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, April 23, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, April 23, 2021 (abbreviated version)

It is not the first time which happened with America, where it plans some things and ends up in entirely opposite. I recalled my days in China in the early 1980s, when American and European entrepreneurs were entering China to occupy the vast niche market of China. That was the era of China opening to the outside world and introducing economic reforms. China facilitated market access, and American & European businessmen and investors flooded the Chinese market with foreign products. Those were the days when China was facing a shortage of everything like food, consumer products and etc. A quota system was introduced to buy items of daily life. They made huge profits in the early days, but gradually, they shifted their industry to China to avail themselves of China’s cheap raw material and cheap labor cost. It was in the best interest of foreign companies to manufacture in China to cut down the cost and maximize their profit. But sooner, they became the market of China.
at

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, April 22, 2021

  • The Covidian Cult (Part II) by political satirist CJ Hopkins from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. (Note: He occasionally detours from his usual ridicule and becomes serious in exposing what he calls the "covidian cult".)
  • Forging Vaccine Passports featuring James Corbett from his weblog offering his insights that forging vaccine passports is not the answer even though reporting on this solution is accompanied by propaganda to encourage fake passports. My reaction: What is the solution to this? Unfortunately, this anarchist doesn't have an answer because "the powers that shouldn't be" (read our "ruling capitalist class") are coming with their solution because "it is for your own good". Listen to what their solution is!
  • US Order Against Russia: Italy at Attention by Manlio Dinucci, translated from Italian on Il Manifesto, and reproduced on Global Research. (Note: This report reveals how the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire is currently imposing "such costs as to cause a strategic impact on Russia”.)
  • The Impact of Population, Productivity, and Consumption on the Planet featuring Jaia Syvitski, professor at the University of Colorado and Stuart H. Scott, educator and environmentalist discussing the climate crisis. My reaction: I notice that Prof. Syvitski emphasizes population; and whenever Scott introduces that capitalism is a central problem, she always brings back the subject of population as the problem. She is in tune with our transnational ruling class of capitalists as expressed by Karl Schwab and the Great Reset as the solution to our climate crisis--the very thing that capitalism promoted along with its alliance with Christianity and similar religions.
at
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, April 21, 2021

  • How Stalin Canceled 'Hamlet' in the Soviet Union—and What It Can Teach Us about Cancel Culture by Jon Miltimore from Foundation for Economic Education. My reaction: Ruling class experts of propaganda has turned so many liberals (dreamy reformist capitalists) into intolerant "virtuous" bigots who obsessively want to divert attention away from the growing inequality among the world's poor. This is based on the religion of absolute god-like authority figures who know what's best for us--American-style capitalism and away from any consideration of socialist ideas. Thus they, or the authoritative talking-heads you see on TV, read scripts that wrap themselves in virtue and censor all ideas that don't fit with the American goose of capitalism, a goose which continues to lay so many golden eggs for billionaires.
That we live on a hugely degraded, biologically impoverished planet, in which natural ecosystems are battered, abused, barely clinging on, is now emerging into public consciousness. But the corresponding rise of the superweed, and increasing vulnerability of our crop species, has yet to so register.
  • Rapid Loss of Habitat for Homo sapiens by Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has focused on the climate crisis, from Academia. (Note: You will need to download this brief paper, and I recommend Acrobat Reader. But notice the installer wants you to select a list of additional software. Decide for yourself if you want them.)
Were we not so technology obsessed, were we not so greedy, were we not so terrified of insecurity and death, if we did not see our bodies and minds as separate, and humans as separate from everything else, we might pause to ponder whether our approach is not a little misguided.

Science and technology can be wonderful things. They can advance our knowledge of ourselves and the world we inhabit. But they need to be conducted with a sense of humility we increasingly seem incapable of. We are not conquerors of our bodies, or the planet, or the universe – and if we imagine we are, we will soon find out that the battle we are waging is one we can never hope to win.
at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, April 20, 2021

