Forbes has published two back-to-back articles about the analysis of retired Navy captain and political scientist Bradford Dismukes titled “To Defeat China In War, Strangle Its Economy” and “If Russia Invades Europe, NATO Could Sweep The Seas Of Russian Merchant Ships“.
The articles were authored by a man named David Axe, who is my new favorite small-time war propagandist because he’s so desperate to be recognized for his imperialist stenography that he often approaches his spin jobs in an informatively unskillful and ham-fisted way. The best one I’ve found so far is this 2013 piece about the time he spent with the “rebels” of Syria, who he takes great pains to assure us are not terrorists or extremists but brave freedom fighters who’d successfully “liberated” large swathes of Syrian territory.
U.S. naval strategists are openly talking about the use of a sea blockade to "strangle" China's economy in the event of war.
In case you were wondering why the U.S. is fixated on controlling access to the South China Sea. https://t.co/dUWfY6Go0Z
— Qiao Collective (@qiaocollective) August 25, 2020
Each of the two Dismukes articles focus on how the same military strategy can be employed against the first- and second-most powerful nations which have resisted absorption into the US-centralized power alliance, namely China and Russia respectively. They explain how “a coordinated effort by the whole of the U.S. government and its closest allies” can be used to “strangle” those nations economically via blockades which cut them off from trade and resources should the time come for an aggressive confrontation, thus minimizing the need for direct military combat.
“Cutting off China from its trading partners and sources of oil, natural gas and other resources could be the best, and least costly, way for the United States to defeat China in a major war,” Axe explains.
“In wartime, the U.S. and allied fleets could blockade Russian sea trade, putting a choke-hold on the Russian economy that could force Moscow to end the war on terms favorable to Washington and its friends,” he writes.
Unspoken by Axe and Dismukes is the fact that both Russia and China are nuclear-armed nations, so direct hot warfare is something the US power alliance would want to avoid anyway.
Indeed, the articles present a vision for confrontation with Russia and China that is not just realistic but probable, and not just probable but currently underway. This is exactly the reason the empire-like network of allies loosely centralized around the United States has been so forceful about controlling crucial resources like oil on the world stage; it’s not so that the US can use the oil itself, it’s so it can control who will have access to it. It’s also why they’ve been working to surround both China and Russia militarily via military bases and NATO expansionism.
How To Understand All This China Stuff
"To understand what’s going on with China and why the 'news' media keep punching you in the face with stories about how awful it is, you really only need to grasp two basic points:"https://t.co/s9oT8nxPY6
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) May 21, 2020
These are the chess pieces that have been put in place during the slow-motion third world war between the US-centralized empire and the governments which haven’t yet been absorbed into it. In order to avoid nuclear conflict the imperialists know they’ve got to be patient and strategic, which they’ve learned can lead them to victory from past experience in the previous cold war against the Soviet Union. The fact that they’re imperiling the life of every organism on our planet in the meantime is for them mostly a non-issue.
This is how the US-centralized empire prefers to kill now. Not like a tiger, pouncing on its prey with old-school ground invasions and ripping out the jugular, but more like a python: slow, patient strangulation and suffocation.
That’s what you’re seeing with the murderous starvation sanctions that have been placed on Iran and Venezuela. With Yemen, where in addition to deadly blockades the Saudis have been deliberate targeting farms, fishing boats, marketplaces, food storage sites and cholera treatment centers with US-assisted airstrikes. With North Korea, where boats full of dead people have been washing up on Japan’s shores because fishermen get stuck out at sea trying to catch food since they can’t afford enough fuel to get back to shore, which former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attributed to US sanctions. With Gaza, where people are being deprived of an adequate amount of nutrients due to an Israeli blockade designed to “put the Palestinians on a diet”.
It’s a slow, suffocating strategy which only works if you’re the side in power, the side with all the resources and all the time in the world, the side which knows it can just relax and wait for the other side to starve to death. Not with the “shock and awe” invasions of the Bush era, but with sanctions, blockades, coups, psyops, CIA-backed uprisings and the arming of opposition forces like David Axe’s “rebel” friends.
The modern US imperial war machine kills more like a python than a tiger, placing less emphasis on the full-scale ground invasions of the Bush era and more on slowly suffocating the life out of targeted nations using sanctions, blockades, coups, psyops and CIA-backed uprisings.
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) August 9, 2020
This is one of many reasons you can be dismissive of any Trump supporter who defends their president by arguing that he “hasn’t started any new wars”. What they mean is he hasn’t launched any tiger-style old school ground invasions. He’s still attacking and killing with python-style sanctions and blockades and imperiling the world with dangerous new cold war escalations. He’s still continuing the slow-motion third world war. And we may be certain that if Biden wins he will do the same.
This is important to be aware of, because it changes what it means to be anti-war. We don’t have to just oppose direct hot war conflicts like the one we were afraid earlier this year might erupt between the US and Iran (which could still happen); we also need to aggressively fight the new strangulation-style warfare that is being increasingly favored by the US-centralized empire.
When it first rose to power with the Bush administration the neoconservative ideology of doing whatever it takes to ensure continued US unipolar hegemony was widely criticized. Now it’s the bipartisan beltway consensus, and if you question it you’re smeared as freakish and suspicious. You never even hear the word neoconservative or neocon anymore in mainstream US discourse, not because it went away but because it became the normalized default mainstream worldview.
And while all these imperialist psychopaths are waving literal armageddon weapons around in the name of an imaginary god named unipolarism, we’re also hurtling toward ecosystemic collapse and any number of other potential armageddon-level events. We’ve got to turn away from this trajectory as a species and begin collaborating with each other and with our ecosystem if we are to turn this disaster around.
_________________________
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82 responses to “The Modern US War Machine Kills More Like A Python Than A Tiger”
The U.S. war machine may kill like a python, but its a starving one eating its own tail awaiting the Eurasian beardragon to drop.
The Anaconda strategy goes back the the American Civil War. Like the Anaconda Plan then, now seems just as haphazard and indecisive, unable to decide who to squeeze, Russia or China, whether or how to squeeze them apart, or just take ’em down together.
