Jun 3, 2023·edited Jun 3, 2023Liked by Bill Astore
I don't believe so, Professore. I couldn't convince myself otherwise, and didn't see enough people who seemed to care for the country more than for the needs/demands of their "focus group," and that's why I finally had to leave, six months shy of my 65th birthday. I was fortunate in that I had somewhere and someone to turn to, but the sense of loss for what might have been remains. I don't expect it will ever go away or even become less painful. I had such high hopes because I grew up in an era when it was believed anything was possible. But no one ever thought the "possible" could include what's become of the country and the people.
We are in a new situation. We can see that power is not working for the people but at the same time it sure does a great job of producing the goodies we love, such as the smartphone, the car, the flat screen TV. People throughout history have endured deprivation beyond our imagining before they rose up to resist, and then were more often then not slaughtered without hesitation to maintain the status quo.
What threatens the people of the US far more than the lopsided distribution of wealth is the crumbling sense of community and the fear of social change that is driving people to arm up against each other though the threat is largely fantasy. I like to see the rainbow coming into full display but the emphasis by the government on enforced diversity anywhere and everywhere is stoking a reaction by the intolerant that is a diversion from the monopoly wealth has on power, the emphasis on stuff and the neglect of the people that allows too many individuals to simply sink beneath the surface without even being noticed. We don't like mass shootings but who gives a damn about the characters that drift downward to become pathological? Who even knows they exist until they make a deadly announcement that they do?
We don't have the cohesion needed to act as a people. Capitalism as we know it sets us all adrift from each other, quite on purpose to stimulate expression through purchases. We have become passive observers of our fellow citizens as we all squirm for self-recognition and demand respect. Call it atomisation. We don't know how to get power to the people and we have become so disillusioned with politics that our expectations of change are directed at technology, a proven performer, the savior that will pluck us from threats, even that of global warming, so that we take pleasure where we have found we can, enjoying irresponsibility.
Here's a Comment I wrote this AM to Heather Cox Richardson's Letters to an American, whom I have referred to before, and before I read yours today--
Letters from an American
12
June 2, 2023
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
15 HR AGO
2,239
418
40
Three years ago today, on June 2, 2020, days after then–Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, Martha Raddatz of ABC snapped the famous and chilling photograph of law enforcement officers in camouflage, their names and units hidden, standing in rows on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
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Steve Melson
1 hr ago
Appreciate and agree with Prof. Heather's Letter and have read many thoughtful comments--
Would like to offer one of my own:
Missing for me, a retired Psychiatrist (1974-2014, last 5 years w/ VA outpatient clinics), Vietnam combat Vet (8/69-8/70-- Navy Battalion Surgeon w/ Marines) , lifelong Progressive Democrat,
grandfather--is any reference to the Elephant in the Room--The overwhelming, obscenely bloated
Dept. of Defense/ Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex--its role in creating and prolonging
both the debt-ceiling impasse and the ever-growing Federal deficit while being exempt from any
consideration of downsizing-repurposing the militarization/futile War on Terror of the past 4 administrations--and in pursuit of the American Empire turning the civilian US population into a
contentious, politicized, violence-addicted armed camp. , I had hoped that President Biden could be the one to take on this Herculean task, with his life history of tragic loss, exemplary moral integrity, and appreciation of the vast middle class/working class/educationally-economically disadvantaged.
population--Maybe he and the Democratic Party will begin this --the GOP is a lost cause--but like others I'm not holding my breath--could Prof Heather focus more on this?
Also for more on the American Empire see Tom Englehardt's TomDispatch.com
great piece - the challenge is whether we can wait for the evolution of ideas, or if revolution is required? I don't mean 'turn over all the tables, dump all tea overboard' but intellectually (not dumbed down, but subliminally hidden in milder messaging), to show us all that we are all in the same game and we'll all be gone in 'moment in time', so we are better to build a better life/future - not for our grandchildren alone because that is century out, at best, but to make changes of principle and ethics that will last hundreds or thousands of years. Cervantes lasted. So has Mozart. The 'big names' and 'rich nerds' in every day headlines will be just as much dust as the rest of us. Musk says he wants to die on Mars, but not on impact. I'd advise him - go for it, use your own money, and good with the outcome ...
At the end of the day, what do we all need?
