The only thing I hate more than all that is the unrelenting despair that comes from firmly believing that my fellow citizens will never be snapped out of their propaganda-induced comas.
The propaganda runs deep and it’s supported and fueled by religion as well. Truly imperial in its operation — taking myths, weaponizing them with religion , and then wreaking havoc on humanity.
Yes, except the bloodiest wars in the last century killing hundreds of MILLIONS have all been SECULAR. WORLD WAR II was a secular war. WORLD WAR I was a secular war. Vietnam was a secular war. Iraq was a secular war.
So you want to talk about religion - what about the religion of SECULARISM - the RELIGION OF MIGHT MAKES RIGHT? The Religion of Social Darwinism?
If you ask me, what is worse, today's secularism or yesterday's religion - it's a fucking toss up.
Maybe it's not about "Religion" or "Secularism" ... maybe it's about HUMAN NATURE and GREED.
What happens when human beings really start to believe they're just happenstance biological machines in a mechanical universe? What happens when nihilism becomes the new mythological underpinnings of an age? What happens when social darwinism becomes the new norm of human worth?
What happens when you insist consciousness is nothing more than brain matter that happened to come together in an amazingly complex fashion - but its one and only purpose is to survive and reproduce? What happens when a human soul is reduced to insignificance in a universe that declares an indifferent fuck you to your existence?
Hell on earth! This is what we must prevent! We must fight against nihilism and everything it brings. We must bring back the spirituality in humanity - our hue.
Yes, it is exhausting. But empire watchers like Chris Hedges have been predicting this frantic phase of the U.S. imperial war machine for decades now. As students of history, we can appreciate that other recent empires (Ottoman, Japan) conducted their final years in this fashion: overspending on wars in a desperate attempt to retain power. I remember how shocked I was when friends in Tokyo told me that kamikaze aircraft were built with no landing gear due to economic distress i.e. "we were all starving."
This phase of imperial decline has found the perfect lunatic (Pepe Escobar has taken to calling 47 "neo-Caligula") to be its public face. I see he's posted a wikipedia entry-styled pic of himself as Acting President of Venezuela. Biography host describes the Roman Caligula thus: "Discover the chaotic reign of Caligula, Rome's notorious emperor, known for his lavish excess, military campaigns, and dramatic downfall."
I suppose the real war to end all wars will be when the peacemongers resolve to make the vile system that foregrounds and elevates the warmongers impossible. But where will the necessary ferocity for this final battle come from? Its not going to be accomplished with daisies in rifle barrels.... Do people not realise "communism" is the way of consciousness most true to the transient form of human being?....good luck with that...when i see pictures of " the minister of war" ( pre cro- magnon slavering thug ), the gibbering Caligula simulating ferocity and the evangelically revolting Micro Rubio, my despair at the human species reaches emetic floods of crazed Jehovan wrath...)
Escobar's terminology also includes a referral to these situations as sharing a common origin in the machinations of the "Zionist International Axis", for which Trump functions as neo-Caligula.
The western Roman empire continued for 450 years after the death of Caligula, and the eastern empire (centred on Constantinople) survived until the ottomans took it in 1441, 1400 years after his death.
Excellent as always, Ms. Johnstone! However, apropos of your inquiry into the dubious waning of empire, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend you take a look on YouTube at a channel called ‘The Mizrahi Perspective’: a current post entitled, “Israel is losing, and the US is losing Its Mind” - Alon Mizrahi, an incredibly politically astute disavowed former Israeli expat has some wickedly insightful commentary on this topic.
I've changed my mind- I don't think people will wake up. My friend, who realises I was right about the 'covid' vaccines and regrets having some and who had just been talking about her friend who'd been arrested for protesting a genocide (we're in the UK) and who still faces the possibility of a criminal record as well as the hunger strikers who are at deaths door for wanting to protest a genocide in a free country- then said the regime in Iran is really bad and people want the US to bomb it.
Agreed Tom - plus > . . . Americans are too propagandized, nationalistic, patriotic - stuck in thinking this country is or has ever been great, but is founded on myth, genocide and colonization.
Trump is simply the empire dropping any remaining pretense that it is anything other than an empire. It is now strong enough that it can do so, sort of like the pimp who has that poor runaway girl in a motel room far from home and far from anyone she knows, no money and no way out, so he no longer need pretend to be a nice guy trying to help out but something much more sinister.
Just a few months ago over coffee I would have debated with you about the limits of this global torture. I reach out to hold your hand as that bright light expands. Run to the light. A story wrote years ago when Reagan said " Ladies and Gentlemen we have just bombed the Soviet Union" It's very, very hard to find that Sat. morning radio broadcast now.
I thank that audio eng. who ACCIDENTALLY left the live switch on for the warm up : )
It's so heartbreaking that American decline is felt most by people in other nations, completely blameless in the shitshow. It's always people in some distant poor nation who have to suffer because the U.S. and its voters barely even think about the global impact of their country.
Cuba comes to mind. Now all we're hearing is what an IMMENSE danger this little Island off the coast of Florida is to the United States. We are ruled by monsters.
True, it doesn't really matter where the country is, the U.S. always finds a way to exploit others for the wealth of a tiny (and shrinking) fraction of its own population.
Caitlan asks us to "wake up" fellow citizens to the realities of this criminal Trump cabal (ultimately US and Israel) - well, I've been trying to do just that for the past 20-years or so. What did I get back? Anger, personal attacks and cancellation, as I was not like them, seemingly only interested in protecting the status-quo - by never speaking about how inept our political institutions and democracy or god forbid how awful and empty is our Democratic Party of authenticity. The didn't like what I tried to say - I am left wondering how much the current reality is affecting their rose-colored views of our path to now?
I feel and am aware of what pulls the sheep, I was raised in the same coral, BUT consciously aware NOT to surrender my soul or moral principle. Thank you Jamenta.
