Listen to a reading by Caitlin Johnstone: The US Air Force is clearing out jungles in the Pacific and replacing them with airfields for its coming war with China, because there exist people on this earth who look at a jungle and think, “This should be replaced with an airfield to prepare for a war with China.”
A quote in this episode of interview of Jeffrey Sachs by Alexander Mercuris was quite insightful. Mercuris said, "....people on the council of foreign relations, ...... and they talk about revitalizing the US economy in order to meet the challenge of China, and I have to say that seems to me an absolutely warped sense of priorities. You don't revitalize your economy in order to meet the challenge of China. If you are going to revitalize your economy, you do it in order to increase the prosperity, the happiness, the sense of contentment in your own country amongst your own people. But that is the mindset these people seem to have. They subordinate everything to their geopolitical ideas."
A prosperous United States would empower ordinary people there. This is a major threat to the system and must be stopped. A prosperous China serves as a bad example. If US people see a prosperous and happy China they may want the same for themselves. Better to impoverish the people through high rents and prices, rendering them powerless. Silence undesirable speech and neutralize any potential leaders.
People in those countries are exactly the same as you or I or anyone - they get up, feed their kids and send them to school, go to work, go shopping, come home, have something to eat, watch TV, play with their children. What do you think they do?
Capitalism, as an economic system, owns us. We are driven by the profit motive - the market rules. Capitalism is a most heinous system similar to past system such as slavery and feudalism.
We as the people serving Capitalism have to find a way of turning things around for the benefit of the many and not just a few. A Revolution sounds the best way. Why should the people of this Earth allow the rich and powerful get away with literally murder - responsible for millions of deaths around the world. Wars, proxy wars by powerful nations will wipe us off the planet.
The problem with capitalistic that it is a reflection of our human natures. Same with feudalism, communism, hippie communes. None of them give utopia because we're greedy and fearful and each of us cares more about ourselves today than you tomorrow.
That may be characteristic of our present societies but it says very little about our human nature. Humans did not evolve in towns and cities. Not even on farms. All of what we call civilization is very recent on the timeline of human history. To understand human nature, you must go further back.
There's an awful lot of evidence pointing one way. It's possible that in the distant past things were different. But it's only a possibility and it's up against everything that we know for certain over 6 thousand years
That’s a great insight. I googled the word “vigilance,” and one definition was
“the action or state of keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties.”
This is the empire narrative-serving connotation, and it has become the de facto meaning of the word colloquially. But another definition is pre-contextual and, for that reason more useful. I think it is very applicable to citizens preserving democracy.
“the quality or state of being wakeful and alert.”
Worse yet they talk about sustainability and “ green growth”- in the same breadth as declaring that they want to see China and Russia impoverished. But the planet doesn’t work that way.
So much sadness. I am going to re-read the Pulling Back the Curtain essay again. After I take a few minutes to just be sad. I don't understand the people who would rather kill and destroy and hate than love and create and appreciate. I never will. I'm sorry, Mother Earth.
The purification and reset of Earth is underway, most people are just becoming aware. Whether the massive carnivores of old or the new carnivores of greed and power, balance becomes critical and sought by forces beyond our imagination. Just a few degrees warmer and tipping points become irreversible. Everyday of my life I have breathed in the natural beauty around us to calm myself, now for the first time I become anxious as I see it disappear. Maybe one day far into the future my dust will recycle, my conscience reconnect, and I will be born again, or return as a beautiful flower or bird, or maybe a rock.
Sadness must give way to righteous anger, people of the world should unite against a world order that is designed to harm. To quote The Mahabharata " small puny men who rule over broken wealth" the present day vile rulers who in turn serve the venal oligarchs flaunting their obscene wealth. If this is not the time for change - if not now, when?
The US picked up where the Nazis left off in 1945. In 1948 they started NATO and installed German Nazis in high positions. The US imported a bunch of Nazis in 1945 during Operation Paperclip. A Nazi put the US in the Moon.
During the war US providing material support for the Nazi's simply because it was so profitable for the MIC thus the war lasted a lot longer than it needed to be - look now 23 years of wasting taxpayers funds based on a series of lies as a response to 9-11.
They sure picked up where the Nazi's left off as if it were planned that way and all we have to look at all the nations that have become Washington's submissive vassal states.
You make excellent points and I concur. War is a Racket -- Smedley Butler. The Oligarchs, Banksters and Weapons Manufacturing Corporations love it. They send kids to die while they keep their own at home.
The purpose of the US Military is not to defend us but for profit to enrich the Oligarchs. American weapons manufacturers design weapons to line pockets instead of winning.
Wars of aggression are a racket indeed as they're always designed to serve another agenda that under normal circumstances never pass public scrutiny - so they have the MSM on their side.
There was far more to the 2nd WW than most realize just like there's far more to the lie based response to 9-11 [both wars served another hidden agenda]
The US Defense forces and that of her vassal states are being ''pimped'' not because the US is under attack but because it serves another agenda which first of all is all about diverting taxpayers funds towards the privately owned MIC [which benefits the oligarchy] and second to that and far more importantly its to maintain control over the political narrative so they can push through a hidden agenda.
