I live for your posts Caitlin. One person who has peeped through the curtain and seen past the official narrative and has the courage to speak about what you see. I'm not even sure that the world is at the 12 year old view. Most 12 year olds would scream it from the roof top if they saw what the monsters do to children who happen to live on the land they want to steal. You are a legend with a heart.
My contact with social media is limited, Caitlin, but I would venture a guess that most of Trump’s followers here in the U.S. don’t know who Maduro is and may not even know what continent Venezuela is on. These people are followers, not thinkers. That’s the whole point of cult membership — and I include many members of both major political parties in the U.S. in that group — they want someone else to do their thinking for them. So anything the leader does is okay, as long as the rest don’t have to know anything or think.
Some good news, though. Approximately 300 journalists, including 150 contributors or former contributors to the NYT, called out the newspaper in a letter for its biased reporting on Israel/Gaza, providing details about false reporting and connecting it to deaths in Gaza, including those resulting from assaults on hospitals. This is long overdue. The msm should be held accountable for its significant role in war crimes.
See the link I sent below. It’s not the same letter as the one mentioned in The Guardian article Susan sent you. You can also check out the October 25 letter referenced by Writers Against the War in Gaza (WAWOG) and Middle East Eye.
Francis/Clare,'Better late than never... good that they wrote it' and all that. But I am sure that you must be thinking what I am thinking.
Why did they wait so long ... till Gaza was reduced to a wasteland; till up to 300,000 killed; till the remaining were starving; scrabbling for shelter; weeping over their dead children; living ones orphaned; families decimated.... And the bombs kept on coming. Didn't they see what we saw? A genocide happening in real time!?
Is there something about that number? I remember a story about the great, and mostly forgotten, comedian Mort Sahl who was introduced to an Army General at a party. He eyed the General’s chest full of ribbons, medals, and decorations, and said calmly: “Very impressive… if you’re twelve.”
Thanks. 12 might be too high. Also, I have to admit, I grew up believing "the narrative" - Thanksgiving Puritans and Indians sharing food, One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all, etc. etc. Tough to "grow up". Thanks for all you and Tim do.
The anti-Muslim bigotry has lots of similar history. When JFK ran for the presidency the hew and cry was the Catholic Ch would take over the country and impose its repressive social control on us. Of course we have the anti-Russian 'red scare' begun with that country's revolution and anti-capitalist politics/economy followed by the anti-Chinese assaults and of course the anti-Japanese abuses with imprisonments of Am citizens during WWII with all the same kinds of bigotry. It is always hate whatever group tries to rise up with self-empowerment except for White male suprmacists. Duh! Yes the same group that was a vicious white supremacist colonial settler demographic that invaded this land with ethnic cleansing goals if they couldn't enslave those people. Well we know the Native people withstood enslavement and then suffered genocide from these so-called moralist christians that imposed their brutality world wide. So not surprising the treatment against Mamdani--the only surprise is with some people who do not know what this country is really about!
Its interesting you mention this - religious wars in europe (and european colonies) were always between catholics and protestants until relatively recently. Sometimes different sects of protestantism had issues with each other. When I was growing up (catholic, in the 1960s) I was acutely aware that our church was the only true church, and I endured the taunts from protestant kids because at least it wasn't as bad as what the martyrs had to endure, and i read a lot about Catholics who suffered persecution into the 19th century. Britain had laws limiting Catholics participating in society.
My earliest memory of anti immigrant sentiment was against italians and Greeks, move forward a decade or two and it was Vietnamese. It seems to me as if a new enemy allows a previous enemy to become acceptable.
I think the change has more to do with what group is being used for fear mongering and divisiveness. When growing up there was lots of conflicts betw Catholics and Jews in the City and intermarriage was a big issue. As people became more accustomed to these groups marrying each other and people became more open/curious about other groups I saw the same attitudes simply shifted. Part of the situation occured due to economics where low income/poor people inhabited the same cheaper communities. Direct contact brought people together as they got to know each other and shared similar problems of survival. So then we came to see interracial marriages which seemed to replace the religious divisions as a social challenge.
Relative to your comment, one of the dynamics occured with assimilation. As immigrant groups learned the language and social patterns they became 'white' and accepted. This worked with the Irish, for example, who were literally called Black Irish and treated as Black people were--until they became assimilate; ie, white. This works for voluntary immigrants who are white but people of color, no matter how they assimilate and give up cultural patterns (at least in public) will never be white even when they become wealthy and highly educated. Such is the nature of racism in this country.
