by Pepe Escobar – posted with permission
The so far purely emotional insurrection lacks political structure and a credible leader to articulate grievances
People raise their hands and shout slogans as they protest at the makeshift memorial in honour of George Floyd on Tuesday in Minneapolis. Photo: AFP / Chandan Khanna
The Revolution Won’t Be Televised because this is not a revolution. At least not yet.
Burning and/or looting Target or Macy’s is a minor diversion. No one is aiming at the Pentagon (or even the shops at the Pentagon Mall). The FBI. The NY Federal Reserve. The Treasury Department. The CIA in Langley. Wall Street houses.
The real looters – the ruling class – are comfortably surveying the show on their massive 4K Bravias, sipping single malt.
This is a class war much more than a race war and should be approached as such. Yet it was hijacked from the start to unfold as a mere color revolution.
US corporate media dropped their breathless Planet Lockdown coverage like a ton of – pre-arranged? – bricks to breathlessly cover en masse the new American “revolution.” Social distancing is not exactly conducive to a revolutionary spirit.
There’s no question the US is mired in a convoluted civil war in progress, as serious as what happened after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King in Memphis in April 1968.
Yet massive cognitive dissonance is the norm across the full “strategy of tension” spectrum. Powerful factions pull no punches to control the narrative. No one is able to fully identify all the shadowplay intricacies and inconsistencies.
Hardcore agendas mingle: an attempt at color revolution/regime change (blowback is a bitch) interacts with the Boogaloo Bois – arguably tactical allies of Black Lives Matter – while white supremacist “accelerationists” attempt to provoke a race war.
To quote the Temptations: it’s a ball of confusion.
Antifa is criminalized but the Boogaloo Bois get a pass (here is how Antifa’s main conceptualizer defends his ideas). Yet another tribal war, yet another – now domestic – color revolution under the sign of divide and rule, pitting Antifa anti-fascists vs. fascist white supremacists.
Meanwhile, the policy infrastructure necessary for enacting martial law has evolved as a bipartisan project.
We are in the middle of the proverbial, total fog of war. Those defending the US Army crushing “insurrectionists” in the streets advocate at the same time a swift ending to the American empire.
Amidst so much sound and fury signifying perplexity and paralysis, we may be reaching a supreme moment of historical irony, where US homeland (in)security is being boomerang-hit not only by one of the key artifacts of its own Deep State making – a color revolution – but by combined elements of a perfect blowback trifecta: Operation Phoenix; Operation Jakarta; and Operation Gladio.
But the targets this time won’t be millions across the Global South. They will be American citizens.
Empire come home
Quite a few progressives contend this is a spontaneous mass uprising against police repression and system oppression – and that would necessarily lead to a revolution, like the February 1917 revolution in Russia sprouting out of the scarcity of bread in Petrograd.
So the protests against endemic police brutality would be a prelude to a Levitate the Pentagon remix – with the interregnum soon entailing a possible face-off with the US military in the streets.
But we got a problem. The insurrection, so far purely emotional, has yielded no political structure and no credible leader to articulate myriad, complex grievances. As it stands, it amounts to an inchoate insurrection, under the sign of impoverishment and perpetual debt.
Adding to the perplexity, Americans are now confronted with what it feels like to be in Vietnam, El Salvador, the Pakistani tribal areas or Sadr City in Baghdad.
Iraq came to Washington DC in full regalia, with Pentagon Blackhawks doing “show of force” passes over protestors, the tried and tested dispersal technique applied in countless counter-insurgency ops across the Global South.
And then, the Elvis moment: General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, patrolling the streets of DC. The Raytheon lobbyist now heading the Pentagon, Mark Esper, called it “dominating the battlespace.”
Well, after they got their butts kicked in Afghanistan and Iraq, and indirectly in Syria, full spectrum dominance must dominate somewhere. So why not back home?
Troops from the 82nd Airborne Division, the 10th Mountain Division and the 1st Infantry Division – who lost wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and, yes, Somalia – have been deployed to Andrews Airbase near Washington.
Super-hawk Tom Cotton even called, in a tweet, for the 82nd Airborne to do “whatever it takes to restore order. No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters and looters.” These are certainly more amenable targets than the Russian, Chinese and Iranian militaries.
