Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): There’s been a lot of talk in pro-Palestine circles about withholding votes for Biden in protest of his genocide in Gaza, which is of course fine, but the discourse around doing so often misses an important point. A lot of US voters erroneously think they’d be punishing the Democrats for Gaza by costing them the election, mistakenly assuming Democrats care about winning. They don’t.
The sociopaths who run things are unimpressed by our cleverness, our word games, our tightly reasoned arguments and close readings of texts, unmoved by facts, logic, evidence or morality, as long as they have force on their side, as long as the cops and army will shoot when ordered to do so.
It's like trying to reason with a schoolyard bully. Truly, this never grows old:
"A WOLF, meeting with a lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea, which should justify to the lamb himself, his right to eat him.
He then addressed him: Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.
Indeed, bleated the lamb in a mournful tone of voice: I was not then born.
Then said the wolf: You feed in my pasture.
No, good sir, replied the lamb: I have not yet tasted grass.
Again said the wolf: You drink of my well.
No, exclaimed the lamb: I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me.
Upon which the wolf seized him and ate him up, saying: Well! I won't remain supper-less, even though you refute every one of my imputations.
Moral: The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice, when the oppressor intends to be unjust."
Democracy, as a practical matter, is basically an exercise in passing the buck, in avoiding responsibility.
Everyone in power claims to answer to and derive their authority from someone else, going ultimately back to "the people" who themselves do not directly exercise power, and who would find it difficult to exercise as a collective action problem, even if they had the formal authority to do so.
What this means is that real power is often in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, who typically don't even want to stand for election because they don't want the voters to know what their programs are, much less to exercise any oversight. Robert Moses is the classic example here.
Even that minimal level of scrutiny is too much for some, and real power is often exercised by people not formally part of any government structure. Corporate lobbyists or Robert Kagan come to mind.
Note how western politicians and their policies are all incredibly unpopular, but they claim to be acting on a popular mandate.
Thank you for this essential essay. I do what I can as an elder. Teetering on the edge of nihilism, your work is one of few things that keeps me going.
"The unelected empire managers who actually run the US power structure also don’t care who wins the election. They know they’ll still get their murder and militarism and capitalism and imperialism no matter who gets sworn in next year, whether it’s Biden or Trump or Harris or someone else. Nobody with any real power cares about your vote."
Indeed, and this has been the case for decades. This started at the end of WWII and has become progressively worse.
Excellent article with some reference to a solution.
YES. The Democrats actually don't like it when they have all three Houses, because then they have to awkwardly explain why they can't deliver on any of their promises to their base, instead of simply point to the Republicans. The PTB don't like Trump because he's such a loose cannon, but they managed him for four years once. And YES, we can change things once we have the people--or a hefty percentage of us--united, but they requires a lot of education, a lot of deconstruction.
Also, a few years ago, there was a "leak", supposedly from a Capitol Hill area pharmacist, to the effect that multiple Congressional leaders, Team D and Team R, were taking Alzheimer medications.
Said disclosure appears to have been memory-holed, and I have no idea whether or not the leak itself was genuine, but I do believe that a lot of the political leadership are senile.
We don't pay enough attention to the Banks and the men who own them.
I call them the Oligarchy.
The Oligarchy hires the "empire managers".
You can see it on nearly a daily basis when discussing European politics because they have the unelected European Commission and it is money that determines who will join that group. It is money which controls the head of NATO. Politics in the US are more disguised.
Let me try to do some "cross pollination" with this youTube and article. The youTube discusses the article. The gist is that some members of the Oligarchy (Commercial Banks in this case) are trying to destroy the EU with the Fed keeping interest rates at 5%. Other members of the Oligarchy are combating this attempt by creating a more closely integrated EU that effectively turns member nations into subservient states. No one in the Oligarchy cares about Ukraine (or Gaza) they are just ways of accumulating more wealth to maintain their positions of privilege. Please Note: the Oligarchs fight amongst each other.
The Oligarchs don't care who you vote for because they already own your vote, the voting machines, and the names on the ballot. All power flows from money and all money is controlled by the Oligarchs.
Some day someone should build a structure chart on how power flows from the Oligarchy and down.
A propos this post, I'm halfway thru Ep2 of 4 of the docuseries, "American Conspiracy" on Netflix. Spooks galore. Check it out, all four episodes. Handle with care. It isn't a journalist-safe zone.
Totally agree and already in my community in the UK we are refusing to
vote for the two main party candidates and have vetted and selected our own
I am actively encouraging via social media others to do the same. Our Labour opposition party under Starmer in also under the thumb of the USA and Israel
The sociopaths who run things are unimpressed by our cleverness, our word games, our tightly reasoned arguments and close readings of texts, unmoved by facts, logic, evidence or morality, as long as they have force on their side, as long as the cops and army will shoot when ordered to do so.
