Caitlin Johnstone

Big Buttigieg Bloviations: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Prediction: if Sanders somehow manages to win the primary, a majority of the centrist pundits screaming “vote blue no matter who” at Bernie supporters right now will help amplify smear campaigns against him and undermine his campaign against Trump. ~ The UK media’s shrieking, deceitful smear campaign against Corbyn last year far exceeds anything we’ve…

Caitlin Johnstone
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Prediction: if Sanders somehow manages to win the primary, a majority of the centrist pundits screaming “vote blue no matter who” at Bernie supporters right now will help amplify smear campaigns against him and undermine his campaign against Trump.

~

The UK media’s shrieking, deceitful smear campaign against Corbyn last year far exceeds anything we’ve seen against Sanders so far in terms of intensity and egregiousness. I point this out to highlight the fact that there’s still plenty of room for it to get a whole lot worse.

~

Bernie’s most important job is being a very reasonable thing that the people want and the establishment refuses to let them have. Force them to kill his run openly and you can wake more people up to the reality that they’re not living in the kind of nation they thought they were.

~

Fun fact: Amy Klobuchar’s support base consists of nothing but TV news pundits and mainstream op-ed writers.

~

Fun fact: the most dangerous synthetic material ever invented in a laboratory for public consumption is Pete Buttigieg.

~

Most politicians are experts at the art of spouting eloquent-sounding bloviations that never actually say anything. Pete Buttigieg is like the Mozart of that art.

~

Buttigieg has almost no political history and still has to deal with significant scandals from his tiny mayoral stint. Yet he’s still polling well. Very interesting.

~

Nobody’s shocked that the Democratic establishment is rigging the election, but some are shocked that they’re being so brazen about it. Don’t be. Remember, there are no consequences for these people: they know they’ll never lose their jobs, and they’re fine with Trump winning.

If you’re suffering under the status quo, you’re much more likely to care about changing it. If you’re benefiting from the status quo, you’re more likely to care about protecting it and making sure you never become one of those poor suckers who are being crushed to death by it. Establishment lackeys benefit from it.

~

One under-appreciated establishment-friendly perk of the Iowa caucus rigging is that the scandal completely eclipsed the big story of the day: the spectacular face-plant of the anointed king Joe Biden. If not for the scandal, that’s all anyone would be talking about right now.

~

At some point the establishment narrative managers are going to realize that criticizing “Bernie bros” for being angry isn’t an effective strategy, because the answer coming back is only ever going to be “Oh you have no fucking idea.”

~

By July establishment Democrats are going to be literally urinating on progressives and telling them they’re helping Trump if they react in any way.

~

Any political issue which doesn’t directly threaten the interests of oligarchs and the military-industrial complex is incapable of delivering meaningful political change; it will be hijacked and used as a carrot or a stick by the two-headed one-party system to distract from anything that threatens existing power structures.

~

Anyone who claims the left is starting a “class war” is claiming that the billionaire class has not already been waging war on normal people on a multitude of fronts for many years. They’re saying that the exploitation, oppression, manipulation, corruption and poverty is all in your imagination.

~

There is a large and influential political faction which has spent the last three years subtly indoctrinating the American public into assuming that all of America’s problems will go away once Trump is out of office. These people are doing far, far more harm than good.

~

All the major power players are perfectly fine with Trump getting reelected; he’s been advancing all their key toxic agendas. Democratic Party leaders are fine with it too; they’ll all keep their jobs, wealth and influence regardless of what happens in November, and they know it.

~

Trump supporters who can’t see that their guy is as much a part of the establishment machine as Pelosi are just as dumb as the pussyhatted #Resistance liberals YASS-QUEENing about Nancy ripping some paper. Just because the Dems look extra dumb right now doesn’t mean you’re smart.

You’ve been had. You were duped by narrative and empty words into supporting a garden variety Republican president. Your anti-establishment sentiments were successfully corralled by propaganda into a standard GOP ideology with some edgy window dressing.

~

The CIA website has a kids section with games where children can “solve puzzles, crack codes, and discover clues like a real CIA officer”.

This is like ISIS starting an ice cream truck business.

~

I said back in September that I won’t be authoring any essays about the stupid impeachment side-show because it’s boring and irrelevant, and I never did the entire time, even on days when it was the only thing in the news. I am awesome.

~

Everyone with a brain knew Russiagate and Ukrainegate would fizzle, including leading Democrats. They only pushed them to distract from their own failures and scandals in 2016, and to avoid making any meaningful changes to their party or its policies. Trump supporters who claim it was a major Deep State coup attempt are premising that belief on the idea that the Deep State was capable of orchestrating a massive domestic regime change operation but was incapable of counting Senate seats. There was never any real establishment threat to Trump, because Trump is fully aligned with the establishment.

~

When it comes to Julian Assange, if you zoom out from the noise of propaganda, the question that is very clearly being asked here is this: Should publishers and journalists be jailed for exposing war crimes? Our answer to that question will shape our world for decades to come.

This is the actual thing we’re pushing against. Every partisan angle that people come up with is just trying to avoid tackling the central question that Assange’s case hinges on. Try to keep the debate focused on this one question. Keep hammering it home. Liberals will tell you it’s about Russia Russia Putin Putin, Trump supporters will babble some gibberish about it having something to do with fighting the Deep State, but the real issue is and always has been about whether we should punish journalists and publishers for exposing war crimes

~

Superhero comic writers often envisioned variations on an evil nerd inventing some powerful technology and trying to use it to take over the world. Their work turns out to have been prophetic, except the technology is more boring, and there are no superheroes to stop them.

~

As far as the empire is concerned Palestinians have no more rights than whales dying from Navy sonar tests or wildlife in a prime military base location. Israel is a nuclear-armed imperial military outpost, and Palestinians, as far as the empire is concerned, are just in the way.

