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ilovelife · 3 years

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Biden's Folly

Given the current situation and chaos in Afghanistan it would have been far cheaper & easier for Biden to have just left those 2500 US troops in Afghanistan and not withdrawn them as in May, when there was peace calm and stability compared to the current Mess he's created and the far higher expense he's going to incur. 2 months ago just 2500 US troops were keeping the ? new war that will definitely come. How did he do a deal with terrorists and expect them to keep their word? What a prize chump.

How is Biden, i.e. the US Govt. doing deals and negotiating with terrorists, i.e. the Taliban, and installing them on the throne, i.e. the seat of Power? I thought that the US does not deal with terrorists? What hypocrisy. That means that Biden & the US Govt. are also terrorists as they are co collaborators and conspirators with the Taliban. How can they trust terrorists who hate the US that has slaughtered so many of them? The primary target of the Taliban and all their kind is most definitely Biden in the White House, who will soon be@War.

How with 1 stroke of his pen, Biden has ruined an entire nation, people and civilisation and plunged the entire world into chaos, commotion, terror, war and depression. He has brought terrorists to positions of power, who will kill him & others, and yet says, "We dont care, it is not America's problem". You fool, America has created the problem. I had a really high opinion of Biden before. But now unfo. that has changed. I can now see that he is actually an Asshole and truly behaving like one.

The Taliban is already dictating terms to the US Govt & Biden and asking them to fuck off. They have said the deadline wont be extended. And Biden is obeying them like a puppy dog! How can Biden expect them to keep their end of the deal when they are untrustworthy? By collaborating with them the US Govt. is also a terrorist. Biden has no stomach for War and will not be able to lead the US in the event of one. But war is most definitely going to be thrust on him as certainly as there is night & day. Instead of going in and getting the Taliban he is just admitting US defeat & showing his cowardice. His leadership abilities are already in question. He has bungled so badly on Afghanistan. The Taliban are definitely going to attack him or hire people to attack him. He has placed terrorists on the throne of Afghanistan. He should resign and admit himself in an old age home or lead America properly and with strength. At the moment he is being a Wimp and a Wuss. And is the most misinformed person on Afghanistan.

The US should bring in heavy lift passenger aircraft now to complete the evac. on time like- Jumbo 747s, A380 Double Decks if they are still around, Antonov multi deck heavy lift passenger aircraft. The C117s should have multiple decks fitted on them to squeeze in at least a 1000 on each ride.

Biden must resign. He is totally insane and senile. His decision making abilities are in Question as he has ruined an entire nation and plunged the whole world into chaos and commotion. Either he should take the path of Peace or War, but whichever path he takes he should win at it. At the moment the US stands exposed as and is a complete loser. Like Biden. They dont expect the Taliban to keep their word, do they? The slaughters will start as soon as the US troops leave. Appalling.

Biden/NATO have to go back in to Afg to get not just the Tallys but also the others. But of course he wont. He will do just the opposite. He like Jimmy Carter doesn't have the guts. Why are these Democrats so soft?

In all fairness Biden is a good man but only for Peacetime, he has absolutely no training, acumen or leadership ability or stomach apparently for War, as we can see. He is also too old and his age is against him for waging a war. His best option is to confer with other past successful war POTUS esp. Obama, Clinton & George W. Bush and the Pentagon, NATO and the UN to come up with a successful plan to solve and handle Afghanistan permanently. The Taliban is NO solution. On the contrary they are a Disgraceful, unelected, undemocratic solution. And by behaving in the appalling, disgusting way he is, he is only wiping his hands off Afghanistan and trying to run away from it, which as you can see is not helping at all as there is no escape and is only causing him to get further embroiled in it, that will ultimately lead to his resignation and demise. Can't run away from the Afghan problem, the only solution is to solve it properly, peacefully and successfully. Or the Afghans will come looking for him. No one man should have so much absolute power to bungle. That is why the US Presidential system is failing so much. It should be channelled into committees for consensual power.

Drone strikes are all very good though we cant verify the veracity of the kill. But Biden hasn't solved the long term problem of Afghanistan, which the US owes Afg after 20+ years of occupation. Taliban rule is not the solution but a massive problem for the whole world. It is in fact disgusting the way the US has and is behaving. The West owes Afg a long term solution to their permanent woes or it will continue to bother them. Biden has caused the entire present crisis and the collapse of an entire nation thru premature troop withdrawal that was unnecessary and whose presence cost the US exchequer nothing, by behaving like a total pig headed prick. And he has to pay the price. On the contrary the monetary benefits of having its small no. of troops in Afg gave the US monetary benefits more to the tune of billions & trillions of $$ compared to the current crisis. Biden has only contributed to the Afghan crisis by adding 13 more graves to the long list at Arlington. Thus behaving like a total Asshole. He is one.

It is very sad to see what's happening in Afghanistan. After all we're all human.

Biden has just betrayed and screwed not just his own country but also Afghanistan and the whole World. He's a total nincompoop, asshole and wimp. He's doing deals with and trusts terrorists. Must be a terrorist himself then. He should be tried and impeached. Just 2,500 US troops doing nothing in Afg can hardly be called a War or America's longest War. He is either hopelessly misinformed or senile or demented or totally nuts. They were only keeping the peace, preventing terrorism & watching terrorists. The Tallys are not a Govt., or freedom fighters as they claim to be, they are unelected. They are just terrorists and thugs who've taken the country by force and should not be recognised by anyone. The fact that the US has handed the country over to terrorists taking the clock back 20 years due to the Nutcase Biden, goes to show exactly how irresponsible the US actually is. Firstly, he should not have withdrawn troops, but now that he has, this is not the way to have done it, by creating a more dangerous world and by making the whole world a more dangerous place to live in- by aiding and abetting terrorists. You cant expect them to adhere to any agreement. What a nut.

#afghanistan

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cheekina · 3 years

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ISLAMOFASCIST

It can be quite tough to recognise the emergence and symptoms of fascism in this country.

There are neither cadres of malay wearing brown, black, red or putting on scarfs of chequered patterns nor the sound of jackboots marching here and there. Yes, there are those malay kids wearing punk gear and hairstyles wandering confused around Ipoh town and getting mistakenly branded as black metal acolytes and devil worshippers but those guys are really harmless. A little odd but harmless. It is encouraging that the past week has seen Malaysia sounding the call for the formation of a Global Movement of Moderates. The world is very much in need of moderation in more ways than one. But here in Malaysia, if the call is to mean something more than a public relations exercise, we will need to do some self-reflection and soul searching to see whether we ourselves have passed the test of moderation, particularly when it comes to religion. I stated that Malaysia is on the verge of religious fascism. It seems that when it comes to religion in this country, we are unable to say NO, to argue reasonably and rationally, or to even use common sense. What is even more alarming is the use of religion to intimidate, repress and stifle discourse. More than ever before, the line between public and private religion has become thinner and in some cases has disappeared altogether. Aspects of religion, specifically Islam, has begun to dominate and dictate various previously secular aspects of life in this country to the point that it is now erroneous and misleading to state that issues pertaining to Muslim affairs do not affect or impact on non-Muslims. We have seen some movement which allow for Islamic religious authorities to raid the places of worship of other religions. We have heard and experienced blatant unsubstantiated statements intended to create fear and whip up hysteria by accusing others of proselytisation and conversion. It took 29 years before a church could be established in Ipoh due to the unwillingness and resistance put up by local authorities who felt that their own aqidah would be threatened for allowing a place of workships belonging to another faith to be established. Nobody told them that their personal faith should not be a factor in their decision making. The list is longer when we include what is being inflicted upon the Muslim community itself. Infants are judged illegitimate as a result of being born prematurely. The parents are married? Doesn’t matter. If the kid was born less than six months from the date of nikah, he or she is considered illegitimate. The Majlis Agama Islam Perak(MAIP) is more known and infamous for its numerous vice raids around Ipoh City than its acts of welfare and good work helping those in need and poverty. Pergi kerja untuk menangkap orang tengah kongkek lagi best dari tolong orang islam yang sangat sangat sangat memerlukan. What a shame! If you are a Malay woman, Muslim, a civil servant or a local university student, there is an unspoken rule that you are expected to wear only the baju kurung, loose shirt and if you are not wearing the tudung or headscarf, sooner or later you will be peer pressured into wearing it. Wear any other professional attire such as a pantsuit and you will be quietly spoken to. Wear a pant or jeans to attend classes and people will assume you as “disturbing” or “perempuan sundal”. Like many others, I have long been concerned about the religionization of secular mechanisms and frameworks. Have you taken a look at the e-Fatwa website recently? It boggles the mind to see the degree of influence, control and intervention into our lives which has been granted to religious authorities who are largely unelected persons who are unaccountable to the public.

My opinion : It seems that syariah matters nowdays are no longer limited to personal law matters as originally underlined and envisaged under the Federal Constitution. It is disturbing to note that involvement of Islamic religious bodies such as the National Fatwa Council appears to be required and even have the final word on perspectives involving such things as electoral reform (i.e. the use of indelible ink), Mat Rempits, poco-poco dancing, public health policy and even the use of scanners at airports. In recent days, religious authorities have even acted as book critics and declared books haram such as “Breaking the Silences: Voices of Moderating Islam in a Constitutional Democracy”. But the reason why this is all happening is because we are allowing it to happen. There are many who lay the blame of the religious excessiveness seen of late at the doorstep of Malay-speaking rural communities. But you know what? I believe the problem lies instead among those of the middle class living in the cities, particularly in the enclaves which exist in Shah Alam, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Malacca and Johor Baru. In these almost ghetto-like Malay communities spring the many insecurities, intolerance, bigotry and racism which have manifested themselves on the national agenda and championed by persons such as Papagomo, Hadi Awang, Fynn Jamal and the boys and girls of the PPGM brigade. SCREW THEM! The “ideas” originate from people who are not economically challenged, deprived or impoverished rather they are more likely to be the privileged, well-educated, well-travelled and moneyed. They are more likely to have been educated abroad. Yet, these are the ones who are most rabid about the alleged threats to the Islamic faith. Many of them are in their retirement years, consider themselves devout and recently renewed in their faith. They are influencing the younger generation with their views and values. Trust me, those holier-than-thou pakciks or makciks are much more worst than us when they were younger. Yet among them, religious piety co-exists with superstitious practices. Consider the current trend of enrolling your kids in tahfiz classes. Parents are racing to get their very young kids into these classes where they are taught to read and memorize the entire Quran. They aren’t taught what the individual words mean or the historical context. Just memorize. So, your son can recite whole chapters but has no idea what the story is about. These kids have become the latest show and tell of parents and the latter’s store for good deeds for the hereafter. In the meantime, daughters are taught that it is necessary to thoroughly wash sanitary napkins to prevent the Devil feeding on menstruation blood and gaining access to one’s soul. Bomohs (shamans) are used for a myriad of purposes from weather control to dealing with business rivals. These are all symptomatic of a strangeness currently inflicting the Malay community. It seems that there are many who appear to be gripped in some sort of religious rapture. A race to see who can be seen and demonstrate themselves to be the most pious. The extreme manifestations of this have been the loud militant religious rhetoric, threats towards those of other faiths and the enforcement of a single interpretation or religious worldview. If a person is not a Malay and not a Muslim, that person is deemed as having no right to comment on things affecting Muslims. If a person is non-Malay and a Muslim, we say things are done differently here in Malaysia compared to other countries. If a person is a Malay Muslim, this person is deemed to not know enough about Islam. If a person is a Malay Muslim with the right credentials, he or she could get censored, condemned and even accused of sedition. The loudest voices (and those who often get their way) are those belonging to the people who are less tolerant and accepting of others, who feel the need to dominate others in the name of religion and ethnicity, and who claim to be champions of the faith. Taken together, many of these are the budding signs of fascism which are no longer confined to fringe groups and have in fact become mainstream. Religious fascism is a tapeworm in the gut of modern Malaysia. It is time we recognize it for what it is.

