35 Comments

Not to be a shrill contrarian voice but...

There's a fair few excellent Substack writers who've built a loyal audience on their own terms, by sheer quality of writing. Caitlin Johnstone is one of the best examples. She's top of the tree with no compromise, no corporate bs, no precious paywalling.

And then there's the poetry...

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ALARM about Musk’s Twitter -- https://substack.com/inbox/post/81487823

Meet the New Boss…Same as the Old Boss -- Scott Ritter on his most recent suspension from Twitter

Scott’s suspension was on Oct. 29 reinstated for his initial tweet (below):

“The Ukrainian National Police committed numerous crimes against humanity in Bucha. Biden, in seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders to Russia, is guilty of aiding and abetting these crimes. Congratulations America…. We’ve created yet another Presidential war criminal !!”

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I

To -

As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood,

And ebb into a former life, or seem

To lapse far back in some confused dream

To states of mystical similitude,

If one but speaks or hems or stirs his chair,

Ever the wonder waxeth more and more,

So that we say, 'All this hath been before,

All this hath been, I know not when or where;'

So, friend, when first I look'd upon your face,

Our thought gave answer each to each, so true -

Opposed mirrors each reflecting each -

That, tho' I knew not in what time or place,

Methought that I had often met with you,

And either lived in either's heart and speech.

~Tennyson c.1833

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Chills and tears💖

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When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abides Faith, Hope, Love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.

1 Corinthians 13

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Tears. Caitlin, as Kris Kristofferson once sang, you’ve been reading my mail. ❣️

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love you!

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a prattling child who will never be that age again . . . none of us will ever be that age again. Time is not redeemable. Once that day or hour has passed it can never return.

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Love in the time of apocalypse, the last love, the last chance, what better way could we spend our time, as time runs out, for the last time.

Who was it who said "At the Edge of Extinction, Only Love Remains"

It's fascinating watching the creatives navigate this, the perfect storm.

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Yes. Beautiful beautiful

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Great poetry and philosophy. And can I add: Just say "fuck it all," like a bird, and fly off the perch

into the endless blue sky.

But only briefly, or with only one part of your mind. Because the sky destroyers never go away.

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Powerful and moving... Thanks for sharing the love...

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Remarkable! Pure gratitude for your artistry 💜

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My first reaction to this is how impossible it is to use the part of the brain that is rational to stimulate the part that is hormone-dependent. We all can resolve to be civil...if we haven’t contracted to be obedient servants to power, and we can consciously use humor in our personal encounters to facilitate team work and communal outcomes. But capitalism is inherently zero-sum. So if we are to collectively put our humanity before our “needs,” those needs have to be met prior to our social interactivity. Abraham Maslow ranked love and belonging as less essential to our survival than food, shelter and safety. I guess I agree with that. So, if we put a different light on Marx, and conflate his technical objections to systemic human tier-ing, with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it seems self-evident that the needs of the individual are routinely suppressed in a power-based social construct. The latter can accommodate physiological and safety needs, but will be compromised by its own inability to offer these provisions to each and every member of the collective. That system cannot begin to address the need for each of us to be connected to others in non-transactional ways.

Paul McCartney turned the realization that romantic disconnection is an early recognition that the world is atilt into a pop song that he wrote before he became a Beatle.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdx6lLvvRyg

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Love like a puppy. Or 10 puppies.

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It is such a joy to read something that is positive and spiritually moving. We are swamped with propaganda that is filled with anger and hatred, promotes violence and intolerance, and most of all manipulative in a way that makes us servile to an evil group of elites that are desperately holding on to their power, which power they intend to use to enslave us all.

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