EDITOR—ERIC ZUESSE provides a thorough backdrop for the Trump policy choices, one worse than the next, all of them certifiable 100% swamp creatures, noxious imperial figures trading in fake patriotism that should have been retired a long time ago. ||| ACTIVE MEASURES editors examine some of the people already nominated and being considered for key posts in Trump’s cabinet. |||. THE GRAYZONE Max Blumenthal and Wyatt Reed discuss the shocking psy-op that ensued in Amsterdam, where Israeli football hooligans instigated violence, then played victims of a pogrom, then Anya Parampil joins to discuss Trump’s re-election and the sordid history of his top foreign policy picks. So we go from sneaky and utterly hypocritical liberal totalitarianism to batshit corrupt war hawks and fascistoid chauvinists. ||| RBN’s Nick Cruse comments on the pathetic choices hitherto made by Trump, confirming the man’s severe lack of historical depth and opportunism. ||| DUE DISSIDENCE team provides a rich discussion on the Trump incoming cabinet and what that portends for a nation batered by division, insoluble problems and stunning misleadership.
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ERIC ZUESSE—Because I am and always have been a progressive, I’ve always been strongly opposed to the post-Abraham-Lincoln Republican Party, which has always represented ONLY America’s wealthiest, against everybody else; but, as an investigative historian I have also come to recognize that ever since 25 July 1945, the Democratic Party — just like the Republican Party — is LIKEWISE representing ONLY the billionaires, who are united in placing as their #1 priority the creation and universal expansion of the U.S. empire, which started on that date and has been expanding ever since, though nowadays there is no other empire on this planet, and though the hundreds of trillions of U.S. dollars that have been spent on this imperial expansion (by means of subversions, sanctions, coups, and outright military invasions) have benefitted ONLY that richest 1% of the richest 1% of Americans.
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DANNY HAIPHONG—U.S. Marine Corps Officer Scott Ritter SHATTERS the myth of Israel’s superiority in a scathing analysis of its ongoing war on Iran and Hezbollah. Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern also joined the show to discuss how Israel with U.S. help is digging itself deeper into the abyss as the IDF loses on all fronts.
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EDITORS—Nima and Prof. Marandi explore the potential for improvement or rapid degradation of the situation in the Middle East and beyond, depending on how Donald Trump and his likely cabinet of Neocons decide to play their cards. Iran’s rapid development of advanced weapons capable of neutralising the West and Israel itself, have changed the equation in West Asia, and rendered much of America’s global strategic power virtually dubious if not obsolete. Besides, Israel’s intransigence leaves little room for manoeuvring, and Tehran may be forced to act.
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STANSFIELD SMITH—“Compatible left” was a term used by the CIA to describe those on the left it has deemed compatible with maintaining imperialist world rule. This left has dominated the US left since the end of World War II, in large part a result of government operations repressing the communist or anti-imperialist left. Historically, this compatible left that the CIA worked to cultivate rejects actually existing socialism and formed a “third camp” or “plague on both houses” left between capitalist and socialist countries. Providing a “respectable” alternative to the anti-imperialists, it used its progressive flavor to lure in radical youth, activists, workers, and intellectuals.
The CIA is correctly seen as a ruthless organization that overthrows democratic governments considered a threat to US domination. But this overlooks the CIA’s “gentler” work: underwriting and encouraging a compatible left, one which looks to the Democratic Party for political leadership. The CIA has secretly funded and managed a wide range of these groups and individuals.
