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<title>Beauty Betrayed, from Global Militarism to Alligator Alcatraz</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/beauty-betrayed-from-global-militarism-to-alligator-alcatraz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Rockstroh]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:11:36 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Fascism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Israeli Defense Force (IDF)]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Philosophy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[US Congress]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[War Crimes]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ICE]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Jeffrey Epstein]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[MAGA]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159897</guid>
<description><![CDATA[“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Great effort (and amounts of money) are required to churn out arguments justifying actions that cannot be justified by standards of common sense and human decency. For […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/beauty-betrayed-from-global-militarism-to-alligator-alcatraz/">Beauty Betrayed, from Global Militarism to Alligator Alcatraz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
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Great effort (and amounts of money) are required to churn out arguments justifying actions that cannot be justified by standards of common sense and human decency. For example, billions upon billions spent to maintain pro-Zionist and pro-capitalist institutions. In a nation where the agendas of the state are underwritten by billionaires — if a singular truth happens to enter public discourse it would have had to have come about by accident. Extreme amounts of money have been invested to prevent such occurrences of democratic happenstance.
Hence, the US Congress, by means of outright unconstitutional legislation, legislates: anti-Zionist speech is anti-Semitic hate speech. Hey, people against genocide – where are your billions to counter: condemnation of Israel’s genocidal rampage in Gaza and ethnic cleansing operations in the West Bank are in fact constitutionally protected speech? You say, you don’t have billions at your disposal. Then you have been shut up and shut out of the conversation.
From global militarism to Alligator Alcatraz: Fascism is imperialism turned inward.
<img decoding="async" class="CToWUd" title="May be an image of 6 people and text that says 'POLICE POLICE DLICE ROLICL Photo: Josh Denmark- DHS'" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NbqD5uNGMockZRUTbWqYF-KRB_oaDNlBUjsOU7y-uNy82UK22dBLZZawd7sv0vtkFNG4WUEQwTUoDuD66YA9ApxfLekVUsmEh2LtxvvQ6itbO5EJd5EFOZzVvEWKNa-9TnFBUYy3Ngqgru0b9iLoPeTlop4ur8qy4g12nJgwallfI5gSNsiDQNvRa_fyy5gYNyzn4CchYtvjvLfzenqYADc7P1j4dONMvEr5IyneX3ryl_YE37eO0kIzU29Mfa5LXH0OD5_qywDKKL8BUN-x33joBjox-Wmqe4_hMaZ3PK10k1H21HvHYe0l8mNT3t4bTXTjrrK=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JoP8!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d47c281-42e7-4835-b63e-2f0df9221445_1160x768.jpeg" alt="May be an image of 6 people and text that says 'POLICE POLICE DLICE ROLICL Photo: Josh Denmark- DHS'" width="505" height="334.3" data-bit="iit" />
ICE ahead…slippery slope to totalitarianism.
The rise of ICE thuggery is the policy wing of the Right’s xenophobic “Replacement Theory.” ICE’s mission is, to aid in returning the US to be, in their fantasy-rancid words, the “White Christian nation” it was founded to be, and to achieve the goal by means of policies of ethnic cleansing.
Have you noticed this about people driven by odious intentions: they have an intense bearing of certainty; they posit a ready answer for everything? Have you noticed this about people bearing insight: they approach life as a mystery? They have a tolerance for ambiguity. The best teachers teach students to ask good questions. The worst among us lead us to doom by becoming intoxicated by their hell-pitched certainty.
Are you suffering emotional pain due to the trajectory of the times? Pain is a warning proffered to pull you back from the abyss. When there is sickness in the collective soul, you will experience the symptoms. If the culture is drunk on lies, you will experience the hangover. Sanity will entail you sobering up.
Yes, you are powerless over the stupidity of the times: the bacchanal of bullshit, cupidity, and cruelty. Therein, there is a hint of a higher power than the degraded power structures of the present. Where there is bullshit — there can be a cleansing current of the heart to wash away, like Hercules’ labor of cleaning the Augean stables, the piles upon piles of excrement. Cupidity can be superseded by a generosity of spirit. And what about the homunculi of cruelty that has been unloosed upon the land as if a portal from Hell has been opened and hordes of lower order imps have emerged to become hirelings at ICE recruitment offices?
Where they trod they leave a wasteland, yes. A landscape as barren as their own inner life.
“The merciful man does good to his own soul, but the cruel troubles his own flesh.” — Proverbs 11:17
They will attempt to dine on power; yet, they will continue to suffer a famine in their soul. They will hunger for more and yet still hunger for more and more control and power thus are driven further into their wasteland within. The totalitarian personality signs a murder/suicide pact with itself. History reports, while it is tragically true they will cause much suffering as they destroy the essential qualities that sustains life, in the end, they have laid the path of their own undoing. ICE thugs (MAGA, in general) to IDF predators (to the Zionist state, in general) you have numbered your days.
“Righteousness leads to life, but those who pursue evil find their own death.” Proverbs 11:19
In diametric opposition to the above line of Biblical verse:
Regarding the ghosted Epstein files: MAGA cultists i.e., grifted, cretinous dupes, were moved to clamor to the polls to bring down the Deep State cabalists, by the enthronement of (Epstein’s best friend in predation) Donald Trump. Stupid, of course, is the calling card of the plebs but witnessing their cope and contortions is a sight to behold.
The cultists were convinced the Democratic Party’s confederacy of perverts would be exposed in all its hideous iniquity. What happened: well, it turned out perversion crosses party affiliation. Republicans and Democrats fingerprints alike are all over the crime scene. Trump’s fat, stubby digits were the most prominent in view.
The crime itself is this: the manner the wealth inequality inherent to capitalism enables the covering up of the iniquity of those who serve the system. In fact, what they will receive for their crimes will be massive tax cuts.
As for the rest of us: We are not even allowed in sight of the VIP (Very Iniquitous Pervert) rope line. The entrance fee: the obscene amounts of bribe money it requires to own the political class.
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Epstein et al. thrive in a landscape wherein everything within reach that can be commodified will be relentlessly subjected to exploitation. It is an ugly business. There is not anything that can exist for its own sake: truth; beauty; a sense of integrity.
In the US, beauty has been banished by the zealots of expediency and profiteering. They erect temples of commercialized cacophony thus from every direction meaningless noise dominates the senses.
What price is paid for beauty having been buried deep as Hades? Stop and listen closely. Hear the lament of exquisite things cast into the cultural abyss.
<img decoding="async" class="CToWUd" title="May be an image of 1 person, car, street, road and text that says 'JANS $5000 TiRsMAX Hert UB'" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NZbp4CdYtRZUIMhbAJa9f0onCl2jxLYZaOYud5siKoSGKdTs0Ef-begPMc5Ezgco1KMhsWv3A4kZIaaWhY9FC8D519v1OvCMP_BUN6EGy__I9M6NGktlGH-VaKvPdr9utqsr3X_zrIEs7QN6ViM0_Wa1RIuVYESqefpwCPB6py5IUjNGMYGyOyCXsmssZpTQrUyGDPkkjXzXqNAOqSnHFCG9UV9ydPH-43TlTtPr9HpZEV1ZFZLbQ-j4ekXzPB6xwK3f0l9piliFzAgdn8OZBhAOLgjQMLDDz3HFQPziXsRn9vcsg4-jYgp6WUKHHqmWZxOqtw=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!U6SZ!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F764f5bdd-feaa-4ef9-8970-ab47821c1922_640x425.jpeg" alt="May be an image of 1 person, car, street, road and text that says 'JANS $5000 TiRsMAX Hert UB'" width="640" height="335.4" data-bit="iit" />
When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
— John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
Perhaps the sum of selfhood, the centering of self required to connect and engage the world, both material and Anima Mundi, arrives by means of an openness to experience and the garnered truth concomitant to enduring suffering.
The fear of engagement, over time, numbs out the heart; the wings of the spirit will atrophy. Beauty no longer moves a deadened heart. One’s soul exiles itself back into the collective, resulting in pathological detachment or psychosis.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! — Isaiah 5:20
Speaking on a personal basis, I need inexorable longing to engage life on life’s terms. This is serious work; the act of merging and mingling the burden of grief with a wingedness of mind. It is a feat of levitation. As in music, the dark chords caress the heart as they rise heavenward.
The mind searches for reasons life unfolds as it does. But poetic depth reveals sleeping fragments of pure being dreaming within the heart of all things. Art must invite logic to dance through the night until it goes mad beneath the morning star.
<img decoding="async" class="CToWUd" title="May be an image of satellite dish" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NZzVV14eiT8BnR4X7DlMGtx2DTfXrafGjAa8WNJVzLtzXFPdx9XQ2Bpyhc4IJJHnOwmGTwYIGndSQx270aOADRic5IM9sBeU2Ke7kBQJE9v7fTNc3Jccs8xPh2Ck-dqHC7oI3btV_Q1dHvpZeUNw4UUM_v1915tcDTEHka9s3UxRpbnBgc6DIqAqkfvDepXLkxbelNM1vxcI5QPX5MpHjCU90hweIQ-KZOLVyURo2J8dGX73UrKX5wCk9BXLSDqlVV5JS_b2wipVRp8hz2JEaDaFvyKdag4MLu5b8C4UD1NVmRccg1A1Hcw2UqCCrrdlmghhhSp=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T0x0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F690f8f35-de38-4cfc-a995-fbb137ae01b7_1066x600.jpeg" alt="May be an image of satellite dish" width="505" height="284.2" data-bit="iit" />
Why? What is the logic of this? Because the mind is an empire, its ideas and notions crumble and fade into indifferent air while the seasons of the heart are located in a cosmos of eternal renewal.
It’s possible I am pushing through solid rock 
in flintlike layers, as the ore lies, alone; 
I am such a long way in I see no way through, 
and no space: everything is close to my face, 
and everything close to my face is stone.
I don’t have much knowledge yet in grief 
so this massive darkness makes me small. 
You be the master: make yourself fierce, break in: 
then your great transforming will happen to me, 
and my great grief cry will happen to you.
— Rainer Maria Rilke
In a depth-bereft culture where people shun reading for meme consumption, the center cannot hold in the culture because culture is a product of psyche. Sans psyche, an inferno of fuckwit dominates. Imagination is shunned; people resist being carried away into the depths of themselves hence they lose the ability to proceed into and navigate the depths of passing moments. The outer-world withers to wasteland. Cliches are the architecture of the mind. Imagination is in exile. Thus all too many experience a loss of soul.
Fascism arrives from the margins to fill in the void.
The fascist mob’s mania is borne by its by-reflex fear of experiencing human suffering… to evince god-like invincibility while swathed in the anonymity of the mob.
Yet the joys and suffering of human life make up the foundation of the self. Great books convey an affinity — a dawning recognition we connected, each to each, by suffering. Memes, being meant for the mob, are inherently fascist. Upon sight, memes should be driven off by waving a book at them in a threatening manner as an act of self-defense.
The rapidity by which information (instead, aren’t we talking about the conveyance of thought itself?) arrives is directly implicated in the US lack of political memory and its shallowness of culture. The illusion of moving at high speed is conveyed hence even the recent past seems too far in the past to be retrieved and reflected upon. History is reduced to non-linear data; connections cannot be made between the sequence of events. There is an immersion in the present but without bestowing animal vitality and grace. Therefore, we feel like animals imprisoned in a cage that is being shaken by a source unknown. .
As a result, we attempt to obtain clarity by “getting above it all.” A new form of distress follows: vertigo. You know, what goes up, comes down in flames and scattered debris like a SpaceX rocket launch.
<img decoding="async" class="CToWUd" title="SpaceX rocket and Israeli satellite destroyed in launch pad explosion – Spaceflight Now" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NY74UXdkR8ucsAXytZQxa1EwMP8kU1QzXh-JVkm1mIziUkT8pMYtYDuRKkkZ1fan-q8iSCV_b1srJNrDDSzzbVRs4Y1CUkChjAr1GdCCXQn-XXDg-X54PrBHp9r0ANGPH9udvFqE40AGIdDXhdtcpx3G7mi_sVUJaoADxWVbtWYsaymbQDA8oJowhixR4OaxPHaaYHLirOjhLmp6wIuhiifK0KnawwGunXZu20JQAwUPf0oFcMVzcoUSTFdCgshKO0RkILNifIvj3PwpPAXivA7Ga_d7HBZEzNUt4QZQ09eIgCOL9DpzwT7CjVZECl2CS2dvcXm=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CmWD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fce00d6b6-582b-47d6-a3c7-2129d4541fd5_2500x735.jpeg" alt="SpaceX rocket and Israeli satellite destroyed in launch pad explosion – Spaceflight Now" width="505" height="148.4" data-bit="iit" />
The future must involve falling. Not the fall from fabled Eden. But reconnection with Earth. Cold data and manic memes are softened and come to rest upon the embrace of the veritable ground. At present, the mind is a cluttered mess of gibbering satellites and space junk. The earth breathes… so that you can pause and lay aside your troubles.
I am not talking about a longing for paradise: that trope was explored in the fable of the serpent, the apple, and the Tree Of Knowledge. The knowledge ended our childhood, our tromp and traipse through the glens and gardens of Eternity. Banished from paradise, we gained our humanity.
Empires, like the thoughts of the harried and vexed mind, rise and dissipate in indifferent air. Beauty remains. The tears at the heart of things are vouchsafed with deathless truths. Thus we can grant ourselves hours of restorative rest:
We sleep in the arms of an exquisitely played song that has played since the beginning of time and will play on forever.
Heart, mind, and soul restored, we can navigate life and respond with clarity to its perils; thus see through the lies piled upon lies retailed by the powerful — whose propagandists promise a return to paradise but deliver a soul-defying landscape of deprivation and perpetual exploitation.
<img decoding="async" class="CToWUd" title="Anselm Kiefer | The Land of the Two Rivers | The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NYz48g1OntV5NL4CZyTXVc8kKZitdK8mVdflOIg824a8X9X4NipyUW2lZ5zTeIQ7hYthusZcPJWQ_hLohtff_YGZB_eM03xx4njCBE1bdcH0q6RRkGpFFcpwMmkJUMAJBFodjfBi-MtOIWr7qht6hH3FKiMAj6vG-ZOpEG4bIHZxJ844-DQgoP-WJ55asagN_alGgk0otxGmwvA0_2UctbI7FfbS_0wRe9KwX15R0CxVoEfPccS7YBCCvyDU8BmhHkzEAYvJHKXHjh2pCeTfHd34aQaAuWvAsMn_QF5BuzhLa_Gsk4Kr-L22TKWJkhqShwqf1mv=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PelP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6208d1c4-e5dc-42e8-9165-8e105862001d_1280x737.jpeg" alt="Anselm Kiefer | The Land of the Two Rivers | The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation" width="505" height="290.8" data-bit="iit" />
Anselm Kiefer, “The Land of the Two Rivers”The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/beauty-betrayed-from-global-militarism-to-alligator-alcatraz/">Beauty Betrayed, from Global Militarism to Alligator Alcatraz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Israel’s Demographic Project in Gaza An Assault on the Palestinian Future</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/israels-demographic-project-in-gaza-an-assault-on-the-palestinian-future/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anthony Fulton]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:06:54 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Crimes against Humanity]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Gaza]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Genocide]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Land]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[War Crimes]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Zionism]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159901</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Twenty years ago, Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza after the post-1967 years of occupation and settlement. An overriding factor governing the decision to withdraw was the issue of demography. With a population of over two million Palestinians, Gaza has always represented a significant part of a broad demographic problem facing the self-declared ‘only democracy in […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/israels-demographic-project-in-gaza-an-assault-on-the-palestinian-future/">Israel’s Demographic Project in Gaza An Assault on the Palestinian Future</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Twenty years ago, Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza after the post-1967 years of occupation and settlement. An overriding <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/aug/16/comment.israelandthepalestinians">factor</a> governing the decision to withdraw was the issue of demography. With a population of over two million Palestinians, Gaza has always represented a significant part of a broad demographic problem facing the self-declared ‘only democracy in the Middle East.’ Within Israel and the occupied territories (the area that has been under direct or indirect Israeli control for 58 years) there are over <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid">14 million</a> people. Approximately half are Israeli Jews, the other half, Palestinians. This underreported reality stands sharply at odds with the notion of a Jewish and democratic state, especially one which aspires to the land borders of a Greater Israel.
Twenty-one months after Israel re-entered, Gaza stands in ruins — obliterated, to use the current Trumpian term. The State of Israel has unleashed terror upon the Strip on an unprecedented scale. The different elements of the collective punishment of Gaza have become familiar but still make for shocking reading: the indiscriminate bombing; the sniper and drone attacks; the withholding of aid; the domicide; the ongoing forced displacement; the restriction of access to water, food, healthcare; the targeting of civilians and razing of infrastructure.
That these things add up to genocide is hardly a matter for debate anymore. Instead, we need to ask where all this is headed. We can’t simply accept the hasbara narrative that Israel only wants the return of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas. The current state of the Strip cannot support this. There is no access to Gaza, but we can look at satellite photographs. We can look at the footage provided by Palestinians. We can also listen to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-07-07/ty-article/.premium/defense-minister-israel-to-concentrate-all-gaza-population-in-rafah-humanitarian-zone/00000197-e56a-d1ad-ab97-e5ef764e0000">Israelis</a> in public, political and media spaces. More is going on here. This is a war that is going way beyond the oft-repeated objectives.
It seems perverse on the part of many Western commentators not to link the devastation of Gaza to current public discourse in Israel and to Zionist concerns about demography and Palestinian fertility. There are two aspects of this genocidal tragedy that suggest a renewed drive on Israel’s part to tackle a perceived ‘demographic timebomb.’ Firstly, Israel is manifestly engaged with the idea of the ethnic cleansing of the population and secondly, it is waging a war on the Palestinian future through the daily targeting of women and children.
The forced transfer of the Gazan population is now openly discussed, an entirely possible endgame legitimized by Trump’s plan. A new infrastructure of resettlement (with a nomenclature betraying a nostalgia for Gush Katif) is being prepared by the IDF’s D9 Caterpillar bulldozers. Palestinians have been uprooted and are continually being displaced within the Strip. The GHF aid ‘system’ is exacerbating this. Their homes have been destroyed and the areas that Palestinians can move in are now extremely limited, the conditions intolerable. It is in this context that we are presented with the current idea of a ‘humanitarian city.’ As Trump himself has put it, Gaza is a ‘<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/05/donald-trump-gaza-strip-plan-take-over-move-palestinians-ownership">hellhole</a>.’ It might seem to some that the world will not stand by and let the ethnic cleansing of Gaza happen but, of course, it’s already happening. The uncomfortable optics of forced transfer won’t be an issue when conditions have become so bad that people beg to leave and their ejection from their own land can be spun as an act of mercy.
Bad enough, you may think. But what should be equally as outrageous to the outside world is Israel’s sustained assault on Palestinian children and women. At the point of writing, a <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-2-july-2025">figure</a> of over 57,000 fatalities in Gaza includes 17,000 children and 9,000 women.
South Africa’s ongoing case at the ICJ includes the accusation that Israel, in contravention of the Genocide Convention, is imposing measures intended to prevent births within the Gazan population. A recent U.N. <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/mar/opinion-israels-war-gaza-deliberately-targeting-children-new-un-report">report</a> by the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory criticizes Israel for deliberately targeting health facilities in Gaza, destroying ‘in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group.’ The WHO has <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/22-05-2025-health-system-at-breaking-point-as-hostilities-further-intensify--who-warns">warned</a> of a health system at breaking point. Cesarean sections are being performed without anesthetic in those few hospitals still operating and <a href="https://www.mezan.org/uploads/files/2025/1/1736679219Reproductive%20Health%20Under%20Genocide_%20The%20Struggle%20of%20Palestinian%20Women%20in%20Gaza.pdf">newborn children</a> are dying due to a scarcity of incubators and medical staff. The weaponization of aid means that, according to <a href="https://www.unicef.org.uk/donate/children-in-gaza-crisis-appeal/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20650843857&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIivDt-KSqjgMVn5NQBh2ZNydxEAAYASAAEgIN5PD_BwE">UNICEF</a>, 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women currently require treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza. Doctors have described a critical <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gaza-babies-premature-hospitals-formula-israel-war-330ba6611e63940c903cdc19540914c3">shortage</a> of baby formula as being a direct result of Israeli aid restrictions.
This onslaught on children and mothers is a key component of this genocide which can be linked to a long-held Zionist obsession with Palestinian birthrates. Mandate Palestine was not, of course, a land without a people, as pioneers of the state such as Israel’s first Prime Minister, Ben Gurion, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/state-at-any-cost-9781789544640/">knew</a>. The country has always worried about the need to manufacture and maintain a Jewish majority. A chief architect of the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, Arnon ‘the Arab Counter’ Soffer, long warned of the danger for the Jewish state of the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/features/i-didnt-suggest-we-kill-palestinians">Palestinian womb</a>, Arafat’s ‘biological weapon.’
Evidence of the intent to target women and children can be seen in statements by Israeli public figures, collated in South Africa’s <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf">petition</a> to the ICJ and freely available <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-11/wipe-gaza-off-the-face-of-the-earth-the-statements-made-by-israeli-politicians-on-which-south-africa-supports-its-genocide-case.html">elsewhere</a>. These senior figures include not just the usual suspects like Ben Gvir and Smotrich but also the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog who responded to Oct 7 with the declaration that there are no uninvolved civilians in Gaza, ‘<a href="https://rightsforum.org/en/israeli-president-accused-of-genocidal-incitement-will-attend-opening-of-dutch-holocaust-museum/">an entire nation</a>’ is responsible.’ This normalization of genocidal discourse, particularly in relation to women and children, is enabled by a national political consensus and an <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-05-09/ty-article-opinion/.premium/how-did-israelis-become-so-indifferent-to-children-killed-in-gaza/00000196-b15f-d9bf-a1b6-f9ff212e0000">indifferent</a> Israeli public. It seems that there is not one righteous man in Gaza, or indeed, woman or child. ‘The children… have <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-politician-the-children-of-gaza-have-brought-this-upon-themselves/">brought this upon themselves</a>’, as one opposition member of the Knesset put it.
Barring international intervention, it seems certain that at the end of this latest phase in Gaza there will be fewer Palestinians. The demographic facts will have changed; they have already changed. The numbers are appalling enough, with 57,000 fatalities likely being an <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250110-lancet-study-estimates-gaza-death-toll-40-higher-than-recorded">underestimate</a>. But there are also <a href="https://visualizingpalestine.org/gaza-names/en.html">names</a>. For those who care to seek them out.
Indiscriminate blanket bombing has killed thousands of civilians and rendered Gaza unlivable. This is a war of homicidal excess, not one that is being waged to recover hostages and eliminate a terrorist organization. It is difficult not to conclude that it is part of a longer-term project to change the ethnic balance between the river and the sea.
Such are the ongoing demands of Zionism and its insatiable hunger for land, that it is not enough to erase the Palestinian past and present. Ethnic cleansing can only be part of a wider strategy. The demographic threat of tomorrow must also be addressed.
The facts are available, as is the evidence of intention. If the hostage situation is resolved, if Hamas is somehow ‘defeated’, who seriously believes that the expansionist, frontier state of Israel will leave Gaza alone? Or the West Bank? If Zionism is to avoid a death spiral, the demographic timebomb must be defused. The project demands land, and it demands a Jewish majority on that land.The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/israels-demographic-project-in-gaza-an-assault-on-the-palestinian-future/">Israel’s Demographic Project in Gaza An Assault on the Palestinian Future</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Challenging the Media Myth of Latino Machismo</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/challenging-the-media-myth-of-latino-machismo/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Roger D. Harris, Becca Renk, and John Perry]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Claudia Sheinbaum]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Discrimination]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Gender/Sex]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Nicaragua]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159882</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Patriarchy is alive and well throughout the world. But the English-language media flatters itself by one-sidedly portraying machismo as a particularly Latin American malady, all the while overlooking significant feminist gains made in the region. Take, for instance, the entry under “machismo” in the latest edition of Britannica which asserts: “It has for centuries been […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/challenging-the-media-myth-of-latino-machismo/">Challenging the Media Myth of Latino Machismo</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Patriarchy is alive and well throughout the world. But the English-language media flatters itself by one-sidedly portraying machismo as a particularly Latin American malady, all the while overlooking significant feminist gains made in the region.
