Completely agree with how hopeless the Chinese are at propaganda. It’s almost endearing. I don’t think Confucius said much to promote lying at the expense of your fellow man. This now is second nature in the US with a huge segment of their population who have been lied to now from cradle to grave. I think wholesale lying was jumpstarted by Bernays who had much influence with the American Armed forces, not to mention his seminal role in advertising.
"I think wholesale lying was jumpstarted by Bernays who had much influence with the American Armed forces, not to mention his seminal role in advertising."
I used to think that as well despite "my" rock-solid BELIEVE that there was something else....
Bernays was equally just a patsy or let's call it puppet in a MUCH GRANDER SCHEME.
Like a clever - cunning - devious... coach is never going to reveal his real motivations for using one player or the other - in on position or the other. And this would even imply that the coach is aware of the SOURCE AND ESPECIALLY THE PURPOSE of his INSIGHT.
But he is not, I believe, the same way as a musician is not aware of every single note while performing, not rehearsing. The performance comes from a place that is "hidden" from/to THE HUMAN MIND. As THE HUMAN MIND is just a tool to THE SOURCE OF ALL EXISTENCE learning to perform music out of THE VOID - to THE HUMAN MIND - in SPACE AND TIME.
Coming back to the original topic of Bernays this means that he was performing something that had to be performed, instigated by WORLDLY incentives, urges and pressures of THE HUMAN MIND, by someone. Bernays was the one that ended up doing it. If it hadn't been him it had been someone else.
And even assuming, like I do, that there are even more "powerful" worldly interests at "service" in worldly matters to THE VOID, doesn't take away the fact, as I believe, that the influence of the worldly interests are equally limited (on all sides) by the boundary of THE HUMAN MIND not having access to the realm beyond SPACE AND TIME.
LET'S CALL THE LATTER THE BIG GAME - GOD IS PLAYING - HAVING CREATED ALL OF SPACE AND TIME INCLUDING ALL EXISTENCES AND THEIR PHENOMENA.
IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK, IF IT WALKS LIKE A DUCK AND IF IT QUACKS LIKE A DUCK IT IS, WITH THE BEST CERTAINTY AVAILABLE TO THE HUMAN MIND, A DUCK!
Bernays had only one small part in propagandizing the US. He had no say in the longstanding tradition of school children quoting the constitution and saluting the American flag every morning. There is rarely a "seminal role" in anything: the powerful, first families, wealthy, intelligentsia.etc., decide for everyone else. Then they get you to think it was your idea and you must perpetuate it by the vote every once in a while.
I was simply replying to the first commenter, him/her talking about Bernays. Next time it will be better to check out the context of a certain exchange. CONTEXT MATTERS VERY MUCH! Even though THE HUMAN MIND likes it rather linear based on its "own" logic.
Apart from such (unimportant) fact I know it is easy BUT ALSO very revealing about someone's regurgitation of old grievances, being indoctrinated into him/her by some other hack, about powerful, wealthy, intelligentsia people all being stupid, malicious and about "their" blindness about the excellence, intelligence (not to confuse with intellect) and superiority of the "everyone else".
ALL IN ALL A VERY LAZY, SUPERFICIAL AND MENDACIOUS PLOT to say the least!
I'd put it differently myself. IMHO covid appears to have been a convenient opportunity for governments to road-test the new techniques of control in preparation for the roll-out of the next iteration of surveillance-capitalism and, also, for key industries to make some plunder. There is never a bad time for those at the top to show us who is boss and to make a profit doing so. War is just business as usual (shoring up the petrodollar and applying a strategy of tension across the planet). Culling the herd is being done slowly, by deaths of despair, socially managed neglect and the disruption of sub-elite fertility (either by encouraging ever increasing delays for first pregnancies or discouraging reproduction altogether).
Caitlin is free to write about whatever she likes and obviously US politics is her wheelhouse. And I think we can all agree that she does a great job. It struck me as a little odd that she never tackled Covid, not even one time. Not in any serious full length way anyways. I think it’s a bit disingenuous to come out now and say she was guided by insight - that all along it was the more pressing issue. It just isn’t like that. But in her defence, Caitlin has limited resources and time and her gravitating to a particular area of expertise is fair. But don’t go telling us it’s because of your powers of insight. That’s bullshit. Just say it’s a time thing, an expertise thing. I would not like to see Caitlin’s reporting on the US be any way compromised and that would almost certainly be the case if she had decided to start focusing on the Covid scam.
I'm certainly not claiming it took great "powers of insight" to see the escalations against Russia and China looming on the horizon; hell the Pentagon basically told us they were coming in 2018. It did however take a lot of myopia to NOT see them, and to demand that anti-imperialist commentators not focus on them. It is after all the single most urgent issue in the world. It's not some lucky coincidence that I have been vindicated in focusing on the single most urgent issue in the world, that's just normal and obvious.
No, you’d need to be a blind fool not to see that a nuke duke-out is the greatest existential threat to humanity and our nonhuman brothers and sisters. I guess the question on everybody’s lips is why you pay no heed to the biggest story in the world currently? Namely Covid. I hazard that some people think you harbour sympathetic views with the establishment and hence your silence. Many people online have an obsession with fault finding. I personally have no dog in this race. I’m completely happy with Caitlin doing what she does best. Besides there are so many outstanding Covid Substacks already. el gato malo anyone?
Covid is not the biggest story in the world currently.
And as I've said on another thread to another poster, you are not her keeper! You're not her boss. She doesn't have to do what you want her to do!
Her unwillingness to address the subject you want her to address in the way you want her to address it does not make her an establishment stooge! Maybe it makes her a person with a different opinion.
She doesn't have to write about Covid if she doesn't want to write about Covid! it's not up to you or I, it's up to her. If you don't like it you know what to do.
There are plenty of places to go where you can read about Covid.
Covid certainly is not the "approved" biggest story by legacy and social media. Russia and Ukrain, Nuclear War, Trump are just more of the distractions needed, whether orchestrated or convenient, redirect people from the biggest story. Technically you may be correct. However, the truth is coming out about Covid and the mischief makers are going to need bigger distractions.
I can't trust the thinking or intentions of those so informed as if to make Covid the proverbial elephant in the room. Maybe just convenient, but plandemics seem a useful tool for population control. I suppose nukes could do a better job too if everyone wasn't so damn afraid of the damn things. What does Covid and Nukes have in common? Ans. Fear. And the effective use of fear controls.
"Covid certainly is not the "approved" biggest story by legacy and social media." Perhaps I should have added - as well not approved by Caitlin either? Interesting when you think about it. Seems to be a kind of connection to those she rails about. Misdirection or ignoring the elephant in the room, that is the millions murdered, millions suffering from the effects of poisonous vaccines, hyper accelerated destruction of a world economy, putting people into poverty, bankruptcy, hyper acceleration to alienating and dividing people, to helping the WEF and other mischief makers make longer strides into their mischief of greed, power and control. Hardly worth raising and eyebrow to a story if you support or are connected to the organization of the plandemic. Wait a minute, maybe its the Russo-Ukrainian War. No only really just another created or convenient distraction at the expense of somewhere around 20k military and civilian casualties (people that is).
I just lose trust for anyone telling me what elephant I can't or can see or feel particularly when the elephant seems to be sitting on me.
