I haven’t been writing about the US midterms much, because I don’t care about that nonsense anymore. The whole thing’s a fake pro wrestling performance staged every couple of years to give a heavily armed populace the illusory sense that they have some degree of control over the things their government does.

By this I do not mean that the votes aren’t real or that the outcomes are predetermined, I simply mean that both mainstream parties are controlled by plutocrats who benefit from the status quo and are only interested in their own power and profit. No matter who wins on Tuesday, the wars are guaranteed to continue, the oligarchs are guaranteed to keep siphoning more and more money out of the pockets of ordinary Americans, opaque and unaccountable intelligence agencies are guaranteed to continue expanding intrusive surveillance practices and narrative control psyops in collaboration with powerful Silicon Valley corporations, and we’re guaranteed to keep hurtling toward climate catastrophe on the back of an economic system which requires infinite growth on a finite planet. The only thing that might change a tiny bit is America maybe temporarily having a government which pretends to care about oppressed minorities sometimes.

But there’s a sharp tension in the air about this performance. Whenever I mention how it’s all an act staged to profit nobody but Vince McMahon, I get a bunch of people yelling and cursing at me, with even those those who kind of know it’s fake saying “Okay, but you still gotta cheer for The Undertaker though, come on!”

That tension is there because on paper the outcome of the 2018 midterms is still uncertain. The slight lead Democrats held in polls has narrowed further today, with some analysts going so far as to predict Republicans retaining control of both houses.

Which is, on its surface, bizarre. It is bizarre not only because a new president almost always takes congressional losses at this point in their administration (the only exceptions being the historically significant years of 1934 and 2002), but also because the Republican Party is under the leadership of the most despised presidential candidate of all time.

If US politics were real, this would not be happening. If the Democratic Party were a real political party, a party which advances popular agendas in order to get its members elected to the government the way kids are taught in school, it would be on the cusp of a massive landslide of victories in both the House and the Senate, instead praying Hail Marys that they at least gain a slight advantage in the House. The last two years would have been spent promoting the virally popular agendas of the Bernie Sanders movement like single payer healthcare and getting money out of politics, after a thorough and radically honest autopsy of everything that went so catastrophically wrong in 2016.

Instead, what did Democrats do? They spent the last two years babbling about Russiagate conspiracy theories, and then in a tacit admission that they’ve never believed a word of that nonsense suddenly went completely silent on the issue before midterms and switched to the “We’re not Trump” platform. Oh yeah, and they’re telling Green Party candidates to drop out.

Democrats have done almost nothing in the last two years to fight the Republicans in any way that will ensure victory. Using his personal Twitter account, conservative media lackeys and an army of sycophants, Trump has completely dominated the narrative that his presidency has been a godsend for the economy. Fighting this narrative should have been Democrats’ first and foremost priority from day one, which would have been extremely easy to do since the narrative is entirely false. Job growth has continued on the trajectory it’s been on since 2012 and ordinary Americans don’t have any more money in their pockets than before; the wealth has stayed at the top no matter how much the economy has grown. An entirely factual counter-narrative about money being siphoned upward to the dollar-hoarding billionaire class with the help of Republican tax cuts would have been an extremely easy sell, but hardly anybody has attempted to do this.

Or war. It’s simply taken for granted that Democrats aren’t going to campaign against war, but how easy would it be for them to win elections if they did? There is no shortage of footage and statistics which could be used to attack this administration’s unforgivable rate of civilian casualties from airstrikes, its expansion of military presence in Syria, Afghanistan and Africa, its horrifying escalations against a nuclear superpower in Russia, its continued facilitation of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world in Yemen, and its depraved implementation of starvation sanctions against Iran. Democrats could have been shoving these horrors into the public eye since January 2017 and it would have not only galvanized liberals and leftists against Trump but also crippled his appeal with the anti-interventionist paleocons, libertarians and nationalists on the right. But, of course, they did not, because that would have alienated their war profiteer sponsors.

