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

Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, March 23, 2021

(Sorry for the late posting for Tuesday--I have been preoccupied by personal matters--I thought I had already uploaded it.)
  • A History of Warring on the Homefront by Mickey Huff from Dissident Voice (originally from Project Censored). (Note: I am posting this article/video from Dissident Voice because the latter have conveniently included the film of which this review on the film is based. Also, this is essential reading/viewing for all those fellow Americans who missed the actual history of American working people and were brainwashed by their history classes in the USA.)
  • OPCW Whistle Blowers Debunk Cover-Up & U.S. Propaganda featuring Jimmy Dore interviewing Aaron Maté of The Grayzone what has learned about the disinformation and censorship involved in the ruling class's reporting  of "chemical attacks" in Syria directed by the Assad government from Dore's Rokfin channel (26:22m).  
  • Thoughts On The Iraq Invasion by Caitlin Johnstone, an Australian independent blogger, from her weblog. My reaction: She knows far more than Alfred McCoy, a prominent American historian, does about the mindset of the current American ruling class. Now that the core of the ruling class, combining the resources and wealth of the USA, the British Empire, and international Zionist Jewry, is back under Joe Biden, they intend to resurrect their longstanding project to rule the world (commentary).
  • Dispatches from the Congo: The Truth Behind US Claims of ISIS Presence posted on Internationalist 360° featuring Kambale Musavuli from the Centre of Research on the Congo explaining, in a 21:09m video, how US-backed forces are engaging in massacres on behalf of corrupt political leaders while also covering this in media reports as "fighting terrorism" and protecting "human rights" of local populations. My reaction: Surprise, surprise! (a cynical remark).

Saturday, February 20, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, February 20, 2021

  • Dr. Cornel West Is A Free Man featuring West along with Jimmy Dore from the latter's channel on Rokfin. (Note: Listen to the 10:12m video to find out what the title means, and other insights.)
  • Role of NGOs in Promoting Neo-Colonialism by Syed Ehtisham from CounterCurrents. (Note: Read this to find out about NGOs. They can be used for good or for evil. The US/Anglo/Zionist Empire often uses them for subversion of nations that they do not like. This report offers extensive documentation.)
... the past that Klaus Schwab has worked to hide is explored in detail, revealing the involvement of the Schwab family, not only in the Nazi quest for an atomic bomb, but apartheid South Africa’s illegal nuclear programme. Especially revealing is the history of Klaus’ father, Eugen Schwab, who led the Nazi-supported German branch of a Swiss engineering firm into the war as a prominent military contractor. That company, Escher-Wyss, would use slave labor to produce machinery critical to the Nazi war effort as well as the Nazi’s effort to produce heavy water for its nuclear program. Years later, at the same company, a young Klaus Schwab served on the board of directors when the decision was made to furnish the racist apartheid regime of South Africa with the necessary equipment to further its quest to become a nuclear power.
In a society that maintains the illusion of freedom in order to prevent outrage and revolution, it does not serve rulers to stifle all dissent. Just the opposite in fact: their interests are served by having a small number of dissidents hanging around the fringes of society creating the illusion of freedom. If Johnny Hempshirt over there is allowed to stand on a soapbox and criticize the US war machine, then the US must be a free country.

So they don’t work to silence all dissent. What they do is work to make sure that dissent never hits a critical mass and goes mainstream.
My commentary follows:
This grabbed my attention because I don't see my lifetime of telling the truth (as I see it) has done much good. The capitalist ruling class has to maintain the illusion of freedom and "democracy" by keeping dissidents marginalized to the numerical fringes of acceptable debate. That way they can "eat their cake, and have it too", that is, they can preserve their propaganda about freedom and democracy, and at the same time, manage their self-serving rule.
 
I was only once asked, and this was in person, how I had permitted to write such vigorous criticism about the rule of capitalism. I answered that it didn't matter to the ruling class if a few voices criticized the social-political arrangements under their rule because it was permitted only to a few dissidents in order to maintain the illusion of democracy and civil rights. However, I've noticed in the last several years that I don't see any of my posts go viral, but I occasionally did before there was a concerted effort to marginalize dissident voices. I agree with Johnstone--they are only worried about numbers of dissidents.
 
