The American regime is leading the world into an age where the law of the jungle is paramount, above the rule of law. Francesca Albanese is a heroine for humanity. My heart and my thoughts are with her.
I'm not defending our role in this slaughter, but one must never forget that is was Israel who implemented this genocide, carried out this genocide and is responsible foremost for the carnage past and present with almost full support of it's people. Also,. one has to be very mindful that this is a country who holds great sway over our American elected officials, and as they say AIPAC has to go.
Make enough of the connections between Epstein and AIPAC and their influence might lesson...........there's a lot that operates in the darkness in the USA.........a little sunlight and in depth analysis might do a world of good.
"Law of the jungle" and "it was always this way" are NOT TRUE. They're 19th C. Social Darwinist justifications for the natural superiority of Robber Barons and their right to rule. Plus a cruel self-centeredness denying the common good. Environments may be harsh. Yet species radiate into them, in part to avoid competition.
Trees grow in obligate symbiosis with fungi on the roots. This alone makes cooperation the dominant mode of life on Earth and there are many others. Did barely upright hominin females with toddlers gather food on their own? Did an Ice Age hunter go after a mammoth alone? Humans wouldn't have survived and still would not without interconnectedness.
Watch how crows behave around food. They call friends and relatives (they seem to know how many to invite) and each goes away with some. Unlike what should be the lesson of a Monopoly board game; a demonstration of the problem when only one person gets everything.
I hope that "Law of the jungle", as you typed, is NOT TRUE. My hope would be that homo sapiens would evolve to the point where they could all enjoy a socio-political-economic structure akin to the crows you mentioned. Is my hope in vain? The current situation in the America makes me wonder...
Human cooperation pre-dates the current econ system by a few hundred thousand years. It's still valued by unions, worker-owned businesses, the Mandragon co-op in the Basque region of Spain, heirs of the Social Gospel and Populist movements in North America, and millions of Indigenous peoples around the world.
Economics dominant since the '70s is from the Chicago School of Econ. A set of assumptions based on little, if any, empirical evidence. Among its beliefs: the only real human motivation is individual personal gain, profit. Talk about the common good or social structures is naivety, or lies, or demagoguery. The believers assert their de facto deity, The Market, is omniscient and omnipotent, so any attempt to guide or modify It is silly socialism doomed to failure. Of course they define this as "natural." Easy--simply refuse to look at all the ways it isn't.
Human beings are naturally cooperative and social, even if the vicious capitalism they're stuck in isn't. Therein lies my hope for America, and for all of humanity.
A revealing joke though......the Nobel committee has forever tarnished itself....suggesting that it too, is afraid, and perhaps already in the pocket of imperial Amerika.
So at least we know. When a courageous woman tells the truth, her assets are seized; when a treasonous right winger begs Amerika to take over her country, promising the oil guys millions, its the Nobel Peace Prize she walks off with.
THE BAD GUYS ARE US....THE IMPERIAL WEST...and it's going to be hard to act against it, from inside leviathan....we all have to become schizoid........work hard for peace and food security in our little ghettos, vote for the two faced democrats at home, killers abroad.
We see it all around us. Few want to mention Gaza...though many will still get off on demonizing Russia's war in Ukraine. Two faces struggling to mask one brute Reality.
Vladimir Putin could cure athlete's foot, autism, and most childhood cancers with his touch, and The Guardian would insist that it was fake news, that Putin stole his powers that don't work and he's putting doctors out of work while weaponizing spiritual healing.
Any stick will do to beat the enemies of the empire.
Meanwhile, Zelenskii could personally toss puppies alive and whimpering into a wood chipper on Ukrainian State TV and we would hear that the puppies deserved it for supporting Russia, their gruesome deaths were a military necessity for which Putin was to blame, and also that the puppies were overjoyed to their last yelps to give their lives for Zelenskii.
The only time a sociopath tells the the truth is when doing so is in his interest at the moment.
THing is though.......I suspect Zelenski was as taken in by the CIA operatives and the fascistic militias as were many in the west. One large irony is how quiet the cries of geocide against Russia, became when the real genocide got started.....Zelenski likely expected America to win over Russia, didn't foresee America wimping out when they realized the proxy war was costing too much, any more than Europe foresaw being left holding the bag.
It all could have been avoided if the NATO forces......those that Trump likely wants to destroy........had just believed Putin and kept their noses out of Ukraine.
But when has the west ever chose peaceful co existence over proxy wars/regime change covert war games???
Ingamarie. You are correct in your assessment. I must concede to my relatives and friends who say Ukraine is at war because Russia invaded. But the conversation should not end there. The next question is: Why did Russia invade? The answer: Because the NATO fools would not recognize Russia's legitimate desire for security.
As for those claims that Putin intends to build an empire similar to the USSR, rubbish. The true Ukrainians in the Western part of the country have no wish to be part of a Russian empire.They would constantly inflame the population into mass resistance against the Russian overlords. Putin understands this and he does not want to be required to be constantly putting down a Ukrainian uprising.
There is also Chernobyl. Putin understands that the disaster at the nuclear plant was the rose on the grave of the USSR. He prefers that Ukraine deal with the future expensive headache of Chernobyl.
Yes. It would all be so much easier if we granted to our opponents similar desires to our own........Russia couldn't tolerate NATO warheads on the Russia Ukraine border........Russia told us so, over and over and over agin.
But American games theory warhawks always imagine they know the mind of the enemy.....are too paranoid or dumb, to realize its their own mind they're casting abroad onto Russians.
Russians bled and died in the thousands in WWII. I think they know more than most North Americans about the high cost of war. We're just in the process of learning that now, alas.
I try very hard not to imagine I know other people's personal motives, or inward sympathies. It isn't necessary to demonize Zelensky to know the war was fomented by CIA operatives, NATO warhawks, and the Fascistic militias like the Azov battalion, working inside Ukraine.
Given how ginned up hatred of Russia has been in America for decades........it was pretty easy to get your average social media pundit on side demonizing Putin..........and working very hard to silence anyone who wanted to bring up America's history of covert regime change all over the world.
I know. Correspondents who'd agreed with me/whom I'd agreed with, on many local issues for decades, suddenly named called me a Putin bot because I don't erase any data that leads to bad faith dealings on our side.
I'm not a partisan.........I'm a retired English teacher who knows good writing comes from good thinking. Ya CAN'T TEACH WHAT YA CAN'T DO....and teaching thinking for a quarter century taught me that burying evidence is no way to begin the process. Ferrying young minds to sound conclusions made my process better and better.
I'm in the debt of all the students I had the honour to teach.
Change the 'you' to 'we' and I'm with you..........one thing our schizoid games have done at the local level, is it's hard to work with people who stand for social justice but don't want to talk about Gaza.......or hold those shutting down peaceful protests accountable. The genocide is breaking down solidarity in many so-so progressive sites I'm afraid......AND creating more work on the ground.
Cuba isn't doing well just now, thanks to the American know it alls of superior governance.....we're pulling money from our social democratic party to help our friends and relatives there.......and a bit fearful about how many of them wouldn't be on side, when it comes to Cuban children.....once you connect all the dots........the disasters of American foreign policy become overwhelming.....
And what each of us can do, more symbolic than healing.
Yes, I'll change the pronoun to "we". (A mistake).
I cannot imagine someone who stands for social justice NOT standing for Gaza since it is the most obvious, overt social-and-every-other -injustice in the world right now; it is the straw which has broken the back of the camel of imperialism and colonialism (sorry, camels everywhere!) Or at least has demonstrated its evils.
All other social injustices are tied to this abuse of power through capitalism and, to me, Gaza represents the nadir of capitalism which is destined to be reproduced elsewhere if the UN isn't overhauled and doesn't regain some authority in the world.
I am not shy about talking to friends about Gaza, so convincing is the evidence Francesca Albanese has gathered in her reports as special rapporteur.
But up here in Albaturda.....voting for a watered down version of the NDP...is the best we can hope for. Standing with a people successfully demonized by American propaganda for at least 70 years???
They'd have to totally redo their intellectual structures....let go of Russia, take up Israel, as the evil over there that we're superior to.
It comes down to 'how willing are you to admit you've been mostly wrong, and likely gulled by liars?' I'm not trying to make fun of that mindset.......
I can imagine it........having lived on the edges of progressive self satisfaction for most of my working life. I'm the one who always goes too far......if you know what I mean?? For some, imagining I might have been more on the money, just rubs salt in their wounded pyches.
Remember the American agenda in regard to this genocide was determined by Israel, by the degree of control it has accrued over the American government.
ANd by the obscene amount of money your 'wealth creators' get out of zealously maintaining American complicity.
Don't know about where you live, but precious few came out with the Palestinians for the first 18 months of this genocide.....neoliberal capitalism has dumbed us down to the point where a foreign lobby can control the liberal west.
But we're skirting our own responsibility when we put it all on them.
