There will be no consequences for Israel, which is why they will continue to ignore international law and all human morality. Until they get massive international sanctions that cripple their economy, they will continue to kill innocent people with impunity.
As outrage piles upon outrage, it's clear there is no moral core to this country.
Of the millions who piously celebrated Easter services in all their finery, did any stop and question where are the religious figures who have called out the genocide? Did the saintly Joe Biden, attending Mass, even consider the cynical positions of his administration - motivated only by election year calculations - is resulting in the looming deaths of hundreds of thousands, and millions if Israel is successful in starting a war in Lebanon that draws in the US?
All this, while all political 'leaders' cheer on Israel's "right to defend itself".
How could any conscious human being in the USA not be ashamed? We do not approve of this genocide, but those who allegedly are our representatives are willfully enabling it through every action; and they use our taxes, and the electorate's enabling votes, to do so.
Jeff... I admit, given the sad realities (i.e. of a political establishment that is mostly willing to serve imperial designs and a populace that is apparently too-comfortable just going along with it), I don't know if 'it can be stopped' at least until perhaps there is sufficient economic and emotional pain and other blow-back to eject said populace from their comfort.
I've more or less come to the point of acknowledging that at my age & condition I'm no longer in position to try to initiate or lead any major organizational effort- especially having tried & failed in the past; and having as a result long ago lost patience with the too-often-witnessed egocentricity of others in what has been to an effort similar to "herding snakes" (or cats).
I guess I see my role now differently- perhaps primarily to inform, appeal to the better nature of those I MIGHT influence, etc.
I'm afraid I can't give a simple answer to this dilemma. Given the complete corruption of the political system, i.e. of both electoral politics and policy politics, in my view there is virtually no reason to expect any of the needed changes to be initiated within it. While the geopolitical (as well as domestic) situation can get even worse in this political system, I don't think the trajectories will or can improve much merely by relying on the political systems of the U.S. or its allies.
So what WOULD make a difference? Well, I've probably said it before so forgive me for any redundancy, but in my view ONLY the coalescing of a mass movement of citizens (here, and elsewhere), strategically and effectively using our only remaining power, could force the changes needed. The 'power' to which I refer is in the collective ability to 'perturb' the economy and financial interests of those who currently hold all the power. This would involve (again) such things as strategically planned and executed, sustained mass boycotts, labor actions (sickouts/ slowdowns / strikes, etc.), tax protests, and such other actions that can bring the managers of the system (and their owners) to their knees.
In my view, this is an enormous project of such difficulty and with so many challenges that the odds of success aren't particularly great. Just for example, in my experience and observation, such movements are often undermined by the very human traits (ego-driven concerns, fear, mistrust, etc.) that plague all human institutions including their governments. It's often VERY difficult to get even modest numbers of people to set aside their own impulses long enough to focus on the common good and needs. Again in my own experience, it's a big challenge just to get 10 people to agree on the vision, principles, objectives and strategies of any organizational effort- and equally challenging to keep them aligned on those EVEN IF they initially can come to a consensus. (I have very personal experience of this!)
For example, assuming that a group of people could come to a consensus on the creation and organizing of a movement of change with principles and objectives of non-violent resistance (as opposed to open, armed revolution), it will face the challenge of those who, perhaps like the young anarchists that often emerge during periods of civil unrest, will decide to act out violently, which will of course both invite military repression AND turn off a part of the population that otherwise might be part of the peaceful revolution.
And if violent anarchists don't precipitate such violence and provoke such official repression, we'd have to expect that agents-provocateur from the security state would do it. And in any case, to whatever extent the establishment begins to sense a genuine threat to their ability to maintain the status quo that benefits them, the security state would try to decapitate the movement by removing any identified leadership- whether by economic threats (to them and loved ones), or 'suicide' / assassination or merely by framing, etc. This isn't fanciful conjecture. The history of the U.S. and its security establishment makes very clear that ANYONE who is deemed a significant enough threat to the power establishment will become a target. If they can take out with impunity a JFK, MLK Jr., RFK, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, et al, they certainly can eliminate any other 'troublemaker'.
At any rate, this is what has to take place. If it doesn't happen in a rational, humanely intelligent and organized fashion, I foresee that what will eventually take place will be a more random, chaotic, violent period, perhaps a longer period of spontaneous outbreaks of violence as the most desperate react to their oppression and perceived oppressors. And, because it IS chaotic, there is no telling where it would ultimately lead. It could for example even make matters even worse. All that is certain is that it would be far more violent along its course.
