Open Letter to North Korea’s Kim Jung On

 

Dear Chairman Kim,

I am an American and have heard of your determination to defend North Korea and that you believe that you are now in a state of War with the United States.   Given what you believe you know, of course all of your actions would seem to be warranted; however, I believe you are unaware of just how much the current President of the United States is being effectively contained.   Of course you know that President Trump has absolutely no experience with Politics or with Leadership.  Nobody under him is really loyal to him or even needs to be.   The worst that can happen to any of these Underlings is that they will lose their Job, and under this Current President, losing their Job is perhaps the Best Career move they could make.  You see, everyone hates the current President.  It is really no secret.   You yourself have described him perfectly and every official American in Washington D.C. begrudgingly agrees with you.   

 

But you worry that the current President can still give orders.  Well, that is true only up to a point.  The President has surrounded himself with Career Military Officers.  The President himself was only a Real Estate Developer in an Economy where the institutionalized Tax Structure and Bankruptcy Laws made it virtually impossible to fail, and even given that, every Real Estate Developer in America who started at the same time as Trump with one tenth the money, is now at least 10 times as Rich.   So you can easily imagine what his Career Military Officers must think of their President.    His present Chief of Staff, a Retired Field Marshal, is rumored to have 3 things always on his person – the first is a signed letter from a Doctor stating that President Trump is incompetent.  The second thing is a copy of the 25^th Amendment stating that an “incompetent” president can be summarily relived from  Duty, and the 3^rd thing is high pressure syringe stick that can blast a strong sedative into the President even through his suit jacket which could put him to sleep in seconds.    I feel that you should know this, so that if you have been hearing through your Unofficial Channels that the Institutionalized Career American Government is assuring your Existential Safety, then you can perhaps give yourself the comfort of believing them.  

Of course, it still is worrisome that so many Career Military Officers seem to be in complete charge of things.  The Career Diplomats and State Department People have been sidelined and so now all the “diplomatic” work is being done by Defense Department People and the President’s amateurish Political Appointees.  And the Military knows only one thing  -- as they say “a handyman that only has a Hammer thinks that every problem is a Nail”.   And so from these Militaristic “Diplomats” we hear of all these Preconditions to Talks about how North Korea must TOTALLY disarm before America will even come to the Table.   Of course, that is just silly (after all, America tolerated the Nuclearization of Everybody Else, and so why not you too?   Why should anybody suppose the consequences would be any worse?).  I am sure that more reasonable proposals are coming your way via the Unofficial Channels.   Unfortunately this may be pointing out an inherent weakness in Democracies, that it always seems More Popular with the Masses to ‘talk tough and threaten war’  when simply negotiating a Settlement would be easier and far less costly in both blood and treasure.   So all the REAL Talks must be done Unofficially.

But, given the current situation under the current American Administration, you cannot expect any break through with Negotiations.  For that you will need to be patient and bide your time until the Profession Career Government People can again return Government to some rational Order once a new President, from either Party, can come to power.   But in the meanwhile, you should rest easier with the assurances that nobody will obey any crazy orders from the current President and that if he does go ‘over a certain line’ he will be instantly bundled up and taken off to Walter Reed Hospital and placed in the Psychiatric Ward where he will not be able to do harm to a single living soul.

Government by Meritocracy Aided by Supercomputer AI

Technology changes everything.  I remember intellectual discussions 50 years ago where people would argue that Communism, specifically Planned Economies, couldn’t work.  Back then it was hard to argue the point because one realized that there would be too much important data that one would have to keep straight, and the legitimate concerns of multitudes of people would inevitably fall through the cracks.   But in the late 1980s when Computers started winning Chess Matches and we were hearing more about Super Computers, then it became reasonable to argue that Super Computers could help with all the essential data, but there were still concerns about what the heck the Super Computers were expected to do with it all.  Yes, I knew how Supercomputers were used to ‘Model’ various constructs, but the Models were always so dependent upon just the right set of assumption algorithms.   A planned economy could still go belly up simply because the programmed assumptions were off the mark, in the same way that Super Computers programmed to Model Weather Patterns and Hurricane Tracks were getting it wrong a great deal of the time.  But now we are being presented with the combination of Super Computers and Artificial Intelligence bolstered with Machine Learning capabilities. 

 

The Super Computers would handle the Data.  You could upload hard data on every recorded economic exchange, market data, weather data, consumer data, polling data, school and court records – if it is on a spreadsheet then it can go in as Hard Data.  You could also upload Soft Data such as Economic Projections from specific pundits,  Trade Publications and Scholastic Papers, News Editorials and Opinions, Social Media chatter,  fashion trends, Hit and Cancelled TV Shows, Movies and Media.  Then, with the capabilities of AI and Machine Learning (where you give an AI System a Goal to achieve and it constructs a Best Guess Methodology for pursuing that Goal by considering all known variables, but then, without further programming instruction inputs, it can refine and adapt its Methodology to achieve its directed Goal in an ever more efficient and elegant manner), then the System could ‘learn’, or rather,  ‘teach itself’ what it all Hard and Soft Date means and how to apply it to achieve its Set Goals (you can imagine how this would work – at super high speed the “System” would  endlessly create new Comprehensive Models of Reality using years old sources of Hard and Soft Data and the compare those Models’ “predictions” to subsequent  Events as they really occurred, rejecting inaccurate models and refining those models that were most successfully prophetic).  Once reliably predictive Models of Reality are created within the “System” one could have a high degree of trust that the System would Know What was Going On and know that if such and such an Action were implemented then there would be a Certain Resultant Effect.  Depending on the Set Goals of the System, providing that the Set Goals are not impossible demands, a Government and Economy directed by such a “System” would continuously trend in the direction of perfectly conforming to those Social Political and Economic Set Goals.

 

Obviously the Set Goals would be very important.  Just the requirement that they not be impossible would greatly constrict many of the envisioned possibilities that could be politically imagined.  And to be Possible would imply that the Goal must be Sustainable.  Right there we could eliminate any Set Goal that includes any notion of exponential Growth because any exponential expression, no matter how seemingly slight the positive exponent, such as an interest rate or rate of inflation or GDP (Gross Domestic Product), will eventually veer up in a curve toward Infinity which of course is impossible to ever reach.  We can see that even now.  In order to maintain a system of Capitalism based on lending money at exponential rates of interest, it is necessary to continuously increase the Money Supply at roughly the same exponential rate. 

