US-Controlled Iraq Near Collapse: Repeat Of 1979 Iran?

(Ali Younes’s article from the ALJAZERRA on 31 December 2019.)

US caught off guard as protesters storm Baghdad embassy: Hundreds of protesters breached the outer walls of the heavily fortified US embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, setting parts of its parameter on fire - an angry reaction to deadly US air raids days earlier against Kataib Hizbollah, an Iran-backed militia.

Most of the protesters, members of the paramilitary group Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces, or PMF), were clad in military fatigues. PMF is an umbrella organisation of several armed militia groups - including Kataib Hezbollah - funded and armed by Iran, but with formal links to the Iraqi armed forces. Shouting "Down, Down USA!", the crowd hurled rocks and water bottles and vandalised security cameras outside the embassy grounds.

The US said it launched the attacks on Sunday - killing at least 25 fighters - in Iraq and Syria in response to a rocket attack on Friday near Kirkuk, which killed an American civilian contractor - an assault Washington blamed on Kataib Hezbollah.

Dictator Zia Created Rohingya Problem

(Staff article from the MIZZIMA on 16 November 2017.)

Hours before her foreign minister arrives in Myanmar to discuss the Rohingya refugee issue, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has blamed the country's late military ruler Lt-Gen Ziaur Rahman for 'creating' the Rohingya problem. 

''Zia created this problem and now his party BNP and ally Jamaat e Islami want to fish in troubled waters,'' Hasina told the parliament.

The late military ruler Ziaur Rahman allegedly sent his military intelligence chief in 1977 to contact and promise Rohingya leaders of Bangladesh support for armed struggle to create an Islamic Republic of North Rakhine. Subsequent Rohingya armed activity provoked the Burmese military junta to unleash Operation Naga Min in February 1978 that led to the first refugee exodus.

''They want such trouble to continue so that our border region with Myanmar is disturbed. They think this will help them in elections,'' Hasina said. Her cabinet colleague Matia Chowdhury has recently blamed Pakistan for instigating the ARSA terrorists to launch serial attacks against Burmese security forces.

Joy To The World: United States Air Force’s Flash Mob

       (Repost of US Air Force Band's "Joy To The World" at Washington DC in December 2013.)

End of this post is the you tube video of United States Air Force Band performing “Joy To The World” as a Flash Mob at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. on December 3, 2013 welcoming the 2013 Christmas celebrations.

Following is the lyrics of that famous Christmas carol “Joy To The World”  I downloaded from the Wikipedia site.

Verse 1

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare him room,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Reliving 1973 Kachin Christmas Eve in New York City!

         (Repost of my very first Christmas Eve at the New York City in the year 2011.)

New York City's Skyline.

The Big Apple or the New York City is a wholesomely overwhelming town for a simple jungle boy like me. Especially the enormous Romanesque facades of century old skyscrapers. And it hurts my neck so much that I’ve stopped trying to look up at their distinctive tops.

Like many other wide-eyed tourists from the Australian fringe of the mighty empire of USA I ended up wandering on the wide avenues leading to the Times Square brightly lit and filled to the rims by the excited crowd on the Christmas Eve.

I walked and walked and walked aimlessly on the near-zero freezing but still unbelievably crowded Fifth Avenue and ended up, fortunately of course as I wasn’t really looking for it, right in front of a beautifully grand Gothic-revival church. I walked in and realized this is the historic St.Patrick’s Cathedral   and the traditional Midnight Mass was just a few hours away.

The First Miracle by Jeffrey Archer (1980)

            (Jeffery Archer's famous children story of the very first Christmas Eve in Year Zero.)

Tomorrow it would be A.D. 1, but nobody had told him. If anyone had, he wouldn’t have understood, because he thought it was the forty-third year of the reign of the emperor. And in any case, he had more important things on his mind.

