Zero Sum Thinking: America Vs.
Continuing on from the last post...(How can Western Muslims survive muscular Liberalism?
Blogging Theology) Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. Al hamdu lillahi rabbil-ala-meen.
THE POWER OF APPLIED FAITH GRAVEMIND • 240K views
“A Great Reset Will Happen…” Eckhart Tolle Russell Brand 593K views
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Even though those are videos made by a Muslim Shiekh, they are really universal, anybody can watch and learn and please do - I learned and the first video ties in well with the second video (you'll see if you watch).
" What the Right Hand Possess " Shiekh Omar Baloch • 2.2K views
American Injustices on its Own People Shiekh Omar Baloch • 2.9K views ------------------ Islamic Video Shorts -------------
When Saudi Arabia is liberated #shorts Sheikh Imran Hosein 88K views
Islamic video short - some of the comments, made by fellow Muslims are that how can this Shiekh say such things...well it is based on hadith and another comment is to the effect of "that's mean, we should follow what Jesus (A.S. (peace be upon him)) taught" - My response and I think anybody with understanding I think could easily defend a position that Saudi Arabia itself, while proclaiming to be an Islamic State, does not (not speaking for the whole of the population of Saudi Arabia (that's impossible to do for any nation-state!)) is not, does not follow the teaching of Jesus A.S. (peace be upon him) and/or The Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. (peace and blessings be upon him) - Who do they treat their neighbors??? How is allying with Israel, killers and oppressors of the Palestine people, Islamic? How is constant rivalry towards all Shia Muslims (Iran)(and all this sectarianism and shedding of fellow MUSLIM'S blood have ANYTHING TO DO WITH ISLAM?) following the Quran or what the Prophet S.A.W. preached and lived? How is their treatment of Yemen following what the Prophet S.A.W. taught and lived? How is their structuring and how they are building up their society following what the Prophet S.A.W. taught and practiced? Or the early Muslim caliphates and scholars? It's not.
- Last Words Of QURAN Exposes The Real Truth By Sheikh Yusuf Estes
-Human Being Stages of Life By Sheikh (Dr.) Omar Sulleiman
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WATCH:
Global Capitalism: After the Elections: Now What? [November 2022] Democracy At Work • 11K views
is that what those elections teach us is what they said nothing about in other
3:49 words the importance of these elections is what was absent from them
3:56 and there was much that was absent from them that I want to go through with you
4:02 and I think will come out at the end with a conclusion that has been building in this country
4:09 for quite a while because there are important lessons
4:15 the first one and it has been noted by others is that in a country beset by
4:22 some of the most profound problems imaginable an inflation that
4:29 defies getting under control Rising interest rates that compound the
4:35 burden of the inflation a war Without End in the Ukraine
4:44 it just it's extraordinary economic inequality off the chart a
4:50 housing crisis a medical care crisis a transportation crisis the climate crisis
4:59 I could go on it's remarkable that a sitting government which deserves
5:07 a good bit of blame for many of those problems and for sure for not solving
5:12 them or making much progress would have been vulnerable
5:17 the American people who normally break away from a president in the midterm
5:23 elections had every reason to break away more that's why there were the proposals
5:30 of or the plans or the expectations of a sweep by the right wing GOP
5:37 that that didn't happen is our first lesson it didn't happen because the Republican Party offers no
5:47 solutions to any of these problems either however upset the American people are
5:54 and they are more upset than I have seen in my lifetime
6:00 they found no compelling reason to go to the right to reject the party in power
6:08 not because they're satisfied with Mr Biden and the Democratic administration
6:13 every sign shows they're not but the Republicans presented nothing to be
6:21 excited about and you know that's been true for our elections for some time
let me give another example and then I'll talk about what it means
15:12 we are coming to the end of the fossil fuel vehicle in our cultures as is
15:19 happening around the world when you come to the end of a form of
15:26 transportation you probably in most cases have Alternatives that you are
15:33 going to rely on since transportation is a basic requirement in geographically
15:39 dispute dispersed societies which we all now are
15:46 there are two major alternatives to the
15:51 combustion engine vehicle the electric vehicle the electric car
15:57 or public transportation that's a fundamental choice
16:05 it ought to be made socially why because we're all affected by which one it is
16:12 it's a completely different system if we rely on the private automobile whether
16:18 it's electric or fossil fuel for the moment it's the private car as opposed
16:24 to public transportation buses trains planes as the basic way we move people
16:31 around that ought to be a social decision because it affects Society in countless
16:38 ways for many years it's really important it should not be decided by
16:44 profit calculations of a handful of automobile companies who don't want to lose the business
16:52 yeah they go they make their deals with the politicians and the end result this
