Yes, that's the narrative they want to spread. They want us, the western middle classes, to identify with the Palestinians, and not as we actually are, the people who enable Gaza and other genocides with our continued lifestyle support for US based interests in oil, animal ag, pharma, media, tech, entertainment, finance and arms.
These interests already watch everything we do and could kill us if they wished. But they don't; they want us alive and buying their products.
They flatter us that the robot dogs they place on social media, not to normalise them but to get us raging at them, are in case we might develop 'revolutionary consciousness' that they fear. They don't. We're right where they want us; thinking we're rebels but conforming.
Thanks, Caitlin. Good catch on how these are being normalized. I can't imagine The Times doing that with the more obvious and brutal manifestations of growing neofascist control in this country, but it's amazing how the surveillance, data-gathering, and censorship can be normalized or expanded under the radar.
And, of course, as you say, it's not a giant step from surveillance robots to robotic killing machines--just look at what happened with drones.
Yes, let's look at what's happened with drones in modern warfare. Let's focus on where this technology is already being used shall we, before we hypothesise of what could be? If we're in the UK and EU; let's do everything we can to avoid being drawn into the US led proxy war with Russia and protest against increasing military spending, call out Russophobia and highlight the realities of war and the 100,000s of Ukrainians and Russians being fed into the meat grinder. If we're in the Antipodes the same applies to war with China.
There's also the race we’re all in with accelerating climate crisis. The US interests in oil and arms create it, use it and distract us from it; to their advantage.
Let's not allow ourselves to be distracted by these deliberate attempts, not to normalise police robots, but to stir us up and get us raging and fearful of them and the state. Dreams of revolution play into US based interests in oil and arms who already watch everything you do, could already kill you in a heart beat, but actually want you alive, revolutionary or not, flying, driving, eating animals and sleepwalking into climate breakdown and war.
I think this is a stretch. They have wanted us consuming and spending but they just can't not know that we are barking up against resource limits--a growing economy based on billions of middle-class consumers is no longer possible. Either our numbers decline drastically, or our lifestyle changes drastically. I'm sure the plans of the wealthy and powerful don't include THEIR lifestyles changing.
On the other hand, it may be that there are no cabals, no conspiracies, and the machines are actually already in control: not the computers or AI, but corporations. A great deal makes sense once you understand that corporations are NOT people, and not LIKE people, but instead are machines, programmed to maximize profits and dictating to their human components that they must do their part for this objective or be discarded and replaced. It's kind of a Sorceror's Apprentice situation, with a powerful but blind tool having had the turbocharge put to it, wreaking havoc. The legislatures that could bring it to heel are dependent on corporate cash for reelection; the CEOs who could change it all are psychopaths--yes ALL of them--who care only about further increasing their vast fortunes, their power, and the chance to try to realize their mad dreams.
What you're accurately describing is what Dimitri Orlov calls the "Technosphere" which behaves like a sovereign independent entity. Even though corporations are in control, the level of control they now have and are increasing would be impossible without technology. Technology has become our Golem. But unlike the Golem in literature, technological innovations have never been intended to benefit the masses, but only the few. The items we think are benefiting the public --- cell phones, laptops, etc. --- are actually enslaving us. And I'm as captured as anyone else.
Positing as you do more fully in your linked essay, that the corporations that are ruining us are *the* problem and that oppressive government actions (other than war) are a deliberately-created distraction is based on a false dichotomy. As you do note there, elites that own and run the corporations control the major government entities as well, and use them in their interests.
I believe that building a massive nonviolent movement that can take down and replace both parts of the interlocking political/economic systems, i.e., the revolution you belittle, is the answer, not some kind of useful-idiot distraction that plays into the hands of the elites.
And while that is not an easy project or one that can be carried out quickly, I think it is a far more practical solution than urging us as individuals to somehow opt out of our consumerist lifestyles while still living under advanced capitalism and it's state. And hoping that enough people can and will respond that the climate crisis will be alleviated and the billionaires will stop reaping profits and, somehow, stop creating wars.
"You don’t have to worry about the robot army siding with the people, or refusing to fire upon their fellow citizens."
This is exactly why we can't wait any longer to take out these robots and all the surveillance cameras, data centers, and whatever other technology they will use against us. It's us or them and I say that robot dogs don't feel pain. Take them out.
A visit to a school in Phnom Penh a few years ago - attended by some friends in the 1950s and 1960s had me find myself across the street from a truly ugly industrial compound - its corner fenceposts (all fences topped by coils of razor wire) bristled with technology which I realised were cameras - surveillance cameras - it was the US Embassy. What was such a disgusting presence doing in the land it had helped destroy with its American War in Viet Nam bombing - allowing the rise of Pol Pot, I wondered. I didn't have to wonder very long - on my long walk back to my hotel (around the corner from the Tuol Sleng infamous torture centre/genocide museum) I was intercepted en route by a tout on a little motor bike. Except he wasn't a tout - he was policeman - wanting to ask me what I was doing taking photos of the US Embassy -(inside my head: What the ***!). I opened up my my SLR camera download to show I had not taken any photos - the vision of the US Embassy and surveillance cameras - however - now seared forever into my memory by this police-state intervention moment. That was June. 2023.
