Today—last night U.S. time—three military personnel were killed and 34 more wounded in a drone attack on the living quarters at a U.S. base in Jordan, near the Iraq-Syria border. U.S. troops are stationed there to enable them to cross into Syria to help fight the Islamic State. There have been almost-daily drone and missile strikes on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since the October 7 attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas. The U.S. has blamed Iran-backed militant groups for the attack, and while no one has officially claimed responsibility yet, three officials from such groups have said an Iran-backed militia in Iraq is responsible.
The MAGA traitors don't care about Iran. They don't care about Ukraine. They don't care about our dead and wounded service members. They don't care about the Gazans who have died and those who are in the process of dying, whether from starvation or lack of medical care. They don't care about the dead Israelis or the hostages or about Netanyahu's war cabinet. They don't care about their former colleagues, like Senator Lankford, since they are writing him out of the party for working with Dems for the good of our country and the world. They do not care about securing our southern border. They are a bunch of liars and hypocrites because, no matter what they say, all they care about is their cult leader. It is shameful, but these "Christians," like their leader, have lost any sense of shame that they might have had.
" It is shameful, but these "Christians," like their leader, have lost any sense of shame that they might have had."
Yes, you are correct, but, for those who truly "believe" that God is on "their side" and that Trump is God's chosen (yep, that's what they think), of course there is no shame.
If God is on your side, well, then, there is no need to question yourself, your God, or the people who are like minded. After all God agrees with them. Who cares about HCR or Biden?
"If God is with us who can be against us" is a constant refrain in the SBC. No thinking needed, no questions need be asked, no uncertainty about a thought or a conclusion. Just believe the white man at the front of the church. Done.
I was in that world once. I managed to think my way out of it with some effort and some education and some good luck. But, I understand how positive one can be that one is right if "God" is on your side.
"God" is on the side of the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and ISIS as well. So either there are several gods or he/she/it shape shifts upon demand to serve the purposes of the worshiper.
None of that ever bothers the true believers, Jewish, Christian, or Muslims. The two latter got their certainties from the Jews. Works for Mormons too, and so on. Also in Senate chambers USA
My step daughter is a property tax attorney. She said it would be a hard sell. I can't see why. Flying meatballs wrapped in spaghetti are just as valid as any other origin story...right?
If you're looking for some universal truth seeking community/institution thing, I'd say you're best bet is modern science. Never had a physics "mormon" show up at the door! Religions and spiritual movements seek to serve truth with a heavy emotional component, "facts" take a backseat to religious truth claims. Pick your poison, Bill :) the "4000" speak to religion's ancient origins and human personal and social competitiveness i would hazard. How many flavours already are there of Baptists, Pentecostals etc. I can see why the RCC with its history an universalist claims so adamantly refused to accept its breakup in mainly northern Europe, back when, with all the attendent "wars of religion" which ensured. Lotta history there eh!
You are so right Frank Loomer. They knock on the door when you are going through a difficult life event. JWs are good for that. Fortunately when they knocked on my door...I already knew how they spread their message!
Frank, fundamentalists of any type are the problem and it goes beyond the monotheistic religions. India just built a big Hindu temple on the site where there had been a mosque. There are political fundamentalists too and they often stand in the ways of solutions which might require some compromise. I just finished a book on why the Bible, that is, the OT, was written and the author's thesis is that the total destruction visited upon Judah and Israel in ancient times by the Assyrians and the Babylonians caused the scribes of those two countries to deal with how to survive as a people without a state. without a state.
I support "Corporate Joe" Biden for Captain of the USS Titanic! His campaign slogan, "Full speed ahead!" really makes me want to get out and vote, because Corporate Joe is going to take us to the Promised Iceberg where we can ride the Inescapable Debt Spiral. And Joe has a "hyper" backup plan: Drill holes in the bottom of the Titanic to let the water out. Vote Joe, and we'll all take a bath.
That's what I always say: there is no way a "creator" of this amazing planet hasn't left in disgust. Her/His/It's highest animal is wrecking everything, even the bats and the bees.
I think the words benevolent and merciful need to be redefined. God is more like trump, vindictive and wanting retribution. (not a big religion fan BTW)
I’m glad you thought your way out of that fever swamp, Mike. I’ve done the same. The truth sets us free, but disrupts our sleep, while the self deluding cult followers enjoy the untroubled sleep of Believers. But Truth is a choice I’ll always make.
It is propaganda, pure and simple for the simple and the weak. Cult members can be deprogrammed, but who has the time. Ike did it but at great cost. The cost to us will be great too, I fear…
I am on the fence about how much cost I want to put into trying to help out people who are perfectly capable of helping themselves but who CHOOSE, with arrogance, and ignorance, not to do so.
Unlike Jesus, I do not seem to have that desire to "save" them.
IF the south secedes again, I say let them go. Me?
I would give a speech giving Texas back to Mexico, 5 minutes after secession, if I was President and offer Texans as examples of those willing to work for low wages in their new country - Mexico.....
Yep. If I was President, Mexico would be granted Texas as one of my first efforts to rid myself of a troublesome bunch of folks who cannot think their way out of a wet paper bag on a hot, sunny, Texas day.
I wonder how these individuals (Lloyd Bentsen, Henry B. González, Barbara Jordan, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ann Richards … and probably a few others whom I may fail to recall or mention here) might have felt [or feel] about the current and recently current regime of republican politicians running [attempting to control] the state of Texas? Are there not enough or great deal more of proud Democratic American Texans who can help wrest back control of the politics in that State? Beto can’t do it alone!!!
Rove used Goebbels tactics to foist W on us and the whole country. Those mentioned would be so appalled, add Mollie Ivans. Laws have been passed that will be hard to overcome. I went broke trying. Beto was my hope.
Nope. The Civl War was too costly, and we still see its effects as in next week’s argument before the Supreme Court about whether the promise of the 14th Amendment means anything.
Mike, these CINOs (Christians in name only) might be challenged by reversing the concept. Instead of claiming that God is on their side, you could question, “are YOU on God’s side”, then ask how are they following Christ’s teaching. Use the Martin Luther voice
David French has a recent opinion piece about two highly influential leaders in the SBC brought down by the revelation of years of—what else—sexual abuse. Pressler and … I can’t remember the other leader’s name.
In my county a few years ago a minister molested children in his youth group and grandson. He was sent to prison and I believe has been released now after serving his time. I will have to find out. His wife was a classmate. I can't imagine being his wife and what she must have endured. I remember seeing them together in the checkout at the grocery store and they looked so lovely together. Boy was I ever shocked when the axe fell.
Those who do that sort of thing present themselves as the opposite of what you would expect. That's an aspect of their grooming persona. They know it's considered "wrong" and they do NOT want to have to give it up.
I worked for a "devout" man who insisted on saying grace with clients we had out to lunch. One morning he told me he'd taken his daughter and her husband out for a celebration dinner and they'd enjoyed a very expensive bottle of champagne. If Hr called me about the expense report with my name on it, I should know.
I asked him, "so you lie, and I swear to it? How does that square with your god? "He said he just has to apologize and it was fine.
It's too bad, Frank, that Paul prevailed instead of the brothers of Jesus in Jerusalem. I recommend the book Zealot for an understanding of this. I know one church going woman who has nothing good to say about Paul. I am not a fan of his either.
You can't really blame Paul for how people used his name to write books/letters for years after he was dead.
Granted, he started the downfall of the Jesus Movement with his writings which were administrative rather than inspirational. But he was gone by the time Empire really took over.
I think the authors of John are more at fault in their insistence of making Jesus into The Christ.
Oh, i didnt quite say i dont like him. I find him fascinating, fanaticism was stock in trade with early Christians, rubbed off from opinionated Jews. Mainly too, he's about as close to Jesus as any human who left a written record. The dangers of an intoxicating idea! Ive been tempted to read Zealot, heard pros and cons. The Jerusalem crowd likely remained within the Jewish sectarian orbit, including his relatives apparently, and never quite made the sort of break into the pagan world that Paul etc did.
The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong remains an important tool for understanding much of what is going on in religion worldwide. It's not stupidity; it's being left behind and treated as stupid.
They are abusers or our elderly and vulnerable and now they have enlisted children into their campaigns. Liars bending reality, causing emotional abuse on our vulnerable, terrorising them into their cultish followings. Perhaps a psychiatric social approach is needed.
It is called comeuppance for gross stupidity. Shunning, calling it what it is , and supporting the flawed but sane party in Support of America. How many times in my lifetime have cults gone national and succeeded, only once. Nazi Germany.
I listened to Kara Swisher interview with HCR last night on Kara's podcast. When HCR pointed out tfg is doing nothing to enlist new voters she said it can only be for 2 reasons- he is assured the election is his to steal either through the house republicans and electoral count or his cult members militia. I lost another nights sleep.
You can stop with the hand-wringing Marj. I've posted here before about how powerful my prayers are. The morning I found out that trump won I prayed that the GOP self-implodes. That's happening. I've fervently prayed that trump goes broke and to jail. That's starting to happen....
The point is that trump will end up with no money...hence, the answer to my prayer. You must begin to believe that prayer works. Time will tell...I can't wait to say, I told you so!
Firstly, you have to have justice and put away their major brainwashers (TFG and fox). And thanks to Bill Alstrom's comment, I include the uber wealthy that control a fair amount of this such as Leonhard and Rupert. (and I added paragraphs that do not translate in cut and paste from Pages.
Back to my rant— Then you have to allow the de-programming process that will enable some to begin to utilize their critical thinking skills as we are seeing happening via "quiet" time in jail or via the reality of legal court proceedings.
Other players will never be de-programmed because they are the ones who are unapologetically racists, misogynists, bigots and the white privileged who truly believe they are superior beings over all others and their rights. They are the ones who are proving, daily, that the southern lord mentality (caste/enslavement system) did not lose the civil war. The corporate lords and financiers who have imbalanced capitalism have driven our equal representative, democratic principles over a cliff with lies, money/power, and trickle down malarky.
They do not care about the safety of our children, the burden of the middle-class paying the higher share of taxes and Truth or Justice. They only care about themselves and their power. Historically, this is the epitome of overpopulation, dwindling resources combined malignant narcissists seeking control and resources for themselves.
Extremist religion is purely a mask for greed. Human history repeats itself ad nauseam.
Still, I think this is our ultimate chance to quell the hostile influencers both domestically and foreignly. ( I made that up, is it a real word?)
It will take all of us, and some major cajones, to use our wits to speak out as well as to outmaneuver them via our Constitutional systems which have been severely beaten up, out loud, since Reagan. Time for the majority to stop the bullies and liars—there are more of us on this playground and we are actually smarter and armed with truth, logic, facts and laws in toto. It is time to band together and tighten our circle.
The cult is unable to think due to incessant brainwashing paralyzing their limbic systems. It has been allowed to occur for years, right in front of us at a high rate of speed for the past seven years, plus. Hitler would be very proud of how the repugnants use of rallies, tv, social media, cyberwarfare, marketing ploys (i.e. trump bears and coins) and false hearings to control the narrative in vulnerable minds— with precise, exceeding perfection instilling fear and division. Fear and division, the fertile soil for an authoritarian takeover.
We still have just enough time to prove our democracy works despite the despots. Let's go for it—please join a movement for testing those who lie, helping reach voters in swing states, securing and making our polling places and mail-in ballots safe, and helping to stand for so many necessary changes we have to make to secure a new, stronger, safer and saner democracy that has less loopholes and higher demands civically minded education based on facts. For ALL the People, this time. Another rant over...
One thought though. The "cult" which I will call the "MAGA T-Shirt" people who think the American flag is a Republican icon and symbol - that cult doesn't think. It regurgitates. And and they are deplorably stupid (could be in the water) and ill informed by choice. For them, hating is more fun than learning.
But they are merely the public puppets. The ones pulling the strings are incredibly rich but still want more. And they are extremely smart in a strategic sense.
They gave us a Supreme Court that the Founders would throw rotten fruit at.
They have given us election after election of lame brained fascist candidates - successful because of our insane election funding system.
They have given us a tax structure that has hollowed out America and made a handful of people morbidly rich.
And they gave us Fox, Newsmax, a fumbling clumsy CNN and Sinclair to dominate cable and radio. It's right out of a dystopian novel and it is a despicably brilliant strategy.
400 people own as much as 60% of America. That's roughly a ratio of 400 to 200,000,000. And they want more. They don't care what happens to the MAGA T-Shirt fools. They just crave more money and the power that comes with it.
I agree with every word of your rant. But let us remember who is behind the curtain. One of them is named Leonard.
Thanks, Bill, I added some of the uber rich responsible. But I do strongly feel the brainwashing tactics and lack of curbing that kind of mind control is extremely problematic...We need to teach critical thinking skills in kindergarten in how to recognize and band together to deal with liars, manipulators, gaslighting and bullies early on.
Yes! We are currently struggling with an excellent school system funding problem. The cost of SPED and health insurance has skyrocketed. Nobody's fault, really. Sign of the times. Unless you want to discuss the crazy way we fund schools. To be discussed another day.
The discussions about what programs to cut make me nervous. Especially when I hear some parents say: "Just teach them math and science!".
What our teachers have done for our grand kids over the last few years is wonderful. Learning critical thinking and empathy are woven into the day. So grateful.
My grandson started preschool recently. They live in Colorado. His school is run by retired teachers. I love that. Yale is implementing a emotional intelligence program there starting with 3 year olds. It's a pilot program. I'm really excited for this to be a success. How can it not be?
I feel like I am supporting the schools in my uppity neighborhood all be myself from the amount of RE tax I have to pay. I am all for paying my fair share. This last increase is killing me though.
IMHO, schools should be funded equally (same $/child) on a state level. Basing the quality of a school on real estate values perpetuates inequality and punishes seniors unfairly.
Perhaps some sort of blend of income and sales tax (not on essentials like food and kids clothing) would make sense.
People are flocking to our town because of the schools reputation. I am thrilled our grand kids are getting a great start! But just like you, our RE taxes are through the roof.
Pensa, I think you're definitely on to something! I fear however that you may go overboard or in the wrong direction with your solutions. Rather than "tighten the circle," the way that you "make democracy work" is to expand that circle, to demonstrate that the principles set forth 2 millennia ago by that guy who loved his neighbors as himself, who turned the other cheek, who recognized those who showed the inclusive spirit of forgiveness rather than just talking about it was on a better path forward. That's why we even know about that guy now despite all the depradations of his message there have been, distortions by those who seek power over others. Not everyone will get the message but we'll certainly move our world in a direction of greater humanity, SO necessary as the world gets ever more crowded. Democracy works when we can understand the principles set forth by that group of people 250 years ago trying to establish a new nation based on a new idea, a group of people who were largely followers of that guy 2 millennia ago.
What I mean about tighten the circle is to stand together right now whilst we are facing fascism vs. democracy. I do not mean forever, but we are in a particularly dangerous moment and I might love my fellow Americans but right now, 30 million of them appear to not know what they are supporting. I will forgive them once we save our country from those who want to destroy our Constitution and democracy. And remember, there are a lot of fake christians walking around.
And our forefathers might have been followers of "the guy who loved his neighbors as himself" but some of them owned human beings, despite their noble ideas about equality. They actually did not include the plight of black people/slaves.
Despite Jefferson stating that All men are created equal," Jefferson owned slaves. He did not believe that all were created equal. He was a racist, incapable of rising above the thought of his time and place, and willing to profit from slave labor.
In Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson describes the institution of slavery as forcing tyranny and depravity on master and slave alike. To be a slaveholder meant one had to believe that the worst white man was better than the best black man. If you did not believe these things, you could not justify yourself to yourself. So Jefferson could condemn slavery in words, but not in deeds. —Stephen E. Ambrose, Professor of History, "Founding Fathers and Slaveholders" November 2002, Smithsonian Magazine.
It is one of the most embarrassing things of "our great country's history" that many white privileged people do not want taught in our schools and thus want to ban true history. Our country was founded upon the blood, sweat and tears of Africans who were trafficked. We need to be mature and face the facts and just deal with it and not pretend it did not happen, but make amends. Not whitewash (deliberately attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts about (someone or something), rinse and repeat history. We humans are complex beings, for sure.
And I would add, when I learned about what the Nazis did to the Jews from Anne Frank as a young girl, I was pretty sure that forgiving those who committed heinous atrocities against human being, no matter what color, religion, gender, etc., that is not okay. I may not be religious because I studied too much history, but The Golden Rule is my creed. I am not sure that some of my fellow citizens would not turn me in for being against trump and his comrades if he becomes the dictator here. If they were not brainwashed and could think for themselves, I might try again to communicate with them using reason and logic. After seven years of trying, I am over it for now. But I wholeheartedly welcome those back into the circle if they have seen the light and left the cult. Even better if they talk with the cult from personal experience.
John, No depredations of Paul's message. Paul couldn't be more clear. IMO, he was trying to unseat Jesus. He, like the left wing progressives in this country and the UN, used the Jews as their scapegoat. That's been going on for millennia. Hatred of Jews has been preached in churches for centuries.https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-early-church-and-the-beginnings-of-anti-semitism
Oh, they care about Gaza and Ukraine, allright. They care about making it fall; all to please their master in the Kremlin. It’s sad to say, but thanks to the Repubs’ hunger for power, Putin has the US in his back pocket now. Putin : Biden = 1:0.
Well said, and they call themselves patriots. Sell the country and our allies down the river for what? So they can have an election issue - they have nothing else to run on? TFG's world is up is down and down is up. Everything is ass-backward. Like almost everything TFG says it is the exact opposite of the truth. How could we have gotten here?? There is something rotten going on in this country.
