The rupture of social bonds and loss of community, caused by the decades-long assault on the poor and working class and the ravages of the pandemic, have resulted in a dangerous social isolation.
I dunno why we are discussing this in this thread but as one sickened by the perversion of reality that anglo historians inevitably adopt about Russia, which is then taken up by people innocent of the distortions I reckon it is better to hear what has actually happened in Crimea over the last thousand years. Sorry but there will be typos.
Actually Russia has had a valid claim to Crimea since the 10th Century when Vladimir I of the Rus (founders of Russia who were originally from eastern Scandanavia) claimed it.
After that a mob of Tartars, part of the Golden Horde whose leader was Juchi the eldest son of Genghis Khan, fronted up. The Rus had been there 300 years before the Tartars and over the centuries there has been much backwards and forwards between the two mobs with the Tartars getting up whenever they managed to persuade the Ottoman empire to lend a hand (kinda like the BS Ukraine is trying to pull now by getting the amerikan empire onside).
e.g Peter the Great won it back in the late 17th Century, then the Ottoman's jumped in for a while until in 1783 when Katherine the Great incorporated it back into the Russian empire.
In 1853 when the Ottomans were beginning their decline they did a deal with England & France who were determined to expand their own empires by stitching up the Black Sea in a contra-deal with the Ottomans.
Russia did their usual - same as they did when Bonaparte and his 'grande armee' had invaded half a century before, so pulled back and waited until england and france shot through, whereupon the Russian army came back. During all these conflicts Russian people who suffered hugely under the Tartars hung on in Crimea, as population-wise they outnumbered the tartars.
After the Russian revolution, in typical slimy fashion the tartars cut a deal with the so-called 'white russians' who were former aristos and upper middle class types that were heavily supported by amerika and england. Of course eventually the usual happened and Russia and the majority Russian population of Crimea prevailed, this time though it was to join the newly formed Soviet Union.
The next major problem was caused by Nikita Khruschev who in a fit of benevolent stupidity, imagining he was going to give his old community a bit of a hand-up (Khruschev was a Russian Ukrainian) incorporated Crimea into the Ukraine socialist republic, ie for amerikans that would be like the president telling Oklahoma it was now part of Texas. Khruschev ignored the complainst from both Russian & tartar Crimeans, he wanted his home state to get a share of the Russian Naval development.
At no time before since then then has Crimea suffered from a plethora of Galacians - these are the primarily germanic mob who reside in the far west of Ukraine and spawned Stepan Bandera and all the other ww2 & afterwards nazis responsible for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of jews, poles and hungarians, starting off inside Ukraine but as the war progressed his foul operation moved into Poland and Hungary. At it's heart this was straightforward ethnic cleansing as jews, ethnic Poles and Hungarians have lived around Lvov in western Ukraine for centuries.
When a referendum on Crimea incorporating with the Russian Federation was held in 2014 it came out with 97% in favour of incorporation. The Ukraine government installed after the illegal coup in 2014 claimed that Tartars wanted to be part of Ukraine, then for some reason probably related to the fact that this claim was just another nazi lie which would be found out, those opposed to joining with Russia announced they would abstain from the referendum.
Crimea is part of Russia as it has been for 1000 years unless some greedy empire-buikding outsider sticks their nose in.
My ancestors have been there since Alexander ruled the world. Alexander the Macedonian. Who gave Crimea to the $$%%$^ Czars'?
Must have been the $@$%$% Holy Roman Empire.
Everything they touched turned to $%$$#$.
Debs is alive and well and living in Kiev.
And Moscow, and Vienna, and Berlin, and New York
and Paris and London and Hong Kong
Maybe more people will know Eugene Victor than Abraham Lincoln in a twenty first century America. I knew a Eugene Victor who knew a Eugene Victor He was my father law and made me a very happy man.
He taught me a man can only serve one master. Sometimes it is only the face in the mirror sometimes it is something beyond himself, sometimes we don't know who to serve so we follow the flock.
