The latest United Nations report names hundreds of corporations, banks, technology firms, universities, pension funds and charities that profit from the Israeli occupation and genocide.
I’ve given up on humanity now and have for quite a few years. The concept of “artificial wealth” and the amassing of it by a few maniacal monsters is the impetus for many a war. It is beyond sickening and it is beyond words to even describe them in this day and age. And the “worst” war of all is on nature. ECOCIDE is all the rage among the billionaires along with their bought and paid for political class with their love of fossil fuels and therefore exponential climate collapse, and war making and their mad scientist tinkering with AI. They will likely kill off all life on earth in their quest to amass as much “wealth” as they can. In their twisted minds Death Is Wealth. In a healthy society they would all be locked up in insane asylums instead of wielding the reins of power.
"I’ve given up on humanity now and have for quite a few years." As have I. My only hope is that the human race is killed off first...and sooner rather than later. Then perhaps the remaining life on earth will have the opportunity to grow and thrive. And whatever evolution occurs, there will be no humans this time round.
Don't. In the midst of all the horrors, new humans are being born....the ignorance of the old is being seen........and questioned by the young. Old simplicities are dissolving and new possibilities are showing themselves.....
The need for change has never been greater.......but change agents may be multiplying as the horrors keep emerging. And its not just in Gaza...the country that has stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel is coming apart as well.
A New York primary chose a young (33) socialist as the Democratic candidate for mayor...and yes........the old moribund guard will try to defeat him.......beak off about the horrors of socialism....
But the future, if there is to be one.........has to be quite different from our past.
Many people know that now.... so let's all do what we can to find new ways of being.
THERE ARE MANY ALTERNATIVES TO DISASTER CAPITALISM AND ENDLESS WARS OF IDEOLOGY.
What can I say? This is honestly what I what I believe based on what I've seen in my 77 years.
Humankind has been here before, followed by two steps forward but then three back. Remember the 60s? I live in the states at the time. We (the US/the West/ First world countries) have generally regressed since then. Right wing fascism is on the rise around the world.
Of course the election of Zohran Mamdani as the Democratic nomination for NYC, is worthy of celebrating. But, as you well know, we've been here before. Bernie has doing great work, but he remains limited by "the old moribund guard" who don't seem to be going away anytime soon.
As to the future, (as you note, " if there is to be one") it NEEDS to be different from our past, but there's nothing saying that it has to be or or will be.
There very well may be alternatives to disaster capitalism and the war ideology,
but I don't believe that humankind, as a whole, is capable &/or willing to go there.
I had to smile as I read this sentence "Bernie has been doing great work, but he remains limited by ;the old moribund guard"who don't seem to be going away anytime soon."
The irony (for both you and me) is that they will be dropping like flies in the next decade. They are mostly old white folk....mostly old white men, let's be completely honest. And while I'm sure there are a lot of 50 somethings, ready to pick up the war games thrown them by old dying hands.......
It might be wise for all of us who see that as an utter END GAME...to put our money, mouths and what's left of our lives into supporting the young.
Mamdani's success suggests there are a lot of them.......many with the time on their hands to engage in street politics.
And then theres' the Climate. We keep on imagining exporting fracked fossil gas (90+% methane) and food is going to replace bombs.......as to what is going to take us out of the game. That emergency is real.
In other words, you and like-minded Euros and Euro descended colonists with your Enlightenment sense of intellectual superiority assume you have the right to pronounce judgement on all of humanity.
Never mind there are Indigenous peoples who were not (and still aren't) alienated from the specific environment that sustains us. Or that there are even some Europeans and descendants who are dedicated to living lightly locally.
Is your position a divine wisdom that knows with certainty fungi, plants, animals, bacteria, and archaea don't feel for their human kin? And us for and with them?
Despair is also useful as a justification for not doing anything while claiming a moral loftiness for it.
I certainly have a right to my opinions based on my analysis of what I've experienced and what I have learned from others. Perhaps you should take a look in the mirror. You seem to have no problem pronouncing judgement on me
based on approximately a half dozen sentences in a single response to another's comment. Is it because you see yourself as intellectually superior judging from some moral high ground?
As a municipal counsellor, many years ago, I had the honour of learning from, and conferring with, the Indigenous people, who were the original people on those lands. I sent my children to their preschool so that they could see and learn that there was another way of being in the world than what they saw at home.