Jesus felt the same way regarding the Pharisees--hypocrisy was his biggest pet peeve. To add to your they-don't care-about list is that they also don't care that they got caught, openly and in broad daylight, supporting trump's use of the border as a campaign playing card...utterly without shame!
Narcissists attract one another. They bond. Bigots attract one another. Haters gravitate to one another. MAGA Rallies are a dating opportunity for Bigots. They wear red hats now instead of white pointy hoods. It's passed through generations. It's not going anywhere anytime soon.
These people live in a different information universe. Unless you have a heart condition, I recommend listening to the Focus Group podcast and hear it straight from their mouths; it’s kind of shocking. But we have to remember that people don’t come around to a different way of thinking by being scolded to it; they just get defensive. I don’t necessarily have a solution, but am open to suggestions.
My therapist tells me throat punching is unacceptable. I got nothing. We went bowling last year a our local 1950's bowling alley. I asked to join a league just for something to do in our Minnesota winters. They had Fox on the tube. I made a comment (of course I did). Then they said I was to liberal to join. I just laughed at them. I walked away. My town voted 80% for Agent Orange.
Can you advise where to find that particular essay? That website looks fabulous, but I already went down two rabbit holes, and I need to stay focused for today...
Regarding MAGA extremists, the Trumpish enthusiasm of many of them is driven by fear that the White majority, especially in places like Texas, is slowly evaporating.
However, I do think Biden has a good chance of making inroads. There is an opportunity to put more pressure on Republicans who are slowly sabotaging their own political careers to serve Trump's. Biden can lay the blame for the deaths right back at the Republicans. Our soldiers abroad are less safe because they are blocking first military and diplomatic appointments and now funding. They should all be brought up for treason. They are selling us to Russia, not ensuring our safety.
Yep, our local paper here in central VA said it all last week in a headline about our Congressman, Bob "NO!!" Good. "Good Affirms Allegiance to Trump". Good evidently forgot to mention the Constitution, something he knows little about. Good is by far the worst Congressman elected here in my 40 Virginia years. But he had to get it right with his God, Trump, because he may be right-sided this year.
Well said!!! I have no words — only hope the some thinking republicans like Langford spit in trumps face as he continues to do Putin’s budding and continues to work to destroy our country from within and internationally. I CANNOT wait for the day he is convicted and incarcerated. And all his cult members in congress are voted out of office and SHAMED for the traitors that they are.
Heather, you are superb with your closing lines of each post and this one is right on...I’d love to send a copy of your newsletters to every congressional personage...wait, since I have their addresses as they are public record, I will!
Heather has fallen ever deeper into the well of American Empire propaganda, and unfortunately is conflating our desire for global hegemony with some idealized, hypocritical desire to ‘spread democracy’ by threat of military might and economic coercion.
You’d be more honest if you would send them a copy of the link below; not that it would have any effect at all. Endless war is about all our Congress is good at these days.
“In that same statement Biden said the US troops who were killed in the “despicable and wholly unjust attack” died working “to fight terrorism”, which is of course ridiculous. People who live in the middle east have far more legitimacy attacking US troops in resistance to a US-backed genocide than US troops have in being in the middle east to begin with, and the US military presence they attacked is there to shore up geostrategic control, not to fight terror.
As Aris Roussinos explains in a new article for Unherd, the US base by the Jordan-Syria border that was struck by Iraqi forces functions as a support base for America’s al-Tanf garrison, a sprawling “deconfliction zone” (read: illegal military occupation) in Syria which the US has for years been using to disrupt Iranian activities in the region and help Israel carry out its constant airstrikes in Syria. “Fighting terrorism” is just the pretense for the US military presence in the region; as always, the real reason is to facilitate the geostrategic domination of the US empire.
Those three US military personnel didn’t die fighting terrorism. They didn’t even die advancing the interests of ordinary Americans. The real reason they died was summed up nicely by Responsible Statecraft’s Trita Parsi:
“They didn’t die defending US interests, they died defending Biden’s refusal to press Israel for a ceasefire. Their lives were put at risk by Biden to defend Israel’s ability to continue its carnage in Gaza.”
Parsi has spent months arguing that the only thing that can de-escalate the rapidly expanding hostilities in the middle east is a ceasefire in Gaza, since that’s what they all ultimately arise from. The massive increase in attacks on US troops, the Yemeni blockade in the Red Sea, the brinkmanship with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the skyrocketing tensions with Iran are all the direct result of Israel’s massacre in Gaza and the opposition thereto.
Instead of pushing for a ceasefire, the US is preparing to send Israel 50 fighter jets and 12 Apache helicopters in preparation for the next war while stepping toward the horrifying prospect of a hot war with Iran. Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi is saying there needs to be an FBI investigation into people calling for a ceasefire, because they might be Russian secret agents.”
Every US military fatality in the middle east is the fault of the US government for putting them there. US troops shouldn’t be in the middle east at all, and the US has no legitimacy in retaliating against efforts to kick them out of the region by the people who live there. Iraqi militias have 100 percent legitimacy in attacking US troops in the middle east during a US-backed genocide, and the US has zero legitimacy in retaliating.
To the managers of the US empire:
Get out of the middle east. Just get the fuck out. Stop backing a genocide in Gaza, stop murdering people to shore up domination of world resources, and leave. Leave before you unleash something far worse than the nightmare you’ve already inflicted upon our species.“
" . . . the only thing that can de-escalate the rapidly expanding hostilities in the middle east is a ceasefire in Gaza, since that’s what they all ultimately arise from. The massive increase in attacks on US troops, the Yemeni blockade in the Red Sea, the brinkmanship with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the skyrocketing tensions with Iran are all the direct result of Israel’s massacre in Gaza and the opposition thereto."
Of course! This whole nightmare is totally Israel's fault! The region was so quiet, the leaders of Hamas knitting baby booties for their centers of universal love, their Iranian paymasters writing checks for Habitat for Humanity, when those EuroZioWhitoColonioImperial Jew-raelis chose for no reason at all to rain Hell and a Half-Acre upon Gaza. No reason at all, I tell ya!
Why, I've looked and looked at my news feed for last October and I cannot find any clue as to why Israel might have felt compelled to spin up the IDF for a war tour. It's as if Israel just woke up and said, "It's a beautiful day, sunny, bright, and peaceful. What'll be do for fun? Hey, I know! Let's bomb the snot out of Gaza, implode our own economy and kill our own young people in the process, and get every lunatic in media to call us Nazis! Fun for the whole family!"
And by all means let's have a ceasefire, because Hamas is aching to get back to knitting those booties.
Thanks, Bill, I'll try. Plenty of opportunity for sarcasm this year between Trump, the elections, the wars, and whatever goobery ol' Tom dreams up next.
You really suck at sarcasm, Shane. But I get it, wandering blindly through current events without knowing the difference between oppressor and oppressed is a handicap.
Caitlin Johnston can stay in Australia forever. Such a horrible woman, she hates America and is to the left what MAGA is to the right. Now go away with her nastiness.
She hates what policy evil America pursues in the quest for global hegemony. Too bad you cannot differentiate between that and the fallacious, generalized, simplistic hate label you are using here.
Your absurd conflation of left and right ‘extremism’ is equally vapid, because, unlike your cult of centrist tribalists, most intelligent people can discern the difference between say, the socialistic benefit of Medicare For All vs. the oligarchic lust for concentrated wealth via privatizing Social Security.
1. Israel faces an existential crisis as soon as the U.S. "aid spigot" gets cut off for whatever reason (including possible American political or economic crisis, with the dysfunctional House Republicanssteering us over a cliff).
2. Any viable solution must enable Israel to be secure without constant infusions of American aid.
3. This requires peace with Israel’s neighbors, including Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
4. This requires undoing the Nakba terrorist atrocity and withdrawing to the U.N.-mandated pre-1948 borders.
5. This can only be done in the context of peaceful economic integration throughout the region, for the benefit of all. A lasting peace must be guaranteed individually by each permanent member of the U.N. Security council, and endorsed by Israel’s neighbors.
6. The recent Hamas atrocities were sparked by provocations (yet again) at the Dome of the Rock. The dream of rebuilding the Temple of Herod must be given up and replaced by the will to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in its correct location.
John, I completely agree with you. While unpopular historically to disagree with supporting Israel it is time to stop. We are openly enabling this war with the arms and money we have been sending their way for I’m-not-sure-how-long.
Kathy Clark, perhaps you could come up with a specific point of disagreement.
Perhaps it is well to remember that Israeli settler extremists in the West Bank are terrorists, and therefore Israel, funding the settlers and giving them guns, is a state sponsor of terrorism.
See “France Calls West Bank Israeli Settler Violence a ‘Policy of Terror’”
p.s. Belligerent, bellicose Biden has brought us closer and closer to the brink of both nuclear holocaust and financial meltdown.
I wish I didn't have to speak up (there are plenty of things that I'd rather do), but today's horde of mindless Democratic talking-pointers is herding the party and the American people into the abyss.
Amateur astrologer, experienced genealogist, make models of WWII ships (the ships had/have spirits that are still around); I also like hiking when I find the time, and do a bit of gardening.
1. That American "aid spigot" is about 1 percent of Israel's budget. Go ahead and cut it off, but be careful what you wish for, you may get it good and hard. This "aid spigot" in actually American welfare to the American arms industry, because Israel is required to spend that aid exclusively on buying American weapons. Without this aid, Israel can shop wherever it wants, and the American MIL will have to find a new way to launder Uncle Sam's money.
2. "Nakba" was a tragedy inflicted on Palestine's Arabs by Palestine's Arabs. If Arabs had not voluntarily decided to invade and conquer Israel in 1948 to steal all of Palestine for themselves, instead of accepting the UN's fair and legal offer of half the land for an Arab state and half the land for a Jewish state, not a single Arab would have had to flee. That nearly a million did flee is Arab doing, not Israeli, so take up your "terrorist" complaint with them. Arabs should not have terrorized their own people by invading Israel.
3. Israel did not exist until 1948, so there is no "UN-mandated pre-1948 borders" to which to return. You act as if Palestine was an Arab nation that Jews stole. It was not. Palestine was a geographic location that was home to two indigenous people--Jews and Arabs, each descended from the Iron Age tribes of Canaan. Jews retained their Canaanite tribal name throughout; the other Canaanite tribe became "Arabs" when conquered, absorbed into, and renamed during the Islamic Arab Conquest of the ME in the 600s AD. The name stuck, and DNA analysis shows that the Jews and the Arabs of Palestine both have legitimate claims to states there. Hence, the UN offer of half-and-half, which Jews accepted and Arabs rejected. Sucks to screw up like that.
4. The Hamas pogrom in October had nothing to do with "provocations at the Dome of the Rock." There haven't been provocations at the Dome in forever. Do you mean Jews having the audacity to pray on their own Temple Mount? If that provokes Palestinians, too bad, so sad, they can learn to share. Temple Mount is as holy to Jews as the Western Wall that supports the Mount's western flank, and Jews have every right to go wherever they want around or atop that complex, same as Muslims and Arabs have that right.
5. Hamas planned and rehearsed its terror attack for years, so again, it has nothing to do with Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount, al-Aqsa, or anything else. It has to do with Hamas being the assassination squad of the 7th Century Islamic fundamentalism currently practiced by Iran, which pays and equips Hamas handsomely to continue its "Death to Israel! Death to Jews! Death to America!" pogroms.
6. What do you believe is the "correct" location for the Temple of Solomon and its Temple Mount, if not where it is now? Be specific so we can Google Map it.
We'll just have to disgree about provocations at the Temple Mount fueling Hamas preparations for their pogrom. And it was Netanyahu, as much as anyone else, who enabled Hamas's atrocity:
To blame the Arab states for the Zionist ethnic cleansing in 1948 is just sick.
Regarding aid to Israel, the House recently passed a 14-billion-dollar military package, on top of the usual $3 billion or so. Israel's budget for 2024 is around 155 billion dollars, so our proposed wartime aid to Israel is around 10 percent, not one percent, of Israel's budget.
Many of the descendants of the Hebrews and Idumeans (Herod was an Idumean) who had been in Palestine all along converted to Christianity and/or Islam, becoming modern-day Palestinians: the original Jews who never left.
The original temple of Solomon would never have been built on Mt. Moriah.
Netanyahu's support of Hamas is so vile he should be charged with treason for it. But I'm not an Israeli prosecutor, so I can't.
Yes, the 14B supplemental would bump the U.S. aid package to Israel this year to around 10 percent, where in most other years that annual aid would amount to 1-2 percent of Israel's budget. But it's a temporary bump that still may not pass Senate and Biden, and all that extra money still has to be spent on U.S. made weapons. I'd argue the House didn't approve it to help Israel as much as it saw an opportunity to lavish more welfare to American corporations. But even if it voted the temporary bump to help Israel defray its war expenses, so what? The U.S. gives Palestinians a lot of aid, too, and nobody's arguing that it should be cut to zero because of Palestinian warmongering--the Hamas pogrom.
"To blame the Arab states for the Zionist ethnic cleansing in 1948 is just sick." It's sick because truth is sickening. Arab states CHOSE to invade Israel rather than grant Jews a sovereign state of ANY size in Palestine. The UN Partition plan was the best way to give each people the state they deserved in Palestine under the auspices of the Mandate system.
Jews accepted their half. Arabs invaded Israel to steal both halves for an entirely Arab State of Palestine. That invasion caused the "Nakba"--absent the invasion of choice, no one, Arab or Jew, would have fled, been displaced, become a refugee, or been killed in a war that Arabs started. "Zionist ethnic cleansing" my ass.
I accounted for your converts when I said Palestine had two indigenous people, not just one: Jews and Arabs. The Jewish line continued straight from the Iron Age until present day; the Arab line had one name from the Iron Age till the Islamic conquest, then renamed Arab. That some converted from Judaism is is meaningless; the Jewish line remained intact and became the second indigenous people that needed to be given a state.
Palestine was and is not an Islamic or Arab state, despite all the propaganda otherwise. It was a geographic location in which two indigenous people lived, and as such, both people were due states through the Mandate system that gave conquered Ottoman land (of which Palestine was a region) to local populations to develop into sovereign states after WWI. Jews got to have one too, and they're not giving it up.
Today's Palis need to accept that their leaders sold them down the river in 1948 by not accepting that state on half of Palestine; that those leaders waged and lost three wars to Israel, resulting in the forfeiture ALL of former Palestine to victorious Israel; and since Israel won and they lost, Israel is going nowhere.
If Palis still want a state of their own--of which I am in favor--they need to be realistic about what they can get. That includes no longer allowing Iranian terror groups to operate freely in their nation, and ending the teaching of their children that Jews and Israelis are monsters who must be slain.
"Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, bogan socialist, anarcho-psychonaut, guerilla poet and utopia prepper."
"None of Trump’s misdeeds rise to the level of single-handedly facilitating a genocide in Gaza or taking the world closer to nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis."
She also asserts the notion that Russian disinformation is a threat to our institutions, is actually disinformation spread by the plutocrats who run those institutions. And that Wikipedia is a psyop.
So yeah. A Leftish New Ageish MAGA twin. Forget the Fake News and foment the Alternative Facts. Putin fanboys and fangirls pushing Trump. True believers enraptured by the feeling that they'll rise from ashes. And John S. commenting on his own crazy quilt cut and paste comments.
Actually it's good to have them here to be reminded of what's out there. Not to always waste time refuting their fallacious rhetoric and blinkered ire. Their systems are impervious and impenetrable. But to marvel at the endless capacity of human imagination - and its tragic iterations. Closing the circle. Closer to Rush Limbaugh than that other RL.
Rosa Luxemburg they're not.
"Rather than diminish the importance of the struggle for reforms, Luxemburg argued that these struggles are central. "In a word", she wrote, "democracy is indispensable not because it renders superfluous the conquest of political power by the proletariat but because it renders this conquest of power both necessary and possible".
"Democracy is indispensable to the working class, because only through the exercise of its democratic rights, in the struggle for democracy, can the proletariat become aware of its class interests and its historic task."
Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution
So yeah. ThankYou HCR for your knowledge and analysis.
So yeah. GetOutTheVote for Democratic reforms. Of policy and of the party.
Thanks for this lin. Saved me some precious time - hate it when the trolls bring their dark web garbage in from the trash heap and drop it in the comments. Appreciate the background.
Back to calling, texting and postcarding to get out the vote.
What was ‘full’ about the analysis/critique? The Ukraine good/Russia bad part, or something else. The author here punches himself in the face in the first paragraph. Funny also how you use a piece authored by a musician as a rebuttal to Caitlin’s bio in your comment above. Cute.
There is a complicated history with Caitlin and counterpunch.
It is likely that Putin has his own Leonard Leos. Shell corporation entrepreneurs funneling funds to antidemocratic causes. Couched in the false equivalencies and fallacious assertions of specious rhetoric. It used to be you could tell the FBI plant at the Young Communists meeting because he was the only one wearing denim overalls with his police issue spit shined shoes. Now it's when they call their cells Federalist Society and Moms for Liberty.
Though, like with GOPMAGAGRU.
Many are cheap dates - besotted and no need to leave the money on the dresser.
Not sure who has the money in Russia, Putin probably has trillions stashed away. But no doubt the mob is a player. And the modern mob is a different animal from Gotti and wise guys. However, some methods never change.
I guess it is good to become acquainted with the sources for commenters. In this case an influencer who pretty much sells the Putin party line in Leftish language. As Trump et al sell it in right wing populist language. Of course, as Democratic party policies are more of a threat to Russian and American plutocrats, their mouthpieces will denigrate Democrats.
