I went on The Jimmy Dore Show this week to discuss some of my latest columns on the second Trump administration, and to respond to some takes on Trump's dismantling of the deep state from journalists.
I hate both parties, we need to stop bickering with each other and fight the real enemies! Don’t you feel how manipulative the whole thing is? Don’t play into their hands. Wise up! Neither party gives a shit about you. It’s time to make America great for the first time ever in its miserable existence. Workers Strike Back is our best hope. This is a class war.
Chris is right, the Captains of Empire have no idea of how to run an Empire, especially when it is failing.
“I have never seen a class so deeply demoralised, so incurably debased by selfishness, so corroded within, so incapable of progress, as the English bourgeoisie…
For it nothing exists in this world, except for the sake of money, itself not excluded. It knows no bliss save that of rapid gain, no pain save that of losing gold.
In the presence of this avarice and lust of gain, it is not possible for a single human sentiment or opinion to remain untainted.”
Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), p.275
According to a NY Post article Zelensky met with democrats before meeting up with Trump. They told him to turn down the mineral deal which was the reason for Trump's anger. Well, Biden did want this war, and implemented it to bring down Putin, and he said as much after his visit with him a while back. With that knowledge maybe you should hate the democrats more.
Not only didn't Biden want the Ukraine war, he wanted peace in Palestine! He consistently said so! He was constantly pressuring Netanyahu and he constantly showered bombs on the Israeli's who would then shower then on.... oh wait. Nevermind.
Exactly! People have said for decades that we should vote for the lesser evil. Aside from the fact that that's a strategy that's guaranteed to fail and will just bring about more evil, the Democrats have become the greater evil. No one from either of these gangs, which they resemble far more than actual political parties, is worthy of anyone's vote or support, but if you're going to vote for the lesser evil, you should have voted for Trump.
So does every other swinging dick, online influencer. However, my question to you (since you claim "Workers Strike Back is our best hope" as fact, not opinion) was: When has a workers strike ever made a meaningful and lasting dent in any Empire?
I don’t think you understand. Capitalism has got to go. We need to change our entire system of governance. Why don’t you listen to wise, thoughtful, moral, men like Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Matt Kennard, just to name a few? The Empire needs to be dismantled. We have the numbers to do it, if we weren’t all too ignorant to realize it!
No more billionaires, no more sweat shops, no more CIA, no more FBI, no more pentagon, no more bloated military industrial complex, no more cold wars, no more militarized police forces, no more guns, no more babies freezing to death, no more factory farms, no more hostile take overs, no more white supremacy, no more big pharma, no more death and destruction! When is it ever going to end?
I have never, ever , been a patriotic American. That term is obscene to me. If you are proud of what we do, you are a fucking monster! You are ignorant and what’s worse, you do nothing to educate yourself to the facts! We are the terrorists! No moregenocides, lobbyists, no more Venture Capitalists, no more Wall Street, no more monopolies, no more corporate pillaging, no more privatization, no more loop holes, no more NAFTA, no more proxy wars, no more
I've moved beyond partisan politics (it's a game) and believe we are moving toward Technocracy. Look at the current players, Musk, Thiel, Altman, etc. I see Trump as a tool of the Deep State. I no longer believe in Global Warming (but do believe in geoengineering) The Rockefellers have long promoted "sustainability" (think 15-minute cities). Technocrats believe they are more capable of running the world than the govt. Technocracy is an economic system run by scientists and social engineers. There are many talking about this, Patrick Wood (technocracy.news) is one of the premier ones with historical knowledge (Musk's grandfather was one of the original Technocrats back in the 30s). See also Catherine Austin Fitts, Solari Report. Worth checking into as we move towards total digital control.
I used to feel the same way. I remember telling my brother ‘The only people who don’t believe in climate change is the Republican Party.’ I now Question Everything.
Unfortunately when it's not lucrative to acknowledge it's reality people will dismiss it. It's a reality, but sometimes people in expressing their support for it's recognition go off the deep end and maybe throw crap at famous paintings which turn people off. You have to be consistent and it should be taught in schools and I leave out the dooms day scenarios. Scaring people into believing isn't good either.