At the same time, as an elected official, I tried hard to stop the environmental damage being done by corporations with the blessings of other levels of government. Some of the saddest experiences I had was when these government and corporate representatives would announce that the local indigenous peoples had signed on to these projects... "run of the river" projects,
the expansion of tree farm licenses, various P3 projects. Of course it was their elected chief and councils signing on.
Finally, your accusation that my despair is simply "justification for not doing anything while claiming a moral loftiness...". Again, you know nothing about me and what I've done or tried to during my life. To me, you just come across as sitting on your own moral throne making arrogant judgements. I don't accept them.
Indeed, too much evidence for: it is over - there is no cure that could hold up what is coming (friends of ours with children/grandchildren see it like the others, they still hope, I don't blame them, but if you open your eyes it is all there - humans are the monstrosity of evolution)
Oh well, this is OK, if you want to lead a Don Quixote campaign! - As Mr Hedges and others point out NOTHING will change in the USA if there are no General Strikes and other similar measures - same or similar would be necessary for most of the other countries (for me: capitalism kills - it feeds only the rich to get richer & humans are very flawed 'beings')
And the sad part is, not the most of them.........its mainly the alpha males and their supporters who think that endless growth is the alternative to having to share the earth's resources.......and live within our means.
If we analysed the escape hatches provided for most of us....we'd soon realize at best they are addictions......and at worst, poor substitutes for the pleasures we could have if all were housed, clothed, educated, and invited to the feast.
Living simply with those you love is the real abundance. Windigos can't let that be widely known.
Wow @Sandy, no one said that you don't have a right to your opinions, but anyone who posts sniffy comments condemning humanity is likely to be viewed by others as promoting a do-nothing nihilist fatalistic viewpoint that deserves rebuttal.
And then, sorry/not, but your comments to Rafi, proving each of her points, one after another...white middle-class people think everything is supposed to be plain vanilla, so we don't even realize that "some of my best friends are flavored." isn't so much a defense as an admission of settler-colonialist ignorance.
The wise old owl says the best cure is to close your mouth and open your ears.
"The wise old owl says the best cure is to close your mouth and open your ears." So I have a right to my opinions, but should keep my mouth shut about them???
"...white middle-class people think everything is supposed to be plain vanilla...". Is that's supposed to describe me? It simply proves that you too know nothing about me on several fronts. Further, ALL white people don't think alike, any more than ALL indigenous or POC, or Asian, or Hispanic people do.
Sharing some of my life experiences in response to false claims made about me is hardly analogous to the pathetic phobic claim that "some of my best friends are_______" .... fill in the blank - black, homosexual, Jews etc
I feel a lot of hatred in your comments. I will not be participating further.
No hatred here. I'm remembering all the PoC who helped me understand that when they characterized racism as "ignorant," they were also gently pointing out my shallow understanding of their lived realities and history. Apologies if I mistakenly assumed that you share my ethnicity, but at one time or another, I've said almost all of these same things. I'm still working to expand my imperfect understanding, so when the subject is about a certain ethnic or other social group, and I'm not a member of that group, it's time to listen rather than talk.
Of course, the subject of racism and ethnicity is from Rafi's rebuttal of your suggestion that all of humanity is bad and deserves to die. From Rafi's past posts, she is probably thinking of indigenous cultures that have traditionally lived in balance with nature, versus colonialism, which imagines it can conquer nature. These tribal peoples might be innocent, yet your words convict them along with the technofascists.
My particular challenge is to your comments that promote hopelessness and the idea that all humans should just die out -- it is the exact opposite of what we need to hear!
Then please do read the book by Cassian Noor , AEON.. hope might not be from humans , as I too am giving up on Humanity .. but is it not exactly what they want you to do? want us to do ? Be hopeless ?
Download here iid interested in a alternative ending to this regime.
This book came to my attention from comments elsewhere. Perhaps perhaps it was from you. I've actually purchased the book already. Now I just have to find time to read it lol.
Yes please do read it. I have felt so despondent and hopeless . There is so much going on and I am computer science high school teacher, I understood the AI and how it is being used. There is soo much doom and gloom , so when I read this book , the first 6 chapters were hard but then it changed into something totally different ! We must have hope , the powers are mightier than us. But keeping faith tells us there is a balance and always has been . Empires have always fallen . I would love to hear what you think of the book and its message !!
