The Certainty Of Death, Or The Death Of Certainties

 

It’s amazing to me, to see, even in thoughtful writings, even in exceptionally thoughtful writing, which is as far above the norm as the moon is from the bottom of the ocean, that even there, certain cultural constructs of the mind, certain prejudices or pre-formed and unquestioned assumptions, certain axiomatic, ideological presumptions and certitudes, are passed along without thought – as if the author were merely remarking on the sky being blue, and everyone knew it, of course, so such notions need no argument or support, but are taken as fact. These ideological constructs and presumptions are castles made of sand, but the authors, including most of the better thinkers and scholars, and virtually all people at all times, assume them to be as certain as the law of gravity. The blind, unconscious, unquestioning assumption of ideological constructs is almost shocking – at least when it is seen in otherwise intelligent people and otherwise intelligent writings. Concepts such as progress, development, civilization and civilized, freedom and liberty, democracy, evolution, or “evolved”, are tossed about with utter casual manner, with no rigour, no questioning of their actual meaning: meaning, in practice, their meaning has no meaning; or worse, and more commonly, their meaning means precisely the opposite to what it is presumed to mean. Orwell understood these things well. The fact that the vast majority, including the vast majority of intellectuals, do not, is very dangerous indeed, to say it mildly.

Fascism, war, slavery, cultural arrogance, and a culture of blindness, ignorance and shared delusion, the death of democracy and freedom, ecological holocaust, and the collapse of civilization (sic), are the likely results, the almost certain and inevitable results, and soon, if we do not begin to question far more, and assume far less.

Fortunately, all such concepts, ideological constructs and cultural certitudes are now being called into question. And none too soon. Our certainties are quite literally killing us. They are also a prison, and shackles and chains, of our own making. Let us shatter them now. It is time.

JTR,

February 1, 2020

 

Post-Script:

See my essay, Fundamentalism and Relativism, in my first book, Enlightened Democracy, for further reflections on the middle way between extremes, which represents basic sanity. Also, watch for my new book, The People vs The Elite, which is being released now.

Get ready for some exciting, but possibly quite turbulent times. The proverbial shit is about to hit the fan. And as usual, that will have both positive as well as negative consequences and implications around the world.

Trump Says Up, You Say Down: Psyops 101

The deep state steers Trump. Smart move would be to nudge him to dismiss the coronavirus as over-hyped. Then the lemmings will trip over themselves to avoid guilt by association. But even idiots can be right sometimes, remember. Even a broken watch tells the right time twice a day. But the centre and left reacted like Pavlov’s dogs. Now they are loathe to admit they made a mistake, so they refuse to look at facts, and dig in. The majority are easily manipulated by elites playing power games…. It’s terrifying how easily the majority can be manipulated. That is the real danger.

*

Trump is a tool of the Deep State. He thinks he’s a brave rebel, at war with the Deep State. Or so he thought until the generals schooled him. Now he obeys orders.

Trump may be unpredictable and a loose cannon, but by and large, the Deep State has him firmly under control. They steer him, letting him believe he has far more power and autonomy than has actually has. He is another pawn – a pawn they wish to remove from the board, but a pawn so long as he is in play, nonetheless.

That considered, and that summary of Trump and the Deep State is pretty much unquestionable, it is interesting to note how an intelligent psyops campaign might be played out, if the ruling neoliberal elite wanted to:

a) get rid of Trump; and more importantly,

b) distract the people from the major crises –  the economy, poverty, inequality, injustice, climate change, pipeline protests, an explosion of protests world-wide, simultaneous with growing oligarchic and fascist powers, class warfare, imperial wars abroad, and the rapidly growing crisis of legitimacy of the ruling elite and the entire global corporate oligarchy – distract the people by a greatly exaggerated public health crisis (see my earlier articles, especially, Coronavirus: Facts & Fallout); and

c) use the public health crisis as a way to further intensify class warfare, crash the economy for this purpose, and loot the people further, in the process hopefully removing Trump in the 2020 election, and bring about police state measures in response to the largely manufactured crisis.

Nudging Trump to initially dismiss the virus as greatly overblown – which it is (see WSJ article, re-posted on my blog, written by Standford University professors, saying exactly this); and now to signal he wants an end to “social distancing” soon; would have the predictable response from the centre and left: they would, and did, trip over themselves stampeding to avoid any association with Trump.

