Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): If I was an Israel supporter I’d be thinking very carefully about the things I’m posting online in the build-up to what could end up being regarded as one of history’s worst genocidal massacres. The internet doesn’t forget. What you’re tweeting today could haunt you for life.
One of the few good things to come out of this explosion is seeing the Israel apologists being exposed everywhere. Pants down. As I noted before, now it’s Tulsi. Another good thing is seeing the courage of those who see and live in justice—Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. Great strong women facing down the fucking DNC and all the rest of the dim dam Dems. And I just found out that Gandhi opposed the creation of Israel and spoke out against it even while he had his hands full trying to lead his people out from under the great demon colonizer, England. Chris Hedges is excellent in his latest condemnation of the Israeli’s and Yanis Varoufakis is pointing the blame at Europe for never once speaking out against Israel’s slow torture of the Palestinians. And of course Caitlin—eviscerating the fascist bullshit my country is spewing to promote this Armageddon. At least I can let myself accept that I’m in good company, even if I am a member of the nation that brought this about.
Your nation may have been the primary one to bring this about because it wants empire. But a lot of other nations have given support, including mine and the other NATO countries. While the US is the big tough guy holding guns of democracy in both hands and being very visible as the "big power" lots of other countries have stood behind them.
"American people are very much like the children of a Mafia boss who do not know what their father does for a living, and don't want to know, but then wonder why someone just threw a firebomb through the living room window." William Blum
William: Well, that's just like William Blum's opinion. What Blum describes in the quote is not what I've found to be true in America in my 70+ years of living here.
National Governments and the people that populate the seats of authority all colluded against the national publics of those nations from 2000-2020 to get us to the beginning of this planned series of events. Its the seated authorities directed by corporate oligarchies destroying the peoples in the national publics of target nations.
Suggesting that politicians are just puppets being manipulated by evil businessmen is so simplistic its laughable. Its a joint effort, politicians are power hungry sociopaths in their own right. Equal on many footings with oligarchs, the anti-Pinkerton legislation is a good example, outlawing private armies. Violent coercion and war are the job of politicians in their view.
Spiffy, enjoy the laugh and whatever else shows up... That you could not garner your repeated claims from the claim I noted above sorta shows you aren't able to read and comprehend. Are you one of those evil business men? Evil to me just means Selfish. A Taker who takes more than one needs just to be able to Have more and lord it over they who are less willing to Take Advantage.
If private armies are outlawed, how do you explain Blackwater/Xe? Blackrocks thug arm?
And if Violent coercion and war are the politicians job, then lets give them what they deserve and continue to set the context for. Lets just make sure they aren't left standing post event. No point having to repeat an experience due mercy.
I’d say when we 1st looked at the Louisiana Purchase, or called New York, “The Empire State”. We have always had designs on being an empire. But you’re right, it really took off under Truman and the CIA.
Timmy , the USA is the people who are the descendance (some of them) of the hypocritical mob of English Puritans who massacred the people living on the land and called them 'Indians' to make he sound aliens to the land.There has never been anything good and moral about it. Correction the lying propaganda beginning in Hollywood and infecting all of you news outlets is first rate.
Jack Lomax: Do you even live in the USA? I don't know anyone whose ancestors came from England or were Puritans. Most of the people I know are Irish, Italians, Swedes, Norwegians, and Germans. Half the people in our town come from Mexico. And the Mexicans are part Indian.
Who cares? We all get along.
I have nothing in common with the lizard creatures in DC or NYC who pull the strings.
Lets get a dash of historical facts instead of hyperbole: 80% plus of indigenous peoples in the Americas died from disease not war with Europe. Although the Europeans did commit genocide in many cases the majority of deaths were not from genocide.
Yes, Susan. The collection of supportive US and Israel countries should not surprise anyone. It has all been part of a long term program, successfully implemented over decades, ever since the UK commenced the creation of apartheid Israel after WWII.
That was the beginning. From then on it was corruption over time of the whole US political scene, one year after another. The weapons, bribery, corruption using the weakness of human beings as their target.
Add to that the influences purchased through media ownership, the large military industrialists with the well planned death of JFK heralding the end of decency in America.
Next step? "Eretz Israel", everything from the Euphrates to the Nile. On its way now, thanks to the pathetically useless UN and the criminal and very weak, USA, dancing every day to Israel’s tune.
Downhill from here, fast, culminating in what we are seeing today, backed up by 400+ nuclear warheads (one for every capital). The scared countries, one by one, bowing down to Zionist influences and corruption, everywhere.
There is not a country that is not marked by this insidious disease.
Yes, Susan, lots of other countries are aiding and abetting the US hegemonic empire. Early on when there were rumblings of a proxy war using Ukraine, some of us thought it was unthinkable, wise heads will prevail, that Nato and EU won't collaborate. We were so gullible - they proved to be just vassal states and appendages of empire and enablers of unimaginable horror and proved to be just naked fascists.
We are now witnessing their collaboration and enabling of the apartheid state of Israel in wiping out the Palestinian people, burying their aspirations of being free from occupation. And the rest of the world looks on!
Everywhere one looks there is turmoil. We will be so naive as not to think that this is a grand plan of empire. Just for a moment there was a glimpse of a better world, a new world order not the disorder we have now. Has all that dissipated with forever wars of diminishing Russia and opening a cold war front with China which at any moment they can turn into a hot war?
Jeano: The USA is run by evil men and women. Just because I was born and live in the USA doesn't mean it is "my country". Passports, birth certificates, social security numbers, drivers licenses... all this paperwork telling me who I am.
Bullshit!
I am what I am and that's all what I am. I'm Popeye the Sailor Man.
I think it's important to distinguish between country (nation) and government, as Mark Twain pointed out. A nation and its government are 2 separate things.
By way of AIPAC and other mechanisms, the Israeli government has owned the US government for decades. Large segments of the nation are more susceptible to pro-Israeli propaganda.
Many Americans support the fascist governments in Washington and Tel Aviv because they have been indoctrinated over generations to buy into the nonsense.
Patriotism means supporting your country (nation) all the time, but its government ONLY when it deserves it. Both the Washington and Tel Aviv governments deserve strong criticism for their cruel actions.
Richard: AIPAC is coming to San Francisco! Yes! The city has spent millions preparing for the arrival of thousands of AIPAC delegates. Homeless drug addicts are being rounded up and sent into the Tenderloin and told to stay there. Hahaha!
Yep, so San Francisco will be a bulls-eye for anyone who doesn't like AIPAC.
It's a safe bet that Pelosi and other elected officials already belong to AIPAC. The organization is not interested in poor homeless people, they want wealthy politically connected high rollers.
I didn't know what "AIPAC" was until you brought this up here and I looked it up. So my first gut response was this is not legal! How is a foreign government allowed to lobby in OUR GOVERNMENT!? I never had a vote in funding neither Israel nor Ukraine so you can bet when this started the people of this country at the that time did not get to vote for it either. It just becomes more and more apparent there really is no way to "Drain the Swamp".
If, in good company, you mean people astroturfing the slaughter of concert goers, then you betcha. If you mean you're in good company with a bunch of rich westerners who do not have to bear the repercussions of the insane hamas leaderships' attacks on civilians, then sure, you're probably in good company. If in good company, you mean people that believe an area that was Ottoman Turk for 500 years until WWI, when they lost to the Brits and French, then was Brit/French until Israel was created is somehow the indigenous land of primarily nomadic people, sure you're right there with them. If you mean a bunch of anti-semites, yep. If you mean a bunch of worthless collectivists/marxists/commies - there they are.
The apologists I see with their pants down are the people you hold out as being good company. The commie/marxist US middle class who are all safe and secure (unless they live in a heavily democrat US district) are the ones being exposed for their lack of humanity. Killing innocents is ALWAYS wrong. If the company you keep doesn't believe that, then the company you keep are EVIL. What is even worse is that hamas knew that israel would react with overwhelming force - it is sacrificing gaza and its own civilians. Yeah hamas! rah-rah-shish-boom-bah.
Yeah, israel sucks, but hamas screwed-up bigtime this time.
The abuser blaming the abused when they lash out at their abuse.
Nothing psychologically new here. I wonder just how many innocent people will die in the next few weeks, on both sides? We all know the Israelis will murder far more people than the Gaza population are capable of murdering. With all the sophisticated fancy bombs the US has supplied them. Then there is also the hidden casualty rates caused by no electricity, no food - a city literally under siege harking back to Feudal dark-age sieges.
