Just in the last few days Israel has reportedly dropped cluster munitions and white phosphorus on southern Lebanon, bombed Gaza, and fired missiles on Damascus, because Israel is a nation whose existence depends on unceasing military violence.
In order for Israel to continue existing as the imperialist apartheid state that it is, it needs to wage war in all directions at all times, both against its neighbors and against the increasingly brutalized Palestinian population. If the bombings end, so too does Israel as we know it, because the regional population will never stand for its oppression, tyranny, and multiple illegal occupations.
Peace and Israel are therefore two mutually exclusive concepts. You can have peace or you can have today’s Israel; you can’t have both.
https://twitter.com/sahouraxo/status/1300565877268471808
A nation that cannot exist without ceaseless war is not actually a nation at all: it’s an ongoing military operation with some suburbs and schools mixed in. A nation that cannot exist without constant war is like a house that can’t exist without constant construction: if your house needed 24/7/365 construction work in order to remain standing, you’d either completely redesign the way it’s built or you would move.
This is true of Israel, and on a larger scale it is true of the globe-spanning, empire-like oligarchic world order that is loosely centralized around the United States.
This US-centralized empire, of which Israel is a part, is entirely dependent upon endless war for survival. If military violence ceased to be a tool which power structures could use to enact their agendas, this empire would necessarily cease to exist, because there’d be nothing to stop nations from exercising their sovereignty on the world stage. Currencies, resources and commerce would begin moving along completely different channels.
This would bring an end not just to the US empire, but to the United States as we know it. Without the ability to bully and punish the world into alignment with its agendas, the US, if it continued to exist at all to any extent, would be completely unrecognizable. Whatever remained would be forced to develop a completely different kind of economy, because the US attained its economic supremacy not by means of the “free market” as some capitalism cultists like to imagine, but by rivers of human blood.
The US “economy”, if you can even call it that, is upheld not just by an incomprehensible web of debt and bureaucratic fiat, but by a petrodollar agreement on arms manufacturing and military alliances, by endless acts of mass-scale brutality, and by the most sophisticated propaganda machine ever to exist. The United States of America is built on war, is made of war, and is sustained by war. If the wars end, America as we know it ends.
I point this out partly because those of us who live within any part of the US-centralized empire should probably be aware that the lifestyles to which we are accustomed are built upon a steadily growing mountain of human bones. I also point this out because I think it’s important for those who claim they desire peace to be absolutely clear about what it is they are asking for.
A sincere desire for peace means wanting the end of the slaughter of human beings who live in other parts of the world more than you want your personal status quo to be maintained. A lot of people who think of themselves as “anti-war” aren’t actually comfortable with the idea of the United States losing its position of unipolar domination over the affairs of our planet and taking a chance on a world without US imperialism. When it comes down to the brass tacks of what peace really is and what it really means, many of the people whose lives are floated by the deluge of human blood don’t actually want it.
But at the very least they should be real with themselves about that. At the very least they should admit to themselves that beneath their antiwar facades they are clinging tooth and claw to a paradigm whose brick and mortar are relentless acts of mass murder.
Meditations On Peace
"The craziest and most destructive way we do this is with war, which is made possible by this same weird cognitive bias toward form over emptiness."https://t.co/fl9kMiIWmR
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) August 31, 2020
Peace is necessarily a leap into the unknown. If you desire peace, you desire a world that is unlike the one that exists now and unlike any that have ever existed before. If you really want this–if you’ve actually internally grappled with its reality on a deep and visceral level and you still truly want it–this will necessarily change you as a person.
And it will change you for the better. It will make you a much more integrally honest person, because you have faced the reality of your situation head-on and still chosen the highest interest.
Just as our lifestyles are built on endless war, our lives are transformed by a true reckoning with an authentic desire for peace. This transformation is part of the same movement as our collective transformation from a self-destructive species to a species that collaborates harmoniously with itself and with its ecosystem. To participate in that inward transformation is a human being’s highest calling.
We cannot continue as we have. Our species will either drastically transform its behavior or it will go extinct. Time to take a leap into the unknown, and take a chance on peace. Be among the first to take the plunge.
__________________________
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155 responses to “You Can Have Peace Or The US Empire. You Can’t Have Both.”
QUOTE: ***Peace is necessarily a leap into the unknown. If you desire peace, you desire a world that is unlike the one that exists now and unlike any that have ever existed before.***
China from the beginning of the Song Dynasty in 960 AD to the end of the Qing in 1911 comes close to such a world. During this entire stretch of time the Chinese never sought to take over anyone else’s turf by force of arms; it was other people who tried to do so to the Chinese, and if not for those people — and a few miscreants in positions of power in China herself — China would have been at peace during the entire millennium. (The attacks against Japan and Korea during the Yuan and Qing Dynasties do not count as Chinese attacks on other nations, because during these two dynasties China was ruled by Mongols and Manchus [who came and took over China by force of arms], not by the Chinese themselves.)
During the early 15th Century the Chinese embarked on several long voyages of naval exploration that went so far as part of the east coast of Africa. And guess what — they always left the natives alone (though they did exact some tribute from them for a time). The West could learn a thing or two from China.
I spent several years researching and uncovering hidden details of the civil war and economic chaos which the CIA and British Intelligence agents covertly caused in South Africa. In 1948 after generations of oppressive British control of South Africa, citizens elected a new anti-British government which replaced British directors in the Civil Service with local leaders and incurred the wrath of the Anglo-American empire. After sanctions, terrorism, riots and civil war “liberated” the country from their so-called “oppressive regime” South Africans now have another greedy, corrupt, incompetent or careless, US-friendly group of politicians in control and their country is still in economic ruin, conflict and chaos. Read more of this here: https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-dark-side-of-america-s-friendship-with-south-africa/21889
no new articles for a week. Has Caitlin gone on holiday? I did not read her telling her Patreon supporters that she would take a break.
It’s been my pinned post on Facebook and Twitter. I’ll have something out soon.
I am so very happy that you are alright, Ms Johnstone. Your fantastic pace is something that your readers have gotten very used to. May the force always be with you.
Perhaps JFK was not the first United States President shot to death while still in office.
~
In 1901, there was a political coup d etat in the United States that transformed the world and nobody noticed.
A beloved and twice-elected nationalist president was assassinated and replaced by a passionate supporter of the British Empire and the United States of America was on its disastrous path to empire in Asia and war in Europe.
The strategic context of the murder of William McKinley is seldom discussed. The extraordinary and deeply disturbing parallels between his murder and the sadistic slaughter 20 years before of Russias heroic Tsar Alexander II, friend of Abraham Lincoln and liberator of 24 million slaves has, to my knowledge, never before been explored or even suggested by anyone.
Yet the same dark mastermind and imperial interests can be clearly identified behind both assassinations.
McKinley ended a 20-year-long economic depression that started in 1873, the longest in United States of American history. He was pulled reluctantly into war with Spain and into annexing the Philippines but was strongly opposed to any further moves towards empire.
~
This interesting article can be read here:
The Anarchist Assassination of United States President William McKinley and Its Links to the Murder of Tsar Alexander II by Martin Sieff!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/06/anarchist-assassination-of-us-president-william-mckinley-and-its-links-murder-tsar-alexander-ii/
Genuine anarchism is non-violent.
In any case, Europe will do whatever it takes to stay on top of the natural geopolitical giants of the world like the United States and Russia.
Bullshite. Humans are PREDATORS. Our eyes are in front of our faces so we can gauge distance in order to track our prey. There is NO SUCH THING as “non-violent anarchism” especially when one considers the (((source of anarchism))). Snap put of it.
I find it fascinating how WW2 has been depicted in movies. This depiction has changed greatly over the years.
The 1950’s were movies about war heroes. But they had a certain element of realism, probably because many of the people in the theater seats had really been there. They also captured that WW2 was a civilian war, in that everyone who fought was something other than a soldier, and had every intention of returning to that life once fascism had been defeated. The movies were of course very openly anti-fascist.
By the late 60’s and early 70’s, the movies had changed while America had been changing. They became much more realistic as to the horrors of war. And it became more of the age of the anti-hero, or at least of flawed heroes. The anti-war mood of the country came through in at least some of the movies. The movies were still very anti-fascist.
By the 80’s, this had shifted again. Hollywood became much less anti-war in the age of corporate takeovers and Reagan. Movies like the Rambo sequence became the common war movies. Although, in that case the first movie still had a strong anti-war theme among the violence. This of course disappeared in later movies and Rambo became the corporate war hero as the old independent owned and operated studies instead became divisions of corporations. The movies became much less anti-fascist.
