I think regime change for the US is too simplistic a notion. The US is a firmly entrenched oligarchy, and political regime change would mean also putting an end to that economic reality. That's not just regime change, that's revolution. (Which I'm definitely in favor of...)
I wonder if anyone is thinking that that fate might be appropriate for certain unnamed presidents, and other aholes of power in government, the military -industrial complex, etc.
Perhaps I could have been more clear. I'm not disagreeing with Caitlin, I was just trying to clarify that for people who think of "regime change" as a political goal (kidnap Maduro = regime change, assassinate Qaddafi = regime change, bomb Iran = regime change, overthrow Assad = regime change) that that is too narrow a focus. The regime change necessary goes beyond the political to encompass the economic and the social - that was my point.
As an aside, it is interesting how small a role religion plays in this "regime change" dialog. 400 years ago, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have been the case as religion was much more central to the existing power structures. I wonder how long it will be until religious strife once again becomes a major factor (e.g. pro-Christian/anti-Islam in the US, pro-Hindi in India, anti-Zionist sentiment around the world, Shia/Sunni frictions in the Middle East. China seems like quite the outlier in the religious sphere...)
Here in Canada, something that gives me hope is Avi Lewis running for the leadership of the NDP. He's been walking his talk for decades. Not exactly overthrow, but things would be pretty different, I think, if him and his ilk get in.
And I think we have to unlearn all the propaganda that tells us that Iran, China and Russia are the bad guys and we're the good guys. The west is arming and funding Israel as it commits genocide ffs. If that doesn't tell you that we're not the good guys, I don't know what does.
What is less bad about Russia or China?? Both Russia and China are oppressors of their people and others. Both Russia and China have active Imperialistic manners, operations, and goals similar to what the US does. Russia is in an aggressive imperialist war with Ukraine and both Russia and China finance destabilizing and military operations around the world. Many of the regimes they support are cruel and abusive.
The propaganda of the Westerners about Russia and China is working perfectly on you. Who is the worst warmongerer ? The list of US American wars is long. How many military bases everywhere ?
lots of work about re-legitimizing language as means to become cooperatively aware of the reality, and media landscape observation efforts.. otherwise we can't even trust the virtuous cooperative discourse. The norm of lack of transparency behind the official sources and trusted converging media (few to many information channels). I also feel like I don't know where to start. but I think when the means of conversation have rotten, we might get lost again. I value democracy if it were not so abused as mere word.
Too out-of-touch, listens to nobody, only asset is Naomi Klein. Another scion from a famous family, and we just ended that mess last year, with the demise of baby-face Trudeau, who just got his enactment of the Emergency Act knocked down by the courts. But, his Daddy had an emergency act, so he had to do one as well, and the truckers was the only chance in his admin, so he HAD to do it! We need no more mental light-weights promoting naive ideology in this world.
I don't have enough info on them yet. What it takes for the NDP to matter is for them to kick out their entire exec (all union executives) and start from scratch. They're just too out-of-touch with real life. Actually, thy should forget about being the other half of the industrial economy (labour) and join with the Greens, Ms. May is the best PM we never had. Splitting the left vote opens the door for trash like PP.
I have been reading and listening to Yves Engler for about 20 years. He is very intelligent, anti imperialist, pro Palestine and other things that I think are positive. Bianca has been involved with the Canadian Institute on Foreign Policy for quite a while. I am afraid I do not share your view of Elizabeth May. I had the misfortune to actually meet her and talk with her when I lived in Ottawa and she was the executive director of the Sierra Club. I read the first book she wrote and mistakenly thought she was clever. On earth day, she had some young women wearing very little on stage, pretending to be from some other culture dancing around for the environment. She asked me why I had a problem with that and when I told her, she said that she had not vetted the acts before choosing them. When I said she could have ended up with the Ku Klux Klan up on that stage, she said nothing. She once said that she does not support a woman's right to make a friviolous decision to have an abortion. Who does she think she is to decide how women make such difficult decisions? Also, she clearly sucked up to any politician with power that she thought might be to her advantage. Conservative, LIberal, whatever. Didn't matter to her. She is a money grubbing power monger.
As I was reading your article, I was thinking that I could not agree more. It drives me nuts when people blabber on about how bad other governments are when we don't have to look far at all to see where the real problems lie. It is the Empire to the south of where I live. Unfortunately, the poison is affecting here too.
