A Trump Presidency In 2025: Fascism, National Rebirth, Or Civil War?

Let me start by saying that I speak from the libertarian left – meaning, I fiercely believe in freedom, compassion, voluntary mutual aid, decentralization, and the sovereignty of individuals, communities, and nations.

(Anarchism, I would urge, but only, “when men are prepared for it”, as Thoreau said – simply a better government, until then. See Henry David Thoreau’s, On Civil Disobedience, and, Why The Left Libertarians Are Right.)

The problem is not the people – neither black, white, brown, Christian, Jewish, Moslem, right or left. The problem is the ruling power elite, the oligarchs. And what’s more, the great majority of the people globally, now understand that. This is the crisis of legitimacy which the frantic elite are trying to curb with censorship and fascism; and which the people need to capitalize and act on, and now, before their prison state is fully built. DO NOT DELAY. WE MUST REMOVE THE OLIGARCHS FROM POWER NOW. THE ALTERNATIVE IS SIMPLY TOO BLEAK AND TOO DIRE TO CONTEMPLATE.

*

Let me also say that what is critical now, is to unite all people, right or left, who are anti-authoritarian. First, we must defeat the Davos-WEF/Blackrock communist-fascist billionaire coup that is underway and which is accellerating and escalating fast. We either unite the people now, or we will all be slaves. After defeating the new totalitarian oligarchy, then, with democratic power rightfully returned to the people, where it belongs, then we can debate and discuss all other issues – once our freedom, constitutional democracy and fundamental human rights are safeguarded and secured.

Thirdly, I must say in advance, I am not a Trump supporter, but I do think he is far less dangerous than the Wall Street/BlackRock /WEF/billionaire-controlled neo-con Republicans, or their siamese twins in the Davos/BlackRock-controlled neoliberal Democratic party.

As to Trump bringing fascism, two points:

First, he was already president – and it didn’t happen. The fear-mongering is delusional, deceitful, and hollow.

Secondly, and more important, fascism is already here. Anyone who thinks the US, Canada, Britain or Europe, are still liberal democracies, is living in a dream world. Listen to Gerald Celente and Rocco Galati, and read my essay, What Is Fascism?

Fascism is already here. You’d have to be living under a rock, or wildly delusional, not to see it.

*

Now, to condider what the likely Trump presidency in the US, in 2025, might actually mean, fairy tales and bogey men set aside:

First of all, could Trump win? Well, the fact is that roughly a third of the people in the US believe that he could and will save the country – they are his strong supporters. But another 20% or more, now feel that the Democrats have become so rabidly authoritarian, globalist, thoroughly in bed with big money, and deeply corrupt, not to mention war-mongering, that there is likely to be another 20% of independents, swing voters, and former Democratic voters who would support him over any “Democratic” candidate, other than RFK Jr. – who I believe is running as an independent, and who is sadly unlikely to win, due to the corporate stranglehold over the “election” system.

(RFK Jr. has adopted an indefensible stance on Israel and Gaza, yes; however, he would positively challenge the totalitarian drift that has been accelerating and intensifying since the Bush/Cheney regime and the Obama regime, which was not stopped or reversed by Trump, and which has been intensified and accelerated under the Biden regime. For that reason, he would be infinitely better than any conceivable “Democratic” candidate, or any “Republican” candidate, including Trump. But sadly, he is unlikely to win, yet.)

That makes an essy potential 50% of the popular vote for Trump, quite conceivable in the next US Presidential election, meaning, a virtually ensured victory for Trump.

Unless there is massive election fraud, again, which is now a bi-partisan tradition, in the new corporate-owned police state of the banana republic of the USSA – and election fraud is not just possible, but probable; unless a fair election can happen, and Trump is, secondly, not assassinated, or, thirdly, undemocratically blocked from running in the election: a Trump Presidency in 2025 is likely. Of course, civil war would avert that – and the plutocrats and their minions are fuelling that great evil as best they can. Don’t fall for the trap!

*

So, if Trump is not undemocratically blocked from a likely presidential win in 2025, what could we expect from a second Trump presidency?

Well, look at his first term as US President. What did he do? The shory answer is: nothing. He didn’t destroy the nation, or destroy democracy, nor did he usher in fascism – Cheny and Obama already did that. Nor did he do much of anything else. He was a dud, a class clown, sadly to say, a distraction, a non-event.

To Trump’s credit, he broke the news to the world that an unelected and rabidly anti-democratic Deep State does indeed exist, of course.

He also broke the news to the lemmings that the legacy media are instruments of propaganda and fake news, which anyone who has read Chomsky, or has been awake, already knew.

He raised the topic of fascism in the public mind globally – fascism which *is not a threat, but a present reality (!)*, which he did not bring in, but which his fore-runners, and other political prostitutes in the US and beyond, already did.

Those are three giant victories for the people – one of them being inadvertant.

He also defeated the sovereignty- and democracy-killing TPP; and renegotiated NAFTA, with slightly, but at least significant, improvements.

He did not dismabtle or even seriously criticize the police state apparatus created by Cheney and Obama.

He did not defund the military industrial intelligence complex, nor reign it in.

He did not end the empire or the imperial wars.

He did not end routine surveillance of all people globally.

He did not abolish the CIA, or the Nazi-named and equally fascist Department of Homeland Security, nor clean up the FBI, nor close Guantanamo, nor the 1,000+ US foreign military vases, nor the CIA torture centres and black sites.

Nor did he stop the gutting, looting and evisceration of the middle class, or halt the skyrocketing rise in inequality.

Trumps response to covid was likewise disastrous, and even worse than mere inaction – far worse than simple negligence and inaction. Trump unleashed Fauci, complied with the WHO and CDC, all of whom are essentially owned and controlled by the Big Pharma drug cartel, and went along with the mandates and lockdowns, with the result being a further gutting of the middle class, the destruction of millions of small businesses and a loss of millions of jobs, and worst of all, a further rollback and undermining of freedom, democracy, human rights and constitutional rule – and a further, accelerated, warp speed slide towards a biomedical police state.

