Things have gotten very strange, and they’re going to keep getting stranger. Patterns are dissolving faster and faster, and the little emperors who’ve built their empires on those patterns are having to work harder and harder to hold it all together. Buckle up.

It has been firmly established beyond any doubt that it is now literally impossible for an American political figure to vocally oppose US warmongering without being labeled a Russian agent.

All the faux humanitarian concerns we’ve heard from the political/media class about what’s happening in Syria are completely invalidated by their total indifference to what’s happening in Yemen.

It sure is interesting how you never, ever see bipartisan cries of humanitarian concerns across the entire US political/media class unless it benefits the globe-spanning forever war. How cool would it be if even one time the political/media class united across partisan lines to forcefully advocate for a humanitarian foreign policy involving charity, food, indigenous rights, or literally any other humanitarian agenda besides military mass murder? Whenever there’s talk of withdrawing US troops from any region anywhere, the political/media class begins shrieking that this will (A) hurt humanitarian interests, and (B) hurt US hegemony. Their real concern is B, and B has nothing to do with A. But they’re treated as one thing.

America created Al Qaeda, then hated them after 9/11, then loved them in Syria, now hates them in Syria. They’re like a bad relationship that keeps breaking up and getting back together. It’s like damn America, either end it or put a ring on it.

You might think you’re a rebel, but if you truly wanted to stop being a blind follower and really stick it to the man you’d join up with centrists, right wingers, the US State Department, the CIA, and 100% of all mainstream media to cheerlead for the protesters in Hong Kong.

All abusive relationships have two things in common: abuse and forgiveness. Because without forgiveness, there’d be no relationship. This is especially true of the people’s relationship with government and its controllers. Don’t let them memory hole the evil shit they’ve done.

People like to feel like they support the scrappy underdog in foreign power struggles, but they often fail to account for the hugely important role alliances play. If a nation or group is allied with the US empire, then it’s always the bigger and stronger force, not the underdog. Examples: Cheerleading for US-sponsored anti-government uprisings in Venezuela, Iran etc under the mistaken belief that it’s just people vs government instead of people + empire vs government. Or cheerleading Israel because it’s “surrounded by enemies”.

You can safely eliminate a lot of completely worthless noise from your information feed by ignoring everything either US political party says about earth-shattering revelations which are about to demolish the other party any day now.

Right-wing theories about the deep state trying to remove Trump from office via impeachment are premised on the unexamined assumption that the CIA can orchestrate a major operation at the highest levels of the US government, but doesn’t know how to count Senate seats.

If a known compulsive liar handed you a loaded pistol and told you your neighbor is planning to kill you if you don’t kill them first, you’d tell them to piss off. Yet whenever the political/media class wants to start a war, MSM consumers take the gun over and over again.

War happens when a geostrategically valuable region is inhabited by a populace which desires self-sovereignty.

In case you’re unsure of the difference between America’s two major political parties, one party coddles the wealthy, strips social programs, starts wars, kills the environment and drags the world into Orwellian dystopia, whereas the other party does all of these things also.

Of all the pants-on-head idiotic things that Clintonites say about Jill Stein, perhaps the very stupidest is their belief that Stein voters would have voted for Hillary if there hadn’t been a Green Party candidate. It reveals so much ignorance about left-of-mainstream voters.

No one:
Entire political/media class: Hey let’s revive Red Scare culture and McCarthyism, that shit was awesome.

I do hope that Sanders supporters aren’t suffering from the delusion that the extremely aggressive Russia smears Tulsi Gabbard is currently being targeted with aren’t going to eventually shift to Bernie.

Both Gabbard’s haters and her supporters treat her foreign policy like it’s something wildly extraordinary, but it’s basically just the mainstream US foreign policy consensus that would have been considered normal in America before 9/11. Which shows how far the Overton window has been moved since then.

1986: Elizabeth Warren secures an advantage by switching her identity to Cherokee.
1996: Elizabeth Warren secures an advantage by switching her identity to Democrat.
2019: Elizabeth Warren secures an advantage by switching her identity to Bernie Sanders.

Fun fact: After the US establishment subverts democracy to install Warren, the western empire will have two unelected rulers named Elizabeth.

