Mr. Trump Goes To Washington
Donald Trump toured Washington yesterday for backroom meetings with Republican party bigwigs, for pandering to the Israel lobby and for an examination by the neoconned Washington Post editors.
The Republican party has given up its resistance to Trump. See for example the Republican functionary John Feehery who opined on February 29 that Trump is an authoritarian, and:
We beat the Nazis and the Japanese in the World War II and protected freedom and democracy by beating the Soviet Union in the Cold War. It would be a damn shame if we lost it all by giving in to the authoritarian impulse in this election.
The same guy only twenty-two days later:
Republican voters can support the nominee picked by a majority of the voters, they can sit this election out, or they can start a third party. The last two choices give the White House to the Clinton machine.I am not happy that Donald Trump could be our nominee, but I am learning to live with that distinct possibility.
That, in short, is the revised position of the Republican party. It has given up on fighting Trump and will now propel him into the White House. What will happen thereafter? Who knows?
Trump is pure marketing. A salesperson throughout. This video explains how his linguistics works - words with only very few syllables, strong buzzword at the end of the sentences. It is fourth grade reading level language. Exactly the level needed to sell his product to the U.S. public and the Republican party. He is an expert in doing this.
But what product does Trump sell? Does he know it? Does he know how that product functions? Is he serious in what he claims that product to be. I have my doubts.
So has Par Lang. He remarks on yesterday's Trump appearance at the U.S. Zionists beauty contests:
Trump's pander was so extreme that one ponders the possibility that he was mocking the audience.
Trump probably does not even care what political product he sells. For now he is selling the salesman himself. Buy Trump and all problems will be solved. He does this convincingly. Most of what he said so far is just nonsense and solely for marketing purpose. There are only few consistent political lines that did not (yet) change over time. These are the lines that rile the Washington Post editors:
Donald Trump endorsed an unabashedly noninterventionist approach to world affairs Monday during a day-long tour of Washington, casting doubt on the need for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and expressing skepticism about a muscular U.S. military presence in Asia.
...
“At what point do you say, ‘Hey, we have to take care of ourselves?’ ” Trump said in the editorial board meeting. “I know the outer world exists, and I’ll be very cognizant of that. But at the same time, our country is disintegrating, large sections of it, especially the inner cities.”Trump said U.S. involvement in NATO may need to be significantly diminished in the coming years, breaking with nearly seven decades of consensus in Washington. “We certainly can’t afford to do this anymore,” he said, adding later, “NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we’re protecting Europe with NATO, but we’re spending a lot of money.”
To this the editors opine:
Unfortunately, the visit provided no reassurance regarding Mr. Trump’s fitness for the presidency. “I’m not a radical person,” he told us as he was leaving. But his answers left little doubt how radical a risk the nation would be taking in entrusting the White House to him.
But who are the real radicals, the real radical risk? The salesperson Trump or the neoconned Washington Post publisher and editors? You may judged that from this excerpt at the end of the talk's transcript:
[FREDERICK RYAN JR., WASHINGTON POST PUBLISHER]: You [MUFFLED] mentioned a few minutes earlier here that you would knock ISIS. You’ve mentioned it many times. You’ve also mentioned the risk of putting American troop in a danger area. If you could substantially reduce the risk of harm to ground troops, would you use a battlefield nuclear weapon to take out ISIS?TRUMP: I don’t want to use, I don’t want to start the process of nuclear. Remember the one thing that everybody has said, I’m a counterpuncher. Rubio hit me. Bush hit me. When I said low energy, he’s a low-energy individual, he hit me first. I spent, by the way he spent 18 million dollars’ worth of negative ads on me. That’s putting [MUFFLED]…
RYAN: This is about ISIS. You would not use a tactical nuclear weapon against ISIS? [CROSSTALK] ...
The salesperson stopped there. Instead of answering that question Trump asked for personal introduction to the people taking part in the event. To nuke some lunatics in Toyota technicals is not Trumps idea of his product. He would not sell that. Not even for gaining the support of the WaPo neocons.
Buying Trump is buying a pig in a poke. One does not know what one might get. But I find it unlikely that he would pursue an interventionist policy. Then again - George W. Bush also pretended to be a non-interventionist - until that changed.
But Trumps current non-interventionist position is a big contrast to Hillary Clinton. She unashamedly offers her well known toxic brew of neo-liberal and neo-conservative orthodoxy. She will wage war, Trump may. As a foreigner that is the decisive difference to me.
But if I were a voter in the U.S. my position would be based on economic policies. There Bernie Sanders is surely preferable to Trump and very much preferable to Clinton.
Posted by b on March 22, 2016 at 17:45 UTC | Permalink
next page »All this non-interventionalist rhetoric makes it OK to embrace Trump's anti-Muslim and anti-Latino bigotry?
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Mar 22 2016 18:16 utc | 2
So, I guess what all this means is that the Repubs have accepted Trump as less evil than Hillary? But, what if the nominee of the Democ side isn't Hillary? What if it is the Bern? Not that it makes a dimes worth of difference. Did anyone read Dimitri Orlovs post for today? I have to say that his take is pretty close to where we are headed ... if not soon, eventually.
I have no idea who really originated the bit about interesting times ... but I suspect it may be what we are living through. That is, if this is living ...
Posted by: rg the lg | Mar 22 2016 18:25 utc | 3
"Trump is pure marketing. A salesperson throughout. This video explains how his linguistics works - words with only very few syllables, strong buzzword at the end of the sentences. It is fourth grade reading level language. Exactly the level needed to sell his product to the U.S. public and the Republican party. He is an expert in doing this."
Gee, did you miss the whole Obama campaign? Does CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN/HOPE? ring a bell?
Posted by: aaaa | Mar 22 2016 18:25 utc | 4
Trump, an quintessential oligarchs himself, famous for marrying supermodels and losing half of his Dad’s fortune. The MSM long before elections virtually created Trump as Flaccid Clown TV persona.
This Flaccid Clown made himself a mirror of a fascist American society that through him can bask in its ugliness, ignorance and narcissism of exceptional mediocrity of Trumpism.
Trump salesman has qualities of a self-invented cult leader, characterized by extreme bullying, intimidation, threats and/or violence and disregard to humanity reaching fair beyond any acceptable human conduct. He is a phony opportunist, a sewage excretion of his personal puny psychopathic insecurities for profit and fame with no other program, idea or thought behind it.
He did not appear on the political stage accidentally, he has his role to play and he is playing it well so far, whatever establishment wants him to play. These are political puppets, stooges, chicken hawks, and front-men of the establishment who are scared, afraid that their services will no longer be needed by true ruling elite who run this abhorrent regime for about 240 years..
This Flaccid Clown is an artificial phenomenon. He is a media phenomenon “hired by a establishment ”, to tell establishment “You are fired” in a group psychotic episode of surrealistic transference of a cartoon character of reality show into empty desperate lives of those rejected by ruling elite, unable to effectively serve it or submit to power and hence forcefully alienated from delusions of American Serf Dream. He is uploaded by his oligarchic handlers, with misconceived populist utterances passes for ideas that he has no interest in, no understanding of or any intention or intellectual capability to follow. This is all about the show, and he is the entertainer of the moment.
