Back in April I said “China’s gonna be so surprised when it finds out it interfered in the November election.”

Now three months ahead of schedule China is already getting its surprise, alongside fellow unabsorbed governments Iran and Russia.

Mass media throughout the western world are uncritically passing along a press release from the US intelligence community, because that’s what passes for journalism in a world where God is dead and everything is stupid.

The press release, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and authored by National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina, claims that Russia wants Donald Trump to win re-election in November and is pushing to advance than goal, while China and Iran are doing the same with Joe Biden.

China

“We assess that China prefers that President Trump – whom Beijing sees as unpredictable – does not win reelection,” the press release reads. “China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China.”

Russia

“We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment,’” the press release claims. “Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.”

Iran

“We assess that Iran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections,” says the press release. “Iran’s efforts along these lines probably will focus on on-line influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content. Tehran’s motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trump’s reelection would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change.”

What this completely unsubstantiated narrative means, of course, is that no matter who wins in November America’s opaque government agencies will have already primed the nation for more dangerous escalations against countries which have resisted being absorbed into the blob of the US-centralized empire. If Trump wins we can expect his administration to continue its escalations against Russia in retaliation for its 2020 “election interference”, and if Biden wins we can expect his cabinet of Obama administration holdovers to ramp up escalations against China in the same way while Joe mumbles to himself off to the side as his brain turns to chowder.

There is never a legitimate reason to believe any unproven claim made by unaccountable spook agencies about US-targeted governments, but even if everything in this press release were true it’s an incredibly stupid thing to care about. The influence that Russia, China or Iran could exert over public opinion in the United States is a tiny fraction of that which is exerted by the unaccountable US billionaire media every single day, which already has its own factions pushing for Biden over Trump and Trump over Biden. Adding some foreign social media operations into the mix would change literally nothing.

Secondly, as the press release itself acknowledges, the US is openly pushing regime change in Iran. It is already engaging in various acts of economic warfare against all three of the named governments, and it openly interfered in Russia’s elections in the nineties to a far greater extent than anything it has even accused Russia of doing. The US government’s own data shows that it is the very worst election meddler in the world by an extremely wide margin, which would make it a perfectly legitimate target for election interference by any nation on earth.

Lastly, the dumbest thing about believing foreign nations are interfering in American democracy is believing America has any democracy to interfere with. The integrity of US elections ranks dead last among all western democracies, public opinion is constantly  which has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo which keeps them rich and powerful, and it’s a  where both  advance the same establishment agendas.

Imagine believing that foreign leaders are looking at the dumpster fire that is the United States and thinking “I know how we can hurt them! We’ll sow division by saying mean things about their presidential candidates on social media!”

It’s the dumbest thing in the world. Yet all the establishment narrative managers are jumping on this intelligence community press release as a real thing that we should all be excited about.

All this hand-wringing and arm-waving about foreign interference on social media comes as social media itself makes policy changes to ensure that only western governments are allowed to conduct propaganda on its platforms, with Twitter instituting a new policy of labeling accounts from unabsorbed governments as “state-affiliated media” while placing no labels or restrictions on any accounts with extensive western government ties.

The overall message in all this is that only western government agencies and oligarchs may conduct propaganda on those who live in the US-centralized empire. It should enrage us all that these unaccountable abusers feel so entitled to insert their rapey fingers in our minds and manipulate how we think, act and vote that they get all chest-thumpy about the idea of anyone else getting a word in edgewise. They do this because they understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world, and there is no amount of evil they won’t do to ensure that they continue to control the world.

The reason sociopaths are able to insert themselves so easily into positions of power and influence in human civilization is because highly manipulative people with no empathy quickly learn that society is dominated by narrative, while the rest of us do not understand this. This must change before we will be able to create a healthy world.

_________________________

Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my , which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on , following my antics on throwing some money into my tip jar on  or , purchasing some of my , buying my books  and . For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, . Everyone, racist platforms excluded,  to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

Liked it? Take a second to support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

68 responses to “US Intelligence: If Trump Wins Russia Did It, If Biden Wins It Was China And Iran”

  1. The rigging is done by both parties from the start, with both parties controlled by the global corporate elite.

    Trump vs Biden. Mafia Don vs Demented Joe. Pure Evil vs Diverse Evil

    Frankly, it looks like Trump is the chosen one of both parties. Democrats not even trying to win here. Just hand Trump the crown and let him pass it on to Ivanka when he goes. Enough of the 2 party nonsense.

