I went to Hebrew School with Amy Spitalnick and this is the first time I've thought of her in 20 years. It's basically a twice a week, 2-hour school at the temple (the price of membership at which was astronomical) where we learned about Jewish holidays and how to read Hebrew for our bar and bat mitzvahs. Then we stopped going and that was the end of it. We went to separate public schools -- not yeshivas. Obviously we both were fed the propagandized version of Israel but we did not belong to an orthodox temple -- I barely remember any actually teaching happening. I specifically remember socializing often with her during class and NOT paying attention. It is absolutely infuckingsane that this person I grew up with has adopted an identity that is unrecognizable to me. Granted I have no idea what transpired between the ages of 15 and 35, but there is NOTHING that would justify this chosen persona of antisemitic victimhood. SHE is the problem. SHE and others like her with a platform will not only be complicit in this genocide, they will be doing so on baseless and fabricated accusations of antisemitism We grew up in Nassau County on Long Island. We were surrounded by Jews, even in public school. I am one Jew so who knows how much this weight will carry - I have never experienced an inkling of antisemitism in my life. My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor and not once have I felt the need for a "safe place." Rather, what I have taken away from that history is the fucking obvious lesson to prevent oppression (including genocide) from happening again. This has turned into more of a rant but who cares anymore -- any respect I had for AOC just went out the window. To quote that brave woman who spoke at the NYS capitol a couple weeks ago, keep our religion out of your fucking mouths. Thank god for people like Caitlin who are unafraid to state the TRUTH about Israel -- its existence has nothing to do with Judaism. This is no "ancient conflict" between Muslims and Jews. Religion should never have entered the conversation but for the expert brainwashing the media and western leadership have carried out over the past 75 years. I hate that this post is even about Judaism because I'm contributing to the "look-over-here-ism" that is successfully taking eyes off Palestine. But if perchance Amy Spitalnick should see this, hey! It's Steff Kass from Hebrew School and day camp! You look ridiculous, girl, and I see you.
It’s definitely the ultimate chutzpah to maintain the perpetual whiney victim façade while murdering and maiming hundreds of children a day for eight months straight. The genocidal Israeli state will eat itself, but will probably try to use nukes while it implodes.
This is my fear, possibility everyone else's fear. I feel like fundamentalists, especially those that use religion as a cover to maintain the power of their base, when they can't get what they want, they are willing to take themselves (or at least their followers) out if it means no one else gets what they couldn't have, whether thats laws, land, power, resources, water, ultimately whatever maintains their supremacy. I worry that if Israel thinks its not going to be able to succeed in what its doing, its going to nuke everyone around it, even if that poisons its own citizens. (and probably the people pushing the buttons will have jetted off to other countries).
Have you had a psycho neighbor, especially a fundamentalist psycho neighbor, especially a fundamentalist psycho neighbor that has the sheriff in their back pocket and runs the construction economy and spends their fun time stockpiling weapons in their basement, that everyone is worried will burn their house down in a meltdown over making sure other people don't get none if they don't get won? Because where I live we have more than we should. And NO one would say that anyone trying to mitigate that out of fear is saying that it would be someone else's fault other than the psycho.
I'm not actually clear what you took from my comment, but it seems to be completely disconnected from reality.
We are in uncharted terroritory. New word for these illogical times. Gambling with Armageddon, also a great book. Chris Hedges wrote an amazing book forecasting these moments, American Fascists.
I think what he's trying to say without giving it away is that he 's the one behind the killing of the Palestinians, and now he's the one behind the invasion of Israel Hezbollah having killed thousands of Israelis in just a few days.
I don't think israel can use nuclear weapons, even a 10 megaton tactical weapon would end israel's existence. israel would be a radioactive parking lot for many years. They could end themselves by using weapons on Iran.
Your response is rational. But we’re not talking about rational people here. As Joy says, they’re insane. As Ron implies, they’re a cult. So we cannot rule out that they might use nukes. And in the meantime, the crazies in the US are trying to provoke a nuclear war with Russia. Rational behaviour is becoming a distant memory.
Thinking that is a sane thought. But we aren't talkin' sane here. It's called "The Samson Option," by Seymour Hersh. Well worth considering. It's been the case that, for some people, the idea that "if I can't have X, then nobody can, and, if I"m going down, I'll take us all down," makes sense, even though it's bat-shit crazy. Dangerously crazy.
This is fitting, because from what I read, several of them that drank the (powerade?) or gave it to their babies was because there were men with guns shooting people who tried to escape into the jungle. Because some of them decided it was time to go down, they held everyone hostage and took down children and people who wanted to leave. Its a very fitting analogy I think.
Radioactive living spaces don't go over well. Iran is a very large country, the Zionists control an area the size of New Jersey. Iran supposedly has three weapons and israel 300 weapons. Iran's last demonstration as well as what Hezbollah is doing every day now, the fishnet dome offers nothing in protection from conventional, and nuclear weapons. Would the Zionists commit suicide, it could be said they are doing that now as the world has turned against them.
As demented as Genocide Joe is, there would be no immediate nuclear response from us. I'm not sure what the u.s. could do now that Russia and Iran have signed a defense pact. I tell people these are not your Mother's nuclear weapons : ) A 10 mile radius fused like glass, a 30 mile radius burned to a crisp.
Yes, there is a lot of supposing in guessing what maniacs will do : ) When the Neutrons scintillate the eye, Run to the Light.
Spoken like another ignoramus looking for any excuse to validate his antisemitism. By the way, isn’t it cultural appropriation for you to use “chutzpah”, or does that not apply to Jews either. Educate yourself. You’ll wish you did when the Islamists start showing you how grateful they are you sided with them.
Thank you, Stephanie. Unfortunately there are far too many Amy’s and Aaron’s indoctrinated into the cult of Zionism. Their shameless and inhumane rhetoric towards Palestinians suggests they’re well past the point of no return. What Israel has done over the past 8 months is beyond the realm of insanity. This is not going to end well for her…
Yes Stephanie it is true that any criticism of zionism or its cruel deeds can be portrayed as anti semitism . But that is only because the zionists carefully and quietly took over massive amounts of power in the most powerful country on earth. What would happen if you criticize a powerful but not all powerful country or institution? They would likely have to openly knock you down and shut you up. Not so when power reaches a certain height. Then they can arrange things so that the critic begins to look filled with unreasonable hate while the criticised continues to look pained and saddened.Of. course the all powerful need to use some of that power to arrange the public discourse in a way that suits their cause. To do that they need to control the public discourse. How to do that? Well getting total control of all of the organs of public information is a very efficient way. Of course you also need to look as if that isn't happening to keep public respect of and believe in these organs of information. And when that has been achieved you can conduct a massive slaughter of men women and children while getting the media to insist that what is important is what went before this slaughter. And that is indeed what the powerful zionists have managed to do. Even better they also have insisted that do other would be an act of cruel an barbaric anti semitism. Blaming the victim is always a good tactic if you need to cover your own misdeeds but few can successfully do that. Well, the pre-requirement of owning the public media makes it impossible for most. But not for the Zionist because they have actually achieved that.
Wow! Said from the heart! What is it with Jews that they don’t see the difference between what they are doing in Gaza and what the Nazis did to Jews in the Holocaust? I am a refugee from Nazi Germany , and it infuriates me to know that these right wing Jews have blinders on when it comes to Palestinians! Do I hear an echo when they say that Palestinians are “ Subhuman”? Do I hear “ Untermenschen “? Yes ! And that makes me an “ anti-Semite “ or perhaps , laughably, a “ Self-hating Jew”?
Exactly! The perfect example being Jonathan Glazer using his Oscar speech for The Zone of Interest: "All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather ‘Look what we do now.’ Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization — how do we resist?"
And then that letter from "Jewish creatives" (?????) denouncing him??? What do these people think "never forget" refers to? The entire system is being exposed live on social media, day in and day out. It is the first time that I have been truly grateful for social media. Stay strong and solidarity <3
I loved the film and Glazer’s speech. Even though he was heavily criticized by the media & the pro Zionist film industry in Hollywood, his is one small chip at the shiny veneer of Zionism. I recommend a book titled, Hollywood and Israel, A History by Tony Shaw.
Stephanie, I love you. Sadly, I don't think this ends well with power having pushed all-in. The Big Gamble doesn't look like it will pay off. I don't see the logic in it all. When the story is written I really would like to know who made this decision. Keep writing : )
By now, we all should openly admit that the British elite know exactly how to use Judaism as an effective tool to maintain fully covert power in this strategic region.