@stephanie, i agree re. total digital control. ['washington D.C.' gets a new meaning ;-)]
i consider myself living in [only] the beginning stages of a digital dictatorship, even in my EU country, not in the US. more than one poet, sociologist, analyst made us aware of how easy things get for autocrats once their underlings love their chains [and relinquish their brains, i'm tempted to add].
as to global warming: whether you believe in it or not - it's not a religion, is it? - we have to do plenty of things to counter its adverse effects. it might be an unexpected blessing here or there but people in the global south, for instance, who contribute so little to it, have been bearing the brunt of it for decades. that's much more than unfair, don't you think?
any 'climate goals' we claim to want to reach will forever be out of reach due to all the war machineries around the globe, even when not engaged in wars. *sigh!*
Sorry Stephanie, but if you don't believe in global warming, then why would we need geo-engineering?
But I do agree with you on the party duopoly of Govts, we have the same problem in Australia. I think George Galloway got it right in the UK, when he called them "two cheeks of the same arse".
Oh, it’s soooo therapeutic for me to hear you state things that I have thought for a long time. Thank you 🙏 and good on you 👍 I appreciate you both so much but mostly Chris Hedges, who has been the only columnist online that I can read any more. Soooooo sooo appreciate you.
Chris - your performance was an embarrassment. You were obviously playing to the MAGAt crowd. Unforgivable.
You let Dore spout all kind of BS, and only gently pushed back on climate. You spoke of the "Mafia State" with no mention of Trump and his consolidation of a FASCIST government. This obsession with (correct) criticism of the Dems fits exactly the profile that prompted my Q for your Q&A the other night, when I wrote:
"Please explore how the "alternative" (left/progressive) media's intense (and correct) criticism of Biden and the Dems (foreign and domestic policy) served to unwittingly either give Trump a pass or actually support his candidacy."
I stopped watching Dore, Useful Idiots, and George Galloway and reading Taibbi, Greenwald, et al; exactly for their effective legitimization of Trump and his Fascist movement.
Are you heading in this direction too?
[Update - I wrote this before listening to the whole interview. You did better at the end.]
Chris is trying to reach as many people as he can. I agree with your critique of Dore. I find him grating and under educated. His following has really fallen. His views are inconsistent.
But we must attend any forum we can. For the public spaces have been captured.
However, you are right when you say that it is necessary to critique. Chris should have done more of that.
The shame, is that people in the US have always looked to comedians for 'relief' and 'news'.
From Carlin to Dore, Mort Sahl to Lenny Bruce comedy if it is good, is all about speaking to power or contradictions.
But not today. Today it is a trap. Americans are basted in humour and sports to the point they cannot reason for themselves.
People need to go to other sites, as you mention, and especially sites that do not agree with them so they can foment their own consciousness.
Dore is controlled dissent, not by choice but by circumstance.
As I am fond of quoting George Jackson, former Black Panther murdered by guards in San Quentin in 1971:
"The final reason why the importance of ideology in fascism must be denied is the fact that it exists in more than one form. In fact, historically it has proved to have three different faces.
One “ out of power " that tends almost to be revolutionary and subversive, anti-capitalist and anti-socialist.
One "in power but not secure'* — this is the sensational aspect of fascism that we see on screen and read of in pulp novels, when the ruling class, through its instrumental regime, is able to suppress the vanguard party of the people’s and workers’ movement.
The third face of fascism exists when it is “in power and securely so.”
During this phase some dissent may even be allowed."
-George L. Jackson—Blood In My Eye; Classes At War (source)
And this dissent will slowly disappear but currently it is well within the swim lane of 'jokes'. So it will persist for some time until the regime deems it unnecessary and then the plug will be pulled.
The rich get rich and the poor get poorer is a phrase I remember from childhood and knew it meant that the rich weren't playing fair.
It is one thing to be critical of Trump, but what happened to him in 2016-2000 undermined our fragile democracy even further. To me there was a concerted effort on the part of democrats and the so called left to remove him from office.
Sanders, a democrat, was on a roll in an interview trying to delegitimize Trump once again with blatant lies, and reflects how low democrats have become, how authoritarian they have become. No acknowledgement of how the democrats implemented a coup in Ukraine in 2014 under Obama, and a proxy war during the Biden administration to oust Putin, and in doing so they were willing to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men. Once a registered democrat, but never again.
