Caitlin Johnstone

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“The Squad” Doesn’t Exist Outside Of Social Media

Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ The US House of Representatives has voted 368-57 to spend $40 billion on a world-threatening proxy war while ordinary Americans struggle to feed themselves and their children. All 57 “no” votes were Republicans. Every member of the small faction of progressive House Democrats popularly known as “The…

Caitlin Johnstone
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Listen to a reading of this article:

❖

The US House of Representatives has voted 368-57 to spend $40 billion on a world-threatening proxy war while ordinary Americans struggle to feed themselves and their children. All 57 “no” votes were Republicans. Every member of the small faction of progressive House Democrats popularly known as “The Squad” voted yes.

The massive proxy war bill then went to the Senate, where it was stalled with scrutiny not from progressive superstar Bernie Sanders, but from Republican Rand Paul.

This is because the left-wing Democrat is a myth, like the good billionaire or the happy open marriage. It’s not a real thing; it’s just a pleasant fairy tale people tell themselves so they don’t have to go through the psychological turmoil of acknowledging that their entire worldview is built on lies.

“I’ve avoided the term, but ‘Fraud Squad’ feels pretty apt,” journalist Aaron Maté tweeted of the House vote. “Challenging the military industrial complex is leftism 101. The Squad just voted to give it another $40 billion via the Ukraine proxy war. So, insofar as they claim to be a leftist contingent, how are they not a fraud?”

The best assessment I’ve ever read about the clique of House Democrats comprised of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman comes from Columbia University’s Anthony Zenkus, who made the following observation:

“The Squad doesn’t exist. They have never used their power as a bloc to push for votes on progressive legislation or to block regressive legislation. They are not protesting on the Capitol steps or outside the White House. They are a media creation and a brand who won’t disrupt status quo.”

That’s it right there. “The Squad” has no real existence outside of the media, particularly social media. It’s a glorified online PR campaign for the Democratic Party, one which only came about because the party’s gerontocratic leaders are too senile to use Twitter and Instagram.

They don’t actually use their supposed “sisterhood” to push progressive agendas as a bloc like third parties and left-wing factions often do in other countries with parliamentary systems, they just generate viral tweets and cute Instagram photos while marching right along with the machinery of a globe-spanning empire.

And lately they can’t even do that right.

When you’ve got braindead Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene scoring easy Twitter dunks on Squad members for pouring money into a horrific proxy war while Americans worry about paying their bills and obtaining formula for their babies, it’s safe to say that you’ve failed at your PR campaign, and that you have ceded what would normally be progressive ground to the far right.

Normally a brash and confrontational tweet by Marjorie Taylor Greene would have AOC Incorporated instantly scrambling to come up with a retweet-friendly retort that trends on Twitter all day fueled by US partisan culture war frenzy. But Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t tweeted anything for days. Getting embarrassed by Greene is like getting your ass kicked by a quadriplegic. Getting outflanked on the left by Greene is like getting your ass kicked by a quadriplegic who is wearing a blindfold.

“The Squad”, and other so-called progressive Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, are not here to oppose the oligarchic empire that is crushing people to death at home and abroad. They are here to let people feel like there’s some opposition to that empire. They exist to legitimize the Democratic Party as a valid path toward change, when in reality it exists to obstruct change at all cost.

The elites who rule our world consider the operation of the empire too important to be left to the democratic impulses of the common riff raff who inhabit the nation that empire is built around. So they give them something to play with, something that lets them feel like they’ve got some degree of control, something that lets them feel like they’re participating. That’s what the Democratic Party is. It’s the unplugged remote control you gave your kid brother so he’d stop nagging to play video games with you.

Younger siblings know the struggle. : r/gaming

“The Squad” exists solely to reinforce and legitimize that illusion. To let people feel like maybe their video game controller is plugged in after all. Oh hey, I think the guy just moved left when I moved the joystick maybe? This is awesome, I’m good at this game!

The US doesn’t have political parties, it has perception management operations disguised as political parties. 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.

That’s all they are doing with the whole “progressive Democrat” song and dance. Americans will be told at the midterm elections in November and the presidential elections in 2024 that their vote matters and this is the most important election of their lives, even after they just watched nothing meaningful change when Republicans ran things and when Democrats ran things, after being told the same thing both times. It’s just a shiny sideshow distraction to keep you from realizing that your damn controller is unplugged so you won’t stand up to your oppressors in a more meaningful and confrontational way.

__________________

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76 responses to ““The Squad” Doesn’t Exist Outside Of Social Media”

  1. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    The Left isn’t what it used to be.

    Doesn’t the “squad” realize that it will be their constituents who will do the bleeding if this thing gets out of control? They would have plenty of support if they just said “no.”