- The depraved Zionists (a political association with Jewish or Christian members) are entirely a British construct for a.m. purposes,
- the US Army is just their muscle and
- the gullible and uninformed US taxpayer their deplorable milking cow ...
Biden wandering around, both verbally and in his shoes, makes me realize how much less debilitated was the second term Ronald Reagan. That’s scary, knowing what we now know about him. But we never thought that Reagan was running things. The joke, —not a joke—was that an actor was chosen deliberately, to pretend to be the leader of the free world. Biden is deteriorating day by day, and I’ve had about enough of living in interesting times.
“There’s no such thing as a progressive Democrat: No true progressive would be a WILLING member of a genocidal, corporate owned, corrupt, primary rigging, wall street butt licking, warmongering political party (Dem Party)!” - Thor Swayze *Truth Teller*
Is it me or am I the only one to see how the continuing hostilities by Israel are only going to guarantee continued violence/war for at least two more generations? The children of those killed will be the next wave of fighters. The cycle of violence and death will never end. Truly tragic.
Was watching Kyle Kulinsky today on his show Secular Talk (good youtube show), he was commenting about the ongoing Ukrainian war, he said there are only 3 possibilities now: 1. The war ends soon with some diplomatic action, or 2. The the war ends in 2 or 3 years with some diplomatic action, or, 3. The war spirals out-of-control and goes nuclear - which some psychopathic clowns in Washington DC think would not be too big a deal. Actually, if a nuclear war breaks out - guess what? We're all really fucked.
Kyle probably could have said the same for GAZA. On another note, I'm not sure what Israel is going to do about Hezbollah. Like, they think they have problems in GAZA right now ...
Colonel McGregor thinks America will have to enter the war vs Hezbollah and fly its B52s to carpetbomb South Lebanon. He stated this on his weekly talk with Judge Nap.
Yes, I remember him saying that too. Although Max Blumenthal mentioned today many of Israel's top hi-tech drones are now being regularly shot out of the sky by the Hezbollah. And the IDF has underestimated the strength of Hezbollah's anti-air defenses, (as it seems, everything else about the ongoing suicidal, genocidal blood bath). He even suggested it might be problematic for the Israelis to risk fighter jets into the area now. Not to mention, Iran will be backing Hezbollah 100% if Lebanon escalates even more.
Also Jimmy Dore had an interesting guest on yesterday, a guy by the name of Ben Swann - who laid out a very convincing case Israel knew all along Oct 7th was going to happen and let it happen. Which wouldn't surprise me now, given the level of lies and savagery the world has been subjected to since then, by the Israelis (and US).
Yeah that's the show. Pretty damn convincing. Not that I'm any kind of conspiracy theorist. I'm just a retired guy living in Idaho - and even think UFOs might be aliens. I support SETI.
Ana is great to listen to as well on the Judge Napolitano show. Almost all the Judge's regular guests are quite good - worth listening too. I like Kyle, he's been on point with this horror in GAZA right from the get go and he hasn't let up. I learn a lot from his show. I think in the past he was a bit duped with the whole "lesser of two evils" BS - he was a little to Democratic party leaning for my tastes, but my God, he probably sees it for what it is now. He's grown as a host - has a huge following on youtube.
I was shocked how I found the Judge truthful although I don't know his politics, I suspect Libertarian. His guests are so informative and over time reveal every thing our Gov. and mass media has told us was a lie. The hint is , this war on Russia will go nuclear with Genocide Joe at the button.
They’re delusional. If they start a full-blown war with Hezbollah they’ll be crushed. Economically. More Israelis will leave and their economy will be in ruins.
Sorry, I don't think much of him, Vote Blue No Matter Who. Force the vote is stupid. Why would anyone use power for change. Nope there will be no treaty as Putin has learned and said out loud we can not trust the u.s. The war will end with territory annexed from the Dnipro along with Odesa, leaving Ukraine an isolated farm field that most likely the Nazi's will fight over with Poland. Check out the GrayZone.
Everybody assumes a nuclear war means a global strategic conflagration - It could be a historical repeat - a few cities bombed into craters until the opposition capitulates.
Gambling with Armageddon, nope don't bet on it. Today, is not 1945. One 100 megaton weapon in Chicago would end life as we know it for decades. Most of us would die of starvation. When you launch you don't launch one. What's not so funny, Russia has proved their anti-ballistic missile system work at a very, very high level with this practice we provided. We in the u.s. have little to none in defensive systems at home. On The Beach.
I have to agree...First, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are not our fight...PERIOD. Second, if you want to understand what a nuclear war looks like....read Annie Jacobson's latest book...newsflash...CHILLING. There is no such thing as a limited nuclear exchange. I don't understand why there aren't massive demonstrations demanding a negotiated settlement. Again, both Ukraine and Israel will be getting the short end of the stick in any type of settlement. BTW the war in Ukraine will be over by the Fall. Putin is just taking his time to kill as many Ukrainians as possible before settling. Ukraine will become a vassal state .... you wait and see. With regards to Israel.... they may manage to get themselves liquidated. The forces against them go beyond Iran....just saying. The whole business is just stupid.
Absolutely. Any child in gaza atm, doesn't have much to lose. Of course they'll join hamas, or start something else just the same. It's obvious. Maybe it's what the colonizers want... it justifies this continued slaughter, doesn't it?
I believe thats a goal. how can a country justify continuing to bomb people and steal land if there aren't people there that they can point to their own children and say, see they hate you, we have to kill them or they will kill you, we have to move our people into where they are so you can be safe.
That is why pressuring one state is a bad idea. Civil war would result. Israel is a country/nation according to International Law. Palestine should be a country according to international law. You can't pick parts of international law that you like, it comes at a whole. Or else pressure the UK into giving its territories in Northern Ireland land to Irish Republic. If you don't push for that. Why do you press two nations to co-exist in one if one has genocided the other? Would you press Finns to co-exist in the same country with Russians after they invaded them?
I think it proves just the opposite. One Vote, Human Rights for all. This was ONE nation not very long ago. The name doesn't matter and after what israel has done most likely they will be looking to re-brand and call themselves something else.
"Governments don’t have rights, people have rights. Unless they’re Palestinian, apparently."
I'm not sure any people who are oppressed have any rights. Our governments don't seem to think the poor, the elderly, the sick, the homeless or the unemployed even exist or deserve anything from them. It's no wonder they have no qualms about mass murdering an entire ethnic group in Palestine. It's time for the people to take back their governments and make them for the people--not the corporations.
The core problem for Israel is that it was malformed at birth. Born out of colonialism and at war from the start. Then it proceeded into a steady state of dispossession of more people and colonisation of more land. And more militarisation to try and hold those ill-gotten gains. In short, the entire lifespan of "Israel" has been a steadily escalating "State of Exception":
This is the climate in which apartheid was normalised in Israel, and in which the country has slid all the way down to mass murder and genocide. But as Agamben notes above the US empire is also on this type of path.
Following this train of thought, neither does anyone in the US have any rights. And you already see what is happening to the students that have been protesting the US support for Israel's slide into the abyss of this state of exception. Beaten, arrested, expelled from residences, facing absurd legal charges by the state.
I'd argue the students are a canary in the coal mine, and they are not even anywhere near what is doing to be done to protesters, as the US empire continues its slide down to the point in that abyss that Israel is already at. Look at the militarisation of police - it's preparation to beat down dissidents internally.
No one has any rights, and everyone is about learn that inside the empire.
It is waaaaay past time for a wealth cap. Super wealth is bad for your civic health if you live in a so-called democracy. It is wrong that the super wealthy manipulate everything - from genocides, wars, residential home real estate, university presidents' policy dealing with righteous student protesters, ......etc . Just plain wrong. A reincarnation of kings and queens monopolization and commodification of everything including us.
A quick look at the economic data of the past 50-60 years in the US, shows wealth acceleration of the rich regardless of what party the president is from.
Began with Reagan in 80s. Neocon Dems didn't help. Now Repugs have gone full fascist. All are owned by Israel, but zero Repugs want ceasefire. Many Dems now do.
No the inequality problem did not begin with Reagan the 1980s. The rise in inequality goes back to the economic depression in the US and the west that occurred in the mid 1970s.
"...Unequal gains: American growth and inequality since 1700
Jeffrey G. Williamson Peter Lindert / 16 Jun 2016.."
What the data shows is that the Reagan administration worsened the problem. And so did every other government in the US since the 1970s. They all concisely worked to make the ultrarich richer and ordinariy people, relatively poorer.
This has also had severe consequences politically. Alongside that economic inequality, so you also see political equality vanishing in the US in the same period.
