193 Comments

Judge Nap is fond of quoting a friend of his: "Whoever you vote for, you get John McCain."

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Apr 11·edited Apr 11

Re-application for admittance to the World Community

Why I, The State of Israel, believe I am a good candidate.

1) I torture UN workers

2) I bomb embassies

3) I invented the Samson Option and threaten to take the rest of you with me.

4) I commit rape with impunity against mine enemies

5) I kidnap thousands, including children, with no judicial oversight

6) I commit collective punishment

7) I steal land with impunity

8) I oppress occupied inhabitants and enjoy doing so

9) I murder with impunity

10) I commit Genocide

11) I will commit torture if I see fit and even if I don't

12) I refuse to declare my official borders as I want more and more of other countries' (plural) land

13) All criticism by any member of the World Community just reinforces by Victimhood

14) I look forward to war and prod my neighbors for more

15) I need money, send a check

16) I openly interfere in the affairs of other countries, seeking support for all of the above

17) I never tell a lie as I have no concept. I only know what serves me.

18) I commit false flags and if friends or even my own people are sacrificed so be it.

19) I implement the Hannibal Doctrine

20) Treachery and betrayal of my own people are a means to an end

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And all incontrovertibly true !

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Iz has never been legitimate. It's unimaginable that they were allowed to violently steal the homes and land of Palestine. Palestine, at the very least, should have been compensated and given a big beautiful area of land for their own state from the beginning. But they should never have been invaded by these genocidal demons in 1948.

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Apr 11·edited Apr 11

Even Judge Nap types are beginning to wake up to the widespread corruption that doesn't just exist in the Democratic party. It's good to see, but may be way too late now.

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My my my what a joke this has all become unfortunately some brainless idiots think this is still an election and what Biden/Trump says WILL happen. It's a 'merry-go-round' in the supposed greatest nation on earth.

Come bring your votes and hurrah...you get a prize for the most idiotic/brutal/screwed up nation on earth.

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But please tell me; what does the designation of a political party, Democrat or Republican, have to do with anything anymore? If it ever did mean anything…

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There is a reason that I refer to them as "Team D" and "Team R" respectively.

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That's why I've been registered Libertarian for so long.

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I avoid ideology altogether, as it tends to short circuit critical thinking.

That said, most human political and economic systems can be made to work tolerably well under certain circumstances, provided and to the extent that they are not run by sociopaths.

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You're right. In my old age I finally realize that voting is a complete illusion in this country. The Powers That Be have deceived us into believing that voting is a way to control the government.

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Something I wrote elsewhere. Forgive me for repeating myself.

"Democracy, as a practical matter, is basically an exercise in passing the buck, in avoiding responsibility. Everyone in power claims to answer to and derive their authority from someone else, going ultimately back to "the people" who themselves do not directly exercise power, and who would find it difficult to exercise as a collective action problem, even if they had the formal authority to do so.

What this means is that real power is often in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, who typically don't even want to stand for election because they don't want the voters to know what their programs are, much less to give the voters and opportunity to exercise any oversight. Robert Moses is the classic example here.

Even that minimal level of scrutiny is too much for some, and real power is often exercised by people not formally part of any government structure. Corporate lobbyists or Robert Kagan come to mind .

Taking into account how wildly unpopular most western politicians and their policies are with their respective publics, "democracy" as it is practiced is basically a cover for rulers to do what they want. The technical term for this is a "beard".

After all, your elected representatives approved this. If you don't like it, you can vote for a different carefully vetted corporate imperialist muppet, so until then, shut up and fall in line!"

Did not Memphis Minnie teach the masses thusly: "I had to travel for I got wise!"?

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This is why education is our most fundamental problem.

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"I avoid ideology altogether, as it tends to short circuit critical thinking."

"Ideology" has become shorthand for misinterpreting one's beliefs (both positive and normative) as truths. But there is no such thing as (unimpeachably accessible) truths by any human or group of humans. This is precisely why long ago we settled on democracy, modern justice, and modern scientific method.