Capitalists have convinced us that we have no agency. So people think there's no point in protesting against injustice. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. There aren't enough people in the streets because most people think there's no point and there will be no point until we can show sufficient numbers to affect change.
I don't disagree, and as for ordinary people, well, in the past they did have more access to the truth then what they have now which solely provides non stop chatter that sings the praises of one side, or the other, and undermines the opposition. Politics is no more then a sport. My team is better then yours. Meanwhile they both suck.
I was a political activist in my youth, well in my mind I was. At 8 I decided I wasn't buying the Russia scare, and was an American Indian fan. I was always against our wars, and our agenda in South America, and elsewhere because I had a mother who was extremely political and even back when was a devout anti-Zionist and didn't back down when some referenced her as an anti-Semite. She predicted what is going on in Gaza now. No surprises, just disgust. I also dealt with it by choosing professions that help people, which hopefully I did, animals and nature included.
It's already here. If Trump is allowed to wage war on Iran without congressional approval, that will be the last straw for the middle east and the western world at large. Once middle eastern oil prices shoot up rippling across the world, the U.S. and Europe will hasten their demise. The unrest from the people as they witness the military dead come home will likely bring down the Trump regime, and maybe even a goodly portion of the EU leadership. Starmer is rumored to already be on his way out. Macron is on life support. Von Der Lyon is hugely unpopular as is Mertz with the younger voters.
I hope the U.N. can offer Ms. Albanese some protection from all of this but that institution looks to also be on it's way to irrelevance now too. Especially since Trump has stopped the U.S from paying its dues. I think a new world order is ushering in and the United States will no longer be the king of the hill anymore.
Mr. O Domhnaill, If the US attacks Iran,I fear we shall see the greatest response since December 7, 1941.
Iranians have stated publicly that if the U.S. attacks Iran, with only a pinprick; Iran will respond with all out war on U.S. installations in the area and annihilation of Israel. Iran has the ability to do so. She has tens of thousands of the most sophisticated weapons in existence, designed and built by Iran. Iran's hypersonic missiles cannot be stopped. The 12 day war demonstrated that. Not only are they capable of penetrating any and all defense systems which use known antiballistic missile technology; they are backed up by the newly developed Chinese targeting system which is capable of locating a target with one tenth the error-distance of the West's GPS systems. The new Chinese system does not use GPS.
When the Japanese military planners decided to attack the U.S.; Admiral Yamamoto famously commented "I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve." Those top Japanese planners did not understand the opponent they were about to attack. This is the greatest mistake a military leader can make. Yamamoto attended Harvard university in his youth. He understood America.
American war planners apparently do not understand Iran. Persians trace their continuous existence back to military leaders like Cyrus The Great and Darius the Conquerer from half a millennium BC. It is a strategic mistake for American military planners to attack such a nation. Persians will fight literally to their death in defense of their traditions. Before they die, they have made it clear they will take down their opponents with them. They will destroy the entire Western World economy by closing down the entrance to the Persian Gulf. They will also eliminate Israel completely.
We can only hope that Trump will not listen to that blustering, vacuous alcoholic Pete Hegseth. We can hope he will listen to seasoned admirals, generals, and colonels.
It's hard to know what's going on in Iran. We have Iranian friends, are kind of adopted grandparents to their little girl. Tonight we talked on the phone planning a weekend get together for Rosa and our two cousin twins.........and they spoke of the situation in Iran.
What they are telling us is hard for us to believe. It sounds like American propaganda...but when I said it's quite likely the CIA are in Iran stirring the pot....they quickly agreed. All the protests in the west in the last week or so.......in support of the Iranian people..........look very humanitarian...........until you compare them to the relative silence on what's happening in Gaza.........and then.....????
We start to wonder if America isn't ginning everyone up to want war against Iran....but then, the Trump factor comes into play. Trump isn't going to risk a real war........he likes performative pieces........drop a few bombs and declare victory, what???
And for sure: If the Iranian regime feels threatened enough......giving Israel a good thrashing might be in order. Blocking those straits makes sense as well.........
So I'm wondering if all the uproar about 'human rights abuses' in Iran isn't a Ukrainian redo kind of operation??? Another blow against 'the axis of evil' in defence of...eh....the axis of evil????
PS. If I were Iran, had the capability, and came under attack.........I know where my warheads would be going. Strategically, what other choice do they have???
That was my point only with less words. As a retired Army special operation soldier, who went to the middle east five times in my career, I know full well how determined all of these Islamic countries are about protecting their homeland from the "Great Satan." I also read and watch a lot of news from outside of the U.S. and you are very correct sir. Russia, and now China, have been plussing up Iran for a couple of years now in fear of just this kind scenario. The U.S., or should I say, Trump's U.S., is arrogant. They think no one in the world can land a hard punch to their military face. They have forgotten Iraq and Afghanistan already.
If the U.S. attacks Iran, Iran will do what they said and a lot of American service members will die and be wounded. Russia and China have been setting up the most sophisticated air defense technology the world has ever seen, plus China, and maybe Russia, have deployed their best naval units to guard the straits. The Iranian navy can very effectively shut off the straits to all traffic, including U.S. naval assets. Which is why the U.S. navy is sitting in the Arabian Gulf and not in the Persian Gulf. Not that, that will protect them from the Iranian missiles. Israel will become a desert wasteland once Iran launches on them. Which may be good for the Palestinians.
As for Trump listening to his military advisors, I don't see that happening. Trump doesn't listen to anyone who might even think of telling him no on anything anymore.
I just listened to Scott Ritter tell us on today's Judging Freedom podcast, that Trump has already made up his mind to go to war in Iran to effect regime change. Probably by late spring, if not sooner. All of these diplomatic negotiations going on now are just a ruse as the CIA and Mossad work to set things up for the invasion. Once they signal that all is ready, the planes will fly.
Once things kick off, there is a better than even bet that the world will enter a global recession that may rival the 1930's. That will be Trump's legacy.
We try to catch Scott Ritter as well, and much respect his perspectives......not only because he didn't lie about those weapons of mass destruction, but because he speaks Russian and is capable of listening to the other side.
I don't listen to everything he says but I do check in every week. You're right, if nothing else, he's not afraid to tell the truth about things, even when it costs him.
This is certainly not what Ms. Albanese thought she was signing up for when she took on the role of Special Rapporteur and when she performed that job with the utmost fairness and diligence. The iron grip of the Zionist mafia must be broken, but how is the question. In the U.S., both major parties are submissive to it. And yet, the winds of change may be shifting. AIPAC funding of political campaigns is proving to be toxic. Of course, the sources of genocide funding will shape-shift, but that doesn’t mean that they will always be able to hide their true identities. Vigilance!
We did some research into Mamdani's campaign in New York, and an interesting thing that his chief of communications said was this: It didn't hurt Mamdani that he stood with the Palestinians, in fact it helped him. Mamdani pulled in a lot of people who had never voted, and the Com Chief thought it was partly because Mamdani standing against the genocide convinced these people fed up with main stream same old same old.........that he was an honest man.
It might be possible for AIPAC support to turn so toxic no one can get elected with their endorsement.....you'd have to find some way to make it clear where all the dark money flooding your system.............and the western democracies in general.......was coming from.
The pattern of structural predation and sacrifice zones that used unequal trade, debt, and land grabs to drain $152T since 1960 from the Global South for the Epstein Class is working to increase the lethal profitability of its death machines.
Is there a wee bit of mansplaining in this compliment? Or am I reading backhand put downs where none were intended???
The people who died in Central and South America because of you American war f*cks still chills my blood.....and it often sounds like most of you don't give a rap, or think of it as some kind of art macabre.
We have friends from Chile....and El Salvador...so we know the price the innocent paid...death squads could have been added to d'Souza's post. The School of the America's could feature in a good sonnet or two as well.
Ingamarie. My daughter has a Juris Doctor. My wife has a PhD., was twice union president and three times chief negotiator for collective bargaining. I do not engage in "mansplaining." Nor do I engage in sarcasm here.
As for "you American war f*cks"...I was a draft resister during the Vietnam war. It got me thrown out of 3 universities and fired from a faculty position before I eventually earned a PhD at Michigan State University, a cosmopolitan place where even left wing draft dodgers can earn a degree. I know about Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet.
Thanks for the corrections....as a student of literature, with a bit of a gift for poetry.......I just heard a back handed complement in the question about writing poetry as well.
In truth, good political analysis and an ability to read poetry often go hand in hand.....so I may have misunderstood you.
Still.......I'm glad I brought out this biography. You're a bit of an exception yourself....and it's true, I have to fight hard not to hate what the majority of Americans stand for.........and look away from. I don't always succeed.
Just now, your continued persecution of Cuba disgusts me....that the strongest country in the world, can't forgive a little island that wanted distance from them...........while imagining Russia should have no trouble with American controlled nato missiles on its border......is appalling.
Can't deny it. I sometimes hear American exceptionalism at work in much of what passes for politics from your country.
