veteranstoday--2020-12-11--POWER OF THE WORD by Michael Brenner

POWER OF THE WORD by Michael Brenner

International Affairs professor Michael Brenner , unlike many of his more timorous colleagues , has been willing to discuss controversial topics on my radio show .
We ’ ll be tackling his recent article on literacy and social control ( see below ) on my live show tonight , Friday Dec. 11 , 8 to 9 pm Eastern .
If you miss it , catch the archive later this weekend .
–Kevin Barrett , Veterans Today Editor .
A divide between elites and the populace is a recurrent feature of every large organized society .
That has been true without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mastery of agriculture encouraged the growth and elaboration of earlier Neolithic tribes .
There are no known exceptions ; but there are variations in modalities .
A key to elite dominance always was the superior group ’ s monopoly – or quasi monopoly – of crucial knowledge .
Before the introduction of writing , it took oral form .
The subjects covered matters temporal as well as sacred .
In those cultures , like Hinduism , where most practical matters were sacrilized , access to religious materials – the mythic eschatology , prayers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the power of a priesthood in alliance with warrior castes .
That alliance , overt or tacit , has been the foundation stone of elite rulership and economic control throughout history .
Only over the past 250 years has it been challenged by the radiating influence of the Western Enlightenment .
Once sacred knowledge , supplemented by crucial profane knowledge , e.g .
hydraulics and elementary mechanics , was written down – first in hieroglyphs and then , about 1,800 BCE , in alphabetized languages – literacy became the principal instrument by which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Education aimed at expanding the number of citizens with the ability to access foundational materials never served the interests of the elites .
On the contrary , they made systematic efforts to restrict it .
Anthropologists and historians believe that literacy rates in ancient states was somewhere around 2 % .
In Greece of antiquity and parts of the Roman Empire it may have risen higher in the single digits – most of those ‘ literate ’ persons possessing just a rudimentary knowledge and a limited ability to compose written communications .
Scribes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In many cultures that remained the case right into the 20th century .
In India , Brahmins strove to reserve access to the holy texts exclusively to themselves .
Mass ignorance of what they said , their stipulations and justifications , was a powerful tool of social direction and social control .
Until very recently , education was therefore the key to social advancement – which in Hindu India was almost always collective by caste .
The way it worked was that a low-ranked caste would use the knowledge – profane and sacred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of literate young to reshape their practices and self-presentation to conform to the standards of higher castes – and thereby to provide the religious cum ( contrived ) historical justifications for the new , preferred status .
If effect , striving to get reassigned within the cast hierarchy rather than escaping caste identity .
I In a paradoxical inversion of the process , after independence incentives were created for marginal castes at the boundary of low Shudra and Untouchable to accept the latter status since the constitution incorporated ‘ affirmative action ” principles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employment for persons from the qualifying “ Scheduled castes.
” Dalits of India Unite !
You have Nothing to Lose But Your Schedules .
The British Raj saw advantage in perpetuating the traditional system of mass illiteracy .
They rightly believed that an illiterate populace was easier to manipulate and to control .
In cynical fashion , they restricted education to the slim cadre of natives they needed to administer the Raj , to secure it , and to perform supportive economic functions .
In 1900 , Viceroy Lord Curzon gave a state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ estimated literacy at 3 % ( 1 % in English ) .
In 1947 , it was only 11 % .
The Rajas and Nizams who ruled the native states saw their own interest in the same parsimonious approach to education .
In other words , the part of the population with access to written knowledge under the Raj circa 1900 was roughly the same as It had been in the time of the Mauryas or Guptas two millennia earlier and lower than it had been in Ctesiphon or Antioch or Taxila .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ vast masses under their thumb was simplicity itself : keep them dumb and divided .
Playing caste against caste , sect against sect , has been the trump card of Indian rulers since time immemorial – continuing right until today under Mr. Modi who is a master of the game .
In the end , their fatal error was to underestimate the ability of a politically astute , prideful few to arouse the inert masses .
The process was not dissimilar to what was occurring within Britain over a longer time period , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same moment in time .
The Christian Church went one step further .
In the West , the Vatican for 1,500 years kept the Holy Scripture sealed in a language that only a handful of the Faithful could understand – much less read .
( Economists these days achieve a similar purpose by writing in unintelligible Algebra ) .
It served the proselytizing and institution-building goals of the early Church leaders to minimize actual reading of the Gospels .
After all , there is no mention of the Trinity , of Purgatory , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ church of any kind .
Nor the misogyny that was inserted by calculating forgers- e.g .
the entirety of Timothy I and late accretions to Corinthians 14 .
Women deacons are not referenced .
The Gospel writers go so far as to offer divergent accounts of the Resurrection and two ‘ overlook ’ the Virgin Birth .
Much of this dogma was propagated because early believers , including Paul , wrongly expected the Second Coming to be imminent .
When the Day of Judgement didn ’ t arrive as anticipated by the Apostles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ probably was Jesus ) , the master builders ( all literate ) took over to lay the foundation for an elaborate religious structure .
How inconvenient if literate masses could notice all these awkward truths of the Gospel texts – while lacking the necessary training in exegesis to finesse them .
Even more inconvenient were they to realize that Church leaders showed very little inclination to observe the teachings of Jesus in their own conduct .
* Neuroscience in recent years has uncovered an intriguing new aspect of illiteracy .
It appears that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reconfigures elements of the brain ’ s neurological networks .
Physiologically , the brain of a literate person is different from that of an illiterate .
An important corollary effect of this transformation is to markedly enhance the mind ’ s analytical capabilities .
In short , a literate person is more discerning of others ’ behavior and intentions – potentially more skeptical .
Hence , the interest of elites in keeping the masses not only ignorant but more inclined to conform to ritualized group norms .
Something they have sensed instinctively .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ counter to the disrupting effects of literacy .
In the post-modern societies of the ‘ West , ’ the potential for social control through indoctrination seems unlimited .
How else do you explain the behavior of millions who act voluntarily in ways that harm their well-being ?
On a routine basis , we observe phenomena of this sort that set new marks for incredulity and illogically .
The most glaring example is provided by the 70 million Americans who voted for the odious Donald Trump .
That ’ s 48 % of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Party never scored more than 33 % ; Mussolini ’ s Fascists never participated in a fair and open election .
In Spain , in the crucial 1936 election , the far Right represented by the anti-Republic Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas ( CEDA ) , which was the precursor for Franco ’ s Falangists , gained 34 % .
In Austria , the last free election of 1930 gave the proto-Fascist parties ( loosely defined ) about 21 % of the vote .
In Romania , the Fascist Iron Guard , under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 1937 parliamentary elections , came in third with 15.5 % of the vote .
What all those countries experienced was Triumph of the Fascist Will .
Let ’ s also bear in mind the turbulence of the times – two decades of economic distress , the destruction of WW I , post-war grievances over Versailles , irredentism , Communists , etc .
as compared to trauma-free United States circa 2020 .
Perhaps , the future film version of our times should be titled “ Crackpots Without Cause.
” 2 The susceptibility of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evident in the financial/commercial sphere .
Consider the ease with which business plants an appetite for products which the buyers don ’ t need , desired only yesterday , and whose very existence they learned of last week – like the latest electronic gadget ‘ upgraded ’ every year or so .
It ’ s noteworthy that the American Advertising Council awarded its 2008 prize for the best campaign to Barack Obama ’ s Presidential run .
A general rise in the population ’ s analytical skills is met by elite rulers with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Propagating beliefs that encourage uncritical loyalty is the crudest but most effective method ; e.g .
nationalism , dogmatic ideologies like Fascism or Communism , fundamentalist sects Islamic/Hebrew/Christian/Hindu/Buddhist/Shinto .
Organized religion ’ s sustaining logic broke down slowly in the West with the introduction of the printing press .
Literacy spread with increasing rapidity over the next three and a half centuries .
Technological , economic , demographic developments forced the pace .
The United States was the pacesetter .
By the Civil War , illiteracy was the exception rather than the norm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white population could not read and write .
Of course , subsequent waves of immigrants knew only their native language – and some were illiterate even in it .
The former condition was compensated by newspapers in foreign languages that had a substantial readership right into the early post-war era .
Today , Chinese and Spanish language papers are readily available in all large cities .
It also is noteworthy that literacy was provided by secular , civic schools – a principle rejected by the current misguided Charter School movement .
The central @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rise in literacy and the erosion of social domination by religious and aristocratic elites .
Literacy also was favorable to , and an underpinning for popular sovereignty , i.e .
democracy .
( The emergence of non-traditional tyrannies is another story with its own logic and dynamics ) .
New economic elites , of course , replaced the old elites and used their financial/commercial power to control public life as well as the distribution of wealth and privilege .
