This entire disgusting gushing coverage of Eden Andersen in the MSM has brought me to the precipice of gigantic reverse peristalsis. A US-Israel dual-drone Zionist is just about the last traitorous entity I want to hear about, much less celebrate release of. May he and all Zionazis -- especially those idiot Americans who crave a stint in the IDF -- all burn in Hades together.
The media doesn’t point out that Eden is an American who joined the Israeli military so he could kill unarmed Palestinians. If this ‘brave’ young man wanted to protect innocents he could have joined the American military… or wait…they don’t protect innocents either.
"Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don’t understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it’s profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it’s profitable, the insurance companies who deny us health care when it’s profitable, the banks who take away our homes when it’s profitable. Our enemies are not 5000 miles away. They are right here at home."
One step further. Illegal under the freaking Espionage Act -- i.e., treason. Particularly touchy one for me: When I worked for DOE with a security clearance, managers would wave the Espionage Act at us with a vengeance. Just for the hell of it. There were posters in secure vaults of that imprisoned supposedly turncoat FBI agent whose name I can gratefully no longer recall (was a famous case) -- to let us know that jail time awaited violators who might improperly handle a piece of classified info [HA, Biden and Trump both cleaned their toilets with some]. BUT, you can go kill babies for bloody Israel -- that's not treason. BOLLOCKS!!!
Prior to the war, Nirim had a population of just over 400 residents. It is located close to Kibbutz Nir Oz, which was also utterly abandoned by the IDF until the early afternoon hours of October 7, when it was mostly too late to confront Hamas’s terrorists, who had by then almost entirely returned to Gaza.
Residents did acknowledge to The Jerusalem Post that there are many more IDF positions nearby now and that Nirim’s White House – a small nearby outpost – now has four times as many military personnel as it did on October 7, including more tanks.
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Half of the IDF around Gaza were on leave on October 7th because it was both the Sabbath and a Jewish Holiday. And Hamas knew it, and the IDF knew Hamas knew it, because it was all laid out in Hamas' plan for Oct 7th which the Israelis had captured a year before October 7th.
In the early morning hours of Oct 7th an emergency meeting was held by top Israeli generals. There was extremely strong intelligence gathered that said Hamas was about to jailbreak. Someone ask Edan Alexander what sort of warning he was given in the early morning hours of October 7th.
ASK HIM
Netanyahu **wanted** Edan Alexander sacrificed for a pretext to commit the Gaza Holocaust and to
keep Netanyahu out of jail.
Netanyahuhu is the Great Betrayer.
He seduced Israel, like a Darth Vader, to take their souls into The Dark Side and become Genociders.
My exact thoughts and anger. This guy deserved what he got and is quite lucky to be alive. I have no sympathy for him as he went to a country to kill people of color simply for being different and demanding their own self-determination for themselves and their culture. He chose to support destroying them genocidally
If you mean Eden Alexander, he is an American with dual citizenship who went to Israel to join the IDF. He was captured and just released last month. Interesting to learn that he was to be the sacrificial lamb for Israel's False Flag. Remember Zionism ALWAYS spoke of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and the takeover of all of Palestine. The Palestinians were always referred to in disgusting terms, pretty much as the Nazis did to the Jews. The Jews are now the Nazis sharing that claim with the Ukrainians and their overt Nazi government. While the Israeli public still ignores or applauds the Palestinian destruction, it is people from the IDF who are speaking out about the Nazism of the Israel. Having to participate in burning children and women alive sometimes gets thru the sociopathic mentality of the fighters who have to live with these damning actions in which they participated.
What is ignored is the core racism of the situation. America, a white supremacist country, counts on this underlying prejudice when reporting on Israel and its genocide. Then they use anti-semitism as a weapon against free speech which the oligarch and their political toadies have been trying to kill in this country. And this is for both Parties so let's get over our belief that we have 2 different political Parties in the US. They both have attacked free speech and both have supported racism. They both are war mongering and imperialist with the same hegemonic belief in their superiority and entitlement to control the world and all its people. And this includes doing away with millions of people whom they see as excess population that no longer serve any use.
That is my exact point! People of color are treated the same by white western supremacist and I include the Israelis as well as they subscribe to the same vile hatred of dark skin people, even when they are Jewish! FYI, there are Black, African Jews that trace their heritage back to the 12 tribes. They were treated like scum when they immigrated to Israel. And so are the darker Misrahi Jews that hailed from the ME historically (Morocco for example)
One thing we don't hear is there are about 23,000 Americans serving in the IDF!!! using their dual citizenship. This article says GOP wants military benefits to Americans serving the IDF!!!!! People need to know this and make calls, write letters, post on social media loud protests!
With Russia we need to remember that ever since their revolution, 1917-18 that State has been serially labelled an enemy with hostile characterizations. It is a country that most Americans know nothing about so they serve as an invisible 'germ' to promote fear mongering propaganda in this country. If it weren't for the USSR WWII would have been lost with Russia losing about 30 million people. Ukraine that was totally nazified during WWII, killing about 60,000 Jews and is still a Nazi controlled State has been sold to Americans as our allies. Talk about turning reality on its head. Is it any wonder that Russia has serious issues with the current Ukraine nazified ideology controlling that State and destroying the Russian speaking population there!
I prefer to see Americans, etc as intentionally dumbed down so they can be controlled. This is the job of propaganda. Our social institutions are all constructed to support the Economic one; ie Capitalism. Our education system is quite perfect in its role of providing the kind of thinking and skills sought by Capitalism and its corporate controllers. The education tracking system has disappeared only in name as children are still tracked, oftimes surreptitiously with differential expectations, support offered or not, access to meaningful books, etc. Organized religion does its part to keep people in line. The family is always required to support the system or it is attacked; ie children removed when parents want to home school or teach a different politic or attitudes about the medical industry, etc. Demanding obedience instead of independent thinking is core to the process.
It's far worse even, because all these algorithms we take for granted are written for efficiency. Of what? Profitability, for the most part, of course. This builds in biases that are never examined except by enlightened mathematicians like Cathy O'Neill (in her book, "Weapons of Math Destruction", highly recommended). Poor, minority already ostracized communities get further removed from wealth and power as a consequence of these hidden algorithmic biases, and no one gives a crap because they serve the interests of our Capitalist oligarch massas.
