Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
December 16, 2024

South Korea - Impeached Coup President 'Aligned With Washington's Values'

During the last years it has become obvious to even shallower minds that 'western values' are just a marketing slogan used to hide the enormous brutality with which the 'west' is trying to bend the world to its will.

Evidence can be found in many recent international news items: The genocide in Gaza - transmitted live for anyone to see, the baseless annulling of democratic elections in Romania, the applauding of the Jihadi takeover of secular Syria. Israel's creating of 'buffer zones' by stealing Syrian land is seen with sympathy while Russia is condemned for fighting NATO's decade old attempts to destroy its natural buffer zone of a neutral Ukraine.

All this has led to confusion. It necessitates that the rulers sell black as white, depict destruction as rebuilding, argue that sheer tyranny is an expression of democratic values.

For an example of the last point see this remark by the South Korean pro war propagandist Duyeon Kim in a recent New York Times piece which laments the loss of a U.S. controlled proxy for waging war in the Far East.

Impeachment in South Korea Has Cost Washington a Staunch Ally (archived)
President Yoon Suk Yeol shifted his country closer to Washington and stood up to Beijing. But that foreign policy could be recalibrated in the future.

“Washington couldn’t have asked for a better ally and partner than the Yoon government,” said Duyeon Kim, a fellow with the Center for a New American Security. “Until we know who South Korea’s president is, the U.S. just lost a key partner at the leader level whose personal conviction aligns with Washington’s values and approach to regional and global issues, particularly when dealing with authoritarian states.

The 'key partner' the U.S. has lost is the one who broke the constitution by declaring martial law, who illegally ordered military and police units to block the National Assembly of South Korea, who had planned to arrest the opposition leader as well as the leader of his own party, who even attempted to launch a 'limited war' with North Korea to justify his ambition for being a dictator.

Duyeon Kim is of course correct when she says that Yoon 'aligns with Washington's values' when one recognized that these values are in favor of destruction and plundering.

She is particularly correct when she says that Yoon liked the way the U.S. is dealing with authoritarian states which follow its leads. That is why he tried to remake South Korea into one.

But such double talk is obnoxious.

Its contradictions add up. The political center which uses it is starting to fold.

Posted by b on December 16, 2024 at 14:58 UTC | Permalink

Comments
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I spent all my life thinking the US was a great country, and that the evil Commies were a threat to us all. I still think Communism is a threat - all totalitarian systems are - but in the last 30 years, the greater threat is from the American neofascists, who seem to have no limits in their thirst for "moar!". It's very disturbing at this time in my life to realize that the people you've been supporting for years are liars and crooks.

Posted by: KevinB | Dec 16 2024 15:15 utc | 1

For many years, I have summarized the pillars of Western civilization as follows:

1. Racism
2. Extreme Violence
3. Cognitive Dissonance

You can see all of these at play during major events with Western involvement.

Posted by: Palm & Needle | Dec 16 2024 15:20 utc | 2

Another example of the hypocrisy listed in the top of your article. On 60 minutes last night (just happened to have it on after the football game) they were in Syria and mentioned that when Assad bombed the hospitals in the rebel zones, that it was a war crime. What the frick do they call what has happened in Gaza? I know, Israel is only defending itself.

Posted by: Groovinpict | Dec 16 2024 15:22 utc | 3

What happened in Syria has resulted in a fair amount of doom and despair. I think this is because, for the moment, it looks like the two headed monster of America and Israel is an irresistible force and a bottomless pit of evil and treachery. It's going to take a while to evaluate that because a lot of the headwinds against that beast are still there. This most likely falls in that category.

Posted by: chunga | Dec 16 2024 15:22 utc | 4

I <3 western values: dolce e gabbana.

Posted by: Otto | Dec 16 2024 15:34 utc | 5

Time to take on the commies in US Congress and of course those amongst our allies in the EU … Social-Democrats 🔥

https://x.com/RulesReps/status/1864370172443709912

Indoctrination … continuation of McCarthy - Goldwater - Florida Cuban survivors today.

Posted by: Oui | Dec 16 2024 15:40 utc | 6

- South Korea also has a surprisingly very high Debt-to-GDP ratio.

Posted by: WMG | Dec 16 2024 15:48 utc | 7

@KevinB | Dec 16 2024 15:15 utc | 1
re: I still think Communism is a threat - all totalitarian systems are

from the web
Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and controls the public sphere and the private sphere of society. In the field of political science, totalitarianism is the extreme form of authoritarianism, wherein all socio-political power is held.

So the US qualifies? Ralph Nader would say so:
"The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That's the only difference."

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 15:57 utc | 8

Posted by: KevinB | Dec 16 2024 15:15 utc | 1

Grow the fuck up. Jesus Christ!

Posted by: v | Dec 16 2024 15:57 utc | 9

Posted by: KevinB | Dec 16 2024 15:15 utc | 1

#########

I mostly thought that way until 9/11.

It got me thinking that what I believed didn't add up.

And down the rabbit hole I went, starting to grasp the enormity and depravity of Empire.

What the West (which is basically America) does is like every Empire. They all commit genocide, they all debauch the currency, they all devolve sexually.

The key differences is that this Empire overtly rejects any moral or spiritual dimension to life. These are not devout believers in the Norse pantheon or Mormons.

It is premised on the unchecked nihilism which is the logical conclusion of materialism, where worship of the human as the greatest power or force in existence.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 16:02 utc | 10

the irony in all of this is that the west, under the usa has turned into authoritarian and dictatorial force, substituting international law for their rule based order, and essentially defying democracy and freedom, especially when they don't have subservient and compliant states to order around... the west has become what it is apparently opposed to..

Posted by: james | Dec 16 2024 16:03 utc | 11

Posted by: KevinB | Dec 16 2024 15:15 utc | 1
------------------------------------------------------------------

Capitalism is a totalitarian and exploitative economic system. You may believe that the U.S. is a democratic country where everyone has a voice in political and financial affairs. However, consider this: the political landscape is dominated by a two-party system controlled by a small minority of the capitalist class. Additionally, the mass media is owned by that same minority ruling class.

Let's review: Two parties owned and controlled by a single ruling class, where information is funneled through their media = DICATORSHIP.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 16 2024 16:05 utc | 12

@ Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 15:57 utc | 8

your description for totalitarianism sounds exactly like ukraine which the west is fighting for! more irony..

Posted by: james | Dec 16 2024 16:09 utc | 13

re: "Communism is a threat"
The US and South Korea went all-out to defeat Communist Vietnam, and failed. China hasn't been invaded yet, but preparations are being made because China's communist system has lifted China up to higher levels, which is Beijing's fault to Washington. Why aren't they like us (with failing systems)?

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 16:10 utc | 14

The West is a crypto-capitalist Oligarchy ruled by the major banks and giant corporations, in which Lord Rothschild has at least as much power as the US President...That's why the middle and working classes are being crushed everywhere, and replaced by 3d worlders when possible...
The problems for the Oligarchs are two-fold.. Russia and China have repelled their advances, and the bankers have gone too far, and are eradicating the economic basis for the countries they live in....

Posted by: pyrrhus | Dec 16 2024 16:20 utc | 15

All they have to do in the Western world is publish it and its the gospel truth in most people minds. Some of these outlets have lost power but the people minds have been altered by decades of bullshit.

There are a powerful Korean politcal parties that support reunification. Something Trump tried to push in his first term by meeting with their "dear leader." That becomes "North Korean influence" and those thoughts smust be destroyed in a similar fashion to Ukraines political parties that were Russian oriented.

