Thank you for putting words to all the horrific thoughts and emotions I've been struggling with for 5 months. You're cathartic and dead on. I hope this helps you to cope as well. This B.S. has been shoveled at us for decades. We're too busy/tired from the treadmill they've forced us on to survive to do anything about it. Your articles open people's eyes and bring about collective discussions. One bright spot is that Gaza has awakened good people who see the truth and have had enough. Now things may change for the better. If we're destined for war let it be to stop this crap permanently.
I'm not entirely sure how the army would react; probably a split. the lower ranks don't see much of the graft money from what I have read. just from dealing with cops and reading a lot, i would expect most of the cops would be on the side of the oligarchs. national guard? lotta Trump supporters in there.
Revolution from MEDIA, FINANCE, EDUCATION, and POLITICS.
So far (?),
I’ve seen little to NO PLAN.
Righteous anger gives you a French Revolution and a Reign of Terror:
Which gets you NO where.
Start REPLACING fence sitters with people who won’t take “No” to real change.
Burning the house down with everyone in it(?):
Doesn’t get the job done.
Start by recruiting the right people to replace the ones you don’t want. In the next election cycle (‘26): make darn sure you’re ACTIVE and put people in like Katie Porter who can not only TAKE the heat , but give RIGHT BACK with NO apologies.
The planning must be done literally “hiding” in plain site. Using new information technology forming a Western version of Russia’s “Internet Research Institute” (or rather many companies), contracted with with the military and other government agencies (for the sake of “efficiency” and “surveillance”). The next gen technology is already out there and is adapting rapidly to civilian applications and control.
The Neo Liberal movement is going to become one of the great casualties of this technology: thus the push back you see today : backed up by foreign powers who are pushing to destabilize the economies of every vulnerable liberal democracy on the planet. The oligarchs of more traditional heavy private industries are falling in line with every single offer from any government that will keep their profits flowing into their coffers. If they must sell out their countries and put up their consciousness and their personhood as collateral (along with millions who depend upon them?); so be it. They’ve done it many times before ; they can do it again ; Right (??):,
UNTIL (?)..
They CAN’T: because all they have to deal with is an outdated business model and their traditional approach to innovation. Now, enter the high tech oligarchs. Who have enslaved the information revolution and stalled it. This is not a permanent situation. They know it.
Now enters next Gen techno developers and the new way they produce and influence.
Put simply , the old techies do not want change. They dominate old politics, who champion “stability” and the more traditional values of old society. It now becomes a battle between these two camps. They can make or break information software and hardware:
They’re simply not prepared for what’s coming.
This is where real change begins and thrives under the noses of those who hold traditional power. It starts here and with the legislative and judicial leaders who recognize it and start to work with it: (a clue (?)..so far (?): they haven’t). That’s a weakness from which they and their old oligarch systems (?), may never recover.
THERE’S your chance Martin. There is your revolution being planned :
It took France over a century to get past that bloody guillotine Reign of Terror and doomed European empires to contract into despotic industrial capitalism: setting the stage for mass death on an industrial scale , now known as WWI. Meanwhile France surges into a socialist industrial and cultural mainstay ; still struggling with massive economic uncertainty. That left them open to the influence of fascism that would dawn with word wide Depression and blossom into Hitlerite Fascism and The German National Party (aka: Nazi). Yes, the ideals of The Revolution would help them resist the massive collaboration with the Nazi regime:
but without the intervention of the Americas and The British (?): they would have fallen easily.
Since the rescue of 1945(?), they recovered like most of Europe. Today another uncertain world wide hegemony threatens that stability as Neo Nazi movements are spreading through the NATO countries: foreshadowing another fascist takeover:
Unless those who see this happening clearly start to a lot more than pontificate about it and fight back with all factions and tools at their disposal.
Getting too comfortable with “prosperity” can be and is fatal.
Time to create a new economy and hegemony: It must start NOW.
This is all planned and executed by the bankers. All wars are bankers wars. The big banks are crashing so the only way to survive is to find a reason for more money printing. First Covid, then war. More money printing coming. More war coming.
This communist provides an excellent summary of the greed that pervades the western system and the lies the Oligarchy must tell to get the "average citizen" to support one criminal mafia over another. The thing is though, people believe those lies and come to expect follow through. Tucker Carlson has seen the future and knows that the end of the current manifestation of the Oligarchy is coming to an end. Which direction it goes from here is unknown.
We are seeing what happens when government abdicates its role as regulator allowing catpialism to become completely predatory. Its called neoliberalism and it has been in effect for half a century and the damage is proportionate and exponential.
>>"We are seeing what happens when government abdicates its role as regulator..."
Robert, I believe this "regulatory role of the government" was never intended to actually regulate capitalism (or serve the interests of proletariats and lumperproletariats) - not even when the US constitution was written. The government and corporations are mixed together like salt-and-water. The regulation that does happen is a farce. But its more than that. Government regulation has come to mean "how do you regulate a population whose interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the capital class (power elite, oligarchs, bourgeoisie)?"
I think you're white washing regulations that have been good. It's the same type of white washing when the advocates of Privatizing public works - claim it will be more efficient and lead to a better outcome - when it has been well documented to rarely be the case.
This blind belief that any kind of regulatory control must be bad - and government by default is bad - is hogwash. There are plenty of examples throughout the world where a country and its citizens are thriving because government plays a key role. For example UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE - which the right-wing with all the anti-government rhetoric has been vociferously against now my ENTIRE FUCKING LIFE here in the United States. And ordinary Americans should be sick of this continuing ideological garbage - paid for by the obscenely rich. Americans deserve a Universal Health Care system and fuck anti-government half-truth white washing bullshit.
Jamenta - again you are engaging in emotional rants instead of attempting to understand what is actually being said.
Let me expand and explain how government works in conjunction with private multi-national corporations & entities to subvert support for the common man and democracy. (and how "regulation" fits into this framework). Maybe that will help you understand my comment above:
Quotes:
(1) "The federal government is replete with supportive programs—subsidies, research, promotional, contracts, tax privileges, protections from competition—which flow regularly into the corporate mission of profit and sales maximization." - RALPH NADER (Introduction to Morton Mintz and Jerry S. Cohen, America, Inc. (New York: Dial Press, 1971)
(2) "Both welfare spending and warfare spending have a two-fold nature: the welfare system not only politically contains the surplus population but also expands demand and domestic markets. And the warfare system not only keeps foreign rivals at bay and inhibits the development of world revolution (thus keeping labor power, raw materials and markets in the capitalist orbit) but also helps to stave off economic stagnation at home." - JAMES O’CONNOR (Fiscal Crisis of the Stale (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973))
State-supported capitalism has been imperfectly labeled by many popular terms which, while containing particles of truth, conceal the genuine nature of the new business-government relationships: “state capitalism,” “welfare state,” “warfare-welfare state,” and “mixed economy.” The power of the concept “state capitalism” (or “state monopoly capitalism”) is that it stresses the alliance of powerful capitalist forces with the state. But it greatly underestimates the extent to which big business operates on its own, both without the state and beyond the reach of the state. In no country of advanced capitalism is business completely controlled by the state; the state, rather, is subject to business control, although not completely. The relationship is more that of a business-government partnership, with business often serving as the senior, although sometimes silent, partner.
In a broader sense, the “welfare state” idea is fundamentally misleading. The welfare provided is not the general well-being of the people. It is welfare, rather, in the narrow and restrictive sense of public assistance to the poor and other programs (usually financed by the lower and middle classes themselves) to take the rough edge off capitalist exploitation, promote docility among the exploited, and thereby help form a more perfect capitalism.
Very often, Big Welfare (i.e. by the Government) gives handouts to Big Business from the normal peacetime activities of the capitalist state. Although it is perfectly true, as conservative economists insist, that “there are no free lunches,” there are scores of corporate “free lunchers” who manage to get other people—via government intervention—to pick up all or part of the bill. (i.e. socialism for the rich and unknowingly supported by the working class people). Here are some examples from the US:
• The Federal Reserve system, which supports bankers by maintaining high interest rates and bailing out bank failures.
