Alexander Chopov, PhD
War in Ukraine – The Unreported Truth

…

Alexander Chopov, PhD is Director and Producer of a new YouTube Channel – War in Ukraine – the Unreported Truth. The purpose of the channel is to give the people of Donbass an English voice so they can be heard beyond Donbass. Dr. Chopov  has a double major in International Affairs from George Washington University, and a doctorate in political science from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. He interned in the US Congress,  and has lived in US for over 10 years studying both American mentality and politics. Chopov is an independent geopolitical analyst. He was a senior teacher at the Institute for Foreign Languages where is are of expertise was the theory and practice of interpreting. He makes his living as a DJ and producer of musical shows.  

Ramzy Baroud, PhD
Politics for the People

As I was growing up, I was always reassured by the sound of the ‘Muadhin’ making the call for prayer in our refugee camp’s main mosque in Gaza. Whenever I heard the call very early in the morning, announcing in a melodic voice that the time for the ‘Fajr’ (dawn) prayer was upon us, I knew it was safe to go to sleep.

Of course, the call for prayer in Islam, like the sound of church bells ringing, carries a deep religious and spiritual meaning, as it has, five times a day, for the last 15 centuries, uninterrupted. But, in Palestine, such religious traditions also carry a deep, symbolic meaning.

For the refugees in my camp, the dawn prayer meant that the Israeli army had departed the camp, ending their terrifying and violent nightly raids, leaving the refugees behind, either mourning their dead, wounded or detained, and freeing the ‘Muadhin’ to open the mosque’s old, rusty doors, and announce to the faithful that a new day had arrived.

It was almost impossible to go to sleep during those days of the First Palestinian Uprising, when collective punishment of Palestinian communities throughout the Occupied Territories crossed every tolerable line.

That was before the mosque in our camp – the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza Strip – was raided, along with other mosques, and the Imam was arrested. When the mosque’s doors were sealed shut by orders from the army, ordinary people climbed to the roofs of their homes during the military curfew and announced the call for prayer, anyway.

Even our ‘communist’ neighbor did – a man, we were told, who had never stepped foot inside a mosque all of his life!

It was no longer just a religious matter but an act of collective defiance, proving that even orders from the army would not silence the voice of the people.

The call for prayer meant continuity; survival; rebirth; hope and layer-upon-layer of meanings that was never truly understood, but always feared by the Israeli army.

Farouk mosque of an-Nuseirat Refugee Camp bombed in 2014

The onslaught on the mosques never ended.

According to government and media reports, a third of Gaza’s mosques were destroyed in the 2014 Israeli war on the Strip. 73 mosques were entirely destroyed by missiles and bombs and 205 were partially demolished. This includes Al-Omari Mosque in Gaza, which dates back to 649 AD.

It also includes the main mosque of Nuseirat, where the call for prayer throughout my childhood gave me enough peace and calm to go to sleep.

Now, Israel is trying to ban the call for prayer in various Palestinian communities, starting in Occupied East Jerusalem.

The ban came only a few weeks after the United Nations culture and education organization, UNESCO, had passed two resolutions condemning Israel’s illegal practices in the occupied Arab city.

UNESCO demanded that Israel ceases such practices, which violate international law and attempt to alter the status quo of a city that is central to all monotheistic religions.

After staging an unsuccessful campaign to counter the UN’s effort, going as far as accusing the international institution of anti-Semitism, Israeli officials are now carrying out punitive measures: collectively punishing the non-Jewish residents of Jerusalem for UNESCO’s verdicts.

This includes the construction of yet more illegal Jewish homes, the threat to demolish thousands of Arab homes, and, as of late, restricting the call for prayer in various mosques.

It all began on November 3, when a small crowd of settlers from the illegal settlement of Pisgat Zeev gathered in front of the home of Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barakat. They demanded that the government ends the ‘noise pollution’, emanating from the city’s mosques.

The ‘noise pollution’- referred to as such by mostly European settlers who arrived in Palestine only recently –  are the calls for prayer that have been made in that city since 637 AD, when Caliph Umar entered the city and ordered the respect of all of its inhabitants, regardless of their religious beliefs.

The Israeli mayor readily and immediately obliged. Wasting no time, Israeli soldiers began raiding mosques, including al-Rahman, al-Taybeh and al-Jamia Mosques in the Jerusalem town of Abu Dis.