We agree. What you say simply adds some specificity to my comment.
Education, for example, only developed as industry needed increasing reading and math skills. In the earliest days the church kept the young women in lock down and taught them to read the bible and to write. As industry grew along with the labor force and the skills needed to be increased the church bowed out. That was the real basis for pubic education despite the social movement for public education. The public has always been manipulated according to big money needs. After WWII and the Korean War consumer industry expanded and with it came greater access to college with govt grants and virutally interest free loans. NYC CUNY was free and the State schools SUNY cost betw $500-600/year! This was about late 1960's. Working class people, particularly white people suddenly had access. Massive numbers of Levitown communities sprung up, feeding the construction industry. Working people, factory workers, now unionized, and civil service workers like firemen and police were buying homes for $8-9,000.00. Fast forward, and we have an economic situation that promotes outsourcing jobs by the millllions to nations without labor or safety laws followed by the development of robots and AI that will replace even more people than has already happened. Covid was to be the experiment for depopulation, ala Bill Gates use of vaccines for this purpose. Yes he actually said this on a TED talk about 2016 which I heard. The retrenchment is quite visible as sthe government tries to end public education completely and turn any system into a for private profit enterprise, learning be damned. The dumbing down of the pubic is increasing incrementally with the press complicit in promoting all the propaganda of the corporate elite. Unless people have a special guru to guide them in independent thinking and understanding of the propaganda practices, we are in a deepening pickle to organize and push back.
A deepening pickle indeed. What you say is really personal for me. Toward the end of his working life, my dad was an attorney for the Williamsburgh Savings Bank in Brooklyn, which made a lot of Levitown mortgages in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties. And had I not had external scholarship money, I might have ended up at CUNY, which wouldn,t have been terrible. Really was good public higher ed in NY State back then. What ultimately evolved (in all higher ed, causing me to get out) saddened me deeply. I won't even touch covid or Gates because then anger flares and I'm trying to temper that aspect of myself. But thanks for your comment; evoked some reminiscences of my dad.
In the 23 years and eight months that have passed since 9-11, the most important political lesson I’ve learned is that almost everyone—no matter how intelligent—massively underestimates the power of propaganda. In the 19 months that have passed since 7 October 2023, the two most important lessons I’ve learned are: the “rule of law” is a myth—there is only violence and the threat of violence; and most people living in “developed countries” are more complicit in genocide than the “good Germans” c.1933-1945.
" If you come across a key piece of information about the empire’s criminality you’ve got to hold onto it and remember its significance for yourself, because the imperial press sure aren’t going to remind you. They’re going to be acting like it never happened by next week."
It's amazing how much "journalistic amnesia" occurs in the Western press. It's up to us to keep reminding them and each other what's actually happening in the world and what stories are the most important ones. Children being starved to death while their families are being bombed into rubble tends to be more important, IMO, than the "filler stories" you find on network TV news for instance. You got to wonder that if during the Vietnam War we had this level of manipulation and "journalistic amnesia" would so many have protested in the streets and brought about a quicker end to the conflict? (Probably not.)
and that is what empire learned from the vietnam episode. opposition to empire that doesn't break it down but merely reforms, makes it stronger. if it's not dismantled, it will learn from the experience and close the tiktok /social media windows for future generations. in europe the call for a social media-ban for minors is getting louder, and though they claim it's for the kids' mental health, I'm sure it ain't really that (more like uncomfortable questions, imo).
I have been waiting for 20 or 30 years for the press or someone with some power to express serious anxiety about the climate crisis. When I worked at a job that dealt with climate change, our government was pushing to teach people to adapt. Nothing at all about mitigation. Our politicians push for more pipelines. They act as if electric cars are the answer without considering all the mining that happens to keep batteries operating. Make money make money make money. Don't worry about the forests that are burning down or the extremes in climate. Nope. Just think about the economy. That is what really matters. And wars, bombs, weapons that contribute even more to climate change than cars? Again, they just CANNOT let all that money go. Weapons and fighter planes make those at the top of the money pile a lot more money. Can't let go of that.
It has always been about the interests of the corporate class. Power never concedes power on its own. Until the people organize and stand up against this power we will not get any change. This is really a class war and keeping the public divided is a major tactic of the controlling elite protecting it from real attacks. This is never about social issues, which is a major distraction used today, but one of power relationships with the people on the losing end--so far!
The most depressing and infuriating thing about trying to show friends and family the media grift that Caitlin describes, is how people accept the media's conclusions (like "Putin is an evil madman who cannot be reasoned with") as arguments for why to accept that same media's framing of events. The media has people on a hamster wheel of hatred and emotional instability, and those on it hate no one more than the person who tries to point that out to them
I find the best tool for making one's mind harder to be manipulated is to just not ingest the propaganda.
I don't even own a TV, as there's nothing of value allowed to be on it in the first place. I remain far more informed on world events than any half dozen people I know, but through sources I choose to follow and trust.
The example of the plandemic is relevant; it could have been ended in the original "two weeks" if the MSM news facilities had been bombed into oblivion.
You know, that’s really not as effective as people think it is. I have TONS of liberal friends who claim to never pay attention to MSNBC, the Times, CNN etc. And I believe them. They believe that propaganda doesn’t impact them because they eschew media; they also tend to believe in Russiagate, that Russia was unprovoked, and that mass rapes occurred in Israel on Oct 7.
To believe that ignoring media makes you immune from propaganda is like believing you aren’t inhaling particulate matter because you don’t breathe oxygen; people are much safer from propaganda if they DO read media and know HOW it works and who it works for; it’s best to always be perfectly aware of what Empire is wanting people to believe on any given subject.
True, but it's a good first step. I haven't owned a TV for over twenty years and don't miss it in the slightest. If nothing else, it frees up a lot of time, some of which could be used on thinking.
I live in the EU, so I honestly don't consume US media (I don't have access...) BUT - when I do go home to the US and happen to see it, man... it's not even well done propaganda. Even so, it's remarkably effective, even on those of us who do not watch it.