The people who think Warren would make a good president are the same people who think Obama made a good president. The people who think Obama made a good president are the same people who are now beginning to say that Bush was a good president.

Assange, verb. Use: To be assanged.
Meaning: when the nationless alliance of elites imprison a dissident by using their power to manipulate vagaries in the laws of their respective nations.
Eg “I have information on war crimes that I should leak but I don’t want to be assanged.”

Supporting Assange and supporting Trump are two mutually contradictory positions, since the Trump administration is orchestrating the thing that Assange has spent years trying to avoid. It seems like many Trump supporters do a lot of mental gymnastics to avoid confronting this.

The cause of our world’s problems is that we keep creating systems which elevate psychopaths to official and unofficial leadership positions. Until we create a system which elevates empathy (a world in which psychopaths cannot function), we’ll keep running into the same problems.

It’s so weird how we move through life like it’s no big deal, like “Yeah, just a toothy, fingery ape monster who consumes the life force of other organisms and excretes them out its anus walking around and looking at stuff in a universe that nobody understands, whatever.” I mean, we get THIS. This strange, shimmering, mysterious world full of flying feather beasts and air we breathe parts of into our bloodstreams and electromagnetic radiation which we process with our ocular organs, and people are still waiting around for a miracle. The miracle already happened. The miracle is here. What’s already happening currently dwarfs any miracle anyone is currently praying for by infinity orders of magnitude. And we only get a few years here. So like, I dunno, maybe let’s worry less about wrong people on the internet. By all means push for changes in this world. But never lose sight of the fact that the Really Big Deal in any given moment is not whatever change you’re trying to make, but the fact that this world is here at all, and that you get to stand up and look around in it for a while.

___________________________________

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52 responses to “Syria, War, And Elizabeth Warren: More Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. That McCarthyism was awesome, Caitlin. The commies ambushed him with that bogus “have you no shame” deal. You can learn why it was bogus by reading “McCarthy and His Enemies” by Stan Evans. But McCarthy was dead right about commie infiltration of the US government. Commies killed more Christians than Hitler killed Jews. Case in point: Yagoda. They were and are really animals and if you think the hounding of Assange is despicable. take a dekko at “The Gulag Archipelago.” Or “The Stones Cry Out” about the ghastly Khmer Rouge filth.

    So it was a noble undertaking by that great man.

    “Empathy” is a meaningless standard. One can have ten tons of empathy for person or people of nation #132 but then what? Rationality is better. As in non-suicidal, not believe that multiculturalism and immigration garbage. But, ironically, that’s what the damp undies set wants. Those lovely blokes and blokesses who have empathy to spare.

    I really enjoy your stuff. Thanks for standing up against the imperial madness.

    1. Sorry. “Blacklisted by History” not MAHE.

      Duh.

  2. Here’s what I find an interesting observed fact about the current state of the Syria invasion. The President of the United States of America is not the commander-in-chief of the USA’s armed forces. That obscure piece of paper called the Constitution (USA) firmly says the elected President is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. This was bizarrely distorted by the Cheney regime as saying the President could do anything he (or the people whispering in his ear) wanted, but it was always actually about civilian control of the military. The radical revolutionaries who fought and died to found the USA and who made the mistake of finally agreeing to this Constitution on the now broken promise of a Bill of Rights, were careful to insist that the military be under the control of the elected civilian authorities. Actually, many of them didn’t want a military at all, preferring the more democratic alternative of relying on militias, but to the extend that they would accept the need for a small peacetime military, they insisted that it be written into the rules that this was under the control of the elected President.
    This is not the first time. I began noticing this back in the Clinton regime, and lately I’ve been reading Daniel Ellsberg and learning interesting facts like the fact that the Pentagon generals would not let President Eisenhower nor his civilian officials see their Big Plan For Global Nuclear War. Thus, I suspect that America’s democracy lost civilian control of the military back either during or right after WW2.
    But it is always interesting when this is shown to the world to be the case. I can’t stand Trump, but it has been interesting that he has made public this and several other occasions as to when the American military is not following civilian orders.
    I believe strongly in politics and elections being the best possible time to talk to people about the country the state it is in. Of course, the campaigns I volunteer for usually get about 1% of the vote, as announced by the computers. But still, elections are when people are willing to listen. But at the same time, it is important for those who want a better world that even the task of winning an election, which seems already to be a humongous struggle from here, is not enough to change America. I’m not trying to say we are doomed to fail like the usual “Resistance is Futile” commenters, but it is important to understand and accept the size of the struggle that faces us. Determined people can change the world. But don’t expect it to be quick and easy. Then also understand that even after we win they will still counter-attack and try to defeat us, but since we know that too we can be ready.

