Tulsi Gabbard - Why she is running for president

Comment: Much as I like Gabbard she won't be allowed to get anywhere near the presidency.

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Tulsi Gabbard

Stand with Tulsi: https://www.tulsi2020.com | If you share only one thing about Tulsi with your friends and family, make it this video. Over six minutes, this raw and emotional exchange encapsulates the reason she is running for president. 

From Tulsi Gabbard: 

As a soldier, I know the cost of war—on my brothers and sisters in uniform, their families, and the people in those countries where we intervene, whose lives are completely devastated. Over the last two decades, through the Iraq War, the invasion of Libya and the Syrian War, we’ve seen the catastrophic impacts of American intervention. But it’s not only those who are impacted by combat who pay the price—every single American pays the price for these wars.

My mission as president will be to put an end to wasteful and reckless regime change wars, the new Cold War and nuclear arms race, and introduce a Peace Dividend to reinvest the trillions that would be spent on those wars to instead meet the needs of the American people.

Our needs are great—redirecting those trillions of dollars means investing in universal healthcare and education, climate change solutions, clean air and water for our communities, rebuilding our nation's crumbling infrastructure, investing in a green energy economy, and protecting Social Security for seniors.

The people in charge of our foreign policy—the ones ratcheting up tensions with Russia, China and North Korea, the ones who are making the case for regime change war in Syria, Venezuela and Iran, either don’t know or don’t care about the true cost of war and the very real threat of nuclear war in our world today. To effectively address the threats we face in a global economy and as a global community - including nuclear war, climate change and global pandemics—we need to get out of the Cold War mentality that pits one nation against another nation. This is fossilized 20th century thinking that doesn't fit the world we live in today.

We're not in a win-lose scenario anymore—we have to be committed both militarily and economically to a win-win approach based on cooperation for mutual security and prosperity. Regardless of party or label—Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Progressives—we must come together to bring about a sea change in our approach to foreign policy.

This is why I’m running for president: to institute a Peace Dividend by ending regime change war, ending the new Cold War and nuclear arms race, taking the trillions of dollars wasted in these wars and giving them back to the American people. With this Peace Dividend, we can provide Medicare for All, we can protect Social Security, we can ensure our students have access to an affordable education, we can rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and we can protect our air and water, to build a brighter future for all Americans. 

 #TulsiGabbard #TULSI2020 #PeaceDividend #IraqWar #AfghanistanWar #Venezuela

“Soft Coup” Ongoing Against Trump? Impeachment is the End Game

Stephen Lendman
Global Research

Turkey’s Daily Sabah broadsheet believes a soft coup is ongoing to oust Trump. It’s been brewing since his triumph over Hillary and inauguration in January 2017 – my view, not the newspaper’s.

Last year, I said pro-Hillary dark forces and other anti-Trump coup plotters keep throwing endless amounts of dirt against the wall, hoping enough sticks to oust him or undermine his presidency if removal efforts fail.

Things aren’t getting easier for him. Special council Mueller’s Russiagate witch hunt continues – despite discovering no evidence of Kremlin US election meddling nor an improper or illegal Trump connection to Russia.

Controlling the House, the undemocratic Dems plan investigations into Trump’s affairs, likely to continue to harass him for the wrong reasons, ignoring what’s most important – US policies both right wings of the nation’s war party agree on, along with serving privileged interests exclusively at the expense of ordinary people.

Once Mueller’s probe ends and a report is issued, House impeachment of Trump may follow – a likely futile effort to remove him from office with Republicans controlling the Senate.

The Constitution’s Article I, Section 2 empowers House members to impeach a sitting president, Senate members with sole power to try them – a two-thirds super-majority required to convict, what’s highly unlikely with Republicans controlling the upper house.

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American Democracy Is a Shitshow

Arun Gupta
Information Clearing House

American democracy is a shitshow that is insightful only unintentionally and captivating only in its grotesqueries.

In the late afternoon of day three of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, media workers and RNC attendees were blocked from exiting the security zone around the convention center. Past the concrete barriers, lines of police, and double layers of 10-foot tall steel-link fence, a protest was swirling. It was the American flag–burning hyped all day by members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, a tiny Maoist-style group known for provocative but ultimately harmless political stunts.

From the security tunnel, apparently modeled on checkpoints dotting Israeli-occupied Palestine, it was difficult to distinguish protesters from media in the crowd of hundreds. Heated yelling drifted above the tightly packed throngs, but there was no smoke to be seen.

