How incredibly sad. When I was a university student in the early 60s Israel was a shining beacon of rebirth. How did it sink so low? SMH.
So much native talent, so much ambition, so much financial support, so much goodwill. Pissed away by monsters lacking human decency or morals, and hiding behind the skirts of a hegemon, corrupted from within. It has proved to be unable or unwilling to protect Israel from itself and allowed them to reenact their own role-reversing history. No one expected their lofty aspirations to end in infamy, did they?
I think if you read a book like Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, you will revise your view on what Israel once was. The Israel you thought you knew is a myth.
During the early years of Israel many of us did not know much, and were thrilled to see the Jewish people have a safe refuge where they would be free to be themselves. We were told that Israel is "a land with no people for a people with no land". Yes, it was a myth. By the early 70s those of us who followed world events found that Israel was secretly funneling prohibited arms from the US to South Africa's apartheid regime. Cover blown. Still, it took me to the 21st Century to learn the word Nakba.
I experienced what you experienced. I prowled Sproul Plaza not long after Mario Savio. I, too, read the lies about Israel. Only, in my case I had reason not to believe them. I was lucky, and I’m not being critical of you; we all wanted to believe the lies. But they were always lies. Their lofty aspirations have always been infamous. Their goal has always been ethnic cleansing. They were the first to proclaim “From the river to the sea”.
Your path is similar to that of Miko Peled, and it’s an honorable one. It’s never too late to see the truth, the truth will wait for those able to see it.
The worlds eye's were opened wide with Covid - now, no one believes anything and has finally woken up - no longer trusting or believing an ounce of anything the media or the government spews. Even the extent and caliber of the egregious and malicious lies have reached an all time low solidifying the desperation. How do fit 40 babies inside an oven?
It's over - not only has Israel and the USA signed their own death certificates so has the media. Trust is something that can never be repaired. This is a huge turning point we are clearly on the precipitance of a revolution in addition to war in the Middle East that very well may escalate.
It's coming . . . even the youth is paying attention!
Wait! Are you suggesting there's some doubt about Covid? Look... brave doctors and nurses speaking their truth in (oddly) sexy polyester scrubs and rubber crocs, many with stethoscopes draped casually yet earnestly around their strong and shapely necks, nestling and jostling against their nobly self-sacrificing chests and breasts. Surely these folks wouldn't deceive us poor uneducated fools! Surely you jest! Pshaw!
It's only the "ceremonious pompous bureaucrats" standing at the podium with the family portrait of imbeciles wreathed behind and alongside them who're deciding us - sorry for the miscommunication - surprised the censors didn't pick it up!
Not believing in anything often means you fall for a lot of well polilshed lies. We have to continue to be educated enough to separate the Chris Hedges from the government hacks still in denial about the ongoing genocide in Gaza....and we need to be smart enough to distinquish between a genocide and an act of terrorism.
Governments may lie....or spin reality....but they don't do it 24-7. And recognizing the difference between the American government's war on Assange and the international efforts to find a vaccine for covid is part of what a good citizen has to do.
Of course it helps to get rid of the evil enemy syndrome....and assess the evidence. Social media may have made that too hard for too many....and the charletons have increased accordingly. I still get the covid vaccine....good science says it helps; and I still support Palestine....good history tells me who's land it is.
Spare a little time for activism...a rally can put one in touch with our kindred spirits. We're readers too....I'm currently enthralled with a book called ENTANGLED LIFE...about fungus and how they work in the world wood web.....its lightening my spirits in this dark time.
No truer words were ever spoken! Living 10 minutes outside of NYC - the blaring screams of antisemitism is pure unadulterated bullshit. The Jews have always been revered. Like you say so much native talent - there isn't anyone that doesn't say use Jewish doctors, Jewish lawyers, Jewish surgeons - the best because they have the best education! I am middle aged and the only thing we ever heard growing up is that they were cheap! That was the entire extent of this alleged antisemitism bullshit!
Here in Northern NJ there are dozens of Yeshiva's and synagogues - we have one of the largest Jewish populations and there has never, ever, ever, been an incident of anything! Ever!
What Chris just said could not be more true - Israel is solely responsible for wiping Israel off the map! To be a Jew today will become like Nazi Germany déjà vu. And as you just also stated:
"Pissed away by monsters lacking human decency or morals, and hiding behind the skirts of a hegemon, corrupted from within"
I just can't help but wonder if this was all deliberate because this suicide mission it is just so blindingly obvious - is this actually about eradicating the Jews? Chris could not have stated it more accurate when he said - they have signed there own death certificate!
I’ve looked hard at the bleating about anti-semitism. First off the data come from or via, or have been finagled by the ADL. A very suspect organization claiming to defend rights when in fact its Jewish entitlement that they are about. They never give control numbers , ever! Like blacks or Asians, unless forced to.
One way that circumvents their finagling is to look at murder. Even the ADL can’t fudge that.
So in the last 5 years there has been one, I repeat one Jew killed in the US for being a Jew. This is dwarfed by blacks murdered for being black for example.
Anti-semitism lost its veneer for me when they claimed Mandela and Tutu were anti-semites when they expressed sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians.
It’s such a scourge that according to Forbes, only 40% of American billionaires are Jews! It’s such a scourge that voters elect 3x as many Jews to Congress as their ovulation numbers warrant. Has there ever been a big time Jewish crook or sex pervert who did bleat anti-semitism when caught?
{I’ve looked hard at the bleating about anti-semitism.}
I was listening to my local "college" radio station a few weeks back and a young Jewish woman came on and spoke about fearing to be a Jew for the very first time at her college - afraid to walk anywhere on campus!
Are you sitting down I hope?
NOT I repeat NOT because of anti-Semitism but because of the Pro-Israel movement and security on the campus was so profound she feared for her life supporting the Palestinians!
Fearing is hardly an objective outcome. For the most part in the present context it depends on how neurotic you are.
