Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020

• NYT Piece Finds PCR Test Not Fit for Purpose – Stunning Admission [VIDEO] by the editors of Europe Reloaded.

• “STOP the Manipulation, Masks, Lies, Fear…”- international collective of healthcare professionals via Europe Reloaded. Original source for our French readers is here.

• Give all our youngsters a chance to study again, writes Professor CARL HENEGHAN from the Daily Mail (a British newspaper).

• All 77 NFL Players Who Tested Positive For COVID-19 Were False Positives – They Didn’t Really Have It by Arjun Walia from Collective Evolution.
  

• “Corona World” Video Game Lets You Kill the Covidiots! – #PropagandaWatch by James Corbett from his website.

• RFK, Jr. and CHD Take Action on Safety Concerns over Moderna’s COVID Vaccine by the Children’s Health Defense Team from their website. 

• Riots for Neo-Liberalism: ANTIFA & BLM Are the Global Elites’ Useful Thugs by Daniele Pozzati from Strategic Culture Foundation. My commentary follows:

Previously I have tended to avoid arguments regarding the riots going on currently in major cities of the USA. They have been increasingly characterized by two opposing groups--antifascists and fascists. I have done this because of the following reasons: I didn't know enough about the participants and I didn't want to alienate participants on the antifascist side that were involved with sincere beliefs in their organizations. 

Much of today's neofascism is manipulated by well-trained agents of the ruling capitalist class who have infiltrated all activist groups in order to control and manipulate them. To be sure, there are a number of people who sincerely believe that they are fighting racism or fascism, but are being increasingly manipulated by these subversive agents. You see, the directors of the ruling class have learned that they can control all antagonistic movements in order to manipulate them for their own ends. This analysis applies to all activist groups: BLM, Antifa, and hardcore fascists.  

The directors of the ruling class have long honed the weapon of organized chaos into a strategy to dominate whole societies. They have done this for many decades notably in places like El Salvador, Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine. The ruling class likes to experiment abroad with strategies of oppression and control, and those deemed effective are applied in the home countries of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.  

This, I believe, is going on now to a significant extent. Such subversive agents have found in the past that if they can control these groups, they can create chaos in societies with the result that ordinary people look to Empire sponsored groups that promise order to get rid of the chaos. If successful, ordinary people will support those with the necessary force and phony promises to restore order: armed forces sponsored by the Empire attacking established police forces, or the police and military organizations that the Empire already controls. 

It is necessary to find antidotes to this chaos strategy, infiltration, and surveillance in order to build effective revolutionary organizations. I don't have a recipe for this, but I'm sure that activists can create their own given enough time--but time is in short supply. All I recommend is that any effective strategy must include real democratic principles and practices whether in activist organizations or in nations like Belarus. With the latter accomplished--and it is a major feat--an effective activist group must continue to devise methods to thwart surveillance. All of these tasks would have been much easier decades ago; but now, although much more difficult, it is imperative and in a short time. Perhaps the latest stunt, the covid-19 pandemic, promulgated by the ruling class has awaken activists sufficiently that they can accomplish these tasks in the time remaining for homo sapiens on planet Earth.

• The Rise of Authoritarianism: From Parasite Stress Theory to Lockstep by Derrick Broze from The Last American Vagabond.
  

• Meet the “Violet” Successors to the White Helmets’ Syria Propaganda Throne by Vanessa Beeley (British) from "Unlimited Hangout". 
  

• Morning Headlines: September 1, 2020 with scientist Guy McPherson (via YouTube) of Nature Bats Last. (Note: He comments about the glowing news from Wall Street contrasted with reality.)

• Jimmy speaks at the People's Party Convention 2020! featuring Jimmy Dore addressing (via YouTube) a People's Convention.
  

Articles recommended for Friday, August 9, 2019

• Climate Crisis Means the Ruling Class has Failed. Can the Working Class Inherit the Earth? by Richard Moser from Be Freedom.

• John Pilger warns: “Do not forget Assange. Or you will lose him” by Oscar Grenfell  from World Socialist Web Site.

