Joe Biden relies on advisors who view the world through the prism of the West’s civilizing mission to the “lesser breeds” of the earth to formulate his policies towards Israel and the Middle East.
I especially appreciate that—even while flagging the record of Biden’s advisers—Hedges pinned the tail on the donkey by noting how Biden himself has been relentlessly committed to militarism, as well as a documented source of racist disinformation enabling it. I explored the same themes last fall at https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/the-first-casualty-of-war-is-the.
Observations of Biden’s hypocrisy and support for international human rights abuses should trouble Democrats concerned about Trump and the upcoming presidential election. By committing himself to genocide, Biden has given a would be tyrant a massive political attack surface that he will be sure to exploit.
That’s one reason (among many others) to support a candidate less co-opted by the establishment who has actually dedicated his life to fighting power and repudiating the intersecting evils that MLK warned us about. My last piece exploring how Cornel West could help hold Biden accountable focused particularly on race relations: https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/cornel-west-can-force-a-reckoning#details.
Reading this post, however, helped me recognize an opportunity to reprise that analysis as it relates to international relations and genocide Joe’s foreign policy. I’ll save the rest of my thoughts at that intersection for an upcoming post and appreciate both the information and the inspiration that Hedges always offers.
Being of a certain age (70) I hold little faith in the two options being put forth for the 2024 presidential (s)election. As I am registered neither Democrat nor Republican I feel no particular bond toward the respective agendas. The U.S. blood-soaked foreign policy agenda(s) can be depicted in a single image: Biden's bear-hug of/ with Netanyahu. It made my blood boil as did his statement "I intend to reach across the aisle" once he was elected POTUS. I appreciate both Marianne Williamson's and Cornel West's perspectives on what is needed going forward . Neither biden nor drumpf are even remotely capable. signed, San Francisco native daughter
Biden has been one of the worst presidents in my lifetime, way worse than Trump. Foreign policy is the most important issue for presidents, because they have virtual unilateral power in that area. Genocide Joe is a disaster, and if he leads the U.S. into WWIII, regardless of whether it's him personally or Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland, Austin, etc., he will be WORSE THAN HITLER, because there's a good chance that he'll end life on Earth.
Firstly I am a European living in France and I am disgusted that we have allowed this genocide by keeping silent.
I am one of those thousands of people 'marching' against genocide here in France.
IF the Palestinians are wiped from the map I am DISGUSTED. SAD. Totally against this American genocide.
To my mind every leader should be called to the Criminal Court in the Hague and imprisoned.
As for Joe Biden I know his History and if one person in the US says to me 'vote Blue' they should be also castigated.
Biden (look up his voting record.)
Just like Netanyahu he is and always has been a warmonger.
The liberal elites think he is a saviour (against Trump) who I loathe.
YOU in the US need a Civil War. You didn't vote for years (look it up) you bought anything you wanted/shopped till you dropped and then you blame everything on your Govt.
Because you live 'out of the ZONE wars' you think you are safe.
No you are not safe Amerika with your guns and your white supremacy.
The power of the vote is an illusion of democracy created by the capitalist oligarchy class. Don't blame voters. The U.S. govt is bought and paid for by ruling capitalist elites. You are skimming a very shallow & superficial surface by blaming U.S. voters.
The people in the U.S. like their country, as a whole anyway. For example, the military is the most trusted U.S. government institution. I'm tired of the lame excuses for people, it certainly is their fault. It's the fault of the rich & powerful even more, but regular people are the problem too. I don't think you realize how selfish, materialistic, and greedy Americans are. Everything here is about money, such as healthcare. Totally evil place filled with evil people.
Whether ordinary American people are good or bad they have absolutely NO influence on any government policies. Most people want a single payer health care system. The Insurance companies won't allow it. Beginning with WWI the American elites have manipulated public opinion, dismantled all opposition to the elite's agenda's and attacked, unions, the universities and the welfare system to the extent that ordinary Americans are powerless.
I have worked with a number of Americans and I am a student of American politics as I live in the 52nd state of the US; Australia. I have found most of the Americans I have met to be fine people. America has people like Chris Hedges, Ralph Nader and Cornell West. People who stand with the oppressed and call out the elites for what they are. I wish Australia had people with their ethics and understanding of the wickedness of the elites.
The American political system was designed by slave owning elites in their own interest and it was only through violent struggle ordinary people got to vote at all. From the mid seventies the elites rolled back all of the reforms of the new deal and in a slow motion coupe de etat took over the Government. Reagan started it and Clinton finished it. In the UK it was Thatcher who started it and Blair who finished the job.
It is not the ordinary American who cause all the wars and suffering it is the donor elites who want to maintain the empire in their own financial interest.
Regular people have no DIRECT influence on government policies, but they have a major indirect one. Politicians do things that get them elected and reelected. When a former Bush I official was asked why Bush invaded Iraq despite the massive street protests against doing so, she responded that they ignored the protests, but saw that everyone was buying SUVs and wanted cheap gas. It's not what people want, it's what their priorities are, and the priorities of Americans are pretty disgusting. (In politics, priorities are more important than which side you're on.)
As to your anecdotal stories about Americans being good people, you can find that anywhere if your standards are low enough. I'm sure you could have gone to Nazi Germany and found "good people." So what? What I said stands. I was a long-distance trucker in the U.S. for 5 years and I've been just about everywhere. I did that job to see the country, so I didn't confine myself to truck stops, and I met a lot of different people all over. I also compare Americans to my friends in other countries and listen to what they tell me about this, again as a generalization. I don't count Australia, because as you admit, it's pretty much just like the U.S. in many important aspects.
My comment wasn't about voting or the electoral system. People generally get the government they deserve, and the Americans certainly have that. As George Carlin rightly pointed out, there's no point in complaining about politicians generally, because they come from the populace, so this is the best we've got.
People buy SUV's because the car manufacturers want to make them because the are very profitable and the oil companies want them because they re gas guzzlers. The manufacturers advertise, and if you don't think that advertising influences people then why do they do it?
If the government should put disincentives in place make SUV's too expensive to buy or run the political donors from Big Auto would do if the government did that. No campaign funds and advertisments on TV about taking away your liberty etc etc.
You imply my standards are too low and that's why I have found a lot of ordinary Americans to be OK. I could easily turn that round and say maybe your standards are too high.
On the issue of influence there have been a number of scientific studies carried out to determine the influence of ordinary people on political policies in the US and it is zero.
Your opinion of your fellow Americans is just the, an opinion. But the lack of influence ordinary Americans have on their politicians is zero and that is a fact.
have a look at these papers by professional scholars.
As I said in my first response in this thread, I'm sick of people making excuses for other people. This is just part of being a human supremacist, or maybe in this case worshiping America and Americans. All mentally competent adults are at least somewhat responsible for their actions. In Europe the percentage of SUVs is a lot lower than it is here, and I'm sure they have the same advertisements.
To be clear, I'm well aware of the effects and effectiveness of propaganda, of which advertising is a type. If I had my way ALL advertising would be outlawed and otherwise strictly prohibited. But how do you explain that advertising SUVs works so much better on Americans than it does on Europeans? My answer is that Americans are more self-centered and demand convenience more.
You haven't said anything that countered what I said regarding the type of people that Americans are. This isn't about your standards or mine, it's about comparing Americans to other people, and Americans are more self-centered, selfish, greedy, and materialistic by comparison.
Finally, I don't contest the fact that the ruling class runs things, at least in the U.S., but my guess is everywhere else too. We learned that in Political Science 101 in 1972, so this isn't news. A 2014 Princeton study found as much, concluding that only the 10-20% at the top economically get what they want. But regular people ALLOW this situation to exist. There is no good solution for this,* but things don't have to be this bad. Again, people get the government they deserve, though not necessarily the one they want.
* The only way to have a good "government," if you could even call it that, is to live in small enough numbers so that everyone knows each other, and that the only "leaders" are people who don't really want that job but do it out of a sense of duty, and run things for the good of their society and the environment. This is yet another of the countless ways that human overpopulation causes major problems, the vast majority of which are suffered by the Earth and the nonhumans who live here.
"rgarnett", you are wrong and Jeff (no last name) is right. You are rigidly locking onto a fact (that individuals have no measurable effect on major US policy) and not seeing the forest for the trees. Again, please use the alien-sociologist thought experiment and observe: Bush2 spent MONTHS softening up the "general will" of the regular people to support his invasion of Iraq, which his handlers had planned and documented in the famous PNAC document a year before 9/11. See the top of page 51 about Pearl Harbor! He needed our support to act fluidly in Iraq.
In the 70's it started becoming nearly impossible to suppress women at to the extent they'd been suppressed prior to the huge surge in the strength of the feminist movement. The same thing happened in the 1960's with the Civil Rights Movement.
You are wrong that the people don't count. They do! If people were rational, Bernie would have won the election by a landslide, because he was the only candidate who even remotely intended to serve working Americans instead of their corporate masters. The idiots CHOSE a kind of political slavery. They CHOSE to give up their sovereignty to a fascist coup that had already happened sometime during Clinton's presidency, right under their noses.
You really need to start reading the posts of your national treasure, Caitlin Johnston, every day. One thing I can say for you is that you're in the right place by being here, reading and commenting on posts by OUR (Americans') national treasure, Chris Hedges!
And read my response to "Jeff", above. There is a lot in it for you.