Instead of advancing popular positions to win the votes of the majority as kids are taught happens in school, all Democrats are doing currently is attacking the Republicans over Trump’s obnoxious tweets and generally successful anti-immigrant fearmongering. Since both parties support all oligarchic agendas in essentially the same ways, the only wiggle room Democrats have left is on issues the billionaire class doesn’t care about, like racism and other forms of bigotry. Plutocrats don’t care if gay people get married or if the president says racist things, they only care about power and profit, so civil rights and opposition to racism are the only means by which Democrats can significantly distinguish themselves from Republicans in a way that helps them get elected. The fact that both parties support the same oligarchic agendas which hurt disadvantaged groups first and worst goes unmentioned by either side.

It was telling when the Democrats lost to the single most beatable presidential candidate of all time in 2016. It was even more telling that they chose to spend two years spouting gibberish about Russia instead of building an actual platform with actual positions that actual people care about. The fact that there is any doubt whatsoever about the donkey party making gains in 2018 proves conclusively that they have been making zero effort to help advance the interests of Americans.

They do not care. It should be as clear as day to everyone by now. And why don’t they care? Because a pro wrestler gets paid the same whether his character wins the match or loses it.

US politics work nothing remotely like how kids are taught in school. The difference is night and day. If the American education system really wanted kids to learn about the way their electoral system actually functions, teachers would bribe student government candidates with Monopoly money to betray the interests of their classmates, and whichever candidate accepted the most bribes would get advertised on the school PA system as the clear and obvious choice to vote for.

By all means go ahead and vote on Tuesday, my American readers, in whatever way you feel might make some difference. But please also remember that you are ultimately participating in a game rigged for your oppressors, and that you deserve a much better system than this.

That’s where the real fight is.

__________________________

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34 responses to “If US Politics Were Real, A Massive Blue Wave Would Be 100% Certain”

  1. Read about what the United Kingdom, our lying murderous criminal Allie is doing in Yemen!
    “…..Saudi Strikes Use British Intel to Destroy UK Aid Facilities in Yemen”
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/grim-irony-saudi-strikes-use-british-intel-to-destroy-uk-aid-facilities-in-yemen/5659072

  2. Pop Quiz:

    What kind of nation is the U.S.A.?

    A. a nation that governs for the people.
    B. a nation that oppresses people.
    C. a nation that oppresses other nations.
    D. both B. & C.

    Thanks for playing.

    1. “D” is the obvious answer.
      “Our” UNrepresentative war criminal RULERS couldn’t care less about we the people, to them we are just taxpayers, cannon fodder for our unjust, illegal & immoral wars & cheap expendable labor.

      Why not just boycott the FAKE “vote”?

      “They” won’t give us candidates we could support & when one showed up who might make a little tweek in this corrupt system, he was shut out & his votes stolen.
      We don’t have actuall “third” parties, their just for show & will never be allowed to “win” in any meaningful “election”, that’s why it’s a waste of time & $$ supporting them.
      The presidential “election” is the worse, no one should bother to “vote” for a president in such a fake, rigged “election” & the fix is in AGAIN in the midterm “elections”.
      I’ll waste my worthless votes on issues but political candidates can take a long walk off a short pier.

  3. Care about Palestine? Join the BDS Movement and give Israel the middle-finger for trade and services, let slam the Israel scum bags who shoot defenseless women & children, front your local MP and DEMAND Australia Sanction Israel the Apartheid State!
    https://bdsmovement.net/

  4. Caitlin: “Oh yeah, and they’re telling Green Party candidates to drop out.”

    Yeah, except in Montana, where they booted them off the ballot after the primaries, using their national Undemocratic Party lawyers. They’re really on a roll. Two-and-a-half solid years of alienating actual progressives.

    It’s totally normal that they would make up a talking point — “Greens don’t run candidates in down-ballot races” — and then get them thrown off the ballot for doing so.