    Democracy requires a minimum collective intelligence among its voters. We have fallen far below the minimum. Enough already.

  2. Influence the US elections? Every time I read something on that topic, I do a double take. How can intelligent people discuss big politics like it’s at all real? [sigh]
    A quick summary:

    • Sovereignty is an illusion. A sham. All nations are run by the same cabal, or the controllers, or the PTB, or whatever your favorite term is. I don’t use “deep state” because that term has been hijacked to refer to a faction of one of the many faux conflicts the PTB play out.

    • Presidents are not elected. They are chosen far in advance. Elections are their way of feeding the illusion that the populace is living in a participatory democracy.

    • The President is simply a figurehead. As James Corbett recently said in an interview with Spiro Skouras, Presidents decide nothing.

    Someone needs to explain to me how “influencing a US election” is in any way relevant.

    1. Completely relevant; major U.S. policies are not borne from a monolith; more like a well-moneied mob of like-thinkers. Competing interests and factions drive policy, and the President is the arbiter of those conflicting policies.

      For example, war with Iran; this is a neocon goal but Trump is not particularly interested in a hot war with Iran. Trump’s reluctance to do hot war has been a problem for the globalist Deep State and its American supporters.

      Trade war with Europe, is another source of contention between those who see globalism (read: Western European imperialism) as legit and those who prefer an ‘America First’ policy where the U.S. Empire is not just Europe’s ‘Dumb Giant’ enforcer.

      Sovereignty is real enough that the globalist Deep State must strive to tame it. Its a familiar pattern. China is not noted for the self-sovereignty of its citizens – yet the CCP must strive to keep things that way. Covid-19 is the pretext for medical police statism, yet there is intesne resistance.

      Presidents are elected, and the participatory component is party politics. Its just that party politics, is really coalition politics and big money and factionalism overwhelms individual input.

      The President is more than a figurehead, but the arbiter of competing policy interests. All the policies may be bad, but the President must choose which to favour and execute.

  3. Another entity that seeks to influence the election process and with far greater potential effectiveness than will be achieved by China et alia? Google:

    https://www.unz.com/announcement/google-vs-sydney-schanberg/

  4. It’s a bit silly to worry about whether the Chinese, Iranians, or Russians will be trying to influence US elections. Of course they will. They’d be fools if they didn’t and we should all know that the US does plenty of its own influencing out there around the world. We fund our intelligence community to give us answers that are so obvious as this? No, but rather the plutocrats make sure these agencies are funded to make reports like this so that the sheeple are scared of the nations the plutocrats and their MIC want us to fear.

    A more meaningful question that they don’t answer: How much real effect will their (China’s et al’s) efforts have? That’s admittedly just a guess at this point but I’ll wager that if we could answer it, really scientifically quantify it, we’d find the answer’s “next to doodley squat”.

    Then there’s the Q: What other players are out there making every effort to influence US elections but don’t get any mention in such reports from the intelligence agencies? Israel for one, and how much effect do they have? A whole lot more than doodley squat, judging from the attention that presidential candidates give to AIPAC and the fact that Israel gets more aid from the US than any other nation, and that’s for a nation that operates an apartheid system, genocides Palestinians, and secretly keeps nuclear weapons in violation of international treaties, etc.

    The intelligence community is just a tool of the plutocracy, and the plutocracy has a large weighting of members who either don’t want to be seen as “anti-Semitic” or who are downright pro-Israel.

  5. In these intelligence assessment the American voter is cut out, as if they have no say in the matter whatsoever—it’s up to foreign powers. Robbing the voter of agency is one of the worst things about these “assessments.”

