GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush has some “‘splainin to do” over his knowledge of the 1979-80 operations by his father’s loyalists within the Central Intelligence Agency to deny President Jimmy Carter a second term by ensuring Iran maintained custody of the U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran until after the November 1980 presidential election. Continue reading
In a political field of Republican assholes who represent billionaires and love Israel, Donald Trump stands out because he is an asshole who is a billionaire and loves Israel. He is also outspoken in ways unfamiliar to his more conventional opponents who must always be suck-ups to wealth and power, while he is the wealth and power they suck-up to, under normal circumstances. But the reaction to him by what passes for established intelligentsia tells us more about where we are as a nation than the near imbecile candidates themselves. Treating this campaign as something different because the field is overrun with assholes, only one of them seeming unique, means that the critics have somehow missed all campaigns and debates for the entire television age. Continue reading
During the recent Republican presidential candidates’ “debate” in Cleveland, former Florida Governor John Ellis Bush (JEB) wanted to recount his eight years as governor of the Sunshine State. However, it is not Bush the politician who should be of interest to voters but Bush the Central Intelligence Agency “non-official cover” banker in Venezuela and Miami-based real estate businessman/money launderer who should alarm the American electorate. While Jeb’s brother, George W. Bush, glossed over his AWOL status with the Texas Air National Guard, Jeb does not have a military record to defend but he does have a CIA employment record to fess up to. Continue reading
Wishful thinking can come in many shapes and sizes, but history and present reality do readily tell us that Bernie Sanders is more likely to walk among us during the early stage of the presidential campaign as a prophet than as a messiah. And that is not such a bad thing, for martyrdom always seems to take place as precursor to major change; and this resolute honest New Yorker representing Vermont appears poised to bring inspirational change in the much-needed political transformation of American society. Continue reading
WMR has obtained a copy of a letter sent to the Central Intelligence Agency by Jeb Bush when he served as the top official of Texas Commerce Bank in Caracas, Venezuela. On April 8, 2015, WMR first reported on the possibility that Bush, a recent college graduate, may have served as a CIA “non-official cover” (NOC) agent in Venezuela. The revelation about Bush’s past links to the CIA comes two days before his expected announcement in Miami that he is a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Continue reading
Former Florida Governor and 2016 presidential hopeful Jeb Bush may have thought he could pass himself off as “Hispanic” when he ticked off that ethnic option on his 2009 voter registration form but he was not able to easily pass himself off as a “banker” in Venezuela in the late 1970s. Continue reading
According to a new study from Princeton University, American democracy no longer exists. Using data from over 1,800 policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page concluded that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of—or even against—the will of the majority of voters. America’s political system has transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where power is wielded by wealthy elites. Continue reading
Four years ago Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga rebirthed the musical-cicada of the 1937 song, “The Lady Is a Tramp” . . . which makes me think that maybe we could be facing in 2016 a reenactment of the 1968 presidential election, this time Donald Trump taking the role of George Wallace; a political musical that could appropriately be given the lyrical title, “The Politician Is a Trump.” Continue reading
For a long time now, American political consultants have benefited from a lucrative sideline, selling their alleged expertise to politicians in Israel. (It was Democratic strategist James Carville who, after working on a campaign for former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, joked that the key to victory in Israel was who won “that all-important Jewish vote.”) Continue reading
Imagine if an American presidential candidate made a plea to his supporters on election day with the following statement: “The Republican administration is in danger. Black voters are going en masse to the polls. Liberal NGOs are bringing them on buses.” Continue reading
There are thousands of US citizens who could do a better job as president than either one of these two, but they can never have a chance because of not being related to previous presidents, or other types of politicians or public figures giving them recognition, connections and inside information. Continue reading
Do away with elections? To even think such a thought is treasonous. An election, or should I say a presidential election, is one of the few occasions, or should I say the only occasion, on which we take a genuine interest in government. We are spectators at a sporting event, a mix of a bullfight, prizefight and a barroom brawl. We get into heated arguments about which team is “better” about who deserves to win, about which gladiator will be the best for the country. There is an uppercut, a right cross, a roundhouse and he or she (not too often) is down for the count. No, he is not out. He is on his knees, struggling to his feet. The crowd roars. Continue reading
Propaganda works. Israelis got the best electoral results fear-mongering can sell. Continue reading
What is one to make of the fact that SYRIZA, a progressive party with socialist values, formed a government with Independent Greeks (AN.EL), a populist right-wing party that opposed immigration and was accused of racism? Has it gone mad? Betrayed its initial promises? Continue reading
An anecdote: in our travels through Greece in the 1980s, our daughter suffered from car-motion sickness. She wrote in her diary: “We left Delphi, and I felt sick. Mom stuffed me with bread, and I threw up. Dad told me a Greek tragedy, and I felt better.” She was twelve but understood catharsis. Continue reading
Europe is stunned, and bankers aghast, that polls show the new party of the Left, Syriza, will win Greece’s parliamentary elections to be held this coming Sunday, January 25. Continue reading
In the US, a Western democracy with a population of 316 million, it’s astonishing that whenever there’s a presidential election in the offing, the same old familiar names are trotted out time and time again. And when one of them has a dynastic ring about it, the American public hardly blinks. Can it be mere happenstance of fate that candidates have been plucked from a handful of mega-wealthy establishment families more often than not? Continue reading
For decades the working stiff has looked to the Democratic Party for salvation and protection from the Republican Party. And, let’s face it, we do need protection from a party that has claimed the rich and famous as its constituents. Continue reading
Glenn Greenwald has revealed that Hillary Clinton is the presidential candidate of the banksters and warmongers. Pam and Russ Martens note that Elizabeth Warren is the populist alternative. I doubt that a politician who represents the people can acquire the campaign funds needed to run a campaign. If Warren becomes a threat, the Establishment will frame her with bogus charges and move her aside. Continue reading
Every two years, the deck chairs rearrange on the Titanic known as American democracy, as it continues to head towards certain disaster. The 2014 midterm election was another harbinger of calamity. Continue reading
Since the Bush-Cheney-Rove theft of the 2000 election in Florida, the right of millions of American citizens to vote and have that vote counted has been under constant assault. Continue reading
The GOP/corporate coup d’état is nearly complete. Continue reading
Ignore scoundrel media who won, who lost horserace rubbish. US electoral politics is too debauched to fix. Big money corrupts it. Continue reading
Obama reacted as expected. He “congratulated the people of Ukraine on holding successful parliamentary elections . . .” Continue reading
So-called Ukrainian democracy is pure fantasy. Tyranny masquerading as rule by the people. Continue reading
Our country’s oldest and longest struggle has been to enlarge democracy by making it possible for more and more people to be treated equally at the polls. The right to participate in choosing our representatives—to vote—is the very right that inflamed the American colonies and marched us toward revolution and independence. Continue reading
I receive a continuous stream of emails from “progressive” organizations asking me to vote for Senator Franken or contribute to his re-election campaign this November, and I don’t even live in Minnesota. Even if I could vote for him, I wouldn’t. No one who was a supporter of the war in Iraq will get my vote unless they unequivocally renounce that support. And I don’t mean renounce it like Hillary Clinton’s nonsense about not having known enough. Continue reading
When the Citizens United decision came down in 2010, many feared the Supreme Court had unleashed vast and unfettered campaign contributions from corporations bent on tightening their hammerlock on government and politics. Continue reading
(WMR)—After the corporate media and the CIA and George Soros manipulators tried to engineer Green Party-turned-Brazilian Socialist presidential candidate Marina Silva into the Brazilian presidency after the classic CIA textbook aerial assassination of Socialist Party presidential standard bearer Eduardo Campos, these same forces are at it again on behalf of Social Democratic Party candidate Aecio Neves. Neves finished second ahead of Silva, who came in third, in the first-round of the Brazilian presidential election that has seen the CIA, Soros, and the other agents of Wall Street try every trick in the book to ensure that President Dilma Rousseff fails to win a second term. Continue reading
“Gov. Tom Corbett, who claims he opposes legalization of marijuana, was seen behind a barn smoking weed. Just a-puffin’ and a-grinnin.’” Continue reading
Go to dictionary.com and enter—never mind. Just click this to see a new synonym for voting, the word juggernaut. Continue reading
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Politicians show their gratitude where it count$
Posted on October 9, 2014 by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart, a poet wrote, and as this year’s summer winds toward its end and elections approach, gratitude is indeed what our politicians have flowing from that space where their hearts should be. Continue reading →