As they say there are only TWO parties in the USA - one is fascist and the other is right wing. And the republican party is not the right-wing party.
P.S. But both parties are zionist controlled - uniparty. A war-criminal democrat Biden used to say that he is proud zionist. Are you happy Biden that israeli jewish cowards have murdered 20,000+ Palestinian children alone with the bombs you provided?
"The CIA as we know it is the Frankenstein monster created by Allen Dulles. He and his brother thought that no amount of death and killing was over the line in the furtherance of capitalism. The covert operations role has expanded exponentially to become the major activity of the CIA. The law authorizing the CIA is a ceding of the Constitutional powers of Congress to make and declare war to the CIA, at least as long as no one finds out. Secretly, clandestinely, the CIA funds student groups in “enemy” countries, stirs up the capitalist forces in politics, supports candidates who are willing to kiss US ass, and provides money and weapons to right-wing terrorists. These covert operations have expanded from bloodless coups (if ever a thing actually existed) to full scale military operations, sanctioned by their mandate under the law interpreted broadly. The CIA has authorization to call forth US military forces (special forces, WMDs, gunships, etc...) anywhere around the globe, and no amount of killing and slaughter is distasteful or enough."
And I believe they operate inside the USs well. Ohh, that's the funding and arming and passing on of intelligence to right wing militias.
Too bad these US militias don't see that the CIA and DHS is a threat to US citizens (the word, patriot, is soiled or corrupted after years of miss use)
Imagine being a Biden supporter so excited at recent protests that the Dems will win. Who won under Biden? Step off of the sidewalks ALL, and get in the streets. Shut it down. Voting for the D or R's is a paid for Israel commercial venture. Do it often for both with the same result is insane. FUSA Fuck Israeli interests.Iran has the right to defend itself and too many others also. .TY Caity & Mr T.
Spot-on Chuck. Paul Street (see The Paul Street Report) has been on top of this fascist turn since the beginning - he has continually called for massive and sustained protests in the streets. Here in Blutopian America (a solid Democratic strong-hold/strangle-hold place where criticism of the party is forbidden and unwelcomed) they still think everything will be OK when they retake the POTUS office . . . Trump and his Fascist brigade have no intention of leaving office. Thanks for being aware.
Even if he left office the agenda would continue. People that believe these parties are fundamentally different are ignorant. I call these people Blue and Red MAGAs, just ignorant fanatics clinging to propaganda. If they let go they'd have to get informed and 😱 Think.
The problem is, the people have been fooled into thinking that capitalist parties oppose one another and have different goals and that has allowed power to be concentrated, through white, western nations, in the hands of those who serve capitalists. The UK, Germany, and the USA show us that they will use that power against the people of their own country. That is not going to change by a change in the party running government. Short of a violent revolution I don’t see how this can change through internal mechanisms.
It’s all we’ve got. Empires end and this one will be no exception. Whether it will be by learning to live honorably and honestly with the rest of the world, or kicking and screaming into utter destruction, remains to be seen.
Thank you for helping us wake our neighbors. Will share widely.
The US Empire will indeed end as it declines further and further into corruption, decadence, and excess of every sort, including violence. We learn very little in school about the Ottoman Empire, but it remained powerful until WW1 and then was divided into many weak countries. That empire had lasted 600 years. The British Empire, in all its breadth and grandeur, lasted only 100 years (1815-1914). And the US Empire, which only became international around 1900, has been in decline since the Vietnam War, around 1970. The duration of empires is trending briefer, not longer. And they usually end with a disastrous war. I'm hoping this one ends without a nuclear war. I think Russia and China feel the same and are working to avoid such a war.
Agree. I think it will come to a moment when Trump and Putin will be about to push their respective "big red buttons" that will likely destroy each other and end human race. Who is going to blink first? I think in the last second Trump will blink first and likely say, "why can't we just get along"? Will it be enough? Sadly, this beautiful blue planet definitely will be much better off without humans. Human greed and stupidity will be its doom. Cosmic justice.
Well said Mr. McPherson. Empires as time has gone on have had shorter reigns, and I think modern empires are no exception. I too, hope nuclear war can be avoided and cooler heads prevail
Another way of looking at it would be that the colonial-imperialist empires of Britain, France and Spain were only ever the outside-Europe projection of the Hapsburg/Medici family dominance which goes back to the hanseatic league. But then, that predates the fall of Constantinople.
One could ask whether it really seems likely that Britain would lose the American war of independence - we only really have their word for it. We only really have their word that anything happens when we put an x in a box or press a button on a “voting machine”.
When all the world’s elite met for dinner at Windsor castle last year, that was the high table. All this business with senators and members of parliament is just for show. They’ve been mocking us by appointing b-movie actors and reality tv stars - how obvious can they make it before we realise?
The empire is eternal and has never fallen, not for two thousand years now. Which empires can you think of that use an eagle as their symbol? Rome; Nazi germany; the US.
(The above is in part a joke, and is not entirely serious. But if it were true, things might look very much like they do look.)
When empires die, they die fighting. The US has lost the ability to control the world through hegemonic culture and the Petrodollar. BRICS are ascendant. The Russia China axis is as powerful economically as the US. Their reputation is superior - the US is no longer seen as 'the light on the Hill.'
The US is now consolidating its control over its sphere of influence - the Americas, of course.
The real fight is for the Middle East, the great prize of Easy Oil. (yes, Venezuala has the most oil, but the EROEI is MUCH lower.) Also, attempting to maintain some petrodollar presence.
All the empire has left is projecting military power. These are easy wins - I mean, Venezuala? And where else have they really won? Hezbollah was just a successful military strike. It was not a War won, just a battle, really.
Iran won't be easy, and likely won't happen. IMO, we're seeing the limits. Venezuala was theater, a spectacle to placate the Right (we're still powerful) and ironically the Left (look how few died!) Ultimately, it was meaningless.