Why? Because we yanks are primed for tribalism from our earliest school experiences. Think of the amount of time we spend on team sports, for example. Pep rallies, cheerleading, sport-ball games, team mascots, 'be true to your school' nonsense. And then, how much of our education is about 'patriotism' - pledging allegiance to a piece of cloth and singing songs about it while we are still in pre-school.
We are WIRED for group think, well before we have any critical thinking ability at all, and the price for disloyalty from our 'team' is social death. Because this indoctrination begins so young, our bodies and brains feel this as a threat to our literal survival.
And even if we leave our team of origin, we look for another team to join... (and that team is always 'better')
So, even if YOU or I do not personally watch CNN or MSNBC, members of our 'team' do, and woe to you and your membership to that team if you don't think Reagan was the greatest or Obama was the best; your fellows WILL turn on you and it WILL be bloody.
Those of us who are kind of immune to propaganda are likely to be those who were rather non-conformist kindergartners to begin with.
I'm not American but we also get the tribal exceptionalism conditioning in Britain, if in a slightly more subtle way. We don't do flags and pledges of alliance and that crap, it's all a bit OTT. We'll stick to sensible stuff like an inherited monarchy and gold coaches, lol.
At the end of the day, we're basically monkeys and that means we're designed to live in troops. So yes, being an outsider/straggler is asking to be supper, and our systems capitalise on that, especially now that they are chucking so much psychology and social science stuff at the propaganda. I don't think that the basic need of itself is intrinsically problematic but when it's weaponised against you, that's clearly a different matter.
I'm certainly realising that it's actually been a blessing to have been an outsider all my life, ergo, not trapped in any team allegiance that might make it harder to live in accordance with my values.
Well articulated Slightly Lucid! So true - it is the fear of being social outcasts from our perceived 'in-groups' that put pressure on people conforming to things they don't necessarily think are right and agree with.
I've seen this time and again in so many societies and cultures. Our human need for connection can too easily be hijacked into 'us vs. them' dynamics.
I certainly agree. While not absorbing too much of it, I find it both best and cheaper to minimally access it in order to help understand what they're currently saying at the given moment. You don't have to have MSNBC or CNN etc, just the (3) off-air networks: NBC, ABC and CBS..or PBS for that matter.
I (thanks be to God) cannot access US news channels because I don't live there - but, sadly, my friends do, and I can see how the blatant repetition of anchor-news talking points worms their way into their brains; it doesn't even register that they are hearing their beloved anchors and pundits and 'journalists' using the EXACT SAME PHRASES over and over again before they themselves are repeating them... ex: Joe Biden is 'Sharp as a Tack,' Russia's invasion of Ukraine was absolutely 'UnProvoked,' etc... (and don't even GET me started on 'What about the Hostages!')
The last two articles by Caitlin on the reasons why and how the media does what it does and the people's reaction to it and how than can bypass such well planned propaganda have added even more credit to the lady in question. Not that she needs or pursues any credit or praise..
But I can smell victory. There are too many little things happening that are favourable which were not visible 3 months ago. I won't list them as I see them in my various online and truthful media avenues, as in each country they seem to be slightly different, some more relevant than others.
An example follows, sent to a major Capital city newspaper with almost no changes, as follows….
*******
"From an (elderly) reader of your newspaper (name withheld). Previously, a resident of your city for 35 years. Something important for our Prime Minister to read and understand….
The important statement…..
"The Jewish Council of XXXXX is a movement of over 1000 Jews nationwide. We’re ramping up pressure on (Prime Minster's name) to act – and working side by side with our Palestinian allies to demand that our government pressure Israel to stop killing Palestinians. We are a bold and growing Jewish movement that won’t stay silent in the face of genocide. This government will hear us – and we won’t let them look away."
Republished from The Jewish Council of XXXXX, 7 May 2025.
One feels that it is time for me to go find all these people and embrace them all. They are my kind of people….they are truly my countrymen….definitely my friends….. kindred spirits, one and all.
They are not genocide supporters, but real citizens and pleased to state it. These people are Jewish, as I in my long life have always known Jewish people to be.
Prime Minister and (your) government…. take note.
*******End of letter. Will it get printed? It is a Western Government, so, most unlikely.
In other words, there IS always a reason the news is framed the way it is, or why it is not reported. The narrative must ALWAYS fit the interests of the ongoing Empire. This is why independent media are so important.
Some independent media have toed the line all the way from7 Oct and areola now poking a toe out, even after many, many letters from readers. Let's see hiw long they stay the course before slithering back cap-in-hand.
But they will be mouthpieces for neoliberalism. The Establishment media know that their mainstream spokespeople are less likely to appeal to younger audiences and so that's where other outlets come in. Defending the rich is always a nice little earner. So non-oligarch funded media should be described as ….? Independent?
No indeed - Rogan platforms oligarchs and Establishment figures - he’s part of the problem. I think I was lucky that my parents warned me about the mainstream media from a young age and I grew up with scepticism about their commentary. I wish I knew though how to put this across clearly to others: “if they speak for the rich and powerful, don’t trust what they say” is the best I can do.
I went with the tried and true "Actions speak louder than Words" and often don't care to listen to these 'independents' or corporate media. I just keep note of who they associate with, who funds them, what they promote, et all.
What I discovered growing up is that the vast majority of media isn't interested in informing or educating people, and sensationalism with droplets of actual news is wildly profitable when the population has been conditioned to not worry about it and to believe themselves 'better' compared to the rest of the world by default.
After all, they can't be completely wrong if they're living in the best country of the world right? Right?
There's also the issue of many people simply not being given the information or the tools to acquire the information in the first place. While tiktok, for example, had many issues and exploited kids, it also was so badly managed (in a capitalist sense) that at least two generations of kids got exposed to information sources that not only provided evidence of what was going on in real-time, but also actively called out the propaganda and manipulation the kids grew up i for what is was.
There's more to say, but Caitlin and various others I'd followed over the years here and elsewhere say it well. It's always about the money and the control that wealth brings for the immortality-seeking elite (billionares currently, although we're likely to reach trillionares soon); that's been the case sense the beginning.