The establishment has all the bullets, criminal, political, economic, tax evasion, socio-sexual, financial to kill Trump candidacy in a week, even to indict him. Few front pages with this Flaccid Clown portrayed as a pariah, Russian spy, a commie, baby killer, thief, Antichrist, terrorist supporter, with no facts but innuendos would unravel his shallow support among desperate, scared, confused, blind, revenge seeking mob who now supports and idolizes him regardless what nonsense he is uttering. All bullets are ready to fire unless he submits and betrays his following and that's what he did just recently with bending over to AIPAC and refusing to run as independent if not nominated, another betrayal of his mindless, raging hormones followers. After all he does what he is hired to do.
What he is actually used for by the Oligarchic establishment that supports him so far (Christie [and others, establishment bullies], is first one to admit it) is to galvanize desperate public, who finds his ignorance appealing and refreshing on such a calcified political stage of puppetry as well as moves those who see in him a danger of fascist narcissistic megalomaniac taking power.
All the political commotion is aimed to insidiously entice Americans all to rush to voting booths thinking that they could make any slightest difference in their own lives and life of the nation by supporting or denouncing a puppet of the ruling elite.
Unfortunately, this time as well, millions of irrational, desperate and helpless in their daily lives electoral zombies, under a spell of exciting political masquerade, are aligning themselves with an anointed winner of a popularity/beauty contest, in a delusional feat of transference of a fraction of elite's power to themselves just for a second of a thrill of power. And they will continue to authorize their own suicide mission, since even baseless, continually disproved hope of any chance of influencing of the political realm via means of begging is the last thing that dies.
What's really shocking but beyond the political sensitivity level of Americans is a fact he is yet to formulate any coherent policy he would like to implement and that's the plan, so he, if anointed by the establishment will be able to backpedal, deny or ignore his utterances, leaving gullible crowd betrayed yet again.And people he "listens" to are all hopeless neocons or wall street hacks, symbols of status quo.
Most of Americans, not unlike a cargo cult, are impatient, nervous, excited and scared sitting and waiting before an impregnable curtain of political manipulation of the ruling elite, turning to magic, superstition, appeasement or begging for mercy or praying for a caprice of good will to save them, while blatantly abandoning their unalienable rights to self-determination and democratic system of people’s rule, based on equality in the law, and one voter one vote principle.
May be the elites will conclude that if mob wants this Flaccid Clown, they will get a them this Flaccid Clown as a puppet figure sitting in oval office replica in Hollywood following and watching himself.
It is old principle of rulers: "Vox Populi Vox Dei" that was originally applied in the totalitarian Roman Imperial regime during imperial games at Circus Maximum and Coliseum as a pressure valve release for unruly, enraged of cronyism, and fixed, unfair rules of aristocracy, roman proletariat i.e. people with no power, to pacify them cheaply and prevent costly riots and killing expenses.
What we have here is:
Vox Animali, Vox Inferi.
Posted by: Kalen | Mar 22 2016 18:31 utc | 5
Trump loves two things, himself and $. He'll follow the $ if elected, by doing what his owners tell him to do. The sensible utterances by Trump are an act, designed to siphon support from other candidates.
Posted by: ben | Mar 22 2016 18:52 utc | 6
P.S.-I'm still quite skeptical Trump will be the GOP's guy.
Posted by: ben | Mar 22 2016 18:55 utc | 7
A big shout out to Kalen @ 5: Great post, think you nailed it..
Posted by: ben | Mar 22 2016 18:59 utc | 8
After Change We Can Bereave In and Mr. 9/11 GW Bush, I don't know what to believe. Trump's populist rhetoric sounds good to the ears of working proles and it amuses me that Chosenites on both the Left and Right side of the aisle as well as the media seem to be worried about him.
This was supposed to be the end of the white male rule not only in Amerikkka, but also in formerly homogeneous Western Europe, ushered in by economic migrants, refugees often escaping from non-war zones, large explosions and heavily armed Wahabbs killing people in the train stations, bus stops, highways and by ways of these countries!
What went wrong??
Posted by: farflungstar | Mar 22 2016 19:00 utc | 9
What's the problem with the haters here. trump wants to keep NATO out of Russia's hair. WHY slam him for that. even if he doesn't mean it, he can't suffer an electoral defeat now without making it radio active for another candidate to see her talk that way. what part of that do you not understand? It doesn't matter if he's just a puppet if the elites see yet another anti interventionist electoral phenomenon.
Posted by: Jake | Mar 22 2016 19:20 utc | 10
"But if I were a voter in the U.S. my position would be based on economic policies. There Bernie Sanders is surely preferable to Trump and very much preferable to Clinton."
Becoming another apologist Mr. b? Your previous "Strategist" votes bring about another Neoliberal warmonger in Canada?
This is where we stand apart and will remain respectful to you and readers.
Between Killary, Bernie and whoever, I will vote Trump for now, he's no different for any politicians - liars and warmonger. Trump may likely destroy the two party systems and brought change we need so badly.
What if he (Trump) starts another endless war? Do you really believe Killary and Bernie any different? The answers, better the devil who will start another war than the one who lies? My opinion, Bernie is far more dangerous than Obomo another Trojan horse.
I maybe a minority here, but in the real world the numbers are growing - as I came across anyone I met regardless parties affiliation.
Economic..?. blah! You believe in Fiat money, Wall Street or Banksters?
Posted by: Jack Smith | Mar 22 2016 19:33 utc | 11
Trump is nasty, mean, corrupt, a bully and a nut, but he is the only candidate who offers a chance (however slim) of breaking the stinking rotten corrupt status quo in any way.
I am sorry that he coddled the rotten, murderous Israel. But we are too far down the rabbit hole - these days all of Congress must express their devotion to Israel. This is craziness, but it is a sickening fact. They're all Xtians, too. This is also nuts and disgusting pandering.
It's going to take a nasty Republican like Trump to break (or to make a valiant effort to crack) the nasty machine.
Obama has shown himself and the corrupt D Party to have been a comprehensive, dismal failure for the common people. The D Party offers no hope and no change.
Perhaps it won't be necessary for Trump to malign and attack the BDS movement as the slavering Hillary is doing. It's running off her fangs and down the front of her blood- soaked shirt.
Posted by: fast freddy | Mar 22 2016 19:38 utc | 12
Jake @ 10: "trump wants to keep NATO out of Russia's hair."
"Why slam him for that" Glad to hear you believe everything someone tells you.
Simple observation, and comment. Hate? Take a deep breath and relax.
Posted by: ben | Mar 22 2016 19:38 utc | 13
@7 he isn't the GOP's guy, and that's why they might sabotage the convention and almost assuredly give the election to Hillary.
Trump is Trump; he's been in the media since the 1970s.. here he is in 1980: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5VEjF1uhYo and an interesting analysis of NYC from 82 + Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNq9Bjch6UA
Posted by: aaaa | Mar 22 2016 19:38 utc | 14
Trumps non-interventionist line ( not his policy, because making it up as you go along is not policy. ) is BS. That freak would be a gleeful war criminal by bombing a dozen countries if it got him more popularity, or he needed a boost from the polls, or he invested in the arms industry. All the non-interventionist BS, is just a PR counter to his establishment rivals. He doesn't mean any of of it.