I don't share her optimism that eventually things will change. I'm particularly concerned about the word "eventually"--that is, if we had enough time, we might eliminate the ruling capitalist class. I don't think we human animals have much time left on planet Earth before we also become extinct after our (I hold the capitalist classes primarily responsible) destabilization of the climate really sets in. I think we have devoted too (def #2) much time to ancient religions which erroneously put us in the center of the universe. We have failed to recognize that we are a part of the web of life on planet Earth. In the meantime, I and other dissidents will continue our work to tell the truth about our ruling class and the system which serves them with so much wealth and power.
However, I think we should also accept our ultimate defeat. Our masters in the ruling class (I hold upper-middle-class workers and their self-centered concerns primarily responsible) have been much too clever with their control of information. Unfortunately, we human animals can't seem to overcome the weakness of our species' Achilles heel, that is, the devotion to ourselves and our families; and instead with a class consciousness, a dedication to overcoming our subservience to a ruling class. Perhaps Margaret Thatcher was right when she said "there was no such thing as society, there were only individuals and their families".
  • The Nature of Money by M.K. Anderson from Current Affairs. My reaction: The author is an accountant and his closing comments reflect his views on the use of money in our existing capitalist societies:
... it’s a tool used to describe workers with the goal of extracting wealth and labor from them. It is an incredibly poor tool for holding the wealthy accountable, and so we will have to come up with other methods.

Monday, January 18, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, January 18, 2021

This article is entirely accurate, but it will be a surprise, and likely not to be believed by ordinary Americans and others. This history contradicts the "history" that most children have been exposed to in their educational experience in the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire that is now the dominant force in the world. As capitalism evolved into its natural end-state of fascism among many of the leading capitalist powers in the 1920s and '30s, it was natural that leading political figures of all the capitalist states were drawn to the fascist leaders of that period. But this didn't last, because the leading capitalist power of that time was the British Empire, and it was threatened by the rise and power of fascist Germany and their allies.
“Signor Mussolini” would only become a problem for Churchill and colleagues in the latter stages of his fascist rule, when British interests were threatened by the despot’s colonial ambitions.
It is unfortunate that Quinn did not develop the many implications of this historical development and the rewriting of history that was subsequently done by most historians, and especially those upper-middle-class propagandists and careerists employed by the ruling classes of the USA and throughout the British Empire. It demonstrates the power of ruling classes that is often missed by ordinary people. The latter are reared to be compulsively obedient to authorities who are employees of the capitalist ruling ruling classes. Notice I didn't mention actual members of the ruling class because they mostly stayed invisible by controlling the authorities with job and career opportunities. Often employees were thoroughly indoctrinated and co-opted by the ruling class to engage in sociopathic activities that would please their bosses.

This tale is so pregnant with many insights about humans, but I will explore only one of them. It is obvious that propaganda played an enormous role in changing the views of ordinary people who mostly had to struggle to maintain themselves and their families. This lack of time and the effects of indoctrination provided by their masters to respect and obey their authorities encouraged ordinary people to believe what they were told by mostly upper-middle-class authorities. The latter's well-paid careers were controlled by the mostly invisible capitalist ruling classes.
This actual history of the author explains why the British Empire and allies suddenly found themselves disenamored with, and severely threatened by, their fellow capitalists in the Axis nations to the extent that they joined their arch-enemy, the Soviets, to defeat the competing capitalist empire represented by the Axis powers. (This was especially evident in the behavior of Prime Minister Winston Churchill who had a visceral hatred of the Soviets. FDR often played a conciliatory role when he and Churchill met with Stalin.) If Germany had not launched their major air attacks on British cities after more the eight months since they declared war on Germany (the "phony war") and instead had headed east through Czechoslovakia to invade the Soviet Union, actual history might be telling us a very different story. (See my history of the war.) However, Germany had always competed with Britain to be the dominant force in the world, and their defeat in WWI left a residue of revengeful taste in their collective mouths.

Thus, the Allied capitalist ruling classes of WWII suddenly found themselves in a very different situation. The British ruling class was severely threatened by the growing fascist countries and gathered their Empire forces, warmed up their relations with the USA (which saw threats to their interests from a rising fascist Japan), and even established relations with their arch-nemesis the Soviet Union in order to defeat the threat of the German, Italian, Japanese threat to their British Empire.

