The state of our public life described by Kunstler today (Saving Our Democracy)--in which the supposed "accomplishments" of our rulers (he specifies Dems, but it's bipartisan) are objectively destructive to our constitutional order and fitness for action in history--was described way back in 1950 by Eric Voegelin in The New Science of Politics as life in a Gnostic dreamworld, in which the non-recognition of reality has become the first principle. Even those who recognize the objective destruction taking place are mostly blinded to the only real solution.
I read Megatron because he does offer “the other side” of Mideast issues from what you see on MSM. But he sure does have a h**d on” for all things Israeli that does wander from the truth a bit.
There's no question that some of his inserted commentary is tendentious and plays fast and loose at times with the facts. But it's often hard to find so much useful content conveniently collected.
I guess it more or less goes without saying that one of the foundational purposes of MiH is, in the broadest sense, to get to the bottom of what has happened, and is happening, to us.
In a narrower sense, I came here, quite a few years ago now, as another step in my search for explanations why our national order seemed to be so out of kilter. Or worse, so increasingly corrupt. Nearly ten years ago, I was wondering how Hillary Clinton could conduct government business on a home server, transmit and save classified information on that server, and then destroy thousands of emails subject to gevernment subpoena, all seemingly in blatant violation of federal laws enacted to protect our national security. How could FBI Director Comey conclude that these were not indictable offenses? (What was Comey doing anyway making prosecutorial decisions?)
Not long after I was further mystified to learn that a dossier apparently compiled by a former British intelligence agent was totally fabricated to smear a Presidential candidate as a Russian puppet in 'collusion' with a Hitleresque Vladimir Putin, and that the fabrication was conceived, bought and paid for by the same Hillary Clinton in an attempt to win the 2016 Presidential election. And then an official Government investigation was launched, not to get to the bottom of Mrs Clinton's increasingly obvious and unconscionable lies and transgressions, but to falsely establish evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, collusion by Trump associates with Russian officials and espionage and ensuing obstruction of justice by Trump!
I was at the time not particularly an admirer of Trump but, as a practicing lawyer with over 40 years' experience, and a loyal American, I simply could not understand how his enemies could command the full police, investigative, prosecutorial, national security, administrative, and judicial powers of the United States in a continuing extra-legal attempt to destroy a political opponent. In fact, I was outraged and could not understand how this could happen in the United States of America.
Suffice it to say, almost a decade later, the questions have kept mounting and I am still on this quest: to understand what has happened, and is happening, to the United States and to us.
Today I'd like to offer an article called *Learn This Term: ‘Whole of Society’* which appeared yesterday on-line at Tabletmag.com, a self-described "Jewish magazine about the world". I am not a Jew and in fact have been a vocal critic of recent actions of the government of Israel. But I often find much thoughtful and convincing analysis in various articles published in Tablet. One writer whose work regularly appears in Tablet is Lee Smith, who I admire greatly.
The Learn this Term article is an attempt to make sense of present day American politics and an examination of the power and forces which have led to the otherwise inexplicable corruption which I (and Mark and many of us here) have been trying to better understand.
Excellent article. Just as an immediate reaction, "Whole of Society" sounds very much like Fascism. The state utilizing the financial system and major organizations within it as a method of societal control in response to societal "emergencies" is nothing new. Bread, circuses, and imminent external threats. Now we are seeing that whole exercise repeat again with the bird flu (and upcoming vaccines) presented as the next panacea for curing all the ills the "Whole of Society" have imposed upon society.
Mercouris yesterday, speaking with Robert Barnes, compared the Dem convention and swap out/swap in of candidates to the old Soviet system. From the linked article:
“The government”—meaning the elected officials visible to the American public who appear to enact the policies that are carried out across the whole of society—is not the ultimate boss. Joe Biden may be the president but, as is now clear, that doesn’t mean he’s in charge of the party.
It's a very good article. The ideas certainly go back over a century, but are now more systemetized. You can see the thinking behind it from the focus of "violent domestic extremism." The Dems insist that white conservative men are the violent extremists, whereas the overwhelming evidence is that violent extremism is almost exclusively a province of the Left. But, by redefining "violence" to mean non-prog speech and even thought, well, you get what you want. The FBI has followed along with that thinking for at least two decades.
When I started hearing Christopher Wray and Merrick Garland and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton (and many other progs) warning us about white conservative men being 'violent domestic extremists', I couldn't understand what they were talking about. I didn't see violent domestic extremism in my life, my family, my town, my workplace, my church, my affinity groups...or in fact anywhere!
A synonym for 'whole' would be 'total.' 'Wholetarian' doesn't have quite the ring of 'Totalitarian,' even if the meaning is pretty much the same. 'Totalitarian' has some negative associations, whereas Whole of Society sounds kinda warm and fuzzy, like It Takes A Village.
