North Korea: Economy Faltering! (Or is it?)

A real mess of a propaganda article basically reporting the views of “defectors,” “former CIA analysts,” “South Korean sources", and “economists (?)” where a "faltering" economy is due not to being state-run but to outside sanctions placed on it and which also reveals more consumer goods available, sports cars, no diminishment in Kim's ability to rule and finally concludes, after many nasty comments and insinuations, “For now, there is no sign that the economy is reaching a breaking point, according to defectors in touch with their relatives in the North. The prices of rice, corn and fuel remain stable, and the won is holding steady against the American dollar and Chinese renminbi.” A strange type of “faltering” where there is no sign of a breaking point, prices remain stable, and the currency is holding up against those of the US and China. What would successfully holding out against US attempts to sabotage the economy look like?

NYTIMES.COM

North Korea’s State-Run Economy Falters Under Sanctions, Testing Elite LoyaltyInternational sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program have been felt most acutely by the party and military officials who support Kim Jong-un’s totalitarian rule.

Russiagate Myth Exploded

Now that "this massive investigation simply did not establish any of the conspiracy theories that huge parts of the Democratic Party, the intelligence community and the U.S. media spent years encouraging the public to believe" has been released, even as redacted, I hope it puts "Russiagate" and all the CIA-FBI disinformation campaign against Putin and the Kremlin with regards to collusion to bed.

THEINTERCEPT.COM

Robert Mueller Did Not Merely Reject the Trump-Russia Conspiracy Theories. He Obliterated Them.Certain facts will never go away no matter how much media elites deny them. That Mueller charged no Americans with election conspiracy crimes is the most fatal.

Capitalism Shortens Life Span

"The biggest setbacks occurred in East Germany in the aftermath of the German reunification. Here the socioeconomic composition of the population in retirement changed dramatically. The share of men falling into the lowest status group almost doubled from 2005 to 2016." Well, well, capitalism does kill. Poverty does have a negative influence on health and under Communism the socialist state did not allow its population to fall into such low standards that their health and well being  degenerated resulting in early death as there was no such thing as mass unemployment and poorly paid jobs (pay in capitalist and socialist countries can't be directly measured as in socialist countries the state covers health care, determines working conditions, subsidizes housing costs and the cost of food, provides free education for all, etc.). Unfortunately, the communist officialdom was too tight-assed as regards freedom of expression and participatory democracy (top-down control, elections by slates, etc., a common failure left over from Stalinism) and this alienated the working class and left it vulnerable to capitalist propaganda. Many workers in the former socialist countries are now suffering buyers remorse and former tight-assed parties will need to repackage their product to defeat the ultra-right and fascist movements spawned by the re-emergence of capitalism.

SCIENCEDAILY.COM

Lower pension, shorter life

Income and social status have an increasing effect on life expectancy in Germany. On average, men with very low retirement pay die five years earlier than those who are much better off. Poverty shortens life.

Pelosi Democrats Out To Rig The Primaries

The bias of the NYT is evident in this passage: "The open hostilities are just the latest in the rising tensions between an experienced party establishment focusing on what is possible in the short run and a group of young liberals chafing at such restraint." Here the progressive Democrats are portrayed as "chafing" at "what is possible." The truth is the Pelosi conservative supporters of monopoly capitalism are trying to shut down the progressives by rigging the Democratic primaries in favor of the conservative incumbents. They have learned nothing from the exposure of the Clinton gang's rigging of the nomination process against Sanders in 2016 which was the main cause of the Trump victory in that millions of disillusioned voters didn't bother to vote in 2016 which allowed Trump to squeak by to victory in the swing states. Pelosi Democrats, wedded to the conservative establishment's traditional bipartisanship, would rather lose elections than see progressives in power.

NYTIMES.COM

House Democratic Campaign Arm Nears War With Liberals Over Primary Fights

Liberal Democrats are infuriated by a new Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee policy intended to protect centrist incumbents from primary challenges.

Trump's War on Children

'"The USDA rollback of school nutrition standards goes against all science based evidence of what children need to be healthy and thrive and be healthy in school," said Liz Accles, the executive director of Community Food Advocates.' In Trump's relentless war on the environment, endangered species, immigrants, women's rights, minority groups, and the working class he has now turned his malevolent attention to school children as he and his Republican base understand that healthy thriving children of the working people, poor and repressed become healthy thriving adults and healthy thriving adults understand what sort of scumbags run the Republican Party and push "conservative" policies favoring the 1% (whose children alone deserve to be healthy and thriving) and these adults will eventually throw these morally degenerate monsters onto the slag heap of history along with their fascist and Confederate progenitors and other sociopaths that capitalism needs to maintain itself. MAGA Dump Trump!

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PATCH.COM

Kids' Health Could Suffer Under Trump School Lunch Rule, AG Says

New York and five other states are suing the Trump administration over a push to roll back nutritional standards for school meals.