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

Saturday, August 14, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, August 14, 2021

Officially, Taiwan is not a country. Not even Washington recognizes it as one. To illustrate this, for example, the US does not have an embassy in Taiwan. Instead it has what it calls the “American Institute in Taiwan.” This game of officially recognising the “One China” policy where Taiwan is recognised as part of a single China, while “unofficially” undermining the policy through de facto embassies, arms deals and America’s latest tip-toeing toward diplomatic relations with and recognition of Taiwan’s politicians, reveals the true source of tensions between Taiwan and the mainland.

Talks publicly available through the National Committee on US-China Relations feature US policymakers and politicians openly boasting about this two-faced approach to Beijing and the undermining of mainland-Taiwan relations.
 
Thus the “Taiwan question” is a pawn used by Washington for advancing US foreign policy objectives and in particular regard to encircling and containing China. Little to no regard at all is given to what is actually best for Taiwan.
 
The above paragraphs say so much about the US government (the integration of corporate American and the government has already happened) using all entities as pawns in a game of global dominance. This strategy is the game that the rich and powerful cabal of the capitalist ruling class decided to play in 1941. Remember how they actually admired Nazi Germany and their fascist government? Remember the essence of fascism is the power of the owners of private enterprises and their related financial institutions to control a nation through its government? Of course you don't because you have been fed different stories by all institutions of our society (education and entertainment). After WWII your parents and grandparents, mostly suffering from exhaustion due to the war effort, were too busy working raising their families so that you, or their children, might "get ahead" (climb the socioeconomic class system that really exists) that they didn't notice these erroneous stories. The few who did notice were easily eliminated from participating in the economy during the McCarthy period shortly after the war. 

Simultaneous to this history is the rise of socialist ideas the source of which was represented by the Soviet Union. I know that your parents and grandparents were subject to thorough indoctrination so that they came to believe such socialist ideas as equivalent to evil. Later on, the ruling class decided to redefine socialism as capitalism with a rather generous welfare state (social democracy) which the present generations of Americans have been taught. But "communism" remained totally evil, and our enemies were all the movements and nations where some kind of real socialism (elimination of private ownership of the economy) was advocated or practiced.
 
However, much of the rest of the world didn't want to play this game which favored the rich and powerful in what they recognized as a de-facto US/Anglo Empire immediately after the war, and later to become a US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. (Read this for a further explanation.)

To make a long story short, the point I would like to make is the history of the post-WWII story has been played by the ruling capitalist class through their Empire as they would play any game: the use of any pieces that contribute to the winning of their game of world dominance. Thus, the game being played in Taiwan is described in this article. But, it isn't really a game. The ruling class (remember this billionaire class is in control of our government and all other institutions) fails to recognize the welfare of the Taiwanese people. The US ruling class, and its alliance with other capitalist classes throughout the Empire, regard the game as only serving themselves of more power and wealth but not give a damn of the welfare of others. Could it be that we, ordinary Americans, are being played according to the same strategy by our capitalist masters in the ruling class?
  • Wikileaks Julian Assange and Free Press Setback by Ron Ridnour from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: But what if most people don't know about his role in exposing US war crimes? This is something like asking "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it still make a sound?" This question poses the importance of organizing a real, independent journalist network like I started to work on a few years ago. But this is not possible because our ruling class masters would not tolerate it. The latter have already diminished its possibility because of ongoing censorship of real events, and the false counter- narratives that we enjoy a free press as well as other freedoms.
  • You Need To Understand That The/ US Is The Most Tyrannical Regime On Earth by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband also reading the script (but you may miss supporting examples, illustrations, etc.)--from her weblog. My reaction: They are both unaware of the obsessive drive to control and dominate the world is, and has been since WWII, a prime motivation of what they do presently. They have, thus far, attained control over a major part of the world that is a de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. Do you think the ruling capitalist class are going to quit this objective? I think not. The billionaire members of this class are the ultimate "control freaks".
  • WWII America’s historical myths featuring Chris Hedges interviewing Danny Sjursen, Retired US Army Major, author and historian from Hedges' RT channel on YouTube. My reaction: I consider the source (Sjursen) of this interview as only revealing a military history of WWII, but it is important as an illustration of a mythical history as only scratching the surface we are taught in our schools to grossly distort reality. The history of this event (and events related to this subject) as taught by Canadian historian Jacques R. Pauwels is the very best, in my opinion.
  • Code Red: How can we prevent climate catastrophe? by Martin Empson from Climate & Capitalism. My reaction: I look all over the article to find the answer to this question. It seems that the author only implies the answer: a revolutionary change of basic systems to one of socialism. I think it is too late for that. But I wish for that to happen in order to partially redeem the human species for the ultimate sin of self-extinction. 
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Friday, August 13, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, August 13, 2021 (A slightly shortened edition)

