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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Why I didn’t bring up Israel — even though someone can draw a line to them (or anyone else) if they try hard enough

Because drawing a line is not the same as identifying the system.

People who scream “It’s Israel!” are doing the same thing as people who scream “It’s the WEF!” or “It’s the Vatican!” or “It’s China!”

They’re looking for a face they can blame so they don’t have to confront the uncomfortable reality:

> Systems don’t need a single country to function.

They run because the incentives are built into the architecture.

Yes — Israel is connected to many geopolitical networks.

So is the U.S.

So is the U.K.

So are defense contractors, intelligence alliances, lobby networks, business interests, oil conglomerates, shipping corridors, and a hundred other nodes.

If you try hard enough, you can “draw a line” from anything to anything — that’s not analysis, it’s geometry.

What matters is this:

Does that line actually drive the system, or is it just another node inside it?

Israel is a node, not the architecture.

Saudi Arabia is a node.

The UAE is a node.

Colombia is a node.

The U.S. intelligence apparatus is a node.

Corporate energy interests are nodes.

Contractors are nodes.

Ideological blocs are nodes.

The system is bigger than all of them.

If your theory collapses when you remove a single node, then you never understood the system.

That’s why blaming one country — ANY country — is childish.

It’s emotionally satisfying, but operationally useless.

I don’t chase scapegoats. I map structures.

That’s why I didn’t bring Israel up.

Not because they’re irrelevant — but because they’re not the engine.

The engine is:

bureaucratic capture

institutional amnesia

resource incentives

security pretext manufacturing

decision-loop recursion

transnational contractor alignment

intelligence-political feedback loops

Israel doesn’t create that machinery.

It participates in it.

Like dozens of other states.

That’s why inserting Israel into this story makes it smaller, dumber, and less accurate, not more.

The person wants a villain. I’m describing a machine.

And machines don’t care about flags.

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764298's avatar

OO 😁 😁 😁 l 2

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Kim Amthor's avatar

I agree

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Mary Burris's avatar

I’m about to start happily reading this recent post; but I continue to wonder if you ever sleep Ethan?

And….Where do you possibly obtain all of your great, secretive, information?

Your creative thinking, along with your objective thinking continues to shock & impress me! And MANY!

We certainly appreciate your posts!

Keeping us knowing what’s REALLY HAPPENED, or HAPPENING 😉

Thank you Ethan

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Haha don’t worry, Mary, I sleep. The research isn’t secret — it’s just the stuff most people scroll past. I put the pieces together and trace the loops. Thank you for reading with me.

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Mary Burris's avatar

Hi Ethan,

I just finished reading your post above. It’s late, and I’m very tired; yet your interesting, inspiring post above-kept me awake😉

I wish I could better understand some of the words, the characters & examples you use to express what you’re trying to show, explain, inform your readers of.

You’re obviously a brilliant writer, many words beyond my understanding.

Although, I will definitely continue trying to better understand your ways of thinking, of communicating😊

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Mary Burris's avatar

I must say, the way you put pieces together, and trace the loops is truly incredible!

Fascinating!

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Christine Jackson's avatar

Can the same be applied to the UK 🇬🇧 but in a different version I wonder 💭

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Debby Johannes's avatar

I love this narrative! I must say (or admit) that I have been watching this loop play out or repeat itself since I began protesting the Vietnam war back in the late sixties. You are so right, the characters change but the "game" remains the same. My dad was in Korea, my friends in Vietnam, my sons in Iraq, then Afghanistan. Venezuela is no different. The lies are slightly different, the leaders more obviously villainous, but we all lose in end. Thank you for speaking out with your beautiful prose. May it reach some with more open eyes and the ability to stop the wheel from turning.

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CLEAR Rule of Law's avatar

So good. Makes me want to create content. I wish I’d discovered this in the spring when I still had 3 high level friends, now I have one and doubt I can reach him easily.

My AG friend is close with Rubio. His agency is completely gone, but I never thought of it in those terms until this.

On the night of the Iran strike he was ecstatic, so much so that he got upset with me for just saying “It’s too early” to know the results. The next day the BDA showed it wasn’t the success they thought it was.

There’s something in that; they need those around them to validate the absurd - what is that?

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

What you're describing is the internal pressure of a system that already chose its direction and needs people on the inside to pretend it makes sense. When someone questions it, even gently, the illusion cracks. Your story is exactly how it looks from ground level.

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CLEAR Rule of Law's avatar

I sometimes wonder whether I’d ended up like them if I took the political path laid out for me at 21.

