In the land of Freedomocracy there lived a boy named Johnny. Like all children, Johnny went to School, where he was taught to think the same thoughts grownups think by educators with desperate faces.

At School Johnny learned what thoughts to think about his country and the world, so that he would be able to understand the things the News Man on the Screen says. He learned that other countries are ruled by Evil Dictators who hate freedom and kill their people with poison gas for no reason, but in Freedomocracy the people rule themselves using votes. Every couple of years everyone goes to Voting Stations to try to elect the people who will do the things they want to happen, and whoever gets the most votes does the things they were elected to do. In Evil Dictatorships the only things that happen are the things the Evil Dictators want, but in Freedomocracy the only things that happen are the things that the people want.

Johnny learned and learned and grew and grew, and when he got as big as a grownup he was given a Diploma which said, “Johnny thinks all the right thoughts, and he doesn’t think any of the wrong thoughts. He knows how to count and how to spell, and he knows how to find Freedomocracy on the globe. Johnny thinks the right thoughts about Freedomocracy, the World, the Law, the Internet, Money, War, Drugs and Medicine, and he knows how to listen to the News Man on his Screen. He can have a Job now.”

Johnny went out and showed his Diploma to different Job places, and he was hired to turn a gear at a gear-turning office. They paid Johnny money for his gear-turning, and he used it to get an apartment and some peanut butter.

One day Johnny was at the office and everyone started speaking with alarmed voices. Someone turned on the Screen on the wall, and the News Man was speaking next to a picture of an explosion. The News Man’s eyebrows were furrowed, and he spoke with a solemn voice.

“There has been an attack by Terrorists, and now thousands of people are dead,” said the News Man. “We are getting reports that the Terrorists were sent to explode this building by an Evil Dictator, so Freedomocracy will have to declare War to get rid of him.”

Johnny had learned in School that sometimes Evil Dictators are so evil that they pose a danger to Freedomocracy, so War must be declared in self-defense. War is very sad, but sometimes it’s necessary to protect Freedomocracy and to bring Freedom to the people who are always being killed with poison gas by the Evil Dictator. Johnny had also learned that boys of his age would be sent to fight in that War.

Sure enough, the next day a message popped up on Johnny’s pocket Screen saying, “You have been selected to go to War to overthrow the Evil Dictator and the Terrorists who have attacked us. It is your Patriotic Duty to report to your nearest Enlistment Station tomorrow so that we can give you a gun and send you to fight.”

Johnny didn’t sleep that night. He didn’t want to leave his apartment and go someplace where people were shooting one another, and he especially didn’t want to get killed by Terrorists. But he had been taught in School that a boy must always do his Patriotic Duty, so the next day Johnny locked up his apartment, said goodbye to his parents, and went to enlist.

They shaved Johnny’s head and made him wear a uniform, and they gave him a gun and taught him how to shoot it. Johnny was told that once his plane landed he would be greeted by Terrorists who were trying to protect the Evil Dictator, so he’d have to point his gun at them and shoot bullets into their bodies so that they wouldn’t shoot bullets into his body. He was to shoot bullets at anyone who stood between him and the Evil Dictator, and keep shooting and shooting until the Evil Dictator was gone.

Johnny’s plane touched down, and he started shooting. The Terrorists he was shooting didn’t look like the Terrorists the News Man had shown on the Screen; many of the Terrorists looked just like women and children, and when Johnny would shoot one of them a bunch of people would gather around and scream and cry. Johnny asked his Commander if he was sure that those Terrorists were really Terrorists, and he was told to be quiet and keep shooting.

The Terrorists kept running away to avoid being shot, so Johnny kept chasing after them. He ran and he ran, and then suddenly he was being tossed through the air with searing pain ripping through his body. The next thing Johnny knew, he was lying in a hospital bed with no legs.

Johnny was shipped back home to Freedomocracy, but he wasn’t happy there. He kept thinking he was back in the Evil Dictatorship, shooting people and being shot at. He kept seeing the terrified, pained faces of the people he’d shot. Such ordinary faces. So much like his own.

One night after his mother calmed him down when he was screaming and trying to leap out of bed, she switched on the Screen for him to see if it might help him relax. The News Man was there saying that the Evil Dictator has been killed, but another Evil Dictator in another country is now trying to use Terrorists to explode buildings in Freedomocracy just like the last one did. There may have to be another War.

Johnny watched the News Man talk, noticing that no mention was made of the last Evil Dictatorship or the people in it, the ones Johnny had seen running and screaming. All the News Man wanted to talk about was this new Evil Dictatorship and the Evil Dictator who rules it. Johnny watched the News Man’s mouth moving, and the sound of his voice began turning into gibberish mouth noises in Johnny’s ears. Something had changed in Johnny’s mind.

A fear gripped his insides like a big fist. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“He’s lying,” Johnny whispered.

