I think each party has a distinct public relations campaign geared to their constituents, but in the end, both constituents get the short end of a stick that gets shorter every day.
“Government is the Entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.”
And for me as a musician:
“Music is the only religion that delivers the goods.”
I was beyond appalled at that video of Medea Benjamin being screamed at as a Chinese tool by whatever congressional moron who was doing the shouting, a person fitting these word of Zappa's:
“There's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.”
Note that difference, you disgraceful US pols, you bent-over tools of Israel, pegged by a brave Gazan EMT on a Breakthrough News interview yesterday as: "a business trying to expand and make money under the cover of religion, at the expense of Arab lives".
Whatever corrupt (or possibly a few honest) historians write about this, it’s absolutely clear who are the cowards and who are the heroes in this story.
A Scary Enemy is necessary at all times, to get the rubes to rally round the flag, to unify disparate factions, to provide a reason why the rubes cannot have nice things, and to provide a pretext for cracking down on dissent.
That's what Sukarno did in Indonesia. It was pretty slick though : he "confronted" Malaysia, so you had two island nations neither of which could afford a navy at "war". Their common border is an impenetrable jungle. Not a bad deal.
I once saw a TV special about how peace was bad and fostered degeneracy. War was good as it unified the nation. It ran frequently on some obscure cable channel. Newt Gingrich had a cameo. Someone must have spent millions broadcasting this message to the world.
"Nowhere in the Bible does it say “Thou shalt drop a new apartheid state on top of a pre-existing civilization thousands of years in the future despite the perpetual war, genocide and abuse its creation will necessarily entail.”"
The Bible does, however, say "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not bear false witness."
All of which seem somewhat relevant to the actions of a certain apartheid state.
You’re an asshole. You do think the suffering of the Palestinian people is a GOOD THING? A father holding his baby’s decapitated head? Entire family lines wiped out? Children having limbs amputated without anesthesia?
How does that make anyone “great”?
It only fills their hearts and souls with UNSPEAKABLE PAIN.
If your fucking god wants YOU to suffer, I’m all for it. But I’m sure you’re spewing your bullshit from your comfortable home and you have plenty to eat.
Fuck you. “God” is not only NOT GOOD, he/she is NONEXISTENT.
The NYT has been a Zionist propaganda machine for decades. It is guilty of Journalistic Malpractice and has lost all credibility. It is another piece in the systematic agenda to control Western hearts and minds with Zionist lies, propaganda and indoctrination. This is now becoming clear to those not already brainwashed and unable to see the immorality of it all.
Respectfully, I suggest that you are living in cuckoo land now.
Were it to survive that long, the existing regime would not abandon the power-wealth construct in 5,000 years.
The existing system is not reformable. It must be dismantled. But one cannot do that without some measure of structure to put in its place.
The ruling class can no longer govern as it always has, because the working class can no longer live as it always has.
Your society is entering a revolutionary condition. You will see social protests of an immensity not witnessed since the end of WWI. Tens—even hundreds of millions will rise up against their regimes.
Unless whole nations rise and regimes are removed, global war and thermonuclear apocalypse will end human existence on earth as we know it. The planet itself may not survive.
It is a revolutionary program to end madness and reestablish an humanitarian presence, or it is a sixth, great extinction event. This reality must be the impetus that that drives us onward.
The demoralized, confused and politically disoriented position of petit bourgeoisie Democrats avails naught. Only the global working class can and must bring this agenda to its necessary conclusion.
Jenny: You are making the case for me! Not that I’m complaining, mind.
The world can produce food in abundant quantities. The obstacle is an economic system incapable of putting the food on the tables of the workers who produce it. That tells us that we need a new system.
Your point is entirely valid. It is the reason WHY the existing system must be replaced by one which serves the need of all, not the greed of the few.
That same logic applies in every field. Medicine, education, housing, adequate time for rest, access to communication systems, transportation, access to culture — quite literally everything.
We have the ability and means to create an ideal world. Instead we live in an emerging global gulag.
I agree. BUT there are still too many STUPID people. Take a look at Racket site.
I watch and watch and then I go AWOL for a bit because we are losing people by their hundreds/perhaps thousands who are out there in the streets....they end up in prison and charged fines which they can ill afford.
I watched Milan and Rome today the protests.
I think now it's up to us elderly persons to go in front of the kids. How many heart attacks can we have when we are 'zipped tied?' Doesn't matter to me except for the PAIN.
I think IF we could arrange busses/trains for elderly people to join protests there would be more of us to protect our kids. But then we would need 'serious' people who can come to our houses and ask us if we want to do this. I am 'up' for this in France.
I think I am living in an 'alternative Universe' where the OLD protect the young.
Maybe there is a "GO FUND ME SITE" where elderly people can pay the fines?
You wrote, ‘us elderly persons.’ I gather also that you live in France.
I am roughly your age. Mobility doesn’t become any easier with time. But we can speak, tell stories, share perspective, encourage youth, raise questions, write and otherwise engage.
The mass hunger and malnutrition confronting a substantial portion of the world’s working class is a social catastrophe, not a natural one. It is an immense crime which has been committed by the capitalist class around the globe.
Around the world, working parents go hungry to ensure that there is food on their children’s plates. They invent ways of extending their food. They find ways to cook scraps. They dull hunger pains with instant coffee. They eat rice with a pinch of fish paste and a smear of vegetable oil.
Basic necessaries in much of the world are sold in small units as it is all that most can afford. Rice is purchased by the cup; oil in a small tied-off plastic bag.
The vast wealth of humanity, the product of our collective labor, is enough to feed, clothe, shelter and provide a rich and meaningful life to every human on this planet.
These immense resources, however, are controlled by a handful of billionaires and the super-rich, who have parasitically profited off the exploitation of the world’s working class and who squander this wealth. They grew richer in the pandemic.
Musk, Branson and Bezos compete with each other to take vanity flights to space. But a majority of the world’s population cannot afford a healthy diet.