Nice digest. I knew some of this sounded familiar. It's the 21st century politicized rehash of Kenn Thomas's Steamshovel Press: there's no such thing as a bad conspiracy, and it's not her problem since she's based in Australia.
Vladimir Tom and I have crossed swords before, so I'm aware of the baloney he peddles as fact, and don't buy any of it. Thanks for posting this, though, always good to keep up with what nutjobs like Johnstone have in mind for normal people.
Biden has publicly condemned Netanyahu’s extreme actions in Gaza. Biden’s administration is working to end the Gaza conflict and build support for a two State solution. A sovereign Palestine and Israel. There are many Israelis protesting Netanyahu and also want to end his rule. He polls very low within Israel.
"...Caitlin Johnstone, who publishes frequently at the Russian state media outlet RT
... Manipulation and obfuscation are so egregious in certain texts, that they require close reading and even annotation in order to reveal their actual meaning. I have found that to be the case with the essays of Caitlin Johnstone, which unfortunately often garner a large following among certain segments of the online left."
You go, Ms. Joe McCarthy! Chris Hedges, Lee Camp, and Abby Martin also say hello! Manipulation and obfuscation abound for you mainstream media propaganda lovers.
I support "Corporate Joe" Biden for Captain of the USS Titanic! His campaign slogan, "Full speed ahead!" really makes me want to get out and vote, because Corporate Joe is going to take us to the Promised Iceberg where we can ride the Inescapable Debt Spiral into the drink. And Joe has a "hyper" backup plan: Drill holes in the bottom of the Titanic to let the water out. Vote Joe, and we'll all take a bath.
Biden and Blinken are on the right track. (Despite being caught between those who cry antisemitism at any criticism of Israeli policy
and those who cry genocide at any support of Israel.)
Continuous spotlight on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the opposition to the Netanyahu regime by Israelis - from the war cabinet and military and intelligence chiefs to Israelis protesting in the streets. Emphasis on delivery of aid and deescalation of hostilities
Publicly and privately. Marginalize and pressure the Netanyahu regime. Build support for the two state solution both Netanyahu and Hamas oppose. Emphasize the need to build back Gaza with and for Palestinians. Publicize the atrocities of the Netanyahu regime terrorists and the abuses of the settler thugs.
I would add immediate reduction of military aid to Israel.
Lot of truth there, i'd just leave out the heavy handed moralizing, geopolitics, with outside actors muscling in with interests, is nothing new. Oil and political stability / hegemony remain a big deal in the Middle East. Saudis own billions in American and British real estate, right? The immediate backtrack on the deaths of American soldiers is to the Hamas triggered war in Gaza, triggered by the mass slaughter of Israeli civilians. The resultant 27000 Gazan deaths, mainly women and children, are pure Israeli reprisal, for which we can thank the most right wing self righteous gov in Israeli history. Interesting that Biden's resurrection of a two-state political solution is opposed by a gov that is anathema to that, and by now, far more Israelis, than ever. I agree, it's a quagmire, and it's been an American military overreach which hasn't gone well at all for anyone.
Tom, “Shirley” you jest. No sane person would drink from the cup of propaganda you spew. How much money do you “take” in your willingness to offend people?
Joyce, I don’t think genocide is funny like you do. How much money do you take to be an empire simp? You should be aware of the propaganda you slurp from your empire cup.
HCR reaches a new low in her war-mongering propaganda.
First of all, she hypocritically ignores the blatant illegality of the U.S. presence in Syria, which precipitated the attacks that killed and wounded American soldiers.
Second, HCR echoes Simon Rosenberg's bloodthirsty call to keep throwing money down the rat-hole of Ukraine’s corrupt far-right thug regime (see my reply below).
Ukraine has been enslaved by the rapacious International Monetary Fund (with reconquering the Donbass a condition of the original loan), and Zelensky has pledged to keep all of Ukraine's promises to the IMF, and the NATO countries have voting domination at the IMF, and NATO has promised to continue supplying weapons to Ukraine until it bleeds to death, delivering pounds and pounds of bloody flesh to service the unpayable IMF loans.
Ukraine's oppressive neo-fascist thug regime is not "democratic." In Ukraine, all the opposition parties have been suppressed after Zelensky capitulated to neo-Nazi war-mongers and reneged on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass region.
A few months ago, both Zelensky and Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau applauded as the Speaker of Canada's House of Commons praised a Ukrainian who was a real-life Nazi, a member of a Nazi SS unit that committed genocide against Poles during World War II. After international condemnation, Speaker Anthony Rota quickly resigned.
When Zelensky became President, he initially moved toward fulfilling the Minsk Agreements that had "frozen" the civil war in the Donbass and outlined a pathway toward peace. But then he capitulated to the Neo-Nazis (who controlled Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police stations) and eventually re-ignited the frozen war, precipitating the Russian invasion. We are being lied to.
In August, after U.S. Secretary of State Blinken announced more aid for Ukraine, Zelensky posted a video showing him with Ukraine's most prominent Neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky:
See also (from 2019) "Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine":
"Five years ago, Ukraine’s Maidan uprising ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, to the cheers and support of the West. Politicians and analysts in the United States and Europe not only celebrated the uprising as a triumph of democracy, but denied reports of Maidan’s ultranationalism, smearing those who warned about the dark side of the uprising as Moscow puppets and useful idiots. Freedom was on the march in Ukraine.
"Today, increasing reports of far-right violence, ultranationalism, and erosion of basic freedoms are giving the lie to the West’s initial euphoria. There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
You obfuscate, trying to divert attention away from your shameful support of Ukraine's corrupt far-right fascist thug regime, the type of people that creepy Joe Biden likes to hang out with.
You come across as just another shameless talking-pointer with no moral compass.
The could give a damn about what actually happens so long as they emerge one up over others. Absolute power, and the obsession with gaining it, corrupts absolutely.
I think that they damn well know what they’re doing, though I wouldn’t know what would be more scary: them being too stupid to govern, or them being so malicious as to burn American democracy to the ground just for a little bit of power in their measly lives…
The media is complicit. If pig headed opposition weren’t validated by condemnation but instead relegated to footnotes rather than headlines, it’d disappear. It’s commercial rage baiting.
"A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, "fifth columns" are "domestic actors who work to undermine the national interest, in cooperation with external rivals of the state"."
lin, I looked up "The 5th Column" when I first became aware of the YouTube channel "Beau of the Fifth Column". I am aware that the press is the "Fourth Estate" but I'd never heard of the "Fifth Column". Google is indeed your friend.
Oh the perilous times in which we find ourselves. The world seems as it is teetering on the brink and a small band of nincompoop republicants are holding sway on the balancing act. Remarkably, these idiots have adequate albeit minority support in the voting public to be so emboldened in their misguided and reckless positions. We must vote these demon turds resoundingly out of office and out of power to the silent irrelevance they so deserve. We MUST.
Having retired to a small town on Route 66 in Oklahoma in 2021, I must say I am delighted to learn that Republican Senator Lankford stood for the principle of doing something America needs and against the only concern being to defeat Joe Biden in November. I will contact his office to express my support in the morning. Meanwhile … in related news … likely GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump called the three servicemen who died “suckers and losers”. (Please note: this last sentence is satire… maybe. SMH)
Those three dead service members were part of a much larger contingent that we've had in the area to counter the terrorist group ISIS that continues to destabilize the region in the hope of establishment a large Islamic caliphate. Our troops are regularly attacked by Iranian proxies; what's really scary about this latest attack is that it occurred in our ally Jordan and not Iraq or Syria.
It was just a matter of time. There are three or four other reasons why we have a base at al Tanf. Which is in Syria by the way. In order of priority.
It is near the highway from Baghdad to Damascus, along which Iranian shipments to its Army in Syria travel. Near enough to block them.
Hence it is a wartime forward observation and firebase. It is manned by a Marine recon unit with artillery that has fire control over that road.
Secondly, there is a Palestinian refugee camp nearby. It protects it and sees that it does not get weapons nor overtaken by militants.
.Thirdly, is as you mentioned, guarding against the reemergence there of ISIS.
Fourth is the official stated mission of providing some aid and comfort to Jordan in securing its borders from these manifold threats.
Lastly, there are the oil fields of eastern Syria, presently controlled by US supported rebel groups. These are bracketed by al Tanf and a base in the north in Kurdish territory.
The question is, what are our principles aims in the Middle East. Are we in any sort of position to achieve them. Can we possibly be under present circumstances. If not, what must be done. Al Tanf is simply a piece on a chessboard. A knight. Think Fort Apache. The Isrselis no doubt like that we are there. Are we sacrificing American lives to please their government ?
PS, if our mission is to supress ISiS, the monster we created by invading Iraq, then we should withdraw from al Tanf and let the Iranians deal with them, as they are mortal enemies.
If on the other hand, our mission has been to counter Iranian influence in the Middle East, and thwart their ambitions, and eliminate the threat that they pose to Israel, and now, to world peace, well then we have failed so far at that mission and are losing. Of course, then, we should not have invaded Iraq.
"likely GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump called the three servicemen who died “suckers and losers”.
Despicable labeling no doubt. However, for all of those service members who followed the orders of George W Bush II, which were all based on lies and deceit, well, some of them feel the same way that Trump describes them. Like they were suckers and losers for wasting their time, their hearing, the limbs, and sometimes their lives to end up with Afghanistan EXACTLY where it was when we started killing and maiming our boys 23 years ago.
Trump is disgusting to say out loud what some of our now retired and disable servicemen think about themselves. But, in many ways, he is not wrong.
We all should think hard about WHY we allowed our service men to become "suckers and losers and maimed and dead" for nothing.
He said that ("losers") of all our wounded, imprisoned, and military fatalities. He is an evil pupper. Let us look to his puppeteers. They (Fascist GOP Puppets) use softened tactics on their enemies as used on Rushdie and Mahsa Amini. "Caste"
Thanks for letting me know. I hope he ate at the Rock Cafe in Stroud. It’s just down the street from where I live (in the back of the Route 66 Spirit of America Museum)
Heather..;today your report is bloody true and terribly sad….and we have the the Russians, the Iranians, the Orange one and his cohorts to thank for it. I wish I could see some clear solutions….but I can’t. Your painful clarity at least identifies the magnitude of the problem!
Efforts to undo "Citizens United" and de facto bribery in general, would be a useful start. Calling attention to some forgotten concepts, such as "antitrust".
I've been favoring a coast to coast - every state voter initiative ballot petition for a very long time; in fact since "Citizens United" was first issued. I've seen efforts of others come, go, then get complicated. *If it's to be done, a brilliant legal mind like Joyce Vance and others would be needed for the legal jargon and other expertise. It could be done. I really think voters of all stripes would agree.
This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment providing that the rights protected and extended by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, shall have no rights under the Constitution and are subject to regulation.
HJR-54 was introduced by Jayapal Primila: The amendment requires federal, state, and local governments to (1) regulate, limit, or prohibit election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate's own contributions and expenditures, to ensure equal access of citizens to the political process, regardless of economic status; and (2) require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed.
Additionally, the judiciary is prohibited from construing the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment. (2023-2024)
We need to support the passage of this bill...now!
And Tom, I did not see anything in Amend.org related to HJR-54...Great work there, but am I missing something?
Tom, I LIKE the HJR-54 idea! Seems to strike at the heart of any number of issues confronting us (as in USA) today. I also don't see anything on Amend.org pertaining to this proposed legislation.
You've mentioned this before Tom; I'll do a 'deep dive' into it. My past experiences with such previous initiatives as noted in my above comment ↑. Thanks Tom ~
It is true that a simple reversal of Citizens United would not be the perfect legal solution. It could be at least a major change in attitudes in peoples' tolerance for dark money influence on the few holders of the levers of power, though.
Laws and Regulations are hard to change fast enough to keep up with those clever enough to find new ways to cheat, at least without responsible regulators to able be flexible enough to adjust to the spirit of the most import basic aims of such.
I think I remember mostly his regret that a lot of irresponsible and incompetent risk takers with other peoples' money entered the field. He wanted to see innovators enabled but saw too many at least irresponsible new people take over a large portion of the financial markets. I think I understand enough about the old style derivatives to appreciate the following from the article above:
"...“In derivatives,” says Weill, “we should have an exchange, where you can have a mark-to-market, a place where they can trade, so that you don’t have a problem that can build up over multiple years, and all of a sudden you see a big collapse. If it was marked to market every single day, you'd be able to protect the balance sheets of the different companies.
The world has changed
Does Weill regret what he did at Citigroup? Not really. Weill says that the megabanks were right for their time but the world has changed.
As a result of too much concentration of investments, too much leverage, not enough transparency with a lot of off-balance-sheet items, we had the meltdown of 2008 and trust in the financial system was broken. This has led to efforts to regulate everything in the financial sector, including futile efforts to distinguish market-making trading from proprietary trading. Weill believes that these efforts will continue and in the end will stifle creativity in the financial sector. Instead, the sector should take another route and allow regulation of commercial banking and separate that from investment banking, where creativity and leadership can prosper..."
I have to do some more homework to try to show similarities in what can go wrong when Dark Money hides too much incompetence and evil. I'll start with reading all of Cathy O'Neil's "Weapons of Math Destruction." My initial assumption is that she found amazingly incompetent assessments (or attention to), risk management. Those blindly seeking quarterly profit seem too encouraged by those who do not want their methods and aims revealed, as seems indicated by the following: "...As O'Neil defines it, a weapon of math destruction, or WMD, has three elements: Opacity, Scale, and Damage. Combined, these factors create traps with feedback loops, capturing victims in systems they can't understand and can't escape, all the while exploiting them..."
It reminds me of something my great grandmother told me (which I took to be a warning about hero worship).
She said, "Before you compliment the marksman, ask what the target was."
All dollars can be spent for whatever, but not all dollars are earned from the same sorts of efforts. Great sums can be amassed form all manner of scams, legal ones or not, and not all things should be for sale. It is reasonable for society to regulate theft, be it hard or soft, (it's still theft) and bribery, be it explicit or de facto. If political outcomes can be purchased or excessively influenced by the intervention of money, that is patently and fundamentally anti-democratic. No? It's batdoo crazy the extent to which we allow blatant conflicts of interest and massive dollar "doping" (think of the Olympics) to significantly skew governmental outcomes.
Like Russia, it seems that Iran would like to see the failure of democracy wherever it resides.
I never thought that I’d compliment Lankford for his actions, but he showed true courage to speak up about the border legislation. Too many of his fellow Republicans are too afraid of TFG to do what is needed. They’re holding out for “perfect” legislation, knowing that TFG believes that only legislation that he writes is “perfect”, like his phone calls.
Maybe enough Republicans in the House and Senate will realize that, if they wait and Biden is reelected with majorities in both houses, any immigration legislation they get will be far different.
The border legislation would pass handily in the House were it not for the Speaker's fear of the radical right-wing "Freedom" caucus. He needs to bring it up for a clean vote by the entire house and stop being afraid of the anti-American loonies in his caucus who are doing whatever they can to destroy the Federal government. They need to wake up; the Civil War was over a long time ago.
The Civil War is over? Seems lot of would be slaveholder, ethnic and so-called Christian supremacist type 5th columnists that took advantage of the "southern strategy" to take over the party that thought they won the Civil War for good, have not given up.
They just eventually joined and took over the party label of the supposed victors to try to mislead the country into enabling resurrecting somewhat similar laws and policies of evil domination or rejection of others.
It's a sign of our weakened state that we find it appropriate to praise legislators for doing their duty. The GOP/MAGA crowd attacks anyone who speaks truth. What a party!
These near-hopeless dishonesties and disasters of course date back to 1953.
Why, in that year, did the U.S. have its C.I.A. kill the democratically elected Mossadegh government in Teheran, and install the stooge Shah? Why -- vitally related question -- did the U.S. train the Shah's torturing, murdering SAVAK secret police in more uses for torture and murder?
The answer then, of course, is the same answer for most of the U.S.'s current history: please the billionaire classes who always ally with the worst tyrants, dictators, oligarchs, and royal murderers.
When we see a very different set of U.S. priorities -- U.S. leadership for schools around the world teaching students (in English classes) to write essays to see "others" as individuals -- we'll then see something other than our continued captivity to thugs which has ever ruled.
When the Shah was in power in Iran, he modernized the country following more western ideals, overriding the wishes of the religious leaders. Iranian society including women were much freer. The population often wore more western style clothes, and were not required to dress in religious ways. Since the Islamist revolution in the early 80s, things have gone from bad to worse. The country is a complete theocracy now and requires women to remain covered at all times. I have an Iranian friend who can no longer visit her family there.
I think, though, women would have grown those freedoms themselves under the democratically elected government of Mossadegh.
We'll never know anything of what might have been, given that the greed for capturing market share and profits by the U.S.'s fossil fuel giants took precedence over democracy, freedom of expression, women's rights and everything else U.S. brute power eclipsed foremost instead to float the U.S. billionaire thugs.
We can never know the true damage to world affairs the USA has had and the horrors we have created for others by sponsoring dictatorship's all over the world in the name of profit and capitalism.
But we can blather about it incessantly. Can we atone and move on or is the flagellation to continue forever…. Don’t even want to know the answer. Native Americans don’t either, or descendants of slaves, or descendants of Confederates, or any peoples who were wiped out through the March of history. Not all by “us.” What to do??? Maybe follow Germany’s lead…
For a great description of Iran and its transition from a fairly tolerant culture to the theocratic horror that we have now, read "Blood and Oil - Memoirs of a Persian Prince" – by Manucher Farmanfarmaian. Of course Iran had oil.
Their tactics "terror and eternally brutal". Envisioning universal social Justice seeds our future. Enough of judging the evildoers for they will reap as they sew.
They've sown lies, bribery, and extortion, Victoria.
