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 climate crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate crisis. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, June 16, 2021

  • Alternative Visions - Inflation, Infrastructure ‘Smoke & Mirrors’, & Keynes’ Economics by Prof. Jack Rasmus from Alternative Visions in a 53:43m audio presentation. (Note: Rasmus attempts to explain what is the reality of the economy in contrast to what corporate media is reporting.) My reaction: Although he often frames events too much in the economy as Republican versus Democrats, I believe his interpretation of what corporate media currently reports is on the right track versus what is really going on. From my own experience, I also can agree with him in his introduction that readings of outstanding authors in the original is different from careerist and indoctrinated academics who provide skewed interpretations of what these authors wrote. To his credit, Rasmus has read much by these authors. I look forward to future posts in this series.

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, June 15, 2021

The censorship of information is at an all time high, but do people really recognize the extent to which it has been and is being carried out? A recent article published in the British Medical Journal by journalist Laurie Clarke has highlighted the fact that Facebook has already removed at least 16 million pieces of content from its platform and added warnings to approximately 167 million others. YouTube has removed nearly 1 million videos related to, according to them, “dangerous or misleading covid-19 medical information.” 
This is the latest panel discussion hosted by the International Manifesto Group on Sunday 13th June 2021.
 
Economic sanctions are becoming an increasingly popular foreign policy instrument in Western countries, deployed alone or in conjunction with military and/or diplomatic interventions to achieve strategic political and policy goals, such as ostensibly protecting individuals and states from the behaviour of wrongdoers. Because economic sanctions are considered less violent than direct military assault, they are often supported by many on the left and the peace movement, who reluctantly accept the policy as a necessary evil.

This panel, part of a broader series on sanctions, will focus on their public health effects, through an analysis of five case studies: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria and Iran. All but one of these countries are currently under sanctions by both Canada and the United States.
 
(Note: This post is only Beeley's contribution to this discussion regarding Syria as a victim of economic sanctions that was a part of the general discussions about the effects, particularly on small countries, from the use of economic sanctions. Only large, financially stable nations like Russia and China can prevent sanctions from doing major damage to their nations.)
 
My reaction: The weapon of economic sanctions is the 21st century's weapon of choice that formerly was accomplished by what Gen. Smedley Butler referred to as a "racket" that was the weapon of choice for the US prior to WWII. (After WWII such invasions were replaced by subversive actions. Economic sanctions were added to subversive efforts in the 21st century. This was especially evident in Syria, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran.) Butler was referring to the invasions of Latin American countries, much like organized crime used in major North American cities, to threaten small businesses with harm if they didn't financially dole out bribes to Mafia figures to prevent further harm. 
Naomi Karavani focuses on Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com, Inc. in this Weekly Offensive. Bezos recently announced his plan to head to space on a commercial flight with his company Blue Origin. The announcement of his space flight came amid a flurry of bad press over tax evasion, questions about antitrust violations, Amazon's $8.45 billion purchase of MGM, and a global corporate tax proposal from the G7 that could leave Amazon out.

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, June 13, 2021

  • The Difference Between Totalitarian Regimes And Free Democracies by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband reading the script, which is also provided in the article from her weblog. My reaction: The only criticism I have is that quotation marks should be around "free democracy". As it is (without quotation marks) there is a tendency to cynicism. "Free democracy" implies a propaganda construct, whereas a free democracy can be very real.
  • A Few Thoughts on White Identity by Gary Engler from Dissident Voice. (Note: Engler reviews a book entitled White Fragility: Why White People Have Such a Hard Time Talking About Racism.)
In my opinion, this book starkly epitomizes the dangerous consequences when discussions of white identity are divorced from class analysis. 
Fries and Mooney both represent small farmers in their quest to retain control over the world's food production in contrast to Big Ag's corporate dominance that is emerging under the propaganda construct of "multistakeholderism". The latter term is defined by the Transnational Institute as:
 
Multistakeholderism is a slippery term as most of the definitions are too vague and general and because it is applied to many different forms of governance. It is also an evolving form of governance. ....
 
In multistakeholderism, ‘stakeholders’ become the central actors without any clear procedure to designate ‘stakeholders’.
 