It's absolutely the biggest story. According to Drs. Robert Malone, Peter McCullough, Michael Yeadon, Pierre Corrie, Robert Zelenko (recently diseased) and.... they believe, this plandemic using murderous medical protocols has murdered over 250,000 to 500,000 people. Likewise Insurance companies are claiming death payouts at 40% more (3 times higher than cataclysmic events usually at 10%) since the "pandemic" was orchestrated. The idea of the EUA gene therapy jab (not a vaccine unless you believe in the definitions of Humpty Dumpty) for the plandemic is simply to gain further power and control over people by people who want to legalize just because; who want to utilize medical cards that grant permissions to be free. This is a global attempt, by people who believe, "You'll own nothing and be happy about it."
Caitlin's lack of interest in this particular event bothers me also. Governments that commit crime and deny it are not your friends (Judge Napolitano). Yet Caitlin seems enamored with China as a more upstanding criminal?! Really?! Now if she were sayin' it's time to dissolve all world governments as they, the usual suspect operate, she'd have more of my trust. Then again the more trust I give, the more accountable I want to audit you. That's why the plandemic hurt so many, because too many put their faith in trust betrayed. "Expert textpert choking smokers don't don't you think the joker laughs at you. Ho Ho Ho Ha HA HA Hee HEE HEE." Of course too many expert texpert good doctors were lied to too. Ask Dr. Peter McCullough.
In my opinion anyone that would want to subjugate your self-evident rights and inherent liberty, as endowed by some unknown Creator, to that of another (or group), of the same flesh and blood, may not really be your friend.
There must be some 100% dedicated-to-covid forum out there where rich is droning about the war topic. His ideal is to find a commentator that is 100% dedicated to one and 100% to the other. At the same time. Totaling 200%.
We are all up to something, which NONE of the multitude of existences has or can ever know, believe on my part as one of the "multitude", what this "something" is.
THE SOURCE "behind" it ALL is THE ONLY ONE to consult. As it is this SOURCE that makes ALL "SPACE AND TIME" behave the way IT "wants". By whichever means, to whatever purpose and on whatever pathways IT "chooses".
Despite the fact that it defies THE HUMAN MIND'S experience of THE SPECTACLE, which in itself is part of THE SPECTACLE. The only exit from its madness is THE HUMAN MIND'S complete acceptance of its servitude to THE SOURCE without "name".
Fair point. The Covid scam has been a most overt demonstration of propaganda. It’s only fair to note Caitlin’s lack of attention as conspicuous. But again I think this can be explained through simple logistics.
Yes, she doesn't have to - it's her choice. However, Australian's freedoms have been devastated due to all the covidiots running the show. And there's so much corruption behind all that...perhaps it's for someone else to take up that mantle.
BTW, it got so bad, truthers like Max Igan FLED the country b/c he knew what was going down under.
LYING is the root cause of all evil - it starts with oneself and in a blink of an eye it spreads around like a wildfire. Once one starts to call it biases etc. one has crossed the red line.
THE HUMAN MIND cannot help BUT to make excuses - LIES! in order to justify the unjustifiable!
Agreed - It's as if all of the Wars/Pandemics/Economic Collapses are really a Ruling Class answer to Climate Change. The Carbon Footprint of Monarchs/Oligarch's & Emir's is immense & they certainly won't shut down their castles/yachts or private air fields to abate our coming climate catastrophe.
To understand climate and the climate change panic, you must be aware of the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM); Milankovitch cycles; sunspots, the Maunder minimum and the coming grand solar minimum; and the unreliability of modeling. PETM was a time of immense biodiversity, but global temperatures were about 15 degrees Fahrenheit higher than today, yet there was no "runaway greenhouse" effect that turned the Earth into Venus.
From the perspective of the oligarchy crises of any sort are a challenge best resolved by transferring the costs to others, an opportunity to misdirect popular energy away from political opposition and an excuse to perfect their system of control.
In journalism, it’s called “working a beat.” Hers is U.S. empire. Nobody does it quite like Caitlin Johnstone, and I’m grateful for her relentless focus. Meanwhile there is some excellent coverage of Covid, that will be forensically helpful for widespread, take-no-prisoners litigation. The two subjects certainly are connected, I theorize.
And regarding the PRC: I grew up in a community (in Texas) driven entirely by a major engineering university. There were thousands of Chinese grad students, etc., et al. The distinctions mattered more in that town of whether one was a physics, or math, or engineering major. Race based, and politics based, judgments were and are viewed as very low brow in that setting. Merit-based. Hard sciences. Calculus or die. Beyond that, nobody cared. Liberal arts students kept their heads down. Growing up, and afterwards, I considered the Chinese to be patriotic, hardworking, helpful, affable but no-nonsense types, and the women often so beautiful. China didn’t appear out of the blue in just the last generation. I have a hard time with the recent hard sell of hatred for those people.
Yes they have, by the designs of D.C. globalists, increasingly outshined competitors. At the invite of western governments, they have done so. It would be harder to find a more dependable ally, though I can make a good argument for Russia too, and for that matter, any nation of humans willing to peaceably collaborate. And now those legacy factions in D.C. (foreign special interests, the federal reserve, the Vichy Congress, etc.) want to throw the blame and make war over their own doing? This reminds me of when mom beat me at the Candy Land board game when I was three years old, and I tumped over the board.
Impeach D.C. The whole swamp. Scuttle the federal reserve, full default. Bring the military back, all of them. And then rebuild. It’s the only logical way out. ~C.G.
With all this nonsense re what Caitlin should be doing or not doing, you actually make sense. Caitlin should be doing what she wants to do, and the rest of us should be following suit. What happened to critical thinking? We’re responsible for ourselves, and our thoughts should be open to review. That’s why Caitlin is so valuable.
So long as Washington could treat China as an East Asian Guatemala, they were happy. China's development, especially its investment in its own people, is a rebuke to Washington's policy of deindustrialisation and the rationing of educational opportunity by class. Chinese meritocracy puts US crony capitalism in perspective.
Bitching about the current Empire completely ignores what happens when the alternative doesn’t turn out better but becomes much much worse? I don’t hear any suggestions about how to make it better. Voting is worthless since even Putin knows the bureaucrats are running the insane asylum. Unless voters become much smarter or concerned very soon all the complaining in the world won’t make a dam bit of difference, unless we embrace truckers, farmers and other protesters willing to push back.
Part of the problem is that we all buy in whatever the "enemedia" feeds us, which comes filtered down through intelligence, political parties, public relation people, etc. All you need to know is when you look deeper into figures like Alex Jones and his polar opposite (?) Anderson Cooper; i.e. who they really work with/for. All that stuff brainwashes us to go along with their agendas, thinking this is "reality" (which it's not).
In terms of solutions, these political systems are beyond repair; and reinstalling people in them would only make you wonder where their true allegiances lie (because you'd never really know, would you?) Politics is the tacit agreement between people/parties that they will act only in their own best interests and the worst interests of humanity.
We have to starve the beast system somehow, each and every one of us. Not participate, walk away from it because it lives off of us, our attention, our energy, our blood, sweat and tears. We must find a new way to live free of all this crap.
Well said. One of my biggest concern is the complexity of the modern global society has created a fragility unable to cope with even very small disruptions in supply. The smallest reduction in toilet paper, water, food, medicine, labor, etc. all telegraphed 24/7/365 to a fearful and obedient population conditioned to obey will result in the collapse of order that will justify the domination so desperately desired by the self appointed all knowing elite. We are now totally dependent on two things, electricity and digital currency. Money in the form of paper, silver or gold has been replaced with an electronic representation which governments have the ability to erase in the blink of an eye. The Amish and third world subsistence societies have the best shot at survivals. What astonishes me most is the elite thinking they can control and avoid the terror they intend to release. The disruption of electricity is key. Increase the dependence on electricity while constricting the supply. The “Use less and pay more” scheme applied to water and energy too.
