Years ago, when Obama was titular president, a cartoon of some Muslims being chased by a drone was captioned "They say, Fatima, that the next one will be sent by a woman! Really makes you feel like you are making history..."
I went back to read Caitlin's 2019 article about Biden's brain being Swiss cheese, and after reading it, I looked at the comments, and was interested to see that one comment was written by a cat who is still commenting on her writings!
There must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Pope Francis has said what is needed, now he must do what is needed by going to Gaza and standing for peace, justice and freedom.
It doesn’t. Consider it on a par with all the , and in concert, with all the other efforts that are also going on at the same time. Who can k ow which step, which person, which combination of interacting actions will make a/the difference. No one can predict this, nor can they have any basis far saying it can’t happen. It the world of speculative actions, why not take the ones you hope can be successful. Any other behaviour, or non-actions, is, by its very nature, doomed to failure.
I have explained to Liberials that living in upstate NY that there are so many Democrats in the buroughs/NYC with the electorial college, my vote for them would mean nothing, because they would soundly win without it. If I vote conservative, my vote would mean nothing because of the winner take all effect of the electorial college in my state. So, I vote 3rd party (Green). Ironically, my vote still means nothing realistically, but I get out and at least engage in with people for a little. See Caitlynn's post about sausage, apparently they have it during voting in Australia?
Democracy doesn't exist in the US. ASk yourself, how are Democrats making things better? They are not. They literally are saying they want to keep things the same. Think about Nuclear brinkmanship with the Ukraine, (Russia claimed with fired a missle that killed civilians on a beach in Kremia) Aiding Israeli genocide, etc. What have they done for homelessness or codifying Roe V. Wade. Electing Biden again will continue the same. Electing TRump again, will give you the same. Ironic. Democrats will tell you Trump will make things worse and they will tell you that they won't make things any better...
At the end of the day, unless you are a billionaire, your vote is meaningless, because votes are cast with money. Why hasn't "Tax the Rich' happened? Instead they taxed the poor more ;)
I keep seeing people that thing that factoid is somehow relevant. We live in an Oligarchy, and you are saying no, it wasn't a chicken that was run over by the train, it was a duck.
The result is basically the same. People in the US (and the colonies of the EU and UK) used to have some say in how their country was run, and now they don't.
It used to be a lot easier to do than it is now these days. But it's not impossible, especially if you are young and ambitious. If you are wealthy, it's extremely easy to do, however.
True,we were expats for twenty years. Have only been back five. Statistics six years ago was stunning for numbers who have turned in us passports. We still have green cards. Thinking hard on outcome.
Australia or New Zealand would be a nice place to live in. There are quite a few choices now that offer far more than what the US has to offer these days. However, no country (or government) is ever perfect. There will be problems wherever you go.
And what IS wealthy? 😉 I would say that many who are “poor”, would live just fine elsewhere, catch my drift? And I don’t mean leeching off any country!
Eldridge Cleaver, "Soul on Ice." Watched a James Corbett documentary "World War One Conspiracy," which is really worth a look if you haven't seen it; says a lot about where we are now, as the poison seeds were sown then. Israel's a failed State in denial, racking up victims on the way out.
How do we make the government irrelevant in our lives and replace them? We know we’re fucked and anyone who thinks otherwise at this point will just follow the herd however it goes or they’re going fine and don’t care. Do we have our own vision of governance? Without creation of such, we’re just whining at this point—not disparaging that, but that’s all it is. Whining is a start.
It's going to have to be grass root movements, labor unions, a groundswell of organizations outside the government - which is now fully in the hands of the oligarchs. The US government is a fully corrupted government run by corrupt individuals, the majority of whom are puppets to the very rich donor class. The US government no longer is Representative of the American people, and no longer really follows the US Constitution - as we can easily see given the actions of the unconstitutional, lawless deep state, and the total lack of transparency in American governance, which a Democracy/Republic depends upon.
Ok, a groundswell of orgs outside the government—not sure where to go from there but it’s a start of a vision. I’m talking a fully fleshed out vision—of course can’t be done on a thread but whoever is working on that, I’d like to join. Perhaps it needs to be started? What’s the end of the vision—where do we want government to be or what’s the end result? How does that look? What’s the shared vision? We are free to make this up.
