Joe Biden. Joe Biden. Joe fucking fucking motherfucking Biden. In a country of 328 million people the guy that gets elevated to the top is literally one of the very worst human beings in the entire population. That’s the “democracy” you’re being told is under attack.

And this isn’t even prime Joe Biden. This is coming out of retirement for a half-assed exhibition match Joe Biden. This is way past sell-by date Joe Biden. This is Joe Biden with missing pieces. That’s the sort of animal that rises to the highest elected office in US “democracy”.

The inauguration was a whole internet of liberals performing amazing mental contortions to forget that Joe Biden is a disgusting piece of shit. Now everyone has forgotten who Joe Biden is, including Joe Biden. A nationwide dementiafest.

Obama campaigned on Hope and Change and delivered nothing but neoliberal oppression and imperialist mass murder. Biden campaigned on “Fuck you, no” and people think he’s somehow going to deliver something positive.

People are so cute.

You can do it Democrats! Just two years of stalling progressive change before you lose the House and Senate and can start claiming the lack of progress is due to an obstructionist congress!

I still can’t get over the fact that Dems consciously chose not to give Americans the amount of money they said they would. They discussed it, then said “Nah. Too much. Subtract that $600 from before.”

 

Leftist: There’s been a bombing!

Liberal: Oh no! Where??

Leftist: The Middle East and Africa mostly. Our government drops bombs there every day.

Liberal: Ohh thank God. I thought you meant a bombing of real people.

Ask people if they believe all lives are of equal value regardless of where in the world they live and how much money they have, and most will tell you yes. But if you look at their worldviews and the lives those worldviews tend to snuff out, for most the real answer would be no.

The majority of the people who rightly say Black lives matter give zero fucks about the people of color who are being butchered by the US empire in the Global South right now. Mass media punditry trains people to only values the lives in their own part of the world.

Being an anti-imperialist in this society is like being the black sheep of the family who never gets invited to holiday dinners because she always brings up the fact that Uncle Larry is a child molester.

Every day Biden chooses not to move on ending the war in Yemen translates directly into many more dead children. This is not an exaggeration, it is a fact. It requires much, much more urgency than it’s getting.

Trump’s actions in Yemen alone make him a monster whose name should only be spoken with disgust. If you abhor Obama for his warmongering there’s no legitimate reason not to abhor Trump as well.

Trump was none of the things Democrats said he was and none of the things Republicans said he was and all of the things they both are.

There are already at least three likely 2024 presidential candidates against whom the Democratic candidate would be the lesser evil: Mike Pompeo, Nikki Haley, and Tom Cotton. This system is designed to feed you an endless river of evil so that you are floating in evil all the time no matter how you vote.

The way to stop the rise of right wing extremism and conspiracy theories is to end government corruption and government secrecy, not to implement authoritarian measures under the banner of fighting terrorism. This is obvious to everyone who isn’t an idiot.

To stop fascism they’ll roll out Patriot Act 2, secretly implement more FBI programs, surveil, censor, militarize, anything except change the conditions which feed into the rise of fascism.

Because their rule depends upon those conditions.

And because they’re fine with fascism.

Socialists who promote socialism using esoteric leftist jargon that ordinary people don’t understand aren’t really interested in promoting socialism. It’s just a nerdy hobby for them. They’re the same as Star Trek nerds speaking Klingon.

Image

One advantage the far right has over us is that the mainstream consent-manufacturing shitlib culture that is churned out 24/7 by Hollywood is so plainly artificial and cringey. The left needs to fight back by creating culture, real culture, authentic art and media that moves something deep in people, and by rejecting the establishment’s conveyor belt culture instead of just its politics.

This is why something as simple as Bernie Sanders turning up in mittens captured everyone’s hearts and imaginations. It was such a glitch in the whole phony performance and such a nice break from being lied to all the fucking time. We need to give people that experience way more.

Trust in the plutocratic media is at an all-time low and our ability to network and share information is at an all-time high. We absolutely do have a window to wake each other up from the propaganda and create a healthy world. But internet censorship is creeping forward, so means it must be soon.

_______________________________

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107 responses to “Nationwide Dementiafest: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

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  2. ‘… the people of color who are being butchered by the US empire in the Global South right now.’ Yeah that should stop – let the others there do the butchering.

    1. Of course the US, via CIA and other alphabet agencies and NGOs, and World Bank and IMF, and the equivalent UK and French and Belgian, etc. analogs, along with the nominally “American” supranational corporations that arm and fund the war culture and the extractive looting of the planet, have NOTHING to do with creating the conditions that have brought about the butchering, whether the actions of “Global North” or factions in the Global South. NOTHING to do with making that shit happen via direction or covert activities of all sorts.

      Not, of course, that there’s a chance in Hell that it’s going to end, short of some kind of cataclysm. Too many rice bowls are filled by The Way Things Are for anyone to put any effort into stopping the profitable and fun butchery.

  3. So now, since it humors me being that Kropotkin was just in my head (he always will be) and he came out of my fingers, here is a link documenting a very personal communication he had with Lenin. I found it enlightening.
    ~
    https://www.bolshevik.info/meeting-lenin-kropotkin-bonc-brujevic1919.htm
    ~
    By the way, Lenin was wrong about Kropotkin, but that is the prerogative of the young. I’m curious who transcribed the conversations and I suspect it wouldn’t be hard to figure out. I could kick Kropotkin out of my head, but I don’t want to – I like his ideas. They resonate with me. He stays in my head cause I want him there. Just like the spirits I invited into my house. I’m happy to have them here – I beckoned to them and offered repose and they heard my call and I was true to my end of the deal. They have repose and I have the protection of the spirits who I beckoned.
    ~
    2021 – Reckoning!
    ~
    BK

  4. Trotsky's Icepick Avatar
    Trotsky’s Icepick

    Our Dear Papa Joe is going to give everyone fweedom fries!
    Barry ordered him to sign another EO or the apple sauce and orange juice will be cut off.
    The cackling commie Kamala has the “historic” people’s sneakers of unity on as she sings in the rain to the unreleased Tupac and Biggie Smalls demos from 1987.
    What a glorious future awaits the indispensable empire! Yes we can.

    1. Yo Trotsky – yo dood. Kropotkin has a message for you and he is not playing around.
      ~
      Did you know there is an area in Russia named Kropotkin? Is there one named Trotsky? I don’t think so.
      ~
      That is telling – run off to Mexico why don’t ya……..
      ~
      Mutual Aid is where it is at is the message from Kropotkin – he comes back from the grave through my fingers as I type this. The message is simple and it is obvious. So obvious that it’s time has come.
      ~
      Imagine the fruit and bounty we are all fixing to have!

  5. This is nothing but one ad hominem attack after another. Paragraph by paragraph, you single out Democrats you don’t like – which is your shtick 95% of the time – and call them names. You claim that Obama did nothing but neoliberal oligarchy imperialism blah blah blah. Listen, toots: 25 million people have health car coverage who otherwise would not. Stick that in your Perth and smoke it.

    1. 25 million people have “access to medical care,” thanks to Obama and the Dems instituting the Medical Insurance Company and Pharmaceutical Supranational Care Act. There, clarified it for you.

    2. Yeah what a terrible person(you believe she is). I have a simple solution for you: DONT READ HER ARTICLES

  6. “Trump was none of the things Democrats said he was and none of the things Republicans said he was and all of the things they both are.”

    Dear Caitlin,
    Yours is the kind of vision that would serve us all well in this topsy-turvy world.
    “I only wish I had such eyes,” the King remarked in a fretful tone. “To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too!”
    – Lewis Carroll / Through the Looking Glass

  7. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
    Julius Skoolafish

    THE IGNORANCE OF PEOPLE in America is beyond me – The Officer Tatum
    .