This is all that I can see as the potential ways forward. The Empire itself, being in decline and perceiving existential threat, is becoming both more violent and more controlling. Already, control of information and narrative are rapidly growing and becoming normalized, just as imperial violence is. The part of narrative control that is active propaganda is already at a scale that I could never have imagined outside of Orwellian fiction; and our leaders - in fact, the entirety of the political establishment - are aggressively pushing its expansion, with very little push-back even from the so-called progressives.. And propaganda, along with the establishment's deliberate promotion of what we could call "culture war" issues has already so successfully both divided the populace and convinced many of the need to continue to focus on partisan politics that are guaranteed to keep the current trajectories. So there is already a lot of inertia built into the system which adds to the challenges of trying to change it.
Perhaps our "betters" (bettors?) will keep laughing all the way to the bank--until the banks collapse. Then they'll laugh as they board their Lear jets and yachts on the way to their hideaways outside the USA, even as they claim to be America's biggest patriots.
We will then be left to pick up the pieces--hopefully not irradiated rubble.
Thank You, Roger, for a very clear and comprehensive "Situation Report" on the current state of American politics, economics, and civil society; and the role of America's [and The Planet's] Ruling Political Class in what has happened and is continuing unabated..
One of the biggest questions is: Are there a sufficient "mass" of Americans who are fed up enough with Everything about this country and its "leadership" to actually DO something about and against it: as in any of the mass actions of any sort that You propose?
And You are absolutely correct that whatever happens needs to happen "in a rational, humanely intelligent and organized fashion" because if it doesn't there will be random, chaotic violence."
But even more important than that is that there will be very specific, non-random, and non-chaotic violence engaged in and inflicted by the Government, at all levels and in all ways, in reaction and response to any "protest" violence. Especially that engineered by agents-provocateurs.
The words from our government are now so removed from the reality that I think we have arrived at the point of "war is peace" though we are long past 1984.
100%, Bill. Washington, DC is totally corrupt. The government operates to the benefit of an elite invisible state. The fabled democracy is in reality a oligarchy.
i suggest a concerted and collective effort to launch a tax revolt, as americans successfully did against their british overlords in the late 1700s. i would be willing to go to prison if necessary, but our combined income earned from USAID projects is too low to be required to pay taxes to the US govt, despite having our taxes removed at source by USAID, which we have never retrieved. we do pay taxes to the canadian govt, however, but an exiguous amt. as octogenarians on scant pensions, my husband and i would be unable to survive in either canada or the US as salubriously and comfortably as we do here in the philippines. your claim that none [N.B. 'none' is singular, a contraction of 'not one'] of US taxpayers' lucre is siphoned off for the US war machine, the MIC, and the concomitant spy apparatus, domestic or foreign, is donkey-dung. even if the US treasury simply prints more denaro, the consumer remains compromised by the commensurate costs of inflation, both for comestibles and luxury items. your forthcoming evidence would be much appreciated.
why don't YOU offer some viable or at least reasonable suggestions, jg moebus? your relentless and ineluctable litany of interrogatives is as futile as astore's and his commenters' declaratives. give us some proactive guidance here. we await your cynosureship.
What would happen if every American who is fed up with all the Bullshit ~ in Ukraine, in Palestine, and soon with China, and with America's soon-to-be $35 TRILLION national, sovereign Debt and what that portends for this nation's future ~ what if all those folks voted "NONE OF THESE CANDIDATES" in Election2024?
First of all: Do You think there are enough Americans who ARE fed up with all that to ~ if they voted NOTC ~ make a difference?
After all, no American is paying a dime in taxes for all these wars, and nobody or their kid is getting drafted into the military now to go fight in them when that time inevitably comes.
And, if i may be so bold as to ask: What is Your solution?
Also: What if every Registered Voter who does NOT want either Trump or Biden [or any of the "independents," and other 3rd, 4th. 5th, etc Party candidates] to be the next POTUS also voted for "NONE OF THESE CANDIDATES"? Do You think that would accomplish anything?
That would be a very viable alternative to them NOT VOTING, wouldn't it? In 2016, 38.6% of all Registered Voters did not vote for the next President. In 2020, it was 33.3% who apparently had nobody to vote FOR, even if it was just AGAINST the other candidate.
Very bad, but not at the levels of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, deaths: about H-140,000 & N-73,884 by Dec. 31,1945. I have more to say but I would need an email to deliver it (12 pages).