16:58 enormous social decision is not put before the people not by the Republicans
17:04 not by the Democrats neither one of whom because the job of this election I hope
17:09 I'm making this point over and over again is to evade avoid be quiet about
17:15 distract from what real issues there are for us to debate and choose between
17:23 and to spend time instead on something else so let me draw the first conclusion
17:32 fundamentally all these problems have to do with the growing inequality in the
17:38 United States that has a great deal to do with inflation with interest rate
17:43 policies with the housing dilemma with all of it
17:49 and it's an issue most Americans are very concerned and certainly deeply affected by
17:55 you might have had an election in which a real commitment was made concretely we are for leaving this
18:03 system alone let it become more unequal which by the way is what's been going on
18:09 it's been going on under Obama it's been going on under Bush it's been going on
18:14 under Trump and it continues under Biden so one of the other parties or maybe if
18:20 they were honest both parties would say yes we're in favor of increasing
18:26 inequality or maybe some candidates that would likely be Democrats might have
18:33 come forward and said no if we get in we are going to take the following profound
18:39 Steps either in changing the tax system or in changing how people are paid what
18:46 for what kind of work or we're going to do these things to radically address the
18:53 radically changed distribution of income and wealth over the last 40 years not one basic
19:01 word of either party or either of its major candidates in most cases with a
19:08 few exceptions doing anything on this topic it's amazing
19:13 here's something else that's amazing the United States one of the richest countries in the world with one of the
19:20 most developed Medical Systems in the world failed miserably in coping with the
19:27 covid disaster well over a million people died
19:33 tens of millions of people got sick and millions are suffering with so-called
19:39 long covet now this issue shook the country to its
19:44 foundations it killed over a million people aren't those sufficient realities
19:52 to say let's have a debate what was the problem why did we work so poorly as a
20:02 nation to deal with this why are you one of the worst in the country to deal with this why was the
20:11 decision made not to shut down areas where there was the virus
20:16 the way other countries did and really pursue it why was the decision made was
20:21 it in order to allow Commerce to continue and if so are we happy with
20:27 that decision do we regret it will we go in a different direction real issues
20:33 could have been engaged here that are profound for the nothing
20:38 nothing silence then in the last weeks we were treated
20:46 to a daily drama that could have in a society where politics is serious could
20:53 have gotten us into a good debate and there's some choices we have a social institution
21:00 that was taken over by private Enterprises
21:06 and we watched their behavior here's the social institution it's called Twitter
21:12 it's become a mode of communication among hundreds of millions billions of
21:19 people in the United States and abroad it is a way we communicate talk to each
21:25 other advertise promote disagree conflict it's a social institution
21:33 like all social institutions it was created by individuals
21:38 that's how social institutions happen and over time any individuals contribute
21:44 and it evolves that's true of social media it's true of Twitter
21:50 but what we saw was a tiny group of people who control this social
21:56 institution decide to sell it to another individual Mr Musk
22:04 a tiny groups of individuals deciding who is going to be in control of a
22:10 social institution we all rely on or most of us do
22:16 that's crazy and then we watch as decisions about who is going to be
22:22 allowed and who isn't going to be allowed to participate in this social institution or might are made by one
22:29 tiny group of individuals or now the new one the new one showing us what we're doing
22:35 by firing thousands and thousands of people in a kind of sweeping decision
22:43 Mr musk makes electric vehicles
22:50 he is not qualified to be in charge of a social institution first of all nobody
22:56 should be in charge of it the community should the society should that's what the word social means and in a democracy
23:04 it implies we have Democratic decisions about a social Institute nothing did did
23:13 anybody come forward and say well let's use the election do we want to have a different way of it nope nope nope we
23:21 watch the spectacle nothing is concluded I draw this conclusion then
23:28 when it comes to the domestic situation our elections are designed to distract
23:34 people from what's going on that's really urgent and profound and about our
23:40 lives as we live them and that's in the in order to protect this status quo to
23:46 keep things pretty much the way they are which an awful lot of Americans have
23:52 noticed and therefore they don't vote at all as a kind of small
23:57 measure of statement I'm not I'm not fooled I'm not drawn into this charade
the Urgent international issues that the United States faces
29:05 and you'll see the analysis is very parallel to what we just did with the
29:11 domestic so let me begin we are now involved we the United States
29:18 in this case are now involved in a fundamental choice to be made about the
29:26 relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China
