The Framers of the Constitution were wealthy upper class men. There was no working man at the Constitutional Convention -- couldn't afford the time off, for one thing. Wasn't invited, for another. So these framers, our original oligarchs (it's surprising -- or not -- how many of them married into each others' families) -- had won a bloody war to get the king off their backs. They now proceeded to develop a system of government that guaranteed they kept all power for themselves. Men who didn't own property weren't even allowed to vote.
They spent a lot of time debating on how to keep the "mob" from getting power. The "mob," that would be us. Because the "mob" would govern all wrong, you see. Same as it ever was.
I look back at the classes I had where the textbooks tried so hard to put these Oligarchs in light of common man ha. We lie to each other claiming Democracy ha.
It's not that they were paying UK taxes, it's that the Parliament in Britain kept thinking up new taxes, a whole slough of taxes, and levying them only on the colonies. So they were singled out for egregious taxes that other Englishmen were not paying (the Stamp Act, etc.). Parliament thought the colonies ought to pay off the debt for their own war, i.e., the French and Indian war. But that's like us extracting wealth from Iraq to pay for our invasion, oh, wait, we did.
I stopped buying "physical books" (my preference) mainly because I ran out of space to store them. I currently have over 2K+ non-fiction books in storage (and am trying to get rid of them after replacing them with ebook versions), but it's proving quite hard to sell/etc. - it seems there just isn't enough demand/readers for good-quality physical books anymore these days (everyone is spending too much time on social media and other electronic devices) 😞
The moment I heard him use the word exceptional, the trajectory was clear. It's the global version of the Monroe doctrine forever. That's us, world. Don't like it? Tough shit. Any other manifestations of diplomatic desires toward increased friendliness or cooperation are merely charades, theater, kabuki. It's always empire directed by that mutation-filled American DNA, full speed ahead.
Is American DNA mutation-filled? I think it's possible, because: for centuries, most especially the first ones, people who chose to emigrate from Europe to North America were making a choice ot prioritize the opportunities for personal, economic advancement--much richer in the US if you weren't the first son of a noble--over family ties, friendships, your homeland--because in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, coming here meant you would never see any of them again, might never even get a letter informing them about how their siblings fared, who had died, etc. In the nineteenth century, going back was a possibility--still took a long sea voyage but not such a dangerous one. Many letters could be exchanged. In the twentieth century, going back could be fairly easy and even phone calls were possible. So--if such characteristics as personal ambition and especially strong social ties are embedded in genes, it could be that descendants of the white people who came in the first few centuries are genetically distinct in individualistic tendencies, it could explain some of what America became.
In my view, they came over carrying the mutations of hyper-Christianity in their hubristic Puritan drive to purify everything else. Then (at least epigenetically) heavily mutagenized via the Native genocide and crimes against the biosphere (such as driving bison to the edge of extinction). Then we get to the early imperialist declaration, Monroe doctrine etc. and the exceptionalist rubbish — lasting un-repaired mutations affecting societal psychology to the extent of creating internal colonialism — stealing Native land and the unrelenting, untrammeled drive to Christianize them as superior to their Nature-based spirituality. And of course, enslaving an entire race of people with more melanin for 400 years. After that the unrelenting global imperialism with which we're all familiar If that's not a heavily mutagenized societal genotype, you'll forgive my opinion.
Question is, whether such things are written in the genes, or the product of culture. Also be careful ascribing attributes to a whole people, in this case one that isn't really one people but a collection of people descended from those who came from a wide variety of places, along with more recent immigrants, and five million remaining natives. Also note that the number of times Americans have voted for the wars of the last century is zero. We are never asked what we want except by pollsters--we are allowed to vote only on Tweedledee versus Tweedledumber, and if war and peace, or justice, comes up at all in the campaigns, we may vote for the one who promises peace and then he widens the war. Don't assume US policy is what Americans want--in fact the Page and Gilens study showed that while special interests often get what they want, public opinion has a "negligible, near-zero" impact on policy.
First, societal DNA is a metaphor and mutation in it refers to defects in cultural norms that are deep, ingrained, and inheritable. Then there's epigenetics, for which every new study confirms the potency --- DNA expression can be tuned up or down without frank changes in actual code, impacting factors including environmental toxicity, diet, and yes, even neurohumoral patterns (behaviors).
Recent immigrants? What's your time frame? I'm first gen. My dad got here from Italy at 5 y-o in 1913, mom at 2-y-o in 1915. Pretty recent. And what's the reason voting is feckless in its ability to express the "will of the electorate? Clearly because that mutagenized societal DNA has created such immense economic inequality in its embrace of corporate capitalism and technofeudalism. You can't place separators wherever you like in what is essentially a continuum of a society in the throes of genetic/epigenetic illness (metaphorical if you like, but in my opinion as a biologist, only partly so).
Well, my grandparents were all born here but I think their parents were all born in Ireland, England, Russia or Turkey. Far as I know. Not sure it matters. Much of the reason voting is so useless here has to do with SCOTUS decisions in 1886 (making corporations persons) 1976 and 2010 (removing even weak restraints on campaign financing). I don't believe you can say anything about the mental nature of any ethnic group, or even any gender--but people certainly are influenced by culture. Until you can say that the gene for some trait--selfishness, grandiosity, compassion, homosexuality, artistcness) is the PN201 gene, and Joe has it and Lucinda doesn't, any talk about a genetic basis for a personality trait is purely speculative. My initial post was just a thought bubble on how the extreme individualism of white Americans could have evolved--IF there were actually genes for such things, which we don't know.
I applaud your thinking on several levels, Mary. As I see it, we certainly agree about the effect of corporate personhood. And who can disagree with your statement that "people certainly are influenced by culture". With respect to white Americans and their extreme individualism, I can only agree and sigh in frustration at the cultural encouragement of that posture which derives from popular media, movies TV, product advertising; its roots are quite complex and I doubt I'm competent to expound on them.
But your assessment of human genetics is a bit narrow. Single-gene effects (i.e., gene X for this, gene Y for that) are largely inadequate when discussing personality traits, which are for the most part polygenic. And epigenetics is so important because a factor like environmental toxicity, so prevalent in our milieu, can indeed influence the expression of multiple genes (polygenic) by affecting for example how DNA is packaged in chromosomes. An example would be simultaneous impacts on multiple brain neurotransmitter systems. The scary news in the past 15 yrs is that epigenetic changes have also been shown to be inheritable. None of that is speculation; we have poisoned ourselves. Bottom line: some psychological aberrations may indeed fall into this area of causation. So once again, we face the collaboration of nature and nurture, in this case in a loop of influences upon each other.
