Right To Left

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding!!!! I'm glad somebody here is ignoring the paranoid idiocy and straight off the Epoch Times - propaganda, and going to the 'actions speak louder than words' evidence of what is really going on in global affairs! After a century and a half of "Yellow Peril" propaganda, it has been completely lost on western observers....even the ones who get paid to plot out global strategies for governments and major global corporations, that China's long term strategy to become a major economic power, was based on bypassing the expensive and ruinous routes taken by previous global empires - USA and England, and focus on economic growth and power. The problem for China...and the reason why they have recently got in the game of establishing an expensive and strong blue water navy, is because all through the 90's and 2000's China's economic alliances and trading deals have been threatened and even gone up in smoke whenever the US decided that one of their trading partners - Sudan, Venzuela or Iran needs democracy! And makes covert and overt moves to change the government...or in Sudan's case, just bust up the country into two separate and competing entities. And in the case of the new "South Sudan" republic, all of the development and trade deals + even more important - payments on development loans - all vanished after the civil war when a new government was created in the south, and decided that they owned nothing to the northern regime in the old capital, nor Chinese corporations and their government. If this happened to the US, you can be sure at least part of their blue water navy would be stationed off the coast, while aerial bombardments began to either inspire a change in government, or the leaders to 'get their minds right' and start honoring debt obligations to US, British and other NATO countries! So, China's in the military power game too now...anyone not happy about it, should have at least expected it to happen. Most of the new navy that China has been building up in recent years is to face off against American carrier fleets and gunboats that ply the South China Sea in their frequent "Freedom of Navigation" exercises. For a lot of psychopaths and arms merchants, the new militarized threat from China is exactly what they wanted! Because this gives them every excuse to bring back the old Cold War all of the generals and arms merchants have been missing in recent decades. It's harder to sell $billions of new aircraft carriers and equip them for pissant 'wars on terrors' that go unnoticed unless it's about flying planes into New York skyscrapers...which showed evidence of a lack of proper radar and defense of the home front/ not a need to go on a spree of regime changes as the creators of "The New American Century" and other Neocon projects tried to project 20 years ago!

YOu find murder and causing internal and external refugee crisis to be something to cheer for? Are you a psychopath, or does your fortress america narcissism lead to the attitude that the lives of everyone outside your borders doesn't matter? Next question would be - do you really give a shit about anyone else, even within your borders?

This one goes out to all the idiot warhawks and rightwing border loons who are calling Brainless Joe (and actual president - Kamala) 'soft on communism' and Latin American regimes that are supposed to follow orders from Washington: Biden’s ‘Plan’ for Central America The plan, which is praised by right-wing regional leaders, seeks to end restrictions on foreign domination of industries and markets, Ben Norton reports.  March 10, 2021 The Biden administration has prioritized Central America in its foreign policy, developing a comprehensive plan that pledges $4 billion in funding for the impoverished region, along with foreign corporate investment, in return for aggressive neoliberal “free market” reforms. According to the Biden administration’s program, Central American governments will be required to cut protections for workers, ensure “that labor practices do not disadvantage competition,” reinforce “free trade” agreements with the United States, and “reduc[e] the barriers to private sector investment,” to allow U.S. corporations more control over the region. The plan is also explicitly aimed at isolating China and Russia in a bid to consolidate Washington’s control over the region. Right-wing leaders in Central America have praised the initiative while urging the Biden administration to go further in undermining the region’s last remaining left-wing state, the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. During a Feb. 17 event at a U.S. government-funded think tank called the Inter-American Dialogue, conservative ex-presidents, vice presidents, and foreign ministers from Central American nations applauded the strategy, which is known informally as the “Biden Plan” or, in Spanish, “Plan Biden.” The Biden administration’s approach is most immediately aimed at limiting immigration of Central American refugees to the United States. It earned its nickname as “Plan Biden” because it is modeled on another policy the president oversaw during his days in the Senate. That was Plan Colombia, a counter-insurgency program imposed on Colombia which fueled extreme violence, leading to thousands of deaths and millions of refugees, while exacerbating poverty and inequality in the country. Grayzone Editor Max Blumenthal investigated the extensive damage that Biden’s neoliberal policies have already wreaked on Central America, when he served as vice president and the point man for the region in the Barack Obama administration. Now that he is president, Biden is repurposing the Obama-era policies and expanding them. ‘Shared Vision’ Following the event at the Inter-American Dialogue, right-wing Central American politicians who participated published a statement declaring that they were “encouraged” by Plan Biden, insisting it will be “mutually beneficial” and part of a “shared vision between the United States government and the Central American region” that will isolate Washington’s adversaries. read the rest at: The Grayzone So, in actual fact, not much changes in foreign policy when either D's or R's have the ball! The same game of colonization and wealth extraction are played, with the local despots who run Latin American countries being the only ones who will benefit! Whenever a country's leaders don't quite follow orders specifically....even if they are just trying to provide some of the benefits to their own people (Manuel Zelaya forcibly removed in Honduras by Hillary Clinton's orders in 2011, and replaced by a rich narco-trafficker who wanted to be president instead, but had no popular support - Juan Orlando Hernandez

