Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 27-Dec-17 World View -- Christians celebrate Christmas in Pakistan under tight security

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• India kills 3 Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir in revenge attack
  
• Christians celebrate Christmas in Pakistan under tight security
  

****
**** India kills 3 Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir in revenge attack
****


Methodist Church in Quetta, Pakistan, after a double suicide bombing on Dec 17 (Las Tampas)

Indian officials are bragging about a "tit-for-tat" revenge attack on
Monday evening, when Indian army troops crossed the Kashmir Line of
Control (LoC) and crossed from the Indian-governed side to the
Pakistani-governed side. There they conducted a "localized tactical
operation," first creating an explosion 100-300 meters across the LoC,
and then ambushed a unit of Pakistani army troops, killing three and
wounding one.

Indian officials call it a "tit-for-tat" response to an almost
identical raid carried out by Pakistani troops on Saturday on Indian
troops, killing one Major and three soldiers.

India adopted a policy of retaliatory revenge attacks after 19 Indian
soldiers were killed when terrorists attacked an Army camp in Uri on
September 19, after which India's army conducted "surgical strikes"
into Pakistani territory in Kashmir.

However, Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) is denying that Indian troops
ever crossed the LoC into Pakistani soil. Instead, the FO said that
the Pakistani soldiers were killed by the explosion. According to
Pakistan, firing by Indian forces had "provided a cover for the
planting of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] by non-state actors",
which resulted in the martyrdom of three soldiers. Daily Pioneer (India) and Dawn (Pakistan) and The Quint (India)

Related Articles

• India's 'Operation All-Out' brings Kashmir closer to all-out war (24-Jun-2017)
  
  
• New terrorist attack in Kashmir threatens India-Pakistan retaliation (19-Sep-2016)
  
  
• Pakistan expected to retaliate after India invades Pakistani soil in Kashmir (30-Sep-2016)
  
  
• Pakistan and India in farcical dispute over 'surgical strikes' in Kashmir (16-Oct-2016)
  

****
**** Christians celebrate Christmas in Pakistan under tight security
****

After a brutal terror attack on a Methodist Church in Quetta,
Afghanistan, on December 17, Christians in Pakistan celebrated
Christmas under tight security, provided by Pakistan's government in
the form of commandos, snipers and plain-clothes policemen deployed
across the country to protect Christians and Christian churches on
Christmas.

On December 17, two suicide bombers attack a Methodist Church in the
city of Quetta, the provincial capital of the restive province of
Balochistan. Hundreds of worshippers were attending services when the
attack occurred. Nine people were killed, and dozens wounded.

On March 26 of last year, at least 69 people, mostly women and
children, were killed and more than 300 injured in a suicide bombing
attack in a park in Lahore, Pakistan, crowded with Christians
celebrating Easter Sunday. The suicide bomber was apparently
targeting children, as the explosion took place in a children's
playground, near swings and other rides.

Christians and other religious minorities have regularly faced
atrocities across Pakistan. Shia Muslims are targeted most often,
along with Hindus, Ahmadis and Christians.

Christians have been systematically targeted by Pakistan’s perverse
blasphemy laws, which prescribe a mandatory death sentence for any act
purportedly bringing Islam and its Prophet to disrepute. Most
recently, a Christian man, Nadeem James Masih, was sentenced to death
on September 15, 2017, for blasphemy. Nadeem was arrested in July
2016, after his friend Yasir Bashir told the Police that he sent him a
poem on WhatsApp that was insulting to Islam. Straits Times and AP and South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP - India) and Las Tampa (Italy)

Related Articles

• Pakistan Taliban branch takes credit for Easter massacre of Christians in Lahore (28-Mar-2016)
  
  
• Widespread riots in Pakistan triggered by phony blasphemy charges (26-Nov-2017)
  
  
• In Pakistan, you may murder anyone with impunity by accusing him of blasphemy first (25-Apr-2017)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Pakistan, India,
Kashmir, Line of Control, LoC, Uri,
Quetta, Balochistan, Lahore,
Nadeem James Masih, Yasir Bashir

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Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
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[Cynic Hero '86]

(12-24-2017, 07:49 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: The first strike will absolutely NOT be nuclear.  But xenophobia and
nationalism are extremely high in China, against the US, Japan, South
Korea, Vietnam and India.

If the north Korean arsenal is an existential threat to the US: Then the first strike would have to be nuclear in order to achieve a quick and efficient elimination of the threat.

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 28-Dec-17 World View -- China funds unauthorized anti-Japan comfort woman statue in Manila, Philippines

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• China funds unauthorized anti-Japan comfort woman statue in Manila, Philippines
  
• South Korea calls for renegotiating 2015 deal with Japan on comfort women
  

****
**** China funds unauthorized anti-Japan comfort woman statue in Manila, Philippines
****


Unauthorized comfort woman statue on Roxas Boulevard in Manila, the Philippines (Japan Forward)

An unauthorized statue representing a "comfort woman" during Japan's
occupation of the Philippines has been erected on Roxas Boulevard in
Manila, usually reserved for statues of actresses and former
presidents.

The statue was funded by a group of Chinese donors working in
secret with a Philippines feminist organization. The statue
was reported in Chinese media even before an unveiling ceremony
took place on December 9.

On December 12, the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
sent a letter to the Mayor of Manila, with "requests for background
information regarding the monument, including the process of erecting
such monuments, and the circumstances that led to the erection of the
"Comfort Woman" statue." The mayor responded that the statue had been
erected without a permit, and that no permit had been issued.

A similar statue in San Francisco has drawn retaliation from Japan.
San Francisco and Osaka, Japan's third-largest city, became sister
cities in 1957, as part of a post-war effort to foster peace. Last
month, the mayor of Osaka announced that they will end the
relationship. Osaka mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura said, "Our relationship
of trust was completely destroyed. I will dissolve the sister-city
relationship."

So far, no similar retaliatory measures have been taken against Manila
or the Philippines for the Manila statue. Manila is a sister city of
Yokohama, Japan, while Japan is the Philippines' biggest partner in
trade, investment, and official development assistance.

Although no permit has been issued for the statue in Manila, Teresita
Ang See, identified as a "community and anticrime advocate" of Chinese
ancestry in Manila, justifies the statue:

<QUOTE>"The Japanese occupation is a fact. The atrocities,
persecutions, massacres, rape and other war crimes are
facts. These we cannot and should not deny. There is a park at the
corner of Anda and Gen. Luna Streets in Intramuros, put up by the
Memorare Manila, to remember the more than 100,000 civilians
killed during the Battle of Manila."<END QUOTE>

The Japanese say that they object to the statues because they are
being singled out, when rape and sexual slavery are common in any
war.

And the Japanese are absolutely right.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, rape, sexual
slavery and other sex crimes are common in war, especially
generational crisis wars, as a way of demoralizing the enemy.

Japan's sex crimes are over 70 years old, but there are girls and
women being sold as sex slaves in Libya today. These are Mideast and
African refugees who come to Libya hoping to cross over to Europe.
Instead, they run out of money to pay human traffickers and they get
auctioned off in slave auctions. The men are auctioned as worker
slaves, and the boys, girls and women are auctioned as sex slaves.
That's happening today, and I'm not aware of any statues being erected
for them.

As a Chinese woman, Teresita Ang See statement about comfort women is
probably motivated as much by her hatred of the Japanese and
Philippines people as she is about her concern for the victims.

The hatred between Chinese and Philippines people is enormous, as was
documented in a 2003 book World on Fire by Yale Law School
professor Amy Chua. Chua was a member of the élite Chinese descent
minority living in Manila, in an enclave walled off from ordinary
Filipinos, whom she never saw except as servants living in filth in
the basement of her family's mansion. Chua described what happened
after one of the servants murdered her aunt:

<QUOTE>"Each time I think of Nilo Abique -- he was close to
six feet and my aunt was four-feet-eleven-inches tall -- I find
myself welling up with a hatred and revulsion so intense it is
actually consoling. But over time I have also had glimpses of how
the Chinese must look to the vast majority of Filipinos, to
someone like Abique: as exploiters, as foreign intruders, their
wealth inexplicable, their superiority intolerable. I will never
forget the entry in the police report for Abique's "motive for
murder." The motive given was not robbery, despite the jewels and
money the chauffer was said to have taken. Instead, for motive,
there was just one word -- "Revenge."

