Agreed. Our votes for other than the duopoly sends a message. It tells them that we're not playing along with them anymore, and we're coming after them. That's why I #VoteGreen.
I live in a country with universal health care, old age pension that you get just for being old, even if you were a full-time home-maker and never earned a single cent, no death penalty, and a Conservative Party who would never think of touching a woman's right to choose.
And even _that_ doesn't feel like enough much of the time!
It's unfortunate you spend all your time Howard lambasting the concept of government - which makes you pretty much a patsy for the super rich - when the real enemy of a free society are the Titans of Capital.
Try the oligarchs for compulsion and coercion when the finally get their way. You just sound like a rather anal man who doesn't like paying tax lest it benefit someone else.
I'll repeat it Howard: if only you spent all your energy on the real problem at hand (too much wealth in the hands of a few), instead of your (probably very well paid) unceasing propaganda to attack the concept of Government itself.
They are not. It is who controls the state that is the issue, not that such a detail would interest you as you are a Libertarian and therefore as much of an extremist as a Communist.
So, what’s wrong with the Communist? They were a major driving force in the Union Movement. They stood their ground. Which is why capitalists hate them. I’ve since learned that capitalism is a complete disaster. I’m a Socialist. But Communists are better humans than any 10 capitalists.
The US hasn't even reckoned with its own Nakba: Manifest Destiny genocide. Denial is very strong, and interferes with people's fear-of-losing-control mindset today. In this age of AI, the spell checker can't even recognize 'Nakba". There is no justification for it all. And all of the war crimes are downstream from Empire's abominable greed.
It appears the "Greed is Good" ethos is used to justify the worst atrocities, and the continuing exploitation by the obscenely wealthy upon the rest of humanity.
Great post Caitlin 👍 Thanks for showing the perspective of the Arab world. It's helpful because the Arab people are quiet, loving, long-suffering souls who try (& want) to live in peace. Even on the brink of WW3 they use diplomacy and rules of warfare over barbarity.
I married a wonderful Middle Eastern Arab man and as a Caucasian American have witnessed the racist behavior he's been subjected to. For 25 years he's suffered abuses. I agree that US citizens have been brainwashed into blind hatred through propaganda. Otherwise good people are willing to kill the "other" because of their ignorance and gullibility. To blindly embrace Israel because we've been told to is disgusting. I grew up watching this no matter how many atrocities they committed over the decades. For whatever it's worth at least now the masks have come off and we can plainly see the truth... If we want to look.
BTW Arabs are designed by US demographics as WHITE... they have no option to be recognized as Middle Eastern 😏 Explain that illogic to me...
I was speaking about the US Citizens... of course the Israeli population is in lock step with their State. Only a very small faction of Israelis object (in part) to the Palestinian genocide.
Same with me married to a Palestinian/Lebanese man for 35 years. So hard to take. Our two adult sons and their girlfriends went to the march in Los Angeles yesterday. I’m taking the granddaughters to a smaller gathering today near our home in SoCal. I’m starting to refer to the genocide in Gaza as a siege. The word ‘siege’ is an important one in the study of history and anthropology. I will use the word siege on my poster at the rally today.
Bless you and your family 🙏 I'm not physically able to protest or I'd be out there too. It's heartbreaking to see someone you love dearly being targeted... Discrimination not only hurts the person you attack but also all the people who love that person. That's why we're called to love each other.
I'm also married to an Arab Muslim man, and yeah, the racism is quite real (the Islamophobia is probably worse.) Once people realize how nice he is, he becomes the exception to what they usually think of his people. "You're one of the good ones." Ugh
As part West Asian and African on my father’s side and part indigenous on my mother’s, I refuse to identify as “white”, even though I’m natural blonde with green eyes. (My deeper skin tone is another matter.)
I wish to distance myself from the white establishment as far as possible. In polls I always identify myself as “other”.
I believe that some, even many, do know, and continue to lie, but I also believe the kool-aid is powerfully strong and many have drunk it to stupification.
One of the enemies most present in my life -- in my face -- is my fellow American, who looks at me cross-eyed when I insist that there is NO exception in the first amendment for controversial speech -- that it's all protected, and that therefore the entire concept of misinformation is a horseshit invention by oligarchs who want to control what we're allowed to say -- and think. They just don't seem to get that the antidote to an opinion you don't like is another opinion. These folks comprise a genuinely dangerous domestic enemy.
