Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): In an interview shortly before his death Daniel Ellsberg said the US runs a "covert empire", which is a really good way of putting it. A giant globe-spanning cluster of nations consistently moves in alignment with the dictates of Washington, but they all keep their official flags and their official governments, so it doesn't look like an empire despite functioning as one in every meaningful way.
I agree with you that we are run by thugs and tyrants and it’s not confined to one country. It’s everywhere. It’s what to do about it that’s the problem.
I would argue that the CIA and FBI and the rest of the surveillance police state are far WORSE now, even than during the Wilson WW I repression and the McCarthy era, because they have far more powerful digital tools and far lower chances of detection and prosecution of their abuses.
The last three paragraphs have one of the most useful observations I can think of. Parenti said that the left gets itself into trouble because it continually underestimates the depravity of its enemies. In a different, possibly less malignant context, Edmund Wilson noted that Ulysses S. Grant (the commander of the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War) was caught in various scandals when he was president because “[i]t was the age of the audacious confidence man, and Grant was the incurable sucker. He easily fell victim to their trickery, and allowed them to betray him into compromising his office, because he could not believe that such people existed.”
It's all downstream from a centralized banking cartel ushered in by Bernard Baruch aka Wilson's Kissinger. Ever read about the Tulsa Massacre? It wasn't race! Those people transcended the newly formed Federal Reserve Bank so the community was burned to the ground, killing hundreds. It's the most powerful mafia in history. Read Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution by Antony Sutton and it all falls into place. All Wars are Bankers Wars: https://youtu.be/00FYNGtr540
I love your portrait of Ellsberg. I discovered him waaaay too late (funny how I don’t remember learning about him in high school), but he’ll always be my hero.
Pretend that Trump supporters were sporting swastikas and SS regalia on 1/6. How would the NYT react?
Something leads me to suspect that the Gray Lady wouldn't be making excuses, saying "it's complicated" or wrapping their eyebrows around their proverbial noses talking about "nuance".
The American Empire is less and less covert. Hell, even the NYT Review of Books or somesuch recently ran a cover joyfully proclaiming the United States an Empire. Peasants, rejoice!
Thank you for this slice of truth, if we all opened our eyes we we see 'the covert empire' which has long been supported by my own country , the UK. Citizens of the US, UK and many other countries are mostly unaware that we are being collectively ruled over, coerced and manipulated. Look now at the dreadful corrupt politicians we have in the UK. I am remembering how if the UK didn't remove Corbyn the US would. Socialism must not be allowed to flourish, thinking of the US treatment of Cuba now. And the demonisation of China and Russia is ongoing.
Your writing is excellent, and I am a dedicated follower of your work. One quibble. Your use of the word “surreal” is something that is irritating to me as a surrealist and an artist. You use it in the same way that people use the word anarchy to describe chaos. Surrealism is a concept with real value that needs to be understood, and not used as a placeholder for an experience you find odd or bewildering.
"In that ongoing nightmare that is a loss of Geo-political and Geo-economic dominance wherein they have nothing to counter the BeiJing One Belt Road World Economic Trade Global Project, with the powerhouse economies of Russia and The Global South signing on, The Washington Masters of Present Arrangements will no longer be kicking their geo-political can of legitimate external competitive challenges, in their universe read “threats”, down that metaphorical foreign policy road, their road to nowhere as they now flag with recent visibly standout events that The American Power Elite will break and destroy not just the principles on which their globalized economic order rested but also any foreign physical infrastructure and countries to retain their presumed leading position, always fraudulently pitched as a force for good in the world while simultaneously emphasizing American interest - their interests".
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office" - Aesop, ancient Greek writer, 620–564 BCE. One might add, of those who make the laws, it is inevitable that they must view themselves to be above the law, for they are their laws.
Caitlin - There is some confusion on political strategy. You frame the class war and direct action versus electoral politics as an either/or. It is a both/and.
There is no contradiction between class war and direct action and electoral politics. The challenge to making change is to use class interests and direct action to influence policy and politics (including elections), and not got diverted to sole focus on electoral politics, sheep dogged into supporting the status quo candidates and corrupt parties, and co-opted by charismatic leaders.
Like them or not, government and the institutions of power exist and they must be challenged and reformed. Whether that reform is incremental symbolic gestures or radical substance. That is the question.
Thank you Caitlin for telling the cold hard truths of our times. Washington's war is on the world and it goes back to the times of the Dulles brothers in the 1950's who laid the foundations. We are all potential victims of its wars as the neocons are willing to cannibalize cultures as required. Ukraine and Western Europe have already fallen. NATO has just set up offices in Japan. We are slaves states to these wars with little comprehension of the ruinous social and economic costs we are paying.
The Empire is global and the destruction it inflicts knows no borders including its own.
"The only time Biden was condemned by the mass media was when he withdrew from Afghanistan."
