Americans are denied adequate health care NOT because of a lack of funds (or spending on something else), but rather a 'conscious, deliberate strategy' that puts the profits of corporations above the health of the 'people of the country'.
If ordinary Americans accumulate medical debt (which is what the U.S. healthcare system seems designed to do), they are trapped into working and working forever to pay back that debt - hence debt bondage/slavery. This is also by design. The capitalists know what they are doing, since with a desperate and trapped working class, TPTB can maintain control and the dystopian status quo.
Chang, Just as Americans are - with health care and college student debt ( to name two ), "..... trapped into working and working forever to pay back that debt - hence debt bondage/slavery"; so are many global south countries, trapped in " A fate worse than debt ". ( Susan George's book which was one of the first to sound the alarm).
When they 'acquire' a World Bank debt the IMF steps in to police that they service the debt - which invariably means austerity for the poor and privatising the national assets for the nation. This could go on even when they have paid the debt twice over in interest payments only, to cover the original debt. Future generations forever in debt bondage.
We like to think that capitalism is in crisis but instead of its destruction it has morphed into a dystopian oligarchic fascist horror show.
Yes Indu, but the debt that you talk about is STRUCTURAL debt, NOT 'personal debt'. It's common knowledge that the IMF and World Bank (and other Western institutions) are appendages of Western global capitalism and imperialism. Using these institutions, they achieve neo-colonialism - i.e. you no longer need to directly colonize a country to steal its resources. You can structure debt-based systems and products and enforce conformity and subservience with the power of the U.S. dollar hegemony and military power (if needed) to CONTINUE to force 'resource extraction' (and labor value extraction) WITHOUT ever setting foot in the country.
But that debt that you talk about works on an entirely DIFFERENT level than the private and personal debts of individuals. What you talk about are 'public debts' (those accrued by the governments of the country) that work differently than the debt that I am discussing. Public debts affect everyone in the country (i.e. austerity measures, etc.) rather than at individual 'class level' (i.e. the working class vs. the owner/property class).
>>"We like to think that capitalism is in crisis..."
Capitalism IS the crisis. I wish capitalism were in enough of a crisis that people would get their pitchforks out and do something about it and replace it with a better system.
>>"...it has morphed into a dystopian oligarchic fascist horror show."
Yep! It was always heading in this direction (or maybe I'm saying this with hind-sight bias). Capitalism is CANNIBALISTIC in nature. Even though it has proved to be a 'chameleon-like' system - forever morphing, adapting, pivoting, disguising, masquerading, being ultra-flexible, and resilient - I do believe that it won't last forever (though I am unlikely to see an alternative system in my lifetime, unfortunately).
I don't know how old you are, Chang, but I'm betting you WILL see an alternative system, though it's likely to be breakdown, chaos, reversion to most people farming for survival with swarms of refugees moving from the latest place to experience a climate- or war- or plague-induced disaster--which might end up with a better system, or set of differing systems, but that you and I will likely not live to see.
A friends Uncle was President of Argentina for two weeks : ) His job was to default on those WB/IMF loans. If Argentine's at that time had taken over the failed foreign companies as worker owned the story would by turned out differently I think.
Who's illness is a moral failing? The common people of America? Not in the least. When you have a system that is based PRIMARILY on profits, making people SICK is a 'business strategy' (please, no anti-vaxx or Covid conspiracies here). For instance, the production and consumption of 'highly processed foods' is encouraged by the system as it generates $$$ on both ends - the 'purchase' of such food, and the 'purchase of health/diet/etc.' products to combat the ill effects of such food. There is a VERY lucrative 'wellness' and 'alternative medicine' industry too to 'help resolve' the problems caused. Everywhere you look, it's about 'profits'. This is what the system of Capitalism entails.
XK, its Chang (not change), and lightening up is challenging considering the Genocide(s) (multiple - Gaza, Sudan) that have been going on for quite a while...and the toll it has taken (and continues to take) on the mental and physical health of even those that are not being genocided.
Regardless of your largely correct deep analysis of the profound drive of our Capitalist masters toward instantiating our complete servitude, my point goes to the relative ease with which dollars are profligately pissed away on military misadventures, while scrooged on anything domestic that would improve people's lives. I could've used something less personal, like a rotting bridge or shitty rail transportation, but nothing stirs emotion as much as shitty medical care, which is what we have in programs that claim universality for subpopulations -- like Medicare, whose universality lies in its mediocrity and endless mimicry of private insurance plans in its piecemeal denials of coverage.
I agree, however Medicare is just another debt plan for those that are very ill. We need a single payer system free at the point of access. My Sister is a memory care nurse and her wages do not inspire her to take on the daily mental challenges of others as well as the occasional slap in the face or exposed erection. A non profit system could actually pay people. I agree with you change is needed now. Medicare 80%, 20% on you. I am shocked at how few people know this.
In typical lard-ass fashion, I think that most elderly Americans accept Medicare as better than nothing, better than alternatives, especially seeing what younger people pay for Obamacare. As for your poor sister, I don't know how anyone tolerates working within that model. (I never refer to it as a system because it does not really have true system properties.)
My Sister left the hospital healthcare insurance interface after a year early in her career having to tell people their cancer wasn't covered or their treatments were out of coverage area. For many years now the largest fraction of bankruptcy in the u.s. (lowercase intentional) is medical debt. Very soon, we will start hearing again, YOU were never promised Social Security would last your lifetime. We want to take the debt held by Social Security and invest it in AI. The Duopoly has the same plan for us, early death, work till you die. Medicare Advantage plans the real scam, pay and zero care. I agree there is no system : ( Free Palestine and we will all be FREE.
Well said my friend. We are well past the tipping point on many issues. The collapsing u.s. financial system seems to be the front runner as the force that takes it all down. When FDR said to the Millionaires of the time, pay or I will let them have you is an interesting story if true. History will not look kindly on us : (
And you believe that absurdity: "If one were to spread the full annual USCG budget evenly over 365 days (not realistic in practice but useful for scale):
USCG’s $13.1 billion ÷ 365 ≈ ~ $36 million per day (for the entire Coast Guard, all missions, worldwide — not just Caribbean operations).
O&S portion alone ($11.066 billion) ÷ 365 ≈ ~ $30.3 million per day.
So even if the entire Coast Guard budget were spent every day, it’s an order of magnitude below “a billion-per-day.”
USCG vs the multi-mobilization of all the facets of the military they’ve mobilized? Your comparison escapes me. Yeah it’s a bloated estimate, but it’s a hell of a lot of shekels to keep all that stuff in readiness. That’s the point. Get over it.
Let's take that into account: "If a US or other major navy maintains what amounts to a “full deployment” (carrier + escorts + support) off Venezuela — with ships at sea, air‑wing potentially active, crews rotating, supply & logistics ongoing — the cost is likely on the order of US $6 million to US $20 million per day, depending on scale and intensity." So a billion today is not just exaggerated, it is an exaggeration of 5000%, which I may safely call a big fat lie. Sufficient the evil unto the day without lying, which makes you the enemy for betraying the truth.
First. I said that I'd heard such estimates. Second there's now two carrier groups mobilized. And land forces, you seem to want to ignore.
This will clear a hundred million easy, so in the end one fucking order of mag in that funnybone estimate.. Third. you're the liar for trying to downplay what is extreme treachery to the American people — pissing away those dollars in imperialist adventures while polluting the planet with the emissions of those vessels and aircraft. Yes, I don't downplay that aspect, either, thank you. Just give me a fucking break, dale. We know where your devotion lies.