Their dominance was curbed , and in respects broken , after more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ triumph of social democracy in the West after World War II .
The stunning regression that we have witnessed over the past 40 years represents an unprecedented , massively successful counter-revolution .
Until the last few years , it has received remarkably little attention .
That phenomenon itself is a big part of the explanation .
In broad terms , one can hypothesize that the reassertion of elite control in an age of mass literacy has two causes .
One is largely cultural : the degeneration of mainstream culture into multifarious forms of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very different from the Roman “ bread & circuses ” strategy .
Social media are the companion of the transformation .
Admittedly , today the sponsors of these mostly baneful innovations are participant corrupters rather than cynical conspirators .
Money is the driving force .
This comprehensive development , in turn , deepens the widespread anomie that is a distinguishing trait of atomized , highly mobile modern societies .
Egotism , self-absorption , perverse individualism sap the sense of community and collective purpose which are the life-blood of liberal democracy .
So , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off in our own little corners where we look at and read that which we , along with a like-minded cohort , find comforting and convenient .
Michelle Obama was correct is saying that most people know more about the food they are eating than they know of what their government is doing .
The same might be said of Fantasy Football .
Hence , a version of mass literacy marked by studied ignorance , one never imagined by elites , has emerged that serves to sustain their rulership .
Our elites are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
More important , they recognize that the public ’ s disengagement from public life meets their purpose .
Foremost , the striving to get elected ( re-elected ) .
Then , once in office , to do pretty much what you please – for personal gain or ideological reasons – without having to worry too much about close scrutiny of their misdeeds .
For potential scrutinizers have neither the inclination , knowledge nor critical skills to do the job .
The result is a serious degeneration in the level of public discourse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of people who rule us .
The political elites who occupy high office might be skillful manipulators , but they also are persons of little talent or ability .
Just compare our current corps of Senators with the roster from the 1960s-1980s .
Years ago , a rather dull Senator from Nebraska , one Roman Hruska , argued on the Senate floor that there was nothing wrong with appointing mediocracies to positions of high office since the vast majority of citizens were themselves mediocre and deserve representation .
The cup he imagined has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ commented : “ Public life these days is swarmed by people better suited to play second fiddle in an Isosceles Quartet.
” Today ’ s popular culture is unique .
It provides not just escapist distraction and diversion .
As exemplified by so-called ‘ realty ’ shows , it contrives a picture of society that substitutes deformed images for fact .
Instead of fiction heightening our awareness of who we are by distilling features of lives and persons , it does the opposite .
It purveys falsehood as documentary truth .
The popular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tell one from the other .
More Americans , at this moment , believe that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD and played a role in 9/11 than know that all but one of the culprits were Saudis .
So , what we are witnessing is a closing of the gap between elites and the masses – by a totally unforeseen route .
Literacy gives everybody equal access to knowledge of all kinds .
Historically , that compression stemmed from the growing aptitudes of the general population .
Nowadays , it is occurring due to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who rule us .
An odd sort of progress.3 Think of the presidential debates .
In the inaugural Nixon-Kennedy debates , linguists judged the level of speech at the 9th or 10th grade .
The best estimates of today ’ s debates place it at the 5th grade level – that includes the grade inflation of Trump ’ s verbal ejaculations .
Mastery of subject matter tells a similar story .
Go back and listen to Nixon and Kennedy on You Tube .
Even more revealing , there are recordings of speeches made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election : Taft , Teddy Roosevelt , Wilson and Eugene Debs .
Here are the references , below .
* It is not clear whether these are public recordings or studio recordings of speeches that were read .
Literacy , obviously , is a relative concept .
( The full and complete set is available at Amazon ) Hence , the great and unique incongruities of our times : enormous differences in wealth and living standards/work conditions co-existing with a formal equality of political rights and a common culture.4 The last condition , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ widely in tastes and preference scales as witness the shared celebrity culture – for example .
For the first time in history , the dominant power elites and their subordinates speak the same ( debased ) language – metaphorically and literally .
The outcomes , though , are little different .
**A possible further embarrassment was rooted in the Gospel words themselves .
The early Latin composition of the New Testament Gospels ( i.e .
before Jerome ’ s translation from the Greek in 390 ) was written in a rude , ungrammatical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what , though .
Saint Paul himself had proclaimed that the classical “ wisdom of the world was foolishness to God.
” ( I Corinthians 3:19 ) ; and alleged that Jesus himself had pronounced ‘ I will destroy the wisdom of the wise , and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.
” ( 1 CORINTIANS 1:9 ) *** Rudimentary knowledge of the spoken word sufficed to bring one to Christ .
As Tertullian put it : “ What indeed does Athens have to do with Jerusalem ?
What concord @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Church ?
” ( On The Persecution Of Heretics VII ) One had Faith , that was enough .
And ignorance meant power for the Church .
Augustine et al would call that a “ win-win ” situation – were they to use today ’ s parlance .
The Faithful get a pass into Paradise ; the clerics get to run the show here on Earth ‘ til Judgement Day doth part them .
For more than 1,500 years , Church authorities – in alliance with temporal powers – offered that lure of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subordination .
An avowal of faith , tantamount to a State of Grace , required only one other simple act , of which everybody is capable , in order to reserve a place in Paradise – dying .
These days , the puzzle is : what do dominant elites offer for our present-day , more moderate subordination and passivity ?
A vicarious celebrity existence and fantasies of joining the 1 % ?
*** This remark , if correct , and others in a similar vein ( especially those in the Gnostic Gospel of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ view Jesus ’ spiritual orientation as more akin to Buddhist or Daoist teachings than to Hebrew eschatology , the Islamic or , indeed , the Christian as handed down to us by the Church Fathers .
• 1 .
By comparison : “ Information from the mid- and late nineteenth century suggests that 30 to 45 percent of the men and from 2 to 10 percent of the women in China knew how to read and write .
This group included the fully literate members of the elite and , on the opposite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hundred characters.
” • In the modern era , the strongest far Right Party has been France ’ s National Front led by Jean-Marie Le Pen succeeded by his daughter Marine Le Pen .
On two occasions , its candidate for the Presidency made it into the run-off round .
In 2002 , Le Pen Sr. ( rightly called a neo-Fascist ) gained 18 % of the vote ; in 2017 Marine le Pen won 33 % running on a more moderate platform .
In the last legislative elections ( 2012 , 2017 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has won 14 % and 13 % .
• The same trends are visible elsewhere in the developed West .
North of the border , the devolution from Pierre Trudeau to Andrew is dizzying .
Britain , too , is an outstanding example – it is about as far down this devolutionary path as America .
Its Prime Minister , Boris Johnson , emulates Trump down to the smallest gesture – including the primate hair .
His cabinet , which would warm the heart of Roman Hruska , features a Minister of Health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fame is having won the award as the country ’ s Fireplace Salesman of the Year – twice .
We do not know whether he shares the belief of his American counterpart who claims that the Egyptian pyramids were built by Aliens to store grain – nor whether he has injected himself with bleach to ward off the Corona Virus .
• There is a quite different question that can be raised about intelligence in human affairs : are we TOO intelligent for the species ’ own survival ?
An obvious truth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only a tiny fraction of humans use their full mental capacity .
Far from it .
Indeed , overall we seem to have a mental capacity in excess of need .
Why did the evolutionary process endow us with such an immense capacity ?
After all , our species would have ruled the earth whether or not we had the intelligence to do differential calculus .
To write at the level of Shakespeare or not .
To design and build the internal combustion engine or not .
What happened ?
Did our brain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cortex in particular , just keep expanding in accordance with some inner neurological logic of its own ?
Was the process linked to some related evolutionary dynamic that did in fact serve our survival needs ?
These days we find ourselves in the intriguing situation where ultra-sophisticated scientific and technological advances continue apace , on the one hand , while our performance in managing our collective affairs seems to be getting stupider and stupider – or , at least , our managers are getting stupider and stupider , on the other .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ future .
If growing stupidity in collective affairs were matched by an analogous decline in intellectual capacity generally , we might manage reasonably well .
In effect , there would be an evolutionary corrective .
The over-development of the cortex ’ s frontal lobe would be stymied and its disruptive consequences offset by a functional IQ just sufficient for the purpose of species survival .
That would be the Roman Hruska solution to our great dilemma .
In some spheres , our big , complex brains have produced innovations that encourage simpler and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For example : from driving a car safely ; to riding a horse ; starting a fire ; cooking ; sewing ; shooting an arrow .
In a rerun of our competition with Neanderthals , Denisovans and whomever , we might lose out .
Even homo heidelbergesis might have a shot at third .
Of course , it is equally likely that we ’ d employ our still superior IQ to trick them out of the evolutionary prize .