~

A nation which requires endless violence to maintain is not a real nation, anymore than a house which requires nonstop, round-the-clock construction work is a real house. If your house needed 24/7/365 construction work to prevent it from collapsing, you’d either move or come up with a radically different design plan.

~

Those pushing the continuation of wars, military expansionism, oligarchic corruption, exploitative neoliberalism, police militarization and Orwellian surveillance are the ones to oppose. Those pushing the opposite way are the ones to support. This perspective should be common sense and obvious to everyone, but it’s been twisted by propaganda into a “fringe” opinion. This is the primary obstacle to sanity right now.

_________________________

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96 responses to “Big Buttigieg Bloviations: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. A Jewish Warrior for peace Avatar
    A Jewish Warrior for peace

    Stop blamiing zionism for everything. Imperialism Is a national exeptionalism problem. Allies AND vasals have no say
    If you try to blame tiny Israel for the Worlds problems; then you are lunatic or nazi?

    1. A Jewish Warrior for peace Avatar
      A Jewish Warrior for peace

      This comment was for the anti Israel guy cutthecord, not for Caitlin

  2. Arnett Avatar
    Arnett

    You can’t spell “eleCtioN riggiNg” without CNN.

  3. cutthecord Avatar
    cutthecord

    caitlin, you have a way with the words but that doesn’t mean you found the holy grail. what you never write about tells more about what you are all about than what you repeatedly write about. of course you are NOT focused on the complete silence on zionism, Bernie’s and everyone else’s, but you’ve been couching your writings in anti-imperialism and anti-war, and zionism is the driving force behind both US imperialism and wars, at the moment. i’ve said more than enough, so i’m done. bye.

  4. cutthecord Avatar
    cutthecord

    caitlin, you have a way with the words but that doesn’t mean you found the holy grail. what you never write about tells more about what you are all about than what you repeatedly write about. of course you are NOT focused on the complete silence on zionism, Bernie’s and everyone else’s, but you’ve been couching your writings in anti-imperialism and anti-war, and zionism is the driving force behind both. i’ve said more than enough, so i’m done. bye.

  5. Piero Colombo Avatar
    Piero Colombo

    “The UK media’s shrieking, deceitful smear campaign against Corbyn last year far exceeds anything we’ve seen against Sanders so far in terms of intensity and egregiousness. I point this out to highlight the fact that there’s still plenty of room for it to get a whole lot worse.”

    Another conclusion is far more compatible with the known facts, viz. the Owners know perfectly well that Sanders does not intend to contest the presidency. Therefore they are more indulgent with him.

    Sanders is the latest avatar of the usual sheepdog in charge of calling the disgruntled vote back to Mama.
    In March 2015, he declared that this was his job, that all the vote he’d gather would be thrown to the Owners’ Anointee, and he did just that!
    He was presented with the head of Harpy Hillary on a silver platter, with noodles around, by Wikileaks. And he refused to bite! And he campaigned for the Harpy. If that is not final, irrefutable proof that his job is just sheepdogging, I don’t know what else you want.

    To those who say it’s different this time, 1. he already gave the same pledge, ie bringing all the vote to the official anointee, 2. why should it be any different this time anyway? 3. look at BS’ behavior with Iowa.

    1. Realist Avatar
      Realist

      Seems rather pointless for a man who will turn 80 years of age later this year to campaign as hard as he has only to in effect act as the Judas Goat you say he is. If that were his intended role why wouldn’t he have simply anointed a successor to his cause, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, or some other young enthusiastic partisan member of the “Squad” with no chance of being elected if his purpose is to simply capture souls for the Democratic Party? If the nomination is stolen from him this time (using dirty tricks like the Shadow app fiasco), I say there is no way he supports the putative “winner.” Moreover, if such happens, the Dems can kiss the election off to Bad Orange Man as none of Bernie’s voters would support the thieves. At least Trump would be a known quantity. Who knows what treachery bald-faced thieves would bring to the job?

    2. Arnett Avatar
      Arnett

      yep, the trolls are getting desperate in their constant smears of Bernie.
      Its a sign we are winning!

  6. People Power Avatar
    People Power

    Multiple polls show Sanders well ahead in NH.
    I sense a gathering avalanche, as Sanders will now be 2 for 2 overcoming easily all the crap being thrown at him.
    And Sanders is the candidate that easily beats Trump. Would have beaten Trump in 16 if the Dems hadn’t rigged the whole thing to the worst candidate ever. And Bernie is stronger now while most of the country is sick and disgusted by Trump.
    I predict even heavier troll activity under bridges and on the internets. But it won’t matter. Its starting to look like a landslide for People Power!
    A landslide that will knock Humpty Trumpy off his wall
    Humpty Trumpy will take a great fall.
    and all the Oligarch’s horses and all of the Oligarch’s men
    will never put the orange monstrosity together again.
    🙂

  7. Bernard Avatar
    Bernard

    Stopping Bernie is all that matters!. what they did to Corbyn wont be in the same Universe for what will be done to Bernie. All that Money!!! Pharma, Aetna, JP Morgan, Black Rock, et al, Bernie threatens their gravy train.
    follow the Money, for sure!

    Americans have been gaslighted for so so long. the Republicans killed the New Deal. Sanders is the new FDR, so to speak.
    to remember that they shot 4 unarmed students at Kent St. who dared disagree with Rules. now they shoot down anyone or anything that dares question their rule. Been a mass of killing people from then on to now, i suppose to keep the status quo, just the way it is, and has been. Bernie dares question the status quo. I always think of the jingle in the commercial ad for the breakfast cereal “Trix,” with the line, “Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids.” Silly Bernie, Power aint for you !! lol

    the Fairness Doctrine was killed by St. Reagan. Since then, not so much about Truth, or Justice or Equality. Dreams die hard. America does too.

