Caitlin Johnstone

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Biden And His Ventriloquists Keep Out-Hawking Trump

Joe Biden keeps trying to out-warmonger Donald Trump, and by Joe Biden I of course mean the team of handlers who are animating the dementia-ravaged corpse of the Biden campaign like a ventriloquist operating a wooden dummy. In response to Trump suggesting an openness to scaling back his administration’s murderous Venezuela policy and meeting with…

Caitlin Johnstone
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Joe Biden keeps trying to out-warmonger Donald Trump, and by Joe Biden I of course mean the team of handlers who are animating the dementia-ravaged corpse of the Biden campaign like a ventriloquist operating a wooden dummy.

In response to Trump suggesting an openness to scaling back his administration’s murderous Venezuela policy and meeting with President Nicolás Maduro, whoever runs Biden’s Twitter account for him seized upon the moment to assert that the former vice president will be doing no such thing if elected commander-in-chief.

“Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro,” tweeted Biden Incorporated. “As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy.”

“Translation: if Trump retreats from his current policy of trying to sanction and suffocate Venezuelan into submission, Biden will make sure to revive it,” journalist Aaron Maté said in response.

“To be clear, Joe Biden is now attacking Donald Trump from the right on Venezuela,” said journalist Walker Bragman.

As FAIR.org’s Alan MacLeod accurately observed last year, this phrase “the Venezuelan people” is only ever invoked by the political/media class of the US-centralized empire for sloganeering purposes in support of US-led regime change interventionism in that nation, despite an overwhelming majority of Venezuelans opposing all US interventionism including sanctions.

This tactic of attacking Donald Trump for being insufficiently warlike is nothing new for Biden Inc, nor is it limited to Venezuela.

During the primary debates Biden attacked Trump for being insufficiently hawkish toward North Korea, claiming the president was wrong to meet with Kim Jong Un because it gives the leader “legitimacy”, whatever that means.

An  accused the president of being too soft on China by failing to force Beijing to allow US government officials into Wuhan to monitor the governing of a sovereign nation during a pandemic outbreak.

“Trump praised the Chinese 15 times in January and February as the coronavirus spread across the world,” says the ad’s narrator in an ominous voice. “Trump never got a CDC team on the ground in China. And the travel ban he brags about? Trump let in 40,000 travelers from China into America after he signed it. Not exactly airtight.”

Biden has attacked Trump’s partial troop withdrawal from Syria, using talking points from the so-called war on terror to absurdly claim during a primary debate that the president is putting America at risk of a terrorist strike from ISIS.

“We have ISIS that’s going to come here,” Biden said. “They are going to damage the United States of America. That’s why we got involved in the first place.”

And of course Biden & Co have been attacking Trump for being too soft on Russia, despite this administration’s many, many dangerously hawkish new cold war escalations against Moscow.

“We need a President who will stand up to the Kremlin, push back against Putin, and take immediate steps to ensure the security of our elections,” Biden’s Twitter account said last year.

This line of attack is so ubiquitous in the Biden campaign that it sometimes just takes the form of a vague, general swipe at Trump’s unwillingness to be more warlike, with an April tweet reading simply “Donald Trump says he’s a wartime president — it’s time for him to act like one.”

Again, this is Donald Trump these people are talking about. The same president who imprisoned Julian Assange for exposing US war crimes, killed tens of thousands of Venezuelans with starvation sanctions, vetoed attempts to save Yemen from US-backed genocide, is working to foment civil war in Iran using starvation sanctions and CIA ops with the stated goal of effecting regime change, nearly started a full-scale war with Iran by assassinating its top general, occupied Syrian oil fields and implemented devastating sanctions with the goal of preventing Syria’s reconstruction, greatly increased the number of troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, greatly increased the number of bombs dropped per day from the previous administration, killing record numbers of civilians, and reduced military accountability for those airstrikes.

The second-to-last thing the world needs is political pressure placed on Donald fucking Trump to be more warlike. The very last thing the world needs is a US president who ends up being even more warlike than Trump.

America is a war machine on top of a police state on top of a mass media psyop. Only people who are willing to keep these psychopathic mechanisms in place are permitted to ascend to presidential candidacy. While all the news cameras focus on the relatively minor differences between presidents and presidential candidates, you can learn a lot more about America and what drives it by looking at their similarities.

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93 responses to “Biden And His Ventriloquists Keep Out-Hawking Trump”

  1. Vince Avatar
    Vince

    If you are fussy about names, let’s just say capitalism died and was replaced with PREDATORY CAPITALISM.

  2. Jojo Avatar
    Jojo

    Remember it’s a sock puppet show. Shake the right hand puppet (Trump) and make it the bad guy for the left-supporting part of the audience (easy; just give it racist and misogyn attributes) Then left hand puppet blames right hand puppet for not being hawkish & tough enough on left-countries, thus turning the left part of the audience (who is typically more anti-war and who could potentially defend left-countries) into supporting war and war on left countries.

    We need to stop being the big-eyed sock-puppet show child audience, screaming at whoever the puppeteer tries to make us scream at.

    1. Lynn Avatar
      Lynn

      Their show’s been getting boring anyway. The characters are contrived. The conflict is no longer believable. The plot twists are too predictable. And the promised climax never arrives.
      —
      I’m leaving early. Hopefully I can get my money back.