Will the rest of the Arab world look on as the Israelis murder the shit out of the mostly Arab inhabitants of Gaza? Or will the Neocons wet dream of escalating war finally come true and the entire middle-east will go up in flames? Along with most of Israel?
It is a risk when the abused strikes back at the abuser that the abuse will get worse. But it also sometimes happens that the abuser stops abusing. Either way, the abused can feel a bit better knowing that they didn't just take the abuse without trying to stop it.
Scott Ritter said that Israeli military planners had war gamed a 2 front war (with Syria and Iran joining) and concluded that they would lose. (on Sunday's George Galloway show).
Why do the "palestinians" get to play the part of the abused?
Answer this, how many more gazainians? do you think will die after this attack than if they hadn't attacked?
The real question is, what did hamas expect? Like you say, "we all know the israelis will 'murder' far more people..." Well, hamas knew that too.
Hamas are fuckwads, look up Black September, they are sociopaths. It will be interesting if other arab nations engage in the region. Blinken went to turkey and now Erdogon is saying that Israel shouldn't go nuts on gaze, hmmmmmm, wonder how much that cost us?
The neocons are already in Ukraine, like idiots. I don;t think this gaza thing will last, I hope not. I hope the neocons in the US all die tomorrow, fwiw, they are a cancer on the US and the world.
I was wrong. You're a fucking moron. "play" the part of the abused? Palestinians in scare quotes? Seriously go kill yourself you fucking pussy. Do you realize that Israel more than helped to CREATE Hamas for one reason because the PLO was too far left/socialist for the US and Zionists to allow to be effective? Please tell me you actually know at least some history.
Gee, aren't you a precious little thing. I hope it never happens again, but when hamas or some other piss-ant worthless sand-hutu has a hissy fit and kills some people, it will be your worthless spawn.
Fuck the left and fuck you, programmed moron. Get a life, your own life.
When I see Palestinian or Israeli parents carrying their dead children, I’m shaken…shaken out of my carefully curated Hollywood/ESPN/Wall Street/Main Street manufactured comfort zone that claims the arc of the universe tends toward justice or that good always wins in the end. It doesn’t. Belief in just wars is the primary cause of all wars. The innocent and the good are always the easiest targets.
OK, when did the war start, last week, 1946, 1918, prior to the Ottoman Turk empire?
It seems that Israel wasn't really at war with the people of gaza. I'm sure you can say that since deoccupation (15-20 years ago?), it has still sucked in gaza, but those people were free to leave gaza - heck the US will take a person from Honduras as a political refugee if they're gay and get the stinkeye at a soccer match there.
Hamas, imo, is responsible for any excess killings of Gazanians(? someone help me out there) since the hang glider psychopaths killed the concert goers. Hamas pricked a festering boil, and they knew exactly what they were doing and exactly what was going to happen.
Regardless, all the lefties in the US and abroad (and any non-lefties, too) that are celebrating what has taken place there are sad, pathetic people, imo. YMMV.
Nobody is celebrating on the left, most are incensed that the decades long genocide of Palestinians garnered no condemnation from the world all this time, but one pushback from the Palestinians raises a howl and stink in the US as if it were New York that had been bombed. There’s nothing pathetic about standing up for the underdog.
Look, there are thousands of dingbat kids across the country programmed into thinking either pro-israel or pro-palestine, it's stunning how stupid these kids are.
"One pushback" There was no pushback, it was an organized murder of innocent lives, you ghoul. There was no pushback, because that would require israel to move back, which is the opposite - israel is going to (has) level large portions of gaza and kill many many more innocent lives - YEAH, that'll show those occupiers...JFC, what the F is wrong with you?
"palestinians" have ZERO, NO, legal claim to israel or gaza. The Ottoman Turks lost, get over it. Freakin idiots on campuses, in the press, blm (lol, what a bunch of corrupt morons those losers are - imagine thinking to yourself, yeah, those girls have a point - bwahahahah), and a buch of lefty fallen middle class jews at the US's "(once) finest" unis. Pathetic.
Stop killing people, stop thinking killing innocent people is justified because of some historical matter that can NEVER EVER EVER be undone, especially by creating new historical injustices. fucking idiots.
" Killing innocents is ALWAYS wrong. If the company you keep doesn't believe that, then the company you keep are EVIL.." Quite so. And think of all to whom that now applies. Some of them are not far away, and apparently they're willing to tell you who they are. Believe them.
I suppose this means something w/r/t the US and its foreign policy, if so I agree. I have one vote (I'm not a democrat, so that's all I get) and i always vote against the warmongers. That means voting 3rd party sometimes, but it always means voting against clinton/obamma/biden(obamma II).
IMO, there is only one significant issue over all others in the US, and that is to stop the warmongering. Nothing else comes close - we are that fortunate (for now).
LOL OK, grandpa-aged man without any offspring or grandchildren, OK now. Let us know when you're done hollering at the clouds so that we can give you your evening meds.
Oh they meant the Tatars? LOL. OK. Have they ever been known for terrorism? I need a link to prove they were subjected to any special treatment. Regardless, if they were looked into, it was because Turkey is NATO and they could be CIA or Turkish intelligence.
Found an error/lie right away. Russia didn't "search all the Turks" in Crimea when they took it back in 2014. They had already been there and the population was heavily Russian speaking and ethnic. They had two military installations there and Russians would vacation there. No special actions were taken against "Turks" after the referendum.
I don't know what Hamas's theory is. Mr. Gallant said (according to report) that his theory was that the people under his control could do anything they wanted, that they were no longer under any moral restrictions or laws. A number of people and institutions seem to have attached themselves to this theory. People who no longer have any moral structure are doomed, regardless of whether they call themselves 'Israel' or 'Hamas' or anything else. They will not survive. It won't matter who did what to whom first.
I agree. That is why there is no reason for anyone on either side to be celebrating. It is a sick sad thing and many innocent schmucks trying to be humans are going to get royally fucked.
Hiya Jeano, just a small point it was Great Britain and Northern Ireland not England, as the Americans often say, who were the demons in India, though admittedly the Scots, Irish and Welsh may not have initially come along that willingly either.
Gandhi also tried to oppose religious and ethnic partition in India though eventually it seemed the only way, seen as a temporary measure, to avoid civil war between two organised armies. The British supported partition as after the second world war they just wanted out of many countries who were becoming such a headache and economic drain. It led, of course, to apartheid in both India and Pakistan, civil unrest and millions dying. Pakistan is still really struggling with control by paramilitary groups, not much talked about in the western press. But of course we can't know if they'd have been better or worse off without partition.
Thank you, this is great info. I paused before writing “England” knowing it was mostly Great Britain then but didn’t want to smear the rest of the island (and certainly not the Irish who hated the English on their land) with a broad brush in case they had nothing to do with the colonial destruction of India. And yes, the outcome of that war was not what Gandhi wanted either. I wish I knew more about what underhanded BS the US was doing in that whole thing.
Tlaib and Omar have no problems with funding real Nazis in Ukraine, but they do with funding Israel. They were proven worthless when they wouldn't even force a floor vote on Medicare-for-All in the middle of a pandemic.
Standing up to the DNC, my fanny. I bet they had to get permission from the Democratic leadership to be the token opposition to this shiny new war.
At least Chris Hedges and Caitlin Johnstone are consistently antiwar. Progressive Dems are not.
How is going to a concert and having a good time any different than going to a concert and being slaughtered by a bunch of hang glider psychopaths from over the border?
Hamas is sacrificing those gaza people. If the US started nuking China, I'd be pissed if China nuked my town, but I'd understand why they did it.
Look, a false flag would not surprise me, but hamas seems to be happy to take credit.
Do not get me wrong, whoever is responsible for the taking of innocent lives should be severely punished. I have no loyalties to hamas, israel, or the biden administration - seems to me the world would be a better place w/o all of them - throw in current Iran asshats and a few others, too.
You also need to be be careful not to compare school age children in gaza with 18-19 year odds who are off duty Israeli army soldiers (the state of israel has acheived this occupation by permantley mobilizing all people over 18 as soldiers on a rolling basis of duty), and when on duty are the same ones brutalizing the palestinians. Or who else did you think was doing this - imaginary fairies?
I was wondering if Hamas really was indiscriminately killing civilians, not that I'd rule it out, but there is the issue of complete lack of trust in the media. Let's recall the Russian war crimes on balance seem to have in reality been committed by Ukraine, so we know that narratives are spun. Let's hope saner heads prevail.