Peccato, Italia. Va fa in culo, Meloni. Sono sicuro che questo declarazione non dimostra il senso della gente Italiana, ma soltanto del governo Fascisto d'Italia. Cazzo-vi
I don't like this administration, but prove the previous ones were better. Wasn't it the Biden administration who said Putin has got to go, and used Ukrainian lives to accomplish his goal? Wasn't Obama equally complicit in implementing wars, Syria, Libya as well as implementing the coup in Ukraine? He was preceded by Bush/Cheney and it's lie that Hussein was on his way to developing nuclear weapons, a lie pushed by Netanyahu that laid the groundwork of what was to come. AIPAC was there for them all as was the military industrial complex and the mind set of American hegemony.
Do you have TDS? She said that she doesn't like this administration. These problems don't start and end with Trump, far from it. If it weren't for the U.S. and the U.K. wanting a client state in the Middle East in order to try to control the oil, the modern state of Israel wouldn't even exist. Both Democrats and Republicans are full on Zionists. Trump just takes bad situations and makes them worse, but he's far from being a cause of any of this.
You said that Fran was simping for Trump after she said she doesn't like him. How is pointing out how awful Biden was simping for Trump?
It was Biden who committed genocide in Gaza by arming & funding Israel. We all agree that Trump sucks, but some of you obviously don't want to admit that the previous administrations were totally horrible too.
TDS is quite real, I have friends who have it. The most extreme example is a friend in Bangkok who complained to me about Trump when Biden was in office! I can't talk to these people about anything without them bringing up Trump. Sorry, but Trump is very far from being the root of any problems, and if you're obsessed with him -- whether you love or hate him, doesn't matter -- he's got you and there's something wrong with YOU.
See Finster's comment below: "Every time I mention Trump's many failures, you intone 'but Biden!'." Also, as evidenced in comments by Fran in other pieces... i.e I don't like/agree with Fill In The Blank (Trump/this administration etc) immediately followed by BUT... Their comments often evidence a subtle defence of Trump and crew.
Have previous administrations been guilty of horrible shit? Unquestionably! But is Trump worse? Absolutely!
" that's like judging a beauty contest for turds." Fair enough and very well stated 😂.
Brings to mind a similar circumstance that frustrates me. When I dare criticize anything that Carney does, I receive a slew of replies;
"You would rather Poilievre had been elected" (I never said any such thing.)
"So you think Poilievre would be better?" (No, I don't. But that's a pretty low bar we've set)
When I think of LGBTQ+ communities, the immigrant communities, the residence of Minnesota, and non-"white" people in general, I suspect that the would say that Trump and cohorts are worse. Perhaps in the grand scheme of things, at the end of the day it doesn't make much of a difference. But in the here and now... he is worse.
Trump also does us the favour of saying the quiet part out loud, over and over and over again. If at this point Americans don't 'get it' there may be no help for them.....but what do I know??? I'm just an Alberta socialist contending with our own version of always right, climate denying wanna be Americans. Fossil Fools for the most part.
I think its best to understand things by having an overall perspective especially since Trump has been used by too many as a kind of scapegoat allowing those that preceded him cover for the wars and abuses they implemented. Didn't the Intercept attack Greenwald for not pushing Russia-gate, didn't he lave to leave the Intercept because they wanted a Biden win, and he had some questions about him? That's why, and since he's come back into office they're at it again and that doesn't mean I like Trump! I'm not simpering for anyone.
Every time I mention Trump's many failures, you intone "but Biden!".
Biden is not the president. Biden did not place Albanese on the OFAC list. Trump is the president and Trump did that.
Nobody here is praising Biden but you keep going back to things that a man who is no longer president didn't do and that nobody here is praising, least of all me. Were I to be consulted, Biden would hang.
I try to adopt a perspective that nothing happens in a vacuum, and too often we try to understand things with little to no regard for our past policies and failings, and if we did I think we would have a much better perspective on where we are today. In this past century alone, war after war, after war, not to mention being complicit in Israel's genocide by providing them with bombs to carry it out. The previous century wasn't much better, so do you think I'm going to understand where we are and where we are headed by singling out Trump's policies alone, THE Monster, who will bring us to the edge of extinction? No, since so many preceded him in this reckoning ball world that has brought us here. God, say Trump and it's slowly I turned , step, by step. Trump is not the only one who got rid of Albanese since so many created a world that ultimately led to Trump doing just that.
Trouble is Fran........a nation that scapegoats is more than happy to scapegoat Trump, and forget all the things his predecessors did more quietly, but to just as bad effect.
Honestly Ingamarie, some of us are able to see, analyze, and criticize Trump and crew, AND STILL REMEMBER "all the things his predecessors did more quietly..." We find it as easy as walking down the street and chewing gum at the same time.
But what we remember can be lost if we never review it. You're responding to a thread where someone castigated Fran for saying something to the effect that she wasn't all in on demonizing Trump.......because she saw him as just the last turn of the screw so to speak.
I agree with her. The guys that lied to the American people about the Vietnam war were as bad........Kissinger was a real piece of sh*t when it came to bankrolling death squads in Latin America, George Bush the lesser was a born again killer............American regimes starved half a million children in Iraq in the ten years between the two Gulf Wars. Much like they are starving Cuba today....
So I come to the defence of anyone who asks us to remember that imperial America didn't begin with Donald Trump.
IN POINT OF FACT, IT MAY WELL BE ENDING WITH THAT DUMMIE....and much of our way of life is going south with him. Rather like Laurie Anderson said in her song O SUPERMAN..."you've already paid for this'.
All of us in the privileged west have. But you can bet......there's millions still in denial of the full extent of who we are.
Yes. Owning up to past mistakes is not going to be easy for a people who begin by assuming that they're always right, always the good guy, etc. etc. etc.
I think all over the west, more and more of us are waking up. Our sham democracies are being revealed for what they are............shell games for the most part, where the people who love power more than truth take turns winning elections..........that increasing numbers of people don't bother to vote in.
Mamdani won in part with the votes of people who had never voted, and in an interview with his chief of communications, the claim was made that Mamdani's support of the Palestinians didn't hurt him.......it made him look like an honest man to many who distrust both mainstream American parties.
SOOO....what if that's the case throughout the west??? That only the old and the upper middle classes still believe in our democracy, or imagine it is superior to what they have in Cuba, or Venezuela, or......you fill in the blanks....what if that's the reality???
What do we do to mobilize that large demographic of younger people, people who've never been privileged, and the few who can't direct their intelligence to serve half truths???
Many people read this site and others like it. Why????
I'd prefer to think it was for other reasons than enjoying real life crime stories writ large.
ANd why do I feel so alone...........if the rallies in Europe, and the conversations on so many sites like this are so large???
- A new development in 21st Century: cooperative international totalitarianism mirroring global corporate capitalism, solely utilizing finance to eliminate enemies to states. Simply disconnect your enemies from the money system, it is crippling.
(Frog dart poison is so 20th Century.)
Tailoring for the use on individuals the same technique used in economic war between nations, via "instruments" such as tariffs and trade restrictions.
Corporate autocracy allying increasingly nationalistic regimes: not so much evolving as mutating.
It is becoming clear, the issue is they want to lie and claim they are the good guys. If they just really admit and see themself for what they are, at least they won't be lying!
I've been meaning to become a paid subscriber to the Chris Hedges Report. This is the post that finally made me do it. I'll be contacting my government (Canadian) to alert them to this despicable assault on one of the most courageous defenders of human rights and human decency, Francesca Albanese.
Dear Francesca, Chris too. Thank you for speaking out, again and again, stating the facts, the truth and nothing but the truth, about the genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and the steady undermining of international law, the rule of law and the Palestinian human rights = our human rights. You have my support. Actually, you deserve the support of all of us. Because after the Palestinians (the Houthis, the Iranians and... and... and...) we will be next. So let's fight for their rights = (y)our rights. Use them or lose them.
Agreed, it's the system. At this point, it's hard to see how it will change since the levers of power are in the hands of the autocrats with their 800+ military bases. Add to that AI danger, climate chaos with its increasing migrations of people, environmental degradation, increase in economic inequality, and it does not bode well for the future where already we see the law of Might Makes Right being allowed to swagger across the planet and destroy the rights of people to control their own destinies. All that is without taking into account the possibility of nuclear war The more things change, the more they remain the same and history repeats itself . It's just that now the situation is extremely fragile and it is unclear how much disruption is survivable.
The Western nations follow the lead of the USA in persecuting Francesca Albanese, even when it is clearly against their best interests - i.e. multi-lateralism and the maintenance of international law and order, and the support of the United Nations and the panoply of international agencies that support international justice and peace. It is disgusting that other nations follow the Trump/Rubio lead as they have proven themselves to be amoral and violators of international justice. They are the ones who should be sanctioned and prosecuted by the ICC and ICJ. It is despicable foreign relations driven by thugs.
