Thanks to a recent comment by a reader (see here and here)  my attention was draw to this absolutely amazing event described like so by Ali Abunimah on the Electronic Intifada website:

An extraordinary thing happened at the Democratic National Convention today. The official party platform for 2012 left out a reference that “Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel” that was in the 2008 version.

Under pressure from the Israel lobby and the Republicans the Democratic leadership hastily moved to shove it back in on a voice vote that required a two-thirds majority. But to the stunned surprise of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who was chairing the convention, the “No” votes seemed to be louder, as the video above shows.

Shocked, Villaraigosa held the vote a second time, and then a third time. Each time it seemed the noes had it. Nonetheless, Villaraigosa declared that it had passed anyway. Loud booing could be heard. It’s an astonishing spectacle (see a longer version of the video from C-Span).

 See for yourself:
 
“In the opinion of the chair two thirds have voted on the affirmative“.  Amazing, no?  On national TV during an putatively crucial moment for the future of the USA, one person simply decrees two thirds of the delegates present voted yes even though it is absolutely clear that such thing never happened (my personal take on this is that the noes did prevail, but not by much).  Ok, so we are dealing with a submissive AIPAC puppet, no biggie here, what else would you expect from a US politician.  But the real amazing thing comes after that.

 Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

 A riot does not start, the podium does not get stormed, Villaraigosa does not get beat up, the national media does not crucify the Democrats for such a total disregard for democracy, and even the Republicans have nothing much to say.

 Do you know about the Asch conformity experiment? Check it out here:

Don’t you wonder what Asch would think of what happened at the Democratic Convention?

The American public is being trained, just like rats are trained in a lab, and the purpose of this training is simple: to induce a sense of helplessness, an abject feeling of total surrender.  And each time the Ziocons (of which there are plenty in the Democratic Party) do something outrageous the message is always the same: we can do whatever the fuck we want, and there is nothing you can do about it.  Normal rules do not apply to us, only to you.  We are your overloards and resistance in futile.  Watch us get away with murder!

 And get away with murder they do.  Each time.

 This is why I can only conclude that the USA is an occupied land, run by a relatively small Soviet-style nomenklatura correctly estimated by the opponents to this regime at about 1% of the population.  Calling it the Zionist Occupation Government is as accurate as any other characterization.

 The Saker