I checked the stock markets after reading your post. Based on the 'good news' reports from NBC and the rest of the MSM, the market is higher this morning. I wonder how much money Barron Trump made on his insider trades?
Trump may want out of the box he's in, but his only 'strategy' seems to be his tactic of delay, delay, and delay - and then hope magic happens. The newest member of the negotiating team of Witkoff and Kushner is Nick Stewart, known for his aggressive stand on Iran. Based on reports it was Kushner who asked him to join. Yup - no need for any official appointments; the man from Chabad Lubavitch appoints who he wants.
If peace was declared today the world has already lost the accumulated delivery - per Goldman Sachs - of 1.6 billion barrels of oil. Except for gas price increases ($6.19 yesterday at the local Chevron station), the U.S. has yet to feel how bad this is going to get in the next three to six months: food shortages, gas lines, collapse of supply chains, and business failures.
Sounds as if it'll be time for the Epstein Files to bubble up again as a distraction.
CNN today has a headline about Trump having a "nuclear option" by which to bring retail gasoline/diesel prices down. Hmm. If that's releasing more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, somebody send a memo to The Donald reminding him that such a release would be but a blip in the bigger picture of oil supply/oil consumption. But of course emperors aren't real keen on detailed knowledge. Exercise of raw power is how they get their kicks. ... Oh, wait! Maybe the plan is to gift us all Electric Vehicles! But Donald HATES those things!! Could he be a tad confused??
As I pointed out recently, FOMO--Fear Of Missing Out on still greater gains--has been the primary driver of rising US stock prices for years now. This makes the small, mom and pop, "investor" feel like a damned genius for having thrown every penny they can muster at stock prices. And part of their "genius" is the belief that THEY--not their neighbor, their co-worker, their Uncle Gus--will sell everything JUST IN TIME to avoid the massacre when this stock price colossal bubble finally pops! Wow, are there gonna be a lot of disappointed "geniuses"!!
And it's not just the investor, the 'financial advisors' push the narrative of higher and higher gains. My wife wanted to move some non-IRA money out of a managed account; her advisor pushed back hard, telling her she's wrong and she (the advisor) was staying 'invested'. The money came out anyway and she'll be in maximum safety mode with it until the bubble explodes.
“I like how that NBC report focuses on what really matters: gas prices.”
Gotta hand it to ‘em, the analytical and perceptual skills of the American mainstream media are unparalleled, finely honed, and help keep this democracy a beacon to the world. I’ve given thought that low gas prices – artificially so, considering the externalities – are an unspoken amendment in the Constitution.
“Is America ever going to stop waging undeclared wars of aggression? Maybe ‘We the People’ should act to put a stop to this.”
I’ve taken a step in that direction. Last week I went to a campaign event for Rep. Seth Moulton, who’s challenging longtime Ed Markey for the Senate in the Mass. primaries this September. Moulton is saying that that the political system in this country is broken, the Democrats need new, younger leadership, the status quo has to be changed. He’s entirely correct in all that.
Come the Q&A part of the event, I asked him how is it challenging the status quo in light of the fact that he was among 115 Democratic congressmen who voted for the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that put us over the obscene $1+ trillion in so-called “defense “ spending when the country has such pressing needs, and Senator Markey saw fit to vote “no”? Without hesitation, in true politician fashion, he launched into an explanation that began with, “First, I want to see that our troops get paid.”
I tuned out from the rest of his response. When I got back home, I wrote him a letter explaining initially I was considering supporting him in September, now he’s lost my vote. No one aside from the rabid Right can support such spending on the military, instead we should cut it at least in half. It’s possible I just may not even bother to vote in the Democratic primary.
Americans have been desensitized about how what was once a viable democracy is now a fascist state run by an oligarchy composted of billionaires in collaboration with a genocidal foreign psycho-religious cult. Most Americans can’t face the fact that the promise of freedom and liberty is over. The American experiment has failed miserably. If anyone thinks it can be fixed they are delusional. People in this country should consider moving to China or Russia or any other country that might offer them a chance at a good life. That is if they are young, smart and strong because life in the 21 century is getting hard for anyone without money or influential connections any where in the world. Ironically, if you choose to stay I suggest finding a permanent job in state government. Yes that’s right join the bureaucracy. If you can’t beat them join them. Find a good state that provides medical benefits, fair pay, a pension and work you don’t have to feel guilty about doing. I live in Oregon so I may be a little naive about the possibility of doing that. Forget politics because it will ruin your life and in the US it is a futile effort.
