Week of 02/12/2018

Do Not Count On Mueller To Rid Us Of Trump
– by David Matthews 2

Once upon a time there was a professional wrestling organization called World Championship Wrestling.  Owned at the time by Ted Turner, the WCW was supposed to be the alternative to the sports entertainment juggernaut of World Wrestling Entertainment, and it featured an eclectic combination pf newcomers and legends.  For those drummed out of the WWE, the WCW would always await them, and vice-versa.

For a while, they gave the WWE a run for their money.  They even had very public “wars” between the two groups, each saying they’re going to destroy each other.  And they’d have some entertainer from one group switch over and they play up that it’s part of some “invasion”.  In reality, there was no “invasion” or a “war”.  It was just hype.

The WWE had fun with it for a while, and then got tired of it and moved on.  WCW, on the other hand, transitioned the whole “invasion” into their “New World Order” gimmick, and then they played it until everyone got sick of it.

The “New World Order” gimmick revolved around a whole bunch of scripted screwjobs, where the WCW would count on some wrester or some wrestling team to step up and defeat the NWO, only to have it come out that the match was rigged for the NWO to win, and people would get pissed.  And it wasn’t just a screwjob here or there.  It was a screwjob every single time.  Every pay-per-view event had some kind of screwjob, either through outside interference or because of some scripted “heel turn”, and that much-needed and much-promised victory would turn into yet another “shocking” defeat.  Your hard-earned money spent on pay-per-view events that became pay-per-screwjob.

Then people got sick of it all and they stopped paying for the pay-per-screwjobs and they stopped going to the events and they stopped watching the shows.  So management let the “good guys” win one.  I remember it too, because I was there live when it happened.  But, by then, the “revolution” had its own “revolution” and another after that, and splinter groups on top of splinter groups, and people just got tired of all the games.  This is when WCW started to truly lose its support and eventually it would be bought out by and assimilated into the WWE.

Well another screwjob is in the works, but this time it is in the equally-over-scripted world of politics.

We know who the heels are: President Donald Trump and his GOP cronies have formed their own “New World Order” gang, complete with goon squads, propaganda mills, and even biased officials.  They’re rude, crude, obnoxious, and they just don’t give a damn what we think of them as long as they get their way.  And, yes, they have their fans who are cult-like in their adoration and support.

That makes the liberals and progressives and free-thinkers and scientists and the Democrats and the non-conservative media and pretty much everyone else who are not “for” Trump’s NWO (such as yours truly) as the so-called “babyfaces” of politics.  They mean well.  They do their best, but they just can’t seem to get that crucial win.

But we are all told not to worry, because there is “hope” in the form of special prosecutor Robert Mueller. 

Mueller is being painted as a “hero” for the anti-Trump crowd.  He would supposedly be their “savior”.  Mueller will do what the voters and the Electoral College will not, and that is to remove Trump from office... somehow.  All he has to do is find the “dirt” on Trump, to prove some kind of collusion or interference or some kind of wrongdoing, and then “the system” will step in and either impeach Trump and force him out of office or get him to resign like Richard Nixon did back in 1974.

And there are some that truly believe that it is that simple.

Liberal commentator and sometimes sports broadcaster Keith Olbermann is so convinced of Mueller being their “white knight” that he has declared the whole mess with Trump to be over with and he retired from his commentary role.  There’s nothing more that needs to be said, Olbermann said on his final YouTube broadcast for GQ.  All roads lead to either impeachment or indictment or both.  Game over.  The end.

And if you believe that, then I have some paper degrees from Trump U to sell you.

Let’s get brutally honest here… if you really believe that Trump’s removal is as easy as Robert Mueller simply indicting the President of the United States, then you are in for a classic political screwjob.  Mueller has no more power to remove Donald Trump and his MAGA red-hat fascists out of office than you or I have. 

For all of the charges that Robert Mueller and his office can put together, no matter how many indictments he can get, no matter how many witnesses he can bring, no matter how much evidence he can amass, he cannot get Donald Trump out of office on his own.

