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 8, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, January 8, 2022

  • SCOTUS weighing Covid jab mandate; death toll in question features a news report for the first 1/3 on the post, which assumes the accuracy of data reported by corporate media, followed by Ben Swann's assessment of the mandates for the remainder of the post--from RT America's channel on YouTube (08:34). My reaction: My living situation in a co-op in which the mortgage is being backed by HUD which follows OSHA mandates, is being affected by those mandates. The popular maintenance man and office manager have refused the experimental vaccines with the result that they have been forced to resign. These are key employees.
  • Are the events of 9/11, the covid pandemic, the event on 1/6/2021 like the Reichstag fire that led to the dictatorship of the Nazi Party? by Ron Horn for my weblog Surviving Capitalism (Not). The short answer is "yes". My brief commentary provides a further explanation:
These contrived events are used to influence Americans to passively follow the diktats of government despite the human rights guaranteed under the Constitution that was forced onto the ruling class, or the reverent "Founding Fathers", by the people to adopt the Bill of Rights in order for the latter to accept the new Constitution. The latter, in its original form, was solely concerned with the protection of the rights of property.
 
Recall the Reichstag fire which preceded that takeover of Germany by the Nazi Party in 1933. This incident is a brief report from ThoughtCo under the subheading "The Dictatorship Begins". Please review this link.

We have already reduced our privacy and legal rights after the 9/11 event following the passage of the Patriot Bill and its extensions. The covid-pandemic mandates have also reduced our right to choose medical interventions, travel and to conduct normal business, and the event on 1/6/2021 is on its way to further restrict our legal rights. The ruling capitalist class is chipping away at our Bill of Rights that is a part of the Constitution until it is completely irrelevant. Thus, we will have fascist rule by the billionaire capitalists essentially the same as that which occurred in Nazi Germany in 1933.
As Kamala Harris compares 1/6 to 9/11 and Nancy Pelosi introduces the cast of Hamilton to sing about democracy, today's inanity should not obscure its dangers.
 
Later, he writes:

Keeping Americans hooked on fear — of Putin's takeover of the U.S., of COVID, of an imminent fascist coup — is their only hope for relevance, profit, and purpose. They can shower themselves with as many Pulitzers as they want for fake Russiagate stories and spend all day applauding one another on social media, but they know they are widely despised and distrusted. Posturing as the bulwark against Fascism and Defenders of Democracy — which in turn depends on the existence of an insurrectionary movement — is their only hope for finding meaning. But cowards and propagandists who weep and engage in public therapy when confronting the slightest discomfort do not make for convincing super heroes.
The fear matrix is depending on you to activate and obey their time travel machines — televisions, smartphones, social media, and all that. They are censoring and programming and conditioning as never before. They’re counting on you to surrender the moment to them. But none of their devious tactics matter if you stay consistently present. Their deception and their desperation only become more obvious and palpable.  You see, the good thing about our minds being so susceptible to suggestion is that we can control what “suggestions” we allow to enter and influence.  
 
And, above all, don't listen to media corporations and their propaganda while trying to access the news. The advice for all other corporate sources regarding entertainment (films and TV), history, and social media which reports corporate-sourced news.
  • A review of DISINTEGRATION Indicators of the Coming American Collapse by Andrei Martyanov" by Ron Horn for my weblog Surviving Capitalism (Not). 
Because of my reading limitations, I didn't read the entire book. After reading the introduction, a bit of chapter 1, and the last two chapters of this book, I've been left wondering why Pepe Escobar recommends following Martyanov. The latter complains about everything, and is clearly disenamored of life in the USA. Although he has made frequent trips back to Russia, I think that he thinks he made mistake in emigrating from his homeland. Still, he may have the necessary qualifications to follow his advice and stop the aggressive policies that are threatening both Russia and China.
 
I found the best relevant biography of Martyanov from his publisher, Clarity Press:
 
ANDREI MARTYANOV is an expert on Russian military and naval issues. He was born in Baku, USSR in 1963. He graduated from the Kirov Naval Red Banner Academy and served as an officer on the ships and staff position of Soviet Coast Guard through 1990. He took part in the events in the Caucasus which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In mid-1990s he moved to the United States where he currently works as Laboratory Director in a commercial aerospace group. He is a frequent blogger on the US Naval Institute Blog. He is author of Losing Military Supremacy, The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs, and Disintegration: Indicators of the Coming American Collapse. 
 
After having read his views expressed in Martyanov's latest book, I think that Escobar's recommendation was based on his fear that our Pentagon generals and political officials will create a horrible mistake in militarily challenging Russia (and China) as many recent events confirm. According to Martyanov, these war-hawks are severely deluded into thinking that the US/British/Zionist Empire could prevail by any military attack on Russia. Martyanov, who is described by Clarity Press above, knows more than a little about military superiority of the war-making abilities of the two countries. He sees Russia's military as far superior to the US's, and he thinks that many of the US leaders are not sufficiently aware of this.

Martyanov's argument goes like this. The US's military-industrial complex, which sells weapons to all NATO nations and its allies, is thoroughly corrupt by many years of focusing on the bottom line (profit) that they no longer produce weapons that are comparable to Russia's. The war-hawks are thoroughly deluded into thinking that the US still enjoys an advantage over Russia's killing technology. The war-hawks seem to be in control of the aggressive war policies that threaten Russia by installing NATO military bases on its border and threats related to Ukraine, and likewise threaten China over Taiwan's independence. Thus, Escobar wants the US population to follow Martyanov's advice to prevent an unimaginable nuclear war catastrophe, which according to President Putin of Russia, nobody would survive.
Nearly three dozen scientists are about to embark on a never-before done expedition to the Thwaites Glacier along the Antarctic peninsula. Referred to as the ‘doomsday glacier’ because of its sheer size—Thwaites is melting and cracking at record place. This $50 million joint study by teams from the US and UK are seeking to learn more about this ice behemoth- which they say, is responsible for a 4 percent sea-level rise already. Conservation biologist and author of Generation Z Emergency Reese Halter joins In Question to discuss.
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