1407 Comments

The most chilling aspect of all is that the top military brass has taken it upon themselves to essentially conduct domestic policy. Initially as propaganda but soon to be at the point of a gun. All under the wholly contrived war cry of "white rage".

Venezuela, here we come.

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Yes. The open involvement of the military in explicitly political territory is not a welcome development by any measure.

Perhaps they're taking cues from their rivals over at the CIA.

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Or Hitler's SS Troops who came on the scene gang busters

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It was Hitlers "Brown Shirts" who were his political shock troops. He murdered the leaders of those troops once he got into office and formed the SS to oversee the military and administer the "final solution" of the Jewish question. Too many individuals throw around Hitler references without ever knowing anything about him or his rise to power. Even the years he ruled are are a vague period of time to most University students who invoke his name at the drop of a hat.

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You mean he hired people like this General who could demand adherence to a belief system that's not the U.S. Constitution and the oath every member of the U.S. Military takes towards protecting us?

Granted, it does say enemies both foreign and domestic, but Gen. Milly sees a 75 year old grandma walking through the halls of the U.S. Capitol with her walker as a grave threat to the very existence of the United States while a growing group looks at General Milly and thinks "has the man lost his marbles?"

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Generals prefer war cause that's what theyb are good at and that's what they like to do. Like surgeons like to cut. They are looking for enemies now and White Rage is the target. Who else do they have anyway! This is high school shit at the sophmore level.

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75 year old grandmas can turn that walker into a lethal weapon if given ample time. And that is why we are so concerned about this demographic and not so much about the angry goateed 46 year old middle class slighted by society male with a small armory at home

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Yeh Im a grandma type and when you are old you have nuttin to lose eh. That's dangerous!

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"75 year old grandmas can turn that walker into a lethal weapon if given ample time."--Mack

Are you serious? It is exactly those with guns that are the real target of the Neo-Marxist Biden regime. The uberleft has been out to disarm America for decades. The 'White Rage" Milley is talking about is the average patriot who believes in the priciples spelled out in the Declaration of Independence. It is only 'Wokespeak' to frame them as white. They are after Trump supporters, white, black, yellow or chartreuse.

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Does anyone really care or is this just hi falutin gossip we indulge in

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yup. And her knitting needles must be taken from her on a plance cause they can be weapons. And moms cannot breast feed their babies anymore and must pump their own milk into bottles to feed them. Madness reigns.

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You are so right! I'm reading Andy Ngo's book on Antifa and just got to the part about Hitler's rise and the brownshirts and their relationship with communism and socialism. Highly recommend.

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Hitler and the Nazis were sui generis

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Liked- but disagree politely. Were not Hitler and the rest creatures of their time?

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We can disagree. I think Hitler and the Nazis were so (truly not sure what to say here!! Evil? Sick? Twisted?) that they stand outside the normal flow of history. Stalin and Mao were both mass killers as well but based on faulty ideology.

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Hitler and the Nazi drew from a long line of racial theorists going back to Sir Francis Galton, and his protege' Margaret Sanger, who promoted sterilization of the "lesser people" or the later 'untermensch' ideology of the Nazis.

So the Nazis were far from unique in the history of racism.

The Nazis even pointed to US 'Indian Reservations' as the model for their concentration camps.

The only unique aspect of Nazism was that it took place in a highly modernized industrial society.

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Understand your points but still put Hitler/Nazis in a class by themselves

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Francis Galton, the youngest of their eight children, was born in 1822, 13 years after his cousin Charles Darwin. … He was also Charles Darwin’s cousin. And, inspired by his reading of Darwin, he was the founder of eugenics: the “science” of improving the human race through selective breeding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton

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REread Shirer's two books: Berlin Diary in which he warned the US and the world. And then the great Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Then you have a very good solid basis on which to stand.

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You are correct. The devil is in the details eh. Actuallyb I preferred Shirer's #BerlinDiary published in 1940 even over Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. But in RAFOTR it is easy to see why Stalin opted to go with Hitler as he did not trust us and our allies. Easy to see why.

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RAFOTR is the first “adult” book I read in my own in High school. Been reading an extensive multi volume bio of Stalin by Klotkin which gives some insight into his thinking

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Zizek has lots to say about Stalin also and he admires him greatly. What astonished me about RAFOTR was how minutely the seconds were ticking away as Stalin vaccilated between going with the allies or Hitler at the very last minute.

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Churchill's "The Gathering Storm" also makes it easy to see. Timeline is something people abuse constantly jumping in at a convenient for them point.

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U.S., U.K., helped create Iron Curtain

Shortly after the war, Winston Churchill feigned surprise when he announced in his famous speech at Fulton, Mo. in March 1946 that an “Iron Curtain” now divided Europe and claimed that he alone had foreseen this unfortunate event. His claim was questionable given that he and FDR had authored the Yalta Agreement and previous agreements which had ceded virtually all of eastern Europe and much of Central Europe to the Soviets, thereby creating the Iron Curtain, leading to the Cold War between the Western and Soviet blocs that lasted half a century. Of course, for any educated observer of international affairs and world history at the time, the end result of the U.S.-U.K. decision to provide massive military-industrial aid to the Soviet Union was clear from the onset.

European balance of power tilted

One of the main results of the war was that the balance of power in Europe was destroyed and the Soviet Union became the new hegemon of continental Europe and, for a time following the Communist takeover of mainland China, Asia as well. Visionary anti-Communist statesmen such as former President Herbert Hoover, predicted this tragic and apocalyptic outcome if the Western Powers chose to ally with the Soviet Union. The U.S. and U.K. could have won the war against Nazi Germany and liberated Europe without their Unholy Alliance with what President Ronald Reagan later rightly termed “an evil empire”, let alone without providing massive military aid to it. It would have been far better for the U.S. to have simply signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and raced them to see which of the two countries could liberate the Nazi-occupied countries first. That way, the U.S. and U.K. would not have been complicit in the many horrific Soviet war crimes including the mass murderers of millions of people who dared resist the Soviet Communist onslaught helping to extinguish the flames of freedom from nearly a dozen nations in Eastern Europe, which yearned to be liberated from their enslavement by tyrannical dictators.

During the Pacific war, the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, led by Chiang Kai Shek, fought gallantly against the Japanese. By tying down nearly 80 percent of Japan’s Army divisions in China enabled the U.S. to engage in a Pacific island-hopping campaign that defeated Japan in three and a half years. They were able to accomplish this great feat despite being provided with only about 1 percent of the military assistance that the U.S. had given to the Soviet Union.

In 1946, the year after World War II ended, America’s Chinese Nationalist allies seemed on the verge of defeating Mao’s Soviet-backed Red Army and winning the Chinese Civil War. Then, General George C. Marshall, who had been sent by President Truman to lead U.S. foreign policy with regards to China, decided to cut off all military and logistical support to Chinese Nationalist forces, depriving them of the fuel and ammunition they needed to prevent China from being taken over by murderous Communist forces.

In the end communism prevailed

In response to this unprecedented gift by the Truman Administration to Stalin and CCP leader Mao Zedong, the U.S. Congress voted to approve $1 billion in military aid to help the Nationalists avert total defeat. Sadly, President Truman and Secretary Marshall ordered the U.S. Pacific Fleet to dump all of the tanks, aircraft and other U.S. weapons that Congress had been earmarked for the Nationalist freedom fighters into the Pacific Ocean rather than allow them to fall into Chinese Nationalist hands. In the meantime, Stalin had, since August 1945, been arming and equipping Mao’s Red Army forces with the latest tanks and other weapons in the Manchurian sanctuary we granted to him to help Mao Communize all of mainland China. When Mao proclaimed victory in the Chinese Civil War on Oct. 1, 1949, the only surprising thing about it is that it took them so long to finalize their victory.

Read entire artcle:

https://thedissedent.page/2021/07/01/u-s-u-k-helped-create-iron-curtain/

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Why Foucault can be so mind changing once you learn to think genealogically all that time stuff stops dead in the street.

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Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, was the first book I bought and read after graduating from high school. I was really interested in the Nazi phenomina because of what I saw the US doing in Vietnam, with that aggressive war policy, and how so many of the "adults" were so totally with it.

I was 16 years old when the coup d'etat took place in Dallas in 1963.

None of it made any sense to me until a few years later when the disputes over the Warren Report began to surface in articles in Rolling Stone Magazine, and the LA Free Press.

In the subsequent years I became an expert on the JFK Assassination.

See:

https://thedissedent.page/2021/07/17/forensics-ballistics-jfk

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So it's been a while then and you can refresh your memory by re-reading chapter 27 to understand why some people (me) are incensed when they read/hear anybody voicing those same ideas openly and in this forum no less.

Not really a surprise to me as this country continues to support/promote Nazi behavior - see 2014 coup in Ukraine. As an illustration, there's this resolution brought on annually in the UN - "Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance". Guess who votes "No" every single time. Also, who joins it. Here's one of the latest records: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1656166?ln=en

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And many of the brown shirts were gay including their leader. I wonder if Hitler would just assume the proud boys were gay if he were around today. Squeeze what he can out of them then toss aside he would

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Defund them all. What a mess our government is.

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One term only for ALL elective offices. (Even dogcatcher.) That way all lobby money disappears. No one wants to pay for dead horses.

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Defunding the military is admirable, but they will become even more overtly political if you try.

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Bring back the draft.

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Tempting, but the upshot would be that Bobby Banker's kid would get Pentagon duty, while Suzie Senator's offspring would be securing the shores of Miami Beach from the ever-present danger of foreign invasion.

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Stop all wars. The US is not the world's policeman.

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They’re just VIP hookers charging a thousand bucks an hour. Their days are numbered.

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Milley asks:

"[W]hat is it that caused ...

[1]"thousands of people to assault *this* building ...

[2]"... and overturn the Constitution of United States of America?"

Chilling set of words there. Not simply "overturn the election" -- which is a bad enough distortion of the aims of the rally participants -- but in this single sentence of his *prepared statement" he provides:

[1] (Close enough to) a statement of fact

[2] A complete Orwellian inversion, from the stated intent by the vast majority, including Trump, to excercise their First Amendment right to "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" ... to become interpeted as an "insurrection" overthrowing the government, that is the *system* of government defined by the Constitution.

He's *not* interested in "maintaining an open mind" or "understanding" it. That's already been done, either by his handlers, or by his cowardice and/or avarice.

What he *is* interested in playing his part cementing in place the pre-ordained plan to finalize implementation of totalitarian management of the population. After shredding the Bill of Rights for 20 years, little remains to be done. Thus, CYA. So, layer it on thick with emotional criticisms of 200-year-old history!

Pistol-whipping antebellum politicians in 2021 is child's play. "Leaders" should know -- and do -- far better. How about starting with: "Why was this 'massive problem' not solved starting in Obama's administration? Or for that matter, back in the 1960s-70s?"

What a sickening political animal.

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If you would read Virilio it would all get clear for you. I cant sound bite him.

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Virilio -- another French so-called intellectual speed bumping towards the Wokenphiles. ???

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A very insightful comment Anti-Hip. Very well put, and right on spot.

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Very pathetic right wing nonsense by the stop the steak idiots. But they don’t have a lot of power and are not the hot girls at the dance. Trump is over. Fuck him. And I voted for that ass.

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Lol it should have been stop the steak.

Sore losers.

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APZ is obviously quite misinformed.

The 2020 Presidential Election was rigged by a cabal of corporate oligarchs to install their own meat-puppet into the White House as a titular figure so they could rule behind the curtain of Oz

PROLOGUE

It has become increasingly obvious after several months of dealing with the repercussions of the TIMES Magazine article by Molly Ball that some preliminary remarks are in order to understand the meaning of this article.

First and foremost is Ms. Ball’s use of language. The language she uses is what George Orwell referred to as, “Political Language”, wherein the terminology takes on rather deceitful nuances to portray a message that although true, is couched in coded terms. So that when Ms. Ball is describing what is clearly a conspiracy to manipulate the 2020 Presidential election, she chose the term “to save” it.

This key phrase has allowed for a disingenuous interpretation of the message Ms. Ball is giving the readers. This tactic allows for mollification of those who will automatically recoil from the real message that the article conveys, that the 2020 presidential election was ‘rigged’ ie; stolen by the cabal of corporatist oligarchs who conspired to place the candidate of their choice in the White House.

