Real Commies Embrace Crony Capitalism Silly

The main stated reason for the students’ opposition was their conviction that it would have given the mainland too much economic power within Taiwan, which it could then use to wrest political concessions. But Lin’s participation was motivated more ideologically. She and like-minded “leftists” — her word — were convinced that cross-strait relations in general have benefited the rich on both sides to the detriment of exploited workers on both sides. The irony is that Lin came from a place where the study of Marxism is mandatory, only to find in the deeply anti-communist society of Taiwan what she called “true Marxism.”

“In China,” she said, “we learn about Marxism but nobody believes in it, but on Taiwan they really believe in it.” And, unlike on the mainland, where the last student demonstrations in 1989 took place before most current students were born, the students on Taiwan were able to organize themselves, to publicize their views, and to demonstrate.

From an article in Foreign Policy: Does Time in Taiwan Change Young Mainland Minds?  The article doesn't provide a clear answer to the question, but...here's how it ends:

“We are forced to go back. We need to work. We need to live,” Ting said. “The democratic ideology makes no sense for your daily life.”

Back, back, back we go then...

This Seems About Right

Love that Gideon haz a sad.

Dave Brown on Xi Jinping's Visit to the UK*

* Sorry, make that the overseas province of the PRC formerly known as America's Bitch.  Sorry, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Toles on Chinese Hacking

Maybe the GOP is Right about Obama's Foreign Policy

This is pathetic.

Obama team, military at odds over South China Sea

Some U.S. naval commanders are at odds with the Obama administration over whether to sail Navy ships right into a disputed area in the South China Sea — a debate that pits some military leaders who want to exercise their freedom of navigation against administration officials and diplomats trying to manage a delicate phase in U.S.-China relations.

The Pentagon has repeatedly maintained it reserves the right to sail or fly by a series of artificial islands that China is outfitting with military equipment. The Navy won’t say what it has or hasn’t done, but military officials and congressional hawks want the U.S. to make a major demonstration by sending warships within 12 miles of the artificial islands and make clear to China that the U.S. rejects its territorial claims.

By not doing so, they charge, Washington is tacitly accepting China’s destabilizing moves, which are seen by U.S. allies in the region such as Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam as highly threatening.

“We continue to restrict our Navy from operating within a 12 nautical mile zone of China’s reclaimed islands, a dangerous mistake that grants de facto recognition of China’s man-made sovereignty claims,” Sen. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told POLITICO.

I hate to agree with John McCain, but he's right here.

Sources in the military and within the administration acknowledge the difference of opinion privately, but would not go on the record to discuss the differences between Navy leaders and the administration.

...

The dispute is more than just a naval territorial dispute — there are global economic implications if China claims ownership of this part of the sea, which sees trillions in goods shipped between Asia and the rest of the globe.

...

China claims it has exclusive control over waters hundreds of miles off its coast, and U.S. officials say Beijing believes the man-made islands strengthen its claim to the disputed Spratly Islands chain, which China and several Southeast Asian countries claim as their own.

...

The artificial islands have added to a broader disagreement between Washington and Beijing over freedom of navigation. The United States and most other countries, citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, maintain that a coastal nation has the right to regulate economic activities such as fishing and oil exploration within a 200-mile economic exclusionary zone and that it cannot regulate foreign military forces except within 12 nautical miles off its shores. China, however, has insisted it can regulate economic and military activities out 200 nautical miles.

...

More than $5 trillion worth of international trade, from Middle East oil bound for Asian markets to children’s toys bound for Wal-Mart stores in the U.S., pass through the South China Sea each year. If China can restrict the passage of ships through what today are considered international waters, that could cause shockwaves for the world economy, U.S. officials warn.

...

The National Security Council also declined to discuss the dispute or outline the White House’s view, referring questions to the Pentagon.

But the Obama administration is increasingly seen as eager to avoid a confrontation by actually doing so — at least publicly — and Republicans are trying to pressure President Obama ahead of the Chinese leader’s visit to more aggressively assert himself in the face of China’s controversial behavior.