29:33 it is the number one international issue facing this country and I say that not
29:39 because it's simply my opinion it is but it's also the opinion of an immense
29:45 number of those people paying attention and interested in this topic both inside
29:50 the United States and around the world it's an urgent issue
29:55 and it's pretty clear what the basic choice is
30:01 either the United States a declining Empire is going to work out
30:09 a live-in Let Live relationship with the emerging New Economic Powerhouse in the
30:16 world the People's Republic of China yes involving challenges that are no
30:23 Rising power always gives to a mature power that is on the way down
30:31 Live and Let Live you know the United States once
30:36 threatened an existing Empire was the British Empire the United States
30:42 threatened it in the most dramatic way possible we waged war against Britain in
30:48 1776 and again in the War of 1812 twice war and then these two Powers the
30:58 rising American Empire and the falling British Empire decided that wasn't a
31:04 productive useful tolerable Arrangement so instead of a conflictual relationship
31:12 they became allies as they have been in the 200 years since
31:21 they learned their lesson you'd think a society that went through
31:27 that learning process might want at the very least to put before its people do
31:35 we want to go down the road of conflict and War and sanctioning one another and
31:43 helping my industry and hurting your industry we're well along that road already but before we make the final
31:51 steps from which there will be little chance of return
31:58 maybe we ought to say to our people look this is so important this will affect so
32:05 many people's jobs and I hope not but maybe lives
32:11 that it ought to be where do our people sit let's have a debate if one party
32:17 wants to be in favor of conflict and the other one wants to be in favor of working out a a Cooperative way to live
32:26 together however it's done put that decision
32:31 democratically before the people we had nothing remotely like that both parties
32:39 if they have differing points of view kept quiet about it those who spoke
32:45 seemed if they did deal with the subject at all and they didn't merge to be
32:51 basically jousting as to who could be more anti-chinese than the next one we
32:58 don't need that no choice was available to the population anyway to deal with
33:04 this issue so we won't know what the American people think or want in that
33:10 area because the political groups in this country who run the country could
33:16 care less about what the people want in this area as in so many
let me turn next to the second most important the Ukraine war in which the Americans
33:33 are already involved granted there was no public Choice
33:38 discussion about that were in it but we could have put it
33:45 choice to the American people in this election we didn't of course but we could have
33:52 let me explain there were three decisions that were
33:58 made that we need to um deal with foreign number three that could have been made
34:04 first when Russia invades Ukraine the United States had a decision to make
34:12 what's our response to this event and the response we know happened was
34:18 that the United States immediately began to provide Ukraine with money and
34:24 weapons weapons paid for by the United States taxpayer
34:30 to fight against the Russians in that situation
34:35 then there was a second decision to be made the United States escalated the
34:42 conflict there by imposing with its European allies and a few others
34:49 an immense set of sanctions the greatest set of economic sanctions ever put by
34:57 any country against another seizing the reserve the currency
35:03 reserves of Russia um unprecedented kind of behavior
35:09 among major powers in the world when the dollar where you capture reserves was
35:15 supposed to be a kind of neutral Global resource
35:21 refusing to buy oil and gas blocking other countries and other
35:27 companies from dealing with Russia I mean a whole host of sanctions that a
35:33 real escalation of the war and the Russians responded not much Surprise by
35:40 a set of sanctions counters sanctions themselves
35:45 and that included cutting off supplies of oil and gas one of the few weapons
35:51 they have to push back with and they did that
35:56 and what that did is created a shortage of oil and gas and fertilizer and other
36:03 things like that as a result which is causing inflations
36:08 around the world as the price of energy goes through the roof the price of food
36:13 made with fertilizer goes up dramatically and you all know the result
36:19 and the third decision that could be made is to sit down and negotiate
36:26 to see whether there are ways to accommodate what the ukrainians want and
36:31 accommodate what the Russians want in some solution that doesn't lay waste to
36:37 the country of Ukraine which is what's happening they're the ones paying the worst price
36:42 here and that maybe saves lots and lots of lives mostly again ukrainians
36:50 and that relieves the inflationary pressure of wild Energy prices by
36:56 resuming some reasonable transactions between Russia and Europe particularly
37:03 where the energy was delivered we could try that we kind of
37:10 ought to don't you think present to the American people in a real political
37:16 Choice which of these three do you want should we limit ourselves to giving
37:22 Ukraine money and weapons with which to fight the Russian is that a reasonable
37:29 response or should we have the sanctions program working red hot the way they