Milley’s performance reminds me of John McCain walking around in Baghdad in 2007, macho man-style, no helmet, to prove everything was OK. Of course: he had a small army weaponized to the teeth watching his back.
And complementing the racism angle, it’s never enough to remember that both a white president and a black president signed off on drone attacks on wedding parties in the Pakistani tribal areas.
Esper spelled it out: an occupying army may soon be “dominating the battlespace” in the nation’s capital, and possibly elsewhere. What next? A Coalition Provisional Authority?
Compared to similar ops across the Global South, this will not only prevent regime change but also produce the desired effect for the ruling oligarchy: a neo-fascist turning of the screws. Proving once again that when you don’t have a Martin Luther King or a Malcolm X to fight the power, then power crushes you whatever you do.
Inverted Totalitarianism
The late, great political theorist Sheldon Wolin had already nailed it in a book first published in 2008: this is all about Inverted Totalitarianism.
Wolin showed how “the cruder forms of control – from militarized police to wholesale surveillance, as well as police serving as judge, jury and executioner, now a reality for the underclass – will become a reality for all of us should we begin to resist the continued funneling of power and wealth upward.
“We are tolerated as citizens only as long as we participate in the illusion of a participatory democracy. The moment we rebel and refuse to take part in the illusion, the face of inverted totalitarianism will look like the face of past systems of totalitarianism,” he wrote.
Sinclair Lewis (who did not say that, “when fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving the cross”) actually wrote, in It Can’t Happen Here (1935), that American fascists would be those “who disowned the word ‘fascism’ and preached enslavement to capitalism under the style of constitutional and traditional native American liberty.”
So American fascism, when it happens, will walk and talk American.
George Floyd was the spark. In a Freudian twist, the return of the repressed came out swinging, laying bare multiple wounds: how the US political economy shattered the working classes; failed miserably on Covid-19; failed to provide affordable healthcare; profits a plutocracy; and thrives on a racialized labor market, a militarized police, multi-trillion-dollar imperial wars and serial bailouts of the too big to fail.
Instinctively at least, although in an inchoate manner, millions of Americans clearly see how, since Reaganism, the whole game is about an oligarchy/plutocracy weaponizing white supremacism for political power goals, with the extra bonus of a steady, massive, upwards transfer of wealth.
Slightly before the first, peaceful Minneapolis protests, I argued that the realpolitik perspectives post-lockdown were grim, privileging both restored neoliberalism – already in effect – and hybrid neofascism.
President Trump’s by now iconic Bible photo op in front of St John’s church – including a citizen tear-gassing preview – took it to a whole new level. Trump wanted to send a carefully choreographed signal to his evangelical base. Mission accomplished.
But arguably the most important (invisible) signal was the fourth man in one of the photos.
Giorgio Agamben has already proved beyond reasonable doubt that the state of siege is now totally normalized in the West. Attorney General William Barr now is aiming to institutionalize it in the US: he’s the man with the leeway to go all out for a permanent state of emergency, a Patriot Act on steroids, complete with “show of force” Blackhawk support.
what if the american military mutinies..partly, wholly?
how guaranteed is the loyalty of american military currently when it comes to shooting down americans in the streets by the numbers?
how solid organizationally is the american military after generations of defeat..how willing are soliders of the line willing to take orders to do any and every thing they may be asked to do?
and if they disobey what happens to our famour elite, whose real totalitarian face will emerge if the people begin to resist?
so let their totalitarian face and all the are emerge… and let them with their totalitarian faces come out into the streets, put manners on the people, beating the hell out of the peopl and driving them into lockdown… if the american military stands down
I really am displeased by Escobar and his aproach and attitude to this. Escobar makes things way too hard. we can all see the whole story..its ball of confusion for Escobar..or may it is not..he just wants it to be ball of confusion for us!
it isnt!
what can go wrong Pepe! will it all flow 100% in the interest of the elites? what is their true state at this time? isnt their safety really dependent on our collective attitude to them..like the one Pepe is projecting here of their invulnerability?
