Sympathy for the devil: The politics of fear as the two parties demonize each other for votes

Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste.  I've been around for a long, long year, stole many a man's soul to waste…  So if you meet me have some courtesy, have some sympathy, and some taste.  Use all your well-learned politesse or I'll lay your soul to waste.  ~ Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil

Who can gin up more fear and anger?  Who is the best at stoking political violence?  Who is the victim and who is the victimizer.  Which devil will engender the most sympathy from the voters and win the 2018 midterm elections?  That is what American elections have devolved into, sympathy for the devil.

The Republicans portray the Democrats as dangerous socialists who will socialize health care providing America’s best medical care for the rich elite while the masses are subjected to government panels deciding who should receive care and who should be culled from the herd for being sick.  They stoke the fear that oppressed, endangered white men will be eviscerated by mobs of women-led, dark skinned men wearing pink pussy hats and me-too tee shirts as they pour over our borders to vote for Democrats. 

Democrats portray the Republicans as dangerous capitalists who will continue with for-profit health care providing the best medical care for the elite while the masses are subjected to insurance company panels deciding who should receive care and who should be culled from the herd for being sick.  They stoke the fear that if the racist Republicans maintain control of our government we can expect burning crosses in every yard. 

Both parties have betrayed the American people; neither give a rip about the devastating effects of their greed, avarice and self-dealing.  If the American people were allowed to vote and have their votes counted, neither party could be elected, but we’re not allowed to vote and have our votes counted.  It’s all a sham.  Through gerrymandering, restrictive voter ID, caging lists and the ridiculous sham of “provisional ballots” that are nothing more than toilet paper, the American voter has been disenfranchised.

Every election season the more hatred, fear and loathing that can be ginned up the better, for it provides cover for when the preordained election outcome is announced.  The election is then held up as cover for the most regressive, horrific legislation to be passed saying the people have spoken, this is what they want.  Is it?  Look at the laws these demons pass, who do they serve?  A trillion dollars a year for the military industrial complex’ wars that profit only the arms dealers while America lays in waste. 

Donald Trump was elected to normalize relations with Russia and pull America out of the wars of aggression against nation states that have done no harm to the American people.  President Trump, the builder promised to rebuild the American infrastructure and to put America first above all other countries.  How has that worked out?  From Caitlin Johnstone at Russia Insider:

Excerpt:

'Putin's Puppet' Advances Nuclear Missile Escalations Against...Putin?

"So, on the one front where cooler heads prevailing is quite literally the single most important thing in the world, the exact opposite is happening"

Yesterday the news broke that Swamp Monster-In-Chief John Bolton has been pushing President Trump to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the 1988 arms control agreement between the US and the Soviet Union eliminating all missiles of a specified range from the arsenals of the two nuclear superpowers. Today, Trump has announced that he will be doing exactly as Bolton instructed.

This would be the second missile treaty between the US and Russia that America has withdrawn from since it abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002. John Bolton, an actual psychopath who Trump hired as his National Security Advisor in April, ran point on that move as well back when he was part of the increasingly indistinguishable Bush administration.

“This is why John Bolton shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near US foreign policy,” tweeted Senator Rand Paul in response to early forecasts of the official announcement. “This would undo decades of bipartisan arms control dating from Reagan. We shouldn’t do it. We should seek to fix any problems with this treaty and move forward…”

“Russia has violated the agreement. They’ve been violating it for many years and I don’t know why President Obama didn’t negotiate or pull out,” Trump told reporters in Nevada. “We’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and do weapons and we’re not allowed to. We’re the ones that have stayed in the agreement and we’ve honored the agreement but Russia has not unfortunately honored the agreement so we’re going to terminate the agreement, we’re going to pull out.”

What Trump did not mention is that the US has indeed been in violation of that agreement due to steps it began taking toward the development of a new ground-launched cruise missile last year…

So, on the one front where cooler heads prevailing is quite literally the single most important thing in the world, the exact opposite is happening. Hotter, more impatient, more violent, more hawkish heads are prevailing over diplomacy and sensibility, potentially at the peril of the entire world should something unexpected go wrong as a result.

This is of course coming after two years of Democratic Party loyalists attacking Trump on the basis that he has not been sufficiently hawkish toward Russia, and claiming that this is because he is Putin’s puppet.  In response to this predictable escalation the path for which has been lubricated by McResistance pundits and their neoconservative allies, those very same pundits are now reacting with horror that Putin’s puppet is now dangerously escalating tensions with Putin…

“Hilarious to listen to all this alarmed screaming about US withdrawal from INF Treaty emanating from those who for 2 years have been demanding that Trump get tough with Russia,” tweeted George Szamuely of the Global Policy Institute. “Now that they’ve got their arms race I hope they are pleased with themselves.”

“Are those who have spent the past two years warning of a Trump-Kremlin conspiracy & cheering confrontation w/ Russia ready to shut the f### up yet?” asked Aaron Maté, who has been among the most consistently lucid critics of the Russiagate narrative in the US…

Are they ready to shut the f### up? That would be great, but this is just the latest escalation in a steadily escalating new cold war, and these blithering idiots didn’t shut the fuck up at any of the other steps toward nuclear holocaust. They didn’t shut the fuck up after Trump’s capitulation to the longstanding neoconservative agenda to arm Ukraine against Russia.

They didn’t shut the fuck up after Americans killed Russians in Syria as part of their regime change occupation of that country. They didn’t shut the fuck up when this administration adopted a Nuclear Posture Review with greatly increased aggression toward Russia and blurred lines between when nuclear strikes are and are not appropriate.

They didn’t shut the fuck up when Trump started sending war ships into the Black Sea “to counter Russia’s increased presence there.” They didn’t shut the fuck up when this administration forced RT and Sputnik to register as foreign agents.

They didn’t shut the fuck up when this administration helped expand NATO with the addition of Montenegro, at the assigning of Russia hawk Kurt Volker as special representative to Ukraine, at the shutting down of a Russian consulate in San Francisco and throwing out Russian diplomats in August of last year, when Trump threw out dozens more diplomats in response to shaky claims about the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, or when he implemented aggressive sanctions on Russian oligarchs. WHY WOULD THEY SHUT THE F### UP NOW?

As signs point to Mueller’s investigation wrapping up in the near future without turning up a single shred of evidence that Trump colluded with the Russian government, it’s time for everyone who helped advance this toxic, suicidal anti-Russia narrative to ask themselves one question: WAS IT WORTH IT?

Was it worth it to help mount political pressure on a sitting president to continually escalate tensions with a nuclear superpower and loudly screaming that he’s a Putin puppet whenever he takes a step toward de-escalation? Was it worth it to help create an atmosphere where cooler heads don’t prevail in the one area where it’s absolutely essential for everyone’s survival that they do? Or is it maybe time to shut the f### up for a while and rethink your entire worldview?

A trillion dollars a year for the Pentagon to piss away and what does America have to show for it?  Do we have a state-of-the-art war arsenal?  Are we a strategic threat to Russia and China?  Look at America’s infrastructure compared to that of Russia and China.  What has trillions of dollars in a war based economy bought?  From RT: 

Excerpt:

Exorbitant cost, multiple failures, years overdue: A recap of the ongoing F-35 calamity (VIDEO) 

  

As the entire F-35 fleet was yet again grounded for technical inspections, in the wake of its first crash in September. RT looks at the abject history and prospects of the most expensive Pentagon program in history.  Over $300 billion has been spent on the project to create a state-of-the-art fifth-generation multi-role fighter since 1992, with the eventual cost likely to easily cross the trillion dollar threshold, unless the Pentagon decides that enough is enough.

Despite being introduced into service in 2015, the jets, which cost about $100 million each to manufacture had a readiness rate of 55 percent - which meant that almost half the planes were not capable of actually performing a mission, either due to maintenance, breakages, or design faults that made them unsafe.

While a fuel tube problem has been potentially blamed for the non-fatal September 28 crash in South Carolina, previous issues have included inefficient weight distribution, low maneueverability, outdated software and communication devices, helmet vision failure, and cabin oxygen supply problems. Worst of all, is that many of the issues stem not from kinks or one-off problems to be ironed out, but fundamental flaws in the design, with the Pentagon saying that even new planes need to be modified to become effective.