Yes, "the System" has been broken to bits by Team Trump and GOP domination of Congress (Project 2025 in action). Checks and balances? Puh-leez, don't make me laugh (to keep from crying)!! Your fear was well founded, Dr. Ben Franklin: we could not "keep it" (a "representative" republic). The Big (Biggest!) Moneyed Interests won out. BTW, jobs in state government are anything but secure now, with layoffs all over the place. Also, your state and local taxes WILL be on the rise, folks, as the cost of doing everything rises due to rising energy costs, etc.
Sadly I couldn't agree more wilrodx I had for me anyway 2 of the best jobs, and Career in the world it gave me immense satisfaction helping others as a Airpolice/ Defender USAF 73-79 then a Firefighter (the best job in the Universe) 79-99 First Responder, but I was very lucky, and I know it...!
Good for you. You were lucky. I guess that was the point of my comment. I am 78 years old and I have witnessed how things have gone radically down hill since JFK was killed. Not just in politics but in the economy and general quality of life from medical care to products and food you buy. I too was lucky. I finished college and got a job with the Oregon Sec. of State as an auditor. In the 23 years there I saw how the Audits Div. got politicized and corrupt. I preferred Fraud and Abuse audits and it got to the point where there was not one audit that didn't have problems in the way the office handled it. I consider myself lucky to have what I have now and empathize with the youth of this country who will have a very difficult time raising a family and having a good life.
I concur with you 70 yrs. young here, and other than the chronological number still feel like a Kid. My College was funded by the G.I. Bill and I got my Fire Science Associate Degree @ Brockton University...:/ :o)
I know that what I experienced is nothing compared to what guys like Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern went through. In my case it never involve war and the loss of life.
Isn’t this behavior just what the American military has been doing since the pioneer age of expansion across this great land? At the end of those pioneer days in 1893 the historian Frederick Jackson Turner formulated his famous Frontier Thesis. For many it was a golden age, for the Native population it was an utter disaster. The US military was the means of empire building and has continued in that role to the present day - sometimes with congressional support and often not. To the losing side that didn’t make any difference. Was there congressional support for the overthrow of Iran‘s elected leader Mossadegh in 1953? Not needed I suppose since it was done by the CIA/MI6. The new government of the Shah certainly worked closely with the Pentagon. Just a few random thoughts on the role of the US military. America always got its money‘s worth. The MIC has been doing very well since Eisenhower‘s famous warning.
I would amend your conclusion to say that only a few Americans got their money's worth. The rest of us got screwed.
Think about it. What did we get out of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or any of the other countries we bombed the crap out of. Nada, nothing, not a damned nickle. So all of the wealth gained by a small group of Americans came from U.S. taxpayers.
War, like all other disasters, natural or man made, always ends up with a vast transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. It's a great racket.
I thought I covered my … by ending my reflections reference to Eisenhower‘s remarks. European settlers initially did very well when they were given free or cheap Indian lands.
You partially covered it, but left much exposed. You missed the main point about where the money's worth comes from. When pointing out that some people are making out, it's necessary to point out who's paying for it.
When voting, the majority of American voters don't think about how these wars are costing them directly and indirectly, and how that money lines the pockets of the war profiteers. Until they fully realize that they are just making those people wealthier, they will continue to vote for politicians whose campaigns are financed by the war profiteers and who, in turn, support the war funding.
As I said above, it's a great racket; and until American voters wake up to it, they won't change their voting habits and nothing will change.
But how do you wake an electorate so deep in slumber as to be comatose? It's said that we vote with our pocketbooks, which puts the Extremely Stable Genius running the show and his machine in all three branches of government in some jeopardy in future elections. Or so one would think! And hope!! But as a wise person observed, who knows when, "Hope is not a strategy." [Afterthought: Of course we peons do NOT get to elect the members of SCOTUS, which generally gets the final word on matters.]
Good luck on waking up the American working class. I tried and was accused ( by average working people) of being too red, unrealistic or I should go back where I had come from. After trying for sixty years I am rather pessimistic.