I recently experienced having a young well-nourished Jewish woman announce herself as a granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. She seemed to be boasting. It did not occur to her that she might be talking to someone, both of whose parents did not survive WWII.
You're watching this huge exodus of Israel's to the USA and throughout all of Europe. They might say one thing but they know the truth hence the massive migration. No sane human being could possibly condone this.
Totally agree. I'd rather be sinned upon than the sinner. The blood of innocents doesn't wash off. Shame and guilt will destroy the nation from within.
I don't men to lessen anything you said - but it's akin to claiming the economy is booming and then televise mall parking lots filled with cars - Walk inside however to see how many are actually carrying bags?
Lets face it - truth now completely ceases to exist
I use to think I was going a senile with all the talk of racism - but that too was another lie as least here in the Metropolitan area. You can't have it both ways claiming America was built on immigration and then go about spouting we're racists, antisemites, bigots and xenophobes. I grew up in the 60's - we didn't see color race creed or anything else. Not saying our elders didn't put from the 60's on - our generation formed it's own opinion. We all had friends from different cultures and races and never thought twice about any of it.
I think the gist of Chris' article is that a colonial nation that chooses apartheid followed by periodic bombing of the population kept locked up in a small part of the nation....followed by what is absolutely a sustained act of collective punishment to the point where there is no safe place in Gaza....or clean drinking water or food..........that colonial nation is signing its own death warrant by pursuing genocidal violence to solve its security problems.
The State of Israel is being turned into a monster...by the fanatics at the helm. Try imagining what the Islamic population of the middle east is feeling as they watch Gaza die.........on the telly. Imagine what any part of the world not blinded by American exceptionalism is thinking about the USA....as it doggedly continues to sent Israel the weapons needed to destroy an essentially unarmed civilian population.
If I were a citizen of Israel right now.......I'd be planning to emigrate......to where ever I could find refuge.
I concur with everything both you and Chris said. This was the nail that nailed Israel's coffin shut. The question is why? For over 75 years they reaped the sympathy of the Holocaust and now, they've become Nazi's. Why not a ground invasion why total destruction?
It's about about land, the gas fields, the new canal, shipping lanes, trade and the worlds next super power. You can kiss Israel's and the US asses buh-bye. Russia and China have both moved six war ships in the area and Iran sent war ships into the Red Sea today!
I still think Netanyahu made a deal with Putin - take Israel down I wonder if he can seek political asylum in Russia - of course he would eventually fall out a window but Putin is a brilliant strategist. I also believe he lured everyone into Ukraine when he deliberately invaded them. Everyone ran, everyone partook and everyone is now sans artillery while Russia is headed off to Israel. You know 10-07 was an excuse to commence all of this.
And look who holds all the cards? The entire Middle East is backing Russia.
Close to a million Israel's have all fled Israel - every plane coming to Europe and the states is full!
What makes me most sad, is that none of this would have been possible without armaments from the wealthiest, most entitled, and I'm sorry to say, most ignorant Empire on the planet. As a Canadian, I don't feel superior to any of this.....just scared for my grandkids for the day you decide you have to ingest us....
My partner learned this morning that South Africa has succeeded in getting the charge of genocide before the International Court of Justice........and there are hopes that the case will be heard in the near future. We should keep our eyes on that.........AND on the role of America in trying to shut it down.
I keep wondering when the real revolution will begin in America...as more and more people of good will start to actually see themselves and their country in the mirror of growing world opposition to the unquestioned support for Israel.
I concur with all - we can only hope the revolution is finally imminent! Most experts feel there will not be an election and or if Trump doesn't win - that will solidify just how corrupt the process is. I don't vote and only that his lead is so insurmountable and therefore impossible to beat. It would require far more malfeasance than previously and would blow the lid off everything. Finally resulting in an overthrow of the government!
Thank God for South Africa - but as I say/think there is far more complex than what people are seeing. The Middle East is about to explode now that they assassinated Saleh al-Arouri, who was the deputy chief of the political bureau for Hamas - this is all planned.
You may think the warlords attempting to rule the world are smarter than I do. Yes. They have schemes...ways of meddling...but when it blows up in their faces, do you think they took that possibility into account from the beginning???
Yes. I too swallowed this... hook, line, and sinker.
When you and I were students in the early 60's Israel was 45 plus years into the British instigated genocide and 15-ish years into the "mature" Zionist State's brutal ethnic cleansing aka Nakba. (We could peer further back into the mists of time, I suppose, but at some point history fades into mythology so everyone eventually chooses his favourite arbitrary starting point to begin his story, his argument.)
Some of my ancestors were oppressed Scots and Irish who, dispossessed, fled Britain to likewise dispossess the indigenous peoples of New England, and some in turn fled those colonies as refugees (aka "United Empire Loyalists") of the American Revolution, in turn to dispossess other first nations peoples north of the Great Lakes, now styled "Ontario". My house sits on land to which the Six Nations of the Grand River (also refugees from territories south of the lakes, also in a sense settler-colonists, counter-revolutionary collaborators of the redcoats vs the yankees) has a pretty sound claim, and to which other first-er first nations have a pretty sound previous claim. We are all the children and grandchildren of the brutality of Empire.
It may be impossible to fully address the injustices of the past, but those of the future are still avoidable.
And in a penultimate irony Ebyville became Berlin , then changed to honor Lord Kitchener the inventor of the concentration camp. He was the man on the English recruiting posters for WWI and the template for “Uncle Sam wants you” . Berlin to Kitchener is as guillotine is to gallows or asking the man on death row if he wants AC or DC.
How much terror can a person sustain? The horror of avoiding death simply by randomly picking the proper spot on the ground must be omnipresent. For those present in these unjust and inhumane conditions how can this monstrous and barbaric treatment possibly be atoned?