If Korea was reunited Western arms manufacuters may lose money, policies would have to be changed, diplomacy would have to be approched differently. Some underlying forces oppose this outcome.

Thoughts like this run deep in the establishment and is causing these panicked outcomes like this attempt at martial law and the claims of Korean troops in Russia...

There is a sizable chunk of South Korea’s Democratic Party and leftist political world that is pro-North Korea and also pro-China – as hard as that is to imagine. They are also anti-American.

Yoon right about pro-North Korea influences in South’s parliament

Posted by: circumspect | Dec 16 2024 16:26 utc | 16

@KevinB | Dec 16 2024 15:15 utc | 1
re: I still think Communism is a threat - all totalitarian systems are


The vague term and concept "totalitarian" is part of a long standing effort to obliterate the real and extreme political differences between the Nazis and the Soviets. The result: Nazis can now be lauded openly in western capitals.

You don't have to worry about commies. There is no communist state on on earth. You do however have to worry about Nazis. Our ruling class kept them on ice and is now openly thawing them out to continue their work in Ukraine and Israel (with a small change in this case of replacing German blood with Jewish blood, the rest of the worldview remains intact.)

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 16 2024 16:27 utc | 17

" I still think Communism is a threat "

Communism, like Nietszche's God, is dead. People in the USA can't get their heads around this, but real Communists are like Passenger Pigeons -- pretty rare.

Posted by: zhubajie | Dec 16 2024 16:31 utc | 18

So what is the status of the impeachment? Will the South Korean President resign?

Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 16 2024 16:33 utc | 19

Posted by: james | Dec 16 2024 16:03 utc | 11

#########

I don’t see it as ironic. It seems very predictable to me. The Founding Fathers in America were well aware of the consequences of a government pursuing power beyond its borders.

There have been no citizen-led peaceful superpowers. No empires of love and benevolence.

They all become authoritarian because Empire is a revolt against humanity, not the highest aspiration of the species.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 16:35 utc | 20

" I still think Communism is a threat "

Communism, like Nietszche's God, is dead. People in the USA can't get their heads around this, but real Communists are like Passenger Pigeons -- pretty rare.

Posted by: zhubajie | Dec 16 2024 16:31 utc | 18

True, but let's not get too down about it. The class conflict which is the material basis of Communism is more intense than anytime since WW2. It will get worse and new more radical movements of the working class (globally) will emerge. History isn't over.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 16 2024 16:38 utc | 21

I still think Communism is a threat - all totalitarian systems are...

Says someone who - totally unironically - lives under literally the most totalitarian system ever devised by humans and which is only now starting to manifest its true forms, but wherein you can have a nice TV, air conditioning in the desert and a bevy of websites and magazines devoted to your favorite hobbies.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 16 2024 16:39 utc | 22

"China hasn't been invaded yet, but preparations are being made because China's communist system has lifted China up to higher levels, which is Beijing's fault to Washington. Why aren't they like us (with failing systems)?

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 16:10 utc | 14"

PR China is no longer Communist in any meaningful sense. Private enterprise flourishes. The Party is mostly businessmen networking. (REAL Communists do not invite businessmen to join their club.)

"Serve the People" is a confucian idea.

Posted by: zhubajie | Dec 16 2024 16:41 utc | 23

Communism is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need.

The government (e.g. China) owns the means of production and manages its locations and products. In a capitalism society (e.g. US), the opposite is true.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 16:42 utc | 24

"PR China is no longer Communist in any meaningful sense. Private enterprise flourishes."

Private enterprise (aka private investor capital) does not flourish in important sectors of Chinese life. For good reason. That is why they are a "hostile foreign power" and "the enemy." Once "private enterprise" is allowed to flourish in the realms of basic healthcare, education, and usurious debt schemes and bondage, then China will be "a friendly nation."

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 16 2024 16:44 utc | 25

Test

Posted by: Christian | Dec 16 2024 16:45 utc | 26

Don Bacon@1642

You appear to be confused. A false dichotomy merely between capitalism and communism.

The opposite of capitalism is FREE ENTERPRISE, involving individuals, partnerships and cooperatives. Capitalism has devolved since the time of Marx. Industrial capitalism is dead and has been replaced by the FIRE sector: Finance, insurance and Real Estate...with highest finance capital in the driver's seat.

Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 16 2024 16:51 utc | 27

"I spent all my life thinking the US was a great country,'

'When I was a child, I thought as a child and I spake as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.' - St. Paul

Around 1995, I realized I could no longer believe any of the flattering cliches I'd been brainwashed with in childhood. The USA is not divinely inspired, bor is our constitution. Our constant wars benefited only sadists and sociopaths. Our elections changed nothing. Greed, selfishness, the lust to dominate are out real values.

It's made conversation with most Americans hard. E.g.,, D and R parites are both despicable, if in slightly different ways. China, Russia, et al., are "evil" mostly by not submitting to Uncle Sam.

Posted by: zhubajie | Dec 16 2024 16:52 utc | 28

re: communism vs. capitalism
reuters, Mar 5
China's Xi Jinping summons 'new productive forces'

HONG KONG/BEIJING, March 6 (Reuters) - Facing its deepest economic challenges in years, China's leadership has tasked ministries and local governments with implementing a new mantra from President Xi Jinping: unleash "new productive forces".
In his annual report to China’s legislature on Tuesday, Premier Li Qiang, Xi’s top deputy, vowed a “new leap forward” by supporting developing sectors and industries including electric vehicles, new materials, commercial spaceflight, quantum technology and life sciences. . .here

Washington has now done similar with chips.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 17:06 utc | 29

@Ahenobarbus | Dec 16 2024 16:38

Communism isn't dead. Communism is an ideology. To assert that it's dead is to assert capitalism is dead. As long as there is capitalism, there will undoubtedly be communists. There are communists, still, in Russia, the US and just about every other country on earth.

Posted by: zeke2u | Dec 16 2024 17:10 utc | 30

Many Koreans have an understandable natural urge to have one country again, as Germany has done long ago, for example, and so they resent being a separated country maintained by the US with its crazy rules-based international order and its endless Korean war with people like Yoon.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 17:17 utc | 31

Maybe of interest: https://www.cnas.org/support-cnas/cnas-supporters'

Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 16 2024 17:24 utc | 32

Ahenobarbus | Dec 16 2024 16:27 utc | 17

You don't have to worry about commies. There is no communist state on on earth. You do however have to worry about Nazis. Our ruling class kept them on ice and is now openly thawing them out to continue their work in Ukraine and Israel (with a small change in this case of replacing German blood with Jewish blood, the rest of the worldview remains intact.)

Here it is, sir. Beautifully encapsulated, the colour is irrelevant, immaterial even ?
Glass of water ?

Ô Ginge, how I love thee !

Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Dec 16 2024 17:26 utc | 33

@ steven t johnson | Dec 16 2024 17:24 utc | 32
404

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 17:27 utc | 34

Washington's values are comprised of bullying others while claiming to respect sovereignty and self-governance, etc.

These values entail usurping the will of other nations (through force, bribery, coercion, coups, assassinations, yellow journalism or any combination thereof).

Self-determination to choose their own form of government is not permitted.

Specifically, and currently, other nations must succumb to the great and powerful USA and its determination to construct Greater Isra*l by any means necessary.

Many lapdogs have been created by the USA through a variety of methods as outlined above.

The Korean President is one example.

Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Dec 16 2024 17:32 utc | 35

@ Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 17:27 utc | 34

I think the trailing apostrophe attached at the end of the link is causing that.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Dec 16 2024 17:34 utc | 36

@ Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Dec 16 2024 17:34 utc | 36
You're correct.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 17:37 utc | 37

Patrick Lawrence, The Centrists Cannot Hold elaborates on the ongoing destruction of democracy.

Posted by: MorePain4Cakes | Dec 16 2024 17:44 utc | 38

"Western values" are most succintly sublimed in Tacitus' immortal paragraph:

"To plunder, butcher, steal - these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and call it peace."

Posted by: ThirdWorldDude | Dec 16 2024 17:55 utc | 39

@Ahenobarbus | Dec 16 2024 16:38

Communism isn't dead. Communism is an ideology. To assert that it's dead is to assert capitalism is dead. As long as there is capitalism, there will undoubtedly be communists. There are communists, still, in Russia, the US and just about every other country on earth.

Posted by: zeke2u | Dec 16 2024 17:10 utc | 30

Yes, Zeke. Read a little closer though.

Marxism and class struggle are very much alive and well, but there is no revolutionary party and no communist country on the face of the earth, so for young Kevin to be concerned about commies is a bit silly considering their antipode, fascism, is revived and and active across the globe. That's all.

To assert Capitalism is dead would be just ridiculous. We're all swimming in it. Like a fish denying the existence of water.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 16 2024 18:00 utc | 40

@38

US democracy saw Biden in 2020 get 7 million more counted ballots than Harris in 2024.

About the same count as unaudited mail in.

Protesters of that scam are in jail in the U.S.

Democracy, not!

Posted by: paddy | Dec 16 2024 18:00 utc | 41

Well said, b!!

And Donald Trump has said very clearly:-

"No More Killing ! !"

I pray it will be so.

Posted by: juliania | Dec 16 2024 18:03 utc | 42

How to pack your cabinet with billionaire Zionists and stop the killing.

That's a trick I'd like to see.

Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Dec 16 2024 18:10 utc | 43

Posted by: KevinB | Dec 16 2024 15:15 utc | 1

I still think Communism is a threat - all totalitarian systems are -

A threat to whom? A system who favours the majority of the population is not totalitarian. You reproduce the bullshit propaganda of the yankees and their vassals. China is not a threat. It has no military bases close to the yankeeland.

but in the last 30 years, the greater threat is from the American neofascists, who seem to have no limits in their thirst for "moar!".

Onloy during the last 30 years? What about the Amerindian genocides to start with? And what about the lies about JFK, MLK, RFK, the moon, the 911?

It's very disturbing at this time in my life to realize that the people you've been supporting for years are liars and crooks.

They always were. Ask the Amerindians. Not one treaty concluded with the native tribes was respected. How is that you were not aware of it?

But in the end, sincere congratulations for going over a cognitive dissonance. Not everybody is able to do it.

Posted by: Naive | Dec 16 2024 18:14 utc | 44

Posted by: Palm & Needle | Dec 16 2024 15:20 utc | 2

Spot on!!!

Posted by: Naive | Dec 16 2024 18:15 utc | 45

Posted by: ThirdWorldDude | Dec 16 2024 17:55 utc | 39

Poor Vandals, they got their eternal bad reputation for doing once what the Romans practised over centuries.

Posted by: MorePain4Cakes | Dec 16 2024 18:24 utc | 46

One need only look at what has happened to Imran Khan in Pakistan to see what is likely to be the fate of any South Korean president who hopes to steer a course independent of the mafia gang that is the United States empire. The empire is completely ruthless and shameless.

Posted by: Rob | Dec 16 2024 18:24 utc | 47

zhubajie | Dec 16 2024 16:52 utc | 28

'When I was a child, I thought as a child and I spake as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.' - St. Paul

He very obviously didn't, because 'normally' when you 'grow up' you no longer believe in Father Christmas !

It's Sky Fairies All The Way, er, Up !

Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Dec 16 2024 18:25 utc | 48

The Korea Herald
Military suffers unprecedented leadership void

South Korea’s military leadership crisis is deepening as key unit commanders come under scrutiny in the investigation into President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Dec. 3 martial law declaration. Three three-star generals under investigation have been dismissed from their posts while the Army Chief of Staff has been suspended from duty.
The military court on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-geun, former chief of the Special Warfare Command and Lt. Gen. Lee Jin-woo, former head of the Capital Defense Command, allowing investigators to detain them during the ongoing probe.
Both appeared for their detention warrant hearings at the Central Regional Military Court in Yongsan, Seoul, earlier in the day. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 18:27 utc | 49

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 17:27 utc | 34 Thanks for the heads up. I think I somehow accidentally added an apostrophe to the URL?

https://www.cnas.org/people?group=cnas-supporters

Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 16 2024 18:30 utc | 50

Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Dec 16 2024 18:10 utc | 43

###########

Not meant as slander but Israeli policy is American policy applied to West Asia.

It's not like Israelis are odd. They are implementing the same approach that America used in Serbia, Libya, and Central America.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 18:31 utc | 51

About values.

The western countries are applying the Nietzschean ideology which already inspired Hitler:

- inversion of all values;
- will of power;
- Uebermensch.

And the eternal return that make it possible to decline all responsibilities.

Nietzsche loved war, was racist, hated women (mother and sister at the first place) saw nothing wrong with oppression and the use of strength, hated the livestok (that is the majority of humanity).

He also hated any form of democracy. He was psychotic, hypocondriac and often on drugs.

He advised to get rid of all human wastes and he advised doctors to help ill people to die. A pity that he was not able to apply that advice to himself: it took him more than 10 years to snuff it.

He wanted an united Europe. He was the first European nationalist. He also wanted to dismember the Russian empire. Does it ring a bell currently?


Posted by: Naive | Dec 16 2024 18:36 utc | 52

https://www.cnas.org/people?group=board-of-directors
https://www.cnas.org/people?group=board-of-advisors

Or maybe not, this website is very hostile to me? I can't load the web page listing last years donors, headed by Amazon.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 16 2024 18:38 utc | 53

This thread will cause apoplexy to that Zionist joker "Milites". Not only b exposes the western duplicity towards the Zionist regime tat "Milites" wholeheartedly supports vs Russia, it involves an anti-communist fascist Ptresident in South Korea. Worse, the comment section has gone on fire on the Cold War claptrap that has been used with such success by the Anglo-American elites to achieve the restoration of fascism in the western world after its military defeat in WWII.

Posted by: Constantine | Dec 16 2024 18:39 utc | 54

Posted by: Rob | Dec 16 2024 18:24 utc | 47

##########

Not if a smart leader comes in and can clean out the military establishment in the ROK early in his tenure.

Political power rests on military power.

That is why the former French President of Georgia spent a lot of her time talking to the Georgian military. She knew that words were not enough. That is also why the CIA cultivated the Nazi units in Ukraine such that the Maidan became a fiat accompli.

Ballot boxes are relatively inconsequential. Ammo boxes determine who rules.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 18:40 utc | 55

Congratulations to South Korea. The US treated your constitution the same way they and the "CORE Group" treated and treats Haiti's constitution --- very high quality toilet paper.