Hi gypsy, See also my reply to Mary who makes many good points but would benefit from a better understanding of what envirotox can do to our biology, which this society conveniently ignores, and love him or hate him, RFK is correct about. We might indeed have a twinge of sociopathy in our epigenes. Envirotox --> impacts us epigenetically --> affects brain chemistry --> predisposes the people we accept as our our politicians to "edgy" decisions re: aggression. Naturally this neuropsychology interacts with the cultural backdrop of the exceptionalist settler colonialist culture. To produce madness of US foreign policy etc etc etc. Yes, I speculate a bit, but why not; hypotheses are not misinformation but challenges to open one's thought patterns, which I think might appeal to you because you're a good one at doing that.
Yes and perhaps they did not even want to look back because the truth was painful. It is easier to construct a myth or believe in the myth constructed for you if you loose contact with cousin Sarah whose children died of hunger.
As I suggest later in the comments, myth making is part of the DNA.
The US has always been run by the rich. It is just that in some ages and stages there were some ethics involved. Trump is no worse than any of the mediocrities the corrupt American political system vomits up.
How will I ever explain to my grandkids that in my time, America, a Nation of 300m+ people could only serve⁰ up two way past their prime Octogenarians to run to rule them for next 4 years
America has come full circle. It's always been an oligarchy. People like to pretend that this country was founded by a bunch of humble, salt-of-the-earth types who were seeking freedom and self determination from tyrants. In reality, this country was founded by a bunch of oligarchs who wanted to create their own oligarchy away from the monarchy and created the constitution to protect themselves from each other, not to empower the poors! They did not want democracy. Or give the voiceless a voice. In fact, they hated the idea. Nevermind black people, they did not even want white males who were not land-owners to vote and were disgusted at the idea that the vote of a low peasant would carry the same weight as that of a blue blood like them.
The entire US constitution has been built around that framework - from the electoral college that had to be granted to slave owning states who had so few white people in them that without the EC they could never have won an election (and thus would never have joined the Union) to the fucking Senate where each state, regardless of population, gets two votes, to the Supreme Court whose job it is to uphold minority rule - this country has always been an oligarch's playground. Whatever wins for the average person were achieved were fought for in blood and sweat and sacrifice and under the threat of communist uprisings, all of which have been gradually crushed since the end of the second world war, especially during the 70s and 80s, culminating in now Trump having finally come full circle. He is not an aberration, he is fulfilling this country's founding directive and rationale.
The lie, the illusion if you so will, is people believing the revisionist crap they teach high schoolers who dont know any better about how this country was founded by brave men who wanted to give everyone a voice and create a government by the people, of the people, for the people. When in reality with "people" they meant oligarchs. America has always been more about the fantasy than its reality, which is genocide, slavery, exploitation. war.
Hollywood created and exported the fantasy that is America as a land of opportunity for everyone, which again it only was for a short time because of the Left threat, and not because it is special. With the Left obliterated and especially after the fall of the Soviet union, nothing was holding the capitalists in check anymore. And so now here we are. Trump is the inevitable end game of this nation's 200+ year history. Make no mistake. FDR was the aberration.
The Founding Fathers never intended America to become an empire. The famous words of Benjamin Franklin "It's A Republic, if YOU Can Keep It" and the words from the Declaration of Independence continue to haunt thinking Americans who know real American history and what it took to make a Revolution against the Global Corporate Cartel known as the British and Dutch East India Company Empire.
America has been at war against the British since the Revolution to this day.
As Lord Palmerston said, "We, the British, have no permanent friends, only permanent interests". The British and their Neo-Liberal Lockean, Tory traitor friends in the U.S. revised American history to make it appear that our Constitution was based on British law, the "hereditary principle" of oligarchy which it is not.
The Puritan Americans of New England led by Governor John Winthrop "The City Upon A Hill" document was a warning to Americans to be just and charitable. While the British "divide and conquer" Empire and the French from Canada instigated Native Americans et.al. against Americans to try to crush the Revolution in its cradle lest the American Revolution spread to inspire and create other sovereign Republics.
The British Oligarchs never gave up.
With the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and their Rothschild Bankster fiends they gained control over America's Credit system which now threatens to obliterate our Hamiltonian American System which was based on the National Bank viz. only the US Treasury has the power to emit currency.
The Feds prints moneys and lend it to the empire to wage wars. The empire taxes the slaves, and give the money to the banksters. 40 trillion in the whole now? The only way out is to take away the Feds license to print dollars. Default on loans to the Feds. Put oue leader who ordered that in a protective bunker, arrest the banksters, and confiscate their illgained wealth.
Only the treasury should be allowed to print moneys, but, all moneys must be backed by tangible assets.
Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury, 1791. His Three Reports to the U.S. Congress provided the economic safeguards for a Sovereign Republic against the British Oligarchs Free Trade Cheap Labor slave system.
What the spectacle of the inauguration reminded me of was nobles paying homage to their king. All the billionaires and anyone who's anyone in American power and oligarchy was at that inauguration. Those who weren't marked themselves as being outside the king's protection and as his enemies.
Funny how calmly the democrats sat there and listened to ‘Hitler’s’ speech today and joked with him at Jimmy’s funeral. They spent the last 4 years warning about Hitler’s return to action.
Today Chucky Schumer said that congress should be bipartisan and get on with screwing the working class.
America has always wanted and had a monarch. The revolution was just to change from an English monarch to an American monarch. All the ceremony is of the royal type, the US President today has more power in real terms than the King did in 1776, and the President serves his oligarchs just as the King supported the Nobles after magna carta. Americans even refer to ex-Presidents as “President” so, like royalty, they keep their titles, their advantages, and perquisites forever, just like kings do. (Well, except for those who were beheaded. Now there’s an idea!)
I enjoy crowd watching at these things: Looked like a bunch of Robots to me/mostly dressed in the same clothes/bobbing up and down to clap/same hairstyles etc. Didn't see many black people there either.
I have to say that luckily didn't hear the VOICE too busy reading subtitles and watching the morons. Very weird for me to watch these things..perhaps I was waiting for a bomb!
Today in Chicago, the big racist event begins, terrorizing the Latin communities with mass deportation. We think nothing works in the u.s. and with millions of deportations, the Rich will be going door to door looking for someone to clean their toilets, cook their food, bring their food to them, mow their lawns, pick their fruit and murder their food in large factories. Oh the horror of being rich.
We need to look at the firefighters in LA. Prison population working the front lines. In the future we will lock up many people who will become our fieldworkers, cleaners, meatpackers. They won't need to hire low-wage people, just imprison them.
I of course mean no disrespect to those jobs. The wealthy take advantage of people who can not defend themselves in the labor place like Amazon and Tesla do. I doubt the rich know how to clean a toilet : )
No. They don't actually intend to deport such large numbers. They know they need the underclass to do the scut work at low wages (and the IT work as somewhat higher wages, once the AI thing crashes and burns). The intention is to terrorize the illegals so they won't form unions, won't demand ripped-off wages, won't refuse dangerous or illegal work.