Society can afford to feed everyone on earth, but it cannot afford the billionaires. Our efforts must be honed on a profit system that enthrones them as modern day Sun Kings while the rest starve.
Louis XIV met his comeuppance. You are intelligent. You know what that means.
You have a revolutionary Party. It is called ‘Parti de l'égalité socialiste.’
The Party Secretary [of the French Section] is Alex Lantier. Years ago, he wrote this piece:
Damn right, GS. We're at the point where the tRumps of this world need a big finish like the Ceausescus of this world, because while the plutocracies and dictatorships tighten the screws on the dissidents and hoi polloi nothing will change. A bit messy, true, but what other alternatives are there?
Politicians and their monied enablers will continue to keep their finger on the suppurating canker that is a society that's had enough, but it will burst eventually.
What I am going to write now is what I know and have learned by living in 4 different countries for a long time..
This last Country does have a Liberal Democracy (at the moment) ie We have free Medical (mostly)/prescription medicines are almost free. Free schooling/Maison retraits (old people's housing) in every Town and City. We have been able to do this by relying on the USA to fight wars for us BUT we have had NO wars until the EU decided to take N.Europeans into our midst.
EU is an outdated system.
I love what France is trying to do? (irony)
Take our health system away and spend money on fighting Russia, whilst supporting a Nazi regime in Ukraine, is NOT what the people want.
I suspect that IF Mr Napoleon insists on building up our army, there will be rebellion.
Get the USA bases out of Europe.
Discontinue the EU (which is already fracturing because of a certain Van der Leydownand die).
We do have the Socialist Party run by and 'old hack Mr Melanchon. We also have a Communist party which is gathering strength.
After 4 countries I have learned one thing: IF you have an educated populace it is not easy to 'pull the wool over our eyes!'
However I have seen things happen in all 4 countries which I never thought would happen!
>>"eg. After each 'zip tie' is used (they cannot be used again)!"
NO Jenny, zip-ties can be re-used. You need to know how. Here is one video that explains how (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZdf8osGqnE). Do a Youtube search on "how to re-use a zip tie" for more information.
What you should really be against (especially in the TECH industry) is PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE. Here is a good video on that -> "Planned Obsolescence Sucks. Here's Why It Still Exists." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzWU7D0S9_8)
Form Rank-and-File Committees. Do things. Gain experience. Address issues. Support working class people in every conflict with management and the state. Take statements. Publish.
Broaden your focus to include the international working class. Sever ties with and critique ‘your’ “government” relentlessly.
Make other RFCs your sole, political alliance. Think of each RFC is a center of an emerging government.
Now the question: How long will be the reign of technofeudalism? Or stated differently: are the serfs any more awake or even more numbed by the opiate of technology?
I disagree completely with Varoufakis's "coinage" of the term "technofeudalism" as a replacement of Capitalism and all the points he supposedly tries to make to support 'his' theory.
For a good summarization of a very rational, logical, and all-out takedown of the 'technofeudalism' book, I refer you to the following video -> "A great title, but not a great book! - Book Summary and Review - Technofeudalism by Yanis Varoufakis" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giIneaBeOgE)
I don't think it replaces capitalism, Chang, but I think it's hard to ignore it as a relevant current component of capitalism. Varoufakis' elaboration notwithstanding, I am not an idiot in recognizing that every time I click on a video that embodies some array of advertisements, someone is going ka-ching, even were I to click "skip" through each of them. And if I pay through the nose for a really good ad blocker, there's the profit in that direction. Are you really going to deny that this represents a scion of capitalist greed that enriches a subpopulation of individuals who manage to derive wealth from our clicks in one fashion or another? The entire scenario leaves me FEELING like a serf because choice plays into it in only the most minuscule of ways and I feel fucking used. That's what I mean by the term.
I don't have to necessarily love Varoufakis' elaboration to feel the effect of it. (I personally thought the book was mediocre.) Or to hate my devices, and the entire distortion of language that they imposed on us, sneakily slipped in on us to go with the tech circus. Emails, texts became "notifications" And devices, my ass; they're computers. It's all of an integrated piece -- A fucking oligarchic conspiracy. Want a different label tor it than technofeudalism? I'm open to suggestions. But I know what it feels like at its heart: a fucking conspiracy by rich sociopath assholes to get richer ad nauseam at the expense of the rest of us.
>>"And if I pay through the nose for a really good ad blocker,"
You don't need to pay a single cent. uBlock Origin (for Chromium and Mozilla browsers) is free and is the BEST blocker out there for desktop (and android in some cases) browsing. If you're using Apple devices - then you're trapped and already in the Capitalist-monopolist closed-prison system.
It's always been Capitalism. My critique is DIRECTLY based on Varoufakis' "coinage and usage" (and self-promotion) of "Technofeudalism". There is NOTHING NEW about "what he describes" - I am assuming you didn't watch the video that I linked to - technofeudalism is just Capitalism.
No I haven't had time to watch the vid because I'm struggling to create something more important to me; I will watch it when I'm freer. But I did read your prior comment and generally agree with it, and I also agree that Varoufakis is vigorously self-promoting his fancy label.
But I also think my point about the language is valid, part of a softening of the entire slick enterprise to coddle the mush brains into believing that it's all good, all part of the dream of you can have it all, if not in your local mall than in your mall online. Maybe I'm just a skosh more cynical than you? And as I said, if it makes me feel like a serf, that's the bottom line, new label or not.
I've go to go back to work, but I'll briefly tell you the reasons I got trapped in Apple machines, fuck the usage "devices". In 1986, I was animating cellular (e.g., white blood cells crawling out of capillaries) and molecular (e.g., proteins folding) for my students. At the time, PC graphics were nonexistent or garbage. Later, I was main science writer and managing editor on a bunch of four-color research pubs whose graphics people all used Macs.
Enough. Gotta shift gears. Later. Thanks. Always enjoy your perspective.
