Welcome to the United States of Hate

Thomas Riggins

Welcome to the United States of Hate. Researchers "found that in all U.S. regions, less education, population change, and ethnic diversity correlated with more hate groups, as did areas with higher poverty rates and more conservative political affiliation."
Interestingly, the more CONSERVATIVE an area of the country is the more hate groups it has. The correlation between conservative politics and fascism (the grounds of fascist ideology are found on the right-wing) implies the fight against hatred and the inhumanity and violence it breeds is also a fight against conservativism and the unenlightenment and ignorance it represents.
Liberals are another problem. When they are stressed out by the struggle of the oppressed they tend to mutate into conservatives. How this is reflected in the class strugge poses a problem for the struggle for socialism in the US since the major liberal party in the US, the Democratic, now has at least three factions -- moderate liberals (left-wing conservatives: Obama/HRC wing), liberals (straddling the fence between HRC and Sanders people but more likely to jump down on the HRC side), and progressive/social democratic Bernie Sanders types (although Sanders claims that he is not a Democrat).
The legitimate Left has to devise tactics that will minimize the defection of the members of first two groups to the conservatives while at the same time not betraying true Left values (the Democratic cave in re Dreamers and the Budget is an example) while at the same increasing the intensity of the class struggle while being aware that many millions of "liberals" don't self-identify as working class. This is the job of the CP (I hope it's up to it even without its theoretical journal which handicaps wide spread discussion of these issues within the membership). How to deal with the Greens and other third parties is also a problem that seemingly hasn't been handled very well.

Drivers of hate in the United States have distinct regional differences

In a new study, geographers sought to understand the factors fueling hate across space. Their findings paint a rather grim reality of America; hate is a national phenomenon, and more complicated than they…

SCIENCEDAILY.COM

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The US, Turkey and the Kurds in a Nutshell

Thomas Riggins
Well here is the story: "The local civil government is modeled on principles of the Kurdish separatist leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is imprisoned in Turkey: enforced equality for women in civil and military life, moderate socialism, and radical environmentalism." Abdullah Ocalan is the Kurdish Bernie Sanders. He is also the leader of the PKK and his picture hangs on the local Kurdish commander's office wall where the American generals can see it even when they say they don't see any PKK influence in Manbij. Years ago Turkey got the US to go along with them in declaring the PKK as "terrorists." Then came the Syrian civil war and the US is fighting ISIS and the PKK, under different initials, is our ally (doing most of the work). The PKK turns out to be progressive and democratic (for the area), while Turkey, our NATO ally, is on the road to fascism and dictatorship and is allied with jihadist Al Queda clones and is de facto helping ISIS which it prefers to the PKK. The PKK only exists due to the intolerable persecution and denial of human rights to the Kurdish minority in Turkey. The US, which in normal times would prefer dictatorial Turkey, is backing the democratic Kurds fighting ISIS while it figures out what to do about Putin since he is upsetting the US's real aims -- getting rid of Assad and supporting Isreal's anti Iranian foreign policy. Stay tuned,

On Northern Syria Front Line, U.S. and Turkey Head Into Tense Face-off

The New York Times traveled with two U.S. generals to a northern Syria city where armed conflict between the Americans and Turks is now a possibility.

NYTIMES.COM

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Evolution: Education versus Ignorance

Thomas Riggins
A very interesting report that has lessons for the Left. The more people actually understand the principles of how evolution works the more likely they will accept it. This is an ignorance vs knowledge issue and involves, with adults at least, opening a closed mind to an understanding of reason, logic and scientific method. Now, capitalist ideology forsters Trumpism, racism, sexism, etc., and thrives on ignorance and closed minds and therefore favors a public educational system that fosters these ideals. It is a moral crime against children to fill their brains with anti-evolution (hence anti-science) concepts thus closing them off to reason and preconditioning them to accept the prevailing racist/sexist ideology of U.S. Imperialism. Our educational system is full of science "teachers" who are undereducated creationists that the state allows to be certified to teach children. One of the major tasks of the Left is to prevent the certification of these anti-teachers in the first place and to have those already in place reeducated or removed from their positions. Private schools teaching antievolution must be outlawed as the state guarantees free public education not anti-education to children.Teacher's unions should lead in this struggle and purge themselves of the anti-educators in their ranks. Getting control of local school boards should be a priority of the Left. These measures will be fought against with maximum ferocity by the right wing as, in the words of Spinoza: ''Such persons know that, with the removal of ignorance, the wonder which forms their only available means for proving and preserving their authority would vanish also."*

Ethics, Bk 1, Appendix

Better knowledge of evolution leads to greater acceptance of the concept

Prevailing theories about evolution state that belief in the concept is tied only to a person's politics or religion. But according to new research, whether Americans accept or reject the subject also…