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justsomeantifas · 5 years

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its 11:59 its still technically tonight so

this is gonna be my reference point to questions abt venezuela, at least regarding things pre- May 19 2019. Its a bit scattered and it may get edited down along the road, but yeah.

short version that draws some similar conclusions: https://www.salon.com/2019/05/17/the-plot-to-kill-venezuela_partner/

one difference in scales that’s important to keep in mind: the lifespan of people is 2-7 decades. the lifespan of colonialism lasts centuries. the lifespan of media memory is a couple years, tops.

Most western narratives of venezuela start meaningfully at chavez, which is a mistake. The focus point in history around which the country flowed was the Caracazo. You probably already know about this, but a massive uprising took place in the heart of Caracas, against decades of dictatorship both formal and informal, after severe instability in the global oil market. The people were hungry, the riots were fiery, and the bullets bled. knows the death toll even now, but its estimated well into the thousands. This happened pre-chavez, and started a cascade of events which brought him into limelight that you can read about here. not gonna go into more venezuelan history, but i talk a bit more here

chavez was democratically elected, multiple times.

in 2002, after his first democratic election, he was kidnapped by US-backed troops and replaced by someone who threw out the 1999 constitution, which was as legitimate as any other made in venezuela’s colonial and violently capitalist history, seeing as it was the first (aka only, so far) of 26 constitutions actually approved by popular referendum. He was reinstated largely due to massive protests in support of him. Maduro however doesn’t really have as much of the charisma and support of chavez, which is creating problems - as well as exacerbating problems created by the economic crises ramping up just around chavez’s death. In 2015, there were elections to the National Assembly, which ended up with the Opposition winning a majority of the seats (which does show that there’s some degree of fairness in the elections, at least verifiably up til that point, yet that isnt rly accounted for when western media describes it as “undemocratic” - many of whom don’t apply the same scrutiny to their own country: such as this UN Human Rights councilor who also happens to be the crown prince of british-iraq, currently residing in the noted democracy of the Kingdom of Jordan, which has no vested interest or control over any particular export of Venezuela.).

This turnout showed most of all that maduro had alienated as many as 2 million of his supporters, who didnt end up voting (though many also voted against him - trying to act on their feeling that whatever they want, its “not this”). This decreasing support also accelerates whats known as “Everyday Sabotage” - people not trusting in the government, and look out for their own interests contra everyone else. This is a danger inherent to tying “Socialism” to a primarily state project.

However 1999 Constitution was never meant as an eternal document & it created mechanisms to call for new popular constitutional referendums to be held. That’s what the “Constituent Assembly” is about, which is what a lot of the western world is describing as him singlehandedly rewriting it (while also being “vague about its contents”), or “created by him”. Elections to the constituent assembly were boycotted by opposition, so that it would be government controlled & look like a sham in the eyes of the broader world. That being said, the assembly was called both as a reaction to losing election but also in response to intensifying crises - it was put forth (i don’t see any reason to believe in bad faith) as a way to come together and figure out how to address the needs that were driving people to protest - to address the desire for “not this”, but bc of the uncertainty, it was easily twistable by reactionaries by putting all emphasis on the former. Also timing corresponds with increasing fears of maduro straying from the path of chavez, the image of scrapping one of his strongest plays for smth unknown is risky - tho if there are other meaningful options given the situation im not sure. And the body’s got at least as much constitutional legitimacy as Guaido (Chapter III)

The 1999 constitution also enabled a recall election to be called against maduro in 2016, bc it was written with particular attention to holding public officials accountable - similar noble commitments helped to end the presidency of Rousseff & bring in Bolsonaro (who was also one of the people spurring on the investigations and whipping up a social base).

(speaking of guaido & bolsonaro)

on Guaido:

part of student group in 2007 protesting against non-renewal of coup-assisting network, who the CFR (one of the major think tanks of the cold war still playing a big role in foreign policy today) considered “most important network”

close friend of Leopoldo Lopez, the aforementioned coup plotter.

politician since 2010, won a couple small elections

Unknown to majority of general population until 2019, most venezuelans surveyed didnt know him

Plan Pais

plans to privatize state owned industry & allow investment from foreign oil companies

center-right neoliberal draped in platitudes of “stability”, “revitalization”, “security”, and “rescue” - a message seemingly deliberately targeted to become more and more resonant with increased sanctions.

/on Guaido

governing is about the expression of power. I wanna live in a world where that power isn’t expressed, but as long as the exploitation of the global working class continues unabated, id prefer some of that power be put towards helping the poor.

there is no such thing as a static state of affairs, there’s no “goldilocks zone” out in the political universe where we tweak things finely until we find whats best for everyone, only different rates of change in different dimensions. what we need to do is figure out how we can push that state of affairs in a direction so that everyday people have the power to take control of their lives. re

re: “constitutionality” - if the supreme court calls it constitutional then its constitutional. period. There’s no such thing as a supreme court as an “independent branch” of government, but there are different degrees of integration into the rest of it.

The Supreme Tribunal of Venezuela has 32 members, (a bit more than a dozen put in by the national assembly, while the PSUV held it), and the opposition holds abt 3 away from a supermajority. Each member of the court holds their spot for 12 years. If that’s “The Most Corrupt In The World” according to Transparency International, i wonder what world the 9-person lifetime-appointed US Supreme Court (2 of which appointed by trump, and save for pulling a Weekend At Ginsbergs, likely 3) is on. In fact, one of the tactics that the more radical circles of democrat voters are putting forward is to pack the Supreme Court. Because thats how shit actually gets done, or at the least how shit is prevented from being committed w the stamp of legality. FDR learned that lesson too, in trying to pass what is today known as “The New Deal”

My comparisons to trump are for specific end: these actions are exerted on levers of liberal democracy, and every single liberal democracy is susceptible to them in some ways.

whats a “dictator”? if hes unelected, the millions of people who participated in the elections dont seem to think so. if maduro is a dictator, then what is donald trump? the majority of ppl didnt vote for him yet hes still governing. macron’s popularity has at several points been less than 1/3, and the yellow vest protestors have been violently attacked - why is he not “a violent dictator with only the support of the military”? These terms are not neutral.

“their elections are highly flawed” So What? show me a country whose elections arent.

“opposition jailed” - ok but coup plotters don’t get off easy in any liberal democracy. If someone - say Bernie Sanders - said “enough is enough” and succeeded in overthrowing the current government with the help of a foreign government…. you think they’d let him go free? what if ten years later he was getting his supporters all riled up to do it again? how long you think he’d be in jail for (assuming he can survive well into his 100’s)? You think more than 13 years? Think he’d get house arrest? Some US states lock you up for posessing weed up to 10. If you stay long enough around this blog, youll find plenty of other examples of much more cruel and unusual punishments. Look at Chelsea Manning, look at Oscar Riviera… look at the US protestors saying Guaido is illegitimate

what we have to keep in mind most of all, is to show that the contradictions being exploited are inherent to Liberalism. Contradictions are just expressed most freely at the margins - the interstices

poor economic decisions happen everywhere - 2008/2009 still affecting the entire world there’s violence thats “natural”, and violence thats “intolerable”. The dividing line is whether we have anything to gain by changing things.

sanctions: started under obama, originally targeted specific individuals, used as precedent for more generalized. They’re indirect - they have a “squeezing effect”, takes already-existing problems & just makes them markedly worse. also doesn’t necessarily correlate with emigration, bc it takes a lot of money to start a new life somewhere else, and sanctions disproportionately affect the poor.

war wouldnt likely look like (many) US boots on the ground - we’ve got plenty of other places to be. It’d look like guns being smuggled to counter-protestors. It’d look like sending resources to neighboring countries like Colombia or Brazil who would then use their troops. Colombias ruling party is right wing populists - much of current president’s campaign was run on fearmongering abt venezuelan socialism - they’re raring to go. It’d look like drones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracas_drone_attack. Also means there likely won’t be a sudden trigger, its a gradually escalating stressful gradually-more-warlike situation.

If war does break out - where would the refugees go? In reality the majority would go to Colombia, but if anything significant breaks out there will be a stream of those looking to find shelter in the US, which has advertised itself as a beacon of hope - what would happen to them? some may get taken in as a gesture of showmanship, but nowhere close to the majority.

speaking of the US - imagine if trump and bolton manage to actually plot a winning coup. Do you think that that wont be his main bullwark against ppl like Bernie? you think the media and rest of the democratic party wont jump on that narrative and “begrudgingly” support a fascist because the alternative might mean supporting single payer and not-having-good-for-ratings-climate-apocalypse?

another term thrown around without regard is “once vibrant” - for whom?

most articles ive seen just take this as an axiom, and dont find any cognitive dissonance when also saying chavez reduced poverty hugely.

The answer to that rhetorical question: Citgo is venezuelan, before chavez none of the wealth went back to venezuela - thats what “vibrancy” means.

many similarities with BP (the-artist-formerly-known-as-the-anglo-iranian-oil-company)

in age of climate change & vocal ppl about phasing out oil, the more one’s livelihood is connected to oil, the more unstable ones country will be - either that, or the more instability ones country will cause.

“Oil exports fell by $2,200 per capita from 2012 to 2016, of which $1,500 was due to the decline in oil prices.”