Yep. It is a helluva time to be alive. Trump was awarded a peace prize by Fifa, facial recognition technology is helping the police to sometimes violently arrest people in the UK, Genocides in Gaza and Sudan are being supported by all kinds of countries. But never mind. Christmas is almost here. You know, the time of good cheer and peace.
That was the saddest move any Fifa corrupt official ever made. Talk about crawling to a paedophile who is still not aware that most of the world is laughing at his daily changing face from light orange to orangey orange to the orangest orange ever seen, which is obviously self inflicted because, surely, if someone else did it for him they wouldn't miss out such obvious bits, or would they?
As for the talking to those needing a nodding head type; I have been cornered, literally, by that type; they ask how you are but before you can answer their off. For me I have found the best way to escape is to tell them, sometimes it is absolutely the truth, that you desperately need to get to the toilet, and jiggle a bit to prove your point. You may have to reinforce this more than once because they can be good at not hearing anything you said.
I am in total agreement with you about the American interference in Venezuela would be disastrous, especially with Drumpf and Hegshead at the helm. Actually, I think it would be a disater for the US, especially if Israeli decided to attack Iran again.
That’s my thought as well, that keep the wheels on the Workd Cup bus at any price is at work here. Certainly that’s at least a significant factor, given where it’s being hosted.
FIFA made a catastrophic mistake (or was it intentional) by bringing football world cup to USA. USA will corrupt and destroy the sport of football like they corrupt everything else they touch. If countries like Iran, Venezuela, Columbia, Nicaragua, Yemen, South Africa, Algeria, Spain, Ireland, etc. qualify for the World cup (finals) the US government will not allow them to enter the country and compete as they are not "friendly" to israel. Free Palestine & Fuck israel
Actually, the majority of those teams have already qualified for the World Cup, or will qualify after their playoff. For Trump to ban any players would destroy the event, not to mention causing an outrage across the futbol world. Another reason to keep greasing that squeaky wheel.
We are talking about US government and the "west". They have no shame and no morals, and they will harass and outright ban certain countries or individual football players from "unfriendly" nations (Iran, etc.). Accuse them of terrorism, "antisemitism", drug trafficking, etc. This was all very clear 50+ years ago as "west" openly supported judeo-fascists in genocide against semitic Palestinians. Humans as an organized group are slow and stupid. Doom is coming to humanity. Free Palestine & fuck israel
FIFA invented the prize just a month or so ago to give to Trump so he would leave the games alone. It is the strategy of feeding his ego to avoid being harmed by him. It is meaningless as a sports body hardly has any credibility in awarding a prize for peace. It's just a kind of bribe to stay in his good graces.
John Michel Greer has written a scenario in which the demise of the American empire comes about by military means--which he says might seem surprising given the enormous size of the US military, but he points out that what that tremendous largess goes to is dictated not by the military's needs but by the lobbying of the military industrial complex, and is rife with fraud and overcharges. And now the military is run by a laughably incompetent, posturing buffoon while the most responsible people within it have resigned or been forced out. JMG's scenario involved a proxy war with China over Tanzania, but it could equally be a war with Venezuela and Colombia. And perhaps the reason they're going all-in there and resurrecting the Monroe doctrine is that too many people in the military and top government circles have concluded that the supposedly upcoming war with China is simply infeasible, that we can't stop China from ascending and have to settle for co-domination, so these guys want to be kings of the western hemisphere. Plus Venezuela has oil, and China and Cuba are getting a lot of it. I suppose it's conceivable that the barking mad people running Israel will not take a US NO for an answer on war with Iran and will start one on the assumption that the US would "have to " jump in when Iran fights back--and then maybe, especially if we've had no change of leadership, they'd decide the US DOES have to join in, while simultaneously fighting a Vietnam-style war in Venezuela--and that would result in the US government having to tell the people they can no longer get any help with health insurance, or social security, or pretty much anything else--at which point either revolution or collapse ensues. Which might be quite a relief to the world but an unfair burden on Venezuela and perhaps Iran.
The desire to steal back the oil has been there for over 20 yrs but the timing is likely to create a huge distraction when the Epstein scandal becomes serious enough to threaten Trump and he then wags the dog and starts a war to overwhelm the headlines with war news, rally the troops, and avoid shitting the bed while he is exposed as a pedophile.
Re Israel going to war with Iran: I dont think so because tho the Israeli public while tolerating corruption and genocide in Gaza, they will not tolerate a regime that does not protect them. And during the last 12-day war with Iran, Israel called it off because it was shown that the Iron Dome was penetrable and even Tel Aviv was not safe....with 480 homes hit. Israelis will not tolerate a regime that makes them feel unsafe, and the regime learned that Iran had the power to make their political status untenable if the war continued. Reports indicate Iran has over 2000 missiles than can reach Israel, with about 20% getting thru Israel defenses....that would create a public uproar that would be political suicide for the current regime...and it is unlikely to take that risk, in my opinion.
As for a ground war on Venezuela, since China gets a huge amount of its oil fromn Venezuela, attacking it would involve risks of involving China and other nations..it is likelyi one of Trump's terrorist threat negotiating tactics, with the main purpose to distract from the Epstein scandal and give him a wag the dog out by starting a ground war when the shit hits the fan in the near future. IMHO
interesting, and I hope you're right re Israel/Iran. I don't think distraction from the Epstein scandal is the primary reason for the aggression against Venezuela, tho it likely is an additional reason and maybe a Why Now reason. I think it's partly the usual thing of attacking countries whose leaders don't take orders from Washington, especially if they also sit on a lot of oil and have the nerve to sell it in other currencies than the dollar; along with an underlying reason for all the wars, the demands of the MIC to use up materiel so more can be ordered. In this case I expect that while they're talking about Venezuela, they gotta be outraged that Colombia, for decades Washington base and bulwark in South America, is now run by genuine leftists, a president who (gasp!) proposes leaving oil in the ground on climate grounds. I'm sure they know they can't "win" in conventional terms even if the war is just against Venezuela, but look at the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria--the countries are left in ruins, less democratic than before the attack, but that's not a loss that's a WIN--because the weak countries can be more easily looted, and a battered people might surrender and vote for a rightwinger just to get Washington to back off (Nicaragua). What might keep them at bay is what you say about China, but China and the rest of the world sat back and let Israel slaughter Palestine, and just voted to allow a radiantly unjust, horrible, corrupt "solution" in Gaza. :et us give credit to the one country that actually tried to defend Palestine--Yemen!
When I heard that Infantino gave Trump a "Peace Prize" I was like, who is he and why is he giving Trump a peace prize. Isn't FIFA about football/soccer? Since when did they start giving out Peace Prizes? Did Trump need one so badly that he bought it? But what was even more cringe was the visual display. It was eerily cultish.. even took me back to CERN's cultish displays. Actually, it was so unbelievable I had to look it up. The world is upside down, War Is Peace. It seems that Trump just has to invert reality to get himself into the history books as a Peace President.
Reason why FIFA awarded ‘Peace Prize’ to Trump after Gaza, Iran, Venezuela? | Janta Ka Reporter
Dec 6, 2025: FIFA chief Gianni Infantino on Friday surprised everyone by awarding the inaugural ‘FIFA Peace Prize’ to US President Donald Trump. Rifat Jawaid exploress if Trump is worthy of this honour. It’s no coincidence that Infantino is one of those foreign dignitaries who met Trump the most in his second term as the US president. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJXcPwQNpeQ
The picture I saw of that pathetic old sociopath with the stroke-droop face pulling that lanyard over his head was maybe the most cringe-worthy sight I have ever seen. And just think, he will crow about "winning" that "award" just like he crows about "acing" the "IQ test" that was really just a cognitive assessment. 🫠
CavyWheek, The stage setting got to me. It felt so weird and creepy with the video playing in the background. I've seen other versions that appeared cropped, but the full version showing the award turning and rising up behind him was a bit much. When you look more deeply into Infantino's relationship with Trump and Israel.. it gets even creepier.
