How Will US Respond to Korean Rapprochement?

Doesn't the U.S. have to be aggressive vis a vis North Korea? It is the structural necessity of U.S. imperialism to expand militarily to justify both the huge expenditures spent on the military-industrial complex and to project its power in all parts of the world in the service of the expansion of capital. Alliance with fascist groups overseas is a tried and true measure that all U.S. presidents resort to [when other means fail] in order to support the reactionary elements in a country that are the natural allies of U.S. imperialism. Obama helped install a fascist government in Honduras-- as well as rightists and their fascist allies in Ukraine. The U.S. supports fascists and semi-fascist governments in Egypt, Israel, Indonesia and elsewhere (e.g. India and Pakistan). President Moon of South Korea is not playing his assigned role as an anti-communist U.S. ally and his rapprochement with the North threatens the raison d'être of the 25,000 U.S. occupation force in South Korea and a vitally important U.S. military base as part of our encirclement of China and Russia. Trump's apparent willingness to go along with this is contraindicative of the logical response of an imperialist power to a reduction of its military dominance in a sensitive region of the world. Predictions are risky but we can perhaps expect a barrage of criticism of Trump from the foreign policy establishment and the right-wing leadership of the Democratic Party as well as sub rosa pressure from the Pentagon and his own party leadership. The U.S. will try and find some way to reject this rapprochement and blame the failure of diplomacy on the North Koreans. It will probably involve impossible demands for the complete destruction of the North's nuclear weapons without a concomitant pledge of no first strike from the U.S. as well as a demand for a continued military presence even after a peace treaty and the normalization of relations between North and South Korea. Stay tuned.

Chinese Government Pitted Against Students!

This is an article that is typical of the NYT -- it reports a protest in China and tries to create an anti-Chinese government angle (fake news?). Here students are protesting against a university covering up sexual harassment and trying to intimidate a young woman activist. She is being supported in a big way and so the NYT reports " The debate has pitted students and professors against a government that appears increasingly intolerant of dissent. President Xi Jinping, who rose to power in 2012, has discouraged the propagation of Western influence at universities and has urged stricter oversight of classes and professors."
So it appears that the government and Xi Jinping are against the students (anti-women) -- but towards the end of the article we read that: "People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s main newspaper, published an online commentary on Tuesday saying that “schools and students are not antagonists,” and adding that universities should seek to better understand the thoughts and actions of young people." Here Peking University, the school in question, is being admonished to listen to the students and drop its hostile attitude. The article also implies that schools throughout China should pay more attention to the views of young people. Does this indicate the government is "pitted" against the students?
The last time I looked, Xi Jingping was the head of both the Communist Party and the government of China.

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Students Defiant as Chinese University Warns #MeToo Activist

A debate over sexual harassment has pitted students and professors at Peking University in Beijing against a government that has grown increasingly intolerant of…

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Democrats File Frivolous Russia Conspiracy Lawsuit

Both the DNC and the RNC attack "American" democracy every day -- their good cop bad cop shenanigans (left-wing versus right-wing neoliberalism) are all carried out for the benefit of the oligarchical 1% meanwhile we should be simultaneously working to get rid of the Clinton neoliberal DNC and replace it with Our Revolution people, build third party progressive alternatives, and fight against the pro business anti-progressive labor leaders who have not transcended the short term opportunistic backing of 1%er Democrats. Meanwhile, this frivolous lawsuit, the last gasp of the Clintonites to blame anyone but themselves for their defeat, shows the DNC would rather reactivate the cold war, alienate swing voters and lose the midterms than actually self-critically reform themselves.

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Democratic Party Alleges Trump-Russia Conspiracy in New Lawsuit

The lawsuit accuses Mr. Trump’s associates of illegally working with Russian intelligence agents to interfere with the outcome of the 2016 election.

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Is German Rap Anti-Jewsih?

Rap is a reflection of youth culture not a cause of it. There are progressive rappers and reactionary rappers. The undertow of NAZI anti-semitism that still permeates European Christian culture mixed with the anti-Zionism the policies of the ultra-right Israeli government generates by its barbaric repression of the Palestinians is blending together in the consciousness of many confused youths. This toxic brew differs from country to country. In Germany you have a government t...

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Fury in Germany as Rap Duo With Anti-Jewish Lyrics Gets Award

The prize set off a debate about anti-Semitism in Germany’s hugely popular hip-hop music scene, and among young people.

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Who Poisoned the Skripals?

It doesn't matter anymore what really happened to the Skripals -- their poisoning was blamed on Russia and used to justify bombing Syria and further an anti-Russian narrative put out by the US and its NATO puppets because the Russian government won't allow the US/NATO a free hand in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Any new evidence coming out as a result of the official investigation, which is still in progress, will be strictly back page news and won't deter further US/NATO aggressive acts nor the continuing flood of fake news about Russia and Putin in the MSM. Try getting your news from The Intercept, Consortium News, Democracy Now, and other independent sites not affiliated with imperialist governments and the right-wing.