Take, for instance, the entry under “machismo” in the latest edition of Britannica which <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/machismo" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.britannica.com/topic/machismo&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw1j7hr6e5azaTsBSbA71UtW">asserts</a>: “It has for centuries been a strong current in Latin American politics and society.” But the encyclopedia makes no such recognition for its own Anglo society.
An article in the AP on sexual bias in Mexico <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-election-sheinbaum-facebook-lopez-obrador-79adddaf8300f30af51fddbbf3165216" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/article/mexico-election-sheinbaum-facebook-lopez-obrador-79adddaf8300f30af51fddbbf3165216&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw16MoLZvrL-ne7ju5D2pPqx">blames</a> “Mexico’s ‘machismo’ culture and strong Catholic roots,” calling out patriarchy as a defining and harmful feature for the whole of Latin American culture.
Citing the attacks on feminism by the ultra-right president of Argentina, Javier Milei, The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/23/women-rights-argentina-javier-milei-anti-feminist" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/23/women-rights-argentina-javier-milei-anti-feminist&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw3rCVSIiNVbR5yTp1-pWe_L">generalizes</a>, how misogyny is “a very serious problem for Latin America.” The article continues: “Of course, Latin women continue to learn from those in the west,” implying that benighted Latinas should take tips from their more enlightened western sisters. The article concludes: “Women in Latin America need women in the west to work with us to put an end to this violent oppression.”
In a worldwide report on last International Women’s Day, Al Jazeera first <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/8/women-worldwide-march-to-demand-end-to-violence-inequality#:~:text=Hundreds%20of%20women%20in%20Ecuador,violence%20and%20the%20%E2%80%9Cpatriarchal%20system%E2%80%9D" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/8/women-worldwide-march-to-demand-end-to-violence-inequality%23:~:text%3DHundreds%2520of%2520women%2520in%2520Ecuador,violence%2520and%2520the%2520%25E2%2580%259Cpatriarchal%2520system%25E2%2580%259D&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw1x2fnIkjQw1leCkjzTzWsn">highlighted</a> Latin America with the examples of Argentina, Ecuador, and Bolivia as places plagued by gendered violence and only then added: “In many European countries, women also protested against violence.”
Verywell Mind, a US-based health website, targets “Latino culture” as patriarchal. They <a href="https://zcenter.org/blog/machismo-in-latino-culture/?utm" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://zcenter.org/blog/machismo-in-latino-culture/?utm&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw1ERp23jdyL7-MILD01y0pG">report</a> on “generations of women who live or grew up in Latin American and immigrated to the United States truly believing that their happiness depends on a man.”
The Washington Post, describing Mexico as a “bastion of machismo,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/06/03/first-female-president-mexico-claudia-sheinbaum/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/06/03/first-female-president-mexico-claudia-sheinbaum/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw0QdLE5Su6ug5-rpWnlUohL">marveled</a> how it got their first woman president before the US.
Mexico
Feminists celebrated Claudia Sheinbaum’s electoral victory in June 2024, making her the first female to accede to the presidency in Mexico. However, had she lost to the nearest runner-up, Xóchitl Gálvez, Mexico would still have had its first woman as chief of state. Gender was simply <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/28/claudia-sheinbaum-profile" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/28/claudia-sheinbaum-profile&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw1zWGzwVhepUTCDciaeVzjf">not an issue</a> in the contest, with both main challengers female.
Digging deeper into the stereotype of Latin American machismo, we see that Mexico having women as the top two contenders for the presidency is notable but not anomalous. In fact, women have held <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_presidents_in_Latin_America" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_presidents_in_Latin_America&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw073Wyd3WNFWJIakLecdEcF">presidencies</a> in several Latin American countries over the past half century.
Most Latin American countries have been influenced by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This international treaty was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly and unanimously ratified or adhered to by all of the Americas with the notable <a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convenci%C3%B3n_sobre_la_Eliminaci%C3%B3n_de_Todas_las_Formas_de_Discriminaci%C3%B3n_contra_la_Mujer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convenci%25C3%25B3n_sobre_la_Eliminaci%25C3%25B3n_de_Todas_las_Formas_de_Discriminaci%25C3%25B3n_contra_la_Mujer&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw0L0ni8cCzhRiywYlbgqraR">exception</a> of the US, which signed but did not ratify it.
That international treaty had been catalyzed by Mexico, which held the World Conference on Women back in 1975. Marking a significant moment in the global movement for gender equality, this UN meeting was the first to focus exclusively on women’s rights and equality. It produced the World Plan of Action for legal and institutional reforms to combat discrimination against women.
Some revealing comparative statistics reflect differences in the social realities in the US and in Mexico. For example, as of 2025, Mexico achieved gender parity in both chambers of its national legislature. In comparison, women hold only 29% of the House seats and 26% of the Senate in the US.
Since 2014, Mexico has constitutionally mandated gender parity in candidacies for federal and local legislative elections. Going back further to the Mexican Revolution, there were literally thousands of soldaderas, female combatants. And even further back, women held leadership roles among the Zapotecs, Mixtecs, and Maya.
Fast forward to June 1, Mexico popularly elected five women and four men to their 9-person supreme court, consistent with the 2019 constitutional reform known as paridad en todo (parity in everything).
Electoral gender parity
Mexico is not alone in promoting electoral gender parity. A number of other countries in Latin America has established “<a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_de_cuotas?" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_de_cuotas?&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw1cp9thz0DxUoTh5-tcQbK9">gender quotas</a>” in electoral lists. The gender quota is 50% in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Panama, and Venezuela. Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, and Paraguay have lesser quotas. However, lax enforcement and loopholes to circumvent them continue.
Cuba does not have mandatory statutory gender electoral quotas. Rather, the socialist country has a strong commitment to equity, where its Communist Party promotes women, youth, and racial minorities. Fully 56% of its national assembly is composed of women.
A recently published chart (below) from <a href="https://www.threads.com/%40latinometrics/post/DLmzhoPJ4Ei/and-then-theres-cuba-which-with-a-share-of-55-women-in-parliament-is-second-worl" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.threads.com/%2540latinometrics/post/DLmzhoPJ4Ei/and-then-theres-cuba-which-with-a-share-of-55-women-in-parliament-is-second-worl&source=gmail&ust=1752514005861000&usg=AOvVaw0s10L7OkRCKw-pOO9aAqA2">Latinometrics</a> shows that Cuba, Nicaragua and Mexico are indeed the leaders in female parliamentary representation, not only regionally but globally.
<a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Screenshot-45.png"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-159886" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Screenshot-45.png" alt="" width="505" height="399" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Screenshot-45.png 505w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Screenshot-45-300x237.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 505px) 100vw, 505px" /></a>
Contrary to what the English-language media’s hype about machismo would have you believe, Latin America has made great strides in gender equality in recent years and now leads the world in female political representation.
Nicaragua
“Women are not fighting for space anymore,” <a href="https://orinocotribune.com/were-not-fighting-for-space-anymore-women-in-power-in-nicaragua/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://orinocotribune.com/were-not-fighting-for-space-anymore-women-in-power-in-nicaragua/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw1X86iafboDuQIpRmTKGBLX">declares</a> Nicaraguan National Assembly Deputy Flor Avellán. “Now we have that space and we are empowered every day.”
Nicaragua may be one of the region’s smallest nations and came just 19th out of 23 Latin American countries in a recent <a href="https://hellosafe.com.mx/seguro-viaje/paises-mas-ricos-del-mundo" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hellosafe.com.mx/seguro-viaje/paises-mas-ricos-del-mundo&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw0szafoFNkn8HD-bvss8NqD">“prosperity” ranking</a>, but it is one of the leaders in establishing the role of women in public life. Just last year it was judged by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to be sixth in its <a href="https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2024.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2024.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw1zycYKVUmfLXFMiixf6RwF">global index</a> for closing the gender gap. This was the highest in the region (WEF does not include Cuba) and was higher than many “developed” countries such as the US and UK.
Since that index was compiled, Nicaragua has taken a further step in creating a unique male/female co-presidency. Nevertheless, and with little explanation, the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2025/digest/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2025/digest/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw1xbNU4XXTdS1E-BkoanP9g">2025 gender gap index</a> dropped Nicaragua from sixth to 18th, putting it third in the region, behind Barbados and Costa Rica. This may be because metrics used by bodies such as the WEF are rooted in first-world metric inapplicable to Nicaragua. For example, firms with female majority ownership and female top managers are metrics, but there is no metric for women running their own businesses, let alone micro-businesses, which is Nicaragua’s strength.
Nicaragua is ranked first in parliament and in political institutions by the WEF, achieving parity between male and female representatives. The 2012 law requiring this was initially met with hostility from some men. But now it has become accepted as successful: “having so many women in leading positions has changed the culture,” according to Nicaraguan feminist Abigail Espinoza (<a href="http://pers.com" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://pers.com&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw075CnqJmHtcmqoku8SGhgv">pers.com</a>). Nicaragua’s unique approach mandates 50% female leadership at all levels – from city council to municipal leaders to parliament and right up to the presidency.
Empowering women is seen not only in terms of political participation, but as a multidimensional process to achieve societal change, and in particular to improve women’s daily circumstances. There are many instances of this.
For example, over 23,400 small businesses have been formalized in 15 years, the majority owned by women; over 500 new women’s cooperatives have been formed. The “Zero Hunger” program has <a href="https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/3226642-boosting-womens-earnings-the-role-of-nicaraguas-small-business-program" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/3226642-boosting-womens-earnings-the-role-of-nicaraguas-small-business-program&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw13t25VE8iaB4lyCBP3z2Am">significantly improved</a> women’s earnings. The program provides livestock, seeds, fertilizers, and building materials to women in rural areas, benefitting one in every six families in the country. Contributing to the nation’s food sovereignty, Nicaragua now produces 90% of the food it consumes.
In the field of health, maternal deaths have fallen by almost 80%, while infant mortality <a href="https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2025/digest/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2025/digest/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw1xbNU4XXTdS1E-BkoanP9g">dropped</a> by 58% between 2006 and 2024. Credit is due to the government’s massive extension of health services; specifically the <a href="http://www.minsa.gob.ni/centro-de-medios/noticias/casas-maternas-centros-de-vida-y-esperanza-para-las-madres-nicaraguenses" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.minsa.gob.ni/centro-de-medios/noticias/casas-maternas-centros-de-vida-y-esperanza-para-las-madres-nicaraguenses&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw2iMqZ3ewhmNUgFs2tY4FDh">establishment</a> of 201 casas maternas, where women can go in the weeks immediately prior to giving birth.
Until recently, Nicaragua had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the region. Now most Nicaraguan women are having <a href="https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2022/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2022/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw1Im1bFHMaNr-ZkYg6A6NkI">their first</a> child at age 27, and Nicaragua ranks <a href="https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2025.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2025.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw3xR5OrQQrPpKIMJPjfkrhV">number one</a> in the world for educational attainment for women and girls. Those young women who do get pregnant now have many options for continuing their education while also raising their child.
Violence against women remains a problem, but Nicaragua has reduced its incidence to the <a href="https://www.cepal.org/en/publications/68629-bringing-end-violence-against-women-and-girls-and-femicide-or-feminicide-key" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cepal.org/en/publications/68629-bringing-end-violence-against-women-and-girls-and-femicide-or-feminicide-key&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw2rcoqbBnWgQXRUfIvTC4Nc">lowest</a> in Central America, having established <a href="https://www.el19digital.com/articulos/ver/163245-policia-nacional-reinaugura-comisaria-de-la-mujer-en-san-judas-en-homenaje-a-alicia-castellon" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.el19digital.com/articulos/ver/163245-policia-nacional-reinaugura-comisaria-de-la-mujer-en-san-judas-en-homenaje-a-alicia-castellon&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw2L_irsY_M8AY0i9GbD-m5-">more than 400</a> women’s police commissions where only female police officers (40% of the national force) attend women and children exclusively. They even make home visits to identify and help resolve domestic abuse. Nicaragua has passed laws against femicide and violence against women, allowing for stricter sentencing and swifter justice.
The feminist movement in Nicaragua, mobilized mainly through the Sandinista National Liberation Front, is a class-based feminism that fights not only against patriarchy but also for an anti-imperialist and socialist class consciousness.
Nicaragua’s “National Plan to Combat Poverty and Promote Human Development 2022-2026” is <a href="https://www.pndh.gob.ni/index.shtml" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pndh.gob.ni/index.shtml&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw1RW8w4pGhcnNb-vcPL13cm">fundamental</a> to this goal. Its detailed programs, backed by nearly 60% of the national budget, aim to establish women’s rights by guaranteeing access to free, quality education at all levels and in all modalities, access to health care, access to the means and forms of production, and food security. Reduction of poverty and inequality is therefore seen as absolutely key to women’s empowerment.
The geopolitics of machismo
To characterize Latino machismo as <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/RE_2024.12.17_Machismo_REPORT.pdf#:~:text=3%20For%20more%20information%20on,Up%20to%20three" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/RE_2024.12.17_Machismo_REPORT.pdf%23:~:text%3D3%2520For%2520more%2520information%2520on,Up%2520to%2520three&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw2zMefdVyaeBiWVclCW-7-i">mythic</a> is in no way intended to suggest that it does not have a basis in reality; it does. Despite achievements, Latin America still has a long way to go to end patriarchy.
For instance, <a href="https://www.cepal.org/en/pressreleases/2022-least-4050-women-were-victims-femicide-latin-america-and-caribbean-eclac#:~:text=Of%20the%2019%20countries%20and,3" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cepal.org/en/pressreleases/2022-least-4050-women-were-victims-femicide-latin-america-and-caribbean-eclac%23:~:text%3DOf%2520the%252019%2520countries%2520and,3&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw3GkxiIVKQqvOd98ssmb0hD">femicide</a>, the intentional killing of women or girls because of their gender, has been identified as a particular abomination in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, where “<a href="https://cgrs.uclawsf.edu/our-work/central-america-femicides-and-gender-based-violence#:~:text=As%20in%20many%20other%20parts,Guatemala%2C%20El%20Salvador%2C%20and%20Honduras" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cgrs.uclawsf.edu/our-work/central-america-femicides-and-gender-based-violence%23:~:text%3DAs%2520in%2520many%2520other%2520parts,Guatemala%252C%2520El%2520Salvador%252C%2520and%2520Honduras&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw1ydqkvh_7jkaxr-k31tIYF">incredibly high rates</a>” prevail. It is no coincidence that this gendered form of viciousness is found in societies that suffered from the US-backed <a href="https://cja.org/where-we-work/honduras/#:~:text=For%20most%20of%20the%2020th,sponsored%20terror%20against%20Honduran%20civilians" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cja.org/where-we-work/honduras/%23:~:text%3DFor%2520most%2520of%2520the%252020th,sponsored%2520terror%2520against%2520Honduran%2520civilians&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw2OhNNeUA3fN6ePMV-zAwOh">dirty wars</a> in the 1980s and onward, which left a <a href="https://cgrs.uclawsf.edu/sites/default/files/Musalo_El%20Salvador_A%20Peace%20Worse%20Than%20War_30%20Yale%20J.L.%20%26%20Fem.%203_20018_0.pdf#:~:text=This%20article%20explores%20explanations%20for,violence%20against%20women%2C%20including%20gender" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cgrs.uclawsf.edu/sites/default/files/Musalo_El%2520Salvador_A%2520Peace%2520Worse%2520Than%2520War_30%2520Yale%2520J.L.%2520%2526%2520Fem.%25203_20018_0.pdf%23:~:text%3DThis%2520article%2520explores%2520explanations%2520for,violence%2520against%2520women%252C%2520including%2520gender&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw2oa3THoxVET-zkrGhaJTKP">culture of impunity</a>. Guatemala and El Salvador were targets of counter insurgencies and Honduras was a base of operations. Conversely, revolutionary Cuba, followed by Chile and Nicaragua, has the <a href="https://www.cepal.org/en/pressreleases/2022-least-4050-women-were-victims-femicide-latin-america-and-caribbean-eclac#:~:text=Of%20the%2019%20countries%20and,3" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cepal.org/en/pressreleases/2022-least-4050-women-were-victims-femicide-latin-america-and-caribbean-eclac%23:~:text%3DOf%2520the%252019%2520countries%2520and,3&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw3GkxiIVKQqvOd98ssmb0hD">lowest rate</a> of femicide.
Progressive administrations in <a href="https://www.gob.mx/mujeres" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.gob.mx/mujeres&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw1RfvvqtbowLy4_TSYcKwZP">Mexico</a>, <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/lanzan-campa%C3%B1as-contra-violencia-de-g%C3%A9nero-en-honduras,-donde-mataron-386-mujeres-en-2023/73387695" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/lanzan-campa%25C3%25B1as-contra-violencia-de-g%25C3%25A9nero-en-honduras,-donde-mataron-386-mujeres-en-2023/73387695&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw0eXHam1ZhD5FOcSdbyiMlu">Honduras</a>, <a href="https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2025-02-01-u1-e42839-s27061-nid296486-cuba-implementara-linea-telefonica-40-municipios" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2025-02-01-u1-e42839-s27061-nid296486-cuba-implementara-linea-telefonica-40-municipios&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw1soMRgiLMr0R-YjuI4YweI">Cuba</a>, <a href="https://www.nodal.red/2017/11/venezuela-se-realiza-bicicletada-parte-una-campana-la-violencia-machista/#:~:text=El%20Ministerio%20de%20la%20Mujer,nacional%20contra%20la%20violencia%20machista" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nodal.red/2017/11/venezuela-se-realiza-bicicletada-parte-una-campana-la-violencia-machista/%23:~:text%3DEl%2520Ministerio%2520de%2520la%2520Mujer,nacional%2520contra%2520la%2520violencia%2520machista&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw0Peb-2eQQPQ_jfIKoDSYLt">Venezuela</a>, and <a href="https://www.nodal.am/2017/03/nicaragua-gobierno-anuncia-campana-la-violencia-machista/#:~:text=El%20Gobierno%20de%20Nicaragua%20anunci%C3%B3,las%20parejas%20y%20las%20familias" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nodal.am/2017/03/nicaragua-gobierno-anuncia-campana-la-violencia-machista/%23:~:text%3DEl%2520Gobierno%2520de%2520Nicaragua%2520anunci%25C3%25B3,las%2520parejas%2520y%2520las%2520familias&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw2dDECKqcrU9xnKVvi252Az">Nicaragua</a> have launched campaigns against machismo. Reactionary administrations, such as <a href="https://eltecolote.org/content/en/feminists-in-el-salvador-fight-against-a-misogynist-government/#:~:text=health%2C%20safety%20and%20autonomy,19%20pandemic" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://eltecolote.org/content/en/feminists-in-el-salvador-fight-against-a-misogynist-government/%23:~:text%3Dhealth%252C%2520safety%2520and%2520autonomy,19%2520pandemic&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw0AHVrpg1-rX11dSi-2myLO">El Salvador</a> and <a href="https://missingperspectives.com/posts/argentinas-feminist-movement-experiences-a-setback/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://missingperspectives.com/posts/argentinas-feminist-movement-experiences-a-setback/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005862000&usg=AOvVaw3mVBalHxkOaTOoVojdjAoj">Argentina</a> – both fully backed by the US – are dismantling feminist advances.
Regionally, feminist gains are being advanced under progressive administrations pursuing greater independence from the US. In contrast, reactionary, Washington-aligned regimes are actively rolling back those gains. As a result, the struggle against machismo in Latin America cannot be separated from the broader struggle against imperialism.
This dynamic helps explain why feminist advances in countries like Cuba, Mexico, and Nicaragua are often ignored by corporate media – or when acknowledged, are reduced to the actions of individual leaders like President Sheinbaum. What is overlooked is the broader social transformation taking place – one that challenges patriarchal norms and offers a model from which others might learn. Once again, it is the “threat of a good example”– this time led by women.The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/challenging-the-media-myth-of-latino-machismo/">Challenging the Media Myth of Latino Machismo</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
</item>
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<title>Russophobia by the Collective West Opens the Doors of the Cold War 2.0</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/russophobia-by-the-collective-west-opens-the-doors-of-the-cold-war-2-0/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Vladislav B. Sotirovic]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2025 14:55:54 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Belarus]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Beliefs]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Blowback]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Catholicism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Hegemony]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ukraine]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Orthodox Christianity]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Skripal]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159850</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The 2018 Skripal Attack Case The current orchestrated Western policy of total Russophobia, directed by Collective West, can be recorded to start by the British Cabinet of Theresa May – the focal servant-dog to US global imperialism, followed by the creation of the War Cabinet of the US President Donald Trump (first administration), was a […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/russophobia-by-the-collective-west-opens-the-doors-of-the-cold-war-2-0/">Russophobia by the Collective West Opens the Doors of the Cold War 2.0</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[The 2018 Skripal Attack Case
The current orchestrated Western policy of total Russophobia, directed by Collective West, can be recorded to start by the British Cabinet of Theresa May – the focal servant-dog to US global imperialism, followed by the creation of the War Cabinet of the US President Donald Trump (first administration), was a nothing else than a jumping to the new stage of the post-WWII Cold War (2.0) which was originally started (1.0) by the US and never was over as its main task of total economic, political, and financial subordination or/and occupation of Russia still is not realized. The Russian, at that time just diplomatic, an exodus from the Western jaw was a “punishment for Russia’s alleged nerve gas poisoning of a former Russian/MI6 double-agent, Sergei Skripal (66) and his daughter Yulia (33), who was visiting her father from Moscow”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote1sym" name="sdendnote1anc">i</a> (March, 2018).
However, it was quite obvious that “blaming Russia for Skripal attack is similar to ‘Jews poisoning our wells’ in the Middle Ages”.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote2sym" name="sdendnote2anc">ii</a> In other words, the 2018 Skripal Attack Case was just another Western “false flag” in international relations with a very precise geopolitical purpose – to continue the Cold War 1.0 against revived post-Yeltsin’s Russia. We have to remember that originally American administration started the Cold War 1.0 as it was “the Truman administration (1945−1953) used the myth of Soviet expansionism to mask the nature of American foreign policy, which included the creation of a global system to advance the interests of American capitalism”.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote3sym" name="sdendnote3anc">iii</a> However, the current Western virus of total Russophobia (the Cold War 2.0) is a natural continuation of historical Western anti-Russian policy, which looked like to be over with the peaceful dismemberment of the USSR in 1989−1991.
