Posts that I especially recommend and a commentary for today:Saturday, April 25, 2020

• The Deadliest Pandemic by Paul Edwards from CounterPunch.

• Part 1: How the Chinese Authorities and the World Health Organization Handled the Coronavirus by Vijay Prashad from Independent Media Institute. (My reaction: The report (with documentation) clashes with the endless narratives transmitted by corporate media and US officials that blame Chinese officials for the delay in alerting the rest of the world about the pandemic. So, who do you believe? I believe Prashad, not only because of his honest character, but because of the contents of this well-documented report.) 

• World Food Programme warns: COVID-19 pandemic will cause “famines of biblical proportions” by Jean Shaoul from Defend Democracy Press.

• Russia warns US about biological weapons concern by Joaquin Flores from FRN (Fort Russ News). (Note: This international treaty (1972) which banned biological weapons corresponds to Francis Boyle's attempts to ban the US government's production of biological weapons in 1990. But if you believe that the US government functions according to laws or agreements, I have a bridge to sell you (def.). But if you don't agree with the last statement, you are in good company (def.) with American Indians.) 

• As US passes 50,000 deaths, workers strike against back-to-work campaign by Shannon Jones and Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site. (Note: I'm posting this only in order to respond to it.)

My commentary: I've noticed that the this website's editors have consistently advocated for worker's safely in response to the threat of the current pandemic. And, I've also noticed their lack of concern about the government's refusal to offer any significant support for millions of non-essential workers. WSWS seems in agreement with the ruling class's obvious view that corresponds to a condescending quote (1789) attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette "let them eat cake", which referred to the French ruling class's utter lack of concern for the millions of French who where facing famine.

It seems to me that the huge numbers of "non-essential" workers and the owner's of small businesses are facing simular threats to their survival: loss of homes (due to evictions and inability to maintain mortgage payments), can't afford medical care, instability of families (divorces and spouse problems) in addition to feeding their families. These workers may be non-essential to the capitalist ruling class, but their jobs are essential to them. Perhaps this attitude is related to the ruling class's solution to the climate crisis--depopulation. But I remain astounded by WSWS's stance on this issue.

One cannot blame these workers if they insist on returning to their jobs, but the small business owners do not have this option. However, many workers are employed by small business owners. Perhaps it is time to consider other options. (Also, be sure to see the next post.)

• Many Strikes Are Coming Before Nov. Election & After. w/Jane McAlevey from The Jimmy Dore Show (via YouTube). (Note: McAlevey, a labor organizer, continues talking about how to organize workers.)

• Capitalism Can’t Be Repaired – Coronavirus Shows Its Huge Weaknesses by Richard D. Wolff from Brave New Europe. 

• Would We Have Already Had a COVID-19 Vaccine Under Socialism? by Vanessa A. Bee  from In These Times.

Posts that I especially recommend and a commentary for today: Friday, April 24, 2020

My commentary after viewing the film entitled Planet of the Humans last night: (Editing for greater clarification was made at 8:56 PM CT.)

Basically, Jeff Gibbs concludes that humans are doomed, and he cites three explanations to account for this: 1) We humans cannot and have not faced the fact that we are like all other creatures and life forms--we are only temporary. Although in an unequal fashion we have excelled in controlling the environment to serve the needs of certain humans, this led to the second problem. 2) Our population has skyrocketed during the past few centuries that has caused the contamination of the Earth's ecosystem. 3) The profit system or capitalism has driven us to produce all kinds of stuff that is overwhelming the Earth's ecosystem. In the final moments of the film he circles back to the first theme. 

What ties these themes together is the attack of the Green Movement and their outlandish promises of solving the obviously developing degradation of the environment and, most especially, global warming.

The attack on the obvious failings of the Green Movement provides a variety of thinkers (Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Rockefeller Foundation, liberals like Michael Moore, anti-capitalists, and followers of Cory Morningstar and Wrong Kind of Green website) reasons to support the film. The Green Movement has promoted fake solutions that have helped to convince people that solar power, wind power, and the burning of biomass could save us. In the film these are revealed as nothing less than foolhardy solutions. Gibbs exaggerates this argument in order to thoroughly demolish the Green's proposals. He makes them look ridiculous. This is not entirely the case, but the outlandish promises made by the Green Movement led to this attack. The problem was the ruling capitalist class.
 
Although Gibbs does not make this explicitly clear, the Green Movement was corrupted by capitalists who infiltrated this movement in order to integrate it with their primary interests of profit and power. He is right in his belief that other humans needed to sustain their false belief in their immortality and rather easily succumbed to the enticements offered by the capitalist ruling classes. But who continued supporting religions in spite of man-made science that was uncovering the secrets of nature? Capitalist ruling classes. Like all ruling classes they soon learned the benefits of co-opting and modified them so that the Greens didn't interfere in their quest for power--the domination of others who would serve their needs of material comforts.

The capitalist class has always put their faith in the accumulation of wealth after discovering that wealth gave them power to dominate others. This faith was strengthened after discovering that they could use science to accumulate even greater wealth. However, capitalists also were disturbed by this existential problem of their mortality, so they turned to the solution offered by the feudal ruling class that they replaced--inheritance laws in which the accumulation of wealth and power in their families could be reproduced indefinitely in their descendants. This gave them a sense of immortality which most humans crave. Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Britain, expressed this succinctly when she said that there was no such thing as society, only families.

