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

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Failed Coup, Medicare 4 All, Embassy Raid & More

Lee Camp and others satirize US policies on his Redacted Tonight Show carried on RT's website.

US policies and actions are so obviously criminal, and coverage by media corporations are so ridiculous that they provide abundant material to satirize. I post this for those people who believe it is better to laugh over our predicament by living in the USA than it is to cry. But notice the alert warning provided by the owner of YouTube, Google, warning us about Russia--you may want to avoid this video ... or not.


Venezuelan Coup Fails & So Does CNN [MSNBC, etc.]

from The Jimmy Dore Show.

Like Jimmy Dore (at 11:15m) I can't figure out why the traditional very conservative Fox News hired Tucker Carlson to deliver more accurate news regarding the US attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government. Also, I can't figure out what happened to the Democratic Party which formerly at least pretended to represent unions and working people. Has the US political establishment done a flip-flop?

 

Friday, May 3, 2019

Articles recommended for Friday, May 3, 2019

Pentagon Manhunt for Julian Assange Preceded Swedish Rape Allegations

Click here to access article by Ann Garrison from Black Agenda Report

What we are witnessing in the USA is a new version of fascism that has been slicked up by the technological advances in advertising and public relations. This expertise has been used as a means of persuading people to think and act in ways that supported official US domestic agendas and imperialist policies which are always in pursuit of wealth and power for the capitalist class. 

These policies and actions were created by the fascist core of the Deep State, a board of directors of the ruling capitalist class that constructed an empire following WWII. The Deep State lies hidden outside of government, and they consist of top leaders mostly in finance and major corporations. They draw their members from a transnational class of top capitalists in the USA, Britain, and Zionists worldwide. They control the government as well as all other institutions of our nation and the nations of their empire. Their efforts at controlling information has resulted in their takeover of every mainstream media corporation. We are now inundated with fake news. Since WWII they have used these advanced methods of propaganda to support their power and wealth agendas in contrast to the real interests of the people.  To construct their Empire, they have committed all sorts of major crimes only some of which I have revealed in posts from alternative media and my commentaries over the past decade.

Julian Assange has been in the forefront of efforts to counter this comprehensive propaganda campaign in order to bring the truth about the real activities of our fascist government. Hence, he has been enemy number one to the Deep State. Garrison in this article reveals some of the early history of this effort to capture and neutralize him.

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Articles I recommend today: Thursday, May 2, 2019

Assange or Khashoggi: Whither Journalistic Standards?

Click here to access article by Barbara Nimri Aziz from CounterPunch.

She compares the accomplishments of two journalists, Julian Assange with Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi, and their treatment by corporate media and the "journalists" they employ. Finally she asks rhetorically:
With the drama of Khashoggi’s death largely forgotten and the U.S.-Saudi status-quo restored, is there any way to compare his contribution to the imprisoned Wikileaks’ director?

Ecosocialist debates

Click here to access article by Louis Proyect from his blog. (The author has an annoying habit of listing abbreviations without, or delayed, references to their sources. Thus FB stands for Facebook and NLR stands for New Left Review.) 

One of the merits of this piece is that it cite references to academics who are debating the Green New Deal and related issues confronting academics who express some concern about the destabilization of our climate and the destruction of human habitat. But I think it also illustrates a lack of seriousness among people who have been inundated for most of their academic lives by capitalist indoctrination and thus exhibit some inhibitions about cutting back of the extraordinary materialist lifestyles that they have enjoyed in the Empire's academic institutions. Even Proyect exhibits some of this brainwashing when he sees Europe free of the domination by transnational capitalists in the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. Also, his views about Swedish-style social democracy is at least 50 years old and out-of-date.
Even if the Western European GND standards were adopted by a majority of politicians in the USA, there would be overwhelming forces opposed to their adoption by energy, transportation, petrochemical, and banking interests. In fact, the same array of reactionary forces would block the evolution of the USA into a Swedish-style social democracy. Unlike Western Europe, the USA is an imperialist hegemon that would resist all attempts at a New Deal of any sort, either Green or FDR-redux.

