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 LappĂ©, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, September 1, 2018

Economic moats and American capitalism

Click here to access article by economist David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog. 

I hope that Eric Zuesse sees this article because it undermines his obsessive concern to ignore the system of capitalism (see this and this), and especially to divorce it from any hint of fascism as a system. This nagging suspicion has always vexed me because, in effect, he seems to be promoting the system. Thus I've often wondered if he is knowingly engaged by the ruling capitalist class as another sheep-dog to lure leftists into a pen that avoids any negative perceptions about capitalism. However, mostly because he has revealed so many sins of the current ruling class, I am still giving him the benefit of doubt about his genuineness.

In this article Ruccio sees both the feudal and capitalist classes as ruling classes who depend on their systems to deliver the benefits of exploitation of the rest of their societies.  

What Future Awaits the Babies of 2018?

Click here to access article by Gregory Barrett from Dissident Voice.
... for a vast number of Germans and Americans and people all over the world, a life without children would be incomplete.

And therein lies the crux. Most of us who make that decision are thinking less about that new baby’s future than about our own futures … our own happiness … our own sense of fulfillment. Of course, we plan to do everything within our power to give that child a good life.

Unfortunately, it no longer lies within our power to give those babies a secure future, as I see it.
I especially identify with this perspective on young children. To my astonishment, I have not encountered this anywhere else in the blogosphere. Daily when I see young children and babies, I react with a thinly disguised horror as to what kind of future they face. Their proud parents simply refuse to acknowledge (or repress) the future chamber of horrors their children will experience.

Engineering the climate could cost us the earth

Click here to access article by Gareth Dale from Ecologist.

Excellent essay that frames our present ecological dilemma in the fantastic nature of alien capitalist rule. This was metaphorically captured in a science fiction film which views the dramatic alteration of the biosphere through the lens of imagination.
Engineering the earth’s climate is nothing new. Capitalists, in coalition with alien overlords from Andromeda, have been at it for years.

That is the backstory to John Carpenter’s 1988 sci-fi classic, They Live. An alien race colonises Earth. Disguised as humans they run the world, helped by accomplices among the native business community.
They manipulate the human drones through consumerism and subliminal injunctions: ‘Obey,’ ‘Marry and breed,’ and ‘Work!’ The dutiful masses produce, reproduce and consume, all for the benefit of the Andromedan/capitalist masters.
(I hope you are wearing the "special sunglasses".)

                                                                                              ****************

You might also be interested in an article entitled "Carrying capacity, technology, and ecomodernist confusion" by Michael Friedman from Capitalism and Climate.

Friday, August 31, 2018

Trump Deathwatch, the Latest Edition

Click here to access article by CJ Hopkins from CounterPunch

Hopkins is a master of satire, and he demonstrates this in the article about the ruling class's latest attempts to remove Trump (because the American public voted the wrong way in 2016--my sarcasm). He ends this article with some advice for us:
In the meantime, don’t forget to do your part in the War on Trump, Putin, Assad, Corbyn, and whoever else the corporate media tell us we’re at war against. Forget about global capitalism. Keep obsessing about Donald Trump. And if you get tired of obsessing about Donald Trump, you can always call Corbyn an anti-Semite, or accuse Glenn Greenwald of working for Putin, or, if you’ve got some free time and want to get creative, compile a Directory of International Assadists, or some other paranoid pseudo-blacklist. Every little contribution counts!

Is the Next US Aggression on Syria Already Scheduled?

Click here to access article by Andre Raevsky ("The Saker") from The Unz Review

The preparation of another false-flag event (Assad uses chemical weapons against his own people) to justify stepped-up US aggression has been widely circulated among those who follow closely the machinations of the US-led Empire. This is another example.
It appears that we are coming back full circle: the AngloZionists are again, apparently, preparing to use the very same White Helmets (aka “good terrorists”) to execute yet another chemical false flag attack in Syria and again blame the government forces for it. The Russians are, again, warning the world in advance and, just as last time, (almost) nobody gives a damn. And there are even reports that the US is, yet again, considering imposing a (totally illegal) no-fly zone over Syria (I have not heard this once since Hillary’s presidential campaign). And just like last time, it appears that the goal of the US is to save the “good terrorists” from a major governmental victory.

Which Fascist Said This?

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

This morning the author gives us a quiz:
Who said this?
Always before god and the world the stronger has the right to carry through what he wills. ... The whole of nature is a mighty struggle between strength and weakness, an eternal victory of the strong over the weak.
Who is paraphrased here?
The first state to adopt evolutionary ethics would prevail over all others in the struggle for existence. ... Extermination and war then became moral goods to eliminate the weak.
And who said this?
The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong.
I guessed that they were all social Darwinists using his biological theory about biological life forms to legitimize the real ideology of fascist capitalists, who are tired of lying to the public and bribing parliaments, which is the use of violence, or the threat of violence, to get their way.

