In response to rumors that Bernie Sanders foreign policy advisor Matt Duss may be playing some role in the Joe Biden State Department, bloodthirsty psychopath Nikki Haley told the Washington Free Beacon that this “is another indication that the only unity in Biden’s foreign policy is between the far left and the extreme left.”
Which is of course ridiculous. Taken as a whole Biden’s imperialist foreign policy has not differed much from Trump’s, and Duss is a fairly reliable imperialist himself. This administration is not an “extreme” deviation from the norm, and much less a manifestation of anything that could be called “extreme left”.
NEW: Biden Reportedly Set to Hire Top Anti-Israel Activist Matt Duss for State Dept Post — @NikkiHaley tells me controversial pick "is another indication that the only unity in Biden’s foreign policy is between the far left and the extreme left" https://t.co/iNai3o784u
— Adam Kredo (@Kredo0) February 4, 2021
This nonsense comes out at the same time we learn that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has put a bunch of US military operations on hold, not because those military operations are depraved acts of mass murder driven by the megalomaniacal agenda to dominate the entire world, but to hold “needed discussions” about the possibility that there may now be “extremists” among their ranks.
“Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered a staggered pause of operations across the entire US military so commanders can have ‘needed discussions’ with service members about the issue of extremism over the next 60 days,” CNN reports. “The issue of extremism in the military has been at the forefront since the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. At least 22 people either formerly or currently associated with the military were charged in connection with the riot.”
That’s right, the US military has for decades been merrily incinerating entire families, ripping apart children with cluster munitions, and destroying whole nations for disobeying US imperial dicates, but now they need to pause some of that normal, wholesome activity because a few bad apples might perhaps have succumbed to extremism.
Devastating Iraq, turning Libya into a failed state, facilitating genocide in Yemen, waging an endlessly expanding ‘war on terror’ and brandishing armageddon weapons at your enemies? That’s fine and normal. Members of the military joining hate groups and believing in QAnon? That’s extremism.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered a staggered pause of operations across the entire US military so commanders can have "needed discussions" with service members about the issue of extremism over the next 60 days, a Pentagon spokesperson says https://t.co/E6Du5us0N0
— CNN (@CNN) February 4, 2021
This all just goes to show how completely meaningless the mainstream concepts of “normal” and “extreme” have become when talking about politics and power in our insane world.
When you oppose the horror that is western imperialism people try to paint you as a radical extremist who can’t just be reasonable and pragmatic about things, but really nothing could be further from the truth. There’s nothing “radical” or “extreme” about opposing the domination of the entire planet with relentless acts of mass slaughter to the detriment of the world’s most vulnerable populations, all because some sociopaths in DC decided that it is good and reasonable to inflict any amount of terror upon our world to preserve unipolar US hegemony. Opposing this is just basic human sanity.
People will act like you’re unreasonable and impossible if there’s not a single US politician you support.
“Not even Bernie?” they’ll ask. “Not even AOC?? What’s wrong with you?!”
If you are an anti-imperialist, being asked to choose a US politician you support is like being asked to pick a favorite Nazi. The US empire is the single most evil and destructive power on our planet right now and everyone on Capitol Hill is an imperialist facilitator of mass murder, yet you’ll be treated like an extremist moonbat if you don’t like any of them. The problem isn’t that an anti-imperialist has strange, impossible standards, it’s that they oppose an insane and murderous status quo which only elevates leaders who will advance that status quo.
So far Biden is keeping the space force (militarizing space), recognizing Juan Guaido, not re-entering JCPOA (Iran nuclear agreement), keeping troops in Germany, deep sixing the Afghanistan peace agreement, and sending bombers to Norway. Did I miss anything?
— Margaret Kimberley (@freedomrideblog) February 5, 2021
The same goes for socialism. There’s nothing “extreme” or “radical” about believing the poor shouldn’t be left to suffer and die and that workers should own the full value of their labor. It’s not some crazy wingnut ideal to believe we should abandon the political and economic model of profit-chasing as the driving motivator for human behavior at mass scale which has driven our species to the brink of extinction. You’re not an extremist if you oppose a system which crushes human beings to death at home and abroad for the power and profit of the very few, you’re just normal.
You’re not a “radical”, you’re just sane. This is why I think it’s important for sane people to reject such labels; there’s a coolness factor which comes with presenting yourself as a radical, but it comes at the price of normalizing the status quo which is itself the epitome of violent extremism. Don’t let that bat shit crazy model define you by setting the status quo up as “normal” and yourself as a “radical” deviation therefrom. They are the radical ones. You are just normal and sane.
Abnormalize the status quo and normalize sanity. Put your energy into helping the world see how bat shit insane their “normal” really is. The status quo isn’t the baseline of normality, sanity is. A sane, healthy world would look wildly different from this one, and we need to help people get clear on the distinction so we can all start creating that world together.
_________________________
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81 responses to “You’re Not A Radical, You’re Just Sane”
The greatest trick the New Right ever pulled was to convince us that they’re really the Left.
“Radical” comes from the Latin word “radix”, which means “root.” Radical action is controversial only in a demented society: it is to identify and correct problems at their source. One classic analogy of how this contrasts with the mainstream is that a liberal will see, let’s say, a malignant tumor, then appoint an expert commission to study it, ignore the commission’s findings, and end up appropriating ten thousand dollars for a single Band-Aid to cover it up. The conservative, on the other hand, will say, “Cancer, what cancer? We have evidence here that tumors are good for you, and anyway, it’s all god’s plan and the holy free market in action!”