They reap power, boughten friends in high places, weaponry for dictator allies, fawning accomplices, praise from right-wing zealots, obsequious deference by universities they control, and favored places arranged via algorithms by the far-right social media billionaires.
How do these guys (generic term) continue to get away with gaming our system - and what will it take to shut them up and down, and remove them from their offices?
He, and by that I mean his owners in the MIC, was just doing what his boy Kissinger taught him from pre-election ‘68, when the Nixon cabal scuttled peace talks with North Vietnam to win an election.
of course Tom's/what's-her-name's narrative of American Imperialism has plenty of historical basis. twisted pretenses for our actions in Philippines, Vietnam, Cuba etc. virtually all unfalsifiable conspiracy narratives are based on at least a kernel of truth, and just because someone comes tp idiotic conclusions about comparisons between Trump and {anybody who genuinely gives a damn about the rule of law} doesn't mean they're 100% in topsy-turvy-land
Tom, is 'one of those'. I just take him in stride; Heaven knows I've dealt with all manner of 'know alls' during my turns around the sun. The U.S., just like any nation - or person for that matter with 'skeletons' in our closets. Some of those events personal or nation wise start out with the best of intentions - then go sideways. Nation wise, those events include 'things' we cannot know. Folks like that have compulsions to 'fill in the grey' for themselves, then those confabulations become "fact to them" as they roll them around in their heads too long. Life would be more boring if we are all identical. So, "Que Sera, Sera"
The R Party is what I like to now call the “Do Nothing” Party is in the minority. They are distractors for Trump. The crazies dangled a carrot in front of the Dems and Biden but then yanked it back real fast when they saw solid negotiations were forming. See, that looks like a Mitch the turtleneck stunt, if you ask me. Bibi also, is in the way and I am happy to hear that his popularity is waning with Israelis. Regardless, The Do Nothings should be shot...with a strong truth serum to see if their real boss is Putin, The Donald, or Leonard Leo. Way past time to take these people down and pass a budget that covers helping Ukrainians, the Taiwanese, and us!
This is a bit like calling a group of gangsters "do-nothings." They are doing plenty to undermine government, rule of law, well-being of the nation and its people --up to instigating and supporting an insurrection. Every Senator who signed on to overturn our election needs to be sharing the same cell blocks as the OTHER insurrectionists. That they are not and why they are not is something that should be on the top of all of our minds and we should be demanding answers as to why.
"Equal justice under law is a phrase engraved on the West Pediment, above the front entrance of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. It is also a societal ideal that has influenced the American legal system. " - WIkipededia
Marlene, Bibi was in very deep doo doo before the cross border incursion terror for a variety of reasons. In fact, I think he only remains in his position is because of the crisis, peculiar as that seems. Like the U.S. and most countries, changing horses in the middle of a stream (or war) is a natural reflex to avoid. Odd don't you think ?
This is just an ‘aside’ and in no way deals with the gravity of Heather’s report…
But a couple friends of mine today sort of ‘cooked up this idea and I thought I’d ‘share’.
—————
I and several of my friends have been pondering the E Jean Carroll verdict AND Nikki Haley’s T Shirt campaign against Trump who has indicated any Rep who supports her will be ‘banned’ and she has devised a T Shirt campaign and is selling these T Shirts…they say: “Barred Permanently”…..and they are selling well.
We Dem women think we’d like T Shirts too…Nikki has ALSO said :”I believe the Jury” which since we do too., we can easily support…and the dollar amount of the damages is something we ALSO LIKE and think should stay in folks consciousness…so on OUR T Shirts we want “I BELIEVE THE JURY” n.haley and the $83,300,000.00 underneath her statement…
And I acknowledge the fact that we Dems women believe in quite a different agenda from Nikki…but RIGHT ABOUT NOW it seems like a good idea to support her E Jean Carroll point of view as she totally unnerves the Orange one…and that’s delightful!
Count on it; orders for the drone attack on the US base in Jordan came from Moscow in an effort to weaken Biden. Biden is wise not to rise to the bait. Republican hawks will criticize him no matter what he does or doesn’t do. Better to keep on the diplomatic course he’s been on, and do what HCR has done and show how the drone attack is a result of Republicans’ refusal to back Ukraine and thus weaken US stature in the world.
I’ll call it treason. Add it to the treason of refusing to acknowledge the outcome of the 2020 election.
Come on, Ralph. Biden, with his admittedly Zionistic affection for the state of Israel has done a wildly efficient job of weakening himself, on the foreign policy front. Putin doesn't need to lift a finger. This is all about murdered children in Gaza, and just wait, Biden will eventually ‘take the bait’ and get us into a wider war as long as the genocide continues, and his reelection chances are in question. Endless war, thy name is America.
Biden is hardly an outlier. The US has been a Zionist country since 1948. Israel could do no wrong has been the bi-partisan position until recently. Nobody gave a damn about starving Palestinian children. Now, a lot of people do, and Israel has blood on its hands.
Putin is indeed trying to force Biden's hand, but Biden knows the worst outcome is the US in a shooting war in the Middle East, or Ukraine. Putin is the weak one. The same for Bibi Netanyahu.
I think the smartest politician in Washington right now is Joe Biden. If he fails, he'll be just one more US president who tried and failed to resolve the eternal conflict in the Middle East. But right now, I'm betting on Joe Biden.
Bibi is politically weak. Putin? Not a chance. Putin has reinvigorated a Russian economy by making it more self reliant, and strengthened a relationship with China, as opposed to our saber rattling confrontational approach.
Nothing like a genocide to provide a focus that changes thinking; just like fire hoses and German Shepherds did in Birmingham. When we start lobbing cruise missiles at Yemen, we’re in a shooting war, just like when we pay for those weapons to be used in Ukraine.
Saying Biden is the smartest politician is a joke, in that whether it is true or not, it is meaningless in this situation. Nancy Pelosi is a ‘smart’ politician, and she’s now saying the FBI should investigate Palestinian protesters for ties to Russian influence. Smart politicians can pursue stupid policy. Biden qualifies at present.
This time failure to resolve conflict could start another World War. I’d no more bet on Biden than I would any other 50/50 proposition. He has a track record of disastrous policy choices.
1. Israel faces an existential crisis as soon as the U.S. "aid spigot" gets cut off for whatever reason (including possible American political or economic crisis).
2. Any viable solution must enable Israel to be secure without constant infusions of American aid.
3. This requires peace with Israel’s neighbors, including Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
4. This requires undoing the Nakba terrorist atrocity and withdrawing to the U.N.-mandated pre-1948 borders.
5. This can only be done in the context of peaceful economic integration throughout the region, for the benefit of all. A lasting peace must be guaranteed individually by each permanent member of the U.N. Security council, and endorsed by Israel’s neighbors.
6. The recent Hamas atrocities were sparked by provocations (yet again) at the Dome of the Rock. The dream of rebuilding the Temple of Herod must be given up and replaced by the will to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in its correct location.
Rule of law. This is precisely what they are fighting for in Ukraine.
I know them.
This is precisely the choice they made, the choice that angered the Bear. So Russia stomped all over rule of law to steal their country.
Precisely they chose the pillars of freedom of expression, individual rights and rule of law. They chose to turn to the European Union. Ooooh angry Bear. They chose to turn to the West. (The West of Principles that includes eastern countries like Japan and Korea, whereas you could argue that Europe includes Russia geographically.)
And this is precisely the difference between Russia and the USA. Lincoln’s “Men of ambition and talents” quoted by HCR yesterday, to whom “distinction will be his paramount object” achieve this through control and domination.
The Russian ideals are the antithesis of our rule of law, they venerate the rule of the mobsters, the rule of the strongman. And they will not let Ukraine go, and they will take more if you give it to them. Be sure of that.
Is that the one where you say that the Ukraine is not democratic - then in the next sentence you say that Zelenski reneged on his campaign promise....?
Nope. Ukraine isn't my core issue, but Ukraine HAS been enslaved by the genocidal International Monetary Fund.
Zelensky, after he reneged on his campaign promise and began the long-promised (to the IMF) invasion of the breakaway Donbass republics (as he publicly mused about re-acquiring nuclear weapons), triggered the mutual defense pact that Russia had just signed with the Donbass republics, bringing the Russians into the fight.
Then Zelensky shut down all the opposition parties and seized their TV stations.
We only care about the rule of law when it is in our ‘national security’ interest. In other words, when it dovetails with our desire for global hegemony, to prop up a resource extraction-based capitalism that feeds our desire for the acquisition of more stuff. You know, freedom, liberty….
"Global trade" is a euphemism for neo-imperialist domination, using the power of the Almighty Dollar to suck money out of darker-skinned countries so Vampire Liberals like Joe Biden can fund Worthwhile Programs until it all goes up in flames in a suicidal debt spiral.
Zelensky kept the far-right neo-Nazi kingpin Avakov in place as Interior Minister, in charge of the police force that implemented the anti-Russian ban in a country where just over half the people were native Russian speakers.
Stephen Cohen was of the opinion that the deliberate goal behind American cultivating and elevating the nei-Nazi element in Ukraine was to ethnically cleanse Russian-speakers so they wouldn't undo yet another Color Revolution by voting "our guy" out of office again.
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. To anyone of at least bare average intelligence should see trump and is MAGAts don't care about anything but a return to power. The trumpster has already told us clearly that he intends to take over the entire United States Government use armed force to "destroy" his enemies, reduce taxes on his billionaire supporters. Support Putin, Xi, and Kim in taking over world governments. He will do nothing to mitigate global warming because he is too stupid to understand it. On the plus side so long as the rest of us - around 250 million people do vote - he will not win. There are only around 30 million hardcore cultists. We can and we must persevere.
"Thank you, Dr. Richardson." Those faces on Mt Rushmore are seething with rage this morning at what's happening to all they worked for, and in one case, died for.
Let's start with a cease fire between Israel and Hamas. It's hard to negotiate anything while guns are killing people and bombs are falling. What was our government thinking when they refused to sign the proposed cease fire? Everyone else thought it was a good idea.
The MAGA traitors don't care about Iran. They don't care about Ukraine. They don't care about our dead and wounded service members. They don't care about the Gazans who have died and those who are in the process of dying, whether from starvation or lack of medical care. They don't care about the dead Israelis or the hostages or about Netanyahu's war cabinet. They don't care about their former colleagues, like Senator Lankford, since they are writing him out of the party for working with Dems for the good of our country and the world. They do not care about securing our southern border. They are a bunch of liars and hypocrites because, no matter what they say, all they care about is their cult leader. It is shameful, but these "Christians," like their leader, have lost any sense of shame that they might have had.
Bestsy,
" It is shameful, but these "Christians," like their leader, have lost any sense of shame that they might have had."
Yes, you are correct, but, for those who truly "believe" that God is on "their side" and that Trump is God's chosen (yep, that's what they think), of course there is no shame.
If God is on your side, well, then, there is no need to question yourself, your God, or the people who are like minded. After all God agrees with them. Who cares about HCR or Biden?
"If God is with us who can be against us" is a constant refrain in the SBC. No thinking needed, no questions need be asked, no uncertainty about a thought or a conclusion. Just believe the white man at the front of the church. Done.
I was in that world once. I managed to think my way out of it with some effort and some education and some good luck. But, I understand how positive one can be that one is right if "God" is on your side.
"God" is on the side of the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and ISIS as well. So either there are several gods or he/she/it shape shifts upon demand to serve the purposes of the worshiper.
How convenient! What a god! So talented!
None of that ever bothers the true believers, Jewish, Christian, or Muslims. The two latter got their certainties from the Jews. Works for Mormons too, and so on. Also in Senate chambers USA
4000 religions on the Planet. I am trying to decide...leaning to the FSM. Nobody has died in its name. That's a feature.
/s
Googled FSM. Flying Spaghetti Monster
Love it.
He boiled for our sins. And then left us alone. Perfect.
Me too
Frankom....I was wondering who FSM was. LOL
My property taxes have been getting a little high the past couple of years. Do you think I can get an exemption if I call my house an FSM temple?
I mean if my neighborhood Catholica and Baptist churches don't have to pay taxes, why should we?
Agreed. However.
My step daughter is a property tax attorney. She said it would be a hard sell. I can't see why. Flying meatballs wrapped in spaghetti are just as valid as any other origin story...right?
I love the new religions!https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-24/after-school-satan-club-is-coming-to-orange-county-its-not-what-you-think-organizers-say
If you have enough land you can claim farms and cemeteries
I wish I could share the photo of my friend's driver's license where he has a colander on his head! A true Pastafarian.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2sVShuAMXc/
If you're looking for some universal truth seeking community/institution thing, I'd say you're best bet is modern science. Never had a physics "mormon" show up at the door! Religions and spiritual movements seek to serve truth with a heavy emotional component, "facts" take a backseat to religious truth claims. Pick your poison, Bill :) the "4000" speak to religion's ancient origins and human personal and social competitiveness i would hazard. How many flavours already are there of Baptists, Pentecostals etc. I can see why the RCC with its history an universalist claims so adamantly refused to accept its breakup in mainly northern Europe, back when, with all the attendent "wars of religion" which ensured. Lotta history there eh!
You are so right Frank Loomer. They knock on the door when you are going through a difficult life event. JWs are good for that. Fortunately when they knocked on my door...I already knew how they spread their message!
"Modern science" peddles the absurd "reductionist materialist" solution to the old mind-body problem.
Frank, fundamentalists of any type are the problem and it goes beyond the monotheistic religions. India just built a big Hindu temple on the site where there had been a mosque. There are political fundamentalists too and they often stand in the ways of solutions which might require some compromise. I just finished a book on why the Bible, that is, the OT, was written and the author's thesis is that the total destruction visited upon Judah and Israel in ancient times by the Assyrians and the Babylonians caused the scribes of those two countries to deal with how to survive as a people without a state. without a state.
I support "Corporate Joe" Biden for Captain of the USS Titanic! His campaign slogan, "Full speed ahead!" really makes me want to get out and vote, because Corporate Joe is going to take us to the Promised Iceberg where we can ride the Inescapable Debt Spiral. And Joe has a "hyper" backup plan: Drill holes in the bottom of the Titanic to let the water out. Vote Joe, and we'll all take a bath.
Go to church and pass the ammunition.
If there is a god, he, she, it has been on vacation for a long time or gone to another galaxy!
I would give up too if I were God--you give humans free will and look at what they do....
I smiled! So true.
That's what I always say: there is no way a "creator" of this amazing planet hasn't left in disgust. Her/His/It's highest animal is wrecking everything, even the bats and the bees.
And don't forget Bill that god likes to play both sides...he was also on the side of the Christian crusaders....
And, both teams in a sports match.
A real multitasker!
I think the words benevolent and merciful need to be redefined. God is more like trump, vindictive and wanting retribution. (not a big religion fan BTW)
God rocks Bill. No doubt. 😊
To whom are you speaking? By its placement, I guess it’s Bill Alstrom, above. You do recognize sarcasm, right?
No, indeed I didn't.
I’m glad you thought your way out of that fever swamp, Mike. I’ve done the same. The truth sets us free, but disrupts our sleep, while the self deluding cult followers enjoy the untroubled sleep of Believers. But Truth is a choice I’ll always make.
Me too Maureen!
It is propaganda, pure and simple for the simple and the weak. Cult members can be deprogrammed, but who has the time. Ike did it but at great cost. The cost to us will be great too, I fear…
Jeri,
I am on the fence about how much cost I want to put into trying to help out people who are perfectly capable of helping themselves but who CHOOSE, with arrogance, and ignorance, not to do so.
Unlike Jesus, I do not seem to have that desire to "save" them.
IF the south secedes again, I say let them go. Me?
I would give a speech giving Texas back to Mexico, 5 minutes after secession, if I was President and offer Texans as examples of those willing to work for low wages in their new country - Mexico.....
Yep. If I was President, Mexico would be granted Texas as one of my first efforts to rid myself of a troublesome bunch of folks who cannot think their way out of a wet paper bag on a hot, sunny, Texas day.
your friend from TX, mike
I wonder how these individuals (Lloyd Bentsen, Henry B. González, Barbara Jordan, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ann Richards … and probably a few others whom I may fail to recall or mention here) might have felt [or feel] about the current and recently current regime of republican politicians running [attempting to control] the state of Texas? Are there not enough or great deal more of proud Democratic American Texans who can help wrest back control of the politics in that State? Beto can’t do it alone!!!
Rove used Goebbels tactics to foist W on us and the whole country. Those mentioned would be so appalled, add Mollie Ivans. Laws have been passed that will be hard to overcome. I went broke trying. Beto was my hope.
I hope you live to see your efforts vindicated, Jeri.
I shared your hope regarding Beto--where did he go?
Nope. The Civl War was too costly, and we still see its effects as in next week’s argument before the Supreme Court about whether the promise of the 14th Amendment means anything.
Jeri,
Mexico does NOT want Texas!
true, You wanted it, you keep it. HA
Los mexicanos no querrían Texas: hay demasiados blancos.
Mike S. Can we keep Austin and Beto?
Naw. Back to Nexico with the whole lot!
Cult rules the fools. They are certifiable, but most old, and retired. Still the money and the hate tip the scales.
Where can Oklahoma be granted to?
The Osage.
Great. Thanks, Ally. And I read "Killers of the Flower Moon".
Russia?
And there's already a perfect name for the newly defined region: Texico.
😊👍
How about some of those other Southern state too!
but can we at least transplant Austin?
Mike, these CINOs (Christians in name only) might be challenged by reversing the concept. Instead of claiming that God is on their side, you could question, “are YOU on God’s side”, then ask how are they following Christ’s teaching. Use the Martin Luther voice
I've known a few. Their minds are locked down tight.