How, "rgarnette", can we make any meaningful progress when 55% of white women voters CHOSE to RE-elect Trump? It would be downright UNDEMOCRATIC if an Amerikan government started doing the progressive, rational things that are called for at this moment of emergency in human civilization, because at this point in time, THE PEOPLE are too stupid for democracy. Like Jefferson said, without an educated populace, democracy is impossible.
You excuse people being brainwashed. If I make slick commercials to convince them the Moon is made of creme cheese, you'd excuse them for believing it. One good thing about Amerika is that we still have an incredible degree of freedom of speech and access to information. It would have taken 15 minutes of Internet research in late 2002 for anybody with a brain to determine that Bush/Cheney were lying and that an expanded war in the Middle East would be the ultimate human crime (ever hear of the Nuremberg Tribunals?), ruin Amerika, and break the world.
Jeff, this is a brilliant comment is 100% true (one can test the truth of your words by doing the alien-sociologist thought experiment. What would this advanced observer, with no dog in our fight, report back to its home planet about the talking apes in the place the apes call "America"?
Just what you said.
I did the same thing as a taxi driver in Denver and on Maui that you did as a truck driver. Especially on Maui, since tourists come from everywhere and therefore are automatically randomized (to some extent -- poor people don't fly to Maui and ride taxis), I got to be an "alien sociologist" and interview thousands of random Americans and hundreds of random foreigners and see what made them tick, philosophically, politically, and spiritually.
In this comment, you are agreeing with the French political philosopher Rousseau (1712–1778), who wrote that the "general will" will always manifest, sometimes gradually, into whatever government a country has. Trump R' us!
I'm a 70-year-old boomer, and we got it hard, the brainwashing, fake history and fake religious indoctrination, and corporate media manipulation, to the point that in their very bones, most of my fellow old progressives and self-professed radicals still believe Amerika is a bastion of freedom and a shining light on the hill. Martin Luther Chomsky -- I mean King -- spelled this out for us in the clearest of language in his famous 1967 anti-war speeches: "My government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world." True then, true now.
That's what makes our situation so horribly frustrating. We're not a noble people oppressed by an evil tyrant, but a base, selfish, stupid, heartless people who recently allowed a completely corrupt Supreme Court, with more than half of its members clinically insane, to take away women's right to deal with their own medical and reproductive care! If you squint your eyes just a bit, it's easy to see these same scumbags bringing back some form of slavery, and allowing witch burning under certain special circumstances, e.g., video proof of a woman communicating with a cat.
When Reagan was elected, I fasted and meditated alone atop Mount Haleakala on Maui for 4 days. I got the idea from listening to Jim Morrison of The Doors singing so urgently, "Break on through to the other side!" I realized I didn't have the strength to deal with the level of ignorance, pride, and proud stupidity that made Reagan possible. At age 27, I knew beyond any doubt that my America was doomed unless we could somehow come back with a new and stronger kind of consciousness.
When Bush2 was RE-elected in 2004, I mourned the loss of America. America was dead. I started spelling the new name of our country "Amerika", sometimes with 3 K's.
And when 55% of white FEMALE Amerikan voters chose to RE-elect Trump, well, what could I expect from a dead, zombie-ized country?
I hope anybody reading this will allow these 2 very simple comparisons to sink in:
In 2 years, Putin has killed approximately 500 children in Ukraine. In 3 months, Biden/Netanyahu have killed 10,000 children in Gaza.
Since 9/11, Amerika's military has caused 4.5 million deaths resulting from its "unprovoked wars of aggression", while during the same time period, Putin's armies have caused less than 400,000 deaths. But Putin is evil and Amerika is good.
We're about the same age. When Reagan was elected (to my total surprise), my first instinct was to leave the country for good. However, at that time, I didn't have a passport, had never been out of the U.S., and knew no one in any other country. So I just sort of froze, and the best I could do was move to then-radical Berkeley in 1983.
The only thing I may disagree with that you wrote is that Trump isn't worse than any of these others, and in some important ways he's not as bad. Yes, he's a racist sexist xenophobe who only cares about his money and his ego, but what other president in our lifetime didn't start another war? This is by far the biggest issue regarding a president, because foreign policy is where they have all their power. Of course Trump is no peace candidate, he just doesn't stand to profit from wars, so he'd rather do business with other countries than fight them. I would never vote for nor support Trump, but people obsess on him to the point where they'd vote for Hitler just to get rid of him. Biden has been WAAAAY worse than Trump was as president.
That's a nice and fair defense of the American people. Still, with the totally free access we have to information, there is no excuse for our level of ignorance and idiocy. We Americans SUCK!
On a WHIM we vote for the likes of Reagan and Bush2, simply because we like their swagger! I remember LIBERAL friends locking onto a buzzword or buzzphrase, like, regarding Bush2, "He's a uniter!" and "He's a compassionate conservative!", and these motherf*ckers actually VOTED for him ... and millions of children in the Middle East and Global South were terrorized, starved, maimed and killed.
And we don't even care enough to know that it's going on. Just start asking young American college graduates how many people (5 million) died in the Vietnam War, and you'll hear answers like, "10 thousand?"
Hey, "garnett", I hope you realize that you have your own amazing Chomsky/Cornell West/Chris Hedges-type political philosopher in Australia. OMG, if you haven't read https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au, you are in for a huge treat. She is one of the most amazing minds on the planet. Her short story "Lisa and the Stranger" is one of the best short stories ever written in English.
No, but I have close friends in other countries who've visited and even lived here, and they agree with me. One of my best friends now lives in Bangkok but grew up here, and he agrees too. I just got an earful from a German friend now living here about how this damn country is all about money first. It's not cynical, it's unfortunately the truth.
There is a lot wrong with the US to be sure; however, being "all about money first", is not uniquely American. Why is your German friend in the US? I know a number of Europeans who live here. For them it is about jobs and opportunity.
Thank you Sherry Amaryllis...How about aiming big blame on the corporatist Democratic Establishment that blots out the Peoples' choice and inserts their
corporatist Republican light so-called Democrat in its place - for decades.
Of course. Voters can choose between Team R Tweedledee and Team D Tweedledum.
Even when a more independent voice sneaks through, that voice is quickly brought around. I suspect without any firm evidence that the process is something like in "Yes, Minister".
Congress is bought and paid for and our choices are limited. Nevertheless, we stand for it. How many people actually contribute to a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United or repeal Program 1033?
The largest political party in the United States is the NonVoters™ party, and has been for years. It's criminal not to vote when you have a chance to stop a fascist, an INSANE fascist, like Trump.
We Americans are really in a pickle, now, though, because Biden has proved beyond any doubt that he is full-on Hitler-level evil by his policies in Ukraine and Gaza. So now we don't even have our usual Tweedle-Dee vs Tweedle-Dum choice.
Our choice now is between revolution or slow death and a BEST-CASE SCENARIO of a collapsed human civilization, billions dead, and the living envying the dead.
MLK rolled out a roadmap for us in his 2 famous 1967 anti-war speeches, and instead of following it and becoming a magnificent country, we continued the Vietnam War for 8 more years and 15 years later started the long Bush1/Clinton/Bush2/Obama/Trump/Biden wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen, etc.
Here's an amalgamation of the 2 speeches I did, since they largely overlap but both contain some unique and amazing language and ideas.
Jenny--Americans are so self-serving and selfish people because they do live outside of these war zones. Because our entire society is really messed up people here don't believe anyone or any media. I had a friend write me thinking the stuff I was posting was all fake news. Not because she is a Trumper either. She is really unaware of what is going on in the world. A lot of Americans are racist, and they really do not want to admit it. Biden and Satanyahu (as we call him) and Blinken should all go to the Hague and be imprisoned. I hope it happens, but it will never be. We need to get him out of office and allow younger people. I am always happy to hear opinions from Europeans because they have different and better perspectives.
Many Americans don't vote because they believe - through experience - that their vote doesn't count. Political candidates all give their loyalty and vote for policies that benefit their big donors not the people who voted for them. Obama was their last hope - and he pretty much turned on his constituency by siding with the Big Bankers and throwing universal health care under the bus.
"YOU in the US need a Civil War. You didn't vote for years (look it up) you bought anything you wanted/shopped till you dropped and then you blame everything on your Govt.
Because you live 'out of the ZONE wars' you think you are safe.
No you are not safe Amerika with your guns and your white supremacy."
I saved this in my lifetime quote collection (text file).
Isn't Zionism = settler colonialism, USA style. What indigenous group in the USA was not "genocided" by the white settlers? Persistent and repetitive removal of the indigenous peoples from their lands (they were here first)(right?).
Zionism is a form of Jewish supremacy. It is enabled by the U.S. because Zionists wield enormous influence over the U.S. government, not because Israel is acting on behalf of the U.S. Israel is the principal, not the agent.
Yup, but it flourished in America. Britain created the Arab-Jewish conflict. But America now sustains and nourishes it....to the point that now Israel seems to be the one driving the bus with the U.S. and UK being towed behind.
Jewish Zionism was an ancient thing but renewed in Europe in 1897 by Theodor Herzl in response to rampant anti-sémitism across all of Europe but especially in the east: Russia, Poland, Germany....but Jews in every European countries faced real anti-semitism in the 1800s and 1900s long before Hitler and the Nazis arrived on the scene.
