I recently re-watched an Al Jazeera 4 part doco called THE LOBBY which contained excellent footage/recordings of how the Israeli Embassy in London infiltrates West Minster politicians and the British Press.
Then l discovered The Lobby USA - another 4 parter - on You Tube but, this time produced by the Electronic Intafada.
With this weeks fantastic news of the release of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange after 14 years of fighting extradition to the US on charges of espionage (aka telling the truth) l think the American government achieved it's goal to shut down Freedom of the Press. I hope Mr. Assange makes a full recovery and is able to return to work soon as we need him now more than ever!
My wife recently asked me why “the right” places such importance on defending Israel, and seems to be so willing to make special exceptions for it. Since, unlike her, I’ve taken in “right wing” media most of my life, she thought I might have some insight. I couldn’t come up with a succinct, logical answer. Lobbying power? A democratic country surrounded by authoritarian ones? Guilt over Jews’ historical persecution? It occurs to me that I also can’t logically explain “the left’s” hate of Trump. So maybe we chalk it up to IDS (Israel derangement syndrome)?
Thank you for article. I was also horrified by Elizabeth Nickson calling the students Nazis for protesting in support of Palestinians. Someone who can watch thousands of innocent civilians being murdered and not feel revulsion is beyond my comprehension. To call the students Nazis for asking for a ceasefire and a halt to the genocide is truly unbelievable. It makes me realize more profoundly than ever that the first casualties of war are not only truth but ignorance and compassion.
Fabulous interview with Vera Sharav. Such a heroic woman! I'm glad you asked her about the RFK Jr. thing. It was a tough question & I appreciated her answer. I suppose it proves we all have blind spots. & of course yikes - this is a terrible one on his part.
I know the full “river to the sea “text does call for the extermination of all Jews so it is deeply disturbing that we can’t discern the paid actors from the true protestors.
The water is so murky that each side can easily articulate why they should continue their actions, propaganda is so thick at this point that mistakes will be magnified and there is no winning the war.
We do need full journalism and better reporting, tweets and shorts cannot express the full range of historical spiritual depth to this conflict- evil exists on both sides-earthly bound human knowledge is not capable of discerning the way to peace.
Journalism. What is a journalist? Your podcast describes what you believe a journalist to be, how a journalist thinks. And it sounds very laudatory, and from a journalist it sounds very self-congratulatory. And while your description is certainly aspirational, what you believe a journalist to be, that's not what the history of journalism has proven to be. Your description is the exception, not the rule. And I think the glowing description of the profession to do a great harm to those who you seem to be trying to help see through the fog of deceit and propaganda that most journalists are guilty of being, willingly, complicitly, or ignorantly.
The idyllic truth-telling, valiant champion of the people holding the powerful to account is a rarity in human history. George Orwell tells us what a journalist really is in this work:
"Any writer or journalist who wants to retain his integrity finds himself thwarted by the general drift of society rather than by active persecution. The sort of things that are working against him are the concentration of the press in the hands of a few rich men, the grip of monopoly on radio and the films, the unwillingness of the public to spend money on books, making it necessary for nearly every writer to earn part of his living by hackwork, the encroachment of official bodies like the M.O.I. and the British Council, which help the writer to keep alive but also waste his time and dictate his opinions, and the continuous war atmosphere of the past ten years, whose distorting effects no one has been able to escape. Everything in our age conspires to turn the writer, and every other kind of artist as well, into a minor official, working on themes handed down from above and never telling what seems to him the whole of the truth. But in struggling against this fate he gets no help from his own side; that is, there is no large body of opinion which will assure him that he’s in the right. In the past, at any rate throughout the Protestant centuries, the idea of rebellion and the idea of intellectual integrity were mixed up. A heretic — political, moral, religious, or aesthetic — was one who refused to outrage his own conscience. His outlook was summed up in the words of the Revivalist hymn:
Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known
To bring this hymn up to date one would have to add a ‘Don’t’ at the beginning of each line. For it is the peculiarity of our age that the rebels against the existing order, at any rate the most numerous and characteristic of them, are also rebelling against the idea of individual integrity. ‘Daring to stand alone’ is ideologically criminal as well as practically dangerous. The independence of the writer and the artist is eaten away by vague economic forces, and at the same time it is undermined by those who should be its defenders. It is with the second process that I am concerned here.
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"The fog of lies and misinformation that surrounds such subjects as the Ukraine famine, the Spanish civil war, Russian policy in Poland, and so forth, is not due entirely to conscious dishonesty, but any writer or journalist who is fully sympathetic for the U.S.S.R. — sympathetic, that is, in the way the Russians themselves would want him to be — does have to acquiesce in deliberate falsification on important issues."
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"To keep the matter in perspective, let me repeat what I said at the beginning of this essay: that in England the immediate enemies of truthfulness, and hence of freedom of thought, are the press lords, the film magnates, and the bureaucrats, but that on a long view the weakening of the desire for liberty among the intellectuals themselves is the most serious symptom of all. It may seem that all this time I have been talking about the effects of censorship, not on literature as a whole, but merely on one department of political journalism. Granted that Soviet Russia constitutes a sort of forbidden area in the British press, granted that issues like Poland, the Spanish civil war, the Russo-German pact, and so forth, are debarred from serious discussion, and that if you possess information that conflicts with the prevailing orthodoxy you are expected to either distort it or keep quiet about it — granted all this, why should literature in the wider sense be affected? Is every writer a politician, and is every book necessarily a work of straightforward ‘reportage’? Even under the tightest dictatorship, cannot the individual writer remain free inside his own mind and distill or disguise his unorthodox ideas in such a way that the authorities will be too stupid to recognize them? And in any case, if the writer himself is in agreement with the prevailing orthodoxy, why should it have a cramping effect on him? Is not literature, or any of the arts, likeliest to flourish in societies in which there are no major conflicts of opinion and no sharp distinction between the artist and his audience? Does one have to assume that every writer is a rebel, or even that a writer as such is an exceptional person?
Whenever one attempts to defend intellectual liberty against the claims of totalitarianism, one meets with these arguments in one form or another. They are based on a complete misunderstanding of what literature is, and how — one should perhaps say why — it comes into being. They assume that a writer is either a mere entertainer or else a venal hack who can switch from one line of propaganda to another as easily as an organ grinder changing tunes. But after all, how is it that books ever come to be written? Above a quite low level, literature is an attempt to influence the viewpoint of one’s contemporaries by recording experience. And so far as freedom of expression is concerned, there is not much difference between a mere journalist and the most ‘unpolitical’ imaginative writer. The journalist is unfree, and is conscious of unfreedom, when he is forced to write lies or suppress what seems to him important news; the imaginative writer is unfree when he has to falsify his subjective feelings, which from his point of view are facts. He may distort and caricature reality in order to make his meaning clearer, but he cannot misrepresent the scenery of his own mind; he cannot say with any conviction that he likes what he dislikes, or believes what he disbelieves. If he is forced to do so, the only result is that his creative faculties will dry up. Nor can he solve the problem by keeping away from controversial topics. There is no such thing as a genuinely non-political literature, and least of all in an age like our own, when fears, hatreds, and loyalties of a directly political kind are near to the surface of everyone’s consciousness. Even a single taboo can have an all-round crippling effect upon the mind, because there is always the danger that any thought which is freely followed up may lead to the forbidden thought."
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"And the destruction of intellectual liberty cripples the journalist, the sociological writer, the historian, the novelist, the critic, and the poet, in that order."
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"Of course, print will continue to be used, and it is interesting to speculate what kinds of reading matter would survive in a rigidly totalitarian society. Newspapers will presumably continue until television technique reaches a higher level, but apart from newspapers it is doubtful even now whether the great mass of people in the industrialized countries feel the need for any kind of literature. They are unwilling, at any rate, to spend anywhere near as much on reading matter as they spend on several other recreations. Probably novels and stories will be completely superseded by film and radio productions. Or perhaps some kind of low grade sensational fiction will survive, produced by a sort of conveyor-belt process that reduces human initiative to the minimum.
It would probably not be beyond human ingenuity to write books by machinery. But a sort of mechanizing process can already be seen at work in the film and radio, in publicity and propaganda, and in the lower reaches of journalism. The Disney films, for instance, are produced by what is essentially a factory process, the work being done partly mechanically and partly by teams of artists who have to subordinate their individual style. Radio features are commonly written by tired hacks to whom the subject and the manner of treatment are dictated beforehand: even so, what they write is merely a kind of raw material to be chopped into shape by producers and censors."