Just think back at the reaction of the US, when Russia annexed its own historical territory in Crimea, with the agreement of most of the Crimean population.  The PRC is, with its ridiculous EEZ-claims*, and creation of military outposts out of open ocean, effectively claiming exclusive ownership of and control over an entire sea !  At the expense of the actual territorial waters of the countries in the area, and at the expense of the entire international community's rights of navigation.  And the US response ?**  'Pretty please, don't do that, huh ?  What if we ask you really, really nicely ?'  Which is pretty much what I'd expect from a government that puts short-term corporate profits ahead of all other interests.

The US can't be counted on to stand by the Philippines or Viet Nam, here, can't be counted on by its Asian allies generally, if it allows this to stand without even attempting to assert its own legal right of navigation.  Sailing in international waters is an act of provocation towards a country a thousand kilometres away ?  Is that really a precedent you want to set ?  No-one's asking you to go to war with China.  Just assert your damn legal rights, and let the PRC take the first shot, if that's really where they want to go with this.  Shit !

Oh, but they left the best piece for last in that article:

But at the same time U.S. military leaders are advocating for something else — for the U.S. Senate to ratify the UN Law of the Sea treaty that it repeatedly cites as as the international framework for navigation of the high seas.

“We undermine our leverage by not signing up to the same rule book by which we are asking other countries to accept,” Gen. Joe Dunford, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate earlier this month.

That's right, as with so many other international agreements, the US signs up for something, then won't fucking ratify it, 'cos historically, the US has kinda not given a shit, figuring it will just do what it wants, regardless of the international community.  Which becomes somewhat problematic, when it comes up across another country with the same arrogant attitude, and the muscle to stand up to the US.

In the case of the UNCLOS, the US finds itself in a club that also includes the likes of North Korea & Iran.  But not the PRC, which ratified the agreement...but then just ignores it anyway.


* And absurd territorial claims based upon a bullshit made-up map from nineteen-forty-fuckin'-seven.

** Never mind the EU's silence on the matter.

Breitbart's Cuban Butthurt

Surely, more like a victory for common sense, abandoning a long-standing decades-long policy of isolation, that, multiple dead US Presidents later, was still failing to bring about regime-change in Cuba ?  This, on top of other accomplishments by Obama in the last couple of years, his continuing support of the right-wing capitalistic establishment aside, is making it harder and harder for me to maintain my disapproval of the guy.  I may still not agree with the guy 100%*, but compared to Dubya...or worse still, the lunatics even further to Dubya's right ?...

And yet, I get the impression from Breitbart that I'm meant to be outraged, incensed even over the idea of the flag of a 'communist dictatorship' flying in DC...

Former ambassadors, murderous guerrilla icons, and even folk singers have descended upon Washington, D.C. today to celebrate the raising of the Cuban flag over the newly-minted embassy of the communist dictatorship in America.

Cuban state media is treating the event, which has no analog at the American embassy in Havana, as a victory over the American people.

Erm, is the People's Republic of China, which has agents online and in person infilitrating US' governmental agencies and businesses left, right, and centre, not a communist dictatorship ?  A country that bullies the US' allies and has nuclear weapons pointed at the US.  And even Vietnam, for that matter, are they not considered a communist dictatorship ?  Oh, and that last line is bullshit, as the raising of the US flag in Havana is specifically planned to coincide with the visit of, I believe, John Kerry, in the country.

The State Department has raised the Cuban flag over the new embassy in Washington, D.C. while the American embassy remains barren in Havana, though operating officially as an embassy. It released its first press release today as an official embassy and not the Office of American Interests. It will be run by interim head Jeffrey DeLaurentis as Congress gears up to oppose the appointment of any ambassador to the communist dictatorship so long as the Castro regime continues to flagrantly violate human rights.