And from then on, everything was different. Johnny was no longer able to believe the words of the News Man, not just in the present but also in the past. Not just from the News Man, but from the educators at School. Everything he’d been told about the world and about Freedomocracy suddenly felt like a suit that didn’t fit anymore, no matter how hard he tried to climb back into it.

It was like finding the end of a very tangled knot and slowly working out its weavings. Johnny began working through all the stories he’d ever been told about the world, and unplugging his belief from them one at a time. He began replacing those stories with different ones, new ones which he learned about on his pocket Screen. It turned out there were people all around the world experiencing the same thing as Johnny was experiencing, and they were all sharing their ideas with each other on the Internet. You never saw any of those people being interviewed by the News Man, so they weren’t famous, but they saw that the stories the News Man was telling weren’t true.

One day Johnny picked up his pocket Screen and typed out the words, “The News Man is lying about the Evil Dictator.” He then posted those words on the Internet for everyone to see.

A bunch of strangers responded angrily to Johnny’s words.

“You’re the liar.”

“The News Man would never lie to us!”

“Why do you love the Evil Dictator?”

“Why do you love killing people with poisonous gas?”

“You should go move to the Evil Dictatorship if you love Evil Dictators so much!”

But another stranger said, “You’re right.”

It was the first time Johnny had felt happy inside since coming back from the War. Finally! A connection! With someone who saw what he saw!

Johnny started writing more things on the Internet:

“The News Man is lying about the Terrorists.”

“The News Man is lying about Freedomocracy.”

“The News Man is lying about everything.”

At first there were way more angry people responding than people who agreed, but more and more strangers on the Internet started noticing the things Johnny was saying. They liked the way Johnny wrote, and they appreciated his story about the War and what had happened to his legs.

Johnny found that he had a lot of things to say to the strangers on the Internet. He wrote long articles, he made videos and voice recordings, all about the lies the people of Freedomocracy were being told about what’s happening in their world. He wrote about how people with lots of Money can control elections and start Wars to get even more Money. He wrote about how the News Company was owned by people with lots of Money who profited from the News Man’s lies. He learned about all the different stories everyone had been told about Freedomocracy to trick them into thinking that they decide what happens in their country, and he got better and better at talking about them.

And people listened. More and more strangers on the Internet kept tuning in to find out what Johnny had to say. They found the stories they used to believe getting torn apart by the information that Johnny was sharing with them, and soon they too were unable to fit inside the old suit of the old stories they’d been taught in School.

One day when Johnny was watching the News Man to learn what false stories were being told, Johnny heard something surprising.

“We have a breaking News report,” said the News Man. “Our sources have learned that the Evil Dictator is using the Internet to spread Propaganda. It is bad that the Internet has been weaponized in this way, because here in Freedomocracy we leave ourselves exposed by letting people say whatever they want on the Internet. In the Evil Dictatorship, nobody is even allowed to use the Internet. This attack is an act of War by the Evil Dictator, and it will not go unpunished.”

“Remember, don’t believe the lies you hear on the Internet about the Evil Dictator, because it’s Propaganda,” the News Man concluded. “It is your Patriotic Duty to get your information here at the National News Company, where we always tell the truth.”

Suddenly there were strangers on the Internet saying that Johnny secretly worked for the Evil Dictator.

“Nobody believe what Johnny is saying! It’s Propaganda!”

“Johnny is a secret agent for the Evil Dictatorship!”

“How much were you paid to say this, ‘Johnny’?? If that’s even your real name!”

Johnny was shocked by all this, but he saw what they were doing. He explained to the strangers on the Internet that this was a trick to make people believe the News Man’s stories, and that it was actually the News Man who was conducting Propaganda. Propaganda is when you trick large groups of people into believing false stories about their country, and that was exactly what the News Man was doing.

Johnny kept attacking the News Man’s stories has hard as he could, and people kept waking up from the stories they’d been told. More and more strangers on the Internet started writing their own things and making their own videos, talking about how they’d like to live in a country where people really are free and really do get to decide what happens, like how they learned things are meant to be in School. People were poor and unhappy because all Freedomocracy’s Money was always being spent on Wars, and if they were really free and really decided what happens in their country, that wouldn’t be how it is. More and more people were getting very upset, and they were talking about it.

It wasn’t long before the next Propaganda report.

“A new report says that the Evil Dictator’s Propaganda is even worse than we’d suspected,” the News Man said. “The government of Freedomocracy has asked Internet companies to do everything in their power to stop the Evil Dictator from spreading his lies in our beautiful free country.”

The strangers on the Internet began having difficulty finding Johnny and the things he was saying on the Internet. They’d go to look for him, and instead they’d find videos of the News Man telling them that it’s their Patriotic Duty to support Freedomocracy against the Evil Dictatorship.

