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The Lamentable Notion that Trump is Responsible
by gary Saturday, Jul 14 2018, 2:14am
international / prose / post

Two days ago I browsed to Alternet.org, a once good alternative news source, but was shocked to see that over 95% of content was related directly and indirectly to buffoon Trump, an obviously captured, puppet president doing the bidding of the global elite, a milieu of bankers and mega-corporations that have total control of the USA and many other Western and Eastern nations.

Take China for example. In the 60‘s China was a push-bike economy barely able to support its own population let alone enjoy the standards that the western world was accustomed to since WWII. YET only three decades later China challenged the economic might of America. How was/is that possible? Surely the tooth fairy wasn’t responsible, though the largely ignorant American population believes everything its lying mass media disseminates.

NO! The reality is simple as usual. HUGE mega-financial interests, involving tens of $trillions, were injected into China by the WORLD’S largest banks, which are hardly known to the common man. Think Rothschild and their ilk. Indeed, the huge amounts of financial investments required to transform a push-bike economy into the world’s largest production economy could only be supplied by a small group of mega-wealthy persons/institutions and not coincidentally they are the exact same interests that hold the USA and ALL its presidents captive, after all, they are all shareholders in the privately owned New York, ‘Federal Reserve Bank,’ which prints unpegged paper dollars on demand, what a ‘rort,’ or con, if you’re not Australian!

These minority interests actually have a license to print money so investing in China with a view to evermore PROFIT wasn’t an issue at the time, as mega-wealthy elite investors knew that every nation on the planet was subject to their financial influence either by supply, LOANS at interest, or the lack thereof, plus sanctions, embargoes etc. Imagine the funds and government cooperation necessary to transform China into a leading economic and production powerhouse, almost overnight.

However, the downside was as usual exploitation, that is, the incredibly cheap and ‘irresistible’ cost of labour made available by a centralist, communist, unchallenged dictatorship/government -- elite globalists were assured of financial success though of course western workers would pay the price via job losses and offshoring production to China. But of course populations are merely trained, ignorant slaves kept in check by the elite owned, CFR managed, mass media/propaganda apparatus, which primarily focuses on distraction, titillation, shaped coverage (lies) and fear induction (creating bogey men).

China’s meteoric rise was an intentionally designed and planned affair but enemies must be available to manage populations though the only enemies that elites fear are those able to expose their sordid manipulation of major world governments and the global population via money and misinformation.

Also consider the other arch ‘enemy,’ Russia, have you not noticed how Putin backs down when confronted with elite pressure, particularly when he has the upper hand as in Syria. Putin allowed enemy proxy forces to re-organise and to refresh their supplies via American emergency air-drops. And once those forces had been re-organised and supplied the war continued and continues to this day. The Russian military had the day won with its shock tactics before Putin’s incomprehensible delaying tactics on a number of critical occasions, it was Putin that allowed that criminal war to continue though it was initiated by the USA and their Saudi allies. There is no doubt that Putin, like nouveau Chinese Emperor Xi, are in the pockets/control of the global elite, as is Trump; simply trace how Putin, a former KGB operative and politician accrued $250 billion in personal wealth on those wages, IMPOSSIBLE, even if we include local corruption, and Xi is probably worth more, though he is smart enough not to leave a trail to his personal funds like financially naive Putin. Russia was infiltrated in the 90‘s courtesy of Boris Yeltsin and is managed by elite interests, never forget, ‘money doesn’t talk, it screams.’

Now, I also wonder at times why academic writers, Professors no less, also refer to Trump this and that when plainly Trump is a political dunce and therefore not able to lead a nation without support from elite representatives; clearly Trump is also a servant of ESTABLISHED ruling interests. Trump is simply sent on errands like the ignorant pet dog he is. There are no enemies just a charade by elite controllers to manage populations which would crush elites underfoot like the cockroaches they are IF they weren’t completely enslaved psychologically to all manner of signs, symbols and slogans, which actually signify/represent nothing but division and fear induction.

The US media in particular saturates viewing heads with all manner of idiocies/fears and titillation, that serve to distract from REALITY. Think about what Trump’s real mission was at NATO recently, though he was most likely unaware of it himself.

