Honestly, I don't think that the Gaza Health Ministry is purposefully not reporting the accurate death count, which I agree must be in the hundreds of thousands, possibly half a million, or even more. I believe, that the GHM are unable to do so. And they state that the numbers reflect Palestinians killed directly by the bombs and bullets, which can be identified. Were they to go beyond that or speculate further, officials especially Israeli and western officials, will discredit them.
However, we all know, as does the GHM, that Palestinians are being killed in all kinds of ways, not just directly by bullets and bombs. Not to mention that many are bombed beyond recognition, and many more are buried beneath the rubble, and every city in Gaza has been turned into rubble. Rubble that no one can move to any significant degree, and stage proper rescue operations, because Palestinians are unable to operate heavy machinery because Israel blocked fuel from going in. Moreover, those dug out have a much greater chance to die, because of the lack of medical care, because of the blockade and the bombing of all hospitals.
This is exactly how genocide operates. And we should not have the expectations, that the GHM can properly give a full count of the Palestinians killed during this Genocidal campaign. Let's not forget, that they too are subjected this Genocide.
I follow retired Col. and Professor Wilkerson. He’s an astute observer and commentator about much of contemporary foreign policy and the military role in US foreign policy. I disagree with some of his observations about George H. W. Bush, whose intention it was to end the Vietnam Syndrome, or the hesitancy of masses of people in the US to endorse foreign wars in which the US was involved. The Vietnam Syndrome was perhaps one of the few positive outcomes of the Vietnam War. I did not support the First Gulf War (1991), which I believe George H. W. Bush could have prevented through diplomacy (remember what diplomacy was), but instead used Iraq’s illegal invasion of Kuwait as a means to end the Vietnam Syndrome.
In terms of whether there will be military resistance to a potential Trump coup, I think that the history of the past year or so shows that his sycophants are in near-complete control of the military. So much for taking an oath to support and defend the Constitution.
The current efforts to fill the ranks of the military with some who are not qualified was accurately compared to McNamara’s 100,000 plan, which brought seriously unqualified soldiers into the active military who were often a danger to themselves and to the units in which they were active.
Rabbi Alissa Wise does an exemplary job in explaining the gross misuse of Biblical teachings by those In Israel and elsewhere who have substituted Zionism for the principles of peace and fair play among nations. I support other agencies that deliver food aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but the rabbi’s group also deserves support.
As the UK reels from political scandals and crises connected to the Epstein Files, the US should follow suit and people should be laying down the bright lines on what they'll tolerate as this Canadian did: https://substack.com/@deanblundell/p-187208297
It's time to clean house with Democratic Party leadership replacing Schumer and Jeffries. All they do is pander to Israel and make deals with the crooked Maga leadership.
Wilkerson's claims that the GHW Bush administration was not part of the US neoliberal imperial maneuvers to destabilize the world and keep it in chaos so that the West can control it are just not credible. That nonsense began with Reagan and has continued through every president since *including* GHW Bush who began the wars on Iraq to devastate the region for easier control by the US and oil interests. It is incredible how naive Wilkerson can be about his own tenure in the US government. The GHW Bush administration directly lied to Hussein telling him it would not intervene if he attacked Kuwait. That's chaos manipulation, not global stability building.
And on the January 6, 2021 Capitol occupation he's in fantasy land. There was no attempted insurrection or coup at all. Not even one protestor who entered the Capitol carried a firearm, and those protestors rambled around for 6 hours taking selfies and then left peacefully. The idea that this was some sort of coup attempt is utterly laughable.
Agree with the first paragraph. Disagree with the second. Just because they were incompetent, ignorant and disorganized it doesn't mean they didn't believe they would succeed. Intentions are important on the context of what happened, it wan't peaceful, people died because the cult leader told them to do something. We also don't know what could have happened if one or two found a few legislators. There were armed insurgents outside the Capitol and maybe those were a bit smarter (or cowards), leading the sheep up the wrong hill.
First, let's remember that most of those protestors naively felt that they were interrupting corruption, not coming to perpetrate an 'insurrection'. The latter was not on their minds at all.
