No one is ever going to convince me the WEF or the CIA are the good guys. I'm not in favor of the woke Mengeles who are mutilating, kids, either. That being said, more than anything, I will unite with the people who want the the U.S. to stop provoking Russia.
The elections are primarily rigged because the candidates are pre-selected. We get to vote for their candidate A, or their candidate B. Heads, they win. Tails, we loose.
The first step to help in opening someone's eyes 👀 is to help them understand that our government is corrupt and that our media has been lying to us and that the US is a warmonger.....try selling that to a family member or close friend who thinks you're a conspiracy theorist
You may not like either, but they have access to facts that bolster many of Caitlin's points, and go far beyond them. They are VERY anti-CIA.
And it is good to see two "mainstream figures" (hated by 100% of the democratic party, and 85% of the RINO leadership) say things that--let's be honest--could get them killed.
Capitalists literally exist by stealing from the labour of others by threatening them with poverty or violence. Capitalism couldn't exist without authoritarianism.
Would like CJ to expound upon her perceived differences between communism and authoritarianism. Any examples of socialist or communist states that did/do not have authoritarian top-down planned economies?
If you understand that not all authoritarian governments are communist then why are you pretending to be confused about the distinction between authoritarianism and communism?
George Orwell fought along the Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War. Anarchists (libertarian communists/socialists) rejected Marx in favour of Bakunin. For a brief period they built a purely democratic, bottom up system run by workers while fighting fascists. With no support from America and Stalin arming and funding authoritarian communist forces that worked against them, they eventually lost the war. Authoritarians and Capitalists both wanted the experiment to fail although it was succeeding in the face of enormous opposition. It’s a side of socialism that gets little attention and I’m sure that’s no accident. This documentary tells the story from first hand accounts.
Anarchism has its place, certainly, in ushering in a democratic system and the documentary cited is one instance of that: it is ground-up revolution. But an informal system is inadequate to meet the needs of a population of any size, which requires centralization and specialization. It took a long time to get rid of the influence of Franco, and Franco himself. We are at a stage where democracy, or a form of it, has been hijacked in favour of elite interests. I am not a supporter of Orwell's views: there is no alternative in a complex society, to either communism/socialism or fascism. And we are headed in a fascist direction. Sure, anarchism, but then what?
I don't think workers having control of the means of production (communism) as opposed to not having control and being wage slaves (capitalism) can be equated in any way with authoritarianism.
Apparently, a top-down police state planned by an oligarchy is not authoritarianism. But a strong state centrally planned by an elected political party, that is authoritarianism.
People are so blind. Threaten private property of the wealthy and see just how free and democratic capitalism is.
Yes ALL nation states are authoritarian. But communism isnt because communism is not a nation state. Thats just what you have been told. Exactly as CJ was pointing out. Awaken comrade !
An excellent example of socialism was to be found in Gaddafi's Libya before, of course, the madmen of the capitalist west couldn't bear the advance of socialism anymore. Those madmen dreaded the people under their control would find out about it. That's why Gaddafi was constantly demonised even though he arranged it so that the people were in charge of their destiny with only a few guidelines, namely the prohibition on political parties/ representational politics & a complete ban on the charging of interest on a loan of money (Usury). The system that was in place was broadly speaking Peoples' Congresses where each locality decided what they wanted & then passed their requirements up to a centralised administration for the delivery of those requirements. Full Participatory Democracy in other words. Real socialism was the natural happy outcome until the 'democracy loving' capitalists of the west destroyed it with extreme prejudice. Here's his Green Book for you to become acquainted with the prosperous and progressive times of Libya the psychopaths of the West do not want you to know. http://openanthropology.org/libya/gaddafi-green-book.pdf
If you wish, here's a short video for you to see how much he was loved for what he allowed people to have and to do and it's all true. https://vimeo.com/28700488 I've been there installing harbour equipment in Tripoli during his time. I saw many young women there without the veil & never saw any homeless people or beggars. Not my sort of place though as I'm not a Muslim.