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"But however it may be with the physical sciences, or with music, painting and architecture, it is — as I have tried to show — certain that literature is doomed if liberty of thought perishes. Not only is it doomed in any country which retains a totalitarian structure; but any writer who adopts the totalitarian outlook, who finds excuses for persecution and the falsification of reality, thereby destroys himself as a writer. There is no way out of this. No tirades against ‘individualism’ and the ‘ivory tower’, no pious platitudes to the effect that ‘true individuality is only attained through identification with the community’, can get over the fact that a bought mind is a spoiled mind."
This is thoughtful. Thank you. My point is that I am speaking of what journalists should be, I suppose and have been in the past. Chris Hedges. David Blundy. Woodward and Bernstein. The people at Wikileaks. Glenn Greenwald. Matt Taibbi. Sy Hersh. Sadly, they are few and far between. And mostly in the "investigative" class. I think it's obvious I'm not shilling for the current crop of legacy toad who I criticise weekly.
I appreciate you receiving it that way, to provoke thought. Though I don't share your assessment about the "investigative class" examples of Woodward and Bernstein and others who I suspect you esteem. While there are many examples of "brave" journalists who've seemingly taken on the powerful to tell of official misconduct and malfeasance there is ample evidence that many of these journalists were not truly stating truth to power. Rather, their exposes were serving the purposes and agendas of other in power who sought to remove others in power who had become disposable, problematic to them.
As was the case with Woodward and Bernstein. Removing Nixon for "crimes" no different than LBJ or other presidents who preceded him was necessary and desirable after he had been used to accomplish a much larger agenda. Not unlike how Trump has been subjected to prosecution and persecution for "crimes" others before him were guilty of. And to imagine that the removal of Nixon benefited the office of the presidency by serving notice to all future occupants that such politicization of the state to remove political opponents would never happen again is to ignore how the Obama administration took what Nixon did and committed on exponential magnitudes to Trump...without consequences, still defended by the criminals who spied on his campaign.
Bernstein and Woodward came from dark backgrounds in intelligence and other similarly connected webs. Nixon was the only president who could "go to China" and open relations with the communist nation. He had the perceived resume and "chops" to do it that no politician on the left had. Nixon removed the nation's currency from the Gold Standard. Similar dynamic. Nixon established the Department of Education, the greatest achievement of all for those desiring national control of thoughts and beliefs. When his major accomplishments were done that few other politicians could've pulled off he was expendable. And was expended. By the Deep State at the time.
Just as the Deep State used Trump, his America First "chops" and his germophobia to lock down the nation believing it would actually prevent a flu pandemic. He opened the door to authoritarianism that no Democrat or "moderate" R would've ever been allowed to do by an appropriately skeptical of authority public. An unforgivable sin by those of us who did the research know. If only every single other politician hadn't taken that opening and been even *more* authoritarian than him and bulldozed down the wall that door was attached to then he'd never be a political force today.
But he served the interests of powers greater than the presidency. To pretend a president is little more than a figurehead for much more powerful interests outside public view is to pretend that Biden is in charge of his own administration today; he isn't uniquely a powerless puppet, his dementia only revealing the charade more obviously than others before him.
Even Glenn Greenwald and Matt Tiabbi, who've done great work exposing many of the lies of the pandemic, the NSA (Snowden) and other scandalous conduct only go so far in revealing the dark agendas and deceptions in play. Never revealing the actual names of the nameless and faceless true powers. Only sharing information that has been properly vetted and approve for wider dissemination by authorities - that they walk free while Assange rots in prison informs us of this truth. They serve the powers that be by sharing embarassing and hard to contain truths in "limited hangouts" allowing a small part of the public putting the pieces together a place to share information without feeling like they are alone, keeping hope alive that something can and will be done about the injustices and crimes. Preventing an uncontrolled explosion of an angry populace from rising. Like a lid on a pressure cooker, slowly venting steam to keep the pot from exploding into shrapnel. I.e. controlled opposition.
This doesn't mean they even know that this is their role. Just saying that they've only been fed or given access to information that the powers don't fear the populace knowing. And this is the case for many of the names you cite. No offense, but perhaps even you. Not maliciously, I'm not questioning if you have nefarious intent. But I question all for, reasons.
I'd even go so far as to say that sometimes the true powers may resort to revealing embarrassing information on others with power to punish/coerce them into compliance. Investigative journalism into product, food and drug safety hazards is useful to harm the targeted business's profit and reputation. Like NBC's false story about GM pickup trucks rolling over:
Remember the Tylenol tampering scare? Johnson and Johnson, a baddie that perhaps wasn't nearly as bad as some others in Big Pharma (Pfizer, Moderna, Glaxo-Wellcome?) and needed to be reminded who was boss. If you don't play ball you get squeezed by bad media, by journalists who are, as Orwell said, "bought minds." They can destroy any target, and are often used by those in power to take out others in power, those who threaten real power.
It's not new. Familiar with "Yellow Journalism?" So it is, so it has always been. An interesting take on the Gold Rush. And where truth took a back seat to the agendas of the powerful. Including the agendas of those in DC, behind the presidency of James Polk:
"On May 12, 1848, Samuel Brannan, a Mormon elder from Sutter's Fort, stepped off a boat from Sacramento and paraded down Montgomery Street waving a quinine bottle full of gold dust in one hand and flapping his hat in the other, proclaiming "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"
This is a fascinating expose of how false stories are told, I encourage you to read it. It's how the Hearst publishing powerhouse came into being. Peddling and profiting from lies that also serve the agendas of others with great, real power.
Note: I studied under a cofounder of FactCheck.org, Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Now the director at Annenberg Public Policy Center at UPenn. When she was at Texas in the late 1980's. She taught communications students many of the mass media magician's tricks. And she's become a very proficient magician, serving the powerful in shaping the public narrative. I have no doubt she knows better than what she says is truth. It's just a job to professional propagandists. Even having the training I have I was deceived for most of my adult life. Always by those I trusted, those on my "team." I knew enough to distrust the "other" team. But I left myself wide open to deception by "allies." Is why I will listen to all sides. Foes will often tell you truths that friends will often lie to you about. Friend: "No, that dress doesn't make you look fat." Foe: "That dress makes you look fat." But with greater stakes than appearance in a dress.
Genocide in Gaza? Really? To put it crudely, if that's what the Israeli army is trying to do, they sure don't seem to be very good at it. Where are the mass graves and the piles of bodies like in the Khmer Rouge Cambodia and the 1994 Rwanda?
Ever realize there is a vast oilfield off of the Gaza strip with US British and other interests. That by forcing the Palestinians out due to a contrived war then they get access to Palestine and making a pipeline to amass fortunes??? That Hamas is paid off by certain interests and they started the war and Israel might be behind the playoffs? What better way to push people out of an area then a WAR. The media lie everyday. SO PICTURES might not tell the real story. In India during COVID lies galore about people dying yet people there on the ground told a different story. Where special interests tried to get India to lockdown again and they refused. Indeed there is a genocide in Gaza all because of oil and deep interests but Hamas are traitors to their own people and find the ties to who pays them. Tom Quiggan states the answer is in Qatar. Qatar who are American allies but also have funded Hamas and allow them in their country. That seems quite odd of a relationship. Unless as per George Webb investigative reporter the DNC spy ring and dial a crisis are in full mode with dual Israeli American Democrats behind it all securing more funding. Funding for what?
Investigative journalists are the ones to follow. Those who go everywhere for the story. Hands on journalists not keyboard ones.
I lived on an Israeli kibbutz for 7 months back in the early 80s. I was a naive, 22 year old, non-Jewish person whose experience living there was a huge eye-opener. I grew to love the beautiful land and the people there and gained a perspective that I would not have had, had I stayed living in Edmonton Alberta. Once I returned home, and eventually attended University, I studied Jewish history and felt a deep sympathy with the Jews who wanted a homeland so they could finally be safe from the prejudice and persecution they had always experienced. I also read everything I could get my hands on about the conflict there between the Jews and Arabs. I saw that there were many people trying to attain peace and a solution that would satisfy both sides, which has never come to pass. As time went on, I started to change my attitude about Israelis as I saw that they had become just like those who had persecuted them. When October 7 arrived, I was as horrified as many by what occurred, but something always bothered me about the fact that Israel had left part of its border unprotected. When I lived there, the security was unlike anything I've ever experienced in my travels. The idea that there was some sort of breach in security was unthinkable and I have often wondered why this point hasn't been examined more. Vera Sharav mentioned this in her interview with you. After the experience of the past 4 Covidian years,and the corruption of many world leaders, I would not be at all surprised that Netanyahu facilitated the attack by Hamas in order to have an excuse to go after, not just Hamas, but Palestinians in general. Why isn't this possibility explored more? There appears to be a blindness on the part of so many as they take sides here, but they will not see the horrific annihilation of the innocents in all of this.