  3. Caitlin, Love your new verb “assanged”, but would swap out the word vagaries:
    “when the nationless alliance of elites imprison a dissident by using their power to COERCE UNEQUAL APPLICATION of the laws of their respective nations:.

    In other words, the ideal of “Equal Justice Under the Law” learned in our high school Civics classes, engraved on the USA Supreme Court building, is violated by a cabal of elite forces to imprison their enemies. In the case of Assange, a mockery is made of the concept given the sophisticated level of highly coordinated multi-state multi institution interference applied to “get him”

  4. Ms Johnstone cares about Mr. Assange and he continues to suffer badly.
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52424.htm

  5. As that line goes in When Harry met Sally, “I’ll have what she’s having.” 😉

  6. 1986: Elizabeth Warren secures an advantage by switching her identity to Cherokee.
    1996: Elizabeth Warren secures an advantage by switching her identity to Democrat.
    2019: Elizabeth Warren secures an advantage by switching her identity to Bernie Sanders.
    Fun fact: After the US establishment subverts democracy to install Warren, the western empire will have two unelected rulers named Elizabeth.
    This got a laugh out loud out of me despite the seriousness of the entire article, Ms Johnstone. ” The establishment behind the scenes U.S.government here ” is getting a little miffed that more and more people are not swallowing the lies so easily anymore. The constant circus atmosphere of our government is a daily sick soap opera with grade F cast. It is comical and crazy at the same time.

  7. Stephen Morrell Avatar
    Stephen Morrell

    There are several assertions here that don’t bear scrutiny.
    1. “Right-wing theories about the deep state trying to remove Trump from office via impeachment are premised on the unexamined assumption that the CIA can orchestrate a major operation at the highest levels of the US government, but doesn’t know how to count Senate seats.”

    Linking the supposedly “unexamined assumption that the CIA can orchestrate a major operation at the highest levels of the US government” to not being able “to count Senate seats” assumes that the aim is to depose Trump outright via impeachment. That’s not their aim. Rather, this latest attempted coup by the CIA and the Democrats is to make Trump a lame-duck president, hopefully to not be re-nominated by the GOP and therefore not be re-elected president (at least as a Republican). They know Trump won’t be thrown out of office by a 2/3 Senate vote.

    Far from ‘unexamined’, everyone knows the CIA has conducted numerous regime change operations inside the US, not just on every other continent bar Antarctica. The most spectacular was against JFK who, following the Bay of Pigs fiasco, wanted to ‘shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces’. The CIA organised and coordinated that coup, from the pits of the mob and Cuban gusanos, to the FBI and Secret Service, all the way up to LBJ himself (as detailed by James Douglass in his ‘JKF and the Unspeakable’). Allen Dulles, the longtime CIA director who sat at the malignant core of the US ruling class whom Kennedy sacked following Bay of Pigs, appears to have been involved in the coordination, and made sure the resulting Warren Commission (which Warren ruefully dubbed the ‘Dulles Commission’) determined that the patsy Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin with never a whisper of the CIA (see also David Talbot’s ‘The Devil’s Chessboard’).

    Other numerous examples of the CIA involvement in deciding the fates of US presidents are reiterated by Edward Curtin here: https://off-guardian.org/2019/10/20/the-deep-state-goes-shallow-2-0/.

    Of course one can’t simply ignore Russiagate and its roots in Brennan, Clapper and the DNC, which Barr’s investigation may blow the lid off and from which the Democrats are desperate to distract attention with their closed-door ‘impeachment’ theatre. If Trump were impeached for his real crimes, Democrat complicity would be exposed, and keeping this inquiry behind closed doors is their attempt to cover their complicity in Ukraine. But it could quickly unravel from ‘Ukraine-gate’ to ‘Whistleblower-gate’ and expose not only the Democrats but the latest CIA dirty tricks.