And the Supreme Court stuck a fork in it a decade ago, by ensuring that this wealth inequality has become an permanent political advantage for the rich to hickack the country:
So that's democracy completely wiped out in the US.
That is why this upcoming election is a farce, and why you see the chaos and dysfunction, to the point where AIPAC and others can involve the country in mass murder, and to the point where successive presidents now have been openly selling US govt policy for personal gain in Qatar, Israel, and Ukraine.
Be hopeless for 5 minutes. Then, get mad. And join political activist organizations where high numbers of young people are involved. Just baking cookies for the next meeting is 45 minutes of doing something to advance what really matters to you. Start a reading group on political meat and potatoes books - Naomi Klein, Mearsheimer, Jeffrey Sachs, Finkelstein, especially, Chomsky. Fret and fret.
Read the Artists Way and The Path of Least Resistance, and Rick Rubin's The Creative Act....and channel your creativity into whatever expression makes the biggest difference for you. The set-up today depends on pliancy, going along to get along, and not boat rocking. Not aiming to create the "good". Defy the prevailing status quo. Get clear on exactly what it is you want to have happen. (Path of Least Resistance is good on this). Do it!
and deregulate oil & gas and abandon climate policies to provide over $100 billion in profits, in exchange for a $1 billion campaign donation. Project 2025.
I'm still trying to figure out if AOC is just a complete bullshitter, or really does have a feather brain. It's one of the great enigmas of all time. Where's Sherlock Holmes?
Yes. I've observed for some years, even just casually, that AOC's 'progressive' credentials are deeply suspect. Rashida and Ilhan should take AOC to the woodshed and give her a good thrashing, but I fear it would do no good....
Suspect, she was a liar and pretender from the first word spoken. She was a rich girl privately schooled, working for Ted Kennedy as a staffer. I was fooled too.
Which makes her far more evil then any of us know. I was stupid and supported her with donations for her election, not even in New York. The monster that was elected was a liar from the first word. Thank you for doing this Caitlin, you help me sleep at night knowing I am not alone. Dark Matter Zombies.
AOC is apparently a once-sincere advocate of progressive values, who has gotten to Washington and had those values compromised, to whatever extent, by the irresistible (for her) lure of elevation in the political establishment - while trying to retain her "celebrity progressive" status. An oxymoronic, contradictory dream. Sherlock Holmes
as I said: The "progressive" thing was aways a convenient mask. It was never based in principle or analysis or commitment and never came with sacrifice.
She a self promoting ambitious bourgeoisie grifter..
Depends on what you mean by "feather-brain". Is she a deep thinker? Hell, no. Is she a career girl? Of course. So she builds her career the way she would at bartending or stripping. She's good at that. Whether that makes her a feather-brain 🤷♂️🤷♀️She must be cunning for sure.
As a constituent, I note that her campaign catchphrase (since 2018) has been "Courage". Frankly, I don't think it's as simple as Caitlin says. Behind the scenes, I trust that AOC is going through quite the education, and I'd love to hear her interviewed in two decades, or better, five.
Oh it is that simple.. unless one ascribes to the ‘it’s complicated’ doctrine to describe the Palestine/Israel issue.. indigenous people are being systematically slaughtered and their land stolen by another people and all we [civlised folk] care about is whether the murderers are having a good time doing it and making sure they feel good about themselves..
The character evolution of (initiated-as-adult, 33-year-old, WC->UMC) AOC is most definitely complicated, and has nothing to do with the political topic at hand.
"Courage"? I'm searching my addled brain right now for the psychological term for the practice of projecting the polar opposite of your deepest fears and inadequacies as your virtues. What is that word?
The "progressive" thing was aways a convenient mask. It was never based in principle or analysis or commitment and never came with sacrifice.
She a self promoting ambitious bourgeoisie grifter..
"She a self promoting ambitious bourgeoisie grifter"
I seriously doubt she understands very well the implications of what she's doing. She certainly thinks she does, but IMHO she won't know for a while.
May I ask, what is your current age (roughly)? Were you raised (ages birth-to-teens) working-class? If so, was it skilled or unskilled WC? (Do you know the difference, that is, the *cultural* difference?) In general, was it stable or unstable environment? Were there street gangs as a young child? Were you abandoned for lengthy periods so your parents could work? Were the schools authoritarian disciplinarians? Were you ever experimental meat in an Ivy League teaching hospital? Did you ever have screaming matches with "therapists", who couldn't drop their own "juiced in it" [hard-driving-UMC-]parents-are-the-only-genuine-problem monomania long enough to hear what perceptive things you're saying about other things related to you, the world, and your place in it? etc. etc. etc. No, this is not unusual -- this is WC *NORMAL*. So, I hope you're now getting my drift about the possible, maybe probable, brain-state of AOC, having spent her early childhood the Bronx (a hellhole I don't even want to imagine, having seen enough triggers just on the TeeVee), but then coming face-to-face with the magical world of the UC/UMC.
In other words, moving to Westchester does not instantly transform the psyche of WC-raised to an UMC. Thinking it does is a deep UC/UMC conceit.
Wiki says her dad was an architect. That's not unskilled working class. She left the Bronx at 5 years old so had no real exposure to or experience with gangs, violence, et al. Puerto Rican families are known to be tight knit, is I doubt she had instability at home. You have a myth in your mind. Look at her academic focus.
Fair enough. I'll concede re most of these things (except as in my parallel comment point below). I don't think it's sufficient to refute my core point against Caitlin that "[AOC] knows exactly what she's doing". That's a stretch, to put it mildly.
On some level she does (she has sufficient though not superior intelligence), but I believe that (within her current hurricane and bubble) she's certainly repressing and/or rationalizing it. It may not bubble to full consciousness for a while, which was in my original point. Therefore, I cannot yet hold her accountable the way I can, say, Bernie Sanders for *his* transgressions.
"She left the Bronx at 5 years old so had no real exposure to or experience with gangs, violence, et al."
How do you know that? You don't think a 3 or 4 or 5-year-old can experience trauma (at some level of) indirect exposure *worse* than, say, the 19-year-old wielding the weapons involved?
I'm not advocating her approach to this conversation at all. I'm saying she is an interesting character, will likely have many demons to face in the future, and in her old age (like Robert McNamara) attempt to come public with them. I do not believe she is a hard-boiled, two-faced sociopath as Caitlin seems to imply. Unless sociopaths and 5-D political chess have become sophisticated beyond my imagination.
Because the thing "I'm really over" is the obsessive re-invention of words. One of these cases is the word "interesting", especially as used among the U.S. upper and upper-middle classes and their imitators for a number of decades now. (Today, in the decline and fall of the West, their discourse regularly functions as a modern court of Versailles, that is, as a slice of hybrid warfare.)
To the larger portion of people, that is, the normal ones (as in the original meaning of the word "normal", i.e. "reflecting the norm"), "interesting" isn't a veiled accusation -- it retains its original meaning, that is, making a statement about the *observer's* emotional reaction (i.e. "I'm entertained to explore this person/thing/whatever further, whatever I find"), and does not involve making insinuations about the target person's character.
Oh, I know exactly how a working-class person moves into an upper-middle class environment during ones teens and twenties. Mastering by 30 years old at a deep level the sinister subterfuge of a hardened spook is not at all a norm. One can put on the cloak, but not understand sufficiently what's actually going on until decades later. Whoever is making this argument (apparently, Caitlin?) has to make a better case.
For example, at their core, I'm convinced AOC and Bernie are two very different people, no matter how they harmonize on stage. Puppet and puppetmaster.
My God. AOC = be ashamed, very ashamed. You're too large a part of the problem...which, ultimately, is the unbreakable chokehold that militant-political Colonial Zionism has on the US. Militant-political Colonial Zionism must work, non-stop, to perpetuate the myth of the "Holocaust" -- which actually had its roots, in the final few years of WWII, in "the fog of war." We must face, full on, and overcome that craven inclination to accommodate an extreme ideology -- repeat, ad infinitum: militant-political Colonial Zionism-turned full-on psychopathic and genocidal -- that must be confronted, repudiated, overcome, and terminated/eradicated, once and for all. AOC: you're not helping; you're hurting the Palestinians and all of rational, decent humanity.
You forgot to add religious fanaticism to your "militant-political Colonial Zionism" list. The Christian Zionists, as well as those of other faiths, are on a mission and, in the case of the Christians, their messianic drive for Armageddon predates, political Zionism by some 400 years. Don't leave out the prophets from the profits that are the driving forces here.
Its an absolute shame. I try to hold on to hope and AOC looked like one of those who could be ok. No one is perfect, its unreasonable to expect us to be. But if we can't see a genocide for what it is, if we can't see apartheid for what it is, if we can't see the spread of antisemitism through the weaponization of the concept of antisemitism, then, I don't know how we can be left.