P. S. I thought that Obama was going to be this liberal that was going to make a significant change and wanted so much to believe I ignored an article in the Progressive that was written by a man, a black man, who worked alongside of Obama who claimed he was no liberal. After a short time I recognized it as well. Interesting how liberals during his time in office didn't acknowledge his role in funneling weapons into Syria to take down Assad, and some how it was three women, Summers. Rice and Clinton who took out Gaddafi. The left also played a big role in protecting him from criticism in this regard as well. Also during the implementation of the coup in Ukraine, one might think it was Nuland's decision to take out Yanukovich in Ukraine. the left does have their favorites and are no longer trusted by me.
Irrationality and self delusion mark the landscape.
Magical thinking derives from desperation, fear and discontent.
None other than Hitler captured the spirit of unreason present during his time when he declared:
“We stand at the end of the Age of Reason.… A new era of the magical explanation of the world is rising, an explanation based on will rather than knowledge.
There is no truth, in either the moral or scientific sense.”
---------- Hitler quoted by Herman Raushning, Gespräche mit Hitler (New York: Europa Verlag, 1940), 210, translated in Gerald Holton, “Can Science Be at the Centre of Modern Culture?,” Public Understanding of Science 2 (1993): 302. For a slightly different translation, see Herman Raushning, Voice of Destruction (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1940), 222–23.
Trump and the former Mafia politicians have done a fine job. Schumer, worth $800,000 when he first ran for office is now worth $41 million. Pelosi, who went from Mayor to Senator, net worth over $100 million.
In America not only have FDR gains been decimated the Enlightenment and all its positive features is being repealed.
The lesson: You cannot regulate a criminal organization, which in this case is capitalism.
It must be replaced and this replacement, this work, foments the class consciousness for us to build a new culture, parallel institutions.
I had to talk myself into watching this interview. Jimmy Dore. But really, any chance to hear Hedges speak off the cuff is worth it. He says so much without saying lots.
Whether it's Dore or tons of other men and women who ought to know better, so many people are walking around with fingers and toes crossed that Trump will inadvertently make "everything" right again. And we might hope he might do one or two good things but as Hedges says, he's entirely transactional. He's transactional on behalf of himself, not even the people of the United States of America, so Hedges' narrative of a failing nation still resonates the strongest with me.
A very human conversation and while I've often had the impression that Hedges doesn't suffer fools gladly, his genuine fondness for Dore is obvious. A fine conversation.
The thing that Jeffery Sachs doesn’t mention in his recent speech is the fight over Ukrainian land and minerals like it’s even Zelensky’s to give away. Isn’t Ukraine going to need to sell it’s own minerals to rebuild war torn Ukraine? Jeffery hasn’t realized the war is over, Russia won and Ukraine is the carcass that the hyenas of the EU and US are fighting over.
That is exactly like Trump wanting to buy Gaza. Trump has no right to Gaza, no right to Ukraine, no right to Greenland nor anything else outside of the US
This is in right in front of our faces an act of theft. Out of one side of Trumps mouth, Trumps said Zelensky isn’t a legitimate candidate, and with the other side demands Zelensky give Ukraine resources over to the US.
And we have Musk actively stealing the US elderly Social Security benefits at this very minute. US citizens not saying one word about it. The US citizens are now the carcass the Washington hyenas are actually tearing apart right in front of us since Biden broke the US trying to steal from Russia and Russian people.
Americans are paying the price because we don’t care that we are being utterly lied too about everything every single minute.
Greenwald is a fool or a dupe. Trump and Musk have no intention of dismantling the Empire or slashing the trillion dollar military budget. The "actions" he seems to focus on clearly demonstrate that they are driven by power, greed, and christian nationalist right wing ideology - just look at the Executive Orders, appointments, budget and staff cuts, Gaza Gold Coast, and deportations.
[Update - Parenti is too. Does he really think that the Trump goons are going to dismantle the FBI - instead of use it to attack political opponents and the left? Trump hates "leftist scum" - you think Patel will say no? Idiot.
I am always stunned by the adult men and women who have this child-like expectation that Trump is going to be some super hero, Marvel style, that will make everything right. It is indeed absurd and that's why I read Hedges. His astringent writings, sometimes dark, feel truthful to me.
I see the same message; and saved a screen shot it for posterity. In my opinion, this illustrates the dangerous censorship on the Youtube social platform...and the dubious teaming up of Hedges to use this platform to get his messages out. I'm admittedly no tech genius, but there has to be another way. We will never exercise our right to free speech with this illegitimate practice of media censorship. The interview may eventually be accessed, but obviously Hedges wants the interview to be seen by his subscribers at this point...and at this point at least 3 are being denied. That's a problem. In my opinion, Hedges should be the first to recognize the problem to his subscribers and actually acknowledge that he is working to correct it.