When multi-year time and materials contracts are given to the military industrial complex you can expect their products to take years and years with massive cost overruns to make their flawed products, it’s just common sense.  As long as congress and the president do not hold these contractors accountable this nonsense will continue.  From RT:

Excerpt:

Trump threatens to build up US nuclear arsenal until Russia, China 'come to their senses'

US President Donald Trump threatened Russia and China that Washington intends to build up its nuclear arsenal until “people come to their senses.”  The president said his words were directed towards Moscow and Beijing, as he prepared to unilaterally leave the Intermediate Nuclear Forces in Europe (INF) treaty. The US president implied China should be part of any new nuclear arms control treaty.

“Russia has not adhered to the agreement,” neither in form or in spirit, Trump told reporters outside the White House on Monday, before departing for a campaign rally in Texas.  Until people come to their senses, we will build it up he said, referring to the US nuclear arsenal. “When they do, we will all be smart and we’ll stop. Not only stop, but we’ll reduce, which I’d love to do.”

Asked if this should be taken as a threat, Trump said yes.  It’s a threat to whoever you want. It includes China, it includes Russia.  The US has “more money than anyone else by far,” Trump added, implying an arms race wouldn’t come as a burden. “You can’t play that game on me.”

Yes, yes that’s true the US has more money than anyone, but its fiat currency is becoming worthless.  If we have more money than anyone else, why is everyone else’s infrastructure far better than ours?  Why do the other industrialized countries’ citizens have universal healthcare and we have to beg our fellow citizens to help pay to keep us alive?  Threatening to throw more money at the Pentagon is more of a threat to American citizens than to Russia or China.  We’re supposed to feel sympathy for the devil as we slit our own throats.  

The Bush tax cuts were a prelude to the 2008 financial crash and now the Trump tax cuts come just as the 2019 financial crash is scheduled to hit.  From Free Thought Project:

Excerpt:

US Economy About to Collapse, Taking Down Dollar and US Standard of Living With It—Peter Schiff

(RT) — Tuesday’s US stock plunge following a massive selloff on global markets is seen by some analysts as a sign of more bad things to come. RT talked to veteran stock broker Peter Schiff to explore the issue in depth…

“All the signs are already there. Look at what’s happening out there. The stock market is falling, 40 percent of the S&P is already in a bear market. Look at homebuilders, the housing stocks, the financials, the retailers – all these are the same things that were happening in 2007 leading to that crisis,” the strategist told RT America.

The economist urged people be prepared for not only an economic crisis, but a political crisis as well with the current administration likely to take the blame.  According to Schiff, the US national currency is set to meet with the worst losses. 

“So, what you’ve got to do is get out of US dollar assets. The dollar is going to be the biggest casualty along with the American standard of living,” he said, adding that foreign stock markets, especially emerging markets, currently depressed by the strong dollar would see a strong rise.  “They are going to see a boom, when the dollar weakens,” Schiff said.

“Look at the price of gold up another eight bucks, but it’s still about $1,230, gold’s going to new highs, it was at $1,900 in 2011, it’s going to go much higher this time,” the analyst added.  

According to the economist, the US household debt that is about $15 trillion represents a crucial issue for the standard of living in the country. 

“Everybody is loaded up with debt, and it’s not like we began this monetary experiment without much debt. We had a lot of debt in 2008. In fact, the financial crisis was about debt, it was about our inability to pay the debt that we had,” Schiff said.

With that debt bomb about to explode who is it that, as Trump says “should come to their senses?”  “We have more money than anyone” so we can just plow trillions more into the Pentagon’s war machine to build more and more worthless junk in a new cold war that could lead to a hot war.  After years of plowing money into the military industrial complex with absolutely no oversight, America is playing a losing hand.  From Tom Luongo at Gold Goats and Guns:

Excerpt:

Putin Lays Down the Law at Valdai

Every year Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the Valdai Economic Forum.  And each year his talk is important.  Putin isn’t one to mince words on important issues.  With tensions between Russia and the West reaching Cold War levels, Valdai represented the first time we’ve heard Putin speak in a long-form discussion since Helsinki and the events thereafter — IL-20, Khashoggi, etc.

So, this talk is worth everyone’s time.  And when I say everyone’s I mean every single person who could be affected by the breakdown of the U.S. political system and how that spills over onto Russia’s shores.  In other words, pretty much everyone on the planet.  Because what Putin did at Valdai was to lay down the new rules of conduct in geopolitical affairs.  He put the U.S. and European oligarchs I call The Davos Crowd on notice.

  

There is a limit to your provocations and attempts to undermine Russia.  So don’t cross that line.  The big quote from his talk is the one everyone is focusing on, and rightly so, Russia’s policy about using nuclear weapons.

It’s not that Putin’s stance was any different than in the past. Russia will strike back at an aggressor under any circumstance where the future of Russia is at stake.  It was his assurance that in doing so 1) it would be just and righteous “dying like martyrs” and 2) so swift and brutal the aggressors would “die like dogs” bereft of the chance to ask for salvation…

Those are strong words.  They are the words of a meek man.  And the word meek, as Jordan Peterson reminds us, describes someone who has weapons, knows how to use them and keeps them sheathed until they have no other option.  He was serious.  This is the very definition of meek…

Men like this are not to be tested too hard.  And Putin’s response to the shooting down of the IL-20 plane and its crew was to cross a bunch of diplomatic lines by handing out S-300s to Syria and erecting a de facto no-fly zone over Western Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Notice how there have been no attacks or even harsh language coming out of Israel or the U.S. in the past few weeks.  The failure of the British/French/Israeli operation to sucker Trump into an invasion of Syria is now complete.

And I’m convinced that Nikki Haley paid the price. 

Putin wasn’t boasting or grandstanding about Russia’s hypersonic weapons capability.  He told everyone they are deployed.  He did this to shut up the U.S. neoconservative chattering class who he rightly says whisper in President Trump’s ear that they can win a nuclear conflict with Russia.

They are insane.  And you have to treat them that way…

The Limits of Empire

Ultimately, Putin looked resigned, if confused, to the insanity emanating from U.S. policy.  But it’s obvious to him that Russia cannot get caught up in the tit-for-tat nuisances put up to derail Russia’s future.  He mentioned the Empire loses its way because it believed itself invulnerable or as my dad used to say about certain athletes, “He reads his own press clippings too much…”

Power is slipping away from the U.S. and Trump is both helping the process along while also trying to preserve the core of what’s left.  And no interaction during Putin’s talk was more indicative of his view of the U.S. empire than his interaction with a Japanese delegate who asked him about signing a peace treaty with Japan.

And Putin’s answer was clear.  It’s Japan’s pride and political entanglements that preclude this from happening.  Signing the peace treaty is not necessary to solving ownership of the Kuril Islands.  Russia and Japan are both diminished by having this obstacle in the way.  The issue can resolve itself after the peace treaty is signed.  The current state of things is silly and anachronistic and keep the divide between Russians and Japanese from healing.  Create trust through agreement then move forward.

That’s what is happening between Russia and Egypt and that is why Putin is winning the diplomatic war. And it’s why Trump is losing the diplomatic war.  Putin knows where Trump is.  He was there himself seventeen years ago, except an order of magnitude worse. 

The problems Trump is facing are the same problems Putin faced, corruption, venality, treason all contributing to a collapse in societal and cultural institutions.  Putin knows the U.S. is at a crossroads, and he’s made his peace with whatever comes next.  The question is have we?

How true, “Putin knows the U.S. is at a crossroads, and he’s made his peace with whatever comes next.  The question is have we?”  That indeed is the question.  However, with war mongers surrounding Trump convincing him that “we have more money than anyone” and that “we can prevail in a war against Russia” one must conclude that no, we have not made peace with whatever comes next.  For that reason the two parties must gin up fear and anger, as well as stoke political violence against each other for optimal sympathy for the devils.

They cannot rely on their horrific congressional record of tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy as our debt climbs past 21 trillion and our infrastructure collapses.  After all how do they justify the ginormous debt racked up in a war based economy that sucks a trillion dollars a year out of our economy while they threaten to slash earned benefits of Social Security and Medicare to pay for tax cuts?  The answer is, they don’t instead they must elicit Sympathy for the Devil.