‘Israel’s right to exist’ is about as valid as ‘Ted Bundy’s right to exist’.. although, the latter does have individual human rights whereas the former doesn’t.. like you, Caitlin, I’ve been saying all along that no state has a ‘right to exist’, especially a sadistic and murderous one. Why aoc does not hold a powwow with her fellow human lovers about Palestinians’ right to exist - as they’re obviously the ones being denied that right - is beyond me. How dumb can these people be?! And what fucking antisemitism is she talking about?! The kind where Zionists are denied ‘the right’ to be murderous and proud?! Because for them it’s a zero sum game: if I [zionist] live then you [Palestinian] have to die.. what utter excrement this woman and her ilk are..
Israel is not really a country. It has no constitution, for its racist laws would be showing its face. It excuses its existence with a holocaust that happened in Germany and with a mask of democracy that is utterly false as well as a successful dehumanising narrative of all non-Zionists. Israel is a colony without a mother-country. Unhinged, murderous, oppressive and temporary.
Temporary? With the US backing it to the hilt? I wish! Without US military aid Israel would not exist! And the US is ruled by AIPAC, so it doesn’t seem likely that they will give up anytime soon.
Although not a resident of the "exceptional" Land of the Free, (now preparing to be called Abraham's America ), I read today of a worthy African American candidate who has the Zionist Lobby in America ( affectionately to be known as Biden's Bunch ) spending 25 million dollars to be able to beat him in November. It came from an article that I can no longer find but from one of my credible sources, obviously not an MSM propaganda outlet.
I just cannot believe that such outrageous corruption is allowed. To save me searching around in an environment in which I am out of my depth, what are the limitations that exist against such blatant bribery in the USA? In my country, we would call that bribery, corruption, totally illegal, criminal, all warranting a prison sentence......I think,......but I will check.
If this is an approved means of election funding, the Zionist brigade will forever own your country as I do not ever recall seeing a promotion of crowd funding or similar to raise a thousand dollars for some newspaper advertisement cost but figures like 25 million seem to be the order of the day from the financial supporters (owners)of 86% of the US fully paid for politicians.
Hey. Someone better get this common practice procedure amended smartly.
What's next my friends in America? Do we now anticipate changing the international trading currency to shekels as well? How do you accept being seen as nasty little goyims and what that derogatory comment means to the Zios. ( "goyim,” a disparaging Yiddish and Hebrew word for all non-Jews). Sounds scary. Your country its full of them.
Big changes ahead, so it seems. 9 million versus 330 million, (not including the locally residing Israeli controlled Zionists under every rock in Washington). The Neoconners, aka the Iraqi Deviates, Abrahams Army or better still, the Bush bastards.
The most ironic part of it is: Jamal Boman is not even a radical leftist. He is an establishment Dem straight from the party machine in New York. And as such has largely served the AIPAC agenda for a couple decades now.
His entire "offence" is he hasn't followed the genocide-enabler script word for word.
You are likely referring to Jamal Bowman whose opponent is heavily supported by AIPAC, and has become the most expensive congressional campaign in history. According the Justice Democrats. They need to drop AOC and concentrate on Jamal Bowman, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlalib, and Summer Lee. And Jan Perleman in Florida. seeking to unseat Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
I heard a retired CIA man on Judge Napolitano's show asked to comment about the Republican congressman who said that everyone had an AIPAC "babysitter" assigned to them who would monitor and direct Israel related issues.
He went beyond that and said that there is a hiring list of AIPAC sponsored Congressional staffers and that they have infiltrated congress and serve as spies for AIPAC. (*and Israel). The corruption goes beyond money - its been institutionalized.
Surely that must be crossing the red line of illegal practices in the USA..
Time to resurrect a McCarthy exercise, even after his failed exercise in "un-American activities" and arrange for forced migrations home to Israel of once 'US citizens' who have sold out the USA in so many ways, starting with 86% of the government.
What a refreshing change that would be for all the remaining decent Americans.
I would fly over to be at the airport when the Israeli stooging politicians walk across the tarmac at Washington airport, bags and all, closely followed by anyone who has ever had anything to do with the Israel Fifth Column Headquarters of AIPAC.(Conferences Annually...attend or lose you seat).
As an additional passenger, book a seat for RFK jnr, who, was a pathetic weakling by selling out his country, staining the name of Kennedy, forever.
I'll pick up the cost of that ticket, gladly.
It is really time to outsource some of America’s constitutional rights to an outside organisation, a new one, not yet formed,.
Let us call it the International Genocide Remembrance Alliance. IGRA
Every American by now would know that the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would expand the federal definition of anti-Semitism, despite opposition from civil liberties groups.
The bill passed the House on Wednesday by a margin of 320 to 91, and it is largely seen as a reaction to the ongoing antiwar protests unfolding on US university campuses. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Time for the IGRA. It won't pass because of the corrupted Israel political stooges in both houses, including the paid AIPAC generated staffers, in every office but it may make the world sit up and see for the first time (for many) that the USA has been corrupted , top to bottom.
A vote of 320 to 91. If this goes through the Senate, it's goodbye America.
Caitlin, every one of you articles is so cathartic to read. Every one of them makes so much sense to me. Thank you - and please don't stop doing what you are currently doing. The world needs to hear the things you have to share...
Separating Zionism from Israel's genocide is like dissociating the rapist from rape, the serial killer from his dismembered victims, the pedophile from pedophilia, the pornographer from pornography, the domestic abuser from his beaten partner. I don't know how anyone can oppose any kind of wrongdoing without holding those who commit those wrongful acts accountable and without acknowledging why they commit them: namely, because they are sick, insane, cruel, immoral, twisted, deformed and generally disgusting and reprehensible excuses for human beings. As for AOC, it looks like she's inviting major financial support for her re-election campaign.
I went to Hebrew School with Amy Spitalnick and this is the first time I've thought of her in 20 years. It's basically a twice a week, 2-hour school at the temple (the price of membership at which was astronomical) where we learned about Jewish holidays and how to read Hebrew for our bar and bat mitzvahs. Then we stopped going and that was the end of it. We went to separate public schools -- not yeshivas. Obviously we both were fed the propagandized version of Israel but we did not belong to an orthodox temple -- I barely remember any actually teaching happening. I specifically remember socializing often with her during class and NOT paying attention. It is absolutely infuckingsane that this person I grew up with has adopted an identity that is unrecognizable to me. Granted I have no idea what transpired between the ages of 15 and 35, but there is NOTHING that would justify this chosen persona of antisemitic victimhood. SHE is the problem. SHE and others like her with a platform will not only be complicit in this genocide, they will be doing so on baseless and fabricated accusations of antisemitism We grew up in Nassau County on Long Island. We were surrounded by Jews, even in public school. I am one Jew so who knows how much this weight will carry - I have never experienced an inkling of antisemitism in my life. My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor and not once have I felt the need for a "safe place." Rather, what I have taken away from that history is the fucking obvious lesson to prevent oppression (including genocide) from happening again. This has turned into more of a rant but who cares anymore -- any respect I had for AOC just went out the window. To quote that brave woman who spoke at the NYS capitol a couple weeks ago, keep our religion out of your fucking mouths. Thank god for people like Caitlin who are unafraid to state the TRUTH about Israel -- its existence has nothing to do with Judaism. This is no "ancient conflict" between Muslims and Jews. Religion should never have entered the conversation but for the expert brainwashing the media and western leadership have carried out over the past 75 years. I hate that this post is even about Judaism because I'm contributing to the "look-over-here-ism" that is successfully taking eyes off Palestine. But if perchance Amy Spitalnick should see this, hey! It's Steff Kass from Hebrew School and day camp! You look ridiculous, girl, and I see you.
ceasefire NOW
Thank you for that. Well said.
It’s definitely the ultimate chutzpah to maintain the perpetual whiney victim façade while murdering and maiming hundreds of children a day for eight months straight. The genocidal Israeli state will eat itself, but will probably try to use nukes while it implodes.
This is my fear, possibility everyone else's fear. I feel like fundamentalists, especially those that use religion as a cover to maintain the power of their base, when they can't get what they want, they are willing to take themselves (or at least their followers) out if it means no one else gets what they couldn't have, whether thats laws, land, power, resources, water, ultimately whatever maintains their supremacy. I worry that if Israel thinks its not going to be able to succeed in what its doing, its going to nuke everyone around it, even if that poisons its own citizens. (and probably the people pushing the buttons will have jetted off to other countries).
