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

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, June 23, 2020

  • Meet BlackRock, the New Great Vampire Squid by Ellen Brown from The Unz Review. (My reaction: I believe this is a very important article on this private investment entity for, and by, the rich. I believe it is a very important component of what Brown refers to as an "almost a shadow government", or what I and others are now referring to as an existing "Deep State" that lies behind the facade of our "democratic" government.
Zuesse, a social-democratic indoctrinated historian, shows his alertness by recognizing this as a singular (def. #3) event by the Supreme Court, one of the fundamental branches of US government. Because of this, cops (and they know it) like Derek Chauvin have the Deep State's permission to kill citizens regardless of the circumstances. (See how the fascist faction of the ruling class after WWII purged all institutions of people who held any leftist views.)
But instead of sourcing this as rooted in the early US capitalist class whose "Founding Fathers" established their government of the USA, Zuesse implies that indecent people have been appointed in recent years to the Supreme Court. The latter has, starting in 1983 (of course cops killed people before then, but the people didn't have the courage, or were so foolish, to attempt to take legal actions against the police), ruled that killing people in the line of duty was okay, and the June 15th ruling confirms that. (Did you hear that from media corporations?)   Zuesse writes:
This isn’t a failure ONLY by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is instead an expression of the American system as it now exists, and which failure renders the U.S. Constitution itself almost meaningless, especially as regards the rights of the people and the obligations of federal officials at all levels in the government. There is no accountability; there is only blame. And, as in any authoritarian system, all blame goes downward, and all praise goes upward. That’s the reality. The U.S. Constitution is by now just a string of words. America’s Founders are dead, gone, and no longer really even an influence. That’s the reality. Pretending otherwise won’t fix anything. Drastic changes are needed. And the American public has proven itself not up to the challenge, still refuses to face the reality. This is system-failure. And the public refuses to face it.
And, he goes on to write that only a Constitutional Amendment can changes things. He's right, and Chauvin and other cops will keep on killing and protecting the ruling class.
America is a war machine on top of a police state on top of a mass media psyop. Only people who are willing to keep these psychopathic mechanisms in place are permitted to ascend to presidential candidacy. While all the news cameras focus on the relatively minor differences between presidents and presidential candidates, you can learn a lot more about America and what drives it by looking at their similarities.
  • Tensions in Lebanon are Rising by Vladimir Platov from New Eastern Outlook. (My reaction: Tensions are appearing all over the world as economies deteriorate, and violence appears as a result of the Empire's transnational capitalists who attempt to maintain their empire. This trend will only accelerate due to global warming.)