Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ I still can't find words to describe how insane it is that all the "experts" who spent twenty years being wrong about Afghanistan remain esteemed and wealthy while those who spent that time being right about Afghanistan remain marginalized and regarded as fringe kooks.
I think what keeps a lot of this going are the number of otherwise decent folks who just can't visualize an alternative to the choices they're given. For them, nothing exists outside of the democratic/republican framework except a hazy anarchy -- an easy thing to reject. What they settle upon is what even they would describe as imperfect, but it's familiar, approved, "realistic", and comfortable.
In 1962 no one sat around saying, "Where the hell are the Beatles?"
I think that was a good article. Caitlin really has a Comsky like ability to pierce.
I’m a capitalist who exploits people for my disproportionate gain. I own a security guard company in Toronto. We are an adjunct service to the real estate industry which is owned by pension funds and other large pools of capital - capitalism incarnate - real bastards.
I have much insight into how government works and I can promise you it has a twisted logic, it is massively inefficient unfocused and perpetually self reinforcing. Government mandarins and bureaucrats keep programs going because it is their job to do so. The rationale is massively distorted, the efficacy of the program is incidental at best.
I think this is the human condition - self interest and duplicity - and capitalism is the solution. Animal spirit, creative destruction, competition and annihilation are altogether essential to keep humans honest. Fear, biblical fear.
It is a very big topic and beyond me, but my 27 years in the fray, where the rubber hits the road has been instructional and that is my take on it.
Caitlin I don’t think your prescription for a solution is advisable - communism has been vilified beyond redemption.
My solution: $20 an hour minimum wage or guaranteed minimum income for all humans and no government programs supporting the poor. Make the poor not poor by creating a liveable bottom echelon of the economy. Government programs syphons to much with its inherent inefficiency and perverse logic. Just give people money. The over educated, well-meaning, program loving amongst us have had their day and it has failed.
Ask poor people what they want! They will say money. Ask them what they think of the programs I have to stand in line for. They will say humiliating. Start saving them from themselves they are not children just give them money.
I think you’re right about almost everything here but I could not retreat because of your naïve defense of communism.
Communism is: you give a small “vanguard” the absolute power to expropriate the rich. They expropriate the rich, so far so good. Then they keep all the riches and become the new rich. Plus they have absolute power. So they starve, persecute, surveil and censor.
Just a word about the vaccine issue. What we should be discussing and more importantly protesting about is the research that produced the virus. That is what the great preponderance of the evidence, and common sense, tells anyone who looks at it. I don't know if Caitlin has latched onto this, but I hope she does. The Chinese-US virus research at Wuhan gave us Covid-19, and the consequences of that should be stopping all such research everywhere. Instead of that, just wait a few days to see what the US "intelligence community" will cough up as their "high confidence" report. My bet is that it will be as follows: "The question of origin cannot be answered but it is extremely important to pour many more millions of dollars into this research in order to make it safer." Read: Give them more money and never mind if the next pandemic is worse than this one.
I take umbrage with Caitlin's assertion that: "Military members who support imperialism get promoted. Those who get to the top go on to work for war profiteers." This stereotype is as common as it is wrong. I spent much of my 32-year military career working closely with flag officers (admirals and generals). I do not recall ever hearing anybody say that they supported American hegemony nor did they do or say anything that could be construed as if imperialism was their motivation for serving. Having sat on promotion boards, I never heard anyone on a board ask about a candidate's achievements promoting US hegemony or imperialism much less their political orientation.
It is important for Americans, journalists too, to look beyond the Hollywood movie stereotypes that Generals got their jobs because they love war and want to be on the boards of directors of some MIC corporation someday. Such stereotypes distract voters from their power at the ballot box to replace the politicians who enable our Foreverwars. Keep in mind that it is POTUS and Congress who set the direction and force of America's hegemony; not the generals who must create the strategies to execute their orders nor the officers who must lead our troops into harm's way while the MIC and their Congressional puppets try to win at Asian dominoes or eradicate nonexistent WMDs in the deserts of the Middle East.
True, many senior military personnel do wind up as MIC executives. That is mostly because they know what their active-duty comrades need to be safe and effective in battle. Few if any who are in those jobs are motivated by greed. Most provide hands-on oversight of new systems to be deployed. In addition, I think it is fair to characterize the late-career pay received for sitting on a MIC board of directors as payback for their decades of low pay. The “average” top CEO annual compensation in 2019 was $14.5 million. Compare that to the US Pacific Commander who leads over 360 thousand troops yet was paid $198 thousand that year. Also, once retired, most flag officers only have a few good year left before retiring for good, so MIC jobs are not hitting the jackpot.
1. What surprises me is, not so much that the war on Afghanistan has been going so long, but that the system that give us this pointless war has survived so many parasites for so long.
2. Contrary to popular belief, most political and economic systems can be made to work for a while, if any as long as those systems are run by non-sociopaths. The problem is that power is to sociopaths what catnip is to cats. Therefore, sociopaths will corrode any system, given time. Sociopathic rule and entrenched interests will eventually render any system unreformable, which is when decay and collapse set in, a wiping of the slate, so to speak.
This is why, after some 5,000 of human history, different types of systems have been able to and continue to thrive.
"If anything, the way the deck is stacked in favor of perpetual war, it's surprising it happened that fast."
Yes. And that fact itself, should offer some hope. Not a guarantee or reasonable expectation that things or going to work out. But just a recognition that serendipity can rear its lovely head when we don't expect it.