I wonder what any other country would be like in the same dominate position as the US. The issue is that power and wealth corrupt. I disagree that China is better than. When humans raise their level of consciousness they will create better governments. When patriarchy gives way to balance between our masculine and feminine sides we will create better governments. You write only of the evils of the US in a comparison?
I agree. A multi-polar world would not necessarily be much better than what we have now. Any re-distribution of power amongst mafia clans at the top of the heap will not result in improved conditions for ordinary people anywhere. At the moment the US gov't is the preferred military/political asset of multinational firms and global financial markets. But plutocrats everywhere will co-operate for their mutual advantage and there are plenty of governments that would take up the slack left over from any decline in Washington's power. China's elite are more cautious than the American one, but they are essentially amoral too.
The US government is not America...it is simply a bundle of institutions that will work for whoever is most powerful. The famous lines of Ned Beatty in NETWORK (1976) sums it up:
"There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU... WILL... ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality."
It's amazing how Paddy Chayefsky got away with writing this film and getting it produced. He was one of the few Hollywood truth tellers. So much truth in it then and so relevant now. One of the greatest films of all time! Thanks for posting this.
I agree; I'm glad I don't live in China either. Caitlin, I don't know what you mean by "China is better than the U.S." In what, exactly? Human rights? I mean have you ever seen those tik tok videos of how they're treated/rounded up like cattle re: the covid scam? Their lockdowns? No thanks. Why do you think there's such control of what goes out into the world from China?
I won the lottery by being born in America. It's not a perfect country either. Sure, most of the things Caitlin points out about the U.S. empire are spot on, and as long as there are central banks, a government is going to be controlled by it, bottom line.
She has been very clear on that. US imperialism and warmongering are a far greater threat to the planet than anything China is doing. That's it. She's not saying China is better than the US in every particular. That would be stupid. I'm rather fond of the American Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, myself.
Caitlin, sorry to take things off topic, but I'd like to broadcast the injustice being done to British journalist Graham Phillips who is being criminalised by the UK government for his work exposing what is going on in the Donbass. Graham has been defamed and formally sanctioned by Westminster without any due process, the first case of a UK citizen being subject to the kind of social credit that will be imposed on us all. This is serious and a threat to everyone in the West who wants to think for themselves or speak according to their conscience.
And what about Julian Assange? Maybe I don’t know the whole story, but did he do anything more than take photos the US gov. couldn’t tolerate? Like military guys shooting unarmed civilians? Am I full of propaganda?
Idk, Anne, to all 4 qs. It's not hard to read up on the Assange case. I am sympathetic to the accounts given by Craig Murray, Chris Hedges, Taibbi, and Greenwand. They are easy to find but you should compare them against other accounts and make up your own mind.
Assange's real crime was most likely publishing emails that showed Obama receiving advice from Citibank (I think) on who to appoint to his first Cabinet. This alone is way more serious than just exposing war crimes, believe me. If memory serves he also published stuff related to Seth Rich.
IMO Assange was probably caught up in the politics within the intel community itself in some way. He was first arrested for hacking as a teenager and it is most likely he was recruited by the Australian gov't at that time and was working for the Five Eyes in one capacity or another for a while afterwards before going rogue as it were. They need to make an example of him to deter other insiders.
This is a remarkable milestone in our current political transition. Journos are too scared to defend themselves and their profession by defending Assange so it's unsurprising that the UK parliament and government take this monumental step. It's shocking and horrify, if, sadly, predictable.
It is the tip of the iceberg. A while ago the FBI showed up at the doors of US citizens who had written articles for a website that is hosted in Russia...Strategic Culture Foundation. The FBI warned the journalist that they were potentially in breach of sanctions and that for each offence they would be liable for a fine of around $300,000. All of the US resident contributors to the website immediately stopped writing. The mere threat of a fine that large is enough to deter people. Since no charges were laid the FBI did not even have to prove that the website was indeed run by the SVR (Russian overseas intelligence).
Here is a link to the website, but you should know that every time I try to click on it I get a message about access denied. https://www.strategic-culture.org/
It is a pretty good website...plenty of interesting articles, including those by an ex-MI6 man by the name of Alastair Crooke.
As I see it we are well beyond the tip of the iceberg. The "incipient" stage is behind us, this transition is "in progress". What matters now is what British people do next: accept/support it or protest? When I recently saw a photo of a huge crowd of Scottish football fans waving an ocean of Ukrainian flags instead of those of their team, I was really scared.
strategic-culture works for me. Which article do you want to look at?
The success of the propaganda is amazing, but this may well pass once winter arrives. What worries me is the passivity of those who should know better, the lack of pushback. The apparent disappearance of any tendency for people to say what they think, ask awkward questions and their reluctance to do anything to help those who do. It is more than just politics, at a personal level I feel increasingly unsupported/alienated by the wider culture and, being in my mid50s am too old to just run off and start afresh in whatever corner of the world is still congenial/safe. The conformism is threatening and chilling.
Thanks for offering, but there is no need to look up anything for me...I can always use the library. I suspect some malicious interference as I was in touch with the website and suggested to them to do an infographic on US bonds (they took up my suggestion, which was very gratifying). Since you like Caitlin's stuff try Strategic Culture. Plenty of interesting material and a range of views.
I did a podcast episode on "Century of the Self", my favorite of Adam Curtis' docos. I wanted to do it because I think that PR*, as a practical tool, is the 20 c.'s most awesome innovation.
* aka: advertising, propaganda, consent manufacture, managing mainstream ideology, social control by controlling what people know.
Adam Curtis is extraordinary. His work is essential and very thought-provoking indeed. He deserves the widest possible dissemination.
Years ago a British journalist Alistair Cook ('Letters from America') once said that the one thing he was most grateful for was that Hitler had not emerged in the era of television. Had he done so, he would have taken over the world.
People are scared of losing friends, clients, jobs, reputation -- of being socially ostracized. I am scared too. I have been since I learned of PRISM from the Snowden cache all those years ago.
The only way out that I see is if someone who is already very popular risks it all on leading the people in a different direction. There are lots of ways to marginalize such people so it has to be somebody already trusted by huge numbers if they are going to call out most of the political/media aristocracy as petty tyrants.
Philip, I just noticed. I read your problem with strategic culture.org. I get it a lot and find it informative. I don’t know why you can’t get it. I messed up an email using ..com instead of .com. It drove me nuts until I noticed it. Are you doing something weird like that?
Anne, no, I am using the right address. There is definitely something odd going on. I need a computer guy to come in and look at things anyway. Thanks for thinking of me.
Just a bit more you might find interesting. Using DuckDuckGo, I got Putin’s and Xi’s talks re win-win negotiations as compared to globalist one world gov. and all us useless eaters, although they, of course, weren’t so crass. Also the St. Petersburg Economist Forum earlier this year - Putin’s talk re Russian economy is revealing. Biden and buddies sanction have certainly backfired. Putin just changed trading partners. ( I try not to use google anymore - they’re too nosy. ) Enjoy. ( just noticed- it was the recent Davos Conf. I was referring to - their talks there. )
Putin's speeches are certainly eye-openers. It is instructive that they are not covered in the West. A few years ago (I think that it was at Valdai) he offered to open up the Russian archives on the secret diplomacy of the 30s to set the historic record straight, but only on the condition that the West do the same. No one even acknowledged the offer.