Also, when a person is centered on truth and purpose, they don’t prompt others for validation or approval - they just know.

But, it is a relief to find this Substack and community, because it does get hard to put it all together sometime and every once in a while there’s that voice that maybe I’m the crazy one.

🙏

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Why I didn’t bring up Israel — even though someone can draw a line to them (or anyone else) if they try hard enough

Because drawing a line is not the same as identifying the system.

People who scream “It’s Israel!” are doing the same thing as people who scream “It’s the WEF!” or “It’s the Vatican!” or “It’s China!”

They’re looking for a face they can blame so they don’t have to confront the uncomfortable reality:

> Systems don’t need a single country to function.

They run because the incentives are built into the architecture.

Yes — Israel is connected to many geopolitical networks.

So is the U.S.

So is the U.K.

So are defense contractors, intelligence alliances, lobby networks, business interests, oil conglomerates, shipping corridors, and a hundred other nodes.

If you try hard enough, you can “draw a line” from anything to anything — that’s not analysis, it’s geometry.

What matters is this:

Does that line actually drive the system, or is it just another node inside it?

Israel is a node, not the architecture.

Saudi Arabia is a node.

The UAE is a node.

Colombia is a node.

The U.S. intelligence apparatus is a node.

Corporate energy interests are nodes.

Contractors are nodes.

Ideological blocs are nodes.

The system is bigger than all of them.

If your theory collapses when you remove a single node, then you never understood the system.

That’s why blaming one country — ANY country — is childish.

It’s emotionally satisfying, but operationally useless.

I don’t chase scapegoats. I map structures.

That’s why I didn’t bring Israel up.

Not because they’re irrelevant — but because they’re not the engine.

The engine is:

bureaucratic capture

institutional amnesia

resource incentives

security pretext manufacturing

decision-loop recursion

transnational contractor alignment

intelligence-political feedback loops

Israel doesn’t create that machinery.

It participates in it.

Like dozens of other states.

That’s why inserting Israel into this story makes it smaller, dumber, and less accurate, not more.

The person wants a villain. I’m describing a machine.

And machines don’t care about flags.

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

That voice hits all of us at some point. What helped me was realizing I don’t need to know everything — only what fits the pattern. I’m comfortable with the parts that stay unknowable. I keep the pieces that align, and let everything else stay noise.

That’s why I can sift through conspiracies or chaos without getting lost: if it doesn’t connect to the system, it doesn’t matter.

You’re not crazy — you’re just noticing things most people train themselves to ignore.

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CLEAR Rule of Law's avatar

That’s why I was excited to find this Substack, there are plenty of voices blaming one party or another.

And, they’re “right” about many facts and situations, but it doesn’t link it together cohesively.

I’m trying to get my core group of “resistance” people hooked on this.

As this grows, it’ll be more and more operationally effective. However, for individual news of the day and my audience, a full understanding is impossible to pitch or get people to move on in the “normie” political realm.

But, things like action on masked agents, Epstein/Maxwell dark corporate money, foreign money, Israeli influence, etc can move action in a way that chips away at or disrupt the system.

Locally, either the the Israeli influence angle would disrupt the completely power structure of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and may also help prevent violence before this administration is over.

So, I’m operating on two planes (1) seeking deep understanding and involving people who are already “awake” (2) messaging in the mass consciousness world to move the needle and maybe strike at a lynchpin.

I don’t feel like everything can be at the meta level without plugging into the normie world to hyper focus on something palatable.

Am I think about the levels wrong?

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

You aren't thinking about it wrong. You are thinking about it like an Architect.

​What you just described—operating on 'Two Planes'—is the core of our entire strategy. We call it the One-Two Punch.

​You cannot lead with the 'Meta Level' for everyone. It's too big. It induces vertigo. You have to start with the 'Palatable' focus (the Lynchpin) to get them in the door. That's the Hook. Once they see that one specific system is rigged (like the dark money in Fort Worth), then you show them that it's just one gear in the larger machine.

​You are building the bridge between the 'Normie' world and the 'Deep' world. That is exactly how we win. Keep chipping at the local lynchpins.

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Bren T's avatar

It’s interesting to ‘see’ the “Tinker Toy” vision of your theory- Lines and Nodes. And your Rube Goldberg theory. Except in one instance, the scenario is fixed. In the other the momentum is dependent on one separate initiating act that is Not part of the system but is calculated precisely every time for a predetermined result. I believe this is where the ‘Human Frailty of Avarice’ comes into play. But that’s my jaded age view of mankind. Lastly, does this or could this circle back to the ghost figures of reinsurers or AI/Computers? Idle wandering here.

