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, September 4, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, September 4, 2021

Note: Monday (Aug. 30) after I completed my posts, I watched on TV the tennis matches at the US Open. I realized how much I enjoyed watching tennis matches by expert players. So, I decided to wait until the 13th of September to take off on my road trips east from my home in southern Minnesota. I will go as far as New York state and possibly up into Vermont and across to Massachusetts.

I won't patronize any businesses that require papers to prove that I have been vaccinated because I haven't been. (I have enjoyed the longest streak of good health that I can remember, that is, outside of my balance problems I experienced in April.) Thus, I can't visit people in Nova Scotia and I won't go into New York City because authorities in both places require proof of vaccination.

Wednesday I received an email from someone who is living in Albuquerque (New Mexico) who has followed my website for over six years! However, I'm not going in that direction. But I could use more volunteers of regular readers of my website to meet along the way to the east coast. Hopefully, more will respond (goatmeal36@yahoo.com) before the 13th of September. I want to meet some of my regular readers over coffee, tea, or beer to get acquainted with them.

  • Want Regime Change with Plausible Deniability? Call Creative Associates International featuring Alan Macleod interviewed by Mnar Adley, founder of Mint Press News, reporting (36:21m) what he knows about this NGO and similar organizations functioning in foreign countries. (Note: The text following the YouTube video is a summary and overview of the actual interview.) My reaction: There appears to be a network of similar NGOs, funded by US taxpayers, doing what the CIA does: subversion of nations in the service of the transnational capitalist of the de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire for the objective of controlling the world for the benefit of major capitalists. Macleod provides numerous details. In my informed opinion, what this transnational ruling class does internationally, they also do within the USA. However, I don't think that they have used NGOs domestically ... because they don't need to. The ruling class has already infiltrated and spread their influence (nearly 70 years ago) through every institution, particularly those whose mission is in part ideological: media, education, and entertainment. The startling success of their Covid-19 project is overwhelming evidence.
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Friday, September 3, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, September 3, 2021

Note: Monday after I completed my posts, I watched on TV the tennis matches at the US Open. I realized how much I enjoyed watching tennis matches by expert players. So, I decided to wait until the 13th of September to take off on my road trips east from my home in southern Minnesota. I will go as far as New York state and possibly up into Vermont and across to Massachusetts.

I won't patronize any businesses that require papers to prove that I have been vaccinated because I haven't been. (I have enjoyed the longest streak of good health that I can remember, that is, outside of my balance problems I experienced in April.) Thus, I can't visit people in Nova Scotia and I won't go into New York City because authorities in both places require proof of vaccination.

Wednesday I received an email from someone who is living in Albuquerque (New Mexico) who has followed my website for over six years! However, I'm not going in that direction. But I could use more volunteers of regular readers of my website to meet along the way to the east coast. Hopefully, more will respond (goatmeal36@yahoo.com) before the 13th of September. I want to meet some of my regular readers over coffee, tea, or beer to get acquainted with them.

  • Why the U.S. Still Suffers from Covid by Margaret Kimberley from Black Agenda Report. My reaction: This is Kimberley's take on the present status of the Covid pandemic, not mine. My interpretation: the pandemic represents the transnational capitalist ruling class's population reduction program.
  • šŸ’„The Covidian Cult (Part III) by CJ Hopkins, a wise satirical comedian in an age when satire is dead and is now devoting himself to serious essays, from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. This is a best post. (Note: Hopkins, an American blogger, is currently living in Berlin, Germany.) My reaction: Hopkins' take on ideology somewhat differs from mine. He sees the current "reality" as defining the ideology of the globe--"global capitalism". I see the latter as the "reality" (the "new normal") only as the creation of the de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. I see the mixed economies led by Russia, China, and Iran as being somewhat compromised by their capitalist components because they tried socialist paths and failed due to the historical actions of the capitalist nations and the Empire. Because of the class nature of capitalism, socialism (abolishment of private ownership of the economy) cannot co-exist with capitalism.
  • The nature of satire features Chris Hedges interviewing Joe Sacco, a satirist, from RT's channel on YouTube (25:49m). My reaction: Isn't the success--the "new normal"-- of fascists in the ruling capitalist class and created by them beyond satire?
Neither Wall Street nor its front men are happy with the current constraints on the Fed’s ability to lavish trillions of dollars in bailout money on the Wall Street mega banks every time they blow themselves up with their latest innovations in financial weapons of mass destruction.
 
