The Democrats not only became the more effective evil, they are the more insidious evil. They lie about their intentions in ways that the screwed up Republicans don't. The Republicans will tell you they want more war, more deregulation, more cruelty, whereas the Democrats, who deliver the same despicable policies, pretend they want peace, freedom and democracy. They flat out lie about it over and over. Then, even after voting for all the same crap, the Democrats pretend that it is only due to the evildoing of the Republicans that their supposed peace, freedom and democracy efforts fail.
It's kind of funny how many Americans talk about democracy in the US when they live in a Republic that has all sorts of layers between votes and office (including rigged primaries and the electoral college). The US is not now and never has been a "democracy" where every vote counts. It has always been an oligarchy disguised.
That aspect you note in the comparison of D's with R's has also long been my conclusion. As a long-term Democrat, the R's had my respect for their blunt honesty (in at least some cases). I may have disagreed with their intentions on a number of grounds, but couldn't deny that they held my respect for being honest about it, something the D's could never do. Since Clinton's capture of the Party, the D's became more like the R's in many ways- especially their bowing to corporatist oligarchy and war-making, where they now are possibly even more nakedly aggressive than their counterparts.
This is not a wonder to anyone who took a clear eyed look at the scope of Biden’s record throughout the whole of his career. He has always been a corporatist Democrat, in the thrall of the military, and given to clear authoritarianism. There is nothing in his record as president that contradicts his previous behavior. There is also nothing about his past behavior that should make anyone think anything will be different in the future. The only real option is to dismantle this system in its entirety.
And in her October 7 piece “They're Repeating The Word 'Unprovoked' Again, This Time In Defense Of Israel” Caitlin Johnstone asks:
“Isn’t it odd that the western political/media class would begin uniformly asserting something so easily disprovable? So transparently false? Why would they keep choosing over and over and over again in each instance to make use of that specific word “unprovoked” in their condemnations of the attacks by Hamas?”
And then answers:
“The answer is that this choice is not so much something they are saying as something they are DOING. THEY’RE NOT ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR AUDIENCES, THEY’RE ATTEMPTING TO CIRCUMVENT THE CRITICAL THINKING OF THEIR AUDIENCE AND TRICK THEM INTO ACCEPTING A BLATANT FALSEHOOD AS TRUE.
“Skillful manipulators make frequent use of a cognitive bias known as the “illusory truth effect,” a glitch in the way human minds tend to operate which makes it hard for us to differentiate between the experience of hearing a well-evidenced fact and the experience of hearing something that they’ve heard repeated multiple times. If you want the public to believe something false you won’t be able to use facts and evidence to make your case to them, so what you can do is just repeat something over and over again until it starts sounding like the truth. Repeat the lie enough times and boom, you’ve perception-managed westerners into viewing the world from an understanding that Israel did nothing to provoke Palestinians into their actions.”
Caitlin Johnstone concludes her October 8 piece “All This Death Is The Fault Of The Western Press” with:
“IT’S GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO ARGUE THAT THE US-LED WORLD ORDER BRINGS MORE PEACE AND STABILITY TO THE WORLD THAN THE WAR AND INSTABILITY IT CAUSES. As more and more force is brought to bear against nations and groups who refuse to submit to Washington’s dictates, we’re seeing more and more conflict and chaos. Russia’s refusal to lie down before Washington resulted in the Ukraine war and all the nuclear brinkmanship that comes with it. Hamas, Hezbollah, Ansarallah, Syria and Iran refusing to prostrate themselves to the US power alliance results in constant violence in the middle east. As the imperial crosshairs move to Beijing we’re now faced with the terrifying prospect of a hot war with China.
“At a certain point you have to ask, if the US-led world order requires more and more violence and nuclear brinkmanship to maintain, what specifically is the argument for maintaining it in the first place? DOES IT NOT AT SOME POINT BEGIN TO CEASE LOOKING LIKE ‘ORDER’ AT ALL, AND INSTEAD LIKE A TYRANNICAL EMPIRE TRYING TO RULE THE WORLD NO MATTER HOW MUCH DEATH AND DESTRUCTION IS NECESSARY TO SUBJUGATE IT?”