I think the first step should be to heal the great division. Does your average person really think billionaires should not pay much in taxes? Do they really not care about clean air and water or our country's beautiful lands, and would like zero regulation so that the ultra rich can get even richer? How can even the billionaires care only about money? It's baffling and tragic.
Yeah but paying taxes to this criminal government is a complete waste, too. The less taxes we give these assholes the better, arguably, and I’m not conservative at all that way. If we have a genocidal criminal government I want them getting nothing but jail time. And it’s a fact that at this point taxes have 0 to do with government spending. It’s a money printing system so they find money for whatever they want—federal spending, that is, not local taxes.
The banks have colluded with the government to allow this extortion of funds from the citizenry, true. You’d have to extricate yourself from the grid in many ways
That's a tough one. Considering the remarkable brilliance and coincidental timing of being alive at the same time - the original founding fathers of the United States (Adams, Hamilton, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Washington, etc) - and the extraordinary documents and Constitution they formed, it's hard to conjecture how something like this might happen again.
My guess, you and I will be long gone before something re-emerges from the current fall of US empire, and subsequent dystopia to follow.
Yes many people are of that opinion. I am not one of them. Yes, they had their human flaws and were caught in their own cultural milieu, but they were far an above the bought pigs in a pigsty sitting in Washington DC right now.
As a commenter on SlashDot wrote during the 2016 election, "If two people are cutting off my legs, why do you think that I should thank the one who's doing it slower?"
There is no stable system by power of 0.1% of the population. That’s the root of the problem we face now. And “libertarianism” is just medievalism in modern disguise. It’s the bad ideas that birthed Citizens United!
America was founded as a Racist Patriarchy. It remains a Racist Patriarchy. However, global banks and corporations have assumed the roles filled by the founding white landowners. But America's new ruling class is far more stupid and bloodthirsty.
It’s such a shame that white people hate themselves this much!! And some of us who don’t makes them very nervous. They could commit suicide if they want, but don’t drag us in it.
".........on a presidential race whose outcome will have no effect on the murderousness and tyranny of the imperial war"
Now this line from Caitlin carries the real message for the November circus election in the good old USA.
And yet we see meetings to show the support of the poor naive pubic for both the feeble Biden and the narcisistic Trump, full of people who think that their candidate has merit.
Don't be disturbed, as it is the same with most of the white colonisers throughout the world including Australia, Canada, the UK (as we have seen) Germany and France with all parties seeming supporting the USA as their hegemonic leader and master of ceremonies, one party in each country the same as the next, all willing to throw in their lot with the USA.
So what's new?
We will all know when the first nuclear weapon flies through the air as an error from some tame NATO state (on-purpose error of course.....a proxy) or when Biden or Trump have another mental collapse or another dose of a convenient "cold" . Forgiven by all, of course as an unfortunate error, by then too late to call back the wildly enthusiastic NATO neo-Nazis armed to the teeth by the White House resident.
Action time for then for the 800 US military establishments throughout the world
The America we (Americans) celebrate is an illusion. It does not exist. Our government and judiciary, wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporate state, have no real sovereignty. Capitalism, as Karl Marx understood, when it finally dominates government, is a revolutionary force. And this revolutionary force is plunging us (the US and the world) into a state of neo-feudalism, perpetual war, ecological disaster, and a dystopian nightmare.
Chang, I was waiting a long time here on Caitlin's Newsletter for someone to mention Karl Marx in the context of the US. Capitalism was a revolutionary force as opposed to feudalism. However its inherent exploitative qualities will lead the oppressed to rise up assisted by the intelligentsia against the bourgeoisie and the ruling class. That is the wonderful theory, the practice of which a few countries have tried to achieve.
".... neo-feudalism, perpetual war, ecological disaster, and a dystopian nightmare" and I might add fascism, are already here. Are the Americans ready, willing and able to organise and rise up is the question. All we can see is an apathetic mass, conditioned and brainwashed arguing about who to vote for; confronted with the dilemma of choosing between two evils, whether to choose the 'lesser evil', forgetting the lesser evil is still evil.