It has affected all countries' leaders, whether by bribery, threats, or because they are the same or shamefully gutless, whatever it is they are not doing for the benefit of their own country.
When PM Albanese (no relation to the feisty Francesca Albanese Rapporteur, unfortunately) told his then fiance while at some big event in America that, "Nothing could ever beat that event ." I felt sick enough to almost vomit, I knew he'd been bought cheaply, and Australia would be the loser.
Australians more or less begged him to reject the AUKUS deal that the outgoing MP Morrison had done to trap Albanese, who didn't listen and it has cost us billions, and the people have lost so much because of that by having cuts to so many government payments just to keep paying for submarines we know we will never get because the US does not have the ability to build them and are so behind on their own orders. Then Albanese gave more millions to help America build bades to help them build their own subs, supposedly in the hope they'd get around to ours sometime, also gave millions to UK to help them get on with building facilities for their part in this theft from the Southern colony. And all we get in return is to invite our weak PM and partner to a fancy dinner.
G'day Davina. One of the many stupid things about AUKUS is that the Australian $ is fiat currency, so they could just print some dollars to give them ( after all that's what Amerika does ) and there would be no need to cut any public services. And as Frydenberg said, anything is affordable if it's a priority.
Clearly housing, education or healthcare are not a priority for Albo. I refuse to use his full surname, as to do so would be an insult to Signora Francesca.
Agree totally with everything you said, but using Albo would feel as though we were buddies, therefore ensured there is no relationship between them. Pity he didn't get her spirit bravery and total honesty, what a fantastic PM or President she would make.
'Shamefully gutless ' sums it up, Davina. I'm one of the increasing numbers of angry, frustrated citizens of Oz watching as the Albo/Marles/Wong triumvirate prostrate themselves before the Fascist Confederacy of America and its Zionazi masters.
Yes, absolutely and we’ve got more US troops stationed in NT, god knows what else their doing in Pine Gap and WA needs to build bigger sub docking bays for ‘visiting’ US large subs - unrelated to doomed AUKUS project. Plus later on housing for American personnel and their families when we have a well known housing crisis….Yes the ‘date night’ comment by Albo in US ages ago now, made me want to 🤮
The more we’re involved with all this AUKUS crap, the bigger the target we become.
True about us being a target and it was pointed it out several times. Noticable how he never mentions his single mother, who lived in public housing these days.
Were the United States not constantly threatening Iran, sanctioning Iran, attacking Iran, dealing in outrageous bad faith with Iran, Iran might have more incentive to reform.
If Amerika stopped sanctioning them - and everyone else on the planet - Iran would not need to reform, but if they wanted reform that would be their own business and nobody else's.
well said Mr. Avenell, they seem to impose sanctions on any and everyone they wish to disenfranchise and put down. And by what right do they do so, they have not been given such a right/imperative, yet they act as though they possess the right to whatever they so choose on the world stage
with 'reform' people often mean 'becoming less 'authoritarian'', while the 'authoritarianism' is primarily indeed a defensive reaction to external threats.
"Why do the anti-authoritarians not confine themselves to crying out against political authority, the state? All Socialists are agreed that the political state, and with it political authority, will disappear as a result of the coming social revolution, that is, that public functions will lose their political character and will be transformed into the simple administrative functions of watching over the true interests of society. But the anti-authoritarians demand that the political state be abolished at one stroke, even before the social conditions that gave birth to it have been destroyed. They demand that the first act of the social revolution shall be the abolition of authority. Have these gentlemen ever seen a revolution? A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means, if such there be at all; and if the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionists. Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeois? Should we not, on the contrary, reproach it for not having used it freely enough?" (f. engels - on authority).
Yes, let's get rid of the camouflage empires first, the ones draped in noble flags and high flown rhetoric. At least, let's drag away the pretence and reveal the hateful, cruel and dishonest hearts hiding behind it.
More people know the western power structure than just those willing to admit publicly. They know their comfortable lives won’t be as comfortable with the change. They tell themselves they want to earn for a few more years and have that extra financial security, after which they will advocate for real change. That day probably will never come. After all, they can’t do it alone right now anyways, right? Also, you know, they want to leave something for their kids (and grandkids) when the change finally comes, right?