The casualties thus far have been lopsided on the side of (real!) patriots. I am thinking of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They acted out of humane concerns for citizens being brutalized by Federal officers and it cost them their lives. Such a concern would be a much better exercise in patriotism than waving a stupid flag and saying "Support Our Troops"!! But US flags were flown at half-staff not for Good and Pretti, but for Neo-Nazi rabble rouser Charlie Kirk!
It's said that one of the things Roy Cohn (gag!) taught young Donald was to "Never, ever admit defeat!" Never mind if truth, reality, screams the opposite. The fly in the ointment of the notion that peace is at hand is Israel's murderous assault on Lebanon. I am certain--based on what my gut tells me (hey, that's kind of Trumpian, ain't it?!?)--that Israel will insist that what passes for a national government in Lebanon must EXTERMINATE all members/suspected members of Hezbollah in exchange for Israel standing down. Otherwise Netanyahu will insist that his regime must do that dirty work, that they somehow have a right to do this ("self-defense"), and of course they've been committed to this policy all along.
The other day Bill was more into ego defense in stupidity when I said he was too stupid to see following the money is most telling. Follow the money, stupid is more telling than "it's the economy, stupid". I was saying to Bill if you follow the money, you will see that Zionism -Israel’s expansionism-genocide-the Israeli Lobby all serve American’s biggest private wealth holders. If Zionism did not serve the short term-short- sighted interests of American wealth holders, they would indeed stop arming Israel but sanctioning it. Only America and its Vassel states in the West can stop Israel. The Zionist lobby I tell Mearsheimer serves the short- term interests of America’s concentrated wealth and desire to concentrate it more. Not seeing that is stupid. Mearsheimer is one of the most logical American thinkers out there yet he is stupid in failing to see or stress the overwhelming influence of the Zionist lobby has on America is almost only because Zionist ideology serves the expansionist ideology of America’s greatest influencers of the world-the world’s most powerful corporations the world's richest oligarchs. Follow the money, stupid!
Bill, I will take you up on your offer of a refund. Because in fact you are stupid. Unless you want to apologize to me, for your stupid defense....when in fact what you wrote that day is stupid.
I think you're getting your money's worth, Glen. Stupid is as stupid does.
I'll leave it to you to unsuscribe if you so choose. Hope you find smarter Substacks and people. With your generous manner and diplomatic comments, I'm sure you'll thrive.
Often the greatest truths lie in what is so obvious can't be seen because it is hidden in a complexification- by those who see, build or rest on "complexity" -rather than unpeeling-un-concealing complexity- truth hides out in complexity by one who seeks complexifying rather than un-concealing things for what they more truly are. We clothe the naked truth of the emperor's nakedness in rich nuanced elaborate clothing. Hans Christian Anderson's insight in a children's tale was primarily aimed at adults written by an exceptionally insightful adult. Western academia is especially skilled at clothing naked truths. It is horrid at seeing and saying simple truths-the most profound truths- as it specialized it became more skilled at separating inseparable subjects missing out more and more on the big picture only seen away from specialized looking. We are so frightened of being seen as simpletons-that we refuse to look to see the simple truths. I seek to simplify from un-concealing and from not separating the inseparable. Call me a simpleton and I am honored! If you read Einstiens' The World as I See It- you realize how he simplifies things. It could have been written by a grade 10 student. He seeks to simplify not to complexify. The perceptive child that asks why is the world so unfair is poorly answered by our ways of attending to the world. The answer lies in simply telling the child we have rewarded unfair sharing and how we have rewarded unfair sharing with our reward systems. Not in telling the child it's complex-that the way we have structured the world-financialized the world has any good complex reason to it but that we have prevented honest straightforward- transparent and fair transactions with the creation financial instruments that enable fraudulent practices and behaviors. Canadian- born economist John Kenneth Galbraith of the Kennedy Administration hinted at what I am saying here with the very last book he wrote in his late nineties where he writes about legalized fraud.
The situation in the Middle East is all about OIL. O-I-L. The most important commodity in the modern, mechanized world. This is what determines US foreign policy (which is MILITARY policy, period, now). It is not an ideological affinity for the idea of territorial expansionism that leads to US ceaseless support for Israel, year after year regardless of what atrocities the Zionist regime engages in. Israel is a useful tool for the US, a heavily armed and now extremely aggressive threat to the oil-producing regimes in the region.
The day it doesn't will be Israel's reckoning-some analysts are saying that day is sooner than later...To get a real deal with Iran means at least a partial reckoning. That's why a real deal will be so hard to get.