    Then there is this stunner I read today:
    https://www.portside.org/2022-05-11/when-should-we-stop-excusing-russian-invasion

    Not my left

  2. Annie McStravick Avatar
    Annie McStravick

    A better name would be Squid: no backbone.

  3. jandr0 Avatar
    jandr0

    “When you’ve got braindead Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene…”

    Wow. Caitlin is such a nice, respectful person whose heart is filled with lovingkindness. It gives me hope for mankind when I see Caitlin display her compassion and understanding.

  4. HelenB Avatar
    HelenB

    Unpleasant comment about Marjorie Taylor Greene who has shown she is around 100 times more ethical and intelligent that any of the “squad” members or indeed their fearless leader Biden … but then I don’t know anyone who isn’t … even my dog. Nevertheless, MTG deserves a big tick for her relentless “no food for American babies and mothers” incantation. I give her a 10/10.

  5. Slats Grobnik Avatar
    Slats Grobnik

    Nice to see the use of the term “perception management”. I think it’s more accurate than “narrative control”. Perception management has been going on for a very long time. The vast majority of people, unfortunately, have their perceptions of the world managed by the ruling elite (brainwashed).

    Otherwise, of course the squad is a fraud. They were from the get-go. They’re just one of the plethora of counter-revolutionary forces used to keep the majority confused and divided.

  6. Vincent Berg Avatar
    Vincent Berg

    Didn’t Trump come up with the term “Fraud Squad”? Anyway it was aruound before Mate. I prefer the term “Squat” myself.

  7. thorsjackhammer Avatar
    thorsjackhammer

    ‘Operation Woke-ism’ is being conducted by the establishment controlled ops for a reason, and that reason is highly likely the reverse of what it appears to be advocating. Like most of the establishments narratives, you need to reverse their purported goals to get closer to their actual goals. Although, the traditional ‘official’ food pyramid is an absolute mess even if you reverse it, it’s a recipe for diabetes type 2, obesity and erratic blood sugar (glucose) levels.

  8. thorsjackhammer Avatar
    thorsjackhammer

    “The US doesn’t have political parties, it has perception management operations disguised as political parties.” Let me make one small correct this – The WESTERN ALLIANCE doesn’t have political parties, it has perception management operations disguised as political parties.
    –
    I doubt most Americans vote, it’s not compulsory there, and the smart ones intuitively know that politics is bullshit they have no control over so don’t waste their time and energy. They likely fudge the figures to make it look like a reasonable voter turn out has occurred.

  9. svay Avatar
    svay

    Glenn Greenwald asked ‘the Squad’ why they’d voted for this. Only Congresswoman Cori Bush has attempted an explanation, saying
    “Additionally, at $40 billion, this is an extraordinary amount of military assistance, a large percentage of which will go directly to private defense contractors. In the last year alone, the United States will have provided Ukraine with more military aid than any country in the last two decades, and twice as much military assistance as the yearly cost of war in Afghanistan, even when American troops were on the ground. The sheer size of the package given an already inflated Pentagon budget should not go without critique. I remain concerned about the increased risks of direct war and the potential for direct military confrontation.”
    Which sounds to me like several reasons for voting no, but there you go. “Credit to Rep. Bush for candor,” says Greenwald.
    https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-bizarre-unanimous-dem-support-426

    1. pretzelattack Avatar
      pretzelattack

      lol what a word salad. she’s “very concerned”, but not concerned enough to be true to her ostensible principles and vote no, thereby helping to increase the risks of the war she is so “concerned” about.

      1. svay Avatar
        svay

        Bush also says, “As this conflict progresses, its ramifications will spread beyond Ukraine. Indeed, many other countries rely on Russia and Ukraine for a significant percentage of their wheat, fertilizer, and vegetable oil imports. This bill directly responds to this looming crisis by providing $4.35 billion to provide emergency food assistance to people around the world suffering from hunger as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.”
        https://bush.house.gov/media/press-releases/bush-statement-on-ukraine-supplemental-funding-vote
        The UN estimates 1.7 billion people are ‘highly exposed’ to food insecurity as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, adding that “of these 1.7 billion people, 553 million are already poor, and 215 million are already undernourished.” $4.35 billion to provide emergency food assistance to 1.7 billion people comes out at around $3 per person. Probably less than Bush ever spends on a single meal.

      2. Mary Wildfire Avatar
        Mary Wildfire

        It was not a word salad. it was a clear and coherent explanation for why she voted…what? she voted yes? Sometimes i wonder if threats are applied. i notice the thing the leftwing Congress members dare not deviate from is support for the MIC and its imperial agenda. on domestic issues they are free to vote as they choose.

  10. Ted Christian Avatar
    Ted Christian

    I was looking at the picture hoping they weren’t elected representatives but then they were. The Squad are not a group I would open my door for in either a figurative or literal sense.