The only way that Trump can be removed from office is either through the ballot box, through impeachment in the House of Representatives and conviction in the U.S. Senate, or through his own cabinet invoking the specific clause in the 25^th Amendment should they deem Trump to be “unable to carry out the duties”.  Two of the three methods require activity from members of Trump’s own political party, which is something that they are outright unwilling to do.  And the third requires us to wait until November of 2020, barring all-out nuclear war, and then we’d have to convince enough voters in enough states with enough electoral college representatives to vote for someone other than Trump.

Think you can wait until 2020?  No?  Then you better have the biggest political upset in the 2018 mid-term election ever in political history, because impeachment and conviction requires not only a majority of votes in the House, but also two-thirds of the Senate.  A simple majority will not suffice with the Senate.  And that’s not taking into account the inherent and well-documented obstructionism of the GOP.  This is a sociopathic party that has demonstrated time and time again that they will see the country burn just to prove a point.

Yes, there is fourth way.  Trump can resign.  He can walk away like he did to some of his businesses.  But if he does it, it probably will not be because of any sense of “honor” or “duty” or love of country like Nixon did.  Those concepts are alien to a narcissist.  If Trump resigns, it would be because of his ego and out of fear that his all-precious image would be permanently damaged if were he to stick around like Bill Clinton did twenty years ago.

Speaking of which; Bill Clinton’s two terms in office actually gives us the best example of why Mueller will not save us from the Trump.

Remember Kenneth Starr?  He was the special prosecutor that the GOP brought in to investigate President Clinton and his wife and their lackeys.  He was hyped up by the conservatives as being their “white knight”.  Ken Starr was going to “save the nation”.  Ken Starr was going to expose the Clintons.  Ken Starr was going to bring “justice” to the White House.

Ken Starr investigated every single possible charge and claim made against the Clintons from coverups, collusion, nepotism, corruption, to murder.  Everything the GOP could claim was investigated and vetted by Starr.  Everything.  And the only thing that he could get Bill Clinton on... was lying under oath about oral sex from an intern.  And even though that got Clinton impeached, the Senate refused to convict him.

All those years, all of that hype, all of the anticipation from the GOP and the conservatives and talk radio and their various propaganda mills from NewsMax to World Net Daily to Fox News, that all that they needed was to have Ken Starr come in and save the day and it would be over for Clinton.  It was all a screwjob.  All of it.

And guess what?  Back then, yours truly predicted it!  I predicted back in 1998 that Clinton would leave the White House exactly as he came in, quote: “with a waive and a smile”.  And I was right.  Starr pulled his screwjob and Clinton left the White House as I predicted on January 20^th, 2001, with that waive and smile.  Screwjob for the GOP.

Same thing happened with Bush Junior.  The outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative was a blatant violation of federal law, but the people who should have been held to account for it were allowed to walk, and only one low-level person took the fall.  And all of the talk of impeachment from the Democrats suddenly stopped as soon as they got control of the Congress.  Like Clinton before him, George W. Bush was able to walk out of the White House exactly as he came in, with a waive and a smile.  Screwjob for the Dems.

Same thing with Barack Obama.  The GOP kept on demanding investigations, kept on promising indictments, kept on promising trials... if not for Obama, then for Hillary Clinton.  What happened?  Nothing.  Obama left like he came in, with a waive and a smile.  Screwjob for the GOP.

So here we are again... with another president being investigated by another special prosecutor, and people are putting all their hopes on the thought that this man will somehow right the wrongs of the election.

Spoiler alert: this will likely end with yet another screwjob.

While Trump is pretty much an unstable wild card, the true “deep state” people, the entrenched power brokers and party bosses, have decided to work with him.  The GOP will continue to defend him and support him at the expense of the rest of the nation simply because Trump’s MAGA cult members help keep them in office.  And for all of their complaining and hand-wringing, the Democrats will not take any real steps to get Trump out of office even if they manage to regain control of Congress; because they feel that they can use Trump for that “next election” that they always look out for.

