Listen to a reading of this article:
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I remember feeling such solidarity with Democrats who opposed Bush’s warmongering. I sincerely did not know it was just empty political posturing for them and they’d happily sign off on any war no matter how insane as long as the president doing it had a (D) next to their name.
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All the Democratic Party’s actions make sense when you switch from thinking of it as a political party whose job is to enact the will of voters to thinking about it as a narrative control operation whose job is to prevent the local riff raff from tampering with the gears of a globe-spanning empire.
The US doesn’t have political parties, it has narrative control ops disguised as political parties. One of them overtly promotes capitalism and imperialism by appealing to Americans’ worst impulses, the other covertly diverts healthy impulses back into capitalism and imperialism.
An elephant and a donkey fight in a puppet show and the crowd cheers for one or the other while thieves pick their pockets. And when people start to notice their wallets are missing, they’re told they can stop the pickpocketing by cheering louder for their favorite puppet.
People ask why the Democrats never codified Roe vs Wade into law, and the answer is, because that’s not their job. Their job is not to enact the policies you elected them to enact. Their job is not even to win elections. Their job is to keep you staring at the puppet show while the empire has its way with the world.
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The Democratic Party is like one of those perpetual fuckups who does all the wrong things and makes all the wrong decisions and never stops blaming all their self-generated problems on everyone else.
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Calls for civility and polite protesting always have a lot less to do with the actual protest at hand than with elites getting nervous about the commoners figuring out that their superior numbers mean they can do whatever they want to whoever they want and nobody can stop them.
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Democracy is when you get to vote on which oligarchic muppet will ceremonially pardon a turkey on Thanksgiving but not on whether your government should greatly escalate the risk of nuclear war.
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Still can’t believe US officials flat out admitted to the press that they’ve been circulating disinformation to the public about the Ukraine war and then like three weeks later it came out that the US government now has a Ministry of Truth for countering disinformation.
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Yes the Department of Homeland Security’s Ministry of Truth is headed by a weird ridiculous person. Please don’t let that distract from the vastly more significant fact that the Department of Homeland Security has a Ministry of Truth.
I already know that my plea here is in vain, because focusing on the ridiculous shitlib has a mainstream partisan slant while focusing on empire narrative management about wars and foreign enemies does not. The mainstream partisan angle wins out every time.
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All Americans need to really deeply ingest the fact that their government is currently decoupling Covid relief funding from Ukraine proxy war funding because it wants to make sure that the proxy war funding actually passes. Really sit with what that says about everything.
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Imagine if instead of deliberately provoking and funding a proxy war against Russia that could get everyone killed, the US had pledged to back Zelensky militarily against the Nazi factions who were threatening to kill him if he made peace with Russia like he campaigned on doing?
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The US proxy war in Ukraine is more serious than Iraq. It’s more serious than Vietnam. The body count is lower for now, but this is a confrontation that Russia has increasingly valid reasons to see as a direct existential threat. This war truly endangers every life on earth.
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Ah for the good old days before 2022 when “We should try to avoid nuclear war” was an uncontroversial position.
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It’s evident now that there’s literally no cap on how much more US interventionism the western political/media class will support in Ukraine. There’s no escalation the Biden administration could propose that they wouldn’t support and call everyone a Kremlin agent who opposes it.
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There doesn’t seem to be any conscious, thinking force driving the escalations against Russia and China. It’s more like watching a force of nature like a hurricane or a wildfire. Just microbes mindlessly responding to the stimulus of global capitalism, with no one ultimately in the driver’s seat.
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U2 performing in Kyiv should reassure Gen Xers that as much as people bitch about Instagram influencers and TikTok stars our phony pop culture bullshit still has everyone else beat.
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Zelensky: So what we need from you Americans is your continued military support, your continued financial support, your continued moral support, and your LIVE FROM NEW YORK IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!
[music starts playing, we all die a little inside]
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Elon Musk became the Libertarian Messiah because he’s their strongest argument that capitalism can save the world. A billionaire Pentagon contractor is their strongest argument that capitalism can save the world.
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The English language has many words for insanity. Probably for the same reason people who live way up north have many words for snow.
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136 responses to “Fake Political Parties In A Fake Democracy: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”
Chomsky supports supply of weapons to Ukraine for defensive purposes:
“Should arms be provided to Ukraine to defend themselves? Well here, if you care about Ukrainians, what you will say [is] yes, they should, but calibrated so that these arms do not escalate the war and the threat against not only Ukraine but the entire world. So, yes, it makes sense to send arms for defence but with the qualification that you care about Ukrainians. Namely you don’t send arms in a way which will escalate the Russian attack and can lead of course easily to destruction of Ukraine.”
https://youtu.be/tFFlANZ7dA8?t=1036
More proof that Chomsky has lost his God-damned mind!
He also supports concentration camps for the unjabbed…so arming Nazis isn’t that far a leap, for him, apparently.
Chomsky’s views haven’t changed.
Good point, Chomsky has long been known to support Nazis…though it used to be simply in defense of their 1st Amendment rights …
But he also has along history of carrying water for the CIA, as well. He attacked Oliver Stone, for making the movie “JFK”. He used to falsely deride those seeking a first – REAL INVESTIGATION, of the events of September 11th, 2001, and how elements of the US and allied NeoCon Empire Governments made those events occur. He would call that “Conspiracy Theory” – and then LIE by claiming that there was nothing peer-reviewed or scientific to support the idea.
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Of course nothing could be further from the truth. In fact it’s the reports from Bazant, FEMA, and NIST that consistently fail peer review. https://youtu.be/k3eukIziFu4
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Richard Gage went out of his way to give Chomsky the evidence that he was (,to put it politely,) wrong. Did Chomsky ever announce and correct his errors? Nope. He just stopped talking about the issue, for fear that he’d be exposed as a CIA $hill and and a FRAUD.
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So there’s another trait that you two have in common – though you seem less inclined to STFU, perhaps because you don’t really care about being exposed as a FRAUD.
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The evidence for Chomsky being an allowed CIA $hill, who rigorously stays within the approved “Overton window”, or who avoids anything he says outside of it becoming common knowledge, is a small mountain. This is the guy whose (mostly borrowed) theories on Propaganda and “Manufacturing Consent” – strenuously avoids any mention- or acknowledgment- of OPERATION MOCKINGBIRD, and its successors. To him, CIA Propaganda in the newspaper, is just a result of corporate culture, hiring choices, unintentional blindness, and stenography. Meanwhile the reality that (US/NATO Ukraine war Propagandist) MSNBC/NBC correspondent Ken Dilanian is provably a CIA asset (if not an actual NOC field “Agent”), never crosses his lips.
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This is the same guy who $hilled for “former” CIA Director John Deutsch to keep his job as a higher-up, at MIT. He speaks glowingly about that Warcriminal, whose career went down in flames at Locke High School, in South Central LA, when it was publicly revealed that the CIA was involved in drug trafficking, as exposed by the late Gary Webb, in his now confirmed and vindicated, “Dark Alliance” series, in the San Jose Mercury News. When former LAPD Narcotics Detective Michael C. Ruppert got up and said the names of three such Operations, that he knew about – “AMADEUS, WATCHTOWER, and PEGASUS” – Deutsch became visibly nervous on camera…his hands suddenly moving a-mile-a-minute, and stumbling over his words. That’s the guy that Chomsky held up for praise – go ahead and look up the quotes… they’re all available on the web.
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Despite evidence of exposed CIA drug trafficking and Operations, going back the Vietnam War (evidence points back to the Agency’s founding, and beyond), has Chomsky ever addressed these issues? Alfred McCoy has… So has Peter Dale Scott… There are a long list of better academics and intellectuals, whose names the CIA would prefer that you never hear. Chomsky is no threat to them …in fact, he’s often an essential element of their Operations, and Information Warfare strategies…as we see here, and with you – “David Edwards”.
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Chomsky has long been a BLUDGEON which the US policy establishment uses against any who would dare speak up, or go outside of the approved “Overton Window”s. In the past, Michael Parenti was a much better academic choice. These days, Mark Crispin Miller has taken over that ‘0 fucks given’ truth-telling role.
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I recall once hearing Mike Ruppert respond admirably to the familiar Bromide and Bludgeon, “…well Noam Chomsky says…” – with the highly appropriate, “-Well who’s that!?!?! The risen Christ!?!?”
