We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, October 16, 2017

How Netanyahu Pulls Trump’s Strings

Click here to access article by Robert Parry from ConsortiumNews.
In the final presidential debate of 2016, Hillary Clinton famously called Donald Trump the “puppet” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But what’s increasingly clear is that Trump has a more typical puppet master for a U.S. politician – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
I would put a rather different take on the source of Trump's policies and actions. Although a bit crude in his actions and not skilled at public relations, I view him as an otherwise consummate capitalist in that he is thoroughly addicted to the drugs of profit and power. This addiction drives his sociopathic personality to seek alliances with wealth/power figures who are richly ensconced throughout the capitalist power structure. I am referring to the powerful and rich Ziocons and even mafia types who seem to thrive in the US Empire. 

10:15 AM Seattle time--Addendum, a quote by Phil Rockstroh:  
When life is negotiated within a collective value system that devalues and deadens the individual’s inner life thus warps every human transaction, anomie descends, the worst among a people ascend to positions of power.