By lambasting NATO members to spend more on their military, which are obliged to source their weapons from the USA, Trump was actually on a big sell mission hoping, by intimidation, to facilitate weapons sales to Europe by US weapons manufacturers that need to dump/sell their stock piles regularly to servile, sucker allies in order to continue production/development, as Russia and China have overtaken the USA in asymmetrical weaponry, produced at a fraction of the cost of one completely outmoded/redundant US aircraft carrier -- one strategic inexpensive supersonic, long range missile with appropriate warhead is able to vaporise an aircraft carrier today, weapons that China and Russia have possessed for decades and developed to astounding levels today. But a balance must be maintained for obvious reasons and that task is and has always been, since its post WWII formation, an elite prerogative/necessity.

Now to highlight how alternative media writers appear to have fallen for the ruse that presidents and prime ministers actually rule their nations and are responsible for decisions/policies, ridiculous!

The following is a fairly reasonable analysis, though the author constantly refers to Trump as the ‘responsible’ party, bunk! This author, a professor and academic, is typical of journalists today, he knows better but clearly refuses to acknowledge the REAL responsible parties, who are collectively known as the ‘shadow government’ in the USA or elites to the rest of the world:

Trump Marches Onward and Downward
by James Petras

Journalists, academics, pundits and experts have ignored the complexity of President Trump’s impact on the state of the US Empire.

To properly assess the geopolitical configuration of power, we will consider the military, economic, political and diplomatic advances and setbacks of the Trump regime in Latin America, the European Union and Asia (including the Middle East).

Secondly, we will examine the time frame – the shifting direction of the present configuration of forces.

We will conclude by discussing how the influence and results of foreign policy shape domestic political power.

Background to President Trump’s Empire Building

First and foremost, we must take account of the fact that much of Trump’s policies build on and reflect the policies of his predecessors, namely Presidents Bush and Obama.

The US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria were started by Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama, The US bombings of Libya and the destruction and uprooting of millions of Africans was inaugurated by Obama.

The expulsion of millions of Central American and Mexican immigrants from the US was common practice prior to Trump.

In brief President Trump continued, and in some cases exacerbated, the socio-economic and military policies, of his predecessors. In a few areas Trump reversed policies, as was the case with Obama’s Nuclear Agreement with Iran.

The successes and failures of Trump’s empire building policies cannot be attributed solely to his regime. Nevertheless, President Trump must be held responsible for the current state of the empire and its direction.

President Trump Marches Forward in Latin America

President Trump has built upon and extended US imperial victories throughout most of Latin America. Satellite regimes are in place in Brazil thanks largely to judicial-legislative coup which overthrew President elect Dilma Rousseff. The puppet regime of Michel Temer has privatized the economy, embraced Trump’s dominance and aligned with efforts to overthrow Venezuela’s government.

Similarly, Trump inherited from Obama the present client regimes in Argentina (President Mauricio Macri), Peru (President Martin Vizcarra) ,Honduras (President Hernandez) Paraguay (President Cartes), Chile (President Piñera), Ecuador (President Moreno), and most of the ruling elites in Central America and the Caribbean. Trump has added to the list current efforts to overthrow the Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua.

Under President Trump, Washington succeeded in reversing relations with Cuba and the so-called peace accord in Colombia between the guerrillas and the Juan Manuel Santos regime. In July 2018, Trump succeeded in backing the accession to power of Ivan Duque a protégé of the far-right party of Alvaro Uribe in Colombia. President Obama’s reversal of center-left regimes via coups have been consolidated and expanded by Trump with the important exception of Mexico.

Trump partially reversed Obama’s opening of relations with Cuba and threatens to militarily invade Venezuela.
Trump’s imperial empire in Latin America is, for the most part, inherited and largely sustained . . . for now.

But there are several crucial caveats.

Mexico’s new President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is likely to pursue independent and progressive foreign and domestic policies, renegotiating NAFTA, oil contracts and border disputes.

Secondly, Brazil and Argentina’s neo-liberal economic policies are in deep crises and the incumbent puppet regimes are economically unstable, face mass social opposition and likely will suffer electoral defeats in 2018.

Thirdly, Venezuela and Cuba have successfully resisted economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Militarily, President Trump retains US military bases in Colombia and has incorporated Bogata into NATO and he has secured military operations in Argentina and Ecuador.

The biggest challenge to Trump’s empire building in Latin America is in the all-important economic realm.

