Category: Politics

Why Public Schools and the Mainstream Media Dumb Us Down | Academy of Ideas

Malevolent authority, combined with a passive citizenry is the recipe for tyranny and so anti-authoritarians should not be feared or ostracized, they should be welcomed. They are the individuals who raise the alarm and awaken the slumbering masses to the existence of corrupt authority. A society without a healthy number of anti-authoritarians, or a society in which anti-authoritarians are shunned and silenced, is a society that has chosen the comfort of illusions, over the desire for truth, and is therefore a society paving the way for its own destruction. For as the 18th century French philosopher Voltaire cautioned:

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious or otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.” Voltaire

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Geneva International Peace Research Institute GIPRI: Interview with Dr. Alfred de Zayas on the crisis in Venezuela

Alfred Maurice de Zayas {born 31 May 1947 in Havana, Cuba), also known as Alfred de Zayas, is an American lawyer, writer, historian, a leading expert in the field of human rights and international law. From 2012 until April 2018, he was the United Nations (UN) Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order (also known as Special Rapporteur), appointed by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council.

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Modern Monetary Theory, Monetary Sovereignty, Colonialism and Independence, and an Economics for Sustainable Prosperity

The conclusion will be that macroeconomic policy proposals should be informed by stock-flow consistent modern monetary theory; that a job guarantee, or employer of last resort scheme, is a proposal which is affordable and potentially able to stabilise an unstable economy; that the elimination of involuntary underemployment can raise the subjective well-being of millions of people and promote social inclusion; and that the framing of this and other policy proposals is of vital importance, and should not be neglected by economists and the politicians they advise.

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The Brutal Dictatorship of US Foreign Policy, NATO and the Petrodollar Recycling Scheme Still Not Seen

This was the gospel reading for church today that brought into sharp focus the system value disorder still not seen and unspeakable as it pertained to regime change of “brutal dictators” from Iraq to Libya to Syria and now Venezuala. What stood out for me was the saying, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?”

At once, I recognized that a beam is part of the foundation of a house and a splinter is a product that is produced when work is done on the beam such as cutting with a saw and shaving the edges so that the parts of different beams fit snuggly with each other.

What if, the social destabilization and humanitarian crises (the splinters) we are seeing in socialist countries that are rich in oil and other resources and who had uncoupled from the US dollar, are the result of the brutal dictatorship of US foreign policy, NATO and the US Petrodollar Recycling Scheme (the beam)? Unless and until this US “brutal dictatorship” beam is removed from their eyes, they would be blinded from seeing the social destabilization and humanitarian crises splinters of their own making, which serve to create designated enemies for their continued “brutal dictatorship” projects.

Three recent article come readily to mind which I have reproduced below along with other links for further study.

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Why is Venezuela in Dire Straits? | Scott T. Patrick

Reproduced from: https://twitter.com/PompeiiDog/status/1091747927016513537

Scott T. Patrick

PhD in political science. Aspiring academic. Interested in Marxism, global political economy, social revolutions, and Western imperialism.

Washington, DC

I’m going to do thread on Venezuela’s economic history to try and dispel some of the myths going around that the present crisis is due to socialism. Actually, colonialism, US imperialism, and neoliberalism are far more important factors for why Venezuela is in dire straits.

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US Enemies and the Lawless ‘Rule of Law’ by Prof John McMurtry

For weeks of front-end news, a China-Canada rift has gripped Canada. The story-line is endlessly repeated and runs like this: “Experts from both sides of the border agree that imprisonment of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is strictly abiding by the rule of law, and China cannot or does not want to understand how the rule of law works”.

The unifying plot is that Canada must continue to hold the CFO of China’s world-leading telecommunications giant in detention on behalf of a US extradition warrant to uphold the rule of law as sacred.

That it is an extra-territorial demand for no offense committed under Canada or international law is not reported. That the offense alleged is against a unilateral US embargo of Iran by its export controls to which Canada is not a party is deleted across the media and all official statements. Anyone who does not join into this ruling story or connects the covered-up facts of its story-line is drowned out and removed from the public eye, including Canada’s own senior statesman and well-liked ambassador to China.

In general, any revealing questions are silenced. All the legal parameters of the case dissolve instead into the empty slogan ‘rule of law’. Background editors of what can be spoken on the public stage ensure at every level that no diversion is allowed.

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Hi – I’m reading “Humanity in a Creative Universe” by Stuart A. Kauffman and wanted to share this quote with you.

