Friday, May 18, 2018

What Does Kim Want?

What does Kim want? After all, Moon took down the South Korean loud speakers blasting anti-North Korean propaganda into the empty demilitarized zone. Kim should reciprocate with a good faith gesture such as dismantling his nuclear program and missiles before complaining about U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises practicing an invasion of North Korea. The US thinking of using the Libyan model for North Korea should not be a problem either -- there are no Islamic jihadists in North Korea that can overthrow his government. Trump has generously offered to save North Korea from annihilation if Kim will just trust us and do what we say. It was predicted all along by the Western press that Kim would try and derail these peace talks and it seems that the predictions were correct. Trump still deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for trying, after all, its impossible for the US to actually make peace given our war driven economic system.
About this article
For President Moon Jae-in, North Korea’s threat to derail talks has made clear the difficulties of playing matchmaker between Kim Jong-un and President Trump.
NYTIMES.COM

Friday, May 11, 2018

Israel's "Tonkin Bay"?

1. Israel claims Iranian forces fired 20 rockets at their forces in the occupied Golan Heights -- they all missed!
2. Israel strikes backs with well coordinated and preplanned air assault violating Syrian airspace and international law.
This has all the earmarks of a "Tonkin Bay" set up to justify an attack.
3. Israel has been agitiating for war with Iran for years now because Iran supports groups objecting to the occupation and subjection of the Palestinians -- Israeli behavior condemned by almost very country in the world!
4. Both countries are run by theocratic fanatics with no respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
5. The US, instead of trying to fairly mediate between these two equally pathetic excuses for civilized governments, has decided to support one against the other.
6. We can only expect the situation to get worse when the world's largest super power steps up to bat for one of two criminal gangs because the rest of the world will sympathize with those caught in between -- the Palestinians who are the innocent victims who have been occupied and denied their human rights by one of the gangs: the other gang, by default, will be supported as the underdog.
7. Solution: The UN, EU, US, China and Russia guarantee the security of Israel and force the evacuation of the West Bank and Golan Heights by Israel and also guarantee the security of a Palestinian state.
8. This is the rational solution: unfortunately emotion, jingoism, racism, relgious intolerance, and lust for the contol of the region's fossil fuels will win the day since all talk about morality and human rights is basically a cover for forces seeking to dominate the Midde East for its mineral wealth and the people of Israel and Iran are both on the receiving end of this dynamic.
About this article
The cross-border exchanges — the most serious from each side over Iran’s presence in Syria — took place a day after the Americans withdrew from the Iran…
NYTIMES.COM

Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Ready For Prime Time: Marx TV Show


Well, what the Chinese say about Marx and why the Soviet Union fell apart is all true. Every CP should be following the Chinese example in Marxist education. The NYT does add its own snide comments along the way but they can be ignored especially such stupidities as "The Chinese Communist Party these days rarely mentions class struggle, and has embraced markets since Deng Xiaoping’s era in the 1980s." "Rarely mentions class struggle"-- perhaps the NYT reporters should be reading The Communist Manifesto themselves! The "markets" the Chinese "embrace" are subject to state control and monitoring and are not "free" in the Western sense at all (subject to uncontrolled crisis and collapses as occurred in 2008). The only thing this show lacks is English subtitles and a spot for binge watching on Netflix.
About this article
A new program, part talk show, part indoctrination session, tries to coax millennials to put down their phones and pick up the works of Karl Marx.
NYTIMES.COM

Wednesday, May 02, 2018

Democratic Protest in Russia


A lesson for Russophobes in the US and West who follow the U.S. propaganda line that Putin is a dictator and Russia is a dictatorship. Dictatorships or tyrannical oppressors shoot down demonstrators (Israel, Egypt) or their leaders exhort their followers to use violence (the U.S., Philippines) but this anti-government demo was peaceful and had a permit to march and protest. The story also indicates that the Russian government's internet ability is not as sophisticated as portrayed in the West and the Russians may not be actually able to carry out the kind of cyber attacks the U.S. alleges -- it couldn't properly manipulate an app from a Russian company! The Russian people, at any rate, don't seem cowed.
About this article
The rally, which began as a protest of the crackdown on the Telegram messenger app, quickly morphed into a protest against Vladimir V. Putin.
NYTIMES.COM