Yes. The are.
Good point. But. It might require too much thinking!!
Mike, just stopping them in their tracks like a deer in the headlights. You get through to them but they won’t admit it
David French has a recent opinion piece about two highly influential leaders in the SBC brought down by the revelation of years of—what else—sexual abuse. Pressler and … I can’t remember the other leader’s name.
Yep. But I am sure that they are still out there.
In my county a few years ago a minister molested children in his youth group and grandson. He was sent to prison and I believe has been released now after serving his time. I will have to find out. His wife was a classmate. I can't imagine being his wife and what she must have endured. I remember seeing them together in the checkout at the grocery store and they looked so lovely together. Boy was I ever shocked when the axe fell.
Those who do that sort of thing present themselves as the opposite of what you would expect. That's an aspect of their grooming persona. They know it's considered "wrong" and they do NOT want to have to give it up.
It's always a stomach-churning surprise, and it really shouldn't be anymore. Sadly.
Power corrupts. No doubt.
Right on target. When you claim God's side, you can do anything to anyone. Abuse, murder, rape - all of them are just fine because it is God's will.
Then go to church, say 5 Hail Mary's and all is forgiven till they commit their God supported crime against humanity. Spare me.
I worked for a "devout" man who insisted on saying grace with clients we had out to lunch. One morning he told me he'd taken his daughter and her husband out for a celebration dinner and they'd enjoyed a very expensive bottle of champagne. If Hr called me about the expense report with my name on it, I should know.
I asked him, "so you lie, and I swear to it? How does that square with your god? "He said he just has to apologize and it was fine.
I have encountered this line of thinking several times. Rationalization @ its finest totally missing the point of integrity & ethics
May there be no bosses in the afterlife.
Sad! Many of them are stalling the growth of our country!
Forgiveness! What a concept!
Pure gospel of Paul, like it or not, part founder of the most intolerant religion on earth, give or take
It's too bad, Frank, that Paul prevailed instead of the brothers of Jesus in Jerusalem. I recommend the book Zealot for an understanding of this. I know one church going woman who has nothing good to say about Paul. I am not a fan of his either.
Paul brought on all of the Jewish holocausts we see today, whether he knew it or not.
I hadn't thought about that. Would love a further explanation.
It will take some time to reply to your question. I will have to get back to you.
Not all.
You can't really blame Paul for how people used his name to write books/letters for years after he was dead.
Granted, he started the downfall of the Jesus Movement with his writings which were administrative rather than inspirational. But he was gone by the time Empire really took over.
I think the authors of John are more at fault in their insistence of making Jesus into The Christ.
Well said.
Mary Ellen, perhaps, but I can blame the churches that hating Jews was o.k. for Millenia.
AlgoTradeA-https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-early-church-and-the-beginnings-of-anti-semitism
Oh, i didnt quite say i dont like him. I find him fascinating, fanaticism was stock in trade with early Christians, rubbed off from opinionated Jews. Mainly too, he's about as close to Jesus as any human who left a written record. The dangers of an intoxicating idea! Ive been tempted to read Zealot, heard pros and cons. The Jerusalem crowd likely remained within the Jewish sectarian orbit, including his relatives apparently, and never quite made the sort of break into the pagan world that Paul etc did.
You nailed it. And I'm glad you escaped. Childhood indoctrination into the god thing needs to end. Just like Santy Claus.
Thank you!
Thank you for this. If God is with the likes of trump and his followers, God isn’t doing his job. Or he’s punishing us.
Nancy.
In general I think we are driving ourselves. If that sounds scary. It is.
I congratulate you for escaping. It's a tangled world.
Thank you.
The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong remains an important tool for understanding much of what is going on in religion worldwide. It's not stupidity; it's being left behind and treated as stupid.
I will take a look. Thanks!
Yes. It’s a strong hedge against one’s followers thinking their way out.
Good for YOU.
They are abusers or our elderly and vulnerable and now they have enlisted children into their campaigns. Liars bending reality, causing emotional abuse on our vulnerable, terrorising them into their cultish followings. Perhaps a psychiatric social approach is needed.
Yes, it is. And it’s called “education”.
It is called comeuppance for gross stupidity. Shunning, calling it what it is , and supporting the flawed but sane party in Support of America. How many times in my lifetime have cults gone national and succeeded, only once. Nazi Germany.
I listened to Kara Swisher interview with HCR last night on Kara's podcast. When HCR pointed out tfg is doing nothing to enlist new voters she said it can only be for 2 reasons- he is assured the election is his to steal either through the house republicans and electoral count or his cult members militia. I lost another nights sleep.
Someone please make him stop!
You can stop with the hand-wringing Marj. I've posted here before about how powerful my prayers are. The morning I found out that trump won I prayed that the GOP self-implodes. That's happening. I've fervently prayed that trump goes broke and to jail. That's starting to happen....
my prayers don't seem to make it past the roof. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure that with the magats, money works better than prayers to chump
The point is that trump will end up with no money...hence, the answer to my prayer. You must begin to believe that prayer works. Time will tell...I can't wait to say, I told you so!
Yep. Money is god for the maggots
😘
I dream (when I can sleep). He is destroying our democracy out in the open and with the support and encouragement of money and repub fools
I think he is all set to steal the next election.
Firstly, you have to have justice and put away their major brainwashers (TFG and fox). And thanks to Bill Alstrom's comment, I include the uber wealthy that control a fair amount of this such as Leonhard and Rupert. (and I added paragraphs that do not translate in cut and paste from Pages.
Back to my rant— Then you have to allow the de-programming process that will enable some to begin to utilize their critical thinking skills as we are seeing happening via "quiet" time in jail or via the reality of legal court proceedings.
Other players will never be de-programmed because they are the ones who are unapologetically racists, misogynists, bigots and the white privileged who truly believe they are superior beings over all others and their rights. They are the ones who are proving, daily, that the southern lord mentality (caste/enslavement system) did not lose the civil war. The corporate lords and financiers who have imbalanced capitalism have driven our equal representative, democratic principles over a cliff with lies, money/power, and trickle down malarky.
They do not care about the safety of our children, the burden of the middle-class paying the higher share of taxes and Truth or Justice. They only care about themselves and their power. Historically, this is the epitome of overpopulation, dwindling resources combined malignant narcissists seeking control and resources for themselves.
Extremist religion is purely a mask for greed. Human history repeats itself ad nauseam.
Still, I think this is our ultimate chance to quell the hostile influencers both domestically and foreignly. ( I made that up, is it a real word?)
It will take all of us, and some major cajones, to use our wits to speak out as well as to outmaneuver them via our Constitutional systems which have been severely beaten up, out loud, since Reagan. Time for the majority to stop the bullies and liars—there are more of us on this playground and we are actually smarter and armed with truth, logic, facts and laws in toto. It is time to band together and tighten our circle.
The cult is unable to think due to incessant brainwashing paralyzing their limbic systems. It has been allowed to occur for years, right in front of us at a high rate of speed for the past seven years, plus. Hitler would be very proud of how the repugnants use of rallies, tv, social media, cyberwarfare, marketing ploys (i.e. trump bears and coins) and false hearings to control the narrative in vulnerable minds— with precise, exceeding perfection instilling fear and division. Fear and division, the fertile soil for an authoritarian takeover.
We still have just enough time to prove our democracy works despite the despots. Let's go for it—please join a movement for testing those who lie, helping reach voters in swing states, securing and making our polling places and mail-in ballots safe, and helping to stand for so many necessary changes we have to make to secure a new, stronger, safer and saner democracy that has less loopholes and higher demands civically minded education based on facts. For ALL the People, this time. Another rant over...
Rant on, Pensa_VT. I love it.
One thought though. The "cult" which I will call the "MAGA T-Shirt" people who think the American flag is a Republican icon and symbol - that cult doesn't think. It regurgitates. And and they are deplorably stupid (could be in the water) and ill informed by choice. For them, hating is more fun than learning.
But they are merely the public puppets. The ones pulling the strings are incredibly rich but still want more. And they are extremely smart in a strategic sense.
They gave us a Supreme Court that the Founders would throw rotten fruit at.
They have given us election after election of lame brained fascist candidates - successful because of our insane election funding system.
They have given us a tax structure that has hollowed out America and made a handful of people morbidly rich.
And they gave us Fox, Newsmax, a fumbling clumsy CNN and Sinclair to dominate cable and radio. It's right out of a dystopian novel and it is a despicably brilliant strategy.
400 people own as much as 60% of America. That's roughly a ratio of 400 to 200,000,000. And they want more. They don't care what happens to the MAGA T-Shirt fools. They just crave more money and the power that comes with it.
I agree with every word of your rant. But let us remember who is behind the curtain. One of them is named Leonard.
Thanks, Bill, I added some of the uber rich responsible. But I do strongly feel the brainwashing tactics and lack of curbing that kind of mind control is extremely problematic...We need to teach critical thinking skills in kindergarten in how to recognize and band together to deal with liars, manipulators, gaslighting and bullies early on.
Yes! We are currently struggling with an excellent school system funding problem. The cost of SPED and health insurance has skyrocketed. Nobody's fault, really. Sign of the times. Unless you want to discuss the crazy way we fund schools. To be discussed another day.
The discussions about what programs to cut make me nervous. Especially when I hear some parents say: "Just teach them math and science!".
What our teachers have done for our grand kids over the last few years is wonderful. Learning critical thinking and empathy are woven into the day. So grateful.
My grandson started preschool recently. They live in Colorado. His school is run by retired teachers. I love that. Yale is implementing a emotional intelligence program there starting with 3 year olds. It's a pilot program. I'm really excited for this to be a success. How can it not be?
Love this! I've always had this wonderment about why we don't invest much more on kids earliest development. It's the foundation of everything!
What a great idea! Some are born with emotional intelligence and some appear to be not so fortunate. I believe environment also plays a key role.
I feel like I am supporting the schools in my uppity neighborhood all be myself from the amount of RE tax I have to pay. I am all for paying my fair share. This last increase is killing me though.
I am just about priced out of my town.
IMHO, schools should be funded equally (same $/child) on a state level. Basing the quality of a school on real estate values perpetuates inequality and punishes seniors unfairly.
Perhaps some sort of blend of income and sales tax (not on essentials like food and kids clothing) would make sense.
People are flocking to our town because of the schools reputation. I am thrilled our grand kids are getting a great start! But just like you, our RE taxes are through the roof.
And another Charles Koch, whose wealth ca,e from Stalin. And other Philip Anschutz. Another Joe Coors. And on and on.
And don't forget blood diamond Elon.
Quite a club.
Lewis Powell Memo
I so very much appreciate and enjoy your comments,Bill! Thank you for your time and effort.
So well said Bill. You are always articulate and address the issues head on. Thanks!
Pensa, I think you're definitely on to something! I fear however that you may go overboard or in the wrong direction with your solutions. Rather than "tighten the circle," the way that you "make democracy work" is to expand that circle, to demonstrate that the principles set forth 2 millennia ago by that guy who loved his neighbors as himself, who turned the other cheek, who recognized those who showed the inclusive spirit of forgiveness rather than just talking about it was on a better path forward. That's why we even know about that guy now despite all the depradations of his message there have been, distortions by those who seek power over others. Not everyone will get the message but we'll certainly move our world in a direction of greater humanity, SO necessary as the world gets ever more crowded. Democracy works when we can understand the principles set forth by that group of people 250 years ago trying to establish a new nation based on a new idea, a group of people who were largely followers of that guy 2 millennia ago.
What I mean about tighten the circle is to stand together right now whilst we are facing fascism vs. democracy. I do not mean forever, but we are in a particularly dangerous moment and I might love my fellow Americans but right now, 30 million of them appear to not know what they are supporting. I will forgive them once we save our country from those who want to destroy our Constitution and democracy. And remember, there are a lot of fake christians walking around.
And our forefathers might have been followers of "the guy who loved his neighbors as himself" but some of them owned human beings, despite their noble ideas about equality. They actually did not include the plight of black people/slaves.
Despite Jefferson stating that All men are created equal," Jefferson owned slaves. He did not believe that all were created equal. He was a racist, incapable of rising above the thought of his time and place, and willing to profit from slave labor.
In Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson describes the institution of slavery as forcing tyranny and depravity on master and slave alike. To be a slaveholder meant one had to believe that the worst white man was better than the best black man. If you did not believe these things, you could not justify yourself to yourself. So Jefferson could condemn slavery in words, but not in deeds. —Stephen E. Ambrose, Professor of History, "Founding Fathers and Slaveholders" November 2002, Smithsonian Magazine.
It is one of the most embarrassing things of "our great country's history" that many white privileged people do not want taught in our schools and thus want to ban true history. Our country was founded upon the blood, sweat and tears of Africans who were trafficked. We need to be mature and face the facts and just deal with it and not pretend it did not happen, but make amends. Not whitewash (deliberately attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts about (someone or something), rinse and repeat history. We humans are complex beings, for sure.
And I would add, when I learned about what the Nazis did to the Jews from Anne Frank as a young girl, I was pretty sure that forgiving those who committed heinous atrocities against human being, no matter what color, religion, gender, etc., that is not okay. I may not be religious because I studied too much history, but The Golden Rule is my creed. I am not sure that some of my fellow citizens would not turn me in for being against trump and his comrades if he becomes the dictator here. If they were not brainwashed and could think for themselves, I might try again to communicate with them using reason and logic. After seven years of trying, I am over it for now. But I wholeheartedly welcome those back into the circle if they have seen the light and left the cult. Even better if they talk with the cult from personal experience.
John, No depredations of Paul's message. Paul couldn't be more clear. IMO, he was trying to unseat Jesus. He, like the left wing progressives in this country and the UN, used the Jews as their scapegoat. That's been going on for millennia. Hatred of Jews has been preached in churches for centuries.https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-early-church-and-the-beginnings-of-anti-semitism
Rant ok, but could you use paragraphs? Hard to read without.
I do use paragraphs but they do not always come through for some reason.
👍
I wish I had control over the darker sides of voting control that goes against the constitution. Have you any ideas how we can do that?
Oh, they care about Gaza and Ukraine, allright. They care about making it fall; all to please their master in the Kremlin. It’s sad to say, but thanks to the Repubs’ hunger for power, Putin has the US in his back pocket now. Putin : Biden = 1:0.
Well said, and they call themselves patriots. Sell the country and our allies down the river for what? So they can have an election issue - they have nothing else to run on? TFG's world is up is down and down is up. Everything is ass-backward. Like almost everything TFG says it is the exact opposite of the truth. How could we have gotten here?? There is something rotten going on in this country.
Putin and his money
Religion
Whatever is rotten has been here a very long Time. Have the Nordic countries somehow avoided this curse?
I call the MAGA cult the “naysayers!” Always against anything that is meaningful!
I just call them MAGgots. Feeding on a carcass.
Jesus felt the same way regarding the Pharisees--hypocrisy was his biggest pet peeve. To add to your they-don't care-about list is that they also don't care that they got caught, openly and in broad daylight, supporting trump's use of the border as a campaign playing card...utterly without shame!
Betsy. MAGA loves their liars and hypocrites. They love their cult leader. In world history, MAGA becomes the new NAZI EXPONENTIALLY
Narcissists attract one another. They bond. Bigots attract one another. Haters gravitate to one another. MAGA Rallies are a dating opportunity for Bigots. They wear red hats now instead of white pointy hoods. It's passed through generations. It's not going anywhere anytime soon.
So true Lisa
These people live in a different information universe. Unless you have a heart condition, I recommend listening to the Focus Group podcast and hear it straight from their mouths; it’s kind of shocking. But we have to remember that people don’t come around to a different way of thinking by being scolded to it; they just get defensive. I don’t necessarily have a solution, but am open to suggestions.
My therapist tells me throat punching is unacceptable. I got nothing. We went bowling last year a our local 1950's bowling alley. I asked to join a league just for something to do in our Minnesota winters. They had Fox on the tube. I made a comment (of course I did). Then they said I was to liberal to join. I just laughed at them. I walked away. My town voted 80% for Agent Orange.
Glad you have joined this league.
Get a blue bowling ball and go every day!
Hahaha, I will!! Great advice!
Hopenothate.org.uk has an essay on authoritarianism that changed my thinking about the MAGAts. Long but worth reading
Can you advise where to find that particular essay? That website looks fabulous, but I already went down two rabbit holes, and I need to stay focused for today...
Maybe this is the one:
https://hopenothate.org.uk/2020/11/01/authoritarianism/
I hope that Betsy Smith doesn't support Ukraine's corrupt, brutal far-right thug regime:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-28-2024/comment/48355768
Regarding MAGA extremists, the Trumpish enthusiasm of many of them is driven by fear that the White majority, especially in places like Texas, is slowly evaporating.
John, I agree with the fear about which you speak. And it’s sad. And old, as in centuries old, running deeply in those who are bigoted.
However, I do think Biden has a good chance of making inroads. There is an opportunity to put more pressure on Republicans who are slowly sabotaging their own political careers to serve Trump's. Biden can lay the blame for the deaths right back at the Republicans. Our soldiers abroad are less safe because they are blocking first military and diplomatic appointments and now funding. They should all be brought up for treason. They are selling us to Russia, not ensuring our safety.
Power at all costs, right, Betsy?
Yep, our local paper here in central VA said it all last week in a headline about our Congressman, Bob "NO!!" Good. "Good Affirms Allegiance to Trump". Good evidently forgot to mention the Constitution, something he knows little about. Good is by far the worst Congressman elected here in my 40 Virginia years. But he had to get it right with his God, Trump, because he may be right-sided this year.