However, they had to deal with their previous history of approval of fascist powers in order to prepare their ordinary citizens to fight this threat to the British Empire. The history of this propaganda project was successful beyond their wildest dreams. As a result, they had to banish Allied history from any hints of previous support for fascism. They didn't overlook its successful accomplishment and its lessons for further control of the minds of ordinary people via advanced propaganda technology. We are now seeing in America the fruits of this development in blatant examples of censorship, heavily biased anti-Trump propaganda, and psychological operations such as 9/11 and the exaggerated corona pandemic.
  • Who Is Bill Gates? A series of four by James Corbett from his weblog The Corbett Report. (Note: This excellent series was posted in May 2020, but he is playing such a major role in today's pandemic that I am posting this now.)
Perhaps this is a world of moral, not mental, illness. A sickness of the soul. And it is easy to sell one’s soul to the Devil if one has no moral sense, if it is a shrivelled appendage like a spiritual appendix. No longer needed, surplus to requirements, a useless eater of our body energy. Better to cut it out in one clean, surgical strike. 
Can a whole culture fall prey to a collective soul-sickness, poisoned with the Kool-Aid of a warrior death cult? Can “this is war!” lose its power to thrill in the boardrooms, sports stadia, and fields of battle? Can Veblen’s “predatory culture” evolve past the need for “full spectrum dominance?”
  • Psychological Attack on the UK by Dr Bruce Scott from UK Column (Britain). My reaction: This sounds so familiar. The pressures to conform have personally affected me. I might have to move.

Saturday, July 18, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday, July 18, 2020

  • Portland Mayor Condemns Masked Federal Agents Abducting Protesters by Alan Macleod from Internationalist 360°. (My reaction: This Democratic Mayor, because he depends on the political party funds to be re-elected, attributes this Gestapo tactic to Trump. But the Deep State, who largely governs America (except for Trump that likes to annoy them), is perfectly able to order this operation.) 

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend and a commentary for today:Sunday, April 26, 2020

  • Dr. Erickson Covid-19 Briefing. Edward Curtin, a sociologist, posts on his weblog Behind the Curtain a discussion by two experienced medical doctors with extensive backgrounds in microbiology. (Note: They review the results of testing that is now becoming available from all parts of the world. The two medical specialists conclude, based on the data, is that we should start opening many venues that allow people to be exposed to this new virus in order to strengthen their immune systems. They also reveal pressure from government agencies to record the cause of many deaths due to coronavirus which tends to skew the data. This is a must-watch video.) (4/29/2020 update: Sorry, but this video was taken off of YouTube. Our masters decided that you might get the "wrong" ideas of the current methods of controlling COVID-19. You see, the immunologists argued, with considerable data, different views about sheltering in place, wearing masks, etc. as effective means of controlling the virus. See this for further details.)(4/30/2020 update: now I see that it has been downloaded and restored to the internet by Bitchute.)
  • Coronavirus, fictitious capital and financial crisis by Sankha Subhra Biswas from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). (Note: This post regarding the economy of India is for those who have extensive knowledge of investments and finance.)
My commentary: While the covid-19 panademic is raging across the Earth, the Deep State that governs their Empire continues with their assault on little countries like Iraq. They use their money-power to play off Sunnis and Kurds against the Shiites who are the majority. Money, under capitalism, is the medium of all security, and the poor country of Iraq is very susceptible to its power. 
Of course, here in the center of the Empire, we Americans are not interested in their problems because we think that they are unrelated to our problems. Nothing could be further from the truth. 
You see, the capitalist rullng class does the same thing here in America as they do throughout the world. They play off one group against another by playing, one class against another through the use of their money-power. However, they have one additional power: they "own" media corporations which control our perceptions about reality, and they control every other institution by bribing the upper middle class with lucrative careers and perks. Thus, they control our minds using the power of money most of which they have managed to consolidate in their hands. 
Like in the game of Monoply in which the winner drives all others into bankruptcy, this is the logic of capitalism being played out in nature. Despite all the efforts of our "rescuers" like Lenin, Rosa Luxemborg, Che Guevara, etc., it looks to me like the capitalist ruling classes will win this "game". However, these masters in their arrogance have failed to notice that they, too, are in the web of life and must submit to the more powerful laws of nature. Because this tiny group of capitalist rulers have managed in their obsessive quest for power to destroy the habitat which supports all life that has existed on our unique planet Earth, the rest of humanity together with nearly all other species will perish with them. This is the ultimate tragedy.