• Chelsea Manning faces $441,000 in fines and another year in jail for refusing to testify against WikiLeaks by Niles Niemuth from World Socialist Web Site.

• Buttigieg Already Courting Super-Delegates for Support from The Jimmy Dore Show.

• Colin Kaepernick posts training video to remind NFL he's been out of the league for 3 years by Liz Roscher from Yahoo Sports.

Recommended articles for 2/21/2018

• "Russian bots" - How An Anti-Russian Lobby Creates Fake News by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama.

• The Three Global Super-Powers by Eric Zuesse from The Greanville Post. 

Can it really be that if the world of the future won’t be led by America’s billionaires, then it won’t exist at all? Do they really demand “My way, or the highway” — really? Are America’s billionaires (despite any ‘humanitarian’ pretenses they individually so often hypocritically express, both in the fictionalized and in the real version) so stunningly united in their actual psychopathy (likewise in both versions — “Big Brother,” and today’s reality)? .... And collectively they’ve got the American public fooled into admiring the MIC (“the Military”) above all other US institutions. But whether America’s billionaires will carry their collective evil to the extreme, isn’t yet clear. They are the actual decision-makers regarding US Government policy, but they are playing their cards — as usual — privately and secretly, until their game (whatever it may turn out to be) will already be finished.

• The media and the Mueller indictment: A conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site.

Given that the US government has just issued a series of strategy documents that, among other conclusions, suggest that a significant cyberattack on the United States could justify retaliation with nuclear weapons, the implications of the argument put forward on the front page of the Times are chilling: What cyberattack could be more significant than an effort to hijack the US presidential election? By the logic of the leading “newspaper of record,” the US government would be justified in responding militarily to an alleged Russian election operation.

What is propounded in the media coverage is a conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories.

• What just happened in Korea and when will we ever learn?! by "The Saker" from his blog.

In my many contacts with Russians I notice one recurrent feature: most of them simply do not understand that they are at war and that the war which is being waged against them has absolutely no rules. Whoever put that Meldonium into Krushelnitsky’s room or bottle or snack took a tiny risk and yet that resulted in yet another major PR blow delivered against Russia’s image and the against the morale of the poor Russian athletes who are already competing with an (illegally) reduced team and in terrible conditions (Hats off to whoever came up with that plan: it was nothing short of brilliant, very low risk and very high yield)

Recommended articles for 2/15/2018

• US Media Turn to ‘Superhero’ Pence to Combat Korean Olympic Peace Threat by Adam Johnson from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.

• Who is burying the Olympic movement and why? from Oriental Review. Although this rather lengthy post originates from an independent website in Russia, I think that it at least provides balance to the ongoing smearing of Russia athletes by the US. Actually I think most Russian and other nations' websites, whether independent or funded by their governments, offer far more accurate coverage of issues that those under the control of the transnational capitalist class in nations under the control of the US-led Empire.  Media corporations in the latter nations have no scruples about planting fake news stories, presenting extremely biased reports in their media, and engaging in censorship by refusing to offer the views of independent journalists.

• The following video was posted in an article entitled "A chi sono utili le «inutili guerre»" or "The Art of War: For Whom are the 'Useless Wars' Useful For?" posted at Il Manifesto, an Italian journalists' cooperative website. The 16:08m video provides a very good summary of the article. (The video may take a few seconds to upload.)

• Korean Olympic Diplomacy Moves Forward Despite U.S. Intransigence. This article features an interview conducted by Dennis Bernstein with a writer and regional expert, Kay Jay Noh.

• PBS’s The Gilded Age: Removing the working class from the stage of history by Tom Mackaman from World Socialist Web Site. This article exposes the deep capitalist bias and censorship that permeates most all American cultural productions related to USA history.

NFL Owner Sparks Outrage by Describing Athletes as 'Inmates'

Click here to access article from TeleSur. 

Actually Bob McNair, owner of the Houston Texans came close to telling the truth when he said to an ESPN reporter "We can't have the inmates running the prison". Athletes are salaried workers who are paid more as a way to, not only assuage the owners' guilt, but to pacify the athletes who daily risk life and limb to promote the profits of their owners. Notice, too, they are essentially commodities that are literally and legally traded from one owner to another. As a child I could never understand this, but then I grew up.             