My reaction: Ha! Some "Wall Streeters" will be concerned, but not sufficient in number or dedication to be able to change anything. This view ignores the latest evolution of the fascist stage of capitalism. Wall Street derives too much benefit from the Fed and its essentially printing-of-money operations.
  • The American Invasion of Syria from the channel of Tales of the American Empire on YouTube (14:35m). My reaction: This video shows the liars and lies told to Americans by our government officials under the control of the capitalist ruling class.
In 2011, the United States, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and most Persian Gulf states conspired to destroy Syria for different reasons. They covertly sent tens of thousands of jihadist mercenaries to Syria and shipped them billions of dollars of weaponry and supplies to overthrow the government of Syria. This effort failed so the USA launched a massive bombing campaign to destroy eastern Syria while an American led mercenary force invaded from Iraq to occupy eastern Syria before it could be liberated by the Syrian army. This effort stalled, so President Barack Obama authorized thousands of American combat troops to invade Syria, even though he had publicly promised not to send American ground troops into Syria.
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Thursday, September 2, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, September 2, 2021

Note: Monday after I completed my posts, I watched on TV the tennis matches at the US Open. I realized how much I enjoyed watching tennis matches by expert players. So, I decided to wait until the 13th of September to take off on my road trips east from my home in southern Minnesota. I will go as far as New York state and possibly up into Vermont and across to Massachusetts.

I won't patronize any businesses that require papers to prove that I have been vaccinated because I haven't been. (I have enjoyed the longest streak of good health that I can remember, that is, outside of my balance problems I experienced in April.) Thus, I can't visit people into Canada and I won't go into New York City because authorities in both places require proof of vaccination. I promise that I will not patronize any businesses that require such papers.

Yesterday I received an email from someone who is living in Albuquerque (New Mexico) who has followed my website for over six years! However, I'm not going in that direction. But I could use more volunteers of regular readers of my website to meet along the way to the east coast. Hopefully, more will respond (goatmeal36@yahoo.com) before the 13th of September. I want to meet some of my regular readers over coffee, tea, or beer to get acquainted with them.

  • Scott Armstrong Interview – How Employers Are Quietly Removing The Non-Compliant featuring Ryan CristiĆ”n interviewing (about 48 minutes) Armstrong who resides in Oregon whose residents are under pressure from mandates by state authorities to take the new injections and/or PCR tests. The post is from The Last American Vagabond. My reaction: Armstrong and CristiĆ”n commiserate and offer some advice to people facing the same pressures and mandates. For details of the Oregon mandates, see this.
  • Red Alert: False Flag Incoming! featuring a video (12:52m) James Corbett explaining what this subject is all about from his weblog. (Note: I thank an activist for sending me this post.) My reaction: Corbett warns us about ruling class authorities: that they will activate false-flag terrorist events near or on the anniversary of 9/11, but you should not take these events seriously as reported by their media corporations.)
The legislature passed an incredibly draconian law that essentially turns every Texan into a little anti-abortion Stasi. The law allows private misogynist busybodies to sue anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion — as if abortion were a crime and not a fundamental right — after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which happens at roughly six weeks of pregnancy. The state then pays these misogynist snitches $10,000 and covers their legal fees if they win. It does not cover the legal fees of the person who has to defend themselves in court, which means that clinic owners, doctors, nurses, counselors, and anyone else even tangentially involved in abortion care could be quickly bankrupted. The definition of “aiding and abetting” is broad enough to cover not only doctors and clinic workers, but anyone who, say, loans a woman money for the procedure, goes with her to get it, or drives her to a clinic in their taxi or Uber. It applies to insurance companies that cover abortion. There is no exception for rape or incest.
  • Science Update: Humans "Guilty as Hell" featuring the views and analysis of Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--08:46m), who has fearlessly focused his attention throughout his career on the climate crisis. My reaction: Notice how the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and media corporations have shifted the blame for extreme weather, which we are now experiencing, on "humanity", instead of the capitalist ruling classes.
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Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Note: Yesterday I watched on TV the tennis matches at the US Open after I completed my posts. I realized how much I enjoyed watching tennis matches by expert players. So, I decided to wait until the 13th of September to take off on my road trips east from my home in southern Minnesota. I will go as far as New York state and possibly up into Vermont. I won't patronize any businesses that require papers to prove that I have been vaccinated because I haven't been. Thus, I can't visit people in Nova Scotia and I won't go to New York City because authorities there require proof of vaccination.