My aunt's killing was just a pinprick in a world more violent than
most of us ever imagined. In America we read about acts of mass
slaughter and savagery; at first in faraway places, now coming
closer and closer to home. We do not understand what connects
these acts. Nor do we understand the role we have played in
bringing them about.

In the Serbian concentration camps of the early 1990s, the women
prisoners were raped over and over, many times a day, often with
broken bottles, often together with their daughters. The men, if
they were lucky, were beaten to death as their Serbian guards sang
national anthems; if they were not so fortunate, they were
castrated or, at gunpoint, forced to castrate their fellow
prisoners, sometimes with their own teeth. In all, thousands were
tortured and executed."<END QUOTE>

Perhaps one of my readers from the Balkans can let me know if there
are any statues being erected for the men who were castrated by their
fellow prisoners with their teeth.

In the end, this whole comfort women issue is an opportunistic
way to collect money from the Japanese, but it's really all about
the ethnic hatred that the Japanese, Chinese and Philippines
have for each other. In the last war, it was Japan versus
China and the Philippines. In the next war it will be China
versus Japan and the Philippines.

So the Japanese are completely correct that they're being singled
out for things that are common in generational crisis wars.

History is written by the victors. America and the West were the
victors in World War II, and American soldiers saved both China and
the Philippines from being conquered, colonized and enslaved by the
Japanese. The Japanese lost the war to the Americans and the West,
and their crimes are being singled out. That's the way the world
works. Washington Post (25-Nov) and Japan Forward and ABS-CBN (Manila, 20-Dec) and The Standard (Philippines)

****
**** South Korea calls for renegotiating 2015 deal with Japan on comfort women
****

Civic groups in South Korea are demanding that a December 2015
deal between Japan and South Korea to settle the comfort women
issue be repudiated, and a new deal be negotiated to obtain more
money from Japan, as well as full acceptance of blame.

The 2015 agreement included a $8.8 million fund paid by Japan to help
the victims. Anti-Japanese groups in South Korea claim that the 2015
agreement did not fully take into account the views of the victims,
and that more money should be paid to them directly, rather than
through the government. According to some reports, victims who
accepted money from the fund were vilified by the anti-Japanese
groups.

The agreement also called for the removal of statues of comfort women
outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, and outside the Japanese
consulate in Busan city, but those statues have not been removed.

The 2015 agreement was supposed to resolve the comfort women issue
once and for all. Although all the activists' demands were met at the
time, some former victims were angry that they had not been consulted.

Japan's foreign minister Taro Kono has reacted angrily to the demand
to renegotiate the 2015 deal:

<QUOTE>"If (South Korea) tries to revise the agreement that
is already being implemented, that would make Japan’s ties with
South Korea unmanageable and it would be
unacceptable."<END QUOTE>

The implication of this threat is that South Korea and Japan
will not be able to work together to effectively counter
nuclear missiles threats from North Korea.

South Korea's foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha said, "Based on the
findings, the government will gather opinions of the victims and
others involved going forward with a focus to be placed on a
victims-centered approach. In addition, action will be taken
carefully in consideration of any impact that it could have on the
relations between South Korea and Japan." Yonhap (Seoul) and Reuters and Asia Times and The Atlantic (28-Dec-2015)

Related Articles

• Japan and China in confrontation over comfort women (07-Mar-2007)
  
  
• Chinese commemorate the 1937 Massacre at Nanking (Nanjing) (18-Dec-2007)
  
  
• China and Japan really DO hate each other (30-Aug-2013)
  
  
• China says 'Fascist' Japan must 'abandon illusions' about disputed islands (26-Sep-2012)
  
  
• China's media 'accidentally' claims Philippines as part of China (10-May-2012)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Japan, comfort women, South Korea, Philippines,
Manila, Roxas Boulevard,
San Francisco, Osaka, Yokohama, Teresita Ang See,
Libya, Serbia, Amy Chua, South Korea,
Taro Kono, Kang Kyung-wha

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John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe

[Cynic Hero '86]

Xenakis, How is Boomers manipulating and overruling western citizenry's choices regarding Free-trade, globalization, immigration and refugees, and regards to how our militaries should be used; how is that overruling of the citizenry any different than the suppression of dissent that the Russian And PRC Chinese governments carry out? How is the government forcing its preferences down the peoples throats (most notably in the EU regarding refugees) any different than what the Russian and Chinese governments do?

[John J. Xenakis]

(12-28-2017, 09:00 PM)Cynic Hero 86 Wrote: > Xenakis, How is Boomers manipulating and overruling western
> citizenry's choices regarding Free-trade, globalization,
> immigration and refugees, and regards to how our militaries should
> be used; how is that overruling of the citizenry any different
> than the suppression of dissent that the Russian And PRC Chinese
> governments carry out? How is the government forcing its
> preferences down the peoples throats (most notably in the EU
> regarding refugees) any different than what the Russian and
> Chinese governments do?

You really are a one-trick pony. Can't you talk about anything else
but selfish boomers?

[Cynic Hero '86]

Ok omitting boomers, How are western governments overruling its citizenry particularly on immigration and refugees, any different from what the Russian and Chinese governments do when THEY suppress dissent?

[Galen]

(12-28-2017, 09:00 PM)Cynic Hero Wrote: Xenakis, How is Boomers manipulating and overruling western citizenry's choices regarding Free-trade, globalization, immigration and refugees, and regards to how our militaries should be used; how is that overruling of the citizenry any different than the suppression of dissent that the Russian And PRC Chinese governments carry out? How is the government forcing its preferences down the peoples throats (most notably in the EU regarding refugees) any different than what the Russian and Chinese governments do?

He is basically asking the right questions.  As much as it pains me to say this, the Boomers are still, more or less running things, which I am definitely unhappy about.  It looks like the Boomers are beginning to lose their death grip on American politics but not soon enough to prevent the US from doing anything really stupid.

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 29-Dec-17 World View -- Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev promises to end atrocities of previous leader Islam Karimov

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev promises to end atrocities of previous leader Islam Karimov
  
• Rise of Islamic radicalism and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
  
• Who's going to pick the cotton in Uzbekistan?
  

****
**** Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev promises to end atrocities of previous leader Islam Karimov
****


Women working as forced laborers pick cotton in Uzbekistan in the Fergana Valley (EurasiaNet)

Uzbekistan's new leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev is sacking senior security
officials in the corrupt and bloody National Security Service (NSS),
the local successor to the Soviet KGB, and has promised to reform
economic reporting, saying that reported figures for economic growth
and employment had been "fiction" for years.

Mirziyoyev's predecessor was Islam Karimov, a vicious, corrupt
dictator who had been in power since 1991, and who died a year ago at
age 78 after suffering a stroke.

Karimov ruled over a deeply corrupt system of wealth distribution
among powerful clans, involving nepotism and cronyism. The population
was kept in line by forced labor, mass arrests, torture and
repression.

Mirziyoyev has been in office for 15 months, and has promised hope and
change in several areas, including liberalizing the economy and
ensuring security, interethnic harmony and religious tolerance.
However, he's said nothing about strengthening the public's role in
the political process, or of improvement in human rights or allowing
independent media. Reuters and RFE/RL and Reuters and RFE/RL

****
**** Rise of Islamic radicalism and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
****

Under Karimov, the region has seen Islamic radicalism in the form of
the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in the densely populated and
restive Fergana (Ferghana) Valley. The Fergana Valley lies in three
separate countries. It consists of eastern Uzbekistan, part of
northern Tajikistan and part of southwestern Kyrgyzstan. It's the most
densely populated region of Central Asia, and has been plagued by
frequent ethnic and religious conflict since the Soviet
breakup.

