By Andrew L. Jaffee

President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to take over any private schools refusing to submit to the oversight of his socialist government, a move some Venezuelans fear will impose leftist ideology in the classroom. …

- Associated Press

First of all, there’s nothing “socialist” about Hugo Chavez’s Venezuelan government. Marx and Engels wanted to create a utopian “state in which the working class and poor peasantry exercised direct control on management of industry and society through democratically elected soviets or councils.” Chavez is concentrating all power in his own hands. He’s clamping down on the free press and is paling around with the very anti-Semitic Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Chavez has taken direct control of Venezuela’s oil wealth, as well as the country’s electrical and telecommunications companies. The money will certainly go into his own pockets. Most recently, Chavez has moved to take direct control of Venezuela’s central bank and military, and is busy editing the constitution to make himself president for life.

There is nothing “socialist” going on in Venezuela, just the exploits of another cheap thug following in the Castro/Mugabe/Milosevic tradition: absolute power forever. Will Venezuelan students be able to differentiate between Chavez’s megalomania and Marx and Engels’ teachings?

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Did the blind contractor’s bridge even make it across the river? If so, how would he have known — for sure, not second-hand? The blind leading the blind? Idiots leading the blind or vice versa? How could a blind man update a draftsman’s blueprint? I guess this is what you get when billionaire communist/capitalists bid work out to private contractors (would Marx even understand this sentence?). From Reuters:

A Chinese court has jailed two officials after they let a blind contractor build a bridge which collapsed during construction and injured 12 people, the official Xinhua news agency said Monday. …

“After the blind contractor changed the blueprint, he carried out the work only using a roughly drawn draft of the plan, which caused the bridge to collapse,” the report said.

Xinhua did not explain how the contractor was able to run the project considering his inability to see.

Ah… yeah…

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A personal, historical vignette

By Cainnech Ó Sullibhain

Every day in our lives we hear of the men who fight battles for their country and become heroes, but we never hear of the unsung heroes that are never even mentioned in the news media. They are of course both men and women who are put into a position where their loyalty and bravery go well beyond that of a soldier on the battlefield. This story is one that no one ever got wind of. I speak as one of those who risked his life, maybe out of loyalty or common sense, who partook in such an operation.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Russian President Vladimir Putin has prevented political dissidents from attending summit talks with the EU. He’s afraid of a former chess player? Such a tough guy, pushing around tiny nations like Estonia. Vladimir has surrounded himself with other former KGB goons, so in the Kremlin nowadays, “influence stems from the former Soviet organs of repression.” Back in the USSR? From the Beeb:

A number of leading anti-Putin activists, including the former chess champion Garry Kasparov, had passports confiscated and were detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

The authorities said they had false travel documents.

Several foreign journalists were also reportedly prevented from traveling.

False? Yeah, if you’re KGB/NKVD…

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By RA Sprinkle

A synopsis of world history paints a dark picture of humanity, or rather, of mankind’s inhumanity. The weak have never been secure, insomuch, that survival in the animal kingdom is a suitable allegory to that of the kingdom of men.

On the other hand, strength alone does not ensure peace. To the contrary, more often than not strength has been used as an oppressive force to conquer and subdue, to kill, spoil and plunder.

Whatever peace the world will know will only come by way of strength with principles, not by an equilibrium of shared power among nations, nor by agreement upon common interests, but by the power of a greater power, which, guided by principles and values exerts the proper degree of force as a counter weight to arrest hostile and aggressive forces.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Here we go again (again). This time it started with Estonia’s morally sound decision to dismantle a symbol of Russian/Soviet conquest and occupation of their homeland (Eesti). Every time I express support for the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), some troll comes out of the woodwork calling me a “Nazi collaborator,” or insisting that “all” Balts were Nazi collaborators. It’s almost funny, as I’m an American-Lithuanian-Jew — try that one — and I’ve heard it from both sides: “All Jews were communists,” “All Lithuanians were Nazis,” etc. But the pro-Soviet trolls aren’t interested in the truth. I interpret their obsession with Nazi war crimes — while ignoring Soviet war crimes — as an attempt to sanitize what the Russians and their collaborators did during their occupation of the various Soviet “republics.” The trolls are also attempting to preserve the gleaming image (murderous rampage) of communism.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

I have written many times about Soviet/Russian war crimes, but the mainstream media has generally maintained silent — with a few exceptions. Regarding Estonia’s correct and morally sound decision to dismantle a symbol of Russian conquest and occupation of their homeland, the BBC weighed in:

…But the Estonians believe much of the tension is being whipped up by forces outside the country, i.e. Russia itself.

During the years of Soviet occupation after World War II, tens of thousands of Estonians were killed. And they say their country was effectively colonised with many Russians being brought in as workers and military personnel. …

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

The Estonian authorities have removed a contentious Red Army war memorial in the capital, Tallinn, despite overnight protests that left one person dead.

- BBC, 4/27/07

To this, “A [Russian] foreign ministry spokesman described the decision as ‘blasphemous and inhumane’.” The Russian government is talking like it had the “right” to annex Estonia in 1940, but Estonians haven’t forgotten what their former Russian tormentors (occupiers) did to them for 50 years. How would you like to see a Nazi “war memorial” erected in your hometown, say in Tel Aviv or Chicago? Nazi or Soviet — it’s all the same.

