Since the US accepted Bush and his Patriot Act some time ago, inroads by those with a vested interest in reducing the level of democracy that the initial Constitution provided, have apparently been searching for ways to control all the freedoms that this fine original document provided, bit by bit. This from a non US citizen, but keen observer.
The transgressions that the world has seen over time by the CIA as an example, now with the recent example in Thailand, seemingly can be dismissed as 'OK for us but not for you’. Has there ever been so much intrusion into the management of other countries under recent Presidents by the secret army of the CIA. Even a so-called ‘friend', Australia, saw their involvement in the removal of a very popular Prime Minister in Australia in 1975. Very difficult to forget that performance.
One should go back in time following the establishment of this now criminal organisation of 21,500 people and see if the original objectives form even a small part of its current daily activities, which to an observer seem to have as their priority the disruption of any government worldwide which does not ’toe the US line’. Whatever the objectives might have been once they have become an internationally criminal conspiracy.
The result of that is the serious lack of respect for the whole USA, which next to Israel, must be seen as the most disliked country in the world today. The fact that mayhem and outrageous criminality has now become the hallmark of this group can seemingly be ignored by both houses of the US government. To an observer, matters like this are seldom raised, never questioned.
Anyone with a keen interest in analysing the decrease in freedoms, anywhere, would see the closure of this organisation as a positive step, something that would be welcomed by probably every country in the world, all of which would have been the receivers of the slings and arrows of this well-funded secret army whose actions over time have more than contributed to the lack of respect, unfortunately now directed to the whole country.
Such respect will very soon be reflected in the move away from the “petrodollar", with so many countries even today looking at alternative options as their trading currencies. This will contribute seriously to the decrease in the wealth of the USA, impact the standard of living of the people and bring about enormous changes. What country impacted by a diminishing currency can maintain 800 plus military bases around the globe, support a trillion dollar Defence budget, maintain thousands of troops overseas and still encourage the partnership of trading partners? How many countries who have felt the dirty dealings of US interference over the years will then see this change in the status of the USA as an opportunity to shut the door, forever.
As commentator Brian Berletic noted on Twitter, "The US through the National Endowment for Democracy has created armies of organizations carrying out malign influence operations around the world including here in Thailand. When the Thai government attempts to stop this activity, the US embassy shouts 'free speech.' Thailand's government and others around the world could easily cite this move by the US Justice Department to target and uproot US-funded organizations doing exactly this and worse."
That was pretty funny. I had a discussion with some PMC types about this event and they followed the Party Line through a perfect 180-degree turn almost in the same sentence (although there was some stumbling getting around the self-contradiction corner). I wonder, though, how these people -- many of whom are supposed to be engineers, programmers, designers, stemmies and techies of all kinds -- are going to get on with their work when they lack the slightest talent for skepticism or reason. Maybe AI will help -- it seems good at producing vacuous blather.
Contrary to popular belief, cognitive dissonance is in fact more prevalent among the educated, because they are better at symbol manipulation to get to a desired result.
It's been touched on quite a few times before - being a professional does not equate overall intelligence. Just means one can do his work in a certain field. History - hence politics - may not be among ones they have a handle on.
Having hubris for a professional is a true sign of their lacking intelligence since they don't recognize that simple fact.
The hypocrisy of it all is too extreme and flamboyant to even be parodied, not even by a Mel Brooks. Satirizing the United States or any segment of it has become pointless. Even buttered popcorn can't save this shitshow.
Looking forward to how The Onion reacts to this. During its current term (would that it were in jail) the Supreme Court decided that satire can be criminal if it in some way interferes with law enforcement. The Onion filed an amicus brief in that case which was both spot on and very funny. To no avail, sadly. At one time, those of us marginalized to the extent of, well, me, at least had the comfort of knowing that we were so excluded from the mainstream discourse that we weren’t worth the US gestapo’s time to mess with us. But, the African People’s Socialist Party? Even I had never heard of it before last year’s bust. Now, it’s ‘ask not for whom the bell tolls, Andrew; it tolls for thee.’
