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, December 4, 2021

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

If you thought the surveillance state was already out of control, hold on to your hats---because the Covid pandemic has just opened the door to the world of medical surveillance—and we’re not just talking about data. Covid-19 has provided your personal health data, your name—and other identifying details-to the federal government and it doesn’t stop at US borders. This is happening globally. Investigative journalist and Boom Bust cohost Ben Swann shares his perspective. 
Singer songwriter Brad Skistimas of Five Times August discusses his unanticipated turn toward anti-establishment rebel rock in the age of Covid. Many of his songs have gone viral and his most recent tune targeting Dr. Fauci had been censored and banned by YouTube. He talks about the pandemic power grab and how people continue to double down on their emotional investment in the official narrative even though none of this is making sense anymore. He touches on why all our old guitar heroes have gone woke and become part of the establishment. He addresses the challenge and danger of speaking your mind at the cost of family, friends, and fans. In spite of the difficulties, his outspokenness has garnered him huge worldwide support.
Earlier today, I was horrified to hear that one of my readers had just been denied access to a local hospital. He was taking his wife in for a very important reason, but there were people at the entrance that were checking the vaccination status of everyone that attempted to enter. He and his wife had not been vaccinated, and so they were turned away. 
  • New film sounds alarm on Wall Street rapacity featuring an interview (from RT) with Sean Stone, author and filmmaker, who "discuss his new film, 'the Paradigm of Money', which exposes corruption in the financial markets of perfidious Wall Street. His film seeks to show how 'collusion between big government and big finance' have led to irresponsible investments, an unaccountable financial sector and a ruined US middle class." [my link inserted]
  • More Fake News About China featuring Lee Camp from his channel on YouTube (15:40) regarding the "news" on all major media specifically about the Chinese tennis star. 
The Pentagon has released its annual Global Posture Review (GPR), which included a number of revisions to US strategy in its struggle to maintain influence in multiple theaters. It recommends “infrastructure” improvements at bases in Guam and Australia and increasing its South Korean presence. It also proposes a rescission of the Trump-era cap on troop deployments in Germany, apparently wanting to be prepared for deeper trouble in Ukraine.
  • UNGA’s Latest Resolution Illustrates the International Community’s Complicity With Israel’s Colonial Expansion by Ramona Wadi from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: This is because of the US's merger what was left of the British Empire after WWII combined to have effective control over the UN and its General Assembly, and designed its organization back in 1945. The General Assembly is organized so that it can only offer non-binding resolutions. So most of the nations have no effective voice in the General Assembly other than offering resolutions. The US and the British set it up that way to allow most nations of the world (outside of the big five: US, Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and China--remember that US's ally, the Kuomintang gov. still ruled there until 1949) to "feel" like they had a decision-making voice.
Wadi writes in her opening paragraphs:
 
Yet another non-binding UN General Assembly has passed, granting Palestinians permanent sovereignty over their natural resources, even as Israel has absolute dominion over their territory. The draft resolution, titled “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources,” is a perfect example of how the UN glosses over Israel’s colonial violence by refusing to take action, preferring to enact non-binding resolutions which do nothing to protect the Palestinian people’s political rights and their territory.

The resolution demands Israel ceases its exploitation and theft of Palestinian land, while noting all other Israeli violations on Palestinian territory, such as the Apartheid Wall, settlement expansion, destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, as well as the impact of Israel weapons in Gaza. With the passing of such a detailed resolution, it would stand to reason that the UN takes measures against Israel’s colonial violence, rather than call upon Israel to halt its damage.
Microwork is a rising form of labor exploitation being deployed by some of the world’s wealthiest capitalists. It’s online work where users are asked to perform menial, small tasks for pennies. Naomi Karavani takes on the phenomenon and shows us the victims of the industry. The low-paid work includes tasks like identifying the contents of images, translating, transcribing audio, or any task that someone on the site is willing to pay for. These tasks can become abusive where workers have been sexually harassed by the people setting the tasks. Jeff Bezos has a company called Mechanical Turk that competes for microwork jobs. Vulnerable people such as refugees and those living in occupied territories are the target worker for the microwork industry.
Debt collectors can now come after you on social media. Some rules apply, but that’s just the latest after a new set of policies that came into place this week by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. RT contributor Mollye Barrows reports. Then, professor of economics at UMASS Amherst Richard Wolff weighs in.
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Friday, December 3, 2021

