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Stephen High Kicks His Way Into North Korea's Army

FASCISIM AND TECHNOLOGY

Tiago Saraiva, Fascist Pigs: Technoscientific Organisms and the History of Fascism (Cambridge, Massachusetts, & London, England: The MIT Press 2016) (From the book jacket: "In the fascist regimes of Mussolini's Italy, Salazar's Portugal, and Hitler's Germany, the first mass mobilizations involved wheat engineered to take advantage of chemical fertilizers, potatoes resistant tolerate blight, and pigs that thrive on national produce. Food independence was an early goal of fascism; indeed, as Tiago Saraiva writes in Fascist Pigs, fascists were obsessed with projects to feed the national body form the national soil. Saraiva shows how such technoscientific organisms as specially bred wheat and pigs became important elements in the institutionalization and expansion of fascist regimes. The pigs, the potatoes, and the wheat embodied fascism. In Nazi Germany, only plants and animals conforming to the new national standards would be allowed to reproduce, Pigs that didn't efficiently convert German-grown potatoes into pork and lard were eliminated.""Saraiva describes national campaigns that intertwined the work of geneticists with new state bureaucracies; discusses fascist empires, considering forced labor on coffee, rubber, and cotton in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Eastern Europe; and explores fascist genocides, folding karakul seep form a laboratory in Germany to Eastern Europe, Libya, Ethiopia and Angola." "Saraiva's highly original account--the first systematic study of the relationship between science and fascism--argues that the 'back to the land' aspect of fascism should be understood as a modernist experiment involving geneticists and their organisms, mass propaganda, overgrown bureaucracy, and violent colonialism." From the text: "In thinking about science and fascism it is worth considering how, in the last few decades, the historiographical status of fascism has changed form a temporal hiatus in which irrationality reigned into an integral part of human experience. Roger Griffin is the author who has most consistently argued for the need to perceive fascism as a modernist political ideology promising to counter the unsettling effects of modernization in which, as Marx put it, 'all that is solid melts into the air.' . . . In this view of fascism as modernism, fascism is much more than a radicalized version of old-fashioned conservatism; it is an all-encompassing modernist social experiment with the purpose of inventing a new national community. Fascists were not reactionaries struggling to freeze history; they were radical experimenters in political conformations. The past certainly played a role, but it was a new, streamlined past invented by the propagandists of the different regimes, Roman legionaries, Teutonic knights, and Portuguese sailors of the Age of Discovery were brought to life in exhibitions, radio broadcasts and films. but no one though of actually adopting their lifestyles; they served myths binding the collective together. Mass cultural rituals, eugenics measures, urban planning, welfare policies, censorship transportation networks, and military power were all elements of the modernist experimental gesture of forming a new national community, an alternative modernity to Bolshevism and liberal democracy." Id. at 4-5, citation committed. NOTE: One should keep this in mind as you, if you, ponder Donald J. Trump, the so-called "alt-right.' and the agendas they pursue. Are not Trump's "Make America Great Again," the nature of hiss attack on the media, the integrity of the election process, the globalization, environmentalism, courts, schools, minorities, his admiration for Putin, and on and on, his attempt to articulate a alternative to America's liberal democracy? Food for thought,).

WHEN IT COMES TO FOREIGN POLICY, GOD IS NOT ON AMERICA'S SIDE! GET OVER IT!

