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chidakasha.co.uk

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Page 667

Page 667

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My latest essay is called ‘The New Stasi‘ and refers to a phrase used in the leaked Labour Party Report. My name appears in that report – Page 667 – listed among other ‘miscreants’ expelled using what the report approvingly calls a ‘fast track expulsion powers’

In case anyone is wondering about my ‘crimes’ I have made no secret of what I was charged with and my responses. See Case Number 3461 on this blog.

Another victim of the January purge, listed in the report is Pauline Hammerton. It is highly likely that the shock of being accused of antisemitism and then expelled from the Party contributed to her death seven days after she was informed of her expulsion.

Frustrated

Frustrated

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I’m frustrated by my failure to solve the posting problem. Is it my trying to upload images that causes wider problems – perhaps corrupting pages and making it impossible to save?

After successfully uploading an image and publishing the previous blog post. I tried to update and publish that same page but was unable to do so, whereas I have so far been able to update this post to which I have not tried to upload any images.

Perhaps the problem is temporary. Perhaps not. For the moment I give up.

Posting Problems

Posting Problems

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After the latest WordPress upgrade I’ve been having problems updating pages and posts. Dreamhost, my hosting service, tried to fix this but it didn’t work. My last response from them was basically ‘Sorry you’re having problems with your site. Good luck.’

This post is part of my effort to sort out the problem. I’ve tried disabling plugins and changing setting and am now trying different themes. I think this Button Theme might be successful even if I’m left with a look I don’t like much.

In addition to problems posting, I also have problems uploading images or videos. Button doesn’t solve the image upload problem.

YouTube embeds work:

I was able to upload an image using the Ajaira theme:

The Weak Crumble

The Weak Crumble

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Netanyahu spells it out for us …

“The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong”.

This is one of my favourite quotes; not because of any particular estimation of the character of Netanyahu but because what he say is so painfully obvious and yet so obviously discounted by many who discuss politics and urge us to party political partisanship.

When people discuss why a politician acts in this or that way they most often think about the politician’s beliefs or the rights and wrongs of the issue; they don’t consider the realities and interplay of power that may be the biggest factor in any decision.

We have to recognise the reality of the way that things are. We may have to work with the structures of power, including the structures within political parties but must do so without buying in the illusion that they serve the weak ‘many’ rather than the powerful ‘few’.

If we, the ‘weak’ many, want our interests to be served then we must first look to each other. Our strength lies in our numbers and that is why established power wants to keep us divided and wants to keep us dependent by recruiting us into parties that are structures of control rather than structures of empowerment.

George Carlin understood this.

We have to recognise the reality and resist becoming increasingly divided and dependent. We have to turn to each other, learn about each other, support each other and build structures that genuinely empower us.

How do we do this? I don’t know. Perhaps you do. Certainly we should be talking it.

To be Accepted

To be Accepted

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This of course applies to party politics and politicians as much as to the press and journalists.

It is seductive to be accepted into a powerful establishment, imagining that we will be the better part of it; but it seems that, to be accepted, we always have to leave either our passion, our critical thinking or our honesty at the door.

Chomsky makes the point extremely well in this classic clip. It needs to be shared, discussed and understood.

Chris Hedges: Coronavirus

Chris Hedges: Coronavirus

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I felt my intelligence and moral consciousness increase as I listened to this. Chris Hedges is a man of deep experience and of obvious integrity. These are my notes on this important interview.

Roger Hallam asks him how we should understand the CV crisis.

Chris sees the crisis as the first fatal blow against the structures of industrial neoliberalism and says that the US is going to be hit particularly badly because it, particularly, has destroyed the protections of society. The US doesn’t have an have an NHS and can’t contain the virus. Many people will not go for testing.

Already in the US the capitalist class is calling for a quick return to work to save the economy.

The agreed stimulus package is designed to help the capitalist few. It is designed to help the slum landlords not the tenants.

Unfettered capitalism commodifies everything. It is part of a triad, with imperialism and white supremacism, that is inherently racist; using force to appropriate cheap labour and resources. It is an expression of self interest that, unregulated, is destructive.

As the situation deteriorates Trump will incite violence and racism. The US has already been moving towards a corporate totalitarianism with militarised police and secret trials. The coronavirus crisis will accelerate this.

British society may be different but in America the trend is towards fascism; the Christian Right has given fascism a headstart there.

The coronaviris crisis is a precursor to the climate change crisis. The beginning of the end.

The system is not going to respond.

We have to create power outside of the system.

We need to rebel.

We must use our numbers to oppose corporate power. Through our numbers we have power to cripple the profits and the economy of the ruling elites.

This is our only hope, but we have to face the bleakness of no hope and accept that we may not succeed.

But even if we fail we create a community; we nurture life in a culture of death.

The ethic we return to needs to be an ethic that says ‘everyone eats or no one eats’.