Shining more light on the plight of Albanese is actually quite easy ...
Did you know, Hedges has never said a word about Dr Reiner Fuellmich, who has been languishing in a German prison since OCT 2023 ...
And I am not at all surprised that Hedges found his case to be radio-active as Fuellmich once said: "The coronavirus hysteria is the greatest crime in human history, millions of lives ruined for something that more closely resembles the common cold. People all over the world are now waking up and protesting the unnecessary, draconian coronavirus restrictions." ...
----------------
Ya see, Hedges flipped on us with the lockdowns ...
He actually took sides against us when he knew better ...
Here's proof ...
After preaching direct confrontation to tyranny for the past 20 years and saying "the constitution remains a sacred document", he refused to stand with us against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ...
On DEC 2, 2021 the explosive FDA FOIA release revealed 1,223 deaths and 25,000 medically verified injuries during the first 90 days of Phizer's trial ...
Pandemic denial has done its share of good work in dividing what should be a large consensus response to the on going genocide. We spend almost as much time denying the facts of global warming, as we do avoiding the truth about the Pax Americana.
Works for the Trump administration and his decidedly weird Secretary of Health....believing conspiracy fictions keeps the fear and anger directed at hospitals, scientists, educators, etc............and not at the real killers in the AMERICAN WAR MACHINE.
The FDA FOIA release occurred just 30 days prior to Hedges making this appallingly insensitive, self-centered and reckless comment to his followers on the JAN 1, 2022 Krystal, Kyle and Friends podcast - so there can be no doubt ...
Hedges did not have to take sides on this issue, he could have said it's a personal decision, but no ... Hedges knew and did not give a damn!
Sorry Doug.......but if I follow you, I'm on side with Chris. Vaccine science is over a century old, and many lives were saved by the vaccines. Period.
If we want to demonize anything medical, watching American tv during this Trump nightmare has convinced me, its patent medicines America is hooked on.......that's what Big Pharma likes to produce and sell...........miracle cures I'd be sceptical of.
But the marketing of a new vaccine during a pandemic????
Thanks God for real medical science. I'm Canadian. We found the cure for Polio...it was a vaccine!!!
You actually contradicted yourself in your comment above ...
Hedges knew the COVID jab WAS NOT tested and as an omnivorous reader, he also had to know that Gates and Fauci were literal business partners ... Hedges preached direct confrontation to tyranny for the past 20 years, but caved like a coward to the same corporate elites he denounced.
All the warning signs were there ... COVID Jab Killed 675k Americams ...
One could search the Internet and probably find proof that the Earth is flat and the moon is made of green cheese. Doesn't make it so. The linked article it's not appear to be peer reviewed.
Why, after 20 years+ of directly confronting tyranny and denouncing corporate elites, would Hedges suddenly become a coward and cave in?
Obviously, you've admired Chris Hedges in the past and you strongly disagree with him regarding the Covid vaccine. You need to just deal with it. Denigrating him with imaginary conspiracy theories is not the way.
I question how much you really know about this issue ...
And you'd better believe we individually have the right to refuse any vaccine that is not tested, especially when the manufacturers are given legal immunity. That's not to mention the results of Phizer's FDA trial data ... The findings were so explosive that Phizer's defense team actually argued for incrementally releasing this info over a 55-year period ... I've got more links to Hedges' direct, verbatim, head-scratching quotes on this and other topics - all ya gotta do is ask ...
And one more thing: seeing the videos of persons injured by the COVID jab is nothing like seeing it happen to somebody in your immediate circle!
I'm giving serious thought to documenting his betrayals on a website ...
He's done a number a very peculiar things which have led me to believe that he has an "understanding" with DS operatives and may have even had a sit-down with them.
Chris Hedges wouldn't touch the subject of 9/11 with a ten foot pole. The misrepresentation of 9/11 as a crime of Muslim psychopaths acting independently, was the key to bringing about the Global War on Terror with its belligerent targeting of Palestinians as a class of natural-born hijacker terrorists. Hedges' hedging of his bets to protect his own career trajectory at the expense of demonized Muslims, but especially Palestinians, is a very serious mark against this embedded asset. What is his relationship to the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung based in Germany and Tel Aviv? Through Hedges this, tainted foundation is a big funder of the annual Left Forum in New York.
This version does not align with my understanding of either 9-11..........or the situation of the Palestinians. No doubt the anti-Muslim sentiments that increased in the USA after 9-11 made the illegal war against Iraq easier for the Americans to sell.........but I have no recollection of Palestinians being involved in the world trade centre tragedy.
Palestinians have been suffering since the Nakba.......and in a very interesting book I just finished called DISASTER NATIONALISM...the author has a chapter that's very good at reviewing some of the statistics of that horror show. It begins in 1948....it's doing its best to wrap up now.
Chris Hedges has been reporting on the current situation to a far greater extent than most journalists in the united states of KKK............and I'm not sure what it serves to be taking a hatchet to his reputation.
Not everyone can do everything.........and not everyone is going to agree with everything he reports on. But in a couple of decades of reading Hedges......he has added significantly to my knowledge of American foreign policy. So I take a bit of umbridge at anyone who casually tries to discredit his motives............or his reporting.
Guess I'm not understanding your attacks on Hedges at all then.....it sounded like he had to sound some kind of alarm about some kind of medical procedure and failed to do so. Perhaps don't assume we all are familiar with your sources when you start to take down a journalist who for many of us has been a voice of sanity in a sea of complicity to American foreign policy in general. What exactly did Hedges do, or not do......that has you casting aspersions???
Yes, IMO he's now just got too much skin in the game to really be responsive to "his working class" ... I'm so disappointed in him that I'm now giving serious thought to documenting his betrayals on a website. ...
RE 9/11, he was asked to comment on 9/11 after a 2014 speech and said: "I don't want to get into conspiracy theories ... Bush was probably just asleep at the wheel" ... this was the comment that drastically change my view of him ...
And in his "AMERICAN SADISM" speech he demeaned those of who question the motives and tactics of our elected officials by conflating us with Q-Anon types .... he actually called us member of "the lunatic fringe and conspiracy theorists" - pretty nasty!
I've met him and talked to Chris Hedges in Edmonton Alberta. He does not come across as a straight shooter but as some kind of nervous pretender who has a lot to hide about what really motivates his decisions and actions.
Mr. Hall You look at Chris Hedges and see a man who walks in the fields of doubt. You interpret this as evidence of a "nervous pretender who has a lot to hide." I look at him and see a man to be trusted, whether or not I always agree with him. Believe it or not: Pierre Salinger said JFK walked in the fields of doubt. Yet most commentators viewed him as supremely confident, even arrogant.
The American regime is leading the world into an age where the law of the jungle is paramount, above the rule of law. Francesca Albanese is a heroine for humanity. My heart and my thoughts are with her.
It ever always only was that way. Just that now, nobody needs to bother to pretend otherwise.
I'm not defending our role in this slaughter, but one must never forget that is was Israel who implemented this genocide, carried out this genocide and is responsible foremost for the carnage past and present with almost full support of it's people. Also,. one has to be very mindful that this is a country who holds great sway over our American elected officials, and as they say AIPAC has to go.
Make enough of the connections between Epstein and AIPAC and their influence might lesson...........there's a lot that operates in the darkness in the USA.........a little sunlight and in depth analysis might do a world of good.
Law is ONLY a legality
No one is ABove the Law ENFORCES the LEGALITY over the MORALITY !
"Law of the jungle" and "it was always this way" are NOT TRUE. They're 19th C. Social Darwinist justifications for the natural superiority of Robber Barons and their right to rule. Plus a cruel self-centeredness denying the common good. Environments may be harsh. Yet species radiate into them, in part to avoid competition.
Trees grow in obligate symbiosis with fungi on the roots. This alone makes cooperation the dominant mode of life on Earth and there are many others. Did barely upright hominin females with toddlers gather food on their own? Did an Ice Age hunter go after a mammoth alone? Humans wouldn't have survived and still would not without interconnectedness.
Watch how crows behave around food. They call friends and relatives (they seem to know how many to invite) and each goes away with some. Unlike what should be the lesson of a Monopoly board game; a demonstration of the problem when only one person gets everything.
I hope that "Law of the jungle", as you typed, is NOT TRUE. My hope would be that homo sapiens would evolve to the point where they could all enjoy a socio-political-economic structure akin to the crows you mentioned. Is my hope in vain? The current situation in the America makes me wonder...
Human cooperation pre-dates the current econ system by a few hundred thousand years. It's still valued by unions, worker-owned businesses, the Mandragon co-op in the Basque region of Spain, heirs of the Social Gospel and Populist movements in North America, and millions of Indigenous peoples around the world.
