Author Archives: Eric Zuesse

800+ retired justice department lawyers demand Trump’s impeachment

As of this writing, 802 former federal lawyers—all of them former federal prosecutors working for the U.S. Department of Justice—have signed a public letter headlined on May 6th “STATEMENT BY FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTORS”, which states the charges they all think should be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in an indictment of the president, which then would be considered by the U.S. Senate in a possible forced removal of him from office, which would immediately make the current vice president, Mike Pence, the nation’s president for the remainder of the existing president’s term, which ends on 20 January 2021. Continue reading

‘Humanitarian’ concerns increase wars, benefit only arms-producers

Unlike a regular corporation, the corporations that manufacture and sell weapons to their government are virtually 100% dependent upon their government and its military allies, for their own success; their markets are only those governments, not individuals (such as is the case for normal corporations). Consequently, either their government will control them, and those firms won’t have any effective control over their own markets, or else those firms will, themselves, control their government, and thereby effectively control their markets, via the government’s foreign policies—not only via expanding its military alliances (those firms’ foreign markets), but via its designating ‘enemy’ nations that it and its ‘allies’ (those arms-producers’ foreign markets) can then use those weapons against. Continue reading

How lies become ‘facts’ in U.S. ‘news’

On Fox News Channel’s May 2 edition of “The Story with Martha MacCallum” it was alleged, by the program host (at 2:45 in this video), that one reason we must invade Venezuela (if we will) is that “People have lost 24 pounds” there. So (her point was), if we invade, that’s not evil, it’s no coup, but instead it’s humanitarian (presumably like it was in Iraq in 2003, when we invaded that country, which likewise had never invaded nor threatened to invade the United States—it was raw international aggression, by our country, against Iraq). Continue reading

Is the United States a democracy?

There are many partisan responses to this question. Of course, internationally, the United States is regarded by many people to be the gold standard of what constitutes a democracy (perhaps because the U.S. was the first nation that was born out of a successful revolution against an existing dictatorship and that quickly produced a written Constitution, which endorses many democratic principles and which lasts proudly until the present day). However, that reputation is not a substantive answer to the question as to whether the United States is today a democracy. There are dictatorships that have democratic written constitutions. Furthermore, the way that a constitution is enforced or not enforced can determine whether or not the nation’s constitution is real or whether it’s instead more of a mere formality than a reality. Continue reading

What makes the EU so rabidly hypocritical

Unlike America under Donald Trump, who is proudly psychopathic and went so far as to blurt out that his followers would accept his leadership even if he were to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, the European Union is so rabidly hypocritical (Trump would probably call it “politically correct”) that its leaders routinely moralize about ‘human rights and democracy’ even while their governments indiscriminately rob and slaughter people in foreign lands (as will be documented here). Continue reading

Understanding the American dictatorship

The American dictatorship is by the aristocracy of the country’s 585 billionaires, and has been scientifically proven beyond any doubt, now, not only in the classic Gilens and Page study, which examined thousands of bills in Congress and their money-backers and their ultimate outcomes (passage or failure to pass), during the studied period, 1981-2002. But also another (though less rigorous) study suggests that this control of the U.S. government by America’s billionaires is getting even worse. So, America is clearly a dictatorship, by America’s aristocracy. Continue reading

Trump threatens war if Russia protects Venezuela

On March 27, US President Donald Trump said that “Russia has to get out” of Venezuela, and that “All options are on the table” if Russia refuses to withdraw from Venezuela the protection it has recently provided to Venezuela’s elected government, which Trump is attempting to overthrow, by an illegal coup. And Vice President Mike Pence, on the same day, said “Nicolás Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power, and it is the policy of the United States of America, at the direction of President Donald Trump, that Nicolás Maduro must go.” The United States is therefore trying to do to Maduro what Barack Obama did to Victor Yanukovich in Ukraine in 2014, and to Muammar Gaddaffi in Libya in 2011, and tried to do to Bashar Assad after 2011 in Syria, and what George W. Bush did in 2003 to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But, this time, there is a difference, because right up front, Russia isn’t allowing it, and is sending men and equipment to Venezuela, to prevent it from happening—in other words, to block the US government from achieving a conquest of Venezuela. Continue reading

