Some updates.

capitalism_doesnt_work.md

@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ Capitalist hegemony has short-circuited people into buying wildly illogical and
 
 Examples from [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/86tqdd/but_socialism_doesnt_work_s/dw7qco0/) by /u/bayarea415, [Stephen Gowans - Do publicly owned, planned economies work](https://gowans.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work/), and [Ian Goodrum](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1136693839526223872.html) about the USSR specifically: 
 
-- [USSR had a more nutritious diet than the US, according to the CIA](https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84B00274R000300150009-5.pdf). [Calories consumed surpassed the US](https://artir.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/compar1.png?w=640). Ended famines.
+- [USSR had a more nutritious diet than the US, according to the CIA](https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84B00274R000300150009-5.pdf). [Calories consumed surpassed the US](https://artir.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/compar1.png?w=640). [source](https://artir.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/the-soviet-union-food/). [Ended famines.](https://artir.wordpress.com/2017/02/04/the-soviet-series-from-farm-to-factory-stalins-industrial-revolution/)
 - Productive forces were not organized for capital gain and private enrichment; public ownership of the means of production supplanted private ownership. It was illegal to hire others and accumulate personal wealth from their labor.
 - Had the [2nd fastest growing economy of the 20th century after Japan.](https://artir.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/captura-de-pantalla-de-2016-05-26-10-15-23.png) The USSR started out at the same level of economic development and population as Brazil in 1920, which makes comparisons to the US, an already industrialized country by the 1920s, even more spectacular. 
 - [Free Universal Health care, and most doctors per capita in the world.]( https://www.marxists.org/archive/newsholme/1933/red-medicine/index.htm ) 42 doctors per 10k population, vs 24 in Denmark and Sweden, 19 in US.
@@ -39,11 +39,12 @@ Examples from [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/86tqdd/but
 - [99% literacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likbez).
 - Saved the world from Fascism, [Taking on the majority of Nazi divisions, and killing 90% of Nazi soldiers. Bore the enormous cost of blood and pain in WW2 (25M dead), with the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_\(World_War_II\)#Casualties). An estimated 70% of Soviet housing was destroyed by Nazi invasion. Nazis were in retreat after the battle of Stalingrad in 1942, a **full 2 years** before the US landed troops in normandy. 
 - [Doubled life expectancy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Soviet_Union). [Eliminated poverty.](https://gowans.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/we-lived-better-then/)
-- [End sex inequality](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Soviet_Union_\(1977,_Unamended\)). Equal wages for men and women mandated by law, but sex inequality, although not as pronounced as under capitalism, was perpetuated in social roles. Very important lesson to learn.
-- [End Racial inequality.](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2016/jan/24/racial-harmony-in-a-marxist-utopia-how-the-soviet-union-capitalised-on-us-discrimination-in-pictures)
+- [Combatted sex inequality](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Soviet_Union_\(1977,_Unamended\)). Equal wages for men and women mandated by law, but sex inequality, although not as pronounced as under capitalism, was perpetuated in social roles. Very important lesson to learn.
+- [Combatted Racial inequality.](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2016/jan/24/racial-harmony-in-a-marxist-utopia-how-the-soviet-union-capitalised-on-us-discrimination-in-pictures)
 - Feudalism to [space travel](https://i.imgur.com/pe0tg2y.jpg) in 40 years. [First satellite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_program), rocket, space walk, woman, man, animal, space station, moon and mars probes.
 - Soviet power production per capita in 1990 was more than [the EU, Great Britain, or China's in 2014.](https://i.imgur.com/7HIm6qi.png)
 - Housing was socialized by localized community organizations, and there was virtually no homelessness. Houses were often shared by two families throughout the 20s and 30s – so unlike capitalism, there were no empty houses, but the houses were very full. In the 40s there was the war, and in the 50s there were a number of orphans from the war. The mass housing projects began in the 60s, they were completed in the 70s, and by the 70s, there were homeless people, but they often had genuine issues with mental health.
+- [66% of Russians polled in 2015 want the USSR back.](https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-regret-at-soviet-collapse-stands-at-14-year-high-poll-shows/29664759.html)
 
