BREAKING: Trump sacks Attorney General Yates for refusing to detain Muslims

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No way. Trump has sacked Attorney General Yates for refusing to go along with his Muslim ban.

The reality is that everything has changed now Trump is in power.

Everything.

In a mere 11 days Trump has managed to surpass Nixon in Office and make Bush and Cheney look reasonable.

Chris Trotter’s Newspaper column today paints the picture that we now face…

In the simplest terms, anacyclosis evolves as follows: monarchy declines into tyranny; aristocracy degenerates into oligarchy; democracy disintegrates into mob rule.

Polybius, like so many of the ancient writers, was a fatalist. The historical cycle he describes is explained as the unavoidable consequence of human-beings inability to resist the tendency of power to corrupt all those who wield it. Over time, he argues, regimes instituted with the objective of making life better for everyone, inevitably succumb to the temptation to unfairly advantage the one, the few, or the many – at the expense of everybody else.

Converted into a straightforward historical narrative, anacyclosis goes something like this.

A mighty warrior and his army leads his people to independence, whereupon his family, and the families of his key supporters, are entrusted with the task of ruling the new state. For a while all goes well, but as the powers of kingship descend through the generations, the mighty warrior’s successors abandon all pretence of ruling for the public good and begin to wield their inherited authority capriciously, corruptly and, ultimately, violently.

Convinced that their persons and property are no longer safe, the wealthiest and most militarily accomplished families unite to depose the tyrant and assume the responsibility of providing just and effective government themselves. As the years pass, however, the opportunities for enrichment, which control of the state offers, prove irresistible. Increasingly, the mass of the people are forced to offer up more and more of what little they have to satisfy the greed of their masters.

Exhausted and outraged at being sucked dry by these parasitic oligarchs, the people rise up in revolt and establish a system of popular government. It does not take long, however, for bitter disputes over how the wealth of the (now democratic) society should be distributed to tear the new state apart.

The wealthy fear for their property. The poor demand a share of it. In short order, both parties become the prey of political demagogues skilled at whipping up the basest emotions of the people in order to secure partisan advantage. The democratic institutions of the state are paralysed by intractable factionalism and deliberately incited rancour and recrimination. Debate degenerates into disorder and violence. Civil war beckons.

At which point a demagogue, more skilled than any of his predecessors, attracts sufficient support from the state’s angriest and most fearful citizens to overturn the institutions of democracy and govern without them. Backed by his fanatical followers, and with sufficient armed force at his disposal to overcome all resistance, the demagogue arrogates to himself the powers of a king.

And so Polybius’s cycle begins all over again – albeit at a lower (and ever-declining) level of morality.

Only last week, the radical American writer, John Michael Greer – who has a strong scholarly interest in the writings of Polybius – was blogging about the relevance of anacyclosis to contemporary American politics.

The United States, he writes, is now in the “crisis phase” of the cycle:

“[W]hen power has become so gridlocked among competing power centres that it becomes impossible for the system to break out of even the most hopelessly counterproductive policies. That ends, according to Polybius, when a charismatic demagogue gets into power, overturns the existing political order, and sets in motion a general free-for-all in which old alliances shatter and improbable new ones take shape. Does that sound familiar? In a week when union leaders emerged beaming from a meeting with the new president, while Democrats are still stoutly defending the integrity of the CIA, it should.”

…there is a coming storm that will unravel everything civilised human beings have sacrificed to build.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Today Trump managed to make this day in history even creepier

How does America defeat Trump?

Democrats need to understand why Trump won.

Democrats need to understand why 43% of Union homes voted for him and why 53% of white women voted for him.

Democrats need to understand that blue collar workers were betrayed by neoliberalism. Those workers saw their factories close, their jobs moved offshore and were forced to enlist in America’s wars.

Democrats need to understand that the Identity Politics which demanded Hillary as their candidate – despite the fact she was a neoliberal war hawk and wedded to the very free market globalisation that has alienated so many working women and men – was a fatal mistake.

