as darkness falls, a silver lining short term pessimism <u+2013> long term optimism share this 




the future, in many respects, looks dark for opponents of interventionism and the national security state. us troops are currently involved in civil wars and <u+201c>policing<u+201d> across a wide swath of the middle east, europe, and eastasia. our political class is firmly committed to a globalist ideology that disdains the very concept of national sovereignty, most especially our own. and what dwight eisenhower called the <u+201c> military-industrial-congressional complex <u+201d> is more firmly entrenched than ever, extracting billions from the <u+201c>public<u+201d> purse and filling their coffers at our expense. 




furthermore, the presidential election is hardly encouraging. the prospect of hillary clinton in the white house must surely cause even the most optimistic among us to consider building one of those backyard bomb shelters so popular during the cold war era and stocking it with a couple of years supply of emergency rations. she has all but threatened to go to war with nuclear-armed russia , intervene massively in syria , and ratchet up nato<u+2019>s encirclement of the russian bear. 




yet these are all short-term concerns: in the long term, we anti-interventionists have every reason to be optimistic. 




to begin with, the american people are with us. every poll shows that, while support for a strong defense is rising, the reluctance to engage in foreign wars is strong and getting stronger. the most recent measuring of anti-interventionist sentiment came out just as i started writing this column: a mere 25 percent want the us to expand the role of the us military overseas, reports the financial times . fourteen percent say the fifteen years of constant warfare have made us more safe, 51 percent disagree. a majority says no to <u+201c>safe zones<u+201d> or any sort of intervention in syria: and a whopping 80 percent say congress must approve any military action abroad. 




secondly, the victory of donald trump in the republican presidential primary has broken the iron grip of the neoconservatives on gop foreign policy orthodoxy and given opposition to globalism new legitimacy in the pubic square. no matter what one may think of trump as a candidate, and in spite of his many inconsistencies, one indisputable fact remains: the republican party, which cheered as george w. bush launched two wars and declared a multi-generational interventionist project, very shortly afterward nominated someone who not only opposed the iraq war but said <u+201c>they lied. there were no weapons of mass destruction and they knew there were none .<u+201d> that, all by itself, represents a sea change. but it didn<u+2019>t end there. 




trump has questioned the utility of nato, and even threatened to pull out if member states didn<u+2019>t pay their fair share <u+2013> a pronouncement that, just a short time ago, would have been inconceivable coming from any major part presidential nominee. he wondered aloud why we<u+2019>re defending south korea, japan, and saudi arabia , all rich nations that are perfectly capable of defending themselves. and he provoked the undying ire of the war party when he asked : <u+201c>wouldn<u+2019>t it be nice if we could get along with russia?<u+201d> 




underscoring that he understands the broader implications of these positions, trump adopted a campaign theme that evokes the historical legacy of the anti-interventionist movement in this country: <u+201c>america first.<u+201d> this provoked paroxysms of hatred from the foreign policy mandarins in washington, who loathe <u+201c>isolationism<u+201d> <u+2014> and their squeals of outrage were music to my ears. 




thirdly, the trump campaign has generated the healthiest trend to be seen in this country in a long time: widespread skepticism, and even hatred, of the <u+201c>mainstream<u+201d> media. trump has campaigned against the media almost more than he has against hillary clinton, making them a special target of his disdain. <u+201c>see those people out there,<u+201d> he says at his rallies, pointing to the media in attendance. <u+201c>they<u+2019>re the worst! they<u+2019>re corrupt!<u+201d> and as a chorus of jeers rises up from the crowd, we can count another victory for our side. 




for the very same media that served as a conduit for the war propaganda of the bush administration is now going after trump, hammer and tongs , in an unabashed campaign to deny him the presidency. the result is that nearly half the country is now not only skeptical of anything they hear coming from the media, they positively loathe them <u+2013> and that, from our perspective, is a good thing. 




remember, it was the american media that assured us saddam hussein was plotting to nuke washington, d.c., and reported the bush administration<u+2019>s talking points as if they were fact. the same newspaper that put judy miller<u+2019>s manufactured <u+201c>revelations<u+201d> about iraq<u+2019>s alleged nuclear program on the front page is now in the vanguard of the anti-trump jihad. the washington post , which has editorially supported every single military intervention in the past 35 years, today reads like a publication of the democratic national committee. 




