I look forward to the entertainment from the next election, especially if the Donald wins because the weeping and gnashing of teeth will be glorious. Though I think that Michael Hudson is right in that it doesn't really matter what America does, it's too debt ridden and high cost to ever consider reindustrializing and bringing manufacturing home.

Posted by: leaf | Aug 18 2022 11:11 utc | 1

USA is steadily heading for a complete doom and the only thing which can fix this is action from the people who don't desire to serfs.

Too late for ballots,

Too soon for bullets....
Or is it..

Posted by: NorwegianPawn | Aug 18 2022 11:31 utc | 2

I agree with your sentiment (& also Robert Barnes sentiment). This seems to be a deep state/ admin state/ bureaucracy state, (not particularly Democratic party) operation to recover documents incriminating or otherwise, that would uncover some rather nefarious activities that they don't want exposed to the public. One hopes that they didn't find the the said documents.

Posted by: Anon | Aug 18 2022 11:45 utc | 3

USA has always had the capacity to be throughly fascist. It was remarkable when I lived there that it wasn't, and quite amazing.........

The Reagan Era permitted Mergers that simply created the Corporate State and allowed Profits to grow at the expense of Labour. It is as if Thatcher and Reagan set out to prove Karl Marx right - increasing concentration of Capital, commoditisation of Labour, declining Rate of Profit leading to Imperialism, and continued cost-cutting until communities and social fabric ceased to exist

The marketisation and franchising of everything divorced from heritage - whether football clubs or universities or core traditional businesses in one-company towns. The sale of brandnames to offshore producers stripping meaning and heritage..........

Whether it is Samsung with AKG and JBL or Mondelez with Cabury or BMW with Rolls-Royce or Becks with InBev.........or Harvard Business School openly courting rich Asians to send their children to a "finishing school" with Ski Clubs and country-club facilities

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Aug 18 2022 11:47 utc | 4

The problem in the US of A is that none of this matters in the end. The cantakerous, decrepit "liberals" are opposed by so-called "conservatives" who are every bit as volatile in foreign policy whenever the establishment media press the line of "un-patriotic stance". This was proved in the grandest manner during Trump's presidency on almost every single issue. And of course, in domestic policy the Republicans are a walking disaster themselves, matching the horror of the Dems. In the end, when it comes to the economy, both parties are hard-core neoliberal outfits.

The FBI raid was a great opportunity for the so-called conservatives to engage in some self-reflection on their own stance towards the overbloated fascistic security apparatus that they have supported for so long, but it ain't gonna happen, at least not for the greater part of that constituency. I seriously doubt that a significant segment of the indignant Trump supporters would express the same disgust had the target been a prominent ACTUAL socialist.

It would also be a splendid moment of the US American leftists to make their case on this issue to the so-called conservatives (since the political Left has always been targeted by the Edgar Js), but the gender-fluid political parody that passes as the left there (and the west in general) mostly goes after the Reps to defend the DNC. In the minds of the crettins, the Reps are the rightists and the Dems are some sort of centrists who simply hesitate to go sufficiently leftwards.

IMHO the comedian Jimmy Dore was correct in his stance on the matter and his characterization of US politics ("America has two right-wing parties"), as well as his denunciation of the leftist fraudds, i.e. liberals who desire to pose as socialists.

Posted by: Constantine | Aug 18 2022 11:48 utc | 5

Hard to believe any documents so valuable to DT he would not have been copied and stored in multiple secret locations...

Posted by: Gerry Bell | Aug 18 2022 12:12 utc | 6

@5:

("America has two right-wing parties"), as well as his denunciation of the leftist fraudds, i.e. liberals who desire to pose as socialists.

You could also say they're both left wing parties, as they support the state controlling schools, medicine, policing, a fiat currency, etc etc.

The best description of Western countries is that they are economically fascist: nominal private ownership of the means of production, heavily regulated by the State.

Posted by: Observer | Aug 18 2022 12:19 utc | 7

@5
Yes. It is a one-party fake wrestling match and it works. The "Republicans" have been staunch defenders of fiscal responsibility but the US somehow is trillions and trillions of dollars in debt. The "Democrats" are the people's party, thus the US has no national health care and a $7 basic wage.

This fakery has imagined a faux battle that splits any majority in nearly half before any race for equitable governance even starts. So damn simple, and it works.

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Aug 18 2022 12:21 utc | 8

Hard to believe any documents so valuable to DT he would not have been copied and stored in multiple secret locations...

Posted by: Gerry Bell | Aug 18 2022 12:12 utc | 6

...or scanned to PDF and placed on thumb drives.

That said, the NYT article is surely misdirection. It is entirely likely that Trump, having been subject to blackmail/greenmail during his term, would keep materials to level the playing field.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Aug 18 2022 12:23 utc | 9

"agents went into Trump's residence on the pretext"

Whatever its reality (Newsweek source), it's all you need to know.

Posted by: Veritas in vino | Aug 18 2022 12:27 utc | 10

The media in the US and abroad facilitated the mental breakdown of the professional classes in the US who can't concieve how life-long Democrats who voted for Obama twice voted for Trump in many Great Lakes areas tipping the electoral college in his favour massively. Trump's not delivering enough (Or being perceived to have not delivered, the massive numbers who stormed the US border not long after Biden took office would surely not have appeared otherwise) and a 4 year media coup led to him failing to reproduce this. (Though he did pick up a big increase in Latino working class voters who seemed to be particularly bothered by 'woke-ism', such as the term' Latinx', which is now used officially by all US government and media outlets)

They simply cannot conceive that mass migration could be seen as a problem. This was combined with the neocons freakout both about immigration restrictions and Trump's comments about Syria and ISIS which were the genesis of the 'Russiagate' notion that progressive liberals took up in their meltdown and which now exists as a crazy idea in that it's not really defended as being true factually but also still somehow true emotionally. They can't accept that anyone would vote for the broad populist and anti-Syrian war platform of Trump except from pure evil. The unwoke understand the woke but the woke refuse to understand the unwoke and consider them pure evil despite the vast expanse of views and motivations of the unwoke as compared to the woke. Wokeness is just the political ideology of teenage girls with extremely emotional personalities and desire for virtue signalling really.

If the Democrats wanted rid of Trump for who he is they could do it easily, change your platform on immigration to take away Trump's monopoly, change your neocon policy and or change your industrial and trade policy. Even one of these would help enormously but then we see with their takedown of Bernie who would have beaten Trump in 2016 that actually it is the neoliberal economics, immigration included and neocon foreign policy that they actually hold dear and hate Trump for refuting and making elections into a referendum on.

It is this lack of comprehension and empathy, aided by a media that and social media which egg it all on which makes change impossible. Thinking another way, why would any group of people want to be displaced socially and economically and have to compete with an unending stream of ethnic and culturally alien people? That's not aggressive, that's defensive, they aren't evil, telling them they're evil for wanting appropriate social defense is evil. That the likes of Ellen had Bush on the show, that Conan O'Brien has Vincente Fox on and now that Dems demand Liz Cheney get elected out of 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' shows that the upper middle classes have lost their minds. Anytime they want rid of Trump it's easy but they can't do it.