Bernie would have beaten Trump and we would’t be here if it wasn’t for a corrupted Democratic Primary.

This has deep lessons for all left wing movements that have been over taken by middle class liberalism.

59 COMMENTS

  1. Plus one should remember that when countries build walls, it is always when they have reached the limits of their power to conquer – China, Hadrian, Israel, the United States.

      • Perhaps if more people had said “no” to Adolph Hitler, humanity might have been spared the ghastly deaths of six million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, trade unionists, and other “enemies of the State” of then Nazi Germany.

        Remember, Andy, that “I was simply following orders” was not a successful defense during the Nuremberg trials;

        It was impossible for Eichmann to deny his role in the killing of Europe’s Jews. Servatius adopted the defense strategy that had been used at Nuremberg. Since he could not disavow the crime, he disavowed the responsibility for them. “He was just following orders” Eichmann’s defense was designed to let the SS Officer fade from the stand and replace him with the benevolent bureaucrat, a man whose actions had been misrepresented by the prosecution. He even went so far as to claim that his early actions during the period of forced emigration had been for the benefit of the Jews.

        ref: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/trials/eichmanntrial.html

        History may judge Attorney General Yates, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, etc; as people who chose to follow their conscience rather than orders.

        You do know what a conscience is, Andy?

        • “I was simply following orders”

          That’s an utter nonsense argument, since it ONLY applies to the losers. How many people were convicted of bombing Hiroshima, Frank? Dresden? Iraq? Libya? The drone strikes that have killed thousands? Are Bush, Cheney, Blair, Obama, Hillary et al and ALL that obeyed THEIR murderous orders facing charges? Is a soldier responsible for murdering people for a Government? How many Afghans did NZ soldiers MURDER in the @War Against Terrorism”? Should THEY be held to account for following John Key/Helen Clark’s orders?

          • It’s only a war crime if you lose nutrient. Besides plans don’t take prisoners, so we’ll be penalising pawns for pushing a button they didn’t create or even have the cognitive ability to create. It’s like blaming bees for collecting honey. And I don’t think saving people from there own stupidity is wrong.

            All we want in a legal fraternity is for judges to make the best agreement with the information available, irrespective of whether those judges identify left or right. They may come up with a verdict that sends NZ to war.

            Personally, any one who pushes the nuclear button isn’t some one I want to share this planet with and I will be equally opportunists in how to exact vengeance upon them.

          • I suppose only history will reveal the answers to your rhetorical questions Nitrium…..and just because the above American led atrocities that you have named which other western nations (including the leaders/heads of New Zealand), have been complicit with, have not been brought to task, does not mean that in time, should the zeitgeist of future global power structures change, accountability and responsibility for past unethical acts of conflict, aggression that have caused the deaths of innocent persons may yet be reexamined and placed back under the microscope.

            I agree with the thrust of your main point that while the dominant power structures remain unopposed, and more sadly unchallenged by nations that meekly fall in line with such regimes, it remains much more difficult to bring those responsible for such atrocities to account….including those whom actually enact the orders and who “pulled the trigger, launched the missiles, controlled the drone strikes, withdrew humanitarian aid to countries….etc.

            I for one have never supported New Zealand’s complicit role in aiding the US in their drone strike agenda, through the use of spying resource situated in New Zealand, for which I am sure many other New Zealanders feel as I do.

            Such acts of aggression that cause the death of innocents, and which lay completely outside of historical and current global conventions in place that do not permit such acts, IMHO are morally and unethically repugnant, as are the other scenarios that you have highlighted.

          • That’s an utter nonsense argument, since it ONLY applies to the losers.

            Initially, that was correct.

            However, the Nuremberg Principle has entered common concepts of morality and justice. People can – and do – reject orders which they feel are morally wrong.

            When they slavishly obey orders, we have atrocities such as Lt William Calley at the My Lai massacre, Abu Ghraib incident, etc.

            We have whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Julian Assange who have rejected Authority and followed their own conscience.

            They can be seen as a consequence of the Nuremberg Principle; Authority is not always to be obeyed.

