The Ever Growing Global Tapeworm

"The corporate elites, which have seized control of ruling institutions including the government and destroyed labor unions, are re-establishing the inhumane  conditions that characterized the 19th and early 20th centuries." Chris Hedges, The Gig Economy is the New Term for Serfdom.

At first we celebrated social media thinking it was a means to express the views and values of the people, but now we know how this too has been corrupted by money. Confronting our own complicity we wonder if we should exit Facebook. Rebecca Solnit advises "Use them. Try not to let them use you. Remember to disable Platform, which is how they pimp your data, use Adblock and Ghostery, don't click on the ads, and say as many bad things about FB as you can on their platform (and cheer their stock crashing). The time may come when we can say goodbye to a destructive and amoral corporation without saying goodbye to each other."

"Many users are waking up to the fact that what they don’t know can hurt both them and the democracy they take for granted, and now want to limit the exposure of their data to Facebook." writes Irwin Oostindie in the Tyee. "People are increasingly recognizing that data gathered by third party apps was used to help prepare targeted fake news to help elect Donald Trump and promote Brexit."

I am reminded here that the cheapest "deal" is often something we shall pay for down the road, as the ever growing global tapeworm of capitalism grows bigger, crushing the life it exploits.

Where is all this heading? It depends on what we are willing to stand up for. If conversations on social justice bore us, then we shall soon be the new refugees.

Ultimately it will not be how much money we have to bolster our positions, it will be the values we honour and build.

Statement from Kennedy Stewart on being arrested

Janet, Today I was arrested by the RCMP for defying a court injunction as it applies to Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby Mountain facilities. I did so while standing with my community, Indigenous Leaders, and those from across British Columbia who oppose this new pipeline. Please read my full statement below. Together, we can stop Kinder Morgan. In solidarity, Kennedy “Canadians have the constitutional right to peaceful protest especially when governments abuse power. During the last election, Justin Trudeau said that ‘while governments grant permits… only communities can grant permission.’ I am here today to help amplify the voices of my constituents who do not grant permission for this pipeline.” “The process by which the Trudeau government approved Kinder Morgan’s plans to build a dangerous new pipeline through our community without our consent was deeply flawed and unfair. The Prime Minister broke his promise to revise the National Energy Board pipeline review process and require Kinder Morgan to resubmit its plans under this new process. His government has also threatened to use military force to facilitate construction.” “First Nations’ and municipal governments as well as the Province deeply oppose this pipeline as British Columbians take most of the risk for little benefit. I feel it is my responsibility to do whatever I can to advocate for my community as its elected Member of Parliament, including exercising my constitutional rights.”

Your Voice

Your voice is the temperature gauge

using the mercury of all you have seen and heard

of those who have harmed and saved you

an alchemical mix including your history

back to the first walk across the land

the first hut built of dry grass

your eyes wide as the saucers

that hadn't yet been invented

and the memory of a deep voice

directing you out of despair

calming the scream in your bowel

just as you were ready to split yourself open

in rage for all the times we let you down

when you were counting on us

to reach in for your bloodied arm

pull you up out of the pit

that had no steps or rocks to climb

and when we stop to think about it

we know we keep listening for the monster's roar

shuddering across the valley from mountains

too far and too high to climb

while your voice is so small and so close

we could begin to learn by listening

what could be done by someone

someone, anyone who hears

who has a hand to lift you up

and an arm to put around you

whenever your voice is ready

to ask for help.

Human Rights and Authoritarian Governments

"Human rights activists are very inconvenient to authoritarian governments. Discrediting them as terrorists or terrorist sympathisers is right out of the tyrant's playbook." 
Sandy Garossino, National Observer.

This article written by Sandy Garossino and published in the National Observer is a well articulated opinion on how "terrorists" and "terrorism" is as useful to authoritarian leaders as war.

It's another trope to divide the world into us and them, good guys and bad guys, without the conversation about what makes a nation safe. So it removes the pressure for ruling elites to make their country a better place.

Of course we need to arrest those who plan to bomb, to kill, to torture for their "cause". But there are always opportunists in government who blow up the conversation to find their opposing parties to blame. It's so easy to stir up big sensational claims in corporate sponsored media and political jades.

When citizens fall into blaming whole groups such as immigrants, Sikhs, Moslems for the violence of a minority we fail on the tasks that move us toward social justice, and lose sight of the ways we can protect the innocent.