A shirt on our back, rice in our bowl, problems to solve, work to do, satisfaction in the value of what we create, and to get laid on Saturday night.
That's all need.
It's Saturday morning - so I'm looking forward to the end of this productive week, and to tonight of course!
Cheers,
Mark
p.s. if you can't find change in America, come to Canada - give us your dollar, and we'll give a dollar and change!
Good food for thought. I agree that one of the main questions of history is how to affect meaningful change without violence. To do this it seems clear that you must reduce the size, scope, and power of the engine of violence, the state.
There will never be any hope for real change until you do this. It is not that “America today has a rigged political system”, it is that all political systems are rigged in favor of those who hold the power. Even in bottom to top revolutions the new holders of power oppress those without power, as you pointed out occurred in France and Russia cum Soviet Union.
It is a good point that the novelist is making that power only responds when they are forced to “by acts of defiance”. I would argue that this defiance need not be violent. In fact I did argue just that in a piece from 2018: https://believeandobey.net/the-practicality-of-peace-d36/
As in all things ideas have consequences, so all of this starts with putting forth better ideas about the moral and practical benefits of living in a world where formal criminal organizations (states) have much less scope to deny the rights and dignities of all God’s children.
I liked Moebus' mention of Ghandi and MLK as leaders who accomplished change without violence. What I note about America is that there are hundreds of smaller organizations who are dedicated to getting the gov't to change. If you're like me, you get dozens of appeals from them on your computer EVERY day telling you what they are working for and wanting money to do it. Most of them are sincere and worthwhile projects, but what this country needs is a third party that puts together the environmentalists, the anti racists, the economists for the working class, the educators who want respect and a living wage for teachers, and so on and on - to get them united. I would donate generously to such a party, and I suspect your readers here would too. There is no lack of interest throughout the country regardless of party (Dem or Repub) who would not join such an endeavor if we had a leader who would gather them together as Ghandi and MLK did. Until we find that person, I don't think we will see any change or improvement. Maybe we need to all go out and start looking for someone like that. I'm sure some of you have ideas who might fit the bill. The splintering of hundreds of groups that actually are for the same things is a major reason why the US is collapsing.
Thanks for your reply ,Bill. I agree, whoever might lead a third party will be in danger. I suspect the CIA and allied groups are already thinking up plots to get rid of Robert Kennedy Jr. if he should actually catch on. I read the book "JFK and the Unspeakable" by James Douglass and was astounded by the complexity and reach of the CIA plot. And I do agree with RFK Jr. that his father was also killed by the same group, so I guess he knows he's in danger. But my point was that I wish a thousand small groups could get together behind someone so we could speak with a louder voice. Bernie Sanders had that voice and he was starting to get a general coalition of voters including some Repubs and a whole lot of independants as well as Democrats and then the DNC killed it and now he's too old to do that again.
Since neither party is going to allow someone to come along and unite the average American voter who I firmly believe wants to end the oligarch rule we now have, I suppose you are correct - we're not going to get anything different from what we now have without a lot of bloodshed. The sad part is that we have a lot of bloodshed now, but it's not the kind that accomplishes anything positive.
Thank you Bill for telling it like it is, if not how to change the Status Quo. I've been trying to figure that out for years and still working on it!
In the Timeline of History from Moses the Lawgiver, this Western World has had 4000 years of Trials by the Law, and the Law hasn't stopped the killing, stealing, lying, bearing false witness, and coveting their neighbour's ass People still do. On the contrary, it's increasing through Humans wanting immediate gratification.
Is there a missing piece to the puzzle? All the Law and the Prophets, aka, Holy Scripture, is summed up in only 2 things Everyone can choose to do, Independent from those who do not.
But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living [...]
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets.
It's a Job for any Individual to develop Patience in a 30 second sound byte Society going against the stream, developing Day by Day & Night an individual, intimate Love relationship with the Spirit of God who IS Love
This is needed more than ever as hate, fear and suspicion is on the increase in this Material MONEY & THINGS loving World.
Thank You for this, Bill. It has my vote for Your Best Ever.
Because it is doing exactly what You say “isn’t enough”: it is Speaking Truth to Power indeed. It is not “enough” to do anything with at the moment, but it is a damn fine start. Lots to chew on here.
