Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday & Sunday, January 30 & 31, 2021

• The Power of Magick: Why Materialists, Atheists and Marxists Need it by Bruce Lerro from Planning Beyond Capitalism.

• Around The Empire Ep 202 Solar Winds, Dark Winter feat Whitney Webb from Webb's blogweb Unlimited Hangout. (Note: This is a video interview around 40 minutes in length.) 
  

• Dump Davos #1: Data Colonialism & Hackable Humans. This video presentation is an almost 2.5 hours, and it is an experiment. I know that my followers cannot afford nearly $10/month, but I can. So if I do not encounter any harassment from posting this video from Rokfin, I will do so in the future. (I encourage those that can afford it to subscribe to Rokfin.) The content of the video shows that our capitalist masters are worried, realistically I may add, about the twin threats to humans posed by nuclear war and environmental destruction. But their 3rd threat is their fantasy-concoction--they call the "Great Reset"--that they are planning for us, the "useless class" of humans. This is a best post. (I just realized that Harari gave this speech at last years Davos meeting which makes it even more important.)
  

In this video series investigating the people and agendas of the World Economic Forum, Whitney Webb and Johnny Vedmore analyze a recent speech given at Davos by Israeli "futurist" historian Yuval Noah Harari that exposes the WEF's agenda for the "useless class", the rise of exploited data colonies and the creation of an internal and external surveillance state.

• Socialist Group Cheering Censorship Gets Banned From Facebook w/Glenn Greenwald featuring Dore and Greenwald pointing to the irony of the left's support of censorship. (Via Jimmy Dore's channel on YouTube.) If you liked this video, you should be very interested in what looks like a continuation of the interview in this post "Why Online Dems Hate Jimmy Dore! w/ Glenn Greenwald". My reaction: Greenwald and Dore are only talking about highly educated upper-middle-class people who have long supported the ruling class, and many of whom are conflicted between their commitment to their principles and preserving their well-paid careers. Ordinary and working people are largely left out of this discussion because they are confused and lack organization, and because Congress is supposed to have charge of our lives. It must be recognized that highly educated and rewarded people are critically important in order to make the capitalist system work, and the system itself is devoted to private rich owners. It follows that this class of people should not be counted on to support the interests of ordinary and working people. Dore is extremely frustrated because he looks to this class to save ordinary people.

• GameStop Promoter Keith Gill Was No “Amateur” Trader; He Held Sophisticated Trading Licenses and Worked in the Finance Industry by Pam & Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade. My reaction: The post reveals how new "leftists" are currently making too much of this story of the comeuppance of the billionaires by some well-paid members of Wall Street. 

• The Situation is Hopeless, Just Hopeless: A Pessimist’s Review of The Uninhabitable Earth by Mallory Wournos from Dissident Voice.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, January 6, 2021

• Three Major Threats to Life on Earth That We Must Address in 2021 by Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad (produced by Globtrotter) posted on CounterPunch. My reaction: The support of highly educated people at CounterPunch as well as people at Globtrotter has ensured the predicament that all life on planet Earth is approaching such an end game. You write:
  

Global problems of this scale require global cooperation. ....The balance of forces available to drive such a class agenda on the international stage is no longer there; political dynamics in the countries of the West, in particular, but also in the larger states of the developing world (such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa) are necessary to change the character of the governments. A robust internationalism is necessary to pay adequate and immediate attention to the perils of extinction: extinction by nuclear war, by climate catastrophe, and by social collapse. The tasks ahead are daunting, and they cannot be deferred.

But populations of planet Earth are under the control of their ruling classes who are descendants of former ruling classes over many generations all of whom derived their power in an ultimate sense from violence, or the threat of violence, against peoples of the Earth.

You two recognize the self-serving class agendas of ruling classes, but you cling to an unrealistic "robust internationalism" as a solution. But the ruling classes and the threats of violence covered over by fake democratic ideologies still exist, so why cling to a false hope such as "robust internationalism"? The answer is to clean your conscience of all guilt after serving the ruling classes all your lives to obtain comfortable lives for you and your families. You two, and the highly educated social classes of which you are members, are as guilty as the ruling capitalist classes of our impending doom. Without people like you supporting the ruling classes and their power over the rest of us, we, and all species on Earth, could not have reached the dire "perils of extinction" with which our very existence is threatened today.

You and your social classes chose the comfortable route in order to serve the ruling capitalist classes. You are not like Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Mordechai Vanunu, etc. all of whom made huge sacrifices down through the ages to confront and expose the powerful.

• Americans Only Care About America. Their Rulers Only Care About World Domination. By Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• IMF’s continued VAT push inconsistent with rhetoric on progressive taxes by Bretton Woods Project from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). My reaction: The first graph seems to correlate with the rise of "neoliberalism" or the influence especially of the transnational capitalist classes of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)
  

• Nord Stream 2: Potential Flashpoint as Pipeline Nears Completion by Brian Berletic from his weblog Land Destroyer Report. 

• You can’t sue Pfizer or Moderna if you have severe Covid vaccine side effects. The government likely won’t compensate you for damages either by MacKenzie Sigalos from CNBC.

• Stop Watching Propaganda by James Corbett from his weblog. (Note: Although Corbett recognizes the value of analyzing propaganda, he explains that he is moving on in the future to the subject of a "better way of living" (approximately at 16:15 of this 18:51m podcast)). My reaction: Unfortunately, I infer that he is moving on to pitch the agorist model that has roots in the Austrian school of economics which is an earlier version of capitalism, as a way to live. He doesn't yet give any indication of how he has been thoroughly propagandized (indoctrinated) into a capitalist way of perceiving reality. He has not yet acknowledged the total immersion of capitalist culture (or ways of thinking) that has formed his perceptions since WWII. But I never give up on hope.

• How an Austrian and British Malthusian Brainwashed a Generation of Americans by Matthew Ehret from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction follows: 

He disposes of the Austrian school of economics only to resurrect another false version of American economics as he screams in this article as "SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN". The Canadian academic is well-read on historical material, but he, too, shows symptoms of being thoroughly a product of mainstream American education. 

Although I've spent nearly an hour researching his biography, I can't find where he was educated. Numerous websites list the websites he as published--and they are many. One website furnishes what I think is his perspective of history: American capitalism was on the right course from the "Founding Fathers" to Franklin Roosevelt, but the British are the "evil-doers" that led the US astray.

I think he, too, is a product of American education; and that he, too, has been so well indoctrinated by one version of American capitalism of which he is totally unaware.

• We Are at War by Peter Koenig from Global Research. This is a best post. My reaction: Although he doesn't mention "class" as in "class wars" and "ruling classes", I think his analysis explains much of the current social-economic issues and it fits with a more Marxist analysis which has influenced my perceptions of social-economic realities through mostly independent studies. 
  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday, December 5, 2020

• RFK Jr - The Big Question About C0VlD Vac3ines featuring Robert Kennedy, Jr. being interviewed by Ben Swann and posted on ISE. (Note: The "big question" is regarding the transmission of the Sars-2 corona virus which causes Covid-19 illness, but Kennedy also addresses at length a big censorship problem.) 