I posted this on Paul Krugman's site today-to give his readers-himself-perspective:
For much if not most of humanity, the US committing “superpower suicide” might be a welcome development. Dr. Martin Luther’s King’s 1967 identification of the United States as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” has stood the test of time. In his book Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire, the political scientist David Michael Smith calculates that the US has been responsible or shared responsibility for the death of 54 million people between 1945 and 2020. Add in domestic social killing and move the time back to the founding of the American Empire in 1776 and the body count climbs to 300 million. He does not include the 38 million dealths from American sanctions alone.
If Americans really knew how evil America was and is....maybe we could inspire more Aaron Bushnell responses from Americans for the greater good of the world.
It's shameful how Bushnell was dismissed as a religious crank or zealot; shameful too how his sacrifice was so quickly forgotten by the mainstream media.
The response does not have to be self-immolation but a profound humility first-then a militancy against concentrated wealth. Bernie Sanders is dismissed by many of us leftists because he is still too tied to Zionistic thinking. BUT his long-term persistent militant thinking against concentrated wealth is a bright and shining light in in America-lighting other lights... Nader points out Sanders remains the most popular politician in America-that is where America's hope lies. Only after America achieves his and Naders mitigation of damage can we go after setting limits that enabled concentrated wealth-setting limits that prevent the concentration of private wealth in the first place.
Keep writing this message; we need more people to awaken to the facts.
Yes, start where you are, use what you have your wits, and lastly do and learn whatever you can to make things better....
Aunty Jean, I posted this 36 years after I was unexpectedly awakened to God February 1, 1975.
It took that long for me to understand WHY? And that was 15 years ago long before this World arrived at such dire straits.
https://rayjc.com/2011/12/25/day-of-awakening-david-vs-goliath-vs-armageddon/
"Oil plunged and markets surged amid a report the U.S. and Iran are nearing a deal to end the war..."
I think I've heard this story before.
I checked the stock markets after reading your post. Based on the 'good news' reports from NBC and the rest of the MSM, the market is higher this morning. I wonder how much money Barron Trump made on his insider trades?
Trump may want out of the box he's in, but his only 'strategy' seems to be his tactic of delay, delay, and delay - and then hope magic happens. The newest member of the negotiating team of Witkoff and Kushner is Nick Stewart, known for his aggressive stand on Iran. Based on reports it was Kushner who asked him to join. Yup - no need for any official appointments; the man from Chabad Lubavitch appoints who he wants.
If peace was declared today the world has already lost the accumulated delivery - per Goldman Sachs - of 1.6 billion barrels of oil. Except for gas price increases ($6.19 yesterday at the local Chevron station), the U.S. has yet to feel how bad this is going to get in the next three to six months: food shortages, gas lines, collapse of supply chains, and business failures.
Sounds as if it'll be time for the Epstein Files to bubble up again as a distraction.
Just what America needs: another Zionist on the "negotiating" team.
CNN today has a headline about Trump having a "nuclear option" by which to bring retail gasoline/diesel prices down. Hmm. If that's releasing more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, somebody send a memo to The Donald reminding him that such a release would be but a blip in the bigger picture of oil supply/oil consumption. But of course emperors aren't real keen on detailed knowledge. Exercise of raw power is how they get their kicks. ... Oh, wait! Maybe the plan is to gift us all Electric Vehicles! But Donald HATES those things!! Could he be a tad confused??
As I pointed out recently, FOMO--Fear Of Missing Out on still greater gains--has been the primary driver of rising US stock prices for years now. This makes the small, mom and pop, "investor" feel like a damned genius for having thrown every penny they can muster at stock prices. And part of their "genius" is the belief that THEY--not their neighbor, their co-worker, their Uncle Gus--will sell everything JUST IN TIME to avoid the massacre when this stock price colossal bubble finally pops! Wow, are there gonna be a lot of disappointed "geniuses"!!
And it's not just the investor, the 'financial advisors' push the narrative of higher and higher gains. My wife wanted to move some non-IRA money out of a managed account; her advisor pushed back hard, telling her she's wrong and she (the advisor) was staying 'invested'. The money came out anyway and she'll be in maximum safety mode with it until the bubble explodes.
"Is America ever going to stop waging undeclared wars of aggression? "
Not so long as there's money to be made from it.