Trumps says Up, so we say Down. Trump says black, so we say white. Trump is crazy, scary, stupid, and bad (all true) so we must disagree with everything he says (a foolish and childish reaction).

Everyone in the centre and on the left wants to avoid guilt by association with Trump. It is an unconscious but powerful reaction. Trump says X; Trump must be wrong, always; so we say Y.

But remember, even idiots are right sometimes. And even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day.

Look at the evidence. Avoid knee-jerk reactions. We are being manipulated, and played.

Investigate. And think for yourself.

The centre and left are acting like Pavolv’s dogs. They are cheerleading for a narrative that is demonstrably false, proven false by the facts; and worse, they are cheerleading for the removal of our rights and freedoms, and the imposition of a police state.

“The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” – H. L. Mencken

“We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth.” – Sydney Schanberg

“If you think any American official is going to tell you the truth, then you’re stupid.” – Arthur Sylvester, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, to American journalists, 1965

“This is a business-run huckster society, whose cardinal virtue is deceit.” – Noam Chomsky

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell

Can you spell, (self-) L-O-B-O-T-O-M-Y?

At present, to repeat, the centre and left are being misled and manipulated, en mass, into:

a) accepting a narrative which is patently false (remember Saddam’s WMDs?), and does not fit the facts (see the Italian government’s study on the true death toll from the coronavirus, and the WSJ article by two Stanford professors);

and, more terrifyingly, into:

b) screaming loudly in defense of a normalization of the very authoritarian measures they should be fighting against.

Now that is a psyops/propaganda/social engineering coup.

Let us pray it is short-lived, and the people recover their senses, and their sanity, and soon.

JTR,
March 27, 2020

Global Geopolitics Analysis 2020: Sinking All Ships (But Our Own): Elite Aim To Sink Global Economy, In Order To Consolidate Global Neo-Feudal Corporate Rule

The currently reigning political-economic orthodoxy, philosophy or ideology, both East and West, and in virtually every nation, with only a few exceptions, has rightly been called neoliberalism. What that means, is the merger of business and the state, which as Mussolini himself defined it, is properly called corporatism – which, he said, is the proper term for fascism. That is the order which we are facing now. And this is the final phase, it would seem, of the slow motion fascist coup which has been under way for the past forty years. Things are coming to a head, right now, in 2020.

Neoconservatism, which arose along side neoliberalism in the 1970’s, as its uglier Siamese twin, is its mirror image – without the velvet glove, or the Obama-esque, silky smooth PR machinery.

Both neoliberalism and neoconservatism – the two wings of the global corporate oligarchy and its self-serving ideology – have been a disaster for human beings and the Earth – as well as for democracy, human rights, civil liberties, constitutional rule and the rule of law, and for freedom.

Everywhere, this beast roams, or lurks, waiting to devour ever more. And devouring the people and the planet, our freedom, our democracy, our future and our rights, indeed it is.

What neoliberalism and neoconservatism represent, at their heart, is simply an escalated and intensified class war. It is a class war waged by the elite 0.1% upon the other 99.9% of the people, along with democracy, freedom, and the Earth.

The oligarchs are fulfilling Adam Smith’s depiction of what Thomas Jefferson called “the new moneyed aristocracy”, which Adam Smith called “the architects of policy”.

Note what Thomas Jefferson said about “the new moneyed aristocracy”, 200 years ago. In 1812, Jefferson said, “I pray we shall crush the new moneyed aristocracy in its infancy, for already it bids defiance to our laws, and seeks a contest of strength with our democratic government.”

Adam Smith spoke in similar ways, referring to “the vile maxim of the masters” – which he said was, “All for us, nothing for any one else.”

The elite simply want it all: all wealth on Earth; and more dangerously, all power. And they are making rapid progress. The richest eight individuals now have more wealth than the poorest half of humanity. Inequality has skyrocketed. Checks and balances and limits on power have been shredded, along with constitutions and human rights. The corporate coup is approaching completion.