Caitlin, yes, the US is certainly trying to act like a boa constrictor, but you need to study more deeply. If you do, you’ll find that this strategy, except for a few places, such as Gaza, simply won’t work. It will backfire on the US and boomerang, since all the money spent for the military will not be spent on the social safety net, thus causing more and more domestic social resistance. The US strangulation fantasies are pure self-deception based on the realities of the 1980s and 90s, when Russia and China and “third world” countries like Iran were weak and disorganized. Now those countries are strong and have powerful and evolving international networks. The unrealistic neocon planners and their spokesperson journalists are idiots living in the past. For one critique of their self-pleasuring fantasies see: http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2020/08/two-can-play-game.html
Well said.Agreed.
I won’t be – I can live here – ‘organically’ in Bali – on $3 a day !!
I am a 7th generation Australian and have NO desire to return to Australia – I travelled to Mt Agung the other day and climbed to the top of the volcano – I was the only one there – I see things very differently to you !
Let’s just agree to disagree – eventually you will find out for yourself – I expect !
damn that was a beautiful tweet about why liberals hate leftists. they spoil the entertainment value of the fiction!
Upvote!
A little poem from me:
____________________________________________
I’m gonna tell you what I think. Don’t read it if you don’t care.
I think we are heading into a time of ignominy.
Let the ignominy be revealed and then let the chips fall where they will.
Let the truth be out there; let it be known.
Let the ignominy out for the sake of us all.
If not now, then when?
Now is the time.
Let it be exposed my friends because we KNOW!
Let it be and let the ignominy cause all the ripples it must.
We will resist because we already know.
Let the truth be revealed.
Let it be.
Everyone, do yourself a favor and put away some extra canned goods. You will be glad you did when this circus collapses.
they don’t last forever though. maybe i’m being a pessimist, but 5 years or whatever the shelf life is may not be enough.
someday, i live in hope that recaptcha will learn to recognize crosswalks.
Every nation’s wartime propaganda, or to use modern terms, narrative, always states proudly that God Is On Their Side!
— Epic Fires in CA, described as ‘armaggeddon’.
— an out of control pandemic that has already killed 180,000 Americans, and is forecasted to have killed 300,000 by the end of the year. The CDC is now following Presidential directives to cut back on testing for the virus, so don’t be surprised if that forecast is later increased.
— Armed right-wing militias operating with the police’s blessing is now murdering people on the streets. Yet, the word Terrorism is never mentioned, even though this fits perfectly the definition of an act of violence at civilians in order to further a political agenda.
— Never before have two named tropical storms hit the same stretch of coastline at almost the same time like this week. The latest was described as the strongest storm ever in that area, and warnings warned of an unforgivable storm surge.
————–
The hurricanes seem like an Act of God. All of them combined seem to be God shouting at the top of her Voice that “I am not on your side. Not if you act like this. Change Direction Now! This is your last warning.”
————
The hurricanes certainly appear to be a perplexed God saying “Hey, you ignored my other hurricanes. But, I’m a caring God, so I’ll try again. This time we’ll try two hurricanes at the same time. And do it right in the middle of the Republican National Convention. Lets see you ignore that.”
The RNC and Trump are ignoring everything outside of their fascist Eagle’s Nest, living in a fantasy world where the pandemic is already behind us and the big danger is that personal injury lawyers living in their million dollar mansions felt threatened by pro-democracy demonstrators.
God is not amused.
“…it changes what it means to be anti-war. We don’t have to just oppose direct hot war conflicts like the one we were afraid earlier this year might erupt between the US and Iran (which could still happen); we also need to aggressively fight the new strangulation-style warfare that is being increasingly favored by the US-centralized empire.”
.
Here is Their sophisticated, deep reasoning process: “Anti-war is Anti-America. Anti-America is bad. Therefore, Anti-war is BAD. We like War, therefore We are the Good!”
.
So deep! So profound!… And, how much more self-centered and self-absorbed and self-deifying could one get? If there is a way, They’ll certainly find it.
There is a reason why it’s not a good idea to let little kids play with matches. Some of those kids grow up to lead nations. Still not a good idea to let them have matches, or anything stronger.
The original design of America was a land with no standing armies.
In other words, they didn’t want any matches around where kids might play with them.
yeah funny how that rarely gets mentioned when there’s a war to sell. and it seems like there is always a war to sell.
Speaking even more broadly, neoliberalism is a python wrapped around all non-elite people. Sanctions are only a more obvious, direct, international form of the constricting economic pressure neoliberalism applies to all who are not elite. What we have here is a silent war being waged by neoliberalism against humanity and all living things.
You are 100% correct! My nephew enlisted in the Navy due to a lack of opportunity in the civilian sector. I fear for our servicepeople because our leaders are insane. It won’t matter who wins the election because both parties are pro-War. The only Dem. candidate to speak in opposition was Tulsi Gabbard, who, even though, having put her life on the line for her country, was called a “Russian bot” and “useful idiot” by Hillary on behalf of the DNC.
We’re kept divided by both parties over secndary wedge issues because they know if we ever come together “Look out”. The biggest voting bloc is the 100 million who don’t vote!
Oh well, not many other places to go, and I’d just assume not be alone, so even though I said wouldn’t post here again, I suppose I will. Tell me if you have never told a lie.
So snakes wrap around and yes they are scary, but a snake is easier to set aside then a tiger.
Your best bet is to pick that snake up by the tail and then start twisting around all centrifugal and such. The snake will have nothing to hold onto and it will eventually start getting scared. Then you just plop the foolish snake off to the side and move on your way.
Snakes are no big deal and we need snakes to keep the rats in check.
I could go on but I won’t because I have a serious attitude and I’m sick of it.
I reckon I’ll be posting here for awhile as long as I can……..wonder what is going to happen, but tell me if you don’t feel the chaos coming cause lord knows I do.
I agree.Why post here? Any use to it? I think it is futile and unnecessary.
Michael,
As a human being, which I assume you are as well, I am a social creature. I enjoy talking with my neighbors and I do that for sure, but sometimes it is nice to see what the wider audience is thinking. Do you agree or not?
By the way, and I’m sure you already know, this is a trick question.