the revelation that the media, rather than being a watchdog of power, is itself an integral part of the power structure, is one of the great contributions of the trump campaign. in the past, journalists, hiding behind the pretense of <u+201c>objectivity,<u+201d> have effectively channeled the war party<u+2019>s propaganda, reporting it as fact: now that this pretense has been dropped, and their brazen partisanship has been exposed, much of their power to persuade has been lost. 




the media and the establishment they serve are telling us that all this will go away after the election. having already declared mrs. clinton the winner, they<u+2019>re gloating that trumpism <u+2013> and the trump effect <u+2013> is dead or dying. 




this is wishful thinking on their part. the reality is that there<u+2019>s an undercurrent coursing through flyover america that threatens the ideological and political hegemony of the war party, and, indeed, poses a rising challenge to our arrogant and self-isolated political class. trump has tapped into this, and he will not be the last to do so. the movement to put <u+201c>america first,<u+201d> to reject the blandishments of empire and restore our old republic, far from being dead, is just being born. 




yes, dark clouds are gathering on the horizon: but if you step back, the silver lining shines through. 




notes in the margin 




you can check out my twitter feed by going here . but please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud. 




you can buy an enemy of the state: the life of murray n. rothbard (prometheus books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here . read more by justin raimondo assange<u+2019>s fate <u+2013> october 18th, 2016 trumped! <u+2013> october 16th, 2016 click here to hide comments michael gillespie 




if he loses the election by a significant margin, won<u+2019>t many of the entirely legitimate issues and questions trump has raised be submerged again by his defeat? and doesn<u+2019>t the mere fact that it is trump who has raised these issues and questions de-legitimize them in the eyes of those who (with the assistance of anti-trump ads and big media reportage) can see only trump<u+2019>s character flaws? tonydigerolamo 




was thinking the same thing. however, if the media so brazenly lies, why not the pollsters? maybe trump isn<u+2019>t losing by much or not at all. maybe the powers that be want it to look like trump is losing so that stealing the election won<u+2019>t be questioned. eileen kuch 




the truth is, tony, this election<u+2019>s already being rigged. many voters in texas alone who<u+2019>ve voted early have complained about their votes being switched from republican to democrat. this vote switch has already proved trump to be right about the election being rigged. the donald already has a lawsuit in place, should he lose this election. this lawsuit contains a complaint that voters in gop districts had been intimidated by violent groups such as black lives matter (blm) and marxist activists and threatened with violence if they (the voters) voted for trump. it is a felony to intimidate and threaten violence against voters in an election. period. those participating in this tactic must be immediately arrested and charged accordingly. 




<u+201c>many voters in texas alone who<u+2019>ve voted early have complained about their votes being switched from republican to democrat.<u+201d> 




and yet, despite the ubiquity of smart phones, not a single one has shown it actually happening. strider73 




do you really think the people in charge of the machines would allow anyone to get out his/her phone and take such a photo or video? nor would they allow someone else to do so on another voter<u+2019>s behalf. thane_eichenauer 




personally i believe the touch screen calibration explanation by and large. half the reports i also attribute to user error. if you can<u+2019>t use a touch screen you probably aren<u+2019>t capable of capturing the error on a smart phone. those people that are adept with computers, touch screens and smart phones won<u+2019>t have the problem in the first place. i would think there would still be a captured report but strider73 below does make a good point. wars r u.s. thomas l. knapp 




interesting point. 




i think it<u+2019>s worth comparing trump to ron paul on that. paul was right on foreign policy, right on trade, and at least not as egregiously wrong and anti-american as trump on immigration. and while he did energize a movement, he pretty much got nowhere in the gop presidential nomination race. 




trump sometimes gets something right on foreign policy, usually five minutes or so before reversing himself. he doesn<u+2019>t reverse himself on his egregiously wrong and anti-american positions on trade and immigration. 




so i guess the lesson is, if you want to be the republican presidential nominee, be as wrong as it<u+2019>s humanly possible to be on most issues all of the time, and on the rest of the issues some of the time. 




