We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, January 14, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, January 14, 2022

  • My Head Talking About Zircon And Other Things. By Andrei Martyanov from his weblog  Reminiscence of the Future... in a video presentation via his channel on YouTube (25:18). My reaction: This is a classic post by Martyanov, an American military expert and emigrant from Russia. I think his views are reasons for Escobar's recommendation that the USA and NATO, the US/British/Zionist Empire's military, should not provoke Russia.
  • Tibet, the CIA & the Dalai Lama… by Mickey Z., a reliable political analyst, from his weblog on Substack. My reaction: I'm omitting a part of the post's title because I don't see what the article has to do with Thelonius Monk, but it has everything to do with the ever-deceptive CIA and its operations in Tibet.
  • Paolo Sorbello: Kazakhstan Protests Sparked by Inequality, Inflation, & Lack of Representation posted by the interviewer from Geopolitics & Empire's channel on YouTube (36:01). My reaction: The (unnamed) interviewer (now living in Mexico but has lived in a number of countries including Kazakhstan) who wants to get the real story on the Kazakhstan protests, interviews an acquaintance (I think) who lives in Kazakhstan, but is vacationing in Italy, about his opinions on what he thinks about the uprising. Sorbello was born and raised in Sicily.
The editors distinguish four periods in the methods of management of sovereign debt by States and private creditors. We largely agree with their division into four periods, of which I offer here a short summary. 
at