Yeah, I worry if I prevent my psycho neighbor be a psycho he might burn the house down. It'll be my fault then.
Have you had a psycho neighbor, especially a fundamentalist psycho neighbor, especially a fundamentalist psycho neighbor that has the sheriff in their back pocket and runs the construction economy and spends their fun time stockpiling weapons in their basement, that everyone is worried will burn their house down in a meltdown over making sure other people don't get none if they don't get won? Because where I live we have more than we should. And NO one would say that anyone trying to mitigate that out of fear is saying that it would be someone else's fault other than the psycho.
I'm not actually clear what you took from my comment, but it seems to be completely disconnected from reality.
We are in uncharted terroritory. New word for these illogical times. Gambling with Armageddon, also a great book. Chris Hedges wrote an amazing book forecasting these moments, American Fascists.
I think what he's trying to say without giving it away is that he 's the one behind the killing of the Palestinians, and now he's the one behind the invasion of Israel Hezbollah having killed thousands of Israelis in just a few days.
Nice bot; yes?
I don't think israel can use nuclear weapons, even a 10 megaton tactical weapon would end israel's existence. israel would be a radioactive parking lot for many years. They could end themselves by using weapons on Iran.
Your response is rational. But we’re not talking about rational people here. As Joy says, they’re insane. As Ron implies, they’re a cult. So we cannot rule out that they might use nukes. And in the meantime, the crazies in the US are trying to provoke a nuclear war with Russia. Rational behaviour is becoming a distant memory.
Thinking that is a sane thought. But we aren't talkin' sane here. It's called "The Samson Option," by Seymour Hersh. Well worth considering. It's been the case that, for some people, the idea that "if I can't have X, then nobody can, and, if I"m going down, I'll take us all down," makes sense, even though it's bat-shit crazy. Dangerously crazy.
But think of Jim Jones. They all drank the juice and they all died because he couldn’t have what he wanted.
This is fitting, because from what I read, several of them that drank the (powerade?) or gave it to their babies was because there were men with guns shooting people who tried to escape into the jungle. Because some of them decided it was time to go down, they held everyone hostage and took down children and people who wanted to leave. Its a very fitting analogy I think.
What makes you so sure?
Radioactive living spaces don't go over well. Iran is a very large country, the Zionists control an area the size of New Jersey. Iran supposedly has three weapons and israel 300 weapons. Iran's last demonstration as well as what Hezbollah is doing every day now, the fishnet dome offers nothing in protection from conventional, and nuclear weapons. Would the Zionists commit suicide, it could be said they are doing that now as the world has turned against them.
A lot of "supposedly". And Israel will get the US to pitch in.
As demented as Genocide Joe is, there would be no immediate nuclear response from us. I'm not sure what the u.s. could do now that Russia and Iran have signed a defense pact. I tell people these are not your Mother's nuclear weapons : ) A 10 mile radius fused like glass, a 30 mile radius burned to a crisp.
Yes, there is a lot of supposing in guessing what maniacs will do : ) When the Neutrons scintillate the eye, Run to the Light.
Spoken like another ignoramus looking for any excuse to validate his antisemitism. By the way, isn’t it cultural appropriation for you to use “chutzpah”, or does that not apply to Jews either. Educate yourself. You’ll wish you did when the Islamists start showing you how grateful they are you sided with them.
Fuck off child murderer.
Loved reading your post, Stephanie! Thank god for people like you & Caitlin.. there is yet a chance for us all!
this made me smile so big, thank you!
Thank you, Stephanie. Unfortunately there are far too many Amy’s and Aaron’s indoctrinated into the cult of Zionism. Their shameless and inhumane rhetoric towards Palestinians suggests they’re well past the point of no return. What Israel has done over the past 8 months is beyond the realm of insanity. This is not going to end well for her…
Yes Stephanie it is true that any criticism of zionism or its cruel deeds can be portrayed as anti semitism . But that is only because the zionists carefully and quietly took over massive amounts of power in the most powerful country on earth. What would happen if you criticize a powerful but not all powerful country or institution? They would likely have to openly knock you down and shut you up. Not so when power reaches a certain height. Then they can arrange things so that the critic begins to look filled with unreasonable hate while the criticised continues to look pained and saddened.Of. course the all powerful need to use some of that power to arrange the public discourse in a way that suits their cause. To do that they need to control the public discourse. How to do that? Well getting total control of all of the organs of public information is a very efficient way. Of course you also need to look as if that isn't happening to keep public respect of and believe in these organs of information. And when that has been achieved you can conduct a massive slaughter of men women and children while getting the media to insist that what is important is what went before this slaughter. And that is indeed what the powerful zionists have managed to do. Even better they also have insisted that do other would be an act of cruel an barbaric anti semitism. Blaming the victim is always a good tactic if you need to cover your own misdeeds but few can successfully do that. Well, the pre-requirement of owning the public media makes it impossible for most. But not for the Zionist because they have actually achieved that.
👏👏👏
Wow! Said from the heart! What is it with Jews that they don’t see the difference between what they are doing in Gaza and what the Nazis did to Jews in the Holocaust? I am a refugee from Nazi Germany , and it infuriates me to know that these right wing Jews have blinders on when it comes to Palestinians! Do I hear an echo when they say that Palestinians are “ Subhuman”? Do I hear “ Untermenschen “? Yes ! And that makes me an “ anti-Semite “ or perhaps , laughably, a “ Self-hating Jew”?
Exactly! The perfect example being Jonathan Glazer using his Oscar speech for The Zone of Interest: "All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather ‘Look what we do now.’ Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization — how do we resist?"
And then that letter from "Jewish creatives" (?????) denouncing him??? What do these people think "never forget" refers to? The entire system is being exposed live on social media, day in and day out. It is the first time that I have been truly grateful for social media. Stay strong and solidarity <3
I loved the film and Glazer’s speech. Even though he was heavily criticized by the media & the pro Zionist film industry in Hollywood, his is one small chip at the shiny veneer of Zionism. I recommend a book titled, Hollywood and Israel, A History by Tony Shaw.
'What is it with Jews"
Yeah, I have the same question about whites, and fags , and niggers
Give up collectivism
Stephanie, I love you. Sadly, I don't think this ends well with power having pushed all-in. The Big Gamble doesn't look like it will pay off. I don't see the logic in it all. When the story is written I really would like to know who made this decision. Keep writing : )
Thank you for your kind words <3
Thank you so much for your elucidating post !!
By now, we all should openly admit that the British elite know exactly how to use Judaism as an effective tool to maintain fully covert power in this strategic region.
- The depraved Zionists (a political association with Jewish or Christian members) are entirely a British construct for a.m. purposes,
- the US Army is just their muscle and
- the gullible and uninformed US taxpayer their deplorable milking cow ...
Biden wandering around, both verbally and in his shoes, makes me realize how much less debilitated was the second term Ronald Reagan. That’s scary, knowing what we now know about him. But we never thought that Reagan was running things. The joke, —not a joke—was that an actor was chosen deliberately, to pretend to be the leader of the free world. Biden is deteriorating day by day, and I’ve had about enough of living in interesting times.
“Vote blue no matter who” they chant like good little smurfs (no offense to the Smurfs)
“There’s no such thing as a progressive Democrat: No true progressive would be a WILLING member of a genocidal, corporate owned, corrupt, primary rigging, wall street butt licking, warmongering political party (Dem Party)!” - Thor Swayze *Truth Teller*
You're telling the truth, Thor!
Rightly labeled Demoncrat.
Is it me or am I the only one to see how the continuing hostilities by Israel are only going to guarantee continued violence/war for at least two more generations? The children of those killed will be the next wave of fighters. The cycle of violence and death will never end. Truly tragic.
Was watching Kyle Kulinsky today on his show Secular Talk (good youtube show), he was commenting about the ongoing Ukrainian war, he said there are only 3 possibilities now: 1. The war ends soon with some diplomatic action, or 2. The the war ends in 2 or 3 years with some diplomatic action, or, 3. The war spirals out-of-control and goes nuclear - which some psychopathic clowns in Washington DC think would not be too big a deal. Actually, if a nuclear war breaks out - guess what? We're all really fucked.
Kyle probably could have said the same for GAZA. On another note, I'm not sure what Israel is going to do about Hezbollah. Like, they think they have problems in GAZA right now ...
Colonel McGregor thinks America will have to enter the war vs Hezbollah and fly its B52s to carpetbomb South Lebanon. He stated this on his weekly talk with Judge Nap.
