Just to be clear, I don't know for certain what happened in Washington DC on January 6, but I tend to think that Americans are so naive about "intelligence" agencies' abilities to manipulate the views of ordinary Americans that they are taking what is reported by corporate media at face value. Because Becker has been active in revolutionary movements all of his adult life, he is no ordinary American. I knew of him while living in the San Franciso Bay Area in the 1980s. However, he with his obsession regarding older forms of fascism tends to see the older forms of fascism everywhere. He, too, fails to see the new forms, of what I refer to, as "neofascism".
Becker doesn't seem to be aware of neofascist forms of mind
control that capitalist ruling classes have developed since WWII as
reflected in foreign reports of color revolutions and other
psychological operations (psy-ops) that have been designed and implemented for the
past 75 years to crush any revolutionary forces or to install a new more "cooperative" regime. The
"intelligence" agents have since learned more sophisticated methods of
shaping views of ordinary people (see my commentary to the Harris article on Jan. 7)
residing in US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. Because ordinary Americans do not
follow reports of such incidents in foreign lands, they are so ignorant
when these techniques are used against them. They are "babes in the woods" (def).
Since January 6 I've been reading reports that reveal that key Congressional figures were refused requests for more security. I am inclined to believe the report by David Mathisen in his article "The Capitol Hill Fiasco 2021" and its implications. It was likely a psychological operation by secret agencies of the Empire to pave the way to more laws restricting civil liberties, promoting censorship and surveillance of dissidents, and other nefarious objectives.
- Tech censorship: how paranoid should we be? This 36:15m video from Unherd (British) features Freddie Sayers interviewing Glenn Greenwald regarding the accelerating trend of social media giants censoring views they don't like.
- Chaos agent: Right-wing blames US Capitol riot on notorious instigator banished by Black Lives Matter by Max Blumenthal from The Grayzone. My reaction: Most activists are unaware that capitalist agencies of the Deep State like the CIA, FBI, NSA, etc. All the "intelligence" agencies use agent provocateurs to disrupt any activities by movements, both foreign and domestic, anyone who interferes with the power and profits of the capitalist ruling class. Because most activists don't pay attention to accurate foreign news provided by independent sources, they are often naive about the domestic uses of agent provocateurs. Fortunately, Blumenthal isn't, and at least some members of BLM are not. Such agent provocateurs are very well paid and follow capitalist moral principles that all capitalists adhere to: what is best for me, my family, and is sanctioned by powerful authorities are the right course of action.
- Amber Waves by Martin Empson from Climate & Capitalism. (Note: This is a review of a book by the same title authored by Catherine Zabinski.) Empson writes:
Wheat however is no longer simply food. It is a commodity that is both highly profitable and a weapon in the arsenal of imperialist nations — particularly the United States. The vast wheat farms of the American Midwest enabled the US to shape the world in its own interest. Zabinski points out that the “Green Revolution” was less about feeding the world and more about fighting “Red Revolution” in the Global South. Like the ruling classes of the first states the US saw the Green Revolution as a way of ensuring its own [capitalist] ideals dominated around the world. But the experience for many recipient countries was much more negative as home-grown agriculture was undermined. [my insertion]
- Large US military convoy enters Syria from neighboring Iraq from AMN (Al-Masdar News). My reaction: And the "war-beat" goes on. Self-absorbed, throughly indoctrinated American workers have no idea how various regions of the world suffer US violence because they only watch self-serving US/Anglo/Zionist Empire propaganda from corporate TV. Also, much of the USA ignores the almost daily raids by Israeli airplanes on Palestinians and adjacent countries. Now that the Deep State is increasingly turning against most Americans, hopefully they will awaken to the devastation imposed on them in the future, learn about the worldwide suffering at the hands of the Empire, and identify with all the "wretched of the earth".
- An Exhausted Planet Limps Into 2021 by Robert Hunziker from CounterPunch. My reaction: The only thing that I can disagree with this article is this sentence: "Adopt eco economics as a healthy replacement for the neoliberal brand of forever-growth capitalism, cruising along on a golden paved road to never-never land of fantasy and ecstasy." Plain capitalism was never going to restrain itself from "the forever-growth" phenomenon because the wealth and power that the system delivers to families is too powerfully addictive. Transnational capitalism (they call it "neoliberalism") is only an updated version of capitalism, and it is not responsible for our crisis. It is the system itself. The denial of this fact only comforts upper-middle-class careerists who find the thought distasteful, that their role was essential by assisting capitalists to own and control everything on Earth. They want to shed their guilt in pursuit of their own comfortable lives by denying their collusion with capitalists, and that they might be also responsible for this crisis that threatens all life on Earth.
- Apartheid News by Bernhard (German blogger) from his weblog Moon of Alabama.
- Genetic Engineering, Agriculture and Brexit: Treachery in Our Midst by Colin Todhunter (based in Britain) from Off-Guardian. My reaction: Now I understand why the directors of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire have been so ambivalent toward Brexit--they don't want to lose Europe, but they don't like the European resistance to gene editing.
- ASSA 2021: part two – the radical answers by Michael Roberts (lives in Britain) from his weblog. I regard this as a best post because he exposes Michael Hudson for what he is-- champion of industrial capitalism and not a socialist as he is often portrayed in left-wing weblogs in the USA.
So, welcome to 2021! If last week was any indication, it is going to be quite an exciting year. It is going to be the year in which GloboCap reminds everyone who is actually in charge and restores “normality” throughout the world, or at least attempts to restore “normality,” or the “New Normality,” or the “Great Normal Reset,” or “The New Normal War on Domestic Terror” … or whatever they eventually decide to call it.
In any event, whatever they call it, GloboCap is done playing grab-ass.
- Michael Dowd - Post-doom Compost Theology featuring Dowd, a religious person who is kowledgable about science, explains his views of the future in a 49:53m video in Michael Shaw's channel The Great Story via YouTube. My reaction: I notice he doesn't mention capitalist culture as being unsustainable.
The fact that after four years in office their symbolic champion has nothing to show, yet in the midst of economic collapse he was still able to garner about eighty million votes, is a huge sign. It is a sobering warning to the ruling elite that blatant electoral manipulation and ruthless information censorship may serve as Band-Aid solutions, but are losing their effectiveness.
You can pull the tiger’s tail only so much before it pounces.
Hopefully, his analysis is correct. Also, notice that he uses "ruling elite". In our crazy time, you can't get away with using a Marxist term "ruling class"--although he comes close--if you want to be published. Class analysis is strictly "verboten". This is another example of thought control by our capitalist masters.
- We Cannot Let Yesterday’s Farce Become Tomorrow’s Tragedy from Spectre. My reaction: This online post takes the right-wing and their attack on Congress rather seriously. But who is the right-wing? The Trump supporters or the ruling capitalist class that owns the government and likes to play psy-ops with their enemies? I think the latter. Do the ruling class regard ordinary Americans as the enemy? Yes! is my firm answer.