I agree with you on most parts except the "war with Iran won't happen" part. Analyzing geopolitical conditions (and U.S. foreign policy and Israel), I'd say it's the opposite - war with Iran is VERY likely (sooner rather than later).
And the empire goons are trying their best to crush Americans. In the midst of freezing temperatures and a snowstorm, 200 demonstrators gathered this past weekend to protest in a small town in NE Wisconsin. CARTOON: Trump & Corporate Dem Leadership Unite To Protect Gestapo ICE Goons -- If ever the last name of a crime victim stood in stark opposite contrast to a murderer, ‘Good’ is the one. ... https://mark192.substack.com/p/cartoon-trump-and-corporate-dem-leadership
The growth of ICE is particularly ominous. Tim Walz needs to call out the Minnesota National Guard and risk a confrontation. Because if Americans don't start fighting back now, the power of these secret police will become entrenched and the bloodbath to come will be far worse. You got to stop ICE now. Before it really becomes too late.
Sometimes you really have to become an Abraham Lincoln for the American people. :(
And after a few initial quips of outrage, the Democratic Party 'leaders' of Minnesota and nation have tucked their tail and taken to their seats in the corner.
The problem isn't just some of these ICE agents losing control. The problem is the NORMALIZATION of having THOUSANDS of militarized Federal Agents appearing on American streets with guns.
That's their first objective: to normalize the presence of militarized policemen everywhere. And finish building their detention centers everywhere.
Once that is done, then the real evisceration of all American civil rights begins. They will label anyone who protests a domestic terrorist. Anyone who speaks up on social media a "domestic terrorist". And ICE will show up at your door. Just like the German secret police did for millions of Germans in the 1930s.
If Walz doesn't make a stand now, it will just get worse. This is fascism we're dealing with. It's not some kind of tame iguana. These are predators who will turn upon the American people with a militarized POLICE STATE - if Tim Walz and other Democrats just sit by and let it happen. Just like the weak German Democrats sat by in Germany - and let Hitler's brown shirts run the streets.
It's a sad and sickening decision Walz has to make - but you got to do it now. Before it's too late. :(
Agreed. As I wrote in my post: "And let’s be clear, ICE is not about rounding up dangerous immigrants. It is about creating a well-funded, militarily-equipped national Gestapo terror force to control and dominate the American people, crush dissent and eliminate through disappearance anyone who speaks out or doesn’t bow and lick up to Der "Führer" into a growing network of concentration camps or — as in the case of Good, a mother of three — death.
"The mission of the Gestapo ICE is to beat down, crush and kill any opposition to the rapidly emerging global corporate fascist regime. Rank-and-file Democrats better wake to the reality that when it comes to the empowerment, protection and funding of the fascist Gestapo ICE domestic killing force, there is absolutely no difference between the leadership of the mainline corporate Democratic establishment and Donald Trump.
"The goal of their united corporate uniparty duopoly is to crush and eliminate all who are GOOD in the United States."
And it was continued and enlarged by the democrats. The democrats are not opponents to fascism, they are its handmaidens. Voting for them does not impede fascism at all.
But Biden continued and expanded ICE. Having a democratic president legitimise ICE is what normalised it. Walz cannot criticise the fundamental principle of ICE because his side endorsed it.
The same way as Keir Starmer in the uk has criminalised as terrorism speaking in opposition to government policy; and has enacted a digital id system so the government can identify who says anything; and has prosecuted journalists for writing books critical of him; and has postponed our next elections because he’s going to lose. And supported ice-like immigration policies. And will go into the next election he allows with his only argument being “we are fractionally less evil than the fascists, vote for us so we can continue to prepare the ground for them.”
Forget about Walz, he’s no use. Feasibly the Mamdani project will get somewhere, but he is absolutely the only hope for the Democratic Party and when he inevitably does soil himself, they should be given up altogether.
Haven't heard that phrase in awhile. You have an interesting and unusual diction. You're steeped in politics, appear to have a college education - but sound International. You also have a tendency to talk down in your communication - so are used to being an authority position, or looked "up to" - or maybe even famous.
I’m definitely not famous, don’t worry, you haven’t heard of me. I talk down in my communication… maybe? I mean I argue very assertively sometimes I’ll admit that. But to be honest the defining feature of my life is that nobody ever listens to me.
Sound international? Again I don’t know… I can confirm that I am currently in one country only.
Yes, all talk on no action. Tim Walz has "prepp'd" the National Guard. Don't just Prep them TIM - DEPLOY THEM! Fight these fucking fascist thugs NOW. Don't Wait. :(
They're fascists. They're not going to stop doing what they're doing unless you fight. That's the sad truth Americans need to wake up to. Wake up Minnesota. WAKE UP.
For the love of god wake up! You have thousands of masked men in military gear walking your streets, pulling whomever they want out of their cars on a whim! WAKE UP!
Please, let's not do the government encouraged divisive thing. It's BOTH parties, it's both Conservatives and Liberals that are either blind or fully on board and playing the populace.
I don't mean to ding you for saying what you're saying, I completely agree. However, the naming of specific groups to condemn and I get it that they may be in power and should be,but the government has been pushing division so hard for so long that any of it, in my opinion, has to be qualified. I'm hope you can understand why I call out apparent divisive language.
There are few people that are willing to accept that Dems, Reps and Independent parties all do as they're told. The only reason any of them run for elections is for personal benefit, plum monetary and power positions and the little difference they may make is just for perception or deception of the populace.
My fear exactly. Hedge’s latest article, The Machinery of Terror, really brings the danger into focus. The jack-booted ICE thugs are angry, undisciplined killers- many of them vets from our foreign murderous campaigns. The recent book, The Fort Bragg Cartel really outlines in detail how dangerous we’ve made our own country and the world. War always comes home. This is what’s happening now.
