Patrick Armstrong — Obama Marries the Liberals to the Neocons

The co-optation of the so-called US left, which is really the center in comparison to "the left" in the rest of the world.

In the Obama years the marriage of the neocons and the humanitarian interventionists was effected. The neocons, with their doctrine of American Exceptionalism are always ready for an intervention and their justification is always the same: "American moral leadership":

Our world needs a policeman. And whether most Americans like it or not, only their indispensable nation is fit for the job.

So there was never any difficulty getting neocons and their ilk to support another bombing campaign to do a bit of "morally exceptional police work". The Obama change is that liberals, whose historic tendency is to oppose another war, are now in the War Party. And so there was hardly anyone was left to go out on protest....

I would not lay this all on Obama. Bill Clinton had a hand in it, and a big reason that Hillary lost is for supporting it. Patrick Armstrong acknowledges the Clinton connection, and points out that Barack Obama provided a rationale for it. Now the Democratic Party is saddled with it until it is repudiated. That will cost more votes than it attracts. But it is great for campaign contributions from the defense sector, a recognition that in the US, military Keynesianism rules.

Strategic Culture Foundation

Obama Marries the Liberals to the Neocons

Patrick Armstrong

Bill Black — How Democratic Party Mendacity about Deficits and Banksters Lifted Trump

Stephanie Kelton and I have been trying hard to keep Democrats from, again, rushing into the trap of denouncing Republicans for running federal deficits. Yes, Republicans are hypocrites about debt and deficits. That does not mean that Democrats should repeat Clinton and Obama’s embrace of the Republican’s economically illiterate, harmful, and fake hysteria about debt and deficits....

In general, good government is good politics. The Democrats should focus on adopting and supporting superior policies that are humane and supported by good science....

New Economic Perspectives
How Democratic Party Mendacity about Deficits and Banksters Lifted TrumpWilliam K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

Pam and Russ Martens — Obama Has the Same Retirement Plan as the Clintons: Lavish Speaking Fees from Wall Street

The “Wall Street Democrats” is the wing of the party created by the Clintons and nurtured further by Barack Obama. It takes money hand over fist from Wall Street for political campaigns, wags a warning finger at Wall Street from the public podium while stuffing its administrations with Wall Street execs, then its leadership reaps millions of dollars in personal speaking fees from the robber barons after leaving office. As of this morning, there’s no longer any debate that Obama is firmly entrenched in this cozy world of money.

Sums up what wrong with the Democratic establishment. They are on make and on the take.

Wall Street On Parade
Obama Has the Same Retirement Plan as the Clintons: Lavish Speaking Fees from Wall Street
Pam Martens and Russ Martens

See also

Regardless of the degree of agreement or disagreement with Professor Davidson's analysis, just about everyone will acknowledge that a wide setgment of American voters, approaching 40% on the right are extrememly disaffected with American politics. The supporters of Bernie Sanders represent the same rejection of the status quo on the left.

This is more anti-establishmentarianism than tradition American populism. In Trump's terminology the establishment is "the swamp," and establishment figures are swamp critters that need to be removed from positions of power and influence. Bernie takes a similar stand on the left, although not in as colorful terms.

This trend promises to influence American politics for the foreseeable future, and the ruling elite and its cronies and minions are not going to go quietly.

As a result, American politics is truining into a reality show, and Donald Trump is just the person to be a major player in it. It could not have been better cast from this perspective.

Consortium News
President Trump’s Mass Movement

Lawrence Davidson is a history professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania

Bill Black — Is Politico or Third Way More Divorced from Reality?

Bill deftly trashes the Third Way New Democrats. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were as toxic as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher through their "triangulation," which amounted to moving right to capture the center.

New Economic Perspectives
Is Politico or Third Way More Divorced from Reality?
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

See also

The title below should read, "Why The Democrats Are Unable to Defend the u.s. From the 'Most Vicious' Republican Party in History."

Ralph Nader deconstructs the present by reviewing the history. This began decades ago, arguably under conservative Jimmy Carter.

The Intercept
Ralph Nader: The Democrats Are Unable to Defend the u.s. From the “Most Vicious” Republican Party in History
Jon Schwarz interviews Ralph Nader

Gordon M. Hahn — Russia, America, and Interference in Domestic Politics: Comparative Context

Ignoring or denying the well-established US interference in Russian elections and political affairs affecting Russia's national security is untenable. Equating alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election, so far undocumented, with well-established US interference in Russian elections and political affairs affecting Russia's national security is based on false equivalence.