That detachment from the horrors--that "it isn't real so we don't have to worry about what was done in our name" syndrome--is what keeps these conflicts growing and spreading. It's what the military industrial complex wants and needs to continue. It's why we've got to show the gruesome pictures and videos of the actual slaughter so it will shock the propagandized sleepy public awake. The body bags being loaded onto the planes from Vietnam shocked a generation and caused them to demand an end to that war. We need to do the same to help end all wars today.
Probably why they are now working hard to have full control of the Internet. They must keep the body bags hidden of all the "bad guys" they kill.
It's pretty sickening how one-sided the MSM talking heads and their shows - how they've been covering the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe over there. It's 90% showing what the Hamas have done to Israel - the body bags of Israelis. It's all pro-israel, pro-empire propaganda - George Orwell 1984 brainwashing of the American public who are still watching these propaganda shows.
I mean, I was just as sickened as anyone seeing these Festival goers get butchered in broad daylight. The horror of innocent civilians being tied up and driven off to who knows what fate. The heinous immorality of doing that to any innocent human being for whatever reason you've justified to yourself - ending their lives as a means to your own end. I don't think that kind of violence can *ever* be justified for any reason. But the Israelis in return, are perpetrating this same evil - even moreso by murdering even *more* innocent human beings. Neither side can call themselves morally good as the murder continues on both sides. And world leaders refusing to even attempt to halt the human carnage have just as much blood on their hands. The Zionists here though are the far greater evil - because they are the oppressors, not the Palestinians. But it still does not justify the butchery - from either side.
Did the people of Gaza know they were to be sacrificed like this? Israel now has the green light from western allies to basically wipe gaza from the map.
Did you actually even read this article or follow current events for the last few days? Do you have any idea what is going on? You must think that the people of Gaza are stupid.
Susan T: Hamas is stupid to attack Israel in this way and the people of Gaza are stupid to support Hamas. All Hamas does for those living in Gaza (3 million people in 181 sq. miles) is get them killed.
Find a peaceful solution. Hamas isn't working.
For example in Ireland. The IRA is not supported by the people of the Republic of Ireland. All the IRA does is cause problems for the Irish.
Gaza will never find its way to peace and prosperity without a political solution with the Israelis.
The promised genocidal attack on Gaza looks to be in process at this time. This is the time for every witness, whether direct or indirect, to decide if their reputations, careers, personal relationships or false comfort of mind take priority over their souls.
Genocide is not endemic to the human condition. That is a cheap excuse for such a horrible situation. People learn throughout their lives to think it is important to be considered better than others. They learn that being rich is being successful. They learn that men are smarter and better than women, especially if they are white. They learn that people will think more highly of them if they own an expensive car or live in an expensive neighbourhood. But nobody is born that way. We need to stop our massive consumption, we need to value art and nature more, we need to allow each other to be whoever they chose to be. We all need to work on ourselves to unlearn all the garbage that we have been taught is important. We were not born thinking that.
Susan T: Genocide is the extermination of a particular group of people e.g. the Armenians by the Turks or the American Indians by the Europeans or the Tasmanians by the English, so that the land can be taken.
You are writing about something completely different.
no, I am not writing about anything that is completely different. Genocide doesn't happen out of the blue. It happens when one group that think they are better than another group and the "better" people then denigrate the "less good" people so that it becomes OK to hurt them or kill them. This all starts by brainwashing us into thinking that our nice clothes, beautiful house, expensive car etc make us "better" "successful people.
Susan T: Who is "us"? You keep throwing people into groups. Show an example of your theory about brainwashing the masses into thinking they are better? I would say Hitler was good at this and that led to genocide. That would be a good example of your theory.
But IMO, you are putting the cart before the horse. The German people were not rich or had nice clothes when Hitler came to power. They'd just gone through the Hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic.
You seem to equate a good standard of living with genocide and this is what I object to.
As Caitlin says, there is nothing complicated in all of this.
Britain, in 1948 created the state of Israel out of what was Palestinian land. Israel acquired a much more fertile area, leaving the Palestinians with the poorer quality land. Subsequently, Israel has taken other land it was not entitled to, against UN resolutions and, therefore, international law.
Worse than that, Israel has completely taken over Palestinian infrastructure, work, food and everything else so can simply stop every supply when it wants to, as it is now doing.
Whilst the treatment of the Jews in the 1930s and 40s was wholly unacceptable, it does not give Israel the right to behave as it does against Palestinians.
Palestinians and Jews are the same people, with the same beliefs and are both Abrahamic religions, so both Semitic. Interestingly, the definition of antisemitism is against Abrahamic religions not just Jews.
Jews claim antisemitism for every mild criticism of Israel and/or Jews which it is not. Antisemitism is being racist against Abrahamic religions, not a mild criticism of Israeli activities.
I see in the UK press today, we had the UK Hone Secretary claiming carrying a Palestinian flag could be a criminal offence and that the Police should protect Jews and Israelis from attack by Palestinians (in a peaceful protest), but not the other way round.
We also had a minute’s silence for Israel at the Labour Party conference. What about some recognition of Palestine, a state created by Britain for its treatment by Israel over 70+ years?
In an earlier post I referred to Hamas as a terrorist organisation. What I missed out was that it is not. It is a body protecting Palestinians in the only way it can. It may not be the favourite of every Palestinian but that is the same everywhere: every government governs without the vote of every person.
Also a terrorist group is not a terrorist group, simply because somebody else says it is. The US and the UK claim to be democracies and they are not, simply because they claim themselves to be that. It is like respect: you are not entitled to it, you have to earn it.
If Mandela was trying to free South Africans today he would be in Guantanamo - if he was lucky that is. More likely he would have been drone executed. And even bad then he was declared to be a terrorist.
Also instructive to note that Botha and his apartheid regime was considered a “close ally” of the west back then, and the west gave them weapons and support, to put down the colonised. As today is being done with Israel’s apartheid regime: open wallet and full unqualified support, for murder and oppression of colonised peoples.
Colonialists do what they do. And they stick together.
Very well said Caitlin. Regardless of anyone's sympathies atrocities against civilians are to be abhorred, with the scale of the abhorrence consistent with the scale of the atrocities. On this score the Israel regime is ahead by at least an order of magnitude (just check the ratio of civilian deaths and injuries after every flare up - about 80 to 1 on one occasion).
The hypocrisy of media and polities who are outraged about Palestinian actions and are then totally silent about the massively greater Israeli actions (genocidal over- reactions) is breathtaking.
Max Blumenthal's doco following the 2014 war in Gazza is more than enough to explain the causes of the latest violence. It would be nice if this was shown on all mainstream media channels!
The hypocrisy comes into it when the West pretends to be acting from the highest moral principles, and are lauded by the uninitiated - those who take rationalizations at face value. Israel has oppressed Palestine for 75 years, ever since the Nakba, or Palestine disaster when they forced 700,000 Palestinians from historic Palestine by openly committing the most horrendous atrocities, with the dual purpose of reducing the Palestinian population directly, and through fear of more atrocities. They have encouraged and ignored horrendous settler violence in the territories ever since, and for 16 years ignored the fact of 2.2 million Palestinians forced by Israel into what is commonly described as an open air prison where water, fuel and all supplies, even food, are strictly limited to the point that the the calories of a near starvation diet have been coldly calculated. And every few years they are mowed down in broad daylight - women, old men, unarmed young men, babies and young children. The West is always on the side of the most vicious, and that describes Israel. Gaza responded as all but the most subservient and brain dead must respond in order to keep their humanity. It is sickening to witness moral outrage and maudlin grief for entirely the wrong side.
Doris: Who is this mythical "West" you write about? Caitlin is right. It's the Empire based in DC and London who want these wars. Blood money is very lucrative.
The West is comprised mainly by North America, Europe and Australia and those countries that attach themselves through coercion or perceived advantage. It is only mystical in its ability to seem highly moral and even intelligent, because of its financial and economic superiority and sway. But that is changing with the new found power of the BRIC nations and the global south.
Doris: Do people in school even get taught a Western Civilization course anymore? For me, the West always meant a culture of the individual and liberty. Western Civilization is an idea of human cooperation through liberty and freedom for the individual.
This does lead to economic prosperity, which you mention.
Unfortunately, the US Senate voted for Empire back in 1898 (by one vote) after defeating Spain. Hence the taking of the Philippines etc. It was the road to ruin.
Is the West civilized? What we called civilization was actually raw colonialism. We don't have votes on war these days, and all parties are run by the shadow state which backs war in all its forms, all the time. The world powers recognize only one value: money.
Doris: There is a good article by Richard Ebeling today on the Future of Freedom Foundation website. Ebeling writes about Albert Jay Nock's article in 1924. It was about "Doing the Right Thing".
