Max Blumenthal details the tension between Charlie Kirk and Israel in his final months, and what to expect from a new era of right-wing repression in response to his killing
"He said, this is why you should support MAGA [Make America Great Again], because this guy, Luigi Mangione, went out and shot one of you. This is going to happen more and more. We are entering a period of social unrest and social turmoil, and we will protect you."
Start liking it. At one time, there was an unwritten deal - work moderately hard, play by the rules that matter, and you will probably live a reasonably comfortable life, especially if you are white. Not only that, but your offspring will have a good shot at living a better life than what you had.
That deal has long since broken down, and every would-be savior has proven to be a self-serving fraud. We will only be seeing more young men lashing out.
Unfortunately, you’re probably correct. But I think there’s always hope. Let’s face it—if you thought there was no hope, you wouldn’t bother making any comment at all.
I’m a big fan of John Mearsheimer, and as John correctly observes, individuals cannot agree on first principles. What I would say is that despite the fact that individuals cannot agree on first principles, this doesn’t mean there isn’t a best way forward.
And since you’re smart, reasonable, and intellectually curious, I’m sure you’d make the right decisions every step of the way in order to determine the best way forward. But our leaders don’t.
Words that to me sound like a collar. My (ahem)'reasons' are in a response to his comment below.
"Lurid med experiments" evoked for me as trans, one at or near the top of the dog whistle menu, an enforced de-transitioning. As FtM, my hormone acquired face fur would have to go.
dog whistle as in biowarfare gas, indicators are the ear drum to brain nerve activation, get cams up, see who they've placed for the release, night cam footage, jetting round insects, pearl strings of worn out poison flying off the cameras if you got em, or not, gettum.
I cannot convey how depressing this is. Because it’s all too true, and I’m glad I’m old. On a personal note, a teacher at my great-nieces’ elementary school has been targeted by @LibsOfTikTok for a FB post in which she called Kirk a racist provocateur. She also said that killing him was wrong, but that didn’t matter to a local radio host in Pittsburgh who is on a mission to get her fired.
If I said what I want to say about Israel, I’d probably spend my last years in prison.
Mr. Hedges, I have a question unrelated to this post , but something that is troubling me to the core.
I very recently learned about the verified meetings between Noam Chomsky and Jeffrey Epstein. For quite a few years now I have revered Mr. Chomsky as a beacon of truth, moral integrity and a humanitarian (to say the least). Upon learning about these meetings and what seemed like Mr. Chomsky’s brushing off of inquiries into these meetings, I’ve found myself in a position where I generally don’t know what to think. I am seriously questioning the character of Mr. Chomsky and his legitimacy as a leading intellectual of the 21st century.
I don’t believe you had commented on these meetings in your episode with Mr. Bryant. I was hoping you might be able to offer your analysis of the situation and answer the following : Did learning about these meetings cause you to question the legitimacy of Noam Chomsky’s contributions to society?
I hope I don’t sound unhinged in this , I am just a person who seeks knowledge , truths and to understand the world we live in. Thank you!!
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/5/3/epstein-nowak-chomsky-meeting-2015/ . You’re definitely right, it’s foolish to caste judgement before knowing the full story. I guess I’m just looking for more context on what these meetings were about, and assurance that Mr. Chomsky is a credible/moral intellectual figure.
Thank you Jack for your reply. After reading the link provided by you my faith in Chomsky's character has not changed and the following extract from this report shows me that the professor is a reasonable man:
"Asked if he regretted his association with Epstein, Chomsky wrote, “I’ve met [all] sorts of people, including major war criminals. I don’t regret having met any of them.”
I did find that quote rather compelling as well, but I guess I’m wrong unwilling to let this alone convince me of the purity of Chomsky’s interactions with Epstein. I just wish we knew the full story…
Thank you. Trump’s foreign policy is a goulash of contradictory action - EXCEPT for a fact that he is a Zionist dedicated to creation of ever-greater Israel — a MIGA fraud
-------------------------------------------
Steve Witkoff is publicly despairing that Trump did not receive Nobel Peace Prize for “resolving six+ wars” yet… In meantime, US GG ~~700,000 dead so far – mostly (71%) children.
