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, April 1, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, April 1, 2022

  • As in Ukraine, so Too in Taiwan by Brian Berletic from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: The de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire is militarizing Taiwan it has repeated in Ukraine against the Russia, China, Iran, etc. combination in an effort to stave off a serious threat to its worldwide hegemony. Because they are obsessed with maintaining their hegemony like alcoholics during a bender (def. #2), they are waging this global battle despite the impending climate destabilization that threatens the Earth, its human populations, and all life on planet Earth.
  • US Dollar Hegemony Ended Abruptly Last Wednesday by Margaret Flowers on her Clearing the Fog podcast--from The Unz Review. (Note: This post includes the entire podcast of a one-hour program. The post includes a transcript of the interview with Hudson. The podcast consists of these units: Flowers introduces the program followed by a lengthy survey of news, followed by a musical break, followed by the interview with Hudson at 27:25. Hudson starts off this interview with a declaration, which is the title of the post, followed by an explanation of this declaration.) My reaction: I'll have to study the rest of the transcript to determine if Hudson's declaration is understandable and sound. What do you think?
  • The US Empire’s Ultimate Target Is Not Russia But China by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband, Tim Foley, also reading the script (07:47) in the audio section of her article, but you may miss supporting examples, illustrations, etc.)--from her weblog. My reaction: I don't think that their argument is sound. Either one depends on the collaboration of the other and of the other nations like Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Pakistan, India, etc. to bring a successful revolt against the Empire's hegemony. Timing is of the utmost importance.
  • As in Ukraine, so Too in Taiwan features Jimmy Dore, a former comedian turned serious critic of our government's policies, with guest Caleb Maupin commenting on the war in Ukraine--from his channel on YouTube (09:34).
Summary

The conflict in Ukraine has been decades in the making. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States has taken non-stop measures and interventions to secure complete military domination of Europe. NATO’s expansion, and refusal to accept Ukraine’s neutrality, produced a powder keg situation. In its invasion, Russia has attempted to secure through military means that which it could not achieve after decades of talks. If a long-term peace agreement is not achieved soon, a larger regional or global war is now possible.
  • More guns, less butter: Biden’s World War III budget by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site. My reaction: The Empire and its NATO army cannot wage war on multiple fronts (Russia and China, etc.) and still maintain both "guns and butter" at home. We must await further developments in this titanic struggle to maintain the domination of the world by the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire.
While the world’s attention is understandably focused on the crisis in Ukraine, equally grave developments are taking place elsewhere. Perhaps the most consequential – and underreported – is a regime-change operation underway in Pakistan.

This March, opposition lawmakers in Pakistan’s parliament launched a [unsuccessful] “no-confidence” motion aimed at overthrowing Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Khan, who was democratically elected in 2018, has warned that an “effort is being made to topple the government with the help of foreign funds in our country.” [my insertion]
  • Ukrainian Update #9 by Paul Craig Roberts from his weblog. My reaction: Roberts leads off this essay with this remark:
Just as everything you were told about Covid by the media and health and government officials was false, so is everything you have been told by the same propagandistic liars about Ukraine. Americans have had nothing but lies since the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, of his brother, US Senator Robert Kennedy President-in-Waiting, Martin Luther King, the Vietnam war, 9/11, Saddam Hussian’s nonexistent “weapons of mass destruction,” Assad’s “use of chemical weapons,” Iranian nukes, the extraordinary lies about Kaddafi, Covid pandemic, Russian invasions. The entire Western World lives in The Mattrix, a world created by propaganda. The vast majority of people in the West have no idea of the reality in which they live. This makes them impotent and completely unable to protect their freedom. They are sitting ducks for tyranny which is fast enclosing around them. 
 
It's true that the ruling class doubled-down on their propaganda after the assassinations of various opposition leaders. They figured that if they can get away with the monstrous crimes of the assassinations, they could get away with everything. Presently, most Americans are fast-asleep as the sedative of propaganda affects their wakefulness. But, as usual, I can't go along with all of his comments.
  • Europe Must Learn To Cheat On Its Sanctions (Just Like The U.S. Is Doing It) by Bernhard, a German independent blogger, from his weblog Moon of Alabama. My reaction: Ordinary Europeans--not supporters and careerists of European capitalists--must do more: by somehow electing leaders to the European Parliament who want to overturn these onerous sanctions preventing them from becoming truly independent of the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire.
  • The Ukrainian rabbit hole of radicalism by Nat South from The Saker weblog. My reactions: The Ukrainian fascists are becoming like the German Nazis: they hate symbols of socialist ideas like Jews, Communists and people like Roma and people with disabilities, etc.--anyone that does not fit in a capitalist society.
  • Chris Hedges DELETED From YouTube! features Jimmy Dore interviewing Hedges, who was recently barred from YouTube, who describes his own censorship and goes on to censor dissidents in general, and the consequences of a social policy of censorship--from Dore's channel on YouTube. My reaction: Hedges doesn't understand that American society, and all nations under the Empire, has been fragmented into rather rigid socioeconomic classes due to the capitalist system and its guardian, the self-serving capitalist ruling class as they enter fascism.
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