Yes, I remember him saying that too. Although Max Blumenthal mentioned today many of Israel's top hi-tech drones are now being regularly shot out of the sky by the Hezbollah. And the IDF has underestimated the strength of Hezbollah's anti-air defenses, (as it seems, everything else about the ongoing suicidal, genocidal blood bath). He even suggested it might be problematic for the Israelis to risk fighter jets into the area now. Not to mention, Iran will be backing Hezbollah 100% if Lebanon escalates even more.
Also Jimmy Dore had an interesting guest on yesterday, a guy by the name of Ben Swann - who laid out a very convincing case Israel knew all along Oct 7th was going to happen and let it happen. Which wouldn't surprise me now, given the level of lies and savagery the world has been subjected to since then, by the Israelis (and US).
Ben Swann at JD: https://rumble.com/v51g2p7-october-7-bombshell-drops-w-ben-swann.html
Yeah that's the show. Pretty damn convincing. Not that I'm any kind of conspiracy theorist. I'm just a retired guy living in Idaho - and even think UFOs might be aliens. I support SETI.
I'm old and still trying to find Dark Matter hahahha.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.10518
Yes, now I'm listening, GrayZone, Max, Aaron and Ana. BTW Ana's new book on Venezuela is brilliant. Forget Kyle ha.
Ana is great to listen to as well on the Judge Napolitano show. Almost all the Judge's regular guests are quite good - worth listening too. I like Kyle, he's been on point with this horror in GAZA right from the get go and he hasn't let up. I learn a lot from his show. I think in the past he was a bit duped with the whole "lesser of two evils" BS - he was a little to Democratic party leaning for my tastes, but my God, he probably sees it for what it is now. He's grown as a host - has a huge following on youtube.
I was shocked how I found the Judge truthful although I don't know his politics, I suspect Libertarian. His guests are so informative and over time reveal every thing our Gov. and mass media has told us was a lie. The hint is , this war on Russia will go nuclear with Genocide Joe at the button.
Yes, the Judge is Libertarian.
Iran will never let this happen. Iran ,BRICS member and Russia's partner . Rus. will blind all those B... Or ?
They’re delusional. If they start a full-blown war with Hezbollah they’ll be crushed. Economically. More Israelis will leave and their economy will be in ruins.
I believe they have already ended themselves financially. Colombia just cut off coal shipments. GDP was down 26% three months ago. Boycotts work.
The Zionist elites don’t care about the well being or even the lives of their Zionist underlings.
Sorry, I don't think much of him, Vote Blue No Matter Who. Force the vote is stupid. Why would anyone use power for change. Nope there will be no treaty as Putin has learned and said out loud we can not trust the u.s. The war will end with territory annexed from the Dnipro along with Odesa, leaving Ukraine an isolated farm field that most likely the Nazi's will fight over with Poland. Check out the GrayZone.
Kulinsky is getting warmer regarding Ukraine.
Concerning Hezbollah - that is why the US Fleet is in theater.
Everybody assumes a nuclear war means a global strategic conflagration - It could be a historical repeat - a few cities bombed into craters until the opposition capitulates.
Gambling with Armageddon, nope don't bet on it. Today, is not 1945. One 100 megaton weapon in Chicago would end life as we know it for decades. Most of us would die of starvation. When you launch you don't launch one. What's not so funny, Russia has proved their anti-ballistic missile system work at a very, very high level with this practice we provided. We in the u.s. have little to none in defensive systems at home. On The Beach.
In 1945, *one* country had the bomb. They could game it that way then, but not now.
Not everybody, apparently the idiots in Washington seem to think a Nuclear escalation could be controllable.
I have to agree...First, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are not our fight...PERIOD. Second, if you want to understand what a nuclear war looks like....read Annie Jacobson's latest book...newsflash...CHILLING. There is no such thing as a limited nuclear exchange. I don't understand why there aren't massive demonstrations demanding a negotiated settlement. Again, both Ukraine and Israel will be getting the short end of the stick in any type of settlement. BTW the war in Ukraine will be over by the Fall. Putin is just taking his time to kill as many Ukrainians as possible before settling. Ukraine will become a vassal state .... you wait and see. With regards to Israel.... they may manage to get themselves liquidated. The forces against them go beyond Iran....just saying. The whole business is just stupid.
Absolutely. Any child in gaza atm, doesn't have much to lose. Of course they'll join hamas, or start something else just the same. It's obvious. Maybe it's what the colonizers want... it justifies this continued slaughter, doesn't it?
This is entirely intentional. A Scary Enemy is needed at all times:
1. To explain why we can't have nice things.
2. To provide a justification for crackdowns on civil liberties.
3, To unite various factions and prevent them from fighting over spoils.
I believe thats a goal. how can a country justify continuing to bomb people and steal land if there aren't people there that they can point to their own children and say, see they hate you, we have to kill them or they will kill you, we have to move our people into where they are so you can be safe.
That is why pressuring one state is a bad idea. Civil war would result. Israel is a country/nation according to International Law. Palestine should be a country according to international law. You can't pick parts of international law that you like, it comes at a whole. Or else pressure the UK into giving its territories in Northern Ireland land to Irish Republic. If you don't push for that. Why do you press two nations to co-exist in one if one has genocided the other? Would you press Finns to co-exist in the same country with Russians after they invaded them?
I think it proves just the opposite. One Vote, Human Rights for all. This was ONE nation not very long ago. The name doesn't matter and after what israel has done most likely they will be looking to re-brand and call themselves something else.
"Governments don’t have rights, people have rights. Unless they’re Palestinian, apparently."
I'm not sure any people who are oppressed have any rights. Our governments don't seem to think the poor, the elderly, the sick, the homeless or the unemployed even exist or deserve anything from them. It's no wonder they have no qualms about mass murdering an entire ethnic group in Palestine. It's time for the people to take back their governments and make them for the people--not the corporations.
The core problem for Israel is that it was malformed at birth. Born out of colonialism and at war from the start. Then it proceeded into a steady state of dispossession of more people and colonisation of more land. And more militarisation to try and hold those ill-gotten gains. In short, the entire lifespan of "Israel" has been a steadily escalating "State of Exception":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_exception
https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article/17/3/677/2756274
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3534874.html
This is the climate in which apartheid was normalised in Israel, and in which the country has slid all the way down to mass murder and genocide. But as Agamben notes above the US empire is also on this type of path.
Following this train of thought, neither does anyone in the US have any rights. And you already see what is happening to the students that have been protesting the US support for Israel's slide into the abyss of this state of exception. Beaten, arrested, expelled from residences, facing absurd legal charges by the state.
I'd argue the students are a canary in the coal mine, and they are not even anywhere near what is doing to be done to protesters, as the US empire continues its slide down to the point in that abyss that Israel is already at. Look at the militarisation of police - it's preparation to beat down dissidents internally.
No one has any rights, and everyone is about learn that inside the empire.
I always thought that's what a Constitution was about. But apparently even that can be subverted over time.
Exactly right.
It is waaaaay past time for a wealth cap. Super wealth is bad for your civic health if you live in a so-called democracy. It is wrong that the super wealthy manipulate everything - from genocides, wars, residential home real estate, university presidents' policy dealing with righteous student protesters, ......etc . Just plain wrong. A reincarnation of kings and queens monopolization and commodification of everything including us.
The orange thug promises to cut corporate taxes to 20 %.
A quick look at the economic data of the past 50-60 years in the US, shows wealth acceleration of the rich regardless of what party the president is from.
Began with Reagan in 80s. Neocon Dems didn't help. Now Repugs have gone full fascist. All are owned by Israel, but zero Repugs want ceasefire. Many Dems now do.
No the inequality problem did not begin with Reagan the 1980s. The rise in inequality goes back to the economic depression in the US and the west that occurred in the mid 1970s.
See Figure 2 and Figure 3 at the link below
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/unequal-gains-american-growth-and-inequality-1700
"...Unequal gains: American growth and inequality since 1700
Jeffrey G. Williamson Peter Lindert / 16 Jun 2016.."
What the data shows is that the Reagan administration worsened the problem. And so did every other government in the US since the 1970s. They all concisely worked to make the ultrarich richer and ordinariy people, relatively poorer.
This has also had severe consequences politically. Alongside that economic inequality, so you also see political equality vanishing in the US in the same period.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B
And the Supreme Court stuck a fork in it a decade ago, by ensuring that this wealth inequality has become an permanent political advantage for the rich to hickack the country:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC
So that's democracy completely wiped out in the US.
That is why this upcoming election is a farce, and why you see the chaos and dysfunction, to the point where AIPAC and others can involve the country in mass murder, and to the point where successive presidents now have been openly selling US govt policy for personal gain in Qatar, Israel, and Ukraine.