Actually hate to be pedantic but the Holy Roman Empire was barely founded when Vladimir I declared Crimea as part of his Kievan Rus empire.
That mob pulled a lot of foulness, even more when it devolved into the Hapsburg (Austro-Hungarian Empire), which Galicia was a part of on and off, but Crimea and Russia never were.
It is not my history. My Father was a wandering Aramean looking for a home.
I do not understand Europeans. They are completely alien to this wandering Aramean. The land owns the people. What kind of madness does it take to believe the people own the land?
That is the story of Sodom and the other Evil Cities translated into American. The Bible tells us to assimilate not segregate.
Louis Ginzberg 1905 Legends of the Bible.
Let us talk about 1689 since this is the American Empire not a French and English Empire time. William and Mary were both monarchs and had no real power. England was no longer autocratic. Let us talk about the metaphysics and the metaphysics were lots of peasants and very few kings.
Let us talk about Marcus Aurelius and his role as the ruler who serves his subjects.
There are two Americas. One believes the government serve the people and those that believe the government is their to serve them.
As I understand it that is what Russia wants in Crimea as well. They were perfectly happy with Crimea being independent of all, but in 1994 the Ukrainians invaded and claimed it, even that was fine with Russia until it became apparent that the Galician nazis had done a deal with Nato which would not only destroy the Russian Federation's access to the Black Sea, it would cause all Russian speaking Crimeans to be oppressed then ethnically cleansed.
Oh, Eunice! The, Dear Reader...” comment was hilarious! I wish she narrated all my podcasts, books and would replace Alexa. Glad to find other audiobooks she’s narrated.
As a somewhat socially isolated person, I appreciated this article. Loneliness and alienation are public health threats physically, mentally, spiritually, politically, socially - in every way.
Eunice Wong is a wonderful narrator of Chris Hedges work. PERFECT. Another great writer/narrator couple are Kaitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. Tim reads Kaitlin's brilliant work perfectly as well. Somebody already posted this example here today: "Let's Nuke The World Over Who Governs Crimea"
I could happily listen to Eunice Wong read pretty much anything- that said, this theme really resonates. There are reasons so many of us struggle with addiction and profound depression and it helps to hear sensible insights into why we are this way. Thank you.
Thanks! I just bought the audio version of American Fascists. (I really DO read, and have read a couple of your books, but I love well done audio books, and look forward to this)
The politicians locked everything down and continued to do so. The pandemic didn't order gyms to be locked down. The political class wanted control, along with upward transfer of wealth. It's no wonder major corporations and billionaires became more wealthy during Covid, while the working and middle classes struggled or were wrecked.
I'm appalled by the direction we humans have taken as well, although I would say those that are finding human contact via the net are at least staying in touch with fellow man. Crazies motivated by hate have been around for a long time, a lot longer than the internet and it is onto all of us to be as accessible on the net as we are/were in the real world.
At the moment when the true left appears to share many of the same concerns as the right I have developed a quick litmus test to tell me who is who in this new zoo.
I no longer listen to whether someone claims to be across Marx or Engels or A Hitler, as far as I am concerned the true litmus test for a real leftie is do they hate?
If they do tell me the world would be fine if it wasn't for those dashed . . .whatever - fill in the gap with whoever fits, I know that this person is not what I consider to be a real leftist no matter how well they articulate Marxist dialectic.
Socialism has always been about humanity, all of us not just some of us. The Western Australian Labor Government which refused to recognise the indigenous stockman's strike in the 1940's and drove entire clans off their traditional lands into the Pilbara, was no more leftist than the US unions in the 50's & 60's which made it impossible for african-americans to work in 'their' industry.
If decent humans create enough places on the net for all people to feel welcome those rightist boards & blogs will lose much of their custom because if you read a rightist board for long enough it is only a matter of time until someone on it declares hatred for some value or people you hold dear.