  8. Love this. The “glad you tell us how you really feel” vibe by Caitlin is so refreshing, esp. since we can’t do it.

  9. Caitlin wrote:
    > This is Joe Biden with missing pieces.
    .
    .
    “Joe says ‘I don’t know what I’m signing here’.
    .
    “Dear God, help us!”
    .
    [VIDEO: “Volume all the way up, listen close”] General — Jan 23, 2021
    https://twitter.com/TheGeneral_0/status/1352920184739295232
    .
    .
    “I swear Kamala says ‘just sign it’.”
    .
    Nicolás — Jan 23, 2021
    https://twitter.com/nk_616gr/status/1353073085784629255
    .
    .
    President Biden signs his first executive orders in office

  10. Sometimes I think this country is actually a Far Side cartoon it’s so weird. Libs sing praises of a man who promised to screw them over even more. Or maybe not even Gary Larsen could have thought of this.

    1. They’ve got mad cow disease.

  11. No money for a stimulus,
    For war, cash to the brim and plus.
    Syria on day one,
    Aid for us can’t be done.
    We know the enemy; him is us.

    1. Hey PESFB – that was good a poem. Seemed as such to me. Here is another.
      ~
      :::::::::::::::poem of the day::::::off:::::the:::::::cuff:::::::::
      so they say
      they say they will…
      they say they will do…
      they say they care
      they say they do
      I know they
      what they
      say.
      I know they
      are liars.
      I know
      they
      are lying
      to me and
      to you.
      Let me say to you
      I’m sick of all the lies….I’m sick of the liars
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      oh my goodness,
      the poem just
      ended in my
      mind.
      ~~~~~~~~~~~
      Got no idea what is gonna happen, but I know this.
      You get what you deserve!
      You deserve what you get.
      Some thing are obvious
      and hard lessons are
      on the way for
      those who
      thought
      they
      had
      :
      nothing left to learn.
      ~

      ~~~~~~~
      end of poem – hope it works this time.
      :
      ~BK

    2. PESFB – you ever feel like you have something else to say, but no way to say it?
      ~
      I pray for peace and I want the folks in Yemen and the folks in Syria to have peace.
      ~
      I want to outside forces trying to assert their will to leave those places and realize that if
      ~
      they don’t then they are gonna get what they have been giving and they will soon all be dead.
      ~
      One at a time for those specific individuals who continue to perpetuate suffering of innocence cause they are trying to dominate. One at a time, each individual dominator is soon to be discriminately removed from power cause that is what karma is all about. One at a time they will die to balance off to an extent the harm they have caused and I relish the time when we all realize that their blood needed to flow. Maybe something good will come of it, but most likely it just needs to be done to get it over with. Once and for all – Let it be done.
      ~
      You reap what you sow.
      ~
      I’m out of here.
      ~
      Later,
      BK

      1. That’s a real good one, BK, I like how you post your comments, they have sort of humor in them;D

        1. Thanks Eileen – I’m taking you at your word.
          ~
          If you can’t laugh you might as well be dead.
          ~
          One game is just one game and what matters is how you keep on playing. I play to win!
          ~
          Peace,
          BK

  12. I don’t offer a crystal ball on any specific actions or policies that the present administration, with Biden currently as its head, may try to implement. I simply remind any readers of what extant values, motives and “standard operating procedures” are most likely to influence them. Basically, I extrapolate directly from what we see before us today. Time and again we seem to prefer to “just give war a chance” and that “war IS the answer.” If that should happen to change, I would be pleasantly surprised. I and many others will continue to give Mr. Biden advice that, based on his 50 years in the federal government, seems rather foreign to him and therefore improbable. I held out the same hope for Trump even after he clearly failed to live up to his campaign rhetoric, whether his own fault or not. As they say, hope is the last thing to die, but should we bet our future on our hopes or our observations?

    1. This was in direct response to Newton Finn somewhat further down today’s long list of posts. Recaptcha messed up just as I hit the “post comment” button. Why it ended up here I have no idea.

  13. I am making over $9k a month working part time. I stored being attentive to different human beings inform me how much money they are able to make on line so I decided to lok into it. well, it turned into all actual and has completely modified my life.

    That is what I do…..⇢ Click here

    1. I’m glad Anna things have gotten better for you.
      ~
      You know your name is the same forwards and backwards, and if what you say, contains any mischief or malice, well then, you know what that means don’t you being that your name is the same forwards and backwards?
      ~
      Let me tell simply. It means you will be dead!
      ~
      The response to malice once their is a bit of collective understanding will be so fierce and so rapid and so ruthless, that the malice will end. Capice? Do you understand?

  14. “We absolutely do have a window to wake each other up from the propaganda and create a healthy world.”

    And while we’re at it, befoe we turn in tonight, let’s all put a note on our desks for the morning that says “Think thin”. That way, after we wake up and read the note, we’ll all eventually become thin. No detailed plan of action needed.
    https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/8bfcedc7-5ded-4083-8e9b-ad401e4f9ca7

    1. Detailed plans are great, but the first step is recognizing the potential power of working together and being Mutual for one another. Thin chicks look sweet, but sometimes a little blubber is desirable.
      ~
      Mutual Aid you know. Like Kropotkin discussed long ago……some ideas need to stew before they are ready for true implementation. Sometimes those in power need to learn the hard way.
      ~
      The time is now ishkabibble bubbling blabbering smuttle smicking smacking lip cracking curmudgeon negative bludgeon blood-flowing you! How did you vote?
      ~
      Tell me more about the link if you want me to click on it and tell me in your own words please.
      ~
      Go Bills!

      1. I am making over $9k a month working part time. I stored being attentive to different human beings inform me how much money they are able to make on line so I decided to lok into it. well, it turned into all actual and has completely modified my life.

        that is what I do….GOOD LUCK ● SEE HERE.⇢ Click here

        1. Oh Shit its the invasion of the SPAMMERS. May the heavens bring them pain and misery forever!

  15. Man – where did that picture come from? Was he sucking on a nipple? He looked like a stupid baby.
    ~
    Today is January 23, 2021 —- 12321 as I like to say in shorthand.
    ~
    On a similar note, today as I was eating a bit of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel square candy (it is good with red wine), I said to my lovely wife – my significant other – if fellas could come caramel, then they would get a lot more action! I didn’t say it in those exact words but maybe you get my drift. Maybe, maybe not.
    ~
    I’ll tell you this. Life is so much better when you live with one you love with all of your heart and soul. All your spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts!
    ~
    So, the matrix can be scary, and sometimes emotions run high, but we are gonna figure it out and we are gonna make things better. You know “we” – you and I. Here is a song I thought I ought share, and hopefully I can find the link. If so, it will be below.
    ~
    Go Bills, but no matter what, it doesn’t matter if you win any given game or not. What matters is MERIT!
    ~
    Peace,
    BK
    :
    Hey – couldn’t find the link – it is an obscure song – maybe sometime later. Maybe somewhere else.

    1. Since I couldn’t find the link to that song…..it is about folks working together. It is by Kate Ryan. OK, screw it, two links will be below. One is the song, the other is a good article. Very informative.
      ~
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVq69WNFZwg
      ~
      https://consortiumnews.com/2021/01/22/the-making-of-u-s-empire-at-the-beginning-of-its-end/
      ~
      Once we fully start recognizing how quickly we can all teach each other and how quickly there can be collective learning, then the future is going to open up in so many beautiful ways. Better than sucking on a nipple.
      ~
      BK

  16. The globalists who actually run politics in the USA have a running bet amongst themselves as to which of “their guys” can be made to win. The overlord class fully controls the political parties for which they can and do arrange the primary and general election “races” to be limited between those candidates which they have hand selected. Their well evolved sciences of social engineering and propaganda are then employed and tested throughout the campaign processes through which money spent on advertising is basically recycled from one overlord pocket to another with actual profits being made from any “non-club” sources. Such is the benefit of owning the media. Notwithstanding the forgoing, the overlords’ maintain absolute power in such matters. Only the most flawed, criminal and fully managed of persons dragged by them into the fray will be presented before “the People” for final democratic process approval. This serves to prove just how stupid and undeserving “the People” really are since the “elections” were actually over before they started. Regardless of appearances on election nights, “the People” who actually voted either way are regarded as deplorable morons who must be protected from themselves, meaning that only those overlord approved top miscreant candidates ever really have any chance to win (one way or another) within both the primary and general elections, and it doesn’t really matter which one wins. Following a “win” by the most horrible of candidates possible, such proves once again the total power of the overlords who thereby get an altogether unnecessary Ego boost for their efforts as well as reassurance that their decisions are correct.