    1. People Power Avatar
      People Power

      If you believe you are defeated, then you are defeated.
      The number one thing that the oligarchs want you to believe is that you cannot win. They spend billions pumping that message at you constantly.
      But, remember that when America was founded, people knew that governments only govern with the consent of the governed. Those words were written by the people who taught the King ruling an imperial worldwide empire that he could not govern without the consent of the people. As Ghandi reminded us, all such kings and tyrants fall. Always. Everytime. Usually it occurs because they forget that they need the consent of the governed.

      1. Realist Avatar
        Realist

        ] I know, TPTB in the Democratic Party constantly telegraph to the public that they must bring Bernie down because he is guaranteed to be a sure loser against Trump… so they will destroy him in the primaries for the reasons and in the manner you and Bernard said. In his place they will insert one of their center-right warmongers like Mayor Buttmunch, Senator Clobberchar or VP Feelgood. Then that person, if elected, can continue carrying out the same policies this country has “enjoyed” under Bad Orange Man, Obomber, Dubya, Slick Willie, Bushdaddy and the Gipper. They will “save” us from collapsing under the communism we once “endured” under FDR, Ike, JFK, LBJ and even Tricky Dick known as the New Deal.

        ] Bit of a reality check: with the Congress we are faced with in both Houses and a Supreme Court stacked with corporatists, it would be a miracle to drag this country a tenth of the way back toward the liberalism still experienced under Jimmy Carter. The reason to vote for Sanders and to get him into office if at all possible will be to expose how badly the working and middle classes have been abused by the insider elites since the 1970’s even if Bernie faces gridlock every day of his administration. With the people’s eyes opened to the abuse purposefully imposed upon them from above perhaps they will start voting out not only corporatist presidents but also all the senators, congressmen, governors and state legislators who have sold out their rights and wellbeing to aristocrats. Bernie’s election will not be an end in itself but only the beginning of a long arduous process of wresting back our representative government from the clutches of the greedy, warmongering, lying, cheating andstealing filthy rich. Like Moses, neither Bernie nor his contemporaries (including my aged self) will ever live to see the promised land. We can only wish good luck on this mission to our protege’s and their future generations. Only if they succeed will America be made “great” again.

  8. Will Tribe Avatar
    Will Tribe

    I think Buttigieg might just be a really bad App.

  9. Khatiks Avatar
    Khatiks

    Caitlin, how utterly depressing. No wonder so many people check out and do not vote.

  10. James Avatar
    James

    I think that a good start would be to take Caitlin’s last paragraph as one of the founding documents of a new party and corresponding media presence. Many, many people feel this way. This is not a revolution per se in the way that most people think of such things. It is the proposal of a new and better way and a call for a mass grouping of those that feel that way in order to select real representatives in an environment that currently excludes and forgets them.

    There is a massive group already out there that do not vote for either party for obvious reasons.
    That’s the group to focus on. Whether this will ever be able to change anything in this system or not is definitely the question, but focusing on trying with a desire for authentic response is worth doing.

  11. Realist Avatar
    Realist

    Mayor Butthead has big shoes to fill if he is elected to replace Bad Orange Man and become the next Chauncey Gardener to lead the United States of Confusion. So, it’s no wonder he is polishing his ability to extrude meaningless pap couched in the argot of quasi-profundity. Caitlin illustrates this perfectly with the opening quote about the “togetherness of our unity…” she attributes to His Hilarity. Golly gee, it will be an interesting four years picking this imbecile apart should he luck into the job of American prez. At least there would be a continuity of talent within the braintrust running this idiocracy.

  12. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    Iraqi military intelligence has found that almost certainly the rocket attack on a United States base in December which killed an American contractor was carried out by the Islamic State terror group – not an Iranian-backed Shia militia, contrary to what Washington,D.C. has been claiming. Please read this article here:
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/02/09/trumps-brink-of-war-with-iran-spun-on-a-lie/

  13. Tired and inactive revolutionary Avatar
    Tired and inactive revolutionary

    Irrespective of what constitution, system of government, institutions, financial and economic models and international treaties we have in place, society will continue to reproduce all the social ills and problems of the past until psychopaths are effectively eliminated. The name Yeshua indicates “Liberator” in Hebrew and Roman historians called Yeshua’s followers “dangerous.” On face value Yeshua’s revolutionary strategy and tactics seem ridiculous, impractical and wrong and so they say my interpretation and understanding of Yeshua and his strategy is wrong and that I am ridiculous. On the contrary, His revolutionary strategy and tactics are so brilliant, exceptional and powerful that this is way above the mental abilities even for highly intelligent and well-educated people who fail to grasp what Yeshua meant when training His Ambassadors for revolutionary action.

  14. Tired and inactive revolutionary Avatar
    Tired and inactive revolutionary

    Caitlin is right: “Those pushing military expansionism, oligarchic corruption, exploitative neoliberalism and Orwellian surveillance are the ones to oppose.” But I don’t know of any journalists who provide a strategy and set of tactics which will start a successful revolution.

    1. People Power Avatar
      People Power

      Nobody ever begins a revolution with a set of strategy and tactics that guarantee success. Instead, every successful revolution has made it up as they go along. If you wait for the perfect plan, then you never succeed. But we know from history that revolutions do succeed without such a perfect plan.
      ————-
      Revolutions always happen when the people have simply had enough. When that occurs, suddenly everything changes. And nobody ever sees it coming. The rulers never see it coming. Their police and spies never see it coming. The people who think they are the vanguards of the coming revolution are always surprised when it erupts. Nobody ever has a plan. Revolutions are a chaotic exercise, pretty much by definition. A revolution works on the principle of “Just Do It!”

  15. dale hood Avatar
    dale hood

    He’d better stay away fro light planes.

    RIP Paul Wellstone

    1. People Power Avatar
      People Power

      Listen to a Paul Wellstone speech and you’ll understand what a true progressive really is. And also, you’ll never be able to hear a Hillary or an Obama call themselves a progressive without breaking out in riotous laughter.