The drop in price that affected the venezuelan economy so much in 2014 was largely by US shale fracking

in 1970’s Chile, copper was the main product of Chile - allende nationalized the mines, and in return wall street dropped the

(also worth noting that venezuela’s got non-insignificant untapped shale basins)

At least venezuela used the oil money to fund social programs instead of like, pad the pockets of Raytheon.

also oil price wars in africa highly correlated w oil (whose annual production doesn’t even combined total venezuelas)

a couple ppl have raised concerns abt my strong stance on equivocal dismissal - if there’s a difference, if there’s some way of reading your statement that says “X country that the State Dept wants to invade is an anomoly in the otherwise free world”, then that’s acting to push the discourse towards normalization & invasion. It’s not “whataboutism”, just basic consistency.

now more than ever, narratives are affected by people. They may not be ones we had a hand in forging, but the way that we propagate them actually does have measurable effects on the larger-scale political outcomes. Always look for the base assumptions, as well as the direction

sure denounce Chavez. sure denounce Maduro. denounce Kim, Xi, Castro, anyone. But if there’s no equally or proportionally loud denunciations of the horrors perpetrated by allies - the “assumed”, “natural” violence, then you’re acting to reinforce the narrative of exceptionalism.

Just make sure after you take a breath, you denounce Saudi Arabia & Yemen, Israel for Palestine, the conditions which brought Argentinian/Brazillian, Brazilian coup, the US for Puerto Rico, the conditions which have murdered dozens of journalists in Mexico per year…

what people want most of all is stability. “A debate over whether it is mismanagement and corruption by the Maduro government or the sanctions that are the author of the crisis is largely irrelevant. The point is that a combination of the reliance on oil revenues and the sanctions policy has crushed the policy space for any stability in the country.”

government’s errors and tensions

fixed exchange rate -> black market

took 5 years to address changing relation between dollar & BsF, all the room between those two curves left a huge room for intensifying crises, though since it also corresponds with the death of chavez, it sorta makes sense.

antidemocratic actions and remarks by maduro

scattered responses filled w half-solutions

diversification needed, but how do you diversify an economy filled with rampant poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy…

(nominally begrudging) support for mineral extraction 12.4% of territory opened to extraction - “Special Economic Zone” as a method of managing decay

this is also what much of the reality of “economic diversification” looks like

not enough socialism. (even fox agrees!) Venezuela shows the limits of Social Democracy in countries living outside of the Imperial Core - esp the dangers if you’re in the crosshairs already bc of oil

started out as populism, gradually grew as confronted more. shows shaping influence on political organs from actions of foreign actors - if you’ve survived a coup before, you’re gonna become paranoid about any more of them - especially when the coup plotters say “hey lets do more coups”

also shows the weakness of only having a small number of charasmatic faces representing the movement - if one dies and theres no clear and popular replacement, then you’ll lose ppl who were largely brought in by the charisma, weakening your political project, and creating cracks for reactionary forces to take advantage of - especially in times of transition.

bourgeoisie still control a majority of the economy. Capitalist businesses are internally unaccountable, and in this age of intensified global trade, one can punish countries for straying from the pack by moving business & focus away. If you’re looking for dictatorships, look at the thousands of private companies run as dictatorships daily

capital flight is a real effect, precisely because socialism is fundamentally and irreconcilably against the self-interest of the bourgeoisie. not necessarily against the interest of the humans-who-are-also-bourgeois, but of the impersonal self-sustaining force of capital.

Have you ever pulled something out of an electrical socket, and seen a quick spark? The reason that occurs is bc of what’s called an induction current, which is a fancy physics word for flowing electricity not liking to suddenly change its flow. If you accidentally touch that spark, you might feel it, but youll live to tell the tale. But if you only take the plug out halfway & touch it, that’s a different story. Capital flows similarly.

my country (lithuania) has been facing sky-high emigration since the collapse of the USSR (with an added boost after 08-09), we have also consistently had one of the highest suicide rates in the world (#7), a minimum wage of about 3 Euros an hour (after a recent increase), as well as one of the highest prison populations in Europe (discounting Russia & Belarus… which like….)

when are we gonna be invaded? when will the US media talk about our pain?

oh wait, they did. We cried all pretty for the TV cameras, then they got a bozo nobody really knew of to denounce the government, who they called dictatorial (though it was far from ideal, massive bureaucracies dont tend to mix well with single-person-decision-making). And to be fair, the fact that the government was unpopular wasnt entirely undeserved. But what was promised to us was the idea of “Freedom”, “Free Enterprise”; to “Get Rid of Corruption” and institute “Real” Democracy". They said we’d be integrated into the glorious capitalist west, and we understood that to mean that we’d be in the position of a Germany, or at least an Austria or smth. But they never meant to integrate us into the imperial Core, we have always been seen as part of the Periphery - the “assumed” violence that “naturally” happens.

Then we got to where we our today. Some of the stuffs more available, but expensive. Most of the bureaucracy’s still around, it just helps fewer people. We stand as an example of what to expect, in one of the best case scenarios, you would join our emigrees now making up a significant percentage of underpaid house-servants aka maids across the EU.

if we want the people of Venezuela to be healthy, safe, and fulfilled, then:

speak out and pointing to the effects of US sanctions is incredibly important. They’ve already killed 40,000 people in the last year, and 300,000 more are in extreme danger (and millions more in long-term risk).

what does it mean when you simultaneously sanction trade with a place but also demand they let you give them humanitarian aid?

if there is to be action taken by the international community, then the US has forfeited its right to speak. They threw it away once in 2002, and obama rhetorically picked it up and dusted it off so that trump could throw it in a bigger dumpster, thats also on fire. However we also still live in a world deeply shaped by US Hegemony, so the opinions of its close trade partners & closest-knit media buds should be seen as influenced as such. Doesn’t mean that theyre wrong on everything too, but they still feel the magnetic pull of the US economy and ecosystem (as well as their own potentially imperial interests) and the effect of that force cannot be discounted.

transitioning our economies away from oil & away from globalized neoliberalism which only values peripheral states by their exports - dissolves tensions of how to produce in unproductive terrain

socialize medicine in the US, so that drug companies run by dictatorships can’t control their lives & ours. healthcare is especially reliant on imports, sanctions affect especially strongly.

normalize the ideas of Socialism, without taking the easy way out of “oh no dont think of Venezuela, think of sweden or denmark”. None of them are Socialist, but to avoid the complexities of Venezuela is to imagine that US attempts at socialism wouldn’t involve significant capital flight. If we don’t consider that, if we don’t have solid actionable plans to deal with that, while also facing the inherent complexity of changing material conditions, then we’re gonna waste whatever shot we get.

redirect conversation normally centered around government towards support of the tens of thousands of small business co-operatives, where people live their daily lives in a democratic manner.

on The Communes:

“delegating responsibility throughout all members, and bringing important decisions to the whole to work through and find the best possible solution… They create “collective criteria” together; agreements stipulating whether individuals have power over certain decisions or whether it is up to the whole group. However, he assures that these “are not rigid, they can change at any moment.” The cooperative I lived with in Venezuela had regular organizational meetings where they informally came to agreement and were even able to come back to re-evaluate decisions that didn´t seem to be satisfactory for the whole group in this same way. Decisions and decision making, in this way, are viewed as a process not contained by meetings and discussions in board rooms, but are always being analyzed and made better by the process of putting them into action, and not only by thinking them out and writing them down.”

- the “Self Government of the Producers” - aka what it looks like for cooks to govern.

they have communal councils as well - neighborhood councils in the same vein that so many (rightfully) find inspiring in Kurdistan . They preexisted chavez, but they were able to proliferate and be given legal recognition through him. I understand that legal recognition can act to ‘name’ a body & pin it to smth that doesn’t match its requisite variety - how dynamic it is, but imo as its currently legislated it recognizes a good amount of the autonomy that they had already been excersizing. - liable to change government recognition of co-ops has drawbacks too, and correlates negatively with that coop’s success

"A good example of this intention is the de-emphasis that cooperatives in Venezuela put on advertising or “marketing” products, and instead push to find more people to become part of the cooperative, and choose the services or products they provide based on community decisions about what is needed. A cooperative I worked in […] was originally a family owned and operated theater group that traveled around the country performing theater pieces that highlighted social and environmental issues. When they joined the […] cooperative, the larger co-op did an analysis and decided they wanted a natural fruit juice concentrate producer and gave the group a loan to acquire capital and start producing. They have been doing this for only a couple of years now but have already paid back the loan to the larger cooperative and are bringing extra money in to support themselves, better their services, and supply extra funds to the larger cooperative for community projects such as the recently [2012] built community health center…

The cooperative services I experienced and learned about in Venezuela were health, dental, food, and a separate example of trash services. A dental cooperative […] provides quality dental services (I know because I used them) almost every day for affordable prices. You don´t have to be a member of the cooperative, and you don´t have to make an appointment. It takes only a couple of hours, and emergency situations are treated with urgency. The health center, built with funds provided by all the associated cooperatives[…], works the same way. Anyone can go there, the services are subsidized by the cooperative so they are affordable, the clinic and workspaces are clean and well taken care of, and the quality of the service is great. Worker-members of the cooperative receive health care at the facility without charge except for the massage and acupuncture services that they also provide at a really low price.

[…] food services are priced to provide more access to food for the community in which it exists. The original and persistent intention is to make the best situation for people on all ends of the process. The producers are part of the cooperative and are part of the group that decides the prices that growers get, as well as the prices that the food is sold for. This means that both farmers and workers at the market decide what to charge a person, which ultimately affects how much money the growers receive, as well as if the food is affordable for the people who need to eat who live in the city. In a normal capitalist market system these parties are separated and put up against each other, raising prices for consumers and lowering them for small producers, excluding those people from getting enough money to afford all the necessities that are typically only provided at a high price.

One communal council, a parallel governing organization of community members linked to investment funds from the national government, in the city of Merida, Venezuela organized themselves to get funds to buy a trash collection truck. The truck at the time was used for a specific waste removal project that removed waste from their community regularly but was not a traditional collection service. However, they did have plans to expand the project to start their own collection service, and this would be provided by the commal council, an anti-capitalist organization which does not require people to pay for the service. Although this is not a “co-operative” as some hardliner co-operative enthusiasts might point out, it is a horizontal anti-capitalist organization widening access of necessary services to the larger community run by community members; following cooperative values of equity, inclusion, and solidarity I believe this to be an example of cooperative economics and action. It appears to me that economic inclusion is much more likely to widen only when those who are being excluded are included in the process of organizing the services and are in control of the economy.“

until the communes, workers cooperatives, and the like are strong enough to rule themselves, having Maduro in power is the only option given to us which doesn’t trigger the control of reactionaries. People make their own history, but not in situations of their choosing - the exact outcome isn’t predetermined, but there’s only a limited number of poles - gravitational attractors - towards which that trajectory is heading at any particular time.

if maduro acts to squash the power of the communes, then thats a different situation. but until that point, we outside of the country must work to center any discussion on these bodies - they are the heart of the country and of whatever social revolution has occurred/is further possible. They are filled with lessons for us to learn from, and show how rich and dynamic the organized populace can be if they are allowed to control their communities. (ex of dealing with gang violence from @ 22:50)

This is all said with recognition that many chavistas have acted against communes, the bureaucratic machine acts to co-opt much of their energy, its linguistically obscured the concept of "ownership” with that of “control”, and that the state has changed its messages over time. But the heart of the communes is what’s a priority, and they have acted against the government overstepping its bounds & mis-identifying them. But whats important is that there’s a feedback process in the gvt to actually allow them to assert their autonomy. Liberals will do their utmost to close those channels.

