Doing daily commentary on world power dynamics feels a lot like staring up at the sky watching clouds. Sometimes you see a three-legged pony up there, sometimes a gargoyle, sometimes a laughing baby, but really you’re only ever watching tiny water droplets being moved around by atmospheric winds. They can take on any number of different shapes, but no matter how long you lay there staring up at them you’re really only ever seeing one dynamic play out with different appearances from moment to moment.

The daily news is very much the same, except most consumers of news media aren’t aware that they’re watching clouds. They really do think they’re looking at a three-legged pony, a gargoyle, a laughing baby.

“Ooh, there’s a doggy!” they squeal and clap their hands. “Ooh! Ooh now it’s a kitty cat!”

They don’t see the real underlying dynamics, they just see the forms those dynamics are taking from moment to moment. They don’t see the water droplets being moved around by the breeze, they just see the shapes.

Just as clouds are always water droplets in the air no matter what shapes they take, news stories are only ever one dynamic playing out with different appearances.

There is only ever one news story on any given day, and it is always the same news story: wealthy and powerful people seek more wealth and power, and narratives are spun to advance these agendas.

That’s it. That’s all you’re ever seeing when you read the news. There are sports scores and the occasional celebrity death mixed in for entertainment, but when it comes to major political and governmental events you’re only ever seeing the effects of wealthy and powerful people working to obtain more wealth and power and narratives being spun to promote these agendas.

Today it’s the Democratic Party killing the $15 minimum wage, protests in Haiti, US electoral shenanigans in Ecuador, bombings and sanctions on Syria, China bad, Russia bad. Appearances which taken individually at first glance look like breaking news stories, but when examined closely and integrated into the big picture are actually the exact same dynamics that were playing out yesterday with slightly different shapes. Tomorrow those same dynamics will play out again in different appearances. The shapes are different, but it’s always water droplets in the air.

It’s the exact same news story playing out over and over and over again, day after day after day. Alarm clock goes off at six AM, Sonny and Cher sing “I Got You Babe”, and Bill Murray wakes up to Groundhog Day once again.

“Well it looks like Jibby Jorpson is set to be the new leader, somehow staving off an early challenge from the popular socialist candidate,” reports the news man. “In other news, the ostensibly left-wing party will be unable to help the working class due to bliff blaff bloffa reasons, a dangerous dictator in a crucial geostrategic region urgently needs to be removed from power because widdle diddle doodad, and coming up: do we need more internet censorship to prevent wakka dakka dingdong?”

Next morning. Alarm clock. “I Got You Babe”, Bill Murray, Groundhog Day again.

“Well it looks like Miggy Morpson is set to be the the new leader, somehow staving off an early challenge from the popular socialist candidate,” reports the news man. “In other news, the ostensibly left-wing party will be unable to help the working class due to wing wang wappa reasons, a dangerous dictator in a crucial geostrategic region urgently needs to be removed from power because kooka kakka keeka, and coming up: do we need more internet censorship to prevent yope yap yimmy?”

Over and over and over again. And over and over and over. The excuses change, the narrative spin changes, the component parts of the agendas change, but it’s only ever the same one story: wealthy and powerful people seek more wealth and power, and narratives are spun to advance these agendas.

Once you see the clouds as clouds, you never again get confused about what those shapes in the sky really are. You see different iterations of the exact same dynamic where you used to see individual breaking news stories.

When you have this insight and realize it’s always the same story playing out over and over again, there’s a common temptation to give in to despair and bitterness. Maybe you keep fighting, but you do it with a bored, jaded and entirely uninspired mentality.

It doesn’t need to be this way though. Just because the fight isn’t happening the way you used to imagine doesn’t mean it’s hopeless or tedious, it just means you need to look at it differently. You don’t have a 50-fight career against 50 different opponents who you fought for 10 rounds each, you have a one-fight career against a single opponent who you’ve been fighting for 500 rounds.

Just because the fight is longer than you once thought and the opponent much more resilient than you once thought doesn’t mean that one long fight is without end, or that it is unwinnable. It just means it looks different than it used to. It was ponies and doggies, now it’s clouds. You still bite down on your mouthpiece and throw leather with all your strength.