• Biden’s Climate Plan Is a Catastrophe in the Making by Robert Belano from Left Voice. (My reaction: In short, it is "business as usual" that was characteristic under previous Democratic administrations.)

• Soybean Shortage & Cyberattack on Food Supply Chain: Achilles’ Heel from Ice Age Farmer. (Note: The report by "Christian" relies on documentation from apparently reliable sources of information. But there are hints that the shortages are a bit contrived by the Great Reset project of the World Economic Forum, that is, the ruling class of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, who will use cyber attacks to create food shortages as cover for their more pernicious attacks on our civil liberties. I don't want to contribute to a spread of panic, but I've noticed some food shortages from my local stores, and together with his documentation, I think something is going on.)

• Why Trump’s America will live on: The Biden-led political restoration is an elite project. It offers nothing to the working class. By Joel Kotkin from Spiked. My reaction: In this excellent documented article, the author argues that Trump may have contributed to the awakening of ordinary Americans to the exploitative class nature of American society.

• With Rent Freezes About to Expire, Mnuchin Lobbies for More Wall Street Bailouts by Raul Diego from Mint Press News.
  

• 12 Major Impacts of Global Climate Change in 2020 from Climate & Capitalism. 

• Bretton Woods 2.0 featuring Jame Corbett of The Corbett Report disclosing what he has discovered about the plan for a new digital currency. This is a best post. My commentary follows:

I think we should follow his website and his research efforts to learn about the new digital currencies that the directors of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's ruling capitalist classes have promised in glowing phrases for us to use. He leans heavily on other experts such as John Titus and Steven Guinness to inform what he has learned. However, I want to criticize his limitations regarding the history of money and his earlier affirmation of anarchism. I don't know enough about his recent conversion to "Agorism" to see if that offers any prospects for the formation of a currency not controlled by the directors of the Empire.

Corbett's thinking on this issue has been shaped by higher education in Canada, one of the nations of the present capitalist Empire. He has earlier described himself as an anarchist. Anarchism is an acceptable form of opposition granted by the Empire's ruling class in the education in students of in their nations due to the fact that it encourages students to oppose officials of their governments, but not the powerful capitalists (a ruling class) behind the "curtain" of governments under their control. Thus, one notices that increasingly the critics of policies refer to "oligarchs" or "technocrats" (the term Corbett uses in this video) to refer to powerful capitalists (mostly financiers) who work behind the scenes to enact policies favorable to them in terms of power and profits. 

In addition, Corbett error's in describing nefarious motives to Harry Dexter White behind the earlier history of Britton Woods. This he learned from Canadian higher education which was loaded with anti-Soviet propaganda during the Cold War. The Britton Woods agreement was simply an acknowledgment that the Western capitalist powers led by the USA and what was left of the British Empire would lead a post-war regime which later became an anti-socialist empire, and still is today. I don't wish to claim virtues for the mixed economies of Russia, China, and their allies, but they are the only nations that are in opposition to the imperialist actions of the existing US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. 

 

General Note: I didn't finish, and will not, my list of credible articles for today. 

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, October 30, 2020

• I’m Really Sorry Redux by Edward Curtin from his weblog Behind the Curtain. (Note: Curtin joins CJ Hopkins in writing a parody of media corporations which are filled with reports blaming people for engaging in conspiracy theories. Furthermore, media corporations exist to protect us from fake news by censoring any information that one might pickup in order to create a conspiracy theory that suggests that our government (or ruling class) is engaged in conspiracies! Read this and laugh because it is very much tongue-in-cheek. The article is perfect to prepare you for the next several posts.)

• The Darkest Winter by Derrick Broze from The Last American Vagabond. (In a addition to the essay which reports on the test exercise Event 201, this includes a 12:57m video.)

• After the Virus: The World of 2025 – #PropagandaWatch featuring James Corbett (of The Corbett Report) providing a summary of what our masters have planned for our future (in a 22:10m video).

• Class Consciousness in the Age of COVID by Colin Todhunter from Off-Guardian.
  

• Liability-Free COVID Vaccine Makers Seek Additional ‘Free Pass’ From FDA by Jeremy Loffredo from Children's Health Defense. (Note: If this interests you, you may also be interested in another article from the same source.)
  

• Glenn Greenwald Resigns From The Intercept After They Censor His Content by Joe Martino from Collective Evolution. (Note: If this report interests you, you may also may be interest in Bernhard's detailed report on Greenwald's resignation from his weblog Moon of Alabama. Another report about censorship by Jimmie Moglia for the Saker Blog may interest you.)
  

• Silicon Valley Billionaires CENSORING Speech On-Line! featuring Jimmy Dore (of The Jimmy Dore Show) commenting in an 8:45m video via his channel (on YouTube) on this subject, and he provides very good documentation.

• When You Don’t Know Who To Vote For featuring JP Sears, a comedian, who doesn't know who to vote for, but he is told he must vote--from a 4:21m video posted from his YouTube channel.
  

• Brazilian meat giant trucked cattle from deforested Amazon ranch by Andrew Wasley , Alexandra Heal, André Campos, and Piero Locatelli from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

• Ford, GM Knew of Climate Risks Decades Ago by Maxine Joselow from E&E News.
  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020

• Does fighting climate change require postponing the fight for system change? by John Molyneux from Climate & Capitalism. (Note: a best post.) My commentary follows:
  

Long time followers of my website know that I have resigned to the position that the climate crisis is now irreversible. But I and all other animals and species will fight to the death to survive. And, that is what I am doing by continuing this website. 

Guy McPherson, a retired scientist who also believes that the crisis is irreversible, continues living with the notion that "only love remains" by which he means living in the present and deepening the connection with other people in our lives. That is the solution that he and others of the upper-middle-class can have that is not available to those of the working class. The latter face homelessness, despair of loss of loved ones and friends, extreme discomfort, and likely death. 

• CNN Proclaims National Panic Day as Rally of 500,000 (!) Bikers in South Dakota Linked to a Whooping 22 Additional Test Positives by Harmeet Kaur from Anti-Empire. (Note: They reproduce a CNN article to lampoon it.)
  

• Has the post-Covid future already been decided? by Simon Marcus from Spiked (Britain). (My reaction: The answer is "yes" because the Davos crowd is the transnational capitalist ruling class of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. They are the "deciders".)

• People Who Are in Denial About Coronavirus by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation. My commentary follows:
  

Zuesse in this essay reveals his basic support for our class structured society by affirming his commitment to the way the ruling class that is imposing its draconian policies on entire nations. He does this by describing the opposition to be laissez faire or libertarian and the government policies as "socialistic" or "(legally enforced governmental policies)". Then he goes on to cite statistics that have been challenged by skeptics of ruling class policies. Zuesse has no idea what socialism is because he has been trained ("educated") to believe the social-welfare policies in past capitalist societies (like under FDR's administration) were "socialistic". 

