Invading foreign waters, blowing up a boat full of fisherman and then declaring you're actually fighting drug traffickers - sounds a lot like a textbook definition of terrorism.
In August of 1964 Lyndon Johnson used a similar lie to escalate the war in Vietnam. He claimed a US ship was attacked by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. He knew at the time it wasn’t true but sent over 50,000 soldiers to their death, as many as one million Vietnamese (no one know for certain how many were killed) and sprayed agent orange all over the country. It never seems to end — the endless lies, feeding the arms industry and stealing resources.
Yet LBJ didn’t designate Israel as terrorists when it attacked The USSLiberty in international waters, murdering 34 sailors, injuring hundreds, and ordering Adm McCain to not go to the USS Libertys rescue, thus betraying the American people and service members.
The Depraved Degenerate Bolsheviks had a pile of dirt on LBJ; but, in the end -- like all the others -- Lyndon Baines Johnson was their boy, too. He did as he was told.
Conservatives do themselves no favors when they uncritically believe everything uttered by the administration about evil Russians, terrorists, drug cartels, China, etc. when it's usually just a made-up excuse for the west executing their shitty, oppressive foreign policy.
Pro tip: anything presented as 100% good or 100% evil is propaganda and designed to manufacture consensus.
Conservatives? Obama pioneered the use of due process free assassinations, including of American citizens. Biden and Hillary are responsible for labeling the Russians terrorists and blaming the Chinese for taking action against US sponsored Uighur terrorism. Biden and Hillary are responsible for the terrorists in the Syrian "civil war" and the new suddenly non-terrorist designated "government" there.
Or are you saying (correctly) that Obama, Biden, Hillary and the US democrats are actually arch-capitalist conservatives masquerading as progressive left-leaning something else?
I think almost 100% of party aligned politicians are masquerading, regardless of the labels such as 'conservative', 'progressive', 'left' or 'right' that are attached to them. Their main concern is staying in power.
Add this to my Flat Tire Satire(Tm) file with an up-vote from me. Now to the point behind yer funny bid-net: Biden and Hillary represent the vast majority of DNC and so called Big D "Democrats" (I ceased such nonsense and remain indie since my well-spent yoot) that share positions you and I describe as Conservative (meanwhile my own more precise term is "Conswervative").
Since I refuse to play Identity Politics I don't much care what label folks stick on me from issue to issue. Especially where I retain independence to support and oppose the policies and positions as I can see and reason as fit. It isn't as though I'm wearing a NASCAR racing uniform with decal patches advertising my paid sponsors. I'm blessedly flat broke and hence the Flat Tire Satire in the lampoon 'zine of my life.
Granfalloons only pay for those as talented and useful as national folk satirists such as Kurt Vonnegut.
Was it not written of old that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"?
Take for instance, the Nazis of Ukraine, who are held up as freedom fighters for no reason other than some of their enemies are some of those enemies of the empire.
The Nazi Andrei Parubyi comes prominently to mind. Interestingly, according to the person officially accused of icing Parubyi, he did so to take revenge on the man who was responsible for press-ganging his son and sending him off to die.
The so-called powers that be want everyone to be dumb or, I America's case - a whole lot dumber than Drumpf, who would be shown up as the dumbest of all if not for his script writer and a teleprompter, which is shown immediately the second he goes off script. Right now he's playing intentness hands of his incompetent congress, who are busy shuffling to get the job when his time is up, either at the end of his term:-( or he dies naturally :-) or... someone gets sick of waiting and hires a real assassin, who could actually be named an antiterrorrist ;-0
And through all this, the USA and its allies are exposing themselves for who and what they really are. And I hope they all wind up in the Hague and charged with war crimes.
Trump has now admitted to ordering a hit. He--and everyone down the chain of command to the actual people who made the hit--are guilty of murder, done openly, in public, and by their own admission.
Remember when Trump said he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters? Now we will literally find out.
I don't think so, more and more daily have become disillusioned because they now, at last, see it's all about Drumpf and only about Drumpf, before the election people were walking out of his rallies and less has attended, so the tide us turning especially when they see who he has filled his cabinet with - totally inexperienced wannabes; men with odd haircuts, so his doesn't seem so bad, and females with face lifts and using expensive make-up artists and hairdressers.