Do I have to look up everything for you? I already mentioned his rush to judgment and expensive ads he placed calling for the execution of the Central Park Five, and his racist landlord policies that go all the way back to the early 70's, when he and his father kept two separate sets of books on prices of apartments for rent....much higher for any prospective black tenants than white and was even sued by the Federal Justice Dept. as a result: Donald Trump Was Once Sued By Justice Department For Not Renting To Blacks That ought to be easy enough to find!

But, my point was that Donald Trump was calling for Norwegian immigration in 2017, and that ain't going to happen! Cause unlike the idiot rightwingers running Alberta, Norway didn't squander their billions earned from oil exports...leaving a sovereign wealth fund that is today worth about $4000 per every Albertan! The Heritage Fund principle has been flatlining in value for most of the past 40 years. No doubt under the expectation that, even after running out of real oil, they could just switch to shipping out the diluted bitumen crap as dirty, heavy oil. If major capitalists are for real about all their 'alternative' energy models, then that crap stays in the ground...as it always should have! Years ago, tar sands were dug up and used for paving roads/not trying to burn for fuel! While Norway squirreled their oil revenues in a sovereign wealth fund that now gives them 'an embarrassment of riches'......also unlike England-with their share of North Sea oil wealth, As one Guardian reporter noted about the underfunding of England's NHS four years ago...long before the Covid-19 pandemic made the situation even worse: "North Sea oil could have helped tackle the NHS crisis and pension liabilities by contributing to a sovereign wealth fund" But that ship has already sailed long ago!

As a general rule, people don't leave their homelands until they feel some need to do so. So, a breakdown of European immigration would likely reveal that they are either from first or second generation immigrant families over there, or from European nations that are extremely poor and losing their young people, like Ukraine, Greece, Macedonia etc.. So, I still doubt there is much of a demand from the average Norwegian in modern times to move to America .... or anywhere else for that matter! * it would be interesting to see what the breakdown is for the very large Asian immigration numbers.

I was of the impression that the C.D. Howe Institute was still a conservative 'think' tank...but I could be wrong! Our fat, stupid Conservative Premier here in Ontario wants lots of new immigrants to keep driving up real estate demand and prices. And with the downward pressure on wages and salaries, it seems like being for open immigration would have been a conservative policy a lot longer....if it wasn't for so many xenophobic conservatives who aren't comfortable around dark people.

That is actually why, much to the chagrin of many Democrats, many black Americans give Trump credit for at least going out unfiltered like politicians are expected to do.

There's little doubt he's a racist, just from what has come out of his own mouth over the years. Think back to the role he played in the Central Park Five fiasco about 30 years ago, when he first started plotting out a path for a political career. Not to mention that both the Donald and his father were among the worst slumlords in New York City...before Donnie decided to move upscale to high end luxury real estate in Manhattan...where the only blacks who could buy in would be celebrities. And don't forget that his rambling comment about "why can't we get more Norwegians" came after he referred to Haiti as a shithole country! If he had any awareness, he would know that Haiti's neverending misery is a direct consequence of US foreign policy in America's "backyard!"

Well, now I'm curious about what kind or tendency of communism you're referring to here. Because the lessons of the past 150 years indicate that communist worker movements are very difficult to organize and hold together against outside attacks and dissension spawned within the movement. Factions break away every time some charismatic leader is miffed about not being selected for top leadership (Leon Trotsky) and figuratively, throws acid on the debates with other party leaders to deliberately increase the divide and lead a new movement that is the REAL communism. After the First World War, some capitalists realized that if necessary, it was better to create or allow a despot to take over government and divide the working people along sectarian lines -- appealing to nationalist, racial or religious sentiments, rather than on shared class interests. It's been said that the plutocrats who make up ruling oligarchies have divisions among themselves, but are the only economic class in a capitalist society who understands their class interests and needs for solidarity beyond grabbing short term profits. We might also need to ask today whether the biggest stumbling block in the way of socialism and workers movements is that the forces which serve capitalist interests, have become increasingly sophisticated in their propaganda and use of new technology to attack and marginalize socialists. By 'propaganda' I would especially include the development and widespread dissemination of psychologically manipulative advertising and marketing campaigns...first on television and now literally everywhere in the age of portable devices that are online 24/7, giving up information about us and our habits to the cyber-goons who spy on us for profit and surveillance purposes. Are we close to or already in a "1984" type of world where we won't be able to trust any information we receive from any source, and be unable to escape the clutches of our oppressors? Just asking! Hope it's not true.