Second, most of the protestors and their organizers were *not* planning on marching to or entering the Capitol. That was an idea which arose later, stirred up by agents provocateurs in the crowd and by Ali Alexander and Alex Jones, afterwhich Trump called for a march (but NOT a Capitol occupation). Here is the link to an early interview with journalist Greg Palast which makes crystal clear that the original plan was *not* to march to the Capitol and when the protest sponsors heard that plan flying around they vehemently OPPOSED the idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0bM1HtstE4
Finally, police confiscated only FIVE firearms on the day of the protest, this from the most belligerent of the protestors. Again an insurrection or coup of the US government cannot possibly happen without a *large* armed force. Even if we assume that for every gun confiscated by police there were 10 more not discovered, this means that only about 50 guns were present among THOUSANDS of protestors - protestors who again originally had no intention whatsoever of marching to the Capitol, let alone entering it.
The idea that any organized force actually planned to take over the Capitol by violence that day is beyond ridiculous.
We don’t know what they were thinking but we do know what they did
Whatever the reasons in their heads they did cause problems and we don’t know what could have happened if a few of them got to were someone they hated and considers “corrupted” was hiding
It wasn’t without consequences and you call it what you want. I call it an attempt to whatever they understand as coup. Just because they were too ignorant to understand consequences and how to deal with their perceived corruption, they did break windows, hurt people, cure people to die and made a whole body of elected officials scared at that moment.
Just because if failed in the end it doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen
BuIIshlt. We know exactly what the January 6, 2021 protestors were thinking. Hundreds of MAGA were recorded talking about it, there were thousands of social media posts and podcasts about it - and I just showed you clear evidence of what the rally organizers were thinking.
Nearly all of these people legitimately believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and thousands of them went to the Capitol hoping to create a protest so disruptive that it would enable the Republicans to delay the vote count so that more information could be brought to light.
Furthermore you just ridiculously contradicted yourself in the same reply saying: 1) "We don’t know what they were thinking" and RIGHT after that 2) "we don’t know what could have happened if a few of them got to where someone they **hated** and considered **corrupted** was hiding".
Your speculation that they "hated" someone they considered "corrupted" is the very DEFINITION of you claiming to know what they were THINKING genius.
So what you are actually arguing is that you know better what they were thinking based on your own vivid imagination - better than I and others do who are actually citing hard evidence.
And again the *evidence* leads us back to the obvious, that it is utterly absurd to believe an "insurrection" happened when there was *no* organized armed force whatsoever to carry one out, and this makes clear that you are engaged in liberal ideological obsessive hysteria based on the fact that you have been hopelessly propagandized by neoliberal media to believe in nonsense (I'm guessing you also still believe in Russiagate) not a rational examination of facts.
Ok then. You do you. You can think that I am ridiculous and ignorant and you know all things because I disagree with you. That's arrogance and then there is no argument. I think that what happened was dangerous and it did happen. I do think they wanted an insurrection, badly planned, ignorant, pointless, but also dangerous. It was violent, people died. Call it a gang of idiots destroying things then. I don't really understand your fixation on a term when the acts and consequences are the most important things. That's my opinion. You can find contradictions, that's ok, don't care. You did not convince me, in the same way I did not convince you. So, it is a tie.
No. It isn't arrogance, it is the result of 40+ years of experience as a full time grassroots organizer for the environment and social justice and from getting my news from actual independent objective sources which (unlike your sources) don't lie to me and seek to brainwash me.
And no it is not a "tie" because utter fools like you who let themselves be led by the nose by 'journalists' who are actively manipulating you like Rachel Maddow and All Things Considered, are responsible for keeping neoliberal Democrats in power who are actively joining the Republicans in destroying the planet and hundreds of millions of lives, and perpetrating a literal GENOClDAL ethnic cleansing on the Palestinian people including millions of children.
To put it succinctly (and as both Malcolm X and MLK sharply observed) it is PRECISELY liberal Karens like you who are the biggest problem and most responsible for enabling the f'ing up of the planet by not educating yourself about what the f'ck is actually going on in the real world.
I think you must have be referring to a Jan 6 riot that took place in some alternate reality. But no use arguing about it; as that would be like arguing whether an apple is an apple or a cow. It was very well documented and a mountain of evidence is available for anyone wishing to look at the event and evidence.
No. You just don't understand what really happened because you've been lied to by whatever media you are seeing or listening to. Here's what actually happened: "The Enduring Media Lies Surrounding Jan 6 - Glenn Greenwald"
Even prior to October 7th, 2023, I couldn’t criticize Israel on my FB wall without being confronted by “Mister Spanky’s” so-called “community standards”, and threats of “FB jail” excluding me from their forums. So then I began taking screen shots of my anti-Israel comments before posting them. Since I’ve begun doing that, I’ve not heard from Mister Spanky again… not even once!