 When it is claimed that a system *works*, we should ask, **who it works for**. Capitalism benefits a tiny number of rapacious capitalists, to the detriment of the rest of us, while Socialism works for the masses.
 

recipes/dashi.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+# Dashi 

socdem_bribery.md

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# Paying one half of the poor to kill the other half: Why Marxists should not support social democrats in the Imperial core.
+
+IE, why pushing for social democracy in the imperial core countries is a terrible idea. 
+
+In Settlers, Sakai talks about how a lot of poor proles from europe who came to the US, *still pushed for the genocide and expropriation of native american lands*, because it meant that they could potentially get land for next to nothing. The colonial bourgeoisie were happy to give them that slice of the american pie, because it meant furthering the US goals of westward expansion, and building a garrison / middle layer of settler troops who would have their same goals in driving out Native Americans.
+
+The same thing happened with the new deal, where workers were bribed with welfare and higher wages to abandon revolutionary organizations, coalitions with black and brown workers, and be pushed into settler unions (and management positions) who could do their bidding against various other working groups, creating yet another grouping of "middle class / labor aristocrats" whose goals aligned more with the bourgeoisie than with the poor. 
+
+This new *new deal* Sanders is proposing is the same idea: that workers in the imperial core will accept a new round of welfare policies. Since the US is primarily a service / consumer goods import economy, social services are entirely funded off the backs of third world workers who get paid next to nothing in wages. [Sanders record of voting for US military intervention in 15+ countries](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/socialism_faq.md#whats-wrong-with-bernie-sanders), his preference for lighter skinned social imperialists (like the nordic countries), his denigration of actually existing socialist movements (he calls Maduro a "vicious tyrant"), and his anti-immigration stances are more than enough evidence that he wants to continue the US policy of enslaving the third world to feed the imperial core.
+
+All of these are instances of **one half of the poor being bribed into killing the other half;** but in the modern day, its imperial core workers being bribed into continuing the exploitation of the third world to provide cheap products and enough surplus value to fund welfare policies. Rather than dismantling capitalism / imperialism, Sanders wants to increase taxes on billyahnayas, in which a cut of their imperialist superprofits will go towards first world welfare, thus strengthening the alliance between capital, and its labor aristocracy, much like the new deal. I know, we can call this new class collaborationist garrison of labor aristocrats, the "middle class"! 
+
+In fact, many forward-thinking capitalists are openly in support of this project: [Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Sam Altman, are just a few billionaires who support a universal basic income](https://www.industryleadersmagazine.com/billionaire-entrepreneurs-who-support-universal-basic-income/), seeing its potential use as a finely tunable fuel source to quell class struggle, gain public support, and preserve their fortunes.
+
+To quote /u/Guillotron9000 : 
+
+> Nothing of the sort will happen. Even if Sanders is elected he'll pass M4A and most of his base will be satisfied. And the capitalists won't care too much either. They'll just make up for the losses by fucking over the third world even harder.
+>
+> The whole movement around Bernie isn't about socialism. It's about the Americans demanding a bigger part of the pie from their imperialist overlords. This is just a compromise between the capital and the workers in the imperial core. And it's not at all surprising either. Americans are already provided much more than their counterparts in the developing world.
+
+The Marxist antivenom for this western chauvinist poison is organization that is internationalist in scope/aim, like many movements in the Global south (such as the Bolivarian revolution). Workers in the imperial core must continue to refuse these new deals, these bribes to preserve the US empire / western colonialism, keep supporting actually existing socialist movements, advocate for the [defeat of the US empire](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/jul/26.htm), and begin to build armed organization that can eventually challenge their police states.