“Military officials arrived before dawn to inform the muezzins, the men responsible for the call to prayer through the mosques’ public announcement speakers, of the ban and barred local Muslims from reaching the places of worship,” reported International Business Times, citing Ma’an and other media.

Praying five times a day is the second of the five main pillar in Islam, and the call for prayer is the summoning of Muslims to fulfill such a duty. It is also an essential part of Jerusalem’s intrinsic identity where church bells and mosques’ call to prayer often interweave into a harmonic reminder that coexistence is a real possibility.

But no such coexistence is possible with the Israeli army, government and mayor of the city treating Occupied Jerusalem as a platform for political vengeance and collective punishment.

Banning the call for prayer is merely a reminder of Israel’s domination over the wounded Holy City, and a message that Israel’s control exceeds that of tangible existence, into every other sphere.

Israel’s version of settler colonialism is almost unprecedented. It does not simply seek control, but complete supremacy.

When the mosque in my former refugee camp was destroyed, and soon after a few bodies were pulled out from underneath the wreckage to be buried, the camp’s residents prayed atop and around the rubble. This practice was replicated elsewhere in Gaza, not just during the last war, but the previous ones as well.

In Jerusalem, when Palestinians are prevented from reaching their holy places, they often amass behind Israeli army checkpoints and pray. That, too, has been a practice witnessed for nearly fifty years, since Jerusalem fell to the Israeli army.

No amount of coercion and court orders is likely to ever reverse this.

While Israel has the power to detain imams, demolish mosques and prevent calls for prayer, Palestinian faith has displayed far more impressive strength, for, somehow, Jerusalem never ceased calling upon its faithful, and the latter never ceased praying. For freedom, and for peace.

[Initial Photo: Checkpoint at Ramalah]

Ramzy Baroud, PhD

Has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include ‘Searching Jenin’, ‘The Second Palestinian Intifada’ and his latest ‘My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story’. His website is: www.ramzybaroud.net.

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[Graphic: Lost in toxic Bitland.]

=By= Mohsin Siddiqui

The US elections, much like the rest of our usual daily consumption of Mass Media, are more about stage managed theatre with bucket loads of Americanism, a seasoning of hyperbole and most certainly reality-free. The constant barrage of infotainment from the indispensable nation, the exceptional nation and the benign super power tells us of a distinct desire to consume information reality-free.

This informational GMO has permeated every facet of our existence and has infected the minds of billions around the world. It can be ridiculed, seen as inferior or even unsustainable. But do understand that it is the food for the liberal soul and it is a formidable force to be reckoned with.

Human beings drive the vast bulk of their understanding of the world through information either delivered directly via consumable media or indirectly via peer impressions, religion, anecdotes, fables and cultural norms. All of it ultimately centres on the flow of information which is a commodity that has been designed, refined, repackaged and is continually ‘improved’. Most of us underestimate the true awesome power of mass media, we read the statistics, the concentration of power and observe the echo chamber yet we still need to let it all sink in to truly grasp what it means.

Mass media is the encapsulation of the spectrum of information; From magazine to sports to history to business to politics, it is driven by a seamless thread of a philosophy guiding the ego & soul towards an atomised individualistic view of the world. It is an echo chamber that has not seen its parallel before on this planet, an organ to shape reality for the billions. A human being is a hodge-podge of history, culture, religion, philosophy, geography, epigenetics and a host of many more layers of information. Mass Media is the flute that organises this cacophony into a melody, and just like that a marionette of the modern man is born.

Resistance to the pied piper is possible but requires one to leave that womb of comfort that the information matrix provides with its legions of followers; That feeling of belonging, of being understood, of being ‘right’ and of being good. The strength can only come from reality but in our upside down world many are malnourished on the diet of GM information and it is not a problem for only Americans – who are severely affected – but instead it is a global phenomenon.

Successful entrepreneurs, businessmen, academics, financial experts, journalists, neighbours, friends, brothers, sisters and parents can all be entangled in the web of the information matrix.  Many of us have been at pains to explain the conflicts in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Ukraine and Yemen to our colleagues and friends but it is as if the words fall on deaf ears. The cognitive dissonance is heavy and the Teflon like value-matrix – a product of pre-packaged popularly accepted globalised values- lets all facts, figures and evidence that we present slip off. It is about the first woman president elect and not her war crimes, it is about the opposing camp saying that a racist, misogynist bigot is worse than a psychopathic mass murderer. It is inverted reality. It is full on dystopia.