Deep State’s enemies or allies, hard to tell who is who

“Your Worst Enemy Could Be Your Best Friend & Your Best Friend Your Worst Enemy” ― Bob Marley

Who are America’s allies and who are America’s friends?  Are the Deep State’s “friends” the American people’s friends?  Are the Deep State’s “foes” the American people’s foes?  Who is who?  For the American people it’s hard to tell.  Take America’s so called friend Saudi Arabia, the country that supported and trained the 911 hijackers that killed thousands of innocent Americans and caused trillions of damage in wars, we’re told Saudi Arabia is our friend but are they?  What price did the Saudis pay for the 911 attacks?  Zero.  Why?  Was it because the Saudis were acting in tandem with America’s CIA to launch an attack on America to justify endless wars for profit?

Saudi Arabia is a primitive country that beheads people for minor or no infractions.  How can a country whose actions are so antithetical to American values be our friend?  Is it a friendship of convenience or are we so indebted to the Saudi’s for their oil and keeping the military industrial complex engorged in profits that we can turn a blind eye to their horrific human rights violations.  What value does this friendship offer the American people?  

Now that a CIA operative and sometime Washington Post journalist has been tortured and murdered allegedly by the Saudis, America may or may not punish Saudi Arabia.  Killing Americans, no punishment; killing a CIA operative, punishment.  From Kristen Breitweiser:

Excerpt:

Road to Damascus Conversion: Derived from the Biblical story of Paul, the term “Damascus road conversion” is commonly used to refer to an abrupt about-face on a serious issue of religion, politics or philosophy. In this type of change, a single, dramatic event causes a person to become aligned with something he or she previously was against or support a position that he or she previously opposed.

As a 9/11 widow who has spent the last 17 years fighting for accountability with regard to the 9/11 attacks that killed my husband and 3,000 others, I find the recent uproar over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and alleged murder interesting and out of character for many of those decrying his disappearance and demanding an investigation and accountability… 

As victims of terrorism, we are ever vigilant and watchful about all those named on our lists. We follow these folks actions, their speeches, their legislation, because we know that they are never looking out for our best interests as U.S. victims of terrorism. As a group, our institutional memory is broad and long. And we never forget.

That’s why we all happened to notice the uncharacteristic behavior of so many of those on our lists with the advent of Jamal Khasoggi’s disappearance. And it made us wonder why so many people, who had previously always blindly supported the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were now so vociferously jumping Saudi ship.

What had caused this Road to Damascus conversion?

Take for example those who fought against the release of The 28 Pages of the Joint Inquiry of Congress (JICI) that detailed the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks for fear that The 28 Pages public release might harm the Saudi’s reputation and its very special relationship with the United States. A relationship, in large part, based on oil, weapons, money, and shared intelligence operations—things that have little to do with keeping American citizens safe.

Regarding The 28 Pages, CIA Director, John Brennan once said, “releasing a classified section of the congressional investigation into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States would be a mistake…

Yet, now when faced with the comparatively less significant disappearance and murder of only one man, Khashoggi (not the thousands on 9/11, the hundreds from Khobar and the Embassy bombings or the 17 U.S. sailors from the Cole), based on far less substantiated and convincing evidence from newspapers (rather than a several hundred page bi-partisan, bi-cameral Congressional Investigation’s Final Report), John Brennan is suddenly moved to hold the Saudis accountable.

On Khashoggi’s disappearance, Brennan had this to say: “It appears increasingly likely that Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was detained and killed at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul. There is still much that we don’t know, but if such an audacious act was carried out, it almost certainly would have required the approval of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman…

I am confident that U.S. intelligence agencies have the capability to determine, with a high degree of certainty, what happened to Khashoggi. If he is found to be dead at the hands of the Saudi government, his demise cannot go unanswered — by the Trump administration, by Congress or by the world community...

The message would be clear: The United States will never turn a blind eye to such inhuman behavior, even when carried out by friends, because this is a nation that remains faithful to its values.”

Really, Mr. Brennan? Never turn a blind eye? You turned two blind eyes to the Saudis for nearly 20 years as you defended them and kept the truth of their misdeeds shrouded in secrecy from the 9/11 families, the Embassy Bombing families, the Khobar Tower families, and the USS Cole families. Cover up is complicity and you have been complicit for 20 years! And now you are worried about inhumane behavior? Now, you are interested in the United States taking immediate action and imposing sanctions?

For the record, Mr Brennan—>3,000 innocent souls were brutally murdered in cold-blood on 9/11. Their massacre yielded literally tens of thousands of body parts that were recovered and returned to the victim’s family or unceremoniously incinerated at Ground Zero and/or hastily dumped in a garbage land-fill in Staten Island. That, John Brennan, is the definition of inhumanity.

Oh what a difference the torture and death of a CIA asset makes compared to the torture and death of over 3,000 innocent Americans on American soil makes.  The Saudi’s are continuously given kid glove treatment for their horrific actions.  But that is because Saudi Arabia is our Ally, our friend.  From Margaret Kimberly at Black Agenda Report:

Freedom Rider: Jamal Khashoggi and U.S. Hypocrisy

The corporate media cry crocodile tears over the apparent murder of an elite, CIA-connected “dissident,” while papering over US complicity in Saudi war crimes in Yemen. 

“The Saudis may kill 50 Yemeni children on a school bus and get only a few mild rebukes, but killing a prominent man is another story entirely.”

The disappearance and presumed murder of Jamal Khashoggi puts the corrupt relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States in high relief. The two countries have been partners in crime over many years. Together they used jihadist proxies to make wars in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria that furthered U.S. interests. The brutal Saudi attack on neighboring Yemen could not happen without U.S. diplomatic and logistical support...

Khashoggi was a member of a prominent Saudi family with strong ties to the royal house. His uncle, Adnan Khashoggi, was an arms dealer involved in the Iran-Contra and BCCI scandals. But Jamal Khashoggi had a parting of the ways with crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the de facto ruler, and he left Saudi Arabia in 2017. He was a long time Saudi spokesman, CIA asset and a Washington Postjournalist. All of those credentials made him an elite insider in the United States too…

The Saudis may kill 50 Yemeni children on a school bus and get only a few mild rebukes. But killing a prominent man who has all the right political and intelligence agency connections is another story entirely.

Ordinarily compliant American senators are now going through the motions of asking questions and proposing sanctions or other punishments against the kingdom. Corporate media like the New York Times, Financial Times, CNN and CNBC have dropped out of the Future Investment Initiative meeting which is known as Davos in the desert. The plight of starving Yemenis gets little attention, but a hit job committed openly and without fear of recourse is too much. Liberal sensibilities were offended by the crassness of the act and by the position of the victim.

The outrage is coming long after the Saudis began their war crime against Yemen. They have been bombing and starving that country since 2014 and are responsible for an estimated 50,000 deaths. THEY HAVE BLOCKADED PORTS AND DENIED ACCESS TO FOOD AND MEDICINE. Yemen is in the midst of a cholera outbreak and millions are displaced refugees.

These atrocities were not enough to put Saudi Arabia on the list of infamy where it belongs. Barack Obama, darling of the liberal imperialists, was only slightly less subservient to the kingdom than Trump is today. The Yemen attack began during his term in office. He continued the tradition of $100 billion defense deals with the feudal monarchy and made the relationship a top priority.

He cut short a 2015 visit to India in order to meet the newly crowned King Salman and brought along a who’s who entourage including Condi Rice, James Baker, John McCain and Nancy Pelosi. SAUDI ARABIA WAS AND IS A KEY PARTNER IN U.S. IMPERIALISM.

Trump differs from Obama and other presidents only in his inability to be diplomatic. When first asked about a possible response to Khashoggi’s disappearance HE MADE IT CLEAR THAT HE WOULD DO NOTHING TO THREATEN WAR CONTRACTOR PROFITS. In defending the crown prince he mentioned Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed by name as he dismissed any talk of sanctions.

