I have a bedtime story for you.
Once upon a time a brave nation liberated itself from the tyranny of the British empire and birthed freedom and democracy into the world. With the help of heroes like the abolitionists, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X it overcame systemic racial inequality, and now it is a shining exemplar of human rights, the respected friend of free democracies around the world and the hated foe of all tyrannical regimes. It is not without its faults and its past mistakes, but it is the best leader and protector of the liberal world order that we could possibly hope to have.
I also have a waking up story for you.
Once upon a time a nation rose to prominence after emerging unscathed from two world wars which damaged the infrastructure of its competitors. The world’s major power players quickly coalesced around this new superpower and began maneuvering other nations into a tight empire-like alliance with it. After a long and gruelling cold war, this empire succeeded in toppling the world’s only other superpower and began working to absorb all other nations into alliance with it. If nations resisted, they were subverted, sabotaged and attacked until they either collapsed or allowed themselves to be absorbed into the imperial blob.
World-spanning power structures are now centralized around this nation, which is home to the largest population of billionaires on the planet and the mightiest military force in the history of civilization. An unfathomable amount of power revolves around this nation, so mechanisms have been put in place to ensure the stability of its status quo. These mechanisms include the most sophisticated system of propaganda ever devised, an Orwellian network of domestic espionage, increasing internet censorship, and, above all, a highly militarized police force.
The operators of this globe-spanning empire have always been acutely aware that the weakest point in their machine is the possibility that the hundreds of millions of people who live in this nation may one day decide that the imperial status quo is not serving them, and that they do not want to be ruled anymore. They know that the last line of defense against this happening is their ability to use extreme violence upon the population until they stop revolting, so they have no intention of ever giving up this ability. An entire planetary empire depends on it.
Now, if you’d been hearing the bedtime story your whole life but not the waking up story, you would naturally assume that demanding an end to police brutality was the most reasonable thing in the world. You would naturally expect that if a police officer was caught on video deliberately strangling a man to death and then was not immediately arrested and prosecuted for murder, people would be understandably outraged and drastic systemic changes would be swiftly implemented to appease their anger. You would naturally expect the shining city on the hill to side with the people over a police force’s murderous tendencies.
If you’ve heard the waking up story, you would expect no such thing. You would understand that racial disparities never left the nation in question, and that the establishment which still keeps J Edgar Hoover’s name on the FBI building has no intention of doing anything about the police force’s role in it. You would understand that the role of the police is not to protect and serve the people but to protect and serve the empire, in the exact same way that this is the role of the military. You would understand that the empire is no more likely to voluntarily dispense with the violent tactics of its increasingly militarized police force than it is to dispense with its air force or nuclear warheads.
They’ll supply all the empty words and take-a-knee photo ops you like, but actually voluntarily disarming themselves against their subjects is not something they’re planning on doing.
This does not mean that those demanding these changes are being silly or unreasonable; demanding that the police not murder you is the most sane and reasonable thing in the world, per what the police force purports to be and per what America purports to be. It’s just that neither the police force nor America are what they purport to be. The bedtime story and the waking up story could not possibly be more different.
That is what we are witnessing here. We are witnessing the head-on collision between the story America’s political, media and educational institutions tell Americans about what their country is, and the reality of what their country actually is. The disparity between the bedtime story and the waking up story has finally been stretched to a breaking point, and now the mask of free liberal democracy is coming off in front of everyone.
We are watching a population besieged by institutional racism, economic hardship and a pandemic virus finally pushed past the breaking point, and finding themselves crashing headlong into the most unyielding part of a planet-sprawling empire. The stories are slowly clearing from the air like tear gas, and the cold, hard reality is becoming exposed to a greater and greater segment of mainstream America.
And now the leader of this nation is openly threatening martial law and trying to designate black bloc protesters as “terrorists”. Video footage of police brutality is saturating social media faster than people can watch it, First Amendment violations are sweeping from coast to coast as police chiefs, mayors and governors try to see how far they down can squeeze freedom of assembly laws, and mysterious armed men in fatigues who refuse to say who they’re with are patrolling the nation’s capital. Prison riot specialists are being recruited as expert consultants because, in the eyes of the empire, the prisoners are rioting.
We are all watching from around the world as the citizens of the hub of the empire confront their oppressors in an increasingly violent battle of wills. The violence rips apart the thin veneer of narrative that was keeping the bedtime story intact all this time. We all watch as the tattered ribbons slowly fall to the floor.
Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. The empire is losing control of the narrative. In the long run, this can only be a good thing. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and truth is always superior to fiction.
______________________
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104 responses to “We Are Watching The Story Of America Crash Headlong Into The Reality Of America”
I’ll disagree with some of this (especially the part about the virus), but you’re right in the general point that Caitlin can’t quite have it both ways about Trump and the enduring deep state. If the US is so evil and has been for decades (Caitlin is correct here), Trump can’t be entirely bad, especially with his call to delink the US from totalitarian China and scale back the many wars. He hasn’t much succeeded, but he has made a stab at these things.
Meanwhile, the noble “resistance” seems intent on joining hands with the very worst elements of the surveillance/intelligence state.
Let me put it another way.
According to most arguments presented here both in the article and in comments, the USA has no legitimacy due to past acts. Under this argument we all cheer while the US burns and receives commuppence. This peurile and naive and it also ignores a major issue.
For all the accusations of racism thrown around, oppression etc. Can anyone point out to me a nation that has in built protections for it’s citizens? How about in built protections FROM oppressive Government? Any takers? Well it’s the US. Go read the Constitution. Having liberated itself from a king the founding fathers knew the power and authority of state was naturally oppressive. The Constitution gave rights and freedoms with this in mind. NO other nation on this planet has the freedoms and protections of the US people. Those who want the US destroyed are those who oppose individual freedom.
Yes the US has been an instrument of oppression around the world for decades. Hardly a model of individual freedom, more a model of greed and corruption on a multinational industrial scale. In fact the US was the foundation and the enforcer of the predatory globalism we all experienced. Doesn’t this logically mean the previous US administrations and the institutions of state have been party to this?
So.when an outsider won the Presidency in 2016. What happened? All living previous US Presidents regardless of party affiliation came out against him. Even his own party came out against him. The mainstream media cartel was almost 100% against him. The instruments of Government the deep state also against him. Ask yourself why? Try to suppress the BS you’ve been fed by the media.
They came out against him because he is ending their entire corrupt and murderous racket. No more wars, no more fraud, no more profiting off the suffering of others. And no more globalism. You see the elite of the elite had long ago determined the freedoms given the American people were incompatible with their vision of the future. It all makes sense when you see the only country that had thrived in the last 30 years. China is the elites elite utopia. A slave surveillance state where people have zero freedom. That is their model society and the US has to go.
People need to wake up and grab their brains. We are witnessing a cultural and spiritual war being conducted against the US. Those behind this are the enemies of the US and the enemies of individual freedom. For 30+ years they have been infiltrating US institutions and the education system to try and destroy the US from the inside. China is part of this also. They want a global slave surveillance state.
With Trump facing a landslide re-election they are truly desperate.
Do you know what they really hate about Trump? They go out their way to avoid it in the media. They hate him because he blew 30 years of their lies to pieces. The US economy was on track to hit 4% growth before the shutdown. For decades we were fed lies about service economies and days of growth being over. He blew the myth of free trade to pieces because it hasn’t been free trade. In three years marked with one BS fake crisis after another – From Russian collusion to impeachment for nothing , CoronaCrisis and now a fake race war – Trump has blown 30 years of the elites elite lies and fake narratives to pieces. By doing what they said wouldn’t work he had more people working and unemployment at its lowest. Nothing they tried against him worked. Not even the fake pandemic. Guess what-this won’t either.
What we have in 2020 is a coalition of groups, who are hell bent on
Fake pandemic? Visited a hospital or cemetery lately?
Hospitals empty. Funerals not allowed. US death rates down by 6% from last year. Yes, fake.
There is no point trying to talk sensibly with you however I strongly suggest you do some research using credible sources. You might also find it revealing to talk to people in the medical profession (I have two in my family) and discover the effects of Covid19 when the virus really takes hold. It’s not pleasant. The USA, once highly respected is now pitied by many people around the world primarily due to the immorality & ineffectiveness of it’s leader. I hope the situation changes as I can’t wait to get back there.
All nation-states are illegitimate. This is why indigenous history is so important.
I’ll disagree with some of this (especially the part about the virus), but you’re right in the general point that Caitlin can’t quite have it both ways about Trump and the enduring deep state. If the US is so evil and has been for decades (Caitlin is correct here), Trump can’t be entirely bad, especially with his call to delink the US from totalitarian China and scale back the many wars. He hasn’t much succeeded, but he has made a stab at these things.
Meanwhile, the noble “resistance” seems intent on joining hands with the very worst elements of the surveillance/intelligence state.
Holy Shit.
What a great point.
So since no other nation has it is why should anyone dare expect to get it.
Hahaha. Hey can I say GO FUCK YOURSELF ON HERE?
WAKE UP BITCHES.
This is totally unacceptable to live a fucking slaves. Those of us attempting to awaken get pulled out of our peaceful calm narratives as we attempt to shut off the brain and awaken the heart and just lose over dumbass mask wearing assholes that say no one else has freedom what should we expect anything different.