But i’m unclear on one thing. Miss Kuang wrote: “Power could only be brought to heel by acts of defiance it could not ignore. With brute, unflinching force. With violence.”
Is she saying that those “acts of defiance” need to happen “With brute, unflinching force. With violence”?
Or is she talking about Power not ignoring those acts of defiance, but responding to them “With brute, unflinching force. With violence”?
If she’s talking about the former, i have to respectfully disagree. There are many, many acts of defiance against Power that people can take that do not in any way involve force and violence. One hundred plus years after the time of BABEL, OR THE NECESSITY OF VIOLENCE, that same British Empire was confronted, combated, defeated, and set on the road to ultimate decline and fall by a guy named Gandhi and his Legions of Non-Violent Warriors.
i would suggest that Gandhi and his system of Non-Violent Noncooperation with and defiance of Power provides a very good start point for addressing and answering Your declaration that “How to effect meaningful change in a rigged system without violence is one of the huge questions of our age or any age.” The American Civil Rights movement and campaign led by Dr King offers further validation that rigged systems can indeed be meaningfully changed without force and violence.
And my guess is that America’s Ruling Elite would welcome a descent into that “elemental barbarism,” and use it to seize further power and control of every aspect of life ~ social, cultural, economic, and political ~ in the name of protecting America from her very own “domestic terrorists.”
Thank You again, Bill, for a great, Great piece. i look forward to seeing it broadcast nationally. And more importantly, to see where it leads. ~ jeff
No prior revolution had to proceed under the conditions of surveillance and total media domination by the owners that exist now. Selectively, those controls allow favorable coverage of some revolts (e.g., summer of 2020) and negative coverage of others (January 6th, 2021). Both were important in conditioning the majority to the approved view. I fear the economic collapse or international failure that will be required to bring on the owners' inability to manage the narrative.
Excellent posting to TomDispatch.com today, Bill. Nailed it again.
i'm beginning to wonder if You are beginning to wonder ~ like me ~ if the United States will survive to celebrate its 250th birthday on July 4, 2026; a mere 1,124 days from today.
And so it begins. One week after a Chinese fighter jet buzzed a U.S. Air Force RC-135 surveillance plane in international skies… :
CHINESE WARSHIP NEARLY HITS U.S. DESTROYER IN TAIWAN STRAIT DURING JOINT CANADA-U.S. MISSION by Mackenzie Gray / Global News / 060523 [Includes video footage of a close encounter of a very nasty kind… ]
A Chinese warship came within 150 yards of hitting American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon, during a rare joint Canada-U.S. mission sailing through the Taiwan Strait, the latest aggressive military move from Beijing in the South China Sea.
Global News has been travelling on HMCS Montreal, the Canadian frigate participating in the mission, since May 25 in the South China Sea and witnessed the near collision from the bridge wing of the ship.
A People’s Liberation Navy ship picked up considerable speed and cut in front of the bow of the Chung-Hoon, a manoeuvre HMCS Montreal’s commander, Capt. Paul Mountford, called “not professional.”
When the Chinese vessel altered its course, Mountford says the crew called the American ship and told them to move or there would be a collision. The Americans responded by asking the Chinese to stay clear of the ship, but the Chung-Hoon ultimately needed to alter course and slow down to avoid a crash.
Mountford believes the incident was ”clearly instigated by the Chinese.”
“The fact this was announced over the radio prior to doing it, clearly indicated this was intentional.”
The Chung-Hoon and Montreal have been sailing together in the South China Sea for nearly a week prior to entering the Taiwan Strait. Global News has seen Chinese warships shadowing the Canadian vessel on multiple occasions during its transit.
The Chinese did not attempt a similar manoeuvre on HMCS Montreal but one of the two warships that were in the area did sail within 1,000 yards of the Canadian ship, a distance that Mountford believed was safe.
The Chinese told both the Canadian and American ships over radio systems that they are entering Chinese territory, despite the joint mission taking place in internationally recognized waters, according to Mountford.
“I am hoping that is an isolated incident that won’t happen again for us, because we have international law on our side,” Mountford told Global News. “This is international waters.”
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) said in a statement released Saturday the Chinese warship “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of Chung-Hoon.”