  • NYU Professor Fights Back Against the Academic Crybullies from Minds and The Corbett Report in a 45:55m video report. (Note: Mark Crispin Miller has been teaching at NY University for a number of years. He explains how and why his academic job is at stake despite his teaching techniques of critical thinking in the context of propaganda.) My reaction: This is another piece of evidence that the concentration of wealth under advanced capitalism can stifle critical thinking even in an academic setting. If you, in any way, challenge ruling class narratives in an advanced capitalist system, you will be punished by losing the means of supporting yourself.
While this seemingly hopeful program of another new deal for domestic progress is proposed in order to save capitalism once again by muffling if not smothering calls for more radical change, the old deal of the murderous warfare state is even more dangerous than ever, with the amateurs of the Trump regime replaced by more experienced creators of policies of mass murder to preserve the alleged chosen people status of American capital and its servant class of more diverse than ever professionals who arrange minority rule and convince people it‘s democracy.
  • The Illusion of US and British Government Aid by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room. My reaction: The two posts (this and the above) have been covered in past years by this weblog, but the American people still don't get it. It's probably a case of "better late than never". However if we fully realized such views back in the 1970s, we might still be looking at a future.
  • Whale Songs by Caitlin Johnstone, an Australian independent blogger, from her weblog. 
at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday, April 19, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Monday, April 19, 2021

If past is prologue, which we pray it is not, the hearings will use such a buckshot approach to questioning the witnesses that there will be no meaningful takeaway to the public from the hearings.
 
Later they go on to argue:
 
While each of these issues are critical to the national debate, dumping them all into one hearing where the Congressional questioner together with the witness get just a combined five minutes does a disservice to the seriousness of each issue. In fact, this approach has served to hold back change on Wall Street as news reporters simply grab the single most titillating detail from each hearing and put that in a headline. 
 
I argue that the purpose of the hearings will be to give the appearance that Congresspeople are protecting the people from the shenanigans of the major financial institutions. The bank CEOs are closer to the ruling capitalist class (if not a part of it) than the Congresspeople who are treated as mere employees of the ruling class. 
  • Opium poppy production in Afghanistan from Global Research. (Note: This article is posted on Esri a company that is devoted to "A geographic information system (GIS) is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data." However, because there is no date or an author on this post which originated from Esri, I have decided to post it from Global Research as an exception to my usual policy to post articles from their original websites.
at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, April 18, 2021

A prestigious university located in the heart of London, King’s College has, in its own words, “a number of contracts and agreements with various departments within government, including the Cabinet Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Ministry of Defence.” Some of those contracts are up to 10 years long. The university has so far refused to elaborate on the agreements, telling investigative news outlet Declassified UK that doing so could undermine U.K. security services.
  • How the Rich Keep Workers Poor — Outsourcing and Sweatshops by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room. My reaction: Notice that he only makes unidentified references to "a system". He is another author who regards capitalism as another reality like the sun, moon, and stars instead of man-made. Therefore his recommended "solutions" are merely reforms and absolutely ineffective.
... the keys of the food system are already being handed over to data platforms, e-commerce giants, and private equity firms. This could mean dismantling the diversified food webs that sustain 70% of the world's population and provide environmental resilience. It could mean putting the food security of billions of people at the mercy of high-risk AI-controlled farming systems and opaque supply corridors.

And yet, there is nothing inevitable about this dystopian future. 
 
I think that as long as we tolerate capitalism and its goal to maximize only profits, a dystopian future is guaranteed. I am not only referencing the ultimate extinction that we will inevitably experience, but I am arguing that in the time we have left if we do not reject capitalism and replace it with socialism (a system of governance that publicly owns and controls the economy for the benefit of all people) that a near-term dystopian future is guaranteed.
  • Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Dumping and the Summer Olympics in Japan In Question by Vladimir Odintsov from New Eastern Outlook.
     
    ... according to Kyodo, which recently conducted a social survey of residents about the holding of the Olympics in Tokyo, most Japanese residents oppose its holding in 2021. 39% of the Japanese surveyed were in favor of canceling the Games, and about 33% were in favor of postponing the Olympics. Only 24.5% of Japanese residents are positive about the fact that thousands of athletes from all over the world will come to the Japanese capital in the summer of 2021. [I supplied this link.]

    In these conditions, the new Japanese government, balancing on the mood of the population of its country, has been looking for an opportunity for several months to find an objective reason for canceling the Olympic Games and report it “without losing face.” Finally, as reported by the British The Times, citing responsible sources, the Japanese government is still tacitly inclined to the decision to cancel the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo “because of the Covid-19 pandemic”, intending, nevertheless, to claim the right to hosting the 2032 Games.
at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)