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 LappĆ©, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, May 29, 2021

Personal Note: The Minnesota co-op food store where I was protesting the requirement that all workers wear masks despite the governor of Minnesota cancelling this requirement more than week ago under his legal emergency orders, has been cancelled effective June 1, 2021. Thus, I am dropping my protest activities.
  • šŸ’„James Corbett Speaks to an ex-MSM Journalist from The Corbett Report (1:14:12hr). This is a best post. (Note: This is an important interview which clarifies the independent research of James Corbett who has grown up with the internet, but has also been thoroughly indoctrinated by agents employed or funded by the capitalist ruling class in pro-capitalist views of contemporary news, issues, and above all, history.) My reaction: Corbett has noticed all the contradictions, obfuscations, and outright censorship in capitalist generated "reality", but has not yet reached an understanding of class conflict so thoroughly investigated and written about by Karl Marx--which has been absolutely verboten in capitalist nations--who grew up with the rise of the capitalist classes.
This week on “James Corbett Redpills the Normies,” James talks to Alison Morrow, a self-described refugee from mainstream journalism who quit her 12-year career as an award-winning reporter after her attempts to report real news were consistently thwarted. (Learn more about Alison’s incredible story in this interview.) Today, Alison interviews James about the centralization of control, c, ommunication, and consciousness in the hands of an oligarchical elite and how we can combat their agenda. 

Friday, May 28, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, May 28, 2021

  • šŸ’„Whitney Webb Interview – Cyber Hacks, White Powders Scares & Vaccine Tracking, It’s All Come To Pass from The Last American Vagabond (1:47:47hr). This is a best post. (Note: I hesitated to post this because of its length, but I thought it important because Webb brings us up-to-date on her personal circumstances, and other observations on important topics based on her extensive research efforts. This interview begins at 0:22m.) My reaction: She does not let Ryan CristiĆ”n dominate the interview. This post is especially for independent thinkers who are not programmed what and how to think about various important issues.
  • Sombre truths behind bright green lies by Paul Cudenec from Winter Oak (Acorn), a British website. (Note: This post is essentially a book review in which the author clearly likes the book. In his review Cudenec spots three truths. "But wait, there's more." He argues that there are two more additional truths for a total of five.) My reaction: I have followed articles by top scientists since the 1970s, and, in contrast to this author, I have arrived at the conclusion that it is far too late for the human species and most other species to survive the ravages of capitalism on our very unique planet. But what do I know? I agree with, and follow, retired professor Guy McPherson who as a devoted climate scientist has specialized many years in the independent study of the subject, and has reached similar conclusions which convinced me that my gut-felling was right. That is why a few years ago I changed the title of my weblog/website to "Surviving Capitalism" by adding the word "(not)" to the title. But, in the meantime, I have not abandoned my promotion of real socialism (the economy owned and controlled by all of the people) and my hatred of capitalism. I see this intellectual position, if somehow accomplished, as redemption for the centuries that humans have allowed capitalists to rule.
  • What Will Israel Do to Counter Hezbollah’s Missiles? by Elijah J. Magnier from Internationalist 360°. (Note: Magnier's weblog is behind a paywall.) My reaction: One cannot expect first-rate journalists and political analysts to work for nothing. Unfortunately, many of us have next-to-nothing.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, May 27, 2021

  • Today I received this newsletter from LifeSiteNews.
  • Fact Checkers Take A Beating On Lab Leak Theory featuring Jimmy Dore of The Jimmy Dore Shows channel on YouTube. (Note: Dore goes on an appropriate rant about ruling class "fact-checkers", censorship practiced by ruling class corporate media, and both of their records of contradictions. He also puts Matt Taibbi, a journalist, on the podcast to comment on this subject.) My reaction: It's only realistic to assume that the consolidation and concentration of wealth, which is a core feature of capitalism, also gives the rich control over all of mainstream media--as well as all other institutions. Taibbi essentially explains that all the issues related to this subject can be explained by "politics". This is a shorthand way to obscure the problem of issues. Social-economic class conflict is the root cause of most social-economic issues, which is a recognition that class matters, and that a particular issue is a conflict between the rich ruling class and the working class. This view is verboten in capitalist USA.
  • The U.S.' latest COVID-19 lab leak theory push is a distraction by Andrew Korybko from CGTN, a major Chinese online news website. (Note: Now that the ruling class has suddenly shifted its main enemy from Russia to China--because of the stupendous rise of China as an economic powerhouse--in a major effort to prevent a powerful Russia-China combination, Korybko sees major problems for ruling class propagandists to fool Americans once again.)
  • The US Empire Is A Self-Reinforcing Trauma Factory by Australian Caitlin Johnstone and narrated by her American husband. (Note: Now that the billionaire ruling class has gotten rid of the upstart and unauthorized (by them) Trump, their propaganda efforts through their media corporations focuses on rampant crime in American to counter the defund-the-police movements.) My reaction: The American audience is being played (manipulated) once again.
  • Statement of NEO Editorial Board from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: This another ironic example where "the [Empire's propaganda] pot calls "their enemies'" kettle black" (def.). I received this message when I tried today to access Middle East Observer's website.
  • Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loops #18 through #20, Climate-Change Summary by  Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent (independent of the ruling class) scientist who has for many years focused on the climate crisis, from his YouTube channel (04:24m). (Note: In this podcast McPherson cites a number of peer-reviewed studies that focus on the disappearance or the alteration of ice on both polar regions that contribute to the destabilization of our climate.)