Economics dominant since the '70s is from the Chicago School of Econ. A set of assumptions based on little, if any, empirical evidence. Among its beliefs: the only real human motivation is individual personal gain, profit. Talk about the common good or social structures is naivety, or lies, or demagoguery. The believers assert their de facto deity, The Market, is omniscient and omnipotent, so any attempt to guide or modify It is silly socialism doomed to failure. Of course they define this as "natural." Easy--simply refuse to look at all the ways it isn't.
Human beings are naturally cooperative and social, even if the vicious capitalism they're stuck in isn't. Therein lies my hope for America, and for all of humanity.
I didn't say it was nice.
Anyway, robbers cooperate with each other all the time. So do wolves.
this is gut wrenching news.
I'm gonna throw up.
Francesca Albanese should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize not that Venezuelan kiss USA ass Maria Coria Machado...what a sick joke that was.
A revealing joke though......the Nobel committee has forever tarnished itself....suggesting that it too, is afraid, and perhaps already in the pocket of imperial Amerika.
So at least we know. When a courageous woman tells the truth, her assets are seized; when a treasonous right winger begs Amerika to take over her country, promising the oil guys millions, its the Nobel Peace Prize she walks off with.
THE BAD GUYS ARE US....THE IMPERIAL WEST...and it's going to be hard to act against it, from inside leviathan....we all have to become schizoid........work hard for peace and food security in our little ghettos, vote for the two faced democrats at home, killers abroad.
We see it all around us. Few want to mention Gaza...though many will still get off on demonizing Russia's war in Ukraine. Two faces struggling to mask one brute Reality.
Demonizing Russia is a high status opinion.
Vladimir Putin could cure athlete's foot, autism, and most childhood cancers with his touch, and The Guardian would insist that it was fake news, that Putin stole his powers that don't work and he's putting doctors out of work while weaponizing spiritual healing.
Any stick will do to beat the enemies of the empire.
Meanwhile, Zelenskii could personally toss puppies alive and whimpering into a wood chipper on Ukrainian State TV and we would hear that the puppies deserved it for supporting Russia, their gruesome deaths were a military necessity for which Putin was to blame, and also that the puppies were overjoyed to their last yelps to give their lives for Zelenskii.
The only time a sociopath tells the the truth is when doing so is in his interest at the moment.
THing is though.......I suspect Zelenski was as taken in by the CIA operatives and the fascistic militias as were many in the west. One large irony is how quiet the cries of geocide against Russia, became when the real genocide got started.....Zelenski likely expected America to win over Russia, didn't foresee America wimping out when they realized the proxy war was costing too much, any more than Europe foresaw being left holding the bag.
It all could have been avoided if the NATO forces......those that Trump likely wants to destroy........had just believed Putin and kept their noses out of Ukraine.
But when has the west ever chose peaceful co existence over proxy wars/regime change covert war games???
Ingamarie. You are correct in your assessment. I must concede to my relatives and friends who say Ukraine is at war because Russia invaded. But the conversation should not end there. The next question is: Why did Russia invade? The answer: Because the NATO fools would not recognize Russia's legitimate desire for security.
As for those claims that Putin intends to build an empire similar to the USSR, rubbish. The true Ukrainians in the Western part of the country have no wish to be part of a Russian empire.They would constantly inflame the population into mass resistance against the Russian overlords. Putin understands this and he does not want to be required to be constantly putting down a Ukrainian uprising.
There is also Chernobyl. Putin understands that the disaster at the nuclear plant was the rose on the grave of the USSR. He prefers that Ukraine deal with the future expensive headache of Chernobyl.
Yes. It would all be so much easier if we granted to our opponents similar desires to our own........Russia couldn't tolerate NATO warheads on the Russia Ukraine border........Russia told us so, over and over and over agin.
But American games theory warhawks always imagine they know the mind of the enemy.....are too paranoid or dumb, to realize its their own mind they're casting abroad onto Russians.
Russians bled and died in the thousands in WWII. I think they know more than most North Americans about the high cost of war. We're just in the process of learning that now, alas.
I doubt he cares. Hell, the war is the best thing ever to happen to him.
I try very hard not to imagine I know other people's personal motives, or inward sympathies. It isn't necessary to demonize Zelensky to know the war was fomented by CIA operatives, NATO warhawks, and the Fascistic militias like the Azov battalion, working inside Ukraine.
Given how ginned up hatred of Russia has been in America for decades........it was pretty easy to get your average social media pundit on side demonizing Putin..........and working very hard to silence anyone who wanted to bring up America's history of covert regime change all over the world.
I know. Correspondents who'd agreed with me/whom I'd agreed with, on many local issues for decades, suddenly named called me a Putin bot because I don't erase any data that leads to bad faith dealings on our side.
I'm not a partisan.........I'm a retired English teacher who knows good writing comes from good thinking. Ya CAN'T TEACH WHAT YA CAN'T DO....and teaching thinking for a quarter century taught me that burying evidence is no way to begin the process. Ferrying young minds to sound conclusions made my process better and better.
I'm in the debt of all the students I had the honour to teach.
I can see Zelenskii's behavior and call it for what it is.
He had many opportunities to end the war and fought them all tooth and nail.
Yes, it's hard to act against it but act you must. This cannot be.
We have always used Russia to deflect from our own power grabs, even when I was a kid.
Change the 'you' to 'we' and I'm with you..........one thing our schizoid games have done at the local level, is it's hard to work with people who stand for social justice but don't want to talk about Gaza.......or hold those shutting down peaceful protests accountable. The genocide is breaking down solidarity in many so-so progressive sites I'm afraid......AND creating more work on the ground.
Cuba isn't doing well just now, thanks to the American know it alls of superior governance.....we're pulling money from our social democratic party to help our friends and relatives there.......and a bit fearful about how many of them wouldn't be on side, when it comes to Cuban children.....once you connect all the dots........the disasters of American foreign policy become overwhelming.....
And what each of us can do, more symbolic than healing.
Yes, I'll change the pronoun to "we". (A mistake).
I cannot imagine someone who stands for social justice NOT standing for Gaza since it is the most obvious, overt social-and-every-other -injustice in the world right now; it is the straw which has broken the back of the camel of imperialism and colonialism (sorry, camels everywhere!) Or at least has demonstrated its evils.
All other social injustices are tied to this abuse of power through capitalism and, to me, Gaza represents the nadir of capitalism which is destined to be reproduced elsewhere if the UN isn't overhauled and doesn't regain some authority in the world.
I am not shy about talking to friends about Gaza, so convincing is the evidence Francesca Albanese has gathered in her reports as special rapporteur.
You go girl....I agree with you 100%
But up here in Albaturda.....voting for a watered down version of the NDP...is the best we can hope for. Standing with a people successfully demonized by American propaganda for at least 70 years???
They'd have to totally redo their intellectual structures....let go of Russia, take up Israel, as the evil over there that we're superior to.
It comes down to 'how willing are you to admit you've been mostly wrong, and likely gulled by liars?' I'm not trying to make fun of that mindset.......
I can imagine it........having lived on the edges of progressive self satisfaction for most of my working life. I'm the one who always goes too far......if you know what I mean?? For some, imagining I might have been more on the money, just rubs salt in their wounded pyches.
Remember the American agenda in regard to this genocide was determined by Israel, by the degree of control it has accrued over the American government.
ANd by the obscene amount of money your 'wealth creators' get out of zealously maintaining American complicity.
Don't know about where you live, but precious few came out with the Palestinians for the first 18 months of this genocide.....neoliberal capitalism has dumbed us down to the point where a foreign lobby can control the liberal west.
But we're skirting our own responsibility when we put it all on them.
Capitalists have convinced us that we have no agency. So people think there's no point in protesting against injustice. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. There aren't enough people in the streets because most people think there's no point and there will be no point until we can show sufficient numbers to affect change.
I don't disagree, and as for ordinary people, well, in the past they did have more access to the truth then what they have now which solely provides non stop chatter that sings the praises of one side, or the other, and undermines the opposition. Politics is no more then a sport. My team is better then yours. Meanwhile they both suck.
I know........and most of us are too old to imagine starting over, building back better. Though that is what I suspect we have to do.
I was a political activist in my youth, well in my mind I was. At 8 I decided I wasn't buying the Russia scare, and was an American Indian fan. I was always against our wars, and our agenda in South America, and elsewhere because I had a mother who was extremely political and even back when was a devout anti-Zionist and didn't back down when some referenced her as an anti-Semite. She predicted what is going on in Gaza now. No surprises, just disgust. I also dealt with it by choosing professions that help people, which hopefully I did, animals and nature included.
Yes, they are as unlike as chalk and cheese. That was an absurdity to trump absurdities in an age of absurdity.
May the gods protect Ms Albanese. I fear for her against the horror regimes Israel, the US and Germany.
It's already here. If Trump is allowed to wage war on Iran without congressional approval, that will be the last straw for the middle east and the western world at large. Once middle eastern oil prices shoot up rippling across the world, the U.S. and Europe will hasten their demise. The unrest from the people as they witness the military dead come home will likely bring down the Trump regime, and maybe even a goodly portion of the EU leadership. Starmer is rumored to already be on his way out. Macron is on life support. Von Der Lyon is hugely unpopular as is Mertz with the younger voters.