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, April 23, 2020 (Added the first post at 12:43 PM CT)

My commentary: I scanned this article and discovered that I differ from Ford as to the history of socialism in the Soviet Union. After reading widely in their history, I conclude that socialism only lasted a few years. Soon after Lenin died and Stalin consolidated control of the government, the Soviet Union deteriorated into what I call "bureaucratism" (others call it "state capitalism").
The original Bolsheviks were exhausted fighting the Allies among the capitalist countries and the White armies, the embargos, etc. After Lenin died and the Stalinists consolidated control, the Soviet bureaucracy (also called "nomenklatura") gradually served themselves extra privileges denied to ordinary Russians: they appointed themselves to advanced positions in the bureaucracy, they got their children into the best schools and later into the best careers, they shopped at exclusive stores, etc.)
  • WATCH: Planet of the Humans [Full Film] from Wrong Kind of Green. Blogger's Note: Because I have not viewed this film yet, I cannot recommend it personally. Although I have reservations from the people who have endorsed it, I am posting this because Wrong Kind of Green has promoted it:
This compelling, must-see movie – a full-frontal assault on our sacred cows – is guaranteed to generate anger, debate, and, hopefully, a willingness to see our survival in a new way—before it’s too late.
  • In Light of the Global Pandemic, Focus Attention on the People posted in English on Defend Democracy Press. (Note: I believe this effort, along with all other efforts, is too late. I also believe that the first order of business is to overthrow capitalism (not "changes" or reforms) and install a sustainable system to redeem humans who have been responsible for the destruction of the environment that sustains life.)
My commentary: This distinguished Middle Eastern journalist writes how the rich US/Anglo/Zionist Empire operates in regions of the Middle East that are not under their control. The ruling capitalist classes control nearly all media in the countries they control, and thus control the narratives (control the perceptions of reality among populations) published/broadcast by media outlets throughout their Empire. 
However, the directors of the Empire (major capitalists) must resort to crude bounties on leaders who are their antagonists and independent of Empire influences in the Middle East. Magnier reports that these bounties inevitably backfire. Instead, such leader-antagonists receive rewards in terms of status and perks that other, more cooperative (with the Empire) leaders do not.
This reaction is in stark contrast with media corporations within the Empire. After many years of infiltrating these corporations, the directors of the Empire now have complete control of media (formerly they had only partial control), and thus control all information that their populations receive. The directors of the Empire do this by rewarding easily corrupted journalists with lucrative careers. The latter careerists joined many other "professionals" (particularly in education) in the upper-middle class (Malcolm X referred to them as house niggers: he used this term when speaking to largely African-American audiences, but YouTube purged these videos) who enjoy the many fruits of capitalist rule.
This is the primary secret of the Empire's success; and need I add, the demise of humans and most other species on the unique planet Earth.

Friday, March 13, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, March 13, 2020

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, February 20, 2020

One likely wouldn't be able to understand the Middle East conflicts without this journalist. And one wouldn't likely understand this article without having following events closely in the Middle East for over 30 years. Capitalists of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire have viewed this region, which is rich in fossil fuels, as a strategic factor in their obsessive desire to rule the world. 
Ordinary Americans, coping with rising inflation, particularly health-related costs (see the next posted article), and tenuous employment do not have the time to understand even the details of this long history. They are focused on surviving. In this vacuum of understanding, Americans, and others throughout the Empire, have also been brainwashed on a massive scale by media corporations, Hollywood films, and schools to believe that their countries were fighting terrorism in the Middle East.
Americans have been the target of the transnational capitalist Empire as much as nations in the Middle East. Although they have been manipulated by home grown terrorism perpetrated by agents of the Empire, Americans and other ordinary people in the nations of the Empire have not suffered terrorism on a much larger scale--terrorist Jihadi armies. These were organized by agents of Empire and their allies,  and suffered by nations in the Middle East who have opposed the Empire. And, Americans don't understand the devastating effects of economic sanctions on the lives of ordinary people in the Middle East.
However, for those Americans, who have had the time and followed closely the events in the Middle East from more independent sources for the past many decades, this article is priceless toward their understanding of the current scene today in that unfortunate region.
There are growing concerns within the party apparatus and much of the corporate elite that wins for Sanders in Nevada and South Carolina could set him up for victories on Super Tuesday that would make his nomination unstoppable. The response of the corporate media and the party establishment has been twofold: to promote the candidacy of Bloomberg and launch new political provocations aimed at derailing the Sanders campaign.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, February 19, 2020