The Russian-Chinese thinking on win/win diplomacy is a step in the right direction and I hope that it succeeds. It is certainly more mature than just issuing ultimata. There is plenty to criticise in both Russia and China, but they are both making progress and doing some good. IMO we need to be fair and honest about it all...am tired of the moral hysterias and absolutism of Right and Left alike in foreign policy as in everything else.
At the moment Washington is trying to ease out Xi. Pelosi's visit was an attempt to create the right optics for Xi's rivals within the CCP to face the following dilemma.
If China seeks to forcibly reincorporate Taiwan they will need the military. The CCP leadership is scared of the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) and seeks to constrain it. The build-up or modernisation of Chinese military force needs to be managed very carefully so as not to empower the leadership of the PLA to the point where they might challenge the party. From the perspective of Beijing, there is no point in gaining Taiwan at the expense of losing control at home.
The collective leadership of the CCP is divided into factions. Some of these would be prepared to do a deal with Washington if they could: oust Xi and work with (to a degree for) Uncle Sam. To make that deal happen, Washington will need to make concessions to the Chinese elite. These concessions, should they occur, will be camouflaged somehow. Do not forget that the Chinese elite have a lot of money invested in the West. Plenty of CCP senior cadre are exposed to the US financial and real-estate market. Beijing is the second largest investor in US treasury bonds, so is very vulnerable to US financial pressure. The sanctions against Russia prove that the US is prepared to do anything to get its way. Should the US suspend the repayment of interest to China on its treasury bills, the implications for China would be catastrophic and could well bring down the CCP itself.
Taipei understands that it is merely a card to be played. The Taiwanese gov't (or elements within it) will do a deal, if they can, with Beijing and Washington simultaneously. The optimum deal for Washington and Taipei is some kind of re-unification under the auspices of a compliant faction of the CCP with Xi removed. The wild cards are the Chinese counter-intelligence, the PLA and the ordinary Chinese people. The sabre rattling by the Pentagon and Pelosi's visit are just part of a wider, more complex, situation that could well see Washington and Beijing get a lot closer - the geopolitical equivalent of sex following an argument.
Alternately, I am full of shit and Uncle Sam is just crazy.
I've learned to appreciate statements like "Alternately, I am full of shit and Uncle Sam is just crazy." I take it as a mark of an intelligent speaker.
I don't know if you're right. I don't know if you're wrong, either. I know little about the internal politics of the CPC, but it would be most unnatural for the Chinese government NOT to have factions. Of course they do.
In any case, if China wants to bring the US to its needs, all it has to do is to embargo trade with it. Our economy would collapse in a matter of weeks. China would be hurt, badly, but they'd survive because they manufacture things there.
I have no idea if I am right or wring either, believe me. We are not getting reliable information from the media and so are forced to speculate.
Good point re trade. I think that the Chinese elite are too heavily invested in the US to want to bring things down...too many senior people would lose money. If I understand things correctly, Beijing now requires CCP officials and family to repatriate financial assets. How successful this will be remains to be seen.
All things being equal, China probably prefers to help manage Washington's decline rather than force a showdown.
Just as in Ancient Rome the powerful are oblivious to the erosion of their foundation by the very policies they themselves enacted while they continued to enjoy a privileged , comfortable a seemingly safe life. The only difference is it took hundreds of years for Rome while our fall it seems will only take a fraction of that time.
Awesome stuff - I may even need a few top-level comments to address some points :)
Re: provocation/response routine - that's the classic the empire uses. What helps them is they have total initiative and so can anticipate different scenarios:
- the action is planned and executed such that it is completely under the radar, or as much as possible. Certainly the media is kept out of it altogether.
- everything is ready for the response from the target. As soon as one is triggered a corresponding scenario kicks in presenting the situation as if it originated from the target.
OK, with the above spoiler it should be easy to answer the following question: what was the cause of the Cuban missile crisis?
dude what is your infatuation with the cuban missile crisis? just let us know what really happened and how its relevant today and cut out the other blather
Holy shit! I was under the impression that the US Empire (Biden/Blinken) has failed to drag India into the Russian sanctions and Ukraine proxy war, so WTF is this?
Twitter avatar for @WilliamYang120
William Yang
@WilliamYang120
The United States is to take part in a joint military exercise with India less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the South Asian country's disputed border with #China.
The US reps are scouting the world right now like crazy looking for embers to pour some gasoline on. Their puppies are jumping out of their pants too: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4618661
One can only laugh. Lithuania teams up with Taiwan to contain Russia. Presumably Fiji or Nauru are otherwise engaged. The Polish novelist Witkiewicz once wrote a novel set in the future in which the Chinese had conquered Russia...maybe it is time for a cinematic adaptation? I am sure there would be US and EU people willing to finance it.
On a serious note, it is disgusting. If the Lithuanian gov't gave a damn about their own people they would prioritise better relations with Russia. The trouble is that many of the politicians in the Baltic are naturalised migrants from the West (grandchildren of refugees who fled in the 40s) or simply locals recruited as assets by Western intelligence. Quislings.
That is mostly all they need, plus the possibility of a gig at Mckinsey's or a scholarship for the kids to get into an American college. The US can buy its political whores like a GI offering nylons or cigarettes.
The response about China/Russia not being forced to respond reminds me of riding in the car as a kid back in pre-internet times. The back seat had a "dividing line" between my sister and me. She would repeatedly "accidentally" push stuff onto my side. When I would react she would yell to my parents about my reaction just as disingenuously as these people saying China and Russia don't "have" to respond.
done with your posts. we can lament how corrupt america has become under the infiltration of global bankers, but to pretend china in the same situation wouldn't be far far worse is insulting to my intelligence. we still have the pretense of a democratic republic to soften the edges, not to mention law and courts as a possible way to wrestle back power. under an authoritarian dictatorship, we have no such delusions as we have clearly seen in their zero covid policy. you are really starting to sound like a ccp mouthpiece. you've had enough of my attention. do better.
Completely agree with how hopeless the Chinese are at propaganda. It’s almost endearing. I don’t think Confucius said much to promote lying at the expense of your fellow man. This now is second nature in the US with a huge segment of their population who have been lied to now from cradle to grave. I think wholesale lying was jumpstarted by Bernays who had much influence with the American Armed forces, not to mention his seminal role in advertising.
"I think wholesale lying was jumpstarted by Bernays who had much influence with the American Armed forces, not to mention his seminal role in advertising."
I used to think that as well despite "my" rock-solid BELIEVE that there was something else....
Bernays was equally just a patsy or let's call it puppet in a MUCH GRANDER SCHEME.
Like a clever - cunning - devious... coach is never going to reveal his real motivations for using one player or the other - in on position or the other. And this would even imply that the coach is aware of the SOURCE AND ESPECIALLY THE PURPOSE of his INSIGHT.
But he is not, I believe, the same way as a musician is not aware of every single note while performing, not rehearsing. The performance comes from a place that is "hidden" from/to THE HUMAN MIND. As THE HUMAN MIND is just a tool to THE SOURCE OF ALL EXISTENCE learning to perform music out of THE VOID - to THE HUMAN MIND - in SPACE AND TIME.
Coming back to the original topic of Bernays this means that he was performing something that had to be performed, instigated by WORLDLY incentives, urges and pressures of THE HUMAN MIND, by someone. Bernays was the one that ended up doing it. If it hadn't been him it had been someone else.
