HOW SOUTH KOREA’S INTELLIGENCE SERVICE QUIETLY PUSHES PEACE TALKS

By Tim Shorrock, Deep State Blog.

November 1, 2020




https://popularresistance.org/how-south-koreas-intelligence-service-quietly-pushes-peace-talks/




Tensions between the two Koreas escalated again last month after a South Korean fisheries official, possibly attempting to defect, was shot dead by North Korean army troops after he swam across their disputed maritime border known as the Northern Limit Line.

A shocked President Moon Jae-in, who has made engagement with North Korea the centerpiece of his administration, demanded an explanation. Some US “experts” boldly predicted that North Korea had killed off Moon’s peace initiative.

Within days, however, the tables were turned. On September 25th, Kim made an unprecedented public apology to South Korea for the “unsavory” killing, which he admitted (rightly) had “delivered a big disappointment” to the people of the South.” Moon responded that Kim had reaffirmed “his hope that inter-Korean relations will not fall apart,” and his ruling Democratic Party proposed a joint investigation with Pyongyang (that has yet to happen).

Another crisis on the Korean peninsula had apparently been averted.
Why Spies?

Significantly, Kim’s apology was not sent through diplomatic channels but came from the United Front Department (UFD), an arm of the North Korean intelligence service that has historically overseen North-South relations and operations. The letter was transmitted to President Moon through Park Jie-Won, the newly appointed director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS).

Those relationships, and South Korea’s alliance with the United States, will be seriously tested by the upcoming US election. Ever since the collapse of the US-DPRK talks in Hanoi in March 2019, the Moon government has been trying to convince Trump and the US national security establishment to be more flexible on the issue of sanctions so North and South can move ahead on inter-Korean economic projects they agreed to in 2018. That was the topic of recent meetings in Washington between Moon’s top nuclear envoy and the Trump administration. Another key issue is the US pressure on South Korea to join its anti-China alliance, which Moon has resisted.

With Joe Biden promising to work more closely with allies while being tougher on both North Korea and China, Seoul – and the NIS – face difficult choices in the months ahead.
Architects Of ‘Sunshine’

How the NIS – the successor to the KCIA, once one of the most feared spy agencies in the world – came to play a central role in the Korea peace process is a little-known story that explains much about South Korea today and its progressive leadership under President Moon.

At the same time, it reflects the precarious state of North-South relations since earlier this year, when Kim’s government cut off most communication with Seoul, blew up a joint liaison office just north of the DMZ, and sharply criticized Moon for being too dependent on the United States.

Since the failure of the Hanoi Summit in February 2019, President Trump has lost interest in the North Korea issue, leaving South Korea to strategize about how to keep the possibility of peace and reunification alive.

In July, Moon appointed Park Jie-won as NIS director as part of a shakeup of his national security team designed to get his stalled talks with the North back on track. Park is widely known as the architect of the “Sunshine Policy” towards the North initiated and championed by former President Kim Dae Jung. (Kim, who led the democratic opposition for many years was once kidnapped and nearly executed by the KCIA; in 1998 he was elected president.)

At the NIS, Park replaced Suh Hoon, a longtime NIS officer who is now Moon’s national security adviser. Suh, too, has been involved with inter-Korean affairs for many years. During the 1990s, Suh was a top official with the consortium organized by the US, South Korea and Japan to build a light-water reactor in the North as part of the 1994 “Agreed Framework” with Kim Jong Il. Signed by President Clinton, the agreement averted the first nuclear crisis.

According to NK News, Suh “has probably lived in North Korea longer than any other South Korean since the end of the Korean War.”
Getting Trump To The Table

Because of his many contacts with the North, Suh was pivotal to President Moon’s peace overture in 2018. That initiative began during the Winter Olympics, when the new president invited North Korea to participate in the games and Kim Jong Un sent the highest-level delegation from Pyongyang ever to cross the DMZ into the South.

A few weeks later, Suh and Chung Eui-yong, then Moon’s national security adviser, met secretly in Pyongyang with Kim, who communicated to them his willingness to meet with Trump as a way to defuse tensions over their confrontation over North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests.

Not long after, Suh and Chung flew to Washington, where they passed Kim’s request to Trump at the White House. In the months leading up to the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore, Suh and the NIS, along with Andrew Kim, then the director of the CIA’s Korea Mission Center, remained in close touch with North Korea’s intelligence officials.

When Kim sent a representative to Washington to pave the way for Singapore, it was Kim Yong Chol, the former head of the UFD known (and feared) for directing North Korea’s top spy agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau.

Once these discussions got into the realm of establishing a formal end to the war and building a peace process, the spies stepped back and the diplomats took over.

As I reported in The Nation in 2018, that process was just beginning in the wake of Singapore. And after the US-DPRK talks collapsed in Hanoi in 2019, it was back to the spies. Suh went to Pyongyang to discuss how to get the process back on track.
CIA Vs. NIS

Yet, even as the NIS works in tandem with the CIA, their goals are very different. US intelligence views North Korea only in adversarial terms. During Trump’s talks with Kim, the agency has consistently argued that the DPRK is “unlikely” to give up its nuclear arsenal. For the NIS, however, the purpose of dialogue and engagement is to reconcile and fulfill the national goal of eventual unification with the North.

