The Joint Chiefs Have Their Say RE Attack On Our Capitol

 https://twitter.com/ScottHa85992272/status/1349480397856452609?s=20

The rights to free speech, petitioning the government, and assembly do not allow violent, law-breaking assault. Anyone with even only a cursory knowledge of American Government 101 should know that.

The mob which attacked Congress had no "patriots" in it. It was composed primarily of cult members. Unfortunately, I doubt they know they are such---

The 'Shared Psychosis' of Donald Trump and His Loyalists - Scientific American .

For the future---

Trump Precedent: No President Should Be Above the Law 

(theintercept.com)

Now that Trump has been impeached twice, hopefully we can return to some degree of sanity in our Government... shortly... in a week or so.

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Not only my opinion.  Stay Well

"Americans Are Now Getting a Mild Taste of Their [Our] Own Medicine"

 It has come home---

“Americans Are Now Getting a Mild Taste of Their Own Medicine" of Disrupting Democracy Elsewhere | Democracy Now!  

Short, informative interview.

Take note:  Nairn (an alternative, award-winning journalist & author) admonishes us not to embrace the Establishment because of Trumpism.  He's talking about the neoliberal Establishment.  That's what we've had for decades.  Utilizing Edward Bernays style propaganda, it's a softer version of Trumpism... more subtle, classier, and much more effective.  Presently, it's the dominant political & economic ideology in the world.  It's all about "atomizing" society, & having Big Biz be in control utilizing Crony-Casino-Monopoly-Disaster Capitalism.  Gov'ts will exist strictly as window dressing.  We're almost there... just a micron or so away.  Neoliberalism does not favor democracy at all.  It does favor the appearance of democracy in order to mollify the masses.

Notable people have recognized this for years, and they're all across the political spectrum.  Here are only a few of them:  Noam Chomsky, Paul Craig Roberts, Bill Moyers, Barry Commoner, Ron Paul, Rand Paul (to a lesser degree), Naomi Klein, C.W. Mills, Glenn Greenwald, Lori Wallach, Ellen Brown, Bernie Sanders, Ralph Nader, George Monbiot, Jason Hickel, and many more.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

RE: "SAVE AMERICA"

 A reminder--- I'm not a Republican OR a Democrat.  I've studied USA politics since 1956.

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https://twitter.com/ScottHa85992272/status/1346972530318462976?s=20

and

https://twitter.com/ScottHa85992272/status/1346977984796831745?s=20

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Despite the fact that our various systems (political, economic, & social) here are flawed to various degrees, I love this Land. For many years, I've watched various aspects of it change and some aspects remain pretty much the same. There's good, and bad, and everything in-between here.

Hands down, Trump is the worst politician ever elected to high office

in our country. His words and actions are egregious, dangerous, and embarrassing beyond the pale. The fact that he was elected to the Presidency is quite a testament to the power of propaganda, as well as to the degree of ignorance apparently rampant among too many of us. Thank heaven he was soundly defeated in the recent election.

His prior election was not mainly due to votes for him, but rather because of votes against the ESTABLISHMENT candidate, Clinton. People in the Rust Belt of America - and elsewhere - were fed up to the hilt with neoliberal policies resulting in jobs and manufacturing being shipped overseas or south of the border. Other factors played a part, too, such as deep-seated racism in various parts of the country and the bane of nationalism (as opposed to genuine patriotism). Mainly, though, people voted for Trump as a vote against the neoliberal Establishment.

Such voters apparently thought Trump would improve things. He lied to them, and I guess they believed the lies. And so, our nightmare began.

Biden is no prize, but he's a gazillion times better for us and the world than is/was Trump. So, let's make the best of a new day.

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Not only my opinion. Stay Well

The Dynasty That Never Was, PLUS - It's Time to Dump Neoliberalism Forever

 Trump hates being Old News.  No one pays much attention to him anymore.  Lately, most of the focus has been on the Neoliberal & his Team.  That's great.  Trump should be totally shunned.  His mental illness is now more visible than ever before.  The more he blabbers about the election, & the more he virtually ignores the raging pandemic, the crazier he looks.  Even Repubs finally are taking note... jumping ship, resigning on their own, making public comments criticizing the Cult Leader.  It's about time.