"he will crow about "winning" that "award"
Of course he will. I think this is the first time FIFA ever gave out a "Peace Prize", so that can be another notch in his belt. He wanted a "Peace Prize" so badly, that if he had to buy one and/or make one up, why not.
I'm not sure which side of his brain is telling him that he is a Peace President but for sure, he will be mocked for missing the point of what Peace really means.
FIFA just like UEFA, Eurovision, OSCE, UN and its many "agencies", and many other "international bodies" will have to go. BRICS countries or any other alternative should work to dismantle and replace all western created agencies as they are just instruments of western control. Western "culture" only brings misery, slavery, debt, poverty, death, destruction, and genocides. Capitalist system is just one of many tools that "west" uses to subjugate and enslave others including its own citizens.
But have you seen the new Trump's National Security Strategy. When I saw that it seemed to me that he was trying to weasel his way into the BRICS countries by throwing the European countries under the bus. Here's the link.
Nana I think it is just another USA bullshit. They are masters in cheating, lying, projecting, and bullshiting. Watch what they do and not what they say. USA is ZOG and should never be allowed into BRICS. Like everything else they would corrupt it. See what they did to UN. Free Palestine & fuck israel
Iran is a THEOCRACY, where the political system is based on Islamic law and led by religious leaders, particularly the Supreme Leader. This system combines elements of both theocracy and a presidential system, with significant power held by clerics.
It is not even REMOTELY a democracy. It doesn't matter which 'political party' wins, the 'Supreme Leader' oversees the armed forces, controls the judiciary, and influences all major state policies, including foreign affairs. The President is elected by popular vote but operates under the Supreme Leader's authority.
Iran has a unicameral parliament (Majles) with 290 members, elected every four years. However, all candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council, which limits political diversity. The judicial system is heavily influenced by Islamic law, with the Chief Justice appointed by the Supreme Leader.
No, I'm saying your comment is NOT based on FACTS about Iran's political system of Government. It's easy to verify everything I have said in my comment about Iran - there are lots of sources (both online and offline).
Iran is 1000 times more democratic than shitsrael or USA in which politicians are openly bought and serve rich donors instead of voters. judeofascism is the official political system of israel.
"Israel” is the subcontractor for American arms to the 'Third World.' There is no terrible regime-Columbia, Guatemala, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile during the time of the colonels, Burma, Taiwan, Zaire, Liberia, Congo, Sierra Leone-there is not one that does not have a major military connection to Israel. Israeli arms dealers are there [acting as] mercenaries. The guy behind Noriega was Michael Harari, an Israeli, who got out of Panama. Israeli mercenaries in Sierra Leone go around the UN boycotts of what are called blood diamonds, same in Angola. Israel was very involved in South Africa, of course, during the apartheid regime." - Jeff Halper
Israeli arms dealing offers a sobering roll-call of past half-century’s standout despots & pariah nations, ranging from apartheid-era South Africa to Saudi Arabia’s bonesaw authoritarians. Their clients have included, among others, Suharto-era Indonesia, Ceausescu’s Romania, Pinochet’s Chile, Shah’s Iran, Duvaliers’ – père et fils – Haiti, Stroessner’s Paraguay, & Rios Montt’s genocidal tyranny in Guatemala, where Israeli-made Galil rifles were used to massacre indigenous communities…its export policies have ensured that millions labouring under autocratic rule remain locked in darkness.
Israeli Support for Terrorism, War Criminals
and Human Rights Abusers
Israeli arms – whether government sanctioned or black market, from multinational arms corporations or individual dealers and mercenaries – can be found in nearly every locale where human rights are violated.
Decades of sales to brutal regimes and colonial and imperial forces from the 1950s to present should have long ago dispelled any illusions. The Israeli arms industry is geared for export. The first small arms and munitions shops were founded in the 1920s to produce weapons to use against Palestinians during the Zionist colonization of Palestine. Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonization and settlement has remained an important catalyst for research, development and testing of new technologies ever since. As Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi wrote in his 1987 study of the Israeli arms industry, Israel is exporting “the Middle East experience of Zionism”.
Israel, as a proxy weapons supplier, became a covert arm of US administrations seeking to circumvent Congressional and UN bans on weapons to human rights abusers – pro-West dictators, military juntas, and right-wing insurgents.
How the US and West generally ever got the reputation of peace-keepers and lovers of peace is a high order Zen puzzle no one will ever figure out. In spite of the hype, that is the last thing they are. The elites of the MIC make gold out of war, like in a fairy tale book, but ogres play all the lead roles in this one. The latest chapter is Venezuela, replete with imaginary drug boats and a non-existent dictator, which is used to justify what is a crime in international law: attack- ing a sovereign state on a whim, and in the process ruthlessly killing defenceless people swimming for their lives in the water. the fact Venezuela is both socialist and oil rich is just a coincidence.
The same thing happened to Libya. Rich Arab country with lots of oil and strong social component. Was a "thorn in the eye" of the fascist USA& the West, genocidal shitsrael, and despotic Saudi Arabia. Propaganda does miracles in a sea of ignorant and stupid people.
Yes, the West watched, and Clinton's infamous : "We came, we, saw, he died",
a lame, pretentious, unfunny excuse for a joke regarding Moamar Gaddafi's brutal, inhuman killing says it all. It exemplifies perfectly what we really are, or I should say, how our honoured, esteemed leaders make us look.
The infantile FIFA president Gianni Infantino has created a Peace Prize specially for Trump! It is reported that he handed it over at a glitzy ceremony. It looks as if Trump is going creating wars, so that he could trump up a so called peace plan for his coterie of oligarchs to bestow him with peace prizes!
Leaving aside sarcasm, satire and irony the event calls for, the good citizens of the world should rally to the defence of Venezuela. A country which has been under threat from various US presidents from the time of the late Bolivarian revolutionary Hugo Chavez. Having failed to crush Venezuela through sanctions, coups, diplomatic isolation, economic strangulation, and psychological warfare, the threat of a real war has begun.
It will be absolutely criminal if the world will just look on and do nothing, as they did with a genocide in Gaza.
all but 4 (spain, ireland, slovenia, netherlands) eurovision public broadcasters support the genocide in gaza. a major clean-up of all people in decision-making positions is necessary.
We are still awaiting decisions by Iceland, Belgium, and Sweden. But in any case, I hope Eurovision is dead. But look at the nazi Germany again. They rather have genocidal shithole called israel in than their close neighbors (Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia, etc.). That idiotic country of Germany never learns. And special respect to Slovenia the only ex-YU state that has guts and decency.
Maybe, but there are people with long memories in the Western Hemisphere who know exactly what the Monroe doctrine actually means for them. They are far more familiar with the abject conditions that portends, and may well have something to say about it other than acquiescence, unlike the Middle East where the people almost never had a chance to experience even a smidgeon of democracy.
The world just might do something because Maduro sent a warning message to OPEC who care about oil. Gaza is just potential, Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. If Trump attacks Venezuela, countries around the world will be impacted because it will upset their bottomline "oil". I may be just wishfully thinking, Mary.