Today, we get completely unrealistic hero movies that are pure propaganda. Very few are left alive who really remember WW2, and nobody in the key younger demographics would listen to an old person anyways. These days the studios are all corporate owned and controlled, and war propaganda is good for corporate profits so that’s what they produce. The movie-makers and writers only know enough history to try to avoid embarrassing gaffes, like having Americans work together with the Germans running a death camp. Even though today the corporations are firmly against anti-fascism and that there are strong fascist themes throughout the movies. For that matter, they only make a WW2 movie when they feel that killing Iranians or Russians has gotten stale.
————
If you want peace, a first step is to avoid pretty much anything and everything that modern Hollywood is turning out. The only decent movie I’ve seen about the military in ages was essentially banned in America, Roman Polanski’s “J’Accuse!”
While I am not movie buff, I can think of no modern war movies. Please name a few and be specific on how they have fascist themes.
We Are Donald Trumps Losers!!
I dislike admitting it; but Donald Trump is right about this.
After many hours of thought and doubt and gut wrenching turmoil; I am just another chump and loser within the vain-glorious United States Empire.
The owners and the masters ( Donald Trumps Chaste ) are calling all of the shots all of the time. They make the laws we are forced to obey. They take our earned money before we get it on payday. We are forced to live inside a society made by them for their benefit only. We are given crumbs like the ” right to vote ” but the owners and the masters decide just who is on the ballot.
Third parties are allowed to exist; but the hurdles to power that they must overcome are never overcome because they are designed to never be overcome.
We are not free; we are just pawns to be used and abused throughout our whole lives. They can order us to go to war and kill and maim or be killed and maimed or else we go to jail.
As a male United States citizen I am taken advantage of by this ” system ” at every turn my whole life.
Why is this the way that it is??
What did I do to deserve this kind of treatment??
If you don’t like the way you’ve been treated so far, just wait until you see how Emperor Jared I treats you.
As opposed to Kabbala Harris, J-w Street Poster Girl?
Hahaha!
You just described humanity. Freedom is and always has been an illusion. The only people with a modicum of freedom live so far from man they are not bothered. Then they are a slave to nature as they struggle to survive.
The ” Evil Empire ” knows no boundaries to the evil it will do anywhere it chooses to. As a compassionate human being it bothers me that the MSM and most U.S. citizens do not give a rats ass what our government does. Some of Ms Johnstone’s readers do care and might want to read this:
Forced Disappearances and International Complicity in Preventing Accountability by Ramona Wadi!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/05/forced-disappearances-and-international-complicity-in-preventing-accountability/
What’s with the defeatism? This is one of the most hotly contested election cycles in U.S. history; of course U.S. citizens care.
Who controls the government is critical to how evil the evil empire gets to be.
The MSM wants the Biden/Harris Democrats to win and hyper foreign and domestic interventions, whether new wars or medical police statism.
Trump rejected new wars and national mask mandate/medical police statism.
The last mistake you mention will cause 400,000 American deaths by Dec 1st. That’s about what Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini killed between them.
Donald Trump just found a much more effective way than wars to kill Americans. 400,000 dead Americans is Donald Trump’s idea of making us great. This is the classic idea of fascism, to kill the old and the weak. That is the purpose behind the open attack on public health.
And of course, under Trump you still pay the high taxes that fund the war machine to levels never seen before. That was always the worst impact of the American wars on Americans.
You really do believe everything you are told by the MSM. I am just speechless.
What did you learn in school?
Yep, sounds about like what I learned in school. Wish I could have learned from Pete Seeger much sooner. I was in college when this one came out:
.
“Hey Matthew” by Karel Fialka
I was sitting with Matthew, we were watching TV I said
Hey Matthew, what do you see?
Do you see the guns?
Do you see the bombs?
See those people throwing all of those stones?
Do you see the cars going up in flames?
See their faces, do you know their names?
Hey Matthew, when you’re watching TV
Hey
Hey Matthew, what do you see?
.
link to video here:
The accompanying video shows exactly how the vast majority of Americans will be “conditioned” to “think” that they only have two choices — an R or a D — for president in the upcoming election, and to actually vote for (peck at) either. For the Elite who control the environment (food, TV, media, etc.) of the bewildered herd, it makes absolutely no difference which of the two candidates the voters (their pigeons) choose.
Its called a Winner-Take-All election system.
Such a system forces voters to form their own coalitions before they cast their votes. The requirement that the person with the most votes gets the whole prize dictates this.
Or, we can always form the People’s Popular Front for the Liberation of the Free People’s State of Judea and have or own tiny little powerless group.
One of the most cruel things done to humanity in these last few months, is to make people fearful, sad and serious, by the manufactured disaster surrounding them.
The global elites criminally mishandled Covid pandemic, with their totally absurd policies, and manufactured fake facts and figures.
This has been done, because without making people fearful, sad and serious, it is impossible to make them a slave.
A slave in all the dimensions of slavery.
Spiritually a slave, out of fear to some fictitious God, to some fictitious heaven and hell.
Psychologically a slave, because fear, sadness and seriousness are not natural, they have to be forced upon the mind and the mind falls into fragments, is shattered.
And physically a slave also, because an enslaved person who cannot laugh, cannot be really healthy and whole.
Laughter is not one-dimensional, it has all the three dimensions of an individuals being.
When you laugh your body joins it, your mind joins it, your being joins it.
In laughter the distinctions disappear, the divisions disappear, the schizophrenic personality disappears.
Laughter is against those who want to exploit humanity, the oligarchs, the priests, the cunning politicians.
Their whole effort has been to somehow make humanity weaker, make them psychologically sick as well as miserable so they will never revolt.
Taking people’s laughter away from them is taking their very life away.
Taking laughter away from people is spiritual castration.
Seriousness is simply a sickness of the soul, because only sick souls can be converted into slaves.
The vested interests need a humanity which is not rebellious, which is very willing, almost begging, to be slaves.
Because of their anti-life attitude, they have nearly destroyed the whole of humanity.
They have taken away all that is juicy, all that is life affirmative in people.
The day people forget to laugh, the day people forget to be playful, the day people forget to dance, they will be no more fully human.
They will have fallen into a sub-human species.
But laughter brings your energy back to you.
Every fiber of your being becomes alive, and every cell of your being starts dancing.
If you can laugh without any reason, you will get to see something repressed within you.
From your very childhood you have been told not to laugh – “Be serious!”
You have to come out of that repressive conditioning.
People have to start laughing again now just to feel alive!
Politicians with all their fascist Covid-19 enslavement behavior and rules have made life so miserable.
For many people now life has become just paranoia, fear, sadness, worry, and frustration.
The normal person is burdened with only negative feelings.
They need something positive to live again, and they need a way to get rid of their negative feelings.
Laughter is the greatest medicine, it does both jobs.
It helps you to not be unburdened of extra energy, but only to be unburdened of negative energy: your anger, your fear, your sadness, your frustration.
All people throughout the world have now become so fearful and serious because of the ‘new normal’ the criminal politicians have forced on them.
If the people could start laughing again, rather than just projecting their fears, their beliefs, their madness on everyone else, then they would just stop arguing and fighting about things which really do not matter at all.
The politicians have made it difficult to laugh.
Everyone should unite through laughter, and re-direct their energy towards removing all of these criminal politicians, and all of the ruling elites from power, removing all those who have caused this terrible globally suffering.
Laughter and a sense of humor has not been recognized by any global fascist authority for its therapeutic quality.
I declare it to be the highest therapeutic quality.
If we can decide that every day, for one hour, at a certain agreed time, the whole world will laugh.
It will help to dispel darkness, fear, violence and stupidities.
Laughter has a beauty, it is multidimensional.
It can relax you, it can suddenly make you feel light, it can make your world not a burden, but a beautiful experience.
It can change everything in your life.
Just the touch of laughter can make life something worth living, something to be grateful for.
If people could laugh totally every day for at least one hour, with friends, family, lovers, strangers, on the streets, in offices, at home, without any reason, they would not need any other meditation.
That would be enough, because while you are laughing you cannot think.
While you are laughing you cannot be in the past, you cannot be in the future.
You have to be here now.
Laughter can open a door to the ultimate.
When you laugh, you are totally in it.
The vested interests, whether of money, or of organized religions, or of the rulers, all are agreed on one thing and that is that humanity has to be weakened, controlled, made miserable, made afraid, has to be forced to live in a kind of paranoia.