What the neoliberal and neoconservative “New Bad Deal” of the past 40 years represents, is a) corporate globalization, b) globalism (closely related, but distinct), and c) corporatism. Corporatism means merger of business and the state – or the full corporate take-over of the state, in the case of the West, and the state take-over of the corporatized economy in the formerly Red East of China. Again, what is critical to remember is that in both cases, it is corporatism – which, again, as Mussolini said, is the proper term for fascism.

Globalization, and the ideology of neoliberal and neoconservative corporate globalism, is at heart, a war on democracy, since it is a slow-motion global corporate coup. It was sold to the people with the lie that it would lift all boats, and benefit all – while of course leaving all precious liberties and our democracy in tact, naturally.

What happened over the past four decades of neoliberal and neoconservative class warfare, however, has been the devouring of the middle class in the formerly wealthy nations of the West, the de-industrialization of the West, the offshoring of production for higher corporate profits, along with the offshoring of profits, and above all, a war on democracy at home and abroad.

Instead of lifting all boats, the result was a massive, historically unprecedented transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor – from Main Street – to Wall Street, the City of London, Davos, and the already stratospherically rich global business elite. And the corresponding hyper-concentration of power has been even more disastrous, and extremely dangerous.

Now that the elite have given themselves trillions of dollars worth of cash and assets from the public purse, and have looted, privatized, bought up, or taken private, just about everything they can, they want to sink the global economy, pull the plug, and sink all boats. Remember, the super-rich are never harmed in a crash – they prosper, and go on a feeding frenzy. Moreover, they can demand more bailouts for themselves while sinking and devouring everyone else – and they will get it becuase they control the governments of the world.

It’s happening now:

“Worth citing here is Caitlin Johnstone, who in a recent article noted how America’s response to COVID-19 illustrates the pathologies of market-driven capitalism and the politicians who so willingly serve it:

The corporate cronyism of America’s political system has been highlighted with a massive kleptocratic multitrillion-dollar corporate bailout of which actual Americans are only receiving a tiny fraction. Instead of putting that money toward paying people a living wage to stay home during a global pandemic, the overwhelming majority of the money is going to corporations while actual human beings receive a paltry $1,200 (which they won’t even be getting until May at the earliest) at a time of record-smashing unemployment.

America’s capitalism worship has been highlighted with Wall Street Journal headline “Dow Soars More Than 11% In Biggest One-Day Jump Since 1933” running at the exact same time as “Record Rise in Unemployment Claims Halts Historic Run of Job Growth — More than 3 million workers file for jobless benefits as coronavirus hits the economy“. Stocks are booming, Amazon is surging, and mountains of wealth are being transferred to sprawling megacorporations, while actual human beings are terrified of what the future holds.

Nice to know a few are profiting while so many worry, suffer, and die.  But should we be that surprised by how callous America’s leaders are?

I recall reading Daniel Ellsberg’s book on U.S. planning for nuclear war.  Sixty years ago, U.S. leaders were prepared to kill 600 million people (that’s not a typo) in their efforts to “win” the Cold War.”

– William J. Astore, American Herald Tribune

Only 600 million killed. That was the plan. Mind you, world population is much higher now. The numbers may need adjusting.

*

And in turn, in the aftermath of the next great economic crash, which looks to be unfolding now, the cycle of an every-intensifying feeding frenzy of the elite few upon the many will continue, and with greater ferocity and speed.

Of course, if the ruling elite sink the global economy, then the levels of popular discontent, which are already extremely high, will go through the roof. That is understood. That is why a police state has been built.

But a police state must be rationalized. That was the purpose of the “war on terrorism” – which in reality was a war on democracy at home and abroad, as well as a pretext for resource wars and coups the world over.

However, the “war on terrorism” propaganda narrative is no longer working. People are beginning to realize what even Trump has admitted: the wars in the Middle East are about oil. The propaganda narrative is failing.

So a new narrative was created, to distract the people from the three powers at home who are devouring them: Wall Street, Washington, and the military industrial complex. The new official enemies became Russia, China and Iran – regardless of their real threats, which in reality are basically economic competition only.

But even the new Red Scare and the new Cold War have failed. People are seeing through that as well. Something new was needed.

After a number of trials, over several years, the public health emergency pretext for the police state, fascism and martial law, have been refined to a fine edge.