~
A radical on the other hand sees the necessity for quick, aggressive treatment to end a condition that puts the health of the whole body in jeopardy. Unfortunately, our system was constructed so that realistic plans to repair its many shortcomings cannot be implemented in a meaningful way if they impact the prerogatives of our rulers, as they must to be effective. We are rapidly approaching another flash point in our history where the contradictions can no longer be sustained. As Lincoln said long ago, we cannot go on half of one thing and half of the other: we must become either all of one thing or of the other. And as there is essentially zero support for the sensible course of action I am relatively glad that I have only another decade or so to be here to witness what’s coming.
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I love your musings. I don’t support “socialism”, as usually defined, but I suspect you are using the word loosely. I often refer to you as my “favorite socialist.” You and Chris Hedges.
I wonder if you’ve ever explored the Geoist school of economics? I feel like it’s a thing that could potentially unite the populist left and right. It’s been favored by people from all over the political spectrum.
Wonderful Caitlin, thank you
You know, this might sound strange, but sometimes I get bored,
So, I made a game for myself.
I look through the news headlines on my phone (alt media mostly), and the ones that I want to pick apart I copy to my clip tray.
Then, I open a new window, paste them, and address them with my powers of objective reasoning.
It’s fun.
Not only do I get to screw with the nsa asshats that monitor my comms, but I also get a chance to be a ‘rich white folk feeling hurter’…
You’d be surprised at the responses you get in the ‘headline feed’ that way,
It’s actually a lot of fun.
I use it kind of like ‘twitter’, only without all the ‘signing up’ bullshit.
I highly recommend it,
Like I said, it’s kinda fun.
The owners and the masters have a master plan:
~
The enemy of man is in fact man himself.
And for this unfortunate “fact”, it is the duty of the elite to save mankind from himself.
~
If that means cleansing society of its traditional values that have deluded him into believing that such notions as Family, Nation, God, Progress or Soul are somehow sacred, then so be it. In his vicious tautology, the behaviorist high priest concludes that these ideas must be cleansed- for if they were not destroyed, then humanity would forever resist a return to feudalism under a scientific dictatorship.
~
This great article can be read here:
Joe Biden and the Revenge of the Behaviorists (Why Statistical Thinking Can Get You Killed) by Matthew Ehret!
https://thedailycoin.org/2021/02/04/joe-biden-and-the-revenge-of-the-behaviorists-why-statistical-thinking-can-get-you-killed/
Hey this is funny….seriously, it is funny in a non-harmful way. So I’ll tell the bear minimum I need to to tell this story.
1. So my sweet mill-house is on the so-called “New River” in a town in a commonwealth.
2. A colonel, sort of like Colonel Sanders set the place up with the help of the Core of Engineers.
3. They setup a hydroelectric damn there in Fries, VA, on the misnamed river.
4. For the New River is actually the 3rd oldest in the land, and there I have two mill houses of which I am proud to be the proprietor.
5. Now if you study Finke, which I came upon via happenstance, they say maybe it is the oldest. The oldest river-bed in the land.
6. Old riverbeds have many lessons to teach and I hope we get to learn these lessons one at a time.
7. What do you hope for?
~
Peace,
Ken Hausle
~
you wouldn’t believe if I told you……about my love…….about……ah forget it. We are all the same and I know it and I’m proud to call myself a peasant. I consider myself a stubborn old peasant who has had it with the bullshit. Anyhow, maybe one day you and I will meet face to face and I look forward to that day when we can laugh together are share stories about the “Land of Plenty”….well, pretty sure it is time for me to get of a Finke, and like a heartbeat….I’m gone.
OK seriously, I’m not kidding around, I’m gonna do this on the fly…..I’m gonna find the second city in Australia that will be part of my northeast journey heading out of sweet Margaret River on my way to Cairns.
~
So I’ll get to this place prior to getting to the Comoooweal location, or whatever that haunted place is called. OK, give me a moment please:
~
Oh my god, I think it is gonna have to be here that I go. I can’t believe I’m saying this. I think I’m gonna have to go to Finke. There is a place on the Finke river where if you get caught unawares, you might get overcome by a flood, so don’t be a fool when you go there and don’t blame me if you die trying to travel through the heart of the land down under.
~
I’m in Finke just now if you want to know. Do you believe me?
~
a change would do you good
~
I love taking my own advice.
Later,
BK
I’ve been to Finke. Relating it in any way to the term ‘city’ is deeply amusing. Oodnadatta, just a few hundred k’s further up the track, is a booming metropolis by comparison. A visit to the Oodnadatta drive-in theatre involved sitting in groups on the ground (dust normally, or mud otherwise) in front of the cars parked behind and looking up at a medium-sized screen sheeted over a welded metal frame. Without any sarcasm, the experience is a genuine treat.
But a city? You will need to recalibrate your constructs of such for your journey from Margaret River to Cairns via Finke and Camooweal. Fuck knows what road you are taking on that itinerary but make sure you take a lot of water and have a lot of time. It’d be worth the effort though. One of the spectacles you’ll encounter will be the overt racism within the local white people that are clustered stoically within the remote outposts of empire along the way.
Don’t be fooled by the green patches on the map designating national parks. They ain’t green when you get there. Many of them contain little to nothing growing above waist height.
Greg – you give me hope for my upcoming journey in Australia – even if it is only in my imagination. If I got lost somewhere or there was a bunch of water flowing into the Finke basin while I was there (which I am just now) you are the kind of fella I would like to meet up with, so thank you for your words of wisdom! When I was in Finke seemed like a city to me, but I suppose it is relative….ha, ha. Here, let me make you a drink. A drink straight out of the oldest river basin in the world! Imagine that…
~
Peace,
Ken
I like your conclusion Caitlin – detach, get perspective, do not get drawn into the hate.