If Guaido and the Popular Will take control of power, be assured that whatever gains made in organizing the everyday people of Venezuela will be at the top of the chopping block. How effective that suppression turns out to be is undetermined - it might turn out to strengthen the communes, but that outcome would be damage control, not something to try and bullseye.

Effective Propaganda knows that its more effective to control what’s left out than control what’s put in. Keep that in mind, and study trajectories and forces.

other links:

https://next.podbay.fm/podcast/1363342644/e/1551711604

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voc08vh9cJY

https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/21/a-cowboy-in-caracas/

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/the-tragedy-of-venezuela/

https://www.multpl.com/venezuela-gdp

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/04/fivethirtyeights-venezuela-problem

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-venezeulas-middle-class-is-taking-to-the-streets/

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/bjkmq8/fiery-protest-leader-leopoldo-lopez-faces-13-year-sentence-in-venezuela

https://potent.media/minimum-sentencing-for-marijuana-possession

https://www.thoughtco.com/core-and-periphery-1435410

https://popularresistance.org/building-the-commune-radical-democracy-in-venezuela/

http://www.antiwar.com/regions/regions.php?c=Venezuela

#venezuela #reference #imperialism #chavez #maduro #socialism #capitalism #extraction #oil #war #emigrant #communes #cooperatives

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okletsgoalltheway · 2 years

Text

Via Pepe Escobar

EXCLUSIVE

THE COMING ITALIAN DISASTER

From a strategic analysis by an old-school, very well connected Italian intel operative.

“We face an economic crisis of our own making by stupidly projecting ourselves into the Ukraine abyss that is not part of NATO and none of our business.

The situation of Italian agriculture is really unsustainable for many reasons. First of all we are now evolving from a very long period of crisis due to the European rules. These rules made it uneconomic to grow many local crops and products which have been abandoned and we had to start importing from other European countries and countries outside Europe. This is the case with milk, wheat and beef farming. Now, the rising prices of fertilizers, animal feed and fuel is causing the complete collapse of Italian farming. There is no help for them by the government that last week has issued a new financing for the military under orders from imperial Washington, doubling the military budget that we cannot afford.

Goldman Sachs unelected puppet Mario Draghi, who is numero uno in our government, is tired of his job that he is incapable and witless of mastering. He is angling to become the new secretary-general of NATO. Thus he has become a warmonger, sending Italian guns to the Ukraine in abject obedience to the American owners of our country.

A period of grave crisis for Italy is foreseen not only for farmers but also for many companies and small enterprises depending on reasonable prices for fuel, food and related transportation costs. What is stupid is the fact that a large gas field has been discovered in the Adriatic Sea and an oil field in Basilicata (south of Italy) but nothing is being planned for the extraction of these fuels so we will continue to buy our energy at a high price from abroad. LNG is now imported from the USA at more than double the cost of natural gas that was coming from Russia.

In addition to an unelected dictator who comes from the European Central Bank as an agent of the corrupt Goldman Sachs, there is a chamber of property-less and unprofessional parliamentarian parasites who, for fear of going home and no longer earning a very high wage for doing nothing, endorse all of Draghi's decisions that are the opposite of the platforms that these politicians presented to their constituents in their election campaigns.

Unemployment is being predicted to rise to 45% between June and September. The insane sanctions by the corrupt US government are punishing Italy more than Russia. Only a state coup or revolution can resolve this catastrophe. It is possible that a Civil War could start between June and September. What is happening to Germany and Italy is what happened from that corrupt and totally rotten Weimar Republic or the chaos in Italy before Mussolini. We are doomed to see history repeat itself."

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thinktosee · 5 years

Text

JOURNAL TO DAVID – OCT 23, 2018

Dear David, my Son,

Its’s a warm and humid morning. Not exactly my kind of weather. We can certainly do with more rain.

As you know, I don’t seem to have much energy since you left. Sometimes I feel like a total failure, so helpless and hopeless. I just wish I could finish the book about you and get it launched. But I’m so stale. But I must. I must finish what you asked of me. Your Legacy. My mission. In your name.

Yesterday, Oct 22, the Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Morrison apologized to the victims, survivors and families of institutional child abuse. This took place in the Australian Parliament. The apology is national in character. It follows upon the findings of a Royal Commission, which took five years of painstaking work. I wrote about this in your memorial blog, applauding the action of the Australian Government and People. Peace for the victims and their families must be secured. They have suffered. The apology means a lot to them.

Now, if only the totalitarian and authoritarian governments of Asia, Africa and the Middle-East may learn from this. Indonesia needs to apologize for the atrocities of 1965, and for its colonial occupation of East Timor. singapore, for the unconscionable arrests and prolonged incarceration from the 1960s-1980s of opponents of the regime. Philippines, for the on-going extra-judicial murders. China, for the state-sponsored crimes of the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Thailand, for the innumerable military coups which continue to disrupt civil and democratic rule, thereon retaining a feudal structure. Myanmar, for the state-sponsored persecution of an ethnic minority, the Rohinya. Egypt and Arabia for their on-going brutal and oppressive rule. So many bullies in this world, David. Each enriching himself at the expense of the People. Monarchs, dictators, generals, one-party rulers – unelected all. How could they claim to represent the People? Worse still, how could the United Nations recognize them as a legitimate government? Whatever happened to the principles which the U.N. was founded on? :

“DEMOCRACY IS A UNIVERSAL IDEAL AND IS ONE OF THE CORE VALUES AND PRINCIPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS. IT PROVIDES AN ENVIORNMENT FOR THE PROTECTION AND EFFECTIVE REALIZATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS….”

That’s what it says in the UN website. Perhaps we should ask the UN Secretary General? Or maybe the 5 Families? No, David. You know I don’t mean the 5 mafia families of New York who run organized crime in the United States. The UN’s 5 permanent founding members are who I mean – China, Britain, France, Russia and the U.S. What are they doing to ensure every UN member lives up to its principles?

Leadership is sorely absent in this world. The Australians have shown leadership by their national apology. Theirs and perhaps a few others, are an exception. Theirs is an open and democratic system. A system of and by the people.

The world is grappling with two forces – the Realist or Opportunist which characterizes the elites; or the ideals, which come from the heart, which is characterized by the common folk. When a brutal monarch or dictator or general murders a citizen, there is nothing further to understand and appreciate of this brutality. He has wilfully committed the ultimate sin – taking a life. We should not and cannot then say this is excusable since the monarch or dictator or general is our patron, or as some prefer to call, “our son of a bitch.” By this “realist” act, we have become a partner in his evil deeds, we are his enabler. And worse still, we are then amoral realists. I know. I know. The perfectionist in you is going to say, “double emphasis.” Opportunists or realists are amoral!

When governments define the “national interests” within very narrow limits, sustaining a class of opportunists and sycophants, it may then be said that Democracy is being assaulted. The Machiavellian doctrine of the realists, with its numerous practitioners, is everything about preserving and perpetuating the entitlements of their class. They curiously call it meritocracy. You knew of this, my Son.

Monarchs, dictators, one-party rulers (be it fascism, communism or “good government”) have no place in the exercise of Democracy, which takes as its most fundamental principle - the right to Freedom of Speech. Monarchs, dictators, generals, one-party government, are opportunists who perpetuate their rule on the notion of FEAR. And how can fear free us, emancipate us, make us believe in ourself? It can’t! You knew this too. Hence, you told them what you thought of them and their oppressive rule. You were not constrained by fear. The principles you held and your uncompromising belief in the sacred rights of the individual, in yourself really, guided you throughout. These are lessons I have since learned from you.

My life has always been dedicated in love and service to Sara and you. It shall always be. As I go forth in pursuance of this, a Life in service of a LIFE, I am comforted by the knowledge that through this, LIFE becomes immortal. You are immortal, David. And so, shall I be.

I love you, my Son. Always.

- daddy

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megashadowdragon · 3 years

Video

youtube

the world is in crisis

comments on youtube:

Rigged dnc for Hilary Rigged dnc for Biden 2020 presidential election: no way it's rigged. You're crazy for suggesting it. Now go take your vaccine!Read more

You could get a thousand ballot harvesters with thousands of illicit votes in all 50 states and the left would still claim it's not widespread or could effect the outcome. (Therefore it's okay)

Corruption all across the world. None here though. Absolutely not. Couldn't happen... Unless someone that isnt a Dem won.

The John Radcliffe report is completely horrifying and our worst nightmare. And nothing is going to be done about it. Everything that they’ve been doing with these tyrannical lock downs and printing money to destroy the value of the dollar/Fiat currency I believe is literally at the behest of China. With a Biden presidency, the country is truly lost forever.

What angers me is that Georgia hasn't even questioned Ruby Freeman or her daughter Shay Moss. They were asked in 2 separate senate inquiries and replied that they have not even looked in to any video evidence of these 2 ladies.

The capitol riot was led at least in part by BLM activists. Secondly, that riot does not magically mean it's right to not stand up against voter fraud. That makes no sense

Election integrity doesn’t matter to them. If it did those basic security measure would’ve already been implemented and the courts would’ve taken steps to settle the election fraud accusations whichever way they ruled.

The so called attack on the capital was a false flag operation to obstruct the process and prevent the proof of election fraud from being presented to the public

Having national voting laws for a national election. You'd think the usa would have done this before Obama but we can't just demand something we have to incentives

MSM: Noooo Fraud stop saying there was voter fraud.

MSM individual arrested for fraud

People on the Right: Yeah we have been saying it.

People on the left: Those people are working for the Republicans!!! (Actually saw a post like this on the Veritas video)

Me: Wait now you believe it is the right that cheated, and you didn't want to investigate?

Virginia had two special elections on January 8th. I was a pole watcher at a precinct, but was kept 15 feet away from voters checking in "due to covid restrictions" even though everyone was wearing a face mask. But i was unable to verify voters against the registered voters at the presinct due to noise and distance. This is garbage. We need to be able to ensure election integrity.

There needs to be also cameras and audio so you can hear everything and watch everything that's going on during voting and during counting so there cannot be any sneaking lying manipulating or bamboozling stealing or any fraud going on Democrats : yeah election frauds happened but its not enough to change the outcome! Also Democrats : but we still did it anyway! Big PP energy Common sense would dictate that if its never enough to change the outcome you wouldn't have done it since it'd be pointless. Therefore, it must have been significant to affect the outcome that would be why you spent millions to enact the ballot harvesting, wouldn't it?Show less Nice, so that means that there could be two Libertarian poll watchers in addition to the Republicans and the Democrats if that passed!

We can probably thank President Trump for all the resignations. I believe he is doing what he can before the 20th. American intelligence knows all these international movers and shakers. President Trump is probably working behind the scenes to pressure them out before the usurper Biden can use them.