Johnny was frustrated. He kept speaking and speaking, but fewer and fewer people were able to find the things he was saying as the Internet companies worked to hide his words. Johnny wanted to keep killing people’s belief in the News Man’s stories, but he couldn’t do it if nobody was listening to him. He lost hope.

But the strangers on the Internet didn’t. They began copying Johnny’s words and sharing them themselves. They began writing their own words, making their own videos and voice recordings, sharing what they’ve learned about the News Man’s lies. They began printing out flyers and talking to people on the streets to get away from the Internet companies who wanted to silence them. They began organizing in large groups and demanding to live in a truly free country.

Police were deployed to bash the people and spray gas on them to make them be quiet. The News Man reported that everyone in the streets was a Terrorist or a victim of Evil Dictator Propaganda, but everyone knew he was lying. His eyebrows grew more and more furrowed and the people grew more and more restless.

Then one day the News Man announced that Freedomocracy was going to War. All other recourse had failed with the Evil Dictator, he said, and everyone receiving a notice on their pocket Screens was to report to their Enlistment Stations immediately.

But nobody went. Everyone refused to fight this new War, and everyone refused to support the people who were trying to start it. The tangle of lies fell away completely, and everyone saw what was really happening with clear eyes. The people rose up together, and soon even the police joined them, and it wasn’t long before the News Man appeared on the Screen for the last time.

Then the people began creating a country which really works for them instead of keeping them poor and tricked all the time. It isn’t perfect, but it is theirs, run according to what they want instead of what a few people with lots of Money want. The people of Freedomocracy drive off into the future together, not knowing where they’re going but knowing that they’re driving. And Johnny gets to eat as much peanut butter as he wants.

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46 responses to “Johnny Versus The News Man”

  1. Great article. Bit too optimistic though.

    Today Johnny gets paid pretty well for fighting and gets a free college education thats transferrable. He also gets low interest loans for mortgages, and if he wants he can become a private military contractor at high pay. Besides, the shots before and after his tour suppresses empathy and memory so he doesnt think bad thoughts. Also he has a holiday that worships him and everyone thanks him for his service.

    Johnny got his gun and a uniform and he likes it .

    1. Well said! Especially Australian Johnny and their spouses reap immense benefits while being cannon foddered through foreign or domestic enemies, allies and their own elected politicians. Mental issues, scars and a conscience will be treated pharmaceutically with gold cards and far above average life long pensions with the best “health standards” an Australian subject can legally achieve. All would be incredible rewarding after all – if the bloody conscience just would just stop nagging after returning from a mercenary mission to enslave the last different thinking opposition and their families over seas.

  2. Caitlin: Great article, it’s really got me thinking:

  3. WOW!!!!
    Thank you Caitlin for bringing back some hope that not all is lost in the greatest penal colony on earth, Australia. “The greatest country on earth” where a flag reminds of the “motherland” and the bloody shackles around Australian ankles of the so inglorious past and present that carries all the home grown Australian love and wealth to foreign bankers, the COMMON WEALTH and royal two faced puppets, far away on a rocky tiny island that touches the hearts of their ever bleeding colonial subjects – the multicultural society of Australian people, their oligarch supervisors and elected/bought childly politicians and the long forgotten aboriginal caretakers of the once free continent – all blinded by illusions of sovereignty and deceit and THEIR Australian flag. Thank you Caitlin for having proven that truth still exists in a desert of lies and treachery and has not withered beyond News men and demockratic colonial ruler-ship. Humanity on earth is one family located on one home planet. Lets try to become one again, looking after us and our planet as one and deny ALL evil dictators their existence in diverted two faced ruler-ships and superiority. We are one – even if we are many. Lets look beyond the caged hamster wheel under the southern cross and open the door to Australia’s freedom that never was. The idea of freedom is alive and well.
    Blessings and gratitude to ALL!

  4. This is terribly clever and a clear-as-a-bell take on what’s going on.

  5. This music video is how I visualized the News Man. It’s The Great Commandment by Camouflage. Seeing it again, I’m visualizing Caitlin as the little girl going behind the curtain to fiddle with knobs. Now I’m wondering what it would be like to have Caitlin read the story over the images of the video. I see other commenters were reminded of relevant musical accompaniment too.

  6. BTW, those young Americans who choose not to comply with a possible new mandatory conscription into the US military forces (AKA “being drafted”) are either going to have to leave the country and seek safe haven in a country that will grant them politial asylum, or go directly to prison to do some mandatory hard labor.
    ..
    This was the case during the US’s illegal Vietnam invasion and subsequent murder of millions of Vietnamese. I doubt if that situation would be different today, no matter how many Neos suddenly see the light and refuse induction for religious or as conscientous objector. (I seem to remember that it didn’t take many German guards to control thousands of people within various so-called concentration camps during WWII. I doubt if humans have genetically changed enough in the “bravery department” in the last seventy years to take a high-velocity bullet so that the ones behind them can have a shot at freedom.)
    ..
    “Luckily”, those trillions of fiat USD are still being accepted by mercenaries, so, as of today anyway, conscription is still off the table for young Americans. However, should those mercenaries stop accepting US toilet paper and start demanding say gold as payment, the draft will be right back in a flash.