    While the whole US ruling class has been extremely pissed off that Trump has torn away the veil to reveal their rule in all its naked ‘glory’, it’s appears that the straw that broke the CIA’s back was Trump withdrawing from Syria, forcing the US (eventually and inevitably) to give up its hold on the northeastern Syrian oil and wheat fields and therefore on Syria.

    None of this is ‘right wing theory’.

    2. “Both Gabbard’s haters and her supporters treat her foreign policy like it’s something wildly extraordinary, but it’s basically just the mainstream US foreign policy consensus that would have been considered normal in America before 9/11.”

    US foreign policy didn’t change before or after 9/11. It’s essentially been the same since WWII, after the US became the dominant imperialist world power. What has changed is the way it’s implemented, now without the figleaf of ‘diplomacy’ or lip service to international agreements or ‘rules’.

    3. “…(A) hurt humanitarian interests, and (B) hurt US hegemony. Their real concern is B, and B has nothing to do with A. But they’re treated as one thing.”

    (B) has everything to do with (A). Unhurt US hegemony ensures hurt humanitarian interests. One follows inevitably from the other.

    4. “The cause of our world’s problems is that we keep creating systems which elevate psychopaths to official and unofficial leadership positions”.

    This is a complete crock. ‘We’ don’t create systems. They create us, we’re born into them and we adapt to and behave in them to survive and thrive. “The traditions of the dead generations weigh like a nightmare upon the living” (Marx). Since the dawn of private property, greed and avarice, lying and deception have been the indispensible road to riches, paved by enslavement, chattel, serf or wage, by the organised violence of the state, and by war and plunder. Incessantly we’re told that these traits are ‘eternal’, part of ‘human nature’, and that we need to embrace them as our ‘saviours’. The nature of humans is that they’re very adaptable.

    The only time we consciously and with forethought will ‘create’ a system is when we overthrow capitalism along with its foundation, private property, and replace that living nightmare with a system that rationally places the resources and bounty of the world’s producers in the hands of all.

    1. I agreed that Caitlin’s remark about the Deep State missed the mark. But I’m not sure you have it quite right, either.
      I think it is always dangerous to to ascribe too much specificity to the actions of our Deep State.
      It is, truly, a blob rather than a cabal.
      Like most bureaucracies, the Deep State has as its first impulse the simple agglomeration of power. Its instincts are always toward getting more power for itself, and Trump certainly was perceived as an outsider, as someone not to be counted on to maintain the status quo.
      So yes, they would like to be rid of him, but given the Senate situation, would certainly be glad to settle for being the ones who set the nation’s political agenda for the remainder of his term.

    2. Bravo, Stephen!

    3. most keen observations and forceful articulation, sir.

  8. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    The matrix extends of course to Canada.

    Today it is election day and all the candidates have to believe the official version of the 9/11 story just to be candidate for any political party:

    https://www.globalresearch.ca/911-truth-war-on-terror-or-war-on-democracy-the-physical-intimidation-of-legislatures/5653306

    So, a guy who does not believe the Official 9/11 story has almost no interest in voting.

    Days of Noah for sure. Everything is a lie. Praying the Rosary for the quick return of Jesus Have seen enough bullshit.

    1. https://ca.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/ottawa/sections-offices/
       
      All “Canadian matters” are decided in the “economic section” and “political section” of the branch of the US State Department described on the above link.
       
      The State Department’s representative has made its choice for the next US lap-dog-PM:
       
      https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/obama-trudeau-endorsement-1.5323097
       
      But whomever the “Canadian” People select will be OK with the US State Department because when push comes to shove, that person and enough of the others sitting in the Commons and Lords will do exactly what they’re told to do by the US State Department.

  9. “Of all the pants-on-head idiotic things that Clintonites say about Jill Stein, perhaps the very stupidest is their belief that Stein voters would have voted for Hillary if there hadn’t been a Green Party candidate. It reveals so much ignorance about left-of-mainstream voters.”

    The Greens are running against the Libertarian Party in the race for who can be the 3rd most popular party in the US. The LP is trouncing them, approximately 3:1 in the 2016 Presidential. So, even if that election had featured a forced binary choice, Mr. Trump’s margins would have increased in the close states because LP voters would vote Republican in that scenario. Of course, it is more convenient to imagine an outcome where the LP folks still voted LP, but all the loyal limousine liberals were forced to vote for the Democratic Party nominee due to a lack of an alternative.