Russian and Eurasian Politics

Russia, America, and Interference in Domestic Politics: Comparative Context

Gordon M. Hahn, analyst and Advisory Board member at Geostrategic Forecasting Corporation, member of the Executive Advisory Board at the American Institute of Geostrategy, a contributing expert for Russia Direct, a senior researcher at the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies, Akribis Group, and; and an analyst and consultant for Russia – Other Points of View

Bill Black — Jobs, Jobs, Jobs – Not Austerity

Democrats under the spell of Rubinomics consign themselves to the political wilderness.

New Economic Perspectives
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs – Not Austerity
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

Bill Black — Hillary’s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal

Not to mention waging continuous war through regime change.

New Economic Perspectives
Hillary’s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

Pat Long — Marc Rich, Bill Clinton and Israel

Sounds plausible.

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Marc Rich, Bill Clinton and Israel
Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.), former military intelligence officer at the US Defense Intelligence Agency

Pam Martens — Clintons Are Under Multiple FBI Investigations as Agents Are Stymied

Martens suggests that the Obama DOJ acted politically to obstruct FBI investigations of the Clintons.

Wall Street On Parade
Clintons Are Under Multiple FBI Investigations as Agents Are Stymied

Pam Martens

Joseph Borelli — Picking longtime fixer as chief of staff proves Clinton hasn't changed

John Podesta.

The Hill
Picking longtime fixer as chief of staff proves Clinton hasn't changed
Joseph Borelli, contributor

Salon
The Clintons’ ongoing donor mess: A new Clinton Foundation memo reveals more ethical problems

Simon Malloy

Zero Hedge
Leaked Memo Exposes Shady Dealings Between Clinton Foundation Donors And Bill's "For-Profit" Activities
Tyler Durden

That would be Tony Podesta, brother of John.

In 1988, John and Tony Podesta formed the Podesta Group and have used their bigwig party-insider status to lobby and influence government policies — while, at various times, simultaneously holding positions of power — which has created a number of glaring conflicts of interest.

According to the March 2016 filing made in accordance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, Tony Podesta is an active foreign agent of the Saudi government with the “Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court,” and acts as an officer of the Saudi Arabia account.

Free Thought Project
Brother of Clinton’s Campaign Chair is an Active Foreign Agent on the Saudi Arabian Payroll
Claire Bernish

Jonathan Turley — Wikileaks: Top Clinton Aides Detail “Expensive Gifts” and Unethical Deals By Clintons Through Their Foundation

Conflict of interest (unethical but not illegal) or quid pro quo (illegal)?

Wikileaks: Top Clinton Aides Detail “Expensive Gifts” and Unethical Deals By Clintons Through Their Foundation
Jonathan Turley | Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School

Eliza Newline Carney — Controversy Versus Corruption

This summer’s never-ending Democratic email disclosures have shed an increasingly unflattering light on the privileged relationship that big donors enjoy with Hillary Clinton and with party officials.

Major Clinton Foundation contributors sought and in some cases received expedited meetings with Clinton when she served as secretary of state, according to the latest batch of emails released by the conservative group Judicial Watch. The July WikiLeaks release of Democratic National Committee emails also detailed the special rewards, such as VIP roundtables and receptions, that party officials showered on top-tier contributors.

The disclosures have been jarring on several fronts. The DNC emails enraged backers of Bernie Sanders not only because they revealed how top party officials sought to sabotage his primary challenge to Clinton, but because of the ugly glimpse of the perks offered to wealthy donors. Clinton’s claim that she wants to fight inequality and help working Americans clashes with her close ties to deep-pocketed CEOs and Wall Street billionaires.

Clinton’s pledges to overhaul the campaign finance system, which watchdogs have urged her to spotlight as an antidote to her unpopularity, also are undercut by the email and Clinton Foundation controversies. Yes, Bill Clinton has said that if Clinton becomes president the foundation will no longer accept foreign or corporate contributions, and that he will step down from its board. But these moves come too late and do not go far enough. Politicians should simply not be in the business of raising money for nonprofits, which operate outside both campaign-finance limits and disclosure rules. If the Clintons want the good work of their foundation to continue, they should turn it over to trusted allies and immediately sever ties with the organization.…

American Prospect

Controversy Versus Corruption
Eliza Newlin Carney

John Pilger — The Bogus ‘Humanitarian’ War on Serbia

NATO’s war on Serbia in 1999 was the template for other “humanitarian” wars – in Iraq, Libya and now Syria – but it wasn’t “news” when the Serbian leader was cleared, notes John Pilger.

