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Forum Post: Democrats, Trump, and the Ongoing, Dangerous Refusal to Learn the Lesson of Brexit By Glenn Greenwald

Posted 7 years ago on Nov. 13, 2016, 9:52 a.m. EST by flip (7101)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Beyond the Brexit analysis, there are three new points from last night’s results that I want to emphasize, as they are unique to the 2016 U.S. election and, more importantly, illustrate the elite pathologies that led to all of this:

  1. Democrats have already begun flailing around trying to blame anyone and everyone they can find — everyone except themselves — for last night’s crushing defeat of their party. You know the drearily predictable list of their scapegoats: Russia, WikiLeaks, James Comey, Jill Stein, Bernie Bros, The Media, news outlets (including, perhaps especially, The Intercept) that sinned by reporting negatively on Hillary Clinton. Anyone who thinks that what happened last night in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Michigan can be blamed on any of that is drowning in self-protective ignorance so deep that it’s impossible to express in words.

When a political party is demolished, the principal responsibility belongs to one entity: the party that got crushed. It’s the job of the party and the candidate, and nobody else, to persuade the citizenry to support them and find ways to do that. Last night, the Democrats failed, resoundingly, to do that, and any autopsy or liberal think piece or pro-Clinton pundit commentary that does not start and finish with their own behavior is one that is inherently worthless.

Put simply, Democrats knowingly chose to nominate a deeply unpopular, extremely vulnerable, scandal-plagued candidate, who — for very good reason — was widely perceived to be a protector and beneficiary of all the worst components of status quo elite corruption. It’s astonishing that those of us who tried frantically to warn Democrats that nominating Hillary Clinton was a huge and scary gamble — that all empirical evidence showed that she could lose to anyone and Bernie Sanders would be a much stronger candidate, especially in this climate — are now the ones being blamed: by the very same people who insisted on ignoring all that data and nominating her anyway.

But that’s just basic blame shifting and self-preservation. Far more significant is what this shows about the mentality of the Democratic Party. Just think about who they nominated: someone who — when she wasn’t dining with Saudi monarchs and being feted in Davos by tyrants who gave million-dollar checks — spent the last several years piggishly running around to Wall Street banks and major corporations cashing in with $250,000 fees for 45-minute secret speeches even though she had already become unimaginably rich with book advances while her husband already made tens of millions playing these same games. She did all that without the slightest apparent concern for how that would feed into all the perceptions and resentments of her and the Democratic Party as corrupt, status quo-protecting, aristocratic tools of the rich and powerful: exactly the worst possible behavior for this post-2008-economic-crisis era of globalism and destroyed industries.

It goes without saying that Trump is a sociopathic con artist obsessed with personal enrichment: the opposite of a genuine warrior for the downtrodden. That’s too obvious to debate. But, just as Obama did so powerfully in 2008, he could credibly run as an enemy of the D.C. and Wall Street system that has steamrolled over so many people, while Hillary Clinton is its loyal guardian, its consummate beneficiary.

Trump vowed to destroy the system that elites love (for good reason) and the masses hate (for equally good reason), while Clinton vowed to manage it more efficiently. That, as Matt Stoller’s indispensable article in The Atlantic three weeks ago documented, is the conniving choice the Democratic Party made decades ago: to abandon populism and become the party of technocratically proficient, mildly benevolent managers of elite power. Those are the cynical, self-interested seeds they planted, and now the crop has sprouted.

Of course there are fundamental differences between Obama’s version of “change” and Trump’s. But at a high level of generality — which is where these messages are often ingested — both were perceived as outside forces on a mission to tear down corrupt elite structures, while Clinton was perceived as devoted to their fortification. That is the choice made by Democrats — largely happy with status quo authorities, believing in their basic goodness — and any honest attempt by Democrats to find the prime author of last night’s debacle will begin with a large mirror.

  1. That racism, misogyny, and xenophobia are pervasive in all sectors of America is indisputable from even a casual glance at its history, both distant and recent.

There are reasons why all presidents until 2008 were white and all 45 elected presidents have been men. There can be no doubt that those pathologies played a substantial role in last night’s outcome. But that fact answers very few questions and begs many critical ones.