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It’s time for Chomsky to just STFU, and go away into his cognitive decline. His dottering old fool act – and unwarranted both-sides-ism is getting tiresome and unaffordable, in these present circumstances. One hopes that the US Disinformation Operations that both your and he are both clearly complementary parts, will go with him
I suppose you’re quoting Chomsky because you believe people on this site defer to his opinion, which I don’t know about except that I’m not such a person. I can’t make sense of your above Chomsky quote, I rather expect because it’s nonsensical. How you can arm someone to defend themselves in a nonescalatory fashion against an invasion they have no hope of defeating is beyond me, except I suppose being defeated isn’t escalating, and it’s all qualified by the requirement to “care about Ukrainians”, which apparently means prolonging their useless slaughter, which I don’t know is maybe extreme tough love of a sort I hope to never receive, but anyway I can’t help but infer from the way you cut and paste it that Chomsky’s babbling actually makes sense to you so perhaps you could explain it, or at least have a go, maybe with short easy words.
A Chinese propaganda short. Flyover Luzhao, population 4 million, making it aTier 3 or 4 city, not sure of the exact designations yet, but either way, it’s near the bottom of the list of central command’s Tier system totem pole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSq7M8OhUwQ
What stands out immediately is the superhighway network leading into the city and through it. This is nothing we are not aware of, we all know China has the most extensive superhighway network in the world, the most modern by far, and arguably the one with best overall quality, although Germany of the Autobahns might hotly dispute this claim.
I will say this though Germany, after hearing over and over again over the years from ex-pat China vloggers, that one of things that stand out for them about living in China is, you never see a pothole, a claim that struck me as absurd, but now that I have 70 or 80 hours in traveling on, beside, or above China’s road networks, I can confirm. Potholes have been banned by Beijing Command and Control.
But this doesn’t interest me. What does interest me, is green spaces, and that’s the second thing that stands out in this flyover. This city, like most of the others I’ve had privilege to virtually visit in China, seems to be one-thirds green, and one-third vertical structures of one sort or another, and one-third walkable neighorhoods.
And you know there are walkable neighborhoods – and extra-wide bike lanes – everywhere down below, because China studied the Dutch model on how to bring more freedom of choice to it’s citizens as far as transportation options go, and then went about implementing a similar central plan but one that had … you guessed it, Chinese characteristics.
Which basically means creating extra layered multiples of inner-city parks. Big parks, medium parks, mini parks, parks of all shapes and varieties, all connected by parkways, of the green kind.
So now we should all know in the US what we will be up against should we take on China next, China’s ability to blow us away on the propaganda front should they choose to do so, because all they have to do is point out some obvious truths, that they are already a great civilization on a meteoric rise, while the US is fast on their way to becoming a shithole backwater nation-state without a clue,* with a government that no longer gives a fuck about anything other than maintaining the neo-liberal status quo for it’s generous globetrotting patrons.
*Albeit one with nukes.
China’s elite has embarrassed the western elite with what they provide to their ‘little people’, their ‘peasants’. This is a major reason why the ungenerous western elite want to control the Chinese leadership. I have no doubt in my mind that the ‘peasants’ of the west would be much further behind today with consumer items and particularly electronic goods, if they (we) didn’t have the national rivalry in standard of living pressures from China’s unmatched modernization growth and lifting its people out of poverty. The western elite hate that China makes them look second rate as far as the average citizens standard of living goes. The MOB bosses of the west aren’t used to people that aren’t intimidated into a protection racket by them.
Owen Jones tweeted that “Chomsky supports arming Ukraine”. This was just a few hours ago (after he posted a clip of his long interview with Chomsky). He also tweets: “I made it repeatedly clear that Ukraine’s government and its people want arms – and Chomsky himself supports arming Ukraine, with the caveat that the extent doesn’t lead to nuclear escalation.”
Of course, you need to see the whole video to put this in the context of Chomsky’s scathing critique of western propaganda.
People here need to stop justifying Putin’s brutal war.
The following is from an article by John Pilger posted on Feb 17th David:
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Setting aside the manoeuvres and cynicism of geopolitics, whomever the players, this historical memory is the driving force behind Russia’s respect-seeking, self-protective security proposals, which were published in Moscow in the week the UN voted 130-2 to outlaw Nazism. They are:
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– NATO guarantees that it will not deploy missiles in nations bordering Russia. (They are already in place from Slovenia to Romania, with Poland to follow)
– NATO to stop military and naval exercises in nations and seas bordering Russia.
– Ukraine will not become a member of NATO.
– the West and Russia to sign a binding East-West security pact.
– the landmark treaty between the US and Russia covering intermediate-range nuclear weapons to be restored. (The US abandoned it in 2019)
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These amount to a comprehensive draft of a peace plan for all of post-war Europe and ought to be welcomed in the West…..
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If I remember correctly, the proposals were passed on to the US Embassy on December 16th. Oh, right, but it was all a ruse of course, eh, so as to divert everyone away from his – Putin’s – REAL plans – ie to conquer the whole world!
The following article in the Guardian by Ted Galen Carpenter was published on Feb 28th (here’s the headline and the sub-headline and the first paragraph):
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‘Many predicted Nato expansion would lead to war. Those warnings were ignored’
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It has long been clear that Nato expansion would lead to tragedy. We are now paying the price for the US’s arrogance
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Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine is an act of aggression that will make already worrisome tensions between Nato and Moscow even more dangerous. The west’s new cold war with Russia has turned hot. Vladimir Putin bears primary responsibility for this latest development, but Nato’s arrogant, tone‐deaf policy toward Russia over the past quarter‐century deserves a large share as well. Analysts committed to a US foreign policy of realism and restraint have warned for more than a quarter‐century that continuing to expand the most powerful military alliance in history toward another major power would not end well. The war in Ukraine provides definitive confirmation that it did not.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/nato-expansion-war-russia-ukraine
You clearly have not done any serious research. Russia is defending civilians in East Ukraine. THIS is by legal definition self defence. Russia is right and will win.
You need to write up this frother, who is unfortunately the PM of Poland-
“Russia’s monstrous ideology must be defeated” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/05/10/russias-monstrous-ideology-must-defeated/ (behind a paywall but you can access it with control-P immediately on load)
“Just as Germany was once subject to denazication, today the only chance for Russia and the civilised world is “deputinisation”. If we do not engage in this task immediately, we will not only lose Ukraine, we will lose our soul and our freedom and sovereignty, as well. Because Russia will not stop at Kyiv. She has set out on a long march towards the West and it’s up to us to decide where we stop her.”
Possibly the most outlandish bit is “Putin has built a new Russian imperialism based on a myth of the victory over Nazism”, which is fairly brain melting since the Russians actually ejected the Nazis from this guy’s actual country in a completely nonmythical fashion, and just to reiterate, this is the Prime Fucking Minister of Poland, who is either a lunatic or playing one.
OK, one more- “The rebirth of Europe was possible on one condition. It was necessary to build a system in which war and totalitarianism would never again be possible.” Oh yeah, after WW II the white folks got right out of the war/dictatorship business. I’m tempted to pony up just to see the comments. Prime Fucking Minister of Poland right there.
The same article minus the paywall, in case control-P doesn’t work for you:
https://archive.ph/UwctA
I agree with Chomsky that negotiation is the avenue to pursue. I also agree with Chomsky that Putin’s invasion is a war crime, just as Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq was a war crime, and that there’s no justification or extenuation for either. People here need to stop justifying Putin’s brutal war.
Justifying something is not the same as explaining why something happened David. And you know it. The US and the UK et al invaded Iraq based on lies and fabrication, whereas Putin invaded Ukraine because Biden/NATO refused to address his concerns about NATO’s eastward expansion. You selectively quote Noam Chomsky, but he ALSO said the following (in an interview with Jeremy Scahill posted on April 14th):
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We can, however, look at the United States and we can see that our explicit policy — explicit — is rejection of any form of negotiations. The explicit policy goes way back, but it was given a definitive form in September 2021 in the September 1 joint policy statement that was then reiterated and expanded in the November 10 charter of agreement.
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And if you look at what it says, it basically says no negotiations. What it says is it calls for Ukraine to move towards what they called an enhanced program for entering NATO, which kills negotiations…..
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https://theintercept.com/2022/04/14/russia-ukraine-noam-chomsky-jeremy-scahill/
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And just three days ago, Caitlin posted an article about the threat to Zelenskiy’s life if he were to address Putin’s proposals, which I assume you read.
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The reality is that Biden and his NATO allies deliberately provoked Putin into taking military action, and did so, so that they could then start the process of destroying Russia’s economy with endless sanctions. In other words, they had no intention of addressing Putin’s concerns and, as such, were NEVER going to negotiate. And they made THAT crystal clear to the Russians – and deliberately so of course – by doing what they did in September and November last year (which Noam Chomsky cites in the above passage).
PS What Noam Chomsky was saying in effect is that a negotiated settlement (that addresses Russia’s concerns) would be the obvious solution to bringing the conflict to an end, BUT, then points out that the US and NATO had made it clear to Putin that they WEREN’T going to negotiate, and it was of course shortly after that, that a hundred thousand plus Russian troops were stationed near the Ukrainian border, and he – Putin – gave Biden and Co around ten weeks to change their minds before finally taking military action and invading.