That he wanted whiter immigrants?

The modern technocratic global empire we are living and many are struggling under today, is the worst form of imperial oppression that has ever existed in history! And this is because it has nothing to do with religious dogmas or intentions of the conquerors, but the capabilities they have to commit evil. And there's nothing like mass surveillance technologies to create the worst and most reckless form of imperialism in existence, and one that will be very hard to stop. Present conditions indicate that the only thing stopping the modern global empire will be human extinction. Many of us would rather pull the plug on this shit before a mass extermination event in the near future!

That was at a time when Scandinavia was relatively poor. A lot has changed since then. Biggest one being that Norway has the highest per capita income in Europe and the most equal income and wealth distribution. Except for any plutocrats stationed there, nobody else is going to want to come to America!

What connection does some mufti have with the defunct Red Brigades or RAF factions, which were all Marxist and/or anarchist sects.... according to recently released government cables in Italy, western leaders of the time considered Red Brigades such a divisive force in Italy that they were causing dissension and breaking up the large and politically potent communist and socialist parties that could have easily taken over parliament at the time.

I recall that Trump said he liked Norwegian immigrants! Only problem is 99.999999% of Norwegians would never consider moving to the US!

Christian countries which forced conversion on those who fell under their control. Until Dubya demolished Iraq, there were one million Christians still living there. Sure, like everyone else there, they had to beware of incurring the wrath of Saddam Hussein. But it seems obvious being a Shia Muslim in Iraq was more precarious than being a Christian. And then you have to explain how large Christian populations survived there century after century since the first missionaries arrived in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Same as in Syria, Turkey, Egypt etc.. The biggest threat to Christians....and Jews also, over most of the history of the Middle East, didn't start until the arrival of the British and French, and then the American imperialists, who embarked on a strategy of favoring and building up the worst, most extreme and ruthless Islamic sects to rule over a population. That's what created the Wahabbi's and other Salifist sects that demand complete obedience and allegiance to their dogmas. To maintain power, these extremists have had to rely heavily on foreign British and American help....which comes at a price. Just ask Arabians who don't appreciate the Saud Family's feudal theocracy!

I would like to know how poisoning land and water supplies by allowing mining and petro (especially tarsands) operations to dump their toxic wastes on or near treaty lands is NOT a form of slow genocide...make people sicker and sicker until they die off!

Yes, what I read of the late, floundering in debt period of the Ottoman Empire was that they actually became increasingly reliant on non-Muslim minorities to staff their civil service, because the administration had become such a corrupt money-sieve, that the leaders felt minority officials who would already be regarded with suspicion, if not hostility in their communities, would have greater incentives to act honestly and carefully. So, regardless of all the claptrap passed around today about Islam and Quranic verses, the lives and wellbeing of all minorities within the former empire became more precarious after the collapse of the empire, and the rise of regional, competing nationalist states. None more so than Turkey, which began a genocide campaign against Armenians in Eastern Turkey, out of revenge for the Armenian break with an alliance with "The Young Turks" ---- who revolted against the Sultan in favour of forming a republic. Early on, Armenians and most minorities within what is now - Turkey joined the Young Turks' revolt, but Armenian leaders later withdrew and demanded a separate Armenian republic. And, the Young Turks responded with a campaign of mass genocide against Armenians...which they've been denying ever since! But, I didn't come here to defend the Ottoman Turks or even immigration in general, but to make the point that whatever crap rightwing clowns have thrown at Arabs and Muslims in general since the War On Terror days, most of the worst evils committed in the past 150 years have been caused by the Anglo-American Empire, which no average working stiffs in the West should be supporting either! Because empires are only created to serve the power and wealth of small, privileged ruling classes/ NOT the majority of people living within their borders. I imagine that during the height of Roman Empire, the average Roman was still patriotic and repeating the boast: "I am a Roman citizen!" even as they were increasing driven into poverty by the wealthy Patrician classes who bought up most of the land. That's one way to keep your armies stocked with lots of new recruits for foreign campaigns. So now, in an era of pushbutton and aerial warfare, fewer soldiers are needed, and the neocapitalist dynamics of our economies create more surplus labour than is ever needed. The US solution seems to be to expand "Tough On Crime" laws that target poverty, and leave the poor( not just so called "illegal" immigrants) in the new growth industry: private, for-profit prisons.

