{"id":367563,"date":"2018-07-01T13:23:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T12:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=367563"},"modified":"2018-07-01T21:36:36","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T20:36:36","slug":"the-dictatorship-over-america-how-it-functions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/the-dictatorship-over-america-how-it-functions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dictatorship Over America: How It Functions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats have won the national vote in six of the last seven presidential elections, which, with the retirement of Anthony Kennedy, will have resulted in the appointment of eight of the Supreme Court\u2019s nine justices. And yet four of those justices will have been appointed by presidents who took office despite having fewer votes than their opponent. Republicans will have increasingly solid control of the court\u2019s majority, with the chance to replace the sometimes-wavering Kennedy with a never-wavering conservative movement stalwart.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last generation, the Republican Party has moved rapidly rightward, while the center of public opinion has not. It is almost impossible to find a substantive basis in public opinion for Republican government. On health care, taxes, immigration, guns, the GOP has left America behind in its race to the far right. But the Supreme Court underscores its ability to counteract the undertow of its deepening, unpopular extremism by marshaling countermajoritiarian power.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

This is the way that the neocon<\/span><\/a> (Hillary Clinton wing<\/span><\/a>) Democrat Jonathan Chait, writing at the Democratic Party propaganda-organ New York<\/i> magazine, got something correct, for a change. That quotation opened Chait\u2019s June 27th commentary, which was ominously titled “The Republican Court and the Era of Minority Rule\u201d<\/span><\/a>. However, the prospects for democracy in America are actually even worse than that. This problem is bipartisan, and Chait himself has been part of it. Neoconservatives (otherwise called \u201cAmerica\u2019s imperialists\u201d<\/span><\/a> but they\u2019re basically no different from imperialists in other countries) run both of America\u2019s political Parties \u2014 not only<\/i> the Republican Party \u2014 regardless of what voters might happen to think of the neoconservative philosophy. This disparity between the non-ideological public and the virtually 100% neoconservative rulers<\/span><\/a>, is due to the fact that voters have no real power in America<\/span><\/a> (something that Chait noted in that excerpt, but only<\/i> within a partisan Democratic-Party-versus-Republican-Party context, not<\/i> any broader or more encompassing context, one that questions the political and economic system itself<\/i> \u2014 at a deeper level than merely \u201cDemocratic\u201d versus \u201cRepublican\u201d). By contrast against that powerless public<\/span><\/a>, America\u2019s aristocrats possess all of the real power, in both Parties, and they\u2019re virtually 100% imperialists (\u201cneocons\u201d) because they want their private international corporate empires to dominate over the entire world \u2014 at the public\u2019s expense, with a huge, globe-spanning, military<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

This insightful (though too narrowly focused) opening from Chait shows that even neoconservatives (such as he) aren\u2019t always wrong about everything. In fact, this opening, from a Democratic Party neoconservative, about America\u2019s increasing conservative (Republican) dictatorship, was entirely truthful within its partisan narrow scope, and therefore (to that extent) it was more like an exemplification of the proverbial \u201cinfinite monkey theorem\u201d<\/span><\/a> \u2014 that \u201ca monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.\u201d That opening was a random masterpiece.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Chait\u2019s \u2018Shakespearean’ string ended precisely there, when he immediately followed it by saying, \u201cThe story really begins in December 2000,\u201d and he proceeded then to blame everything on Bush-v.-Gore, and on the way that the Republican operatives raped the American nation on 9 December 2000. But to allege that the problem started in 2000 is false \u2018history\u2019. This problem started much earlier (as will now be documented).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

The only comprehensive and scientific study which has ever been done of whether the U.S. is a democracy or instead a dictatorship, was published in 2014. It studied the period during 1981 through 2002, and it found that<\/span><\/a>, \u201cIn the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule \u2014 at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Consequently, for example, prior to our invasion of Iraq in 2003, our opinions of \u201cSaddam\u2019s WMD\u201d were simply being manipulated by the controlling owners of U.S.-based international corporations (including their \u2018news\u2019media, which they advertise in and\/or also own), just as those same super-rich individuals (most of whom are Americans) have controlled whom the nine people will be who rule from the Supreme Court, about what the U.S. Constitution means, and doesn\u2019t mean (and this judicial panel, of course, also decided Bush-v.-Gore, to which Chait blames America\u2019s dictatorship).<\/span><\/p>\n