Every nation that we talk about or know of has been guilty of destroying civil society through fear and hate.

To support good journalism with your membership go here https://www.nationalobserver.com/support

What You Need to Know about The Anthro-Hyena

The anthro-hyena is a creation of my imagination to explain how political power can be organized to make us, (the general population who breath, bleed, fear), believe what we can or cannot do.

Let us suppose that the anthro-hyena does exist, like satan, or ghosts or highly secret societies.

Let's say the anthro-hyena have been among us since the beginning of organized human societies and they rose to the top initially because of their intellectual abilities. They learned about astronomy, farming, the creation of weapons, the calendar and tracking of the seasons, the running of the state and good orderly direction.

Let's suppose the anthro-hyena is created by design and not born, that he feels no attachment to any tribe or family; his blood is not related to any species because he has no blood. He is the algorithm of greed and self interest developed over centuries of human societies.  The anthro-hyena has triumphed over all addictions except the single-minded determination to be in control. He feels neither love nor hate towards people. His mind is a clean to-do list, quick to strike off whatever has been achieved to get on with the next task.

Let's suppose the anthro-hyena is neither good or evil. Just efficient and willing to win at any cost.

Monarchs, corporations, religions and governments have depended on anthro-hyenas to organize and carry out their campaigns for territory, wealth, and supremacy. But let me be clear. The anthro-hyena is NOT the emperor, king, queen or president of anything or anyone. He is the servant of the corporate board room.

Because of his strategic abilities we cannot live without him. Collectively they are the ether of civilization. They have the focus to create submission and obedience among the masses and then dissemble them. Their art is manipulation and anonymity. They are the shadows without flesh.

Their goal is to cleanse the planet of humanity to reach the pristine view that transcends life - the final solution, a mathematical construct free of any sentimental interference, an everlasting universal peace.

However, you won't find him on the battle field.  You will not hear his voice broadcast from any radio or television. He is the free radical brainwaves that enter the ambitions of men and women. He arouses the desperate, starving, fearful masses to spill blood or build nuclear warheads. He is the quiet dread in our night time dreams.

The ideology of individualism is the work of the anthro-hyena because it interrupts the open communication between men and women. Makes us suspicious of our kin who we dismiss as bogie men in the bushes and beneath our beds.

While we become "experts" on what is wrong with the world, the anthro-hyena becomes embedded in our language.  The strength of words like enemy, discipline, loyalty, masculinity, femininity, white, black, reason, lies, nonsense, infidel, savage, barbaric - attach themselves together to build a wall of silent screams to keep us in and the others out.

Can we save ourselves from the anthro-hyena? Whatever political ideology we create to make a better world will be invaded by memories of the past. History will keep repeating itself because the anthro-hyena will remind us of all that can go wrong, of all who are to blame, and how the shadows grow longer.

When we are in our cups, or vulnerable, in pain, near death, giving birth, or challenging the system - the anthro-hyena will be smiling like Iago as he makes his fool his purse.

The forces that control our world are the call and response between the sponsored message and our fears.

Controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement - NAFTA

The Council of Canadians is calling for a better NAFTA, one that replaces the current deal with an agreement that ends the controversial investor-state dispute settlement mechanism that has been repeatedly used to undermine environmental protections, removes energy proportionality (rather than expanding it) and commits to a 100 per cent clean energy economy by 2050, removes water as a service, investment and a good and instead recognizes it as a human right along with the United Nations obligations to “respect, protect and fulfill” that right, and that enshrines the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the right to free, prior and informed consent.

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS

Can Science and Religion be partners in human exploration? Rupert Sheldrake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L12iNcJzHZo
March 18 Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo 

Alfred Rupert Sheldrake is an English author, and researcher in the field of parapsychology, known for his "morphic resonance" concept. Wikipedia

Born: June 28, 1942 (age 75), Newark-on-Trent, United Kingdom

Spouse: Jill Purce (m. 1985)

Movies: In the Beginning There Was Light, Cognition Factor, Metamorphosis

Children: Cosmo Sheldrake, Merlin Sheldrake

Education: Harvard University, Worksop College, Clare College, Cambridge, University of Cambridge

Books

View 15+

The Science Delusion

2012

Science Set Free: 10 Paths t...

2004