The current "pandemic" is beneficial in the sense that it forces people of varying nominal political views to finally affirm their basic commitment to authoritarianism or genuine democracy. The latter position needs some elucidation in this era of authoritarianism or fascism (its capitalist version).  

Democracy, that is, genuine democracy, means that all people have been given access to positions of authority. Authoritarianism means that only some of the people will be "sufficiently knowledgeable" to determine the policies that will be imposed on others. Democracy means that all people will have equal access to education, health, work, and other institutions to support their well-being. Such equal access is counter to the capitalist system which facilitates the concentration of wealth and, therefore, power. The basis of capitalist societies is private ownership of the economy, and is obviously forbidden in socialist societies. Thus, capitalism inevitably results in class structured societies that are riven with class conflicts. History has demonstrated in capitalist societies ownership, and therefore, control of economic property are in the hands of a ruling class which inevitably results in greater and greater concentration of wealth, therefore power, in fewer and fewer hands. This inevitably leads to fascism, that is, government controlled by a tiny ruling class who impose greater and greater authoritarian methods to impose their control over the rest of societies.

The great mass of people have societal values which help to insure policies of equal access to education and free, independent media to inform people. Contrast this with rule by the self-serving capitalist class, the owners of economic property. Their values are constrained by what is good for their families or extended families. (Recall Margaret Thatcher's comment on this.)  

All ruling classes have historically justified their privileged position by self-serving justifications: they are wiser and more educated, therefore they are entitled to rule over the rest of the populations. It is also frequently observed that they justify all of their policies by claiming to be a "democracy". Censorship and propaganda are frequently used to prevent the rest of the population knowing what they are really doing.  

This is all obvious to genuine socialists; but to many supporters of class rule, it is not obvious. They try hard to disguise their political views. In the case of Zuesse and many others, they pretend to be critical of existing society; but "when push comes to shove" (def.), they support capitalist rule and will engage in all sorts of fake arguments to justify their views. 

(Edited for clarity at 3:35 PM CT)   

• LEE CAMP: We Gawk at Nonsense Political Theater While the Real Enemies Go Unnoticed from Consortium News. (My reaction: If you believe government authorities of the ruling class give serious priority to your health and well-being, I have a couple of fine bridges to sell you.)
  

• Only Sociopaths Reject the New Normal! – #PropagandaWatch by Canadian James Corbett from his website.
  

• The Fatal Attraction of Techo-Fascism by Mark Petrakis from Off-Guardian. (Note: This is another best post.)
  

• Reminder: The US Empire Tortures Journalists And Whistleblowers by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• US govt-funded Coda Story smears American journalists who undermine new Cold War propaganda by Ben Norton from  The Grayzone.
  

• How Come It Was Japan That Was Defeated in WWII, but Korea That Was Partitioned by the Victors? by Chung Byung-ho from Anti-Empire. (Note: This is an interesting and novel take on the history of Japan's surrender.)
  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, Aug. 3, 2020

• Do Not Let Them Train You by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.
  

• America’s Frontline Doctors’ website removed after viral video censored by John C. A. Manley from Off-Guardian. (Note: If you liked this, you may also be interested in these articles: this article (from an epidemiology journal), "Doctors for The Truth – all over the world", "Remdesivir for Covid-19: $1.6 Billion for a “Modestly Beneficial” Drug?", and one entitled "Video: Hollywood Celebrities and the Covid-19 Fear Campaign".

• LOCKDOWN LUNACY 3.0—It’s over. By J.B. Handley from Children's Health Defense. (Note: Also, you might be interested in the following articles: "Who is Behind 'Fake News'? Mainstream Media Use Fake Videos and Images" and "New Study: COVID Restrictions Killing 10,000 Children per Month, ‘Wasting’ and ‘Stunting’ Millions More".) (My reaction: While reading these articles, I recalled my thoughts last night while viewing the film The New American Century (2009) which I've now added to films that I recommend. I thought it was ridiculous for my fellow Americans to be caught up in the post-9/11 frenzy of hating Muslims which they viewed as "terrorists".)

• Racism, Sexism, Classism – The Necessary Incoherence Of ‘Mainstream’ Ethical Debate by David Edwards from Media Lens.

• XIII Theses on the Imminent Ecological Catastrophe and the (Revolutionary) Means of  Averting It. By Michael Löwy from Global Ecosocialist Network.
  

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, July 14, 2020

• COVID HELL: Record Temperatures and Shortages Will Test The Patience Of Americans This Summer by Michael Snyder from FRN (based in Serbia).

• Psychologically Locked Down by Rob Slane from The Blogmire.

• On the Political Implications of the Pandemic-Induced Capitalist Crisis by Danny Haiphong from American Herald Tribune.

And it will take a mass movement of the working class, with Black people and oppressed people in the lead, to chart a new course for the United States that is driven by the ideological and material demand for socialism rather than the reactionary scapegoating and political repression inherent in the capitalist system.

What are the chances of that happening?

• ‘Cancel Culture’ hypocrites cancel open debate and foreign countries by Max Blumenthal from The Grayzone. (My reaction:  Academic careerists try to "cancel" real critics of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

• Miserable Bankruptcy of Neoliberal “Takeover” Reports by Shawgi Tell from Dissident Voice. 

• Classism by Terry Everton (political cartoonist) from Dissident Voice.

• Protecting the American Opium Trade from Tales of the American Empire, a YouTube channel. (Note: A little history of how early American and British capitalists (including an ancestor of FDR) aggressively gained their wealth from the opium trade with China.)

Official history makes frequent references to the British tea trade as a vital part of the British empire in the 1800s. It’s hard to understand how trading tea could be so profitable, until one learns that opium was a major component of the tea trade. Opium is a powerful and addictive pain killer that is often refined into heroin. It was banned by governments a century ago, but the opium trade continues to this day with secret approval by government officials. The American government has used the US military to protect the opium trade for two centuries and evidence shows this continues. The extent of this protection is open for debate, but if one connects the dots the image is ugly.

• RFK, Jr. talks with Dr. Andy Wakefield about his new movie, 1986: The Act. This post is from Children's Health Defense. (Note: This is about a movie made by Wakefield regarding Big Pharma's control over the government which resulted in the latter protecting the exorbitant profits of pharmaceutical corporations while permitting Big Pharma to severely impact the health of some young people. The film costs $12.99 to view. I have seen it and recommend it to those who have a special interest in this subject.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, June 9, 2020

• Over the Rainbow: Paths of Resistance After George Floyd by Jim Kavanagh from CounterPunch. 

