DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
I find it revealing that the same institutions & hacks pushing the #RussiaGate narrative for the lest 3+ years firmly believe [or would have us think they believe] a foreign country can hack our elections but refuse to even acknowledge that our domestic oligarchy is fully capable of doing the same exact thing... — Fiorella Isabel (@Fiorella_im) November 6, 2020 2. Constant war is an economic and political necessity for a morally deformed empire with an imploding neoliberal economy, so the push to satisfy the monster with new blood offerings will surely continue. This non-negotiable imperial policy requires unflinching and probably deepening demonisation and confrontation with both Russia and China. No, as many warned, a Biden-Harris regime may soon prove to be far worse than Trump, hard as that is to imagine, considering that, as Caity Johnstone reminds us, it will be a much more competent evil. I sure hope that history will prove me resoundingly wrong.—PG
I have only one adjustment to what Fiorella says: I do not think the hacks and institutions pushing the Russiagate hoax "firmly believe" a foreign country can hack our elections. They are too smart for that, and besides many of them knew from the start the whole thing was a hoax since they cynically fabricated it. So the statement needs to be corrected thusly: "The same institutions & hacks pushing the #RussiaGate narrative for the last 3+ years would have us think they believe a foreign country can hack our elections." Precision in this case is vital.
"Donald, you're fired!" But hold the champagne, please. Decent folks have nothing to celebrate.
It seems that the powers that be are finally managing to get rid of U.S. President Donald Trump.
While Trump's domestic policies have been as much to the favor of the very rich as those of his predecessors, his foreign policies were remarkably different. A Harris (Biden) regime will return to 'business as usual' and be more aggressive. That is the reason why I for one will miss Trump.
The unceremonial dethronement of Trump will also have domestic consequences. His voters will inevitably call it a fraud. A Harris (Biden) administration is unlikely to have the funds needed to fight the pandemic and its disastrous economic consequences. That together could give rise to a challenger who combines Trump's rightwing populism with political competence. That is a prospect everyone should fear.
Ever since Donald Trump entered the political stage he was fought by the military-media-intelligence establishment with ruthless campaigns designed to regime change him:
The seeds of this scheme were planted several months prior to the 2016 election when Hillary Clinton authorized a smear campaign against Trump alleging that he's secretly a “Russian agent”. It was hoped that this would discredit the race's frontrunner and thus result in handing her the presidency that November. This eventually morph into the discredited “Steele dossier” and the subsequent Russiagate conspiracy theory. The purpose of these information warfare provocations was to delegitimize Trump's election, insincerely present the Democrats as the guardians of America's electoral integrity, and therefore powerfully shape public perceptions ahead of the 2020 election. During the interim, a related narrative was weaponized claiming that Trump is a corrupt lawbreaker and wannabe dictator who'll cling to power at all costs.
Now, as it seems that Joe Biden may win the presidency, there is no longer a need to promote the fake 'Russiagate' stories.
Bryan MacDonald @27khv - 10:37 UTC · Nov 7, 2020
Amazing how quick the "Russian meddling" narrative died, in the US, once it became clear that the 'correct' candidate was going to win the election, wasn't it?
After all, the folk who pushed it don't want to delegitimise Joe Biden's forthcoming presidency.
Just in time for the election three major pillars of 'Russiagate' were thoroughly debunked and quietly buried.
Michael Tracey @mtracey - 14:51 UTC · Nov 3, 2020
Amazing. Hours before Election Day comes news that Mueller aggressively tried to prosecute Assange and Roger Stone for a conspiracy related to the 2016 DNC/Podesta emails, but ran into "factual...hurdles" which could not establish any conspiracy. Perfect time to memory-hole this
Raw intelligence - Meduza spoke to all the likely sources behind the ‘Steele dossier.’ The report that forever transformed Donald Trump into a ‘Russian agent’ looks less and less convincing.
Self-styled whistleblower Christopher Wylie and The Guardian reporter Carole Cadwalladr earned film deals and flashy awards by blaming Brexit and Trump on a sweeping conspiracy between data firm Cambridge Analytica and Russia. A British government investigation shatters their claims to fame.
It is no wonder then that Trump's followers now doubt all vote counts that disfavor him.
Max Abrahms @MaxAbrahms - 12:50 UTC · Nov 6, 2020
Mainstream media has played a huge role in eroding American confidence in our elections. They spent four years saying Trump’s 2016 win was just a gift from Putin. Now the media is incredulous that so many Americans don’t trust the electoral system they succeeded in discrediting.
Given the way Trump was fought throughout the last four and a half years it is hard to believe that the current part of the process, especially the counting of absentee / mail-in votes, is handled without similar shenanigans taking place.
Consider what a 2012 New York Times piece on mail-in ballots had to say:
Election administrators have a shorthand name for a central weakness of voting by mail. They call it granny farming.
“The problem,” said Murray A. Greenberg, a former county attorney in Miami, “is really with the collection of absentee ballots at the senior citizen centers.” In Florida, people affiliated with political campaigns “help people vote absentee,” he said. “And help is in quotation marks.”
Voters in nursing homes can be subjected to subtle pressure, outright intimidation or fraud. The secrecy of their voting is easily compromised. And their ballots can be intercepted both coming and going.
The problem is not limited to the elderly, of course. Absentee ballots also make it much easier to buy and sell votes. In recent years, courts have invalidated mayoral elections in Illinois and Indiana because of fraudulent absentee ballots.
