As an Indian (yes, that's the nomenclature most of us prefer because it memorializes the stupidity of whitey thinking they landed in a different place), I have to weep for most Americans, who cannot see that the Indian genocide is still fully in effect. I pray for Palestine knowing full well that nothing, on our (er, our rulers') side, will ever change.
n.b. for those not in the know, "American domestic shorthair" is another word for "American mixed breed" or just "alley cat". It's not as if I have a pedigree, and most cats can't read pedigrees in the first place.
Yes, all my cats are random-bred. I have never owned a purebred; all mine are rescued cats that were dumped in my rural neighborhood.
Sage is an exceptional beauty. She really does resemble a purebred American Shorthair; she is a brown and black “classic tabby” (the kind with swirly stripes) also known as a “tie-dye” cat 🙂
Oooo, love those. The latest cat to wander into my life (literally) was a feral Norwegian forest cat. Gawd is he a handful! After years of tabbies for my companions, I’m getting quite an education about these fancy breeds!
I work in South America and with many from South America, most people I speak to despise the use of Americans when speaking about something horrific specifically about the u.s. (lower case intentional). Common colonist speak rots my brain. Like Americans coming to the rescue of israel (yes lower case).
Hi Nivek, not sure if it's appropriate to throw this lighter note into the discussion but I recently discovered the series Reservation Dogs and was pleasantly surprised to see (finally!?) a series about Indians/native Americans/indigineous inhabitants of the continent we know know as North America in the reservation camps you are talking about. It is something rarely talked about, especially not in Europe. Black (dangerous) ghetto's, impoverished Latino neighborhoods etc, that's the images we are offered in popular culture or newspaper articles but never a word of the fate of the Indians/native Americans/indigineous inhabitants of the continent we know know as North America. I wonder if that series is a good representation of the situation (taking into account that it's of course not a documentary and a piece of creative fiction writing with dramatic purposes).
Thank you for this comment. Yes, Pine Ridge is especially targeted by the feds for destruction. Leonard Pelletier is still in jail for defying the feebees back in the 70’s, fr chrissake. Join Native Alliance or Lakota Law to help out. They’re doing good but solitary work.
Nivek: Columbus thought the native people of the Caribbean were part of the Indus Valley, hence Indians or maybe he thought that the natives were living in Dios (God). It's controversial. I wasn't there.
Columbus certainly had motivation to go back to Spain and SAY that he'd landed in India. But it is obvious that he didn't. No spices for one thing. No Indian cities. No Indian culture.
I was a fan of the Cleveland Indians as a kid. Notre Dame's team is called the Fightin' Irish.
Who cares?
The American Indians had their land stolen and their people killed. Same thing happened to my Irish ancestors.
The past is dead. We must try as individuals to make the most of our lives.
That are routinely invaded by the oil companies, digging up their dead and poisoning their water, so the Timmy’s of the world can have their internal combustion engines galore and pontificate about what he knows not. Yikes!
NIvek: Everyone living in the USA is in an open air prison. There is no safety in life. We are all tax slaves to the State in the USA. We are all subject to the Military Draft at any time. That is slavery. Doesn't matter what color your skin is.
Go get’em Mike. But don’t wish him on the Rez. They have enough self righteous white boys to deal with. Plus, they are so kind, they will suffer his foolery. We need to keep him here to take his beating from other whites who are decent and sick of his fascist crap.
How so? Have you visited any of the Reservations in your country? Navaho in Nevada, New Mexico or Montana? Some of the most depressing places on earth.
we aren't going to make the most of our lives by pretending we aren't recycling the same kinds of wars, for the same motivations. this involves remembering the past.
Another genocide is happening right now though. So we should all care. Just because colonization and genocide happened in the past doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give a fuck anymore. Ew, just ew.
I have a comment from you in my email that I can't find. You ask me what is antisemitic about criticizing Israel. I don't think criticizing Israel is antisemitic. I think calling Jews names like "whore kike jew" etc. is antisemitic. As far as I saw, you did not say any of those things. It was that other person in a previous list of comments who said those really horrible, not useful names. He seems to have disappeared from these comments.
Understandable. I haven’t seen comments denigrating Jewish people but thanks for the explanation. There’s so much backlash for speaking the truth about Zionism and Israel in general that I tend to find the antisemitic label suspicious in these times.
I have heard that anti semitism is on the rise. But criticism of Israel is considered by the people keeping those stats to be anti semitic. It seems crazy to me that nobody is allowed to criticize the State of Israel when critiques of other states are allowed and not considered anything other than critiques.
Agreed. I think it’s because since 1948 the holocaust has been weaponized, and the Palestinians were “nazified” by Israel. It is a neat way to never have to accept blame or accountability for its own crimes. If Jews are considered the biggest victims of all times, then per this logic no one else can be victim or a bigger victim.
That’s why the Jewish kids in college campuses very dramatically say that protestors are calling for “Jewish genocide” when they in fact are asking for an end to genocide. It’s a lot of crocodile tears. A lot of gaslighting. The first question they like to ask is: “but do you agree Hamas committed terrorism?” As if Hamas reaction happened out of nowhere. They became the abusers and Nazi like perpetrators.
Have you never heard the saying that History repeats itself?
The past is very much alive. It’s being perpetrated right now. When I was in County Kerry, I felt the ghosts of the IRA fighters. It was palpable.
I have spent making the most of my life by advocating for the oppressed. It began as a teenager when I read a book called “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”. If any Amerikkkan here doubts the intentions of the IsraHellis, READ THIS BOOK. The similarities with the war on Gaza are bone-chilling.
Thank you for reminding me of this book. I’m just the tiniest bit Oglala and that book made me weep. Thank you for spending your life on the side of the oppressed. That’s a life worth living.
I also meant to say, Jeano, that I feel immense guilt that my farm is located on what was once the land of the Chippewa. There is a sacred Chippewa burial ground a few miles from here.
I wept like a baby as well when I first read it and, as a first-generation Amerikkkan, was at least glad that my ancestors didn’t perpetrate the slaughter.
Few in The West venture the mandatory critique of the driver of it all, The Holy of The Holies, the religiously justified mass murderers in Tel Aviv, of whom come with some 2,000 year old injunction from their god that - "This Land is Your Land". Problem - If that was true, the rest of humanity was left uninformed of this important real estate arrangement.
Two War Solution Paths . . .
Solution 1. Destroy Palestinians with Israeli - American Air Power. This kills non-combatants = civilians, a major war crime and here a clear demonstration of the moral bankruptcy of The West.