And even now, we got Democratic Ops saying we need to hold back. Just trust the Democratic party to take care of it. FUCK THAT. I'm long past trusting this warmongering, corrupt as shit BLUE MAGA Party.
Call out the National Guard Tim Walz. Call it out. Stop these Brown shirts now while you have the power to do so.
Don't listen to these American traitors whispering in your ear that you must just sit by and let these FUCKING FASCISTS WITH THEIR MASKS take over Minnesota. Don't let it happen. Don't let this be NORMALIZED - that's what they WANT. Don't let history repeat itself, because you got a bunch of Democrats pussy footing around, and pretending what is happening before their very eyes, is not really happening!
It's happening. The Streets of Minnesota are being invaded by a militarized force of poorly trained masked men, just like the Brown Shirts in 1930s Germany. This is how fascism starts. And if you just sit by and do NOTHING - like many BLUE MAGA democrats are asking you to do - then the Fascists will win.
But Tim Walz, realistically, is never going to oppose the machine, is he, i mean from the moment he first appeared he was clearly “centrist robot stuffed shirt”.
There are virtually no democrats with integrity. Sanders sold himself out and accepted it too many times; AOC ultimately toed the line for Israel; there is still hope for Mamdani as an individual but the Democratic movement is to huge and too captured to ever be a force for good.
I am not a fan of the democratic party, or anyone in it. Nor am I a fan of the Republican party, or anyone in it. Bernie Sanders - yes, either the biggest coward on the planet, or just a phony. I am inclined to believe the latter.
The recent abortive launch of the new British socialist party does much to paint Corbyn in such a light. As if they were trying to destroy their own credibility before they even started.
They knock out one disobedient government or population, but then move on, leaving behind destruction and chaos. Not what I'd call a success.
P.S. Your back in Australia now, Its not half assed, it's half arsed. As far as I know an ass is a donkey like animal known to be stubborn and intractable.
Good question Jamenta. Our P.M. is probably both, an ass and an arsehole. He has failed to deliver on many of the policies he campaigned on - dealing with the housing crisis, lifting unemployment payments above the poverty line, he had promised to abolish the tax rebate on giant twin cab 4 wheel drives, hence our urban streets are infested with monster penis enlargements and he could have abandoned the AUKUS fiasco on his first day in the job. Before it cost Australian taxpayers billions of dollars and he flip flops on issues almost as quickly and often as Trump.
Our defence minister is a sabre rattling warmongering arsehole and foreign minister Penny Wrong in an ass.
Luckily your question was about the Govt. so I don't have to go into an apoplectic rage about the almost non-existent opposition.
You got that right, David. All the hope dispelled from day one probably because Marles loves merica to the point of grovelling. Maybe being seen as so compliant we'll be bypassed in the power grab?
I very much doubt that Davina. We've already seen that Trump and the neocons view compliance as weakness. Plus they pretty well control the Australian military through the Force Posture Agreement and have turned us into what Caitlin called a US military base with kangaroos.
🇺🇸🇻🇪 A US president declaring himself president of another nation 1000 miles from his own nation's borders is unhinged criminality.
This is done to prime the US public for wider criminality to come.
This is a wake up call to the rest of the world, nations big and small, that this is no longer a matter of diplomacy, international relations, or deal-making.
This is a life and death struggle against a nuclear-armed criminal enterprise with 300+ million people under its control and a gun pointed at the head of the rest of the world.
Every hour that goes by that short-sighted selfish business and political leaders place comfort and profit ahead of long-term self-preservation will be vital opportunity lost.
The US doesn't have a seat at the table for you no matter who you think you are. They are not sharing and in the end no one will be spared.
They will continue stripping the world bare of sovereignty and atomizing the world's ability to resist until everything is consumed or until they are stopped.
>>"They will continue stripping the world bare of sovereignty and atomizing the world's ability to resist until everything is consumed or until they are stopped."
The only thing I hate more than all that is the unrelenting despair that comes from firmly believing that my fellow citizens will never be snapped out of their propaganda-induced comas.
The propaganda runs deep and it’s supported and fueled by religion as well. Truly imperial in its operation — taking myths, weaponizing them with religion , and then wreaking havoc on humanity.
Here’s the myth of religion: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-mythology-of-the-bible-and-the
Yes, except the bloodiest wars in the last century killing hundreds of MILLIONS have all been SECULAR. WORLD WAR II was a secular war. WORLD WAR I was a secular war. Vietnam was a secular war. Iraq was a secular war.
So you want to talk about religion - what about the religion of SECULARISM - the RELIGION OF MIGHT MAKES RIGHT? The Religion of Social Darwinism?
If you ask me, what is worse, today's secularism or yesterday's religion - it's a fucking toss up.
Maybe it's not about "Religion" or "Secularism" ... maybe it's about HUMAN NATURE and GREED.
I would argue that it’s not human nature per se, but greed is very much an aspect of the issue.
Here’s an analysis on “lord of the flies” and how humans don’t naturally go to greed, they’re propagandized towards it: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-really
What happens when human beings really start to believe they're just happenstance biological machines in a mechanical universe? What happens when nihilism becomes the new mythological underpinnings of an age? What happens when social darwinism becomes the new norm of human worth?
What happens when you insist consciousness is nothing more than brain matter that happened to come together in an amazingly complex fashion - but its one and only purpose is to survive and reproduce? What happens when a human soul is reduced to insignificance in a universe that declares an indifferent fuck you to your existence?
What happens?
Hell on earth! This is what we must prevent! We must fight against nihilism and everything it brings. We must bring back the spirituality in humanity - our hue.
You’d like my stack, this is what I discuss: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/11-truths-you-must-embrace-to-survive
Wrong. We must eliminate religion in all its forms. This superstition has been destroying brain cells for centuries. It must stop.
The coming era of Christian fundamentalism will make you envious for the time wars were about secularism things like oil and geopolitics.