Of course Trump style politics provides further complications. Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner has formed a close friendship with Mohammed bin Salman. Kushner’s security clearance gave him access to information which he gave to the crown prince. Kushner is the likely source who turned in Saudi royals, also connected to the CIA, who opposed the de facto ruler… 

The hypocrisy doesn’t end with Trump and Kushner. It can be seen in the corporate media who cover for a war crime against Yemen… But they also know who funds the think tanks and who has the connections with their bosses. They may despise Trump but it isn’t for the reasons they ought to dislike him…

Ahhh yes, friend or foe.  Is this strong friend of the Deep State a friend of the America people?  Does this friend of the Deep State commit these acts against Yemen on behalf of the American people’s interests?  Is this really a friend to America?  President Trump was elected to put an end to senseless wars of aggression.  President Trump vowed to put America and American interests first, but now he has allowed the worst of the worst swamp monsters to slime their way into his administration and continue to vulgar anti-American foreign policy of Bush and Obama.  From Russia Insider:

Excerpt:

Trump Admin Is Being Taken Over by Pompeo and Bolton Who Represent Everything Trump Ran Against

Mattis is losing influence and may be on the way out

·        Mattis is a conventional establishment thinker but in the context of the Trump admin he is often a moderating force

In covering President Donald Trump’s recent pregnant comments about Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, The Wall Street Journal tucked away in its story an observation that hints at the president’s foreign policy direction.  In an interview for CBS’s 60 Minutes, the president described Mattis as “sort of a Democrat if you want to know the truth” and suggested he wouldn’t be surprised if his military chief left his post soon. After calling him “a good guy” and saying the two “get along very well,” Trump added, “He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves…. That’s Washington…” 

But far more significant than Mattis’s future or Trump’s love of chaos was a sentence embedded in the Journal‘s report.    After noting that recent polls indicated that Mattis enjoys strong support from the American people, reporter Nancy A. Youssef writes: “But his influence within the administration has waned in recent months, particularly following the arrival of John Bolton as national security adviser and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state.”

The significance here is that Bolton and Pompeo represent just about everything Trump ran against during his 2016 presidential campaign. He ran against the country’s foreign policy establishment and its rush to war in Iraq; its support of NATO’s provocative eastward expansion; its abiding hostility toward Russia; its destabilization of the Middle East through ill-conceived and ill-fated activities in Iraq, Libya, and Syria; its ongoing and seemingly endless war in Afghanistan; and its enthusiasm for regime change and nation-building around the world.

Bolton and Pompeo represent precisely those kinds of policies and actions as well as the general foreign policy outlook that spawned them.

Trump gave every indication during the campaign that he would reverse those policies and avoid those kinds of actions. He even went so far, in his inimitable way, of accusing the Bush administration of lying to the American people in taking the country to war in Iraq, as opposed to making a reckless and stupid, though honest, mistake about that country’s weapons of mass destruction.

He said it would be great to get along with Russia and criticized NATO’s aggressive eastward push. He said our aim in Syria should be to combat Islamist extremism, not depose Bashar al-Assad as its leader. IN PROMULGATING HIS AMERICA FIRST APPROACH, HE SPECIFICALLY ESCHEWED ANY INTEREST IN NATION-BUILDING ABROAD…

Still, generally speaking, anyone listening to Trump carefully before the election would have been justified in concluding that, if he meant what he said, he would reverse America’s post-Cold War foreign policy as practiced by George W. Bush and Barack Obama…

Thus any neutral observer, at the time of Mattis’s selection as defense secretary, might have concluded that he was more bent on an adventurous American foreign policy than his boss. But it turned out to be just the opposite. There are two reasons for this. First, Mattis is cautious by nature, and he seems to have taken Trump at his word that he didn’t want any more unnecessary American wars of choice.

Hence he opposed the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal prior to Trump’s decision to pull America out of it. That action greatly increased the chances that America and Iran could find themselves on a path to war. Mattis also redeployed some military resources from the Middle East to other areas designed to check actions by Russia and China, which he considered greater threats to U.S. security.

And second, it turns out that Trump has no true convictions when it comes to world affairs. He brilliantly discerned the frustrations of many Americans over the foreign policy of the previous 16 years and hit just the right notes to leverage those frustrations during the campaign. But his actual foreign policy has manifested a lack of consistent and strong philosophy…

That seems to have presented a marvelous opportunity to Bolton and Pompeo, whose philosophy and convictions are stark and visible to all. Bolton has made clear his desire for America to bring about regime change in Iran and North Korea. He supported the Iraq war and has never wavered in the face of subsequent events. He has advocated a preemptive strike against North Korea. Pompeo harbors similar views.

Thus a conflict was probably inevitable between Mattis and these more recent administration arrivals. The New York Times speculates that Bolton likely undermined Mattis’s standing in Trump’s eyes. Writes the paper: “Mr. Bolton, an ideological conservative whose views on foreign policy are more hawkish than those of Mr. Mattis, appears to have deepened the president’s suspicions that his defense secretary’s view of the world is more like those of Democrats than his own…”

Thus it appears we may be seeing before our eyes the transformation of Trump the anti-establishment candidate into Trump the presidential neocon.

Yes, it’s out with the new and in with the old.   Trump vowed a renewal of American interests in the form of infrastructure renewal, a strong American workforce, secure borders and an end to the senseless Bush/Obama foreign wars that are sapping the American economy of trillions of dollars a year.  The Bush neocons, including the latest Supreme Court justices’ only interests are covering up the crimes of the George Bush Administration and the Barack Obama Administration and committing even worse atrocities under the Trump Administration.  Blurring the lines between good and evil has been a mainstay of American foreign policy since the overthrow of the American government in December of 2000. 

A bullying foreign policy and a domestic policy of tax cuts during war and deregulated Wall Street Banks has reversed course in America leading to its own destruction.  In 2000 America was at peace in the world, and was a vibrant lender nation with a surplus in its treasury.  The Bush Administration reversed course and turned America into a debtor nation bogged down in endless undeclared wars across the globe making the US a weak, subservient partner to Saudi Arabia and Israel, quaking in their boots.  Why else is America unable to punish Saudi Arabia for their attacks against America.  From Tyler Durden at Russia Insider:

Excerpt:

Forget Oil, Saudis Have Two Other Nuclear Options Against the US If Pushed Too Far

There are not one, not two, but three 'weapons' on the "nuclear option" menu for Saudi Arabia to strike back at any US sanctions stemming from its alleged murder and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in what is now being reported as a "botched interrogation."

The first is simple and well known - "oil" - cutting off its own supply "nose" to send prices to $100, $200, or $400 may end up spiting its own face however. 

So let's take a look at some other options.

The second, and relatively well known, potential course for retaliation is in its choice of who to buy its weapons from...  President Trump has so far stated his unwillingness to impose any kind of punishment on Saudi Arabia, and as Statista's Martin Armstrong notes, this could be why - the U.S. is the world's biggest exporter of arms and according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the biggest importer from the country in 2017 was Saudi Arabia.  As Trump himself warned, there are plenty more "sellers" of deadly weapons in the world. 

However, there is a third - potentially most existentially challenging option that the Saudis could unleash would be 'dumping its Treasury Holdings'.

Since the start of 2014, with only one small blip in 2014/15 as oil prices collapsed, the Saudis have been generous buyers of US Treasurys - recycling their petrodollars in this virtuous relationship...

So - could the Saudis unwind their Treasury book? Or even stop recycling those petrodollars anytime soon? The answer is yes, especially given the impacts that tyrannical hegemonic actions of Washington in recent years have had on the rest of the world, increasingly pushing them all away from the dollar-centric world payments systems.

Is this really a good time for President Trump to throw America's lot in with the same dolts who reversed America from a strong, wealthy nation into a debtor nation dependent upon arms sales to keep it out of bankruptcy?  America’s allies have become our worst enemies.  Yet the Deep State would have Americans believe that Russia is one of our worst enemies.  What has Russia done to America?  From Veterans Today:

Excerpt:

What is Behind “Russiagate”?

We will know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.  - Former CIA Director William Casey 1981

Two extremely important facts about the United States of America must always be borne in mind.  Firstly, the US military industrial complex (MIC) eats about one trillion dollars from the US kitty every year.

THE MILITARY INDUSTRY IS PRIVATELY OWNED. It has been established that over the past two decades or so, a total of $21 trillion have gone missing from the US government accounts.  This unbelievable discovery was made by Dr. Mark Skidmore, Associate Professor, Michigan State University, and Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary for Housing and Urban Development [1]. It has been pointed out by Professor Joan Roelofs that the MIC now dominates every important facet of US life. Based on her research, she concludes that the military-industrial complex has now become the military-industrial-congressional-almost-everything complex [2].