This is in contrast to the previous governing ideology of multilateralism based on interactions and agreements between nation-states. Big Ag is pushing the concept of multistakeholderism to give transnational corporations more relevance in global discussions and in legal bodies such as the UN. In my opinion, "multistakeholderism" is a sneaky construct to give global corporations (and their capitalist backers) as financial "stakeholders" more legitimacy in upcoming legal decisions by the UN. Financial stakeholders have always primarily meant those who have a financial or economic stake in outcomes.
 
Neoliberals (or transnationals) of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire have already proved their power in the recent pandemic by co-opting the World Health Organization (WHO) of the UN. Co-opting of the UN's agency was accomplished after Trump's decision to withdraw US support for the WHO and the billionaire Bill Gates and his foundation stepped in to provide the greatest single monetary support of WHO among nations. This new construct is used to effect a stealthy move around the poorer nations of the world and to enhance the power of the Empire's transnational agricultural corporations.

I think Pat Mooney is a rather naive "do-gooder" who will have little influence on international legal bodies.
I have nearly 1,000 such stories in my files, enough to fill a thick book, and all reprehensibly dishonest in their presentation. When Westerners have only a diet of daily articles like this presented to them by their most trusted media, how is it possible for anyone to accurately understand anything about China?
  • How US govt-funded media fueled a violent coup in Nicaragua by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton from The Grayzone. My reaction: This is an important report because it illustrates how the directors of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire are going about subverting entire nations (think Ukraine as another example) to the dominance of the Empire. In Nicaragua they were not successful because the people under successive Sandinista governments had encouraged the people to become politically aware.
A recent post suggests that the 1.5°C threshold was already crossed in 2012, i.e. well before the Paris Agreement was adopted by the U.N. (in 2015), while there could be a temperature rise of more than 3°C [ by 2026.

Friday, June 11, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, June 11, 2021

  • Fauci Declares Himself INFALLIBLE! featuring Jimmy Dore (via his YouTube channel--15:36m) exposing Dr. Fauci, a government bureaucrat in charge of our health, for what he is--sociopathic liar. My reaction: You have to be a "sociopathic liar" to serve the ruling class.
  • Interview 1648 -- New World Next Week with James Evan Pilato featuring James Corbett and James Evan Pilato discussing the latest news which includes Japan's Olympics, cyber-attacks (and other fake propaganda "Reset" ploys), vaccination stories, etc., and Corbett's inferences based on these reports. 
As long as the US is the center of a globe-spanning empire, it will be necessary to keep Americans too poor, too busy and too confused to interfere with the operation of the machine. You cannot allow a critical mass of Americans to have enough money to spend on political campaign donations, to have enough free time to research what’s actually happening in their world, to be sufficiently stress-free to look up and realize that your government is murdering children in their name, and also keep the empire running smoothly. You cannot have an imperialist oligarchy who runs things and also have income and wealth equality. 
 
Johnstone concludes her article with this insightful statement about any effective solution: 

It’s not that you can’t beat the machine, it’s that you can’t beat the machine using the tools the machine has given you. A grassroots effort to wake each other up to reality is a very achievable goal, and once enough eyes are open, anything is possible.
  • The United States Started the Korean War from the YouTube channel of Tales of the American Empire. (Note: This is a short, authentic history of our post-WWII policies toward Asia.) My reaction: This history has been re-written by US historians that were motivated by career aspirations. They could not aspire to a career in academia unless they rewrote history to conform to the empire-building efforts of the cabal that took control in the post-WWII ruling class. This is a rare opportunity for you to recover a small part of the real history. 
  • Biden's DHS Attacks Pipeline Protestors featuring Jimmy Dore (via his YouTube channel--7:31m) to reveal a true history of two single, but related, events--the protests that people organized in opposition to the Keystone pipeline in North Dakota and similar protests in northern Minnesota. My reaction: And many of you depend upon reports by media corporations to cover the news!
  • A Sinister Agenda Behind California Water Crisis? by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: Engdahl is one of the geopolitical experts, who are in denial of the climate crisis. He proposes a conspiracy theory which is rooted in government regulatory agencies where there is none. Such experts and most state bureaucrats and politicians view environmental regulations to save threatened species in a destabilizing climate as an "agenda" serving only negligible "special interests". Therefore expect such regulations will be dropped (or not enforced) in order to save us humans. This is only a  short-term solution to our future to the problem of the destabilization of the climate on our planet-Earth. Our masters in the ruling capitalist already know this, but their inherent drive to sustain profits will only accelerate their population reduction agenda known as the Great Reset in order to save themselves and their "beautiful" system of capitalism. The system depends on ever expanding growth on a planet that has finite resources. Something will have to give way. I look for more trouble in our future.
  • Explained: Quintero and Wiens 2013 featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--04:36m) and has fearlessly focused on the climate crisis, examining a research study regarding the adaptability of species to adjust to abrupt climate changes. (Note: This is a key question for our human species: can we adapt to rather dramatic changes in climate that McPherson foresees?)

