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

Friday, August 14, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, Aug. 14, 2020

This excellent article belongs in the "best posts" category. The Deep State, that is, the billionaire financial and corporate owners of not only our government but much of our nation as well, are pushing a faith-based narrative to encourage us to obey our government authorities uncritically. These authorities and the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) know best, and the best weapon in this WHO sanctioned pandemic is vaccination.

Faith-based authorities have been used by all ruling classes since civilization was established around 10-12 thousand years ago. That is precisely why all ruling classes have used organized religions to bolster their authority. Science, as a rigorous evidence-based knowledge, has gradually freed humanity from the superstitions of religious faith. The Enlightenment period was especially celebrated by freeing humans from faith-based knowledge. Since then the benefit to the welfare of millions across the globe has been obvious. Unfortunately, capitalist ruling classes grew and took over control of governments across the planet, and they readily co-opted organized religions to help them dominate, control, and exploit their populations. Now it is evident that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with their substantial contributions, have greatly influenced WHO decisions. The article points to this faith-based knowledge to bolster faith in government authorities which has been supported by incessant propaganda media campaigns.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020

  • Kamala Is A Cop Except For Billionaire Banksters! featuring Jimmy Dore ranting and Max Blumenthal offering his observations about the Democratic Party candidates, via YouTube. (My reaction: Can you imagine a worse election that are facing the people of the USA in November?! Our masters in the ruling class are both extremely corrupt and extremely cynical about the American people.)
  • Consent Rescinded. By Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. (Note: She rescinds all the themes with which ideological agents of the capitalist ruling class infected her mind much like a virus when she was younger and more naive. Can you join her?)
  • A quick update on Belarus by "The Saker" from his weblog A bird's eye view of the Vineyard. (Note: this is an update to yesterday's re-post about the subversive efforts of the US Empire to change the government of Belarus.)

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020

  • Pharma Lobbying & Corruption featuring Robert F. Kenney, Jr. commenting briefly, via Children's Health Defense YouTube channel on the role of Big Pharma in our society.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020

Although Street gives an accurate description of the largely colored underclass (but not exclusively so) of capitalist America, he ignores the indispensable part that fascism plays in capitalism to deal with the problem of surplus workers that is an integral part of capitalist rule. This I think largely comes from a misunderstanding of fascism which confuses many people in the USA. (This is not an accident: capitalist ideological agents carefully craft propaganda to confuse people on this subject and many others.)
Fascism is basically an attitude that encourages coercion in one form or another. The fundamental source of this attitude is from the capitalist morality as described by Margaret Thatcher: looking only to the welfare of the individual and of one's family:
 ...you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first.
Therefore fascist methods are employed to deal with capitalist's main antagonists (the unemployed, poverty stricken, etc, (and let us not forget other competitive capitalists), and they can range from the threat of violence to indirect forms by controlling jobs and careers (traditionally favored by capitalists) to controlling the narratives (including censorship) that shape people's understanding of issues. (Caitlin Johnstone writes extensively about the latter subject.) Nowadays the three are combined in various combinations.

Monday, August 10, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, Aug. 10, 2020

  • What we can learn from the Swedish paradox by Freddie Sayers from UnHerd. (Note: Sayers, who is British, uses a European meaning of libertarians who emphasize individual freedom from government in contrast to the US version which puts more emphasis on laissez-faire capitalism, that is, more emphasis on freedom of capitalist enterprises from government regulation.)
  • The Undoing Of Illusions: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. (Note: Johnstone uses the theme of "narrative matrix" to denote the capitalist ruling class control of all ideological institutions. They do this by using fake news and propaganda that they spread via their ownership and control of media corporations and the control of other ideological institutions (education, entertainment, etc.) in order to control people's minds especially within their US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. This practice is the essence of soft fascism in contrast to the often hard fascism of German and Italian history (reliance on police terror). To be sure, the latter used elements of fake news and propaganda, but they relied on hard fascist methods because of the underdevelopment of propaganda during their rule.) (Editor's note: I edited this note to include comments regarding soft and hard fascism @ 3:50 PM CT.)
  • Who Profits from the Beirut Blast? by Pepe Escobar from Global Research. (Note: Because Escobar's excellent articles in Asia Times are now behind a paywall, I will be posting his articles from secondary sources in the future.)
  • The Jakarta Method: How the U.S. Used Mass Murder To Beat Communism by Daniel Larison from The American Conservative. (Note: I'm posting this mainly because it offers lessons on the US political spectrum, and secondarily because it reminds us of the history of ruling class crimes. The conservatives who write for this website are often labeled as "paleoconservatives" (old-fashioned conservatives) in contrast to neoliberals, often referred to as "ziocons" (Don RumsfeldPaul WolfowitzRichard Perle, Dick Cheney, etc. most of whom were brought into government during Reagan's administration). Neoliberals or "ziocons" (because of strong Zionist influence) are favored by transnational capitalists who have aggressively pursued an empire compared to more nationalist conservatives who support national capitalist interests. I think that Fox News publishing empire has mixed feelings about Trump because of his more nationalist orientation in contrast with his aggressive foreign policies. Neoliberals have taken over control of the Democratic Party, whereas the paleoconservatives are mostly found in the Republican Party, but there is little of substance to differentiate the two-party system of the capitalist ruling class.)

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020

Remarkably, Zuesse uses the term "ruling class" two times, but then reverts to using "oligarchy" and "aristocracy"--maybe he is progressing. Zuesse is the only social-democrat who is still frequently published on the internet. Most often social-democrats settle for highly regulated capitalism, but of course, capitalist ruling classes have always prevented this except during a period of extreme stress such as the Great Depression when there were only mild forms of regulation. Thus Zuesse always has fond memories of FDR.
"Ruling class" is a term used frequently by Marxist or revolutionary socialists to describe class structured societies that have existed since civilization was established around 10,000 years ago. The relations between social-democrats and Marxists have been contentious since the appearance of social-democrats mainly in Britain in the late 1800s. I suspect that such exponents saw that their careers were impaired by Marxist concepts, and to safeguard their careers, adopted this tame form of socialism. In the current USA only academic historians, who specialize in Marxist literature and are known as "Marxians", are allowed to work. Revolutionary Marxists were purged by the ruling class around 1950 during the McCarthy period (as explained by Bruce Lerro).
Most frequently Zuesse is listed as a "historian", sometimes as an "investigative historian". But I have never found his biography: where he was educated, the degrees he's earned, anything about his career, and where he worked as a historian. This is strange given that his articles have been published prolifically on the internet. Don't misunderstand me, I like many of his articles which contain many links to documentation that are overlooked by others. I only fault him for his social-democratic concepts which tend to hide the real nature of organized capitalist class rule by using terms such as "oligarchy" and "aristocracy".
  
  • Invasion of the New Normals by CJ Hopkins from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. (My reaction: Could it be that the typical satire of Hopkins has turned serious in the "New Normal"?)