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

  • What’s Left? How Greenwald, Covid and Rittenhouse Exposed a Plague Among Progressives by Riva Enteen from Mint Press News. My reaction: Although Greenwald is not a socialist, he has integrity and he, as a lawyer, knows the law. Having tamed the Democratic Party, the ruling class has switched sides from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party; and by doing so exposed fake leftists and created some confusion as to what the "left" means. Now it appears to mean "liberals" or soft capitalists in the Democratic Party who fake concern about racism. The true "left" has always meant public or worker ownership and control of the economy which is anathema to all capitalist-loving people in the Democratic Party. Clownish Trump is only a flash-grenade to excite these simple-minded people. What concerns me most is that the people at World Socialist Web Site have supported the Democrats and major media, and have gone along with the fakeries of their fear campaign and the mandates during the covid pandemic.
at

Thursday, December 2, 2021

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

Hayley Hodgson, 26, moved to Darwin from Melbourne to escape the never-ending lockdowns — only to find herself locked up in a Covid Internment Camp without even having the virus.

She’s just returned from a 14-day detention at Howard Springs, the 2000-capacity Covid camp outside Darwin to which regional Covid cases are transported by the authorities. In an exclusive interview with Freddie Sayers, she recounted her experiences.
  • šŸ’„The Strategic Conflict of the 21st Century and its Effects on Latin America by Sergio RodrĆ­guez Gelfenstein from Internationalist 360°. This is a best post. (Note: There are several typo errors in this article that you should overlook and forgive.) My reaction: Because I am overawed at the scope of this essay or presentation, I still do not know what to make of this post. First, Gelfenstein cogently offers an exceptional geopolitical analysis of the present confrontation of the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire with the emerging powers of Russia and China, but then he applies this analysis to the implications for policies that Latin American and Caribbean countries should pursue.
The Pentagon has ordered more Aircraft Carriers to the Pacific to preempt conflict with China. Meanwhile, Washington plans to deploy fighter and bomber planes to Guam and Australia to counter Beijing. The two world powers are engaged in a new arms race.
 
China and Russia, have developed and successfully tested hypersonic weapons systems while the US has yet to do so. RT America's Trinity Chavez reports on the US military's unflinching global bellicosity and tremendous expense to taxpayers. Then former naval intelligence officer John Jordan shares his insights.
America is coming to face an ominous crossroads, in her view, which boils down to this: will the United States embrace socialism or will it descend into fascism?

Dr Harriet Fraad lives in New York City. She has been a practicing psychotherapist and hypnotherapist for nearly four decades. She is also a political activist, a founding member of the women’s liberation movement in the United States during the late 1960s and co-founder of the journal Rethinking Marxism.
  • Epstein’s shadow: 5 takeaways from Ghislaine Maxwell trial. This post gives us an update on the latest happenings in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's assistant, via RTs channel on YouTube (01:46). (Note: They have both been accused of "entertaining" important political members of the Empire with underage girls. Epstein is reportedly dead from a mysterious "suicide".)
Americans live under a governmental regime that openly breaks its own laws. The government not only believes it can do whatever it can get away with politically, not only believes that it can torture its foreign foes and claim the torture is a state secret, not only can bribe and coerce witnesses into saying what the government wants to hear, but it also can authorize criminals to commit crimes.
This book is about capitalism, racism, misogyny, and the many ways American industry upholds and recreates power imbalances. Sports often presents an exaggerated version of these problems, but the way these problems manifest in sports mirror how they occur in every other aspect of American life. 
Is this the same Democratic administration that promotes "woke" policies, "cancel culture", Critical Race Theory, etc.? 
 
Yes, the ruling capitalist class decided to back the Democratic Party in order to fool Americans who were concerned about racism and civil liberties--the concerns of mainly and superficially the well-educated and indoctrinated high-tech professionals. They used their control of all major media corporations to bring about this apparent change. 
 
The US and British ruling classes are no different than the Nazis which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense. The end objective of capitalism is fascism. Racism is a tool used historically to divide Americans and Europeans, many of whom are not racists, by the current de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire to advance their objective of world domination. 
#NoMore Censorship of Africa’s Roving Digital Army of Peace                   Ethiopians Rally for Peace and Against Corporate Media Lies
 
What exactly is the #NoMore movement? On November 1st, a group of activists, fed up with almost a year of war between the US-backed Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the federal government of Ethiopia, initiated a campaign calling for “no more” war, “no more” support for TPLF by the US, “no more” disinformation by the mainstream media and “no more” sanctions on Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. Accordingly, these demands were popularly expressed in the hashtag #NoMore.
Steve St. Angelo of the SRSrocco Report returns to continue our conversation on how the world is going off the Energy Cliff and how we are never going back to normal. We are seeing the peak and decline of this global hi-tech complex economy. He believes the elite are powerless to stop the falling Energy Return On Investment (EROI) and that a lot of their wealth is going to be wiped out, just as in past history (e.g. late Bronze Age). He sees us hitting the energy peak at 2025 and the likelihood of military conflicts as a consequence. Russia is looking to the Arctic and China is in serious trouble. We don't have enough energy to make the transition to the Green Economy and therefore things like the metaverse, cryptocurrencies, and EVs won't be possible at scale due to the lack of energy and an electric grid already at capacity. This would make maintaining a global digital technocracy difficult.
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Wednesday, December 1, 2021

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

  • šŸ’„Robert Kennedy, Jr. Interviewed by Tucker Carlson from Behind the Curtain (Curtin's website). This is a best post. (Note: If you are in a hurry, listen at approximately 4:26-6:35 to get an introduction to Kennedy's remarks. You can also get a transcript by accessing the original YouTube video by clicking on "YouTube", below the video "..." and choosing "open transcript". I, because of my hearing loss, must activate "CC" to access the written words that Kennedy speaks because of his speech disability.) My reaction: I am offering free for the first 10 requests a recent book entitled The Real Anthony Fauci by RFK, Jr.--presently it is sold-out on Amazon so you can expect a delay--to anyone requesting this book by writing to me (Ron H) at goatmeal36.com.
  • Now or Never: The Great ‘Transition’ Must Be Imposed by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: Crooke seems to be arguing that the ruling capitalist class of the US/British/Zionist Empire feel compelled to enforce their pandemic restrictions, but that is risking a nuclear war with Russia and China.
This is key: When the West speaks, it is forever looking over its shoulder, at the domestic, and wider psychic impact when it is ‘making a point’ (such as practicing attacks by nuclear-capable bombers as close to Russia’s borders as they dare). And that when Russia and China say, ‘This is our Red Line’, it is no meme – they really mean it. 
 
Regarding those who determine policies (the ruling class), he vaguely writes earlier:
 
There are powerful oligarchic interests behind the Re-Set. They do not want to see it go down, nor see the West eclipsed by its ‘competitors’. So it seems that rather than back off, they will go full throttle and try to impose compliance on their electorates: tolerate no dissidence.
 
My reaction: Who constitutes the "oligarchs"? (We, in the West have democracy which is rule by the people--this is one of their longtime major deceptions.)
Politicians around the world, all of whom, whatever their colouration, serve the interests of finance capital, duly took note of their master’s voice. They declared there would be no significant changes in their policies, apart from some token restrictions, largely on international travel. 
 
My reaction: However, if the financial capitalists instead of the old-fashioned (industrial) capitalists are in command of the Empire, then we can continue to expect risky policies (re. Crooke in the above post) will be pursued which will threaten all inhabitants of the Earth with global nuclear war.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is celebrating as, with almost all votes counted, they appear to have won 20 out of the country’s 23 states in Sunday’s regional “mega elections.” More than 70,000 candidates stood for one of 3,082 public positions, including local mayorships, councillors, regional legislators and state governors — the vast majority of candidates affiliated with opposition parties.

The landslide victory was watched over by international observers from 55 countries, including a delegation from the European Union, who praised the organizational capacity of the National Electoral Council, effectively endorsing the proceedings.
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Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, November 30, 2021

A broader framework of disorder exacerbates this fragmentation. Nation-state actors have declared their “right” to assassinate persons anywhere in the world thought to be “enemy combatants” by secret evidence, without trial or any due process of law. Big money influences how laws are made in nearly every country, industrial-military complexes encourage a war mentality, and mass media propaganda encourage seeing the world as full of enemies and security threats. The capitalist system cultivates both egoism and an unlimited expansionist economic model that has wrought havoc on our finite planet with its multiple intersecting, delicately balanced ecosystems. Unless the people of Earth take charge through a true democratic system more powerful than multinational corporations, big money, global private banking, or militarized imperial nation-states, our planet has little hope for a transformed future.
... do not expect anything dramatic to happen in the New York courtroom. One has to suspect that a tale of Mossad running a major spy ring in the US using a pedophile and young girls might just be too much for some folks in power to tolerate and they have made sure that that aspect of the story will never see the light of day. That is the real story that is being conveniently covered-up. Israel yet again spies and Washington denies.
It should be obvious to everyone that humanity is headed down a dark path if worldwide public speech is regulated by monopolistic oligarchs with a vested interest in preserving the status quo and a steadily increasing alignment with government institutions. If every platform people flock to in large numbers becomes subjected to iron-fisted establishment narrative management, it will greatly hinder humanity’s efforts to become a conscious species that has a truth-based relationship with the world.
On November 11 Filippo Grandi, the head of UNHCR, issued a plea for greater assistance from rich countries, saying that “the international community must redouble its efforts to make peace, and at the same time must ensure resources are available to displaced communities and their hosts.” Unfortunately most of the international community couldn’t care less about refugees, as evidenced by reaction to recent agonising events such as Poland’s inhumane treatment of the thousands attempting to enter from Belarus, whose President is quite as cruel and pitiless as the Polish authorities who have repelled so many of them.
China is imposing harsh regulations on private education, big tech, and billionaires. The new Cold Warriors in the U.S. government and media call these moves authoritarian, leftward tyranny, and bad for business.

But Chinese president Xi Jinping calls it part of a “common prosperity” agenda to create a more equitable society on the road to building socialism.
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Monday, November 29, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Monday, November 29, 2021

  • The Darkest Dream: Mind Control, GMOs and Medical Murder by Ryan Matters, "a writer and free thinker from South Africa" (apparently) from his weblog NewBraveWorld. My reaction: This lengthy post investigates how the occult has influenced science, but I would express this as the irrational application of science to serve the imperatives of the capitalist system: the accumulation of wealth and its highly addictive corollary power.
The “scientific method” breaks down when it encounters evidence that falls outside what “science” has deemed to be true. The data are then misrepresented, ridiculed or ignored. The scientific consensus is steered by research funded and promoted by corporations with vested interests and little regard for human wellbeing. Industry shills and soulless academics defend their oppressors while dancing to the tune of elite mind-control, relayed through textbooks, research grants, “consulting” fees, TV shows, news and current events.
 
Matters concludes his lengthy essay with these insightful words:
 
It has never been more important for us to plant our feet firmly on the Earth, draw energy up from the living soil and re-establish our connection with the natural world. As we cultivate a new organ of perception, one that allows us to perceive the spectre-like web of occult influence woven around us and its pervasive influence on modern society, we’re finally able to face up to our oppressors, dissolve the darkness, and set forth on a journey of healing and reparation. When we do this, the bonds of fear, hatred and division fall away like dry leaves in the Autumn wind.
Dr. Goebbels’ inept disciples have overlooked the concept of gute Propaganda, paradoxically one of the key postulates of the doctor’s technique. It means that to be credible, successful, and ultimately persuasive, propaganda must be heavily laced with elements of truth. In their hubris and unremitting reliance on crude force, they failed to do their homework. “Good propaganda,” Goebbels wrote, “need not lie, in fact must not lie. Propaganda which makes use of the lie … cannot have success in the long run … but a right idea must also be set forth in the appropriate way.”

They have obviously failed to find the appropriate way to package Covid-19 for the hesitant and disbelieving masses. Hence, their inelegant solution is to try to ram it down everybody’s throat, which is a risky approach and likely to backfire. Schade … the doctor is probably muttering in his molten lake in hell.
In societies bombarded with propaganda – propaganda that gets ever more sophisticated as software and algorithms learn through billions of tiny mind experiments how to trigger us, arouse us, incentivise us – it is extraordinarily hard to think clearly. It requires a huge amount of mental and spiritual energy to gain distance. That’s very difficult to do if we spend all day working, or we are exposed all day to the news cycle. The biggest problem is not just that our thoughts are likely to be someone else’s (often Rupert Murdoch’s), it is that we don’t even know that they belong to somebody else. That is how propaganda works.
  • Humanity Is Still Trying To Be Born by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband, Tim Foley, also reading the script (but you may miss supporting examples, illustrations, etc.)--from her weblog.
Supported by America and other foreign forces, including elements within United Nations (UN) agencies, The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is attempting to overthrow the democratically elected Government of Ethiopia and regain power. This would be disastrous for the country and the region.

The impact of the year-long conflict is devastating. Perhaps as many as three million people are internally displaced, tens of thousands have been killed; women and girls raped, property trashed, land destroyed, livestock slaughtered by TPLF fighters.
  • Terms Used to Describe Global Warming featuring the views and analysis of Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--06:02), who has fearlessly focused his attention throughout his career on the climate crisis. My reaction: McPherson tells us the history of global warming as seen through the eyes of scientists. We learn that more than a century ago humanity first learned that carbon dioxide was contributing to global warming and subsequent scientists, particularly during the 1930s, contributed to this discovery. McPherson also at the end refers to a possible solution for this global warming known as the "mirrors" proposal along with other societal changes. However, in other posts and books, he does not leave much hope for the proposal being carried out by our current masters in the capitalist classes which are far more focused on wealth accumulation and power, control (of ordinary people).
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