His mother was still angry with him, and he had to admit that he’d been naughty that day, even by the standards of a normal thirteen-year-old. He hadn’t meant to drop the pitcher when she had sent him to the well for water. He had tried to explain to her that it wasn’t his fault he had tripped over a stone—that bit at least was true. What he hadn’t told her was that he had been chasing a stray dog at the time. And then there was that pomegranate: How was he to know that it was the last one, and that his father had taken a liking to them?

The young Roman was now dreading his father’s return and the possibility that he might be given another leathering. He could still recall the last one: He hadn’t been able to sit down for two days without being reminded of the pain, and the thin red scars hadn’t completely disappeared for three weeks.

He sat on the window ledge in a shaded corner of his room, trying to think of some way he could redeem himself in his mother’s eyes. He had spilled cooking oil all over his tunic and she had thrown him out of the kitchen. “Go and play outside,” she had snapped, but playing outside wasn’t much fun if you were only allowed to play by yourself. Pater had forbidden him to mix with the local boys.

First Princess Of Burma: Her Indian Children

(Namita Kholi’s article from the HINDUSTAN TIMES on 26 February 2017.)

(Burmese Princess Su Myat) Phaya Gyi, 26, had managed to hide her love affair with the “strapping young Maratha” Gopal Sawant for several months. It was only after the birth of their daughter, Tutu, that her parents learnt of the alliance. How could this be, they lamented – she, a princess, and he, a mere gatekeeper at the royal residence?

All stories start with a king. This one, however, must begin with a princess. A princess of ‘pure’ royal blood; born out of a marriage between a king and his step sister; a princess with kohl rimmed eyes, long, straight hair, and a heart full of sorrow and longing.

This princess was the eldest daughter of King Thibaw, the last king of Burma, who was exiled by the British in 1885. The royal family – the king, his two queens, and four daughters – were banished to the coastal town of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. Thibaw, or “Thiba Raja”( as the king was known locally) lived here for over three decades. He died in 1916, and was entombed with his junior queen.

By 1919, however, the royal family left for Myanmar, never to turn back. Except Princess Phaya, who pleaded (to British) to be sent back. Eventually, despite the royal family’s opposition, Phaya and her “half-caste” daughter, Tutu, were sent back to Ratnagiri, where the two lived for the rest of their lives. So why is the town having a hard time remembering its princess?

Joshua Wong (David) Vs Emperor Xi Jinping (Goliath)

 (Ben Machell’s article from the TIMES UK on 24 August 2019.)

“I Am Not A Hero”: For the past three months, the people of Hong Kong have faced off against the government of China. Pro-democracy protesters have been engaged in civil unrest on a sweeping scale, while in response Beijing has pushed back with ever increasing force.

So far, neither side has been willing to back down. Images of marches, rallies, hastily assembled barricades and increasingly tense clashes flood our news feeds every day. In June, a demonstration attended by almost two million people brought the city to a standstill. The following month, protesters stormed, occupied and tore apart the city’s legislative council offices.

A month ago, Hong Kong airport, one of the ­busiest in the world, was taken over and shut down by peaceful demonstrators who flooded the departure area and caused flights to be cancelled for two days. More recently, 1.7 million people braved thunderstorms to take to the streets.

The First Christians: Gentiles Converted By Peter

 (The Verses from The BIBLE GATEWAY’s Bible’s Acts 9, 10, and 11.)

(At the beginning there were only two types of people the Jews (chosen-ones) and the Gentiles (non-Jews). Many Jews, but not all Jews, were the original believers and followers of Lord Jesus of Nazareth. Well after Jesus’s death by crucifixion and his resurrection one of the apostles, Peter, famously baptised Roman Centurion Cornelius  and his Gentile household with Holy Spirit as guided by the Lord in Peter’s and Cornellius’s visions through Lord’s angels. The events were recorded in Bible’s Acts 9, 10, and 11.)

Acts 9, 32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. 35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Who Really Is Behind The Hong Kong Protests?

(Sara Flounder’s article from The WORKERS WORLD on 16 August 2019.)