International Affairs professor Michael Brenner, unlike many of his more timorous colleagues, has been willing to discuss controversial topics on my radio show. We’ll be tackling his recent article on literacy and social control (see below) on my live show tonight, Friday Dec. 11, 8 to 9 pm Eastern. If you miss it, catch the archive later this weekend. -Kevin Barrett, VT Editor.
By Michael Brenner
A divide between elites and the populace is a recurrent feature of every large organized society. That has been true without exception since the abundance generated by the mastery of agriculture encouraged the growth and elaboration of earlier Neolithic tribes. There are no known exceptions; but there are variations in modalities. A key to elite dominance always was the superior group’s monopoly – or quasi monopoly – of crucial knowledge. Before the introduction of writing, it took oral form. The subjects covered matters temporal as well as sacred. In those cultures, like Hinduism, where most practical matters were sacrilized, access to religious materials – the mythic eschatology, prayers, rituals – was crucial to consolidating the power of a priesthood in alliance with warrior castes. That alliance, overt or tacit, has been the foundation stone of elite rulership and economic control throughout history. Only over the past 250 years has it been challenged by the radiating influence of the Western Enlightenment.
Once sacred knowledge, supplemented by crucial profane knowledge, e.g. hydraulics and elementary mechanics, was written down – first in hieroglyphs and then, about 1,800 BCE, in alphabetized languages – literacy became the principal instrument by which to consolidate elite power and privilege. Education aimed at expanding the number of citizens with the ability to access foundational materials never served the interests of the elites. On the contrary, they made systematic efforts to restrict it. Anthropologists and historians believe that literacy rates in ancient states was somewhere around 2%. In Greece of antiquity and parts of the Roman Empire it may have risen higher in the single digits – most of those ‘literate’ persons possessing just a rudimentary knowledge and a limited ability to compose written communications. Scribes and town criers filled the gaps. In many cultures that remained the case right into the 20th century.
In India, Brahmins strove to reserve access to the holy texts exclusively to themselves. Mass ignorance of what they said, their stipulations and justifications, was a powerful tool of social direction and social control. Until very recently, education was therefore the key to social advancement – which in Hindu India was almost always collective by caste. The way it worked was that a low-ranked caste would use the knowledge – profane and sacred mixed – acquired by a critical mass of literate young to reshape their practices and self-presentation to conform to the standards of higher castes – and thereby to provide the religious cum (contrived) historical justifications for the new, preferred status. If effect, striving to get reassigned within the cast hierarchy rather than escaping caste identity. I In a paradoxical inversion of the process, after independence incentives were created for marginal castes at the boundary of low Shudra and Untouchable to accept the latter status since the constitution incorporated ‘affirmative action” principles that reserved places in universities and government employment for persons from the qualifying “Scheduled castes.” Dalits of India Unite! You have Nothing to Lose But Your Schedules.
The British Raj saw advantage in perpetuating the traditional system of mass illiteracy. They rightly believed that an illiterate populace was easier to manipulate and to control. In cynical fashion, they restricted education to the slim cadre of natives they needed to administer the Raj, to secure it, and to perform supportive economic functions. In 1900, Viceroy Lord Curzon gave a state of the Raj speech in which he estimated literacy at 3% (1% in English). In 1947, it was only 11%. The Rajas and Nizams who ruled the native states saw their own interest in the same parsimonious approach to education. In other words, the part of the population with access to written knowledge under the Raj circa 1900 was roughly the same as It had been in the time of the Mauryas or Guptas two millennia earlier and lower than it had been in Ctesiphon or Antioch or Taxila. British strategy for holding India’s vast masses under their thumb was simplicity itself: keep them dumb and divided. Playing caste against caste, sect against sect, has been the trump card of Indian rulers since time immemorial – continuing right until today under Mr. Modi who is a master of the game.
In the end, their fatal error was to underestimate the ability of a politically astute, prideful few to arouse the inert masses. The process was not dissimilar to what was occurring within Britain over a longer time period, and which culminated at nearly the exact same moment in time.
The Christian Church went one step further. In the West, the Vatican for 1,500 years kept the Holy Scripture sealed in a language that only a handful of the Faithful could understand – much less read. (Economists these days achieve a similar purpose by writing in unintelligible Algebra). It served the proselytizing and institution-building goals of the early Church leaders to minimize actual reading of the Gospels. After all, there is no mention of the Trinity, of Purgatory, a celibate priesthood, or an organized church of any kind. Nor the misogyny that was inserted by calculating forgers- e.g. the entirety of Timothy I and late accretions to Corinthians 14. Women deacons are not referenced. The Gospel writers go so far as to offer divergent accounts of the Resurrection and two ‘overlook’ the Virgin Birth. Much of this dogma was propagated because early believers, including Paul, wrongly expected the Second Coming to be imminent. When the Day of Judgement didn’t arrive as anticipated by the Apostles (all of whom were illiterate as probably was Jesus), the master builders (all literate) took over to lay the foundation for an elaborate religious structure. How inconvenient if literate masses could notice all these awkward truths of the Gospel texts – while lacking the necessary training in exegesis to finesse them. Even more inconvenient were they to realize that Church leaders showed very little inclination to observe the teachings of Jesus in their own conduct.*
Neuroscience in recent years has uncovered an intriguing new aspect of illiteracy. It appears that the intellectual process of acquiring literacy actually reconfigures elements of the brain’s neurological networks. Physiologically, the brain of a literate person is different from that of an illiterate. An important corollary effect of this transformation is to markedly enhance the mind’s analytical capabilities. In short, a literate person is more discerning of others’ behavior and intentions – potentially more skeptical. Hence, the interest of elites in keeping the masses not only ignorant but more inclined to conform to ritualized group norms. Something they have sensed instinctively. Later, they perfected indoctrination as the counter to the disrupting effects of literacy.
In the post-modern societies of the ‘West,’ the potential for social control through indoctrination seems unlimited. How else do you explain the behavior of millions who act voluntarily in ways that harm their well-being? On a routine basis, we observe phenomena of this sort that set new marks for incredulity and illogically. The most glaring example is provided by the 70 million Americans who voted for the odious Donald Trump. That’s 48% of the electorate. By contrast, the Nazi Party never scored more than 33%; Mussolini’s Fascists never participated in a fair and open election. In Spain, in the crucial 1936 election, the far Right represented by the anti-Republic Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (CEDA), which was the precursor for Franco’s Falangists, gained 34%. In Austria, the last free election of 1930 gave the proto-Fascist parties (loosely defined) about 21% of the vote. In Romania, the Fascist Iron Guard, under the label of the Legion Party at the 1937 parliamentary elections, came in third with 15.5% of the vote. What all those countries experienced was Triumph of the Fascist Will. Let’s also bear in mind the turbulence of the times – two decades of economic distress, the destruction of WW I, post-war grievances over Versailles, irredentism, Communists, etc. as compared to trauma-free United States circa 2020. Perhaps, the future film version of our times should be titled “Crackpots Without Cause.”2
The susceptibility of the literate to indoctrination is even more evident in the financial/commercial sphere. Consider the ease with which business plants an appetite for products which the buyers don’t need, desired only yesterday, and whose very existence they learned of last week – like the latest electronic gadget ‘upgraded’ every year or so. It’s noteworthy that the American Advertising Council awarded its 2008 prize for the best campaign to Barack Obama’s Presidential run.
A general rise in the population’s analytical skills is met by elite rulers with more subtle means of maintaining subordination. Propagating beliefs that encourage uncritical loyalty is the crudest but most effective method; e.g. nationalism, dogmatic ideologies like Fascism or Communism, fundamentalist sects Islamic/Hebrew/Christian/Hindu/Buddhist/Shinto.
Organized religion’s sustaining logic broke down slowly in the West with the introduction of the printing press. Literacy spread with increasing rapidity over the next three and a half centuries. Technological, economic, demographic developments forced the pace. The United States was the pacesetter. By the Civil War, illiteracy was the exception rather than the norm, only approximately 10% of the white population could not read and write. Of course, subsequent waves of immigrants knew only their native language – and some were illiterate even in it. The former condition was compensated by newspapers in foreign languages that had a substantial readership right into the early post-war era. Today, Chinese and Spanish language papers are readily available in all large cities. It also is noteworthy that literacy was provided by secular, civic schools – a principle rejected by the current misguided Charter School movement.
The central point is the very high correlation between the rise in literacy and the erosion of social domination by religious and aristocratic elites. Literacy also was favorable to, and an underpinning for popular sovereignty, i.e. democracy. (The emergence of non-traditional tyrannies is another story with its own logic and dynamics). New economic elites, of course, replaced the old elites and used their financial/commercial power to control public life as well as the distribution of wealth and privilege. Their dominance was curbed, and in respects broken, after more than a century of struggle, with the triumph of social democracy in the West after World War II. The stunning regression that we have witnessed over the past 40 years represents an unprecedented, massively successful counter-revolution. Until the last few years, it has received remarkably little attention. That phenomenon itself is a big part of the explanation.