Times of peace will be far more profitable for the majority of people bar the war profiteers and their submissive puppets - however - peace activist will be tagged as unpatriotic by the war mongers and the ill informed.
Our supposedly democratic institution have been so thoroughly corrupted that they appear to be beyond salvaging - what's the point of electing a government whoms narrative is decided on from afar. [elections serve to create the illusion of Democracy]
And the Dulles brothers helped finance German reparations for WWI as both were involved in Versailles negotiations. The loans did finally get paid off with who knows how much interest in the late 1990's.
Allow me to provide an example of what is meant by that.
''The process through which one collects a debt from a government or a monarch is not a subject taught in the business schools or the universities and most of us, never having been in the business of financing Kings or governments have not given the problem much thought.
But there is a King financing business, and to those that can ensure collection, it is a lucrative business.
An economics professor named Stuard Crane notes - that there are two means used to loan money to governments and kings and two means of collecting* on that money.
Whenever a business firm borrows big money - the creditor obtains - an influence in management to protect its investment - like a business - no government can borrow big money unless that government is willing to surrender - to the creditor - some of its sovereignty - suddenly international bankers who have loaned hundreds of Billions of dollars to governments around the world command considerable influence in the policies of such government. From a speech by MLK
Good point! And that influence may mean going after the communists that got in due to WWI and all that godlessness too. Meanwhile we were helping Japan against China until we provoked another excuse like provoking the Russia with a coup now. Ukraine will be in considerable debt for rebuilding old destroyed infrastructure and agribusiness interests. Now instead of godlessness it is the wrong Orthodoxy from the Polish version.
These never ending US lie based wars have accumulated something over 30 trillion of debt - [which needless to suggest could be better invested on humanitarian related issues instead of enriching the shareholders of the MIC.
The golden question - who financed these wars and who stood to benefit financially? [cue bono]
Right now we all need to stand together and push back against the pandemic treaty.
The Nazis based their concept on….US Jim Crow regimes.
The U.S. defeated the Nazis with segregation in its own armies. And dropped atomic weapons on Japan for show.
Then then the U.S. on that century went on to commit war crimes against the population of Vietnam and Korea. After recruiting German Nazi rocket and atomic scientist.
Never mind the 21st century - who were the “Nazis” in the 20th century then?
Deforestation, brought to you by the same people promoting climate change. Where is Greta? We once upon a time had an axiom to judge people by the actions rather than words, there again that was a completely different world, faulted yes, but a paradise compared to the encroaching darkness too few seem to notice.
Promoting climate change? Do you mean to say that climate change is not happening because the patriarchal system that caused it is continuing to cause it?
Climate change from burning fossil fuels and deforestation and environmental destruction is 'promoted' and opposed by many in South America and by First Nations all over the world who see more clearly than anyone, as well as of course by scientists and anyone with eyes.
Climate change, which is most definitely happening, is given lip service by the elites (themselves responsible for 25% of emissions) because they have to; but they're not doing anything about it. John Kerry uses it to increase even further spending on defence to prevent immigration, to improve sea based military stations to mitigate sea level rises and to prepare for war with Russia once the ice melts (Sweden and Finland already in or about to join NATO) over the oil underneath the Arctic (no one would possibly consider negotiation instead). Trudeau's government says he's climate king yet is funding the trans mountain oil pipeline to the tune of millions Canadian tax dollars, which even industry says will be uneconomic. Much money is spent by industry, given to the Heartland denialists and others, to make us think climate change is a con by the evil WEF to control us.
Of course this military deforestation is opposed by Greta, all environmentalists and scientists. Of course war makes climate change even worse. But sensible debate on US aggression and war is not allowed by anyone with a mainstream audience. Not being allowed to speak out about the environmental effects of war, therefore, does not discredit the truth of climate change. Though personally I wish those in the public eye would speak up and be damned.
I have been green since the 1980's, I currently see ongoing deforestation, massive pollution, GMO crops, harmful pesticides, plastics islands, wars, pipelines being destroyed releasing massive pollution, and yet little to no MSM or Green comment. The problem I have with the "solutions" is that it is the same corporate entities offering us a contrived feel good that simply enriches themselves more and does nothing to address any real issues.
As to Patriarchy, any Matriarchy would be the same, as with men it wouldn't be our better examples of women in charge but our worst, look to recent female politicians. This is just another tool of division, one of many in play.
The patriarchy does't refer to men in charge as opposed to women. It is the system that trains men to kill their emotional selves, to dominate women and non-white races and for all to value material wealth however it is gained at whatever cost.
The solution or the opposite to the patriarchy is not having women in charge nor a matriarchy!
It is not training children that boys aren't allowed to cry, not shaming compassion for animals out of them, not teaching them to seek their identity's through feelings of superiority or the accumulation of wealth, not needing to show dominance of each other and nature but rather finding themselves in community and connection.
