- The Difference Between Totalitarian Regimes And Free Democracies by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband reading the script, which is also provided in the article from her weblog. My reaction: The only criticism I have is that quotation marks should be around "free democracy". As it is (without quotation marks) there is a tendency to cynicism. "Free democracy" implies a propaganda construct, whereas a free democracy can be very real.
- A Few Thoughts on White Identity by Gary Engler from Dissident Voice. (Note: Engler reviews a book entitled White Fragility: Why White People Have Such a Hard Time Talking About Racism.)
In my opinion, this book starkly epitomizes the dangerous consequences when discussions of white identity are divorced from class analysis.
- The 2021 Corporate Bamboozle On World Food Systems from GPEnewsdocs featuring a long interview and discussion between Lynn Fries, "producer of Global Political Economy or GPEnewsdocs, and Pat Mooney, who is "leading [the] IPES-Food’s ‘Long Food Movement’ project. My commentary follows:
Fries and Mooney both represent small farmers in their quest to retain control over the world's food production in contrast to Big Ag's corporate dominance that is emerging under the propaganda construct of "multistakeholderism". The latter term is defined by the Transnational Institute as:
Multistakeholderism is a slippery term as most of the definitions are too vague and general and because it is applied to many different forms of governance. It is also an evolving form of governance. ....
In multistakeholderism, ‘stakeholders’ become the central actors without any clear procedure to designate ‘stakeholders’.
This is in contrast to the previous governing ideology of multilateralism based on interactions and agreements between nation-states. Big Ag is pushing the concept of multistakeholderism to give transnational corporations more relevance in global discussions and in legal bodies such as the UN. In my opinion, "multistakeholderism" is a sneaky construct to give global corporations (and their capitalist backers) as financial "stakeholders" more legitimacy in upcoming legal decisions by the UN. Financial stakeholders have always primarily meant those who have a financial or economic stake in outcomes.
Neoliberals (or transnationals) of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire have already proved their power in the recent pandemic by co-opting the World Health Organization (WHO) of the UN. Co-opting of the UN's agency was accomplished after Trump's decision to withdraw US support for the WHO and the billionaire Bill Gates and his foundation stepped in to provide the greatest single monetary support of WHO among nations. This new construct is used to effect a stealthy move around the poorer nations of the world and to enhance the power of the Empire's transnational agricultural corporations.
I think Pat Mooney is a rather naive "do-gooder" who will have little influence on international legal bodies.
- 💥Propaganda and the Media — Let’s Tell Some Lies — Part 5 by Larry Romanoff from "The Saker" weblog. This is a best post. My reaction: Romanoff illustrates how your views of events in the world are distorted by billionaire-owned media corporations to make you ignorant of the Empire's actual crimes.
I have nearly 1,000 such stories in my files, enough to fill a thick book, and all reprehensibly dishonest in their presentation. When Westerners have only a diet of daily articles like this presented to them by their most trusted media, how is it possible for anyone to accurately understand anything about China?
- How US govt-funded media fueled a violent coup in Nicaragua by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton from The Grayzone. My reaction: This is an important report because it illustrates how the directors of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire are going about subverting entire nations (think Ukraine as another example) to the dominance of the Empire. In Nicaragua they were not successful because the people under successive Sandinista governments had encouraged the people to become politically aware.
- Toxic Chemicals Engulf the Planet by Robert Hunziker from Dissident Voice.
- Could temperatures keep rising? from Arctic News.
A recent post suggests that the 1.5°C threshold was already crossed in 2012, i.e. well before the Paris Agreement was adopted by the U.N. (in 2015), while there could be a temperature rise of more than 3°C [ by 2026.