My reaction: The author explains how the ruling capitalist class is running out of options to contain the resistance of poverty-stricken people that is an integral part of capitalist rule. But, at this late date is social-democracy a realistic option that Kavanagh seems to favor? Is social-democracy, capitalism with a more human face, a bias of CounterPunch (because the core administrators of this website live off of the ownership of stocks, bonds, etc.)? My answers: "no!" to the first question, and "yes!" to the second. But, the more important question is: what will the ruling class do to contain the new resistance that has appeared following the George Floyd protests? Could they be desperate enough to use the armageddon option--a nuclear war? I have no answers to these questions.

• Manipulating the Message: Police Attacks on Free Press and the Fencing in of Humanity by Raul Diego from Mint Press News.

• Tucker: Black Lives Matter is now a political party featuring Tucker Carlson of Fox News (via YouTube) giving his commentary regarding the growing movement by the new resistance to defund police departments all across the USA. He omits any need felt by the new resistance to construct new police departments that serve the people. My commentary follows:

Carlson represents a more authoritarian faction of the ruling capitalist class, and he, of course, regards this as "insane". The existing militarized police agencies have a history of serving the defense of the capitalist class to contain any opposition from ordinary people and to carry out their racist policies that served to divide and conquer the working class. This is a redline issue for the ruling class, much like the right to own guns that must not be crossed. But this is also a fundamental issue for the new resistance to get the police out of all instiutions--particulary the schools. So, it will be very interesting to see what happens to this effort to abolish the existing police organizations across America. 

• Podcast: Pandemic Profiteering – How Billionaires Are Looting American Taxpayers by Mnar Muhawesh from Mint Press News (based in Minneapolis). (Note: Muhawesh interviews senior staff writer Alan Macleod regarding the subject in this nearly 42-minute interview.)  

• The Democratic Party Exists To Co-Opt And Kill Authentic Change Movements by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• A Pipelineistan fable for our times by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times. 

Fake leaders and ineffective movements (final edited version)

Edited for clarity at 8:17 AM, 6 PM, & 7:28 PM (all CT) 5/13/2020, and 2:37 PM 5/15/2020.  While I may continue to do some minor editing to correct errors of spelling, etc., this is a final version.

Note: My analysis will focus on Americans because I have an intimate knowledge of them having grown up in the USA, reading widely from original sources, and having studied American society in sociology classes.

By Ron Horn 

Since WWII the US capitalist ruling class began the construction of an empire under the control of transnational capitalists from what was left of the British Empire, European countries, and later they added Israel which was founded by right-wing European Zionists. Much of Latin America has always been dominated by the USA. In the process of building this empire, the new empire-builders of the ruling class, by using manipulative methods to shape public opinion, had deleterious effects on nearly everyone in the USA. They accomplished this by the ongoing application of comprehensive propaganda and proliferation of ideology that appealed to the capitalists' instincts of consumption and acquisitiveness. The new leaders of the ruling class corrupted both the consciousness of ordinary workers as well as educated people who were recruited to manage public opinion. The conditions of the post-war period in which the USA had the only industrialized economy that was still intact, enabled the ruling class used this dominance, to spread the themes of material and other capitalist values throughout all institutions--education, media, entertainment, etc., not only throughout the US society, but throughout most of the Empire they were constructing. This false consciousness, in turn, left workers without a real political consciousness that was necessary to confront and fight against the ruling class's exploitation. But the new fascist ruling class didn't stop there.

They initially purged Hollywood and educational institutions of people who had any socialist/communist ideas, and went on to develop very sophisticated methods to promote false movements and fake leaders that led nowhere by co-opting these leaders and movements to serve their fundamental interests of profit and power. Recent such examples we find in the Green Movement and individuals like Sen. Bernie Sanders. I'm going to argue in this paper that liberals like Michael Moore have also contributed to this effort. I want to warn the few genuine activists that in spite of their anti-capitalist rhetoric, these activists are fake, the movements which they lead, or contribute to, are ineffective, and why. 

The current US ruling class is worried about their recently suffered defeats in the Middle East, threats by the spectacular rise of the Chinese economy, and is presently tormented by the recognition of diminishing growth on a finite planet. Although they have not given up their quest to rule the world, the ruling class is currently in a dangerous defensive mode. Standing in their way are primarily China, Russia, Iran, and other nations that aspire to a multilateral world. The current US/British/Zionist Empire will continue their traditional offensive operations against these enemies, and create new methods in a desperate attempt to maintain their domination of the world as well as solving the new dilemma of continuing their capitalist operations on a finite planet. 

First, it is necessary to review a little history in order to understand the present problems confronting American society and its ruling class. The US ruling class of major capitalists was surprised by their success in rallying the American public behind the war effort in WWI by the use of propaganda. They subsequently saw that propaganda techniques were a vital component to shape public opinion to support the construction of an empire. Thus, after that horrific war the ruling class supported the efforts of propaganda experts like Edward Bernays and Walter Lippmann went on to develop advanced techniques of propaganda. They promoted the study of what they called "public relations" which is the capitalist euphemism for propaganda.

Communist ideology was quite popular in Europe after WWII, but it posed a major threat to the new empire builders. The US ruling class used a combination of violence (see this and this) and propaganda to put down this threat. During this period within the USA, the capitalist ruling class launched an anti-communist crusade initially using the rabid anti-communist and pro-capitalist Winston Churchill who had an extensive history of fighting the Soviet Union after its socialist revolution in 1917. The Soviet Union represented a major threat as a successful alternative to the advanced capitalist nations of the world. (That said, I don't want to argue that the Soviet Union represented some kind of enlightened socialism because they were corrupted by a Stalinist-inspired bureaucracy that had long taken control of their nation.) The capitalist ruling class has since WWII concentrated on establishing a highly skilled and indoctrinated upper-middle-class (and throughout the the nations that they controlled) not only to advance their imperial agenda but to recruit people of this class as their ideological warriors to manage their ideological institutions against ordinary workers.

Initially, the new empire-builders used the existing loyal members in Congress against militant labor unions. They passed the Taft-Hartley Act which prevented unions from collaborating in a general strike that was so effective for workers during the 1930s. Then they cleansed the upper-middle class of all dissidents left-over from the Great Depression. To do this they first attacked Hollywood which was soon followed by the educational institution and government during the period known as McCarthyism. Finally, when the alcoholic and unstable Sen. McCarthy got around to attacking the army, the ruling class and President Eisenhower put a stop to it.

(During this period Koreans were trying to set up an independent state free of their old colonial oppressors from Japan. But the US didn't like what the Koreans were trying to do which they saw as too much inspired by communist/socialist ideas. The US used the weak United Nations as cover to intervene using primarily US forces to crush the communist tainted forces during the Korean War. Fortunately, China came to the rescue.)

For many decades the new ruling class continued to play on the threat of communism to the "American way of life" which was mostly defined by endless consumption and by vague notions of "freedom". The USA has been at war formally and informally ever since WWII to put down nations that were seen to establish socialism and those which would not serve US capitalist interests. They used anti-communist propaganda against their own people to engage in one war after another. But, after the Vietnam War the ruling class has used other types of threat-propaganda.