...where 'patriarchy' is opposed to 'matrifocal' society: This was a prehistoric time when God was the mother of all animals. War started in the bronze age. One could see Mary and Jesus as an attempt to re-install matrifocality; to focus on mother and child.
'Dominance' or 'authority' are not gender specific and become a problem only in mass society and its institutions. In a small community, obligation replaces hierarchy.
I agree that the solutions and the protests of the greens, which focus on climate change, are not addressing the real issues of environmental destruction. Extinction Rebellion UK has a big march this Saturday to #EndFossilFuels. It is completely unhelpful. Even if fossil fuels were transitioned to something else (with it's own issues) we would still have loads of things to sort out. War being a major one. Like BLM protests are totally unhelpful and cause more separation, I think protesting about fossil fuels just makes more division, hardens opposition in those wanting to maintain the status quo and makes helpful debate or government action even less likely.
I don't have a garden but my camper is backed up to the edge of a pasture in an oak grove. I spend much time admiring those beautiful trees and the creatures that live in and under them. There's a lot of wildlife. It's very peaceful and I love sitting on my Porch under my awning with my morning coffee and cigar just watching. Sometimes deer appear. Even an otter came bouncing by one day. There are many kinds of birds. It's a paradise.
Then I get Caitlin Johnstone and others in my email prompting me to read and watch videos. The peace is gone and I'm filled with rage again for another day.
It's strange, I'm sure several continents separate us, but we think the same way, I'm building my house in a small mountain village surrounded by a huge forest, beautiful deer roam the streets at night, a couple of weeks ago a mother wild boar of almost 200 kg walked by my fence with 8 piglets . Countless birds fly around us from the forest. I wouldn't trade the peace and quiet for any fashionable place, even though I've traveled the world from Alaska to the Caribbean, from North Africa to Scotland and to the former Soviet Union!
I will never understand those who are fueled by a crazy desire to chase money, all I care about is being able to pay my bills!
I would imprison all those who build huge armies in order to steal the goods of other countries, such as the colonialists (the West) who rob black Africa to this day and therefore keep military bases there !
And with this logic, of course, the Russian people are also hateful, what do they imagine sitting alone on the world's greatest mineral resources ?
It seems you're building in the Blue Ridge from the wildlife you describe. I'm in central Florida.
I agree with everything you have wrote except what you wrote about the Russian People. I also think you're wrong about the Russian government because they have a defensive posture. You must be an American afflicted with the manufactured mental disorder Russophobia.
Well, you misunderstood me, it's true that English is not my mother tongue! :)
I have no problem with the Russians, my father was freed from the prison of the dictatorship in 1956 by a Russian man, he owes his life to him !
On the other hand, what I wrote in a funny and nuanced way about the Russian mineral wealth indicated that the Western powers, led by the USA, want to acquire it for themselves ! I tried to express myself in a cultured way, but you took the complete opposite meaning out of it ! 😟
I am utterly amazed there isn't global outrage over what is going on as this is shaping up as a nuclear version of Vietnam where they defoliated the jungles with toxic chemicals, did bombing runs with napalm, and secretly carpet bombed Cambodia. Vietnamese casualties are estimated at 3-5 million. Biden recently visited Vietnam to try and enlist it as a "coalition of the willing" to attack China. For some strange reason they sent him packing.
Indigenous cultures consider themselves humble custodians of planet Earth to be passed on to future generations .... and we call ourselves civilized!!!!
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
The global outrage is quite simply not being reported - they [the financial elite] have full control over the MSM yet anywhere else one looks and reads the outrage is there alright.
In Philippines, one of the places the US MIL has their eyeballs on is the northern island of Batangas. It is a pristine and unique place, settled by Europeans in times past and featuring non-vernacular stone style construction. They want to put a port there, for obvious reasons being not far from Taiwan if the shooting starts.
Someone said to me yesterday about how the G20 got off to a bad start by China and Russia shaking hands and not acknowledging the 'war' nor that Putin was such so evil. I gave them a quick history lesson.
Biden and Sunak are the people every country's representatives should be refusing to shake hands with.
O that’s great—where did you hear that? I’m thinking Germany is one of the key ice breakers in the chance for peace with Russia. They were a huge economy, very well off due to having cheap Russian oil and gas and grain. And they know that NATO and the US caused the precipitous collapse of their economy. Now if they face a particularly cold winter, Scholz will either have to dump the US or dump his puny career. This is good!
NATO wants member states to spend 2% of GDP on defence 'According to information released on July 7 by NATO, 10 of 31 alliance members are achieving the current goal of spending two percent of their GDP on defense. In 2014, when the goal was first set, only three hit that mark. All members are hitting the objective of spending 20 percent of their defense spending on new equipment.
Twelve countries are spending better than 1.5 percent of GDP on defense, and only one member—Luxembourg—is spending less than one percent. The overall median is 1.87 percent for the alliance. The values for 2023 are estimates based on member reports, NATO said.