Let's not forget the lip plumping--really? You hate black and brown people but pay to have your lips made to look like theirs, and your rearends, for a while anyway,pumping all that stuff into your body is going to catch up and then.. pffffft. I suppose cosmeticians are happy 😊 But we have seen where it leads, Drumpf's first wife is an example of what starting off young does because you have to keep on doing it again and again until you look totally non-human, which is crazy, that woman looked just fine before she started. Now his third wife is an addict to the scalpel, well...
And there is America's problem. They are only seeing NOW what Trump is really like? How can this be? His hideous persona was there for all to see-but he was elected AGAIN??? Other counties make the same mistake, of course- but the US seems to do things bigger and better than most ☹️
It is obscene to continue to believe that US government is 'Elected' JFK was probably the last elected POTUS. From then on AIPAC lobby and Israeli owned and controlled corporate lobbyists (Fascism) took over. Trump brilliant act of populism drain the swamp was Emmy material. His sycophants still believe this Zionist puppet and his Zionist VP and Zionist Israel ambassador Huckabee the huckster. The US is a Uniparty cartel posing as 2 parties posing as representative democratic Republic. Incremental creep brought us here a plan of over 100 years.
My father and I loved JFK. Of course-he wanted peace with Russia and Cuba. The Arms Oligarchs couldn't let that happen. I still recall his death the day it happened. It's futile now to imagine how much better things might have been. I maintain the same shadowy puppet masters are driving the world today.
In the USA, there are domestic laws to use for the home-grown genocidaires. 18 U.S. Code § 1091
Let’s make sure the criminals have this statute always on their minds. We need to get every single member of the current administration, along with the entire Biden administration, charged under 18 U.S. Code § 1091, the statute that incorporates the Genocide Convention into US criminal law. Members of these administrations shouldn't go a single day without having this statute in their faces, up front and center, at every protest, at every meeting, press conference, briefing, and trips home and abroad. Let them consider what is looming. They should have visions of prison all the days of their lives, and echos of those cell doors slamming shut.
And the MSM owners, editors, publishers, and journalists too.
Idf cowards and thugs must be declared terrorists too as the 60 k plus odd dead murdered innocent unarmed civilians attest to this fact. The idf cowards Even use AI to track and murder innocent unarmed civilians. Idf cowards are terrorists
Just to add to the litany, Afghanistan was handed to the Taliban because they agreed to work on and guard the TAPI pipeline through Afghanistan which was the reason the US was there in the first place. Oil.
The label of "terrorists" is not just about people/countries the "US doesn't like." The ultimate goal is economic, bottom line, mostly oil and resources, Lithium, heavy metals, in almost all the countries Caitlin named. ie. Chile copper & Lithium, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Kuwait, Gaza obvious, Ukraine has the largest Lithium deposits in the world and Zelensky just signed them over to the US as 1st bidder/developer this year, Cambodia & Vietnam have large offshore oil fields, and on and on. The US, UK, etc. and global network, spiderweb, of multinational corporations are raping and pillaging all over the world. Even their own citizens are increasingly becoming "terrorists." The Hydra is beginning to eat itself.
They will also destroy the planet with all the pollution pumped into the air. The US bombs israel has dropped on Gaza is already more than all the bombs dropped in WWII and every bomb adds to huge murder of this our only planet.
If there is life on other planets and they are keeping a watchful eye on us, as soon as it appears we're ready to try occupying another planet they will, if they're smart, obliterate the whole of Earth. Something I hope never to happen, I have great grandchildren I would to have a long happy and heathy life, but the way things are going I doubt it will be and that scares me for them as well as my grandchildren and children - I don't expect to be here to experience it but it doesn't mean I don't care what happens after I'm gone, which, unfortunately, is the way far too many see it and that us so sad.
I hear you Davina. It doesn't look good. I do think our Mother Earth will eventually regenerate, but it's humankind and our grandchildren and countless extraordinary species I fear could pay the price. I care very much as you do and I pray that some unexpected turn of events out of left field will stop this malignant trajectory in its tracks.
I'm with you there, so much is going to be lost for what? Some insecure people who need to feel worshipped or have extreme wealth at the expense of everyone else and the planet.
All those good intentions down the drain with the changes of leaderships and so quickly. Why? Whose is bribing or blackmailing to keep oil companies bringing up the stuff gates killing the planet.