The invention and distribution of the AK-47 machine gun changed all that. It is cheap and a lot more effective than the pitchfork. The device is honored on the flag of Mozambique.
I am NOT suggesting this course. Just noting why serfdom is passe.
We yell louder until they hear us. We interfere with their ability to get rich. We teach our children and grandchildren that money is not what makes good people.
Concerning Caitlin's "The Daily Mail reports that Trump is preparing to bomb Iran with Israel. I don’t know how accurate this report is, but I do know that lately such forecasts about insane US warmongering in the middle east have had an annoying habit of proving true.
For those who aren’t aware, a full-scale direct war between the US and Iran would make all the atrocities we’ve been seeing in the middle east these last couple of years look like an episode of Peppa Pig. The whole world would feel its effects. The mind cannot imagine the horror." Please look up former Congressional House Representative Dennis Kucinich's recent articles concerning (1) the economic impact of War with Iran and (2) nuclear fallout being spread in the region and around the world: Scary Shit to Say the least!
I read his analysis and he’s right. It’s very telling that men like him are no longer in Congress as they were abandoned by their own Democratic colleagues. Kucinich tried to get a better health bill and wouldn’t vote for Obama Care. Obama took him for a ride on AirForce One and sweet talked him, promising him this was just a beginning for health care reform and it was important to vote for it. Then Obama
was behind gerrymandering his Congressional district and got him out of Congress.
Sane voices in Congress are almost gone. We have cringing yes men and women and some truly repellant loudmouths.
I heard the war drums in the distance before "Russia Russia Russia". The war drums are beating again for Iran and China but closer and louder.
Our self-proclaimed president of peace is promoting war at every turn. His cabinet members cheer him on. He doesn't understand the basics of why things are happening and how true, sincere diplomacy could help nations come to points of agreement. Or perhaps he does understand, but that process would interfere with what he plans.
I didn't think this would be the case with him but IT IS the case. I hoped he had learned lessons from his previous cabinet choices. It appears to be that what he learned was to nominate people based on absolute loyalty to him more than anything else except loyalty to Israel.
He speaks to Putin but doesn't hear him. He hears from Iran and ploughs ahead. They wanted to iron things out and have good relations. He must know Yemen stood down during the ceasefire. Does Trump remember that he scuttled the JCPOA that he now demands? Does he think his dissolution of the INF treaty is any part of this? None of this had to happen the way it is happening. All we had to do was stop sending weapons and support to both Ukraine and Israel. Not to be. It's like we are now caught in a tsunami of conflict. Panama? Greenland? The Arctic? It's insane.
I think it’s clear that China, with all its warts and historical baggage, represents a sane alternative to the delusional west that cannot imagine a world without a fearsome, big dog.
Yanis Varfoukis points out that the alleged thinkers in the west are guided by the Thucydides Trap, which postulates that when one empire, in all its excesses and criminal dimensions is weakened, it will be replaced by another player, equally criminal and excessively abusive to its neighbors.
So the premise for aggressively confronting China is because the fear of the west is that China will assert its power similarly as it has…and that would be tragic, or so they preach. One glaring difference in the two states is the relative absence of war in China’s recent history, and its unyielding control of the capitalists in its domain. A country that has been victimized by imperialists, and is politically poised to take on imperialists, understands the present decline of the west, and the dangers in dealing with a desperate, wounded dog.
I think westerners who are conditioned to be wary of China recognize that the Chinese government makes no pretense about its role or its rules. What individualism has technically and materially achieved in the liberal west, China has equaled or surpassed through managed collective engineering.
The simple fact that the absence of war improves every state’s chances of a better tomorrow undermines that self-serving logic of the Thucydides Trap.
The likes of John Mearsheimer, a respected academic, are the intellectual foundation for a projected military confrontation between the Zionists and the communists, coming soon to a Pacific Rim near you.
When people who are publicly calling Zionism a toxic ideology, and the American government fraudulent, the pushback against them incudes labeling them as Chinese-paid trolls. I think the time is nigh to respond and engage. China is eating the imperialist’s lunch, and the imperialists can only kill their own.
Seems China has been able to forge alliances through economic support of nations instead of demanding unwavering obedience from client regimes with the threat of military punishment for falling out of line. With the 500 hundred year reign of global empires run by white males from Europe and North America coming to an end, China’s strategy seems to that recommended by Napoleon - never interfere with an adversary making a mistake.
As ye sow so shall ye reap. our governments in the West are way overdue to reap what they have sown. Their mindless brutality cannot serve any purpose other than to come back on us in spades. Howard Fast's masterpiece Spartacus summed it up back in the '50's when David the Jew was hanging on the cross. He said "I will return and I will be millions." That slave rebellion was crushed but ushered in the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire. The west has forgotten history and as such is doomed to repeat.
Putin is the boogeyman created by the Democratic party because they don't want us to know that if we really looked behind the curtain, 99.99% of the Democrats with ALL of the Republicans are really puppets of Netanyahu and AIPAC.
>>"99.99% of the Democrats with ALL of the Republicans are really puppets of Netanyahu and AIPAC."
I would disagree. The U.S. is the superior/dominant party in this arrangement. Israel (and all its supporting structures) are an integral part of the U.S. Empire - they serve U.S. Empire interests (i.e. the interests of the global Capitalists and the 1% - and not ordinary citizens).
Israel cannot survive without the U.S., but the U.S. can survive without Israel (except they would need someone else to represent their interests in the MENA regions - maybe Saudi Arabia?)
Putin has stated that he deeply regrets not intervening in the destruction of Libya. I firmly believe he has privately expressed his views to Trump & Co that he has no intention of regretting not to intervening if the psychos move to destroy Iran. He has correctly stated that an attack on Iran nuke plants the fallout will affect much more than Iran and those potentially affected have a an interest in preventing it.