Posted by: Johan Meyer (2) | Dec 16 2024 18:45 utc | 56

Communism is an ideology
zeke2u | Dec 16 2024 17:10 utc
The German Ideology

Once upon-a-time we were all communists, before civilisation enslaved us, imposing upon us hierachies and the ideology of private property... and the creation of religion

Posted by: hh | Dec 16 2024 18:46 utc | 57

North Koreans: in Kursk.
South Korea: coup and chaos.
Somehow the two are intrinsically linked.
The psyop of Kim’s kamikaze krazy korps in Kursk was somehow planted as “fact”.
Then the South Korean president was supposed to impose martial rule, and….
1/ allow more South Korean munitions to Ukraine?
2/ FAFO with North Korea?
Remember. There’s USD 10 trillion in un exploited minerals in DPRK.
Miss Lindsay was almost orgasmic about the minerals in Donbass (which he says the Russians must not be allowed to control).
North Korea was allowed for decades to stand outside Hegemon and be mocked for its Dear Leader and juche.
But now, Hegemon is seriously irritated. As the conflict with an ascendent China draws closer, North Korea is a serious obstruction.
With Russia occupied with Ukraine, time for the Hegemon to knock over a few more pieces on the Grand Chessboard.
Syria. In play.
The Koreas. In play.
Everything everywhere is connected. And there to be “weaponise”.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Dec 16 2024 18:51 utc | 58

It's not like Israelis are odd. They are implementing the same approach that America USA used in Serbia, Libya, and Central America. North America
LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 18:31 utc

Posted by: hh | Dec 16 2024 18:55 utc | 59

True, but let's not get too down about it. The class conflict which is the material basis of Communism is more intense than anytime since WW2. It will get worse and new more radical movements of the working class (globally) will emerge. History isn't over.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 16 2024 16:38 utc | 21
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marxists are divided on this issue, but many (myself included) believe that "Communism" is an advanced form of Socialism where the most corrosive aspects of the State have withered away and are no longer necessary, something that no socialist state has achieved so far, and nor exploitive system (slavery, feudalism, and capitalism) could ever achieve because the state in the primary apparatus required to hold down the exploited majority classes.


In his Critique of the Gotha Programme, Marx critiques a draft program for the United Workers' Party of Germany based on letters that he had written in the past. The Critique is the only place where Marx ever discusses his ideas about what a future socialist state might look like, and this is because such a state had never emerged at that time. In his critique, Marx discussed the transition from capitalism to communism, where socialism is the early stage that would necessarily retain much of the tools of capitalism.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/

Posted by: Ed | Dec 16 2024 19:05 utc | 60

Posted by: KevinB | Dec 16 2024 15:15 utc | 1 So-called totalitarianism is not a real concept, it is a propaganda construct.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 16:02 utc | 10 The notion that the American bourgeoisie rejects any moral or spiritual dimension to life is, sorry, nonsense. That's why churches have tax privileges, for one. They most certainly believe property rights are sacred! That's why prejudices against Muslims, for one, or for Zionism (insofar as the two can be distinguished) or against atheists or so-called liberal churches (but for Mormons) are so common as motives/excuses. This may simply be a covert plea for deeming Trump the flawed human carrying out the will of God? Hope not but one never knows for sure.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 16 2024 16:27 utc | 17 A capitalist state is ruled by the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie does not rule in the PRC or Cuba or the DPRK or Vietnam or even in Venezuela. If capitalists ruled in the PRC, the Taiwan bourgeoisie (which does rule Taiwan as much as possible given its dependency on the US) hasn't reuinified with the mainland. Trotskyite wreckers cover their desire to overthrow actually existing socialist states by invoking, openly or not, some abstract scheme of the supposedly real thing.

Posted by: zhubajie | Dec 16 2024 16:31 utc | 18 Unlike some I'm not a mindreader, so I can't speak to Nietzche personally...but God is not dead, not for millions of people in the US, nor in the world at large. Lots of them attend churches regularly, donate, send their children to religious schools. I suppose some people know what the true God is, so they can dismiss such testimonials, but I'm not holier than they are, I can't.

Posted by: zhubajie | Dec 16 2024 16:41 utc | 23 The claim the government should serve the people is not unique to Confucianism. Nor is serving the people incompatible with emperors, so it is not even clear to me in what sense Confucianism (or some supposedly real Confucianism) is somehow genuinely making the world better. People's hopes and dreams are always a part of religious language, yes. But you have to see what people do, not just say, especially about themselves, sorry.

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 16 2024 16:51 utc | 27 Free enterprise is also crucifying man on the cross of gold, panics and depressions, union busting, mass poverty, colonialism, taxation levied on the poor but excused for the rich, the sanctity of property---even in people--- and contracts. Counterposing so-called free enterprise to actually existing capitalism is reactionary, upholding a mythological past that is gone with the wind.

Posted by: zhubajie | Dec 16 2024 16:52 utc | 28 Patriotism, as expressed in American exceptionalism, is still a moral and spiritual value in good standing. Common people are often willing to sacrifice in submission to their masters if they call themselves patriots, American exceptionalists. This is a Trumper commentariat, you should have noticed I think.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 16 2024 19:16 utc | 61

Once upon a time, we were all communists before civilization enslaved us, imposing upon us hierarchies, and the ideology of private property... and the creation of religion.

Posted by: hh | Dec 16 2024 18:46 utc | 57
---------------------------------------------------------------
Also, see Engels: The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. It's somewhat dated science, but the theory holds up quite well for a hundred-and-thirty-year-old discussion. It is foundational for Marxism.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/

Posted by: Ed | Dec 16 2024 19:22 utc | 62

And Donald Trump has said very clearly:-

"No More Killing ! !"

I pray it will be so.

Posted by: juliania

The way that happens is engaging in diplomacy in a way that seeks genuine solutions. There was a glimmer of hope Trump could do that. Look at his meeting with Kim jong. He didnt do it. If he did he would be JFK ed. If you want diplomacy you hire diplomats. Trump has not hired diplomats. Trump simply sells his product. Stop the wars. Shoot down the drones.

Trump sells himself as a alternative to the beltway swamp. He presents himself as a entrapanuer with unique solutions. We were presented with this model in the Hollywood Iron man propaganda. That wealth should be trusted rather than institutions to create justice. IMO that the Trump model was presented by Hollywood propaganda is very telling.

Trumps first term had some major events. He exited the INF treaty. That got us Oreshnik. He exited JCPOA. Discarding these agreements undermined any ability to make more agreements. If all agreements are subject to summary termination by a new king every four years what good are agreements? This was a never before seen attack on the principles of diplomacy. While Trumps extending a willingness to negotiate witth Kim Jong was a step in the right direction any agreement made had to be trustworthy . By exiting previous agreements Trump destroyed the ability to make future agreements. He destroyed his own ability to negotiate agreements as well as future ability to negotiate agreements. The USA is demonstrably untrustworthy. Trump also demonstrated a profound liking of covert military force. These actions display beliefs that IMO can not lead to "stop the killing".

The actions of the Obama regime first with the destruction of Libya then the start of the war in Libya By Hillary Clinton as secretary of state were despicable. Hillary Clinton can now celebrate her war Syria as a achievement like Bushs war in Iraq and Obamas war in Libya with the final destruction of Syria.

Team blue and team red both represent a particular form of exceptionalism and each of these models has been cultivated by propaganda. Neithe has respect for justice and both are regarded with justifiable distrust in the world. Their primary characteristic is war.

Just like Poreshenko and Zelensky who promised peace and practiced war in Ukraine the USA is the same. Mere puppets telling their base what they want to hear. The Insertion of Biden can be considered a deep state courtesy giving the BIDEN/ Hillary? Obama legacy a time to finish their task in Syria. They are out of the woods now. Trumps task is Iran and whatever words he may utter are noises nothing more.