            Long may that continue.

        • Frank you make a good point, but you have to remember these people can follow their conscience,
          Those who said no to Hitler suffered the inevitable torture and painful death that befell anyone who dared defy him.
          Remember that later every “youth” had to became a member of the “Nazi Youth Movement.”
          They had no choice.
          Gunter Heitman, who moved to Christchurch in 1956, had been a member of the movement during the war years.
          He wasn’t really a Nazi but had been schooled since he was young and during the war as a member believed the propaganda.
          Remember the Jesuits ” give me a boy of 7 and I will show you the man”
          Life is not black and white.
          The poor boys to this day who end up in the bad Islamic boarding schools in Java, Indonesia have little chance. They start out out as good kids but learn to hate all Infidels with the indoctrination and are prepared to kill for their God.
          However, good people can stand up to Trump if they are prepared to lose their jobs as he can’t very well string them up on piano wire of force suicide as the big H did with irwin Rommel.
          The problem is he will stack the top jobs with yes men.
          The secret service must be quaking in their dark glasses as to how they are going to keep this president alive,

          • The secret service must be quaking in their dark glasses as to how they are going to keep this president alive,

            That thought has crossed my mind as well.

            Aside from the simple wrongness of assassination, my head begins to hurt at the conspiracy theories that will spread like gorse if he were to be assassinated.

            Dear god, please no.

        • Indeed. Perhaps if more people had a conscience, they would be speaking out against the organ-harvesting Chinese dictatorship significantly more than are on Trump, for example.

          • Yup Chinese organ harvesting is about as bad as things can possibly get but for some reason seems China is exempt from any kind of serious scrutiny or international criticism.

          • Castro, you can justify any injustice by pointing to one somewhere else. It was used to deflect attention away from apartheid South Africa and is used currently by Israel’s supporters.

            It’s a poor way to address injustice and leads to moral paralysis.

      • Hah, when you are told to do something that is not legal, would you simply shrug off any concerns and go ahead and do it?

        I would say that a third if not more of Trump’s Executive Orders are either illegal, as they breach certain laws the US has, and as they are also discriminatory and breach person’s existing rights, or if these Orders are not illegal, they are ineffective and worthless, as he can do little without Cogress approving new legislation.

        The Attorney General asked her conscience, and took a stand of integrity with the existing rule of law on her mind. She was not prepared to defend illegal Executive Orders, which seem to be unconstitutional.

        And while the Apprentice’s Master did not like to be challenged, he shouted, YOU’RE FIRED! Bad temper is the answer, the action of a demagogue and quasi dictator.

      • Agreed. “Judge and Jury” was not her role. If she had to comment something non committal would have been appropriate.

  2. ” Oh fuck! What now? ” Is right.
    Buy yourself an old country house and some land. Sell the absurdly useless Ponsonby property and the equally absurd BMW/Audi/Merc’/Etc and get out quick because remember? You’re not used to scratching enough money together to buy white bread and mince. The poor are, so are far better able to survive what’s coming than you Mr and Mrs Fancy Sneakers. Your day of reckoning is approaching.

    • ‘Sell the absurdly useless Ponsonby property and the equally absurd BMW/Audi/Merc’/Etc and get out quick..’

      Don’t encourage selfish sociopaths to leave Auckland and move to other parts of the country. We already have far too many selfish sociopaths around here.

  3. You are being a tad melodramatic Martyn. It was predicted long ago that Trump would destroy America but Hillary would destroy the world.
    Sure, he’s doing it quicker than expected and there’s also the huge risk he will destroy the world as well.
    It’s going to be a bumpy ride but two things for sure are that change is coming, and we are not stuck with the same old same old crap that Hillary was pushing. Their bad for not choosing Bernie.
    Watching the USA implode is going to be very interesting and challenging.

    • Revolution is never as colourful as pundants predict, what’s more likely is Mexican and Asian workers will continue there March inland from California on the west coast and New York and Miami on the west. These 3 cities are where the bulk of Mexican and Asians reside and dominate low wage work that reginal white folk get paid more per hour for. Or older store clerks who’ve been with a company for 30 years watch themselves get replaced with younger versions. The only message being taken away from trump supporters is they have jobs and we don’t.