Russia and Iran have a mutual defense agreement and by extension China and Russia also have such an arrangement. When I hear the war sluts in the US and ITisreal talk like they have the final say on an attack on Iran, they know better but that makes them all the more scary. So determined to control the world that they would gamble on its destruction. This situation is perhaps the greatest danger in history, surpassing the Cuban missile crisis, for WW3.
>>"Russia and Iran have a mutual defense agreement and by extension China and Russia also have such an arrangement."
Actually, there is no such "mutual defense agreement" between either 'Russia and China' or 'Russia and Iran'. They have a lot of agreements and treaties, but not one for "mutual defense".
That doesn't negate the fact that it would be folly for the West to attack Iran, Russia, or China - as this may make the rest of the world come together against the West (more than it already has) - and the consequences might truly be beyond imaginable.
Thank you for the correction. While my statements concerning an official defense pact between Russia and Iran and Russia and China were incorrect there is no question that the three countries have mutual interest in maintaining close relationships. It is true the three have participated in military drills.
Putin did clearly state that an attack on Iran’s nuclear plants is a concern beyond Iran. Not only the possibility of radioactive fallout but economic fall out as well. We will have to wait and see what Russia and China do as the psychos in US/Israel ratchet up the bomb Iran bomb Iran rant. Whatever may transpire the world is at one of the most dangerous periods in history. A US/Israel attack Iran will at minimum have devastating consequences for each country and the entire world. I have been so naive believing that tiny Israel was just a loose cannon. I now understand that Israel is a cog in a much bigger machine. I honestly wonder if Trump understands that he is a cog as well albeit a larger cog. Sounds like some kind of evil conspiracy.
i suspect all these things (including palestine) are 'on the table' in the negotiations that are going on between us and russia now. like, would an attack on iran suspend or nullify all the new deals us is offering to russia (rare earth minerals, return of energy companies, restoration of northstream under us tutelage, ...).
Putin has clearly expressed concerns about a radioactive release if Iran is attacked. And the nuke plants are target number one for the psycho squad so?
Another huge issue with attacking Iran is economic. It will have a major negative impact worldwide. I have no doubt that both Russia and China have privately expressed concerns.
And probably the biggest concern with an attack on Iran would be Iran’s response. They gave Israel a gentle warning that they are capable of overwhelming Israel’s missile defense and conceivable could inflict heavy damage to Israel. And as we know Israel would go full nuke if they were hit hard.
Bottomline this is not an attack that will be without serious consequences.
One for the road would be terrorist attacks against the US. Maybe several 911s or bigger. The US border has been open and thousands of potential terrorists are already in the country. We saw how the US reacted to 911 and no reason to expect any other response albeit stronger response.
also some are convinced that the us will have to use 'tactical' nukes to reach some underground facilities (even non-nuclear).
although us mainland will probably be mostly out of reach for iranian retaliation (alas - this would be a hampering factor) there is indeed israel (but would the us-empire really care?) and several nearby us 'sitting duck' bases (no oligarchs living there, afaik - problem with classist, elitist systems like the us is, threatening powerless populations is of little use) and the closing of the strait of hormuz .
us-domestic 'terrorist' attacks (are those 'terrorist' attacks if aimed at military targets coming from a country that would be at war with us?), are not much of a concern, imo, except if they would be 'allowed to happen' by 'terrorists-r-us' (us-empire).
A seriously wounded Israel would be catastrophic not just for Iran but the world. Terrorist attacks inside the US by whoever would be equally catastrophic and disrupting across the planet for many years to come. Look no farther than 911.
I hope the attack on Iran is called off. If not I can see millions of people being killed and world economy collapsing.
If Amerikkka and Israhell ONLY were destroyed by conventional weapons I’d be happy enough. I’m more than willing to die in order that USreal be eliminated.
"First we overlook evil. Then we permit evil. Then we legalize evil.
Then we promote evil. Then we celebrate evil.
Then we persecute those who still call it evil."
Written by Fr. Dwight Longenecker. A classic that will "forever."
FFS. The current president is a republican. This is bipartisan. Is this your first time here?
wrong ! There is NO difference between dems. and reps.
I think each party has a distinct public relations campaign geared to their constituents, but in the end, both constituents get the short end of a stick that gets shorter every day.
Pretty sure that’s what I said.
Zappa favorites:
“Government is the Entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.”
And for me as a musician:
“Music is the only religion that delivers the goods.”
I was beyond appalled at that video of Medea Benjamin being screamed at as a Chinese tool by whatever congressional moron who was doing the shouting, a person fitting these word of Zappa's:
“There's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.”
Note that difference, you disgraceful US pols, you bent-over tools of Israel, pegged by a brave Gazan EMT on a Breakthrough News interview yesterday as: "a business trying to expand and make money under the cover of religion, at the expense of Arab lives".
Whatever corrupt (or possibly a few honest) historians write about this, it’s absolutely clear who are the cowards and who are the heroes in this story.
A Scary Enemy is necessary at all times, to get the rubes to rally round the flag, to unify disparate factions, to provide a reason why the rubes cannot have nice things, and to provide a pretext for cracking down on dissent.
That's what Sukarno did in Indonesia. It was pretty slick though : he "confronted" Malaysia, so you had two island nations neither of which could afford a navy at "war". Their common border is an impenetrable jungle. Not a bad deal.
I once saw a TV special about how peace was bad and fostered degeneracy. War was good as it unified the nation. It ran frequently on some obscure cable channel. Newt Gingrich had a cameo. Someone must have spent millions broadcasting this message to the world.
But...but what scary enemy (other than Communism) have the Us been threatened with?
Saddam Hussein, Slobo Milosevich, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam again, Kim, Putin, Xi, etc.
........and they were going to take over the uSA!
Didn't you hear, "we have to fight them there, so we don't have to fight them here!"?
Of course.
"Nowhere in the Bible does it say “Thou shalt drop a new apartheid state on top of a pre-existing civilization thousands of years in the future despite the perpetual war, genocide and abuse its creation will necessarily entail.”"
The Bible does, however, say "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not bear false witness."
