Who Rules America?

First, I’d like to ask for a bit of help. I’ve been so busy with other things that I haven’t come across a smart, succinct account of the internet control provisions that were passed through Congress as part of the warfare package. If anyone knows of such an account/article/thread just link it in the comments. IMO, those provisions were integral to the entire package and need to be understood. Tx.

By definition the State is supposed to have a monopoly on violence—or at least that’s the usual narrative. So when the State uses violence to suppress protests it’s always instructive to ask at whose behest the violence is exerted in order to understand who actually governs. Why have such strenuous efforts been made to prevent the armed forces of Texas from halting an invasion across national borders but …

SIMPLICIUS Ѱ @simpatico771

Well, that tells you who's really in power in America when the national guard is called on students at the drop of a hat.

Quote

OSINTdefender @sentdefender

The Columbia University Administration is reportedly in Talks with New York Governor, Kathy Hochul regarding an Activation of the National Guard if the Encampment of Pro-Hamas Supporters in unable to be Cleared from the Campus tonight by New York City Riot Police.

11:52 PM · Apr 23, 2024

Is the Columbia University Administration calling the shots or … what? It must be ‘what’, because little Mikey Johnson, not to be outdone by Dems,

House Speaker Johnson calls on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign

What a great country! Now we have politicians running higher education. What could go wrong?

Ron Paul has a rep for being a straight shooter, but I wonder. What he says is good as far as it goes … but is it ‘stunning’?

Michael Tracy wants us to know that this probably couldn’t have happened BUT FOR Trump. I find his argument cogent and, given the stakes at play, very disturbing. But first a word from a foreigner who warns us of the dangers ahead that our rulers have so blithely ignored, especially because longer range missiles have now been authorized:

Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen

NATO will likely begin deep strikes within Russia & also destroy the Crimean bridge

- NATO will claim these are Ukrainian attacks, but NATO will provide the weapons, select targets & even pull the trigger

- This places great pressure on Russia to restore deterrence by any means!

I’ll be quoting Tracey here, but because of space limitations will leave out the headers and date stamps:

Lindsey Graham, who strategized with Trump to pass the giant war funding bill, explains the true meaning of "America First" -- as contrasted with "isolationism"

GRAHAM: "America First says, let's help Israel. Let's help Ukraine. Let's turn it into a loan rather than a grant"

If that sounds like, ‘Let’s do what Neocons tell us to do because they control the money spigots,’ you’re not wrong.

It's official: the gigantic war and censorship bill championed by Biden, Trump, Schumer, McConnell, et al. has passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79-18. Biden will now sign. Nothing unites the US political system like dumping $100 billion into the permanent war sinkhole

.

This was the most disturbing legislative process I've seen in 15+ years of covering US politics. A threshold has been crossed. The US just made an enormous down-payment on global war across at least three geographic theaters. And imposed radical government control of the internet

.

Congress will likely pass no legislation of any real significance for the rest of the Fiscal Year (unless something unforeseen happens). This is what they've chosen to devote their energies to: perpetual war, censorship, sanctions, and a historic giveaway to the "defense" sector

.

Remember, this legislative process was turbo-charged by the Iran/Israel missile episode on April 13. That's when GOP Leader Scalise announced the House would upend its schedule for the next week and pass the bill, because the US had to urgently replenish Israel's missile defense

.

Lindsey Graham confirms once again that Trump's support was a "game-changer" for getting the war bill "across the finish line." If you're still in denial about this, you're just a sad cultist. But feel free to keep following MAGA Media shills who deceive you for money and access

.

Trump, with one Truth Social post, instantly sunk the McConnell/Lankford version of the "national security" bill in February. Then, as he locked down the GOP nomination, a different version was crafted with his input, via intermediaries Graham and Johnson. He backed that one.

.

I don't know about you all but I'm 100% done giving the benefit of the doubt to anyone who's shilling or obfuscating the reasons why the entire American political system just coalesced to pass what is effectively the closest thing yet to a WWIII bill. This is not a joke or a game

.

This is incredible. Last night Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) gave an eloquent speech warning about the extreme dangers of the TikTok ban in the giant "National Security" bill. He correctly denounced it as unprecedented state censorship

Then... he proceeded to VOTE *YES* ON THE BILL!!!

Yeah, well, the TikTok thing is 100% about shutting down all criticism of Israeli genocide. Anti-genocide = anti-semitism is the idea. It’s the corollary to Anti-zionism is anti-semitism.

Sadly, Tracey, who has a lot to say about Trump, seems to want us to believe that Trump is somehow acting all on his own. That Trump is deeply committed to war for war’s sake and is equally committed to censorship for censorship’s sake. That he came up with these sick policy ideas—just because. That’s Occam’s Razor style thinking. I say life is more complicated, but if you want to go at these issues with a razor, you could easily argue that the Israel Lobby is behind both the war mongering as well as the censorship—because they have the political and financial muscle and the motivation to force Congress into line and force presidents and presidential candidates to knuckle under.