Look at the Australian Embassy in Tōkyō for similar ugliness - having been given up by Bob Hawke's government in the 1980s - a beautiful 18th century nationally-treasured site and gardens - for big bucks and a fortress replacement. I visited it as part of my intro to Japan as an official exchange teacher from NSW for two years to western Honshū - and I was appalled. At the same time staff/families were accommodated within its concrete fastness - what a hot-house of discomfort that must have proved!
I recall 50 years ago - my wife and I having travelled overland from Japan to Siberia and from Khabarovsk right across to Europe on the Trans Siberian Rlwy eventually exiting the USSR into Finland. And following a further month all around Europe to London. Once there we found out how cheap Freddie Laker's airline was to North America so planned a trip for a month to Canada and the US. I don't recall there was any difficulty travelling to Canada but gaining a visa to enter the US was gained with some difficulty from its Embassy then in Grosvenor Square in Mayfair. (I note it is now in SW11 7US - Nine Elms- (Wandsworth) very close to The Thames - and described as the largest US Embassy in Western Europe - we stayed some months back then on a Chelsea houseboat beneath Battersea Bridge in next-door SW10). We gained our visas after some interrogation - why hadn't we applied when in Australia, etc! But it wasn't until crossing out of eastern Canada into the North-east US and then again back into Canada of Northern Idaho - with the intention of travelling across to Vancouver then down into Oregon to visit an aunt/uncle and cousins and saying that to their immigration border office and being hauled off the bus did we discover that our one-visa meant one entry/exit only - to the US - and we had just used it up...our plans suddenly altered we got no further westwards than Brandon in Manitoba - then had to head back via Winnipeg and Sault Ste Marie above the Great Lakes to Toronto for our return to the UK. What is it with this enormous size - even in the smallest of lands such as Cambodia??? Nefarious skulduggery and other shenanigans for sure!
Maybe six years ago in Indonesia I got a visa to China. Valid for ten years, unlimited exit-entry. I was surprised by such liberalism. My sister in the USA had difficulty getting permission for Xinjiang and ended up having to lie about something but got her visa too.
Writing a book? Well, lots of travel memoirs - and starting a book about my life as a teacher - memories in response to stimulus from Caitlin, GH, SG, AM and other political commentators which nudge stories from long ago out of my grey matter...that's about the sum of it so far. And I've been many times since late December, 1972 to HK - an English relative buried in the middle of the top row of the War Cemetery at Stanley whom I always visit if in HK. Killed with the overrun of the colony by the Imperial Japanese - on December 19th, 1941. Others of his /my cousins out of Yenching U in what is now Beijing incarcerated from 1943-1945 in Lunghwa in Shanghai - (made famous/notorious by James G Ballard in his book Empire of the Sun - turned into a movie of the same title by Steven Spielberg) who with his family lived in that College-turned-civilian internment camp of about 2,000 people alongside my kinfolk. It is now the campus of the No. 1 senior high school in China - or was a decade ago at least. While in the kind of irony which abounds in real life the father/g'father of friends of mine in Japan many years later was the Shanghai military governor during that wartime era (Fukumoto).
Sounds like you've got plenty to share, there. I'd be interested in reading both the being-a-teacher book, and the other nomadic travels. Mine is mostly in poetry, but have been thinking more prosaic thoughts lately. Good luck with your literary project. Keep us apprised.
More than 60 years ago, I was a fan of “Magnus, Robot Fighter”. The story takes pace circa 4000 AD. The authors probably didn’t think that autonomous attack robots would come into existence in the 21st Century.
These current batch of "robot dogs" are about as overrated as AI tech (at the moment). The cute little dogs could be disabled with a can of spray paint.
That doesn't mean however, that some technologies haven't already proven to be a significant danger to humanity - from drones to atomic bombs.
Caitlin is right: it's a race between evolving our consciousness and the self-destructive tendencies of the morons in charge of the world right now.
I have a feeling that there will be pretty big awakening in the next few weeks or so when the western world feels more of the consequences of Trump's attack on Iran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its effects on the economy.
Hopefully people will adopt a revolutionary consciousness and not go full on fascist.
yes this sounds suspiciously like the origin of robots akin to the ones in "Terminator", albeit 4 legged and not quite so advanced. Who knew life would imitate fiction!!
The middle classes have both agency over their behaviours and knowledge of their consequences. We cannot blame slavery nor brain-washing by the capitalist system. We chose to cause climate change, global iniquity to enrich and empower the 'ruling elite' with our purchases.