Wider audience? I am all over youtube, and get a wider audience there. However, this thread has highly intelligent people on it, more intelligent and informed than most. While I could benefit from learning here, I don’t see knowledge being passed here, just witty impressions and statements. I see commentary and praise and tricky words used. I admit I am probably not as intelligent as many here are, I also see that this is preaching to the choir, you are all on the same page here. If there was research to see current trends within the enemy, or strategizing, I would stay. It is not that I disagree, see wrong in you guys, or am intimidated. I can handle being around intelligent people, but don’t see any use to it. But come to think of it, I do appreciate the two links I got, one to the Peoples’ Party, and the other to the gentleman who assesses organizations and their ability to be successful. So, after all, there may be benefit. But I probably will not be over involved here, until I see more links or some strategizing and/or information gathering.
So Michael,
I’d advise you not to answer my question.
And, just to use your own words, if you think it is futile and unnecessary, then maybe you should just focus on something else. Grow a garden or take a walk. OK?
This is getting funny, and I am not soliciting feedback, but Michael, just to take this out another degree…..your site and what I read there doesn’t seem to coincide with the text of your message to me.
Please explain yourself.
What is it that you want?
What do I want? Right now I am looking for a “dream team” of revolutionaries to join my work in resistance to the powers- to inform the planet of all that is really going on. In addition, some people translating my books into other languages (Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, etc.) and to organize and create documentaries, network, etc… not just discuss wittily what we already have decided is going on. This thread is just witty remarks confirming what we all agree is so.
Hello Mr. Kahn.
I am replying to your comment to me here because this website has become misaligned in the last couple of days. Your reply to me showed up as a long verticle line. I couldn’t even find the box to reply to you no matter which web browser I used. I wish to say that the snippets from your book coincide with the research I’ve done over the last decade into geopolitics and global economics.
I am now writing a book myself. It’s been a long time coming but I felt the need to write it now regarding the Davos Reset and UN Agenda 21 neofeudalism on the heels of this manufactured pandemic. I am a political atheist. As with all the selected candidates, they tell the US electorate what they think we want to hear. Once elected, they do what their handlers tell them to do. Trump is no exception.
If you are on the Minds social media platform, we can share more information. You can find me here: https://www.minds.com/wheelsafire18/
truthforce57@gmail.com
Yes. Signed up for your newsletter. Bought your books and downloaded your YouTube videos and subscribed. If this is your email address, I will send you an email shortly. I recently uploaded The Great Panic of 2020 to my channel. It’s worth a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSfQyRzdWJE
That is my email. Thanks for the goodwill. Write soon. I will watch the video.
Our United States government in action killing peasant women!!
In a case that heavily echoes the death of environmental activist Macarena Valdes in 2016, two Mapuche women, a mother and her daughter, were discovered dead in their home in Ercilla, southern Chile. Iris Rosales Quinilen and Rosa Quintana Rosales were declared to have committed suicide by hanging, in a country where it is becoming a trend to find environmental activists allegedly committing suicide in the same manner and under similar circumstances; that is, resisting the exploitation of indigenous territory.
The Araucania region in Chile, targeted by President Sebastian Pinera for modernisation – in other words, exploiting the land and its natural resources – has seen an increase in violence against the Mapuche population, who are the main obstacle, from the governments point of view, impeding industrialisation.
The alleged suicide of these two Mapuche women, like that of Ms Valdes, occurred in a political context where resistance in terms of land rights in criminalised by the Chilean state.
Militarising a region to placate the multinational companies seeking to exploit Chiles resources is a governmental priority. This article can be read here:
Forcing Environmental Activists and Mapuche Leaders Into Silence in Chile by Ramona Wadi!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/08/26/forcing-environmental-activists-and-mapuche-leaders-into-silence-in-chile/
The powers have prepared FEMA camps (internment) -a thousand here in US-and have enstated experimental lockdown to see how obedient we will be to martial law- and have imposed draconian measures. US citizens have proven themselves to be good little sheep to be slaughtered. Again, the powers have planned a world population of 500 million by 2025-in a world fascist police state- the survivors are slaves to the ruling class- police are the slave-drivers and guards. Do not be distracted by news and diversions like this bunch of hogwash.
After watching this film, and seeing the American military dominance, and having read my books to see who really rules the world,(it is run by the triune of Vatican, freemasonry and globalists) along with considering that the covid virus was created in a US laboratory by a Chinese scientist with funding by US and Chinese governments, under a US capitalist’s (Gates) direction; and how China has cooperated with WHO and CDC, also under that same Gate’s influence, and that the Chinese prime minister has been made a lifetime leader, you can well see that China also has fallen under the same rulers as virtually every nation. The small African nation Burundi is the only one I am aware of that disobeyed WHO and their president was assassinated.
The Chinese federal bank is now also under ownership by Rothschild. There is no threat of war with China. Any sanctions the US imposes on them hurts America as much or more. The purpose is not to take down their government, which is in alignment with ours. The battle is against the citizens of every nation, not against any foreign governments, which have all succumbed to the US (Vatican, freemasons, globalists)
However, it may come under circumstance that the Chinese military, under guise of takeover, will be the ones to herd us into FEMA camps, as US military may refuse to, and may be deployed to China to murder and gather their people to their destiny. This can be done by destroying the communications, which is planned under executive orders 10995-11050; calling for marital law, which will be done very soon, as our CIA-run media has been exploiting the BLM protests, the liberal media promoting protestors and are against police, and conservative media are against BLM-causing rifts in America, ready for civil war killings.
The answer is informing- for all peoples, including military of every nation. We need to have those with military abilities to take down world powers.
Due to covid, the Chinese are way ahead of us- there are police searching citizens two or three times a day, metal detectors everywhere, masks required, facial recognition used by police, and that is where covid started, and where high doses of vitamin c was found effective in treating it, and that information stifled. US has followed suit, and will be just as draconian.
The powers have prepared FEMA camps (internment) -a thousand here in US-and have enstated experimental lockdown to see how obedient we will be to martial law- and have imposed draconian measures. US citizens have proven themselves to be good little sheep to be slaughtered. Again, the powers have planned a world population of 500 million by 2025-in a world fascist police state- the survivors are slaves to the ruling class- police are the slave-drivers and guards. Do not be distracted by news and diversions like this bunch of hogwash.
