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, August 19, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, August 19, 2021 (Shortened aggregated post.)

The reason for the opposition posed by the Western media, to Biden’s withdrawal, is very simple to break down and is likely due to their donors often belonging to the military industrial complex. The argument that women were somehow safer with the US there is just a fallacy, for one, the reports about the Taliban perhaps prohibiting women from attending schools is yet to be seen. Yet, this is not the main point here, many areas throughout Afghanistan are currently without educational facilities for women and do not allow Afghan girls to get an education.

  • Israel’s Secret Arsenal: It’s Not So Secret Anymore by Philip Giraldi, Ph.D, from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: Why is this such an open secret, but not discussed within the de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire? The most significant answer, among other reasons: It is because Israel is an integral part of the de-facto Empire since 1967.
I guess I remember so much that I shouldn't remember as a "good American" about my country's behavior in the world scene. One memory is that of "Free Tibet" bumper stickers frequently seen on cars of academics in the 1960s when I was attending university. I knew that this was a well-funded campaign to hate China. I remember when the Dalai Lama, the "Pope" of the Tibetan people, came to visit the Seattle area, where I formerly lived. All the public schools took the day off and bused their students to attend his speeches. I knew that this, once again, was a well-funded campaign for the public to hate China.

Many such lies have been told to Americans throughout the years since WWII (the Korean War, the McCarthy period; the assassinations of JFK, his brother Robert, and Black leaders such as Malcolm X; War on Drugs; War on Terrorism; 9/11; the fake justifications of the Iraq War; the invasion of Afghanistan; the gross exaggerated Corona-19 Pandemic that the ruling class caused, etc.) but the American public seems to swallow them whole. I guess that is why they the owners (capitalist investors), continue with lies in their media corporations. But our masters seem to grow bolder, richer, and more powerful with each big lie while ordinary Americans become poorer and delusional.