Another thing is obvious from the article, and that is that Ms. Ball was obviously taken into confidence by the leadership of this conspiracy and given first hand detailed information. They wanted this story to be revealed to the public. They knew because of their powerful positions that they are impervious to any legal consequences for their plainly illegal activities, as they have the impunity of wealth and political power. These people can brag about this outrage and get away with it.

There are quite a few things that have been revealed since the 2020 Presidential Election that prove the election was rigged.The most important of these are those revealed in the TIME Magazine article by Molly Ball on Feb. 4, 2021 that describe in great detail a conspiracy to rig the 2020 Presidential Election. I shall herein transcribe that in its complete form:

https://thedissedent.page/2021/07/01/2020-presidential-election-fraud/

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Of course. What did you think was gonna go down when congress critters were screaming for defund the police. So now thyey have retired, quit, left the dying force. Who is left to fill the gap. THE SWAT TEAMS! And they will turn on the generals who are just paper tigers.

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Watch for heavy federal regulation, if not nationalization, of local police departments. That will be a key turning point. All the vilification of local law enforcement, the defunding campaigns, it all points in that direction.

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Already getting it with all the censoring on social media and mass media. Very blatant now and they dont even try to hide it.

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Yes. BLM have been used once again against their own interests. Clever strategy eh

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That might happen in some states that are so heavily red that they'd prefer not to be a state....just a art of United America. If given the choice, they'd drop the whole "STATES" thing in our name.

The irony is these are the STATISTS...who hate the whole concept of STATES.

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You are confusing the states-of-a-federation with THE State, you know, that part of a nation that is collectivized-in-nature, as opposed to the private sector.

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Exactly

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Not going to happen. Progressives don’t have enough power to accomplish that.

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Hmmm, “Consent decree” does sound vaguely familiar

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Yes..the 2020 Consent Decree Hustle.

File 285 pre-emptive lawsuits to unilaterally change established election laws that forbid signature verification; allow late ballots to be counted; and allow non postmarked ballots to be counted...then win by 44,000 votes in MI, PA and GA...and then declare anyone who challenges the integrity of that Consent Decree Hustle as a Holocaust-style denier.

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Latino voters are about to tell all of these fuckers to get bent, and even black ppl are starting to go, “What’s up with these crazy white ppl?”

Don’t trip.

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The crime wave is in full effect. Moderates will run screaming for the exits along with black people who are the biggest victims of crime in the US.

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Oops that was all in response to Jonathan below.

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Watch “Seven Days in May” again.

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Yes.

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Have faith. The correction is already well in process.

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APZ, What the fuck are you talking about? Everything you say is like a child blubbering and cooing while drooling.

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This is as big a lie, and as transparent, as Russia Gate. Those people in the Capitol were Trump supporters who really thought he was being undemocratically denied the presidency. That piddling, unarmed group had no chance to take over a city, let alone the US! And they were clearly not motivated by racism. What a f*cking farce. Is there no end this? Why can't everyone be a little more intelligent?

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They are Schrodinger's Revolutionaries, simultaneously capable of overthrowing the world's most powerful government and about to be crushed by nukes and F-15's.

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The country with the biggest military budget claims to have been almost "overthrown" by 100% unarmed hippies.

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Lol if that isn’t a clue I don’t know what else could be.

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The Bidenistas are delusional nutloaves being puppeted by the corporatist oligarchs that rigged the 2020 presidential election to put that senile old fart in the White House.

Proof in the pootang:

https://thedissedent.page/2021/07/01/2020-presidential-election-fraud/

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Quantum insanity

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Yes only the world has gone insane. And it is perceived as NORMAL and is becoming INSTITUTIONALIZED HYSTERIA.

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These people are exhausting to be around. They will "kill" you to be around them. Where to go?

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Kind of like the [ blithering idiot unable to manage anything + evil genius destroying the world ] Donald Trump. Sometimes they just oursmart themselves.

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Never, as that Democrat operative said, let a crises go to waste. Given this unarmed a and falsely reported demonstration, this talk of "insurrection" and threat to democracy should be laughed out of any conversation.

Schumer comparing this to Pearl Harbor shows the extremes these soulless piles of human rubble will go to advance their corrupt careers, sucking money at the taxpayers expense, to enhance their useless and dependent lives. Gotta have either term limits or age limits on these permeant leeches living off the life blood of American workers. Six to ten years then get the "F" off the public payroll. The decrepit bunch running the Democrat Party should give pause to even the Democrat voters. Hanging on to office like a dying person lusting for just one more day. Have you, at long last, no dignity?

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Now that lunatic Nancy Pelosi is going for ANOTHER sham investigation inro the 1/6 riot, even though it is very clear that the riot was planned and executed by FBI operatives and dupes they talked into joining them.

See:

FBI Role in 1/6/2021

Yes. It appears that the FBI very likely did have a role in organizing the January 6th Capitol breach.

Questions About the FBI’s Role in 1/6 Are Mocked Because the FBI Shapes Liberal Corporate Media

The FBI has been manufacturing and directing terror plots and criminal rings for decades. But now, reverence for security state agencies reigns.

The axis of liberal media outlets and their allied activist groups — CNN, NBC News, The Washington Post, Media Matters — are in an angry uproar over a recent report questioning the foreknowledge and involvement of the FBI in the January 6 Capitol riot. As soon as that new report was published on Monday, a consensus instantly emerged in these liberal media precincts that this is an unhinged, ignorant and insane conspiracy theory that deserves no consideration.

The original report, published by Revolver News and then amplified by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, documented ample evidence of FBI infiltration of the three key groups at the center of the 1/6 investigation — the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters — and noted how many alleged riot leaders from these groups have not yet been indicted. While low-level protesters have been aggressively charged with major felonies and held without bail, many of the alleged plot leaders have thus far been shielded from charges.

The implications of these facts are obvious. It seems extremely likely that the FBI had numerous ways to know of any organized plots regarding the January 6 riot (just as the U.S. intelligence community, by its own admission, had ample advanced clues of the 9/11 attack but, according to their excuse, tragically failed to “connect the dots”). There is no doubt that the FBI has infiltrated at least some if not all of these groups — which it has been warning for years pose a grave national security threat — with informants and/or undercover spies. It is known that Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has served as an FBI informant in the past, and the disrupted 2020 plot by Three Percenters members to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) was shaped and driven by what The Wall Street Journal reported were the FBI’s “undercover agents and confidential informants.”

https://thedissedent.page/2021/07/01/fbi-role-in-1-6-2021/

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This is the main reason that all the video footage from 1/6 has not seen the light of day. Closer examination of the footage will reveal people who are informants, actual FBI agents and others who were egging on this protest gone bad. Even the actions of the Capital Police who were not doing anything to stem the tide of individuals entering the building.

How, in God's name, does an unarmed American citizen get shot at point blank range and the gov't has the right to cover up this MURDER. It is murder until the circumstances are known and it is legally determined to be justified (???) Was that Police Officer drunk, on drugs or just crazy to shoot this woman who was trespassing. Not even a felony. There better be some answers or the next time it might be an actual armed insurrection directed at the politicians covering up this murder.

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Ashli Babbit shooting

Now a new name has surfaced in the Babbitt imbroglio — Lt. Michael L. Byrd — and while USCP Communications Director Eva Malecki won’t confirm he is the shooter, in this case she isn’t denying it.

In addition, Byrd’s resume lines up with what is known about the experience and position of the officer involved in the shooting — a veteran USCP officer who holds the rank of lieutenant and is the commander of the House Chamber Section of the Capitol Police.

Following the shooting, Byrd’s Internet footprint was scrubbed, including his social media and personal photos.

https://headlineusa.com/naming-the-capitol-police-officer-who-killed-unarmed-ashli-babbitt/

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Yes NotMe$, the video footage from 1/6 being kept under raps is most suspicious. That is one reason we must have Republicans doing an investigation on their own even if Pelosi won't allow the people that McCarthy chose. They need to subpeona those videos and go through them dilegently and identify every character who was actively involved in real violence. I would wager that many will turn out to be FBI agents accompanied by the dupes they brought into the operation.

Pelosi certainly would suppress those videos totally and not even mention them. She is a rat in a woman costume.

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The first section of this article is actually from Glen Greenwald's article on the FBI connection to the Jan 6 Riot.

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No dignity from Schumer. He and many of the rest of them have way outlived their usefulness. Sad and embarrassing.

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I loathe him, but he’s just trying to win with a shitty hand. He’ll fail. And I will love it.

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Just the comaparison to Pearl Harbor is adolescent and childish. Reflects his lack of education and skill with language. Congress critters are substandard minds. No wonder AOC stands out. At least she has studied some. Schumer fought her winning the first time as he knew a competitor when he heard one and knew he would lose to her language skills and savvy. This is not to be read as my favoring her in any way though. I think she is being groomed to be the replacement for old Bernie.

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She’s a very effective communicator but also can only win in 3% of congressional districts or something. She’ll end up with a sweet Georgetown condo though. Gotta respect a player even if I hate her.

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“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”

― Rahm Emanuel

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By all means USE THE CRISIS! Dont waste it

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Very clear statement. Thanks!

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I guess it was the selfie revolution. Since that is pretty much what they did. Got into the Capitol and started taking selfies of one another. I guess the left thinks if they managed to take more selfies our government would fall. What I especially liked was that our "great brave leaders" ran and hid in a bunker. Way to fight for our freedom. Why didn't any of our brave house leaders, you know, maybe come out and address the crowd? Talk to them and hear their grievances? They were a bunch of cowards who ran and hid. Typical. On 9-11 George Bush, whatever people think of him, insisted on returning to the Whitehouse on that day even though the Secret Service insisted he stay away from DC while we were attacked. He refused and demanded that they return to DC. Now that is brave (for a politician anyway). Our House leaders ran an hid in a bunker because some guy in a Viking helmet was taking selfies.

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Selfies that end up with heavy fines. Total idiots.

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Your comment made images for me that were Hollywood perfection. Or maybe just Woody Allen movie clips. Yes. That image you painted is absolutely wonderful. AOC tanked for me with her mouth quivering fearful tearful face afraid for her life. None of them were ever in a real hard core protest where they engaged with real danger. I remember the night MOVE first came out to the edge of their front lawn and stood there in camouflage uniforms with AK - 57? - over their shoulders and spouting thru microphones about political ideology. Then everyone went home when it got dark and they all went back into their house on Winter Street. And I stood there shaking in fear. Now they were in there all alone and no one was there to witness if the police came and went in and assassinated them as had been done to the Black Panthers. So I took my dog home - around the block - drove my car up the driveway across the street and settled down to slepp there all night WATCHING and WITNESSING. Me. Alone. The only one who was afraid for them. No one came that night and the seige began for one entire year those people could not leave the boundary of their house. Food and water was brought in for them. One entire year until they couldn't stand it, came out and started to provoke the police who were happy to respond with their own aggression.

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She was casted fabulously. Gotta hand it to the “socialists” for that play.

Girl was literally casted. It’s kind of awesome.

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Stop voting for fucking Democrats. Trump won, stop believing the corporate media, you fool!

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Stop voting for both wings of the oligarchy (Democrats and Republicans).

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Just vote on policy.

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Voting for anything is uselsess until the system is overhauled. right now the whole thing is rigged.

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Trump is not part of the oligarchy, he is an outsider to the whole game the Dems and Repugs played for decades. He literally took the Republican party and molded it into his own image. That is why the corporatist olicarchs rigged the 2020 election to take Trump down and replace him with their own meat-puppet Biden.

https://thedissedent.page/2021/07/01/fbi-role-in-1-6-2021/

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Have you considered perhaps… not voting?

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The GA runoffs were a one off. :) Don’t count on that again.

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What's your point?

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About 5-10% of GA conservatives in their "elections are fake! I'm not voting!" huff, sat on their hands in the run-offs. Democrats had close to their November turnout - very successful GOTV in GA for them last year, and that's why they won GA. If conservatives had voted, the Republicans would have won those races, and the situation in DC would be very different. Nice going, Big Mouth Trump. I doubt that sitting on their hands thing will be permanent despite their whining and crowing. Trump is already fading.

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That’s just not voting for the wrong reason.

I don’t care if it’s a monarch who thinks their parentage gives them the right to rule or some two faced politician thinking they obtained a mandate from the so called “people.”

They don’t represent me or anyone else. Quicker we figure that out, the better we’ll be.

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Naw, he lost big time. Clobbered by moderates. Don’t believe the hype. I voted for him, but home not straight up LOST. Big mouth Trump, what an idiot. Base elections don’t win presidential elections. Duh.