As Ebeling and Nock point out, you can't have liberty or moral human beings without a small government. People must have the liberty to both do the right thing and the wrong thing (as long as it hurts no one but themselves).
What you describe with "raw colonialism" and war and a "shadow state" wouldn't exist without a large government.
Do not fall for the canard that the proles are the problem. The State is the problem.
I mean, it is about hypocrisy, a little bit. It is no coincidence that all the same empire apologists that supported the ukraine also support Israel today.
Serious intellectual hypocrisy is the greatest sin a person can commit. Nothing else matters.
Colonialists do what colonialists do. And they stick together.
Note that all the countries expressing shock and horror are the SAME one that have stood by while Israel has occupied, ravaged and dispossessed these civilians in Palestine for decades on end. They are the SAME ones that either drone innocent civilians to death around the world - knowingly - or ally with countries that do it:
«….. Biden’s remarks, predictably, incited Israeli war crimes. Immediately following the speech, Israel began using white phosphorus to create firestorms in civilian areas – a crime under international law. Israel bombed the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Tuesday, alongside countless other multi-story buildings. Israel continued to deny the Palestinians food, water, and electricity, in line with the pledge by Prime Minister Netanyahu that any areas harboring that resist the Israeli occupation will be reduced to “ruins.”
Biden's language comes close to promoting and legitimizing genocide. The resistance by Palestinians was a manifestation, Biden began, of “pure unadulterated evil.” These words echoed the statements of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday who called the Palestinians “animals.” Netanyahu’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly….»
So all of this is simply colonialists standing together. None of them are actually interested in justice or peace. None.
If so, we are seeing the beginning of their end. You may not believe this, but people with no moral structure cannot survive. They will revert to the war of all against all. And that is what Mr. Gallant seems to have prescribed and seems to be following.
We live in societies with no moral structure whatsoever. The rich do what they want. “Government” works only for them. And many of government leaders are literally in the pockets of the rich.
Who should shed light on this? The media are pure liars. They wont even stand up when journalists as persecuted, let alone to defend the public interest. The son of the US president was collecting money for “work” in ukraine, where he as no experience, and doesn’t speak the language. Any language. What was he getting paid for then? The media refuses to even ask.
The courts? Corrupted too.
We are already there. And indeed this is not a sustainable system.
Actually, I think there are a lot of people who live within some kind of moral structure or other; otherwise, most of them would eventually kill one another. Since humans evolved into their present form before they cooked up religions, law and philosophy and other mind games, I assume it's some kind of instinct provided genetically through Evolution. At some point, those who want human beings to continue will have to get away from those who are devoted to death and destruction. Alternatively, I guess they can let Nature draw a line across the page.
I see the moral instinct, if any, as a positive thing, installed in normal human's by normal development of the individual (or a group or family) genetically to enable perhaps disparate collections of humans to get along and cooperate. The people who are missing the needed circuitry or chemicals, we usually call sociopaths or psychopaths. "Amoral", on the other hand, might be the result of some superficial abstract philosophical consideration, like nihilism, which didn't correspond to the person's real feelings or life experience but was rather the development of a mind game or a stance or pose. (Also, The two modes of thought could be in conflict with one another, as in Dostoyevsky's _Crime and Punishment_.) I suppose also that some life experiences might strengthen or diminish the moral instinct I'm proposing, so it's not a genes drive all sort of idea. No doubt there are people who will dislike this sort of theory because it seems redolent of woo or spirituality. It's actually pretty materialistic.
There can be no reasonable doub t that Jews have been persecuted for a large part of the last two thousand years. So I used to be quite inhibited from criticizing Jewish organization. But them I learned that the group pf Jews who subscribe to Zionism are something else. It is rather like the advanced German civilisation which suddenly developed a very large and very horrible off-shoot called Naziism . To criticize and oppose Nazi Germany was then the right thing to do in spite of the danger of demonising Germans in general. The Nazi State needed opposing and dismantling and exactl the asme applies to the Zionist State of Israel. The 100,000bomber raids blasting civilian Germany were not morally justified and nor is the attempt of fHamas and others to dismantle the Zionist State of Israel via the murder of masses of civilians
It’s a bit like blaming your battered wife for trying to poison you. I do not condone her poisoning you, but it was certainly provoked and understandable. Then you start trying to make her admit that she’s been very bad, that it’s her fault, that she should condemn herself for being evil. You start making sure all your friends agree that it’s her fault, that she’s been very bad and is evil, to justify your continuing to batter her, and then getting them to help you pummel her so hard she’ll never try it again.
Only later is it discovered that you took the poison yourself to set up your wife.
I think the Hamas attack was almost certainly planned, orchestrated or allowed by the Israelis or the CIA for exactly this violent, aggressive, scripted, zombie, insane response from Israel, US and Uk politicians and the miserable excuses for news media.
I wouldn't put it past the deep state knowing. But I think the more likely scenario - hypothesized by "The Duran" is the intelligence was given to the leaders including Netanyahu - and they ignored the intelligence. Now the reasons for them ignoring the intelligence, we'll probably never know. Was it incompetence, or the willingness to let it happen?
"If I was an Israel supporter I’d be thinking very carefully about the things I’m posting online in the build-up to what could end up being regarded as one of history’s worst genocidal massacres. The internet doesn’t forget. What you’re tweeting today could haunt you for life."
The Israeli government simply assumes that they will always be the winners, that their American gorilla will force everyone else to heel, that they always will be able to bully any dissent into silence and compliance.
George Steiner wrote that the Holocaust was what made the State of Israel possible.
One of the few good things to come out of this explosion is seeing the Israel apologists being exposed everywhere. Pants down. As I noted before, now it’s Tulsi. Another good thing is seeing the courage of those who see and live in justice—Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. Great strong women facing down the fucking DNC and all the rest of the dim dam Dems. And I just found out that Gandhi opposed the creation of Israel and spoke out against it even while he had his hands full trying to lead his people out from under the great demon colonizer, England. Chris Hedges is excellent in his latest condemnation of the Israeli’s and Yanis Varoufakis is pointing the blame at Europe for never once speaking out against Israel’s slow torture of the Palestinians. And of course Caitlin—eviscerating the fascist bullshit my country is spewing to promote this Armageddon. At least I can let myself accept that I’m in good company, even if I am a member of the nation that brought this about.
Your nation may have been the primary one to bring this about because it wants empire. But a lot of other nations have given support, including mine and the other NATO countries. While the US is the big tough guy holding guns of democracy in both hands and being very visible as the "big power" lots of other countries have stood behind them.
Susan: What is this "your nation" bullshit? It isn't my nation. No one asks me how to run it or even what it is.
It's like saying, "It's your prison camp." to the people in Gaza. Or "It's your nation." to the people in Israel.
Bullshit!
How much power do you really have in "your nation"?
"American people are very much like the children of a Mafia boss who do not know what their father does for a living, and don't want to know, but then wonder why someone just threw a firebomb through the living room window." William Blum
William: Well, that's just like William Blum's opinion. What Blum describes in the quote is not what I've found to be true in America in my 70+ years of living here.
You appear to be the guy sitting in the living room wondering where the firebomb came from !
More likely sitting on the toilet letting what brains he has flush away.
Wish had spent my 60 years living where you are because Blum speaks truth as i see it.
Brother Strawberry: Move to Upper Midwest. I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. It's a nice small city. Good place to raise kids.
hehehehe mafia inbred heeee
you are right. My use of that term "your nation" was not well thought out
National Governments and the people that populate the seats of authority all colluded against the national publics of those nations from 2000-2020 to get us to the beginning of this planned series of events. Its the seated authorities directed by corporate oligarchies destroying the peoples in the national publics of target nations.
Suggesting that politicians are just puppets being manipulated by evil businessmen is so simplistic its laughable. Its a joint effort, politicians are power hungry sociopaths in their own right. Equal on many footings with oligarchs, the anti-Pinkerton legislation is a good example, outlawing private armies. Violent coercion and war are the job of politicians in their view.
Spiffy, enjoy the laugh and whatever else shows up... That you could not garner your repeated claims from the claim I noted above sorta shows you aren't able to read and comprehend. Are you one of those evil business men? Evil to me just means Selfish. A Taker who takes more than one needs just to be able to Have more and lord it over they who are less willing to Take Advantage.
If private armies are outlawed, how do you explain Blackwater/Xe? Blackrocks thug arm?
And if Violent coercion and war are the politicians job, then lets give them what they deserve and continue to set the context for. Lets just make sure they aren't left standing post event. No point having to repeat an experience due mercy.