In the hard sciences, which can often feel out of grasp for many lay readers, there are “great thinkers” who go far beyond the equations, formulas, and research. Minds such as Stephen Hawking philosophize about the functions and nature of the universe, the implications of our existence, and other impossibly fascinating, yet difficult questions. Stuart A. Kauffman is one of those great thinkers. He has dedicated his lifetime to researching “complex systems” at prestigious institutions and now writes his treatise on the most complex system of all: our universe.

A recent Scientific American article claims that “philosophy begins where physics ends, and physics begins where philosophy ends,” and perhaps no better quote sums up what Kauffman’s latest book offers. Grounded in his rigorous training and research background, Kauffman is inter-disciplinary in every sense of the word, sorting through the major questions and theories in biology, physics, and philosophy. Best known for his philosophy of evolutionary biology, Kauffman coined the term “prestatability” to call into question whether science can ever accurately and precisely predict the future development of biological features in organisms. As evidenced by the title’s mention of creativity, the book refreshingly argues that our preoccupation to explain all things with scientific law has deadened our creative natures. In this fascinating read, Kauffman concludes that the development of life on earth is not entirely predictable, because no theory could ever fully account for the limitless variations of evolution. Sure to cause a stir, this book will be discussed for years to come and may even set the tone for the next “great thinker.”

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20th & 21st CENTURY CONTRADICTIONS & CONFUSIONS ABOUT ECO-SOCIALISM | Douglas Jack

“I would like to propose a range of missing ‘INDIGENOUS’ PRACTICES & PRINCIPLES from the Eco-Socialist goals of these authors. I agree humanity needs an Eco-Socialism, but deepened in understanding all humanity’s ancient ‘indigenous’ (Latin ‘self-generating’) heritage practices over 100s of 1000s of years. It is in these worldwide systematic indigenous practices that eco-socialist theory can find the tested practices, patterns, results & roots for implementation in our precarious times. Humanity through 7000 years of ‘metal-coin-money’ oligarch-led financed colonial invasion & destruction of indigenous practices & heritage, live in a profound AMNESIA, ignorance & alienation against our ancestral once worldwide indigenous eco-socialism. This ancient recall brings us to an integration, needed for implementing successful social practice in human societies, involving complex human equations. The intensions of these authors are honourable but their proposals need to be based in practice & deep reflection on ancestral systems & the economic drivers within.”

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The Paradoxes within Capitalist Democracy Spelled Out by the Zen Economist Rob Urie | www.counterpunch.org

“A social taxonomy that supports the division of political power from economic power is necessary to pose capitalism and democracy as compatible. In the liberal frame, a government that determines when you wake and go to sleep, how you dress, which speech is acceptable, and which isn’t and what you will spend the overwhelming preponderance of your time and life’s energy doing, is totalitarian. In this same liberal frame, if your employer determines these, compliance is freely chosen. The social violence of ‘property’ is the initial condition from which this free choice proceeds.”

“The term ‘Democratic Socialism’ proceeds from a dubious distinction between political and economic democracy. The myth it appeals to is that American democracy reflects the popular will in ways that more straightforwardly hierarchical political systems don’t. The paradox of capitalist democracy has always been the assertion of flat (equal) political representation in the presence of hierarchical economic distribution. Being white, propertied and male were the initial conditions for American suffrage. As late as 2016, functional suffrage was a proxy for economic class. Real democracy begins with economic democracy.”

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The Vocabulary of “Economic Deception” | Dr. Michael Hudson

The whole focus of classical economics is to tax wealth not income, and obviously, the tax burden was going to fall on the wealthy, on the landlords first and foremost, then on the bankers and then on the monopolists. That was what socialism was, the idea of creating an economy with a circular flow that the taxes would be paid by the wealthy and the government would use this tax revenue to spend on infrastructure, schools, productive credit to help the economy and to make economies more competitive. It seems that in that sense socialism was going to be the most efficient capitalist economy.

I’m Bonnie Faulkner. Today on Guns and Butter, Dr. Michael Hudson. Today’s show: The Vocabulary of Economic Deception. Dr. Hudson is a financial economist and historian. He is President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trend, a Wall Street financial analyst and distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. His 1972 book Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire is a critique of how the United States exploited foreign economies through the IMF and World Bank. His latest books are, Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy and J Is for Junk Economics – A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception. Today we discuss J is for Junk Economics, an A to Z guide that describes how the world economy really works, and who the winners and losers really are. We cover contemporary terms that are misleading or poorly understood, as well as many important concepts that have been abandoned – many on purpose – from the long history of political economy.

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