>>"However its inherent exploitative qualities will lead the oppressed to rise up assisted by the intelligentsia against the bourgeoisie and the ruling class."
I don't really see that happening - anywhere. The Capitalism of today is quite grotesquely different from the days of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. It has progressed to an unhinged and super-destructive level that few people realize. (Many people can see the flaws in Capitalism, but few understand its effects in totality - it takes an understanding of systems science - or cybernetics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics) to even begin to grasp the consequences of the systems we have in place today).
In terms of fascism, I don't think we (the US) has really ever been freed of it since the "Classic Fascism" of the 1st half of the 20th Century. Fascism has a remarkable ability to morph and present itself in various forms/guises, and "the overt brutality, overnight coups, marching storm troopers, militant takeover by charismatic strongmen, angry totalitarian states, etc." is but one form. Another form of fascism is the "Capitalism" we have today permeating many parts of the world (especially the West). Still another related form of fascism is the "dictatorial systems of Corporations" and their influence on all aspects of people's lives.
I recommend referring to the following book: "Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America" by Bertram Gross (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29448940-friendly-fascism) for more details on the dynamics of a "different form of Fascism" that is VERY PREVALENT in America today. (I'll be writing a post on my substack shortly regarding this incarnation/phenomenon of "Friendly Fascism" (as Bertram Gross saw it)).
For more info on systems science and cybernetics, I recommend looking up Jacque Fresco (of Venus Project fame), R. Buckminster Fuller, Stafford Beer, and Peter Joseph (of Zeitgeist fame).
Athenian democracy was ruled by men, supported by slave labor,and where women were without meaningful social/political/legal rights. The anti-bellum south adopted exactly this model. See, Black Reconstruction, WEB Dubois. Don't measure our democracy using the Athenian model.
I think not only what Caitlin said, but even more, it's the narrative. Anything that interferers with the narrative must be silenced, ignored, or undermined. Anything that promotes it must be amplified and extended. The underlying racism happens to work to their benefit, but if it didn't they'd find something else. I am becoming more and more convinced, that however much there is a convergence between profits and Prophets, the profit side might be rational, but on the Prophets-side, we are dealing with two homicidal/suicidal cults, one the religious fanatic Christian side, and the other from the religious Messaniac Jewish side. Both of them seek total annihilation as their objective, does not bode well. What's a few spare million or so deaths to get there?
The methods that might work to contain one of these three heads, may not work for the others. If what I am begining to believe is true, we desperately need some new thinking and techniques to deal with this dreadful convergence. Our lives, all of us, may depend on figuring out what that is.
As Biden said in his interview with George Stephanopoulous, he's running the world and taking on Putin, and his only problem is his brain. So, seriously, what's there to worry about?
"The main arguments for supporting Democrats these days all revolve around pretending really really hard that the capitalist warmongering ecocidal tyranny of mainstream liberalism is significantly different from the capitalist warmongering ecocidal tyranny of Trumpism."
More evidence of the duopoly/ uniparty being two sides of the same coin. Or in George Galloway's terms: "Two cheeks of the same arse." It's why things are so sh*tty in the US of Israel lately. We keep voting for old white males with their heads up the same arse!
Time to vote outside of the "arse" (box). #VoteGreen2024 #JillStein2024
"It’s so surreal how Americans watched undeniable evidence that the president doesn’t run America during the first presidential debate, and then went right back to arguing about who should be president as though this never happened."
You really still think that Jill (or anyone that won the "election") would do anything differently. Wow, how can anyone still not get it. We live in an Oligarchy. If the oligarchs don't like the candidate, that candidate can't "win".
Your vote does nothing but prove that you don't get it.
