Dominating the headlines in the US, we have had the Republican National Convention which crowned Donald Trump (and yes, his real name is Donald Drumpf) as the Republican candidate for president. He's supported by wonderful people such as the man in this video (fair warning, the language used by this individual is revolting):
Lovely guy, right?
John Oliver did a decent recap of the event with interesting clips, though he didn't mention the outbreak of norovirus, which I found particularly hilarious. The take home message - the real deal with this convention (besides male escorts making a ton of money) - was the driving point that believing something to be true is equal to it being true - that feelings are equivalent to facts.
Let's think about that for just one second. Basically, if you're upset about... let's say: crime against police. Even though crime against police is down to record lows, that fact doesn't matter. The fact that police target minority groups, especially people of color, at higher rates, that they're jailed more often, and suffer harsher punishment, is all swept aside by your feelings, even though those feelings are being manufactured by lies. This is something we've seen come up before, and the simple truth of the matter is: not all opinions (or feelings) are created equal.
Granted, readers at SOTT.net tend to be a bit beyond that. Heck, our slogan is "The World for People Who Think." The problem is, however, most people don't bother to think and prefer to let other people do it for them, but I digress.
The alternative to Donald Trump and his base of racist, fascist, rabid supporters is Hillary Clinton. She's all but clinched the nomination from the Democratic party, and as the Democratic National Convention is on-going as I type this, many people are not happy about that one bit.
At a lively Sunday march in support of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, chants of "lock her up," "Hillary for Prison" signs and t-shirts and calls for indictment were common among the most ardent supporters of Mr. Sanders, who arrived in Philadelphia to make their voices heard to the delegates attending the Democratic National Convention.
Hillary is an interesting character; she's clearly committed criminal acts, but the FBI chose not to prosecute. Probably because FBI Director James Comey didn't want to end up having an accident or 'committing suicide'. That's probably the same reason Bernie chose to endorse Hillary. Have you heard of the Clinton Body Count? It's a rather extensive list of people who were either previous associates of the Clintons or otherwise in a position to know their dirty secrets, all of whom ended up dying in 'accidents' or suicides.
But Hillary's biggest crimes weren't even on the table; the Clinton Foundation is ostensibly a nonprofit institution, but what it really seems to be is a cash-for-political-favors operation. If armchair warrior tinfoil-hat-wearing progressive 'nutjobs' like myself can see that, I'm sure the FBI can.
The big news out of the DNC is that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the DNC, who was plagued with pro-Clinton scandal bias throughout the primaries stepped down as chair... and then immediately was embraced by Hillary, who gave her a position working on her campaign. This bit of blatant cronyism was lost on most pundits, and even Sanders own campaign manager suggested we 'move past it' and focus on defeating Donald Trump. Have a looksee:
See, you foolish plebeians? Bernie's own people are embracing the Dark Queen! Did anyone else think that Bernie's campaign manager seemed a little stressed? As if someone was feeding him dialogue under threat of violence, perhaps? Nah, must be all that distilled water and grass-fed meat futzing with my brain. Silly me!
Clinton's record on families and children is... well... it's kinda terrible. A young Hillary somehow ended up representing a child-rapist in 1975 (the details of how that came about are sketchy) and eventually plea-bargained the case down to time-served, effectively freeing the rapist. The story itself has been the source of many a viral internet meme, like this one:
Of course, Snopes claims the meme is 'mostly false', but here at SOTT we've come to distrust self-proclaimed gatekeepers of truth like Snopes, especially when it's run by a mom-and-pop team out of California with obvious bias. Listen to Hillary's interview yourself and decide if she was laughing about it or if it was merely 'nervous laughter.'
Then there's that time she got a kick proclaiming "we came, we saw, he died," in reference to the brutal murder of Gaddafi, Libya's rightful leader, by head-chopping terrorists (the precursor to ISIS) which her State Department armed.
And then there's the time she cackled while being interviewed during the Benghazi hearings while discussing the deaths of other Americans.
And THIS is our alternative to Donald Trump?
I also want to talk about the narrative being constructed this week at the DNC. The theme is 'unity' and coming together to defeat Trump... that's all well and good, but it just tickles me pink that Trump is providing a most excellent antagonist. Everything he says is cringe-worthy. He's a buffoon, a narcissist and a thin-skinned rich boy who's declared bankruptcy four times - of course many Americans don't want him running the nation.
