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

Saturday, April 30, 2022

A Post that I especially recommend for Saturday, April 30, 2022

  • DeSantis Vows To Fight Biden’s “Ministry Of Truth”, but better entitled "The New Ministry of Truth" that features Jimmy Dore and Max Blumenthal discussing the new ruling class initiative to establish Disinformation Governance Board from Dore's channel on YouTube (19:58). (Note: I could not prevent myself from posting this!)
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Monday, April 25, 2022

Announcement to my readers on 4/25/2022: 

Because I've noticed feelings of resentment and mistakes while recently working on my website, I am reducing my posts to original essays that I will be able to post about once per week (this is just an estimate) any day of the week including Sundays. This new policy is partly due to my declining stamina in my old age (approaching 86). Thus, you will be able, if you want, to access my website only occasionally, but you may want to access my website for research purposes. For example, you may want to access my articles in February of 2014 and beyond in which I closely followed the events in Ukraine.

This change will require more of you to exert greater efforts to keep up on accurate news. I advise you to follow my recommended websites (on the right-hand side), or if you prefer, to follow websites/weblogs that you have found to be of particular interest in the past. I am committed to updating and keeping current my "recommended" websites. If you can't find a website that I've used before, contact me at ronh36@protonmail.com.

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Saturday, April 23, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, April 23, 2022

  • The Pandemic Isn't Over? features Russell Brand, a British comedian and former drug addict turned serious political critic--from his channel on Rumble (15:39).
  • I notice that the Strategic Culture Foundation has been taken off the internet, that is, the one I can access. In my 12 years of administrating this website, I have posted articles from this source as much as any other. This censorship policy of the Empire's capitalist ruling class illustrates how much they want to censor anything that will contradict their narratives. This also demonstrates how insecure they are. RH  4/25/2022 update: this note was probably in error. This link is only temporarily down. Later 4/25/2022 update: I accessed the site today, but I have my Firefox set to VPN. According to a west coast activist, one can only access the site if one has one's browser is set to VPN.
When the ecosystem is dying because of economic systems which depend on infinite growth on a finite world, your choices are either (A) abandon those systems or (B) pray that sociopathic oligarchs somehow get us into space in the next few years. Guess which one we’re going with.

Humanity’s major problems arise from the impulse to control. Ecocide arises from the impulse to control nature. Empire arises from the impulse to control civilizations. Oligarchy arises from the impulse to control political outcomes. Ego arises from the impulse to control life.

A healthy humanity would be free of the impulse to manipulate and exert control: over life, over people, over nature. But it would be so different from the humanity we know now that falling into that way of functioning would be a kind of death. And it would feel like a death.

Sometimes it seems like people want the world to end, want humanity to go extinct. I’d suggest that this may be a confused expression of an intuited truth: that there’s something good on the other side of ending all this. But it’s the end of our dysfunction, not of our species. 
  • Oh, So It’s Just Bullsh*t Then features Russell Brand, a British comedian and former drug addict turned serious political critic discussing the imminent extradition of Julian Assange to the USA--from his channel on YouTube (13:48).
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Friday, April 22, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, April 22, 2022

  • Shanghai Lockdown: Facts vs Western Fiction featuring Brian Berletic, an independent geopolitical expert and ex-Marine who for a lengthy time has lived in Thailand with his family, interviewing Andy Boreham, a New Zealand journalist stationed in Shanghai, China, who gives us a more accurate report of the circumstances than we are receiving from the Empire's ruling class media corporations during the upsurge in Shanghai of Covid-19 and China's current lockdown policy to deal with it--from his channel on Rumble (36:12). 
For those of you who have an intense interest in the origins of the covid pandemic, I very much recommend that you listen to this post. Although the interview is about two hours in length (minus the nearly 12 minutes after the end of the interview), the more I listened to it the more I learned from Unz who has studied the topic more than any other person I can think of. 
 
For those of you who haven't the time, I will summarize the interview for you. Unz concludes that covid was a biowarfare weapon gone wrong. He constantly says "that evidence suggests", and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject. After he reviews the evidence, he goes on to "speculate" that his conclusion best fits the evidence. Once it had been launched, the rogue conspirators encounter numerous "blow-backs" and some of which they tried to take advantage of.  
 
