Please comment on my theory that the purpose of the elimination of the Gaza population is for Israel, and their owners the US, to gain full unimpeded rights to the Gaza gas fields which will be sold to the EU countries.
No idea how you go about asking a question for the live feed so I am going to comment on Trump's unhinged 51st state toxic rhetoric. How serious do you think he is Chris? And we don't want to become Americans. We like our social safety net, free medicare, muti party political system, gun control, multiculturalism, free education and so on. Imagine for a minute if the USA had these kinds of civilized social services and public policies. I can tell you one thing, Trump will never deliver on any these because he and his ilk prey upon privatizing and profiting off public services.
We need to build a consensus on taking the campaign financing out of the private corporate domain to the public domain. Absolutely an uphill climb, however, the impetus for this change is to safe guard the little power we the people have left to bring back democracy that has been hijacked by corporate houses and the 0.1% Oligarch who are the actual people for whose interest the election is now a ritual. Every time of election those politician who did not protect the oligarch interest are pushed out with campaign money. The evils of this two party system is well known and discussed in the alternate media.
Unless we start working for a change right now, we become inconsequential and democracy will be relegated to the text books.
The other option is not to do anything and let special interest politicians lie to us every 4 and 2 years until there is nothing left worth protecting.
We have the company of many on the alternate media who can guide us how to go about it.
Basis of our current complete loss of our already weak democracy are the machinations of the extremely wealthy elite. Who not only own most of the US, they also are the US Empire. It’s their agenda that drives our military/foreign policy disasters. The Left vs Right myth is an oligarchic contrivance. The wealthy parasitic elite are the true enemies of the People. Please comment and thank you for your truly significant journalism!
You said that the former mainline church is irrelevant in American life, it's the same here in Canada. Is there anything that the church could do to change that? It's collapsing anyway do there is literally nothing left to lose.
A friend Arthur Heitzer commented on your essay "Don't Deify Carter," where you wrote, “He armed the Mujahideen in Afghanistan AFTER the Soviet intervention in 1979, a decision that cost the U.S. $3 billion, saw the deaths of 1.5 million Afghans and led to the creation of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.” He pointed out that "According to both Brzezinski and Robert Gates, head of the CIA at the time, Carter was convinced to secretly arm the Mujahideen PRIOR to Soviet intervention with the expectation that this might well provoke Soviet intervention – which it did." Comment? Do you agree?
With Chris's comments that both faux-parties, Democratic and Republican are equally and completely committed to GLOBAL EMPIRE, that it has only taken a very few decades [since the 1944 silent coup d'état against Henry Wallace, by the Dixiecrat and Corporate Democrat Party] to transition into a full-fledged fucking GLOBAL EMPIRE ---- which was accomplished in only 80 years.
I don't know if anyone bothers to read these comments after the fact, but I have been thinking about something discussed in the Q&A, the prospect of de-dollarization of world trade and the effect on the U.S. Trump gave a recent warning to the BRICS regarding punitive measures if they attempt to establish a rival trade trade currency.
It has been noted that the record U.S. deficits are buoyed overwhelmingly by the purchase of treasuries, and that if this situation changed, we the U.S. would be in a dire economic predicament. Payment on the interest alone has now exceeded the budgets for Defense and Medicare. Added to the plummeting value of the dollar, and hyperinflation, another parallel with that mentioned, Weimar Germany would be apt.
Trump's recent statements with regard to Greenland and the Panama Canal can be seen to be in anticipation of what seems to be a trade war. (Mineral resources including rare earth metals, strategic position and control of shipping in the context of global competition.)
But it seems a very high-stakes risk.
There might come a point when Trump's already bellicose threats give impetus to global interests to do the very thing. And there seem to be indications of that sentiment growing already.
I confess to never having seen "The Apprentice", but from what I read over the years, I have some idea of how the Trump persona was enabled.
And it seems that not only he, but the elites of media and finance have certain dangerous failings in perspective, thinking that prevailed in a television show will function just as readily in the global arena.
I see some real problems, even with game as defined and driven by them.
If enacted as they say, there are some connections that lead to a path of great negative consequence economically.
They are gambling with the well-being of the entire country, and the price will be borne, as always by those who shoulder the load.
....connecting dots.......
Forbes)
"...Trump 2.0 would give Asia myriad other reasons to worry. A big one is his supersized tariffs on China and Asia more broadly. They’re sure to send U.S. inflation skyrocketing.
Another (concern): Trump’s dangerous flirtation with default. In 2016, for example, Trump told CNBC that “I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal. And if the economy was good, it was good. So therefore, you can’t lose.”
(American Bankruptcy Institute)
"Trump has filed for business bankruptcy four times: the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991, Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992, Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts in 2004 and Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009. Each time, the bankruptcy was a Chapter 11 filing."