In broad terms, one can hypothesize that the reassertion of elite control in an age of mass literacy has two causes. One is largely cultural: the degeneration of mainstream culture into multifarious forms of juvenile entertainment whose social purpose is not very different from the Roman “bread & circuses” strategy. Social media are the companion of the transformation. Admittedly, today the sponsors of these mostly baneful innovations are participant corrupters rather than cynical conspirators. Money is the driving force. This comprehensive development, in turn, deepens the widespread anomie that is a distinguishing trait of atomized, highly mobile modern societies. Egotism, self-absorption, perverse individualism sap the sense of community and collective purpose which are the life-blood of liberal democracy. So, we all may be literate but sealed off in our own little corners where we look at and read that which we, along with a like-minded cohort, find comforting and convenient. Michelle Obama was correct is saying that most people know more about the food they are eating than they know of what their government is doing. The same might be said of Fantasy Football. Hence, a version of mass literacy marked by studied ignorance, one never imagined by elites, has emerged that serves to sustain their rulership.
Our elites are the product of the same general conditions. More important, they recognize that the public’s disengagement from public life meets their purpose. Foremost, the striving to get elected (re-elected). Then, once in office, to do pretty much what you please – for personal gain or ideological reasons – without having to worry too much about close scrutiny of their misdeeds. For potential scrutinizers have neither the inclination, knowledge nor critical skills to do the job. The result is a serious degeneration in the level of public discourse, in accountability and in the caliber of people who rule us. The political elites who occupy high office might be skillful manipulators, but they also are persons of little talent or ability. Just compare our current corps of Senators with the roster from the 1960s-1980s. Years ago, a rather dull Senator from Nebraska, one Roman Hruska, argued on the Senate floor that there was nothing wrong with appointing mediocracies to positions of high office since the vast majority of citizens were themselves mediocre and deserve representation. The cup he imagined has runneth over.3 As one acerbic observer has commented: “Public life these days is swarmed by people better suited to play second fiddle in an Isosceles Quartet.”
Today’s popular culture is unique. It provides not just escapist distraction and diversion. As exemplified by so-called ‘realty’ shows, it contrives a picture of society that substitutes deformed images for fact. Instead of fiction heightening our awareness of who we are by distilling features of lives and persons, it does the opposite. It purveys falsehood as documentary truth. The popular mind, thereby, no longer can tell one from the other. More Americans, at this moment, believe that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD and played a role in 9/11 than know that all but one of the culprits were Saudis.
So, what we are witnessing is a closing of the gap between elites and the masses – by a totally unforeseen route. Literacy gives everybody equal access to knowledge of all kinds. Historically, that compression stemmed from the growing aptitudes of the general population. Nowadays, it is occurring due to the lowering of the aptitudes of those who rule us. An odd sort of progress.3
Think of the presidential debates. In the inaugural Nixon-Kennedy debates, linguists judged the level of speech at the 9th or 10th grade. The best estimates of today’s debates place it at the 5th grade level – that includes the grade inflation of Trump’s verbal ejaculations. Mastery of subject matter tells a similar story. Go back and listen to Nixon and Kennedy on You Tube. Even more revealing, there are recordings of speeches made by the candidates in the historic 1912 election: Taft, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson and Eugene Debs. Here are the references, below.* It is not clear whether these are public recordings or studio recordings of speeches that were read. Literacy, obviously, is a relative concept. (The full and complete set is available at Amazon)
Hence, the great and unique incongruities of our times: enormous differences in wealth and living standards/work conditions co-existing with a formal equality of political rights and a common culture.4 The last condition, rooted in universal literacy, is manifest widely in tastes and preference scales as witness the shared celebrity culture – for example. For the first time in history, the dominant power elites and their subordinates speak the same (debased) language – metaphorically and literally. The outcomes, though, are little different.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixi3fwGvLsw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9d4yyo3z3w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18Epda5JcUk
**A possible further embarrassment was rooted in the Gospel words themselves. The early Latin composition of the New Testament Gospels (i.e. before Jerome’s translation from the Greek in 390) was written in a rude, ungrammatical language which lacked authoritative style. So what, though. Saint Paul himself had proclaimed that the classical “wisdom of the world was foolishness to God.” (I Corinthians 3:19); and alleged that Jesus himself had pronounced ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.” (1 CORINTIANS 1:9)*** Rudimentary knowledge of the spoken word sufficed to bring one to Christ. As Tertullian put it: “What indeed does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?” (On The Persecution Of Heretics VII) One had Faith, that was enough. And ignorance meant power for the Church. Augustine et al would call that a “win-win” situation – were they to use today’s parlance. The Faithful get a pass into Paradise; the clerics get to run the show here on Earth ‘til Judgement Day doth part them. For more than 1,500 years, Church authorities – in alliance with temporal powers – offered that lure of Eternal life in exchange for obedience and subordination. An avowal of faith, tantamount to a State of Grace, required only one other simple act, of which everybody is capable, in order to reserve a place in Paradise – dying. These days, the puzzle is: what do dominant elites offer for our present-day, more moderate subordination and passivity? A vicarious celebrity existence and fantasies of joining the 1%?
*** This remark, if correct, and others in a similar vein (especially those in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas), makes sense if we view Jesus’ spiritual orientation as more akin to Buddhist or Daoist teachings than to Hebrew eschatology, the Islamic or, indeed, the Christian as handed down to us by the Church Fathers.
1. By comparison: “Information from the mid- and late nineteenth century suggests that 30 to 45 percent of the men and from 2 to 10 percent of the women in China knew how to read and write. This group included the fully literate members of the elite and, on the opposite pole, those knowing only a few hundred characters.”
Literacy in Dynastic China
In the modern era, the strongest far Right Party has been France’s National Front led by Jean-Marie Le Pen succeeded by his daughter Marine Le Pen. On two occasions, its candidate for the Presidency made it into the run-off round. In 2002, Le Pen Sr. (rightly called a neo-Fascist) gained 18% of the vote; in 2017 Marine le Pen won 33% running on a more moderate platform. In the last legislative elections (2012, 2017), the Le Pens’ party has won 14% and 13%.
The same trends are visible elsewhere in the developed West. North of the border, the devolution from Pierre Trudeau to Andrew is dizzying. Britain, too, is an outstanding example – it is about as far down this devolutionary path as America. Its Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, emulates Trump down to the smallest gesture – including the primate hair. His cabinet, which would warm the heart of Roman Hruska, features a Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, whose sole claim to fame is having won the award as the country’s Fireplace Salesman of the Year – twice. We do not know whether he shares the belief of his American counterpart who claims that the Egyptian pyramids were built by Aliens to store grain – nor whether he has injected himself with bleach to ward off the Corona Virus.
There is a quite different question that can be raised about intelligence in human affairs: are we TOO intelligent for the species’ own survival? An obvious truth, often commented on, is that only a tiny fraction of humans use their full mental capacity. Far from it. Indeed, overall we seem to have a mental capacity in excess of need. Why did the evolutionary process endow us with such an immense capacity? After all, our species would have ruled the earth whether or not we had the intelligence to do differential calculus. To write at the level of Shakespeare or not. To design and build the internal combustion engine or not. What happened? Did our brain development, the frontal lobe of the Cortex in particular, just keep expanding in accordance with some inner neurological logic of its own? Was the process linked to some related evolutionary dynamic that did in fact serve our survival needs?
These days we find ourselves in the intriguing situation where ultra-sophisticated scientific and technological advances continue apace, on the one hand, while our performance in managing our collective affairs seems to be getting stupider and stupider – or, at least, our managers are getting stupider and stupider, on the other. It’s the discrepancy that jeopardizes the future. If growing stupidity in collective affairs were matched by an analogous decline in intellectual capacity generally, we might manage reasonably well. In effect, there would be an evolutionary corrective. The over-development of the cortex’s frontal lobe would be stymied and its disruptive consequences offset by a functional IQ just sufficient for the purpose of species survival. That would be the Roman Hruska solution to our great dilemma.
In some spheres, our big, complex brains have produced innovations that encourage simpler and even basic survival skills to atrophy. For example: from driving a car safely; to riding a horse; starting a fire; cooking; sewing; shooting an arrow. In a rerun of our competition with Neanderthals, Denisovans and whomever, we might lose out. Even homo heidelbergesis might have a shot at third. Of course, it is equally likely that we’d employ our still superior IQ to trick them out of the evolutionary prize.