In a healthy society there would be no insane asylums. Forced treatment laws are profoundly harmful and psychiatric patients with 'severe mental illness' are second class citizens who can be held indefinitely without legal representation. Inpatient units are truly horrible, and once released patients can still be forced to show up for injections. I wish folks on the left would stop using psychiatric abuse as an expression or a curse. It adds insult to injury. Why doesn't the left care about folks incarcerated this way?
Like Rogers’Pink Floyd says, many of us wake up in despair, so today is not the time for giving up..there are a few humane ones left.. worth fighting for..
One day I was speaking with my Mother, a kind and conscientious woman, about the horror of children being torn apart by land mines. She lived near Seattle and was proud of her affiliation with, and investment in Boeing. I reminded her that she was helping to finance that horror.
Her response was “Oh stop it. You’re giving me a headache.”
This is a great, but camouflaged, impediment to peace in our world today.
There aren’t that many monsters in the world, but there are far too many simple people unwilling to sacrifice even a tiny measure of comfort if it can be hidden behind a veil of seemingly harmless ambivalence. The Monsters depend on people like my mother.
Stock market investments are traditionally known as one of the best ways to manage money, but almost every major stock in some way benefits from MIL spending.
We don't necessarily want to purchase new stocks in companies where we don't approve of their role in WMDs, and we might even sell existing stock to invest that money elsewhere, but where?
Maybe you can research this for your mother? Maybe she doesn't know where else to invest this money, or maybe her social circle is mostly Boeing associates? In either case, she might not appreciate you repeatedly trying to rap her knuckles with this stick.
Consider a humble conversation with someone whose point of view you genuinely want to understand and appreciate...knowing that it's her life and her choice... Likewise, she might not agree to have this convo with you again, especially if you weaponized your moral superiority against her in past conversations, and you want to respect that.
However, feel free to repeat yourself on public forums! You can even clap back at this comment if you like.
You make a number of assumptions which I won’t go into, besides the main one: “someone whose point of view you genuinely want to understand”. ?!?
My mother didn’t have the intelligence to understand my point, thus the headache. Nor did she pique my interest in any meaningful way. She was, as I said, simple. As for “moral superiority”, it isn’t a moral question, it’s a practical one. If you’re against mutilating children, but don’t mind paying for the weapons that kill them, then you are a hypocrite. My mother was a hypocrite, and a coward. She died many years ago, and not a day goes by that I’m not thankful…that I was adopted.
Sera, You seem intelligent and dedicated, and I meant to honor your point that many people don't recognize their own complicity in the issues that affect our world today, especially the genocide against Palestinians living in Israel. Stock market investments are a great example. Sorry that wasn't clear enough from my comment.
You express yourself well, but in a harsh judgmental way that is going to appeal mostly to others who share your convictions. To persuade or inspire people with other points of view, avoid invoking a defensive reaction. Instead, start from a position of genuine respect, gratitude for the opportunity to interact, and openness to considering other points of view. Just because you understand each others perspectives doesn't mean that you have to agree.
Sometimes coincidences are revelatory, I guess. I just put down the novel Jailbird, by Kurt Vonnegut, and picked up my phone and read this post. The descriptions of the corporations’ doings with Israel in Gaza and the West Bank were startling in their similarity to those of the omnipresent RAMJAC Corporation in the novel. Blurbs on the cover and inside it speak of the spectacular satirical achievement of Jailbird. But, compared to the reality in this report, very tame stuff indeed. We have come a very long way since 1979.
I watched your interview with Francesca and noticed her principled approach in responding to your questions. She kept specifics out of the answers; wanting to protect the sanctity of her findings. The tenor provided an uneasiness and definitely created a hesitancy to know the truths she was about to reveal. We’ll kind sir; you broke the dam and what has gushed out will sweep away every bit of supporting infrastructure that the privileged class had constructed to hold up the bridge they drove their phony profit engines across.
Today I pre-ordered William Hartung’s coming book....
The Trillion Dollar War Machine
It was inside an article he had written for Tom Dispatch...
This profiteering seems to be what was ordered up on the menu of today’s waking state for me...
I now call my rising every morning...
The Waking State Nightmare
I’ll be making a copy on Francesca’s report and tuck it inside Mr. Hartung’s new book for anyone who discovers my library someday. It will most certainly frighten the future generations also.
Thanks again for all your efforts. I’m looking forward to your new compilation with Joe Sacco.