  3. Peter in Seattle Avatar
    Peter in Seattle

    I refuse to vote for a candidate who:

    * is an aggressive supporter of coercive régime-change abroad, whether through war or sanctions

    * is hostage to the defense and surveillance industries

    * doesn’t support an egalitarian, democratic “one-state solution” for all of Israel/Palestine

    * refuses to fairly tax the super-rich

    * refuses to break up monopolies and oligopolies

    * supports giving corporations a “fresh start” through bankruptcy

    * opposes giving individuals a “fresh start” through bankruptcy

    * wants to cut and privatize Social Security and Medicare

    * opposes raising the minimum wage to anything close to a living wage

    * opposes a universal basic income

    * doesn’t support universal paid sick and family leave

    * opposes public, tax-funded Medicare for All

    * doesn’t support a dramatic improvement in statutory worker rights

    * doesn’t support measures to facilitate labor organizing

    * supports charter and private K-12 schools instead of adequately and equally funded public schools

    * opposes free public higher education

    * supports the vicious persecution of Julian Assange and other whistleblowers and dissident journalists

    * supports the fossil-fuel industry

    * won’t do jack to halt global warming (whether he acknowledges its existence or not)

    * is an inveterate liar

    * appears to be fundamentally corrupt

    * is a racist who likes either brutalizing “troublemakers” or locking them up

    * appears to be a repeat sexual harasser/predator

    * appears not to have the requisite intellectual capacity and emotional balance to hold public office

    I’m sure there are other criteria that don’t immediately come to mind, but based just on what I have given you, try to guess which candidate I refuse to vote for. You may be able to quibble on degrees of difference, or try to substitute empty lip service for substantive commitment, but I’m betting you can’t do it. I certainly can’t.

    PS: None of this misdirected “don’t vote” BS for me — I’m going to go on record as voting for a better alternative, not be written off as “undecided” or “disaffected.” In short, I’m probably voting for the Green Party candidate for the third time in a row, unless some equally acceptable, more viable candidate suddenly develops a wave of mass support. And I’m going to support ranked-choice or balanced-approval voting, so the Democratic/Republic duopoly can’t keep using the spoiler effect to bully the electorate into embracing “lesser evil” logic. (Funny how both evils keep ratcheting further and further toward inverted fascism.) The voters of Maine managed to pull it off, so there’s hope for other states with citizens-initiative processes.

    1. minecritter Avatar
      minecritter

      I’m with you. One thing I’d like to see people add to their list of deal-breakers is:

      I refuse to vote for a candidate who:
      * refuses to debate the Green candidate
      (or refuses to debate any other candidate who is on the correct side of all these listed issues, and thus necessarily outside the two-party system.)

      1. Peter in Seattle Avatar
        Peter in Seattle

        @Minecritter: Yes! If I cared to dwell on it, I’d probably be coming up with additional criteria for weeks to come. For example: “is not being blackmailed by Israeli military intelligence and the CIA thanks to kompromat provided by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.” ;-( The real challenge is figuring out what I’d be willing to compromise on.

        By the way, while Tara Reade may have lied about her expert-witness credentials, I still believe the substance of her allegations against Joe Biden. In one sense, the upshot is: lie about your educational credentials in court to earn a living after being driven out of DC, forfeit all recourse for the sexual harassment that drove you out of DC; lie about your educational credentials behind a podium to con the electorate out of money and votes, get the Democratic presidential nomination. Yeah, I know: she was under oath; he wasn’t. It’s such a shame when victims aren’t perfect…

        1. Peter in Seattle Avatar
          Peter in Seattle

          Oops! “IS being blackmailed”! Forgot we were talking about deal-breakers for a second there!

        2. minecritter Avatar
          minecritter

          Yes. I think I could compromise on almost anything except “is bought off by my enemies”, which is possibly the mother of all the other issues. I swear, a flock of pigeons pecking out decisions at random would do less damage than the whores of oligarchy who are actively trying to make things worse.

          And I think even if Tara Reade’s alleged lies were proven, she is still far less a liar than Biden. I therefore find her a thousand times more credible than him.

          And why can’t we make politicians make their campaign promises under oath? It’s driven me crazy for decades that they just lie and get away with it. Why can’t we sue for fraud or something?

  4. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    The day John F. Kennedy was shot and killed most of my co-workers, and I, already knew that he was killed by members of the United States government that never allow anyone to not take their orders. President Kennedy served as the ” example ” to all future presidents and politicians alike that the ” United States deep state ” kills all its enemies; regardless of the ” sin ” you, may or may not, have committed. Every now and then Mr. Jacob Hornberger writes articles about the JFK homicide and puts up links to some fine books about it.
    This latest article and its links are here:
    Fear in the JFK Assassination, Part 2 (of 2) by Jacob G. Hornberger!
    https://www.fff.org/2020/06/23/fear-in-the-jfk-assassination-part-2-of-2/

  5. M Schmidt Avatar
    M Schmidt

    Americans like to eat meat, but they do not want to see or know what happens to the animals. When people think that they need something that requires unpleasantness, they accept the violence even though they do not like it. After all, most of the animals on this beautiful earth, kill and eat each other.

    If 51% of Americans are content – with decent income, health care, etc., then a good question is whether they have any interest in knowing what happens to others who are used as means to getting what is needed and consumed – even when “wants” become the “needs” of prosperity. They may say that they do, on the phone, but not in the voting booth.