Yes, Indu! Gianni has very proper last name. Let's just call him "infantile Infantino". Thanks for noticing. How many of these useless "international" a$$holes, ghouls, and demons are around that "western culture" uses to spread its toxic ideology. Western "civilization" is killing the humanity and this planet.
It really is one helluva time to be alive. Someone told me the other day that souls would give an arm to live in these times, they're so momentous. If we saw this time in historical terms, what would we do, I wonder.
If our ancestors could see what we’re doing, they’d not be giving an arm, they’d be up in arms trying to stop us from destroying everything they worked so hard to build. Proof positive there’s no such thing as ghosts.
Re: “extreme” pro-Palestine positions: the only valid, just and reasonable solution is one democratic state with equal rights for all, right of return for refugees and their descendants, reparations and return of stolen property, and everyone who opposes this to leave and waive all rights to assets in Palestine with no compensation. Oh, and all war criminals to be tried by an international tribunal convened by global-majority countries (not the UN).
I would suggest that it's not too hard to understand people bulding relationships with a chatbot, when you consider how many people think they're in a relationship with a god who never says a word. At least the chatbot responds, which to a certain kind of brain is no doubt a massive improvement.
On a side note, people laughed at Joe Rogan suggesting Jesus would return as AI (because computers are the ultimate virgin or whatever), but in fact - stoned as he clearly was when he came up with his thought - that is not such a wild thing to say to a mindset that believes talking to the ceiling is 'having a relationship'.
Jeff Bezos spent $55 million on his tacky wedding and has fought every attempt by Amazon employees to unionize for decent wages. He doesn’t care if they slowly (or quickly) starve and makes sure they know it. He’s just waiting for the day they can all be replaced by robots who can work in the dark, require no health care and never complain.
I’m not surprised people trick themselves into believing they’re having some kind of a relationship with a nonhuman entity as the majority of us have been raised on nonstop TV which is a fantasy world whether it’s a “reality” show or a series. I’m not saying we shouldn’t enjoy being entertained but maybe it’s only a short step away from the pretend world of AI. No good can come from this — it’s another tool used to further isolate people.
No Spunty, but robots can make stuff much cheaper than real people can. And all they need is maintenance and upgrades. They don't need benefits, unemployment benefits, health care, vacation or sick days. In fact, robots can make other robots and robots can throw the inoperable robots onto the junk heap.
On one end, the capitalistic consumer drove the economy thus making big corporations dependent on "human resources". Once robots are in full swing they won't need as many humans... just those who are necessary to keep the robots going. Companies like Amazon are slicing their workforce and replacing them with robots. Robots don't complain, join unions to demand higher wages, they don't go on strike, they don't vote.. It's a perfect world for the oligarch class. The new "workers" will make the physical labor of human beings obsolete in the long run.
Quiet as it's kept, our western world is already run by machines anyways. Almost every thing we consume (purchase) has been processed by a machine in some form or fashion. It's just that most of those machines don't look or act humanoid.
Are we expecting rabid capitalists to be also smart and intelligent? Humanity is in mess because it is under control of evil and ultimately very stupid people that consider one week from today as distant future. Institutions of power (in the west for sure) attracts and accepts only stupid and evil people.
Concerning your point "As the US war machine escalates in Venezuela I’m seeing more and more online accounts claiming to be Venezuelans urging Trump to attack Caracas and remove Maduro by military force.
"As a general rule you should always be skeptical of anyone saying “Please invade/bomb/sanction my country,” because it means they either (A) aren’t living in that country, or (B) have some socioeconomic reason to believe they’ll be safe from the repercussions of what they’re asking for which everyone else will suffer from."
Just the other day "Lexi from Curiosity Cafe" had this to say about Venezuela (and numerous other places):
"It’s the heartbreakingly desperate, raw cry of someone failed so profoundly by their own state that they will embrace literally anything just for a chance at change, even the bombs of a foreign power. This isn’t stupidity on display or a product of successful U.S. propaganda brainwashing a gullible foreigner. This is the psychological fallout of total state failure. Trauma creates strange, terrible bedfellows.
"Paulo Freire, in his essential, devastating book 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed,' wrote about this phenomenon. The oppressed, instead of striving for their own liberation, often internalize the values of the oppressor. They become so psychologically dependent on the power structure that they cannot imagine freedom without that oppressor’s participation.
"For many in the Venezuelan diaspora, particularly those who have the resources to settle in places like Miami or Doral, the U.S. military represents the Avenging Angel that will punish the socialists who ruined their goddamn home."
I've often wondered why those fled their native land because of intolerable conditions brought about by the U.S. would seek to relocate to the very country which compelled their emigration to begin with, and see this country as the proponent and defender of democracy and freedom.
Especially given the past 2+ years ("Most moral army." "Israel has a right to defend itself" - from children terrorists) I know for certain I'm not suffering from iron-y deficiency.
It is indeed the aim of the US to create intolerable living conditions and then attempting to get the population to rise up and throw out their government, allowing a US nominated leader to take over.
It has never worked, as the population see what has happened and fiercely attempt to retain the sovereignty.
It wasn't "the socialists" that ruined their homes. It was the direct result of US sanctions.
Without the sanctions Venezuela would have been able to export energy and develop. Clearly Washington did not want this. Any form of socialism in the US "backyard" will be stompt on the head. Oh no, profits have yo go to US corporations, and the people are to be kept poor and exploited.
More important than ever! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing will continue to be vital in tracking down and bringing the culprits to justice. This is an ongoing project and worthy of support. Let’s hope they may soon turn their sights on the corporate and governmental accomplices in the west.
A billion freaking dollars a day is what I'm hearing as an estimate of what this Caribbean narcissist-adventure mobilization is costing.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have to negotiate with Medicare to get some bloody facsimile they call "health care". Screw you, America.
Americans are denied adequate health care NOT because of a lack of funds (or spending on something else), but rather a 'conscious, deliberate strategy' that puts the profits of corporations above the health of the 'people of the country'.
If ordinary Americans accumulate medical debt (which is what the U.S. healthcare system seems designed to do), they are trapped into working and working forever to pay back that debt - hence debt bondage/slavery. This is also by design. The capitalists know what they are doing, since with a desperate and trapped working class, TPTB can maintain control and the dystopian status quo.
Chang, Just as Americans are - with health care and college student debt ( to name two ), "..... trapped into working and working forever to pay back that debt - hence debt bondage/slavery"; so are many global south countries, trapped in " A fate worse than debt ". ( Susan George's book which was one of the first to sound the alarm).
When they 'acquire' a World Bank debt the IMF steps in to police that they service the debt - which invariably means austerity for the poor and privatising the national assets for the nation. This could go on even when they have paid the debt twice over in interest payments only, to cover the original debt. Future generations forever in debt bondage.
We like to think that capitalism is in crisis but instead of its destruction it has morphed into a dystopian oligarchic fascist horror show.
Yes Indu, but the debt that you talk about is STRUCTURAL debt, NOT 'personal debt'. It's common knowledge that the IMF and World Bank (and other Western institutions) are appendages of Western global capitalism and imperialism. Using these institutions, they achieve neo-colonialism - i.e. you no longer need to directly colonize a country to steal its resources. You can structure debt-based systems and products and enforce conformity and subservience with the power of the U.S. dollar hegemony and military power (if needed) to CONTINUE to force 'resource extraction' (and labor value extraction) WITHOUT ever setting foot in the country.
But that debt that you talk about works on an entirely DIFFERENT level than the private and personal debts of individuals. What you talk about are 'public debts' (those accrued by the governments of the country) that work differently than the debt that I am discussing. Public debts affect everyone in the country (i.e. austerity measures, etc.) rather than at individual 'class level' (i.e. the working class vs. the owner/property class).