I left the physicist (retired?) by being impressed with his scientist's mind.  Although he does think that a "rogue" element in the government carried out this bio-weapon attack (on China and Iran), he does not consider that the origins lie in a ruling class (or an anti-democratic deep state of the capitalist US/British/Zionist Empire) that violated the biowarfare weapons treaty and gave the go-ahead order. This is a common failing of those highly trained scientists who have been educated in the Empire.
  • Kramatorsk Train Station Attack by Scott Ritter from The Unz Review. My reaction: This will be one of the few articles I will post from a credible source because I do not want to use my website as a counter-propaganda for the lies media corporations will tell their populations about the war in Ukraine.
A British magistrate’s court has approved Julian Assange’s extradition order, meaning the Australian journalist may soon be sent to the United States to face up to 175 years in prison for “revealing state secrets” and “computer hacking”.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Note: I ended up not sleeping the entire night, so I don't know what extent that I will finish this posting and the quality it deserves. Yesterday's disappeared post was a shock to me. It is likely, more than not, that technicians have revised Google's worksheet, and that was the cause of the disappeared post yesterday. The technicians probably left an error in their program which will be corrected soon. We shall see. They have done this a number of times in the past years, and it always caused difficulties for me, but I was able to continue to post using various adjustments.

I will not post tomorrow because of a medical appointment.
Dr. Jessica Rose discusses the fraud we've all experienced over the past few years in relation to the pandemic. The data shows negative efficacy regarding the COVID19 vaccine, meaning that it's actually hurting you. If they can lie about issues surrounding COVID19 so easily, then what have they been lying about the whole time? She goes into the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and how the adverse event and death reports related to COVID19 injections are off the chart. The FDA and CDC are not even looking at the data. She believes the vaccine is a segueway into introducing new injection platforms, normalizing injections, and digitizing the human. She agrees the goal of the Vaccine Passports is to install the Social Credit System. The WHO Pandemic Treaty will be the total loss of sovereignty for all countries and individuals. That's the end.
  • Is Covid Actually Snake Venom?? Episode 57, Part 1 by Chris Martenson from his weblog Peak Prosperity. Martenson reviews the evidence behind the documentary “Watch the Water”. He write the film is a hugely successful/popular “documentary” that purports that Remdesivir is actually snake venom, and that what we call Covid is really people’s reactions to snake venom. (Note: There is also a video (54:34) which features Martenson and his criticism of the movie.)
The United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics “the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and its recognised national statistical institute” has quietly released substantial data on the COVID-19 vaccines.
The larger issues that are at stake raised by the Russian intervention in the Donbass were highlighted by Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview he gave to Russian media last week. Lavrov said that “the special military operation aims to put an end to the unfettered expansions and unfettered course toward total domination of the United States and other Western states under it on the international arena.”
 
My reaction: O'Neill seems to agree with Lavrov's statement.
There is endless excitement about Russia’s imminent “economic sovereignty,” but what about Russia’s medical sovereignty? Does it matter if Russia adopts the golden petro-yuan (or whatever) if it continues to copy-paste “health measures” drafted by an organization that gets most of its funding from NATO states and Bill Gates?

It’s a serious question, especially because the WHO is forging ahead with its so-called “global pandemic treaty.” Slated for completion in 2024, the agreement will give the World Health Organization unprecedented powers to combat new outbreaks of positive PCR tests.

Does Russia really need this? After two years of the WHO’s non-stop virus scamming, maybe it’s time to pull the plug?

Thankfully, a grassroots campaign (aided by lawmakers) seeks Russia’s immediate withdrawal from the WHO. This is an excellent idea—but is it possible?
  • WATCH: CN Live! — ‘The Assange Family Struggle’  features Joe Lauria speaks to Assange's father John Shipton, brother Gabriel Shipton and Ben Lawrence, director of Ithaka, a film in which clips are played. Joe Lauria interviews various figures related to a new film Ithaka in addition to family members--from Consortium News. (Note: The post start at 1:56 and its length is 49:30--so it's about 47:30 in duration.)
Assange faces 175 years in prison for publishing accurate information revealing prima facie evidence of war crimes by the United States. There is a human side to Assange’s story rarely seen.