The Sanders campaign is a sick joke. Sacrificing genocide against people across the world so Americans can have a bit better health care is disgusting.
Sanders has been so weak in taking on the evil US Empire and the US capitalist establishment, then how can he do anything as president where there will be much more pressure as president then there is now. Sanders would be the lamest sheep political history, and not because of the resistance by the elite, but because Sanders has no resistance. That way lies childish delusions.
Sanders exists to give motivational speeches in some areas of social politics and that's all he is good for.
Posted by: tom | Mar 22 2016 19:45 utc | 15
Posted by: fast freddy | Mar 22, 2016 3:38:17 PM | 12
Well said! Amen.
Posted by: Jack Smith | Mar 22 2016 19:45 utc | 16
Posted by: tom | Mar 22, 2016 3:45:00 PM | 15
"The Sanders campaign is a sick joke. Sacrificing genocide against people across the world so Americans can have a bit better health care is disgusting.
Behind Bernie is MoveON, Soros "invested" over a billion to keep Israel the endless slaughter of Palestinians civilians.
Posted by: Jack Smith | Mar 22 2016 19:50 utc | 17
If anyone here believes ANY candidate can change the Empire's direction, they're delusional.
Only a massive public movement can make that happen, history has proved that. Without people in the streets, it can't happen.
So, pick who YOU think might make that happen, but keep in mind this fact:
Computer Voting and Stealing Democracy
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14545
Posted by: ben | Mar 22 2016 19:51 utc | 18
If anyone represents the ruling Establishment, it is the Washington Post. They did force Richard Nixon out for no better reason than his withdrawal of the troops from Vietnam. Hardly the criminal acts that are ignored today. The editors’ words are clear; endless war including the use of nuclear weapons. Damn the consequences.
Posted by: VietnamVet | Mar 22 2016 19:54 utc | 19
in a world where packaging/appearance is everything and content means nothing - trump is the ticket.. the usa and the world by extension get what the marketers/propagandists have to offer... forget about anything to do with content..
Posted by: james | Mar 22 2016 20:13 utc | 20
Trump's vaunted "independence" would prove a problem to him as president because the ruling elite could attack his sources of income (the trump biz) and destroy his independence. If elected, he will be subjected to every nasty attack to sway him to do the bidding of the foreign policy establishment. He might want to call Putin for tips on how to deal with the nastiness.
Posted by: alaric | Mar 22 2016 20:52 utc | 21
b, thank you. I agree entirely. Bernie would be better than a pig in a poke, and a b* in a poke would be worse.
However, the point is moot because votecounting in the primaries has the overwhelming probability of having been fraudulent. And I would be shocked if the actual election votes were honestly counted.
Here's what I heard in the Trump voice on the radio first thing, "My first priority is to get rid of that Iran agreement. That's a bad deal. For our safety. For Israel's safety. That deal needs to come down. That was a bad deal, and we gave them $--.--!" (He was talking about the part of their own money which we returned to them years after we "froze" their money.
Here, take a gander at this; it's funny if you don't take it seriously. http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/03/22/the-2016-presidential-race-do-our-votes-really-matter/
Posted by: Penelope | Mar 22 2016 21:02 utc | 22
If I vote this election, it will be for Jill Stein. Foreign policy is #1 to me, and no other candidate comes close. I don't play the LOTE game or any variation. Besides, the majority of the voting population are so dependent on what their TV, radio or whatever tells them, there's no room for sanity.
Posted by: Jessica | Mar 22 2016 21:04 utc | 23
Trump is simply stripping the "politically correct" packaging off of decades-long fascist rhetoric: "welfare queens" against the poor, "criminal environments" against the black, clash of civilization against the Muslims, "axis of evil" against any opponent of Us suprematism, etc
so now he comes along and draws conclusions ... except for the "infinite war" meme, which is a purely imperialistic effort that seemingly doesn't resonate anymore with the people's frustration and anger
Posted by: claudio | Mar 22 2016 21:14 utc | 24
I think Trump's fans after a few more months of the same speech where money is prominent will be fed up.
The trouble is that it would be too late and Trump would have offered the presidency to Hillary on a silver plate.
We'll have to get used to the idea of seeing that witch often on the TV when she will be president.
Posted by: virgile | Mar 22 2016 21:15 utc | 25
perhaps all this will be rendered moot, we'll have an 'event,' Obama will initiate the Continuity of Operations (COOP) executive directive...
whatever, it matters little...
in the words of the late, great American composer and statesman, Mr. Frank Zappa:
The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater
Posted by: john | Mar 22 2016 21:35 utc | 26
perhaps all this will be rendered moot, we'll have an 'event,' Obama will initiate the Continuity of Operations (COOP) executive directive...
The Chicken Coop.
Posted by: fast freddy | Mar 22 2016 21:40 utc | 27
Posted by: okie farmer | Mar 22 2016 22:00 utc | 29
Funny - zerohedge posts a new headline about radical left beheading trump.. What about the radical establishment?
Posted by: aaaa | Mar 22 2016 22:11 utc | 30
b:
It seems to me that Trump appeals to a large group of people who have been screwed. He is a true populist that says things that shake up the establishment like calling politicians "puppets".
He's vague about where he stands on many issues to allow for moving toward the center after the nomination. Along those lines, he sometimes pays lip service to the establishment so as to reduce friction.
Sander's position are much much more detailed and people-friendly. But Sanders doesn't seem to be willing to do what it takes to win. What does it take? Attacking Hillary's character. Demanding media time.
And Sanders hasn't created a Movement. He is too wedded to the Democratic Party to do that. A real progressive movement might switch allegiance to the Greens if Sanders isn't the Democratic nominee. Sanders wants to deliver his voters to the Democratic nominee (likely to be Hillary).
Each of us has to decide for themselves: can we trust a demagogue (Trump)? Can we trust a career politician someone that doesn't fight to win (Sanders)? Can we trust ANYONE that comes through the duopoly?
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 22 2016 22:13 utc | 32
#2-not anti-latino but illegals latino smart head !!!!
Posted by: sejmon | Mar 22 2016 22:38 utc | 33
The point I had been mulling over is whether Trump is aware of the forces that rule the world and whether he would take them on. Would he open up the can of worms behind 9/11, lies to go into Iraq, Benghazi etc. Well my answer to that is he will if he has to (strike that) if the puppeteers decide that they want to.
I think that he will be the next president, the Hegelian Dialectic that is being set up is that the "Government" has been taken over by bad elements and Trump will lead the charge against them as a "non-bought" free American and maybe the Clinton's take the fall. This of course directs anger away from the real perps. I base this on F William Engdahl in a wide ranging interview promoting his latest book on the Genesis of ISISopening up a glimpse of the lifestyles of the wealthy at a place called "studio 54".
I think that the next US president will be the one who "collapses" the dollar (the puppetmasters decide when this will happen, their puppet will be the one that deals with the resulting upheaval, and the pieces to deal with this are being put on the chessboard right now (Expect ISIS activity in the US).
BTW, Engdahl makes a prediction in the video that "something big" will draw American boots on the ground into Syria.