Following a wave of jihadist terror attacks in March 2004, 23 Muslims
were put on trial on terrorism charges. In May 2005, Some 10,000
Muslims in Andijon (Andizhan) in the heart of the Fergana Valley began
protesting the trial peacefully. However, the demonstrations turned
violent when armed protesters attacked the prison, freeing dozens of
prisoners, including the 23 Muslims on trial. Government soldiers
moved in and fired on thousands of protestors, killing 500 people and
causing thousands of refugees to flee Andijon and cross the border
into Kyrgyzstan.

Since then, the IMU has become increasingly radicalized. Its initial
goal was to turn the entire Fergana valley into a caliphate, but it
was drawn into the Afghanistan war by the American intervention, and
has cooperated to some extent with the Taliban in executing terrorist
attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although originally allied
with al-Qaeda, the IMU has changed allegiance to the so-called Islamic
State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh).

The current objectives of the IMU are currently unclear, but using the
IMU as a reason, Karimov has fueled resentment towards the government
through mass arrests. Protest has been unheard of because the
National Security Service (NSS) is so feared, but now the new leader
Shavkat Mirziyoyev is vowing to bring the NSS under control.
Mirziyoyev is starting by firing some senior level officers,
but whether anything will really change remains to be seen.

It's believed that hundreds of Uzbeks are in Iraq and Syria fighting
with ISIS and other jihadist groups. With the continuing demise of
ISIS in Iraq and Syria, it's possible that some of these will return
to Uzbekistan and join with local insurgents to pose an internal
threat to the country.

Jihadists from Uzbekistan have occasionally perpetrated terrorist acts
in other regions.

An Uzbek citizen was arrested in Sweden in April when he ran a truck
into a crowd in Stockholm and killed four people. The suspect had been
denied a request for residency in Sweden and expressed sympathy with
the ISIS. Two Uzbeks and a Kazakh were arrested in Brooklyn in 2015
and charged with conspiring to support ISIS.

Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan, was arrested
immediately after killing eight people by speeding a rental truck down
a New York City on October 31. Saipov came to America in 2011, and in
2013 was married in Ohio to a 19-year old girl, Nozima Odilova, who is
also from Uzbekistan. They have two children. Saipov was apparently
radicalized while in the United States.

Uzbekistan's president Shavkat Mirziyoyev immediately acknowledged the
violence and expressed his condolences, writing to President Trump,
"Uzbekistan is prepared to provide all measures and means to assist in
the investigation of this terrorist act."

Under Karimov, Uzbekistan has been a U.S. partner in the fight against
terrorism, and the US has also used Uzbekistan as a strategic location
to bring goods and military equipment into Afghanistan. That's
expected to continue under Mirziyoyev. Crisis Group (29-Sept) and EurasiaNet (1-Nov) and
Newsweek (31-Oct) and The Atlantic (1-Nov)

****
**** Who's going to pick the cotton in Uzbekistan?
****

Uzbekistan became a cotton-producing powerhouse in the twentieth
century for an ironic reason.

In the mid-1800s, the Russians invaded Uzbekistan. Russia had lost
its supply of cotton from the southern United States because of the
American Civil War, and the Russians wanted to establish a safe source
of cotton, and so they developed a large cotton-producing agriculture
in Uzbekistan.

As part of Stalin's Soviet Union, Uzbekistan became a cotton
powerhouse starting in the 1920s. In support of the cotton trade,
millions of ethnic Russians began pouring into the country, especially
into the fertile Fergana Valley (or Ferghana Valley), in the far
eastern portion of the country.

1991 was a pivotal year for Uzbekistan and the Fergana Valley. That
was the year that the Soviet Union collapsed, resulting in the
formation of Uzbekistan as an independent republic. It also resulted
in a great deal of financial hardship for the Russians still living in
the Fergana Valley. The result was the first signs of Islamic
fundamentalism in Uzbekistan when some unemployed young Muslims seized
the Communist Party headquarters in the city of Namangan in the
Fergana Valley, and ended up forming the Islamic Movement
of Uzbekistan (IMU).

What makes this ironic is that the cotton trade in the American south
before the Civil War depended on slavery, and the cotton trade in
Uzbekistan since independence in 1991 has also depended on slavery.

Since 1991, it has become standard practice by the government to use
forced labor to pick the cotton. Theoretically it was voluntary, but
in practice the government forced teachers, doctors and students,
including children, to leave hospitals, schools and universities and
go to the cotton fields.

The new president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has vowed to end forced labor,
and has issued a decree categorically banning the use of children,
along with education and healthcare workers, in the harvest.
These people were sent home right in the middle of this year's
cotton harvest, much to their surprise.

However, as analysts point out, cotton is an existential crop
for Uzbekistan, and somebody has to pick the cotton, and now
other groups are picking cotton as part of a new wave of forced
labor.

The long-term plan is to attract voluntary cotton-pickers through
higher wages, and to mechanize the harvest through 15,000 harvesting
machines. Whether this will be done remains to be seen, but in the
meantime, forced labor is still being used to pick the cotton.
EurasiaNet (31-Oct)

Related Articles

• Uzbekistan's dictator president Karimov suffers stroke, threatening Central Asia stability (31-Aug-2016)
  
  
• With rise of ISIS, violence flares in Central Asia's Fergana Valley (14-Aug-2015)
  
  
• Uzbekistan closes border to refugees from Kyrgyzstan (15-Jun-2010)
  
  
• Islamist Uzbeks lead terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan (02-Nov-2009)
  
  
• Uzbekistan - crisis and revolution (14-May-2005)

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Uzbekistan, Fergana Valley, Ferghana Valley,
Islam Karimov, Shavkat Mirziyoyev,
National Security Service, NSS, KGB,
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, IMU, Andijon, Andizhan, Namangan,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Iraq, Syria, Sweden, Sayfullo Saipov, Nozima Odilova,
Josef Stalin

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John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe

[John J. Xenakis]

(12-28-2017, 11:00 PM)Galen Wrote: > He is basically asking the right questions. As much as it pains
> me to say this, the Boomers are still, more or less running
> things, which I am definitely unhappy about. It looks like the
> Boomers are beginning to lose their death grip on American
> politics but not soon enough to prevent the US from doing anything
> really stupid.

I totally disagree, and I've been writing about this for over a
decade.

As I've written many, many times, it's a core principle of
generational theory that, even in a dictatorship, major decisions are
made by masses of people, by generations of people. The attitudes of
politicians are irrelevant, except insofar as they represent the
attitudes of the people. The reason that generational theory works is
that population generations are almost completely predictable,
irrespective of what politicians want.

The Holocaust and World War II would have occurred with or without
Adolf Hitler. The war with North Korea and China will occur with or
without Donald Trump.

The two of you are making the same mistake, confusing politics with
reality.

A fortiori (using an impressive Latin phrase), you're
completely confusing Boomers with Republicans. You both hate Boomers,
and you both hate Republicans. Therefore, in your highly emotional,
illogical minds, desperately grabbing for some simple explanation for
what's going on in a complex world, you reach the totally erroneous
conclusion that Boomers and Republicans are the same.

There are so many obvious counterexamples, it's hard to know which
ones to choose. If Trump were running the country, then his executive
orders about people arriving from some Muslim countries would not have
been overturned by Boomer judges. If Trump were running the country,
then the bill to repeal and replace Obamacare would have succeeded.
If Trump were running the country, he wouldn't have so many leakers in
the White House and FBI. If Trump were running the country, there
would be a wall along the border with Mexico. If Obama had been
running the country, then James Rosen would be in jail.

When the tax bill finally passed last week, there was no generational
divide. There was a political divide. The Democrats in all
generations voted against it, and the Republicans in all generations
voted for it. The reverse was true for Obamacare.

With regard to the really dumb question about how the Boomers are
"manipulating and overruling western citizenry's choices regarding
Free-trade, globalization, immigration and refugees," they aren't.
The phrase "western citizenry's choices" is totally moronic. There's
no such thing. In America you have "Democratic citizenry's choices,"
and you have "Republican citizenry's choices." In Europe you have
"Center-left citizenry's choices" and "Center-right citizenry's
choices" and "Far-left citizenry's choices" and "Far-right citizenry's
choices." And of course each those groups has splinter sub-groups
that can be split out further.