    Maybe a characteristic of a well-off human being, is an innate human understanding that the “other”, would not care about them, if the shoe were to be on the other foot. Capitalism is founded on the hope that this understanding is innate, or that it can become innate with time and proper marketing.

    The CEO who makes 500 times what a worker makes, is telling the worker that the worker would say nothing, zilch, if the roles were reversed. If workers agree, what sense is there in a labor union?

    This innate human understanding would explain slavery, racism, capitalism, war, police violence, you name it.

    Is there someone on earth who believes that all men are created equal? This idea was highjacked by capitalism to make winning fun.

    Everyone can see that an animal can be used as a means to sustenance, and everyone can see that capitalism allows a human to be used as a means to sustenance and a yacht.
    The question is whether capitalism can ever work as a means to sustenance for humans, instead of humans being used as means to a yacht. When people say that poor humans are treated like animals, they are underestimating in some ways.

    Those who advise not to vote for a D or R, probably think that capitalism will never work, I am guessing. Then, the next question is whether the problem is that human beings generally cannot live without desiring wealth and power, or that 1% of humans have insane levels of these desires?

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      You act like capitalism is the problem with the world. How do you explain all other commercial and financial systems in history just as unfair. It is not the system of capitalism but the human system of piwer over others. All systems are corrupted by the system of power. The real question is whether the medium standard of living is better or worse than other times in history. If better than be thankful you were not an indentured servant in 1700 who sold 7 years of their life to get out of Europe.

      1. M Schmidt Avatar
        M Schmidt

        I refer to capitalism because that is what we have, and I did not blame capitalism for anything, other than doing exactly what it should be expected to do.

        I certainly hope that living according the golden rule is not an impossibility for humans.

        My question was whether the people that are doing fine in America today, care enough about those that are not. The focus is typically put on the apparent fact that billionaires and oligarchs do not care; but, my question is whether 50% of America cares.

        1. M Schmidt Avatar
          M Schmidt

          Support from the upper half of America for BLM is an encouraging sign that more of the well-off are taking an interest in BLM causes, but note that the changes being discussed do not cost them much, if anything. This Is not to be negative, but just to note.

          On the right, the story is that BLM is part of an organized anarchist network that wants to “take your property away and give to other people.”

          How far we have come; it used to be that the blacks were the property, and the Democrats were warning about a so-called Underground Railroad.

    2. Newton Finn Avatar
      Newton Finn

      Thank you for these astute observations, opinions, and questions. In his “Philosophy of Civilization,” Albert Schweitzer, famous for formulating the elemental value of “reverence for life,” insisted that although what you describe is an accurate thumbnail sketch of human reality/history, we are not locked into the present/past but have the capacity for moral and spiritual progress. He also said that this was the most difficult task–this believing beyond all evidence–required by the human spirit. I have the feeling, apparently shared by Caitlin, that we’re now in the painful and precarious process of finding out whether Schweitzer was right.

  6. elkojohn Avatar
    elkojohn

    Sad but true.
    We who are about to die salute you.

  7. peter mcloughlin Avatar
    peter mcloughlin

    As long as the aim is power the result will ultimately be war. Power (manifested as interest) has been present in every conflict of the past – no exception. It is the underlying motivation for war. Other cultural factors might change, but not power. It cuts across all apparently unifying principles: family, kin, nation, religion, ideology, politics – everything. We unite with the enemies of our principles, because that is what serves our interest. It is power, not any of the above concepts, that is the cause of war. And it has eventually brought every empire/civilization to its own destruction. That is why – regardless of who wins November’s election – humanity still faces the prospect of another world war. For more information on this search: ghosts of history wordpress.

  8. John Day Avatar
    John Day

    Abstractions are completely different from living experiences.
    I’m sorry to print something so mundane and obvious as that, but “we” collectively are not making physical investments in our own futures for a world with rapidly declining oil and other forms of energy. This energy decline is already evident as less of everything we assume our environment will supply.
    Less order, less transportation of ourselves and things we need, less medical back-up, less income, less electricity, less reliable communication and news, more desperation, more sudden changes.
    Current politics in America are identitarian, and there are sharp divides over wearing masks, or being forced to wear masks, but that is more symbolic, and it does not provide a basis for feeding ourselves in the future, or keeping the desperation levels low enough for people to rationally cooperate to meet common needs.
    Where did the rational cooperation go, which brought our species to this point? I’ll put forward that it works against the power of our elite owners for us to rationally cooperate with each other. They need us to pay tribute, follow their orders and hate each other, though mostly passively.
    That sweet spot for our owners, which we see around us, cannot last very long, but how can we cooperate?
    I propose just working together to grow food. That’s why I’m growing 3 gardens, canning some food, cooking fresh food, and giving it away, or encouraging coworkers to harvest things, explaining what they are. At least some more interest has developed as everybody who works at the North Clinic has to enter through the vegetable garden in the break area, now. Human flows have been rerouted for social distancing, but it has conversely increased vegetable-proximity.
    I’ve included a photograph in the clinic garen from last October, a long time ago, a different moment in history.
    It’s a good time to make the same point that I learned in early 1974, about stuff running out after we learn to live off it.