 

Likewise, Set Goals should optimally be set so that Conditions do not hit Saturation Levels beyond which one would run into the Law of Diminishing Returns, in which steering inputs have less and less influence.  An example of this could be that as Fossil Fuels become more and more scarce, that it could possibly take more energy to extract and process them than they are intended to provide – effectively costing more than its worth.   So just in order for the “System” to maintain an optimum level of Control, resource demand must be way down from saturation levels and levels of diminishing returns, that is, the “System” should not just target Sustainability, but Sustainability within a healthy margin.

 

Of course we could expect many people to be disappointed with “Sustainability”.  Right now the World has several millions of people who are extremely wealthy and therefore control a huge proportion of the Earth’s Resources and we can understand well enough that they would be very happy with the present arrangement.  But the drawdown they put on the Earth’s Resources are unsustainable and any “System” that would impose Sustainability would certainly run afoul of this Most Affluent Economic Class.  It is unfortunate that not everybody would be delighted with a Plan that is ultimately necessary, because Unsustainability eventually would hit a very hard wall.   We can either turn away from that Wall while we have a chance, or slam right into it. 

 

But, yes, it would be nice if everybody could be Happy.  One factor I believe could be very significant in engendering a general ‘happiness’ and that would be in regards to increasing the Available Resource Per Person, not by trying to create or procure more Resources, but by allowing for a steady decrease in the Number of People.  For instance, if the planet had 12 Billion People, then, however resources were allotted, we could not imagine that a significant percentage of this mass of humanity would have much to be thankful for.  However, if the Planet’s Population was allowed to contract to about 200 Million, that is about 3% of what it is now, I could more easily imagine that the quotient of Available Resources Per Person would be high enough where we could all understand it in terms of being a General Condition of Prosperity, where not only basic needs would be met but where there would be plenty extra for artistic, creative and social flourishing.   And then with the Human Population cut way back, there would be not nearly the need to put so much land under the Plow and the grasslands and forests could be allowed to return, and all that increased greenery would suck a lot of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and promote more leaf-to-air evaporation which would increase the Cloud Cover which could reflect some of the Sun’s heat energy back up into space, as well as providing more rain which would serve as a Positive Feedback for even more forests, grasslands and greenery.  So less Population would be a Win Win for everybody that would be alive, as those who are never born really wouldn’t have a say in it.   But, yes, I can imagine how most women of childbearing age would wish to have a baby, or babies all their own.   I suppose the social solution for all these women yearning to be mothers would be to give up on the Nuclear Family and transition to female centric Communities where many women could live together and participate in the rearing of a few children.  Of course Men could visit, but it would be best for men to live apart.  You see, Men could be far better Role Models if their visits were kept brief, that is they could come wearing their best cloths, and dine with the Community and engage in some hours of Social Activity – Dancing and Music or whatever.  They could show themselves to their best advantage, and then go back to their own Male Oriented Quarters where they could again pick up on all of their casual nasty habits, and, most importantly, live well clear of feminine scruples, fussiness, and nagging.    And, of course, in the Women’s Community the few children would be the center of it all.  I suppose there would have to be studies made on how to prevent all these children from growing up absolutely spoiled rotten.   Or maybe “spoiled rotten” would become the new Personality Normal.  We’ll leave that to the Future. 

 

Oh, and by now most readers must have reached the inference that for the “System” to really be viable, it would have to be Globally implemented.  Just One Country could not solve all the World’s Problems if all other Nation were pulling in the opposite directions.  Of course now it would be politically impossible to envision a Unified World, but perhaps in a Generation or two the People of Planet Earth will come to develop a more Cosmopolitan and less Nationalistic Point of View, and begin to understand that Economic Competitiveness is just the World Fighting Against Itself, where One Group succeeds by holding the others down or even by doing deliberate harm to them.  It shouldn’t be long before the Peoples of the World develop a Vision that embraces the Virtue of Cooperation.   Then the “System” could be implemented Globally.

 

In a previous blog I had mentioned having a Meritocracy, that is, a Government composed of People.  But what would we even need them for if we were effectively automating Government with an Automated “System”?   Well, somebody has to interface with the “System” and monitor it if for no other reason than to assure the People that the “System” does not suddenly go “SkyNet” on us.   And you can imagine that a great many people’s natural political leanings would have them complaining about how the “System” was being wasteful and giving everybody else everything but screwing over their own particular set of self-interests.   It would be the role of People in Government to respond to such criticisms.   Indeed, not just chronic complainers would be asking questions but I would anticipate that the Universities and the Press would be curious to know why and how the “System” was making its decisions.

 

You know, it would probably be no easy task for People in Government to answer for the Doings of the “System”.   You see, the “System” is in effect Thinking Inductively and making generalizations using billions of data particulars in its logical-rational-practical process for decision making.  Even if you asked the “System” to explain itself, could anybody be expected to understand the Answer?

 

Well, that is why you need a Meritocracy.  You would need really the Best and Brightest across many Intellectual Disciplines – Economics, Sociology, Education, Psychology, Criminology, History, Agricultural and Animal Sciences, Medicine, Health Care, Disease Control, and especially Public Relations.  They could be organized into Departments which could again be subdivided and compartmentalized with Specialized Experts scattered about with the hope that no matter how obscure some problem, concern, or enigma, that somebody within the Meritocracy could be expected to get a handle on it and be able to somehow conceptualize a coherent explanation for it. 

 

In order to facilitate communication between Men and Machine, the “System” could be fed a detailed assessment of each Official’s scholastic background – every book and paper they ever read and everything they ever wrote.    So when the “System” would be asked a Question, it could be specified that the Answer should be specifically tailored to the understanding of a Specific Department or Set of Individuals.  Of course, I could allow for the “System” augmenting its Answer with ‘Suggested Reading’ recommendations for certain individuals whom the “System” believes most capable of understanding its “Answer” but whom the “System” anticipates could still use a bit more ‘background info’ before heorshe could fully grasp of the concepts being discussed.    