“This Land is Mine” is a brief history of the land called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/the Levant, all in three and a half minutes. From the very Beginning and pretty much right up to today...:
THE US WILL SEND A CARRIER STRIKE GROUP TO THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN IN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL by Tara Copp / AP 8 Oct 23
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday he has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel after the attack by Hamas that has left more than 1,000 dead on both sides. Americans were reported to be among those killed and missing.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes will be accompanied by cruisers and destroyers in a show of force that is meant to be ready to respond to anything, from possibly interdicting additional weapons from reaching Hamas and conducting surveillance.
The large deployment reflects a U.S. desire to deter any regional expansion of the conflict. But the Israeli government formally declared war Sunday and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas.
Is that really a surprise to anybody? Looks like another great payday for America's Military Industrial Congressional Complex is headed this way, eh?
And if any of Taskforce Ford goes to the bottom of the Mediterranean via an Iranian hypersonic missile, Iran will go to the atmosphere in clouds of conventional bomb and missile explosions. If not those of nuclear bombs and/or missiles.
Which inevitably leads one to recall an Incident in the Tonkin Gulf of Vietnam on August 2, 1964. Which, it turns out, never really happened. But it did get the folks in the Pentagon and arms industry exactly what they wanted. Does the term "False Flag" ring a bell?
So just when Americans are getting bored with Ukraine and a possible War with China, another one pops up. Almost as if on cue, eh?
I have really pissed off all my "friends" and family today by suggesting that the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes accompanied by cruisers and destroyers should be going to the Middle East to provide support for the oppressed Palestinians in Apartheid Israel.
Heh. That'd put them against the Israelis, and i'm not at all so sure how that confrontation would turn out. Interesting scenario for a computer war game, eh?
The Problem isn't those various and sundry "Gods."
The problem is, has always been, and will always be those Human Beings who believe in those "Gods" and are prepared to invade, conquer, murder, enslave, pillage, plunder, and destroy any other Human Beings who don't believe in the same "God."
Especially when there is Property to be seized and Wealth to be looted.
It started with Moses, continued with Mohammad, and then with the various Popes' so-called "Holy Christian Crusades" more than 1,000 years ago.
And after that, wasn't that one of the primary motives behind the European conquests of North and South America, Oceania, Africa, and Asia? Property to be seized and Wealth to be looted? More of all those "blessings of 'civilization,' eh?
But one needn't be a so-called "Christian" to do that. Ever hear of Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism, and Pol Potism, and the joys that the True Believers in those "Religions" have inflicted on this Planet over the last 100 years?
And since when did You accept Genesis as a reliable source? Heh.
From the first sentence..."In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"... and it gets worse after that. Don't get me started
"(EVERY) religion poisons everything" - Christopher Hitchens had it right. You are seeing it play out on every television in the world today.
More and more folks are seeing the barbarism and atrocities of the Israelis.
That the US supports Israel is a tragedy that every American should be ashamed of. (Same for blind New Zealand support. And of course, the British in 1948 need to bear a huge responsibility for these ongoing massacres)
So why do You quote Genesis as evidence that Abraham was a pimp and his Wife a whore? Heh. Just pullin your chain, Amigo.
The primary reason that the US has always supported Israel since its creation after World War II was, is, and as long as it still exists very simple: It provides a forward operating base for American political and military operations in the region where all that Oil is.
And the Brits in 1948 had much, much bigger problems to deal with than just what was going on in the Middle East. They had an entire Empire that was collapsing; plus a homeland barely beginning to recover from WWII.