  10. Peter Tregillus Avatar
    Peter Tregillus

    My direct experience of Elizabeth Warren overtime totally contradicts everything that you are saying about her in this article. Hey Caitlin, I work my ass off for Bernie and I support Bernie but the trashing of Warren is gratuitous. Let’s not think we’re making progress by building another bubble.

    1. Provide specifics please. Be concrete.

    2. Why did Warren throw her support to Clinton and not support Sanders in the last so-called election? I’m still curious about what she was thinking.

    3. Bernie is up to his neck in the military industrial complex. I you don’t believe me, ask him about the F-35 facilities in Vermont.
      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51464.htm

      1. So passe. Which politician has not provided MIC finds to the people of their state?

    4. Peter in Seattle Avatar
      Peter in Seattle

      @Peter Tregillus:

      And my direct experience of corporate/conglomerate media’s overwhelmingly positive treatment of Elizabeth Warren over time totally confirms everything Caitlin is saying about her in this article. Why would they coddle and fluff her if she represented any threat whatsoever to the Fortune 500 advertisers who pay the piper and call the tune? Anyone who lived through Obama’s primary campaign, general campaign, and subsequent presidency should be able to see the hollowness of Warren’s progressive talking points — most of them lifted wholesale from Bernie — and the fact that she herself can hardly believe she’s getting away with making them. (“Oh, my God! Do they actually believe me when I say this crap? Maybe I should promise everyone a pony or a dirt bike!”) She was a Reagan Republican, for crying out loud. And when the Democratic Party shifted right to become the party of wacko nutjob psychopaths and the Democratic Party shifted right to become the party of Reagan Republicans, she became a Democrat. If elected President, she’ll try to make Wall Street a little more honest, and that’s it. Anything other “promise” she makes, you better just kiss goodbye, because it ain’t gonna happen under Warren. All the signs are there. You just have know how to spot them.

  11. Peter Paradise Michaels Avatar
    Peter Paradise Michaels

    Love your blog. Puzzled by the statement: “You might think you’re a rebel, but if you truly wanted to stop being a blind follower and really stick it to the man you’d join up with centrists, right wingers, the US State Department, the CIA, and 100% of all mainstream media to cheerlead for the protesters in Hong Kong.”…

    1. Yeah. I got lost at that point.

  12. The thug always rises to the top of the food chain. Society allows other methods than guns and clubs to accomplish it. The ruthless always lead because they are willing to do what others dare not. I like that in my generals but not my political leaders. Of course that was when generals were sent out to win at all costs. Those days are long gone.

  13. Awesome article Caitlin, well done, appreciate your thoughts.

  14. “But never lose sight of the fact that the Really Big Deal in any given moment is not whatever change you’re trying to make, but the fact that this world is here at all, and that you get to stand up and look around in it for a while.”

    Thank you. I love when you take a deep dive….

    1. That line resonated with me also… oh yea.

  15. Robert Hare’s groundbreaking book, “Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us” should be read by everyone seeking to understand the condition.

    That said, its really too bad ‘sociopath’ still isn’t an accepted clinical condition along the lines described by psychologist George E. Partridge in 1930 in that he described a condition of antisocial behavior that was pathological and motivated and not the result of some deficiency or inadequacy.

    Hare has since become in many ways an establishment celebrity and his later research parsed the meaning of psychopath to the nth degree but seems to overlook the essential contrast with sociopath that would better define both conditions.

    1. foster goodwill Avatar
      foster goodwill

      I agree, sociopath would be a more accurate word to use in this article.

  16. Sit down, take a breath and look around……. http://www.documentarytube.com/videos/baraka

  17. Check out a retake on the Hong Kong riots.

  18. The United States of America is as Phony and as useless as a three dollar bill. This is a nation full of phony people that constantly lie to themselves and constant lie to everybody else. This ” delusional matrix ” is mandatory for the survival of our lost souls. We, as a nation, can never handle the truth; because the truth is we are very very sick and very very evil! We murder millions of people and we call it democracy. White hats do not make us ” the good guys “! As usual Ms Johnstone tells the truth.