The demonstrations in Hong Kong, now an open confrontation with the People’s Republic of China, have a global impact. What are the forces behind this movement? Who provides the funds and who stands to benefit? Protests in Hong Kong routinely carry the US flag and photos of Donald Trump.

The increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong are completely embraced and enthusiastically supported in the U.S. corporate media and all the imperialist political parties in the U.S. and Britain. This should be a danger sign to everyone fighting for change and for social progress. U.S. imperialism is never disinterested or neutral.

The disruptive actions involve helmeted and masked protesters using gasoline bombs, flaming bricks, arson and steel bars, random attacks on buses, and airport and mass transit shutdowns. Among the most provocative acts was an organized break-in at the Hong Kong legislature where “activists” vandalized the building and hung the British Union Jack flag.

Refugee Jailed For Indecent Assault of 3-yrs Old Girl

 (Staff articles from The SEVEN NEWS, YAHOO, & ABC NEWS in August 2019.)

Shopping centre guard sentenced over 'haunting' stairwell assault of three year old: A Sydney judge has described the actions of a shopping centre security guard, who indecently assaulted a young girl in a locked stairwell, as extremely audacious and haunting before jailing him for at least two-and-a-half years.

The three-year-old girl was inside DFO Homebush a week before Christmas 2016 when Mohammad Hassan Al Bayati, 30, took her by the hand and led her to a fire exit. He had been responding to a report the girl was unattended and distressed at the centre's playground.

After receiving sexual gratification, he returned the girl to the playground and berated the waiting mother (for leaving her young daughter unattended) . A jury found Mohammad Al Bayati exposed his genitals and touched the girl’s underwear during the 11 minutes they spent in the stairwell.

The family earlier this month spoke of the torment the incident has caused, with both parents telling the court they had gone through bouts of depression. "Our peaceful family life was destroyed and will never be the same again," the girl's mother said in a statement to Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court. "We are so proud she was able to tell the police, however it was a dramatic event for her."

What Will China Do with the Hong Kong Protests?

 (Lawrence Franklin's article from the GATESTONEINSTITUTE on 28 August 2019.)

Protests in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (SAR) -- which began in early June with demonstrators denouncing a proposed law to permit the extradition of SAR residents to the mainland to be tried in Chinese Communist courts -- have entered their 12th week and show no signs of abating.

If anything, they are becoming increasingly strident, with calls for the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam's administration, among other broadening demands. The unfolding events present the Communist Party leadership in Beijing with a serious dilemma: to quell the protests with military force or wait until they die down.

According to a recent analysis in Bloomberg: "In theory, [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] could quickly do away with Hong Kong's autonomy and activate the city's garrison overnight. But the likelihood of mobilizing troops remains low and the fallout from doing so -- for both China and Xi personally -- is potentially much higher than dealing with the political and economic repercussions of the protests, not least because he's already engaged in a damaging trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump."

How Close Is Hong Kong To A Second Tiananmen?

(Jude Blanchette’s article from the FOREIGN POLICY on 14 August 2019.)

In late October 1956, students and workers massed in the Hungarian capital of Budapest to protest Soviet rule and demand the end of Moscow’s political domination. Largely leaderless at first, the protests were galvanized by increasingly aggressive police action to become a full-blown revolt against a government widely viewed as a Soviet puppet.

By the end of the month, with a new rebel government in place, it seemed that Moscow might be willing to negotiate the withdrawal of Soviet troops—after all, then-First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev had denounced Joseph Stalin several months earlier.

This optimism was short-lived. At 4:15 a.m. on Nov. 4, Soviet tanks entered the city, leaving thousands of Hungarian citizens dead and eliciting widespread international condemnation, though no actual action. Yet the crackdown had succeeded in its immediate objective—forestalling Moscow’s loss of political control, at least until the collapse of the Soviet Union three and a half decades later.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a long memory, and it is increasingly obsessed with the fate of the Soviets. As usual, we don’t know what Xi Jinping and other leaders were discussing at the recently concluded yearly meeting in the seaside resort of Beidaihe—but it seems likely that the memory of 1956 loomed over discussion of unrest in Hong Kong, arguably the most significant political challenge outside its own ranks the CCP has faced since Xi assumed power in 2012.