And we can cease to do this without dismantling the whole system to the detriment of millions.
Yes and no. Yes we could make huge changes by refusing to buy, and I think we have more agency in this than in elections. But most people ARE brainwashed, are not fully aware of the harm of the western lifestyle and not aware of alternatives. So many get caught in the debt trap, especially in the US where kids are told in high school that if they want a decent job with good wages, they have to go to college. Once this was more or less true, but for a long time even college degrees don't lead reliably to good jobs. And student debt is the one kind you can't evade through bankruptcy. Some people pay off the principal many times over yet are still paying in old age.
Agreed; they want us to continue to buy into education, fossil fuels and animal ag. So they neither teach nor publicise the impacts our western lifestyles are having nor what the alternatives are.
Instead the mainstream gives us robot dogs that sends alternative media into a delicious frenzy of seeing themselves as rebels the system is out to get.
Meaning that neither mainstream nor alternative media addresses the impact our lifestyles have on the planet nor how they maintain global inequity.
Sometimes they do teach about the impact. What is completely silenced is discussion of how people can avoid the traps. They want people to think There Is No Alternative.
Caitlin, I hate to admit it, but it seems like we are heading into a world similar to that portrayed in the dystopian TV Series "Black Mirror". The TV Series was supposed to be a WARNING, but instead TPTB have been using it as a blueprint...😡😨
While US and Chinese robot dogs are armed with machine guns, the robot dogs in Mexico are unarmed. They were used for crowd safety . Mexico has no plans to arm robots. I will take an unarmed robot dog any day over an armed cop.
Where did you learn that Chinese surveillance robots are armed with machine guns, I wonder? The US - well - of course. Their oligarchs/Epstein buddies/WMD corporations - hate their citizens/residents. That's not actually the situation in China, though - unless you read Peter Hartcher and other Murdoch presstitutes!
Gave up reading anything put out by that unprincipled Australian-he saw himself as a king-maker when he was just a far right facist money-grubber, who saw himself as king of the world. One who cared not a bit for how his stories were captured even to hacking phone lines.
No, your kneejerk rejection of public information speaks for itself: "CCTV News (China Central Television): In March 2026, the state broadcaster aired a specialized military documentary series called Unmanned Competition (无人争锋). The episodes revealed a highly integrated "machine wolf pack" system undergoing urban clearing drills. The combat-focused variant, named "Bloody" (血影), was shown equipped with a QBZ-191 automatic rifle, micro-missiles, and grenade launchers. The footage detailed how the robots network their data autonomously using an onboard AI processor.
The Global Times: This state-run publication highlighted tactical field exercises conducted by the PLA's 76th Group Army. Their reporting emphasized how the weaponized quadrupeds are designed to advance ahead of human infantry units to suppress high-risk ambushes and navigate heavily damaged rubble.
People's Daily: The official newspaper of the Central Committee has published analyses tying these armed deployments to lessons observed in urban warfare. They explicitly discuss the use of robotic platforms to minimize human infantry casualties during entry-and-clearing operations." Your accusations reflect only on your own brainwashing.
Your own prejudices are clearly on display here, D.R. All I asked for was reference - but you have gone the full Monty! The US would easily make use of such monstrous robotic killers - I mean - it easily and every day murders its own civilian citizens/residents - though I think that I read something just recently that stated that the Zionist IDF is already using such "weapons"! I am not brainwashed. Calm down...
Well, aren't you the trusting one... What would it take for a Cartel-controlled government or region in Mexico to arm their K9s I wonder...Not much I'd suggest...
I do trust the Sheinbaum government . I reject your unsupported cynicism. The government is not cartel-controlled; in fact, Sheinbaum has aggressively attacked the cartels and their influence on officials. Cynicism is the flip side of gullibility.
Here you go again trying to put words into my response that I have not written. Sheinbaum impresses me, too - but what happens when her government loses at let's say the next election and the next punitive CIA-supported mob takes power - that was my point - and indeed what is to prevent cartels from employing such mobile robotic weaponry to their own ends.
But it is possible for an everyday American with about $9500 lying around to buy their own robot flamethrower dog.
That might be a disincentive for the police state.
For around the same money, any American can purchase a .50 caliber sniper rifle that will take a helicopter out of the sky, so there are options.
To be clear, though, not good options. A citizens army is going to come up short against the Brownshirt ICE forces who have billions in funding, legal immunity, and access to military hardware.
Absolutely. But that's with the colonial/imperial oppressor dynamics at play. Don't think that plays much in a straight up civil war, which would pit an unarmed and poorly motivated populace versus the most powerful government in the world, all law enforcement, and 90% of the people that have a gun in a nation with 500 million guns.
There's just no hope for the left, except in the political arena. Nobody is near enough desperate.
besides, it's very possible that the sites where you could buy such things are closely monitored, very helpful for identifying potential leaders of a revolt in advance.