The anti-communist threat, which has never ceased, was followed by the War on Drugs (1971) to oppress largely African-Americans and poor Americans while the CIA, of the empire builders, profited from the drug trade. Then the first shock to the American psyche was carried out in 2001 with the false-flag operation of 9/11, shortly thereafter that the War on Terror was launched to further threaten Americans in order to mobilize them to support the ruling class project to invade one nation after another in the Middle East. And now we have the Coronavirus pandemic and the strategy of laying off all but essential workers, the ruling classes are destroying the lives of many workers--it is too soon to tell how many. Could this be another shock administered to American society and the world? Most detective investigations begin by asking the question: who benefits?  

Since WWII it is clear that propaganda has been used by empire-builders of the capitalist class to re-engineer all institutions--films, education, media, employment, etc. to serve capitalist interests, and education was one of their primary targets. Textbooks have been re-written and teachers, professors, and educational administrators have been carefully assigned to schools based on pro-capitalist ideological qualifications. Also, added to this was an infiltration of all media corporations initially by the CIA, and later by people who were thoroughly indoctrination in capitalist values and perspectives.

While the ruling capitalist class has its own well-hidden agenda to preserve their system, they will try to deceive and distract citizens using a whole range of psychological methods: media propaganda and management of news, re-writing the history of the USA and the world, and using false flag ops like 9/11 to shock the consciousness of their working classes. Vijay Prashad explains this process well in his analysis of hybrid wars and US imperialism. Using propaganda and indoctrination the ruling capitalist classes of this Empire, particularly of the USA, has now been rewarded with fabulous wealth and power never seen before in recorded history. To carry out this agenda they have used well-remunerated, highly trained and indoctrinated upper-middle-class workers.

Currently, most Americans are thoroughly brainwashed by these agents who have served the ruling class for many decades since WWII. This highly skilled upper-middle-class class has been tasked to supervise all institutions of our society. Many of them have "alternative" weblogs or write for anti-Empire weblogs, but they do not know the real history of capitalist oppression of workers before the 1930s and the administration of FDR (historian Eric Zuesse comes to mind). These liberals serve the ruling class at election time by dangling various reforms such as universal health care that appeal to the masses, too many of whom are grossly overweight, sickly, and otherwise unfit because they have been conditioned to a consumptive American lifestyle.

Regarding the recent film Planet of the Humans, I agree with John Steppling when he writes "The film ... becomes tantamount to a marketing campaign for depopulation ...". The capitalist class long ago knew about capitalism's imperative of growth in a finite planet. They explicitly wrote this in 1972 when they published the controversial booklet entitled "The Limits to Growth". They soon saw a backlash from numerous activist organizations with the charge that they were advocating depopulation, advocating the depopulation of useless (to them) all those people that didn't contribute to the profit and power that their beloved system supplied to them with such abundance. This film offers the same implied theme--depopulation. The ruling class, of course, don't want to explicitly say it, but they want a depopulation to be driven into our consciousness as a "force of nature", pandemics, etc. The ruling class really wants to rid the Earth of burdensome "useless eaters", introduce comprehensive surveillance a la Bill Gates and digital money in order to track people and other control benefits. A primary benefit of the current pandemic (to the ruling class) was to provide cover for the huge bailouts given to banks and heavily indebted corporations. Could the coronavirus, as a pure coincidence, serve all of these objectives and many secondary benefits?

Please don't misunderstand me by concluding that one of the problems isn't over-population. It is a fact that humans are adversely impacting the environment because there are too many of us. (This fact is in addition to capitalists producing too many unnecessary products by using fossil fuels in their obsessive search for profits.) But capitalists have allied themselves with organized religions for a number of reasons, and important reasons were, and are, to discourage or prohibit women from having abortions and using contraceptives. Thus, capitalist ruling classes always supported various Christian religious denominations that served these purposes (in addition to others). Capitalists saw an increasing population as a benefit to provide more consumers to provide more opportunities for profit. By capitalist ruling classes keeping much of the world in poverty, the only way poor people can survive into old age is to have many children which insured some of the latter would survive and take care of them into old age. This practice is a kind of social security for poor people.
 
Steppling, in his review of the film Planet of the Humans, is absolutely "spot-on" when he writes "... the essential and overriding two problems with this film can be generalized as an absence of class analysis, and an absent analysis of western Imperialism." In their film Moore and Gibbs, who because of the brainwashing that they have suffered growing up in America, "pulled the punches" of class analysis.

However Steppling fails to develop this criticism; instead, he succumbs to what is currently fashionable criticism by smearing Moore and Gibbs with racism--he often refers to the latter as "white guys". Racism has been practiced for centuries by the capitalist ruling class. We still see the harmful psychological effects today among many people: white people as well as people of color. Racism has been historically useful as an integral part of capitalism by separating workers into mutually antagonistic camps and justifying the wholesale slaughter of uncivilized "savages". But racism is the least of the sins committed in the film by Moore and Gibbs. The lack of class analysis is paramount. 

This taboo against class analysis has affected many American intellectuals. They may at most use words that suggest anti-capitalism, but their actions always stay safely within the capitalist framework so as not to annoy their keepers. Most have been so brainwashed by the many decades of propaganda and indoctrination that they think capitalism is like the sun--a fixed entity and an incontrovertible fact of nature.

More recently ruling class propagandists have used the divide and conquer strategy by promoting themes that promote conflicts between men and women and gay people and straight people. They have largely unsuccessful getting us to hate Russia with "Russiagate" propaganda; but because of the Coronavirus pandemic, they may be more successful in getting the American population to hate China.

The fundamental reason why US activists and revolutionary movements have not been effective, nor in the future will they be, is that they have been subject to a long and comprehensive process of capitalist propaganda and indoctrination. As a result, working people along with fake leaders are ignorant of American history and of the heinous effects of US actions on the rest of the world. They have been divided into mutually distrustful and hostile camps, brainwashed, obedient, distracted by vacuous entertainment, and unhealthy due to capitalist propaganda that would only allow them to be mere spectators in sports, and from a poor diet of cheap "fast foods" prepared for them by giant corporations. There is no reason to expect such people to lead or form an effective revolutionary movement. What we will see at most are pseudo movements and fake leaders who promise solutions to our many problems. We will probably need to look beyond the people of the US/British/Zionist Empire to see genuine leaders and revolutionary movements.

A.K. 47 - 47 Selections from the Works of Alexandra Kollontai

Click here to access the podcasts by Kristen R. Ghodsee who is a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. 

She reads her selection of 47 writings of Alexandra Kollontai (occasionally interspersing explanatory comments), a Russian revolutionary author nearly a century ago. In these writings Kollontai, among other subjects, explains how even our emotional lives and social relations have been determined by societies with ruling classes (especially Episodes 8-15) after humans settled in agricultural communities. Kollontai writing nearly a hundred years ago even extrapolates into the future what these will look like in a classless socialist society. (Note: I encountered a few technical problems in this series.)