It was a European creation pawned off on the Arabs as the Europeans plotted to take control of the Arab lands and mine their natural resources like food little colonial thieves, and also alleviate their guilt about the holocaust as well as their European ‘Jewish problem’ all in one neat solution: the creation of Israel. The French, British, US, Russian and Italians were all in on it during WW1, and it just continues naturally through to WW2 and the subsequent creation of Israel.
So, America and UK and most western countries remain responsible for this mess both indirect and direct ways in past and present, and it seems for the foreseeable future.
None are more responsible for the current atrocities other than Israel and than the U.S., as without U.S. arms, even the IDF had said they could not continue the assaults, and without Israel no one would be manufacturing the lies (mass rape, babies in ovens, 40 dead babies etc) to justify it.
The U.S. can’t even just stand by and do nothing: they actively supply Israel with the enormous amount of weaponry required for a genocide. The UK too. And both use their veto on security council to prevent UN taking measures ro get a cease fire or otherwise intervene.
It’s just sickening.
If in the future if there are more terrorist attacks within the U.S., the UK, Germany, and other European countries, we cannot be surprised: this is what our leaders are leading us towards and so the responsibility for the future inevitable terror attacks in their own counties rests squarely on their own shoulders.
Israel was a European creation in the sense that Britain carved it out of land they had stolen from the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI. But that doesn’t explain why Britain created Israel. The Balfour Declaration was the product of intense lobbying by Jewish lobbyists and influential interests with ties to the British government. Just as AIPAC today shapes US foreign policy toward Israel, there were similar Jewish organizations and individuals in the UK who were lobbying hard for Britain to create the state of Israel. So, I don’t know that characterizing Israel as a European invention is really accurate. The existence of the state of Israel is a testament to the influence and power of the Jewish diaspora in Europe.
I agree that it was the British who created Israel, and its support for that happened before the Balfour declaration.
But what I’m saying about Europe is that they created anti-semitism leading to the formation of the Zionist Project by Herzl in 1897.
The allies in WW1 were equally complicit and were aware of Britain’s double dealings with the Arabs and Zionists wrt the promise of Palestinian land and sovereignty. France knew. France just wanted Syria...they were at the table to make sure they got the piece of the Ottoman Empire that they wanted. This is complicity. All parties to the Treaty of Versailles are complicit.
For clarity, I’m not trying to minimize Britain’s part or in any way excuse. The British government know what they did which is why they don’t teach the true and full history to us Brits in school. It’s abhorrant.
The biggest lie that was manufactured in the Arab Israeli conflict is that the Arabs hated Jews. The truth is that Europe hated Jews and Arabs. They just turned them around to fight each other to suit the European interests and secure the shipping routes through the Middle East for the benefit of Europeans and the U.S.
That’s how I understand it so far. I’m still researching and learning.
The Settlers are the most brutal of people, and that started very very early in the 1900s before Balfour declaration. The British supported the settlers and protected them when they assumed control of Palestine after WW1. The Russian and European settlers did not get along and there was violence between them. And the native people fought to hold on to their land and property and their rights. The British suppressed and oppressed them with their guns and army. It’s a disgrace. And then they call the natives terrorists. There is footage of this in historical documentaries. It is still shocking to me to see these images and reels.
I don't see European Jews as passive victims who were pushed on the Palestinians by colonial powers. My view is that European Zionists, including some very powerful and wealthy industrial and financial magnates, used their influence with the European powers to create Israel on behalf of Jewish interests rather than on behalf of European colonial interests. This is an important distinction because it mirrors current day dynamics between the West and Israel.
There are Zionist billionaires in the US today who are not shy about using their money and their political connections to elect and promote pro-Israel politicians, who in turn make sure that the US always supports Israel, even when that support proves to be harmful to US interests. Such influential oligarchs existed in the UK and in mainland Europe a century ago, and like their modern day counterparts, they used the British and French imperial powers to create Israel despite the fact that it was not in the interests of the British or French themselves to do so.
I think that many people see American activity in the Middle East today and assume that American interests are somehow being served by our support of Israel. My view is that the US is a dumb puppet that simply acts in the interests of Israel because groups like AIPAC and other Israeli interest groups have a stranglehold on our government. American interests have never been served by our support for Israel. And I see historical parallels to this dynamic in the actions of a century ago with the Balfour Declaration and the machinations that took place behind the scenes that gave rise to the eventual state of Israel.
What may be the best example of all of Biden's toadying, banality-of-evil ineffectiveness occurred when he was VP, and the Obama Administration had issued an admonishment (granted, a pretty bland, weasel-worded one) to the Israeli government regarding the continued building of illegal settlements in occupied territories. The very day that VP Biden landed in Israel, several new settlements broke ground. I find it hard to believe that such timing wasn't a deliberate act to let Obama know who was really in charge, and to add a humiliating insult into it.
Wow you covered every base Chris! Too bad the NY Times won't print it, for the world to see the truth, so CNN, MNBC, ABC, CBS can't ignore it. The Traitors of the American Intellectual Class, that pass as experts, in MSM, the David Aaron Millers, the Thomas Freidman's, the the War Hawk Retired Col's and Generals, the Neo Con Zionists, the Supreme Court Originalists, the PNAC oligarchs, the Wall St Bankers, the MICs the Chicken Hawks Biden and Obama, the Reagans and Thatcher's the Niki Haley's and Hillary Clinton's are the Obrien's Orwell warned us about!
When I was young I had, I suppose a feminist, belief that if women had more power there would be the possibility of a different and more peaceful world. Seeing Thatcher, Albright, HR Clinton, Nuland, Haley, etc has enlightened me. Of course there are many women, as well as many amazing men, working tirelessly and brilliantly to enlighten us and to change the current power structure.
And as for Americans, who are generally self absorbed, even people I know who are horrified by the Zionist genocide do nothing, but will vote for Biden because they are so terrified by Trump.
Power strongly selects for sociopathy. It is apparently indifferent as to gender, although I suspect that, among humans, sociopathy is more commonly found among males than females.
This is not because of any inherent moral superiority of women, but is a byproduct of their relations to power.
Yes, Anne, I at first had the same broad hopes about Feminism. What helped was to realize early on that "Feminism" had divided into two branches. One was of women devoted and impassioned about reclaiming the gifts of the long neglected feminine/yin values of relationship, empathy, tremendous female strength, creation itself! and the importance and dignity of the mother-child bond and positive parenting. The second branch consisted increasingly of women seeking unquestioning patriarchal status, success and inclusion (and of course it's possible to find balance between mothering and often necessary paid (vs. unpaid) work)(also, not confusing "patriarchy" with men, but as the word given to a long aeon [3000 years] where the masculine and feminine are severely out of balance. We see the results all around us. Men suffer as much as women from this.
I have to add that as a mother, I thank God (Male and Female) for all the warm nannies from the Global South who have helped hold, love and raise many of these less mothered children.
Power strongly selects for sociopathy. It is apparently indifferent as to gender, although I suspect that, among humans, sociopathy is more commonly found among males.
This is not because of any inherent moral superiority of women, but is a byproduct of their relations to power.
Oh and Madeleine Albright and Susan Rice, the Intercept has an article on these 2 female fascists. Admitting Ambassadors are paid liars! Along with being Kissinger hero worshippers, MIC and AIPAC shills!
And as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Biden sidelined Anita Hill and put Clarence Thomas on the court. I'm not going to vote for Biden. Better, I suppose, to sacrifice the US if it will deflect the clear horror that Biden & Co are concocting for millions in the world.
This essay conveys a remarkable amount of information and much food for thought. Most of us don't have the time or the energy to sort out all of the complexities associated with US Middle East policy. I'm deeply grateful to you for your ongoing efforts.
YOU do have a choice. Either don't vote or vote for a 3rd candidate.
YOUR politics is a circus which we in the world have been watching since the mid-term eletcions. How is anybody who works everyday supposed to keep up?
If she supports that war, she is shit. I can't even stand to listen to her. Spiritually and intellectually she is in kindergarten if she supports this bloody proxy war that is "helping" the Ukrainians EXACTLY like we "helped" the Vietnamese. The result is already clear: a destroyed, poisoned country with live landmines and unexploded bomblets everywhere, a traumatized population, and hundreds of thousands of dead bodies.
I can't disagree with a thing in this article. I am convinced that the Palestinians will survive, but not just survive, they, and justice, will prevail.
There must be a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, not with Palestinians suffering under oppressive conditions, but as a place where all live with peace and equality. It is time for Pope Francis to do more than talk. He must go to Gaza and make a stand for peace and freedom.
I purchased a one year subscription so I could thank Chris Hedges and his team for providing superb and vital reporting on the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Very disappointed with Joe Biden and company. You know they talk about terrorism and freedom and security and its just such hypocrisy. The USA are one of the most vicious terrorists on the planet.
Good quality and informative reportage, as we would expect. My only point of disagreement is that it's not entirely incompetence: it only looks that way, if one assumes that these people are well-intentioned. If you assume that their intention is to start wars because that is the easiest way to change society, then their actions make consistent sense.
See
1 General Wesley Clark on Democracy Now in 2003 telling you what wars were coming up;
2 the 2 interviews with Norman Dodd on YouTube, chief investigator on the Rees Committee.
I don't see these men as incompetent nor well intentioned either, but I also see other causes for these wars.
This is an excellent essay about the truly delusional mindset behind the barbaric actions of those in power in this country. The incredible arrogance and delusions of absolute power, along with the denigration of the current "Other," coupled with and justifying the insatiable greed of the multinational corporations actually running this country as well as Britain, France, et al.