Whether the coronavirus was naturally occurring, or whether it was accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Bioweapons lab, or whether the Chinese government released it deliberately, or the US government, or perhaps even a US-China joint effort, to consolidate the powers of the oligarchs East and West simultaneously, or some other actor, it ultimately matters very little. Any crisis, real or manufactured – whether honestly portrayed, or greatly exaggerated, as this one seems clearly to be – any crisis will do as a rationale for the new global police state.

*

So there you have it. Conspiracy theory? No: it is simply political-economic, sociological and geopolitical analysis of power elites and their known patterns and proven past actions, with extrapolation to the near future, based on very clear and undeniable indications.

In short, get ready for a global shit-storm: not necessarily due to a pandemic, which is very unlikely to amount to anything much beyond its present, wildly exaggerated levels. (Compare 11,000 global deaths from coronavirus vs nearly 50,000 deaths per day from the combined body count from poverty, hunger, obesity and poor diets).

What is clearly unfolding is:

a) fascist architecture continues to be being built;

b) draconian and authoritarian, fascist responses to the coronavirus, both East and West are in play;

c) an already extremely unstable global economy is being pushed toward collapse by the fascist lockdown imposed by elites, both in China, and also in the West;

d) economic crash – with huge spikes in global uprisings, as well as suffering and deaths, are certain to result if the draconian lockdowns continue for long; and

e) the hounds will likely be unleashed by the new global fascist police state, justified by the war on terrorism, by the new Red Scare and Cold War, by calls for “order”, and quite possibly by a public health emergency – and whether it is real or fabricated, does not matter – as popular unrest soars to new hiehgts world-wide in the face of the global economic crash which the elite have brought about.

The oligarchs create a crisis, then use the crisis to ram through sweeping changes that favour themselves, at the expense of the people, democracy, freedom, and the Earth. That is what is happening now – again, only this time with greater ferocity.

Remember, I will say again, I predicted the 2007-2010 global economic crisis when everyone was saying things are just rosy. It would be unwise to dismiss this second warning, of an even greater economic crisis coming fast – and the fascist “solution” to the crisis which will follow.

Speak up, and stand up: for democracy, freedom, human dignity, and the Earth which is also being razed, looted, devoured and destroyed.

The hour is very late. The next few months to several years will be our greatest; or, if we are complacent, or reality avoidant, our darkest hour.

Speak up, stand up. It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

Neo-feudalism, or more simply put, global fascism, is what is arising now.  The oligarchs, the elite, are consolidating their power. If we value our freedom, our democracy, or our future on Earth, we had better stand now.

JTR,
March 27, 2020

See Trends Journal, March 17, 2020

Flash-Drive Revolution – AND – Who To Trust?

 

Amidst Protests, Uprisings, Simmering Revolt and Revolution, and A New Renaissance Emerging,

vs

Reactionary Efforts of The Establishment Powers of Entrenched Global Neo-Feudal Corporate Oligarchy To Resist Change, and To Consolidate Their Power

Who Can We Trust, Who Is Worthy of Support, and Who Can Put Things Into Perspective?

*

Humanity is experiencing a global awakening, and the birth of a new renaissance, along with the birth pangs of a new, global wave of popular protests, uprisings, and democratic revolutions.

At the same time, and deeply inter-related, there is a deep and growing crisis of legitimacy facing the world’s business and political “leaders” – the elite – along with the media, political and economic institutions, and social systems, structures, institutions and powers broadly.

We are now, in 2020, entering the global showdown phase of that most central conflict: between a global awakening of consciousness and culture, an emerging new renaissance, and a new wave of global uprisings and democratic revolutions, and the elite powers and oligarchies that wish to halt them, and to retain their stratospheric power and privilege, their oligarchy, and their de facto global rule. It is, in short, a global showdown between the people and the oligarchy – between the people, and the ruling elite.

Public trust in political and business elites has crashed through the floor, and are at historically low levels. Public trust in the media has likewise collapsed.

Pundits, academics and “experts” are now routinely called into question as well – and not surprisingly, when we repeatedly discover hidden motives, blind spots, outright lies or delusions, and frequent alliances with vested interests.

Everywhere, icons are toppling, people are questioning more and more – as they should, and must.

Everywhere, people are re-assessing basic questions, including, who can we trust? Who can be relied upon for generally reliable, as well as honest, thoughtful, and accurate information, and informed commentary and analysis?