According to USINDOPACOM, the ship overtook the U.S. destroyer on its port side crossing its bow at 150 yards, prompting the Chung-Hoon to maintain course but slow its speed to 10 knots “to avoid a collision.” The Chinese ship then crossed the Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time “starboard to port at 2,000 yards” and remained off the destroyer’s port bow.
“The LY 132’s closest point of approach was 150 yards and its actions violated the maritime ‘Rules of the Road’ of safe passage in international waters,” the statement read.
In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canada said the Canadian and U.S. ships had “hyped (the sailing) up publicly,” and added that Chinese naval and air forces had been tracking and monitoring both ships “lawfully and professionally.”
“Relevant countries have been deliberately stirring up troubles and risks in the Taiwan Strait, maliciously undermining regional peace and stability and sending wrong signals to the “Taiwan independence” forces,” wrote Jianwei Li, deputy director of the embassy’s cultural and press section.
Jianwei said China would take all necessary measures to “firmly respond to all threats and provocations.”
Canada’s defence minister Anita Anand had just finished participating in a security summit in Singapore when she learned of the incident in the Strait of Taiwan.
The summit was attended by both U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu.
Anand said neither Canada nor its allies would be deterred from sailing in international waters.
“Canada will continue to sail where international law allows, including the Strait, the South China Sea,” Anand said in an interview from Singapore.
“And really, our overall goal is to increase the peace and stability of this region. And that’s why we are going to continue to see more of Canada in this region as set out in our Indo-Pacific strategy. We’ve already seen unsafe intercepts and we have addressed those appropriately with China in terms of our RCAF pilots. Actors in this region must engage responsibly, and that’s the bottom line.”
For “Real Change” to happen in America, it does not need some sort of new third [or fourth or fifth] political party with some new leader[s] with “all the answers to all the questions and solutions to all the problems.”
What America needs is a change in its whole system of government and governance.
The problem is not the governors: the elected politicians, entrenched civilian and military bureaucrats, and anointed appointees who run the government. Thus, changing them without changing the system they flourish in will accomplish nothing.
Nor is it the owners and operators, and commanders and controllers of those politicians, bureaucrats, and appointees: the Fascist Corporatism of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, the Big Banks, Big Energy, Big Agriculture, Big Pharmaceutical, and Big Media Cartels, and the Financial, Medical, Legal, Law Enforcement, and Guns and Drugs Cabals. Nor is it the Surveillance-Secrecy-Security-Safety Panopticon now flourishing as never before.
These are but Symptoms of the Disease afflicting America.
The ultimate, root cause and source of America’s crisis today is that it has a system of government and governance in which the various and sundry Vested Special Interests just listed [and others as they are able] use the legal power, the administrative authority, and particularly, the spending capability of the federal government, to accomplish whatever it is that those VSIs want to accomplish as individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions for their clients, cohorts, constituents, and/or themselves. Regardless of what the rest of the Citizens, Taxpayers, and Voters of this Nation may need or want.
These are who make up America’s Ruling Political Class, and who own and operate, and command and control the governors at center stage in America's reality-tv extravaganza; and America's $ 1 = 1 Vote system of government and governance that gets, puts, and keeps them there.
And this is exactly why America has reached the state that it has today as:
~ a Bankrupt Debtor State;
~ an Imperialist Warfare State;
~ a Redistributionist Welfare State;
~ a Secrecy/Surveillance/Security/proto-Police State;
~ an Autocratic/Patriarchal/Oligarchic/Plutocratic Deep State;
~ an at-best Flailing Nation State and a definitely Failing Empire;
~ an Overshoot State; and, perhaps most importantly,
~ a People and Nation no longer merely "divided," but fractured ~ even to the point of disintegration ~ in ways not seen in more than 160 years, since the eve of what may end up being merely the First American Civil War.
And the only way that any of this has and could have happened is because of that flawed System of government and governance. Which The Federalists worked very hard to lay the groundwork for and build the foundation of to make that happen back when this system was being put together back in Philadelphia in the late 1780s.
And it has succeeded for their successors ~ America’s Ruling Political Class ~ ever since.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." John F Kennedy.