I could use more volunteers of regular readers of my website to meet along the way eastward. Hopefully, more will respond (goatmeal36@yahoo.com) before the 13th of September. I want to meet some of my regular readers over coffee, tea, or beer to get acquainted with them. 

  • The Internet of Bodies: Have you been upgraded? from the channel of Observation Deck of YouTube (20:54m). My reaction: While listening to this video, it is best to keep in mind that technology can be used for good or evil. But how do you think our capitalist masters will use it?
  • Afghanistan: Same, Same; Again, Again by Patrick Armstrong from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: But they (the directors of the de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire) can't help it when they are addicted to the pursuit of their drugs of wealth and power. It is no wonder that they constantly lie to us like all addicts. It is up to us whether we keep on supporting their system of capitalism which supplies them with these drugs.
... now we have absolute, definitive proof that Snowden never intended to stay in Russia but was deliberately prevented from leaving by the same Obama officials who exploited the predicament which they created. The proof was supplied unintentionally in the memoir of one of Obama's senior national security advisers, Ben Rhodes, entitled The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House. It is hard to overstate how ... Rhodes’ own book proves that Obama officials generally, and Rhodes specifically, lied blatantly and cavalierly to the public about what happened: a level of sustained and conscious lying that can be explained only by sociopathy. 
 
Later on, Greenwald supplies the details provided by Rhodes' book and memoir about how he and other Obama officials prevented Snowden from leaving the Moscow airport and constantly lied about it.
 
In other words, Rhodes — who has spent years insinuating that Snowden is a Russian spy and traitor given his "choice” to flee to Russia — knew in real time that Snowden never planned to stay even one day in Russia. He had only flown to Moscow from Hong Kong with the intent to immediately fly from Moscow to Havana, and then on to either Ecuador or Bolivia to obtain asylum. Prior to landing in Moscow, Snowden and his representatives had secured a commitment from the Cuban government to allow him safe passage through Havana on his way to South America.
 
The only reason Snowden is in Russia is because of the actions of Rhodes and his fellow Obama officials to deliberately trap him there: ....
This bit of anti-Stalinist and anti-fascist history doesn't tell the whole story, but it accurately covers a lot of it. What I want to emphasize is my firm conviction that the underlying and existing anti-Jew sentiment most widely prevalent in Europe was exploited by the capitalist cabal in the US State Department that wanted to build their own empire to replace the aspiring German Reich (Empire) by hooking up with the existing British Empire and destroying the nascent German Reich. After reading thoroughly the real history of this period (in contrast with the revised history written by career-oriented historians since WWII), I reported a summary of the real history of WWII in this post .

The early Nazis in Germany consciously, or frequently unconsciously, exploited this existing anti-Jewish theme. But when the capitalist sector of Germany along with the strong encouragement from the Western capitalist countries took over the Nazi party (this was when the "Brown Shirts" were replaced by the capitalist-supported "black shirts" of the SS). The Western capitalists, who were viscerally opposed to the Russian Revolution, solidly promoted the Nazi party to takeover the German government and head eastward to finally crush the anti-capitalist and Stalinist Soviet government. The capitalist-backed new Nazi party continued the anti-Jewish theme because of the following reasons: the leaders of the Russian Revolution of 1917 were largely Jewish revolutionaries, and the existing anti-Jewish sentiment among ordinary Germans reinforced the appeal to some anti-Jewish Western capitalists. For propaganda purposes and labor shortages after WWII began, the Nazi leaders continued the existing anti-Jewish theme to exploit Jewish labor in the production of war materials. 
 