      So when you say destroy America, do you mean as I say it? That white Americans are being replaced with cheaper, browner versions, and I ain’t even mad.

    • Well one thing is for sure, your prophecy about Trump destroying the U.S. is correct however your opinion on Hillary is that we will never ever know.

      The similarities between Trump and Hitler are frighteningly similar.

    • where were all the righteous Democrats when Clinton instigated the war on Libya and Gaddafi?

      …what is worse 1.) border restrictions and controls for a short period ?

      or

      2.) invading sovereign states, overthrowing their leaders and destroying their fabric of society eg as has happened/happening to Palestine, Iraq, Libya Syria, Yemen?

      ‘New Rasmussen Poll Reveals Silent Majority Approves Of Immigration Ban’

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-30/new-rasmussen-poll-reveals-silent-majority-approves-immigration-ban

    • Garibaldi, saying Clinton was more likely to “destroy the world” is crap. Her and Bill Clinton governed for eight years and we’re still here.

      Stop being such a trump sycophant and look around you. We live in disturbing times. Worse than that real warmonger, George dubya.

      Worse still is that trump will embolden Israel onto building more settlements and new military adventurism to seize land. Just wait.

  4. ‘This has deep lessons for all left wing movements that have been over taken by middle class liberalism.’

    Do you mean: ‘This has deep lessons for all left wing movements that have been taken over by middle class liberalism.’ ?

    Or perhaps: ‘This has deep lessons for all left wing movements that have been taken over by neo-liberalism.’

  5. In the face of incoming disaster Greer is remarkably cheerful. ” What kinds of meltdowns are we going to get when internet service or modern health care get priced out of reach, or become unavailable at any price? How are they going to cope if the accelerating crisis of legitimacy in this country causes the federal government to implode, the way the government of the Soviet Union did, and suddenly they’re living under cobbled-together regional governments that don’t have the money to pay for basic services? What sort of reaction are we going to see if the US blunders into a sustained domestic insurgency—suicide bombs going off in public places, firefights between insurgent forces and government troops, death squads from both sides rounding up potential opponents and leaving them in unmarked mass graves—or, heaven help us, all-out civil war?”

    Etc.

    And he’s a conservative Arch Druid.

    I could have done without the preview, on reflection.

    • A fast and furious debate between two Americans on:

      ‘Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’: Islamophobia or defense of US?’

      https://www.rt.com/op-edge/375590-muslim-ban-trump-us/

      …and Morning Report is full of anti Trump rhetoric…where were they when Clinton instigated the invasion of Libya and laughed at the killing of Gaddafi? ( that country is now in ruins , overrun with ISIS , Christians killed , and with masses fleeing to Europe from North Africa)…the mainstream media has a backlash

      ‘Media against Trump – trump card in his hands’

      https://www.rt.com/op-edge/375812-media-protest-trump-ban/

      “The majority of Americans don’t trust the media and don’t like them. Therefore the US media being so openly one-sided against President Trump is very good for him, said Lew Rockwell, chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute…

      …and a Muslim woman speaks out :

      ‘The soft coup – US Establishment goes to war with President Trump’

      https://www.rt.com/op-edge/375785-muslim-politics-trump-us/

      …”All Trump did with his executive order was to temporary halt the entry of refugees into the United States. All he’s really done is use Obama’s policy as a springboard for his own tempestuous and misguided terror crusade against an enemy he has failed to identify adequately. So let’s give credit where credit is due and thank America’s very own presidential Nobel Peace prize for so kindly laying down the foundation of Trump’s misguidance.

      To be perfectly fair, America has done a lot worse by way of injustice and state-sponsored criminal behavior over the years than an entry ban: rendition, black sites, drone strikes, systematic torture, unilaterally declaring war on countries … Need I go on?

