in the time remaining, to help us understand how the man-made system of capitalism will lead to the extinction of our human species, and so many others.
Hudson has developed a lucrative career out of his attacks on US control of international finance which has created economic burdens on many countries. His explanations about the details of this process helps shed much light on our understanding of how the directors of the US Empire since WWII have imposed their dominance over other countries with their control of nearly all important international financial and political institutions. Such details include the US insistence on maintaining veto power over any important international institution that gives loans, transfers payments, and money exchanges in various currencies. Added to this control is the physical possession of other countries' gold in the vaults of the USA and Britain.
Having just returned from Europe, he see definite signs that this dominance is breaking down due to the hyper-aggressive use of sanctions implemented by Sec. of State Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton against countries who do business with countries that offend the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. He sees that European capitalists are increasingly seeking other methods to free themselves from the Empire's control over who they do business with.
Over the past year, largely due to changes in how information is distributed online, our finances have been hit hard. We currently run a monthly deficit: we cannot cover our monthly costs. In what effectively amounts to online censorship directed against the Independent media, Global Research has been “penalized” for “Telling the Truth”.
We are rallying all the help we can get in a campaign to turn things around and get us back on track in 2019.
This post is from Steemit (see here and here to find out more about Steemit.
Abbie Martin has recently visited Venezuela to find out the truth of conditions there. This article features an excellent video in which she interviews many Venezuelans on the streets. The interviewees sometimes refer to the east and west ends of Caracas. The east end is where most of the white Spanish descendants of the original Spanish colonialists live, whereas the west section of Caracas is where the mestizos and indigenous live. The east area is where the most of the owners of Venezuela industries also live.
I visited Venezuela for two weeks at the end of 2005 and visited not only Caracas but numerous other cities and communities. What she discovered recently in her interviews is very much like what I experienced in 2005. In fact, I found the newspapers were even more right-wing than she found them to be. I was very surprised by the fake news which the right-wing newspapers were allowed to print. I think food shortages of some items that were cited by her interviewees are completely accurate; but as explained by some of the locals, these are under the control of Venezuelan or multinational corporations which are collaborating with the US forces that have been trying to change the government for several decades. Also US government imposed sanctions are having adverse affects on the availability of goods.
Initially in the post Abby Martin provide a short introduction (I encourage you to read it) to her video which I have reproduced below:
Escobar adds his own knowledgeable insights to the meaning of the latest Empire's effort to appoint a new regime in Venezuela. Having obviously failed in Syria, the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire is licking its wounds and determined that this won't happen in their own backyard.
... now it’s firmly established what happened [recently] in Caracas was not a color revolution but an old-school US-promoted regime change coup using local comprador elites, installing as “interim president” an unknown quantity, Juan Guaido, with his Obama choirboy looks masking extreme right-wing credentials. [my insertion]
Everyone remembers “Assad must go”. The first stage in the Syrian color revolution was the instigation of civil war, followed by a war by proxy via multinational jihadi mercenaries. As Thierry Meyssan has noted, the role of the Arab League then is performed by the OAS now. And the role of Friends of Syria – now lying in the dustbin of history – is now performed by the Lima group, the club of Washington’s vassals. Instead of al-Nusra “moderate rebels”, we may have Colombian – or assorted Emirati-trained – “moderate rebel” mercenaries.
I found this article to be an absolutely fascinating and brilliant analysis of the current situation in Venezuela. I think I am well informed on conditions in Venezuela, but much of my knowledge is old, whereas the author appears to have much more recent and solid information. Plus, he is an expert geopolitical analyst. I think his assessment is right on the mark! This is must reading for all interested in the subject of the direction of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.
Here is the solid "meat" of his analysis:
Think of what currently passes as a “policy” of the US in Venezuela as a diagnostic tool.
Not just to diagnose the moral degeneracy and mental pathology of the leaders of the AngloZionist Empire, but also to diagnose the very real state of despair and chaos of the Empire itself. Under Obama, for all his faults and weaknesses, the US succeeded in subverting a list of crucial Latin American countries (like Brazil or Argentina) but now, with Mr MAGA, it can’t even do that. The kind of antics we see from the Pompeo, Bolton & Abrams gang is amazing in its crudeness and, frankly, makes a supposed “indispensable nation” look absolutely ridiculous. These losers already had to fold several times, in spite of equally hyperbolic threats delivered with maximal gravitas (think DPRK here), and yet they still think that crude bullying methods can yield success. They can’t. Immense firepower is not a substitute for brains.