As a critique of the Green Movement it succeeds, but it fails as an ultimate explanation for the growing recognition of our demise as humans. It satisfies capitalists in that it legitimatizes efforts to reduce global populations (but not theirs); it satisfies anti-capitalists as a critique of capitalism, and lastly the film satisfies those (mostly religious figures) who see human weakness (self-fulfilling argument) as the real cause of the extinction of humans. But could this failure be necessary in order to obtain the funding and support necessary to finance the film from such a variety of sources?

• Capitalism on Life Support… Time for a Cure by an editor of Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Podcast: Whitney Webb on the Rise of a Biotech Industrial Complex Under COVID-19 which features Mnar Muhawesh, the founder of Mint Press News, interviewing the very informative Whitney Webb on what she knows and other evidence about the background of people associated with the present coronavirus in the apparent quest to increase ruling class control in the USA and the world. (Note: This is nearly an hour, but the information is voluminous, and we get to hear Webb who, I think, will impress you with her breadth of knowledge and good judgment. And/or you may be interested in Webb's appearance on The Jimmy Dore Show where she explains some of the main findings in "a recent document acquired through a FOIA request" in her article from The Last American Vagabond entitled "Techno-Tyranny: How The US National Security State Is Using Coronavirus To Fulfill An Orwellian Vision").

• Coronavirus Lockdown and What You Are Not Being Told by Iain Davis from BS News (Britain).   

• China’s Covid-19 Reporting Is Truthful, Birx and Trump Demonstrate-Unwittingly by John V. Walsh from Dissident Voice.

• Healthworkers Call for Action on Workers Memorial Day from Reel News (via YouTube). (Note: We hear from health workers their observations about this pandemic.)

• The Russians And The Chinese Are Your Enemy (poetry) by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• How To Start A Successful Strike During Crisis. w/Jane McAlevey from The Jimmy Dore Show (via YouTube). (Note: McAlevey offers very impressive tips on organizing workers.)

• Capitalism and the Illusion of Democracy by Rob Urie from CounterPunch. (Note: Although the author makes some good points about "democratic" elections, he employs the term "state capitalism" to describe the present system in the USA and the Empire. What does this term mean? He doesn't define it. Might it mean by inference that the oligarchy controls the government? And further, could he by implication be arguing for small capitalism that existed 150 years ago? If so, this is a silly argument. Capitalism always develops by consolidating wealth and power in ever greater concentrations.)

•  Earth Day, Live Hope Presentation 2020 featuring Guy McPherson (via YouTube) building his argument that we are on the edge of abrupt climate change and global dimming, he reviews many scientific studies. Along the way he also explains the concept of "global dimming" in which reduced industrial activity results in even more global warming. McPherson elucidates this topic in the context of an opportunity to fully appreciate life in the current moment.

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

• We cannot expect capitalists to manage a pandemic by Susan Rosenthal from her weblog. 

• Diseased System in Shut-Lockdown: Never a Better Time to Fight for Socialism by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report. 

My commentary: I scanned this article and discovered that I differ from Ford as to the history of socialism in the Soviet Union. After reading widely in their history, I conclude that socialism only lasted a few years. Soon after Lenin died and Stalin consolidated control of the government, the Soviet Union deteriorated into what I call "bureaucratism" (others call it "state capitalism").

The original Bolsheviks were exhausted fighting the Allies among the capitalist countries and the White armies, the embargos, etc. After Lenin died and the Stalinists consolidated control, the Soviet bureaucracy (also called "nomenklatura") gradually served themselves extra privileges denied to ordinary Russians: they appointed themselves to advanced positions in the bureaucracy, they got their children into the best schools and later into the best careers, they shopped at exclusive stores, etc.)

• Revisting Lenin’s “What is to be Done?” After Bernie Sanders by Tatiana Cozzarelli from Left Voice.

• Why Post-Coronavirus America Will Have Massive Poverty by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• Landlords Illegally Evicting Tenants, Despite Federal Restrictions by Rebecca Burns from The American Prospect.

• WATCH: Planet of the Humans [Full Film] from Wrong Kind of Green. Blogger's Note: Because I have not viewed this film yet, I cannot recommend it personally. Although I have reservations from the people who have endorsed it, I am posting this because Wrong Kind of Green has promoted it:

This compelling, must-see movie – a full-frontal assault on our sacred cows – is guaranteed to generate anger, debate, and, hopefully, a willingness to see our survival in a new way—before it’s too late.

• In Light of the Global Pandemic, Focus Attention on the People posted in English on Defend Democracy Press. (Note: I believe this effort, along with all other efforts, is too late. I also believe that the first order of business is to overthrow capitalism (not "changes" or reforms) and install a sustainable system to redeem humans who have been responsible for the destruction of the environment that sustains life.)

• Merchants of death: Multibillion-dollar bailout for arms industry amid rising COVID-19 toll by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site.

• The AngloZionists Are Launching a Strategic PSYOP Against China by "The Saker" (Andrei Rsevsky) from The Unz Review. (Note: You may be interested in the frustrated and angry reactions that a descendant (read B. Faulkner's intro of Raevsky) of White Russian refugees has toward US government officials during this pandemic.)

• Human Lab Rats: The U.S. Government’s Secret History of Grisly Experiments by John W. Whitehead from Dissident Voice.