Bill’s call to “make America moral, ethical, compassionate, and humane” ~ but notably, not “Again” ~ calls to mind the Questions an al-Jazeera reporter asked then-President-Elect Trump in an exclusive late November, 2016 interview:
* What, exactly, do You mean, Mr Trump, actually, really mean by "Great"?
* When, exactly, did America become "Great"?
* Exactly How and Why did it become "Great"?
* When, exactly, did America stop being "Great"?
* Exactly How and Why did it stop being "Great"?
* How, exactly, will the American people and the world know that America is "Great Again"?
* And What, exactly, will a "Great Again America" actually, really Be, for Americans; and for the world?
i notice, Bill, that You didn't say "We need to make America moral, ethical, compassionate, and humane AGAIN."
Which leads one to ask: Has America EVER been moral, ethical, compassionate, and humane?
Starting with its treatment of Indigenous Peoples, its institution of Slavery [which was written into the original Constitution], and the legal status of Women.
i have had the privilege with serving under a number of not only good, but Very Good Officers, Lieutenant Colonel. And i know i would have enjoyed very much serving under You.
Then I just yesterday saw another Sports Coach a Woman USC basketball head coach Dawn Staley bringing in the God equation to Winning, and denigrating nonbelievers! What next? "When Truth is buried underground it grows, it chokes, it gathers such an explosive force that on the day it bursts out, it blows up everything with it." Emile Zola And.., its happening today! I guess we can all agree on that! Since we all get to define "Truth" for ourselves. Eclipse countdown "4 more days" Clear skies everyone! Any Questions just Substack me...:O)
There will be no consequences for Israel, which is why they will continue to ignore international law and all human morality. Until they get massive international sanctions that cripple their economy, they will continue to kill innocent people with impunity.
Yes, John. You're sadly and tragically right.
As outrage piles upon outrage, it's clear there is no moral core to this country.
Of the millions who piously celebrated Easter services in all their finery, did any stop and question where are the religious figures who have called out the genocide? Did the saintly Joe Biden, attending Mass, even consider the cynical positions of his administration - motivated only by election year calculations - is resulting in the looming deaths of hundreds of thousands, and millions if Israel is successful in starting a war in Lebanon that draws in the US?
All this, while all political 'leaders' cheer on Israel's "right to defend itself".
The pope did. He was ignored.
Alas, what we need and what is on offer are diametrically opposed. We are staring into the abyss.
I am ashamed of my country.
How could any conscious human being in the USA not be ashamed? We do not approve of this genocide, but those who allegedly are our representatives are willfully enabling it through every action; and they use our taxes, and the electorate's enabling votes, to do so.
So how is that to be stopped, Roger?
Jeff... I admit, given the sad realities (i.e. of a political establishment that is mostly willing to serve imperial designs and a populace that is apparently too-comfortable just going along with it), I don't know if 'it can be stopped' at least until perhaps there is sufficient economic and emotional pain and other blow-back to eject said populace from their comfort.
I've more or less come to the point of acknowledging that at my age & condition I'm no longer in position to try to initiate or lead any major organizational effort- especially having tried & failed in the past; and having as a result long ago lost patience with the too-often-witnessed egocentricity of others in what has been to an effort similar to "herding snakes" (or cats).
I guess I see my role now differently- perhaps primarily to inform, appeal to the better nature of those I MIGHT influence, etc.
i'm not asking what YOU can personally do to bring this Shit Show to a stop. Roger.
i am asking what the American Peoples can do to end it.
Or is there nothing they can do but accept it, and hope they die a natural death before they and their loved ones are personally affected by it?
I'm afraid I can't give a simple answer to this dilemma. Given the complete corruption of the political system, i.e. of both electoral politics and policy politics, in my view there is virtually no reason to expect any of the needed changes to be initiated within it. While the geopolitical (as well as domestic) situation can get even worse in this political system, I don't think the trajectories will or can improve much merely by relying on the political systems of the U.S. or its allies.
So what WOULD make a difference? Well, I've probably said it before so forgive me for any redundancy, but in my view ONLY the coalescing of a mass movement of citizens (here, and elsewhere), strategically and effectively using our only remaining power, could force the changes needed. The 'power' to which I refer is in the collective ability to 'perturb' the economy and financial interests of those who currently hold all the power. This would involve (again) such things as strategically planned and executed, sustained mass boycotts, labor actions (sickouts/ slowdowns / strikes, etc.), tax protests, and such other actions that can bring the managers of the system (and their owners) to their knees.
