129 Comments
User's avatar
Jordan's avatar

What is so disturbing, though not too surprising anymore, is how little they mention those being killed, displaced, harmed, traumatised, poisoned, etc... by war.

All the thousands killed and millions more lives uprooted, and they talk about war like it's a video game. That's one of the greatest successes of modern propaganda.

Indu Abeysekara's avatar

Jordan, What Caitlin reveals today is actually no surprise to most of us. You only need some critical thinking and awareness and a little human kindness to know what the US empire is all about.

We are living through an age of darkness where nations who were barely emerging from colonialism are experiencing a neocolonialism whose savagery and barbarism is beyond control. US/Israel and its European vassals are on a killing spree, laying waste to lands, displacing people by the millions, starving them, causing immense misery. And the world looks on.

There is a pattern to all of this as we know. Destroy the countries that refuses to bend to the empire's will, bomb them to the stone age , erase civilisations. Keep a war going in Ukraine, so that Russia will be contained and prevented from joining with China. China is their main game.

In their warped minds China cannot be allowed to prosper and dent their hegemony. It was always thus wether it's a Biden or a Trump.

Just Sayn's avatar

Exactly so. Competition against the Western Oligarchy.

Feral Finster's avatar

Of course. The rulers pay no price, neither personal nor professional. It's all gravy to them.

So why should they care?

Jill Herendeen's avatar

...except to see that it continues for as long as possible, or until they can replace it w/ something that nets them even more gravy....

Chuck Nasmith's avatar

Is there a fever that they get when thinking of chopping off of heads?

Feral Finster's avatar

No, but they know full well what opinions will get you plaudits and a ticket to bigger and better things, and what opinions will get Serious And Important People to pull long faces.

Jill Herendeen's avatar

What they DON'T mention is how many thousands of $$$$$ from Americans' wildly-regressive tax $$$$$ are going into their bank accounts.

Paul Vonharnish's avatar

War why video games became popular. Guess who designed video gaming... Guess who made sure the goddamn things were sold as *presents* to kids... Answer: Civilians...

dboing dboing's avatar

Yes that has been disturbing for decades how the geopolitical game theory is having rational but sociopathic axiomatic player given assumptions

Feral Finster's avatar

It has long been obvious that we are ruled by sociopaths, Team D and Team R alike.

Jordan's avatar

Yeah,except in the case of Iran, it is largely centred around nuclear weapons -a threat that doesn't even exist. It's like a strange combination of game theory and shit they make up as they go along. Meanwhile, people on the ground die and have to live with the consequences, then are barely even mentioned

Jill Herendeen's avatar

...but as long as it's wildly profitable FOR THEM, why shouldn't THEY?

Feral Finster's avatar

Nuclear weapons was ever always only a pretext. So was "protesters", so was "women's rights", so were "ZOMG closing the Straits is an act of war ZOMG!"

JennyStokes's avatar

........and none of us (except a few) like immigrants! Always the 1st thing on the Agenda for racist countries in any election.

Chuck Nasmith's avatar

Imagine a mountain lion telling you to get off the family property of a thousand or so years!

Ricky's avatar

They're all the same

Disgusting Zionists

And they're not gonna stop until they're forced to stop

Chris N's avatar

Yes, they are disgusting but they are ultimately pawns, very enthusiastic and psychopathic ones. The empire is more than Zionists

Ricky's avatar
1hEdited

Yes, the capiralist imperial machine is one that requires waste, human and material, to facilitate the survival of finance capitalists

But the Zionists have landed themselves into the drivers seat of this machine becasue they create the most waste through their endless wars

Defeating Zionism is the first step towards dismantling the empire

And the first step towards reclaiming our humanity

Chris N's avatar

In terms of the big picture, our differences in how we view things are trivial. The disempowering of Zionism is a good cause

dboing dboing's avatar

It seems to not just be only zionists given what was put together here

There are two overlapping agendas and Zionism might just be the rabid dog being let loose helped sure

But part of the bigger machine

Ricky's avatar

Yes I agree

Finance capital requires waste in the form of surplus humans and material

This drives the world system

But the Zionists create the most waste w their endless war and so are now in the drivers seat of the capitalist imperial machine

Defeating Zionism is the first step towards dismantling the empire

And reclaiming our souls from the pits or hell

Just Sayn's avatar

The very reason both the US and UK worked hard to impose Zionist terrorism by creating Israel in the middle of the oil fields.