Bravo, Trump. He thus powerfully aided and abetted the long-standing and accelerating trend towards globalist neo-feudal technocratic communist-fascist oligarchy – exactly as Bush, Cheney, Obama and Biden have done. Some messiah that is.

Let’s also not forget that Trump ran on a non-interventionist, peace-seeking platform in 2014 to 2016, which won him the reluctant support, even from much of the (then) anti-war left. But more recently, Trump has given unrestrained support to Israeli aggression and genocide, while saber-rattling with even more dangerous rhetoric about China, both of which show his slide into a pro-war, pro-interventionist stance, both of which risking global nuclear war. This man is extremely dangerous, not because he would bring in fascism, which has already happened, but because he, like the Democrats, and the Republican establishment, could get us all killed in a new world war.

And the list of failures, negligence and criminal complicity with the plutocracy and the military industrial complex goes on.

*

So, maybe saying Trump did nothing in his first presidency is too harsh. Certainly, he neither saved nor destroyed the country, although, like Clinton, Bush, Cheny, Obama and Biden, he did far more to destroy it than to aid it.

As I said many years ago, Trump was, and is, a distraction. Real change did not come from his first term as president, nor is it likely to come from him in 2025, if he does become president again. A giant windbag of a distraction – that’s all Trump is, in my view. He’s a game show host. What did you expect?

So, Trump is not going to save the nation, nor make America great again. Nor is he likely to destroy the nation, or bring in fascism – the bipartisan tag team of Republican neocons and Democrat neoliberals, in the twin parties of Wall Street, already did that. The country is in ruins, democracy is dead, and Trump will not fix it, nor is he likely to make things very much worse than they already are. He would instead, be another false messiah, another false populist, like Obama – a figure head of a collapsing nation and empire, being devoured by plutocrats, while ” elections” and “presidencies” distract the people and lull them to sleep with false hopes. Hope comes from the streets, now more than ever, and from nowhere else.

So, Trump will not bring fascism – that’s already here. Nor is he going to save the nation. There is a third possibility, however far worse, even, than lulling the people to sleep, while the nation is plundered, enslaved, devoured and destroyed, by an escalating corporate-fascist class war. What a second Trump presidency is likely to bring, is civil war – not one started by him or his supporters, but by his fanatical “democratic” and “liberal” opponents, orchestrated by the same neo-fascist Deep State military industrial Wall Street complex that has been devouring the nation, the people, and the democracy, with intensifying speed.

A second civil war in the US would not simply kill three quarters of a million people, horrific as that was. It would be a long, protracted, bloody stalemate, spanning decades, if not geberations, killing millions and leaving the country in ruins. That is the likely fallout if Trump is elected without an overwhelming public mandate.

Only one thing could possibly prevent a civil war in the wake of a second Trump presidency: an overwhelming landslide victory, with the clear supoort of a large majority and cross-section of the people. How can that be achieved, assuming RFK Jr. cannot likely win, leaving a Trump presidency in 2025 likely?

Vivek says he wants a landslide victory for Trump. He hints at and intuits danger if it is not a landslide. Andhe is right. A narrow victory for Trump would tear the country apart. A landslide win for Trump, despite Trump, could begin the healing and rebirth of the nation, by bringing together the people, after a long and increasingly bitter divide.

If Trump is strategically intelligent – a possibility, but doubtful – he would immediately do this:

Offer the Vice Presidency to the centre-left, small d democrat, Robery F. Kennedy Jr.

Offer the position of Secretary of Health (whatever it is called in the US – I, being Canadian, do not know) to Bernie Sanders, with the bold policy of cutting the Pentagon budget in half, and finally creating a universal public health care system for the US, like the more civilized nations have had for decades, using the hundreds of billions of dollars saved from the murderous and monstrously bloated military budget of the imperial killing machine.

Appoint Catherine Austin Fitts as Secretary of the Treasury, with a bold policy of defunding Wall Street, BlackRock, the big banks, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Agra and the the WHO, and ending all corporate subsidies, channelling the hundreds of billions of dollars saved per year into local econonic development, infrastructure, small business, co-ops, entrepreneurships and new start-up enterprises, to kick start the economy into high gear and provide good jobs for all – as a start. An audit of the Fed to follow immediately, of course, with a clear plan for its abolition.

Vivek speajs well, so find him a role, as well, perhaps as Press Secretary to the new President of the United States.

Do that, and a democratic landslide would result, with a clear and irrefutable mandate from the people – meaning, it could not easily be toppled or overthrown, and civil war would be unlikely.

But Trump is no 4-D chess player, nor a grand strategist. However, if someone can get his ear, he has shown he can at times be receptive to good ideas.

Make it so, i say.

*

Paradoxically, a Trump presidency could save the nation, despite Trump – but this is the only way I see that it could happen. Otherwise, my 2008 prediction for the US, Powderkeg USA, is likely to be fulfilled, with civil war ahead.

– J. Todd Ring,

February 1, 2024

From the rural counttyside of free and democratic Uruguay – a successful nation, not a collapsing neo-feudal police state run by Davos

A Canadian philosopher in exile from my now fascist homeland.

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Trump Hysteria

“Imagine, being so gullible, that you believe the world’s largest media corporations, are there to help you understand the world, rather than mislead and propagandize you.”

 - Glenn Greenwald

Fortunately, the spell is starting to wear off, at least for the growing majority of the people.

*

Trump did little good in his first term as US President, and much that was bad – but he didn’t turn the US into a fascist police state: Cheney, Obama and Biden did that.