Especially after the recent much ballyhooed Meghan and Harry coming out party on Oprah, it's obvious that the dumb, inbred, degenerate British royals and their equally old, decrepit advisers (The Firm) are absolutely no match for Hollywood royalty, who know how to play the game of using MSM entertainment media to full advantage!

You haven't bothered to address the fact that the secular republics of the Middle East - Syria, Iraq and to a lesser extent - Turkey (after the despicable conduct of their still reigning president - Erdogan and his Islamist talking political party) did not expel or ethnically cleanse Christians or Jews, or any other religious minority sects, including 'infidel' Islamists like the Alawites. During the era of the Caliphates - Arab and later Turkish Ottoman empires, they applied taxes on Christians and Jews. But, if you bother to crack open a source from the other side, you will find out that the reason was because Christians and Jews were not trusted to serve in the Caliph's armies...which was regarded as a religious obligation for young Muslim men. So, a tax was applied on them instead. Worth noting that near the end of the Ottoman Empire...in the 1840's, the Government repealed all of the 'Jizya' taxes on Christians and Jews. I could add that it was your good Christian crusaders who caused genocides as they marched to the 'Holy Land' in the middle ages. Even sacking Constantinople during the 4th Crusade ....because they were the wrong kind of Christians - Orthodox... did not accept the Roman Pope! Regarding your other 'throwing crap at the wall to see what will stick' points - Arab attacks on India were not much different than the prior armies of Rome or the even previous Alexander The 'Great'. Sure they could dress it up as a holy cause in defense of the faith and the one true god, but how is that different than the Christian terraforming of the world over the centuries? And which imperial theocracy killed the most and I would say worse- destroyed the most indigenous cultures: Christendom or Islam?

It has everything to do with the bourgeoise, and even the petty bourgeoise -- the business owners who focus on temp agencies to recruit workers from, and take no more than a glancing notice of identification and records, just want the cheapest worker available to work for them....no questions asked! And if that's not about greed, what is it? Neither do I, and that's why I don't like to see my fellow plebs being led astray by divisive rightwing arguments that try to negate or downplay the actions their country (or in our case- the big brother nation our toadying governments serve and refrain from criticizing) has committed to cause the desperation in the colonies and targets of regime change to make their governments more compliant with foreign ownership of their economies. I support progressive taxation regardless, and in principle my only beef is that not enough is taken off the top anymore since Mulroney's "tax reforms" of 30 to 35 years ago. Taxes on multimillionaires and billionaires should be much, much higher, because those with high incomes have the highest discretionary incomes. So they can keep squirreling away more and more money on their investments and toys...like fancy cars, 2nd and 3rd homes, expensive vacations etc., which those of us in the middle certainly can't spend much idle time thinking about! Taxes on investment income and real estate holdings should be the primary source of government revenues NOT high income tax rates on us middle class (now higher income earners (80,000 to 85,000 per year)) who can afford to live in relative comfort, but certainly are not at the same level as the scammers who own some pisspot business and can write off large chunks of income against their tax assessments! I'll wager that I and others in my tax group are covering more of the healthcare and government services burden than you and your high-fallutin capitalist class ever have! And now that Liberals follow the same tax policy as Conservatives, it's worse than it ever has been.

How much do you actually know or understand about the Middle East? The problem of ethnic cleansing and civil wars did not occur until the Brits and the US started establishing proxy colonial regimes in the Arab World. In Arabia, Egypt, Syria, that meant fighting republican movements that rose up when Arabs under the thumb of the Turkish dominated Ottoman Empire, and instead trying to force them under the thumb of the most extreme Islamic authoritarians - Ibn Saud (received his tanks and heavy guns directly from the British at the close of WWI, and creating monarchs like King Farouk). Especially as the extent of the Arabian Peninsula's oil wealth was being assessed after the Great War, it was realized that favoring and forcing Arabs under the rulership of the Saud warlords meant that England and America would have a useful tool who would always be dependent on his foreign infidel "friends" to stay in power. Think of it every time one of you rightwingers starts blathering on about fighting terrorism and Islamic extremism anywhere!

