We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Trump’s Disappearing ‘Neutral Guy’

Click here to access article by Paul R. Pillar from ConsortiumNews.com

The real Trump is starting to emerge from the fog of political campaign theatrics. Here we see evidence that he will pursue a pro-Zionist policy in support of apartheid Israel. Like I wrote "many moons ago", you will likely not see any significant difference under the new administration. That is simply because our ruling capitalist class politicos do not depend on the functions of the official government to decide their policies. They use the official government as a facade or puppet show behind which they pull the real strings of power. This arrangement is called the "Deep State". 

This is not to deny that there might be competing factions within the ruling class, but their differences are only marginal in terms of the interests of ordinary people. Hence the seemingly never ending political campaigns and the official organs of government are for show only. Our capitalist masters don't even use the official organs of government to settle differences of strategy to attain their profits and power as they did in the distant past. They do this in their "think tanks" such as the Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute, etc.