• ‘Republic of hunger’ in the Time of ‘Lockdown’ by Shashi Kant Tripathi from United World (based in Turkey). 

• US rewards for Hezbollah leaders’ heads: How do they affect the organisation? by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog.

My commentary: This distinguished Middle Eastern journalist writes how the rich US/Anglo/Zionist Empire operates in regions of the Middle East that are not under their control. The ruling capitalist classes control nearly all media in the countries they control, and thus control the narratives (control the perceptions of reality among populations) published/broadcast by media outlets throughout their Empire. 

However, the directors of the Empire (major capitalists) must resort to crude bounties on leaders who are their antagonists and independent of Empire influences in the Middle East. Magnier reports that these bounties inevitably backfire. Instead, such leader-antagonists receive rewards in terms of status and perks that other, more cooperative (with the Empire) leaders do not.

This reaction is in stark contrast with media corporations within the Empire. After many years of infiltrating these corporations, the directors of the Empire now have complete control of media (formerly they had only partial control), and thus control all information that their populations receive. The directors of the Empire do this by rewarding easily corrupted journalists with lucrative careers. The latter careerists joined many other "professionals" (particularly in education) in the upper-middle class (Malcolm X referred to them as house niggers: he used this term when speaking to largely African-American audiences, but YouTube purged these videos) who enjoy the many fruits of capitalist rule.

This is the primary secret of the Empire's success; and need I add, the demise of humans and most other species on the unique planet Earth.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 (added one post from RT at 12:38 PM CT)

• What Did U.S. Intel Really Know About the ‘Chinese’ Virus? by Pepe Escobar from The Alternative World.

• Abrupt Ecosystem Collapse by Robert Hunziker from Defend Democracy Press. (Note: This article is a summary of a study published behind a paywall in Nature. The study is another piece of evidence that most life on Earth will perish within a few decades, maybe one decade. Also, see this and this.)

• To feel safe, does the world need more weapons or better healthcare? The coronavirus pandemic proves it’s the latter by Shishir Upadhyaya and Danielle Ryan from RT.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, April 21, 2020

• Covid-19: Likely financial conflagrations to come (part 3 of a series, the first two can be accessed in the article) by Eric Toussaint from CADTM. (Note: This is a comprehensive series on the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's central banks and the role they are playing to keep the Empire afloat.) He concludes this article with the statement "It is of fundamental importance that a strategy be put into practice that makes a radical and complete break with the capitalist system and its deadly logic".

• Negative Prices Mark The End Of U.S. Shale by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama.

• Oil Price Collapse Delivers a Loud Warning by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

• The Bailout, the Fed, and the Aftermath: A conversation with former Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin (Robert Kuttner interviews Raskin) from The American Prospect.

• The mother of all monologues | Biden will NOT be able to stand | EP 44 featuring a monolog by George Galloway (via YouTube), a former member of the British parliament.  (Note: I thank an activist for sending me this post.)
  
  My commentary: I entirely agree with his implied question at the end: what to do when the working class wakes up to the knowledge that the ruling classes have been doing virtually nothing to preserve and protect them?
  
  I fear for the future, not for myself, but mainly for the workers of both countries--they have a very rough road ahead of them. I can't imagine how the US elections in November will turn out.
  
  However, I hesitate to agree with Galloway's implication (if I understand him) that it was a naturally occurring mutation that produced this virus and only accidentally exposed to the general population. I'll await further evidence to decide. Prof. Francis Boyle offered convincing evidence that Covid-19 was produced in the USA, but I differ from his view that it was accidentally released in China. I think it was likely deliberately released in China as a desperate attempt by the Deep State (whether the US or the Empire's) to act as a cover to again bail-out major banks and corporations; to damage much of China's economy as well as a number of other national economies such as Russia, Iran, and Venezuela while maintaining sanctions on them, and increasing them on the latter two; to get rid of a number of senior citizens that was a growing burden on the Social Security Administration; and to reduce populations as a necessity to prevent the growing threat to capitalism that greenhouse gases posed.
  
  If this was the strategy, it likely backfired. Now some workers are calling for a general strike on May Day. Meanwhile, the ruling class's sheepherder, Bernie Sanders, who campaigned for "Medicare For All", dropped out of the election just in time to prevent any damage to the election of Joe Biden, the ruling class's choice. The latter's government could only manage a $1200 to bail-out to some workers. This class is experiencing a growing sense of desperation, and they're doing everything they can to keep their Empire's currency afloat. Alastair Crooke is seeing the US dollar collapsing under the weight of debts. Graham Peebles sees an economic tsunami coming: "Everywhere in the world the cushioned and comfortable are more or less, insulated, both from inconvenience and to a degree from the coming economic [and political] tsunami." (My insertion.) 

• The Gates Foundation's Vaccination Activism by Eric Wagner from the German website Multipolar.

• 100 days after the assassination of Soleimani: Did the US achieve its goals? (part 2/2) by Elijah J Magnier from his weblog. Note: (The author cites events since the assassination to argue that the event backfired on the Empire.)

• State of the climate: First quarter of 2020 is second warmest on record by Zeke Hausfather from Carbon Brief.

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

• Covid-19: stage assessment on the multidimensional crisis and alternative approaches by Eric Toussaint from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt).

• Bill Gates – Coronavirus Vaccine or Biological Weapon and Implanted Microchip? by Nazar Golovko from FRN (Fort Russ News).