Hope for Ukrainians, at last

Finally, it appears that there is realistic hope for an end to the brutal, far-right, regime that U.S. President Barack Obama, through his chief agent on Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, had imposed upon Ukraine, by means of an extraordinarily violent coup in February 2014, which replaced Ukraine’s democratically elected sitting president. Continue reading

Why calling US a ‘democracy’ is both false & dangerous to do

It’s false because it is definitely untrue, and that’s not merely because America has a higher percentage of its residents in prison than does any other nation on this planet, but also because the only scientific studies that have been done of the matter show—they prove scientifically—that the US is a dictatorship by its very wealthiest residents, against all the rest of the population. Traditionally, that’s called an “aristocracy,” not a democracy, but ever since Mussolini in the 1920s, it came to be called “fascism,” which is the successor to “feudalism” and thus is merely the modernized form of feudalism. What used to be called by such terms as “monarchy” or “aristocracy” is thus now called “fascism” but the leopard is the same regardless of what it is labeled, and what it really is a dictatorship. Continue reading

Why only fools trust America’s mainstream ‘news’

Here will be yet another current example to demonstrate that all U.S. mainstream ’news’ media hide from their respective public that the U.S. government is lying, when the U.S. government lies—i.e., that all of the mainstream ’news’ media in America hide the truth, when the government itself is lying. In other words: the U.S. mainstream ’news’ media are propaganda organs for the U.S. government. Continue reading

Gallup finds Americans have been very deceived regarding United States’ image around the world

Gallup issued on February 28 its “2019 Rating World Leaders” report, subtitled “The US vs. Germany, China and Russia,” and said, “The world still frowned on US leadership more than the leadership of any other country asked about in 2018.” All four of the countries’ leaderships received approval-ratings from people worldwide in only the 30-39% range, and this low score for the US leadership (which was approved by merely 31% of people sampled worldwide during 2018) represented an enormous decline for the United States, which during the Obama years had received scores ranging from 41% to 49% approval. However, a Gallup report which had been issued only three days earlier, on February 25, indicated that the American people are blissfully ignorant of any of this reality, and instead believe that the global approval-rating of the United States itself is high and is rising, not, as it actually is, low and declining. Continue reading

Lies America’s news media tell

Here are America’s recent targets for regime-change (against which have been used economic sanctions, invasion, and enormous destruction)—and all of them are nations that never invaded nor threatened to invade America: Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, Syria 2011-2018, Yemen 2015-now, Ukraine 2014, and Venezuela 2017-now. Continue reading

The international rogue nation: America

In 2003, America (and its lapdog UK) invaded and destroyed Iraq on the basis of lies to the effect that the U.S. (and UK) regime were certain that Saddam Hussein had and was developing weapons of mass destruction. These U.S. allegations were based on provable falsehoods when they were stated and published, but the regime’s ‘news’-media refused to publish and demonstrate (or “expose”) any of these lies. That’s how bad the regime was (and its media’s ‘news’ were)—this was virtually a total lockdown against truth, and for international conquest (in that case, of Iraq): it was mass-murder and destruction on the basis of sheer lies, by the regime and its stenographers. Continue reading

How America’s dictatorship works

Trump could not have become America’s president if he had not won the “vote” of his nation’s second-largest political donor in 2016, casinos-owner Sheldon Adelson. Continue reading

Why Venezuela’s people are suffering

The case that will be documented here is that Venezuela’s people are suffering from a tragic national situation which actually cannot be reversed by anything that’s within the power of Venezuela’s government to do or to block. In order to understand this very unfortunate reality (if one wants to understand it), one must first understand the relevant parts of the broader situation in the world that affects Venezuela. What’s dooming the country isn’t merely a local situation, but instead is global and environmental. It also is economic, pertaining to the role that Venezuela is playing in the global economy. But the economic factor is definitely not of the kind that it’s commonly assumed and alleged to be. It is instead very different. Continue reading

