russiagate was a deranged propaganda campaign unleashed by the dem establishment and the liberal mediasphere to ward off any serious self-reflection on their grotesque corruption that paved the way for trump, but as ever republicans take the derangement to a whole other level
hillary and leading dem politicians did question the legitimacy of trump's win, but it was not an officially enforced position. obama did not say the election was illegitimate and attempt to prevent trump from taking office. imagine the shitstorm that would've unleashed
and there was always a fundamental contradiction underlying it which the russiagaters never acknowledged: if trump was indeed an illegitimately elected russian agent, why would they vote to hand him more powers like with the renewal of the patriot act or a bigger defense budget?
why did they stand up and applaud him at the state of the union when he repeated genocidal imperialist warmongering rhetoric about the US' official enemies? why did they send him their well wishes when he got the rona? that's not how you react to a russian double agent
the entire thing was a pathetic con to keep the core dem base from doing any introspection, but it did not become the overarching project of the dem party. compare that to the republicans and "stop the steal": trump, their president, is the one constantly pushing this line
and not only that, he went so far as to incite a deranged mob of his followers to storm the capitol. again, just imagine if obama had kept saying that trump stole the election, then told his followers to assemble for a "stop the steal" rally and they stormed the capitol
it would become a pathological obsession of the entire professional media class, right-wing to liberal, and they would endlessly talk about how the democratic party is evil stalinist maoist genocidal anti-democratic. they would have crucified him and the party for it
a 70 year old ben shapiro would still be doing youtube shows about "the day democracy died, killed by the kenyan maoist fascist". so my point is: take what trump did and hang this around the republican party's neck and strangle that fucking beast with it. mercilessly
of course, democrats will never do this. nancy pelosi was already wishy-washy on impeachment and had to be pushed on it. other dem party leaders are only tepidly calling for this or that person to be censured. biden comes out with this sicko shit:
and the reason for that is simple: if the republican party is dead, the bogeyman constantly invoked to legitimize democrats' neoliberal ideology dies with it. the specter of the mythical "moderate republican voter" disappears, and you become accountable for your corruption
politically the storming of the capitol was a massive gift to democrats, and what they will do with it reveals what they really are. will they use it to expand already over-expansive anti-terrorism laws and strengthen the carceral state, or will they use it to strangle the GOP?
in order to do the latter, you have to adopt and disseminate the narrative that the entire republican party machinery and right-wing mediasphere was responsible for this - not just this or that senator or media figure - and delegitimize them as deranged violent conspiracists
it is an additional virtue that that narrative happens to be true: it is not just hawley and ted cruz who are to blame, as is now being said by dems. the entire republican party aided and abetted this cancer for decades, as chomsky notes
and not just the GOP, also the right-wing mediasphere, as chomsky discusses here. and again, remember that democrats are not blameless in this. the underlying social conditions that have led to this are created by both wings of the business party
just so you get a sense of how deeply implicated the dem party establishment is in the ever-increasing shift to the right by republicans: biden personally helped elect a republican in the trump era in a very right race, and no one even flinched
and check out @OsitaNwanevu's excellent writing on how democrats have to treat republicans as the enemies they are, rather than placating them so they can be used as a bogeyman during elections
first of all fidel castro has been dead for over 4 years and the cuban president is miguel diaz-canel. secondly as chomsky notes there is no greater terrorist state than the US
the additional irony is that cuba has long been the target of US terror, from the bay of pigs invasion to the ongoing economic war unleashed on the country and the many assassination attempts on fidel discussed in this thread
biden will likely keep cuba on the sponsors of state terror list as it will keep the embassy in jerusalem, despite it contradicting obama's policy. see this thread for what mandela had to say about these scum and why he and fidel were such close friends
actually the communist party candidate was leading in all the polls in the 1996 election by a wide margin, so the CIA got involved and fixed it for their pathetic drunk puppet. the further immiseration caused by his capitalism on steroids policies led to putin's rise. you grifter
also missing from that deranged account of post-soviet history is that yeltsin's neoliberal economic policies were so devastating that parliament began to oppose it. his response? send in the tanks and literally blow it up. if you want a parallel for trump it's him
the most hilarious part of that thread is that anyone involved with the KGB should have been prosecuted. pray tell julia, does the same apply to the CIA, which has actually committed some of the 20th century's worst atrocities and continues to do so?
since the neoliberal revolution universities have become increasingly financialized, with the "college experience" turned into a commodity managed and sold by HR and PR departments that greatly exceed any research and teaching funding and personnel. universities are brands now
and their clientele are prospective students. their incentive structure is set up to as to maximize this clientele so as to maximize their profits, which leads to ever exorbitant tuition fees and other costs and a hyper-sensitivity to protecting their brand
this financialization and marketization of the university has a distorting effect on all relations within it: between students and teachers/researchers and among students and teachers/researchers themselves, which is expressed in all sorts of pathologies
I love how it's being presented as a feel-good story that a landlord who has the ability to not charge rent is intentionally deciding to tie it to their commitment to do free labour for the sake of her philanthropy PR, with no consideration for the impact this has on them
dangling the prospect of rent deductions in front of people who are already beyond the breaking point, and framing it in such a way that if they can't do it and get evicted it's their fault for being lazy/uncaring? this may very well be the most sadistic shit I have ever seen
in the US liberal wonk freaks are having a meltdown at the mere suggestion of cancelling all student loan debt or even anything a cent above 10K, while in germany and other civilized countries students are actually paid to go to college. the american liberal class is deranged
oh btw biden isn't going to do the 10K either. republicans will do a news cycle on it and block it in congress and he'll say "SORRY THE MODERATE VOTERS WONT ALLOW IT" via an executive order, and that'll be the end of that. "buh he haz the most progressive platform in history!!1!"
more details on the german system: if you're eligible you get full grants, otherwise you can get half as a zero-interest loan, only to be repaid once you earn above a certain threshold, and half as a grant. denmark, finland, sweden et al give full grants to everyone
mussolini, hitler and other fascists are always funded by major industrialists and other capitalist interests as a means of preserving the capitalist system when it's threatened. its intrinsic instability leads to the periodic rise of fascistic tendencies. always. everywhere.
here's a list of german, american and other corporations which happily collaborated with the nazis: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c…