Other such methods elsewhere in the M.E. remained better concealed. No prospect of facing the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. Washington owns the ICC.
This approach intended to avoid IDF casualties, preserve President Netanyahu's Government from major IDF battlefield losses which would be politically devastating for this President, in a country that has grown soft while talking tough, like all others in The West and cannot absorb any degree of battlefield losses from real wars.
A six day war, BTW, is not a war, more a skirmish.
Solution 2. Commit a largely unprepared IDF to Close In Urban Warfare wherein The IDF would take heavy losses, counted in tens of thousands and would finish off the Netanyahu Government, whose likely preemptive maneuver would be full President Zelenskyy - ban The Opposition, close down media, suspend elections.
Armies and soldiers die while causing the other side to die. Technically more legal. The purpose of armies.
Similar to the early phase of the SMO in East Ukraine against well entrenched NATO-AFU-AZOV Nazi Forces and where Russian-Chechen Forces took most of their losses as they spared the population. Better at Close In Urban Warfare than the IDF.
Tel Aviv Thought Leaders know what they are avoiding. Background chatter around using gas.
Suggestive that illegal gas weapons do exist. Of course they do.
______________
The Americans are bothered. The optics cannot be managed. They've switched to that word "restraint".
They never, ever argue for restraint unless events are going against them.
But then Washington lost control of Tel Aviv decades ago.
Can I ask your opinion on the initial attacks, the warnings ignored, application of the Hannibal Directive? Also, did you read Seymour Hersh's 'Netanyahu Is Finished' article?
We can dream but it time for more,way past time .All War especially Genocide is abomination ,natives anywhere deserve sovereignty as do all of us. Cant roll back the time for life or entire planet autonomy thefts murders & erasures but w/o our complacency we can stop this. When We stand in solidarity,collective against this abomination we can end the practice of ripping bodys to shreads for any insanity& clearly perverse profiteering war pig elites.
- Of whom could defend their sovereignty, it was a matter of who had better armed forces, an industrialized war machine.
- Native communities were no match for British, European and American colonial armies and their Anthropological - Geographical Societies came to equate military successes with racial superiority, both of which underpinned Western Imperialism.
- Your magical Western Lifestyle made possible from supply chains stretching back into Africa and Asia? Still wearing any diamond jewelry, K.H.?
I'm watcing The Killing Fields right now and reminded that we have been complicit in destroying so many cultures for so many years. My heart is heavy tonight. There are not enough tears to wash this horror away.
I guess you (and Sanders) mean well but to me it sounds bla bla bla, words, words, words, too little too late. Even from Sanders. He doesn't tackle the real problems, the real reasons, the real culprits. What he says sounds decent and nice and correct but it's just not enough. Not enough! Just words. Uttering words, sounds, phrases in a board room for politicians. Hollow talk. We all nod yes yes yes, agree, but then, what will happen? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Too late for the people already dead, too late for those who (will) survive but will take this horror and pain and trauma with them to the next generation. Discusting display of moral evil of a failed system ruled by power, money, greed and psychopaths.
I know, and what makes it feel so bad is the lives of these children were so impoverished by Israel that it left them with little to no hope for a future as they lived in fear of the present.
I know, but it was a really good speech. I supported him, really supported him in his 2016 presidential run and of course it was set up that it would be a Hilary win. MSNBC always called him an old curmudgeon, and the democratic party who sells itself as liberal, is definitely not. I lost faith in him when he extolled Clinton's virtues when she won the primary and that was that, however this anti-genocidal speech was really, really, good and did sound heart felt.
I was a HUGE supporter of him as well. Now I see just an empty suit full of meaningless hot air - a fraud. And he probably thinks he isn't - which is always a bit galling.
I know how you feel and I felt the same way about him after his 2016 run and the adulation he expressed for Clinton. Maybe he wasn't sincere and said all the right things but it was good to listen to. A sense of humanity. What Israel is implementing on the Palestinians is so barbaric.
It is so incredibly barbaric - and now Blinken is going around announcing the US is doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties and a possible escalation. Like anyone believes you Blinken? Who do you think you & Biden are fooling?
What do you make of Lindsay Graham and his comments? I have called his office several times to leave messages claiming I am concerned that someone with such a lack of humanity is even in office. Useless I know but he is a sick SOB with no soul. He comes across as an absolute psychopath. He's really sick.
His commentary is a reflection of a sick man, and his rhetoric reflects it over and over no ifs and or buts about it. I have called his office every now and again and recently to voice complaint about his despicable rhetoric.
Did he say that? Listen to his speech, and maybe your right, but it brought a sense of humanity to what's going on. News outlets like CNN are also challenging and reporting on the genocide that Israel is implementing and the US is supporting. Listen to Max Blumenthal and how many deaths he is attributing to Israel in the recent carnage that they are attributing to Hamas.
His votes are what do the talking. It does not matter whether he votes with misgivings, whether he votes for the next war of aggression because his arm was twisted, because he felt he had to support Biden (and his loyalty was already in question), because his vote was tied to some past or future favor, because he was blackmailed or promised lots of sweet MIC jobs in his district.
Excellent! One of my favourite 20th century poets Wilfred Owen translated the horrors and futility of war and your reading of your own work here so much reminded me of reading Owen. The imagery is stark!
Anthem for Doomed Youth describes memorial tributes to the soldiers who die in war.
The poem ironically compares the sounds of war to the choirs and bells which usually sound at funerals.
It also compares familiar funeral practices to the bleak farewells of young men who should have their whole lives in front of them. In doing so, Wilfred Owen seems to show the futility of religion at this time while also demonstrating the brutality of war. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z4m2xfr/revision/2
Brilliant! I brought my son one if Owen’s books- The War Poems when he was 18 and struggling to comprehend the absurdity of WW1.
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
I found it astonishing they sent soldiers suffering from shell shock (or PTSD as they call it now) back to the front after so called treatment in England. The thunderous sound of relentless shelling would do any head in.
I often wonder what George would have done or said in these crazy times; many or most comedians were on the wrong side of history, at least from my perspective, it's hard to laugh with their jokes nowadays, I find them to be cowards whereas a comedian should be the opposite.
Bassem Youssef reminds me of Robin Williams, he has said some 'funny' but true things lately.
Despite all that we have learned from history, indigenous people are still scorned and blamed for their post traumatic stress caused by colonialism. But descendants of colonizers and some descendents and survivors of residential schools work together to try to find a solution.
