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, December 11, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, December 11, 2020 (complete)

  • What Do We Do About The Increasing Vaccine Pressure? by Arjun Walia from Collective Evolution featuring a 28:14m video in which Joe Martino, founder of Collective Evolution, discusses the implications of the hints of governments mandating vaccines and private businesses that will essentially making vaccines mandatory in order to access their business services or products. A best post.
  • 'RT raises issues corporate controlled media doesn't want raised' by Chris Hedges from RT. My reaction: Isn't it ironic that a critic of US government policies, like all such critics, has to go to a foreign sponsored source to express his views? And isn't it ironic that one corporate media giant labels RT as "... funded in whole or in part by the Russian government?" in order to discourage viewers away from RT? After all, corporations are careful that we don't access material from dubious sources--but encourage people to access information only from their sources. (sarcasm)
  • Naomi Klein: Gatekeeper Extraordinaire by Cat McGuire & Colleen McGuire from Off-Guardian. My reaction: It is about time that an alternative weblog "outed" a fake critic who too often conforms to careerest (def.) expectations!

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, December 10, 2020

I viewed this 45 minute film last night and I highly recommend it. On 9/11/2001 I watched on TV the buildings of the World Trade Center come down, but I was already convinced that the collapse of buildings was a ruse to get Americans prepared for dramatic changes in foreign policy. Sure enough, people everywhere were shocked and prepared to do anything for their country. Gas station attendants in Oregon, where I was living at the time, insisted that their customers put patriotic stickers on their cars. Laws were rushed through Congress like the Patriot Act to grant government agencies to secure all kinds of records on Americans and the suspension of habeus corpus laws for alien Americans. Members of Congress who were concerned about the rush to pass these laws were targets for anthrax attacks. I felt very uncomfortable with this growing police state and relocated to Canada until 2006. About 1 1/2 years after 9/11, the US along with some allies had already invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. 
This film shows clear evidence that many architects and engineers were reluctant to challenge the governments flimsy excuses and reports by government agencies that gave approval to the official story of 9/11. They were intimidated into silence by the Deep State which controls nearly everything in the USA. Only after a decade did these professionals become involved and started to challenge the obvious inconsistencies and unscientific justifications of the official story.

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, December 9, 2020 (might add posts later)

With the assumption that mainstream reports are accurate regarding the current pandemic, I don't care of you read the article or not because the more informed readers will know beforehand the gist of this story as an illustration of how capitalism functions. Such readers already know the rest of the story. They will already know the socially dubious ways property owners have by taking advantage of public subsidies to acquire more of this type of intellectual property for their own, and their families', benefit.
But, aren't the authors indulging in a bit of confusing contradictions? Their only defense is an argument that matters of life and death deserve some suspensions of capitalist rules which "liberals" such as these authors like to argue. But this is a specious argument that soon collapses under the weight of another argument that people should be provided all necessary goods for their health and survivability such as shelter, food, sufficient clothing, and health care. But why stop there? 
Don't people need to be productive so that they can contribute to an economy that supplies these needs? The first thought that comes to mind is education, and then training in a productive specialty. Shouldn't all people have access to these fundamental needs? Is the capitalist system which considers all property, intellectual and real economic property, as privately owned and controlled to be used for their, and their families', benefit? Isn't this system, which has succeeded in bringing vast types of all property under private control for the benefit of a relatively few individuals and their families, considered almost sacred by it proponents, many of whom "own" much of this property? Because property rights are considered by such people as sacred, does this not justify in the minds of these people the right to exploit others, force others to comply with property owners ideas and demands with threats of harm, even maim or kill them? But you say, that is fascism! (Neo-fascism, which is prevalent today, relies more on controlling your mind with censorship and manipulation of information. However, if that doesn't work there is always the police and military to enforce compliance.)

In spite of the heavy censorship provided by media corporations, you might know that this happening everywhere in the world today. Given such thoughts, you might reconsider your commitment to capitalism by supporting efforts to end all property rights (except over personal property). But, you say in horror, that would be socialism/communism!
This collective type of ownership of economic property is often described as a alternative to capitalist enterprise, even as a revolutionary alternative for some enthusiastic supporters. The latter are usually employed in educational institutions and enjoy comfortable careers. 
Some 50+ years ago even I was taken in by their rhetoric. I studied them in the few obscure sources that I discovered, and even participated in a few collective type enterprises.  However, the proponents rhetoric failed to live up to the reality I encountered. Such enterprises barely survived, and most workers had to supplement their income from conventional sources of employment. Many failed or were taken over by private owners who turned them into conventional industries. 
It seems that conventional enterprises are supported by the legal, educational, and social institutions of capitalist countries and collective enterprises are not. This adversely affects collective enterprises in two decisive ways: 1) such enterprises could not compete with conventional enterprises because of lower costs of labor for the latter, and 2) many people who participate in these enterprises have experienced capitalist culture all their lives. 
The first difference results in the employment of people exclusively based on their philosophical preference of working in such a collective enterprise, but not on their skills or productivity, and because less productive members can't fired. The second reason resulted in workers who were socialized in selfishness and competitiveness of the larger culture and were unable to function effectively in a collective enterprise.
  • Dangerous Provocations Ahead for Iran by "Tony Cartalucci" from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: Once again the author relies on a Brooking's document to demonstrate the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's plans for Iran. This is sound because the ruling capitalist class never allows exposure to their plans in a mainstream source which are for self-serving propaganda purposes only.