Why the 12 million criminals then? I didn't understand that number until, of course being here without proper documents is a crime. So they are talking about 12 million deportations. Our lab has asked anyone who is here origin another country to carry their passports and visas when not at home. They are coming for people in large numbers.
Most of the black people are in jail or wearing nose rings? The few that walks straight and talk straight are there. The best supreme court justice is a black guy. We elected a black Muslim twice, and you are still counting how many blacks are there? Why not count how many Js?
For the propaganda addled brains of Americans, the Constitution and " The Founding Fathers" were sacred. "Of the people, by the people, for the people" was always clever propaganda. The reality that it was of white men of property; written by white men of property; for white men of property - and that property included slaves - was beyond questioning.
Now as Caitlin has pointed out, It is " The empire unmasked ". The Trump era has done away with all the pretence. No need of sugar coating. He wants Syria and Venezuela for the oil and he says it. Why bother to cover up the naked intentions of empire. Specially when they are so bloated with their self importance. Trump the man is brash enough, crude enough not to have any finesse or care about so called niceties. He is not alone. He has got a clutch of obscene billionaires as props. A modern version of white men of property. And the masses are cheering him on!
❗️Israel closes dozens of checkpoints and gates in the occupied West Bank.
BREAKING | Invading Israeli forces carry out arbitrary mass arrests of over 60 Palestinians in Azzun, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank.
BREAKING | Israeli settlers carry out large scale attack on the villages of Al-Funduq and Jinsafut, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, burning Palestinian homes, vehicles and shops.
The aftermath of today's settler attacks east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank.
Yes, I read this elsewhere ….how utterly predictable and heinous….leave demolished Gaza for a bit (not for long - just rest up the troops) and get to the equally serious business of their illegal settlements in the West Bank where of course they’re very firmly embedded …..
The republicans usually try less to hide it, until Biden’s administration. He committed all types of illegal acts for everyone to see. Things will continue to get worse, until people stop voting for dems and reps. People idolize and vote for their enemies, and are seemingly more indoctrinated as time goes on. Partisan politics, divide and conquer, idiocy and immorality of the masses, makes it easy for the elites to remain in control.
The goal in Ukraine was to bleed and preoccupy Russia. It was never more than that.
How will Americans be rewarded by their indifference and complacency in going along with the endless war policy of the Empire?
The Fire Next time. The raging fires of inflation will provide Americans with a taste of what the Empire thinks of it's "deplorables" here in Amerikkka.
Civil War, a civil war within the u.s. in our timeline. The interesting thing about the movie, it wasn't over top unbelievable, nuclear weapons, mass murder of 100 million. The writers seemed to keep the war roughly inline with the civil war 1865 scope and scale.
CJ>>"During his inaugural address, the new president of the United States was refreshingly open about the fact that Washington is the hub of a continuously expanding empire which is ruled by billionaire plutocrats."
So, the US continues its Capitalist (oligarchy-funded) IMPERIALISM (mask-off) under Trump now. Trump may just land up being way worse than Biden (given that Imperialism involves death and destruction, and the fact that Trump and Israel seem to be joined at the hip almost as much (if not more so) than Biden - though for different reasons - i.e. Trump's personal gain).
Hasan Piker described this phenomenon perfectly. As soon as some immigrants get here, they get the American brain rot. They think the ones who get here after them or are trying to get here are the bad ones. They (again some not all) feell migration should stop after they get here.
I just had that conversation. Being in the u.s. without documentation is a crime. That is how they come up with 12 million criminals. Today the racist round-up begins in Chicago. Where will the wealthy find someone to murder their animals in the big slaughter houses for them. I can see the 1% going house to house, Will you clean my toilet, go to the store, take me to my yacht. The work is honest, the people who pay nothing because they can are the ones who should be deported.
The Western powers supported Hitler owing to his commitment to conquering the USSR. He was also allowed to conquer France by its oligarchy, whose motto was "better Hitler than Blum.". William Shirer exposed this in his The Collapse of the Third Republic. France could have walked all over Deutschland when it was busy conquering Poland.
Gypsy, be prepared to be disappointed. China has its OWN agenda, its OWN goals, its OWN ambitions.
Don't get suckered into Chinese Propaganda (or Russian or Iranian or ANY COUNTRY for that matter).
Just because a country is the ENEMY of the US Empire does not automatically mean that it is a FRIEND of the people. In reality, its simply one magnitude of bad fighting against another magnitude of bad.
For proof, talk directly with people living currently in those countries (through mediums that cannot be monitored/surveilled - i.e. in person) to get a better grip of reality in those countries.
Prepare for the dismantling of the administrative state, EPA, CFB, NLRB etc. We are entering the final stages of late-stage capitalism, basically anarcho-capitalism. Then the Hitlerian mass deportations which will probably be slave-labor/concentration camps. The rounding up of undocumented migrants & maybe just even any brown person. Add that atrocious Laken Riley bill (also the fault of the dems too). More tax cuts for corporations & the rich. We are so cooked. It's gonna be a monster shit-show. The Dems have capitulated to this bouldering to the Republican, fascist right. They will offer no resistance. The left need to organize & look out for each other & the marginalized. I haven't even addressed foreign policy & the continued imperialism
I'm speculating that there will be MORE inflation (not just in the US, but globally) over the next 4 years. (I hope I'm wrong though). Trump's policies (i.e. gutting regulatory bodies, tariffs, etc.) are going to increase inequality and speed-up wealth transfer from the 99% to the 1% (i.e. trickle-up economics).
>>"What will his supporters do when prices climb yet higher?"
Well, knowing that his supporters are stupid morons (for the most part), they will start believing in some alternate narratives (alterate facts?) (and possibly conspiracy theories?) to resolve their cognitive dissonances (is my guess).
So true my friend, so true. I assume the Panama/Greenland was a comment made to Trump was about the first stage of war on China as we did with Japan and Russia recently. The tariffs are the banking system undoing. I believe 40% of credit card debt is in arrears, with home mortgages, and auto loans defaults on the rise. War as diversion always seems their first choice for failed banking systems.
A small wager, one and all., just based on a feeling that Trump will eventually get more egotistical pleasure our of receiving respect from the people of the world compared to the anticipated ego-driven bullying-style government that all seem to be expecting.
(Power plays; hegemonic objectives; Greenland, Panama, etc,) You all know.
(That does not mean that he will not have his arrogant moments and make serious mistakes in the early year/s.) However, say a small prayer for the fact that the names of Bolton, Pompeo, Ms Clinton, Nikki Haley (just to name a few) are missing from his Cabinet and that he has not yet accepted the role as an honorary Executive of the AIPAC junta, now girding its loins to rule the USA.
Trump has not yet said he is a Zionist like Biden, and if he is wise, he will remain at arm's length from his son-in-law's plans for a Jews only tourist resort on the Gaza coast with the large reserves of gas and oil out to sea. (US reserves, by a coincidence, down to 8 years only). Watch out Venezuela. He loves what you have in the sand....1000 years of oil reserves. Tempting.