  6. Caitlin Johnstone wrote:
    > US Intelligence: If Trump Wins Russia Did It, If Biden Wins It Was China And Iran
    .
    Don’t worry.
    .
    President Obama (Oct. 17, 2016): American elections can’t be rigged
    .
    “There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even, you could even rig America’s elections. In part because they’re so decentralized and the numbers of votes involved. There’s no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there are instances in which that will happen this time.
    .
    “And so, I’d advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes. And if he got the most votes then it would be my expectation of Hillary Clinton to offer a gracious concession speech and pledge to work with him in order to make sure that the American people benefit from an effective government. And it would be my job to welcome Mr. Trump, regardless of what he’s said about me or my differences with him on my opinions, and escort him over to this Capitol, in which there would be a peaceful transfer of power.
    .
    “That’s what Americans do. That’s why America is already great. One way of weakening America making it less great, is if you start betraying those basic American traditions that have been bipartisan and have helped to hold together this democracy now for well over two centuries.”
    .
    Obama: American elections can’t be rigged

    1. That’s rich. Then after the election results don’t turn out to their liking both Obomber and Killary immediately employ the argument that Jive Turkey in Chief definitively refuted in the quotes you cited… and run with it for four solid years and counting, even after it has been debunked time and again. This fellow’s smarmy skills as a shameless confidence man are absolutely breathtaking.

      1. And he now has the gall to tell young people that they are selfish and don’t understand how government works.
        Smarmy, shameless, and full of shit. Thanks Obama, you s.o.a.b..

  7. Whatever your motivations for clicking on this link, I promise you this article is not clickbait. This is not a put-on or satire or a trendy internet listicle. The #ExposeBillGates movement is deadly serious, and it aims to alert the public to the real dangers of the world that are coming into view: a world of lockdowns and quarantines, masks and vaccines, checkpoints and immunity passports, cashless payments and biometric IDs.
    This article can be read here:
    why we must expose Bill Gates
    https://www.corbettreport.com/exposebillgates/

  8. Aha, yet another MSM hoax is exposed but who is going to believe it. This revealing article is well worth reading.
    Israel Destroys East Beirut With a New Weapon By Thierry Meyssan
    https://www.voltairenet.org/article210679.html

  9. The mass media will soon become obsolete during elections. Now we no longer have to know who gets our vote. They will just mail in our ballot and vote for us.

  10. What is the result of billionaires-rule?
    The United States of America has a higher percentage of its people in prison than any other nation on Earth, and none of Americas prisoners are billionaires nor spouse or child of any, except for the very few organized criminals who were cheating and stealing from other billionaires (and, since billionaires rule America, that is the only type of crime a billionaire can be successfully prosecuted for perpetrating in America – crimes against other billionaires). The people who control the people who write and enforce the laws do not need to worry about prison. Almost all of the United States of Americas prisoners are, in fact, poor people, not even middle-class – and virtually none are upper-class. They are born poor, live poor, and die poor.
    This great article can be read here:
    The Evilness of the United States of Americas Ruling Class by Eric Zuesse!
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/08/08/evilness-america-ruling-class/

  11. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    “The overall message in all this is that only western government agencies and oligarchs may conduct propaganda on those who live in the US-centralized empire.”
    .
    Most all leadership of countries around the world believe that only the home country has a right to inflict mental and psychological damage upon their people. No outsiders are needed to confuse the masses. Private citizens (subjects?) are seen not as valuable unique creatures to be developed and perfected during the pageant of life. Instead, these “subjects” are seen as “things” to be used and abused. There may be small differences in degree of severity, but on that main point they all pretty much agree. That’s why the Big Hammer of Power always quickly goes for the media outlets in their course of slamming the hammer down on the nail of “The People”.
    .
    “The reason sociopaths are able to insert themselves so easily into positions of power and influence in human civilization is because highly manipulative people with no empathy quickly learn that society is dominated by narrative, while the rest of us do not understand this.”
    .
    The reason sociopaths are able to insert themselves so easily into positions of power and influence in human civilization is because We The People let this happen. The sociopaths believe in their heartless hearts that people are stupid and need to be lead. Why do we keep doing things to prove these sociopaths right?

    1. The sad truth is most of us are just ” taxpaying dumbshits ” enjoying our blissful ignorance to the fullest every day. We do not want to know what our government is doing; we do not want to know about anybody’s suffering; food in the fridge and TV on the tube is our paradise.