Even for little me, ensconced in the bastion of the free, buttressed by right of assembly and freedom of speech, I draw a great deal of discomfort from the views prevalent today. Many articles from "The New York Times" have reader comments to accompany them online. The thought that I might presently be standing in a checkout line with one of the authors calling for less food and fresh water deliveries, more bombardments, more indiscriminate shelling, and while we are at it -- more war is a stark reminder of the damage that a lifetime of exposure to the concept of 'american exceptionalism' generates.
We desperately need to vote in a different political class this year.
"The Israeli scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned that if Israel did not separate church and state and end its occupation of the Palestinians, it would give rise to a corrupt Rabbinate that would warp Judaism into a fascistic cult. “Israel,” he said, “would not deserve to exist, and it will not be worthwhile to preserve it.”
Same for Bidden and Netanyahu. Both evil , vile satanic in their thirst for unpure blood spilling. To prison for both for their genocide lust.
BIG TIME! The planes from Israel have been completely full and non-stop from Day One! They know it's only a matter of time - and lets not forget - these people were on the ground and know exactly what transpired on October 7th - you can censor and kill every single journalist in attempt to sequester the truth but these people witnessed their own government assassinate their own people on October 7th. Imagine being called up and rushing to defend your Country only to have the IDF kill you instead - THINK ABOUT THAT!!!!! What about the people who lived to testify it was the IDF and not Hamas who slaughtered the Israel's? We all know they invoked the Hannibal Directive that day - we all know they destroyed all the evidence at the Kibbutz - we all know they destroyed and buried all the cars from the concert! You too would run for dear life if you lived in Israel!
Please continue to speak out Chris, I hold your words as evidence of sanity and decency in the world. We may as ordinary citizens may not be able to change the actions of the murderous leaders we did not vote for, but we must bear witness, and protest. US slavery and apartheid SA were defeated although it took hundreds of years.
He's clearly chosen to milk this story for all it's worth rather than draw attention to the problems now facing the U.S. working class ... he's been hiding his head since the MAR '20 lockdowns ... no longer a true activist, just an actor playing his part ...
I know, right? Why would you want to live in a nation all Christian? Or all Jewish? Jews and Palestinians used to live and work side by side. But hey, when Israel was formed we got to all be Jewish now. Madness.
Agreed. Everyone the same? It's unnatural. Who wouldn't love having different cultures around? Otherwise you live in an echo chamber of same old opinions. No where in the world is a nation all one religion.
The US isn't distancing itself from Ukraine because it has found Jesus and realizes it's wrong: it's distancing itself from Ukraine because it has gotten everything out of Ukraine that it's going to get.
I don't see that the US will distance itself from Israel the same way. Israel is obediently following the murderous policies of the United States.
We have arrived at the latest stages of capitalism and that means fighting to regain something that has left and will not return: all the more so because you can't regain status when you don't act the way you did to gain your status.
After urging us to confront tyranny for the past two decades, Hedges deserted us by throwing the working class under the bus with COVID ... he refused to stand with us against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports, and also told his avid followers to go out and get vaxed just 30 days after the explosive FDA FOIA release ... and then in the same breath, openly admitted that he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ...
An unemployed, divorced mother of 4 never gives a thought to Gaza, Assange or CIA corruption, and Hedges knows it! ... but these are his "bread and butter" issues that protect his place in the independent media food chain ... there is a war raging here in the U.S. between Hedges' working class and the DS ... but he has chosen to double down on the ISR-PAL conflict instead ... Hedges has now devoted more words to the plight of the PALs than he ever has about those of us who are being crushed by COVID tyranny ... but St Chris ain't the least bit interested ... he seems to be hell bent on milking Gaza at our expense ... ya see, it's just too risky to stand with "we the people" ...
I can't help but love this preacher/journalist/dissident celebrity (one of only six guests invited to the Assange wedding) for his citations of Durkheim, Neibuhr, Tillich, et al, his rehabilitation of the word "demonic", his efforts at the rehabilitation/rescue of prisoners in New Jersey, and so much else... But yeah... he really chugged the Covid Koolaid, lol.
I used to love the guy too ... but seeing video footage of the vax-injured is nothing like seeing it happen to someone in your immediate circle ... that's when I began to look at him differently ...
Vax injured or covid injured? I know a 36 year old, let's called him John. Super fit, gym every day, good job on good money. He loved recreational cocaine, alcohol, coffee and sex. That was his life. He got covid and when he got well, he went to the doctor to get a "back to work" certificate. The doctor ordered more tests and found his heart was inflamed. The doc said, "No sex, no alcohol, no coffee, no drugs, no exercise for 3 months. If you do any of these things you may die of a heart attack."
I wonder how many died as they didn't get a doctor who gave them good advice?
By the way, "John" didn't have the vaccine. He was due to get it the day he tested positive for covid.
Here's just one of Hedges' most damning quotes ...
He didn't do the working class any favors for saying this ... his words, not mine ...
****************
On DEC 2, 2021 ...
The FDA was compelled by a court ruling to release Phizer's vax trial data that revealed 1,223 post-jab deaths and 34,762 adverse events in the first 10 weeks of its trial ... The FDA attempted to delay the full release of this data for 75 years! ...
This proved that the COVID vax was NOT "safe & effective" ...
And then, just 30 days later ...
On JAN 1, 2022 ...
Chris Hedges made this comment on the Krystal Kyle & Friends Podcast (Episode #54):
"I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic and mutations until everybody gets vaccinated" ... Chris Hedges DID NOT have to take sides on this issue ... He could have said it's a personal decision, but he chose to push the "safe & effective" narrative anyway! ...
Most people would never tell another person to "walk the plank" if they knew better, but that's exactly what Hedges did here ... he knew the VAX was rushed to market after only one year (the average is 10 years), he knew about the explosive FDA FOIA release and he had to have seen the many videos of vax-injured people ... and then about 2m after making that same comment during the interview above, Hedges openly admitted that he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ... clearly, this man did not give a hoot about the consequences ...