Killer Drones War Raging In The Middle East

 (Staff articles from The AP NEWS on 25 August 2019.)

Drone war takes flight, raising stakes in Iran, US tensions: From the vast deserts of Saudi Arabia to the crowded neighborhoods of Beirut, a drone war has taken flight across the wider Middle East, raising the stakes in the ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

Since the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal last year, there has been an increasing tempo of attacks and alleged threats, notably this weekend, from unmanned aircraft flown by Tehran’s and Washington’s allies in the region.

The appeal of the aircraft — they risk no pilots and can be small enough to evade air-defense systems — fueled their rapid use amid the maximum pressure campaigns of Iran and the U.S. As these strikes become more frequent, the risk of unwanted escalation becomes greater.

Islamic Propaganda Forced On Michigan Teachers!

(A Special Investigative Report from the TMLC on 22 August 2019.)

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has uncovered evidence of a well-orchestrated Islamic propaganda campaign aimed at teachers in school systems throughout Michigan and several other states.

Concerned about a two-day mandatory teacher-training seminar on Islam conducted by a Muslim consultant hired by Michigan’s Novi Community Schools District, TMLC filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the workshop.

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Law Center, commented on the results of their investigation, “We found that the teachers were subjected to two days of Islamic propaganda, where Islam was glorified, Christianity disparaged, and America bashed—all funded by Novi taxpayers.”

Moreover, during the past five years the school district has presented no teacher-training seminars focusing on Christianity, Judaism or any other religion – only Islam. The hired Muslim consultant was Huda Essa, a resident of the Dearborn area and of Arab descent. She appeared before the Novi teachers in a hijab, the Muslim headscarf, billing herself as an expert in “cultural competency” and “culturally responsive teaching.”

Pelosi & Her Hapless Deputies Cornered by The SQUAD

(Matthew Boyle’s article from the BREITBART NEWS on 19 August 2019.)

The extreme-left side of her congressional caucus, run by the so-called “Squad” of socialist Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), is ascendant as Pelosi’s top deputies–several committee chairs–face primary challenges similar to one Ocasio-Cortez used to wipe out longtime Pelosi ally, former Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) on her path to power.

In fact, at least seven of Pelosi’s top confidantes–committee chairs–potentiallly face the same fate as Crowley, as primary challengers have announced campaigns against them. One powerful Pelosi deputy who faces a primary, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY)–the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee–has not faced an internal party challenge since 1988.

Roll Call’s Jennifer Schutt wrote on Monday: The year was 1988. Def Leppard topped the charts and stonewashed jeans were all the rage. It was also the last time powerful House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey faced a primary challenge. That’s all changed now with the decision by Mondaire Jones, a former Obama administration Justice Department staffer and attorney for Westchester County’s Law Department, to challenge Lowey in next June’s primary.

Trump & Xi Fighting To Capture Greenland!

(Articles from The CNBC, GLOBAL TIMES, & BREITBART NEWS in August 2019.)

Rare Earth minerals are the main reason both US & China want Greenland.

Why Trump wants to buy Greenland: President Donald Trump has floated the idea of buying Greenland multiple times. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has called the notion “absurd.”

Yet Trump’s interest in Greenland is just the latest indication of the island’s increasing geopolitical importance. It is even drawing the eye of China. Greenland’s growing strategic value is linked tightly to new North Atlantic shipping lanes opening up due to melting polar ice caps. Its largely ice-capped land mass is also rich in untapped natural resources.

President Donald Trump has floated the idea of buying Greenland multiple times. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has called the notion “absurd.” It has triggered a diplomatic row of sorts. Yet Trump’s interest in Greenland is just the latest indication of the island’s increasing geopolitical importance. It is even drawing the eye of China.

