by Stephen Lendman

Candidates on the stump show why America’s political system is too corrupted to fix - a money controlled duopoly masquerading as democratic. Democrats and Republicans represent one party with two wings.

They’re interchangeable on issues mattering most, representing wealth and power exclusively at the expense of beneficial social change, lying when claiming otherwise, other times making disgraceful comments, revealing their dark side.

Muslims are America’s geopolitical enemy of choice - vilified for their faith and ethnicity, a convenient pretext for Washington’s phony war on terror.

They’re maligned as belligerent, hostile and inferior - fair game for disparaging, a convenient target, used to justify endless US imperial wars, portrayed to a gullible public as a good v. evil struggle, supported by irresponsible major media propaganda.

Islamic tenets are ignored - teaching love, not hate; peace, not violence; charity, not selfishness; and tolerance, not terrorism.

Its five pillars include profession of faith, prayer five times daily, fasting during Ramadan, charity, and performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime if able to afford it.

None of this is publicly explained. Fear-mongering substitutes. Muslims are stereotypically portrayed as dangerous gun-toting terrorists - an abhorrent mischaracterization.

Political candidates exploit it - on the one hand, justifying attacking Muslim nations; on the other, denigrating Islam overtly, by implication or failing to denounce hate-mongering.

Donald Trump is a caricature of a presidential candidate, a demagogic billionaire con man, a self-styled celebrity, outspoken to a fault, hostile to Latino immigrants, at least tacitly anti-Muslim from comments in response to an overt Muslim hater.

The exchange went as follows at the start of a September 18 Rochester, New Hampshire town hall rally:

A racist supporter said “(w)e have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American. Birth certificate, man.”

Trump responded, saying “(w)e need this question. This is the first question.” The supporter continued, saying:

“But, anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?” Trump’s response drew justifiable outrage, saying:

“We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things and, you know, a lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We’re going to be looking at that and plenty of other things.”

Staff damage control claimed his comment meant “Christians need support in this country. Their religious liberty is at stake.”

“Mr Trump was referring to the need to protect Christians’ religious liberties as his previous statement says and nothing more. To be clear, Mr Trump's response to the question regarding training camps in this country was ‘we will look into it.’ “

America is a racist, white supremacist Judeo-Christian society - needing no support to protect their religious liberties.

Democrats disingenuously jumped on the chance to bash Trump. Notorious racist Hillary Clinton supports US imperial wars on Muslim countries. She lied calling Iran an “existential threat to Israel.”

During her 2008 presidential campaign, she boasted of stronger white support than Obama. She vowed to “attack Iran” if it threatened Israel, saying she’d “totally obliterate them.”

She was the driving force for war on Libya, overtly reveling after Gaddafi’s sodomized murder saying: “We came. We saw. He died.”

Her Trump criticism rang hollow, twittering: “Donald Trump not denouncing false statements about POTUS & hateful rhetoric about Muslims is disturbing, & just plain wrong. Cut it out. -H

Democrat National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was just as disingenuous, saying:

“GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s racism knows no bounds. This is certainly horrendous, but unfortunately unsurprising given what we have seen already.”

Trump’s comments came days after 14-year-old Muslim Irving, TX high school freshman student/MIT aspirant Ahmed Mohamed was outrageously suspended, handcuffed, arrested and detained by police for bringing a homemade alarm clock to class. Racist school officials accused him of making a fake bomb.

Surprising national outrage followed. His father said “(t)hat is not America. That is not us. That is not like us.”

War on Islam is official US policy - Obama its lead proponent. His supportive twitter comment to Ahmed and White House invitation was political grandstanding - a thinly veiled stunt to one-up Republicans.

Bernie Sanders revealed his phony populism by shamelessly bashing the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - murdered by Obama, either poisoned or infected with incurable cancer causing substances.

Four surgeries in 18 months couldn’t save him. At the time, then acting (now current) President Nicholas Maduro said he “was poisoned by dark forces in order to hit at the Venezuelan people and Latin America.”

Chavez remains a world hero, a true democrat and social justice champion. James Petras said he “was loved not only by Venezuelans but throughout Latin America” and elsewhere. He was special. No Western nation ever had a leader like him.

Jimmy Carter praised him, saying “he’ll be remembered for his bold assertion of autonomy and independence for Latin American governments and for his formidable communication skills and personal connection with supporters in his country and abroad to whom he gave hope and empowerment.”

Fidel Castro called him the “Olympic champion of new socialist ideas.” He’s sorely missed. In March 2006, I wrote him an open letter posted on my blog site, urging him to protect himself against dark forces wanting him eliminated.

I praised his spirit and glorious Bolivarian revolution. I wished America had a leader of his character, stature and commitment to peace and social justice. I vowed to continue writing and speaking out supportively for vital issues important to us both.

Sanders is no Hugo Chavez - or new UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn. He disgracefully denigrated Chavismo, calling the late Venezuelan leader a “dead communist dictator.”

He deserves universal condemnation for the remark, revealing his dark side. He’s no populist champion - never throughout his entire political career, undeserving of support from anyone.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.