I dont see any such invulnerability! they are just a small weak group of people of no impediment to the people out in streets, without that section of the people they have turned against the people..the military/CIA, Idiotic police forces who in time will fall on their swords and they wont even know it, not even notice they are no longer breathing
it is time for americans to pull their sons and daughter from the military, to make sure that those young people understand the equation they are part of and what is really in their best interest. we can sit by an leave the military alone as if it is an entity we can afford to leave as it in the expectation that its forgone they will act for the elites.
Pepe Escobar is useless to me! even if I am wrong it could only be partly. am not wrong our collective intersting, of the ordianry people which Escobar disparages, set down in his word as not on par with the elites and their totalitarian faces. win lose or draw we have to live and act by our class interest..full stop. we do not have a choice at all. and we can win, must win to have a chance at going on in good order
I cant stand Escobar anymore. he does not leave me feeling any better..period. seems and establishment figure to me
Escobar is about as far from an establishment figure as ET was an Eskimo.
I will agree that this piece is not one of his best. But his standard sets the mark.
Understanding what dynamics are at play in American society, government and politics under the circumstance is quite the task.
Importantly, Mark Esper bailed out on Trump this morning. Using the Insurrection Act as a bridge too far for him (and much of the Pentagon), he has put his head on the Trump chopping block. Trump will hand it to him shortly, as he did Generals Mattis, McMaster and his Chief of Staff, General Kelly.
Trump bloviates a lot. It’s very difficult to know exactly what he wants or will do if you follow his words.
His mistake is giving the Governors and Mayors control over chaos. They want chaos.
They want chaos, yes. But I prefer to think that while Trump bloviates this and insinuates that, what he is doing is giving the Governors and Mayors the rope to hang themselves politically with.
Today’s US soldiers and airmen are professionals – aka mercenaries. They will obey their officers and shoot whomever they are told to. Always provided, of course, that the bosses keep their end of the bargain and ensure overwhelming military superiority.
If the troops are told to fight against people who might conceivably beat them… well, that would be a completely different matter. They are not getting paid to die, after all.
For the Insurrection act to be enforced it will require the majority will of American citizenry. Therefore the Level of State chaos has to be heightened to the degree that creates wholesale fear. An accelerant for this would be clever black flag ops ( oxymoron. ) rather overdue really and contrived food shortages. The military can then be deployed in good conscience fulfilling the will of the people and totalitarianism will indeed come to America regaled in the Stars and Stripes.
As long as police and military alike can justify that their actions are for a just cause, they’ll lock-step into punishing citizens.
Jist a quick question: is Pépé useless to you because he ruffled your patriotic red white and blue?
His main points are that, there is no leadership of any kind in these protests: although sparked by racism, these protests are more a class was than a race war: however, the ruling class is well placed and will do anything to keep it that way. Now forward to your reaction, what is the state of loyalty the us army in shooting down civilians?
Do you realize that a great deal of the shit that the US empire does all over the world is done by the this army alone? More and more it’s done by private armies of professional killers who don’t give a rats ass if the victims are Arabs, Asians, Africans Latinos or US citizens.
If the us army was to be given the task, it may very well split between those hard-assed white supremacists who join to satisfy their guttural desires and those who may be there as it represents a real job.
Here are some interesting statistics about the use of deadly force by American police forces:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/06/police-use-of-deadly-force-in-america.html
A great deal of the problem with the use of deadly force by police is that a very significant percentage of America’s largest police forces do not have policies in place that protect civilians.
Also, the police forces in many large US cities are trained by Israelis. Here’s an article that documents it…
https://jinsa.org/jinsa_program/homeland-security-program/
If it looks like many American cops use strong-arm tactics that look a lot like how the IDF treats Palestinians, this might be why.
The police (& other government agencies) have a literal “get out of gaol” card called “qualified immunity”:
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/05/30/626435/US-police-brutality-Supreme-Court-Black-Lives-Matter
The first thing to regain public confidence in the police is accountability, in the form of repealing clauses like that one.
”When cops do actually try to earn their good pay, their early retirement, their incredible guaranteed pensions, their drooling adulation from the Mainstream Media – it is against peaceful protesters and not apolitical looters.”
Very true. But I feel I have to advise against jumping into possible ’unwarranted conclusions’. The cops are simply making a correct assessment that it’s far easier and less dangerous to coerce peaceful protesters than apolitical looters in order to get the coveted sops and perks.
”The US system has no answer for what is going on, and this list was far from extensive.”
