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?
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Writings of J. Todd Ring: The Most Dangerous Epidemic Of All
Just over 100 deaths in the US from the coronavirus, and what is the government response? Fascist lockdown. The pattern is the same across the Western world, mirroring the police state which is China. Fascist lockdown. People are hysterical over a virus that kills fewer than bathtub drownings, motor
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Coronavirus: Facts & Fall-Out
Four explanations of coronavirus outbreak: 1. Standard narrative of Western governments and media: natural virus, extreme danger, draconian measures needed, justified 2. Weaponized biowarfare virus accidentally leaked from Wuhan BSL4 bioweapons lab 3. US elites (military industrial complex, or deep state) launched biowarfare in hybrid war with China, without informing
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Central Challenge Of Our Time
What is the central challenge of our time? It is not what most people think it is. It is not race or gender, or climate change, or the environment broadly, or issues of war and peace, or poverty, or justice, or equality, or fighting terrorism, crime or violence, WMDs and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Fernanda Tomaselli and Sandeep Pal point out that the Canadian public is well ahead of its political class in recognizing that there’s far more to life and to policy than inflating GDP. And Richard Adams reports on how the UK Cons’ choice to
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Collapse of Modern Civilization
More than 150 years ago Thoreau commented, “Our sills are all rotten.” He was right. It is for that reason that Western, and Westernized, “modern” “civilization” is collapsing. This could be cataclysmic, of course, (as in, an ecological holocaust), or relatively peaceful, (akin to the Maya abandoning their great cities
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: US 2020 Election: One Choice Only – The Oligarchy
Chris Hedges states there is no choice in the 2020 US election if it is a choice between Trump and Biden: both are a vote for the consolidation of the oligarchy. Now that sums it up perfectly well. Mind you, it was the same in 2016. People in Germany felt
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Polly Toynbee and David Walker write about the brutal social consequences of a decade of austerity in the UK. – Andrew Jackson reviews James Crotty’s Keynes Against Capitalism with a strong emphasis on Keynes’ recognition of the need for a democratically-planned economy. –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ezra Klein discusses the socialist ethic behind Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. And Umair Haque writes that the antidote to Donald Trump’s authoritarianism is a far stronger recognition of the need for collective action. – Meanwhile, Shree Paradkar notes that the vilification of
Continue readingPostArctica: A Song For Jack
Poet Jack J Locke passed away last week. We got to know each very well during the past year as we co founded The Charter Poets along with Blossom Thom. The doors were open wide for what we hoped would be a great future for the group. And now we
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Reflections On Stillness & Action
We need stillness and action – both, and urgently so. This should be becoming perfectly clear. I’ve travelled through 20 countries, but still I find stillness the greatest adventure, and most rewarding, enriching journey of all. Going to the mountain top is exceedingly worthwhile, but going deep within is what
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – John Miller takes note of the corporate media’s bias against Wet’suwet’en land defenders and others engaged in demonstrations in solidarity. Stuart Trew comments that we shouldn’t let demands for convenience override the ongoing need for reconciliation. Paige Raibmon writes about the obvious error
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Degeneration, Collapse, and Rebirth
What we are facing is systemic degeneration: ecologically, culturally, spiritually, intellectually, psychologically, socially, and biologically in terms of degenerating health and shortening life spans. This is the slow-motion collapse of a civilization. What is needed is not to self-medicate or mask the symptoms, or to manage the symptoms of degeneration,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac offer a stark look at the plausible worst-case scenario for a climate breakdown over just the next thirty years. And Zarah Sultana argues that in the UK (as elsewhere), we need to demand transformative politics to respond
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Heesu Lee reports on Greenpeace’s estimate that air pollution costs the world nearly $3 trillion every year. And Damien Cave writes that this year’s wildfires have permanently changed Australia as people knew it. – Meanwhile, Alice Bell warns against trusting oil barons
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Don Pittis writes about Thomas Piketty’s take that Bernie Sanders may be exactly what the U.S. needs. – Laurie Penny wonders whether we’re yet capable of overcoming the culture of complicity around the powerful men daring the justice system to hold them to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Andrew Leach and Martin Olszynski go into detail about the calculations around the Teck Frontier mine – and particularly how any pricing assumptions which could make development viable are far out of date. – Kate Yoder points out how the fossil fuel industry
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Larry Elliott writes that continuing inequality looms as an obstacle to meaningful climate action. But David Love offers a reminder that climate apartheid is the likely end result of failing to rein in carbon pollution. – Christopher Smart outlines the OECD’s plans to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Joseph Stiglitz, Todd Tucker and Gabriel Zucman write about the need for governments to bring in sufficient revenue to act in the public interest. And Sophie Alexander points out some of the millionaires who want their class to contribute their fair share. –
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Chomsky’s Optimism: On Climate Change, Nuclear War, and Activism
Truthdig‘s Scheer Intelligence series, hosted by Robert Scheer, recently posted a 3 hour podcast in two parts. I’ve summarized the gist of what Chomsky says below, in about a 15 minute read, with a few of my own thoughts and links added to the mix. You can listen to the
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