Chinese Missiles Will Wipe Out US Bases In Hours

(John Haward’s article from the BREITBART NEWS on 19 August 2019.)

Chinese nuclear missiles can reach & annihilate London!

An Australian Report warns that Chinese Missiles Could Wipe Out U.S. and Allied Pacific Bases in Opening Hours of Conflict:

The United States Studies Center at the University of Sydney in Australia released a report on Monday that warned America has lost its military superiority in the Indo-Pacific region and Chinese missiles could wipe out its bases with “precision strikes in the opening hours of a conflict.”

“The combined effect of ongoing wars in the Middle East, budget austerity, underinvestment in advanced military capabilities and the scale of America’s liberal order-building agenda has left the US armed forces ill-prepared for great power competition in the Indo-Pacific,” the authors concluded.

Boko Haram: UN Ignoring This Islamic Genocide?

(Marion Portella’s article from the CLARION PROJECT on 19 August 2019.)

At least 1,200 people were killed and close to 200,000 were displaced in northeast Nigeria in 2018 alone due to the brutal and genocidal campaign being waged by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. To date, nearly 30,000 have been killed and two million displaced.

The group, which literally means “secular education is forbidden,” is indiscriminate in its mission, targeting Christians as well as Muslims they do not agree with. Elsewhere in Nigeria, killings by Muslim herdsmen against Christian farmers have been occurring for decades, leaving at least 1,600 people dead and another 300,000 displaced in 2018.

Clarion Project contributor Mario Alexis Portello, a Catholic priest based in Florence, recently visited Nigeria. The following is his report: An unreported tragedy ignored by both the Western media was recent killing of Father Paul Offu in Enugu (southern Nigeria) at the hands of Islamic Fulani herdsmen.

No-Tariffs Globalists Want Americans Living As Slaves

(Todd Wood’s article from the CD MEDIA on 19 August 2019.)

There is one simple truth in this trade war between the United States and China the legacy media (fake news) just does not want you to understand, but President Trump has understood from the beginning — we have not had free trade in decades.

What we have experienced is unfair trade, which has allowed other nations to almost overtake America in economic dominance, which was of course the plan all along. China has excelled at using mercantile policies to fuel its rapid industrial growth at the expense of the average American citizen and his economic well being. 

These practices include intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, forced technology transfer, dumping, and protectionism.

The globalists all promised that once China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), all would be good with the world and free trade. Exactly the opposite has happened — China has manipulated the world which has allowed its deadly communist poison to spread, threatening free people around the globe.

Communists Not Coming To America, They Are Here!

(Todd Wood’s article from the CD MEDIA on 08 August 2019.)

Anti-Fascist Bolsheviks of America.

Communism Is Not Coming To America, It’s Here, And Millions Will Suffer: This column is supposed to be about national security and geopolitics. But these recent conversations reinforced the feeling I have had for some time regarding our security: The greatest threat the United States faces is from inside — the scourge of socialism. 

I spoke to several elderly Russian emigres this week while travelling abroad. They all had come to the West prior to the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. They now live in the United States and return to their Motherland occasionally to visit family and old friends. They all had a very similar story to tell.

One woman in her 80s — I’ll call her Svetlana — was heartbroken. The fear and horror was evident in her eyes as she talked about her experiences as a young person growing up in the USSR. “I left the Soviet Union to escape communism, socialism, Marxism — whatever you want to call it,” she recalled.

Myth: Five Billion Dollars A Year US Aid To Israel!

(Prof. Hillel Frisch’s article from the TSIONIZM on 10 February 2017.)

Many American detractors of Israel begin by citing that Israel receives the lion’s share of US military aid. The very suggestion conjures the demon of an all-powerful Israel lobby that has turned the US Congress into its pawn.

But these figures, while reflecting official direct US military aid, are almost meaningless in comparison to the real costs and benefits of US military aid – above all, American boots on the ground. In reality, Israel receives only a small fraction of American military aid, and most of that was spent in the US to the benefit of the American economy.