 

Of course, much of the activity in each Department would be solely to satisfy their own curiosity, and undertaken for the reason of conscientiously monitoring the “System” and to forestall being taken by surprise by It.  And frankly I believe that most of this ‘Specialized Detail’ would bore the General Public.  Yes, the Meritocracy should be ‘transparent and forthcoming’ to the People who have to live with the “System”, and specific information should be allowed to those who ask for it (particularly those who are studying for the next cycle of Civil Service Tests which would be the Gateway into becoming part of the Meritocracy).  But burying the General Public in millions of pages of scientific gibberish would perhaps obscure more than it could reveal.  It puts me in mind of how Lawyers will create a Contract that is 68 pages of legal gibberish in microscopically fine print simply so they can hide one predatory clause that is easier to sign up to if it remains unread.  Too much information can often serve only to cloud what is essential.

 

Just as the Departments were created as an interface between the Meritocracy and the “System” so the Meritocracy would have to have a similar Office for interacting and communicating with the Public.  We could call it the Office of Public Accountability, the OPA.  The OPA would be a Synthesizing Level above the Departments and so it would need liaisons between the Departments whose jobs would be in trying to discern the Big Picture Processes that the “System” is implementing.   You see, while the divisions between the Departments make perfect organizational sense, still, in the Real World there are no hard and fast border lines separating things – Economics affects Society affects Criminal Behavior affects Media Trends, etc.   So the OPA would have to review, reflect and determine whether there is anything that we can Humanly Understand about the “System” Operations that is useful or important and could be of interest to the General Public.   In this sense the role of the OPA is largely that of Public Relations.   The Job wouldn’t be easy.  The OPA would have the difficult task of distilling all the specialized techno-talk and expert-speak of the Departments into something that any normally educated member of the General Public could grasp.   Some kind of balance would need to be struck between the extremes of overwhelming the Public with specialized obscurity, and offering so little explanation as to appear vague and uncertain.

 

One concern I have regarding a Computerized AI Supercomputer System is that its Super Efficiency would come at the price of a Super Complexity.  The World’s Population would depend upon it for the Distribution of All Necessary Goods and Services.  But what if the lights went out?  What if a very intense Solar Flare where to have the intensity of a Nuclear Bomb’s Electromagnetic Pulse and fry all the circuits?   Humanity would be helpless.  So this is another reason to cut way down on Population.   Is we continued then, as now, to concentrate hundreds of millions of people together in urban concrete jungles hundreds of miles away from cultivatable land and irrigation water, and the “System” were to shut down, the results would be unthinkably catastrophic.   So the Population must be kept within viable limits calculated to be able to survive a “System” breakdown, and  that Population should be spread out in areas that could, in the event of an emergency, be quickly converted to agricultural use.   One of the most important roles of the Meritocracy would have to be in regards to Contingency Planning and Preparation,  that is, if the “System” goes down there would have to be a “To Do” List for each and every person, so that actual people could step in and take over in the Distribution of Necessary Goods and Services.    

Democracy Not Worth the Revolutionary Zeal That Pushes It

I recently blogged concerning America’s Korean Crisis that America had gone on an insane rampage after the collapse of the Soviet Union to eradicated any political or ideological opposition anywhere on the Globe.  I think I should expand on that idea.  You see, to many Americans that way of describing it may appear overly harsh, for, after all, America was only trying to further the cause of Democracy.

 

Yes, exactly.  That seems to be the problem.  The World has many problems that it needs to deal with.  For instance, there are 7 Billion People Plus and they should all be getting at least two healthy meals a day, and they should all have nice cozy little places to live, and Community Life should be enlivening and joyful, or what else is Life worth living for?  These are the Essential Priorities we should be focusing on.  America, as one of the Leading Powers in the World could do much to further efforts to achieve these Life Sufficiency Goals, but instead much of America’s  Psychic Energy is tied up in pressing forward an 18^th Century Revolution – Democracy.

 

But Americans believe in it.  Well, yes, of course they would .  But if we go back in History I challenge anybody to point out any catastrophically disastrous Revolution that had been pressed forward by fanatical zealots who DID NOT believe in what they were doing.  Of course the Fanatics believe in it!  That’s the Problem!  Well, I guess the real problem is that they don’t see themselves as Fanatics.  You see, fanatics who only live and talk among each other lose their perspective and start to see themselves as normal people.

 

But to be fair we should take the time to examine whether the Fanatics’ Zeal is justified in its Results, that is, if Democracy was a demonstrably Good Thing, then the Zeal would be warranted , right? 

Well, I wish I could think of something good to say.  There are things like Industrial and Economic Development that people point to as the Fruits of Democracy, but if we look around closely enough then we find that the Non Democratic Regimes may actually be doing better in some of these developmental perimeters.   Mostly when I look at Democracy, I see the drawbacks. 

 

First of all, we know that Democracy is not a unifier of a People but a divider.   Democracy is inherently factional.  During the French Revolution its first Revolutionary body, the National Assembly did not go 5 minutes before it started dividing into Left and Right (from where we get the political terms Left and Right).   In the American system, the Constitution does not even mention political parties let alone give them a foundational role in Government Operations, and it had been the intent of President Washington  (who had been presided over the Constitutional Convention) that there  should be no Parties and that somehow Democracy was to operate as some vague Unity, but the ink the Constitution was written in was not even dry before factions had already created Party conflicts (implicitly documented well enough in the Federalist Papers).  So division is inherent in democracy.  What did Lincoln say about houses divided against themselves?  They can’t stand.  Oh, and now that I think about, it was Democracy that brought on the Great American Civil War.  Despotic Europe had outlawed Slavery and Serfdom with hardly a street scuffle.  

 

One huge corollary to the Factional Problem with Democracy is that Factions often develop along Ethnic, Religious or Sectarian Lines.   In such cases the differences are not even Political.  In many cases it is about which Ethnic or Sectarian Group gets to control the Nation’s Purse Strings.  More on that later.   

