Youtube has the video Mr. Rogers and the Power of Persuasion.

I wish I could use what I learned here in all my online and offline interactions.

The Daily Mail has the article New sexed-up dossier furore: Explosive leaked email claims that UN watchdog’s report into alleged poison gas attack by Assad was doctored – so was it to justify British and American missile strikes on Syria?

But a dissenting scientist, employed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) says in a leaked email that investigations on the ground at Douma have produced no hard evidence that the alleged gas attack took place.

It appears that these facts were deliberately suppressed in published OPCW reports.

The email makes no attempt to suggest what did happen in Douma. It simply points out that hard evidence, gathered and examined by non-political scientists, does not support the officially endorsed version. And it claims that this resulted in the OPCW redacting the report to the extent that its conclusions were misrepresented.

This is what I have been saying since this smear tactic was first used by the USA. I have reports from people like Vanessa Beely that I posted on my blog to back up my skepticism. The destruction of Tulsi Gabbard by the oligarchs’ news media goes on because she refuses to repeat the lies of the oligarchs’ news media.

YouTube has the video Global Capitalism: The Economics of Taxing Wealth [November 2019] by Richard Wolff.

In connection with Wolff’s discussion of the main topic above, he will also cover the following issues at the November 13, 2019, event:
– Current wealth tax proposals by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren
– How US already taxes wealth (of some, not others}
– How other countries tax wealth
– How US enables/allows wealth to escape taxes
– Redistributing wealth: pros and cons
– The protest movements in Chile, Lebanon and beyond and how they differ from those in Hong Kong
– The overdue critique of “libertarian” capitalism

This is a fantastic lecture. Listen to it as long as you can. If you have the fortitude to stay for the whole thing, it might change your world view. If you want to focus on the economics of taxing wealth, it probably takes him about 30 minutes to even get to that subject. You can always use the slider to jump to the part you want to hear.

Although I have been listening to Richard Wolff for a few years now, this may be one of his best lectures. It really is too bad that there aren’t enough people who have the time to listen to this.

Truthdig has the article Will America’s Billionaires Start a Second Civil War? by Thom Hartmann.

If we are, indeed, on the brink of a second Civil War, it’s already being waged as a “cold war,” with the occasional armed skirmish being provoked by the so-called alt-right movement. And, as in the past, this will be a war by the very, very rich against the rest of America.

This is frighteningly plausible.

So we have to get our real news from a comedian. What else is new? Perhaps we can rebut all the baloney we are getting from the oligarchs’ news media about Bolivia.

YouTube has the video Corporate News Repeats CIA Propaganda On Bolivian Coup.

As you watch this video, remember this definition.

Heterodox – not conforming with accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs.

MMT (Modern Money Theory) is a theory that has the property of being heterodox. Of course MMT is merely an explanation of how money works in the real world. That is why it is heterodox. The oligarchs’ economic experts don’t want us ordinary folk to understand how money actually works.

It is nice to know that I am appreciated.

YouTube has the video Hear the Bern Episode 32 | Bernie Gets It Done (w/ Warren Gunnels).

Next time someone asks you what Bernie has accomplished in his career, send them this podcast and tell them that we had to leave the better part on the cutting room floor just to get it under an hour. Featuring veteran policy advisor to the Senator, Warren Gunnels.

If you want to understand what “Us, not me” means in practice, this is a good video to watch.

I am seeing some of my Hindu friends publishing more and more intolerant items about Islam. I was hoping this Tulsi Gabbard video might make them stop and think. They don’t seem to see in this video what I see. Tulsi Gabbard’s Unifying Keynote Address at Muslims for Peace Conference.

I put this here on my blog so that I have easy access to it as a response to the hate speech against Islam when I see it.

Just to be clear, I am in the cohort that Tulsi mentions that does not follow any spiritual path, nor believe in any religion, nor any supreme being. Maybe that’s why I feel it easier to let go of some of my childhood prejudices.

