Honestly ashamed to admit I never knew quite how large DPRK’s military was. I almost feel like the stats I’m reading are off, they say US military has 1.4 million active personnel and DPRK has 1.3 million. By numbers (not funding) they have the fourth largest in the world. On one hand it’s depressing they need to put so much manpower to militarism, but at the same time I understand they were absolutely forced into this and I have massive respect for the everyday solider/vet in DPRK that is willing to risk everything to preserve their sovereignty and socialism.
I am so tired of this trope of “good times make weak men”. Just the whole idea that if we dare make things “too good” people become weak. When it’s obvious in reality no country is made stronger with masses homeless, starving, suffering in the climate crisis, etc. It may just be cause I live in a right wing as fuck area but I hear this endlessly in various forms and it gets old so fast.
I agree, I genuinely think if US would have let them join NATO China would have never been able to take the left turn it has since Xi has been in power. US would simply have them surrounded with missiles and they would have total dominance over their economy. The USSR I’d argue was fairly unique in being able to survive in the way it did and with such a degree of self-sufficiency. They had about all they needed- tons of fertile land, endless energy, etc. I don’t think even China or a more advanced India could do this, China needs allies to pose any threat or gain any true independence from the western economic system.
Whitney Webb is interesting. There is stuff she covers that you just won’t find elsewhere, she digs DEEP. And really the stuff she is known most for she’s 100% correct. The things I disagree with her on it’s usually a different perspective rather than one on facts. Personally I understand why china has a surveillance state, but yeah Id agree it may go too far in some areas. The issue is the entire framing and discussion as if China is unique in this. China is just unique about being open about it. That’s literally it. The US if you look at per capita stats collects WAY more information from people and especially if you look at raw amounts of data. It’s just that the US is hush hush about it while china the tech is being developed and implemented openly, often to the benefit of the average worker.
The only exception really is COVID and especially vaccine stuff, where I almost fully disagree with her. But Max Blumenthal does the same shit, regardless they both mainly focus on the US and it’s crimes, lying, imperialism, etc.
I understand why especially foreign ministers would talk fairly conservatively, but I disagree, countries like China and Cuba absolutely have a right to shit on America for their atrocities and despicable lack of care for so called “human rights”. ESPECIALLY Cuba. They’re blockaded, endlessly sabotaged, etc and in just about every area Cuba is ahead of the US. Not even just talking worker’s power and rights but also women, LGBTQ+ families and individuals, disabled people, etc.
For a concrete example of what I’m talking about just look at the We Charge Genocide at the UN in 1951. USSR was absolutely right to cite that as an example of human rights abuses in the US. If the US wants to go around screaming genocide at China, China should go on the rhetorical offensive and stop playing endless defense. While this would probably escalate things, that escalation seems inevitably with the imperial machine that is the US state.
Something seems off about people promoting RATMW but then shitting on ANSWER. Especially using bs saying members used to be in the military and shit. Seriously, cool with an event hosting Tulsi Gabbard who is an active member in a psy op unit but ANSWER is bad because is has ex military?
Also, if a coalition around being anti-war having veterans in it surprises you, I don’t think you have gone to a single anti-war protest. I know we hate the US military but people like average vets aren’t exactly happy when they see their friends blown to bits for some oil profits. If we don’t take advantage of that rightful anger, THAT is dogmatic and not pragmatic.
The podcast itself is terrible. Bringing on Daniel Burke, seriously dude? We are supposed to bring LaRouchites into the movement? Plus anti feminist? Seems closer to Gleen Greenwald than dialectical materialism.
Also, if event 201 means covid was planned, every pandemic was planned. These pandemic simulations are similar to war game exercises- no one gives them any attention until serious shit is happening. US does war games every year simulating all out war with DPRK but no one here even knows about it. Pandemic simulations are ran very frequently for all types of pandemics. Now if was specifically for this exact coronavirus there may be something there, but it was just for general coronaviruses which have caused pandemics before so it is normal enough. The real story in event 201 and the others is the corruption between the gates foundation/bill gates and our govt.
US military is currently, and I quote, “not ruling out aliens”. I hate to go full conspiracy theorist, but to be totally honest, I think the US may be shooting down it’s own shit to keep the wave of chauvinism and paranoia from that balloon shit going. You know full well if the US airspace was being invaded by China or Russia for real the US govt would immediately be screeching it to the high heavens and do the same back.
On your last paragraph- I recently saw a clip of this same guy defending Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge against, and this is a direct quote, “revisionist Vietnam”. I found the whole video and couldn’t get much into it, it’s very obvious he is pure spectacle, pretty sure it may even be satire? Same guy unironically calls himself a “maga communist” which makes me think it may be satirical as well. MAGA communism is hilarious and is the American version of “national socialism”. Feel like it’s either a character being played or it’s a straight up psy op.
I’m not about great/evil man theories and whatnot, but genuinely, whoever is in power fighting to keep these sanctions up is pure evil and, frankly, genocidal. Obviously can’t be that shocked given what they have done to DPRK and Cuba, but whenever I think about being someone in that position it makes me sick. How can someone know full well they’re starving literal masses of people and sleep at night? Fucking babies are stuck under thousands of pounds of rubble and all they have to say is “keep it going, anything to hurt Assad”.