Yes, Stalin “helped” to defeat Hitler, but by allying ourselves with the Soviet Union in WWII, we supported a monstrous state, the Russian Empire, in killing as many or more people than the Nazis did (Stalin killed about 20 million):

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Boris Yeltsin, former Russian President, has passed away. He led Russia out of communism (e.g., the Russian Empire) into democracy, only to see the man he appointed to succeed him, Vladimir Putin, erase his country’s evolution. Vladimir has surrounded himself with other former KGB goons, so in the Kremlin nowadays, “influence stems from the former Soviet organs of repression.”

Two events define Yeltsin’s commitment to democracy for Russia:

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

I wouldn’t put a lot of credence into what El Jefe Castro says. After all, he’s a “communist” leader worth $US900 million. His “communist” economy is a disaster, and Cuba is one of the poorest countries in the Americas. If not for tourism and money sent by Cuban expatriates, there would be complete economic collapse. Castro executed three Cubans for trying to escape their “worker’s paradise.” El Jefe jailed 75 poets, journalists, economists and other dissidents because they dared to express political opposition. Now Castro has gone off the deep end, criticizing the use of biofuels, which by the way “will lower carbon dioxide emissions, ensuring a cleaner environment.” Still think El Jefe is “progressive?” From the BBC:

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has written a second newspaper article within a week, again criticising US biofuels policy.

Writing in the Granma newspaper, Mr Castro said a US drive to back crop use for fuels would raise prices and cause more hunger in developing countries. …

He said [the use of biofuels] “…means none other than the internationalisation of genocide…”

So, Castro wants us to burn more fossil fuels? Damned if we burn fossil fuels and pollute more; damned if we burn ethanol and pollute less. Ah, we have a surplus of grains, so there’d be no effect on “developing countries…” Oy, amateurish economics and environmentalism…

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

So North Korea isn’t such a paradise after all (I’m being sarcastic). Even the select few, the apparatchiks that Kim Jong-il considers loyal, don’t want their kids to grow up in the “People’s Paradise.” Two to three million North Korean citizens have starved to death because their government spends more money on weapons per capita than any nation on earth. From the Beeb:

North Korean diplomats stationed overseas are reportedly refusing an order to send their children home, according to South Korean media.

The order was issued earlier this year in an apparent attempt to stop defections from the hardline regime. …

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Chinese Yankee Traders in the People’s Paradise are upsetting the apple cart. The capitalist genie’s out of the bottle. All under the rubric of “communism,” many of the egalitarian masses are struggling — 20,000 rioting now — some are honestly capitalizing, while China’s “communists” have gotten loaded in pursuit of the almighty dollar, er, ah, Yuan:

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

What in China has been “egalitarian” under communist rule? The 50-80 million dead bodies racked up by Mao, Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying, etc? Did Marx envision communists getting rich by experimenting with capitalism — all while maintaining central control in the hands of a few? The concept of the democratic soviet (workers’ council) has been long forgotten in favor of making plastic chochkees for Walmart. The Chinese communist-billionaire-kulaks have expropriated land owned by the proletariat, established stock markets, and built trading relationships with the Great Satan’s evil corporations, like Ford, GM, and Google — and, of course, gunned downed a few protestors here and there. Chinese “communism” is far from being egalitarian, or consistent. The BBC, safe in the capitalist UK, isn’t even consistent about China’s inconsistencies, let alone its own sophist inconsistencies. I would venture to say that many of the BBC’s staff own private property, even though they wouldn’t admit to being un-”egalitarian.” Here’s a loaded statement from the Beeb, implying that private property rights are not “egalitarian:”

China has unveiled a landmark law that will boost the protection of private property rights.

This is the first piece of legislation in the Communist country to cover an individual’s right to own assets.

Analysts say the move is an important step away from Chinese egalitarianism and towards a market economy.

The bill will also reportedly boost protection against land seizures, which have become a major source of unrest among farmers in rural areas.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

What happened to Muammar Gaddafi’s jamahiriya, the socialist “state of the masses?” Reality happened. One by one, the socialist/communist states created during the 20th century have either collapsed or co-opted the free enterprise system because… capitalism is dynamically adaptive, while communism is stolid, glacial, and discourages creativity. “Vietnam has embarked on an extensive reform program which aims at developing a market economy…” China’s economy would make Marx and Engels turn in their graves. So it goes that now Libya is engaging in free market reforms:

The Libyan government is to lay off 400,000 people - more than a third of its workforce - to ease public spending and stimulate the private sector.

Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi told parliament the number of civil servants had become excessive.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Is this a first? The word “collaborator” is being applied to traitors who helped the Russians/Soviets oppress millions of Eastern Europeans. The context involves a Polish bishop, Stanislaw Wielgus, who “confessed to collaborating with the communist police.” This is a start, but when will there be a Nuremberg-style tribunal to try all the Soviet murderers and their indigenous collaborators?

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