I am no Trump supporter, but the establishment political elite of the two dominant US parties are far worse and far more dangerous.

Trump may be terrible, but it is the twin party machines, both run by Wall Street and the Deep State, that are truly fascist.

The hysteria over Trump is not only profoundly hypocritical, delusional and deceitful. It’s an absurdity in the extreme.

Lesson: Turn off the mainstream media, permanently.

JTR,

January 17, 2024

The Orangutan vs The Army Of The Dead

(Written before the 2020 US election, this short piece still sums up the situation in American politics very well.)

Trump is no fairy tale prince, and nor am I a supporter of the big orange buffoon; but we need to be honest about things: he’s up against the army of the undead. He may well win. Even if he loses, the people will lose, because they’ll have Biden, or his surrogate.

Chomsky is right: it matters for urgent environmental reasons that Trump and the Republicans are defeated; but it is also true that the US is a one party system: there is one party, which is the party of the business elite, and it has two wings: the Democrats and the Republicans. The 99% are not represented by either one. We either come to terms with that reality, and address it honestly, or we’re just not dealing with the real world.

The Republicans are simply loyal to a different faction of the ruling business elite. They are neither the problem nor the solution.

Biden is simply the latest figurehead for a party run by Wall Street, the military industrial security complex and the CIA. Anyone who thinks that that army of ghouls represents positive change, is living in a dream world.

Now that the only potentially serious challengers to the establishment have been eliminated – and by that I mean Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard – what is left is a contest that represents two figureheads from corporate America, fighting over which faction of the plutocratic business elite will rule.

Some election. That’s called a banana republic – or a failed state.

Get ready for a revolution. It is both needed, and coming fast. And let us pray it succeeds in defeating both factions of sociopaths, and soon.

J. Todd Ring,
October 9, 2020

Election 2020 USSA: No Matter Which Elite Pawn You Vote For, You Get Fascism

This short essay was written in September, before the election, but the analysis still holds, and the points made are still relevant, and in fact, extremely important to understand. The only thing I would add now, in December, is that revolution is overdue.

*

In the USSA Presidential Reality Show 2020, it is the Befuddled self-confessed willing prostitute to power Biden, vs the Terrible Trump. I am no Trump fan, but surely this match up must make us ask some very deep and soul-searching questions. I would argue that both bigots in high places represent factions of the ruling power elite. Which elite faction do you want? Both are deeply subservient to the military industrial security complex, the empire, and Wall Street – whatever the smoke and mirrors of their PR machines may seek to portray. Moreover, both of them will continue the current, accelerating drive to transform the United States and the world into a neo-feudal corporate fascist police state. Is that in any way supportable, or even conscionable? Is it ever conscionable to support fascism? Under no conditions, I would say. That means both Biden and Trump are utterly unsupportable, under any and all conditions.

“Anyone but Trump!” That is the slogan or rationalization of many liberals, progressives and people on the left, who are willingly supporting evil by choosing the lesser of two evils. But when does this argument fall flat? What if Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin or Mao was running against Trump? Would that be an acceptable alternative to Trump? Well, then, the answer would be said to be, “Anyone within reason, of course.” And this is the key point. There is a cut-off line. Rhetoric and sloganeering can be blinding. It is important to remember our common sense.

I am not suggesting Biden is the equivalent of any of these dark historical figures. I am simply showing there is in fact a cut-off line in most people’s minds in terms of who or what is supportable. I am, however, flatly saying that both Biden and Trump are Wall Street oligarch boot lickers and corporate fascists. They simply differ in terms of which group of fascist elites they prefer to rule over the 99.99%. I say, give the finger to all forms of fascism. How about real democracy and real freedom instead? Isn’t it about time?

In 2012, as I wrote in my first published book, Enlightened Democracy, it was a contest between two fascist war mongers and servants of Wall Street. One happened to be a conservative Republican, and one a “progressive” liberal Democrat. Saint Obama won, and we had a continuation and intensification of the Bush-Cheney imperial oil wars abroad, and the war on democracy, freedom and constitutional rule at home.

In 2016, after Slithery Shillery Clinton and the equally corrupt major media and Democratic Party establishment stole the primaries from Bernie – who is not a saviour or a saint, and is weak on foreign policy, but was and is vastly preferable to the Darling of Wall Street Hillary, every banker’s friend, and sadistic war-monger, plotter of multiple coups, Hilary Clinton – the people were left with a choice between Hilary and Trump. The German people had it right when they said that was akin to choosing between cholera and the plague. Of course the great majority refused to vote for either, and abstained.

Now, in 2020, it appears to be a choice between Biden and Trump, and both are proven whores to the Pentagon generals, the military industrial security complex, the globalist and predatory corporate business elite, and are not only prostitutes to the Deep State, which is the constellation of real ruling powers, including Big Oil, the big banks, Big Tech and Big Pharma, but are confirmed fascists.

So, what would you like: fascist A or fascist B? Do you like your fascism with a conservative flavouring, or would you prefer it sugary and faux left? One is neoconservative, and one is neoliberal: both neoconservatism and neoliebralism represent corporatism: that means the merger of the business elite and the state – which, as Mussolini himself said, is the proper term and definition for fascism.

So, is it going to be neoliberal corporate oligarchy representative, Fascist A, or neoconservative corporate oligarchy representative, Fascist B?

I say, none of the above. And if either Thomas Jefferson or Martin Luther King Jr. were here, I am sure they would agree: it is time for a revolution.

The shrinking minority of Americans who support either of the two establishment parties must sooner or later come to the realizations that:

A. The two major political parties in the US are two wings of the same party – the party of big business – as Noam Chomsky has said for decades.

B. Both major parties are embedded in and wholly subservient to the Deep State – which is, as we have said, the constellation of Big Oil, the big banks and financial elite, the military industrial security complex, Big Tech and Big Pharma.

