The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday (July 25) that Bill Clinton has a handwritten entry in the Epstein birthday book. It allegedly reads, “It’s reassuring isn’t it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.”
Leon Black (pic above), the head of Apollo Global Management who paid $158 million to Epstein for financial services, allegedly handwrote a poem which reads:
Blonde, Red or Brunette, spread out geographically With this net of fish, Jeff’s now ‘The Old Man and The Sea’
Love and kisses, Leon.
An alleged note from British politician Peter Mandelson referred to Epstein as “my best pal,” and included pictures of a tropical island and whiskey.
Former Microsoft executive and billionaire Nathan Myhrvold reportedly wrote in the Epstein birthday book that he was sending photos from a recent trip to Africa, which included lions & zebras mating, where a zebra’s penis was reportedly visible. “They seemed more appropriate than anything I could put in words.”
Billionaire Mort Zuckerman, who owned the New York Daily News at the time, wrote in his letter that “he had searched the newspaper for information about Epstein and joked he was born in Liechtenstein and had a wife and three children.” That begs for clarification.
Victoria’s Secret owner Leslie Wexner, who previously condemned Epstein’s crimes as “abhorrent,” is also in the birthday book according to the WSJ, as well as (pics below) fashion designer Vera Wang, deceased Wall Street mogul Alan Greenberg, and deceased Epstein business associate James Cayne.
The tone of these entries suggests all this was a big joke to these people. The ruined lives of these exploited & abused young girls counted for nothing, yet they are now all regretful they met Jeffery Epstein, etc. Just as telling, none of them have responded to media questions on their birthday book entries.
Donald Trump has denied his typed note & lewd drawing, as he told reporters yesterday before departing for Scotland, “You ought to be speaking about Larry Summers. You ought to be speaking about some of his friends that are hedge fund guys. They’re all over the place. You ought to be speaking about Bill Clinton.”
Okay. Question #1 for Bill Clinton, “What was that illegible word in your birthday note to Jeffery Epstein in his 50th birthday book?”
Recall President Bill Clinton’s public statement on January 26, 1998, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” Note in the video that Bill Clinton walked away after declaring his boldfaced lie, and for the record, the audience of politicians in the room roundly applauded him. That’s the ruling class cover-up.
The Epstein ‘client list’ which had been promised to be revealed by Donald Trump has now been officially denied by Attorney General Pam Bondi. The public outrage over this ranges from grassroots MAGA Trump supporters who feel they’ve been lied to, to everyday people who want justice for these crimes of pedophilia & sex trafficking. What has been notable this past week has been the silence from the MeToo campaign, which purportedly claims to be protecting women from such predators.
The fact is the MeToo campaign is a political tool of the Democrats who have no interest in exposing Jeffery Epstein’s client list, as many of its supporters and party members were connected to this criminality. Bill Clinton, Donald Trump & Prince Andrew are among the most prominent names on that undisclosed list, which now officially doesn’t exist.
Most people with any intellectual faculty believe Jeffery Epstein was murdered in prison in August 2019, and everything since has been a FBI cover-up. The MeToo campaign which came to prominence in November 2017 has made no statements on the recent government denials of any Epstein client list. How is this to be explained?
The MeToo campaign is an attack dog used by the Democratic Party to silence left-wing artists & political dissent. It uses terms such as safe space for women to justify attacking men, particularly working class straight white men. For nearly a decade it’s been a propaganda war, with MeToo claiming women are always the victims, women are always to be believed, facts don’t matter, etc.
But this propaganda only holds true for MeToo when accusing someone outside the ruling elite. Within the ruling class lurks the most dangerous sexual predators who are protected by their wealth & privilege, and MeToo has shown no interest in prosecuting those individuals. A Google search of ‘MeToo & Jeffery Epstein’ shows no recent articles.
MeToo is the political flipside of MAGA Trump racism & sexism. MeToo is meant to attack & divide working people, through toxic feminism, while offering no real justice against those sex offenders who are most dangerous to the public. MeToo prosecutions are always politically motivated to silence any real dissent on the left.
The MeToo campaign began in earnest with taking down Kevin Spacey on false sexual assault charges because of his role in House of Cards (2013-2017, season 1-5), a powerful political streaming series on Netflix that educated viewers on the inner workings of government corruption at the highest levels. This revealing series had become intolerable to the ruling establishment. After Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016, MeToo became a primary propaganda vehicle for the Democratic Party in its attacks on leftist figures.
MeToo claims to be a movement, but there is no popular support for this reactionary feminism which has nothing to do with equality & justice. The MeToo campaign is really about Democratic Party led feminist oppression of men and deflecting the blame for its own political & social criminality. It’s a tired act based on false narratives.
MeToo is largely despised by the public at this point. Democratic Party DEI initiatives dovetailed with the MeToo campaign to create a reactionary climate where white supremacists could reasonably claim they were being discriminated against, thus creating a social groundswell for Trump’s politics. This was a major reason Biden/Harris lost to a fascist in 2024.
The MeToo campaign has nothing progressive to offer. It is a slander campaign meant to intimidate & subdue the masses through false narratives & political intimidation. Exposing MeToo lies gets you branded as a ‘woman hater’, the same way those protesting Zionist genocide of the Palestinian population are slandered as ‘antisemites’. MeToo is a slander campaign with ruling class bias, attacking the truth while protecting class privilege.
Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, published an expose’ yesterday titled, “U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen.” It begins, “The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing. This is going to require some explaining…”
Secretary of defense Pete Pete Hegseth has vehemently denied this report, replying, “You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called ‘journalist’ who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.” White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman Brian Hughes confirmed the veracity of the Signal group chat, which Jeffery Goldberg said included Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The NSC is in complete denial that a US-backed war on the Houthis of Yemen destabilizes international security and will eventually blowback to America. No journalist or citizen is allowed to question the Trump administration on this. His spokespeople always lie & deflect all serious questions. Meanwhile, they are sharpening their knives behind closed doors to crush any dissent.
Remember that Trump primarily came to power through his abuse of the legal system. Every business venture he’s ever been connected with went bankrupt, yet he’s allowed to skate free because he rigs the courts through bribery, blackmail & violent intimidation. That’s how Trump and his fascist cabal avoided prison after 1/6.
Election 2024 was a thoroughly fixed affair, with only three politicians allowed to run. Fake primaries for both parties of capitalism in 2024, with Trump running unopposed and threatening to ruin any challenger for the Republican nomination– it was over long before it began.
The Democrats, led by semi-senile president Joe Biden insisted that Biden-Harris was a winner again in 2024. RFK, Jr a billionaire with a deep family history in the Democratic Party, was shoved out of the primary by Biden-Harris early on. The Joe Biden illusion (which wasn’t fooling anyone) was revealed as a fraud to the world during his June 27 debate with Trump. It was only then that calls for candidate Biden’s removal as the head of the Democrat ticket were now heavily leaked into the media.
It took weeks for Joe Biden to comprehend this reality & acquiesce to the inevitable. After weeks of bitter political infighting Kamala Harris was named the replacement. Less than a month later Kamala Harris was nominated by the Democratic Party for US president despite not receiving a single vote in the primary [!].
Meanwhile, third party candidates were systematically shut out of the media and denied ballot status due to onerous signature requirements, etc, for their candidates– who actually received votes for president in the 2024 primaries [!!]. It is this Democratic Party contempt for democracy & the US Constitution that paved the way for Trump in 2016 & 2024. Trump repeatedly claims he has a mandate, when in fact the 2024 election was entirely stage-managed & rigged, bought by billionaires who allow no left-wing politics to enter their orbit.
Democrats & Republicans are united in support of their anti-immigrant war in America and persecution of the Israel-Palestine War in the Middle East which has been going on since 1947. Both parties of imperialism are united in support of the US/NATO-provoked Ukraine-Russia War which has been going on since the Cold War unofficially started in 1945. Killing has been good business for the US stocks & bond market since WWII, and “anti-communism” was the imperialist buzzword of the McCarthyist era. Since, 9/11, “agents of Russia/Putin” is how socialists & anti-war activists are labeled & attacked by the US State Department & big tech.
Normally, high-ranking government officials use “national security” as the catch-all legal reason to deny information to the public. Much is being made in the corporate media about the leaked Signal app texts not being secure, etc, while ignoring the reactionary nature of the discussion itself. What this highly revealing incident proves is that the “national security” argument used by bureaucratic leaders is entirely bogus.
This strategic information was released to the public two hours before the US military struck Houthi targets in Yemen and no US lives were lost or US security jeopardized. If journalists can know about this type of military action in advance, and then publish it a week later, why can’t we the public know about everything else being kept secret?
National security is comparable to being ‘on gool’ as a kid. Gool is defined by inventive children as an imaginary sanctuary where no one can touch you. You just tell the bully on the playground, “I’m on gool,” and you’re safe. You would be surprised how often it works. It’s the audacity of the idea that gets you and apparently it works the same way for these overgrown children in government. Whenever someone asks Biden or Trump a serious question about imperialist foreign policy, it’s always shot down in the name of “national security.” The president is on gool.
Articles of Impeachment against US president Donald Trump should have been drawn up, debated & voted upon weeks ago. Instead Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) just gave Trump-Musk a blank check for another six months.
This once again implicates the Democrats as Donald Trump’s prime enablers, as a government shutdown would have triggered a mass confrontation between the fascist administration (struggling to get a public foothold with its anti-democratic policies) and the working masses who are ready to fight.
The only mandate Trump has gotten is from the Democrats. Tens of millions who voted for Trump are now beginning to realize his betrayal. Those who voted Biden-Harris mostly knew the danger, but let themselves be trapped by the Democratic Party. What is brewing now is mass discontent with both major parties of capitalism and a growing realization that organized revolutionary action is necessary.
For the record, the corporate media has been an astonished & defenseless narrator of events since Trump’s second inauguration. Nazi salutes, etc, mean little to them and are played-down in the media. Donald Trump flagrantly violates the Constitution every day, since vowing to become a dictator on day one, yet the complacent fake left preaches patience with congress, the court system, etc– the same patience they asked for with Joe Biden & Kamala.
Trump has had a hand-picked loyalist majority in both houses of congress since election day. Trump also has complete control over the US court system all the way up to the US Supreme Court. That was established in July 2024, when the US Supreme Court ruled that the US president can’t be prosecuted for any crimes whatsoever. Clearly if Trump can’t be prosecuted or impeached by congress over a coup attempt to overthrow the US Constitution on 1/6/21, then Trump is indeed above the law.
Trump has declared all this and is acting accordingly. The collaborative Democrats have given him a mandate to do whatever he wants, and thus no one is allowed to press Trump-Musk on any serious issue. If anyone does so, they are violently ejected by Trump-Musk. To even question a US president is now a prosecutable crime. All information & proof requests are denied under vague “national security” declarations. All the Constitutional branches of US government has been hijacked by an elite group of fascists who are seeking to take control and do their worst. It is the Democrats’ job to help Trump-Musk in deceiving & suppressing the working classes.