Israel offered up their people as lab rats to Pfizer COVID vaccine and started segregation of the unvaccinated. Just like the Nazis did you them in Germany. When evilness is done by those who were victims of evilness then you wonder who and what is behind it. Money and power that lies in the rich oil off of the Gaza Strip perhaps. The lessons from Libya with Ghadaffi where America and Britain took Ghadaffi at his word on stopping work on WMD while they enjoyed oil and gas exploration in Libya and with Russian help removed uranium from Libya I think money fortunes is at the heart of many atrocities..
Lovely comment and I feel for you. I've loved Israel myself and had wonderful times there. Good for you for having the heart and critical thinking skills to see that Bibi is not the saviour of the country. I appreciated deeply your courage. Thank you.
George Webb calls out the Mossad or Jewish mafia at play and that Al Capone and his $100 million empire started the Nation of Israel. Where there is organized crime there is atrocities and a power grab . People are people regardless of religious beliefs and the people make a country but the few bad apples can destroy the country or destroy others and their countries. That Israeli leader offered his citizens up to Pfizer as guinea pigs and they enforced vaccine passports and segregated the people just like in Nazi Germany. That is pure evil so if he can do that to his own people think what he can do to other countries. The Israelis hack into many countries and they surveil journalists activists so they can be watching this blog and they pay for AI and other surveillance so to say they didn't know what Hamas was up to insults intelligence. So if they knew why not stop it unless they paid for it and used it to finally get Palestinians gone from Gaza using war to do so. Once gone all the interests will enjoy the lucrative oil and build a pipeline.
Denise, l agree that the facts of 7/10 just don't add up. It was the 50 year plus 1 day since the Yom Kippur War. I know it's the holiest day in the Jewish calendar but, not a good decision to give 3/4's of the IOF the day off.
Egypt gave Israel a warning, a senior woman in the intelligence service gave a detailed report to Zamir that there was unusual activity (trial runs) on the other side of the wall, and somebody must have turned the power off for the Iron Dome.
If we didn't know better, it's almost as if Netenyahu wanted a war to avoid being investigated for judicial reforms.
Netanyahu wanted a war — no doubt about it. The event is called a ‘false flag’ no different than the many other false flags used by powerful interests to provoke and antagonize or cover up and mislead the public usually with tragic consequences for the misled.
Dare to speak truth to Zionist/Jewish/Federal Reserve/Wall Street interests and those revealing the links connecting them in a tight embrace are persecuted and called anti-Semitic. Further if one mentions the tight relationship to the Military Industrial complex and the powerful Jewish lobby in Washington to the
Zionist/Jewish/Federal Reserve/Wall Street interests and footnotes the evidence of these intertwined interests, the entire Jewish establishment will drop a ton of bricks on your head.
These are not conspiracy theorists. Why do these people regularly lose their jobs and thus their livelihoods? Why do they risk speaking truth to power?
I’ll tell you why! Because if they didn’t they could not live with themselves. They have a conscience. Most people are brainwashed! …Which of course is difficult to admit of oneself.
Before one can consider the many ways the facts nag at ones conscience and so begin to do one’s own work — rather than merely accept the continual bombardment as received truths — one has to acknowledge that certain powerful interests conspire to intentionally mislead each and every one of us.
Are people lazy? Are they afraid? Do they hope things will work out?
Hope, when bold, is strength. Hope, with doubt, is cowardice. Hope, with fear, is weakness.
Very well said Werpor. I sleep pretty well at night knowing l'm on the right of history. I am an Anti-Zionist and l am also Anti-Genocide, Anti-Apartheid and totally against a "state" who has the fourth strongest, best funded military and supposedly state-of-the-art "intelligence and surveillance" in the world who wants a perpetual war with the people of Palestine and Arab/Palestinian refugees. It's like shooting fish in a barrell.
Russia, China and the surrounding ME Arab countries and most of North Africa (who have all taken in hundreds of thousand Palestinian refugees) will one day say, enough is enough. I hope the USA, UK and Westeners come to their senses asap.
💯 agree. Thank you, Trish. Years ago, my Jewish (now ex) husband wrote an editorial to the temple-that-we-belonged-to’s newsletter shedding light on the Palestinian plight after visiting the region in the 90s, and we were quickly shunned by the “community” afterwards. I overheard one woman actually call Palestinians “evil filth” one day at the temple beforehand. It sickens me.
Just finished listening to your interview with Vera. So good. The whole episode was outstanding. Thank you for working so hard in doing what you do. 🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻
I am a regular listener of Bari Weiss’ Honestly podcast. She has had many interesting guests. However, she has focused her content to be sympathetic to all Jewish causes as his Ben Shapiro and his team of religious podcasters. (I stopped following Ben and his team because they became too religious for me and demeaning to anyone that was not in sympathy with their faith).
I am not a Jew. I am also not religious at all and do not self-identify with any ethnic thribe, not even the “Canadian” one. I am, however, very curious about people and have taken an interest in the Jewish diaspora and the citizens of Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and the pro-Islam nations surrounding them. Bari offers me insight into the mind of a contemporary Jew, and a lesbian Jew at that, who is also a proud ‘leftly’. Bari is a curiosity to me - one that is intelligent and a capable podcast host. She has every right to promote her views and build an audience. I have every right to listen or to turn the channel.
I favour a 360 degree perspective on most important topics like war and the ‘climate change crisis theory’ (CCCT) and follow diverse narratives to see which will pass muster or die in the mustard patch. This is why I feed my critical thinking aptitude with a diversity of information sources.
Trish has passed muster 99.9% of the time on Trish Woods Is Critical. This is why I always listen to her podcasts and support the show financially. I am not a paid subscriber to Honestly or any of Ben’s DAILY WIRE show hosts any longer. Trish is a Catholic but NOT an “in your face zealot”. I left Catholicism circa 1970 and never looked back. I am “allergic” to zealots.
Everyone possesses a LIFE LENS which is his or her unique perspective on their “reality” - a metaphorical lens shaped by every influence he or she has experienced since first breath. This means that over 8 billion ‘life lens’ are operating around the planet at any moment which are experiencing completely unique circumstances. Is it any wonder that “humanity as a collective” is so atomized in opinion, beliefs, priorities, biases? Balkanization is inevitable and tends to manifest in tribes seeking influence and power over others - too often by political means.
Trish does not proselytize her religious beliefs incessantly the way Bari, Ben and the other Daily Wire podcast hosts do. If she had, I daresay I would not have remained a loyal follower for over three years. I have begun to lose patience with Dr. Jordan Peterson too because his obsession with the Bible has become too much for me.
Other podcasters I follow include: Tom Woods for nearly ten years, Lex Fridman, Dr. Saiffedean Ammous, Dr. Peter Attia’s The Drive, the AI Podcast, and others by Law Bytes, C.D. Howe, What Is Money with Robert Breedlove and The Human Action Podcast with Dr. Robert Murphy.
I consider myself to be a perennial “podcast student”, though I also listen to books on Audible. I have learned a great deal from these sources. As an avid physical fitness practitioner and former exercise instructor, I also write often. Today, released a Substack article today in which I share my enthusiasm for my favourite forms of exercise and concurrent sources of information. I have been nordic cross skating for 13 years and gradually added modern tech to my exercise “kit” to get the most out of my time while exercising and learning.
I am fortunate to be a retired senior who has crafted a Life Lens through many discerning choices that has informed and enriched my life choices daily as I encounter new circumstances. I hope others will read The Case For Tech In Public Health to discover possibilities which may inform their Life Lens constructively. As a volunteer member of the External Communications Committee of the Canadian Covid Care Alliance (CCCA), I have share this article with CCCA members with whom I work. I hope it will inspire the CCCA’s Health and Fitness Committee to consider the ideas therein. Wish me luck.
To Trish. I am sorry to hear that you are still experiencing significant pain since breaking your foot. I hope for your full recovery. Your regular visits to the gym are sure to help in the long run if you are consistent and loyal to your regimen. The body is a miracle of adaptation especially when the right stressors are applied to trigger beneficial adaptation. I will be your personal Kinesiology Advisor if you are willing. My B.Sc. in Kinesiology and exercise experience may prove useful to you.
Trish, sometimes writers we often agree with and whose perspectives we find helpful will disappoint us. In your case, it's Bari Weiss, Douglas Murray & Elizabeth Nickson. In my case, it's unfortunately you. I'm disappointed you would swallow Hamas propaganda hook, line & sinker. I'm disappointed you would misrepresent the position of the international courts, and not note the very conflicted interests of the judges. And I'm very disappointed that you bandy about the word "genocide" to refer to Israel's actions in self-defence - clearly a misuse of the term "genocide" - and ignore Hamas' stated objective of actual genocide against Jews to the point where you turn a wilfully blind eye to what the terrorists mean when they say "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Very disappointed indeed. Hopefully you'll continue to produce other pieces on other topics that will not be disappointing.