  17. Ms Johnstone, a bit of poetry you might like:
    ~
    Our semi-precious way by Gary Lindorff!
    ~
    No yellow bricks to guide
    Our semi-precious way
    Littered with the goodluck stones
    That once served our purpose.
    ~
    But don’t be fooled
    By the shining of
    Our semi-precious way;
    Our luck has run out.
    ~
    No more magic for us
    On this path of beauty
    No spells (or curses)
    No protections from Oz
    ~
    From the suits behind the curtain
    From the stale halls of debate.
    The fireworks mean nothing.
    They only scare the pigeons.
    ~
    They make me think of war.
    How can we continue
    On our semi-precious way
    Without the wink and nod
    ~
    Of a patriarchal godhead?
    Or at least without our Easy Pass,
    Power objects Our credit
    Our proofs of purchase
    !
    Our good luck charms
    Our synchronous devices
    That are charging while we sleep
    Remembering our passwords
    ~
    With clues to who we are
    Should we forget
    Our semi-precious way.
    What is your mother’s maiden name?
    ~
    What is your favorite fruit?
    What is our sustainable dream
    For the precious world we broke?
    What is our new path forward?

  18. Maybe this is the universe’s way of inputting ,via our eye and ear brain sockets, the fact that,
    The ‘invisible can’t prove any damned thing, anywhere but right here, somewhere far away, vote counting corporation’, might not be the most trustworthy caretaker of our collective free will.
    Might be the same for the ‘far far far away invisible trust me to count all of your damned money and charge you for it corporation’.
    Maybe, since we can read and count for ourselves nowadays, we should take it upon ourselves to count all of our own stuff (like votes, money, etc) for ourselves, in our own lands.

  19. Caitlin and All,
    I’m wondering if the Bernie meme might not be an excellent tool to disrupt the establishment narrative in the future. Whenever confronted with a new anti-human policy or idea, one could very simply comment/reply with Bernie in mittens. The image might come to be seen to represent a complex host of (his) good ideas, and maybe more importantly it calls out the insane falsity of what today passes for realistic policy.
    Comments?

  20. I begin to wonder why you so superciliously single out ‘Americans’ as the only ‘demented’ humans on the planet?

    Aren’t the rest of the world’s populations demented too, otherwise why would they all follow suit, given we’re all of one human species?

    Or, perhaps you see Americans as a divergent branch of Homo sapiens.

    If it’s all merely a foregone conclusion, then so too is Australia fated, for it is following along behind, puppy dog like, wagging its own white racist ‘tale’ to the tune being played by the piper of power. Why are the sovereign citizens of Australia following along in lock-step?

    The shame is on all of us ‘lessers’ of the planet who must, of basic survival necessity, kowtow to the whimsies of the international cowardice, which the neo liberal capitalist power structures spread among nations, as their method of divide and rule.

    I plead the fifth Judge! Mea culpa.

    1. Americans are not the only demented people on earth. They are just embody the apex predators within the system that instigate and amplify the madness and mayhem so as to generate toxic froth upon which to gorge themselves. There is no doubt that both their allies and their victims are also afflicted with a deep madness. However it is the US that is directly responsible for keeping the distress at levels that prevent any healing to occur.

  21. I love the beginning! Its what I’ve been saying to my fiance for months. And because campaign promises are lies, I expect Biden to increase bombing in Yemen so he can declare victory.Like he’s already doing in Syria.

  22. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
    Carolyn L Zaremba

    You write:

    “Socialists who promote socialism using esoteric leftist jargon that ordinary people don’t understand aren’t really interested in promoting socialism. It’s just a nerdy hobby for them. They’re the same as Star Trek nerds speaking Klingon.”

    That, Caitlin, is an insult to true socialists. The jargoneers you are referring to are fake leftists, like the Democratic Socialists of America. I think you had better make clear the difference between the pseudo left and real socialists, which exist only in the International Committee of the Fourth International, the Socialist Equality Parties around the world. The SEP is the international Trotskyist movement, of which I am a member. There is a major branch of our party in Australia. You know full well who we are since you campaigned along side us in defense of Julian Assange.

    You are followed by people all over the world, and I agree with your sense and willingness to call things by their right names. So you might want to start calling pseudo-socialists by their right name and make clear the distinction between a bunch of bourgeois liberals trying to sound “left” and REAL socialists who support the working class.

  23. “This is why something as simple as Bernie Sanders turning up in mittens captured everyone’s hearts and imaginations. It was such a glitch in the whole phony performance and such a nice break from being lied to all the fucking time. ”
    `
    When asked about his outfit Bernie said:
    `
    ““In Vermont we dress warm… we know something about the cold,” he told CBS News. “We’re not so concerned about good fashion. We want to keep warm.”
    `
    That says it all I think. People are so brainwashed they can’t even admit when they’re cold. People with open coats and no hats at the inauguration so they look good. Good lord.
    `
    With that level of brainwashing, how can we expect anyone to admit a mistake, much less find solutions for anything?

  24. “Don’t underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to fuck things up.” Barack Obama(NOT an endorsement)
    On Inauguration Day U.S. troops drive into Syria with helicopter support.
    Troops with Biblical verses engraved on their assault rifles.
    Depleted uranium munitions made in Tennessee fired at children who haven’t been born yet.
    Quip I read, “U.S. saving the world one Hellfire missile at a time.”

    On the Political Compass, I am more to the left and anti authoritarian than than Mahatma fucking Gandhi. So, all I see is horror.

    Tanoshī Shinrin yoku.

  25. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
    Julius Skoolafish

    Rabbi: “Dear Joe, You Are Our Moses!”

  26. Your rant at the beginning detracts from the rest of the piece. It looks too crazy to be taken seriously. It makes me hesitant to share the whole thing. Otherwise it is good writing.

    1. Perhaps those you share with are a little too precious about such things. Or, if not, then maybe you are overly anxious about what other people might think of you? Either way it seems more a problem seated at your end than at Caitlin’s.

    2. It seems that the recent spate of spam has lead to the captcha process going into hyperdrive. Bit of a pain to get through now but worth it. Garden pests totally take over if not taken out of the picture swiftly and firmly.

  27. Staff: sign this Mr. PRESIDENT.
    Biden: What is it.
    Staff: Its full of good stuff.
    Biden: Turns and looks at wife. She smiles and nods.
    Biden: OK. BTW, Has any one seen those nuclear codes. I cant find them

  28. Clearly Joe is there because he is the right man for the job.
    Again we can than Trump for helping to reveal the US for what it is – an oligarchy operating for the benefit of its owners.
    I have to wonder if Trump new what he was getting into. Bull in China shop.

    Also nice read, pinched from ZH –
    https://freemansperspective.com/are-we-still-allowed-to-ask-questions/#more-11179

  29. Nothing could better demonstrate the absurdity of the US political class than the sorry excuses for leaders we are supposed to pick from. These are their best and brightest? Please. If they are, no wonder we’re in a world of shit. If they aren’t, the political class is a world of shit.

    1. Its not a bug.
      These people are chosen because they can be trusted to do the “right” think.
      Your frustration stems from you indoctrination that this is a democracy.
      De-program – everything you were taught and read in the funny papers is a lie of one type of anther.
      Well maybe except for math and programming – but there is the thing about statistics.