Targeting Gaza anti-genocide protesters has become a primary weapon of propaganda warfare & population control. “Anti-semitism” is now officially re-defined as criticism of Zionism. Nazi extermination of Jews is no longer considered anti-semitic by the ruling political class. It is a system of mass media messaging, assisted by police, military & legal resources used to intimidate the working population into acquiescence.
Despite its monopoly power over government resources, data gathering, AI-bots & drones, etc, I don’t expect this US imperialist strategy to work. There is no mass base for any of Trump’s fascist policies. The title above is not a recommendation to congress, but a revolutionary battle cry. It is what the Vichy Democrats refuse to say & do, as “Impeach Trump” now means down with capitalism!
US billionaires & the mass media they control have thrown in their lot with fascism in supporting the second Trump administration. Trump wants to expel all dissidents & immigrants whom he labels as ‘unpatriotic & criminal’. Somehow it is conveniently forgotten that Donald Trump is a convicted rapist who tried to overthrow the American Constitution on 1/6/21. There is no more vile & loathsome criminal, and bigger danger to democracy, than Donald Trump. Those are political facts, and facts are stubborn things.
Trump (like Biden) supports the fascist genocide in Gaza, as the entire political establishment brands political opposition to this as antisemitic, all while sending more arms & money to the Banderite Nazis in Kiev for the purpose of imperialist colonization of Russia. Such is the Orwellian nature of modern mass media. Any dissent is to be grounds for forcible expulsion under the new American dictator Donald Trump.
Elon Musk has now accessed the computer database to the US Treasury Department, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, etc, for the purpose of slashing benefits to citizens and firing government workers. This fascist raiding of government offices has been unopposed by the cowardly Democrats, who seek collaboration with these modern-day Nazis.
It won’t be so easy for Donald Trump to imitate Adolf Hitler’s program of Nazi terror & concentration camps. The world’s population is much more educated than it was 90 years ago. The lessons of history haven’t been forgotten by those who have suffered. Most people see through the fascist & imperialist lies of official politics and will resolutely resist fascism. The working people of the US must organize themselves outside of official politics & the trade union bureaucracies, which are beholden to imperialism and have fallen in line with Trump after the 2024 election.
The big tech CEO’s are among the most cowardly when it comes to protecting free speech on the internet & fighting fascism. Meta, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, etc, have contributed generously to the Trump inauguration campaign and have clearly signaled they are willing partners in imposing any ‘Big Lie’ on their users through propaganda on their platforms.
The battle lines have been drawn, and which side you choose to be on will determine your place in history. At this point in history, all the billionaires & politicians are fascists & fascist sympathizers. These uber-rich Nazis all support attacking immigrants as ‘foreign enemy invaders’ who are deemed as sub-human and deserving of no democratic rights.
Of course, these neo-Nazis forget that America was built on immigration. Ask them, “Where did YOU come from?” There were over 10 million Native Americans here before European immigration began centuries ago. African blacks were forcibly immigrated to the Americas to build the triangle trade: slaves, sugar & rum– which is the origin of the American empire. After the US Civil War, Chinese immigrants were brought in to build the railroads that connected the American economy together. Italians, Poles, Slavs, etc, immigrated to work in US stockyards & factories, which provided the food & goods that grew the US into a mighty global economic power.
In modern construction, it’s Mexicans who do much of the hard labor in building, expanding & repairing critical infrastructure such as roads, highways & buildings– commercial & residential. They do this work because most white & black Americans don’t want to do it, or can’t do it. If Trump/Musk deport all these Hispanics, etc, who will do all this necessary work? Their answer will be slave labor camps.
As anyone with a brain can see, these fascists have no thought-out plan for the social catastrophe they are creating. If you ‘remove’ everyone who disagrees with Trump’s fascist policies, there will be no one left to do the work. This only leads to America’s destruction. Fascists are parasites who consider themselves superior to all others and allow no dissent. Nazis are violent sociopaths who can only rule when they are handed the keys to power by the capitalist imperialists, which is what Biden/Harris did.
It is this diseased social class that must be smashed by an organized resistance of workers & youth. This resistance must be international in nature. The phony “national security” excuse is the hallmark of imperialism & fascism, which vigorously combats being held accountable to public opinion or historical truth. Only “international security” can bring lasting peace and an end to capitalist inequality, exploitation, climate change, etc. The workers of the world must unite under the Trotskyist (Marxist) banner of international socialism to defeat this modern-day Nazi takeover. The starting point for this is to read the World Socialist Web Site daily, and then join the Socialist Equality Party which is the only political party on Earth that represents the international working class.
Linked above (and age-restricted censored by YouTube) is the beginning of “Genocide” which is episode 20 of The World at War (1973), the closest thing to a definitive WW2 documentary series. The World at War was a UK production in twenty-six episodes, each about 53 minutes in length. Its weakness is its inherent misunderstanding of the power of the Russian Revolution in mobilizing the troops & industrial power the Soviet Union needed to defeat the Nazi blitzkrieg in 1941, but beyond that I highly recommend it. World War Two happened for a reason, and we are all obligated as civilized humans to absorb these lessons and teach them to others. That’s how you prevent another Hitler from doing his worst. It’s called educating society to a point where there is no war or inequality. In reality, our educational system in America has been destroyed by the political class to a point where there is very little learning going on in any school anymore. The ruling class promotes every form of reaction & backwardness to preserve their economic interests. It takes work to defeat the fascists and education is where it starts.