I think Mr. Morrell may have a point, Ms Johnstone, but I agree with your analogy–sort of, about American hegemony; that’s its ambition, anyhow, slow starvation forcing the desperate to concede. Just, the Americans keep losing their wars..Vietnam, despite all the Yankee eulogizing of a desperate struggle, is Marxist: Afghanistan is the war that never ends; Russia is the made-up bogey bear because it is not a scary Communist regime, just a capitalist group doing things a little differently.
I think the bigger deal is in Mark Zuckerberg complaining that the new or the next of the never-ending new Apple phones allowed to restrict companies’ data collection means 40% of the Facebook advertising market is wiped out. I think that is an example of capitalists cannabalizing each other? Itself? Wall Street has already done it to Main Street . It’s sort of self-defeating.
Internationally, this brouhaha with China ultimately means the US, a country that thrives on competition, wants to stop competing because the Chinese are smarter. 5G, augmented reality, AI Tech are all real in China; they’re innovating. I know, at one point, Chinese official were looking at how to inspire creativity in education.
The Americans are looking at cheats to get into a too expensive college system, a college system that produces the likes of Kushner, Trump and any Bush as graduates, and a public system that is being deliberately starved of funding. I think Marx anticipated that the capital system eventually would diminish itself. And, I think this race issue has huge ramifications which the Americans don’t see; Africa is the 2nd most populous continent after India. So, Trump’s naivetism is likely become American isolation.
I don’t think you’re wrong, but, maybe, not seeing what’s happening.
Bolsanero is as stupid as Trump in Brazil but its political structure not as partisan as the States. So, there are tragedies going on but, maybe, not the tragedies the American elite expected? Or, something is wrong with the political narrative being projected verses the one being told by Market supports? Bloomberg has a podcast about Berta Cacares….Or, maybe, truth tellers are affecting the story told? Or, maybe I’m naively hopeful and tragically confused?
Perhaps, in addition to the Python comparison, America can be likened to another animal of sorts: The Chickenhawk.
America kills more like a cowardly Chickenhawk nation in that it is afraid to go “Mano-a-Mano” with any nation that can actually fight back against the American threat.
Instead, America tries to hide behind the skirts of assorted Coalitions of the Willing, where it recruits fellow war criminal nations like the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, or Australia to wage its wars of aggression.
These wars of aggression are not limited to conventional military invasion or attacks but also low-intensity proxy wars involving US arming of “moderate” jihadists and terrorists; economic siege warfare in the form of sanctions; “Pro-Democracy” regime change or dismemberment operations; or Two Minutes of Hate media campaigns.
This type of American war is designed to wage wars of aggression against other nations on the cheap so that the cost in blood and treasure is minimal … for America, that is. The cost for the victims of American aggression, however, is astronomical….
Some people call these less-than-conventional wars Hybrid Warfare.
However, it would be more honest to call them America’s Chickenhawk (and Chickenshit) wars.
Alone and UnAfraid: Welcome to Chickenhawk America
https://original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2020/06/08/alone-and-unafraid-welcome-to-chickenhawk-america/
So the hyper , short-sighted US government wants to play chess against the people who invented it (the Chinese) and the people who are the best at it (the Russians). I shudder to think what will happen if an oil tanker destined for China is stopped by the US Navy. Russia and China have nuclear subs too (along with hyper sonic missiles). So, the US military that couldn’t defeat the Taliban in 20 years of fighting nor the North Vietnamese after dropping more bombs on them than were dropped in all of WWII, is going after the big boys.
How many Americans will be willing to send their children off to certain death for the sake of the dollar and future Wall Street earnings. Maybe it is time for the US to pull back and give up the reserve status of the dollar.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Russian submarine off the coast of Florida mistook dummy depth charges as being real, and, in response almost fired a nuclear-armed torpedo at US ships. This could have been the catalyst for WWIII. Thanks to Russian Navy Captain, Vasili Arkhipov, cooler heads prevailed, the sub surfaced without incident and we are still here!
“How many Americans will be willing to send their children off to certain death for the sake of the dollar and future Wall Street earnings.” As many have pointed out, a lot of these kids sign up for economic reasons, because our oppressive, ecocidal neoliberal economy has condemned so many of them to gig or other BS jobs, deprived them of being able to make a decent start in life, deprived them of being able to imagine a viable future. When massive civil unrest moves from response to the police killings of young black men to this systemic killing of young Americans of all races, THEN the shit will really hit the fan. And it’s coming IMHO as this Covid depression lingers and deepens, coming as surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west…as in Western “Civilization,” American style.
Well, it should seem obvious that we Americans can’t afford a foreign and national security policy that pits the United States against the rest of the world in situations where the U.S. is not actually directly threatened and does not even have a vital interest. Over the next two months, perhaps we will see some serious discussion of America’s place in the world or perhaps not. If 2016 is anything to go by, we are more likely to see a number of bromides tossed out without any real meaning behind them. We are still waiting for troops reductions and the ending of useless wars promised by Trump. We are still waiting for Hillary to concede that Russia didn’t defeat her. She did it all by herself. This fine article can be read here:
Let’s Talk U.S. Foreign Policy: It Is the Root Cause of Many Evils by Philip Giraldi!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/08/27/lets-talk-us-foreign-policy-it-is-root-cause-many-evils/
Well, one good thing Trump did – allowed his idiot economic advisor Peter Navaro to be quoted his disrespect of Canada’s military in Afghanistan.
It’s comments like that which wake people like Canadians up to the fact that the US can’t be trusted, can’t be counted on, can’t be dealt with.
As Ms Johnstone states; Donald Trump is revealing the United States government for what it truly is ” the Evil Empire “. There is no charade with Donald Trump; he is a lying con artist on the outside and on the inside. Four more years of his ” rule ” will surely bring the down ” the empire ” for good. Our fate does not look good at all.
Good analogy, Sister Caitlin! What’s the antidote?
http://www.johndayblog.com
Bread and circuses only supported Roman social structure for so long, after the richest came to own all the arable land, and the grain came from far away North Africa by ships.
Humans need the meaning imparted into their lives, which shared work towards tangible goals provides.