• Can COVID-19 Truth and 9/11 Truth Change the World? (with Matthew Ehret) featuring Kevin Barrett interviewing Canadian Matthew Ehret, a critical analyst, who frequently writes for Strategic Culture Foundation. This is an opportunity for people who respect Ehret's views and analysis to listen to him in this one hour interview. Dr. Barrett taught at the University of Wisconsin until he was blacklisted in 2006 by the ruling class who disapproved of his views and analysis. The interview was posted on False Flag Weekly News, one of Barrett's weblogs.

• Will antibody tests for the coronavirus really change everything? by Smriti Mallapaty from Nature.

• Capitalism Grappling with Coronavirus from The Internationalists. (Note: If you liked this article, you may be interested in another article entitled "Covid-19 struggles and workers' control".

• Unsanitized: Donna Shalala Selection Makes a Mockery of Bailout Oversight Panel by David Dayen from The American Prospect.

• David Meiswinkle Interview – Ongoing Suppression Of 9/11 Truth & Proof Of Controlled Demolition from The Last American Vagabond. (Note: This is a 48:35m interview with the lead attorney trying to push this effort through the federal court system.)

• The Fatal Road To 4 Degrees Celsius by Andrew Glikson from Arctic News. (Note: This is a comprehensive scientific report that supports my view that we humans and a vast majority of other species are inevitably heading for extinction within the next several decades.) 

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

• The International Situation in the Era of the Coronavirus Pandemic by Philippe Alcoy originally from Révolution Permanente, translated by Scott Cooper, and posted on Left Voice. 

• The pandemic, profits and the capitalist justification of suffering and death by David North from World Socialist Web Site.

The premature return to work that the Trump administration is orchestrating will lead to countless thousands of deaths, which could be prevented if a rigorous program of social distancing, supported by a massive program of testing and contact tracing, were implemented and sustained during the coming critical months.

My commentary: I don't think it is the fault of the Trump administration, rather it is due to the capitalist system that always prioritizes profits/power over the health of workers. The author, as is fashionable in media corporations, criticizes Trump too much rather than the logic of capitalism that is suggested by the title of the article.

• Seeds Of Awakening: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• Threat of Starvation Becoming More Real by Vladimir Odintsov from New Eastern Outlook. 

• Covid-19 on a debt assault by Eric Toussant from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). 

• Coronavirus: Middle East states crack down on media freedom by Megan O'Toole from Middle East Eye.

• The Trickle-Up Bailout by Matt Taibbi from Substack.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, April 17, 2020

• Engineered plandemic (sic) posted by "BoredButterfly" on The Duran. Spiro Skouras interviews Prof. Francis Boyle (also see this bio from Wikispooks). (Robert Kennedy, Jr vouches for one piece of Boyle's research.) (Edited commentary at 6:56 PM CT.)

I believe the evil Gates has funded this global disaster. Knowing his family eugenics background and after seeing this amazing video I’m convinced. The attached video reveals the Virus is a Bio-weapon developed with a plan in mind and its been purchased by China. Follow the thread to the countries involved, the Chinese scientists and locations of the P3 P4 labs. Now B. Gates wont shut up about his vaccine plan. It’s he who will benefit the most. JFK jr is on his case like NEVER BEFORE.

The dots are coming together on their own.

My commentary (edited @6:56PM CT): Boyle has been doing interviews (see this one) with Alex Jones on Infowars website, and I don't know why. Could it be that he has been banned from major media? In interviews done with Infowars, host Jones frequently interrupts Boyle with his reckless biased inferences and frequent breaks to peddle his vitamins. Although Boyle is clearly qualified and, as a humanitarian, has much knowedge to share with us, he too has biases against China which sometimes subtly informs his inferences (as demonstrated in the above link). I think Boyle does disservice to get his information out there by participating in interviews with Alex Jones on Infowars. 

This interview by Skouras lets Boyle present his evidence in a concise way. Although Boyle's evidence adds to our knowledge, I think it is clear that he provided a "smoking gun" for the origin of the virus in a US lab, but not its transmission in China. Additionally, what is clear is that he is being banned from major media by the Deep State (see this, this, and this) which operates behind the curtain of the grand deception that our government functions according to the rule of law.

• Corporations Are Not Letting This Crisis Go to Waste by Jeremy Mohler from In These Times.

• We Are Ruled By Wizards by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. (Note: She dissects what it means to control the narrative or people's perception of reality.)

• Towards A New World Order? The Global Debt Crisis and the Privatization of the State by Prof Michel Chossudovsky from Global Research. 

• Epstein's 'co-conspirators' off the hook, says judge from the Rick Sanchez Show on RT.

• The Story of Cap and Trade by Annie Leonard from Though Maybe. 

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

• The Recovery Will Not Be V-Shaped by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

• Long Breadlines Form Outside of Food Banks as America Struggles to Cope With COVID-19 Fallout by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News. 

• Reactions to the Corona Virus Hint of a Wider Agenda by James O’Neill from New Eastern Outlook. (I thank an activist for alerting me to this article.)

• Montana physician Dr. Annie Bukacek discusses how COVID 19 death certificates are being manipulated (via YouTube). (Note: This is another medical doctor (like Dr. Scot Jensen,) who has reported CDC's instructions to encourage them to report deaths as from Covid 19. She reveals this at 11:32m into her address.) My commentary: The doctor (nor I) is not implying that the coronavirus pandemic is fake, but more evidence that some people want "to scare the hell of you" (def). Also, see this and this!