Netanyahu has unleashed a horrible fury upon the people of Gaza. It would appear that it is some sickness that resides in him: a confused and twisted need for personal power. And the people of Gaza are suffering and dying so that he can feel like an important person.
It is sad to see that around the world people are allowing themselves anti semitic and islamophobic expressions. Even in some of the comments beneath your excellent reports, Caitlin. The world has been in this hate or hero-worship mode for too long. It really is time for us to work together to find better solutions than killing and stealing. Those that push hardest for the killing don't even do it themselves. They get others to do it.
Eventually, we're going to have to pick up the pieces and try to put things back together in some way. I don't know if we're ready for that yet. I don't think people generally understand yet what damage has been done.
Starry—some do, they just don’t get a lot of national attention. And if they do get attention Jimmy Dore savages them for whatever to earn his credentials as dope smoking comedian. We just had a rally in my quiet neighborhood for the public school teachers going out on strike. That won’t get much attention but it WILL a make a difference (and they had lots of Gaza solidarity signs). Don’t despair—things are finally starting to break. Woke is no joke, even if the corporations did try to do-opt it.
Susan T: How big a brush you paint with. I'm still trying to understand what "indigenous" means. How many generations does a tribe, culture, skin color, religion, have to live in one place to be "indigenous"?
The whole world was founded on colonialism. Don't anthropologists say that humans began in East Africa?
Hence, every "indigenous" people started as a colony; colonialism.
I don't get your attack on her. The indigenous people, the ones who were living in Palestine and who constituted the majority before it was handed to Zionist Jews were Palestinians, Muslims, and they constituted the majority for some 4 or 5 hundred years and some say for hundreds of years more. They were the indigenous people. Let me also put it this way, the Jewish people were not the indigenous people of Palestine when Balfour after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in WWI gave it to the Zionists.
I defined what they mean by indigenous people. In the US before the white man cometh, the indigenous people were the Indians. When I use to watch cowboy and Indian movies on TV I never understood why they tried to convey that the cowboys were the good guys and the Indians were bad for fighting back because their land was being stolen. I would ask all the grown ups to explain it, but not one had an answer that made any sense. It was Palestinian land that both Zionist Jews, since the 1800's, Britain, and a push from Brandeis, the first Jewish supreme court justice, that pushed this horrible mistake. Israel to me has always come across not as a middle eastern country, but allied to America and Europe. They have never gotten middle eastern, and are too often at odds with their neighbors.
Timmy, you are the dumbest bloke I’ve read on here. So answer me this—is it natural for you to be that stupid or did you just forget your 🧠 at Woodstock?
I didn’t use it. But if I wanted to I wouldn’t have your bossing me around about whether or not I could use. And, I don’t answer your questions because they aren’t really questions, they’re just dumb guy bluster. Buutttt, I’ve had enough fun for today. I’ll say this for you, you are good for a laugh in these stark and deadly times brought to us by guys like you. So night nite. Try not to smoke too much gunga.
wut. North America was uninhabited when the ancestors of the people we stole the land from crossed the land bridge to North America. they weren't a colony. this latest form of colonialism may end the world in a nuclear war, but the world was not founded on colonialism.
If you read the Hopi legends you will also see that there was a huge flood in S. Europe and N Africa. Mount Ararat. E. Turkey. The Hopi's came over on rafts. This is why Thor Heyerdal (Kon Tiki Expedition) wanted to prove it could be done.
When the Hopi's got here they were told to do 'migrations' N. S. W. E when they stopped they formed Clans. The Hopi believe they were the first people in the USA.
I learned American Indian Art History. Clearly you can see the difference in Art from Canadian Indians who migrated over the (land bridge) and that of the tribes in middle America and S. America.
It is actually a lot more confusing than this but it's incredibly interesting.
Jeano: If the land is unsettled by anyone, as North America and South America were when the humans came to the continents, is that a colony or Imperialism?
Only empires set colonies, otherwise it’s called migration. Empires ARE imperial. And what is this “the land was settled by no one” shit? That’s what the pope said to give Spain the right to burn the feet off rebelling Indians so the Queen could have the land that “no one lived on”. Gawd. You are bottomless pit of stupid.
What can we say Caitlin, except to thank you for giving a voice to us mere onlookers - watching and despairing and sorrowful for what Palestinian families are going through in an Israeli made hell they are forced to inhabit. We weep with them and find it hard not to let the anger and the hatred for the war criminals take over our minds.
The BLM and its private ranching partners are doing their damnedest to kill off all the remaining wild mustangs right now. The complete lack of respect for life, both human and wild, is depressing. There parks in California housing remnants of old growth redwoods. These trees inspire awe and provide an amazing amount of protection and cooling, yet European settlers and Americans only saw firewood for limestone kilns and lumber. People fixate on carbon capture tech now, but how much carbon was released just by destroying the prairie and redwood ecosystems?
Exactly. When you maintain a bio centric worldview, like myself, imperialism is just an arm of planetary slaughter. 200 species go extinct every day. Who mourns? I’m fighting against wind farms here off my coast. The mass murder and slaughter is green now. They change names. Every human being is getting crushed by industrial civilization. Every human has a fight in their backyard waiting for them to step up. There isn’t an inch on this planet that doesn’t need a protector right now.
Ya know why they looked at trees and saw firewood? Ya know why the Grand Canyon is a tourist site and not an obstacle? Ya know why Sioux quit killing Pawnee? Ya know why miles-thick glaciers were formed? Why they're gone? Ya know why we see wars of conquest? Ya know why rapists rape? Killers kill, thieves steal?
Ya know why they are working to convince you that atmospheric carbon is a threat to the planet?
Your writing has been an anchor in terms of making sense of the insanity and chaos that defines our world.... much needed moral clarity in a crazy shit show.
Ah, the tired old meme: Stalin and Mao killed millions, and as they were atheists, atheism is bad. The fallacious argument that correlation implies causation.
But what is the truth? Did they kill because they were despots and killing was their way of getting what they wanted, or did they actually kill in the name of and purely due to their atheism?
To find out if there were such a thing as an "atheist motivation" you have to look at if any of the cleansings or other actions were taken against religious groups specifically.
Stalin was certainly no friend of the Russian Orthodox church. His propaganda, anti-religious education and persecution of religious activists is well documented.