Countless articles discrediting Israel (as well as many other better-intentioned articles) ask how it is that a country as small as Israel receives the bulk of US military aid. Israel receives 55%, or $US3.1 billion per year, followed by Egypt, which receives 23%.

Bolshevik Takeover Of America – 1 (Agitprop)

 (Baruch Pletner’s article from The TSIONIZM on 10 August 2019.)

American neo-Bolsheviks have updated their predecessors’ playbook when it comes to weaponizing propaganda, but they both drink from the same poisoned well. Motherhood and apple pie. That was what America was all about. Nothing could be more American than that. 

In 1997, when I came to Boston and joined the American workforce, I remember this expression being used as an example of something that was completely uncontroversial and uniformly accepted: a true symbol of goodness and wholesomeness and above all of national consensus.

Who would have believed back then not that long ago that only two decades later motherhood and apple pie would be reviled in America? That they would be tagged as tools of oppression, as racist, as utterly unacceptable.

That a house in which there is a mother and in which apple pies are baked, rather than being heaven would become hell. And yet here we are. It is not going to happen, it has already happened. The questions are why it happened, how it happened, and what we can do about it.

NSA John Bolton Warns China Over Hong Kong

 (Brett Samuels’s article from The HILL on 14 August 2019.)

Top Trump adviser warns China over Hong Kong crackdown: President Trump's national security adviser on Wednesday warned the Chinese government against any potential crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong amid escalating clashes between demonstrators and police forces in the region.

"The Chinese have to look very carefully at the steps they take because people in America remember Tiananmen Square," John Bolton told Voice of America's Greta Van Susteren, referencing the 1989 student-led protests in China.

"They remember the picture of the man standing in front of the line of tanks," he continued. "They remember the Statue of Liberty, they remember the voices of the Chinese people asking for freedom and democracy, and they remember the repression of the Chinese government in 1989.

Israel Blocks Omar & Tlaib From Entering Israel

(Yaron Steinbuch's article from the NEW YORK POST on 15 August 2019.)

Israel blocks Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib from entering country over ‘promotion of BDS’: Israel on Thursday barred Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the Jewish state, citing their support for a Palestinian-led boycott movement — a decision that unleashed a torrent of condemnation by Democratic congressional lawmakers.

“The decision has been made, the decision is not to allow them to enter,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told Israel’s Reshet Bet Radio. Shortly before the announcement, President Trump urged Israel to ban the freshman lawmakers — the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and two of Israel’s sharpest critics.

“It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit. They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds,” Trump tweeted. “Minnesota and Michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace!” he added.

Myanmar Army’s Business Empire Hindering Democracy

 (Gary Kleiman’s article from The ASIA TIMES on 14 August 2019.)

Myanmar military business sketch alerts investors: Tatmadaw is responsible for systemic persecution and violence and has compromised post-2015 election democracy and free market transition, says a UN report.

The United Nations Human Rights Council, charged last year with investigating the Myanmar army’s (Tatmadaw) business empire as the biggest single corporate owner amid findings of abuses and war crimes in three states, presented a complex construct of domestic and investor ties to be rolled back and unwound altogether under diplomatic and commercial imperatives.

The report focuses on widespread violations in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states, the first two with longstanding independence movements in gem-producing regions, and the last the source of the 850,000 Rohingyas’ escape to Bangladesh after company-supported “cleansing operations” that may fit the universal genocide definition.

Brute PLA Massing At Border To Enter Hong Kong

(Staff article from the CBS/AP on 13 August 2019.)

Chinese tanks are waiting at border to crush Hong Kong

Hong Kong — Riot police clashed with pro-democracy protesters at Hong Kong's airport late Tuesday night, moving into the terminal where the demonstrators had shut down operations at one of the world's busiest transport hubs for two straight days. Officers armed with pepper spray and swinging batons confronted the protesters who used luggage carts to barricade entrances to the airport terminal.