In its short and blood-soaked history, the US has pretty much always acted like some criminal enterprise run by brutal gangsters, but in the past some of these gangsters could be extremely well educated and intelligent (think James Baker here). Today, their guns are still lying around (albeit in various states of disrepair), but they are wielded by ignorant retards. Yes, ignorant retards with guns can be very dangerous, but they can never be effective!
(As a result of Raevsky's influence, I have now adopted, or rather modified, my designation for the Empire. Henceforth I will designate it as a "US/Anglo/Zionist Empire".)
TNI is an international NGO based in the Netherlands, the members of which seem to believe that only an informed citizenry via reforms to capitalism can halt the destructive effects of the powerful transnational capitalists led by the armed-to-the-teeth US Empire. However, they also sincerely want to educate people about international capitalism so that it can serve the needs of the people and halt the destructive effects that is threatening the sustainability of the Earth's human habitat. Their efforts are in stark contrast to other NGOs that function merely as sources of pro-capitalist propaganda.
I have long been convinced that only economies under the control of the people, organized by a bottom-up reverse hierarchy, can do this, and more: unlocking the vast potential that humans have to promote their lives and all life on our unique planet that is abundant with so many life forms. Having read widely and with extensive experience in activist movements, I now am convinced that our days as a human species are limited. Still I want to contribute to the growing awareness that capitalism is the cause of our demise, and in the time remaining devote our efforts to take back our economies so that we can unlock at least some of our wonderful human potential. We must understand our adversaries so that
we can defeat them.
In this packet there are many very informative articles most of which
I have only scanned. So peruse these articles, become informed and
active in a movement that promotes people's control of their economies by removing this control from a tiny group of people who are thoroughly addicted to the drug of power.
I am overwhelmed with great posts today. I can only advise you to scan the recommended sources that I have listed on the right side of my website. They furnish a wealth of insights on our very troubled world.
Learn the details of the latest regime change operation of the Empire in Venezuela.
Juan Guaidó is the product of a decade-long project overseen by Washington’s elite regime change trainers. While posing as a champion of democracy, he has spent years at the forefront of a violent campaign of destabilization.
Fascist capitalists always learn from each other, and Curtin provides some historical material on how US and German fascists have done this particularly in psychological warfare against their own populations.
But the very informed sociologist Curtin goes further to assess what has been happening since WWII in our country. The Deep State, the top capitalists in the Empire that long ago formed a directorate of the ruling capitalist class, have used, in addition to propaganda techniques, the super-secret agencies like the CIA to further their control of most of the world in the form of a US-led Empire. Curtin provides his take on crimes perpetrated by the ruling class and their efforts to cover them up. I completely agree with his interpretive history of events directed by our fascist ruling class.
Read it and weep, or better yet, become activists and revolutionaries.
I've often had difficulties wading through their lengthy articles. It appears to me that the authors are members of the ruling capitalist class who clearly see the destructive effects of capitalism, and they are writing for the members of their own class of people who have loads of time--because they don't work--to wade through them. Although retired, the aging process has reduced considerably the time and energy that I have to read such lengthy articles and to accomplish other tasks to maintain my life. But, if you are of this class, I highly recommend their posts.
This article is clearly a third of a four part series that, I think, focuses on NGOs that promote "green capitalism". Capitalists, such as Al Gore, are somewhat aware of the destructive results of normal capitalism, but are trying to desperately save both their baby (capitalism) and the bathwater of planet Earth (def). Or, maybe it's the other way around. In any case, these "green capitalists" are engaging in a very pretentious, desperate, and deceptive attempt to preserve their system without the disastrous effects.
Utilizing the power of celebrity (an unprecedented phenomenon for the expansion of capital in the west), today’s global influencers such as Thunberg [and Gore], are fully utilized to create a sense of urgency in regard to the climate crisis. The unspoken reality is, they are the very marketing strategy to save capitalism. This is a very “inconvenient truth”. [my insertion]
I read this rather rapidly, but I think it paints quite an accurate picture of what has generally happened under the Bolivarian Revolution that first was led by Hugo Chavez and now President Maduro, and the ongoing efforts by the US Empire to destabilize the country. (I visited Venezuela for two weeks in late 2005, and followed events closely in that country for many years thereafter.)