Denmark is one of the most liberal and progressive countries in the world with people who are socially conscious generous 'global citizens' who care about global warming and plight of other nations. Yet the Social Democrats there were able to stand up and say that mass migration wasn't appropriate, a country has to actually belong to it's people the current generation of which don't own it but who are custodians for future generations. Denmark hasn't exploded, it's economy hasn't fallen apart and it hasn't become more right wing. Rather the Danish Social Democrats understood that immigration causes inequality, strife, creates ethnic politics and makes people deeply unhappy and disrupts a normal society.

Posted by: Altai | Aug 18 2022 12:31 utc | 11

What Liz the... did was just trying to claw back the party from Maga wing and their man God Trump. Just a tussle over money and power. No wonder us msm has no credibility

Posted by: A.z | Aug 18 2022 12:39 utc | 12

Trump passed up to chances to return classified documents. He didn't. A search warrant was the next step. Unlike Russiagate, classified documents were found validating the premise of the 'raid'.

'unprecedented?'. So is holding onto classified docs. Name a prior President who did the same thing.

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Aug 18 2022 12:44 utc | 13

@7
What’s sad and amusing is that both the fascists and the socialists want a powerful state, the former to make it appear that a semblance of a free market exits, and the latter who wants to do away with the free market and private property rights entirely so they can take good care of us poor downtrodden proles. In both cases the state and it’s minions win, and ordinary people lose. They lose their freedom and become political pawns.

Posted by: Art Thomas | Aug 18 2022 12:49 utc | 14

Can anyone remind me which Deep State assassinations and other skulduggery did Trumplethinskin declassify? Yes there was the usually bluster and threats to do so, but nothing materialised.

Who aside Americans care about their red-blue pill banana republic that's sliding into obscurity?

Posted by: WTFUD | Aug 18 2022 12:51 utc | 15

Re the FBI raid on Trump’s Florida compound (Posts 1,5,10,11 above):

An outcome unmentioned by US media is that Trump now has no access to thousands of documents needed for his civil lawsuit in Florida court against Hilary Clinton, James Comey, et al over their parts in the “Russia collusion” narrative from 2016 through 2019. This may indeed have been the primary motive for the raid, as the article below cites specific, relativeley recent legal precedent that, regardless of the content of Trump’s flies, he could not be guilty of criminality. The article quotes that judge’s extensive review of a similar DOJ case against Bill Clinton.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/old-case-over-audio-tapes-bill-clintons-sock-drawer-could-impact

Posted by: Ciaran | Aug 18 2022 12:59 utc | 16

@leaf #1
The US national debt is in dollars.
The US government can print dollars.
The debt isn't the problem - the US government and leadership is.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 18 2022 13:03 utc | 17

@Paul Greenwood #4
Reagan and Thatcher did harm, but it was Clinton who really unleashed the bankster beast.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 18 2022 13:05 utc | 18

@Constantine #5
Those who aren't blinded by Conservative-Derangement-Syndrome can see that most of the voices pushing back against the Deep State are Trumpist, if only for self-defense.
As Mercouris noted: Trump is a highly flawed individual who has made many mistakes; he is also the best positioned, highest profile individual who continues to make a stand against the Deep State.
Whether Trump does this for spite, self-defense, or principle doesn't really matter.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 18 2022 13:08 utc | 19

@Christian Chuba #14
Clearly you are Trump-deranged.
Or do you deny the illegal email server which HRC was running?

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 18 2022 13:11 utc | 20

Name a prior President who did the same thing.

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Aug 18 2022 12:44 utc | 14

MSM has not told us who to consider.. without their help there is no justification for a search warrant. I suggest the very act of allowing any government to classify its documents is nothing short of NAZISM.

In a democracy everyone should be informed.. as in theory the next uninformed person could become the next President of the United States.. however, the democratic route to the White House has been blocked by the Democrap and Reputaturd parties, the msm, the rules they made into their laws and the electoral college.

Null Hypothesis: USA Citizens are governed by an aristocratic democracy .. but the governed citizens are not part of it.

Posted by: snake | Aug 18 2022 13:13 utc | 21

Who cares? Neo-cons versus a con-artist. Same garbage all over the place.

Posted by: Steve | Aug 18 2022 13:30 utc | 22

USA needs a 3rd political party, so none of the present 2 would have a majority. Otherwise, there's going to be a civil war in the very near future.

Posted by: rp | Aug 18 2022 13:36 utc | 23

" material that Trump apparently thought would exonerate him of any claims of Russian collusion in 2016 or any other election-related charges."

It does not give credit to Trump that he did not refute "any claims..." already. Limited ability and bad advise, while he get sufficient mileage by spewing a mix of sensible and nonsensical that is palatable to "deplorable". Liberals have their own mix for their tribe.

Now we (in USA) will have a disaster with apple flavor or apple flavor.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 18 2022 13:44 utc | 24

Correction: apple flavor and cherry flavor, there will be choice after all.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 18 2022 13:44 utc | 25

In the meantime,

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that as part of additional strategic deterrence measures, three MiG-31 aircraft with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were relocated to the Chkalovsk airfield in the Kaliningrad region. They will be on duty around the clock.

After this message, the Finnish Ministry of Defense stated that two Russian MiG-31 fighters could violate the country's airspace.

Just wondering, what can the Finns do, even if the MiGs "violated" their airspace?

Kindzal has a range of ~2 thousand kilometers and can travel at a speed of ~3,400 meters per second.

Posted by: rp | Aug 18 2022 13:47 utc | 26

This reminds me of Gerry Spence, the famous trial lawyer:

-- “I found that the minions of the law–the special agents of the FBI–to be men who proved themselves not only fully capable, but also utterly willing to manufacture evidence, to conceal crucial evidence and even to change the rules that governed life and death if, in the prosecution of the accused, it seemed expedient to do so.”
–From Freedom to Slavery, p. 27

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2022 13:49 utc | 27

Offtopic.

While Germany (or was it UK?) prohibits citizens watering their gardens with hoses - civilizedly and ecologedly - ths savage ork Putin...

https://imgur.com/a/Sfz2ahb

Posted by: Arioch | Aug 18 2022 13:54 utc | 28

USA Citizens are governed by an aristocratic democracy .. but the governed citizens are not part of it.

Posted by: snake | Aug 18 2022 13:13 utc | 22

Not just the USA, all major "democratic" countries are like that. As Churchill said: "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."

It takes a dedicated career of at least a decade in politics to get to a position of influence in any political party. Most of us do not want to make that investment of time and energy.

I theorized a while back that the internet and blockchain together could make direct democracy possible, with referendums on all key legislation and policy decisions. But with the level MSM control of the average person's thoughts opinions, would it make any difference?

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Aug 18 2022 14:08 utc | 29

Margaret Kimberley, as usual talking sense:

"The years long Russiagate investigation is responsible for ordinarily sensible people losing their minds. Hardly anyone recalls that the charge of collusion was actually disproven, that Robert Mueller only indicted for process crimes, such as those which occur when people let down their guard and talk to the FBI. Most Americans who know the name Paul Manafort think he was a Russian spy but don’t know that he went to jail for tax and bank fraud. Propaganda works very well when it is repeated over and over again.

