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

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, November 13, 2021

How obvious does it have to be before even insouciant Americans realize that there is something seriously wrong about the Covid vaccination program?
 
One would think we are already past that point even for the mentally-challenged.
  • Media Loses Their Collective Minds Over Aaron Rodgers posted by Ben Swann from Sovren. My reaction: The billionaire's media are losing their collective minds regarding Rogers because they realize that sports (for profits) have always been a major way of distracting the public from the crimes of the ruling capitalist class, but now a major sports star has been caught up in this drama.
Because we are now seeing the effects of global warming which is putting the capitalist system in direct conflict with the ecological demands of nature, we are seeing geopolitical analysts and others attributing a conspiracy to the frantic cutbacks by major capitalists. I'm thinking of Engdahl, Michel Chossudovsky (I assume so, but he hasn't written much recently critical of global warming activists), and Mark Crispin Miller who are leading the charge against global warming from the left. They, like all old-fashioned capitalists, are seeing the basic conflict play out, that is, the basic conflict between capitalism and a sustainable planet, but are caught up in their basic loyalty to capitalism after so many years of capitalist indoctrination. 
 
This basic conflict will also affect leaders of mixed economies (China and Russia) who have learned that the only way to preserve their independence from the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire is to add capitalist practices to existing socialist components in order to out-produce and out-develop technologies of the capitalist economies of the Empire in order to survive. But, they too, will also be caught up in the confusion of this basic conflict.
 
We will also see others caught up in the confusion of this contradiction as the capitalist ruling classes try desperately to resolve this basic conflict. This confusion will also test younger loyal capitalist critics of global warming such as James Corbett, old-fashioned capitalists like Ron Unz, and Prime Minister Morrison of Australia. We will see billionaires, whose capitalist system have brought them extreme wealth and overwhelming power, desperately trying to flee the Earth as the obvious signs of destabilization of the climate become manifest: rising seas flooding major cities, inadequate supplies of food, increasing frequency of wildfires, extreme weather, etc.
 
I, after decades of following scientists, believe it is too late to save the Earth's habitat for humans and most other species.
  • Fake ‘Shoplifting Surge’ is the Just Latest in Crime Wave Propaganda by Eugene Puryear from Breakthrough News (Note: I am posting this website because its original origin from Punchout is carried on Itunes software which you may not have.) My reaction: I don't know what the actual crime statistics are, but there has been much hype about crime in the Minneapolis area (I live in southern Minnesota). I suspect that this has much to do with protecting police forces in the USA. For example, in Minneapolis, the result of the elections has rejected the establishment of a "public health approach to the delivery of functions by the Department of Public Safety (see"City Question 2 – Department of Public Safety"). On the other hand, I have a suspicion that desperation, which has affected largely working people since the pandemic, might be causing the elevating crime stats that have been so emphasized in media reports.
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