One thing I cant deny about this invasion is that it put massive fuel on the fire that is Ukrainian nationalism and bourgeois nationalism more broadly in Europe. Ukraine is just the worst because, as we all know, their govt directly incorporates Nazi militias into the state forces. Not that the polish military is much different.
It even got a response from the white house!
I feel like if they were gonna intervene they’d have done it at the peak of the support. Seems like, at least where I am in the US, support is starting to falter. Not to below a majority, but I feel like 8-10 months ago the support was way more solid.
Imo the US knows the real threat is China and is acting accordingly. Much smarter would be to bog Russia down in Ukraine so they can’t come to China’s aid when US starts something over Taiwan. With this recent mobilization and doubling down in russia, that is exactly the direction we are going.
Maybe I am being too pessimistic, but the only way I see war between US and China being avoided is if one of them backs down economically to eliminate the contradictions that are sharpening between them. The issue there is when US says it wants China to back down it basically means China can’t exist, unless it’s a failed state unable to threaten the US unipolar dominance. China just wants the US to not be the undisputed King of the world, where they invade any country they want, kill masses via sanctions, etc. I don’t see the US stopping that, and I also don’t see China collectively giving up as a nation/superpower. The US sees it’s time ticking in regards to taking out the up and coming “threat”.
The one problem I see here for the US is Europe. Europe is much, much more split on the china question than the US. If the US can’t get Europe on it’s side 100%, there may be some bumps on the road for them. Sadly for the US, EU trade with China keeps going up. We will likely see the US try to demand Europe sanctions China, forcing them into an ultimatum. If when that time comes they benefit more from China, US may be fucked.
So in regards to the shining path, it’s very important to understand it within it’s context. Obviously within that context they are worse than say the Bolsheviks, but you still cannot forget that they were fighting a true dictatorship that was sterilizing the indigenous to in the tens of thousands. Sadly, groups like the Shining Path are more a product of imperialism and US puppet govts than anything else. I see that left out a bit too much, and it’s important to acknowledge because then comrades in similar situations can learn from all the mistakes they made. Really the experience of the Shining Path is a textbook example of what to avoid when fighting a colonial dictatorship. The struggle in the DPRK, Vietnam, etc united the peasant and working classes while the Shining Path alienated them and even massacred them.
Honestly I’m jealous of them as an American. I’m not up to date on national averages, but when I was in high school (in the south, poorer area) our local math exam averages were legit between 25-30% or so. This obviously is atrocious and hurts people not even focusing on math in their career since math is a huge part of the ACT and SAT grades. Now I’m an adult who doesn’t know how to do math at all and wanna go back to college and it’s massively limiting. It is so tough as I don’t have the money for a tutor or anything.
Personally, at least locally, I think they’re doing it on purpose to privatize education as much as possible. Where I live they are making the schools as shit as they to encourage the multiple local private academies. Our main private academy here gets huge amounts of tax dollars and it still costs like 2,000 per year per kid. Their scores of course are much higher, and each class has like 15 people.
The rates of long covid are insane, and that doesn’t even factor what it will look like after say 10 infections. As of right now the risk for an infection turning to long covid is around 1/6, and that’s for fully vaccinated. So if we just accept covid and let it rip in the US that would be a solid 55 million people or so, as children are at risk as well. And again that’s not counting repeated infection, just assuming everyone got it once and is vaccinated. If even 10% of those are serious the healthcare costs, missed labor, etc alone could cause massive damage to people and the economy. It’s also much worse for those already disabled, and US has insane amounts of chronic disease.
It’s absolutely hilarious because what the US has done in Ukraine has about sealed their fate it seems. They’re making Europe hate them, they’re driving China and Russia close, and they’re accelerating the US dollar no longer being the global reserve currency. Europe’s running out of energy not even a year into this, and they can still trade with China.
I legit cannot understand why US didn’t let Russia join NATO when Putin was ready to be a second Yeltsin. That single move would change everything. Now if there is a conflict Europe has zero Russian gas, and they can’t surround either Russia or China. What am I missing that the US ruling class seems to see? They obviously understood this at the time of the Sino-Soviet split.
I think it’s in the past at this point so they wanna just erase it and or memory hole it like it never happened. Didn’t Rachel Maddow finally after years of spreading bs propaganda come out saying assange shouldn’t be persecuted? That’s gotta be scary man, basically the US saying “dissident journalists here or in any friendly nation, we can end your life and torture you at the drop of a feather.”
I swear if the US doesn’t chill Europe and Australia and the rest are finally gonna just choose China. The US wants to not only sink all of Europe economically but then also eliminate all sovereignty. How fucking hilarious would it be if the EU one of these switches up and sanctions the US, let’s Russian gas flow in, their economies would boom and they could save capitalism. Unlikely but soon enough the people will be demanding it at this rate.
Yeah but from what I can read that was satirical, it was actually done by a leftist who meant it as satire on the British PM being nominated as well. Basically them saying if the prime minister of a colonial monster like the UK can be nominated we might as well nominate Hitler. It was done the same year Hitler started WW2.
This is exactly why US wants things with China to pop off ASAP. They themselves know and cannot deny the decline of their empire, and simultaneously they cannot deny China’s rise. That fact alone guarantees there will be a point that once reached, the US has no shot of taking down China.