  5. I had this site bookmarked, something I rarely do, after finding it a few months ago, because she seemed to combine sensible criticism of #EndlessWar with sensible criticism of Democrats’ Russia collusion narrative, making it hard for one to guess her political views. But this article is the last straw. Like her apparent idol Greenwald, her leftism boils over and ruins the recipe at times like this. (For her, midterms; for him, Kavanaugh.) CJ tends to ignore the elephants in the room (in this case, Dems’ proud emergence as an anti-America terror squad, like they were in the bomb-o-rific ’70s) in favor of her usual pet ramblings on the evils of interventionism. She can’t fathom why Brazil elected someone who will temporarily slow its descent into the Hunger Games. She also spectacularly failed to address the JQ or HBD, as expected from someone auditioning for a higher role. Incredibly, she fails to understand that her pet project, a noble one at that, namely the elimination or avoidance of #EndlessWar, is impossible until the JQ (e.g. warmongering neocons, Federal Reserve, $10 million per day to Israel from the U.S., etc.) is confronted. I used to fiercely defend that group until I had a recent awakening about them. CJ, like the old me, can see the fox tracks leaving the henhouse, but can’t connect the dots to figure out why the hens are disappearing.
    But fear not. After the Current Years are over, demographic trends ensure no huwhite males will hold major public office again (I believe leftists will pass laws enforcing this) and humanity will live under ruthless one-world socialism as she and other self-styled anti-“fascist” freedom fighters want. I think CJ is a good person overall, is more “woke” than I was at her age, and has noble goals, like those people with COEXIST bumper stickers, or my dopey Democrat mom’s “I Support Peace” button. But as you get older, it slowly dawns on you why the world’s most free country (at least pre-1913, the year of the creation of the Fed) (read the book The Creature From Jekyll Island) was created by straight, right-wing white men, a group that nowadays makes up only about 3% of the world’s population, and is rapidly shrinking.

  6. “…America maybe temporarily having a government which pretends to care about oppressed minorities sometimes.”

    I defy Caitlin or anyone else to provide evidence to the claim that minorities are “oppressed” in America.

    1. You ask a loaded question. “Oppression” is not just bondage and beatings. It can come in the form of systemic unfairness. And that could be easily demonstrated by something as simple as women not getting equal pay for equal work.
      .
      But since you asked, let’s go further.
      .
      Money is the core of the American political system.
      .
      The average white person in America has, on average, over 10 times the wealth of the average black person. And there are 6 times as many whites so that wealth differential is multiplied. And that’s before taking into account the uneven distribution of wealth and income. How many black American billionaires do you know of?
      .
      Comparing a wealth white minority with the black minority is edifying: the Jewish community, which comprises 2.3% of the American population has as much or more influence than the African American population which is 12.6% of America (more than 5 times larger). There are now about 50 congressmen who are African American while there are about 30 congressmen that identify as Jewish. In the Senate (which has much more power than the House), there are 5 Jews and 3 African Americans.
      .
      But this example is incomplete as it doesn’t account for the influence provided by political contributions to campaigns of politicians that are not a member of the minority. Wealthy groups simply give more – a lot more – to politicians and political parties than poor groups.
      .
      Some will object, saying that African American communities don’t do poorly wrt financial transfers from the federal government and anti-discriminatory policies. But that help is never enough to break the poverty and hardships – even in good times. And it is so resented by most poor whites that it creates a barrier to forming natural political alliances that would lead to great political power. As such, it is a pay-off for accepting the money-based political power that ultimately shortchanges them.

      1. inforebelscum.com Avatar
        inforebelscum.com

        Jack, that there are differences in wealth is not evidence of “oppression”.

        Let me rephrase the question to better make my point: Who is telling women and POC “No”, you cannot do this or that because you are a woman or a POC”? I defy anyone to list a law or institution that says any such thing (even the military is opening up to women – enjoy the equality ladies come daft day!). Indeed, it is the exact opposite. Laws and institutions go out of their way to kiss women and POC’s ass.

        So if no one is preventing women or POC from achieving anything maybe, just maybe, there are other reasons for differences in wealth and achievement other than evil straight White men “be oppressing!”