  16. Charles Andrew Robinson Avatar
    Charles Andrew Robinson

    All it takes to be a leader is someone dumb enough to follow.In this exchange a lot of people will get on one side or the other. Like in comedy and science fiction there has to be some truth for it to work. But what has taken over this country is Plutocracy and voting isn’t going to fix it. The coup happened a long time ago. People now are just getting more emotionally, fanatically identified to their political football team. The same bullshit is going on now as was during the Vietnam days. For his fans Maher’s opinions are respected and believed, but he had a hard time holding ground with Bannon. I think Bannon made some good points, but at time they were both making the same point pointing at the other. and no, I do not think Trump or the Democrats – save Tulsi Gabbard – are good for this country at all. Same old, same old, game whether a Republican or Democrat is POTUS or controlling the House or senate. The Democrats green lighted all of Trumps financial requests. And Democrats and Republicans in unison stood and roared for Guaido, the unelected, CIA desired to be selected, President for Venezuela.Kabuki theater and the wealthy are fat and happy about it and sit back a laugh at the masses.

    1. Levi Tate Avatar
      Levi Tate

      I never watch either of them, but I was tempted by someone’s recommendation and watched this video yesterday. Bannon made a point that sticks with me; roughly, if Bernie is elected he will get the same treatment from the regime-changers, the same forces, the same people as Trump has been attacked with.
      .
      Ask yourself, which candidates wouldn’t get the treatment. Tulsi Gabbard certainly would and Buttigieg absolutely would not, nor Biden…

    2. People Power Avatar
      People Power

      Wow, so AT&T’s talking sock puppet and the person trying to restore full scale fascism to world power agree. I’m so shocked!

  17. Ishkabibble Avatar
    Ishkabibble

    Caitlin and Tim, you assume that because The People of the US have elected warmongers time after time after time, that they must not know the truth about something or someone; they’re just not well-informed enough. Otherwise, why continue writing?
     
    IMO your belief matches that of those who believe that Trump is Putin’s puppet and that Putin meddled so much in US voters’ minds that that is the one and only reason why Trump is sitting in the Oval Orifice. Both sets of believers are IMO incapable of facing pretty harsh reality — part of which is that people kill for money, whether by pulling a trigger or providing the ammunition or placing a mark on a ballot. And that, when push comes to shove, people will do just about anything to survive or even to just keep their job.
     
    There was no internet in the late 1920s, all of the 1930s and early 1940s Germany — in other words, during the post-WW1 march-up to WW2. Ordinary Germans (and Brits and the French and the Russians, as well) sometimes had literally no alternative sources of information to that of the (their) government(s).
     
    In 1946 a German could IMO reasonably argue that he/she “didn’t know” what his/her government was doing to the world during the war. No such case can be made by those who have been living in the US for the first two decades of the 21st century. IMO, the latter (especially those financially dependent upon the MIC in one way or another) would have had to be either DELIBERATELY blind or willing accomplices to NOT realize what the US had been doing to the rest of the world for that period of time. (And that is but the tip of the iceberg of pre-2000, post-1890 US aggression around the world.) Maybe children could support this “didn’t know” claim, but adults, no way.
     
    The REALITY is that the US’s decades-long pattern of behavior PROVES BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT that the vast majority of people in the US FULLY SUPPORT what the US government has been inflicting on the rest of the world. Guilty as charged. Possibly as much as 20% of the adult US population is against their government’s behavior, but that is probably a generous over-estimate, not underestimate.
     
    The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the US populace fears atoning for its blatantly obvious mortal sins so much that it fully supports a perpetually-increasing war budget in order to AVOID punishment by the millions who have been victims of US hegemony. In other words, at this point in US history, the vast majority of the population of the the US believes that the US must CONTINUE its unjustified, world-wide killing spree or be subjected to probably very harsh, Versailles-Treaty/Nuremberg-trial-like punishment / blow-back. The voters know that the US collectively saying “we’re sorry” to those it has tormented or destroyed definitely ain’t going to cut it. They know this because if the roles were reversed, they themselves would never accept such an apology.
     
    Caitlin and Tim, in a recent article your rightly stated that ”War is the glue that holds the empire together. A politician can get away with opposing some aspects of the status quo when it comes to healthcare or education, but war as a strategy for maintaining global dominance is strictly off limits.”
     
    Just exactly WHY is this the case, Caitlin and Tim? It is because Job 1 of the Elite-owned MSM is to keep the present fatally-flawed Matrix exactly as it is – one which ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES a perpetually expanding human population AND a perpetually expanding MIC. That job includes destroying candidates who stand for office against the US’s 70+ year-old tradition of using military force to threaten and, when necessary, outright destroy nations that resist US diktat, under the lie of spreading freedom and democracy.
     
    This is the reason that Trump got what he got from the MSM after committing the Mortal Sin of shaking hands and making nice with Mr. Putin in Helsinki, because that mere handshake threatened to end the US Elite’s perpetual war for USD hegemony and, thus, the justification for the MIC whose end would literally mean the end of the US economy as it is presently “designed”.
     
    Once again with feeling, no antiwar candidates are ever going to be elected by US voters. That is NEVER, repeat NEVER, repeat NEVER going to happen UNLESS those candidates spell out in great detail a plan in which the present DoD contract system is MAINTAINED, but the contracts from here to eternity will be for the production of bullet trains instead of bullets; a Liberty-Ship-like production system for building wind turbines, solar panels, vanadium-flow storage batteries, etc. and to rebuild vital infrastructure.
     
