Americans may be in denial, but after killing more than 200,000 Civilians with 2 small Nukes in the madness of WAR, the US has invaded and bombed ONLY poor, 3rd World Countries and couldn't get a win in any of them with the most expensive Military in the History of Nations.
The Justice and Judgment of God who Lives Today!
None of those Countries were ever any real threat to Americans on American soil, but now the US is provoking 2 major Nuclear Powers who can strike back at the US Homeland?
For What?
In June 1963, Kennedy uttered the essential truth that can keep us alive today: “Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.”
That might be, these deranged politicians think THEY CAN WIN (question is: win WHAT?? A destroyed planet, some people stumbling around with radiation sickness, the rest incinerated? Even stored cans in their bunkers will run out - so what is the solution for the ants (us)? Revolution (and get killed now)? Unbelievable HOW DEEP WE SUNK INTO DEPRAVITY - humans are obviously the most STUPID creature on this planet (which is so incredible beautiful and should be our treasured home!)
The earth is a paradise for all living creatures on it. It's where they evolved and so has to be. Humans are the only ones who have invented nuclear and biological weapons which can destroy the planet. Yet we consider the species the most intelligent of all the other species. Intelligence is defined primarily on the the development of technology which has been used unwisely. It has led to overpopulation, ecocide by pollution and plundering of natural resources and yet we consider ourselves the supreme species. Only time will tell if humans will will have the wisdom to match their intelligence to reverse the course of the destruction of the planet we are currently traveling. With wisdom we would be able to create a planet with abundance for all.
Keith P's comment is correct. The government and the Corp. are concerned with population but not overpopulation rather lack of. Population decline would cut into Corp profit and lower the numbers of slaves owned. Bad thing for a sociopathic mind set.
The growth in the fertility rate has stopped, and is headed to a major decline. Of course people who are coming of age are still having children at a less than replacement rate, but people are living longer, so the total population will rise over this next generation before declining. This dramatic shift in demographics poses some serious problems, one’s we have yet to begin to grapple with.
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.”
Liberal philosophy worships agonism (competitive struggle), no matter how futile, as the principle by which all value shall be judged. The entire "left-right" battle is a sham. It's the values the masters share and the agendas they jointly further that common folk need to worry about.
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
It was race. It wasn't unique, either. Nearly every major city and town in the US had pretty major race riots where white mobs would go and destroy black businesses and homes. They occurred regularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries. And the riots are continuing, but since African American neighborhoods have been dispossessed of wealth and property, instead of white mobs going in and destroying, now it is black mobs within the neighborhoods reacting against police violence designed to extract fees and contain them.
It was unique in that they mastered private banking in Greenwood. It was known as Black Wall Street and the establishment needed this behavior crushed. They ginned up a riot based on a black elevator operator touching a white girl. Bullshit all the way.
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.
Hey Bill. Since you are here on the internet, how hard would it be to search it yourself? It has a specific meaning that comes from a political movement that was initiated in the creative community 100 years ago. Dadaism was its precursor, although there are significant differences. Bon Chance!
Hey Keith - you made the criticism of Caitlin's misrepresentation, so obviously the burden is on you to support your views. Sorry, I've got other priorities right now and am familiar with some of the history and ideas anyway.
I would feel the burden, if Caitlin asked me to, as my comment was directed to her. For you, I carry no such obligation, however I see your lack of curiosity as a burden you are carrying unnecessarily. If you have the time and inkling to provoke an argument in commenting twice, surely you have your priorities twisted. But by all means, keep replying. I find your comments amusing.
"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.
"The American Power Elite will break and destroy not just the principles on which their globalized economic order rested "
They've already done that. Weird, isn't it? All that effort to build it up, they had the biggest money making machine in history and BAMM! cut their currency exchange monopoly in half. Maybe they figured they were going to lose it anyway, but now I'm entertaining the idea that it's all emotional.
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.
Agreed, fight on all fronts at once. What upsets me most is that Leftist commentators need to have a *serious* analysis of the party options on the board. I realize Caitlin is Australian, so it is out of her wheelhouse a little bit, but American Leftists need to start coalescing around a goddamn party organization. Which one is it? Green Party? DSA? People's Party? CPUSA? It absolutely NOT the Democrats. We need a banner and organization to rally behind, otherwise we're just idiots throwing barbs on the internet.
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.
Americans may be in denial, but after killing more than 200,000 Civilians with 2 small Nukes in the madness of WAR, the US has invaded and bombed ONLY poor, 3rd World Countries and couldn't get a win in any of them with the most expensive Military in the History of Nations.
The Justice and Judgment of God who Lives Today!
None of those Countries were ever any real threat to Americans on American soil, but now the US is provoking 2 major Nuclear Powers who can strike back at the US Homeland?
For What?
In June 1963, Kennedy uttered the essential truth that can keep us alive today: “Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy–or of a collective death-wish for the world.”
This World is going MAD!
Uh...relax and enjoy it? It worked for The Joker.