The importance if the release of the Israili-American , from my perspective. Is 1) Trump ( for his own reasons,attempting to stop the erosion if his approval by the public and show his singular power) negotiating directly with Hamas, creating a deep rift with the Netanyahu coalition..leading ,
Netanyahu to publicly refer to the need to ,"detox" from American support.
Despite denials, this signals a break with past alliance. Yes, Trump continues to supply weapons but he has begun a process of unilateral decision making that changes the calculus in ways profound but as yet unpredictable.....Trump wants to show his power as a peacemaker and this puts him at odds with a regime whose power is based on war. We have yet to reckon in Trump's' incompetence, but Hamas is being very welcoming of this political divorce.
Without US support. Israel is crippled and so this attempt by Trump to operate independently in terms if Hamas exposes Israel's weakness..and this may force them to make concessions the mask with increased brutality. In a divided Usrael where one side calls for a final solution and another, led by the hostage families, calls Netanyahu a murdere for putting his own political survival ahead if saving the lives of the remains hostages. This division within Israel both strengthens Gazan resistance and creates pressure for the ruling regime to abandon its maniacal fantasy of "total victory ."
These are possible trajectories we can glimpse by reading between the lines beyond the spectacular of one soldier being released.
Spotting the propaganda can become a healthy mental game. How is it being spun? What are you encouraged to believe? Who benefits from the perception being put on offer?
And there are actually some news sources that give more accurate perspectives. Consortium News is one source that I appreciate.
>>"Spotting the propaganda can become a healthy mental game."
True, but using mental energy to discern the barrage of propaganda in today's world (online and offline) can be energy draining. Along the lines of Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow", discerning propaganda involves slow thinking - which uses more mental energy resources - which is one reason why people prefer fast thinking (and often avoid slow thinking). The same applies to why people don't think critically - because it involves more effort - and in our present-day lifestyles and living modes people often prefer the easier/lighter-cognitive-mental-load path.
Each time I would read in the media the ever repeated statement re "Oct 7 Hamas atrocities" then the extremely mild words "Israeli attacks" or "Israeli conflict" made my blood boil.
Hamas wanted to draw attention to the brutality handed out every day in Gaza.
It worked, too well, because Israel then showed the world just how brutal they truly are when Hamas broke the deal that Netanyahu has/had with Qatar passing on money to keep Hamas under the boot of Israel.
So I am well aware, after 85 years in his world, that the use of words, how they are placed, in order to get the ^right^ reaction from the public, which is Israel always the victim, Palestine always the bad guys. Well, people are waking up to that nasty little trick and have decided enough is more than enough.
Yes, Carolyn L Z some of us may not need Caitlin's advice on this Newsletter but there are many out there who may need it, who are confused and ignorant of how the capitalist media works, that the mainstream media is part of the establishment.To make believe in the myth of their democracy.
By now the discerning among us have come to realise the distortions, the omissions, the manipulation, the use/abuse of language that Caitlin is talking about.
Noam Chomsky used to say that he finds the truth by reading between the lines of legacy media.
Epstein “collected” people. What’s more telling is the recent emphasis on Chomsky having known him in an attempt to disqualify Chomsky’s entire body of work, while completely ignoring the 26+ times Clinton flew the Lolita express, ignoring the missing video tapes in FBI custody, ignoring the assassinations of Epstein’s victims.
This is really exactly what Caitlyn’s article is about. Look where media is placing its emphasis, and why.
"In the early years of the Cold War, efforts were made by the United States Government to use mass media to influence public opinion internationally. After the United States Senate Watergate Committee in 1973 uncovered domestic surveillance abuses directed by the Executive branch of the United States government and The New York Times in 1974 published an article by Seymour Hersh claiming the CIA had violated its charter by spying on anti-war activists, former CIA officials and some lawmakers called for a congressional inquiry that became known as the Church Committee.
Published in 1976, the committee's report confirmed some earlier stories that charged that the CIA had cultivated relationships with private institutions, including the press. Without identifying individuals by name, the Church Committee stated that it found fifty journalists who had official, but secret, relationships with the CIA. In a 1977 Rolling Stone magazine article, "The CIA and the Media," reporter Carl Bernstein expanded upon the Church Committee's report and wrote that more than 400 US press members had secretly carried out assignments for the CIA, including New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger, columnist and political analyst Stewart Alsop and Time magazine. Bernstein documented the way in which overseas branches of major US news agencies had for many years served as the "eyes and ears" of Operation Mockingbird, which functioned to disseminate CIA propaganda through domestic US media."
This entire disgusting gushing coverage of Eden Andersen in the MSM has brought me to the precipice of gigantic reverse peristalsis. A US-Israel dual-drone Zionist is just about the last traitorous entity I want to hear about, much less celebrate release of. May he and all Zionazis -- especially those idiot Americans who crave a stint in the IDF -- all burn in Hades together.
The media doesn’t point out that Eden is an American who joined the Israeli military so he could kill unarmed Palestinians. If this ‘brave’ young man wanted to protect innocents he could have joined the American military… or wait…they don’t protect innocents either.
"Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don’t understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it’s profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it’s profitable, the insurance companies who deny us health care when it’s profitable, the banks who take away our homes when it’s profitable. Our enemies are not 5000 miles away. They are right here at home."
"The Real Terrorist Was Me"
- Michael Prysner, U.S. Army veteran
It needs to be illegal to serve in a foreign military
👍
From one Gypsy to another.
One step further. Illegal under the freaking Espionage Act -- i.e., treason. Particularly touchy one for me: When I worked for DOE with a security clearance, managers would wave the Espionage Act at us with a vengeance. Just for the hell of it. There were posters in secure vaults of that imprisoned supposedly turncoat FBI agent whose name I can gratefully no longer recall (was a famous case) -- to let us know that jail time awaited violators who might improperly handle a piece of classified info [HA, Biden and Trump both cleaned their toilets with some]. BUT, you can go kill babies for bloody Israel -- that's not treason. BOLLOCKS!!!
Haaretz (Israel's "paper of record") has this:
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Alexander, a 20-year-old IDF Golani Brigade soldier, was abducted from a guard post at the "White House" outpost near Kibbutz Nirim.