    CNN, etc. are never in a million years going to allow a candidate to elucidate such a plan during their carefully stage-managed “debates”, so what are these candidates to do? They should use their precious, fleeting, on-air time to accuse the script-writers and CNN of doing exactly what they are doing – restricting discussion — and to direct the millions of viewers to their YouTube videos, or their own web sites, in order to find out exactly what their “new plan for America” is “because the Elite that control what you are seeing tonight are not going to allow me to state what this new plan for America is during this phony debate. What I have to say takes some time. You’ll have to go somewhere else to find out what my detailed plan is. I think you’re going to love it. It’s the only way out of our war-addicted economy.”

  18. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    It has always been the ” damn commies ” for generations!
    What makes this so sickening is not that these memorials are untrue, but rather that it is these same MSM-Hollywood forces that are the heirs to the fascist McCarthyite machine which Kirk Douglass and his close network of collaborators fought so courageously against during their lives.
    Hollywood and the Central Intelligence Agency Today
    Please read this great article here:
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/02/09/leftist-neo-mccarthyite-witchhunters-hypocritically-mourn-the-death-of-kirk-douglas/

  19. Levi Tate Avatar
    Levi Tate

    Please excuse the off topic post, I expect that you will understand after you read the linked article.
    .
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/german-tv-exposes-lies-entrapped-julian-assange
    .
    “One of the main German TV channels (ZDF) ran two prime-time segments on Wednesday night exposing authorities in Sweden for having “made up” the story about Julian Assange being a rapist.”
    .
    “Melzer ended his op-ed with this somber warning:
    .
    “… This is not only about protecting Assange, but about preventing a precedent likely to seal the fate of Western democracy. For once telling the truth has become a crime, while the powerful enjoy impunity, it will be too late to correct the course. We will have surrendered our voice to censorship and our fate to unrestrained tyranny.”
    “

  20. Ishkabibble Avatar
    Ishkabibble

    Occasionally, someone important in the MSM gets it right. Tucker Carlson and Jimmy Dore team up to do a short, IMO enjoyable expose on AmeriKKKan “democracy” which proves that point:

    1. Levi Tate Avatar
      Levi Tate

      Gee that was a good video!

      Thanks!

  21. Edward Avatar
    Edward

    Buttigieg is living evidence of how far B.S. will take you in American politics. He is like a padded resume manifested as a person.

  22. Levi Tate Avatar
    Levi Tate

    Here are two Grayzone articles for your consideration:
    .
    https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/30/coup-plotters-cia-agents-mayor-pete-endorsers/
    .
    “Some observers have raised questions about Pete Buttigieg’s intimate relationship with the national security state, after it was revealed that his campaign had paid nearly $600,000 for “security” to a Blackwater-style military contractor.
    .
    Buttigieg’s new roster of endorsements from former high-ranking CIA officials, regime-change architects, and global financiers should raise more questions about the real forces propelling his campaign.
    ”
    .
    https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/17/national-security-mandarins-groomed-pete-buttigieg/
    .
    “Pledging to “end endless wars,” Pete Buttigieg claims he has “never been part of the Washington establishment.” But years before he was known as Mayor Pete, an influential DC network of military interventionists placed him on an inside track to power.”

  23. Levi Tate Avatar
    Levi Tate

    I usually agree with Caitlin but she gets the gong on this one:
    .
    “Everyone with a brain knew Russiagate and Ukrainegate would fizzle, including leading Democrats. They only pushed them to distract from their own failures and scandals in 2016, and to avoid making any meaningful changes to their party or its policies. Trump supporters who claim it was a major Deep State coup attempt are premising that belief on the idea that the Deep State was capable of orchestrating a massive domestic regime change operation but was incapable of counting Senate seats. There was never any real establishment threat to Trump, because Trump is fully aligned with the establishment.”
    .

    1. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      Trump is just a lightning rod for the “establishment” to use as an example against anyone else who dares to step off the line.

      1. cutthecord Avatar
        cutthecord

        remember all the political assassinations in the 60s…

  24. Beavis Avatar
    Beavis

    I can’t see MayorCheat’s name without thinking of the old tv show …. Beavis and Butthead.

    But of course, I’d be hung by the neck until half dead, then drawn and quartered and my head chopped off and mounted on a pike outside the Holy Temple of Identity Politics were I to say such a thing out loud.

  25. Brockland Avatar
    Brockland

    Buttiegieg is a Rhodes Scholar Globalist; no way can he be entrusted with the Presidency.

    The Democrats screwed over Bernie (again?) for this? Sure they’re incompetent – morally incompetent. The rest is business as usual.

  26. John McClain Avatar
    John McClain

    Dear Caitlin,
    You make three, clear and cogent points here. First, the simple fact the DNC has nothing to lose, everything to gain, by marginalizing the lead candidate, knowing none can beat Trump. That is the status of both parties, neither cares who is elected, they will definitively run by the State.
    Second, the issue of Julian Assange has been exposed now, to be entirely concocted, it is nothing more, nor less than our “right to speak, hold an opinion, and supervise the operations of government, constitutionally “under our thumb”, but barely within our grasp, for lack of attention, and pro-active action. If we lose Julian, the whole world has lost “the Press”, while “the U.S.” exists.
    Thirdly, the issue of the Palestinians has been made moot, by the pretense, “they aren’t really people, it’s not really “Palestine”, they didn’t stay and defend their homes” never mind any figments of the truth, we have a whole new truth, and it is the true truth.
    These three issues, define the problems of the U.S. maintaining its hegemony, and continuing to control the world narrative, and trade. What isn’t so obvious, is the fact, the U.S. government has manipulated our money so long, so thoroughly, so deeply, we will shortly be at a tipping point, we won’t ever return from, and only ending our debt spending, can have the least chance of preventing this.
    Much is made about the hundreds of bases of U.S. occupation around the world, but I watched as the French, British, and other “last colonies” threw off their empires, respectively, and in that, the Brits and French became U.S. acolytes. There is no replacement for the U.S., when we run out of “cash flow”, suddenly we won’t have “capital” with which to consolidate our forces, bring them home, and they will be left where they sit, according to their “capital value” to an empire which must choose which assets it can afford to retain, and must cut ties to all the rest. We will lose enormous quantities of unaccountable capital, because we haven’t been a “capitalist understanding society” in my lifetime, as a majority.
    I saw this coming fifty years ago, as a child, returning from four years spent living in Spain and Italy, and seeing the U.S. exactly as it was in 62, not “the republic”, a social democracy, working hard to become a full fledged socialist construct.
    At the same time, it was obvious, the elite, banking, corporate management, specifically “the Congressional military industrial complex, coupled with the Pharmaceutical industry, and the welfare industry” were well established in taking control of the taxing authority.
    I’ve capitalized my life ever since, raised a family, got old, and see the slight chance of “living well, despite our collapse”, for the last few years of my life. I say “slight chance”, because the major lever that will be used in the end, will be availability of food, and its transportation, its ability to be distributed.
    I’ve seen great care taken to ensure that too, will collapse, when our ability to bring home our forces is gone. There is no post apocalyptic plan for America, we are to be left to our own, pitiful devices, when the “Davos crowd” finds here, untenable.
    Semper Fidelis,
    John McClain
    Vanceboro, NC, USA

