diff --git a/capitalism_doesnt_work.md b/capitalism_doesnt_work.md index 004b95e..ebf2bb3 100644 --- a/capitalism_doesnt_work.md +++ b/capitalism_doesnt_work.md @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Lets unpack the idea that "Capitalism works". In the US, the most developed Capi - [Capitalist monopolies in media, food, energy, and transportation, mostly controlled by ~200 powerful shareholders.](https://imgur.com/a/xgnEp) - [Billionaires made enough money in 2017 to end poverty 7 times over.](https://www.newsweek.com/billionaires-money-end-poverty-report-786675) - [US Life expectancy peaked in 2015, is on the decline, and is now lower than in China.](https://www.businessinsider.com/china-boasts-that-its-healthy-life-expectancy-beats-the-us-is-correct-2018-5) -- Suicide rates have leaped more than [33% in the last 20 years.](https://politsturm.com/american-suicide-rate-up-33/) [2](https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/07/health/suicide-report-cdc/index.html), [3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/06/07/u-s-suicide-rates-rise-sharply-across-the-country-new-report-shows/?utm_term=.18c1060e6b2f) +- Suicide rates have leaped more than [33% in the last 20 years.](https://politsturm.com/american-suicide-rate-up-33/) [2](https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/07/health/suicide-report-cdc/index.html), [3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/06/07/u-s-suicide-rates-rise-sharply-across-the-country-new-report-shows/?utm_term=.18c1060e6b2f) [Teen suicides are on the rise and outpacing all other age groups.](http://archive.is/Ips7C) - [Committed countless atrocities](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md), killing millions directly and indirectly across the globe. Currently maintains an [imperialist network](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df4R-xdKvpM) of over [800 military bases in 70 countries.](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/us-military-bases-around-the-world-119321) (For comparison, all the other countries combined have only 30 bases) - [Most prisoners per capita AND by total](https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/). Makes sense, since prison is Capitalism's boarding house. - [Runs least 54 agricultural slave labor camps.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_farm#In_the_United_States_.28partial_list.29). diff --git a/crash_course_socialism.md b/crash_course_socialism.md index b325717..a99717a 100755 --- a/crash_course_socialism.md +++ b/crash_course_socialism.md @@ -171,7 +171,11 @@ The socialist argument is not that individual passive investors should still bea ## Democracy -Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), Capitalist Dictatorship, or democracy for the rich, which socialists contrast with proletarian democracy. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions on the choices given to workers, and limit the [scope of public debate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window) to pro-capitalist views. [Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) are in reality [Capitalist Dictatorships](https://i.imgur.com/8vDYw17.jpg), resulting in legislation favorable to the wealthy, [regardless of the population's actual preferences.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig) Examples of restrictions include stacking the candidates before an election, a [media and news monopoly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership), the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system (which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, bills directly crafted by lobbyists and bourgeois lawmakers, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, inconvenient voting locations and times, and most pervasive, candidate stacking. **Most elections are performed before we ever get to the polling booth**. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy. +Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), or democracy for the rich, which socialists contrast with proletarian democracy. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions on the choices given to workers, and limit the [scope of public debate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window) to pro-capitalist views. + +[Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) are in reality [Capitalist Dictatorships](https://i.imgur.com/8vDYw17.jpg), resulting in legislation favorable to the wealthy, regardless of the population's actual preferences. [The Princeton Study, conducted in the US in 2014](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig), found that the preferences of the average citizen exert a near-zero influence on legislation, making the US system of elections and campaigning little more than political theater. + +Examples of restrictions include stacking the candidates before an election, a [media and news monopoly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership), the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system (which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, bills directly crafted by lobbyists and bourgeois lawmakers, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, inconvenient voting locations and times, and most pervasive, *candidate stacking*. **Most elections are performed before we ever get to the polling booth**. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy. The impossibility of Capitalist democracy to make a transition to working-class democracy is best shown by the phrase: Capitalists **will not allow** you to vote away their wealth. Pacifism, and elections have [never been an effective means of disenfranchising the ruling class.](https://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/08/11/pacifism-how-to-do-the-enemys-job-for-them/) Multi-party, representative parliamentary democracies, such as exist in Australia, the UK, South Korea, and the United States, have proved to be the safest shell for Capitalist rule. @@ -210,9 +214,11 @@ Both feudalism and slavery were thought to be highly stable systems, and even th ## Defending the Status Quo -The reason why most people are reticent to read anti-capitalist literature, and discouraged from participating in the class struggle through unionism and political movements, is due to **capitalist indoctrination**, a capitalist monopoly on media, and police repression. In Marxist philosophy, [cultural hegemony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony) is the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of that society (the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores) so that their imposed, ruling-class world view becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class. +The reason why most people are reticent to read anti-capitalist literature, and discouraged from participating in the class struggle through unionism and political movements, is due to **capitalist indoctrination**, a capitalist monopoly on media, and police repression. [Six companies control 90% of all media in the West.](https://i.imgur.com/1OFAeQ5.jpg) -The police in Western bourgeois democracies are the **domestic enforcement arm of the capitalists**, much like the military is the external imperialist enforcement arm. They are the hired goons of the elite interests of their given city, protecting their factories and workplaces from unionization and worker control, oppressing the poor and homeless, and keeping them separated from other workers by intentional impoverishment via legal means. Cops have [a long history of killing workers and crushing unions](us_atrocities.md#workers-and-the-poor). +In Marxist philosophy, [cultural hegemony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony) is the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of that society (the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores) so that their imposed, ruling-class world view becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class. + +The police in Western bourgeois democracies are the [domestic enforcement arm of the capitalists](acab.md), much like the military is the external imperialist enforcement arm. They are the hired goons of the elites of their given city, protecting their factories and workplaces from unionization and worker control, oppressing the poor and homeless, and keeping them separated from other workers by intentional impoverishment via legal means. Cops have [a long history of killing workers and crushing unions](us_atrocities.md#workers-and-the-poor). ## The State, and Revolution diff --git a/socialism_faq.md b/socialism_faq.md index 853050a..cc42669 100644 --- a/socialism_faq.md +++ b/socialism_faq.md @@ -406,10 +406,13 @@ * [What kind of democracy does China have, and how is it different from the west?](https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-democracy-does-the-China-have/answers/81676052?share=0ac8c628&srid=JMzz) * In contrast to low US political approval ratings, 96% of Chinese are satisfied with the national government (Edelmans 2016). World Values Surveys says that 83% think the country is run for their benefit rather than for the benefit of special groups. [How is this possible in a one-party state? (TED talk by Eric X Li)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0YjL9rZyR0) * [How does China’s political system work?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu4QTxl9GVw) + * [How are Chinese leaders elected / chosen? How meristocratic is the system? How do elections differ from those in western bourgeois democracies?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgpQxVCekgw) * [Who runs China? Makeup of the national people's congress.](https://news.cgtn.com/event/2019/whorunschina/index.html) * Some stats * [The real wage (IE the wage adjusted for the prices you pay) has gone up 4x in the past 25 years, more than any other country. This is staggering considering it's the most populous country on the planet. The US real wage by comparison is lower in 2019 than it was in 1973.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw8SvK0E5dI) - * [US Life expectancy peaked in 2015, is on the decline, and is now lower than in China.](https://www.businessinsider.com/china-boasts-that-its-healthy-life-expectancy-beats-the-us-is-correct-2018-5) [2](http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-09/07/c_138372963.htm) How [healthcare works in China (refuting a fearmongering NYT video about health care in China)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvpo2jv5eqI) + * [US Life expectancy peaked in 2015, is on the decline, and is now lower than in China.](https://www.businessinsider.com/china-boasts-that-its-healthy-life-expectancy-beats-the-us-is-correct-2018-5) [2](http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-09/07/c_138372963.htm) + * How [healthcare works in China (refuting a fearmongering NYT video about health care in China)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvpo2jv5eqI). + * [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/) @@ -428,7 +431,7 @@ - [Joshua Wong, one of the leaders of the protests, travels to US, seeking US intervention. Meets with Marco Rubio, and other senators to garner support. Senators Rubio and Tom Cotton sponsored legislation that would punish Hong Kong or mainland officials who suppressed basic freedoms in the city.](https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2046914/chinese-government-rebukes-us-over-comments-hong-kong) - [Hong Kong Billionaire publisher / media mogul Jimmy Lai, a large donor for the HK protests, meets with Pence, Pompeo, to discuss US intervention.](https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3017868/beijing-foreign-office-slams-hong-kong-tycoon-jimmy-lai-and), [2](http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news.php?id=131200&sid=4) - [An overview by isgoodrum.](https://mobile.twitter.com/isgoodrum/status/1139979689735278592?s=21&utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app) -- [The protestors are beating up anyone from China (lots of anti-china racism from hkers)](https://mobile.twitter.com/carlzha/status/1169272640642535424?s=21&utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app) [2]((https://mobile.twitter.com/SCMPHongKong/status/1173201595619610624?