I think an important part of that is avoid echo chamber environments – which are designed to reinforce conformity.
Step away from the cell phone. I havent had one for years now. It was very difficult.
Start with no phone Monday.
I support “no phone money….I mean no phone monday”. In fact, let me go on to say much more:
~
1. I support a six-day week.
2. I think there should be 60 weeks in the year.
3. Five days left over at the end (or six) for a time of global repose.
4. We all live on the same planet don’t we?
5. Let’s celebrate what we are so lucky to get to appreciate in the state of mind that realizes what heaven on earth really means.
~
Let’s celebrate that is what I think.
~
Peace,
BK
In this “insane” world Rogue journalism gets at least 6,500/month without having to leave your chair! Down with Big Tech!!! Vive la révolution!! We’re all gonna die!
Are you a contributor? I’m thinking I’m gonna be and if I was, then I would really tell you what I think about your morbid comment.
~
I’ll set this all up soon.
~
Not kidding.
~
BK
Comrade: If it quacks like kulak, it’s kulak.
~
Morbid, Comrade? That’s not morbid. This is morbid.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, and I don’t even need to click on it to know….that is wrong it is.
~
Like I said – some of us will take this to the end.
~
Do you want to make a bet? OK, fine, I will roll the cube and lets see what number comes up. I don’t play with chance, but sometimes you have no choice.
So comrade, before I roll this die, you must put the gun up to your head and play some Russian roulette. That is only fair. So now if I roll a 1 or 2 or a 3, then you must pull the trigger. If I roll a 4, 5, or 6 then hand the gun over to me, and I will do what you request.
~
If I do it, and you request that, then I will take the gun if I am still alive and then you must know what your fate will be. So, are you ready to roll the die?
So here is the question from a mathematical and learning perspective only, cause those are the best sort of questions.
~
What is the probability that I am alive after this hypothetical dice game discussed above?
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That is why I don’t play with chance, but there is no harm in imagination and when we imagine together, then let me just humbly put forth – imagine the possibility of it all! Can ya?
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I’m not going away. I have another message to post on a site of mine and I will post it on 4321 cause I imagined that a long time ago and I’m a man of my word.
~
There are spirits about, and if you doubt this, I understand, but in the middle the night some of these spirits might come and they might talk to you, so don’t blame me if they say something that makes you uneasy.
~
I’m looking forward to a weekend of rain and I pray that the river will flow. I now it will. The best riverbeds are the ones that just about always have water in them.
~
Peace,
BK
And now just to get all sick and catholic about all of this, here is the one possibility not yet discussed, so lets discuss it for the sake of mathematical completeness. Lets say the die roll was a 1 or a 2 or a 3 (50/50 chance with a fair die), and he (or she) pulled the trigger as agreed and there was no bullet. Well, as a friend of mine says: “better lucky than good”, but if it happens this way and comorbidity 2024 (lets say hypothetically) hands the gun over to me and says: “now you get to feel the pressure”, then at that point in time, the chances are actually one in five unless one spins the chamber. So, if I had the chance I would spin it because then my odds will have improved. After I did it, I’d look over at Comorbidity 2024 and say, “well – what you gonna do now”? Then I would pull the trigger.
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Get my drift? Or does it annoy you that I even ask that question. Fine, I won’t ask it again I reckon.
~
Time to get the hell out of Finke, but I enjoyed this place in a weird sort of way – know what I mean?
~
BK
I should know better, but here is a final question for the story above. Hypothetically in the post above, when I typed: then I would pull the trigger
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Whom do you think the gun should have been pointed upon at this moment in the story? I know the answer cause the story is in my imagination. Still, I think the query is a fair ethical question for the times?
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Let me know what you think, but lets discuss it directly. It is easy to get a hold of me and I’m all ears when it comes to fine conversation.
~
Here, let me pour you some red wine at the table.
~
Ken
How does it feel COMORBIDITY 2024 – to be setup?
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You know if you answer this question it will be affirmed.
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So what you gonna do.
~
My advice to you would be to the pull the trigger regardless of any dice roll and then let the chips fall where they may. If you remain a living being, then set the gun down and do something worthwhile with your life.
~
Guess what – there is always hell to pay, and Ireland is the place the suffered one of the first genocides on a large scale, and I ask this – why does this not get discussed?
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I know the answer if you try to tell it to me, you will wish you didn’t.
By the way, I figured it out.
~
If the gun had six chambers and it truly was random from the get-go, meaning – the rules were followed – then there was an 8.125% chance comorbidity 2024, that you would be dead assuming your aim was true.
~
Now, the likelihood of that occurring is low, so chances are you would have either set the gun down or handed it over to me. If you handed it to me, I don’t know what you would have wanted me to do with it, but as a man of honor, I would have done as you requested. Chances are, if it came to this you would of likely said, lets not play this game of chance. I would have agree with you and that would have been that.
~
The best stories are when everybody gets to walk off into the sunset, especially when, you really didn’t know how the story was gonna end. It is good to tell good stories and so I am so happy I have had the pleasure of being here and sharing my views. I truly send my love out to all of you.
~
We are going to make it happen! I feel it in my bones.
~
Love,
Ken
;
sometimes a setup turns into something nobody could have ever expected……turn, turn, turn and turn again. It is a Revolution! Day after day. Every day. Day by day…..