    I think about pursuing another political campaign just so I can use the new slogan: “Politicians are Hate Mongering Trash”. The old slogan was “Make Your Wasted Vote Count!”, which I never entirely figured out.

    I like the elephant/donkey puppet fight imagery. The problem, Caitlin, with your “both parties are bad” notion is that it is very difficult for partisan nitwits to grasp.

  11. John MR Avatar
    John MR

    57 Republicans voting against is irrelevant. the MAJORITY of Republicans joined the Dems to fund the proxy war instead of attending citizen needs in USA. let that sink in.

    1. Glenn Avatar
      Glenn

      The Democratic pro-Apocalypse vote is unanimous.

      They need to be stopped now because they are the real threat of the moment.

      Let that sink in.

      1. svay Avatar
        svay

        The Dems of today have fully embraced Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communism, simply shifting their focus from communism to Russia, which they probably confusedly think, insofar as they think at all, the same thing. And instead of the House Un-American Affairs Committee asking “Are you now, or have you ever been a commie?”, we have social media banning anyone insufficiently anti-Russian, people losing their jobs for the same reason, and so on.

      2. Victor G. Avatar
        Victor G.

        Actually, the really threat is that disgraceful nation. I’d say it’s the US of As in toto that needs to be stopped … they need to fuck off to their own planet (Mars?) where they can fight and hate to their hearts’ content.
        As long as the US of As exists, there will never, never be peace on this planet.
        It’s one of those noisome either/ors: either you have peace, or you have the US of As. You can’t have both.
        What ever hurts them, helps humanity.

  12. K-Dog Avatar
    K-Dog

    Correctimundo Catlin. A spot on assessment. The military machine is in full control and they are getting the money they want. ‘Dissent is squelched’. With your own platform you understand. American political parties kiss the corporate capitalist ass.
    –
    ‘Dissent is squelched’ is quoted because I used that sentence in my own article which I just published.
    –
    https://chasingthesquirrel.com/

  13. Rick Avatar
    Rick

    You call Marjorie Taylor Greene brain dead, but can you name one position of hers that doesn’t make sense? I agree with a lot of what you say, but you have a blind spot a mile wide. Conservative bad, progressive good. I don’t understand how you cannot see that real conservatives and patriots are against these endless wars, for real environmentalism, against the surveillance state, against the medical tyranny rapidly being erected to enslave all of us. The demons (all democrats and most republicans) have opened our borders to an unfettered invasion, are watching or helping our economy go down in flames, watching as our people become impoverished, energy becomes unaffordable, baby food (and soon other types of food) become unobtainium, and more. I could go on all day, but I think you get the point. The country and western civilization (the great parts of it!!) are being destroyed, vilified, and dismantled in front of our eyes, and our people have been trained for the past 2 generations, at least, to hate it. Get with the program, Caitlin. Your a smart person, but you seem to have so much vitriol against the wrong people.

    1. svay Avatar
      svay

      Interesting you should mention flames.
      ‘Nearly two dozen [US] food processing plants have gone up in flames this year … Greene is among several conspiracy theorists to suggest foul play may be afoot … suggesting to Alex Jones that Democrats are starting the fires on purpose in order to deprive the nation of food, which would be advantageous for them because they’re playing some sort of globalist long game and don’t want anything to be manufactured in America … “The Biden administration and the Democrats … are destroying the very important, most critical part of the fabric of America, and that is our farmers,” Greene ranted. “They’re doing it on purpose. They want to be the global economy. They want to be completely involved. And here we have these ‘random,’ supposedly accidental fires at food processing plants.”’
      https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marjorie-taylor-greene-food-plant-fires-tucker-carlson-1352772/

    2. tjrich Avatar
      tjrich

      I can name one position LOL “Jewish Space lasers”

    3. JEFF EMSHOFF Avatar
      JEFF EMSHOFF

      *You’re

  14. Ivan Avatar
    Ivan

    I love your take on politics. And spirituality. And creativity. And most everything.

    But damn, it’s so disappointing when you throw in jabs about open relationships. Why on Earth would you be so demeaning about relationship styles that you (obviously) don’t participate in? It just doesn’t fit with your other tolerant, sensible, and humanist positions. It would take you 30 seconds to find someone online that is happy with their open marriage.

    1. the virgin terry Avatar
      the virgin terry

      i had the same reaction, ivan. probably the happiest couple i’ve ever known had been married for 30 years, the last half of that time they both openly had many other lovers.

      there’s a book titled SEX AT DAWN which makes a pretty persuasive scientific case that humans are by nature not strictly monogamist. polyamory is a life/lovestyle which more should be aware of and try out for themselves, imo. there’s even a dating website devoted to it: polymatchmaker.com

      1. IVAN Avatar
        IVAN

        Loving another person without trying to control who or how they love is a great spiritual journey. It requires non-attachment, courage, honesty, and respect. There are few challenges in life as powerful.