His motivations however are not. Nobody knows what went through Stalin's mind. But his actions speak of him treating the Orthodox Church like he treated any other organization that was a threat to his rule. His support of religious groups outside the Soviet Union indicate that he opposed the Chruch because they were a threat to communist power rather than because of his personal beliefs. Totalitarian regimes persecute any organization that divided the loyalties of the public - rather than religious institutions in particular.
Stalin was no harsher to religious people than he was to members of any other structure that divided people's loyalties. For that reason, it is irrational to attribute the cruelties committed to his atheism.
Or a simpler response: Stalin and Mao also both wore trousers, and there is as much reason to blame the trousers as there is their atheism.
Think about it. Correlation does not imply causation.
"Ah, the tired old meme: Stalin and Mao killed millions, and as they were atheists, atheism is bad. The fallacious argument that correlation implies causation."
And yet you do the same thing with Religion. How do you spell hypocrite? Does it start with a D?
The irony for me is Atheists like Dennis here are just as blindly adherent to their ontological belief system, just as "fundamentalistic" as the "sky god" pejorative they will invariably use against anyone who doesn't share their atheism. It is an interesting psychological projection - which oddly, parallels the projection right now going on with the Israelis (in power, not all) toward the Palestinians - projecting their own obscene terroristic genocidal actions onto the Palestinians, but the Palestinians (some, not all) also do the same to the Israelis - justifying the same kind of terrorism - albeit, it is difficult to blame the Palestinians given just how much they've been shit upon by the Israelis for the last few decades.
It's the blind leading the blind, with extremist projections of atheists on theists and theists on atheists. It's the certainty of righteousness that becomes the real killer - leading to all sorts of evil and suffering. Beware the person willing to use any means to an end, because invariably - the end becomes the means.
There are still plenty of open ontological questions regarding reality and consciousness.
And the fact of the matter is that at that time countless Europeans made the stolen land across the sea into America, with military and murder, massacre, manslaughter, destruction, annihilation and extermination – just think of the buffalo massacres by William Cody alias Buffalo Bill, through whose initiative and killing mania millions of buffalo were senselessly shot and the buffalo herds disappeared, so that in the end only 325 animals remained.
It is also an indisputable fact that since America came into being, its vehement delusion of hegemony has arisen all over the world and America's army has interfered everywhere in the world, which has not always been without war.
As an Indian (yes, that's the nomenclature most of us prefer because it memorializes the stupidity of whitey thinking they landed in a different place), I have to weep for most Americans, who cannot see that the Indian genocide is still fully in effect. I pray for Palestine knowing full well that nothing, on our (er, our rulers') side, will ever change.
I am an American domestic shorthair and I see full well what is going on.
I wish I didn't.
My cat Sage is also an American domestic shorthair. She and my seven other cats agree with you.
Sage is in love with you, btw 😉
Rrrow!
n.b. for those not in the know, "American domestic shorthair" is another word for "American mixed breed" or just "alley cat". It's not as if I have a pedigree, and most cats can't read pedigrees in the first place.
Yes, all my cats are random-bred. I have never owned a purebred; all mine are rescued cats that were dumped in my rural neighborhood.
Sage is an exceptional beauty. She really does resemble a purebred American Shorthair; she is a brown and black “classic tabby” (the kind with swirly stripes) also known as a “tie-dye” cat 🙂
Oooo, love those. The latest cat to wander into my life (literally) was a feral Norwegian forest cat. Gawd is he a handful! After years of tabbies for my companions, I’m getting quite an education about these fancy breeds!
Got her number?
Hey!!! Feral’s MINE!!!
I'm a tomcat. There is enough of me for all...
I work in South America and with many from South America, most people I speak to despise the use of Americans when speaking about something horrific specifically about the u.s. (lower case intentional). Common colonist speak rots my brain. Like Americans coming to the rescue of israel (yes lower case).
I am not sure what tribe had a term for the white people that literally means: "can't get rid of them."
😄👍👌👊
I’ll remember that.
I always thought the term Native American was appropriate; apparently not.
Terms matter.
The sentiment behind them, more.
Hi Nivek, not sure if it's appropriate to throw this lighter note into the discussion but I recently discovered the series Reservation Dogs and was pleasantly surprised to see (finally!?) a series about Indians/native Americans/indigineous inhabitants of the continent we know know as North America in the reservation camps you are talking about. It is something rarely talked about, especially not in Europe. Black (dangerous) ghetto's, impoverished Latino neighborhoods etc, that's the images we are offered in popular culture or newspaper articles but never a word of the fate of the Indians/native Americans/indigineous inhabitants of the continent we know know as North America. I wonder if that series is a good representation of the situation (taking into account that it's of course not a documentary and a piece of creative fiction writing with dramatic purposes).
I’ve spent a lot of time in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, United Snakes.
It’s not entertaining.
Just bleak, and sad, and maddening.
The screens will never do real life justice.
The United Snakes are now “breeding” the red peoples out of “legal” existence, so they can steal the last remnants of their past.
Treaties be damned.
Many red men I know won’t fuck with a woman not of “Indian” ancestry.
Tryin’ to keep their people from extinction.
That’s pathetic.
Not them.
US.
A.
Thank you for this comment. Yes, Pine Ridge is especially targeted by the feds for destruction. Leonard Pelletier is still in jail for defying the feebees back in the 70’s, fr chrissake. Join Native Alliance or Lakota Law to help out. They’re doing good but solitary work.
Nivek: Columbus thought the native people of the Caribbean were part of the Indus Valley, hence Indians or maybe he thought that the natives were living in Dios (God). It's controversial. I wasn't there.
Columbus certainly had motivation to go back to Spain and SAY that he'd landed in India. But it is obvious that he didn't. No spices for one thing. No Indian cities. No Indian culture.
I was a fan of the Cleveland Indians as a kid. Notre Dame's team is called the Fightin' Irish.
Who cares?
The American Indians had their land stolen and their people killed. Same thing happened to my Irish ancestors.
The past is dead. We must try as individuals to make the most of our lives.
I just said, it's still happening. What is not clear?
Cutlure, religion, and safety are not revived through casinos, enlightened history and well wishes. Reservations are also open air prisons.
That are routinely invaded by the oil companies, digging up their dead and poisoning their water, so the Timmy’s of the world can have their internal combustion engines galore and pontificate about what he knows not. Yikes!
Jeano: The largest user of oil in the USA is the military. Go yell at the Pentagon and see what happens to you.
Been there done that. Not scared of my shadow like you are.
What is to be done currently to fix this, and how can it be effected?
