by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog
It’s time to admit that America is ultimately run by mullahs.
No, there isn’t a pro-Iran lobby which is funding a Deep State cabal or anything. The idea of a “pro-Iran lobby” being permitted to democratically exist in the US is, of course, a total impossibility as long as Iran maintains its anti-capitalist and anti-Zionist stances.
And no, I am not referring to the Chicago-based Nation of Islam. Black Muslims are not running America because, of course, they are Black, which is a much greater hindrance to political power in America than being Muslim. Being a Muslim in America is, in 2018, a huge problem, but c’mon – being Black means far more social marginalisation and enforced subjugation!
Anyway, America really does have their own mullahs and Iran is not even trying to foist our mullahs on them (though they are on us). The ideas of these American mullahs are not very far astray from the ideas and ideals of the first, revolutionary generation of American mullahs, but the real problem with American mullahs is their “American Salafism”, which I will explain later.
America’s mullahs, the ones who are technically & legally in charge – and you don’t need to be Iranian to see this – compose the US Supreme Court.
Their Supreme Court is extremely similar to Iran’s Guardian Council, our society’s council of elders & arbiters, except that Iran’s system is far, far more modern, democratic (and socialist-inspired, of course, because they keep protecting socialist policies), but I will get to that later because there is some hot news in the US right now.
It is pretty shocking, at least to right-wing US media, that Democratic California Senator Dianne Feinstein revealed an anonymous, 11th-hour, 35-year old accusation of attempted sexual assault against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s first nominee to the Guardian Council of the US. The accusation was made public just a week before the final confirmation vote. Feinstein reportedly had the information for two months, but didn’t even have the decency to bring it up the accusation during her private meeting with Kavanaugh. Far worse, she didn’t even bring it up even though the she is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a clear breach of trust as a public servant.
Right-wing media, and any journalist who can’t just publish anonymous accusations (unlike American Senators and The New York Times), obviously smell something rotten.
Feinstein only finally made the allegation public at this late date because…it’s obviously the dirtiest, lowest political tactic possible to derail Kavanaugh’s candidacy. American (fake) leftist publications do not smell something rotten (Democratic excrement is incapable of stinking, to them) but some go beyond unquestioningly parroting the demands by leading Democrats for a (useless) delay without including even a Republican counter-point on such a fishy story.
Take, for example, the headline of The New York Times first article after the allegation was made: “Dianne Feinstein Refers a Kavanaugh Matter to Federal Investigators“.
LOL, that’s an appropriate headline for a minor news blurb. But by couching the story angle in terms of Feinstein-first, that allowed them to devote their article’s first section to the immediate defense of this Democratic Party California Superstar, thus getting ahead of the “Feinstein is making a rotten allegation to derail Trump’s justice” narrative (“narrative” being synonymous with “truth” in this case, I will happily wager with anyone reading, and with good odds for you!).
Now that The New York Times had protected their beloved Feinstein and her dirty tactic, then they wanted to examine how well the dirty tactic had worked. Thus, less than 48 hours later: “New Kavanaugh Disclosure Shows Little Sign of Impeding His Nomination“.
To them, we are not talking about an anonymous, unprovable “allegation” but a “disclosure” – facts, even lurid ones, are merely, properly and delicately “disclosed”, whereas accusations are publicly and loudly trumpeted. Regardless, The Times cares only about protecting the Democrats and attacking Trump (but not in that order), and their analysis is clear – what is the most important aspect of this story is that Feinstein’s ruse is not working, because it “Shows Little Sign of Impeding His Nomination“, which was of course the entire reason for the “Disclosure“.
The lede paragraph of this second article immediately defended Feinstein yet again, this time via moral relativisation and the unquestionable integrity of English Law’s slavishly unchanging obedience to precedent: “Sudden new revelations in Supreme Court confirmation fights are not new. Anita Hill’s accusations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas….” Yes, that did happen once before, but whether that was right or wrong then has absolutely nothing to do with Feinstein and Democratic Party leaders being right or wrong now.
And The New York Times and the Democratic Party are clearly wrong here. Imagine if the week before Feinstein’s re-election vote I wrote: “I’d like to formally announce here that I have in my hand the name of a man who claimed to be sexually assaulted by Dianne Feinstein in 1950 (when she was 17 and a minor in high school, like Kavanaugh in his allegation). I’ve known about it for a while, but just trust me in that I have lived in “release, don’t release torment” night and day ever since; it has made a wreck of my stomach, which forgets if there is both an up and a down. Clearly…we must call off her election, or at least delay it because of what I claim.”