Hedges should not be forgiven for looking us all in the eye and lying to us when he knew better.
I was a totes covidiot for the first few months but my skepticism took over long before the vaxes were pushed at us. At the time I was an "essential" worker (trucker) and had to defy my employer's demand that I take the vax or take a leave of absence. I said "neither" and said I'd continue to report for duty until I was fired for Cause, as the company was supposed to do under Canadian (Federal) labour regulations (still on the books, to my knowledge). The boss blinked and I continued working. So yes, I get your frustration and anger but I also understand how freaked out Hedges, Chomsky, my buddy N..., my then gf J....., and so many others were and are. This was a propaganda assault of unprecedented power. It's going to take a long time (a generation?) to get any kind of sensible consensus. There is an ontological/epistemological crisis of unprecedented power. The only thing I can think that might compare is the crisis of rligion and rise of religious agnosticism/atheism over the past two or three centuries. It's astounding. Idk.
It's funny that so many people and institutions who are admirably cynical about corporate capture of government regulatory agencies (banking, environmental, mining, prisons, and on and on...) somehow give "public health" a pass, and have unshakeable faith. I don't get it.
In a 2021 interview he said he advised indigenous pipeline protesters to "park your cars in their path, remove the engines and walk away"... but Hedges didn't even comment on the Canadian Truckers Convoy until a March '22 interview with Jimmy Dore - roughly one month after the protests actually ended ... I kept looking for Hedges to comment on it for us, but no ... he just hid his head ...
That trucker thing was essentially Astroturf likely sponsored by Max Bernier and his ilk, not a true grass roots organized working class movement. However it resonated with and inspired many workers (including me to some degree). The problem with these types of phony workers' (petit bourgeois) movements is they usually end up co-opted, serving the interests of masters, not workers.
Perhaps you should spend a few years studying virology and immunology. mRNA vaccine research has been going on for 30 years or more since mRNA was discovered in around 1970. Consider countries like Vietnam and Thailand, where the first genome of Covid struck. Proper isolation, masks, restrictions, resulted in 20 deaths in the first year. When mRNA vaccines became available, Asian countries were not allowed to have them. When Delta variant hit, 20,000 deaths in a short period of time. USA did almost nothing at the direction of the idiot president. Over one million Americans died! A record in the world! No nothing and allow mutations was the American way! Do nothing the next time with a more virulent virus and say goodbye to many if not all your friends and relatives. Verbally and scientifically attack Trump, not Hedges!
Ever hear of the World Economic Forum? ... do you have any idea of the pure hell that awaits us if the amendments to the WHO Health Treaty are approved? ... do you? ... Hedges has never had a word to say about either ... and in no way did your dissertation above refute my comment ... the COVID vax was rushed to market after only one year under protection of legal immunity for Phizer, Moderna and J&J ... Hedges knew the risks and rather than just admit that it is in fact a personal decision, he looked us all in the eye and in effect told us the vax was "safe & effective" ... your comment makes no sense! ... and Hedges was an insensitive, self-centered prick for taking sides with big pharma on this matter ...
Then you must certainly know how lucky you've been so far, right? ...
BTW, if you find the time this week, you might post a DIRECT reply to my initial comment because you've now evaded me twice ... the VAX is a bio-weapon and deliberately formulated to kill and injure people ... so go ahead, call me crazy and call the medical professionals who have done the pain-staking research to prove it crazy, and I will bury you with enough hard evidence to keep you busy until Valentine's day ... and if you don't read it, then someone else here will ...
Being deployed to war zones a few times buts risks in perspective. Covid started as an unknown lethality risk. China built two 1000 bed isolation hospitals, each in ten days, anticipating the worst outcome. Fortunately, the thousands of mutations were relatively mostly less lethal. The key is to quarantine and isolate the virus immediately, not a year later. Everything was done wrong, the vaccine complication issue was relatively minor. Learn and be prepared for the next viral challenge. I don't think the USA is capable of preparing a survival plan. Others will, 95% of Thai people still wear masks in the subways. It's unfortunate that most are useless non N95 masks. Cheers! Give Hedges a break, mistakes happen.
“War” used as a term in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a euphemism. Netanyahu saw an enormous opportunity on October 7 to go into Gaza and either annihilate or drive out the Palestinians there, he did not care which. He just wants them gone. That’s not a war. That is genocide or ethnic cleansing, again either one will serve his purposes.
An observation to reflect on: „Nations need more than force to survive. They need a mystique. This mystique provides purpose, civility and even nobility to inspire citizens to sacrifice for the nation. The mystique offers hope for the future. It provides meaning. It provides national identity.”
How incredibly sad. When I was a university student in the early 60s Israel was a shining beacon of rebirth. How did it sink so low? SMH.
So much native talent, so much ambition, so much financial support, so much goodwill. Pissed away by monsters lacking human decency or morals, and hiding behind the skirts of a hegemon, corrupted from within. It has proved to be unable or unwilling to protect Israel from itself and allowed them to reenact their own role-reversing history. No one expected their lofty aspirations to end in infamy, did they?
I think if you read a book like Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, you will revise your view on what Israel once was. The Israel you thought you knew is a myth.
During the early years of Israel many of us did not know much, and were thrilled to see the Jewish people have a safe refuge where they would be free to be themselves. We were told that Israel is "a land with no people for a people with no land". Yes, it was a myth. By the early 70s those of us who followed world events found that Israel was secretly funneling prohibited arms from the US to South Africa's apartheid regime. Cover blown. Still, it took me to the 21st Century to learn the word Nakba.
The censorship apparatus is more robust than most of us like to admit....our western ignorances greater than we like to imagine.
What part of his book are you referring to, that Jews have been persecuted for centuries?