Yes it would be much better if we all still met in person but there is no doubt in my mind that one of the features of the Pandemic was that it drove many, many small personalised businesses out in favour of large, unfeeling & corporatised mundanity - it cannot last, humans will just seek alternative ways to interrelate.
I knew a Eugene Victor named after a Eugene Victor. He was my father law. I was possibly the only person who ever knew him. He was a brilliant scientist living inside his own personal fortress.
They say I am autistic but I have no idea what that means I really couldn't do academic studies.
I was busy studying people and in the word of Jim Morrison "People are strange when you're a stranger."
All I can say is wow. Chris Hedges gets it. I have been waiting since he wrote the foreword to the 20th anniversary edition of Voltaire's Bastards. I hope he writes the foreword to this this year's thirtieth anniversary.
The banality of Evil is the central theme of John Ralston Saul's masterpiece.
Dostoyevsky translated into English is nothing like America's greatest writer translating Russian into American. Mark Twain spoke Russian and understood Russian black humour.
My wife enjoyed it very much. I am partial to his darkest writings. I like his Russian understandings. Of course Gogol's The Diary of a Madman is hilarious in 2023 but My forefathers were fleeing the Czar and when you are on foot those horses moved rather quickly.
I just got The Russian Claimant Mark Twain understood 2020 and Davos and The Banality of Evil.
I am working my way through the Quebec catalogue but I haven't had enough hair for dreads for five decades.
I remember when I first watched Zelenskiy play piano. I thought he was the most brilliant man on Earth. I never dreamed he could be elected president of anything. Nobody likes truthtellers.
It has ever been thus. The Bible is literature not history. The story of Korach in the Bible is the same story. Jefferson wrote the American Bible. Jefferson was Deist. The Creator created and moved on. He left us in charge. We are all a bunch of drunken bums. We can't take care of ourselves never mind a planet.
Korach was a rich man in Egypt but just a Jew on the road to the promised land in Exodus.
It has been a rather mystical week in the Moezone. It is a shock for me to hear Chris talk about our banality. It is becoming ever more apparent that "FREE WILL" is highly overrated. In my world Mr Trump suffers from a pathology that shields him from empathy. The same for Putin and so many other would be autocrats.
Who in their right mind wants to run the world in 2023?
Let us discuss Voltaire's Bastards. I understand your concern but what is this thing you call evil? Do we have free choice? Could Adam not eaten of the fruit of tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Fetal alcoholism often destroys empathy but has no effect on reason. You are an Harvard theologian. Why is Noah the town drunk? Purim is a day to not know the difference between good and evil. It is the one day of the year to get falling down drunk.
Why are our myths legends and moral lesson looked upon as literature? That is what it is, just like turtles carrying the Sun on their backs. it is literature? That is what it is, just like turtles carrying the Sun on their backs.
What you are missing is an understanding that the Earl Butts globalization of agriculture hollowed our rural corn-bean big AG states and towns every bit as much as off shoring industry decimated cities. Farmers and ranchers were turned into factory workers by big AG and the "food" processing industries. We have to rebuild local food and energy autonomy, regional industries and small scale manufacturing, and quality of life and thus grassroots democracy.
Eunice Wong is a wonderful narrator of Chris Hedges work. PERFECT. I thought her little aside in this piece was great fun and was very glad I'd listened to it after reading it yesterday.
Another great writer/narrator couple are Kaitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. Tim reads Kaitlin's brilliant work perfectly as well. Somebody already posted this example here today: "Let's Nuke The World Over Who Governs Crimea"
I wonder if Chris is aware of Caitlin's work. While Chris has become the LEADER of America, the Martin Luther King for ALL Americans and English speakers who read his work (because all but the billionaire elites have been stripped of their freedom, if not their material comfort), Caitlin is a brilliant writer, speaker, and poet we need to hear.
Chris, like MLK is always strong and measured, while Caitlin is sometimes wild and crazy. But the world needs both of these great writers and thinkers now desperately.