Cryptocurrency, blockchain, predictive modelling, machine learning, automation, etc. – just a few of the many indexes of technocratic progress that have become cultural currency within our shared vision of a utopian future. A future that has rapidly and ineluctably morphed into a dystopian present that cannot now be avoided, and will now require violent revolution to negate. Some of us were sold a faux-technocratic system that promised so much, but in the end has delivered so little – plus ca change? But the signs of decay have been clear to some for the longest time – especially if you have worked in technology, as a lowly software engineer for example, you have seen this unfolding up close – you may have even unwittingly participated in the transition.
One of the signs was realizing that the Western version of technocracy did not elevate scientists and engineers to positions of responsibility – instead we saw the same parade of criminals and quarter wits – lawyers, capitalists, psychopaths – being rewarded by our fundamentally broken system with cancerous wealth accumulation. Another sign was seeing that the Western version of technocracy did not result in the creation of a utopia where all of our basic needs were catered for, but instead we saw the cost of living has explode, finding an affordable house is a near impossibility, and so much more. Yet another sign was seeing that the our leaders and managers were more intent on using technology to control and repress rather than to elevate and free. Yet another sign was seeing that nothing had changed, or was really changing – the underlying problems and contradictions of Western society were not being addressed or resolved – they were instead being amplified exponentially, but hidden behind a veneer of automation and obscenely expensive Mechanical Turks.
I have little to no faith in the ability of the people of the West – in particular the geldings of the rogue US regime - to do anything about this. Why? Because they have had the ability to think critically bred out of them, so they have no way of recognizing what is in fact in their best interests - have you seen the food they eat that they are convinced is nutritious? - and because they clearly enjoy the comfort the dystopian present brings them way too much. Indeed I foresee the geldings of the rogue US regime organizing – not for their own sake, but to fight in support of the mythological ideals of slave holders, of a fictional “country” far away in time, of the system that represses for profit, and to protect the oligarchs that profit from their repression – I see the geldings of the rogue US regime fighting tooth and nail to uphold their own repression which has been branded “fReeDoM” – before crawling back into their comfortable "AI" maintained prison cells.
In his most recent video - after returning from a brief sickness - the very brilliant Brian Berletic reminded us that it is actually humans, and not frogs, that will continue to sit in water, as the temperature slowly rises, until they are boiled.
I would suggest net guns, of the type used by researchers and game operatives in Africa to incapacitate large animals without hurting them, might be an effective measure against these 'creatures'.
So much that is manifestly EVIL is being normalized and reinforced by this World Cup tournament, and the police robots are just one example.
The glaring double standards of Russia being excluded for entering the Civil War turned Imperial proxy war on their border aka "Invasion"- while the Zionist AbomiNation State has invaded Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, with impunity.
Trump getting a US 'red card' foul negated... Refusing the Iranian team, and their full staff, visas. Questionable calls being made for seemingly political reasons... Racist fans from Argentina hurling racial abuse without consequences.
Meanwhile the Nazification of the West continues, with the Court of Justice of the EU ruling that the ban on disseminating content from Russia Today (RT) applies also to private citizens and the European Parliament voting to extend a temporary exception from EU privacy rules that allows online platforms to read and scan private chats and e-mails: https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/nazification-of-the-west
One can hope. If IOF soldiers can turn so can our much less indoctrinated/psychologically conditioned police and servicemen/women stand with the people when the need arises; tgey, too, have families who would suffer if they stood back.
Thank you for the wake-up call. Gaza is the demonstration ground for surveillance and assasination drones. What goes around comes around.
Exactly as Antony Lowenstein described several years ago in his first-rate book/later video documentary: The Palestine Laboratory.
One of the selling points for Israeli weapons is that they have been field tested.
Yes,Patrick powers, another batch of lethal weapons are being field tested by Ukraine and NATO.
Yes, that's the narrative they want to spread. They want us, the western middle classes, to identify with the Palestinians, and not as we actually are, the people who enable Gaza and other genocides with our continued lifestyle support for US based interests in oil, animal ag, pharma, media, tech, entertainment, finance and arms.
These interests already watch everything we do and could kill us if they wished. But they don't; they want us alive and buying their products.
They flatter us that the robot dogs they place on social media, not to normalise them but to get us raging at them, are in case we might develop 'revolutionary consciousness' that they fear. They don't. We're right where they want us; thinking we're rebels but conforming.
Maybe the counter is to have our own robo “soldiers”. We can’t make them here. Maybe Spain or Ireland can provide. Then we have robot again robot.
Anyway.. that is unlikely.
Sorry to bail on your but I’m moving to Iceland where they imprisoned the banksters of the early 2000’s. Obama boys didn’t try to try.
well said ms lee
Thanks, Caitlin. Good catch on how these are being normalized. I can't imagine The Times doing that with the more obvious and brutal manifestations of growing neofascist control in this country, but it's amazing how the surveillance, data-gathering, and censorship can be normalized or expanded under the radar.