    I last posted this annotated graph from The Limits To Growth, 1972, in September 2017. Put a straight edge on 2020, and see if you feel like we went over the cliff of human material wealth per capita a few years ago, or at least that we are in some kind of rapid decline already.
    I sure do.
    Please allow me to direct your consciousness back to MIT 1972, where the third iteration of the most advanced systems-analysis computer model, World-3, produced the projected graphs below, of what our species would achieve on our planet, if we kept doing things about the same, without a concerted and global redirection of our efforts, “Business as Usual”. Notice the red line on this graph, marking peak industrial output and food per person. It looks like it falls right about 2014 or 2015. This was not a “prediction”, as the authors stated many times, but a forward projection of historical trends, with the interactions of the trends correlated into each other, rather than being projected in isolation, as if everything else would remain the same. World-1 and World-2 programs had been tested and retested, then further refined to develop World-3. Running the data with a start date of 1900 predicted the 20th century pretty well, including the part that had not yet happened. Limits to growth was a hot topic in 1971, the year that US oil production peaked, just as M. King Hubbert had predicted in the 1950s. We were feeling a lot of change then. I remember. We were surprised, and didn’t want to be surprised again. Remember?
    Move your gaze about halfway between that red line and the marker for 2020, down on the x-axis.
    That’s where Wile-E-Coyote looked down. Do you think it was 2016 or 2017?
    http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/06/nobodys-in-charge.html

    1. khatika Avatar
      khatika

      Some think this covid lockdown is to cover many sins so to speak including world energy consumption.

  9. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    The USA is ready to walk back on forcing Juan Guaido on the Venezuelan people only because it needs Venezuela’s oil. American refineries are desperate for medium to heavy crudes, which are mixed in the refining process with lighter oil such as West Texas Intermediate WTI) and shale oil. Both are too light for refineries to use them on their own. So in the last few months, the USA has bought record amounts of Urals crude from…Russia. Hey; aren’t they the enemy?? Well, not really, but America needs an enemy, and they and China are it. Doesn’t affect buying from them when we need stuff, though – sanctions be damned.

    Why, America? Well, you know why. Because Uncle Sam sanctioned the shit out of Venezuela, and shut its oil shipments down to nothing. Including the heavy crude that used to go to American refineries, and which they need. Live by the sword, die by stepping on your own dick.

    1. John Day Avatar
      John Day

      US shale will fall after September because rig counts have fallen, can’t get up, and a massive drop in output is baked-in for the next 2 or more years. I think, forever. So does Art Berman: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/US-Oil-Dominance-Is-Coming-To-An-End.html

  10. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    There is a saying, “All is well that ends well”. By establishing a conflict thesis of American history, America – in the view of the left – can rectify its past wrongs by righting the same wrongs around the world.
    Never mind that these past wrongs are not, by their own measure, solved in America. These left Americans see themselves not as Americans acting in Americas interests, but as enlightened people with a right to fix other countrys problems, whether or not those problems really exist and regardless of whether those lowly and unevolved people actually want it. After they are uplifted and re-educated, they will look back and thank us.
    This in a nutshell is the mindset of the imperial progressive. This is the sort of thinking that has no place in an international community based on mutual respect and sovereignty.
    This greast article can be read here:
    The Problem With How the Regime-Change American Left Sees the World and Themselves by Joaquin Flores!
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/06/22/problem-with-how-regime-change-american-left-sees-world-and-themselves/

    1. pretzelattack Avatar
      pretzelattack

      the imperialists aren’t leftist. they’re right wing neliberals, and they use the same bullshit the 19th century imperialists did. when a country to falls to their plots, they try to impose a chicago economics style market on it, like they did in russia.

      1. khatika Avatar
        khatika

        thats s new term right wing neoliberals. Sort of covers all the bases. Supposed they are fascists and racists too.

        1. pretzelattack Avatar
          pretzelattack

          not really, the clinton/obama types are often referred to as neoliberals, and they were right wingers, constantly pushing the actual policies desired by their donors and the republicans while engaging in political theater on the social identity front.

          1. khatika Avatar
            khatika

            I guess from a communist point of view everyone is right wing so I guess it makes sense.

            1. pretzelattack Avatar
              pretzelattack

              no just from a traditional american point of view. both sides wanted war with iraq, a right wing position, both parties wanted war in syria, a right wing position, both lavish money on the military and bail out big corporations, right wing positions.

              1. Khatika Avatar
                Khatika

                please explain why the left cannot do all those things as well. Such as Russia invading Afghanistan in th 80s. Are you saying Communist Russia in the 80s was right wing.

            2. minecritter Avatar
              minecritter

              Are you familiar with The Political Compass? I ask because I often wish people could use political words like “left” and “right” in a consistent way, and The Political Compass explains a lot. It divides political values into two dimensions, using “left” and “right” to describe economic values, and “authoritarian” and “libertarian” to describe social values.

              https://www.politicalcompass.org/

        2. ML Avatar
          ML

          “That’s a new term right wing neoliberals.” Not New. No indeed, not at all.

  11. minecritter Avatar
    minecritter

    An interesting angle from psychologist Bruce Levine the other day:

    “While the greater of two evils is a risk, so too is a lifetime of fear-based decision making. If we repeatedly deceive ourselves that we are compromising when we are in fact obliterating our integrity, there are consequences. We can become so broken that we are incapable of creating popular movements. We can become so broken that when those Brownshirts start marching, we will lack the strength to kick the shit out of them.”