Just for the sake of freaking accuracy, I thought about it some more and the chances of you shooting out your own brain playing Russian Roulette was actually 8.3333333333333333% add a few more threes if you want it won’t make a difference.
~
Now if you didn’t take a shot at your own brain, because the die roll was a 4 or a 5 or a 6, then it would have been decision time for you. Given the die just rolled advantageously, would you have insisted upon me pulling the trigger on myself? If so, my chances of death would have been twice what yours were ~ 16.6666666666666667% assuming the chamber was truly setup randomly.
~
So any objective observer who knew this encounter was fixing to occur would probably also know the chance of any fatality were slim? What are those chances I ask. Are they 16.666667% or is there a different possibility if you consider all the possible outcomes. Maybe the chances are one in four.
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From my perspective, I rarely want to roll the die, but sometimes I know my hand is forced and when that happens, I will do all I can to increase my odds. When the reckoning is happening being a nice guy is not a top consideration.
~
So this story is over and there are more places in Australia that I will be going in my imaginary story, but if you want to know more, then you will have to pay. Those of us who type for a living need to get paid somehow on occasion cause otherwise we would have to find another occupation.
~
Ain’t nothing for free and good faith is precious, so don’t treat it like you own it, cause you don’t. It is limited. Faith is a mystery and there will never be a monopoly on it.
~
Over and out.
But consider that it provides you with the opportunity to ventilate your dismal attitude to thousands of others without having to leave your chair. Such amenity is priceless really, don’t you think?
This guy also has interesting posts:
https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2021/01/13/cancel-yourself/#comment-122756
There needs to be a network of independent voices.
Yes of course. Agree. There needs to be network of independent voices….
~
And guess what – there will be. This cannot be stopped. It is undeniable. It is resistance from the middle – and that sort of resistance pretty much ALWAYS wins unless the edges decide they want to kill everyone……and guess again…..even if you try to kill us all you will fail, so why not learn this time and put on a vest if that is what you think you are doing. But if you wear that vest you better have the interest in mind of the folks who got you where you are…….some things are obvious and I have no fear of the river of chaos, but let me just say, it may be heading your way. Take care and remember – family is what matters.
~
Peace out,
Buffalo_Ken
So far.
Humanity is losing.
We need to get smart and focused.
We do and so do you….and so do I. I try to get better everyday. I try hard and I’m not playing around. I have two daughters unless you have your own you will never come close to contemplating my love for them. I’m a family man. Here is what think.
~
1. Facebook gets split up.
2. Googe/Alphabet get cut into many pieces – who gives a crap how they fly in the wind because there are other options out there already, but still a message must be sent that you are not allowed to always buy out that which is better than you.
3. Capitalism remains in place locally where it makes the most sense.
4. Socialism remains a dream in the minds of a few who can never get their act together.
5. The #5 is what holds everything in place, so I hope any future government created in the imagination of some rebels recognizes the reality of this numerical and shape significance…..of the number 5.
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I’m not a big fan of six-sided shapes. I don’t trust them.
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How crazy do you want to get? Or was it smart and focused you were thinking about in your own brain? We each got our own you know jared……..
‘1. Facebook gets split up.’ — But remember what happened in _Fantasia_ when the sorceror’s apprentice chopped up the broom.
Ah screw that…it is fantasy.
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Facebook is a scourge on humanity and needs to be split up. The time is now or never.
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As for brooms, I love using them. They are great tools especially if you are ambidextrous as I am.
~
Best to now how to use both sides of your body and both sides of your mouth it seems it would follow…..if you take that first council…..hmm. Who the hell knows…not me.
Can you feel the chaos coming down the river?
Holy crap. I hope some of you all have gone back and re-read some of what was said and made copies and such. Some of this could be important later. Maybe. Maybe not.
~
For me personally, I’m a big fan of two numbers and I’ll tell you what they are: 2 & 5. Here in an amazing is a whole website dedicated to these two numbers and all the possible connections. Imagine that!
~
Peace,
Ken
.
oh here is the site, but before you click on it, let me say, this site has had a troubled history. Here it is:
http://earthmatrix.com/giza/square_roots.html
I seriously like to think about numbers and letters and shapes and talking. I know this though.
~
The best friend is one you can reach over to and touch with your hands. It is good to touch a friend, and this time of limited social interaction is coming to an end is what I think. I think it is coming to a rapid end, but the experiment was a failure, and the People have decided that we want something better. Get on the train if you can and be Mutual with your neighbor, but if you come with bad intent, don’t be surprised what happens to you!
~
Simple in a way…..just like the numbers 2 (helium) and 5 (boron – does that bore you…sorry).
~
In the future I imagine anybody working for the gubment is gonna wear a vest.
~
Ken Hausle
2521 1:08 pm EST
I am going to do a little modification to the piece but it is so good, so right on and expresses so well the truth of our very sick society hiding in plain sight, truly, the emperor has no clothes. IMHO, you have expressed that reality brilliantly. We need to find a way to end the system or the system will end us and we don’t have much time. I have no idea how it can be done. My hat’s off to you.
Love your work. Some of the nut-flies who swarm your site, not so much.
Dear Caitlin,
Must say I’m both surprised and disappointed at just how far out of the information loop two of my fave alt. news sources–you and Dr. PCR–have gotten, gladly regurgitating the Doom & Gloom scenario of Biden and his cronies will ignoring those who clearly have access to inside info like Robert David Steele, Simon Parkes, Juan O’Savin, and Dr. Charlie Ward (the latter of whom has been apprised of the current, well-buried-by-the-MSM military shakeup not only of the U.S. but the current world order for seven years now).