• The nominally progressive federal tax system, which has become a labyrinth of special loopholes that provide many billions of “tax expenditures” (indirect subsidies) for specific companies or groups.
• The Treasury Department, which maintains huge interest-free deposits in large banks while at the same time paying the bank’s interest on money lent to the government.
• Billions in direct subsidies that are paid to airlines, the merchant marine, agribusiness and others.
• Federal expenditures for scientific research and development, which have subsidized the growth of capitalism’s technological reserve.
• Government guarantees that protect many billions of bank mortgages and foreign investments against losses.
(X) • Government regulations that give the large banks control over the investment of the pension funds of most labor unions.
(X) • So-called regulatory commissions, which help maintain the oligarchic power of the communication media, public utilities, and major transportation interests.
• Government forays into wage-price controls, or “incomes policy,” which are used to keep wages down or squeeze out business competitors.
Again, in terms of "regulation", pay special attention to the points above marked by "X".
So jamenta - you land up making all these assumptions and hurling accusations without understanding the depths and nuances of "how the regulatory system works" in the US.
Also, you continue making strawman arguments like "blind belief that any kind of regulatory control must be bad" and "government by default is bad" and then continue on your emotional and expletive laden rant.
jamenta - I don't know if you are having a bad day or something, but maybe spend some time understanding what is being said rather than imagining things in your mind and then argueing against those imaginations?
Dude I don't have time really to argue over such right-wing bullshit like what you said in your original post: "The regulation that does happen is a farce."
"how do you regulate a population whose interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the capital class"
Which is a perverted, pseudo-intellectual take on governmental regulations and their actual intent.
You want me to engage with your long winded anti-regulation rant here that goes on and on about how bad the government is with its regulatory control - pretending that nothing good has ever come out of regulations. Or your implied nothing good can come out of it - which is intellectual garbage.
And I suppose then you want me to counter your argument with a long list of my own demonstrating some of the obvious benefits of regulation. Like maybe quote Upton Sinclair on meat industry regulation. Or cite Standard Oil for monopoly regulation. Or perhaps you want me to discuss rules in congress regarding Filibuster "regulations". Or maybe you want me to cite use of public land regulations. Or maybe talk about regulations of machine guns or ownership of M1 Tanks. Or maybe we should talk about regulations on price fixing, or automobile safety. Or maybe I should bring up how drinkable the water is in Flint Michigan. Or maybe we really should talk about regulations of billionaire sponsored think tanks with the assholes that are hired to pervert social media. Or maybe we should talk about rules (laws) regulations of the deep state to stop them from torturing some folks, and spying on everyone. Because it sure the fuck isn't going to happen spontaneously with corporations or the rich - they'll just spy on us more Mr. shithead Chang.
Or maybe, maybe you can fuck all the way off with your pseudo-intellectual anti-government, anti-regulation spewing that shows a complete lack of objectivity because you are indoctrinated up to your ass with your right-wing propaganda bullshit - hook, line and sinker.
I hope you are right but the military industrial complex needs war to justify it's insane budgets. Hence when the cold war ended they planned and executed 9/11. If Ukraine ends they will be planning the next war. China, Russia, the American people. They are not fussy about who they kill.
Mix in some of that Joti Brar from the Garland Nixon interview.
There's nothing to be gained by the "Average American" if we follow Carlson. He sounds good right now, but as Brar said about previous manifestations of the Oligarchy and Empire, he's not on our side.
Must be some crossed wires as I did not even mention Carlson. He does not matter. The CIA military industrial complex has now merged with the drug dealers and gone to war with us all. If you are not hyper rich you are a useless eater and will be culled for profit.
You're repeating the obvious to most here but refusing, like Jenny, to understand who the oppressors are.
The CIA and the MIC are just fronts for the Oligarchy, the mafia, the privileged elite.
Tucker Carlson is a member of that group. Ask yourself why he is mouthing the progressive positions that were once the domain of Bernie Sanders. The Bernie Sanders that insured Hillary was the 2016 nominee.
I count all the oligarchs, mafia and elite as part of the MIC. Politics does not matter. Red or Blue they both keep printing to fund them. Tucker may or may not be paid by the MIC I don't think it matters.
Simplicius is brilliant and a good writer, but what he is reporting is the Exit Ramp propaganda narrative that Biden and the Dems crafted to they could blame the Republicans for "losing" Ukraine by denying the latest round of $61 billion in military aid.
Biden laid the groundwork for this narrative last year, when he included Ukraine aid in the bill to extend the debt, knowing that it would be rejected by Republicans in the House.
"Exit Ramp propaganda" makes it sound as if Simplicius supports or favors the Biden plan and therefore the rest of his analysis is rather suspect. He did mention that AFU soldiers were in their trenches scrolling on their phones wondering about Congressional passage of the stalled aid bill, but nothing else.
You may be correct that is the narrative that the administration is trying to sell, but I seriously doubt a majority of voters will be suckered into believing it. Rather, I'm going to assume that the DNC will promote some nobody to be their Presidential candidate at the convention. If Biden remains in place, Trump's win is pretty much guaranteed.
Then entire US MSM is reporting that line - it's not coming from Simplicious.
I didn't say people would buy it. I said it was the Dems' cover story for their failure. Kind of like Russia-gate was their excuse for 2016. Dems will do anything but examine their own Neoliberal pro-war pro-corporate policy and bad candidates as reasons for losing.
" but what he is reporting is the Exit Ramp propaganda narrative that Biden and the Dems crafted to they could blame the Republicans for "losing" Ukraine by denying the latest round of $61 billion in military aid."
Which sounds to me rather dismissive and derogatory of Simplicius and "the exit ramp" wasn't anywhere in his article.
>>"When the Oligarchy owns the companies that manufacture the voting machines, we should all know the game is rigged."
I disagree. It doesn't matter who owns the voting machines (or even if voting machines are replaced by manual processes), the "electoral process" (game) will always be rigged (in order to maintain the status quo).
Elected officials are manufactured personalities and celebrities. We vote based on how we are made to feel about corporate political puppets. The puppets, Democrat and Republican, engage in hollow acts of political theater, keeping the fiction of the democratic state alive. There is no national institution left that can accurately be described as democratic. Citizens, rather than participate in power, are permitted virtual opinions to preordained questions, a kind of participatory fascism as meaningless as voting on “American Idol.” Mass emotions are directed predominantly towards the culture wars that include battles over abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration fear-mongering, manufactured moral panics like CRT, great replacement theory (espoused and proliferated by personalities like Tucker Carlon), ... etc. (each generation has its own particular set of manufactured moral panics). We are only permitted to take emotional stands on issues that do not affect corporate power. What we call politics is no longer political.
So, the game will always be rigged - that is the only way the "power elite" can maintain their status quo - by creating illusions using smoke-and-mirrors and psychological manipulation (feelings & emotions - as Caitlin Johnstone so poignantly elucidates in this article).
To push against your username : ) I do believe this is the strongest possibility of a third party (Jill Stein) victory as with Ross Perot. People are asking for a vote for anyone not Monopoly party. Fear of Trump ended with Genocide Joe. Could Stein win 34% of delegates? I find it interesting as a realist : ) Can you imagine the Accelerationism with a Stein victory ha.
See the many other links I've posted to Norton, Wolff, etc.
Especially the Garland Nixon interview with Jodi Brar
In summary. US sanctions have totally failed to isolate Russia. Rather they have spurred the BRICS to counter the Hegemony of the American Oligarchy.
The Oligarchy is well defined by Aaron Good's series of youTubes and his outstanding videos on "The Devil's Chessboard". Basically, they came to America to seek their fortunes centuries ago.