40% of judges at the ICC are corrupt. Perhaps higher number now. Citizens of Israel filed ICC complaints regarding the COVID vaccine and segregation of the unvaccinated. You would think this would make people think back on Nazi Germany but it obviously doesn't.
The ICC court has massive evidence to date on crimes against humanity committed during COVID and with the vaccine mandates but drag their feet. The evidence is overwhelming and with KANSAS state filing lawsuits and complaint against Pfizer then it's only a matter of time that the majority of US states follow suit and then other countries.
Antifa has joined up with the pro Hamas demonstrators and that is a bad combo and Israel using self defense is rubbish because peace doesn't come from any form of violence. Diplomacy through communication verbally is the only way to protect innocent humans and stopping funding and holding those who supply terrorists and money laundering for terrorist organizations accountable by hefty jail time and fines will help to stop the terrorists.
Well, Simon ..I'm afraid the major propaganda is coming from the Israelis right now who have entire, hugely funded departments of hasbara pushing out lie after lie -- all of which get debunked after they have permeated the news cycles. The courts will decide if "genocide" as a legal finding fits but they are heading in that direction. Every single human rights and aid agency agrees, in part because they too, are being knocked off one by one. Do Google the latest findings on the murder of Hind, a 6 year old girl left alone for days with the dead bodies of her family in a car. When rescue came, the IDF killed the little girl and her rescuers from the Red Crescent who had been given permission to go by the IDF -- just like WC Kitchen. 350 bullets were fired into the car where Hind was waiting for help. Not Hamas bullets. IDF bullets.
If you care to debunk anything I've reported as Hamas propaganda please do so but be specific and I promise you I will be as detailed with evidence as possible.
With respect, I actually did not suggest anything related to the cause of death nor did Dr. Ahmed except her observation of the remains of a child she saw first hand. She has maintained her position on her observations since then. I completely agree that Israel has denied the modes of death you speak of which is why I did not name them. Yes - we are witnessing a brutal slaughter - which is entirely and completely in the hands of Hamas to end. Surrender is always an option - Israel, to my knowledge, has never stated a desire to eliminate Palestine whereas Hamas states one of its primary goals as the destruction of Israel. What exactly would you suggest Israel do if Hamas will not accept a ceasefire? I am sincerely curious what people think the solution is.
Why would we leave the fat of innocent children in the hands of a terror group? This makes no sense at all. All insurgency warfare is fought around civilians and when it becomes untenable war crimes are declared. The civilians killed at My Lai were no different and American soldiers went to jail for that. No on blamed the Viet Cong for being in the ville.
My start with JP was when I was still an unthinking leftie. I thought (just assumed, really) that he was a bad guy. Then the Covid era came along & I left the Left, watched him, & thought "Oh! This guy is really smart!" Then I started noticing how angry his tone often is, & lost my admiration for him. Yes. He is smart. And insightful. He understands a lot! One thing about him that bugs me is he seems to deny that patriarchy has been a huge scourge in our species that still poisons much. (& yes, I'm a life-long feminist, though maybe kind of the "old-fashioned" kind. Whatever that means. A comment for another day perhaps.) So I was noticing his blind spots. His often-angry tone is very off-putting. Same with Bari Weiss. I heard her interview RFK Jr. & her tone was angry & rude. Ugh. Do some journalists think it's cool to be so angry & rude?? Douglas Murray I found so brilliant in the Munk debate (the one with Taibbi I mean). Whoa! But also yikes! How can smart people be so bloody ... dare I say, stupid?? Blind spots. HUGE blind spots. Dangerous ones.
I like JP’s anger. It tells me a lot about his convictions. Its no different that someone who gushes love in a message. This also informs the listener about how deeply the message has reached into the soul of the speaker.
Does it bother you when Trish expresses anger? When you express anger concerning a topic, do you express it freely regardless of who it might offend, or do you choose to seethe silently or express it in an emotional tone designed to solicit sympathy?
Men and women express feelings in different ways, even for messages that are the very same. As a man ( and a hockey player for 60 years), I am very familiar with the way men engage in physical and intellectual battle. I try to check my anger for most of my messages, but once in a while, I throw a vicious body check at my opponent. Testosterone makes me do it. Passive aggressive ways never occur to me in the pitch of battle. I hope that you cut JP some slack and accept that he is an alpha male who’s veins are often flooded with testosterone.
Anger at injustice(s) can definitely be a good motivator! (It definitely motivated me a lot for many years!) I wrote a piece on my own SS recently titled 'This really pisses me off.' So I definitely do still get angry & express it (carefully). Largely, though, I've become sad (& resigned to a lot) rather than angry. I sometimes joke that my outrage meter busted a long while back now. I definitely remain open to learning from (some) angry folks - but for the most part I find an angry (or rude) tone just puts me off. Just a personal preference, I guess. Too many experiences with anger - my own & that of various loved ones - in my now-71 years, I suppose. Parenthetically, I ran across this quotation very recently: “In order for the truth to be heard, it must be spoken with love. No matter how wise and true a spoken word is it will not be conveyed to someone if it’s spoken in anger.” – Leo Tolstoy For sure this resonates for me - mostly in regard to my very dear loved ones.
Good point. This is what happens when really smart people in one profession are pulled into podcasting requiring broader knowledge. Instead of blocking me, I would have been happy to meet with him and offer some advice on how to get some of these big issues on his show without looking so bad. But I fear the money, fame and adoration has muted his natural curiosity. Journalism today is awful but us old schoolers -- learned how to research and report on a fast-changing world with some integrity. Sadly, because modern legacy media is so terrible -- we are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Truly a wheat from the chaff time. No one would consider me a champion for either side in middle east, and i was often heard to say “they deserve each other” but Iike so much of madness in last 8 years, I seem constantly confronted by the obvious that most cannot see, which blindness most astonishes in those who should know better. If you can’t see disproportionate mass murder and grotesque hypocrisy in Gaza, then you are touched by forces that preoccupy my attention with wonder. A fine example is True North, which I had been following as a seeming voice of reason, which alternative media had been given the usual labels by the left and msm. But then came oct 7 and now all that is forgotten and there is nothing to see here, and do we really need free speech anyway? and mass murder, what mass murder? And that Hamas is basically run by midcentury Germans….and the camps oh the camps….But then I recalled Andrew Lawton and his what I now call “Canada’s most irrelevant talk show” and him recounting with pride his all expense paid trip to the Holy Land and how inspiring that was … ‘Oh I see Andrew” or perhaps that is why you don’t….And I recalled all those congressmen getting the same treatment… but media too it seems. Some are owned and some are not and as they said on X-files, trust no one.
My feelings exactly. So let down by so many these days. I believe the next move by corrupt Western Leaders might well be a nuclear war. Yes that sounds extreme but after C-19 insanity, nothing would shock me. I will be doing some programming on this soon.
PS the rapid escallation to nuclear war is so obvious, two explanations jump out at me: 1) we are led by a generation of child rulers who really have no idea what they are provoking and need the toys of world power torn from their grubby hands or 2) in the "unconditional surrender" theory of geo politics (the polar opposite of the Mersheimer realist school), inherited from the North in the US civil war, made allied policy in WWII and western policy the post nuremberg era, they need to push the world to the bring of armageddon to even allow the elites and minions to accept the possibility of a negotiated solution, at which point they do the innevitable deal with Putin.
What shocked me was how the USA voted to exempt Israel from the Middle East Nuclear Disarmament agreement which states that arms and weapons must not be sold to a country with nuclear capabilities. Then l found out that Israel has nukes and the USA are still selling them weapons of mass destruction.
It might have come from Prof. Measheimer or perhaps Scott Ritter. IDK for sure.
Christian ZIonism has very deep roots in US and explains to a considerable degree the level of fanaticism and willingness to exempt Israel from the rule of domestic or international law .... "Nothing scares me more than living next to a friend of the Almighty." :)
Q: What does Israel have in common with Covid Vaccines?
A: You’re not allowed to question either of them.
I recently re-watched an Al Jazeera 4 part doco called THE LOBBY which contained excellent footage/recordings of how the Israeli Embassy in London infiltrates West Minster politicians and the British Press.
Then l discovered The Lobby USA - another 4 parter - on You Tube but, this time produced by the Electronic Intafada.
With this weeks fantastic news of the release of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange after 14 years of fighting extradition to the US on charges of espionage (aka telling the truth) l think the American government achieved it's goal to shut down Freedom of the Press. I hope Mr. Assange makes a full recovery and is able to return to work soon as we need him now more than ever!