Dark days ahead for America an she gets sullied with the first truly illegitimate unelected president

#adamcast #election fraud #voter fraud

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theliterateape · 3 years

Text

Grappling with Postmodernism in a Post-Trump America

by Don Hall

“...modernism is the assertion that truth can be known definitively. Postmodernism is the assertion that truth can never be known definitively; it can only be guessed at and approximated, at best.” - Mark Manson

Remember, back in the good old days before the country elected the most improbably unelectable bully with the propensity to lie about, well, fucking everything, when Stephen Colbert made the satirical argument about “truthiness”? How we all laughed?

Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.

At the time this was Colbert’s comic take on postmodernism. It is now not quite so funny because those on the fringes of our body politic are full-on postmodernists without the wink of isn’t this kind of ridiculous?

The entire Trump strategy of contesting the election is postmodernist. “We believe there was voter fraud so it must be there.” Never mind a lack of evidence. That predisposed intuition is enough to launch investigations and lawsuits and, whether any evidence is found, the gut assertion will be embedded.

Modernism came around during the Enlightenment. Modernists argued that our understanding of reality could be improved upon through experimentation, observation, and reason. It arose as a response to the superstitions and control of the Church and placed science and quantifiable data as a replacement for faith.

Postmodernism was faith fighting back. Absent of a tether to a god or religious dogma, it simply posited that nothing was really true and that science is merely a tool for subjective focus. Tear down science and collected data and all you have left is faith.

The 75 million plus who voted Blue in this election are socialist.

The 71 million plus who voted Red in this election are racist.

Joe Biden is a Trojan horse for the Extreme Left.

Donald Trump was a dictator.

Zoomers just live in their parents’ basements and loot at any chance.

Boomers are greedy, angry supporters of caging immigrant children.

All white people are racist.

All black people are violent.

All men are fundamentally misogynist.

All women are fundamentally misandrist.

Twitter is an accurate reflection of the vast plurality of opinions.

None of these statements is rooted in fact. All smack of ‘truthiness.’

The #NotAll_____ responses to postmodern hashtags are not an agreement to the contrary but a another way of saying Generalizations are mostly bullshit.

In a recent Literate ApeCast, with guest Peter Kremidas, the question was whether or not politics are fundamentally emotional. Of course, I argued that it should not be but failed to recognize that, in a postmodernist view, politics has to be based upon emotion and lived experience. In a postmodernist worldview, emotion and political activism are irrevocably intertwined.

Donald Trump should’ve been repudiated but he most certainly was not. He lost the election but by a slim margin (four million votes equals a whopping 1.25% of the population which ain’t much no matter how you slice it and definitely not a repudiation). Trumpism is still alive and well and the only aspect of our cultural and political climate equal in postmodern practice to that is the Woke Cult. Both truck in ‘lived experience,’ anecdotal evidence over data, and a belief that their belief is enough to be their truth as opposed to the truth.

Both rely almost entirely in suspension of rationality for the raw emotion so easily fooled.

“Stop the count except for the states I’m ahead in” is only slightly different logic than “White people who deny their racism are too fragile to acknowledge it.”

Sure, social media has exacerbated this postmodern truthiness but we’re mostly grown ass adults and are wholly responsible for our own perspectives.

I remember in the early days of the pandemic (what was that — last week?) when those predisposed to believe the whole thing was a hoax and eagerly lapping up the cat vomit of faux scientists claiming it to be so. When asked why I thought it was real, I always answered exactly the same way: “I listen to the consensus of credible scientists on the matter. That consensus of credible scientists indicates the pandemic is real and will have real consequences should we ignore it.”

I think, after staring in awe at what I used to label mouthbreathing stupidity, I understand the rise of this adherence to postmodern thought: it feels like religion without a deity. One can feel virtuous, understood, and supported by a community of like-minded believers by buying into the self affirmation that one need not listen to expertise but ‘go with your gut’ and let the chips fall.

The postmodernist wants to believe that a Trump voter is racist and sexist. A modernist looks at the data, sees that prior to the 2016 election four million manufacturing jobs were eliminated in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan to be replaced by industrial automation. And those voters cast their ballots for the candidate who want to “Make America Great” rather than the one who told them “America is already great.”

A postmodernist boils whole systems and groups into easily digestible categories. A modernist understands how complicated people are and does some research to find context. Context is the garlic to the postmodernist vampire.

I know our education system needs attention and so many of us are reticent to do any sort of homework but in a media landscape where one can type in “Weight Loss Techniques” into a search field and receive hundreds of thousands of conflicting, contradictory ideas, maybe some homework is exactly what is necessary.

A couple of rules of thumb I’ve learned to follow in the past four or five years:

If I read it on social media, best to assume it’s bullshit.

If the belief is not backed up by data, it’s bullshit.

If a politician says it without supporting evidence, it’s bullshit.

If it’s full of ‘buzzwords’ (intersectionality, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, TERF, fragility), it’s bullshit.

Anything boiled down to a hashtag carries sacks of bullshit in it’s wake.

Example: This week Secretary of State Pompeo was asked about the transition from Trump to Biden. His exact words were:

‘There Will Be a Smooth Transition…to a Second Trump Administration’

Of course, the media went apeshit. It was another example of corruption, of evil, of obstruction. So I went and watched the video. He was obviously making a joke. Not a great joke given the circumstances but it’s very apparent his comment was tongue-in-cheek.

I’m a modernist. Why not join me and stop being lead by your emotional need for faith? To grapple with postmodernism one must acknowledge what a crock of bullshit it is and then recognize the signs that you are following that perspective like the lunatic fringe.

Then do some fucking research. Christ, we have the most sophisticated information technology in history, so you have no excuse.

#modern vs postmodern #postmodernist thought is trumpism #culture of postmodern information

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rulystuff · 4 years

Text

https://servicemeltdown.com/who-amongst-us-will-stand-on-the-tower/

New Post has been published on https://servicemeltdown.com/who-amongst-us-will-stand-on-the-tower/

WHO AMONGST US WILL STAND ON THE TOWER?

In ancient times, watchmen would stand on a tall stone tower always vigilant to the potential of an approaching danger. The role of the watchman, particularly at harvest time, was important to the survival of a community in agrarian societies. The watchman, in effect an early warning system, was called upon to sound an alarm which could prove crucial in thwarting an attack both from ravenous animals and from malefactors who would rather make off with a neighbor farmer’s fruits and vegetables than to labor and toil in their own fields. In times of war, the role of the watchman was critical in spying potential enemy threats to a town: if a threat appeared, the watchman would blow his horn and the townspeople would rally and prepare for battle.

In Scripture, the symbolism of the watchman is profound. No less a figure than the 8th century B.C. prophet Isaiah – who prophesied the birth of Christ in Isaiah 7:14 – conveys God’s message to us, “I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest,” Isaiah 62:6. In 21st century America we all have a moral duty to serve as watchmen as the nation is presently besieged by enemy forces both foreign and domestic.

GLOBALIZATION: AN ANTI-DEMOCRATIC NIGHTMARE

The current demagoguery in the hands of globalists takes the ugly form that a citizen who believes in national borders and national priorities cannot be a good citizen – that he is a fascist some claim. We need to be reminded that the American revolution was a nationalist uprising which few would call fascist. The current sophistry in the hands of globalists belies that a citizen who is devoted to his homeland and who places the interests of his nation-state as the top priority can exist, at the same time, with a world view that is tolerant and respectful of those beyond his borders. Furthermore, to be respectful of global interests is not to suggest that those who can afford it should be forced to open their pocketbooks to fix all of the world’s ills. That suggestion is impudent and a sleight-of-hand by globalists whose own personal agendas for control stand to be upended by the rights and privileges of sovereign states. Simply stated, globalism is imperialism in sheep’s clothing. What other conclusion is there to be had when an international organization made up of unelected bureaucrats imposes its will on the citizens of member nations? That supranational organizations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Health Organization are anti-democratic is a statement of fact and not of ideology. The globalization conceit held by leaders in and out of government around the world and in the United States should sound an alarm to those who believe in the sanctity of democratic processes. Put simply, globalization and democracy are hardly fraternal twins. Globalists believe that globalization’s ugly side, lower wages, lost jobs, shuttered factories or devastated communities is the result of there not being enough global governance to channel all of the good that derives from globalization. And besides, globalists say, any discomfort is strictly temporary. As Mr. Pascal Lamy, former Director of the World Trade Organization said in a recent address, “The future lies with more globalization, not less…”

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM IS A TARGET FOR HOSTILE NATIONS

We have witnessed the onslaught visited upon our shores by the Chinese Communist Virus which at last count had extinguished the lives of two-hundred thousand innocent Americans and for which China takes no responsibility despite having its fingerprints all over the heinous act. Meanwhile, China’s propaganda machine is working full-throttle in our schools and universities. Over one hundred Confucius Institutes – incongruously named as Confucius was a man who preached humaneness – are now operating in our country for the ostensible purpose of disseminating Chinese language, history, and cultural instruction. Colleges have taken in huge sums of money over the years from the Communist regime with the proviso that all discussion and instruction toe the Chinese propaganda line. In the end, that means subjects like the human right abuses of over a million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, or the independence of Taiwan and Tibet are off limits. Only recently did the State Department deem the Institutes propaganda missions which means they will have to adhere to the same restrictions as diplomatic embassies. This action by the United States is welcome news but comes rather belatedly given that Li Changchun, a member of the Politburo, said back in 2009 that the Institutes “are an important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up.” On the commercial front, China purloins roughly $225 billion, at the low end and as much as $600 billion at the high end, annually in counterfeit goods, pirated software, and theft of trade secrets from the United States. Militarily, America faces a serious threat in the South China Sea where it is being challenged by a territorially aggressive and technologically advanced Chinese Navy. Rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran pose further threats to peace and prosperity led as those regimes are by unbalanced tyrannical dictators.

AMERICA’S DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND BELIEFS ARE UNDER ATTACK FROM WITHIN

The nation has literally been set ablaze by malcontents who would rather settle their philosophical differences not with ballots but with bullets. On the whole, this is the most insidious threat to the democratic ideals of our nation as these forces amount to a fifth-column enemy which has infiltrated our schools, our courts, our churches, all manner of political institutions, and the media. The cultural relativism which now pervades our institutions suggests that no ethical or moral value is superior to any other and so as we see in our contemporary society anything goes:

The teaching of history, language, law, culture and science particularly in the early school grades is now subject to disinformation, myth, and propaganda like never before courtesy of the “knowledge elites” with their own less than charitable axes to grind.

The muzzling both figuratively as well as physically of opposing points of view via the corrosive and regressive practice of “cancel culture” on college campuses renders those institutions little more than very expensive echo chambers.

Looting and rioting is now seen by members of fringe groups such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa as a legitimate compensatory action to right perceived civil wrongs. Sadly, many local political leaders across the nation are either in league with the rioters or choose to look the other way.