And what about this? Why are private media companies allowed to selectively censor the president?
Michael Tracey @mtracey - 15:14 UTC · Nov 6, 2020
The majority of Trump's recent tweets are currently censored. I don't care how misleading or even false they are. That's not for Twitter to arbitrate. People cheering this power-grab by unelected tech officials are authoritarian dupes
Claiming that 'Trump is evil' or that he lies as all politicians do does not justify this.
From an international perspective Trump is certainly not the worst president ever:
Without Trump, the world stage will be poorer. Trump was good for world peace. He didn’t start a war anywhere, which is not something that can be said for most of his predecessors. Trump was a master of skulduggery — a farcical coup attempt in Venezuela, a ghastly political assassination in Iraq — but indeed knew where to stop when Iran rained a hundred missiles on the American bases in Iraq.
Trump claimed to be ever ready to have a battle but never had one. He vowed to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea but ended up saying, “We fell in love”, after the [then] historic meeting in 2018 with Kim Jong Un. In reality, Trump unwittingly speeded up the processes favouring multipolarity.
We will of course not miss Mike Pompous, the most lying Secretary of State ever, or Matthew Pottinger who tried his best to antagonize China. Nor will we miss Marshall Bellingslea who intended to destroy all the arms control agreements that have kept this planet alive.
But those were side figures and much less effective than they would have been with the full backing of a competent president. They are mere rats who are now already leaving the ship.
Ragıp Soylu @ragipsoylu - 10:13 UTC · Nov 7, 2020
James Jeffrey, US Special Envoy for Syria, is leaving his post after an apparent Biden victory — Asharq Al-Awsat
What we must fear now is the 'business as usual' that is coming next:
Trump has not been defeated by a Bernie Sanders; he has been defeated by a corrupt political hack backed to the hilt by the large majority of the billionaire owned media, financed out of Wall street and with no intention of pursuing anything other than neo-liberal economic policies. It is also the firm re-establishment of the rule of the security state and the military-industrial complex. Trump’s instinctive isolationism made him an enemy of the security state interest which spent a great deal of time in trying to undermine its President.
With Biden we will return to business as usual, and that means war and invasions. Under Trump we have had no new wars started, even if he continued old ones with little control. Without Trump, I have not the tiniest doubt that Syria would have been bombed back to the Stone Age, exactly like Libya, and millions more people would have been killed. Irrespective of the undoubted damage Trump has caused inside the United States across many fronts, Hillary would have killed a lot more people. Just not Americans.
The Harris (Biden) foreign policy will be much more aggressive than Trump's has ever been:
The Biden campaign has worked tirelessly over the past year to channel the image of Joe Biden as a “serious person,” particularly on foreign policy matters. Biden, according to this narrative, is an elder statesman who grasps the intricacies of international politics. Trump, by contrast, is presented as an inept bull in a china shop who only speaks the language of “fire and fury.” Only Biden, we are told, can bring back stability around the globe.
Don’t believe a word of it. This carefully curated image of Joe Biden’s strategic acumen and geopolitical foresight is at odds with the former vice president’s own stated views and policy track record. His statements about a variety of countries suggest that they are based less on a strategic view of world affairs than snap judgments.
The Harris (Biden) regime is likely to concentrate on foreign policy because it will, for lack of money, have trouble to be effective on domestic issues.
The Senate is likely to stay under Republican control. After trillions of deficits accumulated under Trump the Republicans will now, under a Democratic president, again find their inner deficit hawk:
Chris Cioffi @ReporterCioffi - 16:00 UTC · Nov 6, 2020
Senate committee talk from Graham: If we keep the Senate which I think we will and I become Budget chairman. I'd like to create a dialogue about how can we finally begin to address the debt.
While a runaway pandemic unleashes its devastating economic consequences the new Republican austerity position is likely to have catastrophic effects.
For the next four years Trump and his followers will inevitably claim that fraud must have played a role in his loss.
James Melville @JamesMelville 23:33 UTC · Nov 4, 2020
In the movie “Citizen Kane,” a tycoon runs for political office. In advance of the election result, his newspaper prepares two headlines after the election. One headline says: “Kane Elected” and the other says: “Fraud At Polls.”
This feels spookily prophetic today.
We have reasons to fear what is likely to evolve from this.
chinahand @chinahand - 15:12 UTC · Nov 4, 2020
Watching trumpers bringing the dolchstoss is nice support for my thesis "the dark energy of fascism will draw its power from trump's defeat not his victory"
The disputed election, the gigantic economic downturn and an aggressive foreign policy will pave the way for a more effective populist:
Make no mistake: The attempt to harness Trumpism—without Trump, but with calculated, refined, and smarter political talent—is coming. And it won’t be easy to make the next Trumpist a one-term president. He will not be so clumsy or vulnerable. He will get into office less by luck than by skill.
...
At the moment, the Democratic Party risks celebrating Trump’s loss and moving on—an acute danger, especially because many of its constituencies, the ones that drove Trump’s loss, are understandably tired. A political nap for a few years probably looks appealing to many who opposed Trump, but the real message of this election is not that Trump lost and Democrats triumphed. It’s that a weak and untalented politician lost, while the rest of his party has completely entrenched its power over every other branch of government: the perfect setup for a talented right-wing populist to sweep into office in 2024. And make no mistake: They’re all thinking about it.
While I would not have voted for Trump I rue what is following him.
Posted by b on November 7, 2020 at 12:18 UTC | Permalink
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"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com. 
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