    2. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
      Julius Skoolafish

      I was just sharing this elsewhere re Xi Jinping
      .
      Let me preface this comment with this quote:
      .
      “By far the most interesting fact I hear about the Chinese is one on which we cannot arrive at clearness, but which excites endless curiosity even in the dim state: this namely, that they do attempt to make their Men of Letters their Governors! […] There does seem to be, all over China, a more or less active search everywhere to discover the men of talent that grow up in the young generation. […] The youths who distinguish themselves in the lower school are promoted into favorable stations in the higher, that they may still more distinguish themselves,–forward and forward: it appears to be out of these that the Official Persons, and incipient Governors, are taken.”
      .
      […]
      .
      “These are they whom they try first, whether they can govern or not. And surely with the best hope: for they are the men that have already shown intellect. Try them: they have not governed or administered as yet; perhaps they cannot; but there is no doubt they have some Understanding,–without which no man can! Neither is Understanding a tool, as we are too apt to figure; “it is a hand which can handle any tool.” Try these men: they are of all others the best worth trying.–Surely there is no kind of government, constitution, revolution, social apparatus or arrangement, that I know of in this world, so promising to one’s scientific curiosity as this. The man of intellect at the top of affairs: this is the aim of all constitutions and revolutions, if they have any aim. For the man of true intellect, as I assert and believe always, is the noble-hearted man withal, the true, just, humane and valiant man. Get him for governor, all is got; fail to get him, though you had Constitutions plentiful as blackberries, and a Parliament in every village, there is nothing yet got!—”
      .
      That was written in 1840 (published in 1841) by Thomas Carlyle in “Heroes and Hero Worship – all 6 Lectures” – Chapter 5 “Hero as Man of Letters”
      .
      Jumping ahead to 2018
      .
      • Selection and election: How China chooses its leaders
      .
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgpQxVCekgw
      .
      “very much in line with the Confucian system of meritocracy”
      .
      • How do Chinese leaders get elected?
      .
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twKhCqfjffQ
      .
      “term limits”? WTF??
      .
      Who would have thought, then, that in 1840 Thomas Carlyle was virtually pre-empting the script of the rise to power of President Xi Jinping?
      .
      • Xi Jinping: Scholar in a cave – CGTN
      .
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGDm_mWtXmU
      .
      I just finished reading Jeff J Brown’s “The Big Red Book on China”. I have never had a more love/hate relationship with a book but it has informed and challenged me in many ways.
      .
      He writes (agreeably):
      .
      “Mao tried very hard to get the people to reject the Confucian Thought, as old and rigid, in order to create New China and infuse the masses with pure, revolutionary spirit. Now, with Xi Jinping, the CPC is not rejecting, but absorbing classical China into its lexicon.”
      .
      Incidentally, Jeff J Brown writes that Stalin called the Chinese Communists ‘radishes’ – a very derogatory term used to infer “red on the outside but white on the inside”. I did fact check that.
      .
      And a final quote from The Big Red Book which adds an element of humanity to the Chinese question:
      .
      “Chinese citizens and their leaders are imbued with the ancient concept of the Heavenly Mandate. A local street version may go something like this:
      .
      “OK, Baba Beijing, here is all we ask. We want you to make sure that we are kept safe, our society organised, to give us the opportunity to realize our livelihoods. Take care of our families, communities and self-dignity, and you have to make sure that no outsiders violate the integrity of the Chinese nation’s borders”
      .
      … with endless curiosity

    3. Personally, I am far more angry at all the mentally ill voters who believe the propaganda; left or right.

      When either stacks the swamp with kippah wearers (as do ALL of them), seeing how those particular little hat folks are but 2% of the population, it seems that something as obvious as a big nose would give a clue. Or maybe 6,000,000 of them.

  30. Caitlin Johnstone wrote:
    > This is Joe Biden with missing pieces. That’s the sort of animal that rises to the highest elected office in US “democracy”.
    .
    Why, he’s the perfect CIA tool.
    .
    .
    Caitlin Johnstone wrote:
    > This is why something as simple as Bernie Sanders turning up in mittens captured everyone’s hearts and imaginations. It was such a glitch in the whole phony performance and such a nice break from being lied to all the fucking time. We need to give people that experience way more.
    .
    Find Bernie here too:
    .
    [PHOTO] Lee Harvey Oswald on Twitter: “Some of my friends from the Soviet Union. That’s me in the middle”
    https://twitter.com/LeeHarvey63/status/1352479509925273607
    .
    – – –
    .
    By the way, on Lee Oswald:
    .
    [PHOTO] Lee Harvey Oswald on Twitter: “Using my phone call to contact John Hurt in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was counter intelligence in WW2. I’m in a tough spot and I’m hoping he can get me out. He’ll know who to contact.”
    https://twitter.com/LeeHarvey63/status/1331072756499275776
    .
    .
    “I’m just a patsy!”
    — Lee Harvey Oswald
    .
    .
    “One of the reasons we agree with Mrs. Marguerite Oswald that her son was probably innocent of Kennedy’s assassination — and we insisted on this during the Warren Committee interviews (although it was never brought up publicly) — was the following: Lee actually admired President Kennedy in his own reserved way. One day we discussed with Lee Kennedy’s efforts to bring peace to the world and to end the cold war. ‘Great, great!’ Exclaimed Lee. ‘If he succeeds, he will be the greatest president in the history of this country.’
    .
    “Kennedy’s efforts to alleviate and to end segregation were also admired by Lee, who was sincerely and profoundly committed to a complete integration of Blacks and saw in it the future of the United States. ‘I am willing to fight for racial equality and would die fighting if necessary,’ he told me once.
    .
    “. . . for me Lee is innocent of Kennedy’s assassination. I cannot prove it but the later events, which will be discussed, tent to prove Lee’s innocence. . . .
    .
    “Of course, he greatly admired Dr. Martin Luther King and agreed with his program. I just mention it here, but he frequently talked of Dr. King — with a real reverence.”
    .
    George de Mohrenschildt’s manuscript: “I am a patsy! I am a patsy!” — U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)
    http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol12/pdf/HSCA_Vol12_deMohren.pdf
    .
    .
    “Given his Kennedy sympathies, his warning against a coup, and his recent recruitment (with deeper designs) into the plot to kill the president, it is reasonable to suppose Oswald at this point in his FBI contacts was trying to save Kennedy’s life — and in the process, risking his own.
    .
    “He apparently kept on trying. The Chicago plot to kill Kennedy on November 2 was, as we saw, disrupted by Chicago Police lieutenant Berkeley Moyland and by an otherwise unidentified FBI informant named ‘Lee.’ Lee Harvey Oswald, the most likely candidate to have been the FBI informant ‘Lee,’ had strong similarities to the intended Chicago scapegoat, Thomas Arthur Vallee.”
    .
    (James W. Douglass: “JFK and the Unspeakable”, chapter 6)
    .
    .
    “In that document, Wilcott, who worked in the finance department for the CIA and was not questioned by the Warren Commission, discusses how he unwittingly paid Lee Harvey Oswald, the government’s alleged assassin, through a cryptonym and how it was widely known and celebrated at his CIA station in Tokyo that the CIA killed Kennedy and Oswald worked for the Agency, although he did not shoot JFK. I highly recommend reading the document.”
    .
    There’s now NO question that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the C.I.A. | SOTN: Alternative News, Analysis & Commentary
    http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=132384

  31. Caitlin, I loved your Kim Jong Un cartoon!! Big laugh from your clever joke, and your (impressively drawn) scenario (dorky box tv w/antenna, the perfect body pose you drew & face pic you found) was equally funny, even adorable.