How profound. Only through open honest dialog can we arrive at a peaceful solution. This is why they dumb down our school kids. Their biggest weapons are chaos and ignorance.
The motivation for the dumbing down of the schools was/is the money that flows to the education industry and its whores in Congress from the brain dead curricula, testing, and other crap they sell the school system, but teachers are a big beneficiary of this dumbing down because it generates so many jobs. Anyone who argues today for more teachers per student is, albeit unwittingly, arguing for more dumbing down in the form of teacher micromanagement of students. This is how liberals and the left perpetuate and contribute not only to poorly educated graduates but to their inability to function as adults when they get out.
100% on Target Megan! This is LITERALLY Bread and Circus, as in the good old Roman Empire era. The nexus of this movement was the establishment of the US "Department of Education". The situation in education has deteriorated from there, until we have children who graduate from High School who cannot do basic math, cannot read, cannot write or read cursive, cannot balance a checking account, do not understand compounded interest and know NOTHING about world history. A considerable number of high school graduates entering "higher education" require remediation even before they begin taking their "dumbed down" college courses. The movie "IDIOCRACY" comes to mind in this moment.
I don't know how true it is but I was talking to a woman in a store the other day who told me her son is a teacher. she said he can't read or write so he does everything with his computer. She said he can't even write on the white board. If this is true it is alarming. I personally believe it is true because when I was instructing in a college several years ago a large percentage of the students were functionally illiterate. Never forget that ignorance is the states biggest weapon against their own people.
Yes it is. Even scarier is that I wasn't involved in the education system until I took that job so I don't know for how many generations this has been going on. I hope like Hell that it is an anomaly.
I never said it wasn't, only that the American school system's intense dumbing down, undertaken in the 1950-60s with our unfortunate reaction to Sputnik, ended up being so profitable for big business. Public schooling continues to be a giant cash cow today, a thing much dearer to many hearts than any abstract analysis of long-term effects, however beneficial to them. Other factors contribute to the malaise, as I said, and teachers have ended up with a perverse set of benefits/curses. A dumbed down system requires intense dependence of students upon teachers, leading to resentment and burnout, but it also guarantees vast numbers of jobs, which is why teachers' unions will never embrace greater student autonomy, the only route to true learning. I suggest that critics of the status quo look beyond conservative contempt for public education in unpacking what's wrong with the system, which was designed and is managed to benefit a wide range of adults at the expense of children of all classes and descriptions. John Taylor Gatto wrote wisely on this and Frank Smith wrote an indispensable history in "Insult to Intelligence: The Bureaucratic Invasion of Our Classrooms." Bottom line: in cheerleading for public education without an informed analysis of what's wrong with it, lefties contribute to and endorse the dumbing down, however unwittingly.
My only question is: Is it really unwittingly? I think they know exactly what they're doing. It seems to me that the main thing missing is discipline. Without proper discipline how can they learn self discipline? This is why the movement to home schooling is growing. Politics has no place in child education.
Homeschooling is becoming more popular because children are miserable in one-size-fits-all public schools, not because there's not enough "discipline" there. How could you have more discipline when children have to get permission to speak, go to the bathroom, or move around the room?! And how much discipline can you rightly impose in school when children have no choice about being there? Come on. You seem, like most Americans, to have a real distrust of children, but you shouldn't. They are born burning to learn; they'd be terrible candidates for evolution if they weren't. The entire problem is that children, being human beings, crave freedom, and in school they are not free. You say "Politics has no place in child education," but the school system is controlled by politicians. It always will be as long as taxes fund them. So it's a take-it-or-leave-it system, and increasing numbers of parents are leaving it.
Sometimes the kids have to take it upon themselves.
My A+ grandson, 15 years old, has taken it upon himself to learn Chinese. Since there are a great many Chinese students at Michigan State, my daughter is now looking for a tutor for him.
October 6th, 7th, and 8th, there will be virtual gatherings each day at 2:00 PM ET / 9:00 PM Jerusalem Time to honor those we've lost and envision a future of justice, peace, and safety for all.