They have worked very hard to maintain their positions of privilege through legislation and taxes that serve them and not the "Average American" (which Marxists would label the "proletariat").
They are very loosely organized much like the mafia. They fight one another but mostly behind the scenes unrecognized by the "average American".
Tucker Carlson is a member of that privileged elite. He sees the coming economic decline of the American Empire and is working on establishment of a group of "Average Americans" who will follow his pied piper whistle allowing the subset of the Oligarchy he belongs to to remain in control of the American Economy and thus allow those who provide him with resources to "carry on" to maintain their positions of privilege in the coming reorganization of the economy.
In 2008 Lehman Brothers was sacrificed. In the coming economic turmoil it will be even more members of the Oligarchy.
But for the "Average American" it will just be a repeat of the dot-com bubble, the mortgage crisis, the covid recession and the upcoming Ukraine war recession. The question to ask is which false prophet will Americans follow?
It appears that Carlson is backing Trump at the moment -- or he's backing some other unknown. His interview with Putin and his trip to the Russian grocery store makes him look like someone Americans should listen to. But do recall what he was selling 3 years ago.
John Zwiebel, thank you for sharing the link to the indefatigable Joti Brar. To those who talk of what a revolution will look like and if it's possible, we have to first get rid of the brainwashing that has given us colonised minds that clouds our judgement.
Of course covid was planned. While it's arguable the release in Wuhan from the lab was unintentional, the research to MAKE it into a human-aimed disease was not. In several labs around the world.
And the reaction to the outbreak was certainly planned, thoroughly. That is not a "conspiracy theory", we would EXPECT a viral outbreak to be planned for. In whose interests that planning was for however, can again be arguable.
So apart from the actual release - possibly - the entire 'Covid Experience' had been planned.
Event 201 certainly indicates that a whole lot of planning was going on. I wouldn't rule out Fort Detrick as a source for the Covid leak. Gain-of-function research was actually shut down in the US for 3 years (2014-17) because of all the accidents in BSLs.
I would be fascinated to see the results of of a trial comparing the Iranian-covid strain, and the typical one that swept the West. The Iranians are as good doctors as anywhere in the World, and were not pulling the "Deaths WITH Covid" stunt as the West did. They were genuinely swamped.
As it was soon discovered the strain had been transferred from a couple of clerics visiting Saudis and returning, the possibility of foul play is quite high.
Fauci should be in prison for the rest of his natural for his role in this, as you probably know. It seems being a Grandmaster Freemason, and/or holding dirt on every secret US bioweapon lab around the world, confers immunity for such crimes.
Yes, it appears that Iran got the "special sauce" they hadn't ordered. If Western Governments had been serious about Covid, they would have suspended all military operations until we got a "handle" on the Virus. Fauci also lied under oath in Congress when he said he did not "favor" gain-of-function research, when he's on record as its foremost proponent. The gall of these people!
If you want to believe fantastical conspiracy theories that a bat from a deep cave was transported thousands of miles to a wet market, with no other infections along the way, no intermediate stages of infection from bat-human, and that this 1Tn-1 chance of cross-species infection occured instead of from the nearby Viral Infection Lab actually STUDYING this precise disease, in a notably lax biosecurity regime that had already been reported as having several earlier leaks - be my guest.
Me, I stick with the science. And Occams razor.
But you do you, that's cool.
I doubt you've read that full article, you have just "uninformed opinions".
Unless we get another Kennedy who actually manages to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces we are in deep shit. If you have savings then switching to physical assets such as gold, silver, high yield property or a classic car will afford you some sort of protection. They are also likely to come for the gold so make sure you switch to land or housing before this happens. Read Jim Rickards and Bill Bonner and you will get plenty of warning. If they come for the land make sure you emigrate before then, sort out a second passport now if you can just in case...
If you are relying on your wage from week to week then you are right in the firing line. I am not sure there is much you can do apart from emigrating to El Salvador!
I would love to but it is not up to me! I thought you were a realist???? They have all the biological, psychological and kinetic weapons. Even the President does not have the power to destroy the deep state anymore so I think that ship may have already sailed.
Heartburn, acid reflux. Those are my feelings for the pabulum I see mainstream media shitlibs proffer to reprehensible meatheads like John Fetterman as they pursue grotesque nonsequiturs discussing how Joe Biden's economy is so great -- except for those folks (the bloody majority) who "may not be feeling it". Well, how dare those nonfeeling proles resort to feeling something different -- like outright revulsion and disgust for these war criminals who proffer an economy based on the murder of innocents and pauperization of everyone else. Fall into line you recalcitrant sheep. The correct operant response is Yes Massa Imperialist War Pig. Anything else is mis-responsiveness, and as an unpatriotic utterance is subject to prosecution under the Espionage Act.
The point about the government and elite doing whatever they do and manipulating people’s feelings, is spot on.
Its also exactly what was done when a known CIA contractor was blamed for the world trade center bombings, then suddenly this was turned into an excuse for not only the US but all of “NATO” invading the middle east and shooting and drone-missileing, and bombing Afganistani and Iraqi civilians to a pulp. One million people killed in these wars and as many as five million dead indirectly, the overwhelming majority innocent civilians,indiscriminately killed:
So it’s no surprise when we see once again. the US and NATO vassals, ake “the west”, in unison sending Israel weapons and money to commit genocide, and destroying opposition to this genocide at the UN.
Because its the same old murderous gang, doing the only thing they know how to do: bomb and murder people. It’s the western way of life, and has been for a couple of centuries now.
However, one must not jump to the conclusion that all science therefore must be wrong. We did manage to land on the Moon because of scientific advances.
Like anything a balance of reason and common sense should guide one's judgement.
Yes. William James even writes about the common lack of objectivity in his seminal 1890 book "Principles of Psychology". It has been a common problem with the Science since its inception. And I think it has become even more problematic with the infiltration of political agendas within American University management - Universities more and more are being run like businesses and corporate think tanks - rather than free thinking, objective establishments of academic inquiry.
That's how science works - the evidence accumulates, uncertainty is reduced, probability or likelihood increases, and an hypothesis becomes validated (and consensus in the scientific community builds around it)..
"Extraordinary evidence" is not the individual elements of evidence, but the cumulative amount and quality of the evidence. I sense you're no scientist or student of science, yes?
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it ...
An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth."
— Max Planck, Scientific autobiography, 1950, p. 33, 97
If you have a big investment in Idea X then you are likely to defend Idea X. If you control the money then you may be successful in this. I thought BF Skiinner's ideas were silly but for decades if you didn't pledge your support you didn't get a job in that field.
"Academic politics are the most viscious and bitter form of politics because the stakes are so low." -- Wallace Sayre
Besides, I was commenting on a journalistic standard. When ones make an outlandish claim, one needs to meet a very high burden of proof: lots of good quality reliable supporting evidence from credible sources.
There is no such thing as "extraordinary evidence" in science. There is just the accumulation of evidence to help prove a hypothesis that eventually becomes a theory.
And even scientific theories can and have been disproven over time, despite the accumulation of evidence.
The interpretation and modeling of the evidence is just as important as the accumulation of the evidence.
That's where Skeptics usually fuck it up - they interpret evidence primarily with their philosophical lens of reductive Materialism - which has not been proven by science or philosophical reasoning, to date.
Patrick Powers is right, scientists can be just as unobjective and biased as any group of people. William James was keenly aware of this, as he established the very first school of psychology in the US at Harvard University.
William James - whom idiot Skeptics even during his day, would argue he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about.
Don't vote for the lesser evil! We've tried that. ... over and over again! Hoping that the crooks not in power will be better than the crooks in power is just wishful thinking.
Either vote for someone you want, or spoil your paper. All ballots should have a "none of the above" option: then you would see how people feel about the puppets.
yeah I read that Nikki Haley lost in Nevada to none of the above, or whatever the language was on the Nevada ballot. I think that would be common if it were an option.