The difference between the NIS and the CIA is not just one of policy but of the very conception of the North Korean issue.

One of the clearest explanations of the South Korean perspective comes from Lim Dong-won, a former NIS director-general and Minister of Unification. He played key roles in the 2000 and 2007 summits with Kim Jong Il, and has consistently described his goals as an intelligence chief as ending “the legacy of the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula.”

In a 2012 speech at Stanford University based on his memoir, Peacemaker, Lim described South Korea’s engagement with North Korea as an effort to “establish a new relationship of reconciliation and cooperation” aimed at “removing the hostile relationship between North Korea and the United States.” Now 86 and still advising President Moon, Lim is highly critical of the unilateral demands for immediate denuclearization made by the US government in its talks with the North.

“A comprehensive, step-by-step approach is essential,” he said in a speech last July. That is the same gradualist approach that Kim Jong Un has embraced and is seen by many peace advocates as the only way forward in Korea. He added: “South and North need to cooperate as parties to peace on the Korean Peninsula” and “transitioning from a military armistice system to a peace regime.”

Some Korean analysts now credit Lim and the NIS for convincing the Clinton administration to launch the remarkable negotiations with Kim Jong Il in 1999 that nearly succeeded in ending the enmity between the US and the DPRK in 2000 (those talks, which began while the Agreed Framework was still in effect, were abruptly cancelled by President George W. Bush in 2001).

Back Ki-chul, the executive editor of the progressive Hankyoreh newspaper, recently wrote that Lim’s most important contribution to inter-Korean ties may have been the concept of “open autonomy” first adopted by Kim Dae Jung. This approach, he said, was designed to “create an independent space for inter-Korean negotiation and compromise and to seek the support of the US and other related countries, without relying solely on the US.”

He urged President Moon to adopt Lim’s strategy. “South and North Korea need to reconsider their dependence on Trump, who doesn’t have the slightest interest in peace on the Korean Peninsula,” he wrote.
Politics Of Intelligence

South Korea’s reliance on its intelligence services might appear unusual in a world where diplomacy is the defining method of settling disputes. But it’s a natural outgrowth of Korea’s history as a divided country in which each half claims jurisdiction over the other.

The secrecy, however, has sometimes backfired. After the 2000 summit, Park Jie Won was jailed for three years for funneling $450 million from the giant Hyundai Group to the North ahead of the meetings. And in 2006, Lim Dong-won was convicted for illegal wiretapping during the Kim Dae Jung administration.

More recently, the NIS admitted to conducting an illegal campaign to promote the election of conservative Park Guen-hye in 2012 when she defeated Moon Jae-in. Park, who was impeached in 2017, was later convicted of accepting nearly $27 million in bribes from the NIS during her time in office.

Such abuses have prompted the National Assembly to consider sweeping reforms to the NIS that would weaken its domestic investigatory powers and restrict its role to spying overseas.
Bloody KCIA

The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) was founded by former President Park Chung Hee in 1961 “with the advice and assistance of the American CIA.” Park was a general who took over in a military coup in 1961, when he crushed a brief movement for reunification with the North that swept the country after its first democratic revolution in 1960 (Park Guen-hye, now in prison, is his daughter).

In 1972, Lee Hu Rak, Park’s intelligence chief, stunned the country by meeting secretly with Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founding leader, and setting up the first meetings between the ROK and the DPRK since the end of the Korean War. A few months later, Park expanded martial law and instructed the KCIA to launch a massive crackdown on dissent to ensure national “unity” as he negotiated with Kim.

Over the next seven years, Park’s repression and torture state worsened, leading to an explosion of protests in the fall of 1979 (the KCIA’s “room of death” at its headquarters in downtown Seoul is now a museum). That October, in the midst of the largest demonstrations since 1960, Park was shot to death at a dinner party by Kim Jae-gyu, one of Lee’s successors at the KCIA (Kim, who claimed that he acted to save Korean democracy, had close ties to the CIA, but that’s another story).

Six months later, another general, Chun Doo Hwan, seized power after taking personal control of the military and the KCIA. But he, too, was toppled in 1987 by nationwide protests that led, finally, to democratization. As South Korea came to terms with its authoritarian past, the KCIA was reorganized and reformed as the NIS, and its repressive powers were gradually – but not completely – diminished. Yet its influence remained pervasive, especially as a conduit for discussions with the DPRK.
Beyond Trump

Why intelligence officials and not diplomats lead the talks has to do with factors related to the 1953 armistice. While the shooting stopped the North and South have lived in a technical state of war ever since. Moon Chung-in, President Moon’s adviser, has defined the inter-Korean process since South Korea’s democratization in the 1980s as “unconventional summit diplomacy that grew out of the “inconclusive” ending of the war.