I don't believe so, Professore. I couldn't convince myself otherwise, and didn't see enough people who seemed to care for the country more than for the needs/demands of their "focus group," and that's why I finally had to leave, six months shy of my 65th birthday. I was fortunate in that I had somewhere and someone to turn to, but the sense of loss for what might have been remains. I don't expect it will ever go away or even become less painful. I had such high hopes because I grew up in an era when it was believed anything was possible. But no one ever thought the "possible" could include what's become of the country and the people.
We are in a new situation. We can see that power is not working for the people but at the same time it sure does a great job of producing the goodies we love, such as the smartphone, the car, the flat screen TV. People throughout history have endured deprivation beyond our imagining before they rose up to resist, and then were more often then not slaughtered without hesitation to maintain the status quo.
What threatens the people of the US far more than the lopsided distribution of wealth is the crumbling sense of community and the fear of social change that is driving people to arm up against each other though the threat is largely fantasy. I like to see the rainbow coming into full display but the emphasis by the government on enforced diversity anywhere and everywhere is stoking a reaction by the intolerant that is a diversion from the monopoly wealth has on power, the emphasis on stuff and the neglect of the people that allows too many individuals to simply sink beneath the surface without even being noticed. We don't like mass shootings but who gives a damn about the characters that drift downward to become pathological? Who even knows they exist until they make a deadly announcement that they do?
We don't have the cohesion needed to act as a people. Capitalism as we know it sets us all adrift from each other, quite on purpose to stimulate expression through purchases. We have become passive observers of our fellow citizens as we all squirm for self-recognition and demand respect. Call it atomisation. We don't know how to get power to the people and we have become so disillusioned with politics that our expectations of change are directed at technology, a proven performer, the savior that will pluck us from threats, even that of global warming, so that we take pleasure where we have found we can, enjoying irresponsibility.
Good column--
Here's a Comment I wrote this AM to Heather Cox Richardson's Letters to an American, whom I have referred to before, and before I read yours today--
Letters from an American
12
June 2, 2023
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
15 HR AGO
2,239
418
40
Three years ago today, on June 2, 2020, days after then–Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, Martha Raddatz of ABC snapped the famous and chilling photograph of law enforcement officers in camouflage, their names and units hidden, standing in rows on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
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Steve Melson
1 hr ago
Appreciate and agree with Prof. Heather's Letter and have read many thoughtful comments--
Would like to offer one of my own:
Missing for me, a retired Psychiatrist (1974-2014, last 5 years w/ VA outpatient clinics), Vietnam combat Vet (8/69-8/70-- Navy Battalion Surgeon w/ Marines) , lifelong Progressive Democrat,
grandfather--is any reference to the Elephant in the Room--The overwhelming, obscenely bloated
Dept. of Defense/ Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex--its role in creating and prolonging
both the debt-ceiling impasse and the ever-growing Federal deficit while being exempt from any
consideration of downsizing-repurposing the militarization/futile War on Terror of the past 4 administrations--and in pursuit of the American Empire turning the civilian US population into a
contentious, politicized, violence-addicted armed camp. , I had hoped that President Biden could be the one to take on this Herculean task, with his life history of tragic loss, exemplary moral integrity, and appreciation of the vast middle class/working class/educationally-economically disadvantaged.
population--Maybe he and the Democratic Party will begin this --the GOP is a lost cause--but like others I'm not holding my breath--could Prof Heather focus more on this?
Also for more on the American Empire see Tom Englehardt's TomDispatch.com
great piece - the challenge is whether we can wait for the evolution of ideas, or if revolution is required? I don't mean 'turn over all the tables, dump all tea overboard' but intellectually (not dumbed down, but subliminally hidden in milder messaging), to show us all that we are all in the same game and we'll all be gone in 'moment in time', so we are better to build a better life/future - not for our grandchildren alone because that is century out, at best, but to make changes of principle and ethics that will last hundreds or thousands of years. Cervantes lasted. So has Mozart. The 'big names' and 'rich nerds' in every day headlines will be just as much dust as the rest of us. Musk says he wants to die on Mars, but not on impact. I'd advise him - go for it, use your own money, and good with the outcome ...
At the end of the day, what do we all need?
A shirt on our back, rice in our bowl, problems to solve, work to do, satisfaction in the value of what we create, and to get laid on Saturday night.
That's all need.
It's Saturday morning - so I'm looking forward to the end of this productive week, and to tonight of course!