"Worse than the silly Trump inspired derangement is the way that those who call themselves left or progressive have chosen to defend federal law enforcement and bad legislation like the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act is a relic from the earliest days of the cold war, and Woodrow Wilson’s infamous Palmer Raids which targeted the left for persecution and prosecution. Barack Obama used it more than all previous presidents combined in order to prosecute journalists who published what the state didn’t want us to know. As for the FBI, its Counter Intelligence Program, COINTELPRO, created dissension in the liberation movement, targeted individuals for prosecution, spied on Martin Luther King and told him to commit suicide, and killed Fred Hampton and Mark Clark among others. The FBI continues to use informants to entrap Black people in phony terror cases..."

https://www.blackagendareport.com/trump-derangement-syndrome-returns

Posted by: bevin | Aug 18 2022 14:10 utc | 30

Agreed. The excuses for this raid make no sense. All former presidents have the highest level of security clearance. All are offered daily security briefings. Any papers in Trump’s possession would be legal because he has the highest level of clearance.

In my opinion, the real story here is that the US “Bureaucratic” state is at war with itself. Why is Trump surrounded by military people?Why do the three letter agencies hate him so much? Also why did the Dems and FBI work so hard to bog General Flynn down in a legal morass from the outset? Could it be that the three letter agencies over reached in the 2008 to 2014 period? They opened up so many fronts at the same time in Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Iran, Egypt’ and all while signaling to China that they were coming for it next (the pivot to Asia). I suspect the military boys said this is too much, these intelligence boys need to be put back in their box.

Sadly these “Bureaucratic” wars often end up being generalized civil wars. Phillips Egalite in France was a prime mover in the decades leading up to the French Revolution. The Russian Revolution started in 1903 followed by over a decade of bureaucratic wrangling before the real drama got going.

Posted by: VtObserver | Aug 18 2022 14:13 utc | 31

If only Republican votes really didn't count!

Posted by: fnord | Aug 18 2022 14:25 utc | 32

If only Republican votes really didn't count!

Posted by: fnord | Aug 18 2022 14:25 utc | 34

They don’t. Check out the farcical Republican primary in Vermont.

Posted by: VtObserver | Aug 18 2022 14:28 utc | 33

What’s troubling me is the potential for gross negligence, and Nixon/Ford showed the way. Chaney or Newsom take VP position, then take the President position. Pardon everyone and everything associated with the Obrandon crime syndicate, thwart everything republicans do in congress. America is phucked!

Posted by: Earl | Aug 18 2022 14:29 utc | 34

Constantine | Aug 18 2022 11:48 utc | 5

"I seriously doubt that a significant segment of the indignant Trump supporters would express the same disgust had the target been a prominent ACTUAL socialist."

If that actual socialist was a former president of the USA, sure, why not? It's not just Trump fans who dislike their darling being lawfared against, it's also people who are disgusted with the way the FBI treats are former president, no matter what his name is.

---

Christian Chuba | Aug 18 2022 12:44 utc | 14

"Name a prior President who did the same thing."

Every US president since the invention of the printing press.

---

Ciaran | Aug 18 2022 12:59 utc | 17

"An outcome unmentioned by US media is that Trump now has no access to thousands of documents needed for his civil lawsuit in Florida court against Hilary Clinton, James Comey, et al over their parts in the “Russia collusion” narrative from 2016 through 2019. This may indeed have been the primary motive for the raid"

I believe so, too. Especially because the judge who signed the search warrent is the very same judge who presided over Trump's case in Florida. He did so until July, when all of a sudden he recused himself from the Trump case. Before that, the judge had 5 months to leisurely study every page which Trump filed in his case.

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Aug 18 2022 14:30 utc | 35

That's the Libtardian Corruption rearing their Collective Heads.

We know the 2020 Elections had Irregularities when Ballots were dumped into Polling Stations late at night while banning some pollsters. Several of these Computer Balloting Devices were Closed Sourced w/o Auditing Schemes.

How Biden became the recipient of the greatest number of popular votes is a massive joke and ongoing collapse of the Republic to Oligarchic Planning and Mob Ochlarchic Execution.

Cheney was DUMPED as she should have been. However, Murica the "Original Federal Democratic Republic" is done for. Citizens United and “Camp of the Saints"- Global OpenBorder Bazaar have taken over the transformation of Murica.

I've suggested for a Constitutional Convention to discuss Secessions to accommodate the Ideological Divide, so I've Washed My Hands from this.

Posted by: IronForge | Aug 18 2022 14:51 utc | 36

"...both the fascists and the socialists want a powerful state ... In both cases the state and it’s minions win, and ordinary people lose. They lose their freedom and become political pawns."

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Aug 18 2022 14:58 utc | 37

For the USA the problem with politics is fairly simple, i.e., systemic corruption. That means that even if people within the system want to "do the right thing" they cannot do so without losing their positions in one way or the other. When I worked in government there were two major saying governing our actions: 1) no good deed goes unpunished; and 2) cover your ass. You iterate these principles of conduct a million times and you get what most of us not blinded by propaganda can see--a toxic mess. However, this "mess" is very profitable for the oligarchs and their factotums. For the rest, in order to survive in your job or profession, you follow whatever line is announced on the major media outlets even if you know it's bullshit--since everyone else is doing the same thing your conscience is easily tamed. Let me be clear here the "system" is the whole society with a number of outsiders like many who post here but inconsequential to the highly networked system.

Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Aug 18 2022 15:16 utc | 38

@ VtObserver 32
why did the Dems and FBI work so hard to bog General Flynn down in a legal morass from the outset?
Because Flynn as the chief of Pentagon intelligence revealed that the US was supporting ISIS.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2022 15:59 utc | 39

when will the usa people wake up to the fact their is no oversight on the intel agencies - fbi and cia?? for those who have woken up - what are you going to do about it?

i suppose it is ultimately about politics, but this is a very big issue that no one seems to be addressing directly.. instead it gets bogged down in partisan politics...

Posted by: james | Aug 18 2022 16:02 utc | 40

Hageman used a very simple campaign slogan that Trump will certainly use: Save America. I commented upon that on another blog last night and asked its readers if they had any idea how arduous an effort would be needed to attain that goal.

As for any docs Trump might have, he'd have them in a safety deposit box within a small obscure bank unconnected to him personally, and I hope he does and uses them. While Trump's a member of the class Plundering the USA and its citizenry, he also appears to be an oddity trying to destabilize Plunder Inc from the inside.

The problem itself is somewhat easy to diagnose as Hudson has done quite well. It's fixing the problem that's become extremely difficult because the biggest part of the problem's the capture of the political and regulatory processes at the federal level, along with the media that works to suppress the diagnosis.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 18 2022 16:06 utc | 41

I look forward to the entertainment from the next election, especially if the Donald wins because the weeping and gnashing of teeth will be glorious. Though I think that Michael Hudson is right in that it doesn't really matter what America does, it's too debt ridden and high cost to ever consider reindustrializing and bringing manufacturing home.

Posted by: leaf | Aug 18 2022 11:11 utc | 1

I want Trump to win again because it will bring the shooting part of the Civil War to life much sooner.

If it hasn't already started by then, that is.

I want to see large parts of America burn, however it happens.