Oh really? So Secular wars are superior to Christian wars. I'll keep that in mind.
It's not just the myth of religion. It's the myth of race. America, and the West, has invented all sorts of fairytales to quiet its unsettled soul.
Yes, it is exhausting. But empire watchers like Chris Hedges have been predicting this frantic phase of the U.S. imperial war machine for decades now. As students of history, we can appreciate that other recent empires (Ottoman, Japan) conducted their final years in this fashion: overspending on wars in a desperate attempt to retain power. I remember how shocked I was when friends in Tokyo told me that kamikaze aircraft were built with no landing gear due to economic distress i.e. "we were all starving."
This phase of imperial decline has found the perfect lunatic (Pepe Escobar has taken to calling 47 "neo-Caligula") to be its public face. I see he's posted a wikipedia entry-styled pic of himself as Acting President of Venezuela. Biography host describes the Roman Caligula thus: "Discover the chaotic reign of Caligula, Rome's notorious emperor, known for his lavish excess, military campaigns, and dramatic downfall."
I suppose the real war to end all wars will be when the peacemongers resolve to make the vile system that foregrounds and elevates the warmongers impossible. But where will the necessary ferocity for this final battle come from? Its not going to be accomplished with daisies in rifle barrels.... Do people not realise "communism" is the way of consciousness most true to the transient form of human being?....good luck with that...when i see pictures of " the minister of war" ( pre cro- magnon slavering thug ), the gibbering Caligula simulating ferocity and the evangelically revolting Micro Rubio, my despair at the human species reaches emetic floods of crazed Jehovan wrath...)
So thanks for your sliver of hope
Henri:
YES.
Ammo is far more effective in rifle barrels.
Love “micro rubio”, lol.
And not to forget Caligula's psychopathic, murderous reign of terror...
Marija,
And he made his horse a Senator.
Were my beloved mare still alive, I’d nominate HER for US Senate; she had more “horse sense” than both my present Democrat senators combined.
That's exactly why he made his horse a Senator. Lots of BS propaganda about Caligula.
Let’s not forget that the Roman Empire continued for 1400 years after his death, too
Escobar's terminology also includes a referral to these situations as sharing a common origin in the machinations of the "Zionist International Axis", for which Trump functions as neo-Caligula.
The western Roman empire continued for 450 years after the death of Caligula, and the eastern empire (centred on Constantinople) survived until the ottomans took it in 1441, 1400 years after his death.
Caligula was quite near the start of things.
Excellent as always, Ms. Johnstone! However, apropos of your inquiry into the dubious waning of empire, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend you take a look on YouTube at a channel called ‘The Mizrahi Perspective’: a current post entitled, “Israel is losing, and the US is losing Its Mind” - Alon Mizrahi, an incredibly politically astute disavowed former Israeli expat has some wickedly insightful commentary on this topic.
Cheers!
I love a reply to one of his posts a few weeks ago when he was a bit hopeful: watch the water not the ships
I've changed my mind- I don't think people will wake up. My friend, who realises I was right about the 'covid' vaccines and regrets having some and who had just been talking about her friend who'd been arrested for protesting a genocide (we're in the UK) and who still faces the possibility of a criminal record as well as the hunger strikers who are at deaths door for wanting to protest a genocide in a free country- then said the regime in Iran is really bad and people want the US to bomb it.
People are just too stupid.
People are just too stupid….. or too ignorant….. or too apathetic.
The last two can be fixed, not that that will be an easy fix.
Agreed Tom - plus > . . . Americans are too propagandized, nationalistic, patriotic - stuck in thinking this country is or has ever been great, but is founded on myth, genocide and colonization.
Because it now can.
Trump is simply the empire dropping any remaining pretense that it is anything other than an empire. It is now strong enough that it can do so, sort of like the pimp who has that poor runaway girl in a motel room far from home and far from anyone she knows, no money and no way out, so he no longer need pretend to be a nice guy trying to help out but something much more sinister.
Just a few months ago over coffee I would have debated with you about the limits of this global torture. I reach out to hold your hand as that bright light expands. Run to the light. A story wrote years ago when Reagan said " Ladies and Gentlemen we have just bombed the Soviet Union" It's very, very hard to find that Sat. morning radio broadcast now.
I thank that audio eng. who ACCIDENTALLY left the live switch on for the warm up : )
Found it. https://www.history.com/speeches/ronald-reagans-anti-soviet-joke-caught-on-tape
It's so heartbreaking that American decline is felt most by people in other nations, completely blameless in the shitshow. It's always people in some distant poor nation who have to suffer because the U.S. and its voters barely even think about the global impact of their country.
Cuba comes to mind. Now all we're hearing is what an IMMENSE danger this little Island off the coast of Florida is to the United States. We are ruled by monsters.
True, it doesn't really matter where the country is, the U.S. always finds a way to exploit others for the wealth of a tiny (and shrinking) fraction of its own population.
Caitlan asks us to "wake up" fellow citizens to the realities of this criminal Trump cabal (ultimately US and Israel) - well, I've been trying to do just that for the past 20-years or so. What did I get back? Anger, personal attacks and cancellation, as I was not like them, seemingly only interested in protecting the status-quo - by never speaking about how inept our political institutions and democracy or god forbid how awful and empty is our Democratic Party of authenticity. The didn't like what I tried to say - I am left wondering how much the current reality is affecting their rose-colored views of our path to now?
Yeah it real does start to begin to feel lonely and being ostracized. You definitely pay a price for being "different". Not being one of the sheep.
I feel and am aware of what pulls the sheep, I was raised in the same coral, BUT consciously aware NOT to surrender my soul or moral principle. Thank you Jamenta.
As they say there are only TWO parties in the USA - one is fascist and the other is right wing. And the republican party is not the right-wing party.