And even assuming, like I do, that there are even more "powerful" worldly interests at "service" in worldly matters to THE VOID, doesn't take away the fact, as I believe, that the influence of the worldly interests are equally limited (on all sides) by the boundary of THE HUMAN MIND not having access to the realm beyond SPACE AND TIME.
LET'S CALL THE LATTER THE BIG GAME - GOD IS PLAYING - HAVING CREATED ALL OF SPACE AND TIME INCLUDING ALL EXISTENCES AND THEIR PHENOMENA.
IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK, IF IT WALKS LIKE A DUCK AND IF IT QUACKS LIKE A DUCK IT IS, WITH THE BEST CERTAINTY AVAILABLE TO THE HUMAN MIND, A DUCK!
Bernays had only one small part in propagandizing the US. He had no say in the longstanding tradition of school children quoting the constitution and saluting the American flag every morning. There is rarely a "seminal role" in anything: the powerful, first families, wealthy, intelligentsia.etc., decide for everyone else. Then they get you to think it was your idea and you must perpetuate it by the vote every once in a while.
I was simply replying to the first commenter, him/her talking about Bernays. Next time it will be better to check out the context of a certain exchange. CONTEXT MATTERS VERY MUCH! Even though THE HUMAN MIND likes it rather linear based on its "own" logic.
Apart from such (unimportant) fact I know it is easy BUT ALSO very revealing about someone's regurgitation of old grievances, being indoctrinated into him/her by some other hack, about powerful, wealthy, intelligentsia people all being stupid, malicious and about "their" blindness about the excellence, intelligence (not to confuse with intellect) and superiority of the "everyone else".
ALL IN ALL A VERY LAZY, SUPERFICIAL AND MENDACIOUS PLOT to say the least!
Covid and war-mongering directed at US "enemies" are the same thing: a drive to cull the herd for the benefit of elites.
That's exactly right, that is their intention. They are indeed culling humanity for their own benefit. You'd have to be very naive to think otherwise.
I'd put it differently myself. IMHO covid appears to have been a convenient opportunity for governments to road-test the new techniques of control in preparation for the roll-out of the next iteration of surveillance-capitalism and, also, for key industries to make some plunder. There is never a bad time for those at the top to show us who is boss and to make a profit doing so. War is just business as usual (shoring up the petrodollar and applying a strategy of tension across the planet). Culling the herd is being done slowly, by deaths of despair, socially managed neglect and the disruption of sub-elite fertility (either by encouraging ever increasing delays for first pregnancies or discouraging reproduction altogether).
that "covid stuff" shes ignoring...https://healthimpactnews.com/2022/76789-deaths-6089773-injuries-reported-in-u-s-and-european-databases-following-covid-19-vaccines/
Caitlin is free to write about whatever she likes and obviously US politics is her wheelhouse. And I think we can all agree that she does a great job. It struck me as a little odd that she never tackled Covid, not even one time. Not in any serious full length way anyways. I think it’s a bit disingenuous to come out now and say she was guided by insight - that all along it was the more pressing issue. It just isn’t like that. But in her defence, Caitlin has limited resources and time and her gravitating to a particular area of expertise is fair. But don’t go telling us it’s because of your powers of insight. That’s bullshit. Just say it’s a time thing, an expertise thing. I would not like to see Caitlin’s reporting on the US be any way compromised and that would almost certainly be the case if she had decided to start focusing on the Covid scam.
I'm certainly not claiming it took great "powers of insight" to see the escalations against Russia and China looming on the horizon; hell the Pentagon basically told us they were coming in 2018. It did however take a lot of myopia to NOT see them, and to demand that anti-imperialist commentators not focus on them. It is after all the single most urgent issue in the world. It's not some lucky coincidence that I have been vindicated in focusing on the single most urgent issue in the world, that's just normal and obvious.
No, you’d need to be a blind fool not to see that a nuke duke-out is the greatest existential threat to humanity and our nonhuman brothers and sisters. I guess the question on everybody’s lips is why you pay no heed to the biggest story in the world currently? Namely Covid. I hazard that some people think you harbour sympathetic views with the establishment and hence your silence. Many people online have an obsession with fault finding. I personally have no dog in this race. I’m completely happy with Caitlin doing what she does best. Besides there are so many outstanding Covid Substacks already. el gato malo anyone?
Covid is not the biggest story in the world currently.
And as I've said on another thread to another poster, you are not her keeper! You're not her boss. She doesn't have to do what you want her to do!
Her unwillingness to address the subject you want her to address in the way you want her to address it does not make her an establishment stooge! Maybe it makes her a person with a different opinion.
She doesn't have to write about Covid if she doesn't want to write about Covid! it's not up to you or I, it's up to her. If you don't like it you know what to do.
There are plenty of places to go where you can read about Covid.
Covid certainly is not the "approved" biggest story by legacy and social media. Russia and Ukrain, Nuclear War, Trump are just more of the distractions needed, whether orchestrated or convenient, redirect people from the biggest story. Technically you may be correct. However, the truth is coming out about Covid and the mischief makers are going to need bigger distractions.
I can't trust the thinking or intentions of those so informed as if to make Covid the proverbial elephant in the room. Maybe just convenient, but plandemics seem a useful tool for population control. I suppose nukes could do a better job too if everyone wasn't so damn afraid of the damn things. What does Covid and Nukes have in common? Ans. Fear. And the effective use of fear controls.
"Covid certainly is not the "approved" biggest story by legacy and social media." Perhaps I should have added - as well not approved by Caitlin either? Interesting when you think about it. Seems to be a kind of connection to those she rails about. Misdirection or ignoring the elephant in the room, that is the millions murdered, millions suffering from the effects of poisonous vaccines, hyper accelerated destruction of a world economy, putting people into poverty, bankruptcy, hyper acceleration to alienating and dividing people, to helping the WEF and other mischief makers make longer strides into their mischief of greed, power and control. Hardly worth raising and eyebrow to a story if you support or are connected to the organization of the plandemic. Wait a minute, maybe its the Russo-Ukrainian War. No only really just another created or convenient distraction at the expense of somewhere around 20k military and civilian casualties (people that is).
I just lose trust for anyone telling me what elephant I can't or can see or feel particularly when the elephant seems to be sitting on me.
Shut up John. I’m not talking to you.
It's absolutely the biggest story. According to Drs. Robert Malone, Peter McCullough, Michael Yeadon, Pierre Corrie, Robert Zelenko (recently diseased) and.... they believe, this plandemic using murderous medical protocols has murdered over 250,000 to 500,000 people. Likewise Insurance companies are claiming death payouts at 40% more (3 times higher than cataclysmic events usually at 10%) since the "pandemic" was orchestrated. The idea of the EUA gene therapy jab (not a vaccine unless you believe in the definitions of Humpty Dumpty) for the plandemic is simply to gain further power and control over people by people who want to legalize just because; who want to utilize medical cards that grant permissions to be free. This is a global attempt, by people who believe, "You'll own nothing and be happy about it."
Caitlin's lack of interest in this particular event bothers me also. Governments that commit crime and deny it are not your friends (Judge Napolitano). Yet Caitlin seems enamored with China as a more upstanding criminal?! Really?! Now if she were sayin' it's time to dissolve all world governments as they, the usual suspect operate, she'd have more of my trust. Then again the more trust I give, the more accountable I want to audit you. That's why the plandemic hurt so many, because too many put their faith in trust betrayed. "Expert textpert choking smokers don't don't you think the joker laughs at you. Ho Ho Ho Ha HA HA Hee HEE HEE." Of course too many expert texpert good doctors were lied to too. Ask Dr. Peter McCullough.