Posted by: Michigan Dude | Aug 18 2022 16:06 utc | 42

What partisan nonsense! "Dogs bites" man isn't news. The headline could just as easily read: "Conservative to Democratic Primary Voters: 'Your Votes Don't Count!'" You might as well say: "your partisanship is vile and wicked, while my partisanship is virtuous and well deserved." It's always the same, divide and rule, divide and rule. Dupes are either driven into one camp or another, over and over again. Face it: if you are engaging in the partisanship game then you are simply a foot soldier to those running the show and part of the problem, no more and no less. Stop running in circles already!

Posted by: Sam | Aug 18 2022 16:12 utc | 43

Sorry, not buying it. When the highest authority in the land — the POTUS — tells you that the vote was stolen, then it was. Why bother to vote? Makes good a show?

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Aug 18 2022 16:18 utc | 44

No mystery, it's capitalism vs. socialism, US bloc vs. China bloc, and we know who's winning and who's losing. Meanwhile the US is saying that it's really democracy vs. autocracy, which it isn't. In fact democracy, governance by citizens via representatives, doesn't exist anywhere especially in the autocratic US.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2022 16:20 utc | 45

@rp | Aug 18 2022 13:36 utc | 24

USA needs a 3rd political party, so none of the present 2 would have a majority. Otherwise, there's going to be a civil war in the very near future.

The parties are the problem, creating a 3rd party does not solve anything. We have a bunch or parties over here, but no alternatives.

Abolish political parties, they are only useful for the already powerful. Today, every citizen could vote on political issues in much the same we use online banking.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 18 2022 16:22 utc | 46

We really need to get over with this left-right bullshit.

If it ever made any sence it is useless for the descrption of what is going on.

The only distinction that has any value at the moment is sane vs insane.

In fact in its extremes left and right are for all purposes the same. (Or do you prefer stalins gulags over hitlers kz? Or vice versa?)

For the US i really dont care anymore if anybody calls himself a "lefty". If you support these democrats you are not left you are insane.
As for the reps and trump: they have some extreme positions but those are generally just the status quo (abortion, gun laws). There are reasons not to like these positions but they are not insane.
The country does not become a failed state because women are required to get a coil if they wanna prevent a pregnancy.
And for trump: nothing in his policies between 2016 and 2020 points to a racist, blood thirsty, fascist dictator. It was 97% media "trump said this, trump said that" twitter bs. If he was he would have used the 2020 george floyd summer to activate some kind of military law. But he didnt.
The thing people hate about trump is his attitude. He is a proletarian by nature and the educated classes cant stand a guy like that in the position of potus. For the same reason the uneducated classes love him so much. (Actually in a european sence proletarian politicians are a left wing tradition. Gerhard schröder for example).

There was a guy recently here who told us that he would oppose putin because he (the guy) is economically left wing and putin was not.
So putin has done away with oligarchs in russia and put big business in his place, is passing increases of pensions, social spending, minimum wages and special rewards for this and that and the next thing virtually every time i hear him speak but he is perceived as right wing ECONOMICALLY?

This whole right-left thing is nothing but perception. It is nothing but ideology designed to keep you divided.
Espescially "the left" is deeply focussed on the "i would never vote right" thing. Well, your perception of what is left (good) and what or who is right (bad) stems entirely from cnn and the media.

I for my part will happily go along with every party which promotes at least a magnitude of sane positions. I may not like the position of a "right wing party" when it comes to immigration but we are really not in a position to fight over such questions at the moment. The whole west is sliding into tyranny very quickly. You may call it communism or fascism or technocrazy i dont care. Any party who offers a fight against these forces is welcome regardless of right or left.

Posted by: Orgel | Aug 18 2022 16:40 utc | 47

saw an on the ground report from wyoming the other day and it was basically voter after voter expressing visceral hatred for cheney. that twatish headline made me think of her dad's famous line when informed that the majority of voters disagree with his decisions: "so?"

(it may have been "so what?" or "and?" but double checking is difficult as google is garbage.)

as for the MaL documents or lack thereof i heard reports yesterday that they were fishing for anything related to selling nukes to the saudis. ironic given that the same clandestine sales to israel were met with deafening silence. also worth noting that china - for some insane reason - have been aiding the oil apes with nuclear tech lately.

Posted by: the pair | Aug 18 2022 16:41 utc | 48

(it may have been "so what?" or "and?" but double checking is difficult as google is garbage.)

Posted by: the pair | Aug 18 2022 16:41 utc | 50

My memory of that agrees with yours ("so?"). They made a fetish of arrogance and snotty remarks, the Bushites. Cowboys.

I notice that attitude is not working for Cheney these days.

Posted by: Bemildred | Aug 18 2022 16:56 utc | 49

Norwegian | Aug 18 2022 16:22 utc | 48

Today, every citizen could vote on political issues in much the same we use online banking

In fact, here in Italy, the referendum seems to be the most socially beneficial electoral tool. From water rights to abortion rights to stem cell research limitations, etc., etc. After the disaster at Chernobyl, a referendum shut down the production of nuclear power on Italian soil.

Posted by: john | Aug 18 2022 16:58 utc | 50

Scotch B @37

If the same documents are the basis of a 5 month old lawsuit vs. Clinton, both sets of lawyers already have said documents.

Posted by: Mjh | Aug 18 2022 17:00 utc | 51

@ Posted by: Art Thomas | Aug 18 2022 12:49 utc | 15
“What’s sad…”

It’s the Socialists of Russia who are once again Smacking down the Fascists on their doorstep again.

It’s simple, as in moronic, that USAsians keep repeating the same old same old that confuses Communism with Socialism. The US military is a wholly Government Funded socialist enterprise. It certainly doesn’t pretend to be run by cut throat rain maker executives on a for profit basis - does it? If you don’t like Socialism then better get some Musk/Gates to supply you with your military needs and make sure there is competition so you can choose which one you want to buy.

Now that, really would be amusing - watching how many dumbest yanks would actually pay into a military that provides ZILCH for them.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 18 2022 17:02 utc | 52

Too late for ballots,
Too soon for bullets....
@ NorwegianPawn | Aug 18 2022 11:31 utc | 2

Many will recognize an implicit reference to brother Malcolm X's classic speech "The Ballot or the Bullet" -- which in turn invites befuddlement over the question: Why do we apparently suffer such a paucity, when we need it most, of inspirational thought-leaders like Malcolm? Margaret Kimberley (cited by bevin above) fills the bill for me, but we have to concede she's hardly a frightening firebrand, more an eminence grise.

The roots of both words denote some sort of little ball, descended from different linguistic parents. This is from Word Origins (1950) by Wilfred Funk:

The ancient Greek dropped a white ball of stone or metal or shell in a container when he favored a candidate, a black ball when he was against -- which explains why the undesirable are still "blackballed" in our clubs.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Aug 18 2022 17:10 utc | 53

Below from Reuters shows how Trump is history

A longtime senior executive at Donald Trump's family business pleaded guilty on Thursday to helping the company engineer a 15-year tax fraud, in an agreement that will require him to testify about its business practices

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 18 2022 17:11 utc | 54

Don Bacon @47--

Meanwhile the US is saying that it's really democracy vs. autocracy, which it isn't.

