Trump in Trouble - The Trouble Deepens - Trump Drowning - the Mueller Report will sink him

Democracy and Class Struggle says the Teflon is wearing thin after so many attempts to make things stick.

The "Teflon" Don will go down like we have always said.

He has taken longer to wear down than we originally thought due the psychotic loyalty of those he is only to ready to throw under the bus.

It has also illustrated the profound racial sickness of certain parts of United States capitalist society -a  sickness that may ultimately cause the internal collapse of the United States,

Historians will date that internal collapse from the Trump Era as a "frantic" attempt to preserve US hegemony that failed. 

Larry Wilkerson on the Trump Putin Summit

Democracy and Class Struggle says Larry Wilkerson says in a back handed way the Trump Putin Summit was wasted and useless.

We do not agree with Colonel Larry Wilkerson - from the Israeli point of view it was a victory and they were very loud in its praise of Summit and there were tacit agreements and accommodations from Russia over Golan Heights and Syria and Iran.

In fact from what we can glean Putin did not defend Iran with any conviction and has facilitated an attack on Iran,

Russia has spoken about removal of Iranian forces from Syria.

We do not think that Colonel Larry Wilkerson is ignorant or stupid and why he did not point to the fact that this meeting had made a War with Iran more likely - would invalidate the meeting completely - a meeting between two men facilitating a war on another country is not something to be welcomed or supported.

You may start the war but we will end it: Soleimani warns Trump

Andrei Nekrasov Film - The Magnitsky Act - Behind the scenes

This is truely a story of our times. If your story fits an agenda it can have miraculous results - the truth is more modest but will it expose Browder in the end.

Nekrasov's film "Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes" produced in Norway by Piraya Film, supported by a number of European film funds and the public Franco-German TV network Arte TV and completed in 2016, caused a major controversy. 

The film alleges that western politicians and media were misled by [Bill Browder], a U.S. born investor and campaigner, into believing that the Russian tax consultant Sergei Magnitsky had been persecuted and killed for exposing corruption.[4] 

Bill Browder’s version of Magnitsky’s life and death has been widely accepted across the world, and became the basis for legislations and sanctions in  a number of countries, first of all the U.S.[5] 

The premiere of Nekrasov’s film at the European Parliament, scheduled for April 26 2016, was stopped at the last moment.[6]

A TV broadcast in Germany and France and film’s public screenings were cancelled due to Browder’s legal challenges.[4]

According to Browder and some media the film was promoted by a group of Russian patriots which included Natalia Veselnitskaya.[7] 

Over Browder's objections, the Newseum in Washington held a screening in June 2016 hosted by American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.[5] 

Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)'s office actively promoted the screening, sending out invitations from the office of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, which Rohrabacher chairs.[7]

SOURCE: Wikipedia

WE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO SEE THIS FILM

Israeli Military Capabilities : Scenarios for Third Lebanon War

Who Will Stop Trump From Taking Us Into War With Iran? by Medea Benjamin

Donald Trump may be taking us to war on Iran and those who should be trying to stop him—from Congress to the grassroots—are too obsessed with Russia to even pay attention. Trump is well aware that a war with Iran would be a good diversion from his domestic and Russia travails, and could even help Republicans in the November elections. In 2012, when President Obama was down in the polls, Trump tweeted: “Looks like he’ll have to start a war or major conflict to win. Don’t put it past him!” So we certainly shouldn’t put it past Donald Trump.

On July 22, just after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had wrapped up a speech in which he compared Iran’s leaders to the Mafia, Trump sent out this threatening tweet, in all caps, to Iran’s President Rouhani. “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!
”
Trump’s twitter tirade was in response to comments by President Rouhani warning that a U.S. war with Iran would be the “mother of all wars” and that Trump should not “play with the lion’s tail,” and earlier comments implying that if U.S. sanctions stopped Iran from exporting oil, Iran could close down the Strait of Hormuz, a slender waterway at the mouth of the Gulf through which 20 percent of the world’s oil is shipped.

Trump’s explosive tweet was reminiscent of the “fire and fury” comments he directed toward Kim Jong Un before he started negotiating with the North Korean leader, but it’s unlikely that this Twitterstorm will be the prelude to talks with Iran.

In the case of Korea, South Korea was pushing for talks and there was no significant U.S. lobby trying to stop them. With Iran, both Saudi Arabia and Israel have been trying to suck the U.S. into their decades-old feud with Iran. They both opposed the Iran nuclear deal. Israel has been advocating for the U.S. military to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, even though Israel has several hundred nuclear weapons of its own and Iran has none. Saudi Arabia insists that Iran is spreading terrorism throughout the region, even though the Saudis have spent billions of dollars spreading their intolerant version of Islam, Wahhabism. And let us not forget the terror of the Saudi bombing of Yemen, which has led to the world’s greatest humanitarian catastrophe.