    1. Daniel Webster: “Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war in which the folly and wickedness of the government may engage itself? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest right of personal liberty? Who will show me any Constitutional injunction which makes it the duty of the American people to surrender everything valuable in life, and even life, itself, whenever the purposes of an ambitious and mischievous government may require it? … A free government with an uncontrolled power of military conscription is the most ridiculous and abominable contradiction and nonsense that ever entered into the heads of men”.

      1. Here’s another good quote: “The essential idea underlying military conscription is the major premise of every dictatorship and all totalitarianism. It is the assumption that the individual citizen is but a pawn in the hands of unlimited State power.” These sentences are from a Declaration of Conscience signed by hundreds of prominent Americans and published on July 8, 1940, in response to the FDR’s unprecedented peacetime draft call. It was part of the strong American opposition to involvement in the second European war. This has been effectively censored out of “the good war” fiction of World War II, as have FDR’s untiring efforts to provoke conflict with Germany and Japan while promising the peace to the voters.

        Interestingly, the author of the 1940 Draft Bill, Senator Edward R. Brooke, had gone on a fact-finding tour of Nazi Germany in 1938 and returned praising Hitler for “bringing about the well-being of the entire German people.”

  7. There’s an elegantly simplicity to Caitlin’s approach here that ‘s got me thinking that I may have been wrong in my recent criticism of her work. It’s just a question for now:

    Can we can collapse the existing system simply by rejecting the fake stories of the News Man without bothering to identify who the puppet masters are behind the scenes running the whole media-propaganda charade?

    Do we really need to know, for instance, that the ideological founders of “neoconservatism” – the driving force behind genocidal U.S. wars in the 21st century, were a tightly-knit network of psychopathic Jewish supremacists stemming from the Marxist Trotskyite movement and who were totally focused on infiltrating the US government and usurping American military might to serve Jewish tribal interests and the Zionist state of Israel, needlessly causing the deaths of millions of innocent people?

    Or do we just have to stop believing the lies that the neocon’s News Man on the screen tells us about the world? I don’t know., but a part of me really hopes Caitlin’s right and that we don’t have to resign ourselves to fighting against a Zionist controlled system where the truth is antisemitic hate speech….

    1. Unless the US Constitution is amended by the Congress of Morons, which it won’t, there are only two ways of changing the present arrangement in the US –either revolution or electing to the legislative and executive branches of government “representatives” who will enact or remove specific laws and regulations that the voters want enacted or removed. The problem is as follows. WHAT arrangement do voters want to replace the present arrangement? No vagueness like “do what’s right and good” allowed. In other words, each person should ask and answer the following question in the geatest detail possible. How do I want the world to be?

      1. I cannot speak for other voters. I want our obsolete and corrupted political system trashed and replaced by a system that criminalizes the abuses of the current one and puts the heeds of the people first. It should be such a radical system that that none like it has been seen before and one that permits only federal funding of federal level elections; even self-funding would not be permitted and should be one in which political parties serve no purpose so go extinct\t, or nearly so, of their own accord.
        I hope that is specific enough. while I do have a couple of ideas worked out, they would take far more than the length of any of Caitlin’s articles and more time than I have available o go into detail.

      2. Unfortunately, you failed to mention, through ignorance or deliberate omission, the FACT that our so called “elected representatives” are in reality nothing more or less then highly paid lobbyist whores, who do the bidding of their masters; whose election committees are funded by their masters thru the use of PACS and SUPER PACS, etc., and who are rewarded long after their “public service” has concluded by use of “book and tv deals”, board memberships, employment opportunities in the private sector, investment opportunities, ETC. Of course, the VERY few who “go off the reservation” are dispensed with like JFK, or perhaps Vince “Dumpster” Foster.

        The laws on the books PROTECT this parasitic kleptocratic plutocracy as it continues its all but finished takeover of what once was (?) a democratic republic. I could go on….but another migraine is setting in.

        Meanwhile, the goyim are, well, just goyim. It’s almost nap time, but let’s talk some more about “social justice warriors” or some such bullshit.

      3. Here is where you all are going the wrong way, led that way actually.

        WHO does the US Constitution assign the duty to hold accountable all who serve within our governments – state and federal? Remember that the supreme LAW of this nation is the US Constitution. The highest LAW within each state is it’s Constitution, and the US Constitution is supreme in the areas listed within that document over each state IF that state’s Constitution differs from it, and only in the areas listed in the US Constitution. Then the state Constitution covers everything else that is listed within that document. All else is up to each individual. That is in writing, all you have to do to verify this is read at least the Bill of Rights, and the Preamble to the Bill of Rights.