    1. I agree Ron. Americans are allergic to the truth.

  19. I don’t think the historical methods of dealing with plutocrats ended with words.

  20. Look.
    Think.
    History is at work.
    Contradictions do exist
    I disagree that ‘Supporting Assange and supporting Trump are two mutually contradictory positions’,
    that might be true in a sane and rational world (which we do not have!),
    but the processes Trump/Assange are working at from opposite ends, is assured.
    The dialectic at work??!!
    Trump publicly claimed he ‘loved’ wikileaks/assange, and then tossed him to the wolves after Trump had used Assange for short term electoral outcomes.
    Trump is ripping off the ugly American mask, he is destroying/exposing degenerate Armurika (good), Assange is exposing the matrix (good).
    Assange is being martyred (tragedy),
    Trump is Greek tragedy and will destroy himself (‘whom the gods wish to destroy’), because of his own perfidy.

  21. Its all very well to denounce liberal hypocrites and neocon scoundrels for their effusions about Trump’s (expected, predictable, and identical to their own plans) betrayal of the democratic initiative called Rojava, the commune-like expression of the kurdish people. But why no comparable denunciation for the open support of Putin, Erdogan, and Khamenei–tyrants in no way morally preferable to the Clintons, Trumps and Macrons –put forward by such pseudo-leftists (actually crypto-stalinists) as “Moon of Alabama.” Why, in particular, no demand for the liberation of Ocolan? Why no expression of solidarity for the generations-long struggle of the Kurdish Workers’ Party against the historically genocidal Turkish State and its Liberal NATO enablers (who, like those who massacred the Communards of 1871, only regard the revolutionaries of the PKK and YPG as “Marxists,” as “Anarchists,” as “Terrorists”)? And why all the twisted knickers at the thought of Kurdish revolutionaries getting help from US imperialists when none of those purity puritans would have had the least objection if the fighters of the Warsaw ghetto had been able to get military help from Roosevelt, Stalin, or Churchill (who, in fact, were from the beginning the silent accomplices of Hitler and invented the “Unconditional Surrender” doctrine to keep him in power until Germany could be divided and occupied).

  22. Caitlin,

    Been reading you for quite a while and have luxuriated in your many insights. But then you wrote this: “Right-wing theories about the deep state trying to remove Trump from office via impeachment are premised on the unexamined assumption that the CIA can orchestrate a major operation at the highest levels of the US government, but doesn’t know how to count Senate seats.” I thought I should mention a few things.

    These “deep state” denizens are the descendents of the same war machine security state that pulled off the murders in the 60s of the Kennedy brothers, MLK, etc., that decimated the left (which actually existed at the time) and solidified their control over government and the media. While intimidating all opposition since. The story goes that one of the first things Bill Clinton did after his election was to call Webb Hubbell, his friend from Arkansas who had been in DC for a while, and ask him to find out who really killed JFK.

    The CIA’s ability to “orchestrate a major operation at the highest levels of the US government” is well established for any one who cares to look. This impeachment, on the flimsiest ground from all the other choices available (ask yourself why this choice), is another coup (following the Kennedys but probably bloodless). For the first time I can remember the CIA isn’t even trying to hide their role. That’s how confident they are that they can control the narrative.

    As for counting Senate votes, we’re talking about Republicans, Caitlin. “National security” is a religion to them (with the exception perhaps of Rand Paul). Right now you can bet the “intelligence community” is telling their Republican friends about all the ways Trump threatens the future of the country. Which of course he does. However it will probably take compelling arguments of how Trump threatens the future of the party (instead of the country) to get their votes. We shall see.