I agree, although I think it goes back further than that to just after the second war. The seeds may have been planted even before that.
I’d say when we 1st looked at the Louisiana Purchase, or called New York, “The Empire State”. We have always had designs on being an empire. But you’re right, it really took off under Truman and the CIA.
Susan: No worries. It's like the folks here in the USA who like the song "Proud to be an American."
When I was young, Americans were pretty homogeneous and Christian. That's not true anymore. Americans wanted peace, prosperity, and liberty.
That's not true anymore.
Sigh, I have no idea what the USA is today.
Timmy , the USA is the people who are the descendance (some of them) of the hypocritical mob of English Puritans who massacred the people living on the land and called them 'Indians' to make he sound aliens to the land.There has never been anything good and moral about it. Correction the lying propaganda beginning in Hollywood and infecting all of you news outlets is first rate.
Jack Lomax: Do you even live in the USA? I don't know anyone whose ancestors came from England or were Puritans. Most of the people I know are Irish, Italians, Swedes, Norwegians, and Germans. Half the people in our town come from Mexico. And the Mexicans are part Indian.
Who cares? We all get along.
I have nothing in common with the lizard creatures in DC or NYC who pull the strings.
Lets get a dash of historical facts instead of hyperbole: 80% plus of indigenous peoples in the Americas died from disease not war with Europe. Although the Europeans did commit genocide in many cases the majority of deaths were not from genocide.
Jack Lomax: PS: My best friends in town come from Utter Pradesh in India. I don't call them "Indians". They are Hindus from Utter Pradesh, India.
I too find a mystery the unpopularity of peace and prosperity.
Patrick Powers; Oh, the proles like peace and prosperity but for the Big Boys, war and hard times makes them more money and gives them more power.
It's like saying "Your mother." Whatever she is, she's still your mother.
Starry Gordon: What if she is your sister, too?
I suppose certain configurations might pose difficulties in the realm of biology or physics.
Yes, Susan. The collection of supportive US and Israel countries should not surprise anyone. It has all been part of a long term program, successfully implemented over decades, ever since the UK commenced the creation of apartheid Israel after WWII.
That was the beginning. From then on it was corruption over time of the whole US political scene, one year after another. The weapons, bribery, corruption using the weakness of human beings as their target.
Add to that the influences purchased through media ownership, the large military industrialists with the well planned death of JFK heralding the end of decency in America.
Next step? "Eretz Israel", everything from the Euphrates to the Nile. On its way now, thanks to the pathetically useless UN and the criminal and very weak, USA, dancing every day to Israel’s tune.
Downhill from here, fast, culminating in what we are seeing today, backed up by 400+ nuclear warheads (one for every capital). The scared countries, one by one, bowing down to Zionist influences and corruption, everywhere.
There is not a country that is not marked by this insidious disease.
Yes, Susan, lots of other countries are aiding and abetting the US hegemonic empire. Early on when there were rumblings of a proxy war using Ukraine, some of us thought it was unthinkable, wise heads will prevail, that Nato and EU won't collaborate. We were so gullible - they proved to be just vassal states and appendages of empire and enablers of unimaginable horror and proved to be just naked fascists.
We are now witnessing their collaboration and enabling of the apartheid state of Israel in wiping out the Palestinian people, burying their aspirations of being free from occupation. And the rest of the world looks on!
Everywhere one looks there is turmoil. We will be so naive as not to think that this is a grand plan of empire. Just for a moment there was a glimpse of a better world, a new world order not the disorder we have now. Has all that dissipated with forever wars of diminishing Russia and opening a cold war front with China which at any moment they can turn into a hot war?
Jeano: The USA is run by evil men and women. Just because I was born and live in the USA doesn't mean it is "my country". Passports, birth certificates, social security numbers, drivers licenses... all this paperwork telling me who I am.
Bullshit!
I am what I am and that's all what I am. I'm Popeye the Sailor Man.
I think it's important to distinguish between country (nation) and government, as Mark Twain pointed out. A nation and its government are 2 separate things.
By way of AIPAC and other mechanisms, the Israeli government has owned the US government for decades. Large segments of the nation are more susceptible to pro-Israeli propaganda.
Many Americans support the fascist governments in Washington and Tel Aviv because they have been indoctrinated over generations to buy into the nonsense.
Patriotism means supporting your country (nation) all the time, but its government ONLY when it deserves it. Both the Washington and Tel Aviv governments deserve strong criticism for their cruel actions.
Richard: AIPAC is coming to San Francisco! Yes! The city has spent millions preparing for the arrival of thousands of AIPAC delegates. Homeless drug addicts are being rounded up and sent into the Tenderloin and told to stay there. Hahaha!
Yep, so San Francisco will be a bulls-eye for anyone who doesn't like AIPAC.
Should be fun, eh?
It's a safe bet that Pelosi and other elected officials already belong to AIPAC. The organization is not interested in poor homeless people, they want wealthy politically connected high rollers.
Richard: That's my point. The drug addicts/homeless must be off the streets so as not to soil the eyes of the AIPAC delgates.
I didn't know what "AIPAC" was until you brought this up here and I looked it up. So my first gut response was this is not legal! How is a foreign government allowed to lobby in OUR GOVERNMENT!? I never had a vote in funding neither Israel nor Ukraine so you can bet when this started the people of this country at the that time did not get to vote for it either. It just becomes more and more apparent there really is no way to "Drain the Swamp".
Popeye was funny and honest. You’re just a fool.
Jeano: My life story proves that I'm a fool for love.
If, in good company, you mean people astroturfing the slaughter of concert goers, then you betcha. If you mean you're in good company with a bunch of rich westerners who do not have to bear the repercussions of the insane hamas leaderships' attacks on civilians, then sure, you're probably in good company. If in good company, you mean people that believe an area that was Ottoman Turk for 500 years until WWI, when they lost to the Brits and French, then was Brit/French until Israel was created is somehow the indigenous land of primarily nomadic people, sure you're right there with them. If you mean a bunch of anti-semites, yep. If you mean a bunch of worthless collectivists/marxists/commies - there they are.
The apologists I see with their pants down are the people you hold out as being good company. The commie/marxist US middle class who are all safe and secure (unless they live in a heavily democrat US district) are the ones being exposed for their lack of humanity. Killing innocents is ALWAYS wrong. If the company you keep doesn't believe that, then the company you keep are EVIL. What is even worse is that hamas knew that israel would react with overwhelming force - it is sacrificing gaza and its own civilians. Yeah hamas! rah-rah-shish-boom-bah.
Yeah, israel sucks, but hamas screwed-up bigtime this time.
Unbelievable.
The abuser blaming the abused when they lash out at their abuse.
Nothing psychologically new here. I wonder just how many innocent people will die in the next few weeks, on both sides? We all know the Israelis will murder far more people than the Gaza population are capable of murdering. With all the sophisticated fancy bombs the US has supplied them. Then there is also the hidden casualty rates caused by no electricity, no food - a city literally under siege harking back to Feudal dark-age sieges.
Will the rest of the Arab world look on as the Israelis murder the shit out of the mostly Arab inhabitants of Gaza? Or will the Neocons wet dream of escalating war finally come true and the entire middle-east will go up in flames? Along with most of Israel?
It is a risk when the abused strikes back at the abuser that the abuse will get worse. But it also sometimes happens that the abuser stops abusing. Either way, the abused can feel a bit better knowing that they didn't just take the abuse without trying to stop it.
Scott Ritter, on Judge Napolitano's show today. Scorching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs7cQQ5vnf4
thanks for that link. It is very informative.
I listen to Ritter whenever possible. The guy is rarely very off on a given military or diplomatic subject related to the military.
Scott Ritter said that Israeli military planners had war gamed a 2 front war (with Syria and Iran joining) and concluded that they would lose. (on Sunday's George Galloway show).
That's why Biden sent the Navy.
Why do the "palestinians" get to play the part of the abused?
Answer this, how many more gazainians? do you think will die after this attack than if they hadn't attacked?
The real question is, what did hamas expect? Like you say, "we all know the israelis will 'murder' far more people..." Well, hamas knew that too.
Hamas are fuckwads, look up Black September, they are sociopaths. It will be interesting if other arab nations engage in the region. Blinken went to turkey and now Erdogon is saying that Israel shouldn't go nuts on gaze, hmmmmmm, wonder how much that cost us?
The neocons are already in Ukraine, like idiots. I don;t think this gaza thing will last, I hope not. I hope the neocons in the US all die tomorrow, fwiw, they are a cancer on the US and the world.