socialism_faq.md

@@ -237,6 +237,7 @@
 ## On Race and Class
 
 - [How is Race related to class / Marxism?](https://socialistworker.org/2011/01/04/race-class-and-marxism)
+- [What about class reductionism / the dirtbag left?](https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/the-reactionary-grift-of-the-dirtbag-left)
 - [How is racism related to capitalism?](http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/articles/racism-and-logic-capitalism)
 - [Was the US communist movement anti-racist?](http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/18/race-and-us-socialist-tradition)
 - [Is Racism human nature?](http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/21/the-roots-of-racism)
@@ -245,6 +246,7 @@
 - [How would eliminating capitalism help marginalized groups such as women, gays, racial minorities, etc?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/axljq5/how_would_eliminating_capitalism_help/)
 - [What about black-on-black crime (Insert racist thing here)?](https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/23/donald-trump/trump-tweet-blacks-white-homicide-victims/)
 - [What about Beyonce / Black Capitalism?](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/beyonces-ivy-park-sportswear-line-denies-claims-its-clothes-were-produced-by-sweatshop-workers-a7035926.html)
+- [What is the labor aristocracy?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/f6u5uv/what_is_defines_the_labor_aristocracy/)
 
 ## On Guns / Firearms / Violence
 
@@ -415,9 +417,10 @@
 * [What are Mao's contributions to Marxism? (MLM)](https://jiminykrix.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/what-maoism-has-to-offer-the-world-and-why-so-many-former-non-communists-think-its-dope/)
 * [Where should I start with Mao?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1dmxcl/where_should_i_start_with_mao/)
 * [Debastardising Mao.](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1ecf32/debastardising_mao/)
-* [What about Tibet? (95% of the population were slaves or feudal serfs before China invaded in 1959)](https://dissidentvoice.org/Articles9/Parenti_Tibet.htm) [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZjKom_Qj0jcDReaMb_r52z)
+* [What about Tibet? (95% of the population were slaves or feudal serfs before China invaded in 1959)](http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html) [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZjKom_Qj0jcDReaMb_r52z)
 * [Did China really try to save the GDR?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/dsvsf9/newly_declassified_documents_released_by_german/)
-* [What about China's corono-virus response? Is there really any sinophobia?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/evwls8/megathread_addressing_sinophobia_and_chinas/) [2](https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/canada-chinese-community-battles-racist-backlash-amid-coronavirus-outbreak?__twitter_impression=true)
+* [What about China's corono-virus response? Is there really any sinophobia?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/evwls8/megathread_addressing_sinophobia_and_chinas/) [2](https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/canada-chinese-community-battles-racist-backlash-amid-coronavirus-outbreak?__twitter_impression=true) [3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GasWB8s-tqs&feature=youtu.be)
+* [The US went against the CDC recommendations and evacuated 14 corona-virus infected US citizens, sparking the spread of the virus in the US](https://nypost.com/2020/02/20/coronavirus-infected-americans-flown-back-to-us-on-plane-full-of-healthy-people/).
 
 ### Is China State Capitalist?
 
@@ -453,7 +456,7 @@
     * [Uninsured Chinese citizens pay an average of $5-7 to see a specialist (the majority of hospital visits ), and with insurance, its free. 95% of Chinese citizens have insurance](https://hotpot.team/new-york-times-lies/)
   * [Wages themselves are forced to rise in the private sector by the CPC (+16% every years, +400% since 1980) who force the capitalists to accept the presence of CPC chapters who represent the interest of the workers, increasing workers control even in the capitalist parts of the economy. ](https://www.workers.org/2015/07/21/china-rising-wages-and-worker-militancy/#.WXOlQtPytsM)
   * [The west views China as one big sweatshop, but the actual working hours aren't much more than anywhere else. The average for a migrant worker (most vulnerable to exploitation as they are traveling from the countryside) is 8.8 hours, little under an hour more than a typical working day. Labor strikes are rarely suppressed, and usually get the support of the PRC.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/mitchfree/2013/07/11/held-hostage-entrepreneurs-uneasy-over-chinese-govt-inaction/#2431f5463de4)
-  * [The workplace safety standards of China are better than in the capitalist countries of the West like in Australia who have an higher rate of work related death despite having a GDP per capita 3-5 times higher.](http://www.trotskyistplatform.com/workplace-safety-now-better-in-china-than-in-australia/)
+  * [The workplace safety standards of China are better than in the capitalist countries of the West like in Australia who have an higher rate of work related death despite having a GDP per capita 3-5 times higher.](http://www.trotskyistplatform.com/workplace-safety-now-better-in-china-than-in-australia/
 * [The US is losing to China: “Washington is actually far more corrupt than Beijing. If you want to get something done in Washington, you do what you do in Jakarta: just slip some money to the right people.”]( https://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2014/11/12/obama-in-china-taking-candy-from-a-baby/#27d9d3c1231e)
 * [China 9 years ahead of schedule on meeting its Paris agreement climate change goals. ](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2211366-china-is-on-track-to-meet-its-climate-change-goals-nine-years-early/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=news)
 * [China meets ultra-low power plant emissions in advance of 2020 goal.](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/dsdam3/china_meets_ultralow_emissions_in_advance_of_the/)
@@ -465,6 +468,7 @@
 - [China writes off $36m Mozambican debt](https://furtherafrica.com/2017/10/26/china-writes-off-36m-mozambican-debt/).
 - [China writes off substantial amount of Angola debt.](https://www.angop.ao/angola/en_us/noticias/politica/2017/5/23/China-agrees-partial-write-off-Angola-debt,73246665-509c-48a2-ae40-415d3fb65b00.html)
 - [Nato's new enemy: the CPC.](https://www.rt.com/news/473935-pompeo-nato-china-communist/)
+- [Yanis Varoufakis on China's foreign policy dealing with Greece and Africa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBgbYQ5QAM0).
 