I agree up to a point - where I lived there were very few Jews (or at least, they were invisible - i had a classmate who was Jewish, but didn't know that until years later. I can't imagine how he must have felt when 'Jew' was commonly used as a derogatory label). I remember when I was young seeing magazine adverts about marrying Catholics, as if it was a big deal. And I guess it was. My father had to vow that the children would be brought up Catholic when my parents married. In terms of "race" though, where I am south east Asians are very well integrated - a far cry from the 1980s. In the seventies and early eighties I looked at prejudice against new immigrants, and often it was related to a fear of taking jobs. Now our largest group of immigrants are south Asian, and they get blamed for housing shortages - so for these groups the focus has been primarily economic, although there are often references to cultural differences - including some that most likely have no basis in fact. The anti Muslim sentiment has been fed by the "war on terror" narrative, and i have known Muslims who choose to be invisible because of that i don't see that going away anytime soon. if I look at my grandson's friends they are from very diverse ethnic backgrounds but that is less likely in some places, especially in lower SES areas. Apart from islamophobia, the strongest form of racism is anti-African, and I think there are multiple layers with that.
Look at the ratios - how many males to females commit atrocious crimes, who bomb, rape, pillage and destroy the earth. By far it's males. Let's face this. This is significant. Not trying to lambaste males but really, we need to see the real culprits.
It's OK my friend. I accept your logic. : ) I continue everyday to overcome my male evilness. I saved a Praying Mantis inside a building, a sure and useless death. If only I could reach out and save Palestine.
well said Ms. Marquette. It's always a group that isn't the mainstream ruling class that is demonized and denigrated to justify them being disenfranchised and targeted for violent retribution. The pattern is the same, it's only the specific groups that are reviled that change.
I knew better around that age too, maybe even a bit younger when I realized that my grandmother was a money grubbing racist despite her great cooking. I knew right away that I never wanted to be like her.
We must be related my friend. Resistance even at that age : ) Hearing my Uncle an Air Force Lt. tell stories of dropping napalm on villages flying around to see people on fire while extended family smile and laugh at the dinner table. My first protest was during the Kent State murders. It is still hard to say I hate them but................
Demand Aston Villa’s match against Maccabi Tel Aviv be cancelled
On 6 November, Aston Villa FC is scheduled to host Maccabi Tel Aviv in the UEFA Europa League. Allowing Israeli football teams to compete in international competitions sanitises its horrific violence and allows Israel to cynically present itself as a normal country, obscuring the truth that it is carrying out a genocide, and imposing a regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid against Palestinians.
They did hold a vote, really they did. I am not sure the anal rape was limited to Palestinian though. So there is a limit to their evil, their own asses.
"The real minority that’s been causing everyone’s problems are the rich and powerful oligarchs and empire managers who rule the western power alliance."
If you can't see that people of another religion aren't your enemies, that those who are making profits from the mass killing of our fellow human beings are your enemies, then you're pretty much not a mature adult. But I don't like dissing on 12 year olds. I've taught them and some of them are quite intelligent and insightful. I think this juvenile behavior we're seeing from many is more like toddler behavior. They act just like cranky three year olds who refuse to take their afternoon nap and won't eat their veggies. It's time for them to grow the hell up!
"It’s always more pleasant to be the hammer than the nail." Maybe for a while for some. I don't like being the hammer. I don't like that so many people keep referring to our increasingly repressive society as a "democracy". Just look around. See how people of colour are treated by the cops. See how immigrants are blamed for the economic situation when it is clear that it is the rich (sometimes in power) who consume, destroy and degrade.
The remarkably similar sadistic liars thst drumpf has surrounded himself with are having a field day here and off the shores of Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador. And the fun is just beginning. We really truly need to stop them.
Stop paying taxes. Stop paying interest. I doubt many will even being. But that's what it will take. While these are being paid, it is seen as consent, which it is.
More important than ever! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing will continue to be vital in bringing the culprits to justice. This is ongoing and something we should support, irrespective of any ‘ceasefire.’
I think even most twelve year olds don't fall for this crap. But it's amazing how many young white men fall down the rabbit holes and spout this stuff. The algorithms seem to encourage this.
I live for your posts Caitlin. One person who has peeped through the curtain and seen past the official narrative and has the courage to speak about what you see. I'm not even sure that the world is at the 12 year old view. Most 12 year olds would scream it from the roof top if they saw what the monsters do to children who happen to live on the land they want to steal. You are a legend with a heart.
My contact with social media is limited, Caitlin, but I would venture a guess that most of Trump’s followers here in the U.S. don’t know who Maduro is and may not even know what continent Venezuela is on. These people are followers, not thinkers. That’s the whole point of cult membership — and I include many members of both major political parties in the U.S. in that group — they want someone else to do their thinking for them. So anything the leader does is okay, as long as the rest don’t have to know anything or think.
Some good news, though. Approximately 300 journalists, including 150 contributors or former contributors to the NYT, called out the newspaper in a letter for its biased reporting on Israel/Gaza, providing details about false reporting and connecting it to deaths in Gaza, including those resulting from assaults on hospitals. This is long overdue. The msm should be held accountable for its significant role in war crimes.