Early modern Western technocrats (including, IMO, people such as Marx, Bernays, Lippmann, Strauss, et al and their implementers, who have had self-esteem to spare) didn't fix this, but went for their selfish benefit the opposite direction of "fixing", so much the worse for society. They've had nothing but contempt for the idea that anyone else's alternative interpretation of the good society could be valid, including most anything that came before them. The sorry history of the implementation of their ideas will soon reach a totalitarian, sociopathic, and utterly horrific crescendo.

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Modern democracy does offer more sophisticated PR.

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It sure does. But that just means not only is it not democracy, but it's not intended to even be democracy.

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Humble society serving self-deprecating honest people do not have the sociopathic tendencies necessary for public office. Marx didn't write his manifesto because his ego was already satisfied.

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Apr 11·edited Apr 11

Libertarian is just another way to spell "R". It's another broken political ideology serving only the obscenely rich. Libertarianism at its very core is anti-government - which the sociopathic multi-billionaires and 1% Elite Slave Masters absolutely adore, while their unwitting, impoverished dupe wage slaves fall for it.

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Libertarianism is not really anti-government. It is pro-legitimate government. It is pro-individualism with emphasis on government operating within the constraints of the US Constitution.

Do you understand that the federal government today and for years operates in violation of constitutional restraints?

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Power attracts sociopaths the way that catnip attracts cats.

If the power is to be found in government, then the sociopaths will entrench themselves in the government. and use their power for their benefit, including changing the rules as convenient. If the private sector is a more effective power source, then sociopaths will make a beeline there and use their power for their benefit, including changing the rules as convenient.

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Apr 11·edited Apr 11

"Libertarianism is not really anti-government."

Remarkable you can write that sentence with a straight face. If it was true, I'd support Libertarianism - but you and I know it isn't. One of the worst evils of Libertarianism is the emphasis on governmental deregulation, which has deliberately harmed many Americans and the country, so the obscenely rich could become even richer - at the expense and exploitation of everyone else.

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It's a purification of the idea that only the self matters.

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Its funny that you are either in denial about the reality or are just truly uneducated on the fact that government has harmed more citizens than it has ever helped.

Regulations are written to protect the political connected cronies from the citizens. There is not one regulation you can find that actually protects the citizens as it was claimed when it was written.

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Are you suggesting that we need more government regulations?

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Libertarism is just as corrupted as Republicans Democrats and Independent parties. They may have started out with an appealing idea, but has since been corrupted by The Ruling Class or unrestrained Capitalism.

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That's Caitlin's point! Like voting whether to be hanged or shot.

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"But please tell me; what does the designation of a political party, Democrat or Republican, have to do with anything anymore?"

Fair enough. Democrat and Republican are no longer anything but two flavors of gaslighting about "we the people". Nor have they been consistent over long time periods about anything else. They're just containers, hijacked anew every few years.

But Left and Right did mean something -- and still can. Not only that, those meanings refer to things that are *both* essential to a functional society. We must remember/relearn this before our politics turns to complete gelatinous mush, and in the fog of hybrid war and a technology Rubicon, we're hauled back irretrievably to serfdom/slavery.

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Ralph Nader told us this over 20 years ago, when he ran for president in the 2000 election. His analogy was that the two parties are the two wings on the same airplane.

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I've been voting for R. Nader ever since her ran. The Organization that is the Airplane (Boeing Airplane) had been giving is less and less democratically representative candidates for at least 50 years.

I can remember complaining even then that we only have crappy choices, the "lesser of two evils". Now we just have two EVILS that over 70 % of the population don't want as candidates. That's both Republican and Democrat leaning or registered voters.

At least with the lousy choices we have it's abundantly clear to all of us that we, in fact, didn't and don't have a functional democracy.

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i prefer Galloway's "two cheeks of the same ass"

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Ha ha ha!! Much better!!

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Right. But then later, he wrote a book ("Unstoppable") that the (true) Left and Right wings should find their common ground and come together to win, an idea that has now been morphed by TPTB to mean both groups are "extremists".

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TPTB? (Always explain acronyms)

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The Powers That Be (TPTB)

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Please tell me when you had a 'leftist' Govt. in the US?

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Never - The US power establishment does not have a 'LEFT'. I would consider the Democrats to be 'center' and 'center-right', and the Republicans to be 'right' and 'far-right'. There are some pockets of people that are 'center-left' (progressives) and 'extreme far-right'.