If you were privy to this info you would know that the 60 days Austin says he requires for “needed discussions” with military brass merely echoes the pantomime of the Biden presidency. The truth of the matter is Biden and his cronies have NO control over the military and in fact aren’t even allowed to set foot in the Pentagon. Note that Biden has been signing various blank sheets of paper disguised as Executive Orders, Trump is still in possession of Air Force One, and Trump–not Biden or Pelosi–is still in possession of the nuclear codes. Still, it is the military, NOT Trump and certainly not Biden, that is in control–a deliberate move by Trump to deflect political blame for the upcoming shakeup, one there is too much smoke not to believe there is some fire behind it.
While I don’t expect anyone to take what any of the alt. news sources listed above as The Gospel Truth–even they admit there have been–of necessity–changes in plan as the Deep State fights for its life, and not to hold your breath about rigid time frames for this all to be accomplished (though most agree it will all shake out by April), I do feel their POV is at least as viable as that of the Deep State shills that currently run the U.S. Government, and deserves to be shared.
Best,
horror/thriller author S.A. Hogan
Why are you covering up the fact that Trump dismantled the White House and flew it to Mar-a-Lago in Air Force One, leaving a plastic replica for Biden to preside in?
So your authorities are a guy who thinks NASA has a child-slave colony on Mars, a guy who thinks he fathered an ET on an alien Cat Queen, QAnon/satanic conspiracy theorists, etc.? ROFL. Save your wackjob ideas for your novels.
It is a Neoliberal Globalist purge. They know their plans for the US and the world are going to cause social unrest; especially among conservatives. They want to make sure the Military stays on side (under their control). They want to purge the Military of conservatives. The Globalists have the Liberal half of the population firmly under their control (thanks to their media propaganda apparatus); but they do not have the same control of the conservative half of the population. Trump and his movement have shown them that reality and they are preparing for trouble.
Some people will claim what is being done is Marxist or Communist. It isn’t. These kinds of purges are carried out by all totalitarian systems – including pseudo Marxist totalitarian systems (eg the CCP). Neoliberal Globalism is not Marxist or Communist; it is a form of Feudalism – Corporate Feudalism. Feudalism is also a totalitarian system. Corporations are essentially feudal estates.
So when a few extremists raise their head in Iraq, Syria, etc., we carpet bomb the country. Will be interesting to see what they do with them in America. Perhaps begin bombing Alabama and Texas.
Everyone in Texas is perfectly sane.
Any and every time any economic or governmental system requires pointing a gun at people’s heads and threatening to kill them if they don’t comply with it, it is immediately disqualified as a sane structure. Including socialism. All such systems are the perfect environment for psychopaths and sociopaths, which means given time they become saturated with them. At which point the system starts dying. Unfortunately taking a great many innocent bystanders with it. The bigger it is, the more power over life and death it has, the worse the consequences. And they all do require a power over life and death. How sane to propose the use of life or death force to compel others to agree with your dream?
Hi Caitlin,
I have subscribed for years and I enjoy your writing and poetry. I don’t lean as far left as you and I’m starting to find some of you hyperbole just a bit over the top. For instance you keep insisting that the human race is on the “verge” (imminent as in within the next couple of years?) of extinction but there are 8 billion people on the planet and no signs that population growth has reversed yet but it is slowing and very likely to level off at 9 billion in the next decade as birth rates decline.
If you’re going to claim the human race is on the verge of extinction, you need to provide some concrete mechanisms or evidence of this happening or how it’s going to happen otherwise, in my opinion it sounds like more hysterical hyperbole and damages your credibility as a journalist.
I agree, there’s an ecological disaster in progress and US imperialism has killed millions and millions and war is always wrong and never justifiable but even this doesn’t pose extinction threat to the entire species. Nuclear annihilation is one possibility but we’ve lived with it for 70 years and everyone is aware of the danger and risk and even the most insane politicians aren’t suicidal. The only real extinction threat is the asteroid risk (I work in this field) or maybe Yellowstone but those are way beyond our control.
Also for some sober philosophical and intellectual balance against socialism, I suggest everyone read The Road to Serfdom by FRIEDRICH A. HAYEK. It’s extremely pertinent to what’s happening all over the world today. Socialism doesn’t work as a socio economic system unless it is undergirded and enforced through totalitarianism. EVERY…SINGLE….TIME. I find it very sad that mankind never learns from history. In Road to Serfdom, Hayed demonstrates unequivocally that socialism in Germany after WWI led to Nazism or National Socialism. Socialism can’t exist without the violence of the state. The left is starting to exhibit signs of power worship and totalitarianism in the form of censorship and declaring anyone with dissenting opinion as a terrorist. This IS the very nature of socialism.
Do you seriously want to live in a country like China, Venezuela, or North Korea? I live in Canada and we have a lot of socialism here but we’ve always drawn the line at Individual freedom of choice and free markets because they are the founding principles of Western Civilization and produced the most prosperous and advanced civilization and quality of life that has ever existed on this planet. Socialism WILL destroy that and replace it with dystopia. Utopia is a fantasy, an impossible one. Most of our problems can be attributed to human nature and lack of education. Socialism isn’t a solution but something certainly needs to change.
Extinction. Probaby not. Extreme reduction of tge population by starvation, disease and war, most probable. By the time you see the mechanism, you will be on the path of imminent destruction. Get ready now, the best you can to improve your chances of survival.