S. P. Huntington’s Warnings and International Relations (IR)
Samuel P. Huntington was quite clear and correct in his opinion that the foundation of every civilization is based on religion (i.e., on metaphysical irrational beliefs).<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote4sym" name="sdendnote4anc">iv</a> S. P. Huntington’s warnings about the future development of global politics that can take the form of a direct clash of different cultures (in fact, separate and antagonistic civilizations) are, unfortunately, already on the agenda of international relations. Here we came to the crux of the matter in regard to the Western relations with Russia from both historical and contemporary perspectives: the Western civilization, as based on the Western type of Christianity (the Roman Catholicism and all Protestant denominations) has traditional animosity and hostility toward all nations and states of the East Christian (Orthodox) confession. As Russia was and is the biggest and most powerful Christian Orthodox country, the Eurasian geopolitical conflicts between the West and Russia started from the time when the German Teutonic knights and the Sweds from the Baltic were constantly attacking northern Russian territories up to the fateful battle in 1240, which the Sweds lost to the Russian Prince of Novgorod Alexander Nevski at the Battle of Neva. However, only three decades later, the ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Algirdas (1345‒1377), started to occupy the Russian lands – the process to be continued by the Roman Catholic common state of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania when it launched its confessional-civilizational imperialistic wars against the Grand Duchy of Moscow at the very end of the 14th century; i.e., after 1385 when Poland and Lithuania became united as a personal union of two sovereign states (the Union of Krewo).<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote5sym" name="sdendnote5anc">v</a>
A Role of the Vatican
The present-day territories of Ukraine (which at that time did not exist under this name) and Byelorus (Belarus, White Russia) became the first victims of Vatican policy to proselytize the Eastern Slavs. Therefore, the biggest part of present-day Ukraine became occupied and annexed by Lithuania till 1569<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote6sym" name="sdendnote6anc">vi</a> and after the Polish-Lithuanian 1569 Lublin Union by Poland. In the period from 1522 to 1569, there were 63% of the East Slavs lived on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania out of its total population.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote7sym" name="sdendnote7anc">vii</a> From the Russian perspective, an aggressive Vatican policy of reconversion of the Christian Orthodox population and their denationalization could be prevented only by military counterattacks to liberate the occupied territories. However, when it happened from the mid-17th century till the end of the 18th century, a huge number of the former Christian Orthodox population had already become Roman Catholics and the Uniates, losing their original national identity.
A conversion to the Roman Catholicism and making the Union with the Vatican on the territories occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian common state till the end of the 18th century divided the Russian national body into two parts: the Christian Orthodox, who remained to be the Russians and the pro-Western oriented converts who, basically, lost their initial ethnonational identity. This is especially true in Ukraine – a country with the biggest number of Uniates in the world due to the Brest Union signed in 1596 with the Vatican.
The Uniate Church in (West) Ukraine openly collaborated with the Nazi regime during WWII and for that reason, it was banned after the war till 1989. Nevertheless, it was exactly the Uniate Church in Ukraine which propagated an ideology that the “Ukrainians” were not (Little) Russians but instead a separate nation who are in no ethnolinguistic and confessional connection with the Russians. Therefore, a way was opened to the successful Ukrainization of the Little Russians (and Minor Russia), Ruthenians, and Carpatho-Russians during Soviet (anti-Russian) rule. After the dissolution of the USSR, the Ukrainians became an instrument of the realization of the Western anti-Russian geopolitical interests in Eastern Europe.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote8sym" name="sdendnote8anc">viii</a>
The unscrupulous Jesuits became the fundamental West European anti-Russian and anti-Christian Orthodox hawks to propagate the idea that a Christian Orthodox Russia is not belonging to a real (Western) Europe. Due to such Vatican propaganda activity, the West gradually became antagonistic to Russia, and Russian culture was seen as disgusting and inferior, i.e., barbaric, as a continuation of the Byzantine Christian Orthodox civilization. Unfortunately, such a negative attitude toward Russia and the East Christianity is accepted by a contemporary US-led Collective West for whom Russophobia has become an ideological foundation for its geopolitical projects and ambitions.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote9sym" name="sdendnote9anc">ix</a> Therefore, all real or potential Russia’s supporters became geopolitical enemies of a Pax Americana, like the Serbs, Armenians, Greeks, Byelorussians, etc.
Western Defeats and Russian Blowback
A new moment in the West-Russia geopolitical struggles started when the Protestant Sweden became directly involved in the Western confessional-imperialistic wars against Russia in 1700 (the Great Northern War of 1700−1721) which Sweden lost after the Battle of Poltava in 1709 when Russia of Peter the Great finally became a member of the concert of the Great European Powers.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote10sym" name="sdendnote10anc">x</a>
A century later, that was a Napoleonic France to take a role in the historical process of “Eurocivilizing” of “schismatic” Russia in 1812, that also finished by the West European fiasco<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote11sym" name="sdendnote11anc">xi</a>, similar to Pan-Germanic warmongers during both world wars.
However, after 1945 up to the present, the “civilizational” role of the Westernization of Russia is assumed by NATO and the EU. The Collective West, immediately after the dissolution of the USSR, by imposing its client satellite Boris Yeltsin as the President of Russia, achieved an enormous geopolitical achievement around Russia, especially in the territories of the former Soviet Union and the Balkans.
Nevertheless, the Collective West started to experience a Russian geopolitical blowback from 2001 onward when the B. Yeltsin’s time pro-Western political clients (Russian liberals) became gradually removed from the decision-making positions in Russia’s governmental structures. What a new Russia’s political establishment correctly understood is that a Westernization policy of Russia is nothing else but just an ideological mask for economic-political transformation of the country into the colony of the Collective West led by the US Neocon administration<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote12sym" name="sdendnote12anc">xii</a> alongside with the task of the US/EU to externalize their own values and norms permanently. This „externalization policy“ is grounded on the thesis of The End of History by Francis Fukuyama:<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote13sym" name="sdendnote13anc">xiii</a>
“…that the philosophy of economic and political liberalism has triumphed throughout the world, ending the contest between market democracies and centrally planned governance”.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote14sym" name="sdendnote14anc">xiv</a> 
Therefore, after the formal ending of the Cold War 1.0 in 1989/1990, the fundamental Western global geopolitical project was The West and The Rest, according to which the rest of the world was obliged to accept all fundamental Western values and norms according to the Hegemonic Stability Theory of a unipolar system of the world security.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote15sym" name="sdendnote15anc">xv</a> Nevertheless, behind such doctrinal unilateralism as a project of the US hegemony in global governance in the new century clearly stands the unipolar hegemonic concept of a Pax Americana, but with Russia and China as the crucial opponents to it.
Stability Theories and IR
According to the Hegemonic Stability Theory, a global peace can occur only when one hegemonic center of power (state) acquires enough power to deter all other expansionist and imperialistic ambitions and intentions. The theory is based on a presumption that the concentration of (hyper) power will reduce the chances of a classical world war (but not and local confrontations) as it allows a single hyperpower to maintain peace and manage the system of international relations between the states.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote16sym" name="sdendnote16anc">xvi</a> Examples of ex-Pax Romana and Pax-Britannica clearly offered support by the American hegemons for an imperialistic idea that (the US-led) unipolarity will bring global peace and, henceforth, inspired the viewpoint that the world in a post-Cold War 1.0 era under a Pax Americana will be stable and prosperous as long as the US global dominance prevails. Therefore, a hegemony, according to this viewpoint, is a necessary precondition for economic order and free trade in a global dimension, suggesting that the existence of a predominant hyperpower state willing and able to use its economic and military power to promote global stability is both a divine and rational order of the day. As a tool to achieve this goal the hegemon has to use a coercive diplomacy based on the ultimatum demand that puts a time limit on the target to comply and a threat of punishment for resistance as, for example, it was a case in January 1999 during the “negotiations” on Kosovo status between the US diplomacy and Yugoslavia’s Government in Rambouillet (France).
However, in contrast to both the Hegemonic Stability Theory and the Bipolar Stability Theory, a post-Yeltsin Russian political establishment advocates that a multipolar system of international relations is the least war-prone in comparison with all other proposed systems. This Multipolar Stability Theory is based on a concept that a polarized global politics does not concentrate power, as it is supported by the unipolar system, and does not divide the globe into two antagonistic superpower blocs, as in a bipolar system, which promote a constant struggle for global dominance (for example, during the Cold War 1.0). The multipolarity theory perceives polarized international relations as a stable system because it encompasses a larger number of autonomous and sovereign actors in global politics, which as well as giving rise to a greater number of political alliances. This theory is, in essence, presenting a peace-through model of pacifying international relations as it is fundamentally based on counter-balancing relations between the states in the global arena. Under such a system, an aggressive policy is quite hard to implement in reality as it is prevented by the multiple power centers.<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote17sym" name="sdendnote17anc">xvii</a>
A New Policy of Russia and Cold War 2.0
A new policy of international relations adopted by Moscow after 2000 is based on a principle of a globe without hegemonic leadership – a policy which started to be implemented at the time when the global power of the US as a post Cold War 1.0 hegemon declines because it makes costly global commitments above ability to fulfill them followed by the immense US trade deficit – even today the cancer of American economy which the current US President desperately wants to heal. The US share of global gross production has been in the process of constant decline since the end of WWII. Another serious symptom of American erosion in international politics is that the US share of global financial reserves has drastically declined, especially in comparison to the Russian and Chinese shares. The US is today the largest world debtor and even the biggest debtor that ever existed in history (36.21 trillion dollars or 124 percent of the GDP), mainly, but not exclusively, due to huge military spending, alongside tax cuts that reduced the US federal revenue. The deficit in the current account balance with the rest of the world (in 2004, for instance, it was $650 billion), the US administration is covering by borrowing from private investors (mostly from abroad) and foreign central banks (most important are those of China and Japan). Therefore, such US financial dependence on foreigners to provide the funds needed to pay the interest on the American public debt leaves the USA extremely vulnerable, especially if China and/or Japan decide to stop buying the US bonds or sell them. Subsequently, the world’s strongest military power is at the same time the greatest global debtor, with China and Japan being direct financial collaborators of the US hegemonic leadership’s policy of a Pax Americana after 1989/1990.
It is without any doubts that the US foreign policy after 1989/1990 is still unrealistically following the French concept of raison d’état that indicates the Realist justification for policies pursued by state authority, but in the American eyes, first and foremost of these justifications or criteria is the US global hegemony as the best guarantee for the national security, followed by all other interests and associated goals. Therefore, the US foreign policy is still based on a realpolitik concept that is a German term referring to the state foreign policy ordered or motivated by power politics: the strong do what they will, and the weak do what they must. However, the US is becoming weaker and weaker, and Russia and China are more and more becoming stronger and stronger.
Final Words
Finally, it seems to be true that such a reality in contemporary global politics and international relations is, unfortunately, not properly understood and recognized by the current US President Donald Trump as he is going to be just another Trojan horse of the US Neocon concept of a Pax Americana followed by the megalomanic Zionist concept of a Greater Israel of “From the River to the River”<a class="sdendnoteanc" href="#sdendnote18sym" name="sdendnote18anc">xviii</a>, and, therefore, there are no real chances to get rid of the US imperialism in the recent future and to establish international relations on a more democratic and multilateral foundation. Therefore, the US-led Western turbo Russophobia since 2014 has already driven the world into a new stage of the post-WWII Cold War–2.0.
<div id="sdendnote1">
ENDNOTES:
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote1anc" name="sdendnote1sym">i</a> Peter Koenig, “Russian Exodus from the West”, Global Research – Centre for Research on Globalization, 2018-03-31: https://www.globalresearch.ca/russian-exodus-from-the-west/5634121.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote2">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote2anc" name="sdendnote2sym">ii</a> John Laughland, “Blaming Russia for Skripal Attack is Similar to ‘Jews Poisoning our Wells’ in Middle Ages”, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, 2018-03-16: http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2018/march/16/blaming-russia-for-skripal-attack-is-similar-to-jews-poisoning-our-wells-in-middle-ages/.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote3">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote3anc" name="sdendnote3sym">iii</a> David Gowland, Richard Dunphy, The European Mosaic, Third Edition, Harlow, England−Pearson Education, 2006, 277.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote4">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote4anc" name="sdendnote4sym">iv</a> Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order, London: The Free Press, 2002.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote5">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote5anc" name="sdendnote5sym">v</a> Zigmantas Kiaupa, Jūratė Kiaupienė, Albinas Kuncevičius, The History of Lithuania Before 1795, Vilnius: Lithuanian Institute of History, 2000, 106‒131.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote6">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote6anc" name="sdendnote6sym">vi</a> On the Lithuanian occupation period of the present-day Ukraine, see: [Alfredas Bumblauskas, Genutė Kirkienė, Feliksas Šabuldo (sudarytojai), Ukraina: Lietuvos epocha, 1320−1569, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras, 2010].
</div>
<div id="sdendnote7">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote7anc" name="sdendnote7sym">vii</a> Ignas Kapleris, Antanas Meištas, Istorijos egzamino gidas. Nauja programa nuo A iki Ž, Vilnius: Leidykla “Briedas”, 2013, 123.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote8">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote8anc" name="sdendnote8sym">viii</a> About this issue, see more in [Зоран Милошевић, Од Малоруса до Украјинаца, Источно Сарајево: Завод за уџбенике и наставна средства, 2008].
</div>
<div id="sdendnote9">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote9anc" name="sdendnote9sym">ix</a> Срђан Перишић, Нова геополитика Русије, Београд: Медија центар „Одбрана“, 2015, 42−46.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote10">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote10anc" name="sdendnote10sym">x</a> David Kirbz, Šiaurės Europa ankstyvaisiais naujaisiais amžiais: Baltijos šalys 1492−1772 metais, Vilnius: Atviros Lietuvos knyga, 2000, 333−363; Peter Englund, The Battle that Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire, London: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd, 2003.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote11">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote11anc" name="sdendnote11sym">xi</a> On Napoleon’s military campaign on Russia in 1812 and its fiasco, see [Paul Britten Austin, The Great Retreat Told by the Survivors, London−Mechanicsburg, PA: Greenhill Books, 1996; Adam Zamoyski, 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow, New York: Harper Press, 2005].
</div>
<div id="sdendnote12">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote12anc" name="sdendnote12sym">xii</a> The US-led NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999 is only one example of a gangster’s policy of a violation of the international law and the law on war when the civilian objects became legitimate military targets. Therefore, the attack on Serbia’s television station in the downtown of Belgrade on April 23rd, 1999 attracted criticism by many human rights activists as it was apparently selected for bombing as „media responsible for broadcasting propaganda“ [The Independent, April 1st, 2003]. By the same gangsters the same bombing policy was repeated in 2003 in Iraq when the main television station in Baghdad was hit by cruise missiles in March 2003 followed next day by the destruction of the state radio and television station in Basra [A. P. V. Rogers, Law on the Battlefield, Second edition, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004, 82−83]. According to the international law expert Richard Falk, the 2003 Iraq War was a „crime against Peace of the sort punished at the Nuremberg trials“ [Richard Falk, Frontline, India, No. 8, April 12−25th, 2003].
</div>
<div id="sdendnote13">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote13anc" name="sdendnote13sym">xiii</a> Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote14">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote14anc" name="sdendnote14sym">xiv</a> Charles W. Kegley, Jr., Eugene R. Wittkopf, World Politics: Trend and Transformation, Tenth edition, USA: Thomson−Wadsworth, 2006, 588; Andrew F. Cooper, Jorge Heine, Ramesh Thakur (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015, 54−55.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote15">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote15anc" name="sdendnote15sym">xv</a> David P. Forsythe, Patrice C. McMahon, Andrew Wedeman (eds.), American Foreign Policy in a Globalized World, New York−London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006, 31−50.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote16">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote16anc" name="sdendnote16sym">xvi</a> William C. Wohlforth, „The Stability of a Unipolar World“, International Security, No. 24, 1999, 5−41.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote17">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote17anc" name="sdendnote17sym">xvii</a> Charles W. Kegley, Jr., Eugene R. Wittkopf, World Politics: Trend and Transformation, Tenth edition, USA: Thomson−Wadsworth, 2006, 524.
</div>
<div id="sdendnote18">
<a class="sdendnotesym" href="#sdendnote18anc" name="sdendnote18sym">xviii</a> On the policy of Zionist movement, see [Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths about Israel, London‒New York: Verso, 2024, 23‒49.
</div>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/russophobia-by-the-collective-west-opens-the-doors-of-the-cold-war-2-0/">Russophobia by the Collective West Opens the Doors of the Cold War 2.0</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Mass Killings, Media Control, and the Machinery of US Soft Power</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/mass-killings-media-control-and-the-machinery-of-us-soft-power/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[K.J. Noh]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2025 14:50:19 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Empire]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Indonesia]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Video]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Johnny Harris]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Orville Schell]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159865</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Dismantling the ideological architecture of the U.S. empire by exposing how atrocity becomes infrastructure and propaganda becomes profession. From the Ford Foundation’s role in Indonesia’s Cold War genocide to the rise of figures like Orville Schell and Johnny Harris, KJ unpacks how soft power functions as a weapon: manufacturing consent, laundering imperial violence, and shaping global […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/mass-killings-media-control-and-the-machinery-of-us-soft-power/">Mass Killings, Media Control, and the Machinery of US Soft Power</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Dismantling the ideological architecture of the U.S. empire by exposing how atrocity becomes infrastructure and propaganda becomes profession. From the Ford Foundation’s role in Indonesia’s Cold War genocide to the rise of figures like Orville Schell and Johnny Harris, KJ unpacks how soft power functions as a weapon: manufacturing consent, laundering imperial violence, and shaping global narratives. How US think tanks, journalism schools, and digital platforms are not just media ecosystems, but actually, ideological battlegrounds built atop bloodshed.
<iframe title="Mass Killings, Media Control,and the Machinery of US Soft Power with KJ Noh" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IfyixL7Hpwo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/mass-killings-media-control-and-the-machinery-of-us-soft-power/">Mass Killings, Media Control, and the Machinery of US Soft Power</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Disturbing the Simplicity of Life</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/disturbing-the-simplicity-of-life/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Allen Forrest]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2025 14:45:23 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Cartoon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Humor]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159876</guid>
<description><![CDATA[What changes could could make life so hard?
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/disturbing-the-simplicity-of-life/">Disturbing the Simplicity of Life</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_122_12x9_ink_on_paper_w.png"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-159878" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_122_12x9_ink_on_paper_w-768x1024.png" alt="" width="500" height="667" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_122_12x9_ink_on_paper_w-768x1024.png 768w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_122_12x9_ink_on_paper_w-225x300.png 225w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_122_12x9_ink_on_paper_w.png 900w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></a>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/disturbing-the-simplicity-of-life/">Disturbing the Simplicity of Life</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Stop Israel’s Dystopian “Humanitarian City” Plan—Before It’s Too Late</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/stop-israels-dystopian-humanitarian-city-plan-before-its-too-late/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Medea Benjamin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2025 14:00:22 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Ethnic Cleansing]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Genocide]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Humanitarianism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Hunger/Famine]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Israel Katz]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159891</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The ruins of the city of Rafah. Photo: Getty Images The Israeli government has just put forward one of the most brazenly genocidal schemes in modern memory—and unless we act immediately, the world will once again let it happen. As reported in Haaretz, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is proposing to force some 600,000 Palestinians—and eventually the entire population […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/stop-israels-dystopian-humanitarian-city-plan-before-its-too-late/">Stop Israel’s Dystopian “Humanitarian City” Plan—Before It’s Too Late</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" class="CToWUd a6T" tabindex="0" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf0IfyZ0VIRtFWO9r6cHm5TVBTMJDYFpk1IpL0wMA0wxp_QY64gvskIuTKhf9mtWwcsVYpdWoFSS4LiOuHCMxp1xPYphqJWO0ZG3Xl2DPt2JuBoFJ5HFy2JQOC2TYfG5NPcYqRv?key=v0OCD19We2X_V5RCy1Dp_g" width="505" height="336.67" data-bit="iit" /> 
The ruins of the city of Rafah. Photo: Getty Images
The Israeli government has just put forward one of the most brazenly genocidal schemes in modern memory—and unless we act immediately, the world will once again let it happen.
As <a href="https://archive.is/AFtRG" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.is/AFtRG&source=gmail&ust=1752514005993000&usg=AOvVaw2wr_75gu4ayb6W5Cc0S9WR">reported</a> in Haaretz, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/08/middleeast/israel-rafah-ruins-city-gaza-intl-latam" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/08/middleeast/israel-rafah-ruins-city-gaza-intl-latam&source=gmail&ust=1752514005993000&usg=AOvVaw0QpIdso9ou2qF8e80SmQkb">proposing</a> to force some 600,000 Palestinians—and eventually the entire population of Gaza—into a fenced-in “humanitarian city” to be built on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza. The plan is to “screen” the population, separate out alleged Hamas members, and then pressure the remaining civilians—men, women, and children—to “voluntarily” leave Gaza for another country. Which country? That hasn’t even been determined. The point isn’t relocation—it’s erasure. This reflects a long-standing goal among many Israelis, especially on the right, to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/25/israel-ethnic-cleansing-gaza-settlements/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/25/israel-ethnic-cleansing-gaza-settlements/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005993000&usg=AOvVaw2dZcBVZ1FfupMBsaQLyBN5">take full control of Gaza</a> and clear it of Palestinians.
The UN has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rp31lk7mzo" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rp31lk7mzo&source=gmail&ust=1752514005993000&usg=AOvVaw1xaU-Qg_MhKEGTsJedvjOR">warned</a> that the deportation or forcible transfer of an occupied territory’s civilian population is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law and “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
While all eyes are focused on a possible ceasefire, Gallant is not interested in peace—he’s interested in a “final solution.” A speeding up of the second Nakba we have been witnessing for the past 20 months. In fact, he has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rp31lk7mzo" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rp31lk7mzo&source=gmail&ust=1752514005993000&usg=AOvVaw1xaU-Qg_MhKEGTsJedvjOR">stated</a> that construction would begin during a 60-day ceasefire. So what’s the point of a ceasefire, if it’s used to build a concentration camp?
Once Palestinians are herded into this camp, they will not be allowed to leave for other parts of Gaza. They won’t be allowed to return to what’s left of their homes, their neighborhoods, their farms, their schools. They will be trapped inside this militarized zone, under constant surveillance, held at gunpoint until Israel can arrange their deportation.
Just think of the tragic, unbearable irony: the Israeli government—founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust—is now building a massive concentration camp for an entire population.
If that sounds unthinkable, look at what Israel has already gotten away with.
For the past 20 months, the world has watched—and largely enabled—a genocidal campaign in Gaza. <a href="https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/more-than-55000-palestinians-have-been-killed-in-the-israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-officials-say/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/more-than-55000-palestinians-have-been-killed-in-the-israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-officials-say/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005993000&usg=AOvVaw1ppiNIgiLQuzI-MBAIaDZh">Over 55,000 Palestinians</a> have been slaughtered, the majority of them women and children. Israel has bombed hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and mosques. It has flattened entire neighborhoods with AI-generated kill lists. It has assassinated journalists, targeted ambulances, destroyed bakeries and water systems.
It has used hunger as a weapon of war, deliberately blocking aid trucks, attacking convoys, and starving the population into desperation. And in a cruel twist, it has created the U.S.-backed <a href="https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2025-06/gaza-humanitarian-foundation-ghf-and-weaponization-aid" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2025-06/gaza-humanitarian-foundation-ghf-and-weaponization-aid&source=gmail&ust=1752514005993000&usg=AOvVaw3njmFLPTHAya4olf29FO59">Gaza Humanitarian Foundation</a>—a scheme to funnel aid through Israeli-controlled routes and sideline the UN and experienced NGOs. Its so-called “distribution points” are really <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/6/29/in-gaza-the-israelis-are-staging-hunger-games" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/6/29/in-gaza-the-israelis-are-staging-hunger-games&source=gmail&ust=1752514005993000&usg=AOvVaw1LY0SijtSgrCCaL8Nptvjv">death traps</a>, where desperate people have been shot day after day as they risk their lives to get a bit of food.
This engineered starvation is not an accident. It is a strategy—a form of collective punishment on a scale rarely seen in modern times.
We have already failed the people of Gaza—again and again. We failed when we looked the other way as children were buried in rubble. We failed when we allowed our tax dollars to fund the very bombs that wiped out refugee camps. We failed when we kept pretending there was still a line Israel wouldn’t cross.