Lobby groups from AIPAC to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies have also been stoking the conflict. So has the dissident group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). The MEK, a cult-like group that has killed Iranians and Americans alike and was on the U.S. terrorist list until 2012, is hated inside Iran for having sided with Saddam Hussein when he invaded Iran in 1980.

 In recent years, the MEK has spent lavishly (with what is rumored to be Saudi money) to acquire political support from liberals like Howard Dean to conservatives like Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani, both of whom were key speakers at the group’s May gathering in Paris. But the MEK’s most influential cheerleader is John Bolton, who has spoken at their meetings eight times, for which he was well compensated. Bolton considers the MEK a legitimate opposition movement even though they have absolutely no base of support inside Iran.

Trump delighted this dangerous melange of Iran opponents by withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal on May 8, despite Iran’s compliance with its side of the bargain, as continuously certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In defiance of the deal’s five cosponsors—Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia—the Trump administration unilaterally restored sanctions, which will go into effect in two waves during  August and November.

The devastating sanctions not only prohibit U.S. companies from doing business in Iran, but will also punish foreign companies and banks. Despite efforts by European governments to shield their companies, the companies themselves—from oil giant Total to airplane manufacturer Airbus—do not want to take the risk and are already pulling the plug on trade deals they had negotiated with Iran. The value of the rial has plummeted this year by 40 percent. With the economy reeling from sanctions and the threat of war, along with mismanagement and corruption, Iranians have taken to the streets in protest.

The administration’s goal now is to cut off the Islamic Republic’s ability to export oil, its prime source of revenue and foreign exchange. These particularly crippling sanctions will go into effect on November 4.

The Trump administration believes that its policy of choking Tehran economically and supporting internal dissent can topple the government. “We are now very realistic in being able to see an end of the regime in Iran. The collapse of the Islamic Republic of Iran is around the corner,” Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giulian shouted triumphantly to the cheering crowd at the June 2018 gathering of the MEK’s political arm, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

An overthrow of the regime, with no entity ready to take over, would not only lead to chaos internally but could quickly spread throughout the region. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its allies, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, are ready to attack both Israel and U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and on the myriad of military bases surrounding Iran. The Iranian government has already threatened to block oil shipments, a move that could rock the entire global economy.

Many Iranians we talk to desperately want to change their government, but not with U.S. intervention. They look around the region in horror, seeing how U.S. militarism has contributed to massive chaos, misery, and death in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Palestine. They believe their best option is internal reform.

As a group of prominent Iranian-Americans stated in an open letter to Secretary Pompeo, “If you truly wish to help the people of Iran, lift the travel ban [although no Iranian has ever been involved in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, Iran is included in Trump’s Muslim ban], adhere to the Iran nuclear deal and provide the people of Iran the economic relief they were promised and have eagerly awaited for three years.

Those measures, more than anything, will provide the Iranian people with the breathing space to do what only they can do—push Iran toward democracy through a gradual process that achieves the benefits of freedom and liberty without turning Iran into another Iraq or Syria.”
Before all hell breaks loose with the Trump wrecking crew taking us into a cataclysmic conflict with Iran, Congress and the American public better get their heads out of the Russiagate sand and rush to stop them.

Editor’s note: The U.S. State Department listed Iranian opposition group MEK, or the Mojahedin-e Khalq, as a terrorist group from 1997 to 2012. Then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton removed MEK from the list after a lobbying effort by pro–regime change groups inside the United States.

On July 19, peace activists Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold of CODEPINK attempted to meet with officials from the MEK at the organization’s office in Washington, D.C An MEK member was not receptive to speak to them.

The Making and Unmaking of a Right Winger

Why Does the West Hate Putin ? Prof. Alexandr Buzgalin

Democracy Class Struggle says Putin has passed his sell by date and should make way for revolutionary socialist forces who will defend Russia against West - the system Putin has put in place will not survive him personally - a third collapse of the Russian State will come about if Russia depends on a market economy.

Russia has limited time to construct a defensive socialist economy and as long as Putin defends a market economy it is historic time lost -preventing the Russian Economic Renaissance which is necessary to Russia's existence. It is short sighted bourgeois politics.

Buzgalin may have some good ideas and some bad but he knows that Russia's existence is dependent on a return to the socialist road Putin does not.

However Putin hatred in the West has been taken to new heights by the Magnitsky Affair and how who this was created visit here :

It is a paradox that Browder's Crony Capitalism is the enemy of Putin who defends Oligarchic Capitalism

SEE ALSO
https://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-market-economy-fails-russian.html

"Bring the War Home" The Long History of White Power and Paramilitary Violence in the United States

Remembering Charlottesville - Remembering our Greensboro comrades - the struggle continues.