You say you are just “explaining” Putin’s invasion, not justifying it. But you also say US/NATO “provoked” Putin into invading, which is obviously justification (whatever you want to call it). I wasn’t “selectively” quoting Chomsky when I pointed out that he said Putin’s invasion is a war crime with no justification and no extenuation. No amount of recontextualising amid his harsh (and quite correct) criticism of US policy is going to change Chomsky’s meaning on that. To repeat, people here need to stop justifying Putin’s brutal war of aggression.
Oh, right, so Caitlin, and people who post on this site aren’t allowed to point out that the reason Putin invaded Ukraine is because Biden and his NATO allies deliberately refused to address Russia’s security concerns. Yeah, well I guess the last thing the PTB want is too many people learning that they refused to negotiate and prevent a military conflict
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And you WERE being selective, because what you did is omit the point that Chomsky was actually making.
The US and Co had to concoct Big Lies so as to ‘justify’ invading Iraq, whereas the reason Putin invaded Ukraine was because of the immanent threat of having NATO right on Russia’s doorstep.
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What you’re saying in effect is that Russia shouldn’t be bothered about having NATO right on its doorstep, and do so knowing damn well how the US would react if it was the other way round… you know, like with Cuba.
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You are just playing silly games, and either you’re a shill, or you’ve been brainwashed by the MSM! And I don’t think it’s the latter!!
The “selective quoting” BS you keep repeating implies Chomsky’s precise meaning in what I quoted varies with context. But it doesn’t – it was self-contained. Totally REGARDLESS of whatever US did, Chomsky states that Putin’s invasion is a war crime, unjustified, with “no extenuation” (ie no extenuating circumstances). People here need to stop justifying Putin’s brutal war.
you cherrypick quotes to push propaganda. nobody is impressed with your sophistry but you.
To be fair, I think “We should try to avoid nuclear war” is still an uncontroversial position. What’s controversial is “Aid to a country under attack is akin to wanting nuclear war”.
Aid to accomplish what, dumbass? There is zero probability of Ukraine beating Russia without direct outside military intervention, which like as not means nuclear war. In the meantime, all your aid does is kill more people who don’t have to die. What part of this do you not understand? And trying to equate Bush’s invasion of Iraq with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is ridiculous. Bush went halfway around the world and killed hundreds of thousands of people for completely fabricated reasons, while Russia crossed its own border to 1) stop ongoing shelling which had killed 14,000 people and 2) neutralize an imminent threat to Russia and ethnic Russians. And Russia has caused maybe 1% of Bush’s civilian body count. Are you too stupid to see this?
Hurl insults at me all you want. Critique and deconconstruct western “aid” all you want. But don’t claim such aid is akin to “wanting nuclear war” – which is the bizarre logic being thrown around here.
You say “bizarre logic” like it’s a contradiction. Like I’ve been saying:
“My idle conspiracy musing is that the nuclear genie is coming out of the bottle in the Middle East, particularly with Iran, and Israel needs a nuclear sea change. They need nukes reintroduced into active warfare, and it needs to be done by somebody besides them. I think they’re setting up Putin to use at least tactical nukes, which will free up the Israelis to nuke Iran, or credibly threaten to. Israel isn’t going to let go of nuclear hegemony, and there seems no other way to keep it than an all or nothing play like this. I think they equate loss of nuclear hegemony with their destruction, not implausibly, and are willing to risk the destruction of everyone else to prevent it.”
*deconstruct
and by “aid to a country under attack” you mean putting nukes on Russia’s border after instigating a coup in that country so you could put nukes on Russia’s border.
That’s false, obviously. Why are you disseminating factually false claims? Are you so insecure in your arguments?
Zelensky specifically said that he wanted to get his hands on nukes which was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Putin. A country right on his border that ostentatiously brags of hating Russia, wants to join the anti-Russian alliance of Nato, and, to cap it off, claims to want nukes, even as his country, with strong Nazi ties dating back to WWII, was already was engaged in an 8-year genocidal war against ethnic Russians in the Donbas region was a bridge too far for Putin. This constellation of facts strongly supported by the United States was an existential threat to Russia which Putin or any national leader could no abide. He entered Ukraine with his army to protect the Russians in the Donbas and to defange the murderous Ukraine army, which had already killed 14,000 innocents, along with the Nazi factions with strong institutional support in the Ukie government. Mr. Edwards, I think YOU should be the one to cease dispensing such egregious disinformation which clearly emanates from the Russophobic warmongering neocons in the US government and a conspicuously senile old man totally unfit to occupy the White House. A hateful and irrational loose cannon like Biden is a danger to the future of the entire world.
It’s easy to characterize things that way…if you completely turn your brain off, ignore the history of the last 30+ years, and the reasons that the US/NATO deliberately provided to Russia, to draw them into their Special Operation, to De-Militarize and De-Nazify their neighbor to the West.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-imperialism-proxy-war-russia-ukraine/5775598
Unlike the ATTACKS by the US/NATO against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria – the goal of Russia is clearly something other than “Regime Change” or taking and then controlling territory. Preventing NATO Nukes and ABM’s right on their border is the first and highest consideration for them.
Protection for Ethnic Russians in the Donbass, per the Minsk2 accords – is also a concern – but obviously not their primary concern, since they waited 8 years to decisively end the attempts at Genocide, by Kiev, and their Galician/Carpathian Nazi Goon squads.
Maintaining control of the Strategic warm water port, and Crimean peninsula, is also a consideration, though Russia has always had a Naval base, and strong presence there. But the CIA’s Puppet-regime in Kiev has never accepted the decision by an overwhelming majority of Crimeans to rejoin Russia, in 2014 – and recently they began indicating an intent to retake Crimea. Plans found on a NATO Laptop appear to indicate that the Zelensky Regime was scheduling that offensive, and a simultaneous assault in the DPR and LPR, for March of this year – perhaps as a backup plan, to start this conflict, if Russia couldn’t have been goaded into launching their incursion into Ukraine in February – as the US kept insisting would happen. Meanwhile, Russian troop buildups on the Border – corresponded to a Ukrainian build up near the Donbass – and a massive and unprecedented increase in their violations of the ceasefires there. Of course those have been nearly continuous for the past 8 years – despite their promises to the contrary, at Minsk. But the level and intensity is the issue. At some point Russia had to act…and this provided a perfectly legal justification, under the UN Charter.
Enjoy your well deserved break, Caitlin and Tim.
An appropriate piece for “Daily writings on the end of illusions”
We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die
WH Auden
excerpt from
The Age of Anxiety : A Baroque Eclogue
1947
Brian Becker interviews Tings Chak, for anyone interested in Socialism, the alleviation of poverty, WWIII and its avoidance, or the next nation up on the US hit list, China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Fb5KWg7ZU
Brian Becker understands the role ANTI-BALLISTIC MISSILES play in the modern nuclear battlespace. I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to run into someone who understands the kindergarten basics of WWIII as it will play out in this century. It is the rarest thing I’ve known.
And I am talking fucking kindergarten, not 1st grade. You could teach the concepts of nuclear war to 4 years olds using CRAYONS.
Suzy with her red first strike crayons launches a surprise attack on Tommy who has the blue counter-strike crayons. Tommy is napping and Suzy’s red first strike crayons eliminate most of Tommy’s blues. Tommy wakes up and launches all the blue crayons he has left, payback for turning his desk into a red and blue mess, but Suzy intercepts these counter-strike crayons before they can reach the midpoint between their two desks, with some yellow AMB interceptor crayons she has cleverly placed next to Tommy’s seat when he was sleeping.
If Suzy had stationed her yellow crayons next to her own desk, thinking she could stop Tommy’s counter-strike blues from turning her own desk into a red and blue mess, she would have been mistaken, because once Tommy’s surviving blue crayons reached the midpoint between their seats, they would start to descend ….
AT MACH FUCKING 25.
Sorry for the caps, but I’m getting tired of this “why is Vlad in the Ukriane” horseshit back and forth. He is there for one reason, to stop the United States from positioning ABM systems withing “boost phase intercept range” of Russia’s counter-strike arsenal.
All the other honorable mentions, like taking out the bio-labs, understanding full well that Urkaine forces in the Donbass are preparing for an attack, eliminating the Nazi presence in Ukraine once and for all, are all valid, but only represent the timing of the Russian invasion. Which was LATE.
Vlad the Putterer dilly dallied much too long in my opinion, and the fact that he is still alive tells me everything I need to know the Russian Federation’s willingness to humiliate themselves to nth degree in order to stay in the Western globalists good graces.