        As for women not getting equal pay for equal work, this is simply not true. First there are, correctly, laws in place that prevent such injustice. Second, the claim that women make 75% of what men make is the epitome of a false statistic. The source for this claim was by a collegiate woman’s group but the truth is that the group did not compare equal work. What they actually did was, for example, go to Ralph’s Roofing where the men who did the actual roofing were paid ten dollars an hour while the women who worked in the office were paid $7.50 an hour. Now common sense dictates that since the work of roofing is much more difficult than is the work of running an office the roofing workers should get paid more than the office personnel. Does anyone seriously think this is an injustice?! It is not of course but the left keeps pushing the deliberately misleading “fact” that “women only make 3/4s of what men make”. Certainly there are exceptions as is the case with everything human. But it simply is not true that women are being oppressed in Western Civilizations.

        Again, that many Whites can achieve financial success better than many blacks is not evidence that blacks are being oppressed. Could it possibly be that blacks are themselves to blame for their troubles?! I know this is a heresy of the highest order according to the Cult of Equality but it is not Whitey’s fault, not anymore.

        But I do agree with your assessment of Jewish influence in Western Civ.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_billionaires

        Money in politics is not the problem. A deliberately idiot population that falls for the deception that money in politics brings is the problem.

    2. What evidence would cause you to believe that minorities are being oppressed? (While I’m typing, what evidence would cause you to believe that human behavior, past and present, has caused / is causing climate change?)
      ..
      For example, IF, and I do mean IF, it were a proven fact that every person in US jails and prisons was “a black man” and that the daily temperature of the south pole last July was 70 degrees F, would those facts cause you to believe that the black minority was being oppressed and that human behavior has caused, or is causing, climate change?
      ..
      My point is that if there is NO POSSIBLE EVIDENCE that would cause you to believe either of the above, why would anyone futher attempt to change what cannot be changed — your religious-like belief — and why would you “defy” people to provide evidence when you already know that your belief will never change?
      ..
      (A couple of young, smiling, female (is “female” considered hate speech now?) JWs knocked on our door last week. After their little spiel I told them that I hated to be the one to tell them, but no creator, in the sense that they understood, existed. They said that they had heard this from other knockees, but that didn’t shake their faith. I told them that they could see for themselves the real reason for humanity’s existence by simply looking up at the sun. They replied that the Creator had created the earth and sun. I said “so in order for the earth and sun to exist, a creator had to create them. In other words, in order for something to exist, something ELSE — a creator — had to create it and that some as-yet-unexplained natural process could not have been responsible for its existence.” They said “yes, that’s right”. I said “does a creator really exist?” The said “yes”. I said “who created the creator?” They said “nobody”. I said “by your own logic — that in order for something to exist a creator must have created it — the creator who created the sun and earth and human beings must ALSO have a creator, right?” “No”, they said, “the creator does not have a creator.” I said, “if I have a choice to believe either that the sun, which I can see and feel, created life on earth, or that a creator, which I cannot see or feel, created the sun and the earth and human beings, I will believe what I can see with my own eyes and feel with my own body. Good luck at your next door and God bless.” They said “God bless you, too”, and as they walked away, smiling, I knew with absolute certainty that not one god-damned word that I had said had shaken their belief in the creator that they really believed they knew so well. These will soon be the mothers and voters that will teach their children the facts of life. How comforting.)

      1. inforebelscum.com Avatar
        inforebelscum.com

        Ish, whatever evidence that convinces you to believe that women and POC are being oppressed will work. Real evidence not hypotheticals please. My mind is always open but not to deception and blind belief.

        My beliefs are based on evidence and if there is any evidence to the contrary then I will happily change my beliefs to match the Truth as revealed by any and all evidence.

        Show me what you claim to be the evidence. But do not expect me to believe it without cross examination via critical thinking.

        I agree with your assessment of the religious but the very same thing can be said about lefties as well. The Cult of Equality is of the same uncritical thinking mindset as the “guy in the sky” folks.