Only then will people go down on their knees before their counterfeit authority.
Only then will they be ready to serve anybody who is powerful and in charge.
Let us all really start laughing now, a total laughter which is not phony, not a pretension, not just a performance, nor influenced by any organized ideology or groups, but is a full global belly laughter.
One hour a day, everyday, infect the whole world with viral existential laughing.
It will not only be therapeutic and beneficial to your own well-being, it will be an act of total yet peaceful rebellion.
Let us make this movement happen, now!
JP Sears:
Yolande Norris-Clark – serious
beautiful presented, this woman could make a fantastic prime minister!
Books and movies have sometimes become omens of things to come. Humanity it seems is hellbent on turning the herding of the masses over to the computer programs and the machines. Our owners and masters my be paving the road to their own enslavement as well as ours.
https://nypost.com/2020/09/04/pentagon-says-microsoft-won-10b-contract-over-amazon-fair-and-square/
Its not just the United States. The entire Western World, but particularly the Anglo-Western world, uses Israel as its religious mascot for imperial entitlement and exceptionalism.
What Israel does to the Palestinians is vicariously celebrated by the Judeo-Christian world.
Quoth the CCP.
… CCP-baiting is not much of a rebuttal or denial of Western beholdeness to Israelism.
In any case, in a few years, the CCP or a Christianized China could become Israel’s greatest cheerleader, supplanting the U.S..
Israel is positioning itself for the eurASIAN century, changing its identity from a Western outpost in the Middle East to the leading West Asian country.
https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/israel-asia-center-secures-over-185-million-of-investment-from-asia-into-israeli-economy/
You ok?
You are right about the empire, by the way.
It hasn’t shown itself to be conducive to peace, or freedom, of prosperity, or balance, or Life, or anything else other than itself,
Has it?
UNTIL this country and every citizen inhabiting its borders ceases functioning out of its ego,…we are doomed.
The ego and its perspectives are what most people follow. Most even think that they are their own thoughts. Nothing could be further from the truth. But,..that is a long discussion.
This entire world is infected with a virus alright but not covid. It’s the ego mind virus. What a nemesis it is and continues to spread its weitko infecting others.
There has to come a time when we move from “stupid” to “informed”. And I don’t mean stupidly informed. Informed what and who we all really are. I’m suggesting that a higher intelligent mind be invited in to tutor us in what it really means to be human.
Sadly,..that reality is only most likely a pipe dream that will never manifest. I’ve always stated that what this planet needs a a good ole-no-one-can-deny-it event or experience. An event or experience that no one can deny because it affects us internally. Not something subjective. A genuine and authentic event. Dx; every person on this planet knows what a forest fire looks like. There is no debate. That is what I mean,…an undeniable event that explicitly displays who and what we are.
Here is the perspective I am coming from,…
We are not a human being having a spiritual experience,. We are a spiritual being having a human experience.
Until we all change our perspectives we will only see the forest looking up and not see the entire acreage the forest is in.
well stated Caitlin,…
” A sincere desire for peace means wanting the end of the slaughter of human beings who live in other parts of the world more than you want your personal status quo to be maintained.
A desire to let go of the status quo tests a sincere desire for change. I’m sincere myself, and so what? Perhaps we make too much of individual change.
–
Saving the world to some means consumers should become moral supermen far beyond their capabilities. Make informed choices? Not possible, not everyone reads or thinks deeply enough for informed choices. Not everyone has that strength. Most people need help.
–
So I say no. A shift from mass ignorance has to be part of the mix, but social guidance must come top down or the less capable among us can’t be part of a solution. The less capable want to be part of a solution. It is in our social nature to be part of a solution.
–
Details aside, sociopaths must be removed from power, that is number 1. A new ethic of social consciousness must be required of leaders or they get other jobs. No compromise. A new civic identity must emerge for change. Without it there can be no change. Without a new civic identity all we have are arrogant hermits saying ‘I told you this shit would happen’.
–
We need better than that. In comments below I read that change won’t happen until everybody becomes enlightened. That is not good enough. We don’t have time for such a lazy approach. People need help now. Injustice must end not in a mythical future when we have the time, but now when basic human need demands great change.
–
Become enlightened and lead. Personal enlightenment keeps one foot in the dark side no matter how much you learn. Give back what you learned, the world need it.
‘Personal enlightenment keeps one foot in the dark side no matter how much you learn.’
Meaning only that you need more than that to be a good person. You need to share what you know or from an outside perspective you don’t know anything at all.
Yes. Wise words.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s Kosher Nostre handler and son-in-law, has been barking from occupied Jerusalem (al-Quds), alongside National Security Adviser O’Brien that Arab and Muslim countries will follow the lead of the United Arab Emirates, in “normalizing relations” with the genocidal Zionist entity.
Kushner has been loudly thumping his chest and invoking the Holocaust as he does this. He said: “As the grandson of two Holocaust survivors, it means more to me and to my family than I can ever express.” Well, Kushner is crying crocodile tears. He is a gangster. He made his fortune by being a slumlord, and he’s the nastiest gangster slumlord on the eastern seaboard of the United States. He doesn’t care about anybody, least of all his Holocausted grandparents, and that’s why he is doing everything he can to further the continuation of the Palestinian Holocaust.
So, there he is over in occupied al-Quds, acting as the representative of the Kosher Nostra which has taken over the United States—this ethnically Jewish Zionist loyal organized crime syndicate that murdered the Kennedys (check out the film Israel and the Dual Assassination of the Kennedy Brothers), that orchestrated the September 11 neoconservative Zionist coup d’etat in America—this gang, the world’s worst criminals, is over there calling their efforts to force the Arab and Muslim worlds to surrender to genocide, they’re calling that “normalization.”
Well, that brings to mind Hypernormalization, the wonderful Adam Curtis BBC film that talks about just what is this normalization that’s come over the planet? The normalization of the Palestinian Holocaust is a really abnormal situation, to say the least.
So, is Kushner right when he says that he and Netanyahu and the global Zionist organized crime syndicate and Netanyahu and his legion of killers, the targeted assassination specialists that we learned about in Ronen Bergman’s book Rise and Kill First, the world’s worst killers who roam the globe murdering anybody who speaks out against the Palestinian Holocaust or tries to stop it: Will those people be able to threaten and terrorize the leaders of more Arab and Muslim nations into surrendering to Zionist genocide? Kushner thinks so.
And the Zionists have been proffering the names of some countries, Oman, Bahrain, and even what’s left of Sudan, after the Zionists destroyed it and broke it into two pieces, stealing all of its resources which are in the southern part of the country, which the Zionists broke off and Israel moved in and grabbed all those resources in South Sudan. There’s really not much Sudan left anymore because it was one of the seven countries in five years that 9/11 was designed to destroy. But whatever is left of Sudan, which has been subjected to a Zionist color revolution, maybe Kushner hopes that it will go along with this treason and genocide plan.
We’ll see whether that happens. But I can guarantee Kushner that there will not be one single Arab or Muslim nation that will ever go along with the Zionist genocide plan, and any leader or self-styled leader of a nation that goes along with this is not representing the Arab and Muslim people, therefore, there is no Arab and Muslim nation that will ever do this. The people of every Arab and Muslim country will not surrender to Zionist genocide. It will never happen, not this year, not next year, not 100 years from now.
It’s time for the Zionists to give up their racist supremacist genocidal project, and those who can live in peace and equality with their Palestinian neighbors will be allowed to stay; the rest need to go somewhere else. They haven’t had a very good record of getting along with their neighbors anywhere else in the world, but maybe they can find someplace where they can. That’s the real peace plan, and it will be coming a lot sooner than these people think.
Caitlin,
Google is spoofing your website with OLD articles!
Huh? How?
I think Sadd is saying your article is redundant old news.
No new angles, no deeper understanding, nothing truly challenging the matrix. Most readers are at that level.
Not that reminders aren’t useful, but there’s a reason why the Israel lobby is so politically powerful – many people believe in, or are at lease paid off by, the Judeo-Christian mission.
wrong
When I clink the link to your website, an old editorial of the Julian Assange page comes up; as the latest post! I have to click on your name to bring up the latest post.
I continue to remove the previous link from my bookmarks, and replace with the new link, but the same thing eventuates each day. It is repeated!
Hope this helps.
Oh weird! This is the first complaint I’ve received about that, I’ll keep an eye on it. Thanks for the feedback!
“I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA’s activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them. And yet that day has arrived,” said Edward Snowden in response to the ruling.