 

So now we need to talk about Corruption.  The tendency in a Democracy is for the Newly Elected Officials to toss out any vestige of the old administration and replace the entire staff with cronies and supporters (the old saying was “Out with the Old Rascals and in with the New Rascals”), which is extremely wasteful and disruptive.  You see, in many cases this means that bureaucrats that had gathered years of experience in performing day to day government functions are replaced by supporters that have zero experience, and this cycle would repeat every couple of years. Government would always be stuck on the low front side of the Learning Curve (Government by a kind of Perpetual Trump Administration).  I heard a story about one such Crony Supporter who was shown his new desk and he asked bewilderedly “What am I supposed to do now?”  His Precinct Boss laughed, puffed his cigar, and said “You get paid every Friday”.   Well, in America, with its Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, this most blatant and destructive form of corruption was obviated (although Republicans now wish to do away with the Civil Service in order to “Stream Line” Government), but when America zealously pushes Democracy on its little Nation Building Client States, there are no efforts made to assure that some form of Civil Service Regulation is included in the blueprints.   So in most New Democracies, striving to be elected into Public Service is not about Serving at all.  The way Democracy is structured simply makes it appear as a huge enticing Cash Cow.  In some of these desperate little Countries the only Industry IS Government.  Such Democracies can almost be defined as legitimized corruption where from top to bottom everyone is Corrupt and On the Take.   That is what they ‘Ran’ for, and, as they say, “To the Victor goes the Spoils”.  

 

Next we have the matter of whether Democracy really represents the People.  Yes, theoretically.  But theoretically communism works too.  What we have in practice are Political Machines which pick the Candidates of their own choosing and funds them to be their specified Puppets, and that is when the System is WORKING.  Democracy is subject to rogue populist candidates, and while Machine Politics is considered bad, the populist politicians are typically much worse.

 

Now we should take a close look at the disproportional influence of Special Interests.   Of special note is the fact that recently the American Supreme Court allowed that Political Contributions are Protected along the same lines as Free Speech, effectively legalizing what used to be called Bribery.  Maybe the Lawyers have created some legal distinction between Bribery and Campaign Contributions, but it IS giving money to Politicians so that they will do what you tell them to, isn’t it?  And then there is the Problem with simply what Special Interests ARE, when you look at them structurally.  A Special Interest is an OLD established segment of the Economy that has been around long enough to be Rich as God.  There is no such thing as a NEW Special Interest.   New Technologies and Innovations are typically strapped for money, with all their available resources going into Research and Development.  Only the Old Entrenched Dinosaurs have huge bags of money available for Bribing Politicians (since it is legal now, I suppose it is no longer insulting to say it like that).  So because Democracy gives an inordinate de facto degree of influence to Special Interests, we should conclude that Democracies are crippled when it comes to being able to adapt and innovate to a Changing World.  Such a Paralyzing Structural Inertia might have been okay back in 1787 but with the World facing a great many Crises  (Global Climate Change, Peak Oil and Depletion of Fossil Fuels and what to do when the gas tank runs dry, Mass Unemployment because of AI and Robotics, Over Population and Food Scarcity, just to name a few).  In the face of such urgent demands the World Governments are going to have to be Inherently and Intrinsically Light on their Feet, and that AIN’T Democracy.  Democracy’s “Checks and Balances” might as well be “Shackles and Chains”.

 

Then we can see one huge glaring fault with Democracy and that is that the people get to vote!  The idea of Universal Suffrage, where everyone gets to vote, is historically a recent phenomenon.  Most earlier systems had property qualifications of one form or another which, if they served any really significant purpose, helped to assure that the Qualified Voters had a better Education than the Street Mob.  Of course Democracy in the more Optimistic 19^th and early 20^th Centuries saw the importance of Education and pushed hard for Universal Quality Education as a necessary support for Democracy.  But THEN recently certain Political Parties found Data Trends showing that Their own Party’s Support was mostly from Less Educated People.  SO it logically follows that whenever THAT Political Party is in Power, supports for Education are squeezed and strangulated.  Funding Education is Tantamount to Voting for your Opposition.  Every Right Wing Oligarchy on Earth knows that they have the Stupid Vote.  So this is another reason Democracy is flawed – it inherently results in the decline of Public Education.  We can look at the Authoritarian Non-Democratic Regimes – they Love Education because the smarter their Technocrats, Scientists, and Work Force the better they like it.  North Korea would not have been able to build the H Bomb with Trump Voters. They’d have trouble keeping their car running.  It would be up on blocks under the shade tree.

 

Then there is the matter of intrinsic Voter Apathy.  The People who should vote don’t.  Unemployed people stay home.  People who in general are unhappy with their Governments are depressed.  Look it up – Clinical Depression.   These people are lethargic and would want to stay in bed if they could.  If they have to go to work at all they collapse behind their desks and don’t even get up to waste company time gossiping at the water cooler.  So, yes, these are not the people you meet standing in line for hours at their local polling stations.  But that does not mean that they shouldn’t be counted.   If Democracy was really Representative, as soon as more that 50% of the People stay home and NOT Vote then it should be a signal that Democracy itself has Lost the Election.  Peoples around the Globe should give up on Democracy – that Secular Religion that Came Up Empty .  We all need to envision some optimum form of Government.  We have good standardized testing now.  There is no reason why a Test-In Meritocracy would not work just fine.  After all, a Meritocracy would not have much of a hurdle to clear if it only had to be better than Democracy, now would it?     

Make Peace with North Korea by Giving them Hostages

Background:  America went on a murderous rampage of Regime Changes.  Reeling like a drunken imbecile after having won the Cold War, when the Soviet Union could no longer stand in its way, America was eager to sweep aside every last vestige of resistance to American Ideology and Political Dominance across the Globe.  To prep the American Public for War or Military Interventions or even just those O Dark Thirty Seal Team Six Assassinations, we hear over and over again that each Leader that gets in America’s way is “irrational, insane and not to be trusted” with the implication that such Leaders are begging to be assassinated.  It is often argued that by assassinating a Country’s Leader the People of that Country are being Liberated and so are actually deriving a huge benefit for which they should be grateful.  But then their Countries are relentlessly bombed – destroying power, water and food distribution infrastructures as well as perhaps unleashing the genie of old latent but still simmering impulses for Sectarian Civil War.  So often to ostensibly just remove the Leader, often hundreds of thousands of the Country’s People end up dead too.   If any other country besides America were in engaged in such atrocities it would be termed Mass Genocide.  But America has great Public Relations People.   Oh, by the way it seems like some kind of an ironic punishment from the Gods that Trump became the American President.  That will teach the Americans to call other people’s Leaders irrational, insane and not to be trusted.

 

Well, in regards to America’s Manifest Destiny for Regime Changes, now it seem to be North Korea’s turn in the crosshairs.    