        Clause 15: “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel invasions.“
        This clause is very straightforward also. The militia of each state is entrusted with the defense of the USA and her people, not just with the defense of their state; and they are to be armed with weapons that can repel any invasions bearing modern weapons of war. Congress is required to provide those military grade weapons for the militias in Clause 16.

        Clause 16 makes it very clear that the ARMING OF THE MILITIA OF EACH STATE is a LAWFUL duty assigned to the congress that they are REQUIRED to carry out:

        Clause 16: “To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress”.

        Thomas Jefferson, 1st inaugural, explained that: “a well-disciplined militia” is “our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them” and also a guarantee of “the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; [and] economy in the public expense.”

        George Washington was smart enough to fiogure out we might get to where we are and that those corrupt who serve within the Congress would no longer carry out thier duty to the Militias of the several states, and he recommended:
        “A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.”

        Samuel Adams: “Under every government the last resort of the people, is an appeal to the sword; whether to defend themselves against the open attacks of a foreign enemy, or to check the insidious encroachments of domestic foes. Whenever a people … entrust the defence of their country to a regular, standing army, composed of mercenaries, the power of that country will remain under the direction of the most wealthy citizens.” and he also said: “It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control … The Militia is composed of free Citizens. There is therefore no danger of their making use of their Power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them..”

        Each state’s Militia is made up of “We the People” protecting our own interests, homes, states, nation, and enforcing our governments. The Militia has as its constitutionally assigned duties to:
        • Enforce the US Constitution and each state’s Constitution,
        • Enforce and keep the “Laws of the Union” (which are constitutional laws ONLY),
        • Protect the country against all enemies both domestic and foreign, and
        • “to suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions”.

        Richard Henry Lee: “A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves …”

        George Mason, Co-author of the Second Amendment: “I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”

        Are you aware that the various founders even defined what LAW is here in the USA?

        Congress was created to be mostly a “law making institution” What is legislative power? The founders had a very concrete idea of what they meant by “legislative powers”.

        Alexander Hamilton, Fed 5: “The essence of the legislative authority is to enact laws. Or, in other words, to prescribe rules for the regulation of society.”

        Law is a rule for the regulation of society.

        Madison, Fed 62: “Law is to be defined to be a rule of action.”

        Law tells us how we are supposed to act [in society].

        Massachusetts “Essex Resolve”: “Law is about prescribing such action to every individual in the state to be conformed by him in his conduct.”

        A Law is to tell us how we are to order ourselves within civil society.

        James Madison, “Vices of the Political System of the United States”: “Laws are necessary to mark with precision the duties of those who are to obey them, and to take from those who are to administer them a discretion that might be abused.”

        Law tells us how we are to conduct ourselves, but it also places limitations upon those who serve within our governments. If a law is sufficiently clear it not only issues commands to citizens, but it imposes limitations on judges, on law enforcement officials, on all of the other officers of the government. They are constrained to enforce the law on the terms that Congress has written. A good law is something a citizen can look at and know what it means, and see it clearly.

        The founders drew from the natural law, the enlightened thinkers, and from the classical thinkers who talked about these same subjects. Law must be known, and it must be fixed. It must not be so complicated, voluminous,

        Samual Popendorg: “The legislative power is the power of obliging, of imposing an intrinsic necessity, and the power of forcing by the proposal of punishment, compelling the observation of law so this is properly in the legislature.”

        How does reason make its way into the Law? The difference between civil law (law created by human beings) and natural law (laws of nature and nature’s God). The Law of Nature is a critical concept in the political philosophy of the founders. It is found in the Declaration of Independence which references the Laws of Nature (through reason alone) and Nature’s God (revelation, bible, Jesus Christ). This was a concept that said that the Divine Law can be understood by reason and revelation – two paths of understanding the Laws of God.

        Alexander Hamilton: “The natural law, that part of the Law that God that reason can allow us the ability to understand through rational faculties that he gave us. This is a law that is higher then human law, the laws of nature and nature’s God they are a standard for evaluating all human law. Any law that is going to claim to be just is because it is consistent with the laws of nature and nature’s God, and they just because they are consistent with the Laws of nature and Nature’s God. If that law is inconsistent with the laws of nature and natures God then it is by definition unjust.”