Walter A. McDougall, The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy: How America's Civil Religion Betrayed the National Interest (New Haven & London: Yale U. Press, 2016) (From the bookjacket: "McDougall argues powerfully that a pervasive faith that 'Godis on our side' has inspired U.S. foreign policy ever since 1776. The first comprehensive study of the role of civil religion in U.S. foreign relations over the nation's entire history, The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy explores the deeply infused religious rhetoric that has driven an otherwise secular republic through peace, war, and global interventions for more than two hundred years" From the text: "Aged baby boomers recall growing up in an era when Americans boasted of never having lost a war. That was before they began to wage unwindable wars against abstractions such as poverty, drugs, and tyranny, not to mention third-rate countries they were too foolish to leave alone and too rule-bound to defeat. [] The U.S. homeland has so far been spared another catastrophic attach. But it is dubious how much the Afghan and Iraqi wars contributed to homeland security, while any victories have been pyrrhic and have added $5 trillion to the national debt. [] The only excuse to be made for the strategic insolvent bequeathed by the Bush 43 administration is that gave the public what it demanded. For Americans at large behaved the way they always do when demonic foreigners dare to interfere with their pursuit of happiness. They demanded disproportionate vengeance and perfect security, while pretending their government's wars were part of a universal crusade. Far from being sui generic, the administration's response to 9/11 and the public's response to that response were altogether predictable. As Adman Garfinkel concluded, 'At its core, the /11 decade has not been about what others have done to America; it has been about what we Americans have done to ourselves, here in our transcontinental, open-air church we call a country.'" Id. at 15-16. "On September 12, 2001, work began on a national security Presidential Directive (NSPD) that called for the 'elimination of terrorism as a threat to our way of life.' On September 14, 2001, Bush said, 'Our responsibility to history is already clear, to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.' On September 20, 2001, the president insisted, 'You are either with us or with the terrorists' and declare the war 'will not stop until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.' In 2002 Bush's State of the Union address, West Point graduation speech, and new National Security Strategy fleshed out the new agenda. Since the United States now possessed unprecedented and unequal strength and influence, it was time to 'translate this moment of influence into unilateral strikes to confront threats before they reached America's shores; to confront the Axis of Evil, comprising Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. In January 2003 Bush proclaimed, 'Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity.' The utopian rhetoric peaked in Bush's second inaugural address, which referred forty-seven time to liberty and freedom and committed America to 'the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." "Oscar Wilde observed that the fanatic's worst vice is sincerity. But the only ones possibly fooled were Americans themselves, who were persuaded to compromise personal freedoms, rights, and protections in the apparent belief that terrorists posed a greater threat than the Soviet Union's thirty-five thousand nuclear warheads. To name terror the enemy rather than terrorist organizations, to claim jihadis hate the West only for its liberty, and to speak of a contest between freedom and tyranny were simplifications at best. To speak of draining the swamps of Islamo-fascism through democratization of the whole Muslim crescent was mad." Id, at 23-24. Yet, now with the great con Donald J. Trump as president, viewing ISIS and what he calls Islamic Extremists as existential threats to America, and no interest in encouraging democracy, Americans will be less free, less secure, and will have countless horrors done to others in their name.).

TYRANTS AND TYRANNY

Walter R. Newell, Tyrants: A History of Power, Injustice, and Terror (New York: Cambridge U. Press, 2016) ("[T]his is a book about how and why tyranny is a permanent feature on the human landscape. It's about the kind of tyrannical governments that have existed throughout history and sill do today--some since ancient times, some specifically connected to the modern age. It follows the strange career of tyranny form its origins in ancient Greece and Rome to the state-building despots who brought Europe out of feudalism into the modern age. Finally, it explains the totalitarian tyrannies that began with the Jacobin Terror of 1793 and continued through the Bolsheviks, Nazis Chairman Mao, the Khmer Rouge, and today's Jihadists." "This book is also about the often twisted psychological makeup of tyrants, including those who aspire to become tyrants . . . Finally, it's about the ways in which tyrants can attract rapt and devoted followers to carry out their murderous agenda." "If you find these topics interesting--and above all, necessary for informed citizens who want to protect and promote democracy--then this book is for you. . . . {The book is based on the belief that tyranny is a permanent alternative in human affairs and in explaining political action." Id. at v-vi. Query: Is America immune form tyranny? I don't think so. "I have said that liberal democracy of the Western kind is not natural in the sense of being spontaneous. The mere removal of a tyrant does not guarantee that people will automatically embrace their inner Jeffersonian democrat. They may only want revenge, and triumph for their own clan, tribe, or sect. But liberal democracy definitely is natural in the ancient Platonic and Aristotelian meaning of human nature--not mere survival, but the cultivation of out greatest potential for moral virtue as free citizens of a self-governing republic, including tolerance, freedom of thought and expression, liberal education, and cultural excellence Tyrannies at their best an sometimes protect people's lives against a greater threat posed by civil strife, or promote material prosperity. But they can never enable people to pursue happiness and self-fulfillment. As long as we remain vigilant against the wolves who prowl the perimeter, democracy is bound t defeat tyranny because it's simply a better idea." Id. at 231-232. Query: Is Donald J. Trump, the Alt-Right, the out-sized fear of terrorism, etc., ushering in a period of right-winged, law-and-order, religious tyranny in America?).