Now Katz is telling us—explicitly—what comes next: mass internment and forced expulsion. And unless we rise up with every ounce of outrage we have, we will fail again.
Let’s be absolutely clear: the infrastructure for this plan is already being built. Netanyahu and Trump <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rp31lk7mzo" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rp31lk7mzo&source=gmail&ust=1752514005993000&usg=AOvVaw1xaU-Qg_MhKEGTsJedvjOR">are lobbying</a> corrupt governments in the Global South to accept the deported. This is not a negotiating tactic to strengthen Israel’s position in ceasefire talks—it is the next phase of a genocide we’ve been watching in real time for nearly two years.
And what is the U.S. government doing? Still issuing meaningless statements about “Israel’s right to defend itself.” Still shipping weapons. Still blocking accountability at the United Nations—and even <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/politics/us-sanctions-un-official-palestinian-human-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/politics/us-sanctions-un-official-palestinian-human-rights&source=gmail&ust=1752514005994000&usg=AOvVaw3fwM250ec4kA3bSmnv0bik">sanctioning</a> officials like UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for daring to speak out.
President Trump could stop this today—by cutting off military aid, backing the International Criminal Court’s investigations, and declaring that forced displacement of Palestinians will not be tolerated. But instead, he’s still dreaming of turning Gaza into a Middle Eastern resort for the ultra-rich.
Meanwhile, more Arab governments <a href="https://responsiblestatecraft.org/syria-israel-abraham-accords/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://responsiblestatecraft.org/syria-israel-abraham-accords/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005994000&usg=AOvVaw3JRcZ8Xg4hNNKrA3OEMhpX">stand ready</a> to normalize ties with Israel, making deals with war criminals while their fellow Arabs are starved, bombed, and now threatened with mass exile. Where is the outcry from Cairo, Riyadh, Amman? Is there absolutely no red line?
One bright spot on the international scene is the <a href="https://thehaguegroup.org/about-en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehaguegroup.org/about-en/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005994000&usg=AOvVaw19laQYztLothiy6gaR7bMo">Hague group</a>, which will convene an <a href="https://thehaguegroup.org/meetings-bogota-en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehaguegroup.org/meetings-bogota-en/&source=gmail&ust=1752514005994000&usg=AOvVaw0euNr4fgCxdLeb5hHh7l8Z">emergency meeting</a> in Colombia on July 15–16. This growing bloc of nations has joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. These countries are taking a courageous stand to uphold international law and defend Palestinian life. Every nation that claims to value justice must join them—immediately.
And here in the United States, every member of Congress must be pushed—loudly, relentlessly—to take a public stand. No more vague language. No more hiding behind mealy-mouthed scripts. We demand immediate, public opposition to this “humanitarian city” plan—and a full cutoff of military support to Israel. This is a moment of moral reckoning. Choose a side.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking this can’t happen. It is happening. The groundwork is being laid. The walls are going up. The deportation flights are being negotiated.
There is no neutral ground. This is not a policy debate. This is genocide—on camera, with diplomatic cover, and with our tax dollars.
The time to stop Israel’s dystopian plan is not tomorrow. It is now.
Rise up. Speak out. Flood the streets. Bombard Congress. Demand accountability.
Stop the plan. Save Gaza. Before it’s too late.The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/stop-israels-dystopian-humanitarian-city-plan-before-its-too-late/">Stop Israel’s Dystopian “Humanitarian City” Plan—Before It’s Too Late</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>To Each According to Their Need</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/to-each-according-to-their-need/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ted Glick]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2025 13:50:21 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Communism/Marxism/Maoism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Karl Marx]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Friedrich Engels]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159895</guid>
<description><![CDATA[To whatever extent we reach our potential in this world, my grandmother would be furious if I didn’t say that it was due to a combination of our individual talents and the societal conditions – the real existing material conditions, as a good Marxist might say – that have shaped our lives. But while she […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/to-each-according-to-their-need/">To Each According to Their Need</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote>To whatever extent we reach our potential in this world, my grandmother would be furious if I didn’t say that it was due to a combination of our individual talents and the societal conditions – the real existing material conditions, as a good Marxist might say – that have shaped our lives. But while she would probably not admit it, the faith in her eyes – the challenge to imagine with others a better world and actively move with them towards it, to engage in collective struggle to achieve a more humanistic society – that faith will always remain with us.
— <a href="https://jwa.org/weremember/healey-dorothy" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://jwa.org/weremember/healey-dorothy&source=gmail&ust=1752514005945000&usg=AOvVaw3LoKjsTXjwlqoChCr_hjm4">Dorothy Ray Healey remembrance, Jewish Women’s Archive</a></blockquote>
“Without vision, the people perish.” This famous quote from Proverbs 29:18 in the Old Testament is absolutely on target, based on my experiences over many years. A variation of this quote—if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there—underlines the danger of not having a vision. A road to nowhere is a dangerous road.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had a vision, summed up in the phrase, “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” Was this an original idea back then, 177 years ago? I don’t think so.
In his younger years Marx was connected to religion; he was baptized as a Lutheran at the age of six. He studied religion, ultimately leading him to develop his well-known critique of it as an “opiate of the people.”
The book of Acts is a religiously oriented history of the first years and decades of the Christian church after Jesus of Nazareth was killed. In chapters two and four, it is made clear that in these early days of the Christian religion, the concept of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need” was a central vision.
Here’s how it is described in Acts 2: 44-45: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all as any had need.” And similarly in Acts 4: 32 and 34: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common… There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.”
I’m pretty sure that Dorothy Healey got this. She was the first socialist I ever heard quote Bible verses as she made her case from the podium speaking to hundreds of mostly young people at a national conference of the now-defunct New American Movement in 1974. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but I remember thinking that I wished I could do that. Why did I feel that way?
One reason is that I had generally positive experiences growing up in the church my parents took me to every Sunday, as well as with others in my extended family, especially my grandparents, who were devout Christians. But it was also because, as I became a peace and justice and impeach Nixon activist in my late teens and early 20’s, and as I was exposed to individuals who looked to Marx and Engels and “scientific socialism” as their “bible,” it seemed to me that one thing both had in common was a vision for a very different kind of society than the one dominating much of the world.
And let’s be real: what both also have in common is the corruption of the original vision of their founders as they grew politically stronger and more institutionalized. That is a reality that can never be forgotten, something those of us today need to study and learn from going forward.
Healey tried to put the two positive visions together. She believed in Christian/Marxist unity. She may or may not have been an atheist, I don’t know, but her life was grounded in the best of both those worlds.
All of us have a responsibility to “imagine with others a better world and actively move with them towards it, to engage in collective struggle to achieve a more humanistic society” with the long term goal, one many of us will not see, of human societies where the abilities of all are used to meet the economic, social and cultural needs of all. We must hold fast to this vision whatever the odds against us right now.The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/to-each-according-to-their-need/">To Each According to Their Need</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>What Do Birds of a Feather Do?</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/what-do-birds-of-a-feather-do/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Allen Forrest]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sun, 13 Jul 2025 15:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Cartoon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Jeffrey Epstein]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159842</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: “I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend“
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/what-do-birds-of-a-feather-do/">What Do Birds of a Feather Do?</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_126_12x9_ink_on_paper_w.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-159843" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_126_12x9_ink_on_paper_w-768x1024.png" alt="" width="500" height="667" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_126_12x9_ink_on_paper_w-768x1024.png 768w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_126_12x9_ink_on_paper_w-225x300.png 225w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_126_12x9_ink_on_paper_w.png 900w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></a>
Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: “<a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU08/20250227/117951/HHRG-119-JU08-20250227-SD006-U6.pdf">I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend</a>“The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/what-do-birds-of-a-feather-do/">What Do Birds of a Feather Do?</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Gaslighting: Trump, Epstein, and Soros</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/gaslighting-trump-epstein-and-soros/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kim Petersen]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sun, 13 Jul 2025 07:07:48 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Benjamin Netanyahu]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Critical Thinking]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Skepticism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Georg Soros]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ghislaine Maxwell]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=152867</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Donald Trump administration has been continuously gaslighting the American people. The examples are myriad. Let’s begin with the tariffs. The United States has imposed them on nearly every country. Ukraine has managed to escape being issued a tariff, so far. Israel, though, has not escaped a proposed 17% Trump tariff, which is bizarre since […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/gaslighting-trump-epstein-and-soros/">Gaslighting: Trump, Epstein, and Soros</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[The Donald Trump administration has been continuously gaslighting the American people. The examples are myriad. Let’s begin with the tariffs. The United States has imposed them on nearly every country. Ukraine has managed to escape being issued a tariff, so far. Israel, though, has not escaped <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/stressing-billions-in-aid-trump-refuses-to-commit-to-removing-tariffs-on-israel/">a proposed 17% Trump tariff</a>, which is bizarre since Israel over the years has been the number one recipient of US aid. It is putting money in one pocket while removing money from the other pocket. Such is the lunacy of Trump’s tariffs that they are even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUCyOzNqMlk">applied to penguins</a>. The amount of the tariffs and the dates for implementation have been in constant flux. Trump and his team insist that the exporting countries will pay the tariffs. That works when the US is the only market for one’s exports.
Second, Trump kept saying no more wars. He would be the man who’d end the special military operation by Russia in Ukraine in 24 hours. He’d stop sending weapons to Ukraine. That supplying of weapons adduces US involvement in a proxy war, as it was under Joe Biden, and continues to be under Trump. Then Trump allied with Israel against Palestinians, exposing his hypocrisy. Trump would often whine about how grief-stricken he is about the killing of people in the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. Yet, he takes a decidedly different stance on the killing of Palestinians by Israeli Jews. The Palestinians need to be expunged from the territory to erect a riviera on the beaches of Gaza. And then the “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/18/politics/trump-peacemaker-iran-israel-conflict-analysis">peace president</a>” launched an aggression against Iraq. And let’s not forget that Ansar Allah sent the ill-fated US navy away from the waters near Yemen.
To put absurdity over the top, the genocidaire Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated the warmaking Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, a prize he has long pined for. Forthrightly or not, Trump <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-really-wants-win-nobel-peace-prize-rcna193330">downplays his chances</a> of winning the Nobel recognition he covets: “It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”
Third, Trump has promised repeatedly to release all the JFK documents, the RFK documents, and the Epstein documents. Trump only made a partial release of the JFK files, many heavily redacted, during Trump 1. He promised the rest would be forthcoming. No release has occurred at the time of this writing during Trump 2. In the latest bit of gaslighting, the public is expected to believe that there are no Epstein files. Apparently, the associates of Epstein can now relax and breathe much easier. As to what became of Epstein videos, files, notes, it leads to a suspicion. There is a high likelihood that this escaping the gun also applies to Trump who had a relationship with the deceased financier Epstein. Equally oleaginous is the poor quality video of Epstein’s cell that has a missing one-minute. In other words, much of the documentation to imprison Epstein is missing, and the same goes for his imprisoned partner in recruiting underage females, Ghislaine Maxwell. Much of the evidence to put her behind bars is now deemed non-existent.
Trump is relying on his bluster (i.e., lies) to confuse Americans — in particular, his MAGA base. The media is on notice that it will be ridiculed for asking questions about Epstein. Said <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl8VGy4r8us">Trump who interjected himself</a> to a question posed by a reporter to attorney general Pam Bondi:
<blockquote>Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? Been talked about for years. You’re asking, we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.</blockquote>
However, the gaslighting surrounding the Epstein sex trafficking ring has caused <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/9/why-is-maga-angry-with-trump-pam-bondi-over-epstein-files">rumblings among some of the MAGA</a> people.
*****
Such is the power of gaslighting that if some people are told something often enough, even when there is powerful evidence to the contrary, that the gaslighter can confuse the gaslit people. The media and fact checkers have been playing a big role in this.
In a 16 August 2024 essay, professor T.P. Wilkinson <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2024/08/elusive-language-what-is-terrorism-really/">wrote</a>: “George Soros, who by his own public admission already enriched himself at the age of 14 with the help of Nazi occupiers of his native Hungary.”
He had not provided substantiation for this claim, so I asked. He said that he had cited his source in a previous article. Indeed, he had done this in his essay “<a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2021/03/the-health-which-i-see-is-disease-if-the-hierarchical-church-so-defines/">The Health which I See is Disease (… if the Hierarchical Church so Defines)</a>” on 5 March 2021.
This led me to a 1998 <a href="https://archive.org/embed/George_Soros_1998_60_Minutes_Interview">60 Minutes interview</a>, where Georg Soros openly admits that as a 14-year-old boy he helped Nazis dispossess Jews of their property. It is crystal clear in the video and undeniable. But the mass media has seemingly built up a huge wall of gaslighting around Soros ever having worked for the Nazis against fellow Jews.
Wilkinson does not mince words, George Soros is a <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2024/02/there-are-individual-men-and-women-and-there-are-families/">serial murderer</a>.
Yet, there are a plethora of refutations of Soros having worked for the Nazis. These charges against Soros can be fought through gaslighting or orchestrated whitewashing. Yet, despite the concrete evidence of the video interview, it is the videotaped words of Soros versus the words that gaslighters use to frame the admission of Soros.
For example, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/fact-checkfalseclaims-about-george-soros-idUSKBN23P2X7/">Reuters</a> sets up a strawman. It does not deal with the criticism that Soros helped dispossess Jews of their property for the Nazis. It deflects by stating that Soros was not a Nazi. So Soros wasn’t a card-carrying member of the National Socialist Party of Deutschland. But there is a well known refrain about ducks. If Soros quacks like a Nazi and behaves like a Nazi, ergo he must be a Nazi.
Newsweek even denies in its fact check that Soros assisted the dispossession of Jewish property for the Nazis. Perplexing. In other words, either Newsweek is lying or it is calling Soros a liar.
The Independent <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/george-soros-nazi-jew-conspiracy-theory-roseanne-barr-twitter-rant-a8377301.html">writes</a>:
<blockquote>Of all the conspiracy theories spun around the 87-year-old [soon to be 95-year-old] Jewish billionaire George Soros – that he is the “puppet master” of all liberals, that he owns Black Lives Matter, that he is secretly building a new world order – the most demonstrably insane may be the claim that he was a Nazi.
That is: That the 14-year-old boy who had to hide from his own government during the German occupation of Hungary was a war criminal who sent his own people to gas chambers.</blockquote>
*****
Nowadays, given the proliferation of the internet and the reposting and archiving of e-information, it is nigh impossible to remove regrettable words from the information universe.
If Soros regrets his admission, how then should he elude his own words? When you are a billionaire, you can build your own media empire and gaslight. The <a href="https://www.soroseconomicdevelopmentfund.org/how-we-work/independent-media">Soros Economic Development Fund says</a>:
<blockquote>We invest in critical media companies to foster their growth and safeguard their editorial independence. This work helps to promote freedom of expression and dissent, the fight against disinformation, and the imperative to develop new business models as cornerstones of democracy.</blockquote>
Sounds impressive. However, <a href="https://english.news.cn/20230126/7390a9b0dfdd45ac8999b117c5293ce7/c.html">Xinhua reports</a> on a study conducted by Media Research Center Business:
<blockquote>Soros spent hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in bribes to build his own “network of media ties” so as to manipulate public opinion, U.S. media said.</blockquote>
Is this how Soros manages to use his deep pockets to influence all these media (including, apparently, the Reuters fact check) to deny what he said during his 60 Minutes interview?
I lived in Hungary for two years, so of course, I had heard of Soros and his financial corruption. Reuters did not hide Soros’s shady business practices, headlining “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/business/hungary-court-confirms-2-5-mln-fine-on-soros-fund-idUSLDE63M0Q6/">Hungary court confirms $2.5 mln fine on Soros fund</a>,” and reporting, “New York-based Soros Fund Management LLC will have to pay a fine of 489 million forints ($2.5 million) for unlawful trades in shares of OTP Bank.”
Before I had ever ventured to Hungary, I had worked as a dive instructor in the Maldives. At the resort restaurant, I once engaged in conversation with a businessman who worked for a company buying bad debt from companies going under. During our conversation, I brought up Georg Soros. He expressed surprise that a random dive instructor knew who Soros was and asked how I knew this?
My terse reply: “I read.”
However, reading, per se, is insufficient. It may even be harmful. Gaining knowledge is not simply comprehending what one reads. The source of the information, what questions are raised about what is written, analyzing the evidence, and the ability to rationally consider the information is vital to coming to a reasoned conclusion. This is especially important given the widespread gaslighting and disinformation. It is imperative that readers and viewers regard information with open-minded skepticism.The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/gaslighting-trump-epstein-and-soros/">Gaslighting: Trump, Epstein, and Soros</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Japanese Internment — Topaz Utah, with a Caucasian Family Assisting Farming</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/japanese-internment-topaz-utah-with-a-caucasian-family-assisting-farming/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Paul Haeder]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2025 14:50:11 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ethnic Cleansing]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Genocide]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Human Rights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Incarceration]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Propaganda]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Alcatraz Alligator]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[David Suzuki]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Japanese concentration camps in USA]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159797</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Spend an hour with me and Earnie Bell, of Newport, Oregon, as we look at his past as his California father was hired to assist this concentration camp feeding itself with vegetables and meat. KYAQ. Ran in March of 2025. Listen and Eat Your Heart Out — Earnie is ALL there, man. A heck of […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/japanese-internment-topaz-utah-with-a-caucasian-family-assisting-farming/">Japanese Internment — Topaz Utah, with a Caucasian Family Assisting Farming</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
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Spend an hour with me and Earnie Bell, of Newport, Oregon, as we look at his past as his California father was hired to assist this concentration camp feeding itself with vegetables and meat.
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-wUMilgyxc46v0dS7Nt-X5VGYxREHhwM/view?usp=drive_link">KYAQ. Ran in March of 2025. Listen and Eat Your Heart Out — Earnie is ALL there, man.</a>
A heck of an experience, for the Bell kiddos and the parents, and this is the shame, man, the continual criminal enterprise of this country, so when the Democrats complain about Trump and his Billions for ICE CBP Alcatraz Alligator Gulag, well well, just burp up some history, folks, this country of a good Indian is a dead Indian, Chinese Exclusion Act, the whole Nine Yards until today, with legal residents and card holders and someone like me, a fucking US Passport Carrying Citizen born in San Pedro California but raised in Azores and France and UK and Germany, well well, I have ZERO Loyalty to the State of Genocide, and ZERO Loyalty for State of Oregon and the other Fifty States, including especially the 51st state of Israel.
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="A crowd of people in Manzanar, Calif., in 1942 " src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cQJE!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19dc42ad-0450-4cef-948b-680534696ea0_2000x1333.jpeg" alt="A crowd of people in Manzanar, Calif., in 1942 " width="488" height="325" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/19dc42ad-0450-4cef-948b-680534696ea0_2000x1333.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":970,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":null,"alt":"A crowd of people in Manzanar, Calif., in 1942 ","title":null,"type":null,"href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" />
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I had David Suzuki on my radio show in Spokane, and introduced him for a reading with a poem I wrote him. On my show, he talked about Canadian Concentration Camps, and the one he was put in with his family.
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/paulhaeder/podcasttippingptsdavidsuzuki041509?si=56e3a678cd944cf0a73e3d5747d231b0&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing">Lucky you: David Suzuki — scientist, environmentalist, author and documentary producer interviewed by Paul Haeder, Tipping Points: Voices from the Edge, KYRS-FM, Spokane:</a>
In 1989, David Suzuki’s award-winning radio series It’s a Matter of Survival sounded an alarm of where the planet was heading. Over 17,000 of his shocked fans sent him letters asking for ways to avert the catastrophe. A group of people urged David Suzuki and Tara Cullis to create a new, solutions-based organization. That November, they hosted a gathering with a dozen thinkers and activists on Pender Island, B.C. By the end of the meeting, something significant was afoot. And after many planning meetings, on Sept. 14, 1990, the David Suzuki Foundation was incorporated.
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<a href="https://topazmuseum.org/">Background</a> —
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<a href="https://densho.org/catalyst/ten-little-known-stories-about-topaz-concentration-camp/">Manzanar, California, too:</a>
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<a href="https://densho.org/catalyst/ten-little-known-stories-about-topaz-concentration-camp/">Source: </a>
September 11, 2019
The “Central Utah Relocation Center”—more popularly known as <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Topaz/" rel="">Topaz</a>—was located at a dusty site in the Sevier Desert and had one of the most urban and most homogeneous populations of the camps, with nearly its entire inmate population coming from the San Francisco Bay Area. Topaz is perhaps best known as the site of the <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Homicide%20in%20camp/#James_Hatsuaki_Wakasa" rel="">fatal shooting of an inmate</a> by an overzealous camp sentry in April 1943 and for its art school, which included a faculty roster of notable Issei and Nisei artists. It was also the site of significant protest against the “loyalty questionnaire” in the spring of 1943 and of a variety of labor disputes.
The second least populous of the <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/War%20Relocation%20Authority/" rel="">War Relocation Authority</a> camps (to <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Amache%20(Granada)/" rel="">Amache</a>), Topaz had a peak population of 8,130 inmates. The Topaz Museum, which opened to the public in 2015, is located in nearby Delta, Utah and today owns much of the land on which the camp was once built.
Here are ten little-known stories from Topaz concentration camp:
“Swirling Masses of Sand in the Air”
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="An aerial view of Topaz concentration camp, with rows of black military barracks between dirt roads and mountains in the distance. There are swirls of dust visible in the air over the camp." src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H6FD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F21ae50a1-437b-49b4-a94f-ba0a9d9070c6_1024x645.jpeg" alt="An aerial view of Topaz concentration camp, with rows of black military barracks between dirt roads and mountains in the distance. There are swirls of dust visible in the air over the camp." width="402" height="253" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/21ae50a1-437b-49b4-a94f-ba0a9d9070c6_1024x645.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":645,"width":1024,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":null,"alt":"An aerial view of Topaz concentration camp, with rows of black military barracks between dirt roads and mountains in the distance. There are swirls of dust visible in the air over the camp.","title":null,"type":null,"href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" />
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</div><figcaption class="image-caption">Aerial view of Topaz concentration camp. <a href="http://ddr.densho.org/ddr-manz-4-127/" rel="">Courtesy of Manzanar National Historic Site and the Shinjo Nagatomi Collection.</a></figcaption></figure>
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While dust storms took place at many of the WRA camps and are part of the standard narrative about these sites, they seemed to be particularly bad at Topaz even by WRA standards. Tony O’Brien, the acting project attorney, wrote in a November 1942 memo that the “dust storms are much worse than those encountered at Minidoka. The dust is more powdery in texture and penetrates every crevice on the project,” he wrote.
Maxim Shapiro, a visitor to the camp, wrote of the dust in December 1942 that “no one who has not seen it can imagine its ill effects. It penetrates everything—it fills your mouth, nostrils, the pores of your skin, your clothing—and all efforts to keep yourself or your room clean are just futile efforts…”
“We could barely see one inch ahead of us,” wrote <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Japanese%20American%20Evacuation%20and%20Resettlement%20Study/" rel="">Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study</a> (JERS) fieldworker Doris Hayashi of a dust storm in November 1942. “It swept around us in great thrusting gusts, flinging swirling masses of sand in the air and engulfing us in a thick cloud…,” wrote <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Yoshiko%20Uchida/" rel="">Yoshiko Uchida</a> in her memoir.
The Offal Was Awful
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In the spring and summer of 1943, the camp was unable to purchase sufficient meat due to outside shortages, and began serving a succession of organ meats—livers, hearts, tripe, etc.—that most inmates found unpalatable. Widespread complaints followed, including appeals to the Spanish Consul and the State Department, and calls for the firing of the chief steward. The situation was eventually resolved when the camp farming operation began to deliver beef and pork to mess halls in August 1943.