    2. What did the whole world miss in 2008 and 2012 when Obomber was elected and then re-elected? Not just Americans but the whole world was enamored of the bastard, with the Norwegians even conferring a Nobel Peace Prize on the warmongering fraud. If you remember, the guy was considered a worldwide superstar, someone who was going to bring peace to the world and embrace the Islamic World back into the club of civilised nations. He didn’t just campaign in North America but took his dog and pony show around the world, and in every country the media proclaimed him to be the messiah that the world had long awaited.
      .

      In retrospect all that was complete folly and wishful thinking. What about that jive turkey allowed him to pull it off? Twice! A year into his second term the SOB was sandbagging Russia in spite of their considerable assistance to his foreign policy and eagerly rekindling the Cold War with coups in Ukraine, “civil wars” in Libya and Syria and vicious economic sanctions to beat the band for totally imaginary transgressions–like “stealing the election” from Hillary.
      .

      How can regular folks anywhere, especially the ones acting out the role of “voters” in what are portrayed as “democracies,” be expected to intuit the mass deceptions of grand deceivers such as Obomber? In retrospect, we all wish we had a more accurate insight into that dog, as well as Dubya before him, and Slick Willie before him! Trump has been a completely outmatched amateur in major league politics even as all the pros have all-out blitzed him on every play–to use the term of art from American football.

      1. I have lost friends who still worship Barack Obama as if he was some sort of a saint. He was the ” perfect presidential hood ornament ” fooling most of the people all of the time. That is why the owners and the masters all got behind him. He did as he was told by his string pullers while keeping up that false charade of ” goodness “. Hopefully the Covid 19 virus will wake up some people who must now realize that our government is a huge lie and farce about everything.

        1. Ron, I say you are one of the most insightful, realistic and balanced commentators on Caitlin’s forum. Do you also write on your own blog page?

  12. Since Dopey Joe Biden is not going to serve out his entire term, either because of the 25th amendment or his conspicuous looming physical demise, his choice of VP (where in the constitution is the presidential candidate given this prerogative?) becomes paramount…and all the floated choices range from terrible to disastrous. Lying archwarmonger Susan Rice is, of course, the worst of the lot, being nothing but a racist Russophobe at least as eager as Killary Clinton was to launch nuclear Armageddon. Sadly this makes her the favorite by the standards of the Unified War & Bankers’ Party. The prospects of life in a nuclear winter almost have me cheering for one of those intruding asteroids to put the human race out of its sorry existence and leave it all for the ET’s to reclaim. According to Georgio and his colleagues similar resets have happened before. This civilisation badly needs to go back to the drawing board. The constant addition of more people to the terrestrial biosphere always seems to lead to nothing but more pain and suffering, which should not be the purpose of sentience. I can see Rice playing the role of Shiva, the great destroyer of worlds. I wish someone or some act of nature would stop her and Joe Biden short of imposing this fate.

    1. The US gets what they deserve if they elect Biden aka VP. I feel sorry for the results on the rest of the world.

  13. It is always exciting when some insider breaks away from an organization to spill all the dirty details of what is happening deep in its guts. Recently an MSNBC producer’s life story “defected” over the border onto Fox News’ territory to be used to tell the tales of hypocrisy and manipulation that are ever present at MSNBC. For some readers these revelations may seem shocking but they are a natural part of working in news media, that is very hard to change as the causes are inherent to the medium. Let’s break down what producer Ariana Pekary had to say and take a look at the causes and possible strategies that could be implemented to fix this problem. This article can be read here:
    MSNBC Dissident Proves the Mainstream Media Cannot Change by Tim Kirby!
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/08/08/msnbc-dissident-proves-the-mainstream-media-cannot-change/

  14. Let’s see. The U.S. branch of the global crime syndicate uses China and Russia to justify and propagate their authoritarianism, and global crimes, in a similar way that the republicans and democrats use each other to justify and propagate their authoritarianism.

    I strongly suspect that the Chinese and Russian branch of the global crime syndicate use the U.S. (and each other?) to justify and propagate their authoritarianism and global crimes in much the same way. It does seem that the U.S. govt. has been taken over to lead the syndicate. I feel like it’s also important to state that the Chinese and Russian governments are also extremely brutal and corrupt.

    Everyday, we in the states are losing more and more freedoms. It won’t be long until there will be precious little difference between life here (and the rest of U.S. centralized empire) and life in China or Russia.