 ### What about the Hong Kong protests?
 
@@ -661,7 +665,7 @@
 
 - [He's a philanthro-capitalist imperialist: using the bill and melinda gates foundation charity as a bargaining chip to work in the interests of billionaire elites.](https://www.liberationnews.org/real-agenda-gates-foundation/) [Youtube Audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZsjovp13f1xCA-4ewzOdqd) 
   - The Gates foundation tests pharmaceutical products on humans for profit, usually in poorer countries without regulatory bodies. [One such mass test, on behalf of Merck and Pfizer, of a harmful HPV vaccine on 23,000 girls in india kills 7 girls, sterilizes hundreds more, and leads to public outrage.](https://m.economictimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/controversial-vaccine-studies-why-is-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-under-fire-from-critics-in-india/amp_articleshow/41280050.cms) 
-  - The Gates foundation helps big pharma find new markets for drugs deemed unfit for westerners, selling them in the global south. This includes harmful drugs such as Gardasil, Norplant, Cervarix. A South African newspaper declared: “We are guinea pigs for the drugmakers.” In the case of Gardasil, the drug-pushing was cloaked in the language of environmentalism, popular empowerment, and feminism. Melinda Gates evoked “choice” in support of her family planning initiatives, but in reality was not poor women, but a handful of the world’s wealthiest people who have presumed to choose which methods of contraception will be delivered, and to whom.
+  - The Gates foundation helps big pharma find test markets for their drugs, selling them in the global south. This includes drugs such as Gardasil, Norplant, Cervarix. A South African newspaper declared: “We are guinea pigs for the drugmakers.” In the case of Gardasil, the drug-pushing was cloaked in the language of environmentalism, popular empowerment, and feminism. Melinda Gates evoked “choice” in support of her family planning initiatives, but in reality was not poor women, but a handful of the world’s wealthiest people who have presumed to choose which methods of contraception will be delivered, and to whom.
   - [Funnels hundreds of millions in grant money to corporations](https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/11/philanthropy-charity-banga-carnegie-gates-foundation-development), such as Mastercard, Merck, Pfizer, ABC, NBC, Univision, Scholastic, and Pearson.
   - Philanthro-capitalism undermines local communities, dismantling their democracy and autonomy in health care, by making them fully dependent on US billionaires, who are completely unnaccountable.
   - Philanthrocapitalists are currently rushing to take power in a system of global health and population control. Bill Gates warned of “huge population growth in *places where we don’t want it*, like Yemen and Pakistan and parts of Africa.”, echoing  overpopulation fears that have inspired eugenicists since the time of Malthus. Population control is a form of social control, directly targeting the bodies and dignity of poor people, conditioning them to believe that life’s most intimate decisions are outside of their competence and control. 
@@ -724,7 +728,7 @@
 - [Supports US imperialism](https://leftistcritic.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/bernie-sanders-an-imperialist-worth-despising/). [2](https://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-sanders-troubling-history-supporting-us-military-violence-abroad)
   - [Voted for US intervention](https://i.imgur.com/HCvaDLp.jpg) in the following nations: Afghanistan, Lebanon, [Libya](https://www.leftvoice.org/not-on-our-side-on-bernie-sanders-and-imperialism), [Somalia](http://votesmart.org/bill/2732/7934/27110/bernie-sanders-voted-yea-passage-with-amendment-s-j-res-45-authorization-for-use-of-%20us-armed-forces-in-somalia#7934), Syria, Yemen, [Yugoslavia](http://www.libertyunionparty.org/?page_id=363),[2](http://votesmart.org/bill/2808/7948/27110/bosnia-troop-deployment-resolution#.Ve5QZkvJyhG), Bosnia, Haiti, Congo, Liberia, Sudan, and Ukraine.
   - [Warmongers on the Bill O'Reilley show for the US to intervene against Russia, Syria, and China.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO4Ko-v-q0g&feature=youtu.be&t=2m12s)
-  - [Supports drone bombing: "They have, at times, been effective."](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-people-responding-message/story?id=33413601)
+  - [Supports drone bombing: "They have, at times, been effective."](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-people-responding-message/story?id=33413601). Another interview: ["Drones have done some good things. They've been selective; they've taken out people who should be taken out"](https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bernie-Sanders-Drones-Have-Done-Some-Good-Things-20160330-0006.html)
   - Staunchly supports Israel in their displacement of Palestinians (while blaming hamas for the conflict). [Says he will not move back the US embassy in Israel back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, after Trump moved it the previous year.](https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-bernie-sanders-still-encouraging-israels-crimes)
   - [Supports GW Bush](https://i.imgur.com/tHN9DzG.png). [Supported warmonger John McCain after his death.](https://i.imgur.com/R3cAhdC.jpg)
   - [Claimed that the 2016 election of Maduro in Venezuela "wasn't free", and called for more "US Aid".](https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/bernie-sanders-tells-chris-hayes-why-he-s-running-1446465091782) Called Maduro a "vicious tyrant" in 2019 Democratic primary debate. 
@@ -733,12 +737,13 @@
   - [After the Jan 2020 US assassination of Iranian general Soleimani, Sanders showed remorse for the "4500 brave US troops who died", and trillions of dollars spent on the war in Iraq, instead of the 1M Iraqi civilians killed.](https://i.imgur.com/vRHPO9K.jpg)
 - [Bernie is against open borders](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-k6qOfXz0), believes in strong border and anti-immigration policies. [2](https://i.imgur.com/WcQ8bNQ.jpg)
     - When asked about the 2018 Migrant caravan, where Border agents tear gassed migrants, Bernie replied, ["not all migrants seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border have a credible claim. "You have to look at it case-by-case."](https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/418398-bernie-sanders-some-migrants-lack-credible-claim-for-asylum)
-  - [Believes that Russians are to blame for the failure of US democracy. "Protecting american democracy from foreign invasion."](https://i.imgur.com/GkSXsZY.jpg)
+  - [Believes that Russians are to blame for the failure of US democracy. "Protecting american democracy from foreign invasion."](https://i.imgur.com/GkSXsZY.jpg). [2020 Campaign trail: "Americans are sick and tired of Russian intereferenc in our elections"](https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1230994357236322304)
 - [Why Sanders is not a socialist - Anticonquista ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbcrJT485r8)
 - [Shills for democrats, campaigned for Hillary Clinton.](https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/bernie-sanderss-hard-fight-for-hillary-clinton)
 - [Equates socialism with US corporate bailouts.](https://www.leftvoice.org/sanders-speech-explains-his-vision-of-socialism-it-sounds-a-lot-like-new-deal-liberalism)
 - [Thanked Jeff Bezos for deigning to raise amazon wages](https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iqM9uBoBvLLw/v1/600x-1.jpg), Bezos [responds with "you're welcome"](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DohNI5GUUAAin6q.jpg). 
 - [His election, as well as Medicare-for-all, would, like the new deal, be a bribe between capital and workers in the imperial core: Give us a bigger cut of the profits from exploitation of the global south, and we'll become more invested in preserving the empire](https://www.reddit.com/r/MoreTankieChapo/comments/ew22gi/its_ogre_reformist_capitalism_has_won_guys/ffznca8/).
+- [Why Marxists should not support Sanders.](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/f7g3dj/paying_one_half_of_the_poor_to_kill_the_other/)
 
