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 LappĂ©, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday & Sunday, January 30 & 31, 2021

  • Dump Davos #1: Data Colonialism & Hackable Humans. This video presentation is an almost 2.5 hours, and it is an experiment. I know that my followers cannot afford nearly $10/month, but I can. So if I do not encounter any harassment from posting this video from Rokfin, I will do so in the future. (I encourage those that can afford it to subscribe to Rokfin.) The content of the video shows that our capitalist masters are worried, realistically I may add, about the twin threats to humans posed by nuclear war and environmental destruction. But their 3rd threat is their fantasy-concoction--they call the "Great Reset"--that they are planning for us, the "useless class" of humans. This is a best post. (I just realized that Harari gave this speech at last years Davos meeting which makes it even more important.)
In this video series investigating the people and agendas of the World Economic Forum, Whitney Webb and Johnny Vedmore analyze a recent speech given at Davos by Israeli "futurist" historian Yuval Noah Harari that exposes the WEF's agenda for the "useless class", the rise of exploited data colonies and the creation of an internal and external surveillance state.
  • Socialist Group Cheering Censorship Gets Banned From Facebook w/Glenn Greenwald featuring Dore and Greenwald pointing to the irony of the left's support of censorship. (Via Jimmy Dore's channel on YouTube.) If you liked this video, you should be very interested in what looks like a continuation of the interview in this post "Why Online Dems Hate Jimmy Dore! w/ Glenn Greenwald". My reaction: Greenwald and Dore are only talking about highly educated upper-middle-class people who have long supported the ruling class, and many of whom are conflicted between their commitment to their principles and preserving their well-paid careers. Ordinary and working people are largely left out of this discussion because they are confused and lack organization, and because Congress is supposed to have charge of our lives. It must be recognized that highly educated and rewarded people are critically important in order to make the capitalist system work, and the system itself is devoted to private rich owners. It follows that this class of people should not be counted on to support the interests of ordinary and working people. Dore is extremely frustrated because he looks to this class to save ordinary people.

Friday, January 29, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, January 29, 2021

  • Contradictions of Finance Capitalism by Richard Peet from Monthly Review. My reaction: You will learn about the evolution of industrial capitalism into finance capitalism that began around 1950 and accelerated in the 1980s and beyond. They added finance to their wealth and thereby increased their power over the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. They sought cheap labor all over the world, invested in, and loaned money to, companies that exploited this cheap labor. The also bought many homes in foreign lands which added to their neoliberal outlook (trans-nationalism). The de-industrialization of the USA was the result.  The author reveal that he had an education in North America by ending his article with an affirmation of democratic socialism and a rightward move for the Monthly Review. Democratic socialism in the USA commonly means a welfare-state type of a capitalist economy. In other words, a fake representation of socialism.
I have followed this ex-Marine for the last 10 years, and I've always found his reports about political issues, whether they were about Thailand or some other country, to be absolutely spot-on (to use a British expression). Thus I trust his presentation and analyses of issues.
As Caitlin Johnstone frequently and convincingly writes, "Whoever controls the narrative controls the world." This is never more true than in today's world because the communication of ideas has become under such tight control by a relatively few capitalists than ever before. This point is driven into our consciousness no better than this article by Berletic. The solution is obvious: take away their ownership/control of communication properties. But that would be the ultimate evil of communism, you declare in an angry voice! The thorough indoctrination of your mind by capitalist ruling classes who control all institutions is the problem preventing any future progress and ensuring our ultimate doom.
  • Solutions: Survival Currency featuring James Corbett of The Corbett Report giving his introduction and recommendations for a survival currency. (Note: Although I have only listened to 25 minutes of his one hour talk, I think it is worth your time.) 

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, January 28, 2021

Raevsky is an American whose Russian ancestry in the White Armies (largely British supported) has enabled him to become the most informed American about Russian politics. His ancestry has shaped his views of today's Russia, and as such he is a Russian patriot. The Russia of today is not the Soviet Union, a revolutionary government in the early years that became soon ruled by Stalin and his loyal bureaucracy under the onslaught of 14 capitalist armies and failure of the revolutionaries to spread their revolution in the advanced capitalist countries. 
Today's Russia has opted to follow the path of China with a mixed economy (mixture of capitalist and state enterprises with the government in command) in order to pursue an independent path that is in opposition to the hegemonic US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. As a Russian patriot, he is on board with that path which has already shown signs of strengthening. 
The development of a Russia-China threat to the Empire exists because the capitalist directors of the Empire have so far refused to withdraw their commitment to hegemony. This is unfortunate because it means that China and Russia must accelerate their economic growth to counter the Empire's goal of world hegemony. By doing so, they will hasten the destruction of the environment and cause accelerated deterioration of the climate thereby contributing to the extinction of humans and most other species. However, I see no other good choice.

  • Dijjywan—Dijjydo or Dijjydon’t? by Fred Reed from The Unz Review. (Note: This is an examination of China's digital money that is about to be released.) My reaction: This development will only make a radical democracy more essential than ever. I don't expect the appearance of radical democracy before the extinction of humans.
  • A Domestic Terrorism Law? War on Dissent Will Proceed Full Speed Ahead by Philip Giraldi from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: Now that our masters set the Great Reset in motion, they expect, and will get, backlash from all those workers who they consider expendable. Hang on to your seats because the future looks like an extremely bumpy ride.
Though you are well on your way to becoming a model citizen in the 21st century, you still have a little ways to go. It is for this reason that a guide to 21st century Newspeak has been recently released to make sure that well-intentioned citizens like yourself are fully informed of what is required of you in terms of appropriate behaviour, as well as appropriate thoughts, and though this will take a little more time, appropriate instincts.

Don't worry, she provides the guide, or the updated version of Orwell's Newspeak, in this article.

But I notice, and object to, this clause which reveals the influence of a North American "education". Chung, a Canadian writes: "All of these means are necessary if we are to realise that the only secure basis for oligarchy is collectivism, ...." She evidently doesn't realize the extensive threats that collectives posed for the capitalist enemies of socialism. Her use of "collective" and "collectivism", which was always used in association with an historical effort to gather individual worker skills to confront the overwhelming power of capitalists, shows that she, too, is a victim of capitalist indoctrination.

  • The Liberation of Auschwitz from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Note this statement: "Today, the liberation of the largest Nazi death camp by Russia's Red Army is a fact that is largely missing from the western collective memory.")