this is the way it likely goes down if we don't turn this old blue planet into a new blue planet...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/02/self-termination-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse
"We can’t put a date on Doomsday, but by looking at the past 5,000 years, we can understand the trajectories we face today – and self-termination is most likely,” says Dr Luke Kemp at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge."

“The three most powerful men in the world are a walking version of the dark triad: ***** is a textbook narcissist, Putin is a cold psychopath, and Xi Jinping came to rule [China] by being a master Machiavellian manipulator.”

overview of socialism versus the "dark triad"

23 hours ago, V.3 said:

overview of socialism versus the "dark triad"

“Living in a society” Matthew Cooke you are right. People are so afraid of words such as socialism and communism and have no idea what they really mean. Unfortunately, we are so far from “living in a society” I can’t imagine we will be able to redeem some essence of peace and caring for each other. The saddest part is we all want the same things. A place to live, food to sustain us, an education, a living wage and people we care about. The amount of wealth and greed is so completely out of control. How much money is enough? Is it the thrill of a race to be the richest person in America no matter how many people you have to destroy. Maybe I’m naive but none of these billionaires seem happy or content. They will never know the true feeling of peace or appreciation for any place or person.

Give me a Democratic Socialist before an autocratic oligarchy any day of the week!

Good going, Zohran Mamdani! More please!

this is the old blue planet mode, the U.S. version:

And it's also telling that America currently has a higher % of its inhabitants locked up, than did Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union in its gulag days... But you can blame all that false belief by most Americans, in our country being superior in all those categories, to the corporate media's propaganda, as well as our degraded public education systems, both of which have long preached the myth of American exceptionalism...

Another facet I would add to your remark BD, is that since the advent of the A-bomb there has been a belief in our country that bombing is always the final answer to any nation that doesn't adopt the ways of the US. It was used as a rationale for the earlier illegal bombing of Iran. Now the rationale is "saving" Iranians with Democracy as it is openly being destroyed here at home. Have you read Confessions of an Economic Hitman?

No Rob, I haven't. But I have read some of the writings of Smedley Butler, the retired general who exposed the racket of war, and how he was a hitman for corporate America and the military industrial complex, against the Third World countries the US preyed on. I suppose the book you mentioned it similar to that.

Confessions of an Economic Hitman is a first person account of what happens before a millitary intervention becomes necessary. His story points out actual events the author was involved in as a point man with leaders of other countries where it was the author's job to avert millitary action through bribery, coercion or coup. The flip side of the coin to Smedley Butler's accounts and rare like Smedley himself. Small paperback size.