Police took several people into a police van waiting at the entrance to the airport's arrivals hall. Police said they tried to help ambulance officers reach an injured man whom protesters had detained on suspicion of being an undercover agent.

Protesters also detained a second man who they suspected of being an undercover agent. After emptying out his belongings, they found a blue T-shirt that has been worn by pro-Beijing supporters that they said was evidence he was a spy.

Capitalism Not Socialism Is Thriving Now In China

 (Staff article from The RED PHOENIX on 06 April 2018.)

During the 1980s, China’s economy was already shifting to “market forces,” a process that deepened with the privatization of state-owned companies in the 1990s. During that period China established State monopoly capitalism, that is, a system in which capitalist relations of production existed in sectors and companies with strong state control.

The recent holding of the 11th Congress of the Communist Party of China has been the reason for a series of reports and analyses about what is happening in this Asian giant and where the main resolutions of the Chinese meeting will lead it continuing in the “building of a modern socialist country.”

The idea of China as a country in which socialism is being built is being spread, more by the propaganda carried out by different sectors than by a real understanding of what is happening there. For the older generations, China is associated with the image of Mao Zedong and the great revolution that, after a long civil war, triumphed in October 1949 in a country of poor and starving peasants. Younger generations see China as an industrialized country that is competing with the United States for economic primacy and influence in the world.

Communist Party Controls Private Companies In China

 (Richard McGregor’s articlefrom The GUARDIAN UK on 25 July 2019.)

All labor are militarized and directly controlled by the party.

How the state runs business in China: Much of modern China’s epic growth was driven by private enterprise – but under Xi Jinping, the Communist party has returned to being the ultimate authority in business as well as politics. By Richard McGregor

When Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he extolled the importance of the state economy at every turn, while all around him watched as China’s high-speed economy was driven by private entrepreneurs. Since then, Xi has engineered an unmistakable shift in policy.

At the time he took office, private firms were responsible for about 50% of all investment in China and about 75% of economic output. But as Nicholas Lardy, a US economist who has long studied the Chinese economy, concluded in a recent study, “Since 2012, private, market-driven growth has given way to a resurgence of the role of the state.”

From the Mao era onwards, Chinese state firms have always had a predominant role in the economy, and the Communist party has always maintained direct control over state firms. For more than a decade, the party has also tried to ensure it played a role inside private businesses. But in his first term in office, Xi has overseen a sea change in how the party approaches the economy, dramatically strengthening the party’s role in both government and private businesses.

"8-8-88 Uprising and Me" by Ye Min Htun

(This is the direct translation of Ye Min Htun’s ‘Four 8 Uprising and Me’.)  

Practicing politics in Burma is an extremely high risk profession. A politician in dictatorial Burma could be arrested any time and during the long BSPP (Burma Socialist Program Party) rule it could be outright dangerous for a politician to be arrested. Since I was very young I’d heard the tragic stories of many jailed politicians whose lives were forever destroyed.

I often witnessed the MIS men in a Mazda E2000 mini-truck regularly taking away that old red-flag Communist Yee Mhaing (a) Nyo Mhaing whenever the dates of politically significant events from past approached. Sometimes he came back in few days but sometimes it could take months or even years. His life was so unstable he didn’t have a job. He couldn’t even work as an itinerant laborer and I sometimes felt really bad seeing him wandering from one teashop to another teashop.

China Waging Trade War To Hurt Trump Re-election

(Yun Li's article from the CNBC on 07 August 2019.)

Like Iran, China does not want Trump re-elected in 2020.

China may be willing to accept an economic downturn to hurt Trump and win a better trade deal with new Democrat Administration (preferably Joe Biden's) after 2020 elections: “Many investors have expressed the view that China is prepared to accept an economic downturn (and thus a global economic downturn) to prevent President Trump’s re-election,” says Naka Matsuzawa, Nomura’s chief rates strategist.