If Trump seems upset or feels threatened about Mueller, it is because Trump is a narcissist, and his fragile ego will not tolerate anyone or anything painting him in a bad light.  It’s the same reason why he attacks college students who question his political stances, or football players that “take a knee”, or anyone that does not applaud him when he speaks.  His fragile ego demands total appeasement and awe from all he surveys.  That is textbook narcissism. 

Robert Mueller is no different than the babyface wrestlers of WCW being pitted against the New World Order.  He comes in with hype and hope, but, in the end, he’ll take the loss.  Maybe someone on the low-or-medium spot in the Trump hierarchy will be sacrificed. But Trump and his top players will remain unscathed.  Because that is how it is all scripted.   If Trump does leave before his tenure ends, it’ll only be by his choice and on his terms.

It's all just orchestrated drama, folks.  Screwjobs no different than the kind seen in professional wrestling.  All designed to keep you pissed, keep you feeling helpless, and to keep you coming back to them for more.  As long as you keep playing their game and keep voting for those two dominant political parties, then that tells the party bosses and power players that it is just business as usual.  It only ends when you stop playing their games.

Week of 02/05/2018

The “$1000” Bribe
– by David Matthews 2

So... did you get your thousand-dollars yet?

Big Corporate is trying to peddle President Donald Trump’s newly-signed and overly-touted tax reform law by announcing these so-called “thousand-dollar bonuses” for their employees.  They’re trying to sell you on the myth that Trump’s big tax-break for Big Corporate translates into huge “windfalls” for the hard-working employees.

You see, the last time Big Corporate got a break was after the Great Recession, when businesses were given breaks to “encourage” job creation.  This was especially true with the “Too Big To Fail” banks, who were given passes on any and all criminal charges just as long as they gave some already-budgeted pocket change as a “fine” and a mealy-mouthed promise to “do better”.  But then they took the money and they flipped America the bird.  It was clear they didn’t care about the economy or the American people.  All they were interested in was their short-term profits and to hell with the rest of the world.

So this time around, Big Corporate wanted to make sure they got it “right”.  They didn’t want us to be pissed at them again for getting more money while we still struggle.

So you have these big companies announcing $1000 bonuses to their employees.  “Share the wealth”, right?  $1000 bonuses are nothing to sneeze at, right?  Right?

Well... hold on there, Trumpets.  Don’t be self-clapping like your orange-skinned narcissistic cult leader.  You see, those $1000 bonuses come with a huge disclaimer.  Huge, I say.  “Yuuuuge!”  Bigger than even Trump’s narcissistic ego.

First of all, if you continue to read the fine print on the story – something that I understand your narcissistic cult-leader doesn’t have “the time” to do – you’d find out that not every employee will get that $1000 bonus.  With big companies like Home Depot, that $1000 bonus will only go to those employees that have been with the company for at least 20 years.  That’s not a lot of people!  For the most part you’re talking managers, supervisors, and executives.  Not the people that work on the floor, in the trenches, day-in-and-day-out, on hourly wages.  The bulk of the employees, especially those recently employed, will get only about $200.

So we’ve gone from “Christmas”, as Vice President Mike Pence described it, to one week’s grocery shopping, or one monthly utility bill.  Just one.

Second, not every company is taking part in this, despite the overexaggerated claims from our narcissistic President.  Certain companies are, of course.  Those are the companies that people recognize.  But that does not translate into every company giving bonuses.  If you’re thinking that you’re going to spoil your kids with a trip to Disneyland with that bonus money that your boss has not announced, you could be waiting for a long, long, time.

Third, here’s another dirty little secret: that bonus money is not the same as your paycheck money.  It gets taxed differently.  That supposed “$1000” bonus, which would probably will be closer to $200 if you get anything at all, will end up being closer to $125 after taxes.  Yeah, you won’t hear VP Pence gloat about that detail.

So we’ve gone from “Christmas” to grocery shopping to gas money. Yay Big Corporate!