        You can rant all day about politics and war and all the other horrors, but it’s all at a comfortable distance (for most of us) and the bad guys are always someone else. Try facing your own jealousy or tyrannical nature when you’re insecure in your relationship, and you’ll know what a loving revolution actually looks like.

        If everyone in the world had to have unfenced love relationships, we’d definitely be one step closer to the change that Caitlin loves to remind us is possible.

      2. tjrich Avatar
        tjrich

        Everyone can always come up with exceptions to the rules and try to present them as solid evidence for counterarguments.

    2. Jonathan Pratt Avatar
      Jonathan Pratt

      Nobody bats 1000.

  15. Ishkabibble Avatar
    Ishkabibble

    The US has a war-based economy. George Kennan spelled it just a few years before the USSR ended.
     
    “Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”
     
    Let what Kennan said sink in.
     
    It meant than that Russia was ASSIGNED the role of “enemy” literally the day that the USSR ended and that literally nothing that Russia could have said of done would have prevented that assignment.
     
    It means now that World Peace is today much more of a threat to the US’s war-based economy than perpetual wars! (Hatred of Russia has NOTHING to do with why the US and its ass-licking vassals are doing what they’re doing.)
     
    It explains exactly why US government VIPs say what they say about the necessity of sending weapons to Ukraine — forever, if necessary — to defeat Russia.
     
    It explains exactly why Zelensky can not, and will not, be allowed to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Russia.
     
    It explains exactly why Minsk II could not be followed by Poroshenko or Zelensky, and exactly why none of the signatories to that agreement (and the UN resolution making it international law) forced “Ukraine” carry out its commitment to that law.
     
    It explains exactly why law, international or otherwise, no longer matters to “the US” (the microscopic percentage of the US population that actually IS “the US”)…………. because following laws may lead to peace and, shortly thereafter, collapse of the US’s war-based economy.
     
    To boil it all down, Russia making ANY arrangement with the US and its ass-licking vassals that results in a peaceful world WILL. NOT. BE. ALLOWED because a peaceful world would be “an unacceptable shock to the US economy”.
     
    But why do the US vassals’ leaders go along with all of this? They go along with it because of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and the Fed’s bail-outs of the domestic and foreign TBTF banks and their Elite owners. That Act and that Act alone kept the fatally-flawed “present arrangement” on life support. That Act created a legalized “coordination between financial authorities” and central banks of the world which results in a sort of “circle jerk” in which a group of central banks and “financial authorities” (like hedge funds) purchase EACH OTHER’S governments’ bonds (and stocks in certain TBTF transnational corporations) with a literally infinite amount of printed-out-of-thin-air money (AKA money created “by government fiat”) in order to keep the present arrangement going.
     
    What exactly is “the present arrangement”?
     
    It would be politically impossible for the US to collect enough tax money or sell enough assets to provide the necessary funds – say between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion annually — to fund the vitally necessary US’s war/military-base spending “up front”, not for just one year, but every year from here to literally eternity. Therefore, the US government must sell bonds – to “borrow” money from “investors” — in order to, again, finance the government’s spending on the soldiers, mercenaries, wars, MIC jobs, weapons systems and foreign bases that it, again, cannot afford up front, from here to eternity.
     
    Investors must invest the USD they hold in something. In this case, investors buy US treasuries with USD and, by so doing, invest in US war-making – an investment that investors hope will end up generating a profit on the stocks in war corporations (Lockheed, etc.) that those same bond-investors are also heavily investing in.
     
    Again, investors lend money to the US government by buying low-interest bonds of whatever maturity period. There is not that much profit there. But by so doing, “the US government” then has the money to continue its perpetual wars, perpetual weapon-systems purchases, etc. and, therefore, stocks in war corporations increase in value as more and more buyers/investors bid-up / compete-for those irresistibly profitable shares! The war corporations’ share-price increases are where the really big money-profit is. A lot of congresspeople over many decades have made a lot of money by investing in the wars they create.
     
    Again, the US’s 800+ military bases outside the US are also funded by the US government’s borrowed money. That funding pays for those foreign bases’ weapon systems, US soldiers’ salaries, benefits, off-base housing, local employees, food, gasoline, other consumables, infrastructure provided by US manufacturers, maintenance, etc. The local (foreign) communities that “host” those US bases become economically dependent upon those bases’ continuing presence, from here to eternity. For example, what happened when the Donito Assholeini said he was going to reduce NATO’s presence in Germany?
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/7/19/german-states-appeal-to-us-congress-not-to-withdraw-troops
     
    The totality of what we see going on before our eyes today is as simple as the above. Nobody, certainly not investors, foreign or domestic, wants the US government to stop borrowing and spending the way it does today; they want that to go on and on, again, from here to eternity. In order for those millions of wishes to be fulfilled, the US’s wars must go on from here to eternity.
     