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)) +- [The protestors are beating up anyone from China (lots of anti-china racism from hkers)](https://mobile.twitter.com/carlzha/status/1169272640642535424?s=21&utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app) [2](https://mobile.twitter.com/SCMPHongKong/status/1173201595619610624?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) - [“Something else you won't see in imperialist msm: Hong Kongers organizing to show their support for extradition amendment. "Hong Kongers can't be at ease if fugitives are in the large"](https://mobile.twitter.com/redniangzijun/status/1139177913859891202). - [“Over 900,000 real name signatures in "Protecting justice & supporting extradition" petition. Reasons listed: HK criminal committed murder in TW; HK current extradition law has flaws & needs amendment asap; HK shouldn't be fugitive heaven, extradition amendment has many safeguards”](https://mobile.twitter.com/redniangzijun/status/1139177921631965189). - [Hong Kong - British vs Chinese Perspective.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/comments/dg0zpn/imagine_being_china_for_a_moment_and_having_to/) @@ -446,13 +449,22 @@ - [US fuels terrorism in China: “1 million Uyghurs never verified”](https://journal-neo.org/2018/10/24/us-fueling-terrorism-in-china/) - [China’s Xinjiang Problem – Made in USA](https://journal-neo.org/2015/11/10/chinas-xinjiang-problem-made-in-usa/). - [No, the UN did not report China has ‘massive internment camps’ for Uighur Muslims](https://thegrayzone.com/2018/08/23/un-did-not-report-china-internment-camps-uighur-muslims/). -- [The Truth About China’s Uyghur Problem](https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/12/14/the-truth-behind-chinas-uyghur-problem/). - [Religious freedoms in China explained](https://twitter.com/isgoodrum/status/1004884261051092993?s=21). - [Thousands of Muslims from the Uyghur province make Hajj Pilgrimage yearly.](https://www.app.com.pk/over-11000-chinese-muslims-from-xinjiang-proceed-to-saudi-arabia-for-hajj/) - [EU rejects China offer of Xinjiang tour](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3003217/eu-rejects-chinas-offer-xinjiang-tour-says-its-open-one-later). -- [If China Is Anti-Islam, Why Are These Chinese Muslims Enjoying a Faith Revival?]( https://time.com/3099950/china-muslim-hui-xinjiang-uighur-islam/) +- [If China Is Anti-Islam, Why Are These Chinese Muslims Enjoying a Faith Revival?](https://time.com/3099950/china-muslim-hui-xinjiang-uighur-islam/) - [More sources debunking this here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XiHrkJ_zudQZP1hBIBCgJKKAfAILxEG0cmQGrNH8pIU/mobilebasic). +### What about the Falun Gong? + +- [An investigation by the Refugee Review tribunal of Australia found the claims of organ harvesting, and prison camps, were provided by two unreliable witnesses, and can't be verified, by any of the major sources reporting it.](https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4b6fe16df.pdf) +- The claims mainly come from a self-appointed, private organization called the [China Tribunal](https://chinatribunal.com/who-we-are/), run by [British barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice QC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Nice), who unsurprisingly served as a prosecutor in a UN trial regarding the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, whose role was attempting to pin war crimes on Slobodan Milošević. +- The "sources" for the claims are a [few international members of Falun Gong.](https://www.quora.com/I-read-that-China-is-killing-millions-of-spiritual-dissidents-including-Christians-and-harvesting-their-organs-why-doesnt-the-world-governments-scream-foul?share=1) +- [Its a cult, outlawed in China, akin to Scientology.](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/5/13/975892/-#comment_41556493) The founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhiu, is [racist](http://en.falundafa.org/eng/lectures/1996L.html), and [homophobic](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/5/13/975892/-#comment_41556493). Li teaches that homosexuality is not the standard of being human, the priority of Gods will be to eliminate homosexuals and that gays are demonic in nature. +- [What is Falun Gong, and why do they believe "Trump was sent by heaven to destroy the communist party."?](https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/30/reports-china-organ-harvesting-cult-falun-gong/) +- [CNN claims of organ harvesting are not credible.](http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/224096/index.phpCNN) +- [The hospital that supposedly holds 6000 falun gong prisoners, was visited by various US officials after the claims, and found to be just a regular hospital.](https://file.wikileaks.org/file/crs/RL33437.pdf) + ### What about the Tiananmen square massacre? - [Tiananmen Square "Massacre", A Propaganda Hoax](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6RT_s1T050). @@ -476,16 +488,6 @@ - [*Shenfan: The Continuing Revolution in a Chinese Village*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=69633412b4947eb197779d652ba6e331) by William Hinton - [*Turning Point in China: An Essay on the Cultural Revolution*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=FF14AB76713984526357FE8829DEAD3C) by William Hinton -### What about the Falun Gong? - -- [An investigation by the Refugee Review tribunal of Australia found the claims of organ harvesting, and prison camps, were provided by two unreliable witnesses, and can't be verified, by any of the major sources reporting it.](https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4b6fe16df.pdf) -- The claims mainly come from a self-appointed, private organization called the [China Tribunal](https://chinatribunal.com/who-we-are/), run