Next time someone asks you why you write about the US government instead of about your own government, you could think about this saying in Spanish we use when confronted with comparable questions: "When considering issues about the circus one best talk about its owners, not about the clowns or the animals."
As a former Ivy Leaguer, I can verify that your average Ivy League grad has an automatic umbilicus to the elite establishment, and only those who choose to tie it off and sever it end up with a quasi-realistic view of the empire and its machinations. And the blood poisoned within that cord only detoxifies through numerous subsequent years of stark realizations. Hence, those grads who go to work "for a prominent military industrial complex-funded think tank" are impervious, far-beyond-hopeless servants of empire.
Not an Ivy Leaguer, but it wasn't until I finally confronted the fact that the 9/11/73 overthrow of the Allende government was totally a US mission. That was sometime after 1990. It still took two votes for Obama and years of being a precinct officer for the Democratic Party for me to finally come to the realization Caitlin talks about here.
I dunno though, it seems that more Americans are recognizing this everyday. But that may be because of the people I find myself associating with.
Let's diverge here for a moment and talk about the Ritter controversy. Everyone's angry with him because he sees America's commitment to destroying Russia increasing, while they see a different reality.
Me? Like Caitlin, I see Nukes. So, I kind of don't care.
Big Mike isn't as big. He's slimmed down quite a bit and in fact Morning Joe was stumping for him this morning. Big Mike is many times more dangerous than Trump. He's a competent autocratic fascist who will get fascism done. Trump is unreliable. He's inconsistent. He's a narcissist. Big Mike has none of that luggage. Trump did accomplish something very important, although it was never his intent thus it was serendipitous. Like John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, Trump has prepared the way for the fascist savior. Big Mike may be that fascist savior to come. Praise the Lord!!
That was obscure. How could anyone have guessed you meant Michelle Obama? I didn't think you meant Pence, I thought you meant Mike Pompeo. Fyi, you mean Poodle Pence versus Judas Pence, right?
John probably knows and maybe Vin too and Yuri, but I had no idea Michelle was Big Mike. So let me get this straight, you believe Donald Trump won the election?
"People ask why I write about the US government instead of my own government. It's because the US is my own government. I just skip the irrelevant middle man. “ Caitlin today
How right you are, Caitlin. And it’s just the beginning. Just as Ukraine is the proxy fighter for the USA in that battle in Europe, (not anywhere near mainland USA), so Australia will be a proxy fighter for the USA in the soon to be seen Asian war Zone with China. It’s in the book.
All the previous (thankfully) government actions showing China how tough we are, then with the Morrison / Payne big finger exercises almost a daily performance, were based on US directions of course. Such bravado was not based on population size as Australia’s population being 20.047,667 on the 11th May 2002 versus China at 1,449,614,558 on the same day, at a rough guess still not be enough to cause any concern to the well disciplined and armed Chinese as they attack all the US military bases on THIS island (not mainland USA you notice, yet again). How many military operations on this island? More than you think and lots more to come.
For the record, the Chinese own the port of Darwin. Makes easy access.
I am sure that our new Prime Minister, yet a day or two old, (already off on a trip to our other funny partnership group called QUAD, another US initiative) will take into consideration our skills using photos of the plans for our new submarines, nuclear-powered, due somewhere around 2032, before he agrees to a date for a battle plan knowing that the USA by this time is probably hiding somewhere in the Philippines or Thailand, but a long way from mainland USA and certainly out of the range of Chinese weapons. They only invade without reason those countries that can’t fight back as we all know, Vietnam, Iraq, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Syria, etc. By then every day they'll be safely communicating with their enthusiastic Australian acolytes and their CIA stooges and well paid mercenaries in the north end of Australia armed to the teeth with $40 billion in US armaments,which when added to the “gifts” from all the other NATO countries would make us an army to be reckoned with (equipped with a four-star US General, naturally).
Have we heard all this stuff before?