It is revealed in the new film Ithaka by director Ben Lawrence. It tells the story of a father and a wife’s struggle to save their son and husband. The film follows Assange’s father, John Shipton, and his wife, Stella Assange, during the days of Assange’s extradition hearing in February and September 2020 and Shipton’s journeys to the United States and Europe to gain support for his son with governments and the public.
  • The Telephone by Paul Craig Roberts from his weblog. My reaction: Some local medical outfit's employee sold the email address to an agent who sold the address to numerous corporations. Now I am inundated with emails on my email server I've had for many years. I thoroughly agree with his following statement:
I remember when the telephone was a useful and appreciated device. The digital revolution, one of humanity’s most unfortunate developments, has turned the telephone into a nuisance and a threat.
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Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Note: I think that the censoring agents of the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire have finally caught with me by destroying my approximately 8 entries for Tuesday, April 19, 2022, in the middle of my work posting articles for my website while working on Google's worksheet. Because I've used their worksheet for nearly 12 years of posting without this happening, this is probably no accident. However, I will attempt to re-post articles, including most of the missing articles from today's posts, tomorrow. (Updated at 4:16 PM CT)
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Monday, April 18, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Monday, April 18, 2022

  • Dawn of a New Global Financial System by Pepe Escobar from Covert Geopolitics. (Note: This post includes an introduction and interview with Sergey Glazyev from Covert Geopolitics. (Note: "Special Operation Z" is Russia's name for their current invasion of Ukraine.)
For the past three years he has helmed Moscow’s uber strategic portfolio as minister in charge of integration and macroeconomics of the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).  
 
Glazyev’s recent intellectual production has been nothing short of transformative, epitomized by his essay “Sanctions and Sovereignty” and an extensive discussion of the new, emerging geo-economic paradigm in an interview with a Russian business magazine. 
  • The Parapolitical Hypothesis from "Apparatchik's" weblog on Medium. My reaction: I don't get that this post is about any "parapolitical hypothesis" unless it is the last paragraph, but the history-summary since WWII the anonymous author presents is far more accurate than ordinary Americans have received since that global war in their education, Hollywood films, and mainstream media. Lacking any real education, ordinary Americans cannot understand the current real issues. This is deliberate on the part of the US ruling capitalist class because they have wanted ordinary Americans ignorant of their real objectives: to rule the entire world. They combined what was left of the British Empire with their intact military-industrial complex to establish a transnational capitalist class to rule much of the world, and they have expanded since by incorporating all European capitalists in their plan. In 1967 the directors of their Empire added right-wing, wealthy Jews by admitting Israel in their conspiracy to rule the world. (Read my articles here and here, and this has been recently confirmed (confessed to) by a Columbia U. professor in his recent book Tomorrow the World.) Russia and China (and allies) are challenging the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire and their attempt to rule the world in order to establish a multipolar world.
One factor that Johnstone has missed is that our American society is fractured into socioeconomic classes with the self-serving ruling class determining what news to deliver to ordinary people. I put emphasis on "self-serving" because it's a fact demonstrated throughout history and because a ruling class always serve themselves first.

Because the subject of socioeconomic classes has been banished from our consciousness by the ruling capitalist class, we are ignorant of how it determines the rest of our understanding of so many societal issues. I first met this in the university in my early adult years, but I went around it by using the university library to determine what was false and what was true information. It was quite a struggle, and it is growing worse because of censorship. They not only banished from our consciousness the fact that all societies are fractured in classes, but they have fed us information about other issues that they wanted us to believe for their own benefit--wealth and power.
 
However, I've found throughout my long life that information supplied to us by the ruling capitalist class is severely distorted with the result that only a few people can realistically understand and communicate their own opinions about what is going on. 
 
Johnstone and her American husband miss what is the striking feature of American society and nation, and the result is that they mistake what is really going on. They describe the censorship that the ruling class issues as becoming worse by such statements as this:
 
One severely under-discussed aspect of the latest round of escalations in Silicon Valley censorship which began at the start of the Ukraine war is the fact that it’s an entirely unprecedented order of censorship protocol. While it might look similar to all the other waves of social media purges and new categories of banned content that we’ve been experiencing since it became mainstream doctrine after the 2016 US election that tech platforms need to strictly regulate online speech, the justifications for it have taken a drastic deviation from established patterns.
 