Growing food, making clothing, building houses, fixing plumbing, tending children, cooking for people, and so many human vocations provide this. Social engagement is inherent in the meaningful work, which makes it stronger and more real.
Is rioting a vocational activity? It might meet those core criteria. People seem to flock to it after lives without meaning, at critical turning points in history.
Only Bernie Sanders seems to be talking about a job guaranty, or he was before he just started talking about electing Joe Biden 24:7.
Hey, I keep seeing more interviews with black people who say that jobs are the fix for the unrest they have to live with every day. I wonder if they’re onto something, there…
This is not the way the minds of our shadowy puppet masters work, because they want centralized production and centralized control of “the masses”.
You were very clear, Caitlin, to say you were talking about fairly recent times, so this is not a criticism. The python approach is not new to the U. S. It was actually called “Anaconda” when first applied to the U. S. southern states (to give credit, this was during a declared war). It was also applied to Japan prior to Pearl Harbor. We know how that turned out. You are right to be concerned that this will all come to tears. You are also correct to point out, blockades are acts of war, but the U. S. never acknowledges that in public.
Dear Caitlin, your article is an excellent analysis of the problem, but with a major zoological error.
(Our family has zoo parks in France).
Pythons do wrap their coils around their victims to neutralize them. However they then swallow their prey whole, head first, thereby suffocating them..
A 12 meter long python can be very friendly and apparently disinterested by a 25 kilo pig in their enclosure for 2-3 weeks until they get hungry, then next piggy cuddle up time, when the unknowing pig puts itself in a useful position, the python immobilizes him, opens up his jaws enormously and starts swallowing the live pig..
Admittedly it does take a bit of time and you can follow the digestive work in progress as the lump gets smaller and smaller moving down the python’s body length, until the stinking end result . Does this sound familiar…
Nixon , cancelled the draft , and Reagan began the dismantling of the US war machine after the dismal result in Vietnam. Bush 2 completed that project by privatizing/contracting out military operations in Iraq , and then globally while using a massive propaganda campaign to mislead people who really don’t understand war machines and the enormous cost involved in maintaining them. Moneys that corrupt officials everywhere lust after. Only the threat of using our antiquated nukes , the occasional drone strikes , and collusion by the leaders of threatened nations keep the American war machine lie alive these days
and Eisenhower was reducing the size of the military.
reagan vastly increased the military budge, he didn’t dismantle anything.
Its all about subterfuge. Even the virus may have been used to bring down the economy of the West, though I doubt it, along with the nefarious schemes to starve, blockade, contaminate, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9TviIuXPSE&fbclid=IwAR0bOZV3i6YJKwsh-ZABI4MkPjbo4V3vPgdiWA9E9KqrG3m0wjw47AlbZ_k
Agreed the so called war machine has now begun using panic induced by the threat of biological warfare to attain its goal , Global power, held by the few over the many.
The ultimate result of imposition of military force by the US Psychopaths In Charge is a constant demonstration of US military ineptitude. It has been at war with a quite primitive people in Afghanistan longer than it has been at war with any other individual party in its history, with no visible progress. It has failed in every single engagement since it participated in the Russian defeat of Germany in WWII. In that same war, it had to badge itself as the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons, twice, to defeat Japan. Since then, it has only been successful against adversaries on the level of city states. Of course the danger is that instead of accepting defeat, it may commit suicide, taking the rest of the world with it. They are after all insane. Too bad Trump talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk.
Zio/US prefers ‘perpetual’ war to actually winning – although war – by its very definition – is supposed to have an ending !!!
It’s probably well to be disabused of this notion of ‘absorption into the US-centralised empire’, or into a ‘US-centralised power alliance’. This latter ‘absorption’ is particularly meaningless given that if it’s simply a ‘power alliance’, then when there’s no-one left to ‘absorb’, what remains for this ‘power alliance’ to be directed against?
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Be that as it may, ‘absorbed’ also implies that the prey country somehow meaningfully becomes a part of the predator imperialist power. Yet, not even under high colonialism were the victim countries ‘absorbed’. For centuries they were governed directly by British viceroys and/or corporations, Dutch corporations, etc, etc, but the citizens of those countries certainly had no rights worth speaking of inside the predator imperial power.
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Today, countries that come closest to being ‘absorbed’ into an imperial power are few and far between, exceptions to the rule: Puerto Rico (US), New Caledonia (France) and Greenland (Denmark, although Denmark’s imperial credentials are rather modest) are examples that come to mind.
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Imperialism works rather differently, and its modern incarnation, since WWII termed ‘neocolonialism’, is even less ‘absorbing’ than its pre-WWII colonial direct-rule variants.
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Today the prey nation is governed on behalf of the imperial power, and its corporations, by a weak native comprador (agent) bourgeoisie tasked explicitly to hold back indigenous social and economic development in favour of the imperial overlords. The imperialist corporations crave and must have unfettered rights to exploit the natural and human resources of the prey nation, to ride roughshod over it, and that’s what it’s all about. Not ‘absorption’. The essence of capitalist imperialism is the export of capital that no longer can be ‘absorbed’ in the national economy of the imperial power, and the unfettered returns it generates in the prey nation are all that count. Nothing more. Capital in fact is ‘absorbed’ by the prey nation.
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There’s thus no way that imperialist powers, which are inherently racist, will ever allow the citizens of the prey nations to be ‘absorbed’, let alone other significant aspects of those nations. Other than ‘absorbing’ cultural artifacts for the amusement of the imperialists, such a ‘luxury’ cuts in into the profits flowing back to the imperium — it’s simply far cheaper for a comprador class in the prey country to be paid off to rule in the imperium’s stead, which is the essence of the passing of colonialism over to ‘neocolonialism’. In some cases this has also involved a limited nationalisation of the country’s key resource the imperialists lust for, in order to guarantee them a constant return on their investment.