I’ll not deny how gratifying it’s been for me, reclaiming my 1st Amendment rights and beating the rap. Anyone who tries to censor ME is in for a fight. I’ve been encouraging others to try doing it that way, because it works!
Wilkerson is right when he says the problem is that Congress is influenced by the big money interests. He is wrong when he says that 50-60 % of Democrats are also controlled by the big money interests. I am not aware of even a single member of Congress that ran a small donor campaign.
Trump or any big money congresspersons are not afraid of the Democrats gaining control of the House or the Senate. Neither the Democrats or the Republicans will control the Senate in anything other than a figurehead role as both are controlled by the big money interests.
It's all just part of the show.
And in this show the Democrats are the Washington Generals. A team whose purpose is to provide token opposition to the Globetrotters to make the show appear to be a real game.
What would really put fear into the big money politicians would be if citizens stopped buying into the show and exercised the power we have under the Constitution to elect a Congress/ government that is not controlled by the big money interests.
In a recent blog Ralph talked about many things citizens could demand from Democrats (Winning America). The implied threat being Democrats will not get our votes if they don't meet these demands.
The only time in the last fifty years the Democrats met these demands was when they were campaigning. When they were in "control" they failed to do what they said they wanted to do because they are controlled by the big money interests.
If we want politicians that will do what we want and need then we need to control them instead of continuing to let them be controlled by the big money interests.
The question for Ralph is if we can make demands of the Democrats using our votes to get them to campaign on the Winning America platform, why can't we use that same strategy to demand that the Democrats (and all politicians) run small donor campaigns so we can elect legislators that will do what we want and need because they are not controlled by big money?
Ralph said things can change rapidly so why not get this started now before it gets to the point of blood in the streets.
A revolution in the voting booth seems much more productive as well as it's ability to prevent the blood in the streets.
Please Ralph, stop buying into the show and help lead citizens to a new more productive narrative and outcomes.
Honestly, I don't think that the Gaza Health Ministry is purposefully not reporting the accurate death count, which I agree must be in the hundreds of thousands, possibly half a million, or even more. I believe, that the GHM are unable to do so. And they state that the numbers reflect Palestinians killed directly by the bombs and bullets, which can be identified. Were they to go beyond that or speculate further, officials especially Israeli and western officials, will discredit them.
However, we all know, as does the GHM, that Palestinians are being killed in all kinds of ways, not just directly by bullets and bombs. Not to mention that many are bombed beyond recognition, and many more are buried beneath the rubble, and every city in Gaza has been turned into rubble. Rubble that no one can move to any significant degree, and stage proper rescue operations, because Palestinians are unable to operate heavy machinery because Israel blocked fuel from going in. Moreover, those dug out have a much greater chance to die, because of the lack of medical care, because of the blockade and the bombing of all hospitals.
This is exactly how genocide operates. And we should not have the expectations, that the GHM can properly give a full count of the Palestinians killed during this Genocidal campaign. Let's not forget, that they too are subjected this Genocide.
I follow retired Col. and Professor Wilkerson. He’s an astute observer and commentator about much of contemporary foreign policy and the military role in US foreign policy. I disagree with some of his observations about George H. W. Bush, whose intention it was to end the Vietnam Syndrome, or the hesitancy of masses of people in the US to endorse foreign wars in which the US was involved. The Vietnam Syndrome was perhaps one of the few positive outcomes of the Vietnam War. I did not support the First Gulf War (1991), which I believe George H. W. Bush could have prevented through diplomacy (remember what diplomacy was), but instead used Iraq’s illegal invasion of Kuwait as a means to end the Vietnam Syndrome.
In terms of whether there will be military resistance to a potential Trump coup, I think that the history of the past year or so shows that his sycophants are in near-complete control of the military. So much for taking an oath to support and defend the Constitution.
The current efforts to fill the ranks of the military with some who are not qualified was accurately compared to McNamara’s 100,000 plan, which brought seriously unqualified soldiers into the active military who were often a danger to themselves and to the units in which they were active.
Rabbi Alissa Wise does an exemplary job in explaining the gross misuse of Biblical teachings by those In Israel and elsewhere who have substituted Zionism for the principles of peace and fair play among nations. I support other agencies that deliver food aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but the rabbi’s group also deserves support.
Another fine Radio Hour!
Beautiful poem in the end, Ralph's legacy as art. Thank you!
Thank you Ralph for having Colonel Wilkerson on your show... so much great information and perspective...