So the PRC doesn't violate human rights ?  How about Saudi Arabia ?  How about unquestionable Israel, the ultimate third rail of American politics ?  You would be willing to shut down the Israeli embassy over criticism of treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank ?

Granma, the official propaganda outlet for the Cuban government, is treating the ceremony as a victory for the communist revolution. In an article quoting the various members of the delegation to D.C., a number of them described the flag-raising ceremony as analogous to a military victory against America. Pez Ferro, who participated in the 1953 attack on the Moncada military barracks that made Fidel Castro a nationally-recognized terrorist, told Granma that the flag-raising ceremony proves the communists “were in the right.” “This confirms that former policies were a failure,” he states, as well as “the recognition of the resistance of a country that did not cede to pressure despite not being a great power like its rival.”

Well, as for a communist victory, obviously they're fantasists.  They have a point regarding the failure of US policies towards Cuba, but, either way, why so much butt-hurt ?

I suppose, ultimately, it's a similar case as with Viet Nam.  Right-wingers in the US can never get over the idea that they were legitimately defeated, almost exactly as the British were defeated by their ancestors, via the guerrilla tactics of the ordinary populace.  A narrative has to be adopted, that somehow, the media were to blame, lefty liberals like Jane Fonda, traitors in the established political parties with insufficient will to crush the...'enemy.'  The 'enemy' who happened to be pawns on one side of the political chessboard than the other, and the same 'enemy' who are today coveted 'allies'.

Once, and perhaps future, ally of the US, Cuba, was condemned and demonised for similar reasons as other 'Communist' countries of the 'fifties and 'sixties, most of which are today, whether they nominally identify as Communist or not, eagerly courted and fêted by the West.  I suspect that a decade from now, right-wingers in the US will be talking about Cuba, much as they would talk today about Vietnam, and with their own current hyperbole conveniently forgotten.


* Well, not even close to that.

The Country We Pretend Doesn't Exist

Seems like every other day or so, there is another encouraging story of countries in the vicinity of what we still insist on calling the South China Sea (we really need a rebranding of that body of water, that should never have been given such a misleading name in the first place) asserting their rights against the attempted landgrabs and colonisation of the PRC.

I'd noticed the earlier stories, such as the Japanese patrols, and the reopening of Subic Bay, but honestly, couldn't think of anything specific to say on the matters.  This, on the other hand, struck me about the story regarding Taiwan:

Taiwan, which lacks the diplomatic ties to negotiate with the other five governments with claims in the South China Sea, has installed $1.29 million worth of solar panels on Taiping Island since 2011 to light a cluster of buildings and provide power for construction of a 200-meter (yard) pier due for completion by year's end, the head of the island's coast guard said Friday.

Taiwan has been an independent country for almost seventy years.  Not a country we choose to pretend to be independent, like 'Palestine', but an actual fully-functioning autonomous entity.  The US (which likes to pretend that international borders haven't changed since the second world war), and most countries in the EU, granted quick recognition to Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.  And yet, the vast majority of the countries on the planet, maintain the fiction that Taiwan, seven decades of actual independence regardless, is still* a province of the People's Republic of China.

Some of these countries used to recognise Taiwan, as the ROC (Republic of China), but later switched their recognition to the PRC.  I've never understood this 'choice' -- How was recognition of the obvious independence of mainland China from Taiwan ever dependent on rejecting the obvious independence of Taiwan from mainland China ?  Were we not capable of recognising both East and West Germany ?  Are we not capable of distinguishing between North and South Korea ?

Of course, I'm being a bit disingenuous here, as if I didn't know full well the political intent of forcing countries that wanted closer economic ties with the PRC to reject Taiwan.  As if I didn't understand their economic motivations in betraying a country that may have been, and may yet prove to be a valuable ally.