The second related fact is a consequence of the enormous money at the disposal of the MIC. The MIC “owns” the Congress, the media, and now increasingly, the universities… Former Assistant Secretary of Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts states [4]: 

“And don’t forget Udo Ulfkotte, an editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who wrote in his best seller, Bought Journalism, that there was not a significant journalist in Europe who was not on the CIA’s payroll. The English language edition of Ulfkotte’s book has been suppressed and prevented from publication…”

Paul Craig Roberts has also stated that that when he received his briefing as a staff associate of the House Defence Appropriations Subcommittee, he was informed by a “senior member of the committee that the Washington Post was a CIA asset.” To become a staff associate of the said committee top security clearance was required [5].

So what is “Russia-hack” about? Why has Trump been targeted by the mainstream media?  The persistence, vehemence and intensity of the media onslaught on Trump emanates from the MIC control of media. Trump’s attempts to reduce tensions with Russia are at the root of the “Russia-hack” fiction. 

Reduction of tensions with Russia will lead to a drastic reduction in the one-trillion-dollar heist being enjoyed by the privately owned MIC.  The claim that Russians hacked into Democratic National Committee (DNC) computers to help Trump in defeating Hillary Clinton has no basis. As Stephen Lendman wrote (emphasis in original) [6]:

“Propaganda works, proved effective time and again – why it’s a key tool in America’s deep state playbook. Virtually anything repeated enough, especially through the major media megaphone, gets most people to believe it – no matter how preposterous the claim. Not a shred of evidence suggests Russia meddled in America’s political process – nothing.”

On July 24, 2017, intel vets belonging to VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity) challenged the “Russia Hack” evidence. In a memorandum to the President, sixteen veteran intelligence officers wrote that forensic studies had clearly established that DNC computers were NOT hacked. The studies indicated that (emphasis in original) “on July 5, 2016 data was leaked (not hacked) by a person with physical access to DNC computers, then doctored to incriminate Russia…”

Why did the media ignore these independent studies? Simply because those who run the World Order must mould the American mind in the direction of waging war against Russia, if Russia does not submit to US hegemony…

The authors of the memorandum point out that the January 6 “Intelligence Community Assessment” by “hand-picked” analysts from the FBI, CIA, and NSA seems to fit into the same agenda-driven category. It is largely based on an “assessment,” not supported by any apparent evidence . . .”

What is the agenda? It is simple: the public must believe that Russia is the enemy of US “Democracy”, and Trump must not be allowed to improve relations with Russia. If he does make an attempt, he must be portrayed as being indebted to Putin for favouring him by hacking into DNC computers! Trump should thereby be accused of betraying US interests, even treason!..  As Paul Craig Roberts wrote on August 23, 2018 [10]:

“After two years the only evidence we have of Russiagate is that it is a conspiracy against President Trump and the American people. Indeed, Mueller, fully aware that there was no Trump-Putin conspiracy, has not bothered to look for any evidence as there can be no evidence of something that did not happen…  Mueller’s investigation of Manafort has nothing to do with the Russiagate story line…

What was Manafort found guilty of? Manafort was not found guilty of Russiagate.  He was charged with tax-evasion by “misrepresenting his financial position on a loan application…”

This matter, as noted by Roberts, lies in the jurisdiction of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), not the special prosecutor of the “Russia hack” case. And to break Manafort psychologically, so that he may say something false which could incriminate Trump, he was kept in solitary confinement. This is 21st century America!

Kevin Barrett has pointed that if Manafort can be apprehended because he was an “unregistered agent” of a foreign country (Ukraine) then the same must apply for the Israel lobby. American law requires that if one is lobbying with government officials for a foreign government in the US then one must register formally with the Justice Department…

Barrett quotes the well-known writer James Petras, who estimates that around 500,000 foot soldiers of the Israel lobby operate in the US. Barrett writes [12]:

“Why should Philip Zelikow, sole author of 9/11 Commission Report and presumed author of the script for 9/11 itself, be allowed to ‘create and maintain public myths’ on behalf of Israel without registering as a foreign agent?

Why should Rabbi Don Zakheim be allowed to serve as comptroller of the Pentagon and ‘lose 2.3 trillion dollars the night before 9/11 on behalf of the state of Israel, without registering as a foreign agent?

Why should IDF veteran and presumed Mossad honcho Rahm Emmanuel be allowed to run Obama’s presidency from his perch as the White House Chief of Staff, torpedoing Obama’s plan to end wars, close Guantanamo, and prosecute torturers, without registering as a foreign agent?”

The list is endless. Larry Silverstein who walked away with 5 billion dollars after blowing up his own buildings and confessing to the deed with registering as an Israeli agent.

Judge Alvin Hallerstein has not registered as a Zionist agent but has been given control of all 9/11 documents so that he may suppress or quash any discovery implicating Israel.

Jerome Hauer apparently managed the anthrax attacks and helped orchestrate 9/11 attacks without registering as an Israeli lobbyist. And above all, as Kevin Barrett puts it [13]…

This is the same MSM that is targeting the exceptionally pro-Israel Trump, because the MIC, whose owners own not just the military-industry, but also Israel, do not want any peace and normalisation of ties with Russia. Israel will not come to Trump’s rescue, but shall, instead, look for directions from her masters, the oldest and richest international bankers…

And yet, Russia we are told by the Deep State is our enemy and Israel is our friend.  But is Russia an enemy of the American people and is Israel a friend of the American people?  And what about the British Empire?  From LaRouche pub:

Excerpt:

As Election Day Approaches, the British Have Overplayed their Hand

In the final countdown to the 2018 midterm elections, an important question on the minds of potential voters is exactly what really happened in 2016. Yes, a foreign power intervened massively to fix the election result beforehand. At the same time, that power created a backup plan to ensure that if Donald Trump were elected despite its efforts, it would be able to paralyze and destroy his incoming Administration and remove him from office.

This foreign power was not Putin’s Russia, but the British Empire. As EIR has documented in depth for the past two years, the phony evidentiary basis for the charges of Russian intervention and of Trump’s “collusion” with Russia, originally consisted of nothing but false evidence planted on Trump associates by British agents on British soil.

The tactical leader of the British plot was Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) who also led the fabrication of the “dirty dossier” on purported Iraqi weapons of mass destruction for the catastrophic Iraq War of 2003 to date. Christopher Steele fabricated his own “dossier” under the same Dearlove…

On Oct. 15, the nationally prominent lawyer Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., gave an explosive interview to WMAL radio there.  The following is a paraphrase of some of his remarks.

DiGenova: This is why the British are scared. . . . British MI6 conducted illegal electronic surveillance on U.S. citizens at the request of the FBI and [CIA’s] Brennan. That’s how they found out [George] Papadopoulos was not interested in Hillary’s emails or anything else. Illegal spying by the Brits. That’s why the Brits are going crazy.

That’s a remarkable issue. We talk about domestic surveillance all the time. But when you stretch out to work with foreign governments—read “collude”—to spy on an American citizen, that really opens up an entirely different can of worms.

It opens up a huge criminal liability on the part of American intelligence officials, especially Brennan. Brennan actually visited London, before all this started, and visited MI6 and GCHQ before it started. . . .

WMAL: The President has chosen not to declassify certain documents. . . .

DiGenova: Trump won’t declassify certain documents because two foreign governments asked him not to.

This is a different President. He is now in full control of his Presidency. He is playing everyone in his orbit. He knows exactly what needs to be made public, and is holding it close to his vest. He is playing it like a masterful Stradivarius—for when it will have maximum impact; to use it at the maximum moment. Trump is in full control of his Presidency. You saw it last night with Lesley Stahl, when he said, “I’m President, and you’re not.” Throwing it in her face. . . .

Obama’s illegal spying will have two political consquences. Trump understands the coup against him. . . . He is not trying to measure the election; he understands that the coup was so massive; why Susan Rice did her famous email to herself on inauguration day. Why you see stories of her [saying], of course the White House knew about the Russiagate thing. They were involved in it, so that if Trump refused to accept election results, they’d have a way to undercut his legitimacy.

WMAL: Will we see this information ahead of election day?