The exoneration of a man accused of the worst of crimes, genocide, made no headlines. Neither the BBC nor CNN covered it. The Guardian allowed a brief commentary. Such a rare official admission was buried or suppressed, understandably. It would explain too much about how the rulers of the world rule.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has quietly cleared the late Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, of war crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including the massacre at Srebrenica.

Far from conspiring with the convicted Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, Milosevic actually “condemned ethnic cleansing,” opposed Karadzic and tried to stop the war that dismembered Yugoslavia. Buried near the end of a 2,590-page judgment on Karadzic last February, this truth further demolishes the propaganda that justified NATO’s illegal onslaught on Serbia in 1999.

Milosevic died of a heart attack in 2006, alone in his cell in The Hague, during what amounted to a bogus trial by an American-invented “international tribunal.” Denied heart surgery that might have saved his life, his condition worsened and was monitored and kept secret by U.S. officials, as WikiLeaks has since revealed.

Milosevic was the victim of war propaganda that today runs like a torrent across our screens and newspapers and beckons great danger for us all. He was the prototype demon, vilified by the Western media as the “butcher of the Balkans” who was responsible for “genocide,” especially in the secessionist Yugoslav province of Kosovo. Prime Minister Tony Blair said so, invoked the Holocaust and demanded action against “this new Hitler.”…

It was blatantly ideological; at a notorious “peace conference” in Rambouillet in France, Milosevic was confronted by Madeleine Albright, the U.S. Secretary of State, who was to achieve infamy with her remark that the deaths of half a million Iraqi children were “worth it.”

Albright delivered an “offer” to Milosevic that no national leader could accept. Unless he agreed to the foreign military occupation of his country, with the occupying forces “outside the legal process,” and to the imposition of a neo-liberal “free market,” Serbia would be bombed.

This was contained in an “Appendix B,” which the media failed to read or suppressed. The aim was to crush Europe’s last independent “socialist” state.'…

All but a fraction of America’s vaunted “precision guided” missiles hit not military but civilian targets, including the news studios of Radio Television Serbia in Belgrade. Sixteen people were killed, including cameramen, producers and a make-up artist. Blair described the dead, profanely, as part of Serbia’s “command and control.”

In 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, revealed that she had been pressured not to investigate NATO’s crimes.…

This obeisance to the United States and its collaborators as a benign force “bringing good” runs deep in Western establishment journalism. It ensures that the present-day catastrophe in Syria is blamed exclusively on Bashar al-Assad, whom the West and Israel have long conspired to overthrow, not for any humanitarian concerns, but to consolidate Israel’s aggressive power in the region.…

The city of Aleppo is in the news. Most readers and viewers will be unaware that the majority of the population of Aleppo lives in the government-controlled western part of the city. That they suffer daily artillery bombardment from Western-sponsored Al Qaeda is not news. On 21 July, French and American bombers attacked a government village in Aleppo province, killing up to 125 civilians. This was reported on page 22 of the Guardian; there were no photographs.

Having created and underwritten jihadism in Afghanistan in the 1980s as Operation Cyclone – a weapon to destroy the Soviet Union – the U.S. is doing something similar in Syria. Like the Afghan Mujahedeen, the Syrian “rebels” are America’s and Britain’s foot soldiers. Many fight for Al Qaeda and its variants; some, like the Nusra Front, have rebranded themselves to comply with American sensitivities over 9/11. The CIA runs them, with difficulty, as it runs jihadists all over the world.

The immediate aim is to destroy the government in Damascus, which, according to the most credible poll (YouGov Siraj), the majority of Syrians support, or at least look to for protection, regardless of the barbarism in its shadows. The long-term aim is to deny Russia a key Middle Eastern ally as part of a NATO war of attrition against the Russian Federation that eventually destroys it.

Joseph Goebbels would be proud of the propaganda that convinces the American and British publics to support this travesty in the name of "freedom and democracy" wrapped in the respective flags, beginning with Vietnam.