        Legislators are to put forth a common, shared, broadly accepted interpretation of what the laws of nature and nature’s God mean. Something we can agree on and agree to live under. It forms the vital link between the general concepts of the laws of nature and Nature’s God like Life, Liberty, Property, the Pursuit of Happiness, Liberty of Conscious. It forges that link between those generalities in natural law and specific behavior. They provide the means of application of a particular law to certain circumstances. The creators of our governments did not want the Congress to just keep making up laws. The framers wanted those who serve within our Congresses to take their time, to discuss/argue/debate, negotiate/take into consideration as many divergent views as possible over whatever laws was being presented. They are supposed to be slow, and educated in American values, plus in Natural Rights/Inherited Rights that they were put into position to PROTECT and DEFEND with Law (and not all of Natural Rights/Inhereited Rights are listed, but are required to be also protected by those who serve within our governments).

        Alexander Hamilton: “In the legislature promptitude of decision is oftener an evil then a benefit. The differences of opinion, the jarring of parties, in that department of the government, though they may sometimes obstruct salutary claims, often promote circumstantion, ”

        The framers knew that the powers of government were different, and so they designed type of government as a “Separation of Powers” Constitutional Republic, thus keeping the different powers of government in separate hands and (supposed to be) separated within the two different types of governments where each type of government – state and federal, plus each branch within those two different governments, was [each] delegated different powers that are described in their entirety in writing within the US Constitution and within each state’s Constitution. America’s Founders created a form of government which had, in the words of James Madison, “no model on the face of the earth.” Its moral foundation is in the Declaration of Independence and its principle of equal natural rights. Under the US Constitution, government was to be limited to protecting those rights.

  8. Hi,
    I’m willing to translate in a French version this story, one that would be true to the heart of this amazing text. Can I offer you that, on a voluntary basis? Just text me back, I would not do it without your approval. Thank you for your consideration.

  9. Nice tweaking of the old “Everything You Know Is Wrong” trope – public education is a mere propaganda machine, useful until the idiots – er, I mean CITIZENS – can be effectively brainwashed by the media. Sad to see how few peasants have critical thinking skills…

    1. Worse yet is to see how many have the critical thinking skills, but nether want nor think to use them.

  10. The antiwar movements of the past and present will change nothing because they fail(ed) to identify what’s really wrong with whatever you want to call the US’s economic system – first, that it is a system in which the vast majority of wealth and large-scale capital equipment is owned / controlled by a minuscule percentage of the population for their own astronomical profit; and, second, that it is a war-based system that is politically AND economically addicted to perpetual war.
    ..
    To understand just exactly WHAT I mean by “politically addicted”, go to http://www.governmentcontractswon.com/
    and see that in 2017, “private” businesses in the state of Virgina (population 8.4 million) were awarded 61,576 contracts worth $43.1 BILLION and that there are 17,165 “private” DoD contractors in Virginia, and that from 2000 to 2017 “private” DoD contractors in Virginia were awarded over $683.5 billion for 619,034 contracts.
    ..
    Therefore, no majority of voters in Virginia is EVER, and I do mean EVER, going to vote for a candidate who promises to destroy Virginia’s war-based economy and destroy many good-paying jobs.
    ..
    Virginia is not alone in the war business. Check out what “private” DoD contractors in other states such as California receive annually. It’s mind boggling.
    ..
    Therefore, the US will NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, be politically capable of changing it’s “foreign policy” unless and until, once again with feeling, Virginians (Americans) are given an alternative to their present “war way” of making a living and no D or R candidate is spelling out in a detailed way such an alternative.
    ..
    Americans’ choice is simple. Either somehow organize / design a peace-based economy, and that right soon, or suffer nuclear devastation.
    ..
    How can the US war-based economy EVER be “transitioned” to one based upon peaceful relations with the rest of the world when the present choice voters have is either “war and a job” or “peace and no job”? We, the People need a very detailed, practical plan, not politically-impossible hypotheticals.
    ..
    The Fed/government are NOT going to change their policy of funding the US’s wars of aggression using fiat dollars and going ever-deeper into debt because what the Fed is doing is the one and only way to keep the US’s perpetual wars going. Perpetual wars and fiat dollars go hand in hand!. It is those wars that are the sole political justification for all of those DoD contracts that are flowing out of Washington into those “private” contractors’ and their voter/employees’ bank accounts all over the country. Just exactly HOW do we break that vicious cycle?
    ..
    Again, candidates for public office have to present a precise, detailed plan to use the present DoD contract system and contractors, which is already in existence as detailed on the above link, to award contracts for the implements of peace instead of war – bullet-trains instead of bullets, etc. . “Nobody’s going to lose their job because of peace!!” will be those antiwar candidates’ campaign slogan.
    ..
    Yes, the US government debt will increase just as is it now, but the expenditures will directly, immediately improve the lives of Americans on Main Street, not just those of investors on Wall Street.
    ..
    This is the one and only politcally-acceptable way to save America. And you got to read it only on Caitlin and Tim’s web site.