It still stinks.  We in the West scarcely dare say boo to the PRC, even when they steal from us, spy on us, threaten us and our allies militarily, engage in cyber-terrorism even.  Because we're so desperate for access to their markets and their cheap labour.  Meanwhile, we turned our back on a peaceful ally in Taiwan and officially embraced the insane One-China dogma of those on the mainland who would willingly destroy the Taiwanese utterly rather than allow them their rightful independence.

And now here we are, with the PRC threatening the sovereign waters of Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, et al.  And the country similarly and more historically thus threatened, Taiwan, 'lacks the diplomatic ties to negotiate with' them, because they, like so many other cowardly governments worldwide, stabbed Taiwan in the back, so greedy were they for relations with the PRC at any cost.

Here's the countries, according to Wikipedia, that have recognised, mostly in the last few years, 'The State of Palestine':

Image: Wikipedia, User Night w  CC SA 3.0

OTOH, the tiny few remaining countries in green below have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, whilst those cowards in blue maintain some sort of unofficial relations.

Image: Wikipedia, User Alinor  CC SA 3.0

As I said above, it is encouraging to see countries in the 'South China Sea' pushing back against the PRC's aggression just off their shores.  But if they wanted to truly send a signal to the PRC of their displeasure, then decades-long belated recognition of their neighbour and potential ally in Taiwan would be a hell of a place to start.


* Almost got myself there

** Oh, and in case it is brought up at some point, no, the situation with the South China Sea is not the same as that with Russia and Eastern Ukraine, the latter conflict being largely if not primarily created by Western hostility against and encirclement of Russia, which hardly relates to the circumstances of the Chinese Civil War in the 'forties.  And the differing attitudes towards the PRC & Russia, both being motivated overwhelming by corporate greed, with geopolitical principles bent at will to whichever attitude might bring about the greatest possible profit in the short to medium term, even if in the long term, those attitudes might lead to global thermonuclear war.  Much as the likes of idiots such as John McCain (or, for that matter, even Vladimir Putin himself) might like to fantasise about a 'new Soviet Empire', Russia is in fact a much lessened nation, than its Soviet predecessor, responding more in the manner of a cornered animal, but no less dangerous for that.  If you want to find yourself a new imperial project (other than the perpetual one of the United States of course), Southeast Asia is where you will find it.

*** Assuming in all of this that the Taiwanese would not be so insane as to assert the same made-up 'nine-dash' claims for their own nation, which would be equally absurd as the same claims of the PRC.

First Pussy Riot, Now This Radical Extremist

Original photo: Niccolò Caranti CC BY-SA 3.0

Do the PRC not understand how ridiculous they sound to the outside world ?

Just Madness Everywhere

2015, and we still seemingly have racially motivated attacks on historically black churches in the Southern United States. Wonder what the cooling-off-period is between a shooting and the inevitable right-wing response that it all could have been prevented if only everyone were armed.  Elementary Schools, Universities...why not Churches ?  Arm the congregation and clergy alike.

Elsewhere in the news, Hong Kong still seemingly hasn't come to terms with the consequences of returning to mainland-rule and the fact that the PRC never had any intention whatsoever of allowing actual democracy to prevail under its rule, even in its special administrative regions,...NATO is continuing its lunatic tit-for-tat escalation with Russia by acting out war-games off the coast of Kaliningrad,...and bankers Goldman Sachs are attempting to show how humane they are and how great their concern for their staffinterns desperate for any foothold on the jobs-ladder to pay off student-debt, by insisting that they only work a maximum seventeen-hour workday.

And then there's this:

The increasingly tense relationship between the United States and Russia might be about to face a new challenge: a Russian investigation into American moon landings.

In an op-ed published by Russian newspaper Izvestia, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the government's official Investigative Committee, argued that such an investigation could reveal new insights into the historical space journeys.

According to a translation by the Moscow Times, Markin would support an inquiry into the disappearance of original footage from the first moon landing in 1969 and the whereabouts of lunar rock, which was brought back to Earth during several missions.