Nick's avatar

Of course he was going to do that because Biden & Trump are puppets for the Epstein pedo class of Oligarchs that control both Democrats & Republicans.

The agenda always continues regardless of who’s voted in.

Surely, people can see this now!

CK's avatar

Some people need to see an optometrist.

Landru's avatar

Nope, vote Duopoly no matter who.

jamenta's avatar
2hEdited

Nope, you still have plenty of fools with hope for the corrupt Democratic party. And don't call me Shirley.

Philip Mollica's avatar

Always in the works and the playbook is to make one party or the other SO AWFUL that people will RUN TO THE POLLS TO VOTE THEM OUT in the next cycle, only to vote in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT KIND OF AWFUL which is actually the SAME KIND OF AWFUL.

The machine moves forward undeterred.

CK's avatar

There is only one major party— the Capitalist Party— with two “conservative” branches.

Paul Vonharnish's avatar

Right on target. And the public supports capitalism by supporting militaristic thugs who threaten them with weapons the civilian public loves to brag about... Hey! Let's knock wives and girlfriends up. We need more meat heads and idiots to join the slaughter.

SnowInTheWind's avatar

I think it might be more the Financialist Party-- with two ideological flavors, "capitalist" and "socialist."

jamenta's avatar
1hEdited

Calling the Democratic party socialist is like insisting Bill Maher is on the far left, and Fox News is fair and balanced.

SnowInTheWind's avatar

And similar analogies the other way. But I was distinguishing ideological brands from party brands.

jamenta's avatar

Yeah I know. :)

Just Sayn's avatar

What we have here is a (corporate/government combined)= Fascist, Kleptocratic, oligarchy of mostly Zionist controlled corporations. Vanguard Group, Black Rock, State Street own each other and together own nearly all international corporations . They are in turned owned and controlled by the wealthiest .01% who are the long line of Zionist controlled Epstein listed persons.

dboing dboing's avatar

Hmmm. That might explain the alternance between tax cuts and austerity

And the USA is not the only country where that happened

Bi partisan tradition or not

All spectrum capture seems to have caught the western world like wild fire. Going back at least to the tony Blairs after the tatchers

All notches in the ratchet

Indu Abeysekara's avatar

Philip Mollica, Americans are playing " the lesser of two evils game " again!

Craig Tyson Adams's avatar

Nothing ever changes whenever it pertains to the American government. It's like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Landru's avatar

Very well said, the iceberg has already punched the hole in the hull. You can feel the impact now.

Feral Finster's avatar

Yes, but this time with a little more self-serving and hypocritical human rights talk.

Yes, Kamala ("there's nothing I'd change") Harris would have done the same.

Goodthink liberals would sing hosannas. Sanders would mumble a few words of muted objection. Dale would frantically pump out the ezcuses (but *pronouns* people, *pronouns *!)

ennui_mcgee's avatar

Do not get me started on Bernie Sanders or his supporters. Muted objections and genocide denial is peak performance for him. He is the ultimate form of controlled opposition. Who's Dale?

Feral Finster's avatar

Dale Ruff posts here, typically to urge us to Vote Blue, No Matter Who and he engages in all manner of contortions to justify this.

Feral Finster's avatar

And, let's be fair- if Biden or Harris werre president, MAGA would bleat "no new wars!"

Landru's avatar

Speaking of Dale ha. Did you.......

Vin LoPresti's avatar

"The American system is the most ingenious system of control in world history"-Howard Zinn

Landru's avatar

I never appreciated Howard, thinking there were many like him in power. Stupid me.