America is the best country. Suck my sweaty balls it is.
Best = Happiest Citizens.
Are Americans the happiest citizens on Earth?
Hahahaha.wake up bitches I say again.
Sorry Caitlin. Go icefloe or nomorefakenews now as they have more hard core readers.
Yayayayayayaya
And what will you deny next year when you here the words “Repeal and replace the constitution” along with “repeal term limits” ? Be careful what you let sneak by you, say hi to Fascist Corporatocracy…at its worst.
Yes, nothing says “down with the imperial status quo” so much as AntiFa thuggery, BLM bullshit, bullshit about white supremacy, vandalism, arson, and the Jewelry, BBQ Chips, and Sneaker Liberation Army.
Yes, Caitlin. You nailed it. Burn the bitch DOWnnnnn!
There is no definition of truth.
How can one’s self define one’s self?
Pilate asked Christ, “What is truth?” and Christ simply looked at him and remained silent.
Truth has no words, no sounds.
Truth is an experience of the extreme depths of the self.
It is total identification with what is.
But humanity has lost all sense of direction.
And this has happened because we have chosen investigation of the physical world over exploration of our own inner being.
Nothing should be more important to each individual than the realization of self.
Our first and fundamental inquiry should be into self knowing.
But unless this happens we are simply digging our own graves.
And that’s what we are doing.
We are digging our own graves.
Previous civilizations were destroyed by external attack.
Ours is threatened by a great internal danger.
If humanity in the twenty first century is annihilated, it will be by mass suicide.
This is what we will have to call it, if there is anyone left to call it anything.
Those who came before us made history, we are preparing to unmake it.
We are in control of infinite material power, but we know nothing of the depths of the human heart.
We know the atomic structure of matter but nothing of the atomic structure of the soul.
We have achieved power, but no peace, no enlightenment.
And this is our great misfortune.
There is great power in the hands of the unenlightened, the oligarch’s death cult.
These are the people who should not be allowed to possess power.
If it is misused, power can wreak great evil.
And that is their great global plan!
A psychopathic mind that is frustrated and disturbed only derives pleasure from torturing others.
An unhappy and discontented mind values nothing more than this kind of perverted pleasure.
They can only give that which they possess.
An unhappy person feels even more unhappy when they see others who are content.
Their only desire is to see that others are as discontent as they are.
This is what has been happening, this is what is happening.
This desire for self-destruction that humanity continues to display is not without cause.
For the real enemy is humanity’s sleeping masses.
The mind!
Humanity’s outward material quest has not brought anything satisfying or substantial, and perhaps this may be the underlying reason behind the desire for the total destruction of the world.
To come face to face with reality and to remain oblivious to it, is to bring any further evolution of life to a standstill.
We are all co-conspirators, fellow-comrades in this march towards planetary suicide.
And even those who talk of peace are ready to destroy each other.
They are even prepared to forfeit their own lives for peace.
And they talk of the great sacrifices they are willing to make to protect the world!
They are also enemies of peace, they are also partners in this inevitable annihilation of the human race.
Do I mean by this that all of humanity has gone mad?
All humanity’s facades have slowly been stripped away and now we stand there, naked and insecure.
We are all in a dilemma.
But at such a crucial point we can either perish or awaken into a new way of life.
It is essential to understand that each individual is a contributor to the ugliness of the world, that each individual is equally responsible for whatever happens in the world, be it violence, anger, hatred or total annihilation by war.
The responsibility for this condition rests on each and every pair of shoulders.
Everyone is responsible.
No matter how unimportant they may be, every individual is responsible for every war, even the most major catastrophe.
The collection of individuals is what constitutes a society.
What else is society?
The individual himself is society.
But everyone is drunk with ambition.
Everyone would like to be something other than they are.
But in this race to become something they forget what they really are.
To be something more than one is, is impossible.
In the process of trying to become what they are not, a person expends great effort, but in the end they accomplishes nothing at all.
Tension, struggle and unhappiness are the results of this attempt to be what one is not.
When an individual remains simply as they truly are, there is no struggle, no conflict.
Such a person is simply being who they are.
They are not in any kind of competition with anyone else.
A world based on ambition can never be non-violent, whether an individuals ambition is for this world or for the other imaginary world.
Wherever there is ambition there is aggression.
Ambition itself is violence.
Ambition is the result of an inferiority complex.
Inside themselves every individual feels weak, ineffectual.
Inside they feel shallow and empty, as if they are nothing.
They feel a kind of non-existence, an emptiness.
And it is this emptiness they are trying to escape.
In reality they are not running towards something, they are all trying to escape from this emptiness.
And because you are also asleep, you fill your life with endless dreams.
This is why all your efforts are so futile.
Your eyes are always closed.
And this futility, this failure, is the cause of all human agony.
But tell me, how can you fill an inner emptiness that is already full?
Someone once asked Albert Einstein,
“What is the most important principle in scientific investigation?”
Do you know what Einstein replied?
Even in his wildest dreams the questioner could never have imagined the reply he was given, Einstein said,
“The absence of egoism.”
No-mind!
Society is much more than the sum-total of its individuals.
It is its individuals, multiplied, it is the expanded effect of our personal interrelations.
You must remember that whatever happens in each individual will be reflected in society in a greatly magnified form.
The cause of all war, the roots of all social degeneration are within the individual human mind.
If we are to change society we have to change the individuals who exist within it.
If there is to be a new base for society we have to offer a new kind of life to the individual.
What we have acquired through our knowledge of matter is nothing compared to what we will gain by knowledge of the self.
There is a world of difference between the interpretation of truth, and an experience of truth.
When you try to interpret truth you stand outside.
When you experience truth you are completely inside it, in total communion with it.
This is why it is impossible for those who have had the experience of truth to define it.
If someone can give you some explanation of truth it is a sign they have never experienced it.
Truth cannot be taught through any word.
Understand well that any truth that can be taught through words is not truth at all.
Truth can be known but it cannot be uttered.
To know truth you have to become wordless, silent empty.
How can something that is known in emptiness be put into words?
A mind that is stuck in prejudice cannot know the truth.
To acquire this knowing, a person must be totally free from bias.
One who simply believes in something possesses not this knowing, and their very belief itself is a kind of slavery.
When a person sets out with preconceived notions, no matter what they are investigating, the result is always sectarianism, never truth.
Parents implant their views and society’s ideas in the minds of their children.
And by constant repetition, through propaganda, programming and education, they become firmly ingrained in the unconscious minds of these youngsters.
This negates any opportunity for free thinking.
This indoctrination of innocent children is one of the greatest crimes against the human race.
The young mind is stuffed with ideas, imprisoned by them.
They are under the illusion that these ideas are their own.
This kind of ideological indoctrination simply allows people to relate to each other within the framework of their own beliefs.
This is tremendously detrimental.
This stands in the way of the development of an individuals free and uninhibited consciousness.
It results in a kind of mental slavery.
Belief is the way of division.
Humanity can be one only when people drop beliefs.
Beliefs in politics, nations, religions, race, self.
Belief is the root cause of all conflict.
Believers cannot allow the world to be one.
Mind cannot allow the world to be one.
Belief is not knowing but a deception.
How can people be natural and honest when they are carrying so many beliefs?
To be natural means to be without any belief.
Children are natural, but you are not natural.
Animals are natural, but you are not natural.
Trees are natural, but you are not natural.
And what has made you unnatural and artificial?
Your weaponized mind.
Your imaginary ego.
Your belief system!
I’ve a mind of my own. I ignore the narrative and do research. I know the truth.
Very interesting and thought provoking.
Caitlin always seems to see issues so clearly.
But there are points I disagree with.
You mention Trump as wanting to declare martial law as if he and that are emblematic of the problem.
But the point which Pat Buchanon has raised is that most of these cities where the citicens are most vocal about police brutality are bastions of democrat strength. So this is not about democratic v republican – if you were hoping for help from either you will be disappointed.
Smashing windows and grabbing stuff is not protesting police brutality.
The violence is inserted into the protest and is (effectively) used to discredit the protestors. I suspect the violent ones don’t realize this – it is the agenda of their organizers. Get free stuff while helping (and burning) your community.
How could a distributed group (such as Antifa or whoever) organize such a happening without the awareness of the surveilance state in this day. Simple – they can’t.
The cops rely on staffing by large, stupid people and I think that people who hate may be best suited to the personality they are looking for – you don’t see them looking for large college educated men and women for patrolling the streets. The police force has a brotherhood kind of theme – very similar to organized crime – this tends to hide improper behavior.
It’s not about race. Race is a useful tool politically. If a white person is being abused by a white cop, he cannot complain that he is being mistreated because of his race. But perhaps he is simply being abused because the policeman can get away with it. I suspect the cops involved in the Floyd incident were performing pretty much as they had been trained – of course they trainer would claim that they never intended that the person would be murdered. In future they should step on the neck gently and check breathing at regular intervals.
The cops involved should sue the crap out of their trainers and managers that allowed and encouraged such behavior – they are taking fall for doing what they were trained to do.