 ### What's wrong with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
 
@@ -752,10 +757,14 @@
   - [Thinks the US military is socialist. Thinks social services like schools and libraries are socialist.](https://i.imgur.com/JHOZDlg.png)
   - [AOC selling "law and order" and "family values" and not being "weak on crime" as socialist values. ](https://i.imgur.com/VRKjkXV.jpg)
   - [AOC wants abolish ICE, only to replace it with a resurrected INS, yet another agency whose goal was breaking up families. ](https://i.imgur.com/ficPkrO.jpg)
+
 - [Voted for Trump's 2020 War budget, allocating $738 Billion to military spending (a 3% increase over the previous year).](http://www.idcommunism.com/2019/07/ocasio-cortez-aoc-votes-in-favor-of-trumps-war-budget.html)
 - [She supports Israel, and its genocide of Palestineans.](https://i.imgur.com/K6QsYZo.jpg)
 - [Goes along with democrats and Republicans in backing US puppet Juan Guaido over Maduro in Venezuela.](https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1124924184629583872?s=19) 
+- [Believes, like other democrats, that Russia rigs US elections](https://i.imgur.com/3rmhrAf.png)
+- [After Evo Morales was overthrown in a US-backed coup, she retracts her pro-Morales statements, and poses with a coup-supporting group in Washington.](https://i.imgur.com/mYdPxcG.jpg)
 - [After Trump fires John Bolton (who tried and failed at starting wars with North Korea, Venezuela, and Iran), she goes full neocon, angry that Trump isn't going to war with North Korea.](https://i.imgur.com/3rSM3oU.jpg)
+- [Believes that Trump "betrays" US values.](https://i.imgur.com/H61toBx.png)
 - [Claims that socialist theory is only for priviledged few with college educated parents, and that working class people aren't capable of understanding theory. Is unaware of the Spanish-speaking socialist tradition. ](https://medium.com/@marko_v_kobak/sharpening-the-mind-a-response-to-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-24babecac9c5?fbclid=IwAR2I8uYX9ZUvPyd5MZxKiIEeXgbgnfzulR4qjzOGF1hxK6SEX7oqkFmyBIc)
 
 ### What's wrong with Elizabeth Warren?

us_atrocities.md

@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ Notes :
 