So: the U.S. Constitution has become increasingly twisted (by such jurists) to \u2018mean\u2019 things (such as aristocratic dictatorship) that were actually loathed by America\u2019s Founders, who even went to war against Britain\u2019s aristocracy \u2014 this anti-aristocratic Constitution has become increasingly twisted by the aristocracy\u2019s court-picks, to \u2018mean\u2019 things such as creating and expanding an international empire, and as allowing U.S. taxpayers to be forced to subsidize the political speech of some religions and not of other religions, nor of seculars (rejectors of all religions). Especially the Republican Party benefits enormously from empowering evangelical pastors to preach Republican propaganda to their congregations. Religion becomes a political football.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to that scientific study, the United States, during the period that was studied, 1981 through to 2002, which was virtually the entire twenty years PRIOR to Bush-.v.-Gore \u2014 and this is quoting now directly from the study itself<\/span><\/a>: \u201cThe preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.\u201d<\/i> So: it didn\u2019t start in 2000.<\/span><\/p>\n

A study published two years later<\/a><\/span> (in 2016) reviewed the entire relevant literature and found \u201cthat responsiveness [to the American public\u2019s preferences] seems to have declined during the late twentieth century\u201d and might be getting worse yet than that: \u201cThe picture appears to be even more ominous \u2014 that is, opinion and policy are negatively related \u2014 on highly salient issues that attract media attention.\u201d (Consequently: the more media-attention, the less that the Government\u2019s policy will reflect the public\u2019s preferences on the given issue.) This report states, in its \u201cConclusions,\u201d that, \u201cthe trends seem to be moving in the wrong direction from the standpoint of democratic theory \u2014 that is, people seem less and less likely to get what they say they want from government.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The basic problem in America, therefore, isn\u2019t Democratic versus Republican; it is instead democracy versus dictatorship. And this problem exists within each<\/i> Party: each Party is controlled by its billionaires, not<\/i> by its voting-public.<\/span><\/p>\n

So: how does this \u2014 the aristocracy\u2019s dictatorial grip on America\u2019s Government \u2014 actually function? Not only the 2000 U.S. Presidential \u2018election\u2019 was stolen from the American electorate, but so too are almost all U.S. national elections stolen, especially the crucial ones, such as the political primary elections to Congress and the Presidency, for candidates to become the selected nominees of each of the two political Parties and thus to become offered to the public as the final contestants who might actually win those offices in the U.S. national Government. Just as Bernie Sanders was the most-preferred of all candidates in 2016 to become the U.S. President but the nomination was stolen from him by the Democratic National Committee for Hillary Clinton<\/span><\/a>, it\u2019s the same in most \u2018elections\u2019 to American national offices. And this dictatorship by the super-rich didn\u2019t start with Bush.-v.-Gore, such as Chait alleges.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a current example of how this dictatorship functions: Right now, the U.S. aristocracy, who control all of the large U.S. corporations \u2014 including all of the major news-media \u2014 are pushing very hard to impose a kind of lock-down against the few media that they don\u2019t control: against the media whose only presence is online, because these small media lack the funding to have either a print-and-paper presence, or else network broadcast and telecast facilities or a cable network. The way that the \u2018news\u2019-giants propagandize for this lockdown against unwanted truths, is by calling those small media sites (especially the half-dozen or so which do<\/i> publish the elsewhere prohibited truths) \u2018fake news\u2019 media, and by alleging that only the print-broadcast-cable \u2018news\u2019 media (the very same \u2018news\u2019media which had deceived the public in 2002 to fear \u201cSaddam\u2019s WMD,\u201d and which subsequently also \u2018justified\u2019, in 2011, Obama\u2019s destruction of Libya, and then his subsequent invasion of Syria<\/i><\/b>) ought to be trusted by the American people. Obviously, trusting those media is crazy, but America\u2019s aristocrats want<\/b> the public to believe this false way \u2014 trusting the billionaire-controlled \u2018news\u2019media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, on June 27th, Gallup reported<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation conducted a web-based experiment to assess the effectiveness of a news source rating tool designed to help online news consumers discriminate between real news and misinformation. The tool identifies news organizations as reliable (using a green cue) or unreliable (using a red cue) based on evaluations of their work, funding and other factors by experienced journalists.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The Gallup news-report closed: \u201cGallup and Knight Foundation acknowledge support for this research provided by the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Open Society Foundations.\u201d All of them are neoconservative organizations, which represent the interests of America\u2019s billionaires \u2014 not of the public anywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

The technical report of this experiment<\/a><\/span> concluded that mainstream news-media can increase the public\u2019s prejudice against non-mainstream news-media, by having their own hired \u201cexperienced journalists\u201d label those small competing news-media as providers of \u2018misinformation\u2019 instead of \u2018news\u2019: <\/span><\/p>\n