  • The Propaganda War (Part II) by CJ Hopkins, who is a wise satirical comedian in an age when satire is dead, from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. (Note: Hopkins, an American blogger, is currently living in Berlin, Germany.) My reaction: He writes about the need for people to grow up (def.):
That is what the column you are reading is … an attempt to influence people’s opinions. Of course, that isn’t all it is. Nothing is ever only one thing. But it is absolutely propaganda. And so is everything else that you will read today.

I’m terribly sorry if this comes as a shock, but there is no “objective” fantasy-land in which no one is trying to persuade you of anything or pressure you or otherwise influence you to do something. It does not exist, this “objective” dreamworld, where “authoritative sources” report “the facts,” where “the facts” are “verified” by “neutral” “fact checkers,” where ex-NSA and CIA spooks are hired as commentators by MSNBC and CNN because they care about “the truth,” where “science” is immune to manipulation. This fantasy is the alibi of authoritarians, cult leaders, and assorted other control freaks, and the people they have brainwashed into believing in it.
  • Citing Corrupt Think Tanks For News Reports Is Blatant Propaganda by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband also reading the script (but you may miss supporting examples, illustrations, etc.)--from her weblog. My reaction: It appears that this deceptive propaganda is more powerful in Australia than the USA, and Australia is an integral part of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. It is not shocking, but expected when the cabal of fascist (advanced capitalists) instigators within the British Empire and their counterparts in the USA have so consolidated their control over every institution in every year since WWII (75 years).
Mark Horvath is the founder and director of InvisiblePeople.tv. The non-profit organization was built to highlight the plight of people living on the streets in the US. Horvath had experienced homelessness and held a career in the TV industry in Los Angeles before the 2008 economic collapse. In the months after the crisis began he started taking a camera to interview people without homes. Lee Camp and Horvath discuss the story of Horvath's project, the causes and experience of homelessness, an upcoming movie on homelessness from InvisiblePeople.tv.... [inserted my link]
 
The homeless are people fast becoming that target of billionaire government institutions. They are invisible people because they have no influence on how our government is run. These people are the "useless eaters" (those who do not contribute to the profits of major corporations) that the billionaire governments of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire want to get rid of.
  • American coup d'etat (part 2) featuring Chris Hedges interviewing Dennis Kusinich, a politician who tried to succeed in a billionaire-managed electoral system, from his RT channel (25:19m). See how his attempts to serve the people belie the ubiquitous (def.) propaganda of our ruling capitalist masters that we are a democratic society.
    Dennis Kucinich served as a U.S representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, losing his seat after the state Democratic Party machine redrew Ohio’s 10th Congressional district, a redistricting designed expressly to oust him, although he is a Democrat, from his seat, which is what happened. He was also the 53rd mayor of Cleveland. As mayor he took on the entrenched power of the big banks and business interests, along with the mob, which controlled City Hall.
     
  • Afghanistan - This Is The End ... by Bernhard, a German independent blogger, from his weblog Moon of Alabama. (Note: It must be remembered that the Taliban are Afghanis (def.).)
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Thursday, August 12, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, August 12, 2021

  • After 20 years, Pentagon still lacks control over hired guns by David Isenberg from Responsible Statecraft. My reaction: This is further evidence that the ruling capitalist class has gone further down the road to fascism, indeed, if it has not already reached its inherent goal of updated fascism. The latter is the integration of capitalist entities with the government, but using different primary methods: capitalist ruling classes now use their control over all institutions in which they added, and emphasized, the use of sophisticated techniques of indoctrination and propaganda. It doesn't mean that they have dispensed entirely with more brutal methods to obtain compliance with their edicts, but the emphasis is with the new techniques in order to divide the population.
The US Army just conducted a three-day exercise in collaboration with the New York City Police and Fire Department. The exercise simulated a nuclear and biological event on the NYC subway system and Yankee Stadium.