Judicial activism which compels judges who feel it their duty to go beyond the law as written and to interpret it as they see fit countermands the judgment of elected legislators and sets up the courts as super-legislatures.

Sermonizing by certain church fathers on the ills of “white privilege,” wealth, and physical fences while abrogating their responsibility to convey the church’s catechism to their flocks does serious disservice to parishioners seeking spiritual and not political guidance.

Proselytizing by political leaders on the Left that Socialism is in the best interest of the nation. These same demagogues, of course, fail to mention that the socialist experiment has only led to environmental despoliation, starvation, the demise of entrepreneurial initiative, and the spread of a welfare mentality. Rest assured, proponents of Socialism are not able to cite one historical antecedent where the egoism and presumed “wisdom” of central know-it-alls were an able substitute for the actions of countless sovereign consumers and producers operating in a free-market society.

The societal maelstrom, if not gradual dissolution, we are experiencing in our nation is fueled first and foremost by media elites who have the power and the means to filter information and package it so that it satisfies their agenda objectives without regards to the truth or fact. The mainstream media monopolies in Los Angeles, New York and Washington set the table for what most unwary Americans consume as unvarnished factual “information.” Not to be outdone, the oligarchs who control social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google choose what content and what voices they will police so long as they are in keeping with their own preferences and biases.

WE MUST ALL BECOME WATCHMEN ON THE TOWER

The defense of America comes easily to those who are united by the uniquely American principles of liberty, democracy, equality of opportunity, the rule of law, individual choice, and the sanctity of private property. Citizens who fail to grasp these “self-evident” truths owe it to themselves to undertake self-study, if not self-examination, to reaffirm that the American Dream is indeed not a slogan but a unique experiment that can only be realized in our great nation. Now, more than at any other time in our history, Americans need to hone their critical thinking skills so as to question the sources, facts, data, and research thrown at them for the explicit purpose of besmirching the American Dream.

The assaults which threaten the constitutional, cultural, and democratic fabric of America demand that we as citizens stand watch day and night. We must all stand tall on the watch tower and sound the horn so as to rally our fellow citizens as we prepare for battle.

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khalilhumam · 4 years

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Sudan uprising: Sweeping reforms usher in justice and freedom

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/sudan-uprising-sweeping-reforms-usher-in-justice-and-freedom/

Sudan uprising: Sweeping reforms usher in justice and freedom

Laws were passed, however, without input from citizens

Sunset in Khartoum, Sudan, January 29, 2017. Photo by Christopher Michel via Flickr CC BY 2.0.

Sweeping reforms in Sudan are ushering in a new era of justice and freedom.

On July 9, Minister of Justice Nasredeen Abdulbari declared on Twitter that four new laws were approved by the president of the sovereign council. These reforms restore fundamental rights and freedoms long repressed by the former regime under dictator Omar Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years.

لقد تم التوقيع على قانون مفوضية إصلاح المنظومة الحقوقية والعدلية لسنة 2020، وقانون التعديلات المتنوعة (الحقوق والحريات الأساسية) لسنة 2020، وقانون مكافحة جرائم المعلوماتية (تعديل) لسنة 2020، والقانون الجنائي (تعديل) لسنة 2020.

— Nasredeen Abdulbari (@nasabdulbari) July 9, 2020

The Human Rights and Justice System Reform Commission Act 2020 has been signed, the Miscellaneous Amendments (Fundamental Rights and Freedoms) Act 2020, the Anti-Informatics Crime (Amendment) Act 2020 and the Criminal Code (Amendment) 2020.

These laws show the identity of a new Sudan that recognizes rights, diversity, freedom of belief and expression. In a Twitter thread, Abdulbari wrote:

المفوضية المؤسسة بموجب القانون المجاز سوف تقود عملية شاملة وعميقة لإصلاح المنظومة الحقوقية والعدلية، التي تعرضت خلال سنوات النظام المباد العجاف لخراب لم يسبق له مثيل في تاريخ السودان. — Nasredeen Abdulbari (@nasabdulbari) July 9, 2020

The commission established under the law passed will lead a comprehensive and profound process of reforming the human rights and justice system, which during the years of the regime has experienced ruin — an unprecedented devastation in the history of Sudan.

أما قانون التعديلات المتنوعة فيُجري إصلاحات في قوانين متعددة لجعلها متسقة مع مبادئ حقوق الإنسان وحرياته الأساسية الواردة في الوثيقة الدستورية، وهو بذلك يمثل خطوة كبيرة نحو تحقيق ركن من أركان شعار ثورة ديسمبر الظافرة، ألا وهو الحرية. — Nasredeen Abdulbari (@nasabdulbari) July 9, 2020

As for the law of various amendments, it undertakes reforms in multiple laws to bring them in line with the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms contained in the constitutional document, and thus represents a major step towards achieving one of the pillars of the victorious slogan of the December revolution, which is freedom.

Feminism victory

The Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Act is a victory for feminism in Sudan because it guarantees freedom of travel for women.

Under the Bashir regime, women could not travel without explicit permission from either a father or husband (if married). Mothers can now travel with their children without permission from the children’s father. In the past, these restrictions were especially disastrous for divorced families that often led to arguments. Women had to go to court simply to secure permission to travel alone with their children.

Also, under the new Criminal Law, Sudan will criminalize female circumcision, an act that was not recognized as a crime under the Bashir regime.

For the first time in Sudanese history, a woman — Nimat Abdullah Khair — holds the position of chief justice. One netizen cheered:

مبروك ( للامراه السودانيه)الإنجاز العظيم اللي حصل اليوم بتعديل قوانين مجحفه في حق المراه زي حرمانها مع السفر بالأطفال الا بموافقه؛ وإيجاز قانون تجريم ختان الإناث لا تعيشي مقهوره لا مكسوره

واكيد دي بدايه لمشوار طويل في حمايه حقوق المراه والطفل في السودان ً

— Roaarabi (@Roaarabi2) July 10, 2020

Congratulations [for Sudanese women], the great achievement that took place today by amending unfair laws regarding the right of women to deprive them while traveling with children without their consent; Briefing the law criminalizing female circumcision. [Live without oppression or break] “Sudanese feminist's slogan.” And this is the beginning of a long journey in protecting the rights of women and children in Sudan.

Fundamental rights

In Sudan, more than 95 percent of Sudanese people are Muslim. Under the Bashir regime, citizens strictly adhered to the Sharia laws of Islam. The recent amendments have guaranteed justice to non-Muslim minorities.

For example, under Bashir, alcohol was banned because it is not permitted in Islam. Under the new Criminal Law, the alcohol ban has been amended to guarantee the freedom of non-Muslims to live their lives without being held accountable to Sharia laws.

These reforms also guarantee freedom of belief — the punishment for apostasy has been lifted. Before these reforms, the authority gave anyone who denounced Islam a period of three days to review the decision and face death if they did not retract the denouncement.

Now, all Sudanese citizens have the right to choose their religion or belief without fear of punishment.

The Criminal Code has also been amended. The death penalty has been abolished for those under the age of 18 and over 70.

Sudan reacts

The amendments received support from several high-profile government officials, such as Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who wrote on Twitter:

إجازة وتمرير هذه القوانين والتعديلات الجديدة هي خطوة هامة في طريق إصلاح المنظومة العدلية من أجل تحقيق شعار الثورة: حرية سلام وعدالة، عبر قوانين ومؤسسات عدلية تضمن سيادة حكم القانون، ستستمر المراجعات والتعديلات القانونية حتى نكمل معالجة كافة التشوهات في النظم القانونية في السودان. https://t.co/vkHvcsZM4m

— Abdalla Hamdok (@SudanPMHamdok) July 10, 2020

The passing of these new laws and amendments is an important step in reforming the justice system in order to achieve the slogan of the revolution: freedom, peace and justice, through judicial laws and institutions guaranteeing the rule of law, legal reviews and amendments will continue until we continue to address all distortions in the legal systems in Sudan.

However, Abdulhai Yousif, a well-known, devout Islamic cleric with over 75,000 followers, denounced the reforms, calling them a “war against virtue, and an [act of] aggression against the nation:”

1/ صدور التعديلات على القانون الجنائي يؤكد لكل منصف ما قاله الحادبون من وقت بعيد أن هذه الحكومة جاءت حرباً على الفضيلة، وعدواناً على دين الأمة وهويتها — د. عبد الحي يوسف (@Dr_AbdHayYousif) July 12, 2020

The issuance of amendments to the criminal law confirms to everyone what long-time adherents of religion said — that this government came as a war against virtue, and an aggression against the nation’s religion and identity.

And some people created hashtag #لا_تشريع_بلا_تفويض which means “No legislation without a mandate.”

Currently, Sudan does not have a legislative council or “parliament,” pending peace talks that must establish full and fair representation for conflict zones under the parliament dome. The 2019 transitional constitution of Sudan known as “the constitutional document” gave the joint meeting of the Sovereign Council and the Cabinet the right to create new legislation.

However, citizens say these sweeping reforms are undemocratic because any new legislation should happen through the consideration of citizens’ opinions.

Bakr Elterify cautioned:

https://t.co/bAOiLTGjG0 في ناس ما مستوعبين الكارثة. دي ديكتاتورية بالمناسبة حتى لو القوانين سمحة و ظريفة في نظر البعض! القوانين تجاز عبر البرلمان أو المجلس التشريعي منتخب لأنه بمثل رأي غالبية الشعب المفروض لو اتعمل بطريقة سليمة. #لا_تشريع_بلا_تفويض

— Bakr Elterify (PL Champions

) (@bakr_elterify) July 11, 2020

Some people do not understand the catastrophe, it is a dictatorship by the way, even if the laws are good.

And Aabid lamented the way these laws were formed:

قوانين تمرردون إتاحةمسوداتها للنقاش المجتمعي و تعرض على هيئةتشريعيةمعيبة مصممة لتفصيل القوانين بما يتلائم مع مصالح ورغبات شركاء الحكم الغيرمنتخبين في ظل تأخير (متعمد) لتشكيل أى جسم تشريعي رقابي فاعل. هذه طريقة الفرمانات و ليست طريقة تشريع قوانين.#السودان #لا_تشريع_بلا_تفويض https://t.co/eK8G97iqqw — Aabid (@Aabid_C) July 11, 2020

Laws passed without making their drafts available for societal discussion and presented to a defective legislative body designed to tailor laws to suit the interests and desires of unelected governing partners in light of deliberate delay to form any effective regulatory body of oversight. This is the method of dictatorship and not a method of legislating laws.

< p class="p1">Sudan's transitional government faces threats of counterrevolution due to economic instability and needs international support at this critical time, but these reforms show the government's willingness to build a new Sudan where freedom, peace and justice thrive.