And, of course, as you say, it's not a giant step from surveillance robots to robotic killing machines--just look at what happened with drones.
Years ago I saw a video of a cheap drone burning a huge wasp nest with a flamethrower. It as they say "gave me pause."
and it was probably presented as "ain't this cool."
Yes, let's look at what's happened with drones in modern warfare. Let's focus on where this technology is already being used shall we, before we hypothesise of what could be? If we're in the UK and EU; let's do everything we can to avoid being drawn into the US led proxy war with Russia and protest against increasing military spending, call out Russophobia and highlight the realities of war and the 100,000s of Ukrainians and Russians being fed into the meat grinder. If we're in the Antipodes the same applies to war with China.
There's also the race we’re all in with accelerating climate crisis. The US interests in oil and arms create it, use it and distract us from it; to their advantage.
Let's not allow ourselves to be distracted by these deliberate attempts, not to normalise police robots, but to stir us up and get us raging and fearful of them and the state. Dreams of revolution play into US based interests in oil and arms who already watch everything you do, could already kill you in a heart beat, but actually want you alive, revolutionary or not, flying, driving, eating animals and sleepwalking into climate breakdown and war.
https://jowaller.substack.com/p/they-want-us-raging-at-big-brother
I think this is a stretch. They have wanted us consuming and spending but they just can't not know that we are barking up against resource limits--a growing economy based on billions of middle-class consumers is no longer possible. Either our numbers decline drastically, or our lifestyle changes drastically. I'm sure the plans of the wealthy and powerful don't include THEIR lifestyles changing.
On the other hand, it may be that there are no cabals, no conspiracies, and the machines are actually already in control: not the computers or AI, but corporations. A great deal makes sense once you understand that corporations are NOT people, and not LIKE people, but instead are machines, programmed to maximize profits and dictating to their human components that they must do their part for this objective or be discarded and replaced. It's kind of a Sorceror's Apprentice situation, with a powerful but blind tool having had the turbocharge put to it, wreaking havoc. The legislatures that could bring it to heel are dependent on corporate cash for reelection; the CEOs who could change it all are psychopaths--yes ALL of them--who care only about further increasing their vast fortunes, their power, and the chance to try to realize their mad dreams.
What you're accurately describing is what Dimitri Orlov calls the "Technosphere" which behaves like a sovereign independent entity. Even though corporations are in control, the level of control they now have and are increasing would be impossible without technology. Technology has become our Golem. But unlike the Golem in literature, technological innovations have never been intended to benefit the masses, but only the few. The items we think are benefiting the public --- cell phones, laptops, etc. --- are actually enslaving us. And I'm as captured as anyone else.
🎯💯
Positing as you do more fully in your linked essay, that the corporations that are ruining us are *the* problem and that oppressive government actions (other than war) are a deliberately-created distraction is based on a false dichotomy. As you do note there, elites that own and run the corporations control the major government entities as well, and use them in their interests.
I believe that building a massive nonviolent movement that can take down and replace both parts of the interlocking political/economic systems, i.e., the revolution you belittle, is the answer, not some kind of useful-idiot distraction that plays into the hands of the elites.
And while that is not an easy project or one that can be carried out quickly, I think it is a far more practical solution than urging us as individuals to somehow opt out of our consumerist lifestyles while still living under advanced capitalism and it's state. And hoping that enough people can and will respond that the climate crisis will be alleviated and the billionaires will stop reaping profits and, somehow, stop creating wars.
"You don’t have to worry about the robot army siding with the people, or refusing to fire upon their fellow citizens."
This is exactly why we can't wait any longer to take out these robots and all the surveillance cameras, data centers, and whatever other technology they will use against us. It's us or them and I say that robot dogs don't feel pain. Take them out.
A visit to a school in Phnom Penh a few years ago - attended by some friends in the 1950s and 1960s had me find myself across the street from a truly ugly industrial compound - its corner fenceposts (all fences topped by coils of razor wire) bristled with technology which I realised were cameras - surveillance cameras - it was the US Embassy. What was such a disgusting presence doing in the land it had helped destroy with its American War in Viet Nam bombing - allowing the rise of Pol Pot, I wondered. I didn't have to wonder very long - on my long walk back to my hotel (around the corner from the Tuol Sleng infamous torture centre/genocide museum) I was intercepted en route by a tout on a little motor bike. Except he wasn't a tout - he was policeman - wanting to ask me what I was doing taking photos of the US Embassy -(inside my head: What the ***!). I opened up my my SLR camera download to show I had not taken any photos - the vision of the US Embassy and surveillance cameras - however - now seared forever into my memory by this police-state intervention moment. That was June. 2023.