Similar drills are scheduled for Philadelphia and Los Angeles in the coming months of September and October.

This raises concerns because the US Military has a track record for conducting experiments on the population using deadly pathogens without the population’s knowledge or consent.

Right now there is no proof that anything nefarious is taking place. But if history has taught us anything, it’s that government exercises and drills provide the perfect the cover to conduct covert and illegal operations. The same sort of cover a declared pandemic provides.
  • There Is No Will To Fight Climate Change by Bernhard, a German independent blogger, from his weblog Moon of Alabama. (Note: Bernhard looks at the climate change phenomenon, which is threatening the extinction of nearly all life on Earth, realistically. Only I think that he should re-entitled the article as "There Is No Will To Fight Climate Change among capitalist ruling classes".
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Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, August 11, 2021

We face a huge sociopolitical problem. Despite the mountain of historical and contemporaneous evidence that governments can and do intentionally harm us, it seems we are collectively incapable of grasping the reality of democide.
  • Settlement Lets Pharma Crooks Off Hook For Opioid Epidemic featuring Anders Lee from the channel of Redacted Tonight via YouTube (5:28m) reporting and commenting (sarcastically) on the final settlement involving the owners of a major pharmaceutical corporation regarding the selling and promoting of their product OxyContin that has torn families apart. My reaction: I know of one such family.
  • U.S. media serves Washington's imperial ambitions by Danny Haiphong, a US writer and journalist, from CGTN (China's mainstream news outlet). My reaction: Haiphong has pointed out in his article that the government is now so wedded with corporations--not only with media corporations--that the government represents a dream of all fascists since Mussolini: major capitalists now have control over every institution that exists in the USA and throughout much of its de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, and some international agencies like the WHO; and they're using this control to manipulate the "reality" of their citizens in support of their aspirations for global dominance.
On Sunday, Virginia Giuffre, now 38, who lives in Australia with her husband and three children, filed a civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew.

The woman testified that, against her will, she was “trafficked out” by the late financier and convicted pedophile to have sex with the British royal three times in 2001, while she was 17. Giuffre is now seeking “accountability” from her purported abuser and is demanding compensation for physical and mental damage.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Weglarz attempts to explain, using his own personal life experience, this phenomenon as indoctrination and propaganda by "oligarchies" (rich people) and "authorities". Even if we explain that the "authorities" fear the oligarchs because the latter hold authority over their careers does not explain this phenomenon, but it leads to an explanation. It is my firm conviction that the system, a capitalist system, upon which the "oligarchies" depend on for their wealth and power, is the underlying cause for nearly all of the problems of inequality, social justice issues, and wars from the 20th century until now. (I laid out this argument in this post.) 
 
Apparently, the oligarchies, and their employed authorities, have been so successful at creating "realities" that Weglarz hasn't yet attained consciousness of this system that makes inevitable nearly all the problems which we currently face. As the capitalist class inevitably concentrates control (and wealth) in ever diminishing hands, they have created most of the crises which we fear will end us all as a human species. Nevertheless, he goes a long way to explain how most of the American population is so gullible.
One of the filters in the Propaganda Model propounded by professors Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky is stoking a fear of communism.1 The establishment’s anti-communism has never abated in the United States. The elitists require a populace fearful of communism to protect their own misbegotten wealth accumulation. Thus,the bugaboo of communism must be opposed wherever it arises.
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Monday, August 9, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Monday, August 9, 2021

Although US politicial (sic) figures try to convince the rest of the world that those are merely “research centers” where American specialists help local scientists develop ways to combat dangerous diseases, Washington carefully supresses (sic) any information about what is actually taking place inside those military facilities. Elected officials of the above-mentioned have no real idea what goes on inside behind closed doors. The US centers deployed across those countries and the research facility at Fort Detrick’s military base, where Pentagon lab-coats have been working on weaponizng (sic) biology for decades are one and the same. 
 