C. Both major parties are prostitutes to war mongers, war profiteers, and the global corporate empire.

D. Both major parties have been eagerly supporting and participating in the billionaire oligarchs’ class war and economic warfare of the 0.01% against the poor, the middle class and the Earth – all of which they are devouring, and with increasing speed.

E. Both major parties have been a party to, and have aided and abetted the demolition of democracy, freedom and constitutional rule, and have been actively committed to the construction of a global police state, run by and for the military industrial biomedical corporate security complex and the ruling globalist plutocrats.

And for Democrats it must further be noted, and realized, that:

F. The Democrats are no longer the good guys – no matter how virtiolic, paranoid, or self-righteous they may be, and are. The party is now the party of crypto-fascist business oligarchs who are far right, and not even centrist, by any stretch of the imagination, nor tolerable or supportable under any circumstances.

And for the people from other countries who may be inclined to stay in dreamland, thinking, well, so long as we don’t live in the United States, we’re doing alright – it must be realized that we really are “all in this together” now, to use the 2020 biomedical fascist slogan in a more honest and intelligent way: That is, the corporate fascist coup that has been unfolding in slow motion for 50 years, is global in scope, and has been consummated this year.

We, the people, have been consummated. And this is only the beginning. The hounds have yet to be unleashed. Being naive or taking a wait and see attitude now, would be disastrous, and will be deeply and profoundly regretted.

What does this mean? It means new parties should be built and supported. (Remember that in Italy, Greece and Spain popular movements gave birth to new political parties which went from newborn to forming the government in less than four years.) But the more immediate conclusion and urgently needed response is more simple and straight-forward. It means revolution is not only justified, but urgently required, and now.

There is only one valid argument I can think of to vote for Biden in 2020. That is that Trump represents the greater risk of nuclear war or ecological holocaust.

As to the former, it is highly unsure as to who represents the greatest risk of war with China, Russia or Iran – and war with any of them presents the near certainty of World War III – the Wall Street Democrats with the blundering Biden as figure head, or a Republican White House ostensibly under Trump, but in reality controlled by the generals and by the same military industrial corporate security complex which controls the Democratic Party. It is just as easy to argue that risk of nuclear war is as high or higher with a Biden corporate oligarchy Presidency as with a Trump corporate oligarchy presidency. Trump may launch WWIII with China, but the Democrats could start it by their new Cold War hysteria with regards to Russia. Biden certainly is no clear winner in that regard, at least, so the point is moot.

As to the second great danger, I think Noam Chomsky may be right. Chomsky’s view seems to be that while Biden and the Democrats would not likely do nearly enough; on the other hand, Trump and the Republicans would spell ecological cataclysm. That is reason enough, and more than a strong enough reason, to vote for Biden – simply to prevent Trump from potentially sealing our fate in a collective suicide.

For that reason, I am inclined to agree with Chomsky, as I usually do, and say that the people should definitely vote in 2020, and they should definitely vote for Biden in order to stop the globe cooking of Trump – bearing in mind that the Democrats are only marginally better in terms of the environment, and therefore, mass civil disobedience to pressure real change will be necessary no matter who wins.

Note that Biden, as well as saying he would veto any plan to bring in Medicare for all, has said he will not ban fracking and opposes the Green New Deal. He is a corporate shill, a used car salesman, a snake oil peddler, as well as a war criminal, and in truth, not very different from Trump. Maybe Trump is worse for the environment, so vote Biden. Then prepare for the real action.

I am not very convinced by Chomsky’s unusually excoriating pressure on the centre and the left to support Biden in order to avert planetary destruction. As my initial argument above made clear: there are lines to be drawn, and I do not believe in supporting fascists or war-mongers, and Biden and the Democratic party establishment are both. Furthermore, the Democrats are so weak on the environment, and so in the pocket of big business, that planetary destruction is guaranteed under a Democratic government, even if it is ever so slightly delayed.

I repeat Chomsky’s argument here, because I respect him, and because some may feel compelled to vote Biden, and I do not want them to feel they have voted for Satan in the bargain. I would like us all to question, however, whether support for either a Democratic or Republican government is warranted, legitimate, ethical, or even sane – no matter how you may vote in November.

Does that mean I am contradicting my entire argument, made above? I do not think so at all. The argument spelled out above makes the undeniable and inescapable case for revolution – non-violent, Gandhian revolution – now, in 2020, and without delay. The second argument, corroborating the view of Noam Chomsky, simply says Americans should vote for Biden to dislodge the truly existential threat of anther four years of Trump in office. It says nothing about November 4. And of course, on November 4, 2020, the revolution must begin.

J. Todd Ring,
September 27, 2020

Vote Biden To Save The World?!

Anyone But Trump? Fair enough….

Then again….

The Democrats are funding hyper-accelerated global deforestation through wood-to-energy (read, devouring entire forests of live trees) biomass power projects which are being masqueraded as clean, renewable energy – projects which climate scientists say are worse than coal.

And who is more a danger of starting WWIII: the Republicans who are raising tensions with China, or the Democrats who are raising tensions with Russia?

Guess what, both are run by the billionaire club; both are genocidal, militaristic, imperialist, corporate fascist and ecocidal; both are elite-serving sociopaths; and both are driving us toward either nuclear or ecological armaggedon.

I say it’s time for non-violent revolution, and something much better, freer, more democratic, and more sane.

J. Todd Ring,

October 13, 2020

Trump Says Up, You Say Down: Psyops 101

The deep state steers Trump. Smart move would be to nudge him to dismiss the coronavirus as over-hyped. Then the lemmings will trip over themselves to avoid guilt by association. But even idiots can be right sometimes, remember. Even a broken watch tells the right time twice a day. But the centre and left reacted like Pavlov’s dogs. Now they are loathe to admit they made a mistake, so they refuse to look at facts, and dig in. The majority are easily manipulated by elites playing power games…. It’s terrifying how easily the majority can be manipulated. That is the real danger.