Cheers,
Mark
p.s. if you can't find change in America, come to Canada - give us your dollar, and we'll give a dollar and change!
Good food for thought. I agree that one of the main questions of history is how to affect meaningful change without violence. To do this it seems clear that you must reduce the size, scope, and power of the engine of violence, the state.
There will never be any hope for real change until you do this. It is not that “America today has a rigged political system”, it is that all political systems are rigged in favor of those who hold the power. Even in bottom to top revolutions the new holders of power oppress those without power, as you pointed out occurred in France and Russia cum Soviet Union.
It is a good point that the novelist is making that power only responds when they are forced to “by acts of defiance”. I would argue that this defiance need not be violent. In fact I did argue just that in a piece from 2018: https://believeandobey.net/the-practicality-of-peace-d36/
As in all things ideas have consequences, so all of this starts with putting forth better ideas about the moral and practical benefits of living in a world where formal criminal organizations (states) have much less scope to deny the rights and dignities of all God’s children.
Peace
I liked Moebus' mention of Ghandi and MLK as leaders who accomplished change without violence. What I note about America is that there are hundreds of smaller organizations who are dedicated to getting the gov't to change. If you're like me, you get dozens of appeals from them on your computer EVERY day telling you what they are working for and wanting money to do it. Most of them are sincere and worthwhile projects, but what this country needs is a third party that puts together the environmentalists, the anti racists, the economists for the working class, the educators who want respect and a living wage for teachers, and so on and on - to get them united. I would donate generously to such a party, and I suspect your readers here would too. There is no lack of interest throughout the country regardless of party (Dem or Repub) who would not join such an endeavor if we had a leader who would gather them together as Ghandi and MLK did. Until we find that person, I don't think we will see any change or improvement. Maybe we need to all go out and start looking for someone like that. I'm sure some of you have ideas who might fit the bill. The splintering of hundreds of groups that actually are for the same things is a major reason why the US is collapsing.
Thanks for your reply ,Bill. I agree, whoever might lead a third party will be in danger. I suspect the CIA and allied groups are already thinking up plots to get rid of Robert Kennedy Jr. if he should actually catch on. I read the book "JFK and the Unspeakable" by James Douglass and was astounded by the complexity and reach of the CIA plot. And I do agree with RFK Jr. that his father was also killed by the same group, so I guess he knows he's in danger. But my point was that I wish a thousand small groups could get together behind someone so we could speak with a louder voice. Bernie Sanders had that voice and he was starting to get a general coalition of voters including some Repubs and a whole lot of independants as well as Democrats and then the DNC killed it and now he's too old to do that again.
Since neither party is going to allow someone to come along and unite the average American voter who I firmly believe wants to end the oligarch rule we now have, I suppose you are correct - we're not going to get anything different from what we now have without a lot of bloodshed. The sad part is that we have a lot of bloodshed now, but it's not the kind that accomplishes anything positive.
Thank you Bill for telling it like it is, if not how to change the Status Quo. I've been trying to figure that out for years and still working on it!
In the Timeline of History from Moses the Lawgiver, this Western World has had 4000 years of Trials by the Law, and the Law hasn't stopped the killing, stealing, lying, bearing false witness, and coveting their neighbour's ass People still do. On the contrary, it's increasing through Humans wanting immediate gratification.
Is there a missing piece to the puzzle? All the Law and the Prophets, aka, Holy Scripture, is summed up in only 2 things Everyone can choose to do, Independent from those who do not.
But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living [...]
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets.
It's a Job for any Individual to develop Patience in a 30 second sound byte Society going against the stream, developing Day by Day & Night an individual, intimate Love relationship with the Spirit of God who IS Love
This is needed more than ever as hate, fear and suspicion is on the increase in this Material MONEY & THINGS loving World.
Well as The Who sang, meet the new boss - same as the old boss.
Probably true. Certainly as long as the mainstream media is so monolithic nothing really will change. Speaking of Jan 6, this from the Babylon Bee: https://babylonbee.com/news/report-sandbag-also-participated-in-jan-6-capitol-riot?
Thank You for this, Bill. It has my vote for Your Best Ever.
Because it is doing exactly what You say “isn’t enough”: it is Speaking Truth to Power indeed. It is not “enough” to do anything with at the moment, but it is a damn fine start. Lots to chew on here.