Spoiling the paper is a good option to my way of thinking. Don't give the psychos any support & certainly don't give them any power. Think about Village Meeting scenarios where local meetings can be networked if the issues affect more than just the locality. Add a more centralised layer as a purely administrative one to provide the means to implement the resolved issues. If that admin level fails then sack the useless ones as WE, the Sovereign People, are the employers. Never abnegate the responsibility for your own life by giving the responsibility for that to psychopathic strangers who've wormed their way up the greasy pole to steal everything you have through 'electoral politics'.
The last Presidential election, I wrote in my friend and comedian Jim Earl and his Comedian wife Martha Previte. I couldn't stomach Genocide Joe even then.
An election without debate, without candidates, changed dates and order is a meaningful signal.
Understand the disgusting feelings experienced within when we learn about the truth of wars. All wars are against the children and it does not matter what side one chooses. Wars create more war and the energy continues to grow, it is like a cancer or worst parasites. Unfortunately there can be a "lesser evil". When we pay taxes, that we believe we do not have a choice, we pay for these corrupt war mongers, that we voted for, to continue their work of destruction of all life and the planet. We continue to feed what we do not want and blame the outside or us. When we choose sides, we feed the war energy called propaganda. It is not the civilians that want war, it is a corrupt dictatorship gov't who are fed by our taxes to continue to feed wars by the Military Industrial Complex. We all are to blame, know or believe it or not. Forgive us Father for we do not know what we do. It is the time to awaken to what we do and what roles we all play in by our abilities to co-create, evil or light, we have a choice.
In the Garland Nixon interview I posted above JOTI BRAR explains that many of the so-called leaders of protests actually work for the deep state. The bifurcation of the anti-war protest of last year is an example. Brar points out that if those "leaders" had rallied the crowd to march on Wall Street, some change might have been possible.
Michael Tracy details Trump's first term showing that the policies he followed were exactly the same as Obama's.
It's pointless to shame those who vote for Biden, because it doesn't matter--Trump would be at least as bad on this and plenty of other things. As you have pointed out. And don't forget, in the US often your vote doesn't matter because of our ridiculous electoral college system. So, for example, I live in West Virginia, and will likely have to write in West or Stein--but it doesn't matter who I vote for because if he's on the ballot. Trump has already won here, guaranteed. Even if he won by two votes, he would get all of WV's electoral college votes. There is a move to change this but it will never go through BECAUSE the reps from the states with unfair advantage will never willingly give up their extra power. And it isn't worth fighting for, because this is just one of the ways the game is rigged to keep power in fat white sociopathic hands. We desperately need change, radical, a cross-the-board change, but we're overdue to talk about how to actually get there, rather than wasting any more time on electoral politics.
The US is not a lesser evil. The Republican Representative Andy Ogles has said all Palestinians children should be killed and the US will drop bombs on them. Irrespective of what is said by Biden as conciliatory lies, we definitely know the US stance. They really are a disgusting bunch of murderers.
One of the most sadistic things I've ever heard coming out of an American representative. That the country has come to this - that a sadist at the level of a Nazi walks the halls of DC now - is sick beyond belief. This man should never be allowed to forget what he said - nor be allowed to prosper because of his human depravity.
I think this is mainly a reference to Presidential elections. I have friends who run as Democrats that I trust with my life, Genocide Joe I don't trust and will NEVER vote for lesser Genocide.
Sick of it all. I can no longer process the hatred, the bloodshed, the inhumaity of it all. U.S. is more than complicit. We are #1 purveyors of death and destruction
Will we ever discover the depth of that control. IF we do learn I think eight yrs. ago me would have been shocked and horrified. Today me, of course what did you think was going on in this illogical pretense of a country hahahahahahahhaahhahaha.
The way I see it, if Trump is elected, we deserve it. That's the flaw in a democratic republic. So be it. But the Palestinians, and all the people whose death and suffering we enable or cause, don't deserve Biden. I'm writing in Marianne Williamson as the only moral choice I can make.
By participating in a corrupt electoral system, you are validating its legitimacy. The US electoral system is no longer legitimate or ethical. Its a con game.
Thank you for putting words to all the horrific thoughts and emotions I've been struggling with for 5 months. You're cathartic and dead on. I hope this helps you to cope as well. This B.S. has been shoveled at us for decades. We're too busy/tired from the treadmill they've forced us on to survive to do anything about it. Your articles open people's eyes and bring about collective discussions. One bright spot is that Gaza has awakened good people who see the truth and have had enough. Now things may change for the better. If we're destined for war let it be to stop this crap permanently.
It’s one thing to analyze, speak out, and write essays about the issue: but another one entirely to make a reality based boots on the ground solution.
THAT takes longer, requires very hard work, knowing how to make the powerful connections that will actually effect change.
It’s WAY past time to start
THAT.
People in power will never listen.......time for a revolution in the US.
{...revolution...} ???
Against fully militarized police-forces ??
The ONLY way to win (get out of the matrix) is to refuse to play their "game" !!
I'm not entirely sure how the army would react; probably a split. the lower ranks don't see much of the graft money from what I have read. just from dealing with cops and reading a lot, i would expect most of the cops would be on the side of the oligarchs. national guard? lotta Trump supporters in there.
Money talks; they'll just follow it !!
(even if it is FIAT ...)
Then start PLANNING one.
Revolution from MEDIA, FINANCE, EDUCATION, and POLITICS.
So far (?),
I’ve seen little to NO PLAN.
Righteous anger gives you a French Revolution and a Reign of Terror:
Which gets you NO where.
Start REPLACING fence sitters with people who won’t take “No” to real change.
Burning the house down with everyone in it(?):
Doesn’t get the job done.
Start by recruiting the right people to replace the ones you don’t want. In the next election cycle (‘26): make darn sure you’re ACTIVE and put people in like Katie Porter who can not only TAKE the heat , but give RIGHT BACK with NO apologies.
Gotta start locally and build up quickly.
i recommend not planning the revolution online or anywhere where the plans can be seen.
Very good counsel Martin.
The planning must be done literally “hiding” in plain site. Using new information technology forming a Western version of Russia’s “Internet Research Institute” (or rather many companies), contracted with with the military and other government agencies (for the sake of “efficiency” and “surveillance”). The next gen technology is already out there and is adapting rapidly to civilian applications and control.
The Neo Liberal movement is going to become one of the great casualties of this technology: thus the push back you see today : backed up by foreign powers who are pushing to destabilize the economies of every vulnerable liberal democracy on the planet. The oligarchs of more traditional heavy private industries are falling in line with every single offer from any government that will keep their profits flowing into their coffers. If they must sell out their countries and put up their consciousness and their personhood as collateral (along with millions who depend upon them?); so be it. They’ve done it many times before ; they can do it again ; Right (??):,
UNTIL (?)..
They CAN’T: because all they have to deal with is an outdated business model and their traditional approach to innovation. Now, enter the high tech oligarchs. Who have enslaved the information revolution and stalled it. This is not a permanent situation. They know it.
Now enters next Gen techno developers and the new way they produce and influence.
Put simply , the old techies do not want change. They dominate old politics, who champion “stability” and the more traditional values of old society. It now becomes a battle between these two camps. They can make or break information software and hardware:
They’re simply not prepared for what’s coming.
This is where real change begins and thrives under the noses of those who hold traditional power. It starts here and with the legislative and judicial leaders who recognize it and start to work with it: (a clue (?)..so far (?): they haven’t). That’s a weakness from which they and their old oligarch systems (?), may never recover.
THERE’S your chance Martin. There is your revolution being planned :
Hidden in open site.
HA!!
To say that the French Revolution got France nowhere is completely ridiculous. Read history.
I am NOT American...arrange it yourself!
I wish you good luck.
