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

Monday, November 9, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, November 9, 2020

Murray is right when he writes "If people thought that the last four years in American politics were divisive, then they’ve seen nothing yet. Since Trump was elected in 2016, we have been subjected to 24/7 lies from the main ruling transnational capitalist class. They have demonstrated that they will use any means to accumulate more money and power. But what could we expect from this criminal gang of thieves? They have simply done to Americans what they have always done to manage their minds--cover for their assassinations, psy-ops, lies, in other words, the subversive use of media corporations to spread their propaganda. Murray cites numerous specific examples to smear Trump. 
He is right about the hardening of divisions among Americans, and I think we can expect this ruling class to contribute to this divisiveness in the years to come while distracting gullible Americans from the real issues as they "laugh all the way to their banks".
  • Colbert WEEPS Over Trump's Press Conference! featuring Jimmy Dore (of the Jimmy Dore Show) using his YouTube channel to trash Steven Colbert, a "comedian" for the ruling class featured regularly on one of their TV corporations. 
'Sparked by activist Greta Thunberg in Sweden and exploding around the world, the global climate protests have been some of the largest demonstrations in history. Rebellion, a documentary from The Nature of Things, is a vivid portrait of this extraordinary grassroots movement.

David Suzuki joins the front lines of the protests, meeting the youth of this generational wave — often compared to the civil rights movement of the ‘60s, the Vietnam War protests, the gay rights movement, and the women’s movement. We meet Olivia Wohlgemuth from New York, age 17, as she plasters flyers on utility poles in Manhattan; Jerome Foster, who was mocked for his lonely vigil for climate justice in front of the White House when he was 16; and Sophia Mathur, of Sudbury, Ont., who at age 11 was the first Canadian student to join Thunberg’s school strike.

Suzuki talks to veteran voices in the climate crisis: David Attenborough, famous for his BBC nature documentaries, shares his fears for the future of civilization itself; Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of the Extinction Rebellion movement that shut down the city of London, describes a tipping point in modern history; Bill McKibben — journalist, activist, and founder of the worldwide 350.org movement — reveals a 30-year conspiracy of the fossil fuel industry to tell “the most significant lie in human history.'
My commentary follows (edited for clarity at 7:25 PM CT):

While viewing this I was emotionally moved by the hordes of people protesting the deterioration of our climate brought about by the capitalist ruling class because of their obsession with profits and power. I also thought about the smug people celebrating the defeat of Donald Trump in the recent "election" announced by media corporations. I thought about the contrast of these protesting (mostly) young people and the people who were celebrating the defeat of Trump (which his camp is disputing), the devil incarnate created by the media of the ruling class. Then I thought about the Germans who were attracted to the Nazi party because they represented a powerful force that were lavishly supported by international capitalists who wanted to destroy the one country where their class didn't rule--the Soviet Union. (See my commentary in which I developed this argument.) (Sorry about the delay in applying this link--I was distracted by format problems.)

Then the thought occurred to me that many ordinary Germans were attracted to this powerful social-economic force because they felt so powerless themselves, and they wanted to identify with what they perceived as a powerful force. I thought the same was applicable to many of my fellow Americans.

But my mind didn't stop there. I concluded that the Great Reset project that our unelected masters decided and their massive engineering of this pandemic was intended to divert our attention to the many real issues that divide Americans while they focus their attention and actions to
projects that will support their class's obsession with profits and power, and to extend as long as possible their system of capitalism that provides them with these rewards.
  • Humans don’t know how to be happy by Sam Leith from Unherd (based in Britain). (Note: I had to look up the meanings of two words: alterity and Whiskas.) My reaction: This piece got me thinking about the difference between humans and other species. Hopefully, it will have the same effect on you.)