In a fascinating 2018 article in The Brown Journal of World Affairs, Moon explained that both North and South consider themselves the legitimate rulers of all of Korea. But since they signed a “basic agreement” on reconciliation in 1992 – which was negotiated by former NIS Director-General Lim Dong Won – they have defined their on and off discussions as “temporary transitional special relations” of two countries “striving towards unification.”

According to this compromise, Moon Chung-in explained,“relations between the two Koreas are not interstate relations, but intra-national special relations of a kind that have prevented the adoption of formal diplomatic intercourse.”

Thus the use of intelligence officials, who can speak and negotiate with the direct support of their leaders but aren’t beholden to the rules of state-to-state diplomacy.

With Park Jie-won, the new NIS director, leading the interactions with Kim Jong Un, Korean intelligence is once again in the lead. According to Hankyoreh, his appointment was “a message that signals a strong commitment to improving inter-Korean relations while urging the US government to adopt a more forward-looking stance.”

The importance of his initiative was underscored this week after Trump was sidelined with a serious case of coronavirus and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled a visit to Seoul to discuss North Korea policy.

Still, no matter who the next US president turns out to be, Moon will continue his quest for a peaceful solution to the nuclear crises that have plagued US-Korean relations for over two decades. It’s clear from his recent moves on the international stage that South Korea, thanks in part to the NIS, will be steering its own course. For once, Seoul’s tainted intelligence services may be on the right side of Korean history.

TEACHER’S VIRAL ARREST HELPED STOP EVICTIONS

 

https://popularresistance.org/teachers-viral-arrest-helped-stop-evictions/

FBI RAIDS NEO-NAZI CAMP IN MICHIGAN

By Eric London, WSWS.

November 1, 2020




https://popularresistance.org/fbi-raids-neo-nazi-camp-in-michigan/



National Connections Of Whitmer Plotters Emerge.

On Thursday, with five days remaining before the US election, the FBI conducted two additional raids in Michigan and arrested Justen Watkins and Alfred Gorman, leaders of a neo-Nazi group called The Base. Watkins was arrested when agents raided a farm in the town of Bad Axe, in the Michigan “thumb,” which members of The Base used as a training grounds and “hate camp.” Gorman was arrested in the Detroit suburb of Taylor.

The two neo-Nazis, aged 25 and 35 respectively, are charged with threatening to murder a left-wing blogger in late 2019, though the timing of the raids indicates the FBI believed The Base’s training camp was related to preparations for election violence. An affidavit filed by a Michigan State Police detective quotes a manifesto penned by Watkins reading: “I will train with firearms, explosives, knives, Ryder trucks, and anything else I have to destroy this KIKE SYSTEM THAT IS GENOCIDING MY people. To victory with PURE UNADULTERATED ARYANVIOLENCE!”

The WSWS warned of potential connections of The Base in Michigan earlier this month, pointing to the fact that weeks before the January arrest of three members of The Base, “Two of the plotters traveled to Michigan where a third conspirator had been staying” and that members had planned to attend a hate camp in the state.

The affidavit also states the investigation was conducted only by the state police and the FBI. This would imply that officials may have conducted the investigation without informing local police and sheriffs departments for fear they are so integrated with the far-right that they would tip off the targets. It is unlikely that the Trump administration was given advanced notice of Thursday’s raids.

The raids raise additional questions about the national scope of Trump’s strategy to mobilize fascist supporters to help steal the election.

In a speech this week in Lansing, Michigan, Donald Trump tacitly defended the actions of 14 militia men who plotted to kill Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Trump claimed the plot shows Whitmer may “have a problem,” adding, “I mean, we’ll see if it’s a problem, right? People are entitled to say maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn’t.”

He also threatened the Democratic governors of several battleground states: “All we can say is law enforcement is watching Nevada, it is watching Philadelphia and Pennsylvania because they had a lot of strange things… We’re watching North Carolina, we’re watching Michigan.”

As more evidence emerges of the Michigan plotters’ connections to fascist groups nationwide, these statements emerge more as an admission of criminal conspiracy than an off-the-cuff remark.

According to an affidavit signed by FBI special agent Kristopher Long, one of the 14 militiamen arrested earlier this month for plotting to kill Whitmer, Barry Croft, has high-level connections to militias across the country, including in Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina. This indicates the plot to kill Whitmer was just one part of a national conspiracy to execute elected officials in advance or in the aftermath of this Tuesday’s election.

The FBI affidavit explains that Croft had communicated with Kevin Massey, the recently-deceased leader of a border militia group in Texas. The WSWS recently warned of connections between the border militia and the plot against Whitmer.

The FBI affidavit reads: “During its investigation, the FBI learned that Croft attempted to provide support to Kevin Massey, who had been convicted of firearms offenses following his involvement in a militia patrol on the border of Texas and Mexico.”

