Friday, April 13, 2018

No War in Syria!

Once again, we must bomb the country to save the children, we are being told.  The US has been funding violent terrorists against Assad and his father for decades because Syria is a client state of Russia, and the US and Israel and Saudi Arabia want to own the middle east through Sunni Wahabi fundamentalist client states, the likes of which most Syrians do not want to be a part of.  Among secular Syrians, Assad is considered too soft on terrorists.  Alleged chemical attacks going way back have always been fake or false flag, staged by rebels precisely when they are being beaten.  These rebels have the supplies to make chemical weapons, which have been proven to come to them through US clients.  White Helmets who make the reports are rebel agents.  Assad has no reason to use chemical weapons because he has vastly superior conventional forces and knows full well that chemical attacks would justify US intervention.  US Citizens are the most brainwashed in the world through a multi-sided Big Lie media which actually speaks on only one side when it comes to matters of war and geopolitics.

Checking the news just now, it's all about Mueller and Comey and so on.  I am relieved to see that war has not broken out yet.  All these Mueller and Russiagate things are all about putting pressure on Trump to follow Deep State militarism.  Mueller himself was a leader in propagating lies about 9/11 and the need to attack Iraq back in the day.  He is still serving that function, but on the other side, by constantly blackmailing Trump into being more of a War President.  When these deep state actors are pounding on Trump, that shows they are not getting their way.  When Trump acts like the Deep State wants him to, the media lets up for a few seconds on Russiagate and the like.

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

In Russia, Healthcare is a Right

Since 1996, healthcare has been a national right in Russia.  In law.  As it certainly was during the Soviet era.

So much for those who say Russia is anti-socialist pure-cowboy-capitalist evil, which though "liberal" and maybe even "left liberal" is still part of the the fundamentally imperialist "Russia is Evul" chorus.  What's it ours to say, anyway, about the way they run themselves, isn't the important measure of evul how much death and destruction one is dealing out elsewhere, mostly?  Anything that doesn't recognize that context, foremost, and the tendency of the US to demonize the tiniest (and quite often fake) evul elsewhere (while often ignoring the real stuff at home, or even in context) to justify war, including such things as sanctions and de-diplomacizing, which are cold war.

Anyway, neoliberal Yelsin was nevertheless trying to privatize everything, and healthcare funding was set to $96 per person.  Putin (often said here to be even more evul capitalist) actually increased the public health service funding tenfold by 2013, a significant portion of national income.

The wonderful US sanctions and the like have taken a toll since then, and public healthcare spending has (had?) fallen somewhat.  There is also a private system, through which richer people get prompter and possibly better service.

So it isn't therefore perfect, as if we were the ones to judge.

And those sanctions have done what for us, exactly?

Oh, yes, the military industrial complex has been on a roll.