Say hi to him; and please let him know how much I love his work. 🙏🇵🇸🇱🇧🇸🇾🇮🇷🇮🇶🇾🇪❤️🙏🕉
Thank you Chris for laying bare the complicity of this vast network of industrial and financial capital that make the genocide possible and in all likelihood urge its continuation. I (we) have been searching for a rational explanation for the western leadership’s encouragement of this slaughter and their resultant apathy towards its axiomatic outcome. Could this be the smoking gun?
"Genocide requires a vast network...entities which profit from industrial violence...are war criminals; they, too, must be held accountable." Well, yeah...except those "entities" aren't human. Yet because of a declaration within a header for a US Supreme Court decision in 1886, Santa Clara (California county) v. Southern Pacific (powerful railroad,) corporations were said to have human rights. Something never actually encoded in law, but then established by precedent and passed on to the rest of the world.
A glaring example: the WTO. I was at the 1999 anti-WTO protests in my native city I'm proud to say became known as 'The Battle of Seattle.' Those participating against? Labor unions, Indigenous peoples, churches, small farmers, scientists, eco-activists, students, medical professionals, small business organizations, supporters of community democracy, alt. economists, both local and from around the world. Those for? Multinational corporations, their political lapdogs, and their well-funded academic justifiers.
The inhumanity has deepened. To begin with, corporate accounting defines away devastation of human communities and entire ecosystems as 'externalities,' as irrelevant. Add that trickle up is running out of middle class people and natural resources from which to extract profits. Then consider the techno-libertarians and their fantasies of total control. Aided by AI; as programmed by them with as few traces of traits that characterize us real humans--like compassion, a sense of justice, reverence for nature, an appreciation of beauty--as is inhumanly possible. Finish it off with all those wonderful opportunities for extensive profits that still remain with forever wars, conducted as abstractions by the bloodless in their luxurious remote settings.
Very well-written, documented and convincing! Our media are silent for fear of being labelled anit-semitic? Although I believe the atrocities Netanyahu and many in the state if Israel commit against the Palestinians, there are no political parties in Canada that recruit our corrective action. With whom can I ally? The only group I know of is Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME). My donations there are nothing compared to Canada's collusion with Israel.
Thanks Chris and to Francesca Albanese for her work in identifying the companies supping with the Zionist devils. They must be boycotted - investors divest their shares - and sanctioned forever henceforth!
Thank you for documenting all this. “The innate genocidal potential of the modern bureaucratic state” - Hannah Arendt. I’ve told a relative who crunches numbers for General Dynamics, maybe they should quit that job.
Carl Sagan, "To me it underscores our responsibility to deal kindly with one another and to preserve the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known". Something that could/should unite us. What is it in the human genome that makes us see each other as adversaries as opposed to allies, perform acts of violence, makes the abused become the abuser. Like many of you; Schrodinger, Sandy, Ingamarie, Rafi we've been followers of Chris Hedges. I enjoy your comments. So many questions. So few answers. I wish I were more hopeful but everything has an expiration date. As my daily task is to make one person laugh I hope this will make at least one of you chuckle. Have no idea why I've reached the age of 92 but my neighbor had a theory. When I returned home from my second bout with a second cancer, both were supposed to kill me, she looked me straight in the eye and said, "Rhana, God doesn't want you, the devil won't take you, so we're stuck with you".
We can boycott these companies. And we can share information. But I am afraid it is too late for the Palestinians in Gaza. I am totally disgusted. I’e expressed my frustration to my representatives but they don’t hear me. They do not represent the working people. They represent the billionaire class and Israel. Most of our Congress makes decisions that benefit a foreign country not the US. They say it openly. That is the definition of a traitor. They serve Israel. The policies and laws passed by the government only benefit Israel and the billionaire class.
Helps explain how a murderous country the size of New Jersey with a puny population of 10 million people is allowed to commit genocide, bomb five different countries, and hold the world hostage to a potential new Mideast War, and perhaps even a nuclear one. When there’s money to be made who cares about Palestinians, Muslims, or Persians.