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Rather than ‘absorbed’, each victim country lives under the heel of one imperialist power or another, and their fledgling capitalists allowed to ‘develop’ only in service of the imperial corporations exploiting the prey nation and only to the extent that they preserve the terms of imperial exploitation and domination. The comprador class is always at the beck and call of its imperial overlords in exchange for mere crumbs and scraps from the imperialist’s table (called ‘kickbacks’ and ‘corruption’, as if these were somehow abnormal); and in exchange for arms, military ‘training’ or armed intervention in case of a restive native population or the ‘threat’ of a ‘rival’ victim nation, usually the prey of a rival imperial power, and in whose name and for whose ‘sacred democratic rights and liberties’ inter-imperialist world wars have ostensibly been fought.
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‘Developing country’ is an Orwellian misnomer. Under imperialism, the victim nations are held back culturally, economically, materially and above all socially. Their populations continue to live in abject poverty while their local rulers benefit from imperial largesse.
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With more than one imperialist predator still prowling the globe, and where both world wars overwhelmingly were characterised by a re-division of the world by rival imperialist blocs, it’s by no means given that the US will successfully bully or strangle the rest of the world without its imperialist rivals pushing back. As its multilateral economic warfare inevitably and increasingly impinges on rival imperial powers like Germany and France who otherwise are normally compliant with US diktats, US attempts to maintain its various sieges will be undermined — principally by the Euro bloc who increasingly see NATO and US as a handicap in its dealings with resource-rich Russia; and Japan with its own designs on China and Asia in general. In response, the US has resorted to inventing ever more bizarre anti-China and anti-Russia stories to justify its desperate sabre rattling and military provocations and build-ups.
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The US certainly has no intention of ‘absorbing’ China or Russia. The restoration of capitalism in China remains a top priority for capitalist imperialism in general, not just US imperialism; and a much more compliant but already capitalist Russia with its own national priorities and ambitions is the key aim — a Russia not ruled by a modern-day Bismarck (Putin).
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However, super-exploitation of ‘free’ Chinese labour and the opening up of the vast resources of Russia will be beyond the enfeebled industrial and technical capacity of the US capitalist class to ‘absorb’. If ‘successful’, US efforts to oust Putin for a new Yeltsin and restore capitalism in China thus will more likely leave open avenues for its imperialist rivals, principally Europe and Japan, to exploit. World capitalism in general, but not necessarily US capitalism, would gain a new lease on life.
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What remains difficult to envisage, however, is the emergence of a compliant and weak comprador bourgeoisie in a China restored to capitalism but not ready to suffer Japanese (or Taiwanese!) domination under any circumstances; let alone the emergence of a weakened comprador class in a regional capitalist power like Russia that wouldn’t suffer easily the domination of German capital either. China and Russia have considerable technical prowess, well developed national priorities, growing modern infrastructure and other ‘first’ world characteristics. They aren’t standard ‘Third World’ countries that can easily be brought to heel by imperialism, let alone be ‘absorbed’ by it. Only after their populations are obliterated could they be ‘absorbed’, by ‘settlers’ ready to put up with elevated levels of ionising radiation.
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China with its high-growth planned economy will defend itself, with nuclear weapons if need be. And that’s a good thing. Russia will defend itself from US predations similarly, and Russia and China remain the only significant military deterrents to an unhinged and rampant US imperialism. But the biggest deterrent to US imperialist militarism remains its own working class, which is becoming increasingly restive. And that is a very good thing.
“what remains for this ‘power alliance’ to be directed against?”
No one. That’s the idea. The goal is total unipolar hegemony. Research neoconservatism and Project for the New American Century.
And they absolutely do become a part of the predator imperialist power. Just in the last couple of years look at how flipping Brazil with Bolsonaro has facilitated imperialist agenas against unabsorbed nations in South America, or how flipping Ecuador was used to nab Assange.
Neither country has been ‘absorbed’ by US imperialism.
In the way I mean it they most certainly have.
Be concrete then: how exactly do you mean ‘absorbed’?
Moved into behavioral alignment with the interests of.
The whole point of a power alliance is to direct power against another alliance. Otherwise, there’s no power alliance. There’s just hegemony of the rulers over the ruled enforced by their state. However, under capitalism there can be no such thing as a single power alliance. The nearest the world came was the US’s ‘unipolar moment’ when it restored capitalism in the USSR and Yeltsin was still its willing puppet.
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Despite the global reach of capital, despite it’s insatiable need to spread itself over all the globe, nations with state machines are needed locally to defend the capitalist investments. The US war machine defends US corporations (so-called ‘transnationals’) if the comprador class locally can’t. Power alliances are simply blocs of rival imperialist powers. Things have gone no further and they really can’t. Germany and Japan certainly have not been absorbed into the US and further US depredations will certainly engender the formation of a rival bloc of imperialist powers as a presage to war. Germany might form a military bloc with Russia, for example, to secure its energy supplies.
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The only ‘world’ ‘unipolar’ government that can exist is a socialist one…
Nah. None of that’s true. You’re just making baseless claims in an assertive tone.
Sad to say, but that’s history. That’s how capitalist imperialism works. Read some history.
However, the last sentence is an ‘assertion’, because any system based on the private ownership of the productive resources will lead us to where we are today: groups of rival capitalists wanting to divide up the world and who won’t be ‘absorbed’.
Are you really arguing with Caitlin, or simply using preferred words to talk about similar things? I ask this as one often falls into this trap, damn hard to avoid these hyper-contentious days.
Don’t stop there. Look up Hillary Clinton and the New American (Pacific) Century. Neocons and liberals in lockstep. Imagine that. As America is being systematically destroyed from within. I would say WW3 would suit the ruling elites just as much as the Davos Reset and UN Agenda 21.
I can’t follow individual arguments on here because the replies become condensed so much. maybe there’s some simple way to get around that.
I use a PC with multiple tabs. That way, I can see everyone’s comments. I will say that recently I noticed not all replies are linked to their respective comments. Anyway, I was responding to Caitlin’s remark, “what remains for this ‘power alliance’ to be directed against? No one. That’s the idea. The goal is total unipolar hegemony. Research neoconservatism and Project for the New American Century.”
That being said, Hillary had her New American (Pacific) Century plan which read quite similarly to the neocon PNAC plan. One more thing I will mention is US foreign policy is largely directed by the Council on Foreign Relations, the American branch office of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House).