What they are unaware of is the fact that the ruling class has always influenced the information that they allow us to receive. But what they are missing is this: it is getting worse because the ruling capitalist class have consolidated the ownership which gives them control of our mainstream media and most of the economy. Ownership gives them control over media corporations as well as other features of their (not ours) economy. It is their economy because they have exploited us as workers to attain ownership over the entire economy. Johnstone and her husband substitute "Silicon Valley" for a class that has caused the growing censorship, but failed to point-out that a ruling capitalist class owns Silicon Valley. This is precisely why Klaus Schwab said "you will own nothing and be happy!" He is acting like a used-car salesman selling you a car that was junk because he feels that you are gullible enough to swallow his sales pitch.
 
The capitalist system works for capitalists and their desire to eliminate competition, and the result is monopolies: a relative handful of owners own nearly all of the economy. Is this so hard to understand?!
Professor John Mearsheimer is the man who predicted the Ukraine crisis. In a new, must-watch video discussion with the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord, he explains why the West’s current strategy is so dangerous.
  • Elon Musk Buying Twitter: Why It's a Bigger Battle Than You Think features Brain Berletic, an independent geopolitical expert and ex-Marine who for a lengthy time has lived in Thailand with his family, from his channel on Rumble (14:54). My reaction: Berletic shows how important social media like Twitter is to our ruling billionaire masters.
Jacques Baud joined Aaron Maté, host of Pushback, to analyse the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  He argued that the US and its allies are exploiting Ukraine in a longstanding campaign to bleed its Russian neighbour.
  • The War in Ukraine and the Collapsing World Order, a discussion by a number of top experts including Alastair Crooke, Scott Ritter, Max Blumenthal, and Seyed Mohammad Marandi from The Alt World. (Note: If you have time to hear the comments of this nearly 2 hour video of a group of distinguished guests, I promise it will be at least interesting. I will listen to it after I post today's collection of posts.)
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Saturday, April 16, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, April 16, 2022

Goal: Our newsletter aims at providing regular updates on the science and the truth behind the current pandemic. We are dedicated to bringing the real science to the table and sharing how the truth invalidates the current narrative, for which scientific evidence is now increasingly lacking. We’ll provide an update on a (semi-)weekly basis, on Mondays and/or Fridays. We sincerely hope this newsletter will contribute to raising awareness about the consequences of human intervention in this pandemic, particularly of mass vaccination, from both an individual and public health perspective. 
Appearing on MSNBC Wednesday, Anthony Fauci let the truth about lockdowns slip… that they are theatre designed to scare people into getting vaccinated.

When asked by host Andrea Mitchell about the unfolding lockdown hellscape in China, Fauci actually praised the Communist government’s actions.

Fauci stated “China has a number of problems, two of which are that the complete lockdown, which was their approach, a strictest lockdown you’d never be able to implement in the United States. Although that prevents the spread of infection, I remember early on they were saying, and I think accurately, they were doing better than anyone else.”

Then came the kicker as Fauci declared “You use lockdowns to get people vaccinated so that when you open up, you won’t have a surge of infections.” [my emphasis]
  • sometimes? by Mickey Z. from his weblog on Substack. (Note: This post is a very brief statement.)
  • Dr Vernon Coleman: “The Great Reset is frighteningly close to the terrible conclusion we’ve been dreading” features Dr. Coleman in a video (38:54) from The Exposé, a British website. My reaction: He often relates his most hard-hitting criticisms to communism. This I think is a product of brainwashing from many years of propaganda that he could not escape, but I also suspect that Stalin's long reign had much to do with it. Because there is nothing of the reign of Stalin that reflects the ideologies of the founders of communism--Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Because this topic is related to absolute control by the manipulation of people's minds, Coleman's remarks most likely refer to high-tech fascism that the transnational ruling capitalist class has adopted in their de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire.
My name is Jeremy Brown. I am a 20 year US Army Special Forces Master Sergeant that served this nation honorably. In October of 1992, I swore to an Almighty God that I would protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL enemies, Foreign and Domestic; This Constitution that codifies the Rights that God granted us at birth. I have upheld the Oath as a Ranger, Green Beret, Fire Fighter, Citizen, Business Owner, Coach, US Congressional Candidate and now as a Prisoner of War.
... how did this proxy war come about? In order to understand that we have to look at the U.S. imperial grand strategy. Here we have to go back to 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved or even further to the 1980s. There are two prongs to this imperial grand strategy, one as geopolitical expansion and positioning, including the enlargement of NATO ....
  • 💥Will Europe Replace the Middle East as America’s Arena for Future Conflicts? by Elijah J. Magnier from an unknown source and re-posted on Internationalist 360°. Let us hope and pray that he is not right about the conflict in Europe. Unfortunately, his record of integrity and journalism ensures that he is right, but you can never tell about humans and their propensity to be deceived by their own ruling classes using their vast material rewards accumulated for more than a half-century of compliance. Without regard for the climate crisis that is on the horizon, the conflict in Ukraine is really a final test for humans and their durability.
As Russian forces and Donbass militias continue advancing amid the special operation in Ukraine, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed more military aid for Kiev’s troops, saying it would include sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles as well as anti-tank missiles and high-grade military equipment worth around £100 million ($130 million).
A special military operation by Russian troops has yielded additional information on US military and biological activities in Ukraine, confirming numerous violations of the Biological Weapons Convention.