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/19/lesser-of-two-evils-chomsky-vs-greenwald-and-the-ignored-factor/

    1. Edward Avatar
      Edward

      I think there is supposed to be a game theory argument against lesser evil voting.

  12. minecritter Avatar
    minecritter

    I’ve never voted for a Republican in my life. If I was still dumb enough to get tricked into voting for the Establishment by voting for Democrats or Republicans, I’d be trying to figure out which is the less competent evil. If Biden were on his own, he seems more mentally feeble, but Biden + Biden’s handlers seem more competent at carrying out evil than Trump + Trump’s handlers.

  13. A Avatar
    A

    Well said Caitlin.

    No one has commented that it is obvious from Biden’s Twitter photo that he has been gagged.

  14. Roy Avatar
    Roy

    So of course the Queen beheads a talking head, then replaces her with another talking head more to her liking and the people will never notice any difference.

  15. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
    Tired and no longer active revolutionary

    Can someone please explain to me why people argue about candidates, politics and voting when all that does nothing to improve the world?

  16. Bill Avatar
    Bill

    For all of who will not vote please do not do that. Go vote and vote for Biden

    If you really don’t care who wins at least get Trump out of the White House. That would be at least one possible positive outcome.

    At least it’s not Trump anymore.

    In one way they are not equal and that is at least Biden will not be empowering the religious right in this country.
    That will be a HUGE positive.

    1. Lynn Avatar
      Lynn

      Two cognitive dissonances:
      —
      1. As if we have anything to do with who becomes president.
      2. As if the president decides anything.

    2. Michael Avatar
      Michael

      Personally, I’m rooting for Trump in order to further the revolution. The Dems will just co-opt it and we’ll all just be back in the Matrix with our little blue pills in hand.

      1. John Day Avatar
        John Day

        We get to have 3 Trump-Biden debates this fall. That’s what they say. How could that possibly happen at all? What will really happen instead? Will it be televised?

        1. khatika Avatar
          khatika

          SNL is going to hsve a field day running sketches on the debates.

      2. khatika Avatar
        khatika

        Again. Put on your mask, line up for your forced vaccination. It must be ok because the republicans says its good and they would not lie to you.

    3. khatika Avatar
      khatika

      trump derangement syndrome. The system has you thinking exactly the way they want. Put on your mask, get your forced vaccinations. Its ok. The democrats approved it. Has to be good.

    4. Iron Felix Avatar
      Iron Felix

      Politically mature people understand the difference between the outright fascists around Trump actively advocating war against China and the garden variety imperialists around Biden. Our problem is not whether to vote for Biden, but he fact that the crisis of imperialism will continue as it did under Obama while the the crisis facing the working class worsens preparing the soil for a REAL fascist president rather than a half-assed one like Trump.

    5. Lynn Avatar
      Lynn

      People drone on and on about voting A for president, get B out of office, C will bring on more socialism, D will bring us war, E is lying to us, F will bring on more fascism, etc. etc. blah blah.
      —
      Let me blunt. The election process is rigged. The politicians are mere puppets on strings. The hidden powers want us to think voting matters, that some politicians are better than others. (Or the lesser of two evils.)
      —
      We will never move on from this formulaic system as long as we think in the terms they feed us. Fortunately many people are waking up to this.

  17. Michael P Goldenberg Avatar
    Michael P Goldenberg

    The ability and propensity of the DNC and its puppets to tack to the right of Trump over and over is a remarkable bit of political seamanship. In case you don’t know semaphore or flag code, they’re signaling unambiguously, “Don’t vote for us! We’re going to double down on every failed idea from the 2016 campaign, win or lose (preferably the latter). Count on us to red bait you if you don’t swallow every drop of xenophobic nonsense we pour for you. We still keep a 1951 calendar on our office wall and do nightly ceremonies to try to revive Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and Dick Nixon.

    Oh, and vote for us. Because. . . Trump!

  18. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    Tomorrow is ” primary day ” here in New York and we ” public peons ” get to choose whichever pile of shit has the least amount of odor to it. No leadership is ever needed; all a politician has to do is to get your knee jerking for your vote. It does not look good for humanity at all.

  19. Edward Avatar
    Edward

    This is the same Biden that wants us to believe he has repented from lying to the American public about Iraqi WMD when he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Presumably he is taking these positions at the behest of some interest groups. Who are they? After the failure of the 2016 Clinton campaign one would think Biden would be careful about taking hawkish positions. Why does he seem comfortable imitating the Clinton campaign? Its weird. What is going on behind the scenes?

    1. khatika Avatar
      khatika

      Hes being honest. He just doesnt remember any of it. 🙂

      1. Evelyn Avatar
        Evelyn

        If you are old enough……Remember back in 1988, Uncle Joe was caught plagiarizing his speeches….then it came out that he plagiarized his college thesis? He was forced to drop out of the presidential campaign. What changed….why is he now elevated to the top of the dems’ list? He is still the same man who plagiarized words from JFK, RFK and others.

  20. Lynn Avatar
    Lynn

    Your article’s last paragraph sums it up perfectly.
    —
    So… if a politician calls in the media, and no one is around to hear them, do they still sound ridiculous?