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Part 1 of this series on Operation Warp Speed and Race, “The Johns Hopkins, CDC Plan to Mask Medical Experimentation on Minorities as ‘Racial Justice,’” explored Warp Speed’s vaccine allocation plan in depth. That plan utilizes a phased approach aimed at “populations of focus” that had been identified in advance by various government organizations, including the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The main focus of this allocation strategy is to deliver vaccines first to racial minorities and in such a way as to make them feel “at ease” and not like “guinea pigs.” This is particularly glaring given that these minorities will be receiving an experimental vaccine that allocation-strategy documents admit is likely to cause “certain adverse effects . . . more frequently in certain population subgroups,” with research showing that those “subgroups” most at risk of experiencing adverse effects are these same racial minorities.
The fact that the Florida Department of Health is taking this step is a sign that an increasing number of health professionals and regulators are questioning the accuracy of the PCR test. The PCR is the most common lab test being used to detect COVID-19. This incredibly sensitive technique was developed by Berkeley scientist Kary Mullis, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993. The test is designed to detect the presence of a virus by amplifying the virus’ genetic material so it can be detected by scientists. The test is viewed as the gold standard, however, it is not without problems.

Monday, December 7, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, December 7, 2020

Obviously, I don't agree with several arguments he makes, but I vigorously defends his right to express his views. I argue that he makes two fundamental mistakes. The first, it is not Big Pharma, etc. that is wrecking harm on this country and a number of others. It's Big Capitalism. The capitalist system which affirms the rights of private parties to own and control economic property portends what we have today: the overwhelming concentration of wealth and power in a very few hands. It is inevitable. Eventually the ruling capitalist classes must resort to ever greater amount of fascist-like control--censorship and manipulation of information which are the hallmarks of neofascism.
The second mistake he makes is that he assumes--no doubt, he learned this in schools--that we live in a democracy. It could be thought of as a capitalists' version of democracy, but it definitely isn't any real democracy where the people decide conflicting issues. Capitalism is the inverse of real democracy. The system gives power in the form of ownership and control over the economy to private individuals and their families.
  • An International Message of Hope for Humanity From RFK, Jr. featuring Robert Kennedy, Jr. asking for your support for his struggle against Big Capitalism (no, it's not Big Pharma,  Big Data, Big Oil, etc. (15:37m). Posted on Children's Health Defense. My reaction: Kennedy makes two fundamental errors and I've already pointed to one. The second is that capitalism is in contradiction to any real democracy. Allowing one class to privately own and control the economy is the other. Over time the system inevitably results in the concentration of power in a few hands that we see today. Thus, what we have is a fake democracy.
  • Richest 1% own 43% of global wealth, while billions have no wealth at all by Michael Roberts from Climate & Capitalism. My reaction: Under capitalism, ownership means control. Thus capitalists control 43% of economic decisions. I think this understates capitalist control of the world's economy which, I think, is much larger. But this is another indication that capitalists, who merely bet on, and loan money to, competing corporations that are largely run by comfortable and highly trained upper-middle-class technical workers, have won the war against the lower working classes and small business operators. However, due to the ever increasing attacks by corporations, the engines of capitalist accumulation, on the Earth's ecosystem, their victory will be of a Pyrrhic kind which will end in the extinction of humans and most other species. 
Recently this tiny group of capitalists has entertained fantasies about escaping to another planet after they have ruined Earth. However, because they ("capitalists", "oligarchs", "billionaires", etc.) are also humans which have evolved on planet Earth and there is no other planet like ours in which they can realistically access, these are just fantasies.
  • Infinite Spiders by John Steppling from his weblog. (Note: He gathers many of the most profound thinkers to offer insights, including his own, on the post-WWII development of our societies under capitalist ruling classes.) My reaction: I only scanned this article, but I gather from this scan that Steppling argues that advanced technology is being used by capitalist ruling classes for their own benefit (power and profits) instead of the benefit of the vast majority of people on our planet. I totally agree with him. Technology is neutral. It can be used for the benefit of people in general or it can be used by self-serving groups of people. Capitalism is a system that has used technology for the almost exclusive benefit of a tiny group of transnational capitalists located predominately in the powerful US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.