Posted by: Nobody | Mar 22 2016 22:40 utc | 34
That didn't quite come out as planned. Here is the link to more details on Engdahl's thoughts on Trump http://journal-neo.org/2016/03/20/a-mafia-don-with-a-pompadour/
Posted by: Nobody | Mar 22 2016 22:45 utc | 35
What choice is there? With the other two written off, what are their names? B And K ?---
There is Ted Cruz: Politics Trumps the Constitution, Calls for Anti-Muslim Gestapo
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160322/1036776935/ted-cruz-anti-muslim-gestapo.html
There is Hiltery Clinton: ”What difference does it make.” Out damn spot from my hands. Her victims are many, but who is counting.
... when we left the WH, we were broke. Hmmm. In 2008, a $35 million campaign debt was magically paid by anon donor. Her history is documentable, too many links. In the Whitewater saga, Hillary could not recall what work she did at the Rose Law firm for client Madison Guarantee Savings and Loan bank and, when subpoenaed by Prosecutors said she could not find the billing records.
You have Donald Trump: whose speech at AIPAC indicates the status quo is affirmed. That sliver of land on the Med Sea which shall not be named or critiqued. Read his 5 most important declarations at AIPAC -link here
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/21/trumps-five-most-important-declarations-at-aipac-speech/
How confident can we be that our votes will be counted as marked?
You have Soros: whose Board member chairs the company counting the Utah votes in today’s caucuses.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/20/soros-board-member-chairs-firm-running-online-balloting-for-tuesdays-utah-caucuses/
In a season of hate and hoping and, with the Constitution declared a relic – in Denver, CBSnews finds no apartment lease for you.
You Can’t Live Here If You Are Voting For Donald Trump
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/03/20/grand-junction-apartment-donald-trump/
A circus? If only the consequences were not so serious.
You think the USA society will remain intact at the end of 2016?
On Voting: HRC is right. What difference does it make? All bought and paid for. You cannot become President unless selected by the guys and gals managing the Deep State.
Posted by: likklemore | Mar 22 2016 23:00 utc | 36
Forget the elephants and donkeys. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step - write-in elections. I'm all ears as regards a better plan. We need to stop complaining/chasing our tails and instead to plan, organize, and to seize power to effect real change.
If we'd begun in 2004 we'd be very nearly home by now. So let's begin in 2016. Just as 2016 has succeeded 2004, whether we choose to continue to suck our thumbs or to act, the leaves will fall off our calendars and the year 2028 will arrive, one way or another ... I'd prefer another.
A lot of Americans have developed such a low opinion of politicians and politics as usual that they believe that an outsider with no experience as an elected official can come in and improve the situation.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 22 2016 23:32 utc | 38
Yes, well said. We don't really know what Trump will do - but we DO know what Hillary Clinton, Kasich, Rubio etc. will do and it's terrifying. We can at least HOPE that Trump will be somewhat less horrible than Hillary Vlad-the-Impaler Clinton.
They say that 'hope is not a plan.' Actually hope is a plan - just not a very good one. But still better than cutting your own throat.
I do disagree with you about Sanders. Yes, I mostly like him on foreign policy too, but economics? Sorry, his open-borders immigration policy WILL crush the average American into third-world poverty no matter what else he does. Because nobody but nobody beats the law of supply and demand. "People are the ultimate resource" is the slogan of India where over a half a billion people are chronically malnourished and the standard of living is inferior to late Medieval England...
Funny that not that long ago Sanders admitted that open-borders immigration was something dreamed up by the Koch brothers to ensure a supply of cheap labor, but now he's gone full Wall Street on the issue and he's lost me.
Posted by: TG | Mar 22 2016 23:39 utc | 39
P @ 22: Thanks for the link. And the veil is lifted a bit further.
Posted by: ben | Mar 22 2016 23:45 utc | 40
Trump's cloying tribute to AIPAC made him look like a penitent buffoon in search of redemption as he desperately scanned the crowd anxiously anticipating and appearing relieved at the sound of applause after each sentence he uttered.
When it comes to Hillary, however, she has the record of past actions (and even more machinations) to prove her swooning fealty to The Lobby. Had her groveling not earned her enough kudos with AIPAC, Hillary could have read to the convention the contents of her recently disclosed email in which she explained how putting Syria neck under the butcher's knife was salutary for Israel.
http://newobserveronline.com/clinton-destroy-syria-israel/#comments
Posted by: metni | Mar 22 2016 23:52 utc | 41
Trump has been clear about his economic policies. He has criticized the TPP, H1B visas, lopsided trade deals, offshoring US jobs and stated repeatedly he wants to place a tariff on companies that move to low wage countries.
On the other hand, Sanders is completely inconsistent by calling for open borders while claiming to be for higher wages. How is flooding the market with cheap labor going to raise wages?
On foreign policy Trump has questioned the logic of eliminating secular dictators who kill terrorists. If is was a mistake to remove Saddam & Gaddafi, then how can we do the same to Assad? Also Trump has said countries receiving US Military protection will start paying for it's cost and that money will be used to rebuild US infrastructure.
Regarding ISIS Trump has called for neighboring countries to send their troops backed by US airpower. He also thinks Gulf countries should pay for refugees' safe zones.
On the other hand, Sanders says the US should be "tough but not stupid" in destroying ISIS. Now that sounds like a "pig in a poke" foreign policy if I ever heard one.
Posted by: Al Neuman | Mar 23 2016 0:11 utc | 42
"Trump's pander was so extreme that one ponders the possibility that he was mocking the audience"
:)
just like keeping a straight face at a bankruptcy hearing
best political cartoon of the year?
... http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/teflon-trump-the-one/
Posted by: roger erickson | Mar 23 2016 0:11 utc | 43
Thank you Ben @ 18. Stealing the election is really the most important issue, I agree.
https://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/ is the site of a statistician who studies election/primary fraud for us.
At the following site he gives us an overview of incredible things you didn't know. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NoLTeS9HflwTNJgi5n8nNLdomjxh6eKjoy5FuOmqsVU/edit
Elsewhere on the site he indicates that the public chose Bernie, not Hillary in MA, MO, MI & IL. Also the exact method by which Richard knows this. Did you know that once the results are in they ADJUST the exit polls to agree?
It's fantastic the amt of info he has; he even knows how many votes on which type of machines where two types are available.
So it's really a tragedy. If Bernie had been allowed to do better at the beginning he might have created a bandwagon effect. In those 4 states people didn't vote for that horrible woman.
Posted by: Penelope | Mar 23 2016 0:56 utc | 44
Everything I'm reading at conservative/activist news blogs is Trump is being sold as an 'insurgency' candidate. Conservatives have been working to kick the RINO/neocons out of the leadership of the national R Party for years. They see Trump as the guy who can crack the ceiling so to speak and they are pulling out all of the stops to get him to the General. Period.
Their coalition that is growing enormously, daily, which includes moderate Evangelicals (if there is such a thing), conservatives, some Tea Party types and more conservatives.
Many here may dismiss Trump, but I'd suggest that would not be wise. Like it or not, he is a keen strategist, he's extremely well connected which means his peers are intensely intimidated, he's a deal maker and breaker, he's been working the conservative side of the aisle for at least a decade now, he uses people to his advantage yet their is a shady loyalty that goes with it...shady as in shadows.