Well said
Well said!!! I have no words — only hope the some thinking republicans like Langford spit in trumps face as he continues to do Putin’s budding and continues to work to destroy our country from within and internationally. I CANNOT wait for the day he is convicted and incarcerated. And all his cult members in congress are voted out of office and SHAMED for the traitors that they are.
You are being too nice.
Heather, you are superb with your closing lines of each post and this one is right on...I’d love to send a copy of your newsletters to every congressional personage...wait, since I have their addresses as they are public record, I will!
Heather has fallen ever deeper into the well of American Empire propaganda, and unfortunately is conflating our desire for global hegemony with some idealized, hypocritical desire to ‘spread democracy’ by threat of military might and economic coercion.
You’d be more honest if you would send them a copy of the link below; not that it would have any effect at all. Endless war is about all our Congress is good at these days.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/more-us-driven-escalations-toward
“In that same statement Biden said the US troops who were killed in the “despicable and wholly unjust attack” died working “to fight terrorism”, which is of course ridiculous. People who live in the middle east have far more legitimacy attacking US troops in resistance to a US-backed genocide than US troops have in being in the middle east to begin with, and the US military presence they attacked is there to shore up geostrategic control, not to fight terror.
As Aris Roussinos explains in a new article for Unherd, the US base by the Jordan-Syria border that was struck by Iraqi forces functions as a support base for America’s al-Tanf garrison, a sprawling “deconfliction zone” (read: illegal military occupation) in Syria which the US has for years been using to disrupt Iranian activities in the region and help Israel carry out its constant airstrikes in Syria. “Fighting terrorism” is just the pretense for the US military presence in the region; as always, the real reason is to facilitate the geostrategic domination of the US empire.
Those three US military personnel didn’t die fighting terrorism. They didn’t even die advancing the interests of ordinary Americans. The real reason they died was summed up nicely by Responsible Statecraft’s Trita Parsi:
“They didn’t die defending US interests, they died defending Biden’s refusal to press Israel for a ceasefire. Their lives were put at risk by Biden to defend Israel’s ability to continue its carnage in Gaza.”
Parsi has spent months arguing that the only thing that can de-escalate the rapidly expanding hostilities in the middle east is a ceasefire in Gaza, since that’s what they all ultimately arise from. The massive increase in attacks on US troops, the Yemeni blockade in the Red Sea, the brinkmanship with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the skyrocketing tensions with Iran are all the direct result of Israel’s massacre in Gaza and the opposition thereto.
Instead of pushing for a ceasefire, the US is preparing to send Israel 50 fighter jets and 12 Apache helicopters in preparation for the next war while stepping toward the horrifying prospect of a hot war with Iran. Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi is saying there needs to be an FBI investigation into people calling for a ceasefire, because they might be Russian secret agents.”
Every US military fatality in the middle east is the fault of the US government for putting them there. US troops shouldn’t be in the middle east at all, and the US has no legitimacy in retaliating against efforts to kick them out of the region by the people who live there. Iraqi militias have 100 percent legitimacy in attacking US troops in the middle east during a US-backed genocide, and the US has zero legitimacy in retaliating.
To the managers of the US empire:
Get out of the middle east. Just get the fuck out. Stop backing a genocide in Gaza, stop murdering people to shore up domination of world resources, and leave. Leave before you unleash something far worse than the nightmare you’ve already inflicted upon our species.“
" . . . the only thing that can de-escalate the rapidly expanding hostilities in the middle east is a ceasefire in Gaza, since that’s what they all ultimately arise from. The massive increase in attacks on US troops, the Yemeni blockade in the Red Sea, the brinkmanship with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the skyrocketing tensions with Iran are all the direct result of Israel’s massacre in Gaza and the opposition thereto."
Of course! This whole nightmare is totally Israel's fault! The region was so quiet, the leaders of Hamas knitting baby booties for their centers of universal love, their Iranian paymasters writing checks for Habitat for Humanity, when those EuroZioWhitoColonioImperial Jew-raelis chose for no reason at all to rain Hell and a Half-Acre upon Gaza. No reason at all, I tell ya!
Why, I've looked and looked at my news feed for last October and I cannot find any clue as to why Israel might have felt compelled to spin up the IDF for a war tour. It's as if Israel just woke up and said, "It's a beautiful day, sunny, bright, and peaceful. What'll be do for fun? Hey, I know! Let's bomb the snot out of Gaza, implode our own economy and kill our own young people in the process, and get every lunatic in media to call us Nazis! Fun for the whole family!"
And by all means let's have a ceasefire, because Hamas is aching to get back to knitting those booties.
I think your sarcasm is terrific Shane! More please.
Thanks, Bill, I'll try. Plenty of opportunity for sarcasm this year between Trump, the elections, the wars, and whatever goobery ol' Tom dreams up next.
You make more sense than any troll
Thanks kindly, Jeri, and I never charge a toll for someone to cross my bridge :-)
You really suck at sarcasm, Shane. But I get it, wandering blindly through current events without knowing the difference between oppressor and oppressed is a handicap.
Just for you - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnJmigYsVwk&t=12s
Caitlin Johnston can stay in Australia forever. Such a horrible woman, she hates America and is to the left what MAGA is to the right. Now go away with her nastiness.
Yes, he quotes her all the time. Go away with her propaganda.
You, accusing Caitlin Johnstone of propaganda, is one of the more clueless comments I’ve read on this forum. Congrats!
She hates what policy evil America pursues in the quest for global hegemony. Too bad you cannot differentiate between that and the fallacious, generalized, simplistic hate label you are using here.
Your absurd conflation of left and right ‘extremism’ is equally vapid, because, unlike your cult of centrist tribalists, most intelligent people can discern the difference between say, the socialistic benefit of Medicare For All vs. the oligarchic lust for concentrated wealth via privatizing Social Security.
Go away, Tracy. You’re out of your element here.
I'm not a centrist. Not a Putin apologist either.
Here is my peace plan for the Middle East:
1. Israel faces an existential crisis as soon as the U.S. "aid spigot" gets cut off for whatever reason (including possible American political or economic crisis, with the dysfunctional House Republicanssteering us over a cliff).
2. Any viable solution must enable Israel to be secure without constant infusions of American aid.
3. This requires peace with Israel’s neighbors, including Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
4. This requires undoing the Nakba terrorist atrocity and withdrawing to the U.N.-mandated pre-1948 borders.
5. This can only be done in the context of peaceful economic integration throughout the region, for the benefit of all. A lasting peace must be guaranteed individually by each permanent member of the U.N. Security council, and endorsed by Israel’s neighbors.
6. The recent Hamas atrocities were sparked by provocations (yet again) at the Dome of the Rock. The dream of rebuilding the Temple of Herod must be given up and replaced by the will to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in its correct location.
John, I completely agree with you. While unpopular historically to disagree with supporting Israel it is time to stop. We are openly enabling this war with the arms and money we have been sending their way for I’m-not-sure-how-long.
Stop with the propaganda.
Kathy Clark, perhaps you could come up with a specific point of disagreement.
Perhaps it is well to remember that Israeli settler extremists in the West Bank are terrorists, and therefore Israel, funding the settlers and giving them guns, is a state sponsor of terrorism.
See “France Calls West Bank Israeli Settler Violence a ‘Policy of Terror’”
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/france-calls-west-bank-israeli-settler-violence-policy-terror-2023-11-16/
and
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-gaza-west-bank-settler-violence-palestinians-rcna123311
and "The Rise of Settler Terrorism" (published in Foreign Affairs)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41720862
Kathy, you need help understanding what propaganda is.
Here you go, and you’re welcome.
Propaganda
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/05/28/most-propaganda-looks-nothing-like-this/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/06/16/why-propaganda-works/
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-a-world-ruled-by-propaganda-a?publication_id=82124&isFreemail=true
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-illusory-truth-effect-and-the?publication_id=82124&isFreemail=true
CTRL C - CTRL V
John, do you have any other hobbies?
p.s. Belligerent, bellicose Biden has brought us closer and closer to the brink of both nuclear holocaust and financial meltdown.
I wish I didn't have to speak up (there are plenty of things that I'd rather do), but today's horde of mindless Democratic talking-pointers is herding the party and the American people into the abyss.
No hobbies, no friends, no life.
Trapped in a world where he thinks he is an intellectual and an authority.
I have reported him HUNDREDS of times now, and have repeatedly blocked and muted him--that works for one day.
I guess every other day I have to re-block and re-mute him.
Stuck on stupid...
Amateur astrologer, experienced genealogist, make models of WWII ships (the ships had/have spirits that are still around); I also like hiking when I find the time, and do a bit of gardening.
And spend time in the court system?????
1. That American "aid spigot" is about 1 percent of Israel's budget. Go ahead and cut it off, but be careful what you wish for, you may get it good and hard. This "aid spigot" in actually American welfare to the American arms industry, because Israel is required to spend that aid exclusively on buying American weapons. Without this aid, Israel can shop wherever it wants, and the American MIL will have to find a new way to launder Uncle Sam's money.
2. "Nakba" was a tragedy inflicted on Palestine's Arabs by Palestine's Arabs. If Arabs had not voluntarily decided to invade and conquer Israel in 1948 to steal all of Palestine for themselves, instead of accepting the UN's fair and legal offer of half the land for an Arab state and half the land for a Jewish state, not a single Arab would have had to flee. That nearly a million did flee is Arab doing, not Israeli, so take up your "terrorist" complaint with them. Arabs should not have terrorized their own people by invading Israel.
3. Israel did not exist until 1948, so there is no "UN-mandated pre-1948 borders" to which to return. You act as if Palestine was an Arab nation that Jews stole. It was not. Palestine was a geographic location that was home to two indigenous people--Jews and Arabs, each descended from the Iron Age tribes of Canaan. Jews retained their Canaanite tribal name throughout; the other Canaanite tribe became "Arabs" when conquered, absorbed into, and renamed during the Islamic Arab Conquest of the ME in the 600s AD. The name stuck, and DNA analysis shows that the Jews and the Arabs of Palestine both have legitimate claims to states there. Hence, the UN offer of half-and-half, which Jews accepted and Arabs rejected. Sucks to screw up like that.
4. The Hamas pogrom in October had nothing to do with "provocations at the Dome of the Rock." There haven't been provocations at the Dome in forever. Do you mean Jews having the audacity to pray on their own Temple Mount? If that provokes Palestinians, too bad, so sad, they can learn to share. Temple Mount is as holy to Jews as the Western Wall that supports the Mount's western flank, and Jews have every right to go wherever they want around or atop that complex, same as Muslims and Arabs have that right.
5. Hamas planned and rehearsed its terror attack for years, so again, it has nothing to do with Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount, al-Aqsa, or anything else. It has to do with Hamas being the assassination squad of the 7th Century Islamic fundamentalism currently practiced by Iran, which pays and equips Hamas handsomely to continue its "Death to Israel! Death to Jews! Death to America!" pogroms.
6. What do you believe is the "correct" location for the Temple of Solomon and its Temple Mount, if not where it is now? Be specific so we can Google Map it.
We'll just have to disgree about provocations at the Temple Mount fueling Hamas preparations for their pogrom. And it was Netanyahu, as much as anyone else, who enabled Hamas's atrocity:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/
To blame the Arab states for the Zionist ethnic cleansing in 1948 is just sick.
Regarding aid to Israel, the House recently passed a 14-billion-dollar military package, on top of the usual $3 billion or so. Israel's budget for 2024 is around 155 billion dollars, so our proposed wartime aid to Israel is around 10 percent, not one percent, of Israel's budget.
Many of the descendants of the Hebrews and Idumeans (Herod was an Idumean) who had been in Palestine all along converted to Christianity and/or Islam, becoming modern-day Palestinians: the original Jews who never left.
The original temple of Solomon would never have been built on Mt. Moriah.
Netanyahu's support of Hamas is so vile he should be charged with treason for it. But I'm not an Israeli prosecutor, so I can't.
Yes, the 14B supplemental would bump the U.S. aid package to Israel this year to around 10 percent, where in most other years that annual aid would amount to 1-2 percent of Israel's budget. But it's a temporary bump that still may not pass Senate and Biden, and all that extra money still has to be spent on U.S. made weapons. I'd argue the House didn't approve it to help Israel as much as it saw an opportunity to lavish more welfare to American corporations. But even if it voted the temporary bump to help Israel defray its war expenses, so what? The U.S. gives Palestinians a lot of aid, too, and nobody's arguing that it should be cut to zero because of Palestinian warmongering--the Hamas pogrom.
"To blame the Arab states for the Zionist ethnic cleansing in 1948 is just sick." It's sick because truth is sickening. Arab states CHOSE to invade Israel rather than grant Jews a sovereign state of ANY size in Palestine. The UN Partition plan was the best way to give each people the state they deserved in Palestine under the auspices of the Mandate system.
Jews accepted their half. Arabs invaded Israel to steal both halves for an entirely Arab State of Palestine. That invasion caused the "Nakba"--absent the invasion of choice, no one, Arab or Jew, would have fled, been displaced, become a refugee, or been killed in a war that Arabs started. "Zionist ethnic cleansing" my ass.
I accounted for your converts when I said Palestine had two indigenous people, not just one: Jews and Arabs. The Jewish line continued straight from the Iron Age until present day; the Arab line had one name from the Iron Age till the Islamic conquest, then renamed Arab. That some converted from Judaism is is meaningless; the Jewish line remained intact and became the second indigenous people that needed to be given a state.
Palestine was and is not an Islamic or Arab state, despite all the propaganda otherwise. It was a geographic location in which two indigenous people lived, and as such, both people were due states through the Mandate system that gave conquered Ottoman land (of which Palestine was a region) to local populations to develop into sovereign states after WWI. Jews got to have one too, and they're not giving it up.
Today's Palis need to accept that their leaders sold them down the river in 1948 by not accepting that state on half of Palestine; that those leaders waged and lost three wars to Israel, resulting in the forfeiture ALL of former Palestine to victorious Israel; and since Israel won and they lost, Israel is going nowhere.
If Palis still want a state of their own--of which I am in favor--they need to be realistic about what they can get. That includes no longer allowing Iranian terror groups to operate freely in their nation, and ending the teaching of their children that Jews and Israelis are monsters who must be slain.
Just so you all know what Tom H. is channeling.
Caitlin Johnstone in her own words:
"Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, bogan socialist, anarcho-psychonaut, guerilla poet and utopia prepper."
"None of Trump’s misdeeds rise to the level of single-handedly facilitating a genocide in Gaza or taking the world closer to nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis."
She also asserts the notion that Russian disinformation is a threat to our institutions, is actually disinformation spread by the plutocrats who run those institutions. And that Wikipedia is a psyop.
So yeah. A Leftish New Ageish MAGA twin. Forget the Fake News and foment the Alternative Facts. Putin fanboys and fangirls pushing Trump. True believers enraptured by the feeling that they'll rise from ashes. And John S. commenting on his own crazy quilt cut and paste comments.
Actually it's good to have them here to be reminded of what's out there. Not to always waste time refuting their fallacious rhetoric and blinkered ire. Their systems are impervious and impenetrable. But to marvel at the endless capacity of human imagination - and its tragic iterations. Closing the circle. Closer to Rush Limbaugh than that other RL.
Rosa Luxemburg they're not.
"Rather than diminish the importance of the struggle for reforms, Luxemburg argued that these struggles are central. "In a word", she wrote, "democracy is indispensable not because it renders superfluous the conquest of political power by the proletariat but because it renders this conquest of power both necessary and possible".
"Democracy is indispensable to the working class, because only through the exercise of its democratic rights, in the struggle for democracy, can the proletariat become aware of its class interests and its historic task."
Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution
So yeah. ThankYou HCR for your knowledge and analysis.
So yeah. GetOutTheVote for Democratic reforms. Of policy and of the party.
Thanks for this lin. Saved me some precious time - hate it when the trolls bring their dark web garbage in from the trash heap and drop it in the comments. Appreciate the background.
Back to calling, texting and postcarding to get out the vote.
Thank Laureth for her link to a full analysis/critique.
From Laureth:
Johnstone is also a propagandist in her own right. Presented for consideration:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/11/a-closer-look-at-the-prose-of-caitlin-johnstone/
What was ‘full’ about the analysis/critique? The Ukraine good/Russia bad part, or something else. The author here punches himself in the face in the first paragraph. Funny also how you use a piece authored by a musician as a rebuttal to Caitlin’s bio in your comment above. Cute.
There is a complicated history with Caitlin and counterpunch.
https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/10-facts-about-caitlin-johnstone-from-the-guy-who-knows-her-better-than-anyone-6691236aa634
Is she on chump’s payroll. Nah, Putin. Chump never pays his bills…. Hey trolls, thanks for reminding us that not all enemies are on the battlefield.
It is likely that Putin has his own Leonard Leos. Shell corporation entrepreneurs funneling funds to antidemocratic causes. Couched in the false equivalencies and fallacious assertions of specious rhetoric. It used to be you could tell the FBI plant at the Young Communists meeting because he was the only one wearing denim overalls with his police issue spit shined shoes. Now it's when they call their cells Federalist Society and Moms for Liberty.
Though, like with GOPMAGAGRU.
Many are cheap dates - besotted and no need to leave the money on the dresser.
Not sure who has the money in Russia, Putin probably has trillions stashed away. But no doubt the mob is a player. And the modern mob is a different animal from Gotti and wise guys. However, some methods never change.
Thank-you, lin for the info on Caitlin Johnstone whose work I was not previously aware of. Knowledge is power.
I have mixed feelings about amplifying such stuff. But in the spirit of 'know your enemy.' And not likely to gain much traction here. Hopefully.
This stuff needs to be amplified.........here and anywhere.
