Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump were maverick outsiders unacceptable to the ruling elite. In his new book, States of Emergency, Kees Van Der Pijl explains how the establishment got rid of both. The ruling elite’s effort to remove Trump with Russiagate and impeachment failed. Had the plan to steal the election also failed, everything was ready for Trump to be removed by the military. Sanders was twice undermined by the elite, with the Democrat nomination going first to Hillary Clinton and then to Joe Biden, two reliable puppets of the establishment.
In chapter 3, “Restructuring the Ruling Class in the IT Revolution,” Van Der Pijl explains in the section, “The Coup Against Trump,” that Federal Continuity Directive 1 was issued a few days prior to Trump’s inauguration and served as a basis for a military coup to remove Trump from office. The directive provided the military the authority to take over the government “in the event that a US administration would fail to ‘demonstrate leadership that is visible to the nation and the world and preserve the confidence of the American people.’” The elite’s propaganda organs then started on Trump. First there was Russiagate. Then Impeachgate. As the second term election approached, letters from retired generals were printed saying that if Trump contested the election he had to be removed by the military. Trump’s Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, ignored Trump’s order to use the Insurrection Act to put down the widespread destruction and looting that comprised the George Floyd protests. General James Mattis, Esper’s predecessor, “called Black Lives Matter a healthy and unifying force and pointed to the lack of mature leadership in the White House.” Generals denounced Trump for wanting to use the military against the people although the Continuity in Government procedure designed to be implemented by the military in the event of widespread disturbances in support of Trump does precisely that. DefeatDisinfo.org run by retired General Stanley McChrystal went to work discrediting all of Trump’s statements about Covid. Critics accused Trump of spreading disinformation about Covid and questioned Trump’s authority as president. Social, print, and TV media denied President Trump and his supporters forums. The discredited president was an easy target for a coup, which was a certainty had the theft of the election not succeeded. The ruling elite used the orchestrated “Trump insurrection” to stop the January 6 examination by Congress of the evidence of election theft, and has prosecuted hundreds of Trump supporters as insurrectionists and domestic terrorists. You can bet your life that all future presidential candidates got the message.
Van Der Pijl sees the orchestrated “Trump insurrection” as essentially a color revolution that is “a further step toward the conversion of the US into an authoritarian state, which in the aftermath of 9/11 had already taken a huge step forward with the Patriot Act.”
Another big step was taken with the “Covid pandemic.” In chapter 4 Van Der Pijl describes “the virus scenario as the basis for a seizure of power.”
People without understanding are sitting ducks for tyranny. Van Der Pijl gives you information. If enough Americans can pass from insouciance to understanding, our freedom can survive.
Readers will be surprised to find a leftwinger giving Trump a fair shake. Van Der Pijl is one of the well educated and thoughtful old European left. He understands that this is not a left-right issue. It is no longer the capitalists against the workers. It is the elite against the people, and he stands with the people.