Trump will never be as bad as Genocide Joe. A man who should be hated by the world.
The fact that he was able to get away with all his horrible crimes, manipulated like a puppet by someone like Netanyahu, be able to say he was an American but also a Zionist and still receive no adverse media and with the deaths of all those Palestinians, still leave office as an ex-President of the United States in one piece, free as a breeze, is a reflection on what the USA has become over the past fifty years, post John F Kennedy. Downhill since those halcyon days driven along by the influences of Johnson, Reagan, Nixon, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden, particularly.
Hitler, on the other hand, unlike Biden, at least had the good sense to kill himself.
ROFLMA! Not a Zionist? Where have you been. People of the "world" will never respect him. The world no longer needs America and the empire is dead to them. They just want us to fuck off and leave them alone.
>>"Trump has not yet said he is a Zionist like Biden"
He doesn't need to say it. They even gave him his OWN settlement in Israel (occupied Syria) - Trump Heights (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Heights). How much more PRO settler-colonial can you get?
>>"Trump will never be as bad as Genocide Joe"
Too hard to predict what the world will look like in 4 years time, but I feel Trump will be WORSE than Biden. One reason why -> Israel is not yet done with Palestinians. The Genocide/Ethnic Cleansing will continue under Trump (although maybe with different theatrics/obfuscations/etc.). Not to mention -> Trump supports Israel completely in the acquisition of more terrority in Lebanon, Syria, maybe Jordan? (this all means MORE death and destruction in those regions - not to mention what might happen in the West Bank).
And what about Iran/Venezuela/Cuba/China/etc. ? Trump is ALREADY damaging not just the US, but also other countries through his brain-dead taxation policies (i.e. tariffs).
Trump, after all, is a strongman authoritarian. I think the world should be prepared for MORE CHAOS over the next 4 years. My one hope is that he will expedite the downfall of the US Empire (from internal AND external pressure).
Yes. The Adelson wife in there, boots and all as with Musk, the biggest electoral spenders in history in a country where such things are legal and accepted.
"He makes the US empire much more transparent and unhidden. He removes its mask and reveals the twisted face beneath it."
I agree that this trait is the only good thing about Trump. He's a loudmouth who doesn't know how to cover up his greed and the blatant imperialism of the US. Our mission is to keep this transparency out in front of the public's eye and help them connect the dots as to how the billionaires are only getting richer at the working person's expense. Maybe Red Note can help open a few more eyes?
oh,how succinct and clear this article is! thank you for it. i need to memorize and keep it close to my heart for those who still believe this country is some kind of 'democratic protector' saving women and children from bad actors. empire is a toothy blood soaked monster, we,the people have fed and funded since it's inception. may many more soon come to this profoundly adult understanding..
As a number of commentators have said, Trump has a new favorite in President McKinley and all this talk about manifest Destiny and American empire. There was a time not long ago when the more radical left found some comfort with Trump's isolationism and antiwar rhetoric. But the new Trump, taking his lead from his fellow oligarchs puffs himself up about the greatness of an American empire and controlling other nations, even thinking of Mars as something to fit into his imagination. Sorry spectacles all around us.
FYI, the NEW Trump is the SAME as the OLD Trump. NOTHING about Trump has changed (other than his ego and narcissism reaching new heights) - it's just that more people are waking up to it now.
>>"There was a time not long ago when the more radical left found some comfort with Trump's isolationism and antiwar rhetoric"
Nope - the radical left (and not the bastardized version of whatever goes for "left" in the US) were NEVER with Trump. Also, the "isolationism and antiwar rhetoric" was just that - meaningless rhetoric and PR (and pulling wool over the eyes of naive people).
Looking back, I believe you are very right. People were looking for a leader having had Obummer fail the world shortly after his Nobel. That is why the look from Genocide Kamala at Obummer and Trump sitting together yucking it up was priceless. If you can find that clip of Genocide Carter's funeral it's priceless my friend, I laughed until I wet myself figuratively of course : )
There were many versions of the far left. Socialists generally were internationalists and were willing to exert power for humanitarian needs and to support emerging democracies. I think this too has drawn back from the earlier enthusiasm. Thanks for your reactiion. The best too you. Terry
Great journalism, Caitlin. The best/most I can say of Trump and his (mostly?) Jewish/Zionist billionaires is "Dump 'em!" ... but we all know that's not gonna happen on T's or on anyone's watch. We've been had -- as an independent, potentially worthy nation. Bought and sold....
Today, I watched snippets of Bondi's Senate committee hearing on Amy Goodman's DN!. Her long (dyed?) blond hair tresses could only make me observe to my widowed self: "the epitome of Dumb Blonde is this Dam' Bondi"....
The Framers of the Constitution were wealthy upper class men. There was no working man at the Constitutional Convention -- couldn't afford the time off, for one thing. Wasn't invited, for another. So these framers, our original oligarchs (it's surprising -- or not -- how many of them married into each others' families) -- had won a bloody war to get the king off their backs. They now proceeded to develop a system of government that guaranteed they kept all power for themselves. Men who didn't own property weren't even allowed to vote.
They spent a lot of time debating on how to keep the "mob" from getting power. The "mob," that would be us. Because the "mob" would govern all wrong, you see. Same as it ever was.
I look back at the classes I had where the textbooks tried so hard to put these Oligarchs in light of common man ha. We lie to each other claiming Democracy ha.
Funny how Howard Zinn was never on those reading lists!
But notably not the same as it ever will be.
As usual, the poor went to war as the rich went to work.
They didn't want to pay taxes in UK, so they decided call themselves rebels, pillage a land, obtain slaves, and become a new brand of elite.
It's not that they were paying UK taxes, it's that the Parliament in Britain kept thinking up new taxes, a whole slough of taxes, and levying them only on the colonies. So they were singled out for egregious taxes that other Englishmen were not paying (the Stamp Act, etc.). Parliament thought the colonies ought to pay off the debt for their own war, i.e., the French and Indian war. But that's like us extracting wealth from Iraq to pay for our invasion, oh, wait, we did.
Huffy, thank you for the book suggestion - much appreciated! Looks like an interesting one... (and yes, Anna's Archive is awesome)
My reasons are "to stick it to Capitalism" and companies like Amazon (which I loathe).
I use the Onyx Boox Max 3 eReader (https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-onyx-boox-max-3) which is fantastic!
I stopped buying "physical books" (my preference) mainly because I ran out of space to store them. I currently have over 2K+ non-fiction books in storage (and am trying to get rid of them after replacing them with ebook versions), but it's proving quite hard to sell/etc. - it seems there just isn't enough demand/readers for good-quality physical books anymore these days (everyone is spending too much time on social media and other electronic devices) 😞
Because there was enough class mobility and wealth transfer to buy loyalty.