This article can be read here:
Further Vindicating Righteousness of Snowden’s Whistleblowing, NSA Bulk Spying Ruled Illegal by Jake Johnson!
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/03/further-vindicating-righteousness-snowdens-whistleblowing-nsa-bulk-spying-ruled
One more reason to vote Trump; the ‘Resistance’ needs the civil protections they felt free to abuse while in power, when out of power.
But that, it might seem, is part of the more significant issues raised by the content and venue for the address. Mr. Pompeos trip to Jerusalem was timed to coincide with the Republican conference. It was not just coincidence that he was in Israel and was able to photo-op his shaking of the hand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, guarantee the Jewish states security and appear on the big screen at the convention with Jerusalem behind him.
It was, in short, once again playing the Israel card to raise the enthusiasm level of the GOPs most loyal constituency, the Christian Zionists. And to ensure that the message was received, it was delivered by the Donald Trump administrations leading Christian Zionist, Mike Pompeo. This article can be read here:
Pompeo in Jerusalem: And the Walls Came Tumbling Down by Philip Giraldi!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/03/pompeo-in-jerusalem-and-the-walls-came-tumblin-down/
I have a very basic definition of war. Anytime a country places armed troops outside their borders, they are waging war. Alliances are one thing, putting troops in another country is simply coersion. As far as America is concerned, they have been waging war nonstop on the world since WW2.
Well done Caitlin!
Here is an American that certainly does not represent peace, and 600,000 others think the same!
His name is Bill Gates.
https://medicalviolence.com/2020-07-23-600000-signatures-call-for-bill-gates-investigation-crimes-against-humanity.html
When you go to join a pro-democracy demonstration, and you find that hundreds of armed people have arrived brandishing weapons and openly threatening you, and that the police are saying how much they ‘appreciate you guys’, then you know two things.
1) Your country has a fascism problem! A big one.
2) You are doing the right thing in protesting. All of those terrorists with guns threatening are telling you that what you are doing is very important.
An account of what happened the night of the Vigilante Killer in Kenosha,
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/08/31/witnesses-kenosha-shooting-see-kyle-rittenhouse-shoot-protest-jacob-blake/5675987002/
USAtoday.com ??
Think the only reason to click your link is by accident.
i didn’t click on it, but i’ve seen other accounts. the murderous psychopath was aided and abetted by cops. they told one militia member that they would drive the protestors toward the militia. isn’t that something like a pincer movement in military terms? the wars overseas have come home, often involving the same people (former soldiers become cops) using the same military hardware. and the irony is that i’ve read that the former military tend to be the more reasonable ones, better trained than the yahoos, and both groups far better trained than the militias.
I can’t say I accidentally read your post.
No harm done though, kinda like bumping your funny bone.
ouch
No matter what you read on this account, it will be full if untruths regardless if it supports or condemns the shooter. Ignore it and let the courts decide.
Those public monuments, buildings, and cars aren’t being shot up, but burned down…
The campaign to destroy Assange begins at that point. The United States government has made it clear that it wants to try Assange for everything up to treason. People who reveal the dark side of U.S. power, such as Assange and Edward Snowden, are given no quarter. There is a long list of people—such as Manning, Jeffrey Sterling, James Hitselberger, John Kiriakou, and Reality Winner—who, if they lived in countries being targeted by the United States, would be called dissidents. Manning is a hero for exposing war crimes; Assange, who merely assisted her, is being persecuted in plain daylight.
This article can be read here:
The U.S. is Determined to Make Julian Assange Pay for Exposing the Cruelty of Its War on Iraq by Vijay Prashad
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/09/02/the-u-s-is-determined-to-make-julian-assange-pay-for-exposing-the-cruelty-of-its-war-on-iraq/?utm_source=FFF+Daily&utm_campaign=fe4a4b8ec0-FFF+Daily+09-02-2020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1139d80dff-fe4a4b8ec0-318075745
wonder what all that stuff after the web url does? Something to do with some campaign?
Counterpunch can always be found directly at counterpunch.org.
FFF is interesting, as its a right-wing, Charles Koch funded organization. They push the libertarian idea that we should get rid of government and regulation and just let it be a fair, one-on-one, fight between you and billionaire oligarchs like Charles Koch with no rules or referee.
well, the rules he writes and the thugs he hires to referee.
LOL
Quite simply, the United States is the world’s most corrupt nation, and medical care is such an extreme necessity when a citizen needs it, so that they’ll pay whatever the system charges them for it — and investing in healthcare products and services is therefore enormously profitable in the United States. Actually, the only other market-sector that competes with it for providing simultaneously high returns and low risk (the combination that offers the best of both worlds to investors) is consumer staples, such as foods, which likewise are necessities of life. When people are desperate, they’ll pay, whatever the cost, because these are things they don’t just want — they need. Here, from Maksim Papenkov’s award-winning 6 February 2020 paper, “An Empirical Asset Pricing Model Accommodating the Sector-Heterogeneity of Risk”, is his sector-specific calculation of stock-market profitability during 2000-2018, showing that “HC” Health Care, and “CS” Consumer Staples, were the best at combining low risk with high returns, during that 19-year period: This article can be read here:
Lancet Study Finds U.S. Has, by Far, the World’s Most-Overpriced Medical Care by Eric Zuesse
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/01/lancet-study-finds-us-has-by-far-worlds-most-overpriced-medical-care/
Yes, America is corrupt; but it’s still better than any other country.
LOL
Either tongue in cheek or head up ass.
LOL
In many ways, absolutely. The people who comment otherwise should travel a bit more, and study history.
Our world is going through a massive shift in consciousness, and the COVID-19 pandemic has and is serving as a catalyst for more and more people to start questioning exactly what is going on here instead of simply believing what they are hearing and seeing on their television screens. This questioning and critical inquiry results in a perception shift, and the world people once thought was becomes something completely different. Not everything is as we’ve been told and taught, and in order to change things for the better we have to be able to identify and see the problem. This is exactly the process we are going through, and the more we ‘wake up’ the more effort there is from those who are threatened by our ‘awakening’ to silence and control us. This article can be read here:
Media Blackout: Massive Gathering In Germany As RFK Jr. Exposes Bill Gates & Big Pharma By Arjun Walia – Collective Evolution
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/09/no_author/media-blackout-massive-gathering-in-germany-as-rfk-jr-exposes-bill-gates-big-pharma/
First, ending “endless war” isn’t a simple binary decision. The freedom from world wars that we’ve experienced for the last 75 years is one positive result of America’s policeman role. So, should the US end it’s willingness to wage aggressive economic mini wars, some form of power will still have to perform a policeman’s role. It could still be the US, but more fairly a version of the United Nations. Second, this isn’t a one-time choice. Anyone who has watched legislative bodies knows that after reform, the financially-powerful sociopaths creep back in over time.
These two observations suggest that more than a simple choice for, or realistic desire for, peace is required. There must be a structure that will support a war-free world and that has the ability to self-monitor for sociopath-creep.
we avoided it because of the military restraint exercised by other countries, and this has nothing to do with america’s self appointed “policeman’s role”. the nuclear deterrent has resulted in some near misses, but it keeps other countries from reacting as forcefully to our invasions and coups and the like as they would otherwise. the united nations is not a substitute, it was designed by the u.s. to keep a stranglehold on the world economy. i’m not seeing any kind of reform happening without bloodshed, i devoutly hope i’m wrong.
Pretz, I don’t disagree that the US’s position as policeman was largely maintained by its stockpile of nuclear weapons and by a massive military presence around the world, not by some friendly agreement that the US should do the job. And, you are right that the UN has demonstrated all its weaknesses in the last 75 years, or so. However, we do need to begin to imagine some kind of institution that can be the organizing vehicle that could negotiate and enforce agreements worldwide. And, we need to imagine how we get to that kind of institution. Expecting that somehow violence of any kind might do that for us doesn’t reflect the realities of war–where the outcome (and benefit?) is always in doubt.
One question.
Answer honestly.
Are you really anti-war?
The proof is what you do, not what your words say. Like Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
You cannot call for peace at the same time you support murder and mayhem.
I am a peaceful person because I stopped supporting murderers in 1977.
“You Can Have Peace Or The US Empire. You Can’t Have Both”
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Some nations believe they are The Indispensable Nation. Then they go out and treat the rest of the World that way.
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Some nations believe they are God’s favorite. Then they go out and treat the rest of the World that way.