And like hungry ghosts, that deep and gnawing hole in them can never be filled. In the ancient Vedas there came a time when the gods became impotent in their war with the ever increasing demons whose exaggerated ego sense was destroying the balance of the universe and whose sole purpose was to dominate and control. So all the depleted energies of the gods united into one supernova, throwing out flames in all directions. All that light combined into one and became a female form, Durga, the Queen of the Universe, riding on her lion and containing an overwhelming omnipotence. With the help of fierce Kali emerging from her forehead they fought long and hard and annihilated the demon army, "some with their breath and the syllable Hum alone, destroying all the sins of the world. The world was at peace again. The skies cleared, the rivers kept their courses [from the river to the sea], there was sweet singing and dancing." With that Durga vanished (not being an ego force and needing no reward) but promising that she would nourish the world and come in times of need to defeat the enemies of Earth.
I bring this in because it is an eternal story and it may give us a sense of where help may come from: The much abused Feminine when she says "enough is enough."
Important to recall this message, as we have passed the festival of Hungry Ghosts, just a day or so ago. It's pretty clear we didn't do enough to appease their appetites.
Don't forget "markets" - as in a captive group of people (aka the citizens of the target country) who will eventually be forced to take part in the "market" for what previously passed as basic human rights or the public commons: health care, education, utilities, infrastructure, etc. All so that western private finance (along with the extractive industries you mentioned) can profit off the people through IMF "loans" and forced austerity and privatization.
Caitlin, here's the lowdown and ugly truth (and reality) of the U.S. Empire (America and allies) - THEY are the TERRORISTS. They have been a force of terrorism across the world for decades upon decades.
As you say, anyone that OPPOSES the wants/needs of the Empire is labeled 'a terrorist'. In the American world of 'you are either with us or against us' logic, "either you are subservient to us and support everything we do, or else you are a terrorist". Anyone that challenges POWER is a terrorist. Anyone that challenges 'sytems of power/domination hierarchies' is a terrorist. They may not have explicitly called such people 'terrorists', but it seems to be only a matter of time before that becomes an established new reality.
-------------
"First they came for the [insert someone else here]
And I didn't stand up because I wasn't [insert same someone else here]
Then they came for almost everyone else and yet still I wasn't one of them, so I kept my seat
Then they came for me and there was no one left to stand up"
How many times must we learn this lesson before we take heed of it the "next time"?
----------
LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA! WE ARE ALL PALESTINIANS! FREE PALESTINE! ✊✊✊
At her best, Caitlin is the Orwell of our moment in history.
The word terrorist is now used not to describe those who murder for political reasons, such as Israel has done for decades in Gaza, or Trump recently did to a boatload of people whose actual identities are unknown, but those who threaten to expose the crimes of state terrorists.
The term is not meant to describe a certain kind of political crime but rather, like real terrorists, is meant to induce terror, to create fear as a pretext for action that in a sane moment would be found unacceptable. Thus, framing an action as a defense against terrorists is now an act of terrorism, using fear to justify criminal acts.
I have nothing more to say. The term is not a descriptive label but an excuse for murder. Iy iss not used almost exclusively by terrorist states.
My prediction is that as the distance between western democracies and their leaders increase, domestic terrorism similar tho those in UK and Germany that hold placks that say the wrong thing are going to be found all over the so called west. The genocide in Gaza has exposed the lie of many democracy in name only.
Orange freak feels threatened by a boat with an outboard motor with 11 men? Wtf? Probably 11 poor venezolanos who are fisherman looking to make a bit of cash. And they were MURDERED by the orange coward freak.
Perhaps our having accepted a Pay2Play political system goes some of the rational way towards explaining our predictable outcomes and new\old pursuits after each World War or 'Global Conflict'. Or, lucrative venture...
Really? I thought AOC and those around her seemed like better candidates?Indeed-practically any candidate would be better than Trump?
I cannot understand the Democrats reluctance to speak out agains Trump-but I don't have access to US Politics-and I am sure I'm missing a lot. I really thought the Democrats would have had him locked up for insurrection after the Jan 6th debacle. I thought it was the primaries that chose Candidates? Is that not the case?
The Democrats don't speak out against Trump because they are on the same team as he, and a part of the Uniparty we have here in the USA. They all serve the same oligarchist billionaire donors. Example: when Obama was elected he failed to reverse any of Bush's policies and doubled down on drone bombings, torture, children in cages on the southern border. Disband the Dept of Homeland Security? Stop invading other sovereign nations? Not a chance. That was the last time I ever voted for a presidential candidate from either party.