Not to mention being bought off with land grants with land stolen from the indigenous inhabitants.
The moment I heard him use the word exceptional, the trajectory was clear. It's the global version of the Monroe doctrine forever. That's us, world. Don't like it? Tough shit. Any other manifestations of diplomatic desires toward increased friendliness or cooperation are merely charades, theater, kabuki. It's always empire directed by that mutation-filled American DNA, full speed ahead.
Is American DNA mutation-filled? I think it's possible, because: for centuries, most especially the first ones, people who chose to emigrate from Europe to North America were making a choice ot prioritize the opportunities for personal, economic advancement--much richer in the US if you weren't the first son of a noble--over family ties, friendships, your homeland--because in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, coming here meant you would never see any of them again, might never even get a letter informing them about how their siblings fared, who had died, etc. In the nineteenth century, going back was a possibility--still took a long sea voyage but not such a dangerous one. Many letters could be exchanged. In the twentieth century, going back could be fairly easy and even phone calls were possible. So--if such characteristics as personal ambition and especially strong social ties are embedded in genes, it could be that descendants of the white people who came in the first few centuries are genetically distinct in individualistic tendencies, it could explain some of what America became.
In my view, they came over carrying the mutations of hyper-Christianity in their hubristic Puritan drive to purify everything else. Then (at least epigenetically) heavily mutagenized via the Native genocide and crimes against the biosphere (such as driving bison to the edge of extinction). Then we get to the early imperialist declaration, Monroe doctrine etc. and the exceptionalist rubbish — lasting un-repaired mutations affecting societal psychology to the extent of creating internal colonialism — stealing Native land and the unrelenting, untrammeled drive to Christianize them as superior to their Nature-based spirituality. And of course, enslaving an entire race of people with more melanin for 400 years. After that the unrelenting global imperialism with which we're all familiar If that's not a heavily mutagenized societal genotype, you'll forgive my opinion.
Question is, whether such things are written in the genes, or the product of culture. Also be careful ascribing attributes to a whole people, in this case one that isn't really one people but a collection of people descended from those who came from a wide variety of places, along with more recent immigrants, and five million remaining natives. Also note that the number of times Americans have voted for the wars of the last century is zero. We are never asked what we want except by pollsters--we are allowed to vote only on Tweedledee versus Tweedledumber, and if war and peace, or justice, comes up at all in the campaigns, we may vote for the one who promises peace and then he widens the war. Don't assume US policy is what Americans want--in fact the Page and Gilens study showed that while special interests often get what they want, public opinion has a "negligible, near-zero" impact on policy.
First, societal DNA is a metaphor and mutation in it refers to defects in cultural norms that are deep, ingrained, and inheritable. Then there's epigenetics, for which every new study confirms the potency --- DNA expression can be tuned up or down without frank changes in actual code, impacting factors including environmental toxicity, diet, and yes, even neurohumoral patterns (behaviors).
Recent immigrants? What's your time frame? I'm first gen. My dad got here from Italy at 5 y-o in 1913, mom at 2-y-o in 1915. Pretty recent. And what's the reason voting is feckless in its ability to express the "will of the electorate? Clearly because that mutagenized societal DNA has created such immense economic inequality in its embrace of corporate capitalism and technofeudalism. You can't place separators wherever you like in what is essentially a continuum of a society in the throes of genetic/epigenetic illness (metaphorical if you like, but in my opinion as a biologist, only partly so).
Well, my grandparents were all born here but I think their parents were all born in Ireland, England, Russia or Turkey. Far as I know. Not sure it matters. Much of the reason voting is so useless here has to do with SCOTUS decisions in 1886 (making corporations persons) 1976 and 2010 (removing even weak restraints on campaign financing). I don't believe you can say anything about the mental nature of any ethnic group, or even any gender--but people certainly are influenced by culture. Until you can say that the gene for some trait--selfishness, grandiosity, compassion, homosexuality, artistcness) is the PN201 gene, and Joe has it and Lucinda doesn't, any talk about a genetic basis for a personality trait is purely speculative. My initial post was just a thought bubble on how the extreme individualism of white Americans could have evolved--IF there were actually genes for such things, which we don't know.
I applaud your thinking on several levels, Mary. As I see it, we certainly agree about the effect of corporate personhood. And who can disagree with your statement that "people certainly are influenced by culture". With respect to white Americans and their extreme individualism, I can only agree and sigh in frustration at the cultural encouragement of that posture which derives from popular media, movies TV, product advertising; its roots are quite complex and I doubt I'm competent to expound on them.
But your assessment of human genetics is a bit narrow. Single-gene effects (i.e., gene X for this, gene Y for that) are largely inadequate when discussing personality traits, which are for the most part polygenic. And epigenetics is so important because a factor like environmental toxicity, so prevalent in our milieu, can indeed influence the expression of multiple genes (polygenic) by affecting for example how DNA is packaged in chromosomes. An example would be simultaneous impacts on multiple brain neurotransmitter systems. The scary news in the past 15 yrs is that epigenetic changes have also been shown to be inheritable. None of that is speculation; we have poisoned ourselves. Bottom line: some psychological aberrations may indeed fall into this area of causation. So once again, we face the collaboration of nature and nurture, in this case in a loop of influences upon each other.
Hi Mary
I love your theory. I’ve said all along that Amerikkkans have genocide in their genes.
Hi gypsy, See also my reply to Mary who makes many good points but would benefit from a better understanding of what envirotox can do to our biology, which this society conveniently ignores, and love him or hate him, RFK is correct about. We might indeed have a twinge of sociopathy in our epigenes. Envirotox --> impacts us epigenetically --> affects brain chemistry --> predisposes the people we accept as our our politicians to "edgy" decisions re: aggression. Naturally this neuropsychology interacts with the cultural backdrop of the exceptionalist settler colonialist culture. To produce madness of US foreign policy etc etc etc. Yes, I speculate a bit, but why not; hypotheses are not misinformation but challenges to open one's thought patterns, which I think might appeal to you because you're a good one at doing that.
Very deep thoughts, Vin!
see my reply above
Yes and perhaps they did not even want to look back because the truth was painful. It is easier to construct a myth or believe in the myth constructed for you if you loose contact with cousin Sarah whose children died of hunger.
As I suggest later in the comments, myth making is part of the DNA.
The US has always been run by the rich. It is just that in some ages and stages there were some ethics involved. Trump is no worse than any of the mediocrities the corrupt American political system vomits up.
How will I ever explain to my grandkids that in my time, America, a Nation of 300m+ people could only serve⁰ up two way past their prime Octogenarians to run to rule them for next 4 years
You couldn't make this shit up I tell ya
Yes, it is nice of Trump to put it in our faces front row and center. We are End of Empire.