In my view, this is an enormous project of such difficulty and with so many challenges that the odds of success aren't particularly great. Just for example, in my experience and observation, such movements are often undermined by the very human traits (ego-driven concerns, fear, mistrust, etc.) that plague all human institutions including their governments. It's often VERY difficult to get even modest numbers of people to set aside their own impulses long enough to focus on the common good and needs. Again in my own experience, it's a big challenge just to get 10 people to agree on the vision, principles, objectives and strategies of any organizational effort- and equally challenging to keep them aligned on those EVEN IF they initially can come to a consensus. (I have very personal experience of this!)
For example, assuming that a group of people could come to a consensus on the creation and organizing of a movement of change with principles and objectives of non-violent resistance (as opposed to open, armed revolution), it will face the challenge of those who, perhaps like the young anarchists that often emerge during periods of civil unrest, will decide to act out violently, which will of course both invite military repression AND turn off a part of the population that otherwise might be part of the peaceful revolution.
And if violent anarchists don't precipitate such violence and provoke such official repression, we'd have to expect that agents-provocateur from the security state would do it. And in any case, to whatever extent the establishment begins to sense a genuine threat to their ability to maintain the status quo that benefits them, the security state would try to decapitate the movement by removing any identified leadership- whether by economic threats (to them and loved ones), or 'suicide' / assassination or merely by framing, etc. This isn't fanciful conjecture. The history of the U.S. and its security establishment makes very clear that ANYONE who is deemed a significant enough threat to the power establishment will become a target. If they can take out with impunity a JFK, MLK Jr., RFK, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, et al, they certainly can eliminate any other 'troublemaker'.
At any rate, this is what has to take place. If it doesn't happen in a rational, humanely intelligent and organized fashion, I foresee that what will eventually take place will be a more random, chaotic, violent period, perhaps a longer period of spontaneous outbreaks of violence as the most desperate react to their oppression and perceived oppressors. And, because it IS chaotic, there is no telling where it would ultimately lead. It could for example even make matters even worse. All that is certain is that it would be far more violent along its course.
This is all that I can see as the potential ways forward. The Empire itself, being in decline and perceiving existential threat, is becoming both more violent and more controlling. Already, control of information and narrative are rapidly growing and becoming normalized, just as imperial violence is. The part of narrative control that is active propaganda is already at a scale that I could never have imagined outside of Orwellian fiction; and our leaders - in fact, the entirety of the political establishment - are aggressively pushing its expansion, with very little push-back even from the so-called progressives.. And propaganda, along with the establishment's deliberate promotion of what we could call "culture war" issues has already so successfully both divided the populace and convinced many of the need to continue to focus on partisan politics that are guaranteed to keep the current trajectories. So there is already a lot of inertia built into the system which adds to the challenges of trying to change it.
Perhaps our "betters" (bettors?) will keep laughing all the way to the bank--until the banks collapse. Then they'll laugh as they board their Lear jets and yachts on the way to their hideaways outside the USA, even as they claim to be America's biggest patriots.
We will then be left to pick up the pieces--hopefully not irradiated rubble.
Well said, Roger. Enormous obstacles, with a long enough lever, perhaps they can be moved--or removed.
Thank You, Roger, for a very clear and comprehensive "Situation Report" on the current state of American politics, economics, and civil society; and the role of America's [and The Planet's] Ruling Political Class in what has happened and is continuing unabated..
One of the biggest questions is: Are there a sufficient "mass" of Americans who are fed up enough with Everything about this country and its "leadership" to actually DO something about and against it: as in any of the mass actions of any sort that You propose?
And You are absolutely correct that whatever happens needs to happen "in a rational, humanely intelligent and organized fashion" because if it doesn't there will be random, chaotic violence."
But even more important than that is that there will be very specific, non-random, and non-chaotic violence engaged in and inflicted by the Government, at all levels and in all ways, in reaction and response to any "protest" violence. Especially that engineered by agents-provocateurs.
"Lost In A Lost World" The Moody Blues!-- Mike Pinder, Writer & on Pindertron..!
The words from our government are now so removed from the reality that I think we have arrived at the point of "war is peace" though we are long past 1984.