(Note: This is a re-post of a 1977 article by Bernstein that made into Rolling Stone Magazine which represented a more militant, anti-establishment media organization that was gradually disappeared by the efforts of the same CIA and other media corporations. 
Those were the days when activists were really challenging the ruling class! They are beginning to appear again among those who have discouraged by their experiences in carefully managed elections (also see this). Back then even Congress tried to stand up to the secret, unaccountable spy services. Idaho's Sen. Frank Church vigorously defended the public's right to know and aggressively attacked several secret agencies during his years in office. Incidentally--or maybe not--he lost his next election and died conveniently a few years later at the age of 59.
The CIA went on to infiltrate media corporations in the USA and throughout the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, and co-opt journalists like Alsop. With the 9/11 false flag operation the ruling capitalist class intimidated Congress so much that they caved in completely to the military-industrial complex. Meanwhile the ruling class persecutes real journalists like Julian Assange. This is where we are today.
  • Revising the history of WWII by Lucas Leiroz from Brics. (Note: Revising history is increasingly necessary to serve the interests of the Neo-fascist US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

Friday, January 31, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, January 31, 2020

Blogger's Note: Because the bigger, more imminent threat (more than the pollution of carbon) to the human species is a global nuclear war, I am forced to post many articles related to world geo-political events in what I think is now the start of the disintegration of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. We live in a very dangerous world.

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Note: Today I have been overwhelmed with articles that appear essential reading. I must eliminate some posts. This problem may be expected, and more, as the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire is threatened by disintegration.
  •  Moksha by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.
  • “Shit-Life Syndrome,” Trump Voters, and Clueless Dems by Bruce E. Levine from CounterPunch. (Note: This is an archetypal example of liberal views that are frequently posted on CounterPunch. Notice the condescending view of most poor people in the USA: "shit-life syndrome". They are poor people who are surviving victims of a capitalist ruling class "education" and easily influenced by sophisticated, constant Deep State propaganda.)
These are two posts for people who have advanced knowledge of the Middle East:

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, January 23, 2020

Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Danny Haiphong, a contributing editor at the Black Agenda Report, about his recent, eye-opening two-week-long trip to China.
  • Immediate US withdrawal due to its violation of the agreement and Iraq sovereignty by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog. (Note: The assassination of an Iranian official visiting Iraq has led to the exposure of  the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire as an occupying force in Iraq. This combined with the US occupying oil fields in Syria and ignoring international laws has made much of the rest of the world to see the US and its Empire as outlaws (fascists.)

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, January 22, 2020

  • Greta Thunberg | Averting a Climate Apocalypse | Davos 2020. "'I've been told telling people about the climate crisis is a very dangerous thing to do' Greta Thunberg speaks at Davos 2020." (Note: This is like if she were talking to a group of hardcore alcoholics that they should stop drinking.)

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, January 19, 2020

As regards the letter to “CEOs,” it’s telling them to transition as fast as is reasonably possible out of fossil-fuel investments and into renewable-fuel ones, in order to become less vulnerable to the shock, when it does hit. This makes good sense: keeping the clients comfortable, while telling the CEOs: “Make major moves on this ASAP!”
If you think for a moment that capitalist ruling classes are serious about global warming, "I have a bridge to sell you" (def).
On the show this week, Chris Hedges, discusses the outsized influence of the writer, Ayn Rand, on America’s business and financial elite with New York University professor and author, Lisa Duggan.
 Duggan’s new book is entitled “Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed.” 

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, January 16, 2020

  • JPMorgan’s Historic Earnings Confirm that Fed Loans Are Subsidizing Profits on Wall Street by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from Wall Street on Parade. (Note: With the economy overwhelming controlled by major corporations, most especially financial institutions, I don't see why people are surprised by the latter serving their own interests. The Fed, which is privately owned by major banks which, in turn, are owned by major capitalists, is in control of our currency and the issuing of loans to themselves. The fact that the law regarding the Fed states that the institution should serve the needs of the nation is another illustration of how laws are made to camouflage the dominance of major capitalists.)

Monday, January 13, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, January 13, 2020

  • Breakfeast with Blackrock & Co. translated and posted on German economist Norbert Häring's weblog. (Note: there is every reason to believe that some members of the major asset management giants are also members of the highly secretive Deep State, the directors of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)
Jens Berger, editor of the popular progressive German Website "NachDenkSeiten", has just published an eye-opening book on the power of the three asset management giants BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street (in German). I have been allowed to publish the first chapter as an appetizer, which translates as "Breakfeast with BlackRock & Co." 
  • World War III by CJ Hopkins, master political satirist, from his website Consent Factory. (Note: Caitlin Johnstone's effort in her latest article is entering the competition.) 
  • Unearthing the Capitalocene: Towards a Reparations Ecology by Jason W. Moore and
    Raj Patel from Roar. (Note: We learn from sociologists from their article written in 2017 that the climate crisis is caused by capitalism. But all evidence by the majority of climate scientists suggests that this was written before the extinction of our human and most other species became inevitable.)