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<p class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image">Hi all <br>
</p>
<p class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image">Here on
Vancouver Island, I distribute a monthly free alternative
newspaper called <a href="https://druthers.ca/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Druthers</a>. Its published in
Toronto. Some of you may have seen it before. When I visit
Toronto I pass out a few copies. I get so much push back that
I have to muster my courage to distribute it. It publishes
factual journalism that people do not want to hear. It has
very few adds and is supported by donation and they publish
over 200 thousand copies monthly. <br>
</p>
<p class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image">This past
month's issue was particularly informative. I had been
hoping they would once again publish on the Gaza genocide and
this month they delivered. <a
href="https://www.readthemaple.com/im-one-of-the-indigo-11-heres-why-i-did-it/"
moz-do-not-send="true">I’m One Of The ‘Indigo 11.’ Here’s
Why I Did It</a>. This is especially relevant considering
the recent arrest of Yves Engler in Montreal for speaking out
against genocide on twitter. <br>
</p>
<p class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image">I feel
often misunderstood when it comes to my perspective on Trump.
I wanted to share the following article from Druthers which
best articulates my overall attitude in this regard.</p>
<p class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image">Art</p>
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<div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image">
<h1 class="post-title unpublished">Donald Trump Is The Empire
Unmasked</h1>
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<div
class="profile-hover-card-target profileHoverCardTarget-PBxvGm"><a
class="pencraft pc-reset decoration-hover-underline-ClDVRM reset-IxiVJZ"
href="https://substack.com/@caitlinjohnstone"
moz-do-not-send="true">Caitlin Johnstone</a></div>
</div>
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<div
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20, 2025</div>
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<div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image">During
his inaugural address, the new president of the United States
was refreshingly open about the fact that Washington is the
hub of a continuously expanding empire which is ruled by
billionaire plutocrats.</div>
<div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"><span><br>
</span></div>
<div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"><span>As
Joe Lauria </span><a
href="https://consortiumnews.com/2025/01/20/the-imperial-presidency-marches-on/"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">highlighted for Consortium
News</a><span>, President Trump’s speech included references
to the “manifest destiny” of America, saying that under his
presidency the US will consider itself a nation that
“expands our territory”. He waxed fondly about the
settler-colonialist past which established the country at
the expense of the people who were already living there, and
vowed to take control of the Panama Canal.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<p><span>Trump gave this speech to an audience where the wealthiest
people on earth sat alongside his own cabinet in the best seats
in the house. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Google
CEO Sundar Pichai </span><a
href="https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1881398555157631157"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">were seen together</a><span> in
the crowd among the more official members of the incoming
administration. Israeli-American Trump megadonor Miriam Adelson,
who </span><a
href="https://x.com/mtracey/status/1837886438903357920" rel=""
moz-do-not-send="true">according to Trump</a><span> helped
dictate US policy toward Israel during his first term, was </span><a
href="https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1881392501229256988"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">seen sitting</a><span> among Joe
Biden, Kamala Harris and the Clintons at the inauguration. There
will reportedly be no fewer than </span><a
href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-tapped-unprecedented-13-billionaires-top-administration-roles/story?id=116872968"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">13 billionaires</a><span> with
official roles in the new Trump administration.</span><picture><img
src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F455edd25-b5ae-46e7-8dd4-802b3eaf6e8b_1126x1374.png"
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<p>If you were to twist my arm and force me to say something
positive about Donald Trump, this is the sort of thing I would
point to. He makes the US empire much more transparent and
unhidden. He removes its mask and reveals the twisted face beneath
it.</p>
<p><span>The US isn’t suddenly ruled by billionaires now that Trump
is president; </span><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig" rel=""
moz-do-not-send="true">it was already ruled by billionaires</a><span>.
The US isn’t suddenly an empire bent on global domination now
that Trump has been sworn in; that </span><a
href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/06/01/the-us-empire-isnt-a-government-that-runs-nonstop-wars-its-a-nonstop-war-that-runs-a-government/"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">was already the case</a><span>.
But you’re not supposed to just come right out and </span><em><strong>say</strong></em><span>
that.</span></p>
<p><span>Well, Trump comes right out and says it. He says the quiet
parts out loud. He’s the only president who’ll openly </span><a
href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/keeping-oil-syria-trump-considered-war-crime/story?id=66589757"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">boast</a><span> that US troops are
in Syria to keep the oil or </span><a
href="https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/06/12/trump-venezuela-oil-coup/"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">lament</a><span> that they failed
to take the oil from Venezuela, or just come right out and </span><a
href="https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1881488396985761812"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">tell everyone</a><span> he’s
bought and owned by Zionist oligarchs. He puts much less effort
into disguising the true nature of the US empire than other
presidents.</span></p>
<p>That’s the only reason various factions of America’s unofficial
permanent government have had objections to Trump’s presidency
over the years. It’s not because he presents a threat to the
establishment or because he’s trying to bring down the deep state,
it’s because he is viewed as a poor custodian of the empire. He
either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about the importance of
keeping a polite face on the imperial machine.</p>
<p>If I were forced to say something positive about Trump, that
would be it. The thing some US empire managers dislike about him
is the only thing I like about him: that he makes the US empire a
less effective evil because of how much less hidden he keeps the
inner workings of the machine. The hood stays popped open the
entire time, showing the whole world how the imperial sausage gets
made.</p>
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<p><span>Not that there haven’t been plenty of mask-off moments
during the dementia-muddled chaos of the Biden administration as
well. A new article in Time titled “</span><a
href="https://time.com/7207661/bidens-ukraine-win-zelensky-loss/" rel=""
moz-do-not-send="true">Why Biden’s Ukraine Win Was Zelensky’s
Loss</a><span>” is a good example of this; the report cites a
former member of Biden’s National Security Council saying that
victory for Ukraine was never part of the Biden administration’s
plan.</span></p>
<p>The opening paragraph reads as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“When Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago, President
Joe Biden set three objectives for the U.S. response. Ukraine’s
victory was never among them. The phrase the White House used to
describe its mission at the time — supporting Ukraine ‘for as
long as it takes’ — was intentionally vague. It also raised the
question: As long as it takes to do what?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Ukraine’s victory was never among them.”</p>
<p><span>Talk about a mask-off moment. It has long been clear that
the US p</span><a
href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/07/24/the-empire-knows-its-pouring-ukrainian-blood-into-an-unwinnable-proxy-war/"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">ushed Ukraine into an unwinnable
war</a><span> with the goal of bleeding and preoccupying Moscow,
and that it </span><a
href="https://news.antiwar.com/2024/09/09/victoria-nuland-admits-us-discouraged-ukraine-from-signing-peace-deal-with-russia-in-2022/"
rel="" moz-do-not-send="true">actively sabotaged peace
negotiations</a><span> in the early days of the war in order to
pursue these goals. Now that the job has been done and the
demented meat puppet is out of office, we are finally hearing it
from Biden’s own handlers in his administration.</span></p>
<p>And of course there was Gaza, where the world spent 15 months
watching history’s first live-streamed genocide right in front of
their faces while western officials made nonstop excuses of less
and less believability. If there’s to be any good to come from
that incomprehensibly horrific nightmare, it’s that it has shown
everyone the true face of the empire.</p>
<p>The more glimpses people get of the true face of the empire, the
less effective the imperial propaganda becomes, because propaganda
only works if you believe it. The primary obstacle to
revolutionary change under the western empire is the fact that its
citizenry have been successfully propagandized into accepting the
status quo. The more people open their eyes to the fact that we
are ruled by psychopaths who are driving us to our doom on
multiple fronts, the closer we get to a collective movement toward
a healthy world.</p>
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