Giving up and sitting at home sucking your thumb in the corner proves that you're not an adult and are too afraid to take a risk, IMO. Since I personally know Jill, yes, I believe she would do things differently. And yes, we do live in an oligarchy, but we outnumber them greatly... We are the 99%. They have to placate us and give in to us from time to time to keep their heads on their shoulders. So, it's a gamble--we the 99% vote in Jill Stein and we get some concessions from the oligarchs OR we vote in Jill and they try to take away what little freedoms we have and we get angry and get off our arses and start the revolution. Either way, this is a "win" and will shake up the corrupt system. (Revolutionaries will only include the "adults in the room" so don't worry if you're a coward and want to stay home and suck your thumb.)
"Giving up and sitting at home sucking your thumb in the corner proves that you're not an adult and are too afraid to take a risk, IMO."
What does that have to do with your blindness, or cognitive dissonance?
"Since I personally know Jill, yes, I believe she would do things differently."
Is that why you are commenting, so that you can impress me with the claim that you know ms Stein?
"And yes, we do live in an oligarchy, but we outnumber them greatly... We are the 99%."
Well then, you just made my point and lost the argument. We live in an oligarchy. A trained poodle could be president - or a demented genocider.
"Either way, this is a "win" and will shake up the corrupt system. (Revolutionaries will only include the "adults in the room" so don't worry if you're a coward and want to stay home and suck your thumb.)"
Don't worry, your refusal to understand and face reality will end suddenly, but I hope without too much personal trauma, but generally, people who are in a delusional state have big problems when the truth becomes undeniable.
George Orwell would have been deeply impressed by our political structures. They are so good. To feel you have a real choice you need choice of who puts your views to government. And the system gives you persuasive good looking clear eyed A or if you prefer same sort of guy but in B party. And even, as the iron grip of patriarchy is slackend a little, woman A or woman B . Persuasive well constructed 'democracy is all that you could wish for. And if it isn't we will restructure and give you one that you like better. Just making sure that we still control your mind and your information sources.
Our friends and relations overseas feel the need to commit a genocide we will get our POTUS to say he is disturbed by it.( That i if we can get him to say anything coherent .) OUr democracy is the best! System that money can buy. Same thing with our information systems. All of it post-Orwellian.
Years ago, when Obama was titular president, a cartoon of some Muslims being chased by a drone was captioned "They say, Fatima, that the next one will be sent by a woman! Really makes you feel like you are making history..."
“The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.” -- James Baldwin
I went back to read Caitlin's 2019 article about Biden's brain being Swiss cheese, and after reading it, I looked at the comments, and was interested to see that one comment was written by a cat who is still commenting on her writings!
Nine lives!
There must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Pope Francis has said what is needed, now he must do what is needed by going to Gaza and standing for peace, justice and freedom.
Please sign the petition and share widely.
https://chng.it/CRQ7qw4Gzn
From CodePink:
Tell the U.S. to arrest Netanyahu for his crimes against humanity! And tell
Congress to boycott his
visit!
https://www.codepink.org/cnngaza?utm_campaign=12_15_pali_update_alert_3&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink
Let us also support UNRWA. If our governments won’t act in accordance with humanity, then we will. https://www.unrwausa.org/donate
Also we can all support the brave doctors who have gone to Gaza: https://palestinian-ama.networkforgood.com/projects/206145-gaza-medical-supplies-oct-2023
Let us make our donations to honor Aaron Bushnell, or in memory of Hind Rajab.
Here’s a petition to excommunicate Joe Biden: https://www.change.org/p/excommunicate-president-joe-biden-bf979783-ac08-4576-a53f-c786ea23dc9c
These are a few small things we can do. If we can do more, let us do more.
The pope is about words, not deeds......!
Have you heard anything about “Catholic Spring”? https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2024/06/2013-the-globalist-coup-that-took-the-catholic-church/
Wow, that’s horrible. Swift is bad news for sure. They want to make it so that none of us oppose them will ever be able to eat.
It doesn’t. Consider it on a par with all the , and in concert, with all the other efforts that are also going on at the same time. Who can k ow which step, which person, which combination of interacting actions will make a/the difference. No one can predict this, nor can they have any basis far saying it can’t happen. It the world of speculative actions, why not take the ones you hope can be successful. Any other behaviour, or non-actions, is, by its very nature, doomed to failure.
The petition signers are not "ignorant idiots," but your point is well taken.