Some people who consider themselves morally intact but still don’t know how the power structure works advocate for changes now but do not anticipate the short term economic impact the change will bring. When the impact hits, to their dismay, they suddenly want to go back to the good old days because, you know, “it’s only fair because we have been too generous lately”. They probably don’t know they belong to a select group that’s a fifth of the world population and that consumes almost two thirds of the world’s resources. One reason why some people are liberal when they are young and become conservative as they get older.
Only when majority of the people begin to believe that we really don’t need billionaires, severe wealth disparity is detrimental to the whole world, that money beyond a certain point is not necessary for a living, and that those who have more money than they need always wield power over the rest of us, is when real change is possible.
I still argue with people who are against wealth tax on billionaires because “they earned it, it’s their money, government should not touch it”.
On his “Radio Hour” on Substack today, Ralph Nader described the people you seem to be talking about as “the contented class,” which he said is not yet on board for systemic change. That’s consistent with my own observations. Few of them really care much about the genocide in Gaza, but are furious about what Trump is doing inside the country. They’ll continue to vote for candidates who support the genocide (the majority) and resent the rest of us for splitting the party, as they see it. It’s more important that a minority of us abandon our consciences than that they gin up interest in ending a genocide. They are welcome to join us, but I am done accommodating them. If we remain split, it’s on them. Earlier this week, 153 House Democrats voted with a majority of Republicans to send Israel another $3.3 billion in military aid, to bar appropriations to UNRWA, the UN agency that has provided by far the most humanitarian aid to Gaza, and to support regime change in Venezuela. Only 57 Democrats voted against the bill.
Some Israelis, like the Executive Director of B’Tselem, the country’s best known humanitarian rights organization, which concluded in a report last year that Israel is waging a genocide, have begun the difficult journey of coming to terms with the fact that their birth country is, rightly, a pariah state. (I heard Yuli Novak talk about her journey in an interview earlier this week). Too few USA’ans have begun that
reckoning. Supporting fascism is okay as long as it stays outside the country. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more worldwide hatred directed at us.
BTW, Caitlin, I felt a slight bit of optimism when I read your recent piece about Sen. Lindsay Graham’s suggestion that the U.S. could terminate military aid to Israel in 10 years. However, according to the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), Graham’s plan, in conjunction with Netanyahu, is to replace regular foreign military aid to Israel with “co-development” and “co-production” of weapons, to include “cyber, AI, border and drones,” that will end up costing the U.S. taxpayer much more. (And it will also be more lethal to the rest of the world). Apparently, this is also a goal of the Heritage Foundation, which gifted the U.S. with Project 2025. See IMEU’s Project #27 for more of the details. Lesson for the night: don’t let anything Lindsay Graham says make you feel even slightly better.
Hi, John. I think this is a place where me might have some power — if we only exercise it. Let our reps know we won’t vote for those who have supported genocide. (Now we have a list of those who most recently did). Campaign, if we can, for primary challengers who are openly opposed to the genocide and who don’t take AIPAC money. I’m thinking of volunteering for The New Policy. I heard the two who started it speak (a State Department and HHS staffer who quit the Biden administration over Gaza) and they are getting calls from mostly Hill staffers whose bosses are interested in changing their position on Gaza. As many have said, we have the numbers. We don’t have to take what they dish out. They work for us.
But did they earn it, or was it passed on by parents with a ready made business too. All they had to do was let the money grow, buy up opponents and more money flowed in because the got rid of the staff from the new purchase and so on it goes - they get wealthier, the workers get poorer or cannot get work. So, no, they definitely should be taxed, if someone whe earns Five hundred a weak is taxed why not the person getting billions while jetting around the world in luxury, with houses in several countries, always one, at least, in israel. Any work done in the owned by billionaires is done by staff, the only work the moneyed do is to lift a pen and sign their name to a document when a takeover has been worked - by lawyers. I don't think signing their name actually constitutes working, so pay your taxes and keep out of the affairs of all countries, yo only make things worse by your interference.
As far as I can see, logically, the person who has benefited most from any given society is the one who has earned the most within it and therefore the rich have the most to repay.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have derived far more money from America than a homeless benefit recipient, therefore they ought to be happy to pay for what they have used.