Once US Christian Zionist lunatics (a sect), that is, non-Christian criminals in charge of “feeding” 2M+ Gazans, once they sufficiently starve them – desperate survivors would “willingly” move to Antarctica
Meanwhile “Tyler Robinson” doesn’t have an attorney or a team of them, and is being hammered to repent for a crime I’m sure he didn’t do, and yet one liberal or caring American has recommended nor funded any
Chris, could YOU please help with this as time is of the essence. Why the fu#* doesn’t anyone care about Tyler. We need to hurry, could you please help with this????
yeah, they'll poison him in lockup, food, air etc, if his house mate is going trans, he's also been targeted for some time. choro-hydrocarbonic industrial solvent transformation into weather or mist, clear gels on bedding, in vents, handles, stalked and poisoned.
I'm shocked there aren't more comments. But whatever. For those who listened or read the transcript, check out today's Grayzone! (9/15/25) Same subjects, with lots of absolutely astounding details plus tying together how all this is a profound assault on democracy.
Toward the end of the discussion here, Max mentions the Black Bloc as part of Antifa. Allegedly anarchist (really nihilist) behavior meant to scare the citizenry as it has some of my relatives. I ask if you're anti-anti-fa, then are you pro-Fa? But Max says, quite believably, B.B has long been infiltrated by the feds. The Wiki entry mentions them as at the huge1999 anti-WTO demonstrations I'm proud became known as The Battle of Seattle. Against were unions, Indigenous peoples, churches, small businesses, eco-activists, scientists, small farmers, alt. economists, students... Those for were multinational corporations, their alibi economists, and their political lapdogs.
We won the battle but lost the war. Looking back, that was the trial run of an attack on our state and U.S. Constitutional rights. Suspended (by lib Dems, mind you) because of chaos and the need for order. Whose order we're forbidden to ask.
Be careful of Max Blumenthal. Nothing he has said has been verified.
Blumenthal and his wife are both stanch supporters of Trump for President. Blumenthal has in the past given a somewhat misleading energy report on the nuclear, solar and fossil oil fuel.
??? Where did you get this information that they are Trump supporters? I am reading the Grayzone for many years (incl. Ms Parampil's book), never got THAT impression!
I’m a big fan of Chris, Max and everyone on their side of the fence.
Beyond that,I firmly believe my “course” offers the best way to overcome the foolishness we’ve been engaging in. While I’m not certain this transformation will happen—we may lack the wisdom or will to change our destructive patterns—there’s always hope.
My approach stands out because it uses logic, rationality, and reasonableness to illuminate the best path forward. It compels people to take the high road, transforms politics from a contact sport into constructive dialogue, and creates win-win situations rather than the zero-sum games that typically produce disasters.
A short film outlining this course will be available soon.
To grasp these simple yet powerful ideas, you need only three qualities: intelligence, reasonableness, and intellectual curiosity.
"Logic, rationality, and reasonableness" were the traits of 19th-early 20th C. Ivy and Oxbridge scholars certain about the natural hierarchy of race, class, and gender. A viewpoint currently being revived. Also argued for starting with a 1992 American Enterprise Institute lecture, later a 2011 book //The Clash of Civilizations// by Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington. Where nothing but western Euro and colonist descendants are really civilized; all the rest primitive, violent, and a threat to the best.
If the goal is destruction of enemies as efficiently as possible, then employing the majority of scientists to develop megaton nuclear bombs and bioweapons is reasonable. If you object on the grounds of morality, that's belief based on feelings. The oft cited Golden Rule isn't logically persuasive to those who don't have to worry about being done unto.
It was said in Europe the Enlightenment died in the trenches of WWI. Add the economic and political abandonment of us, the working class majority. We who saw what the Best and Brightest (Halberstam) did in Vietnam. An attitude all too visible in the present Dem elite's claim of "meritocracy" and denigration of us as "a basket of deplorables." So no, we don't trust anyone who thinks they know best. Those all too willing to talk at us instead of with us.