    In fact the pandemic seems to already have done that. Look at the freedoms we’ve lost. Cui bono?

  15. It’s time to rename ‘intelligence agencies.’ when it comes to intelligence, those folks are consistently at the lowest common denominator.
    There’s not a single word of truth here, except in Caity’s observations.

  16. US Intelligence is an Oxymoron.
    There is no leftist organization in the USA – No leftist voice.
    The right-wing corporate plutocracy controls both parties and their presidential candidates.

  17. This BS reveals once again what a farce US “democracy” is. Why waste precious time even discussing it?

  18. Game of Thrones. Too many people think it’s all real.

    The script writers are certainly doing one hell of a job. And a big thumbs up to the acting. I look forward to the cast and crew taking a bow as we approach the final curtain call. Great show!

  19. DAVID DONNELLY Avatar
    DAVID DONNELLY

    U.S. Intelligence says “we lie, we cheat, we steal”. End of discussion.

  20. Meanwhile, in the real world, Russia, China and Iran are strengthening their ties to one another—politically, economically and militarily. It would seem that any rational intelligence officer would take note of this fact and reason that these countries have many interests in common and would not be working at cross purposes when it comes to influencing U.S. elections. Not mentioned in this intelligence assessment is the one country that exerts the most influence in American politics—Israel— and does so by a wide margin.

    1. It might be interesting to consider what the latest Deep State fables presage. I would say they are setting up excuses for the Democratic Party to lose again, so in the fable arena 2020 will be a rerun of 2016. In any case, no matter who wins, ‘Them furriners done us wrong and are the reason we are such losers.’

  21. Always remember that stress induces evolution. Does that may you feel better? Are we feeling more evolved yet? Unfortunately there often appears to be a fine line between molding minds and minds molding. If the political goal is to mold minds of mind mold it’s nevertheless a win win when win. Always follow the money, honey. Is not the U.S. government the best that absolutely anyone, anywhere, any time can buy on any given day? Who was it that decided a tax-exempt “foundation” is a perfectly acceptable political slush fund vessel into which millionaire and billionaire oligarchs of both the seemingly self-made and (upon hindsight) possibly constructed varieties can dump and then continue to closely control previously unimaginable wads of cash? Do please recall that all this money would have otherwise been taxed at the highest tier for our government officials “of the People, by the People, and for the People” to waste according to the directions of their oligarch masters – but at least tax dollars spent are supposedly subject to FOIA requests. No, if something absolutely has to be kept dark and dirty, no FOIA for you!

    1. Agree wholeheartedly with your values. But MMT prevents me from talking about taxpayer dollars. Those are FIAT dollars being lavished upon perpetuating plutocracy, pollution, and war. The trick is to get that fiat money flowing into equally massive and relentless efforts to save people and planet instead of destroying them. Following the money leads us back to how it is created, which leads us back to the decisions of currency-sovereign states, especially decisions like the delegation of money-creation powers to predatory private banks backed by central banks. But at its source, ALL money creation begins with governmental decisions. We should tax the living hell out of the rich to reduce their political influence and achieve more equitable wealth distribution, but we don’t need their money to do great things for our societies and the world.

      1. Yes, some changes would be nice for a change. One could almost suspect that the very concepts of saving people and planet are yet another unwelcome foreign intrusion into U.S. business as usual? But from a more narrow perspective of “follow the money”, I was primarily thinking of how much in real value(s) is being directed from a huge collection of special interests inclusive of numerous foreign entities BWOE – Russia, China, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, etc., into the personal, putrid pockets of our totally corrupted politicians, bureaucrats and family members of same. This is relatively easy to detect and prosecute should anyone in such a position to do so suddenly develop a conscience (enter cartoon cricket with hat, stage right?). We might as well include for close examination any of the aforementioned largely politically directed (purely altruistic, of course!) tax exempt “foundations” here. As to the our chronic addiction to that inflation creating fiat stuff which my personal logic says we need to curtail as opposed to expanding, at some point one would expect reality to enter the picture to where only the very rich could afford so much as a can of beans. The problem seems to be that those at the top of the Pleasure Island pyramid have forever been willing to carve out for full public display any number of bloody, still beating hearts in order to sustain that particular status.

