[I did send Lasha a note saying I think that people are being a bit
too hard on Trump. However, there are points that are being made here
that are worthy of looking at. I will also publish Carolyn Yeager's
views which are the very opposite – that Trump is here to stay. I have
my own thoughts on the "Elites". Trump is part of the Elite. The Elite
are never really discussed in practical terms, and that's also on my
list of things to do. I read the article and was concerned by Caitlin's assessments. So I went to her article in order to see if she explained in more detail and I found little there. She makes sweeping statements about Trump doing the opposite of what people say but I would need to see her proofs. I admit he was rather mediocre. But I think he faces a structure that has a power of it's own. My former mentor, Dr Chris Jordaan, who was in military intelligence here in SA told me at a point that as an intelligence professional, that he and other military people viewed the elected politicians as people of temporary importance. They saw THEMSELVES as the real leaders even though they were paid bureaucrats. The "Deep State" in the USA is a combination of that, unelected professionals, in fixed positions, along with Jewish and communist infiltrators. Democracy is, in many ways a load of junk and it is filled with its own hypocrisy and stupidity. e.g. A New President meets up, for the first time in his life with Secret and Top Secret information that he never had access to. He thus sees things that the common man does not see. I am also very concerned by analyses that are based ONLY on ETHICS and MORALITY, especially international things. I do support Trump's moves against Russia. I assure you that comes from the US Military and Intelligence arena. It is also an American/British problem that comes from their stupid moves against Germany in WW2. So I'm afraid, not knowing more about Caitlin, I tend to dismiss a lot of what she says. But where I will agree, especially is with Assange and people like Matt Hale. Trump has never helped any of the people that really did good. But I think for now, Trump may be the best we have, until we can get new leaders from the White Right who become big time political players. Jan]

By Caitlin Johnstone

Information Clearing House
December 23, 2020

According to Caitlin Johnstone, Trump “drained no swamps” but packed his cabinet “with establishment swamp monsters”. Instead of fighting the Deep State, he was actually part of it. Far from being a man of peace, he brought America to the brink of nuclear war and dropped more bombs on civilians than any US president before him, killing record numbers of innocent people. He certainly did not “make America great again”. [LD]

Abridged by Lasha Darkmoon
PUBLISHED ON TRUTHSEEKER

DONALD TRUMP
“A monster like many of his predecessors,
a U.S. President of average depravity.”
— Caitlin Johnstone

After weeks of speculation and desperate hopes that Donald Trump might be preparing to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and/or WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange before leaving office on January 20th, what the latest round of presidential pardons has delivered is about as far from that as you can conceivably imagine.

“In an audacious pre-Christmas round of pardons,” the New York Times reports, “President Trump granted clemency on Tuesday to two people convicted in the special counsel’s Russia inquiry, four Blackwater guards convicted in connection with the killing of Iraqi civilians, and three corrupt former Republican members of Congress.”

I probably don’t need to tell my regular readers this, but a Trump pardon for Assange and Snowden is almost certainly not in the cards.

Trump has done nothing but protect the imperial status quo the entire time he’s been in office and a pardon for either of those heroic government transparency advocates would be a deviation from his established patterns unlike anything he’s ever once demonstrated while in office. It’s good to pressure politicians to do the right thing even when they probably won’t, but it’s a safe bet that he won’t.

Trump’s entire term has revealed that virtually everyone, all across the US political spectrum, has been wrong about him. And it’s a testament to the power of media echo chambers that for the most part they remain just as wrong about him as they were four years ago.

— To this day, even after four years of evidence to the contrary, Trump supporters still believe their president has been ending the wars, draining the swamp, and fighting the Deep State.
— They believe he’s fighting the Deep State even after he imprisoned Assange.
— They believe he’s ending the wars even as he’s ramped up cold war aggressions against Russia; killed tens of thousands of Venezuelans with starvation sanctions; vetoed attempts to save Yemen from US-backed genocide; is working to foment civil war in Iran using starvation sanctions and CIA ops with the stated goal of effecting regime change; occupied Syrian oil fields with the goal of preventing Syria’s reconstruction; greatly increased the number of troops in the Middle East and elsewhere; greatly increased the number of bombs dropped per day from the previous administration, killing record numbers of civilians; and reduced military accountability for those airstrikes.
— And, finally, they believe he’s draining the swamp after packing his cabinet with establishment swamp monsters.

To this day, even after four years of evidence to the contrary, liberals are still convinced that Trump is a servant of Russia who has spent his term advancing the interests of Vladimir Putin. They believe this even as he’s been shredding treaties with Russia, bombing the Syrian government and arming Ukraine (both of which Obama refused to do), many sanctions and many other escalations directly against the interests and safety of Russia.

To this day, even after four years of evidence to the contrary, many on the left still continue their frequent claims that Trump is a uniquely fascistic or Hitler-like president, despite his having far fewer deportations than Obama had. And despite the fact that he will with absolute certainty leave office on January 20th after losing an election.

All sides pretended that Trump was a radical deviation from the norm, and so did Trump, when all he actually did throughout his entire time in office was protect the status quo just like his predecessors did.

After four years everyone – left, right and center – has been proven wrong about Trump.

He was neither a uniquely evil monster, nor a populist hero draining the swamp and fighting for the common man against the Deep State.

In actuality Trump’s term has clearly established what he really was this entire time: he was a US president. Better than some, worse than others, but also deeply awful all around. Since he voluntarily served as the face of the most evil and destructive force on earth, namely the United States government.

He was a monster like many of his predecessors: a U.S. president of fairly average depravity. And now he is leaving. With his imaginary crimes still held as real, and his actual crimes completely ignored.

DONALD TRUMP . . . . . R.I.P.

“He was a monster like many of his predecessors: a U.S. president of fairly average depravity.” — Caitlin Johnstone, final verdict on Trump

Source: https://www.darkmoon.me/2020/final-verdict-on-trump-a-monster-of-average-depravity/