veteranstoday--2020-12-11--Covid Vaccine producers announce plans to test combination vaccines using Russia’s ‘SputnikV’

AstraZeneca teams up with Russia ’ s Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 trials [ Editor ’ s Note : This seems like a rational approach , so it receives a gold star for vaccine coordination , combining and testing the two types of vaccines to see if together they give a greater level of protection in particular profile groups or in general .
This has always been the theoretical silver lining in the current pandemic , that the health and financial widespread devastation would spur countries to unite their efforts to be agile in dealing with the next challenge .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not producing as high an antibody protection in seniors .
Their lower immunity level is an obvious factor , but after all the effort that has gone into producing these vaccines , we are seeing a shared interest in testing ‘ cocktail ’ formulations to see if they can boost protection levels .
There is a benefit even in the failure of such an effort , as it advances research ; and attention and funding can be shifting to new areas of research .
The bottom line , after Trump , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on building WHO as the coordinator of a global defense response to avoid the devastation that Covid-19 has left in its wake .
The Trump regime will have to wear the shame of its dismissive attitude toward the pandemic preparation work that the Obama team had prepared , but where the Trumpers viewed it as a waste of time , as it was not a power vehicle to enhance one ’ s reputation in the administration .
There were more and more empty Trump team seats during briefings as time went on , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eventually reveal that few were there to serve , but to gain and exploit their positions to their fullest personal benefit … Jim W. Dean ] Jim 's Editor ’ s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal Jim 's work includes research , field trips , Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more .
Thanks for helping .
Click to donate > > AstraZeneca will start clinical trials to test a combination of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine with Russia ’ s Sputnik V shot , in a bid to boost the efficacy of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will start by the end of the year , according to Russia ’ s sovereign wealth fund , which has funded Sputnik V. The vaccine trial was named after the Soviet-era satellite that triggered the space race .
AstraZeneca said in a statement it was considering how it could assess combinations of different vaccines .
The company said it would begin exploring with Russia ’ s Gamaleya Institute , which developed Sputnik V , whether two common cold virus-based vaccines could be successfully combined .
It did not give further details .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Britain ’ s GlaxoSmithKline said clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccine showed an insufficient immune response in older people .
The setback came on the same day as Australia ’ s domestic vaccine project was abandoned and is also a blow for many governments that have booked hundreds of millions of doses of the shot , including the European Union , United States and Britain .
The two companies said they planned to start another study next February , hoping to come up with a more effective vaccine by the end of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Britain ’ s most valuable listed companies and the state-backed Russian science research institute highlights the pressure to develop an effective shot to fight the pandemic , which has killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide .
The move is likely to be seen in Moscow as a long-awaited vote of confidence by a Western manufacturer in Sputnik V. Its Russian developers say clinical trials , still underway , have shown it has an efficacy rate of over 90 per cent , higher than AstraZeneca ’ s own vaccine and similar to US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scientists have raised concerns about the speed at which Russia has worked , giving the regulatory go-ahead for its vaccines and launching large-scale vaccinations with Sputnik V before full trials to test its safety and efficacy have been completed .
The prospective tie-up comes as AstraZeneca , once seen as a frontrunner in the vaccine race , prepares for further tests to confirm whether its shot could be 90 per cent effective , potentially slowing its rollout .
The average efficacy rate was 70.4 per cent in interim late-stage data .
Both projects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bring genetic instructions into the body to prompt cells to produce vaccine proteins , an approach that has previously been used in an Ebola vaccine .
The developers of Sputnik V suggested on Twitter last month that AstraZeneca try the combination .
“ The decision by AstraZeneca to carry out clinical trials using one of two vectors of Sputnik V in order to increase its own vaccine ’ s efficacy is an important step towards uniting efforts in the fight against the pandemic , ” RDIF wealth fund head Kirill Dmitriev said in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scrutiny after the UK said in July that hackers backed by the Russian state were trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine and treatment research from academic and pharmaceutical institutions around the world .
The Kremlin rejected the Western allegations .
Both projects are using harmless adenoviruses as vehicles to bring genetic instructions into the body to prompt cells to produce vaccine proteins , an approach that has previously been used in an Ebola vaccine .
The developers of Sputnik V suggested on Twitter last month that AstraZeneca try the combination .
“ The decision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ using one of two vectors of Sputnik V in order to increase its own vaccine ’ s efficacy is an important step towards uniting efforts in the fight against the pandemic , ” RDIF wealth fund head Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement.s The setback affects one of the most established technologies in vaccines — used against the human papillomavirus , hepatitis B and pertussis among other pathogens — which aims to introduce lab-made proteins into the body to prod the immune system into developing a targeted defence against the novel coronavirus .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ approaches used by vaccines from the likes of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna , which use mRNA genetic technology to trick the body into producing those proteins .
Delays and additional trials are not unusual but the Sanofi/GSK announcement highlights the unique set of challenges facing drugmakers in multitasking science , speed and logistics during a pandemic that has crushed global economies .
It also underscores why governments have spread their bets by securing shots from different developers .