The Unspoken Truth behind the Colin Kaepernick Story

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from The Greanville Post. 

Curtin reminds us that America's favorite sport, football, serves not only to entertain us but to induce positive inclinations toward violence and dominance. It is no coincidence that the military often shows up at such events so that we look on favorably at their activities that promote the interests of the Empire's capitalist class while causing so much suffering throughout the world.

...the unspoken truth in the Kaepernick story is that football is the war sport par excellence, extremely violent, and deeply tied to the spectacle of cruelty that dominates American society today and that has caused so much suffering for black people and other people of color for centuries.

Oakland's NFL Star Marshawn Lynch Sits During US Anthem

Click here to access article from TeleSur. 

A former star running back for the Seattle Seahawks joins quarterback Kaepernick in refusing to stand for the national anthem. Last night his friend and former teammate Michael Bennett also refused to stand as a protest against racist injustice in the exhibition game against the San Diego Chargers. In contrast to Lynch he explained his reasons in an interview after the game.

Seahawk defensive lineman Michael Bennett sat during the national anthem prior to the team’s preseason opener against the Chargers in Carson, Calif., Sunday night, a stance he said he will continue throughout the 2017 season in an effort to “continuously push” a message against injustice in society.

Colin Kaepernick dilemma: The NFL really is a plantation

Click here to access article by Mel Reeves from Rhymes Media Group.

Reeves explains the similarities of NFL's actions of today with the slave-plantation system of our history, and he also castigates today's racists and "Uncle Toms". The Civil War may have freed African-Americans from classic slavery, but otherwise for most of them conditions don't seem to have changed substantially. Now it seems the ruling capitalist class finds African-Americans not only as a source of cheap labor, but as a useful group to divide, control, and fool white workers.

The Colin Kaepernick situation reveals all you need to know about the US Big Business and its most popular non profit the National Football League. Kaepernick remains unsigned because he stood up against racism and police violence, both of which are important to the rich powerful in maintaining their hold on US society.

The NFL owners are hypocrites.

Kaepernick forces Americans to choose sides

Click here to access article by Matt Peppe from American Herald Tribune.

With the atomization of society, the corporatization of political parties and the disappearance of unions in the neoliberal era, citizens have been largely relegated to the role of spectators in the political process, whose function is to support bipartisan American hegemony. Sports, where fans come together to watch passively, have become the most important venue to propagandize for militarism and American supremacy.

And the "bipartisan" part is only for appearances. It's much like "putting lipstick on a pig" to disguise capitalist rule to make it look attractive, a class rule which is designed to fool people into thinking that their nation is ruled by a democracy.

‘Politically Correct’ Rio Olympics Amid Anti-Russia Cold War Hysteria

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation.

The Rio Olympics have...been turned into an anti-Russian morality play whose purpose is a base politicized objective.

The heavy-handed suppression of legitimate Brazilian protests against an unconstitutional would-be imposter-president – in the name of "keeping politics out of sports" – is absurdly conducted amidst an international spectacle of subverting the very same Olympic games into a Russia-bashing event.

Like bread and circuses of ancient Rome, we are expected to believe that the "great and good" are nobly entertaining the masses with sporting fun – with an event that has been thoroughly contaminated by toxic politics.

A Rush to Judgment on Russian Doping

Click here to access article by Rick Sterling from ConsortiumNews. 

Sterling reveals bias by key witnesses, lack of public disclosure of email evidence, and no independent corroboration of the opening of the test bottles by Russian authorities. With the banning of so many Russian athletes and accusations of Russian government illegal support for doping happening along with so many other Western propaganda attacks against Russia makes these allegations highly suspicious. 

So, let us meet Richard McClaren as he answered questions posed to him by RT, the Russian counterpart to PBS. (I've had considerable difficulty in sustaining access to RT. Don't know if the US is blocking this website or if there is some other problem. Anyway the link is here.)