Those are the realities we are dealing with and the naïve hopes of the DSA/Jacobin left will crash up against them on day one of a Bernie Sanders presidency. And those who hope in neo-Kautskyist fashion that this will precipitate a general strike and other revolutionary measures are just kidding themselves.
Proyect finishes his essay with this statement:
Let me conclude with a few words about the possible outcome of this debate in the future as economic reality will bring things to a head. In my view, there is an element of truth in Huber’s claim that workers will resist a ceiling on consumption. After all, with television ads 20 times an hour urging you to buy a car or a trip on Norwegian Cruise ship, it becomes a form of brainwashing.

I suspect that a combination of ecological ruin, war, and deepening alienation of the kind that has produced an opioid crisis will eventually turn quantity into quality. Human beings are susceptible to baser temptations that an advanced capitalist economy can produce but the promise of a more peaceful life that offers leisure time and spiritual fulfillment will convince workers that giving up 5,000 square foot homes, SUV’s and meat every night of the week is worth it. A Peaceable Kingdom, so to speak.
 
 It appears to me that most people cited in this debate regard the subject as only an "academic debate"--much like a fashionable topic to entertain themselves over dinner in some fancy restaurant.

“The X Agenda”: what does XR actually stand for?

Click here to access article from Winter Oak (Britain). 

The people at Winter Oak, which appears from its logo to be an anarchist website, see some obvious contradictions in the sudden appearance of  Extinction Rebellion (XR), Britain's counterpart of the Green New Deal which has also suddenly appeared in the USA. Coincidence?

Meanwhile, "back at the capitalist ranch" (def.) in Britain excited business supporters and leaders of XR see exponential profits to be made in this new sustainability market. I think "XR" is code in British business circles that means "extraordinary revenue".

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Articles recommended for Wednesday, May 1, 2019

In general I strongly recommend following RT, a Russian news website, because of their excellent journalism and that they give space to so many dissident Americans who are otherwise denied access to media in the "land of the free and the home of the brave". 

The Yellow Vests Are Just The Start Of The Global Working Class Revolution That’s Underway

Click here to access article by Rainer Shea posted on The Greanville Post.

I've been a socialist for the past 60 years, and during that time I've always seen the necessity for a revolution that would take away ownership and control of the economy in private hands and put it in the hands of ordinary people to serve their needs. This article is welcome news that at least some of the young generation are waking up to this reality. However, from my vantage point in a milieu that is limited to mostly old people like myself, I still don't see this happening. So, this article evoked mixed feelings in me: skepticism and hope.

Yes, there is growing resistance here in the USA, but it is widely dispersed among people who are directly impacted by the various capitalist crises. Too many Americans seem too comfortable with their circumstances, and their individualism and isolation due to so many years of indoctrination prevents them from uniting behind any organized effort to overthrow their capitalist masters. The Empire's exploitation of the rest of the world and nature has bought off our educated, that is, highly trained and indoctrinated upper-middle-class who have the means of shutting down the economy and make the capitalists scream until they surrender their control (ownership) of the economy. Without these people I fear that the capitalist directors of the Empire will bumble along from one crisis to another until they ultimately face the desperate choice to surrender or engage in a catastrophic nuclear war against its foreign enemies. Actually I think we are approaching this scenario now. 

But what about the more distant future of environmental destabilization and its threat of destroying the habitat of humans and many other species? If I were a betting man, I would bet that it is too late to prevent the extinction of humans. But I also know that humans, like many other species, will fight to preserve their species. It's too late for me to prevent this tragedy from happening, but my last hope is to see the perpetrators of our extinction lose their power at the hands of ordinary people who can no longer tolerate the abuses and crimes of this capitalist class. So, it's a Pyrrhic victory, but it will be a little something for me: a sweet reward for my lifelong efforts at the end of my life. I only hope that I can live that long.