But I'd also like to bring in the decades of geo-political-economic goal of stealing Oil and resources through the deliberate cultivation of propaganda driven fear/survival/ethnic division by the U.S./Israeli/Powers-That-Be, by colonially dividing the lands of indigenous groups (with the help of the CIA and endless weapons). Religion, ethnicity, race, etc. have been used by the powers-that-be, recently especially to foment proxy wars, for decades if not hundreds of years to attain the resources and labor they seek to exploit. I feel this is part of the root cause, tied in with the incredibly delusional arrogance behind this terrible genocide against the Gazans and Yeminis, and the wars in Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Ukraine, and on and on. It should be no surprise that the U.S., Britain and "coalition forces" (under the guise of the multinationals Shell, Chevron, Exon Mobil, BP, Halliburton, etc.) now OWN Iraq's, Ukraine's, Yemin's, Gazan's, etc. oil.
I am listing below just a few of the many sites about this insatiable greed of Western colonial governments run by people without conscience in service to vastly profitable multinational arms and oil corporations. Now again bombing those they again call "terrorists" in Yemen (as of 2021, 377,000!! Yeminis are now dead from war, starvation, disease (those 4 horsemen)) because they live on oil fields and ports Saudi Arabia & the "Coalition Powers" lust after. I fear it is Iran with its vast oil fields they are most trying to provoke through the escalating aggression and the calculated sacrifice of thousands of innocent lives. Insane and dangerous! I don't know what will stop this insanity, pillaging, and genocide, but it must first be seen for the monster, the Hydra, it is so that the millions of people of good conscience we are seeing stand up for the Palestinians can help these victims to reclaim what is theirs, returning this sacred Earth and her gifts to those who live and respect the land, the olive trees, the animals, they were given to steward as the Gazans/Palestinians have for generations. This is just a few of countless sites for those who are interested in knowing more of this history. It may feel daunting. The last entry is the most thorough.
"America, the Middle East and Oil" - In 1945 Middle Eastern oil and "U.S.National Security" became synonymous. Jimmy Carter in the 1970's Carter Doctrine said: The United States will use "any means necessary, including military force" to safeguard its "vital interests" in the Gulf:
1. American people do not travel unless they are in coaches/delivered to their safe hotels and never speak to the people.
2. How many people in the US can speak another language other than Spanish (LA)
3. Most Amerikans are happy to sit in their armchairs and watch BEGUILLING/crap/reality TEEVEE?
4. Frankly your armchairs are not going to be "safe" any more. You are going to have to get up and fight like the rest of the world who have been murdered in you name.
5. You can still watch your TEEVEE but it won't help you. You will be fed propaganda and just wait for the boots and guns coming to your houses!
It’s very amusing to see someone claim to be highly educated and sophisticated while broadcasting lazy stereotypes about foreigners. How sophisticated of you.
Jenny you keep referring to "Americans" As if 350,000 of us fit into the same basket that you have constructed for us. You yourself seem to be more than a little ignorant about the many I know who have lived ,and taught in obscure countries that even such a learned geography student such as yourself might not be able to find on a map . I even went to Burma when it was still Burma
You do yourself no good by making such general statement s based on little more than your own anti-americanism.
Jenny, perhaps the reason why Americans only speak English and Spanish is because this a continental huge country where those two languages are predominant. In Europe made of miniature countries with diverse languages it is easier for their people to learn many languages. I suppose that not too many there speak Swahili for instance.
I am guessing that you have Colleges in the USA where you can learn another language?
Why is it that the US can go about bombing other countries in the name of democracy and only a few people know the culture of others this includes language.
YOU in the US have never had a mass bombing campaign against your people. You sit in your armchairs in front of the assinine TEEVee and could care less what your country is doing.
Jenny, what seems to me stupid is for the Europeans, especially the French, to look down on us because of our murderous bulling and other defects while failing to see their own. When Europe had the big stick what did they do to the rest of the world? What did you do to Algeria, Vietnam etc.? Perhaps you didn't notice it in your travels through the world, but the French people have the reputation of being snobbery. It seems that because you have had great persons like Voltaire you think that you are the only ones with stars, and you cannot appreciate that every country also has its luminaries and that all of us smell the same.
When writing and posting about Palestinians and Gaza, I get some flack on my pages from other Democrats. I don't have time to argue with people about Biden. They think we should support our president. I would never have supported Adolf Hitler, Netanyahu, Nixon, Kissinger, or the king of foreign invaders, Aristotle's student, Alexander the Great, who sacked Tyre, in 335 B.C. when the arrogant Lebanese wouldn't permit him to give offerings in Ba'al's temple. I knew that Biden had a history in the U.S. Senate because he was the "go to" guy for Iraq. I had no idea he was trying to get into Iraq for five years before Iraq happened. I voted for him foolishly. I didn't want Trump to get into office. I knew he wouldn't be good for the Middle East, but I didn't think it would blow it up like this? I agree with Shahid Buttar that Hedges did a great job highlighting Biden's illustrious career, committed to militarism, and it is also ironic his son died from cancer because he stood too close to the toxic burn piles in Iraq. Although I have always felt many of these struggles are more class-based, we can no longer say it is a class struggle. Biden is clearly a racist. The way he talks about the Palestinians like they are merely animals in his conversations. He allows this killing and executions by Netanyahu and the IDF on Palestinians citizens, almost 400 doctors, 107 journalists, and 27,000 men, women, and children about half of the dead and murdered are sadly innocent children and infants. Biden allowed the destruction of all of the hospitals, and they are still killing Gazans by the boatload and sharp shooting Palestinians who run after food and sacks of flour. Biden is starving these people to death, and he is stopping goods and food from going in there. He is not really any better than chaotic, racist, white supremacist Trump. What would be the difference? Maybe Trump will imprison people here in the US? That may be something to fear. But Bidens hypocrisy is easy to see. If you don't believe Trump won't go after Biden for these imperfections because actually Trump didn't kill that many people when he was President. I want to find a presidential candidate who is about to dismantle the Military Industrial system, so we can get on with our lives and spend more money taking care of education, feeding our hungry, housing our homeless, and planning our futures. Instead, we are all looking at a grim future and a possible third world war as this killing goes on. He doesn't want to enact the war powers act, so he is allowing Netanyahu while he makes his mambi pambi statements, such as, "I don't trust the Palestinians." statement or saying very little about the human suffering both he and Netanyahu perpetrated by dumping 2,000 bombs on these poor families in Gaza! I am sure he will never win another election for President because I know good moderate Democrats who witnessed this and will never vote for him again. I am sure the 4 million Arab Americans in Michigan will not cast one vote for him, when they saved his ass in the last election. The truth is he doesn't appreciate loyalty either. He is a bigoted war monger, and the only comfort I get now is to know karma takes care of people like this, but that takes a long time.
I personally doubt that there is much of anything truly ideological in any of these characters. Sociopaths have no use for ideology, except as it proves convenient at the moment.
I especially appreciate that—even while flagging the record of Biden’s advisers—Hedges pinned the tail on the donkey by noting how Biden himself has been relentlessly committed to militarism, as well as a documented source of racist disinformation enabling it. I explored the same themes last fall at https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/the-first-casualty-of-war-is-the.
Observations of Biden’s hypocrisy and support for international human rights abuses should trouble Democrats concerned about Trump and the upcoming presidential election. By committing himself to genocide, Biden has given a would be tyrant a massive political attack surface that he will be sure to exploit.
That’s one reason (among many others) to support a candidate less co-opted by the establishment who has actually dedicated his life to fighting power and repudiating the intersecting evils that MLK warned us about. My last piece exploring how Cornel West could help hold Biden accountable focused particularly on race relations: https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/cornel-west-can-force-a-reckoning#details.
Reading this post, however, helped me recognize an opportunity to reprise that analysis as it relates to international relations and genocide Joe’s foreign policy. I’ll save the rest of my thoughts at that intersection for an upcoming post and appreciate both the information and the inspiration that Hedges always offers.
Being of a certain age (70) I hold little faith in the two options being put forth for the 2024 presidential (s)election. As I am registered neither Democrat nor Republican I feel no particular bond toward the respective agendas. The U.S. blood-soaked foreign policy agenda(s) can be depicted in a single image: Biden's bear-hug of/ with Netanyahu. It made my blood boil as did his statement "I intend to reach across the aisle" once he was elected POTUS. I appreciate both Marianne Williamson's and Cornel West's perspectives on what is needed going forward . Neither biden nor drumpf are even remotely capable. signed, San Francisco native daughter
Biden has been one of the worst presidents in my lifetime, way worse than Trump. Foreign policy is the most important issue for presidents, because they have virtual unilateral power in that area. Genocide Joe is a disaster, and if he leads the U.S. into WWIII, regardless of whether it's him personally or Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland, Austin, etc., he will be WORSE THAN HITLER, because there's a good chance that he'll end life on Earth.
Shahid-Great comment about Chris Hedges. I want to read the other articles you suggested. I should follow you too! Thanks.
Firstly I am a European living in France and I am disgusted that we have allowed this genocide by keeping silent.
I am one of those thousands of people 'marching' against genocide here in France.
IF the Palestinians are wiped from the map I am DISGUSTED. SAD. Totally against this American genocide.
To my mind every leader should be called to the Criminal Court in the Hague and imprisoned.
As for Joe Biden I know his History and if one person in the US says to me 'vote Blue' they should be also castigated.