And by drawing his “final line” in the Ukraine, what did Vlad the Hesitant think would happen, other than an existential fight for Russia’s survival would commence centered in the bloody Urkaine, which the West clearly could give two shits about, and will happily to sacrifice it all for greater glory of the neo-liberal cause.
Our host is right. It’ll be China’s turn next. If we survive this one that is. And just so everyone knows, the US has China surrounded – to a much greater degree than we do Russia – with those all important AMB yellows, and China’s blue counter-strike crayons are nowhere near as plentiful as Russia’s vast blue arsenal.
Which means Suzy’s red first strike crayons and yellow AMB crayons are sittin’ pretty vis a vis not only Tommy, but China as well.
Of course, I could be wrong. Perhaps an a greater threat to the Russian Federation in Ukraine , even more than having advanced US ABM systems stationed there, was bio-weapons. Which calls into question Vlad the Ditherers hesitation in launching a preemintive invasion even further.
Is this bullshit propaganda. Could be. Looks neat and tidy though, and I also know it runs counter to the narrative I am being told by my government, a government that just last week informed me that many of the narratives they have been putting forward, are total and complete lies.
http://thesaker.is/briefing-analysis-of-documents-related-to-the-military-biological-activities-of-the-united-states-on-the-territory-of-ukraine-may-11-2022/
In the age of nuclear weapons, it is nearly impossible to defeat an equally armed opponent using high explosives no matter what their megatonnage. MAD prevents victories, in other words. That’s why biological weapons have long been the holy grail of certain sectors of the military establishments, because they do allow total war planners, and there have been many tens of thousands of those over the years, on all sides, ways in to develop scenarios in which glorious victories can be achieved against peer rivals that are armed to the teeth.
A deadly virus that kills only the Han. A plague that targets only the Slav. And so on.
“This is madness Spock. Who would think of such things, to plan to win wars in such unethical ways?”
“Such planning may be unethical Captain, but it is logical.”
Is this “release” the tip of the ice berg? I for one believe it is, based mainly on my human half, which allows for good old gut instinct, and MY gut is telling me the epic hysteria we are seeing daily in the West has nothing to do with bringing freedom to the brave and hardpressed people of Ukraine, and everything to with something else.
Something far less noble, and quite possibly unimaginably evil.
Shee-it, these amoral psychopaths not only hope the fight is to the last Ukrainian and the last Russian but the last of PCR’s insouciant Americans as well. Only those with the proper implanted chip and password will be given safe harbor behind the blast doors, or maybe in a bunker on the friggin’ Moon.
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Do not assume that the instigators of all this are native to this planet. Laugh your asses off if you like, but millions of us disposable humans have encountered these interlopers–while fully awake, lucid, and in the company of others, not having some bizarre dream on metoprolol. No, they didn’t tell me what they have planned, whether to save or destroy us, but they do exist and, I suspect, have infiltrated the highest offices around the world. I know, you will doubt their reality until you experience them in quite real space and time, whereupon you will simply “know” they are real and they are here, even though you cannot convince any of your mesmerized fellow humans who are programmed not to accept your word. Most anyone would resist being told that reality is not at all what you were taught. I suspect all this will change “soon,” and, for better or worse, we will all finally be working from the same data set. Of course, that may be just an unwarranted hope on my part.
A virus or bacterium killing only one race is virtually impossible; such a thing unable to mutate and kill everyone even more so. (There isn’t a single genetic marker possessed by just one race but absent in others, and such genetic markers of race as exist are only variants of genes we all have.)
A pathogen to which one side has a vaccine would be feasible, but deploying the vaccine on a large scale would almost certainly be noticed.
“Virtually impossible?” Left some wriggle room there I think, which is where the developers of bio-weapons tend to operate?
Doggedly, determinedly, remorsely.
That said, my point is that at least some of the madness we are seeing in the West may be do in part to the fact that the Russians have the goods.
Captured them in a swift and brilliant coup de main! Well done Vlad the Nimble! Lmao …
And now apparently, the Russians are starting to release some of the captured bio-evidence, and this could result in the raising of the heat in a cauldron orders of magnitude larger than the one in the Donbass.
Who is in control of this Big Cauldron at the moment is of course, open to debate.
By virtually impossible I meant effectively so. Sort of theoretically possible, as in one could conceivably design such a pathogen on paper, but way beyond any existing or foreseen technology. And even if such a thing were somehow designed, there’d be nothing to stop it mutating and attacking other races.
Of course, political and military leaders don’t understand viruses or genetics, and may well fantasise about just such a weapon, but anyone with the relevant skills would immediately point out the utter impracticality of such a project. It’s pure science fiction, like freezing dead humans to be resurrected years later.
And I do realise it wasn’t your main point!
Reply to Svay:
Still, 30 foreign funded bio-weapons’ labs, or whatever the number is at the moment, is a lot for a poor, corrupt and Nazi infested country that just happens to border Russia. It suggests to me that someone had a keen interest in developing a war winning wonder weapon in the “theater of operations” where the were most likely to used.
Keep the nastiness as far away as possible after deploying the bio-weapon, whatever it turns out to be, might be the rationale of the project’s leadership. Allow time to put on the metaphorical gas masks, before the fickle winds inevitably carry the deadly toxins toward your own positions.
Lmao … It is going to get interesting, whatever this all about. One thing I do know, is the Russians seem to have a “case of the slows” when it comes to disseminating information in that might aid them in digging their way out of the propaganda shitstorms that are continuously burying them.
Every day I feel like I’m watching a rerun of a lightening fast hare running circles around Vlad the Turtle.
Although the turtle did end up winning in the old fable, if I’m not mistaken.
Vlad the Slow but Inexorable!
I guess it’s hard for Russian (counter-)propaganda to hit the mark, with Sputnik and RT widely censored, and anything they do say getting twisted and misrepresented, but Lavrov & co do seem to put their foot in it about as often as they make a convincing case. It probably comes from decades of seeing themselves as under attack, not realising that many in the West, including its leaders, see the situation exactly the opposite way, with the West being under attack. It’s all very well saying this is hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance and so on; if Westerners see things that way, a few facts here and there about Minsk accords, ABM treaties and Azov style Nazis aren’t likely to change their minds, especially if these facts are clumsily presented.
Clumsy presentations are your forté – not Lavrov or the Russian Government’s.
The BioWeapons Labs, and the evidence regarding them are REAL. There is nothing clumsy, in the way that the Russian Federation is presenting the evidence.
The NeoCons and Foreign Policy establishment are crystal clear in their statements – Russia (and China) are impediments to our goals for Global Monopolar Hegemonic Empire, and we’re not going at them because we’re afraid. Huntingdon, Fukuyama, and Brzezinski laid out the strategic plans back in the early 1990’s. Cheney followed on with “the Wolfowitz Doctrine”, and PNAC plans for Empire. Brzezinski laid out the goal of splitting Russia away from Europe, by splitting Ukraine away from Russia, in “The Grand Chessboard”. The PNAC documents adopted and then expanded upon Zbig’s work. And in those, were calls for continued work on ethnically targeted BioWeapons…
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So there’s no reason for anyone to doubt anything that the Russians (and any truly independent and honest commentator) is saying about what’s been going on in Ukraine, or with NATO.
Politicians get mad and soldiers die. Those politicians wouldn’t like it if it was the other way around.
How can there be a Ministry of Truth without a Policy of Truth?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14i4LsFD8MuOKKEaomOp1Tig7jfVTs6Wmgv2yfRIijRY/edit?usp=drivesdk
TruPol?
“I remember feeling such solidarity with Democrats who opposed Bush’s warmongering. I sincerely did not know it was just empty political posturing for them and they’d happily sign off on any war no matter how insane as long as the president doing it had a (D) next to their name.”
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Ah, yes. Simpler times when we all laughed along with Stephanie Miller, Al Franken and Randi Rhodes as they lampooned those nefarious war-mongering Republicans on the wireless! Dubya’s eight years of malpractice ensured that we’d get radical change. So we passed on the she-demon and (presumably) elected the black community organizer who in the end essentially escalated the warmongering all the way to a new cold war versus Russia(!), and now we have a potentially multi-trillion dollar hot one in the romantic land of Ukraine courtesy of his comatose former veep with the infamous capacity for limitless fuck-ups. Will the American people, I mean oligarchy, ever again elect, I mean designate, a POTUS who does NOT start a terrible new war during his tenure in office? It seems our country is now constitutively on a war footing with at least 7 or 8 different nations with active portfolios. Soon, both houses of Congress will create a passel of new standing committees dedicated individually to each conflict, while always on the look-out for expansion to fresh venues, because “war is a growth industry” don’tcha know?
War is can only be a growth industry if you lose a majority of them. In fact I believe this is a mathematical law some kind? So those dastardly Russkies on the other side who are always tweaking my American nose by reminding me that my country is record wise, 1-5-1 in our last 7 wars, really don’t understand what we are up to over here.