      …While I applaud Jeremy Corbyn for speaking up against Washington’s latest stunt, he is most probably one of the few decent politicians left in town, I would rather a ban be implemented against those systematic right violators, who, to this day, buy billions of dollars’ worth of weapons from the UK – Bahrain and Saudi Arabia come to mind.

      I would rather righteous anger be directed at those actors, who, from their pulpits fan ethnocentrism and sectarian bigotry, lumping Islam and the Middle East to the hateful ideology the likes of Deash [ISIS] have fronted over the decades.

      But that, of course, would require real political involvement and THAT flash-in-the-pan-activists don’t really do, do they?…

      • If you want to criticize the message, criticizing the messenger doesn’t seem a helpful way of going about it.

        • +100…MIKESH…Frank has not said where those ‘FACTS’ are wrong…just done some name calling

          …which shows a person who can’t think for themselves

          • Uncalled for, Chooky. Frank has a good rep for researching the facts and presenting info that few of us would ever find out.

            For you to suggest he “can’t think for himself” is mean-sprited just because he hasn’t been suckered in by your “hero”, the Orange One. There, hows that for name-calling?

            • btw…bullshit the “Orange One” is my “hero”!

              …i am just waiting for Trump to do something more heinous than warmongering Hillary and the Democrats…thus far he hasn’t..but you wouldnt know it because of all the braying by the mainstream media

              Question: who is the mainstream media owned by in the USA?

        • If the message and the messenger were independent of each other then you might have a point. But they aren’t.

  6. And yet, Bomber, while acknowledging that identity politics is failing the “Left” BIG TIME, every second piece you post is about identity politics.. WHY?

    • Because the data used to forecast identity politics ie jobs and immigrant is cooked, useless, not fit for purpose, and you yourself forecast revolution based on this floored data

      • I think you mean “flawed”, don’t you? I wasn’t aware that you were privy to the data I am using to predict the coming revolution/civil war. Are you? I don’t think so… given your spelling, the casual observer may be more likely to take what I say more seriously than what you say, mate. Here’s a free piece of advice, young Skywalker, ‘Turn of the spellcheck…. use the Force.” I am saying that identity politics is regarded by those at the front end of the housing and wage slave crises as a load of bollocks, irrespective of the data.

        • I’ll turn of* the spell check if you quit ruining Star Wars 4 the rest of humanity. It’s a simple equation mr spaceman. Capital displaces labour. You get a huge private investment quantum that displaces labour or chases the lowest wage. That happens as far back as you any want to look. And I’ll inform you, 9 dollars out of ten goes on mortgages and we’ve still got room before we hit zero percent interest so I don’t know wtf you are on about when talking about a kiwi style revolution because the numbers aren’t saying that, unless a mass grave of 100,000 just pops up out of the blue you’re not going to get your workers revolution.

          And this grammar nazi thing shows just how out of touch you are with what young people are doing. We know Apple is more concerned with other shit so we don’t give a fuck about there spell check

        • Castro, you have made several very important points, and points that need expansion.

          1. Identity politics -the so-called strong leader who knows what he/she is doing- is very much a problem throughout the western world because identity politics is used as a substitute for sound policy.

          2. Whilst acknowledging the manipulative and flawed nature of identity politics, Martyn does keep generating articles which focus on people or what people said, rather than focusing on the glaringly obvious defects in the policies of political parties.

          3. Revolution of some kind is inevitable because the present political-economic system is founded on manipulation, fraud and concepts that cause termination of the present system, i.e. fossil fuels are finite, the earth has a finite capacity to absorb and process pollutants, continuous growth of population and consumption are mathematically impossible etc.

          4. Spell check only provides correct spelling of words and does not distinguish incorrect words. Depending on the system in place, many words are automatically Americanised or underlined as incorrectly spelt when in fact they are correctly spelt in English.

          5. In addition to the housing and wage slave crises you mentioned we should add the global energy crisis and the global environmental crisis, which are like rust and are slowly eating away at the very foundations of the political-economic system.