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, June 9, 2021

  • Your Guide to The Great Convergence featuring James Corbett from his weblog (1:14:36hr) explaining how and why our masters are promoting "transhumanism" which is the current grand fantasy of our masters in the capitalist ruling class as their Empire project is on a road to decline. This fantasy includes their sub-fantasies that promise "the idea of using technology to overcome sickness, aging, and death." (See my commentary to the second post of The Corbett Report from Monday, June 7.) My reaction: My only criticism is that Corbett (as well as Christian Westbrook of the Ice Age Farmer, etc.) disregards the very realistic threat to all species survival: the dramatic accelerating warming of our planet caused by the compulsive drive of capitalists to enhance profits for their own interests--not ours.
  • G7: Desperately Seeking Relevancy by Pepe Escobar from "The Saker" weblog. (Note: G7 is an economic organization of core capitalist nations that comprise the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)
... sometimes self-interests intrude and the Europeans find the American depiction of the world too much to bear. Hence, there is pushback from the European Union on Biden’s attempts to sabotage the economic partnership between the 27-member bloc and China. There are limits to which the EU will go in damaging the landmark Comprehensive Investment Agreement it signed with Beijing in December.

Likewise, Germany is not tolerating any attempts by the Biden administration to scupper the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with Russia which will be vital for fuelling German industry. Again, self-interest kicks in to bring mundane common sense into conflict with the American mythology of a Cold War.

  • Science Update: Heat Deaths Due to Climate Change featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--06:00m), who has focused on the climate crisis, fearlessly listing scientific articles that indicate the growing probability of extinction of humans and most other species that have evolved on planet Earth.

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, June 8, 2021

  • Tom Cotton Explains Why Warmongers Love The Wuhan Lab Leak Theory by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband reading the script, which is provided from her article. My reaction: Johnstone is referring to any official investigation, but we, the people, have our own collective efforts to uncover the truth. However, the latter will not make it onto corporate media. Thus, efforts will depend upon the people who will want to seek the truth so that they will not have to suffer through a pandemic, or some other manufactured catastrophe, again. This, in turn, will depend on our efforts to get people to stop watching/listening to billionaire-owned and/or controlled media corporations (which includes PBS and NPR) which provide coverage of "news" and "analysis". Billionaire-owned/controlled media are supplying you with pure, self-serving propaganda.
  • The False Idea of Who You Are by Alan Watts from the After Skool channel of YouTube. My reaction: I would only substitute "Planet Earth" for "universe" to arrive at the reality of humans as a part of the web of life on our unique planet Earth. It was common in Watts' day to label the universe as our unique planet Earth.
  • Means of Extinction: Broiling Earth featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--04:36m), who has focused on the climate crisis, fearlessly listing scientific articles that indicate the growing probability of extinction of humans and most other species that have evolved on planet Earth.

Friday, June 4, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, June 4, 2021

We do not know for sure if the COVID-19 virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, another lab, or jumped from animals to humans. But what we do know for certain — from the anthrax investigation — is that governments most definitely conduct the sort of research that could produce novel coronaviruses. Dr. Rosenberg, the subject of the 2002 New Yorker article, was suggesting that the F.B.I. was purposely impeding its own investigation because they knew that the anthrax actually came from the U.S. government’s own lab and wanted to prevent exposure of the real bio-research that is done there. We should again ponder why the pervasive mainstream doubts about the F.B.I.’s case against Ivins have been memory-holed. We should also reflect on what we learned about government research into highly lethal viruses and bacterial strains from that still-strange episode.