Biden (look up his voting record.)
Just like Netanyahu he is and always has been a warmonger.
The liberal elites think he is a saviour (against Trump) who I loathe.
YOU in the US need a Civil War. You didn't vote for years (look it up) you bought anything you wanted/shopped till you dropped and then you blame everything on your Govt.
Because you live 'out of the ZONE wars' you think you are safe.
No you are not safe Amerika with your guns and your white supremacy.
The power of the vote is an illusion of democracy created by the capitalist oligarchy class. Don't blame voters. The U.S. govt is bought and paid for by ruling capitalist elites. You are skimming a very shallow & superficial surface by blaming U.S. voters.
The people in the U.S. like their country, as a whole anyway. For example, the military is the most trusted U.S. government institution. I'm tired of the lame excuses for people, it certainly is their fault. It's the fault of the rich & powerful even more, but regular people are the problem too. I don't think you realize how selfish, materialistic, and greedy Americans are. Everything here is about money, such as healthcare. Totally evil place filled with evil people.
Whether ordinary American people are good or bad they have absolutely NO influence on any government policies. Most people want a single payer health care system. The Insurance companies won't allow it. Beginning with WWI the American elites have manipulated public opinion, dismantled all opposition to the elite's agenda's and attacked, unions, the universities and the welfare system to the extent that ordinary Americans are powerless.
I have worked with a number of Americans and I am a student of American politics as I live in the 52nd state of the US; Australia. I have found most of the Americans I have met to be fine people. America has people like Chris Hedges, Ralph Nader and Cornell West. People who stand with the oppressed and call out the elites for what they are. I wish Australia had people with their ethics and understanding of the wickedness of the elites.
The American political system was designed by slave owning elites in their own interest and it was only through violent struggle ordinary people got to vote at all. From the mid seventies the elites rolled back all of the reforms of the new deal and in a slow motion coupe de etat took over the Government. Reagan started it and Clinton finished it. In the UK it was Thatcher who started it and Blair who finished the job.
It is not the ordinary American who cause all the wars and suffering it is the donor elites who want to maintain the empire in their own financial interest.
Regular people have no DIRECT influence on government policies, but they have a major indirect one. Politicians do things that get them elected and reelected. When a former Bush I official was asked why Bush invaded Iraq despite the massive street protests against doing so, she responded that they ignored the protests, but saw that everyone was buying SUVs and wanted cheap gas. It's not what people want, it's what their priorities are, and the priorities of Americans are pretty disgusting. (In politics, priorities are more important than which side you're on.)
As to your anecdotal stories about Americans being good people, you can find that anywhere if your standards are low enough. I'm sure you could have gone to Nazi Germany and found "good people." So what? What I said stands. I was a long-distance trucker in the U.S. for 5 years and I've been just about everywhere. I did that job to see the country, so I didn't confine myself to truck stops, and I met a lot of different people all over. I also compare Americans to my friends in other countries and listen to what they tell me about this, again as a generalization. I don't count Australia, because as you admit, it's pretty much just like the U.S. in many important aspects.
My comment wasn't about voting or the electoral system. People generally get the government they deserve, and the Americans certainly have that. As George Carlin rightly pointed out, there's no point in complaining about politicians generally, because they come from the populace, so this is the best we've got.
People buy SUV's because the car manufacturers want to make them because the are very profitable and the oil companies want them because they re gas guzzlers. The manufacturers advertise, and if you don't think that advertising influences people then why do they do it?
If the government should put disincentives in place make SUV's too expensive to buy or run the political donors from Big Auto would do if the government did that. No campaign funds and advertisments on TV about taking away your liberty etc etc.
You imply my standards are too low and that's why I have found a lot of ordinary Americans to be OK. I could easily turn that round and say maybe your standards are too high.
On the issue of influence there have been a number of scientific studies carried out to determine the influence of ordinary people on political policies in the US and it is zero.
Your opinion of your fellow Americans is just the, an opinion. But the lack of influence ordinary Americans have on their politicians is zero and that is a fact.
have a look at these papers by professional scholars.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/money-power-and-the-influence-of-ordinary-people-in-american-politics/
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B
https://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/idr.pdf
As I said in my first response in this thread, I'm sick of people making excuses for other people. This is just part of being a human supremacist, or maybe in this case worshiping America and Americans. All mentally competent adults are at least somewhat responsible for their actions. In Europe the percentage of SUVs is a lot lower than it is here, and I'm sure they have the same advertisements.
To be clear, I'm well aware of the effects and effectiveness of propaganda, of which advertising is a type. If I had my way ALL advertising would be outlawed and otherwise strictly prohibited. But how do you explain that advertising SUVs works so much better on Americans than it does on Europeans? My answer is that Americans are more self-centered and demand convenience more.
You haven't said anything that countered what I said regarding the type of people that Americans are. This isn't about your standards or mine, it's about comparing Americans to other people, and Americans are more self-centered, selfish, greedy, and materialistic by comparison.
Finally, I don't contest the fact that the ruling class runs things, at least in the U.S., but my guess is everywhere else too. We learned that in Political Science 101 in 1972, so this isn't news. A 2014 Princeton study found as much, concluding that only the 10-20% at the top economically get what they want. But regular people ALLOW this situation to exist. There is no good solution for this,* but things don't have to be this bad. Again, people get the government they deserve, though not necessarily the one they want.
* The only way to have a good "government," if you could even call it that, is to live in small enough numbers so that everyone knows each other, and that the only "leaders" are people who don't really want that job but do it out of a sense of duty, and run things for the good of their society and the environment. This is yet another of the countless ways that human overpopulation causes major problems, the vast majority of which are suffered by the Earth and the nonhumans who live here.
"rgarnett", you are wrong and Jeff (no last name) is right. You are rigidly locking onto a fact (that individuals have no measurable effect on major US policy) and not seeing the forest for the trees. Again, please use the alien-sociologist thought experiment and observe: Bush2 spent MONTHS softening up the "general will" of the regular people to support his invasion of Iraq, which his handlers had planned and documented in the famous PNAC document a year before 9/11. See the top of page 51 about Pearl Harbor! He needed our support to act fluidly in Iraq.
In the 70's it started becoming nearly impossible to suppress women at to the extent they'd been suppressed prior to the huge surge in the strength of the feminist movement. The same thing happened in the 1960's with the Civil Rights Movement.
You are wrong that the people don't count. They do! If people were rational, Bernie would have won the election by a landslide, because he was the only candidate who even remotely intended to serve working Americans instead of their corporate masters. The idiots CHOSE a kind of political slavery. They CHOSE to give up their sovereignty to a fascist coup that had already happened sometime during Clinton's presidency, right under their noses.
You really need to start reading the posts of your national treasure, Caitlin Johnston, every day. One thing I can say for you is that you're in the right place by being here, reading and commenting on posts by OUR (Americans') national treasure, Chris Hedges!
And read my response to "Jeff", above. There is a lot in it for you.
How, "rgarnette", can we make any meaningful progress when 55% of white women voters CHOSE to RE-elect Trump? It would be downright UNDEMOCRATIC if an Amerikan government started doing the progressive, rational things that are called for at this moment of emergency in human civilization, because at this point in time, THE PEOPLE are too stupid for democracy. Like Jefferson said, without an educated populace, democracy is impossible.
You excuse people being brainwashed. If I make slick commercials to convince them the Moon is made of creme cheese, you'd excuse them for believing it. One good thing about Amerika is that we still have an incredible degree of freedom of speech and access to information. It would have taken 15 minutes of Internet research in late 2002 for anybody with a brain to determine that Bush/Cheney were lying and that an expanded war in the Middle East would be the ultimate human crime (ever hear of the Nuremberg Tribunals?), ruin Amerika, and break the world.
Jeff, this is a brilliant comment is 100% true (one can test the truth of your words by doing the alien-sociologist thought experiment. What would this advanced observer, with no dog in our fight, report back to its home planet about the talking apes in the place the apes call "America"?
Just what you said.
I did the same thing as a taxi driver in Denver and on Maui that you did as a truck driver. Especially on Maui, since tourists come from everywhere and therefore are automatically randomized (to some extent -- poor people don't fly to Maui and ride taxis), I got to be an "alien sociologist" and interview thousands of random Americans and hundreds of random foreigners and see what made them tick, philosophically, politically, and spiritually.
In this comment, you are agreeing with the French political philosopher Rousseau (1712–1778), who wrote that the "general will" will always manifest, sometimes gradually, into whatever government a country has. Trump R' us!
I'm a 70-year-old boomer, and we got it hard, the brainwashing, fake history and fake religious indoctrination, and corporate media manipulation, to the point that in their very bones, most of my fellow old progressives and self-professed radicals still believe Amerika is a bastion of freedom and a shining light on the hill. Martin Luther Chomsky -- I mean King -- spelled this out for us in the clearest of language in his famous 1967 anti-war speeches: "My government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world." True then, true now.
That's what makes our situation so horribly frustrating. We're not a noble people oppressed by an evil tyrant, but a base, selfish, stupid, heartless people who recently allowed a completely corrupt Supreme Court, with more than half of its members clinically insane, to take away women's right to deal with their own medical and reproductive care! If you squint your eyes just a bit, it's easy to see these same scumbags bringing back some form of slavery, and allowing witch burning under certain special circumstances, e.g., video proof of a woman communicating with a cat.