He was challenging the franc. France was the colonial master of northwestern Africa and still has a grip on the area. He also refused to buy French warplanes. France said, if you won't take those planes the easy way then you're going to get them the hard way. France led the charge. The USA helped out.
Indeed! As I recall, the charlatan philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy was the enthusiastic demon who constantly whispered into Sarkozy's ears demanding nothing less than a Libyan bloodbath.
You make some excellent points Domelord, and your personal observations are priceless in helping expose the terrible lies that the collective West sold to us all in order to broker the destruction of the most successful developing nation on the African continent.
Meanwhile the West is very busy trying to make Lula in Brazil the Gaddafi and Libya of Latin America as they try to hold onto their Monroe Doctrine inspired hegemony of this region. They live in mortal fear of these successful leftist socialist models which empower the working classes at the expense of the western imperialist economic oligarchic system.
Lula has been trying to implement the Gaddafi playbook in Brazil and that is why Uncle $am is trying so desperately to soft coup Bolsonaro back into power. That plan includes a Latin American central bank and a trading currency that will dilute the use of the US dollar in trade settlements between countries.
Lula is all about disenfranchising the western Zone A funny money casino system and installing the new BRIICS+++ system of mutually beneficial trading and security that benefits all levels of society of the countries that join in. This by definition involves non-fiat currencies and banking and central banking models that have nothing what so ever to do with the thieving western banking cabal.
Also, Bolsonaro, when he realised he was lagging in the polls, was trying to sell off state owned assets like Petrobras, one of the large banks, and also public utilities such as postal and electrical services to foreign corporate cronies. Lula was all the while desperately trying to stop these sales and is also continuing his campaign to free Assange from incarceration and extradition to the US where they would likely finish him off once and for all.
Michael Hudson explains so much of this phenomenon better than any one I know and describes it as the difference between democratic socialism and oligarchic socialism ... the latter is clearly not state socialism, it is much closer to reverse socialism which benefits the wealthy much more than the needy.
This is in essence neo-feudalism, the fostering of a rentier FIRE economy, and a post-industrial society at the expense of the real productive economy. The aim was for the U$ to treat the rest of the globe as a colony under their pet vision of globalisation in a virtual rerun of the Roman Empire's model.
I love these quotes from the link...
"What the Chinese government is trying to follow has been called a “state-capitalist society” or a “communist society”: the focus is on productive labor and productive investment. The most important feature of China is that it kept the banking sector and money creation in the public domain.
In the West, commercial banks create credit against assets that are already in place. Mortgage loans are made against real estate in place. Corporate takeover loans are made to corporations in place. Government control of money, as it was in Germany in the late 19th century, created new means of production, especially public infrastructure.
China does not have its banks make loans for corporate takeovers, or for mergers and acquisitions. China makes them increase the means of production. In that sense they are following the industrial capitalist policy that evolves naturally into socialism, which is why they call themselves a socialist economy, and rightly so, because they’re not running the economy on behalf of the 1%.
Obviously, by letting a hundred flowers bloom, they realised that the state cannot act as the Stalinist state did as a central planner. They need innovation, they need individual innovators to create market opportunities and new products and that’s been best done by letting market forces take place.
The Communist Party of China is delegated to administer economic democracy, something that political democracy has not been able to do in the Western countries. You need a state to act as the agent of social planning, so that it’s not the banks and the rentier sector that does it, as occurred in the U.S. and Western Europe. Europe. China is doing what most of the world was doing before Western civilisation took off and in an oligarchic form.
The U.S. now is in a state of political paralysis locking itself into the current status quo, which means that the U.S. cannot have any kind of an industrial recovery, because that requires a federal policy to check the overhead of the banking system, the real estate sector, and the insurance sector.
America has priced its labor and its industry out of world markets by having to pay so much debt service, so much insurance for medical care, home insurance, and real estate rents. As long as this revenue is paid out in the form of rent, you’re not going to develop."
... end quote...
So many countries in Latin America and Africa don't have a central right that forms a political force capable of protecting the working class from exploitation. Much of the right is actually far right with direct ties to the corporate oligarchs, both domestic and global, and they use all manner of subterfuge and tricks to secure their power base.