“Duce, tell us against whom we shall march! We will!” Under the finger of the One the wheel of desire kept turning. The regimented crowds, utterly devoid of love and hatred, tramped to his palace, there to learn whom they must hate; and the vacuousness of their passion, like a sail manouvered by the boatman, took the wind from above. He stepped to the balcony, fulgarant amid his satraps... the very meaning of Fascism, which reposed on the assumption that war is imminent, eternal, and divine."
The Duce and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were captured on April 27 by local partisans near the village of Dongo on Lake Como. Mussolini and Petacci were executed by firing squad the following afternoon, two days before Adolf Hitler's suicide.
Their bodies were taken to Milan and left in a suburban square, Piazza di Loreto, where an angry mob insulted and physically abused them. They were then hung upside down from a metal beam above a gas station in the square. The corpses were whipped, shot, and beaten with hammers.
Civil War or the military takeover is very likely. There is little chance that US will survive in a current shape and form. Greenland and Denmark may occupy large parts of the former USA.
I live in the United States of Propaganda and I am dismayed by the extent of it. Even alternative media air Russiaphobia influenced stories with no context or evidence. Same with Iran, etc. I rely on REAL reporting at Judging Freedom.com hosted by Judge Napolitano, Dialog Works.org, the Electronic Intifada.net and some others. Excellent information and analysis.
The US public is held hostage by their ruling classes without any ideas of their own other than what they've been fed for 8 decades from the Kool Aid Fountain. Any ideas about political reform are of the sophomoric variety ( via the ballot box) which ensures that the Ancien Regime remains in place. In a society where freedom of thought is non-existent and social discourse revolves around sports and Hollywood how can you even think about regime change??
There won’t be a regime change in the US, partly because the US will cease to exist as a federal entity once the US dollar loses its status as the global reserve currency and main trading currency.
More important than ever! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
Trying to make Regime changes in all the States and Countries Israel and the US hates and designates as enemies, I don't think they understand that nothing last forever and that there is a time for everything, and that lies cant live forever .Whether that IRAQ has massive Arsenal of WMD's and the world was in danger of a imminent threat and Nuke attack by IRAQ , or that there was never and is no such people or such place as Palestine ,that Iran broke the Peace Deal that was working because Israel demanded America break the deal after the fact ,and then piled on even more unjustified sanction on Iran and blamed them for breaking the agreement. some of the most undemocratic Slimy things for a World leader to do, and still consider and picture themselves as a Beacon of light for the world ,Really? Ha, ha ha ha, that's one of the biggest joke ever. Their next regime change could be their OWN.
1953 coup in Iran, coup d’état in Iran that occurred in August 1953. Funded by the United States and the United Kingdom, it removed Mohammad Mosaddegh from power and restored Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as Iran’s leader. Some 300 people died during fighting in Tehrān.
With its strategic location and vast oil reserves, Iran was of special interest to the United States, the United Kingdom, and other powers. Britain had established a presence in the country during World War II
I think regime change for the US is too simplistic a notion. The US is a firmly entrenched oligarchy, and political regime change would mean also putting an end to that economic reality. That's not just regime change, that's revolution. (Which I'm definitely in favor of...)
Yes, it's time for a revolution. Death to the oligarchy! Death to capitalism!
Death to "death"!
Sounds about right to me...The football addicted Amerikan will continue the "terminal" Self-delusion !!!
This is the 1st time in my long life, the regime is under some threat of change or lose.
That's progress. Let's keep on and live by and follow our lights.
I wonder if anyone is thinking that that fate might be appropriate for certain unnamed presidents, and other aholes of power in government, the military -industrial complex, etc.
Fait Acclompi might be appropriate. (TIC)
I am sûre Caitline agrees
Read her full post to the end.
Perhaps I could have been more clear. I'm not disagreeing with Caitlin, I was just trying to clarify that for people who think of "regime change" as a political goal (kidnap Maduro = regime change, assassinate Qaddafi = regime change, bomb Iran = regime change, overthrow Assad = regime change) that that is too narrow a focus. The regime change necessary goes beyond the political to encompass the economic and the social - that was my point.
As an aside, it is interesting how small a role religion plays in this "regime change" dialog. 400 years ago, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have been the case as religion was much more central to the existing power structures. I wonder how long it will be until religious strife once again becomes a major factor (e.g. pro-Christian/anti-Islam in the US, pro-Hindi in India, anti-Zionist sentiment around the world, Shia/Sunni frictions in the Middle East. China seems like quite the outlier in the religious sphere...)