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Maybe, just maybe, God doesn’t play favorites. Maybe God – in Infinite Wisdom – believes all nations are Indispensable (at least, the human souls in those nations), and all nations (at least, the human souls in those nations) are God’s favorite. To not believe these things is to believe that God does have favorites and does have a caste system for human beings and human souls and some truly are worth more than others. And when one says that, that justifies racism and human abuses in many forms.
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But if all people have value and all people have precious souls and all people have Divine Rights to live freely and fully, you simply can’t square that with having favorites of any kind.
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Do you believe in a God that plays favorites? Or do you believe in a God who loves and values ALL, EQUALLY. Or do you not believe in God at all and choose to worship life as The Grand Mistake Of Dumb Chance? Seems like a simple choice. But that simple choice changes lives and destinies and has also tragically caused the deaths of millions of people over the ages who want to prove one way or the other that God does play favorites. Or at least, their human characterization of The Ultimate Spirit.
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And all the while, The Great Spirit watches this ongoing spectacle with fascination, horror, and amusement.
Some people are born with debilitating defects. Others are genetically endowed with strong robust bodies and potential for superior skills. Does that reflect divine favoritism? In terms of group means, we see racial differences in physique, physical, intellectual and artistic performance. Such differences in group means are small but measurable and indisputable. Unequal opportunities for training and development contribute to differences in performance and success but scientific investigation proves that genetic variations within the human gene pool dominate in producing observed differences. Furthermore, observations of the very wide range of personal abilities and physical constitutions for each racial group do not discount racial differences. This is real science and according to the ancient prophets, people with superior skills, knowledge, wisdom, insight and especially moral superiority are destined to survive the coming global chaos when greedy, callous, oppressive war-mongers send their remote controlled weapons and troops against one another. Such wise and morally superior survivors will teach and lead other frugal, peaceful, resourceful survivors in building a new, just, free and prosperous civilization. We might be closer to this ideal than we think.
Caitlin, you impress me as courageous in criticizing Israel’s aggression and disregard for human rights. Many journalists ignore this subject to avoid having their pages blocked or demonetized.
I agree completely!
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/09/01/anti-fascism-a-statement-of-purpose-for-all-us-military-and-intel-professionals/
Spoiler Alert
It’s a Biden infomertial
Thanks for the warning. Think of all the good things I can do with the minutes wasted. 🙂
Can we ask ourselves to accept peace?
Can we ask ourselves to make peace, at least with ourselves?
Will doing so help us to interact peacefully with, at least, some of the things that we encounter in our environments?
Is this something that is at least possible?
Even in this world?
Even at this time?
Hard to believe that it’s not at the very least possible, right?
OK, last message from me today and probably tomorrow as well, but you must know that this post and all the comments will simply float off into obscurity and then sadly nobody will ever know the thoughts expressed. As much as that makes me sad, it is a hard lesson I have learned.
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Begs the question, what are we to do if all we want is peace?
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I’ve got no answers on that, but I plan on living locally and talking to my neighbors about what I think.
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I’m not sure what else there is to do because there ain’t no grand plan is what I think. Live peacefully and maybe peace will happen. That is what I think.
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Later all you dreamers…..I’m one of you, but I’ve got to go. It has been an honor to post here and I wish peace upon all of you. I wish it upon you and upon your family. Peace from me and my family to you and your family. Let there be peace. Let peace be.
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Buffalo_Ken
The cost of resistance is high. If you pay the highest cost, then at least you can die thinking you did something good and that is noble I suppose, but please don’t be a fool. I encourage everyone to think hard about the cost they are willing to pay and in a way I don’t think anyone should have to die for peace because that makes no sense. Peace is easy because we all want peace don’t we, and if you don’t because you think you know better, then let me just warn you: Learn or DIE.
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If there is ever going to be peace it will have to be born peacefully.
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Have you ever dreamed about a waterfall. It is best to see it from a distance if you can, but the water must flow and it will don’t you know.
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Hello – my name is Buffalo_Ken – I’m sure you could care less……ha, ha.
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The buffalo know….they were slaughtered close to extinction.
I don’t mind atheists per se, they seem to be more intelligent than the others, but that only allows one to see a small fraction of the reality that surrounds them(none whatsoever), but here’s a reality that we should probably all accept as acceptable;
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/08/22/breathtaking-case-closed-infrared-video-reveals-details-of-israeli-nuclear-missile/
The cost of resistance;
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/08/27/encyclopedia-of-domestic-assassinations-the-first-1/
One thing you can do is to stop featuring Noam Chomsky, the man who supports voting for “the lesser evil” in the United States. That idea has enabled the Democratic Party to move further and further to the right over the last 50 years and supporters of that party are complicit in its crimes. This is not to support the Republicans, who are out and out fascists, but to declare that supporting capitalism is supporting the empire. I do not support the empire.
I agree. I have liked a lot of what Chomsky says, but his voting for the evil of 2 lessers stance is exactly the wrong idea.
Boy, you live in a very different universe. Nothing like sweeping all the members of a group into one garbage can of your devising, eh?
Yeah, that’s what peace is all about…. riiight…. LOL
For those desiring good news, scientists discover that generous people are percieved to be more physically beautiful than they actually are.
Could that turn into a fad?
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200831112309.htm
I don’t know why, but I have a gut feeling that the oligarchs will suffer a tragic loss in the middle east by October.
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/08/31/boston-brakes-no-skidmarks-in-the-sky/
A sincere desire for peace means wanting the end of the slaughter of human beings who live in other parts of the world more than you want your personal status quo to be maintained.
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I agree, and the American petite bourgeoisie is huge. I see that you are trying to reach them. Pointing out that the house they have is like a leaky old mansion in a rainstorm and that they should move is good. A way to make them visualize themselves as a refugee might be good too. Trump still has people convinced they need his wall.
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Imagine you are laid off, unemployment has run out, and you are evicted. You go as far as three tanks of gas will get you to a place where you hear there could be work. Almost there a State Trooper for Trump stops you and says you can go no further. Your existence is illegal.
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Finally you regret voting for Trump.
That was a copy and paste of what our oligarch friends think of the world, you can read the full text here;
http://canadianpatriot.org/the-great-reset-purposing-climate-change-covid19-evils/
Of course you know this is not possible unless they seriously reduce the world population as well. Not only that, population centers must be relocated to more temperate areas that do not require so much heating and cooling to survive comfortably which drives energy usage. Perhaps that will occur naturally when it turns cold and no heat source is ready available.
@khatika from above on 9120 – who knows what time exactly…
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The beauty, I mean the real beauty of this planet is that SO many could it support and it could be done harmoniously and painlessly. I swear to you it would be so easy and I know it can happen. It just depends on what ideas take hold and if the few can learn to let go. If so, the population will grow. If not, JUSTICE will teach the lesson that we all should have learned……..simple justice.
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In the short-term I encourage everyone to hold onto your hat, or to shield your eyes if the wind is blowing too hard……it could be temporary, and afterwards we could all have a good laugh about it and wallow in some serious long-term peace. Alternatively, there may be a few who need to be hung up on some ropes. I know it can happen and I think it will. I can feel it in my bones and that I will take to my grave, so that is why I am a happy man.
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Peace to you and your family and lets get this going please because the clock is ticking,
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Ken
it’s not going to “turn cold”. the propaganda from the fossil fuel industry isn’t going to save you from global warming
I don’t appreciate my original work refereed to as copy and paste.
Even if it is only a comment.
Bravo, Caitlin and Tim!
In case your readers would like to take your great article further and imagine a better world, I’d like to help with the following.
Imagine first that every human being outside of US borders suddenly ceases to exist.
Imagine that the present system in the US in which the vast majority of wealth and LARGE-SCALE capital equipment is owned by a microscopic percentage of human beings for their own astronomical profit REMAINS THE SAME.
Imagine that both “labor” (the working class) and “management” (the ruling class, or Elite) can organize, as they supposedly can in our present “democracy”. But now, because nobody is alive outside of US borders, the owners of large-scale capital equipment no longer have the option to move their capital equipment to other places on the planet where there are desperately poor people who are “willing” to work for food, water and a place to sleep on the factory floor.
Imagine that US evironmental, labor, etc. regulations apply, now, everywhere on planet earth (because the US is the only nation on planet earth).
Just exactly HOW are “Americans” going to “go it alone” when America’s presently-designed economy needs immigrants (of a certain “economic type”) each and every year from now to eternity?