*

Trump is a tool of the Deep State. He thinks he’s a brave rebel, at war with the Deep State. Or so he thought until the generals schooled him. Now he obeys orders.

Trump may be unpredictable and a loose cannon, but by and large, the Deep State has him firmly under control. They steer him, letting him believe he has far more power and autonomy than has actually has. He is another pawn – a pawn they wish to remove from the board, but a pawn so long as he is in play, nonetheless.

That considered, and that summary of Trump and the Deep State is pretty much unquestionable, it is interesting to note how an intelligent psyops campaign might be played out, if the ruling neoliberal elite wanted to:

a) get rid of Trump; and more importantly,

b) distract the people from the major crises –  the economy, poverty, inequality, injustice, climate change, pipeline protests, an explosion of protests world-wide, simultaneous with growing oligarchic and fascist powers, class warfare, imperial wars abroad, and the rapidly growing crisis of legitimacy of the ruling elite and the entire global corporate oligarchy – distract the people by a greatly exaggerated public health crisis (see my earlier articles, especially, Coronavirus: Facts & Fallout); and

c) use the public health crisis as a way to further intensify class warfare, crash the economy for this purpose, and loot the people further, in the process hopefully removing Trump in the 2020 election, and bring about police state measures in response to the largely manufactured crisis.

Nudging Trump to initially dismiss the virus as greatly overblown – which it is (see WSJ article, re-posted on my blog, written by Standford University professors, saying exactly this); and now to signal he wants an end to “social distancing” soon; would have the predictable response from the centre and left: they would, and did, trip over themselves stampeding to avoid any association with Trump.

Trumps says Up, so we say Down. Trump says black, so we say white. Trump is crazy, scary, stupid, and bad (all true) so we must disagree with everything he says (a foolish and childish reaction).

Everyone in the centre and on the left wants to avoid guilt by association with Trump. It is an unconscious but powerful reaction. Trump says X; Trump must be wrong, always; so we say Y.

But remember, even idiots are right sometimes. And even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day.

Look at the evidence. Avoid knee-jerk reactions. We are being manipulated, and played.

Investigate. And think for yourself.

The centre and left are acting like Pavolv’s dogs. They are cheerleading for a narrative that is demonstrably false, proven false by the facts; and worse, they are cheerleading for the removal of our rights and freedoms, and the imposition of a police state.

“The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” – H. L. Mencken

“We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth.” – Sydney Schanberg

“If you think any American official is going to tell you the truth, then you’re stupid.” – Arthur Sylvester, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, to American journalists, 1965

“This is a business-run huckster society, whose cardinal virtue is deceit.” – Noam Chomsky

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell

Can you spell, (self-) L-O-B-O-T-O-M-Y?

At present, to repeat, the centre and left are being misled and manipulated, en mass, into:

a) accepting a narrative which is patently false (remember Saddam’s WMDs?), and does not fit the facts (see the Italian government’s study on the true death toll from the coronavirus, and the WSJ article by two Stanford professors);

and, more terrifyingly, into:

b) screaming loudly in defense of a normalization of the very authoritarian measures they should be fighting against.

Now that is a psyops/propaganda/social engineering coup.

Let us pray it is short-lived, and the people recover their senses, and their sanity, and soon.

JTR,
March 27, 2020

Coronavirus: Facts, Anyone?

 

Perspective is helpful, and critical. Panic is not.

Consider the figures:

 

Japan:

Just under 5,000 deaths per year from bathtub drownings;

just over 5,000 deaths per year from traffic accidents;

27 deaths from coronavirus, as of March 16

Italy:

3,300 deaths from traffic accidents per year

2,158 deaths from coronavirus as of March 16

US:

40,000 deaths per year from traffic accidents;

77 deaths from coronavirus, as of March 16

and,

200,000 deaths per year from pharmaceuticals taken correctly, and prescribed correctly, according to the US government’s own figures

Are we banning cars? That would be more rational (though of course we would need a five to ten year phase out while building mass transit infrastructure, to end the car dependency and addiction). Are we concerned with mass deaths due to the extreme over-use of unsafe pharmaceuticals? That would be rational. Panic and draconian measures over the coronavirus are not rational – these *responses to the virus*, are extremely dangerous, however.

But few people care about facts in a time of mass hysteria.

Moreover, in China, the “pandemic” is winding down, and essentially over.

80,880 were infected; 3,213 died – overwhelmingly the very old and immune-compromised (about 0.0003% of the population of the country – vastly fewer deaths than those caused by motor vehicle accidents, pollution, or the common flu); 67,819 have recovered.

But while the “pandemic” is winding down in China, in the West the panic and draconian measures are just winding up. Now that is something to be worried about.

Wash your hands, eat your vegetables, take vitamin C – and question everything: especially the media and the government.

Then again, if the US government was truly serious about preventing human suffering and death, it would stop slaughtering people on a daily basis across the Middle East for oil.

This, by the way, is not “anti-Americanism” – it’s anti-murder. It’s anti-war, anti-imperialism, and anti-murder. If Washington is concerned about human health and human suffering, the first step would be to stop practicing mass murder for oil and other resources.

And if Canada, or the Canadian government, was truly serious about protecting human life, it would cease to be the biggest per capita arms dealer in the world, selling weapons to murderous governments such as the US and Saudi Arabia.

Neither of them is at all serious about protecting human life, or they would stop the slaughter they are neck deep in blood engaged in.

The lies must end now. War, poverty, obesity, poor diets, car accidents, climate change and pollution, are all vastly bigger dangers, and vastly bigger killers, than the latest virus. Even the common flu is 100 times more dangerous and more lethal. (650,000 annual death toll globally from the common flu, compared to just over 7,000 for the coronavirus, to date.)