Ginnie's avatar
3hEdited

They are all criminals and monsters, but in varying degrees of disguise. That is why voting is such a waste of time, because at the end, all you get is a candidate picked by wallstreet and AIPAC. Even those who pretend otherwise, it is all just a show because none of them will ever truly be able or willing to confront empire and its mechanisms in any meaningful way. We all know what happened to those who did. They did not hesitate to assassinate their own president when he didn't wanna go war monger. Never forget that.

THEIR OWN PRESIDENT.

All the people who said Biden was the lesser evil, meant for themselves, so they can check out to brunch and not have to be inconvenienced daily by the ugliness of the same empire and its mechanisms and avatars they supported just a year ago.

Remember all the Dem voters walking out of the DNC, and when asked about Palestine, about war, about what’s done in their name ? You could watch the conviction disappear as they held their ears and hummed. The stammering, the evasions, the silence, that was not confusion, it was indifference.

I kinda dont feel too sorry for these people at all now because in the end, they don’t demand an end to violence, they demand that it be delivered politely. That it come with the right tone, the right language, the right decorum. That's why they LOVE Obama so much. The man who during his tenure sold them out to Wall Street and dropped a record number of bombs on the poorest countries in the world droning middle eastern weddings like a boss. But hey, he wasnt a white man and he had class when doing it, so that made it all better.

Trump’s problem, to them, is that he’s loud, crude, impossible to ignore. He exposes what the system actually is, instead of dressing it up, forcing them to reckon with it.

And that’s the hypocrisy: endless outrage over rhetoric, near-total apathy toward far greater violence. None of this is ignorance on their part. It’s a decision; a decision about what matters, and what they’re willing to live with. And now we got our answer.

Don't think for one second that knowing this will stop them from voting for the next Biden in 2028. which is why in many ways they are now getting exactly what everyone warned them about.

Indu Abeysekara's avatar

"Trump’s problem, to them, is that he’s loud, crude, impossible to ignore. He exposes what the system actually is, instead of dressing it up, forcing them to reckon with it."

Brilliant Ginnie.

Feral Finster's avatar

Yup. The objection to trump was that he said the quiet part out loud.

However, now the Empire is strong enough and its enemies feckless enough that the Empire no longer needs to pretend.

To use my preferred analogy, it's like that pimp that has that poor runaway girl in a hotel room far from home, far from anyone she knows, no money, no escape and he doesn't have to pretend to be a nice guy anymore but can show a much more sinister side.

Ginnie's avatar

also the fact that there is a long history of impunity when it comes to war crimes. If that very classy gentleman Obama and Mama Bear Pelosi had actually done their jobs and prosecuted Bush and Cheney and their cadre for their war crimes, maybe Trump wouldn't feel so emboldened to take the mask off now. He knows that he will never see the inside of a jail cell. Of course he got help from the Supreme Court too that pretty much said he enjoys immunity for all crimes committed while in office.

This exemplifies a larger issue: institutions and guard rails that no longer function to hold anyone in power accountable and are corrupted on so many layers and so deeply that regular order democracy can no longer fix things anymore. Once you declare that the person with the most power is immune to accountability you set the stage for ensuring generational impunity among the elites.

If it was just one thing, there may be hope, but it is so many things, like the election system, courts, the nature of the senate that is not majoritarian, the legal framework under which all this is litigated where people in power effectively enjoy immunity for their crimes because they are too big to fail and too important to prosecute.

Where do you even begin to fix things when the rot and dysfunction are so deep?

Right now, most voters think elections. We will vote them out and things will be back to normal. but they wont be because all they did is just changed the face of empire and oppression and impunity but not that which feeds it. In 2032, things will be back to where we are now and this back and forth will continue until the inevitable decline.

Feral Finster's avatar

If the precedents laid down at Nuremberg were actually followed, every American president since Truman would hang. Including St. Obama.

Paul Vonharnish's avatar

Excellent comment Ginnie. The London Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Chicago Mercantile, are *THE* driving forces behind ALL commercial valuation and trade processes in the world. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange as part of CME Group, is the world's leading derivatives marketplace, allowing participants to buy and sell futures and options on commodities, interest rates, stock indices, and currencies.