Now…would anyone take my unprovable, anonymous accusations seriously?
So many angles to take here – Democrats are just as immoral as Republicans, Democrats are actually even worse than Republicans, the failure of leftist media to have “right-wing” moral backbone – but I’m going to take a novel tack: I’m going to explain why Feinstein was RIGHT to do this.
She’s right because the Supreme Court is so important. After all, that’s what Democrats have scare-mongeringly told American voters for decades. Forget Nader or Sanders or anyone else. They scare them away from non-mainstream parties with the caution of, “The Democratic presidential nominee is not perfect, but just think of the Supreme Court in conservative hands!” Democrats explicitly encourage supporting the status quo – no matter how bad it is and always was for the working class – and make it impossible for the average citizen to even imagine that “There Is No Alternative” is wrong – that a third (Socialist) party can, should, must exist.
So back to Feinstein being “right” – it only proves one thing: How very undemocratic and politically unmodern America’s political system truly is. For many voting Americans the primary question is: “Forget policies – who will this candidate appoint to our Council of Elders?” Apparently, the unelected, lifetime, unimpeachable (a US Supreme Court justice has never been impeached) arbiter in the Supreme Court has ultimate domestic power in the eyes of many US citizens – what other conclusion can we draw?
But what kind of system is that? It’s a bourgeois (West European) “lawyer-based” system, and it makes Iran’s system look 1 million times better, which is probably why Iranians don’t want to switch to the US system despite the ring of American bases menacing us that we’d better.
‘American Salafists’ run America – it’s designed that way
Nobody wants to hear it, and even fewer will take the time to compare them objectively, but we may as well strap a beard on Kagan, Ginsberg and Sotamayor because they are mullahs.
Heck, they are more powerful than mullahs – they are practically Imams!
(Pause for laughter from Shia readership.)
The reality is that the Supreme Court is laser-focused on ONLY interpreting the constitution – they thus cannot be considered “progressive” because all the rights and rules have already been delineated and powers apportioned; no progression is possible, only preserving the status quo. That makes it an obviously reactionary institution.
Certainly, there can be no debate that it was entirely designed to protect 18th century bourgeois powers. The Supreme Court is totally untouched by the ideas of 19th century socialism, feminism, workers’ rights, religious and ethnic equality, electricity, the Moon landing, the digital age, the Slurpee, tinfoil, the Cubs winning the World Series and much else.
Also, the court does not question right and wrong, they do not question morality, they do not question social utility, they do not consider the effect of a law or decision on the well-being of the nation, they do not change with the times, but only examine whether or not the Constitution has been violated. They do their best to remain stuck perpetually in 1789 with only around two dozen exceptions (amendments).
I have long-referred to this belief that “the Constitution is my divine Koran” as “American Salafism”, because huge numbers of Americans believe the only way for the US to succeed and thrive is by strictly adhering to the exact words (not spirit) of what was written centuries ago. Indeed, if you do not espouse a belief very close to the idea that the US Constitution is a sacred, divinely-revealed document, you will not pass your Supreme Court justice confirmation hearings, that is certain.
But Iran’s Guardian Council, also charged with implementing the Constitution and oversight of all the government, is far, far more democratic: in the US the president appoints ALL nominees, who are then accepted or rejected by their parliament. In Iran the Supreme Leader only appoints six whereas Parliament appoints the other half, thus giving the entire legislative branch equal weight in a balance of powers.
But the bigger reason why the Supreme Court is more despotic and more anti-democratic than Iran’s Guardian Council is that Iran’s members only serve 6-year terms, whereas America is stuck with justices forever. This is the only caste of American worker which has true tenure! Every socialist system stresses the importance of recall of bad public officials, but the American system is so outdated and so pro-bourgeois that they have made their “English Republican Law Class” (emphasis on English, not Republican) something beyond a Council of Elders into a reactionary, anti-99% American “Council of Kingmakers”. Clearly, one cannot compare the autocratic powers – within the tiniest of coteries – of a Supreme Court justice with Iran’s Guardian Council. Americans implicitly realize this legal autocracy – many base their vote around it!
I reject the idea that the American president is not a king: To non-Americans that’s exactly what he is. The American President can assassinate, invade, abduct, steal (freeze assets) and do whatever he wants to a non-American. So while Americans may view their leader as a “president”, and limited in powers domestically, the 95.7% of the world which is not an American citizen correctly sees a tyrant.
The ability of American Mullahs to legally make or not make the American king was proven most recently in the 2000 elections, when the Supreme Court did not count the votes of Blacks (again) in Florida to grant the election to Dubya Bush.