To begin with, one must confront the fact that not only was Barack Obama elected twice, but he is poised to leave office as a highly popular president: now viewed more positively than Reagan. America wasn’t any less racist and xenophobic in 2008 and 2012 than it is now. Even stalwart Democrats fond of casually branding their opponents as bigots are acknowledging that a far more complicated analysis is required to understand last night’s results. As the New York Times’s Nate Cohn put it: “Clinton suffered her biggest losses in the places where Obama was strongest among white voters. It’s not a simple racism story.” Matt Yglesias acknowledged that Obama’s high approval rating is inconsistent with depictions of the U.S. as a country “besotted with racism.”

People often talk about “racism/sexism/xenophobia” vs. “economic suffering” as if they are totally distinct dichotomies. Of course there are substantial elements of both in Trump’s voting base, but the two categories are inextricably linked: The more economic suffering people endure, the angrier and more bitter they get, the easier it is to direct their anger to scapegoats. Economic suffering often fuels ugly bigotry. It is true that many Trump voters are relatively well-off and many of the nation’s poorest voted for Clinton, but, as Michael Moore quite presciently warned, those portions of the country that have been most ravaged by free trade orgies and globalism — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa — were filled with rage and “see [Trump] as a chance to be the human Molotov cocktail that they’d like to throw into the system to blow it up.” Those are the places that were decisive in Trump’s victory. As the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney put it: Low-income rural white voters in Pa. voted for Obama in 2008 and then Trump in 2016, and your explanation is white supremacy? Interesting.

It has long been, and still is, a central American challenge to rid society of these structural inequalities. But one way to ensure those scapegoating dynamics fester rather than erode is to continue to embrace a system that excludes and ignores a large portion of the population. Hillary Clinton was viewed, reasonably, as a stalwart devotee, beloved agent, and prime beneficiary of that system, and thus could not possibly be viewed as a credible actor against it.

  1. Over the last six decades, and particularly over the last 15 years of the endless war on terror, both political parties have joined to construct a frightening and unprecedentedly invasive and destructive system of authoritarian power, accompanied by the unbridled authority vested in the executive branch to use it.

As a result, the president of the United States commands a vast nuclear arsenal that can destroy the planet many times over; the deadliest and most expensive military ever developed in human history; legal authorities that allow him to prosecute numerous secret wars at the same time, imprison people with no due process, and target people (including U.S. citizens) for assassination with no oversight; domestic law enforcement agencies that are constructed to appear and act as standing, para-militarized armies; a sprawling penal state that allows imprisonment far more easily than most Western countries; and a system of electronic surveillance purposely designed to be ubiquitous and limitless, including on U.S. soil.

Those who have been warning of the grave dangers these powers pose have often been dismissed on the ground that the leaders who control this system are benevolent and well-intentioned. They have thus often resorted to the tactic of urging people to imagine what might happen if a president they regarded as less than benevolent one day gained control of it. That day has arrived. One hopes this will at least provide the impetus to unite across ideological and partisan lines to finally impose meaningful limits on these powers that should never have been vested in the first place. That commitment should start now.


For many years, the U.S. — like the U.K. and other Western nations — has embarked on a course that virtually guaranteed a collapse of elite authority and internal implosion. From the invasion of Iraq to the 2008 financial crisis to the all-consuming framework of prisons and endless wars, societal benefits have been directed almost exclusively to the very elite institutions most responsible for failure at the expense of everyone else. It was only a matter of time before instability, backlash, and disruption resulted. Both Brexit and Trump unmistakably signal its arrival. The only question is whether those two cataclysmic events will be the peak of this process, or just the beginning. And that, in turn, will be determined by whether their crucial lessons are learned — truly internalized — or ignored in favor of self-exonerating campaigns to blame everyone else.

46 Comments

46 Comments


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[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

''It's the missing chapter: a key to understanding the politics of the past half century. To read Nancy MacLean's new book, ''Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America'', is to see what was previously invisible.

''The history professor's work on the subject began by accident. In 2013 she stumbled across a deserted clapboard house on the campus of George Mason University in Virginia. It was stuffed with the unsorted archives of a man who had died that year whose name is probably unfamiliar to you: James McGill Buchanan. She says the first thing she picked up was a stack of confidential letters concerning millions of dollars transferred to the university by the billionaire Charles Koch.

''Her discoveries in that house of horrors reveal how Buchanan, in collaboration with business tycoons and the institutes they founded, developed a hidden program for suppressing democracy on behalf of the very rich. The program is now reshaping politics, and not just in the US.'' - from ...

fiat lux ...