And everyone else who disbelieves the lies, and says so publicly.
Exactly. It won't be long before they start arresting readers who respond on comment threads for the crime of expressly agreeing with dissenting opinions.
“I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton
I'm old enough to remember Code Pink, the anti-War movement against American military adventurism in Iraq, the release of the proof of torture in Abu Ghraib:
I'm old enough to remember Bernie Sanders vacationing in the Soviet Union for his honeymoon during the height of the Cold War - when both the US and USSR had thousands of nuclear warheads aimed at each other and had multiple proxy wars against each other around the world:
I'm even old enough to remember when Jane Fonda became known as Hanoi Jane for her visit to North Vietnam as a tool of propaganda used by an enemy of the US in the middle of a hot war in order to express her antiwar beliefs:
Along with the rest of antiwar activists at the time like John Kerry.
All of these figures used, "weaponized" their First Amendment rights, conspired to act as agents of nations hostile to US interests, arguably more hostile then than Russia is today. Because we're Americans and have a right to debate and disagree with any administration. In ways that exceed anything these four Americans have been charged over. This cannot stand. All of the propaganda and censorship, weaponization of politics that's been turned up exponentially since 2020 is evil, hallmark of totalitarianism. The blinders are off. They're not even making a pretense of respecting free speech in the US anymore.
The election of Obama did more to neuter the antiwar movement than anything Dick Cheney could have imagined.
The subsequent alliance of liberals, spooks and warmongers against Trump was the icing on the cake.
That said, had Sanders somehow been elected, he would either have toed the line or the same cockamamie conspiracy theories that were *weaponized* against Trump would have been unleashed on him.
Yeah, I supported Bernie twice, but I knew that even if they somehow let him get through, it would just be the beginning of a fight, not the final victory.
That said, the people have been trying to vote for change for a long time now, and it ain't changing.
I supported Sanders as well, but I recognized, even then, that the man is a eunuch.
The time for a rule-following, norms-abiding, work within the system, half-a-loaf compromiser is long past. Following rules and meekly complying with norms does you no good when you are surrounded by sociopaths.
The election of the CLintons, for that matter, did MORE to advance China's nuclear missile capability, and local airframe manufacturing for both civilian and military purposes than any other administration......and ended up getting Ron Brown KILLED for protesting it, and get this.......to clean up afterwards, got Ron Brown's SON "stung" by Obama's(!) FBI for "accepting" $50K in bribes as city councilman in DC, put away for 6-7 years! That's what a Harvard degree will get you if you're black!
Bernie is simply hopeless on foreign policy, something I was reluctant to admit a few years ago when I supported his candidacy. He has called the elected President of Venezuela Maduro a "vicious dictator". Not so surprising in light of the fact that his foreign policy advisor is shitlib neocon Matt Duss, who is on record urging progressives to support providing weapons to Ukraine. Bernie has always been great on domestic policy but he doesn't have far at all to fall with respect to geopolitics, though it was not always the case as he met with the Sandinistas in the 1980s despite the predominantly right wing domestic political atmosphere of the times.
There is a video, I've watched it twice, that i see as absolutely iconic. In it, Hilary Clinton is giving a speech about the sanctity of freedom of speech, and Ray McGovern, age 70, a veteran of several presidential administrations where he gave the daily intelligence briefing--stood up and quietly turned his back on her, a silent dissent. Cops rushed in and violently dragged him out. You see Hilary's eyes following this but she makes no reference or protest, just goes on with her speech--about how important free speech is. THAT says it all about US government hypocrisy on this issue.
I remember very well a "good-looking" American senator in the eighties who even spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union ! :) It was especially nice how well he was able to sing the communist anthem "Internacional" with the Soviet communist leaders of the time (while drinking vodka), even though we never saw him being forced to put a pistol in his side like that ! And who would have thought that this brave American patriot could one day become the president of the USA with the votes of the dead !
"They're not worried about Russian propaganda, they're worried you'll stop listening to US propaganda".