TWO bigger wars: they clearly plan to attack Russia AND China…..at the same time.
That might be, these deranged politicians think THEY CAN WIN (question is: win WHAT?? A destroyed planet, some people stumbling around with radiation sickness, the rest incinerated? Even stored cans in their bunkers will run out - so what is the solution for the ants (us)? Revolution (and get killed now)? Unbelievable HOW DEEP WE SUNK INTO DEPRAVITY - humans are obviously the most STUPID creature on this planet (which is so incredible beautiful and should be our treasured home!)
The earth is a paradise for all living creatures on it. It's where they evolved and so has to be. Humans are the only ones who have invented nuclear and biological weapons which can destroy the planet. Yet we consider the species the most intelligent of all the other species. Intelligence is defined primarily on the the development of technology which has been used unwisely. It has led to overpopulation, ecocide by pollution and plundering of natural resources and yet we consider ourselves the supreme species. Only time will tell if humans will will have the wisdom to match their intelligence to reverse the course of the destruction of the planet we are currently traveling. With wisdom we would be able to create a planet with abundance for all.
The sociopaths running the West would gladly butcher 99% of life on earth, as long as they got to rule the survivors.
n.b. "Don't Look Up!" might as well have been a documentary.
... overpopulation ... indeed a VERY TOXIC theme that NOBODY wants to talk about!!
Keith P's comment is correct. The government and the Corp. are concerned with population but not overpopulation rather lack of. Population decline would cut into Corp profit and lower the numbers of slaves owned. Bad thing for a sociopathic mind set.
The growth in the fertility rate has stopped, and is headed to a major decline. Of course people who are coming of age are still having children at a less than replacement rate, but people are living longer, so the total population will rise over this next generation before declining. This dramatic shift in demographics poses some serious problems, one’s we have yet to begin to grapple with.
I am not talking about the rich countries, I am talking about the planet https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/population
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.
J. Edgar Hoover is lying in his grave with his dress on pounding his wanker as all his dreams have come true.
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.”
Liberal philosophy worships agonism (competitive struggle), no matter how futile, as the principle by which all value shall be judged. The entire "left-right" battle is a sham. It's the values the masters share and the agendas they jointly further that common folk need to worry about.
I think you may be talking about Christian ideology, not Liberal.
The "market" as a truth procedure...
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
It was race. It wasn't unique, either. Nearly every major city and town in the US had pretty major race riots where white mobs would go and destroy black businesses and homes. They occurred regularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries. And the riots are continuing, but since African American neighborhoods have been dispossessed of wealth and property, instead of white mobs going in and destroying, now it is black mobs within the neighborhoods reacting against police violence designed to extract fees and contain them.
It was unique in that they mastered private banking in Greenwood. It was known as Black Wall Street and the establishment needed this behavior crushed. They ginned up a riot based on a black elevator operator touching a white girl. Bullshit all the way.
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.
Please educate us about what surrealism means in art and politics.
Hey Bill. Since you are here on the internet, how hard would it be to search it yourself? It has a specific meaning that comes from a political movement that was initiated in the creative community 100 years ago. Dadaism was its precursor, although there are significant differences. Bon Chance!
Hey Keith - you made the criticism of Caitlin's misrepresentation, so obviously the burden is on you to support your views. Sorry, I've got other priorities right now and am familiar with some of the history and ideas anyway.
I would feel the burden, if Caitlin asked me to, as my comment was directed to her. For you, I carry no such obligation, however I see your lack of curiosity as a burden you are carrying unnecessarily. If you have the time and inkling to provoke an argument in commenting twice, surely you have your priorities twisted. But by all means, keep replying. I find your comments amusing.
Now I've seen everything. A discussion about not having a discussion.
Coincidently, one possible subtext of the meaning of surrealism might be having a discussion about not having a discussion.
"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.
"The American Power Elite will break and destroy not just the principles on which their globalized economic order rested "
They've already done that. Weird, isn't it? All that effort to build it up, they had the biggest money making machine in history and BAMM! cut their currency exchange monopoly in half. Maybe they figured they were going to lose it anyway, but now I'm entertaining the idea that it's all emotional.
There you go again, being a Putin apologist!
In Germany she is eine Putinversteherin - the worst insult currently.
Really? It means "Putin understander." That's too Orwellian.
It is not a joke. Once they call you that you're done.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putinversteher
Der echter Deutcher nicht verstehen muss. Genau!
You realize I am being sarcastic, yes?
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.
Agreed, fight on all fronts at once. What upsets me most is that Leftist commentators need to have a *serious* analysis of the party options on the board. I realize Caitlin is Australian, so it is out of her wheelhouse a little bit, but American Leftists need to start coalescing around a goddamn party organization. Which one is it? Green Party? DSA? People's Party? CPUSA? It absolutely NOT the Democrats. We need a banner and organization to rally behind, otherwise we're just idiots throwing barbs on the internet.
Yes, some institutions must be dismantled and abolished. That's the radical substantive change I mentioned.
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.