Democracy is the coat of paint applied for PR purposes to the Imperial State. Charles Hugh Smith
If we step back from the histrionics of impeachment and indeed, the past four years of political circus, we have to wonder if America's democracy is little more than an elaborate simulation, a counterfeit democracy that matches our counterfeit capitalism (Matt Stoller's term).
If we review the mechanics of our "democracy," we find that swapping which party controls Congress doesn't really change the policies of The Imperial State, the central state that oversees America's global commercial and geopolitical empire...
Bush I was the ideal Imperial State president because he understood the need for the velvet glove of diplomacy, the most important element of which is an orchestrated demonstration of Imperial restraint. This also includes healthy dollops of PR about the sanctity of our alliances, which are heavily promoted as the acme of win-win cooperation, etc. He also understood the essential role of America's commercial Empire: the US dollar, US banking and US corporate interests around the world.
Imperial State handlers cannot tolerate loose-cannon presidents, those who keep their own council and who act outside the "recommended guidelines," for example, trying to make peace with rivals and enemies that the Imperial State cultivates as "enemies" for its own purposes.
John F. Kennedy appeared to be the ideal Imperial State president: wealthy Eastern Establishment, Harvard, combat military service, informal diplomatic experience via his father's connections, an enthusiastic supporter of the Imperial State's Cold War and a youthful politician with superb communication skills who the mass media fell for hook, line and sinker.
Once Kennedy soured on the CIA, things got dicey. The ideal president quickly became less ideal as his independence grew.
The Imperial State and mass media always feared and hated Richard Nixon, a poker player who kept his cards hidden and who surrounded himself with loyalists and outsiders, a rogue politician who could upstage the Imperial State's agenda by private diplomacy (opening relations with China) or expanding wars of choice (the invasion of Cambodia).
Nixon's cabinet was well-stocked with Establishment pros, but they were largely figureheads when it came to the bold private diplomatic moves Nixon favored. In other words, Nixon was the Imperial State's nightmare president.
Just to show that the Imperial State plays no favorites in party affiliations, the State and its media organs also hated Jimmy Carter, another independent who wandered outside the "recommended guidelines" and had to be destroyed via endless mockery and the undermining of his initiatives...
Bush II was no Bush I, but he followed orders and never strayed from the "recommended guidelines." The same can be said of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, telegenic communicators in the Kennedy mold.
Needless to say, the Imperial State and its media organs loathe Trump, the loosest cannon imaginable. Hillary Clinton had proven herself a reliable water carrier for the Imperial State, and so her election was elaborately planned and staged: potentially loose cannon Bernie Sanders was shivved in the primaries by the Democratic Party, and the champagne was chilled for Hillary's victory.
Democracy is the coat of paint applied for PR purposes to the Imperial State. "Democracy" is only tolerated if it follows the approved script. The Republic is good PR, but the Empire makes the rules and the scripts that elected officials follow, and woe to anyone who wins an election they were supposed to lose or who strays too far from the "recommended guidelines." (Imperial enemies must remain enemies until the Empire decides otherwise.)
In an interview on MSNBC, Brennan, unblinkingly states that "people are innocent, you know, until alleged to be involved in some kind of criminal activity."
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/former-cia-chief-brennan-unblinkingly-rewrites-entire-basis-us-judicial-system-one-short
This past weekend, Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier Yahya al-Sari clinically described how Ansarallah, also known as the Houthi rebel movement, aided by what Yemenis describe as “popular committees,” captured three Saudi brigades of 2,400 – ragged – soldiers, plus Yemeni and Sudanese mercenaries as well as several hundred battle vehicles. At least 500 Saudi soldiers were killed, Ansarallah said. (A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition denied the claim).
This was part of the significantly named Operation Nasrallah in Najran province, Saudi Arabia. The Houthis, who did learn a lot, tactically and strategically, from Hezbollah, duly praised mujahideen and ‘popular committees’ involved in Operation Nasrallah.
Col. Pat Lang, in his blog, offers a particularly useful observation on the captured Saudi vehicles. Some belonged to the Saudi National Guard (SANG): “I suppose these troops were from the modernized SANG that the US has worked hard to train and equip for fifty years or more. The easy surrender of these Bedouins is very bad news for the Saudi monarchy.”
Paging Bernie Sanders... Kaja Robinson can’t forget the hold music at her former debt collection agency’s phone line.
“Oh my God, it's awful,” the 53-year-old said. “I hear it in my head all the time. It's kind of screechy and eerie like a sci-fi movie.”..
It’s just one of the stress triggers Robinson has developed in her decades-long dispute over loans she took out as a college student in the late 1980s.
She borrowed about $17,000 to attend the University of Minnesota and has paid off $15,000 of the amount — according to a trove of records, including scans of checks, she’s kept in two large bankers boxes and shown to MPR News.