Furthermore, who is truly worthy of support, and who is not?

In short, whom to trust, has become one of the central issues of our time, as old orders crumble and slowly die, yet fight to hold on; and a new world is not yet born.

For myself, as a Canadian, and after 35 years and more than 50,000 hours of intensive research, studies and reflection, I can offer a very short and incomplete list of some of the groups and organizations that I feel are most worthy of support, along with the sources of news and analysis that I hold to be most reliable. Remember, though: Think for yourself – and question everything.

Remember also, that good sources and worthwhile groups can be corrupted, co-opted, high-jacked, taken over, simply become lost, or positively go off the rails.

I don’t expect that to happen with any of my most trusted groups or sources, but we do live in strange and unpredictable times – so I would urge we take nothing for granted.

Question everything, and everyone. Trust is good, when it is warranted. It is hgood to have confidence in something, and in at least some few, as well as in the people and the Earth broadly.

So too, are vigilance, fact-checking, and above all, thinking for ourselves, very good, and essential, things.

*

Groups I feel are most worthy of support:

A very short and incomplete list, focused primarily on Canadian groups and organizations

Idle No More

The Canadian indigenous rights group that has transformed the environmental movement, positively fused the indigenous rights movement to the environmental movement, and brought non-violent direct action into the mainstream – where it belongs, and must remain, until the job is done, and we live in a just and free, clean and green world.

The Council of Canadians

Canada’s leading citizen organization: building grassroots activism for a clean, green, just and free, peaceful, democratic society

The Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives (CCPA)

Canada’s leading progressive-left think tank, and one of the best in the world

Publishes the journal, The Monitor

The David Suzuki Foundation

The leading environmental group in Canada, along with Idle No More and others

Founded by the most trusted person in Canada, according to a nation-wide poll: environmental scientist David Suzuki

News and Analysis:

Trends Journal

Not even the best of the alternative media compares to Trends Journal for trends forecasting, trends analysis, and weekly news and analysis – and of course the major state and corporate media don’t remotely compare, being the propaganda systems for the ruling elite, as Chomsky has said, and thus, utterly unreliable

The Monitor

In-depth analysis from the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives

Canadian Dimension

News and analysis from the front lines of the grassroots movements for democracy, justice, sustainability and peace – from the Council of Canadians

New Internationalist

Clarifying the real story on the biggest issues in the world for many decades now, NI is a rare gem, both as a journal, and as a grassroots networking organization, and also, as a publishing house

The American Herald Tribune

An independent media source that offers fiercely honest investigative journalism, news and analysis
(Watch for Caitlin Johnstone in particular)

The Corbett Report

Another excellent source of independent research, news and analysis

The Centre For Research On Globalization

Also generally excellent for independent research, news and analysis

John Pilger

Veteran investigative journalist and documentary film-maker John Pilger is a one-man media army. When the world is filled with the sound and fury of all-pervasive propaganda, lies, half-truths and illusions, and the echochamber of elite-spun narratives, which is the major media, seems to drown out all possibility for truth, or even basic sanity, you can count on John Pilger to cut through the fog and the lies and the convenient self-deceptions, to get to the truth, and the real story behind “the news”.

The Empire Files, with Abby Martin

A fiercely independent source of news and analysis, Abby Martin is what an investigative journalist looks like – along with John Pilger, Caitlin Johnstone, James Corbett, Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and a handful of others left in the world.

GreenMedInfo

The most reliable, truly science-based source on health that I know of – in fact, the only reliable source that I know of, now that most health information sources have fallen for the lies and hysteria that are broadcast and paraded, very much like a plague, in fact, by the new axis of evil: Big Government, Big Media, and the Big Money powers that rule them both.

*

There are many other groups in the world that are worthy of our support, of course. And there are a few other sources of news and analysis that are reliable – although, they are now extremely few, and increasingly rare. But with even these few sources, and these few groups, and others like them, there is hope.

Everything is possible, and the future truly is in our hands.

What we do with that power, is entirely up to us.

JTR,
March 26, 2020

Post-Script:

Sources for big-picture perspective:

To compliment the short list of groups and news sources that are worthy of our trust as well as our support, I would like to add a very short and incomplete list of authors and thinkers that I feel are extremely helpful in gaining clarity in terms of the big picture, or in terms of in-depth analysis.