Consortium News
The Bogus ‘Humanitarian’ War on Serbia

John Pilger

James W Carden, Rick Sterling on Kill and Killary

The transformation of the Democratic Party from the relative “peace party” to a belligerent “war party” occurred during Bill Clinton’s presidency and is likely to resume if Hillary Clinton is elected, writes James W Carden.

Consortium News
A Clinton Family Value: ‘Humanitarian’ War
James W Carden

Neocons and liberal hawks have poured millions of dollars into propaganda to justify “regime change” in Syria and are now desperate to keep the war going until President Hillary Clinton gets a chance to escalate, as Rick Sterling describes.

Propaganda for Syrian ‘Regime Change’

Rick Sterling

Alex Christoforou — Hillary Clinton made $238 million since leaving White House. Tax returns show massive Clinton fortune

Boy, the Clintons must have really busted their asses to "earn" so much in that period of time. Chelsea is doing pretty well too. She is living a 10M Manhattan flat.

The Duran
Hillary Clinton made $238 million since leaving White House. Tax returns show massive Clinton fortune

Alex Christoforou

A mere pittance through in comparison with Donald Trump's estimated 3B net worth (Bloomberg). Apparently not all savory. See The Donald Trump Story You’re Not Hearing About.

Liz Kreutz — Bill Clinton Would Be 'in Charge of Revitalizing the Economy,' Hillary Clinton Says

If her foreign policy record were not scary enough.…

During a campaign event in Fort Mitchell today, the Democratic presidential candidate was more blunt than ever about what her husband's role would be in a future Clinton administration — saying she plans to to put the former president "in charge of economic revitalization."

"My husband, who I'm going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy, 'cause you know he knows how to do it," Clinton told the crowd at an outdoor organizing rally. "And especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have really been left out."

Clinton made similar remarks earlier this month during her first visit to Kentucky, a state where Bill Clinton remains popular among the largely white, working class voters.

"I've told my husband he's got to come out of retirement and be in charge of this because you know he’s got more ideas a minute than anybody I know," she said, while talking about manufacturing and jobs.

Over the course of the campaign, Clinton has repeatedly said she would seek her husband's advice if she takes office.

ABC News

Bill Clinton Would Be 'in Charge of Revitalizing the Economy,' Hillary Clinton Says
Liz Kreutz
ht Lambert Strether at Naked Capitalism

McClatchyDC — Inside Panama Papers: Multiple Clinton connections

Hillary Clinton recently blasted the hidden financial dealings exposed in the Panama Papers, but she and her husband have multiple connections with people who have used the besieged law firm Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities.…

The ties are both recent and decades old, not surprising for the Democratic presidential front-runner and her husband, who have been in public life since the 1970s.…

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article72215012.html#storylink=cpy

McClatchy
Inside Panama Papers: Multiple Clinton connections

Anita Kumar, Marisa Taylor And Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Bill Black — “Liberal” Economists Cheered the New Democrats’ Deregulation of Finance

Bill excoriates Clintonism and so-called Democratic "liberals."

New Economic Perspectives
“Liberal” Economists Cheered the New Democrats’ Deregulation of Finance
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

Deirdre Fulton — Linking Clinton Policies to Poverty, Sanders Lays Out Plan to Help Nation's Poor

"What welfare reform did in my view was to go after some of the weakest and most vulnerable people in this country," says Bernie Sanders…

To address this scourge, Sanders called for the federal minimum wage to be lifted from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour; proposed a youth jobs program to create 1 million jobs for young Americans; and urged support for a $1 trillion, five-year push to put 13 million Americans to work in good-paying jobs rebuilding roads, bridges and railways.…

On Wednesday, Sanders also advocated for a Medicare-for-all, single-payer healthcare system to help reduce poverty.

Common Dreams
Linking Clinton Policies to Poverty, Sanders Lays Out Plan to Help Nation's Poor
Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

John Helmer — Bill Clinton And Tony Blair – Moose Lips Sink Yeltsin’s Ships, Putin’s Too

John Helmer looks at a recent document dump and the stories behind the story this reveals. Interesting peek behind the curtain.

Dances with Bears
Bill Clinton And Tony Blair – Moose Lips Sink Yeltsin’s Ships, Putin’s Too
John Helmer