i<u+2019>m guessing that the occasional sense he talks on foreign policy will be, as you put it, once again submerged if he loses the election. skywalker 




trump<u+2019>s candidacy is more like barry goldwater<u+2019>s than ron paul<u+2019>s. unlike paul,trump got the nomination and like goldwater he redefined the parameters of national debate. goldwater<u+2019>s defeat emboldened conservatives to lose national elections on their principles for 16 years until reagan was elected. trump questioned some of the underpinnings of the neocons. unfortunately he was as pro-zionist as any other candidate, including clinton and as militaristic as the neocons. trump just saw the existential enemies of the us as isis and china, not russia. instead trump wanted to push the allies and russia to the front lines against isis and china with the us backing them up. but trump<u+2019>s enduring popularity and the independence of the sanders supporters showed that the neocons and the msm are losing control of public opinion and the national discourse. all the polls show that trump will do much better than goldwater. so we may be closer to a real antiwar candidate than the msm would like us to believe. finally, it is too early to count trump out. florida, ohio and north carolina are still close and a timely wikileaks dump could still swing those states and the election. 




<u+201c>finally, it is too early to count trump out. florida, ohio and north carolina are still close and a timely wikileaks dump could still swing those states and the election.<u+201d> 




unless something changes, i still expect trump to win. 




a lot of people are mistakenly looking at this as a national election. it isn<u+2019>t. it<u+2019>s 50 state elections (plus dc and the territories, although if i recall correctly the territories get no electoral votes and so don<u+2019>t really matter except as preference polls). 




if clinton wins california 55-45, she gets exactly the same number of electoral votes as if she wins it 70-30. if she loses texas 51-49, she is no closer to its electoral votes than if she loses it 80-20. so when she gains in national polls, it<u+2019>s important to realize that where those gains are coming from matters. 




it<u+2019>s also quite likely that many trump voters aren<u+2019>t admitting they are trump voters, even on the phone to pollsters. there<u+2019>s a stigma in some areas. 




i expect trump to win any state that the polls have him within five points of carrying. and i expect him to win the election. disqus_eebpu3igdu 




my guess is trump wins in a squeaker, but the democrats steal the election and hillary becomes president. eileen kuch 




i expect trump to win in a near landslide. well over 70% of eligible voters have already said they<u+2019>d never vote for hillary clinton, and a good number are millennials who had supported bernie sanders during the primaries and who are now furious over bernie<u+2019>s betrayal of them at the end, but still blame hillary. in these young people<u+2019>s minds, trump is the next best choice as potus. they know how corrupt the hildabeast truly is, how desperate she is to gain the oval office <u+2013> even by rigging the election in her favor. after all, she had done it to bernie in the primaries. however, trump has more determination at winning the oval office than had bernie. he also had stronger opposition. richard vajs 




if hillary does win (and we can count on bill pulling every dirty trick out of his evil mind to ensure that), one thing that we can count on <u+2013> 4 years of legislation to prevent any populist like bernie or trump from ever getting another foothold on the ladder of power in this country. the elite don<u+2019>t ever want to have to worry about the <u+201c>little people<u+201d> getting uppity again. remember, this is their country. wars r u.s. comrade hermit 




ron paul, like him or loath him, was/is a legitimate pacifist. trump is a knuckle-dragging malignant narcissist who would drone strike a fourth grade slumber party for prank phone-calling him. big f**king difference there. i don<u+2019>t believe the good doctor paul has earned such a slur. his son maybe but leave the old man out of this one. just sayin. supremeborg 




<u+201c>ron paul, like him or loath him, was/is a legitimate pacifist<u+201d> 




just a slight correction to your terminology. ron paul is not, technically, a pacifist, in spite of the fact that he would have opposed every war the us has been in save the original war of revolution. he upholds the legitimacy of violence used in self defense, at least some of the time, in some cases 




your point is well taken, however, as he is the most consistent anti-interventionist to have served in congress in my lifetime. 