As for Hillary, her base just isn't fired up. BUT, and this is a big BUT, when she gets cornered she comes out fighting, and when chooses to 'turn it on' she acts/behaves like a fighter and she becomes unstoppable.
Bernie, well, he's Bernie...his policy proposals are worth looking at. He's not offensive. He's not a Neanderthal. And he's decent. The likelihood of Hillary being indicted is nil, IMHO, thus, his challenge lies with how he out 'fight's' her and I'm not convinced he has the MOJO to succeed.
As for Jill Stein. When she ran the last time, I tried to do a basic background check on her. I'm an A2 girl, that is I wanted to learn if she met the three qualifications laid out in the Constitution, which is Article II, Section 5. I ran a very novice check on her, I admit, but I found it difficult to learn anything about her upbringing, local schools she's attended, her mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, brothers and sisters. Dead ends everywhere.
All of the above search info is readily found on just about any of us, which makes me suspect, that is, she doesn't meet the U.S. Contitution's Presidential qualifications. She may. But I couldn't confirm it. Which in my mind, should be relatively easy. There is something 'amiss' about her. Just instinct. Can't place my finger on it.
And Cruz? Ha. Ppppffffttttt....very dishonest IMO. And doesn't have a credible shot at the General.
Donald's meeting with Sheldon was a fait ac·com·pli. He's there man as evidenced by his AIPAC debut...
Engdahl says no hop in Trump. Trump is a Mafia Don with a pompadour. Direct Mafia Ties via casinos, attorneys, dad's construction biz. Likes Hillary even less.
Engdahl talks a good game and backs it up, but no mention of Israel's role in the balkanization of MENA states and the remapping of MENA in accordance w/ Yinon/PNAC Plans.
Posted by: fast freddy | Mar 23 2016 1:12 utc | 46
AN @ 42: Do you REALLY believe the "Donald" will be able to live up to his progressive rhetoric? If so, I applaud your faith. I, on the other hand, do not. We could well find out in the future.
Posted by: ben | Mar 23 2016 1:24 utc | 47
...
I maybe a minority here, but in the real world the numbers are growing - as I came across anyone I met regardless parties affiliation.
Economic..?. blah! You believe in Fiat money, Wall Street or Banksters?
Posted by: Jack Smith | Mar 22, 2016 3:33:59 PM | 11
I suspect that you've zeroed in on the Trump 'difference'.
All he needs to get into the White House is to keep dangling the insinuation that he'll be the least worst of the last dozen or so POTUSes. And he can do that with everything except his tongue tied behind his back. I'm also inclined to agree that if he turns out not to be anti-establishment then the next POTUS probably will be.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 23 2016 2:08 utc | 48
#2 Trump is anti-latino? That is news to me. I believe he talked about MEXICO. Mexico is not Latin America, please do not use the race card. Trump makes lots of sense, NO MORE illegal immigration, out, out out I say. The real unemployment rate in the country is stratospheric. There is a black boy in Chicago who needs that job, there is a young white boy in Appalachia who needs that job, there is a young native american boy on a res who also needs that job. Everytime I hear, "these immigrants are doing jobs americans don't want to do" I get sick to my stomach. Enough is enough.
Posted by: Fernando Arauxo | Mar 23 2016 3:01 utc | 49
b, sorry for the OT, but CISA is even worse than CISPA & they are s'posed to vote for it this week. I guess it would affect you too. Just what we don't need-- business controlling what we say on the internet.
There's a short vid here that explains it https://willyloman.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/cisa-and-the-trifecta-of-fascism-another-american-everyman-video-production/
Posted by: Penelope | Mar 23 2016 4:10 utc | 50
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 22, 2016 10:08:39 PM | 47
Posted by: Fernando Arauxo | Mar 22, 2016 11:01:22 PM | 48
I'm not trying to convince you voting for Trump, but remain steadfast write-in for Jill Stein. However, an extract from John Pliger:
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/336785-world-war-break-silence/
"....In 2009, President Obama stood before an adoring crowd in the centre of Prague, in the heart of Europe. He pledged himself to make "the world free from nuclear weapons". People cheered and some cried. A torrent of platitudes flowed from the media. Obama was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
It was all fake. He was lying.........In the last eighteen months, the greatest build-up of military forces since World War Two – led by the United States – is taking place along Russia's western frontier. Not since Hitler invaded the Soviet Union have foreign troops presented such a demonstrable threat to Russia. What makes the prospect of nuclear war even more dangerous is a parallel campaign against China..........The propaganda laying the ground for a war against Russia and/or China is no different in principle. To my knowledge, no journalist in the Western "mainstream" – a Dan Rather equivalent, say – asks why China is building airstrips in the South China Sea...............
................In the circus known as the American presidential campaign, Donald Trump is being presented as a lunatic, a fascist. He is certainly odious; but he is also a media hate figure. That alone should arouse our scepticism...........
Trump's views on migration are grotesque, but no more grotesque than those of David Cameron. It is not Trump who is the Great Deporter from the United States, but the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack Obama............
.........Most of America's wars (almost all of them against defenceless countries) have been launched not by Republican presidents but by liberal Democrats: Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama.................."
Posted by: Jack Smith | Mar 23 2016 4:26 utc | 51
@49 pen '... CISA is even worse than CISPA & they are s'posed to vote for it this week. ...'
Gosh, and I thought CISA 2015 was passed already, on 27 October 2015 ... must have been another hoax, eh?
Further to John Pliger on China.... 2016 presidential election is crucial whether our elected liar will go to war with China. Watch YouTube (South Front Channel) US massive buildup in South China sea with known lapdogs especially The Jap and Australia. Missing is Singapore's US naval base, one of the over a thousands bases around the world encircle Russia and China.
Current Escalations in the South China Sea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Rxo0BW9R8
Posted by: Jack Smith | Mar 23 2016 5:15 utc | 53
One needs to have poor political insight to analyse a political trend by studying one individual psychology. Miss this entire point.
Posted by: HLD | Mar 23 2016 5:56 utc | 54
'We beat the Nazis '
no you didnt...the soviets did, and US was the biggest agent of repression on earth last century...eg backed Apartheid in SA and Chiles Pinochet
Posted by: brian | Mar 23 2016 7:09 utc | 55
There are many financial advisory who gives beneficial trading tips but sometimes the market is volatile and that prediction may be wrong.
Posted by: Epic Research | Mar 23 2016 7:28 utc | 56
@22 Thanks, I think taste vomit in my mouth (or is that brains)?
We came, we saw, it died.
Posted by: Forest | Mar 23 2016 7:38 utc | 57
Mr. Trump just made a bold appeal for prompt and severe application of torture. The combo of "some sensible non-interventionism" and torture somehow lacks appeal, and perhaps it is just me.
In the meantime, as I surfed for a direct quote, I got distracted. American politics is something indeed. A group styling itself "Make America Awesome" distributed in Utah the picture of Mrs. Cruz from her maiden days looking, well, awesome. Cruz cleared the caucuses in Utah (and so did Sanders without similarly appealing pics of his wife).
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 23 2016 10:32 utc | 59
B writes:
"As a foreigner ... If I were a voter"
B is not an American! I'm shocked!