I was wrong. You're a fucking moron. "play" the part of the abused? Palestinians in scare quotes? Seriously go kill yourself you fucking pussy. Do you realize that Israel more than helped to CREATE Hamas for one reason because the PLO was too far left/socialist for the US and Zionists to allow to be effective? Please tell me you actually know at least some history.
Gee, aren't you a precious little thing. I hope it never happens again, but when hamas or some other piss-ant worthless sand-hutu has a hissy fit and kills some people, it will be your worthless spawn.
Fuck the left and fuck you, programmed moron. Get a life, your own life.
Hamas has been so heavily sponsored by the Israeli and US right in large part **BECAUSE** the other options leant left. FFS, learn some history.
“Killing innocents is ALWAYS wrong.”
Who do you think dies in wars?
When I see Palestinian or Israeli parents carrying their dead children, I’m shaken…shaken out of my carefully curated Hollywood/ESPN/Wall Street/Main Street manufactured comfort zone that claims the arc of the universe tends toward justice or that good always wins in the end. It doesn’t. Belief in just wars is the primary cause of all wars. The innocent and the good are always the easiest targets.
OK, when did the war start, last week, 1946, 1918, prior to the Ottoman Turk empire?
It seems that Israel wasn't really at war with the people of gaza. I'm sure you can say that since deoccupation (15-20 years ago?), it has still sucked in gaza, but those people were free to leave gaza - heck the US will take a person from Honduras as a political refugee if they're gay and get the stinkeye at a soccer match there.
Hamas, imo, is responsible for any excess killings of Gazanians(? someone help me out there) since the hang glider psychopaths killed the concert goers. Hamas pricked a festering boil, and they knew exactly what they were doing and exactly what was going to happen.
Regardless, all the lefties in the US and abroad (and any non-lefties, too) that are celebrating what has taken place there are sad, pathetic people, imo. YMMV.
Nobody is celebrating on the left, most are incensed that the decades long genocide of Palestinians garnered no condemnation from the world all this time, but one pushback from the Palestinians raises a howl and stink in the US as if it were New York that had been bombed. There’s nothing pathetic about standing up for the underdog.
Nobody? https://www.foxnews.com/us/dozens-pro-palestinian-university-student-chapters-celebrate-attack-israel-not-unprovoked
Look, there are thousands of dingbat kids across the country programmed into thinking either pro-israel or pro-palestine, it's stunning how stupid these kids are.
"One pushback" There was no pushback, it was an organized murder of innocent lives, you ghoul. There was no pushback, because that would require israel to move back, which is the opposite - israel is going to (has) level large portions of gaza and kill many many more innocent lives - YEAH, that'll show those occupiers...JFC, what the F is wrong with you?
"palestinians" have ZERO, NO, legal claim to israel or gaza. The Ottoman Turks lost, get over it. Freakin idiots on campuses, in the press, blm (lol, what a bunch of corrupt morons those losers are - imagine thinking to yourself, yeah, those girls have a point - bwahahahah), and a buch of lefty fallen middle class jews at the US's "(once) finest" unis. Pathetic.
Stop killing people, stop thinking killing innocent people is justified because of some historical matter that can NEVER EVER EVER be undone, especially by creating new historical injustices. fucking idiots.
this is happening in so called Canada
https://twitter.com/SanaSaeed/status/1712073791847739658
" Killing innocents is ALWAYS wrong. If the company you keep doesn't believe that, then the company you keep are EVIL.." Quite so. And think of all to whom that now applies. Some of them are not far away, and apparently they're willing to tell you who they are. Believe them.
I suppose this means something w/r/t the US and its foreign policy, if so I agree. I have one vote (I'm not a democrat, so that's all I get) and i always vote against the warmongers. That means voting 3rd party sometimes, but it always means voting against clinton/obamma/biden(obamma II).
IMO, there is only one significant issue over all others in the US, and that is to stop the warmongering. Nothing else comes close - we are that fortunate (for now).
Commie/marxist middle class in the US?
LOL - you're truly a fucking 3rd grade level Bircher moron.
Have you ever even BEEN to the US? As in outside your OWN liberal fascist enclave, you basement dwelling trust-fund-wannabe future mass shooter?
LOL, found the sophomore.
Power to the sheeple!!! Idiot.
LOL OK, grandpa-aged man without any offspring or grandchildren, OK now. Let us know when you're done hollering at the clouds so that we can give you your evening meds.
Oh they meant the Tatars? LOL. OK. Have they ever been known for terrorism? I need a link to prove they were subjected to any special treatment. Regardless, if they were looked into, it was because Turkey is NATO and they could be CIA or Turkish intelligence.
https://www.unz.com/akarlin/five-myths-about-the-crimean-referendum/
Found an error/lie right away. Russia didn't "search all the Turks" in Crimea when they took it back in 2014. They had already been there and the population was heavily Russian speaking and ethnic. They had two military installations there and Russians would vacation there. No special actions were taken against "Turks" after the referendum.
I don't know what Hamas's theory is. Mr. Gallant said (according to report) that his theory was that the people under his control could do anything they wanted, that they were no longer under any moral restrictions or laws. A number of people and institutions seem to have attached themselves to this theory. People who no longer have any moral structure are doomed, regardless of whether they call themselves 'Israel' or 'Hamas' or anything else. They will not survive. It won't matter who did what to whom first.
I agree. That is why there is no reason for anyone on either side to be celebrating. It is a sick sad thing and many innocent schmucks trying to be humans are going to get royally fucked.
What did Omar say? At least as of a few days ago, she was meekly toeing the Team D party line.
Hiya Jeano, just a small point it was Great Britain and Northern Ireland not England, as the Americans often say, who were the demons in India, though admittedly the Scots, Irish and Welsh may not have initially come along that willingly either.
Gandhi also tried to oppose religious and ethnic partition in India though eventually it seemed the only way, seen as a temporary measure, to avoid civil war between two organised armies. The British supported partition as after the second world war they just wanted out of many countries who were becoming such a headache and economic drain. It led, of course, to apartheid in both India and Pakistan, civil unrest and millions dying. Pakistan is still really struggling with control by paramilitary groups, not much talked about in the western press. But of course we can't know if they'd have been better or worse off without partition.
Thank you, this is great info. I paused before writing “England” knowing it was mostly Great Britain then but didn’t want to smear the rest of the island (and certainly not the Irish who hated the English on their land) with a broad brush in case they had nothing to do with the colonial destruction of India. And yes, the outcome of that war was not what Gandhi wanted either. I wish I knew more about what underhanded BS the US was doing in that whole thing.
I was just reading Chris.. I couldn't agree more with everything you just said.
Tlaib and Omar have no problems with funding real Nazis in Ukraine, but they do with funding Israel. They were proven worthless when they wouldn't even force a floor vote on Medicare-for-All in the middle of a pandemic.
Standing up to the DNC, my fanny. I bet they had to get permission from the Democratic leadership to be the token opposition to this shiny new war.
At least Chris Hedges and Caitlin Johnstone are consistently antiwar. Progressive Dems are not.
How is carpet bombing of 2.5 M people in ultra-densely strip of land different from gas chambers?
I don't know, because all the people living in Gaza are the bad guys (including children)? Like in the movies?
Hamas attack – a set up ??!!
https://rumble.com/v3oewxb-the-israel-attacks-beyond-the-obvious-with-efrat-fenigson.html
It's messier. Himmler was a neat freak. That's why he went for gas chambers.
Other than that, not very much.
The more expensive a weapons system the more legitimate the violence it wrecks. Everybody knows that.
How is going to a concert and having a good time any different than going to a concert and being slaughtered by a bunch of hang glider psychopaths from over the border?
Hamas is sacrificing those gaza people. If the US started nuking China, I'd be pissed if China nuked my town, but I'd understand why they did it.
Think of it like The Warsaw Ghetto uprising - nothing to lose.
That's a great analogy. Wanna bet on when we'll see it on CNN or Fox?
Neither do I.
Hamas attack – a set up ??!!
https://rumble.com/v3oewxb-the-israel-attacks-beyond-the-obvious-with-efrat-fenigson.html
Look, a false flag would not surprise me, but hamas seems to be happy to take credit.
Do not get me wrong, whoever is responsible for the taking of innocent lives should be severely punished. I have no loyalties to hamas, israel, or the biden administration - seems to me the world would be a better place w/o all of them - throw in current Iran asshats and a few others, too.
One murder does not justify another.
