“we must first reclaim our minds”


Jonathan Cook:

Today’s globalised wealth elite prefer neoliberal, technocratic politics that keep borders open for trade; that treat the labouring poor as human chattel, to be moved around on a global chess board as a way to force wages down; and that ensure the elite can stash its ill-gotten gains away on island sanctuaries far from the tax man.

But when technocratic politics is on its death bed, as it is now, the corporate elite will always settle for the populism of a Trump or a Farage over the populism of the left. They will do so even if rightwing populism risks constraining their financial empires, because leftwing populism does much worse: it upends the warped logic on which the corporate elite’s entire hoarded wealth depends, threatening to wipe it out.

If the corporate elite can no longer find a way to foist a neoliberal technocrat like Biden on the public, they will choose the populism of a Trump over the populism of Sanders every time. And as they own the media, they can craft the stories we hear: about who we are, what is possible and where we are heading. If we allow it, our imaginations will be twisted and deformed in the image of the deranged totem they choose.

We can reclaim politics – a politics that cares about the future, about our species, about our planet – but to do so we must first reclaim our minds.

from cached article*



*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer
Posted

Chris Hedges: American Requiem



from the Chris Hedges piece:
The Democrats and their liberal apologists are, the election has illustrated, oblivious to the profound personal and economic despair sweeping through this country. They stand for nothing. They fight for nothing. Restoring the rule of law, universal health care, banning fracking, a Green New Deal, the protection of civil liberties, the building of unions, the preservation and expansion of social welfare programs, a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, the forgiveness of student debt, stiff environmental controls, a government jobs program and guaranteed income, financial regulation, opposition to endless war and military adventurism were once again forgotten. Championing these issues would have resulted in a Democratic Party landslide. But since the Democratic Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate donors, promoting any policy that might foster the common good, diminish corporate profits and restore democracy, including imposing campaign finance laws, was impossible. Biden’s campaign was utterly bereft of ideas and policy issues, as if he and the Democrats could sweep the elections by promising to save the soul of America. At least the neofascists have the courage of their demented convictions.*


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer
Posted

with Trump it’s all talk, and so far, so good – for him and his family

image from Twitter*


The situation is made more pressing for the US president because his primary source of income in recent years — his work on television — “is drying up”, according to an investigation by The New York Times. Citing the president’s tax filings, the Times also said much of that income was invested in golf courses that are money losers. So while the president is asset-rich, it is unclear how much liquidity he has access to.

The Trump Organization declined to comment.

The president’s creditors can be broken into five groups. . . .*


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer
Posted

Marilynne Robinson: What kind of country do we want?



The prestige of what was until very lately the world economic order lingers on despite the fact that the system itself is now revealed as a tenuous set of arrangements that have been highly profitable for some people but gravely damaging to the world.*


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer
Posted

Conversations with History: Robert Fisk

December 2006 interview: Robert Fisk (12 July 1946 – 30 October 2020)*

“I tell you, if you saw what I saw you'd never support a war again. But you won't show that on television. And by not showing that on television …”

unedited copy-paste from the transcript – on page 4 of 6:
I always say to people -- on the road, Basra in '91, I saw women, as well as soldiers and civilians, old men, torn apart by British bombs as well as American. And dogs were tearing them to pieces to eat, it was lunchtime in the desert. I tell you, if you saw what I saw you'd never support a war again. But you won't show that on television. And by not showing that on television we present the world with a bloodless sand pit. We pretend war is not that bad. It's "surgical," always "surgical strikes." Surgery's a place where you're cured in the hospital, not where you're murdered or killed or torn apart. Thus, we make it easier for our leaders -- our generals, our prime ministers, our presidents -- to sell us war, and for us to buy into war and go along with that. That makes us lethally culpable and potentially war criminals in a very moral sense of the word -- or immoral sense, I should say.*


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer
Posted

Caitlin Johnstone on the rot in all mass media

image from the Caitlin Johnstone piece* –  this includes links to Greenwald* and Taibbi* (on Greenwald)



*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer
Posted

Atherton|notrehta


Atherton – known to Unitarians for its historic Chowbent Chapel* – is now part of Greater Manchester

Atherton [ATH-er-tuhn, ADH-uh-(t)uhn] / the closer you are, the more the name is voiced, like this [dhis]*

notrehta [not-REY-tuh] / arbitrary, but hey … rhymes with “not greater”


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer

Richard Atherton – a strong Tory and an opponent of nonconformity – “ejected the Unitarians from the chapel his father had allowed them to build on his land.” That was in 1721. He died five years later without a male heir. Atherton Hall was demolished in 1824.*

Athertons with antecedents in the local landowning family are descended from family members who lived between 400 and 900 years ago and who didn’t inherit.

Faxon Atherton – descended from James Atherton, who arrived in New England in 1635* – paid $6,400 in 1860 for 640 acres on the San Francisco peninsula, land now in the town of Atherton, incorporated in 1923.*
Posted

the tragedy of the private


from @seeminglyrob:
First, define the problem.

Image

Then, propose the solution. Interestingly, instead of condemning capitalism outright, Philipsen suggests (after explaining the how fundamental to a capitalist system racism and exploitation are) that we give capitalism its due.

It solved the problem all mankind had sought to solve up to capitalism's inception: scarcity. We now produce enough for everyone. Literally, everyone. Now the problem is abundance, which capitalism is fundamentally incapable of solving.

Every other call to arms feels piecemeal in comparison to this fundamental restructuring of society in response to the "success" of capitalism and its perverse logic. And, once laid out so clearly, everything else feels less pragmatic, too.

Y'all should read this is what I'm saying.

source: unrolled thread, archived*

• • •

from the article:
Anthropologists have long told us that, as a species neither particularly strong nor fast, humans survived because of our unique ability to create and cooperate. ‘All our thriving is mutual’ is how the Indigenous scholar Edgar Villanueva captured the age-old wisdom in his book Decolonizing Wealth (2018). What is new is the extent to which so many civic and corporate leaders – sometimes entire cultures – have lost sight of our most precious collective quality.

This loss is rooted, in large part, in the tragedy of the private – this notion that moved, in short order, from curious idea to ideology to global economic system. It claimed selfishness, greed and private property as the real seeds of progress. Indeed, the mistaken concept many readers have likely heard under the name ‘the tragedy of the commons’ has its origins in the sophomoric assumption that private interest is the naturally predominant guide for human action. The real tragedy, however, lies not in the commons, but in the private. It is the private that produces violence, destruction and exclusion. Standing on its head thousands of years of cultural wisdom, the idea of the private variously separates, exploits and exhausts those living under its cold operating logic.

source: archived*


*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer


Posted