Caitlin's last sentence above says it all.
It will be great if more and more Americans come to realise the true nature of their Orwellian state. They were fed a lie from the beginning - a constitution written by white men of property, for white men of property, by white men of property ( and that property included slaves ),came to mean all sorts of so called freedoms for the masses, such was the fine tuning of the propaganda machine.
Once on a visit to the US I asked my host - feigning innocence - why most nice houses seem to display the flag prominently, is there some commemoration going on I asked. The answer was swift. It was - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. My retort ' at whose expense ' did not please him!
Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn predicted these times almost 30 years ago. Saying the US and Europe would be in dire need of Russia as an ally. By US and Europe I don't think he meant the governments, rather the people of the US and Europe.
Russia had been there, done that, wasn't interested in doing it again. The US and Europe hadn't experienced the full might of totalitarianism, and so remained vulnerable to its seduction, oblivious to what had already begun to take root inside them.
Yes, that's true. I was trying to stay with Solzhenitsyn's quote, but it is imperfect. That said, Europe was freed by outside forces after a relatively short period of time. It took the people of the Soviet Union almost 70 years to free themselves, having grown weary of multiple generations of totalitarianism. So I'll hang my hat on that distinction.
I question the concept of totalitarianism. I assume we're speaking of Mussolini's formulation: "Everything within the State, nothing outside of the State, nothing against the State." Clearly, "the State" however constituted, in order to do its job, has to consist of a person or group which is omniscient and omnipotent, including intellectual omnipotence, and human beings do not have the powers or the self-discipline to perform the needed functions. One is reminded of Lord Acton's warning.
Mussolini. Stalin. Hitler. Mao. Totalitarianism either left or right or uncategorized varieties.
And I vehemently disagree with any assertion that "'The State,' however constituted, in order to do its job, has to consist of a person or group which is omniscient and omnipotent, including intellectual omnipotence, and human beings do not have the powers of self-discipline to perform the needed functions."
That is the most dangerous conceit and justification for any and all tyrannies. Free people do not suffer from the lack of a benevolent (or malevolent) hand guiding them as a shepherd guides a flock of sheep. The "Good Stewardship" model that is regularly spoken among those who deem themselves intellectual superiors, the calm, cool seers and sages of humanity. Capable of removing themselves from the passions and biases of the simpletons, the rash children who must be protected from their selfish impulses. That thinking is rubbish. Pure, filthy, stinking, evil rubbish.
Only God is omnipotent and omniscient. No person or group of people could every attain that, and any pretense that they can is the epitome of tyranny. Imposing the will of a self-imagined Dios, individual or collective on others is pure, unabashed evil. That impulse is repugnant to the Constitution and the inalienable rights of man as we have been endowed by our creator.
One who asserts such atrocious blaspheme should wash their mouth out with soap and repent on their knees before God and all mankind he insults.
Lots of people speak there. For example Greta Thunberg spoke at the WEF.
They bring in all kinds of people for “colour”. Some of them actually believe they might be able to make a difference and influence these ghouls into a positive direction.
I’d imagine that at this point in time Greta and anyone else who has tried to reach them and turn them around, has given up
If US does not want the rest of the world to interfere in its elections, it should stop interfering in other countries' affairs. Otherwise, US government should be elected by ALL countries where it meddles. Otherwise, it's the worst form of Taxation without Representation. People do not have a legal way to avoid being attacked, bombed and looted.
Be careful how you answer or you may end up like Bobby Seale. Or Seth Rich. Or Jack Teixeira (where it isn't clear he hasn't been set up as a Patsy even more ignorant than Lee Harvey Oswald.)
“Words had to change their ordinary meaning to that which was given them”, said Thucydides of the chaos in Ancient Greece, “so that the factional party caprice of the moment became the only standard of honour and truth.”
It seems the distortions occurring inside liberalism are not without precedent.
I got this from The Upheaval substack by NS Lyons: the best of the best imo.