But it’s important to do it with focus on the whole. When we oppose ruling power structures and the narratives that they are using to advance their agendas, it’s important to also zoom out and point to their place in the whole. It benefits no one to treat any of the manifestations of the recurring one news story as separate from all the other arrangements: you’ve got to tie it in to the greater dynamics of empire and oligarchy at every opportunity. Otherwise you’re just feeding into the illusion of doggies and kitties in the sky.

That’s all we’re ever doing here: trying to point to the recurring Groundhog Day story over and over again from as many different angles as possible to help people see the clouds. We can use individual news stories as illustrations to show people the bigger picture of what’s really going on, but really all we’re ever doing is helping them see it all as water droplets arranging in different shapes from day to day.

Help enough people see the big picture, and the fight is as good as won. Then, and only then, does Bill Murray awaken to a new day.

____________________________

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80 responses to “There’s Only One News Story, Repeating Over And Over Again”

  1. It’s all propaganda. All of it. Unfortunately too many believe the propaganda, and those that don’t are unable to interpret the propaganda properly.

    The three universal laws of propaganda are:

    1. All utterances and silence by tyranny, government, is propaganda. Everything. (Yes, even what your kid’s teacher tells you and the obituaries. Everything.)

    2. Propaganda is truth, half-truth. lies, and omissions in support of an agenda.

    3. Identifying the agenda within the tyranny’s propaganda is the key to understanding what reality is and where they are taking us.

    Notice that propaganda is NOT only lies. Lies make up very little of propaganda. Most propaganda comes in the form of omission–over 80%.

    One must work to identify the agenda(s) buried within the tyranny’s propaganda. Their agenda(s) is emergent over time from the streams of propaganda they emit. With experience, one will come to recognize and know the patterns of their propaganda and identifying the agenda(s) will become easier.

    Believe nothing they say, or don’t, seek the agenda instead.

  2. After leaving my previous job 11 months ago, I’ve had some good luck to learn about this website which was a life-saver for me… They offer jobs for which people can work online from their house. My latest paycheck after working for them for 4 months was for $11600… Amazing thing about is that the only thing required is simple typing skills and access to internet.

    Read all about it here…….

  3. Wealth brings power.
    Power brings corruption.
    The west is accelerating into a black hole of wealth and corruption.
    It will get very unpleasant.

  4. Anyone else noticed those headlines that try to tell you what to think? Along the lines of “X has happened and people are Y”. The UK site ‘indy100’ is a good example, from what is a supposedly respectable rag. Who’s pushing this NLP nonsense?

    1. What’s “NLP”? (sorry if it’s obvious)

  5. You are so correct dear Caitlin. Your writing keeps me hanging on. It’s comforting when I read your poignant essays and know you see and are digesting what is happening to all of us. Plus I am heartened when I go through all of the comments, knowing how many of us are out here watching, waiting, and hoping for the spark that will set off the revolution to root out the oilygarchs. Just wish there was some way we could all communicate with each other, and maybe form a mass coalition.

  6. To reinforce wat Caitlin adressed:

    https://braveneweurope.com/gpenewsdocs-nick-buxton-global-coup-detat-mapping-the-corporate-takeover-of-global-governance

    “What we’ve been finding in recent years is that really there is something I would call it a kind of a global, silent coup d’état going on in terms of global governance. Most people don’t see it.

    And people have become familiar with the way that corporations have far more influence and are being integrated into policymaking at a national level. They see that more in front of them. People see their services being privatized. They see the influence of the oil companies or the banking sector that has stopped actions such as regulation of banks or of dealing with a climate crisis.

    What people don’t realize is a global level there has been something much more silent going on. Which is that their governance, which used to be by nations, is now increasingly being done by unaccountable bodies dominated by corporations. And part of the problem is that that has been happening in lots of different sectors but people haven’t been connecting the dots.”

  7. Martin Wendelboe Avatar
    Martin Wendelboe

    So Caitlin, you did it again …

    You bring calmness to the F.U. situation of this crazy charade that we call reality. I know now, why your voice has been missing in the total picture of my work to stay calm, to keep my sanity and not to lose my balance in this repetitive turmoil, which seems to get nowhere. Now I see that your voice helps me to lean into this repetitive turmoil, which gets me somewhere.