Ah, but Iran’s Guardian Council is truly full of mullahs – therefore, they must be less democratic, right? Well, that is a prejudice, not a proven fact; it is certainly not proven to be a correct prejudice in the best arena – real world practice.
Regardless, the US council of elders is entirely composed of lawyers – America is a lawyer-dominated system (not Party-dominated, not worker-dominated, not warrior-dominated, etc.), and we all know that. Want to rise in American local politics? Get a law degree. Iran’s Guardian Council is only half filled by mullahs, as the other 6 must be jurists – Iran’s system is not “full of mullahs” after all.
The God of Iran’s Guardian Council Mullah (and non-mullah jurist, I assume) is…the One Abrahamic God, of course…but the God of the American Mullah is the US Constitution. This is why Feinstein was “right” – the US Supreme Court Justice is the closest thing to God’s instrument on this earth. Again, Americans know this – they are encouraged to base their vote on it!
Or is there a holy trinity and the US Supreme Court is the instrument of the Son, Thomas Jefferson, on Earth? Is the American Salafist Holy Spirit Teddy Roosevelt or Andrew Jackson? I find both Christianity and American Salafism rather confusing, but I only condemn the latter.
Kavanaugh’s a sexual assaulter, Obama’s a Muslim – what’s the difference?
Democrats like Feinstein are no better than the Republicans who railed against Obama for being a “foreigner” and a “Muslim” because both are based on wild accusations.
Is it somehow morally superior to falsely accuse a man of sexual assault as opposed to falsely accusing someone of being an illegal alien and a Muslim? Only a fake-leftist or a soulless lawyer would even lack the moral unity to begin parsing such a fake-moral question, but this is exactly how many Democratic Party defenders behave.
What Feinstein and her ilk, and even her supporters on Main Street across the US, fail to realize is that: such an immoral tactic only soils herself & the Democratic Party, and only deepens anger and resentment towards them (thus hurting them long-term). Take, for example, the final line in this column on the Kavanaugh allegation from the conservative Townhall.com:
“And who says we’re not at a state of war with the Democrats? Because with this, and a slew of other antics, we are.”
That’s a depressing, but accurate, accounting of political sentiment in the US; Democrats are just as bad as Republicans. However, we should always keep in mind that US political sentiment is always “us versus them”, and the “them” can vary from Blacks to Communists to Russians to Trumpers, etc., because it is an outgrowth of the “me versus everybody” system of capitalism.
Sad to say but the writer is correct, at least partially. What Feinstein has done is just as divisive as one of Trump’s anti-Mexican tweets. Trump has a bigger loudspeaker, but do Democrats think Feinstein and The New York Time‘s actions pass unnoticed? If it doesn’t work, do they think people will just forget it?
Democrats appear to smugly believe that Trumpers and White Trash and Religious Trash and other Trash subsets are too stupid to remember these immoral tactics of Democrats in power (like Feinstein is). We understand and remember. This blindness and moral equivocation worthy of a 6-year old on the part of US Democrats is probably the central point of this article.
However, this flaw – the idea that nobody has an accurate historical memory of American crimes (and thus an honest and intelligent political analysis) – is shared by both Democrats and Republicans. They all, at their base, want to systematically ignore and cover-up the crimes of American fascism and capitalism-imperialism – this is also inherent in the selfish, individualistic system of capitalism and can only be escaped accept through evolution to socialism.
However, a real difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats always talk about human-centered morality but so often fail to deliver; Republicans occasionally talk about God-centered morality and they only occasionally deliver righteous policy. The latter, on a moral level, is often better than what the Democrats offer and certainly better than how the Democrats are perceived – this is why “leftist” or “liberal” in the US is an epithet, whereas elsewhere it is a signifier of strength, vitality and steadfastness.
Yes, obviously Feinstein, The New York Times and other Democrats in power are true Machiavellians who have no true political ideology, but I suggest that, psychologically and morally, Feinstein and The New York Times truly do not believe – in some sort of absurd moral scale of reckoning – that their actions “do not count as much” as Trump’s. The US Democrats worship power, as they are capitalists: and if their actions are wrong they are alleviated by the fact that their “wrongs” are less important because they have less power, and thus they are made “more right”. That appears to be their logic, no?
No. They are actually quite authoritarian in their world view, as opposed to the power-sharing & power-devolving view of true leftists (socialists), who insist that there is an organic social cohesion and unity, and that thus all are collectively responsible and must work collectively.