Contra Confucius: "Things in actual fact should be made to accord with the implications attached to them by names, the prerequisites for correct living and even efficient government being that all classes of society should accord to what they ought to be."
I'm from the Tampa Bay area and Omali has been a civil rights activist here for over 50 years, and though I don't agree on everything with him, he is definitely NOT a Russian agent....
I CAN'T add anything better! > ". . . in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them." - Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery...
Seems like they’re saying if Russians can’t have first amendment rights in Russia, then neither can Americans in the US. 👏👏👏 (ironic clapping) No wonder Biden’s favorability is about the same as Putin’s, for Americans, that is.
And they jailed someone on the right for making a meme . . .
You all (right, left, middle, off the spectrum) have to set aside your differences and agree that the First Amendment can't be eroded and you're going to have to make common cause and become single issue voters for people who work to protect the right to free speech, because without the right to speak, we have nothing.
Basil - assume your 1980 trigger date is Reagan's Neoliberal crusade.
But the roots of that are in the Carter Administration, who began the privatization and deregulation dismantling that Reagan accelerated and Bill Clinton expanded and consolidated.
Taking Russia-gate thru its natural (dis)course, just like Al-Qaeda/ISIS before it. This is yet another confirmation that the US govt has only one playbook. Create an enemy du jour, and ram it through all possible angles in the run-up to every “election” cycle.
My, my, my - the Dems must be working on quite an interesting "election" process in 2024 - it seems like they almost literally spend at least 80 or 90 percent of their time worrying about the next "election". Their other issues are Ukraine, Ukraine, coming up with divisive campaign issues, and Ukraine. Which is, I believe, the name of a huge bloody laundromat in Europe.
"Now you can be arrested for not agreeing that America is the greatest country in the world? Indicted for “sowing discord” ? WTF I assume all you people on here... are next on the list."
Anytime anything happens that the government doesn't like, it is "weaponized".
....and Russian! Empire has a very forked tongue. Always has excuses for more Empire.
Since the US accepted Bush and his Patriot Act some time ago, inroads by those with a vested interest in reducing the level of democracy that the initial Constitution provided, have apparently been searching for ways to control all the freedoms that this fine original document provided, bit by bit. This from a non US citizen, but keen observer.
The transgressions that the world has seen over time by the CIA as an example, now with the recent example in Thailand, seemingly can be dismissed as 'OK for us but not for you’. Has there ever been so much intrusion into the management of other countries under recent Presidents by the secret army of the CIA. Even a so-called ‘friend', Australia, saw their involvement in the removal of a very popular Prime Minister in Australia in 1975. Very difficult to forget that performance.
One should go back in time following the establishment of this now criminal organisation of 21,500 people and see if the original objectives form even a small part of its current daily activities, which to an observer seem to have as their priority the disruption of any government worldwide which does not ’toe the US line’. Whatever the objectives might have been once they have become an internationally criminal conspiracy.
The result of that is the serious lack of respect for the whole USA, which next to Israel, must be seen as the most disliked country in the world today. The fact that mayhem and outrageous criminality has now become the hallmark of this group can seemingly be ignored by both houses of the US government. To an observer, matters like this are seldom raised, never questioned.
Anyone with a keen interest in analysing the decrease in freedoms, anywhere, would see the closure of this organisation as a positive step, something that would be welcomed by probably every country in the world, all of which would have been the receivers of the slings and arrows of this well-funded secret army whose actions over time have more than contributed to the lack of respect, unfortunately now directed to the whole country.
Such respect will very soon be reflected in the move away from the “petrodollar", with so many countries even today looking at alternative options as their trading currencies. This will contribute seriously to the decrease in the wealth of the USA, impact the standard of living of the people and bring about enormous changes. What country impacted by a diminishing currency can maintain 800 plus military bases around the globe, support a trillion dollar Defence budget, maintain thousands of troops overseas and still encourage the partnership of trading partners? How many countries who have felt the dirty dealings of US interference over the years will then see this change in the status of the USA as an opportunity to shut the door, forever.
Not this year but certainly within eight years.
