- WATCH: Numb. From Off-Guardian (based in Britain).
This powerful short film from British teenager Liv McNeil tells one story of millions, of how lockdown is punishing children by denying them education, social contact and generally a normal life.
- Doctrine of Redundant Coercion: The State Department Document Shaping Relations with Latin America and the Caribbean by Jorge Elbaum from Internationalist 360°. My reaction: Although he fails to clarify what he means by the "Doctrine of Redundant Coercion", he does clarify the difference between the Biden and Trump administrations:
Last Wednesday, the United States returned to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) after three years of absence, decided by the Donald Trump administration. The first speech of the new Secretary of State Antony Blinken, however, did not differ one iota from the reasons given by the Republican for leaving this multilateral institution.
In August 2020, the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) disseminated through the White House website the Western Hemisphere Strategic Framework, a document in which the objectives of the global strategy were adapted to the particularities of Latin America and the Caribbean. Both documents were removed from the official U.S. government website during the week following Joe Biden’s inauguration. According to accredited journalists in Washington, the underlying reason for the deletion is not due to any rectification or future mutation of the Doctrine, but to its necessary adaptation to a more diplomatic language.
By doing so, he also clarifies the difference between administration regarding internal policies of the USA. It is all about style and language to hide their real motives to promote policies that serve corporate interests but, at the same time, to wrap-up their policies in more appealing words in order to sell them to ordinary Americans. In other words, the core ruling capitalist class (Deep State) prefers to use more sophisticated methods of selling policies that corporations have developed to sell policies that result in greater profits and power for them--and frequently at the expense of ordinary Americans.
- The Universe Is Just Trying To See Itself by Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. My commentary follows:
I agree with her use of the eye as a metaphor for seeing truth, but after she introduced god-stuff I lost her. I regard the need for truth another way.
While the eye wants to see the truth, the brain often corrupts the truth-seeing eye by placing priorities on other material needs such as hunger, shelter, clothing, etc. If a human wants to raise a family, the eye and brain are brought into greater conflict. The brain often corrupts what the eye sees by the increased importance of sustaining longer-range fulfillment of the material needs spouse and children. Thus, humans often prefer the lies of people with more power to the truth that the eye sees; because powerful people can, in a class-structured society, often provides opportunities for this longer-range stability.
What are class structured societies? They are societies in which some humans have more wealth, power, and opportunities than others.
Because humans have always lived in class-structured societies since recorded history (roughly 10,000 years), such history is filled with stories about the conflicts between the eyes and brains of humans. Therefore, humans must decide to rid themselves of classes to form genuine classless societies and achieve equality in order to eliminate such conflicts and to be fully human.
- How the CIA Helped to Crush Turkey’s Post-War Left by T.J. Coles from Internationalist 360°. My reaction: This is another accurate historical report on the efforts of the prime secretive agency of the Deep State, the CIA, to create a world safe for the creation of a combined US and British empire in order to promote the corporate interests of profit and power throughout the post-WWII world. It became obvious to many that there was little difference between policies pursued by fascist Germany, Italy, and Japan from that of the British Empire and their American cousins. It was all about style. Whereas the former frequently used authoritarian methods of force (police and military) to enforce their policies, the latter preferred, and often used, subtler methods of salesmanship (propaganda) and subversion (bribery)--although they didn't hesitate to use coercion when their preferred methods failed. In addition, the British and American capitalists also used their worldwide monopoly of "news" networks (Reuters, AP, BBC, etc.) to help sell their policies.
- 💥CAUGHT: BBC/Reuters Paid To Do Government Propaganda featuring Jimmy Dore on his channel on YouTube doing an interview with Max Blumenthal, founder of The Grayzone, discussing the latter's research on corporate media propaganda. This is a best post.
- They say that great myths die hard … by "The Ister" for "The Saker" weblog. (Note: The article is mostly about Saudi Arabia and power politics of the Middle East.)
- Violent US-backed Hong Kong-Style Mobs in Thailand Continue by Brian Berletic, an ex-Marine living with his family in Thailand, from his weblog Land Destroyer Report.