Well, Plunder Inc is actually correct but misrepresents what it actually is, an oligarchic autocracy that's effectively removed rule (kratos) by the people (demos) from the national level of government. Hudson reviews that and more at the beginning of his Destiny of Civilization. The fact that democracy still functions at the other two levels of federalism--state and local--has helped blind the populous to their plight. IMO, the easiest way to Save America is to jettison the federal government altogether and make illegal all private rentier institutions, while repudiating all dollar denominated debts. Radical? Yes. Pragmatic? Yes. Disruptive? Yes. Acknowledges the fact that the federal government has become an unaccountable oligarchic institution working against the people's interests? Yes. The easiest path to MAGA? Yes. Remove the Outlaw US Empire as the global pariah? Yes. An idea whose time has come for very serious consideration? Yes.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 18 2022 17:13 utc | 55

Trump, & Co., has the "dirty" on Strzok, cia pretending to be, or was, fbi.

Posted by: Fíréan | Aug 18 2022 17:15 utc | 56

as global times noted, the govt won't show the affadavit used to justify the raid. which suggests that the affadavit is based on spurious evidence and would not hold up under public scrutiny.

the raid has really galvanized trump supporters, and people like me, who support neither party and just look on this partisan lawfare with disgust.

the bonus is that it helps precipitate the crisis point necessary to break things so they might get perhaps fixed. I now sound like an anarchist and I too am surprised by this shift. when it can't be fixed internally, the system must be smashed.

Posted by: mastameta | Aug 18 2022 17:23 utc | 57

Unconvincing.

Trump's election was 6 years ago and the Muller Report 3 years ago. The American public is too fickle to be swayed by things tht happened that long ago especially when so much happened in between; 2 impeachments, insurrection attempt, covid, vaccines, floyd riots, Ukraine, inflation, Roe vs Wade ...

Always remember, whatever's accused of democrats, the repubicans are just as depraved and they'll say anything they believe will persuade people to vote for them. Nothing more, nothing less.

A hypothetical expose of Russiagate is too unimportant to be worth such a blatant abuse of power.

I think Trump has something much more sinister in his possession that the democrats nor the deep state really don't want anybody to see.

At this point, any sepculation is a fool's errand.

Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Aug 18 2022 17:27 utc | 58

DunGroanin | Aug 18 2022 17:02 utc | 54

The US military is a wholly Government Funded socialist enterprise

Well, yeah, but they sure have some 'splainin' to do.

Posted by: john | Aug 18 2022 17:39 utc | 59

To: c1ue | Aug 18 2022 13:03 utc | 18

"The US national debt is in dollars.
The US government can print dollars.
The debt isn't the problem - the US government and leadership is."

Surely, you are joking. The US Govt has been printing dollars since decades and where has that taken the US? There are no free meals in the real world, I remind you.

Posted by: I am Laughing | Aug 18 2022 17:57 utc | 60

Not sure how to take the meaning of the headline. But given my experience back in the day working primaries I would say that republican votes do matter for the simple reason that gop hold honest primaries. Democrats cheat each other rather heavily during their primaries. Witness what happened to Bernie and what did NOT happen to Trump. The elite gop daddies who hated Trump could not game or cheat the primaries to stop him.

Now the gopers have become masters of gaming the general elections. Democrats are always several steps behind the republicans in gaming general elections.

However, in America a person's vote does not count in the general election. Studies and just worldly experience have shown that every elected politician can be controlled by various industries, oligarchs, and lobbyists. Those who control an elected official will of course vary. But as individuals, American voters don't matter.

Posted by: Erelis | Aug 18 2022 18:13 utc | 61

@Observer 7

"You could also say they're both left wing parties, as..."

You could say it, but it would not be accurate.

Left and Right

The terms left and right originated in the French Revolution to describe the seating arrangement where the sans culotte (people too poor to own trousers) were not represented by anyone, representatives of the proletariat and petite bourgeoisie demanding "movement" (what we would call progress) sat to the left of the speaker, so-called moderates on each side clustered in the center around the speaker, while the representatives of the bourgeoisie, aristocracy, and clergy demanding order (or what we would call conservatives) sat on the right. In the USA there is no left because the USA is an oligarchy and the people have neither representation nor control. Obama correctly characterized himself as being right of Nixon, who was far right of center.

Left

The 99%. The poor, workers, and professionals. Progressives. Congruent with millennials and post-millennials. Currently unrepresented in the US.

Center

Eliminated or co-opted by the oligarchs. Does not exist in US politics.

Right

Traditionally the crown, the bourgeoisie (bankers and money lenders), and the church. Wealthy conservatives. Ranges from Republican fiscal conservatives, through all shades of Democrats to those Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians right of Attila the Hun.

This is why communism and socialism are leftist, and all other political structures are rightist. Anarchists are not a political organization and so are not left or right.

Regime

A system under which progress occurs. The use of "regime" for the USA is wrong. The USA is a system under which regression occurs

For (much) more,
Political Terminology - The 7 minute FAQ to knowing everything necessary to understand American politics

Posted by: Hermit | Aug 18 2022 18:13 utc | 62

The parties are the problem, creating a 3rd party does not solve anything.

Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 18 2022 16:22 utc | 48
----

It is not a question of solving the problem, could be even for making it even worse. I'd happily watch if it becomes even worse in the Empire of Lies.

Posted by: rp | Aug 18 2022 18:17 utc | 63

mastameta @59--

Why, where did federalism fail? My answer: The Constitution was Oligarchic at the outset and thus fatally flawed; it should've been voted down in 1787. But given the hold Plunder already had upon the political economy and prevailing attitudes at the time, could something better have been devised? I'm very doubtful. The unstated goal for many was to seize all of North America for Plunder. Afterall, Plunder was the biggest driving force behind the Revolution--the Colonists wanted it all for themselves. My reply @59 is an admission that Plunder is no longer desirable and has become self-defeating. The current system is unreformable and requires rebuilding, but such a task cannot be allowed to be done by the current political or business classes or we'll end up with another failure. And so we're stuck on the horns of the dilemma.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 18 2022 18:21 utc | 64

@ karlof1 57
The fact that democracy still functions at the other two levels of federalism--state and local

Really? What's the evidence that citizens generally govern at the local level.
There is, or used to be, some evidence at the local level. I grew up in a small New England town where the town meeting, run by an elected "moderator," conducted the proceedings. 'All those in favor of buying a new snowplow raise your hands.' Also there are some referenda in about half the US states on some matters. But governance? Generally not. They still may be going on in New England, I don't know. The pandemic had an effect, article here.
I live in California now where a major part of the county includes "unincorporated" towns which have no local government at all. None. These towns are dying, suffering from general inattention, which seems to be the general policy. Get everyone to live in the city where they can be controlled by 'civilization.'

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2022 18:36 utc | 65

none of this shit is in the US constitution. it's a complete charade.

declassify everything. immediately. people cannot know what they don't know when the state runs on its secretiveness.

why anyone gives a rat's ass about the state flushing an illiterate turd like Trump in as humiliating a way as possible is baffling to me. the function of law enforcement is to encourage or discourage certain behaviors, to set examples thru punishment. the law has little to do with it. it is not possible to know what is "really happening" in this environment of secrecy.

so Trump chose to race in NASCAR and I'm supposed to feel sorry that his car crashed and is on fire around him? i'm supposed to care about something other than entertaining it will be to watch the march to the scaffolding and his neck snap?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Aug 18 2022 18:36 utc | 66

The Articles of Confederation that the Constitution replaced were already a better alternative. If close votes in Virginia and New York had gone the other way, the Constitution might never have replaced the Articles.