The US embassy in Tokyo is a little fortress. I felt as though I was in a maximum security prison. I couldn't wait to get out of there.
Look at the Australian Embassy in Tōkyō for similar ugliness - having been given up by Bob Hawke's government in the 1980s - a beautiful 18th century nationally-treasured site and gardens - for big bucks and a fortress replacement. I visited it as part of my intro to Japan as an official exchange teacher from NSW for two years to western Honshū - and I was appalled. At the same time staff/families were accommodated within its concrete fastness - what a hot-house of discomfort that must have proved!
U.S. has an Embassy Complex. Check out the biggest and newest which controls the whole Lebanese govt. Replacing Green Zone in Iraq, no doubt.
I recall 50 years ago - my wife and I having travelled overland from Japan to Siberia and from Khabarovsk right across to Europe on the Trans Siberian Rlwy eventually exiting the USSR into Finland. And following a further month all around Europe to London. Once there we found out how cheap Freddie Laker's airline was to North America so planned a trip for a month to Canada and the US. I don't recall there was any difficulty travelling to Canada but gaining a visa to enter the US was gained with some difficulty from its Embassy then in Grosvenor Square in Mayfair. (I note it is now in SW11 7US - Nine Elms- (Wandsworth) very close to The Thames - and described as the largest US Embassy in Western Europe - we stayed some months back then on a Chelsea houseboat beneath Battersea Bridge in next-door SW10). We gained our visas after some interrogation - why hadn't we applied when in Australia, etc! But it wasn't until crossing out of eastern Canada into the North-east US and then again back into Canada of Northern Idaho - with the intention of travelling across to Vancouver then down into Oregon to visit an aunt/uncle and cousins and saying that to their immigration border office and being hauled off the bus did we discover that our one-visa meant one entry/exit only - to the US - and we had just used it up...our plans suddenly altered we got no further westwards than Brandon in Manitoba - then had to head back via Winnipeg and Sault Ste Marie above the Great Lakes to Toronto for our return to the UK. What is it with this enormous size - even in the smallest of lands such as Cambodia??? Nefarious skulduggery and other shenanigans for sure!
Maybe six years ago in Indonesia I got a visa to China. Valid for ten years, unlimited exit-entry. I was surprised by such liberalism. My sister in the USA had difficulty getting permission for Xinjiang and ended up having to lie about something but got her visa too.
Yes, huge collectors of intel and various subterfuge. And they must be more active now, with the disbanding of CIA's front, USAID. Yes, they handed out aid, a fine cover for the dirty work. https://kathleenmccroskey.substack.com/p/vile-treachery-with-patina-of-goodness
I want to hear more about this trip. Are you writing a book about it?
Writing a book? Well, lots of travel memoirs - and starting a book about my life as a teacher - memories in response to stimulus from Caitlin, GH, SG, AM and other political commentators which nudge stories from long ago out of my grey matter...that's about the sum of it so far. And I've been many times since late December, 1972 to HK - an English relative buried in the middle of the top row of the War Cemetery at Stanley whom I always visit if in HK. Killed with the overrun of the colony by the Imperial Japanese - on December 19th, 1941. Others of his /my cousins out of Yenching U in what is now Beijing incarcerated from 1943-1945 in Lunghwa in Shanghai - (made famous/notorious by James G Ballard in his book Empire of the Sun - turned into a movie of the same title by Steven Spielberg) who with his family lived in that College-turned-civilian internment camp of about 2,000 people alongside my kinfolk. It is now the campus of the No. 1 senior high school in China - or was a decade ago at least. While in the kind of irony which abounds in real life the father/g'father of friends of mine in Japan many years later was the Shanghai military governor during that wartime era (Fukumoto).
Sounds like you've got plenty to share, there. I'd be interested in reading both the being-a-teacher book, and the other nomadic travels. Mine is mostly in poetry, but have been thinking more prosaic thoughts lately. Good luck with your literary project. Keep us apprised.
I wonder if there will be robot hackers in the near future.
More than 60 years ago, I was a fan of “Magnus, Robot Fighter”. The story takes pace circa 4000 AD. The authors probably didn’t think that autonomous attack robots would come into existence in the 21st Century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus,_Robot_Fighter
What a fantastic if already becoming true forecast of the robotic/AI future. Thanks for the link, CK.
These current batch of "robot dogs" are about as overrated as AI tech (at the moment). The cute little dogs could be disabled with a can of spray paint.
That doesn't mean however, that some technologies haven't already proven to be a significant danger to humanity - from drones to atomic bombs.
Caitlin is right: it's a race between evolving our consciousness and the self-destructive tendencies of the morons in charge of the world right now.
What about a giant magnet?
Or a cheap fish net?
Even better.
I do hope so and also that they are working on it already.
I have a feeling that there will be pretty big awakening in the next few weeks or so when the western world feels more of the consequences of Trump's attack on Iran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its effects on the economy.