I wish Hedges and others would draw sharp distinctions from claims about the "Deep State" and real government social and environmental programs.
Blanket condemnation of US AID as a Deep State soft power institution is just wrong. It is only very partially true, because it ignores HUGE benefits of US AID funding.
Here is why Trump killed US AID: (Project 2025, Chapter 9, page 254):
"U.S. foreign aid has been transformed into a massive and open- ended global entitlement program captured by—and enriching—the progressive Left."
Could not bring myself to watch the interview with Dore. I'm just done with privileged white men who continue to analyze the loss to Trmp ad nauseam without mentioning the horrific impact on women, POC and the most vulnerable segments of our society.
Also tired of geo-political "experts & arm-chair analysts" who fail to connect important dots:
1) the PTB's response to resource depletion and catastrophic events due to abrupt climate change and
2) ever-increasing pathogens that are causing death, disability and society-wide BRAIN DAMAGE. (Please read some of the over 400K studies on SARS-CoV2 before they are "disappeared")
To be clear (and offensive) if you are not wearing a gawddamnfreaking mask to protect yourself and others, you are clearly not a leftist... or a even a decent human being.
PS: I've been supporting Hedges for a while but now believe my $$ would be better utilized by more aware writers.
The problem with US mineral interest not including members of the EU is that several EU politicians like Chancellor Olaf Scholz, several of a long line of UK Prime Ministers that now includes Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron have ruined their political careers helping the US lie about the war in Ukraine to their countrymen.
Those minerals are across”the big pond”, deep in EU territory so getting a clear right to them without starting WWIII thus begs question whom exactly is starting WWIII?
Of course there are more and bigger plants because of unnatural human emissions of carbon dioxide, because plants inhale it. That doesn't mean that these emissions are a good thing. In fact, they're very harmful, as the global warming/climate change they're causing has already resulted in the extinction of species and will cause many more to become extinct. Jimmy doesn't even begin to understand ecology, and he should STFU about environmental issues because he doesn't know anything about them and he's always on the wrong side on these issues.
We've been past the breaking point of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere "for a long time"? Again, no idea what he's talking about. It takes 50 years to see the climate results of human industrial greenhouse gas emissions. I totally agree that the scientists and big environmental groups have been bought off, but that's irrelevant to the fact that global warming/climate change is real and is caused by our burning of fossil fuels, or that it's an existential problem, despite not being a root cause of anything.
Where I strongly disagree with Chris here is that there's no such thing as "environmentally sustainable energy sources." This is nothing more than childish wishful magical thinking, wanting to have one's cake and eat it too. In order to stop causing global warming/climate change, humans must return to living pre-industrially. This can be done in 150-200 years. Anything less is a phony solution, and just causes other environmental and ecological problems. We are fighting lithium mines right now that auto companies like General Motors are involved in for batteries for their electric cars, and wind turbines are killing birds and whales, to list just a few of many examples.
Fully agree with Chris that greed is a disease. My dad taught me that when I was a little kid (he was a Buddhist, he just didn't know it :)). The Buddha taught 2,500 years ago that the only way to satisfy desire is to shed one's desires, because it's an endless cycle -- the more one gets, the more one wants.
As to the Trump administration attacking evil agencies like USAID and the NED, I totally agree with Glenn Greenwald here. This isn't spirituality, and intent is irrelevant in politics. If this administration's actions bring down or even substantially reduce U.S. imperialism and the deep state, right on and that's all that matters. I think Chris's spiritual side got in the way of pragmatic thinking here.
I hate both parties, we need to stop bickering with each other and fight the real enemies! Don’t you feel how manipulative the whole thing is? Don’t play into their hands. Wise up! Neither party gives a shit about you. It’s time to make America great for the first time ever in its miserable existence. Workers Strike Back is our best hope. This is a class war.
Chris is right, the Captains of Empire have no idea of how to run an Empire, especially when it is failing.
“I have never seen a class so deeply demoralised, so incurably debased by selfishness, so corroded within, so incapable of progress, as the English bourgeoisie…
For it nothing exists in this world, except for the sake of money, itself not excluded. It knows no bliss save that of rapid gain, no pain save that of losing gold.