The only force that can possibly accomplish this genuinely is the left. This is the movement that the Imperial Empire fears so much. Hence the multitude of U$ sponsored hard and soft coups that are happening globally as we speak... around 10-12 by my count.
The U$ which is the main attack dog for the western imperial hegemony flails around desperately like a wounded beast as it continues to deny the inevitability of a multipolar brave new world. They simply can't abide the concept of a new multipolar reality based on collective goodwill and harmony , the development of long term wealth for member countries, and a vastly more equitable distribution of income within society.
The representatives of government are supposed to promote the interests of the whole population. They don't, and haven't probably ever, done that. But that is not discrediting of democracy itself.
I rarely disagree with you, Cailtlin. Your saying that Communism isn't a threat is one of those rare occasions. Why do I disagree? Although not a Communist, per se, Trotsky was a Bolshevik. There are countless self-proclaimed Trotskyites in the district of criminals. Another well known label for these critters is neocons. These are the Communists I fear.
I would also argue that Communism is alive and well in most of the countries on the planet. The progressive income tax that Karl Marx wrote about in his manifesto is a little bit of an indicator of that fact.
Then there is a quote I use quite often:
"You must understand, the leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of remorse. It cannot be overstated. Bolshevism created the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant and uncaring about this crime is proof that the global media is in the hands of the perpetrator."
- Alexandr Solzhenitsyn -
He was speaking of the same people we now call neocons.
Btw, these were some of the best and most beautiful paragraphs I have seen in a long time. Masterful! Props! Loved them! Great job, Caitlin!
"Most forms of spirituality serve only to sedate people and help them hide from reality, others do the opposite and awaken you to reality. The former is the "opiate of the masses" which creates a sedentary populace; the latter is the sort that's useful in creating a healthy world.
"I used to hang out on spirituality forums focused on enlightenment, and even with a singular emphasis on awakening it was remarkable how many members used spirituality to hide from reality. From their abusive and unsatisfying relationships and lifestyles. From their trauma. From themselves. In exactly the same way, spirituality has always been used to cover up reality, often in power-serving ways. Before it was glorifying poverty, meekness and obedience; now it's McMindfulness and other practices to mask the sting of oppressive capitalism.
"In the same way most mind-altering drugs serve only to sedate and escape from reality while the psychedelic variety does the opposite, most forms of spirituality facilitate unconsciousness while authentic spirituality facilitates awakening.
"Authentic spirituality doesn't seek to give you new beliefs, nor to give you spiritual practices to make reality less abrasive and confronting, but to uncover what's hidden and stare reality right in the face. It means squarely interrogating all our assumptions about what's true. Authentic spirituality entails no indoctrination, sedation or escapism, but a curious and sincere exploration of one's own experience. It seeks to discover what's true: what's true about one's conditioning, about consciousness, about the self, about the way life is experienced.
"There are all sorts of ways authentic spirituality can show up, and within all official branches, schools, factions and iterations of spirituality you'll see some authentic exploration and lots of inauthentic escapism. A sincere dedication to what's true happens where it happens."
I really think almost everything is fake. Tucker Carlson did a nice job of discussing the CIA killing JFK on December 15. We need more paragraphs like the above, and more exposes of our rigged system, like Carlson, and books like "The Devil's Chessboard" (about the CIA).
Truly beautiful, even though I disagree with some of your thoughts on capitalism. Thank you, Caitlin.
If you get a chance, over the weekend. Try to watch "All Quiet On The Western Front" just as HIGH as you can get. And Happy holidays, infecting loved-ones!
The opening sequence (industry & fianacialization of slaughter) wouldn't have worked in 1915, when kids were still naive, in the book. Bayonet a minute before ceasefire or mystery death a month before, tanks & flamethrowers; the goose and farm kid; luxury accomodation in Versailles, well-fed bourgeoisie & final return to their trench WERE way too 1970s disaster movie; at least they avoided 2 and a half hr steadycam tracking-shot CGI. But, the stabbed French soldier scene was WAY different in the book & 1928 was 11yrs too early, though Sparticist Bavaria & the Sturmabteilung Putsch had already happened by then?