End the madness. Question everything. And let’s start dealing with the real world, and the really big problems we face: such as poverty, obesity, unhealthy diets, pollution, war, climate change, and yes, the very clear and present danger, and drift toward, fascism.

How deep in denial are the majority? That denial, on many levels, and with regard to many serious, urgent problems and truly grave dangers, is the biggest threat of all.

Furthermore, if the US government was truly concerned about human health, it would immediately create a universal public health care system, like the rest of the civilized world already has. Over a trillion dollars a year is spent on war, and the military-industrial-security complex – the new police state. But there is no money for public health care? You are liars.

And in Canada, if the fuzzy-bear faux liberal government truly cared about human health, they would stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry at $20 billion a year, so they can destroy the planet faster, and instead fully fund health care – which is in nation-wide crisis due to chronic under-funding, and decades of funding cuts.

Again: they are both lairs – Trudeau and Trump. And they are both extremely dangerous – due to their staunch, planet-destroying allegiance to the fossil fuel industry, militarism, and the growing police state: far more dangerous than the coronavirus, or any other infectious disease.

What are the greatest dangers? They are, unquestionably, the lies, illusions, and the denial, which are the nearly universal norm.

The latest virus does not remotely compare to these.

JTR,

March 16, 2020

Trump, like the latest media hype, is a distraction

Obsession with Trump – or a virus scare, and the latest media hype – is mass distraction, as I’ve said since before his election.

Trump is a danger, certainly, and an extreme danger – to the country, the people of the United States, and the people of the world, even the planet. The Deep State, which still by and large runs the country, and has since 1947, is far more dangerous, but Trump is certainly dangerous: above all because of his acceleration of fossil fuel use, and his militarism, exactly as Chomsky has said.

The latest media-created hysteria, this time over another virus – one still far less dangerous than the common flu, and virtually insignificant compared to the death toll from poverty and obesity, both – is also dangerous. The coronavirus “pandemoc” is extremely dangerous, in fact – due to the media-induced panic and distraction, not the virus itself, and far more so, due to the clearly authoritarian responses of governments and elites, which I would say are clearly intended to get the people ready to surrender their freedom, and accept martial law.

But while Trump and the virus are dangerous, for reasons described, if people obsess over them, then all perspective is lost, we lose sight of the bigger picture – and that is far more dangerous than any president or germ. (Caustic humour comes to mind, but maybe we have had enough of that for now.)

Moreover…

“This Trump-washing gets everybody off the hook. Suddenly they’re all heroes. The CIA is heroes, the FBI is heroes…” – Robert Sheerer

Yes, war criminals like Hilary, Madeleine Albright, Obama, cast themselves as heroes, in utter self-deceit.

And the black heart of the military-industrial-security complex, otherwise known as the Deep State, as Peter Dale Scott called it – or the Power Elite, as C Wright Mills and Peter Phillips have called them, or the Shadow Government, as Bill Moyers called it – which is the CIA, along with the “counter-intelligence” department of the FBI, which together make up the foreign and domestic secret police, paramilitary, or political police, along with the NSA, the NSC, and their masters and overlords at Davos, the City of London and Wall Street, are all good guys now, real knights in shining armor.

Let us all rejoice that our masters are really messiahs.

But whatever self-deceptions or PR campaigns elites may engage in, the reality remains: the problems are systemic, not reducible to one single person. 

Sometimes voting matters. In this case, with regard to the 2020 US election, I agree with Chomsky – voting matters, and removing Trump from power is important, possibly critical. I also agree with Chomsky that preventing the worst is where we start, not where we end.

The US, like most “advanced” industrial nations, including Canada, the UK, and in Europe, now requires nothing short of revolution, if humanity is to survive, to say nothing of matters of justice, freedom, equality, or peace.

Individuals must be held accountable, and sometimes must be swiftly removed from power; but systemic change is also urgently required. That much should be obvious by now. And systemic change, generally in history, is called, Revolution.

JTR,

March 14, 2020

 

Here is the Sheerer Chomsky interview, part two. And listen also to part one, which is even more important (the sequence is unimportant, I would say).

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3KD4rNEXBPz48PM1RfzOSD?si=e8mK9AinQ1W33tmIbkuElg

US 2020 Election: One Choice Only – The Oligarchy

Chris Hedges states there is no choice in the 2020 US election if it is a choice between Trump and Biden: both are a vote for the consolidation of the oligarchy.

Now that sums it up perfectly well.

Mind you, it was the same in 2016. People in Germany felt that choosing between Trump and Clinton was like choosing between cholera and the plague.

The same was true in 2012: Obama vs Romney – a choice between two devoted servants of Wall Street, the corporate oligarchy, the empire, the war machine, the growing sureillance and police state, which was launched by Bush and Cheney, and expanded by Obama, and the military industrial security complex, which has ruled the US since the National Security Act was passed in 1947.

(Like Citizens United and the Patriot Act, there is a piece of fascist-oligarchy-enabling legislation that needs to be killed as swiftly as possible, if either freedom or democracy, or constitutional rule, is to survive.)

Remember what Chomsky said about the US political system: it’s a one party system – the party of big business – with two wings. That’s been the case for a long time.

We should also remember that the entire political spectrum has slid far to the right, both in the US and across the Western world. Obama has said that, not too long ago, he would have been considered a moderate Republican. And that is true.

In fact, with his continuation of the dismantling the New Deal social contract; the continued multi-trillion dollar “bail-outs” and “stimulus” packages given to the Wall Street banking elite – which is an historically unprecedented transfer of wealth from Main Street to Wall Street, which is to say, mass looting; with his embracing and expanding of the new surveillance and police state created by the Bush-Cheney neoconservatives; and his expansion of the neocon imperial wars abroad, Obama was further to the right than Eisenhower, a moderate Republican who in 1961 warned us, “Beware the military industrial complex” – which every president since Eisenhower, Democrat or Republican, has devotedly served.