And yet those warmongering American losers, destroying their own economy and political order in the bargain, continue to have such influence over the feeble-minded Caucasian (as in White) lemming states of the European appendage to the Asian super continent that Sweden and Finland feel absolutely duty-bound to have Russian nukes pointed at their industrial, military and population centers for the first time ever by formalising their vassalage to Nato.
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Even the first Cold War did not have such a contagious effect in the transmission of this psychopathy. Now, even brief exposure to the mental disorder originating in Eukrayina (rhymes with hyena) transmits the disease nearly 100% of the time.
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So far, only Hungarians seem to be resistant, though Eukrayina is trying hard to infect their minds by physically shutting off the valves to the natural gas they independently purchased from Russia with a long-term contract in Rubles.
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We haven’t seen this much scorched earth since the Marines had to burn the Japanese troops out of their foxholes with napalm and the Japanese civilians out of their cities with nukes as a crescendo to end WWII. Definitely a case of “if we can’t have it, no one can” infesting the exceptionals. It’s like Washington has assigned Azov minders to every formerly neutral Eurotrash country with orders to cap the national leaders if they don’t sign on with Nato. Finland may have as little choice as the human shields in Mariupol.
Meanwhile you’re a self-proclaimed anti-war activist who will sign on for any war so long as the president doing it is Russian.
The US started this war against Russia, officially, with the CIA’s NAZI COUP in 2014. They then escalated the aggression, by launching a Genocidal Civil War on the Donbass and ethnic Russians over 8 years. The Minsk2 accords, would have prevented all of this – if the US and UK hadn’t allowed the Kiev Coup-Government/Puppet Regime to fail to adhere to their commitments under them.
meanwhile you’re a shill who is willing to lie and smear anybody in the service of whatever the latest us propaganda campaign requires.
A lot of people on here “justifying” Putin’s brutal war – not a pretty site.
a couple of people on here pretending the US is just an innocent bystander instead of the main cause of that brutal war, maybe paid to do so, maybe innocent dupes.
Russia is “main cause” of war being waged by Russia.
When you see Russia using Hyperbaric weapons, napalm and white phosphorus against civilians, or carpet bombing Kiev and Lvov – THEN you can call this a war – of the sort that the US and NATO have been waging nonstop for 25 years.
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When they takeout the power grid, and bomb the water and sewage systems…then you can call it that… Until then you’re just deliberately misconstruing what’s occuring in Ukraine.
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False Flag massacres (Bucha), missile attacks and Cluster bombings on Easter Ukrainians, by Western Ukrainian Nazis, guided by CIA/NATO handlers, aside – the Russians are doing an amazing job of keeping civilian casualties exceedingly low. And that’s actually causing them to suffer greater losses, and slowing down their progress.
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The Azov and Aidar Nazis are holding civilians hostage, as human shields – refusing to allow civilians to use humanitarian corridors, and setting up their firing positions in heavily populated civilian areas. These are all Warcrimes – that stooges like yourself appear willing to overlook…just like you’re willing to overlook the abuse, torture and murder of captured Russian soldiers. By comparison, Ukrainians and even some foreign mercenaries (UK) appear to be treated well by their Russian captors.
The US kills civilians to combatants at ratios of anywhere from 1:1 to 10:1. The Russians are going in the complete opposite direction, at 1:10, using precision munitions, and a tonne of patience. The only reason that people like yourself can feign ignorance of these facts – is because of the pervasive censorship, and suppression of well informed analysts in the West – people like Scott Ritter. And then you have the steady diet of bullshit being fed to you by the CIA’s Disinformation Operations.
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https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/05/12/army-of-secret-propagandists-in-ukraine-funded-by-u-s-to-win-western-hearts-and-minds-for-nato-policies/
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https://www.mintpressnews.com/ukraine-propaganda-war-international-pr-firms-dc-lobbyists-cia-cutouts/280012/
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Where is all this concern for human rights, and international law – when it comes to Yemen, or Syria, or Palestine?
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https://www.mintpressnews.com/ukraine-russia-war-media-bias-study/279847/
The first one’s true; so is the second – and the third and the fourth and …oh hell, they all are.
Weapons or Dialog?
I’m with Chomsky on this.
Dialog, even if it means backing Trump.
All of the fake concern about human rights by Biden means nothing in a post-nuclear holocaust world.
The Democrats already burned their bridges before they crossed them by demonizing Trump as Putin’s Puppet, so they have no freedom to pursue dialog without stepping into the demonizing trap that they set for Trump but walked into themselves.
Scare the shit out of the Democrats. Trump 2024 (If we are still alive by then)
Trump IS Putin’s puppet. And human rights also cease to mean anything if Russia is allowed to commit genocide with impunity simply because they make empty threats of using nukes if they’re stopped.
“We would rather be ruined than changed.”–W.H. Auden
Citations needed…so we can all figure out who filled your ears with CIA/Ukrainian NAZI COUP REGIME Bullshit, so thoroughly, that no better information or analysis could make its way in…
The problem with that is, Biden may have fake concern about human rights, but Trump has no concern for human rights.
The thing that continues to perplex me is why seeming intelligent people believe a conman like Trump would fix things? What ever Trump has to do to enrich and aggrandize himself he will do.
Invade Venezuela? Launch missiles into Mexico to get drug cartels? Have the US army shoot protesters?
nice post thank you for giving me good knowledge
The Ass and the Elephant – As symbols of puppet parties of the same masters, they’re perfect. Vote for Dems, then you’re an ass. Vote for the GOP, then you’re a dumbo. A perfect false dichotomy.
Where do dumbasses fit in?
swing voters of course
You are on the right track. This is The United States of Israel. Look at the composition of Bidens cabinet.
The whole “war on terror” of 20+ years was the expansion of the Israel’s “shadow war” on its neighbors, paid by the petrodollar.
Like you said, I googled who in the Biden’s cabinet – no doubt it represents “the global finance”.
Professor Michael Hudson on giving lectures in China at the various universities he teaches at; “I have a fairly large audience of about 65,000 students per lecture … ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlUSqQ8U8T8
Lmao … Public banking for the commons (MMT), what a concept. China learned it quite some time ago, and stupid ass Russia and their “former” neo-liberal President Vlad the Reluctant are being made to learn it against their will.
Thanks to the US, Russia will become a proud, powerful and independent nation whether Russia’s neo-liberals like it or not.
15 years ago I was writing that the US and Europe are helpless vis a vis China, because a nation-nation state that is functioning as a nation-state, like China, with its own state banks, corporations and oil companies, versus a bunch of privatized entities who have dispensed with their sovereignty, means China is a lion in a slaughter pen with lambs.
That was more than a decade ago, before China began to really hit their stride. The relationship is more like this now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttDMlkK2nUg
Neo-liberalism is by definition, treason, and not just against the nation in which you reside, but against all life forms.
Shanghai, the (currently in lockdown) Rome of the modern world. A walk through a magnificent riverside park on the backside of the city that was a rice paddy 20 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBFfZFvCU3g
Damn, can the Chinese ever pour concrete. It’s not the quanity that is impressive, we all know China pours more concrete every two years than the United States has in its entire existence, it’s the quality, variety, and artistry of the pours that trips me out.
There must be 10 million Chinese citizens walking around with the hard earned title, Master Concrete Artist, First Class.
Is concrete pouring good for the overall health of our biosphere? Hell no, but hopefully China has a 50 year plan for those type of existential type problems, because no one else does.
Note: I admit, the American competitor in me wants to see my nation take on China in a fair fight. No nukes, no blowing up the Three Gorges Dam America, no asymmetrical cyberwar bullshit China. Just go at each other on the sanctions and trade barrier fronts. Also, let’s see if my side’s much ballyhooed private financial engineers can beat into submission those self-sacrificing public banking dandies they have over there in China.
It would be interesting, although I for one believe the economy of my country will be teetering on the brink of disaster within three months of the opening of hostilities, but I could be wrong.
My economy might find itself shattered within a matter of weeks, and lying in ruins before a year is up.
But you never know. Maybe the Fed/Wall Street Complex, which will be put in charge of the fighting, is more resilient than I believe them to be. But I doubt it. The Voodoo Comlex is not even a House of Cards, it’s a wobbly Jenga tower in that moment just before … the obvious last pull.
Which is ironic in so many ways, because modern day China is in no small part, a creation of the Fed/Wall Street Complex.
For a long time, China was their 3rd world shithole plaything, and the relationship would remain that way forever. Or so they thought.