All of which seem somewhat relevant to the actions of a certain apartheid state.
What kind of fucking god allows his children to suffer?
Think about it, then tell me there is a “god”.
You’re an asshole. You do think the suffering of the Palestinian people is a GOOD THING? A father holding his baby’s decapitated head? Entire family lines wiped out? Children having limbs amputated without anesthesia?
How does that make anyone “great”?
It only fills their hearts and souls with UNSPEAKABLE PAIN.
If your fucking god wants YOU to suffer, I’m all for it. But I’m sure you’re spewing your bullshit from your comfortable home and you have plenty to eat.
Fuck you. “God” is not only NOT GOOD, he/she is NONEXISTENT.
Thank you. Excellent. "The price of empire is America's soul and that price is too high"
J. William Fulbright, US Senator
https://open.substack.com/pub/fredcarpenter204043/p/the-price-of-empire-is-americas-soul?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=slto0
The NYT has been a Zionist propaganda machine for decades. It is guilty of Journalistic Malpractice and has lost all credibility. It is another piece in the systematic agenda to control Western hearts and minds with Zionist lies, propaganda and indoctrination. This is now becoming clear to those not already brainwashed and unable to see the immorality of it all.
Almost all corporate media are guilty of this.
How can we go on as people when our own Governments don't hear us?
Two choices, Jenny: we either STFU or we work against those governments in every way possible.
Work against … while AND by preparing an alternate government. A nation within a nation.
Yes, a parallel authentic world of life, not death. 🙂
Dear GS-z-14-1:
Socialism is not the answer!
Again I say, Socialism is not what is best for the citizens of the United States!
Run Jenny Stokes, run away from the GS person!
Why?
Well we can all live in 'cloud cuckooo land.'
IT will take 500+yrs to get money out of politics in the USA
Dear Jenny:
Respectfully, I suggest that you are living in cuckoo land now.
Were it to survive that long, the existing regime would not abandon the power-wealth construct in 5,000 years.
The existing system is not reformable. It must be dismantled. But one cannot do that without some measure of structure to put in its place.
The ruling class can no longer govern as it always has, because the working class can no longer live as it always has.
Your society is entering a revolutionary condition. You will see social protests of an immensity not witnessed since the end of WWI. Tens—even hundreds of millions will rise up against their regimes.
Unless whole nations rise and regimes are removed, global war and thermonuclear apocalypse will end human existence on earth as we know it. The planet itself may not survive.
It is a revolutionary program to end madness and reestablish an humanitarian presence, or it is a sixth, great extinction event. This reality must be the impetus that that drives us onward.
The demoralized, confused and politically disoriented position of petit bourgeoisie Democrats avails naught. Only the global working class can and must bring this agenda to its necessary conclusion.
........and when the 'working class' are starving. How will they fight?
Forgive me but I know History and I am not living in 'cloud cuckoo land.'
Jenny: You are making the case for me! Not that I’m complaining, mind.
The world can produce food in abundant quantities. The obstacle is an economic system incapable of putting the food on the tables of the workers who produce it. That tells us that we need a new system.
Your point is entirely valid. It is the reason WHY the existing system must be replaced by one which serves the need of all, not the greed of the few.
That same logic applies in every field. Medicine, education, housing, adequate time for rest, access to communication systems, transportation, access to culture — quite literally everything.
We have the ability and means to create an ideal world. Instead we live in an emerging global gulag.
I encourage you to follow wsws.org
I agree. BUT there are still too many STUPID people. Take a look at Racket site.
I watch and watch and then I go AWOL for a bit because we are losing people by their hundreds/perhaps thousands who are out there in the streets....they end up in prison and charged fines which they can ill afford.
I watched Milan and Rome today the protests.
I think now it's up to us elderly persons to go in front of the kids. How many heart attacks can we have when we are 'zipped tied?' Doesn't matter to me except for the PAIN.
I think IF we could arrange busses/trains for elderly people to join protests there would be more of us to protect our kids. But then we would need 'serious' people who can come to our houses and ask us if we want to do this. I am 'up' for this in France.
I think I am living in an 'alternative Universe' where the OLD protect the young.
Maybe there is a "GO FUND ME SITE" where elderly people can pay the fines?
Just talking off my head really.
Have to go AWOL again!
Greetings, again, Jenny:
You wrote, ‘us elderly persons.’ I gather also that you live in France.
I am roughly your age. Mobility doesn’t become any easier with time. But we can speak, tell stories, share perspective, encourage youth, raise questions, write and otherwise engage.
The mass hunger and malnutrition confronting a substantial portion of the world’s working class is a social catastrophe, not a natural one. It is an immense crime which has been committed by the capitalist class around the globe.
Around the world, working parents go hungry to ensure that there is food on their children’s plates. They invent ways of extending their food. They find ways to cook scraps. They dull hunger pains with instant coffee. They eat rice with a pinch of fish paste and a smear of vegetable oil.
Basic necessaries in much of the world are sold in small units as it is all that most can afford. Rice is purchased by the cup; oil in a small tied-off plastic bag.
The vast wealth of humanity, the product of our collective labor, is enough to feed, clothe, shelter and provide a rich and meaningful life to every human on this planet.
These immense resources, however, are controlled by a handful of billionaires and the super-rich, who have parasitically profited off the exploitation of the world’s working class and who squander this wealth. They grew richer in the pandemic.
Musk, Branson and Bezos compete with each other to take vanity flights to space. But a majority of the world’s population cannot afford a healthy diet.
Society can afford to feed everyone on earth, but it cannot afford the billionaires. Our efforts must be honed on a profit system that enthrones them as modern day Sun Kings while the rest starve.
Louis XIV met his comeuppance. You are intelligent. You know what that means.
You have a revolutionary Party. It is called ‘Parti de l'égalité socialiste.’
The Party Secretary [of the French Section] is Alex Lantier. Years ago, he wrote this piece:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/06/food-j07.html
Reach out to the party.