I always thought that the Dems were the opposite of the Republicans-at least that's the impression I had. But you are correct. The world is changing-and the UKs Labour Government at present is as austere and corrupt as ever the Tories were. All politicians right now seem to have hatched from the same -self enriching- Oligarch egg. It's a world wide sickness.
Systems, those human Elite designed monstrosities we build to celebrate our egos, including the political systems dependent on the biggest bizness of all tend not to change without a Public Will to build communally for change. (Too much of that in his\herstory is pure bloodbath pageantry and competition for resources); Mass Media Communications Systems at that... (Specifically, broadcasting. Too few people work hard enough to read and read comparatively with follow-up meaningful discussion or energy and time spent (the most valuable and mysterious of human resources = TIME) in hunting down their news and orphaned views.
I would like to see children taught to "think about it"-ie teach children to read information- then ask them to think about what it means. From an early age. I mean really simple stuff at the beginning. Just to help them learn how to compare and use information. Murdoch Press (and similar media) have been the greatest threat to democracy this century. Teaching people how to examine information for themselves before accepting statements is important. I do not mean to teach children WHAT to think-just to help children grow up learning HOW to think for themselves.
"I used to think a terrorist looks like a deranged maniac killing large numbers of civilians". It IS a deranged maniac, often in a suit, often speaking to mainstream media, usually with a big bank account killing large numbers of civilians.
If anyone true audit was done on how these people got their money, probably half of them would, or should be in prison. How many of their workers were given a fair wage for helping to make them so wealthy, we all know the hardest work they do is lifting a pen or a knife and fork, yet the pretend that they were the ones who did all the work. No, they had an idea then got people together that could make it happen while they sat back an accepted the accolades and the money.
Trump was always going to do two things: 1) Go to war with Iran (pending, first round happened on schedule) and 2) Attempt regime change (again - remember Guaido?) in Venezuela. That they are literally murdering civilians on boats is testament to a couple of things itself. 1) A continuation of Obama's totally unconstitutional program of assassinating people without any due process (including American citizens) and 2) Trump's absolute disdain for anything resembling international norms or the laws of the sea.
The Evil Empire's mask is fully off now, folks. And we have the Democrats to thank for rolling out the red carpet to monsters like Trump and the sycophantic slag-show of kissy face social media PR photo-op demons who have surrounded him.
"Terrorists" - The only useful definition of that term now is whatever persons or groups are currently carrying out the US's policies against any remaining resistance factions the world over. The "terrorists" are the terrorizers wearing red white and blue and carrying the ISIS flag (and donning the Star of David).
by my definition, our president and the entire executive branch of the USA are terrorists. As are military officers who disobey their oath to uphold the Constitution. Actually, they all seem like little boys playing with pretend guns and then wooping it up and high five-ing when the computer says they made a kill. Just so sick!
"This label “terrorism” is applied to literally anyone who poses an obstacle to the agendas of the western empire."
That's how they keep us all in check. We do one little thing they don't like--protesting a genocide, for instance--and they can lock us up. Funny, how the real terrorists (a.k.a. the oligarchs) think they can get away with this behavior forever. Their day of reckoning is coming. Go to lifelineforpalestine.com for more info.
Invading foreign waters, blowing up a boat full of fisherman and then declaring you're actually fighting drug traffickers - sounds a lot like a textbook definition of terrorism.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...
In August of 1964 Lyndon Johnson used a similar lie to escalate the war in Vietnam. He claimed a US ship was attacked by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. He knew at the time it wasn’t true but sent over 50,000 soldiers to their death, as many as one million Vietnamese (no one know for certain how many were killed) and sprayed agent orange all over the country. It never seems to end — the endless lies, feeding the arms industry and stealing resources.
Yet LBJ didn’t designate Israel as terrorists when it attacked The USSLiberty in international waters, murdering 34 sailors, injuring hundreds, and ordering Adm McCain to not go to the USS Libertys rescue, thus betraying the American people and service members.
The Depraved Degenerate Bolsheviks had a pile of dirt on LBJ; but, in the end -- like all the others -- Lyndon Baines Johnson was their boy, too. He did as he was told.
Modus Operandi of the fascist USA and the west in general.
Conservatives do themselves no favors when they uncritically believe everything uttered by the administration about evil Russians, terrorists, drug cartels, China, etc. when it's usually just a made-up excuse for the west executing their shitty, oppressive foreign policy.
Pro tip: anything presented as 100% good or 100% evil is propaganda and designed to manufacture consensus.
