Is Russell Brand a Communist?
An eloquent, articulate and intelligent advocate for common sense, the common man and our common humanity
Letters from Vienna #12
Is Russell Brand a Communist?
A friend from university once accused me of being a “communist” because I was forever posting Russell Brand videos. When challenged on the patent injustice of the world she responded with the words: “It was ever thus”. Suffice it to say: we are no longer friends.
Is she right? Is Russell Brand a communist? Obviously not but he is somewhat critical of the establishment, in a cheeky, subversive and entertaining way. I can’t vouch for his sincerity, trustworthiness or “authenticity” but he does seem to be an eloquent, articulate and intelligent advocate, in his inimitable, humorous yet thought-provoking fashion, for common sense, the common man and our common humanity.
One of the videos I watched recently, with titles such as: “Vaccine Mandates: An ASSAULT On Your Bodily Freedom?”, “Global Mandate Protests - Is THIS Where Your Freedoms Are Headed?!”, hit the nail directly on the head. It had the title: “Vaccine Passports: THIS Is Where It Leads”.
The key to understanding what is going on in the world right now are vaccine passports. Once everyone has a vaccine passport and once all money is digital the architecture for a Global Auschwitz will be complete. All that shall be necessary to silence critics or to be rid of “useless eaters” will be to electronically block and starve them to death. If anybody thinks this far-fetched they need merely do a little bit of research: this is happening already.
The plan is not new. The Internet is an integral part of this project, the creation of an Orwellian surveillance state (Orwell was simply an insider who knew what was being discussed while Edward Snowden revealed an awful lot) has long been in the pipeline and many have long been talking of “smart” cars (apparently, every American car built after 2014 can be switched off remotely), houses, and towns. Indeed, while reading letters by Raymond Chandler, who died in 1959, I found, practically on the same page the words, albeit spelt slightly differently: yahoo and google.
“Google” writes Yasha Levine in her excellent book: “Surveillance Valley”, “is one of the wealthiest and most powerful corporations in the world, yet it presents itself as one of the good guys: a company on a mission to make the world a better place and a bulwark against corrupt and intrusive governments all around the globe. And yet, as I traced the story and dug into the details of Google’s government contracting business, I discovered that the company was already a full-fledged military contractor, selling versions of its consumer data mining and analysis technology to police departments, city governments, and just about every major US intelligence and military agency.”[1]
The power of Silicon Valley is not to be underestimated. According to Mike Lofgren in his book “The Deep State” it is one of the dominant forces in America and according to what I read in 2020: it was Facebook (with a modest “market capitalisation of” (merely) “$964.6 billion as of Oct. 1, 2021”) which stole the election on behalf of Joe Biden.
As always: follow the money. Vanguard with “about $8.0 trillion in global assets under management… holds approximately 182.9 million shares of Meta (aka Facebook), representing 7.7% of total shares outstanding,” while “BlackRock holds about 155.9 million shares of Meta (aka Facebook), representing 6.6% of total shares outstanding…BlackRock is one of the world's leading asset and investment management firms with approximately $8.7 trillion in AUM (assets under management) as of Dec. 31, 2020.” [2]
Interestingly both institutions are also heavily invested in Google. “Vanguard holds 22.8 million class A shares representing about 7.6% of total class A shares outstanding, and 21.3 million class C shares representing about 6.6% of total class C shares outstanding, according to its 13F filing for the period ended June 30, 2021. In total, Vanguard holds more than 44 million Alphabet shares” of Google while “BlackRock holds 20.2 million class A shares representing about 6.7% of total class A shares outstanding, and 19.1 million class C shares representing about 6.0% of total class C shares outstanding, according to its 13F filing for the period ended June 30, 2021. In total, BlackRock holds 39.3 million Alphabet shares.” [3]
Also, of interest is the fact that: “Vanguard Group owns 456.2 million shares of Pfizer, representing 8.1% of total shares outstanding, according to the company's 13F filing for the period ending June 30, 2021” while “BlackRock owns 407.0 million shares of Pfizer, representing 7.3% of total shares outstanding, according to the company's 13F filing for the period ending June 30, 2021”.[4]
Is so much power in so few hands desirable? Might there be conflicts of interest? Might there be a reason “fact checkers” don’t want too many questions about the efficacy or safety of vaccines being asked? Is it not nonsense to speak of “conspiracy theory” when the reality is so very much in the open?
These are some of the issues Russell Brand raises again and again. The corruption of the system, especially its politics, and the concentration of wealth, has become disastrous for all of us. Again, and again he emphasises, steeped in Eastern philosophy as he is, our common humanity, consciousness and spirituality. One doesn’t have to be a communist to hold such views; on the contrary. One merely has to apply a modicum of common sense, something my friend from university has long failed to do.
Notes:
[1]p.5 Surveillance Valley, the Secret Military History of the Internet, Yasha Levine
[2]https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/082216/top-9-shareholders-facebook-fb.asp#:~:text=The%20top%20individual%20insider%20shareholders,Inc.%2C%20and%20BlackRock%20Inc
[3]https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/011516/top-5-google-shareholders-goog.asp
[4]https://www.investopedia.com/articles/company-insights/082316/top-10-shareholders-pfizer-pfe.asp