First, I’m not certain as to the validity of the claim, but it was reported that Floyd and Chauvin worked security at the same business about a year ago and that Chauvin, for unknown reasons, to have incentive to murder Floyd, if he assumed that he could get away with it. In this country, police that are even charged with a crime are successfully convicted only 0.28 percent of the time. Most people would love odds of 99.72% in favor of their bet in the Super Bowl, but we can’t get enough people to insist on the end of police brutality and other criminality.
Second, have you not heard of agents provocateur? At a rate of 1 out of every 6 supposed protesters, that have been present, in roughly that percentage, in every protest back to those of the 1960s. They could be police, federal agents, or private individuals who dress and act like the protesters. Their job is to infiltrate, find out the plans and either provoke protesters to violence, or start the violence themselves. The idea is to get the mass that almost never researches anything and, instead, acts on pure emotion, to say, ‘I agree with their goals, but not their behavior,’ so as to turn them against the purpose for the protest. The never realize that when nothing happens as a result of regular protest, those protesting must make people a little uncomfortable and/or put out by doing things such as backing up a highway.
Every Floyd protest started out as peaceful, no matter where they were. But a pattern emerged – at almost the exact same time, nearly every one began to turn violent on the part of the ‘protesters. The coordination was such that it would have been impossible to create among a myriad of peaceful protesters. In several locations around the world, such agents were outed and photographed. One even pulled a gun and pointed it at the protesters, out of an assumed fear for his own well being.
I’m not suggesting that none of the violence by protesters was real. However, once violence starts, it spreads like wild fire, especially when the first violence was either started by hidden agents, or by the police without any provocation whatsoever. We need to realize that the ‘agents’ job was to create a situation that would discredit the protest. Maybe the agents just went a bit too far, or maybe too many police forces, in too many places, initiated the violence on their own,thus enabling the agents to have to do nothing. In Philadelphia, for example, protesters were blocking an area, but doing it peacefully and quietly. The police appeared and started to attack with copious numbers of tear gas canisters. Here’s a really interesting thought. Tear gas is a chemical weapon and, as such, is banned by the Geneva Convention. So, if tear gas is illegal to use in war time, why is it legal to use against a country’s own citizens who are sitting in peaceful protest?
And, you are wrong, In great part, it is about race. Of all the advanced countries in the world, the U.S. has the largest percentage of its populace in prison and 75% of them are black, with most given unreasonably long sentences for minor offenses, or on trump-up charges, where whites would serve no time at all. The majority of whites that even come in contact with the police are people with some mental deficiency. Aggressive police just love to go after people they classify as crazy’ – that’s when when white vs. black doesn’t matter.
You know nothing about police department requirements or training and are just making assumptions. I recommend you do some research.
Most major police departments require applicants to have a certain number of college credits before applying. Some require a minimum of an AA degree. There are exceptions for military service, but that is normally the only exception. The cops in the killing of George Floyd were not performing as they were trained. Police departments outlawed the use of choke holds years ago.
What police officer (much less 4 officers) would intentionally kill a prisoner while being recorded on video unless they knew for a fact they would not be convicted? There is more to this story than we are being told and for you to make ignorant assumptions just fuels the fire.
Old Sailor writes:
“What police officer (much less 4 officers) would intentionally kill a prisoner while being recorded on video unless they knew for a fact they would not be convicted?
.
Yea … I get the point, but that’s only one possible explanation. I think the police just did not perceive the danger that their prisoner was in. They thought the guy had relented. They should have gotten off him. They showed no intent to harm him, however, nor any awareness that they were harming him. I think they maybe expected that an ambulance was coming to place him in full restraints and take him into custody. Anyway, they seem to be calm, and just waiting for another authority to arriver to take the prisoner into custody. The one officer even says to bystanders, “Believe me, if he can talk he’s OK”. They were incompetent and/or poorly trained.
.
Turn your question around. If they had any expectation at all that the guy was going to die, why would they do that when they knew they were being filmed?
Countdown to Annexation. Don’t forget!
And the narrative is that empires rise and empires fall – all for power. History is about the struggle for power. It’s led to two world wars. The US became the dominant hegemon after 1945. It now faces replacement by China. But can it be done without another world war? History suggests not.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
The Police State has been years in the making, going back at least to the creation of the CIA and later the assassination of JFK.
When Obama abolished Posse Comitatus (the Law that kept most military from policing domestic populations) the militarization of police was a foregone conclusion.
Trump’s pronouncement that Antifa, which is Lily White not Black, puts the group in the same basket with other violent groups. The military does not take protesters lightly, as evidenced by Kent State and Jackson State.
give me a break, jfk was maybe the worst warmonger of all, bringing the world closer to nuclear annihilation than anybody else. his deed is commemorated in the annals of the empire as a shining moment when he faced down the leader of the other superpower, but in reality it as a pointless exercise in political posturing which put the entire world in danger. he got assassinated in some power struggle or other, but it was more like roman emperors being assassinated by rivals or the praetorian guard. the police have been getting more militarized at least since the 1980’s, when hill street blues had an episode about it.
finally, the military had nothing to do with either kent state or jackson state. kent state was perpretrated by the national guard, and jackson state by state and local cops. letting the military on american soil is an escalation of a trend that has been going on a long time. maybe since america found itself a superpower after, as johnstone points out, it’s potential rivals had been decimated by world war 2 (including the ussr, which nonetheless retained more of it’s prewar power than the western nations, bankrupted by us war loans.
the idea that jfk was going to magically transform himself into a humanitarian or peace advocate in his second term reminds me of the obama hagiography regarding what he would do in his second term. obama would be unleashed, his fans proclaimed. instead we got the same neoliberalism, the same warmongering, leavened with some token gestures.
People need to focus better on the fact that the rebellion in 1776 in America wasn’t really a revolt, as in a desperately poor and oppressed people rising up and demanding freedom. It was more like the elites running part of a company wanted more power and wealth, so they hijacked their part of the company, and set themselves up as the new owners.
There have been thousands of revolts by oppressed peasants and laborers all over the world (mostly unsuccessful). There have been very few revolts by the elites, where they broke their part of the land away from an existing country, and formed a new separate country with them running the show.
The whole “freedom and independence in 1776” was a PR snow job from the very beginning. The people who did that have more in common with corporate raiders than with oppressed peoples escaping tyranny. Given that beginning, its not surprising that they leveraged the hijacked resources into the largest empire the world has seen.
Once all of this is in clear perspective, then the current state of affairs in the US makes more sense.
exactly. the boston tea party was carried out by well off merchants.
What these riots have made stunningly obvious is that the established order in the United States is structurally anti-white throughout all institutions. This is the reason for the total surrender to black and anarchist rioters by the government and the media. Institutions in the US would rather burn down or collapse than function in a way that benefits and moralizes whites.
And so Churches, homes, stores and entire cities are burning. Random whites, from the homeless to the elderly to the polite society liberal-bourgeoisie, are being beaten and killed on sight. And despite some tentative forceful moves to stop it, followed by almost immediate retreat, the cops and the president are just standing back and letting it happen.
Does the system want to restore order? Probably. But accomplishing that in a way that preserves the fake anti-white narrative on which US institutions operate, and does not look like a win for whites or in any way look like it moralizes whites is a challenge, hence total system paralysis.
White people have no institutions we can rely on, certainly not the state, the only thing they have is each other. Remember how we were supposed to be terrified of three dozen right-wing extremists with no funding and no foothold in media, entertainment, or academia? And the left were just “anti-fascist” activists innocently pursuing justice? Seems pretty dumb today, doesn’t it?
But these unwitting dupes of the bi-partisan Washigto establishment are not serious about political revolution though, because the elements doing to rioting and looting are incapable of any positive coordinated action. But they may be allowed to destroy and loot until there is no more product.
Imagine having the same politics as Burger King and Pepsi and thinking you’re a revolutionary or a dissident.
The redpill from these riots is not whites “waking up” to systemic racial injustice against blacks. We’re long past that. The redpill is that every institution in the US is against white people with no exceptions and that the system would rather collapse than protect these people. That is what big normie needs to learn from this.
white people are also looting, you dick. black neighborhoods are also burning, you dick. this post in becoming like a spoken word piece, you dick. i don’t know why i’m bothering, you dick. this post is definitely not helping by the way, you dick. i bet you’re not a dick really are you? just a disenfranchised white person? reparation for years on inequality means this is not going to be about you for a while, you dick.
Get Real. Listen to Former Black Lives Matter Ferguson Organizer, Chaziel Sunz exposed BLM, Democrats, ANTIFA, etc.
nazi bootlicker, the us is not “anti white”. you’re welcome. it is anti poor people, and if those poor people happen to be white, they will get the boot almost as quickly, tho not as hard, as blacks and other minorities.
Caitlin believes “The Empire is losing control of the narrative.” I don’t see evidence of that. Oppression of the common people through indoctrination via mainstream media continues. Censoring freelance journalists and genuine investigative work continues. Protests and riots are fueled and sometimes aggravated by agents of the Deep State to give an excuse for greater military control. I don’t see the sunlight Caitlin expects to see and I am convinced that people who work for change must share the Great Liberator’s Vision and Mission and this must become a grass-roots, social, spiritual, tactical movement, networking around the world. The revolutionary Liberator I refer to is Yeshua, a Hebrew name which means LIBERATOR. Unfortunately, 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 said and meant. Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf
You’re right. Whose Word do you think guided Martin Luther King Jr?