In the 16 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO as a whole has also seen an overall eight percent real increase in defense spending above inflation, compared with two percent in 2022. In the same period, overall NATO member spending on equipment leaped from 8.5 percent real growth to 24.9 percent of real growth above inflation.
Julianne Smith, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, told reporters in a July 7 conference call that new, multi-domain regional defense plans that be rolled out in Vilnius. They cover a range of scenarios, including defending the Atlantic and Arctic, protecting central Europe and the Balkans, and defending southern Europe and the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
In August 2023 The German government on Wednesday stepped back at the last minute from making a legal commitment to meeting NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense on an annual basis, according to Reuters and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
A government official told the news agency that a clause pledging to meet the target was deleted at short notice from Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s draft of a new budget financing law, just before the Cabinet passed it to the parliament.' instead they pledge to spend 2% on average over 5 years. They've already been criticised by the US for years for not spending at least 2 % of their budget on defence. https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-defense-change-of-plan-nato-spending/
Overall spending seems to be going how Lockheed Martin et al want it to.
Thank you. Great info and resources and thinking. It’s kind of funny to me to see these “allies” acting like various Mafia gangs in the 30’s, going after each other to consolidate their power. Just shows how the dogs will turn on each other.
The US bankrupting Germany can't be helping happy families! The Empire is already falling apart, but not quickly enough. With the arctic ice melting and Finland and Sweden joining NATO to 'help' them secure access to the oil under it and not let Russia have it (no one would dream of negotiation); it could end up with parts of Europe aligned on opposing sides. Just like the old days.
Schools is full on for German military spending actually. “NATO” isn’t the only aspect of their military expansion.
What happens WITHIN Europe when the German economy is based on growth of a war machine? And their local enemies the Polish have an even bigger army and nothing else to drive THEIR economy either.
Again— great information! Where can I read about this? I read geopolitical economics with Micheal Hudson but have not seen these developments mentioned.
Not sure which comment you're replying to https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/macron-would-be-inappropriate-guest-brics-summit-says-russia-2023-06-22/ but Macron wants more autonomy and sees Brics as the way to a multipolar world but he'd have to leave NATO and probably the EU first. 'Macron's intent to display independence from the US or his possible interest in more cooperation with BRICS countries, it all indicates that the US is no longer what it used to be. Macron has pointed out that Western hegemony may be coming to an end because of the West's own missteps. Macron was reported to have lobbied Donald Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. And by the end of 2022, he blasted US Inflation Reduction Act. Yet the results are the same - the US does not listen. Worse, with the US profiting from the Ukraine crisis and shifting the burden to Europe, as a major European power, it is impossible for France to have no complaint. Therefore, Macron's move can be seen as expressing dissatisfaction with the US, as the US, the leader of the West, is becoming increasingly unreliable.'
Dan Andrews was / is another one who was caught on video trying to keep something up his nose when most people would simply clear their noses specially during the ''pandemic''.
There are people on this earth who just made millions by clearing out trees for airstrips. At least a few of them will probably use that money to build new mansions for themselves in gentrified new 15 minute cities on Maui.
It’s mot just few people. There are a huge percentage of the pop that are fake liberals and lifestyle environmentalists, who champion conflict and war, and pretend that ravaging the planet isn’t what they are supporting by doing so.
Thank you Caitlin for another depressing piece. No that is not sarcasm but we need truth if there is any chance there will be change. Keep giving it to us in your superlative style and so heartfelt you make this tough old guy about to shed tears.
They subordinate everything to domination by any means - not people, fellow earth inhabitants - but the one standing in their way. Like a mad dog. Power complex writ large.
A quote in this episode of interview of Jeffrey Sachs by Alexander Mercuris was quite insightful. Mercuris said, "....people on the council of foreign relations, ...... and they talk about revitalizing the US economy in order to meet the challenge of China, and I have to say that seems to me an absolutely warped sense of priorities. You don't revitalize your economy in order to meet the challenge of China. If you are going to revitalize your economy, you do it in order to increase the prosperity, the happiness, the sense of contentment in your own country amongst your own people. But that is the mindset these people seem to have. They subordinate everything to their geopolitical ideas."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPzlQNUfstc&ab_channel=JeffreySachsOfFans
A prosperous United States would empower ordinary people there. This is a major threat to the system and must be stopped. A prosperous China serves as a bad example. If US people see a prosperous and happy China they may want the same for themselves. Better to impoverish the people through high rents and prices, rendering them powerless. Silence undesirable speech and neutralize any potential leaders.
It's odd that we hear or read nothing whatsoever about the lifestyle in Russia, China, Cuba or north Korea isn't it.?
Good interview on Useful Idiots with Amanda Yew who speaks extensively about North Korea and Western propaganda
People in those countries are exactly the same as you or I or anyone - they get up, feed their kids and send them to school, go to work, go shopping, come home, have something to eat, watch TV, play with their children. What do you think they do?
You missed the whole point of my comment.
what was the point then?