Hence, the right-wing (capitalist) Jewish Zionists exaggerated the exploitation of "antisemitism" ever since then in order to establish their apartheid European colony in Palestine, and later to become an integral member of the de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.

WWII was really fought by the British and their American allies to preserve the capitalist system and what was left of the British Empire, but they ultimately needed the Soviet Union to accomplish this in WWII. However, the history of this period has been re-written by propaganda hacks hired by the subversive cabal lodged in the State Department and Wall Street and their fake history has been subsequently taught in US schools, media, and Hollywood films. Most Americans and many others have no idea of the real history of this period. This project was intentionally undertaken after WWII to prepare Americans and others throughout the de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire for the Cold War against the Soviet Union and their bureaucratically controlled anti-capitalist type of economy, and to build a capitalist empire of their own in place of the Nazi's Third Reich.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Note: Yesterday I watched on TV the tennis matches at the US Open after I completed my posts. I realized how much I enjoyed watching tennis matches by expert players. So, I decided to wait until the 13th of September to take off on my road trips east from my home in southern Minnesota. I will go as far as New York state and possibly up into Vermont. I won't patronize any businesses that require papers to prove that I have been vaccinated because I haven't been. Thus, I can't visit people in Nova Scotia and I won't go to New York City because authorities there require proof of vaccination.

I could use more volunteers of regular readers of my website to meet along the way eastward. Hopefully, more will respond (goatmeal36@yahoo.com) before the 13th of September. I want to meet some of my regular readers over coffee, tea, or beer to get acquainted with them.

There are many unanswered question in this twisted tale of corruption at FDA and Pfizer. Was this theater rushed through by the Biden Administration to accelerate the forced vaccination of millions of Americans uncertain or skeptical of taking an emergency or experimental jab? Why is there such an incredible pressure from mainstream media and politicians to vaccinate every man, woman and now child in the US? Are the vaccines really safe if there are so many dire cases of adverse events after the Pfizer jab? Why did the FD refuse to allow its independent vaccine committee to weigh in?

It is worth noting that as of August 14 Pfizer does not mandate vaccines for its own employees. Also the Biden White House does not mandate vaccines for its staff. These are all serious issues that demand serious and honest answers. 
  • Don't Trust Big Pharma? WATCH THIS!!! featuring Russell Brand, a British comedian's take on the lawsuit against a major pharmaceutical corporation that was caught promoting OxyContin--via his channel on YouTube (15:43m).
  • How The Media Is Creating A Sensemaking Crisis by Joe Martino from The Pulse. (Note: Be sure to watch the 20:56m video at the bottom of the page.) My reaction: Because so many government officials both here in the USA and across the globe are acting to suppress and censor all information coming from highly educated experts, and likewise actively encouraging their agenda of requiring all people to have this new vaccine injected into their bodies and other questionable practices, is it any wonder that people all over the world: 1) are resisting their authorities? 2) are wondering about people who are effectively coerced into the monolithic promotion of these new vaccines via billionaire-owned media by powerful people who may have a well-hidden self-serving agenda of their own, and 3) professional and governmental authorities who pressure recalcitrant medical doctors by removing their license to practice and offering bribes to hospitals that financially encourage them to list Covid-19 as the reason for hospitalizations and deaths?
Just as we swallowed in 2001 the ruling class self-serving propaganda about nation-building or the guardians of Afghan women, we in the USA are "played" by all the other propaganda spewed constantly by ruling class corporate media. But the reality was:
 
The flaw was that Afghanistan as a liberal progressive vision was a hoax in the first place: Afghanistan was invaded, and occupied, because of its geography. It was the ideal platform from which to perturb Central Asia, and thus unsettle Russia and China.
US troops at Kabul airport were in a panic after the sudden terrorist attacks. At that moment, everyone looked like a terrorist to them. This might be a reason they had indiscriminately pulled the trigger to kill. Yet the US military should at least tell the truth and should have made best efforts to prevent the indiscriminate killing of innocents due to personnel's psychological vulnerability in such a chaotic scenario. 
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Monday, August 30, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Monday, August 30, 2021

Note: I am planning a first road trip to the US east coast probably immediately after Labor Day, September 6, from my home in southern Minnesota. (Most of my adult life was on the west coast.) If any of you regular followers would like to meet me on this road trip, I will try to accommodate you in my itinerary. The arrangement would at least consist of a brief meeting over a beverage of your choice at a location near you or at your home. Please contact me if this interests you at my email address: goatmeal36@yahoo.com. Ron H.

If you declare “the system is broken,” just about everyone will agree with you for one reason or another. But what if it’s not broken? What if it’s running exactly as it’s designed to run? A minuscule percentage of humans make the rules and thus reap virtually all the material rewards. The rest of us suppress our desires, our individuality, and our dreams in the name of survival — in its most meager sense. We’re wounded and intimidated into submission, too programmed and fearful to even think about rebellion… let alone solidarity with all the other victims.
  • Can Human Solidarity Globalize? from Great Transition Initiative. (Note: This is a complex post starting with Richard Falk's essay, followed by panels (Debating the Prospects and Making It Happen) each of which offers other essays in response to Falk's essay. I obviously haven't had time to read each one so I don't know if anyone offers important insights--I'll leave that up to you.)
It is an open secret that the defeated ISIS fighters were airlifted from Syria by what is known in local folklore as Daesh Airlines who are today the cutting edge of the ISIS-K. Hamid Karzai himself has spoken about unmarked helicopters under cover of darkness dropping strangers in remote areas. And this when the Afghan airspace was under NATO control!
This post is about how criminal enterprises grow inside of a societal institution resembling "legitimate" capitalist enterprises. As a social system capitalism differentiated people into two basic classes: those who owned property and those that did not. Later capitalist societies developed into various classes depending on the extended families' relationship to the ownership of property, and created gross inequality among the various classes in terms of material well-being and societal influence. This inevitably poses questions about the capitalist system itself: are capitalist enterprises legitimate in the broadest sense (def. #2).
 
This article is by two criminologists in crime-ridden Venezuela. The two authors describe the development of criminal organization as roughly following four steps:
 
1) Being a bad, daring, reckless, brave, or evil kid was the way of “being someone” for a person who has no other chance of a decent job or access to schooling that may allow them to improve their living conditions. These characteristics are valued in these excluded territories.
 
2) ... gangs are turned into criminal enterprises that function just as a company would, with a logic of capitalist accumulation, surplus investment, recruiting more workers to lower costs, reinvest and expand. We observe a change in the nature of gangs that have become instrumental enterprises, mainly concentrated in illicit markets with managerial rationality. They are armed capitalist enterprises.

3) As a result of police violence and mass imprisonment, many gangs shifted from being gangs that were pitted against other gangs to organizations that began to effectively control the drug market and territory. Predatory crimes came down and the gang in the area dedicated itself to selling drugs or other more complicated activities such as extortion, extortion in informal mines, the issue of the border, etc.
 
4) ... the gang began to develop armed resistance capabilities, yielding the ability to negotiate with the state. This is another transformation that was alien to criminals before. Traditional criminals did not negotiate because it was a matter of reputation: “I don’t care if they kill me.” Now, gang leaders are able to sit down with so-and-so to pay him or to negotiate politically: “we guarantee that there will be peace here, there will be no violence, but you will not enter.” This demonstrates an effective, successful capacity to establish negotiations that had been alien to the traditional criminal logic.
 