In the presence of this avarice and lust of gain, it is not possible for a single human sentiment or opinion to remain untainted.”
Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), p.275
According to a NY Post article Zelensky met with democrats before meeting up with Trump. They told him to turn down the mineral deal which was the reason for Trump's anger. Well, Biden did want this war, and implemented it to bring down Putin, and he said as much after his visit with him a while back. With that knowledge maybe you should hate the democrats more.
Not only didn't Biden want the Ukraine war, he wanted peace in Palestine! He consistently said so! He was constantly pressuring Netanyahu and he constantly showered bombs on the Israeli's who would then shower then on.... oh wait. Nevermind.
Yeah, he was a great force for peace. Just count the bodies.
I think he's being FACETIOUS.
Perhaps you are right.
Although, in fairness, I thought Monsoon was playing along with the facetiousness!
Exactly! People have said for decades that we should vote for the lesser evil. Aside from the fact that that's a strategy that's guaranteed to fail and will just bring about more evil, the Democrats have become the greater evil. No one from either of these gangs, which they resemble far more than actual political parties, is worthy of anyone's vote or support, but if you're going to vote for the lesser evil, you should have voted for Trump.
https://www.workersstrikeback.org/demands
When has a workers strike ever made a meaningful and lasting dent in any Empire?
We want to start our own political party.
So does every other swinging dick, online influencer. However, my question to you (since you claim "Workers Strike Back is our best hope" as fact, not opinion) was: When has a workers strike ever made a meaningful and lasting dent in any Empire?
I don’t think you understand. Capitalism has got to go. We need to change our entire system of governance. Why don’t you listen to wise, thoughtful, moral, men like Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Matt Kennard, just to name a few? The Empire needs to be dismantled. We have the numbers to do it, if we weren’t all too ignorant to realize it!
I understand you cannot answer my question. The reason why is obvious; ignorance.
Yes, unfortunately you are too ignorant to. Try reading a few books.
Your question was too stupid to deserve a reply.
Are you real so stupid that you think Workers Strike Back is all about strikes and nothing more?
No more billionaires, no more sweat shops, no more CIA, no more FBI, no more pentagon, no more bloated military industrial complex, no more cold wars, no more militarized police forces, no more guns, no more babies freezing to death, no more factory farms, no more hostile take overs, no more white supremacy, no more big pharma, no more death and destruction! When is it ever going to end?
I have never, ever , been a patriotic American. That term is obscene to me. If you are proud of what we do, you are a fucking monster! You are ignorant and what’s worse, you do nothing to educate yourself to the facts! We are the terrorists! No moregenocides, lobbyists, no more Venture Capitalists, no more Wall Street, no more monopolies, no more corporate pillaging, no more privatization, no more loop holes, no more NAFTA, no more proxy wars, no more
I've moved beyond partisan politics (it's a game) and believe we are moving toward Technocracy. Look at the current players, Musk, Thiel, Altman, etc. I see Trump as a tool of the Deep State. I no longer believe in Global Warming (but do believe in geoengineering) The Rockefellers have long promoted "sustainability" (think 15-minute cities). Technocrats believe they are more capable of running the world than the govt. Technocracy is an economic system run by scientists and social engineers. There are many talking about this, Patrick Wood (technocracy.news) is one of the premier ones with historical knowledge (Musk's grandfather was one of the original Technocrats back in the 30s). See also Catherine Austin Fitts, Solari Report. Worth checking into as we move towards total digital control.
Stephanie global warming is a reality and not a question of belief.
I used to feel the same way. I remember telling my brother ‘The only people who don’t believe in climate change is the Republican Party.’ I now Question Everything.
Unfortunately when it's not lucrative to acknowledge it's reality people will dismiss it. It's a reality, but sometimes people in expressing their support for it's recognition go off the deep end and maybe throw crap at famous paintings which turn people off. You have to be consistent and it should be taught in schools and I leave out the dooms day scenarios. Scaring people into believing isn't good either.
@stephanie, i agree re. total digital control. ['washington D.C.' gets a new meaning ;-)]
i consider myself living in [only] the beginning stages of a digital dictatorship, even in my EU country, not in the US. more than one poet, sociologist, analyst made us aware of how easy things get for autocrats once their underlings love their chains [and relinquish their brains, i'm tempted to add].
as to global warming: whether you believe in it or not - it's not a religion, is it? - we have to do plenty of things to counter its adverse effects. it might be an unexpected blessing here or there but people in the global south, for instance, who contribute so little to it, have been bearing the brunt of it for decades. that's much more than unfair, don't you think?