    From the point of view of this whatever-you-want-to-call-it system’s beneficiaries, again, there’s too much at stake to allow “it” (ultimately, the US’s perpetual wars) to stop. In other words, perpetual war itself is Too Big To Fail.
     
    OTOH, from the point of view of the victims of perpetual US aggression, “This” Must Fail!, or the victims will inevitably flee their destroyed homes and economies to live in, ironically, those of their oppressors. Do the Ukrainians fleeing Ukraine for the open arms of EU countries, the UK, the US, Australia and “Canada” realize that they are the inevitable collateral damage of US-treasury-bond-investor profit-taking?
     
    You know what’s ironic? Humanity is now funding / investing in (demanding!) an escalating, growing-like-a-cancer vicious cycle that is, as if by the action of an “invisible hand” (of infallible, insatiable greed; infallible, insatiable profit-motive), inevitably going to lead to its own nuclear extinction! If this situation is not the ultimate, tragic irony, I do not know what else could be.
     
    As long as the tens of millions of US voters directly or indirectly employed by war corporations continue to vote for more and more severe warmongers in order to protect their jobs
    https://www.pressherald.com/2021/03/30/bath-shipyard-looks-for-a-new-shipbuilding-contract-while-awaiting-the-navys-next-ship/
    rather than vote for peaceniks; and small-to-central-bank-sized financial entities CONTINUE to buy US treasuries in perpetuity — again, lending money to the US so that the US will CONTINUE to do what it’s doing around the world — what future is possible for humanity other than all-out nuclear war? When you vote for more war and you invest in more war, WTF do you think you’re going to get — heaven on earth or hell on earth?!
     
    There is only one possible way off the road to WWIII. By hook or by crook or by bombs landing on Main Street, USA, or by divine intervention, US voters must somehow be made to vote for peaceniks, even though their doing so might lose them their jobs; and investors must somehow be made to stop buying US treasuries, even though their doing so might deprive them of a great deal of money-profit.
     
    Which is the more powerful human instinct – ancient animal greed or the evolved intelligence to recognize that unfettered greed is the number 1 threat to human survival?

    1. GH Avatar
      GH

      Yes, the United States has a war-based economy. And yes, it would require major restructuring for arms manufacturers if there was a shortage of wars. But George Kennan was no economist. The United States does NOT make money from its wars. On the contrary. The wars are a huge expense for the United States as a nation and for American taxpayers. And one of the main reasons for the US record high debt. (If I remember correctly it is about $ 200,000 per taxpayer) The moment the wars end and military budgets can be reduced would be a shock of joy to the US economy. Especially for taxpayers.
      You are right that the arms industry is a strong driving force to keep the wars going. But if we search the Gig Reason for all the wars, we have to look elsewhere.
      Look at the organization for the richest in the West, WEF. In their plan The Great Reset, the goal is a new global world order. They are no longer content to only have access to all nations’ markets and limited access to their resources. They want considerably expanded access to their resources. Why? Because it provides increased opportunities for investment and increased profits for the real Power in the West, – the Western giant oligarchs.
      Russia opposes this. China opposes this. Because they want their national resources to benefit national companies to a greater extent.
      As you have long understood in the United States and now even to some extent here in Norway, the United States government is not on the move for their 360 million citizens but for the established Power elite. Look at the text of US defense plans. It fits exactly with the goals of the WEF.
      USA Military Strategy 2015
      U.S. ENDURING NATIONAL INTERESTS
      • A strong, innovative, and growing U.S. economy in an open
      international economic system that promotes opportunity and
      prosperity.
      • A rules-based international order advanced by U.S.
      leadership…. la, la, la,
      NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS
      • The security of the global economic system.
      NATIONAL MILITARY OBJECTIVES
      Deter, deny, and defeat state adversaries.

      1. thorsjackhammer Avatar
        thorsjackhammer

        Wars aren’t about making ‘money’ per se, they’re about controlling other nations and their natural resources. And for this purpose ‘successful’ wars are very effective.

      2. thorsjackhammer Avatar
        thorsjackhammer

        And then the ‘Power Elite’ worked out that they no longer needed massive populations to protect them and fiat currency paid wage slaves to slave for them, advanced computerized A.I., robotics and automation came along. Hello de-population to the ‘power elite’s’ NWO quantified requirements.

      3. Mary Wildfire Avatar
        Mary Wildfire

        i think access to resources–cheap–is moving into number one position in motivations because the global population is at least twice what is sustainable, and resources are running out. What the PTB want is to eliminate the surplus population, and arrange for all their toys and comforts and luxuries to continue to flow unimpeded, for which they must be free to loot all the rest of the world…especially the remaining indigenous territories, because theirs are the places where natural resources haven’t already been exploited to the max.