As the UK reels from political scandals and crises connected to the Epstein Files, the US should follow suit and people should be laying down the bright lines on what they'll tolerate as this Canadian did: https://substack.com/@deanblundell/p-187208297
The evidence is just too strong of more and more criminality from the Trump people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGe5_jX6Ido
It's time to clean house with Democratic Party leadership replacing Schumer and Jeffries. All they do is pander to Israel and make deals with the crooked Maga leadership.
ALL U.S. UNIONS MUST Join in SOLIDARITY with HomeLandSecurity Union Members
https://www.afge.org/
Wilkerson's claims that the GHW Bush administration was not part of the US neoliberal imperial maneuvers to destabilize the world and keep it in chaos so that the West can control it are just not credible. That nonsense began with Reagan and has continued through every president since *including* GHW Bush who began the wars on Iraq to devastate the region for easier control by the US and oil interests. It is incredible how naive Wilkerson can be about his own tenure in the US government. The GHW Bush administration directly lied to Hussein telling him it would not intervene if he attacked Kuwait. That's chaos manipulation, not global stability building.
And on the January 6, 2021 Capitol occupation he's in fantasy land. There was no attempted insurrection or coup at all. Not even one protestor who entered the Capitol carried a firearm, and those protestors rambled around for 6 hours taking selfies and then left peacefully. The idea that this was some sort of coup attempt is utterly laughable.
Agree with the first paragraph. Disagree with the second. Just because they were incompetent, ignorant and disorganized it doesn't mean they didn't believe they would succeed. Intentions are important on the context of what happened, it wan't peaceful, people died because the cult leader told them to do something. We also don't know what could have happened if one or two found a few legislators. There were armed insurgents outside the Capitol and maybe those were a bit smarter (or cowards), leading the sheep up the wrong hill.
First, let's remember that most of those protestors naively felt that they were interrupting corruption, not coming to perpetrate an 'insurrection'. The latter was not on their minds at all.
Second, most of the protestors and their organizers were *not* planning on marching to or entering the Capitol. That was an idea which arose later, stirred up by agents provocateurs in the crowd and by Ali Alexander and Alex Jones, afterwhich Trump called for a march (but NOT a Capitol occupation). Here is the link to an early interview with journalist Greg Palast which makes crystal clear that the original plan was *not* to march to the Capitol and when the protest sponsors heard that plan flying around they vehemently OPPOSED the idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0bM1HtstE4
Finally, police confiscated only FIVE firearms on the day of the protest, this from the most belligerent of the protestors. Again an insurrection or coup of the US government cannot possibly happen without a *large* armed force. Even if we assume that for every gun confiscated by police there were 10 more not discovered, this means that only about 50 guns were present among THOUSANDS of protestors - protestors who again originally had no intention whatsoever of marching to the Capitol, let alone entering it.
The idea that any organized force actually planned to take over the Capitol by violence that day is beyond ridiculous.
We don’t know what they were thinking but we do know what they did
Whatever the reasons in their heads they did cause problems and we don’t know what could have happened if a few of them got to were someone they hated and considers “corrupted” was hiding
It wasn’t without consequences and you call it what you want. I call it an attempt to whatever they understand as coup. Just because they were too ignorant to understand consequences and how to deal with their perceived corruption, they did break windows, hurt people, cure people to die and made a whole body of elected officials scared at that moment.
Just because if failed in the end it doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen
BuIIshlt. We know exactly what the January 6, 2021 protestors were thinking. Hundreds of MAGA were recorded talking about it, there were thousands of social media posts and podcasts about it - and I just showed you clear evidence of what the rally organizers were thinking.
Nearly all of these people legitimately believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and thousands of them went to the Capitol hoping to create a protest so disruptive that it would enable the Republicans to delay the vote count so that more information could be brought to light.
Furthermore you just ridiculously contradicted yourself in the same reply saying: 1) "We don’t know what they were thinking" and RIGHT after that 2) "we don’t know what could have happened if a few of them got to where someone they **hated** and considered **corrupted** was hiding".
Your speculation that they "hated" someone they considered "corrupted" is the very DEFINITION of you claiming to know what they were THINKING genius.
So what you are actually arguing is that you know better what they were thinking based on your own vivid imagination - better than I and others do who are actually citing hard evidence.
And again the *evidence* leads us back to the obvious, that it is utterly absurd to believe an "insurrection" happened when there was *no* organized armed force whatsoever to carry one out, and this makes clear that you are engaged in liberal ideological obsessive hysteria based on the fact that you have been hopelessly propagandized by neoliberal media to believe in nonsense (I'm guessing you also still believe in Russiagate) not a rational examination of facts.