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I really get sick of reading bullshit from blowhards like APZ who doesn't have clue as to what the fuck he is talking about. He's like a yabbering Jack-in-the-Box that keeps popping up here like clown.

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If you read Virilio you will understand how they did it by inflaming the synchronous emotional reaction that globalism in the world was able to produce. Everyone at the instantaneous moment reacting with emotional hysteria. This is new. SPEED has entered the picture for good.

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Understand that it was being perceived as "a crime against the SOVEREIGN as THE FEDERAL HOUSE WAS ATTACKED. BLM did not do that. They rioted, looted etc and even burned some institutional buildings but they DID NOT ATTACK THE CASTLE OF THE KING! That is the crime that has so inflamed Congress and the govt. And yes those people were awared that the election had been stolen and that Pence was going to deny certification of the voted. So they were dressed for Halloween.

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The stop the steal crowd could actually be intelligent. That would help them a bit.

But the proper response is happening via Republican majority legislatures which is where it should. Tighten up loosy goosy voting laws.

It will fade soon.

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So when morons storm the capital it's "white rage" but when people of color (and white ppl) destroy, loot, and create danger it's "for a good cause"--- ok got it. How about they stop focusing on color and look at what's really causing the issues (ie. lack of education and mental health resources, victim mentality, etc.).

PS Critical Race Theory is: Critical Race Theory is an ideology started in academia in the 70s that says racism exists everywhere - in every person and system - and the job of the critical theorist is to assess HOW (not if) racism occurred in any circumstance. Racism is always ASSUMED to have occurred.

Another way to think of critical race theory is this: It's the opposite of what Martin Luther King preached. It's the idea that we should judge people on the basis of their race, that someone's race is the only thing that matters about them, not the content of their character.

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Riot, protest or insurrection, it all depends on the skin color of the participants.

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In actuality, it all depends on their usefulness to the political regime.

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This is true. There are a lot of white kids in black bloc.

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That is who I assumed the General was referring to. They are all white and full of rage they act on nightly.

What the government doesn’t tell anyone is that they include ANTIFA violence in their stats of “white extremist” violence. Any wonder there is so much of it?

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White black bloc fascists have got to be the biggest LARPers anywhere on the planet.

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Don't forget that when anything serious goes down that might put them in danger, the first thing you hear is "someone call the police!"

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"LARPers"!!!! That is descriptive perfection, M. Scott. Thank you!

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Which usually go hand in hand

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It depends on corporate sponsorship and deep pockets bail money.

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CRT = endless $$$ for CRT academics until they die since it's systematic and therefore endemic per their definition. The left's endless hustle continues.

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"morons of colour" exist too. Head on over to Worldstar and do a little research. You'll see them beating the crap out of Korean and Vietnamese senior citizens and taking their wallets and purses for George Floyd.

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You are confusing "for a good cause" with "state-sanctioned".

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Well, the scare quotes illuminated M. CNA's sarcasm. I think he would agree to the state-sanctioned nature of the real crimess being committed.

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lol - exactly - thanks! (technically she)

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Thank you, Ms. CNA. So you are saying I got you partly right! ;)

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Greenwald is this generation's George Orwell, Edward R. Murrow, and H.L. Mencken all rolled into one. Even though I'm an atheist, I invariably finish his columns and think "Thank God for GG, and God bless you, sir !"

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I like it.

I had an eerily similar thought just this week. I was thinking Greenwald is like Orwell and Mencken. Yes, really. No joke.

Especially Orwell. Orwell was a committed "Democratic Socialist" to the end. Granted, he couldn't really articulate what the label meant, but he remained committed to it. But, more importantly, he remained committed to liberal democratic process, and he learned to be wary of centralized processes ... because they could threaten liberal democracy.

One could see him come to appreciate the hazards of centralization page by page in "The Road to Wigan Pier". For him, that road led to Spain, and it was in Spain that he seemed to really develop confidence in his world view, which, of course, he wrote about in "Homage to Catalonia".

On top of that, he was willing to stick his neck out and fight to preserve liberal democratic process -- literally. He took a bullet through the neck outside Madrid (?) when he was fighting with the internacionales.

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Also, Orwell ripped on left wing media at times and was somewhat censored for it.

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Thank you for this history, M. Chauncey. Point well supported.

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Never a better time to lose atheism!

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it is never a good time to lose atheism.

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Perhaps, but the point is that spiritual belief systems are beside the point (i.e. pale in comparison to the value to the People of the true journalist).

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It's pretty simple to me....if you're thanking God, you might want to drop atheism.

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Hey, even atheists aren't perfect.

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Yes Brian, Greenwald is the best, most honest and genuine journalist of our time.

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Instead of studying "White Rage" perhaps the military could study how to actually win a war instead of spending 20 years in a hell hole like Afghanistan wasting lives and money.

But's it's easier to fight fake enemies like "White Supremacy" and "White Rage" instead of actual enemies.

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You assume they want to win.

We've been in Afghanistan so long that tours there are necessary in order to advance in the Army. It's become part of their career planning.

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True, my assumption is flawed. I don't think the US has any interest in winning. They just want a permanent state of war. Good for careers. Unless you are the poor bastard that ends up dying for some Flag Officer's promotion proscpects.

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Jimmy Dore did a good segment how Biden's "leaving Afghanistan" is a head fake. He's pulling out the "military" and moving it to "private contractors" - 18000 of them. Private contractors have even less accountability and spend even more money.

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"They just want a permanent state of war."--Slipkid

You hit the nail on the head. Read the PNAC (Project for a New American Century) document produced by all the people who ended up in G.W. Bush's administration. 9/11 was their "new Pearl Harbor" as an excuse to invade and occupy the Middle East. The US military is STILL in Afghanistan 20 years later, and the entire region is still in mayhem.

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the Taliban is in a position to fight back...

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That's right, according to Grandpa Gropes no one can fight back in America without F-15s and Nukes...

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I'm going to start a GoFundMe and sell the house to buy an F-15. Seems reasonable.

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There probably exist many nations who, as current or former (the F-15 is OLD) customers of the U.S. industrial-military-complex (yes, Saoirse, it is a real thing), would be more than willing to enter into some sort of leasing arrangement. (Maybe pilot/service personnel included?)

The fledging colonists had Laffayette (among others), after all.

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If I enter into a leasing agreement for an F-15, I will be the one who flies it even if it is the last thing I do. 🙂

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Perhaps he should be reminded that his job is to kill enemy people and break things. After he gets that right then we can talk about other stuff.

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“. . .and I want to understand white rage. And I'm white.” - Gen. Mark Milley.

Far too many Americans are now penniless. You’re not.

The small crowd in the January 6 Capitol riot was a tiny fraction of the disenfranchised population you’re supposed to be protecting. Tens of millions of your countrymen have lost their jobs, their savings, their health care, their retirement, their homes, and - in a neoliberal system stacked against them - any hope of recovery. They are desperate.

You really want to understand? Then stop presumptively attributing the rage to racism. Stop calling it “white.”

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You are exactly right. They want to label the people on January 6 as racist, so we can collectively ignore the real concern, which is of course the disappearing middle class. And the last I heard, none of the people who entered the capitol building were armed. The only person shot was Ashli Babbitt.

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Exactly. They want to prevent people in the same economic class from banding together to oppose the continuing wealth extraction by the oligarchy. This false narrative is intended to divide and confuse the sheep that the oligarchy preys on.

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Important comment, but there's a weak point in "you’re supposed to be protecting." The countries we're fighting are not a threat to the tens of millions of Americans you describe.

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Or any Americans at all, save a few of the ultra-rich billionaires; these wars are for them, and only them.

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This 'agenda' is terrifying. What does the military plan to do? Detain and/or execute (nuke) half the population? Arrest any journalist who questions the party line? I'm beginning to feel like Saudi Arabia is a safer place to live. And that, in itself, is a frightening statement.

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Banks will be enlisted to “de bank” and the IRS will also seize assets.

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Today if you are 'outed' as a conservative or god forbid a past Trump supporter you will be unemployable in the fortune 500, but maybe that is a good thing...Go ask Rudy about his law license. If you are outed as a Proud Boy no bank will open an account, no credit card will approve you. How long until AT&T and VZW join the parade. This is the untouchable class in 2021.

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They'll do what they always do: engage in a bloody and fruitless war to spend those dollars for their pals at Halliburton, etc.

I think the world for them is won and the LAST place they need to control utterly is the CONUS.

Expect to see minor players "trumped up" as existential threats and expect to see drone strikes, doxxing, account seizures, property seizures, bodily seizures and "work" camps opening up.

Enjoy your new world of terror, pay for the ticket, take the ride.

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Not my world. I didn't vote for this.

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Yes, YOUR world... and your fucking vote doesn't count.

It's going to be happening all around you for the unforeseeable future, so you might as well come to terms that it is, in fact your world and we don't fucking have a say in it.

Voting? that's rich.

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I'll add that if you complain too loudly or refuse to accept it as your new normal... you'll be carted off like the rest of the "dissidents".

Just keep your head down, sir or ma'am.

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I completely agree our votes don't matter. It's all rigged.

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Of course it is... why would the richest people on earth hand any sort of actual power to the plebles when they run the whole game on multiple continents?

"Give me a break, man! That's a bunch of MALARKEY!" hahaha

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Remember American Patriots took down a monarchy in 1776. And we can do it again in the 21st century is push comes to shove.

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Yea 'ht'? you live here, where you gonna run to Disneyland?

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The real target is Trump supporters. everything else is simply bullshit rhetoric.

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And because the Chairman of the JCS who serves at the pleasure of the President kisses the ass of the party in more or less unified control of the US government, this is the conclusion you draw?

Their inability to pass legislation should give you a tip on why this isn't all that fearsome.

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Better start making plans now

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I couldn’t help but think of my dad while watching Milley’s horrifying speech. My dad grew up in rural poverty and voluntarily joined the Army at 19. He spent a year of unspeakable terror in Vietnam, only to be vilified by ruthless leftwingers when he came back. He got married, had two kids and worked 12-15 hour days until he retired at 65. He played by the rules, raised his children well, and refused benefits from the government. He voted for Donald Trump- both times. He supported, as did I, those who protested last year’s bogus “election”. Now he is vilified again, but this time by the military he sacrificed so much for. This country has been taken over by left wing rot. Those of you who helped these despicable people gain power and turn it on patriots, like my dad, have a lot to answer for. Completely unforgivable. Shame on you.

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I hope your Dad is not too disappointed by the swamp that grew larger under DJT.

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Mocking those who sacrificed for their country is a very bad look. I appreciate your father's service, Greg, as I do my own Korean War era vet father.

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I've met my fair share of people who regret that service to know sanctimonious ass eating when I see it.

Sorry, we're not hungry. Help yourself, though.

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Oh, don't get me started on the 'sacrificed for their country' crock. What was the sacrifice for? In both of those wars? Indeed, they sacrificed a lot, many gave their lives. Why did they have to do that? What was achieved?

In this particular case, it appears the person was had twice. Hoodwinked by the government, then by a con man.

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You are pathetic. You spit on the sacrifices my father made because you are unable to separate the sacrifices made by individuals for their country from the elite governing class that has forever sent other peoples kids to war to fight and sometimes die. How is it that you have let your political ideology trump all? Don't bother answering. I don't care. You are not worth the time.

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You father was duped. End of story.

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Makes me laugh, all these guys who's daddies were big heroes in The War, getting all puffed up over folks not paying them the proper respect.

Anything I say sure as hell ain't gonna kill them, amirite? Shouldn't even scratch 'em, far as I can tell.

But maybe that's it. Ideas are stronger than bullets. Stronger than guns. And when you encounter people like me that just do not give a fuck, where there is not any sacred cow we're not willing to turn into hamburger when we find out that's all it's good for, I suppose you should be scared.

Oh well. Ain't my problem.

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Sasha need something long and stiff to ride, then maybe she would be a bit less uptight.

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You have zero respect for anyone and embody everything I hate about the left. Tough talk on a comment board, but you wouldn’t have the guts to say that shit to my face. Lol.

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Ah, the tough guy comes out. You packing?

All I've said was pure truth. Maybe as an insecure person (or a rabid dog) you treat everything as an affront. A lot of Americans sacrificed a lot, including their lives for - read my lips - nothing that benefited them or the country.

I understand it's very difficult to accept the truth. Hence the threats of violence.

Ask the Iraq/Afghanistan veterans (20 of which are killing themselves every day) if their sacrifice meant anything.

Speaking of respect, I respect Dennis Kucinich a lot. I respect Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate, Michael Hudson. So, your initial premise is bunk too.