Where do you begin to explain that elections are for the most part mere stage managed theatre? That the USA is an Empire of 1,000 military bases and not a country? That Obama the peace maker has incinerated civilians in 7 countries with impunity? That Hillary’s black lives did not matter for whole black Libyan towns that were extinguished? That President Asad’s Syria is LGBTQ friendly and the “Syrian revolution” that never was is the opposite? Or that it simply is not about personality politics, gay rights and black lives but is about a class struggle?

Moreover, how do you abstract further and talk about Imperialism with a populace that thinks that protesting with Soros funds -to the benefit of the imperial war machine- is inline with being a Communist/Marxist movement? How do you explain Imperialism when King Leopold II has his bust on display with a higher tally than that of Hitler?

A chasm in time it is and it is widening.

I have been speaking to friends of the past 20 years trying to give my view of what I feel is missing in the discourse;  Class struggle, how mass media works, what colour revolutions are, what imperialism is and how we ought to abandon personality politics. Our biggest obstacle is personality politics, and we are seen through that lens as arrogant bastards trying to educate Ivy League graduates, hedge fund managers, educated graduates and Silicon Valley success stories. How can we, the deplorable, know anything anyway?

After a recent exchange, a Rhodes Scholar quipped: “To put it succinctly, you are saying Trump is good for Russia. I think we kind of get that”. I did not know what to say, the Teflon value matrix had won again. Plato’s democratic man guards the citadel of his soul with vengeance.

Another highly educated and decorated researcher at a prestigious Ivy League university said “… under Obama our economy bounced back, unemployment went down, we didn’t start any major new wars” and ended his raving review by stating “Obama did a great job.” The painful part is coming to terms with a colonised mind; These educated men and women are the crème de la crème of their imperialism ravaged countries, the ones who proverbially “made it”.

Their world makes sense to them, the Mass Media might have shamed itself in our eyes and the veil might have been lifted for us. But for them their convictions have only strengthened and they have been wronged by the basket of deplorables.

Mohsin Siddiqui
Freethinker,blogger and peace activist

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/OlsenZiddigy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AugmentedEther

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Cartoon By: Vincenzo Apicella.

=By= Jimmie Moglia

“Men judge by the complexion of the sky, the state and inclination of the day.”

King Richard II

The apparent enthusiasm for Trump’s success in the US presidential elections is an event historically recurrent and humanly understandable. The wonderful vignette by the Italian artist Vincenzo Apicella perfectly illustrates it.

Even the famous horse, nominated senator by emperor Caligula, if installed into the “White” (oxymoron) House, would have produced similar externations – when compared to the ostensive alternative. The miasmas of rotten fruit are still preferable to the stench of a sewer. (“I do smell all horse-piss; at which my nose is in great indignation.”) (1)

The “protests” sprung here and there, when not paid and organized by some notorious NGOs, display and reflect an essential character of American politics. Namely, the ability to present to the world the charade of a conflict between apparently dissenting forces, which, when even cursorily examined, are essentially the same. It’s a case where, “… the weight of a hair will turn the scales between their avoirdupois.” (2)

What will happen is unpredictable, though not completely. For unusual, in these elections, was not so much the substance, but the colossal difference between the candidates’ personalities. So that their so called programs were assumed to be as different, though actually barely so and only on the surface.

That the debate among contenders should have centered on the uttered sexual aphorisms and past conduct of one of the candidates, is sufficient evidence of the thinness of the differences and the thickness of the similarities among their respective programs. As the Russian Foreign Minister amusingly observed, “There are too many pussies in these elections.”

Educated and indoctrinated to tolerate, when not to welcome, any deviance in sex, however revolting, the American people have accepted the spirit expressed by the lines,

“All this the world well knows, yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.”(3)

More importantly, and for reasons too long for a post, the accepted historical labels of “left” and “right” have undergone a shift comparable, in scope, to the slow inversion between the north and south magnetic fields of the earth. So that what was normally considered the left, now behaves as the historical right, and the historical right seems to take up the issues of the left.

Nothing strikingly new even here. Though under very different conditions, in the 1930s, the national socialist movement in Germany crushed the possibility of a socialist revolution by appropriating the instances of the working class. They lifted the spirits and economic conditions of the working class, inspiring them with instincts of greatness, via transference to nationalistic feelings.