I experienced what you experienced. I prowled Sproul Plaza not long after Mario Savio. I, too, read the lies about Israel. Only, in my case I had reason not to believe them. I was lucky, and I’m not being critical of you; we all wanted to believe the lies. But they were always lies. Their lofty aspirations have always been infamous. Their goal has always been ethnic cleansing. They were the first to proclaim “From the river to the sea”.
Your path is similar to that of Miko Peled, and it’s an honorable one. It’s never too late to see the truth, the truth will wait for those able to see it.
The worlds eye's were opened wide with Covid - now, no one believes anything and has finally woken up - no longer trusting or believing an ounce of anything the media or the government spews. Even the extent and caliber of the egregious and malicious lies have reached an all time low solidifying the desperation. How do fit 40 babies inside an oven?
It's over - not only has Israel and the USA signed their own death certificates so has the media. Trust is something that can never be repaired. This is a huge turning point we are clearly on the precipitance of a revolution in addition to war in the Middle East that very well may escalate.
It's coming . . . even the youth is paying attention!
Wait! Are you suggesting there's some doubt about Covid? Look... brave doctors and nurses speaking their truth in (oddly) sexy polyester scrubs and rubber crocs, many with stethoscopes draped casually yet earnestly around their strong and shapely necks, nestling and jostling against their nobly self-sacrificing chests and breasts. Surely these folks wouldn't deceive us poor uneducated fools! Surely you jest! Pshaw!
No! No! No!
It's only the "ceremonious pompous bureaucrats" standing at the podium with the family portrait of imbeciles wreathed behind and alongside them who're deciding us - sorry for the miscommunication - surprised the censors didn't pick it up!
Not believing in anything often means you fall for a lot of well polilshed lies. We have to continue to be educated enough to separate the Chris Hedges from the government hacks still in denial about the ongoing genocide in Gaza....and we need to be smart enough to distinquish between a genocide and an act of terrorism.
Governments may lie....or spin reality....but they don't do it 24-7. And recognizing the difference between the American government's war on Assange and the international efforts to find a vaccine for covid is part of what a good citizen has to do.
Of course it helps to get rid of the evil enemy syndrome....and assess the evidence. Social media may have made that too hard for too many....and the charletons have increased accordingly. I still get the covid vaccine....good science says it helps; and I still support Palestine....good history tells me who's land it is.
I spend my life reading everything - not only to stay informed of both sides of an argument but to keep track of all the lies.
Spare a little time for activism...a rally can put one in touch with our kindred spirits. We're readers too....I'm currently enthralled with a book called ENTANGLED LIFE...about fungus and how they work in the world wood web.....its lightening my spirits in this dark time.
Be well.
No truer words were ever spoken! Living 10 minutes outside of NYC - the blaring screams of antisemitism is pure unadulterated bullshit. The Jews have always been revered. Like you say so much native talent - there isn't anyone that doesn't say use Jewish doctors, Jewish lawyers, Jewish surgeons - the best because they have the best education! I am middle aged and the only thing we ever heard growing up is that they were cheap! That was the entire extent of this alleged antisemitism bullshit!
Here in Northern NJ there are dozens of Yeshiva's and synagogues - we have one of the largest Jewish populations and there has never, ever, ever, been an incident of anything! Ever!
What Chris just said could not be more true - Israel is solely responsible for wiping Israel off the map! To be a Jew today will become like Nazi Germany déjà vu. And as you just also stated:
"Pissed away by monsters lacking human decency or morals, and hiding behind the skirts of a hegemon, corrupted from within"
I just can't help but wonder if this was all deliberate because this suicide mission it is just so blindingly obvious - is this actually about eradicating the Jews? Chris could not have stated it more accurate when he said - they have signed there own death certificate!
I’ve looked hard at the bleating about anti-semitism. First off the data come from or via, or have been finagled by the ADL. A very suspect organization claiming to defend rights when in fact its Jewish entitlement that they are about. They never give control numbers , ever! Like blacks or Asians, unless forced to.
One way that circumvents their finagling is to look at murder. Even the ADL can’t fudge that.
So in the last 5 years there has been one, I repeat one Jew killed in the US for being a Jew. This is dwarfed by blacks murdered for being black for example.
Anti-semitism lost its veneer for me when they claimed Mandela and Tutu were anti-semites when they expressed sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians.
It’s such a scourge that according to Forbes, only 40% of American billionaires are Jews! It’s such a scourge that voters elect 3x as many Jews to Congress as their ovulation numbers warrant. Has there ever been a big time Jewish crook or sex pervert who did bleat anti-semitism when caught?
{I’ve looked hard at the bleating about anti-semitism.}
I was listening to my local "college" radio station a few weeks back and a young Jewish woman came on and spoke about fearing to be a Jew for the very first time at her college - afraid to walk anywhere on campus!
Are you sitting down I hope?
NOT I repeat NOT because of anti-Semitism but because of the Pro-Israel movement and security on the campus was so profound she feared for her life supporting the Palestinians!
There is a Jewish mafia....and it seems to have its finger prints on a lot of anti-free speech shut downs.
Fearing is hardly an objective outcome. For the most part in the present context it depends on how neurotic you are.
I recently experienced having a young well-nourished Jewish woman announce herself as a granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. She seemed to be boasting. It did not occur to her that she might be talking to someone, both of whose parents did not survive WWII.
Yes. My Jewish family members and friends in the US oppose the genocide in Gaza. My Israeli relatives I am not so sure.
Thank you . . . .
You're watching this huge exodus of Israel's to the USA and throughout all of Europe. They might say one thing but they know the truth hence the massive migration. No sane human being could possibly condone this.
Totally agree. I'd rather be sinned upon than the sinner. The blood of innocents doesn't wash off. Shame and guilt will destroy the nation from within.
Sadly you are probably right
I don't men to lessen anything you said - but it's akin to claiming the economy is booming and then televise mall parking lots filled with cars - Walk inside however to see how many are actually carrying bags?