The Topaz Music School
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</div><figcaption class="image-caption">A musical recital in Topaz, c.1943-1944. Photo courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society, <a href="https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=483253" rel="">The KUED Topaz (Utah) Residents Photograph Collection</a>.</figcaption></figure>
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While the Topaz Art School is relatively well-known, the equally notable Topaz Music School is much less well documented. “It is very strange because a lot of people didn’t know that there was a music studio except the people who actually went there, and even some of those people can’t remember the details about it,” recalled Kazuko Iwahashi in a 2011 <a href="http://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1000-337-17/" rel="">Densho interview</a>.
As with the art school, the impetus for its creation came from the relatively large number of artists/musicians among Topaz’s urban population. First organized in the Block 35 Recreation Hall, it later moved to Barrack 6 of Block 1. Teachers and students and their families spent ten days putting up walls, ceilings, and sheet rock prior to the November 1 school opening. The school offered courses in piano, vocal, violin, solfeggio, harmony, history of music, choir, ensemble, orchestra, and noh drama. The peak enrollment at the school was 653, ranging from four-year-olds to a seventy year old choral student. The school put on regular recital programs featuring the students.
As with other education endeavors, supplies and equipment were an issue. In particular, there was the matter of pianos. Though the school had access to seven pianos—many came from individual inmates and Japanese American churches in the Bay Area—this was not sufficient, and piano students were limited to mere minutes of weekly practice time. Violin students had to provide their own instruments. Nonetheless, the music school and its various performance programs provided a welcome diversion for students, teachers, and the community alike.
The Santa Anitans
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<div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA">Concentration camp life created some unusual groupings, alliances, and, sometimes, out groups. One of the oddest instances of the last was the fate of Santa Anitans at Topaz. Essentially the entire population of Topaz came from the San Francisco Bay Area, and nearly all came through the <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Tanforan%20(detention%20facility)/" rel="">Tanforan Assembly Center</a>. But one of the first groups to be removed from San Francisco in April 1942 was sent to <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Santa%20Anita%20(detention%20facility)/" rel="">Santa Anita</a> instead, since Tanforan had still not been completed. This group spent nearly six months at Santa Anita and was among the last to arrive at Topaz on October 7. Even though this group shared common Bay Area roots with the rest of the Topaz population, it seems their time at Santa Anita had changed them.
Their long incarceration at Santa Anita along with the miserable conditions they faced as late arrivals at Topaz led to their being viewed by other inmates as having “a cocky attitude” and having “a chip on their shoulder.” Community Services Chief Lorne Bell described them as “something of a problem, reflecting to some degree the very unfortunate conditions which must have prevailed at that center [Santa Anita].” Their incarceration with Los Angeles people also seemed to have changed them in the view of the Bay Area people. Fred Hoshiyama, who was working as a JERS field worker, described their arrival with some degree of bewilderment:
<blockquote>Many of the young nisei boys who were conservative dressers came off of the bus in “zute (sic) suits” and other flashy dress wear. The girls wore their hair in styles different from the Tanforan group ala Hollywood glamour styles—either long like Veronica Lake or short and put up. Their language, their attitudes, their mannerism changed to the extent that It was easily discernible and many of the Tanforan girls and boys expressed surprise as well.</blockquote>
The Santa Anita group was housed in Blocks 33, 34, and 40 and apparently remained somewhat distinct from the rest of the population.
<h3 class="header-anchor-post">The Hawaiʻi Group</h3>
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Topaz was one of two WRA camps to have a sizable contingent who had been shipped from Hawaiʻi. (<a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Jerome/" rel="">Jerome</a> was the other.) The group of 226 arrived in March of 1943 and were housed in Block 1. Most—176—were single men, most of them Kibei. Inmates and WRA staff went through great efforts to welcome them upon their arrival. Many had been interned at <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Sand%20Island%20(detention%20facility)/" rel="">Sand Island</a> previously or were family members of such internees. Most of them eventually ended up going to Tule Lake after <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Segregation/" rel="">segregation</a> and many went on to Japan.
Hostile Reception for Outside Farm Workers
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="A Japanese American woman and child sitting inside a tent in a farm labor camp." src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HzQG!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3579def2-e8f6-42a4-8880-4f6ec67d3a1a_1024x817.jpeg" alt="A Japanese American woman and child sitting inside a tent in a farm labor camp." width="409" height="326" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/3579def2-e8f6-42a4-8880-4f6ec67d3a1a_1024x817.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":817,"width":1024,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":null,"alt":"A Japanese American woman and child sitting inside a tent in a farm labor camp.","title":null,"type":null,"href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" />
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</div><figcaption class="image-caption">Harvest tent city near Provo, UT, where Topaz inmates were recruited to do farm labor. During the harvest, local residents fired rifles into the tent city and three inmates were wounded. Photo courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society, <a href="https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=483288" rel="">KUED Topaz (Utah) Residents Photograph Collection</a>.</figcaption></figure>
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As at many camps, inmates were encouraged to go out on short term leave during the harvest season to do agricultural work in states like Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. Because so many workers were moving to the coast to take relatively well-paying war industry jobs, there were serious shortages of agricultural workers, leading to many farmers attempting to recruit incarcerated Japanese Americans. Thousands of Japanese Americans did do this, particularly in the falls of 1942 and 1943. So many left some of the camps in fact, that they created labor shortages in those camps.
While some at Topaz did leave to do such seasonal outside labor, the numbers were fewer for a couple of reasons. One was that the Topaz population was a largely urban one that included relatively few experienced farm workers. Another factor was the poor reception some farm workers received. One of the areas where laborers were most needed was in Utah County, where the WRA set up a housing camp in Provo that could house up to 400 Japanese American workers. Some of the workers reported that stores and restaurants wouldn’t serve them and that locals harassed them on the streets. In October 1943, some local youths even fired shots into the labor camp while the inmates were present. They refused to return to work until their safety could be guaranteed. Armed guards were quickly brought in, and the inmates did go back to work. But such incidents did little to encourage others to go out.
Issei and Nisei Resistance to Registration
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<div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA">Widespread resistance to registration emerged at Topaz, with Issei and Nisei alike questioning various aspects of the <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Loyalty%20questionnaire/" rel="">“loyalty questionnaire”</a> and the <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/442nd%20Regimental%20Combat%20Team/" rel="">segregated Nisei combat unit</a>, delaying the scheduled February 10, 1943, start of registration a week.
As detailed by Cherston Lyon in her 2011 monograph Prisons and Patriots: Japanese American Wartime Citizenship, Civil Disobedience, and Historical Memory, Issei objected to the wording of question 28 that asked a population that was prohibited by law from becoming U.S. citizens to “forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese Emperor.” They organized a committee of nine to ask that the question be changed and refused to register until the issue was resolved. With similar complaints coming from other camps, the WRA and army agreed to change the wording of the question.
Nisei also organized a Committee of 33 to demand the restoration of their civil rights before they would agree to register. But a hard line response—included threats of prosecution for violating the Espionage Act—by both local and national WRA officials along with counter protests by professed Nisei patriots broke the Nisei protest. Registration began in earnest on February 17 and was completed by February 27. While the initial number of Nisei who volunteered for the army was low, a group of volunteers formed the Resident Council for Japanese American Civil Rights, which spearheaded a propaganda campaign that helped recruit additional volunteers.
A year later, when Nisei eligibility for the draft was restored in early 1944, two groups formed to protest the continued segregation of Nisei in the army, the <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Topaz%20Citizens%20Committee/" rel="">Topaz Citizens Committee</a> and <a href="http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Mothers%20of%20Topaz/" rel="">Mothers of Topaz</a>. Though a faction of the former advocated draft resistance, the majority opted to protest segregation in the army but not to actively resist conscription. The latter sent a petition signed by 1,141 mothers to President Roosevelt and other national leaders objecting to the segregated Nisei military unit and to the fact that Nisei were banned from all branches of the military except the army.
Gambling Boom
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Gambling became an issue at many of the WRA camps. But whereas gambling problems were mostly fueled by shadowy underground operations at other camps, they took an unusual form at Topaz. By the fall of 1943, many blocks had started bingo games as fundraisers, often for the purchase of athletic equipment. While they were effective in raising money, they had the unwanted side effect of creating bingo addicts, many of whom were children. As reports circulated of children raiding family kitties to fund their addiction, the Topaz Community Council passed an ordinance banning the bingo games, though some previously planned events were allowed to proceed at the end of the year.
To be sure, the other kind of gambling also existed at Topaz. The professional gamblers particularly targeted those who left the camp to pick sugar beets and returned to camp with a lot of cash. “The guys who stayed behind in the gambling place in camp took it all away from them in a short time,” recalled one gambler in a 1944 interview.
The Antelope Springs recreation camp
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<div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA">A unique aspect of Topaz was the existence of a separate recreation camp for kids. The camp education department made arrangements with the Department of the Interior to use a former CCC camp near Mt. Swasey, about forty miles west of Topaz named Antelope Springs. It served as a campsite mostly for children between the ages of twelve and fourteen, often in groups organized by the Boy Scouts, Girl Reserves or YMCA. About seventy-five kids at a time went out for stays of up to one week, accompanied by adult inmate leaders. The site was at a 7,300 foot elevation, providing a respite from summer heat, and included running mountain water, and level ground for camping.
In her Densho interview, Kazuko Iwahahsi <a href="http://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1000-337-16/" rel="">recalled</a>, “we slept in pup tents, two of us to a pup tent, and had open dining hall.”
“And boy, June on the lake bed out there at Topaz must have been well over a hundred degrees,” <a href="http://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-manz-1-39-19/" rel="">remembered Kinge Okauchi</a>. “So this [Antelope Springs] was a great sort of respite from the hot summer.” During the summer of 1943, 338 campers went to the Antelope Springs in seven weeks.
An Extensive Library Program
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<div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA">In perhaps another nod to the urban roots of the Topaz inmate population, Topaz had perhaps the most extensive library system of any of the WRA camps that included a main Topaz Public Library (TPL), a library for Japanese language material, and libraries at the high school and each of the two elementary schools.
The TPL began as essentially a continuation of the library at the Tanforan Assembly Center, with books from that library being shipped to Topaz and two former library workers from there, Ida Shimanouchi and Alice Watanabe, taking the lead in setting up the new library. Work began on the library in Recreation Hall 32 on October 2, 1942. The space was unfinished and unheated, leading to days when work had to be canceled due to the cold. Inmates contributed books and magazines to the Tanforan collection, and the library was able to open to the public with a collection of nearly 7,000 books on December 1. The TPL soon moved to the Block 16 recreation hall, essentially an entire unpartitioned barrack with mess hall tables and benches running down the middle and inmate built shelves lining the walls. The collection grew to include fifty-two periodicals, including major national newspapers as well the Oakland Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle, as well as a rental collection of new books that rented for 5¢ a week.
In January 1943, the TPL was able to rotate in some books from the Salt Lake County Library at Midvale and also initiated interlibrary loan service with college libraries in Utah and the University of California at Berkeley. By the end of March 1943, the collection had grown to over 8,500 books and patronage peaked at nearly 500 a day. It became a popular place for young people to gather to socialize and do homework. Motomu Akashi recalled spending many hours in the library, since “[i]t was much more comfortable than our apartment, especially during the winter.” He called the library “my salvation” that “brought me just that small pleasure needed to overcome my depression.”
To serve the Issei and Kibei population, a Japanese language collection was formed out of donations from inmates. Opening as a part of the regular TPL in February 1943, the Japanese section became so popular that it moved to its own space in Recreation Hall 40 in May, later moving to Recreation Hall 31 in February 1944. The collection began with about 1,000 books and eventually grew to 5,000, with daily attendance of three hundred. The inmates from Hawaiʻi became frequent users of the library and put on a popular exhibition of craft items in Hawaiʻi. Later, the Japanese library hosted exhibitions of artists from the art school.
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By Brian Niiya, Densho Content Director
The information presented here has been excerpted from Densho’s new and improved Sites of Shame project. Full citations will be included there, but feel free to post questions in the comments or email us at <a href="mailto:info@densho.org" rel="">gro.ohsnednull@ofni</a> in the meantime!
[Header image: Japanese American inmates and new arrivals at the Topaz “induction center” in 1942. Photo courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society, <a href="https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=483226" rel="">KUED Topaz (Utah) Residents Photograph Collection</a>.]
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<h3 class="header-anchor-post">Life Behind Barbed Wire</h3>
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The single internment camp located in Utah was at Topaz, Utah, sixteen miles west of Delta, Utah. Named for a nearby mountain, Topaz was in the middle of an area charitably described as a “barren, sand-choked wasteland.” The first internees were moved into Topaz in September, 1942, and it was closed in October, 1945. At its peak, Topaz held 9,408 people in barracks of tarpaper and wood.
The George G. Murakami Collection
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<div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA">The items in this exhibit were graciously lent to the University of Utah by George G. Murakami, a young American from Berkeley, California, who was interned in Topaz.</div>
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<div><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-wUMilgyxc46v0dS7Nt-X5VGYxREHhwM/view?usp=drive_link">Listen to my show with Earnie Bell!</a></div>
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<div>Man oh man, Spokesman Review didn’t scrub all my stuff: <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/audio/2010/may/14/david-suzuki/">David Suzuki</a></div>
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<div><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="https://enotice-production.imgix.net/custom-documents%2Fpermalink%2F1968.58aaa-Screenshot_1.jpg" alt="Public Notices | The Spokesman-Review" width="278" height="123" /></div>
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<div>David Suzuki is an internationally known environmental activist and scientist. Although he is well known for his radio broadcasts in Canada, he’s become an international celebrity through the television show The Nature of Things. Suzuki also cofounded the David Suzuki Foundation for the promotion of living in balance with the natural world. He’s got more than 50 books under his name.</div>
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</div>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/japanese-internment-topaz-utah-with-a-caucasian-family-assisting-farming/">Japanese Internment — Topaz Utah, with a Caucasian Family Assisting Farming</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Al Gore Puts Down “Climate Realism”</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/al-gore-puts-down-climate-realism/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Hunziker]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2025 14:40:04 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Climate Change]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[CO2 Emissions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Paris 2015]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Renewables]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Solar Energy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Tony Blair]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[carbon capture]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159826</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Al Gore, speaking in Nairobi, gave a TED speech that set the stage for where the world stands in its search for Net Zero by 2050: “Many of the oil, gas, and coal producers and their financial allies are now advocating a new approach that they call ‘climate realism.”Al Gore, TED speech, Nairobi, Nigeria, June […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/al-gore-puts-down-climate-realism/">Al Gore Puts Down “Climate Realism”</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Al Gore, speaking in Nairobi, gave a TED speech that set the stage for where the world stands in its search for Net Zero by 2050: “Many of the oil, gas, and coal producers and their financial allies are now advocating a new approach that they call ‘climate realism.”Al Gore, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztx0Bch3h9s">TED speech</a>, Nairobi, Nigeria, June 2025.)
The fossil fuels industry’s ‘climate realism’ displaces decades of science in the worldwide struggle with two likely outcomes for the climate system by 2050:
<ol type="A">
<li>Net Zero is achieved, resulting in a livable climate system.</li>
<li>Global temperatures ramp up +2-3-4°C pre-industrial, resulting in hothouse Earth, much of the planet unlivable.</li>
</ol>
By all counts, the ‘B’ option has the highest probability because ‘A’ is based upon wishful thinking and a very bumpy record. Whereas ‘B’ is based upon factual data of the current trajectory of climate change, which is well ahead of scientist’s expectations, going in the wrong direction, with some claiming it may already be too late. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry pretends, and hopes for, the ‘A’ option with adaptation measures. This is the genesis of fossil fuel ‘Climate Realism’. In a soft-spoken manner, they claim they can fix what emissions harm.
It’s ten years since Paris ’15 when 195 nations agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions to Net Zero by 2050. Yet, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), ten years later (2025) fossil fuels still account for roughly 80% of the world’s energy supply. This is the same percentage as Paris 2015. It also includes ten years of positive renewable energy development throughout the world, but it’s still 80% fossil fuels. Alas, Net Zero paradoxically looks farther away every year. Is it ever attainable?
Moreover, what is ‘climate realism’ in the eyes of the fossil fuel industry, and what’s the likelihood it’ll keep civilization humming along? The oil and gas industry’s ‘climate realism’ inherently provides for abandonment of efforts to deal with the principal cause of the climate crisis, which is burning of fossil fuels. This new genre calls for focusing on “adaptation” whilst burning more fossil fuels. According to their climate realism school of thought, energy transitions have taken place slowly over the past couple hundred years. So, it is simply unrealistic to expect it could change faster now. In fact, according to Al Gore, the new theory claims society has “no right” to expect anything other than a slow transition, or maybe no transition, like what history has shown to be true. But Gore takes issue: “According to ‘climate realism’, it is cheaper and more practical to continue using the sky as an open sewer than to rapidly reduce the principal cause of the climate crisis, or the burning of fossil fuels.”
In that regard, the United States, arguably the economic model for the world since WWII and seen as the fortress of some brand of capitalism, has literally tossed in the towel on fighting the climate crisis, wholeheartedly adopting “climate realism,” informing the world: Deal With It!
But Al Gore, in his TED talk, referencing current scientific research, challenges ‘Climate Realism’ by exposing real climate realism, to wit: (1) at current rates of change, scientists estimate two billion climate refugees by 2050 (2) the past ten years were the hottest ever recorded with recent readings in the Persian Gulf of 126.7°F and Pakistan 122.9°F and summer’s just started (3) already, a couple million climate refugees have prompted a political upheaval of authoritarianism and ultranationalism, what of 2 billion? (4) whole regions of the world are becoming property-uninsurable, especially in the US West and Deep South (5) mainstream sources’ estimates claim world housing could lose $25 trillion in value because of climate change (6) Deloitte claims climate inaction will cost the world economy $178 trillion but over the same time frame climate action would add $43 trillion (7) Greenland is losing 30 million tons of ice every hour, threatening coastal megacity sea levels (8) Antarctica’s acceleration of ice loss threatens sea levels more so than scientific models ever expected, as 450 polar climate scientists recently held an emergency meeting (9) sea level rise has doubled since 1990s satellite monitoring (10) the worst droughts in history have clobbered the Brazilian Amazon rainforest as 90% of Amazon River in Columbia went dry (11) third year in a row of massive apocalyptic scale wildfires in Canada (12) particulate air pollution from burning fossil fuels and petrochemicals kills nine million per year. Gore’s real climate realism list goes on and on, well beyond the items listed above because of the worldwide impact of a raging out of kilter global climate system principally caused by fossil fuels. And everybody knows it. Yes, everybody sees it on nightly news programs.
In China, 200 million Gig Workers are eligible to receive a “heat wave allowance” or danger money when working in extreme heat conditions. (Bloomberg Green Daily) In 2024 China recorded the hottest year on record. According to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S246826672400241X">The Lancet</a>, heat-related deaths in China have doubled this century.
A Positive Trend Versus Fossil Fuel Emissions
Gore’s speech noted positives in the alternatives space. For example, the costs for renewables have plummeted to levels making fossil fuels unproductive in comparison. Exxon’s own predictions that solar capacity would only achieve 850GW by 2040 was dead wrong; as of year-end 2024, it is already at 2,280 GW, nearly triple the Exxon projection for 2040. Solar is now the least expensive source of electricity in human history. Since the Paris Agreement, solar electricity generation has soared by 732%. And electric vehicle sales have increased 34x since 2015.
In April 2025 <a href="https://taiyangnews.info/markets/china-solar-installations-4m-2025">China installed</a> 45 gigawatts of new solar capacity. This is equivalent to 45 brand new giant nuclear reactors installed in one month. (ed. Technocrats in America want to build risky nuclear plants… why?) Regarding intermittence, the cost of utility-scale batteries has dropped a whopping 87%, making solar w. battery-back-up extremely attractive. Who needs expensive, risky nuclear?
Nevertheless, Gore claims: “In spite of this progress, we are still moving too slowly to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. We have got to accelerate it. We have the ability to do so. But the single biggest reason we have not been able to do so is because of ferocious opposition to virtually every policy proposal to speed up this transition and reduce the emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.”
The fossil fuel industry has been using sleight of hand to convince the public that fossil fuels are just great, no problem, e.g., carbon capture and storage and direct air capture and recycling of plastics will handle everything. Oh please! “These things are much better at capturing politicians than they are at capturing emissions!” (Gore)
They are also very adept at using politicians to fool the public, for example: Tony Blair, speaking on behalf of his foundation, which gets massive funding from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Middle East producers, in a speech claimed, “the center of the battle has to be carbon capture and direct air capture.” Gore: “He really should know better.” His foundation discovered a fountain of riches in the battle for how to approach climate change.
Carbon Capture – If inefficient, the ‘climate realism’ argument is destroyed.
Al Gore: “Carbon capture is a fraud.” It is like fool’s gold taken to the bank and not worth the costs to get it. Carbon capture cannot physically costs-effectively reduce emissions: “<a href="https://thebulletin.org/2022/09/plagued-by-failures-carbon-capture-is-no-climate-solution/">Carbon Capture Has a Long History of Failure</a>,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Sept. 1, 2022.
“Carbon Capture Simply Won’t Work to Meet Net-Zero Targets,” <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2022/9/carbon-capture-simply-won-t-work-to-meet-net-zero-targets-report-says-71959535">S&P Global</a>, Sept. 2, 2022.
“If you spend $1 on carbon capture instead of on wind, water, and <a href="https://guide.thecooldown.com/actions/install-solar-panels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">solar</a>, you are increasing CO2, air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines, and total social costs.” “Researchers (Stanford) Uncover Major Flaw in Technology Used by Top Corporations: It Should be Abandoned,” <a href="https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/nestle-carbon-capture-air-pollution-tech/">TCD</a>, March 20, 2025.
“Why Carbon Capture and Storage is Not the Solution,” <a href="https://ieefa.org/resources/why-carbon-capture-and-storage-not-solution">Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis</a>, July 10, 2024: “Carbon capture and storage (CCS) continues to be hailed as a potential way to reduce emissions, even though it is more likely to increase them.”
If there’s any chance of hitting net zero, forget about carbon capture, instead, it’s imperative that funds be made available for developing countries. They are totally underfinanced and overlooked. For example, the entire continent of Africa has fewer solar panels than Florida. Yet, the continent has 60% of the world’s prime solar resource space. The potential for renewables is huge, but lo and behold, new plans for pipelines to remove fossil fuels from Africa to be shipped to developed countries have tripled as the fossil fuel industry ups the ante in Africa.
In the final analysis, Al Gore believes there is hope with renewables. Of all the new electricity installed in the world in 2024, 93% was renewables, mostly solar. This is a telltale sign of hope but still overpowered by a fossil fuel industry that is fighting for every last dollar by rebranding climate change as “climate realism” with shiny objects (carbon capture) falsely saving the day. Climate realism Newspeak promotes fossil fuel production, and it is winning to the tune of $7 trillion globally per year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in government subsidies such as direct payments, tax breaks, subsidized loans, and the provision of resources at below market rates.
Just imagine $7 trillion per year invested in renewables. Visionary leaders would switch the $7T to renewables. According to Bloomberg NEF, renewable investments in 2024 amounted to 10% of fossil fuel subsidies or $728 billion. But the United States is cutting renewable subsidies at the very moment when record global temperatures and disruptive ecosystems are awakening people throughout the world to Al Gore’s real climate realism. It’s on TV, almost nightly.
Still, the “it’s already too late” core of climate scientists should prompt world leaders to fight back harder than ever and not allow doom and gloom to dictate the future, making US anti-science, anti-renewables policies seem devilishly out of sorts, flashing danger to the world.