  7. Caitlin, you always inspire me. To dig deeper for the truth, to speak up, and this time, to channel my anger into writing this poem about the American political system, “An American Show”…

    https://medium.com/@marypoindextermclaughlin/an-american-show-fd5c2cd3509a

  8. Don’t believe the fake news about Donald Trum being the most despised President of all time and that therefore, if American politics were real, The Blue Wave would be inevitable.

    Not everyone votes for personalities. I voted for Donald Trump. Not because I like him. Indeed, I find it difficult to find warm and fuzzy feelings for ANY big city commercial real estate developer (which is really ALL that Donald Trump is).

    Trump carried Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio (all swing states) very largely due to the voting power of the National Rifle Association (of which I am a member).

    Here’s the thing. Women vote abortion rights and cannot stand Donald Trump and the conservation Republicans who are on the other side of this issue. But gun owners absolutely, positively cannot abide the Democrats and their stand on gun control.

    It really IS just that simple.
    I will never vote against my guns.
    I will NEVER vote Democrat.

    What would be genuinely interesting would be if there were a sizable political party in the U.S. with the platform of strong support for Roe vs Wade PLUS unshakable commitment to the Second Amendment. Now THAT would have a definite effect on the political landscape.

    But as things stand; DEADLOCK.

  9. Several meaningful articles have been recently published making it obvious how futile the electoral options presented in tomorrow’s United States elections are for real progressives, progressives enlightened enough to be honest with themselves. Among them are “Scum vs. Scum” in Truthdig by Chris Hedges and “If US Politics Were Real, A Massive Blue Wave Would Be 100% Certain” by Caitlin Johnstone on her blog and in many other sites. Their articles are a bit depressing if all too accurate but I believe there is something we can do to make a real difference if we are finally willing to stop wasting our votes.

    It’s true. Our manipulated electoral system has once again deprived us of meaningful electoral options. In many, many, perhaps most of the races in the United States tomorrow, third party candidates have been prevented from appearing on the ballot, frequently by Democratic or Republican Party manipulation of the electoral system. But there is a way we can make meaningful use of this opportunity.

    Real progressives can turn this to their benefit by rejecting the candidates proffered and making this faux election an opportunity to highlight the ludicrous and unjustifiable treatment of the world’s most prominent journalist, Julian Assange.

    He is obviously not eligible for election to anything in the United States but writing his name in makes several points. First, a rejection of two party dictatorship, an affirmation that we will not be silenced, and second, that neither will Julian regardless of how gagged he finds himself.

    Vote in favor of open and honest elections as well as in favor of real journalistic freedom.

    Please consider sharing this plea on all media to which you have access.

    1. Thanks, Guillermo. I’ve never seen anyone make the case for writing in Assange.

      I’m probably going to do one Green, one Dem, one Libertarian tomorrow.
      The Greens all got booted off our ballot by national D-Party lawyers.
      So my Green guy is a write-in.
      My Dem is so I can help vote-slam Greg Gianforte, the body-slammer.
      My Libertarian is a woman, and she’s for variety. LOL
      AND I’ll see if I can find a spot for Assange, thank you very much.
      Does it matter? Not when you’re playing charades.

  10. As Ms Johnstone hints, all patriotic Americans should stay away from the polls and simply refuse to vote.

    If you were asked to choose between drinking water from someone’s toilet and water from the Dead Sea, the only smart choice is “none of the above”.

    If asked, voters might say something along the lines of, “Let me know when you have some acceptable candidates”.

  11. “An entirely factual counter-narrative about money being siphoned upward to the dollar-hoarding billionaire class with the help of Republican tax cuts would have been an extremely easy sell, but hardly anybody has attempted to do this”.

    Well, duh. Obviously not, given that the Democrats have just as many billionaire donors as the Republicans – and many Democrats aren’t exactly poor themselves (think “Clintons” for a start).

  12. “The only thing that might change a tiny bit is America maybe temporarily having a government which pretends to care about oppressed minorities sometimes”.

    Ah! You mean the Democrats.

    “There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party… and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt – until recently… and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties”.