Bless you, Caitlin.
Conservatives? Obama pioneered the use of due process free assassinations, including of American citizens. Biden and Hillary are responsible for labeling the Russians terrorists and blaming the Chinese for taking action against US sponsored Uighur terrorism. Biden and Hillary are responsible for the terrorists in the Syrian "civil war" and the new suddenly non-terrorist designated "government" there.
Or are you saying (correctly) that Obama, Biden, Hillary and the US democrats are actually arch-capitalist conservatives masquerading as progressive left-leaning something else?
I think almost 100% of party aligned politicians are masquerading, regardless of the labels such as 'conservative', 'progressive', 'left' or 'right' that are attached to them. Their main concern is staying in power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy_-_JgXA1A
This Masquerade
written\performed by
Leon Russell & Paradise Studios Players
aka the Tulsa Drifters
(J.J. Cale, Jim Keltner, Jamie Oldaker, Jim Karstein, Bill Raffensperger, Don Preston, David Teegarden, Christine Lakeland, and all of Leon Russell's Shelter People....et al...) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Russell_and_the_Shelter_People
Demon-rats or Republicans. Same garbage. No real difference when it comes to supremacism, zionism, and fascism.
Add this to my Flat Tire Satire(Tm) file with an up-vote from me. Now to the point behind yer funny bid-net: Biden and Hillary represent the vast majority of DNC and so called Big D "Democrats" (I ceased such nonsense and remain indie since my well-spent yoot) that share positions you and I describe as Conservative (meanwhile my own more precise term is "Conswervative").
Since I refuse to play Identity Politics I don't much care what label folks stick on me from issue to issue. Especially where I retain independence to support and oppose the policies and positions as I can see and reason as fit. It isn't as though I'm wearing a NASCAR racing uniform with decal patches advertising my paid sponsors. I'm blessedly flat broke and hence the Flat Tire Satire in the lampoon 'zine of my life.
Granfalloons only pay for those as talented and useful as national folk satirists such as Kurt Vonnegut.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granfalloon
Excuse me I've got the souls of my feet to tend to now....
Soleful Dreams to all....
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of A-Tone-ment Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
Was it not written of old that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"?
Take for instance, the Nazis of Ukraine, who are held up as freedom fighters for no reason other than some of their enemies are some of those enemies of the empire.
The Nazi Andrei Parubyi comes prominently to mind. Interestingly, according to the person officially accused of icing Parubyi, he did so to take revenge on the man who was responsible for press-ganging his son and sending him off to die.
Amazing, isn't it, how critical thinking has seemingly vanished from public discourse?
So much of this stuff is so tiresomely obvious when examined.
Yes, “critical thinking” is now a taboo subject in most narratives. An original idea is probably as rare as a new evolutionary species.
The so-called powers that be want everyone to be dumb or, I America's case - a whole lot dumber than Drumpf, who would be shown up as the dumbest of all if not for his script writer and a teleprompter, which is shown immediately the second he goes off script. Right now he's playing intentness hands of his incompetent congress, who are busy shuffling to get the job when his time is up, either at the end of his term:-( or he dies naturally :-) or... someone gets sick of waiting and hires a real assassin, who could actually be named an antiterrorrist ;-0
They know what they can get away with. It's impressive in its own way.
This is supremacist belief that certain humans are superior to others. It is the controlling ideology of judeo-nazis and their western followers.
And through all this, the USA and its allies are exposing themselves for who and what they really are. And I hope they all wind up in the Hague and charged with war crimes.
Trump has now admitted to ordering a hit. He--and everyone down the chain of command to the actual people who made the hit--are guilty of murder, done openly, in public, and by their own admission.
Remember when Trump said he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters? Now we will literally find out.
I don't think so, more and more daily have become disillusioned because they now, at last, see it's all about Drumpf and only about Drumpf, before the election people were walking out of his rallies and less has attended, so the tide us turning especially when they see who he has filled his cabinet with - totally inexperienced wannabes; men with odd haircuts, so his doesn't seem so bad, and females with face lifts and using expensive make-up artists and hairdressers.
Let's not forget the lip plumping--really? You hate black and brown people but pay to have your lips made to look like theirs, and your rearends, for a while anyway,pumping all that stuff into your body is going to catch up and then.. pffffft. I suppose cosmeticians are happy 😊 But we have seen where it leads, Drumpf's first wife is an example of what starting off young does because you have to keep on doing it again and again until you look totally non-human, which is crazy, that woman looked just fine before she started. Now his third wife is an addict to the scalpel, well...