Someone down there in Mariupol is disobeying Putin’s orders, to stand off and “starve the rats of Azovostal into submission” or whatever he said. You can hear small arms fire in the background. Probably the Chechnyans engaging. They seems to do what pleases them in the moment, which seems to be mostly to kill Nazis, orders be damned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3sE40hJZJA
Interesting how Russia fought two brutal wars against Chechnya and come out of it with some hardcore allies. Still not sure how that came about.
As much I hate to give Vlad the Underestimated credit for this development, however partial, I must.
Finally, some justice!
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3483700-bill-gates-tests-positive-for-covid-19/
Big Deal, Omicron is like having a mild version of the flu. Considering all the harm that Bill Gates has done, that is hardly justice.
Covid was never anything other than the flu. Those who can think for themselves knew it all along. Yea, covid kills, so does the flu. People have no sense of perspective. They spook like herd animals.
“Here’s the problem. We can’t even agree what disinformation is. You can’t even agree that it was disinformation that the Russians fed information to the Steele dossier. If you can’t agree to that, how are we ever going to come to an agreement on what is disinformation so you can police it on social media?…I think you’ve got no idea what disinformation is, and I don’t think the government is capable of it. Do you know who the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world is?—the U.S. government…”
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bravo Rand Paul
https://youtu.be/hC4m-oxSVSw
Simpke, disinformation is anything you dont agree with.
Only Paul or Tulsi Gabbard might actually try to shake things up in government. There are no others with guts or integrity anywhere on the horizon. Anyone else from “either” party will be nothing but a Hillary or a Biden clone–warmongering puppets of the insider elites. The one change they will make is to finally pick someone younger than the fossil presently in office–unless rule by centenarians is the ultimate goal. Of course, they would face a stone wall more formidable than what was needed to intimidate and block Trump from accomplishing a single thing. They might even be taken out like JFK if they pressed the issue. With custom-engineered pathogens, the lethal agent does not have to be a bullet, or that phony novichuk that the CIA dispenses.
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But, yeah, I am so up for a feisty president willing to abide by the constitution and pursue the interests of the citizenry. Shoot, at 75 I may not see that many more presidents… and at a year older than that, Trump is past his shelf life just as much as Biden.
Caitlin is absolutely correct that the Democratic Party and the Republican are two sides of the same coin, or put differently one scratches the back of the other.
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First I would like to plug a book that I think everyone in the world should read, and read this week, because this book more than any I have ever read, pulls the wool from the eyes and let’s us see that the corruption that we are witnessing in the United States today has existed since at least 1896. It also demonstrates how it is that both the Democrats and the Republicans have always colluded when it comes to getting the United States into war. It is because it distracts the people from noticing failed domestic policy and the freedoms that have been systematically taken away from them.
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The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American Republic, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/297583.The_Politics_of_War
Who ever gave this book anything other than a five star rating must be an oligarch.
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The United States got into the Spanish American War because the public was sufficiently propagandized to believe that the Spanish were mercilessly killing and raping Cubans, when in fact the Spanish were offering humanitarian aid. The United States acquired as a result of that war, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines.
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Prior to Woodrow Wilson becoming President of the United States, running as a Democrat reformer, Robert Marion La Follette and his Republican Progressives had successfully routed the oligarchs, robber barons, Wall Street, from the Republican party and turned it back into the party of Lincoln that observed American freedoms.
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The United States got into World War I because the American public was sufficiently propagandize to believe that Germany was wantonly killing Americans on the high seas and violating international laws of war, when in fact the few Americans that were so killed on the high seas were knowingly traveling on English freighter ships carrying armaments to Britain from the United States that were to be used against the Germans and in fact it was the British that were violating international laws of war.
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What America lost as a result of that war is summarized by on paragraph from the book.
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By the time Wilson reached Paris in December 1918, political liberty had been snuffed out in America. “One by one the right of freedom of speech, the right of assembly, the right to petition, the right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the right against arbitrary arrest, the right to a fair trial…the principle that guilt is personal, the principle that punishment should bear some proportion to the offense, had been sacrificed and ignored.” So an eminent Harvard professor of law, Zechariah Chafee, reported in 1920. The war served merely as a pretext. Of that there can be little doubt. In a searing civil conflict that threatened the very survival of the republic, Americans under Lincoln, enjoyed every liberty that could possibly be spared. In a war safely fought three thousand miles from our shores, Americans, under Wilson, lost every liberty they could possibly be deprived of.
Under the Espionage act of June 1917, it became a felony punishable by twenty years’ imprisonment to say anything that might “postpone for a single moment,” as one federal judge put it, an American victory in the struggle for democracy.
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It was the Espionage Act of June 1917 that saw Eugene Debs imprisoned for 10 years along with countless others, including film makers. Ironically, this will also be the law used to try Julian Assange “when” he is extradited to the United States.
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So, since democracy has not existed in the United States for over 100 years. I have to ask every person serving in the United States armed services, since it is obvious that we aren’t fighting for democracy, what are we fighting for?
“Prior to Woodrow Wilson becoming President of the United States, running as a Democrat reformer, Robert Marion La Follette and his Republican Progressives had successfully routed the oligarchs, robber barons, Wall Street, from the Republican party and turned it back into the party of Lincoln that observed American freedoms.”
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What I wanted to further say here is that after the Democrats came to power in 1912, all the gains that the Republican Progressives had made under the leadership of La Follette, were undone by Wilson’s obsessive march to war which, saw the oligarchs/robber barons/industrial magnates, reclaim the Republican party and the progressives would never again rally to wrest control of that party away from the oligarchs to this day.
It’s interesting that the Spanish-American War was marketed as healing the wounds of the Civil War. Robert E. Lee’s son Fitzhugh was given a US General’s star, as were Joe Wheeler and other Confederate officers. The yellow press gushed over the grand spectacle of a new generation of American boys, northern and southern, fighting side by side against “Uncle Sam’s New N**gers” in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
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In 1934 the US Senate convened the Nye Committee, to investigate the role of bankers and weapons manufacturers in drawing the US into the World War. A resolution emerged to nationalize the American arms industry, so it could be run for the defense of the country rather than the profit of private stockholders. And if you guessed that senators of the Democratic Party killed the proposal, you would be correct.
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It should be remembered that when “the Democracy” was the party of the southern slaveholders, it pushed on their command for the endless continental expansion which morphed into the drive for global domination. Slaveholder extremists dreamed of a great empire of human misery that would run from the Mason-Dixon line to the southernmost tip of South America. Yankees did not want their flag so dishonored and fought to stop it, but within a generation the expansionist element was back in Washington and eager to make up for lost time. It’s not coincidence that the first southern-born president since the War for the Union abandoned the US tradition of not taking sides in Europe’s endless petty power struggles, with the disastrous results we still feel today.
Great writers and poets have known even hundreds if not thousands of years ago that your personal power is in knowing yourself.
If you are confused about your own identity and values, then your story turns into either a tragedy or comedy, depending how you deal with the confusion.
Distracting people with the donkey and elephant show, while putting so much effort for you to buy into one of their “priorities” or issues, in other words narratives, is meant to confuse a person and destroy his/her personal power.
I suggest everybody takes at least 5 minutes a day to laugh at both Democrats and Republicans; this is your only natural defense against their mind twisting stories.
I read the story of St. Patrick many times and cannot see any way that it applies to the Ukraine,/Russia/USA conflict, not from any logical angle. In fact St Patrick (was from Britain and) helped the British to convert Ireland to Christianity, and therefore assisted the Empire in conquering the Celtic tribes.
Bono should re-read the history of Ireland, and reconsider his cooperation with the British Empire and its freak baby the US Empire (somehow these 2 keep turning into each other).
And in other news…the $hit show continues.
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-war-machine-increase-lethal-military-aid-sending-suicide-drones-ukraine/5779360
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The US has taken sides… in the Terminator movie franchise. Tough luck for you, John Connor …
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And it should be mentioned that the US supports Nazis in Ukraine, because that’s been our covert policy, since at least the 1950’s, and the CIA’s Project AERODYNAMIC. 70+ Years of Nazi collaboration… If it ain’t broke … Why ‘smash the CIA into a thousand pieces’? It seems like Zelensky got the memo from Dallas.
“Still can’t believe US officials flat out admitted to the press that they’ve been circulating disinformation to the public about the Ukraine war and then like three weeks later it came out that the US government now has a Ministry of Truth for countering disinformation”.
Actually, it was tempting to call it a Ministry of Truth because that’s exactly what it is in Orwell’s conception but its real name is Disinformation Governance Board.
This doesn’t contain the notion that it’s going to counter disinformation. It says it’s going to “govern it”.
Wiktionary: “Governance: the specific system by which a political system is ruled”.