It struck me as peculiar that Justice Scalia The Originalist would be disqualified from interpreting the constitution in 1776.
The Quebec Act of 1774 would allow Scalia's service on the court. It was the fifth and final Intolerable Act.
Antonin Scalia chose not to be an American.
It is the choice of the GOP to be antiAmerican.
I don't know if your Democrats are any better. I don't know what America stands for. I suspect many Americans are wondering the same thing.
Jefferson wrote The American Bible because he knew how much blood was spilled by The King Jame's Version. Jefferson answered Milton's query. Jefferson said it was better to serve in heaven and Jefferson was a Deist and heaven and hell are only here on earth.
America was supposed the Pie in the Sky before you die.
Well read Eunice. Well written as usual Chris. Happy New Year to you both
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/lets-nuke-the-world-over-who-governs
Let's Nuke The World Over Who Governs Crimea -- Caitlin Johnstone Jan. 22, 2023
Boris
The Russians were booted out of Crimea in 1853.
Britain's military elite served in the Light Brigade where they rode their own horses.
They rode on a suicide mission while the Russians were in retreat back to Moscow.
Tennyson was required to explain the misfortune.
" Their's was not to reason why
Their's but to do and die."
There are two America's Eugene Victor Debs used Tennyson's lines to try to abstain from war.
Woodrow Wilson used them as an excuse for war.
I dunno why we are discussing this in this thread but as one sickened by the perversion of reality that anglo historians inevitably adopt about Russia, which is then taken up by people innocent of the distortions I reckon it is better to hear what has actually happened in Crimea over the last thousand years. Sorry but there will be typos.
Actually Russia has had a valid claim to Crimea since the 10th Century when Vladimir I of the Rus (founders of Russia who were originally from eastern Scandanavia) claimed it.
After that a mob of Tartars, part of the Golden Horde whose leader was Juchi the eldest son of Genghis Khan, fronted up. The Rus had been there 300 years before the Tartars and over the centuries there has been much backwards and forwards between the two mobs with the Tartars getting up whenever they managed to persuade the Ottoman empire to lend a hand (kinda like the BS Ukraine is trying to pull now by getting the amerikan empire onside).
e.g Peter the Great won it back in the late 17th Century, then the Ottoman's jumped in for a while until in 1783 when Katherine the Great incorporated it back into the Russian empire.
In 1853 when the Ottomans were beginning their decline they did a deal with England & France who were determined to expand their own empires by stitching up the Black Sea in a contra-deal with the Ottomans.
Russia did their usual - same as they did when Bonaparte and his 'grande armee' had invaded half a century before, so pulled back and waited until england and france shot through, whereupon the Russian army came back. During all these conflicts Russian people who suffered hugely under the Tartars hung on in Crimea, as population-wise they outnumbered the tartars.
After the Russian revolution, in typical slimy fashion the tartars cut a deal with the so-called 'white russians' who were former aristos and upper middle class types that were heavily supported by amerika and england. Of course eventually the usual happened and Russia and the majority Russian population of Crimea prevailed, this time though it was to join the newly formed Soviet Union.
The next major problem was caused by Nikita Khruschev who in a fit of benevolent stupidity, imagining he was going to give his old community a bit of a hand-up (Khruschev was a Russian Ukrainian) incorporated Crimea into the Ukraine socialist republic, ie for amerikans that would be like the president telling Oklahoma it was now part of Texas. Khruschev ignored the complainst from both Russian & tartar Crimeans, he wanted his home state to get a share of the Russian Naval development.
At no time before since then then has Crimea suffered from a plethora of Galacians - these are the primarily germanic mob who reside in the far west of Ukraine and spawned Stepan Bandera and all the other ww2 & afterwards nazis responsible for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of jews, poles and hungarians, starting off inside Ukraine but as the war progressed his foul operation moved into Poland and Hungary. At it's heart this was straightforward ethnic cleansing as jews, ethnic Poles and Hungarians have lived around Lvov in western Ukraine for centuries.