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, May 26, 2021

  • Transcript – Guns and Butter Interview with Bonnie Faulkner March 8, 2021 [posted on 5/18/21] from Wrench in Gears. (Note: Notice the link to the actual interview broadcast on WBAI in New York. Also, during the interview Faulkner asks a key question after she introduces the question: "I was taught that one of the main [characteristics of] capitalism is that it must grow or expand. You have written that 'in order for capitalism to continue on a beautiful planet of finite resources, the plan is to shift growth to digital realms' which is what you’ve been discussing. How is virtual capitalism going to piggyback on real-world capitalism?") [my insertion] 
Rejection of a resolution calling for “respect for international humanitarian law” is not consistent with Washington’s intention to abide by the “rules-based international order” which is apparently the solution to all the world’s problems — providing the rules are not applied to Israel.
Has Big Tech poisoned our politics or has it merely revealed deep social and political divisions? With each passing day making that determination becomes more and more difficult. Those who have the power to control our social interactions define what we understand to be reality. This is simply tyrannical.

CrossTalking with Ron Placone and Suzie Dawson.
 
My reaction: Of course Big Tech is controlled by the ruling capitalist class! It is another weapon in their vast arsenal that is aimed at all those that are not on board with the agendas and the interests of the ruling class.
This short history does not reveal the history of collusion by the Western capitalist ruling classes with German Nazis to crush the anti-capitalist Soviet Union and to rid the world of any kind of socialism that threatens the rule of capitalists. After WWII this history of their past collusion with Nazis has been rewritten to eliminate nearly all references to true history. This was especially true of most giant corporations like the Ford Company, IT&T, General Motors, etc. who kept their German industries running throughout WWII. 
 
Early in the war, conspirators, mostly in the State Department, saw the opportunity to construct another empire out of the remnants of the former British Empire with the intact industry and powerful military forces of the USA. (This was all laid out in earlier posts: here, here, and here.) But present generations know none of this history because it has been scrubbed from history books by historians appointed by the governors of their new empire, the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire (Israel and the right-wing power of Zionist finance were added later).
 
Today we see the current reactionary forces at work in the Empire's capitalist ruling classes to rid themselves of the burden of supporting poor people by eliminating "useless eaters" to lessen the threat climate destabilization confronting them so they can resume business as usual. Like I wrote in a commentary on 2/7/2021:
 
... this is a dangerous thought. Imagine that our masters in the ruling class have in their deluded thinking reached a conclusion that in order to save themselves [as their capitalist system] they must get rid of us untermenschen? They might in this belief decide that we ordinary humans are "useless eaters" and expendable, or worse yet like "communists" or anti-capitalists--class enemies, and kill us all in order to save themselves from the climate crisis, which they have caused, and they know is coming sooner or later. Perhaps the Great Reset is one such delusion. [my present insertion]
 
Our masters are presently busy trying to eliminate labor laws that guarantee workers' rights using the excuse of protecting the health of workers based on recommendations from CDC and OSHA, and the incessant propaganda about their contrived "pandemic". They are busy creating a two-tier society in which "good Germans" are extended all kinds of privileges based on their good behavior and the rest of us are denied travel and access to many services. 
  • Greetings from “New Normal” Germany! by CJ Hopkins. an American playwright and political satirist, who currently lives in Germany. He is mostly serious in this post, and describes the current living conditions of the German "new normal"  which is currently threatening to come to the USA.
Last week, here in “New Normal” Germany, the government (which, it goes without saying, bears no resemblance to the Nazi regime, or any other totalitarian regime) implemented a social-segregation system that bans anyone who refuses to publicly conform to the official “New Normal” ideology from participating in German society. From now on, only those who have an official “vaccination pass” or proof of a negative PCR test are allowed to sit down and eat at restaurants, shop at “non-essential” stores, or go to bars, or the cinema, or wherever. 
  • Science Update: Arctic Summit 2021 featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has for many years focused on the climate crisis, and from his YouTube channel (09:56m).
The entire western half of the United States, from the Pacific Coast, across the great basin and the desert of the southwest, up through the rockies to the northern plains, is currently being ravaged by a drought so bad that many are now calling it a megadrought, the worst one the country has seen in 1200 years.

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Dizikes uses a definition of collectivism that may not be relevant in this study:
 
Collectivism broadly refers to the inclination to prioritize a group’s needs over an individual’s concerns, and social scientists have often worked to measure its presence among different populations. The researchers found a culture of collectivism to be a key driver of mask use even after accounting for many other factors, including political orientation, state policies, the severity of Covid-19 outbreaks, and more. 
 