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That puts him 2 km (less than 2 miles) from the Gaza Wall on Oct 7th.
He was an occupier on Occupied Land!
He was part of an elite IDF army unit.
I did a search on "White House" and found this Jerusalem Post article:
Title: Probe reveals Nirim deserted by IDF on Oct. 7, residents still feel betrayed by gov’t
[they should feel betrayed as that was what Oct 7th was - a planned betrayal by Netanyahu to create a pretext for the Gaza Holocaust]
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-848841
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Prior to the war, Nirim had a population of just over 400 residents. It is located close to Kibbutz Nir Oz, which was also utterly abandoned by the IDF until the early afternoon hours of October 7, when it was mostly too late to confront Hamas’s terrorists, who had by then almost entirely returned to Gaza.
Residents did acknowledge to The Jerusalem Post that there are many more IDF positions nearby now and that Nirim’s White House – a small nearby outpost – now has four times as many military personnel as it did on October 7, including more tanks.
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Half of the IDF around Gaza were on leave on October 7th because it was both the Sabbath and a Jewish Holiday. And Hamas knew it, and the IDF knew Hamas knew it, because it was all laid out in Hamas' plan for Oct 7th which the Israelis had captured a year before October 7th.
In the early morning hours of Oct 7th an emergency meeting was held by top Israeli generals. There was extremely strong intelligence gathered that said Hamas was about to jailbreak. Someone ask Edan Alexander what sort of warning he was given in the early morning hours of October 7th.
ASK HIM
Netanyahu **wanted** Edan Alexander sacrificed for a pretext to commit the Gaza Holocaust and to
keep Netanyahu out of jail.
Netanyahuhu is the Great Betrayer.
He seduced Israel, like a Darth Vader, to take their souls into The Dark Side and become Genociders.
My exact thoughts and anger. This guy deserved what he got and is quite lucky to be alive. I have no sympathy for him as he went to a country to kill people of color simply for being different and demanding their own self-determination for themselves and their culture. He chose to support destroying them genocidally
Who or what is "Eden Andersen"?
If you mean Eden Alexander, he is an American with dual citizenship who went to Israel to join the IDF. He was captured and just released last month. Interesting to learn that he was to be the sacrificial lamb for Israel's False Flag. Remember Zionism ALWAYS spoke of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and the takeover of all of Palestine. The Palestinians were always referred to in disgusting terms, pretty much as the Nazis did to the Jews. The Jews are now the Nazis sharing that claim with the Ukrainians and their overt Nazi government. While the Israeli public still ignores or applauds the Palestinian destruction, it is people from the IDF who are speaking out about the Nazism of the Israel. Having to participate in burning children and women alive sometimes gets thru the sociopathic mentality of the fighters who have to live with these damning actions in which they participated.
What is ignored is the core racism of the situation. America, a white supremacist country, counts on this underlying prejudice when reporting on Israel and its genocide. Then they use anti-semitism as a weapon against free speech which the oligarch and their political toadies have been trying to kill in this country. And this is for both Parties so let's get over our belief that we have 2 different political Parties in the US. They both have attacked free speech and both have supported racism. They both are war mongering and imperialist with the same hegemonic belief in their superiority and entitlement to control the world and all its people. And this includes doing away with millions of people whom they see as excess population that no longer serve any use.
That is my exact point! People of color are treated the same by white western supremacist and I include the Israelis as well as they subscribe to the same vile hatred of dark skin people, even when they are Jewish! FYI, there are Black, African Jews that trace their heritage back to the 12 tribes. They were treated like scum when they immigrated to Israel. And so are the darker Misrahi Jews that hailed from the ME historically (Morocco for example)
Thanks, hadn't heard this one in awhile.
Pretend that Andersen were Russian. We'd hear a non-stop chorus of outrage.
One thing we don't hear is there are about 23,000 Americans serving in the IDF!!! using their dual citizenship. This article says GOP wants military benefits to Americans serving the IDF!!!!! People need to know this and make calls, write letters, post on social media loud protests!
With Russia we need to remember that ever since their revolution, 1917-18 that State has been serially labelled an enemy with hostile characterizations. It is a country that most Americans know nothing about so they serve as an invisible 'germ' to promote fear mongering propaganda in this country. If it weren't for the USSR WWII would have been lost with Russia losing about 30 million people. Ukraine that was totally nazified during WWII, killing about 60,000 Jews and is still a Nazi controlled State has been sold to Americans as our allies. Talk about turning reality on its head. Is it any wonder that Russia has serious issues with the current Ukraine nazified ideology controlling that State and destroying the Russian speaking population there!
the russians indeed got one of theirs out too recently. alexander druev, a journalist.
I prefer to see Americans, etc as intentionally dumbed down so they can be controlled. This is the job of propaganda. Our social institutions are all constructed to support the Economic one; ie Capitalism. Our education system is quite perfect in its role of providing the kind of thinking and skills sought by Capitalism and its corporate controllers. The education tracking system has disappeared only in name as children are still tracked, oftimes surreptitiously with differential expectations, support offered or not, access to meaningful books, etc. Organized religion does its part to keep people in line. The family is always required to support the system or it is attacked; ie children removed when parents want to home school or teach a different politic or attitudes about the medical industry, etc. Demanding obedience instead of independent thinking is core to the process.
It's far worse even, because all these algorithms we take for granted are written for efficiency. Of what? Profitability, for the most part, of course. This builds in biases that are never examined except by enlightened mathematicians like Cathy O'Neill (in her book, "Weapons of Math Destruction", highly recommended). Poor, minority already ostracized communities get further removed from wealth and power as a consequence of these hidden algorithmic biases, and no one gives a crap because they serve the interests of our Capitalist oligarch massas.
We agree. What you say simply adds some specificity to my comment.