    I have a spiritual teacher, I have a spiritual mentor and warrior friend, I have a philosophical guide. Now you have taken the position of combining these three into one when I am engaging and coping on an everyday basis with the amazing absurdity of what is going on in this dark age. You are the voice that helps me not to withdraw into a bubble of self-righteous and self-promoted serenity, but to look the overwhelming confusion right in the eye.

    On that note will I return to the melody playing on my radio: “Iron Sky” by Paolo Nutini.

  8. I fully agree and it’s really really sad.  Given that most people are raised to be apathetic from childhood it’s never going to change.  Look at me, I really have tended to question almost everything (respectfully but that gets slammed back in your face) and I’m almost 60 and beat to shit. 
    I’m to the point where I virtually watch no TV and I don’t even think about it anymore. That alone would have as big of impact on the future as anything if more people would just stop paying attention to the dog shit they are being spoon fed by both parties. Won’t happen though because they wouldn’t know what else to do….they can talk well or write so TV is about their best skill set.

  9. And when you point that out to people they get all upset because you’ve (pop) burst their comfort bubble. No they say. The world really is changing they insist. The worst ones are those who really believe the narrative to the point where their ego kicks in and they get offended at your point of view. No, America is just defending itself and protecting us from the baddies! Now I must go and get in my fancy new pollution mobile and drive to an important meeting where we are going to discuss how we can destroy the environment whilst maximising shareholder profit. On the way home I’ll stop in to the monopolistic shopping chain and buy some eco-cidal meat and dairy and monoculture GMO agricultural products that have all been carefully wrapped by an underpaid worker in plastic that will eventually end up chocking a sea turtle to death. Don’t worry I’ll bring my own reusable bags. We like to look at the silly doggies and the flying pigs. It’s the same old thing over and over and over … You could honestly run a news day from two years ago and hardly anyone would notice … hasn’t that dissident… wasn’t he already killed by a corrupt and powerful faction … ? I must be mistaken. It’s hard to keep up with all the shapes. At what point do you make a stand? What will it take for us to say no? No I’m not polluting the earth anymore. No I’m not going to not care what happens to my fellow man. No I’m not taking part in this bullshit useless pointless boring destructive soul sapping time wasting exercise I call my job. At what point does the truth become fashionable enough to refuse? Actually the answer is probably the day we realise that $20 bills have no nutritional value and that expensive [insert designer label] couch doesn’t respire. In the words of Radiohead – we hope that you choke, that you choke.

  10. World Wide Web… ‘Nuff said. (It’s aliens)

  11. Some C.J. readers here might like this common sense article.
    ~
    Today, the world is wholly different. Instead of a bipolar configuration, there is the reality of a multipolar world. The global economy is much more integrated and China – set to become the largest national economy – is a key exporter, importer, investor and market.
    ~
    The previous Trump administration launched a trade war against China three years ago in an attempt to bully China into submission. But that policy failed. Trump only ended up hurting American producers and consumers which reflects the reality of how the American economy – like much of the world – is dependent on China. Trump’s trade war was tantamount to cutting your nose off to spite your face. It was a folly of arrogance and no intelligence.
    ~
    This fine article can be read here:
    United States Futile Containment of China By Finian Cunningham!
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56394.htm

    1. Biden will continue down thecsame road as the US will try all ootions to subdue China.

  12. Frank Thompen Avatar
    Frank Thompen

    This article is the most lucid exposure to the big picture. Fighting the mini-battles over each lie, each piece of propaganda, each new affront to decency keeps the people distracted from the fact that “it’s only ever the same one story: wealthy and powerful people seek more wealth and power, and narratives are spun to advance these agendas.”

    Who believes that so-called “conservative” leaders give a flying fuck about abortion? Sure, some of the back-benchers may, but so what? Deficit hawks? Only if that can be a narrative spun to oppose anything useful to our fellow workers.

    Thank you for this piece. May it open some eyes and lead to a smidgen of progress.

  13. Great insight 🙂

  14. Normand Drolet Avatar
    Normand Drolet

    Thank you Caitlin Johnstone for giving us new inspiration every day.