The USA has lost perspective at such a deep level.
Never had the perspective in the first place. Underneath the tech facade it’s an unreconciled plantation nation.
You’re right about that. Its foundation was based upon a flawed premise after careful deliberation. Actually, that’s evil.
Sadly,, accurate.
Capitalism, as an economic system, owns us. We are driven by the profit motive - the market rules. Capitalism is a most heinous system similar to past system such as slavery and feudalism.
We as the people serving Capitalism have to find a way of turning things around for the benefit of the many and not just a few. A Revolution sounds the best way. Why should the people of this Earth allow the rich and powerful get away with literally murder - responsible for millions of deaths around the world. Wars, proxy wars by powerful nations will wipe us off the planet.
End Capitalism, it’s the ogre of the planet.
The problem with capitalistic that it is a reflection of our human natures. Same with feudalism, communism, hippie communes. None of them give utopia because we're greedy and fearful and each of us cares more about ourselves today than you tomorrow.
That may be characteristic of our present societies but it says very little about our human nature. Humans did not evolve in towns and cities. Not even on farms. All of what we call civilization is very recent on the timeline of human history. To understand human nature, you must go further back.
There's an awful lot of evidence pointing one way. It's possible that in the distant past things were different. But it's only a possibility and it's up against everything that we know for certain over 6 thousand years
That’s a great insight. I googled the word “vigilance,” and one definition was
“the action or state of keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties.”
This is the empire narrative-serving connotation, and it has become the de facto meaning of the word colloquially. But another definition is pre-contextual and, for that reason more useful. I think it is very applicable to citizens preserving democracy.
“the quality or state of being wakeful and alert.”
Exactly
Great observation.
Worse yet they talk about sustainability and “ green growth”- in the same breadth as declaring that they want to see China and Russia impoverished. But the planet doesn’t work that way.
So much sadness. I am going to re-read the Pulling Back the Curtain essay again. After I take a few minutes to just be sad. I don't understand the people who would rather kill and destroy and hate than love and create and appreciate. I never will. I'm sorry, Mother Earth.
The purification and reset of Earth is underway, most people are just becoming aware. Whether the massive carnivores of old or the new carnivores of greed and power, balance becomes critical and sought by forces beyond our imagination. Just a few degrees warmer and tipping points become irreversible. Everyday of my life I have breathed in the natural beauty around us to calm myself, now for the first time I become anxious as I see it disappear. Maybe one day far into the future my dust will recycle, my conscience reconnect, and I will be born again, or return as a beautiful flower or bird, or maybe a rock.
Sadness must give way to righteous anger, people of the world should unite against a world order that is designed to harm. To quote The Mahabharata " small puny men who rule over broken wealth" the present day vile rulers who in turn serve the venal oligarchs flaunting their obscene wealth. If this is not the time for change - if not now, when?
I agree with you !
It's strange now that I'm reading your lines, I remembered that it's been almost half a century since I read the Mahabharata !
The US are the Nazis of the 21st Century.
The US picked up where the Nazis left off in 1945. In 1948 they started NATO and installed German Nazis in high positions. The US imported a bunch of Nazis in 1945 during Operation Paperclip. A Nazi put the US in the Moon.
Worse than that - Wall Street bailed out a bankrupt Nazi party in '32 !
Hitler was Financed by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England - https://www.globalresearch.ca/history-of-world-war-ii-nazi-germany-was-financed-by-the-federal-reserve-and-the-bank-of-england/5530318
Without that finance.......
During the war US providing material support for the Nazi's simply because it was so profitable for the MIC thus the war lasted a lot longer than it needed to be - look now 23 years of wasting taxpayers funds based on a series of lies as a response to 9-11.
They sure picked up where the Nazi's left off as if it were planned that way and all we have to look at all the nations that have become Washington's submissive vassal states.
You make excellent points and I concur. War is a Racket -- Smedley Butler. The Oligarchs, Banksters and Weapons Manufacturing Corporations love it. They send kids to die while they keep their own at home.
The purpose of the US Military is not to defend us but for profit to enrich the Oligarchs. American weapons manufacturers design weapons to line pockets instead of winning.
Thank you!
Wars of aggression are a racket indeed as they're always designed to serve another agenda that under normal circumstances never pass public scrutiny - so they have the MSM on their side.
There was far more to the 2nd WW than most realize just like there's far more to the lie based response to 9-11 [both wars served another hidden agenda]
The US Defense forces and that of her vassal states are being ''pimped'' not because the US is under attack but because it serves another agenda which first of all is all about diverting taxpayers funds towards the privately owned MIC [which benefits the oligarchy] and second to that and far more importantly its to maintain control over the political narrative so they can push through a hidden agenda.
Times of peace will be far more profitable for the majority of people bar the war profiteers and their submissive puppets - however - peace activist will be tagged as unpatriotic by the war mongers and the ill informed.