In fact, I'd be willing to guess that while you two are united in
whining about Trump, but you would have completely different reasons
for whining about Trumps policies on "Free-trade, globalization,
immigration and refugees." You two are the perfect examples of how
moronic the phrase "western citizenry's choices" is.

I've explained all this to Cynic "hero" many, many times. But his
mind is so screwed up, I'm sure this explanation, like all the others,
will have been in vain.

[Cynic Hero '86]

Xenakis, the baby Boomers suppressed the young in the western world. This has occurred Irrespective of Democrats and republicans, or Pro-Nato or Anti-NATO or Pro-EU. You mention younger generations in Russia and China, but those generations collective preferences are being heard by the governments over there, their suggestions in those countries are being implemented, however neither Putin or Xi Jinping and the CCP have the option of ignoring the young's Passions because otherwise they would invite the possibility of a large-scale revolt. This is not what is occurring in the US or in Europe; here in the western world the governments irrespective of which party is in power ignores the young and listens exclusively to Silents and Boomers, completely ignoring the two generations (and soon to be three) that came after them and what those generations want. For example Boomer democrats and Boomer republicans have different approaches to how to handle Russia in Ukraine and how to handle China in Taiwan and in the seas adjacent to China; But boomers regardless of party generally collectively regard Both the Current Russian and Chinese governments as illegitimate even if they hold their tongues on that matter of diplomatic Reasons and have different political approaches to that view. Boomers suppress the young preventing younger people for having access to controlling policy regarding Defense, the economy and foreign policy because they refuse to allow anyone younger, who may have different views altogether from boomers on these matters from having any say in how the country is run. The same is true in Europe and the Anglosphere.

Trump Has a hard time implementing his preferred policies because the government is staffed by boomers and the vast Majority of that generation regardless of party adamantly opposes any reform whatsoever, especially reform in the direction of an imperial state that Trump has expressed interest in. Because the presidential election is the one thing Boomers can't completely control, the Boomers administrations have all generally passed restrictions on the presidential authority except if the president is doing something the boomer dominated legislature agrees with. And that is Tyranny imposed by a generation of decrepit bloating locusts who constantly demands the right to leech off younger and more virile and suitable for administrative responsibility generations. This is NOT about democrats and Republicans, every boomer administration since Clinton's election in 1992, has downsized the military industrial complex. Every Boomer Administration has imposed "humanitarian" rules of US military Conduct of wars. We Xers and Millies want your, disgusting, soft and decadent Boomer Generation Gone from the administrative power and policy-brooking positions of the governments of the US and the rest of the west.

Boomer influence on the Current Crisis with North Korea is obvious. Under the boomers discussion primarily based on how to disarm North Korea without a war, or in a last resort a limited first-strike and a conventional war. This is NOT what the discussion would have been if Xers and Millies were running the government instead of Boomers. If the young were allowed into the proper leadership positions instead of the boomers being selfish: The discussion on North Korea would have been instead focused on how to launch a surprise Nuclear strike on Pyongyang and other Military and industrial targets In North Korea utilizing nuclear SLBMs and Bunker-Busters and MOABs and looking for ways to present this as a fiat accompli.

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 30-Dec-17 World View -- Anti-government, anti-war and economic protests spread across Iran

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Anti-government, anti-war and economic protests spread across Iran
  
• Iran's regime begins responding to the protests
  

****
**** Anti-government, anti-war and economic protests spread across Iran
****


Anti-government demonstrations in Mashad, Iran, on Thursday (AP)

A small Thursday protest in northeastern Iran against the economic
policies of Iran's president Hassan Rouhani has spread on Friday to
become a general anti-government protest in cities across Iran. The
protesters are now targeting not just Rouhani, but the entire regime
of Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei.

Iran's economy has become increasingly desperate, and politician's
statements blaming Iran's economy on outside forces (i.e., the United
States) are increasingly disbelieved.

Egg prices in Iran had doubled since last week, due to the
government's culling of millions of chickens diagnosed with avian flu.
Unemployment stood at 12.4% in this fiscal year, according to the
Statistical Centre of Iran, up 1.4% from the previous year. About 3.2
million Iranians are jobless, out of a total population of 80 million.

Rouhani had promised that the economy would improve significantly
after Iran reached the nuclear deal with America and the West, because
of the removal of economic sanctions. However, the money that was
derived from the removal of sanctions has been wasted on government
corruption and foreign wars.

The slogans being chanted by protesters in different countries have
been collected by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI /
MEK), an organization led by Maryam Rajavi, advocating the removal of
the hardline Iranian regime. Some of the slogans are listed below.

The original protests on Thursday were about the economy and
government corruption:

• Bread, work, freedom
  
• The nation is destitute while the leader is acting like God
  
• Young people are unemployed,
  and mullahs have all the positions
  
• Execute the economically corrupt
  
• If you stop one case of embezzlement,
  our problem will be solved

By Friday, they had morphed into general anti-government and
anti-regime protests:

• Seyed Ali [Khamenei] shame on you let go of our country
  
• Dignified Iranians, join your people
  
• We don’t want an Islamic Republic
  
• Dignified Iranians, support us, support us
  
• Death to the Dictator
  
• Death to Rouhani
  
• Don’t be afraid, we are all united
  
• Political prisoners should be freed
  
• Shame on you
  
• Death or freedom

Anti-war protests zeroed in on Iran's enormous expenditures on war
efforts for Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Yemen:

• Leave Syria, think about us
  
• Guns and tanks! The mullahs must be killed
  
• Death to Hezbollah
  
• Leave Syria alone, think about us instead
  
• Forget about Gaza and Lebanon; I’ll sacrifice my life for Iran
  
• Never mind Palestine, think about us

Maryam Rajavi, referenced above, said:

<QUOTE>"This uprising has tolled the death knell for the
overthrow of the totally corrupt dictatorship of the mullahs, and
is the rise of democracy, justice and popular sovereignty.

The four-decade record of the mullahs’ rule has been nothing but
inflation, poverty and corruption, torture and execution, killings
and aggression. The bulk of the people’s wealth, including the
money released in the nuclear deal, is either spent on repression
and export of terrorism and war, or is plundered by the regime’s
leaders. The overthrow of the religious fascism is the first step
to get out of the crisis that is intensifying every day.

The mullahs’ regime has no future; investment on it is doomed to
failure, and it is time for the international community to not tie
their fate to this regime and recognize the Iranian people
Resistance to overthrow that regime."<END QUOTE>

Ms. Rajavi's statement is interesting, because it's almost formulaic
in being similar in tone to screeds by American anti-war activists in
the 1960s and 1970s, and indeed to screeds by anti-Donald Trump
politicians today. Payvand (Iran) and
Bloomberg and Deutsche Welle and Al Arabiya


****
**** Iran's regime begins responding to the protests
****

As I've been writing for years, Iran's population is behaving like a
typical country in a generational Awakening era. This is one
generation past the previous generational crisis war, in this case the
1979 Great Islamic Revolution and Iran/Iraq war that climaxed in 1988.

America's last generational Awakening era was the 1960s-70s, one
generation past the end of World War II. There was a "generation gap"
pitting the traumatized survivors of World War II versus the Boomers
who grew up after the war, and were not traumatized. There were
student riots, long hot summers, the Summer of Love, bra-burning,
anti-war protests, Kent State shootings, all culminating in the
Awakening era climax, the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974.

We don't know when it's going to happen, but Iran is headed for a
similar climax. Perhaps it will be on the death of the current
79-year-old Supreme Leader, or perhaps it will be based on some sort
of electoral change, as happened with Richard Nixon.

In the late 1990s, college students in these younger generations
started holding pro-Western and pro-American protests, during Iran's
generational Awakening era. Khamenei and the Iran hardliners brutally
suppressed those protests, but doing so didn't change minds. Today,
those students are 30-40 years old, and have risen to positions of
power, ready to take over when the current hardline leadership dies
off. And by the way, this is also true within the ranks of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

They are generally pro-Western and pro-American, and consider Saudi
Arabia to be an existential threat. This is one of several reasons
why I've been saying for years that, in the approaching Clash of
Civilizations world war, Iran will be an ally of the United States,
along with Russia and India, versus China, Pakistan, and the Sunni
Muslim countries.