Is this Pope even Catholic?
Hell no!
https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2024/06/2013-the-globalist-coup-that-took-the-catholic-church/
This is the kind of stuff I find so interesting. I’m open to Truth, period. The “blinders” are coming off all over the world!
Most of the top “Catholics” are actually Masonic satanists whoworship baphomet
I know. Have you ever listened to Malachi Martin on Art Bell from years ago? Or, his “fiction” book, “Windswept House”…
I will definitely look that up! I haven’t seen it yet.
You kinda got that right “daisies”…
another poster asked if the Pope was
Catholic ..
I am not sure that even matters anymore ..
it’s interesting when You think about who’s accountable ..
neither the Pope or the Federal Reserve are accountable for anything ..
I have explained to Liberials that living in upstate NY that there are so many Democrats in the buroughs/NYC with the electorial college, my vote for them would mean nothing, because they would soundly win without it. If I vote conservative, my vote would mean nothing because of the winner take all effect of the electorial college in my state. So, I vote 3rd party (Green). Ironically, my vote still means nothing realistically, but I get out and at least engage in with people for a little. See Caitlynn's post about sausage, apparently they have it during voting in Australia?
Democracy doesn't exist in the US. ASk yourself, how are Democrats making things better? They are not. They literally are saying they want to keep things the same. Think about Nuclear brinkmanship with the Ukraine, (Russia claimed with fired a missle that killed civilians on a beach in Kremia) Aiding Israeli genocide, etc. What have they done for homelessness or codifying Roe V. Wade. Electing Biden again will continue the same. Electing TRump again, will give you the same. Ironic. Democrats will tell you Trump will make things worse and they will tell you that they won't make things any better...
At the end of the day, unless you are a billionaire, your vote is meaningless, because votes are cast with money. Why hasn't "Tax the Rich' happened? Instead they taxed the poor more ;)
Democracy is only a word that is used during elections ..
we are encumbered by the apparatus that goes by the name
Republic …
I keep seeing people that thing that factoid is somehow relevant. We live in an Oligarchy, and you are saying no, it wasn't a chicken that was run over by the train, it was a duck.
The result is basically the same. People in the US (and the colonies of the EU and UK) used to have some say in how their country was run, and now they don't.
I would like to opt out of this shit show and leave the usa. Many have.
It used to be a lot easier to do than it is now these days. But it's not impossible, especially if you are young and ambitious. If you are wealthy, it's extremely easy to do, however.
True,we were expats for twenty years. Have only been back five. Statistics six years ago was stunning for numbers who have turned in us passports. We still have green cards. Thinking hard on outcome.
Australia or New Zealand would be a nice place to live in. There are quite a few choices now that offer far more than what the US has to offer these days. However, no country (or government) is ever perfect. There will be problems wherever you go.
Those are US colonies and performing the same self-harming as Europe now.
Health care alone makes Australia or NZ more attractive than the US. Better gun laws another attractive feature.
Exactly! You know how many Australians are complaining about the DEI and the gay stuff coming their way? You can’t get away from this crap.
Definitely not a good place with CONvid tyranny. I’d never go there! I lost my job after 23 years for not sticking a swab up my nose!
I was thinking dr ,hub would like nz mars?
And what IS wealthy? 😉 I would say that many who are “poor”, would live just fine elsewhere, catch my drift? And I don’t mean leeching off any country!
I totally understand! Because, the country I thought I supported, is nothing I choose to support. Actually, it’s frightening! I was born in 1963.
“A man has to know his limitations.”-Dirty Harry
Spain is nice too
Yes!
Eldridge Cleaver, "Soul on Ice." Watched a James Corbett documentary "World War One Conspiracy," which is really worth a look if you haven't seen it; says a lot about where we are now, as the poison seeds were sown then. Israel's a failed State in denial, racking up victims on the way out.
Thank You Caitlin
How do we make the government irrelevant in our lives and replace them? We know we’re fucked and anyone who thinks otherwise at this point will just follow the herd however it goes or they’re going fine and don’t care. Do we have our own vision of governance? Without creation of such, we’re just whining at this point—not disparaging that, but that’s all it is. Whining is a start.