Donald Trump won all seven battleground states: PA, WI, MI, GA, NC, NV & AZ to secure the Electoral College and become the next US president. This result was predictable and discussed here.
According to all the pollsters, Kamala Harris “underperformed” in the urban centers, on college campuses & with minorities. ‘Hillary 2.0’ is an apt description, as Kamala Harris failed to connect with working class & younger voters. Kamala Harris was a candidate of Wall Street & the military, and took a right-wing stance on immigration which didn’t endear her to key voting demographics.
Starting with how she was selected, to the billionaire support she courted, Kamala Harris didn’t fool enough voters in traditional demographics, most of whom ranked the economy & the direction of the country as their top issues. As far as protecting democratic rights goes, it was a major issue for voters, and attacking students & activists protesting IDF genocide in Gaza of the Palestinian population turned-off a lot of potential Democratic party voters– especially those in college & Muslim-Americans.
Trump didn’t win Election 2024 because he is popular. He won because it’s obvious that the imperialist Democratic party no longer offers any opposition to Republican fascism. The Democrats under Biden-Harris have started a war with Russia in the Ukraine, and a war in the Middle East with Israel as attack dog for US imperialism against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria & Iran– all with full Democratic party support.
The Trump party also won the Senate, defeating Democratic incumbents & overwhelming challengers in WI, MI, PA, NV & MT to take a 56-44 majority in the upper house, after pundits predicted only a 51-49 Republican edge. The House of Representatives is murkier as of this writing, but the Democrats are expected to regain control. [late edit 11-8-24: Senate is expected 54-46. Republicans will maintain their House majority, completely wiping out the Democrats in all three branches of federal government.]
This is nothing less than a collapse of grassroots support for the Democratic party. The party with money from big donor contributors, more favorable corporate media coverage (with star power endorsements), and arguably better political machinery infrastructure in key battleground states– lost. The Supreme Court has been packed with Trump appointees, meaning all three branches of the American government, executive, upper legislative & judicial will be controlled by MAGA fascists.
Workers & youth of the US and around the world must organize themselves under the banner of class struggle– independently of the Democratic party, the union apparatuses, and the fake left organizations such as the DSA and their associated NGO’s & other non-profits. This pseudo-left milieu is the reason Trump won in 2024.
The Supreme Court ruled this past summer that the president is above the law, while Trump has stated to his supporters that they don’t need to worry about elections & voting anymore. Those who rightfully fear the consequences of a second Trump presidency must rally around a political program of social equality & anti-war opposition to both major parties.
The Democrats have been floating olive branches to Trump for weeks now, shamefully acquiescing to fascism when it became clear that the Harris-Walz campaign was flailing. The only way to defeat fascism is by mass collective action from the only source of economic value, the international working class.
Wed 06 Nov 2024 03:15 AM CST
Post script: The role of the fake media in Election 2024 can be illustrated in a few NBC examples I observed. On Monday, election eve, NBC Nightly News reported “an earthquake” poll result in Iowa which claimed a 3-4 point edge for Kamala Harris in a red state that all the other polls had Trump easily winning. I turned off the news when I saw that and flipped to House of Cards on DVD.
Fox News coverage was amateur compared to NBC on Election Night. At 9:15 PM CST, I first saw the glum faces of NBC talking heads and knew the election was for Trump. Instead of admitting it & explaining this reality outright, NBC pundits maintained the fiction that Kamala Harris still had a chance. Blue wall and all that shit…
Fox (with lesser brains & technology) called Pennsylvania for Trump well before NBC. Donald Trump is being driven to a celebratory party of his supporters, ready to make a victory speech, and NBC still hasn’t called Pennsylvania, despite 90+% of the vote counted and Trump with an insurmountable lead. This was done partly to maintain false hope in the Democrats and partly to keep up the ratings– not necessarily in that order.
NBC will be hand-wringing its viewers for awhile, while they make their peace with Trump. As Joe Biden & Nancy Pelosi said after 1/6, “We need a strong Republican party.” In 2024, the Democrats got their wish.
Election 2024 crescendos on Tuesday, and it’s the Electoral College the decides things in the US presidential race. This archaic & anti-democratic set-up is poorly understood by the American people, which is the intent of the ruling political class. The first premise that voters need to understand is that unless you are in a “battleground state” your vote largely doesn’t matter. Most states are baked-in before any of the campaigning starts, especially in 2024 with the strict exclusion of 3rd party candidates.
If we didn’t have the antiquated Electoral College, then we wouldn’t have had 1/6. No one in bourgeois politics wants you to understand that.
The latest Real Clear Politics polling has the Electoral College as stands below, with 270 electoral votes needed to win. Note that anything more than 1.0 points in the polling is too much to overcome at this point, so battleground states like GA, NC, NV & AZ all go to Trump in 2024.
Donald Trump: 268
Kamala Harris: 225
Toss-ups: WI (10) Harris +0.3; MI (15) Harris +0.5; PA (19) Trump +0.3
Maine (4) & Nebraska (5) can split their electoral college votes, and have done so recently (2008 NE, 2016 NE & ME, 2020 ME). I’ve accounted for that in Maine, with 3 electoral votes for Harris, and 1 for Trump baked-in. Nebraska is trickier, with 4 votes going to Trump for sure, but one district is considered a toss-up and that may come into play on election night.