Again, there are millions of voices out there, but only a handful rise to the level, in my mind, of generally reliable (no one is infallible), and excellent. These, to my mind, are among the best of the best. Other people would present a different list. Here is mine. (In no particular order – and again, very incomplete.)

Henry David Thoreau

Etienne de La Boite

Noam Chomsky

Peter Kropotkin

Bertrand Russell

Murray Bookchin

Rianne Eisler

Howard Zinn

C. Wright Mills

Peter Phillips

George Orwell

Aldous Huxley

Erich Fromm

Max Weber

Alan Watts

Allan Wallace

Joseph Campbell

Joanna Macy

Helena Norberg-Hodge

Vandana Shiva

Jeremy Rifkin

Naomi Klein

John Pilger

Gerald Celente

Michel Chossudovsky

Michael Hudson

Ellen Brown

Max Keiser

Yanis Varoufakis

James Corbett

Caitlin Johnstone

Abby Martin

Matt Taibbi

David C. Korten

David Suzuki

Arundhati Roy

Margaret Atwood

Ronald Wright

Maude Barlow

Paul Craig Roberts

Morris Berman

Stephen Toulmin

EF Schumacher

Gandhi

Martin Luther King Jr.

Peter Dale Scott

Anthony Hall

John McMurtry

Chris Hedges

Cornell West

And my own writings, I would humbly submit:

my essays, here on my blog, along with my first two published books:

Enlightened Democracy: Visions For A New Millennium (on Barnes & Noble)

and,

The People vs The Elite:

A Manifesto For Democratic Revolution,

Or, Survival In The 21st Century & Beyond

(Coming April 2020)

*

Flash-Drive Revolution:

As I have said before, and others have begun to say as well: censorship is increasing. The elite are scared – scared of change, scared of losing power. They are cracking down – especially on freedom of speech, and on dissent.

I would urge people to begin backing up important texts, images, posters, data sets, videos, films, art and music that can be used in the fight for a better, freer, more just and clean, green world – and now. Many of the best and most important writings, for example, are in the public domain. Others, like myself, are offering their work for free distribution. Please take this document above, and my two books, if you find them useful, and savce them to a USB flash drive, along with other public domain writings you find valuable or important, or relevant to the task at hand – and share them widely, everywhere. If freedom of speech and dissent continues its current trend towards being censored and shut down, we will need alternative means of communicating. A Flash-Drive Revolution, sharing information and ideas freely, hand to hand, world-wide, could circumvent the oligarchs, and beat them. I think it is important. And I think we should begin right away – right now.

250 MB, or even 1 terabyte, USB flash-drives are becoming cheap. Use them. Bypass the closing down of society and free speech – while we still can.

Vive la revolution! For a free and just, clean, green, democratic society, and a better world for all.

And remember, we, the people, are the world’s other superpower – the greatest superpower.

Embrace your power now.

Let’s go.

JTR,
March 26, 2020

Standford Medical Scientists Say Coronavirus Mortality Exaggerated 100,000-Fold

Two medical science professors from Stanford University just published an article in the Wall Street Journal (reprinted by GreenMedInfo), stating that the mortality rate from the coronavirus is exaggerated by a factor of 100,000-fold, and actual mortality rate is closer to 0.01% – corroborating the Italian government study released a few days ago, indicating similar findings.

That puts the coronavirus at 1/10th the mortality rate for the common flu (which vaccines are also useless against, remember) – and nowhere near the level of mass deaths that the fear-mongering media and extreme draconian government measures indicated.

This means that mass quarantine, effective mass house arrests, travel restrictions, bans on freedom of assembly, suspension of civil rights, and police state measures, are not even remotely justified – if they ever are, which they are not.

As I’ve said from the beginning: a) the danger from the new virus is wildly exaggerated; b) police state measures are definitely not justified; and c) think for yourself – and question everything.

Do people really believe everything the government or the media tells them? Many do, it seems. (What are we – four years old?!)

Does anyone remember the war on Iraq? “Saddam has WMDs!” All lies – proven lies.

The government and the media never lie? How about inflation statistics? Now there is some credible data!

