ADDENDUM to "The Coup is Almost Complete"

My friend replied to essentially the post immediately previous to this one (which was an email to him).  In his reply, he pointed out that decades ago the major Parties had an inversion.  They flipped certain beliefs & principles.  The Repubs (in general) went from being anti-slavery to often being basically racist & against the poor today.  The Dems (in general) went from essentially supporting slavery & the Uncle Tom era (some Dems were high up in the KKK) to being anti-racist and supportive of poor people.  He ended by saying he knew what I was talking about in my first reply, but he was referring to the GOP now--- basically a mob-like crime family [at the highest levels], and that America was rotten to its core [again, at the highest levels]...due to unregulated capitalism.  "Sad."
My reply is below.
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Agreed, but the Dems did more than just get rid of racism in their ranks.  The Establishment Dems eventually became Neoliberals, with very little difference between them & NeoCons when it comes to war, the economy, fiscal policy, monetary policy, foreign policy, the Financial Sector, Crony Capitalism, the broken Fed Justice System, the favoring of aristocrats, the War on Drugs, etc.  In other words, the Establishment Dems became Corporatists.  The Corporate Media refer to them as "Moderate Democrats".  They aren't.

 

In reality, there are no Dems, Repubs, Liberals, or Conservatives anymore.  They've been replaced by Neoliberals & NeoCons.  The old terms are used as propaganda by the Corporate Media & the Parties to keep people stuck in the past and to keep them believing that the old values & groups of 60 yrs ago still are in the game.  They aren't, they're gone.  They've been replaced by the Neo- groups...all Corporatists.

Only Libertarians and Progressives have remained in place & true to their original characteristics...and each has little to no power in national electoral politics.

Calling the Powers-That-Be either Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, or Conservatives is a huge mistake in my opinion.  Referring to a dog's tail as its fifth leg doesn't make it so.  The only people with any significant power in Office today are either NeoCons or Neoliberals.  They aren't anything like Repubs, Dems, Conservatives, or Liberals.  Saying they are misleads Main Street, and makes Main Street easier to manipulate.  Cognitive dissonance (& similar techniques), by way of Edward Bernays style propaganda--- that's how the Neo-groups have come to power/staged a Coup...by convincing people that they are the true-blue Parties of 60 or so years ago.  

Main Street believes it because literally everyone keeps calling them Repubs, Dems, etc.  They aren't.  [Or, they are in name only.]  It's all Orwellian, political Doublespeak ...& it worked like a charm.  It's not about Repubs & Dems (or Conservatives & Liberals) anymore; they don't exist nowadays.  [Even Chris Hedges has written & lectured about the "Death of the Liberal Class"; and the author of "The Conservative Mind", Russell Kirk, must be turning in his grave...given the people who are called "Conservatives" today.  The same with Robert A. Taft.]  Today, it's all about the Oligarchy & the rest of us.  Until every adult (or at least a vast majority) on Main Street realizes that, we are all shafted.  Sad, indeed.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

NeoCon & NeoLib Warmongers & Regime Changers Continue On

It never ends.  Now our Gov't has assassinated the Iranian General Soleimani, who essentially was the equivalent of our Secretary of Defense, and a folk hero in Iran.  Supposedly, he was an "imminent threat" to Americans overseas.  He probably was a threat to anyone associated with our Corporate-Government Complex, but the question is why?  The simple answer is twofold:  1) our Gov't keeps sticking its nose into Arab and Persian affairs; and 2) our Fed Executive Branch has been attacking and strangling the Iranian Gov't for decades.  Why?  According to the Feds, it's because they're "terrorists".  It would behoove anyone who believes that to study a little history.

I suggest to anyone who launches such a historical search:  start with the British discovery of petroleum in Iran in 1908 and the formation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP).  Then look into the Pahlavi Dynasty--- 1925-1979.  Don't overlook the Anglophile CIA-MI6 conspiracy that overthrew Mosaddeq in the 1953 Coup, after the Iranian Parliament voted in favor of nationalizing oil facilities in Iran.  Don't forget the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988.  Saddam invaded Iran, and was more or less backed by the USA.  More recently, don't forget to consider our economic & financial sanctions on Iran, which are punishing the entire population.  Then there's Trump's withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement, at a time when (according to independent sources) Iran was meeting all of the requirements.  Finally, don't ignore the Sunni-Shia Conflict, which has been going on for hundreds of years.  Dubya Bush didn't know anything about it; he thought all believers in Islam were of the same cloth.