100%, Bill. Washington, DC is totally corrupt. The government operates to the benefit of an elite invisible state. The fabled democracy is in reality a oligarchy.
i suggest a concerted and collective effort to launch a tax revolt, as americans successfully did against their british overlords in the late 1700s. i would be willing to go to prison if necessary, but our combined income earned from USAID projects is too low to be required to pay taxes to the US govt, despite having our taxes removed at source by USAID, which we have never retrieved. we do pay taxes to the canadian govt, however, but an exiguous amt. as octogenarians on scant pensions, my husband and i would be unable to survive in either canada or the US as salubriously and comfortably as we do here in the philippines. your claim that none [N.B. 'none' is singular, a contraction of 'not one'] of US taxpayers' lucre is siphoned off for the US war machine, the MIC, and the concomitant spy apparatus, domestic or foreign, is donkey-dung. even if the US treasury simply prints more denaro, the consumer remains compromised by the commensurate costs of inflation, both for comestibles and luxury items. your forthcoming evidence would be much appreciated.
why don't YOU offer some viable or at least reasonable suggestions, jg moebus? your relentless and ineluctable litany of interrogatives is as futile as astore's and his commenters' declaratives. give us some proactive guidance here. we await your cynosureship.
i have, Jeanie.
What would happen if every American who is fed up with all the Bullshit ~ in Ukraine, in Palestine, and soon with China, and with America's soon-to-be $35 TRILLION national, sovereign Debt and what that portends for this nation's future ~ what if all those folks voted "NONE OF THESE CANDIDATES" in Election2024?
First of all: Do You think there are enough Americans who ARE fed up with all that to ~ if they voted NOTC ~ make a difference?
After all, no American is paying a dime in taxes for all these wars, and nobody or their kid is getting drafted into the military now to go fight in them when that time inevitably comes.
And, if i may be so bold as to ask: What is Your solution?
Also: What if every Registered Voter who does NOT want either Trump or Biden [or any of the "independents," and other 3rd, 4th. 5th, etc Party candidates] to be the next POTUS also voted for "NONE OF THESE CANDIDATES"? Do You think that would accomplish anything?
That would be a very viable alternative to them NOT VOTING, wouldn't it? In 2016, 38.6% of all Registered Voters did not vote for the next President. In 2020, it was 33.3% who apparently had nobody to vote FOR, even if it was just AGAINST the other candidate.
Very bad, but not at the levels of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, deaths: about H-140,000 & N-73,884 by Dec. 31,1945. I have more to say but I would need an email to deliver it (12 pages).
It's Not YET at the levels of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Ray. But this thing is only beginning.
https://townhall.com/political-cartoons/margoliscox/2024/04/02/204371
Definitely a bummer.
Bill’s call to “make America moral, ethical, compassionate, and humane” ~ but notably, not “Again” ~ calls to mind the Questions an al-Jazeera reporter asked then-President-Elect Trump in an exclusive late November, 2016 interview:
* What, exactly, do You mean, Mr Trump, actually, really mean by "Great"?
* When, exactly, did America become "Great"?
* Exactly How and Why did it become "Great"?
* When, exactly, did America stop being "Great"?
* Exactly How and Why did it stop being "Great"?
* How, exactly, will the American people and the world know that America is "Great Again"?
* And What, exactly, will a "Great Again America" actually, really Be, for Americans; and for the world?
i notice, Bill, that You didn't say "We need to make America moral, ethical, compassionate, and humane AGAIN."
Which leads one to ask: Has America EVER been moral, ethical, compassionate, and humane?
Starting with its treatment of Indigenous Peoples, its institution of Slavery [which was written into the original Constitution], and the legal status of Women.
I thought of you as I decided not to include "again," Jeff. Somebody does listen to you.
It's usually a good idea for officers to listen to senior NCOs.
As it is also a good idea for senior NCOs to listen to officers, Bill. At least to the good ones, eh?
"Good" officers? Have you gone mad, MSG?
i have had the privilege with serving under a number of not only good, but Very Good Officers, Lieutenant Colonel. And i know i would have enjoyed very much serving under You.
Now I know you're nuts. :-)
Roger That.
rwilson@iwu.edu
So, we should elect for president an abusive, if successful, sports coach?
Then I just yesterday saw another Sports Coach a Woman USC basketball head coach Dawn Staley bringing in the God equation to Winning, and denigrating nonbelievers! What next? "When Truth is buried underground it grows, it chokes, it gathers such an explosive force that on the day it bursts out, it blows up everything with it." Emile Zola And.., its happening today! I guess we can all agree on that! Since we all get to define "Truth" for ourselves. Eclipse countdown "4 more days" Clear skies everyone! Any Questions just Substack me...:O)
Something tells me that God, assuming He exists, doesn't care who wins the Super Bowl or the World Series. :-)