Hillary Clinton speaks at the CFR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Y4xThZnbI
Dick Cheney speaks at the CFR
Thank you for the warning regarding being tortured and imprisoned, I have already experienced both, but am still not under the radar, yet for now am free. The CFR is the world’s governing body of creators of world policies, and in tandem with the Trilateral Commission, have taken us where the politicians rubber-stamp us to go. Regarding Assange words in your post regarding him- I proved that the media is not bad reporting, they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do- as being infiltrated by the CIA as they are- and I give proof in my book ANGRY LOUD AND CLEAR TRUTH- with names, quotes, sources, etc…
Let me give you snippets from my book:
In 1921, the American branch of the Institute of International Affairs reorganized into the Council of Foreign Relations. As I stated in EXPOSING THE MONEY MACHINE, David Rockefeller founded the Council of Foreign Relations, and appoints its members. Over the past 75 years, over 80% of every administration- democrat or republican-has been occupied by members of the CFR. ….
While only a small portion of the evidence of these developments reached television network news or local daily newspapers, the New York Times has been displaying many cases of this throughout 2018. But I don’t accept the assessment of those human rights organizations. The United States politicians, as I illustrated earlier, are all complicit, or at least aware, of 9-11 being a demolition job. They all participated in the cover-up. They have been acting covertly for decades in these events. That no other nation’s leaders were aware of this is beyond my belief. Remember that the trilateral commission, comprised of international political, media, banking, educational, and military leaders; appointed by stinking filthy rich David Rockefeller Jr., is the organization that makes decisions and orders major policies throughout the world. Perhaps 9-11 was commanded from that source. This is all part of a conspiratorial agenda that is bigger than Bush, bigger than Rockefeller, and has been progressing in the governing machinery of world powers. Where the original idea came from, is most probably the Vatican. My educated guess holds the CIA as being responsible, more on that later in this book. But that is not of primary importance. The point is that this is happening all over the world, to a great extent far worse than in the United States. In Africa, the Middle East, and South America, are the locations of the worst catastrophic developments. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, military coups, riots, death squads, ruling cartels, and assassinations are becoming routine; as are “terrorist attacks.” The people in ruling positions in these third world nations are funded by the rich powers and are dutifully doing as instructed to by them. Their law enforcement and military agencies also carry out duties dutifully.
But in the United States, there is “business as usual,” a pathetic complacency in their comforts. Lulled to sleep by television, talk shows, music videos, bloopers, and celebrity gossip; who needs pertinent informative investigative or analytical evaluations of world events? The location of world monetary and military power is also the “eye of the storm”- eerie calm. Local newspapers expose little of the conflict destroying other parts of the world. Television news dealt with civil rights issues by focusing on football players bending their knees, which was transformed to a patriotism issue and disappeared. FBI Mueller investigates Trumps’ involvement with Russia for two years, monopolizing hours of the news every day, and they do not come up with any convicting conclusion. The media has been instrumental in creating a calm bubble for comfortable Americans to feel safe, to trust in their leaders, and to believe the lies. This allows their youth to enlist in the military and to apply to work in law enforcement and homeland security, three avenues that will not only destroy America, but also will be employed in the annihilation of foreign peoples.
Trump ambitiously took advantage of the concept that I and others had been exposing, namely that we have been deceived, and cashed in on what he coined as “fake news.” Now the government uses his rhetoric to remove inconvenient scientific facts as well as the truly fake news, and in the process have removed peoples’ trust in anything they see or hear in the media. This has created an atmosphere of hopelessness, complacency, and resignation. The government, establishment media, and tech companies determine what real news is and what is fake. This enables further propaganda and censorship.
Oh, yes, regarding Trump: The president cries about “fake news” and he is absolutely correct. While he was campaigning, Trump was being tried in court for fraud regarding “Trump University” which he owned, and had advertised as having hand-picked teachers who were teaching his methods for gaining wealth via real estate, as its curriculum. These courses were sold at various levels costing from a couple of thousand dollars to thirty five thousand. Some six or seven thousand people forfeited the tuition, some of them their life savings, in the fraudulent endeavor. It was discovered that the teachers knew little of real estate, and did not teach any Trump-based methods. Trump was found guilty, and was required to pay back a portion of what he had stolen; but very few media sources revealed this transpiring. Instead we heard Trump’s rants regarding “crooked Hillary.” While Trump was being investigated by Mueller, the New York Times investigation uncovered huge tax fraud and deceptions by Trump. Silence from Mueller regarding this.
To enable impeachment of a president, all that is needed is to prove that the president violated the public trust. Nixon was impeached for wire-tapping a few opponents and lying about it. Clinton was impeached for lying about his sexual encounters. But now the whole world is wiretapped, and it is the ‘whistleblower” (Snowden) who is wanted for treason, and Trump (whom the NY Times has counted as having lied as president 7500 times by the end of 2018) brags about committing adultery and grabbing women’s vaginas, and will not be impeached. “Trump University” did not make the news because of “the media’s conspiracy theories against Trump”(sarcasm). Meanwhile, as Trump maligns the media correctly after taking advantage of what I had revealed about the media in EXPOSING THE MONEY MACHINE, and calling it fake news, then masqueraded as being anti-establishment, as the media cooperated with him by attacking his every move, thus corroborating what he said in the public’s eyes. All deliberately misleading a gullible and trusting citizenship, leading them into one wrong mindset after another.
Yes. Orwell’s 1984 comes to life. Let’s keep the masses cowering in fear of the constant threat of war. My favorite propaganda line is, “Let’s support our troops who export freedom to the world by the barrel of a gun.” Let’s not talk about how Wall Street funded the Bolshevik Revolution. How the US helped build Soviet infrastructure after the revolution. How the OSS allowed Mao’s rise to power in China. How the Clinton administration helped China become a member of the WTO. How US jobs were transferred to China for cheap slave labor. How many Chinese nationals are members of the Trilateral Commission. How the IMF helped the BRICS nations create their alternative economic systems. How China installed WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. How the NIH funded the Wuhan lab’s research to weaponize the coronavirus. How the corporate media swooned over China’s response to the cronyvirus outbreak. How the world’s ruling class wants a Chinese style, one world government. And finally, how the UN Agenda 21 plan will implement Marxist world government neofeudalism. Don’t be fooled by the Hegelian Dialectic divide and conquer rhetoric. The late Zbigniew Brzezinski called for a global multipolar structure and that’s what we’ll likely get thanks to his Committee of 300 buddies.