“I like how that NBC report focuses on what really matters: gas prices.”
Gotta hand it to ‘em, the analytical and perceptual skills of the American mainstream media are unparalleled, finely honed, and help keep this democracy a beacon to the world. I’ve given thought that low gas prices – artificially so, considering the externalities – are an unspoken amendment in the Constitution.
“Is America ever going to stop waging undeclared wars of aggression? Maybe ‘We the People’ should act to put a stop to this.”
I’ve taken a step in that direction. Last week I went to a campaign event for Rep. Seth Moulton, who’s challenging longtime Ed Markey for the Senate in the Mass. primaries this September. Moulton is saying that that the political system in this country is broken, the Democrats need new, younger leadership, the status quo has to be changed. He’s entirely correct in all that.
Come the Q&A part of the event, I asked him how is it challenging the status quo in light of the fact that he was among 115 Democratic congressmen who voted for the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that put us over the obscene $1+ trillion in so-called “defense “ spending when the country has such pressing needs, and Senator Markey saw fit to vote “no”? Without hesitation, in true politician fashion, he launched into an explanation that began with, “First, I want to see that our troops get paid.”
I tuned out from the rest of his response. When I got back home, I wrote him a letter explaining initially I was considering supporting him in September, now he’s lost my vote. No one aside from the rabid Right can support such spending on the military, instead we should cut it at least in half. It’s possible I just may not even bother to vote in the Democratic primary.
How's that for a healthy democracy?
THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT IS OVER
https://substack.com/@wilrodx108853
Americans have been desensitized about how what was once a viable democracy is now a fascist state run by an oligarchy composted of billionaires in collaboration with a genocidal foreign psycho-religious cult. Most Americans can’t face the fact that the promise of freedom and liberty is over. The American experiment has failed miserably. If anyone thinks it can be fixed they are delusional. People in this country should consider moving to China or Russia or any other country that might offer them a chance at a good life. That is if they are young, smart and strong because life in the 21 century is getting hard for anyone without money or influential connections any where in the world. Ironically, if you choose to stay I suggest finding a permanent job in state government. Yes that’s right join the bureaucracy. If you can’t beat them join them. Find a good state that provides medical benefits, fair pay, a pension and work you don’t have to feel guilty about doing. I live in Oregon so I may be a little naive about the possibility of doing that. Forget politics because it will ruin your life and in the US it is a futile effort.
Yes, "the System" has been broken to bits by Team Trump and GOP domination of Congress (Project 2025 in action). Checks and balances? Puh-leez, don't make me laugh (to keep from crying)!! Your fear was well founded, Dr. Ben Franklin: we could not "keep it" (a "representative" republic). The Big (Biggest!) Moneyed Interests won out. BTW, jobs in state government are anything but secure now, with layoffs all over the place. Also, your state and local taxes WILL be on the rise, folks, as the cost of doing everything rises due to rising energy costs, etc.
Politics is the dirtiest game in town when you live in a nation of evil...!
Sadly I couldn't agree more wilrodx I had for me anyway 2 of the best jobs, and Career in the world it gave me immense satisfaction helping others as a Airpolice/ Defender USAF 73-79 then a Firefighter (the best job in the Universe) 79-99 First Responder, but I was very lucky, and I know it...!
Good for you. You were lucky. I guess that was the point of my comment. I am 78 years old and I have witnessed how things have gone radically down hill since JFK was killed. Not just in politics but in the economy and general quality of life from medical care to products and food you buy. I too was lucky. I finished college and got a job with the Oregon Sec. of State as an auditor. In the 23 years there I saw how the Audits Div. got politicized and corrupt. I preferred Fraud and Abuse audits and it got to the point where there was not one audit that didn't have problems in the way the office handled it. I consider myself lucky to have what I have now and empathize with the youth of this country who will have a very difficult time raising a family and having a good life.
I concur with you 70 yrs. young here, and other than the chronological number still feel like a Kid. My College was funded by the G.I. Bill and I got my Fire Science Associate Degree @ Brockton University...:/ :o)
I know that what I experienced is nothing compared to what guys like Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern went through. In my case it never involve war and the loss of life.