Our supposedly democratic institution have been so thoroughly corrupted that they appear to be beyond salvaging - what's the point of electing a government whoms narrative is decided on from afar. [elections serve to create the illusion of Democracy]
And the Dulles brothers helped finance German reparations for WWI as both were involved in Versailles negotiations. The loans did finally get paid off with who knows how much interest in the late 1990's.
Another thing about loans are conditionalities.
Allow me to provide an example of what is meant by that.
''The process through which one collects a debt from a government or a monarch is not a subject taught in the business schools or the universities and most of us, never having been in the business of financing Kings or governments have not given the problem much thought.
But there is a King financing business, and to those that can ensure collection, it is a lucrative business.
An economics professor named Stuard Crane notes - that there are two means used to loan money to governments and kings and two means of collecting* on that money.
Whenever a business firm borrows big money - the creditor obtains - an influence in management to protect its investment - like a business - no government can borrow big money unless that government is willing to surrender - to the creditor - some of its sovereignty - suddenly international bankers who have loaned hundreds of Billions of dollars to governments around the world command considerable influence in the policies of such government. From a speech by MLK
Good point! And that influence may mean going after the communists that got in due to WWI and all that godlessness too. Meanwhile we were helping Japan against China until we provoked another excuse like provoking the Russia with a coup now. Ukraine will be in considerable debt for rebuilding old destroyed infrastructure and agribusiness interests. Now instead of godlessness it is the wrong Orthodoxy from the Polish version.
These never ending US lie based wars have accumulated something over 30 trillion of debt - [which needless to suggest could be better invested on humanitarian related issues instead of enriching the shareholders of the MIC.
The golden question - who financed these wars and who stood to benefit financially? [cue bono]
Right now we all need to stand together and push back against the pandemic treaty.
Who’s who though ?
The Nazis based their concept on….US Jim Crow regimes.
The U.S. defeated the Nazis with segregation in its own armies. And dropped atomic weapons on Japan for show.
Then then the U.S. on that century went on to commit war crimes against the population of Vietnam and Korea. After recruiting German Nazi rocket and atomic scientist.
Never mind the 21st century - who were the “Nazis” in the 20th century then?
Deforestation, brought to you by the same people promoting climate change. Where is Greta? We once upon a time had an axiom to judge people by the actions rather than words, there again that was a completely different world, faulted yes, but a paradise compared to the encroaching darkness too few seem to notice.
Promoting climate change? Do you mean to say that climate change is not happening because the patriarchal system that caused it is continuing to cause it?
Climate change from burning fossil fuels and deforestation and environmental destruction is 'promoted' and opposed by many in South America and by First Nations all over the world who see more clearly than anyone, as well as of course by scientists and anyone with eyes.
Climate change, which is most definitely happening, is given lip service by the elites (themselves responsible for 25% of emissions) because they have to; but they're not doing anything about it. John Kerry uses it to increase even further spending on defence to prevent immigration, to improve sea based military stations to mitigate sea level rises and to prepare for war with Russia once the ice melts (Sweden and Finland already in or about to join NATO) over the oil underneath the Arctic (no one would possibly consider negotiation instead). Trudeau's government says he's climate king yet is funding the trans mountain oil pipeline to the tune of millions Canadian tax dollars, which even industry says will be uneconomic. Much money is spent by industry, given to the Heartland denialists and others, to make us think climate change is a con by the evil WEF to control us.
Of course this military deforestation is opposed by Greta, all environmentalists and scientists. Of course war makes climate change even worse. But sensible debate on US aggression and war is not allowed by anyone with a mainstream audience. Not being allowed to speak out about the environmental effects of war, therefore, does not discredit the truth of climate change. Though personally I wish those in the public eye would speak up and be damned.
That person you are replying to - if it’s even a person- is aiming to obfuscate.
I agree, I thought I would reply anyway there's so much of that going around.
I have been green since the 1980's, I currently see ongoing deforestation, massive pollution, GMO crops, harmful pesticides, plastics islands, wars, pipelines being destroyed releasing massive pollution, and yet little to no MSM or Green comment. The problem I have with the "solutions" is that it is the same corporate entities offering us a contrived feel good that simply enriches themselves more and does nothing to address any real issues.
As to Patriarchy, any Matriarchy would be the same, as with men it wouldn't be our better examples of women in charge but our worst, look to recent female politicians. This is just another tool of division, one of many in play.
The patriarchy does't refer to men in charge as opposed to women. It is the system that trains men to kill their emotional selves, to dominate women and non-white races and for all to value material wealth however it is gained at whatever cost.
The solution or the opposite to the patriarchy is not having women in charge nor a matriarchy!
It is not training children that boys aren't allowed to cry, not shaming compassion for animals out of them, not teaching them to seek their identity's through feelings of superiority or the accumulation of wealth, not needing to show dominance of each other and nature but rather finding themselves in community and connection.
Beautifully said.
...where 'patriarchy' is opposed to 'matrifocal' society: This was a prehistoric time when God was the mother of all animals. War started in the bronze age. One could see Mary and Jesus as an attempt to re-install matrifocality; to focus on mother and child.