Exceptionalism gone forever.
Explain Thailand, please.
It is worth pointing out that other countries may detest the United States and Israel, but they dare not say so in public.
From Caitlin today
As commentator Brian Berletic noted on Twitter, "The US through the National Endowment for Democracy has created armies of organizations carrying out malign influence operations around the world including here in Thailand. When the Thai government attempts to stop this activity, the US embassy shouts 'free speech.' Thailand's government and others around the world could easily cite this move by the US Justice Department to target and uproot US-funded organizations doing exactly this and worse."
Natch. Thank you.
Somewhat like how the US and its sockpuppets bewailed the Georgian media law, even though it was a watered down port of a United States law.
That was pretty funny. I had a discussion with some PMC types about this event and they followed the Party Line through a perfect 180-degree turn almost in the same sentence (although there was some stumbling getting around the self-contradiction corner). I wonder, though, how these people -- many of whom are supposed to be engineers, programmers, designers, stemmies and techies of all kinds -- are going to get on with their work when they lack the slightest talent for skepticism or reason. Maybe AI will help -- it seems good at producing vacuous blather.
Contrary to popular belief, cognitive dissonance is in fact more prevalent among the educated, because they are better at symbol manipulation to get to a desired result.
Easy peasy.
It's been touched on quite a few times before - being a professional does not equate overall intelligence. Just means one can do his work in a certain field. History - hence politics - may not be among ones they have a handle on.
Having hubris for a professional is a true sign of their lacking intelligence since they don't recognize that simple fact.
To add to the subject of de-dollarisation, I just saw this. For interest then.......
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230417/inevitable-de-dollarization-which-countries-are-moving-away-from-greenback-1109592646.html
It is worth a read...and it need never have happened at all.
The hypocrisy of it all is too extreme and flamboyant to even be parodied, not even by a Mel Brooks. Satirizing the United States or any segment of it has become pointless. Even buttered popcorn can't save this shitshow.
Looking forward to how The Onion reacts to this. During its current term (would that it were in jail) the Supreme Court decided that satire can be criminal if it in some way interferes with law enforcement. The Onion filed an amicus brief in that case which was both spot on and very funny. To no avail, sadly. At one time, those of us marginalized to the extent of, well, me, at least had the comfort of knowing that we were so excluded from the mainstream discourse that we weren’t worth the US gestapo’s time to mess with us. But, the African People’s Socialist Party? Even I had never heard of it before last year’s bust. Now, it’s ‘ask not for whom the bell tolls, Andrew; it tolls for thee.’
And everyone else who disbelieves the lies, and says so publicly.
Exactly. It won't be long before they start arresting readers who respond on comment threads for the crime of expressly agreeing with dissenting opinions.
Already happened in the UK.
And Germany.
Finally! Many of them have been looking forward to the good old times.
There going to need more jails
Yes! A lot more; so many that the sleepwalking public might actually wake up.
They’re
I certainly hope not. The highlight of my day are the works by Caitlin and the intelligent comments from the likes of today's early responders.
In this part of the globe.... responders well over 65 before I faced the day.
You and me both!
amen!
Caramel corn might save it as a carnival act.
LOL! Touche!
https://youtu.be/aXl7Cu-IWVU
“I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton
I'm old enough to remember Code Pink, the anti-War movement against American military adventurism in Iraq, the release of the proof of torture in Abu Ghraib:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29280937
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/10/torture-at-abu-ghraib
I'm old enough to remember Bernie Sanders vacationing in the Soviet Union for his honeymoon during the height of the Cold War - when both the US and USSR had thousands of nuclear warheads aimed at each other and had multiple proxy wars against each other around the world:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190503122508/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-bernie-sanderss-1988-10-day-honeymoon-in-the-soviet-union/2019/05/02/db543e18-6a9c-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html
I'm even old enough to remember when Jane Fonda became known as Hanoi Jane for her visit to North Vietnam as a tool of propaganda used by an enemy of the US in the middle of a hot war in order to express her antiwar beliefs:
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/How-Jane-Fonda-s-1972-trip-to-North-Vietnam-12205532.php
Along with the rest of antiwar activists at the time like John Kerry.