Progs, being essentially totalitarian--no matter how they express it--have a built in advantage over the would be defenders of an ideological form of democracy--liberal democracy. Progs feel zero compunction about suppressing speech they disagree with--it's one of their key goals. Call it illiberal democracy. It's a feature of whole of society type societies, the shtetl type of society which couldn't tolerate dissent.
Liberal democracy which is based in liberal ideology defends the speech of those who would destroy it. It regards the Constitution as a suicide pact, a fact which the progs take full advantage of, since our courts are utterly unable to deal with a movement that dominates all societal institutions. The SCOTUS is more of a speed bump for the progs in their EVs driving to the total solution to white Christian males.
Someone should really come up with a good, universal, succinct definition of Democracy. There is the Greek version (which emphasized populism but limited its scope), the Roman version (which recognized its value but limited its extension), and our (U.S.) version (which is being appealed to as being without limits). There is no law that says Democracy can't and shouldn't have limits placed upon it given its context. And no one should be arguing for it on false pretenses.
Thanks for sharing Cass. I think I joined this blog at about the same time you did. I recall your comments and also those from Bebe. Not sure where she went after Mark shifted to Substack (forced) and the Pandemic.
Makes me wonder if Israel is behind the assasination attempt. Kill Trump, claim Iran did it, then sit back and watch the MAGA crowd scream for Persian blood? Does Mayorkas have dual citizenship? How about Blinken, Zients and the other Jews running the Biden administration?
I would not be surprised if Israel has access to all the information our surveillance state has. As well as human assets embedded in our Intel agencies.
Yes, and the wording of those recent statements makes it clear that Russia is considering Syria's situation in the wider regional context. It seemed a fairly clear warning to the US and Israel.
Yes indeed. Russia and China know what is at stake. They won't let Iran be destroyed, and will give full backing to the Houthis. I don't know where the TR is - I suspect somewhere well out of drone range.
The state of our public life described by Kunstler today (Saving Our Democracy)--in which the supposed "accomplishments" of our rulers (he specifies Dems, but it's bipartisan) are objectively destructive to our constitutional order and fitness for action in history--was described way back in 1950 by Eric Voegelin in The New Science of Politics as life in a Gnostic dreamworld, in which the non-recognition of reality has become the first principle. Even those who recognize the objective destruction taking place are mostly blinded to the only real solution.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/netanyahu-angry-after-meeting-vice-president-harris
Woops! Out of the frying pan and into the fire?
I read Megatron because he does offer “the other side” of Mideast issues from what you see on MSM. But he sure does have a h**d on” for all things Israeli that does wander from the truth a bit.
There's no question that some of his inserted commentary is tendentious and plays fast and loose at times with the facts. But it's often hard to find so much useful content conveniently collected.
OT
I guess it more or less goes without saying that one of the foundational purposes of MiH is, in the broadest sense, to get to the bottom of what has happened, and is happening, to us.
In a narrower sense, I came here, quite a few years ago now, as another step in my search for explanations why our national order seemed to be so out of kilter. Or worse, so increasingly corrupt. Nearly ten years ago, I was wondering how Hillary Clinton could conduct government business on a home server, transmit and save classified information on that server, and then destroy thousands of emails subject to gevernment subpoena, all seemingly in blatant violation of federal laws enacted to protect our national security. How could FBI Director Comey conclude that these were not indictable offenses? (What was Comey doing anyway making prosecutorial decisions?)
Not long after I was further mystified to learn that a dossier apparently compiled by a former British intelligence agent was totally fabricated to smear a Presidential candidate as a Russian puppet in 'collusion' with a Hitleresque Vladimir Putin, and that the fabrication was conceived, bought and paid for by the same Hillary Clinton in an attempt to win the 2016 Presidential election. And then an official Government investigation was launched, not to get to the bottom of Mrs Clinton's increasingly obvious and unconscionable lies and transgressions, but to falsely establish evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, collusion by Trump associates with Russian officials and espionage and ensuing obstruction of justice by Trump!
I was at the time not particularly an admirer of Trump but, as a practicing lawyer with over 40 years' experience, and a loyal American, I simply could not understand how his enemies could command the full police, investigative, prosecutorial, national security, administrative, and judicial powers of the United States in a continuing extra-legal attempt to destroy a political opponent. In fact, I was outraged and could not understand how this could happen in the United States of America.
Suffice it to say, almost a decade later, the questions have kept mounting and I am still on this quest: to understand what has happened, and is happening, to the United States and to us.
Today I'd like to offer an article called *Learn This Term: ‘Whole of Society’* which appeared yesterday on-line at Tabletmag.com, a self-described "Jewish magazine about the world". I am not a Jew and in fact have been a vocal critic of recent actions of the government of Israel. But I often find much thoughtful and convincing analysis in various articles published in Tablet. One writer whose work regularly appears in Tablet is Lee Smith, who I admire greatly.
The Learn this Term article is an attempt to make sense of present day American politics and an examination of the power and forces which have led to the otherwise inexplicable corruption which I (and Mark and many of us here) have been trying to better understand.