Everyone is equal.
If you take that position, you immediately separate out the racists.
If you take the position that everyone is equal, then the people arguing against you are, by definition, the racists. They are the ones who are upset that you said everyone is equal, because they feel that others are inferior to them. Thus, taking the position that everyone is equal separates out the racists and identifies them.
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Everyone is equal.
This also has the advantage of being a powerful political position. This is a position that everyone, or at least the non-racists, can agree on. Every popular movement must have large numbers to be successful. If its a small group versus the oiigarchs, the oligarchs win everytime. The Byword of successful popular movements against the oligarchs is Solidarity!
Everyone is equal.
This is a position that creates solidarity.
This is the position that unites the people against the oligarchs.
The oligarchs want divide and conquer.
To defeat the oligarchs, you must have unity and solidarity amongst a large mass of people.
Everyone is equal. Those are words that the oligarchs dread.
Everyone is equal.
Everyone is not equal. Some are stronger, some are weaker. Some are very smart, some are not very smart. Pretending everyone is equal is ignorant. It is an indefensible position. Now does everyone deserve equal rights yes. But should the smart person have to learn at the less intelligence persons pace . Does the weak person have to have conscessions because the task requires a stronger person. No. That is not racist. That is common sense which is in short supply today.
Bingo !
except the schools are no more meritocratic than the society they are embedded in.
Crispus Attucks should be in the list of founding heroes.
Read the story of how and when the CIA overthrew the Austrailian government, and the Austrialia became a puppet state.
“On Nov. 11, 1975 – the day Whitlam was to inform Parliament about the secret CIA presence in Australia – he was summoned by Kerr. Invoking archaic vice-regal “reserve powers”, Kerr sacked the democratically elected prime minister.
The “Whitlam problem” was solved, and Australian politics never recovered, nor the nation its true independence.”
— John Pilger, “The Forgotten Coup Against ‘The Most Loyal Ally’”
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/06/01/john-pilger-the-forgotten-coup-against-the-most-loyal-ally/
If our problems are, even partly, caused by institutional racism, then I submit that I am not part of that problem. I am not an institution; I have no power. I am barely better off than those who are supposedly being oppressed.
Guess what? If what Caitlin Johnstone writes is true, then the vast majority of us are oppressed. And, we are powerless to do anything about it, short of joining the rioting and the looting ourselves.
So, if you are on that “Whiteness = Racism” train, get off before it’s too late to work together to reign in the bastards who are oppressing us all.
There was a moment when some leftist activist told me directly to my face that “She knew I was a racist because of the color of my skin”.
Anyone who thinks the can know the content of anyone’s character by looking at the color of that person’s skin has not only completely missed the point, but is very much a racist themselves.
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That’s what a racist is …. someone who fails to see and know the individual because they are obsessed with the belief that they know everything about a person from the color of their skin.
Racism is a lot more than judging someone by the color of their skin. The activist who said she knew you were a racist was not oppressing you. She was not denying you the basic necessities of life, she was not brutalizing you, she was not enslaving or imprisoning you. Racism equals PREJUDICE plus POWER, and the activist had no power over you. Compared to having someone kneel on your neck until you are dead, being told you are a racist because you are white is pretty tame stuff.
Thank you Delta Gee for taking off the mask and showing yourself for what you are. Don’t agree with your assessment of human beings you have never met, but at least you are honest.
I’ve followed on WordPress. My email is too full to add any more email subscriptions.
“Once upon a time a brave nation liberated itself from the tyranny of the British empire and birthed freedom and democracy into the world.”
Only to quickly embrace the tyranny of world bankers and elite European dynasty families.
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“You would understand that the role of the police is not to protect and serve the people but to protect and serve the empire…”
Many police cars have the words painted on them, “To Serve And Protect”. Notice they never go on to say WHAT they are serving. Crafty.
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“The disparity between the bedtime story and the waking up story has finally been stretched to a breaking point…Whoever controls the narrative controls the world.”
The American people have been fed a diet of lies for so long that nothing else tastes good to them anymore. The truth? Yuck! spit it out!
We need to see another side of this. It’s not easy keeping a foundation of big lies going for over 240 years! Someone people in the propaganda departments are deserving of big fat raises in pay for a job well done. And they say government can’t do anything right!?
Yes, many are “waking up”. But waking up to what? Waking up to a game which is like a casino slot machine rigged so the player cannot ever win? Many who wake up to this bleak picture will just roll over and go back to sleep. Those who choose to stay awake will be present for a living nightmare. We have to pray that, like during dream times, nightmares do not last forever and a new morning will somehow come. And with it, maybe some cleansing sunshine.
I want to take a mind trip. I want to compare two worlds – the earth on which we live and another planet that is identical to ours, except that in that planet’s solar system there has been a brief solar event whose radiation has not only instantaneously killed all of the people on that planet, but, amazingly, also slowed down the physical deterioration of any of the things that the planet’s deceased inhabitants created.
Hearing about the calamity on the twin planet, millions of people from our planet, who just happen to be unemployed ex-technicians from various professions (yes, a very competent bunch), jump into spacecraft and fly to that other planet. But, before they leave, they agree that all of what is on the other planet will be “owned” equally among them and used for the good of all. (Yes, you’re right, that is exactly where I’m going.)
Just like there is on this planet, there is an internet on the other planet, so the immigrants instantly realize that a so-called representative government will not be necessary……….. on the other planet. In that place there shall be direct democracy. People will hammer out important decisions among themselves using the internet as a means of virtually instantaneous mass communication.
There will be only one “nation” on this new world. That nation will cover the entire world. There will be no other nation to export to. There will be no other nation to import from. The immigrants will either design a stand-alone economic system that does not need either imports or exports or slaves, or they will die.
Every person in the new world will be a “world citizen”. There will be only one set of rules for every person. Again, human beings will either sink or swim together on this new world.
After the new immigrants arrive on their new planet, using existing transportation systems, they disperse all over their planet so that they can get their new (old) machines up and running; fields plowed and planted; hospitals operating, etc. (Yes, it wasn’t easy. But with the common good in mind, people were successful. Just accept it for the moment.)
The immigrants soon realize that it takes very few people (far fewer than immigrated) to keep the machines running, food on the table, etc., and with some more design engineering and automation, even fewer people will be required as time goes on. Not only that, but the products of these machines can be made to a much better quality then they apparently were previously, so these products will last far longer. As a result, it is realized that perhaps some of the huge machines/factories can be operated far less frequently than they used to be by the previous inhabitants. For example, automobiles soon come to be made much simpler, easier to fix and much more reliable. They have a far greater useful lifespan than they once had.
The people enjoy leisure time, developing their artistic abilities, playing games and other non-productive activities.
Rather than unfairly have the same small number of people constantly toiling on the machines, the people decide to divide up, or “distribute”, the human labor that is necessary to operate the machines, plow the fields, construct buildings, roads, etc. That is, everyone has to work on the machines, etc., but for only a short period of time each year. And as the machines get improved and further automated, even less labor is required and, therefore, even more of each individual’s time is “free”.
The newly-designed machines in this new world come to do almost all of the things that must be done, and the “profit” from the machines – leisure time and the actual products of the machines – is equally divided among all people.
Some of the leisure time is used for training all people in the variety of tasks they will be undertaking – everything from brain surgery to sewage treatment. Apprenticeship and training via video (just like Youtube on planet earth!) are found to be the ideal ways of training people. It is soon discovered that most medical and dental procedures can be either performed by robots or learned in a fraction of the time once thought to be absolutely necessary.
Through apprenticeship and video schooling, the population becomes very knowledgeable, so they soon realize that by reducing their own population by slow attrition – by having only one or two children – the remaining population has even less to do (less water treatment, housing, electricity, food, everything), so their descendants have even more free time to themselves.
These people’s new-found religion is two-faceted — the Golden Rule and the continually-evolving simplicity, ease-of-use, and, most importantly, high-quality-construction and, therefore, long usable life of the products they create. Unlike the people did back on planet Earth, the people on this new world strive to manufacture things only once — things that with simple, inexpensive maintenance, last essentially forever.
Transportation systems move people to and from the machines and other places where labor is needed, as well as moving people about the planet for other less practical reasons.
Life is great in the new world.
The End
My point is that there are possible alternative ways of living (economic systems) to the present one, but the only thing we are allowed to hear in our prefect Matrix of education and 24/7 propaganda is that there is NO alternative (TINA) to the present arrangement, other than the experimental ones that are at this very moment being literally dreamed up by the present entrenched powers-that-be in order to serve only themselves.
All of us commenters and, particularly, Caitlin and Tim have to RIGHT NOW do exactly what our billionaire Elite Overlords are doing – at first “imagining” a different arrangement than the one we were born into (a greed-based arrangement that has for literally centuries benefited only a microscopic percentage of the population and which has also led the human species of animal to the edge of extinction either by environmental catastrophe or nuclear war) and then implementing that new arrangement by electing representatives who have that same “vision” of a better arrangement and will carry out their constituents’ wishes against an entrenched, near-omnipotent opposition.