For fascism is also the last stronghold of resistance by the bourgeoisie when threatened. Today the 1% is not threatened at all – the masses at large are too busy looking at their smartphones. But prudence suggests that the illusion of a forthcoming change is an effective way to prevent any change at all. Hence Trump.

Anyway, the situation in the US today is not that of Germany in the 1930s. Those who define themselves socialists, democrats or progressives, are, in reality, the long hand of economic hegemony, the alibi of raw power. And, when needed, they act as the operating shadow of the 1%, which rakes for itself all the current resources of the planet. As “progressives” they are the treasoners of progress,

“To say the truth, so Judas kiss’d his master;
And cried ‘all hail!’ whenas he meant all harm.” (4)

Therefore, the progressives’ association with power, and the reputation in their professions by means of prestigious titles and assignments, depend directly on their ability to confound and deceive. Deception needed to better perform social massacres, to hide the concentration of power and to prevent access to those who do not belong to the coterie. These resisters, assuming they exist – which is by no means certain – may seem a danger to the status-quo and to that opaque network, which constitutes the global government.

Consequently, what better means than to stage a remarkable show of great differences between the ‘republican’ and ‘democrat’ candidates. Including the ridiculous claims of statistical polls giving a 99% victory to the woman whose sole name blisters my tongue. (5) Polls conducted, for example, by nonetheless than the Princeton University – the undisputed world champion of IQ. For the conclusions are clear. Either they are fools, or behind those unbelievable polls there is something more sinister. I believe the latter to be the case. For

“Folly in fools bears not so strong a note,
As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote.” (6)

Equally ridiculous were the claims that Russia acted and plotted to subvert a certain victory by the simulacra of a woman, and other similar absurdities (more descriptive is the French word “boutades”).

In America and elsewhere, no one can effect any change without radically transforming the current development model and challenging some presently untouchable assumptions.

The environmental problems, for example, are a direct result of the extant, sanctioned and undisputed development model, which also includes the unquestioned exponential explosion of world population. By the time when any of my twenty-five readers will finish reading this short article, there will be 2,000 more humans on earth.

Population growth is a national and global security issue. But discussing a curb on population growth is forbidden.

Shelter, health care, food and water for all are the goals of an egalitarian society. But such egalitarian world cannot coexist with endless growth and unbridled population explosion. Being a reality too painful to admit, the alternatives are ignored.

In this the Roman Catholic Church, though not the only important opposition to a population growth debate, is the most significant. Its unsurpassed ability to pander to power and condition it, will prevent any change. The snap-shot shown here is worth thousand words.

Given the links between population explosion and environmental consequences, the so-called agreements on climate are a compromise between the will to change nothing and the necessity of appearing to do something – a perfect example of the politically correct applied at large.

Trump says he does not believe that humans cause climate change. Some are already scandalized, but, in the context of reality, that belief is irrelevant. The US never signed the so-called Kyoto agreement. Besides, notwithstanding his concern for the environment, Obama will also be notoriously remembered as the fracking president. If the data is correct, 17 million Americans live within one mile of a fracking station, with all the pleasant consequences of undrinkable water and diseases directly or indirectly attributable to fracking pollution.

As for the wall with Mexico, it already exists. Trump’s revamped or extended wall, as Italian journalist Fulvio Grimaldi wrote, is an instrumental proposition to soothe the anguish of people whose jobs were hijacked by corporations and transferred to underpaid and exploited Central American men and women. And whose house was lost thanks to banks too big to fail and bankers too big to jail. The same reasoning applies to the drugs, liberally imported through Mexico, along with the refugees who escape from the neo-liberal policies imposed by Washington’s governing puppets in their countries of origin.

The difference between Clinton’s advocated “Open borders from Alaska to Argentina” and Trump’s chimeric wall is one of degrees, not substance. We are a long way away, ideologically and practically, from pulling the chain and freeing the world, and the toilet, from its neo-liberal encumbrance.

Other symptoms show that there is no meaningful difference between the candidates’ programs. Upon the announcement of the results of the election, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an article stating, “The election (of Trump) marked the greatest victory and validation for anti-Semitism in America since 1941.”

So much so that, among the first Trump’s pronouncements on the subject was the sanctioning of the transfer of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – perhaps the last humiliation for the Palestinians, subjected to genocide, apartheid and theft of their land. While, concurrently, the Trump camp made it known that the expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestine “is not a concern” for the new administration. The Zionist grip on the fabric of America is unquestionable, unchallenged and untouchable. And America has contributed to the Zionist cause with much more than the pound of flesh requested by the Merchant of Venice.