Isn’t this behavior just what the American military has been doing since the pioneer age of expansion across this great land? At the end of those pioneer days in 1893 the historian Frederick Jackson Turner formulated his famous Frontier Thesis. For many it was a golden age, for the Native population it was an utter disaster. The US military was the means of empire building and has continued in that role to the present day - sometimes with congressional support and often not. To the losing side that didn’t make any difference. Was there congressional support for the overthrow of Iran‘s elected leader Mossadegh in 1953? Not needed I suppose since it was done by the CIA/MI6. The new government of the Shah certainly worked closely with the Pentagon. Just a few random thoughts on the role of the US military. America always got its money‘s worth. The MIC has been doing very well since Eisenhower‘s famous warning.
I would amend your conclusion to say that only a few Americans got their money's worth. The rest of us got screwed.
Think about it. What did we get out of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or any of the other countries we bombed the crap out of. Nada, nothing, not a damned nickle. So all of the wealth gained by a small group of Americans came from U.S. taxpayers.
War, like all other disasters, natural or man made, always ends up with a vast transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. It's a great racket.
I thought I covered my … by ending my reflections reference to Eisenhower‘s remarks. European settlers initially did very well when they were given free or cheap Indian lands.
You partially covered it, but left much exposed. You missed the main point about where the money's worth comes from. When pointing out that some people are making out, it's necessary to point out who's paying for it.
When voting, the majority of American voters don't think about how these wars are costing them directly and indirectly, and how that money lines the pockets of the war profiteers. Until they fully realize that they are just making those people wealthier, they will continue to vote for politicians whose campaigns are financed by the war profiteers and who, in turn, support the war funding.
As I said above, it's a great racket; and until American voters wake up to it, they won't change their voting habits and nothing will change.
But how do you wake an electorate so deep in slumber as to be comatose? It's said that we vote with our pocketbooks, which puts the Extremely Stable Genius running the show and his machine in all three branches of government in some jeopardy in future elections. Or so one would think! And hope!! But as a wise person observed, who knows when, "Hope is not a strategy." [Afterthought: Of course we peons do NOT get to elect the members of SCOTUS, which generally gets the final word on matters.]
Good luck on waking up the American working class. I tried and was accused ( by average working people) of being too red, unrealistic or I should go back where I had come from. After trying for sixty years I am rather pessimistic.
And what should/can we the (little) people do to put a stop to this?
Being smart and well-informed doesn't seem to do it.
Aye, there's the rub. It's hard to win against a rigged system backed up by enforcers.
A saying from Jefferson comes to mind: The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
The casualties thus far have been lopsided on the side of (real!) patriots. I am thinking of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They acted out of humane concerns for citizens being brutalized by Federal officers and it cost them their lives. Such a concern would be a much better exercise in patriotism than waving a stupid flag and saying "Support Our Troops"!! But US flags were flown at half-staff not for Good and Pretti, but for Neo-Nazi rabble rouser Charlie Kirk!
Maybe the "well regulated Militia" needs to get busy.
There is a big difference between being smart and well-informed and being wise.
The latter seems to be in short supply amongst American voters as well as our politicians.
It's said that one of the things Roy Cohn (gag!) taught young Donald was to "Never, ever admit defeat!" Never mind if truth, reality, screams the opposite. The fly in the ointment of the notion that peace is at hand is Israel's murderous assault on Lebanon. I am certain--based on what my gut tells me (hey, that's kind of Trumpian, ain't it?!?)--that Israel will insist that what passes for a national government in Lebanon must EXTERMINATE all members/suspected members of Hezbollah in exchange for Israel standing down. Otherwise Netanyahu will insist that his regime must do that dirty work, that they somehow have a right to do this ("self-defense"), and of course they've been committed to this policy all along.
The other day Bill was more into ego defense in stupidity when I said he was too stupid to see following the money is most telling. Follow the money, stupid is more telling than "it's the economy, stupid". I was saying to Bill if you follow the money, you will see that Zionism -Israel’s expansionism-genocide-the Israeli Lobby all serve American’s biggest private wealth holders. If Zionism did not serve the short term-short- sighted interests of American wealth holders, they would indeed stop arming Israel but sanctioning it. Only America and its Vassel states in the West can stop Israel. The Zionist lobby I tell Mearsheimer serves the short- term interests of America’s concentrated wealth and desire to concentrate it more. Not seeing that is stupid. Mearsheimer is one of the most logical American thinkers out there yet he is stupid in failing to see or stress the overwhelming influence of the Zionist lobby has on America is almost only because Zionist ideology serves the expansionist ideology of America’s greatest influencers of the world-the world’s most powerful corporations the world's richest oligarchs. Follow the money, stupid!
