There is so much Trump/Putin derangement syndrome in the US, especially among Blue Team voters, that there is no chance that pressure will increase on Congress to reduce military spending. It just isn't going to happen as the Red and Blue warmongers in government are never going to reverse course. The ultra-wealthy elite will make sure it doesn't happen as they control the politicians and the pro-war news media, so that any public utterance about reducing military spending will be met with an avalanche of "Putin puppets" admonishments from the Ministers of Truth in the media. I don't see any way to break through and get any of the Blue Team voters to admit they were fooled again, for the umpteenth time, about the cause of the war and the solutions to it. They will just keep the faith and vote Blue no matter who, and the cycle of war and destruction will churn on uninterrupted. If anyone has figured out some magic trick to get the Blue Team voters to change their minds, please pass it on, because everything I have tried has failed with my friends and family. They have Trump/Putin derangement syndrome in spades.
Well, voting for corporate D's or R's every 4 years is certainly not going to turn the wheel enough to avoid going off the climate collapse cliff, the nuclear apocalypse cliff, and/or this slow motion (maybe not so slow?) messy and harmful collapse of American empire we are witnessing as it desperately tries to maintain hegemony in a multipolar world. I can see only one way of getting the changes that are needed if we are to survive and flourish...mass protests, national strikes, and non-violent civil disobedience. I know these things are extremely difficult to organize and maintain, but everything we hold dear may depend on it.
Hillary Clinton's recent remarks about the need for "formal deprogramming" of "MAGA extremists", with talk show host Todd Stones comparing it to Stalin's use of gulags, is an example of divisive Blue Team politics at its worse eh John?
And surely why more and more voters will be turning against the Democratic Party. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, as if calling half the nation's voters "deplorables" was not enough.
The Blue Team is completely absorbed by The Blob (the Red Team was always so). What I find so hard to believe is how convinced the Blue voters are that the Blue Team is a lesser evil. As Glenn Ford of Black Agenda Report famously said, "The Democrats are not the lesser evil, they are the more effective evil". That is because when Democrats go to war, the Left does not complain, they just go along with all the nonsense about bombing people overseas to bring about freedom and democracy. As if the way to deal with crime in Chicago would be to carpet bomb Chicago. That is the logic, and I don't understand how people can be so stupid.
John, this (TDS, and now PDS?) is indeed the greatest challenge. As an admitted cultural and political dissident for roughly 5 decades, I'm no stranger to censorship and that thing we now call 'narrative control' - propaganda from the establishment elites. Yet I've never seen it as concerted and total, or at the enormous scale it is today. And it has clearly worked. Those who think of themselves as 'liberal' have regressed into mere partisanship- pushed there both by their TDS reactions and the non-stop bombardment of unsubtle political messaging by their mis-leaders and their proxies in the media. The result is that even seemingly intelligent, caring people are convinced that Putin is Hitlerian, that he's in Ukraine just as a first step towards global domination, and that America is just defending democracy.
This kind of mass derangement is at such a scale that I'll admit- I'm not sure it can be turned around. Yet we all will do what we can... maybe one person at a time.
Be well and take heart. Maybe this IS the darkest hour - the one before the dawn.
Its universal Roger. The majority of New Zealander's have been convinced by the State owned and run TVNZ1 television station that Putin is Hitlerian, and that he's in Ukraine just as a first step towards global domination, and that America is just defending democracy.
It's reinforced at every opportunity, every night, on the Six O'clock News, and in every online News source. Alternative media in NZ might as well be invisible.
Tonight's propaganda, carefully worded with all the dog whistle words:
"The body of a young Ukrainian boy was pulled from a block of flats hit by a Russian missiles on Friday, still clad in the Spider-Man pyjamas he had been put to bed in.
The lifeless form of Tymofiy Bychko, 10, was dragged from the rubble of his home in the north-east city of Kharkiv where he died along with his 68-year-old grandmother in a deliberate Russian missile strike on citizens .
In one of the war’s most harrowing scenes so far, his horrified father, Oleh, looked on as rescuers placed his son into a body bag designed for an adult twice his size.
The dawn missile attack, one of two to hit Kharkiv on Friday, was part of a 24-hour period of murderous Russian aerial terrorism across north-east Ukraine. The previous day, 51 people were killed in the village of Groza, 80km east of Kharkiv, after a missile strike that specifically targeted mourners at a wake for a local volunteer soldier."
Never have actual Ukrainian terrorist attacks shelling citizens in Eastern Ukraine, or Moscow, been covered on NZ TV. Not once!
And the Kiwi's fall for it hook line and sinker. So discouraging.