    In any case, by this impeachment the gang in control is making it clear to all who bother to look that they are in charge. It’s similar to what Vince Salandria said 25 years ago about the JFK murder. The Warren Commission fairytale is so obviously false because the murderers expected it to fall apart to reveal this central fact: they were in control and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

    1. I too took exception to Caitlin’s,
      “Right-wing theories about the deep state trying to remove
      Trump from office via impeachment are premised on the unexamined
      assumption that the CIA can orchestrate a major operation
      at the highest levels of the US government, but doesn’t know
      how to count Senate seats.”
      .
      And I appreciated your response.
      .
      I take some exception, however, to your last sentence.
      .
      While there is much truth to your,
      “they were in control and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
      It is not the reason the Warren Commission fairy tale was created,
      in fact the real reason is the opposite.
      .
      The fairy tale was created to delay the invasion of Cuba.
      The Joint Chiefs of Staff and CIA wanted to invade Cuba and thus
      precipitate total war with the USSR.
      .
      The assassination of JFK was a CIA/Joint Chiefs of Staff false flag
      designed to make it look like Castro was the culprit.
      Oswald had been “sheep dipped” to appear as a Cuban and Russian
      linked agent.
      .
      Bobby Kennedy, brother of JFK, was not going to give his brother’s
      killers (the real killers) what they sought – WWIII. Thus, from
      day one Bobby Kennedy pushed the lone gunman theory.
      .
      Bobby Kennedy was desperate to stop the real killers from succeeding
      with their plans and thus he was a chief proponent of the fairy tale
      Warren Report (lone gunman theory).
      .
      LBJ also did not want to be President in a world smoldering with
      radioactive fallout. He was high in the saddle after the assassination
      as the new President. Thus LBJ worked with Bobby Kennedy to
      push the lone gunman theory.
      .
      A whole lot more … especially about how the Joint Chiefs of Staff
      had learned through a well placed spy that Khrushchev’s boast about
      his ICBM was an empty boast. But (and this is key) the spy warned
      that there was only a short window of time (perhaps three years)
      before the boast about ICBM would become a reality.
      .
      The above was the motivation the Joint Chiefs of Staff had for
      starting WWIII at that time and not waiting until the window
      closed. JFK, however, “did not want to go down in history as the biggest
      mass murderer in history” – JFK
      had said this.

    2. Well said, Roger. I would only add that you omitted 9/11 from the list of atrocities perpetrated by the renegade intelligence community that sources the narrative that Caitlin is so good at finding holes in.

      Seems to me that part of the bigger story here is that while the cabal/deep state/intelligence community does not always know the longer term effects of their manipulations, they absolutely do know the short term effects. And in that sense, they are batting 1.000.

    3. I gotta say – reading all of your ultra left wing fever dream conspiracy theories makes for some excellent bedtime comedy. That Webb Hubbell anecdote alone – just pure gold – “who REALLY killed JFK”? Some truly hilarious shit right there!

      Who needs The Onion, when we have a bunch of ultra left wing nutbags writing their musings for all to see!

      Keep it up, I love it.

      1. Still using that fake account after you were outed a few days ago, Mitt? https://www.cbs.com/shows/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/video/Rv38YWUkVFwJeIrykv_VidGln5wdQlYh/why-doesn-t-pierre-delecto-follow-stephen-colbert-on-twitter-/. https://www.distractify.com/p/pierre-delecto-meaning. Another clue it’s you, Mitt, is the dismissive tone and utter lack of substance of your post.

  23. the fact that this world is here at all, and that you get to stand up and look around in it for a while.

    Absofrikkenloutley! Totally correct perspective there, so a big thank you for the reminder.

  24. Team Caitlin: You are amazing! I’m sitting here in my shady “sun-room” gazing out on fluffy white (alas not rain-filled) clouds floating across a deep blue sky (it’s Australia) bougainvillea in bright rusty pink colour in the garden and thinking – yes indeed Caitlin – how beautiful is this – and strangely – as you also point out – the madness abroad in the twitter/warsphere.

    1. Hey Jim, are you related to my old mate Gregory Wayne Kable?

  25. The cause of our world’s problems is that we keep creating systems which elevate psychopaths to official and unofficial leadership positions. Until we create a system which elevates empathy (a world in which psychopaths cannot function), we’ll keep running into the same problems.

    Err, no.

    Institutions aren’t human. You could argue they might express empathy – at least by a narrow behaviorist definition of the word – but it wouldn’t be towards humans, but to entities similar to themselves (just as our own empathy works). That would be other institutions. So monopolies, cartels and industry lobby groups could be called expressions of institutional (corporate) empathy. I don’t think we need more of that.

    Institutions might be ‘made of humans’ but attributing humanity to their behaviour is a category error. Their ‘intelligence’ is emergent, just like ours, but instead of arising from networks of neurons, etc, it arises from networks of people. Institutions no more reflect the values of people than people reflect the values of their neurons (though there’s some neuroscience fanboys out there who think they do).