Damn right, GS. We're at the point where the tRumps of this world need a big finish like the Ceausescus of this world, because while the plutocracies and dictatorships tighten the screws on the dissidents and hoi polloi nothing will change. A bit messy, true, but what other alternatives are there?
Politicians and their monied enablers will continue to keep their finger on the suppurating canker that is a society that's had enough, but it will burst eventually.
That’s an interesting analogy, David. I suggest that it falls to the working class to apply the point of a needle to the canker …
It may well come to that, GS.
What I am going to write now is what I know and have learned by living in 4 different countries for a long time..
This last Country does have a Liberal Democracy (at the moment) ie We have free Medical (mostly)/prescription medicines are almost free. Free schooling/Maison retraits (old people's housing) in every Town and City. We have been able to do this by relying on the USA to fight wars for us BUT we have had NO wars until the EU decided to take N.Europeans into our midst.
EU is an outdated system.
I love what France is trying to do? (irony)
Take our health system away and spend money on fighting Russia, whilst supporting a Nazi regime in Ukraine, is NOT what the people want.
I suspect that IF Mr Napoleon insists on building up our army, there will be rebellion.
Get the USA bases out of Europe.
Discontinue the EU (which is already fracturing because of a certain Van der Leydownand die).
We do have the Socialist Party run by and 'old hack Mr Melanchon. We also have a Communist party which is gathering strength.
After 4 countries I have learned one thing: IF you have an educated populace it is not easy to 'pull the wool over our eyes!'
However I have seen things happen in all 4 countries which I never thought would happen!
Time for the Western hemisphere to go away.
I have just had 'enlightenment!'
Who makes Zip ties. Of course I went on 'nothingburger Google.' Shoved around all sorts of places. I don't know where to go?
EVERY single thing our Govt's are using against us SHOULD be scrutinised.
eg. After each 'zip tie' is used (they cannot be used again)!
SO please tell me who we should be protesting against?
Mainstream Media and BIG plastic manufacturers.
Burn these Company's down.
>>"eg. After each 'zip tie' is used (they cannot be used again)!"
NO Jenny, zip-ties can be re-used. You need to know how. Here is one video that explains how (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZdf8osGqnE). Do a Youtube search on "how to re-use a zip tie" for more information.
What you should really be against (especially in the TECH industry) is PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE. Here is a good video on that -> "Planned Obsolescence Sucks. Here's Why It Still Exists." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzWU7D0S9_8)
I watched how you take a ZIP tie off. YOU really think your police spend their time doing this?
No the ZIP ties (probably made by a rich Plastic Company) just cut them off/throw them in the garbage where birds peck at them and die!
??? Why would the police want to reuse zip-ties?
Normal consumers may wish to re-use zip-ties. And you're complaining about zip-ties (of all things) when it comes to the problems caused by plastic?
Please get real Jenny - there are serious problems with the plastic industry - and picking on zip-ties (of all things) is a joke.
Form Rank-and-File Committees. Do things. Gain experience. Address issues. Support working class people in every conflict with management and the state. Take statements. Publish.
Broaden your focus to include the international working class. Sever ties with and critique ‘your’ “government” relentlessly.
Make other RFCs your sole, political alliance. Think of each RFC is a center of an emerging government.
Connect with the wsws.org
Feudalism lasted for centuries, the serfs were simply serfs. It can go on for quite a long time.
Now the question: How long will be the reign of technofeudalism? Or stated differently: are the serfs any more awake or even more numbed by the opiate of technology?
I disagree completely with Varoufakis's "coinage" of the term "technofeudalism" as a replacement of Capitalism and all the points he supposedly tries to make to support 'his' theory.
For a good summarization of a very rational, logical, and all-out takedown of the 'technofeudalism' book, I refer you to the following video -> "A great title, but not a great book! - Book Summary and Review - Technofeudalism by Yanis Varoufakis" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giIneaBeOgE)
I don't think it replaces capitalism, Chang, but I think it's hard to ignore it as a relevant current component of capitalism. Varoufakis' elaboration notwithstanding, I am not an idiot in recognizing that every time I click on a video that embodies some array of advertisements, someone is going ka-ching, even were I to click "skip" through each of them. And if I pay through the nose for a really good ad blocker, there's the profit in that direction. Are you really going to deny that this represents a scion of capitalist greed that enriches a subpopulation of individuals who manage to derive wealth from our clicks in one fashion or another? The entire scenario leaves me FEELING like a serf because choice plays into it in only the most minuscule of ways and I feel fucking used. That's what I mean by the term.
I don't have to necessarily love Varoufakis' elaboration to feel the effect of it. (I personally thought the book was mediocre.) Or to hate my devices, and the entire distortion of language that they imposed on us, sneakily slipped in on us to go with the tech circus. Emails, texts became "notifications" And devices, my ass; they're computers. It's all of an integrated piece -- A fucking oligarchic conspiracy. Want a different label tor it than technofeudalism? I'm open to suggestions. But I know what it feels like at its heart: a fucking conspiracy by rich sociopath assholes to get richer ad nauseam at the expense of the rest of us.
>>"And if I pay through the nose for a really good ad blocker,"
You don't need to pay a single cent. uBlock Origin (for Chromium and Mozilla browsers) is free and is the BEST blocker out there for desktop (and android in some cases) browsing. If you're using Apple devices - then you're trapped and already in the Capitalist-monopolist closed-prison system.
It's always been Capitalism. My critique is DIRECTLY based on Varoufakis' "coinage and usage" (and self-promotion) of "Technofeudalism". There is NOTHING NEW about "what he describes" - I am assuming you didn't watch the video that I linked to - technofeudalism is just Capitalism.
Here's a link to a comment I made earlier that criticizes Varoufakis' "feudalism" part of technofeudalism (https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/they-dont-just-tell-us-what-to-think/comment/90120476).