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 6 years ago

all true and I am sure the book is good and interesting. the fact is that while this "new age" might be somewhat extreme it is nothing new or hidden. my boy noam has been pointing out what the "masters of mankind" have been saying and doing since fdr and before. all mostly on the front pages of the "liberal" ny times!

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

Consider .. ''New Google Algorithm Restricts Access To Left-Wing, Progressive Web Sites'':

Yes, I totally get your point about how the Oligarchy's m.o. is all out there. eg. Powell Memo but you'd be shocked at just how many people don't seem to know about any of this stuff! Be well flip. Solidarity.

qui custodiet ipsos custodes?

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 6 years ago

真金不怕火, 怕火不真金。 Mainland China MUST be brought to heel due to its tyrannical stance against the human freedom to have private access to uncensored information. In Red China, Apple is rotting under its evil influence.

I think that the orange carrot will not react much if a DPRK ICBM cleans up Chicago for him. He threatened to send in federal troops before, just to do that. Orange carrot and Oddish are like-'minded' gold-loving vegetables. Both are too fat and flabby to perform well where it counts. I even wonder whether a wife-swapping deal(or a vegetable exchange in complementary view) would help or not. Can the two big O's really get to the Big O? Do they need the inspiration of the Little Engine That Could?

On this human freedom issue, Marco Rubio, is trustworthier than the wealth-coddled swindler who chokes on sucking her own big toe. Sasquatch is sad about the brand infringement.

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

Apple ''is rotting under (China's) evil influence''?! Are you sure that it's not down to its Insatiable Corporate Avarice?!! Marco Rubio btw is a Psychopathic Christian Dominionist!!! Also consider:

multum in parvo ...

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 6 years ago

Tyrants are afraid of VPNs:

Russia is under a tyrant: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-internet-idUSKBN1AF0QI

So is Red China: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-apple-vpn-idUSKBN1AE0BQ

真金不怕火, 怕火不真金。The fake gold is quivering in fear of the freedom of thoughts of the people.

Clintoris and the Demonkrapts were blaming everything and everyone else but their own avaricious pay-for-play ways for their electoral losses.

Wikileaks did not cause their downfall if they could not refute what was revealed. Russia might have supplied the leaked information but it was up to our intelligence agencies to counter the intrusions. Our intelligence agents probably had more interest in monitoring our vibrant porn sites than Russia's intrusions -- it's human nature, duh! They had to keep their mouths shut about most breaches of corporate "secured" information because our government works for these avaricious corporations which did not want to spend the money to fix the security problems for decades. Sometimes the intelligence agencies just wanted the trapdoors be kept open believing that they were the only ones smart enough to know them. To the dismay of their Dominatrix, our intelligence agencies, due to their lacking Altoids, are Not into doing blowjobs!

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

Perhaps try a long lay down in the dark; then get up & try to read this

Mainly because I have only a small idea about wtf U are talking about!

multum in parvo ...

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 6 years ago

Censorship(a short YouTube videoclip excerpt of the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street" was censored but here is another version - we will see whether H1-B sari pulls it up, too) can kill innovations. If H1-B sari had been around in 1947 to censor the "low-quality" metals known as semiconductors, there would have been no microelectronics industry and no information revolution that almost everyone uses everywhere everyday. Without electronics, I could not even hear the Trumpian tweets and grunts from the Oval Office when he sings his broken-hearted Oval Office Hymn.

The U.S. spewed out so many breakthroughs over time because it had previously allowed so many so-called "heresies." It was the First Amendment enabling hard at work. Although many are indeed "fake news," some form the bases of new theories leading to breakthroughs. Not allowing them to be expressed tantamounts to judging the readers to be unworthy or incompetent to evaluate the information for themselves. Thought policing was a tool of all tyrants through the ages.

A better policy is to avoid deletions(except for repeated copies) but enable rebuttals.

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

''Bernie Sanders on Resisting Trump, Why the Democratic Party Is an 'Absolute Failure' and More'', by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! [Video Report]:

fiat lux ...