And why would I want to see your face?

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It's way funnier to watch you lose your shit on this board, tbh.

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It's better to ignore him. It's like arguing with a Buzzfeed listicle and just as superficial, plus he gets really rude in about 20 seconds.

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Hey, I'm much faster than that. My wife told me.

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Here, here!

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Jun 26, 2021
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If you knew any of it, you'd have a little more sympathy for what people went through.

But I suppose the dumb cunt look suits you.

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Why should anyone have sympathy for Sasha. Clearly he/she has no respect for anyone else. And you're no better.

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I don’t respect those that gargle the taint of a violent system.

There’s a board in your eye, boy. Best see to it.

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Jun 26, 2021
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"My people got genocided by the real **cunts** Russians. " - can you expand on this? You claim to be a history buff, if not a full-blown scholar, should be easy for you.

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Sorry, I'm not a socialist.

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Your people got genocided by Russians? In the Middle East? I wonder if there is a UN resolution to this effect? You are not mixing things up here, are you? Like Israel and Palestinians? You should understand that the freedom of speech doesn't mean you have to spew all sort of garbage.

Speaking of US saving Jews, google the ship with Jewish refugees turned away by the US.

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Do you have a point or is this just lame leftwing snark?

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You know, maybe your Dad should’ve done the smart thing and lived for himself.

The system isn’t there for us. Never has been. Long pst time y’all realize that - left or right.

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He was 19 and a poor country kid. Going into the military was his only way out- to live for himself. Pretty shitty to imply he was a dumbass when you know nothing about him.

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What does it say about a country, system, where the only way out is to sign up and go kill some Charlies, eh?

Even if one were to accept this as a good thing, then saying that was a sacrifice is a lie, isn't it?

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Boom, headshot.

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You engage in rhetorical gobbledygook and heuristic assumption.

Please, M. sasha, stop trying to "improve" your adopted country, will you?

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Shittier than using him to score cheap rhetorical points?

Imma go with "No," champ.

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I don’t feel the need to score points. That’s not why I’m engaging with you. I’m secure in my values. Try thinking outside of yourself and open your mind to other points of view. Perhaps my dad feels betrayed by a system that he sacrificed so much for. He wasn’t an idiot; he was 19 and desperate. Trying to get out of a cycle of poverty and a bad situation at home. Grow up and stop seeking lame “headshots” on a comment board. Be a better, more understanding person. Good luck in life. You’re going to need it.

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Yes.

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Um okay. Get back on your meds, Sybil

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Sage advice. Just like watch out for those alligators in a much bigger swamp.

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That is a lie, M. sasha. You know quite well that DJT was and is an outsider. The swamp was exposed and therefore on the decline under DJT.

You know this. That makes you a liar.

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What you wrote above makes you dumb. But you don't know that. Appointing the Christian Zionist Mike Pompeo is not draining the swamp.

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sasha obviously has no idea of what he/she is talking about. President Trump did his best to "drain the swamp" and expose the deep state machinations, That is why he was contiually attacked by the apparatchiks from FBI, CIA, the corrupt judicial system and the corporatist oligarchs of HighTech, as well as the propaganda arm of the national security state, the mainstream Mockingbird press.

The Russiagate Hoax (hatched by Hillary Clintion), two sham impechments hatched by Nancy Pelosi and her gang of DNC henchment. All promoted 24-7 for four years by the lying mainstream press. STILL being promoted by the same parties six months into the new illegitimate Biden regime.

If sasha cannot recall such recent events as these, why should anyone trust his/her bullshit about larger historical issues. This jerk sasha is obviously an ÜberLiberal Neo-Marxist propagandist, and a shill of the corporatist state.

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You are a confused little zealot. You have no clue, neither about Trump nor me.

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Horseshit sasha, you are a corporatist shill spreading incredibly lame and transparent disinformation.

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Oy vey... You are such a confused little turd. Can't make up your mind - am I a dirty pinko-commie? Or am I a corporatist shill? Calling my pointing the transparent fact that Trump drained no swamp a transparent disinformation...

Lay off the coke and get into lithium. Results will be remarkable.

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Jul 23, 2021
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I'm sorry sasha but your comment is utter bullshit.

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I think you have a reading comprehension or can't explain yourself clearly. How can my statement of hope be 'utter bullshit'?

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A kindred spirit. Laconism is a gift.

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A fancy for laconic speech? I'm in love.

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No obvious connection, here; but just this morning the Miami Sun-Sentinal published an article questioning how the condo in Surfside was destroyed & the article has already been removed from the Internet.

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Glenn, you don’t get a star on your collar in the Army without being a progressive liberal. It’s recurring indoctrination. Please look and tell us how many Army Generals did not go to West Point. It’s a good ole boys club with the flag officers. If you aren’t made in their image, you won’t get into the club. If you looked and saw how many combat hardened officers that are highly decorated get stuck at colonel because they aren’t fringe leftist, then you’d be shocked. This plan has been in the works for a very long time. They’ll likely never turn the rank and file enlisted into zealots, but the officer ranks are completely corrupted.

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My concern is the possibility of a coming purge of the rank and file.

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Now that would be a great way to create a REAL enraged white supremist militia movement in the US, as opposed to the imaginary, FBI led one we have now.

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Yes. Quite myopic isn't it.

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From the point of view of a sane person, yes. I can only conclude that our empire’s elite have gone collectively nuts.

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More and more I think this is what the elites want, a real insurrection of a few thousand, maybe more, that they can crush and execute the survivors. Kill 50,000 Americans and the rest will either cheer it on or cower in fear for a generation.

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Have they considered the possibility of it backfiring into the possibility of several million insurgents with large support within the United States military as well as thousands of disaffected War on Terror vets with first hand experience in guerilla warfare and insurgency, and the tiny little problem that this insurgency will be conducted within your own country instead of overseas? Oh, who am I kidding. We already know that these people are incapable of learning anything from history.

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Let's hope some adults regain some control.

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They are maniacal!

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I hope they don’t take the bait.

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Obama did just that. Many thousands of midlevel officers were forced out during his 8 years in office.

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Yes, accurate.

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If the neo-nazis and gang members are purged, so much better.

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ha, who would be in charge then??? Nobody???

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:)

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Yes, and Whiteness will be 4-F.

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What better way to ensure that the casualties in future conflicts are 100% non-whites! (Presuming, of course, the military stays out of domestic conflicts, which they are bound by law to do but might not, who knows!)

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Bomb Damage Analysis Of Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

July 30, 1995

by Benton K. Partin

Brigadier Gen. USAF (Ret.)

https://thedissedent.page/2021/07/23/bomb-damage-analysis-of-alfred-p-murrah-federal-building/

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Bomb Damage Analysis Of Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

July 30, 1995

by Benton K. Partin

Brigadier Gen. USAF (Ret.)

http://independence.net/okc/congressbombreport.htm

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Presuming, of course, the military stays out of domestic conflicts, which they are bound by law to do but might not, who knows!--Art

Remember Waco, full on military with tanks attacked a church compound. One of the most despicable events in US history.

Tit for tat led to the Oklahoma bombing, which turned out to be another false flag attack committed by the ATF.

All McVeigh's truck bomb did was blow a small crater under the Ryder truck.

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First-deconstruct the schools, second-deconstruct the US government (now being thwarted by those right wing extremists who refuse to enforce specific federal laws) and now third (but prob not last) deconstruct the strongest military - all with mere words.

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...I think you mean neo-liberals as they ARE neo-liberals but they're not "left", and especially not "fringe left."

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The propaganda machine is excellent in this country.

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> Glenn, you don’t get a star on your collar in the Army without being a progressive liberal

Where does this inane shit comes from? Now the blood-soaked generals are leftists? They are much more likely to be Christian lunatics or neo-Nazis.

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Actually, very few high-ranking officers are academy graduates. They're products of left-wing universities and colleges.

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The current “war against right-wing extremists" is in fact—and always has been—a war against the Left, initiated by right-wing extremist J. Edgar Hoover and his successors in the F.B.I. and the national security state against civil rights activists, anti-war protesters, whistleblowers, unions, Occupy Wall Street, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, et al, characterizing them as national security threats to the "law-abiding silent majority". This is why journalists, public intellectuals, and consumer protection advocates of the stature of Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Ralph Nader, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Aaron Mate, et al, are banned from the New York Times, Washington Post, and the corporate broadcast news media as they’re a threat to the de facto US imperial agenda. The second most dangerous thing on earth to US “foreign policy” is US “domestic policy”.

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I get that you don't like being associated with creeping authoritarian tyranny from the left, but please. The current attempt to basically delegitimize and outlaw conservatives is actually against the left? Uh, hmmm. Nope.

Why won't anyone on the left do what I did when I was on the left and simply look objectively at the left over the last 200 years whenever it has total power or is attempting to secure that? It's always this crap. Does that mean that the FBI under Hoover didn't target civil war activists and communists before that? No, it doesn't because objectively, they did, but look at the left wherever it has total power - it's always authoritarian tyranny, tons of people in jail, and tons of state and state-sanctioned murder. And we're now somewhere on that curve in the US with the disparate application of legal justice to the "insurrectionists" of Jan 6th vs the many multiples more of people arrested for the many, many magnitudes of greater violence at the hundreds of violent BLM marches that continue. What happens to them? Cases dismissed in general.

These kind of tactics are always the left's gig, and while I'm heartened to read left folks on Greenwald's columns complain about it, their numbers are dwarfed by the greater mass of progressives who basically want us all locked up. It's fucking crazy, but also completely inline with the left's historical record.

By all means, try and rescue leftism from this horrid dystopian hell, but don't whitewash it.

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I'm talking about the actual left (e.g. Chomsky, Hedges, Greenwald, Taibbi, Blumental, Mate, et al,) not the faux Ivy league corporate elite "left". "Law and Order" conservatives don't want mass incarceration or foreign wars? Are you serious?

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Oh you mean the actual left like Chomsky who was giving Chavez hand jobs up until the day he died? LOL. Yeah, I mean that left, actually.

I respect Greenwald and Taibbi for trying to rescue left policy from the actual horrifying record of the leftism, but even they have rose-colored glasses on. While I like actual liberals like them and think they're a core and incredibly important part of our national fabric, I don't think there are that many left. I was very loud when Progressive, Inc. essentially strangled conservative organizing and speech online within 24 hours or so a couple of days after 1/6, and not a single progressive I know (and I know hundreds) gave a single shit. Unfortunately, progressives ARE the Democratic Party now (which is sort of odd since they're not even a majority within the Democratic Party, they're just incredibly powerful).

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> progressives ARE the Democratic Party now (which is sort of odd since they're not even a majority within the Democratic Party, they're just incredibly powerful).

What a bunch of crock. If there ever were any real progressives elected to any positions of power in the Democratic party, they were immediately assimilated by the party machine. Look beyond the slogans and see that nothing the real left advocates for (economically) is ever done. That tells you everything you need to know.

And what is it with this visceral hatred of Chavez? He's done more for his country than any Republican will do for the US.

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Jesus, I hate true commie idiots like you guys. Sasha, I'm not doing the Venezuela song and dance with you again. You don't know anything about the place or its last 24 or so years, and you have no interest in learning about it.

Next.

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Gee, I live in South America and know a lot about Venezuela. Chavez was a great leader for the majority, and of course, was hated by the elites.

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"I hate true commie idiots like you guys."

What you really hate is being told you don't have a fucking clue what you're talking about by someone who does - and sasha is correct, of course, and you're filled with propagandized definitions. Face it. Realize that propaganda works, and that you've got some of it in you and work to get it OUT of your system. It's the only way back to real understanding of what's going on.

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Do try to prove things were better before Chavez. Good luck.

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https://news.gallup.com/poll/321116/americans-remain-distrustful-mass-media.aspx

Media trust by Democrats is at an all time high of 73-76%. Independents is at 35% and Republicans is at the lowest 10%. Aka 76% of Democrats are buying whatever propaganda media is selling.

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Bingo

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I think that could be a personality trait-related.

The Russiagate has shown how soft-headed people can be.

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Agreed. Chavez was a great man for the common people; that's why the US hated him.

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Look up how much money Chavez' daughter has then get back to us with your bogeyman bullshit. And that's just one example.

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"And what is it with this visceral hatred of Chavez?"--sasha

You are totally ignorant. Not only was Chavez a filthy Commie, he was a crook who totally destroyed his country.

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Shall I bring up the stats showing the reduction in crime, poverty, literacy improvements?