No I haven't had time to watch the vid because I'm struggling to create something more important to me; I will watch it when I'm freer. But I did read your prior comment and generally agree with it, and I also agree that Varoufakis is vigorously self-promoting his fancy label.
But I also think my point about the language is valid, part of a softening of the entire slick enterprise to coddle the mush brains into believing that it's all good, all part of the dream of you can have it all, if not in your local mall than in your mall online. Maybe I'm just a skosh more cynical than you? And as I said, if it makes me feel like a serf, that's the bottom line, new label or not.
I've go to go back to work, but I'll briefly tell you the reasons I got trapped in Apple machines, fuck the usage "devices". In 1986, I was animating cellular (e.g., white blood cells crawling out of capillaries) and molecular (e.g., proteins folding) for my students. At the time, PC graphics were nonexistent or garbage. Later, I was main science writer and managing editor on a bunch of four-color research pubs whose graphics people all used Macs.
Enough. Gotta shift gears. Later. Thanks. Always enjoy your perspective.
The invention and distribution of the AK-47 machine gun changed all that. It is cheap and a lot more effective than the pitchfork. The device is honored on the flag of Mozambique.
I am NOT suggesting this course. Just noting why serfdom is passe.
>>"Just noting why serfdom is passe."
That's NOT why serfdom is passe. It is Capitalism that replaced serfdom (and not guns or violence).
Also, serfdom STILL EXISTS (in different forms) in many regions of the world.
There are ways.
We yell louder until they hear us. We interfere with their ability to get rich. We teach our children and grandchildren that money is not what makes good people.
Alternative Universe Susan. Too late.
Concerning Caitlin's "The Daily Mail reports that Trump is preparing to bomb Iran with Israel. I don’t know how accurate this report is, but I do know that lately such forecasts about insane US warmongering in the middle east have had an annoying habit of proving true.
For those who aren’t aware, a full-scale direct war between the US and Iran would make all the atrocities we’ve been seeing in the middle east these last couple of years look like an episode of Peppa Pig. The whole world would feel its effects. The mind cannot imagine the horror." Please look up former Congressional House Representative Dennis Kucinich's recent articles concerning (1) the economic impact of War with Iran and (2) nuclear fallout being spread in the region and around the world: Scary Shit to Say the least!
I read his analysis and he’s right. It’s very telling that men like him are no longer in Congress as they were abandoned by their own Democratic colleagues. Kucinich tried to get a better health bill and wouldn’t vote for Obama Care. Obama took him for a ride on AirForce One and sweet talked him, promising him this was just a beginning for health care reform and it was important to vote for it. Then Obama
was behind gerrymandering his Congressional district and got him out of Congress.
Sane voices in Congress are almost gone. We have cringing yes men and women and some truly repellant loudmouths.
Israel is a Mother Fucking Terrorist. Cancel it .
I heard the war drums in the distance before "Russia Russia Russia". The war drums are beating again for Iran and China but closer and louder.
Our self-proclaimed president of peace is promoting war at every turn. His cabinet members cheer him on. He doesn't understand the basics of why things are happening and how true, sincere diplomacy could help nations come to points of agreement. Or perhaps he does understand, but that process would interfere with what he plans.
I didn't think this would be the case with him but IT IS the case. I hoped he had learned lessons from his previous cabinet choices. It appears to be that what he learned was to nominate people based on absolute loyalty to him more than anything else except loyalty to Israel.
He speaks to Putin but doesn't hear him. He hears from Iran and ploughs ahead. They wanted to iron things out and have good relations. He must know Yemen stood down during the ceasefire. Does Trump remember that he scuttled the JCPOA that he now demands? Does he think his dissolution of the INF treaty is any part of this? None of this had to happen the way it is happening. All we had to do was stop sending weapons and support to both Ukraine and Israel. Not to be. It's like we are now caught in a tsunami of conflict. Panama? Greenland? The Arctic? It's insane.
Who is he? I know he's not a peacemaker.
"Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerer of Death's construction
In the fields, the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind.
Poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave all that to the poor, yeah
Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait till their judgment day comes, yeah
Now in darkness, world stops turning
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgment, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercies for their sins
Satan laughing, spread his wings."
"War Pig", Black Sabbath
I think it’s clear that China, with all its warts and historical baggage, represents a sane alternative to the delusional west that cannot imagine a world without a fearsome, big dog.
Yanis Varfoukis points out that the alleged thinkers in the west are guided by the Thucydides Trap, which postulates that when one empire, in all its excesses and criminal dimensions is weakened, it will be replaced by another player, equally criminal and excessively abusive to its neighbors.
So the premise for aggressively confronting China is because the fear of the west is that China will assert its power similarly as it has…and that would be tragic, or so they preach. One glaring difference in the two states is the relative absence of war in China’s recent history, and its unyielding control of the capitalists in its domain. A country that has been victimized by imperialists, and is politically poised to take on imperialists, understands the present decline of the west, and the dangers in dealing with a desperate, wounded dog.
I think westerners who are conditioned to be wary of China recognize that the Chinese government makes no pretense about its role or its rules. What individualism has technically and materially achieved in the liberal west, China has equaled or surpassed through managed collective engineering.
The simple fact that the absence of war improves every state’s chances of a better tomorrow undermines that self-serving logic of the Thucydides Trap.
The likes of John Mearsheimer, a respected academic, are the intellectual foundation for a projected military confrontation between the Zionists and the communists, coming soon to a Pacific Rim near you.
When people who are publicly calling Zionism a toxic ideology, and the American government fraudulent, the pushback against them incudes labeling them as Chinese-paid trolls. I think the time is nigh to respond and engage. China is eating the imperialist’s lunch, and the imperialists can only kill their own.
Seems China has been able to forge alliances through economic support of nations instead of demanding unwavering obedience from client regimes with the threat of military punishment for falling out of line. With the 500 hundred year reign of global empires run by white males from Europe and North America coming to an end, China’s strategy seems to that recommended by Napoleon - never interfere with an adversary making a mistake.