It's going to have to be grass root movements, labor unions, a groundswell of organizations outside the government - which is now fully in the hands of the oligarchs. The US government is a fully corrupted government run by corrupt individuals, the majority of whom are puppets to the very rich donor class. The US government no longer is Representative of the American people, and no longer really follows the US Constitution - as we can easily see given the actions of the unconstitutional, lawless deep state, and the total lack of transparency in American governance, which a Democracy/Republic depends upon.
Ok, a groundswell of orgs outside the government—not sure where to go from there but it’s a start of a vision. I’m talking a fully fleshed out vision—of course can’t be done on a thread but whoever is working on that, I’d like to join. Perhaps it needs to be started? What’s the end of the vision—where do we want government to be or what’s the end result? How does that look? What’s the shared vision? We are free to make this up.
I think the first step should be to heal the great division. Does your average person really think billionaires should not pay much in taxes? Do they really not care about clean air and water or our country's beautiful lands, and would like zero regulation so that the ultra rich can get even richer? How can even the billionaires care only about money? It's baffling and tragic.
Yeah but paying taxes to this criminal government is a complete waste, too. The less taxes we give these assholes the better, arguably, and I’m not conservative at all that way. If we have a genocidal criminal government I want them getting nothing but jail time. And it’s a fact that at this point taxes have 0 to do with government spending. It’s a money printing system so they find money for whatever they want—federal spending, that is, not local taxes.
I looked into withholding my taxes, but don't you end up fined and/or jailed?
The banks have colluded with the government to allow this extortion of funds from the citizenry, true. You’d have to extricate yourself from the grid in many ways
Well, yes, this could be part time of a vision—dystopia necessarily occurring first on the road to a government which actually obeys the constitution.
That's a tough one. Considering the remarkable brilliance and coincidental timing of being alive at the same time - the original founding fathers of the United States (Adams, Hamilton, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Washington, etc) - and the extraordinary documents and Constitution they formed, it's hard to conjecture how something like this might happen again.
My guess, you and I will be long gone before something re-emerges from the current fall of US empire, and subsequent dystopia to follow.
And what was it all about anyway, for you and I?
(it wasn't that extraordinary, imo)
Yes many people are of that opinion. I am not one of them. Yes, they had their human flaws and were caught in their own cultural milieu, but they were far an above the bought pigs in a pigsty sitting in Washington DC right now.
All the established political parties are the under the same evil influence!
So, as long as a major disruption happens, nothing will change.
Maybe you mean, 'unless' a major disruption happens...?
As a commenter on SlashDot wrote during the 2016 election, "If two people are cutting off my legs, why do you think that I should thank the one who's doing it slower?"
Correction:
So, as long as no major disruption happens, nothing will change.
Thanks Brian Bixby for noticing the typo, and I hope I could edit the original.
'freedom of association', like getting together in a union?
would you consider bribery to be coercion?
Lawlessness <> Freedom
Mandate of the rich alone is medievalism.
There is no stable system by power of 0.1% of the population. That’s the root of the problem we face now. And “libertarianism” is just medievalism in modern disguise. It’s the bad ideas that birthed Citizens United!
Medieval society and law were as far as one can get from libertarian. Look up the guild system, for instance.
And I am not a libertarian.
Feigning libertarianism in the midst of inequality is an utter joke. There is no freedom of anything 0.1% of people have all the choices.
Bla bla bla.
First requirement for freedom is equality. Not anything libertarians are interested in. Only the appearance of.
America was founded as a Racist Patriarchy. It remains a Racist Patriarchy. However, global banks and corporations have assumed the roles filled by the founding white landowners. But America's new ruling class is far more stupid and bloodthirsty.
Nice troll dude.
It’s such a shame that white people hate themselves this much!! And some of us who don’t makes them very nervous. They could commit suicide if they want, but don’t drag us in it.
Nice troll dude.
".........on a presidential race whose outcome will have no effect on the murderousness and tyranny of the imperial war"
Now this line from Caitlin carries the real message for the November circus election in the good old USA.