 - On January 2nd, 2020, [President Donald Trump ordered the drone assassination](https://i.imgur.com/EJYI44G.jpg) of [Iranian General Qassem Soleimani](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/iraq-3-katyusha-rockets-fired-baghdad-airport-200102232817666.html) [2](https://apnews.com/5597ff0f046a67805cc233d5933a53ed), in a blatant act of war against Iran. Soleimani was a beloved figure to the Iranian people, his death sending shockwaves among residents, and a 3-day national mourning period was declared. Hillary Mann Leverett, a former White House National Security official, said the killing of Soleimani was a "declaration of war" on Iran, and is "equivalent to the Iranians assassinating the US defence secretary". The drone attack was part of several targeted [US airstrikes](https://www.fort-russ.com/2020/01/breaking-iranian-general-soleimani-killed-in-illegal-us-airstrikes-on-baghdad/), and comes in the wake of turmoil following [another series of US airstrikes](https://www.axios.com/pentagon-airstrikes-syria-iraq-hezbollah-5f9800dd-b668-4ff7-a3d7-d987f031a1aa.html) in Iraq and Syria [which killed 25 members of the Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah militia](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50951742), after which [outraged Iraqi protesters surrounded the US embassy in Baghdad](https://www.axios.com/us-embassy-baghdad-iraq-attacked-protestors-iran-6e700ad0-d9cc-49cb-868b-3225dc070bd4.html). In response, the US blamed "Iranian infiltrators" for the embassy attack, and [deployed an additional 750 troops](https://www.axios.com/us-embassy-attack-750-troops-deployed-iraq-2ecf4632-2143-4531-bc1a-936cfd5e6553.html), bolstering the 14k troops currently stationed in  [~20 military bases surrounding Iran](https://i.imgur.com/dlyDNr6.jpg). Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi militia commander, was also killed in a pre-dawn raid on the same day. That evening, another US airstrike in Iraq [killed 6 people.](https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Air-Strikes-Targeting-Iraqi-Militia-Kill-Six-Army-Source-20200103-0012.html)
 - In September 2019, the [US killed at least 30 pine nut farmers, and injured 40 others via a drone attack](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/afghanistan-dozens-civilians-killed-drone-attack-190919072728303.html) in the nangarhar province in Afghanistan. Malik Rahat Gul, a tribal elder in Wazir Tangi, said the air raid happened at a time when tired workers, mainly daily wage earners, had gathered near their tent after harvesting pine nuts in a field nearby. "The workers had lit a bonfire and were sitting together when a drone targeted them". This marks the 18th year of war in Afghanistan. 
+- In early 2018, US Navy Seal [Eddie Gallagher stabbed a defenseless teenage captive to death in Iraq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gallagher_\(Navy_SEAL\)). According to two SEAL witnesses, Gallagher said over the radio "he's mine" and walked up to the medic and prisoner, and without saying a word, killed the prisoner by stabbing him repeatedly with his hunting knife. Gallagher and his commanding officer, Lieutenant Jake Portier, then posed for photographs of them standing over the body with some other nearby SEALs. Gallagher then text messaged a friend in California a picture himself holding the dead captive's head by the hair with the explanation "Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife.” After he was imprisoned, [Gallagher's other crimes came to light](http://archive.is/9b2fR): fellow soldiers said they witnessed Gallagher shooting and killing an unarmed old man in a white robe, as well as a young girl walking with other girls. Gallagher boasted that he averaged three kills a day over 80 days, including four women. In video interviews with investigators, multiple SEALs described how he would go on solo “gun runs,” emptying loads of heavy machine gun fire into neighborhoods with no apparent targets. “I think he just wants to kill anybody he can,” Corey Scott, a medic from the platoon, told Navy investigators. After his case went public, it became a conservative rallying cry: A website soliciting donations for his defense raised > $375k, and a prominent veterans’ apparel maker sold “Free Eddie” T-shirts. Spurred on by his family, 40 Republican members of Congress signed a letter in March calling for the Navy to free him, and soon after, US President Trump had him released from prison to house arrest. In July, 2019, he was acquitted of all charges. Gallagher was one of three military personnel accused or convicted of war crimes on whose behalf Trump had intervened to pardon or promote. Trump told a rally audience days after his intervention, "I stuck up for three great warriors against the deep state." [Gallagher has now started a chain of companies selling clothing and nutritional supplements.](http://archive.is/hgUQC)