They Come Like a Thief in the Night, America’s Secret Army

Click here to access article by ex-Marine and author Gordon Duff from New Eastern Outlook

Duff bemoans the fact of censorship and controlled media by our masters regarding Mid-East secret military operations which are illegal and probably war crimes. Well, do common criminals talk about their exploits to the public?
Inside Syria, claims of US operations to protect and support terrorists are never refuted, only denied or, more often, simply censored from the media.

Reports from US troops speaking out, telling of their day to day life, their activities, simply don’t exist at all, a virtual impossibility, a secret army of wraiths, “thieves in the night.”

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Inside America's Meddling Machine: The US Funded Group that Interferes in Elections Around the Globe

Click here to access article by Max Blumenthal from Gray Zone.

This independent journalist provides an excellent report about one of the Empire's main government agency, the tax-supported agency of the National Endowment for Democracy, that is responsible for the proliferation of fake news designed to colonize your mind and thereby enlist your support for their quest of world domination.

I watched the following 22:42m video which appears to be supported by the report which I briefly scanned. The latter is useful for people who want to check out the many supporting links that he provides to document his arguments. 



You may also be interested in the views by another independent blogger's views in the following video about the proliferation of fake news and the increasing censorship of the internet (some of which she has directly experienced) which is a major threat to the rule of the Empire's tiny ruling capitalist classes.


How the Department of Homeland Security Created a Deceptive Tale of Russia Hacking US Voter Sites

Click here to access article by Gareth Porter from ConsortiumNews.

The evidence uncovered by Porter strongly suggests that an effort was initiated and coordinated by powerful figures among the ruling class to inculcate the belief among ordinary Americans that Russia interfered with our elections. This theme has been disseminated throughout corporate media and is still being used--apparently in the conviction that a lie repeated often enough becomes a fact--much like the false belief that lemmings often commit mass suicide
The narrative of Russian intelligence attacking state and local election boards and threatening the integrity of U.S. elections has achieved near-universal acceptance by media and political elites.  And now it has been accepted by the Trump administration’s intelligence chief, Dan Coats, as well.

But the real story behind that narrative, recounted here for the first time, reveals that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created and nurtured an account that was grossly and deliberately deceptive.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Back in the (Great) Game: The Revenge of Eurasian Land Powers

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from ConsortiumNews

This highly educated and informed Brazilian journalist has been following and touting China's Belt and Road Initiative for quite some time. In this article he provides an historical background on the Western European powers to thwart the rise of China on the world scene, and the subsequent reaction by the Chinese Communist Party, Russia, and other Eurasian nations who are taking the Westphalian principles, that are enshrined in the United Nations Charter, seriously unlike the Empire's complete disregard of them. 

The article is well-documented, but one reference was neglected for less educated Americans: the reference to the "end of history".

Asymmetric Financial War and Radical US Leverage – What Will It Bring?

Click here to access article by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Content added at 11:30 AM CT.)

Even the former member of MI6, the British version of the CIA, has doubts about the viability of the US Empire. No, he is not an anti-capitalist as evidenced by his quote from the Mises Institute. However, he sees that a long-game is being practiced by the enemies of the US-led Empire that is out to control the world.
It seems that the Chinese leadership has concluded that the Trump Administration is determined to use its full spectrum radical leverage to hobble China as a rival, and to resurrect its own global domination – Xi seems to foresee a long struggle for position in the global future: one that will be played out geo-politically (in the jostling in the South China Sea, over North Korea, Taiwan and the BRI), as much as in the economic domain. If this is so, there is real risk of the ‘jostling’ spontaneously escalating into a military clash, whether limited and contained, or not.
He is wrong about Trump's administration starting this economic war. He only accelerated it. It started in the Obama administration under the "pivot to China" policy, but it wasn't Obama who instigated it. Obama, like most government officials, was merely a puppet. It was primarily the Anglo-American ruling capitalist classes that have since WWII established their power over much of the world. However, the latter won't suffer in this war--it is the workers of nations controlled by the Empire that will be the causalities in this new economic war.

An article by Pepe Escobar, a highly educated and informed Brazilian journalist, entitled "Economic war on Iran is war on Eurasia integration" may be of interest to you. 

A People’s Definition of Capitalism

Click here to access article by Jason Holland from Dissident Voice

The author makes some excellent observations about the system that many people are beginning to challenge, and these challenges are frightening to the "owners" of most of the world's economies.
Capitalism in a truthful word: Exploitation.