P.S. But both parties are zionist controlled - uniparty. A war-criminal democrat Biden used to say that he is proud zionist. Are you happy Biden that israeli jewish cowards have murdered 20,000+ Palestinian children alone with the bombs you provided?
You are coming thru loud, clear and conscious Nick. Well said. Thanks.
Well said as always Mr. Douglas. "Red or blue" are just two sides of the same bloodstained, imperialist coin
Biden's statement featured here: https://nedb.substack.com/p/the-zionited-states-of-america
"The CIA as we know it is the Frankenstein monster created by Allen Dulles. He and his brother thought that no amount of death and killing was over the line in the furtherance of capitalism. The covert operations role has expanded exponentially to become the major activity of the CIA. The law authorizing the CIA is a ceding of the Constitutional powers of Congress to make and declare war to the CIA, at least as long as no one finds out. Secretly, clandestinely, the CIA funds student groups in “enemy” countries, stirs up the capitalist forces in politics, supports candidates who are willing to kiss US ass, and provides money and weapons to right-wing terrorists. These covert operations have expanded from bloodless coups (if ever a thing actually existed) to full scale military operations, sanctioned by their mandate under the law interpreted broadly. The CIA has authorization to call forth US military forces (special forces, WMDs, gunships, etc...) anywhere around the globe, and no amount of killing and slaughter is distasteful or enough."
https://griobhtha1.substack.com/p/x-rubicon-lies-and-damned-lies
And as the CIA was founded with the help of Nazis (Gehlen's Ukrainian secret units), it also embedded the ideology.
Yes, the US and France and I believe Britain, though the book I read didn't say this, grabbed Nazi war criminals from the Vatican's Ratline operation.
https://churchandstate.org.uk/2024/05/the-vaticans-role-in-the-ratlines-examining-the-catholic-churchs-involvement-in-nazi-escapes/
As a CIA agent once told a senator:"You will be gone in four years, the CIA is forever."
And I believe they operate inside the USs well. Ohh, that's the funding and arming and passing on of intelligence to right wing militias.
Too bad these US militias don't see that the CIA and DHS is a threat to US citizens (the word, patriot, is soiled or corrupted after years of miss use)
Yes, they most certainly operate in the US performing operations that violate US law.
Imagine being a Biden supporter so excited at recent protests that the Dems will win. Who won under Biden? Step off of the sidewalks ALL, and get in the streets. Shut it down. Voting for the D or R's is a paid for Israel commercial venture. Do it often for both with the same result is insane. FUSA Fuck Israeli interests.Iran has the right to defend itself and too many others also. .TY Caity & Mr T.
Spot-on Chuck. Paul Street (see The Paul Street Report) has been on top of this fascist turn since the beginning - he has continually called for massive and sustained protests in the streets. Here in Blutopian America (a solid Democratic strong-hold/strangle-hold place where criticism of the party is forbidden and unwelcomed) they still think everything will be OK when they retake the POTUS office . . . Trump and his Fascist brigade have no intention of leaving office. Thanks for being aware.
Even if he left office the agenda would continue. People that believe these parties are fundamentally different are ignorant. I call these people Blue and Red MAGAs, just ignorant fanatics clinging to propaganda. If they let go they'd have to get informed and 😱 Think.
I like your take on this Ellen, thank you.
The problem is, the people have been fooled into thinking that capitalist parties oppose one another and have different goals and that has allowed power to be concentrated, through white, western nations, in the hands of those who serve capitalists. The UK, Germany, and the USA show us that they will use that power against the people of their own country. That is not going to change by a change in the party running government. Short of a violent revolution I don’t see how this can change through internal mechanisms.
It’s all we’ve got. Empires end and this one will be no exception. Whether it will be by learning to live honorably and honestly with the rest of the world, or kicking and screaming into utter destruction, remains to be seen.
Thank you for helping us wake our neighbors. Will share widely.
The US Empire will indeed end as it declines further and further into corruption, decadence, and excess of every sort, including violence. We learn very little in school about the Ottoman Empire, but it remained powerful until WW1 and then was divided into many weak countries. That empire had lasted 600 years. The British Empire, in all its breadth and grandeur, lasted only 100 years (1815-1914). And the US Empire, which only became international around 1900, has been in decline since the Vietnam War, around 1970. The duration of empires is trending briefer, not longer. And they usually end with a disastrous war. I'm hoping this one ends without a nuclear war. I think Russia and China feel the same and are working to avoid such a war.
Agree. I think it will come to a moment when Trump and Putin will be about to push their respective "big red buttons" that will likely destroy each other and end human race. Who is going to blink first? I think in the last second Trump will blink first and likely say, "why can't we just get along"? Will it be enough? Sadly, this beautiful blue planet definitely will be much better off without humans. Human greed and stupidity will be its doom. Cosmic justice.
Well said Mr. McPherson. Empires as time has gone on have had shorter reigns, and I think modern empires are no exception. I too, hope nuclear war can be avoided and cooler heads prevail
Another way of looking at it would be that the colonial-imperialist empires of Britain, France and Spain were only ever the outside-Europe projection of the Hapsburg/Medici family dominance which goes back to the hanseatic league. But then, that predates the fall of Constantinople.
One could ask whether it really seems likely that Britain would lose the American war of independence - we only really have their word for it. We only really have their word that anything happens when we put an x in a box or press a button on a “voting machine”.
When all the world’s elite met for dinner at Windsor castle last year, that was the high table. All this business with senators and members of parliament is just for show. They’ve been mocking us by appointing b-movie actors and reality tv stars - how obvious can they make it before we realise?
The empire is eternal and has never fallen, not for two thousand years now. Which empires can you think of that use an eagle as their symbol? Rome; Nazi germany; the US.
(The above is in part a joke, and is not entirely serious. But if it were true, things might look very much like they do look.)