I’ve given up on humanity now and have for quite a few years. The concept of “artificial wealth” and the amassing of it by a few maniacal monsters is the impetus for many a war. It is beyond sickening and it is beyond words to even describe them in this day and age. And the “worst” war of all is on nature. ECOCIDE is all the rage among the billionaires along with their bought and paid for political class with their love of fossil fuels and therefore exponential climate collapse, and war making and their mad scientist tinkering with AI. They will likely kill off all life on earth in their quest to amass as much “wealth” as they can. In their twisted minds Death Is Wealth. In a healthy society they would all be locked up in insane asylums instead of wielding the reins of power.
"I’ve given up on humanity now and have for quite a few years." As have I. My only hope is that the human race is killed off first...and sooner rather than later. Then perhaps the remaining life on earth will have the opportunity to grow and thrive. And whatever evolution occurs, there will be no humans this time round.
Don't. In the midst of all the horrors, new humans are being born....the ignorance of the old is being seen........and questioned by the young. Old simplicities are dissolving and new possibilities are showing themselves.....
The need for change has never been greater.......but change agents may be multiplying as the horrors keep emerging. And its not just in Gaza...the country that has stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel is coming apart as well.
A New York primary chose a young (33) socialist as the Democratic candidate for mayor...and yes........the old moribund guard will try to defeat him.......beak off about the horrors of socialism....
But the future, if there is to be one.........has to be quite different from our past.
Many people know that now.... so let's all do what we can to find new ways of being.
THERE ARE MANY ALTERNATIVES TO DISASTER CAPITALISM AND ENDLESS WARS OF IDEOLOGY.
What can I say? This is honestly what I what I believe based on what I've seen in my 77 years.
Humankind has been here before, followed by two steps forward but then three back. Remember the 60s? I live in the states at the time. We (the US/the West/ First world countries) have generally regressed since then. Right wing fascism is on the rise around the world.
Of course the election of Zohran Mamdani as the Democratic nomination for NYC, is worthy of celebrating. But, as you well know, we've been here before. Bernie has doing great work, but he remains limited by "the old moribund guard" who don't seem to be going away anytime soon.
As to the future, (as you note, " if there is to be one") it NEEDS to be different from our past, but there's nothing saying that it has to be or or will be.
There very well may be alternatives to disaster capitalism and the war ideology,
but I don't believe that humankind, as a whole, is capable &/or willing to go there.
I had to smile as I read this sentence "Bernie has been doing great work, but he remains limited by ;the old moribund guard"who don't seem to be going away anytime soon."
The irony (for both you and me) is that they will be dropping like flies in the next decade. They are mostly old white folk....mostly old white men, let's be completely honest. And while I'm sure there are a lot of 50 somethings, ready to pick up the war games thrown them by old dying hands.......
It might be wise for all of us who see that as an utter END GAME...to put our money, mouths and what's left of our lives into supporting the young.
Mamdani's success suggests there are a lot of them.......many with the time on their hands to engage in street politics.
And then theres' the Climate. We keep on imagining exporting fracked fossil gas (90+% methane) and food is going to replace bombs.......as to what is going to take us out of the game. That emergency is real.
The Trump agenda?? Mainly cheap hollywood BS.
In other words, you and like-minded Euros and Euro descended colonists with your Enlightenment sense of intellectual superiority assume you have the right to pronounce judgement on all of humanity.
Never mind there are Indigenous peoples who were not (and still aren't) alienated from the specific environment that sustains us. Or that there are even some Europeans and descendants who are dedicated to living lightly locally.
Is your position a divine wisdom that knows with certainty fungi, plants, animals, bacteria, and archaea don't feel for their human kin? And us for and with them?
Despair is also useful as a justification for not doing anything while claiming a moral loftiness for it.
I certainly have a right to my opinions based on my analysis of what I've experienced and what I have learned from others. Perhaps you should take a look in the mirror. You seem to have no problem pronouncing judgement on me
based on approximately a half dozen sentences in a single response to another's comment. Is it because you see yourself as intellectually superior judging from some moral high ground?
As a municipal counsellor, many years ago, I had the honour of learning from, and conferring with, the Indigenous people, who were the original people on those lands. I sent my children to their preschool so that they could see and learn that there was another way of being in the world than what they saw at home.
At the same time, as an elected official, I tried hard to stop the environmental damage being done by corporations with the blessings of other levels of government. Some of the saddest experiences I had was when these government and corporate representatives would announce that the local indigenous peoples had signed on to these projects... "run of the river" projects,
the expansion of tree farm licenses, various P3 projects. Of course it was their elected chief and councils signing on.