    1. Beavis Avatar
      Beavis

      Actually, its just the opposite. This is the year that every lead Democrat easily beats Trump, which is why so much energy and money is going into the Dem nomination. That is the fight to be the next president.
      1) Trump barely won last time.
      2) Trump was running against one of the most hated politicians in history.
      3) Many exit polls said a large number of votes last time were not cast for a particular candidate but against the opponent. In other words, many of Trump’s votes were a vote against Hillary. Hillary won’t be on the ballot this year, despite the constant dreams of the Trumpers.
      4) Trump’s polling popularity has dropped about 15% since that election win. He’s had about a 6% drop from 48% to 42%. That’s a shift from a narrow win to a landslide defeat.
      5) The elections of 2018 and 2019, which Trump wants to forget and pretend they didn’t happen, show previously Republican strongholds in the suburbs swinging to vote Democrat. That’s how the Dems won the House.
      6) With all of that, Trump barely snuck by in 16, and won only by pulling some close upsets in previously Dem midwestern states.
      The biggest lie that the Trump Thugs want people to believe is that he is popular. Yes, he has his deranged 20%, and they show up at his fascist rallies and torchlight parades. And yes, the other diehard Republicans will vote Trump instead of a Dem. But, 40% of the vote does not win you an election, no matter how loud and obnoxious they are.
      PS… Notice that Trump is campaigning in NC which should be a Trump stronghold. That’s a sign of weakness, that he has to be holding rallies in places he should win easily if he’s going to be re-elected. If Trump is worried about places like NC, then he’s in trouble.

  27. May Hem Avatar
    May Hem

    Sanders will not be the next US president ….. https://michael-hudson.com/2020/02/on-bernies-chances/

    1. Beavis Avatar
      Beavis

      That does seem to be the message that is being broadcasted loudly on all channels at this time. They want all the Bernie supporters to give up and go home and be quiet.
      But we will not!

    2. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      sanders or not, there will be no change. that’s the message.

  28. Chico Avatar
    Chico

    Isn’t the stupid election side-show pretty much the same as the stupid impeachment side-show? Both are fake, pathetic, divisive, and don’t change a thing. I’m thinking you shouldn’t write about either one. OPCW scam, Soleimani murder, Assange injustice, controlled media, fake economy, weaponized diseases, destruction of free speech, rigged markets, the orchestration of war — these are all far bigger crimes. Of course, the ruling sociopaths are getting away with all these crimes anyway, so writing about them seems ineffective. Look how many people wrote about the JFK assassination, and yet the American public doesn’t even care about that enormous crime. The ruling sociopaths have a decisive advantage — they actually take clandestine action. They bribe, they deceive, they manipulate, they censor, and they murder. How can words overpower action? Contrary to what we’ve been led to believe, the pen is not mightier than the sword. While we spend our time writing, the ruling sociopaths spend their time conspiring and then implementing their plans. And all we do is talk about what they are doing. This isn’t a viable solution.

    1. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
      Caitlin Johnstone

      The election doesn’t interest me. The manipulation of that election, and what people do about it, interests me.

      1. Philo Beddoh Avatar
        Philo Beddoh

        You ARE truly AWSOME. Whatever will we your readers do, once Bernie’s out doing town halls and packed rallies for Pete, Amy, Ivanka & Chelsea. Trump was an absolute godsend, for our 9.9% Creative Class™ to project their hate & Fears upon… blaming their po’ ass indentured victims’ deaths o’ disparity, piss-po’ impulse control, specious gullibility & fantasy delusions gavaged us from pulpit, 72″ 5K TV or phone? Opioids iz de religun o’de working class & once DNC’s, now fabulously wealthy, superdelegates re install Trump I’m guessing they’ve plans for us, now that our homes, equity, jobs, kids & indebiture are illiquid?

  29. Robyn Avatar
    Robyn

    Anyone interested in knowing the people and the money behind the Shadow App which (so they say) was behind the Iowa caucus shitshow should go to

    https://thegrayzone.com/

    where Max Blumenthal has traced the players and the funding. It’s way to complex with too many names and links and sources to summarise here, but it’s essential reading if you want to keep up.

    1. ron campbell Avatar
      ron campbell

      This link is direct.
      https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/04/pro-israel-buttigieg-seth-klarman-iowas-voting-app/

  30. phil de Avatar
    phil de

    It’s irrelevant which candidate wins the primaries and goes onto win the presidential election.. anyone who attempts to rock the boat, therefore threatening the status quo.. will soon stop a bullet.

  31. Jim Avatar
    Jim

    Good article. Do you have an opinion about Tulsi Gabbard? She is being shut out but seems like a good candidate.