“We are not contending that they did not fly [to the moon], and simply made a film about it. But all of these scientific — or perhaps cultural — artifacts are part of the legacy of humanity, and their disappearance without a trace is our common loss. An investigation will reveal what happened,” Markin wrote, according to the Moscow Times translation.

Er, what, why ?.

So, why is Investigative Committee member Markin speculating about conspiracy theories surrounding US moon landings that happened decades ago? In his op-ed, the Russian official also emphasized that “US authorities had crossed a line by launching a large-scale corruption probe targeting nine Fifa officials,” according to the Moscow Times.

We're descending to this level of pettiness in our new cold war already ?

Well, why ever not ?  The US hadn't even started its war in Iraq (you know the one I mean, don't quibble) before it was going after its own erstwhile allies with that 'freedom fries' & 'old Europe' nonsense.  This is how we do geopolitics in the twenty-first century apparently.  The grownups left the game long ago.

Attention Cartographers

Mount Everest has moved 1.2 inches (3cm) - and changed direction - because of the Nepal earthquake, according to a geological survey by the Chinese government.

It's easy to forget that world's highest peak is moving, both laterally and horizontally. That process has been affected by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, according to research reported in the state-run China Daily newspaper.

According to research by the Chinese government's National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, the mountain has moved 3cm to the south-west since the quake, AFP reported.

We should re-draw the borders immediately !  Those three centimetres of mountain were historically Chinese territory and must remain ever thus !


Gets stupider below the fold...

An Alliance against an 'Unstated Adversary' ?

In Asia, China’s increasingly assertive acts prompt unity among opponents

BEIJING China is showing itself to be a unifying force in Asia – uniting various countries against Beijing’s increasingly assertive actions in the South China Sea.

On Monday, Malaysian officials announced they would register a complaint against a Chinese coast guard ship that ventured into their country’s territorial waters north of Borneo.

On Tuesday, Japan and the Philippines announced plans for a joint search-and-rescue exercise involving military aircraft later this month. The announcement followed a trip by Philippines President Benigno Aquino III to Tokyo last weekend, which could pave the way for Japanese aircraft and ships to refuel at Philippines military bases.

Last week, Reuters reported that Vietnam – amid tense relations with China – was talking to U.S. and European military contractors about possibly purchasing fighter jets, maritime patrol planes and unarmed drones.

Over the last several months, China’s expansion of artificial islands in the South China Sea has widely been seen as a blow to U.S. foreign policy, which seems unable to keep Beijing in check. Yet increasingly, China’s actions are prompting its neighbors to explore new security arrangements with each other, which Chinese leaders have long sought to avoid.

“For China, it could end up being a Pyrrhic victory in the long run,” Denny Roy, a security analyst at the East-West Center in Hawaii, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. Beijing’s hopes of extracting concessions from other Asian countries could be thrown into doubt “if the result is improved security cooperation, with China as the unstated adversary,” he said.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article23583919.html#storylink=cpy

Colour me sceptical, but it'll be interesting to see how this pans out.  The US has a stake in this fight, as does the rest of the international community, if for no other reason than maintaining freedom of navigation in international waters, but if China's neighbours won't stand up against the PRC building military outposts out of open ocean off their shores, then hegemony of the PRC throughout the region seems inevitable.

In Which the PRC is Totally Not Militarising the West Philippine Sea

Chinese Weapons Spotted on Disputed Island, U.S. Says

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG MAY 29, 2015

SINGAPORE — The United States has spotted a pair of mobile artillery vehicles on an artificial island that China is building in the South China Sea, a resource-rich stretch of ocean crossed by vital shipping lanes, American officials said.

China’s construction program on previously uninhabited atolls and reefs in the Spratly Islands has already raised alarm and drawn protests from other countries in the region, whose claims to parts of the South China Sea overlap China’s.

Unpossible.  The PRC's activities are purely peaceful after all, and for the benefit of their neighbours.

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter called this week for China to halt the construction, saying that international law did not recognize Chinese claims of sovereignty over the new territories and that American warships and military aircraft would continue to operate in the area.

