Monday, January 28, 2019

What If China Declared Nancy Pelosi President of the U.S. and Deemed Trump Illegitimate?

That's the equivalent of what the U.S. is doing to Venezuela. Simply outrageous.

The U.S. has just declared that the elected, LEGAL president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, isn't really the president because the U.S. has decided he is "illegitimate." The "real" president is a U.S. stooge Venezuelan politician (Juan Guaidó) whom the U.S. has decreed by imperialist fiat is now Venezuela's "interim president." It has lined up a score of lackey nations in Latin America ruled by reactionaries, and in Europe ruled by bourgeois toadies to U.S. power, to agree with this insane diktat, which the U.S. is now moving to forcibly impose on Venezuela through various means, including a military coup d'état.

But the U.S. is doing something more outrageous than what even China is doing in this thought experiment. The U.S. claims to be doing this in the name of "freedom and democracy." Declaring the elected president of another nation "illegitimate" and naming his replacement in the name of "freedom and democracy." This is Orwellian to a mind-bending extreme.

This is the same country that SO LOVES freedom and democracy that it is best buddies with Saudi Arabia, a nation ruled with an iron fist by an intolerant hereditary and totalitarian monarchy. Nothing "illegitimate" about THOSE rulers!

The horrible killer U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called the Venezuelan government "morally bankrupt," "profoundly undemocratic" and- get this- "corrupt." Nice example of projection by a reactionary, an extremely common phenomenon.

The propaganda media of not just the U.S. but scores of lackey nations in Europe and Latin America are backing this grotesque imperialist aggression.

We're told that Britain, France, Germany, and Spain are falling in line behind the U.S.' move. Tells you all you need to know about the moral bankruptcy of the ruling classes of the Eurolackey states, as well as the emptiness of all their blather about "democracy" and respecting national sovereignty. All the aforementioned nations have a history as among the most vicious empires in history. All committed numerous acts of mass murder to enforce their imperial rule.

Those trying to defend Venezuelan independence are Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Russia. A weak group with little cohesion as a group.

Pompeo bulled into the UN to demand that other nations "pick a side," either for the U.S. coup and installation of its chosen puppet, or on the side of international law and respect for self-determination of people and for national sovereignty. That's not how he described it, of course, but that's what it is. What he said was the most mendacious propaganda imaginable, on a par with the U.S.' excuse for invading Iraq and Hitler's lies "justifying" the conquest of Poland.

But Russia and China will veto the U.S. ploy to get the UN Security Council to rubber-stamp its imperialist aggression. That won't stop the U.S. of course. The U.S. will simply attack the UN as a body that "doesn't work."

Anything that doesn't take orders from the U.S. is by definition broken.

In response to the U.S. declaring that he is no longer president and proclaiming its chosen lackey "interim president," the real president, Maduro, who was legitimately elected, broke off diplomatic relations (about time!) and ordered U.S. "diplomats" to leave. The U.S. is arrogantly refusing to remove its "diplomats," obviously and deliberately setting up a confrontation. "We're going to sit in your country and refuse to recognize your government," is what the U.S. is declaring in effect.

Outrageous. But not in the global capitalist media's telling.

The dire economic straits Venezuela is in is harped on, as if that is an excuse for overthrowing its government. NEVER mentioned is the fact that the U.S. has been systematically strangling Venezuela with economic warfare. Instead "economic mismanagement" is constantly blamed. I'm willing to believe that's a factor. Now can the propagandists ever explain say WHAT economic mismanagement they're referring to? They never say. Just the assertion is enough. [1]

1] It's the same way the U.S. "intelligence community" "determined" that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee's computer server, the "evidence" being mere assertion of the claim. But actually it wasn't even "the intelligence community," but merely three "analysts" from the CIA, FBI, and NSA handpicked by Obama regime "Director of National Intelligence" James "Pinocchio" Clapper, the man who infamously testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee, that allegedly "oversees" the various secret police agencies, that the NSA does NOT gather all Americans' phone calls, when it fact it does. But repeatedly saying that the entire massive infallible trustworthy "intelligence community" "determined" it is more convincing to say, which is why "the" media keeps saying it, even though it's untrue.





Saturday, January 19, 2019

Latest Demented Russiagate Conspiracy-Mongering Is So Over-The-Top That Mueller Publicly Denies It's True

For two years, most of the U.S. media have subjected the public to a frantic saturation campaign of agitpropaganda claiming that the president of the U.S., Donald Trump, is under the sway or control of Russia (a designated hostile foreign power), or is being blackmailed by Russia, or is in debt to Russia, or is directed by Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, or has a special relationship with Putin, or "colluded" with Russia to steal the presidential election from the rightful heir to the presidency, Hillary Clinton, or something or other that's sinister.

This campaign, which has had the dark hand of the secret police deep state involved, started in earnest ten days before Trump was sworn in as president. On January 10, 2017, Buzzfeed "News" published a sensational (in more than one sense of the word) "dossier" concocted by a former British secret policeman (veteran of MI6, the British "CIA,") Christopher Steele, that made lurid allegations against Trump, supposedly provided to Steele by Kremlin sources. The most obviously preposterous allegation was that Trump had paid prostitutes to urinate on a hotel bed in which the Clintons had previously slept, and the Russians had a video of this. (Notice one never hears about this claim anymore, except by late night U.S. tv comedians, who pretend it is a fact.) [1]

Since Trump lies so constantly and obviously, it must have been calculated by the perpetrators of this hoax dossier that Trump's denials would lack credibility with at least a large segment of the public.
It turned out that the Clinton campaign had paid for this dossier, a fact the Democrats spent a year denying, lying through their teeth.