Targets for China….Pine Gap Spy Station, Sydney, Alice Springs and Darwin, perhaps Melbourne (but not during the AFL season, by arrangement)
Finally. It’s bound to be National Service call-up again, a source of AUSSIE speaking soldiers at little cost to our already depleted revenues since we were USA directed to give China the brush-off, but a great answer for our job situation for 18 year olds, once scheduled for a University course but now unable to pay their University fees or find a place to live because all the students in every University seem to be from China.
Sorry. My arthritic first finger made Australia's population five million smaller than it really is. My apology.
While here, I would like to add to the news comments against Russia last night about the clearing of so-called Russian land mines, photos included in the program of course. Could be true but probably isn't, US lies being the order of the day. Nasty things land mines. Something like cluster bombs with which the USA is very familiar, having peppered millions of them in Cambodia and Laos (along with Agent Orange sprays), killing so many people, as late as a month ago, yet another child to live without legs or arms. some 80 million unexploded bombs and air-dropped cluster munitions left over from Vietnam continue to maim and kill Laotian men, women and children.
The most heavily bombed country in history.
Remember all those deadly bombs, Biden? Then Iraq, 500,000 children dead from sanctions and on it goes, ad nauseam, year after year. Big, brave US killers.
Makes one so proud to be be a member of a country that embraces all the criminal activities by Team USA, Death Squads, 20 million deaths since WWII.
More to come as puppet Australia dances to the psychopaths tune
We should be in mourning - for democracy, because it's as dead as a doornail. But instead of a decent burial with "dignitaries" from the new regime, solemn music and a few tears, democracy will allowed to moulder above ground until it's just a dim memory and the subject of a docudrama series. Do ordinary (and is that now a pejorative?) Swedes and Finns really want the same fate as Ukraine? When you consider the plight of ordinary Americans, the $5trillion student loan debt like an albatross - or noose- around the necks of youth, the lack of medicare, jobs, the whole shebang, and the same goes for Europe in the very near future, well, what other conclusion is convincing? This isn't democracy, unless we've become a race of masochists.
Next time someone asks you why you write about the US government instead of about your own government, you could think about this saying in Spanish we use when confronted with comparable questions: "When considering issues about the circus one best talk about its owners, not about the clowns or the animals."
Foreign Ministry has sent to the Duma a list of Russia’s agreements with international organizations for their possible denunciation. Exit from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) will be considered, said State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy. According to Mr. Tolstoy, it is necessary to review the treaties, “which bring not benefit but direct harm” to the country. He said: “Russia has withdrawn from the Council of Europe, and now it has a plan turn to withdraw from the WTO and the WHO, which have neglected all their obligations toward our country.”
I don’t think it’s all that funny. Your observations match my own often but bitching about it isn’t getting us anywhere. The message should be don’t re-elect any politician since sorting out who’s totally corrupt and who’s just self serving ignores that everything they say is bullshit. Many are obvious while others fly below the radar but only a fool could look back at the past 20 years and think the whole bunch hasn’t fucked thinks up royally. Throw them all out it couldn’t be any worse.
I'm being hyperbolic of course. Just pointing out why there are so many Americans who have decided to take this path.
Maybe support Chris Smalls? OTOH, look at what happened to OWS. Where is BLM? Have you noticed how even Democracy Now has pulled back its coverage after the government froze donations?
For sure though, voting is a complete waste of time. If I could have back every campaign donation I've ever made, I would be confident in my retirement.
I don't recommend anything. It seems to be a lost cause. I see nukes. American nukes.
Voted Libertarian or wrote my name in almost always since I was 18. Knew it was corrupt then and thank goodness a few more people are waking up. Inflation and financial meltdown will be the catalyst for mass unrest or real improvement I’m not betting on the latter.
Participation in a fraudulent election gives it validity. This isn't a pro-Trump opinion. Both sides cheat. The one that "cheats better" is the one that wins.
"But you only see this if you're intellectually honest enough to overcome your own cognitive biases. Otherwise you'll keep doing mental gymnastics to justify the bullshit coming from Bernie, AOC, TYT, Tucker Carlson, Trump, MAGA pundits, wherever your biases are located on the map."