A violation of international law !  And we know how seriously the Americans take that !  Why any minute now, they'll be announcing sanctions, and...and...  Well no, of course not.

Psst, Vietnam...Philippines...Malaysia...Take a look at Ukraine.  That's what you get when the country on the other side is one upon whom the US is not massively economically dependent (as a result of insane past policy-decisions).  Think the US will be there when it counts ?  Might be time to make other plans...

Shocking Military Provocation in the West Philippine Sea

TENSIONS are set to escalate in the South China Sea as China seeks assurances the United States will not send warships to test its determination to lay claim to a string of remote, strategic islands.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said last night that the US needs to clarify its stance on proposed new patrols around the islands being used to establish a claim on key strategic oil and fish stocks.

China urged “the relevant country” to “refrain from taking risky and provocative actions to maintain the regional peace and stability”, Hua told reporters.

Huh, wonder why the PRC is so concerned about US military patrols in international waters if its own presence there is so peaceful and neighbourly, and not at all militaristic ?  And since when did they even admit using the artificial islands to promote (utterly bogus) claims on oil and fish ?

BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday voiced "serious concern" toward a U.S. official's remarks on the Pentagon's plan to send military aircraft and ships to the South China Sea.

Spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a routine press briefing that the U.S. side should clarify relevant remarks.

According to a Reuters report, a U.S. official said on Tuesday the Pentagon is considering sending U.S. military aircraft and ships to "assert freedom of navigation" around Chinese-made artificial islands in the South China Sea.

China has always advocated freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, Hua said. "But freedom of navigation does not give one country's military aircraft and ships free access to another country's territorial waters and airspace."

Yep, he actually said that.

Sure, we could consider those your territorial waters, if we completely ignored the claims of the other countries that happen to be much much closer to the waters in question.

But hey, 固有之疆域, right ?  Wonder what the world might look like if every country declared that any territory they had held at any point in history should be theirs until the end of time ?  Like, gee I don't know, how about...Japan, say ?

The PRC would be totally cool with that, right ?

Behold, the latest triumph of the 'free market'...

Chinese vehicle maker Ninebot has bought iconic US rival Segway, the company announced on Wednesday.

The Beijing-based firm did not disclose the amount of the acquisition, but did say that it received $80m (£54m) in funding from smartphone maker Xiaomi and investment firm Sequoia Capital.

Ninebot also makes two-wheeled electric vehicles, designed for standing riders, that resemble Segways.

Segway had sought an import ban against Ninebot in the US in September.

The Chinese company was one of several that Segway had accused of infringing on its patents.

Part of me just lives in hope of seeing the eventual downfall of companies like Apple & GM.

The Artificial Islands of Love

What is it about totalitarian dictatorships that produces such hilarious rhetoric ?

South China Sea islands plan unveiled

Updated: 2015-04-10 03:20

By LI XIAOKUN(China Daily)

United States accused of ignoring building work by other nations on China's islands

China on Thursday unveiled details of its plan for building and maintenance projects on some of its islands in the South China Sea, saying it aims mainly to provide a civilian service that will benefit other countries.

The details were announced by the Foreign Ministry, which also accused Washington of adopting double standards on the issue by ignoring building work by other countries on islands owned by China.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing, "We are setting up shelters, aids for navigation, search and rescue as well as marine meteorological forecasting services, fishery services and other administrative services.

"These will provide necessary services to China, neighboring countries and individual vessels sailing in the South China Sea."

But of course, you're building artificial islands out of open sea far far far from your own coastline, because of the benefit you can provide to the other (much) nearer countries in the vicinity.  It all makes sense now.  What were we worrying about ?  Here we were thinking it was a land-grab based upon your usual maximalist territorial claims to any inch of land or water on which a Chinese citizen ever walked...er swam ?...sailed ?...But all along, it turns out the whole thing was a gift to your neighbours.  That totally makes sense.  You can stop worrying now Vietnam.  No problem at all Philippines.  And Taiwan, well when the PRC invades you and forces you under their rule, then all of this will be yours too !  Assuming they don't drop a neutron-bomb on you first.  Maybe you should just surrender now...