 

To give ourselves some context here, the Americans insist that it is impossible to negotiate with the North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un.   But, anyone who scratches their head and cares to remember will recall that America had already had a deal with North Korea, forged by the Clinton Administration but it fell apart when Republicans under the incoming Bush administration cut off agreed upon supplies of fuel oil to North Korea, claiming, again ironically, that “the North Koreans could not be trusted to hold up their end of the Deal”.  The North Koreans waited patiently for 3 years for the Bush Administration to come around to honoring the Clinton treaty, but finally gave up and revamped their Nuclear Program that they really had in fact completely shut down.   That is why we still hear that we can’t negotiate with North Korea because they don’t honor their agreements.   Even the Press says that, and they should know better.  Before the Press believes what any Politian tells them, wouldn’t it be easy enough to simply go back and check their AP files.  It was America that scuttled that Deal!   Now I am not complaining about “Fake” News…  just stupid, gullible, incomplete and intellectually lazy News.   Yes, I know that Reporters are not supposed to Comment, that they are just supposed to Report.  But no one is tying their hands regarding Who they Ask and What, are they?   For instance, if One Politician lies to you from one side of the Aisle, and then you get a Politician from the other side of the Aisle to comment and he also lies to you.   So what do you think your job is?  To just present Both Lies to the American People and leave it for them to sort out?  But it is often not that simple.  Often the Truth does not exist Between the Two Lies.  The Actual Truth may be off in a completely different direction altogether.  So perhaps your best choice would be to call up some brilliant and impartial University Professor, who has Tenure so nothing they say can get them Fired, and tell him or her what the Politicians told you and then ask whether he or she thinks it was all a complete pile of crap?  Now, THAT would be your Story – The Intelligent Contextualization of what the Scheming Corrupt Politicians are trying to pass off as the Truth.  The Press is the 4^th Estate.  Democracy depends on its 4^th Estate for the Truth.  And it is not doing its job if it just acts the Messenger Boy for the Political Class of Professional Liars.  But it seems that the Press gets a quote from the Rascal and a quote from the Scoundrel and goes to Print happy that it presents Both Sides.

 

Well, back to Korea.    The situation now with North Korea is different from all the rest of those prior Regime Change Scenarios.  You see, there is a problem with running the same Game Plan over and over again because eventually the other Teams learn your moves and compensates and adapts.  Eventually the Regimes sitting in line for annihilation would survey the Broad Map of Geo-Political Reality and discern an important fact, and that is that America refrains from bullying other Nuclear Powers.   Members of the Club can do whatever they want and the worse that happens to them is that they are hit with sanctions which in many cases do as much to hurt the Global Economy as to hurt the Sanctioned Country and so they often don’t last very long, being lifted for the convenience of everybody involved.   But while Sanctions might really pinch in the meanwhile, they fall far short of having your country bombed back into the Stone Age and being hunted down and assassinated.  So, yes, The Obvious Plan for any Country that sees itself in the Path of the Great American Steam Roller is to do their homework and figure out how to build what the Americans were able to build back in 1944, more than seventy years ago, especially when you can learn all of the basic principles just by watching YouTube tutorials (it wouldn’t surprise me if some California kid were to show up at his 8^th grade Science Fair with an A-Bomb).   Really, how hard can it be to be a Nuclear Power, especially if you are Korea, where even if the infrastructure for most other things is kind of shaky, the foundation and structure of their Centralized System of Education is monolithically flawless.   America might let 90% of its Intellectual Talent go to waste and fall through the cracks with its underfunded schools and complete absence of National Talent Scouting and Targeted Scholarships to put the Best and the Brightest where they can do the most public good, but you know that ain’t North Korea, where every kid in every classroom in every school is given close scrutiny to see if he or she has the kind of Potential that the Regime could cultivate and utilize. Considering all that, North Korea could probably pack a Stadium with Engineering Geniuses.   So of course North Korea could get the Bomb almost as soon as they thought they needed it, once the necessary materials could be procured.  Rockets too.  If America really did land a Man on the Moon in 1969 then we really can’t expect that anybody making a Rocket 50 years later would have much of a problem landing a Warhead in Minniapolis, could we?  And targeting could be a thousand times easier.  Back in the Sixties every populated inch on Earth was not pulsing and throbbing with Cell Phone and Wi-Fi signals (which create a well-defined Electro-Static Spectral Cloud over regions) , but now it is.  You don’t even need GPS when you can program your missile to just home in on a specific Electro Glow. 

 

So, what do we have so far?  America has been out on a continuous Rampage of Regime Changing ever since the Soviet Union collapsed and could no longer offer small non-Western nations its Protection.  But America is known to stop short when it comes to dealing with Nuclear Powers.  So North Korea became a Nuclear Power.  So America and North Korea are in a Mexican Standoff.

 

So, yes, North Korea being a Nuclear Power is a fait accompli – that’s French for a Fact that we have to learn to live with.    But now the problem is with hoping the Koreans never hit the launch button on a Loaded Round.  We all need to realize that it is not Crazy for the North Korean Regime to be understandably jumpy.  You see twice a year every year America conducts highly provocative Military Exercises which are indistinguishable to any outside observer from an actual Invasion Mobilization.  America cries that North Korean missile launches are provocative, but even while North Korea may have its Finger on the Nuclear Trigger, America still goes forward with its Invasion Mobilization Simulations that, again, look exactly like the Real Thing.  And the Americans call the North Korean Regime irrational and insane!  I don’t know why the American Press does not look deeper into this issue.  It seems almost certain that the American Press must be tightly muzzled… that America’s 4^th Estate has been neutered and marginalized.   The only other explanation is that the American Press are all dumb as stumps… hired because they were Journalism Majors!  Well, what is THAT anyway?  Maybe they should hire people who have Real Degrees.  You see, knowing about what you report on would give a unique perspective that one does not often find in the News.  And nobody is stopping the 4^th Estate from ringing up Harvard University’s Political Sciences Department Head and asking for his opinion.  If you know that you don’t know, and that Spokespeople could just be using you for ‘Pin the Tail On the Donkey’, then call somebody you trust to find out whether you are just being played or not.  And to me the Press is either being played in regards to the Korean Crisis, or they are complicit regarding the universally agreed upon line of Propaganda that is to fed the American Public.  Hey, I guess everyone has to make a living… selling out somehow somewhere, right?        