Trump’s victory was hailed by his supporters chanting “U S A! U S A!” Which has a curious resonant ring with “Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.” And we know what that chant led to.

“We will make America great!” says Trump. I do not remember any president saying anything different. All who did, perhaps with the exception of Carter, meant more arms, more “defense spending”, more military, more wars and more exceptionalism, whatever that means.

Trump is an oligarch, skilled in negotiations, recantations, deals and double deals. As XIX century French novelist pointed out, “Behind every great fortune, there is a great crime.” The other oligarchs will allow him the cosmetics of success, as long as there is no threat of change.

For it was the unfathomable depth of degradation of a Clinton that created a Trump. Expect within weeks, if not days, the transformation of the fiercest Clintonites into reformed Trumpists.

All in all, to paraphrase Mark Twain, “The death of Obamo-Clintonism was greatly exaggerated.” Feel free to “give me ten thousand eyes, and I will fill them with prophetic tears.” (7)

For, in the end, all we can realistically do is to watch,
“Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out;
And take upon’s the mystery of things…” (8)

until someone will come up with better explanations.

Opening quote. King Richard queries Lord Scroop on the expected reinforcements of the Duke of York, needed to fight the usurping Bolingbroke. But York himself has defected to Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV.

1. The Tempest
2. King Henry IV, p2
3. Sonnet 129
4. K. Henty VI, p3
5. Macbeth
6. Love’s Labours Lost
7. Troilus and Cressida
8. King Lear.

Image source. Vincenzo Apicella (vignette).
Publicly available pictures (Cardinal Dolan between Clinton and Trump)

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[Graphic: Historical cartoon. From WCHS History online.]

=By= Joseph Waters

The first thing that comes to mind is a sense of déjà vu that we’ve all been through something remarkably similar to this before – like in 2008. Now we get to experience hope and change Republican-style. Eight years ago the liberals were euphoric while conservatives were fuming; now we have the reverse situation.

Myth #1: Trump isn’t really Republican – To which I reply: Did he run as a Republican? Yes? Then he’s a Republican. That was easy. Let’s move on.

Myth #2: Trump is anti-establishment – This shows an incredible degree of political ignorance. In the American mind, there is a “political class” and “media class” and a multitude of other communities, groups, special interests, genders, minorities, etc., etc., that are seen and treated as distinct, apart, and often at odds with one another. One group that is singled out for extraordinary persecution is the lowly businessman. You see, big government, those fat cat politicians and union bosses, enrich themselves at the expense of the humble businessman simply trying to make an honest buck to scrape by while providing for his children (and employees). The reality, of course, is that the big businessman (like Trump) and the big government politicos are old pals – they are even the same people. They are part of the same group, the same ruling class. In a similar way, in medieval times, if you took a superficial look at European feudal society you might conclude that there was an aristocratic class and an ecclesiastical class, when in reality they were part of a single ruling class; according to the feudal law of primogeniture, the first-born son would inherit the entire estate while the second sons would often enter the priesthood.

At any rate, Trump has been involved in politics before. He has funded and lobbied politicians and participated in propaganda and political operations; now he has just decided to become a politician for a short while. He has apparently flirted with the idea of running for president since the 80’s. Many capitalists do this and then go back to the so-called private sector; they may go back and forth because it can be boring just doing the same thing all the time. Regardless, the private businessman will engage in political activism through lobbying, running an NGO, and assisting the CIA in their covert operations (including espionage, propaganda, economic sanctions, assassination, coups, etc.) by providing funding, technical expertise and agent cover through their corporations. The point is: There is no wall dividing up the private and public sectors. All those ruling class members are in the same club, they play for the same team and they are cut from the same cloth. Even the playboys and jet-setters are expected to kick in once in a while and assist in ensuring that their class, the ruling class, remains the ruling class.