In my opinion anyone that would want to subjugate your self-evident rights and inherent liberty, as endowed by some unknown Creator, to that of another (or group), of the same flesh and blood, may not really be your friend.
"I guess the question on everybody’s lips is ..." - not on everybody's. I couldn't care less.
There must be some 100% dedicated-to-covid forum out there where rich is droning about the war topic. His ideal is to find a commentator that is 100% dedicated to one and 100% to the other. At the same time. Totaling 200%.
rich is that particular.
We are all up to something, which NONE of the multitude of existences has or can ever know, believe on my part as one of the "multitude", what this "something" is.
THE SOURCE "behind" it ALL is THE ONLY ONE to consult. As it is this SOURCE that makes ALL "SPACE AND TIME" behave the way IT "wants". By whichever means, to whatever purpose and on whatever pathways IT "chooses".
Despite the fact that it defies THE HUMAN MIND'S experience of THE SPECTACLE, which in itself is part of THE SPECTACLE. The only exit from its madness is THE HUMAN MIND'S complete acceptance of its servitude to THE SOURCE without "name".
she cant find the "time" to address this? then has the nerve to say that "covid stuff"... she writes about propaganda every day but never mentions the never ending Covid propaganda...come on man...https://healthimpactnews.com/2022/76789-deaths-6089773-injuries-reported-in-u-s-and-european-databases-following-covid-19-vaccines/
Fair point. The Covid scam has been a most overt demonstration of propaganda. It’s only fair to note Caitlin’s lack of attention as conspicuous. But again I think this can be explained through simple logistics.
She doesn't have to write about Covid if she doesn't want to write about Covid.
Yes, she doesn't have to - it's her choice. However, Australian's freedoms have been devastated due to all the covidiots running the show. And there's so much corruption behind all that...perhaps it's for someone else to take up that mantle.
BTW, it got so bad, truthers like Max Igan FLED the country b/c he knew what was going down under.
LYING is the root cause of all evil - it starts with oneself and in a blink of an eye it spreads around like a wildfire. Once one starts to call it biases etc. one has crossed the red line.
THE HUMAN MIND cannot help BUT to make excuses - LIES! in order to justify the unjustifiable!
Same. My whole life I’ve been left leaning on every issue. I was shocked to find out I’m now right wing! I wish I had got the memo.
Here's my take on why she "avoids" Covid:
1. It doesn't interest her.
2. She has a different opinion.
Either way, it's her call not yours.
Rich, she doesn't want to write about it. That's her prerogative.
well then she needs to reassess her "prerogatives".... https://healthimpactnews.com/2022/76789-deaths-6089773-injuries-reported-in-u-s-and-european-databases-following-covid-19-vaccines/
Agreed - It's as if all of the Wars/Pandemics/Economic Collapses are really a Ruling Class answer to Climate Change. The Carbon Footprint of Monarchs/Oligarch's & Emir's is immense & they certainly won't shut down their castles/yachts or private air fields to abate our coming climate catastrophe.
To understand climate and the climate change panic, you must be aware of the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM); Milankovitch cycles; sunspots, the Maunder minimum and the coming grand solar minimum; and the unreliability of modeling. PETM was a time of immense biodiversity, but global temperatures were about 15 degrees Fahrenheit higher than today, yet there was no "runaway greenhouse" effect that turned the Earth into Venus.
From the perspective of the oligarchy crises of any sort are a challenge best resolved by transferring the costs to others, an opportunity to misdirect popular energy away from political opposition and an excuse to perfect their system of control.
In journalism, it’s called “working a beat.” Hers is U.S. empire. Nobody does it quite like Caitlin Johnstone, and I’m grateful for her relentless focus. Meanwhile there is some excellent coverage of Covid, that will be forensically helpful for widespread, take-no-prisoners litigation. The two subjects certainly are connected, I theorize.
And regarding the PRC: I grew up in a community (in Texas) driven entirely by a major engineering university. There were thousands of Chinese grad students, etc., et al. The distinctions mattered more in that town of whether one was a physics, or math, or engineering major. Race based, and politics based, judgments were and are viewed as very low brow in that setting. Merit-based. Hard sciences. Calculus or die. Beyond that, nobody cared. Liberal arts students kept their heads down. Growing up, and afterwards, I considered the Chinese to be patriotic, hardworking, helpful, affable but no-nonsense types, and the women often so beautiful. China didn’t appear out of the blue in just the last generation. I have a hard time with the recent hard sell of hatred for those people.
Yes they have, by the designs of D.C. globalists, increasingly outshined competitors. At the invite of western governments, they have done so. It would be harder to find a more dependable ally, though I can make a good argument for Russia too, and for that matter, any nation of humans willing to peaceably collaborate. And now those legacy factions in D.C. (foreign special interests, the federal reserve, the Vichy Congress, etc.) want to throw the blame and make war over their own doing? This reminds me of when mom beat me at the Candy Land board game when I was three years old, and I tumped over the board.
Impeach D.C. The whole swamp. Scuttle the federal reserve, full default. Bring the military back, all of them. And then rebuild. It’s the only logical way out. ~C.G.
With all this nonsense re what Caitlin should be doing or not doing, you actually make sense. Caitlin should be doing what she wants to do, and the rest of us should be following suit. What happened to critical thinking? We’re responsible for ourselves, and our thoughts should be open to review. That’s why Caitlin is so valuable.
So long as Washington could treat China as an East Asian Guatemala, they were happy. China's development, especially its investment in its own people, is a rebuke to Washington's policy of deindustrialisation and the rationing of educational opportunity by class. Chinese meritocracy puts US crony capitalism in perspective.
Bitching about the current Empire completely ignores what happens when the alternative doesn’t turn out better but becomes much much worse? I don’t hear any suggestions about how to make it better. Voting is worthless since even Putin knows the bureaucrats are running the insane asylum. Unless voters become much smarter or concerned very soon all the complaining in the world won’t make a dam bit of difference, unless we embrace truckers, farmers and other protesters willing to push back.
Part of the problem is that we all buy in whatever the "enemedia" feeds us, which comes filtered down through intelligence, political parties, public relation people, etc. All you need to know is when you look deeper into figures like Alex Jones and his polar opposite (?) Anderson Cooper; i.e. who they really work with/for. All that stuff brainwashes us to go along with their agendas, thinking this is "reality" (which it's not).
In terms of solutions, these political systems are beyond repair; and reinstalling people in them would only make you wonder where their true allegiances lie (because you'd never really know, would you?) Politics is the tacit agreement between people/parties that they will act only in their own best interests and the worst interests of humanity.
We have to starve the beast system somehow, each and every one of us. Not participate, walk away from it because it lives off of us, our attention, our energy, our blood, sweat and tears. We must find a new way to live free of all this crap.
Well said. One of my biggest concern is the complexity of the modern global society has created a fragility unable to cope with even very small disruptions in supply. The smallest reduction in toilet paper, water, food, medicine, labor, etc. all telegraphed 24/7/365 to a fearful and obedient population conditioned to obey will result in the collapse of order that will justify the domination so desperately desired by the self appointed all knowing elite. We are now totally dependent on two things, electricity and digital currency. Money in the form of paper, silver or gold has been replaced with an electronic representation which governments have the ability to erase in the blink of an eye. The Amish and third world subsistence societies have the best shot at survivals. What astonishes me most is the elite thinking they can control and avoid the terror they intend to release. The disruption of electricity is key. Increase the dependence on electricity while constricting the supply. The “Use less and pay more” scheme applied to water and energy too.