If Feinstein and The New York Times controlled their levels of power, therefore, they would be just as fascistic as the Republicans…which of course Johnson’s Vietnam, Bill Clinton’s Yugoslavia, Hillary Clinton’s, Libya and Obama’s “surges” and drones prove. This, too, is not forgotten when Democrats lecture Conservatives about their greater love of humanity.
To non-Western views, the problem remains American fascism.
The reason for that is, of course, “American fascism” has never been defeated, much less openly discredited: “European fascism” was discredited and beaten, but not in America, as the alleged “anti-fascists” righteously and victoriously returned home in 1945 to lynch Blacks, or at least get them to not walk on the sidewalk alongside Whites.
As far as the economic aspect of “American fascism” being discredited – LOL, that’s something your idiot Democratic Party stalwart neighbour – with 500 “Vote like me” signs up in his or her yard during election time – cannot even think of questioning. And he or she certainly has fought against anti-capitalist changes whether he or she knows or admits it or not.
But the problem is systemic: lifetime Supreme Court Justices with no recall is 18th century capitalist bourgeois (West European) nonsense and no modern country would or should emulate it. But Americans don’t care about any of that – many are Salafists and fake-leftists, after all. So, this article is really of little practical interest to Americans.
So let’s get practical: Obama got a couple justices, Trump will get a couple…stop being so authoritarian and share power! Kavanaugh will eventually be confirmed, so enjoy your American fascist mullahs! I know you will. After all, you support the US system, don’t you…or does the CIA have film of you taking a knee in your living room during football’s opening week via the camera in your laptop?
In the end, I hope Kavanaugh doesn’t get elected just for diversity reasons: Of the 8 current justices 5 are Catholic and 3 are Jewish; 5 are from New York or California with 1 from New Jersey. Clearly, the “big beards” in America’s Council of Elders are overwhelmingly from their Northeast and Southwest coastal regions and are either Jewish or Catholic. This is in a country which is literally half Protestant and which has 5,000 kilometres between its two oceans. Kavanaugh is another Catholic, amazingly, and from Washington DC so he’s more of the same in many ways. Add in the fact that all 9 justices (including Kavanaugh) attended either Yale or Harvard and there is a huge problem of reflective representation here on multiple levels. Not very modern or democratic, if you ask me.
Parts of the Deep State seem to be trying to undermine Trump’s ability to choose a Big Beard, but the fact that 18th-century Mullahs do rule in the US is a fact which is open, accurate and undeniable.
The least America’s Democrats could do is accept that without such incredibly immoral tactics which cannot and should not be forgotten, and which say reams about those government servants whom Democrats want to give even more power. Accepting it with grace – divine or human – is likely out of the question: we are talking about American fake-leftists, after all.
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for PressTV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. His work has appeared in various journals, magazines and websites, as well as on radio and television. He can be reached on Facebook.
Ramin; As always your poetic spirit delights me. I agree with all that you have written here. There are many openings for response in your piece. For the moment I will confine myself to this observation. American culture is totally unique in the sense that its collective psyche shuts out grounded heart energy and obliges the invention of a completely new word to describe the preferred alternative. That word is “dehumanization.” Should we temper our necessary criticism with compassion for the souls who grow up with no alternative but to somehow adjust to this? I have struggled over this for decades myself.
Of course they will forget.
They forget massacre of native americans Vietnam Cuba Chile Nicaragua Afghanistan Paestine Iraq libya yemen and syria.
They forgot abu ghuraib and abeer aljanabi and sabra and chatila
And many many more.
And thats just the stuff that was so horrendous it penetrated their iron dome.
They somehow (i dont know how! No seriously how?! ) convinced themselves that they are the land of the free(puhlease you are a settler state who massacred your way through 2 continents) and home of the brave(your (removed language,MOD)army is either a bunch a cowards or psycopaths looking for a license to kill)
How? It must be their food. Its hallucinogenic
Like I said, their culture shuts out heart energy. Half the time the males don’t even know how to recognize heart energy. They are in so much pain from being cut off from themselves they just can’t be comfortable in their bodies. The way out of their agony is to live in their heads and run self righteous aggressive violence against others. If they are not aggressively kicking someone around they are just not comfortable. But don’t expect them to understand the point. Unconsciousness is salvation for this uniquely American syndrome. They are in too much unconscious pain to be able to face the issue. There are many noble exceptions but this is the general male mass psyche. This is why the politics are so impossibly insane. It makes the women here crazy. The only way they can feel they are good people is to come up with phony self glorification. Like I said, “dehumanization” I have had to live amongst them for 30 years. Being originally from a sane country I have had to study this unique syndrome very carefully, simply in order to keep my own balance.