In case you missed it, a recent DC swamp party for US officials, journalists, think tankers and diplomats at the Ukrainian Embassy was officially sponsored by the US arms manufacturers who've profited astronomically from the war in Ukraine, with the logos of ...............
*Raytheon
*Lockheed Martin
*Northrop Grumman and
*Pratt & Whitney ...........appearing on the actual invitation.
This spells it out so clearly, if any reader of CJ's writings really needed it spelt out, that is.
Dopplegangster duopoly, tag-team kleptocracy and protection scheme oilgarchy are totally invisible to most folks instagramming selfies to their algorithm mindfulness coach vaxed relaxed & unmasked at Happy Hour, decrying bogus caviar for avacado toast served by indentured refugee replacement servers at BRUNCH?
Then there is something way too many people can't seem to wrap their heads around. It's called the false left/right paradigm. It was created by the powers that shouldn't be so that we would fight each other instead of us fighting together against them.
The US government created a net energy gain fusion reaction, and everyone is talking about the potential as an energy source. But in the actual presser the majority of the talk was about "national security" and America's nuclear "deterence". Listening these officials you get the clear sense that the main priority is upgrading and even building new nuclear weapons, and the energy part is an afterthought for public consumption.
I've found scant written about it, one article that I wasn't able to locate again, but the same kind of fusion ignition that the DOD wants to use to allegedly test nuclear warheads, if miniaturized, could be used to build total fusion neutron bombs. These would be very attractive weapons because they both leave little radioactive fallout, and can kill all the people while leaving infrastructure intact.
It could be a stretch scientifically to do this, but given the rhetoric about fusion ignition and geostratetic goals, would they really not be try to accomplish the above? It's there in plain sight, yet not a people from either the media or regular folks. They think it's about energy production, even though the presser basically declares otherwise.
The lasers for this type of fusion aren't exactly portable and neutron bombs are already an unfortunate reality. I think the military connotations are more to protect this very expensive research with huge potential from being defunded, especially in the interests of existing electricity generators.
I figured as much about fusion ignition, but I dont know in great detail how such weapons work. I don't know how they would use lasers to test their warheads either.
I suppose they could be protecting it in a national security coating, because nobody can say no to that. On the other hand, you know they are always looking for military advantage, and they do prioritize dominance above all else. Surely the national security state is chomping at the bit for new weapons against China.
“The empire is a disease that thrives in darkness. It is never more alive than when we are asleep.” Marvaa Carassi Andor
This line, uttered in the season finale of the new Star Wars Series Andor helps to end what is quite a surprise. Instead of childish royal intrigue and Jedi knights battling the Sith with light sabers, we see a frighteningly plausible and compelling portrait of a corporatist, fascist state looming like a cloud over everything and the desperate efforts of those who seek to oppose it.
No one is ever going to convince me the WEF or the CIA are the good guys. I'm not in favor of the woke Mengeles who are mutilating, kids, either. That being said, more than anything, I will unite with the people who want the the U.S. to stop provoking Russia.
We also don't live in a free society because a lot of our elections are rigged.
The elections are primarily rigged because the candidates are pre-selected. We get to vote for their candidate A, or their candidate B. Heads, they win. Tails, we loose.
The first step to help in opening someone's eyes 👀 is to help them understand that our government is corrupt and that our media has been lying to us and that the US is a warmonger.....try selling that to a family member or close friend who thinks you're a conspiracy theorist
Tucker Carlson on Dec. 15 pointed out that his CIA contacts said that the CIA killed JFK. Carlson went on to add that our entire society is fake.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-heres-source-cia-jfks-assassination
Carlson also appeared on Tulsi Gabbard's podcast, where they discussed from the POV of two insiders just how fake and rigged everything is:
https://www.tulsigabbard.com/podcast/
You may not like either, but they have access to facts that bolster many of Caitlin's points, and go far beyond them. They are VERY anti-CIA.
And it is good to see two "mainstream figures" (hated by 100% of the democratic party, and 85% of the RINO leadership) say things that--let's be honest--could get them killed.
https://www.tulsigabbard.com/podcast/
"Carlson went on to add that our entire society is fake."