(Why) Capitalism Degenerates Into Fascism When the Precarious Ally With the Powerful to Dominate the Powerless - Umair Haque

Democracy and Class Struggle knows the history of fascism and proto fascism and its data set but we are also aware there are some new elements arise in the Fascism of the 21st Century and we think this article by Umair Haque who is a progressive but no revolutionary communist points us in direction we should look to find the new elements. 

(Why) Capitalism Degenerates Into Fascism
When the Precarious Ally With the Powerful to Dominate the Powerless

You’d be kidding yourself like American pundits are if you haven’t observed by now that America’s having something like a classic proto-fascist meltdown. 

Demagoguery, demonization, scapegoating, camps, “animals!,” “vermin!,”and parallel institutions?—check, check, check.

So. Here’s a tiny question. Does capitalism have a tendency to degenerate into fascism? After all, it must be a mighty coincidence indeed that America’s the most capitalist society in human history even calling an ambulance will cost you a few thousand dollars (yes really, people of the world) —and it’s also the first one since the 1930s to melt down like this.

I’m going to put it like this. Capitalism degenerates into fascism when the precarious ally with the powerful to dominate the powerless. 

Those who feel entitled to, but deprived of, power—instead of reforming a society so that everyone has more, and truer powers, rights, freedoms?—lick the boots of the powerful, in order to dominate and subjugate the powerless. 

I’ll explain all that?—and it might be tough reading, so feel free to skip around, mull things over, and of course you are most welcome to disagree with me.

The way that the story of capitalism declining into fascism used to be told is that essentially, that capital, always starved for more profit, which is always in relative decline, therefore needs more and more force to subdue labour with.

Until at last, people are in camps (more or less enslaved) while their de facto owners plunder the homes which once belonged to them. 

But this story the old one while it has a ring of truth, also seems to leave much out. 

I think by now we can glean deeper truths, perhaps, too. So I will tell you a new story, or a new variant on the old one, maybe and you judge if it carries any water.

Consider the rise of the alt right. It’s a proto-fascist movement by any other name. Dehumanization, scapegoating, violence, the submergence of the individual within the group-check, check, check. But why? Why would a bunch of dorks and nerds, basically?videogamers and incels and comic-book collectors, basically suddenly become something like vicious little fascists? Do you see how weird it is, when you really think about it?

Think about the incels for a second. They’re funny, and they’re pathetic but they’re also proto fascists. They’d like nothing more than a society where women, who are inherently “whores” and “bitches”, are under the thumb of a kind of brotherhood of men—who allocate the bodies of those women in such a way as to satisfy the “greater good”, at least according to the men’s sexual appetites, one woman for every man. In that way, the women, too are “purified”?—they’re honorable, because they’re not acting against the interests of the collective of men. 

Do you see how weirdly fascist this all is?

Now. The question is why these guys—these nerds and dorks—would delve down the rabbit hole and recreate fascism without even knowing it. 

Don’t you find that striking? Somehow, there’s a weird set of socio-economic pressures that seem to have shattered their minds apart. What are those pressures?

The answer is that they are losers. They don’t have the things they expected—not just sex, of course, but what sex is a means to for them: the power, status, rank, respect that comes from being part of a tribe of men who control women’s bodies. 

So they are losers of a special kind—losers who expected to be winners. Who felt entitled—to women of course, but more truly, I think, what they think sex represents to other men just like them—power and status. Losers who expected some level of status, power, rank, and respect to simply accompany them throughout their lives. And yet, somehow, they don’t seem to have enough of it.

The key word is “enough”. It’s not that they have none - they’re not losers in the absolute sense. They have plenty of power and status. After all, incels and alt-rightists are dorks and nerds of a specific kind: white ones, usually. 

Below them sit millions of young black and latino men?—not to mention women - who don’t share the privileges that the white ones appear to take for granted. So they’re losers of a very special kind?—?losers who expected to be greater winners than they are.

But why would that be the case? Why would they feel entitled to more power, status, rank, and respect than they have?—?and why would the amount they have, which is still quite a bit, socially speaking, not be enough? The answer must lie in their expectations. Those expectations can only come from history. So the answer must be something like: they saw their grandfathers and fathers live lives in which these things seemed to materialize almost effortlessly. Women, relationships, sex—and the power and so on which other men accorded them as a result.

Now we are getting somewhere. We have found that the sudden, violent turn of young white men, towards fascism, is driven by a kind of relative collapse in social rank, status, and power. 

It is in that sense they are losers —they are not living the lives they expected to live. But why not? Has the number of women in society suddenly decreased? Are there more men? Of course not. The answer must lie somewhere beyond demographics.

