know for sure it is that our so called “elected” official don’t give a rip about us.  They are too busy trying to please their Wall Street overlords, whose indifference and neglect cause these disasters to start with and then profit off of misery.  And what do every day Americans have to show for our trillion dollar bail out of congress’ financial backers?  The “increased impoverishment of the American people to that is what the politicians have to offer.

The Deep State’s stoking of racial tension that we’ve seen since Charlottesville is all but forgotten as the White Nationalists and the Antifa show the world they are Americans first.  From Truth-Out:

Excerpt:

Antifa and Leftists Organize Mutual Aid and Rescue Networks in Houston

"It's been a hell of a few days," says Andrew Cobb, whose house in Houston's Fifth Ward was spared the brunt of Hurricane Harvey's flood waters. His decentralized, grassroots relief effort called the "West Street Response Team" started with a simple scouting mission to a nearby flood plain across Highway 59 on Sunday.

After he and his roommates arrived at the location, they began coordinating with neighbors from the area on social media to find specific addresses of people needing rescue. They paddled more than two miles out in an inflatable kayak to make their first rescue of a mother and son, who they brought back to their own home to shelter for a few days.

"We posted about that and there was just a huge response, with some videos from that. And so, people were like, 'What can we do? What's up?' And I was like, 'We need boats. We need trucks. We need to get out there, and ... people just responded in a big way…"

Cobb is just one of many Texans braving Houston's rapids from sun-up to sun-down to organize decentralized rescues in the early days of Hurricane Harvey's devastation… His work providing homeless people with food via Food Not Bombs has amplified his disgust for the journalists and city officials ridiculing Houstonians for providing for themselves during a time of crisis.

"Calling it 'looting' is just such an absurdity when you have no food in the neighborhood. So, people were getting what they need, but we were hearing that supplies were limited, and the closest real grocery store was Fiesta, and there was a four-hour line to get in," Cobb says. "It's a food desert in normal times, and right now it's even more so."

According to Scott Crow, anarchist, author and cofounder of the decentralized Common Ground Collective that provided relief and aid to those most in need almost exactly 12 years ago during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, grassroots distribution centers and clinics for Harvey victims are already cropping up.

Moreover, he says, a lot of people in antifascist networks have acted as first responders, including activists with groups focusing on rural areas like the anarchist-inspired Red Neck Revolt, who are working to build distribution centers in Houston's Third and Fifth Ward…

Organizers with Austin Common Ground Relief, who helped build the original Common Ground Collective in New Orleans, went into Houston with boats this week to bring in gasoline, water, food and other supplies, and are currently coordinating more volunteers each day…  "Disasters show us the failures of government and large entities like the Red Cross every time. ... It creates a crisis, and what you see is, the government cannot fill the void."

In Houston, that void is not just being filled by radicals like Cobb, but hundreds of everyday Houstonians conducting search-and-rescue missions using personal boats and kayaks…  One of those anarchist groups is Houston's Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), whose members have been acting as first responders, and working to share resources and information.

ABC has also been leading a "call-in" drive to prisons and jails on behalf of prisoners and families affected by Harvey, including those from county jails that have not been evacuated… Still Cobb says he's been amazed to witness the compassion and strength of his neighbors and of average Houstonians amid the ongoing crisis.

Really??  What do we need our government of Wall Street toadies for?  Why pay taxes if the money is spent on wars of aggression and plunder leaving nothing for the American people.  It’s time to stop all the wars of aggression and begin to heal America.  It’s time to “Make America Great Again” and build up our infrastructure.  But already the Disaster Capitalists on Wall Street are devising a way to force the working people to pay for damages and leave Wall Street vultures unscathed.  From World Socialist Website:

Excerpt:

Who will pay for the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey?

It is the poor and working class who will be the hardest hit. More than 80 percent of homeowners in the region most severely impacted by the hurricane do not have flood insurance, meaning they will be left to rebuild with inadequate loans from various federal agencies, if they are able to get even these…

The American ruling class, riven by deep internal divisions over foreign policy, confronts an economic system built on massive speculative bubbles and an increasingly angry and hostile working class.

Over the past week, the American media and political establishment have organized their forces to perform a well-choreographed political theater, combining hypocritical and insincere commentary on the “tragedy” of Hurricane Harvey, with the deliberate avoidance of any discussion on who is responsible and what must be done. The aim is to somehow prevent workers from drawing the necessary conclusion: that the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey is a crime of capitalism, for which the American ruling class is to blame…

No plan was in place for an orderly evacuation of the region in the event of a disaster, even though the region is prone to hurricanes.

Adequate preparation would require a level of planning and foresight of which the ruling elite is incapable. For the past forty years, under both Democrats and Republicans, it has engaged in a single-minded policy of upward wealth redistribution, corporate deregulation, and financial speculation…

Even before the waters have receded, the main concern of the political representatives of the ruling elite is to make sure that those responsible for the catastrophe will not have to pay for it…

One way or another, the ruling class will force workers to foot the bill…  The working class must advance its own program….  A multitrillion-dollar public works program must be initiated to rebuild the city and develop public infrastructure throughout the country.

To fund and implement such a program requires a frontal assault on the wealth and power of the corporate and financial elite.

The vast wealth created by the working class must be taken out of the hands of a privileged few and used to meet social need. The giant corporations and banks, which control the entire political system and dictate policy, must be transformed into public utilities, democratically controlled by the working class.

“The vast wealth created by the working class must be taken out of the hands of a privileged few and used to meet social need.”  Can anyone argue with that?  The billionaires of today did not make their wealth from building factories, from investing in risky ventures that create jobs, nor have they made their money from taking risks with their own money.  They made their wealth from theft, sometimes bankrupting entire nations.  They have no skin in the game, the game is rigged in their favor by the politicians they created. 

This Labor Day as the workers save Houston from the gross incompetence, graft and corruption of the Disaster Capitalists who are responsible for the unbelievable destruction of America, we have a chance for rebirth.  It is time for the working people of America to take back their country.  It is time to reclaim our wealth that has been stolen from us after the 2000 Banking/Military coup in America.  It’s time for the American worker to shed the Working Man’s Blues and unite against this Fascist imperial war mongering government that has enslaved us.

By Patricia Baeten