A few paragraphs later Platov writes:
 
The fact that the US has never stopped producing biological weapons, contrary to all international conventions, is no secret. And this is confirmed: there is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA in the Pentagon, which is engaged in developing and implementing the most advanced technologies in the military sphere. And it has a biotechnology department that does just that. The US Defense Department admits that their technology is dual-use. However, under US law, certain types of experiments are prohibited in the United States due to the threat they pose to the local population. This means that they are held abroad, including in the former Soviet Union area. 
 
My reaction: Could it be that our masters in the ruling class have always seen the benefits of biological warfare (and they used biowarfare in the Korean War but they always denied it)? This arrangement suits them perfectly--they can deny the development of biowarfare weapons while working to develop them in labs abroad.
Unz brings us up-to-date on the issue of biowarfare long stifled by our ruling class. This post lends support to my contention that our ruling class is so amoral that they are capable of doing anything, including the murder of their own mothers, to achieve greater wealth and, especially, power. They are the ultimate control freaks!
 
You might find evidence that Unz is anti-Semitic in such clauses as the following: "... his Jewish tormenters (sic) drew upon their almost unlimited funding to hire an army of researchers who spent a year or more subjecting Irving’s vast corpus of writings to line-by-line and footnote-by-footnote scrutiny, ...." This is not accidental. I've found numerous examples in his writing where he uses the generic word "Jews", instead of Zionist Jews or right-wing Jews, in a negative way. But this quirk of his does not lessen the importance of this article or especially Thomas's book entitled Baseless.
  • Arithmetic by Michael Brenner from Consortium News.
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Sunday, August 8, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, August 8, 2021

  • 💥Top Democrats Unite With Christian Far Right to Bash China [part one of four three] by Alex Rubinstein from his weblog at Substack. This is a best post. (Note: I couldn't find anywhere in the article when this conference was confined in Washington, D.C.  I had to look up the actual conference of the "2021 International Religious Freedom Summit" to find out when it was held--July 13th, 14th, and 15th of 2021.) My reaction: You likely didn't learn of this conference from watching TV newscasts from media corporations. This article, and presumably the series, serves as an illustration of many insights. First, it is an illustration of the hypocritical propaganda that is daily spread throughout the USA by media corporations to create "reality" for ordinary Americans and people throughout the de-facto US/Anglo, Zionist Empire. It is another illustration of the evil of our masters in the Deep State, an informal board of directors of the ruling capitalist classes of the Empire. It is also an illustration that justifies my arguments that they are the root of most of the evil that exists in today's world because of their addiction to profits and power (read my posts: this (commentary only) and this).
How could such prominent Democrats agree to speak at a conference sponsored mainly by individuals and organizations they are supposed to be the antithesis of? How could the leading champion of humanitarian interventionism in the Obama Administration, Samantha Power, or Anthony Blinken for that matter, feel comfortable participating in a conference alongside anti-gay and alleged insurrectionist legislators, the kind of characters that they may have otherwise used to justify US intervention had they belonged to another country's legislative body? It was a question that I kept asking myself throughout the affair, but I quickly learned that the beat of the war drums against China was loud and that it drowned out all other issues.

The event was a rare, unvarnished glimpse into the moral hypocrisy of Democratic Party leaders, showcasing their willingness to ally with those they claim to otherwise oppose ostensibly in the name of protecting "religious freedom," a concept which these ruling class factions can't even agree on a common definition of — even if ultimately it was all just cover for advancing an imperial agenda against a rising superpower.  
Nearly 1,800 family members, survivors, and first responders who were affected by the September 11 attacks are intensifying pressure on the federal government to declassify information that they believe points to Saudi leaders' involvement in or support for the attacks, with the group calling on President Joe Biden to stay away from next month's 20th anniversary memorial events unless he releases the documents first.
 
The family members and survivors say PENTTBOM, the FBI's investigation that wrapped up in 2016, uncovered support provided by Saudi officials for the attackers.
  • Here Comes China, a weekly update about all things China, by Godfree Roberts from his weblog ($ subscription, but free for a temporary period) Here Comes China.
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