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 29, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, August 29, 2021

Note: I am planning a first road trip to the US east coast probably immediately after Labor Day, September 6, from my home in southern Minnesota. (Most of my adult life was on the west coast.) If any of you regular followers would like to meet me on this road trip, I will try to accommodate you in my itinerary. The arrangement would at least consist of brief meeting over a beverage of your choice at a location near you or at your home. Please contact me if this interests you at my email address: goatmeal36@yahoo.com. Ron H.

  • The MEDIA is the VIRUS by Eva Bartlett from Death Ship. (Note: I must give an activist credit for this post because he sent me another article on this weblog.)
One of the most annoying aspects of the current measures supposedly created “against the pandemic” that we have been subjected for almost two years now is the insistence that everything is done “for our own good”, as if governments and big companies were strict but caring parents, and we were just unruly or disobedient children who don’t really know what they need.

It brings to mind CS Lewis’ warning about that most oppressive of tyrannies, “a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims.”
  • Americans Have Traded Their Freedoms for Safety from COVID, And Now We Have Neither by Matt "Agorist" from The Free Thought Project. My reaction: This is a typical anarchist response to the increasing repression that Americans are now dealing with. Anarchism is a shallow response to the current crisis, but is all too typical of younger Americans who view the government as the problem instead of the ruling capitalist class that controls the government along with all other institutions.
This is as coercive as it can possibly get, and coercing volunteers to participate in human medical trials is strictly forbidden by both national and international bioethics laws.3,4,5,6 Yet it’s happening at scale that is nothing short of mind-boggling, and with full support of the U.S. government. 
  • Inmates DEFEAT Harvard In Debates! featuring Jimmy Dore using his channel on YouTube (08:09m) to solicit Hedges' comments about his experience teaching inmates of US's "penal colony".
How is an obscure terror outfit supposed to infiltrate a highly secure area – past “sworn enemy” Taliban checkpoints – and then breach U.S. and British military cordons?

How is it that U.S. and British intelligence had such precise information on imminent threats when these same intelligence agencies were caught completely flat-footed by the historic takeover of Kabul by the Taliban on August 15?
One man who knows more than most about the absurdities of the war is Joe Glenton. A former soldier in the British Army, he refused to return to Afghanistan, citing his moral objections to the conflict, for which refusal he served six months in a military jail. Joe Glenton joins Watchdog host Lowkey to discuss his experiences and the recent events in the country.
Woke Westerners, now losing sleep over the ‘loss of civil liberties’ in Afghanistan, may not even be vaguely aware that their NATO-commanded ‘coalition forces’ excelled in preparing their own kill-or-capture lists, known by the semantically-demented denomination: Joint Prioritized Effects List.

The CIA, for its part, couldn’t care less. After all, the agency was always totally outside the jurisdiction of Afghan laws regulating the operations of ‘coalition forces.’
In a statement, Legal Rights Center said: “That the Minneapolis Police Department did not intervene when CRG attacked the residents they are sworn to protect further erodes what little trust this community has in its police department.”
 
and later:
 
When asked about the allegation that city police are working with the private security company to tamp down protests and enforce the law, MPD spokesman John Elder emailed, “That’s false.” He declined to say more. Conflict Resolution Group did not return calls and emails. 
 
And evidence that the first group, Critical Response Group, has at least a cooperative relationship with state police associations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and a number of other states.  
 
This is only a sample of disturbing evidence that the USA is devolving into an old-fashioned police state, that is if it isn't already one. Could the ruling capitalist class be prepared to turn their private mercenary companies (PMCs) against dissident Americans if their propaganda projects fail? And, what are dissident Americans prepared to do in such a scenario?
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