>>"We like to think that capitalism is in crisis..."
Capitalism IS the crisis. I wish capitalism were in enough of a crisis that people would get their pitchforks out and do something about it and replace it with a better system.
>>"...it has morphed into a dystopian oligarchic fascist horror show."
Yep! It was always heading in this direction (or maybe I'm saying this with hind-sight bias). Capitalism is CANNIBALISTIC in nature. Even though it has proved to be a 'chameleon-like' system - forever morphing, adapting, pivoting, disguising, masquerading, being ultra-flexible, and resilient - I do believe that it won't last forever (though I am unlikely to see an alternative system in my lifetime, unfortunately).
I don't know how old you are, Chang, but I'm betting you WILL see an alternative system, though it's likely to be breakdown, chaos, reversion to most people farming for survival with swarms of refugees moving from the latest place to experience a climate- or war- or plague-induced disaster--which might end up with a better system, or set of differing systems, but that you and I will likely not live to see.
Thanks Chang, for the lesson in economics. With two economists (academics) in the family, I try to avoid writing the jargon.
Great comment by the way.
People call US economic system corporatism which is not the same as capitalism. In fact both are bad but corporatism is even worse. Free 🇵🇸 fuck 🇮🇱
A friends Uncle was President of Argentina for two weeks : ) His job was to default on those WB/IMF loans. If Argentine's at that time had taken over the failed foreign companies as worker owned the story would by turned out differently I think.
Of course let's not forget that their illness is a moral failing, for which they should have to pay, why should the virtuous have to support them?
>>"...that their illness is a moral failing..."
Who's illness is a moral failing? The common people of America? Not in the least. When you have a system that is based PRIMARILY on profits, making people SICK is a 'business strategy' (please, no anti-vaxx or Covid conspiracies here). For instance, the production and consumption of 'highly processed foods' is encouraged by the system as it generates $$$ on both ends - the 'purchase' of such food, and the 'purchase of health/diet/etc.' products to combat the ill effects of such food. There is a VERY lucrative 'wellness' and 'alternative medicine' industry too to 'help resolve' the problems caused. Everywhere you look, it's about 'profits'. This is what the system of Capitalism entails.
Chang, ya gotta lighten up a bit, pal... s-a-r-c-a-s-m is the word, the means to stick the shiv into the bastards.
XK, its Chang (not change), and lightening up is challenging considering the Genocide(s) (multiple - Gaza, Sudan) that have been going on for quite a while...and the toll it has taken (and continues to take) on the mental and physical health of even those that are not being genocided.
It was a typo, corrected shortly after written.
Regardless of your largely correct deep analysis of the profound drive of our Capitalist masters toward instantiating our complete servitude, my point goes to the relative ease with which dollars are profligately pissed away on military misadventures, while scrooged on anything domestic that would improve people's lives. I could've used something less personal, like a rotting bridge or shitty rail transportation, but nothing stirs emotion as much as shitty medical care, which is what we have in programs that claim universality for subpopulations -- like Medicare, whose universality lies in its mediocrity and endless mimicry of private insurance plans in its piecemeal denials of coverage.
I agree, however Medicare is just another debt plan for those that are very ill. We need a single payer system free at the point of access. My Sister is a memory care nurse and her wages do not inspire her to take on the daily mental challenges of others as well as the occasional slap in the face or exposed erection. A non profit system could actually pay people. I agree with you change is needed now. Medicare 80%, 20% on you. I am shocked at how few people know this.
In typical lard-ass fashion, I think that most elderly Americans accept Medicare as better than nothing, better than alternatives, especially seeing what younger people pay for Obamacare. As for your poor sister, I don't know how anyone tolerates working within that model. (I never refer to it as a system because it does not really have true system properties.)
My Sister left the hospital healthcare insurance interface after a year early in her career having to tell people their cancer wasn't covered or their treatments were out of coverage area. For many years now the largest fraction of bankruptcy in the u.s. (lowercase intentional) is medical debt. Very soon, we will start hearing again, YOU were never promised Social Security would last your lifetime. We want to take the debt held by Social Security and invest it in AI. The Duopoly has the same plan for us, early death, work till you die. Medicare Advantage plans the real scam, pay and zero care. I agree there is no system : ( Free Palestine and we will all be FREE.
"Sorry, your treatments aren't covered; go die, now. Need to work to pay your way to your grave? Tough shit! Be brave!"
Yeah, that's the message, my friend.
fiFP - fuck israel Free Palestine.
Well said my friend. We are well past the tipping point on many issues. The collapsing u.s. financial system seems to be the front runner as the force that takes it all down. When FDR said to the Millionaires of the time, pay or I will let them have you is an interesting story if true. History will not look kindly on us : (
maybe calculate deaths per day (missing healthcare and boat people executed).
And you believe that absurdity: "If one were to spread the full annual USCG budget evenly over 365 days (not realistic in practice but useful for scale):
USCG’s $13.1 billion ÷ 365 ≈ ~ $36 million per day (for the entire Coast Guard, all missions, worldwide — not just Caribbean operations).
O&S portion alone ($11.066 billion) ÷ 365 ≈ ~ $30.3 million per day.
So even if the entire Coast Guard budget were spent every day, it’s an order of magnitude below “a billion-per-day.”
USCG vs the multi-mobilization of all the facets of the military they’ve mobilized? Your comparison escapes me. Yeah it’s a bloated estimate, but it’s a hell of a lot of shekels to keep all that stuff in readiness. That’s the point. Get over it.
Let's take that into account: "If a US or other major navy maintains what amounts to a “full deployment” (carrier + escorts + support) off Venezuela — with ships at sea, air‑wing potentially active, crews rotating, supply & logistics ongoing — the cost is likely on the order of US $6 million to US $20 million per day, depending on scale and intensity." So a billion today is not just exaggerated, it is an exaggeration of 5000%, which I may safely call a big fat lie. Sufficient the evil unto the day without lying, which makes you the enemy for betraying the truth.
First. I said that I'd heard such estimates. Second there's now two carrier groups mobilized. And land forces, you seem to want to ignore.
This will clear a hundred million easy, so in the end one fucking order of mag in that funnybone estimate.. Third. you're the liar for trying to downplay what is extreme treachery to the American people — pissing away those dollars in imperialist adventures while polluting the planet with the emissions of those vessels and aircraft. Yes, I don't downplay that aspect, either, thank you. Just give me a fucking break, dale. We know where your devotion lies.
Yep. It is a helluva time to be alive. Trump was awarded a peace prize by Fifa, facial recognition technology is helping the police to sometimes violently arrest people in the UK, Genocides in Gaza and Sudan are being supported by all kinds of countries. But never mind. Christmas is almost here. You know, the time of good cheer and peace.
That was the saddest move any Fifa corrupt official ever made. Talk about crawling to a paedophile who is still not aware that most of the world is laughing at his daily changing face from light orange to orangey orange to the orangest orange ever seen, which is obviously self inflicted because, surely, if someone else did it for him they wouldn't miss out such obvious bits, or would they?
As for the talking to those needing a nodding head type; I have been cornered, literally, by that type; they ask how you are but before you can answer their off. For me I have found the best way to escape is to tell them, sometimes it is absolutely the truth, that you desperately need to get to the toilet, and jiggle a bit to prove your point. You may have to reinforce this more than once because they can be good at not hearing anything you said.