Here's a theory on why this is happening:
When empires die, they die fighting. The US has lost the ability to control the world through hegemonic culture and the Petrodollar. BRICS are ascendant. The Russia China axis is as powerful economically as the US. Their reputation is superior - the US is no longer seen as 'the light on the Hill.'
The US is now consolidating its control over its sphere of influence - the Americas, of course.
The real fight is for the Middle East, the great prize of Easy Oil. (yes, Venezuala has the most oil, but the EROEI is MUCH lower.) Also, attempting to maintain some petrodollar presence.
All the empire has left is projecting military power. These are easy wins - I mean, Venezuala? And where else have they really won? Hezbollah was just a successful military strike. It was not a War won, just a battle, really.
Iran won't be easy, and likely won't happen. IMO, we're seeing the limits. Venezuala was theater, a spectacle to placate the Right (we're still powerful) and ironically the Left (look how few died!) Ultimately, it was meaningless.
I agree with you on most parts except the "war with Iran won't happen" part. Analyzing geopolitical conditions (and U.S. foreign policy and Israel), I'd say it's the opposite - war with Iran is VERY likely (sooner rather than later).
right - I should have phrased that better. I mean victory over Iran, not a war with them. The war is quite possible. Victory unlikely.
And the empire goons are trying their best to crush Americans. In the midst of freezing temperatures and a snowstorm, 200 demonstrators gathered this past weekend to protest in a small town in NE Wisconsin. CARTOON: Trump & Corporate Dem Leadership Unite To Protect Gestapo ICE Goons -- If ever the last name of a crime victim stood in stark opposite contrast to a murderer, ‘Good’ is the one. ... https://mark192.substack.com/p/cartoon-trump-and-corporate-dem-leadership
The growth of ICE is particularly ominous. Tim Walz needs to call out the Minnesota National Guard and risk a confrontation. Because if Americans don't start fighting back now, the power of these secret police will become entrenched and the bloodbath to come will be far worse. You got to stop ICE now. Before it really becomes too late.
Sometimes you really have to become an Abraham Lincoln for the American people. :(
And after a few initial quips of outrage, the Democratic Party 'leaders' of Minnesota and nation have tucked their tail and taken to their seats in the corner.
The problem isn't just some of these ICE agents losing control. The problem is the NORMALIZATION of having THOUSANDS of militarized Federal Agents appearing on American streets with guns.
That's their first objective: to normalize the presence of militarized policemen everywhere. And finish building their detention centers everywhere.
Once that is done, then the real evisceration of all American civil rights begins. They will label anyone who protests a domestic terrorist. Anyone who speaks up on social media a "domestic terrorist". And ICE will show up at your door. Just like the German secret police did for millions of Germans in the 1930s.
If Walz doesn't make a stand now, it will just get worse. This is fascism we're dealing with. It's not some kind of tame iguana. These are predators who will turn upon the American people with a militarized POLICE STATE - if Tim Walz and other Democrats just sit by and let it happen. Just like the weak German Democrats sat by in Germany - and let Hitler's brown shirts run the streets.
It's a sad and sickening decision Walz has to make - but you got to do it now. Before it's too late. :(
Agreed. As I wrote in my post: "And let’s be clear, ICE is not about rounding up dangerous immigrants. It is about creating a well-funded, militarily-equipped national Gestapo terror force to control and dominate the American people, crush dissent and eliminate through disappearance anyone who speaks out or doesn’t bow and lick up to Der "Führer" into a growing network of concentration camps or — as in the case of Good, a mother of three — death.
"The mission of the Gestapo ICE is to beat down, crush and kill any opposition to the rapidly emerging global corporate fascist regime. Rank-and-file Democrats better wake to the reality that when it comes to the empowerment, protection and funding of the fascist Gestapo ICE domestic killing force, there is absolutely no difference between the leadership of the mainline corporate Democratic establishment and Donald Trump.
"The goal of their united corporate uniparty duopoly is to crush and eliminate all who are GOOD in the United States."
And it was continued and enlarged by the democrats. The democrats are not opponents to fascism, they are its handmaidens. Voting for them does not impede fascism at all.
Absolutely!
Hitler's brown shirts won the streets with American money. German democrats got paid too, and socialists didn't have any
Absolutely spot on
But Biden continued and expanded ICE. Having a democratic president legitimise ICE is what normalised it. Walz cannot criticise the fundamental principle of ICE because his side endorsed it.
The same way as Keir Starmer in the uk has criminalised as terrorism speaking in opposition to government policy; and has enacted a digital id system so the government can identify who says anything; and has prosecuted journalists for writing books critical of him; and has postponed our next elections because he’s going to lose. And supported ice-like immigration policies. And will go into the next election he allows with his only argument being “we are fractionally less evil than the fascists, vote for us so we can continue to prepare the ground for them.”
Forget about Walz, he’s no use. Feasibly the Mamdani project will get somewhere, but he is absolutely the only hope for the Democratic Party and when he inevitably does soil himself, they should be given up altogether.
"inevitably does soil himself"
Haven't heard that phrase in awhile. You have an interesting and unusual diction. You're steeped in politics, appear to have a college education - but sound International. You also have a tendency to talk down in your communication - so are used to being an authority position, or looked "up to" - or maybe even famous.
I’m definitely not famous, don’t worry, you haven’t heard of me. I talk down in my communication… maybe? I mean I argue very assertively sometimes I’ll admit that. But to be honest the defining feature of my life is that nobody ever listens to me.
Sound international? Again I don’t know… I can confirm that I am currently in one country only.
My dude, these are democrats and liberals. They see fascism as a fundraising opportunity.
Yes, all talk on no action. Tim Walz has "prepp'd" the National Guard. Don't just Prep them TIM - DEPLOY THEM! Fight these fucking fascist thugs NOW. Don't Wait. :(
They're fascists. They're not going to stop doing what they're doing unless you fight. That's the sad truth Americans need to wake up to. Wake up Minnesota. WAKE UP.