DiGenova: I don’t know. Trump is in full control. He knows Mueller’s investigation is over because it was illegal. Because of British spying, which our FBI asked them to do. So much worse than Watergate! If Republicans lose the House, these investigations are over, because [Senate Intelligence Chair] Burr is a chicken—the only way it will come out is through a criminal investigation by DOJ, and that won’t happen unless Sessions and Rosenstein are gone after the election.

If we lose the House, all of the investigations come to an end. Every one of them. Because the people in the Senate have no “cojones.”

WMAL: I hope Trump declassifies the FISA warrants. What’s in them?

DiGenova: They will show Halper used a CIA agent to entrap Papadopoulos and [Carter] Page, and funnel back to the U.S., to the FBI, to get the FISA warrant. [To get British intelligence agencies] MI6 and GCHQ to do illegal overseas surveillance of the these people—totally illegal! The application [for a FISA warrant] presents [Page] as in cahoots. They knew it was all fabricated.

What ramifications can the American people expect from our leaders blind loyalty to the Saudi Royal family?  What ramifications can the American people expect from our leaders blind loyalty to the British Empire, to the Israeli lobby?  Who are America’s allies and who are America’s friends?  Are the Deep State’s “friends” the American people’s friends?  Are the Deep State’s “foes” the American people’s foes?  Who is who?  For the American people it’s hard to tell. 

Kavanaugh hearings expose Deep State’s corrupt 2-Party System

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” ~ John Adams

The confirmation hearings to seat Brett Kavanaugh on the highest court in America have awakened a sleeping giant.  The hearings to seat the highly partisan, ultra-right wing Federalist Society’s choice for a life-long position on the high court sent the two corrupt parties scurrying to their partisan sides bracing for a brutal fight on behalf of the billionaire, campaign contributors they serve.

The credible charges of sexual assault during the 1980’s brought against Kavanaugh by a high school acquaintance have ripped a scab off the wounds of sexual assault victims, both male and female who have buried their horrific memories for decades.  Unfortunately for years and especially during the 1980’s, the victims of sexual assault were shamed into silence.  The Kavanaugh hearings have unearthed those latent wounds and shown the bright klieg lights on America’s hidden shame of marginalizing sexual assault thus ripping the nation apart. 

During the testimony by Ford and Kavanaugh, the two-parties’ politically charged reactions to the allegations and their often times flippant and hostile treatment of the witnesses served only to further enrage people on all sides of the spectrum.  Partisan talk radio and cable bobble heads spewed intentionally inaccurate talking points contrived in various stink tanks for utmost emotional outrage to sway the public to their respective sides causing even deeper division in the nation.

We no longer have a functioning government and all positions that are filled through the confirmation process are filled by equally corrupt, partisan hacks.   The two-party system is unresponsive to the American people and serves only the globalists who installed them in power.  Following the Supreme Court’s partisan decisions in Citizens United and in repealing Civil Rights Era laws enacted to protect the rights of minorities, money has flooded into the electoral process drowning out the voices of the people. 

The two-parties cower in fear of the very intelligence agencies they are constitutionally required to monitor and rein in.  The behemoth Homeland Security Agency that they created is an extraconstitutional monster that has irreparably destroyed the American form of self-government.  I fear it may be too late and too far gone for America to survive, but then again that was the plan all along. 

The Kavanaugh hearings have revealed the ugly reality that the two parties are not interested in vetting nominees sent to them, not by the President but by various stink tanks with a preordained agenda to further destroy the American system of government.  The parties dutifully take their sides, sparring for the cameras and then in the end confirm the highly compromised individual before them on behalf of their financial benefactors. 

It is all a grotesque show, a display that is designed to tell the American people “f” you, we don’t serve you, we don’t care about you, we will do whatever we are told to do by our overlords in spite of you.  Is it any wonder that people in America and the world are clamoring for a populist agenda, something the two parties abhor? 

The people overwhelmingly support social programs, clean air and clean water, safe food and products, safe infrastructure, regulated banks, good paying jobs, decent educational opportunity and healthcare for all.  These are all things that the majority on the high court seeks to destroy.  In the end it doesn’t matter, the politicians serve only their corporate and financial overlords.  There is no difference between the parties.  From Caitlin Johnstone at Consortium News:

Excerpt:

Extremists Unite to Diss Populism as Threat to Democracy

If there’s one thing that brings a tear to my eye, it’s the inspiration I feel when watching Republican-aligned neoconservatives and Democrat-aligned neoconservatives find a way to bridge their almost nonexistent differences and come together to discuss the many, many, many, many, many, many many many things they have in common.

In a conference at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, “Resistance” leader and professional left-puncher Neera Tanden met with Iraq-raping neocon Bill Kristol to discuss bipartisanship and shared values. While leprechauns held hands and danced beneath candy rainbows and gumdrop Reaper drones, the duo engaged in a friendly, playful conversation with the event’s host in a debate format which was not unlike watching the Pillsbury Doughboy have a pillow fight with himself in a padded room after drinking a bottle of NyQuil.

To get the event started, the host whose name I refuse to learn asked the pair to discuss briefly what common ground such wildly different people could possibly share to make such a strange taboo-shattering dialogue possible.

“Issues around national security and believing in democratic principles as they relate to foreign policy,” replied Tanden. “And opposing authoritarianism, and opposing the kind of creeping populism that undermines democracy itself...”

Kristol co-signed Tanden’s anti-populist rhetoric and her open endorsement of neoconservative foreign policy, and went on to say that another thing he and Tanden have in common is that they’ve both served in government. That makes you realize that nothing’s black and white and everything’s kinda nebulous and amorphous so it doesn’t really matter if you, say for example, help deceive your country into a horrific blunder that ends up killing a whole lot of people for no good reason…

“I do think if you’ve served in government… that you do have somewhat more of a sense of the complexity of things, and many of its decisions are not black and white, that in public policy there are plusses and minuses to most policies,” Kristol said. “There are authentic disagreements both about values, but also just about how certain things are gonna work or not work… and that is what adds a kind of humility to one’s belief that one is kind of always right about everything.”

I found this very funny coming from the man who is notoriously always wrong about everything, and I’d like to point out that “complexity” is a key talking point that the neoconservatives who’ve been consistently proven completely wrong about everything are fond of repeating.

Everything’s complicated and nothing’s really known and it’s all a big blurry mess so maybe butchering a million Iraqis and destabilizing the Middle East was a good thing. Check out this short clip of John Bolton being confronted by Tucker Carlson about what a spectacular error the Iraq invasion was for a great example of this:

I listened to the whole conference, but it was basically one long smear of amicable politeness which was the verbal equivalent of the color beige, so I had difficulty tuning in. Both Tanden and Kristol hate the far left (or as those of us outside the U.S. pronounce it, “the center”), both Tanden and Kristol hate Trump, and hey maybe Americans have a lot more in common than they think and everyone can come together and together together togetherness blah blah.

At one point Kristol said something about disagreeing with internet censorship, which was weird because his Weekly Standard actively participates in Facebook censorship as one of its authorized “fact checkers”.  

The buzzword “bipartisan” gets used a lot in U.S. politics because it gives the illusion that whatever agenda it’s being applied to must have some deep universal truth to it for such wildly divergent ideologies to set aside their differences in order to advance it. But what it usually means is Democrat neocons and Republican neocons working together to inflict new horrors upon the world.

America’s two mainstream political parties agree furiously with one another on war, neoliberalism, Orwellian surveillance, and every other agenda which increases the power and profit of the plutocratic class which owns them both. The plutocrat-owned mass media plays up the differences between Democrats and Republicans to hysterical proportions, when in reality the debate over which one is worse is like arguing over whether a serial killer’s arms or legs are more evil.

Neera Tanden and Bill Kristol are the same fucking person. They’re both toxic limbs on the same toxic beast, feeding the lives of ordinary people at home and abroad into its gaping mouth in service of the powerful. And populism, which is nothing other than support for the protection of common folk from the powerful, is the only antidote to such toxins. Saying populism undermines democracy is like saying democracy undermines democracy.

Amen, I now know why Caitlin Johnstone is fast becoming my favorite writers.  The Kavanaugh hearings are just a side show to lull the American people into believing there is a vetting process for justices who serve on the highest court for the rest of their lives.  There’s not.  The justices are selected for their past service to the Deep State and unwavering fealty.  Laughingly we are told these partisans are “contextualists” they are “conservatives” or even “Constitutionalists” when they are anything but.