PS. Another great show Trish :-)
My wife recently asked me why “the right” places such importance on defending Israel, and seems to be so willing to make special exceptions for it. Since, unlike her, I’ve taken in “right wing” media most of my life, she thought I might have some insight. I couldn’t come up with a succinct, logical answer. Lobbying power? A democratic country surrounded by authoritarian ones? Guilt over Jews’ historical persecution? It occurs to me that I also can’t logically explain “the left’s” hate of Trump. So maybe we chalk it up to IDS (Israel derangement syndrome)?
Thank you for article. I was also horrified by Elizabeth Nickson calling the students Nazis for protesting in support of Palestinians. Someone who can watch thousands of innocent civilians being murdered and not feel revulsion is beyond my comprehension. To call the students Nazis for asking for a ceasefire and a halt to the genocide is truly unbelievable. It makes me realize more profoundly than ever that the first casualties of war are not only truth but ignorance and compassion.
Fabulous interview with Vera Sharav. Such a heroic woman! I'm glad you asked her about the RFK Jr. thing. It was a tough question & I appreciated her answer. I suppose it proves we all have blind spots. & of course yikes - this is a terrible one on his part.
I know the full “river to the sea “text does call for the extermination of all Jews so it is deeply disturbing that we can’t discern the paid actors from the true protestors.
The water is so murky that each side can easily articulate why they should continue their actions, propaganda is so thick at this point that mistakes will be magnified and there is no winning the war.
We do need full journalism and better reporting, tweets and shorts cannot express the full range of historical spiritual depth to this conflict- evil exists on both sides-earthly bound human knowledge is not capable of discerning the way to peace.
Journalism. What is a journalist? Your podcast describes what you believe a journalist to be, how a journalist thinks. And it sounds very laudatory, and from a journalist it sounds very self-congratulatory. And while your description is certainly aspirational, what you believe a journalist to be, that's not what the history of journalism has proven to be. Your description is the exception, not the rule. And I think the glowing description of the profession to do a great harm to those who you seem to be trying to help see through the fog of deceit and propaganda that most journalists are guilty of being, willingly, complicitly, or ignorantly.
The idyllic truth-telling, valiant champion of the people holding the powerful to account is a rarity in human history. George Orwell tells us what a journalist really is in this work:
The Prevention of Literature
Polemic, 1946
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/the-prevention-of-literature/
Selected excerpts:
"Any writer or journalist who wants to retain his integrity finds himself thwarted by the general drift of society rather than by active persecution. The sort of things that are working against him are the concentration of the press in the hands of a few rich men, the grip of monopoly on radio and the films, the unwillingness of the public to spend money on books, making it necessary for nearly every writer to earn part of his living by hackwork, the encroachment of official bodies like the M.O.I. and the British Council, which help the writer to keep alive but also waste his time and dictate his opinions, and the continuous war atmosphere of the past ten years, whose distorting effects no one has been able to escape. Everything in our age conspires to turn the writer, and every other kind of artist as well, into a minor official, working on themes handed down from above and never telling what seems to him the whole of the truth. But in struggling against this fate he gets no help from his own side; that is, there is no large body of opinion which will assure him that he’s in the right. In the past, at any rate throughout the Protestant centuries, the idea of rebellion and the idea of intellectual integrity were mixed up. A heretic — political, moral, religious, or aesthetic — was one who refused to outrage his own conscience. His outlook was summed up in the words of the Revivalist hymn:
Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known
To bring this hymn up to date one would have to add a ‘Don’t’ at the beginning of each line. For it is the peculiarity of our age that the rebels against the existing order, at any rate the most numerous and characteristic of them, are also rebelling against the idea of individual integrity. ‘Daring to stand alone’ is ideologically criminal as well as practically dangerous. The independence of the writer and the artist is eaten away by vague economic forces, and at the same time it is undermined by those who should be its defenders. It is with the second process that I am concerned here.
...
"The fog of lies and misinformation that surrounds such subjects as the Ukraine famine, the Spanish civil war, Russian policy in Poland, and so forth, is not due entirely to conscious dishonesty, but any writer or journalist who is fully sympathetic for the U.S.S.R. — sympathetic, that is, in the way the Russians themselves would want him to be — does have to acquiesce in deliberate falsification on important issues."
...
"To keep the matter in perspective, let me repeat what I said at the beginning of this essay: that in England the immediate enemies of truthfulness, and hence of freedom of thought, are the press lords, the film magnates, and the bureaucrats, but that on a long view the weakening of the desire for liberty among the intellectuals themselves is the most serious symptom of all. It may seem that all this time I have been talking about the effects of censorship, not on literature as a whole, but merely on one department of political journalism. Granted that Soviet Russia constitutes a sort of forbidden area in the British press, granted that issues like Poland, the Spanish civil war, the Russo-German pact, and so forth, are debarred from serious discussion, and that if you possess information that conflicts with the prevailing orthodoxy you are expected to either distort it or keep quiet about it — granted all this, why should literature in the wider sense be affected? Is every writer a politician, and is every book necessarily a work of straightforward ‘reportage’? Even under the tightest dictatorship, cannot the individual writer remain free inside his own mind and distill or disguise his unorthodox ideas in such a way that the authorities will be too stupid to recognize them? And in any case, if the writer himself is in agreement with the prevailing orthodoxy, why should it have a cramping effect on him? Is not literature, or any of the arts, likeliest to flourish in societies in which there are no major conflicts of opinion and no sharp distinction between the artist and his audience? Does one have to assume that every writer is a rebel, or even that a writer as such is an exceptional person?
Whenever one attempts to defend intellectual liberty against the claims of totalitarianism, one meets with these arguments in one form or another. They are based on a complete misunderstanding of what literature is, and how — one should perhaps say why — it comes into being. They assume that a writer is either a mere entertainer or else a venal hack who can switch from one line of propaganda to another as easily as an organ grinder changing tunes. But after all, how is it that books ever come to be written? Above a quite low level, literature is an attempt to influence the viewpoint of one’s contemporaries by recording experience. And so far as freedom of expression is concerned, there is not much difference between a mere journalist and the most ‘unpolitical’ imaginative writer. The journalist is unfree, and is conscious of unfreedom, when he is forced to write lies or suppress what seems to him important news; the imaginative writer is unfree when he has to falsify his subjective feelings, which from his point of view are facts. He may distort and caricature reality in order to make his meaning clearer, but he cannot misrepresent the scenery of his own mind; he cannot say with any conviction that he likes what he dislikes, or believes what he disbelieves. If he is forced to do so, the only result is that his creative faculties will dry up. Nor can he solve the problem by keeping away from controversial topics. There is no such thing as a genuinely non-political literature, and least of all in an age like our own, when fears, hatreds, and loyalties of a directly political kind are near to the surface of everyone’s consciousness. Even a single taboo can have an all-round crippling effect upon the mind, because there is always the danger that any thought which is freely followed up may lead to the forbidden thought."
...
"And the destruction of intellectual liberty cripples the journalist, the sociological writer, the historian, the novelist, the critic, and the poet, in that order."
...
"Of course, print will continue to be used, and it is interesting to speculate what kinds of reading matter would survive in a rigidly totalitarian society. Newspapers will presumably continue until television technique reaches a higher level, but apart from newspapers it is doubtful even now whether the great mass of people in the industrialized countries feel the need for any kind of literature. They are unwilling, at any rate, to spend anywhere near as much on reading matter as they spend on several other recreations. Probably novels and stories will be completely superseded by film and radio productions. Or perhaps some kind of low grade sensational fiction will survive, produced by a sort of conveyor-belt process that reduces human initiative to the minimum.
It would probably not be beyond human ingenuity to write books by machinery. But a sort of mechanizing process can already be seen at work in the film and radio, in publicity and propaganda, and in the lower reaches of journalism. The Disney films, for instance, are produced by what is essentially a factory process, the work being done partly mechanically and partly by teams of artists who have to subordinate their individual style. Radio features are commonly written by tired hacks to whom the subject and the manner of treatment are dictated beforehand: even so, what they write is merely a kind of raw material to be chopped into shape by producers and censors."
...
"But however it may be with the physical sciences, or with music, painting and architecture, it is — as I have tried to show — certain that literature is doomed if liberty of thought perishes. Not only is it doomed in any country which retains a totalitarian structure; but any writer who adopts the totalitarian outlook, who finds excuses for persecution and the falsification of reality, thereby destroys himself as a writer. There is no way out of this. No tirades against ‘individualism’ and the ‘ivory tower’, no pious platitudes to the effect that ‘true individuality is only attained through identification with the community’, can get over the fact that a bought mind is a spoiled mind."
This is thoughtful. Thank you. My point is that I am speaking of what journalists should be, I suppose and have been in the past. Chris Hedges. David Blundy. Woodward and Bernstein. The people at Wikileaks. Glenn Greenwald. Matt Taibbi. Sy Hersh. Sadly, they are few and far between. And mostly in the "investigative" class. I think it's obvious I'm not shilling for the current crop of legacy toad who I criticise weekly.