The long form definition is full of complexities purposely installed to hide the fact the short version sounds so ugly, because few would agree to engage in an economic system that was called what it truly is — exploitism.

Through decades of red baiting and condemnation of any alternative system that doesn’t drive monetary resources to the few at the expense of the many we’ve arrived at a state of indoctrination where people cannot see past the wall of propaganda .... 

Gov. Shutdown Of TeleSUR & "Empire Files" Explained By Abby Martin

View the video below that reports on Abby Martin's experience with censorship and related matters on the Jimmy Dore Show. View it before YouTube or the corporation, Google, that "owns" them, takes the post down. There is a war on for your mind. No, I'm not referring to Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine, Israel and all the other countries that are plagued by war. 

The ruling capitalist classes of the Empire have declared war on your mind, and they are gradually shutting down all dissident views which challenge their power. On one side are the (hopefully) millions of people that support truth-tellers like Abby Martin, Jimmy Dore, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, etc, and on the other side are the corporations who quite literally "own" the USA and large parts of other nations.  Which side are you on (see this and this)?


Tuesday, August 28, 2018

The Real Russian Interference in US Politics

Click here to access article by Diana Johnstone from ConsortiumNews.

Those of you who suspect corporate media of disseminating fake news, now is your chance to read an article about the real interference by the US ruling class in the Russian government and their promotion of private interests to takeover the Russian economy. 
The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was ostensibly a conflict between two ideologies and two socio-economic systems.

All that seems to be over. The day of a new socialism may dawn unexpectedly, but today capitalism rules the world. At first glance, it may seem to be a classic clash between rival capitalists. And yet, once again an ideological conflict is emerging, one which divides capitalists themselves, even in Russia and in the United States itself. It is the conflict between American unipolar dominance and a multipolar world.
I differ with her implication that the Cold War was not about ideology, because it was about the USSR's half-baked version of socialism, and as such, an enemy to the agenda of the US Empire's intention to become the author of a New World Order or Pax Americana, or the latest capitalist version of the "Fourth Reich". The fact that the Empire is posing considerable opposition to the resistance led by Russia and China, who currently only want a multipolar world, attests to the fact that the Empire can accept no interference in their quest to dominate the world. The simple fact is that they have no alternative. The Empire's transnational capitalist class are committed to this objective out of necessity to pay off all the enormous debts (to themselves) that their governments have incurred. Their intention is that these debts will be paid at the expense of the rest of the world much as they have been in the past.

Jo Cox, Her Assassination, the White Helmets, “Humanitarianism,” and Regime Change (Part 1 of 4)

Click here to access article by Vanessa Beeley and Whitney Webb from Mint Press News. (Updated at 11:52 AM CT.)

These independent journalists have researched the rise of the White Helmets and offer this exposé into a fake "humanitarian" weapon used by the US Empire's ruling capitalist class to promote their imperialist interests in Syria. However, their continued operation and funding from various front NGOs (I have done my own research on two occasions in the past, see here and here, on these "humanitarian" funders) suggest that the White Helmets will be used in many other places in the future where the Empire has an interest. For example, see this post.
This is Part I of a three-part [it has since expanded to 4 parts] series on the life and legacy of Jo Cox, focusing on the establishment of the Jo Cox Fund 24 hours after her dreadful murder on June 16, 2016 — a fund that designated among its causes the multi-million-dollar government-financed White Helmets, whose primary purpose has been to escalate unlawful NATO state-proxy and direct military intervention in Syria. We focus on the originators of this fund and the extent to which they influence Western policy on Syria and elsewhere. It is no coincidence that some of the world’s most ardent imperialists are behind the cynical exploitation of one heinous murder to enable global mass-murder as well as human trafficking under the pretext of “ethical” and “humanitarian” intervention.
See Part II which was posted yesterday here.
This is Part II of a four-part series on the life and legacy of Jo Cox. .... In this part, we focus on how the people behind the Jo Cox Fund have applied strategies intended to promote foreign military intervention that was first perfected in the NATO intervention in the Balkans to the current conflict in Syria. Additionally, we examine how these players have helped develop the massive public-relations machine with the White Helmets at its center and how that machine has sought to use Cox’s death to sanctify the controversial group and shield it from scrutiny.

Lee Camp: All Dissenting Voices Being Crushed By Facebook & Others

Political comedian and satirist Lee Camp goes on a rant regarding the growing censorship by our masters in the capitalist ruling class against any views expressed by dissidents that is not approved by their censors. Lee Camp exclaims that it is time to fight back by simply spreading this knowledge about the growing censorship. 

It seems to me that if critics of the growing censorship are to get serious, they would stop going on rants about it and organize a nationwide alternative media organization like I proposed last year. Critics of the growing censorship in the USA need to get serious about fighting back.