This survey experiment evaluated the effect of a specific source rating tool \u2014 cues about news organization trustworthiness based on evaluations from experienced journalists. The findings suggest that using this approach may help combat online misinformation and restore confidence in obtaining quality news.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, this finding is very good news for America\u2019s billionaires, because further suppressing what the aristocrats are calling \u2018misinformation\u2019 (such as this<\/span><\/a>, from one of the sites on the aristocracy\u2019s banned list) will enable them to increase<\/i> their dictatorship, even more. (Incidentally, both the bipartisan aristocratic control, and the truth-suppression, are similar in UK<\/span><\/a> to what they are in U.S.<\/span><\/a>, and with similar results<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

As time goes by, the means of deceiving the public, become even cagier than they were before. The way that the dictatorship in America functions is by deceiving the public<\/b>; and perhaps this Gallup-Knight-Ford-Gates-Soros study has helped them to develop a more effective \u201ctool\u201d to do that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe the next big invasion will be of Iran. American-and-allied media seem to be focusing increasingly on this particular target. Perhaps \u201cexperienced journalists\u201d are being promoted right now, for that very purpose. With Donald Trump in power, Iran is systematically becoming the main next target. It was his top target even before he became elected; and one can even say that he was selected by the U.S. aristocracy, and by Israel’s aristocracy, and by the Saud family who own Saudi Arabia, and by the leader of UAE\u2019s royal families, mainly for this reason, to be installed to run the U.S. regime.<\/span><\/a> But, of course, they would also have done very well if Hillary Clinton had been \u2018elected\u2019. That\u2019s the way things are: politics in America, especially at the national level, is now merely a puppet-show. And, apparently, many if not most of the people who are pulling the strings in it don\u2019t so much as live here \u2014 they are foreigners, though of the types that Trump (as now is obvious<\/span><\/a>), relies upon, instead of persecutes (such as \u2018wetbacks\u2019). The American people are merely the audience. We didn\u2019t even buy this puppet-show. Those billionaires did. (The American ones<\/span><\/a> also buy the puppet-theater<\/span><\/a> which presents Russia \u2014 not Israel or Saudi Arabia \u2014 as being the foreign power that controls the U.S. Government and that \u2018endangers democracy\u2019 everywhere. During the communist era, that story-line<\/span><\/a> was believable by even intelligent people, but after 24 February 1990, it no longer is<\/span><\/a>: the U.S.\u2019s own aristocracy clearly is<\/i> that \u201cforeign power\u201d<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/b> The way that the present writer tries to facilitate readers\u2019 checking-out the trustworthiness of the allegations in my own news-reports, isn\u2019t based on sites (like the aristocracy want it to be, so that the news that they don\u2019t want the public to know \u2014 and that their own \u2018news\u2019-sites won\u2019t publish \u2014 won\u2019t be able to have an impact) but instead is based on individual news-reports<\/i>, by means of providing links to that specific source whenever a given allegation is of such nature that a significant percentage of readers might think it to be false. I am selective of each and every individual article or video that I cite (link to) as being evidence; I never select and link to sources on the basis of the news-medium<\/i> that published<\/i> them, because I sometimes find falsehoods published on even the best media, and sometimes find thoroughly accurate articles or videos to be published on even the worst media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Selecting on the basis of media, instead of specific evidence, is for fools. Every news-consumer should know what the prejudices of any given \u2018news\u2019medium are \u2014 its main propagandistic orientations. But to evaluate any given allegation on that type of basis, is foolish. It is an ad-hominem<\/i>, not ad-rem<\/i>, evaluation regarding that given allegation. It welcomes prejudices, instead of facts \u2014 it repels<\/i> truths. And that is why the aristocracy encourages and promotes it, as the Gallup-Knight-Ford-Gates-Soros study does. (In fact, I\u2019ve seen evidence that the Washington Post<\/i> uses software that automatically rejects any submission which links to a website that isn\u2019t on the Post\u2019<\/i>s management-approved list of sites to link to. And, of course, this management-policy encourages the \u2018news\u2019paper to accept submissions that have no links in them at all \u2014 precisely the least<\/i>-trustworthy type of submissions.) <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org Democrats have won the national vote in six of the last seven presidential elections, which, with the retirement of Anthony Kennedy, will have resulted in the appointment of eight of the Supreme Court\u2019s nine justices. And yet four of those justices will have been appointed by presidents who took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":367564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,519],"tags":[30,96,1034,59,804,524,754,523,755,76,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-367563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-newswire","9":"tag-big-brother","10":"tag-cover-up","11":"tag-independent-media","12":"tag-military","13":"tag-politics-2","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-syria","16":"tag-ukraine","17":"tag-usa","18":"tag-warfare","19":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367563"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367603,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367563\/revisions\/367603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}