Posted by: TomV | Mar 23 2016 10:40 utc | 60
Most disgraceful are the ridiculous western left that bash Trump but have no problem with Hillary. Talk about being stupid!
Posted by: Mendel | Mar 23 2016 11:23 utc | 61
Jack Smith @ 50 says:
It was all fake. He was lying
well, no shit sherlock. politicians have to lie so that the proles get to hear what they want to hear(just check out these here comment threads).
it's a terribly vicious cycle.
Posted by: john | Mar 23 2016 11:25 utc | 62
Interesting entrapment, AIPAC Guests Slam Netanyahu's Racism, Thinking It's Trump
Khalek read racist and homophobic statements to the interviewees, claiming they were made by Trump. Little did they know that the quotes actually came from the mouth of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other Israeli leaders.
Israelis : Judaism :: Wahabis : Islam :: xtian prosperity fundis : Chistianity.
Like three peas in a pod. Ollie.
As a matter of fact, rising fast in the wings it's xpf Ted Cruz himself : Jeb Bush Endorses Cruz for Republican Presidential Nomination.
Is Ted Cruz more dangerous than Donald Trump? Probably. Is either one electable? Probably not.
Sheepdogs for the horrid demoblican harridan, whomever he/she may be. But fail-safe.
But what do I know. I'm thinking of who I'd really like to be president : write-in elections.
Donald Trump has done more to awaken the American people than anyone in recent memory. His repeated mentioning of our massive $19 Trillion dollar deficit, job killing trade deals (no one has mentioned NAFTA since Patrick Buchanan), getting us out of NATO, our taxpayers paying for everyone's defense, how lobbyists and special interest groups control our politicians like puppets, and that immigration and especially Muslim immigration is very bad for America, is priceless. His bringing up Saudi Arabia's responsibility for 9/11 from the depths of the Orwellian memory hole is also worth mentioning. For a while there I was hoping he was going to mention Vice President Joe Biden's, 4 Star General Clark, and US General Martin Dempsey's revealing that ISIS is a fake terrorist organization funded, controlled, and armed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, & Turkey, and indirectly funded by the US, France, UK, & Co with their huge arms sales to those same nations who than give them to their terrorist puppets. Viva the real revolution of truth!
Posted by: Daniel Shays | Mar 23 2016 12:33 utc | 64
Attacks on Marine firebase reveal secret US escalation in Iraq
ISIS mortars slammed into the base, dubbed Firebase Bell, killing Staff Sergeant Louis Cardin and wounding several more Marines. Some of the wounded had to be evacuated out of the country in order to receive proper treatment.Cardin, 27, from Temecula, California, was on his fifth deployment in a war zone. He had served three tours of duty in Afghanistan and one previous tour in Iraq before he was airlifted into Makhmour last month as part of the deployment of the US Marines 26th Expeditionary Unit from the USS Kearsarge, a troop carrier stationed in the Persian Gulf.
On Monday, a small ISIS unit attacked the base, home to 200 Marines, with small arms fire. They were driven off without casualties. At that point, Pentagon spokesmen acknowledged the existence of Firebase Bell, the first US-only facility to be set up in Iraq since the formal end of the US military occupation of the country in December 2011.
Five tours. How long is a tour? A year? Time between tours? Louis Cardin was a Marine stationed abroad, fighting the US wars of aggression for how many years? Five? Seven? More? Did he start at 18? Poor bastard. Poor bastards he undoubtedly killed, too.
How can it be that there is not even one outlier campaigning on 'give peace a chance' or its equivalent? Or is there? I haven't heard of one.
Dan @57
"I wish Arnie was running!"
you forgot to insert this after your sentence ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpaOy8b8X6A
Posted by: ALberto | Mar 23 2016 13:51 utc | 67
Trump went to AIPAC to make nice so they would stop the propaganda re his campaign.
From the looks of it today,he failed,as from the Graun to The NY lying times to Wapoo,the venom for him remains.
Sanders is terrible foreign policy wise,he is totally invested in the thought Israel is unique and worthy of support,he calls Hezbollah the terrorists,and backed Cast Lead and PE as rational response to bottle rockets by mice trapped in a cage of Zionist steel.I do believe him pretty good domestically,and he has called for border control as a logical extension of nationhood,although yes,he needs Latino and black voters,hence his call of Obomba being good.Its bad enough blacks won't vote for the NY Jew wo estranging them even more.
HRC tough?A fighter?How about a bubble headed bobblehead of nada,a MSM call girl for Zion.(nobody else would want her)
That leaves Trump as our only American hope to lead US from the rocks of neoliberalism from Zion.
Posted by: dahoit | Mar 23 2016 14:07 utc | 68
DS @ 63 said: "Donald Trump has done more to awaken the American people than anyone in recent memory. "
Where the issues you mentioned, that's partly true. Gotta' give Trump credit for being relevant on certain subjects, that's where he gets much of his support. But Sanders mentions those subjects, and more in every speech.
I have to assume you've never heard Sanders speak. Even HRC mentions populist issues sometimes.
The challenge, as always, is...Can their actions match their rhetoric? I, for one, doubt it.
Posted by: ben | Mar 23 2016 14:09 utc | 69
Two candidates went to suck-up to AIPAC. HRC and Trump. Does that speak volumes? Maybe.
Here's an video titled "Did Trump play AIPAC?" You decide.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=15958
Posted by: ben | Mar 23 2016 14:14 utc | 71
Proposition: BERNIE, A PROP FOR KILLARY (Team "D" establishment)
Given Bernie's milquetoast criticism of Killary and Obombo, I've started contemplating he's a decoy to create the illusion of a progressive choice within Team "D", to keep progressives engaged with Team "D", and, in the end, convince them to vote for Killary.
Considerations IMO supporting this proposition:
1. Killary has not pivoted to the left at all. Bernie's been ineffective at changing the Team "D" platform, which suggests more of a stage prop than actual political threat.
2. As a corollary, Bernie would've had more influence on Team "D" had he run an independent campaign.
3. Had Bernie -- or someone else with at least a little "progressive street cred" -- not entered the Team "D" primary, progressives would've gasped over a "Hillary only" primary. In turn, they would've started an independent campaign that would, even in failure in the general election, cost Killary too many votes for her to win. "A prop for Killary" was a prerequisite for her success.
4. As stated at the outset, Bernie's milquetoast criticism suggests he's trying to avoid wounding her so badly that she can't win the general election.
Posted by: vote for kodos | Mar 23 2016 14:40 utc | 72
Trump and the Clintons are friends and good friends. They are not simply casually acquainted because they are all rich New Yorkers. Any casual web search will reveal that the two families are close and thick. Would anyone believe Bill Clinton and Donald Trump could spend hours and hours together on the golf course and not talk politics?
I don't have any positive evidence that Hillary and the Donald conspired to rig the current election season. It does beggar belief they have not coordinated in an way.
Posted by: Oldhippie | Mar 23 2016 15:45 utc | 73
@ 71: "Killary has not pivoted to the left at all."
Guess you missed a lot of her speeches.
Ya' know, I've felt that same feeling you're expressing, only about D. Trump.
The last victory speech I listened to from HRC,( after her last super Tuesday victories) she sounded more Sanders, than Sanders.
The Empire wants HRC badly.