Harris has to win WI, MI & PA just to get to 269 and make NE relevant, or a congressional tie-breaker even possible. If she loses any of the three, Trump wins outright.
If neither candidate gets a majority of the 538 electoral votes (both at 269), the election for President is decided in the House of Representatives, with each state delegation having one vote. A majority of states (26) is needed to win. and the Senate would elect the Vice-President with each Senator having a vote. A majority of Senators (51) is needed to win. This scenario was brought up in Season 4/5 of House of Cards (2013-18), when Frank & Claire Underwood steal the election from Republican challenger Will Conway.
In 2024, neither major party will accept the “official” results, as both sides can honestly claim the other cheated & don’t deserve the presidency. If Kamala Harris can’t pull out MI, WI & PA, it’s over on election night. But if she does, this election has the very real possibility of dragging out for weeks, with endless anti-democratic maneuvering behind closed doors to decide the presidency, and Donald Trump as the clear favorite in that murky campaign.The US Supreme Court ruling Bush v Gore in 2000 taught us that.
The most democratic way to elect a president would be for every political party to be given a media voice & ballot status, so the issues could be seriously discussed before the electorate decides by popular vote who their leader should be. But in America we don’t have that freedom. There were no choices allowed in either Dem/Rep primary, and no leftist or anti-war voices were allowed to speak in the mass media, in fact they were attacked and slandered as “antisemites” through a coordinated smear campaign organized by the CIA Democrats with full Republican (Trump) support.
What we have with Election 2024 is American capitalism rotting on its feet, and doing everything in its power to prevent a popular uprising of the working masses & disenfranchised youth. It is this massive social force that must mobilize itself in solidarity to protect itself against the forces of imperialism & fascism that have dominated American politics & Election 2024.
The 14th Amendment established birthright citizenship & freed black slaves. It also contains this paragraph below, which specifically applied at the time to President Andrew Johnson who sought to conspire with Southern Democrats after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. President Johnson attempted to use his veto power to block congressional efforts to carry out the Reconstruction of the South.
“No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
As the WSWS has written, ‘This constitutional language leaves little room for interpretation. Trump was “an officer of the United States”— indeed, the chief officer— who took “an oath… to support the Constitution,” but who then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” The clause also bars from public office those who have given “aid and comfort” to an insurrection. Donald Trump is therefore barred from holding “any office” by the Fourteenth Amendment, just as Confederate president Jefferson Davis was banned from running for US office after the Civil War.’
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Supreme Court justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Elena Kagan pose for their group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., October 7, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
Last week the US Supreme Court heard arguments from both sides over a Colorado ruling that Donald Trump should be disqualified from the ballot on the grounds of him violating the 14th Amendment on 1/6/21. The US Supreme Court is packed with far right zealots & Trump appointees, so their decision has already been made– just like ‘Bush v Gore’ in 2000. If the US Supreme Court needed to rule that ‘2+2=5’ then it would find some technicality or distort whatever reality is necessary to confirm that majority opinion. There are no checks & balances on government power, just class interests concealed under the illusion of democracy.
Thousands of MAGA Trumpists swarmed over the Capitol building on 1/6/21 with the purpose of stopping the certification of the 2020 election for Joe Biden. Trumpists attacked Capitol & DC police and were chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” Scores of cops were injured and five people died as a result. Donald Trump told his mob to “Fight like hell or you won’t have a country anymore.” That’s as clear-cut a violation of the US Constitution as it gets, and everyone saw it on live TV. Trumpists act like they are so persecuted, but Joe Biden & his Democrats protect Trump more than anyone.
The State of Colorado’s oral arguments are legally sound, but have been met with hostility & indifference from the justices. Clarence Thomas & Samuel Alito directed a barrage of politically-loaded questions at the attorneys for the State of Colorado, as compared to Trump’s lawyer who rambled technically & incoherently for a few minutes & then quickly signed off with no questions from any of the justices concerning their paper-thin defense [!]. Basically, Trumpists are threatening another insurrection if the Supreme Court upholds Colorado’s decision.
The US Supreme Court is being asked to make a decision it doesn’t want to make– a sure sign it has outlived its usefulness. The State of Colorado (and its voters) are seeking clarity, while the Supreme Court tries to dodge & duck the issue. Justice Clarence Thomas & his wife Ginny were part of the 1/6 insurrection, yet he has not recused himself due to conflict of interest. These are the ethics of the SC, where justices consider themselves (& Trump) to be above the law in a constitutional system of ‘checks & balances’ that is nothing more than out-of-control corruption.
There are six Republican appointed justices and three Democrat appointees on the SC. None of the Democrat appointees are challenging the Trump narrative. No discussion of Trump’s failed coup attempt and what it means. All the Supreme Court wants to do is deflect, split hairs, and keep Trump on the ballot. That’s pre-decided here. The critical question the SC is avoiding is, “Did Trump attempt an insurrection to overthrow the US Constitution on 1/6/21?”
If the Supreme Court refuses to examine the issue of whether Donald Trump incited an insurrection on 1/6/21, then what purpose do they serve except to protect privilege? Two states (Colorado & Maine) have defined Trump’s actions as insurrection. The Supreme Court’s job is to address that issue directly and with impartiality. They are doing neither.