Today's news and comments are so accurate, true and depressing that I can hardly breathe. Not only are you reminding us of where we are, but so is Caitlin Johnstone who has accurately described the Israeli horror, and Chris Hedges in, not one but two, powerful essays on the religious fascism of Israel and on the Christian fascism of the US. I'm grateful that we have such powerful and educated writers as you and others all are, but what can we do to counteract this growing flood of hatred, mayhem and greed? I share these written insights with others, I sign petitions by the dozens, I write letters - nothing stops the insanity. In the past I used to go out and march - I flew to D.C. decades ago to march to stop the Iraq war, thousands did too - it had absolutely no effect on our elected government. That has been true now for a long time - total ignoring of the desires of the citizens of this country. Does anyone have any suggestions of any other actions that might produce a better result?
The Democrats not only became the more effective evil, they are the more insidious evil. They lie about their intentions in ways that the screwed up Republicans don't. The Republicans will tell you they want more war, more deregulation, more cruelty, whereas the Democrats, who deliver the same despicable policies, pretend they want peace, freedom and democracy. They flat out lie about it over and over. Then, even after voting for all the same crap, the Democrats pretend that it is only due to the evildoing of the Republicans that their supposed peace, freedom and democracy efforts fail.
It's kind of funny how many Americans talk about democracy in the US when they live in a Republic that has all sorts of layers between votes and office (including rigged primaries and the electoral college). The US is not now and never has been a "democracy" where every vote counts. It has always been an oligarchy disguised.
That aspect you note in the comparison of D's with R's has also long been my conclusion. As a long-term Democrat, the R's had my respect for their blunt honesty (in at least some cases). I may have disagreed with their intentions on a number of grounds, but couldn't deny that they held my respect for being honest about it, something the D's could never do. Since Clinton's capture of the Party, the D's became more like the R's in many ways- especially their bowing to corporatist oligarchy and war-making, where they now are possibly even more nakedly aggressive than their counterparts.
Love it: unopposed democracy. Orwell cometh.
This is not a wonder to anyone who took a clear eyed look at the scope of Biden’s record throughout the whole of his career. He has always been a corporatist Democrat, in the thrall of the military, and given to clear authoritarianism. There is nothing in his record as president that contradicts his previous behavior. There is also nothing about his past behavior that should make anyone think anything will be different in the future. The only real option is to dismantle this system in its entirety.
You have been on a roll lately with some of your articles, will be linking today again @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Good work, sir!
The myth of Sovereignty examined, Bill.
Democratism, not Democracy. Fascism re-imagined.
Washington's Ukraina Grandioznaya Skhema - The Graveyard of This Empire.
https://les7eb.substack.com/p/washingtons-ukraina-grandioznaya
And in her October 7 piece “They're Repeating The Word 'Unprovoked' Again, This Time In Defense Of Israel” Caitlin Johnstone asks:
“Isn’t it odd that the western political/media class would begin uniformly asserting something so easily disprovable? So transparently false? Why would they keep choosing over and over and over again in each instance to make use of that specific word “unprovoked” in their condemnations of the attacks by Hamas?”
And then answers:
“The answer is that this choice is not so much something they are saying as something they are DOING. THEY’RE NOT ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR AUDIENCES, THEY’RE ATTEMPTING TO CIRCUMVENT THE CRITICAL THINKING OF THEIR AUDIENCE AND TRICK THEM INTO ACCEPTING A BLATANT FALSEHOOD AS TRUE.
“Skillful manipulators make frequent use of a cognitive bias known as the “illusory truth effect,” a glitch in the way human minds tend to operate which makes it hard for us to differentiate between the experience of hearing a well-evidenced fact and the experience of hearing something that they’ve heard repeated multiple times. If you want the public to believe something false you won’t be able to use facts and evidence to make your case to them, so what you can do is just repeat something over and over again until it starts sounding like the truth. Repeat the lie enough times and boom, you’ve perception-managed westerners into viewing the world from an understanding that Israel did nothing to provoke Palestinians into their actions.”