Go preach elsewhere, you filthy capitalist pig.

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Jun 26, 2021
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Is that Royal 'We'? The thing is back then Venezuela wasn't under the 'dictatorial rule of Chavez'. Plus, my Spanish sucks.

It's interesting to note the free marketers seem to be pro-suppression of voices that they find disagreeable... Let me tell you one thing - I'd be commenting on the abhorrent US politics/policies even if I lived in Venezuela.

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I'm not powerful. Can I borrow $5 'till Saturday?

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Since progressives are also totally full of bullshit (eg harping about "climate change" while taking more pleasure air trips than anyone else), you're probably SOL.

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You're just being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. BTW, cite the evidence that "progressives" take more pleasure trips than conservatives; I'm a retired detective; we're curious.

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No one wants mass incarceration. It's a massive spiritual and financial drain, but we have mass incarceration for a reason: there are many violent criminals in our midst. Foreign wars are a bipartisan thing and not cleanly left or right. There are hawks and there are doves (and there are doves who like maintaining a large and up to date arsenal, which is what describes the vast majority of conservatives). The much maligned Trump is the only president in decades to not get us involved in a new foreign conflict, so there's that as well.

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Fewer than 1/2 of the ~ 2.2 Million people now held in US federal penitentiaries, state prisons, and county & city jails have been charged with or convicted of a violent crime. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p19.pdf

There must be some reason other than the “many violent criminals in our midst.”

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In a population of 340 million or so people, 1.1 million people is ONE HELLUVA LOT of people.

Try again.

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Drugs being illegal has done nothing so far to deal with that. It's similar to alcohol and cigarettes - weed is at least less harmful than both. And mushrooms should have no reason to stay banned anyway. If they are legalized and provided via stores which check ID, that would reduce the illegal market, reduce cartels across the border, reduce gangs and drug dealing and prison population.

Also make weed, cocaine and mushrooms legal and pardon everyone who was caught with drugs as long as they weren’t a dealer or had extra crimes. But nope, Biden is too busy banning menthol cigarettes and flavoured tobacco which are preferred by 86% of blacks and 46% of hispanics. Ironic since his son is addicted to crack cocaine.

I am for legalizing and pardoning (non-dealing/manufacturing) weed, cocaine and mushrooms. The only reason I am hesitant for heroine, meth and fentanyl is because if I remember right, heroine and meth get laced with Fentanyl which is very very easy to overdose on. But I am willing to be corrected if that's not the case.

With that said, I don't want everywhere to devolve into San Fransisco either where you see needles everywhere and addicted tweaked out everywhere. Most right wingers (exceptions like me) aren't gonna agree with it if they see shit like how San Fran is turning out.

This is a very good read:

Legalize It All: How to win the war on drugs

https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/

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Let me try. The evil Communist China has less - with a population 4 times larger. What does that mean? The commies are not as good at imprisoning people? There are much less violent criminals? There is no financial incentives in China to warehouse people?

'Communism' produces less violent criminals? Chinese police are bad at catching them? There is a high incidence of prison escapism?

Do tell!

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Economics. Those people were choosing winners and losers. Only the powers that be can do that.

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> there are many violent criminals in our midst

I hate to do the left-right, but it is the massive war on drugs that was started by the right and that led to the current state, were the 'land of the free' has the most number of people behind bars - and most of them are not there for violent crimes.

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BIden's '94 crime bill? Rightwing? Uh, ok. So strange, the most leftwing president since FDR is "rightwing."

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The fact Biden is presented as left, not even speaking of FDR is the biggest lie perpetrated by the media and the elites in charge.

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But I think you are on the same page with Hillary 'bring the violent super predators to the heel' Clinton. No?

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The war on drugs was called for by inner city MINORITY MAYORS who wanted to curb the crack epidemic. Now we have opiates too.

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Communism did exist in a small fragmented way in the 1960's and 70's. A kind of tasting the waters. It was so wonderful living and interacting that way in a starting/testing /experiemntal way in small clusters of people.

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I lived in a co-op in college. It destroyed itself.

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Not convinced that the current length of sentences is optimal for violent crime. In some cases locking people up in our current system makes them more violent. I'm not advocating doing nothing about violent crime, but I have serious doubts that the length, nature and severity of our current response (locking up) is optimal for reducing the problem. We are spending a lot of money and damaging a lot of families on a lock-up approach that is claimed to "deal with" the problem of violent crime, and the problem continues. I see no sign that a large percentage of people who get paid by the prison system or related fields are conscientious about making sure their work has a net positive long-term effect on the overall rate of violent crime, so they just collect pay and do things that are often counterproductive.

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I don't think sentencing is necessarily the salient issue. I would rather have violent criminals locked up. They're a menace to others.

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That's right: "Law and Order conservatives do NOT want mass incarceration, nor foreign wars."

Yes, I am serious.

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Principled liberals on the left are suffering from an identity crisis. I don't blame them. What do you call yourself when the term, "liberal" has been stained with leftist dogma and authoritarianism? It is quite a pickle.

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The only problem with that statement is that most of the alleged “liberals” commenting here are not liberals, but hard leftists disillusioned with their hyper consumer bourgeoise progressive allies in the US and other countries. They’re the last of the Mohicans, but without sweet tenure jobs in academia. Bunch of frustrated paleo communists. I’m not sure why they read Greenwald. He’s a liberal, and all one has to do is engage with these creeps for a few minutes until their inner totalitarian fetish emerges. It’s all pre-1957 here, a fucking time warp but without the parties, blow, and fun drag queens.

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Clinton did a good job eh.

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I really want the right wing to reappropriate liberal as a fundamental part of the ethos. The left has abandoned their support for enlightenment values and the individual's natural right to self-determination. Arguably, it was always a performative exercise but they aren't pretending anymore. I'm pretty sure that they won't mind if we refer to them as the illiberal party of the dark ages.

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As loathsome and immoral as he is, he’s just a pimple on it. It’s much deeper.

Lenin was successful. The Comintern worked. We’re just finally having to deal with the result.

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Leftest like law and order if it includes a heavily armed FBI doing an early morning raid to arrest 70 year old Roger Stone for "threatening" a "witness". You can't cheer that and at the same time protest the abuse by other law enforcement agencies.

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They love it. Except for our heroes, Greenwald and Taibbi and a few others. They’re fabulous Americans and I love them.

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There's a parallel misconception by *both* rank-and-file Leftists *and* Rightists that the "other side" are natural totalitarians ... but neither are.

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What if you believe our society already is totalized and needs just a tiny shove to send it into totalitarianism - or it may already be there?

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I agree we're there. Since normal people are not totalitarians, it's up to us to get others past the denial stage. At this stage I don't have strong opinions how to go about that successully. The psy op that is being executed was decades in the making.

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I don’t think it is. Progressives are just extremely powerful. But they’re only 15% of society or so, and the hoi polloi, including non white ppl, increasingly despise them. The response is coming like a fucking tidal wave.

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Yes it is very close and it is invisible to most.

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Read the works if Sheldon Wolin and his description and definition of the corporate coup d’e’ tat known as inverted totalitarianism.

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And I’m on the right and don’t agree that there aren’t also totalitarian fetishizing right wingers, but luckily, they are few in number and have basically no power at all. I hate them as well.

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One is visible the other is invisible. What is your preference.

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Unless you discuss things directly with the "other side", where you both perform and subject yourself to a Socratic interrogation, you're relying on your (necessarily biased) perceptions and, and/or more dangerously, media "clarifications".

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Visibility is dependent on one's reference frame.

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Oh, my, SO totally true. I wish I had said this!

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The left are always totalitarians. Liberals who favor left-oriented policy bear little resemblance to them. I know hundreds of left people, thousands actually, and only a handful are actually committed to liberalism. The left are into their goals at whatever cost. All you have to do is read the comments on this post to grok that.

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"The left are into their goals at whatever cost."

Does Glenn sound like a totalitarian? Matt Taibbi? Tulsi Gabbard? Me? I'm Leftist and (small-d) democratic, and fully believe that a Leftist majoprity needs to be *earned*, or it isn't worth sh*t. Sounds as if you have the misconception I'm talking about.

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Have you ever heard of presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. R. Bush, & George W. Bush? They all ran as "Conservatives" who advocated for "Law and order."

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Have you ever heard of the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War—all started by "conservatives"? Name a conservative president who wanted to end mass incarceration or wars abroad. This is NOT to say that Democrat presidents were any better.

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The Vietnam War was started by JFK, who certainly bore little resemblance to contemporary progressives, but definitely a liberal. Trump clearly wanted an end to wars abroad, and more than any other president in my lifetime besides Carter, who was also a dove.

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Democrats got us in Vietnam, destabilized the Mideast twice (Iran/Arab spring). Stayed in Afghanistan simply to stay elected (remember). They also instigated the war on drugs.

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Deal with now in this country. Learn from history but deal with the present. The left has never had this kind of power previously.

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The next election will be all about law and order. Just look at the astronomical increase in the number of black victims especially. The progressive dance is done at least electorally. In response, they will flex very hard at the institutional and bureaucratic levels. The news media will get more frustrated and even worse. The big tech companies will get even worse.

We’ll see if Republicans have the stones to deal with this or if they’re just corporate whores after all.

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Its important always to clarify the leadership vs the rank-and-file, as their motives most often differ. When I think of L/R definitions, I think only of their constituencies, where their claims are not only more likely discernable and consistent but also far more likely to be accurate.

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I'm so damn conservative Rush Limbaugh was too liberal for me.

I don't want mass incarceration. In a perfect world, I'd want NO incarceration.

Rubin Greenburg was black, and a jew, and the chief of police of Charleston SC (you should be able to find him in an internet search). He was interviewed on 60 minutes many decades ago. He told the interviewer, he had read all the studies and what works in preventing crime. In a nutshell, for someone who has no morals against committing crime, nothing works, except to lock them up. Locking them up doesn't cure them. But they can't kill you and rape your sister when they're behind bars. When they're older, their attitudes change, and the recidivism goes down. There's less risk in releasing them back into society.

If you know something that has been shown TO ACTUALLY WORK, The Gala Report, please tell us all about it.

As far as foreign wars... just wondering- are you old enough to remember terrorists bringing down the WTC towers? What do you think should have been done?

On some level, it made sense to invade Afghanistan and destroy their safe haven. It doesn't make sense to still be there 20 years later.

AFAIC, the thing to do is go into the safe haven, smash up all the furniture, track down Saddam Hussein, or Mullah Omar, or Osama bin Laden, kill them, and then leave.

It wasn't like defeating Japan or Germany. I don't see any payoff in staying in those places. You're half-right- I didn't always think that way. But no... I and plenty of others like me don't want foreign wars.

You think you understand conservatives, But you don't have a clue.

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"...terrorists bringing down the WTC towers? What do you think should have been done?"

Find the terrorists, maybe?

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They were suicide terrorists. They were dead. "Find the terrorists maybe?" Is that sarcasm? If so, poorly done.

Get back to us when you have an intelligent solution, The Anti-Hip..

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You sound like a fan of stories, and believe a story can tell "the" truth. Stories are not reality, and can never be. They are maps onto reality, sometimes pretty good ones, sometimes pretty bad ones.

What happened on 9/11, why, and how, IMO has scarcely been told. And no, that's not because I believe in any particular crazy theories sans evidence. It's because the quality and quantity of important questions ruthlessly denied answers is far too high a democratic society to accept "the story".

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Yes, the'se right wingers are serious; they don't have a clue what's actually left (vs liberal) after decades of propaganda floating in their ears from the likes of limp-balls and others.

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You right wingers are always confusing and conflating neo-liberals with "left." They are not. They may not be a part of your right-wing world, but that doesn't make them left; this is a failure of a singular linear dichotomy of left vs right to describe _all_ politics and it just doesn't work. The actual left and the right are actually FAR closer together these days than the right realizes - wish they'd get the propagandandistc shit out of their ears and get back to the original, pre-propagandized definitions (of both terms).

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Newsflash: actual socialism has been a massive failure wherever it's been implemented, therefore the left has been abandoning it for years. China is at once communist, eg run by an autocratic and authoritarian communist party, and arguably more neoliberal than the US is. You might want to update your definitions.

Yes, it's very murky, I get it, but the left is still the left. At its core, it's always about the replacement of an existing and generally disparate power class with one coalesced around a single, authoritarian party model. Ideology is only ever useful as tactical towards that goal, but once attained is freely jettisoned (just as China went from a socialist to capitalist economy). In general, the left uses any tactics to control en route to power and also at a more local level (as well as to maintain power). That's why I have to worry about getting fired from jobs by progressive bosses: it's a left power tactic.