The mere threat of a piece of colored fabric being set alight was enough to trigger a lockdown. Rent-a-cops started herding bewildered media out of the tunnel. When two columns of beefy riot cops in full body armor began filing out to take up position near the protest, security swooped in to clear media out of a parking lot where the tumult could be observed.

On the scene was dozens of Bikers for Trump, loudly lecturing how the flag-burners would be killed in any other country. The imminence of violence is a refrain on a right that glorifies its weapons as instruments of peace. The previous day when I took a photo on the street near the convention of a knot of muscleheads all wearing the same 2nd Amendment t-shirts, one told me, with approving nods from his compatriot, “If it wasn’t for the First Amendment, I would have smashed your camera.”

These gun-clingers hadn’t figured out the Constitution is not an a la carte menu they can pick and choose from, and eliminating the First Amendment would usher in the tyranny they rant about as imminent. 

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2016 election decides who controls the drug trade

Daniel Hopsicker
Mad Cow Productions

In the Presidential Election of 2016, Republican and Democratic insiders are wrestling like two dogs over a bone over who controls the illegal drug trade.

To the victor go the spoils. Who wins the election wins control of America’s vast drug bazaar, largest in the world, whose proceeds prop up lucky bankers and politicians lapping at the trough of  the biggest richest slush fund in the history of the world.

It’s the biggest business in the world, and the No. 1 industry on the face of the planet, in terms of foreign trade. And if you didn’t know that about the illegal drug trade, then the vast amounts spent on propaganda and disinformation every year in the so-called “War on Drugs” is working.

The first industry to globalize vertically was the illegal drug business. It’s an open question whether drug trafficking drove globalization, or the other way around.

Negotiated by Bill Clinton, the chief beneficiary of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)—by dollar volume and impact on the economy—was the drug trade.

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It’s Official – Donald Trump Clinches Republican Nomination For President

Zero Hedge
 
Millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced…

The Hill reports, The Republican Party officially nominated Donald Trump for president on Tuesday, capping his remarkable rise from political outsider to the standard-bearer of the GOP.

Trump officially secured the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination after his home state of New York cast 89 delegates for the businessman.

Trump’s adult children joined the New York delegation to cast the decisive vote that put Trump over the top. Donald Trump, Jr. was given the honor of making the announcement, and he promised his father would put the Empire State in play in November.

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Clinton and Trump: Nuclearized or Lobotomized?

Comment: Or maybe Trump's much vaunted "maverick" status is just  a role he is playing - consciously or unconsciously - and another example of perception management aided and abetted by huge coverage from the media. The caricature of Trump and his pointed rhetoric would ensure the imposition of psychopath Hillary Clinton collecting much of the "horrified" moderates in the GOP. And this is indeed what is happening. 

The campaign to seat Obama followed a similar strategy by tapping into the horror that was Bush and Cheney and offering the electorate a "black Kennedy" with a winning smile. Yet, we all know what nightmare that turned out to be - a true wolf in sheep's clothing.

With Killary, we have the "first woman as president" strategy along with Trump acting as the counterpoint. But as Petras points out below, Clinton is far FAR more dangerous than Trump despite all his babbling about immigration and walls. Is Killary destined to have the throne? Or do the Zionist Establishment have Trump as the next prize chimp?

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Prof. James Petras

Over half the US electorate views the two leading candidates for the 2016 Presidential elections with horror and disdain.

In contrast, the entire corporate mass media, here and abroad, repeat outrageous virtuous claims on behalf of Hillary Clinton and visceral denunciations of Donald Trump.

Media pundits, financial, academic and corporate elites describe the prospects of her presidency as one of responsibility, national security, business prosperity and political normalcy.

In contrast, they paint billionaire Republican candidate, Donald Trump as a grave threat, likely to destroy the global economic and military order, polarize US society and destined to lead an isolated and protectionist US into deep recession.

The super-charged rhetoric, flaunting the virtues of one candidate and vices of the other, ignores the momentous consequences of the election of either candidate. There is a strong chance that the election of ultra-militarist Hillary Clinton will drive the world into catastrophic global nuclear war.

On the other hand, Trump’s ascent to the US Presidency will likely provoke unprecedented global economic opposition from the corporate establishment, which will drive the US economy into a profound depression.

These are not idle claims: The destructive consequences of either candidate’s presidency can best be understood through a systematic analysis of Mme. Clinton’s past and present foreign policies and Trump’s belief that he has the ability to transform the US from an empire to a republic. 

Clinton on the Road to Nuclear War

Over the past quarter century, Hillary Clinton has promoted the most savage and destructive wars of our times. Moreover, the more directly she has been engaged in imperial policymaking, the greater her responsibility in implementing foreign policy, the closer we have come to nuclear war.