America has come full circle. It's always been an oligarchy. People like to pretend that this country was founded by a bunch of humble, salt-of-the-earth types who were seeking freedom and self determination from tyrants. In reality, this country was founded by a bunch of oligarchs who wanted to create their own oligarchy away from the monarchy and created the constitution to protect themselves from each other, not to empower the poors! They did not want democracy. Or give the voiceless a voice. In fact, they hated the idea. Nevermind black people, they did not even want white males who were not land-owners to vote and were disgusted at the idea that the vote of a low peasant would carry the same weight as that of a blue blood like them.
The entire US constitution has been built around that framework - from the electoral college that had to be granted to slave owning states who had so few white people in them that without the EC they could never have won an election (and thus would never have joined the Union) to the fucking Senate where each state, regardless of population, gets two votes, to the Supreme Court whose job it is to uphold minority rule - this country has always been an oligarch's playground. Whatever wins for the average person were achieved were fought for in blood and sweat and sacrifice and under the threat of communist uprisings, all of which have been gradually crushed since the end of the second world war, especially during the 70s and 80s, culminating in now Trump having finally come full circle. He is not an aberration, he is fulfilling this country's founding directive and rationale.
The lie, the illusion if you so will, is people believing the revisionist crap they teach high schoolers who dont know any better about how this country was founded by brave men who wanted to give everyone a voice and create a government by the people, of the people, for the people. When in reality with "people" they meant oligarchs. America has always been more about the fantasy than its reality, which is genocide, slavery, exploitation. war.
Hollywood created and exported the fantasy that is America as a land of opportunity for everyone, which again it only was for a short time because of the Left threat, and not because it is special. With the Left obliterated and especially after the fall of the Soviet union, nothing was holding the capitalists in check anymore. And so now here we are. Trump is the inevitable end game of this nation's 200+ year history. Make no mistake. FDR was the aberration.
👏 Well articulated Ginnie - thank you! (Also, I wish more people realized/understood this truth).
The Founding Fathers never intended America to become an empire. The famous words of Benjamin Franklin "It's A Republic, if YOU Can Keep It" and the words from the Declaration of Independence continue to haunt thinking Americans who know real American history and what it took to make a Revolution against the Global Corporate Cartel known as the British and Dutch East India Company Empire.
America has been at war against the British since the Revolution to this day.
As Lord Palmerston said, "We, the British, have no permanent friends, only permanent interests". The British and their Neo-Liberal Lockean, Tory traitor friends in the U.S. revised American history to make it appear that our Constitution was based on British law, the "hereditary principle" of oligarchy which it is not.
The Puritan Americans of New England led by Governor John Winthrop "The City Upon A Hill" document was a warning to Americans to be just and charitable. While the British "divide and conquer" Empire and the French from Canada instigated Native Americans et.al. against Americans to try to crush the Revolution in its cradle lest the American Revolution spread to inspire and create other sovereign Republics.
The British Oligarchs never gave up.
With the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and their Rothschild Bankster fiends they gained control over America's Credit system which now threatens to obliterate our Hamiltonian American System which was based on the National Bank viz. only the US Treasury has the power to emit currency.
The Feds prints moneys and lend it to the empire to wage wars. The empire taxes the slaves, and give the money to the banksters. 40 trillion in the whole now? The only way out is to take away the Feds license to print dollars. Default on loans to the Feds. Put oue leader who ordered that in a protective bunker, arrest the banksters, and confiscate their illgained wealth.
Only the treasury should be allowed to print moneys, but, all moneys must be backed by tangible assets.
Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury, 1791. His Three Reports to the U.S. Congress provided the economic safeguards for a Sovereign Republic against the British Oligarchs Free Trade Cheap Labor slave system.
The National Bank!
What the spectacle of the inauguration reminded me of was nobles paying homage to their king. All the billionaires and anyone who's anyone in American power and oligarchy was at that inauguration. Those who weren't marked themselves as being outside the king's protection and as his enemies.
Funny how calmly the democrats sat there and listened to ‘Hitler’s’ speech today and joked with him at Jimmy’s funeral. They spent the last 4 years warning about Hitler’s return to action.
Today Chucky Schumer said that congress should be bipartisan and get on with screwing the working class.
It's one big club and you ain't in it...
Love George Carlin!
They were comfortable sitting next to their Hitler, Genocide Joe.
America has always wanted and had a monarch. The revolution was just to change from an English monarch to an American monarch. All the ceremony is of the royal type, the US President today has more power in real terms than the King did in 1776, and the President serves his oligarchs just as the King supported the Nobles after magna carta. Americans even refer to ex-Presidents as “President” so, like royalty, they keep their titles, their advantages, and perquisites forever, just like kings do. (Well, except for those who were beheaded. Now there’s an idea!)
Funny that you said that, I caught a glimpse of the inauguration and that was the immediate sense I got with all the ceremony and music.
I enjoy crowd watching at these things: Looked like a bunch of Robots to me/mostly dressed in the same clothes/bobbing up and down to clap/same hairstyles etc. Didn't see many black people there either.
Jenny, thank you for watching it so I didn’t have to 😉
I have to say that luckily didn't hear the VOICE too busy reading subtitles and watching the morons. Very weird for me to watch these things..perhaps I was waiting for a bomb!
😂
Today in Chicago, the big racist event begins, terrorizing the Latin communities with mass deportation. We think nothing works in the u.s. and with millions of deportations, the Rich will be going door to door looking for someone to clean their toilets, cook their food, bring their food to them, mow their lawns, pick their fruit and murder their food in large factories. Oh the horror of being rich.
We need to look at the firefighters in LA. Prison population working the front lines. In the future we will lock up many people who will become our fieldworkers, cleaners, meatpackers. They won't need to hire low-wage people, just imprison them.
Imprisoning future low-wage people, Kamala Harris' "greatest" work.
>>"They won't need to hire low-wage people, just imprison them."
That paints a very dystopian future...
Landru, har! Maybe those rich folk could actually clean their own goddamn toilets! 😁
I of course mean no disrespect to those jobs. The wealthy take advantage of people who can not defend themselves in the labor place like Amazon and Tesla do. I doubt the rich know how to clean a toilet : )
Or pay American servants properly to do the same.
Yes. Good point.
I wonder at one point if these mega-rich will be fighting themselves soon?
No. They don't actually intend to deport such large numbers. They know they need the underclass to do the scut work at low wages (and the IT work as somewhat higher wages, once the AI thing crashes and burns). The intention is to terrorize the illegals so they won't form unions, won't demand ripped-off wages, won't refuse dangerous or illegal work.
Why the 12 million criminals then? I didn't understand that number until, of course being here without proper documents is a crime. So they are talking about 12 million deportations. Our lab has asked anyone who is here origin another country to carry their passports and visas when not at home. They are coming for people in large numbers.
Very true!
They were probably out celebrating MLK Day. Snoop Dogg was there though!