Trump soon will leave in disgrace.  He'll still be around politics, making noise now & again; but that only will appeal to, at most, about 20% of the USA population... perhaps less.  The man-child finally is Old News.

The biggest testament to the political ignorance of Trump True Believers is their calling Biden a "socialist" (or a puppet of socialists).  Apparently, they know essentially nothing at all about neoliberalism (which isn't "new", or "liberal").  

I think we're the only country in the entire world with a majority of folks who don't have a clue about that ideology.  Everyone else gets it.  Plus, except for Oligarchs (& their puppets), everyone else despises it.  At least it's finally getting mentioned once in awhile in American public discourse.  Again, it's about time.

In my view, until this country fully understands neoliberalism, we will continue to have:  rule by Oligarchs/Plutocrats (whether Repub or Dem), gross inequality, perpetual war, the American "Empire", American hegemony, monopoly-crony-casino capitalism, increasing shrinkage of the middle class, increasing poverty, increasing privatization (which means high fees for "public" services), stagnated wages, less of a social safety net, more pandemics, more suicides (especially among veterans & other young people), more social unrest, more ecological devastation, more mega bank fraud, more propaganda, etc., ad nauseam.  

It's way past time for a paradigm shift which dumps neoliberalism forever.  Except for the Super-Rich, that ideology has been an utter failure.

More and more people around the world - especially in Europe, Canada, a significant portion of South America, parts of Africa, parts of Asia, & elsewhere - are realizing that we all must change our impact on the natural environment.  This is truly a turning point in human history.  Let's make it a good one.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Breaking Monopolies, Reducing Rentier Power re Rent Extraction, and the Connections to Resource Use & "Growth"

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919304203

    Title - "The Threat of Rent Extraction in a Resource-constrained Future"

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There are many different types of "rents".  Don't think only in terms of living space rent.  For example, there's the renting of your labor.  There's the renting of land for purposes other than residential housing, and there are a number of other types.

The author of the above journal article proposes that private rent extraction is "a barrier to the goal of transforming economic institutions so that society can flourish within planetary boundaries [limitations]".  She maintains that concentrations of private rentier power create an imperative for unlimited growth.

For the most part, I believe that's correct.  I also believe such thoughts would be rejected outright by many people here in the USA, but not as much in Europe and elsewhere.  Why?  People here rightly would view it as democratic socialism, and they seem to have a completely black/white view of socialism v. capitalism.  To them, any form of socialism is evil (so to speak).  They tend to ignore the fact that public roads, public water systems, public parks, the VA Health Care system, USPS, public art museums, and a plethora of other public institutions are all examples of democratic socialism in action.  In short, we have a mixed economy, as do most countries of the world.

Via Edward Bernays style molding of the public mind, private and public Oligarchs in the USA have convinced too many people that Monopoly-Casino-Crony Capitalism is the same as the capitalism of Adam Smith, their economic hero.  It's not even close.  Except in the realm of very small business, Smith's capitalism no longer exists.  He did not favor monopolies, mega biz, or any kind of Oligarchy.  Rather than praising so-called "Masters of the Universe", he viewed them unfavorably.  Today's Oligarchs claim the opposite; they're wrong.

People in the EU (& Norway and Iceland, which are not formally in the EU), tend to be much more open-minded regarding economic/political ideology.  [Example: in Europe there's a political/economic philosophy known as Libertarian Socialism.  In the USA, that would be considered an oxymoron.]  Even though all those countries have enclaves of narrow-mindedness in that regard, overall they're much more flexible than the USA.  Point being:  transforming society from neoliberalism to some form of ecological economics is a tough row to hoe, but especially so in the USA.

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The article cited above deserves sincere consideration in the effort to create a world more equitable, more ecological, and more in line with the needs of all people, instead of only the privileged few.

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Not only my opinion.  Stay Well