AstraZeneca teams up with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 trials
…from ABC News, Australia
[ Editor’s Note: This seems like a rational approach, so it receives a gold star for vaccine coordination, combining and testing the two types of vaccines to see if together they give a greater level of protection in particular profile groups or in general.
This has always been the theoretical silver lining in the current pandemic, that the health and financial widespread devastation would spur countries to unite their efforts to be agile in dealing with the next challenge.
The biggest concern is that the vaccines are not producing as high an antibody protection in seniors. Their lower immunity level is an obvious factor, but after all the effort that has gone into producing these vaccines, we are seeing a shared interest in testing ‘cocktail’ formulations to see if they can boost protection levels.
There is a benefit even in the failure of such an effort, as it advances research; and attention and funding can be shifting to new areas of research.
The bottom line, after Trump, is that we might see a new attitude on building WHO as the coordinator of a global defense response to avoid the devastation that Covid-19 has left in its wake.
The Trump regime will have to wear the shame of its dismissive attitude toward the pandemic preparation work that the Obama team had prepared, but where the Trumpers viewed it as a waste of time, as it was not a power vehicle to enhance one’s reputation in the administration.
There were more and more empty Trump team seats during briefings as time went on, the tip of the iceberg that would eventually reveal that few were there to serve, but to gain and exploit their positions to their fullest personal benefit … Jim W. Dean ]
Jim's Editor’s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal
Jim's work includes research, field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more. Thanks for helping. Click to donate >>
First published … December 11, 2020
AstraZeneca will start clinical trials to test a combination of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine with Russia’s Sputnik V shot, in a bid to boost the efficacy of the British drugmaker’s vaccine.
Trials will start by the end of the year, according to Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, which has funded Sputnik V. The vaccine trial was named after the Soviet-era satellite that triggered the space race.
AstraZeneca said in a statement it was considering how it could assess combinations of different vaccines.
The company said it would begin exploring with Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, which developed Sputnik V, whether two common cold virus-based vaccines could be successfully combined. It did not give further details.
The news came as France’s Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline said clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccine showed an insufficient immune response in older people.
The setback came on the same day as Australia’s domestic vaccine project was abandoned and is also a blow for many governments that have booked hundreds of millions of doses of the shot, including the European Union, United States and Britain.
The two companies said they planned to start another study next February, hoping to come up with a more effective vaccine by the end of 2021.
The co-operation between one of Britain’s most valuable listed companies and the state-backed Russian science research institute highlights the pressure to develop an effective shot to fight the pandemic, which has killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide.
The move is likely to be seen in Moscow as a long-awaited vote of confidence by a Western manufacturer in Sputnik V.
Its Russian developers say clinical trials, still underway, have shown it has an efficacy rate of over 90 per cent, higher than AstraZeneca’s own vaccine and similar to US rivals Pfizer and Moderna.
Some Western scientists have raised concerns about the speed at which Russia has worked, giving the regulatory go-ahead for its vaccines and launching large-scale vaccinations with Sputnik V before full trials to test its safety and efficacy have been completed.
The prospective tie-up comes as AstraZeneca, once seen as a frontrunner in the vaccine race, prepares for further tests to confirm whether its shot could be 90 per cent effective, potentially slowing its rollout.
The average efficacy rate was 70.4 per cent in interim late-stage data.
Both projects are using harmless adenoviruses as vehicles to bring genetic instructions into the body to prompt cells to produce vaccine proteins, an approach that has previously been used in an Ebola vaccine. The developers of Sputnik V suggested on Twitter last month that AstraZeneca try the combination.
“The decision by AstraZeneca to carry out clinical trials using one of two vectors of Sputnik V in order to increase its own vaccine’s efficacy is an important step towards uniting efforts in the fight against the pandemic,” RDIF wealth fund head Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement.
The partnership may draw scrutiny after the UK said in July that hackers backed by the Russian state were trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine and treatment research from academic and pharmaceutical institutions around the world. The Kremlin rejected the Western allegations.
Both projects are using harmless adenoviruses as vehicles to bring genetic instructions into the body to prompt cells to produce vaccine proteins, an approach that has previously been used in an Ebola vaccine.
The developers of Sputnik V suggested on Twitter last month that AstraZeneca try the combination.
“The decision by AstraZeneca to carry out clinical trials using one of two vectors of Sputnik V in order to increase its own vaccine’s efficacy is an important step towards uniting efforts in the fight against the pandemic,” RDIF wealth fund head Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement.s
The setback affects one of the most established technologies in vaccines — used against the human papillomavirus, hepatitis B and pertussis among other pathogens — which aims to introduce lab-made proteins into the body to prod the immune system into developing a targeted defence against the novel coronavirus.
It cements the lead of more novel approaches used by vaccines from the likes of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which use mRNA genetic technology to trick the body into producing those proteins.
Delays and additional trials are not unusual but the Sanofi/GSK announcement highlights the unique set of challenges facing drugmakers in multitasking science, speed and logistics during a pandemic that has crushed global economies.
It also underscores why governments have spread their bets by securing shots from different developers.


veteranstoday--2020-12-11--Trumpworld: Doctor, Iraq War vet, Fired for exposing state’s faked COVID stats…Arizona is dying, Hos

Trumpworld: Doctor, Iraq War vet, Fired for exposing state’s faked COVID stats…Arizona is dying, Hospital’s Past Capacity

VT : Arizona said it had 175 beds available for COVID patients but when a physician tried to place a patient in one of those beds…the facts came out , they were a lie .
Arizona is dying and their health officials are lying .
Daily Beast : Dr. Cleavon Gilman says he was told his Arizona hospital no longer wanted his services after he sounded the alarm about the second surge COVID-19 , so he was home on Wednesday when the older of his two children bought him word of a new pandemic tragedy .
“ My oldest just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that her friend ’ s father just died from COVID19 , ” Gilman tweeted afterwards .
He reported what his daughter told him what her 13-year-old friend had said .
“ I got COVID and survived , but my father died.
” In an earlier tweet , on Nov. 22 , Gilman announced that he had arrived to work an overnight shift at Yuma Regional Medical Center ( YRMC ) to discover that not a single hospital the state was able to take an ICU transfer at a time when Arizona officials were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Where are the 175 ICU beds ?
” the 41-year-old emergency medicine physician asked when he spoke to The Daily Beast that evening .
“ We ’ re hearing there are NO beds available.
” Just as he was arriving to begin his next shift the day of The Daily Beast story , he received a phone call from Envision Healthcare , a medical staffing company that hired him to work .
He was told that the hospital no longer wanted his services .
“ A slap in the face , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he kept silent about the call .
He was still at heart the combat Navy corpsman who had served in Iraq and needed only hear the cry “ Corpsman up !
” to race into direst danger to attend to a wounded Marine .
He could not believe that in the midst of the present deadly fight his hospital had essentially said , “ Corpsman OUT !
” If anybody should have been fired , it was YRMC ’ s $ 1 million-a-year CEO , Dr. Robert Trenschel , for failing to speak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minimize the emergency .
Other hospitals have fired healthcare workers for speaking out to the press and on social media .
And many hospitals have threatened their staff with termination for making unauthorized statements .
The given reason is invariably patient privacy , but a desire to maintain control is almost certainly a major factor .

VT: Arizona said it had 175 beds available for COVID patients but when a physician tried to place a patient in one of those beds…the facts came out, they were a lie.
Arizona is dying and their health officials are lying.
Daily Beast: Dr. Cleavon Gilman says he was told his Arizona hospital no longer wanted his services after he sounded the alarm about the second surge COVID-19, so he was home on Wednesday when the older of his two children bought him word of a new pandemic tragedy.
https://twitter.com/jackthecat11/status/1337511291754254338?s=20
“My oldest just came in the room to tell me that her friend’s father just died from COVID19,” Gilman tweeted afterwards. #COVID19 #COVIDSecondWave#MaskUp Keep #families safe#StayHomeForThanksgiving#IraqVeteran —#Doctor Cleavon Gillman MD,#ERDoctor tells it like it is. rt @Cleavon_MD https://t.co/dZKUwISHOk — lee ( li ) (@liliandlee) November 26, 2020 He reported what his daughter told him what her 13-year-old friend had said. “I got COVID and survived, but my father died.” In an earlier tweet, on Nov. 22, Gilman announced that he had arrived to work an overnight shift at Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) to discover that not a single hospital the state was able to take an ICU transfer at a time when Arizona officials were saying there were 175 beds available. Doctor Cleavon Gilman says an Arizona hospital retaliated against him for tweeting about coronavirus – The Washington Post https://t.co/EZ7odOXRH7 — Immigration Rights Activists (@ImmigrActivists) December 11, 2020 “Where are the 175 ICU beds?” the 41-year-old emergency medicine physician asked when he spoke to The Daily Beast that evening. “We’re hearing there are NO beds available.” Just as he was arriving to begin his next shift the day of The Daily Beast story, he received a phone call from Envision Healthcare, a medical staffing company that hired him to work. He was told that the hospital no longer wanted his services. “A slap in the face,” he would later tweet. At first he kept silent about the call. He was still at heart the combat Navy corpsman who had served in Iraq and needed only hear the cry “Corpsman up!” to race into direst danger to attend to a wounded Marine. He could not believe that in the midst of the present deadly fight his hospital had essentially said, “Corpsman OUT!” If anybody should have been fired, it was YRMC’s $1 million-a-year CEO, Dr. Robert Trenschel, for failing to speak out when the state was seeking to minimize the emergency. Other hospitals have fired healthcare workers for speaking out to the press and on social media. And many hospitals have threatened their staff with termination for making unauthorized statements. The given reason is invariably patient privacy, but a desire to maintain control is almost certainly a major factor.


veteranstoday--2020-12-11--Sedition, alive and well and prosecutable against Trump, 106 members of congress and Sheriffs around

Sedition, alive and well and prosecutable against Trump, 106 members of congress and Sheriffs around the US