  15. Yes, it truly is another Groundhog Day.
     
    “Help enough people see the big picture, and the fight is as good as won. Then, and only then, does Bill Murray awaken to a new day.”
     
    I’m still waiting for Godot to answer The Big Question that’s going to conquer The Big Lie. Just exactly WHAT do people do AFTER they’ve “seen the big picture” that is going to release them from Groundhog Day — learn to play the piano; stop trying to satisfy their insatiable greed; be much nicer and more sincere to someone they really want to fuck; say a prayer to Jesus every night before crawling into bed, WHAT?!

    1. Nothing; they are all “keyboard warriors”! How many have been in the streets, arrested, jailed, assaulted, lost treasure. Hell Caitlin, you live in australia where everyone pretending to live in the outback while they hug the coast. Something like canada, where I live and we pretend to live in the north while huddling close to the border of the empire. The loss of civil liberties is even worse than canada, you ever participate in more wars for the empire. We both have a fight going with China for the empire. We both have public health care but it’s a legacy thing. You do have better beaches and diving and we have better skiing but, of course, the us has better of both. We believe lies, you believe lies and the whole western world believes basically the same lies. Love your writing but it’s all sound and fury, signifing and accomplishing nothing. Good stuff though.

      1. I’m Canadian and a keyboard warrior, but I like reading Ms Johnstone, I love Juice Media out of Australia, I listen to Canadaland, read Matthew Ehret, Venezuela Analysis…it goes on.I don’t participate in the corporate nonsense….despite writing on a computer. But, I try to look for anything because, while I like Bill Murray, I’m sick of Groundhog Day and anything someone new is saying is something I’ve never heard before, and that changes me and that changes the argument. I think. I hope. When I get stuck, I look at art–i love new pictures. I’ve never been arrested, I don’t see fights but you’d be surprised to know I have been banned on a lot of our media and I swear I am not rude. So, someone doesn’t like what I’m saying which means someone is reading it which means a keyboard warrior looking for something new packs quite a bunch….

  16. The fight will not be won as long as people are told to stay home and wear muzzles indefinitely–for their own good! Covid is the only story and although the details change every day to keep the masses confused, the message is clear: We Will Control You.

  17. “The effort of a faction of the ruling class to develop a fascistic movement arises not out of strength, but weakness. The financial elite is working to deploy all the forces at its disposal against the working class, using both of its political parties.”

    Key!!

  18. Just saw a picture of the Taliban that Biden has sent an envoy to open negotiations. My mind immediately went back to a similar picture of the vietnamese negotiators during tge vietnam war. Things truly remain the same.

  19. When we’re lied to all the time, we even start to question whether the clouds are really clouds.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ8mycEVgGQ

    1. Here’s another example of Big Money™ technocrats with globalist agendas buying media to sell the narrative. Btw, I haven’t really thought much about Gates, tho, I know others think he’s Satan (may be ; ) and I’m all for vaccines. But this Grayzone article referenced on a prequel vid of Jimmy interviewing Max (related by separate to above) mentioned this GZ article. What a major problem we have if private multinationals like this/these creep/s have made media, science, enterprise, civil society, even incorporated our govts, into mere subsidiaries of their global corporate empires. Longish, but good.

      https://thegrayzone.com/2020/07/08/bill-gates-global-health-policy/

  20. One “New Peal Harbor,” and one overall picture:

  21. Caitlin, a very good article. I do not despair but simply ignore the circus. The show must go on. Just without me.

  22. Mike McDonnell Avatar
    Mike McDonnell

    Another nice one from Caitlin. An author who is focused on the problem of our rich owners is Eric Zuesse. He does what Caitlin writes about here: looks at the news from the viewpoint of how it is used to advance the agendas of our billionaire owners. Have a look at his articles at https://www.strategic-culture.org/contributors/eric-zuesse/

  23. “wealthy and powerful people seek more wealth and power”
    You left out psychotic.
    “Help enough people see the big picture”
    Which is hard to do when they prefer to see the world through a very tiny window in sore need of a good cleaning. They don’t want anything interfering with their fairy tale. Which does not mean the fight shouldn’t be fought. Fighting is always hard

  24. I look at the sky and see who the real culprits are, but not the people here. They see ponies and “wealthy people” and don’t seem to have enough intellectual insight to actually KNOW who the “wealthy people” are and where their Talmudic agenda comes from.