For the love of god wake up! You have thousands of masked men in military gear walking your streets, pulling whomever they want out of their cars on a whim! WAKE UP!
Please, let's not do the government encouraged divisive thing. It's BOTH parties, it's both Conservatives and Liberals that are either blind or fully on board and playing the populace.
Because it was democrats and liberals that are at issue here.
You may note that I uttered not a word in praise of conservatives and republicans.
I don't mean to ding you for saying what you're saying, I completely agree. However, the naming of specific groups to condemn and I get it that they may be in power and should be,but the government has been pushing division so hard for so long that any of it, in my opinion, has to be qualified. I'm hope you can understand why I call out apparent divisive language.
There are few people that are willing to accept that Dems, Reps and Independent parties all do as they're told. The only reason any of them run for elections is for personal benefit, plum monetary and power positions and the little difference they may make is just for perception or deception of the populace.
My fear exactly. Hedge’s latest article, The Machinery of Terror, really brings the danger into focus. The jack-booted ICE thugs are angry, undisciplined killers- many of them vets from our foreign murderous campaigns. The recent book, The Fort Bragg Cartel really outlines in detail how dangerous we’ve made our own country and the world. War always comes home. This is what’s happening now.
Excellent article. Yes Chis Hedges lays it out.
And even now, we got Democratic Ops saying we need to hold back. Just trust the Democratic party to take care of it. FUCK THAT. I'm long past trusting this warmongering, corrupt as shit BLUE MAGA Party.
Call out the National Guard Tim Walz. Call it out. Stop these Brown shirts now while you have the power to do so.
Don't listen to these American traitors whispering in your ear that you must just sit by and let these FUCKING FASCISTS WITH THEIR MASKS take over Minnesota. Don't let it happen. Don't let this be NORMALIZED - that's what they WANT. Don't let history repeat itself, because you got a bunch of Democrats pussy footing around, and pretending what is happening before their very eyes, is not really happening!
It's happening. The Streets of Minnesota are being invaded by a militarized force of poorly trained masked men, just like the Brown Shirts in 1930s Germany. This is how fascism starts. And if you just sit by and do NOTHING - like many BLUE MAGA democrats are asking you to do - then the Fascists will win.
But Tim Walz, realistically, is never going to oppose the machine, is he, i mean from the moment he first appeared he was clearly “centrist robot stuffed shirt”.
There are virtually no democrats with integrity. Sanders sold himself out and accepted it too many times; AOC ultimately toed the line for Israel; there is still hope for Mamdani as an individual but the Democratic movement is to huge and too captured to ever be a force for good.
I am not a fan of the democratic party, or anyone in it. Nor am I a fan of the Republican party, or anyone in it. Bernie Sanders - yes, either the biggest coward on the planet, or just a phony. I am inclined to believe the latter.
The recent abortive launch of the new British socialist party does much to paint Corbyn in such a light. As if they were trying to destroy their own credibility before they even started.
That was pretty crazy. Seemed like an inside job.
By the way, it took Sanders almost a year before he was willing to say the word "genocide".
Emperialism and genocide explained for dummies: America is a vassal state of Isrsel.
They knock out one disobedient government or population, but then move on, leaving behind destruction and chaos. Not what I'd call a success.
P.S. Your back in Australia now, Its not half assed, it's half arsed. As far as I know an ass is a donkey like animal known to be stubborn and intractable.
A lot like some members of our Govt.
So which half of Australian Govt are arsed, and which half are asses? Asking for a friend.
Good question Jamenta. Our P.M. is probably both, an ass and an arsehole. He has failed to deliver on many of the policies he campaigned on - dealing with the housing crisis, lifting unemployment payments above the poverty line, he had promised to abolish the tax rebate on giant twin cab 4 wheel drives, hence our urban streets are infested with monster penis enlargements and he could have abandoned the AUKUS fiasco on his first day in the job. Before it cost Australian taxpayers billions of dollars and he flip flops on issues almost as quickly and often as Trump.
Our defence minister is a sabre rattling warmongering arsehole and foreign minister Penny Wrong in an ass.
Luckily your question was about the Govt. so I don't have to go into an apoplectic rage about the almost non-existent opposition.
You got that right, David. All the hope dispelled from day one probably because Marles loves merica to the point of grovelling. Maybe being seen as so compliant we'll be bypassed in the power grab?
I very much doubt that Davina. We've already seen that Trump and the neocons view compliance as weakness. Plus they pretty well control the Australian military through the Force Posture Agreement and have turned us into what Caitlin called a US military base with kangaroos.
Thought it was a forlorn hope.
When I start to feel that way I like to listen to something like Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush singing 'Don't Give Up'.
Mind you, Kate Bush can hardly be described as the Fat Lady, so it ain't over yet.
I agree with you totally David Avenell.
Ok. Thanks for the Australian update David. Hope I didn't raise your blood pressure too much! o.0
No worries. I've got some Valium in the fridge.
0.0
As Brian Berletich wrote:
🇺🇸🇻🇪 A US president declaring himself president of another nation 1000 miles from his own nation's borders is unhinged criminality.
This is done to prime the US public for wider criminality to come.
This is a wake up call to the rest of the world, nations big and small, that this is no longer a matter of diplomacy, international relations, or deal-making.
This is a life and death struggle against a nuclear-armed criminal enterprise with 300+ million people under its control and a gun pointed at the head of the rest of the world.
Every hour that goes by that short-sighted selfish business and political leaders place comfort and profit ahead of long-term self-preservation will be vital opportunity lost.
The US doesn't have a seat at the table for you no matter who you think you are. They are not sharing and in the end no one will be spared.
They will continue stripping the world bare of sovereignty and atomizing the world's ability to resist until everything is consumed or until they are stopped.
>>"They will continue stripping the world bare of sovereignty and atomizing the world's ability to resist until everything is consumed or until they are stopped."
Very true!