  32. Ludwig Watzal Avatar
    Ludwig Watzal

    Pete Buttigieg is a fictitious character created by big money to stop Bernie Sanders. The rigged Iowa caucus has served him. If the Democratic establishment can also manipulate the New Hampshire primary in favor of ob Buttigieg, at least Joe Biden will be done. What Sanders is concerned, it will take a few more primaries till they stop him. The corrupt DNC will never accept a Sanders nomination. If bad comes to worse, the DNC still has an ace in the hole: Michael Bloomberg. The New York City billionaire has already bribed the DNC with hundreds of thousand US-Dollars. If the DNC dares to push him through without having run in no primary, the Democratic Party Convention will be an exciting circus to watch. The whole selection process demonstrates to the world the moral and political rot of not only the Democratic Party establishment but also the American political system. The American people are not needed to select a candidate because the crooked fat cats already decide it within the party. Caitlin Johnstone has accumulated many arguments about why this American system goes in the crapper.

    1. Donna C Ross Avatar
      Donna C Ross

      In addition, a close associate of Bloomberg has a significant position in the DNC!!

      1. Victor G. Avatar
        Victor G.

        Nothing says “Democrat” like a billionaire ex-Republican!

    2. JWK Avatar
      JWK

      It’s not just the American system, it’s all government everywhere. Just so happens that the American system in particular is in the process of self destruction at the moment. There isn’t a single candidate of either party that isn’t directly opposed to the interests of the individual, unless they are a member of the US Sociopaths In Charge. They may have stepped on their tongue by assaulting Bernie, as his proponents are a significant number of radical supporters that won’t sit quietly as their hero is raped. We can govern ourselves, or be governed by monsters. The monsters are on full display.

      1. Newton Finn Avatar
        Newton Finn

        Let’s go a step further. If “government everywhere” is the problem, and it seems to be, then what is the problem behind THAT problem. Allow me to voice the unpopular position that neoliberalism has seeped inside virtually all of us, poisoning us with its relentless and reductionist economic calculus, and thereby caused a death (perhaps, I pray, only a near-death) of the human spirit itself.

  33. elkojohn Avatar
    elkojohn

    the George McGovern (1972) treatment for Bernie all over again.

    1. Beavis Avatar
      Beavis

      Well, we stopped a war with that one and caused an unusual period of peace in American history. After the McGovern revolt, the oligarchs and the generals were too scared to start another war for nearly 20 years.

  34. cutthecord Avatar
    cutthecord

    “Should publishers and journalists be jailed for exposing war crimes? Our answer to that question will shape our world for decades to come.” have you asked your beloved Bernie this critical question yet, Caitlin?
    “Those pushing the continuation of wars, military expansionism, oligarchic corruption, exploitative neoliberalism, police militarization and Orwellian surveillance are the ones to oppose.” Bernie is one of those, Caitlin. all the candidates are. but you are unquestioningly for him. why????

    1. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
      Caitlin Johnstone

      I’ve made it abundantly clear, many, many times, that I’m not backing any candidate in this election. Pointing out obvious election shenanigans and mass media manipulation isn’t “supporting” anyone. This isn’t about that.
      https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-establishment-doesnt-fear-trump-and-it-doesn-t-fear-bernie-it-fears-you-acb8fcd086b3

      1. cutthecord Avatar
        cutthecord

        everyone knows it’s corrupt. no need to prove it again and again every day. Bernie has a real chance to win power and bring in real change. and this is exactly when / why we the people need to bring our pressure to bear on him regarding his weakest point: zioist foreign policies. isn’t anti-imperialist (=zionist) war the most important issue of this election as well? collective silence on this issue only proves that the bernie collective is zionist=imperialists. a little more domestic socialism is Obomber 2.0.

        1. cutthecord Avatar
          cutthecord

          i’m saying Bernie is at the center of the real corruption. but everyone is pointing out other campaigns’ corruption….

        2. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
          Caitlin Johnstone

          That’s just plain false. Hardly anyone in America knows they’re living in a fake democracy with rigged elections, in a nation unlike anything they were taught in school. These elections present an opportunity to wake up more sections of the mainstream to what’s really going on, which is all that really matters.
          https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/07/03/remember-the-goal-is-always-to-make-dissident-ideas-mainstream/

          1. cutthecord Avatar
            cutthecord

            obviously you’re preachign to the choir then, with no effect.

            1. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
              Caitlin Johnstone

              Re-read, think harder, and try again.

    2. JWK Avatar
      JWK

      CUTTHECORD, I recently made this same mistake regarding Caitlin. She isn’t supporting Bernie, she’s using his example to demonstrate the level of corruption in the US political process, and rightly so. This is going to blow up in their face. Bernie supporters won’t take it lying down.

      1. Beavis Avatar
        Beavis

        That’s ok. Cut the Cord is always against everything. If Cut the Cord is complaining, we must be winning.

        1. cutthecord Avatar
          cutthecord

          i am against everything of this zionist-dominated system. you zionists don’t. let’s agree on that point.

  35. billbowman53 Avatar
    billbowman53

    Afraid I have to disagree with Ms. Johnstone and some people here about “Bernie’s most important job is being a very reasonable thing…” Whether or not one’s heart is in the right place, which is unfortunately for many here not what the conversation is about, coercive government never solves anything. What it claims to have solved, the free market could and can always do it efficiently and in real terms.
    As right as Ms. Johnstone’s analysis is all of the time, her idea of solutions require some deliberation. Yours might too.
    Said with love and peace, and from the heart.

    1. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      name one example where imperialist wars and capitalist exploitation were solved by free market.

      1. billbowman53 Avatar
        billbowman53

        ? Imperialist wars? You mean government wars? Capitalist exploitation? If everyone is acting with free will, nobody is being exploited. (And, by the way, before calling it “capitalist exploitation,” note the role of government in helping to create the (crony) capitalist entities.) When government regulates and coerces, free will is diminished. Thus the problem is government. Always. Know it now.