To identify Hillary Clinton’s path to global war it is necessary to identify three crucial moments. Hillary’s bloody history can be dated initially to her de facto ‘joint Presidency’ with husband Bill Clinton (1993-2001).

Stage One: The Conjugal Militarist Presidency (1993-2001)

During Hilary Clinton’s joint presidency with William Clinton (the Billary Regime) the First Lady actively promoted an aggressive militarized takeover of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East and Eastern Africa – often under her favorite messianic doctrine of ‘humanitarian intervention and regime change’.

This justified the relentless bombing of Iraq, destroying its infrastructure and blockading its population into starvation while preparing to carve its territory into ethnic and religious divisions. Over 500,000 Iraqi children were murdered as proudly justified by then-Secretary of State Madeline Albright (1997-2001) and lauded by the Clintons.

In the same manner, Yugoslavia was bombed by the US humanitarian coalition air forces and cruise missiles over 1,000 times from March 24 to June 11, 2009 in the course of sub-dividing the country into five backward ‘ethnically cleansed’ mini-states. Thousands of factories, public buildings, bridges, passenger trains, radio stations, embassies, apartment complexes and hospitals were devastated; over a million victims became refugees while hundreds of thousands were wounded or killed.

The Conjugal Presidency successfully carried out the bloodiest war of aggression in Europe since the Nazi invasion during WWII, in order to subdivide an ethnically diverse and industrially advanced federation whose independent foreign policies had angered the Western corporate empire.

The Clintons launched the military invasion of Somalia (in East Africa) to impose a vassal regime, leading to the death of many thousands and a regional imperial war. Faced with desperate popular resistance from the Somalis, the Clintons were forced to withdraw US troops and bring in thousands of Sub-Saharan African and Ethiopian mercenaries – whose death would pass unnoticed among the US electorate.

From 1992 through 2001 the Clinton war machine helped set up the Yeltsin kleptocratic vassal state in Russia facilitating the greatest peace-time pillage of state resources in world history.

In the post-Soviet breakup era, over 1 trillion dollars of former public assets were seized especially by US and British-allied Zionist gangsters, Clinton-affiliated officials and ‘academics’ and Wall Street bankers. Under Clinton’s vassalage the entire Soviet public health system was eliminated and Yeltsin’s Russia experienced a population decline of 4.3 million citizens, mostly due to diseases, alcohol and drug toxicity, suicide, malnutrition, unemployment and loss of wages, pensions and and an unprecedented epidemic of tuberculosis and infectious diseases once thought wiped out, like syphilis and diphtheria.

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Ron Paul: US Elections Are Rigged, Voting Simply Used to Pacify the Public

MINTPRESS

 

Clute, TX — Dr. Ron Paul says the American electoral system is rigged to keep “independent thinkers”from succeeding.

“I see elections as so much of a charade,” the former Texas congressman said during an April 11 appearance on RT America’s “The Fishtank.” “So much deceit goes on.”

Paul is no stranger to the twisted rules of the American presidential horse race. He ran for the highest office as a Libertarian in 1988, and in 2008 and 2012 as a Republican.

He arguably came closest to the nomination in 2012, when the GOP amended its party regulations to prevent the former Texas representative from stealing Mitt Romney’s thunder.

Rule 40(b) of “The Rules of the Republican Party” was changed so the Republican National Committee could “limit the visibility and power of libertarian-minded Texas Rep. Ron Paul at the convention and thus present a unified front behind Mitt Romney, the presumptive nominee,” according to David Byler, an elections analyst at RealClearPolitics. The rule requires that, in order to win the nomination, a candidate must have the support of a majority of delegates from eight states.

Although recent wins have tipped Sen. Ted Cruz past the cut off, the rule as written came close to helping Trump take the nomination. Paul warned that the GOP’s machinations to block Donald Trump are a sign of a corrupt, undemocratic system.

“I’ve worked on the assumption … for many, many decades, that whether there’s a Republican or a Democrat president, the people who want to keep the status quo seems to have their finger in the pot and can control things,” he said in the interview.

“They just get so nervous, though, if they have an independent thinker out there — whether it’s Sanders, or Trump or Ron Paul, they’re going to be very desperate to try to change things.”

Paul had nothing but scorn for Trump’s policies: “He’s offering us nothing new, and he’s going backward in many ways.”

He suggested that the 2016 election is “a lot more entertainment than anything else” because none of the candidates “have answers” to modern political problems.