Finally, your accusation that my despair is simply "justification for not doing anything while claiming a moral loftiness...". Again, you know nothing about me and what I've done or tried to during my life. To me, you just come across as sitting on your own moral throne making arrogant judgements. I don't accept them.
Indeed, too much evidence for: it is over - there is no cure that could hold up what is coming (friends of ours with children/grandchildren see it like the others, they still hope, I don't blame them, but if you open your eyes it is all there - humans are the monstrosity of evolution)
Sitting on our hands and prophecying certain doom as an excuse might indeed doom us all.
Oh well, this is OK, if you want to lead a Don Quixote campaign! - As Mr Hedges and others point out NOTHING will change in the USA if there are no General Strikes and other similar measures - same or similar would be necessary for most of the other countries (for me: capitalism kills - it feeds only the rich to get richer & humans are very flawed 'beings')
And the sad part is, not the most of them.........its mainly the alpha males and their supporters who think that endless growth is the alternative to having to share the earth's resources.......and live within our means.
If we analysed the escape hatches provided for most of us....we'd soon realize at best they are addictions......and at worst, poor substitutes for the pleasures we could have if all were housed, clothed, educated, and invited to the feast.
Living simply with those you love is the real abundance. Windigos can't let that be widely known.
Wow @Sandy, no one said that you don't have a right to your opinions, but anyone who posts sniffy comments condemning humanity is likely to be viewed by others as promoting a do-nothing nihilist fatalistic viewpoint that deserves rebuttal.
And then, sorry/not, but your comments to Rafi, proving each of her points, one after another...white middle-class people think everything is supposed to be plain vanilla, so we don't even realize that "some of my best friends are flavored." isn't so much a defense as an admission of settler-colonialist ignorance.
The wise old owl says the best cure is to close your mouth and open your ears.
"The wise old owl says the best cure is to close your mouth and open your ears." So I have a right to my opinions, but should keep my mouth shut about them???
"...white middle-class people think everything is supposed to be plain vanilla...". Is that's supposed to describe me? It simply proves that you too know nothing about me on several fronts. Further, ALL white people don't think alike, any more than ALL indigenous or POC, or Asian, or Hispanic people do.
Sharing some of my life experiences in response to false claims made about me is hardly analogous to the pathetic phobic claim that "some of my best friends are_______" .... fill in the blank - black, homosexual, Jews etc
I feel a lot of hatred in your comments. I will not be participating further.
No hatred here. I'm remembering all the PoC who helped me understand that when they characterized racism as "ignorant," they were also gently pointing out my shallow understanding of their lived realities and history. Apologies if I mistakenly assumed that you share my ethnicity, but at one time or another, I've said almost all of these same things. I'm still working to expand my imperfect understanding, so when the subject is about a certain ethnic or other social group, and I'm not a member of that group, it's time to listen rather than talk.
Of course, the subject of racism and ethnicity is from Rafi's rebuttal of your suggestion that all of humanity is bad and deserves to die. From Rafi's past posts, she is probably thinking of indigenous cultures that have traditionally lived in balance with nature, versus colonialism, which imagines it can conquer nature. These tribal peoples might be innocent, yet your words convict them along with the technofascists.
My particular challenge is to your comments that promote hopelessness and the idea that all humans should just die out -- it is the exact opposite of what we need to hear!
I very much appreciate your comment here, Rafi Simonton. Thank you.
As do I. Thank you.
Then please do read the book by Cassian Noor , AEON.. hope might not be from humans , as I too am giving up on Humanity .. but is it not exactly what they want you to do? want us to do ? Be hopeless ?
Download here iid interested in a alternative ending to this regime.
https://amzn.eu/d/hbcFV08
This book came to my attention from comments elsewhere. Perhaps perhaps it was from you. I've actually purchased the book already. Now I just have to find time to read it lol.
Yes please do read it. I have felt so despondent and hopeless . There is so much going on and I am computer science high school teacher, I understood the AI and how it is being used. There is soo much doom and gloom , so when I read this book , the first 6 chapters were hard but then it changed into something totally different ! We must have hope , the powers are mightier than us. But keeping faith tells us there is a balance and always has been . Empires have always fallen . I would love to hear what you think of the book and its message !!