I agree completely though lately have wondered if, the lack of apparent intellectual honesty isn't also tied to a failure of imagination. I see many people out there who can't seem to let go of the structure of government, so constantly look for an answer within it, rather than allow that it all needs to crumble. Too scary perhaps to consider that we need to go around existing structures - and create something new.
True enough, institutions are what hold a society together until they can no longer, but government isn't the only institution people can't seem to let go of, is it? In fact, there is a much more pernicious institution people cannot let go of it, and that's corporations. I say more pernicious, because it is the corporations and those who own them that are ultimately the government. Of course, there is also religion in all its manifest forms, especially the religion that worships the God known as Growth who's Vatican is known as Wall Street.
Frank Zappa said politics is the entertainment section of the military-industrial complex
October 2022: Zelensky dies of a drug overdose after a bender with Hunter Biden and Amber Heard.
As he starts to look more and more like Ricky Gervais I think "The Office Ukraine-in-exile" will be due. With Nancy Pelosi as Dawn.
And Putin will be blamed .
Hey Yuri, do you call it the Kung Flu like Trump? How about Yuri Sr.? Does he call it the Kung Flu?
Next time someone asks you why you write about the US government instead of about your own government, you could think about this saying in Spanish we use when confronted with comparable questions: "When considering issues about the circus one best talk about its owners, not about the clowns or the animals."
As a former Ivy Leaguer, I can verify that your average Ivy League grad has an automatic umbilicus to the elite establishment, and only those who choose to tie it off and sever it end up with a quasi-realistic view of the empire and its machinations. And the blood poisoned within that cord only detoxifies through numerous subsequent years of stark realizations. Hence, those grads who go to work "for a prominent military industrial complex-funded think tank" are impervious, far-beyond-hopeless servants of empire.
Not an Ivy Leaguer, but it wasn't until I finally confronted the fact that the 9/11/73 overthrow of the Allende government was totally a US mission. That was sometime after 1990. It still took two votes for Obama and years of being a precinct officer for the Democratic Party for me to finally come to the realization Caitlin talks about here.
I dunno though, it seems that more Americans are recognizing this everyday. But that may be because of the people I find myself associating with.
Let's diverge here for a moment and talk about the Ritter controversy. Everyone's angry with him because he sees America's commitment to destroying Russia increasing, while they see a different reality.
Me? Like Caitlin, I see Nukes. So, I kind of don't care.
One of Québec's most beloved singer-songwriters used to sing this in the 70s:
You think I don't notice
That you are nothing but a deputy minister
Our real ministers are in the States
That's where they administer you
That's where they make the big guns
With iron from your country
But you're out hunting
Since you don't see me in those clubs
And we're not classmates
You think I don't notice
And the deputy minister goes - "I don't care if you do".
November 2024: Zelensky is elected the 47th president of the United States.
At minimum we'll see a 'Dancing with the Stars' cameo. Bonus MIC propaganda if he does 'Masked Singer' too.
And stars in a new biopic with Amber Seen but not Heard.
Not big Mike as 47?
Big Mike isn't as big. He's slimmed down quite a bit and in fact Morning Joe was stumping for him this morning. Big Mike is many times more dangerous than Trump. He's a competent autocratic fascist who will get fascism done. Trump is unreliable. He's inconsistent. He's a narcissist. Big Mike has none of that luggage. Trump did accomplish something very important, although it was never his intent thus it was serendipitous. Like John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, Trump has prepared the way for the fascist savior. Big Mike may be that fascist savior to come. Praise the Lord!!
Cheers, but when I say big Mike, it's a derogatory term for Michelle Obama, who was photographed with a strange "bulge" in her dress.
Hence "Big Mike" = Michelle, not Judas Pence.
That was obscure. How could anyone have guessed you meant Michelle Obama? I didn't think you meant Pence, I thought you meant Mike Pompeo. Fyi, you mean Poodle Pence versus Judas Pence, right?
Well Judas Pence (on camera) took the silver coin proffered by Nancy on Jan 6th.