Once you start down the military based weather manipulation rabbit hole you may begin to question everything. Safe and effective vax?
any 'climate goals' we claim to want to reach will forever be out of reach due to all the war machineries around the globe, even when not engaged in wars. *sigh!*
Sorry Stephanie, but if you don't believe in global warming, then why would we need geo-engineering?
But I do agree with you on the party duopoly of Govts, we have the same problem in Australia. I think George Galloway got it right in the UK, when he called them "two cheeks of the same arse".
We do not need geoengineering. Once you start going down this rabbit hole you’ll awaken further.
Oh, it’s soooo therapeutic for me to hear you state things that I have thought for a long time. Thank you 🙏 and good on you 👍 I appreciate you both so much but mostly Chris Hedges, who has been the only columnist online that I can read any more. Soooooo sooo appreciate you.
Chris - your performance was an embarrassment. You were obviously playing to the MAGAt crowd. Unforgivable.
You let Dore spout all kind of BS, and only gently pushed back on climate. You spoke of the "Mafia State" with no mention of Trump and his consolidation of a FASCIST government. This obsession with (correct) criticism of the Dems fits exactly the profile that prompted my Q for your Q&A the other night, when I wrote:
"Please explore how the "alternative" (left/progressive) media's intense (and correct) criticism of Biden and the Dems (foreign and domestic policy) served to unwittingly either give Trump a pass or actually support his candidacy."
I stopped watching Dore, Useful Idiots, and George Galloway and reading Taibbi, Greenwald, et al; exactly for their effective legitimization of Trump and his Fascist movement.
Are you heading in this direction too?
[Update - I wrote this before listening to the whole interview. You did better at the end.]
Chris is trying to reach as many people as he can. I agree with your critique of Dore. I find him grating and under educated. His following has really fallen. His views are inconsistent.
But we must attend any forum we can. For the public spaces have been captured.
However, you are right when you say that it is necessary to critique. Chris should have done more of that.
The shame, is that people in the US have always looked to comedians for 'relief' and 'news'.
From Carlin to Dore, Mort Sahl to Lenny Bruce comedy if it is good, is all about speaking to power or contradictions.
But not today. Today it is a trap. Americans are basted in humour and sports to the point they cannot reason for themselves.
People need to go to other sites, as you mention, and especially sites that do not agree with them so they can foment their own consciousness.
Dore is controlled dissent, not by choice but by circumstance.
As I am fond of quoting George Jackson, former Black Panther murdered by guards in San Quentin in 1971:
"The final reason why the importance of ideology in fascism must be denied is the fact that it exists in more than one form. In fact, historically it has proved to have three different faces.
One “ out of power " that tends almost to be revolutionary and subversive, anti-capitalist and anti-socialist.
One "in power but not secure'* — this is the sensational aspect of fascism that we see on screen and read of in pulp novels, when the ruling class, through its instrumental regime, is able to suppress the vanguard party of the people’s and workers’ movement.
The third face of fascism exists when it is “in power and securely so.”
During this phase some dissent may even be allowed."
-George L. Jackson—Blood In My Eye; Classes At War (source)
And this dissent will slowly disappear but currently it is well within the swim lane of 'jokes'. So it will persist for some time until the regime deems it unnecessary and then the plug will be pulled.
The rich get rich and the poor get poorer is a phrase I remember from childhood and knew it meant that the rich weren't playing fair.
It is one thing to be critical of Trump, but what happened to him in 2016-2000 undermined our fragile democracy even further. To me there was a concerted effort on the part of democrats and the so called left to remove him from office.