Interesting points from a seemingly yogic perspective, Snow Leopard, which is certainly grounded in science in many ways, even though it is not actually verifiable (perhaps “yet verifiable”).
I would agree that US “culture shuts out heart energy”, to use your phrase. But, “males don’t know how to recognise heart energy”, and that “It make the women here go crazy,” implies that such metaphysical suffering and/or lunacy is limited to only the males – that can’t be the case, as women are active moulders of every culture. If men are part of the problem in the US, then so must be the women.
That’s an important point, but not one which is made in US culture during the age of #MeToo, and it is not one which is very prevalent in modern Western culture, especially in Anglo-Saxon Western culture: the idea that women are just as powerful as men simply by being women, and in a culture-shaping sense too.
US women, then, either do not “recognise heart energy” properly either…or perhaps it is “lung energy” or “spleen energy”…but I am no yogi. Ya can’t put the blame on all us heartless men!
Blame Ramin? Not at all. One night I went to bed asking why do I have so much trouble with American men?
I received a reply to my question that came from the realm that can always be trusted. The mass wounding of American men is a cosmic set up. For this purpose. To make them sufficiently toxic in order to drive American women away from a normal relaxed relationship with males and deeper into the unconscious where they encounter the divine feminine. The implication was that the Creator was so prioritizing the return of the divine feminine from the collective unconscious that it was necessary to induce mass male toxicity as a spur in order to guarantee sufficient numbers of American women were driven from their own egoic comfort zone into a deeper embrace with the Goddess. I find this explanation profoundly satisfying on so many levels. It takes the issue away from blame into acceptance of a greater evolutionary purpose. Consequently I now see America as having a positive purpose spiritually. That being the termination of 5,000 years of goddess denying patriarchy and its supersession by a gender balanced post patriarchal world. This is potentially liberating for us all. It is very interesting to take the measure of how much feminism approaches the status of a religion here in the USA. I strive to honor all American men who have sustained open hearts and have some decent shit together. For the simple reason that those individuals have heroically differentiated themselves from the dehumanization process that prevails in their socialization.
Well, your response is not typically American – most women there are told to embrace their masculinity because to be feminine is “weak”, while you have chosen to embrace your feminine side.
It’s just too bad so many unwitting American men are being martyred with toxicity, in this view! American socialisation – with capitalist competition, greed and paranoia sunk deep into every institution and even into family affairs – is certainly mired with problems….
Thank you Ramin; For all the reasons we clearly agree on it is very, very difficult for Americans to truly relax and trust each other. They are all constantly armored against violation (of necessity) so much so that opening to their genuine softness and authentic femininity is almost an impossibility. I once saw a movie about American culture that was made by therapists. The name of the movie was “Rape Culture.” Imagine if you are brought up in that environment from an early age how programmed you would be against open softness. I was once complimented by an American women for not being afraid to be sensitive. I wanted to say “I don’t know how to not be sensitive.” But LOL I was too sensitive. We have a unique phenomena here in the USA. That of the “political” lesbian. That is a woman who is not really sexually a lesbian at all, but who is so horrified at the prospect of having to be intimate with an American male that she feels forced to confine herself sexually to women. Of course all of this is constantly encouraged and promoted by the evil capitalist media. The media provides males here with a completely toxic definition of masculinity while carefully precluding exposure to any genuinely healthy role models. Very few exceptions to that programming. And people all too frequently are so ungrounded that their body based instincts are unavailable to warn them that they are being programmed against themselves. Being ungrounded here is actually a necessary defensive survival mechanism. Nevertheless evolution here proceeds positively as it needs to. For all that the American people are quite psychic and a great number have quietly tuned into an almost invisible collective attunement to positive ideals of progressive liberation. But this is all well beneath the radar. Mostly they don’t even realize this themselves. Their minds are so well colonized. The positive outcome is secure however. Otherwise I would bail out. So you can sense why I love your poetic socialism so much. For me it is a lifeline.
There is a “pro-Iran” lobby in the US intelligence community. Asking if it is really, truly pro-Iran is like asking if John Mccain was really a patriot. Nevertheless, the voice of Iran is present.
What do you think John Kerry was doing in Tehran? Getting hummus?
ROFLOL at the notion of John McCain being a Patriot.