CJ>>"I support regime change in the United States. The real kind, not the “new face at the front desk every few years” kind."
💯 Me too! I've been saying that for 2 decades now. I get funny reactions when I say that though.
Thank you Caitlin & Tim! ❤️🙏
The question is how do we do this? I wish I knew.
Here in Canada, something that gives me hope is Avi Lewis running for the leadership of the NDP. He's been walking his talk for decades. Not exactly overthrow, but things would be pretty different, I think, if him and his ilk get in.
And I think we have to unlearn all the propaganda that tells us that Iran, China and Russia are the bad guys and we're the good guys. The west is arming and funding Israel as it commits genocide ffs. If that doesn't tell you that we're not the good guys, I don't know what does.
Here's some advice from Bob Marley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1RVyJiGYes&list=RDs1RVyJiGYes&start_radio=1
A good start, pointing out all the propagenda. Our ennemies are not Russia or China, but the US because of their impérialism.
What is less bad about Russia or China?? Both Russia and China are oppressors of their people and others. Both Russia and China have active Imperialistic manners, operations, and goals similar to what the US does. Russia is in an aggressive imperialist war with Ukraine and both Russia and China finance destabilizing and military operations around the world. Many of the regimes they support are cruel and abusive.
The propaganda of the Westerners about Russia and China is working perfectly on you. Who is the worst warmongerer ? The list of US American wars is long. How many military bases everywhere ?
Reality Seeker and Cornelia are both right - all three are bad, but the US is the worst globally.
Your views on China and Russia are wrong and simplistic when compared to that of the United States and its posse.
lots of work about re-legitimizing language as means to become cooperatively aware of the reality, and media landscape observation efforts.. otherwise we can't even trust the virtuous cooperative discourse. The norm of lack of transparency behind the official sources and trusted converging media (few to many information channels). I also feel like I don't know where to start. but I think when the means of conversation have rotten, we might get lost again. I value democracy if it were not so abused as mere word.
Lewis is clueless.
Why say you that?
Too out-of-touch, listens to nobody, only asset is Naomi Klein. Another scion from a famous family, and we just ended that mess last year, with the demise of baby-face Trudeau, who just got his enactment of the Emergency Act knocked down by the courts. But, his Daddy had an emergency act, so he had to do one as well, and the truckers was the only chance in his admin, so he HAD to do it! We need no more mental light-weights promoting naive ideology in this world.
what do you think about Yves Engler or his wife, Bianca Mugyenyi?
I don't have enough info on them yet. What it takes for the NDP to matter is for them to kick out their entire exec (all union executives) and start from scratch. They're just too out-of-touch with real life. Actually, thy should forget about being the other half of the industrial economy (labour) and join with the Greens, Ms. May is the best PM we never had. Splitting the left vote opens the door for trash like PP.
I have been reading and listening to Yves Engler for about 20 years. He is very intelligent, anti imperialist, pro Palestine and other things that I think are positive. Bianca has been involved with the Canadian Institute on Foreign Policy for quite a while. I am afraid I do not share your view of Elizabeth May. I had the misfortune to actually meet her and talk with her when I lived in Ottawa and she was the executive director of the Sierra Club. I read the first book she wrote and mistakenly thought she was clever. On earth day, she had some young women wearing very little on stage, pretending to be from some other culture dancing around for the environment. She asked me why I had a problem with that and when I told her, she said that she had not vetted the acts before choosing them. When I said she could have ended up with the Ku Klux Klan up on that stage, she said nothing. She once said that she does not support a woman's right to make a friviolous decision to have an abortion. Who does she think she is to decide how women make such difficult decisions? Also, she clearly sucked up to any politician with power that she thought might be to her advantage. Conservative, LIberal, whatever. Didn't matter to her. She is a money grubbing power monger.
As I was reading your article, I was thinking that I could not agree more. It drives me nuts when people blabber on about how bad other governments are when we don't have to look far at all to see where the real problems lie. It is the Empire to the south of where I live. Unfortunately, the poison is affecting here too.
It has affected all countries' leaders, whether by bribery, threats, or because they are the same or shamefully gutless, whatever it is they are not doing for the benefit of their own country.