Nothing to worry about...at all...

TPP & TTIP

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Revelation 17:1-2

TPP & TTIP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership & the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) don't seem to get much coverage in the media, despite their likely impact on so many countries, likely because a) the deals are complicated, and b) the deals are being worked in secret behind closed doors.  These are just 'trade deals' remember, not exactly a nuclear deal with Iran; Totally innocent stuff, and the reason the US, UK, and other governments don't want you to know about what's being discussed, is simply that it's so boring.  They'll tell you all about it eventually, such as...four years after the deals are already done and dusted.

In the meantime, you're just gonna have to trust them that the deals are in your best interest and will result in more jobs, more prosperity, and rising wages, just like...say NAFTA...or say...the MFN deal Clinton pushed with China.  Those worked out really well, didn't they ?  And the PRC is going to turn into a flourishing democracy with respect for the human rights and civil liberties of all its citizens any day now, right Bill ?

Basically, like all 'free trade' deals, the idea is to maximise corporate profits at the expense of labour costs (i.e. your paycheck), civil liberties, national sovereignty, safety, and the environment; to drag every nation slowly down to the lowest-common denominator.  To drag the EU standards down to those of the US, down to those of South America, down to those of east Asia, down ultimately one would imagine to those of Somalia.  And if any national government gets in the way of corporate profits by passing pesky laws to, say protect the safety & wellbeing of its citizens, well fuck 'em. !  They can just be sued, in trans-national arbitration tribunals, run by said corporations, and outside of national law.  Bye-bye national sovereignty.  And you think the EU is the threat, Ukippers ?


Here's a nice summary of the deals for the uninitiated (yes with Russell Brand, sorry):

Sounds good, huh ?

Remember this bit from Last Week Tonight ?  (Might want to skip to 8'05).  Think Philip Morris is the only corporation that does this stuff ?  Think making this shit even easier is a good idea ?

What to do, other than try to find some non-corporatist non-fascist non-cocksucker politicians to vote for ?  Well the first video has some suggestions towards the end.  I don't hold out much hope myself, but you never know.

For the American Sparkle-pony crowd, here's a bonus video, with not-going-to-be-the-Democratic-nominee-for-president-any-time-soon Elizabeth Warren on TPP and the ISDS tribunals back in February.

And if you really want lots more details on TPP, check out Gaius Publius' writings on the subject.  Don't know if Gaius has a dedicated page, but Hullabaloo & Americablog are probably good starting points.

That Meddlesome Dalai Lama

So apparently, the People's Republic of China is not happy at all about the Dalai Lama's comments regarding the possibility that he might not reincarnate.  See, the PRC thinks that its occupation of Tibet gives it the exclusive right to appoint a successor, preferably a nice compliant puppet doll they can dance around in a attempt to give legitimacy to said occupation by the (officially) athiest, (nominally) Communist dictatorship.  Poor fucking babies, possibly not getting their doll, and not getting to continue to fuck with a major world religion.  Such an evil 'double betrayal' by the Dalai Lama, on top of a lifetime of his vilely refusing to act as their personal plaything himself.  Cry me a river, assholes.

The Dalai Lama has been described by Chinese government officials as a “wolf in monk’s robes,” and a “dangerous splittist” intent on cleaving the Chinese nation. On March 13, the Chinese Communist Party–linked Global Times kept up the decades-long attack on the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, denouncing him as a “double betrayer” who “keeps spouting nonsense” while devising “a sly trap.”