Its not often that US Senators actually get proven to be corrupt. Its very hard to get the mullahs in the American Injustice System to reach that point. John McCain as one of the Keating Five is a member of the very small club of US Senators who’ve been proven to be corrupt. Someone who allows a rich friend to buy favors that end up costing the taxpayers a fortune is a far cry from a person I’d call a Patriot.
“There is a “pro-Iran” lobby”
…
LOL
Thank you for that good belly laugh.
(Removed.Do not insult a fellow poster,MOD)
” Democrats are just as immoral as Republicans, Democrats are actually even worse than Republicans, the failure of leftist media to have “right-wing” moral backbone”
I found this to be true in 2000 and the years shortly afterwards. I’d supported Ralph Nader in the 2000 elections as an alternative to the Gore’s bid to continue another term of Clinton corruption. I don’t know how much the rest of the world noticed the skirmishes that followed. Some appeared in print and made the corporate news. The charges against Nader that he was responsible for the election of Bush. A convenient scapegoat for a party that ran an incompetent campaign and then managed to fail to get the election even though a majority of Floridians had indeed voted for Gore.
On the budding internet in those days, it was a much louder and nastier campaign as the Democrats were viscious and nasty and foul towards anyone who’d supported Nader or who objected to all the corporate Democrats lining up behind Bush’s Terror Wars and Tax Cuts. During the time when the Democrats were mocking and attacking the Republicans for how viscious and nasty they were, I had a front-row seat to just exactly how nasty and viscious the Democrats were. Thus, it was very plain to me at that time that the Democrats were indeed just foul and nasty and immoral as the Republicans.
About the time of Obama’s election, it became very obvious that most of the ‘left-wing’ organizations and most of the ‘left-wing’ press were all controlled by the Democrats. The way the anti-war movement that had protested against Bush just disappeared and went completely silent when Obama took over the management of the same wars and began his Presidency with a “surge” in Afghanistan. Thus, it is no surprise at all that the American left-wing press had no moral back-bone. That had also been on display for the last 10 years or so. It had all already sold-out and was fully controlled by the Democratic Party.
Don’t be fooled by the Bernie movement. I’m sure there’s a few well-meaning folk there. But the Democrats have long run a con-game of a fake lefty movement within the party that pretends to be a challenge for power. Its not. It wasn’t when Kucinich ran for President. Its not now. Bernie started the campaign against Hillary with a statement that he wasn’t seriously challenging her for the nomination. That’s the standard default of this fake-lefty movement within the Democrats. Its all for show to draw in young and voters to the left of Reagan. But in the end, you always get what we saw in 2016, which was Sanders out stumping around telling all those tricked into becoming a part of the party to support Hillary and her pro-war, pro-banker, corrupt notion of government. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.
If the Left refrains from being fakes and phonies as you, in my opinion correctly, analyze, and instead holds to authentic principle then they are subject to lethal terrorism and annihilation at the hands of what is now called the deep state. The fate of the Kennedy bros and Dr king, along with a host of other genuine leftist heroes, lets Americans know full well, at lest psychically, that for all realistic purposes authentic leftism is absolutely illegal.
Squashed like a bug. It is militarily impossible for progressive leftist movements to safeguard the lives of their leadership structures in fascist America. If they show any signs of real success they die. So all that has breathing space is the phony game that you clearly see. The ongoing tragedy of American fascism. It gets exported as well.
@Snow Leopard. I believe that what you describe about the silencing of “the Real Left” in the U$A is called Cultural Genocide.
Dr Maroudas; It is a pleasure to talk with you again. I enjoy reading all your posts. You called that accurately. Cultural genocide is an absolutely vital ingredient of bourgeois class power. For the simple reason that authentic European culture leads to socialism. The English bourgeoisie figured that out as early as 1850. They smashed the Romantic movement because the Romantics all supported the proletariat in the revolutions of 1848. They did it again via the Nazi take over of Paris in 1940. The cultural priority was to smash the Surrealist school. This was successful. After 1945 the CIA took over the job of cultural genocide. Gore Vidal was acquainted with many CIA people as he was of their class. He spoke of how the intellectuals of the CIA referred to that organization as the “Ministry of Culture.” As cynical as you would expect from such creatures. For the capitalist class authentic culture is perceived as a mortal threat. It is no accident that one of the popular TV shows here in USA is a corporate program called “Lost.” So the liberation of the western peoples is dependent on the reclamation of real culture.
@Snow Leopard, thank you for this: “So the liberation of the western peoples is dependent on the reclamation of real culture.”
Curiously enough, Goering’s remark often floats into my mind these days, a propos the process known as Dumbing Down: “When I hear the word Culture I reach for my gun”.