In the US, it's even murkier (although there are parallels all over the world) since the dominant left group, progressives, are also the wealthiest political group in the country and now control most societal institutions (including per this article, the military now). And they REALLY REALLY love consuming stuff since they have more money than everyone else per capita. So the old school definitions of "left" are very muddy at this point.

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The left always seeks societal destabilization and dissolution as part of an overall set of tactics, thus the constant introduction of new terms and forced and immediate acceptance of things like trans athletes in the Olympics or whatever. These are weapons - it's all weaponized, just as news media is now essentially weaponized for left political goals. It's becoming more brazen in the US, but it's an old story that has happened time and time again since the French Revolution.

It's all tactical and cynical at its core.

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Newsflash; you're VERY uninformed.

Here, try this, it'll learn ya:

http://thetroypress.com/articles/art/20210314/art.20210314.html

It's long but read the whole damned thing and you'll be VASTLY better prepared to discuss whatever is 'left' and none of it will be "muddied" in your head any more and you'll THEN be able to talk like you actually know what you're talking about... Because presently, you're clueless.

AND, it reads to me that your cluelessness is pretty much 100% propaganda that you've taken without realizing it. I don't blame you for that, propaganda WORKS! That's why they do it. But you have got to un-program yourself if you're goign to have a clear picture of what's really going on.

Here's a clue you probably think is complete bullshit but if so I want you to really think about it: The genuine "left" and the laity of "right" (and here I'm NOT talking about the RNC and related power structures, I mean The People who take on the label "right") are VERY CLOSE in our perceptions of, to get into just one category here, what we ought be doing in terms of public policy to help our nation get the hell out of the messes we're in - just don't call them either left or right and just don't use any dog-whistle language to describe then and we have super-majorities who want various actions, including, again to cite but one example, ending the forever wars.

We have to STOP bashing one another and realise the ultra-rich are pitting us against one another, using our innate tribalism and other facets of human psyche to divide us / keep us divided and conquer / keep us conquered...

Using the correct labels helps a lot.

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Art, you don't anything about me. I'm MUCH more well read in left theory than anyone I know on the left with the exception of a few academics. My head isn't filled up with propaganda; rather, it's filled up with years and years of thought around all of this and a long and protracted (and painful) process of leaving the left. Yes, I really hate communists because they've killed millions upon millions of people, and I hate authoritarians in general. I'm not going to indulge you and read your link because you're being an asshole to me, and I don't appreciate that.

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Hey, how about the millions capitalists killed? Any kind words for them?

You fucking hypocrite.

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Oh read #Varoufakis's #AnotherNow explaining how to have markets without capitalism or socialism. It is so good and so. is he BTW. He has explained it in. his recent talks on youtube in Europe and the US in Boston where he is talking to communistic student thinkers and that is my favorite one

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I disagree with your assumptions about contemporary politics. I just think the definition of "left" is a lot muddier ever since the US left started abandoning its focus around the working class beginning with the New Left in the early 1960s. It's been a long and gradual process. China also significantly muddied "left" and "communist" with its a abandonment of socialism. My ideas on what constitutes both are largely just my ideas, but many others share the general views therein and many, many more simply feel the same regardless of their familiarity with left theory, etc.

It's all really fucking murky now - I get it, but for me it all coalesces around specific sets of tactics and power, and that allows me to tie the "left" into a coherent thread from Lenin to the billionaires attempting to control public thought and information today, just as a few examples. It's a much more coherent line than I can adequately convey in a few paragraphs.

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I was going to criticize your overgeneralizations about the left, but this comment of yours moves in a fairer direction, and certainly your criticisms are on target as far as a large part of the left goes.

Still, most left people I know do not, as you claimed earlier, want a "single, authoritarian party model".

Your sentence "look at the left wherever it has total power - it's always authoritarian tyranny, tons of people in jail, and tons of state and state-sanctioned murder." Total power almost always corrupts, and it corrupts more violently when an ideology that stands near one extreme of the political spectrum grabs total power. That's true usually both for left ideologies and for right ideologies. Someone might say that people from the left aren't ALWAYS quite so brutal when in power, perhaps citing the Zapatistas in Oaxaca and the anarchists in Catalonia, but regardless of what you think of those examples, it's pretty common for power-seekers on the left to succumb to the usual corruptions of power. That's one reason why my leftism is centered on human rights, democracy, and limits on power.

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Left has been deliberately muddied. If you fug up the language you fug up the mind and your thinking. IT IS DONE ON PURPOSE. insurrection instead of riot for an example.

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Correct. How do we begin SOLIDARITY!

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Thanks for the article and link.

It’s a long read and worthwhile so far.

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I read the entire article you linked to. It was interesting reading but it had some flaws (mostly in how he used the terms “fascism” and “corporatism.”

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I think that by "corporatism" he should say "managerialism" as in James Burnham's "managerial elite."

https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/02/james-burnhams-managerial-elite/

The manager class has take the place of religion in the current order. I would blend Varoufakis' ideas with Burnham's.

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The terms fascism and corporatism as used there reflect the usage in the United States at the time of World War II - these are pretty well the proper definitions. And, Mussolini himself is reported - as discussed on that page - to have called fascism corporatism as he thought it was a better term for it.

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"you're VERY uninformed.... Using the *correct* labels helps a lot."

Unless you show that you're quite familiar with (later) Wittgenstein, your pontificating about *correct* labels shows you to be VERY uninformed.

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?

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Furthermore, I can't go into great detail in comment threads, but I do my best.

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Hard to get it down to explain to 6 year olds as Einstein tells us we should. Especially if the 6 yr old minds dont want to learn but argue to show they are smarter than we are cause they can code or some such.

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Jun 25, 2021
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No, it's non-rich victims of the ultra-rich propagating the ultra-rich's propaganda for them and thereby helping keep We, The People from coming together, united to put the ultra-rich back in their place (namely NOT in control of the world, or at least the USA) that pisses me off. Just how fucking stupid are they?! ...No, on second thought, don't answer that! It's too depressing!

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> the dominant left group, progressives, are also the wealthiest political group in the country

Fuck, where do you get this shit from?

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Look it up. Easy data. Self-identified politics and education and wealth per capita. It makes sense - it's the most elite group in terms of education.

You're such an hostile and abrasive person with a fundamental lack of curiosity.

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Well, you don't even provide a link!

Next think you will tell me that Biden is progressive and MSNBC is progressive. Maybe the people in your data set don't really know what the word means?

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No sasha is not. Sasha just does not respond to the University Discourse. That's Lacan BTW. Im a victim. of it too but try to catch myself. Not nearly often enough.

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The "left" knows how to user language to confuse and destroy you. They do it growing up, in school, in business so why wouldn't they be richer and have the most money. Washoe learned signing and became more human than most humans risking her life to save another chimp something a wild chimp would not likely do. She learned language NOT FOR ENABLING HER TO LIE AND LIE AND LIE!

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#Virilio is beginning with this quote on progress from #HannahArendt: "Progress and disaster are two sides of the same coin." Lovely quote. Then Virilio begins to thread it with the creation of THE ACCIDENT occurs not when the accident happens unexpectedly but "at the moment of the creation of the substance object." The VACCINATION is an ACCIDENT waiting to happen. It is going to be the gift that never stops giving.

QUOTE FROM SCIENTISTS

“The virus will effectively outsmart the highly specific antigen-based vaccines being used and tweaked, depending on the circulating variants. All of this could lead to a hockey stick-like increase in serious and potentially lethal cases — in effect, an out-of-control pandemic.” Please disseminate as you see fit.

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My understanding is that in Mandarin, it is the same word for 'opportunity' and 'disaster'.

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Jun 26, 2021
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It turns out you've aptly demonstrated on numerous occasions you don't have any idea who the Progressives are, or leftists, or even the morons!

At least the first two of those are because you've got a propagandized perception of the labels you're using...

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I think I have good news for you - whoever you describe probably don't want anything to do with you as well. As you say, they have enough morons as it is.

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"Socialism leads to the Gulag. Capitalism leads to the Camps." - #Foucault

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Actually, capitalism leads, in general, to widely distributed wealth and prosperity.

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Interesting observation - out of 52 poorest countries in worlds, we find 51 capitalist countries. VZ comes at 52, yet even VZ has most of economy in private hands.

https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/the-poorest-countries-in-the-world#:~:text=Poorest%20Countries%20in%20the%20World%202020%201%20Burundi,8%20Liberia%209%20South%20Sudan%2010%20Sierra%20Leone

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Care to take a look at the graphs for the last 50 years or so? Is the rapacious oligarchy we live under today what you call 'widely distributed wealth'? What nonsense.

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That claim is usually based on giving capitalism excessive credit. In actuality, distributed wealth and prosperity come largely from democracy, technology, science, military power, and the old discriminatory trick of steering wealth mostly to the group which benefits from discrimination and then acting as if that group represents everyone. Capitalism and socialism are both failed systems, and their apparent achievements generally rest on their deceptively taking credit for benefits that actually came from factors like democracy, technology, military power and the rest, while in fact capitalism and socialism tend to sabotage some of the benefits that should come from these factors. The excuse that "capitalism is good because socialism is bad" or "socialism is good because capitalism is bad" shouldn't convince anyone who is open to the possibility of moving away from both these failed systems.

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Yes it did until it became "financial capitalism" by selling corporate shares to increase its size and reach. East India Com[any started that at the same time Shakespeare was writing Hamlet and it has metstasized ever since.

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If you mean summer camps in Connecticut, yes, that's pretty much how I've seen it play out.

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Interesting though

Foucault's assault on reason and objectivity leads to the

*Woke Dystopia*

Woke ideology = Postmodern

Communism, is

bereft of reason, untethered from Reality and and to the subversion committed collapse Western Civilization from within

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Have you read Foucault? Assault on reason? Huh?

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"the replacement of an existing and generally disparate power class, with one coalesced around a single, *authoritarian* party model", *run* by techocrats (described by Joel Kotkin as the Clerisy)!

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No, this right winger isn’t a dumbass and knows very well what neoliberal means.

Is this all you guys have? Some pathetic hubris mixed with bravado? Give me a break. And it’s always the same people, paleo lefties clinging to some past version of it, like Chavez’ hours long speeches mimicking Castro with the uniform and whatnot. That shit is over with just like the left’s long since finished love affair with some romantic idea of the working class. When is the last time Hollywood made a movie like Norma Rae? Left theory started moving on a long time ago, and obviously progressives don’t really give a shit about the working class. Get with the program: get a cappuccino and get woke, or if you’re one of the really smart ones, get woke so that you can get more power and money which is all leftism has ever been about.

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Yes but then there's ZIZEK and VIRILIO and DELEUZE and GUATTARI and IRIGARAY and ROBERTO BOLANO! AND KATHY ACKER! More I can name too. They keep me from killing myself. And then they make it impossible for me to take idiots seriously online. The LEFT is so yesterday I cant understand why anyone is still using that label.

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Yeah it's really confusing defining these things for years now, but I really think the labels still have a TON of meaning. There are very marked differences between the left and right both tactically and ideologically, and for me that has had really significant manifestations in my own life after leaving the left many years ago. It's not getting better, but worse. 20 years ago I had to worry about losing friends due to their political freakouts. Leftwing people in general only like having other leftwing people in their lives much more than rightwing people in general (polling always supports that statement - it's not something I'm making up). Now I have to worry about getting fired from contracts and jobs due to politics, and I'm never an asshole about it or bring it up. It's just a constant ideological repression now that we're all "racists" or something. And none of this is coming from working class people - it's all bourgeoise progressive people. Even my own father cut me off years ago for the sin of no longer being on the left. Craziness. So, yeah, it's murky, but the "left" and its associated actions are more virulent and pervasive in the US than ever before. These aren't liberals, unfortunately.

They're very confused people and their actual lives make little sense with their politics, so that further compounds their ideological and real repression of "enemies." The easiest way to circumvent a self analysis (such as questioning oneself as to whether one can claim to be against climate change whilst hopping on a plane to Bali or Peru to get the Insta shot at Machu Picchu [hint: they're not or they wouldn't fly anywhere]), is to create an "other," a monster, and hate that other with increasing intensity. The Democrats are now all in on that tactically and don't even bother to explain policy anymore, it's just "they're racists and love killing black people" or some such toxic garbage. That's a lot easier than actually selling policy that once people here the price tag, they generally don't support.