• Ron Paul: People ‘Should Be Leery About’ a Coronavirus Vaccine by Adam Dick from the Ron Paul Institute. (Note: Paul thinks the motivation behind the scare strategy is to motivate us to unquestionably accept vaccines.)

• Robert Kennedy Jr slams WHO's sordid ties to Big Pharma from Rick Sanchez program on RT (via YouTube).

• The Agenda behind Bill Gates Vaccine & ID2020 : Coronavirus Conspiracies featuring "Syrian Girl" (via YouTube) offering much information to suggest that conspiracies may be involved. (Note: She is well informed and credible, and offers new information that citizens need to be aware of. I am not suggesting that conspiracies are involved in this pandemic, but we need to be aware that conspiracies (like shit) sometimes happen.)

• Here Are the Contracts Showing How $4.5 Trillion in Stimulus Was Outsourced to Wall Street by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

• Coronavirus stimulus bill funds State Dept/USAID operations that once helped trigger polio outbreak in Syria by Max Blumenthal from The Grayzone.

• The post-pandemic slump by Michael Roberts from his weblog.

• We Won’t Pay for Their Crises Anymore! from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt).

• The End of Sanders, and Maybe the Beginning of a Mass Independent Left by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report. 

• How top Labour officials plotted to bring down Jeremy Corbyn posted by Johnathan Cook on his weblog. (I am posting this from Cook's blog as an exception to my rule to post from the original sources because it gives the article greater credibility from a renowned British journalist.)

• Arctic Hit By Ten Tipping Points from Arctic News.

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

• Searching for Truth in What We are being Told About Covid-19 by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook. 

• Disunited States: Government Failure to Address Coronavirus is Sparking a Mutual Aid Revolution by Eleanor Goldfield from Mint Press News.

• COVID-19 as a Weapon. The Crushing of the Disposable Working Class – by Design by Cory Morningstar from Wrong Kind of Green.

• Three of the Biggest Banks on Wall Street Have $7.4 Trillion In Off-Balance Sheet Exposures by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade. 

• Why at Least America Will Be in Another Great Depression by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Note: I agree with his economic analysis; but when he gets to the part about elections, his social-democratic analysis completely obscures the fact of class warfare, that is, the ruling class controls both parties against the people. FDR was a most favorable accident for the ruling class (they even tried to remove him): FDR saved capitalism which is precisely what Zuesse desires.)

• COVID-19 and the War on Cash: What Is Behind the Push for a Cashless Society? by John W. Whitehead from Global Research.

• How Wars, Sanctions, and Militarism Made the Coronavirus Crisis Worse by Khury Petersen-Smith from Common Dreams.  

(Note: My work was interupted this morning by the disappearance of wifi service; and when it was restored, I still could not access Fort Russ News.) 

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

• Resistance Growing to Covid-Capitalism by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report.

• Solidarity in a Time of Pandemic, While the US Capitalizes on Disaster by Roger D. Harris from Mint Press News.

• COVID-19: US Politicians and Media Have Success Hyped the Public Into an Anti-China Frenzy by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News.

• This Absolute Bullshit Would Not Be Possible Without Propaganda by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• COVID-19: Fallout From a Navy Captain’s Heroism: The Possible Emergence of a New Idea of ‘National Security’ by Gareth Porter from Consortium News. My commentary (edited for clarity at 8 AM CT on 4/16/2020):

This article contains the secret of the success of American capitalism, which has established the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, and the US capitalist ruling class dominance of the world while maintaining a "humanitarian" and "democratic" image throughout much of the world. In the micro world of the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier illustrates this carefully hidden secret.

The secret is revealed when you substitute the "pentagons bureaucracy" with America's capitalist ruling class. The secret of the latter's success is to provide ongoing management of what Caitlin Johnstone has described as control of the narrative, meaning the control of all major media corporations which provide daily news reports. Major media corporations, controlled by the ruling capitalist class, have served their masters by the re-engineering of people's consciousness of economic and political issues.

Although the capitalist ruling class (typical of all ruling classes) has from the birth of the USA (read my commentary here) has imposed their views on the rest of the population, this process of the "control of the narrative" process started deliberately and consciously by the ruling class right after WWII with the propaganda of the "Iron Curtain", attacks on labor unions, and elimination of left-wing dissenters among the Hollywood film industry. The secret and unaccountable CIA led these attacks and they have continued ever since then comprehensively among all institutions. (Read my commentaries here and here for further clarification.)

When the ship's captain (Crozier), with concern for the health of his 4000 man crew, sent a letter urging immediate action to evacuate sailors from the ship, he was summarily removed from his command by the Pentagon's bureaucracy (intimately connected to the ruling class). But the latter thought more about it and the large number of sailors involved, after which they concluded that this was too much of a threat to their legitimacy and their "control of the narrative" that they "chickened out" by removing the Sec. of Navy who fired Crozier. Thus is revealed the secret of their success: they won't allow anything to damage their control of the narrative that in the USA "democracy" and "humanitarianism" reigns. The Pentagon, which serves the ruling class and probably at the latter's direction, thought that the action of the Sec. of the Navy might stir up a storm of reaction among ordinary people of the US. They worried about 4000 sailors writing home to their parents, sisters, brothers, and sweethearts about the callous disregard for their health. If this ship had substantially fewer sailors, the ruling class would not have intervened.