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There's never a right-wing gov either. Just as sociopaths don't want to provide fairness to all, they also don't want to figure out a way to "maximize" (i.e. "equalize") freedom for all. Neither serves those at the top, who want only to concentrate their power. This is neither a left-wing nor a right-wing POV, no matter what you think "the other side" is saying/behaving about it.

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'... before...', already too late, imo.

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Right side cheek of arsehole that spouts globalist crap, Rep, left side = Dem.

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Of course. Biden could push The Button and Team R would bitch that Trump would have pushed it sooner and better. Team D does much the same with respect to Trump and Russia.

The goal is to score points with domestic political constituencies at the expense of the other Team. Truth or facts have nothing to do with it.

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Your article confirms what I've been struggling with for weeks. I'm disgusted with Biden, Kirby, Sullivan and Blinken, and decided that I would not vote for Biden. However, Trump would be worse vis-a-vis Assange and probably in regard to Israel, for he is a man with no heart and no scruples. While I have been in the position of choosing between the lesser of two evils for most of my life, this is much worse, for I really don't know which is the lesser.

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If Trump were in power, the MSM might actually start to do their job.

Oh, whom am I kidding? They'd chase crackpot conspiracy theories, anything but ask tough questions about power and empire or how the economic pie gets sliced.

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Do the MSM know what their jobs are?

Power and Empire: they HAVE the power and they have their Empire. Money and a job which means NOTHING.

Mouthpiece for the AIPAC lords.

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Apr 11·edited Apr 11

"The Lesser of Two Evils" is a scam. Both parties are corrupt and evil. Both parties support genocide in GAZA. So the entire concept that you have a moral choice is false. The argument is bogus. The only moral choice is not to play the game, not to allow yourself to be scammed.

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Plenty of ways that we can make our displeasure known that don't involve voting, i.e., playing their game.

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Exactly!

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The 'game' has already been decided, whether one chooses to play or not. There really isn't a choice per se. Both parties (and the whole political system) has been designed to maintain the hegemony of the power elite.

One difference between the D and R (IMHO) is that Biden may be slightly better for Americans (student loan debt cancellation, pro-choice, etc.) and Trump may be better for the world (in terms of hastening the decline of the US empire, less interventionism?, etc.)

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I'm reminded of a few lines from the classic John Badham film "Wargames":

Joshua: Greetings, Professor Falken.

Stephen Falken: Hello, Joshua.

Joshua: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?

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None of the above............maybe 3rd party vote?

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I’m voting for Cornell West. He’s the only candidate who has condemned Israel. I know he’s not going to win and this is a protest vote only but Trump will be even worse when it comes to Gaza. His vile son-in- law is on record in an interview cheerfully discussing real estate development in destroyed Gaza. Neither Biden or Trump have any shame and their concern for humanity or their countrymen is fake.

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Dr. West is not the "only candidate who has condemned Israel." Dr. Jill Stein has been doing so since before she declared her candidacy in the Green Party. Look at her first video on the subject https://youtu.be/zrl1FhA1dew?si=ZWko8MrNNHpU3wfR

(And she was a featured speaker at the March 4 Gaza and several other pro-Palestine events.)

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I voted for her twice. I think the first time she ran she would have (maybe) been able to start a grassroots, third party but the networks refused to allow her to participate in national debates and MSM trashed her as a “Russian stooge” — their favorite smear tactic.

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Yeah, the duopoly smear tactics haven't changed, but how we deal with them have. And they're not having the same effect since the independent voters (the majority) aren't falling for them anymore. The excitement is building. Join us!

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Good for you.

It's a 'jackpot' of an election because as you say there is NO shame amongst most of the leaders.

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Yes, but that will only insure that either Biden or Trump will be elected. RFK's position on Israel is no better than the other two, although his positions on the Ukrainian war and Assange are. Although West and Stein probably share my opinions, neither of them will be elected. We seem to be screwed no matter what we choose to do.

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Yup, but if a third party can get 5% nationally, that allows federal matching election funds.

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Well of course you are screwed. As I said it's not an election.

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Kennedy might have walked away with the election if he was sane on Israel. But alas…

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That really did deep-six him.