Lets face it - truth now completely ceases to exist
I use to think I was going a senile with all the talk of racism - but that too was another lie as least here in the Metropolitan area. You can't have it both ways claiming America was built on immigration and then go about spouting we're racists, antisemites, bigots and xenophobes. I grew up in the 60's - we didn't see color race creed or anything else. Not saying our elders didn't put from the 60's on - our generation formed it's own opinion. We all had friends from different cultures and races and never thought twice about any of it.
I think the gist of Chris' article is that a colonial nation that chooses apartheid followed by periodic bombing of the population kept locked up in a small part of the nation....followed by what is absolutely a sustained act of collective punishment to the point where there is no safe place in Gaza....or clean drinking water or food..........that colonial nation is signing its own death warrant by pursuing genocidal violence to solve its security problems.
The State of Israel is being turned into a monster...by the fanatics at the helm. Try imagining what the Islamic population of the middle east is feeling as they watch Gaza die.........on the telly. Imagine what any part of the world not blinded by American exceptionalism is thinking about the USA....as it doggedly continues to sent Israel the weapons needed to destroy an essentially unarmed civilian population.
If I were a citizen of Israel right now.......I'd be planning to emigrate......to where ever I could find refuge.
I concur with everything both you and Chris said. This was the nail that nailed Israel's coffin shut. The question is why? For over 75 years they reaped the sympathy of the Holocaust and now, they've become Nazi's. Why not a ground invasion why total destruction?
It's about about land, the gas fields, the new canal, shipping lanes, trade and the worlds next super power. You can kiss Israel's and the US asses buh-bye. Russia and China have both moved six war ships in the area and Iran sent war ships into the Red Sea today!
I still think Netanyahu made a deal with Putin - take Israel down I wonder if he can seek political asylum in Russia - of course he would eventually fall out a window but Putin is a brilliant strategist. I also believe he lured everyone into Ukraine when he deliberately invaded them. Everyone ran, everyone partook and everyone is now sans artillery while Russia is headed off to Israel. You know 10-07 was an excuse to commence all of this.
And look who holds all the cards? The entire Middle East is backing Russia.
Close to a million Israel's have all fled Israel - every plane coming to Europe and the states is full!
What makes me most sad, is that none of this would have been possible without armaments from the wealthiest, most entitled, and I'm sorry to say, most ignorant Empire on the planet. As a Canadian, I don't feel superior to any of this.....just scared for my grandkids for the day you decide you have to ingest us....
My partner learned this morning that South Africa has succeeded in getting the charge of genocide before the International Court of Justice........and there are hopes that the case will be heard in the near future. We should keep our eyes on that.........AND on the role of America in trying to shut it down.
I keep wondering when the real revolution will begin in America...as more and more people of good will start to actually see themselves and their country in the mirror of growing world opposition to the unquestioned support for Israel.
I concur with all - we can only hope the revolution is finally imminent! Most experts feel there will not be an election and or if Trump doesn't win - that will solidify just how corrupt the process is. I don't vote and only that his lead is so insurmountable and therefore impossible to beat. It would require far more malfeasance than previously and would blow the lid off everything. Finally resulting in an overthrow of the government!
Thank God for South Africa - but as I say/think there is far more complex than what people are seeing. The Middle East is about to explode now that they assassinated Saleh al-Arouri, who was the deputy chief of the political bureau for Hamas - this is all planned.
You may think the warlords attempting to rule the world are smarter than I do. Yes. They have schemes...ways of meddling...but when it blows up in their faces, do you think they took that possibility into account from the beginning???
Yes. I too swallowed this... hook, line, and sinker.
When you and I were students in the early 60's Israel was 45 plus years into the British instigated genocide and 15-ish years into the "mature" Zionist State's brutal ethnic cleansing aka Nakba. (We could peer further back into the mists of time, I suppose, but at some point history fades into mythology so everyone eventually chooses his favourite arbitrary starting point to begin his story, his argument.)
Some of my ancestors were oppressed Scots and Irish who, dispossessed, fled Britain to likewise dispossess the indigenous peoples of New England, and some in turn fled those colonies as refugees (aka "United Empire Loyalists") of the American Revolution, in turn to dispossess other first nations peoples north of the Great Lakes, now styled "Ontario". My house sits on land to which the Six Nations of the Grand River (also refugees from territories south of the lakes, also in a sense settler-colonists, counter-revolutionary collaborators of the redcoats vs the yankees) has a pretty sound claim, and to which other first-er first nations have a pretty sound previous claim. We are all the children and grandchildren of the brutality of Empire.
It may be impossible to fully address the injustices of the past, but those of the future are still avoidable.
And in a penultimate irony Ebyville became Berlin , then changed to honor Lord Kitchener the inventor of the concentration camp. He was the man on the English recruiting posters for WWI and the template for “Uncle Sam wants you” . Berlin to Kitchener is as guillotine is to gallows or asking the man on death row if he wants AC or DC.
Only you would know about this? From a neighbour down the road.
Only who? Would know about what? Down which road?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Z439YYyD0
I live NW of Stratford. Btw Re the Platters - as a resident in NY I saw the vocal cords of the late bass singer of the Platters.
How much terror can a person sustain? The horror of avoiding death simply by randomly picking the proper spot on the ground must be omnipresent. For those present in these unjust and inhumane conditions how can this monstrous and barbaric treatment possibly be atoned?
Even for little me, ensconced in the bastion of the free, buttressed by right of assembly and freedom of speech, I draw a great deal of discomfort from the views prevalent today. Many articles from "The New York Times" have reader comments to accompany them online. The thought that I might presently be standing in a checkout line with one of the authors calling for less food and fresh water deliveries, more bombardments, more indiscriminate shelling, and while we are at it -- more war is a stark reminder of the damage that a lifetime of exposure to the concept of 'american exceptionalism' generates.
We desperately need to vote in a different political class this year.