You also need to be be careful not to compare school age children in gaza with 18-19 year odds who are off duty Israeli army soldiers (the state of israel has acheived this occupation by permantley mobilizing all people over 18 as soldiers on a rolling basis of duty), and when on duty are the same ones brutalizing the palestinians. Or who else did you think was doing this - imaginary fairies?
Hamas attack – a set up ??!!
https://rumble.com/v3oewxb-the-israel-attacks-beyond-the-obvious-with-efrat-fenigson.html
I was wondering if Hamas really was indiscriminately killing civilians, not that I'd rule it out, but there is the issue of complete lack of trust in the media. Let's recall the Russian war crimes on balance seem to have in reality been committed by Ukraine, so we know that narratives are spun. Let's hope saner heads prevail.
Today's Kim Iversen touched on this: https://rumble.com/v3of87n-october-10-2023.html?start=1310
That detachment from the horrors--that "it isn't real so we don't have to worry about what was done in our name" syndrome--is what keeps these conflicts growing and spreading. It's what the military industrial complex wants and needs to continue. It's why we've got to show the gruesome pictures and videos of the actual slaughter so it will shock the propagandized sleepy public awake. The body bags being loaded onto the planes from Vietnam shocked a generation and caused them to demand an end to that war. We need to do the same to help end all wars today.
Probably why they are now working hard to have full control of the Internet. They must keep the body bags hidden of all the "bad guys" they kill.
It's pretty sickening how one-sided the MSM talking heads and their shows - how they've been covering the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe over there. It's 90% showing what the Hamas have done to Israel - the body bags of Israelis. It's all pro-israel, pro-empire propaganda - George Orwell 1984 brainwashing of the American public who are still watching these propaganda shows.
I mean, I was just as sickened as anyone seeing these Festival goers get butchered in broad daylight. The horror of innocent civilians being tied up and driven off to who knows what fate. The heinous immorality of doing that to any innocent human being for whatever reason you've justified to yourself - ending their lives as a means to your own end. I don't think that kind of violence can *ever* be justified for any reason. But the Israelis in return, are perpetrating this same evil - even moreso by murdering even *more* innocent human beings. Neither side can call themselves morally good as the murder continues on both sides. And world leaders refusing to even attempt to halt the human carnage have just as much blood on their hands. The Zionists here though are the far greater evil - because they are the oppressors, not the Palestinians. But it still does not justify the butchery - from either side.
You must be suggesting body bags or some other catastrophe for the USA which would indeed "help end all wars today".
Did the people of Gaza know they were to be sacrificed like this? Israel now has the green light from western allies to basically wipe gaza from the map.
Did you actually even read this article or follow current events for the last few days? Do you have any idea what is going on? You must think that the people of Gaza are stupid.
I’ve read the military arm of Hamas led the attack and this isn’t necessarily the people
of Gaza, hence the question
Carolyn L Zaremba: Yes. I think the people of Gaza are stupid.
So much for Caitlin's warning. Well, she tried.
Ohio Barbarian: The folks I know from Ohio are nice. They aren't barbarians.
If Caitlin doesn't want my money, she can kick me off of her Substack anytime.
Timmy Taes: are you trying to be provocative or do you actually think the people of Gaza are stupid?
Susan T: Hamas is stupid to attack Israel in this way and the people of Gaza are stupid to support Hamas. All Hamas does for those living in Gaza (3 million people in 181 sq. miles) is get them killed.
Find a peaceful solution. Hamas isn't working.
For example in Ireland. The IRA is not supported by the people of the Republic of Ireland. All the IRA does is cause problems for the Irish.
Gaza will never find its way to peace and prosperity without a political solution with the Israelis.
The promised genocidal attack on Gaza looks to be in process at this time. This is the time for every witness, whether direct or indirect, to decide if their reputations, careers, personal relationships or false comfort of mind take priority over their souls.
Doris: The USA nuked Japan twice. General Curtis Le May also firebombed Tokyo and all the other cities but Kyoto.
You tell me. Genocide seems to be endemic to the human condition.
I could cite many more examples of genocide.
Personally, I think people are stupid.
You're one, too.
Genocide is not endemic to the human condition. That is a cheap excuse for such a horrible situation. People learn throughout their lives to think it is important to be considered better than others. They learn that being rich is being successful. They learn that men are smarter and better than women, especially if they are white. They learn that people will think more highly of them if they own an expensive car or live in an expensive neighbourhood. But nobody is born that way. We need to stop our massive consumption, we need to value art and nature more, we need to allow each other to be whoever they chose to be. We all need to work on ourselves to unlearn all the garbage that we have been taught is important. We were not born thinking that.
Susan T: Genocide is the extermination of a particular group of people e.g. the Armenians by the Turks or the American Indians by the Europeans or the Tasmanians by the English, so that the land can be taken.
You are writing about something completely different.
no, I am not writing about anything that is completely different. Genocide doesn't happen out of the blue. It happens when one group that think they are better than another group and the "better" people then denigrate the "less good" people so that it becomes OK to hurt them or kill them. This all starts by brainwashing us into thinking that our nice clothes, beautiful house, expensive car etc make us "better" "successful people.
Susan T: Who is "us"? You keep throwing people into groups. Show an example of your theory about brainwashing the masses into thinking they are better? I would say Hitler was good at this and that led to genocide. That would be a good example of your theory.
But IMO, you are putting the cart before the horse. The German people were not rich or had nice clothes when Hitler came to power. They'd just gone through the Hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic.
You seem to equate a good standard of living with genocide and this is what I object to.
"We need to stop our massive consumption, we need to value art and nature more"
YES! But is there one climate or environmental group leading with that message?
I think Extinction Rebellion is trying hard.
The higher the cost of the weapon, the more legitimate the violence. Everyone knows that.
If you spend a trillion dollars on a weapons system then it is practically a holy relic.
100%
As Caitlin says, there is nothing complicated in all of this.
Britain, in 1948 created the state of Israel out of what was Palestinian land. Israel acquired a much more fertile area, leaving the Palestinians with the poorer quality land. Subsequently, Israel has taken other land it was not entitled to, against UN resolutions and, therefore, international law.
Worse than that, Israel has completely taken over Palestinian infrastructure, work, food and everything else so can simply stop every supply when it wants to, as it is now doing.
Whilst the treatment of the Jews in the 1930s and 40s was wholly unacceptable, it does not give Israel the right to behave as it does against Palestinians.
Palestinians and Jews are the same people, with the same beliefs and are both Abrahamic religions, so both Semitic. Interestingly, the definition of antisemitism is against Abrahamic religions not just Jews.
Jews claim antisemitism for every mild criticism of Israel and/or Jews which it is not. Antisemitism is being racist against Abrahamic religions, not a mild criticism of Israeli activities.
I see in the UK press today, we had the UK Hone Secretary claiming carrying a Palestinian flag could be a criminal offence and that the Police should protect Jews and Israelis from attack by Palestinians (in a peaceful protest), but not the other way round.
We also had a minute’s silence for Israel at the Labour Party conference. What about some recognition of Palestine, a state created by Britain for its treatment by Israel over 70+ years?
In an earlier post I referred to Hamas as a terrorist organisation. What I missed out was that it is not. It is a body protecting Palestinians in the only way it can. It may not be the favourite of every Palestinian but that is the same everywhere: every government governs without the vote of every person.
Also a terrorist group is not a terrorist group, simply because somebody else says it is. The US and the UK claim to be democracies and they are not, simply because they claim themselves to be that. It is like respect: you are not entitled to it, you have to earn it.
I actually think that Biden and his regime ARE terrorists.
Me too!
If Mandela was trying to free South Africans today he would be in Guantanamo - if he was lucky that is. More likely he would have been drone executed. And even bad then he was declared to be a terrorist.
Also instructive to note that Botha and his apartheid regime was considered a “close ally” of the west back then, and the west gave them weapons and support, to put down the colonised. As today is being done with Israel’s apartheid regime: open wallet and full unqualified support, for murder and oppression of colonised peoples.
Colonialists do what they do. And they stick together.
Unfortunately, all too true.
The holocaust mantra has been updated to reflect the truth: "Never Again! Unless we are the ones doing it!"
Very well said Caitlin. Regardless of anyone's sympathies atrocities against civilians are to be abhorred, with the scale of the abhorrence consistent with the scale of the atrocities. On this score the Israel regime is ahead by at least an order of magnitude (just check the ratio of civilian deaths and injuries after every flare up - about 80 to 1 on one occasion).
The hypocrisy of media and polities who are outraged about Palestinian actions and are then totally silent about the massively greater Israeli actions (genocidal over- reactions) is breathtaking.