The answer, which has never occurred to these young men, these losers, is that society itself is growing short of power. Not just for them—but for everyone. And that is because power is being concentrated at the top. It’s being taken away from everyone?—?women, minorities, the young, the old, the poor—and flowing towards a tiny group, at the very top: that is what growing inequality really means. 

These young men don’t see any of that, though. They think they are the only victims in a society being robbed and cheated of the power to obtain what they expected to have (even if it was foolish to want it in the first place). And so they lash out viciously, trying to preserve what power they can for themselves. But do you see the bargain they are making? 

They are the precarious allying with the powerful to dominate the powerless.

And all that is how capitalism degenerates into fascism. It’s hard to see —my parable isn’t quite clear yet —so let’s zoom out. It’s not the absolutely powerless, the dirt poor who are the fascists—at least the ardent, bellowing true believers. It is the imploded middle class. The ones who expected to be powerful?—?but aren’t. If we think about American proto-fascism, it’s the people who expected to be living the American Dream—but aren’t—who are the Trumpists, not the dirt poor inner cities.

But that American Dream always had a dark side, too. Who was gay in it? Were black people living in those suburban neighborhoods? What ethnicity was the maid, the carwasher, and the gas station attendant? Do you see how even being in a secure middle class means being at the top of a little social heirarchy? How being “middle class” means that you have, above all, a certain kind of power, which is what “stability” must also mean, in a certain sense?

So what happens if you lose all that? The powerless one never expected to be on top of anyone. But what about the guy in the middle, who did? What happens when he or she finds themselves without as much power as they expected to have? Then, my friends, you probably turn to those who promise to give you that power by force. At the precise moment you probably should be asking: “wait?—?am I the only one who’s growing powerless? Is power over other people what I should be after, anyways? Is that kind of power what’s causing this meltdown in the first place?”

A middle class, you see, is one of the great inventions of modernity. It never really existed before, at least in a relatively stable sense, until the birth of modern democracies. Modern democracies, of course, were accompanied by capitalism. But capitalism, in turn, creates winners and losers, which threatens to destabilize the whole project of a modern society, by undoing that middle class, unless it’s reined in.

When capitalism creates too many losers, and not enough winners?—?when it becomes predatory, in other words, and a tiny number “win” by making everyone else “lose”, as is the case in America today?—?then the spark for fascism is lit. Some losers expect to be losers?—?they always have been. But some are new losers. And it’s those new losers, the precarious, who make a strange and stupid choice. Instead of bringing down the winners, they lick the winners’ boots?—?as long as the winners promise to give them the power to sit atop the people they expected to dominate again. It might not make sense morally, and it might be ethically foolish?—?but it’s perfectly rational when you think about it.

That’s what the incels and the dorks and nerds of the alt-right are really doing, after all. They felt entitled to a certain amount of power, status, and rank. They didn’t get it. 

But they also didn’t see that no one did — everyone’s lot in life is declining in a stagnant economy, and that means that society should probably be reformed so everyone’s life improves. 

And so instead of changing the system for the benefit of all, they chose to lick the boots of a set of domineering bullies, who promised them just the power to dominate those they’d expected to. Bang! 

The recreation of the essential bargain of fascism, all over again, in weird little internet communities. How strange. How sad. How absurd.

That’s a lot, and it’s very, very abstract, so let me try to simplify the lesson. Capitalism creates winners and losers. 

When the winners are many and the losers are few a broad middle class, lording it over an entrenched poor, serving a tiny number of rich - then the system is stable. 

No, of course, even that is not “fair” it is just stable. But when capitalism becomes predatory, then the losers begin to outnumber the winners. 

The once stable middle class, which expected a middling level of dominance, collapses. They aren’t as powerful as they expected to be. And rather than reform the system so that everyone is powerful and prosperous again, they choose, instead, to ally with the tiny number of predatory winners —granting them dominance, as long as they themselves are granted the privilege to dominate, by force, all the people they expected to. Minorities, gays, immigrants, refugees —if they are just regular middle class people. Women —if they are incels. And so on.

I think the answer is very clear by now. Capitalism does indeed have a tendency to degenerate into fascism.

The winners take more and more for themselves —but that makes everything more precarious, more precarious, by creating more and more losers, until ultimately, the system folds in on itself. 

But in a perverse way —the more powerful of the losers lick the boots of the winners, in order to gain to what they were always promised, to subjugate the weakest among them. 

And in that way, nobody really asks the question: what might happen if we all had not just power over each other, but power in, through, and with one another - to live decent and beautiful and sane lives?

Do you see how subtle and strange it is, the way capitalism folds in on itself, ultimately Not with a bang - but with something more like an explosion that crescendoes back into an implosion.

That is a great lesson America’s collapse is teaching the world. The question is if the world is learning it.

Umair
July 2018

SOURCE:

https://eand.co/why-capitalism-degenerates-into-fascism-8d978c013e20