37:36 have been with their contributions to the inflation and all the rest of it or
37:42 should we negotiate tell Mr zielinski that he has to do that
37:49 otherwise we can't provide the support offer even if you want other supports to
37:57 help in making the negotiations hopefully successful that's a fundamental set of choices to
38:04 be made they are being made choices were made to give Ukraine the
38:12 support choices were made to push NATO ever closer to Russia by the noises of
38:19 Ukraine becoming nuclear or NATO a lot all of that those were choices made
38:25 we're caught up in the results the question is shouldn't that be a
38:30 democratically arrived at wasn't the election a prime time to see how the
38:36 American people feel on these issues here's the quintessential irony
38:44 even while the election was quiet about it the United States was in fact making
38:52 decisions that it didn't tell people about for
38:57 months according to the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal the United States and Russia have been discussing
39:06 the war what no one told us this had to be snooped out by clever
39:13 investigative reporters now it's admitted yeah we were
39:19 wow so the governments are talking but we are excluded
39:26 as a people from having anything to say about this a few courageous congressmen
39:34 and women wrote a letter a few weeks ago saying you know you ought to include
39:39 negotiations among the policies being considered they were slapped down
39:46 two weeks later the people who slapped them down shame-facedly admitted this has been
39:52 going on already there are negotiations the statement that they're only getting
39:57 together to discuss avoiding nuclear war is the usual diplomatic BS
40:04 Russians and Americans are sitting down and negotiating what's going to happen
40:09 in that country but a Democratic Society that does it and excludes it from its own people even
40:17 in the election which could have allowed the people to say what they think about
40:22 those three options that's a politics that is designed to squelch
40:28 democracy not to give it a chance
here's another one remember I promised four when you raise interest rates in the
40:40 United States given the importance of the United States and the world economy you make interest rates go up everywhere
40:46 in the world this is a crisis for many many poor countries
40:53 Emerging Markets is the nice phrase we use for them mostly in Asia Africa and
40:59 Latin America they are now in an impossible situation they had to borrow for development of
41:07 their countries because they're poor excuse me to cope with the pandemic
41:12 because they don't have the resources at home to do it they had to borrow to pay
41:17 for vaccines to pay for all the ways of trying to cope with that horrible
41:23 disease now they have to pay back the loans but the interest rates are going
41:29 up and they can't so what are they doing in order to keep the loan they have to pay them off
41:36 otherwise new loans that they know they're going to need will not be available but if they pay off at a
41:42 higher rate they're going to have to what constrict other expenditures to free the money to pay the higher
41:49 interest rate there ought to be a conversation if the point of the interest rate rise here is
41:56 to constrain the inflation here why should we allow victims all over the
42:03 world from this part aren't there some ways we could insulate
42:10 developing countries that we want to help to do something about the distance between rich and poor in the world that
42:17 is so dangerous and destabilizing aren't there ways to raise interest rates here
42:23 that don't have that impact on you of course there are I'm an economist I give you half a dozen
42:30 but it could have been put to the American nope we're all going to read about the
42:35 emerging debt crisis of four countries as if it were some kind of natural event
42:42 cluck our tongues say how sad it is but not understand that we could have been
42:49 able to intervene to express an opinion about how this ought to be managed and
42:57 we're going to live with the results and if the poor countries of the world were the majority of people live suffer
43:04 beyond what they are willing to tolerate we will be drawn into conflicts that
43:09 will cost us way more than anything we might have decided to do now to deal
43:15 with that problem and the final International issue that
43:22 should be a topic for voting and debate wasn't of course
43:30 is the economic nationalism that is now being pursued by the United States's
43:38 leadership we are deciding that the old Notions
43:43 that the government shouldn't interfere that the private capitalist Market is an
43:48 engine of wonderful efficiency none of that was ever true but that was the
43:54 official Mantra the religion economic religion of the United States
44:00 all of that religion has just been chucked out the window now the
44:05 government is intervening in every witch away knocking this industry from that
44:11 country shutting out that industry from this country this com company is
44:16 sanctioned that company is sanctioned your country has to pay due uh tariffs
44:22 uh your country we're going to seize your uh monetary reserves we are going
44:27 to have a bill passed that gives a subsidy to companies that build electric
44:34 vehicles here in the United States the Europeans are going crazy in case you don't know why because what this is
44:42 doing is providing an incentive a subsidy for companies to leave Europe