All of these figures used, "weaponized" their First Amendment rights, conspired to act as agents of nations hostile to US interests, arguably more hostile then than Russia is today. Because we're Americans and have a right to debate and disagree with any administration. In ways that exceed anything these four Americans have been charged over. This cannot stand. All of the propaganda and censorship, weaponization of politics that's been turned up exponentially since 2020 is evil, hallmark of totalitarianism. The blinders are off. They're not even making a pretense of respecting free speech in the US anymore.
The election of Obama did more to neuter the antiwar movement than anything Dick Cheney could have imagined.
The subsequent alliance of liberals, spooks and warmongers against Trump was the icing on the cake.
That said, had Sanders somehow been elected, he would either have toed the line or the same cockamamie conspiracy theories that were *weaponized* against Trump would have been unleashed on him.
Yeah, I supported Bernie twice, but I knew that even if they somehow let him get through, it would just be the beginning of a fight, not the final victory.
That said, the people have been trying to vote for change for a long time now, and it ain't changing.
I supported Sanders as well, but I recognized, even then, that the man is a eunuch.
The time for a rule-following, norms-abiding, work within the system, half-a-loaf compromiser is long past. Following rules and meekly complying with norms does you no good when you are surrounded by sociopaths.
Or as Bernie said " I like Joe Biden he's a friend of mine, he'll make a great president" on stage in S.C. I doubt anything would have changed.
A bit more empty human rights talk, but not much else.
Yeah, it's not like he didn't know what Biden was after all these years.
Correct, comrade Bernie would not have been allowed to succeed.
The election of the CLintons, for that matter, did MORE to advance China's nuclear missile capability, and local airframe manufacturing for both civilian and military purposes than any other administration......and ended up getting Ron Brown KILLED for protesting it, and get this.......to clean up afterwards, got Ron Brown's SON "stung" by Obama's(!) FBI for "accepting" $50K in bribes as city councilman in DC, put away for 6-7 years! That's what a Harvard degree will get you if you're black!
Bernie is simply hopeless on foreign policy, something I was reluctant to admit a few years ago when I supported his candidacy. He has called the elected President of Venezuela Maduro a "vicious dictator". Not so surprising in light of the fact that his foreign policy advisor is shitlib neocon Matt Duss, who is on record urging progressives to support providing weapons to Ukraine. Bernie has always been great on domestic policy but he doesn't have far at all to fall with respect to geopolitics, though it was not always the case as he met with the Sandinistas in the 1980s despite the predominantly right wing domestic political atmosphere of the times.
I am sure that Sanders knows full well the character of his chosen advisers.
He also knows what is a priority for to Team D, namely, Empire.
There is a video, I've watched it twice, that i see as absolutely iconic. In it, Hilary Clinton is giving a speech about the sanctity of freedom of speech, and Ray McGovern, age 70, a veteran of several presidential administrations where he gave the daily intelligence briefing--stood up and quietly turned his back on her, a silent dissent. Cops rushed in and violently dragged him out. You see Hilary's eyes following this but she makes no reference or protest, just goes on with her speech--about how important free speech is. THAT says it all about US government hypocrisy on this issue.
I remember Amy Goodman, before Bellingcat bought her?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uSiBpqk_93U
I remember very well a "good-looking" American senator in the eighties who even spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union ! :) It was especially nice how well he was able to sing the communist anthem "Internacional" with the Soviet communist leaders of the time (while drinking vodka), even though we never saw him being forced to put a pistol in his side like that ! And who would have thought that this brave American patriot could one day become the president of the USA with the votes of the dead !
"They're not worried about Russian propaganda, they're worried you'll stop listening to US propaganda".
Caitlin's last sentence above says it all.
