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

Friday, November 19, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, November 19, 2021

  • Biden’s Bounty on Your Life: Hospitals’ Incentive Payments for COVID-19 by Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D. and Ali Shultz, J.D. from Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a re-post of an article from Truth for Health Foundation. (Note: This goes into details of the "incentive payments" to hospitals.) My reaction: I haven't seen this reported for many months, but I reported it (in general terms) in the early period of the pandemic, and it made me suspicious that the pandemic was engineered in addition to reports of medical doctors receiving pressure to diagnose patients with Covid-19. I received similar pressure to place clients in "jobs" from the Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation in Wisconsin when I worked there as a Rehabilitation Counselor in 1969-1974. Most Rehabilitation Counselors complied with this pressure, but I finally quit the career which I for many years had prepared for. I've realized since then that this career, along with other "Guns and Butter" programs, was established by Pres. Lyndon Johnson to co-opt college students to support the Vietnam War.
  • Fauci's Greatest Covid Failures Exposed featuring Jimmy Dore who presents new material from Newsweek and other sources regarding Fauci. My reaction: The ruling class permits Dore to charge Fauci's mismanagement of the Covid pandemic because he is listed as a "comedian" along with other comedians like Russell Brand and CJ Hopkins.
About The Jimmy Dore Show:
#TheJimmyDoreShow is a hilarious and irreverent take on news, politics and culture featuring Jimmy Dore, a professional stand up comedian, author and podcaster. The show is also broadcast on Pacifica Radio Network stations throughout the country.
  • Metaverse Will ‘Trap Us in Virtual Reality’ and Position Zuckerberg as ‘World’s Largest Landlord’ by Jeremy Loffredo from Children's Health Defense. (Note: This post features findings by Emily Jashinsky (of The Hill's website) and a video report (09:53) by her at the end of the article. "The world's largest landlord" is put in quotes to indicate that he intends to be the largest landlord in virtual reality and not the real world.) My reaction: Because capitalists always search for opportunities to earn more money, this capitalist entrepreneur plans to encourage workers to live out their fantasies in virtual reality, but not reality. Thus if he succeeds in this metaverse adventure, fantasies will become a substitute for reality. Billionaires, who own and control nearly all the businesses in the USA, think that ordinary people are so dumbed-down with the endlessly meaningless entertainment media that their corporations provide. My only hope is that they are wrong! I think that this is a risky gamble that is more out of desperation than it is to create more profits.
To those U.S. centric stories one must add all the false claims made about foreign countries - see Syria and Belarus for recent example.  One then finds that the media [corporate] do not report but, as Sullivan writes, "make the news fit the broader political fight". [my insertion]
  • Struggle against Industrial Agriculture featuring Chris Hedges' report on industrial agriculture from his channel on YouTube (26:36). My reaction: Hedges and author Daniel J. O'Connell testify to the effects of capitalist exploitation of the land: widespread poverty among a few rich, censorship, violence against workers, etc.
The web of Jeffrey Epstein associates continues to grow---with Boris Johnson’s sister now saying the Prime Minister of the UK was once very close friends with Epstein’s longtime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Given that Maxwell is set to face trial on sex trafficking charges---it raises a number of questions about what Boris knew and he knew it. Author & director Sean Stone joins In Question to discuss. 
 
My reaction: More people are coming out of the woodwork to report stories of the Empire's (the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire) ruling capitalist classes and their depraved activities. 
The United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin this week performed impressive, albeit pathetic, mental gymnastics. In a press conference, the Pentagon chief called on Russia to be more transparent about troop movements “on the border with Ukraine”. In others words, on Russian soil.

Meanwhile, the absurd hypocrisy sees U.S. and NATO forces brazenly escalating their offensive presence on Russia’s borders, especially in the Black Sea region.
  • Cuba defeats US destabilization attempts from Peoples Dispatch which features a video report (05:17). My reaction: Because I was worried about the recent attempts to overthrow the socialist government of Cuba by US subversive agents, I welcomed this report and especially the report of Medea Benjamin (Code Pink) which was featured near the beginning.
  • So Said, Not So Easily Done by Steve D. Whittaker, PhD, MSc from Internationalist 360°. Note: We have a report from a highly educated person living in the Caribbean about dealing with the expected destabilization of the climate.
If we are to stay connected to any viable, safe and secure future, we must work to break the strength of the connection between climate-change-induced disasters and the detrimental environmental effects by actively inserting ourselves with data-driven, innovative interventions (with the caveat that some nations are more ready than others to do so using technology) for the sake of ourselves and those who are to come.

So said. Not so easily done. But do it we must! Caribbean lives now, and soon-to-come, are at stake. 
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