It's like trying to reason with a schoolyard bully. Truly, this never grows old:
"A WOLF, meeting with a lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea, which should justify to the lamb himself, his right to eat him.
He then addressed him: Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.
Indeed, bleated the lamb in a mournful tone of voice: I was not then born.
Then said the wolf: You feed in my pasture.
No, good sir, replied the lamb: I have not yet tasted grass.
Again said the wolf: You drink of my well.
No, exclaimed the lamb: I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me.
Upon which the wolf seized him and ate him up, saying: Well! I won't remain supper-less, even though you refute every one of my imputations.
Moral: The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice, when the oppressor intends to be unjust."
Democracy, as a practical matter, is basically an exercise in passing the buck, in avoiding responsibility.
Everyone in power claims to answer to and derive their authority from someone else, going ultimately back to "the people" who themselves do not directly exercise power, and who would find it difficult to exercise as a collective action problem, even if they had the formal authority to do so.
What this means is that real power is often in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, who typically don't even want to stand for election because they don't want the voters to know what their programs are, much less to exercise any oversight. Robert Moses is the classic example here.
Even that minimal level of scrutiny is too much for some, and real power is often exercised by people not formally part of any government structure. Corporate lobbyists or Robert Kagan come to mind.
Note how western politicians and their policies are all incredibly unpopular, but they claim to be acting on a popular mandate.
Thank you for this essential essay. I do what I can as an elder. Teetering on the edge of nihilism, your work is one of few things that keeps me going.
"The unelected empire managers who actually run the US power structure also don’t care who wins the election. They know they’ll still get their murder and militarism and capitalism and imperialism no matter who gets sworn in next year, whether it’s Biden or Trump or Harris or someone else. Nobody with any real power cares about your vote."
Indeed, and this has been the case for decades. This started at the end of WWII and has become progressively worse.
Excellent article with some reference to a solution.
YES. The Democrats actually don't like it when they have all three Houses, because then they have to awkwardly explain why they can't deliver on any of their promises to their base, instead of simply point to the Republicans. The PTB don't like Trump because he's such a loose cannon, but they managed him for four years once. And YES, we can change things once we have the people--or a hefty percentage of us--united, but they requires a lot of education, a lot of deconstruction.
still shouldn't vote for him
The FIX is in and has been for decades!! Both parties stink!!
Also, a few years ago, there was a "leak", supposedly from a Capitol Hill area pharmacist, to the effect that multiple Congressional leaders, Team D and Team R, were taking Alzheimer medications.
Said disclosure appears to have been memory-holed, and I have no idea whether or not the leak itself was genuine, but I do believe that a lot of the political leadership are senile.
n.b. stupid autocorrect.
"unelected empire managers"
Correct. Now, who hires these guys? Where does there money come from?
Money makes the world go around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIAXG_QcQNU
We don't pay enough attention to the Banks and the men who own them.
I call them the Oligarchy.
The Oligarchy hires the "empire managers".
You can see it on nearly a daily basis when discussing European politics because they have the unelected European Commission and it is money that determines who will join that group. It is money which controls the head of NATO. Politics in the US are more disguised.
Let me try to do some "cross pollination" with this youTube and article. The youTube discusses the article. The gist is that some members of the Oligarchy (Commercial Banks in this case) are trying to destroy the EU with the Fed keeping interest rates at 5%. Other members of the Oligarchy are combating this attempt by creating a more closely integrated EU that effectively turns member nations into subservient states. No one in the Oligarchy cares about Ukraine (or Gaza) they are just ways of accumulating more wealth to maintain their positions of privilege. Please Note: the Oligarchs fight amongst each other.
The Oligarchs don't care who you vote for because they already own your vote, the voting machines, and the names on the ballot. All power flows from money and all money is controlled by the Oligarchs.
Some day someone should build a structure chart on how power flows from the Oligarchy and down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTYBqx0NiSA&
https://tomluongo.me/2024/02/20/why-war-bonds-are-making-their-return-in-europe/
The U.S. is not a democracy. That’s why it doesn’t matter which of the two big party you vote for.
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
Vote for anyone except the corrupt two parties. Or don’t vote b
A propos this post, I'm halfway thru Ep2 of 4 of the docuseries, "American Conspiracy" on Netflix. Spooks galore. Check it out, all four episodes. Handle with care. It isn't a journalist-safe zone.
Vote for Caitlin
You, Caitlin Johnstone, and George Galloway give me real hope. Thank you!
Thank you Caitlin🙏
And every time someone tells you that you need to save democracy, what they're really saying is you need to save their asses.
For Democracy cannot be lost if you never had it.
Totally agree and already in my community in the UK we are refusing to
vote for the two main party candidates and have vetted and selected our own
I am actively encouraging via social media others to do the same. Our Labour opposition party under Starmer in also under the thumb of the USA and Israel
Gaza is the tipping point of enough is enough