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, June 3, 2021

The fact that there can be that drastic of a shift from something no pundit or politician may say to something they’re encouraged to talk about all the time—all at once, at the drop of a hat—says so much about what the political/media class is and how it works in our society. How utterly uninterested in truth and facts it is. How arbitrary its dictates are. How completely made-up its ongoing story of the world is. It just says what’s convenient for the powerful, and when that’s not convenient anymore it switches to something else. 
Engdahl argues that the "infrastructure bill" is mostly propaganda to fool the American public (once again), but will actually promote the transnational capitalist Empire's virtuous sounding phrase "Green Agenda". The latter is, in turn, promoted to hide "Agenda 21" to seem more palatable to the brainwashed American public. Here is what the editor of Technocracy says about Agenda 21:
 
From its inception in 1992 at the United Nation’s Earth Summit, 50,000 delegates, heads of state, diplomats and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) hailed Agenda 21 as the “comprehensive blueprint for the reorganization of human society.” The 350-page, 40 chapter, Agenda 21 document was quite detailed and explicit in its purpose and goals. They warned us that the reorganization would be dictated through all-encompassing policies affecting every aspect of our lives, using environmental protection simply as the excuse to pull at our emotions and get us to voluntarily surrender our liberties.
 
But what this editor doesn't understand is that the capitalist ruling class's motive is to try to salvage the capitalist system, which has brought capitalists so much wealth and power, in their recognition that a finite planet cannot accept a system that results in unending growth. Or, to put it differently, this plan is a desperate attempt to save capitalism in a limit-bound finite planet. The editor compounds this misunderstanding with his well-indoctrinated ignorance about socialism.
 ... for reasons that have yet to be explained to the American people, when it comes to the $1.7 trillion cryptocurrency market – which is effectively a con-game based on the greater fool theory, nothing is regulated. Not the crypto currency; not the promoters; not the crypto exchanges; and not the firms that are providing as much as 100 times leverage to fuel this “rat poison squared,” as the legendary investor Warren Buffett has characterized Bitcoin. (See The Smartest Guys in the Room Call Bitcoin “Rat Poison Squared,” “a Colossal Pump-and-Dump Scheme” and “a Big Criminal Scam” but Federal Regulators Look the Other Way.)
  • Notes on Turning Seventy by John Steppling from his weblog. Steppling, who presently lives in Norway, is an American playwright, author, etc. who writes like somebody who has been extensively educated. And, it takes such a person (with a lot of time) to fully understand his writing. A few quotes from his article reveals much:
The most profound artworks demand something impossible from the viewer ... One problem is this idea that Kafka (but substitute any major novelist) is tracing out the shaping of the modern subject — through capitalism (or mastery over nature, etc) but then leaving capitalism as a universal. As if God created Capitalism on day 8. One cannot write criticism without being critical, of all things. Of oneself. If not, the class system is absolved, class struggle and political repression. They become a form of Nature.
 
And he concludes his article with this insightful statement:

Culture is an indicator for the mental and physical health of a society. The trend toward fascism is sickness. The fascist state is the apotheosis of sickness; physical and moral. The ruling class has no respect for anyone outside their small circle.
  • A Decade On: West’s War on Syria Continues by Brian Berletic from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: The two main corporations that feed Empire's "news" agencies with propaganda, AP (Associated Press) and Reuters, keep the people of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire in ignorance about what is actually happening in the Mid-East.
On Tuesday, the new head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency suggested more Israeli covert attacks and assassinations inside Iran should be expected even as the US and other world powers are negotiating a revival of the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, June 1, 2021

The irony of course is that capitalism was supposed to offer something different. It was meant to offer a life of more leisure and free time. Technology was supposed to advance in ways that would bring public holidays every month, possibly even every week. Luminaries like economist John Maynard Keynes dreamt of a 15-hour work week by 2030. Yet capitalism has produced the exact opposite. Its effect has been to preserve and extend work. It has also created problems in the content and meaning of work.
  • 💥Israel, a Beachead in the Middle East by Stephan Gowans at the Institute for the Critical Study of Society (ICSS Marxist). This is a best post. (Note: This is a webinar featuring a talk by Gowans via YouTube arranged by this Oakland, California Institute. Gowans' talk begins after the introduction at 03:59m and ends at 58:36m followed by a Q&A. (I recommend the talk only because he has recently done extensive research on Israel which resulted in a book.)
One US military leader has called Israel “the intelligence equivalent of five CIAs.” An Israeli cabinet minister likens his country to “the equivalent of a dozen US aircraft carriers,” while the Jerusalem Post defines Israel as the executive of a “superior Western military force that” protects “America’s interests in the region.” Arab leaders have called Israel “a club the United States uses against the Arabs,” and “a poisoned dagger implanted in the heart of the Arab nation.”