When Reagan was elected, I fasted and meditated alone atop Mount Haleakala on Maui for 4 days. I got the idea from listening to Jim Morrison of The Doors singing so urgently, "Break on through to the other side!" I realized I didn't have the strength to deal with the level of ignorance, pride, and proud stupidity that made Reagan possible. At age 27, I knew beyond any doubt that my America was doomed unless we could somehow come back with a new and stronger kind of consciousness.
When Bush2 was RE-elected in 2004, I mourned the loss of America. America was dead. I started spelling the new name of our country "Amerika", sometimes with 3 K's.
And when 55% of white FEMALE Amerikan voters chose to RE-elect Trump, well, what could I expect from a dead, zombie-ized country?
I hope anybody reading this will allow these 2 very simple comparisons to sink in:
In 2 years, Putin has killed approximately 500 children in Ukraine. In 3 months, Biden/Netanyahu have killed 10,000 children in Gaza.
Since 9/11, Amerika's military has caused 4.5 million deaths resulting from its "unprovoked wars of aggression", while during the same time period, Putin's armies have caused less than 400,000 deaths. But Putin is evil and Amerika is good.
We're about the same age. When Reagan was elected (to my total surprise), my first instinct was to leave the country for good. However, at that time, I didn't have a passport, had never been out of the U.S., and knew no one in any other country. So I just sort of froze, and the best I could do was move to then-radical Berkeley in 1983.
The only thing I may disagree with that you wrote is that Trump isn't worse than any of these others, and in some important ways he's not as bad. Yes, he's a racist sexist xenophobe who only cares about his money and his ego, but what other president in our lifetime didn't start another war? This is by far the biggest issue regarding a president, because foreign policy is where they have all their power. Of course Trump is no peace candidate, he just doesn't stand to profit from wars, so he'd rather do business with other countries than fight them. I would never vote for nor support Trump, but people obsess on him to the point where they'd vote for Hitler just to get rid of him. Biden has been WAAAAY worse than Trump was as president.
That's a nice and fair defense of the American people. Still, with the totally free access we have to information, there is no excuse for our level of ignorance and idiocy. We Americans SUCK!
On a WHIM we vote for the likes of Reagan and Bush2, simply because we like their swagger! I remember LIBERAL friends locking onto a buzzword or buzzphrase, like, regarding Bush2, "He's a uniter!" and "He's a compassionate conservative!", and these motherf*ckers actually VOTED for him ... and millions of children in the Middle East and Global South were terrorized, starved, maimed and killed.
And we don't even care enough to know that it's going on. Just start asking young American college graduates how many people (5 million) died in the Vietnam War, and you'll hear answers like, "10 thousand?"
Hey, "garnett", I hope you realize that you have your own amazing Chomsky/Cornell West/Chris Hedges-type political philosopher in Australia. OMG, if you haven't read https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au, you are in for a huge treat. She is one of the most amazing minds on the planet. Her short story "Lisa and the Stranger" is one of the best short stories ever written in English.
Now that is cynical. Have you lived anywhere else?
No, but I have close friends in other countries who've visited and even lived here, and they agree with me. One of my best friends now lives in Bangkok but grew up here, and he agrees too. I just got an earful from a German friend now living here about how this damn country is all about money first. It's not cynical, it's unfortunately the truth.
There is a lot wrong with the US to be sure; however, being "all about money first", is not uniquely American. Why is your German friend in the US? I know a number of Europeans who live here. For them it is about jobs and opportunity.
Some of our U.S. friends moved to Europe, and some of our European friends moved here. We're punk rockers, nothing to do with money or jobs.
The fact that there are exceptions doesn't negate what I wrote. I was obviously generalizing, and it's generally true.
Thank you Sherry Amaryllis...How about aiming big blame on the corporatist Democratic Establishment that blots out the Peoples' choice and inserts their
corporatist Republican light so-called Democrat in its place - for decades.
Of course. Voters can choose between Team R Tweedledee and Team D Tweedledum.
Even when a more independent voice sneaks through, that voice is quickly brought around. I suspect without any firm evidence that the process is something like in "Yes, Minister".
"Don't blame voters"
Who should one blame?
Congress is bought and paid for and our choices are limited. Nevertheless, we stand for it. How many people actually contribute to a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United or repeal Program 1033?
That is as maybe but I know how many people in the US did not vote for years. Look it up!
The largest political party in the United States is the NonVoters™ party, and has been for years. It's criminal not to vote when you have a chance to stop a fascist, an INSANE fascist, like Trump.
We Americans are really in a pickle, now, though, because Biden has proved beyond any doubt that he is full-on Hitler-level evil by his policies in Ukraine and Gaza. So now we don't even have our usual Tweedle-Dee vs Tweedle-Dum choice.
Our choice now is between revolution or slow death and a BEST-CASE SCENARIO of a collapsed human civilization, billions dead, and the living envying the dead.
MLK rolled out a roadmap for us in his 2 famous 1967 anti-war speeches, and instead of following it and becoming a magnificent country, we continued the Vietnam War for 8 more years and 15 years later started the long Bush1/Clinton/Bush2/Obama/Trump/Biden wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen, etc.
Here's an amalgamation of the 2 speeches I did, since they largely overlap but both contain some unique and amazing language and ideas.
http://www.zenhell.com/temp/Amalgamation_MLK_Anti-War_Speeches_jeff_syrop.pdf
You can respond to me at zenhell.com.
Jenny--Americans are so self-serving and selfish people because they do live outside of these war zones. Because our entire society is really messed up people here don't believe anyone or any media. I had a friend write me thinking the stuff I was posting was all fake news. Not because she is a Trumper either. She is really unaware of what is going on in the world. A lot of Americans are racist, and they really do not want to admit it. Biden and Satanyahu (as we call him) and Blinken should all go to the Hague and be imprisoned. I hope it happens, but it will never be. We need to get him out of office and allow younger people. I am always happy to hear opinions from Europeans because they have different and better perspectives.
Thanks Eagle Eye.
Yes they US people on the whole are uneducated and could care less about wars started by the US as long as it does not touch them.
Beginning to get really worried now I see nothing but conflagration.
Many Americans don't vote because they believe - through experience - that their vote doesn't count. Political candidates all give their loyalty and vote for policies that benefit their big donors not the people who voted for them. Obama was their last hope - and he pretty much turned on his constituency by siding with the Big Bankers and throwing universal health care under the bus.
Jenny wrote:
"YOU in the US need a Civil War. You didn't vote for years (look it up) you bought anything you wanted/shopped till you dropped and then you blame everything on your Govt.
Because you live 'out of the ZONE wars' you think you are safe.
No you are not safe Amerika with your guns and your white supremacy."
I saved this in my lifetime quote collection (text file).
It may have been born in Europe, but it was raised and groomed for MIC big business in America.
Isn't Zionism = settler colonialism, USA style. What indigenous group in the USA was not "genocided" by the white settlers? Persistent and repetitive removal of the indigenous peoples from their lands (they were here first)(right?).
Zionism is a form of Jewish supremacy. It is enabled by the U.S. because Zionists wield enormous influence over the U.S. government, not because Israel is acting on behalf of the U.S. Israel is the principal, not the agent.
Yup, but it flourished in America. Britain created the Arab-Jewish conflict. But America now sustains and nourishes it....to the point that now Israel seems to be the one driving the bus with the U.S. and UK being towed behind.
Jewish Zionism was an ancient thing but renewed in Europe in 1897 by Theodor Herzl in response to rampant anti-sémitism across all of Europe but especially in the east: Russia, Poland, Germany....but Jews in every European countries faced real anti-semitism in the 1800s and 1900s long before Hitler and the Nazis arrived on the scene.
It was a European creation pawned off on the Arabs as the Europeans plotted to take control of the Arab lands and mine their natural resources like food little colonial thieves, and also alleviate their guilt about the holocaust as well as their European ‘Jewish problem’ all in one neat solution: the creation of Israel. The French, British, US, Russian and Italians were all in on it during WW1, and it just continues naturally through to WW2 and the subsequent creation of Israel.
So, America and UK and most western countries remain responsible for this mess both indirect and direct ways in past and present, and it seems for the foreseeable future.
None are more responsible for the current atrocities other than Israel and than the U.S., as without U.S. arms, even the IDF had said they could not continue the assaults, and without Israel no one would be manufacturing the lies (mass rape, babies in ovens, 40 dead babies etc) to justify it.
The U.S. can’t even just stand by and do nothing: they actively supply Israel with the enormous amount of weaponry required for a genocide. The UK too. And both use their veto on security council to prevent UN taking measures ro get a cease fire or otherwise intervene.
It’s just sickening.
If in the future if there are more terrorist attacks within the U.S., the UK, Germany, and other European countries, we cannot be surprised: this is what our leaders are leading us towards and so the responsibility for the future inevitable terror attacks in their own counties rests squarely on their own shoulders.
Israel was a European creation in the sense that Britain carved it out of land they had stolen from the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI. But that doesn’t explain why Britain created Israel. The Balfour Declaration was the product of intense lobbying by Jewish lobbyists and influential interests with ties to the British government. Just as AIPAC today shapes US foreign policy toward Israel, there were similar Jewish organizations and individuals in the UK who were lobbying hard for Britain to create the state of Israel. So, I don’t know that characterizing Israel as a European invention is really accurate. The existence of the state of Israel is a testament to the influence and power of the Jewish diaspora in Europe.