Any independent movements are always attempted, and often succeed, via agents serving the Empire when they show signs of independence. Increasing these destabilizing agents of capitalist ruling classes are having a more difficult time doing their dirty deeds, and they are frustrated. The little country of Nicaragua is another country that is having a hard time coping with the wrath of the US capitalist Empire, but they still succeed to some extent. Once a people realize their power and become educated, as they have to a significant extent in Venezuela, they pose very significant problems for the Empire.
Click here to access article by Guy McPherson & Pauline Schneider and posted on my dear friends' website Titanic Lifeboat Academy. Also, I include a link to an article entitled "Planetary Hospice", written by McPherson, found in the article to fully understand where the authors are coming from.
I've always had some problems with McPherson's notion of its too late to save our human habitat on our home-Earth. I've since identified basically two problems: 1) the scientist McPherson has never mentioned the system of capitalism and its tiny group of benefactors who've enjoyed overwhelming power and wealth in a system, which they designed, and which has brought us to this place of extinction. For him, the system has always been a given, much like the Sun, stars, Moon, or gravity. He never had a problem with capitalism (or "industrialization" as he still prefers to call it) until relatively late--2007 to be exact. He is typical of highly trained specialists who swallowed the ideology of capitalism: "liberal democracy" (or "bourgeois democracy" as most of the world prefers). But, oh my, he was well-rewarded in terms of salary, benefits, and perks.
After working in the ruling capitalist controlled universities, McPherson became enlightened to the damage done as a result of the capitalist's compulsive habits of extracting profit (again, "industrialization" in his mind) mostly in order to obtain power in the world. Initially this tiny new ruling class thought their system was miraculous because it used science to create useful things for sale in markets, and markets they saw as rational. However, very soon they discovered that power came along with the concentration of wealth. Unlike wealth, power was so addictive, and they easily succumbed to this new drug. During the 20th century, they started using advertising, public relations, and indoctrination to create many addicts among the general population in order to take control over every institution and to insure the survival of their system and especially their power. The other problem I've had with McPherson's position is that he only recommends one action: to accept our demise/extinction as a species while treating each other with love. I've decided long ago to fight for socialism and to rid our species of the scourge of capitalism. I regard such a fight as the highest expression of love. But I've come around a bit to his form of action because I've discovered that to keep one's sanity in order to fight, we must love each other like never before. We must establish what I think was eventually possible under a democratic socialist system, but we must do it now and in our immediate social settings and communities to the extent possible. There is no other solution while fighting the system and awaiting our extinction. At 82, and with no children that I know of, I realize that this is easier for me. I will likely die a natural death before the mass extinction event sets in. But, I recently came across another person (around age 35) who fully realized the threat of climate destabilization and who had children to worry about. I thought long and hard as to some way to ease her pain. The only thing I could come up with is love. Not merely the cheap love that is portrayed in Hollywood movies, but a much higher state of contributing to others well-being so that they and we can live life to the fullest extent possible during our remaining time on our home-Earth. This is quite a challenge, but we must begin otherwise we will go insane (or engage in total denial).
This top geopolitical analyst exposes the deceptions of ruling capitalist classes, and their control of media to insure that Americans, Canadians, and citizens of all capitalist controlled countries have the "right views" of their government and economic system.
In the 1970s, the establishment’s Trilateral Commission defined the
demand that government policy reflect the will of the majority as a
“crisis of democracy”—a sickness originating in democratic “excess.” In
the 1920s in Italy and in the 1930s in Germany, earlier crises of
democracy were resolved by fascism, another instrument of the
establishment.
Clearly, the New York Times, and the economic elite and organized business interests it represents, are not prepared to tolerate a democracy of the many, or simply, democracy as it has always been understood. A democracy of the few...namely, not a democracy at all but a tyranny of the economic elite, a plutocracy—is more in line with the newspaper’s, and the establishment’s, predilections.
All the same, that won’t stop the New York Times, the US government, and the Western intelligentsia, from appropriating the good name of democracy to beautify and disguise their preferred system of anti-democratic rule, all the while defaming the people as democracy’s enemies.