Unfortunately (?);
It took France over a century to get past that bloody guillotine Reign of Terror and doomed European empires to contract into despotic industrial capitalism: setting the stage for mass death on an industrial scale , now known as WWI. Meanwhile France surges into a socialist industrial and cultural mainstay ; still struggling with massive economic uncertainty. That left them open to the influence of fascism that would dawn with word wide Depression and blossom into Hitlerite Fascism and The German National Party (aka: Nazi). Yes, the ideals of The Revolution would help them resist the massive collaboration with the Nazi regime:
but without the intervention of the Americas and The British (?): they would have fallen easily.
Since the rescue of 1945(?), they recovered like most of Europe. Today another uncertain world wide hegemony threatens that stability as Neo Nazi movements are spreading through the NATO countries: foreshadowing another fascist takeover:
Unless those who see this happening clearly start to a lot more than pontificate about it and fight back with all factions and tools at their disposal.
Getting too comfortable with “prosperity” can be and is fatal.
Time to create a new economy and hegemony: It must start NOW.
Are you saying that because of all these obstacles your citing people should give up and not try?
While many dither...innocence whiter.
This is all planned and executed by the bankers. All wars are bankers wars. The big banks are crashing so the only way to survive is to find a reason for more money printing. First Covid, then war. More money printing coming. More war coming.
YUP!, it is all about power, money, loss of status, and cannibalizing their own homelands to survive. The ruthless bastards they are.
The end is in sight for Ukraine:
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/avdeevka-denouement-russian-momentum
This communist provides an excellent summary of the greed that pervades the western system and the lies the Oligarchy must tell to get the "average citizen" to support one criminal mafia over another. The thing is though, people believe those lies and come to expect follow through. Tucker Carlson has seen the future and knows that the end of the current manifestation of the Oligarchy is coming to an end. Which direction it goes from here is unknown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px3Y3UZxB5w
We are seeing what happens when government abdicates its role as regulator allowing catpialism to become completely predatory. Its called neoliberalism and it has been in effect for half a century and the damage is proportionate and exponential.
For anyone who wants to follow up on Robert's point:
Ben Norton
https://www.youtube.com/@GeopoliticalEconomyReport
Richard Wolff
https://www.youtube.com/@democracyatwrk
Aaron Good
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hNArLl765PXe8tsTKmOciGL
Michael Hudson
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hMl9DkPLikDDGccibhYHnDP
Thanks John, great links to follow!
>>"We are seeing what happens when government abdicates its role as regulator..."
Robert, I believe this "regulatory role of the government" was never intended to actually regulate capitalism (or serve the interests of proletariats and lumperproletariats) - not even when the US constitution was written. The government and corporations are mixed together like salt-and-water. The regulation that does happen is a farce. But its more than that. Government regulation has come to mean "how do you regulate a population whose interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the capital class (power elite, oligarchs, bourgeoisie)?"
I think you're white washing regulations that have been good. It's the same type of white washing when the advocates of Privatizing public works - claim it will be more efficient and lead to a better outcome - when it has been well documented to rarely be the case.
This blind belief that any kind of regulatory control must be bad - and government by default is bad - is hogwash. There are plenty of examples throughout the world where a country and its citizens are thriving because government plays a key role. For example UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE - which the right-wing with all the anti-government rhetoric has been vociferously against now my ENTIRE FUCKING LIFE here in the United States. And ordinary Americans should be sick of this continuing ideological garbage - paid for by the obscenely rich. Americans deserve a Universal Health Care system and fuck anti-government half-truth white washing bullshit.
Jamenta - again you are engaging in emotional rants instead of attempting to understand what is actually being said.
Let me expand and explain how government works in conjunction with private multi-national corporations & entities to subvert support for the common man and democracy. (and how "regulation" fits into this framework). Maybe that will help you understand my comment above:
Quotes:
(1) "The federal government is replete with supportive programs—subsidies, research, promotional, contracts, tax privileges, protections from competition—which flow regularly into the corporate mission of profit and sales maximization." - RALPH NADER (Introduction to Morton Mintz and Jerry S. Cohen, America, Inc. (New York: Dial Press, 1971)
(2) "Both welfare spending and warfare spending have a two-fold nature: the welfare system not only politically contains the surplus population but also expands demand and domestic markets. And the warfare system not only keeps foreign rivals at bay and inhibits the development of world revolution (thus keeping labor power, raw materials and markets in the capitalist orbit) but also helps to stave off economic stagnation at home." - JAMES O’CONNOR (Fiscal Crisis of the Stale (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973))
State-supported capitalism has been imperfectly labeled by many popular terms which, while containing particles of truth, conceal the genuine nature of the new business-government relationships: “state capitalism,” “welfare state,” “warfare-welfare state,” and “mixed economy.” The power of the concept “state capitalism” (or “state monopoly capitalism”) is that it stresses the alliance of powerful capitalist forces with the state. But it greatly underestimates the extent to which big business operates on its own, both without the state and beyond the reach of the state. In no country of advanced capitalism is business completely controlled by the state; the state, rather, is subject to business control, although not completely. The relationship is more that of a business-government partnership, with business often serving as the senior, although sometimes silent, partner.
In a broader sense, the “welfare state” idea is fundamentally misleading. The welfare provided is not the general well-being of the people. It is welfare, rather, in the narrow and restrictive sense of public assistance to the poor and other programs (usually financed by the lower and middle classes themselves) to take the rough edge off capitalist exploitation, promote docility among the exploited, and thereby help form a more perfect capitalism.
Very often, Big Welfare (i.e. by the Government) gives handouts to Big Business from the normal peacetime activities of the capitalist state. Although it is perfectly true, as conservative economists insist, that “there are no free lunches,” there are scores of corporate “free lunchers” who manage to get other people—via government intervention—to pick up all or part of the bill. (i.e. socialism for the rich and unknowingly supported by the working class people). Here are some examples from the US:
• The Federal Reserve system, which supports bankers by maintaining high interest rates and bailing out bank failures.
• The nominally progressive federal tax system, which has become a labyrinth of special loopholes that provide many billions of “tax expenditures” (indirect subsidies) for specific companies or groups.
• The Treasury Department, which maintains huge interest-free deposits in large banks while at the same time paying the bank’s interest on money lent to the government.
• Billions in direct subsidies that are paid to airlines, the merchant marine, agribusiness and others.
• Federal expenditures for scientific research and development, which have subsidized the growth of capitalism’s technological reserve.
• Government guarantees that protect many billions of bank mortgages and foreign investments against losses.
(X) • Government regulations that give the large banks control over the investment of the pension funds of most labor unions.
(X) • So-called regulatory commissions, which help maintain the oligarchic power of the communication media, public utilities, and major transportation interests.
• Government forays into wage-price controls, or “incomes policy,” which are used to keep wages down or squeeze out business competitors.
Again, in terms of "regulation", pay special attention to the points above marked by "X".
So jamenta - you land up making all these assumptions and hurling accusations without understanding the depths and nuances of "how the regulatory system works" in the US.
Also, you continue making strawman arguments like "blind belief that any kind of regulatory control must be bad" and "government by default is bad" and then continue on your emotional and expletive laden rant.
jamenta - I don't know if you are having a bad day or something, but maybe spend some time understanding what is being said rather than imagining things in your mind and then argueing against those imaginations?
Dude I don't have time really to argue over such right-wing bullshit like what you said in your original post: "The regulation that does happen is a farce."
"how do you regulate a population whose interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the capital class"
Which is a perverted, pseudo-intellectual take on governmental regulations and their actual intent.
You want me to engage with your long winded anti-regulation rant here that goes on and on about how bad the government is with its regulatory control - pretending that nothing good has ever come out of regulations. Or your implied nothing good can come out of it - which is intellectual garbage.