Taking advantage of existing gaps in international law and the lack of a clear verification mechanism, the US administration has consistently built up its military-biological capabilities in various regions of the world.

The Russian Federation has made continuous efforts to establish a BTWC verification mechanism, but this initiative has been consistently blocked by the collective West, led by the US, since 2001.  [my link inserted in this quote]
The document, titled “On Russia’s concerns in the context of massive supplies of weapons and military equipment to the Kiev regime,” was forwarded to the State Department by the Russian Embassy in Washington, in which Russia accused NATO of trying to “pressure Ukraine to abandon peace negotiations with Russia in order to continue the bloodshed.”

Moscow also warned Washington that US and NATO shipments of the “most sensitive” weapons systems to Ukraine were “adding fuel” to the conflict and could bring “unpredictable consequences.” Russia experts suggested Moscow, which had labeled weapons convoys coming into the country as legitimate military targets but had not thus far attacked them, might be preparing to do so.
  • More Escalations In Online Censorship by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband, Tim Foley, also reading the script (10:09) in the audio section of her article, but you may miss supporting examples, illustrations, etc.)--from her weblog.
Zelensky and his handlers want the whole of Europe to drive over the abyss. But the talented Mr Zelensky is pushing the script beyond acceptable limits when he starts slapping Berlin around.
  • Thierry Meyssan: The Goal of the Ukraine Conflict is to Economically Collapse Europe features an interview with Meyssan, a French intellectual and blogger, conducted by the unnamed interviewer from his Geopolitics & Empire's channel on Odysee (1:08:18). (Note: Because my hearing has limitations and his thick accent, I could not understand much of what he said. However, I know from earlier years when I posted his articles (translated into English), that he has an independent point of view.)
  • Amazon Union Organizer Goes On Tucker & Sh*tlib Brains Explode! features Jimmy Dore showing clips of the entire interview on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program with Amazon union organizer Christian Smalls --from Dore's channel on YouTube (26:39). Dore's show also includes comments by other members of his show. My reaction: Mainly comedians are only allowed to express dissent on major media platforms, but they are doing a superb job by heaping ridicule on mainstream politicians and their policies! That way the ruling class can take credit for free speech and limit it from serious dissenters. For my mental health, I think I will attend his show when it comes anywhere near southern Minnesota.
  • Wait… Did They Just Admit That? features Russell Brand, a British comedian and former drug addict turned serious political critic--from his channel on YouTube (12:44). My reaction: Brand states at 4:58 and other places that one needs to exercise a "great deal of discernment" if you follow mainstream media sources. I say that mainstream media is designed to reflect the views that the ruling capitalist class wants you to think about current various issues, but not the real news.
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Friday, April 15, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, April 15, 2022

  • You Couldn't Make This Sh*t Up features Russell Brand, a British comedian and former drug addict turned serious political critic--from his channel on YouTube (13:53).  
Everywhere we look, the data combined with what’s happening on the ground appear to be clear: disastrous outcomes are happening. Right now. All around us.

A large insurance company CEO is on the record stating that deaths among working-age adults (below 65) are 40% above expected values. That is not just “unlikely” but shouldn’t happen ever outside of a major war.