          The fact is, present political-economic arrangements are totally unsustainable and must collapse in the fairly near future (less than 10 years). The idiotic behaviour in America that we have been hearing about recently is symptomatic of decades of failure on behalf of governments everywhere to address any of the fundamental issues.

          Gail Tverberg (of ‘Our Finite World’) recently suggested that 2017 will be the year the economic system starts to really unravel energetically, economically, and financially.

          And there are many reasons to believe the Earth is about to shift into completely unknown territory with respect to the environment, with Artic sea ice the lowest ever at this time of year and declining in the middle of winter!

          http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

        • Castro, I find your comments questionable at best. More than one person has raised the possibility that your snide remarks aren’t meant to promote a progressive agenda, but that you’re an agent provocateur. Which is it?

      • floored data?

        Do you mean flawed data?

        In practice, most official ‘data’ is not data at all and is generated to manipulated the masses into believing they are on a path to a ‘better, brighter future’, when in fact the reverse is the case.

        Christ Martenson devoted an entire chapter of ‘Crash Course’ to exposing the manipulation of ‘data’ presented to the public.

        https://www.peakprosperity.com/video/85854/playlist/92161/crash-course-chapter-18-fuzzy-numbers

        • Usually I’ll say something like you are so right, I’ll edit it or what ever. But not today because captain spaceman over there got me pissed off. If you want to buy into what he’s selling then that’s your right in a free market, that’s how it works, it doesn’t make Castros argument any stronger or weaker but it’s still not a good reason to modify behaviour.

          And I had to write 7 draft replies to edit out all the swearing

      • I’m just trying to speak truth to power in a vain hope that we create some one wise that can lead proper. And I’m not even sure banning all Obama era refugee crises from entering the US is such a bad idea.

        All the easy answers to stopping ISIS was on day 1 when they took Mosal. 3 years latter and they’ve scattered all over the world and the best we can do is ban a few countries we don’t like. This fight is going to get a lot more ugly this by a long way. I mean just think how Hittler would have reacted and it’s not to far off what trump is doing

  7. I see Tracy Watkins has written another of her “insightful, balanced” opinion pieces on stuff titled “Could Donald Trump cost Bill English the election?”
    Can Trumps machinations truly be that far reaching, or is she already acknowledging that the Natz are screwed?
    I appreciate the extreme dangers events in the US pose, but let us not lose focus on Blinglish and his cunning manoeuvres this year, aided and abetted by the MSM propaganda machine.

  8. I’ve been thinking about that subheading:

    ‘there is a coming storm that will unravel everything civilised human beings have sacrificed to build’

    The present dominant culture is not civilized and most of the people living in New Zealand and other western nations are not civilized in the true sense of the word.

    What is mistaken for civilized is actually industrialised. New Zealand is not a civilised country, it is an industrialised country.

    The dominant meme is not one of behaving in a civil manner towards one another and towards the Earth, but of plundering the Earth as quickly as possible and acquiring possessions via exploitation of other people and exploitation of the Earth.

    ‘Success’ in industrial nations is measured by the rate at which an individual converts fossil fuels into waste (CO2 and various carcinogens) via internal combustion engines. ‘Successful’ people destroy the future faster than less ‘successful’ people. Those who do no harm because they do not have the capacity to acquire and use planet-fuckers are deemed unsuccessful.

    In this industrialised and uncivilized society, building does not mean providing everyone with the best possible education and skill level, it means constructing infrastructure to facilitate the conversion of fossil fuels into life-threatening pollution.

  9. ‘More Americans approve of Trump’s travel ban than disapprove – poll’

    https://www.rt.com/usa/375923-trump-travel-ban-poll/

    “Despite nationwide protests and several major Republican figures speaking out against President Trump’s controversial travel ban, a new poll has revealed that more Americans actually support the ban than oppose it.

    A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday found that 49 percent of Americans approved of the executive order to ban citizens from seven mostly Muslim countries from entering the US. Forty-one percent disapproved…

    (This follows on from other polls eg Rasmussen

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-30/new-rasmussen-poll-reveals-silent-majority-approves-immigration-ban )

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