Trump is a necessary inconvenience to the deep state. A alternative created to present the illusion of freedom. Party of war one or party of war two. The issues of contention between the two partys are intentionally radical and divisive as those qualities maintain the illusion that there is a choice. Trumps qualities however are well understood by the deep state. Fundamentally Trump has sabotaged any chance for negotiated peace whether clown show number one or clown show number two. That doesnt mean Trump is off the hook for his task Iran.

There is a new clown show ahead. It is yet seen. WE will start to see it in the next four years as the propaganda machine will form its basis. These models are constantly evolving and progressing not simply rehashes of past models. The experiment has a lot of overhead and cost is a consideration. In a world with depleting resources downsizing is often considered appropriate.

Posted by: Fred | Dec 16 2024 19:26 utc | 63

Posted by: MorePain4Cakes | Dec 16 2024 18:24 utc | 46

There's nothing new under the sun, neither propaganda nor psycho(patho)logical projection...

Posted by: ThirdWorldDude | Dec 16 2024 19:40 utc | 64

US democracy saw Biden in 2020 get 7 million more counted ballots than Harris in 2024. About the same count as unaudited mail in.

Protesters of that scam are in jail in the U.S. Democracy, not!

Posted by: paddy | Dec 16 2024 18:00 utc | 41
--------------------------------------------------------------------

The 2020 election is the same as all US elections; they are inter-ruling-class struggles for the right to serve the deep state. I would be more impressed if the J6 rioters fought for a majority government, one that served the interests of working people, children, old people, the sick, and the lame, human rights, not billionaires.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 16 2024 19:43 utc | 65

Posted by: Fred | Dec 16 2024 19:26 utc | 63

############

It pleases me that another person here sees that America has rendered itself unable to conduct diplomacy with peers.

Anyone who has ever negotiated knows that some measure of trust is essential. Very few countries trust America, and now their ability to bully/cajole (militarily and sanctions) has been revealed as increasingly impotent. The more Trump blusters and it doesn't work, Yankee credibility shrinks further.

When diplomacy cannot happen, warfare will. The Russians (Putin and Belousov) yesterday that they expect a war with NATO within 10 years. The Russians don't have a habit of trying to scare everyone with propaganda and threats of disaster. If they say it, they are very serious about it.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 19:46 utc | 66

Bravo Bernhard! A splendid piece of writing. Reasoned and full of style.

Posted by: Copeland | Dec 16 2024 19:52 utc | 67

Posted by: KevinB | Dec 16 2024 15:15 utc | 1

Grow the fuck up. Jesus Christ!

Posted by: v | Dec 16 2024 15:57 utc | 9

Why? Because until the 1960's it was easy to believe the us and western europe were the good ones? You have early warnings at the start of the 1960's and serious indictments from the late 60's onwards, but it was still easy to ignore until the 80's, most of the dubious? nahh palin evil stuff was done hidden , with decorum as it was still plainly understood as bad.

And it isn't that difficult for many to refuse to believe for another decade that things were going down a very bleak road.


----


Posted by: Naive | Dec 16 2024 18:36 utc | 52

Poor Nietzsche, you just destroyed and distorted his philosophy more than any mis-endorsment by the nazis.

It's much worse, and basic, than you paint it.

---------

Now for B's article

The coup would give the us praetor in SK full war powers.

That's about it

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2024 20:11 utc | 68

Here in Japan, militarization is also underway in recent years, probably led by the U.S. If the Western world is going to collapse, let it happen quickly.

Posted by: sam | Dec 16 2024 20:19 utc | 69

It pleases me that another person here sees that America has rendered itself unable to conduct diplomacy with peers. . .
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 19:46 utc | 66

The problem with the US worldview (one of its problems) is that it does not see any other nation as a peer. They are all vassals, expected to bend the knee to the mighty USA.

Posted by: Mike R | Dec 16 2024 20:20 utc | 70

The actions of the Obama regime, first with the destruction of Libya and then the start of the war in Libya By Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, were despicable. Hillary Clinton can now celebrate her war Syria as a achievement like Bushs war in Iraq and Obamas war in Libya with the final destruction of Syria.

Posted by: Fred | Dec 16 2024 19:26 utc | 63
------------------------------------------------------------

I liked your rant; just a minor correction: Libya was not Obama and Hillary's first victim. Honduras was.

On 29 November 2009, a presidential election was held under a state of emergency declared in Decree PCM-M-030-2009. According to the decree, ... "Obama says coup in Honduras is illegal". However, he and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, did not demand that the rightful winner of the election, José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, be restored. After winning the election, he was arrested at gunpoint in his home. Hillary and a group of Republicans agreed that the right-wing candidate (who is now in prison in the US for drug trafficking) should remain in office.


Posted by: Ed | Dec 16 2024 20:25 utc | 71

The problem with the US worldview (one of its problems) is that it does not see any other nation as a peer. They are all vassals, expected to bend the knee to the mighty USA.

Posted by: Mike R | Dec 16 2024 20:20 utc | 70

###########

Fatal delusions.

Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 20:30 utc | 72

Poor Nietzsche, you just destroyed and distorted his philosophy more than any mis-endorsment by the nazis.

It's much worse, and basic, than you paint it.

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2024 20:11 utc | 68

You said too much or not enough. His "philosophy"..., he was never a philosophe, but a philologue. One who loves war doesn't love wisdom.

You show no argument to support your assertions. Do you speak German? For contrary to you if you don't, Hitler read Nietzsche without a translation and understood what he was reading. He even offered the complete works to Mussolini when the latter was in prison.

Posted by: Naive | Dec 16 2024 20:38 utc | 73

“Washington couldn’t have asked for a better ally and partner than the Yoon government,” said Duyeon Kim, a fellow with the Center for a New American Security. “Until we know who South Korea’s president is, the U.S. just lost a key partner at the leader level whose personal conviction aligns with Washington’s values and approach to regional and global issues, particularly when dealing with authoritarian states.”

This is boilerplate US propaganda, could have been cut and pasted from a script. Not an original thought anywhere, in other words a puff piece for the NYT's empire promotion agenda.

"During the last years it has become obvious to even shallower minds that 'western values' are just a marketing slogan used to hide the enormous brutality with which the 'west' is trying to bend the world to its will." b

The problem is that most of those shallow western minds have bought into a number of doctrinal planks regarding America's place in the world. Perhaps the most powerful one is the belief among most Americans that the country is surrounded by enemies out to destroy it, and the follow-on belief that the US is an innocent defender of 'values' just doing what it has to do to preserve all that is right in the world. These beliefs are hammered into US people from childhood. These beliefs make most Americans a willing consumer of all the repulsive propaganda that spills from the pens of the Duyeon Kims of the world.

"President Yoon Suk Yeol shifted his country closer to Washington and stood up to Beijing. But that foreign policy could be recalibrated in the future." (subtitle of Times article) Yes, Yoon 'stood up' to Beijing, that big bully, and stood for democratic values, because the US is, after all, the victim. In Western thought, black is white and up is down. I don't like to use the word brainwashed, but if the US populace was not brainwashed, this kind of tripe would be rejected out of hand, and the NYT's would be out of business.

Posted by: Mike R | Dec 16 2024 20:39 utc | 74

???
Was the declaration of Martial Law by the South Korean President a dry run for the Declaration of Martial Law in the US prior to Trump's Inauguration?
???