Sorry. I thought everyone knew that Michelle was Big Mike.
John probably knows and maybe Vin too and Yuri, but I had no idea Michelle was Big Mike. So let me get this straight, you believe Donald Trump won the election?
Such unoriginal duopolistic nonsense. Wake up maybe?
Wake up from what? I explained a flippant comment so that someone could understand.
Nothing in my post could be misconstrued as Duopolistic.
"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot." Mark Twain
"People ask why I write about the US government instead of my own government. It's because the US is my own government. I just skip the irrelevant middle man. “ Caitlin today
How right you are, Caitlin. And it’s just the beginning. Just as Ukraine is the proxy fighter for the USA in that battle in Europe, (not anywhere near mainland USA), so Australia will be a proxy fighter for the USA in the soon to be seen Asian war Zone with China. It’s in the book.
All the previous (thankfully) government actions showing China how tough we are, then with the Morrison / Payne big finger exercises almost a daily performance, were based on US directions of course. Such bravado was not based on population size as Australia’s population being 20.047,667 on the 11th May 2002 versus China at 1,449,614,558 on the same day, at a rough guess still not be enough to cause any concern to the well disciplined and armed Chinese as they attack all the US military bases on THIS island (not mainland USA you notice, yet again). How many military operations on this island? More than you think and lots more to come.
For the record, the Chinese own the port of Darwin. Makes easy access.
I am sure that our new Prime Minister, yet a day or two old, (already off on a trip to our other funny partnership group called QUAD, another US initiative) will take into consideration our skills using photos of the plans for our new submarines, nuclear-powered, due somewhere around 2032, before he agrees to a date for a battle plan knowing that the USA by this time is probably hiding somewhere in the Philippines or Thailand, but a long way from mainland USA and certainly out of the range of Chinese weapons. They only invade without reason those countries that can’t fight back as we all know, Vietnam, Iraq, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Syria, etc. By then every day they'll be safely communicating with their enthusiastic Australian acolytes and their CIA stooges and well paid mercenaries in the north end of Australia armed to the teeth with $40 billion in US armaments,which when added to the “gifts” from all the other NATO countries would make us an army to be reckoned with (equipped with a four-star US General, naturally).
Have we heard all this stuff before?
Targets for China….Pine Gap Spy Station, Sydney, Alice Springs and Darwin, perhaps Melbourne (but not during the AFL season, by arrangement)
Finally. It’s bound to be National Service call-up again, a source of AUSSIE speaking soldiers at little cost to our already depleted revenues since we were USA directed to give China the brush-off, but a great answer for our job situation for 18 year olds, once scheduled for a University course but now unable to pay their University fees or find a place to live because all the students in every University seem to be from China.
What a charade!
Sorry. My arthritic first finger made Australia's population five million smaller than it really is. My apology.
While here, I would like to add to the news comments against Russia last night about the clearing of so-called Russian land mines, photos included in the program of course. Could be true but probably isn't, US lies being the order of the day. Nasty things land mines. Something like cluster bombs with which the USA is very familiar, having peppered millions of them in Cambodia and Laos (along with Agent Orange sprays), killing so many people, as late as a month ago, yet another child to live without legs or arms. some 80 million unexploded bombs and air-dropped cluster munitions left over from Vietnam continue to maim and kill Laotian men, women and children.
The most heavily bombed country in history.
Remember all those deadly bombs, Biden? Then Iraq, 500,000 children dead from sanctions and on it goes, ad nauseam, year after year. Big, brave US killers.
Makes one so proud to be be a member of a country that embraces all the criminal activities by Team USA, Death Squads, 20 million deaths since WWII.
More to come as puppet Australia dances to the psychopaths tune
We should be in mourning - for democracy, because it's as dead as a doornail. But instead of a decent burial with "dignitaries" from the new regime, solemn music and a few tears, democracy will allowed to moulder above ground until it's just a dim memory and the subject of a docudrama series. Do ordinary (and is that now a pejorative?) Swedes and Finns really want the same fate as Ukraine? When you consider the plight of ordinary Americans, the $5trillion student loan debt like an albatross - or noose- around the necks of youth, the lack of medicare, jobs, the whole shebang, and the same goes for Europe in the very near future, well, what other conclusion is convincing? This isn't democracy, unless we've become a race of masochists.