But what if the data provided by government agencies like the CDC, under the control of the capitalist ruling class, are all skewed (paying more to hospitals if they diagnose patients as having Covid-19, pressure on doctors to diagnose patients as having Covid-19, using PCR tests to inflate statistics, to instruct their "news" corporations to plant reports emphasizing the hysteria and fear of a "pandemic", etc.) in order to fake a pandemic? Now this researcher at MIT pleases his bosses and grant agencies with a study based on the above definition. Meanwhile, small businesses are going bankrupt and corporations are reaping record profits. And when some of the plain States are under the control of conservative capitalists who believe in old-fashioned conservative ideas, could we arrive at the same results? 
 
I think this study is a very clever way to reach conclusions that support the existence of a "pandemic" and the various self-serving interests of the current ruling class! (I've seen other studies done to please funding sources.) No doubt this study will be quoted widely by those serving the ruling class to validate their clever project to create a "pandemic".
 
I think that most people have complied with these restrictions on our liberties out of concern for the rest of society, but that doesn't mean they haven't been deceived for nefarious purposes of the ruling class! The study conveniently goes along with all other efforts to wrap the deceivers of the ruling class with virtue. 
 
Considering all the evidence, many were deceived once again as they have been in the past: the assassinations of key figures who wouldn't go along with the aggressive agenda of the ruling class, the so-called "war on drugs", 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, "the war on terrorism", and now this ... that so far is enriching billionaires, putting small businesses into bankruptcy, their employees out of work, and teaching the lessons of obedience to the great "unwashed masses". Could it be that it was the billionaires' plan all along? 
  • The Origin of the Species (trailer) from Journeyman Pictures and their YouTube channel. (Note: Journeyman Pictures is investigating the topic of robots and their efforts to produce "good" effects.) My reaction: To me, it's simple. If you have the ruling class "experts" designing robots, they will be used for the self-serving needs of the capitalist class. Technology is neutral.
  • Antiganda – #SolutionsWatch featuring James Corbett of his weblog The Corbett Report pointing to some activists who are trying to encourage people to achieve independent, critical thinking. 
What is the point here? It is that this whole ark of military strategy rooted in massive aerial bombardment – reaching back to the 1920s, and pushing forward until today in Gaza, is expiring. It has become obsolescent (at least in the Middle East), just as did trench warfare in the wake of 1918.

Tunnels (now, much more sophisticated ones), have gained renewed life as the answer to massive aerial bombardment on civilian terrain as a prime psychological tool of war. They mark the end of a strategy. Swarm missiles, and smart drone clusters are today’s inflection points: the ‘new’ warfare – just as much a game-changer as was the advent of the longbow (in the 1300s). They have become, as it were, somehow Hamas’, Hizbullah’s, the Houthi’s and Iran’s ‘alt’ Air force. 
 
Later, Crooke writes:
 
The U.S. and the Europeans however have no idea what to do about the situation, beyond calling for a return to ‘normality’ – one that permits Israelis ‘to return to the beach’, and the Palestinians ‘to their cage’, as one commentator, caustically remarked about the meaning of ‘normal’. 

Monday, May 24, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Monday, May 24, 2021

  • Imagining Year 2020 Without Fauci, Redfield, USIAID, and the CDC by John Tamny from American Institute for Economic Research. My reaction: From my personal experience, I find "cancel culture" highly effective in limiting the views of ordinary Americans, particularly in relation to Americans believing whatever CDC and Dr. Fauci say despite abundant evidence to the contrary. "Cancel culture" is a ruling class sub-ideology that justifies censorship of those who have dissenting views, a characteristic of historical fascist-style capitalism. Worse yet, "cancel culture" is encouraging, and largely succeeding, in getting ordinary Americans to ignore dissident views related to the pandemic no matter how qualified they are on the subject.
  • The Disintegrated States of America by Pepe Escobar from "The Saker Blog". (Note: This post is essentially a book review of Disintegration: Indicators of the Coming American Collapse, a recent book authored by Andrei Martyanov that has had a marked influence on Escobar's thinking.)
  • We’re wired to care for others featuring an interview conducted by Sophie Shevardnadze of Tbilisi, Georgia (Sophie&Co.) with Patricia Churchland, a retired neuroscientist from San Diego, California, from Shevardnadze's RT channel on YouTube. My reaction: Although Churchland's theory of human nature as social animals makes sense, she admits that her field of neuroscience are unable to fully explain the phenomenon of sociopaths ("psychopaths"). Could it be that the man-made system of capitalism rewards "psychopaths" with wealth and power? 

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, May 23, 2021

  • Time Is Running Out, We Must Act Now! by Dr. Vernon Coleman (35:04) from a video presentation from his weblog. (Note: Coleman is a retired British medical doctor.) My reaction: I, at 85 years of age, have joined Coleman acting against the ruling capitalist class of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. I am protesting my local co-op food store continuing the requirement for their employees to wear masks despite Minnesota governor's recent cancellation of the pandemic requirements acting under his emergency powers. So, my website/weblog may be further interrupted during this protest in addition to my efforts to maintain my health.