I write fiction on the side, and if I were writing this election, having Trump play the bad guy makes Hillary look better. The consistent argument we're seeing is "we need to defeat Trump," and every time he behaves like a whackjob or says something truly disturbing the media regurgitates it for mass consumption. A little too convenient for my tinfoil-hat-wearing, gluten-free, meditating brain to accept at face-value.
If she didn't already appear to be a corrupt psychopath with the blood of countless Libyans, Syrians, Palestinians, as well as a trail of bodies, behind her, that argument may actually hold water. The problem is that those of us that pay attention can see she's actually the scarier of the two. Trump may actually do less damage due to his sheer incompetence. Hillary's record indicates she loves to take money from big corporations, sowing chaos, mayhem, and violence in the third world.
But let's not get confused. There are no elections in America. I'm going to say that again for emphasis, because it bears repeating:
There are no elections in America.
Presidents are not elected, they are selected.
What you're seeing is a dog-and-pony show; a circus, as in the bread and circus variety. It's a stage-managed production designed to convince you of a lie, that you have any choice whatsoever when it comes to how this country is run, or who is running it. Electronic voting machines are unaccountable, rigging them is possible and it's nearly impossible to detect the fraud. Check this out:
I covered these points in an article I wrote six years ago:
1.) Voting doesn't make a difference in state policy. A few prime examples of this are: the Wars in Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan; Invasion of Privacy (having our phone calls, emails, websites, forum posts, naked bodies scanned, recorded, and filed by alphabet agencies); universal support of the terrorist state of Israel - even after it kills American citizens, deliberately; Poor Food/Medicine Quality Control Standards; Bank Bailouts... etc.Further, there were a lot of shady shenanigans that went down in New York and California, where voters were purged, the exit polls didn't match the results, and somehow Hillary won both states. That's when you consider that Bernie's campaign had people out in record numbers and their venues were filled to capacity while Hillary's rallies could hardly be called that.
2.) Voting can, and often is rigged. Take a few minutes and research these newfangled voting boxes... hackers have been able to alter the outcome of elections with a usb jump drive without violating the machines internal controls. Diebold is likely responsible for GWB getting reelected in 2004. Thinking that it doesn't happen locally is naive and ignorant.
3.) We live in neither a democracy nor a republic, and therefore your vote doesn't make a difference. While on paper, we're supposed to elect representatives to represent us, more often than not they represent themselves and uber-rich folks who donate large sums of money to their campaigns. There's also the strangle-hold AIPAC has on all branches of congress, insuring that Pro-Israeli sentiment is the status quo. How can we justify believing that we're a sovereign nation when another government from another country influences our state policy without our consent?
4.) Elections are bought. It's simple math really, when one guy can outspend another he can easily acquire more name recognition, he can also tar the other guy. More money = More ads, more staff, more TV time. Obama was outspending McCain 3:1 when it came to TV ads in the last few weeks of the 2008 Election.
To top it all off, there was the recent Wikileaks release of 20,000 or so emails which show the Clinton campaign, the DNC, and major media outlets were all colluding from the get-go to push Bernie out of the race. This more or less vindicated Bernie supporters who all along claimed there was a conspiracy to oust Bernie. Wait, there was a conspiracy to oust Bernie? Nahhhhhh.... that's
- Mediaite: Bernie Sanders Fans' DNC 'Collusion' Conspiracy Theory Is Embarrassing Garbage
- LA Times: 'Hillary Clinton Is Not Winning Because of a Conspiracy'
- Daily Kos: 'There Was the General Conspiracy Theory That Everyone at the DNC Was Out to Get Him
'But Brent,' I hear you ask, 'if there are no elections, then why all the hullabaloo? If this wasn't actually real, why spend all the time and money manufacturing the appearance of it being real?' Elementary, dear reader - if folks actually knew the elections were fake and the elite blatantly did what they wanted without manufacturing the illusion of our collective consent then we may actually stop playing Pokemon Go, going to work, buying crappy imported goods from China, and break out the pitchforks and torches.
At the end of the day, they are the 1% and we are the other 99%, and in the event of violent revolution, the odds of their survival are pretty slim. Can't have that, now can we?
The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me
Love me, I'm a liberal
Read more: Phil Ochs - Love Me, I'm A Liberal Lyrics | MetroLyrics