SCIENCEDAILY.COM

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FBI Should be Disbanded

Thomas Riggins

A bull in a china shop breaks Ming vases as well as cheap reproductions, so let's look a little closer at this "Pillar of Society." The FBI and law enforcement have been used for two purposes by the state -- to fight common criminals and organised crime on the one hand, and for the political repression of the left and the union movement on the other. It still invariably comes out to arrest, disperse, and sometimes kill demonstrators and strikers when they represent people's movements against corporations or repressive governmental actions especially when civil righs or peace are issues. The FBI has even tried to frame peace activists and civil rights leaders. Trigger happy local law enforcement shoots down minority people with impunity. Trump's motives are certainly not progressive but he is getting a taste of how this Pillar of Society can be turned against anyone the ruling class considers a threat to its dominance and his fluke election and the unpredictability of his actions along with his personal penchant to get along with the Russians and Chinese rather the wholeheartedly support the reactivation of the Cold War outweighs his value to them. Whatever the NYT and its ruling class backers say, it's time this Pillar of Society was completely destroyed and built anew from the ground up.

Trump’s Unparalleled War on a Pillar of Society: Law Enforcement

President Trump has raised fears that he is tearing at the credibility of some of the most important institutions in American life to save himself.

NYTIMES.COM

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Turning the Corner in Afghanistan?

Thomas Riggins

“Looking ahead to 2018, as President Ghani said, he believes we have turned the corner and I agree,” Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr. told Pentagon reporters on Nov. 28, referring to Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani. “The momentum is now with the Afghan Security Forces.” [Their momentum is in advancing to the rear.] 

"Turning the corner" is better, I suppose, than "seeing the light at the end of the tunnel" -- which our incompetent generals kept seeing in Vietnam. It's probably true that we have turned the corner -- the wrong way into a one way street.
It only took four or five to win WW2 so if we are are still peering around corners in Afghanistan after 14 or 15 it means 1) we have an incompetent military that doesn't know how to fight these kinds of wars and we are just wasting our money giving it to the toy soldiers running the Pentagon -- if we are going to puts troops in the field they deserve an officer corps that knows what it is doing. 

Of course 2) it's possible they don't want to win -- war is big business and makes billions of dollars in profits for those businesses and organizations that deal in war supplies, weapons, and collateral services to the military and we may need this and other conflicts we support to keep our economy functioning. 

The way the government treats the veterans and risks the lives of the troops, especially since the Republicans have had control, but also under the Democrats, indicates it doesn't much care about the troops, which means the war to them is just another use of working people to generate profits for their business supporters and manipulate those dumb enough to fall for their cynical faux patriotism. As Trump says, "Make American Great Again" (i.e., easier for the rich to make money).

Attacks Reveal What U.S. Won’t: Victory Remains Elusive in Afghanistan

In his State of the Union address, President Trump is expected to promote his strategy to win the war in Afghanistan. He’ll be the third president to do so.

NYTIMES.COM

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Thoughts on Angela Davis' s Birthday

Angela Davis turned 74 yesterday and this brought to mind the fact that the state tried to destroy her and was unable to do because of the fight back by the people to defend her and that it was constrained by the jury system incorporated in the legal system created as a check on executive power and that this is a reminder that our bourgeois democracy is not a fascist system and it is worth preserving in the fight for socialism which must both replace it and preserve what is rational within it. This is why the fight against Trump is crucial as the forces behind him want to destroy the democratic residue that remains in the system and which can still be marshaled to thwart their attempts to completely subvert all three branches of government to their ends and purposes. The Republican Party's attempt to get absolute control of all three branches of government  and impose an authoritarian right-wing one-party state is due to the oligarchy's realization that both climate change and future economic chaos will spawn a mass people's movement that will threaten their control of the state by means of the present two-party good cop bad cop system of only providing the lesser of two evils choices. The only way to prevent this is for the popular forces to penetrate and take over the Democratic Party or destroy it and build a new mass popular people's party on its remains. This is why the fight against the HRC-Obama wing of the party, defacto allies of the same forces behind the scenes which presently back Trump but would prefer a more manageable Republican leader or a corporate Democrat running the country for them, must be fought tooth and nail. The only question is whether this internecine battle is to commence before or after the 1920 general election  -- i.e., is it a prerequisite for defeating the Republican one-party state or is a united Democratic Party victory even under corporate control a prerequisite for the reform of, or replacement of, the Democratic Party and the elimination of the corporate Democrats and the creation of a new majority mass progressive people's party?

