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

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Recommended articles for Sunday 4/8/2018

  • The Occupation of the American Mind, a one hour and 25 minute film produced by The Media Education Foundation and delivered to you by Vimeo and posted by The Real News. "A documentary film narrated by legendary musician and activist Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame trains a harsh light on Israel's [and Zionists'] decades-long propaganda war in the U.S."
The recent March for Our Lives, started by remarkable high school students but taken over by the Democratic Party and financed by wealthy corporate and Hollywood patrons, drew effusive praise from mainstream political pundits. But anyone who’s followed gun control knows the Democrats have never stood up to the NRA. In truth, national level Democrats seized on an opportunity to coopt young people and channel them into electoral gains for themselves. 

Our economic and political rulers are vexed that students of color were standing in solidarity with Parkland while simultaneously linking that shooting with systemic violence in Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore. They worry that  young people are becoming concerned with a wide range of issues far beyond gun control and will seek solutions outside the two-party status quo.
  • The Doomsday Machine: 00:00:10 Seconds to Midnight. Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, Geopolitics and the Dollar from Global Research. Although the author describes the tenuous position of human existence in today's world, he doesn't realize that sooner or later capitalists' addiction to the drugs of profit and power would inevitably and ultimately threaten our existence. He exhibits his ignorance--or possibly cowardice--by using the abstract term "the powers that be". And this ignorance and sometimes cowardice has infected millions, especially in the co-opted upper-middle class, that capitalists depend on so much to keep their system that delivers their drugs functioning.
I have lived my whole life under the notifications of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and their Doomsday Clock. It is currently set a two minutes to midnight after many years of variance, some as far away as seventeen minutes. After reading Daniel Ellsberg’s The Doomsday Machine, it would probably be more appropriate to move it forward to ten seconds before midnight. A combination of two main factors – global climate change and nuclear weapons launch on warning risks – puts not only humanity but virtually all species under threat of extinction. 
  • State Dept Accuses Russia And Syria Of Gassing Civilians Before Any Investigation by Caitlin Johnstone (Australian) from her website. This false-flag event has been widely predicted by informed and honest people who know that the Empire's ruling class has become desperate and degenerate. After all, it must be acknowledged that they've gotten away with so many other crimes: the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the 9/11 false-flag event, etc., and most of the people believed their fairy tales which were widely disseminated by their media corporations.