Click here to access article by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Edited for greater clarity at 4:34 PM CT.)
The broadcast by Tucker Carlson of Fox News on January 3rd was featured by this author, and he seems to be in full approval. I've often wondered where (on the political spectrum) Zuesse is coming from, and now I think it finally appears in this article. Both Carlson's and Zuesse's commentaries are exceptionally designed clever pieces of propaganda to sell a new image for the Republican Party.
No decent, thinking person would disagree with the statements that Carlson makes up to approximately 14:40m of the entire 15:13m broadcast. But the remainder, a short 1:33m, or the final three paragraphs, is where the con (def. #4) is revealed. Notice just before the fourth paragraph from the end, Carlson relies on the fact that the ruling class have only permitted two capitalist parties to exist, and they control them both. Thus, he logically can claim that only the Republican Party can turn things around. Immediately following this point, Carlson summarizes all the earlier statements that make such a concerned impression upon us:
... first, Republican leaders will have to acknowledge that market
capitalism is not a religion. Market capitalism is a tool, like a
staple gun or a toaster. You’d have to be a fool to worship it. Our
system was created by human beings for the benefit of human beings. We
do not exist to serve markets. Just the opposite. Any economic system
that weakens and destroys families is not worth having. A system like
that is the enemy of a healthy society.
Then he logically follows with the con in the final three paragraphs:
Internalizing all this will not be easy for Republican leaders. They’ll have to unlearn decades of bumper sticker-talking points and corporate propaganda. They’ll likely lose donors in the process. They’ll be criticized. Libertarians are sure to call any deviation from market fundamentalism a form of socialism.
That’s a lie. Socialism is a disaster. It doesn’t work. It’s what we should be working desperately to avoid. But socialism is exactly what we’re going to get, and very soon unless a group of responsible people in our political system reforms the American economy in a way that protects normal people.
If you want to put America first, you’ve got to put its families first.
The corporate and ruling class experts of propaganda are selling a new version of the Republican Party wrapped in a more caring, sensible package that will appeal to all ordinary Americans. It is well known that Fox News corporation backs the Republican
Party, and Zuesse acknowledges this. He goes on to argue that Republican
viewers were not personally offended by this broadcast; the
implication being that they are too insensitive or too stupid:
At
the website of Fox News itself, the comments are virtually all from
Republicans, and they’re not nearly as happy with what Carlson said, as
is the case at the youtube site; their comments are more focused on the
strictly intra-Republican-Party feud, than on the nation’s welfare.
Carlson’s central point was missed.
Most Republicans know, what apparently Zuesse doesn't, that they can regard such statements from a Republican-backed media corporation with a "grain of salt" (def.). I think he is too smart to be taken in by such a pitch. Thus, I think Zuesse has in this article revealed what he has been up to for the past many months: a stealth propaganda agent for the ruling class in order to co-opt dissent, thereby control it and divert it into safe channels of activity--voting for "humanistic" Republicans (an oxymoron if there ever was one). I'm sure that the ruling class will see to it that such fake candidates will be available to run in the next election. I quote from Zuesse's concluding remarks:
That’s also similar to what Tucker Carlson was saying. He, too, was criticizing the ruling elites in the US and Europe, and for the same reasons. He, too, was saying that in America, there is a crisis of legitimacy.
Consequently, did Tucker Carlson, in his January 2nd commentary, open the way, finally, toward a New America emerging — a compassionate country, which blames no masses (such as ‘the failures’, or ‘the poor’, or ‘the Hispanics’, or ‘the Blacks’ — or any foreign country — not Russia, and not Iran, and not China, not any at all) for America’s decline, but which instead blames America’s billionaires — the people who actually control America — for the serious problems in America?
If so, he just might have delivered there the platform for a new third American political party, which could end and replace the Republican Party, just as Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans ended and replaced the then-existing Whig Party, from which they had sprung. In that case, a new third political Party replaced one of the two existing political Parties. It could happen again.
Is Tucker Carlson now running for President?
Last time they used Bernie Sanders to do this among Democratic Party voters. Will our masters once again fool Americans by steering them to the other candidates we are allowed to vote for-- Republican candidates?