Of course, the whole purpose of this is to sell the myth that tax cuts translate into windfalls for everyone, not just the rich.  It’s the old lie perpetrated during the Ronald Reagan days of “trickle-down economics”, where if you give the rich all the breaks, they’ll turn around and “re-invest” in more jobs and raises.  But, as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, just because companies “could” do something, that doesn’t mean that they actually will do that.  We saw that just ten years ago with the Great Recession.

That brings us to the fourth point: This is happening as other companies and corporations are shutting down stores and laying people off.  Home Depot may be giving out those supposed “$1000*” bonuses (*your amount may vary), but at the same time, Walmart is both raising their minimum wages and they’re also shutting down stores for both their big-box brand and Sam’s Club; some without notice on the same day as their wage hike announcement.  Toys-R-Us is shutting down stores as part of their bankruptcy.  Sears is shutting down several of their own brand stores and K-Mart stores as part of their bankruptcy.  Remember that Carrier manufacturing plant that Trump claimed he “saved”?  They’re laying off more people than they initially announced.  Kimberly-Clark, makers of diapers and tissues, is laying people off.  Even Harley-Davidson – an American manufacturing icon – is laying people off!

All this... while people are crowing about a supposed “bonus” that they may or may not get for an amount that may or may not be $1000 before taxes.

Because let’s get brutally honest here... what this is, is nothing more than a carefully-orchestrated diversion.  It’s all designed to distract us from the ongoing economic uncertainty, the anticipated corporate profit-gluttony, and to spread the myth that Trump is some economic messiah. 

Oh, sure, Wall Street is doing super-well!  It’s on meth as it shatters records.  But Wall Street is not Main Street, and it sure as hell is not our street.  Wall Street lives in its own little bubble of delusion, comfortably separated from reality by obscene amounts of money and influence.  The whole world can live in absolute squalor, but as long as corporations can claim record profits, Wall Street will act like the world is in some new “golden age”.

Remember Enron?  It was the super-big corporate monstrosity that was so powerful that it actually orchestrated the ouster of the Governor of California.  And do you know how it got all that political power and financial might?  They hid their losses in deceptive accounting practices and shell companies.  Debt too high?  Create a new company and transfer the debt to them as an “investment”.  Yay!  “Profit!”  And then they patted themselves on their backs, gave huge self-applauses, and touted themselves as being smart… really smart… in fact, they could call themselves geniuses.

Sound familiar?

Of course, Enron couldn’t keep the deception going forever.  It fell.  And when it crashed, it exposed widescale corruption and graft.  It cost jobs.  Plenty of them.  And not just Enron.  It sparked a mini-recession when it and a bunch of other corporations full of self-applauding “really, really smart” people collapsed.

And that’s where we are right now… a nationwide Enron being run by a self-professed “smartest guy in the room”, and corporate minions using sleight-of-hand tricks to hide our creeping economic misery.

If Big Corporate really did care more about their employees, then they wouldn’t be playing games like the “$1000 bonus” gimmick.  They’d instead be raising wages for the hard-working Americans.  They would actually live up to the false promises of “trickle-down”.  But that would cost them too much money, and this plunder economy that we are forced to survive under considers that kind of thinking to be heresy.  It’s a whole lot cheaper for them to give a one-time-only bonus than to invest in long-term wage increases.  Sure, Walmart did that, but they also laid of a lot of other people at the exact same time.  You know, like it was quid-pro-quo… a bribe.

Yes, I work for a living too.  I struggle to make ends meet.  I also know first-hand what it is like to be out of work for a long period of time thanks to the mechanizations of Big Corporate during the Great Recession.  I see the desperation still going on today from people who are struggling to find work while our politicians lie about how “low” unemployment is.  Be happy if you’re getting something out of the tax sell-out.  But understand as well that there will be plenty that won’t.  And a one-time bonus that simply pays for gas money should not be interpreted as helping the economy or fulfilling the empty promises of Trump and his GOP. 

Take the quid, but don’t buy the quo.  Then you’ll be beating the “smartest guys in the room” at their own game.