And yet we see meetings to show the support of the poor naive pubic for both the feeble Biden and the narcisistic Trump, full of people who think that their candidate has merit.
Don't be disturbed, as it is the same with most of the white colonisers throughout the world including Australia, Canada, the UK (as we have seen) Germany and France with all parties seeming supporting the USA as their hegemonic leader and master of ceremonies, one party in each country the same as the next, all willing to throw in their lot with the USA.
So what's new?
We will all know when the first nuclear weapon flies through the air as an error from some tame NATO state (on-purpose error of course.....a proxy) or when Biden or Trump have another mental collapse or another dose of a convenient "cold" . Forgiven by all, of course as an unfortunate error, by then too late to call back the wildly enthusiastic NATO neo-Nazis armed to the teeth by the White House resident.
Action time for then for the 800 US military establishments throughout the world
The America we (Americans) celebrate is an illusion. It does not exist. Our government and judiciary, wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporate state, have no real sovereignty. Capitalism, as Karl Marx understood, when it finally dominates government, is a revolutionary force. And this revolutionary force is plunging us (the US and the world) into a state of neo-feudalism, perpetual war, ecological disaster, and a dystopian nightmare.
Chang, I was waiting a long time here on Caitlin's Newsletter for someone to mention Karl Marx in the context of the US. Capitalism was a revolutionary force as opposed to feudalism. However its inherent exploitative qualities will lead the oppressed to rise up assisted by the intelligentsia against the bourgeoisie and the ruling class. That is the wonderful theory, the practice of which a few countries have tried to achieve.
".... neo-feudalism, perpetual war, ecological disaster, and a dystopian nightmare" and I might add fascism, are already here. Are the Americans ready, willing and able to organise and rise up is the question. All we can see is an apathetic mass, conditioned and brainwashed arguing about who to vote for; confronted with the dilemma of choosing between two evils, whether to choose the 'lesser evil', forgetting the lesser evil is still evil.
>>"However its inherent exploitative qualities will lead the oppressed to rise up assisted by the intelligentsia against the bourgeoisie and the ruling class."
I don't really see that happening - anywhere. The Capitalism of today is quite grotesquely different from the days of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. It has progressed to an unhinged and super-destructive level that few people realize. (Many people can see the flaws in Capitalism, but few understand its effects in totality - it takes an understanding of systems science - or cybernetics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics) to even begin to grasp the consequences of the systems we have in place today).
In terms of fascism, I don't think we (the US) has really ever been freed of it since the "Classic Fascism" of the 1st half of the 20th Century. Fascism has a remarkable ability to morph and present itself in various forms/guises, and "the overt brutality, overnight coups, marching storm troopers, militant takeover by charismatic strongmen, angry totalitarian states, etc." is but one form. Another form of fascism is the "Capitalism" we have today permeating many parts of the world (especially the West). Still another related form of fascism is the "dictatorial systems of Corporations" and their influence on all aspects of people's lives.
I recommend referring to the following book: "Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America" by Bertram Gross (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29448940-friendly-fascism) for more details on the dynamics of a "different form of Fascism" that is VERY PREVALENT in America today. (I'll be writing a post on my substack shortly regarding this incarnation/phenomenon of "Friendly Fascism" (as Bertram Gross saw it)).
For more info on systems science and cybernetics, I recommend looking up Jacque Fresco (of Venus Project fame), R. Buckminster Fuller, Stafford Beer, and Peter Joseph (of Zeitgeist fame).
Uh...you want fries with that?
Capitalism without controls will always end up as an oligarchy or monopoly
Define democracy.
Because what occus today has nil to do with Athenian democracy.
Athenian democracy was ruled by men, supported by slave labor,and where women were without meaningful social/political/legal rights. The anti-bellum south adopted exactly this model. See, Black Reconstruction, WEB Dubois. Don't measure our democracy using the Athenian model.