This whole mess isn't about "terrorism".  It's all about economics and finance.  It's about natural resources.  It's about the Dollar as the world's reserve currency.  It's about Neoliberal plans to privatize the world.  It's about the fact that the USA's position as the preeminent Leader of the World is on a downhill slide.  Many countries have had quite enough of our Corporate-Gov't Complex trying to run everyone else's affairs.  Those countries are forming their own economic and financial alliances in order to bypass the control of the USA's Gov't-Sachs Cabal.  It's also about the NeoCon obsession with Regime Change, and "defending Christianity".  NeoCon nutcakes never would admit it, but I suspect many of them really do believe they are on a "Crusade".  If you recall, Dubya Bush used that word after 9-11, and was roundly criticized for it.

The Ivory Tower Powers-That-Be appear to be trying everything they can to start a war with Iran.  Don't let them do it.  Speak up every way you can.  When they harp on Iranians being "terrorists", keep in mind that Shia Iran is fighting against Sunni ISIS.  Also keep in mind that Iran has much more reason to be interested in Iraq than we do.  Iraq is their neighbor, and they were invaded by Iraq.

In his almost constant gaslighting, Trump goes back & forth between withdrawing militarily from the Middle East to escalating the trouble there.  It's all designed to distract us from his utter incompetence and violations of the Constitution.  Don't fall for it.

Lastly, consider the following.  The Orwellian politicians (both major Parties) in DC have been quietly changing the definitions of words for at least a couple of decades now.  Example:  "imminent", as in "imminent threat", no longer means "immediate"; rather, it now officially means something akin to "perhaps sometime in the future".  Another example:  "war" (the way it's used in our Constitution) no longer means war; instead, it officially means something akin to "counter-terrorism".  As such, Rules, Laws, the Supreme Law of the Land, and even morals & ethics no longer apply.  At least, that's according to the Powers-That-Be.  In reality, it's Orwellian nonsense ...and criminal.

SIDE NOTE---  In reference to his massive escalation of drone attacks, Obama once stated,  "Well, it's not really a war.".  Here's a clue, Mr. Obama:  when you cross a border and kill hundreds of people (1400 in Pakistan alone), that's a war.  The war clause in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution applies.  Nothing in Article II can contravene that provision...unless the USA is hit with a surprise invasion.  You know that; after all, you're a Constitutional scholar.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

The Every-Four-Years Comedy & Tragedy in the USA Has Begun

Although the next Presidential election is more than a year away, campaigning for it is already off and running.  This year it appears to be more comic & tragic than in any recent past years.  So, let's take a brief, hard look at why I say that.  We'll examine only the two major Parties...the Trump Party (TP), and the Democratic Party (the Dems).  The Republican Party seems to have dried up and blown away.
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The TP most likely will be nominating a guy who is basically ignorant, a wannabe autocrat, and a psychological gaslighter.  Although grossly ignorant of many significant concepts, he nonetheless is quite clever at manipulating people and lying to them.  His lies are so blatant, numerous, and obvious that his running for office again is a complete comedy.  The tragedy is that he may again get elected.  His current Administration's primary legacy will be:  abuse of child immigrants.  What has happened on his watch in that regard is beyond unconscionable.  In my opinion, it's criminal.

There will be lots of talk by the TP about "illegal immigration", but little to none about asylum seekers and the primary reason for them fleeing their Central American countries:  past USA support for dictators and thugs in those homelands, plus their neoliberal, privatization policies.
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The Dems have about twenty people running for the nomination.  I've never heard of half of them, so I assume any appeal to voters they possess is regional in nature.  Maybe it will become national, maybe not.  Of the total twenty or so, some seem to be running mostly on a single issue, which varies from person to person.  One or two seem to be running only to defeat Trump, with not much else in their platform.  The Upper Crust of the Dems (which comprises many of the vote-stealing "super-delegates") appears to be leaning toward Hillary-Lite (Joe Biden), because he's the neoliberal, "establishment" candidate with close ties to the Financial Sector.  That's important to the DNC.  If he gets nominated, most likely the Dems will again (as a friend put it) snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Now, that's funny!  It's also tragic.

There will be lots of talk by the Dems about immigration, but probably none about Hillary (& the rest of our Gov't) supporting the 2009 coup in Honduras.  The result was corruption, neoliberal privatization, thugs, gangs, murders, and unemployment.  No wonder many common people there are fleeing their homeland.  In 2016, we were still giving millions to that thug gov't.
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If the last several weeks are any indication, the election in 2020 again will be primarily about personalities, not issues.  Get ready for another sham election.  It's plain to me why 50% of eligible voters don't vote.  The whole thing is a farce.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well