Inflation figures are supposed to realistically reflect increases in the cost of living. Inflation figures reported by the government and the media are always reassuringly very low. But rising costs of home heating, and skyrocketing costs of housing and rent, health care, transportation, education, and food, are not calculated into the inflation statistics. These things presumably are not essential to living, and therefore are not counted in the rising costs of living. Official inflation rates are around 2%. The reality is 8-10%, if not much higher.

Obviously, governments lie, not just occasionally, but routinely. And the major media, and most of the “alternative” media, have proven they are no better.

Think for yourself. Question everything.

JTR,
March 26, 2020

WSJ: Is the coronavirus as deadly as they say?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-coronavirus-as-deadly-as-they-say-11585088464

Vitamin C protects against coronavirus
Vitamin C Protects Against Coronavirus | GreenMedInfo

Italian Government Study: 99% of their Coronavirus Fatalities Were Already Sick; Half Diagnosed with 3 or More Diseases
https://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/italian-government-study-99-their-coronavirus-fatalities-were-already-sick-half-dee

The Sins of Assange

“Assange’s arrest represents an abuse of power, highlighting not only how true journalism has now been banished in the West, but also how politicians, journalists, news agencies and think-tanks collude with each other to silence people like Julian Assange and his Wikileaks foundation who are a nuisance to US imperialism.

Assange is “guilty” of two “cardinal sins”: revealing US war crimes committed in Iraq and committing the unpardonable sin of publishing the emails of Clinton, Podesta and the Democratic National Committee, thereby revealing such chicanery in US domestic politics as the fraud committed against Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primaries.”

– Piereccini, American Herald Tribune:

Julian Assange Is Guilty Only of Revealing the Evil Soul of US Imperialism

Revealing the facts of US war crimes, and the fact that the Democratic Party is deeply corrupt? No, no….we kill you for that. We attack viciously and ruthlessly anyone who reveals such truths.

As Noam Chomsky said, This is a business-run, huckster society, whose cardinal value is deceit.

Amen. Thank heaven for the truth tellers. One day, if we are courageous enough, and willing, they will set us free.

JTR,

March 24, 2020

Global Health System Failure – It’s Not What You Think

Who do we turn to for reliable health information? That is one of the critical questions we need to ask now.

(Another is, when is it justified to suspend all civil rights, due process of law, and constitutional rule? Hint: never.)

What the media is telling us is that:

a) the coronavirus represents an extraordinary danger – though the figures say that claim is false: 11,000 deaths in three months from coronavirus vs 50,000 deaths PER DAY from hunger and obesity;

and

b) mass quarantines, effectively mass house arrests, suspension of constitutional rights, especially freedom of assembly and freedom of travel, but also far more, along with draconian, authoritarian, police state measures, are necessary and justified – despite the extreme imprudence this represents, and despite the scientific evidence, which the Italian government has provided, which shows the coronavirus poses effectively ZERO THREAT FROM CONTAGION UNLESS YOU ARE VERY OLD OR ALREADY SICK.

Governments and media world-wide have glossed over the SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS PROVING MASS QUARANTINE AND POLICE STATE MEASURES ARE UNJUSTIFIED.

In such a situation of universal hysteria, when science and facts don’t matter, where can you turn for reliable information?

Can you trust the US government, for example, to tell the truth?

Remember the Iraq war, and the lies told to get us to accept it? The US government is most definitely not a reliable source of information.

Yet, the US government controls the purse strings of both the WHO and the CDC, effectively comtrolling these two “leading” world health “authorities”. Neither one, therefore, can be relied upon.

Furthermore, who controls the US government? Well, if you are five years old, you might say that the US is a democracy, so the people control the government. Adults might have a different answer.

The US government, like most governments and institutions in the world, have experienced what sociologists call “institutional capture”. Big Oil and fossil fuel giants, the big banks, arms manufacturers, agribusiness giants, chemical giants, biotech giants, along with Big Tech and the pharmaceutical industry, now have effective control over Washington – as is perfectly clear to the majority of people in the US and around the world.

Would the pharmaceutical industry lie? Is there a conflict of interest with Big Pharma controlling Washington, and in turn, controlling the WHO and CDC? Perhaps it is plausible?

What are we, two?

Six corporations control 80% of the major media world-wide.