  32. “Every day Biden chooses not to move on ending the war in Yemen translates directly into many more dead children. This is not an exaggeration, it is a fact. It requires much, much more urgency than it’s getting.”
    ~
    Biden didn’t start the war in Yemen. It is not a monstrosity of his own creation. He is now the president, the one man in charge of all foreign policy under the constitution, so he could unilaterally end that war, and all the other ongoing wars he also did not create, though he did have input in the form of the votes he cast to vigorously approve the wars previous presidents proposed before congress. He could end all these wars under the constitution, but the system has been so corrupted over time that essentially the roles of the president and congress in the war-making process have been ceded entirely to the military industrial sector and the intelligence agencies. Presidents like Trump and Kennedy who try to enforce their own prerogatives under the constitution to limit or end wars are either ignored by the military or assassinated by the CIA.
    ~
    Under the constitution (which was NEVER a perfect device because it more often than not allowed or was used as a tool to vigorously push FOR needless wars of choice) the president alone (not congress or the judiciary) engages in foreign policy, turning only to congress for advice and consent on treaties and the declaration of war. The Congress alone has the right and duty under the constitution to declare war. This duty atrophied over time to approving nebulous open-ended use-of-force resolutions in response to presidential requests and then to simply ignoring that constitutional role of Congress entirely, presumably giving the president basically carte blanche on choosing war or peace, how to conduct the war, and how or whether to (ever) end the war. The presidential role seemed very dictatorial in this regard.
    ~
    But is it really the president who ultimately decides these things, or is it the so-called lobbyists from the military industrial complex, the intelligence agencies, and maybe even the military itself? Not only Trump and Kennedy (mentioned above) but also Slick Willie and Obama received either intense pressure from these lobbying groups to create wars or to sustain them way past any sensible expiry dates. Willie was largely manipulated to gin up wars in the Balkans to distract the public from his carnal capers with Monica, as the bimbos just never stopped erupting. Obama, after repeatedly being rolled by the GOP congress he helped create during his first two years of mismanagement, decided that acting tough and talking like a gang banger from Cabrini Green or West Garfield Park in Chi town would be his key to redemption, which is how he quickly expanded Dubya’s two wars of choice to suddenly to six or seven, including an especially nasty street fight with Putin and Russia (real dignified for a Nobel Peace laureate). Dubya just seemed to like being a “war president” to show up his daddy, and also to please his “real” daddy, Dick “Mephisto” Cheney. The ultimate causes for essentially every one of the wars started under these pieces of excrement residing in the White House was a matter of what someone else, ensconced in some other dark lair within the Deep State, wanted and intensely pressured them to get.
    ~
    I’ve never thought this process of “lobbying” for influence and the establishment of national policy, including the creation of war and all that implies about life, death, suffering and morality, was right and probably not even constitutional. For starters, why is it called “lobbying?” Because it encompasses acts that are not allowed to transpire within the formal halls of government. The founding fathers did not think that “horse-trading” things of value, whether monetary or influential, in return for the official establishment of government policy was a moral or ethical thing to do. Hence, the money changers were not allowed in the temple (the legislative chambers in the Capitol) but were consigned to doing their deviltry in the lobbies to those hallowed halls. You don’t even have to be near as old as me to remember when congress critters (or presidential candidates) could not be so easily bought off with campaign contributions, “fact-finding” junkets, and the sharing of insider financial information which tends to instantly create millionaires of nouveau congressmen and congresswomen (both cis and trans, of course) overnight. Slick Willie, always walking an ethical tightrope, almost first got impeached over “Chinagate” (I believe they called his conduit of money from the People’s Republic) before he actually did get impeached over Monica. But, I guess the Congress and the Supremes managed to learn exactly the WRONG lessons from such questionable behavior that they made sure that, in the future (Welcome to the future, we live in it now!), sleazy behavior would be the accepted norm rather than outlawed. Campaign finance laws, as weak as they were, were struck down. Money came to literally be accepted as the equivalent of free speech. There were NO constraints on raising, spending or embezzling it. And, since corporations were now the equivalent of people, including more political rights than you or I have, there was essentially unlimited free speech, I should say unlimited money to buy anyone inclined to sell his soul to obtain a smidgeon of political “power.” Really their purchaser holds the power, but the fools can dream. Those with the most money now OWN IT ALL in the Exceptional Empire! They think they own it not just here within our own borders but everywhere on the planet. That’s what all the wars are about.
    ~
    One last parting comment: Loco Joe Biden is not gonna change a damned thing… unless his owners want them changed. If they do, it will be only to benefit themselves, not you, me or anyone else they view purely as a potential resource, if only as canon fodder or fertilizer. Others will tell you ’twas ever thus… and, sadly, they’d be correct.

    1. Accurate synopsis of recent American politics up until the last paragraph. Neither you, Realist, nor Caitlin, nor anyone else KNOWS what the Biden administration will do, might be FORCED to do down the road, to address what is likely to be unprecedented mass unemployment, homelessness, food insecurity, economic collapse, and staggering death rates (due to Covid combined with other maladies and a malignant health care system). We may well be facing the total unraveling of American society already substantially in tatters due to the political history you describe. Who the fuck can presume to know how all of this will play out? Thus, I’ve become increasingly suspicious of, turned off by, and, frankly, bored with the kneejerk and ARROGANT cynicism and pessimism now permeating leftist political and social commentary–today, I hate to say it, permeating this post. Here we are suddenly thrown into uncharted waters, desperately struggling to comprehend and cope with a roiling ocean the likes of which human eyes have never seen, and then we get these wiseass commentaries by people who think they have some sort of crystal ball revealing unavoidable failure and shipwreck. If we’re embroiled in an unprecedented crisis, then history, by definition, can offer little guidance concerning what’s to come, can provide no firm ground for reasonable prediction. The upshot is that ANYONE, left or right, optimist or pessimist, who claims to know the inherently unknowable is talking out of his or her ass, with the credibility of their words tantamount to the sound of a fart.

      1. It could be this…? Not saying it is for sure, I really don’t know, or maybe I can’t believe it yet, but it does seem a bit like a blueprint for some kind of global reset, something that we can follow along and watch for, to see if Biden’s next steps are already in place? Seems crazy, I know, but just Google each, any, of these things discussed, and find every mainstream whatever is talking about a total global reset.

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E0cbIzJy-R0

        1. Thank you, Agnes, for linking to an informative and rather gripping video, which raises crucial questions without trying to answer them for us or predict what lies ahead. IMHO, a global reset of some kind has long been necessary for environmental reasons among many others, but it must be a reset that serves the flourishing of human beings and all living things. That’s the fight–literally a matter of life and death–that we now have on our hands.

          1. No problem. Americans are uniting with the rest of the world. Exposing things. You hear bad things-we’re racist, terrorists, killers, but that’s just the 1%’s narrative to globally divide & rule. Even Jimmy Dore gets it.

            https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-OP5OLBauCg

      2. The shipwreck you speak of has been ongoing and obvious for a long time. It appears to be some necessary part of the play for powers that have grown so far beyond any merit or justification for holding such power. I believe that the philosophy behind it is to overwhelm the voters, and similar to the great wars and purges of the last century to reduce the potential dissident population of disenfranchised individuals. That said Ive taken agreement with the strategy from what little I know of Democratic Municipalism, the Kurdish resistance in Turkey and Syria which turned away from Stalinist inspired nationalist anti imperialist struggle towards a social ecology inspired direction, as difficult as that would be to implement in the context of an ongoing high intensity guerrilla war. In leftist Klingon this is called a dual power strategy where you replace areas of dependency on government services with mutual aid within the group. This also implies creating the means to become more or less independent in producing food, and having the ability to fix or replicate as many aspects of modern life the group can reasonably sustain into the future assuming at some point supply chain links will fail due to climate change or political convulsions. Obviously cant happen overnight but if enough people in a given area take it seriously its a major hedge to exposure from consequences of corrupt governance in direct proportion to how long people have been building these networks and communities. I favor the idea to include respect for nature and human difference and to be a vehicle for minimizing the ideology driven madness that has consumed many. Democratic municipalism means not emphasizing national politics over the direct experience of politics in groups of like minded people in creating their own rules or social contract, their own political situation at a human scale, where the people involved can actually know each other well enough to extend trust, to circumvent the widely accepted failed institutions of representative democracy coupled with slanted mass media and a rising tide of social media censorship attempting to bottle up any possible actual resistance to economic strangulation. As a side note, if any term is vague or not commonly used, you can easily highlight the word and find a definition fairly quickly.

        1. I appreciate the thoughtful response. It brought to mind E.F. Schumacher’s five signs of evil, things which signal danger when they get out of hand: size, speed, complexity, cost, and violence.