US Military Fantasy: Winnable Wars With Russia and China (Vietnam defeated us)

Thomas Riggins

Forget spending increases to solve any of our domestic problems: " American military commanders and senior defense officials have fretted over whether 16 years of counterinsurgency fighting has left the military unprepared for a great powers land war. Pentagon officials say that the need to do both — fight insurgents and prepare for a potential war among great powers ." The Pentagon program has, since WW2, envisioned a military able to fight major wars on two fronts at the same time -- as we did against Germany (although the Soviet Union actually took out 80% of the German army) and Japan. The new fantasy -- we need a bigger military so we can wage two "conventional" land wars at the same time, one against Russia in Europe and another against China in Asia and win both. Of course nuclear weapons won't destroy Das Vaterland in the meantime. "Our" government is supposed to be working for our interests -- we better start electing one that does!

Military Shifts Focus to Threats by Russia and China, Not Terrorism

The Pentagon says the military is too stretched to both fight insurgents and prepare for war with great world powers.

NYTIMES.COM

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U.S. Beefs Up Nuclear Threat

Thomas Riggins 

This article reveals a blueprint for future use of nuclear weapons by the US as it pursues its aggressive prowar foreign policy of intimidation and the stoking of military conflicts around the globe. The fact is that as long as the US invokes a "first strike" nuclear policy other nations will seek to defend themselves openly and covertly with nuclear weapons of their own. The justification dragged out, as usual, for US belligerence is the so-called "Russian threat" which the US must counter (although we can mutually destroy ourselves and the world many times over already.) The three major allegations are 1) we must counter worldwide (!) Russian aggressive actions ( yet every example of a Russian "aggression" is a Russian reaction to a previous US action initiated against Russian allies or interests -- the Russian bear reacted to being poked: 2) Russia has threatened our allies with nuclear weapons (this is just a US lie as it is the US threatening the use of nuclear weapons not the Russians --unless attacked): 3) a mythical super nuclear torpedo has been created by the Russians which we must counter (this mythical torpedo is much discussed by weapons experts as to whether it actually exists, would work, or would have any effect on the balance of power if it did exist. The US simply asserts it's real so it is as far as the NYT is concerned.) This is just another US hoax to cover up the spending of trillions of dollars for the war profiteers and their weapons industry and reveals that the US system is the greatest threat to humanity since the deity told Noah to build his ark.

Pentagon Suggests Countering Devastating Cyberattacks With Nuclear Arms

President Trump has not yet approved a draft strategy that would expand “extreme circumstances” for nuclear retaliation to include a crippling cyberattack.

NYTIMES.COM

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The Coming War?

Thomas Riggins
And the last shall be first: "At a wide-ranging meeting at his headquarters on Jan. 2, Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of the Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., warned the 200 civilians and service members in the audience that more Special Forces personnel might have to shift to the Korea theater from the Middle East in May or June, if tensions escalate on the peninsula."
The trail balloons are starting to be released: you can be sure the US will do what it can to escalate...

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Military Quietly Prepares for a Last Resort: War With North Korea

It’s normal for American commanders to draw up combat plans. But recent exercises signal that the military wants to be ready for options on the Korean Peninsula.

NYTIMES.COM

The FBI and Russiagate: Facts or Fabrications

Thomas Riggins

Well, here's the evidence that has so far been made public, with more to come, that the Putin/Russiagate scandal was cooked up by elements of the Obama administration's intelligence services to help Clinton win: it was our own government not the Russian government that tried to manipulate the election and sabotage our democracy. The corruption of the top leaders of both parties, but with respect to the Russiagate hoax, especially the Democrats, may have really bad consequences for them in the midterms. Those on the left who mindlessly went along with the hoax, even when there was no real evidence to back up the charges, and still promote and defend Hillary, have only themselves to blame for the aid and comfort this scandal will give the ultra-right. Let's hope they will learn from their mistakes and end their rightward drift and return to the progressive left camp, but if the past is prelude, they, as did the Bourbons, will have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

The FBI Hand Behind Russia-gate

Special Report: In the Watergate era, liberals warned about U.S. intelligence agencies manipulating U.S. politics, but now Trump-hatred has blinded many of them to this danger becoming real, as ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern notes. By Ray McGovern…

CONSORTIUMNEWS.COM

Korean People Have to Solve Their Problems Themselves

Thomas Riggins

The Korean people have to work out solutions to their problems themselves. The U.S. should back off and let North and South Korea come to a mutual understanding on how to live together or on how to unify into one country. All their problems stem from this perpetual armistice and the two sides need to work out a peace treaty that ends the war and allows both sides to live in peace. The U.S. with its warmongering economy and military is the last country to look to for a peaceful constructive solution.

Kim Jong-un’s Overture Could Drive a Wedge Between South Korea and the U.S.

North Korea’s surprising call for dialogue with the South may undercut the Trump administration’s tough approach.

NYTIMES.COM