Most of the black people are in jail or wearing nose rings? The few that walks straight and talk straight are there. The best supreme court justice is a black guy. We elected a black Muslim twice, and you are still counting how many blacks are there? Why not count how many Js?
More than 50 percent were Jews. Obama never helped the Muslim population.
And Obummer isn't Muslim, not that it matters.
Who is a Muslim elected twice?
I wonder who is paying homage to who?
For the propaganda addled brains of Americans, the Constitution and " The Founding Fathers" were sacred. "Of the people, by the people, for the people" was always clever propaganda. The reality that it was of white men of property; written by white men of property; for white men of property - and that property included slaves - was beyond questioning.
Now as Caitlin has pointed out, It is " The empire unmasked ". The Trump era has done away with all the pretence. No need of sugar coating. He wants Syria and Venezuela for the oil and he says it. Why bother to cover up the naked intentions of empire. Specially when they are so bloated with their self importance. Trump the man is brash enough, crude enough not to have any finesse or care about so called niceties. He is not alone. He has got a clutch of obscene billionaires as props. A modern version of white men of property. And the masses are cheering him on!
Well said Indu!
Hi Indu
Could this administration be the one that finally and at long last inspire true revolution?
Hello gypsy33, I certainly do hope so.
Thank You Caitlin
Now it's Genocide Donald.
From the Cradle tonight
❗️Israel closes dozens of checkpoints and gates in the occupied West Bank.
BREAKING | Invading Israeli forces carry out arbitrary mass arrests of over 60 Palestinians in Azzun, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank.
BREAKING | Israeli settlers carry out large scale attack on the villages of Al-Funduq and Jinsafut, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, burning Palestinian homes, vehicles and shops.
The aftermath of today's settler attacks east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank.
https://t.me/thecradlemedia/28606
Yes, I read this elsewhere ….how utterly predictable and heinous….leave demolished Gaza for a bit (not for long - just rest up the troops) and get to the equally serious business of their illegal settlements in the West Bank where of course they’re very firmly embedded …..
I've said many times the difference between Republicans and Democrats is, the Republicans KNOW they are hypocrites.
The republicans usually try less to hide it, until Biden’s administration. He committed all types of illegal acts for everyone to see. Things will continue to get worse, until people stop voting for dems and reps. People idolize and vote for their enemies, and are seemingly more indoctrinated as time goes on. Partisan politics, divide and conquer, idiocy and immorality of the masses, makes it easy for the elites to remain in control.
The goal in Ukraine was to bleed and preoccupy Russia. It was never more than that.
How will Americans be rewarded by their indifference and complacency in going along with the endless war policy of the Empire?
The Fire Next time. The raging fires of inflation will provide Americans with a taste of what the Empire thinks of it's "deplorables" here in Amerikkka.
Russia and China will covertly supply weapons and explosives to warring American factions when the economy melts down and civil war starts.
If it is not obvious, Russia and China are desperately trying to avoid escalation.
So you have seen the movie.
No. What movie?
Civil War, a civil war within the u.s. in our timeline. The interesting thing about the movie, it wasn't over top unbelievable, nuclear weapons, mass murder of 100 million. The writers seemed to keep the war roughly inline with the civil war 1865 scope and scale.
I believe that should be updated to the Fire This Time. I don't think Baldwin would disagree.
CJ>>"During his inaugural address, the new president of the United States was refreshingly open about the fact that Washington is the hub of a continuously expanding empire which is ruled by billionaire plutocrats."
So, the US continues its Capitalist (oligarchy-funded) IMPERIALISM (mask-off) under Trump now. Trump may just land up being way worse than Biden (given that Imperialism involves death and destruction, and the fact that Trump and Israel seem to be joined at the hip almost as much (if not more so) than Biden - though for different reasons - i.e. Trump's personal gain).
As soon as Trump won, private prison stocks soared. We all know why
Not surprised. The real losers are going to be the ones that voted for Trump (instead of voting for a 3rd party candidate).
Hasan Piker described this phenomenon perfectly. As soon as some immigrants get here, they get the American brain rot. They think the ones who get here after them or are trying to get here are the bad ones. They (again some not all) feell migration should stop after they get here.
I'm Venezuelan but was born in NYC. My parents are immigrants & suffer from this American brain rot
I just had that conversation. Being in the u.s. without documentation is a crime. That is how they come up with 12 million criminals. Today the racist round-up begins in Chicago. Where will the wealthy find someone to murder their animals in the big slaughter houses for them. I can see the 1% going house to house, Will you clean my toilet, go to the store, take me to my yacht. The work is honest, the people who pay nothing because they can are the ones who should be deported.
>>"the people who pay nothing because they can are the ones who should be deported."
I AGREE !!
Chang, I almost expected to see Netanyahu there.
I guess he’s busy planning how to disrupt the “cease-fire” and kill more Palestinians… (wouldn’t surprise me one bit).
I really don’t see any difference between Hitler and Netanyahu (especially in terms of cruelty and evilness), do you?
And unfortunately, unlike in Hitler’s case during WW2, the Western powers are supporting and encouraging Netanyahu.
So WHO will save the world now???
The Western powers supported Hitler owing to his commitment to conquering the USSR. He was also allowed to conquer France by its oligarchy, whose motto was "better Hitler than Blum.". William Shirer exposed this in his The Collapse of the Third Republic. France could have walked all over Deutschland when it was busy conquering Poland.
Yes, you are right (I probably need to rephrase my original comment).
Hi Chang:
China.
Gypsy, be prepared to be disappointed. China has its OWN agenda, its OWN goals, its OWN ambitions.
Don't get suckered into Chinese Propaganda (or Russian or Iranian or ANY COUNTRY for that matter).
Just because a country is the ENEMY of the US Empire does not automatically mean that it is a FRIEND of the people. In reality, its simply one magnitude of bad fighting against another magnitude of bad.
For proof, talk directly with people living currently in those countries (through mediums that cannot be monitored/surveilled - i.e. in person) to get a better grip of reality in those countries.
Prepare for the dismantling of the administrative state, EPA, CFB, NLRB etc. We are entering the final stages of late-stage capitalism, basically anarcho-capitalism. Then the Hitlerian mass deportations which will probably be slave-labor/concentration camps. The rounding up of undocumented migrants & maybe just even any brown person. Add that atrocious Laken Riley bill (also the fault of the dems too). More tax cuts for corporations & the rich. We are so cooked. It's gonna be a monster shit-show. The Dems have capitulated to this bouldering to the Republican, fascist right. They will offer no resistance. The left need to organize & look out for each other & the marginalized. I haven't even addressed foreign policy & the continued imperialism
I'm speculating that there will be MORE inflation (not just in the US, but globally) over the next 4 years. (I hope I'm wrong though). Trump's policies (i.e. gutting regulatory bodies, tariffs, etc.) are going to increase inequality and speed-up wealth transfer from the 99% to the 1% (i.e. trickle-up economics).