The Bank(s) for International Settlement, World Bank and IMF conglomerate, Rothschild Bank group, and Federal Reserve, control all derivatives markets - futures options, and bond issues world wide ---- whilst civilian *dumb asses* complain about gas prices... Civilians are getting what they deserve.

g4rg4ntu4's avatar

Only the smoothest of smooth brains would think the crimes of the rogue US regime are down to an orange criminal. Only the smoothest of smooth brains would think that a Democrat would have behaved any differently. You only need to have been paying attention for a decade or so to know that it really doesn't matter who is in the White House - at this point, in the short history of that organized crime outfit masquerading as a country, it should be abundantly clear to all that Democrats are little more than Republicans with rainbows.

The largely ceremonial role of the President of the rogue US regime is more about marketing than anything else – the role’s purpose is to sell the numerous war crimes, and sundry crimes against humanity - known as foreign and domestic policy - to the great unwashed of the rogue US regime, and to take the heat when all goes wrong (as it is going wrong currently in West Asia). The president has nothing whatsoever to do with setting policy – a used car salesman has more to do with setting policy than the president. And the people of the rogue US regime have been buying this charade for decades – centuries even – because “fReeDoM!!1!” or some such inane platitude.

The people of the rogue US regime are all complicit in the crimes of the rogue US regime. All of them, to a man, woman, and child. Because if they are not out on the streets tearing down the structures that exist only to murder children and to exploit the weak and vulnerable, their inaction can only be interpreted as approval. Either do something concrete to overthrow the monsters that are destroying our world, or own the crimes of your “country”. And to be clear - you are not going to be able to vote your way out of this mess.

Landru's avatar

So true. We are past the tipping point of no return now. Capitalists love the Schumpeter theory of Creative Destruction.

John Day MD's avatar

"Destructive Destruction" is on the menu, yet again.

Last call?

;-/

ennui_mcgee's avatar

If every American is liable, then every European is doubly liable. It was Europe's insane lack of civilization that rubbed off on America and also their spinelessness that failed to usher in the multipolar world that China has done with far less starting momentum. The entire West, the entire so-called Anglosphere, not just America. That's every Canadian, every Australian, every New Zealander, every Brit, and every single European.

Indu Abeysekara's avatar

ennui_mcgee, How could they... their way of life was/is built on blood soaked massacrers.

dboing dboing's avatar

Not following. It is that very equation that you make thst traps the people

Your disdain for freedom sounds like that of the oligarchs suddenly

Hassan Al-Mosawi's avatar

Well done for publishing and saying - Peace be upon you by Gaza and Jerusalem - Honour and victory are the allies of the axis of resistance and its allies, and humiliation and shame are for the axis of evil, Epstein Class (USA, Britain, France, Turkey, Qatar, UAE, NATO Governments, Zionist and Israel) and its allies.

Streets28mm Ali Shadpour's avatar

Someone should show this to Mehdi Hassan, he’s always arguing that Biden was better than Trump. On foreign policy, I don’t see any real difference between Democrats and Republicans, even the ones who call themselves progressive.

líng's avatar

Mehdi Hassan is a compatible left, not just in pushing ppl to vote Blue but consistently in line with imperial interventionism.

jamenta's avatar
1hEdited

There are always a few differences, and some policies that the Democrats use to throw breadcrumbs at their base. Like any good abusive relationship - they need to prove in some way they are "somewhat" better than the Republicans, while meanwhile the abuse of their base (especially progressives) continues unabated.

But on the issues that really mean anything: War and the MIC, the Security State, Healthcare, Wallstreet and Corporate growth, Crushing Unions, Zionism, tax breaks for the rich, etc. - the Democrats are in lockstep with the Repubs. Watch what they do, not what they say.

Republicans fear their base. Democrats abuse their base.

