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Rafi Simonton's avatar

Exactly why I keep pointing out the "No Kings" demonstrations aren't "No Oligarchs and No Plutocrats." The D party neolib elite abandoned the majority working class decades ago. Their 20% loyalists call us nobodies 'stupid' yet never noticed 4 decades of Rust Belt suffering nor the well documented deaths of despair. They imply if Trump were gone, everything would be D paradise. But in reality, the rest of us are expected to accept a choice between professional and managerial class oligarchy or 1%er and corporate economics class plutocracy. The boundless sense of superiority, entitlement, and lack of empathy that defines the entire Epstein class.

john augustine's avatar

you hit the nail on the head, Rafi!

ken maynard's avatar

Rafi you are CORRECT. no matter whether Trump goes or stays; for America the good old days are not coming back. Firstly the ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS of economic growth. Second America has many competitors in manufacturing so it has to compete for markets in which it once held a monopoly. Thirdly Trump has turned America into the most disliked country in the world.

Rafi Simonton's avatar

That alleged "competitors in mfg" didn't just happen. It was a deliberate policy choice by the neolibs and their econopath allies to outsource everything. The Ds have done their best for decades to make nation and world safe for corporations; see NAFTA, GATT, the WTO. The Ds repealed New Deal financial regulations, which helped cause the '08 Great Recession (GFC). The Ds then bailed out Wall St. while the millions of us who lost jobs, pensions, homes got nothing. It did not and does not have to be this way!!! The current econ system is based on Chicago School neoclassical econ assertions, not empirical evidence. It's no more than deep hatred for the New Deal and Keynesian economics that served the common good.

As for enviro limits, notice who's exempt. That monster house Al Gore had built. BTW, V.P. Gore's team to 'reinvent govt.' overhauled OSHA so notoriously dangerous poultry processors could inspect themselves. We nobodies are as disposable as any other disgusting bio-bodies. The 1/10th of 1% knows climate change is real--that's why they're buying megayachts and private islands. When ecol & econ finally crash they figure the survivors will become neo-serfs for their neo-fiefdoms.

Ingamarie's avatar

Helps to know your history...........but it also hurts.

When we sum it up in a couple of dense paragraphs, as you have done, it reminds some of us that our entire lives have been poisoned by stupid economic theories that most grade school kids have the ability to see won't work.

The best part however, is that after Steve Jobs and his Class (forget the Epstein Class, go back to the first cabal of neoliberal capitalist expropriation) out sourced everything to poor countries like China.........those countries learned faster than anyone left in hollowed out America.

We're waiting for a Chinese EV the Carney government promised us.......hope we can outlast Trump and let them build an EV factory in Canada......so our poor children can pirate what the Chinese know..........and build affordable, non polluting transportation here..............for sale to what's left of the American Empire.

We need to let go of the hate..........roll up our sleeves, and get busy building a world economy that works. The options are there.......gargantuan military hardware or drones??? Pricey Tesla death traps or made in Canada Chinese EV's???

Inherently STUPID AI calculating machines, or quality education for all our human children?? Real smarts or surveillance algorithms???

Susan Becraft's avatar

I cringe when people claim that all would be well if Trump disappeared today. Ditto for Netanyahu.

Suz-an's avatar

It'd be a good start.

Ingamarie's avatar

Yes. With this exception. Among people who read and think, America has been the enemy for decades. It's just that the mainstream media, everywhere, blocks that reality from public recognition.

It's taken the Gaza genocide.....ongoing for nearly 4 years, to very slowly wake up the people to the point where the failure inherent in violent world domination is becoming frighteningly obvious.

So now............Americans get to know how the majority of the earth's population feels about them. I'm amazed on youtube commentaries how most of the comments are on Iran's side....I'm sure you've noticed this as well?

Gawd help the majority of us, if Amerikkka goes on to take on China. But does she have the intelligence left to try negotiation??? Or imagine peaceful co-existence?

Susan Becraft's avatar

Bingo, Rafi. I couldn’t say it any better.

Nikster's avatar

It is all about the class war. We need to divorce the Democratic Party from the Military Industrial Complex or divorce the Democratic Party permanently! We need the autopsy to be made public.

Rafi Simonton's avatar

Les Leopold, head of the Labor Institute, wrote 2024 book /Wall Street's War on Workers (and What to Do about It)/ of course ignored by D elite. Now has out 2026 /We Need a Party of Our Own./ Highly recommend, along w/ his blog site.

The Institute plus the Center for Working Class politics conducted a year long Rust Belt study released Sept. '25; progressive-populist econ items favored much more strongly if voiced by hypothetical independent party than if by Ds. After 4 decades of betrayals, no surprise we don't trust them.

Good idea public autopsy on the D party--reveal the malignancy for what it is and how far it extends.

Nancy's avatar

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive (or thieve).”

Slightly Lucid's avatar

This was excellent, though a little weedy to follow. The myriad connections of the Epstein class are like trying to follow a spider web.

