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

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, April 13, 2022

California Assembly Bill #2098 was introduced on February 14, 2022. If passed, the bill would “designate the dissemination or promotion of misinformation or disinformation related to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, or ‘COVID-19,’ as unprofessional conduct.” 

Translation: It’s corporate-sponsored censorship aimed at taking away power from health professionals who see through the COVID bullshit.
  • This Is A Deeply Ominous Sign features Russell Brand, a British comedian and former drug addict turned serious political critic--from his channel on YouTube (19:24). 
  • The Real Cost Of The Gig Economy features host Ross Ashcroft interviewing writer and filmmaker, Shannon Walsh, to discuss the topic--from Renegade's channel on YouTube (27:50).
  • Universities Follow the Politics, Not the Science by Daniel Nuccio from The Pulse. My reaction: This is true of every institution in the "free world", that is, except for a few, in the nations that make up the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire. This latter sometimes appears to be an open psychiatric ward of the world.
The coterie of neocons and liberal interventionists who orchestrated two decades of military fiascos in the Middle East and who have never been held to account are now stoking a suicidal war with Russia.
  • What is NATO Doing in Latin America? from Internationalist 360°.                                                               
  • 💥Michael Tracey on the Refugee Crisis and US Troop Buildup in Poland features Mnar Adley, founder of Mint Press News, interviewing (1:21:22) Michael Tracey by phone an independent journalist, who has just returned from the Polish border with Ukraine and who is now in London--from Mint Press News. This is a best post. (Note: I listened to all of this fascinating interview which will cause me to be late in posting other articles and doing what I intended to do--an elaborate commentary. I'll try to do the latter tomorrow. The text introduces video and audio versions of the interview. Michael's Substack address is: <https://michaelsnyder.substack.com/>)
  • A Love Letter To All Draft Dodgers by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband, Tim Foley, also reading the script (04:27) in the audio section of her article, but you may miss supporting examples, illustrations, etc.)--from her weblog.
As a regular conflict, the ongoing Ukraine war is being fought with kinetic weapons and traditional power projection platforms in conventional operational battlefields. However, its span transcends the domain of military statecraft. It goes much further. In fact, this unfolding confrontation must also be understood as a major clash in the rising strategic competition to determine the future architecture of the global financial and monetary system – a dangerous game played for the highest stakes.
 
My reaction: The Empire (the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire) now controls the international monetary system and this control has very much worried the directors of the Empire. This together with the dominance of world affairs are the major reasons why the directors and their monopoly media lie so much to their own populations. Russia is leading this challenge of these issues in addition to their existence as a nation. This is precisely why the war in Ukraine matters so much.
The Washington Post – owned by billionaire oligarch Jeff Bezos, who has CIA and Pentagon contracts – has called for censoring Chinese news outlets on social media, while praising Silicon Valley for purging Russian publications.
The press release by the State Department states that ‘the United States reiterates its grave concern over continuing reports of ethnically-motivated atrocities committed by Amhara authorities in western Tigray, Ethiopia, including those described in the recent joint report by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In particular, we are deeply troubled by the report’s finding that these acts amount to ethnic cleansing’. (4) The USA is not known siding with the truth. It has almost always sided with the TPLF (Tigrayan forces) disregarding the atrocities committed against the people of Ethiopia and in particular the Amhara people both by TPLF and Oromo nationalists (OLF). The Ethiopian Government reacted to the joint report and stated that ‘The biased ethnic undertone of the report from organisations that paint themselves as defenders of human rights and the implications of reckless misrepresentation of facts on the ground did not go unnoticed’. [my emphasis] 
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