"Still, Mr. Feng’s lectures can have the feel of a different era. In describing Mao’s views on revolution, for example, he rails against imperialist forces and “bureaucratic capitalism” for “ruthlessly exploiting laboring people.”" Too bad Mr. Feng doesn't live in Trump's USA which is free of bureaucrats and working people are not exploited and are paid a living wage so that food stamps, housing assistance, unemployment insurance, and welfare are unnecessary.
Friday, June 29, 2018
Monday, June 25, 2018
Bedouins and Ethnic Cleansing
Ethnic cleansing at work: the Arabs will be moved to make way for Israeli settlers and to break up the West Bank and prevent a "two state solution" --
''Yet the new site offers only one-16th of an acre for each family — a fraction of what Bedouins from the tribe were granted in the late 1990s when they were displaced by the expansion of Maale Adumim. Oddly, the Supreme Court’s ruling claimed that there would be a place for their herds to graze — though the government had already acknowledged the opposite.'' They will be removed and their way of life destroyed --Untermenchen. Right wing settlers have joined the Supreme Court and the Court no longer is a safeguard which follows the law but has become partisan. This is happening to our Supreme Court too which is on the road to rehabilitate the Dred Scott Decision.
''Yet the new site offers only one-16th of an acre for each family — a fraction of what Bedouins from the tribe were granted in the late 1990s when they were displaced by the expansion of Maale Adumim. Oddly, the Supreme Court’s ruling claimed that there would be a place for their herds to graze — though the government had already acknowledged the opposite.'' They will be removed and their way of life destroyed --Untermenchen. Right wing settlers have joined the Supreme Court and the Court no longer is a safeguard which follows the law but has become partisan. This is happening to our Supreme Court too which is on the road to rehabilitate the Dred Scott Decision.
Friday, June 22, 2018
Charles Krauthammer, R.I.P.
Mr. Krauthammer's personal trajectory in overcoming adversity is admirable and he serves as a role model in that respect but "Aligning himself with most conservatives, Mr. Krauthammer was gung-ho about going to war with Iraq in 2003, arguing for replacing Saddam Hussein with a democratic government, and he expressed few compunctions about torturing suspected terrorists." I cannot help but think anyone with his influence on the national scene who was "gung-ho" for war and soft on "torture" was anything other than a malign influence on our culture and an enemy of the concept of universal human rights. It is regretful that he espoused such negative values and found an audience appreciative of them. It is to be hoped that his correct observation “Get your politics wrong, however, and everything stands to be swept away" will be the fate of his world view.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Bernie, a socialist Brutus?
If this analysis is correct any attempt to reform the Democratic Party and wean it away from Wall Street is in vain.
But I'm not sure about contrasting Debs with Sanders. Different times. Debs was the head of a mass Socialist Party and the product of a militant working class environment quite conversant and supportive of Marxism while Sanders has none of this background as his "socialism" is the Denmark variety and he is a US Senator representing a leftist petty bourgeois no...
See MoreBut I'm not sure about contrasting Debs with Sanders. Different times. Debs was the head of a mass Socialist Party and the product of a militant working class environment quite conversant and supportive of Marxism while Sanders has none of this background as his "socialism" is the Denmark variety and he is a US Senator representing a leftist petty bourgeois no...
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
New American Empire?
The point here is that Trump is no fool: the US is without rival as the #1 support of the world capitalist system and he can do pretty much what he wants vis a vis the "allies" and China. The old world order blew up in the 2008 financial meltdown and Trump is reconstructing it as a "wheel" -- the US as a hub and other countries as separate spokes economically dependent on the hub -- thus groups such as the G7 are not needed -- the US will be like Rome -- each "country" will be in a one to one relationship with the US as an economic province of our empire and that will be the new world order -- international organizations will be symbolic at best and power will reside in the imperial hub: omnes viae Romam ducunt.
Monday, June 11, 2018
US Adds Child Torture To Its Repertoire
"In several letters to the Department of Homeland Security, the American Academy of Pediatrics has urged an end to parent-child separation, which researchers have said can cause lifelong trauma in children. When the policy was unveiled, the academy’s president, Dr. Colleen Kraft, said she was dismayed at its “sweeping cruelty.”" -- Our rulers have always behaved this way towards children -- Native American children were taken, the children of slaves were taken, poor children are begrudged food stamps and school lunches and go to bed hungary every night, children are shot up and killed in our schools and on our streets to appease the NRA, Vietnamese children were napalmed and machined gunned by our military, middle eastern children are droned and killed every day by us and the allies we arm so we should not be surprised that this "sweeping cruelty" is being inflicted on the children of refugees -- it's what we do -- it's part of what "making America great again" stands for -- it's the essence of the racist core of the Republican party and right wing Democrats and the capitalist system that spawned them and that they uphold and it will continue until all decent Americans "take the knee" and give Trump and his ilk the boot.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)