After reading about all the drones flying over New Jersey, it seemed reasonable to assume that sometype of National Emergency Declaration could happen. Now that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said a shipment of radioactive materials had been stolen and the drones appear to being used to locate the stolen radioactive shipment; a dirty bomb(s) scenario could be developing.

If a dirty bomb(s) incident did occur, it could very result in a National Emergency Declaration being made. Then Martial Law could be declared and implemented.

Another result of the Emergency Declaration could be a delay in the Inauguration of Trump and the postponement of the Presidential transfer of power.

Actually I prefer the space alien scenario to explain the drones.

Posted by: Jerr | Dec 16 2024 20:49 utc | 75

TypePad is censoring my posts today. It may be because of links to Zer0Hedge, or the content of the story itself. You will have to find the story yourself.

SOMETHING VERY BAD AND DIRTY in New Jersey?

The Internet has finally come up with a plausible explanation for the drones flying in the night sky over New Jersey... They are <something very bad> sniffers looking for something "big". Zer0Hedge has the best write-up of the story.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Dec 16 2024 20:53 utc | 76

Naive | Dec 16 2024 20:38 utc | 73

You show no argument to support your assertions. Do you speak German? For contrary to you if you don't, Hitler read Nietzsche without a translation and understood what he was reading. He even offered the complete works to Mussolini when the latter was in prison.
Interesting. The originals or the ones edited by his (Frieddies) sister, the serious nutjob ?

Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Dec 16 2024 20:55 utc | 77

Interesting. The originals or the ones edited by his (Frieddies) sister, the serious nutjob ?

Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Dec 16 2024 20:55 utc | 77

Nietzsche became famous only after he got his dementia. Thank to his dementia and thank to his sister. The volume published under the title "The will of power" was indeed edited by his sister: it was a collection of unpublished papers (the so-called posthumous papers) from the hand of Nietzsche. The posthumous papers change nothing to the whole picture.

By the way, complete works mean complete works.

Posted by: Naive | Dec 16 2024 21:24 utc | 78

Drones search for nuclear warhead from Ukraine?

Here is the TikTok video by John Ferguson, reposted on X. He says his source claims an ex-Soviet nuclear warhead from Ukraine was being shipped to the United States.

Mila Joy @MilaLovesJoe on X (9 minute video)

John Ferguson, the CEO of Saxon Aerospace, a manufacturer of manned drones, gives his assessment of all the mysterious drones plaguing New Jersey and other places in America right now.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Dec 16 2024 21:34 utc | 79

All the classic Marxist references posted are excellent. Interesting thread. The initiator of the thread is correct in a chicken and egg sense because true communist consciousness can not arise from the brutal capitalist societies we all grow up in, and, is not possible until there is sufficient material wealth for all to have all necessary material and social wealth to thrive. All the attempts to build communist societies, such as the USSR, have been conscious attempts to build towards achieving those objective material conditions of sufficiency for all. Only then can true communist consciousness arise. This is one reason why Mark only tried to describe what such a society might look like once, in the Gotha Program. No one can really know; we are still a long way from having sufficient productive capacity. It is a contradiction, but historical materialism allows the possibility of opposite things coexisting, but the philosophy/epistomology considers everything to be in flux, in a process of change. Socialism is the interim stage wherein its proponents [who may call themselves communists] try to implement those policies that will most likely lead to economic and social sufficiency for all. Seems to me this is turning out to be a historically long process. Which should not be a surprise; we are now in the 6th century of colonialism/neocolonialism. La lucha continua, imo.

Posted by: mjh | Dec 16 2024 21:37 utc | 80

@ Naive | Dec 16 2024 21:24 utc | 78

If you don't mind my adding to your comment: The works of Nietzsche's published during his lifetime pose few serious editorial problems. Some of the posthumous ones do: *Ecce Homo*, for instance, but the editorial Pfuscherei wasn't committed by his sister, who was largely responsible for selectively editing and attempting to systematize the random jottings and essays that she misleadingly published with the title *Der Wille zur Macht* (misleading because while Nietzsche toyed with the idea of writing a work with that title, nothing suggests that he meant to apply the title to the content that Nietzsche's sister had published).

Posted by: malenkov | Dec 16 2024 21:37 utc | 81

This article describes the offical line of the US Nuckear Regulatory Agency on what was list and where on December 2, 2024.

Can cut and paste parts here if not readily available to some.


https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/12/u-s-nuclear-regulatory-commission-releases-report-confirming/

Posted by: Jerr | Dec 16 2024 21:48 utc | 82

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2024 20:11 utc | 68

You said too much or not enough. His "philosophy"..., he was never a philosophe, but a philologue. One who loves war doesn't love wisdom.

You show no argument to support your assertions. Do you speak German? For contrary to you if you don't, Hitler read Nietzsche without a translation and understood what he was reading. He even offered the complete works to Mussolini when the latter was in prison.

Posted by: Naive | Dec 16 2024 20:38 utc | 73

Interesting. The originals or the ones edited by his (Frieddies) sister, the serious nutjob ?

Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Dec 16 2024 20:55 utc | 77

Nietzsche became famous only after he got his dementia. Thank to his dementia and thank to his sister. The volume published under the title "The will of power" was indeed edited by his sister: it was a collection of unpublished papers (the so-called posthumous papers) from the hand of Nietzsche. The posthumous papers change nothing to the whole picture.

By the way, complete works mean complete works.

Posted by: Naive | Dec 16 2024 21:24 utc | 78

"The posthumous papers change nothing " But they do, there is one point where I can agree with you, maybe philosopher in the modern sense is not a good moniker for the greatest wise man (mystic?) of the XIXth century, a (super) man that felt the chaos that brewed and embraced it in all its contradictions, yes he embraced many things and their exact opposite (and yet) with a passion few can for just a world view.

I'm afraid I don't speak german (tried once to take a peek but left me only able to understand a word here and a phrase there in an article but that's it, was but a few weeks before I quit, maybe I'll get back to it after finally taking up latin).

If my opinion doesn't suit you, suit yourself, it's been decades since I read his "serious works" and “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

But still I confirm and reassert that were the poor decadent rulers of this end of (these) times to have an inkling of true nietzschean "philosophy" I would be much less worried. These last men (?) can't hold a candle to him nor dance to his (or any) tune.

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2024 21:52 utc | 83

No one can really know; we are still a long way from having sufficient productive capacity.

Posted by: mjh | Dec 16 2024 21:37 utc | 80

And yet I cannot but believe that we are at the cusp of a major change, and either these decades we've lived in will be seen as an almost legendary age of impossible wealth and knowledge, or the last decades before post-scarcity.

What I fear is that there is no middle road, the prize is impressive, the pitfalls daunting.

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2024 21:58 utc | 84

Naive | Dec 16 2024 21:24 utc | 78

Nietzsche became famous only after he got his dementia. Thank to his dementia and thank to his sister. The volume published under the title "The will of power" was indeed edited by his sister: it was a collection of unpublished papers (the so-called posthumous papers) from the hand of Nietzsche. The posthumous papers change nothing to the whole picture.

By the way, complete works mean complete works.

By the way complete works does not mean compleat works, editions, mods etc are notoriously inc (ibid*)

* This is a joke. No, honest !

Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Dec 16 2024 21:58 utc | 85

@ Fred | Dec 16 2024 19:26 utc | 63

well said.. thanks.. i concur.. ed adds a fine point - obama and honduras, but other then that.. excellent commentary..