Posted by: ben | Mar 23 2016 15:50 utc | 74
jfl asks:
How can it be that there is not even one outlier campaigning on 'give peace a chance' or its equivalent
the neocon mindset prevails across the political spectrum and, in fact, it seems to me that most Americans are pretty much jake with it as well. what's precipitating the currently rising citizenly angst is the currently falling citizenly purchasing power.
(but in keeping with the adage that 'no crisis should go to waste' it seems a good opportunity to flesh out the root causes and give them a good public airing)
Posted by: john | Mar 23 2016 16:34 utc | 75
Trump is what America is, which is cleverly masked by marketing in Hillary, Bernie, Ted, and all the rest. It won't matter who get elected. Neocons = Neoliberals. More millions will die and more destruction by the Empire.
Posted by: AriusArmenian | Mar 23 2016 16:47 utc | 76
If, a big IF, it is the case that the Repubs. now accept Trump, it is because they are afraid of splitting the Republican Party (it is split, but that’s not public) thus destroying it.
They want to conserve the advantages they have with a ‘face unity for the public’ - Senate, House, power brokers, funding, corruption, Big Corps, Banks, Energy, etc. etc. - capitalising on the past. Far prefer that to winning the Presidency. (See Obama-Romney.)
H. Clinton is guaranteed to continue the ‘old system’, like Obama, but even more collaborative? (Aka ‘Unity Governement’ coupled with fake oppositions…)
Possibly, also because they can’t stand the runner-up, Cruz, a minor figure, an objectionable nut-job. A party that proposes two ‘final’ candidates whom the Cadres despise or even passionately hate. Heh. History will make hay…
The Republicans are half-burned toast, the whole system is exposed as a decrepit sham, yet they will try to hang on.
Imho, Trump cannot win against Sanders, and likely not against H. Clinton either. Once again, the Repubs. will bank on a loss, accept it, to survive, and in their minds perhaps find Glory Another Day. So accepting Trump as the nominee (if they do) is just part the same-old.
In any case, while the US prez. has tremendous powers, the US is run by other actors behind the curtain. The Circus trumpets on.
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 23 2016 16:58 utc | 77
Donald Trump carries with him several flaws: Under informed; self Absorbed; lacks real grace; too combative in ways that eliminate potential supporters etc etc. One trait I believe the Donald does not sport: He's not a liar. A Salesman, yes. But not a liar.
He is the collective middle finger of millions of Americans who feel they've been ridden hard and put up wet by the elites in general and more specifically, by the Republican Party leadership and those Republican losers in Congress like Boehner, Ryan, McConnell, Graham, McCain and others.
He is/was smart enough to sense the frustrations of the forgotten and repeatedly parrot THEIR talking points. He's preaching to the choir and the choir is growing geometrically larger, day by day. One of the posters above clammers for a street revolution, decrying any actions short of that as ineffective. Trump for all of his character defects has ignited a prairie fire of contempt for the system as we know it. The horse is out of the barn, for good.
Hail (not Heil) to the Chief!
Posted by: Skip | Mar 23 2016 17:10 utc | 78
Nice catch regarding the 4th Grade comprehension level. At the link is quite a well crafted diatribe vis-à-vis Trump written by a worldly woman, http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/23/let-donald-trump-be-our-unifier
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 23 2016 18:25 utc | 79
Anyone spotted this story on corporate media?
http://mrctv.org/blog/sanders-rally-san-diego-draws-tens-thousands-majority-young-voters
30,000 estimate.
Posted by: ben | Mar 23 2016 18:46 utc | 80
Despite his pandering, I still believe he's the best America has and what America deserves. The only way to the other side of this is through it. There is no way around it. Hold your nose but don't close your eyes, otherwise you'll miss all the fun. Weeeee!!!!!!
My name is Par Lang and I approve this message.
Posted by: Par Lang | Mar 23 2016 20:02 utc | 81
karlof1 @79 Thanks for the link. Lots of good thoughts in the article.
Unfortunately, what it doesn't talk about directly is our worship as Western humans of the Gawd of Mammon which is represented by private finance. Humans have not evolved to the point where we have made finance a public tool. It is still a private tool of the global plutocrats and not just America has to unify over the effort to throw off the jackboot of private finance. Worldwide the curtain hiding the effects of private finance needs to be ripped off to show the core of our form of social organization.
Humanity has made great strides in the past to define a more humanistic and egalitarian world. The execution of efforts to instantiate those goals have been corrupted by the remaining "non sharing/public" aspects of our social organization, the major of which is private finance. There used to be an argument that the global plutocratic families represented the best and the brightest. That was a myth to begin with and is now resulting in our species being channeled into extinction.
All banking worldwide needs to be "nationalized" and inheritance needs to be neutered to stop producing families that accumulate enough to effect ongoing social policy.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 23 2016 20:07 utc | 82
There used to be an argument that the global plutocratic families represented the best and the brightest. That was a myth to begin with...
The global plutocrats cannot be described this way any longer. Doesn't sell.
The new propaganda is two-pronged:
First, commoners en masse are told that they are extremely bright and gifted (mockingly, but they relish the compliments!) highly intelligent, can-do spirited, tenacious, rugged individualists, willing to sacrifice, help their neighbor, bootstraps and etc. (exceptional Americans!).
Second: obscene wealth and usury is excused (and applauded!) because these rich folks possess this same can-do spirit and the other traits which they have simply applied in an effective manner.
Reinforcement of same is done by pretending that every American begins on a level playing field and he was born with the same potential and opportunities as Mitt Romney or Donald Trump or any of the Bush Klan.
The persistent propagandizing manifests itself thus: If I win the lottery, I want to keep all the money, so like the rich people, I am in favor of low taxes or a flat tax (even better!).
Posted by: fastfreddy | Mar 23 2016 21:11 utc | 83
Par Lang says:
Hold your nose but don't close your eyes, otherwise you'll miss all the fun. Weeeee!!!!!!
spoken like someone who revels in the benefits that are beyond the reach of most others
Posted by: john | Mar 23 2016 21:28 utc | 84
Psychohistorian @82--
Do you agree with the argument for a Steady-State Economy with one global currency backed by specie and processed through a globalized public bank, or would you keep everything at the State-level, eliminating private, fractional banking?
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 23 2016 21:44 utc | 85
@83 ff
Any collection of oligarchs - the few - will craft a world that suits themselves and their own perceived interests. To hell with everyone and everything else. In 'a nice way', of course.
Democracy is essential because it enables the oligarch's victims to countermand their suicidal ways. Their victims (ourselves) are the onliest ones who can even perceive the oligarchs' errors. Oligarchy, as masturbation is said to do, makes its practitioners deaf, dumb, and blind. Democracy is not a luxury, something 'nice' to have, it is essential - if we humans and life on earth as we've known it during our so brief, banal sojourn is to continue.
Posted by: jfl | Mar 23 2016 22:38 utc | 86
I must admit that I do not understand American public. I made a mistake reading hastily this morning. Now correction: "Make America Awesome" distributed in Utah pics of Mrs. Trump (not Cruz!) from her maiden years looking totally awesome, and yet, take that! it was Mr. Cruz who cleared Utah caucuses. I must admit that web search "Heidi Cruz images" does return some appealing pics like this beaty, but apparently, Ted did not replace his wife in, like, ages.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 23 2016 23:13 utc | 87
@80 ben
All those folks need to write-in Bernie if/after the demoblican machine kicks them in the teeth.