So that's where we are now, and from my perspective, it totally fucking sucks and I basically just avoid progressives entirely now except for family. I wasn't raised like that - it's purely self-protection. I'm a very tolerant person and don't give a damn if someone has different views than I do. I'm just really tired of people hating on me constantly and dropping me from their lives out of nowhere. It hurts, and I'm done with it and them.

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Sorry. It hurts when you get to this point. I know.

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Is this what Jesus meant when he told his desciples to forget about family, loved ones, mothers, fathers, children et al. Feels like it. I am alone from it and I find alone from most others I meet. So I read books where I can gt the best thinking from that person. Maybe if I met them and talked with them I wouldn't. IDK. Zizek says, you are only as free as the freedom the other has whom you are speaking with. Once you begin to censor yourself with another then you restrict your own freedom. How unusual it is to discourse with another and to be able to say ANYTHIHNG you want to say to them. This is where the psychoanalytic discourse comes in. It is unique, singular and one of a kind between you and another.

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Neo-liberal is not new and it is not liberal. A quote from Varoufakis. Confuse the labels and you confuse the thinking and then get to use the words the way you want to use them.

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I'm well aware of what neoliberal is vis-a-vis liberal. No confusion here. Please don't make that sort of assumption in a discussion. It's a fairly cheap tactic and I already expect more from you. I'm using the term neoliberal in its common contemporary usage meaning an orientation towards market economies and away from state-owned industry.

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When I reply to you I dont mean only you but others who are reading our exchange. Many do not know that we are chin deep in a Wittgenstein Language Problem that cant be untangled because few know it has even been snarled by the kittens.

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I see no good (Wittgensteinian) beef, using the term neoliberal in its common contemporary usage, as long as DP comes clean on what s/he's doing.

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Understood :). The term neoliberal was really an unfortunate choice just as, I think, the term "liberal" was as a political label. Liberalism is such a glorious word and essentially encapsulates the West since the Enlightenment in one word (I might be getting a little carried away). "Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law." Wikipedia definition and a good one. It sort of says it all.

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Stop with the holier than thou, my shit doesn't stink bs. If you are unwilling to call out the flaws of your own side, then you aren't thinking objectively.

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Doing as you suggest means continuing to cement my mind in the Dominating Discourse of BINARY THINKING. The State wishes us to stay there so we can stay in the swamp of interpretation (Baudrillard) and play an endless game of ping-pong. Just walk out of it. Trump did and the INSTITUTIONALIZED POLITICAL DISCOURSE rolled off him like a ski slope. So they had to get him another way. What I am saying has NOTHING to do with the CONTENT of what he mostly did as McLuhan has influenced me eonough to say "Content is irrelevant. The Medium is the Message. " Although Virilio has amended that by saying IT IS THE VELOCITY OF THE MESSAGE THAT IS CRUCIAL! I did think his rescuing Kim Jong II the idiot emperor from his dark kingdom was masterful. Now that he came out on the world stage Asia will take care of him. How he dialogued with that insane moron is till beyond me.

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Conservatives aren’t a real threat to power. Left wing populism is. Always been the case, everywhere throughout history. It’s a bait and switch.

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Spoken like a true propaganda victim.

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Reading other comments from you suggests that you didn't read mine closely. My point is that establishment power is not really after "conservatives," but is using the appearance of such to get left-ish people onboard with authoritarianism. Seems to match what you're saying.

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Yeah. And yet, our entire history has been one of conservatism. Police. War. Capitalism. White families first. Christianity. Etc.

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Rather pertinent to all this is, the recent post on Glenn, by Jonathan Cook at Consortium News, on "What Happened to Glenn Greenwald?... Trump happened – and put the left’s priorities to the test."

The readers' comments are worth a look, incl. my critique of Mr. Cook's conclusion.

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I waded through a chunk of the article before I bowed out, but don't see any comments. I'm looking at the author's blog.

The Trump thing is a silly dodge. The left has always behaved like this, and it now has a much larger platform via progressives. Greenwald, God bless him, is an actual liberal, and I think he's been consistent for many years. Liberals and progressives are really different despite generally having very consistent policy views. Liberals, like the vast majority of US conservatives, believe strongly in liberalism, and progressives don't. They're more pure leftists in that sense, even though they have many leftwing (and not liberal) critics that comment on Greenwald's columns here, sort of the old school communist and pseudo communist set, long since out of any real favor amongst the contemporary left. Like me (even though I've been mostly right for a couple of decades), Greenwald is Mr. Liberalism, and I love the dude for it. As an ardent advocate of liberalism, I give two shits that we have (most likely) a number of different policy views. My problem with progressives isn't policy per se, it's their tactics in the service of coalescing power.

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"My problem with progressives isn't policy per se, it's their tactics in the service of coalescing power."

Alas, the policies and their tactics go SO well together, that these two factors are hard to separate out.

Both factors appeal largely to the technocratic class, which (esp. in social media) is taught to hate those who defy them, on anything that matters.

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Inherent is always patronage, and there is no more effective means of generating power by patronage than via the government. That's the real story behind the Democrats' soon to fail attempt at a $6 TRILLION dollar "infrastructure" bill. Patronage to guarantee power. Luckily, they're so fucking dumb about it that they're probably not going to end up with anything. Biden could have gotten a fat infra bill and been the hero (and our infrastructure IS in bad shape), but instead, they're going for almost twice the amount of money we raise in taxes and fees each year. It's just crazy, especially with razor thin majorities.

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Try https://consortiumnews.com/2021/06/24/what-happened-to-glenn-greenwald/ , in another browser.

CN's Comments link can be hard to find, look soon beneath the list of tags, and just beneath two black rectangles (each containing titles of recent articles), for '45 comments on “‘What Happened to Glenn Greenwald?” '.

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What happened to GG? He has been innundated by the powers that be for his consistent stand on reporting with integrity against the smelly tide. Our very own I. F. Stone in 2000.

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Good comment! Yeah, it was posted on the author's site so didn't have these comments.

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Yes Trump did and that's why I wanted him. I am not going to survive this tho. Time to drink the hemlock.

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Republicans - Just leave us alone.

Democrats - Hell NO!!

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Regardless of which party is in power, the govt of the U.S. is always right-wing authoritarian, whereas the majority of citizens want left-wing policies (like taxing the rich, M4A, an end to regime-change wars).

The left isn't in power. Democrats aren't the left. Though the permanent state may make it look like they're going after the right, they eventually will focus more resources on destroying the left.

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Twisted knots of rationale.

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The most dangerous thing on earth to the US is a media that sees it as it's mission to promote the ability of our government to suppress our freedoms. That's what we have.

Covid, white supremacists, the Chinese, the Russians, BLM, Antifa, and every other threat everyone talks about pales in comparison.

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Absolutely agree!

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Agreed.

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You wish it were that simple.

The reality is that they're gunning for ANYONE and ANYTHING that comes between their donors and the giant gravy trough that is the global corporate military industrial complex.

That means, lefties, righties, centrists... ANYONE who dares challenge their power.

Watch and learn, partisan fool.

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You're absolutely correct, "fool".

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...I'm partisan to whom? Chomsky, Hedges, Greenwald, Taibbi are fond of the Democratic party or the GOP?

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OK, so maybe you're not a partisan fool... but you are only seeing part of the picture when you categorize who YOU think is going to be targeted.

The reality is that they don't bother to draw distinction, and neither should anyone who is trying to get their heads around it.

4D chess man.

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Thanks for that "left" handed compliment. BTW, do you play chess in 4D?

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We are going to be targeted and pay for it all. They will go down but more slowly. There are no safe places on the planet anymore. Just as there are none for the wild animals.Do you think there is no reason all this "space" talk is all the rage now. And Aliens on CNN to distract us.

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I think they are all in question mode at this time. Too little too late

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Can’t argue with that.

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76% of Democrats trust the media compared to 10% of Republicans and 35% of Independents. So either 76% of Democrats are "right-wing extremist" or you are simply trying to claim that your shit doesn't stink. I am willing to acknowledge the flaws of people like Mitch McConnell, Trump etc. But I am sick of people on the left who aren't willing to do that and blame every flaw of the left on "right wingers".

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Some day, someone intelligent is going to have to explain to me the principled right's dislike of Mitch McConnell, because I still don't get it.

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I am not quite right, I am libertarian but vote for the right. What I don't like about McConnell is what I don't like about most of the top leaders in the Senate, left and right. Our country has had some amazing failures in the past 20 years and yet we still have the same clowns leading us. They were leading the country when the 2008 crisis hit yet they continue to remain in power at the top of the Senate regardless. No matter what happens they keep their power even when they fail hugely. I do not like this "Senator for life" system we seem to have in our country. We need term limits. Pelosi has been a leader through all these failures too and yet she is still there at the top of the House. No matter how much these senior leaders fail us, they never go away. This gets so absurd we had a Senator (from MS if I recall) who actually had Alzheimer's and literally didn't know where he was most of the time but since he was a senior leader in the Senate he was still there making decisions for our country. According to one news report there are actually others taking meds for Alzheimer's in the Senate. So we have old guys who have lost their faculties even and we can't get rid of them. So to sum up, if McConnell does well, keep voting him in, if not, then vote somebody else in. McConnell was there when our country cratered in 2008, he should have been voted out. Put in another GOP leader if need be but get rid of the guy who failed. Same goes for the Dem Senators. Bit of a rant but we need term limits.

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2008 was way outside of DC’s scope to foresee. Really difficult shit, complex. We weathered it much better than I thought we would at the time, and DC (and more importantly, the Fed) deserves a lot of credit.

But it will blow again, and then the monetary economists will do better next time just like they did after the disastrous moves of 1979 which screwed up up but ducked Latin America. We got better.

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Unfortunately, central banks don’t have a lot of arrows left in their quivers. It’s going to blow. Prepare yourselves.

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Nor do I, and I’m on the right. He’s arguably the best in DC.

People on the right are swept up in a lot of superficial stupidity, but it will ebb a bit once Idiot Trump is done.

McConnell simply makes moves according to the available hands, and he never engages in silly chest pounding. Best chess player in DC.

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All you say above about the targets you mention above is true ... but you include only Leftist targets, and ignore Rightist ones, because of your frame of reference.

However, the war is, and always has been, totalitarians (the power-hungry) against non-totalitarians (normal people). Not Right vs Left. That's why *both* Left and Right normal people perceive, correctly, a war against their own side.

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Except 95% of the totalitarians (or more) are on the left as usual.

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That leaves 5% of them (or less) on the right as usual. Can you name a few?

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I was just being generous.

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The right doesn’t really have the totalitarian impulse. We’re free range chickens. But some are just really fucking stupid.

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"But some are just really fucking stupid" - good thing they have you to straighten them out.

Do you realize how ridiculous you sound? Not just this, but overall? Where does the snot come from?

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And Trump pretty much rose to the occasion in his own way after he lost. But not a totalitarian, just an idiot sore loser.

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The My Pillows guy fucktard.

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General Flynn for one with his “limited martial law” nonsense.

And a few third world despots historically.

Totalitarianism has been a left gig. Sorry.

No, Hitler wasn’t right wing.

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I think you're missing something here.

The political spectrum is not linear like most people believe.

In other words, if you are far right you are not 100 miles from someone on the far left.

Any spectrum, including the political spectrum, arcs back onto itself.

I spent quite a bit of time in OWS and Tea Party camps in 2010 and 2011 to ask tons of questions about belief systems, end games, goals, tactics, willingness to compromise, etc...

What I found was that the vast majority of both groups (75%) were universally angered by the corrupt relationship between Wall Street and Washington. They were both AntiEstablishment groups. The remaining 25% in each group were either NeoMarxists or NeoFascists (or Nihilists/Anarchists); neither of whom are worth a damn but they get 90% of the coverage by the US Corporate Media...that is THE ESTABLISHMENT.

Matt Taibbi talks about this in Hate Inc where Corporate Media foments and monetizes the far left and far right extremists so we're in a 24/7 heightened state of anxiety just itching for another "BREAKING NEWS ALERT" that happens to be about Nancy Pelosi thinking Trump is the gravest threat to America while Nancy Pelosi orders 5000 more armed guards to keep the Congress hostage inside a 10' high razor wired fence.

The politics we're going through is what politicians have always gone through. It's a fight for power in a zero sum game in Washington where politics is a blood sport. You either win or lose..there can be no compromise. This is driven not by the rank and file Congressional members who by and large want to do good things. This is driven by Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnell who are playing 3D chess with our lives.