More specifically, the US didn’t have an answer that could have worked. But of course that didn’t restrain it from mouthing off its filthy, masturbatory fantasies (= lawfare against China). Maybe that’s actually a more fundamental aspect of the entire problem: Pindos remain stuck in very old prejudices about the world’s countries and peoples — with the notable exception of the Poles; the latter never getting fed up with proving Massa right, LOL.
*233+ total press freedom incidents*
https://twitter.com/ElizabethleaVos
https://twitter.com/uspresstracker
U.S. Press Freedom Tracker
5h ago 3:21 PM · Jun 3, 2020
OUR LATEST DATA:
*233+ total press freedom incidents*
41+ arrests/detainments
153 assaults (125 by police, 27 by others)
39 equipment/newsroom damage
Assault category breakdown:
53 physical attacks (33 by police)
35 tear gassings
21 pepper sprayings
55 rubber bullet/projectiles
Press freedom incidents by location, here’s a preliminary count:
Minneapolis – 47
Los Angeles – 13
Washington, D.C. – 11
Louisville – 10
New York – 10
Unique incident locations: 53
States: 33
I always enjoy and learn from your insights, Pepe.
About 20+ years ago I had a visionary-type dream, I rarely get them but when I do they are really incredible.
There won’t be much of anything left of the u.s. In the dream I was in rags, walking through a camp where people were crying and very frightened. I felt no fear, because in the near distance there were trees – green and healthy trees, standing silent, peaceful and comforting. The rest was just background noise.
Nature will be the only winner.
As it should be. We all have it coming.
I look forward to your articles, as always. Stay safe and close to Nature.
debbie
i would offer you this bit of advice now, if you have any need of meaningful medical procedures you have postponed but doing will make your life better postpone no longer. if you need and sort of medications that are not the mudane not so slowly obtain as much as you can. if you live anywhere near a large metropolitan area and can depart for the stix…not the suburbs… seriously consider doing so and try and find a place homogenous to you…..not so far down the road big cities will become american gaza’s. if i had to speculate whats coming it would russian circa 1990’s only worse.
Given enough drama/trauma, they will be putting sacks on our heads, too, and we will finally feel other’s pain which we have ignored too long. All Lives Matter…in Iraq, in Venezuela, in the USA , etc. etc. etc.
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/06/02/israelis-trained-the-minnesota-cop-how-to-kill/
ok! the people moved precipiated by the Floyd murder. the peoples movement for the most part apparently has not evolved yet into into political/ideological activity. I dont know if it will evolved into a revolutionary frame, but the longer it goes on and the more stringent the resonses of the government..in the contiuing lock down, developing hunger, joblessness, high prices etc the more likely such an evolution becomes.
it seems clear to me that there is a lot of government formation taking place..the organizaing of protests to create some sort of general breakdown, action that would precipitate the military on the streets and Marshall law.
there are many factions indeed looking to use the situation to precipate their different types of resolutions to the current american reality and I suspect that there-in ar international bankers whom I consider to to be the real culprits behind Corona-19.
I saw the build up to the current Wall Stree/Econmic collapse and wonderd what they had n mind for the collapse/after the collapse? it could not be war for that would be the end. this is no 1914/1939 stage any longer. the current stahe is too advanced, we can go back to regular capitalism/feudalism – too much technology, too many people..humanity has been too successful in nature for systems of exploitation.
4+ billion people are a testament to human success in nature but it is too many for capitalism..way too many. we need more however and a system that achieves for humanity the greatest security we can achive as we go. that means wild skills and general understanding of life, the challenges we face..what cause and effect actually means and how to live totally, fully, without causing reports that blow back to challenge our existence. and as we discover more of the human condition in nature we may find huge challenges we had no idea of and must address in order to go on. we must be able to deal with such challenge and that can come only from huge human knowledge and existential skill and technology
capitalism threatens human existence by its needs..less population, total social control and lock down, poor education of the people so all they can do is exist at low levels.. so that they cannot develop the skills to see and know life and remain unable to challenge the capitalists.
if in fact more than just a rump of ordinary people are permitted to exist at all..the likely development… in charge unchallenged we dont know how far the capitalist will go to ensure their class interest dominates in perpetuity.