Every time I read "X should be held accountable" I think "X will be promoted to a more powerful position."
Could you share a link to that letter?
See the link I sent below. It’s not the same letter as the one mentioned in The Guardian article Susan sent you. You can also check out the October 25 letter referenced by Writers Against the War in Gaza (WAWOG) and Middle East Eye.
Thanks very much.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/22/jewish-notables-open-letter-un-sanction-israel
Better late than never!?
I doubt it will affect anything, but good they wrote it.
Francis/Clare,'Better late than never... good that they wrote it' and all that. But I am sure that you must be thinking what I am thinking.
Why did they wait so long ... till Gaza was reduced to a wasteland; till up to 300,000 killed; till the remaining were starving; scrabbling for shelter; weeping over their dead children; living ones orphaned; families decimated.... And the bombs kept on coming. Didn't they see what we saw? A genocide happening in real time!?
As writers, they would like to re-write their promotion of genocide and war crimes.
Many thanks!
My third attempt.
https://open.substack.com/pub/the307/p/former-new-york-times-writers-call?r=7frxn&utm_medium=ios
Excellent letter. I don't suppose the Times published it.
Thanks for a fine, funny column.
Is there something about that number? I remember a story about the great, and mostly forgotten, comedian Mort Sahl who was introduced to an Army General at a party. He eyed the General’s chest full of ribbons, medals, and decorations, and said calmly: “Very impressive… if you’re twelve.”
I saw Mort Sahl in San Francisco in those long ago foggy days of yesterday.
Sorry, I posted before seeing you had beaten me to it!
Thanks. 12 might be too high. Also, I have to admit, I grew up believing "the narrative" - Thanksgiving Puritans and Indians sharing food, One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all, etc. etc. Tough to "grow up". Thanks for all you and Tim do.
Control the narrative. Israel is a terrorist state.
The anti-Muslim bigotry has lots of similar history. When JFK ran for the presidency the hew and cry was the Catholic Ch would take over the country and impose its repressive social control on us. Of course we have the anti-Russian 'red scare' begun with that country's revolution and anti-capitalist politics/economy followed by the anti-Chinese assaults and of course the anti-Japanese abuses with imprisonments of Am citizens during WWII with all the same kinds of bigotry. It is always hate whatever group tries to rise up with self-empowerment except for White male suprmacists. Duh! Yes the same group that was a vicious white supremacist colonial settler demographic that invaded this land with ethnic cleansing goals if they couldn't enslave those people. Well we know the Native people withstood enslavement and then suffered genocide from these so-called moralist christians that imposed their brutality world wide. So not surprising the treatment against Mamdani--the only surprise is with some people who do not know what this country is really about!
Its interesting you mention this - religious wars in europe (and european colonies) were always between catholics and protestants until relatively recently. Sometimes different sects of protestantism had issues with each other. When I was growing up (catholic, in the 1960s) I was acutely aware that our church was the only true church, and I endured the taunts from protestant kids because at least it wasn't as bad as what the martyrs had to endure, and i read a lot about Catholics who suffered persecution into the 19th century. Britain had laws limiting Catholics participating in society.
My earliest memory of anti immigrant sentiment was against italians and Greeks, move forward a decade or two and it was Vietnamese. It seems to me as if a new enemy allows a previous enemy to become acceptable.
I think the change has more to do with what group is being used for fear mongering and divisiveness. When growing up there was lots of conflicts betw Catholics and Jews in the City and intermarriage was a big issue. As people became more accustomed to these groups marrying each other and people became more open/curious about other groups I saw the same attitudes simply shifted. Part of the situation occured due to economics where low income/poor people inhabited the same cheaper communities. Direct contact brought people together as they got to know each other and shared similar problems of survival. So then we came to see interracial marriages which seemed to replace the religious divisions as a social challenge.
Relative to your comment, one of the dynamics occured with assimilation. As immigrant groups learned the language and social patterns they became 'white' and accepted. This worked with the Irish, for example, who were literally called Black Irish and treated as Black people were--until they became assimilate; ie, white. This works for voluntary immigrants who are white but people of color, no matter how they assimilate and give up cultural patterns (at least in public) will never be white even when they become wealthy and highly educated. Such is the nature of racism in this country.