In the full article, Ms Johnstone muses as well on how the word “unprovoked” was [and still is] used omni-presently as regards Russia’s adventure in Ukraine: https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/theyre-repeating-the-word-unprovoked ; EMPHASIS added.
Caitlin Johnstone concludes her October 8 piece “All This Death Is The Fault Of The Western Press” with:
“IT’S GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO ARGUE THAT THE US-LED WORLD ORDER BRINGS MORE PEACE AND STABILITY TO THE WORLD THAN THE WAR AND INSTABILITY IT CAUSES. As more and more force is brought to bear against nations and groups who refuse to submit to Washington’s dictates, we’re seeing more and more conflict and chaos. Russia’s refusal to lie down before Washington resulted in the Ukraine war and all the nuclear brinkmanship that comes with it. Hamas, Hezbollah, Ansarallah, Syria and Iran refusing to prostrate themselves to the US power alliance results in constant violence in the middle east. As the imperial crosshairs move to Beijing we’re now faced with the terrifying prospect of a hot war with China.
“At a certain point you have to ask, if the US-led world order requires more and more violence and nuclear brinkmanship to maintain, what specifically is the argument for maintaining it in the first place? DOES IT NOT AT SOME POINT BEGIN TO CEASE LOOKING LIKE ‘ORDER’ AT ALL, AND INSTEAD LIKE A TYRANNICAL EMPIRE TRYING TO RULE THE WORLD NO MATTER HOW MUCH DEATH AND DESTRUCTION IS NECESSARY TO SUBJUGATE IT?”
Full article well worth the read is at https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/all-this-death-is-the-fault-of-the ; EMPHASES added.
“This Land is Mine” is a brief history of the land called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/the Levant, all in three and a half minutes. From the very Beginning and pretty much right up to today...:
https://attackthesystem.com/2023/10/08/this-land-is-mine-a-brief-history-of-the-land-called-israel-palestine-canaan-the-levant/
As has been said elsewhere:
If this Man’s GOD says that this Land is His; and,
If that Man’s GOD says that this Land is His; and,
If Your GOD says that this Land is Yours; and,
If my God says that this Land is mine; then…
WHOSE Land IS it?
Upon one thing we can all rest assured: All the right People
will harvest all kinds of Wealth and gain all the “right” kinds of Power
by the time this whole and latest episode is over.
THE US WILL SEND A CARRIER STRIKE GROUP TO THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN IN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL by Tara Copp / AP 8 Oct 23
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday he has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel after the attack by Hamas that has left more than 1,000 dead on both sides. Americans were reported to be among those killed and missing.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes will be accompanied by cruisers and destroyers in a show of force that is meant to be ready to respond to anything, from possibly interdicting additional weapons from reaching Hamas and conducting surveillance.
The large deployment reflects a U.S. desire to deter any regional expansion of the conflict. But the Israeli government formally declared war Sunday and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas.
Continued at https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-american-carrier-strike-force-mediterranean-db05d535a9ebb931f684f758c9b6f628 .
Is that really a surprise to anybody? Looks like another great payday for America's Military Industrial Congressional Complex is headed this way, eh?
And if any of Taskforce Ford goes to the bottom of the Mediterranean via an Iranian hypersonic missile, Iran will go to the atmosphere in clouds of conventional bomb and missile explosions. If not those of nuclear bombs and/or missiles.
Which inevitably leads one to recall an Incident in the Tonkin Gulf of Vietnam on August 2, 1964. Which, it turns out, never really happened. But it did get the folks in the Pentagon and arms industry exactly what they wanted. Does the term "False Flag" ring a bell?
So just when Americans are getting bored with Ukraine and a possible War with China, another one pops up. Almost as if on cue, eh?
In any event, here's the official "Statement From Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on U.S. Force Posture Changes in the Middle East" issued on 8 Oct 23: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3551716/statement-from-secretary-lloyd-j-austin-iii-on-us-force-posture-changes-in-the/ .