Keep in mind that I intended my hypothetical world to stimulate discussion of alternative arrangements. If you can imagine a better arrangement than the one I have imagined and a better way to bring that arrangement into reality than voting (such as doing what the Yellow Vests and the Hong Kong “protesters” have been doing for a long time), please type it out right here, right now. Big things have almost always had small beginnings.
BTW, if you want real change, do not vote for either an R or D candidate in the upcoming election. If you do not why I say that by now, you are a hopeless fucking idiot.
A vision pretty close to your hypothetical world caught fire in the late 19th Century, c/o a largely-forgotten American novelist. It’s one hell of a story that few today have heard.
https://newtonfinn.com/2018/07/12/on-earth-as-in-heaven-part-i/
https://newtonfinn.com/2018/07/12/on-earth-as-in-heaven-part-ii/
Douglas Adams’ version is much better. 🙂
And I think his was shorter too.
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And, it is fascinating that people think that change will result from wasting their vote on some candidate who gets 1% of the total. Been there, done that, and you don’t even get a t-shirt for doing it.
Knee on the neck – the epitome of imperialism in microcosm.
The Reagan administration developed a plan for declaring martial law called Rex 84:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84
So far, meaningful reform in the U.S. has been stymied. It is possible we may end up in a martial law situation in the future.
No, Biden wrote the Patriot Act, as he has loudly and often stated in 1995. Finally implemented after 9/11, the Police State has been expanding exponentially ever since.
It is interesting that many seem to be experiencing optimism as a result of recent events. Yet, from where we are sitting we are seeing no reason to be optimistic. All we see is the same tired playbook being used with great success.
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Since any large-scale distraction of police in a country as unequal and materialistic as the US will result in opportunistic criminality like looting, the status quo always has an easily demonizable group which they can use to their advantage. By lumping in those ideology-driven protesters willing to use the only form of resistance which has ever killed empires or produced meaningful change with such opportunistic acts the mainstream narrative is able to marginalize that group of rebels. Media, politicians, and many “activist leaders” and “organizers” participate in this marginalization.
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You can see this in action as various protesters who hug police end up with news stories in national or local outlets. Videos on twitter of rally speeches about how the cops are just here to do a job, don’t antagonize them. The “Blackout” by various celebrities and brands to fool the masses into thinking, `This time it’s different, we’re gonna get change!’
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But it’s the same, every time. I mean, sure, this time you’ve also got this newish `Bad Orange Man’ narrative swirling about, but really that just acts to supercharge the effectiveness of the rest of the propganda campaign designed to herd the masses into ineffectual avenues.
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You will get nothing but crumbs from them. They will give you no meaningful change. And why would they? They successfully demonized the key element to achieving any sort of meaningful change when you are facing a more powerful force: guerilla resistance.
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`But we still have the ability to strike!’ some might cry. Good luck with that when five companies control the vast majority of the food processing in this country and a larger but still tiny group controls the distribution. In a country of 320+ million there will always be enough scabs to do the necessary work. And they will always have enough tear gas to make you precious, sacred peaceful protestors get out of the way, and enough propaganda to make people cheer on your dispersal.
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Cargo Cult Politics: politics where it feels like you’re doing something useful but you’re actually not.
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The term is harsh, but I actually think the comparison is useful. The cargo cults of the South Pacific were islanders who saw that airplanes landed on runways, bringing cargo. So they built replicas of airports and airplanes out of twigs and branches and made the sounds associated with airplanes to try to activate the shipment of cargo. This actually made quite a bit of sense, seen from their perspective—if cargo comes when there is an airport, one might think the airport caused the cargo. But there was more going on: An airport doesn’t just need a runway, but also a network of people and institutions communicating with each other and deciding whether and how to fly planes there. The stick-replica might have looked like an airport, but it wasn’t one, and it was never going to function as one.
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The point of invoking this is to show that there may be actions that look a lot like political progress, but are missing the element that actually causes the change. Say, for example, we notice that in the 1960s, civil rights protesters wore signs in the streets. So when we want to change something, we go out and hold signs in the streets, because that’s what you do. But perhaps there was something else going on when they did it; perhaps it was a small part of a much larger political strategy, and we’re missing the component that actually mattered. Examples of seemingly ‘political’ actions that are missing an underlying theory of how you change the world include superficial changes in consumption habits and interventions in “the discourse.” There is a terrible danger in mistaking the word ‘HOPE’ on a poster, or a rhetorical promise of change, for an actual vision of what change means and how to get it.
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And of course, because much of those protesting today were not even born yet, they do not realize the level of violent resitance which existed in this country around the civil rights struggle. The bombings, the police assasinations, the bank robberies, the sheer numer of rebels who ended up poilitical prisoners.
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We didn’t forget. We know what the real costs to this fight are. And they can’t crush us with the same old tired bullshit. They’re going to have to make a new playbook for us, because we’ve been studying them, watching them, and building trap after trap for them to step into. A rogue wave, an unknown-unknown may still be hurtling towards us as we speak, but until it does, we’re going to channel a bit of Lt. Dan of Forrest Gump fame and rage at the maelstrom all around us. Plus, we are a storm too, and we intend to wipe them off the face of this earth in a cleansing flood.
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Let’s breach this dam and send the waters crashing down upon our oppressors:
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2020/05/30/18833392.php
http://www.mediafire.com/file/k1omyaf0r73shvk/Twenty-Twenty-four.pdf/file
“We are all watching from around the world as the citizens of the hub of the empire confront their oppressors in an increasingly violent battle of wills”
Caitlin Johnstone, did you just forget who owns the media ? Do you not think that the avalanche the media are spewing serves an Empire agenda ? That a part of what we are shown is staged and assembled and edited by slaves for a purpose known to their masters.
There is another kind of media which is not owned by anybody. I’m speaking of the myriad cellphones and other similar devices, which can almost all communicate directly with one another — a mesh network. As the authorities begin to choke off or filter or pollute the present channels of communication, these others will increase.
Yes but A PART OF what those will show will have been written, cast, directed, funded, by the producers behind the scene
In 2019 in the U.S. more whites than blacks were killed by police, despite blacks being significantly more likely to be armed. The entire premise of this charade is completely fraudulent.
Why has Caitlin stopped exposing the fake narratives of the establishment media propaganda machine. e.g. Covid19, Race Riots, etc.? Weird.
It all comes down to, “They know that the last line of defense against this happening is their ability to use extreme violence upon the population until they stop revolting, so they have no intention of ever giving up this ability. An entire planetary empire depends on it.” On the other hand, We the people as a last resort have something called the 2nd Amend. This ensures that total POWER never fully resides in the hands of Gov. Authority. The Irony here is that Liberals have spent the last 4 decades at least attempting to snuff this Amendment out. Even today they will assert it has something to do with ‘hunting” . Further irony is that when I look at the liberal EU I see today that a group of young people were arrested for mocking the death of the victim in police custody. My point is, seems like liberalism is increasingly the threat to ‘Freedoms” freedom being the exercise of free thought and subsequent actions. Also to attempt to water down the history and actions and intentions of ANTIFA is insincere. These people are the modern day brown shirts. Their goal is submission to their ideas through violence. Is this to be celebrated?
From all that I have seen happen in the last 50 years, I believe that there is a great continuing drama going on, now openly, in America and the profit boys are fighting to keep a dying evil economic system alive. It won’t work. Many people who defended Capitalism are showing they do not believe the lies anymore. More and more people are becoming aware that unless we ditch the profit system our civilization, and perhaps, our species, will come to an end.
There will be a lot of suffering before it is over, but this has been building since 1970 and will not stop because most Americans no longer accept business as usual, or tweaks to a rotten system, but want real change. Of course there are the oligarchs and their armies, their ambitious and frightened servants and camp followers, and they will fight like trapped rats shrilly claiming the tide is in their favor, but many of them already sense they are losing. That is why frightened people like Trump, hide in their bunkers, then come out and make threats. The force for change, deliberately understated and suppressed by the main stream media, and even underestimated by those of the real left, is far greater than anyone knows and growing and will not be stopped.
Both stories have different perspectives and both are true. Just as you get different stories from different witnesses. The America of 1860 was vastly different for the north and south. So much so that it resulted in civil war. I guess today you would call one side woke and the other not. You are really speaking of paradigms based on your perspective. When the paradigms diverge too far they will reset but not until extreme force is applied. The majority of America wants law and order at all costs, even total military intervention. The state will gladly comply.
Law and order and military intervention are contradictory.
Military law harshly provides order. Military intervention fully enforced brings order. Unfortunately politicians are half hearted about it until almost too late. People want order. People want to feel safe. Everything else takes a back seat. If you think not, look at how many people put on a mask seeking safety.
I love bedtime stories and this is one of the best. Thanks Caitlin. I always kinda liked “The King’s new suit of clothes” by Hans Christian Anderson also. Their power is a mirage which we consent to. Politics is always about who rules and who is ruled. We do not sonsent to State murder.
These events have been planned and triggered
A great article Caitlin! I sure do hope you are right that these demonstrations really do represent an awakening, and not just another punch of the snooze button or a rocket launch that fizzles on the pad.
Recommended reading:
Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” (The alternative narrative has already been out there for quite some time.)
Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (Geographical and technological determinism)
Some miscellaneous questions arising in my mind as I reflect on this current “acting-out”:
Hasn’t the nation seen pretty much this same kind of thing, actually even at a higher level of intensity, back in the 60s and 70s with civil rights and anti-Vietnam-War marches and campaigns. Did significant change result? Well, there may have been a little bit, but it still fell far short of hopes and was mostly temporary and cosmetic. Any reason to expect deeper, real change this time around? Only if the basic power of the technoplex has indeed been greatly reduced, but then what we’ll more likely get is just chaotic anarchy followed by a new reign of old-style fascism.
Is there a consensus among the protesters as to what would constitute “Justice”? If not, then they don’t know where they are going and will therefore wind up someplace else.
Don’t the Native Americans have a much stronger case for demanding “Justice” than the Africans? Really, shouldn’t the Native Americans have the entire continent returned to them and given authority as to what should be done about the descendants of all the sea pirates and squatters as well as their slaves’ descendants? Or, has the “statute of limitations” period ended for that sort of “justice”?
Is it ‘justice” that we need or a deeper sense of common humanity? Are the riots and property destruction going to get either one? What is?
Certainly, the Africans had a bad start as players in the game of building the US empire and have suffered from that bad start ever since. Was any other racial group imported into the US against their will, ripped-away from their mother cultures (don’t forget that was often at the hands of neighboring tribes), and used as slave labor, or used as pawns in a civil war that caused deep pain in the North and South’s white populations but that really wasn’t about slavery but about economic and state sovereignty issues between the North and South? No, and in all of those factors + inevitable instinctive (read some Sapolsky et alia on that) feelings of inter-racial difference-instinctive uncertainty as to mutual trust, lies the explanation as to why they have still not been able to fully integrate into the culture and to “succeed” (on average) as capitalists and consumers in the US technoplex matrix. Though this is be treading on sensitive ground, I’d aver too that there have been actual genetic changes among the African-Americans, changes in the realm of epigenetics in response to their environmental milieu that have indeed made it very difficult for them to assimilate. (I’d also say that if black skin had been more evolutionarily advantageous than white skin for humans living in the Euro-Asia regions and white skin better in Africa climes, then it would have been white folks from Africa who’d have been the slaves.)
Perhaps then the black-skinned slave descendants’ difficulty in assimilating will be the thing that stresses the US technoplex beyond the point of sustainability? If so, then that would be a kind of cosmic “justice”, and it also might be a major step on the road to humanity regaining freedom from its own technoplex. Truly though, methinks that’s a bit too much to hope.
I find it much more likely that the Floyd case is just being played instinctively/reactively/opportunistically by the corporate fascist leaders of the US amoeba as a vehicle in their “War on Populism” as CJ Hopkins explains in his latest article:
https://consentfactory.org/2020/06/
“Hasn’t the nation seen pretty much this same kind of thing, actually even at a higher level of intensity, back in the 60s and 70s with civil rights and anti-Vietnam-War marches and campaigns. Did significant change result? Well, there may have been a little bit, but it still fell far short of hopes and was mostly temporary and cosmetic. Any reason to expect deeper, real change this time around?” As one who was a young man in the late 60s/early 70s, I feel, in many ways, like I’ve taken a time machine back to the America of my college days. For anyone my age, to be shocked by what’s happening in the streets is an indication that senility has set in. As for reasons, however, to expect or at least hope for deeper change this time around, let me give four: (1) while the protests of my youth were racially mixed, the crowds that later turned to window breaking, burning, and looting were predominantly black.This time around, the videos I’ve seen show a strong racial mix on both levels; (2) the lucrative career ladders extended to my generation after college were prime opportunities for many to sell out and join and strengthen the system they had condemned. Now, those ladders have been pulled up, which means that the resistance may well be more lasting, more likely to grow in breadth and depth; (3) there were a number of political and social leaders of substance back in the 60s and 70s to help shape and calm and respond (in part) to the civil rebellion. Today, there are none; and (4) the neoliberal system being rebelled against this time around is considerably more vicious, oppressive, and all-encompassing than was Fordist capitalism (as awful as that was for many). Thus its willingness to make minor concessions to at least partially diffuse the rebellion is as absent as political and social leadership. Bottom line: yes, in many ways we’ve been here before, but also yes, in many ways, we are in uncharted water. And this is not even to get into the ramifications of the unprecedented response to a new pandemic, the sudden freezing in place of a neoliberal shark that has to swim to breathe.
The tone of your comment is condescending to Blacks. Justice means not getting indiscriminantly murdered by police, for starters. Your remark about epigenetics seems poorly timed and unsubstantiated. Sometimes it’s better to be silent than to spout garbage and this is one of those times.
LOL. Very funny and mostly accurate assessment of the facts on the ground, but anyone who has ever stepped in a pile of dog poop knows that the stench just keeps on giving long after the fact and can often times be found in abundance between the threads of the soul and will never be gone until every witch is burned on a Friday evening.
I’m trying to make sense of this, trying to unravel the metaphors. You step in the dog poop, and that stirs up the stinky, and some of in gets on you, and even in you, in the very “threads of the soul”.
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So … In the very act of confronting the challenges of human life, one is going to find one’s soul sullied by the process. Some stinky is often going to become intertwined into the “very fabric of our being”.
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Is this a parable of self-awareness? We all must realize that we all have been ‘sullied’ by our struggles? We’re all just poor dumb humans? Folks is just folks? All them pots should stop accusing all the kettles of being black? We humans ain’t much, but we’re all we got.
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If taken that way, the metaphor works somehow. If it could be fit, somehow ,with the rest, into some meaning, it might even be ‘profound’, (whatever that means).
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But the witch burning part is all in the same sentence. What witches are being burned? Where did they come from, and what, if anything, did they have to do with the dog stinky you stepped in that got in between the “threads of the soul”? Why on Friday? Who is lighting the fire? Has burning witches been the primary motivation for striking the first match?
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I don’t have a clue … I just can’t make any sense out of this … This could be profound … Or it could be meaningless. Or it could even be an open expression of evil. “Ya got dog stinky on yer soul threads, so you better go burn yer’self some witches”.
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Is our good commentator, Roy, being intentionally enigmatic? Or is he just creating words that contrive enigma?
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One has no idea what his statement means to him.
Very true and well said.
Nothing I like better than being told who my National Hero’s are. And Dang ! They’re the same ones as The Roman Catholic Church.
I am so sick of hearing how the US is racist that I could vomit. It is without question the least racist society on earth with respect to White people. White people have given away Trillions of dollars and years of effort to raise the blacks out of the ghetto and into civilization. But the experiment has been an unmitigated failure. Nonetheless, we are told again and again that the abject failure of the Black Race to elevate itself and become genuine partners in society is a failure of the Whites. Total unmitigated BULLSHIT. Only people who continue to eat their own excrement continue to believe the Fairy Tale that Blacks can somehow be changed. In the Woke Universe, if you are homosexual it is ok and it is agreed that the individual cannot be changed to become a heterosexual and if you try to change them it most likely will damage them. Like it or not, the same is true of Black people. They do no want to be changed and they cannot behave in a civil manner compared to Whites or Asians (who by the way have had no trouble assimilating into the US society). Why is that? Why can every Asian culture come into America and become functional? Why has every European Culture come to America and become functional members of the US society? Why have nearly all the Blacks been failures? Even the lying two faced half black President now has been shown to be a sadistic narcissistic criminal. So have all the other Black leaders who have shown their true colors and venom during the last week. Caitlin, sleep on these thoughts for a few months and see if you can write a real story instead of a made up story about America.
Kill yourself, my friend. It’ll be better for all concerned 🙂
White Americans love yanksplaining to me that the US is not racist actually and I need to do more research, not realizing that my work is co-authored by my American husband who witnessed the Oscar Grant shooting.
The Oscar Grant ‘case’ was certainly tragic. ‘Fruitvale Station’ was a very good movie. I need to watch it again. I only saw it the one time so far. I have no idea how ‘accurate’ it is. A boy got killed. He had a lot to live for. It was a tragedy.
What struck me most about the movie is how it depicted the ‘ordinariness’ of tragedy. In smooth waters, every stone’s ripple makes an impression. In stormy brown angry waters, even a boulder’s tragic impact often goes unnoticed.
Your husband was an eyewitness in Oakland? Has he written about it?
The truth seldom lies at the margins. The truth usually is found ‘somewhere between’.
You wrote, Ms. Johnstone: “You would naturally expect that if a police officer was caught on video deliberately strangling a man to death and then was not immediately arrested and prosecuted for murder, people would be understandably outraged and drastic systemic changes would be swiftly implemented to appease their anger”.
You are a brilliant visionary, Ms. Johnstone. Thanks for showing us that you are also ‘just folks’, (as are we all). You don’t own the truth, but like we all sometimes do, you sometimes act like you do.
We’ve surely all seen the video, from every possible angle. The police were dealing with a man who was, by a witness’s account, (the store employee that asked for the cigarettes back), “Very drunk”. We see a struggle that takes place in the back seat of the patrol car. Our vision is mostly obscured, but we can see that a struggle is taking place.
…..
Mr. Floyd, who apparently was the person being struggled with in the car, was apparently forcibly pulled out of the car through the passenger side rear door, where three officers kneeled on him to control him.
…..