Read Iain McGilchrist's 2021 //The Matter with Things (Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World)//. And especially John Ralston Saul's 1992 //Voltaire's Bastards (The Dictatorship of Reason in the West)//. Thus //Hayek's Bastards (Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right)//2025 by Quinn Slobodian, who also wrote //Crack-Up Capitalism (Market Radicals and the Dream of a World without Democracy)//. There is far more to life than mere reason, as artists and mystics know by experience.
Thanks for your reply. You’re obviously smart, well read and thoughtful.
Despite what you’ve said, I think I’m on the right track. I’ll send you a copy of my short film when it’s completed and you can critique it if you’d like. I’d appreciate it if you did.
I’ve commissioned a film producer, editor to generate the film and I think it’ll effectively convey what I’m trying to get across.
Let me know what you think after you read John Ralston Saul.
PS-- appealing to our intelligence is not a helpful strategy. It comes across as pandering and also an attempt to separate us from the mere inferior masses.
"He said, this is why you should support MAGA [Make America Great Again], because this guy, Luigi Mangione, went out and shot one of you. This is going to happen more and more. We are entering a period of social unrest and social turmoil, and we will protect you."
Start liking it. At one time, there was an unwritten deal - work moderately hard, play by the rules that matter, and you will probably live a reasonably comfortable life, especially if you are white. Not only that, but your offspring will have a good shot at living a better life than what you had.
That deal has long since broken down, and every would-be savior has proven to be a self-serving fraud. We will only be seeing more young men lashing out.
Unfortunately, you’re probably correct. But I think there’s always hope. Let’s face it—if you thought there was no hope, you wouldn’t bother making any comment at all.
I’m a big fan of John Mearsheimer, and as John correctly observes, individuals cannot agree on first principles. What I would say is that despite the fact that individuals cannot agree on first principles, this doesn’t mean there isn’t a best way forward.
And since you’re smart, reasonable, and intellectually curious, I’m sure you’d make the right decisions every step of the way in order to determine the best way forward. But our leaders don’t.
And that, in part, is what my course examines…
Thank you for the kind words, but wishful thinking gets me eaten by Cat Eating Monsters or used as a subject of lurid medical experiments.
Haha. < : - )
Words that to me sound like a collar. My (ahem)'reasons' are in a response to his comment below.
"Lurid med experiments" evoked for me as trans, one at or near the top of the dog whistle menu, an enforced de-transitioning. As FtM, my hormone acquired face fur would have to go.
dog whistle as in biowarfare gas, indicators are the ear drum to brain nerve activation, get cams up, see who they've placed for the release, night cam footage, jetting round insects, pearl strings of worn out poison flying off the cameras if you got em, or not, gettum.
I cannot convey how depressing this is. Because it’s all too true, and I’m glad I’m old. On a personal note, a teacher at my great-nieces’ elementary school has been targeted by @LibsOfTikTok for a FB post in which she called Kirk a racist provocateur. She also said that killing him was wrong, but that didn’t matter to a local radio host in Pittsburgh who is on a mission to get her fired.
If I said what I want to say about Israel, I’d probably spend my last years in prison.
Thank you, Chris and Max.
I'll just say:
As long as voices like Hedges and Blu.enthal and many others keep their voices alive we all have hope that current madness gets uprighted.
Thank you Max and Chris
Lol
Dennis DiTullio/Falmouth MA
Mr. Hedges, I have a question unrelated to this post , but something that is troubling me to the core.
I very recently learned about the verified meetings between Noam Chomsky and Jeffrey Epstein. For quite a few years now I have revered Mr. Chomsky as a beacon of truth, moral integrity and a humanitarian (to say the least). Upon learning about these meetings and what seemed like Mr. Chomsky’s brushing off of inquiries into these meetings, I’ve found myself in a position where I generally don’t know what to think. I am seriously questioning the character of Mr. Chomsky and his legitimacy as a leading intellectual of the 21st century.
I don’t believe you had commented on these meetings in your episode with Mr. Bryant. I was hoping you might be able to offer your analysis of the situation and answer the following : Did learning about these meetings cause you to question the legitimacy of Noam Chomsky’s contributions to society?
