Forget Russiagate: Here Are 5 Real Reasons Trump Needs to Go

Since at least May 2017, Americans have been subjected to non-stop, 24-7 coverage of the investigation into whether Donald Trump and Russian intelligence colluded to steal the 2016 election. Now that the investigation has concluded and the evidence was found lacking, it’s time to reflect on the entire process.

First, the corporate media hacks have now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be severely lacking when it comes to journalistic integrity and dedication to truth. With their hyper-focus on Trump’s alleged connections to Russia, the corporate media has effectively fallen down on the job and failed to inform Americans about the stories that actually matter and affect them. Worst of all, the corporate media is ignoring legitimate criticisms of the Trump administration while focusing, sometimes exclusively, on conspiracy theories.

However, every problem presents an opportunity to provide a solution. The responsibility now falls on the independent media to continue spreading the truth while informing the masses. With that in mind, we present you with 5 Reasons Trump Needs to Go That Have Nothing to Do With Russia:

1. Endless War

No matter how you slice it, Trump’s administration has vastly increased military engagements around the world. Whether by providing weapons to Saudi Arabia which infamously lead to the deaths of Yemeni children on a school bus, or the killing of civilians in Somalia, it’s clear that Trump lied when he claimed he would not embroil the U.S. military in any more undeclared wars. There is also the ongoing U.S. military presence in Syria, the banging of war drums in Venezuela, and increasing conflict between the U.S., Russia, and China, which may end up engulfing the world in war.

However, when it comes to war, the corporate media not only fails to inform the public or call Trump’s action into question, they actually embrace his neo-conservative advisers and their calls for indiscriminate bombing campaigns. Even more despicable is the fact that the Trump administration has now stated they will repeal or deny visas to the staff of the International Criminal Court who might be seeking to investigate whether American soldiers were responsible for war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the move was an attempt to “protect the American and allied military and civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecution for actions taken to defend our great nation,” but it seems quite obvious that Pompeo and Trump simply do not want America’s crimes to come to light.

2. Trump is the New Drone King

After Trump came into office, it became clear that he wanted to erase Obama’s legacy as “The Drone King.” However, Trump didn’t want to simply replace Obama as the new drone king, he wanted to expand drone bombings. In March 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was handing the authority to conduct drone strikes in foreign countries against alleged terrorists back to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The decision by Trump reversed a policy held under the Obama administration, which called for National Security Officials or the president himself to authorize drone strikes.

“To me, it looks like taking the gloves off the CIA to be able to go after these militants, or suspected militants,” Karl Kaltenthaler, a professor at the University of Akron and an expert in the intersection of drones and modern warfare, told US News. “The Trump administration is basically unraveling all of the 2013 presidential policy guidance. These are now covert operations, the government can’t say anything about these in the public sphere, they can’t even confirm or deny that these operations even took place.”

Just weeks ago Trump rescinded a rule requiring U.S. intelligence officials to publicly disclose the number of civilians killed by drone strikes. Trump used an executive order to scrap the three-year-old rule, which instructed the Director of National Intelligence to produce an annual report on all civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes outside of official war zones. This move might be in relation to recent reports which indicate that Trump has increased the amount of drones, resulting in an increase in civilian deaths.

3. Embracing the Surveillance State, 5g, and Facial Recognition Tech

Since Donald Trump became President of the United States, he has made it clear that he embraces the Surveillance State that was erected by his predecessors George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Trump’s original proposition for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border included provisions for biometrics, automatic license plate readers, cameras, and many more digital surveillance tools. Although he has yet to achieve his goal of building that wall, the bills that have been proposed make it clear that his administration envisions a heavily fortified structure with all the latest tools for monitoring the docile public.

The Trump administration has also worked with the Transportation Security Administration to embrace the use of facial recognition cameras in airports, going so far as requiring facial recognition scanning for all passengers by 2021.

Donald Trump has also sided with the Big Wireless Lobby in their pursuit of 5th Generation—or 5G—cellular technology that has been opposed by scientists, politicians, and activists. It should be clear to anyone paying attention that Donald Trump is a big fan of Big Brother.

4. Supporting the Persecution and Prosecution of Julian Assange & Chelsea Manning

During his campaign for President, Donald Trump famously said he loved Wikileaks, but after he was elected he began singing a different tune. Trump is now calling for the prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and the U.S. government has been increasingly putting pressure on the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to turn him over to the United States.

The Trump administration has also recently come under fire for the treatment of U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Manning was recently summoned to answer questions as part of a grand jury subpoena. For refusing to participate in the secret grand jury process, she was arrested and has been held in solitary confinement since. It is believed that the questions relate to Manning’s 2010 leaks of U.S. Army documents to Wikileaks. On April 3, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed support for Manning, tweeting,“Chelsea is being tortured for whistleblowing, she should be released on bail, and we should ban extended solitary in the US.”

5. Trump is Fighting to SAVE the Deep State

Trump previously supported the extension of the controversial section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). According the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Section 702 “allows the NSA to collect emails, browser history and chat logs of Americans. Section 702 also allows other agencies, like the FBI, to search through that data without a warrant. Those searches are called ‘backdoor searches’.”

As revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, Section 702 also authorizes two internet surveillance programs known as PRISM and Upstream. PRISM gathers messaging data sent via Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and other tech companies, while Upstream taps into the so-called backbone of the internet to gather data on targets. Instead of any meaningful reform, the Senate version of the bill to reform Section 702 asks the FBI to submit a request to the the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court if they end up in possession of an American’s data. This is the very definition of the wolf guarding the hen house because the FISA court is notoriously secretive with little oversight. Critics say a lack of transparency has allowed various federal agencies to run mass surveillance programs with no accountability.

The FISA Court is a glaring example of The Deep State. A secret court run by secret judges who interpret the law behind closed doors, refusing to publicly release their findings or their interpretations. Section 702 is only one of many tools at the hands of The Deep State and the Trump administration is doing its best to allow the program to continue.