" What will Europe do? Its most dominant members—Germany and France—do not want Trump to win. Their perception and experience is that Trump detests Europe, and Germany in particular. European countries have not forgotten his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement in 2018, which promised Iran sanctions relief in exchange for it scaling down its nuclear program. Trump then punished European companies for their entirely legal business with Iran. The European Union then set up an alternative payment system in euros but it never gathered real steam.
In some European quarters, informal talk about “de-dollarization” can be heard again. The idea is to protect the continent’s policies and businesses against renewed abuse by Washington. The euro is the world’s second reserve currency: Its share in global international currency use is about 19 percent, according to the European Central Bank.
"Trump’s economic programme amounts to a rejection of America’s postwar global role. He would slap 20 per cent tariffs on all imports and at least 60 per cent on goods from China. Contrary to what Trump asserts, tariffs are not a tax on foreign companies. Their cost would largely be borne by the US consumer through higher prices. Launching a global trade war would trigger retaliation by America’s friends and foes alike. The IMF reckons such a shift would lop a percentage point off next year’s US growth and cut global expansion by a quarter. The price of escalating trade barriers would only get steeper in 2026.
Trump also wants to curb the US Federal Reserve’s independence and people around him suggest he would replace its chair Jay Powell a year before his term ends. There is no near-term rival to the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency — though there is rising demand for an alternative, as last week’s Russia-hosted Brics summit conveyed. Politicising the Fed, vandalising what remains of global trade rules and expelling millions of undocumented migrants are the kind of game-changers that could trigger a rapid shift from the dollar.
The term mainline churches suggesting Christian denominations have a disconnect between Central leadership for Palestinian Rights and local congregations in my experience. Which reticence I call the barrier of denial and preservation of conventional comfort zone. I don’t sense that Resistance or lack of connection between the masjids I have visited. For example, the hosting of your “death of Israel talk” from the masjid in New Jersey. How can we preserve and encourage the strengthening of the separation of church and state?
Please comment on my theory that the purpose of the elimination of the Gaza population is for Israel, and their owners the US, to gain full unimpeded rights to the Gaza gas fields which will be sold to the EU countries.
Thanks for your guidance, Chris. It’s been a pleasure learning from you especially after Noam Chomsky’s silence after his medical condition.
No idea how you go about asking a question for the live feed so I am going to comment on Trump's unhinged 51st state toxic rhetoric. How serious do you think he is Chris? And we don't want to become Americans. We like our social safety net, free medicare, muti party political system, gun control, multiculturalism, free education and so on. Imagine for a minute if the USA had these kinds of civilized social services and public policies. I can tell you one thing, Trump will never deliver on any these because he and his ilk prey upon privatizing and profiting off public services.
09Jan2025:
We need to build a consensus on taking the campaign financing out of the private corporate domain to the public domain. Absolutely an uphill climb, however, the impetus for this change is to safe guard the little power we the people have left to bring back democracy that has been hijacked by corporate houses and the 0.1% Oligarch who are the actual people for whose interest the election is now a ritual. Every time of election those politician who did not protect the oligarch interest are pushed out with campaign money. The evils of this two party system is well known and discussed in the alternate media.
Unless we start working for a change right now, we become inconsequential and democracy will be relegated to the text books.
The other option is not to do anything and let special interest politicians lie to us every 4 and 2 years until there is nothing left worth protecting.
We have the company of many on the alternate media who can guide us how to go about it.
.
Basis of our current complete loss of our already weak democracy are the machinations of the extremely wealthy elite. Who not only own most of the US, they also are the US Empire. It’s their agenda that drives our military/foreign policy disasters. The Left vs Right myth is an oligarchic contrivance. The wealthy parasitic elite are the true enemies of the People. Please comment and thank you for your truly significant journalism!
You said that the former mainline church is irrelevant in American life, it's the same here in Canada. Is there anything that the church could do to change that? It's collapsing anyway do there is literally nothing left to lose.
A friend Arthur Heitzer commented on your essay "Don't Deify Carter," where you wrote, “He armed the Mujahideen in Afghanistan AFTER the Soviet intervention in 1979, a decision that cost the U.S. $3 billion, saw the deaths of 1.5 million Afghans and led to the creation of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.” He pointed out that "According to both Brzezinski and Robert Gates, head of the CIA at the time, Carter was convinced to secretly arm the Mujahideen PRIOR to Soviet intervention with the expectation that this might well provoke Soviet intervention – which it did." Comment? Do you agree?
With Chris's comments that both faux-parties, Democratic and Republican are equally and completely committed to GLOBAL EMPIRE, that it has only taken a very few decades [since the 1944 silent coup d'état against Henry Wallace, by the Dixiecrat and Corporate Democrat Party] to transition into a full-fledged fucking GLOBAL EMPIRE ---- which was accomplished in only 80 years.