and by interest, existential interest we ordinary people cannot care about the capitalist interest, for whatever it is it is not in the popular interest, opposed to the popular interest with the obvious consequences for us, and we are compelled to stop it, oppose it, get rid of it in our collective interest .. which is in the flow of development to ensure all the people, not the interest of a powerful minority survive.
so in answer to the the cyclic induced collapse of Wall Street this time, the human species were immediately hit with Corona-19, which instantly clarified in the mind what had been planned..what we see unfolding in front of our of us: social dislocation, lockdown, economic destruction, joblessless,mass hunger in the face of high prices..the loss of everything by the people and the gobbling up of that space by the corporate elites- hoarding all the wealth; even ration cards for food by those with money to buy.
I saw an america driven past third world decrepit cities, masses of people with no homes or anything, dying off out there on the streets, in the wild etc., and staying there until they rotted away: depopulation eh.
from the capitalist angle I dont see what else they can do to save themselves but attack the people of the world fully, with preparedness to go all the way, now, today, currently. they cant wait..to wait means they will have to allow some form of planning that helps the people in their induced financial collapse. I think that they think it is way too late for that..and we now have a frontnal attck geared to go all the way. the capitalist see this day and age as revolutionary and it is.
the only way humanity can make proper use of the stage of technological advance is to end capitalism. the people must rse and effect such an end to capitalism while creating democratic forms as we go geared to meet human survival. therefore technology is put to use for the people by the people and not the other way around..technology is used to make profit for the few discariding the epople who become superfluous, useless, discarded… which is the case already with most of us
they cannot afford to lose: they have been criminal against humanity for too long. in any sane resolution of society at this point of total capitalist failure the rich will not only be dispossed of their wealth but also of their lives. the Jews under arrest cannot survive trial for their crimes against humanity.
by simple trial and judgement most if not all will be found guilty and sentenced to death…the rest to long sentences which is also death. and all of that if it does get to arrest and trial of Jews and all the rich and their supporters, all the high officials who ccreated and carried out programs against humanity. the Jews with the weaponry they have, surely prepared ways to end human existence if it comes to that. the prognosis for humanity is not good at all..even if the rich loses. whatever they have surely set up must be found and deactivied successfully
so in america we know that the capitalist equation has arrived at a stage when it can result only in one form of qualitative social change possible on this day, a derivative of all the social development that has gone on up to this point the nature of which has been dominantly exploitative. and american has been the ‘highest’ form of such development. human exploitation of itself cannot continue. such exploitation of totally against nature… and as it peaks it results in human suicide..the point at which we have arrived
human extinction is fundamentally part of the equation that stares at us every which way we turn in capitalism! environmentally, by war, by accident.. given the terminal things we play with routinely now. by food as we posion the human diet. by all the products we make and sell routinely: they all contain posions that destroy us a little bit more each day
but the bankers dont care..they are the ones who gave us Corona -19 in my calculation..not a wicked killer virus but the plan to lock down the planet is..to turn the planet into hell as poulation is reduced to whatever they want.. to come back at a time when they can build the world as they really want it: their power supreme, unchallenged because they would have destroyed all competition. they will replace people by machines and seek to carry out the life I described as essential for human survival as we go, with the help of machines.
there are all kinds of problems with that sort of thing that appears obvious.. but that is moot, because the capitalists dont care, they have made their choice and they will not pay for their crimes..at least not by and at the hands of the rest of humanity
where is the confusion in that?
The people rioting are throwing the bricks the organizer of the riot provided for them, If the Police and the Intelligence establishment aren’t looking for those who Fund and the Organize these events it must be because they are on the same team as the Rioters, if this is true, then there is no hope for us, no Nation can stand in the face of this level of treachery! Nancy and Chuckie are smiling their, ‘We know something and you don’t’ smiles, what do they know that we don’t?
Too true!
Excellent piece by Tucker Carlson the other day:
Tucker_ Our leaders dither as our cities burn (GRAPHIC VIDEO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n5_D59lSjc
Sadly he’s the only intelligent commentator in the MSM.
I have been living here, witnessing this evil, the evil of the great satan, for fourty one years. My entire family is dead, from the evils of this land. I, myself, was put to death because I would not lie to have my Father and myself murdered, for the sake of bearing false witness. I know who my enemy is. Long story short,
(Removed insults,MOD)
I lived the only one that matters.