Thus is illustrated the success of America's ruling class and its ideological control. They have opted for a soft fascism. They will not invoke harsh and open authoritarian measures to crush any opposition, but they nevertheless will succeed in controlling their population by controlling the narratives of sizeable minorities and majorities. This explains why sizeable, but less influential dissidents are not punished in any way, but highly influential whistleblower individuals like Julian Assange are. However, the ruling class's control of the narrative insures that their citizens, and much of the world, falsely believe that freedom of political dissent like all civil liberties is very much alive in the USA.

• American Workers Get a 4-Month Safety Net; Wall Street Gets a 4 to 5-Year Bailout by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

• The US Declares War on America: Chemical and Biological Weapons by Larry Romanoff from Global Research. 

• Brave New Normal by C. J. Hopkins from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. (satire)

• Coronavirus Has Broken America’s Food Supply by Alexander Sammon from The American Prospect.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Sunday, April 12, 2020

• Here’s why Bill Gates wants indemnity… Are you willing to take the risk? by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. from Children’s Health Defense. 

• COVID-19: Coronavirus and Civilization by Diana Johnstone from Consortium News. (Note: D. Johnstone, who is an American political writer based in Paris, gives her views of this crisis.)

• WATCH: Dr Scott Jensen Reveals “Ridiculous” Covid19 Guidance from Off-Guardian. (Note: This features Dr. Jensen, a Minnesota state senator and medical doctor who reports on his shocking experience regarding the instructions he received from the federal Dept. of Health and Human Services. Thus, we can presume that other doctors and medical facilities nationwide have received the same instructions.)

• New Research Shows Anti-Coronavirus Drugs Could Be Produced for Pennies by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News. (Note: Thanks go to an activist for alerting me to this article.)

• The S.E.C. Rule That Destroyed The Universe by Matt Taibbi from Substack.

• From Strike Wave to General Strike by Richard Moser from CounterPunch.

• We Need the Labor Movement To Organize Worker Fightback in the Face of the COVID-19 Crisis by Carl Rosen and others from In These Times.

• The Plan Is to Save Capital and Let the People Die by Hamilton Nolan from In These Times.

• Weimar America, Here We Come! Virus Hysteria Adds $10 Trillion to the National Debt by Mike Whitney from The Unz Review. 

• “Their wealth depends on our labor:” Interview with a New Orleans Nurse by Daniel Werst from Left Voice.

• Total system failure will give rise to new economy by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• Corona: It’s Love the Elites Are Really Afraid Of by Alison Banville from BSNews (based in Britain).

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, April 10, 2020

• 💥A Killer Enterprise: How One of Big Pharma’s Most Corrupt Companies Plans to Corner the Covid-19 Cure Market (part 2) by Whitney Webb and Raul Diego from The Last American Vagabond. This is a best post.
  

In this second installment of the series "Engineering Contagion: Amerithrax, Coronavirus and the Rise of the Biotech-Industrial Complex," Emergent Biosolution’s rise to prominence, made possible through acts of blatant corruption and the public-private revolving door, will be explored. The clear nexus between Big Pharma, Government and University-affiliated "Biosecurity Centers" offers a startling look into the Biotech-Industrial Complex that has long dominated U.S. biodefense policy and is now guiding much of the U.S. government’s response to the Coronavirus crisis.

My commentary: Webb is a highly-skilled investigative journalist who leads the study of the bioweapons industry whose roots go back to the Korean War (June 1950 –  July 1953) in which there is much compelling evidence exists that the US used a bioweapon against North Korea. Bioweapons appeared again in the media after the 9/11 false-flag event during the anthrax attacks on members of Congress that opposed the Patriot Act. In part 1 of this series the authors uncovered considerable dubious political connections to the right-wing and Big Pharma that are associated with these attacks. In part 2 the authors identify many of the same actors in addition to key players in pharmaceutical corporations who are currently in key roles in the current coronavirus pandemic. Both articles are dense reading.

• Gates’ Globalist Vaccine Agenda: A Win-Win for Pharma and Mandatory Vaccination by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from Children's Health Defense. 

• Who Profits from the Pandemic? by Pepe Escobar from Consortium News.

• Phantoms of the Operation by Edward Curtin from his weblog Behind the Curtain. 

• The Real Conspiracy: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• Fed Chair Powell Tells Whoppers This Morning on the Brookings Institution Webcast by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

• Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs by Amy Maxmen from Nature.

• Latest Jobless Numbers & State of US Economy–radio interview featuring economist Jack Rasmus (from his weblog) giving his observation about the current coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences.

• The Climate and Environmental Rules Being Rolled Back During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Amy Westervelt and Emily Gertz from Drilled News.

• 9/11 Truth: Under Lockdown for Nearly Two Decades by Max Parry from Global Research.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, April 9, 2020

• COVID-19: A Question of POWER by Susan Rosenthal from her weblog.

• What Does Wuhan Tell Us? from CGTN (China), a 6:58m video that features Zou Yue, a native of Wuhan, speaking in English about the lessons that the world should have learned from the experience of the people of Wuhan.