There was a serious split between hardliners and moderates in Iran's
government after the 2009 presidential elections, when young people
were protesting, and there was blood running in the streets because
Iran's security forces were massacring students and other protesters.
Khamenei wanted the security forces to be completely unleashed, so
they could kill, torture, rape, jail and bash anyone they wanted with
impunity, while the moderates in the government wanted to permit
peaceful protests, and wanted the jailed protesters to be released.

Iran's government was extremely embarrassed by its violent response to
peaceful protesters in 2009, and want to avoid a repeat, as indicated
Friday by hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda:

<QUOTE>"If the security and law enforcement agencies leave
the rioters to themselves, enemies will publish films and pictures
in their media and say that the Islamic Republic system has lost
its revolutionary base in Mashhad."<END QUOTE>

So Iran's government is in a quandary. The protests are small now,
although they're a lot more widespread than the 2009 protests, which
were mainly limited to Tehran. If the protests fizzle out by
themselves, then all will be well for the time being. But if the
protests grow in the next days and weeks, then the government will be
forced to crush them, and as Alamolhoda says, world media will be
filled with pictures and video of blood running in the streets of
Tehran, as in 2009. BBC and
Iran Front Page and Reuters

Related Articles

• Iran's 'moderate pragmatist' Hashemi Rafsanjani dies at age 82 (09-Jan-2017)
  
  
• As Iran's election approaches, generational conflict becomes vicious (06-Feb-2016)
  
  
• Iran's younger generations propel Rouhani to decisive presidential win (21-May-2017)
  
  
• Theological split in Iran widens as opposition protests continue (09-Nov-2009)
  
  
• Tens of thousands protest in Tehran after Rafsanjani says Iran is 'in crisis' (18-Jul-2009)
  
  
• Iran's President Ahmadinejad facing a growing 'generation gap' (02-Jul-2007)
  
  
• Iranian police swoop down on women with loose headscarves (25-Apr-2007)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Iran, Hassan Rouhani, Seyed Ali Khamenei,
People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI/MEK, Maryam Rajavi,
Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen,
Great Islamic Revolution, Iran/Iraq war, Ahmad Alamolhoda

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal

John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe

[Cynic Hero '86]

(12-29-2017, 10:50 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: ****
**** Iran's regime begins responding to the protests
****

As I've been writing for years, Iran's population is behaving like a
typical country in a generational Awakening era.  This is one
generation past the previous generational crisis war, in this case the
1979 Great Islamic Revolution and Iran/Iraq war that climaxed in 1988.

America's last generational Awakening era was the 1960s-70s, one
generation past the end of World War II.  There was a "generation gap"
pitting the traumatized survivors of World War II versus the Boomers
who grew up after the war, and were not traumatized.  There were
student riots, long hot summers, the Summer of Love, bra-burning,
anti-war protests, Kent State shootings, all culminating in the
Awakening era climax, the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974.

We don't know when it's going to happen, but Iran is headed for a
similar climax.  Perhaps it will be on the death of the current
79-year-old Supreme Leader, or perhaps it will be based on some sort
of electoral change, as happened with Richard Nixon.

In the late 1990s, college students in these younger generations
started holding pro-Western and pro-American protests, during Iran's
generational Awakening era.  Khamenei and the Iran hardliners brutally
suppressed those protests, but doing so didn't change minds.  Today,
those students are 30-40 years old, and have risen to positions of
power, ready to take over when the current hardline leadership dies
off.  And by the way, this is also true within the ranks of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

They are generally pro-Western and pro-American, and consider Saudi
Arabia to be an existential threat.  This is one of several reasons
why I've been saying for years that, in the approaching Clash of
Civilizations world war, Iran will be an ally of the United States,
along with Russia and India, versus China, Pakistan, and the Sunni
Muslim countries.

There was a serious split between hardliners and moderates in Iran's
government after the 2009 presidential elections, when young people
were protesting, and there was blood running in the streets because
Iran's security forces were massacring students and other protesters.
Khamenei wanted the security forces to be completely unleashed, so
they could kill, torture, rape, jail and bash anyone they wanted with
impunity, while the moderates in the government wanted to permit
peaceful protests, and wanted the jailed protesters to be released.

Iran's government was extremely embarrassed by its violent response to
peaceful protesters in 2009, and want to avoid a repeat, as indicated
Friday by hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda:

   <QUOTE>"If the security and law enforcement agencies leave
   the rioters to themselves, enemies will publish films and pictures
   in their media and say that the Islamic Republic system has lost
   its revolutionary base in Mashhad."<END QUOTE>

So Iran's government is in a quandary.  The protests are small now,
although they're a lot more widespread than the 2009 protests, which
were mainly limited to Tehran.  If the protests fizzle out by
themselves, then all will be well for the time being.  But if the
protests grow in the next days and weeks, then the government will be
forced to crush them, and as Alamolhoda says, world media will be
filled with pictures and video of blood running in the streets of
Tehran, as in 2009.  BBC and
Iran Front Page and Reuters

Related Articles

• Iran's 'moderate pragmatist' Hashemi Rafsanjani dies at age 82 (09-Jan-2017)
  
  
• As Iran's election approaches, generational conflict becomes vicious (06-Feb-2016)
  
  
• Iran's younger generations propel Rouhani to decisive presidential win (21-May-2017)
  
  
• Theological split in Iran widens as opposition protests continue (09-Nov-2009)
  
  
• Tens of thousands protest in Tehran after Rafsanjani says Iran is 'in crisis' (18-Jul-2009)
  
  
• Iran's President Ahmadinejad facing a growing 'generation gap' (02-Jul-2007)
  
  
• Iranian police swoop down on women with loose headscarves (25-Apr-2007)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Iran, Hassan Rouhani, Seyed Ali Khamenei,
People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI/MEK, Maryam Rajavi,
Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen,
Great Islamic Revolution, Iran/Iraq war, Ahmad Alamolhoda

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal

John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum:    http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe

So boomers demand that Iranian 30 to 40 somethings be given complete power; but these same boomers adamantly refuse to respect the rights of American, European and Anglo 30 to 40 somethings. Selfish Boomers, know this, the 4T crisis and War phase is NOT about you selfish pieces of feces. The Xer and Millies doctrines WILL be implemented. This is because Boomers will eventually retire and Die and Xers and Millies will run things. The death of the UN, EU and NATO is inevitable because only the aging boomers support these entities. We Xers and Millies want the government to have an actual policy toward North Korea, Not your selfish boomer policy of doing Nothing until the powder keg blows up knowing full well that it will blow and then using the emergency to consolidate tyranny.

[Cynic Hero '86]

I quickly did some research and it appears that president trump can't authorize a first-strike on North Korea without congressional approval. This shows the tyranny Boomers have converted our government into; so the president requires the approval of a tyrannical bureaucracy simply because the most pampered generation in history is not "comfortable" with public power. Such a system is tyranny and makes a mockery of the democracy boomers claim to Love. Boomers; if you love the constitution so much, then govern according to its bounds.

One of the main consistent roots of boomer selfishness is that when a boomer is confronted with a practical choice or a morally pure choice, the boomer always chooses the moral choice even if said choice is completely impractical. Selfish Boomers would impose a conventional war with North Korea for anything short of an all out nuclear attack by the NORKs; even if the North Koreans launch a more limited "blackmail/terror" nuclear attack. If Russia invaded Ukraine to eastern Europe, the selfish boomer would impose a policy in which american forces would be at the forefront rather than having the war be Europe's war. If China attacked in the pacific, boomers would have us throw everything toward the defense of the first-island chain rather than distribute forces at the second island chain or further to the rear and have Taiwan and Japan absorb the initial blow.

Competent policy isn't rocket science, the boomer choose to implement a decadent status quo and then to govern tyrannically because they don't want an American Empire to be created. Boomers gleefully imagine the destruction of the Military industrial complex, the economy and the "bread and circuses" system because said destruction would not be a tragedy for boomers. Such a collapse instead would be for boomers the signal of success, the culmination of their generations life's work.

