Along with clear evidence of US meddling in scores of foreign elections, wanting ruling authorities serving its interests installed, the US political process was rife with fraud and other dirty tricks time and again since early in the 18th century. More on this below.
The Russiagate witch hunt hoax was and remains all about delegitimizing Trump’s triumph over media darling Hillary, bashing Russia at the same time, falsely claiming an improper or illegal Trump team connection to Moscow, along with the Big Lie that won’t die accusation of Kremlin US election meddling no evidence suggests occurred because none exists.
Ukrainegate is a Russiagate spinoff, a second bite of the apple, another politicized attempt to vilify Trump for the wrong reasons, aiming to give whoever becomes undemocratic Dem standard bearer an edge in the 2020 presidential election.
Like Russiagate, Ukrainegate is a tempest in a teapot, much ado about nothing. In politics, perception becomes reality in the public mind, notably from a steady manipulative media drumbeat, pushing their worldview, featuring advocacy over journalism the way it should be.
An impeachment inquiry, initiated by Dems, over allegations that Trump asked Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter on corruption related issues, along with allegedly delaying military aid as a bargaining chip, is a scam likely to backfire like Russiagate.
It’s compounded by CIA involvement, a so-called agency whistleblower, alleging that Trump “is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election.”
The individual admitted not being “a direct witness to most of events described.”
Claiming Trump’s actions “pose risks to US national security and undermine the US government’s efforts to deter and counter foreign interference” is politicized malarkey.
Expressing outrage over whatever Trump may or may not have done is like Captain Renault expressing shock about gambling at Rick’s from the film Casablanca – as Emile hands him his winnings and is thanked.
US political shenanigans began in the early days of the republic. In 1824, after no clear electoral winner emerged, a “corrupt bargain” was agreed on after weeks of intense lobbying, John Quincy Adams chosen over Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William Crawford as president. Outrage followed because deal-makers prevailed over voters.
Jackson was later elected and reelected president in 1828 and 1832.
In 1876, Dem Samuel Tilden got over two million more votes than Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. With 20 disputed Electoral College votes uncounted, Tilden led by a 184 – 165 margin.
A secretly struck “bargain of 1877” elevated Hayes to the nation’s highest office, power brokers deciding things, not voters.
In 1948, Lyndon Johnson’s Senate campaign overcame a 20,000 vote deficit to gain an 87-vote victory. According to historian Robert Caro, it wasn’t “the only (US) election…ever stolen, but there was never such brazen thievery” to that time.
Digital age technology, featuring corporate-programmed electronic voting machines, makes electoral fraud easier than ever.
Despite losing to Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, GW Bush served two terms as president — electronic ease and majority Supreme Court justices elevating him to power.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter was chosen to defeat Gerald Ford for a one-term post-Watergate interregnum, following the railroading of Richard Nixon, forcing his resignation, ahead of Republicans regaining control of the White House in 1980.
In 2008, the absurd McCain/Palin ticket was chosen to lose, handing the election to Obama.
Democracy in America is pure fantasy, how it’s been from inception. Secrecy and back room deals substitute for a free, fair and open process.
Party bosses choose candidates. Big money owns them. Ordinary Americans have no say over how they’re governed.
Voters get the best democracy money can buy — what realpolitik’s dark side is all about.
Election 2016 surprised. Media vilified billionaire real estate businessman Trump, a political outsider, triumphed over establishment figure Hillary — groomed and selected to succeed Obama.
How possible? Scandals surrounding her likely made her damaged goods, too contentious to serve – especially with key House Republican committee chairmen promising endless investigations into her wrongdoing to maintain relentless pressure on her.
Trump is a political anomaly – an establishment figure coming across to supporters as populist, effectively enough to elevate him to the nation’s highest office.
Was it by fair or foul means? Favorites don’t usually lose to outliers in America. Make your own judgment.
Investigative journalist Greg Palast believed the 2016 process was rigged, citing “caging, blocking legitimate registrations, and wrongly shunting millions to ‘provisional’ ballots that (were) never be counted,” along with potential millions of people “voting many, many times” in key states.
If so, it wasn’t the first or last time US election results aren’t what they seem. Power brokers have final say on how things turn out.
Dirty tricks like Russiagate and Ukrainegate are part of the US political landscape, each right wing of the one-party state, seeking an edge over the other.
That’s what the Dems-initiated anti-Trump impeachment inquiry is all about.
It’s also clear proof that politics in America (and most other countries) is no place for the fainthearted.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