I hope I don’t sound unhinged in this , I am just a person who seeks knowledge , truths and to understand the world we live in. Thank you!!
First, I would like to know what those "verified meetings" where about to make some judgment, How did you know that? your source?
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/5/3/epstein-nowak-chomsky-meeting-2015/ . You’re definitely right, it’s foolish to caste judgement before knowing the full story. I guess I’m just looking for more context on what these meetings were about, and assurance that Mr. Chomsky is a credible/moral intellectual figure.
Thank you Jack for your reply. After reading the link provided by you my faith in Chomsky's character has not changed and the following extract from this report shows me that the professor is a reasonable man:
"Asked if he regretted his association with Epstein, Chomsky wrote, “I’ve met [all] sorts of people, including major war criminals. I don’t regret having met any of them.”
I did find that quote rather compelling as well, but I guess I’m wrong unwilling to let this alone convince me of the purity of Chomsky’s interactions with Epstein. I just wish we knew the full story…
Thank you. Trump’s foreign policy is a goulash of contradictory action - EXCEPT for a fact that he is a Zionist dedicated to creation of ever-greater Israel — a MIGA fraud
-------------------------------------------
Steve Witkoff is publicly despairing that Trump did not receive Nobel Peace Prize for “resolving six+ wars” yet… In meantime, US GG ~~700,000 dead so far – mostly (71%) children.
Once US Christian Zionist lunatics (a sect), that is, non-Christian criminals in charge of “feeding” 2M+ Gazans, once they sufficiently starve them – desperate survivors would “willingly” move to Antarctica
Yes, it is just horrible isn’t it.
Meanwhile “Tyler Robinson” doesn’t have an attorney or a team of them, and is being hammered to repent for a crime I’m sure he didn’t do, and yet one liberal or caring American has recommended nor funded any
Chris, could YOU please help with this as time is of the essence. Why the fu#* doesn’t anyone care about Tyler. We need to hurry, could you please help with this????
yeah, they'll poison him in lockup, food, air etc, if his house mate is going trans, he's also been targeted for some time. choro-hydrocarbonic industrial solvent transformation into weather or mist, clear gels on bedding, in vents, handles, stalked and poisoned.
I think if he really did the murder he is probably is going to die mysteriously before he can talk.
Off topic Mr. Hedges--Lose the wireless--it's a weapon.
On topic--It's Collectivists versus non-collectivists. Both are of devils. I am American Indian--seen this before.
Oh boy, what’s been let loose?
Thoughtful and insightful… thank you.
I'm shocked there aren't more comments. But whatever. For those who listened or read the transcript, check out today's Grayzone! (9/15/25) Same subjects, with lots of absolutely astounding details plus tying together how all this is a profound assault on democracy.
Toward the end of the discussion here, Max mentions the Black Bloc as part of Antifa. Allegedly anarchist (really nihilist) behavior meant to scare the citizenry as it has some of my relatives. I ask if you're anti-anti-fa, then are you pro-Fa? But Max says, quite believably, B.B has long been infiltrated by the feds. The Wiki entry mentions them as at the huge1999 anti-WTO demonstrations I'm proud became known as The Battle of Seattle. Against were unions, Indigenous peoples, churches, small businesses, eco-activists, scientists, small farmers, alt. economists, students... Those for were multinational corporations, their alibi economists, and their political lapdogs.
We won the battle but lost the war. Looking back, that was the trial run of an attack on our state and U.S. Constitutional rights. Suspended (by lib Dems, mind you) because of chaos and the need for order. Whose order we're forbidden to ask.
Thanks! Excellent podcast!
Be careful of Max Blumenthal. Nothing he has said has been verified.
Blumenthal and his wife are both stanch supporters of Trump for President. Blumenthal has in the past given a somewhat misleading energy report on the nuclear, solar and fossil oil fuel.
??? Where did you get this information that they are Trump supporters? I am reading the Grayzone for many years (incl. Ms Parampil's book), never got THAT impression!