”What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”
Ecclesiastes 1:9 New International Version (NIV)
I’m not usually a religious person but this old piece of Biblical wisdom seems particularly apposite at the present juncture. In fact I would go as far to say that this applies to the fate of all empires. The final stage is when the rulers of empire bring their brutal methods back home and treat the metropolitan citizens in exactly the same manner as they treat the hapless natives of empire. This bears historic comparison with the ill-fated Athenian Sicilian expedition, an absurd escapade based on imperial hubris and self-righteousness. This disaster ultimately sealed the Athenian ascendancy. I rather get the impression that the same is happening to the Anglo-zionist empire.
I normally quite enjoy Escobar. He usually has quite the eye, but this one was a bit of a let down.
For a better take on the fall of the US military/industria/financial empire is Rob KIrby on USA Watchdog the other evening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kf-GzpINAU
Take no notice of Greg Hunter, he lost it a while back. But on the so-called “Reset”, Kirby is on the ball.
Welcome to their new world order. They are getting closer to completion. If you think any of this has anything to do with police brutality causing death, you need to reevaluate. Like so many others on this planet, I read the account and saw the pictures of what the cop did. A repeat of so many previous such events. It’s bad and doesn’t bode well for western society and the boot coming down on all our throats. What my reaction did not include was an immediate rage and desire to go out and burn down the nearest town along with the homes and businesses of people who had nothing to do with it. These are all planned, organized, funded events launched to move along an agenda. The main tool in the toolbag of the real controllers is chaos, destruction, and killing. The money powers have these groups with paid leaders who are always able to find a small army of people who don’t have much of a life and blame everyone but themselves, who would be more than happy to throw some bricks and light some fires. Just like Maidan in Kyiv, just like Hong Kong, just like this killer virus suddenly appears everywhere and somehow the reaction and slogans are the same almost everywhere. It is all planned. As Mike Pompeo said, “this is a live event” and then Trump moved closer and said to him “you should have told us”. Crisis, reaction, solution! That these elite controllers were going to turn their attention eventually to completely subjugating, enslaving citizens of the wet could be seen from miles away. The arrival, suddenly, of Sars-Cov 2 and the crashing economy, now with the Federal Reserve along with other related central banks bailing out/buying up chosen mega-corporations while millions of other businesses are destroyed is all part of this. You didn’t think they intended to let this condition pass, did you? Let’s ignite fires in every city. And then there will be the next wave of the virus. And if that is not enough, they could always release something a bit more persuasive. When is the world war going to start? That is the only question I think I have left.
Reagan’s FEMA director developed a plan for martial law called Rex 84:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84
I haven’t seen it discussed so far. I don’t know how serious a possibility this plan is, but Trump’s MO seems to be to do anything he thinks he can get away with.
“Iraq came to Washington DC in full regalia, with Pentagon Blackhawks doing “show of force” passes over protestors, the tried and tested dispersal technique applied in countless counter-insurgency ops across the Global South”.
But will they launch Hellfire missiles near the White House or the Pentagon?
I am reminded, for some reason, of Peter Van Greenaway’s 1977 novel “Take the War to Washington”, in which disillusioned Vietnam veterans hijack an aircraft carrier, sail it to New York – which they attack – then march on Washington to find and settle accounts with the real terrorists.
Considering recent events, I can honestly say now that absolutely nothing can surprise me anymore. I think the lid is going to come completely off the boiling cauldron in the next six months.
yep Craig Mouldey, you got it right! think operation gladio.
Just when the truth about the virus plandemic was starting to make headway a probably mind controlled minions dirty deed took over the airwaves. (see operation mind control walter bowart) and read the greenbaum speech by D.C. Hammond. there is an army of mind controlled people out there at the disposal of the 4th reich. The virus goal of total tracking (tracing for your own good) and control of the population is still on. the depopulation and digital currency agendas are still on and 2nd wave will be “caused” by lack of social destruction (oops i meant distancing). Of course under the guise of the “fake” virus they have again looted the country. Yep! Problem Reaction Solution. Now we wait for the preplanned solutions!