Thanks Jeff,
I have really pissed off all my "friends" and family today by suggesting that the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes accompanied by cruisers and destroyers should be going to the Middle East to provide support for the oppressed Palestinians in Apartheid Israel.
Much wailing and gnashing of teeth!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Aro9298aU&t=33s
Heh. That'd put them against the Israelis, and i'm not at all so sure how that confrontation would turn out. Interesting scenario for a computer war game, eh?
I read this online today Jeff..????
Have you ever wondered how useless these “Gods” are when their devotees are being slaughtered?
Jews created Christianity to destroy the Roman Empire and created Islam to destroy Catholicism’s hold on Jerusalem.
It’s a three Card Trick – Find the “God”.
It has been played for 2,000 years.
The three Abrahamic Blood Cults, Judaism, Christendom & Islam, have drenched the earth with the blood of their victims.
And their Founder, Abraham, was a pimp and his wife a prostitute {Genesis 12:10-20}
Oh dear!
So "The Jews" did all that, eh, Dennis?
i'm curious: Are You a devotee of "The Protocols of The Elders of Zion"?
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion ]
The Problem isn't those various and sundry "Gods."
The problem is, has always been, and will always be those Human Beings who believe in those "Gods" and are prepared to invade, conquer, murder, enslave, pillage, plunder, and destroy any other Human Beings who don't believe in the same "God."
Especially when there is Property to be seized and Wealth to be looted.
It started with Moses, continued with Mohammad, and then with the various Popes' so-called "Holy Christian Crusades" more than 1,000 years ago.
And after that, wasn't that one of the primary motives behind the European conquests of North and South America, Oceania, Africa, and Asia? Property to be seized and Wealth to be looted? More of all those "blessings of 'civilization,' eh?
But one needn't be a so-called "Christian" to do that. Ever hear of Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism, and Pol Potism, and the joys that the True Believers in those "Religions" have inflicted on this Planet over the last 100 years?
And since when did You accept Genesis as a reliable source? Heh.
Jeff, you are maybe getting me wrong my friend,
I think Genesis is a total bunch of bull crap.
From the first sentence..."In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"... and it gets worse after that. Don't get me started
"(EVERY) religion poisons everything" - Christopher Hitchens had it right. You are seeing it play out on every television in the world today.
More and more folks are seeing the barbarism and atrocities of the Israelis.
That the US supports Israel is a tragedy that every American should be ashamed of. (Same for blind New Zealand support. And of course, the British in 1948 need to bear a huge responsibility for these ongoing massacres)
FREE PALESTINE
So why do You quote Genesis as evidence that Abraham was a pimp and his Wife a whore? Heh. Just pullin your chain, Amigo.
The primary reason that the US has always supported Israel since its creation after World War II was, is, and as long as it still exists very simple: It provides a forward operating base for American political and military operations in the region where all that Oil is.
And the Brits in 1948 had much, much bigger problems to deal with than just what was going on in the Middle East. They had an entire Empire that was collapsing; plus a homeland barely beginning to recover from WWII.
Today's news and comments are so accurate, true and depressing that I can hardly breathe. Not only are you reminding us of where we are, but so is Caitlin Johnstone who has accurately described the Israeli horror, and Chris Hedges in, not one but two, powerful essays on the religious fascism of Israel and on the Christian fascism of the US. I'm grateful that we have such powerful and educated writers as you and others all are, but what can we do to counteract this growing flood of hatred, mayhem and greed? I share these written insights with others, I sign petitions by the dozens, I write letters - nothing stops the insanity. In the past I used to go out and march - I flew to D.C. decades ago to march to stop the Iraq war, thousands did too - it had absolutely no effect on our elected government. That has been true now for a long time - total ignoring of the desires of the citizens of this country. Does anyone have any suggestions of any other actions that might produce a better result?
Democrat faithful are as democratic as Mao's Red Guard. No questioning their line!