That is the anatomy of collapse and yes, the world is in collapse and I am preparing. See James Kunstler’s The Long Emergency.
I agree that we’re not on the verge of extinction, though I do think we’re on the verge of a severe downturn in our level of civilisation, through climate change, environmental degradation, an ongoing mass extinction, and perhaps nuclear war. (I don’t find the fact we’ve avoided it for seventy years very comforting; look at the number of near misses we’ve had – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_close_calls. And now we have nine nations with these weapons.)
I do find some of what you write hyperbolic too: “I live in Canada and we have a lot of socialism here,” and “Socialism WILL destroy that and replace it with dystopia.” Take the two ideas literally and put them together, and Canada is definitely headed for dystopia – perhaps a tad exaggerated, and not quite what you meant?
Yes I should have been more specific in my use of the term socialism and made the distinction clear between socialism as ideology and socialist policies and programs. I see this as one of the problems with US politics. Americans seem to equate/conflate policy with ideology. I can say that there are very few communists or socialist ideologues in Canada but we’ve had universal healthcare and social security for decades without objection because we understand that you can have a safety net and still maintain personal freedom (notwithstanding taxes which are essentially a form of state violence). You can adopt some socialist policies without becoming a socialist (ideologically) country.
It’s socialism (or any ism for that matter) taken as ideology that is the problem and produces the most violence.
That said, Canada is definitely headed toward totalitarianism as our elites align with the global elites. This has been revealed now during Covid with all of the government authoritarian overreach that has been implemented all across the county.
There is some pushback. The following program features a retired Ontario police officer who discusses cops against lockdowns.
http://www.zoomerradio.ca/podcasts/the-conspiracy-show-podcast/cops-against-lockdown-measures-jim-jones-and-democratic-power/
“A sane, healthy world would look wildly different from this one…”
But this is what the elites want: a sane, healthy world.
The proof is that the elites want all citizens without exception to have the chance to have a needle in their b… just to be in better health and thus, obviously, to have a better world and society at the end.
Without a needle in our b…, there is no future possible.
Keeping my Rosary on hand!
What’s the motivation for the status quo to make changes of any kind? Simply follow the money which magically expresses a bias towards those in power making such changes. Never underestimate the corruption of government and those who “serve the public” while establishing personal dynasties.
One example given, alone, sums up and represents one whole picture:
Continuing [recognition] of Juan Guaido — which is [radically] [insane].
And, one historical (“batshit crazy”) video coincides for the full effect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAFxPXGDH4E
“The same goes for socialism. There’s nothing ‘extreme’ or ‘radical’ about believing the poor shouldn’t be left to suffer and die and that workers should own the full value of their labor. It’s not some crazy wingnut ideal to believe we should abandon the political and economic model of profit-chasing as the driving motivator for human behavior at mass scale which has driven our species to the brink of extinction. You’re not an extremist if you oppose a system which crushes human beings to death at home and abroad for the power and profit of the very few, you’re just normal.” Of course. There is NO rational or moral argument against, and every argument for, creating a socioeconomic system that prioritizes human and environmental needs over personal profit, call such a system what you will. Ideas about the public good like this “socialist” one–not the egocentric assertion of identities or personal/tribal virtue signaling–must again become the leading edge of the left. How far the left has fallen becomes starkly obvious when you consider that the most sane and salient American political thinker, BY FAR, died in 1898.
https://newtonfinn.com/2018/07/12/on-earth-as-in-heaven-part-i/
https://newtonfinn.com/2018/07/12/on-earth-as-in-heaven-part-ii/
Very well put Ms. Caitlin… thank you. A big part of the problem with people like ourselves, is we invariably find ourselves walking on egg shells. We cannot tell it like it is for most people… they will just turn off and think you’re way too radical. This misses the chance to influence. Here in Canada we have a vaccine problem. Our government signed two contracts with Moderna and Pfizer, two US companies to provide vaccines. Trump passed a presidential order to prevent exports. Biden has upheld the ban. I find this f’n disgusting. But I find myself having to explain that the US is breaking the rule of law because of the contracts and because we have a free trade deal. Can we trust them. If I tell people really how I feel… well, I’ve lost. I hate incrementalism, but we have to choose our battles carefully… it ain’t easy when as you say the opposition controls the narrative.
All with open eyes, Emile, share your hatred of incrementalism. Yet Biden has just taken some incremental steps to end or at least mitigate the atrocity in Yemen. Here is an unarguable demonstration that Biden was preferable to Trump, and I hope Caitlin will write about it and reconsider some of what she said concerning the recent presidential election. There’s always that trap of making the perfect the enemy of the good, the radical the enemy of the incremental.
Some detail about what Biden has and hasn’t done to stop the war on Yemen:
https://accuracy.org/release/biden-says-hes-ending-the-yemen-war-but-will-he/
“Now, more than ever, it is vital to hold a firm line about what a real end to U.S. participation in the Yemen war means: an end to all U.S. assistance, including intelligence sharing, logistical help, training, providing spare parts transfers for warplanes, bomb targeting, weapons sales and support for the naval blockade (we still don’t know the full extent of U.S. support for the latter). It also requires that the United States immediately reverse the Trump administration’s designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), a determination that is cutting off critical aid to northern Yemen and significantly escalating the crisis of mass starvation.
“Because these things have not yet come to pass, it is critical to keep up the pressure.”
Thanks, Ian, for the fuller context. Incrementalism can only work for good under continuing, increasing pressure to go all the way and do everything that cries out to be done.
