Paul Craig Roberts

The election that was supposed to be too close to call turned out not to be so close after all. In my opinion, Obama won for two reasons: (1) Obama is non-threatening and inclusive, whereas Romney exuded a “us vs. them” impression that many found threatening, and (2) the election was not close enough for the electronic voting machines to steal.

As readers know, I don’t think that either candidate is a good choice or that either offers a choice. Washington is controlled by powerful interest groups, not by elections. What the two parties fight over is not alternative political visions and different legislative agendas, but which party gets to be the whore for Wall Street, the military-security complex, Israel Lobby, agribusiness, and energy, mining, and timber interests.

Being the whore is important, because whores are rewarded for the services that they render. To win the White House or a presidential appointment is a career-making event as it makes a person sought after by rich and powerful interest groups.

In Congress the majority party can provide more services and is thus more valuable than the minority party. One of our recent presidents who was not rich ended up with $36 million shortly after leaving office, as did former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who served Washington far better than he served his own country.

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Stephen Lendman

Haaretz used most of its November 7 issue covering it. Doing so reflects the importance of America to Israeli interests.

Netanyahu and Obama don't like each other. Nonetheless, the Israeli prime minister extended congratulatory best wishes, saying:

"The strategic alliance between Israel the U.S. is stronger than ever. I will continue to work with President Obama to protect the security interests of Israeli citizens."

Expect both leaders to continue working with each other normally. Personal likes and dislikes won't interfere. Even when doing so harms US interests, American presidents and Congress yield to Israeli Lobby pressure. In September, a non-binding sense of the Senate resolution reminded Obama in case he forgot. At issue was open friction with Netanyahu. Senators voted 90 - 1 for action against Iran to prevent it developing nuclear weapons. It was a thinly veiled pro-Netanyahu motion. Senators supported him over their own president. It shows the power of Israeli influence in America. Netanyahu accepted Obama's victory. He expressed certainty of continued US support. It's forthcoming no matter who governs both countries.

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Anonymous

Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?
Answer: Israel.

Question: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections? ?
Answer: Israel.

Question: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions?
Answer: Israel.

Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire?
Answer: Israel.

Question: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies (a practice sometimes called exporting terrorism)?
Answer: Israel.

Question: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military officers admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed?
Answer: Israel.

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Stephen Lendman

An honest election is impossible in a one-party state.

Stephen Lendman: Obama's Legacy of Shame
Stephen Lendman: Obama's Failed State of the Union
Stephen Lendman: Murder, Inc: Official Obama Policy
Glen Ford: Why Barack Obama is the More Effective Evil
Yves Smith: Barack Obama, the Great Deceiver
Philip Giraldi: Obama’s Report Card

The same party wins every time. Duopoly power rules. America is a one party state with two wings. Each replicates the other. On major issues mattering most, not a dime's worth of difference separates them.

The late Gore Vidal explained it as well as anyone. Some of his best comments included:

■ "Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates."
■ "Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically by definition be disqualified from ever doing so."
■ "By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over."
■ "Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won't be."
■ "The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return."
■ "We should stop going around babbling about how we're the greatest democracy on earth."

He also said America is "rotting away at a funereal pace. We'll have a military dictatorship pretty soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together." He thought of himself as a modern-day Voltaire. We need a legion of them at perhaps the most perilous time in world history.

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