And there is America's problem. They are only seeing NOW what Trump is really like? How can this be? His hideous persona was there for all to see-but he was elected AGAIN??? Other counties make the same mistake, of course- but the US seems to do things bigger and better than most ☹️
It is obscene to continue to believe that US government is 'Elected' JFK was probably the last elected POTUS. From then on AIPAC lobby and Israeli owned and controlled corporate lobbyists (Fascism) took over. Trump brilliant act of populism drain the swamp was Emmy material. His sycophants still believe this Zionist puppet and his Zionist VP and Zionist Israel ambassador Huckabee the huckster. The US is a Uniparty cartel posing as 2 parties posing as representative democratic Republic. Incremental creep brought us here a plan of over 100 years.
My father and I loved JFK. Of course-he wanted peace with Russia and Cuba. The Arms Oligarchs couldn't let that happen. I still recall his death the day it happened. It's futile now to imagine how much better things might have been. I maintain the same shadowy puppet masters are driving the world today.
Trump is unpopular. It doesn't matter, as long as his orders are carried out.
Are there enough luxury hotels in The Hague to accommodate all of these criminals while they attend their trials?
Who cares, the need to and deserve their comeupance and not in luxury.
LOL! I was just visiting The Hague last month, what a lovely place it is. Let's hope it holds them forever.
Dream on, sadly.
In the USA, there are domestic laws to use for the home-grown genocidaires. 18 U.S. Code § 1091
Let’s make sure the criminals have this statute always on their minds. We need to get every single member of the current administration, along with the entire Biden administration, charged under 18 U.S. Code § 1091, the statute that incorporates the Genocide Convention into US criminal law. Members of these administrations shouldn't go a single day without having this statute in their faces, up front and center, at every protest, at every meeting, press conference, briefing, and trips home and abroad. Let them consider what is looming. They should have visions of prison all the days of their lives, and echos of those cell doors slamming shut.
And the MSM owners, editors, publishers, and journalists too.
Let us find the way.
Idf cowards and thugs must be declared terrorists too as the 60 k plus odd dead murdered innocent unarmed civilians attest to this fact. The idf cowards Even use AI to track and murder innocent unarmed civilians. Idf cowards are terrorists
And we don't even know the true number of murdered civilians. It may be more like 400,000!
" death, death to the IDF "
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Yes, so what does anyone propose to do about it?
Just to add to the litany, Afghanistan was handed to the Taliban because they agreed to work on and guard the TAPI pipeline through Afghanistan which was the reason the US was there in the first place. Oil.
The label of "terrorists" is not just about people/countries the "US doesn't like." The ultimate goal is economic, bottom line, mostly oil and resources, Lithium, heavy metals, in almost all the countries Caitlin named. ie. Chile copper & Lithium, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Kuwait, Gaza obvious, Ukraine has the largest Lithium deposits in the world and Zelensky just signed them over to the US as 1st bidder/developer this year, Cambodia & Vietnam have large offshore oil fields, and on and on. The US, UK, etc. and global network, spiderweb, of multinational corporations are raping and pillaging all over the world. Even their own citizens are increasingly becoming "terrorists." The Hydra is beginning to eat itself.
They will also destroy the planet with all the pollution pumped into the air. The US bombs israel has dropped on Gaza is already more than all the bombs dropped in WWII and every bomb adds to huge murder of this our only planet.
If there is life on other planets and they are keeping a watchful eye on us, as soon as it appears we're ready to try occupying another planet they will, if they're smart, obliterate the whole of Earth. Something I hope never to happen, I have great grandchildren I would to have a long happy and heathy life, but the way things are going I doubt it will be and that scares me for them as well as my grandchildren and children - I don't expect to be here to experience it but it doesn't mean I don't care what happens after I'm gone, which, unfortunately, is the way far too many see it and that us so sad.
I hear you Davina. It doesn't look good. I do think our Mother Earth will eventually regenerate, but it's humankind and our grandchildren and countless extraordinary species I fear could pay the price. I care very much as you do and I pray that some unexpected turn of events out of left field will stop this malignant trajectory in its tracks.
I'm with you there, so much is going to be lost for what? Some insecure people who need to feel worshipped or have extreme wealth at the expense of everyone else and the planet.