Posted by: Lysias | Aug 18 2022 18:48 utc | 67

rjb1.5, You want a civil war? Executing Trump would cause that to happen more certainly than just about anything.

Posted by: Lysias | Aug 18 2022 18:52 utc | 68

You want a civil war?

Posted by: Lysias | Aug 18 2022 18:52 utc | 70
---

In the Empire of Lies? Yes, of course!

Posted by: rp | Aug 18 2022 18:58 utc | 69

Lysias | Aug 18 2022 18:52 utc | 70
i did mean that more metaphorically, as in ruining his career and jail time, loss of his stolen wealth and the like. but they live by the sword and won't get a tear out of me whatever their fate.

so should the state be more concerned about "upholding the rule of law"? or the theoretical possibility of "civil war", when a person most americans rightly despise as a piece of human dogshit gets what's coming to him?

civil war? because of this? because a piece of garbage gets removed from the national trash pile? not over, say, what the US, w/Trump's complete and total cooperation, is doing in Ukraine?

you still didn't address the main point: they've got people fighting over stuff we cannot possibly evaluate or understand. nicely done, ruling class.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Aug 18 2022 19:01 utc | 70

The FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago last Monday was specifically intended to recover Donald Trump's personal "stash" of hidden documents, two high-level U.S. intelligence officials tell Newsweek.

This is what Sundance speculated, but it is interesting to read it from Newsweek and from two anonymous offcials.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Aug 18 2022 19:06 utc | 71

"In the way that counts, Liz Cheney won".

What does this Mr. Bruni say?
He says:

We will have to stop democratic elections.
We will have to regard politics as a fight between good and evil.
The good mustn't be defeated by the evil.
Who does not support the good, is evil.

Prepare for it.

Posted by: njet | Aug 18 2022 19:10 utc | 72

Posted by: rp | Aug 18 2022 13:47 utc | 27

Woah! "What can Finland do?" Well,the Finnish Border Control has launched a pre-investigation into the incident. So there!

Posted by: Jonathan W | Aug 18 2022 19:37 utc | 73

@I am Laughing #62

Largest military in the world, including spending more than the next 8 or 10 largest military spenders put together.
Very rich politicians and bureaucrats in Washington DC: the zip codes around DC and adjoining Virginia are now the richest in the whole country.
Children of politicians on boards of major corporations in foreign countries all over the world.
60%+ of all trade transactions are in dollars; 60%+ of central bank reserves are in dollars, USD near parity with the euro and near historic strength against the GBP; at levels vs. Japan not seen since the 1970s.

Just how much more winning do you want?

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 18 2022 19:43 utc | 74

There is no surprise to Liz Cheney losing a GOP primary, they only pick the most extreme Trumpists. Not even really a newsworthy event except to note that she will not be serving another term, as was expected after she turned on God's Chosen One.

Posted by: Noam A. Larkey | Aug 18 2022 19:54 utc | 75

b writes: "....This comes a week after FBI agents from the same division that had investigated the fake 'Russiagate' raided Trump's home in Florida....".

and a few choice quotes from William M. Arkin, and well, that's about all you need to know, folks!

Posted by: michaelj72 | Aug 18 2022 19:55 utc | 76

The FBI raided Project Veritas some time ago. It was at that point that James O'Keefe realized that the diary they were after must be genuine. Whatever the FBI is looking for now, it must be the real thing. And now everybody knows what the FBI is for. Cover-up.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Aug 18 2022 19:56 utc | 77

Could it be that the Donald was actually careless with classified documents? That is a matter which the U.S. government takes very seriously. If anyone, and I do mean anyone, takes classifed material out of a skiff without authorization, they would be facing serious jailtime. The mere fact that the Donald had classified material in his home after he left office is already enough. Look forward to seeing the ex-president of the U.S.A. in jail.

Posted by: Robert | Aug 18 2022 20:02 utc | 78

Karlof@57 and Don Bacon @ 67

You are both correct. I worked for many years at a state agency in rule-making—yes, in California, Don. Many times Labor and the public mobilized and won vs. big business opposition. Many times there was no mobilization and business forces tended to win the day. So there is a remnant of ‘democracy’ with a little ‘d’. But this is not to undercut your observations, Don. Little ‘d’ drmocracystill exists, but it faces big obstacles…

Posted by: Mjh | Aug 18 2022 20:08 utc | 79

rjb1.5, You hold it against Trump that he is an "illiterate turd"? Just how much better are the people with advanced degrees in the Biden administration? What have they accomplished? Where have they not failed?

I have a number of advanced degrees myself, including a First in Greats at Oxford and a Ph.D. from Harvard. One of the things I learned from Plato is how important it is to recognize how much you do not know. That should be what education teaches you.

Posted by: Lysias | Aug 18 2022 20:15 utc | 80

@ Lysias | Aug 18 2022 20:15 utc | 82 who wrote
"
One of the things I learned from Plato is how important it is to recognize how much you do not know. That should be what education teaches you.
"

I don't have all your degrees but read enough Plato to extract your sentiments which I support...."educate the children" is what Mao said from what I remember reading.

Thanks for your contributions to MoA

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 18 2022 20:22 utc | 81

Don Bacon @67--

I spent half my life in California--Davis, Los Gatos, San Jose. Davis was an awesome example of citizen self-government and one of the best places imaginable to grow into an adult. As parts of a megalopolis, LG and SJ had good city governments until we moved to Oregon in 2003. About fifteen other years were spent living in Hawaii, Colorado and South Dakota, so I've experienced a wide variety of local and state governments. As a teacher, I was also tasked with the job of explaining federalism to students and constructed a 3-D model showing how it's constructed and supposed to work, the theory being the three tiers interacting together but at the same time checking each other--Madison's Checks and Balances. The system's faults were rapidly exposed soon after the Constitution came into force, but very few wrote about why; the reasoning behind the arrangements were to be kept secret forever, so no one could point to any particular point and say A Ha! That's where they went wrong.

Again, the main goal behind the Union's formation was to facilitate Plunder, and that objective overrode all others. If the Fire-eaters had held their fire in South Carolina and refrained from provoking Lincoln, our situation today might be very different. But all this history only serves to help us understand why the experiment failed. Yes, we'd be much better served if it was recognized as such by 1820. I've spent 40 years trying to find a solution and I'm willing to admit it will require the people of the USA to experience the sort of catastrophe Bastiat says we have coming our way, which in today's context would mean defeat in a nuclear war. But neither of us want that to happen, so we continue to look for an exit.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 18 2022 20:26 utc | 82

Mjh @81--

Thanks for your reply. At least there are a few sane minds on this thread not drunk on a partisanism just as malevolent as that of the Fire Eaters.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 18 2022 20:36 utc | 83

It was Lincoln who provoked the Southern Fire-eaters, by putting them in a situation where it was politically impossible for them to not act militarily. More or less what NATO did to Russia earlier this year.