It does not appear that the officers restraining the man had any intention of harming Mr. Floyd, or any awareness that their ‘restraint hold’ was a danger to him. The one officer standing guard, the one with the Asian or Polynesian appearance, can be heard to say to a bystander, in a calm informative voice, “If he’s talking he’s OK”. The demeanor exhibited by Chauvin is, itself, calm. Once the arrested prisoner was under control, Chauvin seems to be just waiting for something to happen.
…..
What was he waiting for? Ambulance arriving? Other forces of some kind? What were the four police waiting for?
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At the point where Mr. Floyd was apparently dragged out of the back seat, and was forced face down on the pavement, handcuffed behind his back, with three men kneeling on him … At that point he was obviously under control.
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What should have happened then? Was excessive ‘brutality’ applied? Well … Yes … Obviously … Mr. Floyd should not have died for being drunk and needlessly (apparently) uncooperatively surly to a convenience store clerk. But it does appear that it was Mr. Floyd himself that introduced physical violence into immediate presence.
…..
What happened in the back seat? Mr. Floyd was (presumably) already cuffed behind his back. From what we can see it appears he may have stretched himself out across the seat, in resistance to force being applied to make him sit in the back of the car. Was he kicking? Biting? (I’m asking questions that only someone who has ever tried to restrain an ‘enraged’ person would know to ask. I’m not a cop, nor ever have been, but I’ve been out drinkin’ with some buddies a couple times or so in younger days. VERY strong enraged drunk men? Yup.. Been there … Couple times r’ so … Done that … )
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That was the crucial moment when the officers made the wrong choice. If the prisoner resists getting in the car peacefully, what should the officer be trained to do? Forcing him into the car did not turn out so well.
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George Floyd was a large and powerful man. Any officer being challenged to ‘handle’ him is going to be ‘on guard’, is going to be aware of the prisoner’s physical strength and power. Once an ‘arrest’ is made, a person should not resist. Once an ‘arrest’ (‘arrete’…stop) is made, the officer must maintain control.
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Anybody who has ever tried to do so knows that handling a large powerful drunk man is a formidable and dangerous task.
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If he won’t get in the car, force him into a sitting position with his back to the car. Stand over him. Batons ready. Keep him pushed back if he tries to get up.
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If an arrestee resists arrest, the amount of force applied to make the arrest has to be greater than the force resisting arrest.
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There is no such thing as ‘Law’ without ‘Law Enforcement’. The whole reason for ‘capitalism’ is that humans are such selfish greedy assholes. You get rid of the ‘capitalism’, you still got the selfishness and greed that the ‘capitalism’ came from.
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Anyone who thinks there is a magic ‘…ism’ out there that’s going to purge the human soul of selfish Desire, has not yet become self-aware, and thus does not yet fully understand the human condition.
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C’mon … These guys are given an impossible job to do. They’re just guys. Folks is jes’ folks. Being impossible is no excuse. It’s their job. They still have to do it. In a just society, doing justice would be their work. Putting all the blame on them for society’s injustice makes no sense.
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The society is unjust. It’s not, (necessarily), the police’s fault. Who commands? Police have been militarized, but the ‘antidote’ lies in recognizing their humanity. They’re the hired help. They’re just ‘muscle’. “Theirs is not to question why”. (And all that). It’s a quasi ‘military’ function. It’s a chain of command. How can (or could) democracy be applied in that chain of command? The same people who control that chain of command likely exert considerable power in and over Mass Media.
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You can’t ‘legislate’ morality. You can’t ‘pass a law’ that will keep people from being humans. It’s a matter of ‘hearts and minds’. It’s a matter of loyalty. It’s often irrational. You can’t ‘make them’. You gotta ‘win them over’. Demonizing people is an extraordinarily poor means of ‘winning over’ their hearts and minds.
…..
Watching the video closely, and with the limited information we have at this point, it appears that these officers really ‘screwed up’ what should have been a routine detail. This man should not have died, but it is not apparent, at least not at this point, that the officers meant to harm him, or even knew they were harming him. “If he can talk, he’s OK”, the foreground officer actually says, in a calm informative voice, on camera. The police kneeling on the prisoner appear to be simply maintaining control. It was extraordinarily bad judgment, at the very least, to maintain a knee, even on a drunk, hysterically violent man’s neck, for that long. At some point Mr. Floyd had relented. He became exhausted, (if nothing else). The police would have felt the end of his physical resistance, and they should have released their restraint, maybe even turned him over, if he was calmed down and submissive.
…..
They should have got off of him. Their mistake(s) lead to this man’s death. They must be held accountable.
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But racism? Murder? “Deliberate strangling”? Uhh … The primary reason this is considered racism is because it happens a lot to poor people, and a large percentage of poor people are ‘people of color’.
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The set of ‘poor people’ is influenced by race, but it is NOT defined by race. People really need to understand that most African Americans are NOT poor, or even near poor. 52% of African Americans are either middle class, or upper middle class. Likewise, 59% of Hispanic Americans.
…..
Most ‘people of color’ in the US are NOT poor. Can we get that through our heads? Yes … Hispanic and African Americans have a disproportionately high ‘rate’ of being poor, but still, MOST Hispanic and African Americans are, in fact, NOT poor, and nearly half of all poor people in the US are white.
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There are a bit less than 16 million poor white people in the US. There are less than 9 million poor African Americans, and about the same number of poor Hispanic Americans.
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You think a poor white guy, dressed all scruffly like a poor white guy, 46 years old, gone a bit soft maybe, but still built like an NFL linebacker and strong as an ox, drunk on his ass in the middle of the day, and belligerent to the cops, refusing to get into the car, you think that drunk, belligerent, mean-ass white guy wouldn’t have ended up face down on the street, wouldn’t have had a knee on his neck?
…..
Chauvin may be a ‘flaming’ racist. Any of these guys may or may not have been motivated by other things besides racism. I have no idea. They screwed up the detail. They killed a guy. Their mistakes, whatever the motivation may have been, caused a person’s death. They must be held responsible.
…..
But c’mon. They “deliberately strangled him to death”? Really? Watching the same video I watched, you think even Chauvin even knew he was killing the guy?
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I think Chauvin and the other police thought they’d wait until the ambulance came to deal with a very large, powerful, crazy-drunk, man. They had no idea that their actions were killing him. They should have known. They should have been better trained. Did they deliberately reject their training due to racist emotions? It’s possible … But at this point we simply do not know enough to know one way or the other … Watching the video, it does not appear that even Chauvin even was aware that he was causing or contributing to Mr. Floyd’s tragic death.
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Truth knows no command. The only way to have truth in one’s own camp is to follow it with all the diligence one can muster, and to pitch one’s own tent close by.
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The truth is our most powerful potential ally, but it will not serve us. We must serve it.
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The ‘antidote’ for propaganda is NOT better propaganda. (They got a bigger megaphone. Yer ALWAYS gonna lose a shouting match!). The antidote for propaganda is the truth.
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The truth has its own unique power. It has a way of being recognized. When, in our human weakness, we abandon it, as we ALL sometimes do, we lose power.
Thanks. You probably need to get your own blog …
Why?
There are many choices a writer must make. Choosing whom to address is one. Choosing where and how to ‘publish’ is another.
Are you saying that I write too much? Or that I say the wrong things?
I do have a blog. I pay something like $20/month (maybe more, I can’t remember), to keep it online. I haven’t even visited it, let alone posted anything there, for over a year. (I did just recently pay the yearly bill).
Perhaps you’re right. I do think about it. I think about ‘promoting’ my own blog, which means promoting myself. Yea … Well … It’s the ‘purpose’ of writing that matters to me. Not entertainment, nor fame, nor money. I have written, and do write, in many venues. I always am trying to accomplish some purpose.
I’ve learned that if the ideas are ‘true’ they have a way of finding their own way ‘around’. I post here and there, and the writing then goes here and there. I find that the people I most want to address generally ‘get’ my message.
I think Ms. Johnstone is a brilliant writer. She is certainly a person worth ‘addressing’. That’s why I write here.
Thanks for your suggestion. Food for thought.
Most people in the West are actually racist, it’s part of our manufactured culture. Not sure about other cultures, but in the West its a fact. You talk about Blacks, Whites and Asians and describe how they are different. That’s what racism looks like. Being proud of your race is sort of racism, but surely not a bad thing. Some people will claim that there is no such thing as race, that it’s unscientific, whatever. Who knows what those people think race means? Some people claim the US or Australia are not racist. Who knows what those people think racism means?
.
You make an important point when you talk about the bullshit of the Woke Universe, and the war against Whiteness. That is also real, and it seems to be growing. It’s dangerous because so many people are in denial about it. Some people actually think anti-Whiteness is a good thing. Craig Paul Roberts talks about this in his blog.
.
Unfortunately it’s hard to hold both of these truths in your head at the same time, because the issues are so emotionally charged on all sides and because the narratives are different. Personally, I believe it’s fine to be proud of who you are, to stand up to bullshit whenever you see it, and to fight for justice as you see it. Just don’t expect everyone to get your point of view. Its a messy world.