Sanders, a democrat, was on a roll in an interview trying to delegitimize Trump once again with blatant lies, and reflects how low democrats have become, how authoritarian they have become. No acknowledgement of how the democrats implemented a coup in Ukraine in 2014 under Obama, and a proxy war during the Biden administration to oust Putin, and in doing so they were willing to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men. Once a registered democrat, but never again.
https://kyivindependent.com/bernie-sanders-on-trumps-alignment-with-russia/
P. S. I thought that Obama was going to be this liberal that was going to make a significant change and wanted so much to believe I ignored an article in the Progressive that was written by a man, a black man, who worked alongside of Obama who claimed he was no liberal. After a short time I recognized it as well. Interesting how liberals during his time in office didn't acknowledge his role in funneling weapons into Syria to take down Assad, and some how it was three women, Summers. Rice and Clinton who took out Gaddafi. The left also played a big role in protecting him from criticism in this regard as well. Also during the implementation of the coup in Ukraine, one might think it was Nuland's decision to take out Yanukovich in Ukraine. the left does have their favorites and are no longer trusted by me.
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Irrationality and self delusion mark the landscape.
Magical thinking derives from desperation, fear and discontent.
None other than Hitler captured the spirit of unreason present during his time when he declared:
“We stand at the end of the Age of Reason.… A new era of the magical explanation of the world is rising, an explanation based on will rather than knowledge.
There is no truth, in either the moral or scientific sense.”
---------- Hitler quoted by Herman Raushning, Gespräche mit Hitler (New York: Europa Verlag, 1940), 210, translated in Gerald Holton, “Can Science Be at the Centre of Modern Culture?,” Public Understanding of Science 2 (1993): 302. For a slightly different translation, see Herman Raushning, Voice of Destruction (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1940), 222–23.
Trump and the former Mafia politicians have done a fine job. Schumer, worth $800,000 when he first ran for office is now worth $41 million. Pelosi, who went from Mayor to Senator, net worth over $100 million.
In America not only have FDR gains been decimated the Enlightenment and all its positive features is being repealed.
The lesson: You cannot regulate a criminal organization, which in this case is capitalism.
It must be replaced and this replacement, this work, foments the class consciousness for us to build a new culture, parallel institutions.
I had to talk myself into watching this interview. Jimmy Dore. But really, any chance to hear Hedges speak off the cuff is worth it. He says so much without saying lots.
Whether it's Dore or tons of other men and women who ought to know better, so many people are walking around with fingers and toes crossed that Trump will inadvertently make "everything" right again. And we might hope he might do one or two good things but as Hedges says, he's entirely transactional. He's transactional on behalf of himself, not even the people of the United States of America, so Hedges' narrative of a failing nation still resonates the strongest with me.
A very human conversation and while I've often had the impression that Hedges doesn't suffer fools gladly, his genuine fondness for Dore is obvious. A fine conversation.
The thing that Jeffery Sachs doesn’t mention in his recent speech is the fight over Ukrainian land and minerals like it’s even Zelensky’s to give away. Isn’t Ukraine going to need to sell it’s own minerals to rebuild war torn Ukraine? Jeffery hasn’t realized the war is over, Russia won and Ukraine is the carcass that the hyenas of the EU and US are fighting over.
That is exactly like Trump wanting to buy Gaza. Trump has no right to Gaza, no right to Ukraine, no right to Greenland nor anything else outside of the US
This is in right in front of our faces an act of theft. Out of one side of Trumps mouth, Trumps said Zelensky isn’t a legitimate candidate, and with the other side demands Zelensky give Ukraine resources over to the US.
And we have Musk actively stealing the US elderly Social Security benefits at this very minute. US citizens not saying one word about it. The US citizens are now the carcass the Washington hyenas are actually tearing apart right in front of us since Biden broke the US trying to steal from Russia and Russian people.
Americans are paying the price because we don’t care that we are being utterly lied too about everything every single minute.
Greenwald is a fool or a dupe. Trump and Musk have no intention of dismantling the Empire or slashing the trillion dollar military budget. The "actions" he seems to focus on clearly demonstrate that they are driven by power, greed, and christian nationalist right wing ideology - just look at the Executive Orders, appointments, budget and staff cuts, Gaza Gold Coast, and deportations.
[Update - Parenti is too. Does he really think that the Trump goons are going to dismantle the FBI - instead of use it to attack political opponents and the left? Trump hates "leftist scum" - you think Patel will say no? Idiot.
I am always stunned by the adult men and women who have this child-like expectation that Trump is going to be some super hero, Marvel style, that will make everything right. It is indeed absurd and that's why I read Hedges. His astringent writings, sometimes dark, feel truthful to me.