I agree that it was the British who created Israel, and its support for that happened before the Balfour declaration.
But what I’m saying about Europe is that they created anti-semitism leading to the formation of the Zionist Project by Herzl in 1897.
The allies in WW1 were equally complicit and were aware of Britain’s double dealings with the Arabs and Zionists wrt the promise of Palestinian land and sovereignty. France knew. France just wanted Syria...they were at the table to make sure they got the piece of the Ottoman Empire that they wanted. This is complicity. All parties to the Treaty of Versailles are complicit.
For clarity, I’m not trying to minimize Britain’s part or in any way excuse. The British government know what they did which is why they don’t teach the true and full history to us Brits in school. It’s abhorrant.
The biggest lie that was manufactured in the Arab Israeli conflict is that the Arabs hated Jews. The truth is that Europe hated Jews and Arabs. They just turned them around to fight each other to suit the European interests and secure the shipping routes through the Middle East for the benefit of Europeans and the U.S.
That’s how I understand it so far. I’m still researching and learning.
The Settlers are the most brutal of people, and that started very very early in the 1900s before Balfour declaration. The British supported the settlers and protected them when they assumed control of Palestine after WW1. The Russian and European settlers did not get along and there was violence between them. And the native people fought to hold on to their land and property and their rights. The British suppressed and oppressed them with their guns and army. It’s a disgrace. And then they call the natives terrorists. There is footage of this in historical documentaries. It is still shocking to me to see these images and reels.
I don't see European Jews as passive victims who were pushed on the Palestinians by colonial powers. My view is that European Zionists, including some very powerful and wealthy industrial and financial magnates, used their influence with the European powers to create Israel on behalf of Jewish interests rather than on behalf of European colonial interests. This is an important distinction because it mirrors current day dynamics between the West and Israel.
There are Zionist billionaires in the US today who are not shy about using their money and their political connections to elect and promote pro-Israel politicians, who in turn make sure that the US always supports Israel, even when that support proves to be harmful to US interests. Such influential oligarchs existed in the UK and in mainland Europe a century ago, and like their modern day counterparts, they used the British and French imperial powers to create Israel despite the fact that it was not in the interests of the British or French themselves to do so.
I think that many people see American activity in the Middle East today and assume that American interests are somehow being served by our support of Israel. My view is that the US is a dumb puppet that simply acts in the interests of Israel because groups like AIPAC and other Israeli interest groups have a stranglehold on our government. American interests have never been served by our support for Israel. And I see historical parallels to this dynamic in the actions of a century ago with the Balfour Declaration and the machinations that took place behind the scenes that gave rise to the eventual state of Israel.
Excellent comment - spot on!
What may be the best example of all of Biden's toadying, banality-of-evil ineffectiveness occurred when he was VP, and the Obama Administration had issued an admonishment (granted, a pretty bland, weasel-worded one) to the Israeli government regarding the continued building of illegal settlements in occupied territories. The very day that VP Biden landed in Israel, several new settlements broke ground. I find it hard to believe that such timing wasn't a deliberate act to let Obama know who was really in charge, and to add a humiliating insult into it.
Thank you Chris Hedges for your analysis and reportage of the past and present.
The Empire of Lies cannot rescue ‘Israel’ from Implosion.
Palestine Will Be Free, It will Live & It will Be Prosperous.
Al-Quds (i.e., Jerusalem) will be Liberated, Inshallah!
American 'leaders' will not be able to stop the inevitable.
The WALL was torn down on October 7. The Old World is Dead.
'Israel' & its Brutal Genocide & Ethnic Cleansing ACCELERATES all this.
Apartheid will never Win!
(For those interested)
If you wish to read (& listen!) to more of My commentary, here is my Main Stack:
https://thefallofthewest.substack.com
Thank You Kindly to everyone!
Wow you covered every base Chris! Too bad the NY Times won't print it, for the world to see the truth, so CNN, MNBC, ABC, CBS can't ignore it. The Traitors of the American Intellectual Class, that pass as experts, in MSM, the David Aaron Millers, the Thomas Freidman's, the the War Hawk Retired Col's and Generals, the Neo Con Zionists, the Supreme Court Originalists, the PNAC oligarchs, the Wall St Bankers, the MICs the Chicken Hawks Biden and Obama, the Reagans and Thatcher's the Niki Haley's and Hillary Clinton's are the Obrien's Orwell warned us about!
Hello Jim.
I have been watching the women in all countries. There are women who I hoped would be different but it seems M.Thatcher left her mark.
Robotic: Van der layen (dutch)
Suella Braverman (UK) who wants to deport all immigrants to Rawanda setting up a new Israel.
Then there are the women in Congress (USA).
Yes, but there are women, too, rising and standing up. Like this strong Irish lawyer who just spoke at the international court at the Hague:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhsWyBWGoCU
When I was young I had, I suppose a feminist, belief that if women had more power there would be the possibility of a different and more peaceful world. Seeing Thatcher, Albright, HR Clinton, Nuland, Haley, etc has enlightened me. Of course there are many women, as well as many amazing men, working tirelessly and brilliantly to enlighten us and to change the current power structure.
And as for Americans, who are generally self absorbed, even people I know who are horrified by the Zionist genocide do nothing, but will vote for Biden because they are so terrified by Trump.
Forgive me for repeating myself:
Power strongly selects for sociopathy. It is apparently indifferent as to gender, although I suspect that, among humans, sociopathy is more commonly found among males than females.
This is not because of any inherent moral superiority of women, but is a byproduct of their relations to power.
Yes, Anne, I at first had the same broad hopes about Feminism. What helped was to realize early on that "Feminism" had divided into two branches. One was of women devoted and impassioned about reclaiming the gifts of the long neglected feminine/yin values of relationship, empathy, tremendous female strength, creation itself! and the importance and dignity of the mother-child bond and positive parenting. The second branch consisted increasingly of women seeking unquestioning patriarchal status, success and inclusion (and of course it's possible to find balance between mothering and often necessary paid (vs. unpaid) work)(also, not confusing "patriarchy" with men, but as the word given to a long aeon [3000 years] where the masculine and feminine are severely out of balance. We see the results all around us. Men suffer as much as women from this.
I have to add that as a mother, I thank God (Male and Female) for all the warm nannies from the Global South who have helped hold, love and raise many of these less mothered children.
Power strongly selects for sociopathy. It is apparently indifferent as to gender, although I suspect that, among humans, sociopathy is more commonly found among males.
This is not because of any inherent moral superiority of women, but is a byproduct of their relations to power.
Oh and Madeleine Albright and Susan Rice, the Intercept has an article on these 2 female fascists. Admitting Ambassadors are paid liars! Along with being Kissinger hero worshippers, MIC and AIPAC shills!
Don't forget Biden!
And as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Biden sidelined Anita Hill and put Clarence Thomas on the court. I'm not going to vote for Biden. Better, I suppose, to sacrifice the US if it will deflect the clear horror that Biden & Co are concocting for millions in the world.
Excellent. I wish there were more like you.
This essay conveys a remarkable amount of information and much food for thought. Most of us don't have the time or the energy to sort out all of the complexities associated with US Middle East policy. I'm deeply grateful to you for your ongoing efforts.
And we keep electing these war mongers... as if we had a choice🤔
YOU do have a choice. Either don't vote or vote for a 3rd candidate.
YOUR politics is a circus which we in the world have been watching since the mid-term eletcions. How is anybody who works everyday supposed to keep up?
Ya
I'm thinking Jill Stein or Williamson. The DNC want to keep Biden going strong. But most Dems want him off ticket...go figure.
I'm not impressed b y Jill Stein, but I do wish Biden would step aside and not run again.
Not voting isn't an option for me.
I voted Jill in the last election and am likely to vote Williamson in the upcoming election
Williamson supports the U.S. proxy war against Russia. How is she any better?
If she supports that war, she is shit. I can't even stand to listen to her. Spiritually and intellectually she is in kindergarten if she supports this bloody proxy war that is "helping" the Ukrainians EXACTLY like we "helped" the Vietnamese. The result is already clear: a destroyed, poisoned country with live landmines and unexploded bomblets everywhere, a traumatized population, and hundreds of thousands of dead bodies.
Plan on it Jon.👍
Yes indeed. I'm registered Green from way back in time.
I can't disagree with a thing in this article. I am convinced that the Palestinians will survive, but not just survive, they, and justice, will prevail.
There must be a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, not with Palestinians suffering under oppressive conditions, but as a place where all live with peace and equality. It is time for Pope Francis to do more than talk. He must go to Gaza and make a stand for peace and freedom.
Please sign the petition and share widely.
https://chng.it/CRQ7qw4Gzn
More petitions:
To support the application by South Africa to the ICJ
https://chng.it/5fMpQxbcZW
Codepink:
https://www.codepink.org/cnngaza?utm_campaign=12_15_pali_update_alert_3&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink
Ceasefire Now
https://www.change.org/p/sign-and-share-this-urgent-petition-calling-for-a-ceasefirenow-in-gaza-and-israel
These are a few small things we can do. If we can do more, let us do more.
We can ask. What he does or doesn't do, that's on him.
I purchased a one year subscription so I could thank Chris Hedges and his team for providing superb and vital reporting on the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Very disappointed with Joe Biden and company. You know they talk about terrorism and freedom and security and its just such hypocrisy. The USA are one of the most vicious terrorists on the planet.