According to a 2019 article in the Washington Post: “Massey, an electrician by trade, was the self-described commander of Rusty’s Rangers, an anti-immigrant militia active in 2014 that regularly posted footage of patrols on Facebook. The militia claimed it had detained migrants at gunpoint and bound their wrists with zip ties. His border activities and violent anti-government rhetoric helped him achieve a small cult following among fellow militia members and a few right-wing bloggers.”

The FBI affidavit quotes what Croft wrote to Massey before Massey’s death:

“The people don’t support what has happened to you…Constitutional thunder and lighting. [sic] Our hour draws near brother… I’m going to North Carolina on Saturday to discuss going to war against the government of North Carolina. They invited me to speak and share tactics. Please come out bro. We need you.”

The FBI affidavit makes no further reference to a possible plot in North Carolina, where Democratic Governor Roy Cooper presides over a state with a Republican state legislature. Cooper is one of the governors Trump has said he is “watching” with the support of law enforcement. North Carolina is a critical battleground state in the 2020 elections.

The FBI affidavit also explains that Croft had engaged in discussions with South Carolina fascists who participated in a May 8 protest against the lockdowns imposed by Republican Governor Henry McMaster, a Trump supporter.

Croft said he planned to come to South Carolina with his “sword,” telling a fellow fascist that far-right groups with whom he had contact “say they want their Governor in custody.” The affidavit explains that on May 3 Croft was texting supporters about “protesting and committing potential acts of violence in Columbia, South Carolina.”

One of the Michigan conspirators, Paul Bellar, was arrested in Columbia. He was extradited to Michigan last week.

The FBI affidavit refers to Croft’s discussions with a group of individuals Croft calls the “Chris Hill bunch.” Croft had been coordinating further violent action with this group. The affidavit further explains:

“The FBI believes that the Chris Hill bunch refers to individuals associated with Christopher Hill, the leader of the Georgia Security Force Three Percent militia.”

Christopher Hill is known as “General Blood Agent” within the Three Percenter movement and is referred to as “de facto leader of the national coalition of state militia groups” in one recent article in the far-right press. Hill is a former marine. A 2016 New York Times article features Hill and the Georgia Security Force Three Percent group, noting that his group “holds FTX sessions”—the same term used by the militia in Michigan for military-style exercises.

The article notes: “Firearms are central to their identities. In September, some Georgia Security Force members paraded with guns while protesting plans for a local mosque; one wore a T-shirt that read, ‘Islam Is of the Devil.’ Last year, armed Security Force militiamen rallied in support of the Confederate battle flag … Mr. Hill asked who was voting for Mr. Trump. Everyone shouted a unanimous ‘Oorah!’”

The article quotes Hill speaking about the prospect of a Democratic election victory: “If the people decide they can no longer suffer the inequities, I’d be with the people and I’d take my guns up to Washington, D.C.”

The Trump campaign is intensifying its provocative appeals to fascist groups. The president will speak Friday in Waterford Township, Michigan, where one of the fascist militiamen lived.

Donald Trump Jr. will speak this weekend at Williams Gun Sight Company in Davison, Michigan. The gun range, like Huron Valley Guns in Wixom, Michigan, is a far-right gathering point with close ties to local police and sheriffs.

In Minnesota, the Minneapolis police union appealed to retired police officers to serve as Trump’s “eyes and ears” on Election Day, an open appeal to suppress the vote.

The union’s appeal came at the request of Trump campaign lawyer William Willingham, who wrote to union president Bob Kroll that Trump wanted to recruit several dozen “poll challengers” in various “problem areas.”

According to an email sent by Willingham to Kroll, “We just want people who won’t be afraid in rough neighborhoods or intimidating situations.” Kroll appeared on stage with Trump during a rally in Minnesota last year. The WSWS recently reported on efforts by an unknown “consortium” of businesses to hire armed assassins to descend on polling booths in the state.

The Democratic Party has continued to maintain silence on these developments. Their greatest fear is that any reference to Trump’s plot to use police and fascist forces to exterminate opponents and steal the election will trigger broad popular opposition.

NO MATTER WHO WINS, THE WAR MACHINE WINS

https://popularresistance.org/no-matter-who-wins-the-war-machine-wins/



By Caitlin Johnstone.November 1, 2020
| EDUCATE!



The US government is pushing yet another unproven election meddling narrative about yet another disobedient government, this time targeting Iran and Russia.

This is exhausting. Do I really need to type this bullshit out?

Fine. Okay. Here we go again:

At a press conference with Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Christopher Wray it was announced that Iran and Russia have separately obtained some voter registration information, and that Iran has been using its information to send bizarre threatening emails to Democratic voters with the goal of swaying the election.

As usual, no evidence of these allegations has been provided. Democrats are saying this completely unsubstantiated claim proves the Iranians want to help Trump, Republicans are saying it proves they’re trying to help Biden. Both are ridiculous.




The Reuters write-up on the allegations cites one source who says it’s unclear who was actually behind the threatening emails, and that “the evidence remains inconclusive” that Iran had anything to do with them. Washington Post‘s report notes that the allegation against Iran “was leveled without specific evidence”, and that metadata gathered from the emails points to “the use of servers in Saudi Arabia, Estonia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, according to numerous analysts.” No attempt is made to address this discrepancy.