Here's a link and see what you think:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/whole-society-american-politics
Excellent article. Just as an immediate reaction, "Whole of Society" sounds very much like Fascism. The state utilizing the financial system and major organizations within it as a method of societal control in response to societal "emergencies" is nothing new. Bread, circuses, and imminent external threats. Now we are seeing that whole exercise repeat again with the bird flu (and upcoming vaccines) presented as the next panacea for curing all the ills the "Whole of Society" have imposed upon society.
Mercouris yesterday, speaking with Robert Barnes, compared the Dem convention and swap out/swap in of candidates to the old Soviet system. From the linked article:
“The government”—meaning the elected officials visible to the American public who appear to enact the policies that are carried out across the whole of society—is not the ultimate boss. Joe Biden may be the president but, as is now clear, that doesn’t mean he’s in charge of the party.
It's a very good article. The ideas certainly go back over a century, but are now more systemetized. You can see the thinking behind it from the focus of "violent domestic extremism." The Dems insist that white conservative men are the violent extremists, whereas the overwhelming evidence is that violent extremism is almost exclusively a province of the Left. But, by redefining "violence" to mean non-prog speech and even thought, well, you get what you want. The FBI has followed along with that thinking for at least two decades.
When I started hearing Christopher Wray and Merrick Garland and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton (and many other progs) warning us about white conservative men being 'violent domestic extremists', I couldn't understand what they were talking about. I didn't see violent domestic extremism in my life, my family, my town, my workplace, my church, my affinity groups...or in fact anywhere!
Now I better understand.
A synonym for 'whole' would be 'total.' 'Wholetarian' doesn't have quite the ring of 'Totalitarian,' even if the meaning is pretty much the same. 'Totalitarian' has some negative associations, whereas Whole of Society sounds kinda warm and fuzzy, like It Takes A Village.
Progs, being essentially totalitarian--no matter how they express it--have a built in advantage over the would be defenders of an ideological form of democracy--liberal democracy. Progs feel zero compunction about suppressing speech they disagree with--it's one of their key goals. Call it illiberal democracy. It's a feature of whole of society type societies, the shtetl type of society which couldn't tolerate dissent.
Liberal democracy which is based in liberal ideology defends the speech of those who would destroy it. It regards the Constitution as a suicide pact, a fact which the progs take full advantage of, since our courts are utterly unable to deal with a movement that dominates all societal institutions. The SCOTUS is more of a speed bump for the progs in their EVs driving to the total solution to white Christian males.
Someone should really come up with a good, universal, succinct definition of Democracy. There is the Greek version (which emphasized populism but limited its scope), the Roman version (which recognized its value but limited its extension), and our (U.S.) version (which is being appealed to as being without limits). There is no law that says Democracy can't and shouldn't have limits placed upon it given its context. And no one should be arguing for it on false pretenses.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/fbi-trump-questionnaire-exposes-divisive-partisan-politics-bureau-former-agent-says
I'm shocked - not!
Thanks for sharing Cass. I think I joined this blog at about the same time you did. I recall your comments and also those from Bebe. Not sure where she went after Mark shifted to Substack (forced) and the Pandemic.
Tx for sharing your thoughts. You are not alone in your quest!
Makes me wonder if Israel is behind the assasination attempt. Kill Trump, claim Iran did it, then sit back and watch the MAGA crowd scream for Persian blood? Does Mayorkas have dual citizenship? How about Blinken, Zients and the other Jews running the Biden administration?
Conceivable Mossad has agents in the Secret Service/FBI.
Good chance the "intel" about Iran being behind the attempt came from Israel.
Especially since Bibi took pains to emphasize it repeatedly
.
Absolutely. My first assumption.
I would not be surprised if Israel has access to all the information our surveillance state has. As well as human assets embedded in our Intel agencies.
Nor would I.
I doubt that Netanyahu gives a fig what Trump or anyone else in the US thinks of him. The only people who can stop him is the Axis of Resistance.
Russia has recently been quite clear about its position in regards to Syria.
China is on a whirlwind peacemaking tour
Israel should not discount those civilizational powerhouses coming to the aid of a third Iran. Not to mention Yemen
Is the Theodore R strike group still close to Israel?
https://news.usni.org/category/fleet-tracker
Ty
Yes, and the wording of those recent statements makes it clear that Russia is considering Syria's situation in the wider regional context. It seemed a fairly clear warning to the US and Israel.
Will they pay heed? Or just continue the escalation.
With the new rapprochment of Syria, Russia and Turkey, the illegal American occupation of Syrian oilfields may be coming to an end.
Yes indeed. Russia and China know what is at stake. They won't let Iran be destroyed, and will give full backing to the Houthis. I don't know where the TR is - I suspect somewhere well out of drone range.
Very likely. Can't risk another Ike issue. Whatever that really was🤔
Something ' big, scary and unexpected ' happened in the waters of the Red Sea.
https://news.usni.org/category/fleet-tracker
Or an Iranian-Obama nuke. (Or is that kinda the same thing?)