When PM Albanese (no relation to the feisty Francesca Albanese Rapporteur, unfortunately) told his then fiance while at some big event in America that, "Nothing could ever beat that event ." I felt sick enough to almost vomit, I knew he'd been bought cheaply, and Australia would be the loser.
Australians more or less begged him to reject the AUKUS deal that the outgoing MP Morrison had done to trap Albanese, who didn't listen and it has cost us billions, and the people have lost so much because of that by having cuts to so many government payments just to keep paying for submarines we know we will never get because the US does not have the ability to build them and are so behind on their own orders. Then Albanese gave more millions to help America build bades to help them build their own subs, supposedly in the hope they'd get around to ours sometime, also gave millions to UK to help them get on with building facilities for their part in this theft from the Southern colony. And all we get in return is to invite our weak PM and partner to a fancy dinner.
G'day Davina. One of the many stupid things about AUKUS is that the Australian $ is fiat currency, so they could just print some dollars to give them ( after all that's what Amerika does ) and there would be no need to cut any public services. And as Frydenberg said, anything is affordable if it's a priority.
Clearly housing, education or healthcare are not a priority for Albo. I refuse to use his full surname, as to do so would be an insult to Signora Francesca.
Agree totally with everything you said, but using Albo would feel as though we were buddies, therefore ensured there is no relationship between them. Pity he didn't get her spirit bravery and total honesty, what a fantastic PM or President she would make.
No more than "Scomo" would mean I was mates that piece [--------redacted------]
Um, 💩?
'Shamefully gutless ' sums it up, Davina. I'm one of the increasing numbers of angry, frustrated citizens of Oz watching as the Albo/Marles/Wong triumvirate prostrate themselves before the Fascist Confederacy of America and its Zionazi masters.
Yes, almost begging to be kicked in the teeth for being such crawlers.
Yes, absolutely and we’ve got more US troops stationed in NT, god knows what else their doing in Pine Gap and WA needs to build bigger sub docking bays for ‘visiting’ US large subs - unrelated to doomed AUKUS project. Plus later on housing for American personnel and their families when we have a well known housing crisis….Yes the ‘date night’ comment by Albo in US ages ago now, made me want to 🤮
The more we’re involved with all this AUKUS crap, the bigger the target we become.
True about us being a target and it was pointed it out several times. Noticable how he never mentions his single mother, who lived in public housing these days.
Were the United States not constantly threatening Iran, sanctioning Iran, attacking Iran, dealing in outrageous bad faith with Iran, Iran might have more incentive to reform.
If Amerika stopped sanctioning them - and everyone else on the planet - Iran would not need to reform, but if they wanted reform that would be their own business and nobody else's.
Good on you David Avenell, I am with you.
well said Mr. Avenell, they seem to impose sanctions on any and everyone they wish to disenfranchise and put down. And by what right do they do so, they have not been given such a right/imperative, yet they act as though they possess the right to whatever they so choose on the world stage
with 'reform' people often mean 'becoming less 'authoritarian'', while the 'authoritarianism' is primarily indeed a defensive reaction to external threats.
"Why do the anti-authoritarians not confine themselves to crying out against political authority, the state? All Socialists are agreed that the political state, and with it political authority, will disappear as a result of the coming social revolution, that is, that public functions will lose their political character and will be transformed into the simple administrative functions of watching over the true interests of society. But the anti-authoritarians demand that the political state be abolished at one stroke, even before the social conditions that gave birth to it have been destroyed. They demand that the first act of the social revolution shall be the abolition of authority. Have these gentlemen ever seen a revolution? A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means, if such there be at all; and if the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionists. Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeois? Should we not, on the contrary, reproach it for not having used it freely enough?" (f. engels - on authority).
"It’s not strange that I focus my criticisms on the western empire, it’s strange that everyone else does not."
Tick.
Yes, let's get rid of the camouflage empires first, the ones draped in noble flags and high flown rhetoric. At least, let's drag away the pretence and reveal the hateful, cruel and dishonest hearts hiding behind it.
I agree we need a regime and mindset change.
More people know the western power structure than just those willing to admit publicly. They know their comfortable lives won’t be as comfortable with the change. They tell themselves they want to earn for a few more years and have that extra financial security, after which they will advocate for real change. That day probably will never come. After all, they can’t do it alone right now anyways, right? Also, you know, they want to leave something for their kids (and grandkids) when the change finally comes, right?