Trump lawyers argue it’s up to Congress to rule on this matter. It’s been three years since the House voted to impeach Trump for insurrection and the Senate acquitted him behind Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell who himself was a target of the Trump mob on 1/6. Nothing since from Congress, or Joe Biden, so it now falls to the Supreme Court. A clear & Constitutionally-sound ruling by the US Supreme Court is required to maintain any illusion of democracy in American politics, yet it will not be allowed to happen. What is being illustrated now is the complete rot & corruption of capitalist politics.
To be fair & balanced, the 25th Amendment, proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in the aftermath of the assassination of JFK provides the procedures for replacing the president or vice president in the event of death, removal, resignation, or incapacitation. Clearly Joe Biden is mentally incapacitated. Disqualification of Donald Trump under the 14th Amendment is entirely justified, just as is removing Joe Biden from the office of President due to his diminished mental capacity. It is entirely reasonable that the people of the Untied States should expect any Presidential candidate to take a mental exam to prove competency, and it is likewise reasonable to bar from public office those who willfully violate the Constitution.
Google definition:Cancel culture (or call-out culture) is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those who are subject to this ostracism are said to have been “cancelled”.
Cancelled by whom? For what purpose? These fundamental questions are never answered by the MSM.
Nazis are the most extreme historical example of cancel culture. They burned books, murdered artists, and terrorized the population.
So did Joseph Stalin in the USSR.
Today, attacks on art take the modern forms of identity politics, in the #MeToo & racialist BLM campaigns of the Democrats, along with the fascist filth promoted by Donald Trump and his supporters.
Fascism produces no culture worth saving. I printed that in bold so people don’t forget it. Culture exposes fascism and its crimes, which is why the “cancel culture” campaigns have taken such virulent forms. On the far right, it finds its expression in Nazi haters, many of who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, claiming they have a right to such “free speech,” and if they are prosecuted for their violence, then their Constitutional rights are being “cancelled.”
The truth is that no one has the right to incite and participate in a violent insurrection that kills people, Yet Nazis insist they do have this right. This illustrates how impossible it is to reason with Nazis. They blame Antifa, etc, for January 6, because they are lying, gutless, ignorant scum. No one likes them, and they have few friends outside of their elitist sponsors in the Republican Party. So they seek to cancel everything cultural, though any means.
The Democrats approach cancel culture with witch hunts, media slander & censorship. This apparatus was set-up by Bush-Cheney after 9/11, and greatly expanded under Barack Obama-Joe Biden. When Trump won Election 2016, bitter Democrats led by Hillary Clinton launched all their identity politicking versions of cancel culture. They get plenty of cooperation from big tech..
The question now needs to be asked: What have the #MeToo, BLM & LGBT campaigns produced that is of lasting cultural value? Recall that these are the historical falsifiers who penned & promoted the racialist & discredited ‘1619 Project’ by Nikole Hannah-Jones, while #MeToo sunk itself at the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation trial, with vague, shifting & unverifiable claims of sexual assault by women who (according to official news) must always be believed. These #MeToo (#MeFirst) bitches should watch some classic film noir, for a lesson on lying women, if the think we’re that stupid.
The anti-Russia campaign, which has been going on since the damaging WikiLeaks DNC release in June 2016, is primarily aimed at dividing workers on nationalist lines. USA good, Russia bad, is forever the mantra. The message from the ruling elites is that no useful culture can be found in that part of the world. Same deal with China, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, etc.
For example, Damascus is the capital of Syria, the oldest remaining city in human civilization. Yet according to MSM, there’s nothing for you & me to learn from that. These are the same hysterical fake intellectuals who claim there needs to be more black/women/gay voices in leadership, for diversity! In actuality, it’s all meant to enrich a thin layer of petty bourgeois “liberals.”
Cancel culture is a fascist fraud. It’s a deep state hate campaign, directed at silencing artists, dissidents & socialists. At this point, anyone who says one thing that is considered ‘wrong’ is cancelled, unless they’re protected like Joe Biden, who can get away with sexual harassment because he’s powerful.
Cancel culture is the same hypocrisy the predominates everything else, two sets of rules: one for the rich, and another for the rest of us. We become the victims of cancel culture, until we resolutely & consciously resist it.
These fascists have no right to the moral high ground on this, or anything else. FemiNazis who accuse without proof, attack through the media, and hide from rebuttal are lying scum. These bitches need a serious beatdown, and I’d love to do it all myself, but it’s much better when everyone else pitches in too. Fascism can’t be defeated without serious organization, because they are well-funded & protected at the highest levels.
Fascists have no ideology except for domination through violence, so exposing & splitting them is the best political strategy. The Republican Party has already been shattered by the events of January 6, 2021. These disparate elements of Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, III Percenters, and other fascist scum are being reorganized by US Intelligence (FBI, etc), to be utilized the way Raz Simone/CHAZ were used in Seattle last summer by the Democrats.
To be clear, these are agent provocateurs for the government, and shock troops to be used as strikebreaking goons when the time comes. Their sole purpose is to create violence and sow confusion among the working people & youth. Nothing good comes from these fascists, so exposing & cancelling them is the revolutionary order of the day.
“We don’t cut & run on our Al-Qaeda allies in Syria!” — fake news mantra
Below is a photo of Kurdish YPG militia in Syria. We are told that these brave fighters are our friends, and that you should never abandon your allies. One week ago Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was officially a longstanding US ally. Today he condemned by CNN & Fox News for committing unspeakable war crimes, invading Syria to persecute YPG terrorists– recruited, trained & armed by the CIA.
The ruling class doesn’t like it when CIA assets are attacked by a nominal ally, as this has evoked a hysterical response in the fake media. Trump has been forced to react with economic sanctions (surprise!), but they will have very little impact as the EU is Turkey’s main trading partner, and they do business differently than Trump.
