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...)
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Were the United States not constantly threatening Iran, sanctioning Iran, and dealing in outrageous bad faith with Iran, Iran might have more incentive to reform.
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 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.
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 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??
It started for me at age five watching American soldiers with ribbons for crossing the Atlantic to UK, talk about boasting? And they thought handing out chocolate bars to kids and nylon stocking to the females would get them more than they deserved. I was too young to know the purpose of the stockings but something told me it was not good.
They did the same when in the Middle East because they were supplied with sweets to turn the children into snitches. How much did they expect for a football?
It's been said before all these wars started for power gain which left the invaded countries in total disarray, all in support of israel because too many billionaire's use bribery to get what they want and that is to make zionists rulers of the world, they have used jews, are still using them and, unfortunately some still believe it's for them, it's not sorry, time you woke up.
As an adjunct to the cancer metaphor, the world- and Australia is a good example - has to take a large share of the blame. We have stood back and watched this malignant state grow and develop. And we have done nothing.
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!
Read her full post to the end.
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
Lewis is clueless.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Were the United States not constantly threatening Iran, sanctioning Iran, and dealing in outrageous bad faith with Iran, Iran might have more incentive to reform.
Johnstone/Foley 2026/FUSA
"It’s not strange that I focus my criticisms on the western empire, it’s strange that everyone else does not."
Tick.
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
That is the path of least resistance towards a US regime change, and may it accelerate…
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.
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 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??
People with any conscious mind knew and agreed with this long time ago! I have been disgusted with Americans behavior in the world long time ago!
It started for me at age five watching American soldiers with ribbons for crossing the Atlantic to UK, talk about boasting? And they thought handing out chocolate bars to kids and nylon stocking to the females would get them more than they deserved. I was too young to know the purpose of the stockings but something told me it was not good.
They did the same when in the Middle East because they were supplied with sweets to turn the children into snitches. How much did they expect for a football?
It's been said before all these wars started for power gain which left the invaded countries in total disarray, all in support of israel because too many billionaire's use bribery to get what they want and that is to make zionists rulers of the world, they have used jews, are still using them and, unfortunately some still believe it's for them, it's not sorry, time you woke up.
As an adjunct to the cancer metaphor, the world- and Australia is a good example - has to take a large share of the blame. We have stood back and watched this malignant state grow and develop. And we have done nothing.
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