      3. No one said anything about how all this will play out. No one talked about unavoidable failure and shipwreck. The point is about who wields the power behind the empty suit.
        For several years I have experienced the good fortune of reading commentary by this man. I have come to admire him deeply for so many reasons, one of the most important being his fine sense of our common humanity and the meaning of justice. His wealth of understanding and resultant analyses, based in factual context and combined with effective communication skills, is a rarity. Thanks Realist…your time and effort is much appreciated.

        1. …based in factual and historical context and combined with effective reasoning and communication skills…

          1. Agree with you completely about the cogency of Realist’s comments on this usually excellent blog. Complimented him at the outset on his accuracy. Took issue only with his parting affirmation of Caitlin’s post, the target of my diatribe. Should have made the comment as a standalone.

      4. .
        I don’t offer a crystal ball on any specific actions or policies that the present administration, with Biden currently as its head, may try to implement. I simply remind any readers of what extant values, motives and “standard operating procedures” are most likely to influence them. Basically, I extrapolate directly from what we see before us today. Time and again we seem to prefer to “just give war a chance” and that “war IS the answer.” If that should happen to change, I would be pleasantly surprised. I and many others will continue to give Mr. Biden advice that, based on his 50 years in the federal government, seems rather foreign to him and therefore improbable. I held out the same hope for Trump even after he clearly failed to live up to his campaign rhetoric, whether his own fault or not. As they say, hope is the last thing to die, but should we bet our future on our hopes or our observations?

  33. I made a video that starts exactly the way this article starts…

    https://youtu.be/I-f7YdjjS5c

  34. Just as I suspected, most of your followers are Zionists. No doubt you know who they are. I’ve been doing some reading and apparently a lot of people know or at least think they know that the so-called Messiah isn’t made of flesh and probably not even possessing any physical attributes either, but still knowable, in which case it’s nearly a sure thing that the Messiah is already here, so the question left is; now what? My guess is it’s anyone’s guess. A tenth of a second doesn’t sound like much, but in the right circumstance its an eternity, take for example the decision to kill someone, the brain sends the signal to the finger to pull the trigger, in the meantime while that tenth of a second plays out, the mind has a change of heart, too late, too bad.

    Then there’s the problem about narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths, everyone fits that bill, really no different than any other animal that decides to feed itself. In order to live others must die, and ‘others’, may be only as much as a blade of grass that.a cow might eat. So, obviously only those who have no need of a physical existence to exist can ever escape being anything other than just another damn animal, so who made the damn call to come to earth to save some damn animal that thinks that it has a special relationship with God?

    The audacity of it all. My guess is that if the Messiah really is here than all mankind will soon be dead.

    1. Teh Joos aren’t all bad. After all, Marx was a Joo.

      1. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
        Julius Skoolafish

        Karl Marx And The Rothschilds
        .

  35. I like the way you trigger & resolve the argument. Keep punch in’ Cait.
    What kind of democratic republic sets policy through an endless stream of executive orders?
    No debate, no “whitepaper” no vote in Congress. Just another edict from ‘el presidente’
    30 executive orders in 3 days & the war on Syria is on reheat already.
    Time is money, so negative interest rates are an attempt to turn back time.
    No keystone pipeline, use Warren Buffets railway instead, because he’s a party donor.
    No to Nordstream, better to ship gas-across the Atlantic from the USA.
    It’s not Capitalism, it’s cronyism. Not Socialism it’s Oligarchy, Not Communism, its kleptocracy.
    There are no countries, just corporations, no elections just appointments, no governments just regional offices for the Global Network.
    It’s a big club, & you ain’t in it!

    1. “What kind of democratic republic sets policy through an endless stream of executive orders?”

      An excellent question that perfectly describes where we are.
      Thank you

  36. You seem to be suffering a sort circuit.

    Trump Bad!!!

    Biden not Trump = Good!!!

    This bi-polar perception must be fully engaged whilst kept in explicitly mindful, distinct separation so as to secure the behemoth engine of war and corruption back into its necessary function of camouflaged hyper-drive.

    This mirrors the necessary conjunction of another explicit polarity – War is Peace. Thus the hyperdriven program of ongoing systemic destruction is explained, motivated and protected.

    This machine program runs large across the global landscape, killing as and where it needs to ensure that peace, harmony and goodwill can flourish in the world. Oh, and democracy. We must definitely have that. If local people make the wrong choice, it is our duty under god to kill and immiserate as many of them as is necessary to make them realise and adopt a better choice – a choice in our image, or at least to our direct and insatiable benefit.

    Should you confuse these vitally simple polarities, and seek to explore and illuminate the grey areas between them and connecting them, you are not fit to communicate with normal sane people. For their protection, and your own, you shall be struck from the public discussion. In treading perceptively upon these grey zones you have entered the void, a place with no properly determined certainty.

    It is a place with no properly fitting frame within which no safely calibrated looking-glass can be securely affixed. It is a place called reality. It is not welcome. It is not allowed!

  37. Oh my goodness! 2 bad u are @a lack of words 2 let us know what u really think! HA HA HA, Perfect! “Jo & da ho” is how P.J. Media expresses it…and being an ex USN “swabbie” the recent treatment of the National Guard is just inexcusable! Already today on the net is an article describing Bidens “policies” will soon be putting ALL of the small trucking companies out of biz; therefore insuring all food supplies will begin 2 diminish, and just how long do u
    think the american public is going 2 let that go on & on….all “in line ” with that Swiss dictator pushing 4 “the great reset”! And folks wonder just why we departed,4 good, that “land of the fee, & home 2 the slave”…Caitlin! You could not have said it better! Famous Aussie comment…”GOOD ON YA”!!! Expst tom…

  38. Foster Goodwill Avatar
    Foster Goodwill

    Way too biased/reactionary sister . We got the best we could given the circumstances. Put a little love in your heart!

    1. We? Not sure the Democrats were thinking of the collective ‘we’ when they elevated Biden. And only after a couple of days it would appear on face value that this administration is far from anything that resembles one that is ‘for the people’.

      1. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
        Carolyn L Zaremba

        Agreed. And I always dislike an assumed “we” as though the audience for someone’s remarks are all in the same club. Nine times out of ten, I am not part of the pseudo-left “we”.

  39. Thank You Ms Johnstone! It is so refreshing to read the stark real truth about the United States government and our sickening main stream media. Unfortunately the average United States citizen remains in a ” coma ” entranced in the myth that this is a great and exceptional country. This is not ” God’s county “; this really is ” Satan’s country ” promoting murder, mayhem, and depravity the world over. Cleansing this stain from the universe is not going to be easy!

    1. Everyone always acts as though the United States is some evil empire. Which may or may not be a valid statement of fact. However, name one major country that did not take land from some other native inhabitant (France, Spain, Italy, Germany, UK, etc.), kill or wipe out whole civilizations. Oh and the Great Wall of China didn’t exactly get built without slaves.

      The US (or any other major Country) is just a larger symptom of what humanity has always been and will always be. In any population, there exists a large proportion who crave the need to control others. We mostly call them sociopaths, narcissistic or psychopaths.

      Since sociopaths, narcissistic or psychopaths are usually considered fuck ups by normal society, I simple prefer the ‘fuck up move up’ philosophy of societal advancement.

      I truly enjoy the comments on this site vastly better than most sites, despite everyone’s philosophical differences. Wish more sites were like this.

  40. Stephen Morrell Avatar
    Stephen Morrell

    If one ever bothers to read Marx, Engels or Lenin they’ll quickly realise that the latter used very ‘esoteric leftist jargon that ordinary people don’t understand’ — in just about everything they wrote. And they were more than simply ‘really interested in promoting socialism.’ They were ‘really interested’ in establishing it. Marx and Engels spent their lives building organisations internationally of likeminded communist and socialist parties whose express purpose was to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism. Lenin actually made a socialist revolution and similarly built an international of likeminded communists to spread the Russian revolution to other countries.

    It’s high time for those who don’t so casually dismiss ‘esoteric leftist jargon’ to seriously grapple with it, to actually learn something from those who had far more success in ‘promoting socialism’ than anyone in what counts for today’s pathetic ‘left’. Otherwise, the admonition to ‘wake each other up from the propaganda and create a healthy world’ will remain an empty platitude worthy of a ‘progressive’ Democrat (before they’re elected of course).