Capitalist sponsored Olympics

by Brian McFadden

The capitalist team that never loses

by Pat Bagley, cartoonist for the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Former Japanese Ambassador calls on IOC to cancel 2020 Olympics over Fukushima Risks

Click here to access article from nsnbc. 

The former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland, Mitshei Murata, has called on the President of the International Olympic Committee to move the 2020 Olympics from Tokyo or to cancel the games over the situation at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. 

Military spectacle and American sport

Click here to access article by Eric London from World Socialist Web Site.

The report, titled “Tackling Paid Patriotism,” shows that the Pentagon paid sports teams across the country millions of dollars for allowing the military-intelligence agencies to carry out hundreds of displays of pro-war, pro-military propaganda.

Ahead Of Israel Expulsion Vote U.S. Orders Raid On FIFA

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama. 

I believe that this incident provides another illustration of both Zionist influence in our government and another aggressive, anti-Russian effort by our ruling masters. 

Today the U.S. ordered Swiss police to raid, incarcerate and extradite to the U.S. six FIFA officials for alleged corruption. The raid, with obviously pre-alarmed New York Times reporters on the scene, comes shortly before a FIFA vote to expel Israel from the association. 

The World Cup Spilleth Over: As the Soccer Games End, Political Ones Begin

Click here to access article by Danny Schechter posted on Common Dreams. 

The FIFA sponsored World Cup of soccer in Brazil has imposed enormous social costs on the Brazilians. Now with the humiliating loss to the German team, Schechter wonders if the Brazilian ruling class may have counted too much on a Brazilian win to assuage public discontent.

The World Cup has spilleth over. With the  FIFA spectacle about to pack up its goodies—most of their lucre has already been wired out of Brazil—...the “host” country now tries to cope with its financial losses, intensified social conflicts and humiliating defeat at the hands of the Germans....

The Price of the World Cup

Click here if you wish to access the source posting of an excellent 29:00m video and brief introduction by Don Quijones on his blog Raging Bull-Shit. (A British blogger residing in Spain)

On the eve of the world’s biggest sporting circus, here’s Mikkel Keldof’s hard-hitting documentary The Price of the World Cup. The film offers a slice of the other reality in Brazil, the reality that neither FIFA nor the Brazilian authorities want global viewers — whether football fans or not — to see.

I wonder why Pepe Escobar, an outstanding, independent Brazilian journalist, has never reported on such realities found in his home country (I've never found any) as he has for many other parts of the world. I'm not suggesting hypocrisy on his part. Journalists all over the world are under tremendous political pressure to write material that does not threaten ruling classes, and many are killed that refuse to comply.

John Oliver: “Football is an Organized Religion and FIFA Is It’s Church”

Click here to access article by Don Quijones who posts on his blog Raging Bull-Shit a 13:13m video featuring a popular British comic who provides a humorous and satirical exposé of capitalist exploitation of soccer/football .

Wherever there is money to be made, capitalists will be there to make it. Having discovered the religious-like popularity among much of the world's population for this sport, they could not resist moving in to exploit it. Brazilian laws that stood in their way were easy targets for those who rule most of the world.

Brazil: Workers Struggle Trumps Sports Spectacle

Click here to access article by James Petras from VoltaireNet.

For decades social critics have bemoaned the influence of sports and entertainment spectacles in ‘distracting’ workers from struggling for their class interests. According to these analysts, ‘class consciousness’ was replaced by ‘mass’ consciousness. They argued that atomized individuals, manipulated by the mass media, were converted into passive consumers who identified with millionaire sports heroes, soap opera protagonists and film celebrities.

The culmination of this ‘mystification’ —mass distraction— were the ‘world championships’ watched by billions around the world and sponsored and financed by billionaire corporations....

Today, Brazil is the living refutation of this line of cultural-political analysis. Brazilians have been described as ‘football crazy’. Its teams have won the most number of World Cups. Its players are coveted by the owners of the most important teams in Europe. Its fans are said to “live and die with football” . . . Or so we are told.

Yet it is in Brazil where the biggest protests in the history of the World Cup have taken place.
[my emphasis]

More details on the events related to the World Cup in Brazil are supplied by an activist from India in an article entitled "A spectre on the World Cup".