In these gatherings, we will create a space to process grief, address the oppressive systems that perpetuate profound suffering, and foster a shared vision of reconciliation, justice, and collective liberation.
The gatherings will be facilitated by Nonviolence International, Parents Circle Families Forum/American Friends of Parents Circle Families Forum, and Combatants for Peace/American Friends of Combatants for Peace.
I watched the movie Gaza a couple days ago, I was horrified to see what Israel is doing to the Palestine people. I don't know what will stop this genocide but I pray daily because I need God in my life, its hard to see what I see and not go insane with anger.
Wow! So timely! This morning on CNN’s State of the Union, Dana Bash interviewed ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt. He was concerned about rising anti semitism in the US since October 7 and US college students support of Palestine. It was 10 minutes of unfettered/unchallenged Zionist propaganda. Sickening!
And yes, for many in the West the Western Empire lives in them and is therefore supported in them.
Our problem is that these people have effectively been ‘groomed’ by the state and its propagandists in Hollywood and as soon as you confront these ‘victims of grooming’ with the reality of their groomed condition they accuse you, aggressively, of trying to groom them, of being the representation of the evil that has taken over their judgement rather than the good that you hope to replace it with. This is the consequence of the grooming of individual victims by bad individuals and it’s the same for those groomed by the state except that now there’s a collective element to the victims’ story which reinforces it further. And in Israel this evil grooming is relentlessly pushed by the state.
Curing - ‘reprogramming’ - individuals of the damage done by groomers is hard enough. Doing it for a collective especially if it’s in a position of power (unlike Germans after WW2) is nigh on impossible. But I guess we don’t have any choice.
I don’t know if most westerners are lying to themselves. I think they are generally good people but are naive enough to believe the propaganda that Lebanese and Palestinians are controlled by radical Islamic terrorists who want to kill infidels, create an Islamic caliphate, and hate freedom, woman, gays, and puppies. Remove the religious radicals and the Middle East would become like San Diego. No, we’re not astute enough to see through it and even when The Middle East falls to Israel, they’ll accept the new goal post.
Among the people that are actually paying attention it is very clear that "Israel" is way more likely to cease to exist than conquer any part of the Middle East.
Unfortunately, that's up in the air. The US is (and has been for a while) trying to conquer the Middle-East (through its proxies like Israel), and smaller-level allies (like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan). If Saudi Arabia or Egypt or any of these other countries stood up to the US the way Iran has been doing, they would likely be subjected to similar levels of retribution/action from the US.
"Naive" like those millions of Germans who "knew" what was going on, yet did nothing, said little and so tacitly supported the state? Naivety such as this did not suddenly disappear in 1945, it actually grew. Genocide was not a creation of Hitler and the NAZIS, nor did it magically end with the German defeat.
I long for the day when people in the US and Israel will stand up and liberate themselves from the evil dictatorship regimes inflicting terrorism upon them, their neighbors, and the world.
Yes corporations use the State - whose employees they have by the short and curlies via "donations" and embarrassing information. You're so close, Howard! Keep following the money!
Corporations bought the state on the market. Preferential treatment is given to whomever can pay the most. That’s how supply and demand works. Stop whining.
I flipped over to Fox News last night to see what the gremlins are saying now, and some guy was on there eagerly discussing targets Israel should strike in Iran. They had a map of Iran up with the targets marked. The guy said “these people killed my friends with those shape charges in Afghanistan and Iraq. None of that has been avenged.” Just monsters. Totally unconscious. Consumed by evil. I don’t think it even occurs to them that Persians have souls, that Arabs love their children. They are rabid dogs, and they must be put down.
“these people killed my friends with those shape charges in Afghanistan and Iraq. None of that has been avenged.”
But they don’t question why they were sent to those countries in the first place to kill people who hadn’t harmed them. Easiest way not to be blown up is to stay in your country and protect the freedoms. Doesn’t anyone in the military notice that most of our freedoms have been violated while they were overseas? Plus they weren’t protecting Americans from the people they killed.
"I saw a line from Lebanese writer Lina Mounzer, “Ask any Arab what the most painful realization of the last year has been and it is this: that we have discovered the extent of our dehumanization to such a degree that it’s impossible to function in the world in the same way.”"