......, and he's right about that.
Speaking of the CIA........
"When everything the American people believe is a lie our job is done."
- William Casey -
Ronnie Raygun's CIA director
"Or maybe they're just warmongers." That cuts through so much. Thank you for another beautiful post, Caitlin and Tim.
Very good essay. Thanks for your apocalyptic dedication to awakening, politically, mentally , and spiritually,
>>>Confusing the concepts of "communism" and "authoritarianism". << <
Most people who call themselves communism are authoritarian or totalitarian
Not sure what you people expected.
Capitalists literally exist by stealing from the labour of others by threatening them with poverty or violence. Capitalism couldn't exist without authoritarianism.
Would like CJ to expound upon her perceived differences between communism and authoritarianism. Any examples of socialist or communist states that did/do not have authoritarian top-down planned economies?
Per you guys' logic Saudi Arabia is communist.
I don't think you understand logic. All C are A does NOT imply all A are C.
If you understand that not all authoritarian governments are communist then why are you pretending to be confused about the distinction between authoritarianism and communism?
George Orwell fought along the Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War. Anarchists (libertarian communists/socialists) rejected Marx in favour of Bakunin. For a brief period they built a purely democratic, bottom up system run by workers while fighting fascists. With no support from America and Stalin arming and funding authoritarian communist forces that worked against them, they eventually lost the war. Authoritarians and Capitalists both wanted the experiment to fail although it was succeeding in the face of enormous opposition. It’s a side of socialism that gets little attention and I’m sure that’s no accident. This documentary tells the story from first hand accounts.
https://youtu.be/I0XhRnJz8fU
Anarchism has its place, certainly, in ushering in a democratic system and the documentary cited is one instance of that: it is ground-up revolution. But an informal system is inadequate to meet the needs of a population of any size, which requires centralization and specialization. It took a long time to get rid of the influence of Franco, and Franco himself. We are at a stage where democracy, or a form of it, has been hijacked in favour of elite interests. I am not a supporter of Orwell's views: there is no alternative in a complex society, to either communism/socialism or fascism. And we are headed in a fascist direction. Sure, anarchism, but then what?
https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201111.txt
I was confused about whether you think communism is always authoritarian.
I don't think workers having control of the means of production (communism) as opposed to not having control and being wage slaves (capitalism) can be equated in any way with authoritarianism.
Apparently, a top-down police state planned by an oligarchy is not authoritarianism. But a strong state centrally planned by an elected political party, that is authoritarianism.
People are so blind. Threaten private property of the wealthy and see just how free and democratic capitalism is.
Yes ALL nation states are authoritarian. But communism isnt because communism is not a nation state. Thats just what you have been told. Exactly as CJ was pointing out. Awaken comrade !
Indeed the reality seems much more complex than the simple classifiers used to describe it
An excellent example of socialism was to be found in Gaddafi's Libya before, of course, the madmen of the capitalist west couldn't bear the advance of socialism anymore. Those madmen dreaded the people under their control would find out about it. That's why Gaddafi was constantly demonised even though he arranged it so that the people were in charge of their destiny with only a few guidelines, namely the prohibition on political parties/ representational politics & a complete ban on the charging of interest on a loan of money (Usury). The system that was in place was broadly speaking Peoples' Congresses where each locality decided what they wanted & then passed their requirements up to a centralised administration for the delivery of those requirements. Full Participatory Democracy in other words. Real socialism was the natural happy outcome until the 'democracy loving' capitalists of the west destroyed it with extreme prejudice. Here's his Green Book for you to become acquainted with the prosperous and progressive times of Libya the psychopaths of the West do not want you to know. http://openanthropology.org/libya/gaddafi-green-book.pdf
If you wish, here's a short video for you to see how much he was loved for what he allowed people to have and to do and it's all true. https://vimeo.com/28700488 I've been there installing harbour equipment in Tripoli during his time. I saw many young women there without the veil & never saw any homeless people or beggars. Not my sort of place though as I'm not a Muslim.
I have heard that the final straw was when he made plans to implement a monetary system in Africa that would challenge the hegemony of the US dollar.