NIvek: Everyone living in the USA is in an open air prison. There is no safety in life. We are all tax slaves to the State in the USA. We are all subject to the Military Draft at any time. That is slavery. Doesn't matter what color your skin is.
Welcome to the world of the “pussy” revolutionary.
Pout, stomp your feet, whine, avoid your taxes, and don’t vote.
You compare your lame ass to people who have suffered genocide?
With you around, we all “suffer a fool”.
Go to the rez and talk your shit, pussy.
See if anyone there will put up with your pathetic self sympathetic ass.
Maybe it’ll get kicked, like it needs, and so richly deserves.
Go get’em Mike. But don’t wish him on the Rez. They have enough self righteous white boys to deal with. Plus, they are so kind, they will suffer his foolery. We need to keep him here to take his beating from other whites who are decent and sick of his fascist crap.
You GO Mike!!!
How so? Have you visited any of the Reservations in your country? Navaho in Nevada, New Mexico or Montana? Some of the most depressing places on earth.
Everyone living in the USA is in an open air prison. Say what?
we aren't going to make the most of our lives by pretending we aren't recycling the same kinds of wars, for the same motivations. this involves remembering the past.
Exactly. Pretzel. Thank you for saying this.
pretzelattack: Most people don't read history. Most people don't remember what they had for lunch yesterday.
I thought your name was Timmy, not “Most people”.
O honey you’re brain cells are so fried, you have no idea what day it is even, let alone what happened yesterday.
Shut up Timmy.
Jeano: Not your substack. Caitlin refunds my money and I'm gone.
How is this responsive to my bratty post? It isn’t. Of course it’s not my Substack. Im not the boss, I’m just taking the piss. Piss off
Buyer beware, dumb f*ck.
Another genocide is happening right now though. So we should all care. Just because colonization and genocide happened in the past doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give a fuck anymore. Ew, just ew.
I have a comment from you in my email that I can't find. You ask me what is antisemitic about criticizing Israel. I don't think criticizing Israel is antisemitic. I think calling Jews names like "whore kike jew" etc. is antisemitic. As far as I saw, you did not say any of those things. It was that other person in a previous list of comments who said those really horrible, not useful names. He seems to have disappeared from these comments.
Understandable. I haven’t seen comments denigrating Jewish people but thanks for the explanation. There’s so much backlash for speaking the truth about Zionism and Israel in general that I tend to find the antisemitic label suspicious in these times.
I have heard that anti semitism is on the rise. But criticism of Israel is considered by the people keeping those stats to be anti semitic. It seems crazy to me that nobody is allowed to criticize the State of Israel when critiques of other states are allowed and not considered anything other than critiques.
Agreed. I think it’s because since 1948 the holocaust has been weaponized, and the Palestinians were “nazified” by Israel. It is a neat way to never have to accept blame or accountability for its own crimes. If Jews are considered the biggest victims of all times, then per this logic no one else can be victim or a bigger victim.
That’s why the Jewish kids in college campuses very dramatically say that protestors are calling for “Jewish genocide” when they in fact are asking for an end to genocide. It’s a lot of crocodile tears. A lot of gaslighting. The first question they like to ask is: “but do you agree Hamas committed terrorism?” As if Hamas reaction happened out of nowhere. They became the abusers and Nazi like perpetrators.
Have you never heard the saying that History repeats itself?
The past is very much alive. It’s being perpetrated right now. When I was in County Kerry, I felt the ghosts of the IRA fighters. It was palpable.
I have spent making the most of my life by advocating for the oppressed. It began as a teenager when I read a book called “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”. If any Amerikkkan here doubts the intentions of the IsraHellis, READ THIS BOOK. The similarities with the war on Gaza are bone-chilling.
The author is Dee Brown. Thank you.
Thank you for reminding me of this book. I’m just the tiniest bit Oglala and that book made me weep. Thank you for spending your life on the side of the oppressed. That’s a life worth living.
I also meant to say, Jeano, that I feel immense guilt that my farm is located on what was once the land of the Chippewa. There is a sacred Chippewa burial ground a few miles from here.
Thank you Jeano.
I wept like a baby as well when I first read it and, as a first-generation Amerikkkan, was at least glad that my ancestors didn’t perpetrate the slaughter.
It reminds us that there’s nothing new under the sun when it comes to colonizing settler nation’s actions.
Thank you Che.
The book was published in 1970. I was 16 when I first read it, and still have the book. I reread it from time to time.
Same with the Aboriginal genocide here in Oz.
I was. My understanding is that she was a full-blood Cree.
Being part French-Canadian, I’m fairly certain that I have some Cree in my blood.
What slander campaign. That woman was aaaammmmaaaazing!!
=== War Calculus Tel Aviv / Washington ===
Few in The West venture the mandatory critique of the driver of it all, The Holy of The Holies, the religiously justified mass murderers in Tel Aviv, of whom come with some 2,000 year old injunction from their god that - "This Land is Your Land". Problem - If that was true, the rest of humanity was left uninformed of this important real estate arrangement.
Two War Solution Paths . . .
Solution 1. Destroy Palestinians with Israeli - American Air Power. This kills non-combatants = civilians, a major war crime and here a clear demonstration of the moral bankruptcy of The West.
Other such methods elsewhere in the M.E. remained better concealed. No prospect of facing the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. Washington owns the ICC.
This approach intended to avoid IDF casualties, preserve President Netanyahu's Government from major IDF battlefield losses which would be politically devastating for this President, in a country that has grown soft while talking tough, like all others in The West and cannot absorb any degree of battlefield losses from real wars.
A six day war, BTW, is not a war, more a skirmish.
Solution 2. Commit a largely unprepared IDF to Close In Urban Warfare wherein The IDF would take heavy losses, counted in tens of thousands and would finish off the Netanyahu Government, whose likely preemptive maneuver would be full President Zelenskyy - ban The Opposition, close down media, suspend elections.
Armies and soldiers die while causing the other side to die. Technically more legal. The purpose of armies.
Similar to the early phase of the SMO in East Ukraine against well entrenched NATO-AFU-AZOV Nazi Forces and where Russian-Chechen Forces took most of their losses as they spared the population. Better at Close In Urban Warfare than the IDF.
Tel Aviv Thought Leaders know what they are avoiding. Background chatter around using gas.
Suggestive that illegal gas weapons do exist. Of course they do.
______________
The Americans are bothered. The optics cannot be managed. They've switched to that word "restraint".
They never, ever argue for restraint unless events are going against them.