    1. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
      Julius Skoolafish

      Putin on Marxism-Leninism – a “pernicious fairy tale”

      “I think that history is something that should be looked on as something that occurred in the past. We can’t erase our history. If you’re interested in how I regard this person [Ulyanov – who called himself Lenin] and the doctrine he represented, I would say that … there was a period in my life when I was interested in Marxism-Leninism, read a lot with keen interest, found that reading curious, often logical … as we all did. – Yes, as we all did. But for me I can say, as I grew older, the truth became more and more apparent that all of it was nothing but a beautiful, yet pernicious fairy tale. Pernicious because its … implementation; the efforts to achieve it in our country caused enormous harm.

      […]

      … the other [thing] is they destroyed what united people of the civilized world.

      […]

      The only thing they did to keep the country together within common borders was use barbed wire.“

      Putin’s response 11 years later: “I have practically nothing more to add. I am ready to repeat it word for word.“

      The video that I took that transcript from has been taken down but can still be found in Russian somewhere. Nevertheless, here is Putin on a related topic …

      • Putin Trashes Marx and Lenin: Practice Has Shown That Marxism Was Wrong, Family Matters!

      1. Stephen Morrell Avatar
        Stephen Morrell

        Guess what: Lenin would have recoiled in horror at all the Stalinist repression and corruption that Putin points to as ‘proof’ that socialism is a ‘pernicious fairytale’. The Stalinists and the most ‘educated’ spokesmen for western capitalism all agreed that the USSR was ‘communist’. And if that was really ‘communism’, who’d want to put up with that indefinitely? No one.
        .
        Capitalism has only been overthrown in backward countries, including Tsarist Russia, and socialism was never going to be attained unless capitalism was also overthrown in advanced countries. Which hasn’t happened, and until that’s occurred no-one can claim that Marxism is a ‘pernicious fairytale’. Lenin’s last struggles from his deathbed were against the rising bureaucracy and to remove Stalin. He knew very well that Russia was too backward to build a socialist society on its own. For a decent understanding of why socialism, much less communism, wasn’t achieved in the USSR, read Trotsky’s ‘Revolution Betrayed’.
        .
        On the nuclear family: not only Marxists, but anthropologists and pre-Marxian utopian socialists (eg, Fourier) established that the nuclear family arose with class society is the chief social mechanism for women’s oppression and for the instilling of slave-like respect for ‘authority’ in children of the working classes, and for the transmission of property of the ruling classes.
        .
        As for Putin’s claim that Marxism rejects love, whether romantic or in families, now that’s a truly pernicious fairytale designed to scare people who know no better from thinking of a better world than either Stalinism or being subject to the rule of capitalist oligarchs, Russian or otherwise.

        1. Man you are fully deluded if you think the blame can be put on Stalin to excuse Lenin and Trotsky.

          As head of the military wing Trotsky had Lenin’s authorisation to mobilise state forces against the people. A horrific cycle of crucifixions, scalpings and other “bestial tortures” ensued. Eyes were poked out, tongues cut off, and victims were buried alive. Shootings by Cheka (police) where common place and there where those who cut open their victim’s stomach, pulled out a length of small intestine, nailed it to a telegraph pole, and with a whip forced the victim to run circles around the pole until the whole intestine became unravelled.

          These are your heroes.

          1. The red terror accounted for around 10,000 deaths. And the Chaka carried out a lot of it. Stalin’s terror, ie, directly from the secret police (Cheka until 1922 then the (O)GPU, then subsumed under the NKVD in 1934) rounding people up and murdering them, accounted for around 1.3 million. Two orders of magnitude more. So the largest portion of blame can certainly be put on Stalin.
            .
            Of course Trotsky had Lenin’s authority to use state forces against ‘the people’. It was a civil war, and ‘the people’ can mean anything, including those siding with the Reds one week, then siding with the Whites the next week. Many innocent people died in the Russian civil war and this happens in all civil wars because military intelligence is never perfect and the allegiance of people caught in the middle is changeable and never constant.
            .
            All wars have atrocities, and any number of these can be recounted. The incidents you quote have no date or place, so I’m unable to comment further on them.

            1. Good. Because quoting numbers like that means you are wholly uninformed or lying.

            2. Stephen, as usual, all of your comments are right on. I just hope your are young and have the intenstinal fortitude to continue. Thanks very much from an old hippie who isn’t getting any younger.

    2. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
      Julius Skoolafish

      I’ll break this continued dialogue up to avoid the pending black hole …
      1/-
      .
      So I guess you are not a fan of Putin then.
      .
      Putin says Ulyanov was a Russian-hating Bolshevik revolutionary not a statesman. Didn’t the great Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn also say something to that effect?
      .
      • Putin: Ulyanov [sic] Was Not a Statesman, He Was a Bolshevik Revolutionary Who Made Anti-Russian Mistakes
      .
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ2NAfXB0rI
      .
      Let’s hear from Ulyanov himself (as well as Lev Bronstein)
      .
      • “We must hang (and it has to be hanging, so that the people will see) no fewer than 1,000 inveterate kulaks, the rich ones … seize their grain, take hostages … Make sure that the people hear about it 100 versts [a verst equals just over 1 km] around and tremble from fear”… (Lenin 1918)
      .
      • N G Kuznetsov to Trotsky (1919): “Moscow is literally dying of hunger”
      • Bronstein [sic]: “That’s not hunger. […] When I have your mothers eating their young, then you can tell me you’re starving.
      .
      Quoted from “Secondhand Time – The Last of the Soviets” by Svetlana Alexievich – as cited from released Russian archive material.
      .
      … way to introduce a utopian ideology!

      1. The Russian Civil War on top of an economy ruined by World War produced desperate conditions, including famine and cannibalism. And threatening and making examples of kulaks holding back grain that only exacerbated famine in the cities was entirely appropriate. And all revolutions have a necessary period of terror in their immediate aftermath to repress the old ruling classes.
        .
        Putin by far is the most competent leader in the capitalist world. His politics might be characterised as a blend of reactionary social and religious values and Bismarckianism. Above all, he has refused to allow Russia to be raped by the imperialists, but his nationalism is pretty mild by normal capitalist standards (since he’s constantly dealing with all the nationalities in the Russian Federation).
        .
        Lenin never saw himself as a ‘statesman’ and he certainly made his fair share of mistakes in power. So what?

        1. Did you just write that ? : “And all revolutions have a necessary period of terror in their immediate aftermath to repress the old ruling classes”.

          YOU are evil. YOU are the matter of which totalitarian regimes are made of.

          1. Terror accompanies all revolutions. Is France today ‘totalitarian’? No, of course not. Yet the French revolution had a regime of terror. Totalitarianism is not the inevitable outcome of revolutionary terror. Otherwise, proud to be called ‘evil’ on grounds of understanding the need for revolutionary terror.

            1. France is indeed totalitarian. Playing hand in glove with the US Psychopaths In Charge.

    3. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
      Julius Skoolafish

      3/3
      .
      There are many powerful segments, none more so than at 19:16 of Episode 5 which describes the fate of the Greek Christian priest, Father Zynoviy Kovalyk
      .
      https://youtu.be/CRgMoruCds4?list=PLHBNF0AmedQjhalsextFtbicu_vn8fyT2&t=1156
      .
      See also Pp 61-62
      .
      “Priest Zynoviy Kovalyk was arrested by the Bolsheviks in the year 1941 and was confined in the Brygidka jail in Lviv, Ukraine. When the Germans put the Bolsheviks to flight that same year, the people of the city found the priest’s blood-stained body nailed to the wall by the arms and legs, as if it were the crucified Lord. They also found about six thousand massacred prisoners, shot in the nape of the neck, whom the Bolsheviks had piled on top of each other in the cellars and covered over with plaster.
      .
      Dr. 0. Sas-Yavorsky (U.S.A.), after the capture of Lviv by the Germans near the end of June 1941, went searching for his imprisoned father and saw in the jail a priest nailed to a cross. Into his slashed stomach the Communists had placed the body of an unborn baby, taken from the womb of its mother, whose corpse lay on the blood-soaked floor. Other eyewitnesses recognized that this was the body of the renowned missionary Father Kov alyk.”
      .
      It goes on …
      .
      “Generally, to the Communists human life is cheap.
      .
      Lenin wrote during the civil war,
      .
      “It would be a shame not to shoot men for not obeying the draft and avoiding mobilization. Report more often about the results.”
      .
      [End quote]
      .
      Even wikifakia corroborates the essential details of this atrocity.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zynoviy_Kovalyk
      .
      PS – don’t the leaders of the terrorist group BLM proudly boast to be Marxist trained?