    1. Ish, so what do you propose as a precise, detailed plan?

    2. IRS, for the present moment, at least the number of voters who voted for Agent Orange have to somehow be enticed into voting for an anti-war candidate for POTUS and a majority of anti-war candidates running for seats in the legislative branch.
      ..
      Again, the question is just exactly how to “entice” voters all across the 50 United In Warfare States Of America, who make their living in the MIC or its spin-offs (as described so well by Matthew Hoh), into voting for these anti-war candidates? THAT is THE question, not whether “to be or not to be”. If those candidates can not be elected, the US, and perhaps all the other nations of the world, are not going “to be” for much longer.
      ..
      Again, to entice those MIC etc. voters, those anti-war candidates are going to have to promise that if they are elected they are going to MAINTAIN the present DoD contract system, so that these millions of voters WILL NOT lose their jobs; but their jobs will be to produce all the great things that will improve the lives of all their fellow citizens. And by “improve” I mean that instead of making military aircraft that will in a few years end up sitting in a boneyard, they will make, for just one example, wind turbines, solar panels, bullet trains, etc. The sevices or electric power from these devices would not be “free”, just as the weapon systems are not free. But which would millions of voters enjoy more, the benefit they receive from weapon systems, or electric power, a trip across the country in an electric-powered bullet train, etc.? How would millions of voters feel about the US becoming energy independent in very few years of spending under a slightly-altered DoD contract system?
      ..
      If I were an anti-war candidate, I would point out to millions of voters creating another “Liberty Ship” program (again, under the existing DoD contract system). Liberty Ships were the workhorses of World War II. They were built in 13 states by 15 companies in 18 shipyards. The first of 2,710 Liberty ships, the SS Patrick Henry, was launched in September 1941, after 150 days of construction. (The shipyard was built at the same time as the ship.) Under this highly automated ship-building system, the SS Robert E. Peary liberty ship was built in 4 Days 15 Hours 29 Minutes.
      ..
      These were not small boats, not by a long shot.
      Displacement: 14,245 long tons (14,474 t)[2]
      Length: 441 ft 6 in (134.57 m)
      Beam: 56 ft 10.75 in (17.3 m)
      Draft: 27 ft 9.25 in (8.5 m)
      Propulsion: Two oil-fired boilers; triple-expansion steam engine; single screw, 2,500 hp (1,900 kW)
      Range: 20,000 nmi (37,000 km; 23,000 mi)
      Capacity: 10,856 t (10,685 long tons)
      ..
      Again, in just a few years of assembly-line development, one of these vessels was assembled in 4 Days 15 Hours 29 Minutes. Imagine such an assembly line system for relatively simple wind turbines, bullet trains, vehicles of all types, etc.
      ..
      So, again, this is what anti-war candidates have to promise those millions of voters in the MIC in order to capture their votes. THIS is precisely what Gabbard and other anti-war candidates have to start promising TODAY, not 6 months down the road. If she were to do this, she would start a firestorm of a debate, which is precisely what is needed to shake up the present arrangement.
      ..
      Again, unless anti-war candiates do this, they will not be elected and the US MIC’s perpetual wars will go on until the nukes start dropping. This is the one and the only way that humanity has a future.

      1. Ish , I am impressed by both of your statements . Your reply to that challenge about how to do all you mentioned in your first statement was superb. it shows that you’ve given a lot of thought to alternatives to a VERY expensive war machine. I’ve thought about the How -to’s also and see it this way. Pearl Harbor – FDR declares war – very quickly every aspect of our manufacturing industries are changed over to making planes ,tanks , ships , and any other manner of items necessary to WIN the WW2. War ends in 1945 and the war machine starts to wind down. This is like driving at high speed for several hours and then taking an exit off the interstate at some small town to gas up and get a bite to eat at a diner. My point is ….we can do it. Much like all the things you mention . Fact – the defense share of the US budget has gone up 40% since 9/11. You have to reverse that by reasonable %’s each year . Like right now…we don’t need 2 NEW Carriers for the USN .What we really need is getting the tax code back to what we had in the 60’s….when the rich and corporations paid a reasonable fair share . But I digress …. You spoke of many of the alternatives to war. War is a negative….all waste and destruction . Benefits only the rich and banks. Peace is a positive….work and building for the benefit of all. Lastly, I’m 75 yo and have only become aware of this rigged game in the last 8 years or so. Over 10 years back my nephew was a 2nd LT. in Iraq finishes his 3 rd. enlistment and gets out . We had been sending him care packages periodically while he was over there and had emailed a bit . So he’s out but still conversing with various friends,also vets, that served with him or where still in the Army. Only now on F/B…and I was his friend . So I got to see a lot of his F/B traffic.and occasionally would add a comment to what they were discussing. At one point ,a friend of my nephew asked about who was I. I see the answer – “Oh, that’s my old weird Uncle” I guess it was a few weeks later that there was some discussion with several of them and while i can’t recall exactly what they were saying, my response was enough to get me Unfriended. this is what i said…. “American Exceptionalism ” is a myth ! I’ll bet you have no argument with that .