But then Washington lost control of Tel Aviv decades ago.
The effects will roll on for decades.
Very interesting and thought-out analysis. Thanks for sharing that.
The question - Could Prime Minister Netanyahu go the way of President Zelenskyy, who has now gone from Time's Man of The Year to Yesterday's Man?
Such lead stories from American firster publications come straight from government policy determinants.
President Zelenskyy's outcome and unqualified forecast, from last September, 2022. https://les7eb.substack.com/p/great-game-ukraine-long-proxy-war
That writing was on the wall right from the beginning of the SMO, except he lacked the experience to see it.
Many a Washington erstwhile ally end up in the graveyard of history, a good number take that trip via the graveyard . . .
Very good point once again Les!
The Americans have a larger empire to manage and are concerned with direct and reputational costs and fallout.
The Israelis could not care less.
Can I ask your opinion on the initial attacks, the warnings ignored, application of the Hannibal Directive? Also, did you read Seymour Hersh's 'Netanyahu Is Finished' article?
I think Nutty-yahooo will be finished when the US is finished. So let’s start finishing off the empire. Strike strike strike!
"My methods are sane; my object mad" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851.
We can dream but it time for more,way past time .All War especially Genocide is abomination ,natives anywhere deserve sovereignty as do all of us. Cant roll back the time for life or entire planet autonomy thefts murders & erasures but w/o our complacency we can stop this. When We stand in solidarity,collective against this abomination we can end the practice of ripping bodys to shreads for any insanity& clearly perverse profiteering war pig elites.
- On the question of Sovereignty, the falsity of it examined here . . . https://les7eb.substack.com/p/washingtons-ukraina-grandioznaya
- Of whom could defend their sovereignty, it was a matter of who had better armed forces, an industrialized war machine.
- Native communities were no match for British, European and American colonial armies and their Anthropological - Geographical Societies came to equate military successes with racial superiority, both of which underpinned Western Imperialism.
- Your magical Western Lifestyle made possible from supply chains stretching back into Africa and Asia? Still wearing any diamond jewelry, K.H.?
Wow, beautifully said.
"And the ghosts of the buffalo roam through the ruins looking for their heads while the people of Gaza comb through the rubble looking for their dead"
Beautiful...Beyond words...Immensely touching. Thank you, Caitlin.
I'm watcing The Killing Fields right now and reminded that we have been complicit in destroying so many cultures for so many years. My heart is heavy tonight. There are not enough tears to wash this horror away.
Listen to the speech given by Sanders, and I think it will make you feel better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABqACaFi1oU
I guess you (and Sanders) mean well but to me it sounds bla bla bla, words, words, words, too little too late. Even from Sanders. He doesn't tackle the real problems, the real reasons, the real culprits. What he says sounds decent and nice and correct but it's just not enough. Not enough! Just words. Uttering words, sounds, phrases in a board room for politicians. Hollow talk. We all nod yes yes yes, agree, but then, what will happen? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Too late for the people already dead, too late for those who (will) survive but will take this horror and pain and trauma with them to the next generation. Discusting display of moral evil of a failed system ruled by power, money, greed and psychopaths.
I know, and what makes it feel so bad is the lives of these children were so impoverished by Israel that it left them with little to no hope for a future as they lived in fear of the present.
I share your grief and rage. Thank you.
With Bernie Sanders, you have to look at what he does, not what he says. Big difference.
I know, but it was a really good speech. I supported him, really supported him in his 2016 presidential run and of course it was set up that it would be a Hilary win. MSNBC always called him an old curmudgeon, and the democratic party who sells itself as liberal, is definitely not. I lost faith in him when he extolled Clinton's virtues when she won the primary and that was that, however this anti-genocidal speech was really, really, good and did sound heart felt.
I was a HUGE supporter of him as well. Now I see just an empty suit full of meaningless hot air - a fraud. And he probably thinks he isn't - which is always a bit galling.
I know how you feel and I felt the same way about him after his 2016 run and the adulation he expressed for Clinton. Maybe he wasn't sincere and said all the right things but it was good to listen to. A sense of humanity. What Israel is implementing on the Palestinians is so barbaric.
It is so incredibly barbaric - and now Blinken is going around announcing the US is doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties and a possible escalation. Like anyone believes you Blinken? Who do you think you & Biden are fooling?
Sanders is all-in for the the wars on Palestine and on Ukraine.
What do you make of Lindsay Graham and his comments? I have called his office several times to leave messages claiming I am concerned that someone with such a lack of humanity is even in office. Useless I know but he is a sick SOB with no soul. He comes across as an absolute psychopath. He's really sick.
Graham is a sociopath, or at least exhibits behavior indistinguishable from that of a sociopath.
His commentary is a reflection of a sick man, and his rhetoric reflects it over and over no ifs and or buts about it. I have called his office every now and again and recently to voice complaint about his despicable rhetoric.
Did he say that? Listen to his speech, and maybe your right, but it brought a sense of humanity to what's going on. News outlets like CNN are also challenging and reporting on the genocide that Israel is implementing and the US is supporting. Listen to Max Blumenthal and how many deaths he is attributing to Israel in the recent carnage that they are attributing to Hamas.
His votes are what do the talking. It does not matter whether he votes with misgivings, whether he votes for the next war of aggression because his arm was twisted, because he felt he had to support Biden (and his loyalty was already in question), because his vote was tied to some past or future favor, because he was blackmailed or promised lots of sweet MIC jobs in his district.
The vote counts the same.
Cat Thompson; Put your "We" up your butt. My friends and I protested the bombing of Cambodia. We did NOT vote for Nixon. We hated Nixon's guts.
Put your "We" up your ass.
Please, just put it up your ass...."we" was me and many others who didn't do a GD thing....protesting? big deal.
Judy Dyer: Were you even alive when Nixon and Kissinger bombed Cambodia?
We’re you ever alive P. R.?
Very alive then...I'm a pre-war baby...1939
I would like to say “you are such a pig”. But that is so disrespectful of pigs.
Jeano: A Hindu insult to Muslims is to call them a pig. Are you Hindu?
Blithering. I now know what blithering idiot means. Whew.
Another fart from the pussy revolutionary.
Excellent! One of my favourite 20th century poets Wilfred Owen translated the horrors and futility of war and your reading of your own work here so much reminded me of reading Owen. The imagery is stark!
Anthem for Doomed Youth describes memorial tributes to the soldiers who die in war.
The poem ironically compares the sounds of war to the choirs and bells which usually sound at funerals.