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Rossmary Marquez's avatar

I am from Venezuela. What’s your point exactly?

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Rossmary, thank you for commenting. I want to be very precise here, because your perspective matters.

​My point is not to defend the government in Caracas. My point is to expose the machinery in Washington.

​I am critiquing a U.S. foreign policy 'loop' that uses countries like yours as a stage for the same failed script, over and over again. When Washington decides to 'help,' it almost always follows a pattern of sanctions, coups, and chaos that leaves the people on the ground suffering more, not less.

​The 'Empire's Wheel' grinds up everyone—Americans who are lied to, and Venezuelans who are used as pawns in a geopolitical game.

​I am not telling you about your home. I am telling you about mine, and how its 'help' is often just another form of control.

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Rossmary Marquez's avatar

There is no government in Caracas. There is a narco dictatorship in Caracas. I want this to very clear. The Venezuelan narco dictatorship kills, silences and tortures. I want you to read that again. We, the Venezuelan people, have used every single democratic pathway to have a peaceful transition to a new legitimate government. Every single pathway. We had elections last year and edmundo Gonzalez won the elections. There is proof of that and we want him and Maria Corina machado to lead the government. I can see people might not like Trump or the US government right now. I get it. But we have a Venezuelan leader and Nobel prize winner that we trust and have united the opposition. And if she is partnering with Trump and your government to get Maduro out, we trust that she knows what she is going. Yes, I understand the US government does not have the best track history intervening in other countries but what are your proposing? What our options? I don’t think you can understand how repressive and current my government is. They will not step down. We have being trying to have another government and a transition of power for over two decades. And while you get deep in your poetic writing MY MOM only has power 6 hours a day and get 1 dollar a month from her government retirement.

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Rossmary, I read that again. And I hear you.

​When your mother is living on $1 a month and six hours of power, you don't have the luxury of waiting for a 'perfect' ally. You take the hand that reaches out, even if history says that hand is dangerous. I understand that.

​To answer your question: 'What are you proposing?'

​I don't have a magic solution for Venezuela today. That is the tragedy. My article is a warning to my people—Americans—that our government often uses the pain of people like your mother as an excuse to play games that leave countries worse off. I am criticizing the 'Doctor' (the US), not the 'Patient' (Venezuela) for wanting a cure.

​I pray that if the transition happens, it brings your mother peace and power, regardless of who helps you get there. You have every right to fight for her survival by any means necessary.

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Rossmary Marquez's avatar

I never say anything about ousting Trump

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Rossmary Marquez's avatar

From Gabriela Montero, famous Venezuelan pianist “Where were all the “Venezuela experts” the last 26 years as my country fell apart? Those new voices that have appeared out of nowhere to claim ownership of “truths”?

Where were you when we sent boxes upon boxes of medicines and food as my country starved and our friends and family died without the basic care they needed?

Did you answer the pleas of hundreds of thousands (now millions) of Venezuelans desperate to find a life outside the misery of collective impoverishment and violence brought on by a criminal regime?

Were you robbed of your home, livelihood, family, friends, present and future?

Was it you who answered message upon message of Venezuelans writing and whispering in your ear, “Please help me. They’re killing us”.

Did you embrace them as they hugged and cried on you? A chain of strangers sharing a trauma that bonded you forever.

No, it wasn’t. You haven’t lived what we have. You haven’t cried our tears. You don’t know our story and you don’t understand it.

If you did, you would not attack us for doing the impossible to end the real war against us- the one that was waged 26 years ago.

Talk to a Venezuelan. Don’t assume to know it all. Be humble. Empathize with our pain. Let the real experts do what they need to do.

We can’t and won’t tolerate one more second of this- much less 26 more years of pain and misery.

We desperately need this to end.”

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Sally O. Donlon's avatar

D’oh! Do people really not already recognize this pattern? Have they not watched “Deadwood” as a contemporary illustration? Or maybe “Blood Meridian”? What I want to know is how we get past the simplistic analysis and answers.