    2. foster goodwill Avatar
      foster goodwill

      I like her work but I would never go so far as to say her analysis is always right.

    3. pretzelattack Avatar
      pretzelattack

      yeah like the free market solved the banking crisis. banks in trouble “help! please save us”
      corporation owned govt “ok”

      1. JWK Avatar
        JWK

        This goes for CUTTHECORD too. Since free markets were largely ended back in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve in collusion with other members of the international banking cartel, and the subsequent escalation of the number and size of wars, and amplification of banking “crisis”. it’s obvious free markets are better at minimizing both. Central planning is the bugaboo.

        1. Beavis Avatar
          Beavis

          Central planning is a code word for a system where the people have the power and organize to use it. The oligarchs of course prefer a system where there is no central power to hinder the oligarchs ability to rape and rob everyone. The idea of the people coming together to try to control their own economy, or the people putting regulations into place to limit the ability of oligarchs to rape, rob and kill is what gives poor little oligarchs nightmares.

        2. cutthecord Avatar
          cutthecord

          no system is “free” in that someone is in charge. in capitalism, the ever-shrinking club of capitalists necessarily are. socialism-communism want the majority of the people to be.

  36. LSJohn Avatar
    LSJohn

    “Bernie’s most important job is being a very reasonable thing that the people want…”

    Er, lets’s not go overboard. Bernie’s what some significant portion of Democrats want.

    ” the most dangerous synthetic material ever invented in a laboratory for public consumption is Pete Buttigieg.”

    That’s a great line, but he’s dangerous only if the people who want him have better hackers than the people who don’t. At present it appears to me that GOP-types have the edge in that contest.

    Down to brass tacks, I don’t think Buttigieg can win a fair election. Too many African Americans and blue collar Democrats won’t vote to put a First Gentleman in the White House bedroom, IMO.

  37. May Hem Avatar
    May Hem

    Sanders has no chance of becoming president ….. https://michael-hudson.com/2020/02/on-bernies-chances/

    1. foster goodwill Avatar
      foster goodwill

      michael hudson surely has a diffferent but strange attitude to currant dem. politics. Saying they really like trump and his policies.

      1. May Hem Avatar
        May Hem

        hudson points out that trump is likely to be re-elected as he has proven to be another ‘friend of wall street’, so his owners will keep him on as president.

        if you read more of hudson’s work you’ll understand that hudson doesn’t like trump or his (lack of) policies at all.

        1. Beavis Avatar
          Beavis

          The Big Lie is that the most unpopular President in history is a shoo-in to be reelected. If Wall Street is trying to get him re-elected, spreading that exact lie would be their first step.

  38. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    I donated to Tulsi 2020. Second donation, so far I’m up to $12. That’s more than I donated to Trump by $2 I believe

    1. Beavis Avatar
      Beavis

      Now is a good time. Tulsi is trying to make a push in NH. The campaign is pointing out polling, by CNN no less, that says she is just behind Warren. Money and volunteers can be put to good use in the next few days.

      1. dale hood Avatar
        dale hood

        Yes, let’s not give up on Tulsi. Not say “oh well it’s over because of the machine”. No, send her money, which is encouragement If there was $ for billboards everywhere just her beauty would win..

  39. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    “Anyone who claims the left is starting a “class war” is claiming that the billionaire class has not already been waging war on normal people on a multitude of fronts for many years. They’re saying that the exploitation, oppression, manipulation, corruption and poverty is all in your imagination.”

    Right,

    And I would add that abortion has been a tool against poverty-stricken people and I would also add that 9/11 was a huge win for the ruling elites in their class war. (9/11 was indeed an act of class war at a time when anti-globalization protests were everywhere).

    War abroad is usually linked to class war at home. But now we see that the ruling class are focusing more and more on the “home” front because discontent is growing among ordinary people, more so by the fact that ordinary people are seeing that the ruling elites are more and more decadent.

    Days of Noah all over again… The good news is that it means the return of Jesus is very near and I pray the Rosary to hasten His return because I have seen enough bullshit.

  40. robbi Avatar
    robbi

    Awesome News Letter – I love the short paragraphs, very powerful.

  41. Katy Avatar
    Katy

    Absolutely right-on as always!

  42. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    I think I will call him Mr. Buttiguaido from now on!

    1. LSJohn Avatar
      LSJohn

      Two thumbs up!

    2. Lili-Ann Berg Avatar
      Lili-Ann Berg

      someone called him Buttcrack…

      1. Beavis Avatar
        Beavis

        Beavis and ……

  43. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    Sanders is on a roll, with Times polling guru Nate Silver now predicting that he has the greatest probability (currently a 48% chance) of winning the Democratic Party presidential nomination outright on a first ballot. That probability will continue to rise if Sanders’ polling numbers in coming primary states keep rising and if he keeps piling up victories in those coming primaries. Please read this entire article here:
    https://thiscantbehappening.net/thats-it-the-democratic-party-leadership-has-done-the-impossible-disgracing-itself/

    1. foster goodwill Avatar
      foster goodwill

      It is a very good and thorough article.

      1. ron campbell Avatar
        ron campbell

        The motto of the website is: The only news organization in the US to be labeled a threat by the Department of Homeland Security

        1. dale hood Avatar
          dale hood

          He’s gotta stay away from light planes for sure

          RIP Paul Wellstone

          1. dale hood Avatar
            dale hood

            oops. This got put in the wrong order

    2. Victor G. Avatar
      Victor G.

      Let’s say B.S. Gets as far as the nomination and then some … Anybody wanna bet on a second heart attack at just the right moment?

      1. ron campbell Avatar
        ron campbell

        It may not be a ” heart attack ” but ” they ” will surely do something to him.

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