Even so, Paul interprets the success of these outsider candidates as a sign that “more people are discovering that the system is all rigged and voting is just pacification for the voters and it really doesn’t count.”

“I don’t think there’s an easy way out for the establishment or the parties,” he noted, explaining that Democrats and Republicans would both rather risk “further alienation of the people” than allow a candidate to succeed who could shake up the system.

Paul recalled his own 2012 encounter with Rule 40(b) as an important political lesson for both himself and the American people.

“I was upset about it but didn’t want to waste too much energy being angry because this is the way the system works,” he said. “It’s a rotten system.”

Watch the entire interview below:

The Six Principles of the New Populism (and the Establishment’s Nightmare)

Robert Reich

More Americans than ever believe the economy is rigged in favor of Wall Street and big business and their enablers in Washington. We’re five years into a so-called recovery that’s been a bonanza for the rich but a bust for the middle class. “The game is rigged and the American people know that. They get it right down to their toes,” says Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Which is fueling a new populism on both the left and the right. While still far apart, neo-populists on both sides are bending toward one another and against the establishment.

Who made the following comments? (Hint: Not Warren, and not Bernie Sanders.)

A. We “cannot be the party of fat cats, rich people, and Wall Street.”

B. “The rich and powerful, those who walk the corridors of power, are getting fat and happy…”

C. “If you come to Washington and serve in Congress, there should be a lifetime ban on lobbying.”

D. “Washington promoted moral hazard by protecting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which privatized profits and socialized losses.”

E. “When you had the chance to stand up for Americans’ privacy, did you?”

F. “The people who wake up at night thinking of which new country they want to bomb, which new country they want to be involved in, they don’t like restraint. They don’t like reluctance to go to war.”

(Answers: A. Rand Paul, B. Ted Cruz, C. Ted Cruz, D. House Republican Joe Hensarling, E. House Republican Justin Amash, F. Rand Paul )

You might doubt the sincerity behind some of these statements, but they wouldn’t have been uttered if the crowds didn’t respond enthusiastically – and that’s the point. Republican populism is growing, as is the Democratic version, because the public wants it.

And it’s not only the rhetoric that’s converging. Populists on the right and left are also coming together around six principles:

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Waiting for Clarity On the Brink of Oblivion

This is something Kevin Flaherty wrote over at cryptogon.com back in 2006 and closely follows my own views and that of many other commentators at the time. What he writes about is no less relevant with the Ron Paul hysteria:

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cryptogon.com

The tone of the emails I've been receiving has changed dramatically over the past several days.

People are now terrified about the events unfolding inside the U.S.

Panic is setting in, and for some silly reason, people think this upcoming election holds the key to the future.

Guys, wake the F up. This Republican/Democrat thing is beyond embarrassing.

Please understand: THERE ARE NO POLITICAL SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS THE U.S. IS FACING. The outcome of this election is meaningless, one way or the other. The more you keep grasping for glimmers of hope within the political system, the worse off you will be.

The appearance of choice, as a mechanism of control, has served the elite well for several decades in the U.S. Appearances broke down after the 2000 Presidential election. And the 2004 Presidential election... Excuse me while I spit out the window just thinking about the candidates. Never mind the endemic vote fraud.

Will a big Democratic win calm people down? Maybe that's what They'll allow. It might ease the panic, so the ship of fools can sail on for another few months. If They were smart, that's what They'd do. Hell, maybe it'll be Hillary in 2008, with the ability to designate any American as an enemy combatant... Sure. Tell me another one.

But then again, maybe not. Maybe it's time to rub your noses in the Freedom.

I hate to be making so many Magic 8 Ball references lately, but that's what the U.S. political system has become. Believe in that thing and it will give you the answers you're looking for. You're totally doomed and clueless, but your belief in the Magic 8 Ball is somehow comforting. By all means, vote.

Jeff Wells recently wrote:

American politics isn't just theatre; it's dinner theatre, on par with a Medieval Times franchise. It can put on a decent show: the way the white and black knights joust you'd think they meant it, and that the guy who falls off his horse really gets hurt and the champion wins something of meaning. Voters are "treated like royalty" - every man a king! - but their crowns are made of tissue paper. And while the menu is all you can eat, all you can order is bullshit.

So, let's dispence with the bullshit about U.S. elections.

What varies, with the passage of time, is the number of people who get it. As more people get it, the more dangerous the situation becomes. The Machine will destroy itself rather than lose control. As the appearance of choice fails to serve as an effective mechanism of control, more overt mechanisms of control, which have been under construction for years, will be used.