In his latest book, Israel, A Beachhead in the Middle East, Stephen Gowans challenges the specious argument that Israel controls US foreign policy, tracing the development of the self-declared Jewish state, from its conception in the ideas of Theodore Herzl, to its birth as a European colony, through its efforts to suppress regional liberation movements, to its emergence as an extension of the Pentagon, integrated into the US empire as a pro-imperialist Sparta of the Middle East.
  • Colombia: “The Government Murders with Impunity because the U.S. Empire is Behind it.” by Carlos Aznarez from  Internationalist 360°. (Note: This is a report of the US's major beachhead in South America to police that continent for any nation that aspires to become independent.) My reaction: This is another instance where the well-indoctrinated American people, many of whom are struggling to survive, ignore such a report--if they are exposed to it at all.
  • The Yenisey River sheds its icy coat from RT via YouTube. My reaction: More evidence of global warming that is currently threatening human species (and most others). Isn't it ironic to see a Wikipedia entry on this river in Russia's Siberia before which YouTube warns you about Russian influence in a quote from a corrupted Wikipedia entry?
  • Means of Extinction: Conspicuous Consumption featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--3:20m) who has focused on the climate crisis. My reaction: Because McPherson is a physical scientist and not a social scientist, he is not aware that capitalism, and its propaganda machine of advertising, constantly exhorts people to consume unnecessary products to promote profits and power for the capitalist ruling classes. Thus capitalism has caused the climate crisis which McPherson argues with much evidence that abrupt global warming will result in the extinction of humans and most other species inhabiting the Earth. That is precisely why capitalists are now energetically exploring other planets in the hope of migrating there after they have spoiled the Earth for humans.

Sunday, May 30, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, May 30, 2021

  • Is Ivermectin the new Penicillin? by Dr. Justus R. Hope, MD fro The Desert Review. (Note: This post from an unnamed activist source (according to his wishes) writes the following:  
Vermectin, an anti-parasitic drug placed the same radioactive category as Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for the treatment of COVID-19, has reemerged as a promising treatment in the battle to extinguish the pandemic. 
 
New York Times best-selling author Michael Capuzzo has called it the "drug that cracked Covid," writing that there are “hundreds of thousands, actually millions, of people around the world, from Uttar Pradesh in India to Peru to Brazil, who are living and not dying.”
 
Doctors in India are big fans.  
Maybe the virus was grown in a lab, maybe it just jumped from bats to people. Since all evidence suggests it’s not very dangerous, it doesn’t really matter.

The debate sure does make a good distraction though. 
 
Does it matter that many after the age of 70 died from it if it was designed and used as a bioweapon for whatever purpose? What about all the severe restrictions on people's civil rights that were dictated by various governments of the world based on the declaration of WHO that the threat constituted a pandemic and the virtual diktats by the CDC or similar agencies throughout governments of the world? What about the censorship that was imposed on many other relevant medical specialists who differed about various aspects of the declared pandemic?
  • The Bogus January 6 Commission Poses a Real Threat to Freedom by James Bovard from Mises Institute. (Note: Mises Institute is a nationalist capitalist website/weblog which features old-fashioned capitalists who no longer control the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. The latter is controlled by "neoliberals" or transnational capitalists.)
... we can either prepare for the ultimate disaster that disaster capitalism gives us, or, put our heads back in that sand ....
I remember one of the first acts formally announcing a Cold War against the Soviet Union after the conclusion of WWII (1st article) was Winston Churchill's speech in Fulton, Missouri (with Pres. Harry Truman on the stage) in 1946 declaring that an "iron curtain has descended" across Europe. This was a shock to the American people because we had been allied in WWII with the Soviet Union against the Axis powers. 
 