He was challenging the franc. France was the colonial master of northwestern Africa and still has a grip on the area. He also refused to buy French warplanes. France said, if you won't take those planes the easy way then you're going to get them the hard way. France led the charge. The USA helped out.
Indeed! As I recall, the charlatan philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy was the enthusiastic demon who constantly whispered into Sarkozy's ears demanding nothing less than a Libyan bloodbath.
You make some excellent points Domelord, and your personal observations are priceless in helping expose the terrible lies that the collective West sold to us all in order to broker the destruction of the most successful developing nation on the African continent.
Meanwhile the West is very busy trying to make Lula in Brazil the Gaddafi and Libya of Latin America as they try to hold onto their Monroe Doctrine inspired hegemony of this region. They live in mortal fear of these successful leftist socialist models which empower the working classes at the expense of the western imperialist economic oligarchic system.
Lula has been trying to implement the Gaddafi playbook in Brazil and that is why Uncle $am is trying so desperately to soft coup Bolsonaro back into power. That plan includes a Latin American central bank and a trading currency that will dilute the use of the US dollar in trade settlements between countries.
Lula is all about disenfranchising the western Zone A funny money casino system and installing the new BRIICS+++ system of mutually beneficial trading and security that benefits all levels of society of the countries that join in. This by definition involves non-fiat currencies and banking and central banking models that have nothing what so ever to do with the thieving western banking cabal.
Also, Bolsonaro, when he realised he was lagging in the polls, was trying to sell off state owned assets like Petrobras, one of the large banks, and also public utilities such as postal and electrical services to foreign corporate cronies. Lula was all the while desperately trying to stop these sales and is also continuing his campaign to free Assange from incarceration and extradition to the US where they would likely finish him off once and for all.
Michael Hudson explains so much of this phenomenon better than any one I know and describes it as the difference between democratic socialism and oligarchic socialism ... the latter is clearly not state socialism, it is much closer to reverse socialism which benefits the wealthy much more than the needy.
https://thesakeris.global/2022/12/09/oligopoly-unchecked-michael-hudson-interview/
This is in essence neo-feudalism, the fostering of a rentier FIRE economy, and a post-industrial society at the expense of the real productive economy. The aim was for the U$ to treat the rest of the globe as a colony under their pet vision of globalisation in a virtual rerun of the Roman Empire's model.
I love these quotes from the link...
"What the Chinese government is trying to follow has been called a “state-capitalist society” or a “communist society”: the focus is on productive labor and productive investment. The most important feature of China is that it kept the banking sector and money creation in the public domain.
In the West, commercial banks create credit against assets that are already in place. Mortgage loans are made against real estate in place. Corporate takeover loans are made to corporations in place. Government control of money, as it was in Germany in the late 19th century, created new means of production, especially public infrastructure.
China does not have its banks make loans for corporate takeovers, or for mergers and acquisitions. China makes them increase the means of production. In that sense they are following the industrial capitalist policy that evolves naturally into socialism, which is why they call themselves a socialist economy, and rightly so, because they’re not running the economy on behalf of the 1%.
Obviously, by letting a hundred flowers bloom, they realised that the state cannot act as the Stalinist state did as a central planner. They need innovation, they need individual innovators to create market opportunities and new products and that’s been best done by letting market forces take place.
The Communist Party of China is delegated to administer economic democracy, something that political democracy has not been able to do in the Western countries. You need a state to act as the agent of social planning, so that it’s not the banks and the rentier sector that does it, as occurred in the U.S. and Western Europe. Europe. China is doing what most of the world was doing before Western civilisation took off and in an oligarchic form.
The U.S. now is in a state of political paralysis locking itself into the current status quo, which means that the U.S. cannot have any kind of an industrial recovery, because that requires a federal policy to check the overhead of the banking system, the real estate sector, and the insurance sector.
America has priced its labor and its industry out of world markets by having to pay so much debt service, so much insurance for medical care, home insurance, and real estate rents. As long as this revenue is paid out in the form of rent, you’re not going to develop."
... end quote...