    – Gore Vidal

  13. Hope Change Believe from the party that bailed out the banks and jailed Bradley. TRUTH is very good. BDS. Free Assange and others. Have a nice day.

    1. The R Party is just as bad. Vote neither. Over thirty MIC CIA people running for office! That’s special.

  14. Chris Hedges has a great article on voting today at Truhdig.

    1. Truthdig 🙂

  15. “Democrats have done almost nothing in the last two years to fight the Republicans in any way that will ensure victory.”
    ……..
    Establishment Democrats cannot fight against inequality, MIC influence, privatization of public goods, over-financialisation, the parasitic rentier class, they cannot dismiss laissez faire, invisible hand, and other neoliberal and neocon dogmata, because they too need campaign contributions from corporations and billionaires.
    ……..
    Obama funded his election campaigns with corporate money, small donors were only a tiny part of his financial supporters.
    ……..
    People get their information from paid campaign ads in electronic media, robocalls, and paid campaign workers. Election campaigns are expensive and become more expensive year by year. The US Supreme Court made it even easier for big money to rule the country.
    ……..
    Election campaigns are about two competing virtual realities. They have nothing to do with the actual problems and grievances of the populace.
    ……..
    This will only change when rising living costs, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate and unaffordable healthcare lead to widespread civil disobedience, unrest, and rebellion (1789).
    ……..
    One should better hide in the woods (if there are still some left) when this happens and only come out after the noise of gunshots, explosions, screams, and death rattles has died down.

    1. What I’m not seeing here, from anyone really, is a workable plan for fundamental change.

      Some say “don’t vote,” but that has zero impact when undertaken on an individual level. The only way it does have impact is when an organized voting boycott strips the electorate down to a few naive stragglers and thereby establishes the unambiguous illegitimacy of any electoral results.

      Others say take up arms or hide in the woods and wait for the shooting to stop. But the prospects for armed rebellion succeeding are as dubious as the costs in lives and treasure would be astronomical.

      Yes, we are being taken for an ugly, cynical, and now frankly fascist ride. And yes, much of the tepid “resistance” to it is not much better than kabuki. But the poobahs have, intuitively if not arithmetically, calculated just how bad it has to get before the Bastille is in any real danger – and, looking around, we don’t seem to be anywhere near that point yet.

      We should stop talking about how broken the system is – that is patently obvious – and start asking where our untapped power might be lurking. What is it that WE, as an exploited and perpetually entertained and distracted populace HAVE that THEY, the ones that are doing it to us, WANT?

      I think the answer to this is also obvious: MONEY. The American system is the apotheosis of consumer capitalism. Consumer spending accounts for a full two-thirds of our GDP. And guess what? WE are the consumers! It doesn’t work without our cooperation. We’ve got to keep spending and spending and buying and buying – including all sorts of stuff that we don’t need, if we stop our Pavlovian responses to the great marketing machine and just THINK about it for a minute. Yes, with inequality off the charts, this is not true for all Americans: some have virtually no disposable income and purchase only essentials, often coming up short.

      But it is true for millions and millions of us. By harnessing the power not to buy (which is also a precursor to the power not to work and not to pay taxes) and making the resumption of our purchases of shit like Instapots, the latest I-phone, $150 kicks, multiple coats, big flat screens, that new grill, new car, new boat, new home all CONDITIONAL upon changes in laws, regulations, appropriations, and policies, we could have the corporate poobahs quaking in their boots and wasting no time passing the message to the pols they own to DO SOMETHING ALREADY so that their precious bottom lines can recover. The very FIRST thing we could get them to do is restore public, observable vote counting to our elections (so that progressive and independent candidates like Bernie Sanders would have a prayer), and watch things start getting better from there.

      WE have that power and any CEO with a religious bent probably kneels at his or her bedside every night praying that when they wake we will not have discovered and tapped it.

      So, if we want to stop complaining, taking a pass on Election Day, stocking up arms and ammo, or scouting out hiding holes in the woods, we know what to do. We know what we can do and how powerful we really are. It’s not even that far out of the box: we just USE our $$ by withholding it strategically rather than spending it like trained puppies. It’s been done before and god knows it would work here, as no nation has ever been more dependent on its consumers and their cooperation. No nation has ever looked more powerful and been more of a house of cards.