Ok then. You do you. You can think that I am ridiculous and ignorant and you know all things because I disagree with you. That's arrogance and then there is no argument. I think that what happened was dangerous and it did happen. I do think they wanted an insurrection, badly planned, ignorant, pointless, but also dangerous. It was violent, people died. Call it a gang of idiots destroying things then. I don't really understand your fixation on a term when the acts and consequences are the most important things. That's my opinion. You can find contradictions, that's ok, don't care. You did not convince me, in the same way I did not convince you. So, it is a tie.
No, I agree with you and have no clue as to what they're talking about. Rest assure, you're neither ridiculous, ignorant, or crazy.
No. It isn't arrogance, it is the result of 40+ years of experience as a full time grassroots organizer for the environment and social justice and from getting my news from actual independent objective sources which (unlike your sources) don't lie to me and seek to brainwash me.
And no it is not a "tie" because utter fools like you who let themselves be led by the nose by 'journalists' who are actively manipulating you like Rachel Maddow and All Things Considered, are responsible for keeping neoliberal Democrats in power who are actively joining the Republicans in destroying the planet and hundreds of millions of lives, and perpetrating a literal GENOClDAL ethnic cleansing on the Palestinian people including millions of children.
To put it succinctly (and as both Malcolm X and MLK sharply observed) it is PRECISELY liberal Karens like you who are the biggest problem and most responsible for enabling the f'ing up of the planet by not educating yourself about what the f'ck is actually going on in the real world.
I think you must have be referring to a Jan 6 riot that took place in some alternate reality. But no use arguing about it; as that would be like arguing whether an apple is an apple or a cow. It was very well documented and a mountain of evidence is available for anyone wishing to look at the event and evidence.
No. You just don't understand what really happened because you've been lied to by whatever media you are seeing or listening to. Here's what actually happened: "The Enduring Media Lies Surrounding Jan 6 - Glenn Greenwald"
https://rumble.com/v247niq-the-enduring-media-lies-surrounding-january-6th-2-years-later-system-update.html
Even prior to October 7th, 2023, I couldn’t criticize Israel on my FB wall without being confronted by “Mister Spanky’s” so-called “community standards”, and threats of “FB jail” excluding me from their forums. So then I began taking screen shots of my anti-Israel comments before posting them. Since I’ve begun doing that, I’ve not heard from Mister Spanky again… not even once!
I’ll not deny how gratifying it’s been for me, reclaiming my 1st Amendment rights and beating the rap. Anyone who tries to censor ME is in for a fight. I’ve been encouraging others to try doing it that way, because it works!
What about cubs?
Can anyone forgive chomsky for betraying ralph nadar; that's why Ralph Nader is the true President!
Wilkerson is right when he says the problem is that Congress is influenced by the big money interests. He is wrong when he says that 50-60 % of Democrats are also controlled by the big money interests. I am not aware of even a single member of Congress that ran a small donor campaign.
Trump or any big money congresspersons are not afraid of the Democrats gaining control of the House or the Senate. Neither the Democrats or the Republicans will control the Senate in anything other than a figurehead role as both are controlled by the big money interests.
It's all just part of the show.
And in this show the Democrats are the Washington Generals. A team whose purpose is to provide token opposition to the Globetrotters to make the show appear to be a real game.
What would really put fear into the big money politicians would be if citizens stopped buying into the show and exercised the power we have under the Constitution to elect a Congress/ government that is not controlled by the big money interests.
In a recent blog Ralph talked about many things citizens could demand from Democrats (Winning America). The implied threat being Democrats will not get our votes if they don't meet these demands.
The only time in the last fifty years the Democrats met these demands was when they were campaigning. When they were in "control" they failed to do what they said they wanted to do because they are controlled by the big money interests.
If we want politicians that will do what we want and need then we need to control them instead of continuing to let them be controlled by the big money interests.
The question for Ralph is if we can make demands of the Democrats using our votes to get them to campaign on the Winning America platform, why can't we use that same strategy to demand that the Democrats (and all politicians) run small donor campaigns so we can elect legislators that will do what we want and need because they are not controlled by big money?
Ralph said things can change rapidly so why not get this started now before it gets to the point of blood in the streets.
A revolution in the voting booth seems much more productive as well as it's ability to prevent the blood in the streets.
Please Ralph, stop buying into the show and help lead citizens to a new more productive narrative and outcomes.