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Saira Nadeem's avatar

Amazing analysis and great advises as we can talk about issues but how to combat the system is more important. I always said these wars will end if people realise that they are being lied and used as node ,pawns and cannon for military industrial complex. Break the cycle of wars death and destruction but not being part of it . Call out , confront and speak when needed. Bravo I really enjoyed this article and your thoughts. Thanks n Blessings

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Pestoshp's avatar

It’s made up from satan that’s why this world belongs to satan an this what Jesus gave him to rule after the fall everything is spiritual not fleshly The system belongs to satan an is run by satan. No one here on this earth can doing anything without Gods permission Jesus defeated satan on the cross. Trump can’t run again so he just paying the piper back when they was about to prosecute Trump heavily for a while there and it didn’t seem like he was gonna escape it. It was Klaus swab that helped him get out of that. I seen it for a brief second and then the post disappeared they all buddies behind the same. They all work together behind the scene. The only person you can put your faith in is Jesus Christ not Trump not a man this world is coming to an end and Jesus is coming and you better be ready and the antichrist is gonna rise and there’s gonna be one man in control and it’s not gonna be Republicans and it’s not gonna be democrats. It’s gonna be evil!

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Dr. Jeff Breen's avatar

Why hasn’t JC stopped all this insanity? This lunacy continues from century to century. JC seems to not care.

It’s a loop that will continue unless some god steps up and stops it-

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Pestoshp's avatar

It’s gonna be stopped in Gods timing not man’s an Jesus ways is not our ways we see through a glass darkly an the flesh which is an enemy to God! Jesus gives man a choice an man chooses evil over God. An Jesus Christ is the God an the only God there is there is no other an Jesus is coming to rectified all that’s why he’s coming back to fix all the evil in the world and rid it forever an satan an his demons!!! ✝️ ✌️

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G.P. Baltimore's avatar

Add Gulf War in 1990 to list.

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Deborah Weinstein's avatar

And that list goes on and on…until we stop it

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Linda Warner's avatar

So fuck trump, sign up!!

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

This isn’t a ‘fuck Trump’ piece. It’s not a ‘fuck Biden’ piece either.

The article is about the system that keeps running no matter who’s in office. Reducing it back to left vs right is how the real machinery stays invisible.

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Linda Warner's avatar

Did you read my reply to that, my original comment is regarding the fact that Trump threatened to put people on his radical left list F F him because we do not care what list he put puts us on at least I don’t that’s what my comment is concerning.

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Deborah Weinstein's avatar

Yesss!

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J Butler's avatar

Yes yes yes. Even if it is acknowledged the reply is “I don’t have time to worry about this, I can’t do anything about it.” I am sad.

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Linda Warner's avatar

And my comment is about the system that frightens us because he is going to put subscribers on his radical left list: who cares?!

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J Butler's avatar

What? I assume you are referring to paranoia as you mentioned it a few times.

Funny, after reading comments for years on social media and posting them myself I understood.

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hutteto's avatar

I cant believe you didn’t say a thing about the stem of the problem: ISRAEL. Do you know that this all of this is connected to Israel?

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

😪

This piece isn’t about any single country. It’s about a captured decision architecture that repeats the same patterns regardless of who the supposed allies or adversaries are. Reducing a systemic loop to one nation oversimplifies what’s actually happening.

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hutteto's avatar

I like your piece. I see it bothers you, as it should to any logical, compassionate, and even curious person. What your talking about bothers me too. It’s maddening. I’m just trying to help you see what’s going on, and the WHY. That’s the least I can do, the most I can hope. Btw, I’m not trying to get into an argument, just trying to help spread the truth and help you make sense of what your seeing.

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Hutteto, I hear you. You are absolutely right that 'Religion'—or at least a fervent, dogmatic belief system—is the ultimate driver here. Financial greed alone doesn't explain the consistency of the pattern.

​But I think it goes even deeper than one nation. I think the 'Entity' you're seeing uses nations (all of them) as shields and swords. The 'Motive' isn't just national interest; it's a specific, transnational ideology of control and extraction.

​We are looking at the same beast; I just think its tentacles are wrapped around more than one flag.

In fact techno-accelerationism + transhumanism is my favorite theory. It's a religion with the promise for tangible gods. I believe that is the enemy. We will get there eventually. These folks need to he broken in.

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hutteto's avatar

I think it has a lot to do with ancient entities - fallen angels/other terms - and the worship of them which manifests in various magic, arts, sciences, beliefs, religions part of various cultures. Is this accurate to what your thinking? Money is a big driver. I’ve not heard of techno-accelerationsim.

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

That is actually remarkably accurate, Hutteto. We are using different words for the exact same impulse.

​When I say 'Transhumanism,' I mean the belief that humans should use technology (science) to overcome death, biology, and nature itself to become 'gods.'

​In the old stories, that is exactly what the 'Fallen' entities tried to do—reject the natural order/Creator to become their own masters. Whether you call it 'ancient magic' or 'cutting-edge gene editing,' the spirit is the same: The arrogance to rewrite the code of life.