    2. Pascal Avatar
      Pascal

      Addendum from Wikipedia: “In his historical writings and memoirs, Kennan laments in great detail the failings of democratic foreign policy makers and those of the United States in particular. According to Kennan, when American policymakers suddenly confronted the Cold War, they had inherited little more than rationale and rhetoric “utopian in expectations, legalistic in concept, moralistic in [the] demand it seemed to place on others, and self-righteous in the degree of high-mindedness and rectitude… to ourselves”. The source of the problem is the force of public opinion, a force that is inevitably unstable, unserious, subjective, emotional, and simplistic. Kennan has insisted that the U.S. public can only be united behind a foreign policy goal on the “primitive level of slogans and jingoistic ideological inspiration”.

    3. the virgin terry Avatar
      the virgin terry

      ‘Which is the more powerful human instinct – ancient animal greed or the evolved intelligence to recognize that unfettered greed is the number 1 threat to human survival?’

      sadly, with far too few exceptions, it’s greed. in far too many, intelligence hasn’t evolved much beyond primitive instincts of self preservation and self promotion.

  16. allen Avatar
    allen

    Fraud Squad – love mate’s lable.

    And what excellent and colorful language: Getting embarrassed by Greene is like getting your ass kicked by a quadriplegic. Getting outflanked on the left by Greene is like getting your ass kicked by a quadriplegic who is wearing a blindfold.

  17. Glenn Avatar
    Glenn

    The Democratic vote for Apocalypse Now! is unanimous.

    NATO’s real threat to Russia provoked an unexpected reaction.

    Russia was supposed to be caught asleep to the nuclear threat by the Dumbocrats and easily mass murdered in their sleep.

    The only way for Democrats to counter the Russian reaction now is to increase the provocative threat.

    Dialog with Russia is not possible for Democrats without an admission of the existential threat they are responsible for, one that they posed to Russia by enclosing and targeting it with short range nuclear weapons.

    It would be dishonorable now for Democrats to actually have a dialog with one so demonized by the them.

    Too bad the January 6 attack on the Capitol didn’t make an impression on Democrat Party legislators by giving them the experience of the terror of being subjected to a coup, like so many others that they have funded.

    The choice to Vote Republican or with the Death-before-Dishonor-Democrats is a real choice only to the insane.

    The Democrats have failed their voters once again.

    1. Mary Wildfire Avatar
      Mary Wildfire

      No. the empire never intended to “murder the Russians in their sleep.” The plan was always to entangle them in a ruinous war, to bleed their resources and weaken them and hopefully interfere with their alliance with China, with side helpings of justifying even more money flowing to the MIC and not just NOT allowing the expansion of fossil fuels but actually putting the gas to that expansion. they also got away with a further expansion of state propaganda and censorship. The only part of the agenda that isn’t going swimmingly is that all this has strengthened Russia’s alliance with China.

  18. Ishkabibble Avatar
    Ishkabibble

    So The Squad isn’t what it’s, errrrrrr, cracked up to be? What a surprise!
     
    Don’t you find it amazing that We, the Woke, We Who Already Understand What’s Going On continue to vote our warmongering, false-narrative-creating oppressors’ bought-and-paid-for R and D agents into public offices time and time again?
     
    What, exactly, does the word “revolution” mean? Is there universal agreement on what the word “revolution” means? If there is, please tell me precisely HOW people “revolt”? What would the BEHAVIOR of “revolting” be? Would We, the Woke, We Who Already Understand What’s Going On be picking up guns and running down the streets with our hair on fire, each of us yelling in perfect synchronicity with the collective “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!”? Would We, the Woke, We Who Already Understand What’s Going On be guillotining some VIPs on the White House lawn? Would We, the Woke, We Who Already Understand What’s Going On be marching hand in hand down Penn. Ave. demand, demand, demanding that the Elite behave better, or else? (“or else” just exactly WHAT?!)
     
    Here’s what you, me, We, the Woke, We Who Already Understand What’s Going On are eventually going to HAVE TO DO because
     
    there. is. no. other. way. to remove our warmongering, false-narrative-creating oppressors’ 536 Rs and Ds from federal elected positions of power. (If you know of another way, please spell it out, right here, right now and, BTW, reading another hundred really great books that tell you who’s holding the reins of power in one hand and your balls in the other, wishing upon a star, dream, dream, dreaming; hoping and praying and deep, deep, deep self-study and drug-trips are not going to do that job.)
     
    THIS is how you “revolt”. If you do not want More Of The Same that you’ve gotten after every election in the past, do not vote for another R or D, ever, no matter what an R or D promises! Jimmy Dore explains EXACTLY why and mentions “The Squad” specifically.
     