But i’m unclear on one thing. Miss Kuang wrote: “Power could only be brought to heel by acts of defiance it could not ignore. With brute, unflinching force. With violence.”
Is she saying that those “acts of defiance” need to happen “With brute, unflinching force. With violence”?
Or is she talking about Power not ignoring those acts of defiance, but responding to them “With brute, unflinching force. With violence”?
If she’s talking about the former, i have to respectfully disagree. There are many, many acts of defiance against Power that people can take that do not in any way involve force and violence. One hundred plus years after the time of BABEL, OR THE NECESSITY OF VIOLENCE, that same British Empire was confronted, combated, defeated, and set on the road to ultimate decline and fall by a guy named Gandhi and his Legions of Non-Violent Warriors.
i would suggest that Gandhi and his system of Non-Violent Noncooperation with and defiance of Power provides a very good start point for addressing and answering Your declaration that “How to effect meaningful change in a rigged system without violence is one of the huge questions of our age or any age.” The American Civil Rights movement and campaign led by Dr King offers further validation that rigged systems can indeed be meaningfully changed without force and violence.
And my guess is that America’s Ruling Elite would welcome a descent into that “elemental barbarism,” and use it to seize further power and control of every aspect of life ~ social, cultural, economic, and political ~ in the name of protecting America from her very own “domestic terrorists.”
Thank You again, Bill, for a great, Great piece. i look forward to seeing it broadcast nationally. And more importantly, to see where it leads. ~ jeff
No prior revolution had to proceed under the conditions of surveillance and total media domination by the owners that exist now. Selectively, those controls allow favorable coverage of some revolts (e.g., summer of 2020) and negative coverage of others (January 6th, 2021). Both were important in conditioning the majority to the approved view. I fear the economic collapse or international failure that will be required to bring on the owners' inability to manage the narrative.
Excellent posting to TomDispatch.com today, Bill. Nailed it again.
i'm beginning to wonder if You are beginning to wonder ~ like me ~ if the United States will survive to celebrate its 250th birthday on July 4, 2026; a mere 1,124 days from today.
Or if it can survive. Or if it should survive.
And so it begins. One week after a Chinese fighter jet buzzed a U.S. Air Force RC-135 surveillance plane in international skies… :
CHINESE WARSHIP NEARLY HITS U.S. DESTROYER IN TAIWAN STRAIT DURING JOINT CANADA-U.S. MISSION by Mackenzie Gray / Global News / 060523 [Includes video footage of a close encounter of a very nasty kind… ]
A Chinese warship came within 150 yards of hitting American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon, during a rare joint Canada-U.S. mission sailing through the Taiwan Strait, the latest aggressive military move from Beijing in the South China Sea.
Global News has been travelling on HMCS Montreal, the Canadian frigate participating in the mission, since May 25 in the South China Sea and witnessed the near collision from the bridge wing of the ship.
A People’s Liberation Navy ship picked up considerable speed and cut in front of the bow of the Chung-Hoon, a manoeuvre HMCS Montreal’s commander, Capt. Paul Mountford, called “not professional.”
When the Chinese vessel altered its course, Mountford says the crew called the American ship and told them to move or there would be a collision. The Americans responded by asking the Chinese to stay clear of the ship, but the Chung-Hoon ultimately needed to alter course and slow down to avoid a crash.
Mountford believes the incident was ”clearly instigated by the Chinese.”
“The fact this was announced over the radio prior to doing it, clearly indicated this was intentional.”
The Chung-Hoon and Montreal have been sailing together in the South China Sea for nearly a week prior to entering the Taiwan Strait. Global News has seen Chinese warships shadowing the Canadian vessel on multiple occasions during its transit.
The Chinese did not attempt a similar manoeuvre on HMCS Montreal but one of the two warships that were in the area did sail within 1,000 yards of the Canadian ship, a distance that Mountford believed was safe.
The Chinese told both the Canadian and American ships over radio systems that they are entering Chinese territory, despite the joint mission taking place in internationally recognized waters, according to Mountford.
“I am hoping that is an isolated incident that won’t happen again for us, because we have international law on our side,” Mountford told Global News. “This is international waters.”