Education, for example, only developed as industry needed increasing reading and math skills. In the earliest days the church kept the young women in lock down and taught them to read the bible and to write. As industry grew along with the labor force and the skills needed to be increased the church bowed out. That was the real basis for pubic education despite the social movement for public education. The public has always been manipulated according to big money needs. After WWII and the Korean War consumer industry expanded and with it came greater access to college with govt grants and virutally interest free loans. NYC CUNY was free and the State schools SUNY cost betw $500-600/year! This was about late 1960's. Working class people, particularly white people suddenly had access. Massive numbers of Levitown communities sprung up, feeding the construction industry. Working people, factory workers, now unionized, and civil service workers like firemen and police were buying homes for $8-9,000.00. Fast forward, and we have an economic situation that promotes outsourcing jobs by the millllions to nations without labor or safety laws followed by the development of robots and AI that will replace even more people than has already happened. Covid was to be the experiment for depopulation, ala Bill Gates use of vaccines for this purpose. Yes he actually said this on a TED talk about 2016 which I heard. The retrenchment is quite visible as sthe government tries to end public education completely and turn any system into a for private profit enterprise, learning be damned. The dumbing down of the pubic is increasing incrementally with the press complicit in promoting all the propaganda of the corporate elite. Unless people have a special guru to guide them in independent thinking and understanding of the propaganda practices, we are in a deepening pickle to organize and push back.
A deepening pickle indeed. What you say is really personal for me. Toward the end of his working life, my dad was an attorney for the Williamsburgh Savings Bank in Brooklyn, which made a lot of Levitown mortgages in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties. And had I not had external scholarship money, I might have ended up at CUNY, which wouldn,t have been terrible. Really was good public higher ed in NY State back then. What ultimately evolved (in all higher ed, causing me to get out) saddened me deeply. I won't even touch covid or Gates because then anger flares and I'm trying to temper that aspect of myself. But thanks for your comment; evoked some reminiscences of my dad.
In the 23 years and eight months that have passed since 9-11, the most important political lesson I’ve learned is that almost everyone—no matter how intelligent—massively underestimates the power of propaganda. In the 19 months that have passed since 7 October 2023, the two most important lessons I’ve learned are: the “rule of law” is a myth—there is only violence and the threat of violence; and most people living in “developed countries” are more complicit in genocide than the “good Germans” c.1933-1945.
Caitlin, this is a great article after the one you wrote yesterday. You describe the machinations perfectly.
Caitlin is preaching to the choir in my case.
" If you come across a key piece of information about the empire’s criminality you’ve got to hold onto it and remember its significance for yourself, because the imperial press sure aren’t going to remind you. They’re going to be acting like it never happened by next week."
It's amazing how much "journalistic amnesia" occurs in the Western press. It's up to us to keep reminding them and each other what's actually happening in the world and what stories are the most important ones. Children being starved to death while their families are being bombed into rubble tends to be more important, IMO, than the "filler stories" you find on network TV news for instance. You got to wonder that if during the Vietnam War we had this level of manipulation and "journalistic amnesia" would so many have protested in the streets and brought about a quicker end to the conflict? (Probably not.)
and that is what empire learned from the vietnam episode. opposition to empire that doesn't break it down but merely reforms, makes it stronger. if it's not dismantled, it will learn from the experience and close the tiktok /social media windows for future generations. in europe the call for a social media-ban for minors is getting louder, and though they claim it's for the kids' mental health, I'm sure it ain't really that (more like uncomfortable questions, imo).
I have been waiting for 20 or 30 years for the press or someone with some power to express serious anxiety about the climate crisis. When I worked at a job that dealt with climate change, our government was pushing to teach people to adapt. Nothing at all about mitigation. Our politicians push for more pipelines. They act as if electric cars are the answer without considering all the mining that happens to keep batteries operating. Make money make money make money. Don't worry about the forests that are burning down or the extremes in climate. Nope. Just think about the economy. That is what really matters. And wars, bombs, weapons that contribute even more to climate change than cars? Again, they just CANNOT let all that money go. Weapons and fighter planes make those at the top of the money pile a lot more money. Can't let go of that.
It has always been about the interests of the corporate class. Power never concedes power on its own. Until the people organize and stand up against this power we will not get any change. This is really a class war and keeping the public divided is a major tactic of the controlling elite protecting it from real attacks. This is never about social issues, which is a major distraction used today, but one of power relationships with the people on the losing end--so far!
Mine the batteries, already! Even if the batteries must be redesigned to facilitate that "mining".
The most depressing and infuriating thing about trying to show friends and family the media grift that Caitlin describes, is how people accept the media's conclusions (like "Putin is an evil madman who cannot be reasoned with") as arguments for why to accept that same media's framing of events. The media has people on a hamster wheel of hatred and emotional instability, and those on it hate no one more than the person who tries to point that out to them
He may be a madman, as Paul Craig Roberts suggests. He has not run the SMO to win, and allows very nearly every red line to be crossed with impunity.
But when I confront normies about that, they say that not be what they mean when they suggest, Putin be crazy.
Good information. Like our baby's first chomsky book.
I find the best tool for making one's mind harder to be manipulated is to just not ingest the propaganda.
I don't even own a TV, as there's nothing of value allowed to be on it in the first place. I remain far more informed on world events than any half dozen people I know, but through sources I choose to follow and trust.
The example of the plandemic is relevant; it could have been ended in the original "two weeks" if the MSM news facilities had been bombed into oblivion.
You know, that’s really not as effective as people think it is. I have TONS of liberal friends who claim to never pay attention to MSNBC, the Times, CNN etc. And I believe them. They believe that propaganda doesn’t impact them because they eschew media; they also tend to believe in Russiagate, that Russia was unprovoked, and that mass rapes occurred in Israel on Oct 7.
To believe that ignoring media makes you immune from propaganda is like believing you aren’t inhaling particulate matter because you don’t breathe oxygen; people are much safer from propaganda if they DO read media and know HOW it works and who it works for; it’s best to always be perfectly aware of what Empire is wanting people to believe on any given subject.
True, but it's a good first step. I haven't owned a TV for over twenty years and don't miss it in the slightest. If nothing else, it frees up a lot of time, some of which could be used on thinking.
I live in the EU, so I honestly don't consume US media (I don't have access...) BUT - when I do go home to the US and happen to see it, man... it's not even well done propaganda. Even so, it's remarkably effective, even on those of us who do not watch it.