Ignore the pious pronouncement about racism and how "black lives matter". Pay attention to what they do.
The same can be said about Russophobia. It existed quietly but the way it so easily resurfaced and got so eagerly supported by the western media and governments was truly astounding.
Lyndon B. Johnson couldn't have gone anywhere without being followed by the anti-War protestors. Today it's different. Proxy wars are cheap. They don't cost Americans their soldiers. Also, let's face it, this Empire has been good to you.
The Empire has been less than good to the ever expanding hordes of homeless people living within it. Or to those teetering on the brink of homelessness, thanks to the shift of wealth from the average citizen to the new ruling class, ie the 1%.
I disagree because the empire is poisoning the land (earth) with bombs and chemicals and plastics. The empire was never good. It is a drug as powerful as fentanyl and we will all suffer the consequences. I know what I’m talking about because my stepdaughter is a heroin/fentanyl addiction and thus my husband and I are raising her daughters. It has been a difficult and very long slog. So no we are not benefiting from murder and mayhem.
Empire has not been good to its citizens. To think of the true quality of life Americans could have without the parasitic oligarchs stealing money at every turn. This idea that the US citizens have it so good, is the narrative of the elite,
Howard, Lets just call it what it really is . . . . "the UNI-PARTY". It has a "Red" branch and a "Blue" branch and neither one answers to the will of the people. The so called 2 Party System is a joke, in its present form it has actually has become the antithesis of any sort of "democracy" or "representative republic".
Those in power have three goals, those are:
1. More Wealth,
2. More Power or Control
and
3. Maintaining and Increasing their monopoly over the first two, in perpetuity.
People need to wake up to the reality of the western empire. Democracy is an illusion that we’ve been told since grade school: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/wow-everything-we-know-about-democracy
Once people are aware of the empire, then we can begin to break it slowly and surely. But please note, voting is NOT going to change the empire. Voting IS part of the empire: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/5-things-ive-learned-from-the-vice
not-voting is also part of the empire. theoretically even more so, imo. btw, empire doesn't have to be changed, but abolished.
I think voting is important, but not voting for either of the pro-growth, pro-corporate, pro-genocide parties.
So, I'll continue what I've done for over two decades: voting Green. Drives my progressive Democrat friends crazy.
If you don't vote, the duopoly calls you "uninvolved" or even "apathetic". Either way, the duopoly has won.
But if you vote for "none of the above", someone somewhere takes notice.
So, my default vote is for someone who hasn't ever been in power before, as the least likely to be corrupted by power and money.
Agreed. Our votes for other than the duopoly sends a message. It tells them that we're not playing along with them anymore, and we're coming after them. That's why I #VoteGreen.
If they are democrats, they aren’t progressive. Sorry to burst their bubble.
I understand. I wasn’t directing at you, but the people that think democrats are progressive. ✌🏼
I hear you.
I live in a country with universal health care, old age pension that you get just for being old, even if you were a full-time home-maker and never earned a single cent, no death penalty, and a Conservative Party who would never think of touching a woman's right to choose.
And even _that_ doesn't feel like enough much of the time!
I was speaking relatively. Compared to the only other party with a chance of forming government, the Democrats are "progressive".
Compared to even centre-right parties anywhere else in the world, you're right.
"People need to wake up to the reality of the western empire. "
And that the empire is composed of States as identifiable objects that actually have the power to be empires
The EMPIRE and THE STATE are the same.
The power lies in a relatively few obscenely rich human beings. Political sociologist Peter Phillips talks about his book, Titans of Capital: How Concentrated Wealth Threatens Humanity. Exposing the Titans of Capital: https://realprogressives.substack.com/p/exposing-the-titans-of-capital?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2112435&post_id=149840308&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1fz5e&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
a few un-named human beings are destroying the middle east ?
Are Biden and Harris included ?
It's unfortunate you spend all your time Howard lambasting the concept of government - which makes you pretty much a patsy for the super rich - when the real enemy of a free society are the Titans of Capital.
Well said!!
Thank you jamenta, Howard was becoming a bit incessant.
Unfortunately, I let him get to me. So, I learn about myself in the process as well. I just need to let the guy go. Sigh. Thanks.