Unfortunately the Soviet Union, under constant attacks (invasions and trade embargoes) by the Western capitalist nations, soon came under the authoritarian control of Stalin after Lenin died from wounds in an assassination attempt in 1918. The socialist revolution degenerated under the rule of this dictator who surrounded himself with supporting bureaucrats which eventually became a self-serving ruling class. However, under Stalin's rule women were still better off than their Western counterparts as Ghodsee explains in another article entitled No Scrubs.

Also unfortunately, we as a species, and most others, are destined to become extinct due to the trashing of our environment by capitalist nations before a socialist society can even be realized.

Commentary regarding yesterday's post: Wikipedia Fraud EXPOSED

Click here to access article by the "administrator" of Disruptive Fare. 

First, I need to apologize to the activist who sent me this article. It was re-posted on Tyler Durden's Zerohedge which he sent me. I, out of habit, saw that the original post was from Disruptive Fare, and I gave them credit for the post. (Actually, as an aside comment, I have a strong suspicion that both websites are run by the same person or persons.)

I thought the post was very revealing to those who have over the years came to trust Wikipedia as an honest and independent source of information. It still is for many entries, but over the years the website has seen powerful/rich influences that have subverted many entries to serve their interests. All that they needed was a lot of money to hire people to do their subversive work by submitting 500 entries, following their rules of documenting, and qualifying as an "editor". It didn't matter that the documentation was from spurious or self-serving sources. Long ago I saw this weakness and knew that Wikipedia was eventually to succumb to those with vast amounts of money. But that's true of every institution in capitalist society. They and their supporters with their concentrated wealth/power have been harnessed to serve only the interests of the capitalist class: the preservation of their system, the accumulation of wealth, and power.

Fortunately, Karl Marx and his followers have long ago contributed to an understanding of classes and how societies are structured according to the needs of the dominant class. This class analysis is, in my opinion, the greatest of all of his gifts toward the understanding of social and historical development of societies. This commentary intends to use class analysis to understand why the website Disruptive Fare have used this issue of the corruption of Wikipedia.

While perusing the website of Disruptive Fare, I noticed several clues to its class identity: the sidebar that cited stock market data and the supportive passages of Trump's policies, in a addition to the incisive and thorough analysis of the Wikipedia issue. And the latter post attacks some main institutions of capitalist society: CIA and Big Pharma, an industry that has grown to be a self-serving behemoth that interferes with attempts to provide affordable healthcare for all Americans. This take on the issue of Wikipedia frames the issue much like left-wing analysts do--the corruption of a website due to the power and money of concentrated wealth. Yet the "administrator" as an author of the commentary is very supportive of Trump. What gives?

I've long ago pointed to the resentment of the older ruling capitalist class toward the neo-conservatives who have taken over the ruling capitalist class beginning most demonstrably with the Reagan administration. I pointed this out more than five years ago with my commentary to Amed's post "Who the hell are the Henry Jackson Society?" (now located here). I identified this new group of capitalists as neoconservatives who as transnational capitalists under the US Empire were taking over for the transnational ruling capitalist class of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. 

Since then there have been signs that the older ruling class, which I will identify as "old-fashioned capitalists", have terrifically resented this takeover. These latter people include Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, Paul Craig Roberts (he served in the Reagan administration and his comments are always positive in relation to this administration which brought in the "neocons"), Tyler Durden, the Mises Institute, and a host of others. Ron Unz is the latest to establish a website to counter the influence of the neoconservatives by appealing to a variety of ruling class critics and posting their articles. But there is a whiff of antisemitism to his website with increasing references to "Jews" rather than Zionists. This trait, too, is common among old-fashioned conservatives.

What these two capitalist factions have in common is their basic contempt for working people who do not live off of Wall Street stocks and bonds, but instead live off of their labor producing actual goods and services. This theme runs like lace through all of their commentaries mostly by totally ignoring the contributions of working people, the overwhelming majority of people.

I won't belabor this commentary further, but will cite an obviously biased take on the Zerohedge website which can apply to all old-fashioned conservatives.

NATO summit dominated by growing inter-state conflicts

Click here to access article by Alex Lantier from World Socialist Web Site.

Lantier summarizes what I believe are the signs to the collapse of the capitalist US/Anglo/Zionist Empire which rose from the ashes of the German Nazi version of this capitalist Empire. WWII was not fought to end fascism as the Empire's propagandists want you to believe, but the ultimate contest between a German-capitalist led and a British-capitalist led fascist capitalism. The Nazi Empire was originally funded and supported by Western capitalists of all countries, but as soon as they saw Nazis stalled at the gates of Moscow, the capital of a first socialist experiment, they immediately allied themselves with the preservation of the British Empire. The current fascist Empire (in "democratic" clothes) has been the final result of the devastating conflict of WWII. 

But this Empire is seeing its end days. To revise a weather folklore, I believe that the Empire will not go out like a lamb, but like a wounded lion which thrashes around to impress his fellow lions (capitalists) that he is still dominant among the creatures of the earth--think Bolivia and Venezuela after the Syrian debacle. The Fed is stuffing our failing banks with their "printed" money to stave of the massive debts that the Empire has created to impose its dominance on the rest of world. The signs are everywhere.

But let me not assure you that we residents of the Empire will not suffer "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". The ensuing series of catastrophes will soon engulf us and end in the extinction of humans. In contrast to this inspiring video we are doomed as a species. We might have changed things back in 2012, but we surely can't while approaching 2020. The artillery of our oceans and skies are so locked and loaded with capitalist-produced carbon that our fate is already decided. 

We are entering a new "brave world" in which our capitalist masters may still be brought to justice--hopefully! For us, this can only be a bitter-sweet reward to see that this class of sociopathic people, who have destroyed ours and so many other species, and whose exploitation of the Earth and all of its working people has brought them so much temporary wealth and power, will finally share in our fate--extinction.

The Coverup of President John F. Kennedy’s Assassination Is Wearing Thin

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from his weblog. (Note: I have decided (9/29/2019 at 1:20 PM CT) that my commentary is a major project for another time, but I did not find another time because dramatic events took over. Thus, I've edited out most of the original post.)

I place this event and the Deep State's portrayal of it along with the 9/11 tragedy and other major false-flag events contrived by them. Their portrayal of these events are thoroughly ridiculous, and thus I like the address Michael Parenti gave to a Berkeley (California) audience in 1993 (here and here) in which he ridiculed and entertained them with the stories that the authorities gave on the assassination of JFK.

Revealing While Concealing the “Invisible” Government’s Conspiracies

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from his weblog Behind the Curtin. 

Curtin takes aim at political critics of our masters in the Deep State such as Christopher Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Alexander Cockburn by arguing that they have, in effect, colluded with them in order to conceal deeper truths about their machinations and manipulations of perceptions. I think they have performed this service for the Deep State in order to protect their careers or because they were fundamentally conflicted about revealing too much of their crimes. In the case of Cockburn, he was conflicted by his aristocratic ancestry which gave him an income to pursue a career as a dissident and critic. In the case of Noam Chomsky, he wants to maintain his academic position and the privileges that goes along with this status. 

