Patrick Martin

[Transcript] The Republican presidential debate in California Wednesday night marked a further shift to the right of the entire US political establishment. For the first time in modern US history, a major capitalist politician openly advocated the destruction of Social Security, the principal retirement program for tens of millions of elderly Americans.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has topped the polls since he entered the Republican presidential contest last month, was participating in his first debate since joining the contest. He was asked if he stood by his condemnation of Social Security, first made in a book published last year, and he reiterated this position vociferously.

“It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you’re paying into a program that's going to be there,” he said. “Anybody that’s for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it’s not right.”

Perry’s principal rival, the previous frontrunner, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, rejected Perry’s language, if not his assessment. “We all agree and have for years that the funding program of Social Security is not working,” he said. But it was wrong to say Social Security was a failure, he said. “You can’t say that to tens of millions of Americans who live on Social Security and those who have lived on it.”

None of the other six Republican candidates – Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain – took up the issue explicitly.

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Stephen Lendman

Here we go again. We've seen it all before strategically timed, especially in America. A previous article explained, accessed through this link. It said:

With or without bin Laden, bogymen threats are plentiful. Since WW II alone, America's had numerous ones, including communists, Al Qaeda, Saddam, WMDs, the Taliban, Gaddafi, and a host others yet unnamed, as well as numerous "foiled" domestic ones. Among others, they include:

● a fake shoe bomber;
● fake underwear bomber;
● fake Times Square bomber;
● an earlier one there;
● fake shampoo bombers;
● fake Al Qaeda woman planning fake mass casualty attacks on New York landmarks;
● fake Oregon bomber;
● fake armed forces recruiting station bomber;
● fake synagogue bombers;
● fake Chicago Sears Tower bombers;
● fake FBI and other building bombers;
● fake National Guard, Fort Dix and Quantico marine base attackers;
● fake 9/11 bombers; and
● others to enlist public support for the fake war on terror and very real ones it spawned.

Israel, of course, uses the same tactics. In this instance, it's strategically timed ahead of the upcoming General Assembly vote for Palestinian statehood and full de jure membership. Israel's also wants Syria blamed for giving safe haven to Hamas leaders to intensify pressure on Assad's government during ongoing internal strife.

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