I hope the U.N. can offer Ms. Albanese some protection from all of this but that institution looks to also be on it's way to irrelevance now too. Especially since Trump has stopped the U.S from paying its dues. I think a new world order is ushering in and the United States will no longer be the king of the hill anymore.
That is already that case !
It is a PROXY war instead of troops-on-ground war
War on Gaza and the War on Russia
EACH outside of the GOVERNING JURISDICTION of the U.S. - FOREIGN INTERVENTION !!!!!
Mr. O Domhnaill, If the US attacks Iran,I fear we shall see the greatest response since December 7, 1941.
Iranians have stated publicly that if the U.S. attacks Iran, with only a pinprick; Iran will respond with all out war on U.S. installations in the area and annihilation of Israel. Iran has the ability to do so. She has tens of thousands of the most sophisticated weapons in existence, designed and built by Iran. Iran's hypersonic missiles cannot be stopped. The 12 day war demonstrated that. Not only are they capable of penetrating any and all defense systems which use known antiballistic missile technology; they are backed up by the newly developed Chinese targeting system which is capable of locating a target with one tenth the error-distance of the West's GPS systems. The new Chinese system does not use GPS.
When the Japanese military planners decided to attack the U.S.; Admiral Yamamoto famously commented "I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve." Those top Japanese planners did not understand the opponent they were about to attack. This is the greatest mistake a military leader can make. Yamamoto attended Harvard university in his youth. He understood America.
American war planners apparently do not understand Iran. Persians trace their continuous existence back to military leaders like Cyrus The Great and Darius the Conquerer from half a millennium BC. It is a strategic mistake for American military planners to attack such a nation. Persians will fight literally to their death in defense of their traditions. Before they die, they have made it clear they will take down their opponents with them. They will destroy the entire Western World economy by closing down the entrance to the Persian Gulf. They will also eliminate Israel completely.
We can only hope that Trump will not listen to that blustering, vacuous alcoholic Pete Hegseth. We can hope he will listen to seasoned admirals, generals, and colonels.
It's hard to know what's going on in Iran. We have Iranian friends, are kind of adopted grandparents to their little girl. Tonight we talked on the phone planning a weekend get together for Rosa and our two cousin twins.........and they spoke of the situation in Iran.
What they are telling us is hard for us to believe. It sounds like American propaganda...but when I said it's quite likely the CIA are in Iran stirring the pot....they quickly agreed. All the protests in the west in the last week or so.......in support of the Iranian people..........look very humanitarian...........until you compare them to the relative silence on what's happening in Gaza.........and then.....????
We start to wonder if America isn't ginning everyone up to want war against Iran....but then, the Trump factor comes into play. Trump isn't going to risk a real war........he likes performative pieces........drop a few bombs and declare victory, what???
And for sure: If the Iranian regime feels threatened enough......giving Israel a good thrashing might be in order. Blocking those straits makes sense as well.........
So I'm wondering if all the uproar about 'human rights abuses' in Iran isn't a Ukrainian redo kind of operation??? Another blow against 'the axis of evil' in defence of...eh....the axis of evil????
PS. If I were Iran, had the capability, and came under attack.........I know where my warheads would be going. Strategically, what other choice do they have???
That was my point only with less words. As a retired Army special operation soldier, who went to the middle east five times in my career, I know full well how determined all of these Islamic countries are about protecting their homeland from the "Great Satan." I also read and watch a lot of news from outside of the U.S. and you are very correct sir. Russia, and now China, have been plussing up Iran for a couple of years now in fear of just this kind scenario. The U.S., or should I say, Trump's U.S., is arrogant. They think no one in the world can land a hard punch to their military face. They have forgotten Iraq and Afghanistan already.
If the U.S. attacks Iran, Iran will do what they said and a lot of American service members will die and be wounded. Russia and China have been setting up the most sophisticated air defense technology the world has ever seen, plus China, and maybe Russia, have deployed their best naval units to guard the straits. The Iranian navy can very effectively shut off the straits to all traffic, including U.S. naval assets. Which is why the U.S. navy is sitting in the Arabian Gulf and not in the Persian Gulf. Not that, that will protect them from the Iranian missiles. Israel will become a desert wasteland once Iran launches on them. Which may be good for the Palestinians.
As for Trump listening to his military advisors, I don't see that happening. Trump doesn't listen to anyone who might even think of telling him no on anything anymore.
I just listened to Scott Ritter tell us on today's Judging Freedom podcast, that Trump has already made up his mind to go to war in Iran to effect regime change. Probably by late spring, if not sooner. All of these diplomatic negotiations going on now are just a ruse as the CIA and Mossad work to set things up for the invasion. Once they signal that all is ready, the planes will fly.
Once things kick off, there is a better than even bet that the world will enter a global recession that may rival the 1930's. That will be Trump's legacy.
We try to catch Scott Ritter as well, and much respect his perspectives......not only because he didn't lie about those weapons of mass destruction, but because he speaks Russian and is capable of listening to the other side.
We''ll try to catch that podcast you mention.
I don't listen to everything he says but I do check in every week. You're right, if nothing else, he's not afraid to tell the truth about things, even when it costs him.
The UN? The most impotent organization on the planet?!?
Anyway, none of the european satraps care whether they are popular or not. Why should they, as long as their orders are obeyed?
Exactly
How can we help support Francesca?
without violating the GOVERNING JURISDICTION of your state - foreign intervention
This is certainly not what Ms. Albanese thought she was signing up for when she took on the role of Special Rapporteur and when she performed that job with the utmost fairness and diligence. The iron grip of the Zionist mafia must be broken, but how is the question. In the U.S., both major parties are submissive to it. And yet, the winds of change may be shifting. AIPAC funding of political campaigns is proving to be toxic. Of course, the sources of genocide funding will shape-shift, but that doesn’t mean that they will always be able to hide their true identities. Vigilance!
We did some research into Mamdani's campaign in New York, and an interesting thing that his chief of communications said was this: It didn't hurt Mamdani that he stood with the Palestinians, in fact it helped him. Mamdani pulled in a lot of people who had never voted, and the Com Chief thought it was partly because Mamdani standing against the genocide convinced these people fed up with main stream same old same old.........that he was an honest man.
It might be possible for AIPAC support to turn so toxic no one can get elected with their endorsement.....you'd have to find some way to make it clear where all the dark money flooding your system.............and the western democracies in general.......was coming from.
The pattern of structural predation and sacrifice zones that used unequal trade, debt, and land grabs to drain $152T since 1960 from the Global South for the Epstein Class is working to increase the lethal profitability of its death machines.
My god d'Souza you summarized it so eloquently. Do you write poetry as well?
Is there a wee bit of mansplaining in this compliment? Or am I reading backhand put downs where none were intended???
The people who died in Central and South America because of you American war f*cks still chills my blood.....and it often sounds like most of you don't give a rap, or think of it as some kind of art macabre.
We have friends from Chile....and El Salvador...so we know the price the innocent paid...death squads could have been added to d'Souza's post. The School of the America's could feature in a good sonnet or two as well.
Ingamarie. My daughter has a Juris Doctor. My wife has a PhD., was twice union president and three times chief negotiator for collective bargaining. I do not engage in "mansplaining." Nor do I engage in sarcasm here.
As for "you American war f*cks"...I was a draft resister during the Vietnam war. It got me thrown out of 3 universities and fired from a faculty position before I eventually earned a PhD at Michigan State University, a cosmopolitan place where even left wing draft dodgers can earn a degree. I know about Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet.
I'm not sure I know what you are trying to say.
Thanks for the corrections....as a student of literature, with a bit of a gift for poetry.......I just heard a back handed complement in the question about writing poetry as well.
In truth, good political analysis and an ability to read poetry often go hand in hand.....so I may have misunderstood you.
Still.......I'm glad I brought out this biography. You're a bit of an exception yourself....and it's true, I have to fight hard not to hate what the majority of Americans stand for.........and look away from. I don't always succeed.
Just now, your continued persecution of Cuba disgusts me....that the strongest country in the world, can't forgive a little island that wanted distance from them...........while imagining Russia should have no trouble with American controlled nato missiles on its border......is appalling.
Can't deny it. I sometimes hear American exceptionalism at work in much of what passes for politics from your country.
Peccato, Italia. Va fa in culo, Meloni. Sono sicuro che questo declarazione non dimostra il senso della gente Italiana, ma soltanto del governo Fascisto d'Italia. Cazzo-vi
One can easily imagine the Trump Administration as that thuggish cop slapping a billy club into his palm "so whachu gonna do about it, huh?"