Our masters are very adept at managing the consent and dissent of the broad masses of their societies. They learned much of the power of money, which they possessed being a capitalist ruling class, to manipulate such critics in not revealing too much about their anti-social and war crimes. These people are what Malcolm X described as "house niggers". They are a part of the numerous cadre of upper-middle class, highly educated and well paid technicians that the ruling class depends on to keep their capitalist system running.

My interpretation of the film that Christopher Black condemned

By Ron Horn

Recall that I posted an article by Christopher Black, a noted international human rights attorney, on yesterday's recommended reading list. He condemned the film as a whitewash of Nazi crimes. Last night I viewed the film "My Honour Was My Glory" (Black is Canadian and what he saw via Neflix in Canada is for Americans "My Honor Was Loyalty"). My reaction was quite different which I will share with you. The difference is quite revealing about numerous differences that people who have been influenced by years of Marxist literature (like myself) they have acquired though independent study and those who have been thoroughly indoctrinated in schools where they received a bourgeois (capitalist) education. The latter is what the overwhelming majority of citizens of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire receive particularly, but not exclusively, in schools of  "higher" education. The latter students are exceptionally favored by such schools (and the ruling capitalist class) and often go on to attain advanced degrees and well-paying jobs in universities, government, and corporations. 

My take (def. #43 singular noun) on the film shows it to be highly representative of the consciousness of ordinary soldiers regardless of their national affiliation, and as such it is a very interesting film. Marxists have down through many decades have revealed the class nature of societies, and have illuminated how one's thinking is strongly influenced by the kind of ruling class currently in power, with particular emphasis on capitalist ruling classes. Thus, higher education schools throughout the Empire intentionally teach ideas and concepts that will prepare them to serve the capitalist ruling class. Likewise, education in capitalist countries obsessively exclude any serious Marxist studies from their curricula other than superficial and largely biased references to them. Although I majored in courses in political sociology, my "education" at a state university did precisely this. However unlike my fellow students, I read a prodigious amount of Marxist literature and perspectives on various subjects (obviously the early Marxists were wrong some things: example--the working class inevitably rising up against the capitalist class) that was available in the school's well stocked library. (To explain my different attitude is another long story and for another time.)

The characters in the film illustrate how the German soldiers naturally want to protect their families and loved ones, but were obviously indoctrinated in ideas of obedience, loyalty to authorities and country. In the film German soldiers were dimly aware that they were being used as "pawns", but because of this thorough indoctrination they committed all sorts of crimes during combat. But once combat soldiers see their adversaries as human beings like themselves, they experience a crisis of consciousness much like we see today among returning US veterans from combat as having some sort of mental disorder diagnosed by government authorities as  post-traumatic stress disorder.

When is the News Not the News? – #PropagandaWatch

Click here to access a nearly 16 minute video (and show notes) by James Corbett from his website.

Today I received this report via email from Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, a partner of the University of Alaska (Fairbanks), because I am on their email list. Because it is easiest to dispute of all the lies about the destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon, both organizations are challenging the official story of 9/11 regarding the collapse of building #7 of the WTC.

Corbett's limited perspective is a libertarian (American version of that term) which is somewhat different than what the term means in Europe and beyond. Consulting Wikepedia I discovered all kinds of libertarians. I think Corbett's view (even though he is Canadian--Canada is a part of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire) can be described accordingly as "Individualist anarchism in the United States". His "libertarian" views simply sees, and often reacts negatively to, official authorities which is a very superficial view of government authorities. Likewise his analysis of the banning of the U. of Alaska report by media corporations, is very limited. He can only see some hidden hand which he refers to as "propagandists" who decide on what news is suitable for us to consume. That's it!

I have tried, and largely failed, to influence those who I have personally associated with throughout my long life and those who have wandered onto my website. I have urged them to have a more in-depth view of things by considering a Marxist-influenced take on contemporary global politics. This means taking an historical class structure point of view which is so unfashionable in today's America and throughout much of the capitalist transnational Empire. 

I admit, along with many others, failing to raise the political consciousness of my fellow Americans because of the influence of the powerful and ubiquitous nature of propaganda under the control of our ruling capitalist class. Our masters in this class have thoroughly indoctrinated Americans and much of the world in their view of not only current events, but historical events as well. They have accomplished this with their methods of pervasive mind control, that is, through the use of comprehensive indoctrination, propaganda, fake news, false flags, etc, by agents of the capitalist ruling classes in the Empire.

Also, I dispute Corbett's use of "social construct" as describing the official lies spread by our masters and their corporations since 9/11/2001. The term is defined as "an idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society". This official version is a private construct. Only a class structure point of view reveals this meaning. Even in his video, he strongly suggests that specific people such as corporate editors decide what is news, and elsewhere he identifies them as simply "propagandists".  But he fails to attribute this to a ruling class. I think Corbett is also a victim of the Empire's comprehensive use of indoctrination and propaganda.

The Missing Howls of Denunciation Over Major Sex Trafficking

Click here to access article by Michael Brenner from Consortium News.

Brenner is confused by the differential treatment in the Epstein affair, and has no answer for his own questions: 

Why have the howls of outrage not echoed through the media? Why has the trumpet’s call to action been silent?  Why haven’t the halls of Congress resounded with denunciation and the demands for justice.[?]

Well, let me offer a answer. Those of you who have been following my blog already know the answer, so my answer will be for all the others. 

My answer will provide a key answer to most of the world's problems, and the Epstein story, and the way it is being handled, will provide an excellent illustration of the primacy of social-economic class.

The factor of social-economic class determines so much of our existence, and accounts for so many problems we are faced with. That is precisely why ordinary people, after grasping the real nature of their problems, have gone on to organize revolutions against their ruling classes. And, this is the fundamental reason why academics, promoted by the ruling class, have frequently aided in the suppression of this factor.

The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution are prime examples. Both were ultimately contaminated within and destroyed from without. In the former case, the revolution was directed against the aristocracy and monarchy. The French Revolution contained the embryonic capitalist class of people who, with their superior education and skills, eventually dominated the revolution and took control of it. This class were also aided by Germany, who invaded France during the Revolution. In the case of the Russian Revolution, the new socialist revolutionaries were hampered by the necessity of relying upon educated/trained people, who had largely aristocratic and bourgeois class affiliations, in government positions. But a major factor in the ultimate deterioration of their Revolution was the constant opposition by the existing capitalist nations, including military invasions. This resulted in a deformed ruling class of bureaucrats, and eventually led to the collapse of the socialist experiment in the Soviet Union. To sum up, history during the past roughly 10,000 years has been overwhelmingly determined by class struggles. This view is the contribution of Marxists whose teachings have been thoroughly suppressed contemporary capitalist societies for obvious reasons.  