 

Anyway, the Americans and the South Koreans could have plenty of Military Exercises without provoking World War Three.  They could just stage them in America.  I would suggest Fort Drum New York for any exercise running from Spring through Fall.  The scenery is beautiful.  And the hills look almost exactly like the hills in North Korea. The Fort is outside a pretty town called Watertown.   A Big Exercise would be great for their Economy.  I think the South Korean visitors would love the place.  The North Korean spies would probably enjoy their stay also.  Oh, the Military would complain that they couldn’t bring over all 50,000 Troops that are ordinarily involved in these Mammoth Exercises, but I myself was in the Military and I have been through Exercises.  The Exercises are NOT for the Men, that is anybody from the Company Grade Officers down through the thousands of enlisted men.  To them it is just doing the same thing they have done a thousand times already in their scheduled Training.   Nothing changes just because it is a Big Exercise.  The Ones who benefit from Exercises are the General and Field Grade Officers from each country’s Organizations.   They get to Schmooze.  During the Exercise itself everyone gets to see each other’s Leadership styles, and during the Post Exercise Wind-Down and Out-Briefings Stages, the Days are Short and the Nights are long and the Officers from their different Countries get to party together and build camaraderie and a forge trusting  personal relationships.   So that if a War DOES happen, everyone REALLY knows who they are fighting with – that they recognize the Voice on the Radio that is asking for Reinforcements on their Left Flank.  So, anyway, for an Effective Exercise, you wouldn’t need more than a couple thousand people.  I suspect that the Big Exercises are for the Benefit of Private Contractors who somehow figured out a way of turning them into a Big Cash Cows.  Really, the Military should have a rule against fraternizing with those Predatory Military Contractors, because otherwise they Buddy Up (maybe the word is Suck Up)  to the Generals who then give those Money Grubbers anything they ask for just because they paid for a round of drinks (I’m serious!).           

 

So, we were discussing the possibility that something or anything could spook the Korean’s into Launching.  So America really needs to think of a way to reassure North Koreans that they are indeed not intent upon Regime Change.         

 

So I thought and thought and thought.  And then I remembered about Louis the IVX, the Sun King of France.   Louis had a problem with his Nobility.  They all had Castles and so they could start their own private wars or disrupt commerce, and then run and hide in their Castles where they were relatively safe and untouchable unless Louis would wish to go to some great expense to mount an expedition to go and batter down their walls.  Also, a great deal of the time Louis was committed to fighting real Wars outside of France and was uncomfortable with deploying his Armies away from home, if the local Barons were going to take advantage of the local Power Vacuum by committing all kinds of acts of local mayhem, murder, rape and pillage.  So Louis got to thinking.  It was no longer the Dark Ages.  He now had gun powder and siege guns – huge cannons that could knock down castle walls.  So Louis drew up a plan for sending a combined Engineering Artillery Regiment with adequate Cavalry and Heavy Infantry support from one end of France to the other and knock down all those troublesome castles one by one.  Yes, it would be moderately expensive, but once taken care of he would never have to worry about it again.  However, even Louis knew that in some cases, for instance when the English would invade, that these same Castles could come in handy when he could expect to make strong Wartime Alliances with most of his French Nobility.  So Louis was not totally committed to this Program of Decastlefication, when several of the Nobles involved, having caught wind of Louis’s Plan (yes, Leakers even back then!) , rode through the Palace Gates of Versailles, WITH their families in tow.  Ostensively they were there to Negotiate for the retention of their Castles and they would stay there as long as it took to make a Deal.  But Louis and his Chief Minister of State instantly knew the substance of what was transpiring – that these Nobles were implicitly offering their Families as Hostages in exchange for the security of their Castles.   So of course Louis pretended to go along with the Cover Story of an indefinite series of Negotiations, and when other Nobles across France caught onto the scheme they also packed up their Families and off to Versailles they went.  Of course, Versailles treated all of these “hostages” as honored guests, free to come and go as they pleased, and of course there were numerous grand parties and balls provided for their amusement.  Versailles became the Talk of Europe and the Nobility from Everywhere and Anywhere were tripping over themselves to get an invitation to Versailles so that they could have as much fun as the Hostages.

 

When you look up Hostages on let’s say Wikipedia, there is a lot of discussion on Hostage Taking, but very little about Hostage Giving.  But going back to Ancient Times it was a tried and true measure for proving your sincerity in regards to a Peace Treaty or the intention to remain at Peace.  Often the word “hostage” would not be mentioned but the idea of it would be couched in offers such as “We have heard so much about the Great Learning in your Temples and Schools.  We would be honored if you could sponsor my Son in his Studies so that he could learn much of the Knowledge and Wisdom that your great country has to offer”.   That would make his Son a Hostage to Peace with that particular King.  Then there is the ploy of a King offering his favorite daughter to be married to a Prince of a rival Kingdom.  His Daughter would become a Hostage to Peace.

 

So what America needs to do is to insist upon Long Term and Open Ended Negotiations that will last as long as it takes and that they should be conducted right there in the North Korean Capital, or maybe right within the Kim Jong-un’s Palace Grounds.  The Hostages we would have to offer could not simply be throw-away people from America’s Middle and Working Classes, as we know how expendable the Government feels they must be. The Hostage Giving Plan would require some very high ranking diplomats (if you really wanted to Negotiate, but that really isn’t the point) from some of America’s finest families, and they would need to be accompanied by their families.  Also, America could use the Ploy of having a Student Exchange Program, where the Sons and Daughters of prominent American Families could go to study in North Korea (I hear they have a splendid Nuclear Physics Department).  Maybe an exchange of Faculty Members where some of America’s prominent Professors could do a stint in North Korea. You would think some Asian Studies, Sociology, Economics, Poli Sci or Agricultural Science Professors would jump at the chance.  

 

There is one objection we could anticipate from the North Koreans.  They would object to any secret confidential Diplomatic Pouches that Diplomats are traditionally entitled to and which are supposed to be inviolable to search and seizure.  Well, we can imagine how sensitive Kim Jong-un is to possible attempts by the CIA to assassinate him.  Everybody knows how the CIA tried to assassinate Fidel Castro with poison stored in a teeny weeny little pinky ring.  So it would be important to allow North Korea to do a complete search of anything that goes through the Palace Gates, or even that comes into their Country.  After all, the purpose of this whole Thing is to reassure them, and in doing so we should acknowledge that this may involve many cumbersome details.  This could also include North Korea vetting our People.  I would wonder how they could so this.  Could their Intelligence Agencies in America be so efficient as to be able to draw up comprehensive dossiers of individual America Citizens, so thorough as to stymie any CIA attempt to sneak in a ‘Ringer’?  Maybe.  But if North Korea has doubts, I could imagine that one would be assigned a ‘Best Friend’ for a while until observation and analysis could clear one as profiling like an ordinary guy, and not the type of person who would ever dream of walking up to the plastic smiles at the CIA Table at a Job Fair (gives me the creeps just thinking about it.  Doesn’t anybody watch the Bourne Identity movies?)  