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 7 years ago

''The media landscape in America is dominated by “fake news.” It has been for decades. This fake news does not emanate from the Kremlin. It is a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry that is skillfully designed and managed by public relations agencies, publicists and communications departments on behalf of individuals, government and corporations to manipulate public opinion. This propaganda industry stages pseudo-events to shape our perception of reality. The public is so awash in these lies, delivered 24 hours a day through electronic devices and print, that viewers and readers can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction.

''Donald Trump and the racist-conspiracy theorists, generals and billionaires around him inherited and exploited this condition, just as they have inherited and will exploit the destruction of civil liberties and collapse of democratic institutions. Trump did not create this political, moral and intellectual vacuum. It created him. It created a world where fact is interchangeable with opinion, where celebrities have huge megaphones simply because they are celebrities, where information must be entertaining and where we can all believe what we want to believe regardless of truth. A demagogue like Trump is what you get when you turn culture and the press into burlesque.

''Journalists long ago gave up trying to describe an objective world or give a voice to ordinary men and women. They became conditioned to cater to corporate demands. News personalities, who often make millions of dollars a year, became courtiers. They peddle gossip. They promote consumerism and imperialism. They chatter endlessly about polls, strategies, presentation and tactics or play guessing games about upcoming presidential appointments. They fill news holes with trivial, emotionally driven stories that make us feel good about ourselves. They are incapable of genuine reporting. They rely on professional propagandists to frame all discussion and debate.

''There are established journalists who have spent their entire careers repackaging press releases or attending official briefings or press conferences—I knew several when I was with The New York Times. They work as stenographers to the powerful. Many such reporters are highly esteemed in the profession.

''The corporations that own media outlets, unlike the old newspaper empires, view news as simply another revenue stream. Revenue streams compete inside a corporation. When the news division does not make what is seen as enough profit, the ax comes down. Content is irrelevant. The courtiers in the press, beholden to their corporate overlords, cling ferociously to their privileged and well-compensated perches. Because they slavishly serve the interests of corporate power, they are hated by America’s workers, whom they have rendered invisible. They deserve the hate they get.

''A populace divorced from print and bombarded by discordant and random images is robbed of the vocabulary as well as the historical and cultural context to articulate reality. Illusion is truth. A whirlwind of emotionally driven cant feeds our historical amnesia.

''Trump is adept at communicating through image, sound bites and spectacle. Fake news, which already dominates print and television reporting, will define the media under his administration. Those who call out the mendacity of fake news will be vilified and banished. The corporate state created this monstrous propaganda machine and bequeathed it to Trump. He will use it.''

Excerpted from ...

fiat lux ...

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 7 years ago

''Bernie Sanders: Where the Democrats Go From Here?''

'' .. Donald J. Trump won the White House because his campaign rhetoric successfully tapped into a very real and justified anger, an anger that many traditional Democrats feel.

''I am saddened, but not surprised, by the outcome. It is no shock to me that millions of people who voted for Mr. Trump did so because they are sick and tired of the economic, political and media status quo.

''Working families watch as politicians get campaign financial support from billionaires and corporate interests — and then ignore the needs of ordinary Americans. Over the last 30 years, too many Americans were sold out by their corporate bosses. They work longer hours for lower wages as they see decent paying jobs go to China, Mexico or some other low-wage country. They are tired of having chief executives make 300 times what they do, while 52 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent. Many of their once beautiful rural towns have depopulated, their downtown stores are shuttered, and their kids are leaving home because there are no jobs — all while corporations suck the wealth out of their communities and stuff them into offshore accounts.

''Working Americans can’t afford decent, quality child care for their children. They can’t send their kids to college, and they have nothing in the bank as they head into retirement. In many parts of the country they can’t find affordable housing, and they find the cost of health insurance much too high. Too many families exist in despair as drugs, alcohol and suicide cut life short for a growing number of people.

''When my presidential campaign came to an end, I pledged to my supporters that the political revolution would continue. And now, more than ever, that must happen. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. When we stand together and don’t let demagogues divide us up by race, gender or national origin, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. We must go forward, not backward.''


I've cherry picked the article & there's more to read & possibly criticize in it, so it's worth a read. As is...

hmmmmmm ...

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23767) 7 years ago

Yanis Varoufakis is hopeful that a revolution is now possible:

Read his trenchant analysis of the election here:

https://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2016/11/15/new-statesman-interview-the-lefts-duty-after-trumps-awful-victory/#more-15998

Here's a little from it:

"Why did Hillary Clinton’s campaign end in failure?