  21. John Knox Avatar
    John Knox

    They seem to go after foreign countries just to prove they can. Almost like a cop kneeling on someone’s neck after he has no pulse just to prove to the onlookers that he has the power to do whatever he wants.

  22. Michael Schmidt Avatar
    Michael Schmidt

    The political picture in American in the year 2020: two old men who both say dumb, cringeworthy things, and the winner will be the one who meant to say the cringeworthy things, because the other guy must be senile. This will be entertaining enough to keep three quarters of America content for now.

  23. Carolyn Zaremba Avatar
    Carolyn Zaremba

    It was the Obama administration that went after Julian Assange. Trump merely supported that persecution and added to it.

    1. Lloyd Avatar
      Lloyd

      It continues to be, IMHO, a Globalist controlled Intelligence Agencies Cabal that has kept JA locked up one way or another whether isolated in some embassy or in some cold dark cell. These are multi-generational organizations which remain the true power behind those totally owned, generally piddling, term limited sock puppets which show up daily at the White House between rounds of golf and pretend to govern things as the U.S. Executive Branch “administration”. One cannot blame Obama or Trump… they’re just playing along for the short ride. JA’s fate remains as providing an example of “what happens” when one cracks the shell of the DISC. DISC stands for “Distributed Idea Suppression Complex.”

      1. Ethan Allen Avatar
        Ethan Allen

        Neither the world-class courage or the journalistic professionalism of Julian Assange deserves to be sublimated or ignorantly denigrated by the hyperbolic rantings of pretend ideological warriors of any imagined persuasion. One might consider: ‘When was the last time Julian Assange was observed speaking or writing such overt inanities, on any topic, as those that so often appear on this site? (Citations accepted)
        As Usual,
        EA

  24. Rick3 Avatar
    Rick3

    The experiment with capuchin monkeys is interesting. About 6 mins in https://www.peakprosperity.com/the-fed-may-be-worse-than-covid-19/?utm_source=Peak+Prosperity+Newsletter&utm_campaign=f0f82920dd-weekly-peak-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d77483a02b-f0f82920dd-144584209

  25. Newton Finn Avatar
    Newton Finn

    After reading one of Caitlin’s classic lines–“America is a war machine on top of a police state on top of a mass media psyop”–I stumbled upon the brief snippet from Zizek linked below. In different ways, I think they’re talking about the same thing: how the neoliberal system is vulnerable to revolutionary change only if it is undermined on the digital level. How one goes about that, other than doing what Caitlin and Zizek do in deconstructing MSM narratives and offering alternative ones, is a vexing question. But I’m certain that the Great Covid Freeze and its aftermath will play into the answer, if there is one, in ways not yet imaginable.

    1. Jp Jude Avatar
      Jp Jude

      I’ve heard this before, and I don’t disagree, but I really don’t think there is an understanding of what is going on with kids (and, yeah, I mean children). A bunch of kids, like K-pop fans, took over the Trump rally by pre-registration via tiktok. I don’t even know what that is, but Trump clearly thought a million people had pre-registered to attend his rally. It didn’t even fill an arena. In some ways, the adults are worried about Google, Facebook and Twitter but the kids have already moved onto instagram, tiktok, and manipulating slack. As much as the conversation is about digital control, I think there are more serious whispers of what can’t be controlled. Maybe I’m naive, but, I kind of think Trotsky’s pillars of society (utilities, post office, trains) haven’t really changed, we just think they have…

  26. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    What I like about Venezuelan baseball players is the fact that they always sign themselves with the sign of the Cross before going to bat.

    And they are probably the best baseball players in the world.

    I hope we will have some baseball to watch soon…

    Keeping my Rosary on hand!

    1. Anarcissie Avatar
      Anarcissie

      Doesn’t seem fair to pull God into your baseball team.

  27. jmg Avatar
    jmg

    “Politics is the entertainment branch of industry”
    — Frank Zappa, 1987

    1. Glen Avatar
      Glen

      As it turns out, I am listening to Weasels Ripped My Flesh as I am reading these comments.

      1. John Day Avatar
        John Day

        “It can’t happen HERE!” FZ

        1. jmg Avatar
          jmg

          Who could imagine that
          They would freak out in
          Minnesota…
          Mimimimimimimi Minnesota,
          Minnesota, Minnesota
          Who could imagine…
          Who could imagine
          That they would freak out
          In Washington, D.C.
          It can’t happen here
          Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
          It can’t happen here
          Everybody’s safe and it
          Can’t happen here
          No freaks for us
          It can’t happen here
          Everybody’s clean and it
          Can’t happen here
          No, no, it won’t happen here
          I’m telling you it can’t
          It won’t happen here
          Bop bop didi bop didi bop bop bop
          — Frank Zappa: It Can’t Happen Here, 1966

        2. Ethan Allen Avatar
          Ethan Allen

          Re: Mike K on June 23 @ 4:15 Pm pct
          While I can empathise with your decision to step on your own neck and suffocate yourself, it strikes me as incredibly ignorant and disrespectful to employ the quotation of the dying words of a helpless victim of a police murder simply to embellish a snarky comment.
          {The following is a repost of the original post as I attempted to offer it. The commenting facility on this site leaves much to be desired.}
          Attn:
          John Day – If this reply appears as a response to your posting, that was not my intention. For some unknown reason to me, after several attempts to address this reply to the correct poster, Mike K., this system only offered the options of posting a reply to John Day or cancel reply.
          As Usual,
          EA