I am in total agreement with you about the American interference in Venezuela would be disastrous, especially with Drumpf and Hegshead at the helm. Actually, I think it would be a disater for the US, especially if Israeli decided to attack Iran again.
Trump is being suckered by FIFA to try to keep ICE raids away from the games and overseas fans.
That’s my thought as well, that keep the wheels on the Workd Cup bus at any price is at work here. Certainly that’s at least a significant factor, given where it’s being hosted.
FIFA made a catastrophic mistake (or was it intentional) by bringing football world cup to USA. USA will corrupt and destroy the sport of football like they corrupt everything else they touch. If countries like Iran, Venezuela, Columbia, Nicaragua, Yemen, South Africa, Algeria, Spain, Ireland, etc. qualify for the World cup (finals) the US government will not allow them to enter the country and compete as they are not "friendly" to israel. Free Palestine & Fuck israel
Actually, the majority of those teams have already qualified for the World Cup, or will qualify after their playoff. For Trump to ban any players would destroy the event, not to mention causing an outrage across the futbol world. Another reason to keep greasing that squeaky wheel.
We are talking about US government and the "west". They have no shame and no morals, and they will harass and outright ban certain countries or individual football players from "unfriendly" nations (Iran, etc.). Accuse them of terrorism, "antisemitism", drug trafficking, etc. This was all very clear 50+ years ago as "west" openly supported judeo-fascists in genocide against semitic Palestinians. Humans as an organized group are slow and stupid. Doom is coming to humanity. Free Palestine & fuck israel
FIFA invented the prize just a month or so ago to give to Trump so he would leave the games alone. It is the strategy of feeding his ego to avoid being harmed by him. It is meaningless as a sports body hardly has any credibility in awarding a prize for peace. It's just a kind of bribe to stay in his good graces.
It has lowered his own standing everywhere, so no as smart a move as he thought.
John Michel Greer has written a scenario in which the demise of the American empire comes about by military means--which he says might seem surprising given the enormous size of the US military, but he points out that what that tremendous largess goes to is dictated not by the military's needs but by the lobbying of the military industrial complex, and is rife with fraud and overcharges. And now the military is run by a laughably incompetent, posturing buffoon while the most responsible people within it have resigned or been forced out. JMG's scenario involved a proxy war with China over Tanzania, but it could equally be a war with Venezuela and Colombia. And perhaps the reason they're going all-in there and resurrecting the Monroe doctrine is that too many people in the military and top government circles have concluded that the supposedly upcoming war with China is simply infeasible, that we can't stop China from ascending and have to settle for co-domination, so these guys want to be kings of the western hemisphere. Plus Venezuela has oil, and China and Cuba are getting a lot of it. I suppose it's conceivable that the barking mad people running Israel will not take a US NO for an answer on war with Iran and will start one on the assumption that the US would "have to " jump in when Iran fights back--and then maybe, especially if we've had no change of leadership, they'd decide the US DOES have to join in, while simultaneously fighting a Vietnam-style war in Venezuela--and that would result in the US government having to tell the people they can no longer get any help with health insurance, or social security, or pretty much anything else--at which point either revolution or collapse ensues. Which might be quite a relief to the world but an unfair burden on Venezuela and perhaps Iran.
The desire to steal back the oil has been there for over 20 yrs but the timing is likely to create a huge distraction when the Epstein scandal becomes serious enough to threaten Trump and he then wags the dog and starts a war to overwhelm the headlines with war news, rally the troops, and avoid shitting the bed while he is exposed as a pedophile.
Re Israel going to war with Iran: I dont think so because tho the Israeli public while tolerating corruption and genocide in Gaza, they will not tolerate a regime that does not protect them. And during the last 12-day war with Iran, Israel called it off because it was shown that the Iron Dome was penetrable and even Tel Aviv was not safe....with 480 homes hit. Israelis will not tolerate a regime that makes them feel unsafe, and the regime learned that Iran had the power to make their political status untenable if the war continued. Reports indicate Iran has over 2000 missiles than can reach Israel, with about 20% getting thru Israel defenses....that would create a public uproar that would be political suicide for the current regime...and it is unlikely to take that risk, in my opinion.
As for a ground war on Venezuela, since China gets a huge amount of its oil fromn Venezuela, attacking it would involve risks of involving China and other nations..it is likelyi one of Trump's terrorist threat negotiating tactics, with the main purpose to distract from the Epstein scandal and give him a wag the dog out by starting a ground war when the shit hits the fan in the near future. IMHO
interesting, and I hope you're right re Israel/Iran. I don't think distraction from the Epstein scandal is the primary reason for the aggression against Venezuela, tho it likely is an additional reason and maybe a Why Now reason. I think it's partly the usual thing of attacking countries whose leaders don't take orders from Washington, especially if they also sit on a lot of oil and have the nerve to sell it in other currencies than the dollar; along with an underlying reason for all the wars, the demands of the MIC to use up materiel so more can be ordered. In this case I expect that while they're talking about Venezuela, they gotta be outraged that Colombia, for decades Washington base and bulwark in South America, is now run by genuine leftists, a president who (gasp!) proposes leaving oil in the ground on climate grounds. I'm sure they know they can't "win" in conventional terms even if the war is just against Venezuela, but look at the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria--the countries are left in ruins, less democratic than before the attack, but that's not a loss that's a WIN--because the weak countries can be more easily looted, and a battered people might surrender and vote for a rightwinger just to get Washington to back off (Nicaragua). What might keep them at bay is what you say about China, but China and the rest of the world sat back and let Israel slaughter Palestine, and just voted to allow a radiantly unjust, horrible, corrupt "solution" in Gaza. :et us give credit to the one country that actually tried to defend Palestine--Yemen!
When I heard that Infantino gave Trump a "Peace Prize" I was like, who is he and why is he giving Trump a peace prize. Isn't FIFA about football/soccer? Since when did they start giving out Peace Prizes? Did Trump need one so badly that he bought it? But what was even more cringe was the visual display. It was eerily cultish.. even took me back to CERN's cultish displays. Actually, it was so unbelievable I had to look it up. The world is upside down, War Is Peace. It seems that Trump just has to invert reality to get himself into the history books as a Peace President.
Reason why FIFA awarded ‘Peace Prize’ to Trump after Gaza, Iran, Venezuela? | Janta Ka Reporter
Dec 6, 2025: FIFA chief Gianni Infantino on Friday surprised everyone by awarding the inaugural ‘FIFA Peace Prize’ to US President Donald Trump. Rifat Jawaid exploress if Trump is worthy of this honour. It’s no coincidence that Infantino is one of those foreign dignitaries who met Trump the most in his second term as the US president. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJXcPwQNpeQ
The picture I saw of that pathetic old sociopath with the stroke-droop face pulling that lanyard over his head was maybe the most cringe-worthy sight I have ever seen. And just think, he will crow about "winning" that "award" just like he crows about "acing" the "IQ test" that was really just a cognitive assessment. 🫠
CavyWheek, The stage setting got to me. It felt so weird and creepy with the video playing in the background. I've seen other versions that appeared cropped, but the full version showing the award turning and rising up behind him was a bit much. When you look more deeply into Infantino's relationship with Trump and Israel.. it gets even creepier.
"he will crow about "winning" that "award"
Of course he will. I think this is the first time FIFA ever gave out a "Peace Prize", so that can be another notch in his belt. He wanted a "Peace Prize" so badly, that if he had to buy one and/or make one up, why not.
I'm not sure which side of his brain is telling him that he is a Peace President but for sure, he will be mocked for missing the point of what Peace really means.
Merry Christmas!