by [British barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice QC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Nice), who unsurprisingly served as a prosecutor in a UN trial regarding the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, whose role was attempting to pin war crimes on Slobodan Milošević. -- The "sources" for the claims are a [few international members of Falun Gong.](https://www.quora.com/I-read-that-China-is-killing-millions-of-spiritual-dissidents-including-Christians-and-harvesting-their-organs-why-doesnt-the-world-governments-scream-foul?share=1) -- [Its a cult, outlawed in China, akin to Scientology.](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/5/13/975892/-#comment_41556493) The founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhiu, is [racist](http://en.falundafa.org/eng/lectures/1996L.html), and [homophobic](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/5/13/975892/-#comment_41556493). Li teaches that homosexuality is not the standard of being human, the priority of Gods will be to eliminate homosexuals and that gays are demonic in nature. -- [What is Falun Gong, and why do they believe "Trump was sent by heaven to destroy the communist party."?](https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/30/reports-china-organ-harvesting-cult-falun-gong/) -- [CNN claims of organ harvesting are not credible.](http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/224096/index.phpCNN) -- [The hospital that supposedly holds 6000 falun gong prisoners, was visited by various US officials after the claims, and found to be just a regular hospital.](https://file.wikileaks.org/file/crs/RL33437.pdf) - ### Further reading * [Suggested reading for an aspiring MLM?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/18hgw2/suggested_reading_for_an_aspiring_mlm/c8fod6n) @@ -620,13 +622,13 @@ - 8 variations of “Jewish?” (Charlie Chaplin), “Polish Jew, (Tom Driberg)” “English Jew,” or “Jewess.” - [Paul Robeson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson) - "ROBESON, Paul (US Negro) ...Very anti-white. [Henry] Wallace supporter." - Paul Robeson wasn't anti-white, just look at the welsh coal miners for whom Robeson Campaigned. - - [Relevant testimony of Paul Robeson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmFjjaFNHKo) to the House of Unamerican activities committee during the red scare. + - [The testimony of Paul Robeson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmFjjaFNHKo) (one of the people Orwell snitched on), to HUAC (House of Unamerican activities committee) during the red scare. - [Stephen Spender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Spender) - "Sentimental sympathiser... Tendency towards homosexuality" - [Hugh MacDiarmid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_MacDiarmid), Scottish nationalist poet, and anti-imperialist. - [George Padmore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Padmore), Trinidadian journalist and anti-imperialist campaigner. - His books Animal Farm and 1984 are used widely as anti-communist propaganda in schools in the US and UK. So much so that [his animated animal farm film was funded by the CIA](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/how-cia-brought-animal-farm-to-the-screen/). There's a reason they teach George Orwell in schools and not Franz Fanon, Che, Huey P Newton, Malcolm X, Lenin, CLR James, etc. +- [Orwell, anti-communist: A criticism of Orwell and his Work - By Isaac Asimov.](http://www.newworker.org/ncptrory/1984.htm) - [Orwell worked as a British imperial cop in Burma for 5 years](http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Myanmar/sub5_5e/entry-3083.html). His short story, [Shooting an Elephant](http://www.denisedrespling.com/review-shooting-elephant-george-orwell/), uses ethnic slurs and denigrates burmese people. -- [The testimony of Paul Robeson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmFjjaFNHKo) (one of the people Orwell snitched on), to HUAC (House of Unamerican activities committee) during the red scare. - [A reddit thread on George Orwell](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/797lnl/as_a_communist_how_do_you_feel_the_works_of/), [Thread #2](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/7dhx99/for_those_on_the_right_who_think_orwell_wrote/dpy4zik/). ### John McCain @@ -648,7 +650,7 @@ ### What's wrong with Bernie Sanders? - [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, [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. + - [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) - 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) @@ -659,6 +661,7 @@ - [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) +- [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). @@ -697,6 +700,7 @@ - https://twitter.com/WillisJermane/status/1090261366789656578 - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/31/kamala-harris-laughed-jailing-parents-truancy +- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-14/kamala-harris-offices-fought-payments-to-wrongly-convicted ### Biden diff --git a/us_atrocities.md b/us_atrocities.md index 3304b30..d6bcaab 100644 --- a/us_atrocities.md +++ b/us_atrocities.md @@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Notes : ### Middle East -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 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. - 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) - 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) @@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ In September 2019, the [US killed at least 30 pine nut farmers, and injured 40 o - On 22 August 2008, A US airstrike killed ~90 civilians, mostly children, in the village of [Azizabad, Afghanistan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azizabad_airstrike). [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azizabad_airstrike) - On July 6 2008, the US bombed a wedding party and killed 47 Afghan civilians in the [Haska Meyna Wedding party airstrike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haska_Meyna_wedding_party_airstrike). The first bomb hit a group of children who were ahead of the main procession, killing them instantly. A few minutes later, the aircraft returned and dropped a second bomb in the center of the group, killing a large number of women. The bride and two girls survived the second bomb, but were killed by a third bomb while trying to escape from the area. Hajj Khan, one of four elderly men who were escorting the party, stated that his grandson was killed and that there were body parts everywhere. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haska_Meyna_wedding_party_airstrike) - On September 16, 2007, employees of [Blackwater]((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academi)) (since renamed Academi), a private military company, killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20 more in the [Nisour Square massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisour_Square_massacre), revealing a wide-spread policy to employ and enable private security firms to use deadly force. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisour_Square_massacre) -- On July 12, 2007, US AH-64 Apache helicopters bombed and [killed ~15 Iraqi civilians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007_Baghdad_airstrike), including two reuters journalists, and wounding two children, in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, New Baghdad. The attacks received worldwide coverage following the leaking of 39 minutes of classified gunsight footage, in a video released by wikileaks titled collateral murder. 22-year-old American Army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning (then known as Bradley Manning) was arrested for leaking the video, along with a video of another airstrike and around 260,000 diplomatic cables, to WikiLeaks. She was being held in prison under the [Espionage act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917), a law used to jail dissidents, intended to prohibit any interference with military operations, until early 2017. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007_Baghdad_airstrike) +- On July 12, 2007, US AH-64 Apache helicopters bombed and [killed ~15 Iraqi civilians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007_Baghdad_airstrike), including two reuters journalists, and wounding two children, in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, New Baghdad. The attacks received worldwide coverage following the leaking of 39 minutes of classified gunsight footage, in a video released by wikileaks titled collateral murder. 22-year-old American Army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning (then known as Bradley Manning) was arrested for leaking the video, along with a video of another airstrike and around 260,000 diplomatic cables, to WikiLeaks. She was being held in prison under the [Espionage act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917), a law used to jail dissidents, intended to prohibit any interference with military operations, until early 2017. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007_Baghdad_airstrike) On March 8, 2019, Manning was held in contempt of court by a United States District Court judge for refusing to testify to a federal grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. Manning said she was objecting to the "secrecy of the grand jury process". Except for a brief period of release between May 9 and May 16, she continues to be held in the Alexandria City Jail until she agrees to testify. Julian Assange, the founder of wikileaks, has also been the target of the CIA, [who (aided by a spanish security firm) continually spied on him while in asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy](https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/10/cia-spied-on-julian-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy/amp/) - On May 9, 2006, U.S. troops executed 3 male Iraqi detainees at the Muthana Chemical Complex, called the [Iron Triangle Murders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Iron_Triangle#Iron_Triangle_Murders).[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Iron_Triangle#Iron_Triangle_Murders) - On April 26, 2006 in the [Hamdania incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamdania_incident), US troops killed an unarmed civilian, staging a fake firefight to cover it up. Members of the squad shot the stolen AK-47 rifle into the air to make it sound like a firefight was occurring, and after the Iraqi man was dead, the Marines scattered the expended AK-47 brass next to the body, removed the plastic restraints, and placed the rifle next to the body.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamdania_incident) - On March 15, 2006, 11 Iraqi civilians were bound and executed by US troops in the [Ishaqi incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishaqi_incident). [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishaqi_incident) @@ -453,6 +453,7 @@ In September 2019, the [US killed at least 30 pine nut farmers, and injured 40 o - In 1987, FBI agent [Jack Ryan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ryan_(FBI_agent)) was arrested for refusing to investigate non-violent activists. He lost his job in September 1987 ten months short of retirement. He was thus ineligible for a full pension and had to live in a [homeless shelter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless_shelter). In a report by the *LA Times*, he stated his belief that the Bureau could reinstate him to a position which would not conflict with his personal beliefs that U.S. involvement in [Central America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America) is "violent, illegal and immoral."