Thursday, May 28, 2020

US Meddling in Hong Kong

As the Empire declines it lashes about but is really a paper tiger. The US must have forgotten that Hong Kong is a part of China and it is an internal Chinese affair how it is ultimately to be governed. “The United States and China appear to be on a collision course over the future of Hong Kong, a center of global capitalism and symbol of resistance to the Chinese Communist Party.”
It’s none of the US’s business, any more than the following would be China’s: “China and The United States appear to be on a collision course over the future of Puerto Rico, a center of global resistance to colonialism and symbol of resistance to the neglect and exploitation perpetrated by the US political system against the Puerto Rican people.”
The US is going out of its way to provoke China and to threaten the existence of the present world order by creating an international environment that could lead to an eventual military confrontation. Our military already bestrides the globe but seems impotent and unable to enforce its will anywhere (except tiny little countries with no real military — Panama and Grenada for example).
We learned nothing from the defeat in Vietnam and the American people can only suffer more tragedy from our belligerence towards the Chinese and attempts to meddle in their internal affairs. The present rogue government in Washington is a greater threat to us than any foreign power.

NYTIMES.COM
The State Department announcement comes as President Trump weighs hard measures against China, which is expected to approve a national security law on Hong Kong on Thursday.

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Science, Open Borders, and Morality


So, every human in the Western Hemisphere today is an immigrant or a descendent of immigrants and this bond of common humanity and origins should not be trounced by the narrow minded racism and ignorance of those trying to divide and separate our commonality by the cultural and linguistic differences between us that have arisen through the accidents of history. This article shows that humans have moved around the world continuously since our origins in Africa and these movements are the natural outcomes of our common human struggles with nature in adversity or prosperity.
The implication is that those who have prospered should always help and aid those who have not since both conditions are the results of the existential fortuitousness of human life and this recognition is the highest achievement of philosophical ethics and consequent moral obligation. It is manifested politically, at this time in our country, in the current program of the CPUSA and in the call for open borders internationally and the end of all forms of intra human oppression.

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Lies, Republicans, and Covid-19

The Republicans reject science and falsify the data to justify reopening before it is safe to do so. Workers want to get back to work because they need money to live on and the capitalists want them back because they need the surplus value they create to make their profits. The state always sides, eventually, with the capitalists and by refusing to enact emergency funding for working people and by allowing the unemployment insurance system to virtually breakdown, and by lying about the safety of premature reopening it is forcing the workers back under capitalist control (they are fired without benefits if they refuse to go back to their jobs). The death of workers due to Covid-19 is of no concern to the ruling class 
 as we have a reserve army of the unemployed from which new workers can be hired to replace any who die off or get too sick to work. Any conflict between the interests of profit and capital accumulation versus the health and welfare of the people is always resolved in favor of the former not the latter under capitalism. A further consideration is that the majority of deaths are among the elderly (nonproductive), the poor, and racially oppressed minorities, groups of no concern to the politicians of the Republican Party. This party of death and profits before life and well being must be absolutely repudiated in the November elections as a first step in the great refusal to continue to accept the present system of economic injustice and faux democracy.

Saturday, May 16, 2020

The Road to War With China

The right is ginning up the American people for a racist and aggressive US policy towards China. The real reason isn't gone into in detail here but FAIR is right to to alert us as to the role of the MSM in pushing this bipartisan line. They are pushing for Biden to join with Trump in attacking China and progressives have to push back and demand Biden pursue non hostile policies with both China and Russia. The real reason for attacking China is that the ruling class sees itself being economically losing out to China's competitiveness in the world market. The world capitalist system brought about two world wars last century over just such economic competitions and the US has decided to go down that road one more time since it cannot maintain its current dominant position by peaceful means. This process will be slower under Biden and we may be able to reverse it but another Republican victory in November will speed up the hostility and threaten the whole world with a possible nuclear war.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Draft Bernie!

"Policy errors in the coming weeks could turn the 18 million temporary layoffs recorded in April into permanent job losses that could plunge the United States into a deep and protracted recession unrivaled in recent history. Yet the federal government is lurching away from the strategy that has thus far helped slow the spread of the coronavirus and sustain people and companies struggling during the self-inflicted economic shutdown." The ruling class can't rule properly. The capitalist system 
 is breaking down and needs to be supported by the state, all we need now is for the working class to realize the a different system is needed. There is no FDR on the horizon who can reform and modify the system so that it is more worker friendly -- or is there? Short of an actual socialist revolution, which is unlikely at this time, Bernie Sander's program for a "political revolution" [actually a major reformist program] is the next best thing and seemingly the only solution to prevent an apocalyptic disaster from enfolding and destroying the lives of tens of millions of working people as the current capitalist regime can offer them only permanent and unsustainable unemployment and/or the ravages of the current plague as it renews its strength due to a premature reopening of the country. Serious consideration should be given, perhaps, by the progressive movement's leaders to launching a "Draft Bernie" movement to convince the people and the Democratic Party that a Bernie Sanders presidency is the only short term solution to the current crisis and the prerequisite for finding a permanent solution. It's obvious Biden is not up to the task and sticking with him will be like taking a cruise on the RMS Titanic.
NYTIMES.COM
The United States just lost 20 million jobs. The wrong federal response could make those layoffs a permanent fixture of the U.S. economy and sentence thousands of companies to bankruptcy.