I appreciate you receiving it that way, to provoke thought. Though I don't share your assessment about the "investigative class" examples of Woodward and Bernstein and others who I suspect you esteem. While there are many examples of "brave" journalists who've seemingly taken on the powerful to tell of official misconduct and malfeasance there is ample evidence that many of these journalists were not truly stating truth to power. Rather, their exposes were serving the purposes and agendas of other in power who sought to remove others in power who had become disposable, problematic to them.
As was the case with Woodward and Bernstein. Removing Nixon for "crimes" no different than LBJ or other presidents who preceded him was necessary and desirable after he had been used to accomplish a much larger agenda. Not unlike how Trump has been subjected to prosecution and persecution for "crimes" others before him were guilty of. And to imagine that the removal of Nixon benefited the office of the presidency by serving notice to all future occupants that such politicization of the state to remove political opponents would never happen again is to ignore how the Obama administration took what Nixon did and committed on exponential magnitudes to Trump...without consequences, still defended by the criminals who spied on his campaign.
Bernstein and Woodward came from dark backgrounds in intelligence and other similarly connected webs. Nixon was the only president who could "go to China" and open relations with the communist nation. He had the perceived resume and "chops" to do it that no politician on the left had. Nixon removed the nation's currency from the Gold Standard. Similar dynamic. Nixon established the Department of Education, the greatest achievement of all for those desiring national control of thoughts and beliefs. When his major accomplishments were done that few other politicians could've pulled off he was expendable. And was expended. By the Deep State at the time.
Just as the Deep State used Trump, his America First "chops" and his germophobia to lock down the nation believing it would actually prevent a flu pandemic. He opened the door to authoritarianism that no Democrat or "moderate" R would've ever been allowed to do by an appropriately skeptical of authority public. An unforgivable sin by those of us who did the research know. If only every single other politician hadn't taken that opening and been even *more* authoritarian than him and bulldozed down the wall that door was attached to then he'd never be a political force today.
But he served the interests of powers greater than the presidency. To pretend a president is little more than a figurehead for much more powerful interests outside public view is to pretend that Biden is in charge of his own administration today; he isn't uniquely a powerless puppet, his dementia only revealing the charade more obviously than others before him.
Even Glenn Greenwald and Matt Tiabbi, who've done great work exposing many of the lies of the pandemic, the NSA (Snowden) and other scandalous conduct only go so far in revealing the dark agendas and deceptions in play. Never revealing the actual names of the nameless and faceless true powers. Only sharing information that has been properly vetted and approve for wider dissemination by authorities - that they walk free while Assange rots in prison informs us of this truth. They serve the powers that be by sharing embarassing and hard to contain truths in "limited hangouts" allowing a small part of the public putting the pieces together a place to share information without feeling like they are alone, keeping hope alive that something can and will be done about the injustices and crimes. Preventing an uncontrolled explosion of an angry populace from rising. Like a lid on a pressure cooker, slowly venting steam to keep the pot from exploding into shrapnel. I.e. controlled opposition.
This doesn't mean they even know that this is their role. Just saying that they've only been fed or given access to information that the powers don't fear the populace knowing. And this is the case for many of the names you cite. No offense, but perhaps even you. Not maliciously, I'm not questioning if you have nefarious intent. But I question all for, reasons.
I'd even go so far as to say that sometimes the true powers may resort to revealing embarrassing information on others with power to punish/coerce them into compliance. Investigative journalism into product, food and drug safety hazards is useful to harm the targeted business's profit and reputation. Like NBC's false story about GM pickup trucks rolling over:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-10-mn-1335-story.html
Remember the Tylenol tampering scare? Johnson and Johnson, a baddie that perhaps wasn't nearly as bad as some others in Big Pharma (Pfizer, Moderna, Glaxo-Wellcome?) and needed to be reminded who was boss. If you don't play ball you get squeezed by bad media, by journalists who are, as Orwell said, "bought minds." They can destroy any target, and are often used by those in power to take out others in power, those who threaten real power.
It's not new. Familiar with "Yellow Journalism?" So it is, so it has always been. An interesting take on the Gold Rush. And where truth took a back seat to the agendas of the powerful. Including the agendas of those in DC, behind the presidency of James Polk:
The Gold Rush: Behind the Hype
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Gold_Rush:_Behind_the_Hype
"On May 12, 1848, Samuel Brannan, a Mormon elder from Sutter's Fort, stepped off a boat from Sacramento and paraded down Montgomery Street waving a quinine bottle full of gold dust in one hand and flapping his hat in the other, proclaiming "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"
This is a fascinating expose of how false stories are told, I encourage you to read it. It's how the Hearst publishing powerhouse came into being. Peddling and profiting from lies that also serve the agendas of others with great, real power.
Note: I studied under a cofounder of FactCheck.org, Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Now the director at Annenberg Public Policy Center at UPenn. When she was at Texas in the late 1980's. She taught communications students many of the mass media magician's tricks. And she's become a very proficient magician, serving the powerful in shaping the public narrative. I have no doubt she knows better than what she says is truth. It's just a job to professional propagandists. Even having the training I have I was deceived for most of my adult life. Always by those I trusted, those on my "team." I knew enough to distrust the "other" team. But I left myself wide open to deception by "allies." Is why I will listen to all sides. Foes will often tell you truths that friends will often lie to you about. Friend: "No, that dress doesn't make you look fat." Foe: "That dress makes you look fat." But with greater stakes than appearance in a dress.
Genocide in Gaza? Really? To put it crudely, if that's what the Israeli army is trying to do, they sure don't seem to be very good at it. Where are the mass graves and the piles of bodies like in the Khmer Rouge Cambodia and the 1994 Rwanda?
Right? 🤣
https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148876
Mass Graves have been found multiple times in Gaza. Google helps.
https://truthout.org/articles/21000-children-are-missing-in-gaza-on-top-of-over-15000-killed-by-israel/
21 T children missing on top of the already counted dead.
Many in the cabinet have stated they want to kill and remove them all. Intent is also there.
Every genocide doesn't look the same. I was in Rwanda BTW.
Ever realize there is a vast oilfield off of the Gaza strip with US British and other interests. That by forcing the Palestinians out due to a contrived war then they get access to Palestine and making a pipeline to amass fortunes??? That Hamas is paid off by certain interests and they started the war and Israel might be behind the playoffs? What better way to push people out of an area then a WAR. The media lie everyday. SO PICTURES might not tell the real story. In India during COVID lies galore about people dying yet people there on the ground told a different story. Where special interests tried to get India to lockdown again and they refused. Indeed there is a genocide in Gaza all because of oil and deep interests but Hamas are traitors to their own people and find the ties to who pays them. Tom Quiggan states the answer is in Qatar. Qatar who are American allies but also have funded Hamas and allow them in their country. That seems quite odd of a relationship. Unless as per George Webb investigative reporter the DNC spy ring and dial a crisis are in full mode with dual Israeli American Democrats behind it all securing more funding. Funding for what?
Investigative journalists are the ones to follow. Those who go everywhere for the story. Hands on journalists not keyboard ones.
I lived on an Israeli kibbutz for 7 months back in the early 80s. I was a naive, 22 year old, non-Jewish person whose experience living there was a huge eye-opener. I grew to love the beautiful land and the people there and gained a perspective that I would not have had, had I stayed living in Edmonton Alberta. Once I returned home, and eventually attended University, I studied Jewish history and felt a deep sympathy with the Jews who wanted a homeland so they could finally be safe from the prejudice and persecution they had always experienced. I also read everything I could get my hands on about the conflict there between the Jews and Arabs. I saw that there were many people trying to attain peace and a solution that would satisfy both sides, which has never come to pass. As time went on, I started to change my attitude about Israelis as I saw that they had become just like those who had persecuted them. When October 7 arrived, I was as horrified as many by what occurred, but something always bothered me about the fact that Israel had left part of its border unprotected. When I lived there, the security was unlike anything I've ever experienced in my travels. The idea that there was some sort of breach in security was unthinkable and I have often wondered why this point hasn't been examined more. Vera Sharav mentioned this in her interview with you. After the experience of the past 4 Covidian years,and the corruption of many world leaders, I would not be at all surprised that Netanyahu facilitated the attack by Hamas in order to have an excuse to go after, not just Hamas, but Palestinians in general. Why isn't this possibility explored more? There appears to be a blindness on the part of so many as they take sides here, but they will not see the horrific annihilation of the innocents in all of this.