Dennis, I'm well, thanks. It's disappointing to read that the Kiwis are in the same condition as 'merkans; for when I was there (in the mid- '80s), I found the people I met to be a refreshing change. I was amazed, for example, attending a 'footie', that fans applauded good play regardless of which team it came from. No booing or heckling, no shouts of "kill him!", such as I'd heard when I attended some sporting events here.
I guess that's a testament to how massive and effective the propaganda has become, as well as the extent to which the vast majority of 'info' media have become assimilated in ways so as to make it possible. That apparently is now the case in the entirety of the western-leaning world- a daunting prospect.
A further confirmation of this is the reactions to my Facebook posts. Though FB says I have nearly 300 FB 'friends', the response to my posts is quite telling. If I post a picture of hummingbirds at a feeder, or a meme with a sensible and generically humane message, it will draw dozens of 'likes' and a number of positive comments.
Whenever I post a link to, say, Bill's blog or Caitlin Johnstone or a podcast with unorthodox take on Russia / Ukraine / the MIC, etc., it drops to the same small group of 3 to 4. The rest presumably know my stance and disagree with it so avoid any reaction. After talking to a few, it's quite clear that they've never read or otherwise learned anything contrary to Washington's and the duopoly's messaging.
Still, even if it's a Sisyphean task, we should continue to try to shine a bit more light on these things.
Bill, I suppose it's quite understandable that people inherently prefer nature (and apple pies, wedding photos, etc.) to the less pleasant aspects of reality and culture. Just as there's probably a much greater readership for fictions (extending into memoirs and hagiographies) than for documentaries, analyses and critiques. So I guess neither of us can hope to compete with 'cute'. Still, as you know so well, we're at what seems an existentially-critical moment, and wake-up calls must be sounded.
Maybe we just need to include more cute baby & nature-images in order to get people to look a bit longer.
Roger and Bill, I probably wear you guys out with my commentary on this little isle of 5.4-million folks way down here on the arse of the earth. Aotearoa, or as the faithful call it, Godzone. New Zealand's term for God's country.
Strange that isn't it how all these countries think they are special in the eyes of "God". I'm watching the Israelis on Al Jazeera this morning "defend" their country that was especially given to them and them only by "God." Apparently God selected Israel as His chosen people, and Israel currently possesses only a fraction of the land God has promised; the rest of their inheritance awaits the return of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Seems like God didn't think through what trouble this would cause eh!
Mick Hall tells the wrenching tale of Radio New Zealand accusing him of spreading Russian propaganda while he documented facts on the Ukraine crisis in his work for the broadcaster. With overwhelming online threats and speculation over his motives, he was forced to resign.
"Coming to terms with the loss of a job with a young family was one thing. The circumstances of the loss was causing much more immediate anxiety. With New Zealand part of the Five Eyes Western intelligence apparatus, I expected the security services would be knocking on my door. Isolated and feeling vulnerable, I began to catastrophize, believing there was a chance I could be removed from the country and estranged from my Kiwi children. As an Irish national I had resided in the country since 2019."
"A reformed Ukrainian nationalist got in contact and offered to assist, thankful for what he said I had helped point to — the plight of his fellow countrymen who were being cynically used, many unwillingly, as cannon fodder to forward U.S. strategic interests."
"Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs and University of Chicago Professor John J Mearsheimer, alongside other highly regarded scholars and political scientists, agreed to write letters of support for me".
And it goes on. He never got his job back A very discouraging read! He concludes: It is incumbent on journalists that they get this truth out and that wider society offers them support and protection to do so. Given the structural restraints on journalists and the apparent chill factor around questioning narratives of power at present, it will remain difficult to do so within New Zealand’s mainstream media.
And let's not get into our antipodean friends across the ditch apathetic response to Julian Assanges plight. One of their own.
Take care. Back to the All Blacks and Rugby eh!
BTW, many of my family and "friends" have told me in no uncertain terms.....NO MORE EMAILS on Caitlin Johnstone or your unorthodox takes on Russia/Ukraine /US/NATO. I have essentially been excommunicated - except for weather, sunsets and cute pictures of the grandkids and dogs. They have Trump/Putin derangement syndrome in spades.
Are the Republicans truly against funding the idiotic Ukraine war or is it just election rhetoric? Seems to me many are pushing for even more war in Mexico to fight the cartels. Granted the drug smuggling affects our nation, but is it a reason for a full scale war? Raytheon and other defense contractors probably think so. Linking your article again @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
I think the Rs are against funding for Ukraine simply because the Ds are for it, Watchman. It's a given that it isn't really about spending cuts, as you and Bill point out..
Meanwhile, no one is calling for peace talks. Predictable.