• The Project for a New American Century and the Age of Bioweapons: 20 Years of Psychological Terror by Matthew Ehret (Canadian) from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• The irreversible emissions of a permafrost ‘tipping point’ by Dr. Christina Schädel from Carbon Brief.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, April 8, 2020

• COVID USA. Bonnie Faulkner of Guns & Butter interviews  Larry Romanoff (nearly one hour) on his knowledge of the coronavirus pandemic. Romanoff, a Canadian, is currently living and working in China. His bio is as follows:

Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

I noted (@ 46:00m) that Romanoff declared the the CDC was part of the US military, but I couldn't confirm that. It is formally under the Department of Health and Human Services. Apparently he was suggesting that there was a kind of informal or sub-rosa arrangement. If you think the government works the way it is supposed work, I have a bridge to sell you (def.).

I never took seriously CDC's mission "to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S." I've read too many news articles and books about their failures in Detroit, Michigan to protect water quality, in the areas of Colorado and Washington state to protect citizens from radiation sickness and cancers, etc. Even the Wikipedia website contains a section faulting them for their weaknesses and failures (scroll down to the section "Popular culture and controversies").

• The Last Pandemic To Wreck The U.S. Naomi Karavani of the Redacted Tonight show gives us a history lesson about the 1918 influenza pandemic while satirizing the ruling capitalist class who wouldn't let the pandemic interfere with their war. The latter are currently demonstrating this by continuing their war against enemy nations using economic sanctions.

• How China learned about SARS-CoV-2 in the weeks before the global pandemic by Vijay Prashad, Du Xiaojun, and Weiyan Zhu from Peoples Dispatch. 

• China’s Victory over the Coronavirus by Liu Jian from Dissident Voice.

• BlackRock Takes Command by Joyce Nelson from CounterPunch.

• Into the Great Economic Abyss by Ahilan Kadirgamar from CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). 

• Silence of the Climate Watchdogs from Covering Climate Now.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, April 6, 2020

The first entry is a must-view post: 

• Bernie’s Tweets Reveal Failed Leadership During Crisis featuring Danny Haiphong giving history and political lessons to Jimmy Dore (of The Jimmy Dore Show) who is extremely angry and disillusioned with the fake campaigns run by Bernie Sanders and all the other "progressives". Most Americans have been brainwashed by the fake history that they have been taught in schools controlled by the capitalist ruling class. Hopefully, most Americans, like Dore, are finally waking up.)

• Wall Street Wins, Again: Bailouts in the Time of Coronavirus by Naomi Prins from CounterPunch.

... actions offering greater protection to the majority of the population would restart the economy in a truly sustainable fashion, while bringing back both jobs and confidence. But that, in turn, would involve a bold and courageous political response providing genuine and proportionate stimulus for people. Unfortunately, given Washington’s 1% tilt and Donald Trump’s CEO empathy, that is at present inconceivable.

Prins only seems to achieve an intuitive understanding that the very logic of capitalism always favors those who "own" property, the ruling class, but not those who are employed (essentially rented as long as they are useful) by owners of property to produce their profits that lead to the fabulous wealth and power that our masters enjoy. This is the secret that enables our ruling class's exploitation of workers, who produce all real wealth and power but which always end up in the hands of our exploiters. As in the game of Monopoly, the game is over when all the wealth is controlled by one player--the tiny capitalist class. I think that we are currently witnessing the beginning of the end of the "game" of capitalism. Should we workers celebrate the end of capitalism and the construction of a new sustainable social-economic system?

Yes! Especially if we can construct a sustainable social-economic system after the mess that capitalists have left us. This could be our redemption as an "intelligent" species.

However, Mother Earth is having us evicted from our home, planet Earth. There is too much evidence that the transnational empire of capitalists has sufficiently destroyed the habitat that all life forms depend on by having loaded already the planet's atmosphere with greenhouse gases. We are now locked into temperatures beyond what nearly all life forms can tolerate. The decline and fall of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire leaves other nations with mixed economies with the impossible task of contending with the rapidly accelerating effects of global warming which will lead to the extinction of nearly all species on planet Earth.

• China’s socialist planning and COVID-19 by the editor of The Duran.

• Eyes Wide Open: Will the ‘Masters of the Universe’ Notice No One Takes Them Seriously Anymore? by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• Resetting the Bomb by Matt Taibbi from Substack. 

• Edge of Extinction: The Aerosol Masking Effect, Redux by Guy McPherson from his weblog Nature Bats Last. (Note: On my desktop computer the link to the periodically updated essay "Extinction Foretold, Extinction Ignored" is found on the right-hand side.)

Posts that I especially recommend today: Saturday, April 4, 2020

• This is a Global Pandemic – Let’s Treat it as Such by Adam Hanieh from Defend Democracy Press.

• A New Humanity, A New World by Owei Lakemfa from Internationalist 360°.

• The class issues in the coronavirus pandemic by Niles Niemuth from World Socialist Web Site. 

• COVID-19: Seeds of Revolution Grown on Capitalism’s Corpse? by Gilbert Mercier from News Junkie Post. 

• How To Tell Real News From Useless Narrative Fluff by Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• Coronavirus pandemic will inevitably cause food crisis by "InfoBrics" from The Duran.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, April 3, 2020

While sheltering-in-place these critical and independent thinkers offer their views on the current situation. I personally favor the posts about Connecticut workers from Left Voice, Caitlin Johnstone's weblog, and from Black Agenda Report.