    OTOH, if you DO want More Of The Same, when you walk into the voting booth, just vote for another R or D, makes no difference which. (The latter is what the tens of millions of direct and indirect employees of, and the investors in, the MIC are going to do. They’re going to vote for No. 1 and they don’t give a shit if doing that ultimately leads to WWIII; they know precisely what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. )

    1. David Edwards Avatar
      David Edwards

      Jimmy Dore’s a fraud. (See below)

    2. svay Avatar
      svay

      I see revolution as meaning a fundamental change in how society is organised and in how it works. That entails not demanding the elite does this, that, or the other, but ousting them, as a prelude to doing things differently. And not just the political elite, Rs & Ds in the USA, but the economic elites, along with the institutions they control and the ways those institutions force us to live, work and produce. Demanding our elites do whatever is like asking a gangster to please be a nicer gangster – perhaps OK as a stopgap, but little use in the long run.

      1. Ishkabibble Avatar
        Ishkabibble

        Spell out exactly HOW to remove the Rs and Ds from office.

        1. svay Avatar
          svay

          I don’t know how, and that’s not the point, as I see it, though disaffection among the police and military is usually necessary for any sort of revolution to take place, so fostering that might be one way to go.
          But leaving them in office sure ain’t going to change much.

    3. julia eden Avatar
      julia eden

      kurt tucholsky, german journalist [1890-1935]:
      “elections don’t change anything.
      if they did, they’d be prohibited.”

      rainer mausfeld, german professor of general psychology [*1949]:
      “the elites give us democracy because they know
      that our rebellion would cost them much more.”

  19. do chere Avatar
    do chere

    Anything about the Empire is for show. It is entertainment, dangerous as it is but it is.

  20. Max424 Avatar
    Max424

    The funniest read for me since I read I Catch 22 back in ’81 I think it was.
    1981. What a year, and what a fool I was back then. I thought Ronald Reagan deserved credit for signing the INF Treaty with the Soviets, when it is clear in retrospect that he was nothing more than a Gorbachev Gummy bear.
    I also thought Reagan was a far right extremist. Hey, I was young.

  21. Richard Coleman Avatar
    Richard Coleman

    Whew, Caitlin! This was brutal. And dead on the money. It’s probably good that you’re in Australia: harder to arrange an “accident”. If you were here they’d probably try to do something drastic to shut you up, you’re that effective i.e. dangerous. Don’t ever stop!

  22. Dosamuno Avatar
    Dosamuno

    Spot on!
    Excellent article even by the very high Caitlin Johnstone standards.
    Sandy Cortez and her pals are far below useless.

  23. Inna Avatar
    Inna

    Since US Congress does not represent us we should stop paying for them and their best in the US health insurance.

    1. svay Avatar
      svay

      When they can’t agree about how many crumbs to throw the plebs in the budget, they often stop paying government employees – but keep paying themselves.

  24. L8917 Avatar
    L8917

    TheHillRising 13MAY22/AM [still disappointed in TheIntercept re: Biden laptop, FWIW]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ue69GbYdQ

    LtColWilliamAstore 13MAY22 on ‘thePeople who shouldn’t always do, and the people who rarely do always should’ IMO

    https://bracingviews.com/2022/05/13/dont-think-about-the-unthinkable/

  25. David Edwards Avatar
    David Edwards

    Greenwald used to love AOC almost as much as he loves Tucker Carlson.

    1. pretzelattack Avatar
      pretzelattack

      that’s horsecrap. he never did. every thing you have posted so far has been false.

      1. David Edwards Avatar
        David Edwards

        My God, you’re clueless. He used to fawn over her on Twitter practically every day when she initially came into limelight as a candidate. He promoted her as the US left’s best hope, it’s new shining light, a real voice for the disenfranchised, etc. And then she started to agree with Nancy Pelosi, which Glenn didn’t like! Here’s Glenn interviewing her for The Intercept, pre-disillusionment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuoKLLLpiuE

        1. Dosamuno Avatar
          Dosamuno

          You’re a troll, David.
          People shouldn’t waste time or energy responding to your disruptive comments.

        2. David Edwards Avatar
          David Edwards

          “Disruptive”? Nothing disrupts like the truth, it seems.

          1. pretzelattack Avatar
            pretzelattack

            or a lying smear merchant. you could try reading Glenn’s latest on his substack. he was supportive of her till she started demonstrating her uselessness and her hypocrisy, in office. he doesn’t love Tucker, either.

  26. Guillermo Calvo Mahé Avatar
    Guillermo Calvo Mahé

    Certainly true of media hog, AOC (she’s too cool to have a name), the semi-Hispanic sort of Congressional representative from New York. The Democratic Party’s dedication to hypocrisy in service to the Deep State has been obvious for a long time, it is now that political party’s hallmark.