Some people who consider themselves morally intact but still don’t know how the power structure works advocate for changes now but do not anticipate the short term economic impact the change will bring. When the impact hits, to their dismay, they suddenly want to go back to the good old days because, you know, “it’s only fair because we have been too generous lately”. They probably don’t know they belong to a select group that’s a fifth of the world population and that consumes almost two thirds of the world’s resources. One reason why some people are liberal when they are young and become conservative as they get older.
Only when majority of the people begin to believe that we really don’t need billionaires, severe wealth disparity is detrimental to the whole world, that money beyond a certain point is not necessary for a living, and that those who have more money than they need always wield power over the rest of us, is when real change is possible.
I still argue with people who are against wealth tax on billionaires because “they earned it, it’s their money, government should not touch it”.
On his “Radio Hour” on Substack today, Ralph Nader described the people you seem to be talking about as “the contented class,” which he said is not yet on board for systemic change. That’s consistent with my own observations. Few of them really care much about the genocide in Gaza, but are furious about what Trump is doing inside the country. They’ll continue to vote for candidates who support the genocide (the majority) and resent the rest of us for splitting the party, as they see it. It’s more important that a minority of us abandon our consciences than that they gin up interest in ending a genocide. They are welcome to join us, but I am done accommodating them. If we remain split, it’s on them. Earlier this week, 153 House Democrats voted with a majority of Republicans to send Israel another $3.3 billion in military aid, to bar appropriations to UNRWA, the UN agency that has provided by far the most humanitarian aid to Gaza, and to support regime change in Venezuela. Only 57 Democrats voted against the bill.
Some Israelis, like the Executive Director of B’Tselem, the country’s best known humanitarian rights organization, which concluded in a report last year that Israel is waging a genocide, have begun the difficult journey of coming to terms with the fact that their birth country is, rightly, a pariah state. (I heard Yuli Novak talk about her journey in an interview earlier this week). Too few USA’ans have begun that
reckoning. Supporting fascism is okay as long as it stays outside the country. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more worldwide hatred directed at us.
BTW, Caitlin, I felt a slight bit of optimism when I read your recent piece about Sen. Lindsay Graham’s suggestion that the U.S. could terminate military aid to Israel in 10 years. However, according to the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), Graham’s plan, in conjunction with Netanyahu, is to replace regular foreign military aid to Israel with “co-development” and “co-production” of weapons, to include “cyber, AI, border and drones,” that will end up costing the U.S. taxpayer much more. (And it will also be more lethal to the rest of the world). Apparently, this is also a goal of the Heritage Foundation, which gifted the U.S. with Project 2025. See IMEU’s Project #27 for more of the details. Lesson for the night: don’t let anything Lindsay Graham says make you feel even slightly better.
Thank you for mentioning how the Dismal Party voted last week - pitiful.
Hi, John. I think this is a place where me might have some power — if we only exercise it. Let our reps know we won’t vote for those who have supported genocide. (Now we have a list of those who most recently did). Campaign, if we can, for primary challengers who are openly opposed to the genocide and who don’t take AIPAC money. I’m thinking of volunteering for The New Policy. I heard the two who started it speak (a State Department and HHS staffer who quit the Biden administration over Gaza) and they are getting calls from mostly Hill staffers whose bosses are interested in changing their position on Gaza. As many have said, we have the numbers. We don’t have to take what they dish out. They work for us.
Just shows that majority of democrats are genocide supporters and have no values or integrity.
There's an old Buddhist saying, 'The man who knows he has enough, is the richest man in the world'.
But did they earn it, or was it passed on by parents with a ready made business too. All they had to do was let the money grow, buy up opponents and more money flowed in because the got rid of the staff from the new purchase and so on it goes - they get wealthier, the workers get poorer or cannot get work. So, no, they definitely should be taxed, if someone whe earns Five hundred a weak is taxed why not the person getting billions while jetting around the world in luxury, with houses in several countries, always one, at least, in israel. Any work done in the owned by billionaires is done by staff, the only work the moneyed do is to lift a pen and sign their name to a document when a takeover has been worked - by lawyers. I don't think signing their name actually constitutes working, so pay your taxes and keep out of the affairs of all countries, yo only make things worse by your interference.