I don't know if anyone bothers to read these comments after the fact, but I have been thinking about something discussed in the Q&A, the prospect of de-dollarization of world trade and the effect on the U.S. Trump gave a recent warning to the BRICS regarding punitive measures if they attempt to establish a rival trade trade currency.
It has been noted that the record U.S. deficits are buoyed overwhelmingly by the purchase of treasuries, and that if this situation changed, we the U.S. would be in a dire economic predicament. Payment on the interest alone has now exceeded the budgets for Defense and Medicare. Added to the plummeting value of the dollar, and hyperinflation, another parallel with that mentioned, Weimar Germany would be apt.
Trump's recent statements with regard to Greenland and the Panama Canal can be seen to be in anticipation of what seems to be a trade war. (Mineral resources including rare earth metals, strategic position and control of shipping in the context of global competition.)
But it seems a very high-stakes risk.
There might come a point when Trump's already bellicose threats give impetus to global interests to do the very thing. And there seem to be indications of that sentiment growing already.
I confess to never having seen "The Apprentice", but from what I read over the years, I have some idea of how the Trump persona was enabled.
And it seems that not only he, but the elites of media and finance have certain dangerous failings in perspective, thinking that prevailed in a television show will function just as readily in the global arena.
I see some real problems, even with game as defined and driven by them.
If enacted as they say, there are some connections that lead to a path of great negative consequence economically.
They are gambling with the well-being of the entire country, and the price will be borne, as always by those who shoulder the load.
....connecting dots.......
Forbes)
"...Trump 2.0 would give Asia myriad other reasons to worry. A big one is his supersized tariffs on China and Asia more broadly. They’re sure to send U.S. inflation skyrocketing.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/williampesek/2024/10/31/trumps-views-on-federal-reserve-are-the-stuff-of-china/
Another (concern): Trump’s dangerous flirtation with default. In 2016, for example, Trump told CNBC that “I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal. And if the economy was good, it was good. So therefore, you can’t lose.”
(American Bankruptcy Institute)
"Trump has filed for business bankruptcy four times: the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991, Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992, Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts in 2004 and Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009. Each time, the bankruptcy was a Chapter 11 filing."
https://www.abi.org/feed-item/examining-donald-trump%E2%80%99s-chapter-11-bankruptcies
(Foreign Policy)
" What will Europe do? Its most dominant members—Germany and France—do not want Trump to win. Their perception and experience is that Trump detests Europe, and Germany in particular. European countries have not forgotten his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement in 2018, which promised Iran sanctions relief in exchange for it scaling down its nuclear program. Trump then punished European companies for their entirely legal business with Iran. The European Union then set up an alternative payment system in euros but it never gathered real steam.
In some European quarters, informal talk about “de-dollarization” can be heard again. The idea is to protect the continent’s policies and businesses against renewed abuse by Washington. The euro is the world’s second reserve currency: Its share in global international currency use is about 19 percent, according to the European Central Bank.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/10/30/donald-trump-and-the-end-of-the-dollar-as-we-know-it/
Financial Times:
"Trump’s economic programme amounts to a rejection of America’s postwar global role. He would slap 20 per cent tariffs on all imports and at least 60 per cent on goods from China. Contrary to what Trump asserts, tariffs are not a tax on foreign companies. Their cost would largely be borne by the US consumer through higher prices. Launching a global trade war would trigger retaliation by America’s friends and foes alike. The IMF reckons such a shift would lop a percentage point off next year’s US growth and cut global expansion by a quarter. The price of escalating trade barriers would only get steeper in 2026.
Trump also wants to curb the US Federal Reserve’s independence and people around him suggest he would replace its chair Jay Powell a year before his term ends. There is no near-term rival to the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency — though there is rising demand for an alternative, as last week’s Russia-hosted Brics summit conveyed. Politicising the Fed, vandalising what remains of global trade rules and expelling millions of undocumented migrants are the kind of game-changers that could trigger a rapid shift from the dollar.
https://www.ft.com/content/3db1db35-f536-4efc-b463-a1fc98a785b0
Thanks so much for your insights.
With the rise of robotics and manufacturing jobs sent overseas, what will effective
resistance look like against mega-wealthy oligarchs, what will strikes look like?
What impact might pope francis’ new liberal cardinal to DC make?
Sent from my iPhone
Can anyone point me to Chris's speaking schedule? I can't seem to find it anywhere.
Where can I download MP3s of these shows?
The term mainline churches suggesting Christian denominations have a disconnect between Central leadership for Palestinian Rights and local congregations in my experience. Which reticence I call the barrier of denial and preservation of conventional comfort zone. I don’t sense that Resistance or lack of connection between the masjids I have visited. For example, the hosting of your “death of Israel talk” from the masjid in New Jersey. How can we preserve and encourage the strengthening of the separation of church and state?
Thanks.