        1. I’ve come to understand inflation, a subject much investigated and analyzed by MMT economists, as most often emanating from a sudden disruption of supply, which then causes demand (and prices) to skyrocket. So long as federal spending is in sync with available resources to spend the fiat money on (i.e., full employment, being by definition the use of available labor), then the amount of federal spending does not drive inflation any more than any other kind of spending. I’ve enjoyed this conversation, Lloyd. Have you ever checked out another exceptional Australian blog, this one by economist Bill Mitchell, one of the founders of MMT? The resources he makes available on all things economic is mind-blowing and easily accessed by searching for billyblog. Look forward to talking with you again.

  22. So let me get this straight. Russia and China/Iran are fighting each other, and the prize is the US presidency?

  23. Another terse and accurate assessment of US foreign policy with the defining cartoon . A picture is worth 10000 words ! Thanks for it.

  24. Absurdity abounds in what claims to be journalism, which is under complete control of the very intelligence agencies they purport to cover. The CIA’s Project Mockingbird has been going on for over 60 years. How rich, for agencies who’s primary function is to interfere in the governments of foreign countries to accuse other nations of doing so in the US. While accusing those other nations of merely seeking to influence US voters, they don’t balk at outright murder to influence foreign politics. Although there is no US agency deserving of any trust to speak of, on a list of US government agencies in order of trustworthiness, intelligence agencies would be on the very bottom. They exist completely separated from any connection to any aspect of any accountability, legal or moral. They proclaim interference with US elections, while being completely isolated from relationship with the results or consequence of any US election.

  25. As long as people continue to mindlessly watch TV news, they will never understand how bad things are around the world, and the role the US plays in making it so. I wish we could get people to boycott the news, but I have seen how the entertainment nature of the programming sucks people in. The people I know who watch the news can’t stop. They are addicted. Until we figure out how to get people to stop listening to the propaganda, we can’t mount any serious push back against The Blob.

    1. Oh so true. What a conundrum to figure out how to get increasing numbers of people to spend time with websites like this one instead of turning on the tube or playing video games. Will the hard times ahead do the trick, will people soon be forced to find accurate information about what’s literally killing them and their futures, or will they simply veg themselves into oblivion? Here’s another example of the kind of article so many need to discover and absorb, if we are to have sufficient numbers of thoughtful people to free our lives–and the lives of all living things–from the vise-grip of the warmongering, ecocidal neoliberal bastards.

      https://www.urbanwildland.org/urbanwildland/2020/8/4/the-covid-interregnum

    2. For 20 years I tried waking people up to reality but made no impact. MSM pulls them in hook line and sinker. Caitlin thinks we can and must wake people up so I asked her to set up an online survey and ask readers: (1) how long have you been trying to wake people up to reality? (2) Approximately how many people have you tried to wake up? (3) Approximately how many people did you succeed in waking up and really converting them? Caitlin ignore me but does any other reader on her forum have the time and experience to run an online survey for Caitlin’s readers?

  26. “…… because that is what passes for ‘journalism’ in a world where God is dead and everything is stupid”.

    Everything was stupid even before God was dead, consider what happened to Galileo and Giordano Bruno and Botticelli, for instance.

  27. It requires conscious restraint not to express one’s heart felt contempt for the mass of Americans befuddled by the barrage of government propaganda they are swimming in, and replace it with compassion for the poor bastards — they won’t have a clue what hit them when their world totally collapses….

    1. Rather than contempt, I am saddened, disappointed, even discouraged by the absence of deep, critical thinking or big picture awareness. It does help me understand why so many people prefer kings/queens and dictators to do the thinking for them. ugh sigh. Lately, I have found myself feeling sorry for Trump the person who appears to have thought being President is the equivalent of being king; so ill-prepared for public service and office. And because of his mental and intellectual shortcomings (twitter mind?) he is even more vulnerable to Deep State psyops than were his predecessors, except President Cheney, of course.