  11. The most lovely thing about the story, Caitlin is that you are not the News Man. In the real world, we were in that situation at least as far back as 1978, when Harry Chapin released as song in his 1978 album. It was titled ‘Flowers Are Red’ and, while it hit number 20 on the Irish top song list, in the U.S., it was virtually ignored except by his followers, who probably only got the superficial message, not the underlying one.
    Here is a link to Harry performing Flowers are Red:

    1. Well, that explains the plane crash.

      1. What plane crash? Do you have Chapin confused with someone else? He died when a tractor trailer rode over his car from behind on the Long Island expressway.

  12. “…he was given a Diploma which said, “Johnny thinks all the right thoughts, and he doesn’t think any of the wrong thoughts…””
    .
    #loserteachers – Donald Trump Jr. would be proud.
    .
    I, on the other hand, have rarely been so disappointed.

  13. Free 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Julian Assange.

  14. Where’s the chapter about how Johnny learns Evil Dictator no longer needs Johnny to go to war. He and his ilk can go to hell looking for jobs and doctors. Drones and Special Assassins will serve.

    1. Nina, that is a very good point. “Boots on the ground” are no longer as effective as modern warfare technology and global banksterism are in overthrowing a natural resource rich country.

  15. And sometimes ‘Johnny Never Came Home’.

  16. Hubert Manfred Reiter Avatar
    Hubert Manfred Reiter

    Hi Caitlin, lovely story, I enjoyed reading it. Thank you.

  17. A happy ending of Johnny’s story. But Empires and all cracies, except democracy have met a doomed end, some without even a RIP.

  18. Johnny should read this! Australia is NOW a dictatorship!
    New Law’s implemented behind our backs! “The End Of Travel As We Know It Has Arrived! United Nations To Control It All! Proof Included!”
    https://www.brighteon.com/6002802610001

  19. In Johny’s perfect future world No-one will have to keep filling in little boxes with their names and other information every time they want to say Thank you Caitlin! The only boxes will have either dead Newsmen or flowers in them!

  20. Charles Robinson Avatar
    Charles Robinson

    Ha,ha. Run Johnny run! Not bad.
    The first rule of a Republic? Keep your mouth open.

  21. Nice writing, though sad to say Johnny ended up building a power base and becoming a Politician, oops, repeat 🙂

  22. Which statement is false? Evil dictatorships kill children with poison gas. Kinder democracies kill them with lead. Socialist governments elect candidates who run for office. Capitalist governments anoint strangers who nobody even heard of.

    Money is not the root of all evil. Concentrated money is. It is no worse for a handful of people to horde all the air,food, water or wealth. Most people know how easy it is to feed meat to a dog but try to take it back. There is a reason it is called Predatory Capitalism.

    The concentration of wealth is reaching a critical mass and all humanity is about to enter the black hole of extinction.

    Forget political reality for it is certain death. Any thing is possible that does not violate the laws of nature and many interesting things happen in nature at the limits: Very small, very large and very fast. We need to explore the limits.

    1. Til, “Money is not the root of all evil. Concentrated money is.”

      Disagree. Money, concentrated or not, is not the problem. Power is the problem. And the more it is concentrated (centralized) the more evil it becomes. History teaches us this but there are always those busy bodies/power lusting psychos who refuse to learn the lesson.

  23. Well done, but you misspelled Freedumbocracy, and you missed a really good chance to drive home what a fine aid to clarity having your legs blown off can be.

  24. A little song to help defeat the Evil Dictator (of the day):

  25. Beautiful cobber ❤️❤️❤️

  26. That’s the happiest ending I’ve heard in a long time.

  27. Beautiful cobber ❤️❤️❤️

  28. Great story Cailtin. I like the children’s format – distilling it down into the key points. It is exactly as you tell it – it’s really that simple yet so many people still refuse to believe what is right under their noses, happening every minute of the day.

    In my view, the key to helping people see the reality, is to give them something, an alternative, to latch onto. Otherwise it becomes too hard for them to accept the truth – but have nowhere to turn to, so they end up feeling helpless and frustrated, which leads to apathy, cynicism and inaction..

    Then, when they are faced with the ghastly truth, they can grab onto a solution that addresses the problems. Just as in the USA, at the moment, the Democrats are pushing the Green New Deal as an alternative, a solution – and it seems to be working.

    1. Willd, the New Green Deal is the exact opposite of a solution. The congresschild’s scheme gives TPTB even more power and control. She’s either being handled by TPTB or she is a twit. Or a little of column A and a little of column B…

  29. Caitlin, some weeks I think you should just take a break and rest up.

  30. Great story. At 75, I wonder if I’ll live long enough to see it come true. Sigh……

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