"The Israeli scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned that if Israel did not separate church and state and end its occupation of the Palestinians, it would give rise to a corrupt Rabbinate that would warp Judaism into a fascistic cult. “Israel,” he said, “would not deserve to exist, and it will not be worthwhile to preserve it.”
Same for Bidden and Netanyahu. Both evil , vile satanic in their thirst for unpure blood spilling. To prison for both for their genocide lust.
Amen
{It will be revealed as an ugly, repressive, hate-filled apartheid regime, alienating younger generations of American Jews.}
From your lips to God ears!
As always brilliantly stated and well said!
This seems obvious to those paying attention. Fascinating numbers about emigration.
BIG TIME! The planes from Israel have been completely full and non-stop from Day One! They know it's only a matter of time - and lets not forget - these people were on the ground and know exactly what transpired on October 7th - you can censor and kill every single journalist in attempt to sequester the truth but these people witnessed their own government assassinate their own people on October 7th. Imagine being called up and rushing to defend your Country only to have the IDF kill you instead - THINK ABOUT THAT!!!!! What about the people who lived to testify it was the IDF and not Hamas who slaughtered the Israel's? We all know they invoked the Hannibal Directive that day - we all know they destroyed all the evidence at the Kibbutz - we all know they destroyed and buried all the cars from the concert! You too would run for dear life if you lived in Israel!
Please continue to speak out Chris, I hold your words as evidence of sanity and decency in the world. We may as ordinary citizens may not be able to change the actions of the murderous leaders we did not vote for, but we must bear witness, and protest. US slavery and apartheid SA were defeated although it took hundreds of years.
He's clearly chosen to milk this story for all it's worth rather than draw attention to the problems now facing the U.S. working class ... he's been hiding his head since the MAR '20 lockdowns ... no longer a true activist, just an actor playing his part ...
Choose your battles carefully! Ongoing genocide is hard to ignore🤪
Israel should be a lesson to all of us with regard to religion.
'Nature teaches us to love our friends, but religion our enemies.' Thomas Fuller MD Glomologia
I know, right? Why would you want to live in a nation all Christian? Or all Jewish? Jews and Palestinians used to live and work side by side. But hey, when Israel was formed we got to all be Jewish now. Madness.
Would fill me with horror....love having different cultures around me.
Agreed. Everyone the same? It's unnatural. Who wouldn't love having different cultures around? Otherwise you live in an echo chamber of same old opinions. No where in the world is a nation all one religion.
The US isn't distancing itself from Ukraine because it has found Jesus and realizes it's wrong: it's distancing itself from Ukraine because it has gotten everything out of Ukraine that it's going to get.
I don't see that the US will distance itself from Israel the same way. Israel is obediently following the murderous policies of the United States.
We have arrived at the latest stages of capitalism and that means fighting to regain something that has left and will not return: all the more so because you can't regain status when you don't act the way you did to gain your status.
When it comes down to the planet or them......warmongers mistakenly always choose themselves........and are relieved when the bombings begin.
Yes
After urging us to confront tyranny for the past two decades, Hedges deserted us by throwing the working class under the bus with COVID ... he refused to stand with us against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports, and also told his avid followers to go out and get vaxed just 30 days after the explosive FDA FOIA release ... and then in the same breath, openly admitted that he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ...
An unemployed, divorced mother of 4 never gives a thought to Gaza, Assange or CIA corruption, and Hedges knows it! ... but these are his "bread and butter" issues that protect his place in the independent media food chain ... there is a war raging here in the U.S. between Hedges' working class and the DS ... but he has chosen to double down on the ISR-PAL conflict instead ... Hedges has now devoted more words to the plight of the PALs than he ever has about those of us who are being crushed by COVID tyranny ... but St Chris ain't the least bit interested ... he seems to be hell bent on milking Gaza at our expense ... ya see, it's just too risky to stand with "we the people" ...
Thx for nothin' Chris!
I can't help but love this preacher/journalist/dissident celebrity (one of only six guests invited to the Assange wedding) for his citations of Durkheim, Neibuhr, Tillich, et al, his rehabilitation of the word "demonic", his efforts at the rehabilitation/rescue of prisoners in New Jersey, and so much else... But yeah... he really chugged the Covid Koolaid, lol.
I used to love the guy too ... but seeing video footage of the vax-injured is nothing like seeing it happen to someone in your immediate circle ... that's when I began to look at him differently ...
Vax injured or covid injured? I know a 36 year old, let's called him John. Super fit, gym every day, good job on good money. He loved recreational cocaine, alcohol, coffee and sex. That was his life. He got covid and when he got well, he went to the doctor to get a "back to work" certificate. The doctor ordered more tests and found his heart was inflamed. The doc said, "No sex, no alcohol, no coffee, no drugs, no exercise for 3 months. If you do any of these things you may die of a heart attack."
I wonder how many died as they didn't get a doctor who gave them good advice?
By the way, "John" didn't have the vaccine. He was due to get it the day he tested positive for covid.
My use of the term "vax-injured' referred to the COVID vax ...
And read Dr Ana Milhacea here on Substack ...
Many stories on blood tests done on unvaxed people that revealed nano-tech synBio ...
But she confidently believes she has an effective protocol, which I've been using ...
BS
BS? ...
Here's just one of Hedges' most damning quotes ...
He didn't do the working class any favors for saying this ... his words, not mine ...
****************
On DEC 2, 2021 ...
The FDA was compelled by a court ruling to release Phizer's vax trial data that revealed 1,223 post-jab deaths and 34,762 adverse events in the first 10 weeks of its trial ... The FDA attempted to delay the full release of this data for 75 years! ...
This proved that the COVID vax was NOT "safe & effective" ...
And then, just 30 days later ...
On JAN 1, 2022 ...