Hopefully people will adopt a revolutionary consciousness and not go full on fascist.
Terminator 3 RISE OF THE MACHINES
Robocop. 1987. Though back then the cops were still the Good Guys.
yes this sounds suspiciously like the origin of robots akin to the ones in "Terminator", albeit 4 legged and not quite so advanced. Who knew life would imitate fiction!!
A Slave New World
Very clever.
The middle classes have both agency over their behaviours and knowledge of their consequences. We cannot blame slavery nor brain-washing by the capitalist system. We chose to cause climate change, global iniquity to enrich and empower the 'ruling elite' with our purchases.
And we can cease to do this without dismantling the whole system to the detriment of millions.
Yes and no. Yes we could make huge changes by refusing to buy, and I think we have more agency in this than in elections. But most people ARE brainwashed, are not fully aware of the harm of the western lifestyle and not aware of alternatives. So many get caught in the debt trap, especially in the US where kids are told in high school that if they want a decent job with good wages, they have to go to college. Once this was more or less true, but for a long time even college degrees don't lead reliably to good jobs. And student debt is the one kind you can't evade through bankruptcy. Some people pay off the principal many times over yet are still paying in old age.
Agreed; they want us to continue to buy into education, fossil fuels and animal ag. So they neither teach nor publicise the impacts our western lifestyles are having nor what the alternatives are.
Instead the mainstream gives us robot dogs that sends alternative media into a delicious frenzy of seeing themselves as rebels the system is out to get.
Meaning that neither mainstream nor alternative media addresses the impact our lifestyles have on the planet nor how they maintain global inequity.
I think Democracy Now does the best job of this - imho
Though they are completely wrong about vaccines; with Amy Goodman and Naomi Klein ganging up to give 'anti-vaxxers' a good bashing.
Alas, if only they were as perfect as you and I!
Sometimes they do teach about the impact. What is completely silenced is discussion of how people can avoid the traps. They want people to think There Is No Alternative.
Caitlin, I hate to admit it, but it seems like we are heading into a world similar to that portrayed in the dystopian TV Series "Black Mirror". The TV Series was supposed to be a WARNING, but instead TPTB have been using it as a blueprint...😡😨
While US and Chinese robot dogs are armed with machine guns, the robot dogs in Mexico are unarmed. They were used for crowd safety . Mexico has no plans to arm robots. I will take an unarmed robot dog any day over an armed cop.
Where did you learn that Chinese surveillance robots are armed with machine guns, I wonder? The US - well - of course. Their oligarchs/Epstein buddies/WMD corporations - hate their citizens/residents. That's not actually the situation in China, though - unless you read Peter Hartcher and other Murdoch presstitutes!
Gave up reading anything put out by that unprincipled Australian-he saw himself as a king-maker when he was just a far right facist money-grubber, who saw himself as king of the world. One who cared not a bit for how his stories were captured even to hacking phone lines.
No, your kneejerk rejection of public information speaks for itself: "CCTV News (China Central Television): In March 2026, the state broadcaster aired a specialized military documentary series called Unmanned Competition (无人争锋). The episodes revealed a highly integrated "machine wolf pack" system undergoing urban clearing drills. The combat-focused variant, named "Bloody" (血影), was shown equipped with a QBZ-191 automatic rifle, micro-missiles, and grenade launchers. The footage detailed how the robots network their data autonomously using an onboard AI processor.
The Global Times: This state-run publication highlighted tactical field exercises conducted by the PLA's 76th Group Army. Their reporting emphasized how the weaponized quadrupeds are designed to advance ahead of human infantry units to suppress high-risk ambushes and navigate heavily damaged rubble.
People's Daily: The official newspaper of the Central Committee has published analyses tying these armed deployments to lessons observed in urban warfare. They explicitly discuss the use of robotic platforms to minimize human infantry casualties during entry-and-clearing operations." Your accusations reflect only on your own brainwashing.
Your own prejudices are clearly on display here, D.R. All I asked for was reference - but you have gone the full Monty! The US would easily make use of such monstrous robotic killers - I mean - it easily and every day murders its own civilian citizens/residents - though I think that I read something just recently that stated that the Zionist IDF is already using such "weapons"! I am not brainwashed. Calm down...
Well, aren't you the trusting one... What would it take for a Cartel-controlled government or region in Mexico to arm their K9s I wonder...Not much I'd suggest...
I do trust the Sheinbaum government . I reject your unsupported cynicism. The government is not cartel-controlled; in fact, Sheinbaum has aggressively attacked the cartels and their influence on officials. Cynicism is the flip side of gullibility.
Here you go again trying to put words into my response that I have not written. Sheinbaum impresses me, too - but what happens when her government loses at let's say the next election and the next punitive CIA-supported mob takes power - that was my point - and indeed what is to prevent cartels from employing such mobile robotic weaponry to their own ends.