Suppose that over the course of a few months , a small band of armed militants has coordinated strategies to distribute firearms and take over the nation ’ s capital by force through a website on the clandestine “ deep web.
” All indications show that the group is dead serious in its intentions , but they ’ re thwarted by an FBI investigation that leads to arrests .
While sharing information and discussing ideas — even distasteful ones — is generally protected as free speech , the FBI believes this crosses the line .
The alleged ringleaders of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” ( simply referred to as “ sedition “ ) , a federal crime related to treason and other anti-government offenses .
Sedition is a serious felony punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison and it refers to the act of inciting revolt or violence against a lawful authority with the goal of destroying or overthrowing it .
The following provides an overview of this particular crime against the government , with historical references .
The federal law against seditious conspiracy can be found in Title 18 of the U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and similar offenses ) , specifically 18 U.S.C .
§ 2384 .
According to the statutory definition of sedition , it is a crime for two or more people within the jurisdiction of the United States : • To conspire to overthrow or destroy by force the government of the United States or to level war against them ; • To oppose by force the authority of the United States government ; to prevent , hinder , or delay by force the execution of any law of the United States ; or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possess by force any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof .
In order to get a conviction for seditious conspiracy , the government must prove that the defendant in fact conspired to use force .
Simply advocating for the use of force is not the same thing and in most cases is protected as free speech under the First Amendment .
For example , two or more people who give public speeches suggesting the need for a total revolution “ by any means necessary ” have not necessarily conspired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ re just sharing their opinions , however unsavory .
But actively planning such an action ( distributing guns , working out the logistics of an attack , actively opposing lawful authority , etc . )
could be considered a seditious conspiracy .
Ultimately , the goal is to prevent threats against the United States while protecting individuals ’ First Amendment rights , which isn ’ t always such a clear distinction .
Sedition differs from treason ( defined in Article III of the U.S. Constitution ) in a fundamental way .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state , treason is the more-serious offense of actively levying war against the United States or giving aid to its enemies .
Another way of looking at it is that seditious conspiracy often occurs before an act of treason .
Many of the more high-profile seditious conspiracy cases won by the U.S. government involve Puerto Rican nationalists plotting to overthrow the U.S. and assert their independence .
The first was Pedro Albizu Campos , who ( along with nine accomplices ) was convicted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10 years for attempting to overthrow the government .
He and others had been active members of the Nationalist Party , which ( according the U.S. prosecutors ) was aimed at independence through force .
Other , similar cases involving Puerto Rican nationalists followed .
More recently , in 2010 , nine members of a militia group called “ the Hutaree ” spanning Michigan , Ohio , and Indiana were charged with seditious conspiracy on suspicion of planning an armed conflict against federal , state , and local law enforcement .
They were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ however , due to insufficient evidence .

Sedition
Suppose that over the course of a few months, a small band of armed militants has coordinated strategies to distribute firearms and take over the nation’s capital by force through a website on the clandestine “deep web.” All indications show that the group is dead serious in its intentions, but they’re thwarted by an FBI investigation that leads to arrests.
While sharing information and discussing ideas — even distasteful ones — is generally protected as free speech, the FBI believes this crosses the line. The alleged ringleaders of the plot are charged with “seditious conspiracy” (simply referred to as “sedition“), a federal crime related to treason and other anti-government offenses.
Sedition is a serious felony punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison and it refers to the act of inciting revolt or violence against a lawful authority with the goal of destroying or overthrowing it. The following provides an overview of this particular crime against the government, with historical references.
Seditious Conspiracy and Federal Law: The Basics
The federal law against seditious conspiracy can be found in Title 18 of the U.S. Code (which includes treason, rebellion, and similar offenses), specifically 18 U.S.C. § 2384. According to the statutory definition of sedition, it is a crime for two or more people within the jurisdiction of the United States:
To conspire to overthrow or destroy by force the government of the United States or to level war against them;
To oppose by force the authority of the United States government; to prevent, hinder, or delay by force the execution of any law of the United States; or
To take, seize, or possess by force any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.
A GOP SENATOR JUST SAYS NO TO SEDITION “It’s completely unacceptable. The president should give up trying to get legislatures to overturn the results of the elections in their respective states.”
~Senator Pat Toomey https://t.co/d2mhxeoGQ8 — Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) December 11, 2020
Free Speech, Sedition, and Treason
In order to get a conviction for seditious conspiracy, the government must prove that the defendant in fact conspired to use force. Simply advocating for the use of force is not the same thing and in most cases is protected as free speech under the First Amendment.
For example, two or more people who give public speeches suggesting the need for a total revolution “by any means necessary” have not necessarily conspired to overthrow the government. Rather, they’re just sharing their opinions, however unsavory.
But actively planning such an action (distributing guns, working out the logistics of an attack, actively opposing lawful authority, etc.) could be considered a seditious conspiracy.
This has got to sting @RepMichaelWaltz! I am sure that the @orlandosentinel will not endorse your run in 2022, but then again you might be in prison for #sedition. #JustSaying So, are you a proud member of the #SeditionCaucus? Asking for a friend… https://t.co/wkwhpoPdKk — DCG Public Affairs (@dcgalex) December 11, 2020
#Sedition #LoserOfTheYear
"Republican officials aren’t afraid of Trump so much as they are afraid of Republican voters. And Republican voters appear to be afraid of democracy," writes @GrahamDavidA: https://t.co/VmnBuOYIrF — Ken Dyar Anti-Racist – Anti-Sexist (@skyco_g) December 11, 2020
Ultimately, the goal is to prevent threats against the United States while protecting individuals’ First Amendment rights, which isn’t always such a clear distinction.
Sedition differs from treason (defined in Article III of the U.S. Constitution) in a fundamental way. While seditious conspiracy is generally defined as conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state, treason is the more-serious offense of actively levying war against the United States or giving aid to its enemies. Another way of looking at it is that seditious conspiracy often occurs before an act of treason.
Seditious Conspiracy: Historical Examples
Many of the more high-profile seditious conspiracy cases won by the U.S. government involve Puerto Rican nationalists plotting to overthrow the U.S. and assert their independence. The first was Pedro Albizu Campos, who (along with nine accomplices) was convicted of sedition in 1937 and jailed for 10 years for attempting to overthrow the government.
He and others had been active members of the Nationalist Party, which (according the U.S. prosecutors) was aimed at independence through force. Other, similar cases involving Puerto Rican nationalists followed.
More recently, in 2010, nine members of a militia group called “the Hutaree” spanning Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana were charged with seditious conspiracy on suspicion of planning an armed conflict against federal, state, and local law enforcement. They were acquitted by a judge in 2012, however, due to insufficient evidence.


veteranstoday--2020-12-11--COVID-19: Piedmont Wins! Green Light in Italy for Hydroxychloroquine. How many Deaths for WHO’s Ban?

VT : There are no medical papers that support the conclusions from this article .
Results from US hospitals has proven hydroxychloroquine to be useless .
“ It is a great day for the recognition of covid-19 treatments .
The use of hydroxychloroquine was tested in the first pandemic wave in Piedmont ( Italian north west region – ed ) with very encouraging results , we could not understand why our doctors had to give it up , when even the World Health Organization had dissolved the reservations that emerged on the basis of publications revealed by the all inconsistent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that can be usefully used in the fight against covid-19 , especially in terms of early treatment of the disease , through home care protocols , essential to avoid hospitalization of patients as much as possible “ .
Thus , the regional assessor for Health of Piedmont and national coordinator of the Health Commission , Luigi Genesio Icardi , comments on the sentence with which the Council of State ( national supreme administrative judicial body– ed ) accepted , as a precautionary measure , the appeal of a group of general practitioners suspending @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which prohibited the off-label prescription ( ie for a use not foreseen by the leaflet ) of hydroxychloroquine for the fight against Covid 19 .
This was announced by an official press release from the Region .
The requests of the same group of doctors had been brought to the attention of the Health Commission several times by Piedmontese councilor Icardi , with the hearing of the AIFA leaders to clarify the use of the drug .
The positive news is only overshadowed by the thought that this cure was long hindered by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the World Health Organization itself , making one of the main therapeutic supports in the fight against the virus disappear .
How many people have died from these sensational and unforgivable mistakes ?
In this regard , the French Parliament has also launched an investigation by listening to the deposition of the Marseille doctor Didier Raoult who was the first to try to demonstrate to the world the effectiveness of the drug against Covid-19 .
US President Donald Trump , among the first to argue for its effectiveness , was even mocked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now the judges of the Council of State have agreed with the doctors who used it successfully .
Icardi had taken as an example the experience of the Acqui Ovada District of the ASL of Alessandria , which from 18 March to 30 April had taken charge and followed at home , early , through the “ Covi a casa ” protocol of Dr. Paola Varese which provided the use of hydroxychloroquine , 340 patients , with a drastic reduction in hospitalizations , in contrast with the data of the same province , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In fact , out of 340 patients , there were 22 hospitalizations and 9 deaths , painful numbers , but clearly lower than expected according to epidemiological data .
The Piedmontese data were also compared with the experiences of other doctors from Lombardy , Emilia Romagna and Friuli , with an extraordinary concordance of results .
« The persistent uncertainty about the therapeutic efficacy of hydroxychloroquine , admitted by Aifa itself to justify the further evaluation in randomized clinical trials – now reads the sentence of the Council of State – is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unreasonable suspension of its use on the national territory by treating doctors .
The choice of whether or not to use the drug , in a situation of doubt and contrast in the scientific community , on the basis of non-univocal clinical data , regarding its efficacy only in the initial stage of the disease , must therefore be left to decision-making autonomy and responsibility of the individual doctor in science and conscience » .
After the lies on the ineffectiveness of cortisone and vitamin D , here are also those on Hydroxychlorichine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind this “ pandemic planned for decades ” , according to the lawyer Robert F. Kennedy , there was the grim and horrible design of a premeditated failure of treatments aimed at causing as many deaths as possible to favor pandemic terrorism and the Big Pharma business on vaccines … Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio © COPYRIGHT GOSPA NEWS no reproduction without authorization – Versione originale in Italiano