'Dominance' or 'authority' are not gender specific and become a problem only in mass society and its institutions. In a small community, obligation replaces hierarchy.
Swell, blame the patriarchy. Safe choice, since it never talks back.
Does the hegemonic imperialist US ever talk back?
I agree that the solutions and the protests of the greens, which focus on climate change, are not addressing the real issues of environmental destruction. Extinction Rebellion UK has a big march this Saturday to #EndFossilFuels. It is completely unhelpful. Even if fossil fuels were transitioned to something else (with it's own issues) we would still have loads of things to sort out. War being a major one. Like BLM protests are totally unhelpful and cause more separation, I think protesting about fossil fuels just makes more division, hardens opposition in those wanting to maintain the status quo and makes helpful debate or government action even less likely.
Perfect poem.
This is why I spend so much time in my garden, picking tomatoes and admiring our trees. I want to remember them come what may. Always.
I don't have a garden but my camper is backed up to the edge of a pasture in an oak grove. I spend much time admiring those beautiful trees and the creatures that live in and under them. There's a lot of wildlife. It's very peaceful and I love sitting on my Porch under my awning with my morning coffee and cigar just watching. Sometimes deer appear. Even an otter came bouncing by one day. There are many kinds of birds. It's a paradise.
Then I get Caitlin Johnstone and others in my email prompting me to read and watch videos. The peace is gone and I'm filled with rage again for another day.
It's strange, I'm sure several continents separate us, but we think the same way, I'm building my house in a small mountain village surrounded by a huge forest, beautiful deer roam the streets at night, a couple of weeks ago a mother wild boar of almost 200 kg walked by my fence with 8 piglets . Countless birds fly around us from the forest. I wouldn't trade the peace and quiet for any fashionable place, even though I've traveled the world from Alaska to the Caribbean, from North Africa to Scotland and to the former Soviet Union!
I will never understand those who are fueled by a crazy desire to chase money, all I care about is being able to pay my bills!
I would imprison all those who build huge armies in order to steal the goods of other countries, such as the colonialists (the West) who rob black Africa to this day and therefore keep military bases there !
And with this logic, of course, the Russian people are also hateful, what do they imagine sitting alone on the world's greatest mineral resources ?
It seems you're building in the Blue Ridge from the wildlife you describe. I'm in central Florida.
I agree with everything you have wrote except what you wrote about the Russian People. I also think you're wrong about the Russian government because they have a defensive posture. You must be an American afflicted with the manufactured mental disorder Russophobia.
Well, you misunderstood me, it's true that English is not my mother tongue! :)
I have no problem with the Russians, my father was freed from the prison of the dictatorship in 1956 by a Russian man, he owes his life to him !
On the other hand, what I wrote in a funny and nuanced way about the Russian mineral wealth indicated that the Western powers, led by the USA, want to acquire it for themselves ! I tried to express myself in a cultured way, but you took the complete opposite meaning out of it ! 😟
I am utterly amazed there isn't global outrage over what is going on as this is shaping up as a nuclear version of Vietnam where they defoliated the jungles with toxic chemicals, did bombing runs with napalm, and secretly carpet bombed Cambodia. Vietnamese casualties are estimated at 3-5 million. Biden recently visited Vietnam to try and enlist it as a "coalition of the willing" to attack China. For some strange reason they sent him packing.
Indigenous cultures consider themselves humble custodians of planet Earth to be passed on to future generations .... and we call ourselves civilized!!!!
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
-Oscar Wilde
The global outrage is quite simply not being reported - they [the financial elite] have full control over the MSM yet anywhere else one looks and reads the outrage is there alright.
In Philippines, one of the places the US MIL has their eyeballs on is the northern island of Batangas. It is a pristine and unique place, settled by Europeans in times past and featuring non-vernacular stone style construction. They want to put a port there, for obvious reasons being not far from Taiwan if the shooting starts.
Sigh.
US regime killed 4m of the best Vietnamese by bombing. You all forget?
In Vietnam we lost 58k and 500b +
No one accepted responsibility
No one assigned responsibility
No one resigned
No one forced to resign
No investigation
Not even hearings on US dead
We got a wall with 58k names
If you dont investigate get bigger mistakes later
Someone said to me yesterday about how the G20 got off to a bad start by China and Russia shaking hands and not acknowledging the 'war' nor that Putin was such so evil. I gave them a quick history lesson.
Biden and Sunak are the people every country's representatives should be refusing to shake hands with.
And Scholz and Macron and the rest of the US lackeys.
Scholz also seems to be drawing back from committing to NATO defence spending
O that’s great—where did you hear that? I’m thinking Germany is one of the key ice breakers in the chance for peace with Russia. They were a huge economy, very well off due to having cheap Russian oil and gas and grain. And they know that NATO and the US caused the precipitous collapse of their economy. Now if they face a particularly cold winter, Scholz will either have to dump the US or dump his puny career. This is good!