WHO is going to buy all of the “excess” natural resources, oil, farm products, manufactured goods, etc. that a small percentage of working Americans can very efficiently produce, but can no longer “export”?
NOBODY.
To have available the relatively small amount of warm-weather items that America now imports, Americans will venture forth to those places, AS AMERICANS, and produce and send those products “back home”. Naturally, those American workers working on other parts of the globe outside of FORMER US borders will be paid a wage that also applies to the rest of the American “labor market” and, again, the American regulatory framework will also apply to those workers and facilities and places of production, as well as America’s social benefits.
ALL of the work that is presently being done in America by “temporary foreign workers” and other temporary workers who harvest crops, put roofs on houses, cook food in restaurants, take care of the elderly in nursing homes, etc. will have to be done by Americans who will be paid by other Americans.
Automobiles, trucks, TVs, toilet tissue, etc. will now have to be produced by Americans, for Americans. In other words, absolutely any thing and any service that Americans need/desire will have to be produced by Americans and, again, Americans will have to pay these other Americans to do that — enough payment so that these hard-working Americans will make enough “profit” to “save” enough money to be able to “retire” when they inevitably become physically decrepit.
Here’s the most important question of all. WHO is going to play the role of “enemy” that is necessary to maintain the need, the justification, for the present economically-necessary military industrial complex? Answer: NOBODY. How are the tens of millions of people presently being employed in that MIC going to be employed after the disappearance of those “threats to national security”?
How much is the above arrangement — again, an arrangement in which only Americans inhabit the planet, and in which the vast majority of wealth and large-scale capital equipment is owned by a truly microscopic percentage of the population of American for their own astronomical profit — going to “cost” Americans? Will Americans be able to “afford” that system, that arrangement?
NO, they won’t!
When I recently asked my brother in law why the American government finds it necessary to import vehicles, TVs, etc. from other countries, his reply was that “if they were produced by Americans in America, they would be too expensive”. (This coming from a man who hired a temporary foreign worker to give additional care to his elderly mother who was ALREADY living in a nursing home).
So now to my point. Just as it is for the vast majority Americans now in our multi-national globalized world, Americans living in a America-only world could NOT “afford” what they need and what they want under the present economic arrangement — again, in which the vast majority of wealth and large-scale capital equipment is owned/controlled by a microscopic percentage (and getting smaller by the day) of population for their own astronomical profit.
THIS is why under the present economic system desperate slave labor is needed to provide what Americans need.
THIS is why Americans can not afford to have enough children to maintain the present population and immigrants of a certain economic status have to be imported into America each and every year from now to eternity.
THIS is why “trade agreements” such as NAFTA between international corporations are needed to exploit the most desperate people on the planet for the greater benefit of a much smaller percentage of the population.
Again, what Americans desperately need TODAY is an economic system in which ALL Americans, not just a microscopic percentage, own/control large-scale capital equipment COLLECTIVELY, and collectively provide the LABOR (by “divvying up” the necessary labor among ALL citizens) to operate that large-scale capital equipment.
By providing THEIR labor to run THEIR capital equipment, farm THEIR land, take care of THEIR sick and elderly, etc., ALL Americans will have EARNED the right to comsume all of the goods and services produced by THIER large-scale captial equipment and THEIR labor. In other words, ALL Americans will get to “profit” from THEIR large-scale capital equipment and THEIR labor, not just a microscopic (and getting smaller by the day) percentage of the American population.
I think you are talking about localization. Localization is a missing link.
I stopped buying new clothes years ago; my daughter bought be 2 dresses during the pandemic but I really am trying otherwise. People have bizarrely commented when I’ve remarked about my familiarity with Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul, as though need determines my choice. It doesn’t.
I’m growing a garden, hoping to enlarge it next year. My daughter, very A type personality, has, so far put down 51 jars of pickles, sauces and sauerkraut with stuff we bought from a local farm; she only got 1 1/2 jars of jam, though, from a pick-ur-own. We get fruit and veg for the season from our own land, so we are shopping less, anyhow. We really are trying.
I think you are right, Ms Johnstone, about the river of blood; I don’t want to add to it. And, it is hard. Sometimes, very hard.
@JP JUDE
I like what you say and I’m with you I think. I don’t think we are alone.
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I’ve got some ideas, but if it don’t resonate, then who gives a flip about it? I know some of my ideas might not matter in this regard. Still, to hold onto my integrity and my sense of fair play, I just couldn’t continue keep on the same way. I chose the path of peace a long time ago and who wouldn’t do this if they saw the choices clearly? I’m pretty sure we ALL would choose this path, so why is it so difficult?
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HEY – are there some MF’s out there looking out for only themselves? Trying to keep things the same cause they are sitting pretty or they are afraid of change? All I can say is look around – you must know this is a pointless effort…..nature will not allow it. So learn or die. And, for some, the dying part might need to be implemented by the peasants for the sake of us all and for the sake of JUSTICE. Justice will NOT be denied. The GOD of JUSTICE in irrefutable.
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Without JUSTICE we all might as well be dead. Justice cares about blood, but sometimes blood must be spilled and necks must be roped for the sake of justice. Don’t you think?
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Meanwhile, a journalist, confined to Belmarsh (a most horrible place) just trying to tell the truth must be set free. Else-wise, the dikes will fail, the water will flow, the towns will drown, and we will all start over. That is how justice works sometimes cause justice will NOT be denied.
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DUH – some things are obvious.
I’m pretty sure we ALL would choose this path, so why is it so difficult?
That is not a reality but I will agree a controlling majority could emerge. Otherwise going hermit is the only option. When the metaphorical sun shines Wisdom Justice Courage and Temperance are fruits of the human garden.
@Keith H the K-Dog
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The human garden contains many things for sure.
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The reality is that we do NOT have peace and we should. The current leaders seem to be interested only in themselves and maintaining their privilege. Don’t you think this must end? If so, do you have a plan? I do and I’m not afraid to put it out there just like the fine rogue journalist who publishes this place.
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Looking forward to future conversations.
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BK
This is very unnecessary, and I’m probably wasting my time, but what I thought I types was:
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“The GOD of JUSTICE iS irrefutable”
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So that is how it goes when you are posting on blog…..sometimes what you mean to say is not what you typed in reality I suppose. Regardless, we all want peace and harmony don’t we?
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If we want it, then what must we do to make it happen? I’ve had a plan for a long time and it has been published, but it is just one idea of many out there all reaching for what we know can be in our dreams and in our hopes.
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Peace is easy. Really. It is easy and we deserve peace. Most of us do especially the peasants.
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Let there be Peace. Let it be.
You should teach people to garden. And good for you. What you are doing polishes your soul.
Another poem…….from long ago – a poem hoping for peace:
_______________________________________
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Its Time
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Its time we let go
Its time we say HO!
Its time for coal to go….elsewhere.
Its time – don’t you think so?
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Who thinks these days?
Me, you, any-who?
I don’t know – I don’t really care.
What difference does it make?
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When the “New World” was found.
Blood was spilled on the ground.
The blood of the innocent –
Holds power reminiscent.
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Reminiscent of a better time.
When love was true
and gold but a hue.
When men and women knew.
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Those times are gone.
But they will return.
For love is true
and so is two.
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Two who know.
Hold each other so.
Cling to love.
As if from above.
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Two who know.
Understand below.
Mi-Re will sow.
Better times in tow.
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Better times are on the way.
Its time for better times.
So says Mi-Re.
So says my ray…..
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_____________________________________
end of poem
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Caitlin. Th truth is so beautiful, so sustaining to our souls. Thank you so much for sharing this nectar from your bee like gatherings! I love you deeply, as I do all of us truth seekers.
nectar from a bee
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enjoy !
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Now don’t forget there is an insect apocalypse going on. We need you in the fight against it.
Indeed, a free market cannot function without peaceful relationships to practice it in. While you proclaim our lifestyles are supported by the ongoing murder and mayhem, It is more likely that our economic situation would improve in a peaceful world. The fundamental of free enterprise is that you must serve your fellow man, and you must serve them better than your competition does. Simply allowing such delivers ever expanding potential for improvement in all physical aspects of our lives. The elimination of ongoing murder would likewise improve the spiritual aspect.
What happens to “your competition” once you better them?
Do they become your employees? Your wage labourers? Your serfs?
You can take your neighbourhood butcher and send him to the meat packing plant but what do you do with the chap who makes sandwiches on the corner? Send him to the fast-food in the High Street?
Competition, betterment, enterprise, ever expanding … improvement!