It will be great if more and more Americans come to realise the true nature of their Orwellian state. They were fed a lie from the beginning - a constitution written by white men of property, for white men of property, by white men of property ( and that property included slaves ),came to mean all sorts of so called freedoms for the masses, such was the fine tuning of the propaganda machine.
Once on a visit to the US I asked my host - feigning innocence - why most nice houses seem to display the flag prominently, is there some commemoration going on I asked. The answer was swift. It was - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. My retort ' at whose expense ' did not please him!
Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn predicted these times almost 30 years ago. Saying the US and Europe would be in dire need of Russia as an ally. By US and Europe I don't think he meant the governments, rather the people of the US and Europe.
Russia had been there, done that, wasn't interested in doing it again. The US and Europe hadn't experienced the full might of totalitarianism, and so remained vulnerable to its seduction, oblivious to what had already begun to take root inside them.
https://www.forbes.com/2008/08/05/solzhenitsyn-forbes-interview-oped-cx_pm_0804russia.html?sh=f09a8fe5f538
Come on, dind't Hitler and Mussolini and Stalin count as giving Europe a taste of totalitarianism?
Yes, that's true. I was trying to stay with Solzhenitsyn's quote, but it is imperfect. That said, Europe was freed by outside forces after a relatively short period of time. It took the people of the Soviet Union almost 70 years to free themselves, having grown weary of multiple generations of totalitarianism. So I'll hang my hat on that distinction.
I question the concept of totalitarianism. I assume we're speaking of Mussolini's formulation: "Everything within the State, nothing outside of the State, nothing against the State." Clearly, "the State" however constituted, in order to do its job, has to consist of a person or group which is omniscient and omnipotent, including intellectual omnipotence, and human beings do not have the powers or the self-discipline to perform the needed functions. One is reminded of Lord Acton's warning.
Mussolini. Stalin. Hitler. Mao. Totalitarianism either left or right or uncategorized varieties.
And I vehemently disagree with any assertion that "'The State,' however constituted, in order to do its job, has to consist of a person or group which is omniscient and omnipotent, including intellectual omnipotence, and human beings do not have the powers of self-discipline to perform the needed functions."
That is the most dangerous conceit and justification for any and all tyrannies. Free people do not suffer from the lack of a benevolent (or malevolent) hand guiding them as a shepherd guides a flock of sheep. The "Good Stewardship" model that is regularly spoken among those who deem themselves intellectual superiors, the calm, cool seers and sages of humanity. Capable of removing themselves from the passions and biases of the simpletons, the rash children who must be protected from their selfish impulses. That thinking is rubbish. Pure, filthy, stinking, evil rubbish.
Only God is omnipotent and omniscient. No person or group of people could every attain that, and any pretense that they can is the epitome of tyranny. Imposing the will of a self-imagined Dios, individual or collective on others is pure, unabashed evil. That impulse is repugnant to the Constitution and the inalienable rights of man as we have been endowed by our creator.
One who asserts such atrocious blaspheme should wash their mouth out with soap and repent on their knees before God and all mankind he insults.
Didn't I read somewhere that Mr Putin is a WEF member?
It takes about 20 seconds to find this article that proves Putin spoke at the WEF. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/russias-putin-warns-of-a-fight-of-all-against-all-at-wef.html
Then 50 hours of Matt Taibbi research to conclude that it may or may not mean that Putin is an actual member of the WEF.
It's a silly accusation because it is meaningless. It tries to create an association that makes the WEF look more powerful than it is.
Lots of people speak there. For example Greta Thunberg spoke at the WEF.
They bring in all kinds of people for “colour”. Some of them actually believe they might be able to make a difference and influence these ghouls into a positive direction.
I’d imagine that at this point in time Greta and anyone else who has tried to reach them and turn them around, has given up
Look up the EEF (Eastern Economic Forum). It is basically a clone of the WEF except for Russia, China etc.
Two sides of the same coin me thinks.
And the Forum in Inglewood too is a clone, except for the NBA.
Another side of the same round ball, no doubt….
No you didnt read that anywhere that actually had any foundation for it. So what you are doing is called spreading false claims.