But it is possible for an everyday American with about $9500 lying around to buy their own robot flamethrower dog.
That might be a disincentive for the police state.
For around the same money, any American can purchase a .50 caliber sniper rifle that will take a helicopter out of the sky, so there are options.
To be clear, though, not good options. A citizens army is going to come up short against the Brownshirt ICE forces who have billions in funding, legal immunity, and access to military hardware.
You have a point, but given decades of repeated losing war experience, I’ve come to the conclusion.. insurgeants always win.
Absolutely. But that's with the colonial/imperial oppressor dynamics at play. Don't think that plays much in a straight up civil war, which would pit an unarmed and poorly motivated populace versus the most powerful government in the world, all law enforcement, and 90% of the people that have a gun in a nation with 500 million guns.
There's just no hope for the left, except in the political arena. Nobody is near enough desperate.
besides, it's very possible that the sites where you could buy such things are closely monitored, very helpful for identifying potential leaders of a revolt in advance.
Cryptocurrency, blockchain, predictive modelling, machine learning, automation, etc. – just a few of the many indexes of technocratic progress that have become cultural currency within our shared vision of a utopian future. A future that has rapidly and ineluctably morphed into a dystopian present that cannot now be avoided, and will now require violent revolution to negate. Some of us were sold a faux-technocratic system that promised so much, but in the end has delivered so little – plus ca change? But the signs of decay have been clear to some for the longest time – especially if you have worked in technology, as a lowly software engineer for example, you have seen this unfolding up close – you may have even unwittingly participated in the transition.
One of the signs was realizing that the Western version of technocracy did not elevate scientists and engineers to positions of responsibility – instead we saw the same parade of criminals and quarter wits – lawyers, capitalists, psychopaths – being rewarded by our fundamentally broken system with cancerous wealth accumulation. Another sign was seeing that the Western version of technocracy did not result in the creation of a utopia where all of our basic needs were catered for, but instead we saw the cost of living has explode, finding an affordable house is a near impossibility, and so much more. Yet another sign was seeing that the our leaders and managers were more intent on using technology to control and repress rather than to elevate and free. Yet another sign was seeing that nothing had changed, or was really changing – the underlying problems and contradictions of Western society were not being addressed or resolved – they were instead being amplified exponentially, but hidden behind a veneer of automation and obscenely expensive Mechanical Turks.
I have little to no faith in the ability of the people of the West – in particular the geldings of the rogue US regime - to do anything about this. Why? Because they have had the ability to think critically bred out of them, so they have no way of recognizing what is in fact in their best interests - have you seen the food they eat that they are convinced is nutritious? - and because they clearly enjoy the comfort the dystopian present brings them way too much. Indeed I foresee the geldings of the rogue US regime organizing – not for their own sake, but to fight in support of the mythological ideals of slave holders, of a fictional “country” far away in time, of the system that represses for profit, and to protect the oligarchs that profit from their repression – I see the geldings of the rogue US regime fighting tooth and nail to uphold their own repression which has been branded “fReeDoM” – before crawling back into their comfortable "AI" maintained prison cells.
In his most recent video - after returning from a brief sickness - the very brilliant Brian Berletic reminded us that it is actually humans, and not frogs, that will continue to sit in water, as the temperature slowly rises, until they are boiled.
I would suggest net guns, of the type used by researchers and game operatives in Africa to incapacitate large animals without hurting them, might be an effective measure against these 'creatures'.
Yes...more or less. Mostly we're are behind the curve. Not to sound alarmist. We still have a choice to participate or bail out.
So much that is manifestly EVIL is being normalized and reinforced by this World Cup tournament, and the police robots are just one example.
The glaring double standards of Russia being excluded for entering the Civil War turned Imperial proxy war on their border aka "Invasion"- while the Zionist AbomiNation State has invaded Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, with impunity.
Trump getting a US 'red card' foul negated... Refusing the Iranian team, and their full staff, visas. Questionable calls being made for seemingly political reasons... Racist fans from Argentina hurling racial abuse without consequences.
It's all very disturbing.
Meanwhile the Nazification of the West continues, with the Court of Justice of the EU ruling that the ban on disseminating content from Russia Today (RT) applies also to private citizens and the European Parliament voting to extend a temporary exception from EU privacy rules that allows online platforms to read and scan private chats and e-mails: https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/nazification-of-the-west
The protection offered by our wise masters makes me feel so safe.
Yep, I realized this years ago. Robot armies and police. Total obedience. And the people pay for it all via taxes.
Revolutions in the past often occurred when the police and army went over to the revolution. No more of that. Nosirree.
One can hope. If IOF soldiers can turn so can our much less indoctrinated/psychologically conditioned police and servicemen/women stand with the people when the need arises; tgey, too, have families who would suffer if they stood back.
True but I was talking about robot police and army.