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He deep sixxed himself. His views on Palestinians are abhorrent.

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"We seem to be screwed no matter what we choose to do." - you can choose not to choose in the rigged system. That way no one can pin the results on you.

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"Don't blame me, I didn't vote!"

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Neither of Biden Or Trump have any Scruples, morals, or ethics. Except to get elected so to pay off the groups that put them there. "The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.” - H L Mencken

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I really think the "Vote Uncommitted" for both parties would, eventually, have an impact. I think that's approach would warm them that serious consequences are in store if they keep ignoring us. At least I hope so. I do think that's why Biden's mouthpieces keep talking about his feelings.

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Vote third party. Lesser-evilism only ensures evil.

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May I propose another option for your consideration:

“Government is fully aware that they need your consent and participation to maintain its existence. A nationwide “no vote” would abolish it. The problem isn’t government, but the people that perpetuate its existence, thinking they will change it by voting.” — James Garfield, March 29th 1879 House of Representatives

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Hi Cal. Is this true 'needing our consent?'

I believe in a 'no' vote too BUT it's not going to happen.

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Yes, the people of this nation have to unite against this Organization that's claims to be our government. Voting "Give Us Someone We Want" in all federal elections will put them on notice. They will get it through their heads that their END is coming.

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Hello Ellen.

I hate to say this but not many people agree with you.

I spend a day a week on the Wash. Post and read the comments (often send people to substack) it's a nightmare because VERY few of the people know or understand what is going on. They believe the lies.

So many commenters say: Vote Blue/If you vote 3rd party we will get Trump...it goes on and on.

MOST of the commenters believe Hamas was responsible for the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.

I keep doing it because I think a few are getting it but....................

It's an ugly place.

Be safe.

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Hello, Jen.

Oh don't say you hate to say what's true. I totally agree. I can't do the push back in comments any more. That Paper as well as the New York Times have lost me entirely.

I can't tolerate the vote blue BS. However, in local politics I do think we may have a chance for change. I certainly hope so.

I've written and called (didn't get through, left full message and no call back. That was in last October. Guess I'm glad I didn't hold my breath.) my Blue senators and House rep telling them that if they don't push for a ceasefire and no more bombs for Israel I won't be voting for them.

Everybody needs to warn these politicians that we are fed up with them ignoring us for decades and decades. We have to figure out how to make the "non-committal vote" protest go national and wide spread.

When Biden got in I signed a bunch of petitions that were circulating telling the DNC to DON'T run Biden again. So they knew well in advance that lots of Democrats didn't want Biden as a candidate which they didn't want the first time, but you know we're just voters, unimportant.

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Keep going Ellen and I will keep going on WAPO

I don't even know how in a Democracy the DNC have so much power!

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Biden and Trump are both mouthpieces for the establishment, but Trump does have a slightly independent streak. No idea what he'd actually do in regard to Israel (probably nothing different than is being done now) but one thing you can say is that during his term in office he did not start any new wars. I doubt he has much favor with the Pentagon.

It's irrelevant to me. I stopped voting for these tools when Biden was nominated, and I should have stopped 4 years earlier. Jill Stein in November on my ballot, it looks like.

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"for he is a man with no heart and no scruples. " - whereas Biden? Oh, forgot, he must be the "lesser of two evils".

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Biden is the most empathetic president ever. Well that’s what the shitlibs tell me.

Biden has been against the working class his entire tenure in congress, but they said they would push him left.

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Can you really quantify evil? No matter who you voted for evil has won and it has always been America’s policy.

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I wouldn't go so far as use of the word "always". I think these last few decades it has become far far worse than it ever was - the evil.

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Yeah FDR did some good things for us, but it seems every president since has tried to cancel the good things.

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'... for he is Aman with no heart and no scrupules.' i think most normal and informed people should've noticed that both are in that position.

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Apr 11Liked by Caitlin Johnstone

But Hey, The NY Times is running a page one story on the fashion choices of Dr. Jill and Mrs. Trump - don't miss it!

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author

Fuck, man.

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That should be FASCINATING..........I cannot wait.