Alas, you guys seem unaware of the Ukraine/Pentagon connection to Kirks death. Here it is in detail: https://georgewebb.substack.com/p/ukraine-family-robinson-azov-kirk?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=674856&post_id=173589265&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=13rnq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Is the right that confident that they think that they can safe exist and govern America by doing away with the left? Not that I care to label groups.
Is America Ruptured?
"…the beginning and the end in each other's arms…."
The why of the what…
Ruptured—like a ligament torn mid-stride.
The story still runs, but the cadence is off.
The civic square echoes, but the ritual is missing.
We do not mourn a nation.
We mourn its forgetting the ritual…its habits!
From waking-up to reciprocity….ruptured!
No coffee in the cupboard ……….ruptured!
We live within rupture.
America is ruptured—not just by debt or division, but by the erosion of meaning.
The founding myths no longer hold.
The rituals of democracy have become performance.
Silence in public comment is no longer reverent—it is imposed.
Rupture is not merely a break. It is a threshold.
A discontinuity that reorders meaning.
A moment when the old story forgets its ending—and something raw, unmasked, begins.
In philosophy, rupture marks the collapse of dominant systems of thought.
In geology, it’s the Earth’s native tongue—tectonic shifts, molten beginnings.
In myth, it’s the veil torn, the silence broken, the ritual begun.
"I stand on the terrible threshold, and I see
The end and the beginning in each other's arms."
~Stanley Kunitz
Apollo gave us words to describe rupture, but it took the Dionysian poet to provide the song.
I’m a big fan of Chris, Max and everyone on their side of the fence.
Beyond that,I firmly believe my “course” offers the best way to overcome the foolishness we’ve been engaging in. While I’m not certain this transformation will happen—we may lack the wisdom or will to change our destructive patterns—there’s always hope.
My approach stands out because it uses logic, rationality, and reasonableness to illuminate the best path forward. It compels people to take the high road, transforms politics from a contact sport into constructive dialogue, and creates win-win situations rather than the zero-sum games that typically produce disasters.
A short film outlining this course will be available soon.
To grasp these simple yet powerful ideas, you need only three qualities: intelligence, reasonableness, and intellectual curiosity.
"Logic, rationality, and reasonableness" were the traits of 19th-early 20th C. Ivy and Oxbridge scholars certain about the natural hierarchy of race, class, and gender. A viewpoint currently being revived. Also argued for starting with a 1992 American Enterprise Institute lecture, later a 2011 book //The Clash of Civilizations// by Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington. Where nothing but western Euro and colonist descendants are really civilized; all the rest primitive, violent, and a threat to the best.
If the goal is destruction of enemies as efficiently as possible, then employing the majority of scientists to develop megaton nuclear bombs and bioweapons is reasonable. If you object on the grounds of morality, that's belief based on feelings. The oft cited Golden Rule isn't logically persuasive to those who don't have to worry about being done unto.
It was said in Europe the Enlightenment died in the trenches of WWI. Add the economic and political abandonment of us, the working class majority. We who saw what the Best and Brightest (Halberstam) did in Vietnam. An attitude all too visible in the present Dem elite's claim of "meritocracy" and denigration of us as "a basket of deplorables." So no, we don't trust anyone who thinks they know best. Those all too willing to talk at us instead of with us.
Read Iain McGilchrist's 2021 //The Matter with Things (Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World)//. And especially John Ralston Saul's 1992 //Voltaire's Bastards (The Dictatorship of Reason in the West)//. Thus //Hayek's Bastards (Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right)//2025 by Quinn Slobodian, who also wrote //Crack-Up Capitalism (Market Radicals and the Dream of a World without Democracy)//. There is far more to life than mere reason, as artists and mystics know by experience.
Thanks for your reply. You’re obviously smart, well read and thoughtful.
Despite what you’ve said, I think I’m on the right track. I’ll send you a copy of my short film when it’s completed and you can critique it if you’d like. I’d appreciate it if you did.
I’ve commissioned a film producer, editor to generate the film and I think it’ll effectively convey what I’m trying to get across.
Let me know what you think after you read John Ralston Saul.
PS-- appealing to our intelligence is not a helpful strategy. It comes across as pandering and also an attempt to separate us from the mere inferior masses.