I'm too old to remember that.
If US does not want the rest of the world to interfere in its elections, it should stop interfering in other countries' affairs. Otherwise, US government should be elected by ALL countries where it meddles. Otherwise, it's the worst form of Taxation without Representation. People do not have a legal way to avoid being attacked, bombed and looted.
I LIKE this idea. Except I'm leaning toward not bothering to vote myself, it has so little effect on anything.
How do you propose to make this happen?
Be careful how you answer or you may end up like Bobby Seale. Or Seth Rich. Or Jack Teixeira (where it isn't clear he hasn't been set up as a Patsy even more ignorant than Lee Harvey Oswald.)
“The successor to politics will be propaganda”, Marshall McLuhan
Ambient political conditioning is the water we swim in .
Another dilly:
“Words had to change their ordinary meaning to that which was given them”, said Thucydides of the chaos in Ancient Greece, “so that the factional party caprice of the moment became the only standard of honour and truth.”
It seems the distortions occurring inside liberalism are not without precedent.
I got this from The Upheaval substack by NS Lyons: the best of the best imo.
Contra Confucius: "Things in actual fact should be made to accord with the implications attached to them by names, the prerequisites for correct living and even efficient government being that all classes of society should accord to what they ought to be."
Perfect! Well done pussycat.
I'm from the Tampa Bay area and Omali has been a civil rights activist here for over 50 years, and though I don't agree on everything with him, he is definitely NOT a Russian agent....
Thanks for the local insight.
It's helpful for these cases when someone of local prominence suddenly draws national attention.
I CAN'T add anything better! > ". . . in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them." - Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery...
"weaponized free speech" is the whole point of free speech!
Indeed you need weapons to fight and oppose power: the pen is mightier than the sword.
Seems like they’re saying if Russians can’t have first amendment rights in Russia, then neither can Americans in the US. 👏👏👏 (ironic clapping) No wonder Biden’s favorability is about the same as Putin’s, for Americans, that is.
And they jailed someone on the right for making a meme . . .
You all (right, left, middle, off the spectrum) have to set aside your differences and agree that the First Amendment can't be eroded and you're going to have to make common cause and become single issue voters for people who work to protect the right to free speech, because without the right to speak, we have nothing.
The surest way to control thought is to control the language that expresses it.
Man, I thought the felony charges agains the Cop City protesters was as low as they could possibly go - but this is far worse.
These people are very dangerous - this must be stopped. If US people can't rise up to shut this down, we're doomed much faster than I thought.
We've been doomed since 1980. We now inhabit Doomworld.
Basil - assume your 1980 trigger date is Reagan's Neoliberal crusade.
But the roots of that are in the Carter Administration, who began the privatization and deregulation dismantling that Reagan accelerated and Bill Clinton expanded and consolidated.
Taking Russia-gate thru its natural (dis)course, just like Al-Qaeda/ISIS before it. This is yet another confirmation that the US govt has only one playbook. Create an enemy du jour, and ram it through all possible angles in the run-up to every “election” cycle.
My, my, my - the Dems must be working on quite an interesting "election" process in 2024 - it seems like they almost literally spend at least 80 or 90 percent of their time worrying about the next "election". Their other issues are Ukraine, Ukraine, coming up with divisive campaign issues, and Ukraine. Which is, I believe, the name of a huge bloody laundromat in Europe.
Spot on Caitlin!
Found on internet:
"Now you can be arrested for not agreeing that America is the greatest country in the world? Indicted for “sowing discord” ? WTF I assume all you people on here... are next on the list."
I start to get a little worried that some time when I need to fly somewhere, I won't be let on the plane.
(I guess being a mild nobody is helpful at times.)
Oh, I know that I already am on their lists.
What it means is that there is now an even more convenient pretext to imprison anyone that The National Security State wants locked up.
TPTB are smart enough to bring their test case against defendants that won't inspire much sympathy among Solid Citizens.
Dissent is Patriotic
Amen! Patriots don't go along with the status quo, do they?