ON BEING A COMMIE PINKO

      So, this week---to the surprise of no one other than to the GOP political establishment---President-in-Exile Trump was indicted for something by one of the various kangaroo courts convened for that purpose. Reaction (if one can call it that) from our side was predictable: "Gee! Our Courts are corrupt and politically motivated! Who knew?" And, "But the Democrats do it too!" Our culture turned into one big LARP during the Scamdemic, and our so-called political system became Reality TV a long time ago: why shouldn't our elections be Courtroom dramas too? Ratings would be probably go up if they started featuring all of the various indictments and impeachments between sensational murder trials. 

     To the shame of MSM pundits on both sides, the Chinese Media again gave us probably the most reasoned analysis of the situation. Chinese analysts noted that "The odd phenomenon also reflected strong public discontent with and distrust in US politics and the legal system in American society. Many people believe injustice and abuse of law are so prevalent that it can happen in presidential elections and the trial of a former president...Such a widespread perception resulted from the US' politicization of laws and instrumentalizing of laws for politics."

    "Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Friday that the cases will develop in accordance with the US' political agenda. Whether Trump had engaged in misconduct or not is no longer the core of the issue, as Trump has described the legal cases against him as a political witch-hunt to draw stronger support from voters. If he wins the election, that will give him a great advantage in court, and even if he is convicted, that would not affect the election much, according to Li."

    Furthermore:

    "Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who described the US' electoral democracy as entering an accelerated track of decadence."

    While Americans like looking down their noses at the Chinese Media (claiming that it's 'controlled', as if ours isn't); the question here is glaring. Exactly what did the editorial state that isn't the truth? Unlike the American Press, the Chinese aren't obligated to portray our Legal Establishment as though it was actually based on traditions of Anglo-Saxon Justice. If our own media was anything other than a commercial enterprise based on selling headlines and spouting propaganda, they'd ask the same questions and make the same observations. 

   Which leads to another point: certain people on various parts of the Internet are offended and outraged that sites like ours actually say positive things about China and North Korea sometimes. Critics on the Whacko Left have long since written us off as Right-Wing extremists, but since 2020 or so, there's been a growing chorus from the Right to the effect that we're promoting Communist interests---which of course, by their definition, is disagreeing with the Republican Establishment on more than one or two issues. 

      Generally we don't spend a lot of time here replying to critics, but being called out as Commie Pinko all the time does get tedious. There is a reason however why we should pay attention to what these various People's Republics are doing---and achieving. 

     At the end of WW2, cordial relationships between the US and USSR came to an end. Josef Stalin---ever the proponent of Realpolitik---came to oppose the US, but he maintained a cautious respect for us. Stalin saw what we were capable of doing in WW2 and how we rallied to fight Communist forces to a stalemate in Korea after what looked like certain defeat. Fighting WW3 with us wasn't even in Stalin's calculations except as a last resort---he prefered Cold War intrigues and schemes to weaken us from within. Khrushchev didn't learn anything from this: first his 'reforms' broke up international Communist solidarity; then he foolish challenged us to a Space Race and an Arms Race: the USSR lost both, space in the 1960s and arms in the 1980s. 

     What the American people have lost since the 1980s though has been the spirit that defeated Communism. We answered every challenge with a commitment to do better. When the USSR improved its post-WW2 infrastructure, we responded with an Interstate Highway System. When their propagandists spoke of inequality, we responded with integration and Civil Rights laws. When they suppressed revolts in East Germany, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, we strengthened our laws to permit more liberty of speech and reformed allegations of police and prison brutality here. When the Soviets launched Sputnik, we expanded NASA and funded more science in schools. President Kennedy initiated things like Physical Fitness and Civics into the public schools to counter charges of public decadence. We were challenged to do better and we did it. 

    It didn't make people of our parents' and grandparents' a bunch of Commie sympathizers to point out where we were deficient; evidently it does today. But it doesn't change certain facts. If we look at the differences between Communist countries and the United States today, the marco-differences like civil liberties and freedoms are becoming less and less distinguishable. Observe the persecution of Trump and similar ridiculous farces: can we really criticize China and North Korea for their treatment of political dissidents?

   Other differences like quality of life, we're actually falling behind. Face facts. Their schools educate the young; ours don't. Their streets aren't packed with bums and criminals; ours are. Their rulers aren't destroying farmland and forcing synthetic and unsafe foods upon us; ours are doing that. They're building and upgrading infrastructure: ours has had no significant upgrades in 40 years. Currently, our poverty and unemployment, incarceration, and illiteracy rates are higher than most Communist countries. We have far higher rates of overdoses and suicides.

   A recent Pentagon study showed that 80% of 17-24 year-olds in the US are disqualified for military service because of drugs, obesity, criminal history, and mental illness. That's not counting the LGBTQ perverts they already accept but who are actually unfit. We've documented the statistics here many times. That same demographic has considerable issues with infertility and gender dysphoria. Only a little over half have grown up in a traditional family, and 2/3 of men under 30 are not even contemplating marriage. 

   The point is, that if we're going to criticize the Communists, we'd better start proving that we have something better to offer; and right now it's hard to argue that we have.