Written by Khattab Hamad · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

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theteenagetrickster · 4 years

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Day 11: Technocracy And The Rise Of Techno-populism

By Patrick Wood

If you want to start an argument in a room full of political scientists, just ask what they think about Populism. This is a vague term that means something to everyone and nothing to no one.

In the simplest sense, Populism is a movement of ordinary citizens against the elite whom they perceive are wrongly ruling over them. The problem is that it doesn’t matter if the movement is left, right or centrist.

President Donald Trump is said to be riding the wave of Populism because he is perceived to be against the so-called “Deep State” of elites who have a stranglehold on the U.S. political system.

The recently deposed communist leader of Bolivia, Evo Morales, was said to have led a populist movement when he originally rose to power. Alas, things changed when a new and more right-leaning populist movement rose up to throw him out.

The sobering reality about all populist movements is that none of them actually know how to run a country. They know what they don’t like but they have no practical policies that would fix things. Often, a populist group will focus on a single issue or narrow group of issues that have become important to it for any number of reasons, but when they are asked about broader policies to run the entire nation, the discussion falls apart.

The Technocrat Appeal

Typically, Technocrats are viewed as polar opposite to populists, and for good reason. Technocrats are often unelected and unaccountable for their actions, and they make important decisions without any connection to the will of the people.

Nevertheless, Technocrats know how to get things done and make things work. This is the exact point where populists and Technocrats find common ground, giving rise to a new term called “Techno-populism”, or a blending of Populism with Technocracy.

Techno-populism has a broad meaning, as does Populism. Even Wikipedia notes that “[t]he diverse range of movements along the political spectrum indicates that techno-populism can be used as a tool by any ideology that presents itself as a party for the people.” The modern use of the term was popularized just after the 2008 financial meltdown.

Dubbing this trend Techno-populism is very accurate because it describes much of what is happening in the Western world today. President Trump was elected on a populist surge but promotes Technocrats to actually make things run. The military, for instance, is full of Technocrats who prosecute armed conflicts. The Internet of Things and 5G are being promoted from the top down. Technocrat influence is likewise seen in the departments of Energy, Transportation, Homeland Security, Environmental Protection and Education. In fact, it was data-minded Technocrats who manipulated both social and traditional media to make the election possible in the first place.

In Europe, three instances of Techno-populism have been identified by political scientists: the Five Star Movement in Italy, Podemos in Spain, and the Pirate Party in Iceland. England’s BREXIT movement is very close to such a declaration.

Even the elitist London School of Economics blog recognizes Techno-populism:

The Five Star Movement and Lega’s nomination of Italian law professor Giuseppe Conte as the next Prime Minister of Italy presents a puzzle: why would an apparently ‘populist’ government nominate a Prime Minister who fits the mould of a technocrat? writes that given the Five Star Movement’s history, we should not be surprised at the nomination of Conte. The party stands for a curious blend of technocracy and populism, and is representative of a new type of ‘techno-populist’ party that is emerging elsewhere across Europe.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was seated as President in 1933, he was challenged by the early Technocrat leaders to declare himself dictator in order to implement Technocracy. He refused the “offer” but had no problem admitting scores of Technocrats into his administration to run the country.

In Nazi Germany, Hitler outlawed the Technocracy, Inc. movement because he could tolerate no competition, but then he relied heavily upon Technocrats to build his Fourth Reich.

At the end of WWII, President Truman authorized top-secret Operation Paperclip to bring some 1,600 Technocrat scientists and engineers from Nazi Germany to America and place them in top positions within our own government. Of special note were rocket scientists and aerospace engineers.

The only valid observation here is that Technocrats are always in demand by political leaders, who have no reservation about using them to further political objectives. Political administrations come and go, but the underlying Technocrats continue on uninterrupted.

In today’s world, the curious attraction between Populists and Technocrats is akin to a moth being attracted to the flame: Populists cannot prevent being ultimately dominated and burned by Technocrats.

You can read more from Patrick Wood at his site Technocracy News & Trends, where this article first appeared.

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Day 11: Technocracy And The Rise Of Techno-populism

This content was originally published here.

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omfgtrump · 5 years

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It’s All Deception

To hear people speak about the “I” word like it’s a hand-wringing experience boils the blood. The idea that this is a painful thing for the nation is laughable. What’s painful for this nation is The Don, a president, who at every turn defiles the office, using it to enrich himself, and sow division through white supremacist rhetoric.

The Don is the laughing stock of the world and his actions have mitigated America’s standing; his love for dictators and denigration of our allies has made the world a more dangerous place.

His attacks on the media, courts, and the rule of law are odious and threaten the very foundation our democracy is built on. As some have said: his presidency is an existential threat to our constitution.

He has committed tax and insurance fraud and money laundered.

He has already been named as a co-conspirator in violating campaign finance laws by paying off two women; his partner in crime, Michael Cohen, is already serving prison time.

Everyday he and his family members are making money on the presidency in violation of the Emolument’s clause.

So please let’s dispense with the crocodile tears that the “I” word is traumatic for our country. Trauma is what we are experiencing every day during his tenure as president.

Before I rejoice too much in the impending execution of the “I” word, let’s mention some other “I” words that define The Don, that as an ensemble, make the ultimate “I” word imminent.

Incompetent. Ignorant. Ignoramus. Insufficient. Ignoble. Imperious. Invalid. Immoral (though I prefer amoral for The Don and immoral for his Republican cronies!) Imperialist. Inciter. Inept (oh, I said incompetent already.) Imbecilic. Incarcerated (Let’s hope!) Invidious. Indolent. (After golf today I am just watching TV until I go to sleep.). Illicit.

And that brings me to the sum of all the above: Impeachment!

Like with Nixon, we now have a smoking gun. If you recall, it was the turning over of the missing part of the tape, in which Nixon admits his actions, that turned public opinion and forced Republican members to support a conviction. To avoid that humiliating process Nixon resigned in infamy. Only time will tell whether the immoral, please don’t tweet about me Mr. President Republicans, will find a way out of their perverse loyalty to The Don.

Let’s start with a damning part of the whistler blower statement:

“In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. government officials that the president of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election,” the whistle-blower wrote. “This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the president’s main domestic political rivals. The president’s personal lawyer, Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort. Attorney General Barr appears to be involved as well.”

After all that has transpired it is The Don’s grandiose “shake down man” mentality that has brought him to this moment. The Don has lived by the credo: even if I do something wrong and I get caught, there will never be any consequences.

Let’s imagine The Don’s conversation with the President of the Ukraine.

The Don: “Hey buddy, if you want me to deliver the goods, I got a favor I wanna ask you. I want you to do some digging on Sloppy Joe and his son Hunter.”

Ukrainian President: “Mr. President, the Ukrainians do not want to get involved in your politics.”

The Don: “I got something you want and you can get something I need. That’s how the world works, Zelly.”

Ukrainian President: “If we don’t get the stuff you already promised us, the Russians are emboldened.”

The Don: “Not my problem, Zelly. Think it over. I’m sure you and Putin will work it out.”

So, have we arrived at the “smoking gun” moment?

Not according to Fox News and Republican sycophants.

Here’s number one ass-licker Lindsey Graham:

“As to the whistle-blower complaint — the transcript speaks for itself — no quid-pro-quo. The Democrats bought a pig in a poke.” (As far as I am concerned, the only pig that needs a poke is Lindsey Graham.)

Here’s number two ass licker, Devin Nunes:

“Once again, the Democrats, their media mouthpieces and a cabal of leakers are ginning up a fake story, with no regard to the monumental damage they’re causing. ”

Number one Xenophobe and serial killer Stephen Miller:

According to Miller the whistle-blower is a “deep-state operative” who is part of a cabal of “unelected bureaucrats who think they need to take down this president.”

“Mr. Trump was the one searching for wrongdoing by pursuing corruption allegations against Mr. Biden and Democrats. “The president is the whistle-blower here. And this individual is a saboteur trying to undermine a democratically elected government.”

And how about his media buddies on Fox News?

Here’s Sean Hannity:

“The radical, destructive, delusional Democratic Party and the media mob, their allies in crime, which has now descended into complete and utter madness.”

Mark Levin, who has a Fox News show and also a radio host:

“There’s a lot of disinformation and misinformation,” he warned. “I’m here to help us walk through this and defend this nation against a tyranny in our midst.”

“Democrats and the mainstream media had created an “unreality” that was designed to humiliate the president, to try and dispirit you, and to drag down his poll numbers and defeat him.”

Rush Limbaugh:

“Everything you’re seeing is deception.”

And now for The Don himself:

“What you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening,” “stick with us, and don’t believe what “you see from these people, the fake news.”

At the U.N., The Don went all dignified.

“These animals in the press. They’re animals actually. Some of the worst human beings you’ll ever meet. They’re scum, many of them are scum.”

And here he is again, impressing world leaders:

“I didn’t do anything. I don’t know if I’m the most innocent person in the world. I just said I’m the most presidential except for possibly Abe Lincoln when he wore the hat — that was tough to beat. Honest Abe, when he wore that hat, that was tough to beat. But I can’t do that, that hat wouldn’t work for me. Yeah, I have better hair than him.”

The startling thing about that statement is he actually suggested that it was possible that someone besides him was “most presidential.” Well, not really, as it is all about the hat. Take off Lincoln’s hat and go head to head on the hair and Lincoln fades to distant second.

I heard a rumor the U.N. General Assembly was trying to pass a resolution that gave each country the right to vote on impeaching The Don.

I wonder what it would sound like for almost all the countries in the world to yell: “Impeach, Impeach!” in hundreds of languages at the same time. I just hope Republican senators can stand up on the Senate floor and say it in English!

Up next: Rudy G., Mike Pompous and William, Lower the Barr, get their day in court!

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okletsgoalltheway · 2 years

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20 years ago Bush Jr made a speech saying, "You're either with us or with the terrorists". It was a trick question. Bush and friends actually were "the terrorists". But 20 years on we can ask this kind of question again, this time more truthfully. "Are you with the terrorists or against them?". The truckers are not "the terrorists". The people pushing a global agenda with C*vid are. And people have to decide whose side they are on:

ARE YOU WITH SCIENCE?

Science does not censor, hide data, avoid debate, or make itself unaccountable. The media has vigorously smeared all alternative medical treatments to C*vid that are not va**ines. Government and medical bureaucracy has pushed the firing of people who provide expert opinions that do not match their va**ination-of-all mandates. Pfizer has been outed by the British Medical Journal for unethically doing its va**ine safety research. The FDA is seeking to hide the trial data that it based its approval on for 55 years. Pfizer has signed deals globally that have made it unaccountable for incompetence or for providing dangerous products to the public. Are you with science or organized crime?

ARE YOU WITH HUMAN RIGHTS?