They needn't have worried. I knew the only reason was that the resources were needed for a bigger war somewhere else. It didn't take long.
I agree with you that we are run by thugs and tyrants and it’s not confined to one country. It’s everywhere. It’s what to do about it that’s the problem.
Caitlin - one of your best article ever !!!
I would argue that the CIA and FBI and the rest of the surveillance police state are far WORSE now, even than during the Wilson WW I repression and the McCarthy era, because they have far more powerful digital tools and far lower chances of detection and prosecution of their abuses.
The last three paragraphs have one of the most useful observations I can think of. Parenti said that the left gets itself into trouble because it continually underestimates the depravity of its enemies. In a different, possibly less malignant context, Edmund Wilson noted that Ulysses S. Grant (the commander of the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War) was caught in various scandals when he was president because “[i]t was the age of the audacious confidence man, and Grant was the incurable sucker. He easily fell victim to their trickery, and allowed them to betray him into compromising his office, because he could not believe that such people existed.”
It's all downstream from a centralized banking cartel ushered in by Bernard Baruch aka Wilson's Kissinger. Ever read about the Tulsa Massacre? It wasn't race! Those people transcended the newly formed Federal Reserve Bank so the community was burned to the ground, killing hundreds. It's the most powerful mafia in history. Read Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution by Antony Sutton and it all falls into place. All Wars are Bankers Wars: https://youtu.be/00FYNGtr540
I love your portrait of Ellsberg. I discovered him waaaay too late (funny how I don’t remember learning about him in high school), but he’ll always be my hero.
Pretend that Trump supporters were sporting swastikas and SS regalia on 1/6. How would the NYT react?
Something leads me to suspect that the Gray Lady wouldn't be making excuses, saying "it's complicated" or wrapping their eyebrows around their proverbial noses talking about "nuance".
The American Empire is less and less covert. Hell, even the NYT Review of Books or somesuch recently ran a cover joyfully proclaiming the United States an Empire. Peasants, rejoice!
Thank you for this slice of truth, if we all opened our eyes we we see 'the covert empire' which has long been supported by my own country , the UK. Citizens of the US, UK and many other countries are mostly unaware that we are being collectively ruled over, coerced and manipulated. Look now at the dreadful corrupt politicians we have in the UK. I am remembering how if the UK didn't remove Corbyn the US would. Socialism must not be allowed to flourish, thinking of the US treatment of Cuba now. And the demonisation of China and Russia is ongoing.
The last three paragraphs are truly sage advice. I sadly had to learn the hard way about that truth.
Your writing is excellent, and I am a dedicated follower of your work. One quibble. Your use of the word “surreal” is something that is irritating to me as a surrealist and an artist. You use it in the same way that people use the word anarchy to describe chaos. Surrealism is a concept with real value that needs to be understood, and not used as a placeholder for an experience you find odd or bewildering.
"In that ongoing nightmare that is a loss of Geo-political and Geo-economic dominance wherein they have nothing to counter the BeiJing One Belt Road World Economic Trade Global Project, with the powerhouse economies of Russia and The Global South signing on, The Washington Masters of Present Arrangements will no longer be kicking their geo-political can of legitimate external competitive challenges, in their universe read “threats”, down that metaphorical foreign policy road, their road to nowhere as they now flag with recent visibly standout events that The American Power Elite will break and destroy not just the principles on which their globalized economic order rested but also any foreign physical infrastructure and countries to retain their presumed leading position, always fraudulently pitched as a force for good in the world while simultaneously emphasizing American interest - their interests".
Expect matters to get worse. it relieves one of dissapointments . . . https://les7eb.substack.com/p/washingtons-war-part-viii-narrative
________________
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office" - Aesop, ancient Greek writer, 620–564 BCE. One might add, of those who make the laws, it is inevitable that they must view themselves to be above the law, for they are their laws.
There you go again, being a Putin apologist!
Caitlin - There is some confusion on political strategy. You frame the class war and direct action versus electoral politics as an either/or. It is a both/and.
There is no contradiction between class war and direct action and electoral politics. The challenge to making change is to use class interests and direct action to influence policy and politics (including elections), and not got diverted to sole focus on electoral politics, sheep dogged into supporting the status quo candidates and corrupt parties, and co-opted by charismatic leaders.
Like them or not, government and the institutions of power exist and they must be challenged and reformed. Whether that reform is incremental symbolic gestures or radical substance. That is the question.
Thank you Caitlin for telling the cold hard truths of our times. Washington's war is on the world and it goes back to the times of the Dulles brothers in the 1950's who laid the foundations. We are all potential victims of its wars as the neocons are willing to cannibalize cultures as required. Ukraine and Western Europe have already fallen. NATO has just set up offices in Japan. We are slaves states to these wars with little comprehension of the ruinous social and economic costs we are paying.
The Empire is global and the destruction it inflicts knows no borders including its own.