When you find you have a toxin in your house, you have to remove it.

Right now, Nancy Pelosi has proven time over time the past 12 years that she is that toxin.

Not for being a woman, but for being a brazen win at all costs politician who's willing to sacrifice 40-70 members of her own caucus' careers in DC just so she can get a political win herself.

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Jun 26, 2021
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The BLM stuff is just stupid white people doing a quasi religious dance for each other with a few black people at the top. And all piggybacking on real black grievance about racial profiling and police abuse, but the average black person wasn’t down with it.

It was a huge gamble by progressives to win, and it defeated Trump (along with his stupid Covid diarrhea of the mouth), but destroyed progressives down ticket. It didn’t create any marked conservative response beyond “Damn, these people are fucking nuts.”

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If there is one thing that I'd want my brothers and sisters (and everyone in-between) on the Left to remember, it's that every single institution they learned to love when DJT was elected, was created, more or less, to thwart the leftist movement in this country.

I have a feeling that the elites are much more willing to live with the extremists on the right than with anybody on the left.

I'm still trying to figure out what benefit do the elites have by wrapping themselves in all the leftist flags.

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I've engaged in a lot of discussions on these forums and with friends and family who think differently from me. I try to ask pointed questions to challenge their thinking. With few exceptions, most find a way to not answer. My 20-something woke niece flat-out said, she doesn't want to answer those kinds of questions.

They've taken a side. They've chosen a team. It's like an Alabama football fan for whom their team can never do any wrong.

To those people, whether something is right/wrong or fair/unfair has nothing to do with any kind of principle. It's based solely on whether it helps their team or not.

It's more like religion than anything based on reason.

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Yes, I've experienced that too. I get back 'I can't talk about this' or crickets.

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That is when you hit the blank wall of resistance. My anthropology teacher explained it to me a long time ago. Out in the field you ask questions and get answers and then you come to the answer, "Because we have always done it that way." And then you know you hit that stone wall of resistance. It is the place where you can get the core of the indigenous culture. Very carefully.

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My conclusion is that lefties are really bad at messaging and can't rally around a single flag. I'm reminded of Life of Brian with all the splinter Judean groups.

It's literally how Hitler got into power. A coalition of SPD and KPD would have entirely defanged the Nazis.

I don't agree with the leftist viewpoint, but this is my analysis of why the Left has so little power in the US.

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Extra point for referencing the Life of Brian :)

I tend to agree that Left is incredibly bad at unifying message. At least in the USA. A lot of lefties I know worship at the altar of Capitalism and I think that warps a lot of their thinking. They also are somewhat gullible and are easy to trust the media, especially on international matters, so they end up supporting the insane militaristic policies.

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I am desolate these days. We are not going to win this one.

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... *if* we don't change our ways of thinking and acting -- including finding ways of convincing others. TPTB didn't (so far) win by protesting in the streets and writing blogs. Time to up our game.

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Janet, I confess to sometimes being demoralized.

Despite what they say, we're a great nation with a great history, and a great future. I never give up hope.

Don't you.

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HOPE is an ideological concept. Remember president Hope and Change who gave us Despair and Stagnation

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Well if you would read Virilio you would gt it fast. I am pushing him on my newsletter FOCUSFREE here at substack. Dont read it if you are still thinking it is fixable.

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This is easy:

"I'm still trying to figure out what benefit do the elites have by wrapping themselves in all the leftist flags."

It helps complete the utter wiping out of "left" as being a meaningful label as it used to be - just look at all the propagandized commenters here who haven't a fucking clue what "left" means and have taken the bait, hook, line, and sinker, for redefining what left is to mean neo-liberal. -ugh!-

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Maybe the (old-fashioned) Left should simply be called "Egalitarians" and the Right should simply be called "Libertarians". Seems to me to be the single most consistent *root* axis of differentiation. Of course, the devil is in the details. :)

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I think there is enough in common between the two that the names won't work.

I like Chomsky's 'libertarian socialist' :)

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Indeed, that's a very logical conclusion. What still is not clear me is why such a sudden and swift move regarding the gay rights? The marriage equality legislation happened at lightning speed. Was that benefit was that to the elites? It's not like it opened up new massive markets? Maybe it provides some moral superiority over the foreign adversaries? Or could this be a genuine good thing they did?

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BTW, the answer I just wrote in reply here is also the reason for the Two Party System, though it's a little more complex.

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"What still is not clear me is why such a sudden and swift move regarding the gay rights?"

It will NEVER be accepted by the hard-right, and therefore it's a perfect new - and close-to-permanent - wedge issue with which to keep us distracted from coming together to contest THEIR power, as we can only do that if we're united.

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That's pretty reasonable. Just like Republicans will never overthrow Ro v Wade, Democrats never deliver on M4A, etc. The duopoly needs wedge issues.

A perfect example here, where the people blinded by the capitalism don't have a clue that there is a class war and they are not winning.

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The left is not left. But the "mask name" keeps on and distracts us and contaminates our thinking clearly. The left is not left. It is something else and far more sinister.

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The left has always been deeply sinister and its leaders deeply cynical.

Just go for left policy goals. That actually works to varying degrees in liberal democracies, and there’s nothing wrong with going for that. But that’s not what is happening now.

You guys might be able to correct that. That’s clearly Greenwald’s objective, and it’s quite admirable.

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Isn’t it a matter of lifelong leaders sniffing out who to stump for, so as to stay in power.

If American power centres have shifted left, than they will be more than eager to jump on board

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None of them understands anything anymore than we do. INERTIA reigns supreme.

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I'm not sure I'd include Chomsky in that group, considering that he's been touting "lesser of 2 evils" voting for 40 years and opined last year that Trump was about to become Mussolini, Pinochet, Pol Pot, and Stalin all rolled into one.

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Jun 26, 2021
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Sanders totally saw which way the wind was blowing. I'm fairly conservative, and he and I had parallel arguments about illegal immigration and the effect on the working class (parallel to Cesar Chavez as well), but he quickly learned that would be the end of his campaign, so he got right on the woke train and.... now flies around in private jets and is a TOTAL diva about even the temperature of his hotel rooms. He's like Katy fucking Perry now or something - it's hilarious. That stuff just came out recently - super funny.

It just has to do with where all of the juice is on the left, and it's with woke progressive people - the money, the reach, the power. That's what's up. Even Biden - it's hilarious that this old super mainstream liberal guy is going around muttering about "equity," etc. I mean, he probably learned the term like five minutes ago. Politics and power. It is what it is. Even Saint Bernie fell.

If the US left gets serious about the working class again, they have to listen to Bernie in 2015. He was right. The erosion in real wages is STUNNING over the last three decades, and those aren't minimum wage workers. It has a LOT to do with importing millions of people, especially in something like the non-union construction market.

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Well, I can't find much to disagree with that post.

Except Biden is liberal. That's a label that just doesn't fit. He is a political creature identifying with the Democratic Party. His politics are right-wing. Democratic Party anywhere in Europe would be considered a far-right, probably.

Having said that, I disagree where you lay the blame. You imply that's the Left is importing millions of people here. Don't you think that's incorrect? That it is the efficient and fair 'free market' doing that? Via the hands of capital owners?

It's funny you mentioned Kathy Perry. I recently discovered her ex-husband, Russell Brand's channel on YouTube. He produces some fantastic content, highly recommended.

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> The diversion of Bernie’s campaign from a mostly economic-based movement into a divisive, culture-focused, race-based movement has been a masterpiece. It happened right in front of us last year and most leftists are clueless

That. I am beginning to suspect that Bernie was/is a controlled opposition and a willing participant.

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Jun 26, 2021
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Pressuring the Democratic Party is their only play. It’s working, but it won’t actually deliver policy goals, and politically, its failure is already obvious.

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The problem with the DSA is that no one besides progressives and a few paleo leftists are down with it, so they’re going hard on also not popular cultural shit. Remember the Christian Right? It failed for them 15-20 years ago. People don’t like being controlled in the ornery US.

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Good analysis.

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It’s glorious watching progressives destroy themselves with this insanity. Grab a beer and enjoy it. The midterms will be fun.

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It's just the Establishment coming up with a new Boogeyman in the Closet™ to further strip us of what few civil rights we have left. Nothing to see here folks, move along...move along.

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Milley, virtue signalling like an ignoramus, can't even get the basic facts straight.

With an acting job ("gravitas, General, gravitas") worthy of Troy Donohue, he gravely recalled "thousands" of rioters who chose to "assault" the Capitol.

Actually, the most extreme manhunt in history had, as of a few weeks ago, yielded exactly 411 rioters, of whom about 40 had (after suitable trumping-up), serious offenses. There were zero shots fired by the "insurgents."

Many of the 411 just strolled into the building. They represented about 1.4% of the people who attended the Trump rally. Instead of calling it a "mostly peaceful" rally, the media, and Milley, while suppressing video of the event, labeled it a massive "armed insurrection." Imagine. An elaborately planned insurrection, taking over a building filled with armed guards, with zero firearms!!

While the idiot general virtue-signalled, the worthless congressional dolts nodded "sagely" at the his words of wisdom. God save us.

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The country with the biggest military budget claims to have been almost "overthrown" by 100% unarmed hippies. HAHAHAHA these people live in fantasy land and gullible people keep drinking their Kool aid.

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It is stunning. It really is a form of religious fanaticism. I have daughters who are doctors, and in their work environment, they now *routinely* have co-workers send them emails pushing the latest CNN line with headings like "Fuxk Trump." Just yesterday, I had barely met someone in my neighborhood for the first time, and he came out of the blue with the statement that "Trump killed 600,000 Americans with COVID." I smiled and tried to raise one counterpoint, and he shouted me down, turned on his heels, and walked away. I thought, "Did he just lose his job? Such anger mixed with complete ignorance." The guy is living in a $2,000,000 house, so what, precisely, is his excuse?

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A perfectly Zen response to your new neighbor would be to burn his house down and tell him he is a white supremacist and that his bigotry has finally been met with your peaceful protest.

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I'd tell the neighbor he was a shitbag racist and give him the cut direct for the rest of his life, but i'm rather black and white on these things.

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"If you're so smart, why are you rich?"

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100% correct. Worse things have occured after a Vancouver Canucks hockey game and they're all immortalized in video. Oh and NO RCMP stooges or affiliated were implicated in the after a bad game riots in the most liberal city in Canada. If that didn't require more than a hundred Mounties, I'm certain another Trump Boomer-Con won't require Cyborg Ninjas or any other oddity a 1 TRILLION dollar military could pull together.

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The idea that the US government -- the most powerful, richest, and technologically advanced in world history -- was ever in any kind of *actual danger* of being toppled by less than 500 rioters, using no weapons, on January 6 ... is literally insane.

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All the top brass are politicians.

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"No healthy democracy allows military officials to be venerated to the point of residing above critique."

Here's a fucking news flash: We don't live in a healthy democracy and we don't live in a "free" country.

We just don't.

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Maybe he should try to understand why the rage against Iraq, Syria, Libya which the USA launched and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians before he studies the reasons for white rage here.

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...killed millions, not hundreds of thousands.

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That IS a reason for LEGITIMATE white rage. Maybe he should try to understand the (righteous) rage of blow-back.

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"Thousands of people..." assaulted the Capitol? Huh? What did this guy see or hear that supports that statement? Were there people that vandalized some things, and whom should rightfully be held accountable? Certainly. But a huge crowd of probably tens of thousands that milled about taking selfies, where not one firearm was confiscated, were "assaulting" the Capitol? The dude is delusional or purposefully pushing the narrative.

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So right. And so frightening that this guy is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff!!!!!!!

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Reminds me of the General in Dr. Strangelove, Gen. Jack D. Ripper. https://youtu.be/N1KvgtEnABY

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He wants us to believe that the country with the largest defence spending got almost overthrown by 100% unarmed hipsters.

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They took the podium!

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Mostly Peaceful Hipsters…. Lol

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I don't know whether to laugh or cry at Milley. This is complete bullshit, so embarrassing that it must have taken immense self-control for him not to laugh out loud while saying it. Yet, as Glenn points out, it's of a piece with the Left's relentless propagandizing of the capitol incident as an "armed insurrection" led by alt-right gun owners. Never mind that it was nothing of the sort, and that the BLM/Antifa-led riots over the last 18 months caused far more damage and loss of life. The narrative must--and will--be served. If you're a gun-owning white person, make no mistake--our gov't is coming for you.

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