Disobeying Orders,
On Martin Luther King Day, commemorating a man who was a threat to the established wealth-extracting-order, we can look at human order how it arises, who it serves, who it forces into servitude, and how. (The King family accepts the word of James Earl Ray, that he did not , himself, murder Martin Luther King Jr.)
Donald Trump meets with Martin Luther King III to commemorate the legacy of his father, who spoke against war.
"And you may not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries to people that are not poor." http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet/riversidetranscript.html
"The big difference we will see with a candidate like Trump is easy. Once all diplomatic efforts have failed against Beijing, instead of doubling down with military or terrorist efforts, the strategy will be abandoned in silence. The strong expressions against Beijing, the feared increase in military spending for the Pacific (to satisfy the industrial-military apparatus), and the rhetoric against Iran (to appease the Israel lobby), will be used to moderate the deep state’s intentions, while Trump will try to focus on economics and security (counter-terrorism) and much less on foreign policy."
This analysis, like most, assumes business-as-usual for Global Economy, which stands on crumbling feet of cheap-oil.
Eurasian integration is presented as a done-deal between Russia, China and Iran. Shared interest has been amplified by US actions to harm and dominate them and others. Chinese financial collapse, which I see as the likely-opening to global financial and economic reset, is not considered.
Geostrategic links between Russia and the US, enabled by a melted North Pole, are not considered.
Traditional Russian apprehension of Chinese aggression remains realistic, and is not addressed. The USA is a natural foil for Russia to counterbalance China.
European suffering from sanctions against Russia, mandated by the US are addressed. US foreign policy is examined in terms of financial capital and political capital wasted. There are lots of areas for win-win deals to be negotiated. (This is not an anti-Trump article. The title is political cover, I guess.)
The Neocon's Declaration of War Against Trump. (This could easily prove fatal. Trump must be feeling more kinship with Dr King than many would understand.) Thanks Eleni.
Former German Newspaper Editor, who Exposed CIA Control of European Media Found Dead. He apologized for his years of being controlled to turn the public to wars and against Russia. He's found dead at 56. (Let me clarify: "Heart failure" is sometimes a cause of death, but Dr Udo Ulfkotte was not being treated for that diagnosis. "Heart Failure" as a cause of death is just convenient if the cause of death is not apparent. "Heart Failure", ie "heart not beating" is the general definition of death. I and most doctors, have routinely entered it in official records as cause-of-death, when we did not feel that further investigation was appropriate.) Thanks Colleen.
Here is how Russians see Rex Tillerson, former Exxon CEO, and Trump nominee for Secretary of State. (Rational, dealing from personal experience, relationships and interests, not ideologically motivated.) Thanks Eleni.
Global Financial and Political Elites meet in Davos, Switzerland to bask in group identity, redirect the misguided masses of the world, reverse global-warming, party and drink the finest vintages, in comfortable security. No Trump representatives attend, nor LePen, nor UKIP, nor 5-Star, etc.
“People have become very emotionalized, this silent fear of what the new world will bring,” Schwab said in the town’s hulking conference center. “We have populists here and we want to listen. We have to respond to these individuals’ fears and to offer solutions. It’s not just enough to listen; we have to provide answers and that’s what were here for in Davos."
Can Marine LePen become President of France, as Leftists and Rightists slug it out in the two rounds of elections? LePen supports a practical nationalism and meeting the needs of real people for food, housing, fuel and security, without so much ideology.
The Rise of Political Correctness, by Angelo Codevilla (Thanks Eleni) looks at the historical approaches to changing the words and assumptions within a society, to transform the body-politic. First and merely mentioned, is what the Catholic Church did in much of Europe, by incorporating local customs into Catholicism and just sort of erasing their past. This article deals with the Leninist/Stalinist approach of rigidly enforced compliance to "political correctness", revealing the flaw of a painful lack of utility to the proletariat. This is the model of PC we seem to have in the US today. 30 years of less and less carrot and more and more tongue-lashing-public-ridicule by comfortable-liberal-betters. This has the flaw of insulting the losers, rubbing-it-in, even as their numbers swell, since the ideology is failing to provide dinner, lately. The core American constituency of working people, who have been farmers, mechanics, janitors, factory workers, laborers and small-business owners, has been abandoned for an ever-expanding coalition of smaller and more vulnerable constituencies. The identity politics of "inclusiveness" excludes the core identity group (now "deplorables") which has always been presumed to meet the physical needs of society.
Mussolini's approach of seducing people into a new political identity, giving them whatever little enticement was necessary, and making nice, except for the few who had to be public examples, is presented more favorably. It wasn't always up to the task of beating reality in the ring, though. (Mussolini's not here to comment, today...)
(This is "politics", not "administration", nor "statecraft", composed at the level of actual human functional capacity, the working-community of about 150 people. This is how our species came to be where it is. Higher levels of organization parasitize and coerce this basic human social function, and are treated as secondary in Bookchin's model. This is like original Greek Democracy, and the similar cooperative-governance practices of the "barbarians", who eventually overcame Rome. It's New England Town-Hall governance, too.)
Democratic Confederalism, as practiced by the Rojava political organization of Kurdish communities (not "nationalists", are they?), is a working iteration of direct democracy, that imprisoned Kurdish leader Ocalan worked-out with Bookchin, in a long correspondence, and which has evolved locally, and naturally, as envisioned. "The stronger the participation the more powerful is this kind of democracy. While the nation-state is in contrast to democracy, and even denies it, democratic confederalism constitutes a continuous democratic process." — Abdullah Öcalan
"We're going to have insurance for everybody." Donald Trump
(The obvious question is, who/what gets cut out at the feeding trough, to make this deal affordable. Jobs and investment income will be lost...)
"It's very much formulated, down to the final strokes. We haven't put it in quite yet, but we're going to be doing it soon." "It's not single-payer."
Self-Licking-Ice-Cream