Bill, I will take you up on your offer of a refund. Because in fact you are stupid. Unless you want to apologize to me, for your stupid defense....when in fact what you wrote that day is stupid.
I think you're getting your money's worth, Glen. Stupid is as stupid does.
I'll leave it to you to unsuscribe if you so choose. Hope you find smarter Substacks and people. With your generous manner and diplomatic comments, I'm sure you'll thrive.
Often the greatest truths lie in what is so obvious can't be seen because it is hidden in a complexification- by those who see, build or rest on "complexity" -rather than unpeeling-un-concealing complexity- truth hides out in complexity by one who seeks complexifying rather than un-concealing things for what they more truly are. We clothe the naked truth of the emperor's nakedness in rich nuanced elaborate clothing. Hans Christian Anderson's insight in a children's tale was primarily aimed at adults written by an exceptionally insightful adult. Western academia is especially skilled at clothing naked truths. It is horrid at seeing and saying simple truths-the most profound truths- as it specialized it became more skilled at separating inseparable subjects missing out more and more on the big picture only seen away from specialized looking. We are so frightened of being seen as simpletons-that we refuse to look to see the simple truths. I seek to simplify from un-concealing and from not separating the inseparable. Call me a simpleton and I am honored! If you read Einstiens' The World as I See It- you realize how he simplifies things. It could have been written by a grade 10 student. He seeks to simplify not to complexify. The perceptive child that asks why is the world so unfair is poorly answered by our ways of attending to the world. The answer lies in simply telling the child we have rewarded unfair sharing and how we have rewarded unfair sharing with our reward systems. Not in telling the child it's complex-that the way we have structured the world-financialized the world has any good complex reason to it but that we have prevented honest straightforward- transparent and fair transactions with the creation financial instruments that enable fraudulent practices and behaviors. Canadian- born economist John Kenneth Galbraith of the Kennedy Administration hinted at what I am saying here with the very last book he wrote in his late nineties where he writes about legalized fraud.
The situation in the Middle East is all about OIL. O-I-L. The most important commodity in the modern, mechanized world. This is what determines US foreign policy (which is MILITARY policy, period, now). It is not an ideological affinity for the idea of territorial expansionism that leads to US ceaseless support for Israel, year after year regardless of what atrocities the Zionist regime engages in. Israel is a useful tool for the US, a heavily armed and now extremely aggressive threat to the oil-producing regimes in the region.
Zionism serves American Big Oil-Big Arms-Big Tech.
The day it doesn't will be Israel's reckoning-some analysts are saying that day is sooner than later...To get a real deal with Iran means at least a partial reckoning. That's why a real deal will be so hard to get.
I posted this on Paul Krugman's site today-to give his readers-himself-perspective:
For much if not most of humanity, the US committing “superpower suicide” might be a welcome development. Dr. Martin Luther’s King’s 1967 identification of the United States as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” has stood the test of time. In his book Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire, the political scientist David Michael Smith calculates that the US has been responsible or shared responsibility for the death of 54 million people between 1945 and 2020. Add in domestic social killing and move the time back to the founding of the American Empire in 1776 and the body count climbs to 300 million. He does not include the 38 million dealths from American sanctions alone.
If Americans really knew how evil America was and is....maybe we could inspire more Aaron Bushnell responses from Americans for the greater good of the world.
It's shameful how Bushnell was dismissed as a religious crank or zealot; shameful too how his sacrifice was so quickly forgotten by the mainstream media.
The response does not have to be self-immolation but a profound humility first-then a militancy against concentrated wealth. Bernie Sanders is dismissed by many of us leftists because he is still too tied to Zionistic thinking. BUT his long-term persistent militant thinking against concentrated wealth is a bright and shining light in in America-lighting other lights... Nader points out Sanders remains the most popular politician in America-that is where America's hope lies. Only after America achieves his and Naders mitigation of damage can we go after setting limits that enabled concentrated wealth-setting limits that prevent the concentration of private wealth in the first place.
I posted this in memory and honour of Aaron Bushnell
https://rayjc.com/2024/03/13/greater-love-has-no-man-than-this-that-a-man-lay-down-his-life-for-his-friends/
Excellent work, Ray!