Privatization is at the core of facsism

Privatizations are increasingly fashionable, such as in Greece, Ukraine, the U.S., and UK—and privatizations are a central feature of fascism. Continue reading

Polling on the border wall

Polling on the border wall shows that Trump’s proposal is very unpopular amongst the American electorate, especially amongst the people who live near the Mexican border; but Republicans nationwide do support his proposal—and overwhelmingly. Trump’s base is the mass of people who approve of Trump and his initiatives no matter what (they buy the Trump brand, regardless), but even Republicans who live near the Mexican border oppose him on this. Continue reading

US demands Europe to join its war against Russia

In recent decades, the US Constitution’s clause that requires a congressional declaration of war before invading any country has been ignored. Furthermore, ever since 2012 and the passage by Congress of the Magnitsky Act sanctions against Russia, economic sanctions by the US Government have been imposed against any company that fails to comply with a US-imposed economic sanction; a company can even be fined over a billion dollars for violating a US economic sanction. And, so, sanctions are now the way that the US Congress actually does authorize a war—the new way, no longer the way that’s described in the US Constitution. However, in the economic-sanctions phase of a war—this initial phase—the war is being imposed directly against any company that violates a US-ordered economic sanction, against Russia, Iran, or whatever target-country the US Congress has, by means of such sanctions, actually authorized a war by the US to exist—a ‘state of war’ to exist. Continue reading

How Americans’ most respected institution secretly stole at least $90,000 from each American between 1998 and 2015

The US military is the most respected institution by the American people. According to investigations by the inspector general of the US Department of Defense—investigations which were based on inspections of only portions of the department’s financial records, not of all of them, and so the amount is incomplete—that Department had disappeared at least $21 trillion of funds from US taxpayers during the 18-year period 1998-2015. The US population, during that period, was around 300 million people; so, at a bare minimum, approximately $70,000 was being stolen (or otherwise disappeared at the US Defense Department) from each American during that time. However, $10 in 1998 was worth $14.54 in 2015; so, considering inflation, each American was robbed, during that period, of at least around $90,000, by the most respected institution. The average US household or “family” has 2.54 people. So, the average US household lost AT LEAST around $223,000, from thefts (or ‘lost money’) by the US military, during 1998-2015. (This fact has never been published before, because this calculation has never before been done; the loss to individual persons and families hasn’t previously been calculated.) Continue reading

U.S. is the world’s invasion nation

How Big Brother grips Americans’ minds to support invasions

On November 29, Gallup headlined “Democrats Lead Surge in Belief U.S. Should Be World Leader” and reported, “Three-fourths (75%) of Americans today think the United States has ‘a special responsibility to be the leading nation in world affairs,’ up from 66% in 2010. The surge is driven by Democrats, whose belief in this idea has increased from 61% eight years ago to 81% now.” This finding comes even after the lie-based and catastrophic U.S. invasions of Iraq in 2003, and of Libya in 2011 (and of so many others, such as Afghanistan, where the U.S. and Sauds created the Taliban in 1979). Continue reading

The world order that’s now emerging

The Post-World-War-II world order was dominated by the one WW II major combatant that had only 0.32% of its population (the lowest percentage) killed by the war: the United States. The Soviet Union’s comparable number killed by the war was the highest—it was 13.7%—42 .8.times higher than America’s. The U.S. was the main force that defeated Japan and so won WW II in Asia. The U.S.S.R., however, was the main force that defeated Germany and so won WW II in Europe. The U.S.S.R. suffered vastly more than did the U.S. to achieve its victory. In addition to suffering 42.8 times the number of war-deaths than did U.S., the U.S.S.R.’s financial expenditures invested in the conflict, as calculated by Jan Ludvik, were 4.8 times higher than were America’s financial expenditures on the war. Continue reading