    Let’s all lay back and watch the ponies blow by. Might as well, since no one here is actually seeing the truth. (They likely see it, but are covering for the “wealthy people” with little black hats)

  25. David Janowick Avatar
    David Janowick

    My favorite writer and one of her best articles, but I have to make my comment:

    One of those stories is climate change, but for some reason Caitlin thinks that one is real.

    1. The reason so many buy into climate change is because it fits their world view of making the world a better place by removing or reducing industrilization and capitalism. Going back to a simpler way of life. It always surprises me when people say it is propoganda and lies except for this or thst. Then those same psychopathic liars are telling the truth. Science has been politicized and incentivized to support climate change. First the scientists with climate change and now the medical industry with Covid.

      1. Comorbidity 2024 Avatar
        Comorbidity 2024

        @KHATIKA

        Or… The “so many” need something large/abstract enough to rationalize signaling rather than acting. Hence screeching about Mr Assange while submitting to voluntary house arrest…
        $
        Capitalism and Big Tech are evil. Send me money on Bitcoin and Patreon…
        $
        BLM!!!
        https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EvWvoHUVgAE6ym0?format=jpg&name=large
        $

      2. David Janowick Avatar
        David Janowick

        It’s also possible that Caitlin doesn’t believe in anthropogenic climate change, but she says she does to position herself as a mainstream writer. Her work is so valuable and influential because she has a specific message an her otherwise mainstream views gives her credibility. If she were to come out as not believing in climate change, or start speaking out about the Covid nonsense, her status as a writer would suffer. When I think about it, even if she didn’t agree with the anthropogenic climate change story, maybe it’s better that she claims to. The message she writes about is too important to discredit it with positions like that. I think I’ll stop bringing this up.

      3. Khatika, I think you’ve touched a painful truth. I am one of those people who grew up worrying about environmental damage of many kinds. It’s so strange to see the world focused on carbon dioxide, rather than things like PCB, pesticide runoffs, or a septet of floating plastic islands the size of Texas. How did the number one environmental issue become the chemical that we all exhale? Where’s the discussion about the many other poisons that humans create?
        I do not know the answer, because we will die without the benefits of the division of labor – i.e. industrialization and capitalism – but we will also die if we are not careful.

        1. So true. The environmental movement has been hijacked by climate change. That most so called environmentalists jump on board tells one alot of how political and contrived the whole affair has become.

    2. Mike McDonnell Avatar
      Mike McDonnell

      Many of us “think that one is real” because it is. Global warming is as well-proven a scientific fact as evolution. It is not just “not nice to fool mother nature”, it is impossible. People who think that opinions are better than science are backing a lost cause, even if it makes them feel superior. Rejection of science is not just wrong, it is dangerous.

      1. David Janowick Avatar
        David Janowick

        And you know that “global warming” (it’s actually climate change now – maybe you didn’t get the memo) is a “well-proven scientific fact” because you read the peer reviewed papers and came to that conclusion independently, or because the people on TV told you it was a “well proven scientific fact”. I strongly suspect the latter.

      2. Instead do a little research to find out who is financing these positive climate change studies. Then look into who if any fund the opposing views. You will see the politicization of science if you care to look. But you wont because these studies fit your world view. But please dont prattle on about absolute science. Govt have been influencing science since before capurnicus.

        1. Science is almost entirely defined by skepticism. Basically, if someone else who doesn’t believe cannot reproduce the exact same results, then it’s not science. To hear people complain that someone doesn’t “believe the science” just shows that too many people do not understand what science really means.

          1. Wrong. It is defined by reproducable studies not computer models. You I believe are speaking of theories which has its place in directing research. Now accepted theories such as flat earth years ago, blood full of disease which required bleeding a person, etc, those were accepted practices which were wrong. Climate change falls into that category today.

    3. Climate change is real, it’s just not caused by humans, and it’s nowhere near as warm as the Earth has been in prehistoric times – long before humans.