The West Snubs Russia over V-E Day - Consortiumnews
 
This was followed a year later with the Un-American Activities Committee investigations of Hollywood playwrights, directors, and actors that weren't sufficiently anti-communist enough to suit the interests of the capitalist ruling class. This constituted a major purge of all left-wing influential people associated with the Hollywood film industry in order to stifle any kind of dissent and further propagandize people into smearing any kind of socialism. Churchill's visceral hatred of the Russian Revolution and his role beginning with the capitalist intervention in the Russian Civil War made him an exceptionally qualified person (in the eyes of the ruling capitalist class) to announce this new effort against the Soviet Union. 
If Biden were genuinely interested in learning how to prevent a future pandemic he would be exploring how to prevent zoonotic spillovers, both in nature, and in the lab. On the other hand, if he’s interested in tarring the reputation of a country he has labelled a competitor, as his predecessor was, he is proceeding along the right path. Unfortunately, that path has nothing to do with protecting humanity from future pandemics.
  • Ask an Ecologist Anything -- Saturday, May 29, 2021 featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has focused on the climate crisis, from his YouTube channel. (Note: This has been removed from YouTube by the administrators of this platform. Apparently he said something which they, in their scientific wisdom, do not like.)

Friday, May 28, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, May 28, 2021

  • 💥Whitney Webb Interview – Cyber Hacks, White Powders Scares & Vaccine Tracking, It’s All Come To Pass from The Last American Vagabond (1:47:47hr). This is a best post. (Note: I hesitated to post this because of its length, but I thought it important because Webb brings us up-to-date on her personal circumstances, and other observations on important topics based on her extensive research efforts. This interview begins at 0:22m.) My reaction: She does not let Ryan Cristián dominate the interview. This post is especially for independent thinkers who are not programmed what and how to think about various important issues.
  • Sombre truths behind bright green lies by Paul Cudenec from Winter Oak (Acorn), a British website. (Note: This post is essentially a book review in which the author clearly likes the book. In his review Cudenec spots three truths. "But wait, there's more." He argues that there are two more additional truths for a total of five.) My reaction: I have followed articles by top scientists since the 1970s, and, in contrast to this author, I have arrived at the conclusion that it is far too late for the human species and most other species to survive the ravages of capitalism on our very unique planet. But what do I know? I agree with, and follow, retired professor Guy McPherson who as a devoted climate scientist has specialized many years in the independent study of the subject, and has reached similar conclusions which convinced me that my gut-felling was right. That is why a few years ago I changed the title of my weblog/website to "Surviving Capitalism" by adding the word "(not)" to the title. But, in the meantime, I have not abandoned my promotion of real socialism (the economy owned and controlled by all of the people) and my hatred of capitalism. I see this intellectual position, if somehow accomplished, as redemption for the centuries that humans have allowed capitalists to rule.
  • What Will Israel Do to Counter Hezbollah’s Missiles? by Elijah J. Magnier from Internationalist 360°. (Note: Magnier's weblog is behind a paywall.) My reaction: One cannot expect first-rate journalists and political analysts to work for nothing. Unfortunately, many of us have next-to-nothing.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, May 27, 2021

  • Today I received this newsletter from LifeSiteNews.
  • Fact Checkers Take A Beating On Lab Leak Theory featuring Jimmy Dore of The Jimmy Dore Shows channel on YouTube. (Note: Dore goes on an appropriate rant about ruling class "fact-checkers", censorship practiced by ruling class corporate media, and both of their records of contradictions. He also puts Matt Taibbi, a journalist, on the podcast to comment on this subject.) My reaction: It's only realistic to assume that the consolidation and concentration of wealth, which is a core feature of capitalism, also gives the rich control over all of mainstream media--as well as all other institutions. Taibbi essentially explains that all the issues related to this subject can be explained by "politics". This is a shorthand way to obscure the problem of issues. Social-economic class conflict is the root cause of most social-economic issues, which is a recognition that class matters, and that a particular issue is a conflict between the rich ruling class and the working class. This view is verboten in capitalist USA.
  • The U.S.' latest COVID-19 lab leak theory push is a distraction by Andrew Korybko from CGTN, a major Chinese online news website. (Note: Now that the ruling class has suddenly shifted its main enemy from Russia to China--because of the stupendous rise of China as an economic powerhouse--in a major effort to prevent a powerful Russia-China combination, Korybko sees major problems for ruling class propagandists to fool Americans once again.)
  • The US Empire Is A Self-Reinforcing Trauma Factory by Australian Caitlin Johnstone and narrated by her American husband. (Note: Now that the billionaire ruling class has gotten rid of the upstart and unauthorized (by them) Trump, their propaganda efforts through their media corporations focuses on rampant crime in American to counter the defund-the-police movements.) My reaction: The American audience is being played (manipulated) once again.
  • Statement of NEO Editorial Board from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: This another ironic example where "the [Empire's propaganda] pot calls "their enemies'" kettle black" (def.). I received this message when I tried today to access Middle East Observer's website.
  • Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loops #18 through #20, Climate-Change Summary by  Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent (independent of the ruling class) scientist who has for many years focused on the climate crisis, from his YouTube channel (04:24m). (Note: In this podcast McPherson cites a number of peer-reviewed studies that focus on the disappearance or the alteration of ice on both polar regions that contribute to the destabilization of our climate.)