The PMC are one wing of the "contented class" and their wealth stems from qualifications, which are not exactly inherited.
The other wing consists of "gentry" and their wealth is often inherited.
As far as I can see, logically, the person who has benefited most from any given society is the one who has earned the most within it and therefore the rich have the most to repay.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have derived far more money from America than a homeless benefit recipient, therefore they ought to be happy to pay for what they have used.
“Duce, tell us against whom we shall march! We will!” Under the finger of the One the wheel of desire kept turning. The regimented crowds, utterly devoid of love and hatred, tramped to his palace, there to learn whom they must hate; and the vacuousness of their passion, like a sail manouvered by the boatman, took the wind from above. He stepped to the balcony, fulgarant amid his satraps... the very meaning of Fascism, which reposed on the assumption that war is imminent, eternal, and divine."
https://open.substack.com/pub/griobhtha1/p/x-rubicon-trumpussolini
The Duce and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were captured on April 27 by local partisans near the village of Dongo on Lake Como. Mussolini and Petacci were executed by firing squad the following afternoon, two days before Adolf Hitler's suicide.
Their bodies were taken to Milan and left in a suburban square, Piazza di Loreto, where an angry mob insulted and physically abused them. They were then hung upside down from a metal beam above a gas station in the square. The corpses were whipped, shot, and beaten with hammers.
If and when that day does arrive, you will need a good commander to ensure it does not fail.
Keep it up Caitlyn. Don't give up or take what the "Boot Lickers" say to heart. Thank God you are saying what is True.
I support the violent overthrow of the AmeriKKKan Regime and will happily participate.
How much longer are we gonna wait?
An interesting idea> Now I myself, think that the powers that run the U.S. are just peachy keen o people, especially the Orange Jabba the Trump.
Civil War or the military takeover is very likely. There is little chance that US will survive in a current shape and form. Greenland and Denmark may occupy large parts of the former USA.
I live in the United States of Propaganda and I am dismayed by the extent of it. Even alternative media air Russiaphobia influenced stories with no context or evidence. Same with Iran, etc. I rely on REAL reporting at Judging Freedom.com hosted by Judge Napolitano, Dialog Works.org, the Electronic Intifada.net and some others. Excellent information and analysis.
Good call, Sandra 👍
The US public is held hostage by their ruling classes without any ideas of their own other than what they've been fed for 8 decades from the Kool Aid Fountain. Any ideas about political reform are of the sophomoric variety ( via the ballot box) which ensures that the Ancien Regime remains in place. In a society where freedom of thought is non-existent and social discourse revolves around sports and Hollywood how can you even think about regime change??
There won’t be a regime change in the US, partly because the US will cease to exist as a federal entity once the US dollar loses its status as the global reserve currency and main trading currency.
By 2050 BRICS & oths will have scaled the monster
🙏
Is that as in 'scaled a dead Mackerel' ?
That is the path of least resistance towards a US regime change, and may it accelerate…
More important than ever! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
Find out what they’re doing here:
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org
The least we can do is donate to help them:
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
https://donate.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
Hmmmm, maybe we need the equivalent in some of the other countries, and on other issues of crimes against humanity.
Trying to make Regime changes in all the States and Countries Israel and the US hates and designates as enemies, I don't think they understand that nothing last forever and that there is a time for everything, and that lies cant live forever .Whether that IRAQ has massive Arsenal of WMD's and the world was in danger of a imminent threat and Nuke attack by IRAQ , or that there was never and is no such people or such place as Palestine ,that Iran broke the Peace Deal that was working because Israel demanded America break the deal after the fact ,and then piled on even more unjustified sanction on Iran and blamed them for breaking the agreement. some of the most undemocratic Slimy things for a World leader to do, and still consider and picture themselves as a Beacon of light for the world ,Really? Ha, ha ha ha, that's one of the biggest joke ever. Their next regime change could be their OWN.
https://www.britannica.com/event/1953-coup-in-Iran
1953 coup in Iran, coup d’état in Iran that occurred in August 1953. Funded by the United States and the United Kingdom, it removed Mohammad Mosaddegh from power and restored Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as Iran’s leader. Some 300 people died during fighting in Tehrān.
With its strategic location and vast oil reserves, Iran was of special interest to the United States, the United Kingdom, and other powers. Britain had established a presence in the country during World War II