AMERICA'S TARGETED KILLING

Jameel Jaffer, ed., The Drone Memos: Targeted Killings, Secrecy and the Law ((New York: The New Press, 2016) (From the book jacket: "The Drone Memos collects for the first time the legal and policy documents underlying the U.S. government's deeply controversial practice of 'targeted killing'==the extrajudicial killing of suspected terrorists and militants, typically using remotely piloted aircraft or 'drones.' The documents--including the Presidential Policy Guidance that provides the framework for drone strikes today, Justice Department white papers addressing the assassination of an American citizen, and a highly classified legal memo that was published only after a landmark legal battle involving the ACLU, the New York Times, and the CIA--together constitute a remarkable effort to legitimize a practice that most human rights experts consider to be unlawful and that the United States has historically condemned." "In a lucid and provocative introduction, Jameel Jaffer, who led the ACLU legal team that secured the release of many of the documents, evaluates the 'drone memos' in light of domestic an international law. Hr connect the documents' legal abstractions to the real-world violence that allow, and make the case that we are trading core principles of democracy and human rights for the illusion of security." For those who accepted, or ignored, or were unaware of the Obama Administration's use of targeted killings, will they continue to do so under the Donal J. Trump administration? Or, will they grow a pair of balls, regain their voice, and object to targeted killings being done in the name of America? Probably not. The empty promise of security will trump American principles.).

ANGELA MERKEL

Matthew Qvortrup, Angela Merkel: Europe's Most Influential Leader (New York & London: Overlook Duckworth, 2016) ("This book gives an account of German history seen through the life of a demure former research scientist who, against all odds, rose to become the most powerful woman in the world. It chronicles the transformation of a woman who personified caution but who suddenly discovered her deepest convictions. It reveals how she stood up for the Christian values of her childhood home when she--to the consternation of many of her compatriots--opened the doors to refugees from the Middle East in 2015. It also perhaps explains why she spent much of her carefully accumulated political capital on a deeply unpopular policy. Why was it that a woman known for caution suddenly showed such resolve? To answer the question we need the full story of her life." Id. at 13. "Merkel could not be sure that she would survive politically but she was not willing to abandon her principles for the sake of political gain. While other countries devised increasingly sophisticated policies for keeping refugees out, Merkel boldly stated, 'I will not enter competition in who can treat the refugees the worst.' She sounded define, but she was on the defensive. Before, the refugee crisis all seemed to be going well, so smoothly and with such effortless ease." Id. at 14. I guess Donald J. Trump, with his "extreme vetting," is someone who has entered the competition in who can treat the refugees the worst. I don't see how Merkel can, let alone will, takeTrump intellectually serious. Just as one must hope Ruth Bader Ginsberg lives forever, one shoe hope Angela Merkel remains Germany's Chancellor for the a long while.).

IT IS TIME TO MOVE ON!

DONALD J. TRUMP LIED ABOUT PRESIDENT OBAMA! BUT DONALD J. TRUMP WILL NEVER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HE LIED, AND HE WILL CERTAINLY NEVER APOLOGIZE. SO, LET'S ACCEPT THAT DONALD J. TRUMP IS A WEAK PRESIDENT, A SMALL MAN WHO, AS THE SAYING GOES, CAST AN EVEN SMALLER SHADOW.

THOUGH ONE WOULD NOT WISH THIS FATE ON A DOG. . .

DONALD J. TRUMP IS DESPERATELY IN NEED OF A THERAPY DOG. 

IF YOU REALLY THINK ABOUT IT . . .

A FREE PRESS IS THE COUNTRY'S FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE AGAINST WOULD BE DICTATORS AND AUTOCRATS.

THREE CHEERS FOR ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL SALLY YATES

Acting United States Attorney General[edit]

In January 2017, according to a Justice Department spokesman, Yates accepted a request from the incoming administration to serve as Acting Attorney General, beginning on January 20, 2017, and until the successor for Attorney General Loretta Lynch can be confirmed by the United States Senate.^[6] On January 30, President-elect Donald Trump was critical of Democratic members of the Senate, saying they were delaying his cabinet nominees.^[7]

On January 30, 2017, Yates ordered the Justice Department not to defend Trump's Executive Order "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States", saying "At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities [of the Department of Justice], nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful".^[8][9]

TRUMP'S UNAMERICAN VALUES AND EXECUTIVE ORDERS

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  2:46

  Fareed: Trump's Travel Ban 'fear Mongering'

  Angela Jones

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ARE YOU, LIKE ME, FEELING THE PAIN . . .