I don't like this administration, but prove the previous ones were better. Wasn't it the Biden administration who said Putin has got to go, and used Ukrainian lives to accomplish his goal? Wasn't Obama equally complicit in implementing wars, Syria, Libya as well as implementing the coup in Ukraine? He was preceded by Bush/Cheney and it's lie that Hussein was on his way to developing nuclear weapons, a lie pushed by Netanyahu that laid the groundwork of what was to come. AIPAC was there for them all as was the military industrial complex and the mind set of American hegemony.
Well said Fran!
Thanks!
Why do you keep trying to simp for Trump? Nobody here is praising Biden.
Did Biden place Albanese on the OFAC list?
Do you have TDS? She said that she doesn't like this administration. These problems don't start and end with Trump, far from it. If it weren't for the U.S. and the U.K. wanting a client state in the Middle East in order to try to control the oil, the modern state of Israel wouldn't even exist. Both Democrats and Republicans are full on Zionists. Trump just takes bad situations and makes them worse, but he's far from being a cause of any of this.
Nobody said that this began with Trump. I certainly didn't.
"TDS" is simply a thought terminating cliche.
You said that Fran was simping for Trump after she said she doesn't like him. How is pointing out how awful Biden was simping for Trump?
It was Biden who committed genocide in Gaza by arming & funding Israel. We all agree that Trump sucks, but some of you obviously don't want to admit that the previous administrations were totally horrible too.
TDS is quite real, I have friends who have it. The most extreme example is a friend in Bangkok who complained to me about Trump when Biden was in office! I can't talk to these people about anything without them bringing up Trump. Sorry, but Trump is very far from being the root of any problems, and if you're obsessed with him -- whether you love or hate him, doesn't matter -- he's got you and there's something wrong with YOU.
I am not the one who responds to criticism of Trump with "but Biden!".
Otherwise, read what I wrote (biden deserves to hang) and quit arguing with strawmen.
See Finster's comment below: "Every time I mention Trump's many failures, you intone 'but Biden!'." Also, as evidenced in comments by Fran in other pieces... i.e I don't like/agree with Fill In The Blank (Trump/this administration etc) immediately followed by BUT... Their comments often evidence a subtle defence of Trump and crew.
Have previous administrations been guilty of horrible shit? Unquestionably! But is Trump worse? Absolutely!
I don't even know if Trump is worse, per se, that's like judging a beauty contest for turds.
I only know that Trump is responsible for his own sins, as is Biden or anyone else.
" that's like judging a beauty contest for turds." Fair enough and very well stated 😂.
Brings to mind a similar circumstance that frustrates me. When I dare criticize anything that Carney does, I receive a slew of replies;
"You would rather Poilievre had been elected" (I never said any such thing.)
"So you think Poilievre would be better?" (No, I don't. But that's a pretty low bar we've set)
When I think of LGBTQ+ communities, the immigrant communities, the residence of Minnesota, and non-"white" people in general, I suspect that the would say that Trump and cohorts are worse. Perhaps in the grand scheme of things, at the end of the day it doesn't make much of a difference. But in the here and now... he is worse.
Trump also does us the favour of saying the quiet part out loud, over and over and over again. If at this point Americans don't 'get it' there may be no help for them.....but what do I know??? I'm just an Alberta socialist contending with our own version of always right, climate denying wanna be Americans. Fossil Fools for the most part.
I think its best to understand things by having an overall perspective especially since Trump has been used by too many as a kind of scapegoat allowing those that preceded him cover for the wars and abuses they implemented. Didn't the Intercept attack Greenwald for not pushing Russia-gate, didn't he lave to leave the Intercept because they wanted a Biden win, and he had some questions about him? That's why, and since he's come back into office they're at it again and that doesn't mean I like Trump! I'm not simpering for anyone.
Every time I mention Trump's many failures, you intone "but Biden!".
Biden is not the president. Biden did not place Albanese on the OFAC list. Trump is the president and Trump did that.
Nobody here is praising Biden but you keep going back to things that a man who is no longer president didn't do and that nobody here is praising, least of all me. Were I to be consulted, Biden would hang.
On a gibbet right next to Trump.
I try to adopt a perspective that nothing happens in a vacuum, and too often we try to understand things with little to no regard for our past policies and failings, and if we did I think we would have a much better perspective on where we are today. In this past century alone, war after war, after war, not to mention being complicit in Israel's genocide by providing them with bombs to carry it out. The previous century wasn't much better, so do you think I'm going to understand where we are and where we are headed by singling out Trump's policies alone, THE Monster, who will bring us to the edge of extinction? No, since so many preceded him in this reckoning ball world that has brought us here. God, say Trump and it's slowly I turned , step, by step. Trump is not the only one who got rid of Albanese since so many created a world that ultimately led to Trump doing just that.
You keep arguing with points that nobody is making.
Trouble is Fran........a nation that scapegoats is more than happy to scapegoat Trump, and forget all the things his predecessors did more quietly, but to just as bad effect.
Honestly Ingamarie, some of us are able to see, analyze, and criticize Trump and crew, AND STILL REMEMBER "all the things his predecessors did more quietly..." We find it as easy as walking down the street and chewing gum at the same time.
But what we remember can be lost if we never review it. You're responding to a thread where someone castigated Fran for saying something to the effect that she wasn't all in on demonizing Trump.......because she saw him as just the last turn of the screw so to speak.
I agree with her. The guys that lied to the American people about the Vietnam war were as bad........Kissinger was a real piece of sh*t when it came to bankrolling death squads in Latin America, George Bush the lesser was a born again killer............American regimes starved half a million children in Iraq in the ten years between the two Gulf Wars. Much like they are starving Cuba today....
So I come to the defence of anyone who asks us to remember that imperial America didn't begin with Donald Trump.
IN POINT OF FACT, IT MAY WELL BE ENDING WITH THAT DUMMIE....and much of our way of life is going south with him. Rather like Laurie Anderson said in her song O SUPERMAN..."you've already paid for this'.
All of us in the privileged west have. But you can bet......there's millions still in denial of the full extent of who we are.
Yes. Owning up to past mistakes is not going to be easy for a people who begin by assuming that they're always right, always the good guy, etc. etc. etc.
The question becomes, "What can we do?"
I think all over the west, more and more of us are waking up. Our sham democracies are being revealed for what they are............shell games for the most part, where the people who love power more than truth take turns winning elections..........that increasing numbers of people don't bother to vote in.
Mamdani won in part with the votes of people who had never voted, and in an interview with his chief of communications, the claim was made that Mamdani's support of the Palestinians didn't hurt him.......it made him look like an honest man to many who distrust both mainstream American parties.
SOOO....what if that's the case throughout the west??? That only the old and the upper middle classes still believe in our democracy, or imagine it is superior to what they have in Cuba, or Venezuela, or......you fill in the blanks....what if that's the reality???
What do we do to mobilize that large demographic of younger people, people who've never been privileged, and the few who can't direct their intelligence to serve half truths???
Many people read this site and others like it. Why????
I'd prefer to think it was for other reasons than enjoying real life crime stories writ large.
ANd why do I feel so alone...........if the rallies in Europe, and the conversations on so many sites like this are so large???
Thank you to Chris Hedges.
- A new development in 21st Century: cooperative international totalitarianism mirroring global corporate capitalism, solely utilizing finance to eliminate enemies to states. Simply disconnect your enemies from the money system, it is crippling.
(Frog dart poison is so 20th Century.)
Tailoring for the use on individuals the same technique used in economic war between nations, via "instruments" such as tariffs and trade restrictions.
Corporate autocracy allying increasingly nationalistic regimes: not so much evolving as mutating.
It is becoming clear, the issue is they want to lie and claim they are the good guys. If they just really admit and see themself for what they are, at least they won't be lying!
I've been meaning to become a paid subscriber to the Chris Hedges Report. This is the post that finally made me do it. I'll be contacting my government (Canadian) to alert them to this despicable assault on one of the most courageous defenders of human rights and human decency, Francesca Albanese.
Dear Francesca, Chris too. Thank you for speaking out, again and again, stating the facts, the truth and nothing but the truth, about the genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and the steady undermining of international law, the rule of law and the Palestinian human rights = our human rights. You have my support. Actually, you deserve the support of all of us. Because after the Palestinians (the Houthis, the Iranians and... and... and...) we will be next. So let's fight for their rights = (y)our rights. Use them or lose them.
Agreed, it's the system. At this point, it's hard to see how it will change since the levers of power are in the hands of the autocrats with their 800+ military bases. Add to that AI danger, climate chaos with its increasing migrations of people, environmental degradation, increase in economic inequality, and it does not bode well for the future where already we see the law of Might Makes Right being allowed to swagger across the planet and destroy the rights of people to control their own destinies. All that is without taking into account the possibility of nuclear war The more things change, the more they remain the same and history repeats itself . It's just that now the situation is extremely fragile and it is unclear how much disruption is survivable.