[John J. Xenakis]

(12-30-2017, 10:09 AM)Cynic Hero 86 Wrote: > confronted with a practical choice or a morally pure choice, the
> boomer always chooses the moral choice even if said choice is
> completely impractical.

I've known plenty of Boomers who made choices that were neither
practical nor morally pure.

[Cynic Hero '86]

(12-30-2017, 04:59 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote:

(12-30-2017, 10:09 AM)Cynic Hero Wrote: >   confronted with a practical choice or a morally pure choice, the
>   boomer always chooses the moral choice even if said choice is
>   completely impractical.

I've known plenty of Boomers who made choices that were neither
practical nor morally pure.

When Hitler invaded Russia, because of how poorly the red army was configured and How the Wehrmacht had a better configuration, the defeat of the soviet border armies was pretty much inevitable. Nonetheless there is a big difference between losing 500,000 men and Losing 5 Million men. The historical losses were because Stalin refused to allow the red army to go on alert. Who's in Charge therefore matters a great deal.

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 31-Dec-17 World View -- With ISIS collapsing, US forces will remain in Syria to restore 'normalcy'

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• With ISIS collapsing, US forces will remain in Syria to restore 'normalcy'
  
• US warns Assad regime to stay west of Euphrates river
  

****
**** With ISIS collapsing, US forces will remain in Syria to restore 'normalcy'
****


Jim Mattis (Getty)

According to Pentagon estimates, there are few then 1,000 fighters
from the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh) left in
eastern Syria, down from several thousand just a few weeks ago. This
is largely through the efforts of the mostly Kurdish US-backed Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF), which have focused their efforts on
eradicating remnants of ISIS.

The Pentagon in the past has said that US forces would remain in Syria
"as long as we need to," and on Friday U.S. Defense Secretary Jim
Mattis gave an outline about how the role of US forces will be
changing in 2018, following the collapse of the self-declared ISIS
caliphate in Raqqa.

According to Mattis, ISIS is on the run, with some remaining ISIS
fighters in the Middle Euphrates River Valley:

<QUOTE>"As we sit here today at the end of 2017, the
caliphate is on the run, we’re breaking them.

We are in the process of crushing the life out of the caliphate
there, while trying to keep the innocent people safe – which is
very hard with this group.

It [ISIS] is less inspirational when they have lost their physical
caliphate; it is less inspirational as the stories of what it was
like living under their rule come out. I think it is a brand with
a diminishing appeal, but the appeal is still there for those who
go in for that philosophy."<END QUOTE>

Mattis said the time is right for "an attempt to move toward
normalcy," by operations like clearing IEDs, and ensuring
peace and stability:

<QUOTE>"What we will be doing is shifting from what I call an
offensive, terrain-seizing approach, to a stabilizing [approach].

You'll see more U.S. diplomats on the ground. When you bring in
more diplomats, they’re working that initial restoration of
services. They bring in the contractors. That sort of thing,
There’s international money that’s got to be administered so it
actually does something and doesn’t go into the wrong people’s
pockets."<END QUOTE>

The approximately 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria would stay and provide
security for the diplomats and civilians, as well as help with
training and aid in efforts to hunt down IS fighters. Dept. of Defense and VOA and CNBC

****
**** US warns Assad regime to stay west of Euphrates river
****

The regime of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad is demanding that US
forces leave Syria completely, and is calling the US presence
"illegal."

But according to Mattis, there is a demarcation line between the
forces of the al-Assad regime and its ally Russia on one side, and the
Syrian Democratic Forces and the coalition forces on the other side:

<QUOTE>"This is the demarcation line, and we've said that we
will operate on one side, the Russians on the other. And we're
still taking ISIS down. Nothing has changed."<END QUOTE>

Mattis is denying that that US-backed forces have engaged "Assad
forces" crossing the demarcation line:

<QUOTE>"It hasn't come up. They're not even trying it. So
I'm not concerned. ...

"Well, right now, it's a mistake if somebody does it. So it's not
a warning to anybody."<END QUOTE>

Despite the implied warning by Mattis, al-Assad says that the Kurds
are "traitors," and he wants his army to attack them and possibly to
exterminate them. The al-Assad regime currently controls about 55% of
Syria, and Kurdish forces control about 28%.

Turkey also considers the Kurds in the SDF to be "terrorists," and
wants to see their role reduced. Furthermore, Turkey has recently
called Bashar al-Assad a "terrorist."

It appears that, in addition to eliminating the remaining 1,000 ISIS
fighters, the remaining 2,000 US troops in Syria will have the job of
protecting the Kurds from the Turkish and al-Assad forces. Critics of
Friday's announcement by Mattis claim that it's a prescription for
open-ended mission creep. AFP and Jerusalem Post and Rudaw (Kurdistan) and Eagle Online

Related Articles

• More on the evacuation of ISIS militants from Raqqa, Syria (16-Nov-2017)
  
  
• Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin hug and declare the end of war in Syria (27-Nov-2017)
  
  
• Turkey's tanks and troops cross border into Syria's Idlib (13-Oct-2017)
  
  
• Turkey's assault on Kurds in Afrin, Syria, may jeopardize the battle in Raqqa (14-Jul-2017)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Syria, Raqqa, Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Jim Mattis, Euphrates river, Bashar al-Assad, Russia

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
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John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe

[Galen]

(12-29-2017, 02:28 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote:

(12-28-2017, 11:00 PM)Galen Wrote: >   He is basically asking the right questions.  As much as it pains
>   me to say this, the Boomers are still, more or less running
>   things, which I am definitely unhappy about.  It looks like the
>   Boomers are beginning to lose their death grip on American
>   politics but not soon enough to prevent the US from doing anything
>   really stupid.

The two of you are making the same mistake, confusing politics with
reality.

A fortiori (using an impressive Latin phrase), you're
completely confusing Boomers with Republicans.  You both hate Boomers,
and you both hate Republicans.  Therefore, in your highly emotional,
illogical minds, desperately grabbing for some simple explanation for
what's going on in a complex world, you reach the totally erroneous
conclusion that Boomers and Republicans are the same.

Actually, I don't equate the Boomers particularly with any political party since they both tend to be self-righteous and self-absorbed even if it expresses itself differently in some cases.  In the case of the Dims they tend to believe that government through the welfare state can cure every social ill and create the Utopia that they desire.  The Republicans have tended to take a rather more punitive approach with government, such as but not limited to the War on Drugs, in an effort to create a perfect society.  While the methods and goals differ they do share this irrational and unshakable faith in the power of the state.

The Boomers do tend to agree on getting every blood soaked dime they can get out of the current and future unborn generations through debt to pay for current spending and to cover the retirement they desire but didn't save for.  After 9/11 they also started to agree that gratuitously bombing the shit out of third world countries, particularly middle eastern ones, was a really great idea.

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 1-Jan-18 World View -- Xi Jinping says that China will now have a 'say' on all international issues

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Xi Jinping says that China will now have a 'say' on all international issues
  
• Xi Jinping promises to eliminate poverty by 2020
  
• North Korea says that its nuclear arsenal protects it from attacks
  
• Generational Dynamics World View finishes another year with a perfect record
  

****
**** Xi Jinping says that China will now have a 'say' on all international issues
****


Xi Jinping giving New Year speech (Xinhua)

China used to brag that it never interfered in other countries'
business. Whenever someone complained that China massacring peaceful
protesters or Tibetans or Uighurs, Chinese officials would say that
it's an internal matter, and just as China didn't criticize other
nations' internal matters, other nations should just leave China
alone.

But according to China's president Xi Jinping's delusional New Year's
address to the nation, all of that is changing now that both
Xi Jinping and China have become strong and powerful:

<QUOTE>"As a responsible major country, China has something
to say.

China will resolutely uphold the authority and status of the
United Nations, actively fulfill China's international obligations
and duties, remain firmly committed to China's pledges to tackle
climate change, actively push for the Belt and Road Initiative,
and always be a builder of world peace, contributor of global
development and keeper of international order. The Chinese people
are ready to chart out a more prosperous, peaceful future for
humanity, with people from other countries."<END QUOTE>

One can only shrug and wonder what much of this means. With regard to
upholding the United Nations, the United Nations Permanent Court of
Arbitration in the Hague has already ruled that China is an
international criminal. ( "13-Jul-16 World View -- Philippines humiliates China in harsh Hague Tribunal ruling over South China Sea"
) China is also the
principal supporter of Russia in illegally annexing Ukraine's Crimea
peninsula. China has no intention of upholding the authority of the
United Nations, except selectively for its own benefit.