In my understanding, this board will govern (administer, control) the disinformation by which the US political system is ruled – to the advantage of its rulers. It will choose which lies are the most effective and best suited to what situation. This is the fundamental meaning of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth but it doesn’t collide with the fact that “US officials flat out admitted to the press that they’ve been circulating disinformation to the public about the Ukraine war”. On the contrary! It illustrates what they plan to do on a more scientific and systematic basis with people’s approval – and people will approve because this is intended to protect them from evil Russian disinformation (brrr…) and they can’t keep watch 24/7 what with the job, the wife, the kids, the bills, the World Series, the Saturday porn… – until former CIA director Bill Casey’s promise to Ronald Reagan is fulfilled: “Our mission will be complete when everything the American public believes is false”. And people will be happy with that! An American friend to whom I once pointed out that something she mentioned was American propaganda replied: “It may be American propaganda but I feel comfortable with it!” What else matters? Isn’t quality of life measured in terms of comfort?
Former CIA Directory Bill Casey: “Our mission will be complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
I forgot about that one.Thanks. I think it’s even better than Goebbel’s famous dictum, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
And if it’s not “better,” such things are hard to quantify, it’s certainly more comprehensive.
It’s complementary. Repeating big lies ad nauseam is part of the process :o)
This well-known quote was apparently first attributed to Goebbels in “Publications Relating to Various Aspects of Communism” produced by the US Congress’ House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1946. No reliable prior source has been located. It is probably a gaslighting of the “Big Lie” technique that Hitler described in Chapter Ten of Mein Kampf, where it is described as a tool used by Germany’s enemies, not, as is now generally believed, as a statement of his own intention. It may be based on what Goebbels wrote in his 1941 article “Churchill’s Lie factory”, in which he stated, “The English follow the principle that when one lies, it should be a big lie, and one should stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.” This analysis of the duplicitous English Prime Minister is substantively correct. At the 1934 Nuremberg Party Congress, Goebbels succinctly stated this eternal truth, “The cleverest trick used in propaganda against Germany during the [Great] war was to accuse Germany of what our enemies themselves were doing.”
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Today’s popular image of the Third Reich furnishes the most graphic illustration of the difference between history and what historians term “memory-history.” The former aims to present an accurate account of what actually happened (how else might we learn anything from it?), while the latter promotes an interpretation of past events that is tailored to harmonize with the psychological needs and political agendas of the powerful in the present.
Re: U2
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It get’s better. A recent and very, very bad poem by one Bono (and read in public by one Nancy Pelosi):
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Oh St. Patrick, he drove out the snakes
With his prayers, but that’s not all it takes
For the snake symbolizes
An evil that rises
And hides in your heart
As it breaks
And the evil has risen my friends
From the darkness that lives in some men
But in sorrow and fear
That’s when saints can appear
To drive out those old snakes once again
And they struggle for us to be free
From the psycho in this human family
Ireland’s sorrow and pain
Is now the Ukraine
And Saint Patrick’s name now Zelenskyy
–
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/nancy-pelosi-st-patricks-day-poem-bono-1323075/
He obviously didn’t catch what Pope Francis said last week about NATO ‘barking’ at Russia’s door!
But then MOST of the MSM omitted to mention THAT particular bit!
Bono probably took LSD to write this.
Sadly Bono probably believes every word he wrote. St Zelenskyy? Reading that almost triggered my gag reflex.
And Pelosi reading about driving out the evil, utterly clueless she is the evil that needs to be sent packing. That’s rich.
Caitlin isn’t the only voice on this.
American writer and veteran labor rights activist Bruce Gagnon. He explains the current U.S.-led NATO conflict against Russia in a historical context. U.S.-dominated Western capitalism is addicted to war as a modus operandi going back to its original genocidal conquest and foundations in slavery through its colonial wars and other wars of aggression over the past century and more. The current conflict playing out in Ukraine is but a continuum of class war against the workers of the United States and other Western states.
No, TJRICH, there are MANY ‘voices’, as I’m sure just about everyone who follows Caitlin knows.
With all due respect, that’s what he said.
If you were addressing me Pascal, I was actually agreeing with TJRICH, not disagreeing with him, and my ‘No’ was a ‘No, your right, there are many ‘voices’ etc.
Correction…. you’re right
Yes, no, absolutely – as increasing numbers of North Americans say these days.
As someone said on youtube recently:
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Cuban missile crisis started because USA placed nuclear weapons in Turkey first. USSR simply replied in kind.
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https://daily.jstor.org/us-nuclear-weapons-turkey-part-2/
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The U.S. weapons in Turkey were Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missiles. They had been positioned in Turkey in 1961. The Jupiters, writes the historian Barton J. Bernstein, were “liquid-fuel I.R.B.M.s, taking hours to fire, quite inaccurate, very vulnerable, and hence only useful for a first strike, and thus provocative.” Turkey and the old U.S.S.R. shared a border, so the Soviets were already in the position the Americans interpreted as hostile a couple of years later: an enemy’s nuclear weapons at their doorstep.
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The American public was largely kept out of the loop about this missiles-for-missiles diplomacy, conducted by the President, his brother Robert Kennedy, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk in parallel with the saber-rattling. It was the nerve-wracking brinksmanship at sea, wet eyeball to wet eyeball, not the backroom wheeling and dealing, that made the news.
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Then, as now, the vast majority of people believed the very opposite of the actual reality.
PS Because the vast majority of people didn’t know about the US weapons in Turkey in the FIRST place.
You nailed it, Allan. If the US would just stop being so friggin of the rest of the world.
oops friggin scared of the rest of the world
Only some of the brinkmanship at sea made the news at the time. The events on board the Soviet nuclear-armed submarine the B-59, and the actions of Vasily Arkhipov in preventing the launch of its nuclear torpedoes (which would almost certainly have provoked an all-out nuclear strike on the USSR by the USA), only came to light later, and still haven’t really made the news.
People march right into the Oval Orifice to tell POTUS Potato Head of the impending doom for humanity that his weaponization of Ukraine is going to lead to with 99.78% certainty. Potato Head’s response?
Translation of Potato’s recommendation on what action to take in the face of fast approaching, imminent doom:
“Sit on our asses.”
Caitlin said the following above, which she and many other independent thinkers have been saying since shortly after Russia invaded – ie that it’s a proxy war and that:
…. this is a confrontation that Russia has increasingly valid reasons to see as a direct existential threat.
The thing is that the PTB obviously keep a check on the narrative being disseminated on the left, and how effective it is. From the very outset the likes of Biden and Johnson and Stoltenberg were repeating on an almost daily basis that the invasion – the attack – was unprovoked and unjustified, and did so to counter what they knew the truth-tellers would be saying, and had in fact been saying for many years beforehand. Anyway, I just happened to come across the following article (posted on May 5th) whilst doing some research, and ‘they’ are obviously firing back against the truth-tellers even harder:
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Ukraine FM: Russian invasion ‘absolutely unprovoked,’ ‘attack against humanity’
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “absolutely unprovoked” and is an “attack against humanity,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Al Hadath in an interview which aired on Thursday.
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“The Russian war against Ukraine is absolutely unprovoked and unjustified. Even if Russia had any concerns with regards to NATO’s policy, these concerns should have been addressed at the negotiating table. Instead, Russia preferred war,” said Kuleba.
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“If anyone knocks on your door, you do not immediately fire back with the rifle killing that person. You first try to understand who is knocking and what does he want. Russia decided to fire and kill,” he added.
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https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/05/05/Ukraine-FM-Russian-invasion-absolutely-unprovoked-attack-against-humanity-
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When you’re churning out so much disinformation – all of which is concocted and designed to paint Putin and Russia in the worst possible light AND deceive and dupe tens, hundreds of millions of people – as Zelenskiy has been doing as well of course from the outset, then you are of course not only hiding the reality of the situation, but are directly responsible for it – responsible for all the death and destruction and devastation and carnage, all of which could so easily have been prevented.
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And the same goes for just about the whole of the MSM who, more than anyone else, could have prevented it from happening in the first place, and they are as responsible as anyone for all the death and destruction and horror, just as they have been on many occasions in the past.
Yes, Vladimir Putin suddenly thought to himself one day…. “Mmm, I think I’ll attack humanity and, now let me think… Yes!, that’s it, I’ll start with Ukraine’!
Do you live in fear of the coming apocalypse or are you sprinting toward it with gleeful abandon?
It’s time to send flowers to those mourning the loss of Earth.
Further delay will leave us with higher shipping costs.
Some like tomato and others like tomato; tomato, tomato.
I, however, triangulate and like potato…
Hello, another beautiful one. Whenever am moody just reading your article cheer me up…. Keep it up my darling.
“Democracy is when you get to vote on which oligarchic muppet will ceremonially pardon a turkey on Thanksgiving but not on whether your government should greatly escalate the risk of nuclear war.”