FIFA scores an own goal. If that had been a Colombian player in a World Cup game, the player would now be dead.
FIFA just like UEFA, Eurovision, OSCE, UN and its many "agencies", and many other "international bodies" will have to go. BRICS countries or any other alternative should work to dismantle and replace all western created agencies as they are just instruments of western control. Western "culture" only brings misery, slavery, debt, poverty, death, destruction, and genocides. Capitalist system is just one of many tools that "west" uses to subjugate and enslave others including its own citizens.
But have you seen the new Trump's National Security Strategy. When I saw that it seemed to me that he was trying to weasel his way into the BRICS countries by throwing the European countries under the bus. Here's the link.
https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/urgent-trump-national-security-strategy
What do you think this means, Nick??
Nana I think it is just another USA bullshit. They are masters in cheating, lying, projecting, and bullshiting. Watch what they do and not what they say. USA is ZOG and should never be allowed into BRICS. Like everything else they would corrupt it. See what they did to UN. Free Palestine & fuck israel
True Nick
Iran is a democracy that has contested elections which the opposition at times wins and power changes hands as a result.
Hell, Iran has parliamentary set asides for Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jews. Do not adjust your set. You read correctly.
Iran is a THEOCRACY, where the political system is based on Islamic law and led by religious leaders, particularly the Supreme Leader. This system combines elements of both theocracy and a presidential system, with significant power held by clerics.
It is not even REMOTELY a democracy. It doesn't matter which 'political party' wins, the 'Supreme Leader' oversees the armed forces, controls the judiciary, and influences all major state policies, including foreign affairs. The President is elected by popular vote but operates under the Supreme Leader's authority.
Iran has a unicameral parliament (Majles) with 290 members, elected every four years. However, all candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council, which limits political diversity. The judicial system is heavily influenced by Islamic law, with the Chief Justice appointed by the Supreme Leader.
So basically you're saying Iran has a state religion (as do lots of countries) and a Supreme Court.
No, I'm saying your comment is NOT based on FACTS about Iran's political system of Government. It's easy to verify everything I have said in my comment about Iran - there are lots of sources (both online and offline).
Iran is 1000 times more democratic than shitsrael or USA in which politicians are openly bought and serve rich donors instead of voters. judeofascism is the official political system of israel.
>>"...but America and Israel are self proclaimed de-mock-race-ies"
That's not what is being discussed here, and neither have I said that America and Israel are 'functioning' democracies - they are NOT.
BTW, your comment is a neo-Nazi one, and I won't even begin to address the sheer absurdity of your 'interpretations' of history.
"So I’m not quite sure how I feel about this just yet."
Well, Tom Hanks did talk to Wilson for months on end. On the other hand, it was clear Wilson had an inflated ego.
Love it.
They are censoring so many anti genocide posts by asking for age verification to restack. This is another one I couldn’t restack because of that.
There is no terrible regime that does not have a major military connection to Israel
Gaza to Sudan: Israel’s role in a second genocidal war is being overlooked
Another genocidal war happening now in Sudan, and Israel’s fingerprints are everywhere — From the RSF to the Sudanese Armed Forces
https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2025/10/31/gaza-to-sudan-israels-role-is-being-overlooked/
"Israel” is the subcontractor for American arms to the 'Third World.' There is no terrible regime-Columbia, Guatemala, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile during the time of the colonels, Burma, Taiwan, Zaire, Liberia, Congo, Sierra Leone-there is not one that does not have a major military connection to Israel. Israeli arms dealers are there [acting as] mercenaries. The guy behind Noriega was Michael Harari, an Israeli, who got out of Panama. Israeli mercenaries in Sierra Leone go around the UN boycotts of what are called blood diamonds, same in Angola. Israel was very involved in South Africa, of course, during the apartheid regime." - Jeff Halper
Israeli arms dealing offers a sobering roll-call of past half-century’s standout despots & pariah nations, ranging from apartheid-era South Africa to Saudi Arabia’s bonesaw authoritarians. Their clients have included, among others, Suharto-era Indonesia, Ceausescu’s Romania, Pinochet’s Chile, Shah’s Iran, Duvaliers’ – père et fils – Haiti, Stroessner’s Paraguay, & Rios Montt’s genocidal tyranny in Guatemala, where Israeli-made Galil rifles were used to massacre indigenous communities…its export policies have ensured that millions labouring under autocratic rule remain locked in darkness.
Israeli Support for Terrorism, War Criminals
and Human Rights Abusers
Israeli arms – whether government sanctioned or black market, from multinational arms corporations or individual dealers and mercenaries – can be found in nearly every locale where human rights are violated.
Decades of sales to brutal regimes and colonial and imperial forces from the 1950s to present should have long ago dispelled any illusions. The Israeli arms industry is geared for export. The first small arms and munitions shops were founded in the 1920s to produce weapons to use against Palestinians during the Zionist colonization of Palestine. Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonization and settlement has remained an important catalyst for research, development and testing of new technologies ever since. As Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi wrote in his 1987 study of the Israeli arms industry, Israel is exporting “the Middle East experience of Zionism”.
Israel, as a proxy weapons supplier, became a covert arm of US administrations seeking to circumvent Congressional and UN bans on weapons to human rights abusers – pro-West dictators, military juntas, and right-wing insurgents.
From Myanmar to South Sudan, and more recently the Gulf Arab states, Israel has tried to keep secret its weapons sales to regimes engaged in brutal conflicts https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israels-badly-kept-secret-selling-arms-regimes-war
How the US and West generally ever got the reputation of peace-keepers and lovers of peace is a high order Zen puzzle no one will ever figure out. In spite of the hype, that is the last thing they are. The elites of the MIC make gold out of war, like in a fairy tale book, but ogres play all the lead roles in this one. The latest chapter is Venezuela, replete with imaginary drug boats and a non-existent dictator, which is used to justify what is a crime in international law: attack- ing a sovereign state on a whim, and in the process ruthlessly killing defenceless people swimming for their lives in the water. the fact Venezuela is both socialist and oil rich is just a coincidence.
The same thing happened to Libya. Rich Arab country with lots of oil and strong social component. Was a "thorn in the eye" of the fascist USA& the West, genocidal shitsrael, and despotic Saudi Arabia. Propaganda does miracles in a sea of ignorant and stupid people.
Yes, the West watched, and Clinton's infamous : "We came, we, saw, he died",
a lame, pretentious, unfunny excuse for a joke regarding Moamar Gaddafi's brutal, inhuman killing says it all. It exemplifies perfectly what we really are, or I should say, how our honoured, esteemed leaders make us look.
"How the US and West generally ever got the reputation of peace-keepers and lovers of peace is a high order Zen puzzle no one will ever figure out."
Soft power, that's how. Oligarchs the world over want a pat on the head from some American or brit.
From the thousands of children in Gaza.,"A Fucking Hell of Time To Be Dead"" We did nothing wrong.
The infantile FIFA president Gianni Infantino has created a Peace Prize specially for Trump! It is reported that he handed it over at a glitzy ceremony. It looks as if Trump is going creating wars, so that he could trump up a so called peace plan for his coterie of oligarchs to bestow him with peace prizes!
Leaving aside sarcasm, satire and irony the event calls for, the good citizens of the world should rally to the defence of Venezuela. A country which has been under threat from various US presidents from the time of the late Bolivarian revolutionary Hugo Chavez. Having failed to crush Venezuela through sanctions, coups, diplomatic isolation, economic strangulation, and psychological warfare, the threat of a real war has begun.