I think what keeps a lot of this going are the number of otherwise decent folks who just can't visualize an alternative to the choices they're given. For them, nothing exists outside of the democratic/republican framework except a hazy anarchy -- an easy thing to reject. What they settle upon is what even they would describe as imperfect, but it's familiar, approved, "realistic", and comfortable.
In 1962 no one sat around saying, "Where the hell are the Beatles?"
I think that was a good article. Caitlin really has a Comsky like ability to pierce.
I’m a capitalist who exploits people for my disproportionate gain. I own a security guard company in Toronto. We are an adjunct service to the real estate industry which is owned by pension funds and other large pools of capital - capitalism incarnate - real bastards.
I have much insight into how government works and I can promise you it has a twisted logic, it is massively inefficient unfocused and perpetually self reinforcing. Government mandarins and bureaucrats keep programs going because it is their job to do so. The rationale is massively distorted, the efficacy of the program is incidental at best.
I think this is the human condition - self interest and duplicity - and capitalism is the solution. Animal spirit, creative destruction, competition and annihilation are altogether essential to keep humans honest. Fear, biblical fear.
It is a very big topic and beyond me, but my 27 years in the fray, where the rubber hits the road has been instructional and that is my take on it.
Caitlin I don’t think your prescription for a solution is advisable - communism has been vilified beyond redemption.
My solution: $20 an hour minimum wage or guaranteed minimum income for all humans and no government programs supporting the poor. Make the poor not poor by creating a liveable bottom echelon of the economy. Government programs syphons to much with its inherent inefficiency and perverse logic. Just give people money. The over educated, well-meaning, program loving amongst us have had their day and it has failed.
Ask poor people what they want! They will say money. Ask them what they think of the programs I have to stand in line for. They will say humiliating. Start saving them from themselves they are not children just give them money.
I think you’re right about almost everything here but I could not retreat because of your naïve defense of communism.
Communism is: you give a small “vanguard” the absolute power to expropriate the rich. They expropriate the rich, so far so good. Then they keep all the riches and become the new rich. Plus they have absolute power. So they starve, persecute, surveil and censor.
Just a word about the vaccine issue. What we should be discussing and more importantly protesting about is the research that produced the virus. That is what the great preponderance of the evidence, and common sense, tells anyone who looks at it. I don't know if Caitlin has latched onto this, but I hope she does. The Chinese-US virus research at Wuhan gave us Covid-19, and the consequences of that should be stopping all such research everywhere. Instead of that, just wait a few days to see what the US "intelligence community" will cough up as their "high confidence" report. My bet is that it will be as follows: "The question of origin cannot be answered but it is extremely important to pour many more millions of dollars into this research in order to make it safer." Read: Give them more money and never mind if the next pandemic is worse than this one.
I take umbrage with Caitlin's assertion that: "Military members who support imperialism get promoted. Those who get to the top go on to work for war profiteers." This stereotype is as common as it is wrong. I spent much of my 32-year military career working closely with flag officers (admirals and generals). I do not recall ever hearing anybody say that they supported American hegemony nor did they do or say anything that could be construed as if imperialism was their motivation for serving. Having sat on promotion boards, I never heard anyone on a board ask about a candidate's achievements promoting US hegemony or imperialism much less their political orientation.
It is important for Americans, journalists too, to look beyond the Hollywood movie stereotypes that Generals got their jobs because they love war and want to be on the boards of directors of some MIC corporation someday. Such stereotypes distract voters from their power at the ballot box to replace the politicians who enable our Foreverwars. Keep in mind that it is POTUS and Congress who set the direction and force of America's hegemony; not the generals who must create the strategies to execute their orders nor the officers who must lead our troops into harm's way while the MIC and their Congressional puppets try to win at Asian dominoes or eradicate nonexistent WMDs in the deserts of the Middle East.
True, many senior military personnel do wind up as MIC executives. That is mostly because they know what their active-duty comrades need to be safe and effective in battle. Few if any who are in those jobs are motivated by greed. Most provide hands-on oversight of new systems to be deployed. In addition, I think it is fair to characterize the late-career pay received for sitting on a MIC board of directors as payback for their decades of low pay. The “average” top CEO annual compensation in 2019 was $14.5 million. Compare that to the US Pacific Commander who leads over 360 thousand troops yet was paid $198 thousand that year. Also, once retired, most flag officers only have a few good year left before retiring for good, so MIC jobs are not hitting the jackpot.
I should add**specifically sars-cov-2 vaccines bc they’re still considered experimental.
What you wrote about vaccine mandates is so on point.
1. What surprises me is, not so much that the war on Afghanistan has been going so long, but that the system that give us this pointless war has survived so many parasites for so long.
2. Contrary to popular belief, most political and economic systems can be made to work for a while, if any as long as those systems are run by non-sociopaths. The problem is that power is to sociopaths what catnip is to cats. Therefore, sociopaths will corrode any system, given time. Sociopathic rule and entrenched interests will eventually render any system unreformable, which is when decay and collapse set in, a wiping of the slate, so to speak.
This is why, after some 5,000 of human history, different types of systems have been able to and continue to thrive.
"If anything, the way the deck is stacked in favor of perpetual war, it's surprising it happened that fast."
Yes. And that fact itself, should offer some hope. Not a guarantee or reasonable expectation that things or going to work out. But just a recognition that serendipity can rear its lovely head when we don't expect it.
https://getoutspoken.com/middle-east/a-resurgent-taliban-promises-to-crush-gays-to-death-by-toppling-walls-onto-them