The Corporatist, Militarist Coup in the USA is Almost Complete

That Coup has been going on for decades.  It has continued advancing over these many years whether Democrats or Republicans have been in power in DC.  Ike was spot-on in his statement about the Military-Industrial Complex, but in the last twenty or so years there has been a conversion to the State-Corporate-Military Complex.  Let's briefly look at a few of the reasons for the assertions in this paragraph.  The following reasons are more or less in chronological order.

1.  The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964---  It turns out that the Incident prompting that Resolution didn't happen at all the way the Military said it did.  Nevertheless, it was used to get us into a disastrous war.  Plus, the War Clause of Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution was ignored completely.  Private war contractors here made out like bandits, financially speaking.

2.  Just prior to being elected in 1968, Nixon claimed he had a "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War...except, he didn't have any such plan.  The war dragged on for about seven more years, and the military hardware manufacturers raked in beaucoup profits.  State Capitalism at its best.  😒  Meanwhile, about two million people were killed or drastically maimed.  That's not counting the birth defects from the dioxin in Agent Orange.

3.  In 1971, Nixon took us completely off the Gold Standard; that became known as the "Nixon Shock".  In essence, our Gov't defaulted on its debt.  Very quickly, the Dollar lost 25% of its value/purchasing power.  We went to a total fiat currency.  Nixon said it all would be "temporary".  Right.  While Carter largely was blamed for the rampant inflation of the mid to late 1970's, it was the Nixon Shock that made such inflation inevitable.  The point of all this is:  without the monetary Gold Standard, the Fed Gov't was free to spend, spend, spend while borrowing, borrowing, borrowing.  By the time the Reagan Era ended, we had gone from a creditor nation to a monstrous debtor nation.  State Capitalism went bananas, and the military budget increased exponentially.

4.Clinton and Gore---  fierce supporters of NAFTA.  One million jobs went South.  The Rich got richer.  Our two "Populists" (not hardly) also lobbied hard for the conversion of GATT into the WTO...and the admission of China into the WTO.  That guaranteed no reform of that organization relative to environmental and democratic matters.  It all was a massive boost to "Globalization"...the wrong kind of Globalization.  The Rich got richer.  Workers suffered.

5.  Dubya Bush---  flim-flam war propaganda (Iraq), gross ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, unimaginable spending by the Feds, State Capitalism on steroids, the beginning of Drone Wars, more U.S. Hegemony, and the Rich got richer.  The economy ended up being a disaster.  The Surveillance State shifted into second gear.  The Fourth Amendment was trashed.  The blatant Propaganda was beyond incredible.

6.  Obama---  another Fake Populist and Master Propagandist.  Even though admitting to mortgage and securities fraud, not a single Mega Bank was prosecuted by the Obama Administration for criminal acts leading up to the 2008 Crisis.  The Drone Wars increased beyond belief.  According to the Left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, ObamaCare is sorely lacking and is a "bailout of the health insurance industry".  Obama launched a ten-year program to update & improve our nuclear arsenal.  Then there's the Syria mess, and the support for the terrorist-exporting Saudis.  [Wahhabism is State-sponsored by Saudi Arabia.]
In his first Presidential race, Obama received more campaign contributions from Mega Corporations than did McCain.  The Surveillance State shifted into third gear...then overdrive.  Fed Gov't spending increased even more than it did under Bush.  I didn't think that would be possible.  The National Debt soared to amazing heights...it's now impossible to repay in full.  Obama was a fierce supporter of the TPP, the most egregious "Free Trade" Agreement yet proposed.  Finally, while in office, our President became a multi-millionaire...mostly through the purchasing of Bonds.

7.  Trump---  I could write twenty pages on this guy's Corporatism, Fake Populism, gaslighting, war-mongering, conceit, arrogance, snobbery, Crony Capitalism, serial lying, elitism, disgusting sexism, ignorance of crucial matters, and gross propagandizing; unfortunately, time and energy constraints prevent me from doing that.  The Don is absolutely, without question the worst President this Land ever has had.  Thank heaven, just as I and many others predicted, his base supporters are beginning to question his competence and sincerity.  The prediction was that would happen within one year.  Kudos to them.
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Side Bar---

The gall of the Trump Admin. threatening the overwhelming majority of nations at the U.N. because they disagreed with Trump's decision on our Embassy in Israel.  Typical U.S. Gov't Bully-Boy tactics.  One more example of our Gov't erecting roadblocks to Middle East peace.  The last thing the Fed-Corporate-Military Complex wants is peace in that region.  That would be bad for Big Business...especially bad for the Mega Banks and war contractors.