If the US government held a press conference announcing that Iran is in the Middle East I’d have to check a map just to make sure it’s not an island in the South Pacific or something, that’s how much constant, shameless lying they’ve been doing about that nation lately. There is no reason whatsoever to believe unproven assertions by opaque government agencies who have an extensive and well-documented history of lying about governments they want to target.

This latest allegation adds to the steadily increasing pile of narratives the US intelligence cartel has been heaping onto public consciousness that no matter who wins the presidential election, a foreign enemy will have been partially responsible for it. The ODNI made an announcement in August that Russia is interfering to ensure Trump’s re-election while China and Iran are interfering in favor of Biden.

What this steadily-growing narrative means is that no matter who wins this election, America’s spies and cold warriors are going to be able to use it to advance their pre-planned agendas against the world’s few remaining nations which have resisted absorption into the US-centralized power alliance. In exactly the same way they’ve been able to use Russiagate to advance pre-planned cold war escalations against Russia during the Trump administration, they are ensuring their ability to roll out pre-planned escalations against Iran and China in the event of a Biden win.

Imagine for example if Biden gets in after the US intelligence cartel has successfully marketed the narrative to click-hungry media outlets that Iran has been meddling on his behalf. What kinds of political pressure will his administration be placed under if it wants to restore the Iran deal and begin rolling back sanctions and de-escalating tensions? Probably very similar to the pressures Trump was placed under to continually advance hawkish cold war escalations against Russia despite his stated desire for Washington and Moscow to get along.




You can understand the purpose all these “election meddling” narratives are serving if you can understand two points: firstly, that we are in the middle of a slow-motion third world war between the US-centralized empire and the remaining nations which have resisted being absorbed into it. Secondly, that this war is moved along by propaganda.
Point 1: We Are In The Middle Of A Slow-Motion Third World War Between The US-Centralized Power Alliance And The Nations Which Have Resisted Being Absorbed Into It.

A loose alliance of nationless oligarchs who use governments as weapons have secured control over a large empire-like cluster of nations with economic and military might loosely centralized around the United States. In order to gain more power and ensure its ongoing hegemony, this oligarchic empire must keep expanding by absorbing more nations and brutalizing them if they resist. China is by far the most powerful of the unabsorbed nations, followed by Russia at a distant second and Iran at a distant third.

Nuclear weapons make another hot world war undesirable, so this one takes the form of resource control, economic warfare, staging coups, arming oppositional militias to use as proxy armies, expanding military presence in key geostrategic regions under the pretense of fighting terrorism, and “humanitarian interventionism”, with old-school full-scale ground invasions used only as a last resort, and only after manufacturing sufficient international approval to ensure the continued cohesion of the empire-like power alliance.

But the end goal is the same as that of a conventional world war: to beat the other side into submission and compliance. And, in this case, absorption into the imperial blob. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the prevailing orthodoxy in US power structures became that the US must maintain unipolar hegemony at all cost to maintain a “liberal world order” (even if it means abandoning “liberal” values whenever it’s convenient). From that point on the agenda has been global domination and the slow, suffocating subversion of anyone who gets in the way.
Point 2: Propaganda Is Used To Move This World War Along.

In a conventional war each side has clear military objectives that everyone understands, and the weapons are naturally moved around in accordance with these objectives. In this weird slow-motion world war, nobody understands what’s going on besides the major power players and those who are paying very close attention. The various agendas against the governments of Iran, Venezuela, Russia, Syria, China etc appear different and unrelated when looked at individually, and indeed you will see different political factions supporting some of these agendas but not others. The only thing unifying this slow-motion movement toward the destruction and absorption of all unabsorbed nations is carefully constructed propaganda narratives.

The way these unifying propaganda narratives operate is simple. It would never occur to rank-and-file citizens that a nation on the other side of the planet that’s pretty much just doing its own thing needs to be sanctioned, subverted and brought to heel, so the imperialist oligarchs who own the political/media class make sure everyone is fed custom-made narratives according to their own ideological echo chamber to prevent any domestic inertia from being thrown on these agendas. Once there’s sufficient agreement that Saddam/Gaddafi/Morales/Assad/Maduro/whomever must go, the campaign to subvert, sabotage and absorb that government can safely be escalated.

If you can understand points one and two, you can understand why US government agencies are advancing the narrative that unabsorbed governments are attacking the United States in a completely invisible yet extremely outrageous way.




Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been getting more and more brainwashed Trump supporters in my comments saying with high confidence that Joe Biden is bought and owned by China. This would be the same Joe Biden who saw an extreme escalation in aggression against China in the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia”, and whose anti–Beijingcampaignrhetoric gives every indication that he intends to continue that aggression when elected. If he doesn’t, we may be certain that the US intelligence cartel will magically discover some top secret evidence nobody’s allowed to see that the rise of China needs to be stopped.