Being an “ally” of the US under president Donald Trump requires bourgeois nationalists to be flexible & ready to find new partners at a moment’s notice. This is why the deep state is in such conflict with Trump, as he destabilizes long-term objectives for his own personal interest.
As discussed in my last post, the Trump administration with all its belligerence & stupidity has succeeded in isolating the US in its foreign policy. The mightiest military machine & intelligence apparatus in human history, in terms of GDP spent on it, has failed in Syria. Trump, like his predecessor Obama, had the direct support of powerful blood-stained Middle East regimes including the House of Saud & Israeli Zionism, but have used up all their political capital to accomplish nothing in Syria.
Every entity connected with US imperialism in this region has been weakened, discredited and/or abandoned. Russia is now signing major trade deals with Saudi Arabia for oil, gas, foodstuff, et al. This is considered nothing less than a disaster for US hegemony in the region.
All that remains of the US military presence is a small base in Al-Tanf at the southern border with Jordan. The US will eventually be forced to ingloriously abandon this last Syrian outpost. It’s only the humiliation & admission of defeat that sticks in the craw of deep state Democrats & Republicans. Not the dead, wounded, and displaced; nor the billions of dollars wasted.
No lessons can be learned from this debacle made in Washington & Langley, which was completely predicable as it is the result of class arrogance & historical ignorance. No lessons learned is always the message in the fake media. In the end, they’re all fanatical, blood-thirsty tribal Arabs anyways, so who cares…right? If you know how to read in-between the lines, that is the media message being pitched right now.
Donald Trump is a racist sociopath who doesn’t care if more Arabs are killing each other again. In fact, he likes it, and so do his hardcore supporters. Plus, Trump gets to piss on fanatical CIA Democrats in the process, so it’s a double-win for him– and that’s all that matters to him.
Shifting political sands have forced new alliances, which seem contradictory to the naive, but reveal two immutable facts to the wise: 1) there are no permanent alliances among bourgeois factions, only permanent interests– each trying to get itself a bigger slice of the pie; and 2) the only hope of unwinding tensions & bloodshed in the Middle East (and anywhere else) starts with the US military & CIA leaving.
Reference Notes: This is an informative & well-written article from Reuters, outlining the failures of Kurdistani nationalist politics in Turkey, Syria, Iran & Iraq. It’s a muddle of alphabet soup politics & ethnic nationalism; using terrorism, religious chauvinism & diplomatic maneuvering to promote selfish interests. It needs to be whole-heartedly rejected by the Kurdish people, in favor of class solidarity with working brothers & sisters internationally.
US imperialism out of the Middle East!!
It’s October 15, 2019, Trump has ordered the last 1,000 US troops from northeastern Syria, and he isn’t changing his mind this time– because he can’t. It’s now beyond US control, as Turkish president Erdogan has responded with an offensive to create a “safe zone” for refugees. Professional hacks on both sides of the US aisle, from Nancy Pelosi to Mitch McConnell, are screaming “humanitarian crisis.” So where are the heroic & brave White Helmets?
Moscow is leading the re-drawing of lines in the Syrian war, as it has long anticipated a US collapse in the region. Compare this to Trump’s disorganized withdrawal, announcing it to the world via Twitter, and then leaving it to the US military to get it done in haste. They needed to, as Erdogan & Putin-Assad moved in immediately to fill in the power vacuum on both sides. The laws of Marx in political economy prove the same as the laws of physics.
We’re a long, long way from “low-hanging fruit.” The vast majority of American soldiers don’t want to be there. Need proof of that? This video, of a retreating US military convoy (flying the stars & stripes!) passing Syrian armed forces in Toyota pickups & motorcycles racing to take the abandoned camp, is surreal.
In the annals of military history, I’ve never heard of (much less seen footage of) active enemies-of-war passing each other on a highway, one side advancing & the other retreating, with neither offering battle. From an American perspective, this is the most confusing & ill-conceived war we’ve ever seen.
In summary, US imperialism backed reactionary causes such as Kurdish separatism (YPG) & Islamic terrorism (ISIS) for the purpose of regime change in Syria. Now the YPG has been abandoned by the US, as Erdogan unleashes Al-Qaeda fighters upon the Kurdish population in this illegal invasion. Ethnic chauvinism & bourgeois realpolitik are the root causes of all this conflict.
To the point of US presidents wanting to start wars-of-aggression, there are none. War hurts their popularity, and all US presidents want to get re-elected. They all get pushed into these wars by the deep state– Korea, Vietnam, 9/11, et al. The last time the American population approved of war was December 7, 1941.
I don’t think there are any Russians and there ain’t no Yanks, just corporate criminals playing with tanks
— The Call, “The Walls Came Down” (1983)
Mopping-up update: Thu 17 Oct 2019 09:40 AM EDT
The American people have no respect for cowardly Democrats who “cut and run” on abused immigrants, shredded democratic rights, and lowered living standards at home. The next thing you know, the US military will “cut & run” on their dirty wars in Iraq, Afghanistan & Yemen too. This raises the prospect of peace breaking out in the Middle East, which horrifies US politicians. Do you realize what that would do to Lockheed-Martin & Exxon?