Xi Jinping says that China will "always be a builder of world peace,
contributor of global development and keeper of international order."
Does anyone seriously believe that?

I've gotten quite a bit of reaction to my October 24 World View
article, Xi Jinping's 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics' is identical to Hitler's National Socialism.
In that article I wrote that the Chinese people
themselves have become almost completely delusional. Press reports
indicate that many Chinese, especially young Chinese, believe that
China's Socialism has already beaten the United States. They believe
that because China is a dictatorship, it can accomplish things that a
democracy can't, and therefore can defeat the Western democracies at
any time of their choosing.

The things that I've been told are all anecdotal, but they're
consistent. Chinese people consider themselves superior to Americans
and other Western people, and expect to use military power (war) to
dominate the world, and set up a "new world order."

From what I can tell, Chinese people don't actually hate Americans.
They save that vitriolic hatred for other Asians, including people
from Vietnam, the Philippines, Korea and Japan. One person told me
how contemptuous the Chinese he's spoken to are towards the people
from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Another person wrote,

<QUOTE>"The Chinese are arrogant, rude, intolerant, loud,
demanding and overbearing. They flaunt their wealth and rule over
underlings, especially foreign ones, with an iron fist and a
bamboo rod. Other Asians despise them and wherever they go as
tourists they are disliked and held in disdain as being little
more than peasants with credit cards."<END QUOTE>

I keep comparing the Chinese today to the Nazis of the 1930s, and the
points of comparison keep growing. The Chinese seem to consider
themselves to be the "Master Race," just as the Nazis did. The
Chinese consider it their right to annex regions belonging to other
countries, just as the Nazis did. And the "Socialism with Chinese
Characteristics" is the same as Nazi's "National Socialism."

A lot of these impressions are anecdotal, but they're consistent. If
there's are any Chinese people out there who think that I'm wrong,
then please write to me and tell me that I'm wrong and why. Because I
would very much like to be wrong.

I frequently quote Friedrich Nietzsche and I do so again now:
"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties,
nations and epochs, it is the rule."

As things stand, China is delusional and on the same path as Nazi
Germany. China will cause a catastrophe to itself and the rest of the
world. History will look back on China as the worst disaster to the
world in history, worse than the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese
combined. By 2050, China will be worse off than it was in 1950.
Xinhua and Times of India and Scroll (India)

Related Articles

• Xi Jinping's 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics' is identical to Hitler's National Socialism (24-Oct-2017)
  
  
• China resumes military buildup in Bhutan's Doklam Plateau (19-Dec-2017)
  
  
• How to confront a Chinese troll (23-Dec-2017)
  

****
**** Xi Jinping promises to eliminate poverty by 2020
****

If Xi Jinping's speech sounded delusional about foreign policy,
it sounds totally wacky on economic issues.

According to Xi, in only three more years, by the year 2020, those
rural residents who are currently living in conditions of extreme
poverty should be lifted above the poverty line:

<QUOTE>"It would be the first time in thousands of years of
Chinese history that extreme poverty had been eliminated. It is
our solemn promise.

Only three years are left to 2020. Every one of us must be called
to action, do our best ... This is a great cause, important to
both the Chinese nation and humanity. Let's do it together and
make it happen."<END QUOTE>

Just in general, the whole "poverty" concept is largely a hoax.
Regulators always define the "poverty line" that separates the poor
from the rest, so that there are always 10-12% of people in poverty.
This is a matter of definition. Whatever algorithm regulators use to
define poverty, it always comes out so that 10-12% of the people are
in poverty.

No matter how wealthy a country is, there's always a poorest 10-12%.
So by definition, poverty can never be cured.

So here's Xi Jinping promising to end poverty in China by 2020,
three years from now. China is known to lie about economic
statistics, and it may simply be that Xi Jinping believes what
his government tells him.

China claims an annual 6.9% growth rates, but I've heard many
analysts claim that the true figure is close to 1%, and that
the 6.9% figure represents increase in debt, rather than increase
in growth. This is a subtle distinction that may be beyond the
understanding of a politician like Xi Jinping.

Xi's speeches have been promising aggressive development of China's
"Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI). In this vision, China will be
building towns, cities, buildings, roads and other infrastructure
throughout Asia, and continuing all the way to Europe. In the oceans,
China will be making new alliances and numerous ports for Chinese
ships, putting China at the center of a new world order.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bank of International
Settlements (BIS), Moody's and S&P have all expressed alarm
at China's ballooning debt, and are predicting a major correction.
This is consistent with the Generational Dynamics prediction
of a global financial panic and crisis.

As for the Belt and Road Initiative, the situation in Sri Lanka, where
China financed building of a seaport then ended up controlling it
because Sri Lanka can't make the payments, has raised a lot of
suspicions that China is setting a debt trap for other nations as
well. Projects in Pakistan and Nepal have been put on hold for this
reason, putting the whole BRI concept into question. Xinhua and India.com and Forbes and Fortune (7-Dec) and Politico (EU)

Related Articles

• Pakistan overwhelmed and China alarmed over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) (12-Dec-2017)
  
  
• China takes control of strategic Hambantota seaport in Sri Lanka, raising concerns in India (11-Dec-2017)
  
  
• Execution of two of China's citizens in Pakistan raises concerns about CPEC (10-Jun-2017)
  
  
• Massive China-Pakistan CPEC energy project said to end energy crisis 'soon' (23-Mar-2017)
  

****
**** North Korea says that its nuclear arsenal protects it from attacks
****


Kim Jong-un on television on Sunday (AP)

North Korea's child dictator Kim Jong-un also gave a New Year's speech
in which he bragged that he's already safe from attack by the United
States, and that he's building an arsenal of nuclear missiles with
which to attack the United states:

<QUOTE>"The U.S. should know that the button for nuclear
weapons is on my table. The entire area of the U.S. mainland is
within our nuclear strike range. ... The United States can never
start a war against me and our country. ...

We must mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles and
speed up their deployment."<END QUOTE>

AP and AFP

Related Articles

• Chinese experts warn China to prepare for nuclear war in North Korea (17-Dec-2017)
  
  
• Chinese geologists warn of looming nuclear disaster from North Korean tests (01-Nov-2017)
  

****
**** Generational Dynamics World View finishes another year with a perfect record
****

Well, it's the beginning of the New Year.

There were 365 days in 2017, and I posted 365 Generational Dynamics
World View articles. I didn't miss a single day. A perfect record.
That just proves what an obsessive mind is capable of.

When I started writing daily articles in January 2010, I wrote "Dear
Reader, I'm going to try this for a while and see if it works for me.
Ideally I'll produce a news summary every day, but that's probably
unrealistic. I'll try to do it as often as possible." Much to my own
amazement, I'm still doing it every day eight years later.

I started the Generational Dynamics web site in 2003. Since then,
I've written almost 6,000 articles containing thousands of
Generational Dynamics predictions and analyses, all of which have come
true or are trending true. None has been proven wrong. No web site,
analyst, journalist, or politician has come even close to the
analytical and forecasting success of GenerationalDynamics.com.
Generational theory is truly amazing, and a truly historic
development.

Now it's 2018, and we're looking forward to an extremely dangerous
year, with crises in North Korea, China, the South China Sea, the
Mideast, Crimea, Africa, and elsewhere. Any one of these crises could
spiral into something bigger. As we've reported recently, even
Chinese officials are saying that they expect a war over North Korea
in the next few months.

If you want to forget about what's going on in the world, then just
focus on the politics of the Russia dossier or the latest sexual
harassment accusation. But if you do want to know what's going on in
the world, then the #1 most accurate source in the world is the daily
Generational Dynamics World View articles. You can read them every
day on GenerationalDynamics.com and on the excellent Breitbart National Security web site, or you can subscribe, and receive
them for free every day in your inbox.