Only a blithering idiot would believe that this lifelong warmonger is going to be soft on China despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary. These Trumpists spent years rightly mocking liberals for their maniacal Russia hysteria, yet their rhetoric about Biden and China sounds very much like the pre-election low rumble which eventually turned into the fever pitch demented shrieking of peak Russiagate insanity. If Biden wins the election it would not at all surprise me if evidence keeps being leaked to the press from anonymous sources painting Biden as a Xi puppet, and Republican hacks promulgate that narrative to demand increasing aggression against China.

So no matter who wins, the war machine wins. If it’s Trump then they continue manufacturing narratives to justify escalations against Russia, if it’s Biden (as looks very likely) they’ll sell escalations against China and Iran. They’re in no special hurry since they’ve got power on their side, so they can just keep ramping up the pressure on the world like a python squeezing its prey to death.

Meanwhile normal, healthy human beings just want a world where people cooperate with each other and with their ecosystem to create a harmonious world. We don’t have to put up with a world that is dominated by sociopaths who endanger us all with armageddon weapons with the goal of planetary hegemony. There are more of us than there are of them. If we wake up to what’s going on we can absolutely turn this thing around.

Shredding journalistic credibility

 

https://popularresistance.org/on-contact-the-disintegrating-media-landscape/

COUNTERING RIGHTWARD DRIFT IN THE UNITED STATES: THIS STRUGGLE IS LONG TERM

https://popularresistance.org/countering-the-rightward-drift/



By Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance.November 1, 2020
| , NEWSLETTER



This week, people are planning protests across the nation beginning the day after the election. Some, like Democratic Party-aligned groups and unions, will only demonstrate if President Trump loses and refuses to leave office. Trump will fail if he tries because the ruling class has clearly shifted its support to Biden. Professor Adrienne Pine explains this in her analysis of the opposition to Trump. Others such as issues-based groups, coalitions and community groups are planning to take the streets no matter what the outcome of the election is.

This is good news because a mass mobilization of left and progressive groups is needed to change the rightward direction in which the United States is headed. Michael J. Smith’s explanation of the “ratchet effect” describes the roles both Republicans and Democrats have played in moving our politics in that direction since 1968. In a nutshell, each time the Republicans moved to the right, the Democrats followed with the excuse that it’s necessary to win votes. This locks in the rightward motion, opening space for Republicans to move to the right again.

But Smith also writes, “the Democratic Party has assumed the role of ensuring that the countervailing pressure from the Left doesn’t happen. The party contains and neutralizes the Left, or what there is of it. Left voters are supposed to support the Democrat, come what may.” This is one of the reasons why the expression “the Democratic Party is the graveyard of social movements” exists. How do we counteract that?


SignsofJustice.com.

2020 vision on who we are

In a recent episode of Eleanor Goldfield’s series, Deception 2020, she and Eugene Puryear discuss why the trope of “this is the most important election ever” is recycled in every presidential election. It serves as a great distractor that puts the focus on personalities rather than the broader social context of where we are. It pits Republican and Democratic voters against each other while the ruling class plays both sides, putting the most money on the one that has the best chance of winning. The people hold their noses and vote for whomever they consider to be the lesser evil while the wealthy class knows their interests will be served no matter who wins.

The year 2020 has brought into clear focus that we are living in a failed state and can’t afford to be drawn into this distraction. The number of new COVID-19 cases surpassed 100,000 in one day. The recession is likely to deepen into a prolonged depression due to Congress’ failure to provide supports for families and their businesses and farms. The climate crisis is raging. And structural racist violence goes on in all of its forms while the Pentagon continues its insatiable consumption of the federal budget leaving austerity for the rest of us

Instead of being caught up in this “political ping pong”, as Kevin Zeese would call it, we need to focus on these grave issues before us. I learned some lessons to avoid this ping pong during my involvement with the health reform process in 2009-10 when we were advocating for national improved Medicare for all while the Democrats were pushing their version of a healthcare bill that protected the profits of the health insurers, pharmaceutical companies and big businesses.

The lesson is best summarized using the acronym “ICU.” Think of it as what is needed, especially in a time of crisis. The “I” stands for independent. It is important not to tie our issue to the agenda of a political party but to maintain independence from them while we press for what we need, lest our struggle be co-opted. The “C” stands for clarity, meaning we must be clear about what we are demanding. Members of the corporate duopoly will always try to water our demands down with proposals that may sound positive but are less than what we need. Look at the Democrat’s Green New Deal as a current example that protects the dirty energy industries and is too little, too late. And the “U” stands for uncompromising. The ruling class will always tell us we are asking for too much but we can’t compromise on fundamentals such as health care, housing, education, financial security and an end to violence against us. These are universal basic needs that nobody should be denied.

With this 2020 vision, we can mobilize a broad movement that puts forth a bold agenda of what we need and fights for it, no matter who is elected. This is how we reverse the ratchet effect. We can look to Chile as a recent example of a people succeeding in their struggle to reverse the ravages of neoliberalism. Patricio Zamorano describes how a similar situation to what we face, great inequality and injustice, drove people to mobilize despite severe repression and win the right to remake their Constitution.