Posted by: Lysias | Aug 18 2022 20:40 utc | 84

At first blush it is kind of scary that there are 50000 people who voted for Dick Cheney's daughter.(More than the combined pops of Laramie and Jackson). But then I remember something a politician told me: a lot people will go to vote and chose the name they are most familiar with, even if they can't quite remember where they saw the name before.

Posted by: Platero | Aug 18 2022 20:47 utc | 85

"The US national debt is in dollars.
The US government can print dollars.
The debt isn't the problem - the US government and leadership is."

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 18 2022 13:03 utc | 18

I can not fathom that a person believe such mmt magical thinking.
So worthless paper have value without an effective army and obedient vassals believing/forced to accept them as value?
Can worthless paper really create real value?
Stonx and derivatives are not real value, that is usury.

Posted by: Per/Norway | Aug 18 2022 21:02 utc | 86

@ Per/Norway | Aug 18 2022 21:02 utc | 88

in many respects i think c1ue is right about this... however.... the world needs to continue to buy into this arrangement.. presently russia and a number of other countries - iran, venezuala and etc ) aren't.... in a ponzi scheme such as the us$ - everyone has to continue to buy into it... if they stop and if enough countries and corporations opt to trade in alternative currencies, i think this power will also erode and eventually fade away.. whether it is replaced by what - i don't know.. and i think it is going to take some time for this to happen...

yes - stocks and derivatives are another form of manipulation, but it is accepted - until it isn't...

Posted by: james | Aug 18 2022 21:14 utc | 87

Re: @karlof1 84

That's a great summary. We come from nothing\everything and fade to the same. Humans have been inventing illusions\delusions since the beginning in order to hide from that truth...never going to stop humans from playing...especially the illusion\delusion game.

We were dropped down into this Faustian bargain and shouldn't feel obligated to "fix" it, but striving for truth however elusive that may be and staying as clean as possible is as noble a cause as I can discern. For those that try...I wish you the best.

If someone does manage to miraculously punch through the illusions...only pain awaits from trying to share that truth with anyone...even and especially those closest to us. Things that curtail human indulgence seem to be the best systemic hope...sound money, decent religion, etc. They are not perfect but without limits humans don't seem to be able to regulate...how much fun, entertainment, comfort, indulgence, adornment do humans need...can't stop won't stop.

The truly powerful mechanistic unsympathetic and focused are rolling up the rest. They are so good at what they do...the front people we see are buffoons...but do not underestimate the real power rolling up humanity. Family watched the Barkley Marathons documentary and my wife commented that the guy that broke the record was not right in the head. I said exactly...that's the kind of mechanistic unsympathetic focused power that runs the world. Like the recent Caitlin Johnstone article using the Usual Suspects as the example...they are willing to do what it takes.

The Madison Ave makeover of everything but especially religion and war really did a number on humanity. The Prosperity Gospel and Hyper Patriotism of everything from Walmarts to Big Time Sports killed any dissent...cynicism\skepticism are no longer allowed. There is no regulator on indulgence.

The truly powerful mechanistic unsympathetic powerful have set a trap for humanity feeding on human biological impulsivity and indulgence. They plan on cleaning this place up...from the old style dumb brute power to all the indulgent "useless eaters". It's kind of diabolically brilliant in its execution.

I think of my inlaws and all the excuses for the hoarder house that still stands as they tread out their days in diapers in their 5th year in assisted living. Give me 2 weeks, stay out of my way, and I will put my beer down get off the sofa and get it done. I see the humans the way the puppet master see them. I don't want the puppet masters to win, but the humans...they are so difficult to work with.

Posted by: DaveNItUp | Aug 18 2022 21:15 utc | 88

Posted by: Ciaran | Aug 18 2022 12:59 utc | 17

Good point. It's probably no coincidence that this magistrate recused from the Trump vs Clinton suit, albeit after reading the entire case. Your notion that the raid has taken away documents that he could have used in his defense makes a lot of sense.

US politics, justice, military, finance, medicine and ...., so ugly, so dishonest, so sad!

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 18 2022 21:15 utc | 89

@ Altai | 12

Ehh hold on right there, concerning Denmark!!!

Denmark is one of the most liberal and progressive countries in the world with people who are socially conscious generous 'global citizens' who care about global warming and plight of other nations.

We are also a country that has become even more divided economically and sociably, even a split between generations, the old that have and the young that do not. A house north of Copenhagen can easily cost you $ 800 000 or more, where do the young get 20 % of that?

Yet the Social Democrats there were able to stand up and say that mass migration wasn't appropriate, a country has to actually belong to it's people the current generation of which don't own it but who are custodians for future generations.

The social Democrats did not do that. On the contrary, they urged for more immigration. When they lost a ton of votes with that tune, they found another tune more in line with anti-immigration Dansk Folkeparti's policies. And now they don't know what to mean at all.

Denmark hasn't exploded, it's economy hasn't fallen apart and it hasn't become more right wing.

It has become very more right wing, much more. The economy is still fine, but there are many unemployed in Denmark, many are immigrants. There is a severe lack of rent -housing, in big cities, and it has got worse.

Rather the Danish Social Democrats understood that immigration causes inequality, strife, creates ethnic politics and makes people deeply unhappy and disrupts a normal society.

They understood nothing at all, politics forced them to fall in line with the public. Had we not at large stopped immigration, this place would have been like London or Birmingham. A hellhole!

Most of those people will never find a job here, we have no room for thousands of unqualified people, and can't afford them here.
And we really did not want them here, but politicians always win, don't they?

Do not speak of things you know nothing off, You will seem out of touch, at best and stupid and ignorant at worst.If you have been here, You should have had your eyes and ears wide open!
I have been a citizen here for more than 64 years.

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Aug 18 2022 21:17 utc | 90

@ Christian Chuba 14

It is normal. All Potuss do that, what he should have done was to show he had them it would have been fine! He would have got them back, to display in the Presidential Library. All Prezzes have done that.

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Aug 18 2022 21:24 utc | 91

Because Flynn as the chief of Pentagon intelligence revealed that the US was supporting ISIS.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2022 15:59 utc | 41

Because Flynn could have followed through on the NSA search breeches recently uncovered, thousands of which were against candidate Trump. Hundreds of them might have ended up in jail. They kept Flynn out, then Sessions and also blocked Devin Nunes a Gang of Eight member trying to learn more.

Fact is, there has been a coup since 2016 and a cabal is now running the country whilst pretending that the original system is still in place.

The good guys have to play by the rules, but the system is now run by world class criminals. There are no easy answers.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 18 2022 21:25 utc | 92

The only distinction that has any value at the moment is sane vs insane.

Posted by: Orgel | Aug 18 2022 16:40 utc | 49

Great post. Well said. Thank you. The whole left versus right socialist versus capitalist vocabulary is so yesterday...