NATO wants member states to spend 2% of GDP on defence 'According to information released on July 7 by NATO, 10 of 31 alliance members are achieving the current goal of spending two percent of their GDP on defense. In 2014, when the goal was first set, only three hit that mark. All members are hitting the objective of spending 20 percent of their defense spending on new equipment.
Twelve countries are spending better than 1.5 percent of GDP on defense, and only one member—Luxembourg—is spending less than one percent. The overall median is 1.87 percent for the alliance. The values for 2023 are estimates based on member reports, NATO said.
In the 16 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO as a whole has also seen an overall eight percent real increase in defense spending above inflation, compared with two percent in 2022. In the same period, overall NATO member spending on equipment leaped from 8.5 percent real growth to 24.9 percent of real growth above inflation.
Julianne Smith, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, told reporters in a July 7 conference call that new, multi-domain regional defense plans that be rolled out in Vilnius. They cover a range of scenarios, including defending the Atlantic and Arctic, protecting central Europe and the Balkans, and defending southern Europe and the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the plans represented a major bulking up of the alliance.' from https://www.airandspaceforces.com/nato-member-defense-spending-summit/
In August 2023 The German government on Wednesday stepped back at the last minute from making a legal commitment to meeting NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense on an annual basis, according to Reuters and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
A government official told the news agency that a clause pledging to meet the target was deleted at short notice from Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s draft of a new budget financing law, just before the Cabinet passed it to the parliament.' instead they pledge to spend 2% on average over 5 years. They've already been criticised by the US for years for not spending at least 2 % of their budget on defence. https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-defense-change-of-plan-nato-spending/
Overall spending seems to be going how Lockheed Martin et al want it to.
Thank you. Great info and resources and thinking. It’s kind of funny to me to see these “allies” acting like various Mafia gangs in the 30’s, going after each other to consolidate their power. Just shows how the dogs will turn on each other.
The US bankrupting Germany can't be helping happy families! The Empire is already falling apart, but not quickly enough. With the arctic ice melting and Finland and Sweden joining NATO to 'help' them secure access to the oil under it and not let Russia have it (no one would dream of negotiation); it could end up with parts of Europe aligned on opposing sides. Just like the old days.
Schools is full on for German military spending actually. “NATO” isn’t the only aspect of their military expansion.
What happens WITHIN Europe when the German economy is based on growth of a war machine? And their local enemies the Polish have an even bigger army and nothing else to drive THEIR economy either.
Thank you. Yes.
I think Macron is fed up with being a US lapdog, he wants to join BRiCS doesn't he?
Again— great information! Where can I read about this? I read geopolitical economics with Micheal Hudson but have not seen these developments mentioned.
Not sure which comment you're replying to https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/macron-would-be-inappropriate-guest-brics-summit-says-russia-2023-06-22/ but Macron wants more autonomy and sees Brics as the way to a multipolar world but he'd have to leave NATO and probably the EU first. 'Macron's intent to display independence from the US or his possible interest in more cooperation with BRICS countries, it all indicates that the US is no longer what it used to be. Macron has pointed out that Western hegemony may be coming to an end because of the West's own missteps. Macron was reported to have lobbied Donald Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. And by the end of 2022, he blasted US Inflation Reduction Act. Yet the results are the same - the US does not listen. Worse, with the US profiting from the Ukraine crisis and shifting the burden to Europe, as a major European power, it is impossible for France to have no complaint. Therefore, Macron's move can be seen as expressing dissatisfaction with the US, as the US, the leader of the West, is becoming increasingly unreliable.'
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202306/1292711.shtml
Macron wants to leave the sinking ship. Unfortunately the UK is going to go down with the SS Imperial US.
Macron was a Rothschild banker come puppet.
According to French people and other experts; he's an arrogant little prick. I don't think he likes being a puppet to the US whatever else he is.
An arrogant little prick with a fondness for the white powder - so he's compromised - I doubt he'll last for long without his daily fix.
Any puppet of the Rothschild has to support the Zionist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6Nt4goDoqs
Dan Andrews was / is another one who was caught on video trying to keep something up his nose when most people would simply clear their noses specially during the ''pandemic''.
There are people on this earth who just made millions by clearing out trees for airstrips. At least a few of them will probably use that money to build new mansions for themselves in gentrified new 15 minute cities on Maui.
It’s mot just few people. There are a huge percentage of the pop that are fake liberals and lifestyle environmentalists, who champion conflict and war, and pretend that ravaging the planet isn’t what they are supporting by doing so.
Thank you Caitlin for another depressing piece. No that is not sarcasm but we need truth if there is any chance there will be change. Keep giving it to us in your superlative style and so heartfelt you make this tough old guy about to shed tears.
Yep, these people are called NEOCONS, and they can be found in large numbers on both sides of the aisle.
Nuland’s hubby wrote the book on it. The PNAC.
So very moving.
They subordinate everything to domination by any means - not people, fellow earth inhabitants - but the one standing in their way. Like a mad dog. Power complex writ large.