Myth #3: The system works. The people have spoken! – The power elite of the ruling class outflanked a lot of us with this caper. By appointing Trump president they were able to show the world that democracy and pluralism work. They were able to make a liar out of all of us, including Julian Assange of Wikileaks who proclaimed that “Trump would not be allowed to win.” I believe it is quite possible the power elite (through the CIA) decided it was wiser to let the under(funded)dog win since over 90% of elections are won by the candidate with the most money. Hillary raised over twice as much money as Trump did. The message is that big money cannot always have its way and the little guy is beginning to assert some control over the government. Just keep voting and everything will be fine. The system works. Our democracy is safe and sound. On the contrary, the vote very likely was rigged in favor of Donald Trump according to investigative journalist Greg Palast and professor Mark Crispin Miller, who has studied voter suppression and election fraud tactics. According to Dr. Miller, when the exit polls differ widely from the election outcome, this is not likely to be evidence of bad polling methods, but rather proof that the vote tallies were tampered with. My own feeling is that when it comes to a question between whether the elites and their agents are mistaken or incompetent or whether they are corrupt and duplicitous, I think that without compelling evidence to the contrary, it is safer to assume the latter possibility.

Unfortunately, in their analyses these two gentlemen seem to lean toward the ridiculous notion that the mean ol’ Republicans are stealing elections from the timid and perpetually bullied Democrats. The two parties may represent different factions in the capitalist one-party state, but they certainly seem to collude (especially toward the top) a lot more than they compete. For instance, how often have you heard a politico refer to his or her “friends across the aisle?” When they are no longer in front of the cameras, they go back to being quite chummy.

I speculate that the CIA is deeply embedded within the DNC and GOP and allows the two parties to vie for its affection and may tip the balance for one or the other if it has a clear preference. Actually, we should probably have seen this coming. For one thing, following the pattern of the last few decades, it is the Republican party’s turn to represent the capitalist ruling class in government. Also, as indicated earlier, a Trump “win” turned out to be the best mechanism for keeping the masses fired up and most starkly divided. If Hillary had won, then you would have outraged conservatives with a lukewarm, perhaps relatively content batch of liberals and everyone else. Due to the fixed outcome for Trump, again, you have euphoric conservatives and irate liberals; it’s a win-win!

Myth #4: The (liberal) media favored Hillary. – The teenage daughter that is the American people succumbed to reverse psychology and ran into the arms of the bad boy Donald Trump. Trump received over $5 billion in free advertising from the MSM during his campaign according to Lee Camp of Redacted Tonight (twice as much as Clinton). Trump got 23x as much coverage as Bernie Sanders, by the way. In fact, if you tally up the value of free advertising Trump received (remembering that there is no such thing as bad publicity – especially when it comes to Trump) the maxim remains true that the candidate with the most money wins!

Myth #5: Trump will end all the wars and imperialist aggression! – I see no evidence for this beyond Trump’s rhetoric. The important question to ask is why Trump and his supporters are against foreign wars. The why is very, very important in determining how likely it is that the US will turn away from its quest for global domination. The answer to the question “why” seems to be that the wars are “stupid” or “too expensive.” I for one do not find this to be reassuring; this is not a very moral, progressive or principled stance to take. All that is needed is another Gulf of Tonkin or 9/11 type provocation or false flag attack and, well, President Trump’s hands will be tied; he will have to act to defend America!

Having dealt with several Trump myths, I would like to make a few more observations. The conflation by the media of the far left with the far right and all manifestations of “extremism” has been with us for a long time, but now Trump has become the “pied piper” for all these folks. The ruling class strategists have painted these contrasting ideologies with the same wide brush. Once it was forbidden to speak of the working class because of the Marxist connotations of the term, but now the media propagandists are happy to talk about a white working class in the context of how reactionary they are claimed to be. Sadly, there is some truth to this because the white working class has been reared to be white supremacist; this is enormously helpful for purposes of divide and rule. The bourgeois ruling class would love to encourage and exacerbate this racial division.

Also, I think there is another dangerous and disturbing possibility that we must consider, and it is that the Trump rapprochement with Russia could be a CIA/ruling class ploy to drive a wedge between Russia and China – that powerful alliance is the greatest threat to their plans for global domination.

Finally, in a bizarre twist, many supposed leftists are proclaiming a victory for the people with this Trumpocalypse. This is a strange and dangerous development and has no basis in reality. I really hope I’m wrong and that Trump stops the wars and defies the ruling class in its quest for world domination, but I’m not at all optimistic about that eventuality. We need to keep asking questions, retain a healthy skepticism, apply a Marxist analysis to events and not get suckered by a massive CIA propaganda/psyop/political operation.

Joseph Waters is a highly respected political activist. He operates the blog, Proletarian Center for Research, Education and Culture (Prole Center).

Hillary with Donald and his oldest sons. Old friends?

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