 - On April 14, 2018, the US, UK, and France [launched 100 more missiles](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/14/syria-air-strikes-us-uk-and-france-launch-attack-on-assad-regime) at 3 different targets in Syria, again claiming that the Syrian government used chemical attacks against its own citizens in douma as justification.  On 10 April, the Syrian government again invited the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to send a team to investigate the sites of the alleged attacks. Trump, Macron, and May have all issued statements saying that this is not an intervention in the Syrian civil war. [1](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/14/syria-air-strikes-us-uk-and-france-launch-attack-on-assad-regime). In a [leaked email](https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1198423637805666305) in Nov, 2019, [an OPCW whistleblower stated that the US fabricated the evidence](https://thegrayzone.com/2020/01/02/opcw-leaks-expose-criminal-syria-cover-up-and-us-media-is-silent/), and used it justify the air-strike. [2](https://wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/document/Internal-OPCW-E-Mail/Internal-OPCW-E-Mail.pdf)
 - Starting in June 2017, photos and videos from Syrian civilians in Raqqa showed that the US-backed coalition in Syria was illegally using [white phosphorus](https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/josepha-ivanka-wessels/white-phosphorus-over-raqqa) in civilian areas. White phosphorus can burn human flesh down to the bone, and wounds can reignite up to days later. “No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm in crowded cities like Raqqa and Mosul and any other areas with concentrations of civilians,” said [Steve Goose](https://www.hrw.org/about/people/stephen-goose), arms director at Human Rights Watch. One attack on an internet cafe killed at least 20 civilians, while other deaths are still being confirmed. One of those civilians killed was in the process of sending a report to Humans Rights Watch, when the cafe was struck. The US killed 273 syrian civilians in April, slightly more than the number killed by ISIS. A US attack in July killed another 50 civilians. In August, the US killed another 60+ civilians. [1](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/world/middleeast/raqqa-syria-white-phosphorus.html),[2](https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/14/iraq/syria-danger-us-white-phosphorus),[3](https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/josepha-ivanka-wessels/white-phosphorus-over-raqqa)
 - On April 4th, 2017, following the [Khan Shaykhun chemical attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Shaykhun_chemical_attack), Trump ordered an airstrike of 59 tomahawk cruise missiles (worth $70 million) fired at the Shayrat air base in Syria (one that Trump claims is the source of the chemical attack) in the [2017 Shayrat Missile Strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Shayrat_missile_strike). This is the first attack by the US directly targeting [Ba'athist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Socialist_Ba%27ath_Party_%E2%80%93_Syria_Region) [Syrian government](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_government) forces, who are closely allied with Russia. Russian Prime Minister [Dimitry Medvedev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitry_Medvedev) said the attack brought the U.S. "within an inch" of clashing with the Russian military, and could've sparked a nuclear war. The attack was praised by US politicians on both sides of the aisle, as well >30 countries. Over 700 children have been killed US coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since August 2014. The US conducted another airstrike against Syria on June 7th, 2017.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Shayrat_missile_strike)
@@ -453,6 +454,7 @@ Notes :
 