I guess it is good to become acquainted with the sources for commenters. In this case an influencer who pretty much sells the Putin party line in Leftish language. As Trump et al sell it in right wing populist language. Of course, as Democratic party policies are more of a threat to Russian and American plutocrats, their mouthpieces will denigrate Democrats.
So one hit piece and you’re sold? It’s that easy for you?
Nice digest. I knew some of this sounded familiar. It's the 21st century politicized rehash of Kenn Thomas's Steamshovel Press: there's no such thing as a bad conspiracy, and it's not her problem since she's based in Australia.
Vladimir Tom and I have crossed swords before, so I'm aware of the baloney he peddles as fact, and don't buy any of it. Thanks for posting this, though, always good to keep up with what nutjobs like Johnstone have in mind for normal people.
A big thank you.
Democratic reforms? Like those by Clinton and Obama? You know, the ones that brought us Trump?
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Biden has publicly condemned Netanyahu’s extreme actions in Gaza. Biden’s administration is working to end the Gaza conflict and build support for a two State solution. A sovereign Palestine and Israel. There are many Israelis protesting Netanyahu and also want to end his rule. He polls very low within Israel.
HCR does come off as a Biden cheerleader at times, but Johnstone is also a propagandist in her own right. Presented for consideration:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/11/a-closer-look-at-the-prose-of-caitlin-johnstone/
ThankYou Laureth. From the link you provided.
"...Caitlin Johnstone, who publishes frequently at the Russian state media outlet RT
... Manipulation and obfuscation are so egregious in certain texts, that they require close reading and even annotation in order to reveal their actual meaning. I have found that to be the case with the essays of Caitlin Johnstone, which unfortunately often garner a large following among certain segments of the online left."
RT!!! !!! Oh! The horror!
You go, Ms. Joe McCarthy! Chris Hedges, Lee Camp, and Abby Martin also say hello! Manipulation and obfuscation abound for you mainstream media propaganda lovers.
So you’re admitting HCR is a propagandist? Presented for your consideration, as someone who weighs in on propaganda.
Propaganda
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/05/28/most-propaganda-looks-nothing-like-this/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/06/16/why-propaganda-works/
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-a-world-ruled-by-propaganda-a?publication_id=82124&isFreemail=true
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-illusory-truth-effect-and-the?publication_id=82124&isFreemail=true
HCR does indeed come off as a Biden cheerleader at times.
You indeed come off as a troll sometimes.
Thank goodness.
I support "Corporate Joe" Biden for Captain of the USS Titanic! His campaign slogan, "Full speed ahead!" really makes me want to get out and vote, because Corporate Joe is going to take us to the Promised Iceberg where we can ride the Inescapable Debt Spiral into the drink. And Joe has a "hyper" backup plan: Drill holes in the bottom of the Titanic to let the water out. Vote Joe, and we'll all take a bath.
What is your solution to Netanyahu?
"What is your solution to Netanyahu?"
Biden and Blinken are on the right track. (Despite being caught between those who cry antisemitism at any criticism of Israeli policy
and those who cry genocide at any support of Israel.)
Continuous spotlight on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the opposition to the Netanyahu regime by Israelis - from the war cabinet and military and intelligence chiefs to Israelis protesting in the streets. Emphasis on delivery of aid and deescalation of hostilities
Publicly and privately. Marginalize and pressure the Netanyahu regime. Build support for the two state solution both Netanyahu and Hamas oppose. Emphasize the need to build back Gaza with and for Palestinians. Publicize the atrocities of the Netanyahu regime terrorists and the abuses of the settler thugs.
I would add immediate reduction of military aid to Israel.
Biden and Blinken are genocide apologists.
🤬
Lot of truth there, i'd just leave out the heavy handed moralizing, geopolitics, with outside actors muscling in with interests, is nothing new. Oil and political stability / hegemony remain a big deal in the Middle East. Saudis own billions in American and British real estate, right? The immediate backtrack on the deaths of American soldiers is to the Hamas triggered war in Gaza, triggered by the mass slaughter of Israeli civilians. The resultant 27000 Gazan deaths, mainly women and children, are pure Israeli reprisal, for which we can thank the most right wing self righteous gov in Israeli history. Interesting that Biden's resurrection of a two-state political solution is opposed by a gov that is anathema to that, and by now, far more Israelis, than ever. I agree, it's a quagmire, and it's been an American military overreach which hasn't gone well at all for anyone.
Tom, “Shirley” you jest. No sane person would drink from the cup of propaganda you spew. How much money do you “take” in your willingness to offend people?
Joyce, I don’t think genocide is funny like you do. How much money do you take to be an empire simp? You should be aware of the propaganda you slurp from your empire cup.
Propaganda
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/05/28/most-propaganda-looks-nothing-like-this/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/06/16/why-propaganda-works/
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-a-world-ruled-by-propaganda-a?publication_id=82124&isFreemail=true
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-illusory-truth-effect-and-the?publication_id=82124&isFreemail=true
HCR reaches a new low in her war-mongering propaganda.
First of all, she hypocritically ignores the blatant illegality of the U.S. presence in Syria, which precipitated the attacks that killed and wounded American soldiers.
Second, HCR echoes Simon Rosenberg's bloodthirsty call to keep throwing money down the rat-hole of Ukraine’s corrupt far-right thug regime (see my reply below).
Ukraine has been enslaved by the rapacious International Monetary Fund (with reconquering the Donbass a condition of the original loan), and Zelensky has pledged to keep all of Ukraine's promises to the IMF, and the NATO countries have voting domination at the IMF, and NATO has promised to continue supplying weapons to Ukraine until it bleeds to death, delivering pounds and pounds of bloody flesh to service the unpayable IMF loans.
Ukraine's oppressive neo-fascist thug regime is not "democratic." In Ukraine, all the opposition parties have been suppressed after Zelensky capitulated to neo-Nazi war-mongers and reneged on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass region.
A few months ago, both Zelensky and Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau applauded as the Speaker of Canada's House of Commons praised a Ukrainian who was a real-life Nazi, a member of a Nazi SS unit that committed genocide against Poles during World War II. After international condemnation, Speaker Anthony Rota quickly resigned.
When Zelensky became President, he initially moved toward fulfilling the Minsk Agreements that had "frozen" the civil war in the Donbass and outlined a pathway toward peace. But then he capitulated to the Neo-Nazis (who controlled Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police stations) and eventually re-ignited the frozen war, precipitating the Russian invasion. We are being lied to.
In August, after U.S. Secretary of State Blinken announced more aid for Ukraine, Zelensky posted a video showing him with Ukraine's most prominent Neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky:
https://mronline.org/2023/08/21/zelensky-holds-court-with-ukraines-most-notorious-neo-nazi/
See also "Ukraine is Brutally Repressing the Left, Criminalizing Socialist Parties, Imprisoning Activists"
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/03/21/ukraine-repressing-left-criminalizing-socialist-parties/
See also "How Zelensky Made Peace with Neo-Nazis"
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/04/how-zelensky-made-peace-with-neo-nazis/
See also "How One Ukrainian Billionaire Funded Hunter Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky, And Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion"
https://greatgameindia.com/hunter-biden-zelensky-neo-nazi/
See also (from 2019) "Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine":
"Five years ago, Ukraine’s Maidan uprising ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, to the cheers and support of the West. Politicians and analysts in the United States and Europe not only celebrated the uprising as a triumph of democracy, but denied reports of Maidan’s ultranationalism, smearing those who warned about the dark side of the uprising as Moscow puppets and useful idiots. Freedom was on the march in Ukraine.
"Today, increasing reports of far-right violence, ultranationalism, and erosion of basic freedoms are giving the lie to the West’s initial euphoria. There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
Go play on twitter, John.
Tracy Sample wants me to leave the bloodthirsty neo-Nazi-lovers in war-mongering peace. Is aTracy Sample a closet neo-Nazi?
p.s. Over on Twitter, I just called out Lindsay Graham here:
https://x.com/john_schmeeckle/status/1751892046099706026?s=20
And here:
https://x.com/john_schmeeckle/status/1751893041990844864?s=20
And here:
https://x.com/john_schmeeckle/status/1751893739289624723?s=20
And on this thread:
https://x.com/john_schmeeckle/status/1751894249111531865?s=20
Typical LaRouche tactic. Also Trump tactic.
But seriously. Implying that another HCR commenter is a closet nazi should be called out.
lin,
You obfuscate, trying to divert attention away from your shameful support of Ukraine's corrupt far-right fascist thug regime, the type of people that creepy Joe Biden likes to hang out with.
You come across as just another shameless talking-pointer with no moral compass.
Great idea! We all should send them a copy! Let the GOP know we see through their BS and others will too.
Ever notice what little thought Republicans give complex issues? Issues that have dangerous ramifications.
Their knee-jerk thought is grab a quick headline to hurt Biden rather than help the country.
It’s stupid and cowardly. But these days they never seem to pay a price.
And the mainstream media continue to try to divert us from this simple truth.
The could give a damn about what actually happens so long as they emerge one up over others. Absolute power, and the obsession with gaining it, corrupts absolutely.
I think that they damn well know what they’re doing, though I wouldn’t know what would be more scary: them being too stupid to govern, or them being so malicious as to burn American democracy to the ground just for a little bit of power in their measly lives…
Both
Their intention is to burn democracy to the ground.
The media is complicit. If pig headed opposition weren’t validated by condemnation but instead relegated to footnotes rather than headlines, it’d disappear. It’s commercial rage baiting.
They are paid a price, though. Follow their money...
Everything you say applies as well to the Left wing ideologues and ego driven third party fifth column..
Third party spoilers for sure
What’s a “fifth column”?
Seriously? This is why God gave us Google,
"A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, "fifth columns" are "domestic actors who work to undermine the national interest, in cooperation with external rivals of the state"."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column
Thank you
Apologies for being snarky.
You were, a little 😌 but I usually appreciate your comments
Do you mean like Tom and John?
Yeah. Hopefully a distinction between being rude and being obnoxiously rude ;)
But still, I try not to be rude.
lin, I looked up "The 5th Column" when I first became aware of the YouTube channel "Beau of the Fifth Column". I am aware that the press is the "Fourth Estate" but I'd never heard of the "Fifth Column". Google is indeed your friend.
Oh the perilous times in which we find ourselves. The world seems as it is teetering on the brink and a small band of nincompoop republicants are holding sway on the balancing act. Remarkably, these idiots have adequate albeit minority support in the voting public to be so emboldened in their misguided and reckless positions. We must vote these demon turds resoundingly out of office and out of power to the silent irrelevance they so deserve. We MUST.
We do not have time to wait till this November.
Agreed, I am only stating the only legal alternative that I am aware of...
Follow their money...
They cheat
Having retired to a small town on Route 66 in Oklahoma in 2021, I must say I am delighted to learn that Republican Senator Lankford stood for the principle of doing something America needs and against the only concern being to defeat Joe Biden in November. I will contact his office to express my support in the morning. Meanwhile … in related news … likely GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump called the three servicemen who died “suckers and losers”. (Please note: this last sentence is satire… maybe. SMH)
Those three dead service members were part of a much larger contingent that we've had in the area to counter the terrorist group ISIS that continues to destabilize the region in the hope of establishment a large Islamic caliphate. Our troops are regularly attacked by Iranian proxies; what's really scary about this latest attack is that it occurred in our ally Jordan and not Iraq or Syria.
It was just a matter of time. There are three or four other reasons why we have a base at al Tanf. Which is in Syria by the way. In order of priority.
It is near the highway from Baghdad to Damascus, along which Iranian shipments to its Army in Syria travel. Near enough to block them.
Hence it is a wartime forward observation and firebase. It is manned by a Marine recon unit with artillery that has fire control over that road.
Secondly, there is a Palestinian refugee camp nearby. It protects it and sees that it does not get weapons nor overtaken by militants.
.Thirdly, is as you mentioned, guarding against the reemergence there of ISIS.
Fourth is the official stated mission of providing some aid and comfort to Jordan in securing its borders from these manifold threats.
Lastly, there are the oil fields of eastern Syria, presently controlled by US supported rebel groups. These are bracketed by al Tanf and a base in the north in Kurdish territory.
The question is, what are our principles aims in the Middle East. Are we in any sort of position to achieve them. Can we possibly be under present circumstances. If not, what must be done. Al Tanf is simply a piece on a chessboard. A knight. Think Fort Apache. The Isrselis no doubt like that we are there. Are we sacrificing American lives to please their government ?
PS, if our mission is to supress ISiS, the monster we created by invading Iraq, then we should withdraw from al Tanf and let the Iranians deal with them, as they are mortal enemies.
If on the other hand, our mission has been to counter Iranian influence in the Middle East, and thwart their ambitions, and eliminate the threat that they pose to Israel, and now, to world peace, well then we have failed so far at that mission and are losing. Of course, then, we should not have invaded Iraq.
Very informative and impressive comments, Tyler. Thanks for these.
Steve,
"likely GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump called the three servicemen who died “suckers and losers”.
Despicable labeling no doubt. However, for all of those service members who followed the orders of George W Bush II, which were all based on lies and deceit, well, some of them feel the same way that Trump describes them. Like they were suckers and losers for wasting their time, their hearing, the limbs, and sometimes their lives to end up with Afghanistan EXACTLY where it was when we started killing and maiming our boys 23 years ago.
Trump is disgusting to say out loud what some of our now retired and disable servicemen think about themselves. But, in many ways, he is not wrong.
We all should think hard about WHY we allowed our service men to become "suckers and losers and maimed and dead" for nothing.
Chump was talking about all who did not have “bone spurs.”
He said that ("losers") of all our wounded, imprisoned, and military fatalities. He is an evil pupper. Let us look to his puppeteers. They (Fascist GOP Puppets) use softened tactics on their enemies as used on Rushdie and Mahsa Amini. "Caste"
". . . a small town on Route 66 in Oklahoma . . .."
Just today I saw a video online of one George Motz, traveling Route 66 and other Oklahoma places in search of some of America's greatest hamburgers:
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=george+motz+hamburgers+in+oklahoma&mid=733041BECA854D5F2817733041BECA854D5F2817&FORM=VIRE
He’s in the wrong state. Nebtaska is teeming with great hamburgers.
Thanks for letting me know. I hope he ate at the Rock Cafe in Stroud. It’s just down the street from where I live (in the back of the Route 66 Spirit of America Museum)
www.route66spiritofamericamuseum.org
Heather..;today your report is bloody true and terribly sad….and we have the the Russians, the Iranians, the Orange one and his cohorts to thank for it. I wish I could see some clear solutions….but I can’t. Your painful clarity at least identifies the magnitude of the problem!
Efforts to undo "Citizens United" and de facto bribery in general, would be a useful start. Calling attention to some forgotten concepts, such as "antitrust".
I've been favoring a coast to coast - every state voter initiative ballot petition for a very long time; in fact since "Citizens United" was first issued. I've seen efforts of others come, go, then get complicated. *If it's to be done, a brilliant legal mind like Joyce Vance and others would be needed for the legal jargon and other expertise. It could be done. I really think voters of all stripes would agree.
Strongly agree on Citizens United…but not sure how that can happen?
HJR-54.
MoveToAmend.org
Introduced in House (04/10/2023)
This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment providing that the rights protected and extended by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, shall have no rights under the Constitution and are subject to regulation.
HJR-54 was introduced by Jayapal Primila: The amendment requires federal, state, and local governments to (1) regulate, limit, or prohibit election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate's own contributions and expenditures, to ensure equal access of citizens to the political process, regardless of economic status; and (2) require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed.
Additionally, the judiciary is prohibited from construing the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment. (2023-2024)
We need to support the passage of this bill...now!
And Tom, I did not see anything in Amend.org related to HJR-54...Great work there, but am I missing something?
AGREED! ...on both accounts. I didn't see anything on Amend.org about the proposed legislation.
My bad. MoveToAmend.org
Sorry, shouldn’t have been a space there.
MoveToAmend.org
Pensa; I'll do a deep dive there. Thanks~
Tom, I LIKE the HJR-54 idea! Seems to strike at the heart of any number of issues confronting us (as in USA) today. I also don't see anything on Amend.org pertaining to this proposed legislation.
You've mentioned this before Tom; I'll do a 'deep dive' into it. My past experiences with such previous initiatives as noted in my above comment ↑. Thanks Tom ~
On to-do list, after Nov
It's https://www.movetoamend.org/ending_citizens_united_doesn_t_end_money_as_speech_and_corporate_personhood
Beware of Charles Koch
It is true that a simple reversal of Citizens United would not be the perfect legal solution. It could be at least a major change in attitudes in peoples' tolerance for dark money influence on the few holders of the levers of power, though.
Laws and Regulations are hard to change fast enough to keep up with those clever enough to find new ways to cheat, at least without responsible regulators to able be flexible enough to adjust to the spirit of the most import basic aims of such.
An example: I recall Sandy Weill, the biggest supporter of doing away with Glass-Steagall, coming out as regretting his success in getting it overturned. See https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/07/25/rethinking-capitalism-sandy-weill-says-bring-back-glass-steagall/?sh=645e9ed137d5
I think I remember mostly his regret that a lot of irresponsible and incompetent risk takers with other peoples' money entered the field. He wanted to see innovators enabled but saw too many at least irresponsible new people take over a large portion of the financial markets. I think I understand enough about the old style derivatives to appreciate the following from the article above:
"...“In derivatives,” says Weill, “we should have an exchange, where you can have a mark-to-market, a place where they can trade, so that you don’t have a problem that can build up over multiple years, and all of a sudden you see a big collapse. If it was marked to market every single day, you'd be able to protect the balance sheets of the different companies.