And I suppose then you want me to counter your argument with a long list of my own demonstrating some of the obvious benefits of regulation. Like maybe quote Upton Sinclair on meat industry regulation. Or cite Standard Oil for monopoly regulation. Or perhaps you want me to discuss rules in congress regarding Filibuster "regulations". Or maybe you want me to cite use of public land regulations. Or maybe talk about regulations of machine guns or ownership of M1 Tanks. Or maybe we should talk about regulations on price fixing, or automobile safety. Or maybe I should bring up how drinkable the water is in Flint Michigan. Or maybe we really should talk about regulations of billionaire sponsored think tanks with the assholes that are hired to pervert social media. Or maybe we should talk about rules (laws) regulations of the deep state to stop them from torturing some folks, and spying on everyone. Because it sure the fuck isn't going to happen spontaneously with corporations or the rich - they'll just spy on us more Mr. shithead Chang.
Or maybe, maybe you can fuck all the way off with your pseudo-intellectual anti-government, anti-regulation spewing that shows a complete lack of objectivity because you are indoctrinated up to your ass with your right-wing propaganda bullshit - hook, line and sinker.
I suspect "fascism" would be better ... but
- I don't know anything about neoliberalism;
- see "Why You Should Stop Using the Concepts "Left-wing" and "Right-wing"".
https://whatdoino.substack.com/p/why-you-should-stop-using-the-concepts-a49
Neoliberalism is economic fascism
Thank you!
(It seems a remarkably inappropriate name for it)!
An excellent article.
A companion piece to Snowden's article on Apophenia
https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/conspiracy-pt2
Sadly snowden hasn't been writing since 2021
Thanks for the support and the link.
:-)
I hope you are right but the military industrial complex needs war to justify it's insane budgets. Hence when the cold war ended they planned and executed 9/11. If Ukraine ends they will be planning the next war. China, Russia, the American people. They are not fussy about who they kill.
RobertSmith. I agree with you. US is 'losing face' so another war is almost guaranteed at this point.
Actually, you don't hope I'm right. ;-)
See my response to Patrick above.
Mix in some of that Joti Brar from the Garland Nixon interview.
There's nothing to be gained by the "Average American" if we follow Carlson. He sounds good right now, but as Brar said about previous manifestations of the Oligarchy and Empire, he's not on our side.
Must be some crossed wires as I did not even mention Carlson. He does not matter. The CIA military industrial complex has now merged with the drug dealers and gone to war with us all. If you are not hyper rich you are a useless eater and will be culled for profit.
You're repeating the obvious to most here but refusing, like Jenny, to understand who the oppressors are.
The CIA and the MIC are just fronts for the Oligarchy, the mafia, the privileged elite.
Tucker Carlson is a member of that group. Ask yourself why he is mouthing the progressive positions that were once the domain of Bernie Sanders. The Bernie Sanders that insured Hillary was the 2016 nominee.
I count all the oligarchs, mafia and elite as part of the MIC. Politics does not matter. Red or Blue they both keep printing to fund them. Tucker may or may not be paid by the MIC I don't think it matters.
>>"The CIA and the MIC are just fronts for the Oligarchy, the mafia, the privileged elite."
So very well said John Zwiebel. Thank you.
Simplicius is brilliant and a good writer, but what he is reporting is the Exit Ramp propaganda narrative that Biden and the Dems crafted to they could blame the Republicans for "losing" Ukraine by denying the latest round of $61 billion in military aid.
Biden laid the groundwork for this narrative last year, when he included Ukraine aid in the bill to extend the debt, knowing that it would be rejected by Republicans in the House.
"Exit Ramp propaganda" makes it sound as if Simplicius supports or favors the Biden plan and therefore the rest of his analysis is rather suspect. He did mention that AFU soldiers were in their trenches scrolling on their phones wondering about Congressional passage of the stalled aid bill, but nothing else.
You may be correct that is the narrative that the administration is trying to sell, but I seriously doubt a majority of voters will be suckered into believing it. Rather, I'm going to assume that the DNC will promote some nobody to be their Presidential candidate at the convention. If Biden remains in place, Trump's win is pretty much guaranteed.
Then entire US MSM is reporting that line - it's not coming from Simplicious.
I didn't say people would buy it. I said it was the Dems' cover story for their failure. Kind of like Russia-gate was their excuse for 2016. Dems will do anything but examine their own Neoliberal pro-war pro-corporate policy and bad candidates as reasons for losing.
You said:
" but what he is reporting is the Exit Ramp propaganda narrative that Biden and the Dems crafted to they could blame the Republicans for "losing" Ukraine by denying the latest round of $61 billion in military aid."
Which sounds to me rather dismissive and derogatory of Simplicius and "the exit ramp" wasn't anywhere in his article.
You left out there part where I prefaced that comment - which has NOTHING to do with Simplicious - with PRAISE for him. Reading is fundamental.,
"If Biden remains in place, Trump's win is pretty much guaranteed."
Why would anyone believe the electoral process is the solution?
When the Oligarchy owns the companies that manufacture the voting machines, we should all know the game is rigged.
But we don't.
>>"When the Oligarchy owns the companies that manufacture the voting machines, we should all know the game is rigged."
I disagree. It doesn't matter who owns the voting machines (or even if voting machines are replaced by manual processes), the "electoral process" (game) will always be rigged (in order to maintain the status quo).
Elected officials are manufactured personalities and celebrities. We vote based on how we are made to feel about corporate political puppets. The puppets, Democrat and Republican, engage in hollow acts of political theater, keeping the fiction of the democratic state alive. There is no national institution left that can accurately be described as democratic. Citizens, rather than participate in power, are permitted virtual opinions to preordained questions, a kind of participatory fascism as meaningless as voting on “American Idol.” Mass emotions are directed predominantly towards the culture wars that include battles over abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration fear-mongering, manufactured moral panics like CRT, great replacement theory (espoused and proliferated by personalities like Tucker Carlon), ... etc. (each generation has its own particular set of manufactured moral panics). We are only permitted to take emotional stands on issues that do not affect corporate power. What we call politics is no longer political.
So, the game will always be rigged - that is the only way the "power elite" can maintain their status quo - by creating illusions using smoke-and-mirrors and psychological manipulation (feelings & emotions - as Caitlin Johnstone so poignantly elucidates in this article).
To push against your username : ) I do believe this is the strongest possibility of a third party (Jill Stein) victory as with Ross Perot. People are asking for a vote for anyone not Monopoly party. Fear of Trump ended with Genocide Joe. Could Stein win 34% of delegates? I find it interesting as a realist : ) Can you imagine the Accelerationism with a Stein victory ha.
Nice wish :
But for this election cycle (?);
Not happening:
Start with ‘26 and NEVER STOP
NOT going to happen..........
I hope this was irony? Brilliant guy Simplicius.
Just to be clear, Tucker Carlson is NOT on your side no matter how much you agree with what he is reporting.
I mentioned NOTHING about Tucker Carlson!
But I did.
?
See the many other links I've posted to Norton, Wolff, etc.
Especially the Garland Nixon interview with Jodi Brar
In summary. US sanctions have totally failed to isolate Russia. Rather they have spurred the BRICS to counter the Hegemony of the American Oligarchy.
The Oligarchy is well defined by Aaron Good's series of youTubes and his outstanding videos on "The Devil's Chessboard". Basically, they came to America to seek their fortunes centuries ago.
They have worked very hard to maintain their positions of privilege through legislation and taxes that serve them and not the "Average American" (which Marxists would label the "proletariat").
They are very loosely organized much like the mafia. They fight one another but mostly behind the scenes unrecognized by the "average American".
Tucker Carlson is a member of that privileged elite. He sees the coming economic decline of the American Empire and is working on establishment of a group of "Average Americans" who will follow his pied piper whistle allowing the subset of the Oligarchy he belongs to to remain in control of the American Economy and thus allow those who provide him with resources to "carry on" to maintain their positions of privilege in the coming reorganization of the economy.