In Canada we have long had a right to medical privacy. We have had a right to INFORMED medical treatment without coercion. The public is being provided with no information on va**ine risk, when a multitude of sources show it to be unsafe. Firing people or kicking them out of university for not taking a va**ine is coercion. Canadians have rights to freedom of worship and assembly, freedom to travel, both taken away. All these rights are being systematically changed to PRIVILEGES with a global electronic infrastructure for enforcing them. Are you with long-held Canadian human rights, or totalitarian tyranny?

ARE YOU WITH PUBLIC HEALTH?

Public health is about everyone, not shunting non-C*vid people to the end of a long line waiting for treatment. Public health does everything it can to protect health, including early treatment. Do people know that a simple nasal spray can make early C*vid viral load less and the C*vid less deadly? Do people know that adequate vitamin D levels are proven to make a huge difference to medical outcomes? Do people know that there are several low cost anti-viral treatments proven to have success with C*vid? Do people know that the va**inated catch and spread the virus, but are being unrestricted, while people who have recovered from C*vid who pose no risk of spread are being fired?

ARE YOU WITH RESPONSIBLE DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT?

Since the pandemic began, governments have been ruling largely by dictate and without accountability to democratic representatives. And strangely enough, the totally unaccountable and unelected World Economic Forum, which charges tens of thousands of dollars to just attend one of its events, has been at the forefront of telling our politicians and bureaucrats globally what to do, in the absence of democracy. Governments have seemingly unlimited budgets to waste on the C*vid agenda. Vast sums have been squandered while the number of homeless increase, the number of addicted and dying from overdoses increases, and while the ability of governments to pay pensions and provide social programs in the future is coming into question. It is a serious question as to whether governments like the Canadian government are pushing for their own economic and political vulnerability due to purposely high debt? Are you with accountable government working for all issues for all people, or are you with a global power grab C*vid agenda coming from the scheming, elitist World Economic Forum?

ARE YOU ON THE SIDE OF CHILDREN?

It has been conclusively shown from the statistics, that the virus is no danger to any child not already suffering from severe health issues. And studies have also shown that teachers are at no special health threat from being surrounded by students. Children have been aggressively bullied and turned into fearful and shamed victims by this pandemic. They have been blocked from playing and associating with friends. They have been muzzled at schools with masks that could be breeding respiratory disease and even damaging their brains from lack of oxygen. They have been told that they are potentially diseased and a threat to others. This is all psychological abuse. Are you with children or against them?

I am for an end of all mandates, removal of anyone associated with the World Economic Forum from government and bureaucracy, and I am for a counter-attack on the obscene wealth and power that allowed western democracy and media to be hijacked the last two years by conspiring billionaires.

If people are to act globally, they must act globally to ban all tax havens and offshore money-hiding trusts. They must act globally to tax the most wealthy AND THEIR "PHILANTHROPIC TRUSTS" at a high rate, if only to keep the obscene and dangerous power that this wealth represents in check. I am for investigation and prosecution of all those involved in creating this virus in a lab (yes, it did come from a lab and we know who did it). I am for seizure of profits of major corporations involved in what has been a criminal undertaking with C*vid. I am for prosecution for treason of all politicians who have cooperated with global forces to remove rights and freedoms, and the banning from media ownership and reporting of those who have hidden truth from us in this "pandemic".

~Jonny Toop

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thinktosee · 5 years

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GLORY TO HONG KONG AND CHINA

Today is the 18th anniversary of the tragedy which we know as 911. We ask for blessings of Peace for all.

A. OPENER

CHINA IS A TWO-PARTY SYSTEM - THE COMMUNIST PARTY, AND THE PEOPLE. WHOSE INTEREST THEN TAKES PRECEDENCE? (it may be interesting to note that singapore is a two-party system too).

This essay is a continuation of “IS HK REALLY CHINA?” dated Aug. 19, 2019. That essay is accessible herewith :

https://thinktosee.tumblr.com/post/187118822613/is-hong-kong-really-china

B. INTRODUCTION

Image courtesy bbc.com

For several months now, Hong Kong, that lovely island off the south coast of China, has been in political and social turmoil. Large street demonstrations are becoming a regular feature of public life. The issue, as we were given to understand was a bill tabled in the Legislature in February 2019 which if it became law would have allowed for the extradition of accused persons to China and to other jurisdictions. The bill was opposed by a large segment of the HK public. To calm their unease, the Chief Executive, Mrs. Carrie Lam suspended the bill. This apparently did not assuage the people, particularly as they expected the bill to be re-introduced once things settled down. So the demonstrations went on, some of which alarmed the authorities enough about public order and safety. The ensuing and scattered violent confrontation between police and demonstrators did not help either side to the debate. When folks are violently attacked, be they the demonstrators or the police, civil society is also a victim.

On Sep 4th, Mrs. Lam withdrew the bill (1). That settles it. Or does it? It seems the demonstrators’ demands have since escalated to cover the following (2):

1. Withdrawal of the extradition bill (withdrawn on Sep 4th).

2. Official and impartial investigation into alleged police brutality against the demonstrators.

3. Resignation of Ms Lam as CEO.

4. Release of detained protesters.

5. Political reforms.

As HK’s legal system is generally transparent, with due process protections, numbers 2 and 4 should be resolved within the ambit of the law. Numbers 3 and 5 are more difficult to achieve, especially as there is no legal mechanism for this. It is a political issue which goes beyond HK.

C. THE ACTORS in the Drama

In this HK drama, the apparent actors are –

- HK Government

- The youth, workers and other libertarian constituents who form the bulk of the demonstrators, ie. the general public.

- The ruling Communist Party of China (CCP)

The less apparent actors are :

- The oligarchs, who have enormous political and economic influence on the island. They are the ones who have the most to lose if the extradition bill had passed (3).

- Foreign NGOs and governments who are either perceived to support the position of the demonstrators or that of the HK or Beijing Governments.

Mrs. Lam’s withdrawal of the bill may possibly set the stage for isolating the demonstrators. The key demand of the demonstrators and the HK public – the withdrawal of the bill, has been met. Back to school and work, folks. Or at least that’s what the rulers hope.

D. WHAT REALLY IS GOING ON?

Image courtesy 4 non blondes/youtube (4)

The basic issue in HK is the “One country, two systems” concept. That has to be addressed, either now or before 2047 when this benignly-named agreement expires in HK and the people of the island come under direct CCP rule. This includes the democratic and independent institutions in HK – the judiciary, free press, open economy and border, first class civil service, due process, etc.

As stated in the previous essay, HK is a creation of colonial Britain. The CCP has never directly ruled over HK. The HK public apparently has no interest in a rule by the CCP. The youth especially. How does one reconcile an ancient claim to the island and its people, with the reality on the ground? Some will no doubt suggest through the “rule of law.” Well, as I asked in a letter to the defence minister of singapore on May 14, 2017 :

“Whose rule and whose law?” We have seen what that is all about in singapore since 1959.

Similarly for the CCP, who came to power in 1949 (5). This is the party which gave the Chinese people the Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Cultural Revolution, both of which were tragic periods in modern Chinese history (6,7). Positive change only came after the passing of the dictator in 1976. However, the CCP continues to honour him and his legacy to this day.

Image courtesy Cartoon Connections

Rule by one or a few unelected and undemocratic individuals over a country is never going to work out well. Some well-meaning citizens will go on deluding themselves about the glitter of an expanding economy, while others just never experienced anything else than a dictatorship, and hence don’t know better.

The issue between the two political systems – China’s and HK’s is fundamental. The first holds the people accountable to the party, while the second holds the government and party accountable. The first lies behind a veneer of nationalism, that is, hiding behind the masses, when there is a crisis (usually of their making), while in the second, the people take the lead to restore or preserve their future, which by the way, the demonstrators in HK seem to be doing.

E. PROBABLE SOLUTIONS

Image courtesy gforcesigns.com

1. Maintain the status quo

This means the CCP takes over HK in 2047 as agreed. In the interim, as the social unrest in HK continues, the CCP may find it necessary to intervene directly. A Tiananmen Part 2? (8) This puts HK’s people and future at great risk. Ultimately, if the demonstrators refuse to end their civil disobedience campaign, the CCP will likely act. They cannot risk HK breaking away. Others will be tempted to do the same – Xinjiang, Tibet, etc. The CCP views its moral legitimacy as the unifier of China. To allow a breakup of China is also to see the dissolution of the basis for its very existence.

2. Extend “one country two systems” indefinitely.

This preserves the autonomy of HK and its democratic institutions. Not a bad idea. It operates quite similarly to the understanding between the CCP and Taiwan, where the latter is for all intents and purposes, an independent country. Only Taiwan cannot officially declare it. And besides, Taiwan gets the best of both worlds – massive trade with China and good relations with the USA (9,10). Similarly for HK. Under this scenario, everyone gets what they want, it seems.

3. The CCP elects for universal suffrage or democratic elections in China.

Image courtesy slideshare.net

This suggests that China becomes more like HK or Taiwan, rather than the other way around. This way, the political interests between the two systems overlap rather than diverge. A very unlikely outcome since those who have wielded power undemocratically for a long time have become very comfortable and entrenched with their privileges and are not amenable to these being denied to them, or their children.

F. CONCLUSION

Image courtesy emaze.com

The CCP is a misnomer. Communism, going by Marxist theory, never existed anywhere (11,12). What then is the CCP? Has Chinese political system really changed since time immemorial? The CCP is the latest in a long line of totalitarian political systems. Its founder was Mao. Since his passing in 1976, his successors have sought to open the country, especially to trade and education. This by most measurements has been very succesful. The political system however has yet to evolve with the rest.

The political turmoil in HK is a consequence of a lack of democratic and transparent political institutions in China. A neo-aristocratic order is self-serving, every time (some may refer to it as a meritocracy. I prefer the term neo-aristocracy). This answers the question in the opening statement of this essay – whose interest takes precedence?

The People of HK and China should be left to decide what is best for themselves. The only good solution is to empower them and to offer each a vote. Democracy is an imperfect form of government. It’s the only one which works, however. I can’t recall who first said that. But it ain’t me, for sure.

I close with the anthem of the protesters of HK as reported via the link. These folks have a right…… to dream.

https://time.com/5672018/glory-to-hong-kong-protests-national-anthem/

David in HK, 2016

In the Spirit of David Cornelius Singh

David’s father

Email : [email protected]

https://thinktosee.tumblr.com/

Sources/References

1. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49575381

2. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/13/asia/hong-kong-airport-protest-explained-hnk-intl/index.html

3. https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3025260/developers-cosy-ties-politics-may-explain-hong-kongs-biggest-woe-widening

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NXnxTNIWkc

5. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chinese-Communist-Party

6. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-silence-that-preceded-chinas-great-leap-into-famine-51898077/

7. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/world/asia/china-cultural-revolution-explainer.html

8. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/china-1989-tiananmen-square-protests-demonstration-massacre

9. http://www.worldstopexports.com/taiwans-top-import-partners/

10. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/07/taiwans-status-geopolitical-absurdity/593371/

11. https://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-39837515

12. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/238953.Das_Kapital

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