Lastly,  the Coup finally will be complete when at least two more things happen:
1.  SS and Medicare are privatized, and Wall Street gets its hands on that money;
2.  Another major war is provoked by the Corporatists...in order to forestall the following--- the next upcoming (and overdue) financial/economic Crash, and action by the IMF and Bank of International Settlements to replace the Dollar with something else to serve as the World's Reserve Currency.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well
p.s.  Happy New Year

Crony Capitalists, Globalists, NeoConservatives, Corporatism, and the Corporate Media

YaHoo News just posted a brief piece about Ajit Pai (the FCC Chairman) doing a gag skit for some group in which he was a shill for Verizon.  A member of upper management in Verizon participated in that "joke".  The gag apparently fell flat.

The fact is, for some time now the Corporatocracy & its Crony Capitalists have been supremely confident that Americans are so propagandized & distracted that they (the Corporatists) never will be dethroned.  As a result, they don't even try & conceal their Cronyism anymore.

The main problem is that too many Americans don't appear to understand the difference between Corporatism (essentially Crony Capitalism) and genuine Capitalism.  Too many believe the battle here is between Capitalism (or really, a Mixed Economy) & Socialism.  It isn't.  It's between Corporatism and genuine Capitalism.  Most of the Right Wing and even much of the Left Wing seem to think those two are the same thing.  They aren't even close to being the same.  This is why the Right Wing, in particular, is supporting (without realizing it) the destruction of our economy---they think they're supporting Capitalism.  They aren't; they're supporting Crony Capitalism...which basically is Fascism.  Until they overcome that ignorance, our country--- & especially our economy--- is doomed to NeoFeudalism.

The same exact thing is true for "Conservatism".  People who think they're "Conservatives" today aren't even close to that.  They are NeoConservatives (based on the idiots they've been supporting for at least a couple of decades).  NeoConservatism is a horse of an entirely different color, & over a period of 20-25 years, it has totally replaced genuine Conservatism.  The Corporate Media all know this, but continue the myth that current Right Wing politicians are "Conservatives".  They do it because NeoConservatism has a very tiny base of support, whereas the old, long-gone Conservatism has a much, much larger base of support.  NeoConservatives essentially are Globalist, hegemonic, monopolistic, militarist, Crony Capitalist, elitist politicians (pretty much Fascists)...nothing at all like 99% of the old Conservatives, such as Russell Kirk or Paul Craig Roberts.  I would venture to guess that almost all Americans who call themselves Conservatives today haven't even read the "Bible" of Modern Day Conservatism by Kirk, The Conservative Mind (1953).  Had they read it, it would dawn upon them that they've been supporting the wrong politicians.

In The USA, Propaganda reigns supreme.  And so it goes.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

The Politicizing and Militarization of the CIA

Melvin A. Goodman, a former CIA analyst and current Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, points out how the CIA has declined and fallen due to both being beholden to political interests and becoming militarized.  Goodman was a senior analyst and division chief at the CIA (total CIA service: 1966-1986), a Professor of International Security at the National War College (1986-2004), and currently is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.  He is regarded as an expert in the fields of Intelligence and National Security.  His latest book is National Insecurity:  the Cost of American Militarism.  Google the man; his views are informed, somewhat prickly, and I think, right on the mark.  Here are a few of those views, as follows.

1.  Failure to anticipate the fall of Soviet Russia, failure regarding the terrorist attacks of 9-11, and failure to anticipate the disastrous consequences of the 2003 Iraq invasion all demonstrate the CIA's decline.

2.  The Pentagon and the CIA essentially are merging into one entity.  Military Intelligence and the Intelligence of our civilian Agency should remain separate; they should counterbalance each other.

3.  Having former military Generals as Heads of the CIA is a really bad idea.  The CIA has become too much of a para-military force.  [In my opinion, that aspect of the CIA (especially regarding the Drone Wars) even could be considered Death Squads.]

4.  The CIA has become a political tool.

5.  Military domination of the Intelligence field now interferes with the CIA's function of providing a check on the Military's influence on foreign policy and the use of force.

6.  Militarism in the USA truly has contributed greatly to national insecurity.
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Militarism is a part of Fascism, which makes use of Crony Capitalism, which dominates the Fed Gov't today...no matter whether Democrats or Republicans are in power.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well