      1. Yes. My climate changed today. Cold and rainy. Yesterday sunny and clear.

  26. A very clever, poignant and perceptive piece of writing!

  27. A great essay about clouds, fiery tales and reality; would would like to introduce another fiery tale about reality, a young man of 26 years, his name was King von, I had the unique opportunity to speak with him for maybe half an hour; at the time I had never heard of him, but thought of him as a nice kid(I’m 70). It wasn’t until the next day when I watched one of his videos that he had died two weeks earlier. So, without comment is a link to a short documentary on his life.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jhVhsdfaXQI

  28. Martyn Knowler Avatar
    Martyn Knowler

    Agree. There is of course another (less conspiratorial) reason the news is so repetitive.

    It’s cheap and less effort to repeat the same old narrative (ie crap). Why send reporters out to the field to do really work when they can sit at home writing about kittens or the Queen? They can get a computer to generate an article (ie re-word yesterdays news) in a few minutes or copy paste it from somewhere else, for next to nothing.

    Like Brian said the problem is that majority aren’t demanding anything more.

    1. Occam’s Razor: Usually, the simpler explanation is the one that reflects reality. Conspiracy is more difficult than expedience. Rather than lose energy searching for conspiracies that probably do not exist, it would seem prudent to focus on actions and results.

      1. Yes. Watch what they do, not what they say.

  29. Not a single announcement will reach the public without our control. Even now this is already being attained by us inasmuch as all news items are received by a few agencies, in whose offices they are focused from all parts of the world. These agencies will then be already entirely ours and will give publicity only to what we dictate to them.

    – Protocol 12:4 The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

    The House of Rothschild bought Reuters news service in the 1800’s. Within the last 20 years, Reuters bought the Associated Press. Now the Elite own the two largest wire services in the world, where most newspapers get their news. The Rothschilds have control of all three U.S. Networks, plus other aspects of the recording and mass media industry according to research by Eustice Mullins in his book ‘Who Owns the TV Networks’.

    Keep in mind that almost all newspapers and tv channels in the world use Reuters and the Associated Press as sources. Reuters and the Associated Press serve as international news corporations.

    Rothschilds own 98% of the BS we are fed on a daily basis !

  30. There are many people that comment on your wonderful writing that are very appreciative and express this explicitly.

    I notice that there are other commenters that either agree with most or to the other extreme try to tear you to shreds.

    May I offer an invitation to commenters here? If anyone accepts my invitation, then tell us all here.

    My invitation is simple – Is there ANYTHING that Caitlin wrote in an article that resonates with you? If so, thank her.

    As a contrast to the generous approach above, I invite you, if you can find ONE thing that you (at this point in your learning) disagree with, be circumspect with how you express it. Please don’t tell us how much else you know. We come here for Caitlin’s insight.

    Criticism is so easy and lazy. I choose to avoid it in both a public and private forum. It’s often best applied to myself.

    Love your work Caitlin.

    1. I dig, Idig. She provides an island for free speech in an ocean of censorship. No moderation here. That alone is worth some gratitude. Thanks, Caitlin.

    2. Conversation is the most important action. Conversation allows for disagreement. Your advice, IDig, is great: We should always try to remember to give support where we can, since these virtual conversations cannot show our full expression. It’s too easy to keep quiet when there is agreement, and only speak up when there is extreme disagreement. Balancing that by speaking up more when we have agreement, while respectfully disagreeing where appropriate, will facilitate the continued conversation.

