in the time remaining, to help us understand how the man-made system of capitalism will lead to the extinction of our human species, and so many others.
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, September 21, 2019
Revealing While Concealing the “Invisible” Government’s Conspiracies
Curtin takes aim at political critics of our masters in the Deep State such as Christopher Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Alexander Cockburn by arguing that they have, in effect, colluded with them in order to conceal deeper truths about their machinations and manipulations of perceptions. I think they have performed this service for the Deep State in order to protect their careers or because they were fundamentally conflicted about revealing too much of their crimes. In the case of Cockburn, he was conflicted by his aristocratic ancestry which gave him an income to pursue a career as a dissident and critic. In the case of Noam Chomsky, he wants to maintain his academic position and the privileges that goes along with this status.
Our masters are very adept at managing the consent and dissent of the broad masses of their societies. They learned much of the power of money, which they possessed being a capitalist ruling class, to manipulate such critics in not revealing too much about their anti-social and war crimes. These people are what Malcolm X described as "house niggers". They are a part of the numerous cadre of upper-middle class, highly educated and well paid technicians that the ruling class depends on to keep their capitalist system running.
Israeli election makes it difficult to deny the character of Israel as a racist state
Read this and see how Gowans reaches this conclusion:
On the one hand, a pure and grand vision, dating from the French Revolution, of Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité, and the universalist idea of a state of all its citizens; on the other, the particularist idea of the ethnic state for Jews, made possible by the demographic engineering of a Jewish majority, obtained by the expulsion of the natives and denial of their repatriation, and the exercise of a racist regime over the natives who weren’t dispossessed; in short, the idea of universal equality versus the conservative tradition of hierarchy, racism, colonialism, and religious bigotry. To criticize Israel and Zionism is not to hate Jews, but to deplore the conservative tradition of ethnic privilege, racism, and colonialism from which Israel sprang and which it continues to exemplify.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Articles I especially recommend today: Friday, September 20, 2019
- American Psychopathy by John Steppling from Wrong Kind of Green.
- 'No Planet B': Hundreds of thousands join global climate strike from Al Jazeera.
- 'Worse than Hurricane Harvey': At least 2 dead as Imelda overwhelms Texas with' incredibly dangerous' flooding. Posted from USA Today.
- China and the Prospects for a Global Ecological Civilization by David Schwartzman from Climate & Capitalism.
- Unipolar Governance of the Multipolar World by Ismael Hossein-Zadeh from CounterPunch.
- Iran vs Saudi Arabia: it’s game-over by Ghassan Kadi from A bird's eyeview of the Vineyard.
- The Crisis Over The Attack On Saudi Oil Infrastructure Is Over - We Now Wait For the Next One by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama.
- The Deep State Is Dragging Trump Into War With Iran by Robert Bridge from Strategic Culture Foundation.
- 9/11: the deep state false flag that keeps on condoning Western terrorism at home and around the world by Jeff J. Brown from China Rising.
- The Snowden Conundrum by Yvonne Lorenzo from The Unz Review.
- UK worsens Julian Assange’s persecution as US seeks extradition, Aron Mate interviews (via YouTube) Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of Wikileaks. Posted on The Grayzone.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Articles I especially recommend for today: Thursday, September 19, 2019
- Don’t Smile for the Camera by Andrew P. Napolitano from Antiwar.
- Cutting air pollution would not cause ‘near-term spike’ in global warming by Robert McSweeney from CarbonBrief.
- No One To Save Us But Ourselves by Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin from Rebel (Ireland).
- Trump’s Re-election? Did the Federal Reserve Already “Decide the 2020 US Election”? by F. William Engdahl from Global Research.
- Houthi rebels overturned the chessboard by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.
- China, Russia and Iran: Basis of the New Geopolitical Order by James ONeill from New Eastern Outlook.
- Latin America and the US: The chains of indebtedness by Marco A. Gandásegui from Cuba-Network in Defense of Humanity.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Articles I recommend for today: Tuesday, September 17, 2019
- Brexit Reveals Corbyn to be the True Moderate by Jonathan Cook from Consortium News.
- On the ground, feeling the pulse of Protest Hong Kong by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.
- Empires Are A Secret Until They Start Falling by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese from Popular Resistance.
- Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Crisis by Robert Hunziker from Dissident Voice.