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, May 26, 2021

  • Transcript – Guns and Butter Interview with Bonnie Faulkner March 8, 2021 [posted on 5/18/21] from Wrench in Gears. (Note: Notice the link to the actual interview broadcast on WBAI in New York. Also, during the interview Faulkner asks a key question after she introduces the question: "I was taught that one of the main [characteristics of] capitalism is that it must grow or expand. You have written that 'in order for capitalism to continue on a beautiful planet of finite resources, the plan is to shift growth to digital realms' which is what you’ve been discussing. How is virtual capitalism going to piggyback on real-world capitalism?") [my insertion] 
Rejection of a resolution calling for “respect for international humanitarian law” is not consistent with Washington’s intention to abide by the “rules-based international order” which is apparently the solution to all the world’s problems — providing the rules are not applied to Israel.
Has Big Tech poisoned our politics or has it merely revealed deep social and political divisions? With each passing day making that determination becomes more and more difficult. Those who have the power to control our social interactions define what we understand to be reality. This is simply tyrannical.

CrossTalking with Ron Placone and Suzie Dawson.
 
My reaction: Of course Big Tech is controlled by the ruling capitalist class! It is another weapon in their vast arsenal that is aimed at all those that are not on board with the agendas and the interests of the ruling class.
This short history does not reveal the history of collusion by the Western capitalist ruling classes with German Nazis to crush the anti-capitalist Soviet Union and to rid the world of any kind of socialism that threatens the rule of capitalists. After WWII this history of their past collusion with Nazis has been rewritten to eliminate nearly all references to true history. This was especially true of most giant corporations like the Ford Company, IT&T, General Motors, etc. who kept their German industries running throughout WWII. 
 
Early in the war, conspirators, mostly in the State Department, saw the opportunity to construct another empire out of the remnants of the former British Empire with the intact industry and powerful military forces of the USA. (This was all laid out in earlier posts: here, here, and here.) But present generations know none of this history because it has been scrubbed from history books by historians appointed by the governors of their new empire, the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire (Israel and the right-wing power of Zionist finance were added later).
 
Today we see the current reactionary forces at work in the Empire's capitalist ruling classes to rid themselves of the burden of supporting poor people by eliminating "useless eaters" to lessen the threat climate destabilization confronting them so they can resume business as usual. Like I wrote in a commentary on 2/7/2021:
 
... this is a dangerous thought. Imagine that our masters in the ruling class have in their deluded thinking reached a conclusion that in order to save themselves [as their capitalist system] they must get rid of us untermenschen? They might in this belief decide that we ordinary humans are "useless eaters" and expendable, or worse yet like "communists" or anti-capitalists--class enemies, and kill us all in order to save themselves from the climate crisis, which they have caused, and they know is coming sooner or later. Perhaps the Great Reset is one such delusion. [my present insertion]
 