*****
NB: An excellent 23-min. video that explains in detail the climate issue: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G96PUbxxR2w">The Ruling Class is Causing Climate Collapse</a>,” Our Changing Climate (Charlie Kilman – Creator), May 2025.The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/al-gore-puts-down-climate-realism/">Al Gore Puts Down “Climate Realism”</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Maasai Demand Volkswagen Pull out of Carbon Offset Scheme on Their Lands</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/maasai-demand-volkswagen-pull-out-of-carbon-offset-scheme-on-their-lands/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Survival International]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2025 14:35:01 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Corporate Globalization]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Corporations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Original Peoples]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159838</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Still from a video by Oldonyo Media, showing residents of Engaruka Chini community protesting the carbon offset project. ©Oldonyo Media Maasai Indigenous people in Tanzania have called on Volkswagen (VW) to withdraw from a controversial carbon credits scheme which violates their rights and threatens to wreck their livelihoods. In a statement, the Maasai International Solidarity […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/maasai-demand-volkswagen-pull-out-of-carbon-offset-scheme-on-their-lands/">Maasai Demand Volkswagen Pull out of Carbon Offset Scheme on Their Lands</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291442/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291442/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw0yEA4EDhxG1VEGyRg_w5VS"><img decoding="async" class="CToWUd" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NZlhLqhuv_noarPiz2-7xIZF1nrdTKM7NU_hd6YryXB9SPOkg2VPIlZiipsaUNuImgrusQVhenVLuCpybXncjuUf_1tCs6IhUmwnZ3KrRGoOiuvmMXJB7L-WCmUYnz3ydM_FN7SPGi8p34A9NrP-xOc0M_-4_kHIoMTVbRSZMQS3GgqjbpEhxUdfEzxpiKDlGac=s0-d-e1-ft#https://aaf1a18515da0e792f78-c27fdabe952dfc357fe25ebf5c8897ee.ssl.cf5.rackcdn.com/2330/image_processing20250704-2-v8v1dm.jpg" alt="Maasai Protest" width="505" height="auto" data-bit="iit" /></a>Still from a video by Oldonyo Media, showing residents of Engaruka Chini community protesting the carbon offset project. ©Oldonyo Media
<td class="m_2033019119561567770story m_2033019119561567770mobPad" align="left">Maasai Indigenous people in Tanzania have called on Volkswagen (VW) to withdraw from a controversial carbon credits scheme which violates their rights and threatens to wreck their livelihoods.
In a statement, the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) <a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291443/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291443/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw1Wmrcx8OMJyT0Vyh7WetHk">denounced</a> the “loss of control or use” of vital Maasai grazing grounds, and accused VW of making “false and misleading claims” about Maasai participation in decision making about the project.
Many Maasai pastoralists have already been evicted from large parts of their grazing lands for national parks and game reserves, with highly lucrative tourist businesses operating in them. Now a major new carbon-credit generating project by Volkswagen ClimatePartner (VWCP) and US-based carbon offset company Soils for the Future Tanzania is taking control of large parts of their remaining lands, and threatening livelihoods by upending long-standing Maasai grazing practices.
The Maasai have not given their free, prior and informed consent for the project. They fear it will restrict their access to crucial refuge areas in times of drought, and threaten their food security.
<a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291444/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291444/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw0SwvP0pKbndH5teIn0VqVx"> <img decoding="async" class="CToWUd" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NaSjUWt0KTGJzTQtVeefKKNgErlJPMHyflnE7ytzeHRYVjJAFm6nKrJFtWls6BwzXkwDxjum9eBL7gbVGXBV7jm6IbEGAG1ch3IWjH2Y3GAzXmkxwx6tX5bYfLMlvP3jGPDyNVeb4QeCTva8dK_mrzNl6tVwD8DbFCExBynkA-zDlGJ=s0-d-e1-ft#https://aaf1a18515da0e792f78-c27fdabe952dfc357fe25ebf5c8897ee.ssl.cf5.rackcdn.com/2330/Maasai+with+button.png" alt="Maasai man with YouTube button: The people of Eluai have said 'No to carbon'." width="400" height="auto" data-bit="iit" /></a>
<td class="m_2033019119561567770story m_2033019119561567770mobPad" align="left">Ngisha Sinyok, a Maasai community member from Eluai village, which is struggling to withdraw from the project, told Survival: “Our livestock is going to be depleted. We will end up not having a single cow.” Asked about VW’s involvement in the project, he replied, “It is not a solution to climate change. It is just a business for people to make money using our environment. It has nothing to do with climate change.”
Another Maasai man, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said: “They use their money to control us.” A third said: “Maasailand never had a price tag. In Maasailand, there is no privatization. Our land is communal.”
Survival International’s Director of Research and Advocacy, Fiona Watson, said today: “The carbon project that Volkswagen supports violates the Maasai’s rights and will be disastrous for their lives, all so the company can carry on polluting and greenwash its image. It takes away the Maasai’s control over their own lands and relies on the false and colonial assumption that they are destroying their lands — which is not supported by evidence.
“The Maasai have been grazing cattle on the plains of East Africa since time immemorial. They know the land and how to manage it better than carbon project developers seeking to make millions from their lands.”
VW’s investment in the project, whose official name is the <a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291445/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291445/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw3IL3sT_u86eSujVkMSFHll">“Longido and Monduli Rangelands Carbon Project”</a>, is believed to run to several million dollars, and has contributed to corruption and tensions in northern Tanzania, according to <a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291446/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291446/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw2ewLWYmjQkfwqZjR6sppyF">MISA’s report</a> on the project.
An adjacent project in southern Kenya, also run by Soils for the Future, is beset with similar problems, and has already sparked <a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291447/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291447/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw19S65_7H3xu15mmv-vn624">resistance from local communities</a>.
Survival International’s <a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291448/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291448/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw0dBbxCyoxQ3sXrgecDGpc9">Blood Carbon report</a> revealed that the whole basis for these “soil carbon” projects is flawed, and unsupported by evidence. Survival documented similar problems with the highly controversial <a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291449/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291449/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw2ydM0eENoeOADQPGdfnYmf">Northern Kenya Grasslands Carbon Project</a>. That project <a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291450/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291450/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw3hkiLlQHQ51dKHY5AyYpVD">suffered a blow in a Kenyan court</a> and was <a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291451/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291451/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw2m69ABO1va6ZhAnDRHh44P">suspended and put under review</a> by Verra, the carbon credit verification agency, for an unprecedented second time.
Notes:
<ol>
<li>Further undermining VW’s “green” credentials, there are serious concerns that the company might source nickel for their electric vehicle batteries from the territory of uncontacted Indigenous Hongana Manyawa people in Halmahera, Indonesia.</li>
<li>VW sources batteries from CATL, a joint venture partner in a new battery factory <a href="https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291452/NZSreLMeb" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://act.survivalinternational.org/s/8291452/NZSreLMeb&source=gmail&ust=1752333826402000&usg=AOvVaw3Hz0by98buxS5k1I4d6dkc">inaugurated last month</a> just a few miles from the territory of the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa.</li>
<li>VW has also signed MOUs with Eramet and Tsingshan, which, together with the Indonesian state mining company, own the biggest nickel mine in the world. That mining operation is currently destroying the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa’s territory.</li>
<li>Volkswagen ClimatePartner (VWCP) is a joint venture between the auto maker and ClimatePartner, a controversial German company which provides carbon offsetting services to polluting businesses.</li>
<li>The 1 million hectare (2.5 million acre) project depends on undermining the Maasai’s traditional and long-standing grazing practices, requiring them to change to ‘Rapid Rotational Grazing’, which removes flexibility and causes hardship – particularly in dry seasons.</li>
</ol>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/maasai-demand-volkswagen-pull-out-of-carbon-offset-scheme-on-their-lands/">Maasai Demand Volkswagen Pull out of Carbon Offset Scheme on Their Lands</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<item>
<title>“I Think I Hit a Nerve”</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/i-think-i-hit-a-nerve/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Middle East Eye]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 12 Jul 2025 14:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Genocide]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Video]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Francesca Albanese]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159855</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Not only is she an extremely courageous person fighting for THE right cause with THE legal arguments. She is also re-inventing what it means to be a diplomat and anyhow getting said what must be said. And, notice, that the UN S-G has never contacted her in THIS situation where she, more than anybody else, […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/i-think-i-hit-a-nerve/">“I Think I Hit a Nerve”</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://substack.com/redirect/e8144f50-3d14-4354-937c-c4362cc185b3?j=eyJ1IjoiM3ppbDAifQ.HCM0t5sQVPS4gzVztALnwoc52H0hG_K6eR1Rjac0B3Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://substack.com/redirect/e8144f50-3d14-4354-937c-c4362cc185b3?j%3DeyJ1IjoiM3ppbDAifQ.HCM0t5sQVPS4gzVztALnwoc52H0hG_K6eR1Rjac0B3Y&source=gmail&ust=1752337708011000&usg=AOvVaw19Rle5JKeebciu9red5CJ8"><img decoding="async" class="CToWUd" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NaPIM1M4-ttpykymnIn3uIEJLBznGSuj_3F21BoSL6IEgf5TFK5YpShL5degO3DJXcdPlKAgoxQajGYlk6zbb2HnY-GrIp_GWaR42vG-lnSnbJ83XOHZUFtOHkreE6IvKbzvI811UnPZQ2Oi4zBSqrq=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/youtube/w_728,c_limit/l_youtube_play_qyqt8q,w_120/H2UX5wIb3RE" data-bit="iit" /></a>
Not only is she an extremely courageous person fighting for THE right cause with THE legal arguments. She is also re-inventing what it means to be a diplomat and anyhow getting said what must be said.
And, notice, that the UN S-G has never contacted her in THIS situation where she, more than anybody else, embodies the UN norms. How shameful.
Appreciation and safety for Francesca Albanese.The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/i-think-i-hit-a-nerve/">“I Think I Hit a Nerve”</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>When Fate Knocks at the Door, Take It by the Throat</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/when-fate-knocks-at-the-door-take-it-by-the-throat/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Curtin]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 15:00:29 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Beliefs]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Philosophy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Right to Life]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159814</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It is getting harder and harder to breathe. The world grows smaller as storms gather. All night the storm raged furiously, the lightning, thunder, rain, and wind locking us in and away from the world. No one expected it to be this bad. The dogs howled like wolves. At most they said it would hinder […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/when-fate-knocks-at-the-door-take-it-by-the-throat/">When Fate Knocks at the Door, Take It by the Throat</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/curtin-lost.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-157881" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/curtin-lost-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/curtin-lost-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/curtin-lost.jpg 275w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></a>It is getting harder and harder to breathe. The world grows smaller as storms gather. All night the storm raged furiously, the lightning, thunder, rain, and wind locking us in and away from the world. No one expected it to be this bad. The dogs howled like wolves.
At most they said it would hinder us, and we, wanting to believe the experts who daily warn of something to fear – overripe bananas, marginal risks of severe weather, squirrel flu, spiders in tight pants, the wrong mascara, fear of falling in loose pants – accepted. Now we are huddled against the onslaught, gasping at the fury that imprisons us.
No one can sleep with the roar and rapping all around. Dawn comes slowly and dark. We huddle around our dinguses to link us to a world we cannot see or hear. They don’t ding. We have lost power. Someone wonders if the satellites are still up, but the sky is too dark for auguries. We listen to the clatter of an eerie silence. Our silence. We are all unknowingly holding our breaths. Another says, I think our phones are wasted, it feels like digital death. The dogs nod.
It is getting harder and harder to hear. Beethoven was so young to become deaf to the world. Someone says this for some unknown reason. She is old. She then says he said, “I will take fate by the throat, it shall not overcome me … I feel that I am not made for a quiet life.” The kids laugh. The windows and roof shake, the dogs howl, I think how true. For me, at least.
Yesterday the Israelis killed 104 Palestinians in Gaza. Par for the course, a daily occurrence. Many children among them. Did those kids hear the bombs and bullets coming? Were they gasping for breath? They are no longer breathing.
Did they call out to God? Do hundreds call out? Thousands call? Millions? Which God? The slaughterer’s made them dead on prayers to their genocidal God who lives in Tel Aviv.
God help us. How? The phones are wasted. Where is the Good God hiding? How can we call him?
The immigrant grandmother, hiding here from Trump’s masked thugs, says through her tears, do any of you remember how in Columbia 25,000 people, 8,00 children, all innocent, died, none of whom are calling out now, as the survivors did when they asked the great good God, why these savage deaths, after the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted and stuffed their mouths with mud, courtesy of Vulcan, the God of fire, courtesy of God Almighty.
No one answers her. Her prayers are singed with a cynicism that she hates. We can’t answer. Most don’t remember. Who will tell her why the good God, the good Earth, their mother rose up to bury so many in mud? Who can tell the survivors’ families why Our Lady of Guadalupe rose and drowned their loved ones recently?
Who is this person called Fate who knocks at our doors? Mother Nature? Father Grinning Jackal in suit and tie with blood oozing through his fake teeth, talking casually about nuclear war and slaughtering the innocent?
An old man says, let’s listen, we must defy fate. He puts a record on the battery operated record player. The wind is howling hideously so he turns the sound up to full volume. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C minor rocks the room, the walls shake like dice in a cup, tossing us on such swells of feeling that time is arrested in its turning. One hears the call to revolution.
Suddenly it is October 1962, a man is time-travelling. The Cuban Missile Crisis – real fear everywhere. Fate knocking on the door, obedient men propped at flashing boards, in Moscow and Washington, D.C., awaiting orders. They are still waiting.
There was a call then. A few men heard it. It was soul deep. In those days there were humans who could recite poetry, grasp the meaning of madness. We survived and have moved on. They call it progress. Technological progress. The machines have the answers to all our questions, except the important ones.
Who will answer the wailing voices seeking answers? Who can tell them why the good God, the good earth their mother rose up to bury them in mud and water? Who dare answer the 1,000,000 Pakistani dead, drowned on November 13, 1970 beneath a cyclone driven tidal wave? Or maybe it was two or three million. Who knows? Who cares to ask: Was it an act of Mother Nature, of God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth? Tell me, who the hell is responsible?
It is getting harder and harder to breathe. The world grows smaller as storms gather. We have been wasted by the phones, dinguses that will not save us from the nuclear weapons that the jackals with polished faces have prepared. Dead men sit at flashing boards awaiting orders. It is depressing but true, and while naturally we cannot stop nature from devouring her children, we can stop the human killers from their appointed task to close down the world and engender all a silent void.
Long later, hours, years – who knows when? – the unexpected storm abated, the roads out were cleared. It was still hazardous to try. The old man who played Beethoven said as we were leaving that we must take fate by the throat and hear the silent cries of all the people desperate for peace on earth.
“Oh, it is so beautiful to live – to live a thousand times. I feel that I am not made for a quiet life.”The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/when-fate-knocks-at-the-door-take-it-by-the-throat/">When Fate Knocks at the Door, Take It by the Throat</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Matriarchy, Witchery and the Great Goddess</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/matriarchy-witchery-and-the-great-goddess/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Bruce Lerro]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 14:47:41 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159803</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In the beginning men and women lived in harmony and peace. We were once one with nature and there were few differences between us in social power or wealth. Women had a special place in early tribal societies: their motherhood was revered, they held positions of authority, and they practiced forms of magic centered on the worship of a monotheistic Goddess. Figurines of Goddesses have been discovered, proving there was once a great women’s religion.
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/matriarchy-witchery-and-the-great-goddess/">Matriarchy, Witchery and the Great Goddess</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Matriarchy-Witchery-and-the-Great-Goddess-Final-Image.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-159804 aligncenter" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Matriarchy-Witchery-and-the-Great-Goddess-Final-Image-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="281" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Matriarchy-Witchery-and-the-Great-Goddess-Final-Image-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Matriarchy-Witchery-and-the-Great-Goddess-Final-Image-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Matriarchy-Witchery-and-the-Great-Goddess-Final-Image-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Matriarchy-Witchery-and-the-Great-Goddess-Final-Image.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></a>
A Heart-Felt Story
In the beginning men and women lived in harmony and peace. We were once one with nature and there were few differences between us in social power or wealth. Women had a special place in early tribal societies: their motherhood was revered, they held positions of authority, and they practiced forms of magic centered on the worship of a monotheistic Goddess. Figurines of Goddesses have been discovered, proving there was once a great women’s religion. At the end of the Bronze Age, hunters and pastoralists from Central Asia invaded these peaceful societies creating social hierarchies, wars, and the beginnings of male dominance. All of this was later sanctioned by the worship of otherworldly, transcendent male deities that eventually coalesced to become a monotheistic God. The Goddess was discredited and went underground, being kept alive in later years by peasant communities in the magical practice of witchcraft. Today the Goddess has resurfaced as a focus of women’s spirituality.
These are the claims about history and social evolution made by many Neo-Pagan or spiritual feminists. To be sure, not all people associated with the Goddess movement believe all of these claims. However, the summary above is probably a fair one, in that each of its elements is repeated in the writings of nearly all of the movement’s leaders. How plausible are these contentions in the light of anthropology, archaeology, macrosociology, political science, world history, mythology studies, and comparative religion? Were there once matriarchies or matrifocal societies? Does reverence for goddesses go all the way back to the Paleolithic Era? Can all or most of the figurines found by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas and others be classified as goddesses? If, in our society, a male god goes with male dominance, is it fair to infer that if we find evidence of goddesses in the ancient world this must indicate female dominance or at least the high status of women? Was motherhood revered in ancient societies? Is all magic goddess-centered? Is all witchcraft synonymous with goddess reverence? Were ancient tribal societies peace-loving before being invaded? Does the movement from polytheism to monotheism involve a battle among male gods, or between male and female gods? Here is a summary of the Goddess movement’s claims.
Common Claims or Assumptions Made by the Goddess Movement
<ul>
<li>There were once matriarchies or matrifocal societies</li>
<li>All or most of the figurines discovered by archeologists are goddesses</li>
<li>Goddess reverence goes all the way back to the Paleolithic Age</li>
<li>All magic is synonymous with goddess reverence</li>
<li>All witchcraft is synonymous with goddess reverence</li>
<li>Ancient People revered a monotheistic goddess</li>
<li>Motherhood is the leading function of goddesses </li>
<li>There is a direct connection between the presences of goddesses in ancient societies and the prosperous material status of women </li>
<li>The rise of institutionalized male dominance was caused by invasions of pastoral nomads</li>
<li>Tribal societies were peace-loving before being invaded by patriarchal societies</li>
<li>The movement from polytheism to monotheism involved battles between male gods and female goddesses</li>
</ul>
In addition to addressing these contentions about history, it is important to make explicit the underlying values of the Goddess movement. I agree with Philip Davis (1998) that the Goddess movement is part of a larger Romantic movement that began during the Renaissance and sustained itself through the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the twentieth century. I will paint as sympathetic picture as I can of the Romantic movement’s perspective on the world.
The Goddess movement is generally critical of Western-style political centralization and the globalization of the human community because Western civilization is not now and never has been truly democratic. The movement’s members tend to believe that all state societies, even those predating capitalism, serve the interests of the wealthy. They do not believe that real democracy can ever work when power is centralized. Furthermore, they resist attempts to universalize different groups of people into a universal humanity because this grouping in the past has, in practice, excluded many groups from the wealth they produced because of their class, race, or gender. At the same time, the movement is generally critical of the competitive values of capitalism and is suspicious of the preoccupation with material wealth, the accumulation of commodities, and high technology. Finally, the Goddess movement is critical of science as a way of knowing because, while proclaiming to be neutral, it actually serves the interests of the elite classes by providing the methodological base by which technologies of war may be built. For these reasons, the movement looks to the political organization of pre-state societies as a model for participatory democracy, pre-capitalists ways of conducting economic relations, and pre-scientific ways of knowing how the world works.
Because the Goddess movement often contrasts the values of tribal societies with those of state societies, it must also challenge the way world history has been presented. According to the Goddess movement, the dominant social order has placed a value judgment on social evolution by claiming that it constitutes “progress”. This means that the more complex societies are, the more they have improved life for everyone. Because the movement challenges this assumption, it must either try to revise history as written or, in more extreme cases, claim that the struggle to discover an objective history is futile. Here the Goddess movement joins forces with the extreme relativism of the Postmodernists, who say that one version of history is as good as another, and that competing ways of knowing about the past are equally relevant. One common approach is to fuse the study of history with mythology. Much of the work of the Goddess movement vacillates between the attempt to revise views of what really happened in history, and the effort to reinterpret history based on ancient mythology. For obvious reasons, this latter strategy garners little sympathy from those historians that aspire to using a scientific methodology.
The system of industrial capitalism has impacts not just on the economy and political structure of societies, but also on their sacred traditions, their ideas about non-human nature, and the collective psyche or mentality of the people. The Goddess movement believes that there is a direct connection between the nature of the perceived sacred sources and the manner in which people treat the natural world. The movement’s members believe that an otherworldly, transcendental God, because he is out of the world, neglects this world and effectively colludes with elites who exploit and pillage the natural world. Conversely, when sacred sources are understood as immanent and worldly, nature is more likely to be treated with respect. According to spiritual feminists, the distant sky-god acts as if he were an absentee landlord. If Goddess advocates are skeptical about centralization and globalization in the political world, they will take the same attitude toward the spiritual world. Rather than believing in a universal monotheistic deity, many people in the Goddess movement prefer a decentralized polytheism, though this is a bone of contention within the movement, as we shall see.
Patriarchal religions and atheistic non-believers have tended to use mechanistic metaphors to describe nature. The Goddess movement rejects the idea of nature-as-machine and believes that nature is alive, that the world is an organism. Even in patriarchal religions nature is often conceived of metaphorically as “mother”. The Goddess movement builds on this theme, viewing human beings and the rest of the animal kingdom as part of “her” body. Just as nature is not separate from sacred sources, so humanity is not separated from other creatures. Other animals are at least the equals of humans and we humans have no business trying to get away from nature or to improve her with scientific techniques. We need to merge with, or get back to, nature. There are also implications for our sense of time. One symptom of humanity’s problems, according to Goddess advocates, is our linear concept of time. This has caused us great problems in understanding how change occurs. Nature, for the Goddess movement, works in cycles. For humanity to merge with nature we would need to understand society and our individual lives as following the cycles of nature. Because the relationship between humanity and the rest of nature must be immanent, people do not need mediators and specialists to interpret sacred experience. We are all explorers together with no need for chaperones.
There are two kinds of nature—external and internal. Our bodies are an internal, microcosmic slice of the external macrocosm of nature. This has deep psychological implications. For the Goddess movement, rationality, analysis, planning, and striving to be objective are the psychological skills an individual uses to dualize or separate our bodies from the rest of nature. These rational skills lead to other dualisms: God vs. nature, nature vs. society, society vs. the individual, and the mind vs. the body. These separations are partly responsible for the problems of the modern world.
It is the non-rational part of the psyche—the part of the mind that synthesizes rather than divides—that is the true source of wisdom. The emotions, sensuality, intuition, and spontaneity are understood as virtuous. The Goddess movement believes that women have these skills more than men do and, generally speaking, though they would probably not claim this explicitly, most members act and talk as though women are inherently better than men.
There are at least two tension points which are worth pointing out. While the Goddess movement opposes traditional female roles and supports experimenting with being simply more human, there is a tension between those who want to develop the skills that men have traditionally been encouraged to claim, and those who want to elevate traditional female skills as inherently superior to male skills.