      1. Sometimes I wonder whether “the people” are really so wrong in wanting merely to live their lives centered around their families and friends and do whatever shit job(s) are necessary to make this possible. Is the demand that average citizens be continually on top of all the machinations their governments are constantly engaged in, and then be doing all in their power at every available moment to influence their governmental leaders to act in more humane and reasonable ways, ITSELF unreasonable and inhumane? Thoreau put it this way: “As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.” Yet it must also be remembered that Thoreau spoke out repeatedly and forcefully about the governmental evils and the follies of his day and thus seems not to have fully followed his own (hyperbolic?) advice.

    2. It’s collapsing NOW, and everyone here feels it, tho most are befuddled by these narratives. I wondered how Caitlin can stand to keep writing about this shit, and then remembered her huge advantage, an advantage as big as the Pacific Ocean–in fact it IS the Pacific Ocean. Life would be so much more bearable in 2020 if I had an ocean between me and the USA, instead of being stuck right in the heart of it, in West Virginia.

  28. Do the intelligence agencies use a ouija board to find all this stuff out?

    1. These days they just use a photocopy machine.

  29. Caitlin Johnstone wrote:
    > Secondly, as the press release itself acknowledges, the US is openly pushing regime change in Iran. It is already engaging in various acts of economic warfare against all three of the named governments, and it openly interfered in Russia’s elections in the nineties to a far greater extent than anything it has even accused Russia of doing. The US government’s own data shows that it is the very worst election meddler in the world by an extremely wide margin, which would make it a perfectly legitimate target for election interference by any nation on earth.
    .
    “Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty.”
    — Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda (attributed)
    .
    “I want to live in a world that understands that manipulators are always accusing others of doing what they themselves are doing, and that you can learn about their real motives by simply applying to them what they’re saying about others.”
    — Caitlin Johnstone
    .
    My List Of Demands — Caitlin Johnstone
    https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/10/15/my-list-of-demands/

    1. As of today, according to an official government statement, the US is openly pushing for regime change in Lebanon. Someone has fomented massive street riots in Beirut to accomplish this. Makes one wonder who was really responsible for that epic explosion that demolished most of the port facilities and downtown Beirut. As Church Lady from SNL during the 80’s used to say: “How convenient!”

      1. Wonder? Wonder? C’mon … no guessing allowed!

  30. From the Country that outsources almost everything…The Politicians from BOTH Parties .. Do Not Have The Confidence In It’s Own Population To Make A Decision, …. without being influenced by an …OUTSIDER…. rather than the policies… they wish to bring to office with them… to make the lives of the population they are meant to serve better.

  31. The enemy wears a suit, a plastic smile and has an American accent.

  32. Israel is pleased with Donald Trump and may keep him as the ” the U.S. presidential hood-ornament ” for the rest of his life. It looks like I will write myself in for president come November because there is no one on the ballot capable of doing the job correctly.

  33. i think what we get to vote for is whether to go to war with russia or china. delightful.

    1. Because MAD is a brute unavoidable fact, neither Trump nor Biden would deliberately initiate a full-scale war with either Russia or China. But as Caitlin and others have pointed out, the danger is that America will increase cold war tensions to the point where an accident or miscalculation will stumble us into a VERY hot war indeed, hot enough to end the story of all living things. Never have we lived in scarier times.

      1. The “Thucydides Trap” created by US elites circa 1950 and adopted by the new generations of global elites and neo-liberals continues to close. It is still a safe bet that an Israeli nuclear first strike on one of its neighbors will bring down the curtain on humanities short lived dominance of the planet.

        1. Sooner or later someone with nuclear weapons is going to use them. Just how much of them will be used is the only question humanity might ponder. It does not have to be a ” head of state ” that pushes the button; it could be anyone able to launch one anywhere.

        2. Israeli nuclear doctrine doesn’t involve striking its neighbors.
          It is built around blackmailing its own allies into helping Israel. If Israel will be on the verge of military defeat, it will nuke European capitals, not Tehran.

          1. I doubt that . The Russians would nuke Europe after the US launched its missiles against Russia and China in support of Israel , which by then would no longer exist anyway having been obliterated by Pakistan’s nukes . the Saudi paid for Pakistan’s nukes during the Nixon/Kissinger era and a treaty with the Saudis .

      2. Yeah, neither Trump nor Biden would do it but the deep state sure as hell would love to. They damn near succeeded during the Cuban Missile Crisis and as a result, Kennedy was eliminated.