Our masters are presently busy trying to eliminate labor laws that guarantee workers' rights using the excuse of protecting the health of workers based on recommendations from CDC and OSHA, and the incessant propaganda about their contrived "pandemic". They are busy creating a two-tier society in which "good Germans" are extended all kinds of privileges based on their good behavior and the rest of us are denied travel and access to many services. 
  • Greetings from “New Normal” Germany! by CJ Hopkins. an American playwright and political satirist, who currently lives in Germany. He is mostly serious in this post, and describes the current living conditions of the German "new normal"  which is currently threatening to come to the USA.
Last week, here in “New Normal” Germany, the government (which, it goes without saying, bears no resemblance to the Nazi regime, or any other totalitarian regime) implemented a social-segregation system that bans anyone who refuses to publicly conform to the official “New Normal” ideology from participating in German society. From now on, only those who have an official “vaccination pass” or proof of a negative PCR test are allowed to sit down and eat at restaurants, shop at “non-essential” stores, or go to bars, or the cinema, or wherever. 
  • Science Update: Arctic Summit 2021 featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has for many years focused on the climate crisis, and from his YouTube channel (09:56m).
The entire western half of the United States, from the Pacific Coast, across the great basin and the desert of the southwest, up through the rockies to the northern plains, is currently being ravaged by a drought so bad that many are now calling it a megadrought, the worst one the country has seen in 1200 years.

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Dizikes uses a definition of collectivism that may not be relevant in this study:
 
Collectivism broadly refers to the inclination to prioritize a group’s needs over an individual’s concerns, and social scientists have often worked to measure its presence among different populations. The researchers found a culture of collectivism to be a key driver of mask use even after accounting for many other factors, including political orientation, state policies, the severity of Covid-19 outbreaks, and more. 
 
But what if the data provided by government agencies like the CDC, under the control of the capitalist ruling class, are all skewed (paying more to hospitals if they diagnose patients as having Covid-19, pressure on doctors to diagnose patients as having Covid-19, using PCR tests to inflate statistics, to instruct their "news" corporations to plant reports emphasizing the hysteria and fear of a "pandemic", etc.) in order to fake a pandemic? Now this researcher at MIT pleases his bosses and grant agencies with a study based on the above definition. Meanwhile, small businesses are going bankrupt and corporations are reaping record profits. And when some of the plain States are under the control of conservative capitalists who believe in old-fashioned conservative ideas, could we arrive at the same results? 
 
I think this study is a very clever way to reach conclusions that support the existence of a "pandemic" and the various self-serving interests of the current ruling class! (I've seen other studies done to please funding sources.) No doubt this study will be quoted widely by those serving the ruling class to validate their clever project to create a "pandemic".
 
I think that most people have complied with these restrictions on our liberties out of concern for the rest of society, but that doesn't mean they haven't been deceived for nefarious purposes of the ruling class! The study conveniently goes along with all other efforts to wrap the deceivers of the ruling class with virtue. 
 
Considering all the evidence, many were deceived once again as they have been in the past: the assassinations of key figures who wouldn't go along with the aggressive agenda of the ruling class, the so-called "war on drugs", 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, "the war on terrorism", and now this ... that so far is enriching billionaires, putting small businesses into bankruptcy, their employees out of work, and teaching the lessons of obedience to the great "unwashed masses". Could it be that it was the billionaires' plan all along? 
  • The Origin of the Species (trailer) from Journeyman Pictures and their YouTube channel. (Note: Journeyman Pictures is investigating the topic of robots and their efforts to produce "good" effects.) My reaction: To me, it's simple. If you have the ruling class "experts" designing robots, they will be used for the self-serving needs of the capitalist class. Technology is neutral.
  • Antiganda – #SolutionsWatch featuring James Corbett of his weblog The Corbett Report pointing to some activists who are trying to encourage people to achieve independent, critical thinking. 
What is the point here? It is that this whole ark of military strategy rooted in massive aerial bombardment – reaching back to the 1920s, and pushing forward until today in Gaza, is expiring. It has become obsolescent (at least in the Middle East), just as did trench warfare in the wake of 1918.

Tunnels (now, much more sophisticated ones), have gained renewed life as the answer to massive aerial bombardment on civilian terrain as a prime psychological tool of war. They mark the end of a strategy. Swarm missiles, and smart drone clusters are today’s inflection points: the ‘new’ warfare – just as much a game-changer as was the advent of the longbow (in the 1300s). They have become, as it were, somehow Hamas’, Hizbullah’s, the Houthi’s and Iran’s ‘alt’ Air force. 
 
Later, Crooke writes:
 
The U.S. and the Europeans however have no idea what to do about the situation, beyond calling for a return to ‘normality’ – one that permits Israelis ‘to return to the beach’, and the Palestinians ‘to their cage’, as one commentator, caustically remarked about the meaning of ‘normal’.