I agree up to a point - where I lived there were very few Jews (or at least, they were invisible - i had a classmate who was Jewish, but didn't know that until years later. I can't imagine how he must have felt when 'Jew' was commonly used as a derogatory label). I remember when I was young seeing magazine adverts about marrying Catholics, as if it was a big deal. And I guess it was. My father had to vow that the children would be brought up Catholic when my parents married. In terms of "race" though, where I am south east Asians are very well integrated - a far cry from the 1980s. In the seventies and early eighties I looked at prejudice against new immigrants, and often it was related to a fear of taking jobs. Now our largest group of immigrants are south Asian, and they get blamed for housing shortages - so for these groups the focus has been primarily economic, although there are often references to cultural differences - including some that most likely have no basis in fact. The anti Muslim sentiment has been fed by the "war on terror" narrative, and i have known Muslims who choose to be invisible because of that i don't see that going away anytime soon. if I look at my grandson's friends they are from very diverse ethnic backgrounds but that is less likely in some places, especially in lower SES areas. Apart from islamophobia, the strongest form of racism is anti-African, and I think there are multiple layers with that.
White male supremacists can also be Catholic.
absolutely!
Look at the ratios - how many males to females commit atrocious crimes, who bomb, rape, pillage and destroy the earth. By far it's males. Let's face this. This is significant. Not trying to lambaste males but really, we need to see the real culprits.
It's OK my friend. I accept your logic. : ) I continue everyday to overcome my male evilness. I saved a Praying Mantis inside a building, a sure and useless death. If only I could reach out and save Palestine.
well said Ms. Marquette. It's always a group that isn't the mainstream ruling class that is demonized and denigrated to justify them being disenfranchised and targeted for violent retribution. The pattern is the same, it's only the specific groups that are reviled that change.
You're right, Caitlin: "At a certain point you just run out of strong enough adjectives." But today it's enough to just say "Israel."
I knew better when I was 9, and Dad was in Vietnam in 1967, and it was clear to me that we-were-not-winning, very clear.
I knew better around that age too, maybe even a bit younger when I realized that my grandmother was a money grubbing racist despite her great cooking. I knew right away that I never wanted to be like her.
We must be related my friend. Resistance even at that age : ) Hearing my Uncle an Air Force Lt. tell stories of dropping napalm on villages flying around to see people on fire while extended family smile and laugh at the dinner table. My first protest was during the Kent State murders. It is still hard to say I hate them but................
And that the whole "mission" was an atrocity.
Demand Aston Villa’s match against Maccabi Tel Aviv be cancelled
On 6 November, Aston Villa FC is scheduled to host Maccabi Tel Aviv in the UEFA Europa League. Allowing Israeli football teams to compete in international competitions sanitises its horrific violence and allows Israel to cynically present itself as a normal country, obscuring the truth that it is carrying out a genocide, and imposing a regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid against Palestinians.
https://palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/astonvillamatch
I could not find away around the postcode. My u.s. zip code did not work. Thank you for the thought.
Oppressors, yes, and worse, child traffickers, child rapists, child killers-sacrificers.
Authorised by the Talmud to be totally okay.
No wonder these pigs are desperate to legalise paedophilia!
They belong in high security cells in mental asylums. All of them.
They are recommended to apply for End of Life Assistance according to the Law.
I don't think they want to legalize it. It's a lever of extortion, blackmail and control after all.
They did hold a vote, really they did. I am not sure the anal rape was limited to Palestinian though. So there is a limit to their evil, their own asses.
"The real minority that’s been causing everyone’s problems are the rich and powerful oligarchs and empire managers who rule the western power alliance."
If you can't see that people of another religion aren't your enemies, that those who are making profits from the mass killing of our fellow human beings are your enemies, then you're pretty much not a mature adult. But I don't like dissing on 12 year olds. I've taught them and some of them are quite intelligent and insightful. I think this juvenile behavior we're seeing from many is more like toddler behavior. They act just like cranky three year olds who refuse to take their afternoon nap and won't eat their veggies. It's time for them to grow the hell up!
"It’s always more pleasant to be the hammer than the nail." Maybe for a while for some. I don't like being the hammer. I don't like that so many people keep referring to our increasingly repressive society as a "democracy". Just look around. See how people of colour are treated by the cops. See how immigrants are blamed for the economic situation when it is clear that it is the rich (sometimes in power) who consume, destroy and degrade.
The remarkably similar sadistic liars thst drumpf has surrounded himself with are having a field day here and off the shores of Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador. And the fun is just beginning. We really truly need to stop them.
Stop paying taxes. Stop paying interest. I doubt many will even being. But that's what it will take. While these are being paid, it is seen as consent, which it is.
Unless you are self employed, income taxes are paid before you are in the u.s. They get their blood money before you see it.
More important than ever! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing will continue to be vital in bringing the culprits to justice. This is ongoing and something we should support, irrespective of any ‘ceasefire.’
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
https://donate.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the truth
Unfortunately, in our present world, they are likely to go with needs unmet for a long time.
I think even most twelve year olds don't fall for this crap. But it's amazing how many young white men fall down the rabbit holes and spout this stuff. The algorithms seem to encourage this.
Twelve? Twelve year olds are far more capable than that. More like 7.
I think they act more like toddlers--about three years old or so.