It also compares familiar funeral practices to the bleak farewells of young men who should have their whole lives in front of them. In doing so, Wilfred Owen seems to show the futility of religion at this time while also demonstrating the brutality of war. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z4m2xfr/revision/2
Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen:
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Brilliant! I brought my son one if Owen’s books- The War Poems when he was 18 and struggling to comprehend the absurdity of WW1.
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
I found it astonishing they sent soldiers suffering from shell shock (or PTSD as they call it now) back to the front after so called treatment in England. The thunderous sound of relentless shelling would do any head in.
Here's the answer to my own question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isMm2vF4uFs
4:40~4:47
And that was in 1988! More than 30 years ago!
I guess you are familiar with the brilliant late George Carlin and his take on euphemisms.
If not, here, enjoy (but maybe that's not the proper word to use in this context): SHELL SHOCK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpVtJNv4ZNM
I often wonder what George would have done or said in these crazy times; many or most comedians were on the wrong side of history, at least from my perspective, it's hard to laugh with their jokes nowadays, I find them to be cowards whereas a comedian should be the opposite.
Bassem Youssef reminds me of Robin Williams, he has said some 'funny' but true things lately.
Despite all that we have learned from history, indigenous people are still scorned and blamed for their post traumatic stress caused by colonialism. But descendants of colonizers and some descendents and survivors of residential schools work together to try to find a solution.
Netanyahu has unleashed a horrible fury upon the people of Gaza. It would appear that it is some sickness that resides in him: a confused and twisted need for personal power. And the people of Gaza are suffering and dying so that he can feel like an important person.
It is sad to see that around the world people are allowing themselves anti semitic and islamophobic expressions. Even in some of the comments beneath your excellent reports, Caitlin. The world has been in this hate or hero-worship mode for too long. It really is time for us to work together to find better solutions than killing and stealing. Those that push hardest for the killing don't even do it themselves. They get others to do it.
Eventually, we're going to have to pick up the pieces and try to put things back together in some way. I don't know if we're ready for that yet. I don't think people generally understand yet what damage has been done.
Starry—some do, they just don’t get a lot of national attention. And if they do get attention Jimmy Dore savages them for whatever to earn his credentials as dope smoking comedian. We just had a rally in my quiet neighborhood for the public school teachers going out on strike. That won’t get much attention but it WILL a make a difference (and they had lots of Gaza solidarity signs). Don’t despair—things are finally starting to break. Woke is no joke, even if the corporations did try to do-opt it.
Susan T: How big a brush you paint with. I'm still trying to understand what "indigenous" means. How many generations does a tribe, culture, skin color, religion, have to live in one place to be "indigenous"?
The whole world was founded on colonialism. Don't anthropologists say that humans began in East Africa?
Hence, every "indigenous" people started as a colony; colonialism.
I don't get your attack on her. The indigenous people, the ones who were living in Palestine and who constituted the majority before it was handed to Zionist Jews were Palestinians, Muslims, and they constituted the majority for some 4 or 5 hundred years and some say for hundreds of years more. They were the indigenous people. Let me also put it this way, the Jewish people were not the indigenous people of Palestine when Balfour after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in WWI gave it to the Zionists.
Fran: So answer my question. How many generations or years does a tribe, religion, skin color, culture, have to live in a place to be indigenous?
I defined what they mean by indigenous people. In the US before the white man cometh, the indigenous people were the Indians. When I use to watch cowboy and Indian movies on TV I never understood why they tried to convey that the cowboys were the good guys and the Indians were bad for fighting back because their land was being stolen. I would ask all the grown ups to explain it, but not one had an answer that made any sense. It was Palestinian land that both Zionist Jews, since the 1800's, Britain, and a push from Brandeis, the first Jewish supreme court justice, that pushed this horrible mistake. Israel to me has always come across not as a middle eastern country, but allied to America and Europe. They have never gotten middle eastern, and are too often at odds with their neighbors.
It's not a question of years, but who has lived there the longest.
Well, when it comes to Neanderthals it's an old story, and may they rest in peace.
Timmy, you are the dumbest bloke I’ve read on here. So answer me this—is it natural for you to be that stupid or did you just forget your 🧠 at Woodstock?
Jeano: Answer my question, genius.
"How many years or generations does it take for a "people" to be indigenous? Define the fecking term or don't use it.
I didn’t use it. But if I wanted to I wouldn’t have your bossing me around about whether or not I could use. And, I don’t answer your questions because they aren’t really questions, they’re just dumb guy bluster. Buutttt, I’ve had enough fun for today. I’ll say this for you, you are good for a laugh in these stark and deadly times brought to us by guys like you. So night nite. Try not to smoke too much gunga.
Well, it's a good thing we make it difficult for him to do that.
wut. North America was uninhabited when the ancestors of the people we stole the land from crossed the land bridge to North America. they weren't a colony. this latest form of colonialism may end the world in a nuclear war, but the world was not founded on colonialism.
If you read the Hopi legends you will also see that there was a huge flood in S. Europe and N Africa. Mount Ararat. E. Turkey. The Hopi's came over on rafts. This is why Thor Heyerdal (Kon Tiki Expedition) wanted to prove it could be done.
When the Hopi's got here they were told to do 'migrations' N. S. W. E when they stopped they formed Clans. The Hopi believe they were the first people in the USA.
I learned American Indian Art History. Clearly you can see the difference in Art from Canadian Indians who migrated over the (land bridge) and that of the tribes in middle America and S. America.
It is actually a lot more confusing than this but it's incredibly interesting.
pretzelattack: Imperialism is not the same as founding a colony.
Of course it is. Oy vay.
Jeano: If the land is unsettled by anyone, as North America and South America were when the humans came to the continents, is that a colony or Imperialism?
Only empires set colonies, otherwise it’s called migration. Empires ARE imperial. And what is this “the land was settled by no one” shit? That’s what the pope said to give Spain the right to burn the feet off rebelling Indians so the Queen could have the land that “no one lived on”. Gawd. You are bottomless pit of stupid.
Clearly it's not imperialism or colonialism since there was noone there.
“I’m still trying to understand”.
No you’re not.
Why attempt mission impossible anyway, P.R.?
What can we say Caitlin, except to thank you for giving a voice to us mere onlookers - watching and despairing and sorrowful for what Palestinian families are going through in an Israeli made hell they are forced to inhabit. We weep with them and find it hard not to let the anger and the hatred for the war criminals take over our minds.