Speaking of the GWOT, I hear that Bush II is heading up an effort to erect a memorial to it in D.C., as bizarre as that is. Supposedly, it's to be built near the Vietnam Memorial. Just crazy!
The civil disobedience demonstration by Code Pink in Sanders' office was encouraging. At least it shows that there are serious left wing types that are against militarism and the Ukraine proxy war, not just Republicans that really can't be trusted to mean what they say.
Yes, I greatly respect Medea Benjamin & the rest of Code Pink for their actions. There isn't much written to counter the politicians' assumption that their constituents are all hungry for war, and far, far too little action.
Putin wants peace much more than we want to feed and feed and feed the military capitalistic industrial complex. The US prefers to make WOMD rather than manufacture EVs, solar panels, lithium batteries, sneakers, jeans, and so many other widgets. War and patent rights that's what the US does best to the detriment of its citizens.
I almost feel sorry for those who think that there is any substantive difference between either major party. That is until I remember how obvious it is that they are identical in their mendacity and violent ideology.
Ray, watching Al Jazeera TV attempting to cover this Israel/Hamas conflab is interesting - if that's the right word.
They are doing their best to respect both sides and have a balanced coverage. However, every spokesman they have on is a raving extremist and they have to cut him/her off. Such hatred on both sides.
BTW, the medical term is TURPS. Transurethral Resection of the Prostate. But Kiwi guys call it the "Rebore", and say it makes you piss like a racehorse! Google where this expression comes from! LOL
Take care Ray. Hope this finds you well my friend.
There is so much Trump/Putin derangement syndrome in the US, especially among Blue Team voters, that there is no chance that pressure will increase on Congress to reduce military spending. It just isn't going to happen as the Red and Blue warmongers in government are never going to reverse course. The ultra-wealthy elite will make sure it doesn't happen as they control the politicians and the pro-war news media, so that any public utterance about reducing military spending will be met with an avalanche of "Putin puppets" admonishments from the Ministers of Truth in the media. I don't see any way to break through and get any of the Blue Team voters to admit they were fooled again, for the umpteenth time, about the cause of the war and the solutions to it. They will just keep the faith and vote Blue no matter who, and the cycle of war and destruction will churn on uninterrupted. If anyone has figured out some magic trick to get the Blue Team voters to change their minds, please pass it on, because everything I have tried has failed with my friends and family. They have Trump/Putin derangement syndrome in spades.
I know--it's depressing. But you never know.
The times they are a'changin. Somehow we need to make it so.
Well, voting for corporate D's or R's every 4 years is certainly not going to turn the wheel enough to avoid going off the climate collapse cliff, the nuclear apocalypse cliff, and/or this slow motion (maybe not so slow?) messy and harmful collapse of American empire we are witnessing as it desperately tries to maintain hegemony in a multipolar world. I can see only one way of getting the changes that are needed if we are to survive and flourish...mass protests, national strikes, and non-violent civil disobedience. I know these things are extremely difficult to organize and maintain, but everything we hold dear may depend on it.
The US folk are not like those French folk John.
Unfortunately.
Hillary Clinton's recent remarks about the need for "formal deprogramming" of "MAGA extremists", with talk show host Todd Stones comparing it to Stalin's use of gulags, is an example of divisive Blue Team politics at its worse eh John?
And surely why more and more voters will be turning against the Democratic Party. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, as if calling half the nation's voters "deplorables" was not enough.
The Blue Team is completely absorbed by The Blob (the Red Team was always so). What I find so hard to believe is how convinced the Blue voters are that the Blue Team is a lesser evil. As Glenn Ford of Black Agenda Report famously said, "The Democrats are not the lesser evil, they are the more effective evil". That is because when Democrats go to war, the Left does not complain, they just go along with all the nonsense about bombing people overseas to bring about freedom and democracy. As if the way to deal with crime in Chicago would be to carpet bomb Chicago. That is the logic, and I don't understand how people can be so stupid.
John, this (TDS, and now PDS?) is indeed the greatest challenge. As an admitted cultural and political dissident for roughly 5 decades, I'm no stranger to censorship and that thing we now call 'narrative control' - propaganda from the establishment elites. Yet I've never seen it as concerted and total, or at the enormous scale it is today. And it has clearly worked. Those who think of themselves as 'liberal' have regressed into mere partisanship- pushed there both by their TDS reactions and the non-stop bombardment of unsubtle political messaging by their mis-leaders and their proxies in the media. The result is that even seemingly intelligent, caring people are convinced that Putin is Hitlerian, that he's in Ukraine just as a first step towards global domination, and that America is just defending democracy.