Chris Hedges made this comment on the Krystal Kyle & Friends Podcast (Episode #54):
Go to the 1:08:47 mark:
https://krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/p/episode-54-audio-chris-hedges#details
"I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic and mutations until everybody gets vaccinated" ... Chris Hedges DID NOT have to take sides on this issue ... He could have said it's a personal decision, but he chose to push the "safe & effective" narrative anyway! ...
Most people would never tell another person to "walk the plank" if they knew better, but that's exactly what Hedges did here ... he knew the VAX was rushed to market after only one year (the average is 10 years), he knew about the explosive FDA FOIA release and he had to have seen the many videos of vax-injured people ... and then about 2m after making that same comment during the interview above, Hedges openly admitted that he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ... clearly, this man did not give a hoot about the consequences ...
Hedges should not be forgiven for looking us all in the eye and lying to us when he knew better.
I was a totes covidiot for the first few months but my skepticism took over long before the vaxes were pushed at us. At the time I was an "essential" worker (trucker) and had to defy my employer's demand that I take the vax or take a leave of absence. I said "neither" and said I'd continue to report for duty until I was fired for Cause, as the company was supposed to do under Canadian (Federal) labour regulations (still on the books, to my knowledge). The boss blinked and I continued working. So yes, I get your frustration and anger but I also understand how freaked out Hedges, Chomsky, my buddy N..., my then gf J....., and so many others were and are. This was a propaganda assault of unprecedented power. It's going to take a long time (a generation?) to get any kind of sensible consensus. There is an ontological/epistemological crisis of unprecedented power. The only thing I can think that might compare is the crisis of rligion and rise of religious agnosticism/atheism over the past two or three centuries. It's astounding. Idk.
It's funny that so many people and institutions who are admirably cynical about corporate capture of government regulatory agencies (banking, environmental, mining, prisons, and on and on...) somehow give "public health" a pass, and have unshakeable faith. I don't get it.
More Hedges trivia ...
In a 2021 interview he said he advised indigenous pipeline protesters to "park your cars in their path, remove the engines and walk away"... but Hedges didn't even comment on the Canadian Truckers Convoy until a March '22 interview with Jimmy Dore - roughly one month after the protests actually ended ... I kept looking for Hedges to comment on it for us, but no ... he just hid his head ...
That trucker thing was essentially Astroturf likely sponsored by Max Bernier and his ilk, not a true grass roots organized working class movement. However it resonated with and inspired many workers (including me to some degree). The problem with these types of phony workers' (petit bourgeois) movements is they usually end up co-opted, serving the interests of masters, not workers.
Do you remember the name of their spokesman? ...
He was not a trucker, think he was a college professor ...
That twit Chystia Freeland froze his bank account and I could not determine if they ever reinstated access to his money ... do you know?
Perhaps you should spend a few years studying virology and immunology. mRNA vaccine research has been going on for 30 years or more since mRNA was discovered in around 1970. Consider countries like Vietnam and Thailand, where the first genome of Covid struck. Proper isolation, masks, restrictions, resulted in 20 deaths in the first year. When mRNA vaccines became available, Asian countries were not allowed to have them. When Delta variant hit, 20,000 deaths in a short period of time. USA did almost nothing at the direction of the idiot president. Over one million Americans died! A record in the world! No nothing and allow mutations was the American way! Do nothing the next time with a more virulent virus and say goodbye to many if not all your friends and relatives. Verbally and scientifically attack Trump, not Hedges!
Trump IS NOT our immediate problem ...
Ever hear of the World Economic Forum? ... do you have any idea of the pure hell that awaits us if the amendments to the WHO Health Treaty are approved? ... do you? ... Hedges has never had a word to say about either ... and in no way did your dissertation above refute my comment ... the COVID vax was rushed to market after only one year under protection of legal immunity for Phizer, Moderna and J&J ... Hedges knew the risks and rather than just admit that it is in fact a personal decision, he looked us all in the eye and in effect told us the vax was "safe & effective" ... your comment makes no sense! ... and Hedges was an insensitive, self-centered prick for taking sides with big pharma on this matter ...
I did the course, then Med School and many years beyond. Considering the alternative, I elected to have every available dose of Moderna.
Then you must certainly know how lucky you've been so far, right? ...
BTW, if you find the time this week, you might post a DIRECT reply to my initial comment because you've now evaded me twice ... the VAX is a bio-weapon and deliberately formulated to kill and injure people ... so go ahead, call me crazy and call the medical professionals who have done the pain-staking research to prove it crazy, and I will bury you with enough hard evidence to keep you busy until Valentine's day ... and if you don't read it, then someone else here will ...
There's a pandemic, alright. A pandemic of hypochondria, lol.
You can chuckle, but I'm not laughing ...
Like highly trained clapping seals, Hedges' cultists just keep coming back here begging for another dose of darkness from St Chris ...
Being deployed to war zones a few times buts risks in perspective. Covid started as an unknown lethality risk. China built two 1000 bed isolation hospitals, each in ten days, anticipating the worst outcome. Fortunately, the thousands of mutations were relatively mostly less lethal. The key is to quarantine and isolate the virus immediately, not a year later. Everything was done wrong, the vaccine complication issue was relatively minor. Learn and be prepared for the next viral challenge. I don't think the USA is capable of preparing a survival plan. Others will, 95% of Thai people still wear masks in the subways. It's unfortunate that most are useless non N95 masks. Cheers! Give Hedges a break, mistakes happen.
“War” used as a term in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a euphemism. Netanyahu saw an enormous opportunity on October 7 to go into Gaza and either annihilate or drive out the Palestinians there, he did not care which. He just wants them gone. That’s not a war. That is genocide or ethnic cleansing, again either one will serve his purposes.
Ithaca, NY?
An observation to reflect on: „Nations need more than force to survive. They need a mystique. This mystique provides purpose, civility and even nobility to inspire citizens to sacrifice for the nation. The mystique offers hope for the future. It provides meaning. It provides national identity.”