“911!” The Book Amazon May Not Want Americans to Read
During this year I've noticed more and more posts attacking Amazon for censorship of books. I've long wondered when their virtual monopoly on the sale of books would start censoring books, but only this year I've read online articles documenting this new reality. Now Brumback is also experiencing this sledgehammer by crushing political books that the ruling capitalist class doesn't want you to read.
I took the author's challenge and looked for his book on Amazon's website. Sure enough, he is absolutely correct. Although they haven't banned the book, the corporation goes out of their way to make it impossible to find.
As you may know, I buy nearly all of my used books from Abebooks which is based in Victoria, Canada, and I've enjoyed supporting the company that markets books exclusively from independent booksellers. Although in 2008 Abebooks was purchased in 2008 by Amazon, I haven't experienced any problems with access to books from them. Now I am beginning to worry.
North Korean cyber-theft. If it’s really happening, it’s entirely defensible.
Gowans examines a recent allegation by the Treasury Department that North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) stole from the USA huge amounts of money using cyber operations. There are both reasons to doubt this and reasons to believe this which he elaborates. Gowans lists both: given the US's record of lying, this is another lie; and given the US's record of starving nations that refuse to follow the diktats of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, it is also may be true.
The US military budget is 18 times the size of North Korea’s entire GDP. Washington has threatened North Korea with total destruction on numerous occasions. Anyone who thinks the United States isn’t the aggressor, hasn’t been paying attention.
Monday, September 16, 2019
Articles I recommend today: Monday, September 16, 2019
- Damage At Saudi Oil Plant Points To Well Targeted Swarm Attack by Bernhard from his weblog Moon of Alabama.
- Russia warns against ‘hasty conclusions’ over attacks on Saudi oil facilities from PressTV (Iran).
- Will the IMF, FED, Negative Interest and Digital Money Kill the Western Economy? by Peter Koenig from New Eastern Outlook.
- The New American Oil Empire Built on Sand by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Articles that I recommend reading today: Sunday, September 15,.2019
- American Privilege by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.
- The Chaos Theory Behind Fascism by Wayne Madsen from Strategic Culture Foundation.
- BBC Foreknowledge of 9/11 Collapse of WTC Building Seven: British Man Won Law Suit against BBC for 9/11 Cover Up, a re-post on Global Research News (based in Canada).
- Capitalism versus the Global Carbon Cycle by Ian Angus from Climate & Capitalism.
The New Cold War Against China
I just discovered these two websites and the article by Goldstein who demonstrates an accurate understanding of China, the capitalist US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, their conflicts, and Chinese-American relations and history. Because the article is logically argued with sound references, it has a ring of authenticity to its explanation of the current economic war with China. See if you agree.
The Trump administration has opened up a tariff war against the PRC, imposing a 25-percent tariff on $250 billion worth of Chinese exports and threatening tariffs on another $300 billion. But there is much more to Washington’s campaign than just tariffs.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Articles/videos recommended for Saturday, September 14, 2019
- Critical Tipping Point Crossed In July 2019 by Sam Carana, editor of Arctic News and author of the Climate Plan posted on Artic News.
- Exlcusive Interview with Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson by Eva Bartlett from Mint Press News.
- The Devolution of US-Russia Relations by Tony Kevin from Consortium News.
- Julian Assange to stay in prison after jail sentence ends over absconding fears by Tim Baker from Evening Standard (Britain).
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
First Responders Urge Congress to Reopen 9/11 Investigation — Sept. 11, 2019 News Conference [updated & corrected]
Although reporters from all major media corporations were invited, I am confident that none of this will be reported in their TV news programs or newspapers.
The Tragedy of 9/11: a ‘false flag’ operation?
Since that day, however, inquiring minds have been haunted by questions about what really happened. Their questions are not a result of simple curiosity: the official version, according to data collected by independent researchers and the commission assigned to investigate the crime, hardly even corresponds to the laws of physics, and asks us to believe things that are patently absurd. Here are a few examples.
Dr. Peter Wadhams: Arctic Research & the Methane Risk
Peter Wadhams is back on ScientistsWarning.TV with a comprehensive analysis of the reticent approach that part of the scientific community has been taking toward the potentially very dangerous methane hydrate situation in shallow Arctic sea waters, in this conversation recorded in March of 2019.This, of course, is bad news. I think the explanation for this astonishing discovery is that humans have so long seen themselves as an exceptional species and protected by all kinds of imaginary gods that they simply can't wrap their head around (def.) the fact that their extinction is near.
