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, December 10, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, December 10, 2021

Given the continued ignorance and lack of understanding of the pandemic & detrimental consequences of mass vaccination by public and global health authorities, the chances that the disaster I’ve previously alluded to can be prevented are slim (3). The scientifically corrupt narrative is likely to be further nurtured by more and more cases of disease that are likely to occur in vaccinees once they will have acquired short-lived Abs directed at Omicron’s spike protein as a result of previous mild infection. The latter can more easily outcompete innate Abs in vaccinees, the training of which was stalled as a result of their immune suppression by vaccinal Abs. Rapid re-exposure to the highly infectious Omicron variant could then make them much more susceptible to disease.
Two Democrats joined all 50 Republicans in Wednesday’s 52 - 48 vote to overturn President Biden’s vaccine mandate for private business with more than 100 employers. According to news reports, even if the measure secures enough votes to pass in the House, Biden will likely veto it. 
 
My reaction: You must read the article to follow all the legal developments in these mandates.
The British High Court’s decision overturns the January decision by the district judge that found that extraditing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange would be “oppressive”. Rights advocates and Assange’s supporters and family strongly condemned the High Court’s decision.
  • World inequality by Michael Roberts, a Marxist-oriented economist from Britain, from his weblog. 
Indeed, the share of income presently captured by the poorest half of the world’s people is about half what it was in 1820, before the great divergence between western countries and their colonies. In other words, the rise of imperialism as the ‘latest stage’ of capitalism has delivered increased inequality of income globally. The personal income share of the poorest 50% of the world’s adults or around 3bn people is half what it was in 1820! So much for even and combined development after 200 years of capitalism.
  • Thursday~Slavery by John Allen from his weblog on Medium. (Note: You may be required to subscribe to Medium @ $5/mo in order to access this article.)
The group, known as Le Cercle, was described by former Conservative minister Alan Clark in his diaries as “a right-wing think (or rather thought) tank, funded by the CIA, which churns Cold War concepts around”. 
The ruling classes of the capitalist Empire have since 1940 launched a war against any nation that aspires to independence from their control. Partly out of habit and partly out of a framework that this objective has never been abandoned, they do not want to cease trying to establish hegemony over the world. Because they see that this hegemony is increasingly under threat by their two main adversaries (China and Russia), the time is now to threaten these two rivals with war in the futile hope that they will back down. The latter do not want war; but the Empire's ruling classes see that their Empire is in decline, and the best chance lies now in defeating their adversaries. However, I think this is less likely because the Empire doesn't really want war, and see another more likely threat to a nuclear conflagration.
 
I think the overt fascist leaders in Ukraine are sufficiently unstable enough together with the bellicose posturing of the Empire are perfectly capable of creating an incident that will escalate into a nuclear war. I think that they will be encouraged to engage in a genocidal effort to eliminate the population of Donbass (the eastern provinces of Ukraine) thinking under the mistaken notion that if Russia intervenes, NATO, the army of the Empire, will come to their aid. This option is daily reinforced by hyped propaganda which the Empire representatives communicate daily with their fascist puppets in Ukraine. These fascist leaders see no other way out than this option to sustain their offices and control of Ukraine before their people drive them out.
 
I don't believe that NATO, under the command of the ruling capitalist classes of the Empire, will go to war over the fake pretext that the buildup of Russian forces near the border constitutes a threat to Ukraine, but they might be dragged into a nuclear conflagration by the leaders of Ukraine if they invade or hassle Russia, or if--"God forbid!"-- Ukraine is allowed to join NATO, one of the red lines drawn by Putin.
 
As always the American people will be preoccupied with domestic imperatives of surviving and keeping their families intact. Traditionally they have not concerned themselves with the "games being played" by their capitalist masters abroad in foreign lands.

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