Jeff Bachner/New York Daily News.

Violence on the rise

One reality we must prepare for is the continued rise in right wing violence no matter who wins the election. If Trump wins and people continue to struggle to end the injustices we face, right wing extremists will be emboldened by a president who encourages them. If Biden wins, they will be angered at what they view as a threat to the gains they have made and may lash out.

In light of this, communities need to organize to be vigilant to what is happening around them and to be proactive in creating structures that provide safety and mutual aid, particularly for those who are most vulnerable.

We live in an era of great polarization. This is expected because it goes hand in hand with great inequality and it often precedes moments of social transformation. Think of it as heightening the contradictions and forcing a choice. Who are we and how do we want our society to be?

George Lakey puts the polarization into historical context. Almost one hundred years ago, when extreme polarization existed in Europe, some countries moved to fascist dictatorships while others moved to socialized democracies. The difference was how the people organized and mobilized. Lakey suggests a road map.

If people who consider themselves left or progressive fail to organize and mobilize, we may go the way of a fascist dictatorship no matter who wins this presidential election. If Trump wins, he may do what others have done by trying to further consolidate his power into an authoritarian state. If Biden wins, and he continues the neoliberal and repressive policies that have marked his 47 years in elected office, then the conditions will be created in 2024 or beyond for another Democratic Party loss and an opening for a right wing leader who is more effective than Trump at consolidating power.

Either way we must mobilize and protect our rights. While most of our organizing will take place outside the electoral system because that is where we have power, it will also be necessary to focus on preserving whatever democratic rights exist and strengthening them.


Common Cause NY.

Protecting and improving the election process

As flawed as the electoral process in the United States is, it is the system we currently have. Fair election and third party activists have been working to change it for decades. Now, as it is on so many issues, the major problems with that system – voter suppression, lack of transparency and the process for choosing a president – are more evident.

While the United States has never been a democracy, in fact a look at the founding of the country shows the ruling class who wrote the Constitution were afraid of it, the people believe in democracy. Focusing on democratic rights in this election will bring people together and build momentum to change the system.

Focusing on what President Trump says is a distraction. Recall that Trump was also saying that he would not commit to accepting the outcome in the lead up to the 2016 election. The Democrats and the groups aligned with them are amplifying fears to drive voter turn out, and it seems to be working. The latest Gallup Poll finds almost 70% of registered voters are enthusiastic about the election, which is an increase from the 50% who were enthusiastic in 2016 and similar to 2008 levels. This is highest among registered Democrats.

Five Thirty Eight predicts that due to the electoral process in a few states, for example Pennsylvania is not allowed to start counting mail-in ballots until Tuesday, and the way the states are looking right now, neither of the major party candidates could reach the required 270 electoral votes on election night. It could take a few days.

This is not cause for panic. Instead, let’s take a collective deep breath and watch for problems with the process in our states. Documenting these can be used to challenge and improve the process for the next round. Already, people have been challenging the election process with more than 300 lawsuits filed in 44 states.

There is a small chance that President Trump will be re-elected. If that happens, it will be critical to respect that result. To reject an outcome of the election process we have opens the door to a breakdown of that system and a vacuum that could threaten the hope of building more democratic structures.

Remember, no matter what happens on November 3, our struggle goes on. It is a long term struggle against deeply entrenched structures of racism, capitalism, colonialism and imperialism that will have successes and failures. Our best chance for a better future is to keep our eye on the world we hope to create and keep working toward that goal.

Google admits to censoring the World Socialist Web Site

Kevin Reed



https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/11/04/goog-n04.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws




In a statement before a Senate hearing on October 28, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, admitted that the dominant online search company has censored the World Socialist Web Site.

At the Senate Commerce Committee hearing, when asked by Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah to provide the name of one left-wing “high profile person or entity” that has been censored by Google, Pichai named the WSWS.

The hearing—which included testimony from three top tech CEOs--Pichai (Google), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Jack Dorsey (Twitter)—had been called by the Republican-controlled committee for the purpose of promoting its completely false claim that only right-wing and conservative publishers have been censored by internet and social media corporations in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.

During his allotted time for questioning, Senator Lee asked the three executives, “I think the trend is clear that you almost always censor—meaning block content, fact check or label content or demonetize websites—of conservative, Republican or pro-life individuals or groups or companies... Can you name for me one high profile person or entity from a liberal ideology who you have censored and what particular action you took?”
While both Dorsey and Zuckerberg refused to give names—claiming they would provide a list at a later date—when Lee got to Pichai, the Google executive responded that “we have moderation policies which we apply equally... We have had compliance issues with the World Socialist Review [sic], which is a left-leaning publication.”

Although Pichai used the name “World Socialist Review,” a print newsletter that ceased publication in 2011, it is clear that he was referring to the World Socialist Web Site. In fact, a Google search for “World Socialist Review” actually yields the WSWS in its top two results.