In 2008 Lehman Brothers was sacrificed. In the coming economic turmoil it will be even more members of the Oligarchy.
But for the "Average American" it will just be a repeat of the dot-com bubble, the mortgage crisis, the covid recession and the upcoming Ukraine war recession. The question to ask is which false prophet will Americans follow?
It appears that Carlson is backing Trump at the moment -- or he's backing some other unknown. His interview with Putin and his trip to the Russian grocery store makes him look like someone Americans should listen to. But do recall what he was selling 3 years ago.
Tucker Carlson is not on our side.
He interviewed Putin and has been called a traitor for it.
The interview was a huge plus for me. Got my attention.
Journalists like him are on our side. Even though I disagree with some of his right-wingnut views.
Yes, I love Aaron Good's "US Empire & the Deep State" series on Geopolitical Economy Report with Ben Norton (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hNArLl765PXe8tsTKmOciGL)
Definitely worth the watch!
And BTW, thank you for articulating your comment so well!
I didn't care for the Fox News Carlson.
John Zwiebel, thank you for sharing the link to the indefatigable Joti Brar. To those who talk of what a revolution will look like and if it's possible, we have to first get rid of the brainwashing that has given us colonised minds that clouds our judgement.
🙄
Covid wasn’t planned…
Of course covid was planned. While it's arguable the release in Wuhan from the lab was unintentional, the research to MAKE it into a human-aimed disease was not. In several labs around the world.
And the reaction to the outbreak was certainly planned, thoroughly. That is not a "conspiracy theory", we would EXPECT a viral outbreak to be planned for. In whose interests that planning was for however, can again be arguable.
So apart from the actual release - possibly - the entire 'Covid Experience' had been planned.
https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/
Event 201 certainly indicates that a whole lot of planning was going on. I wouldn't rule out Fort Detrick as a source for the Covid leak. Gain-of-function research was actually shut down in the US for 3 years (2014-17) because of all the accidents in BSLs.
I would be fascinated to see the results of of a trial comparing the Iranian-covid strain, and the typical one that swept the West. The Iranians are as good doctors as anywhere in the World, and were not pulling the "Deaths WITH Covid" stunt as the West did. They were genuinely swamped.
As it was soon discovered the strain had been transferred from a couple of clerics visiting Saudis and returning, the possibility of foul play is quite high.
Fauci should be in prison for the rest of his natural for his role in this, as you probably know. It seems being a Grandmaster Freemason, and/or holding dirt on every secret US bioweapon lab around the world, confers immunity for such crimes.
Yes, it appears that Iran got the "special sauce" they hadn't ordered. If Western Governments had been serious about Covid, they would have suspended all military operations until we got a "handle" on the Virus. Fauci also lied under oath in Congress when he said he did not "favor" gain-of-function research, when he's on record as its foremost proponent. The gall of these people!
Ft detrick
It wasn’t “made" in a lab. That's never been proven by any reliable source.
Believe what you want.
If you want to believe fantastical conspiracy theories that a bat from a deep cave was transported thousands of miles to a wet market, with no other infections along the way, no intermediate stages of infection from bat-human, and that this 1Tn-1 chance of cross-species infection occured instead of from the nearby Viral Infection Lab actually STUDYING this precise disease, in a notably lax biosecurity regime that had already been reported as having several earlier leaks - be my guest.
Me, I stick with the science. And Occams razor.
But you do you, that's cool.
I doubt you've read that full article, you have just "uninformed opinions".
occam's razor is cia. cui bono and means, motive and opportunity.
Well that's what the Chinese Government said. The whole story about the bat.
Yes, they did. They panicked. Govt officials, lie. Even Chinese ones.
Especially if they are going to be on the hook for millions of deaths, and vast compensation claims.
I'll still take the independent scientists investigating it, words, over theirs.
And use some common sense.
Thank you Dr Smith for injecting a hard note of reality into the conversation.
" More money printing coming. More war coming."
Any ideas for a solution?
Unless we get another Kennedy who actually manages to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces we are in deep shit. If you have savings then switching to physical assets such as gold, silver, high yield property or a classic car will afford you some sort of protection. They are also likely to come for the gold so make sure you switch to land or housing before this happens. Read Jim Rickards and Bill Bonner and you will get plenty of warning. If they come for the land make sure you emigrate before then, sort out a second passport now if you can just in case...
If you are relying on your wage from week to week then you are right in the firing line. I am not sure there is much you can do apart from emigrating to El Salvador!
"I am not sure there is much you can do apart from emigrating to El Salvador!"
Running away from a problem is not a good solution.
Destroy the Deep State.
I would love to but it is not up to me! I thought you were a realist???? They have all the biological, psychological and kinetic weapons. Even the President does not have the power to destroy the deep state anymore so I think that ship may have already sailed.
I left the USA in 2002.
Matthew 24
Heartburn, acid reflux. Those are my feelings for the pabulum I see mainstream media shitlibs proffer to reprehensible meatheads like John Fetterman as they pursue grotesque nonsequiturs discussing how Joe Biden's economy is so great -- except for those folks (the bloody majority) who "may not be feeling it". Well, how dare those nonfeeling proles resort to feeling something different -- like outright revulsion and disgust for these war criminals who proffer an economy based on the murder of innocents and pauperization of everyone else. Fall into line you recalcitrant sheep. The correct operant response is Yes Massa Imperialist War Pig. Anything else is mis-responsiveness, and as an unpatriotic utterance is subject to prosecution under the Espionage Act.
Mangia Merda, America.
March 2nd is the Shut it Down for Palestine. Find or start a protest movement in your area.
I feel like I'm doing something other than wishing I could.
https://www.shutitdown4palestine.org/actions
A pollster called me last week, " Can we count on your vote for Joe Biden" Me" I will vote NO on Genocide Joe" ha. Stein 24.
Oct 7 was less than 6 months ago. Geez, fool. Give it a rest.
Only a FOOL would think history began after Oct. 7th.
Oh, you want to make excuses for Oct 7? Give the a pass because… history? You’re a hypocrite and a fool.
The point about the government and elite doing whatever they do and manipulating people’s feelings, is spot on.
Its also exactly what was done when a known CIA contractor was blamed for the world trade center bombings, then suddenly this was turned into an excuse for not only the US but all of “NATO” invading the middle east and shooting and drone-missileing, and bombing Afganistani and Iraqi civilians to a pulp. One million people killed in these wars and as many as five million dead indirectly, the overwhelming majority innocent civilians,indiscriminately killed:
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/ That too was….genocide. The west has been deeply involved in genocide and war crimes for a long time
So it’s no surprise when we see once again. the US and NATO vassals, ake “the west”, in unison sending Israel weapons and money to commit genocide, and destroying opposition to this genocide at the UN.
Because its the same old murderous gang, doing the only thing they know how to do: bomb and murder people. It’s the western way of life, and has been for a couple of centuries now.
those tweets from squirrel on the corrupt NY Times rape propaganda were incredible!!! NYT is so discredited.
What ever became of the concept that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence?
In science you just need evidence. There is no such thing as "extraordinary" evidence. All you really need is plain simple evidence.
As a scientist I can tell you that scientists can be very unobjective.
Depends on who is supplying the money as well! Don't want to upset them, do they?
Moreso than ever. Sadly so.
However, one must not jump to the conclusion that all science therefore must be wrong. We did manage to land on the Moon because of scientific advances.
Like anything a balance of reason and common sense should guide one's judgement.
Unless we are talking about Dark Matter ha.
https://lss.fnal.gov/archive/2022/pub/fermilab-pub-22-104-ppd-scd.pdf
Yes. William James even writes about the common lack of objectivity in his seminal 1890 book "Principles of Psychology". It has been a common problem with the Science since its inception. And I think it has become even more problematic with the infiltration of political agendas within American University management - Universities more and more are being run like businesses and corporate think tanks - rather than free thinking, objective establishments of academic inquiry.