Posted by: james | Dec 16 2024 22:06 utc | 86

The Militarisation of South Korea objective was accompanied by a lot of sympathy for similar trends in Japan and Taïwan, and some form of nostalgy for the second WW era, which by the way represent a treason vis à vis the pain endured by Korea and its population due to Japan military and regime during WW2.
beyond SK, the simultaneous moves in these three places is noticeable and should be linked to the quite agressive US policy of China containment.

Posted by: Dany | Dec 16 2024 22:18 utc | 87

Private enterprise (aka private investor capital) does not flourish in important sectors of Chinese life. For good reason. That is why they are a "hostile foreign power" and "the enemy." Once "private enterprise" is allowed to flourish in the realms of basic healthcare, education, and usurious debt schemes and bondage, then China will be "a friendly nation."

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 16 2024 16:44 utc | 25

This is a simplification to the point of being wrong.

The US is not so much concerned be state ownership of capital in China as it is by capital accumulation being carried out in China outside the control of the US ruling class.

For example, Huawei, one of the early targets of US trade and technology wars against China, was not targeted by the US because it is a state owned company, but because it is carrying out capital accumulation independently of the US and threatens US global technological dominance in key areas.

The US admitted China to the WTO in the early 2000s on the basis of an agreement that China would open its economy up to US capital, in the same way as the UK, Germany and Japan are open to capital flows. The rulers of China, not being naive or ingénues, banked the mercantile benefits of WTO membership but did not open their economy to subordination and plunder by foreign capital.

It is this decision by the rulers of China that set the stage for the turn against China by the US ruling class. But this rivalry is not ideological, it is a rivalry between two centres of capital accumulation, one of which, the US, is in visible decline.

Just to make what is going on this absolutely clear, in the 1980s, Japanese industrial capital began to be considered a serious threat by the US. The US responded by imposing the 1985 Plaza Accords on their Japanese clients. The Plaza Accords achieved the desired outcome, which was the sinking of the Japanese economy.

Putting aside some of Nakasone’s bizarre racial ideas, there were no ideological differences to speak of between the US and the Japanese ruling classes. The US simply saw their Japanese clients as a threat and so holed their economy below the water line.

As someone noted, the bourgeoisie are a band of warring brothers. This behaviour is baked in.

Posted by: Lengai | Dec 16 2024 22:20 utc | 88

It is this decision by the rulers of China that set the stage for the turn against China by the US ruling class. But this rivalry is not ideological, it is a rivalry between two centres of capital accumulation, one of which, the US, is in visible decline.


Posted by: Lengai | Dec 16 2024 22:20 utc | 88

It took two world wars for the last ones in gb to bow to us dominance and transfer their assets (the smart ones jumped after the first one)

I already asked one thing in a previous thread, when 90% of the wealth is in the hands of a few, why would they pay for a decaying and expensive empire when you can get the new guys to do the same cheaper? And how do you convince a populace under a pauperization process to fight and die for an empire that is screwing them and not the conquered?

You can't.

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2024 22:30 utc | 89

Duyeon Kim - "the U.S. just lost a key partner at the leader level whose personal conviction aligns with Washington’s values and approach to regional and global issues"

His replacement, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Mar 8 - "We will effectively deter North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations and actively contribute to the international efforts to end the war in Ukraine and bring peace.
The security and economic principle of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration is to strengthen alliances and protect national interests following the "rules-based international order," while reviving the economy through a private-led market economy." . . .here

Han has a doctorate in economics in 1984 from Harvard University.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 22:39 utc | 90

The real test of whether SK President Yoon Sukyeol aspired to becoming a dictator would surely be his willingness to sacrifice Korean sovereignty and put SK on a path towards becoming a colony of Japan again.

At present, with SK forces coming under US command if a war between the US and its allies (including SK and Japan) against China were to break out, this seems remote - but suppose the US were to start favouring Japanese officers in promotions over and above SK officers, or compelled Japan and SK to combine their militaries?

Significantly the first President of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, relied on people who collaborated with Japanese colonial officials to govern SK in its early years. Park Chunghee, who came to power in 1961 in a military putsch and dominated the country's politics until his assassination in 1979, had served with Japanese military forces. Park's daughter Geunhye later became President herself in 2012 until her impeachment in 2017.

Park was the leader who initiated a series of 5-year economic plans that industrialised SK, which (among other things) compelled farmers to give up farming and go into the cities to work in factories - because at the same time, the govt kept prices for agricultural products so low that farming ended being an unviable occupation for most people.

The enemy within: shadow of Japanese past hangs over S. Korea

A century after mass protests against Japanese colonial rule in Korea the issue of those who collaborated with Tokyo -- many of whom later become part of the South Korean elite -- remains hidden in the shadows.

When the Seoul government signed a 1910 treaty handing sovereignty over the peninsula to Japan, their new overlords awarded 76 key politicians and officials Japanese noble titles and pensions worth millions.

Over the next 35 years hundreds of thousands of Koreans worked for colonial authorities as civil servants, soldiers, teachers or police.

And according to historians hundreds of thousands more were forcibly recruited as frontline troops, slave workers and wartime sex slaves.

A few thousand others went into exile in China to fight Japanese forces.

The independence struggle is at the heart of Korean national identity in both North and South, but eight in 10 South Koreans believe their country has never properly come to terms with the issue of collaboration, according to a government study released for last week's 100th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement.

Mass protests against Japanese rule began that day in 1919, only to be forcibly put down, with 7,500 killed within two months and 46,000 arrested according to Seoul's national archives.

In a commemorative speech President Moon Jae-in said "wiping out the vestiges of pro-Japanese collaborators" was a "long-overdue undertaking".

But it is an intensely political issue, with collaborators generally seen as right-wing and Moon under pressure from conservatives looking to paint him as a Northern sympathiser ...

...The US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Tokyo's World War II surrender and ended colonial rule -- only for the victors to divide the peninsula.

In the North, Kim Il Sung's Moscow-backed regime executed Japanese collaborators en masse.

In the South, the US-oriented administration of Syngman Rhee recruited many colonial-era officers and officials into its ranks to exploit their expertise and experience.

"Even in the liberated homeland, those who used to serve as police officers during Japanese colonial rule painted independence activists as Reds and tortured them," Moon said.

Historical resentment sours relations with Tokyo to this day and prevents South Korea making a proper reckoning with its past, says Lee Young-hun, a controversial former Seoul National University economics professor.

"Those who are labelled as Japanese collaborators are Koreans who actively embraced modernism," Lee, who is derided by some South Korean media as a "colonialist", told AFP ...

...Among those who went into exile was Shin Young-shin's great-grandfather, a Korean general imprisoned and tortured by Japanese-backed troops.

Both her parents took part in the campaign but struggled to feed their family when they returned to the South in the late 1940s.

"My parents got nothing -- not even a penny from the government -- for their activism while they were alive," Shin, 71, told AFP in her small basement flat in Ansan, south of Seoul.

According to local government data almost three-quarters of independence activists' descendants in Seoul make less than two million won (US$1,800) a month.

But many descendants of collaborators -- defined under South Korean law as those who received titles under Japanese rule, arrested or killed independence fighters -- have prospered.

One of those ennobled in 1910, and included on a list of 1,005 collaborators Seoul issued 10 years ago, was Song Byung-jun.

His son led the forces that jailed Shin's great-grandfather, and his grandson became the first director of Seoul's central bank.

Some of the South's biggest conglomerates were founded during the colonial period. High-profile executives, including Hyundai Group's chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, have sued to remove ancestors' names from the collaborators list.

Park Chung-hee was an officer in the Japanese forces before ruling the South as a military-backed dictator for 18 years until his 1979 assassination -- and his daughter went on to be elected president in 2012.