. . . of going from having an classy, educated, open-minded, intellectual as president, to having a vulgar, ignorant, closed-minded, anti-intellectual as president? WOE BE US!

HERE'S AN IRONY FOR YOU.

IN MUCH OF THE WORLD, THAT IS, OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, "GLOBALIZATION" HAS PRETTY MUCH MEANT "AMERICANIZATION".  THUS, WHEN THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS ARE AGAINST GLOBALIZATION, THEY ARE AGAINST AMERICANIZATION. SO, AS ALANIS MORISSETTE SANG, "ISN'T THAT IRONIC?"

I KNOW!

YOU ARE NOSTALGIC FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS WHEN A LIE WAS JUST A LIE, AND NOT AN ALTERNATIVE FACT.

IS THIS BOOK BURNING IN THE DIGITAL AGE?

Trump’s White House Website Takes Down Official Pages on Civil Rights, Climate Change, LGBT Rights

FOOD FOR THOUGHT FROM THE NYT

OPINION

What We’re Seeing at Trump’s Presidential Inauguration

Observations and provocations from our opinion writers in Washington and around the world. 

Photo

Donald Trump raising his fist to applause from the crowd at the inauguration.CreditDamon Winter/The New York Times

A Clenched Fist for Day 1

 By TIMOTHY EGAN

COMMENT2017-01-20T16:54:55-05:004:54 PM ET

There was no poetry in the words delivered to a half-empty National Mall on Inauguration Day. But then, nobody expected a hint of verse or a well-turned phrase from President Donald J. Trump.

There were no historical allusions either — at least not direct ones — from a man who is defiantly truant in his knowledge of history.

And there were no concessions to the other side, the vanquished plurality of voters, the woman who missed her place in history, the outgoing president who kept his dignity to the last minute in office, his place in history intact.

What we got, coinciding with the first rain drops falling while Trump spoke to the nation he now leads, was a clenched fist — his own salute of nationalism and defiance, borrowed from political causes rooted in far different passions. He raised the fist while taking his place at the Capitol steps, and again at the close of a dark, soulless speech introducing himself as the leader of the free world. 

We might be able to ignore the fist had he mentioned liberty, the Constitution, equality for all, some joy note to American values. We might be able to give him a wider berth, an open heart, had he quoted Washington, from that humble first inaugural in 1789, or Lincoln, with his call to our better angels, or Kennedy’s plea for a patriotism of selflessness.

No, what we got was the clenched fist, to go with the rhetorical one: America first to fix American carnage. 

The populist tone, from a man who lost the popular vote — “the day the people became the rulers of this nation again” — would be welcome, had not Trump brought to Washington a cabinet of the very wealthy and the very elite, a predators’ ball. Included among them is a Treasury nominee whose bank foreclosed on some of those Trump proclaims to speak for. And a labor pick who doesn’t believe fast food workers should earn a living wage. The nationalist tone — “buy American, and hire American” — would also be welcome had not Trump done the opposite to enrich himself over the years, from using Chinese steel in his hotels in Las Vegas to employing foreign workers for his properties in Florida. 

The chorus of nationalism in the speech — “From this day forward, it’s going to only be America first. America first” — might even be appealing, had it not those ugly echoes of history. Trump is no doubt ignorant that a similar phrase was used by isolationist, anti-Semitic Americans who aimed to appease Adolf Hitler as it was just becoming clear how much of a monster he would be. 

Take Trump, as I’ve said before, not at his word, but for his actions. What we saw on Inauguration Day of the 45th president was the truest sign of how he will rule: not by extending an open hand, but by raising a clenched fist.

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FROM TODAY'S NYT "FIRST DRAFT"

Donald J. Trump will take the oath of office outside the Capitol today to become the 45th president of the United States. Expect plenty of pomp and a good deal of protest, too, as hundreds of thousands of people descend on Washington to mark the transfer of power.

We’ve put together a guide to the week’s festivities, demonstrations and much more. Here are some highlights:

The Schedule

11:30 a.m. | Swearing-in ceremony

With American officials and other dignitaries gathered on the West Front of the Capitol, the official inauguration ceremony begins. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will administer the oath of office around noon. Mr. Trump will then deliver his inaugural address.