It will be absolutely criminal if the world will just look on and do nothing, as they did with a genocide in Gaza.
all but 4 (spain, ireland, slovenia, netherlands) eurovision public broadcasters support the genocide in gaza. a major clean-up of all people in decision-making positions is necessary.
We are still awaiting decisions by Iceland, Belgium, and Sweden. But in any case, I hope Eurovision is dead. But look at the nazi Germany again. They rather have genocidal shithole called israel in than their close neighbors (Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia, etc.). That idiotic country of Germany never learns. And special respect to Slovenia the only ex-YU state that has guts and decency.
Germany knows where the power lies and they grovel and abse themselves accordingly.
Aren’t Melania and Baron both citizens of Slovenia?
I suppose. It is because Melania is born Slovenian.
If the world does nothing about Gaza, why would they intervene on Venezuela? They'll make outraged or placating speeches, of course.
Maybe, but there are people with long memories in the Western Hemisphere who know exactly what the Monroe doctrine actually means for them. They are far more familiar with the abject conditions that portends, and may well have something to say about it other than acquiescence, unlike the Middle East where the people almost never had a chance to experience even a smidgeon of democracy.
The world just might do something because Maduro sent a warning message to OPEC who care about oil. Gaza is just potential, Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. If Trump attacks Venezuela, countries around the world will be impacted because it will upset their bottomline "oil". I may be just wishfully thinking, Mary.
Yes, Indu! Gianni has very proper last name. Let's just call him "infantile Infantino". Thanks for noticing. How many of these useless "international" a$$holes, ghouls, and demons are around that "western culture" uses to spread its toxic ideology. Western "civilization" is killing the humanity and this planet.
It really is one helluva time to be alive. Someone told me the other day that souls would give an arm to live in these times, they're so momentous. If we saw this time in historical terms, what would we do, I wonder.
If our ancestors could see what we’re doing, they’d not be giving an arm, they’d be up in arms trying to stop us from destroying everything they worked so hard to build. Proof positive there’s no such thing as ghosts.
They would be up in arms. What a betrayal.
Very sad...
Re: “extreme” pro-Palestine positions: the only valid, just and reasonable solution is one democratic state with equal rights for all, right of return for refugees and their descendants, reparations and return of stolen property, and everyone who opposes this to leave and waive all rights to assets in Palestine with no compensation. Oh, and all war criminals to be tried by an international tribunal convened by global-majority countries (not the UN).
>>"...just and reasonable solution..."
When has the world EVER been about 'just and reasonable' solutions?
IMHO, Israel needs to be eradicated from the planet (for starters), and then maybe the 'current supporters' of Israel could be considered next...
Thank You Caitlin
I would suggest that it's not too hard to understand people bulding relationships with a chatbot, when you consider how many people think they're in a relationship with a god who never says a word. At least the chatbot responds, which to a certain kind of brain is no doubt a massive improvement.
On a side note, people laughed at Joe Rogan suggesting Jesus would return as AI (because computers are the ultimate virgin or whatever), but in fact - stoned as he clearly was when he came up with his thought - that is not such a wild thing to say to a mindset that believes talking to the ceiling is 'having a relationship'.
Jeff Bezos spent $55 million on his tacky wedding and has fought every attempt by Amazon employees to unionize for decent wages. He doesn’t care if they slowly (or quickly) starve and makes sure they know it. He’s just waiting for the day they can all be replaced by robots who can work in the dark, require no health care and never complain.
I’m not surprised people trick themselves into believing they’re having some kind of a relationship with a nonhuman entity as the majority of us have been raised on nonstop TV which is a fantasy world whether it’s a “reality” show or a series. I’m not saying we shouldn’t enjoy being entertained but maybe it’s only a short step away from the pretend world of AI. No good can come from this — it’s another tool used to further isolate people.
Do robots buy stuff? Workers do. The oligarchic capitalists don't seem to understand this simple fact.
No Spunty, but robots can make stuff much cheaper than real people can. And all they need is maintenance and upgrades. They don't need benefits, unemployment benefits, health care, vacation or sick days. In fact, robots can make other robots and robots can throw the inoperable robots onto the junk heap.
On one end, the capitalistic consumer drove the economy thus making big corporations dependent on "human resources". Once robots are in full swing they won't need as many humans... just those who are necessary to keep the robots going. Companies like Amazon are slicing their workforce and replacing them with robots. Robots don't complain, join unions to demand higher wages, they don't go on strike, they don't vote.. It's a perfect world for the oligarch class. The new "workers" will make the physical labor of human beings obsolete in the long run.
Quiet as it's kept, our western world is already run by machines anyways. Almost every thing we consume (purchase) has been processed by a machine in some form or fashion. It's just that most of those machines don't look or act humanoid.
They also don't buy the widgets they make. Without buying customers, there's no point for making anything. It's an end sum game.
Are we expecting rabid capitalists to be also smart and intelligent? Humanity is in mess because it is under control of evil and ultimately very stupid people that consider one week from today as distant future. Institutions of power (in the west for sure) attracts and accepts only stupid and evil people.
Concerning your point "As the US war machine escalates in Venezuela I’m seeing more and more online accounts claiming to be Venezuelans urging Trump to attack Caracas and remove Maduro by military force.
"As a general rule you should always be skeptical of anyone saying “Please invade/bomb/sanction my country,” because it means they either (A) aren’t living in that country, or (B) have some socioeconomic reason to believe they’ll be safe from the repercussions of what they’re asking for which everyone else will suffer from."
Just the other day "Lexi from Curiosity Cafe" had this to say about Venezuela (and numerous other places):
"It’s the heartbreakingly desperate, raw cry of someone failed so profoundly by their own state that they will embrace literally anything just for a chance at change, even the bombs of a foreign power. This isn’t stupidity on display or a product of successful U.S. propaganda brainwashing a gullible foreigner. This is the psychological fallout of total state failure. Trauma creates strange, terrible bedfellows.
"Paulo Freire, in his essential, devastating book 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed,' wrote about this phenomenon. The oppressed, instead of striving for their own liberation, often internalize the values of the oppressor. They become so psychologically dependent on the power structure that they cannot imagine freedom without that oppressor’s participation.
"For many in the Venezuelan diaspora, particularly those who have the resources to settle in places like Miami or Doral, the U.S. military represents the Avenging Angel that will punish the socialists who ruined their goddamn home."
I've often wondered why those fled their native land because of intolerable conditions brought about by the U.S. would seek to relocate to the very country which compelled their emigration to begin with, and see this country as the proponent and defender of democracy and freedom.
Especially given the past 2+ years ("Most moral army." "Israel has a right to defend itself" - from children terrorists) I know for certain I'm not suffering from iron-y deficiency.
It is indeed the aim of the US to create intolerable living conditions and then attempting to get the population to rise up and throw out their government, allowing a US nominated leader to take over.
It has never worked, as the population see what has happened and fiercely attempt to retain the sovereignty.
It wasn't "the socialists" that ruined their homes. It was the direct result of US sanctions.
Without the sanctions Venezuela would have been able to export energy and develop. Clearly Washington did not want this. Any form of socialism in the US "backyard" will be stompt on the head. Oh no, profits have yo go to US corporations, and the people are to be kept poor and exploited.
Yes, very well put. One additional, illustrative word: Cuba.
More important than ever! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing will continue to be vital in tracking down and bringing the culprits to justice. This is an ongoing project and worthy of support. Let’s hope they may soon turn their sights on the corporate and governmental accomplices in the west.
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Its friends in Washington aren't looking the other way, they're supplying the weapons and reaping the $$.