  31. Bill Rice, Jr. Avatar
    Bill Rice, Jr.

    Great insights. Caitlin writes: “There is only ever one news story on any given day, and it is always the same news story: wealthy and powerful people seek more wealth and power, and narratives are spun to advance these agendas.”
    This is true, but I’d add much of the labor the Powers that Be perform is intended to PROTECT their power, wealth or status, not necessarily increase these things. This might amount to the same difference, but my take is that the Establishment is often motivated by the desire to extinguish or diminish “threats” to their power base, more so than obtain even more wealth or power. Basically, the want to keep what they’ve got or already achieved.
    So they don’t allow storylines that would challenge the COVID “narrative,” or make it possible to investigate or prosecute the “Johns” in the Epstein sex-trafficking ring. Stories that might expose the rigging of gold and silver “markets” (and thus jeopardize the fiat printing press) are never commissioned or published.
    My view is that “they” are constantly putting their fingers in holes in the dam to try to keep threats at bay and disasters (to them) from occurring. In some ways maintaining the corrupt Status Quo is easier than ever (thanks to the absence of a skeptical, “watchdog” press), but in some ways this task must be becoming more challenging. When you’ve lied for so long, it becomes harder to conceal all the past prevarications. There are so many damn threats that could jeopardize their lofty position.
    In short, I think many of these people and organizations are trying to put out fires and protect what they have more so than grow even more powerful. Of course, some people and organizations are so cocky and brazen they ARE only interested in growing their power. Still, to do this, they must constantly remove/attack threats to their status.
    So all these stories we read (changing cloud shapes we see) are really just the latest spin required to shoot down another threat to the power that the Powers that Be possess.

    1. I think you have some great points, Bill. There may not be a consistent conspiratorial plan so much as individuals reacting in ways that tend to maintain the status quo.
      Rather than focus on who to blame, I believe that the best solution is to focus on actions. Preserve life, preserve freedom, and preserve the right for people to make their own decisions about their lives and about what to do with their creation.

    2. Well said, Bill.
      `
      I do think the robber barons are extremely pro active at protecting their power, and much of the news blather is aimed at putting out fires that threaten them or their agenda. But I have to believe they are, also, always on the prowl to increase their wealth, power and control.
      `
      Pretty sure these are not the actions of individuals. There is plenty of evidence that they have shared interests and agendas to maintain the status quo. Much of it is right out in the open; easy to find, but you have to look because it’s being suppressed by the media they own.
      `
      You don’t have to believe the stories about the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and the British royals, just look at Davos, the WEF and the great reset.Then tell me they don’t have shared agendas. Not to mention the lack of investigations into Epstein and the Covid narrative as Bill correctly referred to.
      `
      Needless to say, I’m not exactly in agreement with Brian. Why shouldn’t they be blamed? Why shouldn’t the oligarchy be held accountable for the death, devastation and ruin they’ve created on our planet?
      `
      Charles Hugh Smith does a good job of, generally, laying out the extent of the damage these people have done to our society:

      https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/74702/how-deep-is-the-rot-in-americas.html
      `
      “All this rot–corruption, fraud, abuse of power, betrayal of the public trust, tax evasion, blatant criminality and insiders protecting the guilty–has consequences.” 
      `
      “Here are America’s media, law enforcement/security agencies and “leadership” class: they speak no evil, see no evil and hear no evil, in the misguided belief that their misdirection, self-service and protection of the guilty will make us buy the narrative that America’s ruling elite and all the core institutions they manage aren’t rotten to the foundations.”

      “Either we root out every last source of rot by investigating, indicting and jailing every wrong-doer and everyone who conspired to protect the guilty in the Epstein case, or America will have sealed its final fall.”
      `
      And by the way, I’m getting a little tired of being accused of being a hater because I dare to dissent against the horrific actions of these people.

      1. Excellent clarifying point, Shocker. Presidents who give orders to bomb civilians should be blamed. Representatives who vote a blanket approval for war actions should be blamed. Advisors who recommend to those in power that a military action should be chosen … they’re also to be blamed. Government officials who respond with violence to non-violent protests should be blamed.
        I was trying to make the point that it is a distraction to focus on the imagined conspiracy, rather than look at and condemn the specific actions. I’m just not as good a writer as Caitlin 😉

        1. Hmmm. . . . . .

  32. We must reject the distractions they dangle before us. Unfortunately this means most Tech.

    1. Excellent point.
      – Scandals
      – Wokism
      – Partisanship
      – Race
      – Abortion
      – Russia
      – Trump
      – Entertainment
      – Porn
      – Pandemic

      But also, some spin on Caitlin’s point.
      – This is not new behavior and it’s not a bug.
      – There are not in fact two parties – practically speaking. There is the owners against the owned.
      – It is largely a result of human nature. Nothing of man’s design would be so enduring.
      – They do it because it is profitable and the one with the money calls the shots.
      – Education would help to understand, so it is controlled and less is better.
      – There is a very small number of people with a very large percentage of the wealth. The concentration of wealth and power that goes with it is increasing.