As ye sow so shall ye reap. our governments in the West are way overdue to reap what they have sown. Their mindless brutality cannot serve any purpose other than to come back on us in spades. Howard Fast's masterpiece Spartacus summed it up back in the '50's when David the Jew was hanging on the cross. He said "I will return and I will be millions." That slave rebellion was crushed but ushered in the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire. The west has forgotten history and as such is doomed to repeat.
Putin is the boogeyman created by the Democratic party because they don't want us to know that if we really looked behind the curtain, 99.99% of the Democrats with ALL of the Republicans are really puppets of Netanyahu and AIPAC.
I agree with Eddie. US is the biggest puppet of Israel, along with the rest of the ''western'' powerless. It could not be any more obvious.
>>"99.99% of the Democrats with ALL of the Republicans are really puppets of Netanyahu and AIPAC."
I would disagree. The U.S. is the superior/dominant party in this arrangement. Israel (and all its supporting structures) are an integral part of the U.S. Empire - they serve U.S. Empire interests (i.e. the interests of the global Capitalists and the 1% - and not ordinary citizens).
Israel cannot survive without the U.S., but the U.S. can survive without Israel (except they would need someone else to represent their interests in the MENA regions - maybe Saudi Arabia?)
The irony, the exquisite irony, the immensity, the iniquity of it all, the berserk nature of it all, this Colonial Genocidal Zionism....
Putin has stated that he deeply regrets not intervening in the destruction of Libya. I firmly believe he has privately expressed his views to Trump & Co that he has no intention of regretting not to intervening if the psychos move to destroy Iran. He has correctly stated that an attack on Iran nuke plants the fallout will affect much more than Iran and those potentially affected have a an interest in preventing it.
Russia and Iran have a mutual defense agreement and by extension China and Russia also have such an arrangement. When I hear the war sluts in the US and ITisreal talk like they have the final say on an attack on Iran, they know better but that makes them all the more scary. So determined to control the world that they would gamble on its destruction. This situation is perhaps the greatest danger in history, surpassing the Cuban missile crisis, for WW3.
>>"Russia and Iran have a mutual defense agreement and by extension China and Russia also have such an arrangement."
Actually, there is no such "mutual defense agreement" between either 'Russia and China' or 'Russia and Iran'. They have a lot of agreements and treaties, but not one for "mutual defense".
That doesn't negate the fact that it would be folly for the West to attack Iran, Russia, or China - as this may make the rest of the world come together against the West (more than it already has) - and the consequences might truly be beyond imaginable.
Russia had a base for its warships and subs in Libya.
Syria too.
Both now gone. Not coincidence.
Also not coincidence that the west s targeting Iran, which Russia has missile and drone cooperation with.
iranian–russian treaty on comprehensive strategic partnership: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Comprehensive_Strategic_Partnership.pdf&page=1
not really a mutual defense agreement, but art.3,3. comes closest.
Thank you for the correction. While my statements concerning an official defense pact between Russia and Iran and Russia and China were incorrect there is no question that the three countries have mutual interest in maintaining close relationships. It is true the three have participated in military drills.
Putin did clearly state that an attack on Iran’s nuclear plants is a concern beyond Iran. Not only the possibility of radioactive fallout but economic fall out as well. We will have to wait and see what Russia and China do as the psychos in US/Israel ratchet up the bomb Iran bomb Iran rant. Whatever may transpire the world is at one of the most dangerous periods in history. A US/Israel attack Iran will at minimum have devastating consequences for each country and the entire world. I have been so naive believing that tiny Israel was just a loose cannon. I now understand that Israel is a cog in a much bigger machine. I honestly wonder if Trump understands that he is a cog as well albeit a larger cog. Sounds like some kind of evil conspiracy.
i suspect all these things (including palestine) are 'on the table' in the negotiations that are going on between us and russia now. like, would an attack on iran suspend or nullify all the new deals us is offering to russia (rare earth minerals, return of energy companies, restoration of northstream under us tutelage, ...).
Putin has clearly expressed concerns about a radioactive release if Iran is attacked. And the nuke plants are target number one for the psycho squad so?
Another huge issue with attacking Iran is economic. It will have a major negative impact worldwide. I have no doubt that both Russia and China have privately expressed concerns.
And probably the biggest concern with an attack on Iran would be Iran’s response. They gave Israel a gentle warning that they are capable of overwhelming Israel’s missile defense and conceivable could inflict heavy damage to Israel. And as we know Israel would go full nuke if they were hit hard.
Bottomline this is not an attack that will be without serious consequences.
One for the road would be terrorist attacks against the US. Maybe several 911s or bigger. The US border has been open and thousands of potential terrorists are already in the country. We saw how the US reacted to 911 and no reason to expect any other response albeit stronger response.
also some are convinced that the us will have to use 'tactical' nukes to reach some underground facilities (even non-nuclear).
although us mainland will probably be mostly out of reach for iranian retaliation (alas - this would be a hampering factor) there is indeed israel (but would the us-empire really care?) and several nearby us 'sitting duck' bases (no oligarchs living there, afaik - problem with classist, elitist systems like the us is, threatening powerless populations is of little use) and the closing of the strait of hormuz .
us-domestic 'terrorist' attacks (are those 'terrorist' attacks if aimed at military targets coming from a country that would be at war with us?), are not much of a concern, imo, except if they would be 'allowed to happen' by 'terrorists-r-us' (us-empire).
A seriously wounded Israel would be catastrophic not just for Iran but the world. Terrorist attacks inside the US by whoever would be equally catastrophic and disrupting across the planet for many years to come. Look no farther than 911.
I hope the attack on Iran is called off. If not I can see millions of people being killed and world economy collapsing.
If Amerikkka and Israhell ONLY were destroyed by conventional weapons I’d be happy enough. I’m more than willing to die in order that USreal be eliminated.
I respect that sentiment.
But going at the direction and speed they are going they maybe self destruct.