This Epstein event furnishes us with a prime example of this phenomenon. Benner's exposes the startling inconsistency of treatment in this crime which involved members of the ruling class. The legitimate issue of inequality regarding certain segments (women, gender identity, etc.) of contemporary societies have been used by the ruling capitalist class primarily as distractions from the recent gross crimes committed by the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. Because Epstein served the ruling class by furnishing them with overt and virtual sex slaves, such crimes have been ignored in past; and if they succeed with the Epstein event, they will quash any substantive punishment for those members of the ruling class who participated in these crimes. 

From Enlightenment to Enfrightenment: Romanticism as a Tool for Elite Agendas

Click here to access article by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin from Dissident Voice.

The author demonstrates how characterizations of major ideological trends of thought are largely influenced by ruling classes ("elites"). One such period called the Enlightenment, which emphasized the discoveries of the material nature of our Earth (and a little beyond), also was anathema to the rise of capitalist ruling classes. 

In addition, the Enlightenment examined the old ideas of feudalism and discovered that they were full of errors like the divine right of kings, feudalism's cosmology which placed the Earth at the center of the universe, and obedience to Roman Catholicism also gave rise to a whole new range of ideas that were first dramatically expressed during the French Revolution and soon led to socialist ideas, that is, to ideas of equality of rights and opportunities among inhabitants of regions. 

However, simultaneous to this, capitalist classes arose in various European countries which would soon formed ruling classes in those countries, and they saw such ideas as incompatible with their interests of private economic property and all the benefits derived from that ownership and control. They soon shaped what became known as a ideological period of Romanticism. This period was characterized not only by the mystification of nature but to differences such as language, race, and above all, nationalism that always favored the regions under the control of capitalist ruling classes.

The influence of Romanticism on politics shifted revolutionary thinking from burgeoning socialist movements to nationalism instead. Nationalism is the perfect class conciliatory ideology in that it retained the full social order/hierarchy (i.e. it includes the elites) and homogenised the people by excluding other national languages and foreign communities while putting the elites into positions of leadership and control.

Using divide and rule tactics and stirring up xenophobic attitudes and fears, the elites ran the new homogenised nations and used them for their old purposes: war. Modern global power struggles of the twentieth century started with nation set against nation in the First World War. 

Now we have entered a period identified as neoliberalism (the ideology of the new capitalism) as the capitalist ruling classes have outgrown their nation-states and formed transnational capitalist ruling classes such as we see in the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire versus the rest of the world. Trump represents ideologically the earlier period of capitalism which glorified nationalism while the Deep State (see this, this, this, and this), which is in command of the Empire, pushes their neoliberal agendas under the Empire using deceptive psychological practices developed in propaganda against enemies in WWI and WWII, but this time aimed at their own populations. 

Pearl Harbor Unmasked

Click here to access a comments of Robert B. Stinnett's Day of Deceit (2000) by J. Alfred Powell from The Unz Review.

Powell gives additional information about Stinnet's book, but I don't remember (having read the book years ago) that the evidence was conclusive that FDR engineered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After all, we only got a partial release by our masters in the ruling capitalist class:

After eight years of further research and a prolonged case at law under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain partial release of these materials, Stinson published Day of Deceit (2000).

A full release might make this inference conclusive. However, it was enough for most rational people to conclude that indeed FDR suckered the Japanese into the attack which then justified USA's entry into WWII. (Could it be that our fascist-loaded ruling class in 2000 didn't really like the reforms that FDR passed to stifle any revolutionary movements in the 1930s?) FDR along with other anglophiles in the US ruling class saw that the Axis powers were threatening the rule of the British Empire. This was not in the game-plan of most of the Western ruling capitalist classes who loved fascists because they were expected to destroy the Soviet Union--an anathema to the rule of capitalists. USA's own fascists joined the anglophiles and presciently saw this war as an opportunity to establish their own American empire--and they did.

What I object to is the very title of the book which emphasizes only one "day of deceit". Ruling classes always justify their nation's participation in wars in order to get ordinary people to sign up, to disrupt their personal plans to marry, establish careers and families, rather to travel long distances to kill other ordinary people of behalf of the same ruling classes. Lying is built in to this scenario, and the same scenario has played out ever since gangs formed to rule over ordinary people--some 10,000 years. So, what's new?

The fact is that ruling classes always lie--not only about their wars--to their subjects because if the latter knew how unjust ruling classes were, there would be revolts. These scoundrels do this by creative writing of histories, protecting religious clergies to preach sermons that justify their rule over ordinary people, keeping ordinary people looking toward a non-existent afterlife to seek their rewards, and keeping the latter in ignorance about their lies and self-serving activities.

One doesn't have to delve into ancient history to find prime example of such lying. Look at only the history since WWII and you will find a mountain of examples of such lies. They lied about their assassination of the John and Bobbie Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and numerous Black Panthers. They lied about their well executed plan on 9/11 to justify their subsequent military campaigns in the Middle East. In fact, ruling classes rarely tell the truth. Nowadays, lying is only getting worse. But most humans, with a few rare exceptions, throughout history have devoted their attention to sustaining their families and enjoying their comforts and distractions, and shied away from believing that their masters would ever lie to them.

Now capitalist ruling classes are lying to ordinary people about global warming and the destruction of our habitat because such information would interfere with their addiction to profits and power (over the rest of us).  But, as we shall soon see, this is their final lie--a lie that will end all lies. Humans, and unfortunately many other species, will be disappeared from planet Earth which gave birth to them, and new life forms will arise. Hopefully, these life forms will not be fractured into classes in which one self-serving class tells lies to the other classes.

"The Holocaust" Is a Myth That Conceals Our Shame

Click here to access article by Kevin Barrett posted on The Unz Review. 

The author makes a good point about how history is often distorted by the use of victimization, and with particular emphasis on the current success of the victimization of the Jews that Zionists constantly use. As I was reading, I was wondering where he was going with this because he seemed to imply that it is human nature or institutional religion that are the root causes of this phenomenon. But finally at the end, he finds hope in the mysticism of various religions to rescue human nature and its culture from the "murderous lies" of such mythologies.

Ultimately it is the mystical dimension of traditional religion that holds the most hope for overcoming the murderous lies at the heart of human nature and culture.

I notice that he never mentions class or rulers and the uses of victimization to secure their rule. In contrast, he diverts attention from such a view, from socialists who argue that the analysis of class structure accounts for most of human history, and that the history of WWII in particular was a history of competing capitalist empires for world dominance. The US, Anglo, Zionist Empire won. Hence the ascendance of the myth of Jewish victimization which serves to diminish all the other victims.

... all culture is based on murder and lies, can we ever stop killing and lying? Marxists think a materialist utopia would do the trick. But murderous and uncontrollable mimetic-desire-driven envy is ubiquitous, even (especially) among those whose material needs are fully satisfied.

Perhaps Barrett is also serving the powerful of today.