Shauna Carpenter's avatar

Maybe Ms Tkacik could return and tie some threads together.

Steve NYC's avatar

This was not well laid out and it did not flow in a logical or systematic manner. Although the individual pieces of information are interesting and indeed shocking one is left confused with no sense of where the narrative is going or lands. Maybe this is partly a function of the material being presented but her thoughts and investigative work needs to be better pulled together.

Frank Martens's avatar

That was the worse case of gobbledegook and incoherent commentary I have ever read in any of your reports. If her book is anything like this report I will definitely put it on my "do not read" list.

The Outlaw's avatar

Russian Mob? Chabad Lubavitch? ---Mobsters disguised as a Religion. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump? They have overtaken New York. Crown Heights anyone? "I'll Take Manhattan!" They sure did.

Who's Chabad? Let's see, The Donald, Mr.Putin and the (late) Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Rothschild-his buds call him "Nate".. They sure are! Trump sure does/did his Eastern European wives now didn't he?

GS's avatar

Shleifer is an esteemed faculty member of Harvard's Economics Department. Blavatnik is one of Harvard's biggest donors.

John's avatar

Chris, would you consider using the Substack video app instead of U-tube.

Several reasons for this.

1. U-tube is polluted with advertising, and for those of us who listen while we do other things, the skip button is a hazard. (waiting for & then pressing skip while driving)

2. If I stop listening for some reason, and then hours later want to finish the podcast, U-tube will not let me forward to where I left off, nor has it saved where I stopped listening.

3. I am not a subscriber to U-tube and do not want to be because it is too corporate (I don't want my money going to U-tube)

Suz-an's avatar

Agree completely on your views of U-T. Chris's videos are also available on rumble. Did you know? Preferable and easy to watch. Maybe that works for you?

Elisabeth's avatar

Don't know if this works for you, but I can watch the video here (without ad's), for youtube, I watch it on my PC and it always remembers where I left off (I am not a subscriber) and yes the advertisements are VERY annoying, but this is where the money comes from ...

John's avatar

I am a paid subscriber to Chris, so my $$ go to Chris. And a PC is not an option driving

Shauna Carpenter's avatar

Maureen Tkacik's reporting and analysis demonstrates her vast knowledge of the topics.Perhaps she will be invited back.

Sonia Collins's avatar

Dear Chris,

I read your article: https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-the-russian-mob-and. It was shocking. I don’t think it’s your strongest because lack of documentation and corroboration will allow skeptics (and skepticism is a good thing these days) to dismiss it. However, it has enough detail to illustrate a deliberate ongoing international web of powerful billionaires in business, education, media, intelligence (the spying kind) who are committing financial treachery, violence, trafficking of drugs and young girls for sex. And possibly murder in the deaths of Ghislaine Maxwell's father and Jeffrey Epstein. I have not seen this on the TV news or read about it in the press.

At about the same time the media were gleefully excoriating Graham Platner for his lapses, both youthful and more current. He just won the Democratic nomination for Maine Senator with a progressive anti-war and pro-worker message. The Democratic voters of Maine overlooked the human mistakes.

So how should we approach the lapses in character of those whose programs we support? People I respect have said things like “so another white boy gets a pass”, “I can’t excuse the Nazi tattoo” and “someone with PTSD should not be in the Senate”. My reservation is his lack of experience as a legislator. Can a person of his temperament withstand the tedium of the Senate meetings, long sessions in rooms full of Foghorn Leghorns, and will he have the patience to slog through muddy proposals full of hidden quicksand?

Forgive? I say yes. We have done it many times when we value someone, not only for white boys. I do believe that people can change, especially people who feel things deeply. But when he needs to be called out or educated, it should be done, maybe privately and constructively. I see a lot of his supporters are rural women of a certain age. I am sure they will be more than happy help out in that regard. A co-worker born in China once said this to me: “Everyone knows something, everyone doesn’t know something.”

I hope that he will win. In the least he will get rid of Susan Collins and vote against war spending. He will definitely understand and support the needs of Mainers. He can guard his mental health by spending time in the countryside with the people of Maine and with his wife. He can expand his capabilities the way Mamdani has by seeking out and listening to those who have years of experience in different arenas. I hope he will find ways to mentor and involve young people. We are leaving them a very messed up world and they will need to be strong, and smart.

Suz-an's avatar

Been reading Whitney Webb's One Nation Under Blackmail ... and the interwebs of this long term cabal goes waaay back in time. It's so convoluted and complicated that no one could give it an easy-to-follow, linear narrative. Ms. MT does as well as anyone could. Great interview on a massively complex topic.

Douglas Carlson's avatar

Hedges is full of himself ...

Is an interview last week, he said: "I'm paid to make those kinds of judgements ... in the name of truth" ... and in another recent post here on Substack, he puts the choice before us: "tyranny or revolution", when he fact he buckled against the political pressure of the lockdowns ... for the past 20 years, he made many implicit promises that he'd be there to fight "the good fight" with us when the time came ... as many, many times he urged us to directly confront tyranny and fascism, but then he capitualated to big pharma durng the lockdowns ... his inactions and tepid commentary on this and other issues since COVID really made me wonder ... did Chris Hedges accept money from big pharma to take sides with TPTB during the lockdowns?