I think not only what Caitlin said, but even more, it's the narrative. Anything that interferers with the narrative must be silenced, ignored, or undermined. Anything that promotes it must be amplified and extended. The underlying racism happens to work to their benefit, but if it didn't they'd find something else. I am becoming more and more convinced, that however much there is a convergence between profits and Prophets, the profit side might be rational, but on the Prophets-side, we are dealing with two homicidal/suicidal cults, one the religious fanatic Christian side, and the other from the religious Messaniac Jewish side. Both of them seek total annihilation as their objective, does not bode well. What's a few spare million or so deaths to get there?
The methods that might work to contain one of these three heads, may not work for the others. If what I am begining to believe is true, we desperately need some new thinking and techniques to deal with this dreadful convergence. Our lives, all of us, may depend on figuring out what that is.
BRICS will happen and 'weather' will happen.......these 2 are all I can come up with other than Civil War in the States.
As Biden said in his interview with George Stephanopoulous, he's running the world and taking on Putin, and his only problem is his brain. So, seriously, what's there to worry about?
Diane E,
😅
"The main arguments for supporting Democrats these days all revolve around pretending really really hard that the capitalist warmongering ecocidal tyranny of mainstream liberalism is significantly different from the capitalist warmongering ecocidal tyranny of Trumpism."
More evidence of the duopoly/ uniparty being two sides of the same coin. Or in George Galloway's terms: "Two cheeks of the same arse." It's why things are so sh*tty in the US of Israel lately. We keep voting for old white males with their heads up the same arse!
Time to vote outside of the "arse" (box). #VoteGreen2024 #JillStein2024
"It’s so surreal how Americans watched undeniable evidence that the president doesn’t run America during the first presidential debate, and then went right back to arguing about who should be president as though this never happened."
---- Ms. Johnstone
You really still think that Jill (or anyone that won the "election") would do anything differently. Wow, how can anyone still not get it. We live in an Oligarchy. If the oligarchs don't like the candidate, that candidate can't "win".
Your vote does nothing but prove that you don't get it.
Giving up and sitting at home sucking your thumb in the corner proves that you're not an adult and are too afraid to take a risk, IMO. Since I personally know Jill, yes, I believe she would do things differently. And yes, we do live in an oligarchy, but we outnumber them greatly... We are the 99%. They have to placate us and give in to us from time to time to keep their heads on their shoulders. So, it's a gamble--we the 99% vote in Jill Stein and we get some concessions from the oligarchs OR we vote in Jill and they try to take away what little freedoms we have and we get angry and get off our arses and start the revolution. Either way, this is a "win" and will shake up the corrupt system. (Revolutionaries will only include the "adults in the room" so don't worry if you're a coward and want to stay home and suck your thumb.)
"Giving up and sitting at home sucking your thumb in the corner proves that you're not an adult and are too afraid to take a risk, IMO."
What does that have to do with your blindness, or cognitive dissonance?
"Since I personally know Jill, yes, I believe she would do things differently."
Is that why you are commenting, so that you can impress me with the claim that you know ms Stein?
"And yes, we do live in an oligarchy, but we outnumber them greatly... We are the 99%."
Well then, you just made my point and lost the argument. We live in an oligarchy. A trained poodle could be president - or a demented genocider.
"Either way, this is a "win" and will shake up the corrupt system. (Revolutionaries will only include the "adults in the room" so don't worry if you're a coward and want to stay home and suck your thumb.)"
Don't worry, your refusal to understand and face reality will end suddenly, but I hope without too much personal trauma, but generally, people who are in a delusional state have big problems when the truth becomes undeniable.
Good Luck.
George Orwell would have been deeply impressed by our political structures. They are so good. To feel you have a real choice you need choice of who puts your views to government. And the system gives you persuasive good looking clear eyed A or if you prefer same sort of guy but in B party. And even, as the iron grip of patriarchy is slackend a little, woman A or woman B . Persuasive well constructed 'democracy is all that you could wish for. And if it isn't we will restructure and give you one that you like better. Just making sure that we still control your mind and your information sources.
Our friends and relations overseas feel the need to commit a genocide we will get our POTUS to say he is disturbed by it.( That i if we can get him to say anything coherent .) OUr democracy is the best! System that money can buy. Same thing with our information systems. All of it post-Orwellian.