  27. Blessthebeasts Avatar
    Blessthebeasts

    Well yeah, this is the same old same old. Bernie was the best example of the farce of American “democracy.” He had the opportunity to put his money where his blabbering mouth is and head the Green Party ticket in 2016 and he bent over and endorsed Hillary instead. That was the last best chance we had to use the electoral system for the good of the people. Thanks Bernie, for showing us who you are!

  28. svay Avatar
    svay

    ‘ “The Squad”, and other so-called progressive Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, are not here to oppose the oligarchic empire. ‘
    Quite right. They don’t oppose the USA. They might oppose some of its policies, at least when Republicans are in power and Democrat policies are superficially different, but they want the US to continue being world hegemon. Anything that threatens to undermine, never mind end, that hegemony is a no-no. When what the world needs, and needs urgently, is just such an end to the Empire.

  29. pretzelattack Avatar
    pretzelattack

    another excellent article, they are all frauds. Jimmy Dore got (and gets) a lot of pushback from other frauds like the Young Turks and other fake leftists every time he has pointed this out. most if not all of those republicans voting against would be cheering for the war if it were launched by a republican, but their criticism is very much on point

    1. David Edwards Avatar
      David Edwards

      Jimmy Dore’s a complete fraud – a fake plastic leftist raking in big money for his populist “anti-establishment” reactionary BS. (He recently bought a $2MILLION L.A. compound, btw).

      1. Lorna Paisley Avatar
        Lorna Paisley

        It take very little to make a house worth $2M in LA. It is not a luxury house most likely. And his wife worked for 20 years and has a pension. And did they sell a house to buy this one ? And I am sure he is not raking in big bucks for his show. He is doing stand up around the country and when you are independent media no corporation is paying you thousands of dollars a week to just show up. He also has to pay his employees and for all of his equipment. I find your argument very weak

        1. David Edwards Avatar
          David Edwards

          You might want to check the “independent media earnings” from Substack of commentators who promote something similar to Dore. We’re talking six figures in many cases. It’s a lucrative grift.

          1. tori Avatar
            tori

            A grift? Are sales of books and music grifts, too? What about other products people choose to buy? All grifts? Do you know Substacks are free, with a small percentage of readers choosing to pay for a minor upgrade?

      2. pretzelattack Avatar
        pretzelattack

        so what? he tells the truth. you don’t. neither does the squad. it costs him too, in the constant smears from fraud merchants like you.

        1. David Edwards Avatar
          David Edwards

          “he tells the truth”. LOL. He promotes the dumbest conspiracy theories – including some really bad anti-vaxx stuff, as exposed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wRDLf54Scs He’s a total fraud & buffoon.

          1. svay Avatar
            svay

            Cue chorus of “How can anything anti-vax possibly be the teeniest bit bad?”

      3. James Avatar
        James

        OK, Dore is plastic. I’ve watched him for years and he is far and away better than the Democratic Party hacks like Seder, Hartman, Maddow, Turks, etc. All those folks are much richer than Dore. Say what you stand for. Dore thinks the two parties are really one war party. Caitlin thinks that as well. What do you stand for?

  30. David Edwards Avatar
    David Edwards

    This (and the tweets of people like Glenn Greenwald, Michael Tracey, etc) would make a lot more sense to me if I started with the premise of loathing some *generalised* group called “liberals” or “democrats” or “centrists” or whatever. But although I do indeed despise many individual “liberals” (and “conservatives”) for varying reasons, I can’t make the cognitive leap to hating the abstract noun. And so the logic that follows from the generalisation falls flat.
    “To ascribe predicates to a people is always dangerous” – Nietzsche

    1. pretzelattack Avatar
      pretzelattack

      how about warmongers, does that term work? because that is what they are doing. it’s both parties. even as they claim to be supporting abstract nouns like “freedom”, “democracy”, “national sovereignty” etc etc etc.

      1. David Edwards Avatar
        David Edwards

        The term “warmongers” works because what it generalises can be fairly narrowly defined – as someone who mongers war offensively. But you have to be honest and consistent in who you include. Putin, obviously.

        1. pretzelattack Avatar
          pretzelattack

          the squad obviously. nato obviously. the US State department, obviously. you, obviously.

          1. David Edwards Avatar
            David Edwards

            And you, obviously, as you’re such a big fan of Putin’s brutal war.

            1. Glenn Avatar
              Glenn

              And you are such a fan of the Democrat’s rush to Nuclear Holocaust.

              It doesn’t get any dumber than that.

              1. IVAN Avatar
                IVAN

                I’m just joining this thread beacause I get to write vertically

            2. pretzelattack Avatar
              pretzelattack

              lol idiot. is david brock’s correct the record still going in some form?

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