Since I was in my early twenties when the Civil Rights Movement morphed into the Black Power Movement, I sometimes find myself scratching my head and wondering what happened to the latter. In the frame of that time, black people finally decided it was futile and self-demeaning to ask that white people give blacks their full set of rights and opportunities, to essentially seek white permission and acceptance. The shift to Black Power occurred when black people began to say: “Fuck the white man and whether he likes us or not. We will affirm ourselves and demand only that we be given back enough that was taken from us to build a viable black existence.” Back then, I supported the Civil Rights Movement but LOVED the Black Power Movement. It was thrilling to see Ali enter the ring throwing warm-up punches with lightning speed, knowing he would win and not giving one shit about what some cracker watching from the stands thought of him. Black pride was so goddamn powerful and empowering even to me, a young white guy, and I thought it boded well for the future. Then, as fast as it arose, it evaporated, which is another story, some of which I know, some of which I will never understand.
Everyone is a racist. It is human nature. If you isolate the races then we become prejudiced based on class. All races have good loving productive citizens and also worthless shits. Much of what you call racism today is mostly a class divide. Those with against those without. The poor will always be with us. Communists want everyone to be poor except of course for the truly rich. So lets all wake up, destroy the middle class and be poor together. Or just leave the hateful US and move to Russia.
Somebody give this guy a chair at at major university!
Trump would have been better off creating a scenario where he could each week brag about the number of first offense young people who left prison with a future rather than his monotonous cheering of the market making a new high.
Thank you, Caitlin. Bang on the money, as usual. I always share widely.
Black people made America rich with their labor, and all they have to show for it is a knee on the neck. That’s not sustainable.
Not entirely off subject:
https://truthout.org/articles/the-violent-disorder-of-our-public-mind/
Richard Lichtman
If you have an interest, he is quite an author of a distinct narrative.
That was a very interesting and thought provoking article. Thank you.
Ditto.
The solution, as always, is anarcho-capitalism.
As long as coercive governments exist, subjected citizens will.
As long as government regulations (gun control, anyone?) prevent us from defending our own lives and property, we will be inclined to clamor for more government to subjugate (okay, “help”) us.
This is THE. PERFECT. OPPORTUNITY. for all peoples to unite against their respective governments at all levels and those of others.
Will it happen? Chances are slim. Would things get better if it did? You bet your life.
(Full disclosure: It would not get better for the crony capitalists. It would not get better for the reprehensible politicians. And it would take some time to get better for those who work in governments. I can live with that.)
Until Auntie Ayn came around anarchism and capitalism were as as opposite as holy water and feces.
Go back to the sources, comrade. We’re adults here, if you want to say selfish motherf***kers, don’t use euphemisms,
Anarcho-capitalism, indeed.
Not sure how you can lay bare the soul of America, without once mentioning the deep state. Are protesters naive and therefore believe in the bedtime story ? Some, no doubt. But these riots aren’t protest. The violence, the damage, the looting, and even shooting….that’s not protest, that’s war. You want to make war on America ? Then you’ll meet soldiers, called out by the Commander in Chief. That’s his job. But who is resourcing the rioters ? Answer that and you’ll find the true enemy of the people. And are they awake ? You betcha. Awake to every opportunity to help the Empire implode from within, while they make off with the wealth. They don’t care about America. Global dominance is the game.
You mean pallets of bricks don’t just spontaneously appear in advance at riot locations?
/s
So the “Deep State” is already in charge of the Empire; but the Deep State also wants to make the Empire implode from within?
If someone (or a group of people) already has power, they’re usually conservative because they want to retain power. Why foment internal conflict and rebellion when you already (you believe) hold power?
Jim,
there are many actors here at different levels of power. They all want power, but they don’t all have exactly the same objectives because they operate in different spheres. Don’t assume that there is one single unified “Deep State”. For example, in Syria (and other warzones), the President, the CIA and the Pentagon each have their own agenda, and sometimes they come into conflict, and sometimes they work in opposition to each other. Then there are the desires of multinational organisations, the oil industry, the media industry, etc. Each of these have different goals. There are also different layers or levels of power. Someone who has power at a State level will want different outcomes from someone who has power at a National level, or a trans-national level. Finally, it is possible to for power to be consolidated during times of destruction and chaos. Why foment internal conflict and rebellion? To divide and conquer. To keep people divided and conquered.
What we are seeing is a bunch of jackholes trying to destroy America by any means possible. Stop buying into the ‘Orange man bad’ propaganda. Stop buying into the hate.
The hatred is coming from the ruling class, as it always does and as it always has from time immemorial, whether they be the monarchy or modern corporatists. What we are seeing in the streets is the ruling class showing its true face, that of violent hatred for the working class. This naked bestiality is what hides behind many a suit and tie and suave smile, whether it’s Obama’s or Trump’s. The ruling elites are destroying the entire planet, including the United States. That’s fact. Not fiction.
When people try to disempower assholes, assholes always complain that those people are trying to ‘destroy America’.
Assholes have already ‘destroyed America’. Asshole.
Caitlin, here is where we are heading: https://rense.com/general96/cov-double-whammy-hantavirus-death-in-china.php
Ms Johnstone, ” this land of the free and the home of the brave ” is heading into martial law and extreme violence by every single part of ” the governmental structure “. 1984 is going to look like a picnic. The true nightmare is about to hit the people of the United States like a swung bat to the teeth. Agonizing pain is on the way! 2020 will indeed go down in the history books as ” shocking beyond belief “.
Not to socialists. We have been warning people about this for decades and nobody has been listening. That it has come to this is the fault of those unwilling to see what was coming and work in solidarity against it.
When the union’s inspiration through the workers’ blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong.
.
Chorus:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong.
.
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong.
.
Chorus
.
It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made;
But the union makes us strong.
.
Chorus
.
All the world that’s owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own.
While the union makes us strong.
.
Chorus
.
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.
.
Chorus
.
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, multiplied a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the union makes us strong.
———
Now perhaps a few more folks can learn the whole song, rather than just memorizing that damn chorus…
This article made me think I should share this talk by Alec Karakatsanis, Founder and
Executive Director, Civil Rights Corps. I never heard of him until I saw him on C-SPAN recently talking about his book, “Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System”. His area is the bail system, but I was particularly interested in his ideas about how to approach systemic problems, which could apply to all systemic problems. He said people waste time trying to get elites to make systemic changes. He used gay marriage as an example of how a movement made a change, while the elites and lawyers and their arguments stayed the same over the years. Another example he gave was where people begged and begged for a systemic change in bail law, and a law was changed to apparently outlaw a bad thing, but at the same time new systems were created that kept the same problems and made them worse.
Here is the talk I saw:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?466766-1/the-complicity-lawyers-criminal-injustice-system
His Twitter feed has a flurry of interesting tweets, like this one from earlier today, referring to the sheriff who took off his helmet and marched with the protesters.
“this is the sheriff who:
-blocks Flint children from visiting their parents in his jail
-requires families to pay multi-billion $ company to talk to their loved ones
-takes a cut of the profits
-cages people who can’t pay cash
this is a propaganda war.”
https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1267855188712468481
Stop making me hope for the impossible. It’s too depressing when reality intrudes. The bankers will only allow the collapse when it is in their interests to do so, until then everything will continue as normal. Australian Aborigines will continue to live in fear, post-Covid recovery will continue to be decided by the mining and gas moguls, housing development will continue to replace the few remaining hectares of unburnt forest… [sighs]
Get out and watch some rosellas for a while. Nature is reality too.
My Fellow Transnational Elites, we are going to need another crisis to tide us through the long summer of discontent.
Let’s have race riots!
Everybody has been cooped up for months, feeling really restless and insecure, and the weather is great.
All we need is the right spark, and enough encouragement.
Then we can institute martial law, the next logical step, since self-quarantine is starting to fail.
We can maintain order as our global economy goes through the biggest reset since the Great-Depression/WW-2.
Did you make sure the bricks got sent to the protest sites, and the agents-provocateur got paid?
http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/06/a-fresh-crisis.html
That was very clever, John Day. Spot on.
Yes indeed. Amateur videos of people pushing protesters into the police line and then retreating, undercover police (?) smashing windows, document found that has instructions for the provocateurs … and the cop and the victim knew each other, having worked for a nightclub owner who is connected to the Dems.
All stinks to high heaven.
They will trash the joint rather than have Trump elected again.
He should have supported Flynn and thrown them all in Guantanamo.
Indeed, we are in the midst of a race war. A war between the bank cartel, corporate oligarchs, and their lackeys the Psychopaths In Charge on one side, and the human race on the other. Slavery never ended in the US, it just got spread out to the entire subservient population. Racial disparity is maintained as a tool of division and has nearly nothing to do with the attitude of the general population. Lest one forget, governments were, and still are the last bastion of institutional racism. They feed the black population a steady diet of “only we can save you from your white oppressors” while enslaving them to the State. Fear and division are the primary tools of tyrants. Both are being inflicted upon us at maximum capacity. Interesting how just as the folks determined that the corona flu was bullshit, and were about to restart private businesses, we got race riots to finish them off. Leaving the corporate businesses to take over. So then we work for the company, live in company owned housing, in the company town, get our meager wages from the company, buy our goods at the company store, and when the company determines we are no longer cost effective, we get sent to the company crematorium.
Caitlin once again hitting it out of the ball park.
I second that
I just worry about the short run, which could be very damaging despite the weakness that the powerful are displaying. I suspect it can’t be avoided.