David's avatar

All the think tanks in Washington DC and around the country are in the service of furthering Empire, of creating imaginary enemies, of recruiting former officials from the federal government and rewarding warmongers with cushy jobs in academia. The revolving door keeps revolving while the public is brainwashed about threats, the surveillance state keeps tabs on any dissent and all is well and functioning in the "Land of the Free". What about the hundreds of thousands dead? Well chalk it up to collateral damage and move on......

J M Hatch's avatar

Before Amos became one of Biden's bag men, he was Obama's, busy shaking down Ukraine, Middle East, through Sudan, so it was a natural that he kept the money flowing for Obama's stand in, Joe Adult-Diapers Biden.

jamenta's avatar
1hEdited

Seeing Obama and Zohran this week become "pal pal" with each other - was one of the biggest red flags I've seen in some time.

Watch what they do, not what they say.

Feral Finster's avatar

If the Establishment is good at nothing else, it is very good at determining whom to buy off, whom to co-opt, whom to neutralize, whom to ignore.

Mamdani is well on the way to being co-opted.

líng's avatar

400 military operations in US’s 250 years of existence. Attacked 80+ countries. 200+ since the end of WWII.

Capital-imperialism is the constitution of the land.

John Day MD's avatar

"Biden" was an autopen...

;-/

jamenta's avatar

... that was running out of ink.

Indu Abeysekara's avatar

😂🤣 for jamenta.

John Day MD's avatar

Well, it became "disappearing-ink" later...

Landru's avatar

Thank you Caitlin. Another reason people invite me to dinner parties to have someone they can focus all their pent up hate on. Genocide Kamala " Iran is our number one enemy" People don't believe it or conveniently have forgotten, I carry a clip of her saying that : )

With China sleepingzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, we in the u.s. will begin this war on Iran again. The u.s banking/Gov./financial system is failing with no other choice than war. The failed Empire no longer has the tools to fool the world into continued extreme lending into default. Being able to print as much money as the Fed. Reserve wants (MMT) no longer holds the same certainty. With the petrodollar dying the world no longer needs to hold worthless Treasury, Bills, and Notes. Bond have long disappeared from foreign purchases. The tipping point?

China sleepingzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz China and Russia still don't seem to recognize what seizing ships to and from both countries mean. They wait hoping we in the u.s. are just mistaken in the effect and turn a blind eye to the wants of the u.s .Treasury, diversion, China sleeping zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

In my continuous search for truth wanting to add to the Nation of Caitlin, I discovered Larry Johnson. He is not my political Brother other than his need to seek truth. Being ex-CIA I have my doubts still. Col. Johnson said, the White House held discussions Sat. on the use of Nuclear Weapons, yes nuclear weapons. Since his revelation, several others have released the info from their

inside sources. Is this the Nixon tell them I'm crazy moment or is this something in consideration?

I have known for some time the Gov. of both parties (Duopoly) believes first strike nuclear weapons use is survivable. We know this from their language and their missile defense strategies.

So many

GMD (Ground-Based Midcourse Defense)

Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars," 1980s). Edward The Genocide Teller

Golden Dome Michael D. Suicider Griffin

These projects are all you need to know about first use. They think they work.

I know longer think there is anyone in the u.s. or Western gov. that would stop this nightmare.

Meanwhile the Chinese sleep a deep sleep of politenesszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Russia pretends they can control the situation in Ukraine without looking beyond their borders

is sleeping uncomfortablyzzzzzzohzzzzzzzzzzzzzzohzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzohzzzzzzzzzzzzoh no.

Sorry about the ramble I'm having that sitting under a desk seeing the terror in my teachers eyes as people of that time thought nuclear weapons were a solution feeling.

Strange I would have this feeling knowing as much as I do about even a limited strike by a country angry at the use of weapons on their country. No group of people could be that stupid,

but here we are : ( Run to the Light. It's better to bath in the micro second of Neutron Shower Warmth than see what comes next. More ramble, we have no heroes, I am a failure to solution as I was marching and sit-ins on 1969-1972 Sorry, someone delete this please..

ennui_mcgee's avatar

I'll have what he's having, please.