Hi Ted, I agree with your view on populated areas. I’m an off-gridder. Way off lol. I sensed “something” coming about 30 years ago.
This is a personal decision for each of us, but if you want your intuitive capacities to open, go veggie. You’ll become empathic. That’s where humans made the fateful wrong turn waaaaay back. We violated our most basic, most fundamental biological design. Big oops. Now we pay up.
What cracks me up about all this is watching adults behave like infants- wearing face diapers and letting themselves be grounded. Hoarding TP. Hm. They’re the perfect reflection of the infantile nutbags manipulating all this shit and laughing all the way to the bank.
There’s a great insight into this at 180rule.com,
the article is titled “Can you manipulate a narcissist?” I can’t post a link on this phone, but you can google it easy and find it.
It’s what all this mayhem boils down to at its essence. Very simple.
Disagreeing with some other commentary. I think this is Pepe’s finest piece. Through all of the high strung racial feeling, logic prevails. And I believe this is the pivotal moment in world politics in our lifetimes.
American military loyalty? They won’t be asked. Deploying the 82nd, etc. bought time for the private mercenaries to deploy. The public military will soon return to base.
This is all about elites, US dollar dominance, and deflecting the blame from the bailout of those too big to fail. No real demands Black Lives Matter and their quickly hardening resistance are the pawns.
I just did a reply to the very first comment. I agree with you
will these street protests against killing a Blackman eliminate us govt.would they overthrow govt.
I think it was you, dear Pepe, that coined the phrase ” Empire of Chaos “, what an incredibly accurate observation. America is an empire in Chaos.
Wolin showed how “the cruder forms of control – from militarized police to wholesale surveillance, as well as police serving as judge, jury and executioner, now a reality for the underclass – will become a reality for all of us should we begin to resist the continued funneling of power and wealth upward.
Nailed indeed.
The oppression Escobar speaks of, an interesting comment above suggesting they might bring in private contractors. The power elite may have had to find ways to legalise such a privatised approach, since a cornerstone of the democratic State, driven by the rule of law, is the monopoly on the legal use of violence/force resting with the State (the Saker also referred to it), meaning the representation of the public. This is consistent when the democratic configuration is one where the power is genuinely with the public: Only the public, through its designated services could decide to use force – it could not be an initiative of some private actors – and only when justified as a final end, genuinely in the public interest.
There have been trends over the years potentially eroding this fundamental principle. I have always felt that in terms of international law, ‘Piracy’ was one of those junctions that provided motive and opportunity to crack open this monopoly. Some years ago, piracy was much publicised as a major problem, a crisis of sorts, initially engaged by governmental navy vessels accompanying the merchant fleets passing the Horn. It was easy to uphold this was not a sustainable measure, and thus the merchant vessels would be allowed to have private security personnel on the vessel licensed to carry arms and use them. It meant a subtle break with the principle of the monopoly and initiative of the use of force resting with the State. Surely to be exclusive to this isolated case, and only because of desperate times and similar measures. Once such a provision becomes embedded in law, the slope may become slippery, and the definition easily altered to ‘similar acts’.
Further, implementation of neoliberalism policy of small government has forced governments to outsource tasks previously done by public services, i.e. civil servants, and one of those was Security. It became normal to see private security personnel all over in our public institutions. Trends potentially bringing into motion a perceived normality of private contractors going about carrying arms, potentially using them without direct accountability.
The US seems to have firmly implemented the measure of armed private personnel overseas. Its prisons are private, though in a democracy only the State, a public actor has the monopoly on imposing the restriction of freedom. I do not know the US that well, but would not be surprised if some of its police services would come to contain private factions. This may be the risk in those calls for de-funding the police. It would mean cutting back civil servant staff – yet the work would remain, to be done by whom?
Inverted totalitarianism, interesting notion: When that inversion happens, the public may find private, not public actors staring them in the eye. Democracy is where the power is genuinely in the hands of the public, through its institutions and its services, that it manages and controls. This makes neoliberalism, and its bonanza of privatisation, quite unfortunately antithetical to it, per inevitable consequence (which is plutocracy). This system may prevail as long as people remain occupied fighting those misconceived battles: left vs right, white vs black, citizen vs immigrant, (we are) good vs (they are) bad, etc.
People need to regain control of their perception and become witness to what is.