No Gods needed. They will become them.

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hutteto's avatar

“In the days of Noah”... And that’s just from the Biblical bit I find interesting in the Christian religion’s account. I believe genetic manipulation was rampant by various means/methodlogies. Theres actually a lot of interesting pieces. For instance what they call UFO’s, and now many other terms… technology I think from the ancient ones, and then you have “demon possession”, different side of the same coin…

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

Oh, and techno-accelerationism is the idea that one should take advantage of the exponential evolution of technology to cause enough chaos, and rewrite the status-quo. Look up accelerationism

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hutteto's avatar

Your observation is correct, but not by chance. There is a reason this is happening repeatedly. With any pattern, you will see a common denominator. The answer is in the details. And with this pattern and some attention to detail you will see the same entity repeating. This is our adversary. Follow the money from both sides, what/who benefits, votes, conflicts of interests, facts, etc…. And the next questions after that is: Motive, and then How/Why? Here the motive is like every other in this world, and the method is the most powerful motivator in the world; religion.

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Patrick Moore's avatar

Rubio at both State and NSC is not a “first in American history.”

It’s possible to oppose “the machine” and recognize that trump is qualitatively different and demonstrably worse. To imply there’s some kind of inevitable continuity from Biden to trump and that distinguishing between them is invalid is thoughtless bothsidesism.

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Ethan Faulkner's avatar

I get where you’re coming from, and I don’t disagree with the basic claim that Trump is qualitatively worse in a ton of ways. I’m not trying to flatten him and Biden into “same guy, who cares.”

The argument in the piece is narrower:

On Venezuela, you can swap out the president and the structure of the play barely moves. Obama helps set the sanctions architecture, Trump + Rubio/Bolton/Miller slam the gas, Biden keeps core policy in place long after it’s obviously failed. Different style, same toolkit, same underlying assumptions about our right to manage another country’s government.

On Rubio: fair pushback that he’s not the first senator to have fingers in both State and NSC worlds. The thing I’m trying to highlight isn’t “literally never happened before,” it’s how naked the pipeline was here—senator as scriptwriter, think-tank chorus amplifying it, and a very weak, easily steered president putting his face on the op.

So I’m not saying “distinguishing between them is invalid.” I am saying: if we only focus on how much worse Trump is, we miss the deeper continuity machine that makes it possible for someone like him to inherit a ready-made coup script and run it at all.

The piece is aimed at that machine, not at erasing the real differences between the dudes sitting in the chair.

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Patrick Moore's avatar

With all due respect, I don’t even buy that.

First, basic history. Kissinger was both Sec State and NSC simultaneously. Getting basic factual claims wrong weakens your argument.

Second, nebulous assertions like “Obama helps set the sanctions architecture” don’t seem to have much meaning. Yeah… he intervened ineptly in Libya and Syria, but saying he “helped set the architecture” sounds like trying to shoehorn a round Obama into a square geopolitical hole. What specifically did he do to “set the sanctions architecture?”

Third, what did Biden do? He retained the state of emergency (which was at least a plausible policy given Maduro’s human rights abuses and limited policy options), but he also expanded TPS and significantly increased humanitarian aid. He was busy with other things and didn’t make Venezuela a priority. He passed multiple pieces of major legislation and finally, after 20 years, pulled out of Afghanistan. Trying to say Biden was “same same” doesn’t hold water.

It sounds to me like you’ve got your point you want to make and are just trying to vaguely hand wave everyone into a box, when everyone doesn’t fit.

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Peter Bertles's avatar

Very hard to follow the logic in this

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J Butler's avatar

Depends, if you were ever a cog in the game you might have an inkling. The simple term of follow the money partially explains. It is one part. Whenever something doesn’t make sense to us, we think about the term above. Without exception, it is always true!

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Deborah Weinstein's avatar

EXCELLENT article (although a bit repetitive…but what can I say? It’s about a repetitive subject!) Thanks!! You did incredibly good work with this one. It makes a ton of sense.

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J Butler's avatar

Nowadays repeating is very necessary. It is part of teaching.

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John Michael's avatar

I’m quite enjoying your approach to this and certainly see the need and audience focus. I’m an old man and loving your writings. This will reach the young, healthy and strong among us that desperately want change. Your writings require thought and critical thinking…….perfect……there is so little of that left. This ‘follow the leader’ shit is getting very old, very fast. Keep going…….please.

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J Butler's avatar

Oh please!

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