Pichai did not explain what he meant by “compliance issues,” but his response to Senator Lee was absolutely clear. He was saying that Google does in fact take censorship action against left-wing and socialist publishers, and an example is the censorship of the World Socialist Web Site.

The extraordinary admission by Pichai that Google has been suppressing content from the WSWS is a vindication of the campaign launched by the International Committee of the Fourth International against online censorship going back to the spring 2017.

In April 2017, following the implementation by Google of a new search algorithm, the WSWS reported that access to its content and that of other left-wing, anti-war and progressive websites was being heavily censored. In an article published on August 2, the WSWS published data that showed traffic to 13 websites had been reduced by Google between 19 percent and 67 percent. The data showed that “the World Socialist Web Site has been the most heavily affected. Its traffic from Google searches has fallen by two thirds.”

The WSWS characterized the modification of Google’s search algorithm as “a corporate-state conspiracy to drastically curtail democratic rights” and then called for “broad-based collaboration among socialist, left and progressive websites to alert the public and the widest sections of the working class.”

The analysis was then followed on August 25, 2017 by an open letter from David North, chairperson of the WSWS International Editorial Board, to the executive leadership of Google and Alphabet demanding a halt to internet censorship. The letter called on Google to “stop blacklisting the WSWS and renounce the censorship of all the left-wing, socialist, anti-war and progressive websites that have been affected adversely by your new discriminatory search policies.”

The open letter further stated that the censorship of the WSWS “reflects the fear that a genuine socialist perspective, if allowed a fair hearing, will find a mass audience in the US and internationally. There is widespread popular opposition to your efforts to suppress freedom of speech and thought.”

As part of this campaign, the WSWS circulated an online petition that garnered thousands of signatures from readers in 70 countries and on five continents.

Although Google never officially responded to the open letter, the New York Times published an article on September 26, 2017 by Daisuke Wakabayashi that featured an interview with David North and discussed the campaign by the WSWS. Then, in a follow-up article, the Times attempted to discredit the claims of the WSWS that Google was engaged in censorship.

In November 2019, the Wall Street Journal substantiated the position of the WSWS that Google was manipulating its search algorithm to suppress content from being surfaced by its search engine. The Journal wrote, “Despite publicly denying doing so, Google keeps blacklists to remove certain sites or prevent others from surfacing in certain types of results.”

On January 20, 2020, the WSWS published an article titled “Google suppressing World Socialist Web Site content in its search results for the New York Times’ 1619 Project.” This article showed—through independent data analysis—that the authoritative and widely read material published by the WSWS on the historical falsification called “The 1619 Project” was being suppressed in Google search results.

The recent statement by Pichai is the second time he has misnamed the World Socialist Web Site in congressional testimony. In a hearing of the House Committee on the Judiciary on July 29 titled “Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google,” Pichai responded in a similar manner to a question from Republican Congressman Greg Steube.

When Steube claimed that Google’s algorithms were exclusively censoring conservative political views online, Pichai said, “We do get complaints across the aisle. For example, the World Socialist Review [sic] complained in January of this year that their site wasn’t found in Google search results. So, we get complaints, we look into it, but we approach our work in a nonpartisan way, and it is in our long-term incentive to serve users across the country.”

Although he did not explain it, the statement by Pichai before the House committee was clearly regarding the WSWS assertion in January that content about “The 1619 Project” was being suppressed.

This public admission was followed by a second open letter on July 31 from WSWS Editorial Board Chairperson David North to CEO Pichai. The open letter stated: “The fact that you referred specifically to the WSWS complaint in your congressional testimony speaks to the seriousness with which the matter was taken. You, the CEO of Google’s parent Alphabet, were notified of the complaint. Six months after the article was published, it remained fixed in your memory.”

David North then asked, “why was the World Socialist Web Site never informed that its claim of suppression was being discussed within Alphabet/Google management, or that an investigation was being conducted into our complaint?” Neither Pichai nor anyone else from the management of Google ever responded to this question or the open letter.

It is highly significant that—after more than three years of stonewalling and refusing to answer any questions or respond to a single demand—CEO Pichai has admitted that the technology firm controlling nearly 90 percent of worldwide search traffic has been suppressing WSWS content all along.

Why is the WSWS being censored by Google? Because the WSWS is the only online source of genuine Marxism and socialist internationalism that stands for the political independence of the working class and fights to put an end to the capitalist system on a world scale. As the struggles of the working class intensify amid the crisis sparked by the global pandemic, the recently relaunched WSWS is increasingly becoming the center of socialist political, theoretical and cultural education for masses of workers and young people throughout the globe.

Given the collaboration of Alphabet and Google with the US intelligence state, the statement by Pichai must be understood as a message to the American political establishment—which did not question him further on the matter—that the censorship of the WSWS will be continued and intensified in the coming period.

Along with the fight for the freedom of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange, the demand for an end to online censorship and the defense of freedom of speech on the internet are fundamental democratic rights that must be taken up by the international working class.