The earthquake in international alliances

America’s international alliances are transforming in fundamental ways. The likelihood of World War III is increasing, and has been increasing ever since 2012 when the U.S. first slapped Russia with the Magnitsky Act sanctions. In fact, one matter driving these changing alliances now toward unprecedented realignments is that some nations’ leaders want to do whatever they can to prevent WW III. Continue reading

The biggest threat to US national security is the US government

A dictatorship does not represent the public but only the aristocracy that, behind the scenes, controls the government. Continue reading

UK and US now overtly honor Al Qaeda

The United Kingdom is resettling Al Qaeda’s Syrian medical unit, called the “White Helmets,” as “refugees” in the UK. The White Helmets organization is funded by UK’s MI6 and America’s CIA, and is headed by Raed Saleh, who was prohibited from visiting the US because he’s a terrorist. These jihadists won’t just have UK honors (and they already have: a Hollywood Oscar-winning ‘documentary’ full of lies about how ‘heroic’ the White Helmets are), but, presumably, they’ll also obtain UK citizenship. Continue reading

Why America Is a dictatorship

America is a country in which dollars count far more than voters do, and that’s what all of the data shows. And that’s a dictatorship by the richest. Continue reading

How the U.S. does propaganda

A typical example was on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Saturday,” on September 8, when the program-host Scott Simon interviewed the Obama administration’s adviser on the Middle East, Robert Malley, in a segment titled “What’s Next In The Syrian War: Idlib”. Continue reading

Israel an enemy of freedom-loving people everywhere

Israel is fighting constantly not only against Gazans, and against Palestinians generally; it is fighting constantly against freedom-loving people everywhere, who oppose dictatorship of any type, and in any country, on principle, irrespective of nationality. Continue reading

How a free market inevitably produces dictatorship

Who rules the land? A deeper and truer version of this question is: What rules the land? Is it the money (the aristocracy), or is it the people (the public, the residents on that land)? (For the interest of paleoconservatives, the issue of residents’ citizenship will come later here, as “immigrants” instead of as “citizenship”; but our basic focus is not ethnicity/nationality; it’s class: the money, versus the voters; not the natives, versus the foreigners.) Continue reading

Neocons hate Russia even more than they hate any other nation

Neoconservatism started in 1953 with Henry “Scoop” Jackson, the Democrat U.S. Senator from the state of Washington (1953-1983), who became known as a ‘defense’ hawk, and as “the Senator from Boeing,” because Boeing practically owned him. The UK’s Henry Jackson Society was founded in 2005 in order to carry forward Senator Jackson’s unwavering and passionate endorsement of growing the American empire so that the U.S.-UK alliance will control the entire world (and U.S. weapons-makers will dominate in every market). Continue reading

America’s allies against Russia & Iran

Main U.S. allies are Saudi Arabia, UAE, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Israel, & Nazis

The public have been so brainwashed by Big Brother’s lies, so that many people won’t believe this article unless they click onto the link wherever they happen to think that what it is alleging is false. Then, they will see the evidence, for themselves, and will recognize that they’ve been fooled about that matter, and those readers will learn something important that they didn’t know before—including that Big Brother is real, and what it actually is, and how it came to be the way it is. This is about reality, the reality behind the screen of lies. Continue reading

America bombs, Europe gets the refugees. That’s evil

The US government (with France and a few other US allies) bombs Libya, Syria, etc.; and the US regime refuses to accept any of the resulting refugees—the burdens from which are now breaking the EU, and the EU is sinking in economic competition against America’s international corporations. America’s corporations remain blithely unscathed by not only the refugees that are breaking up the EU, but also by the EU’s economic sanctions against Russia, Iran, and other allies of governments that the US regime is trying to overthrow in its constant invasions and coups. Continue reading

America is one-dollar-one-vote, not really one-person-one vote

The only comprehensive and scientific study which has ever been done of whether the U.S. is a democracy or a dictatorship, was published in 2014. It studied the period 1981 through 2002, and it found that, “In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes.” Continue reading