there are different interpretations of pacifism. many people, including myself, consider themselves to be pacifists but still defend the right to self defense. joe flack 




and big media has at least three years to work with. by the next presidential election cycle, trump and his message will very likely be all but forgotten. john v. walsh 




good column. a correction. justin writes, <u+201c>the same newspaper that put judy miller<u+2019>s manufactured <u+201c>revelations<u+201d> about iraq<u+2019>s alleged nuclear program on the front page is now in the vanguard of the anti-trump jihad. it was not only judith miller that authored the article but she and co-author michael r. gordon who has remained the <u+201c>chief military correspondent<u+201d> of the nyt. the despicable miller took the hit when the lies of the article could no longer be denied but the despicable gordon continued on. and the article was obviously a pile of assertions without evidence save for hearsay. that was obvious to me and i have not served as an editor since my high school newspaper. the editors who passed on that piece of shit should also be sent to some gulag, their existence there to be supervised by parents and children of iraqis and americans who lost their lives in the war on iraq. strider73 




the editors who passed on that piece of shit should also be sent to some gulag, . . . 




nah, just hang them (or if one is more frugal, give them one bullet to the head each like the chinese do) for crimes against humanity. julius streicher was executed at n<u+00fc>rnberg simply for publishing a virulently anti-jewish tabloid ; under that standard they deserve the same. mikhailovich 




by independent mass media they mean mass media independent from the state. this idea promoted by those few mass media corporations who own the mass media and together with other corporations they own the state. very few people own almost everything. you can<u+2019>t change situation by attacking the correspondents and editors, they are employed people. here i shut up, one can<u+2019>t touch the sacred golden bull, the worshippers would be insulted. joe flack 




somehow, in the us, <u+2018>america first<u+2019> is interpreted as being a racist and misogynistic proclamation. richard vajs 




i can just see a smiling bill clinton leaning back and saying, <u+201c>look, here is how we win this thing, hil. <u+2013> divide and conquer <u+2013> millions of women are anxious to battle <u+201c>abuse and prejudice against women and teach an abuser a lesson!<u+201d>. not very original, but effective- was effective in the <u+201c>change , you can believe in<u+201d> ad campaign eight years ago. four years from now, the same women will still have lousy or no jobs; money will still be being spent in the mid east bombing muslims for israel; the clintons and their friends will be building bigger mansions, and a new generation of americans will be ready for another round of shearing. luther blissett 




i enjoy the optimism of this column but i<u+2019>m witnessing the opposite <u+2013> many worthy anti-globalist & anti-war ideas are being tarred and deeply poisoned by having such a truly unlikable and wildly unstable politician claim them as his own. making the case against toppling assad was easier before trump started blabbering on about assad & putin <u+2018>outsmarting<u+2019> america. 




trump has tapped into real populist frustration, especially in the working class & the underemployed youth, but he is simply far too incoherent and repellent to do anything with it besides waste it on his own vanity. 




right-wing hatred of the <u+2018>liberal media<u+2019> has been at a scalding boil since the vietnam war so i don<u+2019>t think trump should get any credit for that <u+2013> but it would be nice that when the next big terrorist attack in the <u+2018>homeland<u+2019> occurs if the red states were skeptical because if hillary is president the blue states are going shove the american flag down everyone<u+2019>s throat and floss them with it. 




those so called <u+201c>polls<u+201d> are made in secret, right? why would you trust that? bob balkas 




compare <u+201c>our political class committed to globalist ideology<u+201d> with my: our master class along with a sub-master class on the road to obtain the entire planet and permanent rule of the world master class of all subclasses or <u+2018>lower-valued<u+2019> bipeds. 




curioso is also the term, <u+201c>we the anti-interventionists<u+201d>. the term means that us intervenes when something goes wrong in other countries. but the naked facts say otherwise. us not only commits crimes against some nations, but before it does those crimes, it almost always first destabilizes them in too many ways to list them all. after all, many nations and people believe that cia is the biggest terrorist organization. 




the nation gang; aka nato no longer utile, according to trump? even if trump wins, someone would explain to him that such a gang will be very useful to world gangsterism and supremacy of the master class. disqus_eebpu3igdu 




very very very well put. justin might have added that for a long time the msm in the so-called free world were even worse that the government-controlled media in communist countries and dictatorships. in the free world, the msm have not been under formal government control, so this makes them seem objective so that what they say is more believable and their power is greater. if in fact they do sometimes print something that washington really doesn<u+2019>t like, that<u+2019>s just good psychology because it reinforces the impression that msm really are independent watchdogs of government. by contrast, in the communist countries and dictatorships, the media have been under formal government ownership. as this fact could not of course have been hidden from the people, the latter naturally tended to discount what they read in the media because they knew that the media were biased. claus-erik hamle 