It seems hopeless.
Stop kidding yourself that voting Team D will fix anything.
Be hopeless for 5 minutes. Then, get mad. And join political activist organizations where high numbers of young people are involved. Just baking cookies for the next meeting is 45 minutes of doing something to advance what really matters to you. Start a reading group on political meat and potatoes books - Naomi Klein, Mearsheimer, Jeffrey Sachs, Finkelstein, especially, Chomsky. Fret and fret.
Read the Artists Way and The Path of Least Resistance, and Rick Rubin's The Creative Act....and channel your creativity into whatever expression makes the biggest difference for you. The set-up today depends on pliancy, going along to get along, and not boat rocking. Not aiming to create the "good". Defy the prevailing status quo. Get clear on exactly what it is you want to have happen. (Path of Least Resistance is good on this). Do it!
and deregulate oil & gas and abandon climate policies to provide over $100 billion in profits, in exchange for a $1 billion campaign donation. Project 2025.
I think the obscene wealth equality is one of the key fundamental problems in the country right now, and seems nearly insurmountable to overcome.
I'm still trying to figure out if AOC is just a complete bullshitter, or really does have a feather brain. It's one of the great enigmas of all time. Where's Sherlock Holmes?
Oh she knows exactly what she's doing.
Yes. I've observed for some years, even just casually, that AOC's 'progressive' credentials are deeply suspect. Rashida and Ilhan should take AOC to the woodshed and give her a good thrashing, but I fear it would do no good....
The loyalty of Tlaib and Omar is to Team D.
Not to us or to anyone else.
Suspect, she was a liar and pretender from the first word spoken. She was a rich girl privately schooled, working for Ted Kennedy as a staffer. I was fooled too.
You should write about whatever the hell is going on with AOC defenders.
Which makes her far more evil then any of us know. I was stupid and supported her with donations for her election, not even in New York. The monster that was elected was a liar from the first word. Thank you for doing this Caitlin, you help me sleep at night knowing I am not alone. Dark Matter Zombies.
AOC is apparently a once-sincere advocate of progressive values, who has gotten to Washington and had those values compromised, to whatever extent, by the irresistible (for her) lure of elevation in the political establishment - while trying to retain her "celebrity progressive" status. An oxymoronic, contradictory dream. Sherlock Holmes
It's impossible to be in power in the US without playing the game or paying the ferryman. You have to sell your soul- I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
So true….😐
I admit, I aspire to be like Sherlock Holmes someday, but in the meantime, I remain a Dr. Watson.
The "progressive" thing was aways a convenient mask. It was never based in principle or analysis or commitment and never came with sacrifice.
She a self promoting ambitious bourgeoisie grifter..
"AOC is apparently a once-sincere advocate of progressive values" - if she was and thought she could keep them then she is indeed stupid.
She was none of that, rich girl pretender. Ted Kennedy and AOC tells the story.
as I said: The "progressive" thing was aways a convenient mask. It was never based in principle or analysis or commitment and never came with sacrifice.
She a self promoting ambitious bourgeoisie grifter..
Nope, none of that. Pretender rich girl who worked for Ted Kennedy.
Depends on what you mean by "feather-brain". Is she a deep thinker? Hell, no. Is she a career girl? Of course. So she builds her career the way she would at bartending or stripping. She's good at that. Whether that makes her a feather-brain 🤷♂️🤷♀️She must be cunning for sure.
Follow the money.
AOC is a liberal fraud
Delete the word "liberal" and you nailed it.
My definition;
Progressivism: the political belief in law-mandated / state-mandated liberalism
An actual contradiction in terms IMHO
real liberals need to ditch it before it becomes worse
As a constituent, I note that her campaign catchphrase (since 2018) has been "Courage". Frankly, I don't think it's as simple as Caitlin says. Behind the scenes, I trust that AOC is going through quite the education, and I'd love to hear her interviewed in two decades, or better, five.
Oh it is that simple.. unless one ascribes to the ‘it’s complicated’ doctrine to describe the Palestine/Israel issue.. indigenous people are being systematically slaughtered and their land stolen by another people and all we [civlised folk] care about is whether the murderers are having a good time doing it and making sure they feel good about themselves..
The Palestine genocide is not complicated.
The character evolution of (initiated-as-adult, 33-year-old, WC->UMC) AOC is most definitely complicated, and has nothing to do with the political topic at hand.
Hopefully, we never hear from her again. Jose Vega is an interesting character.
"Courage"? I'm searching my addled brain right now for the psychological term for the practice of projecting the polar opposite of your deepest fears and inadequacies as your virtues. What is that word?
The "progressive" thing was aways a convenient mask. It was never based in principle or analysis or commitment and never came with sacrifice.
She a self promoting ambitious bourgeoisie grifter..
"She a self promoting ambitious bourgeoisie grifter"
I seriously doubt she understands very well the implications of what she's doing. She certainly thinks she does, but IMHO she won't know for a while.
May I ask, what is your current age (roughly)? Were you raised (ages birth-to-teens) working-class? If so, was it skilled or unskilled WC? (Do you know the difference, that is, the *cultural* difference?) In general, was it stable or unstable environment? Were there street gangs as a young child? Were you abandoned for lengthy periods so your parents could work? Were the schools authoritarian disciplinarians? Were you ever experimental meat in an Ivy League teaching hospital? Did you ever have screaming matches with "therapists", who couldn't drop their own "juiced in it" [hard-driving-UMC-]parents-are-the-only-genuine-problem monomania long enough to hear what perceptive things you're saying about other things related to you, the world, and your place in it? etc. etc. etc. No, this is not unusual -- this is WC *NORMAL*. So, I hope you're now getting my drift about the possible, maybe probable, brain-state of AOC, having spent her early childhood the Bronx (a hellhole I don't even want to imagine, having seen enough triggers just on the TeeVee), but then coming face-to-face with the magical world of the UC/UMC.
In other words, moving to Westchester does not instantly transform the psyche of WC-raised to an UMC. Thinking it does is a deep UC/UMC conceit.
Wiki says her dad was an architect. That's not unskilled working class. She left the Bronx at 5 years old so had no real exposure to or experience with gangs, violence, et al. Puerto Rican families are known to be tight knit, is I doubt she had instability at home. You have a myth in your mind. Look at her academic focus.
Fair enough. I'll concede re most of these things (except as in my parallel comment point below). I don't think it's sufficient to refute my core point against Caitlin that "[AOC] knows exactly what she's doing". That's a stretch, to put it mildly.
She's corrupt. She kissed Pelosi's ass. This is not the first example of her corruption. She knows exactly where the lines are.
On some level she does (she has sufficient though not superior intelligence), but I believe that (within her current hurricane and bubble) she's certainly repressing and/or rationalizing it. It may not bubble to full consciousness for a while, which was in my original point. Therefore, I cannot yet hold her accountable the way I can, say, Bernie Sanders for *his* transgressions.
"She left the Bronx at 5 years old so had no real exposure to or experience with gangs, violence, et al."
How do you know that? You don't think a 3 or 4 or 5-year-old can experience trauma (at some level of) indirect exposure *worse* than, say, the 19-year-old wielding the weapons involved?
Her self promotional WIKI bio provided that. There are areas of the Bronx that are very nice. Have you ever been there? You have no clue, my friend.
Will there be a Palestinian left standing in five, or two, or 0.5 decades?
I'm not advocating her approach to this conversation at all. I'm saying she is an interesting character, will likely have many demons to face in the future, and in her old age (like Robert McNamara) attempt to come public with them. I do not believe she is a hard-boiled, two-faced sociopath as Caitlin seems to imply. Unless sociopaths and 5-D political chess have become sophisticated beyond my imagination.
Like someone said, I’m really over these ‘interesting’ characters and these ‘interesting’ times.. let’s drop the euphemism..
It's not a euphemism.
Because the thing "I'm really over" is the obsessive re-invention of words. One of these cases is the word "interesting", especially as used among the U.S. upper and upper-middle classes and their imitators for a number of decades now. (Today, in the decline and fall of the West, their discourse regularly functions as a modern court of Versailles, that is, as a slice of hybrid warfare.)
To the larger portion of people, that is, the normal ones (as in the original meaning of the word "normal", i.e. "reflecting the norm"), "interesting" isn't a veiled accusation -- it retains its original meaning, that is, making a statement about the *observer's* emotional reaction (i.e. "I'm entertained to explore this person/thing/whatever further, whatever I find"), and does not involve making insinuations about the target person's character.
I guess you never met a striving Bronx born Puerto Rican girl who moves to northern Westchester county and sees how the world works.