Also not coincidental, when recording my childhood in Johannesburg, the centre of Anglo Zio Capitalism in South Africa, I wrote:
“There was little beauty in Joburg. Everything that was genuinely beautiful in Africa had been cleared away when they built that town. Ground zero, they wiped it clean: clean of Bantu art, Bantu music, the rhythm of Bantu dance, the gentle lilt of Bantu speech. Anglo-American money-men remade Johannesburg in the image of New York: divided real estate into square lots called “stands”. Every stand was a business stand, and almost every building was a money box. Not only business but also religion: a savage Puritan alliance between Dutch Calvinism, Scots Presbytarianism and English Methodism conspired to banish beauty from daily life in White South Africa. A powerful conspiracy between Racism, Capitalism and Puritanism freed people from idle distractions and narrowed their focus to the Bible, to moneymaking and to White Supremacy. This same Puritan plague almost exterminated the native populations of North America, and of Australia between the 17th and the 19th century.
“The only good Red Indian is a dead Red Indian”.
But by the beginning of the 20th century England had become comparatively civilized, and the native Bantu population were not wiped out, merely enslaved. It was left to Germany to unleash the ultimate black savagery of European racism, during my childhood. Today the nearest plague to the Pilgrim Fathers is Wahabism, the savage puritanism which Anglo-Capitalists supported in 1915 by setting up their Oil King Saud in Arabia; a dismal, narrow, backward looking creed – hence easily manipulated in the pursuit of money. Like the Pilgrim Fathers taking over North America, Wahabism – armed and supported by Western capital – has gradually spread its blight over Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria; however, these ancient civilizations are beginning to show signs of throwing off the infection.
By the time of the WASP invasion of Africa in the 19th century, the cleansing fire of Protestantism had been doused by the Enlightenment, and reduced to a quiet Anglican glow of Sweetness and Light. Their racist fervor reined in, the European colonists of Southern Africa contented themselves with not devastating the native population, but only suppressing the native culture – principally via missionaries. But the narrow mindset of the original Pilgrim Fathers maintained its grip on 19thC European settlers; Afrikaners have a good expression for this Plymouth Brethren mindset: “Verkrampte” – cramped.”
There is a lot said about national autonomy these days, but not much about culture as a constructive force.
Dr M. The not much said is a policy decision of the empire. I relate to your passionate clarity. I don’t claim to know great detail about this but I believe the Cuban revolution carries forward the wisdom of Jose Marti. That being liberation comes from culture. This is an open declaration that socialist victory is secured from within culture. So the question becomes how does Cuban life reflect this? For it appears they have long understood the point. So I did learn from them and have seen some writing about it. This must give impetus in some way to Cuban vitality. I call it very good socialism. Animated mass connectivity. But I expect because it is good Cuban socialism it tends to take on the character of all clear headed socialism. It is to be found in the underground. Would it not be interesting to know more of what they say? Marti being correct, this becomes very interesting.
Check out also how a Sen Paul Wellstone died at the time of the Bush/Cheney takeover. Wellstone was a leading “progressive” in Congress. He considered a run for President against Gore IIRC, then he bowed out for ‘health reasons’. This was before the Clinton creatures hijacked the name Progressive, so a Sen like Wellstone was fighting against wars and corporate power and the notion of an American empire.
Wellstone died in a suspicious plane crash while campaigining in Minnesota. The weather wasn’t great, but he had an experienced pilot and trips like this were normal for a statewide campaign. There was no official cause assigned to the wreck, with regulators vaguely pointing to pilot error in the lack of any other evidence, but unable to state what that error was. The plane was coming in for an instrument landing, and the suspicion was that some one had messed with the altitude signals such that the plane came in too low and hit the ground before the runway. The transponder was later found to be uncalibrated, as if someone had quickly reset it before making their escape after the crash.
Bush like Trump had a very narrow one vote or so margin in the Senate, and there were a couple of suspicious plane crashes that killed candidates and gave Republicans those seats to get that slim margin. And in the case of Sen. Wellstone a natural leader for what Wellstone referred to as “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” (in opposition to the Clinton/Gore/DLC wing). This largely marked the death of actual progressive opposition in America.
A move worthy of Mullah Nasrdin himself, untimely and yet, in due time. The way RM dares to compare like here supreme councils to supreme courts, inspired to enlightened beards, voted tod tenured judges, and so on, seems to me a good way to keep Persian humour on the map of the all-tto human rationality some people want to monopolise. Thanks again for this weekly exercise.