Park was not officially classed as a collaborator but is on a longer list of 4,389 names collated by the Center for Historical Truth and Justice (CHTJ) campaign group, which includes prominent cultural figures such as Ahn Eak-tai, composer of the South Korean national anthem.

"There is a popular Korean saying that translates to: 'Those who fought for independence have made three generations of their descendants suffer. Those who collaborated with the Japanese have made three generations of their [descendants] prosper'," said CHTJ researcher Lee Yong-chang.

Shin -- whose mother was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation -- will never come to terms with the contrast.

"I have prayed so that I could love my enemies," she said. "But I cannot possibly love the Japanese collaborators."

It would be worth mentioning that if South Korea ever found itself a de facto colony of Japan through stealth - through, for example, having to combine its military with Japan's military - that some of Japan's current generation of politicians are themselves descended from that country's World War II-era politicians and possible war criminals.

Satō–Kishi–Abe family

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 16 2024 22:42 utc | 91

Killing democracy in order to save democracy?

In order for the west’s bloody avaricious wars draped in the flag of “freedom” to be continued and defended, it seems that in country after country the process of democracy itself is being undermined and defeated.

Democracy it seems is being sacrificed in the fight for freedom and democracy. Anyone seeing any contradiction in that must of course be a Russian propagandist.

In France, the hysterically pro-Ukraine Macron is clinging to power like an African dictator having lost elections, by means of Byzantine machinations that were clearly described by the Duran in one of their videos. He initially allied with the far left under Melenchon to rig the election by tactical voting against Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. Hers is the party that France actually want, the clear winner of the popular vote.

In Germany the AfD party is anti war, and is in second place by popularity and votes; and the German state is considering banning the party. Other parties such as the new left party of Sara Wagenknecht are also growing under a manifesto of end to the Ukraine war and friendship with Russia. The CIA no doubt have her in their sights.

In EU nation Romania national presidential elections delivered at the first round, a pro-Russian anti war candidate. So the elections were cancelled. Just like that. Under a torrent of bullshit about Russian interference.

In Georgia the electoral process delivered a victory for the pro-Russia party. So the west and CIA are funding and orchestrating anti government riots, Victoria Nulend style. Waging again actual war against democracy.

In Italy the last election was won a few years ago by Georgia Meloni, who ran on a platform of resistance to the global neocon agenda of military imperialism, and alignment with multipolarity and sovereignty for individual nations, BRICS style. Italy even applied to join China’s SCO. However the U.S. led west yanked them off this path with humiliating ease. It’s not widely recognised that since the CIA manipulated the general election in Italy in 1948, Italy has not really had democracy but been a vassal of the U.S. Italy’s 1948 election was their first election since the inception of fascism in the 1920s, and the Italian public were of a mind to vote for a pro-Soviet socialist party. The CIA by means of a media and propaganda blitz changed the election result to an anti-socialist victory. This was part of “Operation Gladio” by which The US and Britain coopetd the support of actual Nazis throughout Europe to oppose by violent means the electoral success of any pro-socialist party.

https://youtu.be/srgeQyiJjxU?si=kw6rl0R379pxHDlo

https://youtu.be/_NeF1Jr6ltA?si=sdFDKnqMXhYcgJeE

Thus since Mussolini Italy has never returned to democracy but its elections and politics have been putty in the hands of the CIA. Meloni was easily changed by some influence behind the scenes - maybe between the sheets - from being anti neocon to pro neocon and fawning over Zelensky along with all the rest.

The President of South Korea, Jun Sok Yeol, contrary to his country’s government and wider society, was in Washington’s pocket and was groomed by the U.S. to make a power grab. The point of this putsch was not hard to guess - to seize power over South Korean industry so that it obediently sent weapons to Ukraine. Incredibly he announced dissolution of parliament and martial law. This putsch failed - the government voted to strike it down - climbing through windows in their blockaded parliament building in order to do so. Another NAZO power grab thwarted. Very muted coverage of this astonishing series of events by the propaganda mules of the western media.

And unbelievably in the U.K. itself, the mother of parliaments, Starmer’s deeply unpopular Labour Party has just announced that some local elections in 2025 will be postponed or cancelled. ELECTIONS CANCELLED IN BRITAIN. All this stuff about dictatorship in the neocon west is way beyond rhetoric and metaphor. It’s really here.

So democracy really does seem like that Vietnamese village that the U.S. armed forces claimed that “they had to destroy in order to save”.

Posted by: Andrew Sarchus | Dec 16 2024 22:46 utc | 92

which (among other things) compelled farmers to give up farming and go into the cities to work in factories - because at the same time, the govt kept prices for agricultural products so low that farming ended being an unviable occupation for most people.


Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 16 2024 22:42 utc | 91

That is a common feature of the system everywhere

As for the the main point in your post, nothing too different from what you had in europe with the germans and e.g.the polish

Posted by: Newbie | Dec 16 2024 22:49 utc | 93

Scholz, Trudeau, Starmer, Frederiksen and more going down.
Not a second too soon

Posted by: g wiltek | Dec 16 2024 22:52 utc | 94

they expect a war with NATO within 10 years.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 19:46 utc | 66

Use the full quote not only the part you like, "war with nato in Europe". the key word is the last one.

Posted by: rk | Dec 16 2024 22:53 utc | 95

@ Refinnejenna | Dec 16 2024 22:42 utc | 91

re: At present, with SK forces coming under US command if a war . . .
ROK forces are under US command -- General Paul LaCamera assumed command of United Nations Command, ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command, and United States Forces Korea (UNC/CFC/USFK) on July 2, 2021.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 16 2024 22:56 utc | 96

This truly ia the Age of Wishful Thinking.

In the West that is, the rest of the world knows better.

Posted by: Winston | Dec 16 2024 22:56 utc | 97

Posted by: Lengai | Dec 16 2024 22:20 utc | 88

No denial of that is inherent in what I wrote. However, the US oligarchy sees literally every facet of human existence as a potential pool for the accumulation of capital. Hence, China's rather large population which requires health care, education and representation with the government. All of those are mostly privatized and function as investments in the portfolios of western/global capitalists. These people would love to be able to buy China's too. And yeah, "free enterprise" or market behaviors are obviously happening in China (and between China and other countries), but as you noted, much of it is out of reach to western finance capital.

P.S. to anyone wishing to learn more about Japan's "Lost Decade" there's a great documentary on YouTube (or one of the other streamers if YT has taken it down) called "Princes of the Yen" - which IIRC touches on the Plaza Accords.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 16 2024 23:00 utc | 98

Apology in advance for the off topic post:

"Ukraine unveils laser weapon capable of downing aircraft"

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ukraine-unveils-laser-weapon-capable-of-downing-aircraft/ar-AA1vXSrR?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=b690e8f6efcb46e08ac994899c37f0fc&ei=6

Posted by: nwwoods | Dec 16 2024 23:02 utc | 99

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 16 2024 22:42 utc | 91

#############

Perhaps we can use the financial viability of a productive (non-subsidized as it is in the West where farmers are sometimes paid to create artificial scarcity) farming lifestyle as a measure for a healthy domestic economy and governance.

I say that because I am very curious when considering your point is it possible to be a career farmer in Russia and/or China, and if so, can one make a healthy living at it in order to support a generational business?

Family farming is a popular Western political narrative and yet no government does anything meaningful in the West to support it once they take office.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 16 2024 23:06 utc | 100

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