When a referendum on Crimea incorporating with the Russian Federation was held in 2014 it came out with 97% in favour of incorporation. The Ukraine government installed after the illegal coup in 2014 claimed that Tartars wanted to be part of Ukraine, then for some reason probably related to the fact that this claim was just another nazi lie which would be found out, those opposed to joining with Russia announced they would abstain from the referendum.
Crimea is part of Russia as it has been for 1000 years unless some greedy empire-buikding outsider sticks their nose in.
My ancestors have been there since Alexander ruled the world. Alexander the Macedonian. Who gave Crimea to the $$%%$^ Czars'?
Must have been the $@$%$% Holy Roman Empire.
Everything they touched turned to $%$$#$.
Debs is alive and well and living in Kiev.
And Moscow, and Vienna, and Berlin, and New York
and Paris and London and Hong Kong
Maybe more people will know Eugene Victor than Abraham Lincoln in a twenty first century America. I knew a Eugene Victor who knew a Eugene Victor He was my father law and made me a very happy man.
He taught me a man can only serve one master. Sometimes it is only the face in the mirror sometimes it is something beyond himself, sometimes we don't know who to serve so we follow the flock.
Actually hate to be pedantic but the Holy Roman Empire was barely founded when Vladimir I declared Crimea as part of his Kievan Rus empire.
That mob pulled a lot of foulness, even more when it devolved into the Hapsburg (Austro-Hungarian Empire), which Galicia was a part of on and off, but Crimea and Russia never were.
I love being pedantic. I am a peasant I belong to the land. What is this Empire you speak of? What does it look like? What does it do?
It is not my history. My Father was a wandering Aramean looking for a home.
I do not understand Europeans. They are completely alien to this wandering Aramean. The land owns the people. What kind of madness does it take to believe the people own the land?
That is the story of Sodom and the other Evil Cities translated into American. The Bible tells us to assimilate not segregate.
Louis Ginzberg 1905 Legends of the Bible.
Let us talk about 1689 since this is the American Empire not a French and English Empire time. William and Mary were both monarchs and had no real power. England was no longer autocratic. Let us talk about the metaphysics and the metaphysics were lots of peasants and very few kings.
Let us talk about Marcus Aurelius and his role as the ruler who serves his subjects.
There are two Americas. One believes the government serve the people and those that believe the government is their to serve them.
In 1776 the people were the chosen by God 7%.
As I understand it that is what Russia wants in Crimea as well. They were perfectly happy with Crimea being independent of all, but in 1994 the Ukrainians invaded and claimed it, even that was fine with Russia until it became apparent that the Galician nazis had done a deal with Nato which would not only destroy the Russian Federation's access to the Black Sea, it would cause all Russian speaking Crimeans to be oppressed then ethnically cleansed.
Oh, Eunice! The, Dear Reader...” comment was hilarious! I wish she narrated all my podcasts, books and would replace Alexa. Glad to find other audiobooks she’s narrated.
As a somewhat socially isolated person, I appreciated this article. Loneliness and alienation are public health threats physically, mentally, spiritually, politically, socially - in every way.
When in doubt, reach out!
Eunice Wong is a wonderful narrator of Chris Hedges work. PERFECT. Another great writer/narrator couple are Kaitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. Tim reads Kaitlin's brilliant work perfectly as well. Somebody already posted this example here today: "Let's Nuke The World Over Who Governs Crimea"
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/lets-nuke-the-world-over-who-governs
I could happily listen to Eunice Wong read pretty much anything- that said, this theme really resonates. There are reasons so many of us struggle with addiction and profound depression and it helps to hear sensible insights into why we are this way. Thank you.
Hope, Eunice, like many actors, does audio books.
Here is the link: https://www.audible.com/search?searchNarrator=Eunice+Wong
Thanks! I just bought the audio version of American Fascists. (I really DO read, and have read a couple of your books, but I love well done audio books, and look forward to this)
Not that I mind Chris Hedges but the world needs less shrill and more gentle.