Max Blumenthal's doco following the 2014 war in Gazza is more than enough to explain the causes of the latest violence. It would be nice if this was shown on all mainstream media channels!
The hypocrisy comes into it when the West pretends to be acting from the highest moral principles, and are lauded by the uninitiated - those who take rationalizations at face value. Israel has oppressed Palestine for 75 years, ever since the Nakba, or Palestine disaster when they forced 700,000 Palestinians from historic Palestine by openly committing the most horrendous atrocities, with the dual purpose of reducing the Palestinian population directly, and through fear of more atrocities. They have encouraged and ignored horrendous settler violence in the territories ever since, and for 16 years ignored the fact of 2.2 million Palestinians forced by Israel into what is commonly described as an open air prison where water, fuel and all supplies, even food, are strictly limited to the point that the the calories of a near starvation diet have been coldly calculated. And every few years they are mowed down in broad daylight - women, old men, unarmed young men, babies and young children. The West is always on the side of the most vicious, and that describes Israel. Gaza responded as all but the most subservient and brain dead must respond in order to keep their humanity. It is sickening to witness moral outrage and maudlin grief for entirely the wrong side.
Doris: Who is this mythical "West" you write about? Caitlin is right. It's the Empire based in DC and London who want these wars. Blood money is very lucrative.
It's always about the money.
The West is comprised mainly by North America, Europe and Australia and those countries that attach themselves through coercion or perceived advantage. It is only mystical in its ability to seem highly moral and even intelligent, because of its financial and economic superiority and sway. But that is changing with the new found power of the BRIC nations and the global south.
Doris: Do people in school even get taught a Western Civilization course anymore? For me, the West always meant a culture of the individual and liberty. Western Civilization is an idea of human cooperation through liberty and freedom for the individual.
This does lead to economic prosperity, which you mention.
Unfortunately, the US Senate voted for Empire back in 1898 (by one vote) after defeating Spain. Hence the taking of the Philippines etc. It was the road to ruin.
Is the West civilized? What we called civilization was actually raw colonialism. We don't have votes on war these days, and all parties are run by the shadow state which backs war in all its forms, all the time. The world powers recognize only one value: money.
Doris: There is a good article by Richard Ebeling today on the Future of Freedom Foundation website. Ebeling writes about Albert Jay Nock's article in 1924. It was about "Doing the Right Thing".
As Ebeling and Nock point out, you can't have liberty or moral human beings without a small government. People must have the liberty to both do the right thing and the wrong thing (as long as it hurts no one but themselves).
What you describe with "raw colonialism" and war and a "shadow state" wouldn't exist without a large government.
Do not fall for the canard that the proles are the problem. The State is the problem.
I mean, it is about hypocrisy, a little bit. It is no coincidence that all the same empire apologists that supported the ukraine also support Israel today.
Serious intellectual hypocrisy is the greatest sin a person can commit. Nothing else matters.
Behind most human atrocities - one will find a lie.
Colonialists do what colonialists do. And they stick together.
Note that all the countries expressing shock and horror are the SAME one that have stood by while Israel has occupied, ravaged and dispossessed these civilians in Palestine for decades on end. They are the SAME ones that either drone innocent civilians to death around the world - knowingly - or ally with countries that do it:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/sep/07/us-airstrikes-killed-at-least-22000-civilians-since-911-analysis-finds
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/20/us-releases-video-of-afghanistan-drone-strike-that-killed-10-civilians
And immediately they have swing into full on coordinated fascist mode:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/10/11/pers-o11.html
«….. Biden’s remarks, predictably, incited Israeli war crimes. Immediately following the speech, Israel began using white phosphorus to create firestorms in civilian areas – a crime under international law. Israel bombed the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Tuesday, alongside countless other multi-story buildings. Israel continued to deny the Palestinians food, water, and electricity, in line with the pledge by Prime Minister Netanyahu that any areas harboring that resist the Israeli occupation will be reduced to “ruins.”
Biden's language comes close to promoting and legitimizing genocide. The resistance by Palestinians was a manifestation, Biden began, of “pure unadulterated evil.” These words echoed the statements of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday who called the Palestinians “animals.” Netanyahu’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly….»
So all of this is simply colonialists standing together. None of them are actually interested in justice or peace. None.
If so, we are seeing the beginning of their end. You may not believe this, but people with no moral structure cannot survive. They will revert to the war of all against all. And that is what Mr. Gallant seems to have prescribed and seems to be following.
We live in societies with no moral structure whatsoever. The rich do what they want. “Government” works only for them. And many of government leaders are literally in the pockets of the rich.
Who should shed light on this? The media are pure liars. They wont even stand up when journalists as persecuted, let alone to defend the public interest. The son of the US president was collecting money for “work” in ukraine, where he as no experience, and doesn’t speak the language. Any language. What was he getting paid for then? The media refuses to even ask.
The courts? Corrupted too.
We are already there. And indeed this is not a sustainable system.
Actually, I think there are a lot of people who live within some kind of moral structure or other; otherwise, most of them would eventually kill one another. Since humans evolved into their present form before they cooked up religions, law and philosophy and other mind games, I assume it's some kind of instinct provided genetically through Evolution. At some point, those who want human beings to continue will have to get away from those who are devoted to death and destruction. Alternatively, I guess they can let Nature draw a line across the page.
Below is what you could consider to be a definton of our economic and political overlords at the moment:
Dictionary Definition:
amoral
/ˌeɪˈmɒrəl/
adjective
lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something.
I see the moral instinct, if any, as a positive thing, installed in normal human's by normal development of the individual (or a group or family) genetically to enable perhaps disparate collections of humans to get along and cooperate. The people who are missing the needed circuitry or chemicals, we usually call sociopaths or psychopaths. "Amoral", on the other hand, might be the result of some superficial abstract philosophical consideration, like nihilism, which didn't correspond to the person's real feelings or life experience but was rather the development of a mind game or a stance or pose. (Also, The two modes of thought could be in conflict with one another, as in Dostoyevsky's _Crime and Punishment_.) I suppose also that some life experiences might strengthen or diminish the moral instinct I'm proposing, so it's not a genes drive all sort of idea. No doubt there are people who will dislike this sort of theory because it seems redolent of woo or spirituality. It's actually pretty materialistic.
There can be no reasonable doub t that Jews have been persecuted for a large part of the last two thousand years. So I used to be quite inhibited from criticizing Jewish organization. But them I learned that the group pf Jews who subscribe to Zionism are something else. It is rather like the advanced German civilisation which suddenly developed a very large and very horrible off-shoot called Naziism . To criticize and oppose Nazi Germany was then the right thing to do in spite of the danger of demonising Germans in general. The Nazi State needed opposing and dismantling and exactl the asme applies to the Zionist State of Israel. The 100,000bomber raids blasting civilian Germany were not morally justified and nor is the attempt of fHamas and others to dismantle the Zionist State of Israel via the murder of masses of civilians
It’s a bit like blaming your battered wife for trying to poison you. I do not condone her poisoning you, but it was certainly provoked and understandable. Then you start trying to make her admit that she’s been very bad, that it’s her fault, that she should condemn herself for being evil. You start making sure all your friends agree that it’s her fault, that she’s been very bad and is evil, to justify your continuing to batter her, and then getting them to help you pummel her so hard she’ll never try it again.
Only later is it discovered that you took the poison yourself to set up your wife.
I think the Hamas attack was almost certainly planned, orchestrated or allowed by the Israelis or the CIA for exactly this violent, aggressive, scripted, zombie, insane response from Israel, US and Uk politicians and the miserable excuses for news media.
I wouldn't put it past the deep state knowing. But I think the more likely scenario - hypothesized by "The Duran" is the intelligence was given to the leaders including Netanyahu - and they ignored the intelligence. Now the reasons for them ignoring the intelligence, we'll probably never know. Was it incompetence, or the willingness to let it happen?
I am 81.
Joe Biden is the most evil President in my lifetime. I am saying Hail Marys for the Palestinians.
The Prez is largely irrelevant. But judging by evil committed with Prezal approval JB wins. Nixon was an angel compared with what's going on now.
No mass murderer can be irrelevant.
"If I was an Israel supporter I’d be thinking very carefully about the things I’m posting online in the build-up to what could end up being regarded as one of history’s worst genocidal massacres. The internet doesn’t forget. What you’re tweeting today could haunt you for life."
The Israeli government simply assumes that they will always be the winners, that their American gorilla will force everyone else to heel, that they always will be able to bully any dissent into silence and compliance.
George Steiner wrote that the Holocaust was what made the State of Israel possible.