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, China, Xi Jinping,
United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration,
Vietnam, Philippines, Korea, Japan,
Master Race, Nazi Germany, National Socialism,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Belt and Road Initiative, BRI,
International Monetary Fund, IMF,
Bank of International Settlements, BIS, Moody's, S&P,
Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal,
North Korea, Kim Jong-un

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal

John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe

[pbrower2a]

On Japan and 'comfort women' (compulsory prostitutes of subjugated countries during WWII):

it would be best for contemporary Japan to denounce the monstrous deeds (including plunder, and 'comfort women' were a form of plunder) to denounce the crimes. Japan is far from the depraved society that it was before it surrendered.

Failure to do so aids countries hostile to Japanese diplomatic and commercial interests. Yes, I recognize that Japan is a tough sell in the Phllippines; the Philippines now has an autocratic government and a large and influential Chinese diaspora. But if Japanese firms want to make profitable investments then they will have to denounce the sordid past.

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 2-Jan-18 World View -- Escalating violence in Iran protests brings calls for Iran-Israel friendship

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Iran protesters kill a police officer in escalating violence
  
• Trump and Netanyahu express solidarity with Iranian protesters
  

****
**** Iran protesters kill a police officer in escalating violence
****


A university student protects herself from teargas while protesting at the University of Tehran. (AP)

At least 15 people have been killed in widening street protests in
Iran, and Iran state television reports that one of the dead and
several of the wounded are police officers.

During the 2009 demonstrations, retaliation by Iran's security forces
and by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was rapid and
bloody. Iran's government is anxious avoid a repeat of the 2009
violence and bloodshed, and so the police have been restrained, and
the IRGC has not gotten involved so far. However, the apparent ambush
of a police officer may be a game-changer.

The BBC's Iran correspondent Rana Rahimpour described how the protests
got started (my transcription):

<QUOTE>"They are being careful about how forcefully they
respond to these protests, because as [president Hassan Rouhani]
has already acknowledged, people have a very legitimate reasons to
be angry.

Over the last few months, there were scattered, relatively small
protests against many of the investment banks that have gone
almost bankrupt, had been shut down by the government, and more
than two million people have lost their life savings.

And the first Death to Rouhani slogans that we had started from
those smaller protests. So he knows that people have good reasons
to be angry. We're talking about serious corruption among the
political élite. We're talking about unemployment, which
according to his interior minister, in some parts of the country
that's up to 60%.<END QUOTE>

These investment banks were apparently involved the same sorts of
fraudulent deals as the US banks were during the subprime real estate
crisis. As their bad debt accumulated, they went bankrupt and two
million people lost their life savings. When the protests last week
in Mashad in northeastern Iran, it was specifically in reaction to the
corruption related to the bank bankruptcies, where a lot of ordinary
people lost their life savings, while many in the political élite did
well.

According to Rahimpour, the trigger for the current explosion in
protests was Rouhani's release of the upcoming annual budget, which
fully revealed the level of corruption:

<QUOTE>"Three weeks ago, president Rouhani released the
details of his upcoming budget for the Iranian new year in March,
in which it became clear that he doesn't have any control over
more than half of the budget, that are already going to many
religious organizations. And that went viral. People got
extremely angry. Cause we're talking about people that have lost
their life savings, many factory workers haven't been paid for
months, they can't pay their loans, they can't pay their
mortgages.

And suddenly they realize that OK, these religious clerical
organizations are getting millions. So that's one reason for
anger. They've raised the price of bread, recently. There's talk
of raising the price of petrol. So all of this together, and
possibly interference of regional rivals as President Rouhani
said, together, the situation was ripe for unrest like we're
witnessing right now."<END QUOTE>

On top of this, it's becoming widely believed among the Iranian
protesters that Iran got a huge financial bonanza from the Iran
nuclear deal and the ending of sanctions, but that the money had
benefited these same clerical institutions, but hadn't benefited the
ordinary people at all. This is the basis of the call for an end to
the clerical regime.

In comparing to the 2009 protests, these protests are smaller, but
they're far more widespread. The 2009 protests were concentrated
mainly in Tehran, while the new protests are taking place in many
smaller towns across Iran. Furthermore, unlike the 2009 protests, the
current protests seem to be completely spontaneous and leaderless, and
are spreading through social media.

Without a protest leadership, the police are unable to target a single
person or group of people. For that reason, the government is
shutting down access to social media in the hope of suppressing the
protests that way. Tehran Times and BBC and
Al Jazeera and Reuters

****
**** Trump and Netanyahu express solidarity with Iranian protesters
****

As long-time readers are aware, I predicted over ten years ago, based
on a Generational Dynamics analysis, that Iran would be a United
States ally in the approaching Clash of Civilizations world war.

Ten years ago, the idea that Iran and the US would become allies
seemed fantastical and insane. But during the Barack Obama
administration, whatever one thinks of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran and
America overcame much of the vitriolic rancor that separated them.

The reason that Iran and the US are becoming allies is generational.
The hardliners in Iran are in the dying generations that fought in the
1979 Great Islamic Revolution, and considered the Iranian Hostage
Crisis a great victory for them. However, those people are dying off,
and the generations growing up after the war are pro-Western and
pro-American. At some point, there will be an "Awakening climax" in
Iran, like the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, that signals the
victory of the younger generations over the war survivors, and the end
of the hardline regime. A likely outcome is that Iran will become the
same kind of ally as it was under the Shah of Iran, prior to 1979.

So we're seeing Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu expressing
friendship and support for Iran -- but not for the old geezers in the
hardline regime, but for the young generation of protesters.

Donald Trump tweeted as follows:

<QUOTE>"Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting
wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and
squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any
longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights
violations!

Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with
regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to
fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s
rights, including right to express themselves. The world is
watching!

The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want
change, and, other than the vast military power of the United
States, that Iran’s people are what their leaders fear the
most."<END QUOTE>

Israel's president Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video in which he said
the following:

<QUOTE>"Iran’s cruel regime wastes tens of billions of
dollars spreading hate. This money could have built schools and
hospitals. No wonder mothers and fathers are marching in the
streets. The regime is terrified of them, of their own people.

This regime tries desperately to sow hate between us. But they
won’t succeed. And when this regime finally falls, and one day it
will, Iranians and Israelis will be great friends once again. I
wish the Iranian people success in their noble quest for
freedom."<END QUOTE>

The possible friendship between Netanyahu and the Iranian people
exposes an important conflict in the geopolitics of the Mideast.

Recently, Israel has been closely allied with Egypt in fighting
Islamist terrorists, especially in Egypt's northern Sinai. Egypt has
also been an ally of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in
the Arab split that led to the blockade of Qatar over its close
relations with Iran.

Israel has also recently been closely allied with Saudi Arabia because
of their common enmity to Iran.

If you connect all those dots and now throw in a possible future
détente between Israel and Iran, then you quickly arrive at a
conflict. This is not a trivial situation, and will almost certainly
lead to some kind of conflict not currently anticipated.

Generational Dynamics predictions that I've been posting for years
haven't changed. Generational Dynamics predicts that the Mideast is
headed for a major regional war, pitting Sunnis versus Shias, Jews
versus Arabs, and various ethnic groups against each other.
Generational Dynamics predicts that in the approaching Clash of
Civilizations world war, the "axis" of China, Pakistan and the Sunni
Muslim countries will be pitted against the "allies," the US, India,
Russia and Iran. Reuters and Jerusalem Online

Related Articles

• Anti-government, anti-war and economic protests spread across Iran (30-Dec-2017)
  
  
• The coming regime change in Iran (09-Nov-2015)
  
  
• Iran's younger generations propel Rouhani to decisive presidential win (21-May-2017)
  
  
• Report: Israel and Saudi Arabia are allying against Iran and Hezbollah (28-May-2016)
  
  
• Tens of thousands protest in Tehran after Rafsanjani says Iran is 'in crisis' (18-Jul-2009)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Iran, Hassan Rouhani, Rana Rahimpour,
Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Egypt, Sinai, Saudi Arabia,
United Arab Emirates, UAE, Qatar

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal

John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe