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, January 22, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday and Saturday, January 21 & 22, 2022

Attempting to solve that one isolated problem is likely to create more problems elsewhere given the design of our current society. We need to think about a new system all together. And then put a plan in place to transition towards it quickly.

Wholesale discussion around redesigning society is where we are at. As someone who has been thinking about this for almost 20 years, it’s exciting to see how many people around the world are embracing this reality as well.

Russia has the single objective of removing the existential threat presented by these preparations and planning of war against it, of surviving, of freeing itself from the US-NATO threat once and for all, so it can develop and prosper as a free and sovereign nation. 
 
My reaction: The American people know nothing of the hostile actions of the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire, their media corporations have not informed them of the latter, and they are concerned with solely surviving within pandemic mandates that severely threaten their well-being.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts discusses US-Russia tensions and corona tyranny. He doesn't see how events in Kazakhstan could've been anything else but an attempted color revolution. While prior U.S. administrations in the 20th century worked to defuse tensions with Russia, Washington today is removing safeguards, not taking security talks seriously, and is expanding NATO and military installations. Russians feel they are threatened and are taking actions to ensure their security. These developments are extremely discouraging. At the start of the pandemic, he had no reason to question the CDC and NIH. However, over time he began to see holes in the narrative. He fears many people will be injured as a result of mass experimental vaccination and we may see social collapse. He believes there must be some sort of conspiracy and can't fathom the level of global coordination going on. The lockdowns have created inflation which has created serious problems for the U.S. dollar. We don't know what else they may release. There's a tremendous amount of evil at play. If things don't clear up this year, it may very well be the end of the world.
There has been a marked shift in the balance of power in the world as the US has recently intensified its attempts to regain world domination, including through sanctions against countries trying to demonstrate their independence from Washington. And in this respect, Beijing’s attempt to create a multipolar world based on an alliance with countries that have already felt pressure from Washington, in particular Iran, is noteworthy. [my emphasis]

In the Middle East, the Islamic Republic of Iran is virtually the only country that poses a serious threat to regional American hegemony. 
In the occupied Golan Heights, the population of Settlers and Syrians is approximately equal, but experts fear that a new Israeli project will turn Syrians into a demographic minority on their own land.
  • The smearing of Emma Watson by Sut Jhally and Roger Waters from Peoples Dispatch. My reaction: Very insightful because they differentiate antisemitism from criticizing the policies of right-wing or fascist Jews of Israel.