Thank you
The politicians locked everything down and continued to do so. The pandemic didn't order gyms to be locked down. The political class wanted control, along with upward transfer of wealth. It's no wonder major corporations and billionaires became more wealthy during Covid, while the working and middle classes struggled or were wrecked.
I'm appalled by the direction we humans have taken as well, although I would say those that are finding human contact via the net are at least staying in touch with fellow man. Crazies motivated by hate have been around for a long time, a lot longer than the internet and it is onto all of us to be as accessible on the net as we are/were in the real world.
At the moment when the true left appears to share many of the same concerns as the right I have developed a quick litmus test to tell me who is who in this new zoo.
I no longer listen to whether someone claims to be across Marx or Engels or A Hitler, as far as I am concerned the true litmus test for a real leftie is do they hate?
If they do tell me the world would be fine if it wasn't for those dashed . . .whatever - fill in the gap with whoever fits, I know that this person is not what I consider to be a real leftist no matter how well they articulate Marxist dialectic.
Socialism has always been about humanity, all of us not just some of us. The Western Australian Labor Government which refused to recognise the indigenous stockman's strike in the 1940's and drove entire clans off their traditional lands into the Pilbara, was no more leftist than the US unions in the 50's & 60's which made it impossible for african-americans to work in 'their' industry.
If decent humans create enough places on the net for all people to feel welcome those rightist boards & blogs will lose much of their custom because if you read a rightist board for long enough it is only a matter of time until someone on it declares hatred for some value or people you hold dear.
Yes it would be much better if we all still met in person but there is no doubt in my mind that one of the features of the Pandemic was that it drove many, many small personalised businesses out in favour of large, unfeeling & corporatised mundanity - it cannot last, humans will just seek alternative ways to interrelate.
I knew a Eugene Victor named after a Eugene Victor. He was my father law. I was possibly the only person who ever knew him. He was a brilliant scientist living inside his own personal fortress.
They say I am autistic but I have no idea what that means I really couldn't do academic studies.
I was busy studying people and in the word of Jim Morrison "People are strange when you're a stranger."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Mz_IqpZX8
I watch America. I read Chris Hedges. I love Chris but things are getting better despite all the conflicting evidence.
We just got to stop believing all the Bullshit.
The Irish Famine was a genocide. You can't have a real famine and a booming food export economy.
All I can say is wow. Chris Hedges gets it. I have been waiting since he wrote the foreword to the 20th anniversary edition of Voltaire's Bastards. I hope he writes the foreword to this this year's thirtieth anniversary.
The banality of Evil is the central theme of John Ralston Saul's masterpiece.
Dostoyevsky translated into English is nothing like America's greatest writer translating Russian into American. Mark Twain spoke Russian and understood Russian black humour.
How black is The American Claimant?
Orwell stood on the shoulders of giants.
I'd be interested if Chris's
read Twain's 'Personal Re-
collections of Joan of
Arc' Twain's favorite
of his and probably
Mine too. by Far
Twain rightly eviscerates
The Church in the third act
and his Joan of Arc
Needs to be
a Movie
'the Paladin's
Audience' was my
Favorite scene/story
My wife enjoyed it very much. I am partial to his darkest writings. I like his Russian understandings. Of course Gogol's The Diary of a Madman is hilarious in 2023 but My forefathers were fleeing the Czar and when you are on foot those horses moved rather quickly.
I just got The Russian Claimant Mark Twain understood 2020 and Davos and The Banality of Evil.
I am interested kristofarian. I assume farian is sectarian and involves cannabis as in Pastafarian.
Are you a member of that ancient cult? That wasn't tobacco in the Temple's incense burners.
my dreads'
thc content's
high enough
to be outlawed
in 27 states Moe.
.
I'll likely Never
make it to
Russia.