There is also a tension between the value of innocence in contrast to the value of experience. For the most part, the Goddess movement values experience over innocence but, in their contrast between tribal and state societies, they tend to romanticize tribal societies as innocent and uncorrupted. In the first chapter, I criticized the theory of progress as a way to understand history. Taken in its extreme, New-Age form, the Goddess view of history is a degeneration theory of social evolution. Instead of suggesting, as progress theorists do, that the further we go in history the better it gets, this theory argues that the earlier in time we go the better it gets. A summary chart of these Romantic values follows:
List of Twenty One Composite Values of Ancient Goddess Supporters 
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
<ul>
<li>Simple, pre-state societies are an ideal to strive for (small is beautiful).</li>
<li>Complex, large societies are inherently bad, because they are impersonal.</li>
<li>Innocence is more noble than experience when it comes to social evolution.</li>
<li>What comes earlier in time must be better. Tribal societies are the ideal.</li>
<li>Material wealth, objects/commodities and technology are likely to be corrupting influences.</li>
<li>Science is alienating, cold, unfeeling and doesn’t address what is important in life.</li>
<li>Cooperation and communalism are better than competition as a way to organize social life.</li>
<li>Modern society perpetrates a false unity of humanity, ignoring gender, ethnic and class inequalities.</li>
<li>Myth is at least as important as history.</li>
<li>Historians reduce myth to illusionary or naive history. Support of a real “people’s history,” while retaining the value of mythic stories as a valuable sacred activity.</li>
</ul>
NATURE/SACRED
<ul>
<li>Spirit is immanent in nature and the individual rather than transcendent and separate from nature. Nature is all there is. Behind nature there is only more undiscovered nature.</li>
<li>There are many goddesses and gods – polytheism – there is no single source which “unites them all.*</li>
<li>Nature is understood as an organism, rather than a machine.</li>
<li>Goddesses are inseparable from female physiology: menstruation and childbirth.</li>
<li>Neither organized religion nor atheism provide meaningful answers to the big questions of life.</li>
<li>Other animals are at least the equal of or superior to human beings.</li>
<li>Human beings should merge with nature. We have no business thinking or trying to improve her.</li>
<li>Generally, sacred communion is experiential and not mediated by secular or sacred authorities based on faith.</li>
<li>Change happens in cycles, rather than linearly.</li>
</ul>
PSYCHOLOGY
<ul>
<li>Emotions, sensuality, intuition and the non-rational are at least as good as reason or empiricism as ways of knowing.</li>
<li>What is subjective and personal is better than impartiality and striving to be objective.</li>
<li>Spontaneity is more in touch with what matters in life than planning.</li>
<li>Experimental gender roles are better than traditional male and female roles.</li>
<li>When it comes down to it, women are inherently better than men.</li>
</ul>
* There is a counter-argument which claims that there is a single goddess.
According to Goodison and Morris (1998), the controversy between the supporters of Goddess theory and those who dismiss it is made worse because the two sides do not speak to each other. Those who support the theory are non-specialists, artists, psychotherapists, Neo-pagans, and amateur historians. They accuse academics—archaeologists, ancient historians, and anthropologists—of intentionally ignoring evidence of a powerful female presence in ancient history. This supposed intentional hiding or overlooking of evidence of the Goddess is usually described as being part of a male conspiracy to hide real history. Contemporary specialists in relevant fields ignore the Goddess claims, dismissing them as too far-fetched to take seriously. They also suspect that the movement is motivated by an ideology of feminist reform that attempts to rewrite history in the service of that ideology.
Defining Matriarchy
Victorian anthropologists, in attempting to understand the past, sometimes proposed the existence of tribal societies in which women were at least the equals of men. Part of the feminist movement has latched on to these claims to show the relativity of “patriarchal” institutions today. However, before we address specific arguments, we need a working definition of the term “matriarchy. Both the words patriarchy and matriarchy share the same suffix—archy, from the Greek –archos, which means “rule by.” Therefore, in simple terms patriarchy means the rule of men over women in the areas of technology, economics, politics and religion, art, science. To be consistent with the meaning of the suffix, matriarchy would have to be the reverse of patriarchy—i.e., the rule of women over men in these areas. Matriarchy would mean the control of technological, political, and economic power—the right to control production and distribution beyond the household. Women would have the military power to force men to go along with social policy, and they would control the myths by which the society lives. Have societies with these characteristics actually existed? Presumably, if they have, we should look for evidence among the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, the Neolithic horticulturists, and the Bronze-Age agricultural states.
Before proceeding, it is important to refine our definitions of patriarchy and matriarchy a little further. It is highly unlikely that any sociologist (man or woman) would define patriarchy or matriarchy as referring to “all men” or “all women.” In the case of rank and stratified societies, there is no question that those in power are men. However, the percentage of men with political, economic and technological power is small. The rest of the male population—the middle classes, the working class artisan and peasant men—are subordinate to them. All men have some privileges over women but privilege is not the same as power. A refined definition of patriarchy therefore would be, the power and control exercised by a few men over all women and most men throughout the infrastructure, structure, and superstructure of society, with all men having some privileges over all women. If we want to be consistent with what we know of patriarchal rank and stratified societies, then a matriarchy would be defined as the power and control exercised by a few women over all men and most women throughout the infrastructure, structure, and superstructure of society, with all women having some privileges over all men. Virtually everyone familiar with the evidence archaeology, anthropology, and history agrees that matriarchies have never existed.
What are the implications? If women did not once dominate in the sacred, political, and economic dimensions of society, does this mean that patriarchies have always existed? The hidden assumption of those who ask us to choose between matriarchy and patriarchy as the mode of dominance in ancient societies is that rule over others was always the case. We are simply asked to choose whether it was women or men who were doing the ruling. But in hunting-and-gathering and simple horticultural societies everyone was doing the ruling. This means that these societies were neither matriarchal nor patriarchal.
If matriarchy is simply defined as the reverse of patriarchy, then the notion of its prevalence in early societies is fairly easy to dismiss. However, some sectors within the pagan-feminist community have defined matriarchal societies differently, calling them “matrifocal.” What they mean by this is the existence of egalitarian political and economic relations between men and women in material culture and the predominance of a Goddess or goddesses in sacred culture.
Most anthropologists, archaeologists, and macro-sociologists agree that hunting-and-gathering and simple horticultural societies were politically and economically egalitarian. Here Goddess advocates are on solid ground. But Goddess advocates confuse the issue by insisting that the superstructure of these societies was characterized by reverence for goddesses. This presumed predominance of goddesses, together with a presumed reverence for motherhood, seem to be the major justifications for calling these societies “matrifocal.”
Positive Conclusions
There are at least five positive conclusions to be drawn from the Goddess theorists and their claims with regard to history. First, they are right to point to a time in history when gender relations were politically and economically equal. Second, some of the figurines found by Gimbutas are likely to have been goddesses. Third, goddesses had many positive functions in Bronze Age societies, more than they did once the universalistic religions emerged. Fourth, the practice of magic, including goddess magic, long predated the rise of the great religions. Fifth and last, tribal societies did not engage in mass killings the way state societies did.
Negative Conclusions
In most other instances, however, as we have seen, the Neo-pagan goddess theorists overstate their case or are simply wrong. First, there have never been any matriarchal societies, as we have defined “matriarchy.” This does not mean that all ancient societies were patriarchal: tribal societies were neither patriarchal nor matriarchal. Second, many of the figurines discovered were probably not goddesses; some were male, some were non-gendered, and some were used as dolls, toys, or lucky charms. Third, there is no good evidence for goddess reverence going all the way back to the Paleolithic Age. It is more likely that it began in the Bronze Age.
In terms of sacred practices, while all goddess practices were magical, magical practices were not tied necessarily to goddesses. Magic was conducted with earth spirits, totems, and ancestor spirits long before goddesses came on the scene. Correspondingly, while some elements of witchcraft have existed in all ancient societies, witchcraft was practiced in Paleolithic and Neolithic societies before goddess reverence emerged.
Further, the goddesses within Bronze Age societies were polytheistic, not monotheistic. There was never a single monotheistic Great Goddess who was regarded as presiding over all of society. Further, motherhood was not the leading function of goddesses. While goddesses had many functions, motherhood was not a leading one. This is because most ancient societies did not think much of motherhood.
In addition, there was no direct relationship between reverence for goddesses and high material status for women. At the time Bronze Age civilizations appeared, goddesses already had subordinate status, and this justified the low status of women in these societies. In the Iron Age, with the rise of the great religions, the status of women improved slightly despite the marginalization of goddesses. In societies that can be characterized as egalitarian (hunter-gatherer and simple horticultural societies) there were no goddesses. Therefore, so far “matrifocal” means egalitarian relations between men and women in material culture and the predominance of goddesses in the sacred dimension, ancient societies were not matrifocal. Women’s positive material and sacred status have never coexisted within the same society. When women lived material lives more or less on a par with men—in foraging and simple horticultural societies—the evidence for goddess reverence is absent. When goddesses emerged in agricultural states, women’s material status had already deteriorated (with the exception of queens and priestesses who constituted an insignificant proportion of the population).
The rise of institutionalized male dominance was not caused by pastoral invasions, but rather by processes internal to pre-state societies. Tribal societies were far from peace loving. Their homicide rates and frequency of war were greater than in Bronze and Iron Age State civilizations, in which institutionalized male dominance emerged. Last, the transition/crisis from polytheism to monotheism did not involve conflict between gods and goddesses, but rather between male gods. Table 1 presents these conclusions in chart form.
Goddess theorists either have not studied the anthropological literature fully (reading selectively), or they believe that there was such a thing as matriarchal dominance, at least in the sacred realm, as a kind of article of faith. In the case of child-rearing, it is generally admitted that this was the province of women, but Goddess theorists have projected romanticized notions of motherhood back in time. As a whole, motherhood and child rearing were rarely if ever held as sacred activities in the ancient world. To the extent that male dominance in tribal societies is admitted, it is generally attributed to external sources—male-dominated herders or patriarchal colonialists attacking hunter-gatherers and simple horticulturists—rather than seen as emerging from within societies.
I call Goddess theorists “idealists” because they generally try to explain changes in material institutions—ecology, technology, the economy, and politics—from changes in spiritual beliefs, from the Goddess to the God.
Holding Out the Olive Branch
In denying most of the historical claims of the Goddess movement my intention is descriptive, not proscriptive. I am arguing not for what ought to have happened in gender history, but what is likely actually to have happened. It is certainly comforting and inspiring to believe that there was a time when women were respected in all areas of cultural life. If that were the case, it would be easier to believe that women can again achieve full equality with men in all aspects of society today and in the future. Even if most of the historical claims of the Goddess movement are mistaken we still can use the myths and rituals of pagan people to help build our future. More women have a better life today, at least in industrialized societies, than they ever did in agricultural states when goddesses first arose. The improvement in the life of most women in industrial societies is a solid basis for making a closer connection between women’s material and sacred status in the future. To me, that project offers the best prospect for achieving the Goddess theorists’ ultimate aims.
This article is a summary of a thirty page chapter I wrote from my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Power-Eden-Emergence-Hierarchies-Ancient/dp/1412021413">Power in Eden: The Emergence of Gender Hierarchies in the Ancient World.</a>
Critique of the Goddess Movement Model of Ancient History
<table width="714">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="258">Neopagan Matriarchy, 
Goddess Claims</td>
<td width="227">Neopagan Marxist Claims</td>
<td width="229">Christian Progress Implications
(which are not being implied)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">There were once matriarchies</td>
<td width="227">Tribal societies were neither 
matriarchal nor patriarchal</td>
<td width="229">Patriarchies have always
existed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">All female figurines found were 
Goddesses</td>
<td width="227">Some figurines were goddesses,
Others’ gods, non-gendered dolls,
Toys or lucky charms</td>
<td width="229">Figurines were erotic toys for
Pagan heathens</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">Goddesses go all the way back 
to the Paleolithic</td>
<td width="227">Spirits, totems and ancestor
spirits preceded all goddesses
and gods
(goddesses and gods are
products of stratified
agricultural states)</td>
<td width="229">There was God before there
were goddesses</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">All magic was Goddess 
centered</td>
<td width="227">While all goddess reverence is
magic centered, not all magic
is goddess centered</td>
<td width="229">Religion preceded magic
Magic is degenerate religion</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">All witchcraft is Goddess
centered </td>
<td width="227">While goddess
practitioners use magic
witchcraft has been used
w/o references to goddesses</td>
<td width="229">All goddess practitioners use
witchcraft</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">Goddess practice was 
monotheistic</td>
<td width="227">With the exception of modern
feminist Neopaganism,
goddess reference was
polytheistic – only male gods
were monotheistic</td>
<td width="229">Monotheism was the original
sacred form</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">Motherhood was the leading 
function of goddesses</td>
<td width="227">Goddesses had many public
functions which were more
important. Motherhood not as
important in hunting and
gathering societies</td>
<td width="229">Fatherhood was revered</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">There is a direct correspondence between the presence of goddesses and high material status of women</td>
<td width="227">There is a connection between the perceived source of resource supply and the gender of the source, not between sacred status and the status of women.</td>
<td width="229">Women have always had a second class identity</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258"></td>
<td width="227">When goddesses were present, the status of women was low. When earth-spirits, totems or ancestor spirits were present, women were roughly equal to men</td>
<td width="229"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">Invasions by pastoralists caused institutionalized male dominance</td>
<td width="227">Institutionalized male dominance was caused by processes internal to chiefdoms and agricultural states before the invasions of pastoralists</td>
<td width="229">Institutionalized male dominance has always existed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">Pre-state societies were peaceful</td>
<td width="227">All pre-state societies were violent
Most were warlike
There were few warless societies</td>
<td width="229">Wars are caused by male aggression</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="258">The movement from polytheism to monotheism was between gods and goddesses</td>
<td width="227">The emergence of monotheism was played out mythologically between male gods rather than between and female goddesses</td>
<td width="229">Goddesses had no power in mythology</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
 The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/matriarchy-witchery-and-the-great-goddess/">Matriarchy, Witchery and the Great Goddess</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Remembering Cornelius Castoriadis, the only French Intellectual with Humor</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/remembering-cornelius-castoriadis-the-only-french-intellectual-with-humor/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dimitris Eleas]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 14:45:40 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Obituary]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Philosophy]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159790</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Cornelius Castoriadis reflected on man. And he decided that the role of each person in the social-historical is so important. Philosopher with an intellect of many carats. Castoriadis was in awe of the ideas. And ideas are what in time brought about his faith in man. He is a Greek (—French) who honors our ancestors. […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/remembering-cornelius-castoriadis-the-only-french-intellectual-with-humor/">Remembering Cornelius Castoriadis, the only French Intellectual with Humor</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://iep.utm.edu/cornelius-castoriadis/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://iep.utm.edu/cornelius-castoriadis/&source=gmail&ust=1752216144840000&usg=AOvVaw3IKgBLcrsEWm3pP6_jSW0Z">Cornelius Castoriadis</a> reflected on man. And he decided that the role of each person in the social-historical is so important. Philosopher with an intellect of many carats.
Castoriadis was in awe of the ideas. And ideas are what in time brought about his faith in man. He is a Greek (—French) who honors our ancestors. Where was Castoriadis’ house in Athens? How did he spend his childhood? Behind what shadow was he growing?
Castoriadis therefore lived in three cities: Constantinople (Istanbul today), Athens, and Paris. He was born in the first in 1922, grew up in Athens and, he left for France at the age of 23. In the latter city he was educated and died in 1997.
Castoriadis competed from a young age and read a lot. In Athens, he studied law and philosophy. Cornelius’ house – as the author Mimika Kranaki, a friend of his youth, informs us – was located behind the Metropolis (main Cathedral) of Athens, 5 Hypatias Street. The volume of the temple will become a forerunner, years later, of his thinking against God and all religions. So, Cornelius grew up ‘in the shadow of God.’ In this house, at the age of only six, he “attempted to kill himself”, grabbing an electricity cable with wet hands… From a young age, Cornelius was interested in many areas of thought. He himself began to read early and learned how to promote thought. It was inspired by Max Weber’s work on bureaucracy. Karl Marx’s texts were read by him inside this house.
This is where he returned after school and later after the lectures of the neo-Kantian philosopher K. Despotopoulos at the university. He was also a brave young man. At the age of just 13 he lost all his hair, and his mother, Sophia Castoriadis, went insane and died a few months later. His father, Caesar Castoriadis, who made sure that he did not miss anything – there was also a phonograph in the house – is a Voltairean, who because he did not allow his son to stay up all night to complete the written punishment that the school had imposed on him, almost caused Cornelius to grab the wet cable as mentioned above.
At the same time, the loss of hair gave him strength at a very tender age. His friends now call him “globos” [“light bulb”]. In his first steps, he also sees the power that “small circles or small groups” have in the evolution of History and ideas.
The Odyssey of Castoriadis
The journey – the Odyssey… – of 1945 will be of a colossal importance! Paris with its libraries, its students, the groups that write history and the ‘biggest A’ in the world… He also read a lot. In Paris, in 1948, Castoriadis with co-founder Claude Lefort, and together with other friends/partners, created the group and the magazine, Socialism or Barbarism (1949-65 the magazine, until ΄66 the group) for the battle of ideas – the Iliad…– and in this magazine, under various pseudonyms, Castoriadis published many theoretical texts.
At the same time, Cornelius Castoriadis also started working as a professional economist at the OECD and his writings were another reason to be written under various pseudonyms, such as Paul Gardan, etc. Through each line ‘that he composes like a musician’, Paris is the city that strengthens his thinking. In Paris, Sigmund Freud will influence him decisively. Reading Freud, he saw clearly what it was missing from Marx. That was, the human subject… His work is a continuous critique, to which it can be given a critical interpretation. The two pillars of the Castoriadian creation, are: “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262031349/the-imaginary-institution-of-society/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262031349/the-imaginary-institution-of-society/&source=gmail&ust=1752216144840000&usg=AOvVaw36jzhpmv93AJ4G4-NPrmvS">the imaginary institution of society</a>” and “autonomy”. Castoriadis contributed to many areas of thought.
The personal acquaintance
 Here, let me just add that I knew him in person, we had exchanged a few letters, and I had spoken to him on the phone. I sent him the first letter when I was 18 years old, and he replied. And above all his kindness! He was extremely polite in our meetings, in his office or, when we went for a swim the other day. He radiated a light and had a sophisticated sense of humor.
With him, there was no chance not to smile or laugh at something he would say or, at a remark he would make. He was an active man, who did a lot of stuff in a single day. I saw him swimming in the Greek sea, he could easily swim from island to island in the Aegean Sea. I have never forgotten the image of him swimming… He was also moving his hands a lot, not in the water, but mostly out of it. His thought has an experiential depth/ethos that I saw with my own eyes.
Castoriadis, who has always been exuberant in expression and strong in spirit, is constantly evolving. On a personal level: Women, gambling, <a href="https://www.jhiblog.org/2023/06/19/thinking-with-and-remembering-castoriadis/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jhiblog.org/2023/06/19/thinking-with-and-remembering-castoriadis/&source=gmail&ust=1752216144840000&usg=AOvVaw1se2uW-1sbZVguw8RXfK_H">cigars, whiskey,</a> the stock market and songs with a sad theme (moirologia, traditional Greek laments for the dead]) also play their crucial part. He had a very strong personality, and because of this, his path was lonely and outside the intellectual fashions of Paris. He stood out.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Castoriadis" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Castoriadis&source=gmail&ust=1752216144840000&usg=AOvVaw3Xdt96FN0oOYiswn_2UKPK">Cornelius Castoriadis</a> had a love for dialogue and for every new thought that entered his mind. He liked ideas, and he told me when we met in his office, “when a new idea comes to my mind I feel a great surprise.” Awe for ideas, and from this awe, he started and reflected on the uniqueness that every human being deserves / every human being has. The uniqueness, let’s say, of the militant Nikitaras (Greek War of Independence hero, 1821), who was shouting to the Turks, “Persians, let’s fight”! The ‘only theory’ left behind by Cornelius Castoriadis is his imprint as a Human. An imprint that marked those who mostly knew him up close.
 Exuberant and powerful spirit
When asked how he knows that the cow appearing before them is wild, he answers in a lively voice, “but it has an expression on its face.” (It was, apparently, the peculiar breed of cow of the Greek island of Tinos.) Thus, he impresses the listener, and imparts knowledge hand in hand with humor. How did I find myself in the car driven by Castoriadis himself in 1996? This is the “<a href="https://www.politeianet.gr/books/9786185011697-eleas-dimitris-aggelaki-idiotikos-kornilios-236080" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politeianet.gr/books/9786185011697-eleas-dimitris-aggelaki-idiotikos-kornilios-236080&source=gmail&ust=1752216144840000&usg=AOvVaw1iXUi_50mil890OE3tLSHP">Personal testimony</a>” that I developed in the humble book of 2014. The rare gift of humor that the ‘atheist Castoriadis’ had is like the strong stings you receive when you read him. He had a sense of humor and like a person as I said. And the ‘bites of humor’ make you say, “the West/Hellenism gave birth to a genius”.
The legacy of Cornelius Castoriadis is priceless. And although we are separated from ancient Greece by 130,000 weeks, Castoriadis was, “an ancient Greek in Paris” as I often say. Man dies at some point, but his ideas remain standing. I think, he will continue to inspire… just like the Parthenon.
In conclusion, the above thoughts/‘pictures’ published here, in a highly summarized form, are those delivered in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4duvKwCry0Q" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D4duvKwCry0Q&source=gmail&ust=1752216144841000&usg=AOvVaw0gNH31zX1m6iGAsFZhuwWz">humble lecture in the Greek language</a> (it’s the first forty minutes) that took place on Sunday, October 13, 2024 (Institute of Research and Study Thucydides, President Mr. Dimitris Trapeziotis). An ‘early manuscript’ of this speech was read by the excellent expatriate intellectual and professor, Mr. Vrasidas Karalis, in Sydney, Australia, and this fact, as well as his apt observations, honor him in particular.The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/remembering-cornelius-castoriadis-the-only-french-intellectual-with-humor/">Remembering Cornelius Castoriadis, the only French Intellectual with Humor</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>New Superman Movie in MAGA Crosshairs: Will Right-Wing Critics Be Box Office Kryptonite?</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/new-superman-movie-in-maga-crosshairs-will-right-wing-critics-be-box-office-kryptonite/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Bill Berkowitz]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 14:29:21 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Arts and/or Entertainment]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wokism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[DC]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[James Gunn]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Jesse Watters]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[MAGA]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159821</guid>
<description><![CDATA[These days, it doesn’t take much to antagonize MAGA, and James Gunn, the director of the new Superman film, scheduled to be released on July 11, has set off another outrage cycle. “I mean, Superman is the story of America,” Gunn said in an interview with the Times of London, “An immigrant that came from […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/new-superman-movie-in-maga-crosshairs-will-right-wing-critics-be-box-office-kryptonite/">New Superman Movie in MAGA Crosshairs: Will Right-Wing Critics Be Box Office Kryptonite?</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<img decoding="async" title="A remastered version of the 1949 Superman book cover with the Man of Steel teaching kids about tolerance" src="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1283922/story_image/superman-tolerance-1949.jpg?1711130265" srcset="https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1283922/story_image/superman-tolerance-1949.jpg?1711130265 1024w, https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1283922/lightbox/superman-tolerance-1949.jpg?1711130265 768w, https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1283922/large/superman-tolerance-1949.jpg?1711130265 600w" alt="A remastered version of the 1949 Superman book cover with the Man of Steel teaching kids about tolerance" width="505" height="696.9" />
These days, it doesn’t take much to antagonize MAGA, and James Gunn, the director of the new Superman film, scheduled to be released on July 11, has set off another outrage cycle.
“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” Gunn said in an interview with the Times of London, “An immigrant that came from other places […] but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
Amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, mass deportation plans, and creation of concentration camps like Alligator Alcatraz, Gunn also noted that his film leans into the character’s well-known backstory as an otherworldly refugee, a plot point that has been explored in Superman comics over the years.
MAGA influencers jumped on Gunn speedier than longtime Superman antagonist Lex Luther, General Zod, and Mister Mxyzptlk. Fox News host Laura Ingraham dismissed the film entirely, declaring it as “another film we won’t be seeing.”
“He’s creating a moat of woke, enlightened opinion around him. He’s got a woke shield,” Fox News host <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-superman-james-gunn-woke-b2784869.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Greg Gutfeld said</a> as an on-screen graphic blared that the “Superwoke” movie embraced “pro-immigrant themes.”