In a healthy society there would be no insane asylums. Forced treatment laws are profoundly harmful and psychiatric patients with 'severe mental illness' are second class citizens who can be held indefinitely without legal representation. Inpatient units are truly horrible, and once released patients can still be forced to show up for injections. I wish folks on the left would stop using psychiatric abuse as an expression or a curse. It adds insult to injury. Why doesn't the left care about folks incarcerated this way?
Like Rogers’Pink Floyd says, many of us wake up in despair, so today is not the time for giving up..there are a few humane ones left.. worth fighting for..
One day I was speaking with my Mother, a kind and conscientious woman, about the horror of children being torn apart by land mines. She lived near Seattle and was proud of her affiliation with, and investment in Boeing. I reminded her that she was helping to finance that horror.
Her response was “Oh stop it. You’re giving me a headache.”
This is a great, but camouflaged, impediment to peace in our world today.
There aren’t that many monsters in the world, but there are far too many simple people unwilling to sacrifice even a tiny measure of comfort if it can be hidden behind a veil of seemingly harmless ambivalence. The Monsters depend on people like my mother.
Stock market investments are traditionally known as one of the best ways to manage money, but almost every major stock in some way benefits from MIL spending.
We don't necessarily want to purchase new stocks in companies where we don't approve of their role in WMDs, and we might even sell existing stock to invest that money elsewhere, but where?
Maybe you can research this for your mother? Maybe she doesn't know where else to invest this money, or maybe her social circle is mostly Boeing associates? In either case, she might not appreciate you repeatedly trying to rap her knuckles with this stick.
Consider a humble conversation with someone whose point of view you genuinely want to understand and appreciate...knowing that it's her life and her choice... Likewise, she might not agree to have this convo with you again, especially if you weaponized your moral superiority against her in past conversations, and you want to respect that.
However, feel free to repeat yourself on public forums! You can even clap back at this comment if you like.
You make a number of assumptions which I won’t go into, besides the main one: “someone whose point of view you genuinely want to understand”. ?!?
My mother didn’t have the intelligence to understand my point, thus the headache. Nor did she pique my interest in any meaningful way. She was, as I said, simple. As for “moral superiority”, it isn’t a moral question, it’s a practical one. If you’re against mutilating children, but don’t mind paying for the weapons that kill them, then you are a hypocrite. My mother was a hypocrite, and a coward. She died many years ago, and not a day goes by that I’m not thankful…that I was adopted.
I hope that was useful.
Sera, You seem intelligent and dedicated, and I meant to honor your point that many people don't recognize their own complicity in the issues that affect our world today, especially the genocide against Palestinians living in Israel. Stock market investments are a great example. Sorry that wasn't clear enough from my comment.
You express yourself well, but in a harsh judgmental way that is going to appeal mostly to others who share your convictions. To persuade or inspire people with other points of view, avoid invoking a defensive reaction. Instead, start from a position of genuine respect, gratitude for the opportunity to interact, and openness to considering other points of view. Just because you understand each others perspectives doesn't mean that you have to agree.
Sometimes coincidences are revelatory, I guess. I just put down the novel Jailbird, by Kurt Vonnegut, and picked up my phone and read this post. The descriptions of the corporations’ doings with Israel in Gaza and the West Bank were startling in their similarity to those of the omnipresent RAMJAC Corporation in the novel. Blurbs on the cover and inside it speak of the spectacular satirical achievement of Jailbird. But, compared to the reality in this report, very tame stuff indeed. We have come a very long way since 1979.
Many talk about the immorality of war, or its negative geopolitical effects. Not enough people talk about who's getting rich from it.
Smedley Butler was right. The only way we'll ever end war is to take the profit out of it. It should always be a cost to everyone.
I watched your interview with Francesca and noticed her principled approach in responding to your questions. She kept specifics out of the answers; wanting to protect the sanctity of her findings. The tenor provided an uneasiness and definitely created a hesitancy to know the truths she was about to reveal. We’ll kind sir; you broke the dam and what has gushed out will sweep away every bit of supporting infrastructure that the privileged class had constructed to hold up the bridge they drove their phony profit engines across.
Today I pre-ordered William Hartung’s coming book....
The Trillion Dollar War Machine
It was inside an article he had written for Tom Dispatch...
This profiteering seems to be what was ordered up on the menu of today’s waking state for me...
I now call my rising every morning...
The Waking State Nightmare
I’ll be making a copy on Francesca’s report and tuck it inside Mr. Hartung’s new book for anyone who discovers my library someday. It will most certainly frighten the future generations also.
