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

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, February 11, 2021

  • New NORAD Warfare Strategies and Canada’s Role in the Great Game Revisited by Matthew Ehret from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: Although I don't agree with his main thesis that the British ruling class has taken the initiative and was the main actor behind the construction of what became the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire (it was a transnational capitalist project), this paragraph got my attention:
Anyone who has read Cynthia Chung’s Dr. Strangelove’s Spoonbenders will quickly realize why using AI to pick up algorithms that would normally be missed by human analysts, and generate hair-trigger decisions to counter threats from Eurasia creates a mountain of trouble for humanity, as glitches and mis-readings of Russian/Chinese intentions can easily escalate unstoppably into a nuclear retaliation by deductive/inductive machine thinking.
  •  Interview 1618 – New World Next Week with James Evan Pilato featuring James Corbett and Pilato reporting and sarcastically commenting on the news. Posted on The Corbett Report in a 22:08m video with links to relevant documents. The topics they discuss: The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election [from Time Magazine]; Germany Hired Koch Institute And Other Scientists To Justify Unconstitutional Lockdowns; and Nevada Bill Would Allow Tech Companies to Create Governments.
  • The Fire Next Time by Rebecca Gordon from Tom Dispatch. (Note: You will need to scroll down to the article following Tom Engelhardt's introduction. I am posting this article only to criticize its weaknesses.) My commentary follows:
Although well-meaning, this is a post that exemplifies the blindness that has infected American "progressives" and (political) liberals (in the contemporary sense--def#5) since WWII. The tremendous war effort and reactionary historians succeeded to erase the memory of radicalism that appeared in the 1930s. Gordon also exemplifies a person who has been thoroughly brainwashed by the secret cabal that has taken over not only American education but every other institution in the USA. This aggressive capitalist ruling class now rules over an Empire built on the ashes of the war when the US first reigned supreme in its military and economy.
She is the perfect product of an "education" that forgot the rising tide of the appeal that truly radical parties had on ordinary Americans. Gone is the memory of general strikes that hit San Francisco, Minneapolis, and many other cities. Gone are the memories of this radical appeal when Soviet citizens enjoyed rising standards of living and no unemployment. Gone, too, is the memory of FDR's reply to the charge that he was promoting socialism. Gone are Upton Sinclair's and John Steinbeck's descriptions of life during the Great Depression. Gone are the reports of US capitalists' approval of fascist developments in Germany and Italy. So much has been erased from history that is taught in American schools; and what was not erased, has been revised by historians that serve the ruling class.
Gordon (and by inference, Tom Dispatch and CounterPunch who re-posted this article) supports the "correct political line" of the day by condemning Trump's faction of the capitalist ruling class, but not capitalism which has led the nation and world towards either, in the short-run, nuclear war, or, in the long-run, climate destabilization and extinction of nearly all life on our Earth. 

But, no worries, because our masters have a plan to avert climate destabilization. It's called the Great Reset. But carefully disguised in the plan is population reduction, and that reduction is ridding our working class of low-level workers, including small businessmen, who do not contribute to the wealth accumulation of today's corporations and many of their billionaire owners.
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