• Ground Control to Planet Lockdown: This Is Only a Test by Pepe Escobar from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Note: Escobar shares his observations about the coronavirus pandemic and considers various theories, in the spirit of "never let a crisis go to waste", to explain it as useful for the finance directors of the transnational capitalist empire, otherwise known as the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.)

• COVID-19 Quarantines: “This Is What a Police State Is Like” by Scott Cooper from Left Voice.

• Connecticut Workers Put Forward Plan of Action by William Lewis from Left Voice. (Note: This is an example of workers proposing to take control of their society because the ruling capitalist class has botched the job.)

• How It Starts by Craig Murray from his weblog. (Note: One of Britain's foremost independent and critical thinkers expresses his views on the current crisis.)

• We are Not Allowed to Watch, Listen and Read what We Want, Anymore by Andre Vltchek from New Eastern Outlook. (Note: This writer shares his thoughts while apparently sheltering-in-place in Europe.)

• Someone’s Screwing You, And It Ain’t China: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• COVID-19: The Capitalist Emperor Has no Clothes by Ajamu Baraka from Black Agenda Report.

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                                                                                 Other recommended posts

• China rolls out the Health Silk Road by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

• COVID-19: Cuomo’s Bubble is Starting to Burst by Joe Lauria from Consortium News.

• Fed’s Balance Sheet Blasts to $5.8 Trillion; Suggests Fed Is Back to Bailing Out Foreign Banks along with Wall Street by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, April 2, 2020

• Fired Amazon Strike Leader Has Powerful Message featuring Jimmy Dore (of The Jimmy Dore Show) interviewing Christian Smalls (via YouTube), the Amazon supervisor who was fired by Amazon for trying to protect his fellow workers, and explaining his experience related to the firing. If you liked this, you might be interested in Dore's post entitled "Workers Are Striking From Coast To Coast!!" in which he reports that workers are striking without union support all across America, and vents his anger.

• This Is The Largest Theft Ever In US History. Lee Camp (of Redacted Tonight) vents his anger (via YouTube) about the latest "stimulus" bill passed by Congress that overwhelmingly serves the interest of capitalists.

• Covid 19 & the FORGOTTEN Working Class by Jack Rasmus from his weblog.

• US pushes conspiracy theory on China’s coronavirus death toll to deflect from Trump administration failures by Ajit Singh from The Grayzone.

My commentary: One thing I've noticed in both corporate media and government actions is that nothing has changed with either of them during this pandemic. They're both continuing as usual: media corporations like CNN, MSNBC, PBS, etc. are continuing their anti-Trump bias and Fox News is continuing showing various members of the Trump administration bloviating how great they are doing. Meanwhile, the government continues its assault on Venezuela, Iran, and China via increasing sanctions and threats. Domestically the Trump administration continues to weaken environmental protections. And, last but not least. the Fed is using the the crisis to bail out major banks while putting our nation (that's us) deeper in debt.

• Pentagon Orders All Installations to Stop Reporting COVID-19 Infections and Deaths by Ann Garrison from Black Agenda Report.

• Coronavirus exposes the many weaknesses in the US healthcare system by Ali Cinar from TRT World (based in Turkey).

• The Men and Women Who Shrank the U.S. Ventilator Supply by Andrea Beaty from The American Prospect. 

• Strict lockdowns and rapid tests: How poorer countries are bracing for coronavirus by Amy Maxmen from Nature.

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, March 31, 2020

• COVID-19 Crisis Positive Side Effects: End of Dog-Eat-Dog Civilization? by Gilbert Mercier from News Junkie Post. 

• The Pandemic and the End of the Neoliberal Era by Atilio A. Boron from Internationalist 360°.

My commentary to both above articles: To be sure, the pandemic is wrecking havoc on the capitalist system (neoliberalism is only the current developmental phase); but as effective as the pandemic will be in damaging the capitalist system, it looks to me that it is only a dress rehearsal for the inevitable extinction of most life on our planet Earth due to global warming caused by excessive and obsessive industrial that capitalism demands. The cessation of industrial activities during this pandemic will only hasten rising temperatures as explained by Guy McPherson. But at least this pandemic makes it possible in the near future for humans to gain greater dignity by realizing that their economic system is responsible for this cataclysmic end. I believe that this realization is the best we can hope for, and humans can partially redeem themselves if they can establish socialist institutions in socialist societies before their demise.                                                                          

• China Boasts 93% Recovery Rate, No New Cases in Hubei for Sixth Day After Saying Local Covid-19 Spread ‘Stopped’ by Drago Bosnic from FRN (Fort Russ News).

• The profit system is sabotaging the struggle against the coronavirus by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site. 

• Brave Republican Stands Against Stimulus ALONE. This post features an agitated Jimmy Dore who is struggling with disillusionment over so-called progressives in a political system that was constructed by the ruling capitalist class. But he is making progress to come up with some more effective strategies to attack this class and for the benefit of workers. If you like this post, you might be interested in another post by Jimmy Dore who shows what's now happening in Sicily could easily happen in the USA. 

• The coronavirus: Two opposing worlds by Onur Sinan Güzaltan from United World (based in Turkey). 

• Kushner Squeezes Tenants While Lining Up for Bailout Money by Alexander Sammon from The American Prospect.