“I’m going to skip seeing Superman now. Director is an absolute moron to say this publicly the week before release,” conservative radio host and OutKick founder Clay Travis complained.
“I can’t believe that we’ve come down to that,” she complained. “We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us. I wonder if it will be successful.” MAGA-boosting Fox News host Jesse Watters, meanwhile, followed up by joking that Superman’s cape is now emblazoned with “MS-13.”
The Daily Dot’s Anna Good reported that “Gunn’s <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/superman-legacy-casting-green-lantern-james-gunn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">version of Superman</a> focuses on empathy, morality, and alienation. These themes have been embedded in the character since his 1938 debut in the first issue of Action Comics. In his interview, Gunn acknowledged that the movie might be received differently in liberal vs. conservative parts of the country.”
Gunn’s take on aligns with the character’s Jewish roots. Created in the 1930s by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, sons of Jewish immigrants who fled the European pogroms, Superman was born of a need for hope during a time of rising anti-Semitism.
“Yes, it’s about politics,” Gunn told The Times of London. “But on another level it’s about morality. Do you never kill no matter what — which is what Superman believes — or do you have some balance, as Lois believes? It’s really about their relationship and the way different opinions on basic moral beliefs can tear two people apart.”
Gunn pointed out that “I’m telling a story about a guy who is uniquely good, and that feels needed now because there is a meanness that has emerged due to cultural figures being mean online.”
“My reaction to [the backlash] is that it is exactly what the movie is about,” he declared. “We support our people, you know? We love our immigrants. Yes, Superman is an immigrant, and yes, the people that we support in this country are immigrants and if you don’t like that, you’re not American. People who say no to immigrants are against the American way.”The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/new-superman-movie-in-maga-crosshairs-will-right-wing-critics-be-box-office-kryptonite/">New Superman Movie in MAGA Crosshairs: Will Right-Wing Critics Be Box Office Kryptonite?</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Why Public Funds Should Be Deposited in Publicly-Owned Banks</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/why-public-funds-should-be-deposited-in-publicly-owned-banks/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ellen Brown]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 14:25:22 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Banks]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Finance]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Public banks]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Bank of North Dakota]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Non-Partisan League]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Thomas Marois]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159809</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A thriving economy requires that credit flow freely for productive use. But today, a handful of giant banks diverts that flow into an exponentially-growing self-feeding pool of digital profits for themselves. Rather than allowing the free exchange of labor and materials for production, our system of banking and credit has acted as a tourniquet on […]
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/why-public-funds-should-be-deposited-in-publicly-owned-banks/">Why Public Funds Should Be Deposited in Publicly-Owned Banks</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[A thriving economy requires that credit flow freely for productive use. But today, a handful of giant banks diverts that flow into an exponentially-growing self-feeding pool of digital profits for themselves. Rather than allowing the free exchange of labor and materials for production, our system of banking and credit has acted as a tourniquet on production and a drain on resources.
Yet we cannot do without the functions banks perform; and one of these is the creation of “money” as dollar-denominated bank credit when they make loans. This advance of credit has taken the form of “fractional reserve” lending, which has been heavily criticized. But historically, it is this sort of credit created on the books of banks that has allowed the wheels of industry to turn. Employers need credit at each stage of production before they have finished products that can be sold on the market, and banks need to be able to create credit as needed to respond to this demand. Without the advance of credit, there will be no products or services to sell; and without products to sell, workers and suppliers cannot get paid.
Bank-created deposits are not actually “unbacked fiat” simply issued by banks. They can be created only when there is a borrower. In effect, the bank has monetized the borrower’s promise to repay, turning his promise to pay tomorrow into money that can be spent today — spent on the workers and materials necessary to create the products and services that will be sold to repay the loans. As <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-01-02-0041">Benjamin Franklin wrote</a>, “many that understand Business very well, but have not a Stock sufficient of their own, will be encouraged to borrow Money; to trade with, when they have it at a moderate interest.”
If banks have an unfair edge in this game, it is because they have managed to get private control of the credit spigots. They have often used this control not to serve business, industry, and society’s needs but for their private advantage. They can turn credit on and off at will, direct it at very low interest to their cronies, or use it for their own speculative ventures; and they collect the interest as middlemen. This is not just a modest service fee covering costs. Interest has been calculated to compose <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Interest-Inflation-Free-Money-Everybody/dp/0964302500/ref=sr_1_3?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cPugltZ2A8zXApMYJxUosb6c3i7f3Fr7QWjwAmQVSToQ5tl5YOl50lVqCFsIEq1DvnhC3H7gnE30KYB44o7bBn1rIlZoVVwR-RwYTioeI4NGpDgyMxiSPBV0-CR5vojFpUgnGhz3Tmum9YOq0K20Zp5ByauWvNps-P_UINZDlHnUawl8Ze6h_TpIGqmfVe_DoRFOY5hJTx5vJqMxSbK2RL_Sisd1w8ayGUm_FjWBGRA.jDtBxUkonqvQWwtepIYIGWkiejjeFYUWY9JzxbqjidM&dib_tag=se&qid=1737481550&refinements=p_27%3AMargrit+Kennedy&s=books&sr=1-3&text=Margrit+Kennedy">a third of everything we buy</a>.
Anyone with money has a right to lend it, and any group with money can pool it and lend it; but the ability to create money-as-credit ex nihilo (out of nothing), backed by the “full faith and credit” of the government and the people, is properly a public function, the proceeds of which should thus return to the public. The virtues of an expandable credit system can be retained while avoiding the exploitation to which private banks are prone, by establishing a network of public banks that serve the people because they are owned by the people.
The Stellar Example of the Bank of North Dakota 
Publicly-owned banks can exist at many levels, from giant multinational infrastructure banks, to national infrastructure or postal banks, to local banks owned by states, counties, cities or tribes. In his 2021 book titled <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/9781108839150">Public Banks</a>, Professor Thomas Marois showed that 17% of banks are publicly owned, with collective assets just under $49 trillion. In the US today, many groups are working on establishing local public banks. But our only existing state-owned bank is the century-old Bank of North Dakota (BND), a stellar model that will be the focus of this paper.
The BND was founded in 1919, when North Dakota farmers rose up against the powerful out-of-state banking-railroad-granary cartel that was unfairly foreclosing on their farms. They formed the Non-Partisan League, won an election, and founded the state’s own bank and granary, both of which are still active today.
The BND operates within the private financial market, working alongside private banks rather than replacing them. It provides loans and other banking services, primarily to other banks, local governments, and state agencies, which then lend to or invest in private sector enterprises. It operates with a profit motive, with profits either retained as capital to increase the bank’s loan capacity or returned to the state’s general fund, supporting public projects, education, and infrastructure.
According to the BND website, <a href="https://thebndstory.nd.gov/an-agile-partner/returns-to-the-general-fund/">more than $1 billion</a> had been transferred to the state’s general fund and special programs through 2018, most of it in the previous decade. That is a substantial sum for a state with a population that is only about one-fifteenth the size of Los Angeles County.
The BND actually beats private banks at their own game, generating a larger return on equity (ROE, that is, net profit divided by shareholder equity) for its public citizen-owners than even the largest Wall Street banks return to their private investors (for figures, see below). These profits belong to the citizens and are generated without taxation, lowering tax rates. On October 3, 2024, Truth in Accounting’s annual <a href="https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-state-of-the-states-2024">Financial State of the States report</a> rated North Dakota #1 in fiscal health, with a budget surplus per taxpayer of $55,600. Small businesses are now failing across the country <a href="https://www.aspenpublicradio.org/economics/2024-05-16/report-small-businesses-are-failing-at-higher-rates-in-their-first-year">at increasingly high rates</a>; but that’s not true in North Dakota, which was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/best-states-to-start-a-business/#:~:text=North%20Dakota%20holds%20the%20top%20position%20from%202023,for%20entrepreneurs%20who%20are%20mindful%20of%20initial%20expenses.">rated by Forbes Magazine</a> the best state in which to start a business in 2024.
Why So Profitable? The BND Model
For nearly a century, the BND maintained a low profile. But in 2014, it was <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/shale-boom-helps-north-dakota-bank-earn-returns-goldman-would-envy-1416180862">featured in the Wall Street Journal</a>, which reported that the Bank of North Dakota “is more profitable than Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has a better credit rating than J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and hasn’t seen profit growth drop since 2003.” The article credited this success to the shale oil boom; but <a href="http://ellenbrown.com/2014/11/19/wsj-reports-bank-of-north-dakota-outperforms-wall-street/">North Dakota was already reporting record profits</a> in the spring of 2009, when every other state was in the red and the oil boom had not yet hit.
The average ROE of the BND from 2000 through 2024 (its latest annual report) was 19.4%. Compare JPMorgan Chase (JPM), <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/02/1173247344/with-a-recent-takeover-there-are-worries-jpmorgan-chase-has-grown-too-large">by far the largest bank</a> in the country, with 2.4 trillion in deposits. Its average ROE from 2000-23 was 11.38% over the same period. For a detailed breakdown, see <a href="https://publicbankinginstitute.org/which-is-more-profitable-jpmorgan-chase-or-the-bank-of-north-dakota/">here</a>.
How could the BND have outperformed JPM, the nation’s largest bank? Most important, it has substantially lower costs and risks than private commercial banks. It has no exorbitantly-paid executives; pays no bonuses, fees, or commissions; has no private shareholders; and has low borrowing costs. It partners with local banks in “participation loans,” avoiding loan origination costs. It engages in old-fashioned conservative banking and does not speculate in derivatives, so it has no losses or risk from derivative trades gone wrong.
The BND does not need to advertise or compete for depositors. It has a massive, captive deposit base in the state itself, which must deposit all of its revenues in the BND by law. Most state agencies also must deposit there. The BND takes some token individual deposits, but it <a href="https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Demos_NationalBankPaper.pdf">does not compete</a> with local banks for commercial deposits or loans. As for municipal (as distinct from state) government deposits, the BND generally not only reserves those deposits for local community banks but enhances their ability to secure municipal deposits. In many states, stringent collateral requirements are attached to municipal government deposits, such as a <a href="https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t21c04.pdf">110% collateral requirement</a> with high quality securities. This essentially prevents local banks from using municipal deposits to fund local lending. In North Dakota, however, the BND <a href="https://bnd.nd.gov/bank-services/fi/letter-of-credit-pledge-for-public-deposits/">provides letters of credit</a> that guarantee the deposits of municipal governments and other public corporations, making collateral unnecessary and making municipal deposits available for local lending. In addition to its deposit base, the BND also has a substantial capital base, with a <a href="https://bnd.nd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023-BND-Annual-Report.pdf">capital fund totaling $1.059 billion</a> in 2023, along with deposits of $8.7 billion.
Among other costs avoided by the BND are those for fines, penalties and settlements arising from government and civil lawsuits. Since the year 2000, JPM has <a href="https://dailyhodl.com/2024/11/22/jpmorgan-chase-pays-40000000000-in-fines-and-settlements-as-us-bank-battles-hundreds-of-ongoing-legal-challenges-report/">paid more than $40 billion</a> in total fines and settlements to regulators, enforcement agencies and lawsuits related to anti-competitive practices, securities abuses and other violations; and it is still facing several hundred open legal cases.
The State’s Deposits Are Safer in Its Own Bank
The BND is not only more profitable but also safer than JPM. In fact <a href="https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/07/federal-data-show-jpmorgan-chase-is-by-far-the-riskiest-bank-in-the-u-s/">federal data show</a> that JPM is the most systemically risky bank in the country. The BND, by contrast, has been called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTidNcoeh6w">the nation’s safest bank</a>. Its stock cannot be short-sold, since it is not publicly traded; and it will not suffer a run, since the state would not “run” on itself.
Compare JP Morgan Chase, which has <a href="https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/03/at-year-end-jpmorgan-chase-held-over-1-trillion-in-uninsured-deposits-versus-119-billion-at-first-republic/">over $1 trillion in uninsured deposits</a>, the type most likely to be withdrawn in a crisis. In March 2023, the FDIC insurance fund had a balance of only <a href="https://www.fdic.gov/news/speeches/2023/spmay3123.html">$116.1 billion</a> – only 5% of JPM’s total deposits of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/14/jpmorgan-chase-jpm-earnings-1q-2023.html">$2.38 trillion</a>. JPM also had major counterparty risk in the derivatives market, with <a href="https://www.occ.gov/publications-and-resources/publications/quarterly-report-on-bank-trading-and-derivatives-activities/files/pub-derivatives-quarterly-qtr1-2023.pdf">close to $60 trillion in total (notional) derivatives</a>. The risks of large notional derivative exposures were highlighted in the 2012 <a href="https://wallstreetonparade.com/2019/05/jpmorgan-chase-owns-2-2-trillion-in-stock-derivatives-two-thirds-the-total-for-all-banks">“London Whale” scandal</a>, in which JPM incurred $6.2 billion in losses from exotic derivatives trades.
Not just the Bank of North Dakota but North Dakota’s local banks are very safe, aided by the BND with liquidity, capitalization, regulation, loan guarantees, and other banker’s bank services. No local North Dakota banks have been in trouble during this century, but if they were to suffer a bank run, the BND would be there to help. According to its former <a href="https://publicbankinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/pbi_eric_hardmeyer_interview_WEB.pdf">CEO Eric Hardmeyer,</a> the BND has a pre-approved fed funds line set up with every bank in the state; and if that is insufficient for liquidity, the BND can simply buy loans from a troubled local bank as needed.
Today, state governments often deposit their revenues in giant Wall Street banks designated as SIFIs (Systemically Important Financial Institutions), including JPM; but those banks are riskier than they appear. They “insure” their capital <a href="https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/03/wall-street-mega-banks-have-created-a-circular-firing-squad-with-credit-derivatives-and-capital-relief-trades-with-the-feds-blessing/">with interconnected derivatives</a> backed by collateral that has been “rehypothecated” (pledged or re-used several times over). The Financial Stability Board in Basel has <a href="https://www.fsb.org/uploads/shadow_banking_overview_of_progress_2015.pdf">declared that practice to be risky</a>, “[a]s demonstrated by the 2007-09 global financial crisis.” The five largest Wall Street depository banks hold <a href="https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/02/five-wall-street-banks-hold-223-trillion-in-derivatives-83-percent-of-all-derivatives-at-4600-banks/">$223 trillion in derivatives</a> — a risk highlighted by the Bank for International Settlements as “huge, missing and growing” in <a href="https://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt2212.htm">its December 2022 Quarterly Review</a> — and they have a combined <a href="https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/03/report-five-banks-have-a-combined-half-trillion-dollars-in-commercial-real-estate-loans-number-1-is-jpmorgan-chase/">half trillion dollars in commercial real estate loans</a>, also very risky in the current financial environment.
Under the Dodd Frank Act of 2010, a SIFI that goes bankrupt will not be bailed out by the government but will be recapitalized through “bail-ins,” meaning the banks are to “bail in” or extract capital from their creditors. That includes their “secured” and “collateralized” depositors, including state and local governments. Under the Bankruptcy Act of 2005 and Uniform Commercial Code Secs. 8 and 9, derivative and repo claims have seniority over all others and could easily wipe out all of the capital of a SIFI, including the “collateralized” deposits of state and local governments. The details are complicated, but the threat is real and imminent. See fuller discussions <a href="https://scheerpost.com/2024/01/15/ellen-brown-casino-capitalism-and-the-derivatives-market-time-for-another-lehman-moment/">here</a> and <a href="https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/14/ellen-brown-defusing-the-derivatives-time-bomb-some-proposed-solutions/">here</a>, David Rodgers Webb’s <a href="https://thegreattaking.com/">The Great Taking</a>, and Chris Martenson’s series drilling down into the obscure legalese of the enabling legislation, concluding <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVAijCscQ3w">here</a>.
Even if the SIFIs remain solvent, they are not using state deposits and investments for the benefit of the state from which they come, and often they are betting against the public interest. The BND, on the other hand, is mandated to use its funds for the benefit of the North Dakota public. Other states would do well to follow North Dakota’s lead.
Advantages of a State-owned Bank for the Public, Local Government and Local Banks
Like private banks, a publicly-owned bank has the ability to create money in the form of bank credit on its books, and it has access to very low interest rates. But the business model of private banks requires them to take advantage of these low rates to extract as much debt service as the market will bear for the benefit of the bank’s private investors. A public bank can pass low rates on to local residents and businesses. It can also recapture the interest on local government projects, making them substantially cheaper than when funded through the bond market. As described above, the BND’s profits belong to the citizens and are generated without taxation, lowering tax rates. The BND also serves North Dakota’s local banks. It acts as a mini-Fed for the state, providing correspondent banking services to virtually every financial institution in North Dakota. It provides secured and unsecured , check-clearing, cash management and automated clearing house services for local banks. It participates in their loans and guarantees them, so the banks are willing to take on more risk, and they have been able to keep loans on their books rather than selling them to investors to meet capital requirements. As a result, North Dakota banks were able to avoid the 2008-09 subprime and securitization debacles and the 2023 wave of bank bankruptcies.
By partnering with the BND, local banks can also take on local projects that might be too large for their own resources or in which Wall Street has no interest, projects that might otherwise go to out-of-state banks or remain unfunded. Due to this amicable partnership, the North Dakota Bankers’ Association endorses the BND as a partner rather than a competitor of the state’s private banks.
Serving the State as a Rainy Day Fund and for Disaster Relief
Unlike the Federal Reserve, which is not authorized to support state and local governments except in very limited circumstances, North Dakota’s “mini-Fed” <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/03/how-nations-only-state-owned-bank-became-envy-wall-street/">can help directly</a> with state government funding. Having a cheap and ready <a href="https://www.jamestownsun.com/news/pipeline-protest-costs-to-reach-double-digit-millions-emergency-spokeswoman-says">credit line</a> with the state’s own bank reduces the need for wasteful rainy-day funds invested at minimal interest in out-of-state banks.
The BND has also demonstrated the power of a state-owned bank to leverage state funds into new credit-dollars for disaster relief. <a href="http://publicbanking.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/hurricane-sandy-the-great-red-river-flood-how-the-public-bank-of-north-dakota-saved-grand-forks/">Its emergency capabilities were demonstrated</a>, for example, when record flooding and fires devastated Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 1997. Floodwaters covered virtually the entire city and took weeks to fully recede. Property losses topped $3.5 billion. The response of the state-owned bank was immediate and comprehensive. It quickly established nearly $70 million in credit lines – to the city, the state National Guard, the state Division of Emergency Management, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, and for individuals, businesses and farms. It also launched a Grand Forks disaster relief loan program and allocated $5 million to help other areas affected by the spring floods. Local financial institutions matched these funds, making a total of more than $70 million available.
The BND coordinated with the U.S. Department of Education to ensure forbearance on student loans; worked closely with the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration to gain forbearance on federally backed home loans; established a center where people could apply for federal/state housing assistance; and worked with the North Dakota Community Foundation to coordinate a disaster relief fund, for which the bank served as the deposit base. The bank also reduced interest rates on existing Family Farm and Farm Operating programs. Remarkably, no lives were lost, and the city was quickly rebuilt and restored.
More recently during the COVID crisis, North Dakota distributed unemployment benefits through community banks coordinated by the BND 10 times faster than the slowest state, and North Dakota’s small businesses secured <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/15/north-dakota-small-business-ppp-coronavirus/">more Paycheck Protection Program funds per worker</a> than any other state.
Progress and Challenges
In the past 15 years, groups across the country have worked diligently to establish publicly-owned banks in their states and communities. A big push came in 2011 with the Occupy Wall Street movement, demonstrating that even the dry subject of banking can incite large groups of people to take action in times of economic crisis. Many people moved their individual deposits out of big Wall Street banks into local community banks, but what about the large public deposits held by state and local governments? No community bank was large enough for their needs. The Bank of North Dakota demonstrated the feasibility of another alternative: the state or city could form its own bank.
Although more than 50 <a href="https://publicbankinginstitute.org/legislation-by-state/">public bank bills and resolutions</a> have been filed since 2010, the only new bank to emerge is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_Bank_of_American_Samoa?form=MG0AV3">Territorial Bank of American Samoa</a>, founded in 2016. Lobbying in opposition by big private banks has deterred politicians, who are reluctant to rock the boat when times are good and no immediate need is perceived. However, times are not so good today for the majority of the population, and they could soon get worse even for the wealthy.
To muster the political will to take action, politicians need a business plan in which the benefits of establishing their own banks clearly outweigh the costs; and public bank advocates today face hurdles that the BND avoided by being grandfathered in before the relevant agency rules were instigated.
One hurdle is that states today typically require uninsured public funds to be <a href="https://www.gfoa.org/materials/collateralizing-public-deposits?form=MG0AV3">backed by pledged collateral</a> (i.e. surety bonds or letters of credit) exceeding 100 percent of the value of the deposits. California, for example, has <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/QTAXTOTALQTAXCAT3CANO">state tax revenues exceeding $80 billion</a>. As a single deposit in a bank, only $250,000 of that sum would be covered by FDIC insurance, leaving the balance uninsured; so the state insures that balance with a collateral requirement that is <a href="https://www.treasurer.ca.gov/inside/divisions/ctsmd/accounts.asp?form=MG0AV3">110% of uninsured deposits</a>. The result is to tie up more liquidity than the deposits provide. Public banking advocates argue that the requirement is unnecessary and unfairly burdensome for state-owned banks. The deposits of the BND, which was chartered as “the State of North Dakota doing business as the Bank of North Dakota,” are backed by the state itself. Meanwhile, letters of credit, <a href="https://www.fhlbny.com/financial_intelligen/muloc-deposits/">e.g. from a Federal Home Loan Bank</a>, are a viable alternative.
Another hurdle is that most state constitutions prohibit the state from “lending its credit” to private parties. This has been construed as prohibiting the state from owning a bank, but <a href="https://publicbankinginstitute.org/legal-issues/">legal memoranda have refuted</a> that interpretation.
Besides a profitable business plan, politicians need a push from their constituents to take action, and most people haven’t heard of public banks and don’t understand the concept. Wider public exposure and education are necessary. Even many politicians are unaware of how banking actually works. Chartered depository banks have the power to create money as deposits when they make loans, expanding the local money supply and increasing the capacity for local productivity. Over 95% of our money supply today is <a href="https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/667/money/banks-and-the-creation-of-money/?form=MG0AV3">created by banks</a> in this way. This vast power to create money as credit is one that properly belongs in the public domain.
Times are changing, and public banking momentum continues to grow. By making banking a public utility, with expandable credit issued by banks that are owned by the people, the financial system can be made to serve the people and local enterprise without draining their resources away. Credit flow can be released so that industry and free markets can thrive, and the economy can move closer to reaching its full potential.
<ul>
<li>First published at <a href="https://justmoney.org/why-public-funds-should-be-deposited-in-publicly-owned-banks/">Just Money</a>.</li>
</ul>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/why-public-funds-should-be-deposited-in-publicly-owned-banks/">Why Public Funds Should Be Deposited in Publicly-Owned Banks</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Globalist Monsters</title>
<link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/globalist-monsters/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Allen Forrest]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 14:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Cartoon]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Conspiracy]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=159823</guid>
<description><![CDATA[What is conspiracy theory a monster code for?
The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/globalist-monsters/">Globalist Monsters</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_128_12x9_ink_on_paper_w.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-159824" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_128_12x9_ink_on_paper_w-768x1024.png" alt="" width="500" height="667" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_128_12x9_ink_on_paper_w-768x1024.png 768w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_128_12x9_ink_on_paper_w-225x300.png 225w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/alternative_opinions_128_12x9_ink_on_paper_w.png 900w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></a>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/07/globalist-monsters/">Globalist Monsters</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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