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

The New Silk Roads reach the next level

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, speaks eloquently about the respect shown to other nations participating in the BRI projects. His words are reinforced with deeds shown to participating members, and that is the key to the success of recruiting members which now number more than the G20.
BRI is now supported by no less than 126 states and territories, plus a host of international organizations. This is the new, truthful, realistic face of the “international community” – way bigger, diversified and more representative than the G20.

The Beijing leadership seems to be aware that transparency is key for the global success of BRI.
This style contrasts sharply with the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's strategies to engage in economic warfare on various countries, destabilize countries, like Venezuela, which want to pursue a more independent path, sponsor terrorist armies to attack independent countries (like Syria), and continue to threaten nations with both economic sanctions and NATO. 

It appears to me that the capitalist directors of the Empire are seeing their control of their Empire and dominant influence in the world slipping away to the increasing achievements of the independent nations, and are upping their aggressive responses which likely will end in a backlash that will either destroy the Empire or will result in catastrophic nuclear war. While this scene is rapidly unfolding and threatening further crises, most ordinary Americans are blithely ignoring such developments and focusing their efforts on the micro-issues of their insular lives. They have been so confused by the 24/7 (def.) deceptions and distractions of their capitalist masters over the decades since WWII that they cannot function mentally to counteract such developments.

Monday, April 29, 2019

Articles recommended for Monday, April 29, 2019

New Green Bankster Rebellion’ with guest Cory Morningstar

Click here to access this audio interview with Cory Morningstar from in the British broadcast program "Sunday Wire". She is interviewed by hosts American Patrick Henningsen and British Mike Robinson. The interview is located on the audio spectrum between 53:30m and 155:45m.  

Morningstar summarizes her considerable research that have exposed the capitalist roots of the movements in Britain identified as Extinction Rebellion and in USA as Green New Deal.

Trees don’t grow on money – or why you don’t get to rebel against extinction

Click here to access article by Tim Hayward from his blog.

Hayward raises some very important questions and doubts about the seriousness of the latest movements to solve the environmental crises: movements in the USA and Britain which are backed by capitalists such as the Green New Deal and Rebellion Extinction.
A circumstantial puzzle is how an apparently spontaneous social movement of protest comes to have the energetic backing of big business interests and even to receive notable support from influential sections of the corporate media.

Can Twenty-First Century Fascism Resolve the Crisis of Global Capitalism?

Click here to access article by William I. Robinson from Radical Political Economy.

Because I am seeing my energy declining at my age of nearly 83, I debated on whether I should offer a critique of this seriously flawed article. I prefer re-posting articles that really aim at understanding this deteriorating world at the hands of transnational capitalism. 

So, first off, I would answer the question in the headline. No, 21st century capitalism or any capitalism cannot ultimately ever resolve their various crises. Robinson declares that it can: "A fascist outcome to the crisis of global capitalism is not inevitable." Thus, he appears to be a reformist. Secondly, I find his use of "Trumpism" as not valid. "Isms" always imply an ideology. Ascribing Trump's style in the White House does not qualify. 

I also recently read his book Into the Tempest where his outlook on world political and economic affairs was limited to that of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's world. This is not the whole world. There are nations that are contesting the neoliberal and imperialist policies of the Empire and succeeding. Russia, China, Iran, and Venezuela come to mind. I think the efforts of those nations could very well impose a major reverse in the actions of the Empire. Europe is showing signs of waffling over their allegiance to the Empire. His book totally ignores this challenge.

I think Robinson is a product of US academia in which he has been exposed to pressures to conform to capitalist views and experienced a lot of censorship in materials he's been exposed to. He in his education was not likely exposed to the writings of Marx, Durkheim, and other radical writers and historians. I know I wasn't. I had to access their views independently by going to the college library, assuming that it is large enough.