trump may win. in colombia there was no doubt that it would be <u+201c>yes<u+201d>, but unfortunately, it ended <u+201c>no<u+201d>. so really, it<u+00b4>s impossible to know. does she really mean that she<u+00b4>ll nake a no-fly zone no matter that it leads to war with syria and russia? disqus_eebpu3igdu 




this is a crazy election, the craziest since at least 1968. in such a crazy and unusual situation, what do the polls mean? youarenuts 




the only silver lining i<u+2019>ve seen this week is the acquittal of the bundy ranch protesters. hopefully the finnicum family make a mint (of taxpayer money) in a lawsuit for the unnecessary shooting of lavoy. 




elsewhere, i have to agree with assange; trump probably can<u+2019>t overcome the almost complete propaganda and intimidation blitz against his campaign by the msm and hackjob democrat browbeaters and jackboot thugs. 




once hillary is in, it won<u+2019>t so much be her forcing policy down her throat; it will be the entire dem machine and presstitute corp as mentioned above<u+2026> assange, btw, will probably get renditioned or taken out.. 




since it<u+2019>s logistically difficult to impossible for millions to stream into dc to squat and demand justice, i don<u+2019>t really see any threat of consequences for whatever atrocious policies that the sadists in washington implement. eileen kuch 




regarding hillary<u+2019>s so-called <u+201c>victory<u+201d>, i have to disagree. with every revelation of her crimes by wikileaks, the hildabeast<u+2019>s chances of winning the election grow slimmer and slimmer, as her poll ratings take hit after hit after hit. the dnc<u+2019>s and the hillary campaign<u+2019>s involvement in violence against trump supporters doesn<u+2019>t help her campaign, either .. instead, such intimidation only backfires on the dnc and the hillary campaign. it has boosted trump<u+2019>s chances of winning the election. there<u+2019>s still one more <u+201c>surprise<u+201d> from wikileaks yet to be released, and what it contains may destroy hillary<u+2019>s chances. aion the irredeemable 




it almost seems as though justin has accepted reality and is now supporting donald trump. has he seen the light or is he now pandering to the huge numbers of his followers who have left the libertarian camp to become true conservatives? i don<u+2019>t think i<u+2019>ll be returning to the liberal/libertarian point of view but it<u+2019>s a good sign that justin has accepted the fact that donald trump represents the only force that will defeat the social marxists and their agenda of the new world order/globalists. 




<u+201c>it almost seems as though justin has accepted reality and is now supporting donald trump.<u+201d> 




that<u+2019>s a one or the other kind of thing. claus-erik hamle 




will president clinton insist on a no-fly zone, even if it means war with syria and russia ? is she mad, crazy, nuts, insane, bonkers ? strider73 




is she mad, crazy, nuts, insane, bonkers? 




all of the above, and worse. account exec 




remember how the british and u.s. media assured us that brexit was doomed to failure? getting a whiff of the same scenario playing out here with all the <u+201c>assurances<u+201d> of a clinton victory. might even get to enjoy another wikileaks bomb or two before it<u+2019>s all said and done. wars r u.s. 




trump<u+2019>s biggest problem with the media is that they print all the stupid s**t he says. he hardly made people realize how corrupt our corporate media is unless they were living under rocks for the last 40 years. we have two lousy choices no matter how hard people cherry pick what the donald spews. comrade hermit 




trump is not the cause of these growing trends. he is a symptom of them and not exactly a positive one. when empires are in decline, the aggrieved masses often look to authority figures to save them from the inevitable death of a way of life. in this country we call that dying way of life the <u+201c>american dream<u+201d>. a dream of stability and upward mobility that has been in decline for decades but is now in free fall. the donald cannot save this dream. no one can. it is built upon the lie of state capitalism which is inherently unsustainable and built to self-destruct. our only hope for real change is a total shift in the way we approach the very notion of modern society. this change cannot come from above, from an authoritarian savior figure. it must come from bellow, from the streets, and it must be divorced from the outdated left-right paradigm. anti-statists and anti-imperialists of all stripes must join together in solidarity and bring this beast called empire to its knees where it belongs. strider73 




three words for anyone who thinks the lizard queen has it sewn up because of the polls: 




dewey defeats truman
as darkness falls, a silver lining
justin raimondo