      1. Nothing stops people from boycotting.
        .
        But doing so doesn’t mean people should vote.
        .
        It’s not one or the other.
        .
        You are confusing the issue. When people really understand how they are played, they will not only not vote but also support Movements that will bring real change.
        .
        Every clusterf*ck is a teachable moment.

      2. Nicely explained. We tend to buy groceries and stuff for house projects. Clothes are mostly second-hand. A lot of building materials are second-hand.
        The question is where is it safe to put the money we’re saving? It’s very confiscatable in the bank (due to bail-in legislation).

  16. Caitlin

    That the game is rigged is only half the story.

    What you’ve left out is the colossal clusterf*ck of alienating Russia after helping China to industrialize. All in the name of greed. Now Russia and China are allied and the Empire has to play catch-up. Their answer: Make America Great Again (MAGA)!

    MAGA is a bi-partisan effort to address the clusterf*ck. >> BI-PARTISAN << Don't be fooled by the apparent discord and "Russiagate" bullsh*t.

    Anyone paying attention should be rightly pissed-off because the slow-motion clusterf*ck came with these promises:

    1) "Trickle-down economics" promised that the benefits of globalism (i.e. moving jobs to China) would reach Western masses;

    2) A "Peace dividend" from winning the first Cold War promised to bring a new era of prosperity.

    Whatever is left of these promises have been dashed. The promises themselves are memory-holed. Just mentioning such embarrassments is likely to cause one to be labeled as radical left or radical right.

    The establishment keep people distracted and divided via Party and Personality. Even on erudite blogs where **people know better**, the first mention of Trump or Hillary means 20 emotional comments that derail the conversation. This is not politics, it is mental illness.

    The fact is, Empire imperatives mean that whoever is President would act in much the same way to address the clusterf*ck: start a new Cold War, Trade Wars, Proxy Wars, and a Propaganda War (against the public), etc. In fact, there is much evidence to suggest that Hillary threw the race to her old pal Trump. After all, she is far from the best choice to lead a MAGA effort, while Trump is a rather good choice (as distasteful as that seem to many).

    It's not possible to understand local politics anymore without understanding how Empire distorts policy choices. In act, it is virtually impossible to vote against certain policies in the US because EVERY politician approves of them. Examples include: Israel, plutocracy, MIC. Though some may give excuses about the need to follow the Party, or pretend that they don't support these things, they are lying. 'The establishment' is very united against the interests of the people.

    You do a great job connecting all the dots in a very relatable way. If anything will break the logjam that keeps people enthralled to a corrupt political system, it’s your writing. Thanks!

    I’ve given up on voting. Isn’t it clear that it only legitimizes the corrupt political system?

    Glad to see you link to MoonofAlabama.

    1. I approve of this message! But wait…write in Mickey Mouse if it makes you feel good. Educate…TY

  17. I guess I have a fatalistic point of view…”they” want a new One World Order and are going to try any way possible to get it. We will willingly follow like sheep, or be dragged in the dirt till we beg for it.
    There is no left/right, Democrat/republican. I haven’t voted in any election in 40 years. The 2 party system is a joke and has been controlled for a long time and election fraud has been rampant since….forever.
    There is infighting between the “powers that be “as to the exact path leading us to that new controlled system.
    It appears the military faction and what ever “family” supporting Trump would like the USA to survive. I’d like it too. So I’m gonna vote for Trump….yeah, they roped me in.
    Maybe, if I and my family survive the 5G, avoid vaccines, don’t venture outdoors during the chemtrail spraying, eat only home grown organic non-gmo food, raise organically non-gmo fed chickens, don’t watch and listen to the propaganda-filled TV, movies, and pop music…..we will live happily-ever -after in the planned smart cities, being continuously monitored, rated and scored highly because of our conforming thoughts and behavior.
    I’m selfish and high on hopium….
    Jeeze, maybe there will even be a happy ending…I won’t have to trade my flip-top phone for a smart phone, or better yet, an implant……..sigh.