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) said in a statement released Saturday the Chinese warship “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of Chung-Hoon.”
According to USINDOPACOM, the ship overtook the U.S. destroyer on its port side crossing its bow at 150 yards, prompting the Chung-Hoon to maintain course but slow its speed to 10 knots “to avoid a collision.” The Chinese ship then crossed the Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time “starboard to port at 2,000 yards” and remained off the destroyer’s port bow.
“The LY 132’s closest point of approach was 150 yards and its actions violated the maritime ‘Rules of the Road’ of safe passage in international waters,” the statement read.
In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canada said the Canadian and U.S. ships had “hyped (the sailing) up publicly,” and added that Chinese naval and air forces had been tracking and monitoring both ships “lawfully and professionally.”
“Relevant countries have been deliberately stirring up troubles and risks in the Taiwan Strait, maliciously undermining regional peace and stability and sending wrong signals to the “Taiwan independence” forces,” wrote Jianwei Li, deputy director of the embassy’s cultural and press section.
Jianwei said China would take all necessary measures to “firmly respond to all threats and provocations.”
Canada’s defence minister Anita Anand had just finished participating in a security summit in Singapore when she learned of the incident in the Strait of Taiwan.
The summit was attended by both U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu.
Anand said neither Canada nor its allies would be deterred from sailing in international waters.
“Canada will continue to sail where international law allows, including the Strait, the South China Sea,” Anand said in an interview from Singapore.
“And really, our overall goal is to increase the peace and stability of this region. And that’s why we are going to continue to see more of Canada in this region as set out in our Indo-Pacific strategy. We’ve already seen unsafe intercepts and we have addressed those appropriately with China in terms of our RCAF pilots. Actors in this region must engage responsibly, and that’s the bottom line.”
Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/9743650/china-warship-nearly-hits-us-destroyer-taiwan-strait/
For “Real Change” to happen in America, it does not need some sort of new third [or fourth or fifth] political party with some new leader[s] with “all the answers to all the questions and solutions to all the problems.”
What America needs is a change in its whole system of government and governance.
The problem is not the governors: the elected politicians, entrenched civilian and military bureaucrats, and anointed appointees who run the government. Thus, changing them without changing the system they flourish in will accomplish nothing.
Nor is it the owners and operators, and commanders and controllers of those politicians, bureaucrats, and appointees: the Fascist Corporatism of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, the Big Banks, Big Energy, Big Agriculture, Big Pharmaceutical, and Big Media Cartels, and the Financial, Medical, Legal, Law Enforcement, and Guns and Drugs Cabals. Nor is it the Surveillance-Secrecy-Security-Safety Panopticon now flourishing as never before.
These are but Symptoms of the Disease afflicting America.
The ultimate, root cause and source of America’s crisis today is that it has a system of government and governance in which the various and sundry Vested Special Interests just listed [and others as they are able] use the legal power, the administrative authority, and particularly, the spending capability of the federal government, to accomplish whatever it is that those VSIs want to accomplish as individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions for their clients, cohorts, constituents, and/or themselves. Regardless of what the rest of the Citizens, Taxpayers, and Voters of this Nation may need or want.
These are who make up America’s Ruling Political Class, and who own and operate, and command and control the governors at center stage in America's reality-tv extravaganza; and America's $ 1 = 1 Vote system of government and governance that gets, puts, and keeps them there.
And this is exactly why America has reached the state that it has today as:
~ a Bankrupt Debtor State;
~ an Imperialist Warfare State;
~ a Redistributionist Welfare State;
~ a Secrecy/Surveillance/Security/proto-Police State;
~ an Autocratic/Patriarchal/Oligarchic/Plutocratic Deep State;
~ an at-best Flailing Nation State and a definitely Failing Empire;
~ an Overshoot State; and, perhaps most importantly,
~ a People and Nation no longer merely "divided," but fractured ~ even to the point of disintegration ~ in ways not seen in more than 160 years, since the eve of what may end up being merely the First American Civil War.
And the only way that any of this has and could have happened is because of that flawed System of government and governance. Which The Federalists worked very hard to lay the groundwork for and build the foundation of to make that happen back when this system was being put together back in Philadelphia in the late 1780s.
And it has succeeded for their successors ~ America’s Ruling Political Class ~ ever since.