Can you please have this incredible info on Spotify as a podcast episode?
You can listen to this here for free! https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-four-horsemen-of-gazas-apocalypse-aca
Good quality and informative reportage, as we would expect. My only point of disagreement is that it's not entirely incompetence: it only looks that way, if one assumes that these people are well-intentioned. If you assume that their intention is to start wars because that is the easiest way to change society, then their actions make consistent sense.
See
1 General Wesley Clark on Democracy Now in 2003 telling you what wars were coming up;
2 the 2 interviews with Norman Dodd on YouTube, chief investigator on the Rees Committee.
3 article "How to Start a War, And Why".
https://open.substack.com/pub/whatdoino/p/how-to-start-a-war-and-why?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=18p2zc
I don't see these men as incompetent nor well intentioned either, but I also see other causes for these wars.
This is an excellent essay about the truly delusional mindset behind the barbaric actions of those in power in this country. The incredible arrogance and delusions of absolute power, along with the denigration of the current "Other," coupled with and justifying the insatiable greed of the multinational corporations actually running this country as well as Britain, France, et al.
But I'd also like to bring in the decades of geo-political-economic goal of stealing Oil and resources through the deliberate cultivation of propaganda driven fear/survival/ethnic division by the U.S./Israeli/Powers-That-Be, by colonially dividing the lands of indigenous groups (with the help of the CIA and endless weapons). Religion, ethnicity, race, etc. have been used by the powers-that-be, recently especially to foment proxy wars, for decades if not hundreds of years to attain the resources and labor they seek to exploit. I feel this is part of the root cause, tied in with the incredibly delusional arrogance behind this terrible genocide against the Gazans and Yeminis, and the wars in Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Ukraine, and on and on. It should be no surprise that the U.S., Britain and "coalition forces" (under the guise of the multinationals Shell, Chevron, Exon Mobil, BP, Halliburton, etc.) now OWN Iraq's, Ukraine's, Yemin's, Gazan's, etc. oil.
I am listing below just a few of the many sites about this insatiable greed of Western colonial governments run by people without conscience in service to vastly profitable multinational arms and oil corporations. Now again bombing those they again call "terrorists" in Yemen (as of 2021, 377,000!! Yeminis are now dead from war, starvation, disease (those 4 horsemen)) because they live on oil fields and ports Saudi Arabia & the "Coalition Powers" lust after. I fear it is Iran with its vast oil fields they are most trying to provoke through the escalating aggression and the calculated sacrifice of thousands of innocent lives. Insane and dangerous! I don't know what will stop this insanity, pillaging, and genocide, but it must first be seen for the monster, the Hydra, it is so that the millions of people of good conscience we are seeing stand up for the Palestinians can help these victims to reclaim what is theirs, returning this sacred Earth and her gifts to those who live and respect the land, the olive trees, the animals, they were given to steward as the Gazans/Palestinians have for generations. This is just a few of countless sites for those who are interested in knowing more of this history. It may feel daunting. The last entry is the most thorough.
Gaza:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-war-geopolitics-gaza-multibillion-dollar-gas-field
https://www.declassifieduk.org/flagship-british-firms-set-to-profit-amid-israels-war-on-gaza/
The rape and plunder of Yemin:
https://new.thecradle.co/articles-id/250
https://www.fcnl.org/issues/middle-east-iran/saudi-led-war-yemen-frequently-asked-questions
The cultivation of ISIS (How "terrorists" are created, multiply and are used):
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/us-isis-syria-iraq
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
"America, the Middle East and Oil" - In 1945 Middle Eastern oil and "U.S.National Security" became synonymous. Jimmy Carter in the 1970's Carter Doctrine said: The United States will use "any means necessary, including military force" to safeguard its "vital interests" in the Gulf:
https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jas045
Yes: greed is the mechanism, and also the motivation for all EXCEPT those at the very top, for whom the motivation is power.
Thanks for the links. Hoping to get around to them soon.
I forgot the first part of this wonderful report.
1. American people do not travel unless they are in coaches/delivered to their safe hotels and never speak to the people.
2. How many people in the US can speak another language other than Spanish (LA)
3. Most Amerikans are happy to sit in their armchairs and watch BEGUILLING/crap/reality TEEVEE?
4. Frankly your armchairs are not going to be "safe" any more. You are going to have to get up and fight like the rest of the world who have been murdered in you name.
5. You can still watch your TEEVEE but it won't help you. You will be fed propaganda and just wait for the boots and guns coming to your houses!
Typical continental snobbery. Mistaking multilingual tourism for sophistication.
Excuse me.........continental snobbery. You forgot the word 'smug' in here.
It's always the excuse Americans make for downright ignorance of the rest of the world.
Your education system is defunct: I lived in the US for 23yrs and watched my daughter being taught propaganda in school.
You are uneducated.
I doubt that you even knew where Ukraine was before the un-legitimized war.
Where is Myanmar/Yemen etc. NO Geography in US schools!
It’s very amusing to see someone claim to be highly educated and sophisticated while broadcasting lazy stereotypes about foreigners. How sophisticated of you.
Jenny you keep referring to "Americans" As if 350,000 of us fit into the same basket that you have constructed for us. You yourself seem to be more than a little ignorant about the many I know who have lived ,and taught in obscure countries that even such a learned geography student such as yourself might not be able to find on a map . I even went to Burma when it was still Burma
You do yourself no good by making such general statement s based on little more than your own anti-americanism.
You "watched" your daughter being taught propaganda in school" ??? What did you do about it besides watch?
Jenny, perhaps the reason why Americans only speak English and Spanish is because this a continental huge country where those two languages are predominant. In Europe made of miniature countries with diverse languages it is easier for their people to learn many languages. I suppose that not too many there speak Swahili for instance.
What a stupid comment Julio.
Do you have NO interest in the world???????
I speak Swahili do you? That's a joke!
Do you speak Farci or Urdu?
I am guessing that you have Colleges in the USA where you can learn another language?
Why is it that the US can go about bombing other countries in the name of democracy and only a few people know the culture of others this includes language.
YOU in the US have never had a mass bombing campaign against your people. You sit in your armchairs in front of the assinine TEEVee and could care less what your country is doing.
Try thinking of speaking another language?
Jenny, what seems to me stupid is for the Europeans, especially the French, to look down on us because of our murderous bulling and other defects while failing to see their own. When Europe had the big stick what did they do to the rest of the world? What did you do to Algeria, Vietnam etc.? Perhaps you didn't notice it in your travels through the world, but the French people have the reputation of being snobbery. It seems that because you have had great persons like Voltaire you think that you are the only ones with stars, and you cannot appreciate that every country also has its luminaries and that all of us smell the same.
When writing and posting about Palestinians and Gaza, I get some flack on my pages from other Democrats. I don't have time to argue with people about Biden. They think we should support our president. I would never have supported Adolf Hitler, Netanyahu, Nixon, Kissinger, or the king of foreign invaders, Aristotle's student, Alexander the Great, who sacked Tyre, in 335 B.C. when the arrogant Lebanese wouldn't permit him to give offerings in Ba'al's temple. I knew that Biden had a history in the U.S. Senate because he was the "go to" guy for Iraq. I had no idea he was trying to get into Iraq for five years before Iraq happened. I voted for him foolishly. I didn't want Trump to get into office. I knew he wouldn't be good for the Middle East, but I didn't think it would blow it up like this? I agree with Shahid Buttar that Hedges did a great job highlighting Biden's illustrious career, committed to militarism, and it is also ironic his son died from cancer because he stood too close to the toxic burn piles in Iraq. Although I have always felt many of these struggles are more class-based, we can no longer say it is a class struggle. Biden is clearly a racist. The way he talks about the Palestinians like they are merely animals in his conversations. He allows this killing and executions by Netanyahu and the IDF on Palestinians citizens, almost 400 doctors, 107 journalists, and 27,000 men, women, and children about half of the dead and murdered are sadly innocent children and infants. Biden allowed the destruction of all of the hospitals, and they are still killing Gazans by the boatload and sharp shooting Palestinians who run after food and sacks of flour. Biden is starving these people to death, and he is stopping goods and food from going in there. He is not really any better than chaotic, racist, white supremacist Trump. What would be the difference? Maybe Trump will imprison people here in the US? That may be something to fear. But Bidens hypocrisy is easy to see. If you don't believe Trump won't go after Biden for these imperfections because actually Trump didn't kill that many people when he was President. I want to find a presidential candidate who is about to dismantle the Military Industrial system, so we can get on with our lives and spend more money taking care of education, feeding our hungry, housing our homeless, and planning our futures. Instead, we are all looking at a grim future and a possible third world war as this killing goes on. He doesn't want to enact the war powers act, so he is allowing Netanyahu while he makes his mambi pambi statements, such as, "I don't trust the Palestinians." statement or saying very little about the human suffering both he and Netanyahu perpetrated by dumping 2,000 bombs on these poor families in Gaza! I am sure he will never win another election for President because I know good moderate Democrats who witnessed this and will never vote for him again. I am sure the 4 million Arab Americans in Michigan will not cast one vote for him, when they saved his ass in the last election. The truth is he doesn't appreciate loyalty either. He is a bigoted war monger, and the only comfort I get now is to know karma takes care of people like this, but that takes a long time.
I personally doubt that there is much of anything truly ideological in any of these characters. Sociopaths have no use for ideology, except as it proves convenient at the moment.
They rely on brute force because they can.