That supposed trap extends into the hereafter. Tibetan Buddhists believe the current Dalai Lama is the 14th reincarnation of a holy monk who lived in the 14th century. Now 79, and surely aware that his hopes for an autonomous Tibet are improbable, the Dalai Lama has raised several possibilities of what might happen after he dies. Perhaps he will choose his successor during his lifetime, contrary to the usual tradition of identifying the new Dalai Lama only after the death of the old one. Maybe his soul will transfer to a person outside of Tibet. Or perhaps, he has said most recently, the line of Dalai Lamas will end with him, if that is the wish of the Tibetan people.

Apologies to Ukraine

My apologies to the people of Ukraine.  Our leaders continue to rant and rave as if they are going to risk military confrontation with Russia over the conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk, as if Russia can be forced to hand back Crimea.  It's cruel, the false hopes they persist in encouraging.  They're liars, and they can't admit the truth.

Sorry to have to say it, but the Ukraine you knew is gone...forever, and no amount of bluster or outrage will bring it back.  No, it isn't fair, but as parents say to their children, life isn't either.  And we tolerate plenty of unfairness we could do something about, never mind the things we can't.  Men earning more than women isn't fair, or whites earning more than minorities, or CEO's earning multiples in the hundreds of what their lowest paid employees get.  We tolerate income inequality, just as we tolerate homelessness, poor families going hungry, disproportionate incarceration of minorities, businesses colluding against consumers, politicians selling their office to the highest bidder.  We imprison whistleblowers pointing out the crimes of our governments, whilst war criminals go free.  We have an exceptionally high tolerance for unfairness generally.

And as for unfair territorial disputes or questions of sovereignty ?  We allow our greatest trading partner to bully its neighbours, and persistently threaten one of them (a peaceful democratic ally of ours) with use of military force up to and including nuclear weapons.  We've allowed an entire population in the West Bank and Gaza to be held hostage as political pawns, to be kept in amber as a perpetual 'refugee' population, decades after the wars that made them refugees.  We allow a population of twenty-five million in North Korea to be imprisoned under an insane radical dictatorship that threatens us with nuclear war because it suits the People's Republic of China to have it there between them and US-ally South Korea as a buffer state.  We won't be waging any 'wars of liberation' in North Korea anytime soon, will we ?  An entire state sacrificed for the realpolitik concerns of China, and we won't do anything about it...because we can't.

Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle

A fact rarely remembered, but, in the dying days of the Soviet Union, the USSR had and launched at least one successful test flight of its own space shuttle: The Buran.  A craft that oh so coincidentally seemed almost an exact twin of NASA's shuttles, just as NASA's earliest orbital rockets happened to be the not so subtle twins of the V-rockets that rained down on Britain from the Third Reich, and just as China's latest stealth planes just so happen to look like carbon-copy clones of their American counterparts.  What comes around and all that.

No idea who originally put together the videos herein, but the soundtrack is suggestive of the perspective behind it.  And who indeed knows what might have been had we ended up ruled by a different despotic overlord rather than the one that happened to win out in our modern day Game of Thrones ?  Most born today presumably will scarce be able to countenance the possibility of the (first ?) Cold War having gone differently, just as we can't easily conceive of different outcomes for the (first two ?) so-called World Wars and the various (American, French, Russian, some other countries we don't really care about) revolutions of the past few centuries.  Always healthy to gain what little perspective one can with a taste, however fanciful, of what might have been.

Oh, and say what you will of the US Shuttles, the fact that the US in grounding them willingly placed itself in almost total dependence upon Putin's Russia at a time of growing tensions, even prior to the Ukrainian provocations (by which I mean, the expansionary and de-stabilising activities of the EU & NATO, lest I be misunderstood), is indeed almost funny.  Almost, were it not for the fact of us continuing to be eager to pretend that the threats of nuclear war have somehow vanished with the end of the cold war, when in fact nothing of the sort is or ever was remotely the case, and when the actual threat of global nuclear annihilation is probably as great today as it was in the time of our grandparents.  Of course the planet may well boil if we carry on burning fossil fuels at the current rate, possibly before we get the chance to blow ourselves up, so it may be a moot point.  Stupid fucking humans !