I wonder what any other country would be like in the same dominate position as the US. The issue is that power and wealth corrupt. I disagree that China is better than. When humans raise their level of consciousness they will create better governments. When patriarchy gives way to balance between our masculine and feminine sides we will create better governments. You write only of the evils of the US in a comparison?
I agree. A multi-polar world would not necessarily be much better than what we have now. Any re-distribution of power amongst mafia clans at the top of the heap will not result in improved conditions for ordinary people anywhere. At the moment the US gov't is the preferred military/political asset of multinational firms and global financial markets. But plutocrats everywhere will co-operate for their mutual advantage and there are plenty of governments that would take up the slack left over from any decline in Washington's power. China's elite are more cautious than the American one, but they are essentially amoral too.
Since, as you write, we do not know who is calling the shots, it may be they are using the US and are not a part of it.
The US government is not America...it is simply a bundle of institutions that will work for whoever is most powerful. The famous lines of Ned Beatty in NETWORK (1976) sums it up:
"There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU... WILL... ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuBe93FMiJc
It's amazing how Paddy Chayefsky got away with writing this film and getting it produced. He was one of the few Hollywood truth tellers. So much truth in it then and so relevant now. One of the greatest films of all time! Thanks for posting this.
I agree; I'm glad I don't live in China either. Caitlin, I don't know what you mean by "China is better than the U.S." In what, exactly? Human rights? I mean have you ever seen those tik tok videos of how they're treated/rounded up like cattle re: the covid scam? Their lockdowns? No thanks. Why do you think there's such control of what goes out into the world from China?
I won the lottery by being born in America. It's not a perfect country either. Sure, most of the things Caitlin points out about the U.S. empire are spot on, and as long as there are central banks, a government is going to be controlled by it, bottom line.
She has been very clear on that. US imperialism and warmongering are a far greater threat to the planet than anything China is doing. That's it. She's not saying China is better than the US in every particular. That would be stupid. I'm rather fond of the American Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, myself.
Caitlin, sorry to take things off topic, but I'd like to broadcast the injustice being done to British journalist Graham Phillips who is being criminalised by the UK government for his work exposing what is going on in the Donbass. Graham has been defamed and formally sanctioned by Westminster without any due process, the first case of a UK citizen being subject to the kind of social credit that will be imposed on us all. This is serious and a threat to everyone in the West who wants to think for themselves or speak according to their conscience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Blzn-ncfQ8
And what about Julian Assange? Maybe I don’t know the whole story, but did he do anything more than take photos the US gov. couldn’t tolerate? Like military guys shooting unarmed civilians? Am I full of propaganda?
Idk, Anne, to all 4 qs. It's not hard to read up on the Assange case. I am sympathetic to the accounts given by Craig Murray, Chris Hedges, Taibbi, and Greenwand. They are easy to find but you should compare them against other accounts and make up your own mind.
Thanks Tom. I will.
Julian is a publisher.
He has not hacked anything and nor has taken photos of anything.
The US was deeply embarrassed by the Iraq revelations.
Assange's real crime was most likely publishing emails that showed Obama receiving advice from Citibank (I think) on who to appoint to his first Cabinet. This alone is way more serious than just exposing war crimes, believe me. If memory serves he also published stuff related to Seth Rich.
IMO Assange was probably caught up in the politics within the intel community itself in some way. He was first arrested for hacking as a teenager and it is most likely he was recruited by the Australian gov't at that time and was working for the Five Eyes in one capacity or another for a while afterwards before going rogue as it were. They need to make an example of him to deter other insiders.
Assange is being punished for embarrassing the state. It's easy to get stuck in arguments over proximal causes but it's also easy to summarize.
This is a remarkable milestone in our current political transition. Journos are too scared to defend themselves and their profession by defending Assange so it's unsurprising that the UK parliament and government take this monumental step. It's shocking and horrify, if, sadly, predictable.
Thanks for sharing.
It is the tip of the iceberg. A while ago the FBI showed up at the doors of US citizens who had written articles for a website that is hosted in Russia...Strategic Culture Foundation. The FBI warned the journalist that they were potentially in breach of sanctions and that for each offence they would be liable for a fine of around $300,000. All of the US resident contributors to the website immediately stopped writing. The mere threat of a fine that large is enough to deter people. Since no charges were laid the FBI did not even have to prove that the website was indeed run by the SVR (Russian overseas intelligence).
Here is a link to the website, but you should know that every time I try to click on it I get a message about access denied. https://www.strategic-culture.org/
It is a pretty good website...plenty of interesting articles, including those by an ex-MI6 man by the name of Alastair Crooke.
As I see it we are well beyond the tip of the iceberg. The "incipient" stage is behind us, this transition is "in progress". What matters now is what British people do next: accept/support it or protest? When I recently saw a photo of a huge crowd of Scottish football fans waving an ocean of Ukrainian flags instead of those of their team, I was really scared.
strategic-culture works for me. Which article do you want to look at?
The success of the propaganda is amazing, but this may well pass once winter arrives. What worries me is the passivity of those who should know better, the lack of pushback. The apparent disappearance of any tendency for people to say what they think, ask awkward questions and their reluctance to do anything to help those who do. It is more than just politics, at a personal level I feel increasingly unsupported/alienated by the wider culture and, being in my mid50s am too old to just run off and start afresh in whatever corner of the world is still congenial/safe. The conformism is threatening and chilling.
Thanks for offering, but there is no need to look up anything for me...I can always use the library. I suspect some malicious interference as I was in touch with the website and suggested to them to do an infographic on US bonds (they took up my suggestion, which was very gratifying). Since you like Caitlin's stuff try Strategic Culture. Plenty of interesting material and a range of views.
I did a podcast episode on "Century of the Self", my favorite of Adam Curtis' docos. I wanted to do it because I think that PR*, as a practical tool, is the 20 c.'s most awesome innovation.
* aka: advertising, propaganda, consent manufacture, managing mainstream ideology, social control by controlling what people know.
Adam Curtis is extraordinary. His work is essential and very thought-provoking indeed. He deserves the widest possible dissemination.
Years ago a British journalist Alistair Cook ('Letters from America') once said that the one thing he was most grateful for was that Hitler had not emerged in the era of television. Had he done so, he would have taken over the world.
People are scared of losing friends, clients, jobs, reputation -- of being socially ostracized. I am scared too. I have been since I learned of PRISM from the Snowden cache all those years ago.
The only way out that I see is if someone who is already very popular risks it all on leading the people in a different direction. There are lots of ways to marginalize such people so it has to be somebody already trusted by huge numbers if they are going to call out most of the political/media aristocracy as petty tyrants.
Philip, I just noticed. I read your problem with strategic culture.org. I get it a lot and find it informative. I don’t know why you can’t get it. I messed up an email using ..com instead of .com. It drove me nuts until I noticed it. Are you doing something weird like that?
Anne, no, I am using the right address. There is definitely something odd going on. I need a computer guy to come in and look at things anyway. Thanks for thinking of me.