[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ryan_(FBI_agent)) - In 1976, the US tested [Agent White](https://www.projectcensored.org/4-agent-white/), a powerful pesticide developed by Dow Chemical, in Cherokee county, North Carolina. Within 3 years, the rate of cancer deaths leapt to 60% above the national average. - In 1968, the CIA implemented [Operation CHAOS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_CHAOS), a spying program targeting [Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_a_Democratic_Society), the [Black Panthers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party), the [Young Lords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Lords), Women Strike for Peace, and Ramparts Magazine, in an effort to tie vietnam anti-war protests to foreign intervention. CIA agents went undercover as student radicals to spy on and disrupt campus organizations protesting the Vietnam War. In total, Operation CHAOS contained files on 7,200 Americans, and a computer index totaling 300,000 civilians and approximately 1,000 groups, with no foreign interventionism found. The operation was halted after the watergate break-in, and exposed a few years later. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_CHAOS) +- In January 1961, the [US air force accidentally dropped two nuclear bombs on North Carolina, each of them 250x the strength of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima, and one of them came very close to detonating](https://www.cnn.com/2014/06/12/us/north-carolina-nuclear-bomb-drop/index.html). This was covered up for nearly 50 years. In 2013, the US finally [admitted the coverup and released the classified documents.](https://www.cnn.com/2014/06/12/us/north-carolina-nuclear-bomb-drop/index.html) Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara stated: "By the slightest margin of chance, literally the failure of two wires to cross, a nuclear explosion was averted." The estimated death tolls would have been 28,000 dead with 26,000 people injured. - Beginning in August, 1956, **COINTELPRO** (a portmanteau derived from [**CO**unter **INTEL**ligence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterintelligence) **PRO**gram) was a series of [covert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_operation), and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States [Federal Bureau of Investigation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation) (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting and disrupting domestic [political organizations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_organizations). COINTELPRO resources targeted groups and individuals that the FBI deemed [subversive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subversive), including anti-[Vietnam War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War) organizers, activists of the [Civil Rights Movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Movement) or [Black Power movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Power_movement) (e.g., [Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.) and the [Black Panther Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party)), [feminist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist) organizations, anti-colonial movements (such as [Puerto Rican independence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_independence) groups like the [Young Lords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Lords)), and a variety of organizations that were part of the broader [New Left](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Left). [FBI Director](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_the_Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation) [J. Edgar Hoover](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover) ordered FBI agents to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, neutralize or otherwise eliminate" the activities of these movements and especially their leaders. - In 1953, the CIA begins [Project MKUltra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra), a human testing program. Experiments on humans were intended to identify and develop drugs and procedures to be used in interrogations and torture, in order to weaken the individual to force confessions through mind control. MKUltra used numerous methodologies to manipulate people's mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as other forms of psychological torture. The scope was broad, with research undertaken at 80 institutions, including 44 colleges and universities, as well as hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies. Many subjects died under testing, or committed suicide. Others such as [Frank Olson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Olson) were murdered for threatening to expose the program. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra) - In 1950, the US Navy secretly infected over 800,000 residents of the San Fransisco Bay Area with [Serratia marcescens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serratia_marcescens), a human pathogen known to cause urinary and respiratory infections, during [Operation Sea-Spray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea-Spray), in one of the largest human experiments in history. The residents of the area were not informed, making the event a serious violation of the [Nuremberg Code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Code) on medical ethics. In the following month, 11 residents checked in at a local hospital with a rare urinary tract infection (one patient, [Edward J. Nevin](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_J._Nevin&action=edit&redlink=1) died as a result), and the area saw a spike in pneumonia cases. The military tested biological agents on US citizens in at least six other [similar tests](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea-Spray#Similar_tests) causing a variety of symptoms such as [whooping cough](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/12/17/report-suggests-cia-involvement-in-fla-illnesses/5b10205e-170b-4e38-b64e-2e9bca8f50df/) throughout the 50s and 60s in Florida, the Midwest, New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea-Spray)