This kind of mass derangement is at such a scale that I'll admit- I'm not sure it can be turned around. Yet we all will do what we can... maybe one person at a time.
Be well and take heart. Maybe this IS the darkest hour - the one before the dawn.
Its universal Roger. The majority of New Zealander's have been convinced by the State owned and run TVNZ1 television station that Putin is Hitlerian, and that he's in Ukraine just as a first step towards global domination, and that America is just defending democracy.
It's reinforced at every opportunity, every night, on the Six O'clock News, and in every online News source. Alternative media in NZ might as well be invisible.
Tonight's propaganda, carefully worded with all the dog whistle words:
"The body of a young Ukrainian boy was pulled from a block of flats hit by a Russian missiles on Friday, still clad in the Spider-Man pyjamas he had been put to bed in.
The lifeless form of Tymofiy Bychko, 10, was dragged from the rubble of his home in the north-east city of Kharkiv where he died along with his 68-year-old grandmother in a deliberate Russian missile strike on citizens .
In one of the war’s most harrowing scenes so far, his horrified father, Oleh, looked on as rescuers placed his son into a body bag designed for an adult twice his size.
The dawn missile attack, one of two to hit Kharkiv on Friday, was part of a 24-hour period of murderous Russian aerial terrorism across north-east Ukraine. The previous day, 51 people were killed in the village of Groza, 80km east of Kharkiv, after a missile strike that specifically targeted mourners at a wake for a local volunteer soldier."
Never have actual Ukrainian terrorist attacks shelling citizens in Eastern Ukraine, or Moscow, been covered on NZ TV. Not once!
And the Kiwi's fall for it hook line and sinker. So discouraging.
Hope you are well my friend.
Dennis, I'm well, thanks. It's disappointing to read that the Kiwis are in the same condition as 'merkans; for when I was there (in the mid- '80s), I found the people I met to be a refreshing change. I was amazed, for example, attending a 'footie', that fans applauded good play regardless of which team it came from. No booing or heckling, no shouts of "kill him!", such as I'd heard when I attended some sporting events here.
I guess that's a testament to how massive and effective the propaganda has become, as well as the extent to which the vast majority of 'info' media have become assimilated in ways so as to make it possible. That apparently is now the case in the entirety of the western-leaning world- a daunting prospect.
A further confirmation of this is the reactions to my Facebook posts. Though FB says I have nearly 300 FB 'friends', the response to my posts is quite telling. If I post a picture of hummingbirds at a feeder, or a meme with a sensible and generically humane message, it will draw dozens of 'likes' and a number of positive comments.
Whenever I post a link to, say, Bill's blog or Caitlin Johnstone or a podcast with unorthodox take on Russia / Ukraine / the MIC, etc., it drops to the same small group of 3 to 4. The rest presumably know my stance and disagree with it so avoid any reaction. After talking to a few, it's quite clear that they've never read or otherwise learned anything contrary to Washington's and the duopoly's messaging.
Still, even if it's a Sisyphean task, we should continue to try to shine a bit more light on these things.
I feel lucky that 3 or 4 of your FB "friends" read and/or "liked" one of my posts, Roger!
How can I compete with cute hummingbirds?
Bill, I suppose it's quite understandable that people inherently prefer nature (and apple pies, wedding photos, etc.) to the less pleasant aspects of reality and culture. Just as there's probably a much greater readership for fictions (extending into memoirs and hagiographies) than for documentaries, analyses and critiques. So I guess neither of us can hope to compete with 'cute'. Still, as you know so well, we're at what seems an existentially-critical moment, and wake-up calls must be sounded.
Maybe we just need to include more cute baby & nature-images in order to get people to look a bit longer.
Roger and Bill, I probably wear you guys out with my commentary on this little isle of 5.4-million folks way down here on the arse of the earth. Aotearoa, or as the faithful call it, Godzone. New Zealand's term for God's country.
Strange that isn't it how all these countries think they are special in the eyes of "God". I'm watching the Israelis on Al Jazeera this morning "defend" their country that was especially given to them and them only by "God." Apparently God selected Israel as His chosen people, and Israel currently possesses only a fraction of the land God has promised; the rest of their inheritance awaits the return of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Seems like God didn't think through what trouble this would cause eh!
Anyway, back to Godzone.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/07/new-zealands-russian-edits-scandal-how-a-national-broadcaster-demonized-the-truth/
Mick Hall tells the wrenching tale of Radio New Zealand accusing him of spreading Russian propaganda while he documented facts on the Ukraine crisis in his work for the broadcaster. With overwhelming online threats and speculation over his motives, he was forced to resign.