This is why he is acceptable to the oligarchy. What will his supporters do when prices climb yet higher?
>>"What will his supporters do when prices climb yet higher?"
Well, knowing that his supporters are stupid morons (for the most part), they will start believing in some alternate narratives (alterate facts?) (and possibly conspiracy theories?) to resolve their cognitive dissonances (is my guess).
So true my friend, so true. I assume the Panama/Greenland was a comment made to Trump was about the first stage of war on China as we did with Japan and Russia recently. The tariffs are the banking system undoing. I believe 40% of credit card debt is in arrears, with home mortgages, and auto loans defaults on the rise. War as diversion always seems their first choice for failed banking systems.
A small wager, one and all., just based on a feeling that Trump will eventually get more egotistical pleasure our of receiving respect from the people of the world compared to the anticipated ego-driven bullying-style government that all seem to be expecting.
(Power plays; hegemonic objectives; Greenland, Panama, etc,) You all know.
(That does not mean that he will not have his arrogant moments and make serious mistakes in the early year/s.) However, say a small prayer for the fact that the names of Bolton, Pompeo, Ms Clinton, Nikki Haley (just to name a few) are missing from his Cabinet and that he has not yet accepted the role as an honorary Executive of the AIPAC junta, now girding its loins to rule the USA.
Trump has not yet said he is a Zionist like Biden, and if he is wise, he will remain at arm's length from his son-in-law's plans for a Jews only tourist resort on the Gaza coast with the large reserves of gas and oil out to sea. (US reserves, by a coincidence, down to 8 years only). Watch out Venezuela. He loves what you have in the sand....1000 years of oil reserves. Tempting.
Trump will never be as bad as Genocide Joe. A man who should be hated by the world.
The fact that he was able to get away with all his horrible crimes, manipulated like a puppet by someone like Netanyahu, be able to say he was an American but also a Zionist and still receive no adverse media and with the deaths of all those Palestinians, still leave office as an ex-President of the United States in one piece, free as a breeze, is a reflection on what the USA has become over the past fifty years, post John F Kennedy. Downhill since those halcyon days driven along by the influences of Johnson, Reagan, Nixon, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden, particularly.
Hitler, on the other hand, unlike Biden, at least had the good sense to kill himself.
ROFLMA! Not a Zionist? Where have you been. People of the "world" will never respect him. The world no longer needs America and the empire is dead to them. They just want us to fuck off and leave them alone.
>>"Trump has not yet said he is a Zionist like Biden"
He doesn't need to say it. They even gave him his OWN settlement in Israel (occupied Syria) - Trump Heights (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Heights). How much more PRO settler-colonial can you get?
>>"Trump will never be as bad as Genocide Joe"
Too hard to predict what the world will look like in 4 years time, but I feel Trump will be WORSE than Biden. One reason why -> Israel is not yet done with Palestinians. The Genocide/Ethnic Cleansing will continue under Trump (although maybe with different theatrics/obfuscations/etc.). Not to mention -> Trump supports Israel completely in the acquisition of more terrority in Lebanon, Syria, maybe Jordan? (this all means MORE death and destruction in those regions - not to mention what might happen in the West Bank).
And what about Iran/Venezuela/Cuba/China/etc. ? Trump is ALREADY damaging not just the US, but also other countries through his brain-dead taxation policies (i.e. tariffs).
Trump, after all, is a strongman authoritarian. I think the world should be prepared for MORE CHAOS over the next 4 years. My one hope is that he will expedite the downfall of the US Empire (from internal AND external pressure).
Hi Chang
My only consolation is that, no matter how bad off we’ll be under Trump, it will be nothing compared to what the Palestinians are enduring.
No matter what, we MUST keep supporting them.
Yes. The Adelson wife in there, boots and all as with Musk, the biggest electoral spenders in history in a country where such things are legal and accepted.
Amazing.
Hi C33
Citizens United should be in the form of a fist shoved down the throat of every SCOTUS member who voted for it.
I’m glad I spared myself the sight of that hideous old Zio hag with the resulting nausea that would occur.
If I ever win the Megamillions Jackpot, I’m gonna buy Congress my own goddamn self.
Unmasked, undressed, unadorned and unabashed!
But, definitely not unblemished.
"He makes the US empire much more transparent and unhidden. He removes its mask and reveals the twisted face beneath it."
I agree that this trait is the only good thing about Trump. He's a loudmouth who doesn't know how to cover up his greed and the blatant imperialism of the US. Our mission is to keep this transparency out in front of the public's eye and help them connect the dots as to how the billionaires are only getting richer at the working person's expense. Maybe Red Note can help open a few more eyes?
oh,how succinct and clear this article is! thank you for it. i need to memorize and keep it close to my heart for those who still believe this country is some kind of 'democratic protector' saving women and children from bad actors. empire is a toothy blood soaked monster, we,the people have fed and funded since it's inception. may many more soon come to this profoundly adult understanding..
As a number of commentators have said, Trump has a new favorite in President McKinley and all this talk about manifest Destiny and American empire. There was a time not long ago when the more radical left found some comfort with Trump's isolationism and antiwar rhetoric. But the new Trump, taking his lead from his fellow oligarchs puffs himself up about the greatness of an American empire and controlling other nations, even thinking of Mars as something to fit into his imagination. Sorry spectacles all around us.
FYI, the NEW Trump is the SAME as the OLD Trump. NOTHING about Trump has changed (other than his ego and narcissism reaching new heights) - it's just that more people are waking up to it now.
>>"There was a time not long ago when the more radical left found some comfort with Trump's isolationism and antiwar rhetoric"
Nope - the radical left (and not the bastardized version of whatever goes for "left" in the US) were NEVER with Trump. Also, the "isolationism and antiwar rhetoric" was just that - meaningless rhetoric and PR (and pulling wool over the eyes of naive people).
Looking back, I believe you are very right. People were looking for a leader having had Obummer fail the world shortly after his Nobel. That is why the look from Genocide Kamala at Obummer and Trump sitting together yucking it up was priceless. If you can find that clip of Genocide Carter's funeral it's priceless my friend, I laughed until I wet myself figuratively of course : )
There were many versions of the far left. Socialists generally were internationalists and were willing to exert power for humanitarian needs and to support emerging democracies. I think this too has drawn back from the earlier enthusiasm. Thanks for your reactiion. The best too you. Terry
Great journalism, Caitlin. The best/most I can say of Trump and his (mostly?) Jewish/Zionist billionaires is "Dump 'em!" ... but we all know that's not gonna happen on T's or on anyone's watch. We've been had -- as an independent, potentially worthy nation. Bought and sold....
Today, I watched snippets of Bondi's Senate committee hearing on Amy Goodman's DN!. Her long (dyed?) blond hair tresses could only make me observe to my widowed self: "the epitome of Dumb Blonde is this Dam' Bondi"....