Hard to imagine markets larger than a yard sale without the state. But the state _is_ war. Not only the war of human against human, but of humans against all non-human nature. Without these operations, it might well be that a gift economy would suffice and markets would be unnecessary, as well as impossible.
Have you heard of the perils of infinite growth? It makes for a house that can’t stop growing and construction never ends. “Simply allowing such” leads straight to infinite growth.
Caitlin could equally have written that we could have ecological & climate sustainability or the US-UK military empire – but we can’t have both. Because, to the extent that the civilian emissions are reduced, and probably more, to the extent that civilians fail to consume, the military emissions will increase. That is why, from the climate-change point of view, we have to abolish militarism and military emissions first – not as an afterthought, after concentrating all of our effort on the civilian sector and burping cows. Also, of course, if we can’t effectively oppose militarism, we’ll all be killed by the big bombas, anyway!
Caitlin could equally have written that we could have ecological & climate sustainability or the US-UK military empire – but we can’t have both
That is putting words in her mouth and is a false argument.
I did not claim that Caitlin said this. I said it.
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Why is it a false argument? Are the Pentagon and NATO not major emitters of greenhouse gases and other pollutants? Are the Pentagon emissions ‘capped’ under any climate agreements?
I love your work Caitlin, even more so because your bright flame of light and hope draws psychopaths from all over the world, and nothing could make me happier than for them to know that killing more people will not make them more beloved.
Ryan Dawson is the top researcher on Jeffrey Epstein and the twelve Zionist Red Mafia billionaires who have never been more vulnerable to life in jail (if not outright execution as enemy combatants) than they are today.
https://www.ancreport.com/
and
https://tinyurl.com/Nine-Veils-Evil
“IT’S A BIOLOGICAL ARM OF A MILITARY COUP TO TAKE ALL AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIANS INTO A NEW WORLD ORDER:” SCIENTIST & ACTIVIST SOL MILLIN ARRESTED FOR ORGANIZING COVID PROTEST, SAYS HE IS WILLING TO DIE TO WARN AUSTRALIANS:
https://www.thetruthbarrier.com/2020/08/31/its-a-biological-arm-of-a-military-coup-to-take-all-australia-and-australians-into-a-new-world-order-scientist-activist-sol-millin-arrested-for-organizing-covid-protest-says-he-is-willing-to/#respond
Caitlin is totally ignoring (deliberately?) what’s happening in her own country.
She is no longer a trustworthy source.
This coming from a loyal Palestinian supporter.
To paraphrase Max Igan, to not understand Gaza is to not understand your own demise.
Max Igan is an Australian that gets it.
What if a small group of world leaders were to conclude that the principal risk to the Earth comes from the actions of the rich countries? And if the world is to survive, those rich countries would have to sign an agreement reducing their impact on the environment. Will they do it? The group’s conclusion is ‘no’. The rich countries won’t do it. They won’t change. So, in order to save the planet, the group decides: Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
Collapse into what?
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Chaos only starts the parable of the tribes over again. I roll my eyes at re-wilding notions not because a population of 8 billion can’t do it. I roll my eyes because within 5 generations tribes would fight and Kings would emerge. The modern world can’t do without technology and industry. The problem is that currently technology is making moral decisions and people worship it. All hail the great E. Musk (Not).
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I’m with you if you can be clear about what collapses and what does not. At least half the American population does not wish to be raped but supposedly other rational Americans are calling for de-funding police. But this is what happens when you don’t have any police.
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Clipperton Island: Mexico’s Forgotten Murder Colony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJqZt9439E
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Nature abhors a vacuum so unless you are going to stop up the loss of civilization with something which will prevent tyranny, I’m not interested.
Dreamers think tearing down a system into chaos will yield something better. History has proven that it initially yields death and destruction. Then there is a good chance something far worse emerges. Good examples are the Roman Empire followed by the Dark Ages and more recently Lenin followed by Stalin.
To be a success in the US, it is necessary for one to adhere oneself to privilege, giving up any and all pretense of individuality or conscience. One must become ruthlessly aggressive, on behalf of overlords initially and, as one gains the skill and trust of the Deep State, use position to move others aside.
Success in America is based on psychopathy, wile, and deceit. With it comes military rank, seats in congress, seats in boardrooms, and the other perks, private golf memberships, large boats, etcetera.
Caitlin, totally true……the Empire or peace and freedom….why do all the west vote for vassalship of the Empire????…..why do our leaders never call America out?
You call it America but America is the headquarters of a global corporate elite.
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You ask why and the answer is simple. The kind of information which would lead to change is suppressed in America. Propaganda agencies generate material which ad revenue buys. Add revenue only pays for status-quo feel good self justifying masturbations as shown by the failure of American mainstream press to document the 40% loss of our Iowa corn crop. Ad money does not pay for that kind of bad news. Too many issues are raised if such info is released so it never makes it to the public. Nerds may find out and they may bitch online, but that is all a minority of powerless nerds can do.
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Once I imagined captains of ships took the job as captain only after years of learning and practicing to sail ships well. Now I know that is part of it, but another part is that a long learning curve means time to get rid of men who don’t do things totally ‘by the book’ and to conduct themselves in mediocre established ways. Corporations are run the same way and conservatism rules their boardrooms.
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At the end of the day only those with the right kind of weirdness run the capitalist show. Such men sailing in an ancient sea would be tied to masts and have their ears plugged with wax should sirens sing. Now they become CEOs. The rest of us, also with plugged ears, can only row. The rest of Americans are a mixed bag of people like anywhere else. Assholes and saints from sea to sea. The distribution is not uniform or 50-50 or always predictable. Like anywhere else.
and to conduct themselves in only mediocre established ways.
peace is not unknown. peace is not unimaginable either. most of the people, inside or outside the US, know and want peace. that’s why their masters wage war on them everyday. because peace will nullify the masters’ empire and power, as you point out. the masters need to instill fear in people’s heart that longs for peace. and people need to find courage to overcome that paralyzing fear. or a way to get around it. boycott, divest, sanction, cancel, etc are effective tools without extreme risks that make people fearful. grow, make, share, repair, recycle, conserve, and most of all simplify. there’s very little risk in these effective tools. plus one can be flexible, depending on one’s situation and daily needs.
Ms Johnstone, the ” owners and the masters ” running the United States Empire do not care about anything except power and money. Everything else is a distraction that will be ignored. It is truly very sad, but we must accept the fact that the United States Empire is more than willing to destroy this whole planet to maintain the status-quo. This is no way to reason with minds like these. They are locked, blocked, and delusional!
As long as there is fear, loathing and lack of understanding and compassion – regardless of the reasons, there will be armed conflict – wars. Even removing, or disabling the US empire won’t stop wars and bring peace. All it will do is reduce the number of US-engineered wars, and leave a ‘power’ vacuum that other countries might use to start their own wars.
This is the nature of the human race. We are not a peaceful race, we don’t know how to co-exist with anything or anyone, not even our own environment. We think we are civilised, but we are not. We may never evolve enough to have genuine lasting peace.
Fully agree. America is just the current problem, while the nature of man is the true cause of strife.
Khatika,
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You wrote, “the nature of man is the true cause of strife”. Do you think that this human nature is hardwired into human genes and cannot be altered?
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If both of these things are true, we may as well all give up trying to change anything. But, I don’t believe either of those things are entirely true. I believe the true cause of strife arises out of the cultural, political, and economic, systems that have been imposed on us, pretty much in the same way as Noam Chomsky describes in the video on this webpage.
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As I have written before in these comments, I don’t believe human violence, or ‘psychopathy’, are genetically determined. I believe violence is more likely to be conditioned by epigenetic neurodevelopment, often in response to childhood cultural environment. I am influenced by Gerald Edelman’s Neural Darwinism, and Antonio Damasio’s books, such as ‘The Feeling of What Happens’. The neurodevelopment isn’t always necessarily permanent. There is also neuroplasticity.
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So, there may still be hope for all of us.
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It is true that there were wars before the US existed as a nation, and even before England existed as a nation. But there have also been peaceful societies, and societies with all levels of peace or violence, in between absolute peace and war.
We speak of learned vs genetic traits but the true problem is that as long as man has free will, we are constantly at war with ourselves and each other. We each have evil and altruistic tendencies. We do not always act upon either since our own selfish desires influece them as well. Good and evil battle within the world and ourselves. War is the norm for mankind with fleeting periods of peace usually enforced by power. Yes there are a few exceptions but it is not the historical norm. This occurs across multiple races, climates, times and society types. The only historical constant is man. No we do not give up, we always strive towards good in spite of evil men.