Got me again! Another belly laugh just before my ass gets vaporized, or should I take a trip tomorrow to one our coasts, swept up by a 500 foot tall wall of radioactive water.
Yeah, it’s nothing but Kabuki this point. Even Ana Kasparian sees it, and if Ana can see it, you would like to think everyone else can too.
A brilliant read. Thanks for it.
Some Russian propaganda via “multiple Latin American governments” for anyone interested. Apparently, the unprovoked attack on Mariopul was actually a liberation of some sort, according to “them.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z70V9biRzrY
Hey, we are CRUSHING the Russians on the propaganda front, so why not throw the poor bastards a bone. Right?
As for Latin America, we’ll deal with “them” later.
An indirect shout out from Jimmy Dore … (“18 months”).
I have to take back what I said about Ms. Kasparian, apparently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyWazeC9DNc
The blinders were put back on in less than 24 hours. A new flip flopping record.
Let’s hope Jimmy Dore finally gets over it because hearing that hysterical bitch spout the same contradictory stuff twice in a row just to boost Jimmy’s ego could get on normal people’s nerves and be interpreted as a waste of time if we’re not careful.
I agree. In my opinion, Jimmy is at his best when he just rips it out without pausing videos, stopping for the constant ill timed “comic” interruptions of his “guest,” and gets his main point across – which is usually good to excellent – without all the gloating.
Easy for me to say though. Outside of Bernie Sanders, no one has taken more shit from the Democratic Party Complex, nor done better journalism in the face of what is either deafening silence, or false accusations so grotesque they make me blush to be an American.
I would also be willing to bet even up, that no one has been fucked more by the YouTube algorithm than Jimmy Dore.
He is fearless, and he is indispensible, At least to me he is. If he goes, there will be little left if anything for me to root for.
Don’t misunderstand me: I love Jimmy Dore and I also think he’s doing a great job but in this case, his ego-motivated bis repetita non placent :o)
i like him more as a journalist than as a comic, tbh.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (a darling of US Republicans) lobbied Nato to have the Canadian Airforce bomb Libya and had his picture taken while standing next to a machine gun – you know to make him look tough. I knew then all was lost. Why was Nato bombing a country like Libya? Oh yeah, that’s right that’s what Obama and the Americans wanted.
Next up Trump!! LOL, that malcontent wasn’t busy enough stuffing his pockets at the expense of his idiot supporters. He had to throw cruise missiles into Syria and threaten to invade Venezuela.
Then comes Biden (a nothing burger) What is it about the US political system that it’s only 75 to 90-year-olds that keep getting elected?
To fix this a leader has to come in to halt all this garbage knowing that the elites will 1) make an attempt on his or her life and 2) make sure they lose the next election.
Whoever is willing to do that will have to do the usual lying to get elected and then do a 180 to really help solve this.
People confuse democracy with republics. Thrre are no democracies in the world, they are all republics. You vote in representatives who tell you lies then do what they want. The actual countries agenda are set by others through bribe, kickbacks and other perks of these corrupt representatives. The media is also bought off. If you are a representative who fights the system like Tulsi Gabbard with an anti war stance you are labeled and marginalized. Voting is a waste of time so stop.
Actually Switzerland has a direct democracy as well as a representative one. Citizens, under certain conditions, can call for referenda that may overturn parliamentary decisions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland#Direct_democracy
Of course this is brandished like a scarecrow by all other European countries whose politicians shout so loud “you don’t want this, morons!” that the average citizen, who doesn’t do too much thinking so that his heirs can get a good price for his brain when he dies because it’s hardly been used, thinks it’s a sin.
As for Sweet Tulsi, Killary actually saved her life when she ruined her campaign. Had she been elected, she would have been Dealey Plazza’ed by the CIA before you could say Jack Kennedy.
The Davos crowd is working overtime to destroy civilization. They must get paid by the hour:
Food factories and warehouses are exploding left and right
Fertilizer is inflating astronomically or outright evaporating from the market
Gas and diesel shortages are going critical
The global supply chain is being obliterated
US trains are cutting their car allocation for fertilizers right at the start of the planting season
Same with feed grain for livestock
Shanghai, one of the largest hubs for trade in the world has been shuttered
The abortion hornets’ nest has just been deliberately kicked field goal style with a steel toed boot
The promises of Klaus Schwab of the havoc that Cyber Polygon will bring grow ever nearer
Governments are recklessly and deliberately printing and destroying their currencies across the globe. The petro-dollar has just been dethroned and trillions will come rushing home as a result. Hyper-inflation is in the wind
Meanwhile, WWIII looms ominously on the horizon as NATO keeps deliberately escalating the war in Ukraine
Prepare accordingly.
Solutions at the bottom:
https://tritorch.com/fractured
War, disease and starvation. Perfect trifecta to reduce world population. These globalists are all eugenists. Accept that one fact and everything else makes sense.
I once read a quote attributed to Robert McNamara (I didn’t find it in Google but this was in the 60s and Google is not the universal archive): “Birth-control didn’t work. We’ll have to reduce the world population through famine, war and disease”.
When you think of Obama’s conception of peace (not even mentioning the other scoundrels), It looks pretty plausible…
There are many in the ‘truther’ community that think the elite are using the ‘Four Horseman of the Apocalypse’ and other some other biblical narratives (plague) for the purpose of De-population. War, disease and starvation fit the theme. I suppose it would suck in those with a mystical mindset. Trump representing the false savior/prophet.
If voting changed anything the establishment didn’t want changed, they wouldn’t let you do it.
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Establishment installed puppet pollies and political parties play good cop/bad cop on selected issues and then reverse roles on issues when required. Keeps voters hopeful that they have a say.
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Interestingly, major parties seem to be getting ridiculed by MSM more often in recent times, perhaps there is an establishment plan to install a new system of puppets? Or, they’re just going to go full one world government or one monarchy or theocracy or ???
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U2, lol! Have the propagandists been watching the movie ‘WAG THE DOG’ again? Was the first thing that came into my head.
as the late Frank Zappa once said AMERICAN POLITICS IS THE ENTERTAINMENT BRANCH OF THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX only now we could include Britain and Europe in that too, and in both Britain and Europe too there is also a MINISTRY OF TRUTH which is a coincidence is it not ? however the great lie that is spun about Ukraine is i suspect beginning to become obvious at least to those who can think outside the GROUPTHINK Heaven give us strength to struggle against this crap .
Caitlin – you might want to consider switching to a more accurate model of the political system …… one that explains why America’s (two?) political parties and its media figures often line up behind the same policies (but not always). The Structure of Political Positions.
They line up with the policies that really matter.
To whom?
Like structuralism?
Maybe a little.
Maybe “visualism”.
Most “isms” lead to unproductive discussions.
It’s not exactly light reading, but there are scientific ways to analyze thought, language and power dynamics.
Yes. I agree with you.
“Democracy is when you get to vote on which oligarchic muppet will ceremonially pardon a turkey on Thanksgiving but not on whether your government should greatly escalate the risk of nuclear war.”
Love it. Btw, the many words for snow is a myth. Not that it matters in this context. Caitlyn you’ve .
After “ you’ve “ I tried to put the emoji of an arrow hitting a bullseye. But it would not take.
Many words for snow a myth?
“Central Siberian Yupik has 40 such terms, while the Inuit dialect spoken in Canada’s Nunavik region has at least 53, including “matsaaruti,” for wet snow that can be used to ice a sleigh’s runners, and “pukak,” for the crystalline powder snow that looks like salt.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/there-really-are-50-eskimo-words-for-snow/2013/01/14/e0e3f4e0-59a0-11e2-beee-6e38f5215402_story.html
Thanks for the anti-debunking link. I live in Buffalo, NY, where up until recently we’ve had to deal with mountains of snow in all its various forms, so yeah, “people who live way up north” not having lots of words for snow makes no sense at all, because I sure do.
For many many years you could hear me saying the only difference between Republican and Democrat is overt vs covert.
Was it ever even that? If you look, policy by policy, from “Putting people first” before he got elected, all the way to 1999, Bill Clinton was the most effective Republican President we ever had.
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“Lock ’em up” criminal justice policies”
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Trade via NAFTA and most favored nation status to China (when the ashes had hardly settle on Tianenment)
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Vast reductions of Welfare, Food Stamps, and the social Safety net
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Even when he seems Liberal, he’s conservative AF. His “Healthcare plan” *always* was to give massive subsidies to 4 or 5 biggest insurance companies. You can find the skeleton of Obamacare in “Putting people first,” which was written in 1994.
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Wars
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This was during the time of Newt Gingrich and the “Republican Revolution.” I hypothesize that as the real distinctions finally evaporated completely, the actors had to play their parts of enemies to the friggin’ hilt. Politics became the soap opera of Pro-Wrestling, and everyone working for the same corporation in the end.