Israel offered up their people as lab rats to Pfizer COVID vaccine and started segregation of the unvaccinated. Just like the Nazis did you them in Germany. When evilness is done by those who were victims of evilness then you wonder who and what is behind it. Money and power that lies in the rich oil off of the Gaza Strip perhaps. The lessons from Libya with Ghadaffi where America and Britain took Ghadaffi at his word on stopping work on WMD while they enjoyed oil and gas exploration in Libya and with Russian help removed uranium from Libya I think money fortunes is at the heart of many atrocities..
Lovely comment and I feel for you. I've loved Israel myself and had wonderful times there. Good for you for having the heart and critical thinking skills to see that Bibi is not the saviour of the country. I appreciated deeply your courage. Thank you.
George Webb calls out the Mossad or Jewish mafia at play and that Al Capone and his $100 million empire started the Nation of Israel. Where there is organized crime there is atrocities and a power grab . People are people regardless of religious beliefs and the people make a country but the few bad apples can destroy the country or destroy others and their countries. That Israeli leader offered his citizens up to Pfizer as guinea pigs and they enforced vaccine passports and segregated the people just like in Nazi Germany. That is pure evil so if he can do that to his own people think what he can do to other countries. The Israelis hack into many countries and they surveil journalists activists so they can be watching this blog and they pay for AI and other surveillance so to say they didn't know what Hamas was up to insults intelligence. So if they knew why not stop it unless they paid for it and used it to finally get Palestinians gone from Gaza using war to do so. Once gone all the interests will enjoy the lucrative oil and build a pipeline.
Denise, l agree that the facts of 7/10 just don't add up. It was the 50 year plus 1 day since the Yom Kippur War. I know it's the holiest day in the Jewish calendar but, not a good decision to give 3/4's of the IOF the day off.
Egypt gave Israel a warning, a senior woman in the intelligence service gave a detailed report to Zamir that there was unusual activity (trial runs) on the other side of the wall, and somebody must have turned the power off for the Iron Dome.
If we didn't know better, it's almost as if Netenyahu wanted a war to avoid being investigated for judicial reforms.
Netanyahu wanted a war — no doubt about it. The event is called a ‘false flag’ no different than the many other false flags used by powerful interests to provoke and antagonize or cover up and mislead the public usually with tragic consequences for the misled.
Dare to speak truth to Zionist/Jewish/Federal Reserve/Wall Street interests and those revealing the links connecting them in a tight embrace are persecuted and called anti-Semitic. Further if one mentions the tight relationship to the Military Industrial complex and the powerful Jewish lobby in Washington to the
Zionist/Jewish/Federal Reserve/Wall Street interests and footnotes the evidence of these intertwined interests, the entire Jewish establishment will drop a ton of bricks on your head.
These are not conspiracy theorists. Why do these people regularly lose their jobs and thus their livelihoods? Why do they risk speaking truth to power?
I’ll tell you why! Because if they didn’t they could not live with themselves. They have a conscience. Most people are brainwashed! …Which of course is difficult to admit of oneself.
Before one can consider the many ways the facts nag at ones conscience and so begin to do one’s own work — rather than merely accept the continual bombardment as received truths — one has to acknowledge that certain powerful interests conspire to intentionally mislead each and every one of us.
Are people lazy? Are they afraid? Do they hope things will work out?
Hope, when bold, is strength. Hope, with doubt, is cowardice. Hope, with fear, is weakness.
Very well said Werpor. I sleep pretty well at night knowing l'm on the right of history. I am an Anti-Zionist and l am also Anti-Genocide, Anti-Apartheid and totally against a "state" who has the fourth strongest, best funded military and supposedly state-of-the-art "intelligence and surveillance" in the world who wants a perpetual war with the people of Palestine and Arab/Palestinian refugees. It's like shooting fish in a barrell.
Russia, China and the surrounding ME Arab countries and most of North Africa (who have all taken in hundreds of thousand Palestinian refugees) will one day say, enough is enough. I hope the USA, UK and Westeners come to their senses asap.
💯 agree. Thank you, Trish. Years ago, my Jewish (now ex) husband wrote an editorial to the temple-that-we-belonged-to’s newsletter shedding light on the Palestinian plight after visiting the region in the 90s, and we were quickly shunned by the “community” afterwards. I overheard one woman actually call Palestinians “evil filth” one day at the temple beforehand. It sickens me.
Yes that language is pervasive these days.
Most people who go to Gaza or the West Bank come away changed as I did. You husband sounds like a decent bloke.
Just finished listening to your interview with Vera. So good. The whole episode was outstanding. Thank you for working so hard in doing what you do. 🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻
I am a regular listener of Bari Weiss’ Honestly podcast. She has had many interesting guests. However, she has focused her content to be sympathetic to all Jewish causes as his Ben Shapiro and his team of religious podcasters. (I stopped following Ben and his team because they became too religious for me and demeaning to anyone that was not in sympathy with their faith).
I am not a Jew. I am also not religious at all and do not self-identify with any ethnic thribe, not even the “Canadian” one. I am, however, very curious about people and have taken an interest in the Jewish diaspora and the citizens of Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and the pro-Islam nations surrounding them. Bari offers me insight into the mind of a contemporary Jew, and a lesbian Jew at that, who is also a proud ‘leftly’. Bari is a curiosity to me - one that is intelligent and a capable podcast host. She has every right to promote her views and build an audience. I have every right to listen or to turn the channel.
I favour a 360 degree perspective on most important topics like war and the ‘climate change crisis theory’ (CCCT) and follow diverse narratives to see which will pass muster or die in the mustard patch. This is why I feed my critical thinking aptitude with a diversity of information sources.
Trish has passed muster 99.9% of the time on Trish Woods Is Critical. This is why I always listen to her podcasts and support the show financially. I am not a paid subscriber to Honestly or any of Ben’s DAILY WIRE show hosts any longer. Trish is a Catholic but NOT an “in your face zealot”. I left Catholicism circa 1970 and never looked back. I am “allergic” to zealots.
Everyone possesses a LIFE LENS which is his or her unique perspective on their “reality” - a metaphorical lens shaped by every influence he or she has experienced since first breath. This means that over 8 billion ‘life lens’ are operating around the planet at any moment which are experiencing completely unique circumstances. Is it any wonder that “humanity as a collective” is so atomized in opinion, beliefs, priorities, biases? Balkanization is inevitable and tends to manifest in tribes seeking influence and power over others - too often by political means.
Trish does not proselytize her religious beliefs incessantly the way Bari, Ben and the other Daily Wire podcast hosts do. If she had, I daresay I would not have remained a loyal follower for over three years. I have begun to lose patience with Dr. Jordan Peterson too because his obsession with the Bible has become too much for me.
Other podcasters I follow include: Tom Woods for nearly ten years, Lex Fridman, Dr. Saiffedean Ammous, Dr. Peter Attia’s The Drive, the AI Podcast, and others by Law Bytes, C.D. Howe, What Is Money with Robert Breedlove and The Human Action Podcast with Dr. Robert Murphy.
I consider myself to be a perennial “podcast student”, though I also listen to books on Audible. I have learned a great deal from these sources. As an avid physical fitness practitioner and former exercise instructor, I also write often. Today, released a Substack article today in which I share my enthusiasm for my favourite forms of exercise and concurrent sources of information. I have been nordic cross skating for 13 years and gradually added modern tech to my exercise “kit” to get the most out of my time while exercising and learning.
https://open.substack.com/pub/gbalfour/p/the-case-for-tech-in-public-health?r=16emgc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I am fortunate to be a retired senior who has crafted a Life Lens through many discerning choices that has informed and enriched my life choices daily as I encounter new circumstances. I hope others will read The Case For Tech In Public Health to discover possibilities which may inform their Life Lens constructively. As a volunteer member of the External Communications Committee of the Canadian Covid Care Alliance (CCCA), I have share this article with CCCA members with whom I work. I hope it will inspire the CCCA’s Health and Fitness Committee to consider the ideas therein. Wish me luck.
To Trish. I am sorry to hear that you are still experiencing significant pain since breaking your foot. I hope for your full recovery. Your regular visits to the gym are sure to help in the long run if you are consistent and loyal to your regimen. The body is a miracle of adaptation especially when the right stressors are applied to trigger beneficial adaptation. I will be your personal Kinesiology Advisor if you are willing. My B.Sc. in Kinesiology and exercise experience may prove useful to you.
Be well. You are a treasure to us all.
You are a favourite follower and I love that you are so interested in the world. Its people like you who have the power to change things. Many thanks.
I second that! Excellent points, Gene.
Thanks Mel
Thank you for being such a cool human being. Wish all of us of like mind could get together for dinner.