Big business – Davos, Wall Street and the City of London, along with the military industrial complex, which US Republican President and Supreme Allied Forces  Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about, in his farewell address in 1961, and which has become the loyal servant and trained attack dog of the world’s plutocratic elite – has taken over the global economy and the financial system, the major international institutions, many if not most NGOs, a great percentage of academia,  the majority of world governments, and the major corporate and state media. (See Peter Phillips, Giants: The Global Power Elite)

Do we really think the roughly 400 global corporate power elite have no agenda other than the truth? They never lie? Maybe they’re interested in profits, perhaps?

People need to give their heads a shake. In the face of a slow motion global corporate coup, governments, ministrys of health, and health authorities, along with the major media, are no longer credible, neutral, or reliable.

They have all experienced institutional capture. They may tell the facts, or they may not. Doctors and nurses and Ministries of Health may be well-informed, or may themselves be manipulated and dangerously misled.

As to the current global coronavirus crisis, I have so far found only four reliable sources. That is rather staggering, even to me.

Not surprisingly, the WHO and CDC are not reliable sources of health information. Nor are governments or the major media. Institutional capture – the global corporate take-over, that is – has claimed them all, with only rare exceptions world-wide.

For reliable information on the coronavirus crisis, therefore, I would recommend the following sources, and only the following sources, for the time being:

GreenMedInfo

Trends Research

The Corbett Report

and my own research articles and essays, on my blog:

Writings of J. Todd Ring, on WordPress

Be well. Stay calm, and read on.

Dig for yourself. And question everything.

JTR,

March 24, 2020

 

Media Failure, Again

 

Remember the Iraq War? Remember the lies that were passed off by the elite, and repeated by the media without question, without any fact-checking or investigation? Well, it’s happening again.

But every time we repeat the mistakes of history, the stakes get higher.

*

On the eve of the US war against Iraq, the corporate and state media all lined up to dutifully play the role of echo chamber for the official narrative created by the Western elite: Saddam has WMDs, Saddam is linked to Al Qaeda, Saddam was behind 9/11 – all three points later being proven to be lies. 

The war on Iraq was always about the oil. But the people had to be lied to and manipulated into supporting the war. The media willingly complied.

None of the major media questioned the official narrative of ruling elites. None bothered to investigate or check the facts. The embarrassingly mistitled alternative media and independent media, with few exceptions, also lined up to repeat the official narrative of the new “War On Terrorism” – which was and is a global imperial war for oil and other resources, and a war on democracy and freedom at home and abroad.

And it is happening again. 

All the major media, state and corporate, spout the official narrative: the coronavirus is extraordinarily dangerous – contrary to the facts, which are: 11,000 deaths to date from coronavirus vs 50,000 deaths PER DAY from hunger and obesity; therefore, mass quarantine, effectively mass house arrests, suspension of basic civil rights and constitutional rule, and draconian/authoritarian/police state responses, are necessary and justified – again, contrary to both prudence, and also the facts, since the Italian government’s own study shows there is virtually zero risk of contagion unless you are either very old or already sick and immune compromised.

And not only have all the major state and corporate media lined up to unquestioningly repeat the official government and elite narrative, but so have virtually all the so-called alternative and independent media. This is appalling, as well as criminally negligent, complicitous, and extremely dangerous.

The real dangers are two: power-mongers (that is, fascists), and lies.

The major media, along with most of the alternative media, were, and are, complicit in mass murder during the war on Iraq, and the on-going wars across the Middle East. Now they are colluding and complicit with the full scale war on basic civil rights, freedom, democracy, and constitutional rule, and the instituting of a new global fascist police state.

Bravo.

I spent 35 years doing intensive research, study and analysis in politics, philosophy and world issues, and in the process collected some of the best sources and resources on the planet. Most of my best sources are failing now. That is deeply disturbing. 

Only a handful of sources are getting it right on the coronavirus event: Gerald Celente and Trends Journal, The Corbett Report, GreenMedInfo, and myself. Just four sources world-wide getting the story right, from what I have seen? That is deeply disturbing. I haven’t done a thorough survey or assessment of the alternative media, but what is clear and undeniable is that both the major media, and the so-called alternative media, are failing, again.

We need to be very thoughtful now, especially about our sources of news, information and analysis. Above all, we need to question everything, and everyone, and think for ourselves. Now more than ever.

JTR,

March 24, 2020