The Democrats are now a party of the far right, with their devotion to the fascist architecture of the Constitution- and Bill of Rights-shredding Patriot Act, the permanent imperial wars abroad, the new surveillance and police state, and the intensified war on democracy, freedom, constitutional rule, the rule of law, and the people of the US and the world.That’s called “the left.” It’s not the left. It’s the far right. And the Republicans are even further to the right.

The Democrats are in truth crypto-fascists – and not so crypto about it, for anyone who is remotely paying attention. They are the neoliberals. That means, the merger of business and the state – but with a liberal, smiley face, of course. They are the fuzzy, warm, gender-inclusive, multicultural, “liberal” fascists. They are the good cops. So we are to believe.

The Republicans are the neoconservatives. They are the Tweedle dum to the Democrats’ Tweedle Dee. They are the harsher, more stark face of the merger of business and the state.

But both parties represent the merger of business and the state – which, as Mussolini said himself, is called corporatism, which is the proper term for fascism.

Fascist, war-mongering corporate oligarchy candidate A, or fascist, war-mongering candidate B – which would you like?

It’s time for some real change.

To me, as far as US politics are concerned, it’s now Bernie or revolution.

Or more accurately, it’s now time for revolution – with or without Bernie in the White House.

JTR,

March 10, 2020

Bernie Sanders would win – if US elections weren’t controlled by big money….. But he just might win anyway, and he is well on his way

The Independent Senator from Vermont, and US Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, is riding a fast-growing wave of popular support across the United States. Sanders is getting ten times the turn-out for rallies as any other candidate, and the momentum continues to build.

Bernie Sanders is getting higher turn-outs to rallies than the Republican candidates, even in conservative strongholds. And Hillary still hasn’t had any turn-out that comes remotely close to those of Bernie.

If elections really were free and fair in the United States, Bernie Sanders would almost certainly win. But they are not. They are owned and controlled by Wall Street and the super-rich.

Beyond this, 90% of the media is controlled by the same large corporations and corporate elite who control Wall Street, the economy, the financial system, the electoral system and the major political parties. So a free and fair, open, democratic debate on the issues, or any free and fair, open discussion or coverage of elections, politics or any issues in the country, is very near to impossible. Propaganda, spin, noise and distraction, gossip and sensationalism are the rule, and this is very hard to break through.

There are excellent sources available for news and analysis, discussion, commentary and debate – sources which are not controlled either by big business or the government – such as Global Research, Trends Journal, CounterPunch, Z Magazine and The Real News Network; and the audience for independent media continues to grow rapidly and exponentially, while people continue to walk away in droves, in a virtual mass exodus, from the network media and the corporate press; but it still remains the fact that the corporate elite control the mainstream media and the major news outlets today: which means, they dominate and shape the public discussion, and to a great degree, control what can and cannot be discussed.

Until we have major media reform – meaning, most essentially, that anti-trust laws are applied to the media empires, and they are broken up – democracy will continue to be more theory than reality in the United States and other “leading” industrial nations. So media control and media monopolies are a major barrier to getting any decent person or party elected to government, including Senator Bernie Sanders.

If the corporate media don’t like you, then you are at a tremendous disadvantage – and if you don’t cater to the whims and the demands of the corporate oligarchy, then the corporate media are going to shut you out, ignore, marginalize or silence you, or else attack you, and try to portray you as irrelevant at best, if not something far worse than that. The gatekeepers of the establishment within the media play to the gains of their masters, and they will attempt to keep all doors closed to any real change.

Furthermore, the Democratic Party elite are terrified of Bernie Sanders. Why? Because he would return the power to the people. That means the Wall Street gravy train ends. And that means the gravy train for the party establishment ends. The party elite know who butters their bread. That’s why they don’t like Bernie.

But what if Bernie wins anyway? It is a long-shot, and Bernie is a definite outsider from the ruling elite circles and the establishment. But we need someone who is not an establishment man or woman, as Trump and Hillary are. And long-shots can, and sometimes do, win. Obama was a long-shot. Carter was a long-shot. And they both won, of course.

Bernie Sanders is climbing rapidly in support.

Bernie has won the support of veterans, because he fought tooth and nail for them.

Bernie is winning the support of labour, because he has said he is opposed to the TPP, which is yet another corporate rights agreement that will be disastrous for jobs and the 99% of the people who are not among the economic elite. Hilary is owned by Wall Street, and is silent, unsurprisingly, on the TPP.

Hilary laughed maniacally in a Reuters interview clip about the proposal to attack Iran, and was eager to attack. Bernie opposed the war in Iraq, and is still pro-peace.

Trump is a slime-ball corporate vulture, to be perfectly frank. Hilary is a hawkish Wall Street hack, eager for war.

Bernie Sanders is a grassroots populist who is committed to peace, environmental sustainability, a more equal society, the defence of freedom and civil liberties, universal health care and free education for all, the rebuilding of America and the US economy and infrastructure, and the removal of big money from politics. This is why he is so wildly popular with the people – because he resonates with their values and what they want. They want a peaceful and free, sustainable and democratic nation, with liberty and prosperity for all – not a war-obsessed gulag with increasing abuses of civil liberties and human rights, rule by the super-rich, the destruction of freedom and democracy, as well as the environment, and poverty or insecurity for the great majority.

Bernie Sanders is the only progressive candidate – and for that matter, the only one seriously opposed to big money controlling politics, to war, to the surveillance state and the destruction of civil liberties, to the obliteration of the middle class and the abandonment of the poor, and to the demolition of democracy in the name of profits, or for any other reason.