I brought to his attention a video that had been put together by Yale Climate Connections in January 2019, which took the position that there really wasn't too much to worry about in terms of a potential Arctic methane release. Not fully trusting the video's assertions, I wanted Dr. Wadhams' take on it. The conversation touched upon several areas where science and scientists are not as objective as they should be.
Apparently the situation with methane in the Arctic permafrost, both land based, and in this case sub-sea in the Arctic Ocean, is such an immense potential game-changer that it is provoking willful ignorance among many scientists and policy makers.
Dr. Wadhams also notes that a proper risk analysis of methane outbreak at various levels has been missing so far, but should be conducted now as a high priority task.
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Articles I recommend on the internet today: Tuesday, September 10, 2019
- How To Defeat The Empire by Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.
- The Establishment is Changing its Tune on Russia by Patrick Lawrence from Consortium News.
- The West Oppressed the Third World for So Long It Became the Third World Itself by US citizen Andre Vltchek from New Eastern Outlook (magazine of the Russian Academy of Sciences).
My interpretation of the film that Christopher Black condemned
Recall that I posted an article by Christopher Black, a noted international human rights attorney, on yesterday's recommended reading list. He condemned the film as a whitewash of Nazi crimes. Last night I viewed the film "My Honour Was My Glory" (Black is Canadian and what he saw via Neflix in Canada is for Americans "My Honor Was Loyalty"). My reaction was quite different which I will share with you. The difference is quite revealing about numerous differences that people who have been influenced by years of Marxist literature (like myself) they have acquired though independent study and those who have been thoroughly indoctrinated in schools where they received a bourgeois (capitalist) education. The latter is what the overwhelming majority of citizens of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire receive particularly, but not exclusively, in schools of "higher" education. The latter students are exceptionally favored by such schools (and the ruling capitalist class) and often go on to attain advanced degrees and well-paying jobs in universities, government, and corporations.
My take (def. #43 singular noun) on the film shows it to be highly representative of the consciousness of ordinary soldiers regardless of their national affiliation, and as such it is a very interesting film. Marxists have down through many decades have revealed the class nature of societies, and have illuminated how one's thinking is strongly influenced by the kind of ruling class currently in power, with particular emphasis on capitalist ruling classes. Thus, higher education schools throughout the Empire intentionally teach ideas and concepts that will prepare them to serve the capitalist ruling class. Likewise, education in capitalist countries obsessively exclude any serious Marxist studies from their curricula other than superficial and largely biased references to them. Although I majored in courses in political sociology, my "education" at a state university did precisely this. However unlike my fellow students, I read a prodigious amount of Marxist literature and perspectives on various subjects (obviously the early Marxists were wrong some things: example--the working class inevitably rising up against the capitalist class) that was available in the school's well stocked library. (To explain my different attitude is another long story and for another time.)
The characters in the film illustrate how the German soldiers naturally want to protect their families and loved ones, but were obviously indoctrinated in ideas of obedience, loyalty to authorities and country. In the film German soldiers were dimly aware that they were being used as "pawns", but because of this thorough indoctrination they committed all sorts of crimes during combat. But once combat soldiers see their adversaries as human beings like themselves, they experience a crisis of consciousness much like we see today among returning US veterans from combat as having some sort of mental disorder diagnosed by government authorities as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Monday, September 9, 2019
Articles I recommend for today: Monday, September 9, 2019
- Chris Hedges’ compelling interview with VICE News in 2015, a re-post from The Greanville Post.
- The Whitewashing of The Nazis by Christopher Black from New Eastern Outlook. (Note: Black is a Canadian and his listing of the Netflix film is likely titled "My Honor Was Loyalty" for US patrons of Netflix.)
- The US Economic War on France by Terje Maloy from Counter Information (Britain).
- Are Jeffrey Epstein’s secrets buried with him? Aron Mate of The Grayzone interviews Leonard Goodman, criminal defense attorney, writer, and media publisher in Chicago.
- Exclusive: How the US is pushing protesters to attack China. Michele Greenstein of Rick Sanchez' program from RTAmerica (via YouTube) reports from Hong Kong on the ongoing protests and the key individuals and organizations giving the uprising its direction and examines their links to Washington and the US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
- US is Behind Hong Kong Protests Says US Policymaker by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.
- ‘The New Normal’: Trump’s ‘China Bind’ Can Be Iran’s Opportunity by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation.