And it’s not covid-related because we are supposedly tracking those. So, besides it being a massive surge, what exactly is the cause? It’s not all because of suicides, though we know those are up, tragically. It’s not cancer. It’s not war, yet. It’s not fentanyl overdoses.

What could it be?
 
My reaction: Martenson acknowledges that there is no one that explains this phenomenon, but he insists that societies would ordinarily determine the cause of this striking statistic which is from a recent study in contrast to what was found in 2020. (I have not yet listened to all of the remarks by Martenson.) He seems to suggest that "mass psychosis formation", and governmental authorities, medical authorities, and media corporations resist this recent data statistic from becoming common knowledge. 
 
I've personally read several articles about athletes dropping dead while participating in their sport.
  • The Alliance of MI6, the CIA and the Bandéristes by Thierry Meyssan from Internationalist 360°. My reaction: There is only one thing glaringly wrong with Meyssan's history. I've read widely on the events that led up to WWII, but I never read a concern about "absolutely all Western states without exception believed, at one time or another, that the Nazis were the solution to the economic crisis of 1929". On the contrary, I read that all the ruling capitalist classes approved of Germany and its aim to create lebensraum in the East and extinguish socialism forever in Russia. Time Magazine even appointed Hitler as "Man of the Year" in 1938 (although not on the cover because they didn't do that in previous years). 
The Western ruling capitalist classes approved of the Nazis and gave in whenever their interests were not threatened. Hitler, in his fanatic desire to restore Germany to pre-WWI borders, attacked Poland in September of 1939 after Chamberlain waffled in negotiations with Hitler because the British had a mutual defense treaty with Poland. Included in this history is the "phoney war" pursued by the British Empire against Germany for eight months. You see, the British ruling class approved of Hitler's goal of adding lebensraum in the Soviet Union which would result in their longtime efforts to extinguish a belief in any system other than capitalism. 
 
On the eve of WWII, the capitalist nations had plans to carve up the world into sections that they would exploit and rule over. Japan's ruling capitalist class had their own imperialist concept of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. What most Americans are unaware of is that the US ruling class had their own concept, the Grand Area (this area was extended after WWII and became known as the "free world"). The Allies patiently let Germany expand and grow their empire on the European continent and move east toward the Soviet Union. However Germany unexpectedly invaded Poland, with which Britain had a defense treaty, instead of going from Czechoslovakia toward the Soviet Union. Thus began a phony war after which the Nazi government attacked Britain and continued to move east and invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. 
 
Because the ruling classes of European nations were split with their attitudes toward the Nazis, Netherlands, Belgium, and France had been easily overrun by German forces. The Allied ruling classes expected that Germany would easily defeat the Soviet forces. But whereas the defeat of the Allied countries was mainly due to their ruling classes being split in their orientation to the fascist nations of Germany, Japan, and Italy, the Soviet government was united in their opposition to fascism, an advanced form of capitalism. As a result, the German forces encountered great difficulty after only a month into their invasion.
 
In the present day, the directors of the Empire knew that the threat of the Russian experience with the Nazis of WWII would greatly worry them. The Empire established a far-right wing government as the result of their engineered coup in 2014, and cultivated and promoted ties with the neo-Nazis in Ukraine. Added to this, the army of the Empire, NATO, was threatening the Russian nation by pushing ever closer to their borders, and they finally had enough with these moves of the Empire. Thus, they invaded Ukraine to de-Nazify the country.
... a series of ostensible crises — Russiagate, the 1/6 riot, the COVID pandemic and now this war — have, in rapid succession, convinced not just liberals but increasingly large numbers of Westerners in many ideological camps not only to tolerate but to crave state/corporate censorship. 
... the loudest criticism is certainly coming from the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany who is constantly in the media to accuse the country of cowardice, especially at the beginning of the war when Germany refrained from sending weapons to Ukraine. Although Berlin has made a major turn and is now sending weapons to Ukraine, further anger is caused by the fact that incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz is not bowing to American and Ukrainian pressure to close Russian gas taps altogether.