 

Another one of the sticking points I would anticipate to implementing this Give Hostages for Peace Program is in finding any Important Americans willing to put up with what they would probably expect to be a boring and uncomfortable stay, considering all the Propaganda that describes North Korea as uniformly dismal (even when accompanied by photos showing happy attractive well-dressed young men and women scurrying about what looks like a Modern City).   Of course, these Hostages for Peace would be changed out periodically, but if the individual American Hostages for Peace really wanted to make the most of it personally, I would recommend staying at least a year or maybe two.  That would be time enough to learn some of the language and get to know Korean Culture.   You know, I do not suspect it would be that awfully bad.  I am sure Kim Jong-un would be a gracious host, for, after all, he would not wish to be too outdone by Louis the IVX, would he?  I can personally vouch for Korean Food – a lot of it is very good.  And the Korean People, even when they are not being coerced by a Dictator, are very friendly and their manners are impeccable.  Indeed, it would have to be the Americans I believe who would have to brush up on their table manners.  

 

But, yes, if we could find Americans who would willingly give a year or two of their Lives for Peace, we could have Peace with North Korea.  You see, America asks its Servicemen in the Military to give their Lives… their Complete Forever Lives… not just a year or two… for their Country.  I feel that their sacrifices are mostly taken for granted.  Every generation is asked for more Human Sacrifices to placate America’s Militaristic bloodlust Monster, and nothing ever changes.  The Economic Classes that provide the Troops get poorer and poorer while the cozy and protected Rich keep on getting richer.   When are the Rich and Powerful in America going to acknowledge the debt they owe for all those Lives snuffed out in the bloom of their youth to support the Freedom of Capitalistic Americans to play at Domestic Exploitation at Home and Global Domination Abroad?  You know, if there are any advantages to be had by living in a Free Nation, certainly it is the rich and the powerful who are the primary benefactors.   The rest of the people are Free to be poor, free to be miserable, free to go without Health Care.   So is it really asking too much to expect that some of America’s Leading Families finally make some token little sacrifice themselves and offer just a ‘year or two’ of their Lives for their Country, so that San Francisco doesn’t get Nuked, by taking an extended ‘vacation’ in North Korea, which poor people would jump if given the chance, if they realized the extent of Korean hospitality.  The Food’s great and the women are beautiful.  What’s not to like?

Neo-Nazis and Antifa, Trump Owns Both Sides

I think that most political commentators have it wrong when they seem to imply that Trump was the progenitor of the New American Fascist Right, but that the Antifa Movement is somehow only the illegitimate love child of the Left.  My first thinking on this was an idea derivative of Hegelian notions that Political Extremes attract their Opposites .  This seems to be well supported in History where we can point time and again to instances where Extremely Violent Political Movements were met by extremely violent counter-movements.

 

 But then I remembered the original Campaign Populism of Trump – that he would take America back from the Corrupt Swampy Elite Power Brokers and return It to the People in the form of a virtual Workers Utopia, AND that immigrants would be run off, that a Wall would be built to keep  Greatness in and keep Foreigners out, along with all the other subtle clues that Great Americans were understood to be White Americans (which, by the way, has been the Tacit Position of the Republican Party ever since Lyndon Johnson of the Democratic Party signed the Civil Rights Bill in 1968, about which Johnson said that the Civil Rights Bill needed to be enacted but that the Democratic Party would suffer the loss of the Southern States for the next 40 years.  He underestimated).   So Trump’s Populist Rhetoric cut both ways.  It was both strongly Nationalist and strongly Leftist, and if not explicitly “Socialist” in regards to its detailed description, well, we can recall that Trump never details out anything, but that if the Power Elite were made to surrender their hold on Economic Policies in favor of new policies that would favor full employment and a doubling or even tripling of the current median wage, to keep in line with what the Real Wages were for Industrial Workers back when America was ‘Great’, well, I can’t see any other way than that of imposing a sweeping Socialist Control over the Economy.    Indeed, the implied Socialist elements in Trump’s Populism probably actually got him More Votes than his Bigot Appeal.   Hmmmm, does that remind you of anything?   Adolf Hitler’s original Populist vision was also a mix of Nationalism and Socialism.  Yes, it is the very devil to search on line for what the letters N.A.Z.I. stand for (I suspect that while you are doing that search, every intelligence and counter-terrorism monitoring system in the World is clogging up the lines trying to converge on your IP so it can scoop up your biography and that of every one of your known associates) but they are roughly translatable to National Socialist Party.   Of course History shows us that Hitler was only bowing to Socialist interests for convenience sake, that is, to get enough votes in the 1933 elections to make him a serious contender within the German Parliamentary System, but that his true love was for Nationalism and the idea of Aryan Supremacy.  And no I am not just saying that because it sounds so much exactly like Trump.   But that is where the similarity ends.   You see, Hitler was better organized.   It seems to have been demonically clever how Hitler dealt with his Socialist following once it outgrew its usefulness to him personally.  He allowed a Party Lieutenant to consolidate all of the Socialists into one almost autonomous Sub-Party, the Brown Shirts, while he organized the Nationalist Aryan Supremacy  enthusiasts into another Branch, the Black Shirts or  S.S. from with the Gestapo or Secret Police emerged.  The isolation between the two groups was so complete that Hitler, with his favorites in the S.S. Nationalist Branch, were able to draw up a detailed plan for purging out the Socialist Brownshirts, and it seems almost miraculous that the plan for a sweeping Raid and Round Up all across Germany remained a complete secret.   We can imagine that dozens or even hundreds of Nazis were in on the plan to arrest and even murder their fellow Nazis and that not one of them made a phone call to tip off an old friend*.  But, yes, Nazism soon rid itself of its Socialist component – that raid happened in 1934, a year after Hitler was elected into power.  You can search it up as ‘Night of the Long Knives’.