"Coming to terms with the loss of a job with a young family was one thing. The circumstances of the loss was causing much more immediate anxiety. With New Zealand part of the Five Eyes Western intelligence apparatus, I expected the security services would be knocking on my door. Isolated and feeling vulnerable, I began to catastrophize, believing there was a chance I could be removed from the country and estranged from my Kiwi children. As an Irish national I had resided in the country since 2019."
"A reformed Ukrainian nationalist got in contact and offered to assist, thankful for what he said I had helped point to — the plight of his fellow countrymen who were being cynically used, many unwillingly, as cannon fodder to forward U.S. strategic interests."
"Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs and University of Chicago Professor John J Mearsheimer, alongside other highly regarded scholars and political scientists, agreed to write letters of support for me".
And it goes on. He never got his job back A very discouraging read! He concludes: It is incumbent on journalists that they get this truth out and that wider society offers them support and protection to do so. Given the structural restraints on journalists and the apparent chill factor around questioning narratives of power at present, it will remain difficult to do so within New Zealand’s mainstream media.
And let's not get into our antipodean friends across the ditch apathetic response to Julian Assanges plight. One of their own.
Take care. Back to the All Blacks and Rugby eh!
BTW, many of my family and "friends" have told me in no uncertain terms.....NO MORE EMAILS on Caitlin Johnstone or your unorthodox takes on Russia/Ukraine /US/NATO. I have essentially been excommunicated - except for weather, sunsets and cute pictures of the grandkids and dogs. They have Trump/Putin derangement syndrome in spades.
We need to print lots of bumper stickers and lawn signs to spread the message far and wide: Vote the War Pigs Out!
Are the Republicans truly against funding the idiotic Ukraine war or is it just election rhetoric? Seems to me many are pushing for even more war in Mexico to fight the cartels. Granted the drug smuggling affects our nation, but is it a reason for a full scale war? Raytheon and other defense contractors probably think so. Linking your article again @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
I think the Rs are against funding for Ukraine simply because the Ds are for it, Watchman. It's a given that it isn't really about spending cuts, as you and Bill point out..
Meanwhile, no one is calling for peace talks. Predictable.
Speaking of the GWOT, I hear that Bush II is heading up an effort to erect a memorial to it in D.C., as bizarre as that is. Supposedly, it's to be built near the Vietnam Memorial. Just crazy!
The civil disobedience demonstration by Code Pink in Sanders' office was encouraging. At least it shows that there are serious left wing types that are against militarism and the Ukraine proxy war, not just Republicans that really can't be trusted to mean what they say.
Yes, I greatly respect Medea Benjamin & the rest of Code Pink for their actions. There isn't much written to counter the politicians' assumption that their constituents are all hungry for war, and far, far too little action.
Putin wants peace much more than we want to feed and feed and feed the military capitalistic industrial complex. The US prefers to make WOMD rather than manufacture EVs, solar panels, lithium batteries, sneakers, jeans, and so many other widgets. War and patent rights that's what the US does best to the detriment of its citizens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdJ1CEIiMks
Once again, America is supporting a corrupt regime and a leader who’s a con man, it will end in tears as in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Wash, rinse, and repeat.
A Reflection on the Hamas Incursion into Israel…
If this Man’s GOD says that this Land is his; and,
If that Man’s GOD says that this Land is His; and,
If Your GOD says that this Land is Yours; and,
If my God says that this Land is mine; then…
WHOSE Land IS it?
Upon one thing we can all rest assured: All the right People
will harvest all kinds of Wealth and gain all the “right” kinds of Power
by the time this whole episode is over.
Cornel West just announced he is dumping the Greens. Right?
Does he think that running for a 3rd Party means running for 3-parties? LOL
He is a sad joke -Jimmy Dore has it right - he is wasting the lefts time.
I almost feel sorry for those who think that there is any substantive difference between either major party. That is until I remember how obvious it is that they are identical in their mendacity and violent ideology.
Ray, watching Al Jazeera TV attempting to cover this Israel/Hamas conflab is interesting - if that's the right word.
They are doing their best to respect both sides and have a balanced coverage. However, every spokesman they have on is a raving extremist and they have to cut him/her off. Such hatred on both sides.
BTW, the medical term is TURPS. Transurethral Resection of the Prostate. But Kiwi guys call it the "Rebore", and say it makes you piss like a racehorse! Google where this expression comes from! LOL
Take care Ray. Hope this finds you well my friend.
Yep! Fantastic. Day surgery only.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/turp/about/pac-20384880
They also found two tiny pre-cancerous thingy's - removed them as well!
Now I piss like a racehorse! No more feeble dribbles! LOL
No more getting up at night Ray.
Get it done Ray.