Why? Because we yanks are primed for tribalism from our earliest school experiences. Think of the amount of time we spend on team sports, for example. Pep rallies, cheerleading, sport-ball games, team mascots, 'be true to your school' nonsense. And then, how much of our education is about 'patriotism' - pledging allegiance to a piece of cloth and singing songs about it while we are still in pre-school.
We are WIRED for group think, well before we have any critical thinking ability at all, and the price for disloyalty from our 'team' is social death. Because this indoctrination begins so young, our bodies and brains feel this as a threat to our literal survival.
And even if we leave our team of origin, we look for another team to join... (and that team is always 'better')
So, even if YOU or I do not personally watch CNN or MSNBC, members of our 'team' do, and woe to you and your membership to that team if you don't think Reagan was the greatest or Obama was the best; your fellows WILL turn on you and it WILL be bloody.
Those of us who are kind of immune to propaganda are likely to be those who were rather non-conformist kindergartners to begin with.
I'm not American but we also get the tribal exceptionalism conditioning in Britain, if in a slightly more subtle way. We don't do flags and pledges of alliance and that crap, it's all a bit OTT. We'll stick to sensible stuff like an inherited monarchy and gold coaches, lol.
At the end of the day, we're basically monkeys and that means we're designed to live in troops. So yes, being an outsider/straggler is asking to be supper, and our systems capitalise on that, especially now that they are chucking so much psychology and social science stuff at the propaganda. I don't think that the basic need of itself is intrinsically problematic but when it's weaponised against you, that's clearly a different matter.
I'm certainly realising that it's actually been a blessing to have been an outsider all my life, ergo, not trapped in any team allegiance that might make it harder to live in accordance with my values.
Yeah, me too. But being an outsider is really lonely 😞
Yeah, I know… sigh… sending hugs, fellow EU outsider
Well articulated Slightly Lucid! So true - it is the fear of being social outcasts from our perceived 'in-groups' that put pressure on people conforming to things they don't necessarily think are right and agree with.
I've seen this time and again in so many societies and cultures. Our human need for connection can too easily be hijacked into 'us vs. them' dynamics.
Well said Slightly Lucid! EVERYONE is susceptible to propaganda, regardless of the source.
I certainly agree. While not absorbing too much of it, I find it both best and cheaper to minimally access it in order to help understand what they're currently saying at the given moment. You don't have to have MSNBC or CNN etc, just the (3) off-air networks: NBC, ABC and CBS..or PBS for that matter.
I (thanks be to God) cannot access US news channels because I don't live there - but, sadly, my friends do, and I can see how the blatant repetition of anchor-news talking points worms their way into their brains; it doesn't even register that they are hearing their beloved anchors and pundits and 'journalists' using the EXACT SAME PHRASES over and over again before they themselves are repeating them... ex: Joe Biden is 'Sharp as a Tack,' Russia's invasion of Ukraine was absolutely 'UnProvoked,' etc... (and don't even GET me started on 'What about the Hostages!')
Grrrr. I'm soooo pissed off but can't do anything effective about it. Frustration, unlimited...all the time.
Robert,
The last two articles by Caitlin on the reasons why and how the media does what it does and the people's reaction to it and how than can bypass such well planned propaganda have added even more credit to the lady in question. Not that she needs or pursues any credit or praise..
But I can smell victory. There are too many little things happening that are favourable which were not visible 3 months ago. I won't list them as I see them in my various online and truthful media avenues, as in each country they seem to be slightly different, some more relevant than others.
An example follows, sent to a major Capital city newspaper with almost no changes, as follows….
*******
"From an (elderly) reader of your newspaper (name withheld). Previously, a resident of your city for 35 years. Something important for our Prime Minister to read and understand….
The important statement…..
"The Jewish Council of XXXXX is a movement of over 1000 Jews nationwide. We’re ramping up pressure on (Prime Minster's name) to act – and working side by side with our Palestinian allies to demand that our government pressure Israel to stop killing Palestinians. We are a bold and growing Jewish movement that won’t stay silent in the face of genocide. This government will hear us – and we won’t let them look away."
Republished from The Jewish Council of XXXXX, 7 May 2025.
One feels that it is time for me to go find all these people and embrace them all. They are my kind of people….they are truly my countrymen….definitely my friends….. kindred spirits, one and all.
They are not genocide supporters, but real citizens and pleased to state it. These people are Jewish, as I in my long life have always known Jewish people to be.
Prime Minister and (your) government…. take note.
*******End of letter. Will it get printed? It is a Western Government, so, most unlikely.
Thank You, Contrarian 33. You have given example of change that is well worth keeping in mind. Thank You
Thanks...a great, comforting comment. (Does Neturei Karta have, even peripherally, something to say/contribute...?)
In other words, there IS always a reason the news is framed the way it is, or why it is not reported. The narrative must ALWAYS fit the interests of the ongoing Empire. This is why independent media are so important.
Some independent media have toed the line all the way from7 Oct and areola now poking a toe out, even after many, many letters from readers. Let's see hiw long they stay the course before slithering back cap-in-hand.
But they will be mouthpieces for neoliberalism. The Establishment media know that their mainstream spokespeople are less likely to appeal to younger audiences and so that's where other outlets come in. Defending the rich is always a nice little earner. So non-oligarch funded media should be described as ….? Independent?
Until they turn on you...
And...are now...
I hate spellcheck.
Independent media is important but don't think for one second that Joe Rogan et al are independent.
No indeed - Rogan platforms oligarchs and Establishment figures - he’s part of the problem. I think I was lucky that my parents warned me about the mainstream media from a young age and I grew up with scepticism about their commentary. I wish I knew though how to put this across clearly to others: “if they speak for the rich and powerful, don’t trust what they say” is the best I can do.
I went with the tried and true "Actions speak louder than Words" and often don't care to listen to these 'independents' or corporate media. I just keep note of who they associate with, who funds them, what they promote, et all.
What I discovered growing up is that the vast majority of media isn't interested in informing or educating people, and sensationalism with droplets of actual news is wildly profitable when the population has been conditioned to not worry about it and to believe themselves 'better' compared to the rest of the world by default.
After all, they can't be completely wrong if they're living in the best country of the world right? Right?