 

Well, Trump’s Populism, as I said, has the same two components.   But while Trump may also be described as demonic, or that his confused mind is caught up in a swirl of demonic ideas, he can certainly never be accused of being clever.  So now the two factions that he conjured up to get himself elected are brawling in the streets against each other.  But just because Trump now, already elected into Office, disclaims Paternity of the Leftist Antifa, doesn’t discount his responsibility in arousing the Leftist Impulses for Economic and Social Justice that served to stir them up.  And then Trump’s Self Righteous Anti-Establishment Stance seems to imply the Right of Violent Opposition to that Establishment which is characterized as Evil (which is sort of like the 2^nd Amendment Argument for allowed each citizen to be armed to the teeth so that they can assassinate politicians that they believe to have become tyrannical).   You know, you either work Within the System to amend its problems or you work outside the System to destroy it and take over.  That implied message for really Hostile Takeover is the Danger of Populism.   And we can see that both sides of Trump’s Populism have picked up this implied message condoning Political Violence.  

 

Oh, and this brings us to contemplating exactly what Fascism is.   When I was a Student of History decades ago, I found that people just tossed around the word Fascism without really being able to define it.   Most people correlated Fascism with Dictatorial Government.  But there have been plenty of Dictatorial Governments, mostly on the Left, which no one would dream of calling Fascist.  So after thinking about it and looking at all of the so called ‘fascist’ regimes, I decided that Fascism was not a strictly Government phenomena at all, although a Government could use Fascism as a support.   Fascism, I believe, is the Rise of Mob or Militia influence in Society to the point where it exercises significant Political Influence.  Look at both Italian and German Fascism where formal or informal mobs and gangs of Fascists were able to intimidate or quiet political opposition prior to elections by either beating up or outright assassinating Opposition Leaders.  And then AFTER the Elections in both Italy and Germany, the Fascist Parties did not disband its Militias or informal Mobs but treated them as semi-legitimate official entities.   You see, Governments do not need to figure out how to issue formal arrest warrants if it breaks all the rules to do so, and then to conduct embarrassing trials which may not go their way, if they can just make a few phone calls and have ‘problem people’ taken care of quietly by people with no proven connection to Government.     So Fascism is not so much Rule by Dictatorial Government as it is Rule by a Usurping Mob or Party whose claim to Power is only by means of Force or Coercion that they exercise Over the legitimate Government, but yes, of course, Fascist Party Members within the Government would certainly make use of their Fascist connections to lube any of the Political Wheels that remain stuck – such as Trump Twitting up an Army of supporters to harass and make life miserable for anybody who gets in his way.   So actually Government may be seen as just as much a Victim of Fascism as its Perpetrator.  I can’t imagine that the Republicans are really happy with Trump’s populist base.  After all, they are the Party of the Rich, so what are they really supposed to do to appease all those Poor People?  In Asia they call it ‘trying to ride a tiger’.

 

Oh, and then there is Japanese fascism to consider.  While no expert on the subject, I believe that Japanese Fascism was far less organized than the European varieties.  You see Japan at the time was seething with notions of Nationalism and Ethnic Superiority but had no clear and distinct Figurehead or Leader.  But what Japan had was a great many fanatical young military officers who thought in those terms of Extreme Nationalism , and they would go out apparently unbidden and assassinate whoever they though did not agree with such a program.   So effectively Japan went over to the Far Nationalist Right simply by a kind of default.  Everyone who would have been on the Other Side had been killed off.  It is sort of what happened to the American Left during the Sixties and Seventies.  In the Sixties there was a cluster of Political Assassination all targeting the Left, and then the Media was used in the Seventies and Eighties to politically assassinate many of the remaining politicians from the Left.  Yes, a Scandal is a Scandal, but what people don’t realize nowadays is that prior to Watergate, the Press exercised a strictly hands off policy in regards to the personal lives of Politicians and even most ‘role model’ media stars and sports figures.   But after toppling a President with Watergate in the  Seventies the press tasted blood and all of the old tacit rules of engagement were swept away.  But because Republicans are the Ownership Class, they can largely control what comes out of their Newspapers and Television Networks, and so the brunt of the new wave of Press Surveillance landed on the Democrats.  Like what happened in Fascist Japan, America defaulted to the Right because no one was left standing on the Left to offer any effective opposition.   

 

So, long story short, the Antifa really needs to think of a new name.  I can’t see how they can deny being Fascists themselves.  After all, they need only imagine what they would do if they Won.   Would they disband and go home happy that they saved America from Fascist White Supremacy or would they keep going with their violence until they were able to dictate the Terms of National Policy themselves?  Fascism may have two sides, but it is still the Same Coin.        

 

* Tipping Off Raids is a chronic problem in Law Enforcement, especially at the local level.  Police, after all, have connections throughout the Community in terms of friendship and extended family, and so when they become aware that a Raid is in the making, well, not just one but a few policeman may be tempted to make phone calls tipping off the Raid if it may have an impact on anybody that they know, even casually – a call to the buddy they play poker with on Thursday nights.   Of course, corruption may be involved too, as it seems to have once been a common practice among Policeman working a ‘Beat’ to control crime largely by informally licensing it, that is, taking a small cut from criminals dealing in some form of contraband product or service, while responding to the Complaints from their Protected Criminals, that is “tips from informants” , by arresting any new Criminal Enterprise that pops up on their ‘Beat’.   Such corruption subsidized the low pay given to for Police Service, and actually contributed to a good degree of “Order”, if not Law and Order    When it comes to making a successful Raid, Federal Agents have more luck, but again they need to consciously go over their Personnel Rosters to make sure all of their active agents don’t live within 500 miles of their selected area of operations.   Oh, and they may keep  in mind that when making raids on White Supremacists that maybe it would be a good idea to use all Black and Hispanic Task Forces… if they can manage to scrape together enough blacks and Hispanics in what must largely be a Whites Dominated Enterprise.    We all saw how the mostly White Charlottesville Police responded to the White Supremacists, even when the rioters grew violent.   Who knows but that many of those Police Officers would have been marching with torches in their hands if it had been their night off.   This is a good argument for a well-diversified Police Force, from Command Levels on down.  City Officials need to know that Whatever Happens they can come up with their Own Police Officers, from one demographic segment of their Force.   If Charlottesville  had had a diversified Police Force then it would not have been quite so easy for the Nazis to walk away with the Keys to the City.