- Biometric Fight: Facebook Defeated on Facial Recognition, But Google, Amazon Still Pushing Ahead from 21st Century Wire.
- When the denial bubble bursts: an Israeli kibbutz faces the Nakba by Salman Abu Sitta from Mondoweiss.
- Climate Catastrophe Comes for Europe by Conn M. Hallinan from his weblog Dispatches from the Edge.
How Syria Defeated the 2012-2019 Invasion by US & Al-Qaeda
"How" to me is not the important part of this article. Rather the well documented article is important because it lays out the realities of the war on Syria as planned mainly by the US, Saudia Arabia, and Turkey. It is a must read especially for people who have any doubts about the coverup of these realities by media corporations in the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. Only the 9/11 false-flag project was worse (for Americans) as a propaganda coverup to deceive Americans and others in the Empire in order to prepare them for regime change operations in the Middle East. His lead paragraph begins to describe this reality:
At long last, Syria’s army and Russia’s air force are no longer being threatened with World War III by the US and its allies if they proceed to destroy the tens of thousands of Al-Qaida-led jihadists whom the US had helped to train and arm (and had been protecting in Syria ever since December 2012) in order to overthrow Syria’s non-sectarian Government and replace it by a fundamentalist-Sunni Government which the royal Sauds who own Saudi Arabia would appoint. All throughout that war, those Al-Qaeda-led ‘moderate rebels’ had been organized from the governate or province of Idlib (or Idleb). But now, most (if not all) of their leadership are dead.
Sunday, September 8, 2019
The recent series of 9/11 whistleblowers posted by James Corbett
Although I made a special effort to expose Corbett's superficial analysis of political events in my commentary on 9/4/2019 regarding his post entitled "When is the News Not the News? – #PropagandaWatch", I wish to honor him for his investigative reporting as illustrated by his recent posts of 9/11 whistleblowers: "9/11 Whistleblowers: Kevin Ryan" and "9/11 Whistleblowers: Cate Jenkins". While these posts fit with his propensity to target only official government agencies with exposure of lying to the public, but it is invaluable work that points to the incredible extent that private capitalist interests will go to create a new "realities" that serves their interests of profit and power. Although he doesn't frame his exposure as being related to "capitalist interests", but he does expose major lies.
Perhaps I'm being unfair to his efforts at exposing lies, but I often have doubts. I want to share some of these doubts with you. To examine some of my doubts about his website, I did a search on the latter regarding Julian Assange as a whistleblower and the corporation Cambridge Analytica as representing a private corporation that engaged in nefarious projects. Regarding the former I felt that if he was truly interested in exposing lies that he would cover the Empire's obsession with capturing a major whistle blower and put him locked away in a cell indefinitely. What did I find? Only brief references, mostly tweets, regarding Assange; and in one rather brief post he ridiculed Assange as not as effective as he (Corbett) was in exposing lies.
Regarding Cambridge Analytica I found that Corbett did report on this organization when it broke into news in March 2018, but the reporting suggested that their activities only resulted in the election of Donald Trump and the passing of Brexit in Britain. Hmmm. Do not these results reflect the concerns of the US ruling class? And there was no mention of this corporation influencing the outcomes of other elections in a number of other countries. And he takes another swipe at Julian Assange with this statement (2:04m): "... I find it interesting that Julian Assange seems to have discovered that (then laughs) Mark Zuckerberg is a bad person." He goes on in a self-serving manner to lampoon Assange because, as Corbett says, Assange is only repeating via tweets what Corbett reported years ago. Hmmm.
I have over the years often wondered if James Corbett was not serving as a kind of gatekeeper for the ruling class to divert suspicious or critical-thinking people to more harmless ideas about the operations of the government--in reality those of the ruling class. Then, I often wondered how he could do the prodigious research necessary to churn out such voluminous material that, it seemed to me, only a fully staffed research department could handle. Hmmm. Following this thought, I recalled the remarks I made in the first paragraph of this post, and wondered why only now (18 years later) that he gets around to posting some relatively minor stories about 9/11 whistleblowers in these posts. Could it be that because more and more people are questioning the official stories about 9/11, he wants to expose some lies to possibly head off more serious doubts the entire 9/11 false-flag project? Hmmm.
Because I am by nature a positive person, I will put these doubts to rest and hope that some day in the future he will look under the rock of government lies to see the true reality of private capitalist ruling class interests.