Oh, I know exactly how a working-class person moves into an upper-middle class environment during ones teens and twenties. Mastering by 30 years old at a deep level the sinister subterfuge of a hardened spook is not at all a norm. One can put on the cloak, but not understand sufficiently what's actually going on until decades later. Whoever is making this argument (apparently, Caitlin?) has to make a better case.
For example, at their core, I'm convinced AOC and Bernie are two very different people, no matter how they harmonize on stage. Puppet and puppetmaster.
BTW, her opponent(s) (this election year) on this question is/are much worse, as is entirely to be expected.
"Semi-like!"
My God. AOC = be ashamed, very ashamed. You're too large a part of the problem...which, ultimately, is the unbreakable chokehold that militant-political Colonial Zionism has on the US. Militant-political Colonial Zionism must work, non-stop, to perpetuate the myth of the "Holocaust" -- which actually had its roots, in the final few years of WWII, in "the fog of war." We must face, full on, and overcome that craven inclination to accommodate an extreme ideology -- repeat, ad infinitum: militant-political Colonial Zionism-turned full-on psychopathic and genocidal -- that must be confronted, repudiated, overcome, and terminated/eradicated, once and for all. AOC: you're not helping; you're hurting the Palestinians and all of rational, decent humanity.
Thanks, Caitlin. You light my fire....
You forgot to add religious fanaticism to your "militant-political Colonial Zionism" list. The Christian Zionists, as well as those of other faiths, are on a mission and, in the case of the Christians, their messianic drive for Armageddon predates, political Zionism by some 400 years. Don't leave out the prophets from the profits that are the driving forces here.
Its an absolute shame. I try to hold on to hope and AOC looked like one of those who could be ok. No one is perfect, its unreasonable to expect us to be. But if we can't see a genocide for what it is, if we can't see apartheid for what it is, if we can't see the spread of antisemitism through the weaponization of the concept of antisemitism, then, I don't know how we can be left.
‘Israel’s right to exist’ is about as valid as ‘Ted Bundy’s right to exist’.. although, the latter does have individual human rights whereas the former doesn’t.. like you, Caitlin, I’ve been saying all along that no state has a ‘right to exist’, especially a sadistic and murderous one. Why aoc does not hold a powwow with her fellow human lovers about Palestinians’ right to exist - as they’re obviously the ones being denied that right - is beyond me. How dumb can these people be?! And what fucking antisemitism is she talking about?! The kind where Zionists are denied ‘the right’ to be murderous and proud?! Because for them it’s a zero sum game: if I [zionist] live then you [Palestinian] have to die.. what utter excrement this woman and her ilk are..
BiBi has spawned more enemies of Jews than anyone since Hitler😱
This is entirely intentional.
Israel is not really a country. It has no constitution, for its racist laws would be showing its face. It excuses its existence with a holocaust that happened in Germany and with a mask of democracy that is utterly false as well as a successful dehumanising narrative of all non-Zionists. Israel is a colony without a mother-country. Unhinged, murderous, oppressive and temporary.
Temporary? With the US backing it to the hilt? I wish! Without US military aid Israel would not exist! And the US is ruled by AIPAC, so it doesn’t seem likely that they will give up anytime soon.
AOC has been purchased. The hope of 2018 is extinguished.
"AOC has been purchased, as above."
As was RFK, lock stock and barrel
Although not a resident of the "exceptional" Land of the Free, (now preparing to be called Abraham's America ), I read today of a worthy African American candidate who has the Zionist Lobby in America ( affectionately to be known as Biden's Bunch ) spending 25 million dollars to be able to beat him in November. It came from an article that I can no longer find but from one of my credible sources, obviously not an MSM propaganda outlet.
I just cannot believe that such outrageous corruption is allowed. To save me searching around in an environment in which I am out of my depth, what are the limitations that exist against such blatant bribery in the USA? In my country, we would call that bribery, corruption, totally illegal, criminal, all warranting a prison sentence......I think,......but I will check.
If this is an approved means of election funding, the Zionist brigade will forever own your country as I do not ever recall seeing a promotion of crowd funding or similar to raise a thousand dollars for some newspaper advertisement cost but figures like 25 million seem to be the order of the day from the financial supporters (owners)of 86% of the US fully paid for politicians.
Hey. Someone better get this common practice procedure amended smartly.
What's next my friends in America? Do we now anticipate changing the international trading currency to shekels as well? How do you accept being seen as nasty little goyims and what that derogatory comment means to the Zios. ( "goyim,” a disparaging Yiddish and Hebrew word for all non-Jews). Sounds scary. Your country its full of them.
Big changes ahead, so it seems. 9 million versus 330 million, (not including the locally residing Israeli controlled Zionists under every rock in Washington). The Neoconners, aka the Iraqi Deviates, Abrahams Army or better still, the Bush bastards.
The USA future, a little dark.
AIPAC has pledged $100M to defeat American politicians who did not suck its teats.
They are every bit as powerful as the gun lobby , and they are responsible for more deaths as Israel continues to murder Palestinians!
The most ironic part of it is: Jamal Boman is not even a radical leftist. He is an establishment Dem straight from the party machine in New York. And as such has largely served the AIPAC agenda for a couple decades now.
His entire "offence" is he hasn't followed the genocide-enabler script word for word.
You are likely referring to Jamal Bowman whose opponent is heavily supported by AIPAC, and has become the most expensive congressional campaign in history. According the Justice Democrats. They need to drop AOC and concentrate on Jamal Bowman, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlalib, and Summer Lee. And Jan Perleman in Florida. seeking to unseat Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
Thanks Joy. A bit of study to do there by the look of things.
I heard a retired CIA man on Judge Napolitano's show asked to comment about the Republican congressman who said that everyone had an AIPAC "babysitter" assigned to them who would monitor and direct Israel related issues.
He went beyond that and said that there is a hiring list of AIPAC sponsored Congressional staffers and that they have infiltrated congress and serve as spies for AIPAC. (*and Israel). The corruption goes beyond money - its been institutionalized.
Bill,
Surely that must be crossing the red line of illegal practices in the USA..
Time to resurrect a McCarthy exercise, even after his failed exercise in "un-American activities" and arrange for forced migrations home to Israel of once 'US citizens' who have sold out the USA in so many ways, starting with 86% of the government.
What a refreshing change that would be for all the remaining decent Americans.
I would fly over to be at the airport when the Israeli stooging politicians walk across the tarmac at Washington airport, bags and all, closely followed by anyone who has ever had anything to do with the Israel Fifth Column Headquarters of AIPAC.(Conferences Annually...attend or lose you seat).
As an additional passenger, book a seat for RFK jnr, who, was a pathetic weakling by selling out his country, staining the name of Kennedy, forever.
I'll pick up the cost of that ticket, gladly.
It is really time to outsource some of America’s constitutional rights to an outside organisation, a new one, not yet formed,.
Let us call it the International Genocide Remembrance Alliance. IGRA
Every American by now would know that the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would expand the federal definition of anti-Semitism, despite opposition from civil liberties groups.
The bill passed the House on Wednesday by a margin of 320 to 91, and it is largely seen as a reaction to the ongoing antiwar protests unfolding on US university campuses. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Time for the IGRA. It won't pass because of the corrupted Israel political stooges in both houses, including the paid AIPAC generated staffers, in every office but it may make the world sit up and see for the first time (for many) that the USA has been corrupted , top to bottom.
A vote of 320 to 91. If this goes through the Senate, it's goodbye America.
AOC is in denial/rationalizing. Check back with her in 20, maybe 50, years.
RFK made a Faustian bargain/gamble for a bigger payoff. Check back on him in a year, or five if our current storm takes a while.
Caitlin, every one of you articles is so cathartic to read. Every one of them makes so much sense to me. Thank you - and please don't stop doing what you are currently doing. The world needs to hear the things you have to share...
"Everyone from AOC to RFK Jr has been going mask-off over Gaza and exposing themselves as the fraudulent imperialists they are."
Yes. But they're also speaking as people who, in the 21st century, are permitted to be U.S. elected representatives and candidates.
Separating Zionism from Israel's genocide is like dissociating the rapist from rape, the serial killer from his dismembered victims, the pedophile from pedophilia, the pornographer from pornography, the domestic abuser from his beaten partner. I don't know how anyone can oppose any kind of wrongdoing without holding those who commit those wrongful acts accountable and without acknowledging why they commit them: namely, because they are sick, insane, cruel, immoral, twisted, deformed and generally disgusting and reprehensible excuses for human beings. As for AOC, it looks like she's inviting major financial support for her re-election campaign.
AOC is despicable on this and on other issues! I hope she loses big!