All those good intentions down the drain with the changes of leaderships and so quickly. Why? Whose is bribing or blackmailing to keep oil companies bringing up the stuff gates killing the planet.
One step forward three steps back, all for greed.
And like hungry ghosts, that deep and gnawing hole in them can never be filled. In the ancient Vedas there came a time when the gods became impotent in their war with the ever increasing demons whose exaggerated ego sense was destroying the balance of the universe and whose sole purpose was to dominate and control. So all the depleted energies of the gods united into one supernova, throwing out flames in all directions. All that light combined into one and became a female form, Durga, the Queen of the Universe, riding on her lion and containing an overwhelming omnipotence. With the help of fierce Kali emerging from her forehead they fought long and hard and annihilated the demon army, "some with their breath and the syllable Hum alone, destroying all the sins of the world. The world was at peace again. The skies cleared, the rivers kept their courses [from the river to the sea], there was sweet singing and dancing." With that Durga vanished (not being an ego force and needing no reward) but promising that she would nourish the world and come in times of need to defeat the enemies of Earth.
I bring this in because it is an eternal story and it may give us a sense of where help may come from: The much abused Feminine when she says "enough is enough."
Thank you, this says so much about who will have to take up the fight for our planet, again.
Important to recall this message, as we have passed the festival of Hungry Ghosts, just a day or so ago. It's pretty clear we didn't do enough to appease their appetites.
Don't forget "markets" - as in a captive group of people (aka the citizens of the target country) who will eventually be forced to take part in the "market" for what previously passed as basic human rights or the public commons: health care, education, utilities, infrastructure, etc. All so that western private finance (along with the extractive industries you mentioned) can profit off the people through IMF "loans" and forced austerity and privatization.
Caitlin, here's the lowdown and ugly truth (and reality) of the U.S. Empire (America and allies) - THEY are the TERRORISTS. They have been a force of terrorism across the world for decades upon decades.
As you say, anyone that OPPOSES the wants/needs of the Empire is labeled 'a terrorist'. In the American world of 'you are either with us or against us' logic, "either you are subservient to us and support everything we do, or else you are a terrorist". Anyone that challenges POWER is a terrorist. Anyone that challenges 'sytems of power/domination hierarchies' is a terrorist. They may not have explicitly called such people 'terrorists', but it seems to be only a matter of time before that becomes an established new reality.
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"First they came for the [insert someone else here]
And I didn't stand up because I wasn't [insert same someone else here]
Then they came for almost everyone else and yet still I wasn't one of them, so I kept my seat
Then they came for me and there was no one left to stand up"
How many times must we learn this lesson before we take heed of it the "next time"?
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LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA! WE ARE ALL PALESTINIANS! FREE PALESTINE! ✊✊✊
Next thing we may hear about is Jesus was a Palestinian terrorist because he went after the bankers of his time.
That, I think, was the reason the Jews of that time helped with his execution by crucifixion. Even then they were a greedy people.
"...they were a greedy people." Sorry to see your myopia on full view dear Davina!
"We are a greedy people, whatever team colors we're wearing!"
Tio Mitchito
At her best, Caitlin is the Orwell of our moment in history.
The word terrorist is now used not to describe those who murder for political reasons, such as Israel has done for decades in Gaza, or Trump recently did to a boatload of people whose actual identities are unknown, but those who threaten to expose the crimes of state terrorists.
The term is not meant to describe a certain kind of political crime but rather, like real terrorists, is meant to induce terror, to create fear as a pretext for action that in a sane moment would be found unacceptable. Thus, framing an action as a defense against terrorists is now an act of terrorism, using fear to justify criminal acts.
I have nothing more to say. The term is not a descriptive label but an excuse for murder. Iy iss not used almost exclusively by terrorist states.
My prediction is that as the distance between western democracies and their leaders increase, domestic terrorism similar tho those in UK and Germany that hold placks that say the wrong thing are going to be found all over the so called west. The genocide in Gaza has exposed the lie of many democracy in name only.
"plaque", I would say. CJ's conclusion is here, too.
Orange freak feels threatened by a boat with an outboard motor with 11 men? Wtf? Probably 11 poor venezolanos who are fisherman looking to make a bit of cash. And they were MURDERED by the orange coward freak.
By any chance, would you be writing about Donald J Tariffs, the real estate guy working for the United States of Israel?
Yet Americans elected him a second time? I truly cannot understand that. The US has given him a second chance to establish his dictatorship. WHY???