Trump has failed to gain ground in trade, investment and raw materials in the face of competition with China.

Despite the political and military subordination of Latin American regimes to Washington, the bulk of their trade ties are with China. Moreover, Brazil and Argentina will increase their agro-exports to China in line with Beijing’s trade tariffs on US exports. In the so-called trade war not a single Latin American client state has sided with the US. On the contrary, all are taking advantage of Washington’s loss of the China market to enhance their exports.

Clearly the US does not exercise ‘hegemony’ over Latin America’s trading relations.

Worse still, Trump’s dumping of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and threats to withdraw from NAFTA have reduced Washington’s leverage over Latin America and Asia.

Trump’s boasts and claims of dominance over Latin America is largely a product of his predecessors’ imperial policies.

At most, Trump’s policies have hardened the far right, which however, is weakening politically and economically and has provoked the rise of the left to power in Mexico and increased opposition in Colombia, Brazil and Argentina.

In sum the Trump regime’s empire building retain decided influence in Latin America but faces major challenges – and reversals.

Trump in Asia: One Step Forward, Two Step Backward

Washington has gained prestige for its diplomatic overtures to North Korea but is losing the trade war with the world’s second greatest power, China.

China,faced with Trump’s economic war, has diversified its trading partners thus undermining key US agro-business enterprises.

China has implemented tariffs on: canola, soybeans, corn, cotton, pork and beef.

Moreover, China has replaced the US as the main trading partner throughout Asia.

While Japan, South Korea and Australia provide military bases for the US they are eager to replace Washington’s export to China.

Moreover, China’s multi-billion dollar, Belt and Road Initiative has secured sixty-eight nations as partners, with the prominent absence of the self-excluded USA.

US economic sanctions against Iran have failed to undermine the governments’ oil exports, while banking transactions and imports of manufacturing and service products are replaced by China, Russia , India and most of Asia. All of whom will increase their trade with Teheran.

In the Middle East and South Asia, the US can no longer count on clients or allies except for Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Moreover, the Saudi’s rejected Trump’s demand to increase oil production to lower oil prices for US consumers.

Israel is a ‘loyal ally’ to Washington when it suits their own economic advantages and hegemonic aspirations. For example, Israel has continued to expand ties with Russia even in violation of US sanctions.

Pakistan, Myanmar and Cambodia have moved closer to China as a result of increasing financial and infrastructure aid.

In balance, the US continues to exercise military dominance in Asia via its bases in South Korea, Japan and Australia. However, it is losing economic influence and presence in the rest of Asia. If history is any precedent, imperial empires without economic foundations, sooner or later crumble, especially when rising regional powers are capable of replacing them.

The European Union and Trump’s Empire: Partner, Client or Rival?

The European Union (EU) is the largest market in the world and yet remains a political and military dependency of Washington.

The EU has suffered from its lack of an independent foreign policy – its reliance on NATO, a US subsidiary is one of the main reasons.

President Trump has exploited the EU’s weakness to defy its policies on several strategic issues, ranging from the Paris Agreement on climate change, to the nuclear agreement with Iran, to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. Trump’s tariff on EU exports is the latest and most provocative effort to defy and dominate the region.

Moreover, the EU is increasingly divided over immigration, the UK departure (Brexit), as well as the economic and political and economic split between Germany , Italy and Poland.

In effect the Trump regime can no longer count on a powerful unified alliance at its behest,in its quest for a global empire.

Rather, under Trump, the US seeks to secure economic supremacy and supreme political-military dominance.

President Trump demands that the EU countries double their military budgets in order to increase the Pentagon’s arms spending.

As a result of the divisions and hostilities between the US and EU, President’ Trump’s imperial policies have adopted a contradictory strategy of enhancing economic protectionism with overtures to ‘enemy’ Russia. By adopting the nationalist slogan, “Making America Strong” by ‘Making the EU Weak’ it appears Trump pursues nationalist slogans to promote imperial goals.

Domestic Growth and Imperial Decline

To date, mid 2018, Trump is riding a wave of domestic growth of the economy, trade and employment.

Critics claim that this is a short-lived conjuncture which faces powerful counter-currents. They argue that the trade war and decline of the overseas markets of China, the EU, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere will provoke a decline of the US.

