Empires Always Deny Political Reform | Philip A. Farruggio

Philip A. FarruggioPhilip A. Farruggio -- World News Trust

July 1, 2016

For all you nice and decent progressives and socialists on both sides of the pond, time to wake up!

We cannot reform or realign the Democratic Party or Britain's Labor Party! Bernie and Jeremy made the usual "ghastly error" of thinking it can be done.

In Britain, Labor Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn's Labor MPs want him out, to be replaced by the usual phony Blairist pack. Blair, who I believe got himself a nice tidy sum working for JP Morgan Chase (he is said to be worth $90 million since leaving office in 2008), belongs in jail along with the Bush/Cheney gang for war crimes and actual treason. Yet, all those pragmatic so called lefties in the UK only care about maintaining a strong "sucker supported" Labor Party.

Meanwhile, here at home, Sanders, who was it seems always a Democrat in sheep's clothing (no pun intended), is ready to support, in his view, the "lesser of two evils." Well, Sanders can get away with his "Defeat Trump at all costs" rhetoric because he never spoke out against what Clinton stands for: The Continuation of our Military Industrial Empire!

Sanders was totally silent (and still is, even now when finally out of the horserace) as to our obscene military spending (higher under Obama then even the Bush/Cheney gang), the Hillary influenced destruction of Libya and support for Al Qaeda in Syria, 1,000 bases worldwide, record breaking use of drone missile attacks, record breaking sales of WMDs to despotic ruled nations, and of course our occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Why? Well, he is after all a Democrat, and as long as dastardly deeds are done by Democrats they become acceptable.

Does anyone who really studies recent history not realize that if not for our terrible Middle Eastern foreign policy, there would never have been enough numbers to join up with this fanatical ISIS? Connecting the dots, there would then be no substantial refugee crisis in Europe, and, quite candidly, no real threat of a plethora of terrorist bombings. Yes, terrorism has always been with us, sadly, and it will always continue so long as so few in the world have so much of the wealth and refuse to share it more equitably. Just as the fact that extreme poverty is a greenhouse for criminal activity, so it is that unfairness in our society breeds violent blowback.

Corbyn failed when he refused to use his bully pulpit to continually denounce the UK's military involvement in the Middle East. Watching him on Prime Minister's Questions, one could see that Corbyn "danced around" the key issue of neoliberalism's control of the entire UK, economically and politically.

In boxing they would say, that as with Sanders, he "pulled his punches." Now, he needs to do what should have been done from the outset: Help to form a new political movement and party of dedicated trade unionists and socialists.

Ditto for Sanders. The Bernienistas are divided and seemingly lost as to this whole electoral affair. Even a well established lefty as journalist Juan Gonzales from Democracy Now had intimated recently during a speech that the left should have not abandoned Hubert Humphrey's bid for the presidency in 1968 -- the "lesser of two evils" was still around then as now.

Shame on you Juan. This election in the United States is perhaps the most powerful moment in decades for we working stiffs to stand up and say NO to the empire and its surrogates. No need for violent revolution folks... just impassioned revelation!

PA Farruggio

July 1 , 2016

Philip A Farruggio is a semi-retired baby boomer born and bred in blue collar Brooklyn NYC. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn longshoremen, and educated at "free tuition" Brooklyn College, class of '74. Philip has written more than 300 columns since 2001 and his work is found on many fine progressive sites like World News Trust, Nation of Change, Information Clearinghouse, Intrepid Report, Sleuth Journal, Dandelion Salad, Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)