Your faith in a COMPULSORY and COERIVE institution like The State is what is at issue
Try the oligarchs for compulsion and coercion when the finally get their way. You just sound like a rather anal man who doesn't like paying tax lest it benefit someone else.
NO
Just the state and state government
I never said Im opposed to government
But State created things are state puppets
You really think that there are no other actors than "the State"? Did 1984 affect you that badly?
I'll repeat it Howard: if only you spent all your energy on the real problem at hand (too much wealth in the hands of a few), instead of your (probably very well paid) unceasing propaganda to attack the concept of Government itself.
You're a patsy for the obscenely wealthy Howard.
Yeah, that's what "libertarian" means.
Are Trump and his handlers included?
Yes
They are not. It is who controls the state that is the issue, not that such a detail would interest you as you are a Libertarian and therefore as much of an extremist as a Communist.
So, what’s wrong with the Communist? They were a major driving force in the Union Movement. They stood their ground. Which is why capitalists hate them. I’ve since learned that capitalism is a complete disaster. I’m a Socialist. But Communists are better humans than any 10 capitalists.
Good on you Mike Rube - don't tell me that Communism is still a bogey in America!
WOW
The US hasn't even reckoned with its own Nakba: Manifest Destiny genocide. Denial is very strong, and interferes with people's fear-of-losing-control mindset today. In this age of AI, the spell checker can't even recognize 'Nakba". There is no justification for it all. And all of the war crimes are downstream from Empire's abominable greed.
It appears the "Greed is Good" ethos is used to justify the worst atrocities, and the continuing exploitation by the obscenely wealthy upon the rest of humanity.
jamenta lately the like heart won’t register SO I like this comment and several others
Great post Caitlin 👍 Thanks for showing the perspective of the Arab world. It's helpful because the Arab people are quiet, loving, long-suffering souls who try (& want) to live in peace. Even on the brink of WW3 they use diplomacy and rules of warfare over barbarity.
I married a wonderful Middle Eastern Arab man and as a Caucasian American have witnessed the racist behavior he's been subjected to. For 25 years he's suffered abuses. I agree that US citizens have been brainwashed into blind hatred through propaganda. Otherwise good people are willing to kill the "other" because of their ignorance and gullibility. To blindly embrace Israel because we've been told to is disgusting. I grew up watching this no matter how many atrocities they committed over the decades. For whatever it's worth at least now the masks have come off and we can plainly see the truth... If we want to look.
BTW Arabs are designed by US demographics as WHITE... they have no option to be recognized as Middle Eastern 😏 Explain that illogic to me...
"Otherwise good people are willing to kill the "other" because of their ignorance and gullibility. To blindly embrace Israel"
AND BLINDLY FOLLOW THEIR STATE AS WWII GERMANS DID.
Now here we do indeed agree.
and that statement can just as well be for U.S. citizens
The germens were not stupid people
I was speaking about the US Citizens... of course the Israeli population is in lock step with their State. Only a very small faction of Israelis object (in part) to the Palestinian genocide.
Much smarter than Amerikkkans, I daresay, Howard.
Same with me married to a Palestinian/Lebanese man for 35 years. So hard to take. Our two adult sons and their girlfriends went to the march in Los Angeles yesterday. I’m taking the granddaughters to a smaller gathering today near our home in SoCal. I’m starting to refer to the genocide in Gaza as a siege. The word ‘siege’ is an important one in the study of history and anthropology. I will use the word siege on my poster at the rally today.
Bless you and your family 🙏 I'm not physically able to protest or I'd be out there too. It's heartbreaking to see someone you love dearly being targeted... Discrimination not only hurts the person you attack but also all the people who love that person. That's why we're called to love each other.
I'm also married to an Arab Muslim man, and yeah, the racism is quite real (the Islamophobia is probably worse.) Once people realize how nice he is, he becomes the exception to what they usually think of his people. "You're one of the good ones." Ugh
Hi KL
As part West Asian and African on my father’s side and part indigenous on my mother’s, I refuse to identify as “white”, even though I’m natural blonde with green eyes. (My deeper skin tone is another matter.)
I wish to distance myself from the white establishment as far as possible. In polls I always identify myself as “other”.
Truly, I wish I were African American.