Clinton’s loss was caused by her failure to address the collapse of the economic status quo. A global epoch has ended. The period which began with the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, [convened to regulate the post Second World War monetary order], ended with the 2008 financial crash. US hegemony expanded in this era but it was the first time that a superpower got stronger by getting more into debt. The US resembled a huge vacuum cleaner sucking up the net exports of Germany, Holland, Japan and later China. It was increasing its deficit to those economies while, in a Keynesian way, aggregating demand for the global economy. The majority of profits from these Dutch, Japanese and Chinese companies were invested back into Wall Street. In 2008, this system collapsed and with it went the myth of globalisation. Obama promised to address this but he failed miserably in part because he lost control of congress. Today, 81% of US families are worse off than they were in 2004 — the median wages of most US workers has not peaked since 1973. Trump said this couldn’t go on, while Clinton offered continuity — that’s why she failed."

"How much was it Obama’s fault?

He should take a huge amount of responsibility for this defeat. Obama had a window of opportunity when he was first elected in 2008. He was a highly popular president, with control of the senate, who came to power when Wall Street had collapsed and the banking community was in tatters. He had a real chance to establish a New Deal programme just as Franklin D. Roosevelt did in the Thirties. Instead, he employed Larry Summers and Tim Geithner as his economic advisers — the gravediggers of the New Deal institutions. They both served in the Clinton administration which dismantled the last checks and balances on Wall Street, including rendering the Glass-Steagall Act obsolete in 1996. So, those responsible for allowing Wall Street to run riot were brought in to fix the mess. Predictably, all they did was reinstate the privilege of the financial class."

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 6 years ago

just read "bailout" by neil barofsky - really good

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23767) 6 years ago

Neil Barofsky's "Bailout." I'd never heard of it, thanks, flip. Here's a review:

"Neil Barofsky offers an irrefutable insider indictment of the mishandling of the $700 billion TARP bailout fund. During the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Barofsky gave up his job in the esteemed US Attorney’s Office in New York City to become the special inspector general overseeing the spending of the bailout money. But from day one his efforts to protect against fraud and to hold the big banks accountable were met with outright hostility from Treasury officials. Bailout is a riveting account of Barofsky’s plunge into the political meat grinder of Washington, and a vital revelation of just how captured by Wall Street our political system is and why the banks have only become bigger and more dangerous in the wake of the crisis."

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 6 years ago

good to hear from you ms beauty - one of the few here who makes sense. the book is worth it if you have the time - obama's treasury dept is, if anything, worse than bush's. happy new year and keep up the fight

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23767) 6 years ago

Happy New Year flip, and all! Let's hope 2018 is an improvement over 2017 personally and politically, for all of us.

And, yep, never giving up the fight! We're only just getting started, really.

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 6 years ago

On a relative basis, the ripples were a shiny poo-tin-ium-laced tsunami.

The H.M.S. Brexit would carry on "the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

 Many  men  came  here  as  soldiers

 Many  men  will  pass  this  way

 Many  men  will  count  the  hours

 As  they  live  the   longest  day.

Many men are tired and weary

Many men are here to stay

Many men won't see the sunset

When it ends the longest day.

 The  longest  day  the  longest  day

 This  will be the  longest  day

 Filled  with  hopes  and  filled  with  fears

 Filled  with  blood  and  sweat  and  tears.

Many men the mighty thousands

Many men to victory

Marching on right into battle

In the longest day in history.

[-] 0 points by grapes (5232) 4 years ago

Scotland seems pretty adamant about staying with the EU. A potential fallout of Brexit may be the subsequent breakup of the UK with Scotland going independent with yet another referendum. Then it can negotiate and rejoin the EU. The UK should consider the potential impact of Scottish independence sometime after a successful Brexit.

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 7 years ago

Prof. Yanis Varoufakis is so on the ball, that he may have been a sea-lion in a past life! I hope readers read your link & in compliment .. consider this item from a rather unlikely source perhaps:

multum in parvo ...

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23767) 7 years ago

Consider Trump's cabinet selections so far & what would Varoufakis have to say about it?