          Re: CAITLIN JOHNSTONE (AUTHOR) on June 22 @4:15 PM PCT

          Your commenter “CAROL”, very unfortunately, appears to not have “skipped over a key paragraph” in claiming;
          ”CAROL / JUNE 22, 2020
          And your calling him ¨Donald fucking Trump¨is really helping the situation, isn’t it? Tell me exactly, what option de we have? You listed all the things Trump has done to deescalate war and then call him ¨fucking Trump¨. Wake up Caitilin. You are a brilliant writer. Its time you used common sense.”
          She evidently has a reading comprehension problem at best, or possibly some variation of Trumpian penchant for serial dissembling.
          However, your positioning of the April 18 tweet (a comment that referred to Trump’s handling of the CoVid virus), your “key paragraph”, and its follow-on hyperbolic claim of some imagined equivalency between Trump and Biden stating that Biden “…is a US president who ends up being even more warlike than Trump.”

          “Donald Trump says he’s a wartime president — it’s time for him to act like one.

          — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 18, 2020

          Again, this is Donald Trump these people are talking about. The same president who imprisoned Julian Assange for exposing US war crimes, killed tens of thousands of Venezuelans with starvation sanctions, vetoed attempts to save Yemen from US-backed genocide, is working to foment civil war in Iran using starvation sanctions and CIA ops with the stated goal of effecting regime change, nearly started a full-scale war with Iran by assassinating its top general, occupied Syrian oil fields and implemented devastating sanctions with the goal of preventing Syria’s reconstruction, greatly increased the number of troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, greatly increased the number of bombs dropped per day from the previous administration, killing record numbers of civilians, and reduced military accountability for those airstrikes.
          The second-to-last thing the world needs is political pressure placed on Donald fucking Trump to be more warlike. The very last thing the world needs is a US president who ends up being even more warlike than Trump.”

          I am, and will probably remain, an admirer of your writing and observations; especially your wise and insightful thoughts on the structure of narratives. That being said, when reason succumbs to rhetoric or ideological imaginings, the sacrifice of truth and understanding follow shortly thereafter.
          As Usual,
          EA

  28. Harry S Nydick Avatar
    Harry S Nydick

    I cannot, in good conscience, vote for either Biden or trump. Trying to choose the lesser of two evils is a daunting task. voting for either is foolhardy, for no degree of evil belongs in the White House.
    I have detested Trump for 30 years and Biden is an even bigger war monger, a proven racist (no matter what he says and what African Americans in South Carolina believe him to be), has a background of inappropriate sexual advances and helped Bill Clinton create the for-profit prison system, as well as get the Glass-Steagall Act repealed, thereby laying the groundwork for the Great Recession of 2008.

    1. Anarcissie Avatar
      Anarcissie

      Okay, but besides not voting, or voting for a third party, what can we do to stop Biden’s warmongering? I’d suggest trying to split the Biden camp on the issue. That means exacting a potential cost for the war crap. Biden and company, if they’re sane, want to attract at least a few lefties; the price of admission is foregoing the warmongering, among other things. Silence is violence. Hound Biden about the issue. Show the links between racism at home and imperialism abroad, because by God they’re there.

  29. Pap-a-lap Avatar
    Pap-a-lap

    To that legion of establishmentarians trying to convince us to vote for the lesser of evils in November: even if I shared your certainty as to which candidate actually fills that bill, you’re wasting your breath on me. Call me an idealist, but I draw the line at mass murder.

    1. ML Avatar
      ML

      Every time I see your moniker, I think of the many times I had to do Pap smears on 15-25 patients a day. Doing laps, with Paps. Glad those days are long gone. 😉

  30. pretzelattack Avatar
    pretzelattack

    well, i’m not going to vote for either one, and both keep reinforcing this decision.

  31. Zarayna Pradyer Avatar
    Zarayna Pradyer

    As a Brit, I hold my head in shame – The Bank of England decides not to hand over Venezuela’s gold to Venezuela?

    https://wp.me/pIUmC-QMi

    1. Glen Avatar
      Glen

      What are your thoughts on the Elgin Marbles?

      1. Zarayna Pradyer Avatar
        Zarayna Pradyer

        Hi Glen,
        I honestly have few thoughts on the Elgin marbles – more concerned over the Sphynx’s beard which the last time I heard was stored in the basement of the British Museum so no one can actually see or admire it.
        These are deep issues we ponder and I doubt I know enough to offer sensible thoughts but thanks for asking me.

  32. Newton Finn Avatar
    Newton Finn

    Let’s all sing it together. “Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber fields of grain, for endless war and killer cops and media gone insane. America, America, God’s turned his face from thee. There’s little good, no brotherhood, from sea to dying sea.”

    1. mike k Avatar
      mike k

      I like it! Fill in the rest of the lyrics and you have a hit on your hands.

      1. Newton Finn Avatar
        Newton Finn

        Thanks, Mike. Should be “amber WAVES of grain. I’ll try to flesh it out if Caitlin will sing it.

  33. ROBERT B HAVERS Avatar
    ROBERT B HAVERS

    Donald fucking Trump or Joseph fucking Biden. It will make no fucking difference to American fucking foreign policy.