I believe that some, even many, do know, and continue to lie, but I also believe the kool-aid is powerfully strong and many have drunk it to stupification.
One of the enemies most present in my life -- in my face -- is my fellow American, who looks at me cross-eyed when I insist that there is NO exception in the first amendment for controversial speech -- that it's all protected, and that therefore the entire concept of misinformation is a horseshit invention by oligarchs who want to control what we're allowed to say -- and think. They just don't seem to get that the antidote to an opinion you don't like is another opinion. These folks comprise a genuinely dangerous domestic enemy.
How profound. Only through open honest dialog can we arrive at a peaceful solution. This is why they dumb down our school kids. Their biggest weapons are chaos and ignorance.
The motivation for the dumbing down of the schools was/is the money that flows to the education industry and its whores in Congress from the brain dead curricula, testing, and other crap they sell the school system, but teachers are a big beneficiary of this dumbing down because it generates so many jobs. Anyone who argues today for more teachers per student is, albeit unwittingly, arguing for more dumbing down in the form of teacher micromanagement of students. This is how liberals and the left perpetuate and contribute not only to poorly educated graduates but to their inability to function as adults when they get out.
100% on Target Megan! This is LITERALLY Bread and Circus, as in the good old Roman Empire era. The nexus of this movement was the establishment of the US "Department of Education". The situation in education has deteriorated from there, until we have children who graduate from High School who cannot do basic math, cannot read, cannot write or read cursive, cannot balance a checking account, do not understand compounded interest and know NOTHING about world history. A considerable number of high school graduates entering "higher education" require remediation even before they begin taking their "dumbed down" college courses. The movie "IDIOCRACY" comes to mind in this moment.
I don't know how true it is but I was talking to a woman in a store the other day who told me her son is a teacher. she said he can't read or write so he does everything with his computer. She said he can't even write on the white board. If this is true it is alarming. I personally believe it is true because when I was instructing in a college several years ago a large percentage of the students were functionally illiterate. Never forget that ignorance is the states biggest weapon against their own people.
Peter, that’s scary as hell.
Yes it is. Even scarier is that I wasn't involved in the education system until I took that job so I don't know for how many generations this has been going on. I hope like Hell that it is an anomaly.
I never said it wasn't, only that the American school system's intense dumbing down, undertaken in the 1950-60s with our unfortunate reaction to Sputnik, ended up being so profitable for big business. Public schooling continues to be a giant cash cow today, a thing much dearer to many hearts than any abstract analysis of long-term effects, however beneficial to them. Other factors contribute to the malaise, as I said, and teachers have ended up with a perverse set of benefits/curses. A dumbed down system requires intense dependence of students upon teachers, leading to resentment and burnout, but it also guarantees vast numbers of jobs, which is why teachers' unions will never embrace greater student autonomy, the only route to true learning. I suggest that critics of the status quo look beyond conservative contempt for public education in unpacking what's wrong with the system, which was designed and is managed to benefit a wide range of adults at the expense of children of all classes and descriptions. John Taylor Gatto wrote wisely on this and Frank Smith wrote an indispensable history in "Insult to Intelligence: The Bureaucratic Invasion of Our Classrooms." Bottom line: in cheerleading for public education without an informed analysis of what's wrong with it, lefties contribute to and endorse the dumbing down, however unwittingly.
My only question is: Is it really unwittingly? I think they know exactly what they're doing. It seems to me that the main thing missing is discipline. Without proper discipline how can they learn self discipline? This is why the movement to home schooling is growing. Politics has no place in child education.
Homeschooling is becoming more popular because children are miserable in one-size-fits-all public schools, not because there's not enough "discipline" there. How could you have more discipline when children have to get permission to speak, go to the bathroom, or move around the room?! And how much discipline can you rightly impose in school when children have no choice about being there? Come on. You seem, like most Americans, to have a real distrust of children, but you shouldn't. They are born burning to learn; they'd be terrible candidates for evolution if they weren't. The entire problem is that children, being human beings, crave freedom, and in school they are not free. You say "Politics has no place in child education," but the school system is controlled by politicians. It always will be as long as taxes fund them. So it's a take-it-or-leave-it system, and increasing numbers of parents are leaving it.
Sometimes the kids have to take it upon themselves.