The world has changed
Does Weill regret what he did at Citigroup? Not really. Weill says that the megabanks were right for their time but the world has changed.
As a result of too much concentration of investments, too much leverage, not enough transparency with a lot of off-balance-sheet items, we had the meltdown of 2008 and trust in the financial system was broken. This has led to efforts to regulate everything in the financial sector, including futile efforts to distinguish market-making trading from proprietary trading. Weill believes that these efforts will continue and in the end will stifle creativity in the financial sector. Instead, the sector should take another route and allow regulation of commercial banking and separate that from investment banking, where creativity and leadership can prosper..."
I have to do some more homework to try to show similarities in what can go wrong when Dark Money hides too much incompetence and evil. I'll start with reading all of Cathy O'Neil's "Weapons of Math Destruction." My initial assumption is that she found amazingly incompetent assessments (or attention to), risk management. Those blindly seeking quarterly profit seem too encouraged by those who do not want their methods and aims revealed, as seems indicated by the following: "...As O'Neil defines it, a weapon of math destruction, or WMD, has three elements: Opacity, Scale, and Damage. Combined, these factors create traps with feedback loops, capturing victims in systems they can't understand and can't escape, all the while exploiting them..."
It reminds me of something my great grandmother told me (which I took to be a warning about hero worship).
She said, "Before you compliment the marksman, ask what the target was."
All dollars can be spent for whatever, but not all dollars are earned from the same sorts of efforts. Great sums can be amassed form all manner of scams, legal ones or not, and not all things should be for sale. It is reasonable for society to regulate theft, be it hard or soft, (it's still theft) and bribery, be it explicit or de facto. If political outcomes can be purchased or excessively influenced by the intervention of money, that is patently and fundamentally anti-democratic. No? It's batdoo crazy the extent to which we allow blatant conflicts of interest and massive dollar "doping" (think of the Olympics) to significantly skew governmental outcomes.
She said, "Before you compliment the marksman, ask what the target was."
Solid advice.
Kick Putin’s orange arse. Chump is halfway up it.
Like Russia, it seems that Iran would like to see the failure of democracy wherever it resides.
I never thought that I’d compliment Lankford for his actions, but he showed true courage to speak up about the border legislation. Too many of his fellow Republicans are too afraid of TFG to do what is needed. They’re holding out for “perfect” legislation, knowing that TFG believes that only legislation that he writes is “perfect”, like his phone calls.
Maybe enough Republicans in the House and Senate will realize that, if they wait and Biden is reelected with majorities in both houses, any immigration legislation they get will be far different.
The border legislation would pass handily in the House were it not for the Speaker's fear of the radical right-wing "Freedom" caucus. He needs to bring it up for a clean vote by the entire house and stop being afraid of the anti-American loonies in his caucus who are doing whatever they can to destroy the Federal government. They need to wake up; the Civil War was over a long time ago.
The Civil War is over? Seems lot of would be slaveholder, ethnic and so-called Christian supremacist type 5th columnists that took advantage of the "southern strategy" to take over the party that thought they won the Civil War for good, have not given up.
They just eventually joined and took over the party label of the supposed victors to try to mislead the country into enabling resurrecting somewhat similar laws and policies of evil domination or rejection of others.
They just want the power that chump would give, Devin Nunes said it out loud way back there. Power/greed =repubs
maybe a secret vote? Look what happened to Lamkford.
It's a sign of our weakened state that we find it appropriate to praise legislators for doing their duty. The GOP/MAGA crowd attacks anyone who speaks truth. What a party!
These near-hopeless dishonesties and disasters of course date back to 1953.
Why, in that year, did the U.S. have its C.I.A. kill the democratically elected Mossadegh government in Teheran, and install the stooge Shah? Why -- vitally related question -- did the U.S. train the Shah's torturing, murdering SAVAK secret police in more uses for torture and murder?
The answer then, of course, is the same answer for most of the U.S.'s current history: please the billionaire classes who always ally with the worst tyrants, dictators, oligarchs, and royal murderers.
When we see a very different set of U.S. priorities -- U.S. leadership for schools around the world teaching students (in English classes) to write essays to see "others" as individuals -- we'll then see something other than our continued captivity to thugs which has ever ruled.
A number of bad US strategies helped make Iran what it is today.
When the Shah was in power in Iran, he modernized the country following more western ideals, overriding the wishes of the religious leaders. Iranian society including women were much freer. The population often wore more western style clothes, and were not required to dress in religious ways. Since the Islamist revolution in the early 80s, things have gone from bad to worse. The country is a complete theocracy now and requires women to remain covered at all times. I have an Iranian friend who can no longer visit her family there.
Sadly, true as you say, Annie.
I think, though, women would have grown those freedoms themselves under the democratically elected government of Mossadegh.
We'll never know anything of what might have been, given that the greed for capturing market share and profits by the U.S.'s fossil fuel giants took precedence over democracy, freedom of expression, women's rights and everything else U.S. brute power eclipsed foremost instead to float the U.S. billionaire thugs.
Very well said Phil.
We can never know the true damage to world affairs the USA has had and the horrors we have created for others by sponsoring dictatorship's all over the world in the name of profit and capitalism.
But we can blather about it incessantly. Can we atone and move on or is the flagellation to continue forever…. Don’t even want to know the answer. Native Americans don’t either, or descendants of slaves, or descendants of Confederates, or any peoples who were wiped out through the March of history. Not all by “us.” What to do??? Maybe follow Germany’s lead…
For a great description of Iran and its transition from a fairly tolerant culture to the theocratic horror that we have now, read "Blood and Oil - Memoirs of a Persian Prince" – by Manucher Farmanfarmaian. Of course Iran had oil.
And when Iran nationalized oil, their leadership had to go.
We seesaw. Are we up or down??
Their tactics "terror and eternally brutal". Envisioning universal social Justice seeds our future. Enough of judging the evildoers for they will reap as they sew.
They've sown lies, bribery, and extortion, Victoria.
They reap power, boughten friends in high places, weaponry for dictator allies, fawning accomplices, praise from right-wing zealots, obsequious deference by universities they control, and favored places arranged via algorithms by the far-right social media billionaires.
Thank you Heather.
Two words…
Oh, crap.
Two more…
Damned MAGAts.
How do these guys (generic term) continue to get away with gaming our system - and what will it take to shut them up and down, and remove them from their offices?
If they win, we lose.
It seemed to be the chief take-away from the "Reagan Revolution, except that now the whole ecosphere is threatened.
Yes, let us never forget Reagan sabotaged Jimmy Carter’s efforts to free the hostages in Iran in order to defeat Carter in 1980. 😡
He, and by that I mean his owners in the MIC, was just doing what his boy Kissinger taught him from pre-election ‘68, when the Nixon cabal scuttled peace talks with North Vietnam to win an election.
Damn Tom, a sliver of sanity
Tom; MIC ?
I stopped asking
of course Tom's/what's-her-name's narrative of American Imperialism has plenty of historical basis. twisted pretenses for our actions in Philippines, Vietnam, Cuba etc. virtually all unfalsifiable conspiracy narratives are based on at least a kernel of truth, and just because someone comes tp idiotic conclusions about comparisons between Trump and {anybody who genuinely gives a damn about the rule of law} doesn't mean they're 100% in topsy-turvy-land
Tom, is 'one of those'. I just take him in stride; Heaven knows I've dealt with all manner of 'know alls' during my turns around the sun. The U.S., just like any nation - or person for that matter with 'skeletons' in our closets. Some of those events personal or nation wise start out with the best of intentions - then go sideways. Nation wise, those events include 'things' we cannot know. Folks like that have compulsions to 'fill in the grey' for themselves, then those confabulations become "fact to them" as they roll them around in their heads too long. Life would be more boring if we are all identical. So, "Que Sera, Sera"
You’re exactly right!
Thank you. Please keep explaining how the traitorous GQP scumwads are supporting Putin to keep Cheetolini happy.
Their cowardice and overall behavior is shameful.
I hope that George Cravens doesn't support Ukraine's corrupt, brutal far-right thug regime:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-28-2024/comment/48355768
The R Party is what I like to now call the “Do Nothing” Party is in the minority. They are distractors for Trump. The crazies dangled a carrot in front of the Dems and Biden but then yanked it back real fast when they saw solid negotiations were forming. See, that looks like a Mitch the turtleneck stunt, if you ask me. Bibi also, is in the way and I am happy to hear that his popularity is waning with Israelis. Regardless, The Do Nothings should be shot...with a strong truth serum to see if their real boss is Putin, The Donald, or Leonard Leo. Way past time to take these people down and pass a budget that covers helping Ukrainians, the Taiwanese, and us!
This is a bit like calling a group of gangsters "do-nothings." They are doing plenty to undermine government, rule of law, well-being of the nation and its people --up to instigating and supporting an insurrection. Every Senator who signed on to overturn our election needs to be sharing the same cell blocks as the OTHER insurrectionists. That they are not and why they are not is something that should be on the top of all of our minds and we should be demanding answers as to why.
"Equal justice under law is a phrase engraved on the West Pediment, above the front entrance of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. It is also a societal ideal that has influenced the American legal system. " - WIkipededia
$$$, Ed.
Marlene, Bibi was in very deep doo doo before the cross border incursion terror for a variety of reasons. In fact, I think he only remains in his position is because of the crisis, peculiar as that seems. Like the U.S. and most countries, changing horses in the middle of a stream (or war) is a natural reflex to avoid. Odd don't you think ?
This is just an ‘aside’ and in no way deals with the gravity of Heather’s report…
But a couple friends of mine today sort of ‘cooked up this idea and I thought I’d ‘share’.
—————
I and several of my friends have been pondering the E Jean Carroll verdict AND Nikki Haley’s T Shirt campaign against Trump who has indicated any Rep who supports her will be ‘banned’ and she has devised a T Shirt campaign and is selling these T Shirts…they say: “Barred Permanently”…..and they are selling well.
We Dem women think we’d like T Shirts too…Nikki has ALSO said :”I believe the Jury” which since we do too., we can easily support…and the dollar amount of the damages is something we ALSO LIKE and think should stay in folks consciousness…so on OUR T Shirts we want “I BELIEVE THE JURY” n.haley and the $83,300,000.00 underneath her statement…
And I acknowledge the fact that we Dems women believe in quite a different agenda from Nikki…but RIGHT ABOUT NOW it seems like a good idea to support her E Jean Carroll point of view as she totally unnerves the Orange one…and that’s delightful!
Count on it; orders for the drone attack on the US base in Jordan came from Moscow in an effort to weaken Biden. Biden is wise not to rise to the bait. Republican hawks will criticize him no matter what he does or doesn’t do. Better to keep on the diplomatic course he’s been on, and do what HCR has done and show how the drone attack is a result of Republicans’ refusal to back Ukraine and thus weaken US stature in the world.
I’ll call it treason. Add it to the treason of refusing to acknowledge the outcome of the 2020 election.
Come on, Ralph. Biden, with his admittedly Zionistic affection for the state of Israel has done a wildly efficient job of weakening himself, on the foreign policy front. Putin doesn't need to lift a finger. This is all about murdered children in Gaza, and just wait, Biden will eventually ‘take the bait’ and get us into a wider war as long as the genocide continues, and his reelection chances are in question. Endless war, thy name is America.
Biden is hardly an outlier. The US has been a Zionist country since 1948. Israel could do no wrong has been the bi-partisan position until recently. Nobody gave a damn about starving Palestinian children. Now, a lot of people do, and Israel has blood on its hands.
Putin is indeed trying to force Biden's hand, but Biden knows the worst outcome is the US in a shooting war in the Middle East, or Ukraine. Putin is the weak one. The same for Bibi Netanyahu.
I think the smartest politician in Washington right now is Joe Biden. If he fails, he'll be just one more US president who tried and failed to resolve the eternal conflict in the Middle East. But right now, I'm betting on Joe Biden.
Bibi is politically weak. Putin? Not a chance. Putin has reinvigorated a Russian economy by making it more self reliant, and strengthened a relationship with China, as opposed to our saber rattling confrontational approach.
Nothing like a genocide to provide a focus that changes thinking; just like fire hoses and German Shepherds did in Birmingham. When we start lobbing cruise missiles at Yemen, we’re in a shooting war, just like when we pay for those weapons to be used in Ukraine.
Saying Biden is the smartest politician is a joke, in that whether it is true or not, it is meaningless in this situation. Nancy Pelosi is a ‘smart’ politician, and she’s now saying the FBI should investigate Palestinian protesters for ties to Russian influence. Smart politicians can pursue stupid policy. Biden qualifies at present.
This time failure to resolve conflict could start another World War. I’d no more bet on Biden than I would any other 50/50 proposition. He has a track record of disastrous policy choices.
What do you propose as an alternative? Please be specific.
Make them all very unhappy.
ML. Gadflies need not be specific
Here is my peace plan for the Middle East:
1. Israel faces an existential crisis as soon as the U.S. "aid spigot" gets cut off for whatever reason (including possible American political or economic crisis).
2. Any viable solution must enable Israel to be secure without constant infusions of American aid.
3. This requires peace with Israel’s neighbors, including Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
4. This requires undoing the Nakba terrorist atrocity and withdrawing to the U.N.-mandated pre-1948 borders.
5. This can only be done in the context of peaceful economic integration throughout the region, for the benefit of all. A lasting peace must be guaranteed individually by each permanent member of the U.N. Security council, and endorsed by Israel’s neighbors.
6. The recent Hamas atrocities were sparked by provocations (yet again) at the Dome of the Rock. The dream of rebuilding the Temple of Herod must be given up and replaced by the will to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in its correct location.
Seems reasonable.
Rule of law. This is precisely what they are fighting for in Ukraine.
I know them.
This is precisely the choice they made, the choice that angered the Bear. So Russia stomped all over rule of law to steal their country.
Precisely they chose the pillars of freedom of expression, individual rights and rule of law. They chose to turn to the European Union. Ooooh angry Bear. They chose to turn to the West. (The West of Principles that includes eastern countries like Japan and Korea, whereas you could argue that Europe includes Russia geographically.)
And this is precisely the difference between Russia and the USA. Lincoln’s “Men of ambition and talents” quoted by HCR yesterday, to whom “distinction will be his paramount object” achieve this through control and domination.
The Russian ideals are the antithesis of our rule of law, they venerate the rule of the mobsters, the rule of the strongman. And they will not let Ukraine go, and they will take more if you give it to them. Be sure of that.
These two
my perrenial reply guys -
Tom High and John Schmeekle.
Am I right in noticing that they have become more active of late?
Periodically.
I, for one, have been around for quite a while. My core issue is in this old post:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2023/comment/11967315
Around here, it's out of fashion to be an anti-war Democrat.
Is that the one where you say that the Ukraine is not democratic - then in the next sentence you say that Zelenski reneged on his campaign promise....?
Hmmm
pick a lane
Nope. Ukraine isn't my core issue, but Ukraine HAS been enslaved by the genocidal International Monetary Fund.
Zelensky, after he reneged on his campaign promise and began the long-promised (to the IMF) invasion of the breakaway Donbass republics (as he publicly mused about re-acquiring nuclear weapons), triggered the mutual defense pact that Russia had just signed with the Donbass republics, bringing the Russians into the fight.
Then Zelensky shut down all the opposition parties and seized their TV stations.
We only care about the rule of law when it is in our ‘national security’ interest. In other words, when it dovetails with our desire for global hegemony, to prop up a resource extraction-based capitalism that feeds our desire for the acquisition of more stuff. You know, freedom, liberty….
"We"?
The People?
Are you talking about global trade, progress and scientific development?
And in anticipation of your reply, I do not take drugs, Tom.
"Global trade" is a euphemism for neo-imperialist domination, using the power of the Almighty Dollar to suck money out of darker-skinned countries so Vampire Liberals like Joe Biden can fund Worthwhile Programs until it all goes up in flames in a suicidal debt spiral.
Just what Agent Orange aspires to.
I hope Christopher Colles doesn't support Ukraine's corrupt, brutal far-right thug regime:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-28-2024/comment/48355768
Mr Schmeeckle
Zelenski? really?
The far right thugs were well pissed off when the people voted him in.
I think perhaps the biggest mistake they made was legislating on language. Banning the Russian language in government was bound to rile the Bear.
Zelensky kept the far-right neo-Nazi kingpin Avakov in place as Interior Minister, in charge of the police force that implemented the anti-Russian ban in a country where just over half the people were native Russian speakers.
Stephen Cohen was of the opinion that the deliberate goal behind American cultivating and elevating the nei-Nazi element in Ukraine was to ethnically cleanse Russian-speakers so they wouldn't undo yet another Color Revolution by voting "our guy" out of office again.
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. To anyone of at least bare average intelligence should see trump and is MAGAts don't care about anything but a return to power. The trumpster has already told us clearly that he intends to take over the entire United States Government use armed force to "destroy" his enemies, reduce taxes on his billionaire supporters. Support Putin, Xi, and Kim in taking over world governments. He will do nothing to mitigate global warming because he is too stupid to understand it. On the plus side so long as the rest of us - around 250 million people do vote - he will not win. There are only around 30 million hardcore cultists. We can and we must persevere.
"Thank you, Dr. Richardson." Those faces on Mt Rushmore are seething with rage this morning at what's happening to all they worked for, and in one case, died for.
Agreed
Let's start with a cease fire between Israel and Hamas. It's hard to negotiate anything while guns are killing people and bombs are falling. What was our government thinking when they refused to sign the proposed cease fire? Everyone else thought it was a good idea.
Is Netanyahu an oligarch billionaire, or another puppet of said?
He is attempting to avoid prosecution and stay out of jail. Very similar to you know who.