“Blind party loyalty will be our downfall. We must follow the truth wherever it leads.”

~ DaShanne Stokes

Anyone from either party who questions the character or judicial temperance of the candidate is shot down and minimalized for even questioning the motives of the stink tank selected lackey as Republican Justin Amash found out.  From The Hill:

Excerpt:

GOP Rep. Amash slams Kavanaugh on government surveillance rulings

  

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) on Monday called President Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh a “disappointing pick,” ripping the judge’s past rulings on surveillance issues.  The congressman cited a 2015 opinion written by Kavanaugh while serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, that found “the Government’s metadata collection program is entirely consistent with the Fourth Amendment.”

Amash disagreed with that ruling, saying it creates “a rubber stamp for the executive branch.”  “Future decisions on the constitutionality of government surveillance of Americans will be huge. We can’t afford a rubber stamp for the executive branch,” Amash tweeted.  He also included a quote from Kavanaugh’s opinion in the case, stating “that critical national security need outweighs the impact on privacy occasioned by this program.”

Kavanaugh had written the concurring opinion in 2015, rejecting a request to rehear a case on whether the National Security Agency’s program on warrantless phone metadata collection was legal.  Trump on Monday tapped Kavanaugh to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.  Conservatives have largely applauded the appointment, while some prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), have vowed to oppose the pick.

Amash is not the only GOP lawmaker to have been critical of Kavanaugh's past rulings.  Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) has also been a critic of some of Kavanaugh's past rulings on surveillance.   After the announcement of Kavanaugh as the nominee Monday, Paul said he would review the pick with “an open mind.”

When Senator Rand Paul says he will view the nominee with “an open mind” he means he will toe the line.  What kind of “open mind” must you have to consider voting to put someone who defies the Constitution of the United States on the Supreme Court for the rest of his life?  Judge Napolitano succinctly described Kavanaugh’s anti-Constitution rulings on the court he serves.

There are many, many reasons to reject Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, and many, many questions that should be asked by the two parties, but won’t be asked, not by Republicans and not by Democrats.  Why won’t they at least ask?  From Mother Jones:

Excerpt:

The Many Mysteries of Brett Kavanaugh’s Finances

Who made the down payment on his house? How did he come up with $92,000 in country club fees?

Before President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, he had a lot of debt. In May 2017, he reported owing between $60,004 and $200,000 on three credit cards and a loan against his retirement account. By the time Trump nominated him to the high court in July 2018, those debts had vanished.

Overall, his reported income and assets didn’t seem sufficient to pay off all that debt while maintaining his upper-class lifestyle: an expensive house in an exclusive suburban neighborhood, two kids in a $10,500-a-year private school, and a membership in a posh country club reported to charge $92,000 in initiation fees. His financial disclosure forms have raised more questions than they’ve answered, leading to speculation about whether he’s had a private benefactor and what sorts of conflicts that relationship might entail.

No other recent Supreme Court nominee has come before the Senate with so many unanswered questions regarding finances. That’s partly because many of Kavanaugh’s predecessors were a lot richer than he is. Chief Justice John Roberts, for instance, had been making $1 million a year in private practice before joining the DC Circuit as a judge.

The poorer nominees had debts, but explainable ones, such as the $15,000 Sonia Sotomayor owed to her dentist. Neil Gorsuch came the closest to financial scandal when he disclosed that he owned a mountain fishing lodge in Colorado with two men who are top deputies to the billionaire Philip F. Anschutz, who had championed Gorsuch’s nomination.

Kavanaugh’s finances are far more mysterious. During his confirmation hearing last week, he escaped a public discussion of his spending habits because no senator asked about it. But on Tuesday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent Kavanaugh 14 pages of post-hearing follow-up questions, many of which involved his finances. On Thursday, Kavanaugh supplied answers, but he dodged some of the questions and left much of his financial situation unexplained.

A number of the questions Whitehouse sent Kavanaugh dealt with the house he bought in tony Chevy Chase, Maryland, in 2006 for $1.225 million. Kavanaugh would have needed $245,000 in cash for the traditional 20 percent down payment on the house. But in 2005, when his nomination to the DC Circuit was pending, Kavanaugh reported a total net worth to the Senate of about $91,000, which reflected a mere $10,000 in the bank and $25,000 in credit card debt. According to his financial disclosure forms before and after the purchase of his house in 2006, Kavanaugh’s liquid assets and bank balances never totaled more than $65,000, and those balances didn’t decline after the purchase of the house…

Other questions from Whitehouse addressed Kavanaugh’s unusual debt history. Not long after Trump nominated him, the Washington Post reported that since joining the DC Circuit Court of Appeals as a judge in 2006, Kavanaugh had run up a significant amount of debt that often appeared to exceed the value of his cash and investment assets. His debts on three credit cards, as well as a loan against his retirement account, totaled between $60,000 and $200,000 in 2016, according to his financial disclosure forms. The next year, his debts vanished…

The White House didn’t fully address how Kavanaugh managed to incur all that debt and pay it off in a matter of months on his federal judge’s salary of $220,600 a year. (His wife left the workforce in 2010 and returned in 2015, when she took a part-time, $66,000-a-year job as the town manager in their village of 225 homes.)…

(Kavanaugh worked in private practice for only about three years, in between stints at the office of the independent counsel during the Clinton administration.)…  (Kavanaugh had a privileged, private-school upbringing as the son of a Washington lobbyist for the cosmetics industry and a state prosecutor.)…

The White House has worked hard to frame Kavanaugh as a mainstream fellow who, just like ordinary American dads, loves sports and drives the carpool. Publicly disclosing the extent to which his parents or in-laws may be subsidizing his high-end lifestyle could probably undermine that portrayal.

Hmm, “no other recent Supreme Court nominee has come before the Senate with so many unanswered questions regarding finances.”  The only justice that came close was the Federalist Society’s nominee “Neil Gorsuch” who was championed by billionaire “Philip F. Anschutz” whose two deputies own a mountain fishing lodge along with Gorsuch in Colorado.  That seems really “fishy” to me.  Who is this billionaire Anschutz who championed Gorsuch?  Well according to an article in Salon:

“Anschutz, whose business empire ranges from real estate and telecommunications to railroads and oil and gas, is first known to have been connected to Gorsuch in the early 2000s, when Gorsuch represented both Anschutz and his companies as an outside counsel from the firm Kellogg Huber, according to The New York Times. Given Anschutz's ownership of conservative publications like The Weekly Standard and The Washington Examiner, it is quite likely that he shares a sense of ideological kinship with Gorsuch, who has long been on the conservative end of the political spectrum.”

Interesting that Anschultz owns the conservative rag “The Weekly Standard” home to the “Iraq-raping neocon” Bill Kristol.  Anschultz’ Weekly Standard has been hired by Facebook to censor its content.  That is what our Supreme Court has become, it’s truly disgraceful: 

With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power... They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection. ~ Henry A. Wallace

So how well does the Supreme Court work when it’s packed with justices whose life-long seats on the high court were bought by billionaires with cases slotted to come before it?  Is the court truly nonpartisan calling balls and strikes fairly?  From Chuck Baldwin at Lew Rockwell:

Excerpt:

He Blew It!

Donald Trump was elected President on the promise that he would drain the swamp and dismantle the Deep State. And many conservatives and Christians thoroughly believe that Trump is actually doing what he promised. But is he? I think not.

Donald Trump had one chance to prove that he was serious about draining the swamp and dismantling the Deep State. ONE CHANCE. That one chance was his first two years in office. AND HE BLEW IT.

Trump appointed more Deep State CFR members and Bilderbergers (including Neil Gorsuch, James Mattis, John Bolton, et al.) to his administration than Barack Obama. And don’t be taken in by all of the political bickering surrounding Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The conservatives’ defense of Kavanaugh is as irrelevant as the liberals’ accusations against Kavanaugh…  In addition (and more relevant to the 9/11 discussion), Trump brought Deep State warlock, Rudy Giuliani, to the White House. As Mayor of New York City, Giuliani, more than any other single individual, provided cover for the real attackers of 9/11 by overseeing the massive effort of destroying the evidence from that horrific crime scene.