    They might have a ‘morality’ of sorts, but as their survival imperatives are so different to ours their ‘morality’ will always be so alien as to be indistinguishable from psychopathy.

    Markets aren’t societies. They don’t give rise to social beings.

    1. Err, yes. Caitlin got it right. Institutions are run and directed by humans, primarily sociopaths at the highest levels of hierarchy. Monopolies, cartels, and industry lobby groups are typically expressions of institutional (corporate) sociopathy. As is government, big media, big business, and anything else that exercises significant power and control over the masses. Power doesn’t corrupt, but the corrupt are attracted to power like moths to a flame. Power and control is what sociopaths live for. Institutions reflect the values of the people with power and control over those institutions, and those people are typically sociopaths. Any group led by sociopaths will behave in a sociopathic manner, precisely as directed by its sociopath leaders. The U.S. government is a prime example of this, as is the Israeli government. As long as sociopaths run our institutions (and they have for millennia), no significant change is possible.

      1. As long as sociopaths run our institutions (and they have for millennia), no significant change is possible.

        If a presumably small proportion of sociopaths have been able to dominate our societies for millennia then sociopathy must be the most successful human attribute ever.

        Unless, of course, it’s the emergent actions of the institutions themselves that ensure those needed for particular functions find their way into the positions best suited to institutional needs. Just as gene expression, cell migration, apoptosis, etc ensure the different components of our bodies (usually) behave as they’re meant to or get replaced.

        If you’re looking for supervillains to blame try comic books.

      2. Monopolies, cartels, and industry lobby groups are typically expressions of institutional (corporate) sociopathy.

        No it isn’t. Because the society of corporations is other corporations. They cooperate for mutual benefit just like we do. Nothing sociopathic about that. You might as well say ants are being sociopathic when they cooperate to kill caterpillars.

  26. “Until we create a system which elevates empathy (a world in which psychopaths cannot function), we’ll keep running into the same problems.”

    Never happen. Psychopaths always get control of any system that generates power. It’s who we are. I’ve concluded that politics is often a very amusing thing to observe, but not to be taken seriously, or participated in. It will fall apart, as it always has, and then we will start over again. Unless we don’t survive this time. In any case,, I appreciate your writing, and good luck.

    1. “Psychopaths always get control of any system that generates power. It’s who we are.”
      No, it’s who they are, and they are not us. Sociopaths are very different from empathetic humans. Having no empathy changes everything, from your worldview to your sense of morality. And because normal humans outnumber sociopaths by at least 10 to 1, it is possible for sociopaths to be managed. For the first time in human history, the means to accurately identify sociopaths with brain scans is available, but our leaders (sociopaths) are working hard to keep it from becoming mainstream. Of course they would, because their success comes from not being identified.

      1. “Who we are” relates to the fact we have ALWAYS allow them to take control. They are typically very intelligent, charismatic, and quite successful manipulators. So let’s test for sociopathy, and find that a significant majority of those in governmental positions of authority are guilty. How would you propose we dispose of them? Regarding their replacements, how would you convince the public that a psychological test is required for public employment, or candidacy? How would you prevent sociopaths from gaining control of the test criteria? The problem is, those of us who are not sociopaths are empathic, decent, moral people trying to battle sociopaths who will employ any means necessary to achieve their goals. Sheep at war with wolves. Having the means does not guarantee success. Not to mention psychology is as vulnerable to sociopathy as any other organization. It happens over and over again. People congregate for their common good, sociopaths (kings and their retinue) take control and drive the congregation into the ground, and we start over.

      2. For the first time in human history, the means to accurately identify sociopaths with brain scans is available

        Ah, a neuroscience fanboy.

        Funny thing about mental illness. Several times a year researchers tell us they’ve finally found the holy grail of a valid, verifiable bio-marker that will revolutionise psychiatric diagnostics and finally turn the field into a branch of medicine. And in the 38 years since I got my first psychology degree do you know how many have panned out? None. Not one. In fact there’s been no bio-markers for mental illness discovered since 1905 (the syphilis bacterium).

        Don’t believe the hype fanboy.

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