When the empire wants to topple a government their first step is to psychologically uncouple it from the nation and its people by consistently using labels that make it look like an alien, occupying force. "The CCP", "the Assad regime", instead of just that country's government.
This is why you now hear so many indoctrinated automatons constantly bleating the mantra "I don't hate the Chinese PEOPLE, I hate the CCP!" They've been trained to uncouple the nation's people from its government, despite the overwhelming support they have for their government.
This is all the alien-sounding word "regime" exists to do: to uncouple a government from its nation and its people in the eyes of the world. And the mainstream press is happy to do this, because the mainstream press is propaganda. fair.org/home/a-regime-…
Ever heard a mainstream outlet use the phrase "the French regime"? "The Australian regime"? It looks funny to even read it, because you've never seen it written before. You only see the word "government" replaced by weird, alien-sounding labels against disobedient governments.
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Reducing US Military Spending Always Meets With Resistance; Increasing It Never Does
"A political establishment which thinks it's sane and moderate to increase a morbidly obese military budget is a crazy and extremist political establishment. " caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/reducing-us-…
Last year Senator Bernie Sanders led a public push to reduce the insanely bloated US military budget by a paltry ten percent. His push splatted headfirst against a bipartisan solid steel wall which shut him down definitively. theguardian.com/world/commenti…
Sanders' bill was killed in the Senate by a vote of 23 - 77, with half of Senate Dems stepping up to help Republicans stomp it dead. It's companion bill in the House was killed by a margin of 93 - 324, with a majority of House Dems (92 - 139) voting nay. defensenews.com/congress/2020/…
Most people get that the US is imperialist per the conventional definition: projecting power beyond its borders etc. Not enough people get that it's also functionally a literal empire: the hub of a group of nations ruled by a single power structure. It's imperialist AND imperial.
Empire building is what you're seeing when coups are staged and regime change wars launched to bring a nation into alignment with the US-centralized power structure. It's literally adding a new member state to the empire. It keeps its name and flag, but it's imperial property.
When people ask why I talk about "Australia" instead of "America", it makes as much sense to me as saying you should focus on California instead of America. It's a member state of the same empire, added via coup. I just focus on the empire's head. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
This is a really really common complaint from lefty commentators @jack@TwitterSupport. Why are so many of them getting notifications flooding in for new followers, but their follower account stays the same? Happens to me too off and on for days on end.
I have no platform; I have followers, and some outlets re-publish my writings for free. If you don't like how I write or what I write about, you've got ten typing fingers and access to all the same free blogging sites I use. Write it yourself. You have the exact same tools as me.
I don't have connections; in fact I actively avoid them. I write directly to the people, and the people decide how much that's worth. The only reason anyone knows who I am is because regular people enjoy and share it. You can do that too. Just don't pester me to do it for you.
And I really do mean that; I wish there were a lot more people doing this. The world needs more indie media. If you see too few people doing it the way you think it should be done, please do jump in and help out with indie content creation. We need all the help we can get.
The ultimate goal of the US-centralized empire is to have such control over the world's economic and financial systems that conventional warfare becomes obsolete, because they'll be able to fully strangle any population which disobeys its dictates by cutting them off from money.
It's a warped and perverse version of what we think of when we utter the phrase world peace; their version of "world peace" is a world where overt warfare is unnecessary because all disobedient populations can simply be quietly strangled to death via economic violence.
The same power structures which enacted the rape of Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia etc are not going to carry us into a peaceful and harmonious world. They do not have the neurological wiring to do that, even if they wanted to. Their vision for our world is dark.
If the western world valued justice Julian Assange would not have been rotting in Belmarsh Prison for two years, after being arbitrarily detained for the previous eight, under a campaign of draconian lawfare. theguardian.com/media/2016/feb…