So many countries in Latin America and Africa don't have a central right that forms a political force capable of protecting the working class from exploitation. Much of the right is actually far right with direct ties to the corporate oligarchs, both domestic and global, and they use all manner of subterfuge and tricks to secure their power base.
The only force that can possibly accomplish this genuinely is the left. This is the movement that the Imperial Empire fears so much. Hence the multitude of U$ sponsored hard and soft coups that are happening globally as we speak... around 10-12 by my count.
The U$ which is the main attack dog for the western imperial hegemony flails around desperately like a wounded beast as it continues to deny the inevitability of a multipolar brave new world. They simply can't abide the concept of a new multipolar reality based on collective goodwill and harmony , the development of long term wealth for member countries, and a vastly more equitable distribution of income within society.
Bring it on
Col
Any so-called democratic state that does not have a top down authority framework?
Definition of democracy is government by the whole population. The term is sometimes incorrectly applied.
The representatives of government are supposed to promote the interests of the whole population. They don't, and haven't probably ever, done that. But that is not discrediting of democracy itself.
I rarely disagree with you, Cailtlin. Your saying that Communism isn't a threat is one of those rare occasions. Why do I disagree? Although not a Communist, per se, Trotsky was a Bolshevik. There are countless self-proclaimed Trotskyites in the district of criminals. Another well known label for these critters is neocons. These are the Communists I fear.
I would also argue that Communism is alive and well in most of the countries on the planet. The progressive income tax that Karl Marx wrote about in his manifesto is a little bit of an indicator of that fact.
Then there is a quote I use quite often:
"You must understand, the leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of remorse. It cannot be overstated. Bolshevism created the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant and uncaring about this crime is proof that the global media is in the hands of the perpetrator."
- Alexandr Solzhenitsyn -
He was speaking of the same people we now call neocons.
Btw, these were some of the best and most beautiful paragraphs I have seen in a long time. Masterful! Props! Loved them! Great job, Caitlin!
"Most forms of spirituality serve only to sedate people and help them hide from reality, others do the opposite and awaken you to reality. The former is the "opiate of the masses" which creates a sedentary populace; the latter is the sort that's useful in creating a healthy world.
"I used to hang out on spirituality forums focused on enlightenment, and even with a singular emphasis on awakening it was remarkable how many members used spirituality to hide from reality. From their abusive and unsatisfying relationships and lifestyles. From their trauma. From themselves. In exactly the same way, spirituality has always been used to cover up reality, often in power-serving ways. Before it was glorifying poverty, meekness and obedience; now it's McMindfulness and other practices to mask the sting of oppressive capitalism.
"In the same way most mind-altering drugs serve only to sedate and escape from reality while the psychedelic variety does the opposite, most forms of spirituality facilitate unconsciousness while authentic spirituality facilitates awakening.
"Authentic spirituality doesn't seek to give you new beliefs, nor to give you spiritual practices to make reality less abrasive and confronting, but to uncover what's hidden and stare reality right in the face. It means squarely interrogating all our assumptions about what's true. Authentic spirituality entails no indoctrination, sedation or escapism, but a curious and sincere exploration of one's own experience. It seeks to discover what's true: what's true about one's conditioning, about consciousness, about the self, about the way life is experienced.
"There are all sorts of ways authentic spirituality can show up, and within all official branches, schools, factions and iterations of spirituality you'll see some authentic exploration and lots of inauthentic escapism. A sincere dedication to what's true happens where it happens."
I really think almost everything is fake. Tucker Carlson did a nice job of discussing the CIA killing JFK on December 15. We need more paragraphs like the above, and more exposes of our rigged system, like Carlson, and books like "The Devil's Chessboard" (about the CIA).
Truly beautiful, even though I disagree with some of your thoughts on capitalism. Thank you, Caitlin.
How?
How to awaken?
How to remove power from people with all the guns and all the money and no empathy?
If you get a chance, over the weekend. Try to watch "All Quiet On The Western Front" just as HIGH as you can get. And Happy holidays, infecting loved-ones!
Read the book....it's much better.
