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

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, November 9, 2021

  • Losing Militarily & Strategically, in Order to ‘Win’ Politically (but Ephemerally) by Alastair Crooke, a British political analyst, from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: Crooke focuses on three current emphases that the US foreign policies are currently pursuing: Taiwan, Israel's plan to harass Iran, and US support for Ukraine's harassment of the breakaway and Russian-speaking Donbass. He concludes with this paragraph:
Success stories are needed in the wake of the Kabul withdrawal débacle, and this Administration is in a tearing hurry to give Biden the semblance of foreign policy success. Yet, the combined weight of such fragile, unfinished and strategically disconnected ‘successes’ will at some point badly rebound, in ways exceeding what a dysfunctional U.S. system can bear. 
 
My reaction: I think that the transnational ruling capitalist class of the Empire has passed its apogee to world domination, and I see in the future a slow decline in the power of this de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire. But that won't keep the ruling class from engaging in fantasies like the Great Reset, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and vacating the spoiled Earth to migrate to other planets. Hopefully in the meantime, they won't harass these nations enough to provoke a major war-conflagration.
If only the American people tried to find the time to read books! The ruling class doesn't yet censor such books, but they make them harder to find. The latest book in this category is what this article refers to. I'm referring to "husband and wife duo of Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, authors of a new memoir which illuminates the real story of Afghanistan, were two such journalists who learned just how the sausage is made in the nation’s capital with the connivance of the yellow press." The book is entitled The Valediction: Three Nights of Desmond.
 
However, Parry gives you so much more. If you read this article, it can give you a picture of how policies are made, and have been made, in contrast to how corporate media reports them. Parry, a retired investigative journalist currently living in Germany, expands on the book to leave a coherent picture of the last 50 years of US involvement in Afghanistan and beyond.
 
I've wondered if Max Parry is related to Robert Parry, also an investigative journalist and editor of the Consortium News until his recent death.
  • A Look Back At Russiagate by Bernhard, a German independent blogger, from his weblog Moon of Alabama. My reaction: This is a glaring piece of evidence that US major media corporations are not in the business to inform you, but to fool you.
Meanwhile the deep state actors who had pushed Russiagate all ended up in lucrative positions at CNN and elsewhere. The 'journalists' who ran the fake stories got promoted.

Those who had been right were given no recognition.
Robin Aitken says there is an “acceptable and polite” view of world events which is dominated by media liberals. The former BBC employee warns that we must all be wary of the “hidden persuaders” that operate in all forms of news. 
 
My reaction: Aitken means when he says "media liberals" that the ruling transnational capitalist class has taken control of all major media corporations in the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire. He essentially means that younger journalists employed by the BBC (and all other major media corporations in the Empire) should keep their mouths shut if they want to get ahead in major media. 
Some of the world's largest chipmakers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) have responded to a contentious US government request to submit chip data ahead of the Monday deadline, in a move described by industry observers as yet another instance of US hegemony that coerces global semiconductor supply chains to bow to arbitrary requirements way beyond commercial standards.

The information request, seen as a possible maneuver to target China, a thorn in the flesh for US desire for chip leadership, could create more problems than it solves, analysts said, noting that the affected businesses can resort to legal action in case of damage caused.
 
Later the article reads:
 
The request, unveiled by the US Commerce Department in late September, smacks of an attempt to contain China's tech rise under the disguise of addressing chip shortages, according to industry insiders.
Just once it would be great to hear widespread discussion of US election rigging in the same alarmed tone we hear mass media concern trolls talking about nations like Nicaragua, Bolivia or Venezuela. ....

Whenever I raise this point I get people saying “Well the US doesn’t imprison its political opposition leaders like other tyrannical countries!” That’s only because the US doesn’t have any political opposition leaders. There are no politicians in America with any political purchase [purpose] who oppose the ruling power structure in any meaningful way. All true opposition has been quashed; .... [my insertion for typo error]
  • The Truth About COP 26 featuring Lee Camp, using his channel on YouTube (04:28), trying to make humor out of the capitalist meetings of COP 26.
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