        1. Yup. And there still seem to be monsters in America’s deep state who think we could still blow away Russia and China like they blew away JFK. His decision not to send in US air support for the Bay of Pigs fiasco turns out to be one of the most crucial presidential decisions ever made. Those missiles in Cuba, we’ve now learned, were already operational and loaded, and it’s also been reported that tactical nukes were at the ready in Cuba in case of full-scale US invasion. Well I remember trying to go to sleep as a high school student, not knowing whether there would be a tomorrow to wake up to.

          1. Military miscalculation always befalls those that never have to suffer any consequences for their foolish decisions. Human idiots with nuclear weapons will eventually destroy us all.

    2. Ask BLM and Antifa whom they prefer to fight. They seem to run the place these days.

  34. Gaaaawwwdd! Am I the only one who realizes the truth! This is an alternate reality, another universe. Dang!
    Ha. Just woke up on the couch to an old SG1 (Stargate-1) on (what used to be) “the tube” (now an LED flat screen). Most of the team returned from an off-world trip, leaving O’Neill (indeed!) and Tyler. Don Davis’s character (Gen Hammond) didn’t remember a Tyler and sent them all to medical for a checkup and then quarantine. My first thought was, what writer wouldn’t have them all guessing right away it was an alternate reality. Then John DeLancy (“Q,” in Star Trek NG [STNG]) showed up and I knew the game was afoot.
    Then I look at my email and see Caitlin’s post. Russia, China, Iran and John DeLancy. I think DeLancy is the intelligence source. It’s so obvious.
    Just check into the former sponsors of STNG. The money behind. Probably find an STNG-PAC owning all the other PACs. I think I’m on to something that even Alex Jones doesn’t have yet. Yeeee-Hooey.
    Cheers!
    Mike
    Have we made war on Iran yet? Especially since Elliot Abrams was just appointed as Trump’s envoy to Iran. See, what I mean? Alternate realities, whole universes of them.

  35. What nonsense. Chinese and Russians can’t vote so how does if follow they can influence someone else’s vote who actually can. How would they know what to do? How would they know who to do? Telepathic mind control is the only thing I can think of. But if so, there are enough flesh and blood Trump and Biden acolytes here in America to totally cancel out any foreign red kryptonite or spectral goat sacrifices intended to influence the captive mind.

    1. Am reminded of The Men Who Stare at Goats.

    2. Keith Hayes wrote:
      > Chinese and Russians can’t vote . . .
      .
      – President Vladimir Putin: 76.69% in the 2018 Russian presidential election.
      – President Hassan Rouhani: 57.14% in the 2017 Iranian presidential election.
      – President Bashar al-Assad: 88.7% in the 2014 Syrian presidential election.
      – Syrian jihadist groups: No elections, linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS, financed and armed by the CIA (2013-2017 Timber Sycamore program, etc.).
      .
      China has a different system, an indirect democracy and meritocracy, with direct elections only at the local level, while superior levels are successively voted by the elected representatives. There are different factions within the one political party that counts in practice.
      .
      “Actually what many Chinese have problem with Western media is the stereotypes about China. If you are content with stereotypes you miss so many things. You know, if BBC broadcasts something they are happy to always to always mention ‘this communist dictatorship’, ‘this autocracy’. Now actually with this kind of label you cannot understand this China as it is, but if you watch BBC, or CNN, or read The Economist and try to understand China it will be a failure, it’s impossible.”
      — Zhang Weiwei
      .
      “In America you can change political parties but you can’t change policies. In China you cannot change the party but you can change policies. . . . China is a market economy and a vibrant market economy but it is not a capitalist country. Here’s why: There’s no way for a group of billionaires to control the Politburo as billionaires control American policymaking.”
      — Eric Li
      .
      The Coming War on China — Directed by John Pilger
      https://youtu.be/vAfeYMONj9E?t=3404

    3. Absurd in 2016 and still absurd in 2020, right? About as plausible as “the dog ate my homework,” no?

  36. No matter which becomes president , POTUS will have reason to hate the Russia/China alliance – a prime CIA aim if it is to keep the dollars rolling into the military-industrial complex and no interruption to pay rises and promotion for the intelligence fraternity.

Leave a Reply to pretzelattack Cancel reply

Trending