But according to the Department of Education, Robinson still owes some $49,000. That’s due to missing records of her payments and accrued interest, she said...
“Knowing that the government believes that I owe this much money to them and knowing that I don't,” she said, “It's bizarre and surreal ... It seems like a big black dark empty hole and that there's just no way to get through it.”
This isn’t the first time a company has lost track of student loans. In 2017, a student loan trust lost paperwork for at least $5 billion in student loans.
This historical case for an inflationary depression is from Gold Money, so it supports investment in gold. Depression can go either way, as Germany had inflationary depression while the US had deflationary depression.
An economic depression does not require deflation, if by that term is meant a contraction of the money in circulation. More correctly, it is the collective impoverishment of the people, which is most easily achieved by debasement of the currency: in other words, monetary inflation. Fundamental to the myth that an inflation of the money supply is the path to economic recovery are the forecasts by the economic establishment that the world, or its smaller national units, will suffer no more than a mild recession before economic growth resumes. It is not only complacent central bank and government economists that say this, but their followers in the private sector as well.
Moon of Alabama has a wide ranging article about global power structure reorganization, hearkening back to the period before WW-1 in Europe, and the concert of the great European powers, which made well orchestrated music for some generations. Vladimir Putin bears similarity to Germany's Chancellor Bismark.
Russia agrees to help China with missile defense. which will help to further stalemate the big powers, removing America's first-strike option.
Russia and China and Iran move more oil business out of US dollars.
Pepe Escobar looks at Saudi Arabia's new imperatives, needing to end the war with Yemen, for selfish reasons.
Nobody loves or respects the House of Saud...
Never underestimate the power of blowback. Right now, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), the de facto ruler of the House of Saud, is staring at it, an ominous abyss opened by the Houthis in Yemen. This past weekend, Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier Yahya al-Sari clinically described how Ansarallah, also known as the Houthi rebel movement, aided by what Yemenis describe as “popular committees,” captured three Saudi brigades of 2,400 – ragged – soldiers, plus Yemeni and Sudanese mercenaries as well as several hundred battle vehicles. At least 500 Saudi soldiers were killed, Ansarallah said. (A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition denied the claim).
This was part of the significantly named Operation Nasrallah in Najran province, Saudi Arabia. The Houthis, who did learn a lot, tactically and strategically, from Hezbollah, duly praised mujahideen and ‘popular committees’ involved in Operation Nasrallah.
Col. Pat Lang, in his blog, offers a particularly useful observation on the captured Saudi vehicles. Some belonged to the Saudi National Guard (SANG): “I suppose these troops were from the modernized SANG that the US has worked hard to train and equip for fifty years or more. The easy surrender of these Bedouins is very bad news for the Saudi monarchy.”
Helen of DesTroy via RT:
An assassination attempt on the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force has been foiled and several of its “Hebrew-Arab” plotters captured, Tehran claims as cited by local media. The assault was meant to trigger sectarian violence...
Saudi Arabia was reportedly considering hiring private contractors to assassinate Soleimani in 2017, according to the New York Times, which reported Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meeting with a small group of businessmen to discuss the use of private-sector operators to sabotage both Iran’s military – by killing Soleimani – and its economy.
Saudi Arabia was reportedly considering hiring private contractors to assassinate Soleimani in 2017, according to the New York Times, which reported Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meeting with a small group of businessmen to discuss the use of private-sector operators to sabotage both Iran’s military – by killing Soleimani – and its economy.
North Korea successfully tested a submarine launched ballistic missile, so a nuked North Korea would still be able to nuke US forces, allies or interests somewhere, maybe even the US mainland.
North Korea stopped nuclear negotiations on Saturday after a day and a half, because the "US came empty handed".
Russia has just made the first floating nuclear power plant, good to power a city of about 100,000, wherever there is water. The nuclear-icebreaker platform was used, so this baby can cover Africa to Alaska.
It has to go home to change uranium every dozen years or so.
Need to rent one?
“Oh my God, it's awful,” the 53-year-old said. “I hear it in my head all the time. It's kind of screechy and eerie like a sci-fi movie.”..
It’s just one of the stress triggers Robinson has developed in her decades-long dispute over loans she took out as a college student in the late 1980s.
She borrowed about $17,000 to attend the University of Minnesota and has paid off $15,000 of the amount — according to a trove of records, including scans of checks, she’s kept in two large bankers boxes and shown to MPR News.
But according to the Department of Education, Robinson still owes some $49,000. That’s due to missing records of her payments and accrued interest, she said...
“Knowing that the government believes that I owe this much money to them and knowing that I don't,” she said, “It's bizarre and surreal ... It seems like a big black dark empty hole and that there's just no way to get through it.”
This isn’t the first time a company has lost track of student loans. In 2017, a student loan trust lost paperwork for at least $5 billion in student loans.
Criminally Overcharged
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