Now Buzzfeed is at it again, with a false claim that Trump instructed his former fixer Michael Cohen to perjure himself to Congress regarding a Russian business deal.  [2]

We know it is false because no other than the very tight-lipped Russiagate special prosecutor, Robert S. Mueller III, has issued a statement saying so.  [3]

Buzzfeed, a tawdry website full of celebrity tittle-tattle and the most cheesy "clickbait," "stands by its story" nonetheless. It's editor stubbornly refuses to back down (as of yet), demanding Mueller be specific about what is false.

Obviously Mueller wouldn't bother issuing a denial if it wasn't to refute the main claim, the Trump suborned perjury.

Numerous media organs immediately grabbed Buzzfeed's false propaganda and ran with it. This is a pattern that has repeated over and over in the two-year-old Russiagate propaganda campaign. Major media organs have repeatedly aired ridiculous conspiracy theories, based on the flimsiest- or no- factual basis. [4]

The Mueller denial of the Buzzfeed article caused some media outlets to slam on the brakes and do a screeching U-turn. The Washington Post, a leading fount of Russiagate conspiracy speculation and favorite bulletin board for the Deep State secret police to plant its anti-Trump accusations, fretted that Buzzfeed was hurting "the" media's credibility. Worse, it wrung its hands over the fact that this isn't the first time some anti-Trump propaganda turned out to be false. Bizarrely, this ran under the heading, "Style." Huh? [5]

The silver lining in all this is that the U.S. corporate propaganda system, a gigantic brainwashing mechanism, is losing credibility. Ironic that it is occurring in political combat with a man, Trump, who tells ludicrous lies on a daily basis.

For the past two years, much less attention has been paid to the horrible policies of Trump, such as on the environment, where his EPA is increasing lethal pollution. We never hear about the awful tax "reform" at all. Apparently the corporate media secretly is pleased with these venal policies. So instead they have been trying to gin up a scandal based on painting Trump as a Russian agent (Rachel Maddow on MSNBC explicitly says exactly that) or stooge or puppet. They genuinely seem to believe he can be removed from office this way. Or maybe they are merely trying to hem him in. Whatever the case, the disarray among U.S. ruling elites must be greatly pleasing to China, which is stealing a march on the U.S. to supplant it as the dominant world power.

Way to go, fools!

It won't be the first time in history that stupidly by a complacent ruling class led to the downfall of an empire. Ruling classes long in power get overconfident and smug, it seems.

1]  "These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia," Buzzfeed, January 10, 2017


2]  "President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project," Buzzfeed, January 17, 2019, "updated" January 18.


3]  According to Peter Carr, a spokesman for Special Counsel Mueller, “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate.”


4]  One example of anti-Trump media immediately hopping on Buzzfeed's bandwagon: "IF TRUMP TOLD COHEN TO LIE, IMPEACHMENT IS COMING," Wired, January 18, 2019. Wired, which is supposed to be a digital technology magazine, is one of the most dishonest organs obsessively pushing the faux "collusion-election hacking-democracy interfering-Trump Russia conspiracy" narrative. And with every new cooked-up "bombshell revelation," the propagandists predict Trump's impeachment. How many times can a boy cry Wolf! before people stop listening? I guess if the people are Democratic Party partisans, the answer is an infinite number of times.


5]  "Style: BuzzFeed’s stumble is highest profile misstep at a time when press is under greatest scrutiny," Washington Post, January 19, 2019. Here are the first two paragraphs:

"BuzzFeed News’ apparently mistaken story about Michael Cohen and President Trump is the highest profile misstep yet for a news organization during a period of heightened and intense scrutiny of the press, as the special counsel’s office issued a thorough rebuke of the website’s story published Thursday.

"Reporters at the Guardian, CNN, McClatchy News and other outlets [INCLUDING THE WASHINGTON POST, THEY FORGOT TO MENTION] have published disputed, suspect or uncorroborated stories about Trump and the investigation swirling around him since special counsel Robert S. Mueller III began his probe 21 months ago. Each instance has elicited cries of 'fake news' from the president and his supporters, stoking the claim that the mainstream media is biased and irresponsible." Which of course it is.

The Washington Post "reported" that Russia has infected a Vermont electric utility with malware, a completely false story. It also ran a smear job on progressive media outlets, falsely claiming they were all in league with Russia. There are plenty of other examples.



Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Racist Reactionary U.S. President To Deliver Nationally Televised Speech Tonight Demonizing Poor Immigrants Fleeing U.S.-Created Hellholes

Trump, a racist demagogue, has effectively commandeered numerous television and radio organs this evening to deliver a vicious attack on Central American migrants fleeing the poverty and terror that the U.S. creates and enforces by violence in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Trump will continue to viciously smear these desperate migrants, who cannot even afford transportation but instead must walk a thousand miles or more to the U.S. border, as an invading horde of terrorists, criminals, and drug smugglers. He and his minions dismiss the women and children as props "pushed to the front" to dupe people.

"The" media, that is, the corporate propaganda system, has been falling all over itself to publicize the noxious propaganda speech Trump will deliver. As usual, they cannot give Trump enough coverage.

Trump is portrayed as a master manipulator, the same story told about the fascist president Ronald Reagan. In fact, both are virtually media creations. Without the media building them up, no one would know they exist. (Reagan of course is deceased.)

The migrants are portrayed as a "national security threat," verbiage "the" media adopts uncritically.  It is the U.S. that threatens them, even murdering their children, as it just did to two young Guatemalan children.

Of course, the U.S. has murdered countless tens of thousands (or more) children in its history, so the murder of two more by acts of depraved indifference homicide (denial of food, water, and timely medical care)  should not come as any surprise. An outrage, one of millions in U.S. history, but no surprise.

Trump is the equivalent of the Roman emperor Nero. A particularly noxious ruler, but one fundamentally of a piece with the empire he temporarily heads.