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Thanks for alerting me to this Caitlin! Knowing it left me no choice but to reply to Ben Shapiro's X with this;

Israeli WAR Propaganda! People living the corrupted delusional POWER bubble they occupy, have no sense of COMMON HUMANITY! Common People with a sense of COMMON HUMANITY see in REAL TIME the unfolding Israeli GENOCIDE of Palestinians in Gaza. October 7 didn't happen in a vacuum!

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I imagine Ray that many think it didn't happen at all!

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So they keep up their kayfabe combat schtick, and sell it as hard as they can to make sure as many Americans as possible are clapping along to the pretend drama of the two-handed puppet show."

Gold.

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Let people not forget that most of the left gave up their anti-war position along with Obama.

Along apparently with support for Freedom of Speech and Press

A few leftist organization have remained solid in their anti-interventionist positions like Code Pink

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The vast majority of what claims to be “left in the US is not at all. It’s one of the most reactionary countries in the world. That’s how you get a modest conservative imperialist establishment figure claiming to be a “socialist” in US terms.

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I'm a liberal. I don't support any of this shit and never have. My party abandoned me a LONG time ago. So let's not over generalize. I hate everything the entire ruling class has and is doing. This government, not all of the citizens, are Nihilists.

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This situation should prove to everyone that the electoral process will solve nothing. The President you think you elected is titular. The Deep State rules, and only force will stop it.

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Go and be Tank Man on the Pentagon steps, please.

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The retardicans speak? Neither side has a handle on anything, especially intelligence.

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“Dumb and Dumber” isnt just the story of US two-party system - it’s the national culture itself. That’’s the state of the world’s most powerful country. Hardly a shock then that just everything in the world is going in the wrong direction.

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The devolution has always been the mainstage act in the Empire of Lies, Chaos, Terror and now Selfies.

This is it for that "other" side? Jesus, the bottom of the barrel full of those PCBs and lead and astringent DNA mutators. Most on both sides of the manure pile, Re-Pubic and Demon-cratic, well, here, Harris, another devolved empty bottle of gin, talking about Nazi's sort of had it right: Sammy Davis Harris.

Here, Aaron Mate:

Podcaster and philosopher Sam Harris came out with a new take this week that the Nazis were actually better than Islamic Jihadists, mainly Hamas. So if you know anyone who survived the Holocaust, you can tell them that they really didn’t have it that bad.

This racist and absurd opinion stems from the crazy idea that Hamas is analogous to Nazis in the first place: we might remind Mr. Harris that in Germany in 1941, the Jews were not occupying the Germans. The Jews were not keeping Germans in a concentration camp. The Jews were not putting Germans on a diet. The Jews were not “mowing the lawn” of Germans.

The Jews, like the Palestinians, were, as Norman Finkelstein said in our interview last week, “refusing to accept the fate that has been meted out to them: to languish and die in a concentration camp."

The fact that people like Sam Harris are considered thought leaders in our country is a scary thing.

+--+

The Poisonous Snakes of U$A.

https://paulokirk.substack.com/p/empire-of-poisonous-snakes-across

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In other words, they want Gaza including Rafah to be razed to the ground. How can you be so incredibly sick?

In other words, they want Gaza including Rafah to be razed to the ground. How can you be so incredibly sick?

And what are these psychopaths discussing openly? The extermination of everyone who doesn't belong to their gang of psychopaths. Why is there no global outcry? Because almost no one knows. Why does almost no one know? Who then owns almost all the media?

Rothschild Golem and the End of the World the Plan to Kill Us in Their Own Words - https://rumble.com/v4ohz3l-rothschild-golem-and-the-end-of-the-world-the-plan-to-kill-us-in-their-own-.html

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The International chief of JP Morgan warned of a crash coming and those kind of people don't say that stuff outloud. It's s big no no to scare investors and consumers alike.

So is he warning the CIA (the Murderous group in charge) and world leaders to change course or precipitating fear to gain market share?

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Zionists are so powerful that the two presidential candidates are accusing each other of not supporting Israel enough! Not talking about taxes, infrastructure, climate, healthcare, veterans, homeless, $34T debt, etc. ISRAEL!!

Why? Because they believe that whoever supports Israel more will be put in the W.H. by the Zionist Lobby. Let that sink in!

Zionism is a disease. Speaking TRUTH is the cure! Free Palestine 🇵🇸

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