Trish, sometimes writers we often agree with and whose perspectives we find helpful will disappoint us. In your case, it's Bari Weiss, Douglas Murray & Elizabeth Nickson. In my case, it's unfortunately you. I'm disappointed you would swallow Hamas propaganda hook, line & sinker. I'm disappointed you would misrepresent the position of the international courts, and not note the very conflicted interests of the judges. And I'm very disappointed that you bandy about the word "genocide" to refer to Israel's actions in self-defence - clearly a misuse of the term "genocide" - and ignore Hamas' stated objective of actual genocide against Jews to the point where you turn a wilfully blind eye to what the terrorists mean when they say "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Very disappointed indeed. Hopefully you'll continue to produce other pieces on other topics that will not be disappointing.
40% of judges at the ICC are corrupt. Perhaps higher number now. Citizens of Israel filed ICC complaints regarding the COVID vaccine and segregation of the unvaccinated. You would think this would make people think back on Nazi Germany but it obviously doesn't.
The ICC court has massive evidence to date on crimes against humanity committed during COVID and with the vaccine mandates but drag their feet. The evidence is overwhelming and with KANSAS state filing lawsuits and complaint against Pfizer then it's only a matter of time that the majority of US states follow suit and then other countries.
Antifa has joined up with the pro Hamas demonstrators and that is a bad combo and Israel using self defense is rubbish because peace doesn't come from any form of violence. Diplomacy through communication verbally is the only way to protect innocent humans and stopping funding and holding those who supply terrorists and money laundering for terrorist organizations accountable by hefty jail time and fines will help to stop the terrorists.
Well, Simon ..I'm afraid the major propaganda is coming from the Israelis right now who have entire, hugely funded departments of hasbara pushing out lie after lie -- all of which get debunked after they have permeated the news cycles. The courts will decide if "genocide" as a legal finding fits but they are heading in that direction. Every single human rights and aid agency agrees, in part because they too, are being knocked off one by one. Do Google the latest findings on the murder of Hind, a 6 year old girl left alone for days with the dead bodies of her family in a car. When rescue came, the IDF killed the little girl and her rescuers from the Red Crescent who had been given permission to go by the IDF -- just like WC Kitchen. 350 bullets were fired into the car where Hind was waiting for help. Not Hamas bullets. IDF bullets.
If you care to debunk anything I've reported as Hamas propaganda please do so but be specific and I promise you I will be as detailed with evidence as possible.
xhttps://www.middleeasteye.net/news/forensic-architecture-probe-says-israeli-tank-fire-likely-killed-palestinian-child-hind-rajab
With respect, I actually did not suggest anything related to the cause of death nor did Dr. Ahmed except her observation of the remains of a child she saw first hand. She has maintained her position on her observations since then. I completely agree that Israel has denied the modes of death you speak of which is why I did not name them. Yes - we are witnessing a brutal slaughter - which is entirely and completely in the hands of Hamas to end. Surrender is always an option - Israel, to my knowledge, has never stated a desire to eliminate Palestine whereas Hamas states one of its primary goals as the destruction of Israel. What exactly would you suggest Israel do if Hamas will not accept a ceasefire? I am sincerely curious what people think the solution is.
Why would we leave the fat of innocent children in the hands of a terror group? This makes no sense at all. All insurgency warfare is fought around civilians and when it becomes untenable war crimes are declared. The civilians killed at My Lai were no different and American soldiers went to jail for that. No on blamed the Viet Cong for being in the ville.
My start with JP was when I was still an unthinking leftie. I thought (just assumed, really) that he was a bad guy. Then the Covid era came along & I left the Left, watched him, & thought "Oh! This guy is really smart!" Then I started noticing how angry his tone often is, & lost my admiration for him. Yes. He is smart. And insightful. He understands a lot! One thing about him that bugs me is he seems to deny that patriarchy has been a huge scourge in our species that still poisons much. (& yes, I'm a life-long feminist, though maybe kind of the "old-fashioned" kind. Whatever that means. A comment for another day perhaps.) So I was noticing his blind spots. His often-angry tone is very off-putting. Same with Bari Weiss. I heard her interview RFK Jr. & her tone was angry & rude. Ugh. Do some journalists think it's cool to be so angry & rude?? Douglas Murray I found so brilliant in the Munk debate (the one with Taibbi I mean). Whoa! But also yikes! How can smart people be so bloody ... dare I say, stupid?? Blind spots. HUGE blind spots. Dangerous ones.
I like JP’s anger. It tells me a lot about his convictions. Its no different that someone who gushes love in a message. This also informs the listener about how deeply the message has reached into the soul of the speaker.
Does it bother you when Trish expresses anger? When you express anger concerning a topic, do you express it freely regardless of who it might offend, or do you choose to seethe silently or express it in an emotional tone designed to solicit sympathy?
Men and women express feelings in different ways, even for messages that are the very same. As a man ( and a hockey player for 60 years), I am very familiar with the way men engage in physical and intellectual battle. I try to check my anger for most of my messages, but once in a while, I throw a vicious body check at my opponent. Testosterone makes me do it. Passive aggressive ways never occur to me in the pitch of battle. I hope that you cut JP some slack and accept that he is an alpha male who’s veins are often flooded with testosterone.
Anger at injustice(s) can definitely be a good motivator! (It definitely motivated me a lot for many years!) I wrote a piece on my own SS recently titled 'This really pisses me off.' So I definitely do still get angry & express it (carefully). Largely, though, I've become sad (& resigned to a lot) rather than angry. I sometimes joke that my outrage meter busted a long while back now. I definitely remain open to learning from (some) angry folks - but for the most part I find an angry (or rude) tone just puts me off. Just a personal preference, I guess. Too many experiences with anger - my own & that of various loved ones - in my now-71 years, I suppose. Parenthetically, I ran across this quotation very recently: “In order for the truth to be heard, it must be spoken with love. No matter how wise and true a spoken word is it will not be conveyed to someone if it’s spoken in anger.” – Leo Tolstoy For sure this resonates for me - mostly in regard to my very dear loved ones.
Love Jordan, too bad he can't stay in his lane.
Good point. This is what happens when really smart people in one profession are pulled into podcasting requiring broader knowledge. Instead of blocking me, I would have been happy to meet with him and offer some advice on how to get some of these big issues on his show without looking so bad. But I fear the money, fame and adoration has muted his natural curiosity. Journalism today is awful but us old schoolers -- learned how to research and report on a fast-changing world with some integrity. Sadly, because modern legacy media is so terrible -- we are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Truly a wheat from the chaff time. No one would consider me a champion for either side in middle east, and i was often heard to say “they deserve each other” but Iike so much of madness in last 8 years, I seem constantly confronted by the obvious that most cannot see, which blindness most astonishes in those who should know better. If you can’t see disproportionate mass murder and grotesque hypocrisy in Gaza, then you are touched by forces that preoccupy my attention with wonder. A fine example is True North, which I had been following as a seeming voice of reason, which alternative media had been given the usual labels by the left and msm. But then came oct 7 and now all that is forgotten and there is nothing to see here, and do we really need free speech anyway? and mass murder, what mass murder? And that Hamas is basically run by midcentury Germans….and the camps oh the camps….But then I recalled Andrew Lawton and his what I now call “Canada’s most irrelevant talk show” and him recounting with pride his all expense paid trip to the Holy Land and how inspiring that was … ‘Oh I see Andrew” or perhaps that is why you don’t….And I recalled all those congressmen getting the same treatment… but media too it seems. Some are owned and some are not and as they said on X-files, trust no one.
Yes ED, True North and Ezra Levant's Rebel News too.
My feelings exactly. So let down by so many these days. I believe the next move by corrupt Western Leaders might well be a nuclear war. Yes that sounds extreme but after C-19 insanity, nothing would shock me. I will be doing some programming on this soon.
PS the rapid escallation to nuclear war is so obvious, two explanations jump out at me: 1) we are led by a generation of child rulers who really have no idea what they are provoking and need the toys of world power torn from their grubby hands or 2) in the "unconditional surrender" theory of geo politics (the polar opposite of the Mersheimer realist school), inherited from the North in the US civil war, made allied policy in WWII and western policy the post nuremberg era, they need to push the world to the bring of armageddon to even allow the elites and minions to accept the possibility of a negotiated solution, at which point they do the innevitable deal with Putin.
What shocked me was how the USA voted to exempt Israel from the Middle East Nuclear Disarmament agreement which states that arms and weapons must not be sold to a country with nuclear capabilities. Then l found out that Israel has nukes and the USA are still selling them weapons of mass destruction.
It might have come from Prof. Measheimer or perhaps Scott Ritter. IDK for sure.
Christian ZIonism has very deep roots in US and explains to a considerable degree the level of fanaticism and willingness to exempt Israel from the rule of domestic or international law .... "Nothing scares me more than living next to a friend of the Almighty." :)
I owe you a thank you for your work. It is much appreciated.