  18. Why don’t the voters who used to be represented by the Ds, but no longer are, vote for someone OTHER than a D, for example, a Jill Stein or Ralph Nader or Ron Paul or other peacenik candidates that aren’t an R or a D? THEY WON’T BECAUSE THEY DON”T WANT TO LOSE THEIR JOBS AT LOCKHEED MARTIN, BOEING, RAYTHEON, Etc. So let’s not absolve John and Jane Voter of thier sins in all of this. Quite the contrary. We should condemn them for their sins.
    ..
    War is grrrrrrrreat for business! Just keep borrowing trillions for all the forever-wars and everything’s going to turn out just great!

  19. Caitlin – I’m afraid this is all too true. And then, to top it all off, they rig the votecounts to make good and sure that semi-dangerous Democrats like Bernie Sanders don’t get any real power, and that Democrats in general lose so often that they start walking around in stupid circles. Yes, many Democrats are corporate-owned, but many are not; while every Republican is. This is not an insignificant difference. And the succession of rigged votecounts (yes, election forensics is what I do and there’s way too much evidence to seriously doubt it; and throw in massive voter suppression too) has made both Democrats and Republicans keep moving to the right. This was Karl Rove’s mission: perpetual right-wing rule. It’s been a rolling coup and Americans by and large don’t want to see it, any more than they want to see the realities that you’re pointing out. Well we get roughly what we deserve: fascism via fraud.

    1. Jonathan, are you able to show a trusted journalist (man, we need Julian) the info you have on rigged vote counts without getting ‘disappeared’? I think most of us suspect this, proof might actually bring about the fury and motivation for us to unite against the status quo, maybe ‘start the revolution’ we need for this sh!tshow to end.

      I posted this (below) at another site 1/2 hour before I saw Caitlin’s article. I’m not sure how we fix ‘us’ but it isn’t by doing the same thing we do every election (pretend it will matter this time).

      …No matter who’s in there, all the promises, the ‘we’re with you, Avg Joe, they aren’t’ hasn’t resulted in a focus on the middle class and poor. How many years has healthcare, wages, infrastructure, education & schools, inner city poverty, debt, wars for $, accountability, an of, by, for the people, Mainstreet not Wall Street govt., etc, sat in the inbox, only dusted off around election time? I’d vote all the bums out, they’re all so full of it, but there aren’t any true FDR’s, JFK’s, MLKings, Lincoln’s, that I’ve noticed, in the wings.
      Politicians are dishonest (well known, I know) but even those who sound more benevolent, like us, fair, and inclusive haven’t actually made bad bankers pay for crashing the economy, demanded no one lives in tents or cars, actually achieved ‘affordable healthcare’, favored the little people when in power. They all know we’ll just vote for them, over & over.
      Its funny, there are so many of us, hundreds of millions, & they aren’t even a bit worried about us getting mad at them. They only seem scared of losing their place of power to another power player. I learned that when new, independent people win elections, the senior class gangs up on the freshmen to behave, fit in, ‘wait your turn’, or else. The leaders in Congress make all the policy decisions and if someone new disagrees, persona non grata or worse.
      We’re all aware of the obvious lies, the corruption, the media allies spinning facts & spewing talking points.
      What do we do? Term limits? Protests in the streets (that, yes, we should do, definitely, every city, every state, every day), but how do we stop pissing in the wind (arguing with powerless, not the cause neighbors on Twitter), unite Republicans & Democrats on things we agree on (a lot, more than we realize) and demand an end to the scam (Citizens United, gerrymandering, fraud in vote counting) of today’s ‘elections’? I just don’t know. It’s not easy.
      I love our system of govt. as written, the Constitution, the country, but this election will prob. just be back/forth, them/then them (remember, we almost had Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton, that’s insane). I’m really torn this election. I love that I can vote, but what am I voting for? SNAFU?”

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