Next time someone asks you why you write about the US government instead of about your own government, you could think about this saying in Spanish we use when confronted with comparable questions: "When considering issues about the circus one best talk about its owners, not about the clowns or the animals."
Foreign Ministry has sent to the Duma a list of Russia’s agreements with international organizations for their possible denunciation. Exit from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) will be considered, said State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy. According to Mr. Tolstoy, it is necessary to review the treaties, “which bring not benefit but direct harm” to the country. He said: “Russia has withdrawn from the Council of Europe, and now it has a plan turn to withdraw from the WTO and the WHO, which have neglected all their obligations toward our country.”
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2022/05/22/globalist-influence-on-russia-weakens-russian-parliament-considers-leaving-who-wto/
I don’t think it’s all that funny. Your observations match my own often but bitching about it isn’t getting us anywhere. The message should be don’t re-elect any politician since sorting out who’s totally corrupt and who’s just self serving ignores that everything they say is bullshit. Many are obvious while others fly below the radar but only a fool could look back at the past 20 years and think the whole bunch hasn’t fucked thinks up royally. Throw them all out it couldn’t be any worse.
How?
If your not voting what do you recommend ?
An excellent question! I dunno. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y70vcs3oV14
I'm being hyperbolic of course. Just pointing out why there are so many Americans who have decided to take this path.
Maybe support Chris Smalls? OTOH, look at what happened to OWS. Where is BLM? Have you noticed how even Democracy Now has pulled back its coverage after the government froze donations?
For sure though, voting is a complete waste of time. If I could have back every campaign donation I've ever made, I would be confident in my retirement.
I don't recommend anything. It seems to be a lost cause. I see nukes. American nukes.
Voted Libertarian or wrote my name in almost always since I was 18. Knew it was corrupt then and thank goodness a few more people are waking up. Inflation and financial meltdown will be the catalyst for mass unrest or real improvement I’m not betting on the latter.
Lot's of people are wondering when the American Public will "wake up".
I hate to say it, but IMHO the fascists are going to be in a position to take advantage of this.
So, yeah, mass unrest. Hope I sell my house soon.
“Can’t we go both”
No.
Participation in a fraudulent election gives it validity. This isn't a pro-Trump opinion. Both sides cheat. The one that "cheats better" is the one that wins.
Picture comedians all over the world thinking "how the fuck do we match that!"
Naw, they only envy the laughs and applause. Nothing else matters.
John Pilger is wrong. Australia is not the 51st state. "States" are on some level nominal beneficiaries of the imperial project.
Australia is a vassal. Any benefits it gets are scraps from master's table.
"But you only see this if you're intellectually honest enough to overcome your own cognitive biases. Otherwise you'll keep doing mental gymnastics to justify the bullshit coming from Bernie, AOC, TYT, Tucker Carlson, Trump, MAGA pundits, wherever your biases are located on the map."
I agree completely though lately have wondered if, the lack of apparent intellectual honesty isn't also tied to a failure of imagination. I see many people out there who can't seem to let go of the structure of government, so constantly look for an answer within it, rather than allow that it all needs to crumble. Too scary perhaps to consider that we need to go around existing structures - and create something new.
True enough, institutions are what hold a society together until they can no longer, but government isn't the only institution people can't seem to let go of, is it? In fact, there is a much more pernicious institution people cannot let go of it, and that's corporations. I say more pernicious, because it is the corporations and those who own them that are ultimately the government. Of course, there is also religion in all its manifest forms, especially the religion that worships the God known as Growth who's Vatican is known as Wall Street.
Since its inception, the United States' own stupidity and hypocrisy have been racing toward the the nation's own destruction.
True enough, but the same can be said about civilization. America is just one more example.