You can draw your own conclusions, I know I've drawn mine!

I firmly believe he at least had "an understanding" with DS operatives and may have even had a sitdown with them ... he is just not the same person since the lockdowns.

----------------

BACKGROUND

In 2022 Hedges actually said "the constitution remains a sacred document" AFTER he refused to stand with us against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports.

Third paragraph, third sentence:

https://www.salon.com/2022/09/07/can-we-stop-pretending-that-america-is-a-functioning-democracy/

1) But first, here's proof that COVID “vaccines” actually killed people …

https://www.medicine.news/2023-12-11-proof-covid-vaccines-have-killed-millions.html

And recently:

https://www.medicine.news/2026-03-25-legislators-ban-covid-jabs-reclassify-biological-weapons.html

2) Jimmy Dore interview, August 21, 2021 …

Not a word here from Hedges about the illegal and unconstitutional nature of the mandates, passports and the jab ... after preaching direct confrontation to tyranny for the past 20 years, watch him dance and listen to him equivocate before sheepishly blowing it off: “… that was just a decision that I made” ... yup NBD, right Chris?

Go to the 8:12 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusQH0pnX7Y&t=514s

3) Useful Idiots interview, September 21, 2021 …

In an amazingly tepid moment, when asked to comment on the unconstitutional, illegal and untested nature of the jab, he said

“It’s a hard question I guess, do you force people to get the vaccine?”

No Chris, it's not a hard question - not at all ...

Go to the 1:53 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7ZGT8raQS8

4) DEC 2, 2021 FDA FOIA release ...

The explosive FDA FOIA release revealed that Phizer's Vx trial data documented 1,223 deaths and 25,000 medically verified injuries to trial participants in the first 90 days of their trial period.

https://www.medicine.news/2021-12-10-pfizer-vaccine-documents-42000-reactions-1223-deaths.html

5) Krystal, Kyle & Friends interview ...

This proved the Vx was not "safe and effective", but only 30 days later on the K&K podcast, he brazenly took sides when he knew better …

EP 54, Hedges said: "I don't think we can stop the pandemic and mutations until everyone gets vaccinated” without saying a word about the revelations of the FDA FOIA release – not a word!

Krystal, Kyle & Friends, EP 54

1:08:46 mark

https://krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/p/episode-54-audio-chris-hedges

So stop praising this guy, he doesn't give a hoot about us ...

He was just hoping nobody would notice.

Rafi Simonton's avatar

And you are "just hoping no one would notice" you've cut and pasted the exact same drivel, complete with the same misspellings and the same unreliable sources. I checked all the links last time you tried this. You obviously don't know how to assess what you're citing, yet your argument implies you're smart and the rest of us here are mere dupes.

As for your 2nd to last sentence use of "us," please. In the mid '60s there was a joke I heard from rez residents. The Lone Range and Tonto are surrounded by what appear to be hostile Indians. The Lone Ranger says: "We have to fight them. Tonto!" Tonto replies: "What's this 'we' white man?!"

We, us, no--don't include "us" in your obsession. You're the one who is "full of himself" and "doesn't give a hoot" by inflicting this on us again and again. Learn to construct a coherent argument without logical fallacies (lists of them are easy to look up) or go away.

Ingamarie's avatar

Give it up Doug. No one reads all this kaka. The vaccines were safe and effective.........your pig headed determination to stick with paranoid conspiracy fictions is on you. Not Chris Hedges.

Douglas Carlson's avatar

Phizer's own trial data proved the VAX was killing people ...

I guess you never reviewed the links above ...

Phizer's data, not mine ...

julia eden's avatar

... how to spell the company's name again? which one do you mean, actually?

julia eden's avatar

nothing to do w pfizer, then?

Douglas Carlson's avatar

Please clarify your point ...

The FDA FOIA release had everything to do with Phizer ...

It documented the trial participant's reaction to the COVID vax ...

The contents of the FOIA release were so explosive, that the FDA defense team actually argued for incrementally releasing this data over a 55-year period ... healthcare reporter Celia Farber call it "The Most Shocking Document Release of the Past 100 Years" ... and just 30 days later, St Chris said: "I don't think we can end the pandemic and the mutations until EVERYONE gets vaccinated."

Douglas Carlson's avatar

Ha! ... did I pop your little love-bubble with St. Chris?

Ingamarie's avatar

Idiotic Doug....but we know how desperate you are for interaction.

Douglas Carlson's avatar

You've used profanity once and now you've call me names ...

Take your complaints to St Chris ...

Those are his words I've cited above, not mine!

Shauna Carpenter's avatar

Thank you for more insightful evidence of what is one of today's Zeitgeists. I think Maureen Tkacik’s name should not be in parentheses for obvious reasons.