The USAF has flexed its muscles for the past few days, now reduced to bombing their own abandoned bases. But even this impotent display of strength will soon end. The abandonment of US ground troops in Syria, means Russian anti-aircraft batteries are being moved in to deter any more “muscling in” by air. Mercenaries & Al-Qaeda proxies, as much as they’ve been valuable CIA assets in this adventure, don’t defend US military air bases– for some unexplained reason.
Meanwhile, Mike’s Pompeo & Pence visit Erdogan today in Ankara. The president of Turkey is being urged by Extinction Rebellion supporters to take Trump’s “Don’t be a tough guy” letter out of the trash & have it recycled.
Bipartisan Spin
Election 2016 was a debased spectacle and possibly the last US presidential election, as it is now open political warfare on both sides of the aisle with new alliances being abandoned & formed on a moment-to-moment, ad hoc basis. Notice how this parallels their foreign policy. The 2020 presidential campaign already reminisces 1860.
Democratic firebrand upstart Tulsi Gabbard is being suppressed in the media for being too far left. She’s popular among younger voters, as the 2020 updated version of Bernie Sanders, who is now 78 and just had a heart attack on Oct. 1, which was downplayed in the fake media as “heart surgery.” Bernie is seen by many as outdated & no longer able to carry the torch of liberal betrayal for the Democrats. He still has influence, but is being slowly “put out to pasture,” as they say in politics & horse-racing.
We know from WikiLeaks 2016 that the DNC fixes their primary; through funneling money, media manipulation, super-delegates & vote rigging, so I still see it as Biden-Warren 2020. The question is, can Biden survive the scandals & criticisms? If not, the Democrats are scrambling because they don’t want another old woman leading their ticket in 2020, as that’s considered a win for Trump by the pollsters. Everything else is window dressing in this “contest.”
The US deep state has two major security leak sources at this time, and dialectically they are on opposite ends of the political & philosophical spectrum. The foremost is WikiLeaks– the good guys, whom the entire global political establishment is persecuting in the US-UK led campaign of silencing, jailing & torturing Julian Assange. Assange is still being held in a UK dungeon with no care, in solitary confinement, amongst the most-violent convicted criminals in England.
Julian Assange is there for jumping bail on phony US-Swedish rape allegations, by seeking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. After being spied upon & confined during the Obama years; Trump, Pence, Bolton & Pompeo had UK police drag Assange out of the embassy over six months ago, and “convicted” him in a kangaroo court.
All this is part of a US extradition process, as it’s the NSA, CIA & US military fanatics who hate Assange most, and want him permanently silenced for revealing very inconvenient truths to the world. Trump is a gangster, so no appeals can be made to this fascist White House cabal. Democrats & Republicans both want Julian Assange to die in prison, and are doing everything in their power to make it happen– short of direct intervention ala Jeffery Epstein. This is why freeing Julian Assange is a spearhead issue in the international campaign against US imperialism.
The second source of US intelligence leaks comes from Trump’s Twitter account. From JFK to 9/11 & Al-Qaeda, this huckster has slipped in some very inconvenient truths over the years– enough to brand himself a populist with his supporters. When Trump tweets the PKK, YPG & SDF (Al-Qaeda) are “no angels,” the CIA & deep state goes bonkers.
Of course, Trump is a fascist demagogue; a product of privilege, who couldn’t exist without his elite handlers, advisors & confidants. Trump tweets intelligence “open secrets,” which gives him credibility when he needs it, like in an election cycle. It’s always all self-interest with Trump.
Thursday 17 Oct 2019 ~2:35 PM EDT
Just minutes ago, this breaking news headline from Russia Today:
Turkey to halt military operation against Kurds in N. Syria, ceasefire will last for 120 hours – US VP Pence
The fact is the Turkish offensive had already bogged down, as Moscow & Damascus moved in quickly to halt early advances. It turns out that 15,000 Al-Qaeda invaders, armed to the hilt, still aren’t very reliable. Who knew?
I’ve been looking for a resolution to this nightmare essay, and here it finally is. The White House just sent its diplomatic A-Team to the Middle East to pull the plug on a major terrorist black-op debacle, which means this story will go dark quickly in the American media.
The US military & its media diplomacy have been defeated in Syria, with all their dirty lies exposed. The entire US establishment is part of this criminal conspiracy of aggressive foreign wars. They are the true enemy that must be defeated.
Saturday 19 Oct 2019 11:59 AM EDT
Hidden dimensions of this humanitarian crisis: US imperialism owns the Al-Qaeda terrorists, and by extension their families. After all, terrorists are people too.
The YPG-SDF terrorists can’t leave northeastern Syria because they have families, with women & children who can’t move or dodge bullets & artillery fire at a military pace. They have only themselves to blame for dragging their loved ones into this war zone, since they started this mess with a US deep state partnership. Murky, murky to infinity.
“What’s going to happen here?”, is the big question. Will these terrorists & their families be taken by Russian-Syrian forces, or will the US military & CIA be able to evacuate them? How will Erdogan play into all this?
Erdogan wants to turn a new page in this relationship, because he REALLY didn’t like the last one he read from Trump. The biggest fear in the US deep state is that this could be Al-Qaeda’s Stalingrad. Everything else is distraction & propaganda.
The fighting has now been reported by Reuters as infrequent & low-level along the Syrian border. I don’t hear any more saber-rattling from Erdogan either. He & Putin are scheduled to meet next week, and with Assad, to surely negotiate an arrangement for northeastern Syria. Russia has sent Turkey military hardware, and also has pipeline deals, so look for cooperation among these imperialists, with less violence in the region– directly proportionate to any US & Al-Qaeda evacuation.
