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

Sunday, August 1, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, August 1, 2021

The Chinese Foreign Ministry urged the US to take four steps on COVID-19 origins tracing if it wants to show transparency, including disclosing data on early COVID-19 cases, inviting the World Health Organization (WHO) to probe Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina, and publishing data on sick soldiers who attended the Wuhan Military World Games, amid mounting calls from China and the international community to investigate the US on COVID-19 origins and growing outrage on the Biden administration’s political maneuver which severely hampered the global virus tracing task.
  • The Road to Totalitarianism by CJ Hopkins, an American satirical comedian currently living in Berlin, seriously commenting on the trend of our times--from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc.
We have watched as the New Normal has done precisely what every totalitarian movement in history has done before it, right by the numbers. We pointed all this out, each step of the way. I’m not going to reiterate all that again.

I am, however, going to document where we are at the moment, and how we got here … for the record, so that the people who will tell you later that they “had no clue where the trains were going” will understand why we no longer trust them, and why we regard them as cowards and collaborators, or worse.
 
Yes, that’s harsh, but this is not a game. It isn’t a difference of opinion. The global-capitalist ruling establishment is implementing a new, more openly totalitarian structure of society and method of rule. 
  • The Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell featuring Chris Hedges interviewing investigative journalist Nick Bryant, via Hedges' RT channel on YouTube (26:42m), regarding the corruption of justice regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case (Maxwell is involved as a supplier of adolescent girls to the rich and powerful). My reaction: While visiting my sister in Florida in the late 1990s, I asked her to take me on a tour of the rich people in Florida. She took me to Palm Beach, Florida where I viewed the huge mansions of the rich and powerful ruling class, not only in the USA, but throughout the de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. I have since learned that the owners of these mansions have multiple homes throughout their vast Empire. From Bryant's remarks I learned many facts about the Epstein case, but the one overwhelming fact is that the ruling capitalist class has always been protected from prosecution from the inception of the USA.
  • Massive Worker Strike On Wall Street featuring Jimmy Dore (via his YouTube channel--05:49m) reporting and commenting on (Ron Placone also comments) on the protests outside of Black Rock headquarters in New York City. My reaction: Dore has obviously not been informed by the real history of the workers in the previous eras because the earlier history of worker struggles was censored, suppressed, or re-interpreted in the curriculum of our public schools: the numerous massacres by private armies and public militias of union organizers, 12 hour days that workers were forced to work, the cheap child labor employed by capitalists, the history of slavery, Native American massacres, etc. all of which to build their fortunes and power.
  • The Real, Untold Story of Roth IRAs by Gerald E. Scorse from Dissident Voice. Back in 1998, when I was working as a bookkeeper for a construction company, I learned of this new payroll plan. Because it was widely promoted in mainstream media, I knew instantly that it was favoring the owners of businesses; but I didn't know in detail how it benefited them. This is a long-overdue explanation.
  • Australia: A Laboratory of Empire with Lowkey & Aamer Rahman featuring a video (55:21m) discussion by the two members of minorities: the one a British-Iraqi hip hop artist Lowkey and the other an Australian comedian and activist Aamer Rahman correcting for Americans some of the outrageous lies that have been provided us by US propaganda, and followed by a text that serves as an introduction to the video and posted on Mint Press News.
  • News on China in 2 minutes from Dongsheng. (Note: This was a bit too fast for me. I needed to slow it down by re-setting the speed to .75 of normal.)
  • China Floods, Brazil Freezes, US Dry – Top Exporters Lose Crops as Grains Crisis Accelerates featuring Christian reporting and commenting upon the crop failures all over the world and their effects of meat production from his weblog Ice Age Farmer. (Note: I am posting this only to criticize it.) My reaction: I have a problem with Christian's argument: this is all due to Big Tech and its engineering of these food shortages, not due to climate destabilization that was largely caused by capitalism's obsessive pursuit of profitable production. If his view is representative of the younger generations, we humans are a hopeless case.
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