Nothing that is happening now should come as a surprise to any of you. The entire program has been spelled out on Cryptogon and other sites---never mind the thousands of books---for years. The collapse of the U.S. into overt fascism is following a fairly predictable series of events. While the exact timetable is more difficult to nail down, when the state begins to require citizens to obtain "CLEARANCE" in order to leave, you've pretty much arrived at the end of the line. And then what? What excuses will be made? When soldiers are breaking down your door, will you point your TV remote control at them and try to change the channel? Tell them you voted? Tell them you paid your taxes? Ask them to please stay away from your daughter, because she's not a terrorist?

This has all happened before (it's happening now, actually, in many parts of the world, especially where U.S. influence is pervasive). What's different is that the technologies of political control have vastly increased the strength of the iron fist. The options are: get out of the way of that thing, to the best of your ability, or be crushed by the grip of it around your neck. Some might try to attack it directly, but that option should be seen as a creative form of suicide. (Oh yeah, you can attempt to join the ranks of the regime.)

This is the warning I've been repeating for years: You do not want to try to reach the exit as millions of other people attempt to do the same thing. Waiting for clarity is not often rewarded.

Many Cryptogon readers think that they're going to hedge their bets, and stay put for as long as possible, before making a strategic move. I like all of you. I love some of you, as you are my family members and closest friends, but please hear me: To know what's coming and to think that you will be able to time your exit properly is the height of folly.

It is not easy to pull off a strategic move under "normal" circumstances. Having made a strategic move, I'm in a position to speak on this matter with authority.

It's not easy.

The path is lined with red tape and bullshit under the best of circumstances. And the window of opportunity is closing with each passing day. To think that you will be able to do it after an event, when borders are closed, or mostly closed, when internal passports may be required to travel across state lines, when the fascists must approve your exit plans, when your cash is not convertible into foreign currencies or maybe even worthless...

Friends and family, you're in a clinical state of denial.

Let's fast forward a week, a month or a year from today; nobody knows exactly when it will happen... When you could have made it to a better place, with relative ease, you sat by and waited, wished and hoped it wouldn't come to this. And now, the freeways are jammed, the airports are closed and soldiers are checking your "papers." Some number of people are being loaded onto trucks, but you can't really see past the spotlights shining at you from the checkpoint up ahead...

"Oh, God, why did I wait for it to come to this?" some of you will think as you look at your spouse and children, who will be looking back at you, wondering the same thing.

Voters leaving Republican, Democratic parties in droves

USA Today

 

More than 2.5 million voters have left the Democratic and Republican parties since the 2008 elections, while the number of independent voters continues to grow. A USA TODAY analysis of state voter registration statistics shows registered Democrats declined in 25 of the 28 states that register voters by party. 

Republicans dipped in 21 states, while independents increased in 18 states. The trend is acute in states that are key to next year's presidential race. In the eight swing states that register voters by party, Democrats' registration is down by 800,000 and Republicans' by 350,000. Independents have gained 325,000. Registered Democrats still dominate the political playing field with more than 42 million voters, compared to 30 million Republicans and 24 million independents. 

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Two-Party Oligarchy: More Documented Evidence That Democrats Are Bankster Puppets

David DeGraw

Most readers here already know that Obama and the Democrats are bankster puppets. However, there are still many who haven’t done much research and cling to the “hope” that maybe, just maybe, Obama and the Democrats will save us. They’re at least better than those crazy Republicans, right? No! As bad as Bush was, he would have never been able to get away with half the things Obama gets away with just because he’s a smooth talker with a “D” on his chest. Anyone who has any understanding of economics knows that the fix was in as soon as Geithner and Summers came on board. And then, the icing on the cake, he brings in JP Morgan thug Bill Daley as Chief of Staff. 

For those unaware / delusional people, here is more evidence to place on top of the mountain. Bill Daley’s former policy group, Third Way, just released a new paper advocating on behalf of the “too big to fail” banks.[...]

The Heavy Cost of the Bush-Obama Murder Rampage

lewrockwell.com/

In every election cycle, the politicians love to pretend there is a difference among them on the foreign policy questions. Yet on these issues of unsurpassed importance, we see the Democrats and Republicans are all part of the same bloodthirsty gang.

On the superficial level of presidential politics, Obama and Bush appeared light-years apart. They play opposites in the DC-approved official culture war between those who pretend to be genuine red-blooded Americans of the heartland and those who feign an understanding of the beleaguered urban minorities and oppressed underclass, when in truth both perfectly embody the same Wall Street-Pentagon-friendly power elite. This is most clearly seen in their virtually identical approach toward empire. ....