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

Friday, September 4, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, Sept. 4, 2020

By keeping Americans angry and distracted by the partisan divide through pre-planned election chaos, a “New America” waits in the wings – one that is coming regardless of what happens on election day. That is, of course, unless Americans quickly wake up to the ruse.
My reaction follows:
I am giving this piece of investigative research top billing. I don't always do so because frequently my selection to order important articles follows other criteria--mainly to follow one important article after another to build momentum for a top article. But this well-researched piece explains with solid documentation the apparent current plan to use chaos strategy that I elaborated on in a commentary regarding Tuesday's post entitled "Riots for Neo-Liberalism: ANTIFA & BLM Are the Global Elites’ Useful Thugs". If this plan is followed and if Biden were to lose the November election, who knows where this plan will end?
  • Anti-Racist Uprising Infiltrated by Extreme-Right Hooligans by Andre Vltchek from New Eastern Outlook. (Note: I apologize to my readers for not posting this very important article in the middle of August. It lends further evidence that the ruling class is using its well-honed method of chaos strategy to impel Americans into accepting more fascist methods. This is another best post.)

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020

  • How the West followed China into lockdown from Spiked. (Note: Paddy Hannam, of Spiked, interviews Karl Wennberg, a Swedish sociologist, regarding his views following his research regarding various nations and their responses to the covid-19 pandemic.)
Karl Wennberg: We found that rather than factoring in the heterogeneous situation each country was in, decision-makers followed the actions of neighbouring countries to a very large degree. .... 
To understand why this has happened, it is important to think about psychological factors. Humans are greatly influenced by the behaviour of other humans, and specifically those they compare themselves with. Key decision-makers obviously compare themselves to other key decision-makers, and hope to be perceived as better than them, or at least not any worse than them. The desire to not be seen to have performed worse is incredibly important when it comes to explaining the decisions made around Covid-19. ....
  • Hancock’s Half-Hour by Stephen McMurray from Off-Guardian (based in Britain). (Note: It appears that there is a new TV show that satirizes the current restrictions imposed people by government authorities. But it appears to me that this TV show can only be viewed in Britain.)
A brand new TV show has just been announced called Hancock’s Half-Hour. Over the course of 30 minutes the main character, Hapless Hancock, playing the part of the Health Secretary, will highlight all the government’s absurd policies and fake facts and figures surrounding the covid situation.
  • Richard Gage Delivers Updates on 9/11 Truth from The Corbett Report. (Note: James Corbett interviews Richard Gage of AE911Truth, an organization made up of architects and engineers that dispute the official story, to explain his organization's views about the 9/11 tragedy on this 19th anniversary.)
  • Margaret Atwood who briefly urges action regarding the climate crisis (via YouTube). (Note: As you may know, if you have followed my weblog, I finally concluded last December that it was already too late.)

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020

Previously I have tended to avoid arguments regarding the riots going on currently in major cities of the USA. They have been increasingly characterized by two opposing groups--antifascists and fascists. I have done this because of the following reasons: I didn't know enough about the participants and I didn't want to alienate participants on the antifascist side that were involved with sincere beliefs in their organizations. 
Much of today's neofascism is manipulated by well-trained agents of the ruling capitalist class who have infiltrated all activist groups in order to control and manipulate them. To be sure, there are a number of people who sincerely believe that they are fighting racism or fascism, but are being increasingly manipulated by these subversive agents. You see, the directors of the ruling class have learned that they can control all antagonistic movements in order to manipulate them for their own ends. This analysis applies to all activist groups: BLM, Antifa, and hardcore fascists.  
The directors of the ruling class have long honed the weapon of organized chaos into a strategy to dominate whole societies. They have done this for many decades notably in places like El Salvador, Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine. The ruling class likes to experiment abroad with strategies of oppression and control, and those deemed effective are applied in the home countries of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.  
This, I believe, is going on now to a significant extent. Such subversive agents have found in the past that if they can control these groups, they can create chaos in societies with the result that ordinary people look to Empire sponsored groups that promise order to get rid of the chaos. If successful, ordinary people will support those with the necessary force and phony promises to restore order: armed forces sponsored by the Empire attacking established police forces, or the police and military organizations that the Empire already controls. 
It is necessary to find antidotes to this chaos strategy, infiltration, and surveillance in order to build effective revolutionary organizations. I don't have a recipe for this, but I'm sure that activists can create their own given enough time--but time is in short supply. All I recommend is that any effective strategy must include real democratic principles and practices whether in activist organizations or in nations like Belarus. With the latter accomplished--and it is a major feat--an effective activist group must continue to devise methods to thwart surveillance. All of these tasks would have been much easier decades ago; but now, although much more difficult, it is imperative and in a short time. Perhaps the latest stunt, the covid-19 pandemic, promulgated by the ruling class has awaken activists sufficiently that they can accomplish these tasks in the time remaining for homo sapiens on planet Earth.

Monday, August 31, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, Aug. 31, 2020

Yes, it has all got to change, but what are the changes? However, this idea of necessary change represents progress for individuals of the human species. Hopefully, opinion makers--and that should be all of us--will finally recognize that we must change the economic system which has allowed another ruling class to destroy our planet's ecosystem on which we all depend. I'm convinced it is too late to save our species and so many others, but it is certainly worth the effort. And, another Kennedy wants "our democracy back", but this "democracy" is a fake version that capitalists have constructed to fool us. (We can't expect the Kennedy clan to have all the answers.) Now this fake democracy is apparently being questioned if Donald Monaco is representative of the young generation. Can we construct a real democracy before our time as a human species comes to an end? That is the question. Not because it will save us, but because it is right! And, the human species is perfectly capable of doing what is right, for a change.
Many people in major cities across the world are fed up with the hysteria over the covid-19 pandemic, which appears to be engineered by employed agents of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, and they are holding mass demonstrations to protest the severe policies that various nations have implemented. The author objects to some views about other issues that were included in these protest demonstrations: 
I think keeping a narrow focus on the issue is important at the moment and unfortunately some of the speakers raised points that were irrelevant or self-contradictory or just pure speculation. 
I heard declarations from Piers Corbyn and others that the virus wasn’t real or is virtually harmless juxtaposed with claims it’s actually caused by 5G and is part of a bid to kill us all. Well, which is it? Because it can’t be both.
Maybe the author misunderstood some speakers or the latter did not make their views clear. In any case, I think it is appropriate to bring other issues to the fore because the capitalist ruling classes have demonstrated throughout their several hundred years of history that they are perfectly capable of pushing products or technology that is harmful to our and/or the planet's health if they can make a profit off of them (and thus create more power with which to impose their self-rewarding policies on the world).

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020

  • Trump Isn't the Worst President, But He is the Most American by Nicky Reid from his weblog Exile in Happy Valley. (My reaction: Like Reid, I can't tell which is the worst candidate for president. However, I haven't voted for president and other candidates for federal offices since the late sixties when the Deep State of the ruling class assassinated so many people who opposed the direction the country was going. I think that this practice illustrates that elections don't matter in capitalist nations that pretend to be "democracies".)
  • This is powerful by Ursula K. Le Guin (1929 ~ 2018 RIP) from Adbusters (based in Canada).
  • Liberalism: the two-faced tyranny of wealth from Organic Radicals (based in Seattle, but international). (My reaction: "Liberalism", as used here and by most non-Americans, is used as a synonym for capitalism. Actually it is the ideology which tries to sell the system of capitalism as the best system.)
  • Record High Greenland Ice Sheet Melt by Paul Beckwith from his weblog. (Note: I've had difficulty accessing his article for the past several weeks. I found that copying the address of his website and pasting it in another tab most helpful.)