Rudy Giuliani is the quintessential Deep State operative. The criminals who masterminded and carried out the 9/11 attacks could not have succeeded without the help of Rudy Giuliani. He was a major player in 9/11. Yet, Trump brings this conscienceless Deep State puppet into the White House and gives him one of the most trusted positions in his government.

Had Trump been serious about draining the swamp and dismantling the Deep State, he would have begun immediately after being inaugurated exposing the major Deep State players from both parties (including the Clintons, Bushes, Dick Cheney, Giuliani, Michael Chertoff, etc.) and from the alphabet agencies that have millions of skeletons (literally) in their bloody closets. But instead of exposing them, Trump continued to cover for them or even HIRE them.

But instead of hiring Deep State toadies like Giuliani, Trump should have created an independent commission to thoroughly investigate 9/11. If he had been serious about dismantling the Deep State, that is exactly what he would have done. But he didn’t; and he won’t. He won’t because Trump is determined to keep the crimes of the Deep State covered up…

From this point on, it doesn’t matter to a tinker’s dam what Trump does or doesn’t do, as he has proven that he either didn’t mean a word he said while campaigning or didn’t have the man stuff to actually follow through with what he promised. From now on, Trump will be simply dancing the famous Potomac Two-Step all over Washington, D.C…

Folks, let this sink in: the Deep State has nothing to do with partisan politics. It has nothing to do with the entire left-right political wrangling, name calling, posturing, etc., that consumes the mainstream media. All of that is nothing but public theater to distract the American people from what is really going on—OR NOT going on.

Donald Trump had one chance to prove he was serious about draining the swamp and dismantling the Deep State: his first two years in office. And the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks serves as just another reminder that HE BLEW IT!..

We have been bamboozled, folks. Everything we’ve been told about 9/11 and the “War on Terror” is a big fat LIE…  

If enough of the American people could come to grips with the truth about 9/11 and the “War on Terror,” it would change the course of history, save thousands and even millions of lives and, yes, save our republic. As it is, the deception of 9/11 and the “War on Terror” envelops both political parties in Washington, D.C., including Donald Trump—and even America’s pastors and churches.

Sad, but true.  There are VERY FEW in our government that give a rip about the American people.  Most are there to perpetuate the myth of 911 and to protect the perpetrators embedded in our government as well as other governments.  There is one bright light in the congress and that is Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.  Whitehouse knows that Kavanaugh hearing is a sham.  Excerpts from Whitehouse’s openingstatement before the Kavanaugh hearing.

Excerpt:

Whitehouse Reveals Kavanaugh’s Pro-Corporate, Right-Wing Record in SCOTUS Hearing Opener

Washington, DC — At today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) pinpointed Kavanaugh’s troubling bias in favor of right-wing and corporate interests throughout his career in Republican politics and on the federal bench, and compared Kavanaugh’s partiality to the same bias that has taken root in Chief Justice John Roberts’s Supreme Court…

A review of the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence during the Roberts Era reveals that in the most controversial and salient civil cases — those decided by bare 5–4 or 5–3 majorities — when the right wing of the Court has voted en bloc to form the majority, they do so to advance far-right and corporate interests a striking 92 percent of the time.

In those cases, the “Roberts Five” — Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Justice Antonin Scalia (replaced last year by Justice Neil Gorsuch) — have reliably voted in lockstep to help Republicans win elections, to protect corporations from liability, to abridge civil rights, and to advance the far right social agenda.

A review of Brett Kavanaugh’s jurisprudence on the D.C. Circuit reveals that in the most controversial and salient civil cases — those decided by bare 2–1 majorities — when Kavanaugh is in the majority with another Republican-appointed judge, he votes to advance far-right and corporate interests a striking 91 percent of the time…

Further, in these cases, the Roberts Five has endorsed the positions advanced by the high-profile conservative groups the Chamber of Commerce, the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, and the Washington Legal Foundation 100 percent of the time. In its 5–4 decisions, the Roberts Five have opened up the doors for dark money to flood the political system, rolled back important voting rights and environmental protections, and made it easier for employers to discriminate against their employees…

An examination of District of Columbia Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s written opinions reveals that he sided with conservative amici curiae (“friends of the court”) 91 percent of the time. In these cases, Kavanaugh wrote opinions limiting collective bargaining rights, letting polluters pollute, blurring the line between the separation of church and state, protecting corporations from liability, and expanding the scope of the Second Amendment…

When the Roberts Five saddles up, THESE SO-CALLED CONSERVATIVES ARE ANYTHING BUT JUDICIALLY CONSERVATIVE.  They readily overturn precedent, toss out statutes passed by wide bipartisan margins, and decide on broad constitutional issues they need not reach. Modesty, originalism, stare decisis, all these supposedly conservative judicial principles, all have the hoof prints of the Roberts Five all across their backs, wherever those principles got in the way of wins for the Big Republican interests.

The litany of Roberts Five decisions explains why big Republican interests want Kavanaugh on the Court so badly that Republicans trampled so much Senate precedent to shove him through; so let’s review the litany…

Here’s how the rigged game works: big business and partisan groups fund the Federalist Society, which picked Gorsuch and now Kavanaugh...  big business and partisan groups fund the Judicial Crisis Network, which runs dark-money political campaigns to influence Senators in confirmation votes, as they’ve done for Gorsuch and now Kavanaugh. Who pays millions of dollars for that, and what their expectations are, is a deep dark secret…

The sad fact is that there is no consequence for telling the Committee fairy tales about stare decisis, and then riding off with the Roberts Five, trampling across whatever precedent gets in the way of letting those Big Republican interests keep winning 5–4 partisan decisions.

Every. Damned. Time.

Well not to worry America, we have an opposition party of fighters.  The Democrats are going to join together as a bloc and stop the confirmation of another right-wing, partisan hack with an anti-Constitution agenda.  The people have a Constitutional warrior in the Democratic Party, there will be no backing down.  From SplinterNews:

Excerpt:

DNC Chair Gives the Thumbs-Up to Any Democrats Who Might Vote for Kavanaugh

There is absolutely no reason—political, moral, strategic, you name it—for any Democrat to vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. There are plenty of good reasons for Democrats to vote against Kavanaugh, starting with the very basic one that a far-right partisan who has been credibly accused of multiple incidents of sexual assault should not be let anywhere near the Supreme Court.

It’s also pretty stupid, when your party is trying to harness the energy of a hyper-mobilized base fueled by women and people of color, to have members of your party stick their necks out for a man who has become the ultimate symbol of elite, white, patriarchal anger and entitlement.

But don’t tell that to Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez! In an onstage interview with Wall Street Journal reporter Reid Epstein at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Friday, Perez was asked whether he thought it was acceptable for a Democrat to vote for Kavanaugh. After some hemming and hawing, he finally gave his answer: sure!..

Again! Let me stress! At this point, voting against Brett Kavanaugh should be the most basic thing possible for anyone calling themselves a Democrat! This was true before his Senate hearing, but voting to confirm him after that hellish frenzy of male disgust at the mere idea of female power should get you run out of town instantly! When you say that it’s fine for Democrats to back him, you are saying that the rage and anguish and fear that people—especially women—feel about his potential confirmation is meaningless to you! This is not complicated!!!

As long as Democrats like Tom Perez keep selling out their voters like this, they will keep sending the message that there is no reason to trust them with anything.

The confirmation hearings to seat Brett Kavanaugh on the highest court in America for the rest of his life have awakened a sleeping giant.  While the American people clamor for a populist agenda, the corrupt two-parties continue to pursue unending war as they allow America to disintegrate and fall into disrepair and neglect.   We no longer have a functioning government and all positions that are filled through the confirmation process are filled by equally corrupt, politically partisan hacks.  

The two-party system is corrupt and unresponsive to the American people and serve only the globalists who installed them in our government.  The government that rules us is not elected by the people, it is elected by money.  The awakened Sleeping Giant can’t find its way out of the darkness that has enveloped the world while he slept. 

Unless in the unlikely event Donald Trump withdraws Kavanaugh’s nomination he will be confirmed.  The Supreme Court is already tainted and horribly corrupted just like the rest of our government.  For America there are no do-overs, no atonement for the sins of the two-party system, just the continued death knoll for “of, by and for the people government.”  I fear it is too late for the American people, but I must believe that our Democracy can withstand this fascist takeover.  God, I hope so.