Not having a meaningful choice might go some way in explaining this, otherwise, incomprehensible result.
Perhaps our having accepted a Pay2Play political system goes some of the rational way towards explaining our predictable outcomes and new\old pursuits after each World War or 'Global Conflict'. Or, lucrative venture...
Tio Mitchito
Really? I thought AOC and those around her seemed like better candidates?Indeed-practically any candidate would be better than Trump?
I cannot understand the Democrats reluctance to speak out agains Trump-but I don't have access to US Politics-and I am sure I'm missing a lot. I really thought the Democrats would have had him locked up for insurrection after the Jan 6th debacle. I thought it was the primaries that chose Candidates? Is that not the case?
The Democrats don't speak out against Trump because they are on the same team as he, and a part of the Uniparty we have here in the USA. They all serve the same oligarchist billionaire donors. Example: when Obama was elected he failed to reverse any of Bush's policies and doubled down on drone bombings, torture, children in cages on the southern border. Disband the Dept of Homeland Security? Stop invading other sovereign nations? Not a chance. That was the last time I ever voted for a presidential candidate from either party.
I always thought that the Dems were the opposite of the Republicans-at least that's the impression I had. But you are correct. The world is changing-and the UKs Labour Government at present is as austere and corrupt as ever the Tories were. All politicians right now seem to have hatched from the same -self enriching- Oligarch egg. It's a world wide sickness.
Systems, those human Elite designed monstrosities we build to celebrate our egos, including the political systems dependent on the biggest bizness of all tend not to change without a Public Will to build communally for change. (Too much of that in his\herstory is pure bloodbath pageantry and competition for resources); Mass Media Communications Systems at that... (Specifically, broadcasting. Too few people work hard enough to read and read comparatively with follow-up meaningful discussion or energy and time spent (the most valuable and mysterious of human resources = TIME) in hunting down their news and orphaned views.
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of A-Tone-ment Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
I would like to see children taught to "think about it"-ie teach children to read information- then ask them to think about what it means. From an early age. I mean really simple stuff at the beginning. Just to help them learn how to compare and use information. Murdoch Press (and similar media) have been the greatest threat to democracy this century. Teaching people how to examine information for themselves before accepting statements is important. I do not mean to teach children WHAT to think-just to help children grow up learning HOW to think for themselves.
"I used to think a terrorist looks like a deranged maniac killing large numbers of civilians". It IS a deranged maniac, often in a suit, often speaking to mainstream media, usually with a big bank account killing large numbers of civilians.
If anyone true audit was done on how these people got their money, probably half of them would, or should be in prison. How many of their workers were given a fair wage for helping to make them so wealthy, we all know the hardest work they do is lifting a pen or a knife and fork, yet the pretend that they were the ones who did all the work. No, they had an idea then got people together that could make it happen while they sat back an accepted the accolades and the money.
Before there were, shudder, "terrorists" to fear in the USA, there were shudder, shudder, "communists" and "socialists" lurking everywhere.
Trump was always going to do two things: 1) Go to war with Iran (pending, first round happened on schedule) and 2) Attempt regime change (again - remember Guaido?) in Venezuela. That they are literally murdering civilians on boats is testament to a couple of things itself. 1) A continuation of Obama's totally unconstitutional program of assassinating people without any due process (including American citizens) and 2) Trump's absolute disdain for anything resembling international norms or the laws of the sea.
The Evil Empire's mask is fully off now, folks. And we have the Democrats to thank for rolling out the red carpet to monsters like Trump and the sycophantic slag-show of kissy face social media PR photo-op demons who have surrounded him.
"Terrorists" - The only useful definition of that term now is whatever persons or groups are currently carrying out the US's policies against any remaining resistance factions the world over. The "terrorists" are the terrorizers wearing red white and blue and carrying the ISIS flag (and donning the Star of David).
by my definition, our president and the entire executive branch of the USA are terrorists. As are military officers who disobey their oath to uphold the Constitution. Actually, they all seem like little boys playing with pretend guns and then wooping it up and high five-ing when the computer says they made a kill. Just so sick!
"This label “terrorism” is applied to literally anyone who poses an obstacle to the agendas of the western empire."
That's how they keep us all in check. We do one little thing they don't like--protesting a genocide, for instance--and they can lock us up. Funny, how the real terrorists (a.k.a. the oligarchs) think they can get away with this behavior forever. Their day of reckoning is coming. Go to lifelineforpalestine.com for more info.