The opening sequence (industry & fianacialization of slaughter) wouldn't have worked in 1915, when kids were still naive, in the book. Bayonet a minute before ceasefire or mystery death a month before, tanks & flamethrowers; the goose and farm kid; luxury accomodation in Versailles, well-fed bourgeoisie & final return to their trench WERE way too 1970s disaster movie; at least they avoided 2 and a half hr steadycam tracking-shot CGI. But, the stabbed French soldier scene was WAY different in the book & 1928 was 11yrs too early, though Sparticist Bavaria & the Sturmabteilung Putsch had already happened by then?
Read Storm of Steel. Written by a soldier that survived it all. Ernst Jünger.
THANK you, I certainly shall! I'm not too distantly related to Michael Whittmann, but not much family correspondence survived.
In case you missed it, a recent DC swamp party for US officials, journalists, think tankers and diplomats at the Ukrainian Embassy was officially sponsored by the US arms manufacturers who've profited astronomically from the war in Ukraine, with the logos of ...............
*Raytheon
*Lockheed Martin
*Northrop Grumman and
*Pratt & Whitney ...........appearing on the actual invitation.
This spells it out so clearly, if any reader of CJ's writings really needed it spelt out, that is.
>>>Thinking communists are anywhere remotely close to having power or taking power in the English-speaking world.
Thinking entirely capitalist things like the Democratic Party and the WEF are "communist".
Thinking China is a threat. << <
Sheep like things simple. Left wing sheep think "fascism" is a looming threat, Right wing sheep think "communism" is a looming threat.
Dopplegangster duopoly, tag-team kleptocracy and protection scheme oilgarchy are totally invisible to most folks instagramming selfies to their algorithm mindfulness coach vaxed relaxed & unmasked at Happy Hour, decrying bogus caviar for avacado toast served by indentured refugee replacement servers at BRUNCH?
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/12/michael-hudson-discusses-the-future-of-europe-and-global-restructuring.html
Then there is something way too many people can't seem to wrap their heads around. It's called the false left/right paradigm. It was created by the powers that shouldn't be so that we would fight each other instead of us fighting together against them.
Caitlin, here is case in point to the willfull blindness:
https://youtu.be/pdWI2gF8hc4
The US government created a net energy gain fusion reaction, and everyone is talking about the potential as an energy source. But in the actual presser the majority of the talk was about "national security" and America's nuclear "deterence". Listening these officials you get the clear sense that the main priority is upgrading and even building new nuclear weapons, and the energy part is an afterthought for public consumption.
I've found scant written about it, one article that I wasn't able to locate again, but the same kind of fusion ignition that the DOD wants to use to allegedly test nuclear warheads, if miniaturized, could be used to build total fusion neutron bombs. These would be very attractive weapons because they both leave little radioactive fallout, and can kill all the people while leaving infrastructure intact.
It could be a stretch scientifically to do this, but given the rhetoric about fusion ignition and geostratetic goals, would they really not be try to accomplish the above? It's there in plain sight, yet not a people from either the media or regular folks. They think it's about energy production, even though the presser basically declares otherwise.
The lasers for this type of fusion aren't exactly portable and neutron bombs are already an unfortunate reality. I think the military connotations are more to protect this very expensive research with huge potential from being defunded, especially in the interests of existing electricity generators.
I figured as much about fusion ignition, but I dont know in great detail how such weapons work. I don't know how they would use lasers to test their warheads either.
I suppose they could be protecting it in a national security coating, because nobody can say no to that. On the other hand, you know they are always looking for military advantage, and they do prioritize dominance above all else. Surely the national security state is chomping at the bit for new weapons against China.
“The empire is a disease that thrives in darkness. It is never more alive than when we are asleep.” Marvaa Carassi Andor
This line, uttered in the season finale of the new Star Wars Series Andor helps to end what is quite a surprise. Instead of childish royal intrigue and Jedi knights battling the Sith with light sabers, we see a frighteningly plausible and compelling portrait of a corporatist, fascist state looming like a cloud over everything and the desperate efforts of those who seek to oppose it.
Would love to hear you on George Galloway, as you are speaking from the same hymn book