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 18 2022 21:32 utc | 93

Lysias @86--

That's one interpretation of events. The most important facts of the matter remain that the South wasn't ready to engage the North strategically. The failure to secure New Orleans was egregious. The public on both sides had absolutely no clue about the coming devastation--both approached the first battles as if they were sporting events. I've always tried to remain a neutral student of the War and all the events that led to it. As for the ongoing geopolitical struggle, I've openly admitted my biases and desires for the outcome. But the provocation utilizing Ukraine has existed for many decades and the current situation's a result of the Soviet's inability to destroy the OUN and evict the CIA from Ukraine. An objective analysis of the West's Plunder Inc versus the USSR would deem the former a great many magnitudes more destructive than the latter, and it hasn't been stopped yet.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 18 2022 21:36 utc | 94

The current system is unreformable and requires rebuilding, but such a task cannot be allowed to be done by the current political or business classes or we'll end up with another failure. And so we're stuck on the horns of the dilemma.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 18 2022 18:21 utc | 66

You mentioned this in yr earlier post too and wondered what really can be done. I suggest that the current geopolitical struggle is an asymmetric form of siege warfare. Pretty soon the drawbridges will be up and the countryside secured for miles around leaving Castle USA-Western Alliance isolated and cut off from new supply.

At that point the principal victim of Plunder - the People - will be stewing with their principal Plunderers, their own leadership class. The two sides, who usually have little to do with each other since the Prime Plunderers are generally unknown along with what they really do and how they do it, will have to stew with each other for a while and therein lies a little sliver of hope that the hobbits will finally realize that it is time for them to rise up and overthrow the Sharkey in their midst whom they never wanted and who are not part of their families or culture, who are interlopers, foreigners, aliens, inhuman.

It's unlikely. But possible.
Or it's also possible that the Plunderers will get starved out and cash out what they can and walk away from the game for the rest of their natural lives, maybe enjoying cocktails with Hitler's progency in the Deep South!

You also mentioned above the democracy works in the States. I simply cannot find the acronym (something like SNSS) but there is an organization in place for years now that basically tells ALL State Senators in ALL States how to vote on pretty much EVERY issue. I listened to a long NPR report on the car radio about it so although I don't trust the source it sounded extremely well researched. And would be so typical of how the country operates it's entirely feasible...

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 18 2022 21:43 utc | 95

c1ue in reply to Paul Greenwood is playing very fast and loose with the facts.

Saying that Reagan and Thatcher merely "did harm" but that Clinton "really unleashed" the banking beast is historical revisionism. Much the same with NAFTA, another myth that American conservatives like to lay solely at Mr. Clinton's feet and that history-deprived Americans continue to believe as though it's gospel. Like financial deregulation, the neoliberal trade agreements really took off under Reagan, and then CIA expat H.W. Bush. When Clinton was elected, he was the first Democrat to hold that office in 12 years.

Reagan and the Republicans had long led the charge against labor unions and to de-regulate/de-control the savings and loans industry and financial sector at large. Certainly President Carter (and SCOTUS!) was involved in the "pre-neoliberal" policies which began under Nixon and that came before Reagan and Thatcher's true neoliberal globalist policies. So the accurate way to put it is that Clinton was in agreement with the Reagan Republicans on economic and trade policy.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/11/bank-n01.html

Fun fact 1: The Financial Services Modernization Act was also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Gramm, Leach and Bliley were all Republicans. Throw in Rubin and Clinton was the only Democrat in that mix.

Fun fact 2: After the 2008 meltdown, the first place Republicans looked for blame was Clinton and the CRA and the poor debtors who were underwater on their mortgages.

By the time Clinton came around, the beast had long been unleashed and all he did was assist with driving the final nail into the coffin of financial regulation. He was, from the perspective of the left (AFL/CIO, etc.), a DINO - a wannabe Republican, surrounded by Republicans (Rubin, etc.) and working with a Republican Congress (not a single Republican voted Nay on the Financial Services Modernization Act (Gramm-Leach-Bliley) - and 156 Democrats voted Nay on NAFTA compared to 43 Republicans). H.W. Bush actually negotiated and signed NAFTA first in an extension of the Reagan-Bush "view on global commerce."
Clinton then signed it into law, in large part due to his own Republican proclivities but also to the degree to which what was accepted as workable financial policy had shifted to the right since Reagan was elected.

In standing up for NAFTA in an election year, Bush had to spend precious political capital. It made him vulnerable to many opponents, including the spirited anti-NAFTA Texan H. Ross Perot, and may have drawn enough ire to cost him a second term.

Nevertheless, NAFTA’s signing was not a first, but a final, act for an era of economic opening. The deal was the natural extension of the Reagan-Bush view on global commerce and the United States’ role within it. At the height of ‘Japanaphobia’ in 1986, Reagan opened the Uruguay Trade Round of the GATT (Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) negotiations, leading to the creation of the World Trade Organization. Two years later, Reagan signed the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement, the essential precursor to NAFTA — and the most significant U.S. step toward open trade in forty years.

https://business.rice.edu/wisdom/expert-opinion/why-president-george-hw-bush-went-bat-nafta (a FAVORABLE opinion on NAFTA from Rice University focusing on the Houston area only)

After Clinton was elected, the Democrats started shifting toward Wall Street (including Obama, despite the ridiculous assertions of the top-down, investment banker driven Astroturf "Tea Party" movement) and now the Ds receive as much or more Wall Street largesse as Republicans, who have always - in the modern era - been pro-Wall Street and anti-worker. At this juncture, insofar as the duo-party machines are concerned, both sides are equally on the payroll of the elites and it's completely silly and ahistorical to shift blame from where it really belongs to the evil Democrats and Bill Clinton.

What is so funny really is how much liberals and (Trump) conservatives fight over who did what and who's to blame when they both are. It's like they have you all believing there are two teams playing hard against each other when all it really is, is a phony wrestling match between the mad marauding republicans vs the stumbling bumbling democrats. They all practice their throws long before the game and you bunch of idiots think it's all the real thing. There is only one party and American workers weren't invited.

Posted by: NewGuyDownUnder | Aug 18 2022 21:52 utc | 96

The South was aware of how the British had been unable to subdue the rebellious colonies during the American Revolution. They assumed the North would also fail. Not just them, British statesmen in 1861-2 thought the same.

Posted by: Lysias | Aug 18 2022 21:55 utc | 97

To Lysias who says:

I have a number of advanced degrees myself, including a First in Greats at Oxford and a Ph.D. from Harvard. One of the things I learned from Plato is how important it is to recognize how much you do not know. That should be what education teaches you.

So then you're in agreement that an education is good and that "illiterate (uneducated) turds" are less likely to recognize how much they don't know? Sounds about right. Otherwise you're going in circles there and I'm not following; trying to have your cake and eat it too in the metaphorical realm. I certainly learned more about what I do NOT know vs. what I DO from my own degrees (that I don't feel compelled to humblebrag about here).

Posted by: NewGuyDownUnder | Aug 18 2022 21:57 utc | 98

The British taking New York early in the Revolution was surely more severe damage to the Revolutionary cause than the North's taking New Orleans was damage to the Confederate cause.

Posted by: Lysias | Aug 18 2022 22:04 utc | 99

DaveNItUp | Aug 18 2022 21:15 utc | 90--

Wow! Quite the unusual reply. At VK, my audience is international, far more so than here, but their level of feedback is very passive, which I blame on the language gap. US domestic politics don't get much participation either because any discourse rapidly polarizes. Before I was banned at CommonDreams we had very spirited discourse in the comment section; some old hands remain but that publication has gone to crap.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 18 2022 22:05 utc | 100