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

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks about Justin Trudeau giving himself emergency powers to squash the freedom convoy, the truly sad mainstream media double standard for non-left protests, vaccine mandate protests spreading globally, and Jordan Peterson’s message for the truckers. First, Dave shares clips of the Justin Trudeau speech where he announced radical emergency measures and invoked the Emergencies Act to shut down any financing of the truckers. He is even altering the Terrorist Financing Act to be able to shut down their bank accounts. Next, how is the liberal media bias going to handle the freedom convoy? Brian Stelter of CNN tries to argue against the concept of freedom to attack the truckers. He also includes a clip from “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” to try to demonize all the protesters as ignorant idiots. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times is even more insulting to the truckers. Dave also shares a clip of how the media acted a bit differently during the BLM protests. Next, clips of how the freedom convoy protests have spread across the world. Major protests have now erupted in Italy, New Zealand, Israel, France, and many other countries. Finally, a clip of Jordan Peterson’s message for the truckers of the Canadian freedom convoy. He explains the difficult choice they have in front of them and whether or not they should back down.
  • The Official Story 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. 
The official story is that we live in a free democracy where our teachers tell us the truth about our nation, our government and our world when we are children, and then the free press continue telling us the truth about our nation, government and world when we are grown, and then every few years we have free and fair elections in which we use this truthful information to make decisions about which politicians and policies to vote for, and it is only by pure coincidence that what we vote for just so happens to benefit the most wealthy and powerful people on the planet.
  • This Is Worse Than We Thought featuring Russell Brand, a British comedian turned serious analyst (although occasionally interjecting humorous satirical comments), arguing that things are getting worse regarding our American government. (It is no different for Britons--Britain is an integral part of the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire.) From Brand's channel on YouTube (14:08).
In stark contrast to the US, China treats other countries on the basis of equality and works to develop mutually beneficial relationships. Since Chinese loans don’t come with punishing conditions of austerity and privatisation, Latin American governments have been able to leverage China’s investment and purchase of primary commodities to spend at an unprecedented rate on reducing poverty and inequality. As such, from Chile to Bolivia to Venezuela to Mexico, the relationship is producing tangible benefits for ordinary people in the region. 
The drive for dominance has always been fueled by one objective: To position U.S. capitalist interests to be able to more effectively plunder the labor and resources of the peoples and nations of the world.
Al-Akhbar reported on 15 February that one of the spies arrested in Lebanon’s largest spy ring bust had regularly written anti-Hezbollah articles at the request of Israel who recruited the spies, many through front organizations and job offers.
[my insertion]
 
The suspect, a journalist identified only as M. Sh., wrote “dozens” of anti-Hezbollah pieces at the request of foreign interests, according to the report, receiving between $300 and $700 per article.
  • Conversation Between Professors Beril Sirmacek and Guy McPherson about El Niño Southern Oscillation featuring the views and analysis of Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--39:55), who has fearlessly focused his attention throughout much of his career on the climate crisis. In this post he is really being interviewed by another scientist, Sirmacek, who appears to be a Dutch scientist, and who has focused much of her attention on climate. My reaction: (This is another post which has thin lines under the post in the Google entry form which suggests to me that we should not take the link seriously.) McPherson explains the increasing amplitude of El Niño and its effects on the climate crisis. He goes on to explain that the ruling capitalist class and the general population have ignored many studies that have pointed to the crisis because they wish only good news. This is particularly true of the ruling class because capitalism, a system from which they have benefited so much in terms of power (control) and wealth, and the ecological crisis--both in direct contradiction with each other.
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