I should also say something about the word “tolerance”. I want to refer to a book I read, but I just cannot quite recall enough to bring it up to quote it. I guess this will have to do. Genuine Respect for Other Faiths.

Hindu Dharma believes that no particular religion is better than another; all genuine religious paths are facets of Bhagwan’s pure love and light, deserving tolerance and understanding. Hindu Sanatan Dharma not only teaches tolerance for other religions but respect as well.

I just found the book Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism by Rajiv Malhotra.

Rajiv Malhotra’s insistence on preserving difference with mutual respect not with mere tolerance is even more pertinent today because the notion of a single universalism is being propounded. There can be no single universalism, even if it assimilates or, in the author’s words, digests , elements from other civilizations –Kapila Vatsyayan

RT has the episode of the Keiser Report Trump: Easy to read (E1463).

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss the former top trade negotiator for China, who claims that dealing with Trump is great that he is so easy to read, thanks to his non-stop tweeting. They also discuss Venezuela’s president, who is holding up a bitcoin hard wallet, just a year after the UK refused to return his country’s gold. In the second half, Max talks to Dr. Michael Hudson of michael-hudson.com about repo markets, national debt, China, trade wars, and more.

Max and Stacy go crazy over bitcoin again. I have always hoped that Max would have a conversation with Michael Hudson who could straighten out Max’s bitcoin mania.

Max did a great job of papering over Michael Hudson’s opinion of bitcoin. Hudson did manage to sneak in a subtle criticism of bitcoin, but Max carefully steered the conversation to make sure that the criticism was suitably subtle. Max just cannot seem to accept that a “currency” created out of nothing, like bitcoin, is just a non-government fiat currency. When he has to resort to baseless claims about human nature, you know he is getting to the point of desperation.

Bitcoin may remove the ability of a single entity from deciding how much of that currency is in circulation, but there are pros and cons to this difference. A straight up conversation around this between Keiser and Hudson would be great.

November 18, 2019

An interview by Laura Flanders popped up on my Facebook Timeline – Monopoly Capitalism: At The Breaking Point?.

Toward the end of the Michael Hudson segment he was able to tell Laura Flanders what he thought of BitCoin that he didn’t dare say to Max Keiser.

Laura Flanders: Some people talk about BitCoin and these other kinds of currencies. They were seen as radical at one point.

Michael Hudson: I don’t think so. It’s Fictitious money. It’s tax avoidance. It’s really criminal money. …

Naked Capitalism has the post Non-Financial Private Debt Overhang: Post War German Debt Reforms as a Model for a Modern Debt Jubilee?.

The situation is worse than it was in 2007. Our macroeconomic ammunition to fight downturns is essentially all used up … It will become obvious in the next recession that many of these debts will never be serviced or repaid, and this will be uncomfortable for a lot of people who think they own assets that are worth something … The only question is whether we are able to look reality in the eye and face what is coming in an orderly fashion, or whether it will be disorderly.

It is very important to understand that private debt overhang is a substantial threat, as opposed to public debt in countries like the USA with a sovereign fiat currency. Public debt and private debt are two very different animals. The private sector is not an issuer of sovereign fiat currency. Please read the article if you did not understand the difference.

The Gray Zone has a two part interview starting with the article Trump meddled in Ukraine, and he’s not alone. If ads come up on YouTube, I have been able to pause the ad, and get an option to skip the ad.

The indictment of all of Washington D.C. just gets worse and worse as they second part of the interview occurs with the video US arming of Ukraine is a scandal on its own.

You would never know about this hidden story if Max Blumenthal didn’t quote to you from obscure articles and editorials in the oligarchs’ news media itself. Of course, Max has done his own independent journalism on the story. If you try to keep track of the Ukrainians named in these interviews it could be almost as hard as reading a Tolstoy novel.

Rising has an interview with Aaron Maté: Why Democrats will regret lionizing the national security state on impeachment that gives you a hint at what is in his interview with Max Blumenthal.