Trump’s strategic gamble is that the US trade war will succeed in opening China’s market while reducing China’s exports. Trump hopes US MNC will relocate to the US and increase jobs and exports. So far this is a pipe dream.

Moreover, the corporate tax windfall has not been accompanied with a decrease in inequalities and increases in wages.

The result is that Trump faces the real prospects of a decline in exports and popular electoral support – especially from those adversely affected by declining markets and deep cuts in health, education and the environment.

Political Consequences of ‘America First’ in a Corporate Setting

Trump’s nationalist economic policies are highly unlikely to enhance empire building ; on the contrary, the trade war will force the major corporate tax beneficiaries to turn against Trump. Their overseas trade links with the EU, North America and China will cause them to turn against Trump.

Empire building trumps America First. Without an economic empire the US will lack the means to secure the markets necessary to stimulate local exports and production.

Conclusion

President Trump has benefited, and to some extent, succeeded in temporarily gaining dominance in Latin America, expanding the domestic economy and imposing demands on China, the EU and North America.

Nevertheless, his policies have undermined allies, antagonized competitors and provoked retaliation. All of which increases the economic cost of running an empire.

Trump has failed to provide viable substitutes for the EU and China markets. Nor has he secured the markets of his remaining clients in Latin America. The notion that Trump can build ‘national capitalism in one country’ is a chimera. At most it would require intensive exploitation of US labor and high rates of investment, sacrificing profits and salaries. The electoral oligarchy and the mass media will force him to retreat from the trade wars and surrender [in the ‘future’ tense] to the globalizing elites.

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York.

Now compare the above to a citizen journalist:

What Globalists say and what they really mean
by Jon Rappoport

"[The] nation state as a fundamental unit of man's organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force. International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation state." -- Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1969

This famous quote from one of the world's leading Globalists could have been written more truthfully. For example: "We must do everything we can to eliminate the reality of separate and individual countries. In this regard, breaking down borders with massive waves of immigration will go a long way."

And what about Brzezinski's remark that corporations and banks are acting in ways that are "far in advance" of the nation-state?

Perhaps this is what he means by advanced concepts: Corporations are empowered to set up factories in Third World hellholes, where they employ workers at starvation wages, with no environmental concerns or controls. That's step one. Step two is exporting the goods made in those far-off places back to First World countries without paying tariff-penalties.

Yes, that's what Brzezinski and other elite Globalists would call "enlightened economics."

To call this free-market "capitalism" is a gross misnomer. The free market is pushed to the side. Basic capitalism, in which an entrepreneur builds a domestic business and sells his goods, has nothing to do with this kind of engineered international corporate expansion. The corporate Globalist state is a different animal altogether.

"I believe that if you go and ask a chief executive of a Goldman Sachs or a BP, and they answer you honestly ... they want monopolies, they want government subsidies, they want preferences -- they're not interested in free markets." (Ian Bremmer, The Daily Telegraph, 7/10/10)

Any doubt on the question of Globalist goals is answered by David Rockefeller himself, in his Memoirs (2003): "Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure--one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."

Rockefeller's phrase, "a more integrated global and economic structure," vaguely suggests some kind of fairness, in which loser nations would be promoted into upper tiers of business relationships.

But no. "Integrated" actually means the world is made to fit the ambitions of global corporations -- these behemoths can roam anywhere, set up shop, and produce their goods, without regard for smaller producers of the same goods, who suddenly find themselves edged out of the market.

"Integrated" also means "never having to pay tariffs." Tariffs level the playing field. A level field is the last thing Globalists want.

In the current trade wrangle between China and the US, Globalists are essentially saying: "See, you're upsetting the system. Now both China and the US will be laying on tariffs. It's much better to eliminate tariffs altogether -- which was the way we ran things until recently..."

No, the way things were being run allowed China to export far more goods to US than the US was exporting to China. That imbalance has been quite damaging to the US economy.

Globalists say "integrated world economy." They mean: "mega-corporations win a rigged game."

Globalists say "advanced political concepts." They mean: "no tariffs."

Globalists say "nation states are outmoded." They mean: "open all borders" and "control all markets from above, at the level of mega-corporations."

Guess who the "disaffected youth" demanding open borders are unknowingly working for?

The richest people in the world.

[We could never solve a problem if we refuse to name it and/or choose to ignore it -- elite rule exists and it must be called out, dealt with and eliminated.]