 ### Pervasive
 
+- In late 2019, [CIA agent Anne Sacoolas hit and killed a British teenage pedestrian named Harry Dunn with her car](https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/18/assange-us-extradite-cia-killed-british-teen/#more-20969), while she was driving on the wrong side of the road, near the RAF Croughton base in the UK where she and her husband (both CIA agents) worked. After the Foreign and Commonwealth office rejected Anne Sacoolas request for diplomatic immunity, Anne fled the UK on a US Air Force plane. Both the US and UK governments lied to the Dunn family, saying that she was a US diplomat, and hid the fact that she had fled for months. In October, the Dunn family visited the White House and met with Donald Trump. According to Seiger, Trump tried to buy off the couple, promising them that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was “standing by ready to write a check.” Trump reportedly blindsided the Dunns, telling them that Sacoolas was in the other room waiting to meet with them. The couple refused the offer, demanding her extradition. Sacoolas's lawyers have stated, “Anne will not return voluntarily to the United Kingdom to face a potential jail sentence for what was a terrible but unintentional accident.” As of February 2020, the extradition request is at an impasse, while at the same time the UK is complying with Julian Assange's extradition to the US. RAF Croughton base houses agents from the NSA and CIA, and is famous for being exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden for forwarding information from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone to the CIA.
 - In 2020, it was revealed that the Swiss company, Crypto AG, which provided secure communications services to ~120 governments throughout the 20th century, was [secretly ran by the CIA and West German Intelligence.](https://outline.com/tTTmh6) The CIA and later NSA were able to read encrypted communications for many countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Italy, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Jordan and South Korea.
 - In August 2019, while [awaiting an impending trial](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-indictment-hes-out-luck/593512/), infamous predator and pedophile [Jeffrey Epstein, was found "suicided" in his cell, after being placed on suicide watch](https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/jeffrey-epstein-death-suicide-sex-trafficking-case-us-news-today-42484/). Epstein was a close associate of two US presidents (Clinton and Trump), British Royalty (Prince Andrew), and many global celebrities. Authorities claim he killed himself after guards were absent from the area. His death ensures that no further investigation will ensue, uncovering underage prostitution rackets used by the world's rich and powerful.
 - Police repression against minorities and the poor have been increasing in the last few years, leading to the establishing of several online databases, such as [this one by the washington post documenting shooting-deaths by police](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/), and [killedbypolice.net](http://www.killedbypolice.net/). US police shot and killed 952 people in 2017, 963 people in 2016, and 991 in 2015.