There are evidentiary burdens in science (as in law). They deal with statistical probability.
That's how science works - the evidence accumulates, uncertainty is reduced, probability or likelihood increases, and an hypothesis becomes validated (and consensus in the scientific community builds around it)..
"Extraordinary evidence" is not the individual elements of evidence, but the cumulative amount and quality of the evidence. I sense you're no scientist or student of science, yes?
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it ...
An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth."
— Max Planck, Scientific autobiography, 1950, p. 33, 97
If you have a big investment in Idea X then you are likely to defend Idea X. If you control the money then you may be successful in this. I thought BF Skiinner's ideas were silly but for decades if you didn't pledge your support you didn't get a job in that field.
"Academic politics are the most viscious and bitter form of politics because the stakes are so low." -- Wallace Sayre
I guess you missed the part about replication and validation.
There is a replication crisis in science, including number of scandals in the most reputable institutions.
Refuting someone else's bogus research isn't good for your career.
I guess you missed the part about human bias, and BF Skinner.
Well written.
Besides, I was commenting on a journalistic standard. When ones make an outlandish claim, one needs to meet a very high burden of proof: lots of good quality reliable supporting evidence from credible sources.
There is no such thing as "extraordinary evidence" in science. There is just the accumulation of evidence to help prove a hypothesis that eventually becomes a theory.
And even scientific theories can and have been disproven over time, despite the accumulation of evidence.
The interpretation and modeling of the evidence is just as important as the accumulation of the evidence.
That's where Skeptics usually fuck it up - they interpret evidence primarily with their philosophical lens of reductive Materialism - which has not been proven by science or philosophical reasoning, to date.
Patrick Powers is right, scientists can be just as unobjective and biased as any group of people. William James was keenly aware of this, as he established the very first school of psychology in the US at Harvard University.
William James - whom idiot Skeptics even during his day, would argue he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about.
Vote Blue as if your life depends upon it.................... in Washington Post comments regularly!
Answer: Vote Blue for genocide Biden whose life it seems is more important than the Palestinians.
Don't vote for the lesser evil! We've tried that. ... over and over again! Hoping that the crooks not in power will be better than the crooks in power is just wishful thinking.
Either vote for someone you want, or spoil your paper. All ballots should have a "none of the above" option: then you would see how people feel about the puppets.
yeah I read that Nikki Haley lost in Nevada to none of the above, or whatever the language was on the Nevada ballot. I think that would be common if it were an option.
Interesting!
Spoiling the paper is a good option to my way of thinking. Don't give the psychos any support & certainly don't give them any power. Think about Village Meeting scenarios where local meetings can be networked if the issues affect more than just the locality. Add a more centralised layer as a purely administrative one to provide the means to implement the resolved issues. If that admin level fails then sack the useless ones as WE, the Sovereign People, are the employers. Never abnegate the responsibility for your own life by giving the responsibility for that to psychopathic strangers who've wormed their way up the greasy pole to steal everything you have through 'electoral politics'.
The last Presidential election, I wrote in my friend and comedian Jim Earl and his Comedian wife Martha Previte. I couldn't stomach Genocide Joe even then.
An election without debate, without candidates, changed dates and order is a meaningful signal.
In the USSR if the majority of the ballots were spoiled then the candidate was not elected. That seems more powerful than what we've got.
Backed into the 2-party problem again!!
One answer to the duopoly problem is to organize, plan, and develop a strategy to
build a multi-party system to present real
alternatives to I the crap thrown at us every 2-4 years. Not easy, but critically
needed to have real options!!
I believe Bernie Sanders threw that opportunity away. I believe he could have easily been elected third party 2016.
So true. Backing a literal genocide kicks you out of the "Lesser Evil" camp right now.
Understand the disgusting feelings experienced within when we learn about the truth of wars. All wars are against the children and it does not matter what side one chooses. Wars create more war and the energy continues to grow, it is like a cancer or worst parasites. Unfortunately there can be a "lesser evil". When we pay taxes, that we believe we do not have a choice, we pay for these corrupt war mongers, that we voted for, to continue their work of destruction of all life and the planet. We continue to feed what we do not want and blame the outside or us. When we choose sides, we feed the war energy called propaganda. It is not the civilians that want war, it is a corrupt dictatorship gov't who are fed by our taxes to continue to feed wars by the Military Industrial Complex. We all are to blame, know or believe it or not. Forgive us Father for we do not know what we do. It is the time to awaken to what we do and what roles we all play in by our abilities to co-create, evil or light, we have a choice.
In the Garland Nixon interview I posted above JOTI BRAR explains that many of the so-called leaders of protests actually work for the deep state. The bifurcation of the anti-war protest of last year is an example. Brar points out that if those "leaders" had rallied the crowd to march on Wall Street, some change might have been possible.
Michael Tracy details Trump's first term showing that the policies he followed were exactly the same as Obama's.
https://open.substack.com/pub/mtracey/p/inside-the-mythical-nato-sabotaging
It's pointless to shame those who vote for Biden, because it doesn't matter--Trump would be at least as bad on this and plenty of other things. As you have pointed out. And don't forget, in the US often your vote doesn't matter because of our ridiculous electoral college system. So, for example, I live in West Virginia, and will likely have to write in West or Stein--but it doesn't matter who I vote for because if he's on the ballot. Trump has already won here, guaranteed. Even if he won by two votes, he would get all of WV's electoral college votes. There is a move to change this but it will never go through BECAUSE the reps from the states with unfair advantage will never willingly give up their extra power. And it isn't worth fighting for, because this is just one of the ways the game is rigged to keep power in fat white sociopathic hands. We desperately need change, radical, a cross-the-board change, but we're overdue to talk about how to actually get there, rather than wasting any more time on electoral politics.
https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/you-cant-be-a-lesser-evil-when-youre?r=8hnh2&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=50323603
Vote for Jill Stein, PEACE and de-militarized u.s.
Well said!
The US is not a lesser evil. The Republican Representative Andy Ogles has said all Palestinians children should be killed and the US will drop bombs on them. Irrespective of what is said by Biden as conciliatory lies, we definitely know the US stance. They really are a disgusting bunch of murderers.
One of the most sadistic things I've ever heard coming out of an American representative. That the country has come to this - that a sadist at the level of a Nazi walks the halls of DC now - is sick beyond belief. This man should never be allowed to forget what he said - nor be allowed to prosper because of his human depravity.
I think this is mainly a reference to Presidential elections. I have friends who run as Democrats that I trust with my life, Genocide Joe I don't trust and will NEVER vote for lesser Genocide.
Sick of it all. I can no longer process the hatred, the bloodshed, the inhumaity of it all. U.S. is more than complicit. We are #1 purveyors of death and destruction
Yes we are. Our Military Industrial Complex and unaccountable Deep State now controls the country - and will destroy the country in the end.
Will we ever discover the depth of that control. IF we do learn I think eight yrs. ago me would have been shocked and horrified. Today me, of course what did you think was going on in this illogical pretense of a country hahahahahahahhaahhahaha.
I'm the same. I've been pretty shocked at the depth of corruption, and the literal senility of so many of the corrupt politicians at the top.
The way I see it, if Trump is elected, we deserve it. That's the flaw in a democratic republic. So be it. But the Palestinians, and all the people whose death and suffering we enable or cause, don't deserve Biden. I'm writing in Marianne Williamson as the only moral choice I can make.
By participating in a corrupt electoral system, you are validating its legitimacy. The US electoral system is no longer legitimate or ethical. Its a con game.
Exactly!
A con game not because government is by default evil - but because it has been corrupted by the obscenely wealthy 1% American Elites.
Predominently Zionists.
They certainly have bought out quite a few American politicians. What a sad state of affairs. :(
Chris Hedges, The Rise of the Christian Far Right (Zionists).