44:47 and come to the United States if they want to have a market if they want to be able to build electric vehicles the
44:55 United States will not let them in if they aren't built here how interesting now the Europeans are going to do the
45:01 same thing they're proposing it in their Parliament that's called economic nationalism we're all gonna fight it out
45:11 economic nationalism in the past has often led to war
45:16 number one number two if each country does it itself it's much more expensive
45:21 than having it done in that place where they are the most efficient that was the
45:27 rationale for globalization about which we heard so much in the 60s 70s 80s and
45:35 90s we were supposed to celebrate companies going to where the production
45:40 was cheapest because it would make it cheaper for us instead we're pursuing a
45:45 nationalism that's going to actually aggravate our inflation but no no no no
45:51 no no no don't get aggravated because this was all kept off the
45:57 election no question about whether really do we want to go in this nationalist Direction and of course it's
46:04 tied to the competition with China because we're trying to hurt them
46:13 by insisting that everything be done here after 30 years of American and other
46:21 companies investing to produce it in China this is a a momentous issue is going to
46:30 affect all of us for the rest of our lives it should have been on the ballot do we want to go in this direction do we
46:36 want to question it could have been done in a hundred different ways Pro or con more less
46:43 we can devise the questions that let people understand and then debate it so
46:48 people understand what's involved none of that was done none of it
46:59 instead here's what we had about International
47:04 and I won't go into more detail I'm going to give you the general message and it says old as the United States
47:12 which is an important reason to question it the United States constantly
47:20 as the most militarily equipped as one of the
47:25 richest countries in the world with one of the most impressive Global influence
47:31 you could imagine has given all I've just said many times
47:38 intervened in the world pursuing its own objectives
47:44 and often in an aggressive way but it never
47:51 can admit that the country is bizarre
47:56 other Britain has a war department we don't we have a defense department
48:04 everything that we do as a nation is couched in a language of Defense
48:12 it's become second nature the Europeans who came here
48:18 intruded aggressively against the indigenous population
48:25 portrayed itself as defending against
48:30 the Savage attacks of the indigenous people the aggression was clearly from
48:37 Europe here not the other way around the victims were obvious and intended
48:44 but in the mind in the Reconstruction of what was going on
48:50 white people were defending themselves against the indigenous people
48:57 First Time I Ever Saw Deerfield Massachusetts uh old Deerfield which is a
49:02 reconstruction of the colonial time in that part of Western Massachusetts and
49:08 if you read the little plaques on the reconstructed old how Colonial houses they're full of Stories of the
49:16 endangered situation of the colonists because the local people the Indians as
49:23 they called them threatened them amazing who threatened who
49:32 reminds us of course of the tendency of conservatives today
49:39 to keep referring to invasions of immigrants those desperately poor
49:46 families coming from Central America trying to escape climate disaster War
49:54 repressive governments economic horrible conditions of poverty coming across to
50:03 do what the United States has been telling them about itself even for
50:09 people a place to which migrations have come for a long time a Melting Pot uh
50:17 bring me your tired and your home all of that gone and we're suffering invasions
50:24 what an imagery an imagery of we must defend ourselves
50:31 wow and then of course the Cold War we had to defend ourselves against
50:39 communist Russia let me give you a statistic which I do
50:45 only because so few people seem to get it and I'm going to use today and then
50:51 we'll reason back what is the GDP that we refer to often
50:58 the gross domestic product it's a measure of the total output of goods and
51:03 services in a year in a country and it's a simple statistic that we collect and
51:09 we use because it gives you a rough it's just a very rough idea of the size of an
51:16 economy because the total amount of goods and services is a measure of what an economy
51:24 can do how how many people it's got what kinds of resources it has access to and
51:30 so on and it's very widely used and it has been widely used for many many decades
51:39 okay here we go I'm going to compare the GDP of Russia now
51:46 with the GDP of the United States now so you understand the relative size
51:54 by the way you can go to Google and look it up yourself you don't have to rely on
52:00 me most recent number for Russia about one and a half trillion dollars most recent
52:08 for the United States about 21 trillion dollars
52:14 okay and in the past the relationship was about the same or more extremely
52:22 different in other words in economic terms we are talking about a
52:28 relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union that was a little bit like David and Goliath
52:36 the Soviet Union was could not would not be an economic threat to the United
52:43 States it's silly it always was silly
52:49 and they weren't much of a military threat either because when you&#