But as we see in the USA, numerous criminal organizations have taken another step by merging into ruling capitalist classes and become "legitimate" (def. #1). This US phenomenon was dealt with at length by Oreskes and Conway in their book Merchants of Doubt. This latter phenomenon lends greater emphasis to the profound question of whether capitalist societies are legitimate.
  • The Importance of Arctic Sea Ice featuring the views of Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--09:29m), who has fearlessly focused his attention throughout his career on the climate crisis.
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Sunday, August 29, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, August 29, 2021

Note: I am planning a first road trip to the US east coast probably immediately after Labor Day, September 6, from my home in southern Minnesota. (Most of my adult life was on the west coast.) If any of you regular followers would like to meet me on this road trip, I will try to accommodate you in my itinerary. The arrangement would at least consist of brief meeting over a beverage of your choice at a location near you or at your home. Please contact me if this interests you at my email address: goatmeal36@yahoo.com. Ron H.

  • The MEDIA is the VIRUS by Eva Bartlett from Death Ship. (Note: I must give an activist credit for this post because he sent me another article on this weblog.)
One of the most annoying aspects of the current measures supposedly created “against the pandemic” that we have been subjected for almost two years now is the insistence that everything is done “for our own good”, as if governments and big companies were strict but caring parents, and we were just unruly or disobedient children who don’t really know what they need.

It brings to mind CS Lewis’ warning about that most oppressive of tyrannies, “a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims.”
  • Americans Have Traded Their Freedoms for Safety from COVID, And Now We Have Neither by Matt "Agorist" from The Free Thought Project. My reaction: This is a typical anarchist response to the increasing repression that Americans are now dealing with. Anarchism is a shallow response to the current crisis, but is all too typical of younger Americans who view the government as the problem instead of the ruling capitalist class that controls the government along with all other institutions.
This is as coercive as it can possibly get, and coercing volunteers to participate in human medical trials is strictly forbidden by both national and international bioethics laws.3,4,5,6 Yet it’s happening at scale that is nothing short of mind-boggling, and with full support of the U.S. government. 
  • Inmates DEFEAT Harvard In Debates! featuring Jimmy Dore using his channel on YouTube (08:09m) to solicit Hedges' comments about his experience teaching inmates of US's "penal colony".
How is an obscure terror outfit supposed to infiltrate a highly secure area – past “sworn enemy” Taliban checkpoints – and then breach U.S. and British military cordons?

How is it that U.S. and British intelligence had such precise information on imminent threats when these same intelligence agencies were caught completely flat-footed by the historic takeover of Kabul by the Taliban on August 15?
One man who knows more than most about the absurdities of the war is Joe Glenton. A former soldier in the British Army, he refused to return to Afghanistan, citing his moral objections to the conflict, for which refusal he served six months in a military jail. Joe Glenton joins Watchdog host Lowkey to discuss his experiences and the recent events in the country.
Woke Westerners, now losing sleep over the ‘loss of civil liberties’ in Afghanistan, may not even be vaguely aware that their NATO-commanded ‘coalition forces’ excelled in preparing their own kill-or-capture lists, known by the semantically-demented denomination: Joint Prioritized Effects List.

The CIA, for its part, couldn’t care less. After all, the agency was always totally outside the jurisdiction of Afghan laws regulating the operations of ‘coalition forces.’
In a statement, Legal Rights Center said: “That the Minneapolis Police Department did not intervene when CRG attacked the residents they are sworn to protect further erodes what little trust this community has in its police department.”
 
and later:
 
When asked about the allegation that city police are working with the private security company to tamp down protests and enforce the law, MPD spokesman John Elder emailed, “That’s false.” He declined to say more. Conflict Resolution Group did not return calls and emails. 
 
And evidence that the first group, Critical Response Group, has at least a cooperative relationship with state police associations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and a number of other states.  
 
This is only a sample of disturbing evidence that the USA is devolving into an old-fashioned police state, that is if it isn't already one. Could the ruling capitalist class be prepared to turn their private mercenary companies (PMCs) against dissident Americans if their propaganda projects fail? And, what are dissident Americans prepared to do in such a scenario?
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