There's also the issue of many people simply not being given the information or the tools to acquire the information in the first place. While tiktok, for example, had many issues and exploited kids, it also was so badly managed (in a capitalist sense) that at least two generations of kids got exposed to information sources that not only provided evidence of what was going on in real-time, but also actively called out the propaganda and manipulation the kids grew up i for what is was.
There's more to say, but Caitlin and various others I'd followed over the years here and elsewhere say it well. It's always about the money and the control that wealth brings for the immortality-seeking elite (billionares currently, although we're likely to reach trillionares soon); that's been the case sense the beginning.
Yes.
The importance if the release of the Israili-American , from my perspective. Is 1) Trump ( for his own reasons,attempting to stop the erosion if his approval by the public and show his singular power) negotiating directly with Hamas, creating a deep rift with the Netanyahu coalition..leading ,
Netanyahu to publicly refer to the need to ,"detox" from American support.
Despite denials, this signals a break with past alliance. Yes, Trump continues to supply weapons but he has begun a process of unilateral decision making that changes the calculus in ways profound but as yet unpredictable.....Trump wants to show his power as a peacemaker and this puts him at odds with a regime whose power is based on war. We have yet to reckon in Trump's' incompetence, but Hamas is being very welcoming of this political divorce.
Without US support. Israel is crippled and so this attempt by Trump to operate independently in terms if Hamas exposes Israel's weakness..and this may force them to make concessions the mask with increased brutality. In a divided Usrael where one side calls for a final solution and another, led by the hostage families, calls Netanyahu a murdere for putting his own political survival ahead if saving the lives of the remains hostages. This division within Israel both strengthens Gazan resistance and creates pressure for the ruling regime to abandon its maniacal fantasy of "total victory ."
These are possible trajectories we can glimpse by reading between the lines beyond the spectacular of one soldier being released.
Spotting the propaganda can become a healthy mental game. How is it being spun? What are you encouraged to believe? Who benefits from the perception being put on offer?
And there are actually some news sources that give more accurate perspectives. Consortium News is one source that I appreciate.
Drop Site News another
Hi Diana
Also you may wish to check out If Americans Knew and Mondoweiss if you haven’t done so yet.
>>"Spotting the propaganda can become a healthy mental game."
True, but using mental energy to discern the barrage of propaganda in today's world (online and offline) can be energy draining. Along the lines of Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow", discerning propaganda involves slow thinking - which uses more mental energy resources - which is one reason why people prefer fast thinking (and often avoid slow thinking). The same applies to why people don't think critically - because it involves more effort - and in our present-day lifestyles and living modes people often prefer the easier/lighter-cognitive-mental-load path.
Each time I would read in the media the ever repeated statement re "Oct 7 Hamas atrocities" then the extremely mild words "Israeli attacks" or "Israeli conflict" made my blood boil.
Hamas wanted to draw attention to the brutality handed out every day in Gaza.
It worked, too well, because Israel then showed the world just how brutal they truly are when Hamas broke the deal that Netanyahu has/had with Qatar passing on money to keep Hamas under the boot of Israel.
So I am well aware, after 85 years in his world, that the use of words, how they are placed, in order to get the ^right^ reaction from the public, which is Israel always the victim, Palestine always the bad guys. Well, people are waking up to that nasty little trick and have decided enough is more than enough.
At a mere 84, I agree.
I’m 71; I feel like such a child 😳
I have come to look forward to reading your posts, Davina. You tell it like it is.
Thank you, we have to do what we can for those who cannot.
One person doesn't; keeps telling me to F myself... such erudition 🤣
Y’all tell him right back Davina…if he can find his own prick 😁
I don't need this advice. I pay no attention to capitalist propaganda media. I don't believe anything they say.
Yes, Carolyn L Z some of us may not need Caitlin's advice on this Newsletter but there are many out there who may need it, who are confused and ignorant of how the capitalist media works, that the mainstream media is part of the establishment.To make believe in the myth of their democracy.
By now the discerning among us have come to realise the distortions, the omissions, the manipulation, the use/abuse of language that Caitlin is talking about.
Noam Chomsky used to say that he finds the truth by reading between the lines of legacy media.
Noam Chomsky took “big money” from Epstein. Say what?
Epstein “collected” people. What’s more telling is the recent emphasis on Chomsky having known him in an attempt to disqualify Chomsky’s entire body of work, while completely ignoring the 26+ times Clinton flew the Lolita express, ignoring the missing video tapes in FBI custody, ignoring the assassinations of Epstein’s victims.
This is really exactly what Caitlyn’s article is about. Look where media is placing its emphasis, and why.
Mossad agent Epstein. That’s clear.
Great analysis Caitlin, thanks. It should be in every media literacy class.
BTW, Epstein raped children. Call that collecting ppl. For shame on your thinking.
That is in dusute.
Dispute...
Effective propaganda is mostly thr truth to gain trust, tulip in the lie. If you don,t tend the lines, g
You can't read between the lies to find what is being covered up.
"Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will."
-Joseph Goebbels
Wikipedia, CIA Operation Mockingbird—
"In the early years of the Cold War, efforts were made by the United States Government to use mass media to influence public opinion internationally. After the United States Senate Watergate Committee in 1973 uncovered domestic surveillance abuses directed by the Executive branch of the United States government and The New York Times in 1974 published an article by Seymour Hersh claiming the CIA had violated its charter by spying on anti-war activists, former CIA officials and some lawmakers called for a congressional inquiry that became known as the Church Committee.
Published in 1976, the committee's report confirmed some earlier stories that charged that the CIA had cultivated relationships with private institutions, including the press. Without identifying individuals by name, the Church Committee stated that it found fifty journalists who had official, but secret, relationships with the CIA. In a 1977 Rolling Stone magazine article, "The CIA and the Media," reporter Carl Bernstein expanded upon the Church Committee's report and wrote that more than 400 US press members had secretly carried out assignments for the CIA, including New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger, columnist and political analyst Stewart Alsop and Time magazine. Bernstein documented the way in which overseas branches of major US news agencies had for many years served as the "eyes and ears" of Operation Mockingbird, which functioned to disseminate CIA propaganda through domestic US media."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird