The Fat Lady Takes the Stage

I’m not ashamed to admit I voted for Donald Trump. There was really no choice; you knew exactly what you were getting with the Queen of Corruption Hillary Clinton. Gary Johnson was an awful Libertarian candidate, and Jill Stein didn’t have the slightest possibility of winning. Besides, I’ve been voting for Third Party candidates for decades. None of the Ralph Naders, Pat Buchanans, and Lyndon Larouches ever had a chance. I was tired of casting protest ballots that probably weren’t even honestly counted.

With the appointment of perhaps the most unstable of all the neocon war hawks, John Bolton, as National Security Adviser, and the signing of one of the worst spending bills imaginable, Donald Trump has not only spit in his supporters’ faces; he has thrown them to the ground and kicked them repeatedly in the head. The fact that he still has any support after the continuous betrayals of his base speaks volumes for how stupid and gullible most Americans have become.

What makes the Bolton choice even more inexcusable is the fact that a National Security Adviser doesn’t need to be approved by Congress. So this is certainly a position where someone promising to “drain the swamp” would insert a true outsider. Just imagine a Ron Paul, or a Pat Buchanan, or a Paul Craig Roberts, or a renegade Democrat like Dennis Kucinich, in that spot, advising Trump on matters of national security.

The monstrosity of a spending bill that our tweeter-in-chief signed contains a nice pay raise for members of Congress. As with most recent important legislation, it was over 2000 pages long and none of the “representatives” voting on it bothered to read it. With our country literally falling apart at the seams, our leaders respond by cutting taxes on corporations and the wealthiest individuals in the country, and now by giving those most responsible for the sorry condition we’ve devolved into, a nice fat pay raise. This is truly the kind of in-your-face corruption Americans have become immune to. Perhaps we’re comfortable with it. Perhaps we’re cool with being a Third World nation.

Exactly how blatant does it have to be for Americans to understand that they have no political representation? Just as some 95% or more of Americans opposed the banker bailout, while our two “choices” for president and the congressional leadership of both “competing” parties supported it, I’d venture that 99% of Americans would be adamantly opposed to a pay raise for our putrid “representatives.” And yet it happens, as it always does. Business as usual. Pop open another beer and turn on the television set.

I remember in the early 1990s, when the “Clean House, and Senate Too” campaign to throw out the bums in Congress failed so miserably. More than 90% of incumbents invariably win re-election. It doesn’t really matter whether that’s because of massive voting fraud (which we know exists, and certainly doesn’t come courtesy of Russia), or because Americans are simply so stupid they can’t help themselves from returning corrupt buffoons like Lindsay Graham, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi and Paul Ryan to office.

Every time you vote to return your congressional “representative” to office, you’re giving a thumb’s up to the job they’re doing. Evidently, the majority of Americans approve of perpetual, senseless wars, bombings and occupations, of massive military budgets that always include secret amounts for our twisted intelligence agencies and must always be increased, of foreign aid that seems to come with more empathy and compassion than we have for our own struggling poor, while absolutely ignoring our own crumbling, embarrassing infrastructure.

Donald Trump said some revolutionary things during his presidential campaign. He talked about ending the pointless wars that have cost us trillions, which he noted could have been used to rebuild America’s pathetic roads, bridges and airports several times over. He talked of auditing the Fed, and supposedly tapped Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head a special commission investigating the links between vaccines and autism. He exposed the fraudulent nature of the publicly reported “unemployment” rate, which only includes those presently getting benefits.

Trump lashed out at NAFTA and our other disastrous trade deals. He criticized our laughable mainstream media, and coined the now common term “fake news.” And for the first time in decades, we had a powerful political figure saying we had to do something about our immigration policy, and he even talked of deportations.

For all of his incredibly controversial remarks, Donald Trump became public enemy number one in the eyes of the establishment press, as well as virtually all the leaders in both “competing” political parties. No one outside of Adolph Hitler has ever endured the constant lambasting that he has from 99% of the entertainment world, and every major media outlet. Celebrities feel free to threaten him, and there have been public suggestions that he be assassinated. Half the country built up a hatred for him that conjured up visions of the character Goldstein in Orwell’s 1984.

But Trump began governing like a typical Stupid Party neocon Republican the moment he entered office. Well, actually before, when he lost an incalculable number of votes by picking lame evangelical-type Mike Pence as Vice President. He quickly called Hillary Clinton a “good person,” and would go on to say that while he had regularly blasted globalism during his “America First” campaign, he was now both a nationalist and a globalist. And his initial choices for cabinet members could all have fit comfortably into a Jeb Bush administration.

When Trump inexplicably bombed Syria, and then bombed Afghanistan again for good measure, his base should have jumped off the bandwagon. When he started saying he wanted to be compassionate to the “dreamers” and pushed hard for a DACA bill when even the Democrats were reluctant, we should have known it was over. He has signed things and then criticized them. Fittingly, after signing this omnibus spending bill, Trump referred to it as “ridiculous.” He also, in his typical belated response to the predictable outrage from his supporters, said that he would “never do it again.”

Trump has not only had a tremendously divisive effect on the country, he has splintered the alternative, conspiracy world into pieces.  Alex Jones was the most recognizable independent voice outside the mainstream media, but he has changed his tone considerably, and blindly supports everything Trump does. Incredibly, Roger Stone is even a bigger Trump fan. He applauded the selection of John Bolton, for instance. When I think that Roger Stone wrote the Foreword to the paperback edition of my book Hidden History, I recall again just how deep these rabbit holes seem to be.

As those who remain “awake” out there like to point out, no swamp member has been arrested since Trump entered the Oval Office. He waved off the chants of “Lock her up” after he’d been elected, and his Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from seemingly everything. Except strengthening law enforcement’s power to unconstitutionally steal personal property under asset forfeiture laws, and going after pot smokers, that is. Is that why we elected Donald Trump, to reinvigorate the totally failed drug war?

It seems highly unlikely that Donald Trump could be reelected. But the Democrats will undoubtedly nominate the most politically correct, social justice warrior they can, so anything is possible. Maybe a Trump vs. Oprah, or a Trump vs. the Rock presidential campaign is just what the Idiocracy needs to fully cement itself into place. The fact that these are the best America can come up with to lead them, and the people- the vast majority of them unemployed, or living paycheck to paycheck and sinking into poverty- are okay with it, tells you all you need to know about what the conspiracy crowd calls America 2.0.

America 1.0., with all its corruption and inequity, was a paradise compared to the mess our leaders have all but completed constructing. We’re getting fatter and unhealthier, thanks to constant stress induced by poor leadership, and a diet of polluted water and foods laced with GMOs and unnecessary artificial preservatives and additives. We keep giving more power to out of control police forces who, according to a 1981 Supreme Court decision, have no duty to protect us. They do, however, have a duty to meet their monthly ticket quotas and harass us.

I said at the time that Donald Trump, as blustery and arrogant as he was, represented our last hope. In political terms, his election was our last chance to turn the tide, and stop America 2.0 from becoming a permanent reality. It’s sad to have to admit that our last hope is gone. No one in a white hat is riding in to rescue us.

The fat lady has cleared her throat and is getting ready to sing.

Seth Rich and Our Free Press

A few days ago, a Republican lobbyist who was investigating the still unsolved shooting of young Democratic Party staffer Seth Rich, was shot in the back twice. For good measure, in the best Hollywood/organized crime style, he was also run over by a car.

The coverage of this incident by the mainstream media was predictable. A Washington Post story was full of absurd references to the conservative victim Jack Burkman’s opposition to NFL players kneeling for the national anthem and his work raising money for a former convicted Trump campaign official who pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI. For those of you not keeping score, this is the now pure and sacred FBI, not the one run for decades by drooling crossdresser J. Edgar Hoover.

A free and independent press would have been all over the Seth Rich story the minute he was shot in a “botched robbery” where nothing was stolen. This evoked memories of the Starbucks slayings during the conspiracy-crazed Clinton years, where again nothing was stolen during that “botched robbery.” Only our “journalists” could refer to these crimes that way. But then again, Jack Burkman has been referred to as a “controversial” investigator into the Rich murder. Yeah, I guess a group that refuses to investigate anything would have that kind of perspective.

Keep in mind, “conspiracy theorists” like me look at the Seth Rich case and see an obvious political hit. But since we’re “conspiracy theorists,” the establishment just kind of chuckles and returns to their insipid regular programming. Julian Assange has all but identified Rich as the person who leaked those incriminating documents about the DNC- you know, the ones our “journalists” treated like an infectious disease, to be avoided at all costs. Their only concern was exposing the leaker.

Add to this the fact that Burkman had been attacked in January by a masked man who hit him with pepper spray, and you have the trappings of conspiracy that even the most naive moviegoers could recognize in the first reel. But to our mainstream media, it’s “controversial” or perhaps even “hateful” to even ask these questions.

Some months ago, Fox News aired one of their extremely rare investigative pieces, hosted by Sean Hannity, that revealed just a fraction of the inconsistencies in this crucial case. Incredibly, Seth Rich’s family was outraged over someone questioning the circumstances surrounding their loved one’s death, and the network was forced to retract their story. Now, the family has actually launched a lawsuit against Fox News. Evidently, it’s much better not knowing who killed Seth Rich, or why, and anyone outside of controlled law enforcement who questions that is causing them “pain and suffering” and needs to be sued.

Seth Rich’s family is following in a long, unfortunate tradition. The families of deep state victims like Gary Webb and Michael Hastings also resented anyone uncovering the dubious official stories behind their deaths. None of these victims of tragedies seem to like “conspiracy theorists” showing up and upsetting the neat little apple cart constructed by our perpetually corrupt political leaders and the sycophantic “journalists” who do little more than pass along the demonstrable impossibilities from official spokespersons in these cases.

The Kennedy family probably set the precedent here. Jacqueline Kennedy’s curious “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude towards the subject of her husband’s assassination cowed the press even further into submission. Caroline Kennedy, to this day, kind of grimaces at the word assassination, as if she could possibly still be grieving over something that happened when she was six years old. Her brother John Jr., on the other hand, had a lifelong quest to expose the true murderers of his father, which I first revealed in my book Hidden History.

But even JFK, Jr. kept his doubts, and his obsession, private. While Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. did publicly express his doubts about the official narratives of both Kennedy assassinations, he hasn’t made it a top priority issue. Caroline Kennedy even handed out a Profile in Courage Award years ago to Gerald Ford. Yeah, that Gerald Ford- the member of the Warren Commission who belatedly admitted to simply moving up the wound location in JFK’s back in order to make the single bullet theory a bit less impossible.

Compare all these incomprehensible attitudes to the way the family of Martin Luther King responded to his assassination. The King children- particularly son Dexter- met with accused assassin James Earl Ray and publicly stated that they believed he was innocent. Coretta Scott King, at an advanced age, even made the effort to testify personally for Ray during his attempt to get a new trial. Unlike the families of Rich, Hastings, and the various Kennedy victims, the King family represented true profiles in courage.

When things like the murder of Seth Rich happen, and the evidence is so clear that foul play involving powerful forces was involved, a free people would know about it. The politicians who are supposed to represent their interests would demand answers. The media organs and their investigative reporters would want to tackle such a juicy story. But we don’t have political representation. We do have taxation, however. Patrick Henry once made a prescient comment about that situation.

As for our media, they have proven conclusively, especially since November 22, 1963, that they are nothing more than mouthpieces for a very, very corrupt state. At least the Soviets, when they were subject to the “reporting” of Tass or Pravda, understood clearly that it was state propaganda. A large percentage of Americans don’t seem to comprehend what those Soviets did, as they watch CNN or one of the major networks, read The New York Times, or tune in to one of the myriad of identical late night talk shows.

Hatred of Donald Trump has turned good people into gullible tools of our corrupt elite. They have swallowed wholeheartedly the most ridiculous conspiracy theory in the history of the world. They now totally accept that our systemic corruption is due to the influence of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. In doing so, they side with intelligence agencies like the FBI and CIA, that have been exposed as thoroughly corrupt by writers like myself and numerous others.

This conspiracy theory managed to turn the Wikileaks documented effort by the DNC to steal the Democratic nomination from Bernie Sanders, into some sort of “collusion” by the Russians to get the dreaded Trump elected. Sanders himself appears to buy this, when he was the primary victim of chicanery. Under this theory, any criticism of Hillary Clinton, even the nickname “Crooked Hillary,” came courtesy of the Russians, not because of her lifelong record of absolute corruption.

Everyone now labels any news they don’t like as “fake news.” Snopes- the trusty husband and wife establishment duo online- is always there to “debunk” any allegations of corruption or conspiracy. Except the Russian “collusion” thing, that is. Every member of the establishment believes in that one.

Without a free press, there cannot be a free population. Even with our hopelessly corrupt leaders, one honest television network or wide circulation periodical could counteract that. Think Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. In no way, shape, or form does present day America have a free press.

We Are The Proles

The farther we slide down into the mishmash of tyranny and idiocracy that is modern day America, the more I appreciate George Orwell’s 1984. Orwell’s proles represented some 85% of the population of Oceania, which roughly approximates the 80% or so of Americans today who must lose if those at the top are to keep winning. That’s how a casino-style economy works.

“If there is hope,” Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984, wrote, “it lies in the proles.” Orwell keenly predicted what has become ironclad reality in our modern world, when he described these masses as engaging in “petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer, and, above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds.” The only thing he didn’t foresee was reality television shows and social media.

Orwell’s proles are identical to those we self-proclaimed “awake” types like to dismiss as “asleep” sheeple. Orwell again perfectly defined the majority of today’s Americans when he wrote, “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” As I’ve said, while more people are gradually waking up to the tyranny and corruption all around them, the ones who are asleep are digging their feet in and prescribing themselves figurative tranquilizers.

Orwell recognized that the proles had the numbers, and the power, to easily stop Big Brother and his party of followers. Obviously, the 80% of those who are unemployed, underemployed, and living paycheck to paycheck have that potential in America today. But we can’t even organize a simple boycott on buying gas, for instance, on a single given day. That would send a powerful message, and put no one in danger, and yet it’s incredibly difficult to get people to come together for anything. This is why all riots and demonstrations are so suspect to many of us.

Americans today probably have the worst “representation” politically of any alleged free nation in the history of the world. This was demonstrated clearly in 2008, when well over 90% of the population in every poll was against the banker bailout, yet our only two “choices” for president, and the congressional leaders in both “opposing” parties heartily supported it. With their 90% plus re-election rate, you’d think our political leaders were world-class, and yet the same public that keeps allegedly returning them to office tells pollsters they have a less than 10% approval rating.

Even before 1984 was published, Harry Truman and other American leaders rationalized the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by claiming they were saving lives. Years later, Ronald Reagan’s administration named one of its deadly new missiles “the peace keeper.” Orwell’s Newspeak and Doublethink are an established part of American culture now. Affirmative Action stops discrimination by discriminating. The children of illegal immigrants are “dreamers.” The wealthy are “job creators.” The list is endless.

Orwell’s “memory hole” is a part of our lexicon. So are his “thought police,” which are all but a literal reality at this point. How far is the American concept of “hate crime” from “thought crime?” How far are the telescreens which monitored every movement in Oceania from the surveillance cameras we find everywhere now in America? Well, except at the Pentagon on 9/11, or Sandy Hook, or most any other recent high profile shooting.

The word proles is short for proletariat. It’s illuminating to consider that communists, while ostensibly siding with the everyday prole, directed their ire at the petty bourgeoisie, representing the middle class. There appears to be no such derisive term in the Marxist vocabulary to describe the very wealthy. This is almost certainly why both the communists and socialists hated Huey Long. They didn’t want to take the wealth from where it exists; within the ranks of the One Percent. Instead, they wanted to squeeze out the once vibrant American middle class.

George Orwell, like Huey Long, would be mortified at today’s “left.” He lampooned the behavior that fuels the social justice warriors. Huey Long would not have understood the importance of tearing down confederate statues or firing people for offending someone of a particular group or persuasion. Orwell would shake his head at America’s perpetual wars, and how much they mirror his fictional state of Oceania’s foreign policy.

The tyranny we are saddled with, like the tyranny in Oceania, is not typical totalitarianism. Today’s American culture has shifted dramatically to the left, resulting in thirty seven different genders and “racist” brown paper bags. But these same Americans are cool with capital punishment, even though Project Innocence and other groups have shown just how often the wrongfully accused are convicted.

And the social justice warriors are perfectly okay with America’s “bipartisan” foreign policy, which results in all-war, all the time. Very few protest the size of the gargantuan military industrial complex, complete with still top-secret intelligence agency budgets. While no one on the left or right seems concerned with truly helping poor American citizens, the pussy hats are ready to turn violent over the “dreamers” and the rights of illegal immigrants.

Today’s America is a mess; a monstrous bureaucracy that consumes taxes at a socialist nanny state-rate, without any corresponding benefits for the masses that finance it. While CEOs gobble up bonuses and perks at record levels each year, our infrastructure is on life support, with roads, bridges and power grids that have not been updated or upgraded in decades. Not only do we have Third World-style wealth distribution, we have Third World-style infrastructure.

While our Medical Industrial Complex has resulted in the most bloated, expensive healthcare system the world has ever known, America has Third World-level life expectancy and infant mortality rates. Our diets, spurred on by GMO products which our leaders refuse to even have labeled on the products that use them, have produced an America that is becoming increasingly obese. The average American woman now weighs over 166 pounds, which is what an average man weighed in the 1960s. The average male is about thirty pounds heavier now than he was fifty years ago, weighing in at close to 200 pounds. The average woman now wears a size 16, and the average man’s waist is about 40 inches.

Most people now, especially the young, are totally immersed in their smart phones and the cyber world in general. With this detachment from reality, and the very visible physical byproduct of bad diets, too many prescriptions and lack of exercise, it’s obvious that it will be very hard to ever wake this group of proles up. Even if they could ever realize that they are being controlled and screwed over, the state of their conditioning would probably make any revolt impossible. Even Orwell didn’t predict such a massive average weight gain for his proles.

I often speak about how, as recently as the 1970s, the average American had much greater personal liberty. We have lost so much of our freedom in the decades since then, that it’s hard to even make younger Americans comprehend it. But like the masses in Orwell’s 1984, the majority today just simply shrug it off.

By the late 1970s, I was already protesting, and using the talking point that 1984 was already here, ahead of schedule. In my fiery, youthful fervor, I couldn’t possibly have imagined just how far we would sink in less than forty years. While Trump is a plausible Goldstein, we don’t need a literal Big Brother.

A slightly different 1984 is here. We are the proles.