The Western nations follow the lead of the USA in persecuting Francesca Albanese, even when it is clearly against their best interests - i.e. multi-lateralism and the maintenance of international law and order, and the support of the United Nations and the panoply of international agencies that support international justice and peace. It is disgusting that other nations follow the Trump/Rubio lead as they have proven themselves to be amoral and violators of international justice. They are the ones who should be sanctioned and prosecuted by the ICC and ICJ. It is despicable foreign relations driven by thugs.
Hedges is such a sanctimonious sacred cow ...
Shining more light on the plight of Albanese is actually quite easy ...
Did you know, Hedges has never said a word about Dr Reiner Fuellmich, who has been languishing in a German prison since OCT 2023 ...
And I am not at all surprised that Hedges found his case to be radio-active as Fuellmich once said: "The coronavirus hysteria is the greatest crime in human history, millions of lives ruined for something that more closely resembles the common cold. People all over the world are now waking up and protesting the unnecessary, draconian coronavirus restrictions." ...
----------------
Ya see, Hedges flipped on us with the lockdowns ...
He actually took sides against us when he knew better ...
Here's proof ...
After preaching direct confrontation to tyranny for the past 20 years and saying "the constitution remains a sacred document", he refused to stand with us against the illegal and unconstitutional mandates and passports ...
On DEC 2, 2021 the explosive FDA FOIA release revealed 1,223 deaths and 25,000 medically verified injuries during the first 90 days of Phizer's trial ...
https://www.medicine.news/2021-12-10-pfizer-vaccine-documents-42000-reactions-1223-deaths.html
On JAN 1, 2022, Hedges then said: "I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic or the mutations until EVERYONE gets vaccinated" ...
Go to the 1h 08m 46s mark at the link below ...
https://krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/p/episode-54-audio-chris-hedges
So be aware that we're nothing more than clicks to this man, he does not give a hoot about us!
I've got more head-scratching comments by St Chris, all ya gatta do is ask ....
I'll be standing by ...
Pandemic denial has done its share of good work in dividing what should be a large consensus response to the on going genocide. We spend almost as much time denying the facts of global warming, as we do avoiding the truth about the Pax Americana.
Works for the Trump administration and his decidedly weird Secretary of Health....believing conspiracy fictions keeps the fear and anger directed at hospitals, scientists, educators, etc............and not at the real killers in the AMERICAN WAR MACHINE.
It's all there in my comment above ...
The FDA FOIA release occurred just 30 days prior to Hedges making this appallingly insensitive, self-centered and reckless comment to his followers on the JAN 1, 2022 Krystal, Kyle and Friends podcast - so there can be no doubt ...
Hedges did not have to take sides on this issue, he could have said it's a personal decision, but no ... Hedges knew and did not give a damn!
Sorry Doug.......but if I follow you, I'm on side with Chris. Vaccine science is over a century old, and many lives were saved by the vaccines. Period.
If we want to demonize anything medical, watching American tv during this Trump nightmare has convinced me, its patent medicines America is hooked on.......that's what Big Pharma likes to produce and sell...........miracle cures I'd be sceptical of.
But the marketing of a new vaccine during a pandemic????
Thanks God for real medical science. I'm Canadian. We found the cure for Polio...it was a vaccine!!!
How we as a society deal with a pandemic is NOT a personal decision.
Besides, one could refuse the vaccine... but there were consequences.
You actually contradicted yourself in your comment above ...
Hedges knew the COVID jab WAS NOT tested and as an omnivorous reader, he also had to know that Gates and Fauci were literal business partners ... Hedges preached direct confrontation to tyranny for the past 20 years, but caved like a coward to the same corporate elites he denounced.
All the warning signs were there ... COVID Jab Killed 675k Americams ...
https://www.medicine.news/2023-12-11-proof-covid-vaccines-have-killed-millions.html
I see no contradiction in my comment above.
One could search the Internet and probably find proof that the Earth is flat and the moon is made of green cheese. Doesn't make it so. The linked article it's not appear to be peer reviewed.
Why, after 20 years+ of directly confronting tyranny and denouncing corporate elites, would Hedges suddenly become a coward and cave in?
Obviously, you've admired Chris Hedges in the past and you strongly disagree with him regarding the Covid vaccine. You need to just deal with it. Denigrating him with imaginary conspiracy theories is not the way.
I question how much you really know about this issue ...
And you'd better believe we individually have the right to refuse any vaccine that is not tested, especially when the manufacturers are given legal immunity. That's not to mention the results of Phizer's FDA trial data ... The findings were so explosive that Phizer's defense team actually argued for incrementally releasing this info over a 55-year period ... I've got more links to Hedges' direct, verbatim, head-scratching quotes on this and other topics - all ya gotta do is ask ...
And one more thing: seeing the videos of persons injured by the COVID jab is nothing like seeing it happen to somebody in your immediate circle!
Did you notice how Hedges played right into the hands of the fascist elite hands in smearing Chomsky and canceling his seminal anti-imperialist work ?
I mentioned it below ...
I'm giving serious thought to documenting his betrayals on a website ...
He's done a number a very peculiar things which have led me to believe that he has an "understanding" with DS operatives and may have even had a sit-down with them.
Just not the same guy since the lockdowns.
Chris Hedges wouldn't touch the subject of 9/11 with a ten foot pole. The misrepresentation of 9/11 as a crime of Muslim psychopaths acting independently, was the key to bringing about the Global War on Terror with its belligerent targeting of Palestinians as a class of natural-born hijacker terrorists. Hedges' hedging of his bets to protect his own career trajectory at the expense of demonized Muslims, but especially Palestinians, is a very serious mark against this embedded asset. What is his relationship to the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung based in Germany and Tel Aviv? Through Hedges this, tainted foundation is a big funder of the annual Left Forum in New York.
This version does not align with my understanding of either 9-11..........or the situation of the Palestinians. No doubt the anti-Muslim sentiments that increased in the USA after 9-11 made the illegal war against Iraq easier for the Americans to sell.........but I have no recollection of Palestinians being involved in the world trade centre tragedy.
Palestinians have been suffering since the Nakba.......and in a very interesting book I just finished called DISASTER NATIONALISM...the author has a chapter that's very good at reviewing some of the statistics of that horror show. It begins in 1948....it's doing its best to wrap up now.
Chris Hedges has been reporting on the current situation to a far greater extent than most journalists in the united states of KKK............and I'm not sure what it serves to be taking a hatchet to his reputation.
Not everyone can do everything.........and not everyone is going to agree with everything he reports on. But in a couple of decades of reading Hedges......he has added significantly to my knowledge of American foreign policy. So I take a bit of umbridge at anyone who casually tries to discredit his motives............or his reporting.
You are attempting to reframe my comment ...
I never questioned the efficacy of vaccines in general ...
So please do not put words in mouth!
Guess I'm not understanding your attacks on Hedges at all then.....it sounded like he had to sound some kind of alarm about some kind of medical procedure and failed to do so. Perhaps don't assume we all are familiar with your sources when you start to take down a journalist who for many of us has been a voice of sanity in a sea of complicity to American foreign policy in general. What exactly did Hedges do, or not do......that has you casting aspersions???
Thx Inga ...
He was a voice of sanity for me also, until the lockdowns.
Wish you well.
Thanks. Lockdowns are hard.......and harder on some than on others. I had my partner......and grandkids who shopped for us.
But they did make a big ask of all of us.......that we keep our distance, for all of us. The precautionary principle in action.
Yes, IMO he's now just got too much skin in the game to really be responsive to "his working class" ... I'm so disappointed in him that I'm now giving serious thought to documenting his betrayals on a website. ...
RE 9/11, he was asked to comment on 9/11 after a 2014 speech and said: "I don't want to get into conspiracy theories ... Bush was probably just asleep at the wheel" ... this was the comment that drastically change my view of him ...
And in his "AMERICAN SADISM" speech he demeaned those of who question the motives and tactics of our elected officials by conflating us with Q-Anon types .... he actually called us member of "the lunatic fringe and conspiracy theorists" - pretty nasty!
Go to the 44m 32s mark at the link below ...
https://scheerpost.com/2021/06/29/chris-hedges-speaks-on-american-sadism/
Mr. Carlson I respect your choice to disagree with Hedges. I too have disagreed with him. But I do not go along with your impugning his motives.
I've met him and talked to Chris Hedges in Edmonton Alberta. He does not come across as a straight shooter but as some kind of nervous pretender who has a lot to hide about what really motivates his decisions and actions.
Mr. Hall You look at Chris Hedges and see a man who walks in the fields of doubt. You interpret this as evidence of a "nervous pretender who has a lot to hide." I look at him and see a man to be trusted, whether or not I always agree with him. Believe it or not: Pierre Salinger said JFK walked in the fields of doubt. Yet most commentators viewed him as supremely confident, even arrogant.
I just added a link to my comment again ...
Give it another look, I think your REPLY here just missed it ...
Point taken, but please tell me ...
What do suspect his real motives are?