I see the same message; and saved a screen shot it for posterity. In my opinion, this illustrates the dangerous censorship on the Youtube social platform...and the dubious teaming up of Hedges to use this platform to get his messages out. I'm admittedly no tech genius, but there has to be another way. We will never exercise our right to free speech with this illegitimate practice of media censorship. The interview may eventually be accessed, but obviously Hedges wants the interview to be seen by his subscribers at this point...and at this point at least 3 are being denied. That's a problem. In my opinion, Hedges should be the first to recognize the problem to his subscribers and actually acknowledge that he is working to correct it.
I wish Hedges and others would draw sharp distinctions from claims about the "Deep State" and real government social and environmental programs.
Blanket condemnation of US AID as a Deep State soft power institution is just wrong. It is only very partially true, because it ignores HUGE benefits of US AID funding.
Here is why Trump killed US AID: (Project 2025, Chapter 9, page 254):
"U.S. foreign aid has been transformed into a massive and open- ended global entitlement program captured by—and enriching—the progressive Left."
https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-09.pdf
And here is just some of the impacts and lives at stake:
Elon Musk’s Looming Disease Holocaust
https://prospect.org/world/2025-03-03-musk-doge-pepfar-hiv-tuberculosis/
Could not bring myself to watch the interview with Dore. I'm just done with privileged white men who continue to analyze the loss to Trmp ad nauseam without mentioning the horrific impact on women, POC and the most vulnerable segments of our society.
Also tired of geo-political "experts & arm-chair analysts" who fail to connect important dots:
1) the PTB's response to resource depletion and catastrophic events due to abrupt climate change and
2) ever-increasing pathogens that are causing death, disability and society-wide BRAIN DAMAGE. (Please read some of the over 400K studies on SARS-CoV2 before they are "disappeared")
To be clear (and offensive) if you are not wearing a gawddamnfreaking mask to protect yourself and others, you are clearly not a leftist... or a even a decent human being.
PS: I've been supporting Hedges for a while but now believe my $$ would be better utilized by more aware writers.
Check out Cyrus Janssen latest YouTube.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eibl-Ocn-kM
The problem with US mineral interest not including members of the EU is that several EU politicians like Chancellor Olaf Scholz, several of a long line of UK Prime Ministers that now includes Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron have ruined their political careers helping the US lie about the war in Ukraine to their countrymen.
Those minerals are across”the big pond”, deep in EU territory so getting a clear right to them without starting WWIII thus begs question whom exactly is starting WWIII?
Zelensky or Trump?
It is in eye of the beholder.
Of course there are more and bigger plants because of unnatural human emissions of carbon dioxide, because plants inhale it. That doesn't mean that these emissions are a good thing. In fact, they're very harmful, as the global warming/climate change they're causing has already resulted in the extinction of species and will cause many more to become extinct. Jimmy doesn't even begin to understand ecology, and he should STFU about environmental issues because he doesn't know anything about them and he's always on the wrong side on these issues.
We've been past the breaking point of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere "for a long time"? Again, no idea what he's talking about. It takes 50 years to see the climate results of human industrial greenhouse gas emissions. I totally agree that the scientists and big environmental groups have been bought off, but that's irrelevant to the fact that global warming/climate change is real and is caused by our burning of fossil fuels, or that it's an existential problem, despite not being a root cause of anything.
Where I strongly disagree with Chris here is that there's no such thing as "environmentally sustainable energy sources." This is nothing more than childish wishful magical thinking, wanting to have one's cake and eat it too. In order to stop causing global warming/climate change, humans must return to living pre-industrially. This can be done in 150-200 years. Anything less is a phony solution, and just causes other environmental and ecological problems. We are fighting lithium mines right now that auto companies like General Motors are involved in for batteries for their electric cars, and wind turbines are killing birds and whales, to list just a few of many examples.
Fully agree with Chris that greed is a disease. My dad taught me that when I was a little kid (he was a Buddhist, he just didn't know it :)). The Buddha taught 2,500 years ago that the only way to satisfy desire is to shed one's desires, because it's an endless cycle -- the more one gets, the more one wants.
As to the Trump administration attacking evil agencies like USAID and the NED, I totally agree with Glenn Greenwald here. This isn't spirituality, and intent is irrelevant in politics. If this administration's actions bring down or even substantially reduce U.S. imperialism and the deep state, right on and that's all that matters. I think Chris's spiritual side got in the way of pragmatic thinking here.
Wolff is spot on with his latest.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KteujChesDs