China’s high-stakes retaliation measures, which could put Chinese businesses at risk, are aiming to diminish Trump’s chances in 2020 so China could eventually have a Democratic leader to negotiate an easier deal. China may go further than many expect to win the trade war and in the process increase the odds President Donald Trump is a one-term president, according to global investors.

From suspending U.S. agricultural product purchases to weaponizing the yuan, these high-stakes measures, which could put Chinese businesses at risk, are a preview of how far China could be willing to go economically to get a long-term deal in its favor.

The Man Who Invented 'Climate Change’

(Christopher Booker's article from the TELEGRAPH UK on 05 December 2015.)

A very odd thing happened last weekend. The death was announced of the man who, in the past 40 years, has arguably been more influential on global politics than any other single individual. Yet the world scarcely noticed.

Had it not been for this man, we would not last week have seen 150 heads of government joining 40,000 delegates in Paris for that mammoth climate conference: the 21st such get-together since, in 1992, he masterminded the Rio “Earth Summit”, the largest political gathering in history. Yet few people even know his name.

"During the Second World War, having emerged from humble origins in the Great Depression, Strong became convinced that the new United Nations should become a world government"

The Green New Deal: Poverty For Every American!

(Eric Rozenman's article from the GATESTONE INSTUTUTE on 05 August 2019.)

"A liberal is intolerant of other views. He wants to control your thoughts and actions." — President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1967. Johnson, the Texas Democrat who extended Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal with his own Great Society, was an old-school liberal, certainly on domestic policy.

The political activist-agitators LBJ impugned then as "liberals" are today's progressives—one might even call them reactionaries of the left. Epitomizing them is Saikat Chakrabarti, the outgoing chief of staff for freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y). Chakrabarti recently starred in a Washington Post article. The spotlight left a key to the influential staffer's undemocratic mentality in shadows.

Chakrabarti, 33, acknowledged "The interesting thing about the Green New Deal," Ocasio-Cortez's multi-trillion dollar zero-carbon emissions mirage, "is it wasn't originally a climate thing at all... Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing."

He evidently wants to change the U.S. economy -- the freest and most prosperous on the planet; that has lifted a great number of people out of poverty, and that currently enjoys low unemployment, low inflation and higher wage growth—for a government-centric model known to have succeeded nowhere. Why?

US Designates China The Currency Manipulator

(Press Statement from The US TREASURY on 05 August 2019.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department labeled China a currency manipulator Monday after Beijing pushed down the value of its yuan in a dramatic escalation of the trade conflict between the world’s two biggest economies.

The decision, which came hours after President Donald Trump accused China of unfairly devaluing its currency, marks a reversal for Treasury: In May, it had declined to sanction China for manipulating its currency. The U.S. has not put China on the currency blacklist since 1994. The designation could pave the way for more U.S. sanctions against China.

Earlier Monday, China had allowed its currency to weaken to an 11-year low, a move that gives its exporters a price edge in world markets and eases some of the damage from U.S. tariffs on Chinese products.

Dollars Can’t Save Venezuelans From Hyper Inflation

(Alex Vasquez's article from the BLOOMBERG NEWS on 05 August 2019.)

A Child victim of Socialism in Venezuela.

(Bloomberg) -- Carmen Rojas used to be one of the fortunate Venezuelans who lived off a steady flow of money from relatives abroad, with $150 from her two sons providing enough cash to last a month. Today, she’s lucky if that amount gets her through the week.

Luxuries like trips to restaurants and the movies are long gone. The 65-year-old homemaker gave up meat and now mostly eats arepas -- a corn patty staple -- with lentils and beans. The owner of two stray dogs, a third of her monthly intake is eaten up by them alone. “Two years ago, I lived like a queen,” Rojas said. “Today, I barely leave my house.”

Venezuela’s rampant inflation, which helped sink the country into deep poverty in recent years, is now also squeezing the growing number of people who get by on the remittances sent by relatives living abroad. What once provided a lifeline -- and even extra spending money -- now can scarcely cover the basics in a country in the midst of economic collapse.