Were does this ‘evil’ come from? Can it be exorcised from society in any way? Or is it innate and unchangeable? You mentioned ‘historical man’, but what about prehistorical man and woman? What do archaeologists say about this? Was there a lot of warfare in Europe or Asia before the bronze age, or the invention of the spoked chariot wheel?
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There may be be two (or more) reasons why violent societies seem more common in history:- Because the violent societies probably conquer the more peaceful ones (but that still wouldn’t prove that violence is innate, or genetic), and because less is written about peaceful societies because they don’t conquer others.
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I really do believe that trying to work towards cultural, political, and economic, change is the best thing to do. That is why I have been involved with various parts of the peace movement, in England and Scotland, since 1964. I won’t give up now, even though it has often seemed like struggling for a lost cause, because of the all pervading influence and control of the warmongering powers-that-be. But other people, especially younger people, might give up before they start, if they think they up against powerful innate ‘evil’ that can’t be changed or exorcised. I don’t believe in innate human ‘evil’, anyway. I take an evolutionary biological view of these matters, following Kropotkin, Gerald Edelman, Antonio Damasio, Lynn Margulis et al.
Lofty and noble goals to work towards. Yes peaceful men will always be victimized by violent men. Religion tells us to seek inner peace and find a higher and more noble purpose. To some it is God to others it is the internal elevation of self. It is the way of man to believe in something greater and purer than themselves. I believe in the existence of a soul which is a small part of the spirit of God which continually seeks union with God. Others believe death holds nothing but emptiness. It is those things which drive men to be good or evil.
Clive, have you ever read Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. It is an interesting book in that as an athiest he gives a rational reason for the existence of God using the history and habits of man. He seldom if ever uses religion to prove itself. He basically explained logically how he became a believer in God. One thing he noted that I found intrtesting was man always seems to come up with the same basic laws regardless of society even primitive amazonian tribes. Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not take anothers wife etc. It is hard wired into us. Why. I found it quite intesting and thought provoking.
No, I have not read that book by C.S.Lewis, although I have heard of C.S.Lewis. I am neither a Christian, nor an atheist, nor an agnostic. The nearest I could get to describing what I believe about religion (or lack of religion) in a few words, would be to say that I am a naturalistic pantheist. Along the lines of Spinoza, although some say that Spinoza was a panentheist, not a pantheist. He lived in the Dutch Republic, which was not as religiously tolerant as it is sometimes thought to have been. Spinoza was accused of atheism. He had to be careful what he wrote. So, he may be difficult to understand in some of his writing. My pantheist views may, or may not be, be closer to those of John Toland in ‘Letters to Serena’ (I haven’t really decided about this, yet).
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I also believe in the atomism of Democritus, as amended by Epicurus and Lucretius, if updated to account for the findings of modern physics.
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I do not believe in anything supernatural, or incompatible with Darwinian evolution, as interpreted, or amended by, Kropotkin, Lynne Margulis, Gerald Edelman, Antonio Damasio, Steven Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge, et al, or the chemistry of Dmitri Mendeleev, August Kekuke, Linus Pauling, et al.
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I do not believe in Plato’s, or Christianity’s, concept of the ‘soul’, I do not believe in distinctions between mind and matter, or life after death, or reincarnation, although I do believe in some, but not all, aspects of Jungian psychology. I believe in feelings, emotions, emotional memory, dreams, empathy, etc. I believe these things are best explained in evolutionary terms by the work of Antonio Damasio.
I am familiar with pantheism. I have read Toland and Epicurus. Nor do I find darwinism in conflict with the concept of God. What fascinates me most is the historical similarities of man. Yes we evolve but largely remain the same. It is that eternal fight of good vs evil that speaks of something greater than man which is not just bioligical. I believe we share a common interest in this area only from different aproaches. The concept of good and evil is manifest in most religions. Eternal struggle.
The reason why “we” do not evolve is because we are the same species as the first paleolithic people who drew pictures on the walls of caves (see David Lewis-Williams – ‘The Mind in the Cave’). Those early paleolithic people had fully evolved human minds, brains, and nervous systems, just the same as mine and yours.
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The differences, in terms of propensity towards violence, arise from the differences in cultural, political, and economic, environment, and differences in emotional experience, especially when brains are developing, or, in some people, because they have done psychological work on themselves to overcome the inner violence (in Oliver Stone’s film ‘Natural Born Killers’, Mickey says he believes he is a “natural born killer” and Mallory sings that she was “born bad”. But, before each act of violence that they commit, the film shows a flashback of their traumatic childhood emotional experiences). We are born with all of our neurons, but with far fewer connections between the neurons than we have when we are adults. It is the connectivity that is important.
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Eternal struggle would not be so necessary if the global set and setting was improved.
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We don’t need Jesus, or Mohammed, or Yahweh, to explain this.
I enjoyed discussing this with you. I will read up on spinoza, what you say about him intrigues me.
Agreed , Humans have been at war with each other throughout recorded history. It is only when an “empire” is established that violence abates somewhat . America turned away from its attempt at “empire” after 1952 and our initial defeat in Asia known as the Korean War. Profit seeking intervention through subterfuge has replaced empire building . A game most countries find useful.
“This is the nature of the human race”.
Forgive me, Wild, but next time you can make an even stronger case by referencing that assertion.
Cheers!
I think part of the problem is that American media and politicians don’t call wars wars. They call them interventions now, probably to shift the blame from the aggressor to the target.
Another sensible assessment from John Knox.
A quality insight, despite the blizzard of obfuscation from our ‘leaders’.
Thanks John.
No problem, I’ve found that figuring out what they’re unwilling to say tells you a lot.
It’s worse! The CIA covertly causes civil war and economic chaos in countries which dismiss oppressive US domination, then puppet politicians like lame duck Donald Trump inflict sanctions and send troops to “liberate” innocent people from their so-called “oppressive regimes.”
Vietnam was our first and disastrous attempt at “intervention” it has only gotten worse for the American masses since.
Like calling torture “enhanced interrogation”. If people buy that, it’s only a matter of time before propagandists get away with calling war “enhanced lecturing” or something.
Robert David Steele interview on global warming hoax, green energy grifters, peak oil fable, WTC vaporization declassified, WuFlu hysteria, voodoo vaccination genocide
https://youtu.be/tkPfWQYx3pU
“The most racist, nastiest act by the USA, after human slavery, was the bombing of Nagasaki. Not of Hiroshima, which might have had some military significance. But Nagasaki was purely blowing away men, women, and children.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Has there ever been a time of peace. A time when empires did not vie for supremecy. A time without strife and war. A time of love and cooperation. I believe it is mans nature to wage war upon one another to our own deteiment.
And look what that belief has done to your attitude to your fellow humans. Yuk.
What has your belief to the contrary accomplished?
Jim, what do you want to know ?
A question so open-ended hardly seems in good faith.
Be specific, Jim.
What are you really asking for ?
I appreciate this video of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking in Berlin last week, about the gap in US legal protections that completely exempts vaccine manufacturers from studying or proving vaccine safety in any way. They enjoy a complete, blanket freedom from any legal liability, which Congress granted to them in the 1980s. Kennedy also points out that never in history has power, once obtained by rulers, not been abused. The same holds true in any context. Kennedy makes the case that the liability-free status for 34 years has been an invitation to harmful actions, for profit, without any deterrence. Special above-the-law status has been part of what, in his expert opinion, makes the pharmaceutical lobby more powerful than the military or oil lobbies. Kennedy also points out the new and unprecedented power big pharma has just obtained, due to fear of global pandemic.Please see minutes 2 to 19. This is outstanding, and worthy of his father, Robert and his uncle, John. I sent a donation to Children’s Health Defense.
Robert Kennedy Jr. is Pro-Safe-Vaccines. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-holds-a-press-conference-in-berlin-after-launching-chds-europe-chapter/?cn-reloaded=1
Caitlin’s clarity of Understanding is like a laser.
The paranoia of psychopaths is the deadliest, bloodiest, most brutal force in the Universe.
The selective silence of our ‘leaders’
is a perversion beyond words.
The precipice is closer than ever.
Brava Caitlin: Israel and the US – without wars, weaponry – the murder of the innocents, bases around the world – corruption and bullying – we would recognise – as you point out – neither of these two political identities. Though to be fair – over the past few decades Australia has been turning itself into an Israel-defending and mini-US bully in the South Pacific and northern/western regions.
And, KSA…….