My A+ grandson, 15 years old, has taken it upon himself to learn Chinese. Since there are a great many Chinese students at Michigan State, my daughter is now looking for a tutor for him.
I hope that one day he decides to live there.
🎯 Well said!
Book club on Palestine, the book we are starting is “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, by Rashid Khalidi. To register: mailto:bcop0081@gmail.com
Or on FB look for Book club on Palestine.
October 6th, 7th, and 8th, there will be virtual gatherings each day at 2:00 PM ET / 9:00 PM Jerusalem Time to honor those we've lost and envision a future of justice, peace, and safety for all.
In these gatherings, we will create a space to process grief, address the oppressive systems that perpetuate profound suffering, and foster a shared vision of reconciliation, justice, and collective liberation.
The gatherings will be facilitated by Nonviolence International, Parents Circle Families Forum/American Friends of Parents Circle Families Forum, and Combatants for Peace/American Friends of Combatants for Peace.
https://www.afcfp.org/upcomingevents
I watched the movie Gaza a couple days ago, I was horrified to see what Israel is doing to the Palestine people. I don't know what will stop this genocide but I pray daily because I need God in my life, its hard to see what I see and not go insane with anger.
It ALL STARTED with a concept of State-Mandated Associations that is fully supported in the U.S.
In Israel, the mandate is that those associations be GENOCIDE for Palestinians
Thanks for saying this common sense stuff out loud, Caitlin.
Wow! So timely! This morning on CNN’s State of the Union, Dana Bash interviewed ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt. He was concerned about rising anti semitism in the US since October 7 and US college students support of Palestine. It was 10 minutes of unfettered/unchallenged Zionist propaganda. Sickening!
Wonderful piece.
And yes, for many in the West the Western Empire lives in them and is therefore supported in them.
Our problem is that these people have effectively been ‘groomed’ by the state and its propagandists in Hollywood and as soon as you confront these ‘victims of grooming’ with the reality of their groomed condition they accuse you, aggressively, of trying to groom them, of being the representation of the evil that has taken over their judgement rather than the good that you hope to replace it with. This is the consequence of the grooming of individual victims by bad individuals and it’s the same for those groomed by the state except that now there’s a collective element to the victims’ story which reinforces it further. And in Israel this evil grooming is relentlessly pushed by the state.
Curing - ‘reprogramming’ - individuals of the damage done by groomers is hard enough. Doing it for a collective especially if it’s in a position of power (unlike Germans after WW2) is nigh on impossible. But I guess we don’t have any choice.
Well expressed David Elliott! Thank you - much truth and insight in your comment worthy of further reflection...
Well said Mr. Elliott! Crystal clear analysis of the problem.
I don’t know if most westerners are lying to themselves. I think they are generally good people but are naive enough to believe the propaganda that Lebanese and Palestinians are controlled by radical Islamic terrorists who want to kill infidels, create an Islamic caliphate, and hate freedom, woman, gays, and puppies. Remove the religious radicals and the Middle East would become like San Diego. No, we’re not astute enough to see through it and even when The Middle East falls to Israel, they’ll accept the new goal post.
Among the people that are actually paying attention it is very clear that "Israel" is way more likely to cease to exist than conquer any part of the Middle East.
Unfortunately, that's up in the air. The US is (and has been for a while) trying to conquer the Middle-East (through its proxies like Israel), and smaller-level allies (like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan). If Saudi Arabia or Egypt or any of these other countries stood up to the US the way Iran has been doing, they would likely be subjected to similar levels of retribution/action from the US.
" but are naive enough to believe "
You'd be surprised what people would support in order to back their FAITH in their State
not buying the 'naive' stuff. it's pretense, they know.
"Naive" like those millions of Germans who "knew" what was going on, yet did nothing, said little and so tacitly supported the state? Naivety such as this did not suddenly disappear in 1945, it actually grew. Genocide was not a creation of Hitler and the NAZIS, nor did it magically end with the German defeat.
I long for the day when people in the US and Israel will stand up and liberate themselves from the evil dictatorship regimes inflicting terrorism upon them, their neighbors, and the world.
That regime is called The State which very few people are willing to oppose.
