It’s happened again!

In October of 2018, after a fraudulent one-week FBI investigation, the US Senate confirmed sexual predator Matt Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. The Democrats had placed all their eggs in the basket of that “investigation”, one which was meant to simply give cover for his confirmation.

Now, we’ve just been hit with a similar fraud – the Mueller Report. Its apparent exoneration of Trump for collusion, and the fact that the Democrats had been relying on it for over a year means that there is an increased chance that Trump will be reelected.

Before considering the political consequences, we should consider the basis of this “investigation” and the facts themselves:

Carter Page in Moscow
He founded his own investment fund, Global Energy Capital, which partnered with Sergei Yatsenko, the former executive of (Russian state gas company) Gazprom. Politico reported that he was “all smiles” and “had a bounce to his step” after the Mueller Report came out.

Mueller Report a set-up
That this was a set up was clear from the fact that Mueller’s team apparently never questioned Carter Page or Felix Sater. The former had been a foreign policy advisor for Trump. He was also a stakeholder in Rosneft, the Russian oil company and was deeply involved in Russian finance capital (See this article.) The latter was the main link between Trump and his Russian mafia capitalist backers for whom Trump was laundering money. (See this article for example.) Scheduled to testify before a House committee, that testimony has been delayed yet again. The reason for this avoidance is that if Trump’s money laundering past were fully revealed, that would threaten to also reveal the fact that such money laundering for the drug cartels is absolutely rampant in the industry. That public revelation would threaten to create a massive scandal in the United States.

Most of the criminal charges against those convicted are for lying, but why would they lie in the first place? What are they hiding?

Trump Tower Meeting and links with Russian mafia
The then secret June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between three senior members of the 2016 Trump campaign – Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort – plus at least five Russian representatives including Natalia Veselnitskaya says it all. The purpose of the Trump representatives at that meeting was to plot a common anti-Hillary campaign strategy with the Putin representatives. It’s also clear from the

Felix Sater (right) with Trump. Sater, too, apparently went unquestioned.

unregistered phone call that Trump Sr. knew about the meeting.

There are so many links with different Russians through so many different Trump campaign officials that it is simply not credible that they did not work together. In other words, they colluded to defeat Hillary Clinton. Of course, as we see in Venezuela right now, US capitalism is completely hypocritical in denouncing Russian capitalist interference in the US elections, but the fact of that hypocrisy doesn’t change the fact of Russian capitalist intervention here.

Many socialists deny the significance of Trump’s dependence on the Russian mafia capitalists. They completely miss the point: This is the first time since before the US Civil War that the mainstream of the US capitalist class has not controlled its president. This fact means a crisis for US capitalism, and there is no understanding this crisis without recognizing and understanding this basic fact.

A Trump reelection, including by fraud, is not certain, but it is certainly more possible now. Workers and youth must start to prepare for this very real possibility.

Deregulation, privatization and environment
The most important issue that has largely flown under the radar up until now has been the Republicans’ deregulation and privatization. Both parties are in favor if this, but the Republicans are more blatant. This is especially so regarding the oil industry. Trump goes from allowing oil drilling within the boundaries of national parks to the same in the protected waters off the Coast of California.This is not only a matter of environmental protection; it’s also a matter of the looming climate catastrophe of global climate disruption. How much we can depend on the Democrats to defend the planet is seen in the fact that Hillary Clinton did not once mention the issue when she campaigned against Trump in 2016. Nor did the moderators ever ask them about the issue in their “debates”.

global emissions of greenhouse gases

Democrats and “Green New Deal”
Even if the Democrats win in 2020, the best they have to offer is Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal”. Just as FDR’s original New Deal accomplished little or nothing to end unemployment (it was WW II that did that), so the Green New Deal is woefully inadequate to avert the climate disaster, since the best it has to offer is some public-private partnerships. It doesn’t even mention the bloated military budget as a source of funding! And, inadequate as it is, there is zero chance that the Democrats would even pass it. (We urge readers to familiarize themselves with a more in-depth understanding of the Green New Deal, such as this analysis. )

Midwest floods
The response to the recent flooding in the Mid West is an example of what can be expected. A serious opposition to Trump would have sent teams of speakers to the college campuses and even the high schools in the region, explaining how this disaster is part and parcel of capitalist-caused global climate disruption. On that basis, they could have started to seriously undermine the support for Trump in those states. Yet where was the “left” wing of the Democrats? Where was Bernie Sanders or Victoria Ocasio-Cortez? Where was Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee, who says his entire campaign is around the issue of global warming? They went unseen and unheard from.

Flooding in the Midwest.
This disaster could have been used to undermine Trump and the Republicans. Problem is, making a serious issue out of it would have also undermined the Democrats too!

Worldwide student protests
On March 15 of this year, students went on strike all around the world – over 2,000 actions in over 100 countries. This is the start of the answer – mass action to put a prevent global climate disaster. From the planned Adani coal mine in Australia to the opening of the California coast for oil and gas exploration, capitalism is hell-bent on destroying the planet. In fact, as the Washington Post reported “greenhouse-gas emissions from the use of energy — by far their largest source — surged in 2018, reaching an record high of 33.1 billion tons. Emissions showed 1.7 percent growth, well above the average since 2010.”

A new, global youth movement could have a tremendous influence on older workers. Together, they could simply shut down environmentally destructive projects through mass defiance. That would transform the entire world political situation.

In the United States, such a campaign would inherently be at odds with the tendency to get sucked into Democratic Party politics, even those of the “left” of the Democrats, meaning Bernie Sanders. His entire thrust is to get out the vote and sign online petitions. A mass movement of defiance and disruption, one of youth and workers, would inherently tend to be coordinated through some sort of organization (as is tending to develop in the Yellow Vest movement in France). Such coordination would find an organizational expression. This could be the start of a working class alternative to the Democrats – the start of a mass working class political party.

While Trump has been officially “exonerated” from colluding with the Russian mafia capitalist class he’s also being unofficially exonerated from the present and future disasters of global climate change. Both exonerations are a total lie. Nor will any wing of the Democratic Party save us. If we, workers and youth want a savior, we must collectively look in the mirror.

“Who put these criminals in charge?”
Student strikes around the world. Starting top left clockwise: Cape Town South Africa; Chicago, IL, USA; Mindanao, Philippines; Mexico City, Mexico; Cardiff, Wales, Britain