TREASURY: "Trump Picks Foreclosure King Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary"

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/29/trump-picks-foreclosure-king-mnuchin-for-treasury-secretary.html

EPA: "EPA fears 'unprecedented disaster' for environment over Scott Pruitt pick"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/08/epa-scott-pruitt-disaster-environment-senate-democrats

EDUCATION: "Betsy DeVos: Secretary Of Privatization"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielkatz/betsy-devos-secretary-of-_b_13303980.html

HUD: Ben Carson, need I say more?

COMMERCE: "Meet Wilbur Ross, who once bailed out Trump in Atlantic City and is now his pick for Commerce secretary"

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-wilbur-ross-commerce-20161208-story.html

DEFENSE: "Trump 'surprised' by Mattis waterboarding comments"

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/23/politics/waterboarding-trump-mattis/

LABOR: "Angered at talk of raising the minimum wage, Carl's Jr. CEO (Puzdner) intends on replacing human workers with machines."

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/03/20/ceo-replace-workers-machines-talk-minimum-wage-hike.html

TRANSPORTATION: "President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the sprawling Transportation Department made $1.2 million while overseeing Wells Fargo as a director during the period the bank has admitted to creating millions of fake accounts."

http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/07/investing/elaine-chao-trump-wells-fargo-transportation/

And, that's not even the whole shameful list. American people who woke up during the primary with Bernie better stay woke and get active.

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 7 years ago

Excellent & very important information!!! That took a while to collate, for sure!! Many thanx bw! + fyi:

e tenebris, lux?

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 7 years ago

Consider that - ''Democrats have already begun flailing around trying to blame anyone and everyone they can find — everyone except themselves ..." !

And ''That racism, misogyny, and xenophobia are pervasive in all sectors of America is indisputable from even a casual glance at its history, both distant and recent." !!

''Those who have been warning of the grave dangers these powers pose have often been dismissed on the ground that the leaders who control this system are benevolent and well-intentioned. They have thus often resorted to the tactic of urging people to imagine what might happen if a president they regarded as less than benevolent one day gained control of it. That day has arrived." !!!

Great forum post flip. Solidarity & in compliment ...

''Widespread social unrest will ignite when Donald Trump’s base realizes it has been betrayed."

ad iudicium ...

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 7 years ago

gotta like glen

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

''What Will It Take for Americans to Understand the Basics of Election Integrity?'', by E.A. Canning:

fiat lux ...

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 6 years ago

right on! as usual

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

Wishing a Happy 4th of July to you, mayda and crew flip and ... ''Psycho-babble masquerading as political analysis is usually useless, but Trump is a babbler who is acting psycho. Hillary Clinton gives the impression of being more disciplined than Trump, but is nevertheless criminally insane, a howling homicidal fiend who would have issued an unacceptable ultimatum to the leaders of Syria and Russia long before hitting the 100-day mark in her presidency. The world might have been a cold cinder by now, had Hillary been allowed to return to the White House. The planet’s epitaph would read: Humans evolved, Clinton became president, everybody died.'' - from ...

respice, adspice, prospice ...

[-] 1 points by flip (7101) 6 years ago

i assume you have seen the info by sy hersh on syria and sarin

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

Seymour Hersh's Syria / Sarin Info - and links can be found in a reply from now nearly a week ago:

The 2nd link above, is a report & analysis with photos, by someone who knows what they are talking about & simply blows any and all US/UK MSM war-mongering horseshit, out of the water ... which is why of course, it can NOT be found anywhere on Corporate MSM. We are all being constantly lied to about Syria by people DESPERATE to undertake 'Regime Change' there & I am sick of the total crap that we're now all supposed to accept, so that we can be party to our own hoodwinking! Solidarity flip and here's hoping that U/M+all are having a good 4thJuly & take care with 2nd link,it'll make U angry!

pacem in terris .. spero!

[-] 2 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago
[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

''See More'' Seymour sees more, so see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giuZdBAXVh0 from

ecce homo ...

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

''A New Hole in Syria-Sarin Certainty'', by Robert Parry:

e tenebris?

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

''The Occupation of the American Mind - A Video Documentary'' :

fiat lux ...

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

So .. "This is a film that demands to be seen. It shows, with devastating precision, how effective propaganda can hide crimes that are epic in scale and have catastrophic consequences. Please see this film, hire it, screen it, talk about it." (Ken Loach - award winning UK Film Director re.above)

veritas vos liberabit ...