Yes.....if you eliminate every step in between to reach a conclusion! Problem is the employers...aka the bourgeoise know full well that if there are hundreds of people standing outside of the temp employment office early in the morning, they have lots of men and women who are desperate for work, and will not be in any position to negotiate for better wages! Now, the problem with rightwing knuckle draggers starts with their resentment and loathing of the immigrant and YES refugee who has snuck in through border defenses to try to start a new life in a new land so they can earn enough money for their family members stuck in some hellhole that's more often than not, a victim of US foreign policy regardless of whether a D or an R is in charge! Sure, it's ironic that someone (and I know and have talked to a few) who arrived in the US as refugees from the murderous genocide against Mayans in Northwest Guatemala that the CIA presided over back in the 80's.....and yet for some reason, kept going north....through Mexico and across the US border and somehow much later, were naturalized as legal Canadian immigrants-then citizens of Canada. Same story for many who fled other Central American hellholes! Worth noting that the socialist countries (Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba) don't produce massive refugee outflows except those forced out when rightwing death squads are operating. But Ahmurika doesn't want to allow the threat of a good example leading peasants astray in their economic colonies. So they establish and increase economic sanctions warfare to try to destroy living standards in countries that are socialist....and even slightly left but not fully cooperating with the demands of foreign capital looking for resources to plunder and exploit....Bolivia, Ecuador.

The vast majority of us are 'living in a box' whether we like it or not, because Canada's and every other major capitalist nation in the world prioritizes money and economic growth over health and even life itself! My grandmother died two years ago at age of 101, and I presume of natural causes! In retrospect, although her body was failing and she was confined to bed in her final months, her mind was still relatively sound, so even though she had been part of our lives for such a long, long time, we did feel some regret when the end came for her. In retrospect, I am just glad that it happened before all this covid crap broke out! Now, if she was still around with all this going on, I would be very afraid of passing on any virus to her, especially Covid-19. Don't know if you've had to actually make regular visits to a nursing home to visit grandparents, BUT even when there are major flu outbreaks, they will go into lockdown until they are able to determine who does and does not have the flu. AND even if you're intending to visit your grandma if she is not sick herself, nursing home rules will require you to use hand sanitizer, put on a protective mask and gloves, and even a hospital smock or gown or whatever the hell it is. To hear some rightwing clowns (especially English social media for some reason) blather on and on about their separation from grandma at the nursing home is pathetic! A lot of conservatives....especially if they are over 50, overweight, diabetic and have other related health maladies, are too stupid to realize that they are next in line for the oxygen tent! While younger conservatives and trendies calling themselves libertarians, are just sociopaths and narcissists who don't give a shit about anyone else and will grab anything to provide ideological justification for it!

1. I don't believe most conservatives back in the 80's (when the conservative leadership class reversed polarity on trade) were ever 'globalists' back then. But being authoritarian by nature, they just followed orders from St. Ronnie and his Canadian emissary here - Mulroo...who never had close to the same level of trust and respect from frontline conservatives, but were willing to go along because they had so many convinced that their economic policy ideas were right. The problem for the right today is that the grassroots level no longer trusts any rightwing billionaires to represent anything beyond their own narrow interests. In the US, the great regret from hated and despised RNC leaders is that their party never set up an undemocratic equivalent the Democrats have -- the "SUPER" delegates (patronage bagmen parachuted in to provide a weighting of the scale in favour of big money, in case a quasi-leftist leader comes along and raises havoc. i.e. upsets the coronation of the expected leader the donor class had already decided on: 2016 Hillary Clinton, and Slow Joe for 2020. *side issue, but if Bernie was a real populist at least, he would have refused to go along with the manipulations of both elections/but unfortunately revealed himself as a fake "independent!" But, love em or hate em, the Republicans have a much closer proximity to democracy than the party that misappropriates the title! And it's likely because the GOP has become so angry and unruly, that the monied classes (except for the oil lobby) have shifted their $$$$ to the easily controlled and manipulated party....I don't need to tell you who that is, do I? 2. It's good when minds change. 3. Neither! The Internationale was created by an unknown writer at the First Internationale -- a large gathering of leftist worker activists, who gathered in Paris in 1864. According to legend, the song's lyrics were partially taken from a preamble written for those gathered and sung at the end of the session to try to maintain unity among the group of about 8 different leftist tendencies who had different ideas about government and how to carry out an international workers revolution. Has the song ever been played at a Democrat convention? They may be able to appropriate "We Shall Overcome" for their own purposes, but Democrats trying to appropriate the Internationale would be take balls of steel! First stanza: Stand up, damned of the EarthStand up, prisoners of starvationReason thunders in its volcanoThis is the eruption of the end.Of the past let us make a clean slateEnslaved masses, stand up, stand up.The world is about to change its foundationWe are nothing, let us be all.ChorusThis is the final struggleLet us group together, and tomorrowThe InternationaleWill be the human race.