They almost look upon it as their friend
That regime is corporate power, which very few people are willing to oppose. Many, like yourself, even look upon it as a friend.
The State has far more power than any group of corporations
And corporations use the state to do their exploitation for them
Yes corporations use the State - whose employees they have by the short and curlies via "donations" and embarrassing information. You're so close, Howard! Keep following the money!
And I said The State is a coercive and compulsory institution that I oppose
BUT that your support
Corporations bought the state on the market. Preferential treatment is given to whomever can pay the most. That’s how supply and demand works. Stop whining.
That means the state sold their power too if others bought it.
Trying to depict it as a 1-way transaction will not work
The majority of Israelis think their government should be even more brutally genocidal.
Just like majorities of the western countries are fine with their governments. They talk but their voting walks.
Haha! Coming from a Trump fanboy, that’s a funny thing to say.
I flipped over to Fox News last night to see what the gremlins are saying now, and some guy was on there eagerly discussing targets Israel should strike in Iran. They had a map of Iran up with the targets marked. The guy said “these people killed my friends with those shape charges in Afghanistan and Iraq. None of that has been avenged.” Just monsters. Totally unconscious. Consumed by evil. I don’t think it even occurs to them that Persians have souls, that Arabs love their children. They are rabid dogs, and they must be put down.
“these people killed my friends with those shape charges in Afghanistan and Iraq. None of that has been avenged.”
But they don’t question why they were sent to those countries in the first place to kill people who hadn’t harmed them. Easiest way not to be blown up is to stay in your country and protect the freedoms. Doesn’t anyone in the military notice that most of our freedoms have been violated while they were overseas? Plus they weren’t protecting Americans from the people they killed.
What the hell was the U.S. doing in those foreign countries with foreign troops !!!!!!!
The idea that the U.S. may do what the hell it wants but its citizens somehow get a pass is a ridiculous assumption
Well said - and I agree 100% with your sentiments!
If the USA would simply and unilaterally pull back from these foreign entanglements, this action, by itself, would go a long way to solve the problem.
Yes, but that is unlikely to happen. That is the nature of the beast that is the "US Empire".
Truly unlikely, but you surely can agree it really is that simple?
President Washington warned against "Foreign Entanglements".
" It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world. "
-- George Washington in his Farewell Address to the People of the United States | Monday, September 19, 1796
If we had only listened!
"I saw a line from Lebanese writer Lina Mounzer, “Ask any Arab what the most painful realization of the last year has been and it is this: that we have discovered the extent of our dehumanization to such a degree that it’s impossible to function in the world in the same way.”"
Ignore the pious pronouncement about racism and how "black lives matter". Pay attention to what they do.
The same can be said about Russophobia. It existed quietly but the way it so easily resurfaced and got so eagerly supported by the western media and governments was truly astounding.
Lyndon B. Johnson couldn't have gone anywhere without being followed by the anti-War protestors. Today it's different. Proxy wars are cheap. They don't cost Americans their soldiers. Also, let's face it, this Empire has been good to you.
The Empire has been less than good to the ever expanding hordes of homeless people living within it. Or to those teetering on the brink of homelessness, thanks to the shift of wealth from the average citizen to the new ruling class, ie the 1%.
I disagree because the empire is poisoning the land (earth) with bombs and chemicals and plastics. The empire was never good. It is a drug as powerful as fentanyl and we will all suffer the consequences. I know what I’m talking about because my stepdaughter is a heroin/fentanyl addiction and thus my husband and I are raising her daughters. It has been a difficult and very long slog. So no we are not benefiting from murder and mayhem.
Empire has not been good to its citizens. To think of the true quality of life Americans could have without the parasitic oligarchs stealing money at every turn. This idea that the US citizens have it so good, is the narrative of the elite,
The Empire claims to be good for you whether from the mouths of Republicans or Democrats
Howard, Lets just call it what it really is . . . . "the UNI-PARTY". It has a "Red" branch and a "Blue" branch and neither one answers to the will of the people. The so called 2 Party System is a joke, in its present form it has actually has become the antithesis of any sort of "democracy" or "representative republic".
Those in power have three goals, those are:
1. More Wealth,
2. More Power or Control
and
3. Maintaining and Increasing their monopoly over the first two, in perpetuity.