Thanks again for all your efforts. I’m looking forward to your new compilation with Joe Sacco.
Say hi to him; and please let him know how much I love his work. 🙏🇵🇸🇱🇧🇸🇾🇮🇷🇮🇶🇾🇪❤️🙏🕉
Thank you Chris for laying bare the complicity of this vast network of industrial and financial capital that make the genocide possible and in all likelihood urge its continuation. I (we) have been searching for a rational explanation for the western leadership’s encouragement of this slaughter and their resultant apathy towards its axiomatic outcome. Could this be the smoking gun?
A global genocide machine with no Off Switch. I feel ashamed
Superb article. Thank you.
"Genocide requires a vast network...entities which profit from industrial violence...are war criminals; they, too, must be held accountable." Well, yeah...except those "entities" aren't human. Yet because of a declaration within a header for a US Supreme Court decision in 1886, Santa Clara (California county) v. Southern Pacific (powerful railroad,) corporations were said to have human rights. Something never actually encoded in law, but then established by precedent and passed on to the rest of the world.
A glaring example: the WTO. I was at the 1999 anti-WTO protests in my native city I'm proud to say became known as 'The Battle of Seattle.' Those participating against? Labor unions, Indigenous peoples, churches, small farmers, scientists, eco-activists, students, medical professionals, small business organizations, supporters of community democracy, alt. economists, both local and from around the world. Those for? Multinational corporations, their political lapdogs, and their well-funded academic justifiers.
The inhumanity has deepened. To begin with, corporate accounting defines away devastation of human communities and entire ecosystems as 'externalities,' as irrelevant. Add that trickle up is running out of middle class people and natural resources from which to extract profits. Then consider the techno-libertarians and their fantasies of total control. Aided by AI; as programmed by them with as few traces of traits that characterize us real humans--like compassion, a sense of justice, reverence for nature, an appreciation of beauty--as is inhumanly possible. Finish it off with all those wonderful opportunities for extensive profits that still remain with forever wars, conducted as abstractions by the bloodless in their luxurious remote settings.
Exactly. Well said.
By the way, I was there at the battle of Seattle. Perhaps we passed each other. You never know.
Very well-written, documented and convincing! Our media are silent for fear of being labelled anit-semitic? Although I believe the atrocities Netanyahu and many in the state if Israel commit against the Palestinians, there are no political parties in Canada that recruit our corrective action. With whom can I ally? The only group I know of is Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME). My donations there are nothing compared to Canada's collusion with Israel.
Thanks Chris and to Francesca Albanese for her work in identifying the companies supping with the Zionist devils. They must be boycotted - investors divest their shares - and sanctioned forever henceforth!
pisses me off super pisses me off
Thank you for documenting all this. “The innate genocidal potential of the modern bureaucratic state” - Hannah Arendt. I’ve told a relative who crunches numbers for General Dynamics, maybe they should quit that job.
Carl Sagan, "To me it underscores our responsibility to deal kindly with one another and to preserve the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known". Something that could/should unite us. What is it in the human genome that makes us see each other as adversaries as opposed to allies, perform acts of violence, makes the abused become the abuser. Like many of you; Schrodinger, Sandy, Ingamarie, Rafi we've been followers of Chris Hedges. I enjoy your comments. So many questions. So few answers. I wish I were more hopeful but everything has an expiration date. As my daily task is to make one person laugh I hope this will make at least one of you chuckle. Have no idea why I've reached the age of 92 but my neighbor had a theory. When I returned home from my second bout with a second cancer, both were supposed to kill me, she looked me straight in the eye and said, "Rhana, God doesn't want you, the devil won't take you, so we're stuck with you".
We can boycott these companies. And we can share information. But I am afraid it is too late for the Palestinians in Gaza. I am totally disgusted. I’e expressed my frustration to my representatives but they don’t hear me. They do not represent the working people. They represent the billionaire class and Israel. Most of our Congress makes decisions that benefit a foreign country not the US. They say it openly. That is the definition of a traitor. They serve Israel. The policies and laws passed by the government only benefit Israel and the billionaire class.
Helps explain how a murderous country the size of New Jersey with a puny population of 10 million people is allowed to commit genocide, bomb five different countries, and hold the world hostage to a potential new Mideast War, and perhaps even a nuclear one. When there’s money to be made who cares about Palestinians, Muslims, or Persians.