Russian gas is a matter of existential need for Germany, which due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, is threatened with achieving a lower than expected GDP. In fact, Germany would experience a devastating recession if it were to turn off the Russian gas taps.
  • Who’s Watching The Watchers? features host Ross Ashcroft and his guest Peter Bloom, author of Monitored: Business and Surveillance in a Time of Big Data--from Renegade's channel on YouTube (27:42).
  • How NY Times Used Subway Shooting To Push Pro-Cop Propaganda features Jimmy Dore and Max Blumenthal, and showing Twitter clip by Alex Karakatsanis, a civil rights activist and author, to illustrate propaganda promoted by the NY Times, as an example of mainstream media, instilling in the public the need for more cops in spite of the fact that such crimes are very low--from Dore's channel on YouTube (18:26).
A conversation with theologian Carmody Grey, anthropologist Justin Kenrick, and Extinction Rebellion activist Clare Farrell interrogating the meaning of courage in our times.
 
What kind of courage is needed as we enter an era of climate breakdown? How do we find courage when we see continued rampant investments in fossil fuels and other activities that worse the impacts of the climate crisis?

This is a conversation aiming to encourage each other as we move through this phase of on the streets rebellion, because how we respond collectively now affects everything.
  • Edge of Extinction: It's Not Your Fault features the views and analysis of Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist (via his YouTube channel--06:53), who has fearlessly focused his attention throughout much of his prior career and retirement on the climate crisis.
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Thursday, April 14, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, April 14, 2022

Justifying lockdowns and endorsing the “threat” of Covid is doing the establishment’s work for it.
  • A Free Person Is One Who Owns His Own Labor by Paul Craig Roberts from his weblog. My reaction: Roberts argues that the modern-day American owns his labor the same as the historical American slaves owned theirs! Yet, the ruling capitalist class, which essentially owns the government, determines the government's tax policies. This is quite a dramatic conclusion for a capitalist supporter to make.
  • The Assange Case Invalidates US Criticisms Of Russia: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband, Tim Foley, also reading the script (06:02) in the audio section of her article, but you may miss supporting examples, illustrations, etc.)--from her weblog. (Note: In this post, Foley missed entire paragraphs.) My reaction: She's right that this war in being implanted in the minds of ordinary people using propaganda and psy-ops, and most ordinary Americans are either "falling for it" (def.#2) or totally ignoring it while they focus on their individual lives. They do this in order to survive in an advanced capitalist system.
The accusations against Russia are the lying justification for a policy of military escalation. First, the war plans were laid down; then the accusations were made to justify them.
 
My reaction: The CEOs of the military-industrial complex must be happy! They are in control of government policies supporting constant wars, especially using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder.
  • Kremlin issues final warning to Kiev 'decision-making centers' features Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris discussing the significance of the decision by the Russian leaders that they will attack decision-making structures in Kiev if they continue to attack Russian territory--from Duran's channel on YouTube (32:23).
The merchants of Death—Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, General Dynamics, et al—gathered in Washington on Wednesday like a flock of vultures descending on roadkill.
For many decades, the term ‘new world order’ has been discussed obsessively in the United States, yet few have any idea where the concept originated from and where the individuals who promote this grand vision wish to lead humanity. But one thing is for sure, Russia is having none of it.

This week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked that one of the goals of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine is to end the U.S.-dominated world order, which is categorically at odds with Russia and its ally’s desire for a multipolar global system.
  • Michael Raw - The Hunger Games features Ross Ashcroft interviewing a British (as far as I can determine) agricultural expert on the effect of food prices as a function of supply--from Renegade's channel on YouTube (02:09).
Benjamin Norton speaks with Pakistani scholar Junaid S. Ahmad about the US-backed coup against Prime Minister Imran Khan, aimed at reversing his alliance with China, Russia, and Iran and support for Palestine.
 
My reaction: It seems that the US ruling class always supports, and develops ties with, the military in foreign countries. 
  • India’s rich keep getting richer features Aunindyo Chakravarty, a journalist in India, from Peoples Dispatch using Newsclickin's channel on YouTube (14:26). My reaction: He gives a good explanation of how capitalism brought this about under previous government administrations of India.
  • An Inconvenient Apocalypse features various climate specialists discussing the impending climate crisis--from Facing Future's channel on YouTube (34:38).
The dream of endless bounty is over. We must save as much of nature as is still possible, and end the wealth concentrating system that is destroying it. Wes Jackson, in his no-nonsense fashion, explains how our ecological collapse began with #agriculture, when we started to remove carbon from the soil to grow crops, then from the forests to build ships, and finally from the deep ground to build civilizations. Now we need to power down as we face irreversible changes.
 