Excellent as usual, Caitlin.
The BLM and its private ranching partners are doing their damnedest to kill off all the remaining wild mustangs right now. The complete lack of respect for life, both human and wild, is depressing. There parks in California housing remnants of old growth redwoods. These trees inspire awe and provide an amazing amount of protection and cooling, yet European settlers and Americans only saw firewood for limestone kilns and lumber. People fixate on carbon capture tech now, but how much carbon was released just by destroying the prairie and redwood ecosystems?
Exactly. When you maintain a bio centric worldview, like myself, imperialism is just an arm of planetary slaughter. 200 species go extinct every day. Who mourns? I’m fighting against wind farms here off my coast. The mass murder and slaughter is green now. They change names. Every human being is getting crushed by industrial civilization. Every human has a fight in their backyard waiting for them to step up. There isn’t an inch on this planet that doesn’t need a protector right now.
Ya know why they looked at trees and saw firewood? Ya know why the Grand Canyon is a tourist site and not an obstacle? Ya know why Sioux quit killing Pawnee? Ya know why miles-thick glaciers were formed? Why they're gone? Ya know why we see wars of conquest? Ya know why rapists rape? Killers kill, thieves steal?
Ya know why they are working to convince you that atmospheric carbon is a threat to the planet?
And Amerikkkan farmers were responsible for the Dust Bowl.
And food.
Your writing has been an anchor in terms of making sense of the insanity and chaos that defines our world.... much needed moral clarity in a crazy shit show.
You're a poet...
"In Israel teenagers play with buttons that cause explosions on screens
and look forward to the end of the Gaza operation
so they can leave and go play better video games.
In Gaza mothers clutch tattered pieces of flesh and clothing to their chests
and scream names that will never again be answered
and call out questions to the heavens that will also go unanswered."
Brilliant, and heartbreaking. Thanks.
Thank you. The brutal acceleration of genocide in Gaza must be stopped. We all must keep trying.
Piercing, Caitlin. Wow.
"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it." Oscar Wilde
"Truth is not determined by majority vote." Doug Gwyn
When one party comes armed with their Bible and a 2,000-year-old promise from THEIR IMAGINARY GOD, there is nothing to be discussed.
The issue will only be settled on the field of battle with iron and rivers of blood.
Thousands slaughtered in the name of imaginary GODs.
As it has been done since man invented GOD's.
There will be no winners.
"Religion poisons everything" - Christopher Hitchens
Every religion claim's that theirs is the only true God!
What evidence do they have that their religion is not just other false religion?
Why is their "God of Israel" real and all the others are not?
When they understand why they dismiss ALL the other possible "Gods", only then will they understand why us atheists dismiss theirs.
Zionism as a national movement that rebelled against historical Judaism was mainly atheistic: http://warincontext.org/2017/12/09/how-israel-went-from-atheist-zionism-to-jewish-state/
ps: Stalin was a militant Atheist. Murdered millions -
Ah, the tired old meme: Stalin and Mao killed millions, and as they were atheists, atheism is bad. The fallacious argument that correlation implies causation.
But what is the truth? Did they kill because they were despots and killing was their way of getting what they wanted, or did they actually kill in the name of and purely due to their atheism?
To find out if there were such a thing as an "atheist motivation" you have to look at if any of the cleansings or other actions were taken against religious groups specifically.
Stalin was certainly no friend of the Russian Orthodox church. His propaganda, anti-religious education and persecution of religious activists is well documented.
His motivations however are not. Nobody knows what went through Stalin's mind. But his actions speak of him treating the Orthodox Church like he treated any other organization that was a threat to his rule. His support of religious groups outside the Soviet Union indicate that he opposed the Chruch because they were a threat to communist power rather than because of his personal beliefs. Totalitarian regimes persecute any organization that divided the loyalties of the public - rather than religious institutions in particular.
Stalin was no harsher to religious people than he was to members of any other structure that divided people's loyalties. For that reason, it is irrational to attribute the cruelties committed to his atheism.
Or a simpler response: Stalin and Mao also both wore trousers, and there is as much reason to blame the trousers as there is their atheism.
Think about it. Correlation does not imply causation.
"Ah, the tired old meme: Stalin and Mao killed millions, and as they were atheists, atheism is bad. The fallacious argument that correlation implies causation."
And yet you do the same thing with Religion. How do you spell hypocrite? Does it start with a D?
ps: The last two world wars were SECULAR.
I am always amused and disappointed when I hear that "more people were killed in the name of religion than any other..."
It seems to me that government has killed more people than any other entity.
And atheist disappoint me. Claiming that God is imaginary as though to believe there is no god requires less imagination.
One thing is for certain: Either we'll know or we won't! Ha ha ha ha ha....
Can you imagine the look of surprise on the face of Christopher Hitchens two seconds after he died? Would be similar to that of Carl Sagan's face.
PS I have read the bible, believe it, but do not call myself a Christian.
The irony for me is Atheists like Dennis here are just as blindly adherent to their ontological belief system, just as "fundamentalistic" as the "sky god" pejorative they will invariably use against anyone who doesn't share their atheism. It is an interesting psychological projection - which oddly, parallels the projection right now going on with the Israelis (in power, not all) toward the Palestinians - projecting their own obscene terroristic genocidal actions onto the Palestinians, but the Palestinians (some, not all) also do the same to the Israelis - justifying the same kind of terrorism - albeit, it is difficult to blame the Palestinians given just how much they've been shit upon by the Israelis for the last few decades.
It's the blind leading the blind, with extremist projections of atheists on theists and theists on atheists. It's the certainty of righteousness that becomes the real killer - leading to all sorts of evil and suffering. Beware the person willing to use any means to an end, because invariably - the end becomes the means.
There are still plenty of open ontological questions regarding reality and consciousness.
Also, beware the bookless.
We all should try walking in others' shoes for awhile.
Contact Report 866
Billy:
And the fact of the matter is that at that time countless Europeans made the stolen land across the sea into America, with military and murder, massacre, manslaughter, destruction, annihilation and extermination – just think of the buffalo massacres by William Cody alias Buffalo Bill, through whose initiative and killing mania millions of buffalo were senselessly shot and the buffalo herds disappeared, so that in the end only 325 animals remained.
It is also an indisputable fact that since America came into being, its vehement delusion of hegemony has arisen all over the world and America's army has interfered everywhere in the world, which has not always been without war.
https://www.futureofmankind.co.uk/Billy_Meier/Contact_Report_866