I am working my way through the Quebec catalogue but I haven't had enough hair for dreads for five decades.
I remember when I first watched Zelenskiy play piano. I thought he was the most brilliant man on Earth. I never dreamed he could be elected president of anything. Nobody likes truthtellers.
if raygun can do it anyone can
Zelenskiy the Comedian
seems he's proficient
at Chess as well
as Messaging
This is well written and poignant.
"Social isolation is the lifeblood of totalitarian movements."
And yet the same people most harmed by it seem to be the same people inviting more of it with their political choices. What gives?
It has ever been thus. The Bible is literature not history. The story of Korach in the Bible is the same story. Jefferson wrote the American Bible. Jefferson was Deist. The Creator created and moved on. He left us in charge. We are all a bunch of drunken bums. We can't take care of ourselves never mind a planet.
Korach was a rich man in Egypt but just a Jew on the road to the promised land in Exodus.
Enjoyed Eunice’s inside asides. ❤️
It has been a rather mystical week in the Moezone. It is a shock for me to hear Chris talk about our banality. It is becoming ever more apparent that "FREE WILL" is highly overrated. In my world Mr Trump suffers from a pathology that shields him from empathy. The same for Putin and so many other would be autocrats.
Who in their right mind wants to run the world in 2023?
It would take me less than a second to go mad.
Absolutely wonderful.
Let us discuss Voltaire's Bastards. I understand your concern but what is this thing you call evil? Do we have free choice? Could Adam not eaten of the fruit of tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Fetal alcoholism often destroys empathy but has no effect on reason. You are an Harvard theologian. Why is Noah the town drunk? Purim is a day to not know the difference between good and evil. It is the one day of the year to get falling down drunk.
Why are our myths legends and moral lesson looked upon as literature? That is what it is, just like turtles carrying the Sun on their backs. it is literature? That is what it is, just like turtles carrying the Sun on their backs.
What you are missing is an understanding that the Earl Butts globalization of agriculture hollowed our rural corn-bean big AG states and towns every bit as much as off shoring industry decimated cities. Farmers and ranchers were turned into factory workers by big AG and the "food" processing industries. We have to rebuild local food and energy autonomy, regional industries and small scale manufacturing, and quality of life and thus grassroots democracy.
Eunice Wong is a wonderful narrator of Chris Hedges work. PERFECT. I thought her little aside in this piece was great fun and was very glad I'd listened to it after reading it yesterday.
Another great writer/narrator couple are Kaitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. Tim reads Kaitlin's brilliant work perfectly as well. Somebody already posted this example here today: "Let's Nuke The World Over Who Governs Crimea"
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/lets-nuke-the-world-over-who-governs
I wonder if Chris is aware of Caitlin's work. While Chris has become the LEADER of America, the Martin Luther King for ALL Americans and English speakers who read his work (because all but the billionaire elites have been stripped of their freedom, if not their material comfort), Caitlin is a brilliant writer, speaker, and poet we need to hear.
Chris, like MLK is always strong and measured, while Caitlin is sometimes wild and crazy. But the world needs both of these great writers and thinkers now desperately.
Today I was summoned to the Act of Toleration of 1689. When you don't travel in straight lines you end up in curious places.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Toleration-Act-Great-Britain-1689
It struck me as peculiar that Justice Scalia The Originalist would be disqualified from interpreting the constitution in 1776.
The Quebec Act of 1774 would allow Scalia's service on the court. It was the fifth and final Intolerable Act.
Antonin Scalia chose not to be an American.
It is the choice of the GOP to be antiAmerican.
I don't know if your Democrats are any better. I don't know what America stands for. I suspect many Americans are wondering the same thing.
Jefferson wrote The American Bible because he knew how much blood was spilled by The King Jame's Version. Jefferson answered Milton's query. Jefferson said it was better to serve in heaven and Jefferson was a Deist and heaven and hell are only here on earth.
America was supposed the Pie in the Sky before you die.