Copyright © 2016 - 2021, The Troy Press
Copyright © 2016 - 2021, The Troy Press
Copyright © 2016 - 2021, The Troy Press
In this video, Thomas Frank clearly explains how we should think about the Democratic Party of today. He talks about the betrayal of labor, the Clinton view of "they have nowhere else to go", and makes many important points about how Democrats, led by Bill Clinton (and including Obama), did such thnigs literally "against their base" as their sell out of blacks, the famous 1996 Crime Bill, the dissolution of welfare, and much more. He includes a historical framework for the various changes in thinking, and every word he utters has the ring of truth. And the question and answer period at the end - around 20 minutes - is every bit as fascinating as the talk itself.
Included is how Bill Clinton had a written agreement with Newt Gingrich to privatize SS. What stopped it? The Monica Lewinski scandal.
Even if you have watched it before, it is worth watching again.
Having no real defense against the obvious, the Clinton campaign and most of the corporate media painted Wikileaks as an arm of Russian intelligence.
Let's get to the point of this commentary right up front: political discourse in the United States is devoid of substance because the people who own the country and its media can no longer justify their continued rule. Capitalism -- in deep and irreversible decline, dominated by a financial class that makes nothing but exotic forms of money -- has nothing to offer the vast bulk of the people, and no solutions for any of the multiplying crises it has created. Having no real program to offer the public, the rulers and their media have no choice but to shut down any semblance of substantive political debate.
In this presidential season most of the ruling class is gathered under Hillary Clinton's Big Tent. Republican Donald Trump is on the outs, despite his billionaire status, because he has violated several sacred taboos of the One Percent. I'm not talking about his racism -- race is central to politics in the U.S. Trump's heresy is that he has challenged rich people's right to take their money and the nation's jobs, overseas. And Trump has questioned U.S. policies of endless war, regime change, and demonization of Russia.
Trump has violated sacred taboos of the One Percent.
Hillary Clinton is deservedly known as both a warmonger and a shameless supplicant of Wall Street, whereas Trump exhibits no loyalties to anyone but himself. Wikileaks has done periodic dumps of documents proving, in Clinton and her handlers' own words, that she is a servant of the ruling class. Having no real defense against the obvious, the Clinton campaign and most of the corporate media painted Wikileaks as an arm of Russian intelligence. The purpose of this New McCarthyism was to inoculate the public against believing Clinton's own words, as they were spoken to bankers, and at the same time discredit Trump's position that the U.S. should seek better relations with Russia and stop helping jihadists in Syria. Having no intention to offer peace to the American people or stop supporting the jihadists, the ruling class shut down the conversation.
The New York Times stooped to new lows of Zionistic McCarthyism, last week, when it used the broad brush of anti-Semitism to slime Donald Trump's critique of what he called a "global elite" that had "stripped" the U.S. of its wealth in order to line the pockets of corporate and political interests. He said Hillary Clinton "meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers, her special interest friends and her donors." Actually, this is provably true about Hillary Clinton and her past support for so-called free trade - and it's how today's capitalist system works, in general. Socialists, and even left liberals, make the same case all the time. But such talk is now verboten, prohibited because the New York Times tells us that anti-Semites like to say such things about "the Jews."
So, even for mega-capitalists like Trump, critiques of capitalism are beyond the pale - unspeakable.
Ecuador has confirmed that it has temporarily cut off internet access in its embassy in London to Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, over fears that he was using it to interfere in the US presidential election.
The move followed the publication of leaked emails by WikiLeaks, including some from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) released just before the party's convention in July, and more recently a cache of emails from the account of Hillary Clinton campaign adviser John Podesta.
On Tuesday, officials released a statement saying that the government of Ecuador "respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states" and had cut off the internet access available to Assange because "in recent weeks, WikiLeaks has published a wealth of documents, impacting on the US election campaign".
The statement also reaffirmed the asylum granted to Assange and reiterated its intention "to safeguard his life and physical integrity until he reaches a safe place".
You can read the entire statement here.
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