It’s an historical fact that the USA has a very poor record of keeping any agreements, treaties, contracts, promises, laws, trade deals, etc. Simply: Not To Be Trusted at all!! (Can be trusted to lie.).
Being a radical anarchist anarchist for most of my life indicates a high degree of sanity, following your logic of which I entirely agree. And it seems insane that people hold hopes that this new administration will do anything close to saving the day. I have little faith in a government that is controlled by outside forces through money or …? threats? One cannot know the machinations that exist below the level of the public eye, other than to imagine the horrid stink
Considering the attrocities and abuses of gov’t. throughout the years, the racism, sexism, the wars (mass murder), the destruction of entire countries, the creation of the world refugee problems, the irresponsible allowance of the wrecking of our biosphere and the suicidal indifference to the climate crises , Now the intentional collapse of our economy and the censorship of the media against all counter ideas to the mainstream and the existence of a secret organization that spies on us and undermines democracies throughout the world.,
I don’t see how anyone can trust or hope for good from the new administration. Remember the hope the world had with Obamba and how that turned out? When do we learn that it just doesn’t work, that we need to make systemic changes, nor just the changing of the guard again. It simply hasn’t worked and doesn’t work.
I believe that it is clear we must restructure how we are governed from vertical to horizontal which is much more democratic, decentralized, more effective and efficient and virtually incorruptible. It would be the end of politicians and lobbyist and eliminate the possibility of billionaires and corporatocracies controlling government for their personal interests. Here is a 7 minute animation that I produced and made explaining this idea which everyone must know about as it is a much better option than hoping for the best from yet another administration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywMhg604W8&feature&fbclid=IwAR3HcZvrdRJvRNqMRZ3m6t3hvuac7bTXlxnQn-WjutSbWoWXOw7iW7AAEd4.
I am also working with a number of activists and experts to make a network of networks of the millions of groups, projects, and individuals working to make a more just, equitable, ethical, regenerative and ecological world with the tools for collaborating and organizing. utopiacornucopia.org.
Please help make the animation viral.
Can America and China avoid war, asks Foreign Affairs.
Of course they can, if they don’t start one.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-02-05/kevin-rudd-usa-chinese-confrontation-short-of-war?utm_medium=promo_email&utm_source=pre_release&utm_campaign=mktg_newsletter_short_of_war&utm_content=20210205&utm_term=newsletter-prerelease
It is nothing but a game with no winners played until everyone loses. Radical indeed to oppose that, but more like a witness to the insanity of endless murder.
from brazil, yhanks caitlin just the headline makes the article worth reading, great stuff, keep it up.
Even so, accepting the ‘radical’ label with pride may be preferable. Whilst I agree that the status quo is insane, I prefer to think of myself as having been a radical Sanity vendor since about 1964, when I used to street-sell CNDs newspaper (‘Sanity’), shouting “Get Your Sanity ‘ere, and vote for Harold, ‘cos ‘ee’s going to Ban the Bomb” – The “vote for Harold” bit didn’t turn out as well as I predicted – but that’s probably because my predictions weren’t sufficiently radical in 1964.
~
I still tend to think that the ‘radical’ label may still be useful to distinguish myself from New Labour Blairites, Keynesian fighters for the right to wage-slavery, Green Neoliberals, Green-Welly-Tories, financial insecurity advisors, and equal-opportunities economic conscription recruiting sergeants.
~
I would prefer to see an end to closet ‘radicalism’. Instead, we should encourage the formation of a left-wing, grassy-roots, democratic, radical pride movement. The middle of the road isn’t going anywhere, other than to Armageddon.
I thought it telling when governments recently adopted the word ‘radicalisation’ for something they wanted to stamp out. The word has a long and honourable history among socialists and the like – George Eliot wrote ‘Felix Holt, the Radical’ in 1866.
I think the word was carefully chosen for its modern meaning, so as to open the door to ‘deradicalising’ peaceniks like yourself, trade unionists, socialists, and anyone else who questions the established order.
Seems to me that Crazy Joe has finally unveiled his campaign platform which he has heretofore kept shrouded in secrecy (because no sane person would ever accept it): It’s to be war on every front with Russia! Unless Mad Vlad Putin has the decency to surrender, step down and name Navalny as his replacement.
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Read all about it: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-vows-defend-democracy-globally-days-rolling-over-russia-are-over
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Joe’s party has quite conveniently got the political opposition (especially its rank and file moreso than its quisling officeholders, though many of those have been publicly targeted for purging) boxed in right now, already tarred with the label of traitors and insurrectionists, so don’t look for a robust opposition from anyone who doesn’t mind ending up in one of the proverbial FEMA camps.
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No, in Joe’s mind only select foreigners and Americans with special privilege are allowed the luxury of dissent, especially accompanied by “demonstrations.” Fascinating how Joe plans to reward certain foreign nationals for betraying their country (protesting its government’s actions) whilst condemning Americans for parallel actions. Double plus good example of classic doublethink by Joe when he arrogantly demands reward of convicted confidence man Alexi Navalny for his bold lies and deliberate disruption of his society whilst condemning Julian Assange to rot for truth telling and giving American citizens some factual basis for deciding their votes. Believing that Crazy Joe is actually defending, rather than mocking and eroding democracy, indeed requires an extra-strength dose of doublethink.
~
If this is considered conspiracy theorizing, so be it. It is more sane than what Crazy Joe is now spouting as official US foreign policy. Crazy Joe is an obtuse and obstinate man with a short fuse. If you think his Thursday’s brain droppings were outrageous, wait till he reflexively doubles and triples down on the madness when questioned on it. Those $2,000 checks will no longer be a major issue when we are all sweating like we’ve been transported back to October of 1962, but this time we’ve got Crazy Joe in charge instead of a rational being.