Bernie Sanders is the only US presidential candidate at all worthy of support. And if he continues to build momentum like this, he just might win.

Everyone said Obama had zero chance of winning in 2008. Everyone said Hillary would definitely win. But Obama came from out of nowhere, and won. Everyone said Jimmy Carter had zero chance. But he won.

Everyone said Bernie could never win and become mayor of Burlington, Vermont. But he did. Then the establishment said it was a fluke. Then he won two more times. It was no fluke. Then they said he could never win as a Congressional candidate. But he did. And then won as a Senatorial candidate, and is now the longest serving member of the Senate.

Bernie has a proven track record, not just of fierce integrity, honesty and courage in politics, not just in a five decade long record of consistency, but in winning, when everyone said it was impossible for him to win. This man is a lion – and a lion for the people.

I heard a great comment recently about the good Senator. “Bernie Sanders is the next most popular socialist after Jesus.”

One commentator put it ironically, and well, and said essentially the same thing. He said, “You have a problem with him (Bernie) being a socialist? Jesus was a socialist. Would you rather have Donald Trump?”

Or how about Hillary, bomb-em-now, Clinton, and her Wall Street cabal?

The Red Scare tactics simply don’t work on the majority of the people anymore. This is not 1955 and the midst of the McCarthy era. People look to Denmark, Finland, Sweden, or Canada, with their democratic socialist traditions which are blended with a capitalist economy, and they think, “Well, democratic socialism seems to work just fine there – in fact, it works better for the people than what we have here.”

Some people will say, “Ok, the man has good values and strong ethics, and he is admirable, and maybe would make a great president – but he doesn’t have a chance of winning.” I can understand this view, and there are certainly some good reasons for thinking this way, but I disagree.

A very dear friend of mine, and a very intelligent, well-read woman, basically said this of Bernie Sanders: that she respects his values and his ethics, but he doesn’t have a chance of winning. To which I said the following: I really hope you’re wrong. I think you might possibly be right, but I really hope not. And even if there is only a slim chance that he could win, I want to support him. In any event, win or lose, as Chomsky has said, the very fact of his running brings up facts and arguments and ideas that otherwise would not be discussed – so even if he loses, we all win, to some significant extent at least.

And as I write this, and look further into what is happening with the US presidential primaries, I find this startling piece of information. As of August 14, Bernie Sanders had passed Hilary in the polls in New Hampshire. Remember that New Hampshire is the first primary race. Winning in the first primary goes a long way to building momentum. Bernie could take New Hampshire, and conceivably, take it all the way to the presidency.

Let’s hope the US, and the world, are so lucky.

As one savvy political observer has said, “Bernie Sanders is the guy Barack Obama pretended to be in 2008.”

Go Bernie. The people need a champion in the White House who will fight for them, and not for the ruling oligarchy of the Wall Street elite.

Frankly, I have a feeling that Bernie Sanders is going to win. I pray that I am right. A change in the presidency of the most powerful nation on earth is not enough in itself to accomplish the major changes that are needed now in the world today, or even within the United States, but it could be a tipping point, and a decisive turn of events.

Go Bernie.

J. Todd Ring,

August 21, 2015

Update, September 18, 2015:

Sanders takes the lead in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, leading over Clinton by 10 and 20 points, respectively. I think he’s going to win. I certainly hope so.

Here he is on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. And the crowd loves him!

http://www.alternet.org/media/watch-bernie-sanders-explains-colbert-why-he-doesnt-want-billionaires-money-late-show

Update, September 28, 2015:

Millennials are now the largest voting block in the US, and they are lining up behind Bernie Sanders. So too are progressives, labour, environmentalists, and people like prominent black American scholar Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Meanwhile, Bernie still leads over Hillary in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, two of the key primary states, is drawing bigger crowds than any candidate, and raising more campaign funds than any candidate, despite his rejection of the billionaires’ money. This is looking interesting, to say the least.

Labor for Bernie

For more information please see:

Senator Bernie Sanders nails it, in this two minute video from C-SPAN, from over 20 years ago – just as he did before that, just as he has done since then, and just as he is doing now. Watch this short clip to see who Bernie Sanders really is, and what he stands for. I think most people will agree, Senator Sanders simply makes sense. And he has the guts to fight for what is right, what is good, what is sane, and what is meaningful – the guts to fight for the real changes that we urgently need today.

Bernie Sanders: Where is the leadership? (C-SPAN, 6/4/1992)

Bernie For President: Progress

Sanders Was Progressive Before It Was Cool

Hillary laughs about possible war with Iran

Hillary Clinton: “If I’m President, We Will Attack Iran”

On Friday, presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton addressed a hand-picked audience at a Dartmouth College campaign event. She lied calling Iran an “existential threat to Israel… I hope we are able…

globalresearch.ca

Bernie Sanders’ track record distinguished by consistency

Rachel Maddow traces the political history of Bernie Sanders, from small city mayor of Burlington Vermont, to congressman, senator and upstart presidential candidate, all while staying consistent on a core set of issues – msnbc.com

MSNBC uploaded a new video

Bernie Sanders: My “campaign is about political revolution.”

All In with Chris Hayes uploaded a new video: Bernie Sanders: “Let me tell you something that no other candi…

Bernie Sanders: “Let me tell you something that no other candidate for president will tell you”

Bernie Sanders Unveils Racial Justice Platform

Bernie Sanders On Meet The Press

Good background info on the fast-rising tide of support for Bernie Sanders (from July 1):

Huge Crowds For Bernie Sanders Should Terrify Hilary Clinton

Bernie Sanders Surges Past Hilary In The Polls

Hillary Clinton’s Keystone Crisis – Common Dreams
Hillary waivers, waffles, obfuscates, evades, and refuses to take a stand, while taking big money from big oil

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/08/21/hillary-clintons-keystone-crisis