An Alternative Explanation to the Skripal Mystery

An alternative explanation to the mystery surrounding the poisoning of Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter may involve a possibility that neither the British nor Russian governments want to talk about, as Gareth Porter explains. By Gareth Porter Special to Consortium News

CONSORTIUMNEWS.COM

Who

Putin Wins 4th Term as Russian President

"There was no real need for extensive rigging, however, because of Mr. Putin’s genuine popularity." It's difficult for many to believe, brought up on much anti-Putin reportage in the MSM, that Russia has actually conducted a free and fair election, as far as these kinds of elections occur anywhere, and a popular president has been democratically reelected by the Russian people. I know it's difficult to believe, but this particular Russian election was more democratic than our own in which the winner was the person with the lesser number of votes than the loser. All the comments about election sham, rigged election, voter suppression, etc., is better reserved for the US electoral system than for the election that has just been won by Mr. Putin.
The CPRF got 13% of the vote -- what kind of undemocratic authoritarian government allows a Communist Party to openly exist, run in elections, and be the second largest political party in the country?

Putin Wins Russia Election, and Broad Mandate for 4th Term

Voters came out in smaller numbers than the Kremlin had hoped, but the result showed that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia enjoys broad approval among the people.

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How Democrats Can Regain the House

"In their quest to pick up 24 seats, congressional Democrats have focused heavily on courting moderate, suburban voters who dislike Mr. Trump, and for whom issues like trade and union rights are remote considerations." To focus on this group of basically middle class professionals to the neglect of an equal focus on the blue collar union and non union working class would be fatal to any Democratic attempt to retake the House. The Party has to undo its Clinton era blunders resulting in its retreat from the traditional alliance with the union movement. The Left should be agitating for working class issues both within and outside of the confines of DP thus exerting a progressive "gravitational pull" on wavering so-called moderate Democrats.

Why Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren Are Eyeing Ohio in 2018

After President Trump won a landslide there in 2016, Ohio has become a crucial test for populist Democrats seeking a comeback in the midterm campaign.

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Republicans & Democrats Join Forces to Help Wall Street Banks

"In the typically gridlocked Congress, with the Trump legislative agenda mostly stalled, members of both parties will come together to roll back financial rules, during the 10th anniversary of the biggest banking crisis in nearly a century. And it’s happening with virtually no media attention whatsoever." The article also points out that some "populist" center-left Democrats are sponsors of this anti-people and pro Big Banks legislation. The author concludes that if a "populist Democrat feels they can sponsor such a bill and see political benefit — or at least not face much pain — [it] represents a stark failure on the left to adequately frame and define the conversation around banking, Wall Street, inequality, and the economy." Some think we failed miserably in our duty to the working class by not so framing these issues enough in the 2016 election; let's not repeat our mistakes in the upcoming midterms by uncritically supporting candidates on the Center-Left we are working to elect when they support measures that put profits before people.

Instead of Taking on Gun Control, Democrats are Teaming with Republicans for a Stealth Attack on Wall Street Reform

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Xi Jinping and the "Forces of History"

"That history [term limits] suggests that Beijing’s leaders are on what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once called a “fool’s errand”: trying to uphold a system of government that cannot survive in the modern era." Granted that Ms. Clinton is an expert on fool's errands, both she and this article are way off base. The mystical and unmeasurable "forces of history" are always trotted out to cover up ignorance of the real situation and to justify mere speculation as knowledge. China introduced term-limits in 1982 to stabilize and strengthen the political situation in the aftermath of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Nevertheless, Deng Xiaoping remained the "paramount leader" both in and out of office until his death in 1997. The real source of a leader's political power today is in the office of General Secretary of the CPC which is not subject to term limits. The change being proposed is purely cosmetic and all the hoopla in the Western press is nonsense. The stability of the Chinese government is due to the CPCs ability to properly perceive the economic and political realities of the modern world and to guide the Socialist project embarked upon with the triumph of the revolution in 1949.

Xi Sets China on a Collision Course With History

China kept a half-century of global democratic growth at bay by at least nodding to the importance of institutions and rules. Now what?

NYTIMES.COM|BY MAX FISHER

Iran Threatens Israel?

Thomas Riggins
"But as the rebels have lost ground and no clear threats to Mr. Assad's rule remain, Iran and its allies have stayed, shifting their focus to creating an infrastructure to threaten Israel, analysts say." But Turkey remains anti-Assad and has invaded areas of Syria. The US has bases in Syria and is reported to be planning a permanent (!) presence using Kurdish surrogates, Israel continues to occupy Syrian territory (the Golan Heights), and bombs the country whenever it feels like it, and the US continues to fund the remnants of Syrian rebels to keep alive the fiction of widespread anti-Assad resistance. Israel has been advocating a preventive war against Iran for years so rather than "creating an infrastructure to threaten Israel" the NYT should have said "to deter Israel" -- but we know which side of the conflict the NYT is on. If Israel wants peace all it has to do is give back land it has stolen contrary to international law, quit bombing its neighbors, give up its occupation of the West Bank and let the Palestinians have their independence with East Jerusalem as their capital (and stop calling them 'cockroaches' -- they are human beings). What are the chances that U.S. imperialism, which thrives on war and military conflicts, and it's Israeli hand puppet will take the road to peace rather than exacerbate the situation ? [ Is 'puppet' too strong? Israel takes U.S. handouts and he who pays the piper calls the tune.] Both Israel and its neighbors can live together in peace if that's what the U.S. decides it wants (really wants).

Iran, Deeply Embedded in Syria, Expands ‘Axis of Resistance’

Iran is training thousands of militiamen in Syria and deploying drones and precision weapons. Its goal, say analysts: a united front in any war with Israel.

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