by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio for Vt Italy
Versione originale in Italiano
VT: There are no medical papers that support the conclusions from this article. Results from US hospitals has proven hydroxychloroquine to be useless.
AUTHOR: please read below
One of the numerous Medical Papers on Hydroxychloroquine as a treatment of COVID-19
“It is a great day for the recognition of covid-19 treatments. The use of hydroxychloroquine was tested in the first pandemic wave in Piedmont (Italian north west region – ed) with very encouraging results, we could not understand why our doctors had to give it up, when even the World Health Organization had dissolved the reservations that emerged on the basis of publications revealed by the all inconsistent. Finally, we have a weapon that can be usefully used in the fight against covid-19, especially in terms of early treatment of the disease, through home care protocols, essential to avoid hospitalization of patients as much as possible “.
Thus, the regional assessor for Health of Piedmont and national coordinator of the Health Commission, Luigi Genesio Icardi, comments on the sentence with which the Council of State (national supreme administrative judicial body– ed) accepted, as a precautionary measure, the appeal of a group of general practitioners suspending the note of 22 July 2020 Aifa which prohibited the off-label prescription (ie for a use not foreseen by the leaflet) of hydroxychloroquine for the fight against Covid 19. This was announced by an official press release from the Region.
The requests of the same group of doctors had been brought to the attention of the Health Commission several times by Piedmontese councilor Icardi, with the hearing of the AIFA leaders to clarify the use of the drug.
The positive news is only overshadowed by the thought that this cure was long hindered by the international scientific community, drug agencies and the World Health Organization itself, making one of the main therapeutic supports in the fight against the virus disappear. How many people have died from these sensational and unforgivable mistakes?
In this regard, the French Parliament has also launched an investigation by listening to the deposition of the Marseille doctor Didier Raoult who was the first to try to demonstrate to the world the effectiveness of the drug against Covid-19. US President Donald Trump, among the first to argue for its effectiveness, was even mocked by eminent professors and institutions. But now the judges of the Council of State have agreed with the doctors who used it successfully.
Icardi had taken as an example the experience of the Acqui Ovada District of the ASL of Alessandria, which from 18 March to 30 April had taken charge and followed at home, early, through the “Covi a casa” protocol of Dr. Paola Varese which provided the use of hydroxychloroquine, 340 patients, with a drastic reduction in hospitalizations, in contrast with the data of the same province, one of the most affected in Piedmont.
In fact, out of 340 patients, there were 22 hospitalizations and 9 deaths, painful numbers, but clearly lower than expected according to epidemiological data. The Piedmontese data were also compared with the experiences of other doctors from Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Friuli, with an extraordinary concordance of results.
«The persistent uncertainty about the therapeutic efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, admitted by Aifa itself to justify the further evaluation in randomized clinical trials – now reads the sentence of the Council of State – is not sufficient legal reason to justify the unreasonable suspension of its use on the national territory by treating doctors. The choice of whether or not to use the drug, in a situation of doubt and contrast in the scientific community, on the basis of non-univocal clinical data, regarding its efficacy only in the initial stage of the disease, must therefore be left to decision-making autonomy and responsibility of the individual doctor in science and conscience».
After the lies on the ineffectiveness of cortisone and vitamin D, here are also those on Hydroxychlorichine come to the surface as if really behind this “pandemic planned for decades”, according to the lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, there was the grim and horrible design of a premeditated failure of treatments aimed at causing as many deaths as possible to favor pandemic terrorism and the Big Pharma business on vaccines …
Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio
© COPYRIGHT GOSPA NEWS
no reproduction without authorization – Versione originale in Italiano
MAIN SOURCES
GOSPA NEWS – WUHAN.GATES REPORTS
GOSPA NEWS – CORONA VIRUS DOSSIER
https://www.gospanews.net/en/2020/11/26/wuhan-gates-26-from-sars-2-bio-weapon-to-gold-vaccines-from-cia-who-tests-funded-by-gate-to-eu-summit-with-pfizer-bidens-sponsor-before-pandemic/


veteranstoday--2020-12-11--I warned in 2018 YouTube was fueling . Here’s what the platform should be doing

…by Becca Lewis , a PhD candidate at Stanford University and a graduate affiliate at the University of North Carolina ’ s Center for Information , Technology , and Public Life Guardian : In the fall of 2018 , I released a research report warning of a growing trend of far-right radicalization on YouTube .
Specifically , I identified a loosely connected network of reactionary YouTubers , ranging from mainstream conservatives and libertarians all the way to overt white supremacists and neo-Nazis , who were all broadcasting their political ideas to young audiences .
Tethered together by a shared opposition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the mainstream media , they frequently collaborated with each other and amplified each other ’ s content .
In the process , they made it extremely easy for a viewer to move bit by bit into more extremist content .
The following March , I watched in horror along with much of the rest of the world , as a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people and injured 40 more at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch , New Zealand .
Throughout the chaos of the day , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under the layers of irony and memes , the message was quite clear .
He had been radicalized to believe in the Great Replacement , a white nationalist conspiracy theory that claims that white populations are being purposefully replaced with ( often Muslim ) immigrants .
The shooter ’ s manifesto clearly spelled out his racist and Islamophobic beliefs , but it provided scant information on how he came to embrace them .
On Monday , with the release of the Royal Commission ’ s inquiry into the attacks , we got a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ radicalized on YouTube , by many of the propagandists myself and other researchers had warned about .
So why didn ’ t YouTube take action sooner , and what should they be doing now ?
read more

…by Becca Lewis, a PhD candidate at Stanford University and a graduate affiliate at the University of North Carolina’s Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life
Guardian: In the fall of 2018, I released a research report warning of a growing trend of far-right radicalization on YouTube. Specifically, I identified a loosely connected network of reactionary YouTubers, ranging from mainstream conservatives and libertarians all the way to overt white supremacists and neo-Nazis, who were all broadcasting their political ideas to young audiences.
Alternative Influence-Borad… by Sladjan Rankic
Tethered together by a shared opposition to “social justice warriors” and the mainstream media, they frequently collaborated with each other and amplified each other’s content. In the process, they made it extremely easy for a viewer to move bit by bit into more extremist content.
I warned in 2018 YouTube was fueling far-right extremism. Here's what the platform should be doing: https://t.co/aOtOE9wX7H — Jamie Arrowsmith (@arrowsmith) December 11, 2020
The following March, I watched in horror along with much of the rest of the world, as a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people and injured 40 more at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Throughout the chaos of the day, researchers parsed his manifesto and found that under the layers of irony and memes, the message was quite clear. He had been radicalized to believe in the Great Replacement, a white nationalist conspiracy theory that claims that white populations are being purposefully replaced with (often Muslim) immigrants.
Christchurch mosque massacre report: security services had “inappropriate focus” on Islamist extremism before the attack, didn’t sufficiently explore the right-wing terror threat. Good lesson for all of us in our counterterrorism work. Also, shooter was radicalized via YouTube. https://t.co/tXA1j7JSMT — Jenni💫 (@Dr_Col_J) December 8, 2020
The shooter’s manifesto clearly spelled out his racist and Islamophobic beliefs, but it provided scant information on how he came to embrace them.
On Monday, with the release of the Royal Commission’s inquiry into the attacks, we got a fuller picture: the Christchurch shooter was radicalized on YouTube, by many of the propagandists myself and other researchers had warned about. So why didn’t YouTube take action sooner, and what should they be doing now? read more
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/11/youtube-islamophobia-christchurch-shooter-hate-speech?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other