Crazy Joe isn’t in charge. He may be a willing accomplice, but foreign policy has been mostly out of the hands of the President since Nov.22, 1963. He is only the current spokesman for Empire. Russia will be the main target until it resumes the vassal status it accepted under Yeltsin.
It will be interesting to see how these reeducation camps are set up for Trump supporters in the military. Maybe it will become part of basic training for the newbies. We will have trained mindless killers who are also gender fluid animal rights activists. Maybe their dress uniforms will include pink pussy hats! Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
Sure, and I’ve said the same myself on plenty of occasions. Perhaps Trump is gone because he didn’t understand his role and tried to draft his own lines too often. Crazy Joe has functioned as a puppet of the deep state for his entire career. The intended illusion is that the crazy man is independently in charge and a wise courageous paragon we should all honor and blindly follow. (Perhaps I am not playing my role as a “loyal” and “patriotic” American by somehow perceiving just how crazy the man and his schtick actually are.) What happened yesterday is that Crazy Joe got to ape Dax Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) or perhaps one of John Wayne’s many righteous tough guy characters for an afternoon. Don’t have my American movie trivia down, but isn’t “dog faced pony soldier” supposedly a line that he frequently poaches from one of “the Duke’s” movies? To the masses (well, maybe 50.1% of the masses) Crazy Joe is synonymous with the fictional entity he plays and they will dutifully hate Russians or whomever our lunatic prezident directs them to.
A bit off topic, but I just read at CN that there is a TED talk smearing VIPS as part of the Q-Anon cult. These people have no shame.
https://youtu.be/1QbEcG8O-L8?t=2807
(cued to where they start babbling about Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity)
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/02/04/the-q-word-weapon-of-choice-for-smearing-opponents/
(the CN article SKIP refers to)
When do I learn that I am in fact Q?
I’ve no intention of listening to the whole thing, but the logic appears to be that since VIPS raised doubts about Russiagate etc, they must be Putin’s pawns, therefore the same as QOnan.
So much on offer! A New McCarthyism. Demolition of press, speech, & assembly freedoms. Threats of political purges and a ginned up war machine.
Right on cue, just to add to the merriment, Blinken breaks out the “imminent threat” of nukes routine on Iran—perhaps in concert with Israel’s own ginned up war machine.
Thanks Crazy Joe.
I’m not up to speed on the details, but I think the UK has a government program called Prevent which obliges teachers to report signs of extremism, especially violent extremism, among students. Meanwhile Tony Blair walks around free. His violence is surely indisputable – he led the UK into the war on Iraq, costing hundreds of thousands of lives by the most conservative estimates. His extremism consisted in effectively telling the United Nations, UK parliament and citizens, and most of all the people of Iraq, to go f themselves – he wanted war regardless.
I wonder how long I’d last as a teacher there reporting violent extremists like him and other fans of Western imperialism?
The Prevent program is all about identifying the emergence of alpha males for use by the military. Funnel tgeir aggression for the state.
Where I am, the US embassy had an Access Program, supposedly reaching out to Muslim schoolkids to tell them how wonderful Western imperialism is, and to avert ‘radicalisation’.
I wondered if its true purpose was to identify Muslims (a minority here) who might be formed into sleeper cells, ready to be woken up come time for a coup.
Caitlin your sentence; “Abnormalize the status quo and normalize sanity” That really is the whole game. But How? That is the Trillion dollar question. Perhaps open it up to the readers. Instead of posting the activities of the bad guys. Frame a questions that lies at the heart of their power and ask How? Then take the responses organize them and do another round. We need to find a way to stop them.
We stop them the way that David stopped Goliath…but only if we learn to draw upon the kind of power he drew upon. The potential impact of a genuinely spiritual left boggles the mind. The secular left concedes the game by its first materialist move. As Frederic Myers put it: “The pessimist holds the view that sentient existence has been a deplorable blunder in the scheme of things. The egotist at least acts upon the view that the universe has no moral coherence.”
There is nothing “radical” or “extreme” about opposing the domination of the entire planet with relentless acts of mass slaughter to the detriment of the worlds most vulnerable populations, all because some sociopaths in Washington,DC decided that it is good and reasonable to inflict any amount of terror upon our world to preserve unipolar United States hegemony. That Ms Johnstone says it all; God Bless you for stating that extremely true fact!!
Succinct. And true.
Is there a connection here? The 60 Pause to sort extremism, then today on Zero Hedge where Caitlin is often reprinted.
“Grenier, also a former CIA station chief in Pakistan and Afghanistan, grouped together “the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, ‘Christian’ national chauvinists, white supremacists and QAnon fantasists” and claimed they are all “committed to violent extremism.” and “Grenier then compared Americans to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, noting that in Afghanistan “the thrust of our campaign there was, yes, to hunt down al-Qaida, but primarily to remove the supportive environment in which they were able to live and to flourish. And that meant fighting the Taliban.”
So maybe a 60 day pause to get the troops in order so they can hunt down the conservatives? Sounds insane, Everything sounds insane though lately.
Funny Caitlin, thank God our religious institutions are still sane.
“God… is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world”
The paragraph above is apparently or supposedly a statement coming from the Vatican itself. Found on;
https://www.markmallett.com/blog/category/daily-journal/
But, did it come directly from Pope Francis? Or does it even matter?