Afternoon | The Parade

After reviewing the American armed forces, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will lead the inaugural parade from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue, with the participation of thousands of military personnel representing every branch of the military.

7 p.m. and on | Inaugural balls

There will be two official inaugural balls on separate floors of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and an Armed Services Ball, which will be at the National Building Museum. Mr. Trump is expected to make remarks and take to the dance floor at all three.

The Political Atmosphere

Mr. Trump will be less popular than any new president in modern American history as he takes the oath of office, according to a series of surveys published in recent days. The numbers suggest that rather than unifying a divided electorate, his transition to power has continued the polarization from the campaign.

Polls released on Tuesday by CNN and ORC and by The Washington Post and ABC News found that just 40 percent of Americans approved of the job Mr. Trump has been doing during the transition.

Protests and Protection

Demonstrators are not unusual at an inauguration, but Mr. Trump’s event is expected to attract many more than usual. Law enforcement officials said they were expecting 99 groups to carry out demonstrations of all sorts over the inaugural period, including 63 on Friday.

A well-armed security bubble will encircle much of downtown Washington, as almost 30,000 local, state and federal officials work to ensure that the transfer of power goes off without a hitch.

— NICHOLAS FANDOS

THIS DAY SUMMED UP IN A WORD:

NUMB

SAD AND DISGUSTING

4 Questioned After Video Shows Racially Charged Beating in Chicago

By MITCH SMITH and NIRAJ CHOKSHI 

A video circulated online shows a white teenager tied up and beaten as a group of black young adults shouted antiwhite messages and insulted Donald J. Trump.

THIS WILL ONLY GIVE TRUMP AND HIS FOLLOWERS ADDITIONAL EXCUSES FOR ADOPTING ANTI-BLACK AUTHORITARIAN POLICIES. I DON'T SUPPOSE THESE INDIVIDUALS HAVE EVEN THE BEGINNINGS OF A CLUE AS TO HOW MUCH DAMAGE, BOtH SOCIAL AND POLITICAL,THEY HAVE DONE AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR ACTIONS.

READING TO HELP YOU BEGIN O UNDERSTAND THE COMNG TRUP YEARS

Michael A. Milburn & Sheree D. Conrad, Raised to Rage: The Politics of Anger and the Roots of Authoritarianism (Cambridge, Massachusetts, & London, England: The MIT Press, 2016), originally published as The Politics of Denial (1996) (From "Introduction to the 2016 Edition": "Twenty years ago . . . we presented our initial search supporting what we now call 'affect displacement theory.' Our results suggest that attitudes toward some political issues might be determined, in part, by emotion rather than reason. We found, specifically, that men with a history of being brutalized in childhood seemed to both deny the pain of their own experience and their anger at the perpetrators, while simultaneously displacing that anger onto political issues that involve an element of punishment--the death penalty, the use of military force, punitive policies towards women seeking abortions, attitude with a large symbolic component of power, toughness, and retribution. Of course, not all conservatives who hold the attitudes have a history of childhood mistreatment, and not all conservative issues attract the same degree of emotion--it is particularly those issues that offer a perceived opportunity for retribution against those seen as transgressing social norms and moral imperatives." "The glorification of toughness is typical of individuals who held the views and displays the traits of authoritarianism, a personality type first identified by researchers studding anti-Semitism following World War II. Authoritarianism develops from rigid, punitive childbearing and involves denial of the reality of harsh, even terrifying parents and of one's own anger toward them coupled with displacement of the anger one disputed minorities in the society. The unforgiving rage toward out-groups grows in times of heightened stress form real social and economic instability." Out model helps to explain a paradox in U.S. public policy: although prevention worlds much better than punitiveness does in solving problems, punitive policies have generally succeed at the polls for the last thirty years. The displacement of anger, in some cases triggered by real economic and social instability, influences public support for punitive policies, and we have seen many politicians who have been willing to exploit punitiveness in their campaign rhetoric and policies, using scapegoating an exaggeration of danger, and leading to support of punitive public policies such as mandatory sentencing, three strikes and you're out, carpet bombing the Middle East, and the targeted killing of the families of terrorists--a war crime." Id. at xi-xii (citations omitted).).