Inconvenient, to say the least. Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen envision a transition - to fewer and less - to life without dense energy, with less destructive systems of agriculture. They chart a collective, realistic path for humanity - not only to survive, but also to emerge on the other side with a renewed appreciation of the larger living world, recognizing that the rediscovery of nature, and of human connection is the greatest renaissance of all. 
 
My reaction: The scientists leave out the system that has caused all of the destruction of the ecosystem of the Earth--capitalism. They have all obviously been educated in capitalist societies. 
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Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, April 13, 2022

California Assembly Bill #2098 was introduced on February 14, 2022. If passed, the bill would “designate the dissemination or promotion of misinformation or disinformation related to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, or ‘COVID-19,’ as unprofessional conduct.” 

Translation: It’s corporate-sponsored censorship aimed at taking away power from health professionals who see through the COVID bullshit.
  • This Is A Deeply Ominous Sign features Russell Brand, a British comedian and former drug addict turned serious political critic--from his channel on YouTube (19:24). 
  • The Real Cost Of The Gig Economy features host Ross Ashcroft interviewing writer and filmmaker, Shannon Walsh, to discuss the topic--from Renegade's channel on YouTube (27:50).
  • Universities Follow the Politics, Not the Science by Daniel Nuccio from The Pulse. My reaction: This is true of every institution in the "free world", that is, except for a few, in the nations that make up the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire. This latter sometimes appears to be an open psychiatric ward of the world.
The coterie of neocons and liberal interventionists who orchestrated two decades of military fiascos in the Middle East and who have never been held to account are now stoking a suicidal war with Russia.
  • What is NATO Doing in Latin America? from Internationalist 360°.                                                               
  • 💥Michael Tracey on the Refugee Crisis and US Troop Buildup in Poland features Mnar Adley, founder of Mint Press News, interviewing (1:21:22) Michael Tracey by phone an independent journalist, who has just returned from the Polish border with Ukraine and who is now in London--from Mint Press News. This is a best post. (Note: I listened to all of this fascinating interview which will cause me to be late in posting other articles and doing what I intended to do--an elaborate commentary. I'll try to do the latter tomorrow. The text introduces video and audio versions of the interview. Michael's Substack address is: <https://michaelsnyder.substack.com/>)
  • A Love Letter To All Draft Dodgers by Australian Caitlin Johnstone with her American husband, Tim Foley, also reading the script (04:27) in the audio section of her article, but you may miss supporting examples, illustrations, etc.)--from her weblog.
As a regular conflict, the ongoing Ukraine war is being fought with kinetic weapons and traditional power projection platforms in conventional operational battlefields. However, its span transcends the domain of military statecraft. It goes much further. In fact, this unfolding confrontation must also be understood as a major clash in the rising strategic competition to determine the future architecture of the global financial and monetary system – a dangerous game played for the highest stakes.
 
My reaction: The Empire (the de-facto US/British/Zionist Empire) now controls the international monetary system and this control has very much worried the directors of the Empire. This together with the dominance of world affairs are the major reasons why the directors and their monopoly media lie so much to their own populations. Russia is leading this challenge of these issues in addition to their existence as a nation. This is precisely why the war in Ukraine matters so much.
The Washington Post – owned by billionaire oligarch Jeff Bezos, who has CIA and Pentagon contracts – has called for censoring Chinese news outlets on social media, while praising Silicon Valley for purging Russian publications.
The press release by the State Department states that ‘the United States reiterates its grave concern over continuing reports of ethnically-motivated atrocities committed by Amhara authorities in western Tigray, Ethiopia, including those described in the recent joint report by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In particular, we are deeply troubled by the report’s finding that these acts amount to ethnic cleansing’. (4) The USA is not known siding with the truth. It has almost always sided with the TPLF (Tigrayan forces) disregarding the atrocities committed against the people of Ethiopia and in particular the Amhara people both by TPLF and Oromo nationalists (OLF). The Ethiopian Government reacted to the joint report and stated that ‘The biased ethnic undertone of the report from organisations that paint themselves as defenders of human rights and the implications of reckless misrepresentation of facts on the ground did not go unnoticed’. [my emphasis] 
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