Tom Luongo differs. But the problem with his theory—one problem among quite a few—here is that it strongly implies that Trump is really stupid and really easily manipulated. That’s less than reassuring.

Tom Luongo (Head Sneetch) @TFL1728

Right on schedule. Now that Trump tied himself to Israel's boat anchor, Davos is setting him up as the pro-war candidate... and who's there to dutifully fulfill his role? Bernie-fucking-Sanders... that's who.

How else are you going to 'credibly' stop the red wave in the fall when you steal the election? By creating false talking points with fake protests... of course. Sanders is back to pied piper the younglings again to their doom.

https://zerohedge.com/political/bernie-sanders-lead-progressive-fight-against-israel-aid-senate-new-amendment…

10:44 AM · Apr 23, 2024

Michael Vlahos has an interesting article at Agon magazine that may be helpful in a big picture sort of way—regular readers will be familiar with Vlahos’ perceptive commentaries on the war on Russia, but he is very involved in political philosophy:

The Demon in America's Sacred Narrative

America is a religion consumed by the eternally recurring apocalypse, and war is its cleansing ritual.

Now, I don’t necessarily buy into everything that Vlahos says, but some of it seems to work. We can start out with the well known fact that the roots of Neoconism are in Trotskyism (or Bronsteinism, if you prefer). All the most prominent Neocons were originally Trots. What this means is that there is inherently a strong streak of Messianism in Neoconism, much as there is in Zionism, and its very much a this worldly Messianism—focused on transforming the world.

I would extend Vlahos’ basic argument—which is concerned in the linked article with the “Church of Woke”—and argue that most American political movements, and certainly Neoconism, regularly attempt to co-opt what Vlahos terms America’s “civil religion” for their purposes. The reason is perfectly simple. America’s “civil religion”, while susceptible of rather precise description, is typically held unconsciously (“beliefs and attitudes”) by most Americans, many of whom would reflexively deny that they are religious at all. But if you think of the broad, unthinking appeal for a broad swath of Americans of slogans like The New Frontier, the Great Society, MAGA, and so forth you will readily see that there is a strong streak of Messianism in American politics. We are a nation that has long been on a permanent crusade. So:

The Four Pillars of American Righteousness

American Civil Religion is driven by four underlying beliefs and attitudes: 1) missionarianism, 2) messianism, 3) Manichaeism, and 4) millenarianism. First, it is believed that the United States is on a mission from God, as Elwood Blues reminds us. America is charged by God (or Providence) and thus carries with it His authority, the American people serving as divine agents. With America’s founding, this divine voice—above and outside, yet rising also within—becomes immanent in America’s Founders and its “elect”.

In this next paragraph, I suggest that the idea of America as the “Redeemer Nation” could also be phrased in terms of America being the New Israel as a nation. Indeed, according to Neoconism, belief in America is all it takes to be an American—an idea that should resonate with anyone familiar with the Christian gospel, i.e., most Americans.

The second driver of American theology is its messianic idealism, which is rooted in an eschatological view of existence. America, it is believed, has been chosen—as the “exceptional nation”—to raise up the downtrodden and succor the oppressed. America is the Redeemer Nation par excellence. The world’s “salvation” rests on America, and the nation must take it upon itself to overthrow and punish the wicked, to seek out and cast down Evil itself. This surety in their anointed role in a “last judgment” makes Americans especially prone to adopting a black-or-white mentality. America represents the Light, fighting against the eternal “Dark Side”—this is the third pillar and the foundation of America’s Manichaeism.

Finally, as the shining city on a hill, America represents God’s chosen nation—its people having the holy charge of delivering on the postmillennial promise of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. America will thus shepherd Humanity through a mythic passage to the blessed “broad, sunlit uplands”. These four mental frames are inextricable from our very being as Americans and form the crux of our worldview even today.

Before examining these pillars of American Civil Religion in more detail, a word of caution. All nations have foundational myths and—whether heavily or more lightly—they are all ruled by them. America is not unique among nations. Yet its sacred narrative is truly distinct, and a powerful force in its national psyche. This sacred narrative cannot fully capture the richness and diversity of an original ethos once rooted in ancient traditions. …

I would argue that this four pillars are all inherently Messianic, in a way that is congenial to Neocons, former adherents of Bronsteinism—check it out.

What I’m suggesting that all of the events of the day, as illustrated above, can be understood in the sense that a cultish movement, Neoconism, which is inherently Messianic through its Bronsteinian roots, has coopted the American imagination through a combination of financial muscle, political savvy, and above all by an appeal to America’s subliminal civil religion, which is also inherently Messianic (a “Judaizing heresy”, to borrow David Goldman’s descriptive term). This appeal to the subliminal civil religion of America is what makes it so difficult for many Americans to engage in self examination and critique of the Neocon program of perpetual war and perpetual revolution—the perpetual crusade to transform the world. Those many Americans imagine that genocide couldn’t possibly be part of that crusade, which is why they need to be protected from information about the real world. This is why censorship and war go hand in hand, especially in Neocon America.

Then there are the cynical politicians who see all this as an opportunity for personal profit.