It is possible to watch the circus without picking sides Trump has never done anything worthwhile or meaningful in his life and there is zero evidence to suggest that has changed, As for the rest of em. they're all just the usual hacks running against Trump the unusual hack.
Which got me thinking I wonder if trump travels with a food taster. Not that it will do him any good the poisons currently in use seem to be slow acting.
Take the case of Rob Ford who had become an exceeding embrassment to the conservative wing of the neoliberal movement just as trump has. The progression of that fellow's illness syncs pretty neatly with his rise fall and rise again.
No matter how much the media tipped buckets of shit on him it just seemed to make him more popular which is somewhat similar to the trump. Ford's illness appears to be similar to what Yasser Arafat went through.
Of course saying this stuff out loud generates calls for the tin foil bonnet but I do hafta say that a helluva a lot of pols I'm aware of have fallen off the twig early - particularly those who don't conform to the 'rules'.
And that is the thing with trump - if he doesn't suddenly get sick you do have to wonder exactly how beyond the pale the amerikan political establishment considers him to be.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Mar 23 2016 23:24 utc | 89
@ 82&83: Great posts, both truthful social comment. Wish I could compose as well.
jfl @ 88: "after the demoblican machine kicks them in the teeth."
And best believe, it will.
Posted by: ben | Mar 24 2016 0:21 utc | 90
b: "...Donald Trump toured Washington yesterday for backroom meetings with Republican party bigwigs..."
1st Republican Bigwig (standing in corner): Ok Mr Trump, well done at AIPAC, glorious stuff. You've unlocked the Back Room.
Trump: It's true, I was Huge.
2nd Republican Bigwig: Would you like to come upstairs now Mr Trump...? Or should I say, Don...?
Trump: Ah, sure, let's go upstairs then. And you can call me Don.
2nd Republican Bigwig (stands up, leans on table): Now, Mr Trump... Repeat after me "what is building 7? I've never heard of building 7"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0lD-Qrn3XI
Posted by: MadMax2 | Mar 24 2016 0:45 utc | 91
@psychoH 82
Inheritance does indeed work against the evolution of humankind. Who knows how far along we'd be now if it were not for idiots, clowns and tyrants assuming wealth upon conception. One should only leave enough dosh for cremation or burial. Each person with varying amounts of desire, more or less, to contribute what they can inside humankinds' most precious commodity - our time.
...until then, parasites and cannibals.
Posted by: MadMax2 | Mar 24 2016 1:10 utc | 92
@psychohistorian 82
Your solution is exactly right. But we won't get there unless the global corporate-owned mass propaganda system is largely replaced by a democratic mass media.
Most people aren't smart/wise enough and/or just don't have the free time and educational resources to figure out on their own who the enemy is and how to fight it. And such resources and the free time to use them declines for the bottom 80% in the evermore inegalitarian world the financiers are creating.
Posted by: fairleft | Mar 24 2016 1:43 utc | 93
karlof1 @whatever asked
"
Do you agree with the argument for a Steady-State Economy with one global currency backed by specie and processed through a globalized public bank, or would you keep everything at the State-level, eliminating private, fractional banking?
"
Ending private finance must happen globally and I believe we need to learn how to get along globally to survive. Isolating a public utility like finance to nation states, IMO, is a fools game. After a while we would just end up where we are now.
We need to "grow up" as a species and throw off the vestiges of the middle ages with Kings and such. There are 8+ billion of us and its sadly laughable how little advancement we have made in some ways. The circus we live led by the global plutocrats is a sick legacy to the children who have to live with the mess we have allowed to continue.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 24 2016 1:45 utc | 94
If you would have told me after the Trotskyite Liberal Neocons sabotaged and destroyed Patrick Buchanan's 1996 (prophetic) Anti-NAFTA/WTO, Immigration Moratorium, New Hadrian's Wall, stopping the US's endless wars, and Cultural War campaign, and that Donald Trump would be the one to become its standard bearer, I would have said that is absurd.
On another note, I read a book called "Conspiracy Against The Dollar" and in that book which was written in the 70's, Ross Perot popped up at a billionaire Globalist insider meeting with the Bush crime family & associates. Remember Ross Perot was created to split the Anti-NAFTA/WTO vote so that the Globalist CFR golden boy Clinto could get elected, and relected. He than tried very hard to keep Buchanan off the Reform party ticket in 2000. Notice how after the anti-NAFTA/WTO was passed and the movement destroyed, he disappeared
The Trotskyite Neocons ran "Songbird" McCuckoo & the choke artist Romney so that Obama would win, and in 96 the pathetic Beltway insider Bob Dole.
Posted by: Daniel Shays | Mar 24 2016 1:52 utc | 95
Daniel Shays @ 64
Those things you say are true. Trump threw a lot of light on subject matter many can never even think of approaching. He deserves credit for that, no doubt. It's trump, and so you have to ask, does he use it all to become the human headline that he is...? Of course, most likely. Will he double on those efforts as Prez...? Unlikely.
Trump had a good limber up for the AIPAC event at the Jewish Republican Coalition presidential show in December. Told the crowd " you're not gonna like me, don't want you're money" about 5 times... Highlight reel stuff.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PQYOvDmWqjo
We are talking Trump.
And so, Trump wins.
Posted by: MadMax2 | Mar 24 2016 3:13 utc | 96
Posted by: AriusArmenian | Mar 23, 2016 12:47:03 PM | 76
"Trump is what America is, which is cleverly masked by marketing in Hillary, Bernie, Ted, and all the rest. It won't matter who get elected. Neocons = Neoliberals. More millions will die and more destruction by the Empire."
Amen!
Posted by: Jack Smith | Mar 24 2016 4:28 utc | 97
Here's an interesting take on the appeal of The Donald, by Scott Adams, creator of "Dilbert."
“If you see voters as rational you’ll be a terrible politician,” Adams writes on his blog. “People are not wired to be rational. Our brains simply evolved to keep us alive. Brains did not evolve to give us truth. Brains merely give us movies in our minds that keeps us sane and motivated. But none of it is rational or true, except maybe sometimes by coincidence.”
If one is a firm believer in Enlightenment rationalism (like your humble poster), this while disturbing must be acknowledged. A contradiction -- one apparently needs to appeal to the emotions to get people to make rational choices.
Adams notes that the greatest emotional appeal that The Donald has made is to acknowledge the suffering of the working class, which neither party has really addressed. If there were an effective labor party here, we proles would be addressing this ourselves.
And so, what is to be done?
Posted by: rufus magister | Mar 24 2016 12:13 utc | 98
Realising how much and why the "working class" despise and distrust people like yourself might be a good start.
Posted by: Kashoggi | Mar 24 2016 12:37 utc | 99
Blame the victim clap-trap.
A Hillary supporter defines 'rational' as what is good for the establishment.
Humble? LOL.
What is to be done? Beware snakes in the grass.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 24 2016 12:59 utc | 100
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No bern for me, I'll be voting Green.
Posted by: jo6pac | Mar 22 2016 17:49 utc | 1