Just a bit more you might find interesting. Using DuckDuckGo, I got Putin’s and Xi’s talks re win-win negotiations as compared to globalist one world gov. and all us useless eaters, although they, of course, weren’t so crass. Also the St. Petersburg Economist Forum earlier this year - Putin’s talk re Russian economy is revealing. Biden and buddies sanction have certainly backfired. Putin just changed trading partners. ( I try not to use google anymore - they’re too nosy. ) Enjoy. ( just noticed- it was the recent Davos Conf. I was referring to - their talks there. )
Putin's speeches are certainly eye-openers. It is instructive that they are not covered in the West. A few years ago (I think that it was at Valdai) he offered to open up the Russian archives on the secret diplomacy of the 30s to set the historic record straight, but only on the condition that the West do the same. No one even acknowledged the offer.
The Russian-Chinese thinking on win/win diplomacy is a step in the right direction and I hope that it succeeds. It is certainly more mature than just issuing ultimata. There is plenty to criticise in both Russia and China, but they are both making progress and doing some good. IMO we need to be fair and honest about it all...am tired of the moral hysterias and absolutism of Right and Left alike in foreign policy as in everything else.
Liberal democracy is the theology of capitalism.
At the moment Washington is trying to ease out Xi. Pelosi's visit was an attempt to create the right optics for Xi's rivals within the CCP to face the following dilemma.
If China seeks to forcibly reincorporate Taiwan they will need the military. The CCP leadership is scared of the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) and seeks to constrain it. The build-up or modernisation of Chinese military force needs to be managed very carefully so as not to empower the leadership of the PLA to the point where they might challenge the party. From the perspective of Beijing, there is no point in gaining Taiwan at the expense of losing control at home.
The collective leadership of the CCP is divided into factions. Some of these would be prepared to do a deal with Washington if they could: oust Xi and work with (to a degree for) Uncle Sam. To make that deal happen, Washington will need to make concessions to the Chinese elite. These concessions, should they occur, will be camouflaged somehow. Do not forget that the Chinese elite have a lot of money invested in the West. Plenty of CCP senior cadre are exposed to the US financial and real-estate market. Beijing is the second largest investor in US treasury bonds, so is very vulnerable to US financial pressure. The sanctions against Russia prove that the US is prepared to do anything to get its way. Should the US suspend the repayment of interest to China on its treasury bills, the implications for China would be catastrophic and could well bring down the CCP itself.
Taipei understands that it is merely a card to be played. The Taiwanese gov't (or elements within it) will do a deal, if they can, with Beijing and Washington simultaneously. The optimum deal for Washington and Taipei is some kind of re-unification under the auspices of a compliant faction of the CCP with Xi removed. The wild cards are the Chinese counter-intelligence, the PLA and the ordinary Chinese people. The sabre rattling by the Pentagon and Pelosi's visit are just part of a wider, more complex, situation that could well see Washington and Beijing get a lot closer - the geopolitical equivalent of sex following an argument.
Alternately, I am full of shit and Uncle Sam is just crazy.
I've learned to appreciate statements like "Alternately, I am full of shit and Uncle Sam is just crazy." I take it as a mark of an intelligent speaker.
Thanks. I am flattered. Getting it wrong some of the time is the price to be paid for getting it right even once.
I don't know if you're right. I don't know if you're wrong, either. I know little about the internal politics of the CPC, but it would be most unnatural for the Chinese government NOT to have factions. Of course they do.
In any case, if China wants to bring the US to its needs, all it has to do is to embargo trade with it. Our economy would collapse in a matter of weeks. China would be hurt, badly, but they'd survive because they manufacture things there.
I have no idea if I am right or wring either, believe me. We are not getting reliable information from the media and so are forced to speculate.
Good point re trade. I think that the Chinese elite are too heavily invested in the US to want to bring things down...too many senior people would lose money. If I understand things correctly, Beijing now requires CCP officials and family to repatriate financial assets. How successful this will be remains to be seen.
All things being equal, China probably prefers to help manage Washington's decline rather than force a showdown.
China is better than the USA. Eastasia is better than Oceania? Well if you are Winston Smith's Julia then you might fervently believe that.
Neither is better or worse than the other. Caitlin forgets the translation problems between cultures.
While China/Russia seen far behind in the propaganda race the only people they are trying to influence are their own.
Just as in Ancient Rome the powerful are oblivious to the erosion of their foundation by the very policies they themselves enacted while they continued to enjoy a privileged , comfortable a seemingly safe life. The only difference is it took hundreds of years for Rome while our fall it seems will only take a fraction of that time.
Awesome stuff - I may even need a few top-level comments to address some points :)
Re: provocation/response routine - that's the classic the empire uses. What helps them is they have total initiative and so can anticipate different scenarios:
- the action is planned and executed such that it is completely under the radar, or as much as possible. Certainly the media is kept out of it altogether.
- everything is ready for the response from the target. As soon as one is triggered a corresponding scenario kicks in presenting the situation as if it originated from the target.
OK, with the above spoiler it should be easy to answer the following question: what was the cause of the Cuban missile crisis?
dude what is your infatuation with the cuban missile crisis? just let us know what really happened and how its relevant today and cut out the other blather
That last needle was meant for your arm and not your asscheek, rich.
I've come to the conclusion you are incapable of making a coherent statement...I am actually starting to feel sorry for you
Took you a while. Stay with that conclusion and no more boosters, remember?
Holy shit! I was under the impression that the US Empire (Biden/Blinken) has failed to drag India into the Russian sanctions and Ukraine proxy war, so WTF is this?
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William Yang
@WilliamYang120
The United States is to take part in a joint military exercise with India less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the South Asian country's disputed border with #China.
The US reps are scouting the world right now like crazy looking for embers to pour some gasoline on. Their puppies are jumping out of their pants too: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4618661
One can only laugh. Lithuania teams up with Taiwan to contain Russia. Presumably Fiji or Nauru are otherwise engaged. The Polish novelist Witkiewicz once wrote a novel set in the future in which the Chinese had conquered Russia...maybe it is time for a cinematic adaptation? I am sure there would be US and EU people willing to finance it.
On a serious note, it is disgusting. If the Lithuanian gov't gave a damn about their own people they would prioritise better relations with Russia. The trouble is that many of the politicians in the Baltic are naturalised migrants from the West (grandchildren of refugees who fled in the 40s) or simply locals recruited as assets by Western intelligence. Quislings.
The Lithuanian leadershio know what will get them a pat on the head from Master, and looking after their own ain't it.
That is mostly all they need, plus the possibility of a gig at Mckinsey's or a scholarship for the kids to get into an American college. The US can buy its political whores like a GI offering nylons or cigarettes.
Very shrewd. Pick an area in which India doesn't agree with China and use that to exacerbate that disagreement.
The response about China/Russia not being forced to respond reminds me of riding in the car as a kid back in pre-internet times. The back seat had a "dividing line" between my sister and me. She would repeatedly "accidentally" push stuff onto my side. When I would react she would yell to my parents about my reaction just as disingenuously as these people saying China and Russia don't "have" to respond.
done with your posts. we can lament how corrupt america has become under the infiltration of global bankers, but to pretend china in the same situation wouldn't be far far worse is insulting to my intelligence. we still have the pretense of a democratic republic to soften the edges, not to mention law and courts as a possible way to wrestle back power. under an authoritarian dictatorship, we have no such delusions as we have clearly seen in their zero covid policy. you are really starting to sound like a ccp mouthpiece. you've had enough of my attention. do better.
This:
Normal person: Seems like a bad idea to continually ramp up tensions between powerful nuclear-armed governments instead of working toward detente.
Crazy person: So what you're saying is you love dictators and want them to kill babies and commit genocide.
The world has entirely too many crazy persons for my good. It's time to preach normality to them and talk them off the ledge of nuclear armageddon.