      1. Wealth concentration is increasing, and this is just how money works. If only a majority could see that the idea of progressive taxation is not to redistribute wealth, but to moderate its natural tendency to concentrate.

        1. Wealth concentration is not how hard currency money works, but it is how fiat currency money tends to work. Whenever the government decides that an independent organization (The Fed) can create “money” from nothing, they tend to loan this money to their cronies in a way that increases the divide between the connected (rich) and the not-so-well-connected (poor).

  33. What you need, Caitlin, what all of need, is an Atlas of Clouds…

  34. Your essay boils down to 99% v. 1%. It’s as simple as that.

  35. The owners and the masters will never cease manipulating ” us peons ” in a swirling bubble of confusion to keep us asleep to their diabolical reality. The carrot is always kept in front of our eyes just beyond our grasp so that we continue to go exactly where they want us to go. Perhaps we might ” awaken ” from the stench of that decayed carrot some day.

  36. Arrows of truth from a top notch archer

  37. The OFF button is a powerful weapon.

    1. Indeed it is, but knowing your enemy is even more effective

  38. I really appreciate your powerful ability to create analogies than anyone can relate to. Also your “Random Name Generator” is very funny. Love your work Caitlin.

  39. Or maybe it’s all like unto a game of musical chairs. As the same tune plays over and over again we all just zombie-like trudge the same slow circular route till the music stops and we find one more of our fellow proles out of the game. Will the last surviving member of our birthdate cohort be the winner? If so, what’s the prize?

  40. jimmy gulagero Avatar
    jimmy gulagero

    Oxycontin is Republican smack.
    whoever is the Parliamentarian of the Senate is the Wizard of Oz.
    Ka’ala H. is not good enough to be Dorothy.
    send her home! all her critics are sober and drink kool aide.
    15 is not enough for any blue state i know about.
    it’s up to 30 and now we see the fantazee coming down to earth.
    wall st. buys up housing in america via mostly evictions for unemployment and no free health care, then they hold the empties off the market until the rents go up enough to make the next victims indentured servituders just like serfs.
    [not the faction surfers they wanted to be.]
    the beach boyz died when the music did.
    after all that Jazz, the WEF offers free rent {but no ownership} forever and ever.
    free rent sounds just great enough to create a big rush for it.
    but then someone remembers that
    is what slaves had.

    {they also got free food, but no passports}

  41. Best piece of journalism I have seen for a long long time. Thanks Caitlin.

  42. There is another story besides the elite and their control: That story is the masses, and what they put their energy into supporting. So long as the masses believe that we need government to take money from one group and give it to another group, there is support for centralized power. Of course, as long as there is support for centralized power and redistribution of wealth, then those in charge of the centralized power can siphon off what they want, behind the scenes, and control the education, entertainment, and reporting that the masses have access to.

    Let me state this more clearly: So long as you believe that everything is caused by a conspiratorial power elite, nothing will be done about the masses who support the centralized power structures that make it possible for a few to control so many. By focusing on the wealthy and powerful – to the extent that you believe that is the only story – it will be hopeless to see the full story. We are all responsible. It is not just those in power.

    1. As long as there is wealth there is a need to distribute it fairly. If you are proposing we abolish wealth that is possible but a big jump from here.

      1. “Fair distribution of wealth” is a recipe for disaster. Who decides what “wealth” is? Who decides how much wealth to take, how much to keep, and how much to give? You missed my point, Tim: So long as people believe in myths like “fair distribution of wealth,” we will all remain slaves to the power elite. You cannot fight the rich and powerful by giving a small group of enforcers the power to redistribute wealth. That kind of power is corrupting, and will simply maintain a power structure.

  43. Thank you for hanging in here with us, Caitlin! We’re fighting-physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually!!!

  44. Ive been mainling news for 77 years and my brain veins are starting to collapse.
    Down on the road in the projects Mama May told me in 72 she switched to booze from smack as her veins got too tired. So I’m loss as to what to switch too. Maybe i can get an answer in a 12 step lose the news program.
    Calling Bill and Bob.

    1. reads as if you could do with a DMT reset

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