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23767) 6 years ago

Israelis Speak Candidly to Abby Martin About Palestinians, from "Empire Files"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e_dbsVQrk4

Truly frightening how mind managed and anti-Arab they are. The propaganda mind control program seems to have worked.

Big thanks to Abby Martin for the work that she does on behalf of the Palestinians, the terrorized, voiceless, displaced, occupied, imprisoned, impoverished, Palestinians.

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

Abby Martin is a truth-telling journalist, who is much maligned by the RW Corporate MSM. That video is disturbing but deeply telling, despite the simplicity of Martin's approach. In compliment, please consider:

fiat justitia ruat caelum ...

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23767) 6 years ago

US holds back $65m aid to Palestinians

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42711985

"Jan Egeland, the former UN humanitarian chief who now serves as its humanitarian co-ordinator for Syria, called on other donor nations to cover the shortfall caused by the US move.

The withdrawal of funds would, he said, have "devastating consequences for vulnerable Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, including hundreds of thousands of refugee children in the West Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria who depend on the agency for their education".

It would also "deny their parents a social safety net that helps them to survive, and undermine the UN agency's ability to respond in the event of another flare up in the conflict".

The Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella group for Palestinian factions, tweeted that the Trump administration seemed to be following an Israeli policy of dismantling "the one agency that was established by the international community to protect the rights of the Palestinian refugees".

At the moment, the USA is a nation displaying moral turpitude. Our very souls are at stake.

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

''At UN Hearing, South African Delegate Decries Israel as World's Last Functioning 'Apartheid State'", byJon Queally:

"We remain deeply concerned at the denial of the right of self-determination to the Palestinian people," said delegate at a hearing in Geneva, "in the absence of which no other human right can be exercised or enjoyed." ... alas & however ... ''At the moment, the USA is a nation displaying moral turpitude. Our very souls are at stake.''

''South Africa just declared Israel an apartheid state. If Israel keeps denying Palestinians basic human rights, we should stop giving them $10M per day in US aid.'' - Dr. Jill Stein:

ad iudicium ....

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23767) 6 years ago

Edward Said on "claims" to the Holy Land:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2z7kEAy6mI

"I would not say that the Jewish claim or the Zionist claim is the only claim or the main claim. I say it is a claim among many others."

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

The excellent Edward Said, (RIP) - says it like few can. Thanx & fyi...

fiat lux ...

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

Dr. Michael Hudson talking with Laura Flanders ... https://youtu.be/ZM0_7PVuVVg

Thanx for the great maps above. I'll add the links to an existing Israel/Palestine thread.

And so FYI: https://twitter.com/democracynow/status/939171921626877954 (Powerful)

fiat lux ...

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23767) 6 years ago

"If Balfour was keen to ensure “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,” why is it, then, that the British government remains committed to Israel after all of these years?

Isn’t a century since that declaration was made, 70 years of Palestinian exile, 50 years of Israeli military occupation all sufficient proof that Israel has no respect for international law and Palestinian human, civil and religious rights?"

Good questions and I'd guess why Jeremy Corbyn did not participate in the celebration of said "Balfour Declaration." Good for him.

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 6 years ago

''Thirsty for Justice: How Israel Deprives the Palestinians of Access to Water'', by Zak Witus:

fiat justitia ...

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 6 years ago

Exactly! Israel only took on some parts of the Balfour Declaration but didn't take on the non-interference part. Israel is duplicitous. There's No contract without honoring the Entirety of the agreement.

The British Government (yes, the U.S. has acted in the same deplorable way probably due to Jew Jerk) has obviously been beholden to Israel for all of these years, likeliest due to the financial leash held by the Jews. Adolf Hitler's mad quest for the reconquest of Greater Germany and World Enslavement was therefore likely just a reactionary German-Shepard dog gone crazy chewing and breaking the financial leash held by the Jews of Britain and America.

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 7 years ago

''As Democrats Press for War, the Left Must Demand Peace and Social Transformation'' by (a different) Glen, namely - Ford:

This is a really excellent piece, which ends: ''There is no mystery to what the moment demands. What’s needed is Left movements for social transformation, not a farcical, Democrat-led anti-Trump pseudo-movement, whose real agenda is war.''

fiat lux et fiat pax ...

[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 7 years ago

Yep & https://theintercept.com/ is where GG does his thing these days.

fiat lux ...