      1. During the Russian Civil War the Bolsheviks implemented many harsh measures because they were necessary. If they didn’t the revolution would have been drowned in blood, and the Whites left a trail of devastation that made what the Bolsheviks did look positively humane.
        .
        To then say the exact same outlook also existed in 1941 is silly. By then, Stalin (who came to power in a political counterrevolution in 1924) had instilled great Russian chauvinism and nationalism during the ‘Great Patriotic War’, and the Red Army committed all manner of atrocities during their invasion of Germany.
        .
        You can recount all the anecdotes of war atrocities you like, and there are thousands, and attribute them to the Bolshevism if you like, but not understanding actual history and context doesn’t make your case that ‘Bolshevism’ is responsible for them.
        .
        If you think BLM is ‘terrorist’, then you need to look at the footage of the BLM marchers being beaten senseless by terrorist cops. BLM needed defending against that. BLM ‘terrorist’ — what a sick joke.

        1. The apology for all socialist evils. They didn’t have the “right” people in charge. Or, it was necessary to murder a few million to save them.

        2. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
          Julius Skoolafish

          Officer Tatum
          .
          Louisville Black Lives Matter Using ‘Mafia Tactics’ on Hispanic Business Owners
          .
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-tN4Ha6lv0

          Officer Tatum is black, by the way.

    4. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
      Julius Skoolafish

      “Olga and Tatiana and Anastasia are also still alive. They are undergoing the most frightful suffering that a human mind can grasp. The men again begin to shoot at them. But while they hit the girls in the chest, the bullets ricochet in all directions. The murderers stand stunned before this inexplicable phenomenon. Yermakov who approaches them like a demonised beast, tries to solve the problem. The girls, having their backs pressed to the wall sit on the floor squatting and weeping attempting to cover their heads with their hands.
      .
      Yermakov begins to stab them in the chest with his bayonet. Drunken and carried away as he is from blood lust, he hits the girls without being able to kill them, but only wounding them randomly. Being unable to stab them with his bayonet, he begins to club them in the face with the butt of his rifle. The terrified voices and cries of the girls continue dramatically. While Anastasia is lying on the floor, Yermakov stands over her and stamping her two hands with his feet he tries to kill her. Seeing the inability of Yermakov to finish his satanic work, Yurovsky approaches with cold calm and successively pumps a gunshot into the heads of each of the three girls. The bullets pass through their skulls and the girls fall down lifelessly.”
      .
      Source: Page 359 of the book “The Romanov Royal Martyrs: What Silence Could Not Conceal” which is authored by Saint John The Forerunner Monastery of Mesa Potamos, Cyprus but has been contributed to by several eminent researchers and authors. Similar descriptions (based on Yurovsky’s personal testimony) can be found in other books such as “The Romanovs” by Robert K Massie.
      .
      I wonder if “Lenin would have recoiled in horror” when he signed Protocol No. 159 regarding the execution of Nicholas II.
      .
      Document extract:
      “Excerpt from Protocol No. 159 – Council of Peoples Commissars – 5/18 July. The extraordinary announcement by Ya. M. Sverdlov of the execution of Nicholas II.
      Chairman: V Ilych Ulianov [Lenin]
      PRESENT: [list of names I won’t type out here]
      DISCUSSED: 3. The extraordinary announcement be CEC chairman com. Sverdlov of the execution of the former tsar Nicholas II by decision of the Ekaterinburg Soviet of Deputies and the upholding of this decision by the Presidium of the CEC.
      RESOLVED: to take note of the information.
      Chairman of the Council of People’s Deputies V Ulianov
      (Lenin)
      Secretary of the Council N. Gorbunov”
      .
      Source: “A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story” compiled by Andrei Maylunas, Sergei Mironenko

      1. Stephen Morrell Avatar
        Stephen Morrell

        No Bolshevik recoiled in horror at the execution of the Tsar. Trotsky thought it premature because he wanted to put the Tsar on trial for all the lives he ruined and deaths he caused. In the end though it was a prudent measure to prevent the Tsar becoming a rallying point for counterrevolution.

    5. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
      Julius Skoolafish

      • President Putin on the “dark time [under Bolshevism] in our country’s history”
      .
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=190&v=cgaYag-XjTQ
      .

      “You know, we have a really dark time in our country’s history, at the beginning of the Soviet era, where many believers were killed – not only Christian Orthodox, but also Muslims and representatives of other religions. The Soviet state, in its early stage, was very cruel to religious authorities. Many of our Churches were completely destroyed, our traditional religions denominations suffered massively.
      .
      But the role of the State is to protect the people “

    6. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
      Carolyn L Zaremba

      Hear, hear! I agree 100%. I am glad to see someone other than myself defending real socialism.

    7. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
      Julius Skoolafish

      Some more thinking music

      • BLM Founder Says They Are Well Trained Marxist
      https://www.bit-chute.com/video/YM5zUwiCTzw/
      .
      • BLM IS PLAYING YOU!! – Officer Tatum
      https://www.you-tube.com/watch?v=w4HuCtZKyS8
      .
      • Black Lives Matter Is a Leftist Lie
      https://www.bit-chute.com/video/Xx6HdWveD7UG/
      .
      • You Do Not Really Care About Black Lives! – Officer Tatum
      https://www.you-tube.com/watch?v=v4WfOyhYcWg

  41. Your website is defective. This is not the first time I’ve tried to post my comment and it failed. I just tried 3x this time and every time it sent me back to type in a “valid email address” when I typed mine in correctly. I opened a new page and – same thing. Please correct.

  42. Wow. Caitlin sounds especially angry today. I like it.

  43. My anti-war dream ticket: Rand Paul / Tulsi Gabbard. They dems treated her horribly, forcing her out.

  44. I am wrong about almost everything… but Caitlyn, when you say…

    “You can do it Democrats! Just two years of stalling progressive change before you lose the House and Senate and can start claiming the lack of progress is due to an obstructionist congress!”

    …I believe you are wrong. I believe US conservatives finally FINALLY see with clarity that the ruling class has nothing but contempt for them, and I believe the republican party is dead.

    Trump was a painful lesson in betrayal by the US right. The US left won’t get a chance to experience the same clarity. The ruling class hates us, now they know we hate them, and they won’t ever allow an “outsider” to win again. So, for the time being they’ll drag the left along as junior partners in their persecution of the right as domestic terrorists. They’ll come for the left eventually.

    But I’m probably wrong again.

  45. Thank you Cait for some wonderful laughs at the expense of the Fucker Empire. Probably one of the best things going in the world right now is the joy of laughing at the whole fucking mess.

  46. Well, now you sound like a real human being so much so that I stopped reading half way through, not that it matters because mostly you’ve been cut off from your fan base, and everything you said is not only true but you’ll never know that anyone agreed.

  47. But ….but …..but …..Joe got 81 MILLION votes !!!

    Which is of course – is FUCKING laughable !!

    Hate Trump or NOT – he won in a landslide !!!

    1. Yup, it was a choice between dog shit and horse shit.

      1. I would maintain that the most important aspect of a presidency in terms of human impact is whether they contributed to peace or war. On that account Trump did little progress but compared to other presidencies’ records he shines like a beacon of peace.

        As a citizen of another country I am fearing what’s coming from the Biden administration on that most important account, especially in Syria.

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