Now that is high praise, African Postman, of which I am surely not worthy!
Because everyone in the Muslim world knows – whether Muslim, Christian, Jew, polytheist or atheist – that a Supreme Court / Guardian Council composed solely of Mullah Nasruddins would surely mould the greatest and wisest (and most hilarious) society the world has ever seen!
Politics in the United States is controlled by powerful wealthy interests. In most cases there is no significant difference between the main parties. Both parties are pro-corporate and pro-militarist. It does amuse me though, that the Democratic Party, which is not in any sense “Leftist”, and which does not seek to be perceived as, and does not claim to be “Leftist”, is nevertheless attacked by the alt-media for being “Leftist” (despite making no such claims about themselves). Then further attacked for being “fake-leftists” when they do not claim to be “Leftists” in the first place.
As usual, general comments about a group fail to reach truth.
The Clintons and the Gores helped lead a change in the Democratic Party back in the 1980’s. This group was called the “Democratic Leadership Council”. Before them, the Democrats ran underfunded campaigns with noticeable participation by grass-roots members. The Democrats always had less money, but had large groups of union members and supporters going door-to-door. In the 1970’s, the idea of a Democrat having more money than the Republican candidate was rare, and the notion of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan donating large amounts was almost impossible.
The Clintons obviously didn’t like being associated with a party that lacked money. What could be stolen in such a party? Thus the Clintons and the Gores helped lead a change that moved away from supporting workers and unions and farmers over to supporting big corporations and big banks. Gore was the first candidate for President in 1988, but his appeal to KKK voters in the South lost badly to Jesse Jackson and Dukakis got the nomination. Clinton in 1992 was the second DLC candidate, and had more success.
Thus, the Democrats moved to being the corporation, bankers and rich people party that its leadership still is today.
As a cover for this, the Democrats did start running “fake-leftist” campaigns. The Kucinich campaigns in the 2000’s, and then Bernie in 2016. These are designed to fail, but their goal is to attract young and leftleaning voters into what is now a party that represents corporations and bankers, with the recent additions of the CIA and other Deep State types joining the party.
This is the fake-leftist component of the party. The party keeps them under control and makes sure they never have any real power. But they exist to fool people into believing that the old Democratic party of FDR still exists in some fashion or another. What really scares the Democrats is that their lefty leaning base which doesn’t like the Clintons will one day abandon the party. Since elections have been close over the last two decades, such a large defection would kill any chance of winning elections. Since their money backers wouldn’t pay for the sure losers that would remain as Democrats, the corporate and Israeli money would then also dry up. This is why the pro-war, pro-empire, pro-banker leadership of the Democrats keeps a fake-leftist wing in existence, as they need these votes to defeat Trump or other Republicans which in turn keeps the money faucet flowing.
This by the way was the origin of “Russiagate.” Young, pro-Bernie leakers in the Dem Nat Committee leaked the emails that showed that Clinton and the leaders of the Democrats had colluded to make certain that the Bernie campaign would lose. This scared Hillary because if the Bernie voters left en masse to either not vote or support the Green Party, then Hillary had no chance to win what was going to be another close election. They had Bernie on board to say Vote Hillary to the small crowds that would attend such events, but the leaks meant they needed something to distract the mass of Bernie voters and keep them from leaving. Within days, the cry of “Russia did it” filled the media.
Brillant article by Ramin with a different point of view. To top it off, Kavanaugh is not a conservative but a universal fascist with links to the Knights of Malta. He defends similar views as Carl Schmitt who was the leading Nazi political theorist and philosopher of law. Kavanaugh during the Bush administration explicitly wrote about his proclivities for the unitary executive and universal fascism. He’s not a traditional conservative but a reactionary radical. Americans are f*cked ! Their future is feudalism under the iron hell of extreme reactionary courts – with rulings like Citizens united/Exxon shipping/Kelo v. City of New London, – and a completely corrupt and inept political class. But to deplorables inbreds all is well, as long as they can pray their vengeful sky daddy, keep their guns and put brown and blacks in their place… In the meantime, America’s enemies are gloating as stable genius and the GOP are aborting their republic into barbaric feudalism.
Mod: Off-topic sentence deleted.
But like Ramin said, Americans need to be pushed into curing themselves of the belief that their salvation is preserved by giving their power away to the “mullahs.” It will take a satanic supreme court to force this realization. So nature obliges.
“Of the 8 current justices 5 are Catholic and 3 are Jewish”
… officially. I bet all the ‘Catholics’ are cryptos. OK, maybe there is a token goy in the mix.