  34. Joseph Olson Avatar
    Joseph Olson

    Obombie & Reptillary used CIA, Operation Zero Footprint to arm the big mo overthrows in Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt and Libya. In Libya, NATO dropped 60,000 bombs, destroyed every school, hospital and power plant. After killing tens of thousands, CIA Operation Timber Sycamore diverted Libya weapons to Syria, where they killed half a million. The two party puppet show is a threat to all humanity, and bidet Biden is a pathetic artifact of imperialism.

  35. Alan Ross Avatar
    Alan Ross

    How can anyone expect men and women of the real (as opposed to faux) left to vote for such a warmonger?
    I believe the strategy is to make Biden so unappealing that the left will not fight like crazy when, after Biden will consent to being put into a high class nursing home, Cuomo is brokered in at the Democratic Convention. The problem is that Cuomo created the medical equipment and hospital capacity shortages in New York that he supposedly worked so “heroically” to remedy during the COVID crisis. Furthermore, this creep pushed through reactionary revisions of the great criminal justice reforms in the budget. As a stark opportunist he is capable of anything! Establishment Democrat would prefer Trump or even Pinochet to Bernie. So what is next?

  36. jo6pac Avatar
    jo6pac

    What a choice the trumpster crime family or the biden crime family.

    1. Evelyn Avatar
      Evelyn

      Trump is not a politician. As he said, he ran for office only once and became president! Biden has not ‘held a non-political office for a number of decades. Since Dr. Paul is not running, DJT is the better choice.

  37. khatika Avatar
    khatika

    Good article. The president is just a figurehead for the regime. The regime can be slowed somewhat or accelerated based on the president but its mission never changes and it is never swayed from its self designated course. Years ago policy would slightly wobble from a democrat to republican administrstion. Now it is largely unchanged. Hence I have stopped voting.

    1. JWK Avatar
      JWK

      Bravo! Voting is just an offer to justify their abuse. If no one voted, from where would they draw their authority?

      1. Martin Avatar
        Martin

        from the evangelicals that will vote for trump

  38. Carol Avatar
    Carol

    And your calling him ¨Donald fucking Trump¨is really helping the situation, isn’t it? Tell me exactly, what option de we have? You listed all the things Trump has done to deescalate war and then call him ¨fucking Trump¨. Wake up Caitilin. You are a brilliant writer. Its time you used common sense.

    1. patronize bot 3000 Avatar
      patronize bot 3000

      And your nitpicking Caitlin is really helping the situation, isn’t I? Caitlin listed all the things trump has done to murder people and then calls him “fucking trump”. Wake up Carol. You are brilliant at something. It’s time you used common sense.

      1. khatika Avatar
        khatika

        Think about it. Trump does alot of photo op things and talks alot but has deescalated nothing when it comes to Americas foreign policy.

        1. Fire Rabbit Avatar
          Fire Rabbit

          BS…Trump has deescalated for Russia, and North Korea…if Hillary was put in office we would already be at war with these other countries. Give credit where credit is due.

          1. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
            Caitlin Johnstone

            Trump has greatly escalated with Russia.
            https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/19/25-times-trump-has-been-dangerously-hawkish-on-russia/

    2. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
      Caitlin Johnstone

      You appear to have skipped over a key paragraph.

      1. Ethan Allen Avatar
        Ethan Allen

        Re: CAITLIN JOHNSTONE (AUTHOR) 1 PM PCT

        Your commenter “CAROL”, very unfortunately, appears to not have “skipped over a key paragraph” in claiming;
        ” ” She evidently has a reading comprehension problem at best, or possibly some variation of Trumpian penchant for serial dissembling.
        However, your positioning of the April 18 tweet (a comment that referred to Trump’s handling of the CoVid virus), your “key paragraph”, and its follow-on hyperbolic claim of some imagined equivalency between Trump and Biden stating that Biden “…is a US president who ends up being even more warlike than Trump.”

        “Donald Trump says he’s a wartime president — it’s time for him to act like one.

        — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 18, 2020

        Again, this is Donald Trump these people are talking about. The same president who imprisoned Julian Assange for exposing US war crimes, killed tens of thousands of Venezuelans with starvation sanctions, vetoed attempts to save Yemen from US-backed genocide, is working to foment civil war in Iran using starvation sanctions and CIA ops with the stated goal of effecting regime change, nearly started a full-scale war with Iran by assassinating its top general, occupied Syrian oil fields and implemented devastating sanctions with the goal of preventing Syria’s reconstruction, greatly increased the number of troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, greatly increased the number of bombs dropped per day from the previous administration, killing record numbers of civilians, and reduced military accountability for those airstrikes.
        The second-to-last thing the world needs is political pressure placed on Donald fucking Trump to be more warlike. The very last thing the world needs is a US president who ends up being even more warlike than Trump.”

        I am, and will probably remain, an admirer your writing and observations; especially your wise and insightful thoughts on the structure of narratives. That being said, when reason succumbs to rhetoric or ideological imaginings, the sacrifice of truth and understanding follow shortly thereafter.
        As Usual,
        EA

        1. mike k Avatar
          mike k

          Dear Ethan, your convoluted critique of who knows whom leaves me moaning “I can’t breathe”.

    3. Glen Avatar
      Glen

      Yes people. It costs nothing to be polite. Let’s all behave nicely, those nasty people will just come to their senses. It’s called inoffensive nonresistance.

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