People like you are just annoying – you have no idea what is going on and push the old ‘there is nowhere to escape because they are all in this together’ BS !
China and Russia want a NEW direction for the survival of our species !!
1925 the world population was 1.8 billion – 45 years later 3.5 billion – 45 years after that (2015) 7 billion – 2060 14 billion !
If we don’t change direction and start cleaning up the damage corporate greed has done to the lands and the oceans – well – we are DOOMED !
A new ‘direction’ will create jobs and a sustainable future – there is NO other way !
When herd populations outstrip resources there is mass starvation and deep reduction in population. Man will add war to the mix. Reduction back to 1925 population levels are likely just by continuing the statys quo.
Another voice, from the Orthodox tradition of all places, who agrees wholeheartedly about the necessity of a new direction. No light reading here, by any means–Hart being a serious scholar who writes like one–but an essay well worth wading through.
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/three-cheers-socialism
Really, Jack? Don’t shoot the messenger. After a decade of researching geopolitics and global economics, I can safely say I have the evidence at hand. Instead of regurgitating uninformed talking points, you should try to evaluate them in the light of reality. China is a technocracy, the same as the European Union and the United States. Yes, China and Russia want a new direction away from the US dollar hegemony. I’ll give you that. The rest of your rhetoric falls flat on its face. China and Russia have their oligarchs that thrive on corporate greed. China has the worst environmental record on the planet, 2nd only to the US military. Their “new direction” is the United Nations Agenda 21 plan. You’ll love it! You own nothing. The unelected technocrats own everything. Depopulation will create a paradise for lawyers in love. Great plan, Jack! Too bad you won’t be anything other than a serf in their grand global government neofeudalism. BTW, all you have to do is follow up on my statements and do your own research. Go to the Trilateral Commission website and look up their membership list. Look up Professor Anthony Sutton’s book and interviews. Here’s even more evidence for you to research if you dare.
Click on Enter The Rabbit Hole @ plandemicseries.com
or keep Republican voters terrified that some African-Americans might move into the neighbourhood. LOL
Russia have already disabled US ships using electronic warfare (Donald Cook) – US missiles won’t even leave the silos if Russia so desires !
Russia turned 200 thousand ISIS into fertiliser and there was NOTHING the US or Israel could to about it !!
Russia’s military doctrine states that a war will never be fought on Russian soil again !!
If the Zio/US try anything against Russia or China it would be tantamount to suicide !
Totally agree.
David Axe cares not about the facts. As a lead into your Anti-Imperialistic article this is interesting. I’m not comparing you. I consider you an independent voice and David is what the American Mainstream is on an individual level. David is a whore.
Convention mainstream news is propaganda that has been produced to attract advertiser dollars. It is meant to cause an action in eyeballs reached, not to inform. Because you both can be considered journalists I find the contrast fascinating. I too am free.
David want to make a name for himself as a hawk because that is where he thinks the dollars are. Perhaps he dreams of being a Florida politician some day. Perhaps he only dreams of golf courses but he has to dream of something however twisted it may be. All writers have a curse of dreaming.
David is to Amor Fati as a fly is to soup.
Caitlin, this is nothing new. The US put an oil embargo on Japan that led to WW2. Consider how well this blockade would work if China or Russia decided to escort their oil tankers. This would lead to armed conflict. I see hot war coming from these blockades. I wonder what the US would do if their ships got destroyed by armed aircraft. One day the US is going to bomb sovereign Russian or China territory and all hell is going to break loose.
Yes, very good historical point. The McCollum Memo to FDR laid out exactly what he needed to do, to force Imperial Japan to make war upon the US in the Pacific. He did it.
https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/McCollum/index.html
Let’s see: so Iran, China, North Korea, ‘Palestine’ and their benevolent, peace-loving leaders are llsimply harmless deer just minding their own business before being malevolently strangled by the evil US? Hmmm. Sounds like a mind game of it own
Maybe they would be inclined to minding their own business if they weren’t under constant attack
Speaking of David Axe, Andrei Martyanov has a recent article that puts the “axe” to Mr. David and his imperial delusions.
David Axe As A Symptom.
http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2020/08/david-axe-as-symptom.html
Ah, the Buddha Ms Caitlin speaks the absolute truth once again! The people of these United States should get sick to their bones over the evil actions of our government; but they do not. Those of us that point out the ” war crimes of our government ” are called ” softies” and a host of other very vile names. Our culture is geared toward ” demonizing everyone else ” on this planet. We are called ” The Great Satan ” with justification because our evil is truly satanic. Ms Johnstone’s article here barely touches on the evils our government is currently pursuing; but our population has no shame whatsoever. Shame and empathy are considered ” weaknesses “; we have been conditioned to be both heartless and soulless to all of the rest of humanity. In the end if our government can not have its way; it is quite willing to end all life on this planet.
Maybe if all the good(sic) people of the world slept on it, maybe enough of them would also dream on it intensely and willfully. So that the psychopaths would vanish during the course of the night and a lot of our problems would be over so that we could tackle the next pressing issue of psychopaths posing as spiritual leaders.
“Oceania has always/never been at war with Eurasia/Eastasia” ~ Geo Orwell
It took UK psychopath banksters centuries to set up this trilateral dystopia
Right, as ever, Caitlin. Will we be able to collaborate? We know so little of the rest of the world peoples. And, we would always be suspicious that those other people might be trying to get one up on us…. Is the human entity able to look far ahead–several years, decades even–and take preemptive action, costly now and maybe not necessary just now, to save ourselves from real, irremediable disaster a bit later on? Isn’t there a sound reason why we are acting as we are now, oblivious? Human nature, evolved swinging from tree branches?
A perfect metaphor Caitlin, except for one thing.
Pythons kill without malice or evil intentions.
We could NEVER say the same of the psychos in suits.
Good point. It’s so much easier to love animals than people, in large part because they cannot be evil. I’m always suspicious of those who claim to care about people but not the rest of creation.