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Time is running out

I just read the article titled "Still no relief deal." I am very distressed that the last benefits expired on July 31 and there is still no relief in sight.

When I was much younger, there was a saying that half a loaf is better than none. Even though, as a newly converted Democrat, I'm disgusted by the mingy and mean-spirited Republicans led by Mitch McConnell, who are afraid to give "too much" to those who have nothing, I would encourage the Democrats to get anything they can out to those who are in desperate need, even if it means going back to the well later.

I understand that this is not the show of strength that Ms. Pelosi and the Democrats would prefer, but people need to be housed and fed, and time is running out.

RON JACOBS

Little Rock

On liberty and justice

The selection of judges should not be political and should be a nonpartisan process. Judges should not be influenced by political biases and appointed by elected politicians. To perform their constitutional duty, judges have to answer to the law and the Constitution--not to political pressure.

Depoliticizing the bench is as old as this nation. Alexander Hamilton said, "there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separate from the legislative and executive powers." If judges had to depend on the executive or legislature to keep their jobs, Hamilton wrote, judges would have "too great a disposition to consult popularity" instead of consulting "the Constitution and the laws," and we could not expect the "inflexible and uniform adherence to the rights of the Constitution, and of individuals, which we perceive to be indispensable in the courts of justice."

Governing our nation and administering laws and justice is not a game to be influenced by bias, prejudice, and outside political forces. It should be based on fairness and legal justice. The Constitution and laws of this nation were set up to reduce bribery and corruption out of its political offices and judges. Our democracy and justice cannot survive should such standards be ignored. We need people and judges with a moral compass that desires justice. Until this is done we will never have liberty and justice for all.

JERRY WAYNE DAVIS

Hot Springs

We must have hope

The headline of an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last Wednesday morning read: "States face pressure to ban hairstyle prejudice." I woke up that morning after watching what I was hopeful would be a presidential debate the night before. I'm still waiting for a debate. Over 200,000 of my neighbors have died during the last six months from something called covid-19. People are marching in the streets, hopeful that their efforts will affect legislation for the good of the order.

With things in the condition they are these days, I often surprise myself that I'm yet hopeful. After living for 70 years, I've come to realize that faith breeds hope. Do you have hope? If so, I pray that neither of us ever loses it. If we ever do, heaven help us.

HOSEA LONG

Little Rock

Will fight for freedom

Socialism is not communism. People in my generation spent a large part of our lives fighting communism. We know what communism is, and it is not socialism. If you like your Social Security, Medicare, military, public schools and roads, fire and police departments, you are a socialist, not a communist. Communists want to destroy capitalism. Socialists do not want to destroy the goose that lays the golden egg.

Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. Russian leaders have feared European aggression. They defeated both Napoleon and Hitler. Stalin created vassal states around Russia to protect himself against aggression. Putin is trying to do the same today, only now he has a like-minded, would-be dictator in the White House to help him. Fortunately, our fathers created a world order in 1945 to preserve freedom for everyone. Now that world order is under attack by the American president.

The United Nations charter was drafted in the United States and signed by the five permanent members on Oct. 24, 1945, to preserve peace and freedom in the world. The charter is a a treaty requiring all member states to respect and observe "human rights." Human rights were defined in the Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948. The nations of the world recognized in 1945 that when nations do not respect human rights, human beings will go to war to take what is rightfully theirs: freedom!

But what is freedom without food, water, and clean air? What is freedom if we have to live underground due to global warming? People will go to war to protect human rights. Look what is happening in Hong Kong and Belarus. If you want people to live peacefully, protect their human rights. Take them away, and there will be war.

RUUD DuVALL

Fayetteville

Critical census work

Kudos to Kara Wilkins and all of the volunteers who participated in Arkansas Counts. They combed our "natural state" to make sure that all of our inhabitants were counted and included in the very important 2020 United States Census. This census will impact the federal dollars our state receives during the next decade.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who supported this critical task.

PAUL BASH

Little Rock

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OPINION | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Time is running out | On liberty and justice | We must have hope - Arkansas Online

Across the world, the establishment is aware of the radical social consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Thats why were seeing leaders introduce strategies and thinking that could be interpreted as fascist in principle.

A story picked up by the UK media at the end of September passed almost unnoticed. As The Guardian reported, The government has ordered schools in England not to use resources from organizations which have expressed a desire to end capitalism. Department for Education guidance issued on Thursday for school leaders and teachers involved in setting the relationship, sex and health curriculum categorized anti-capitalism as an extreme political stance and equated it with opposition to freedom of speech, anti-Semitism and endorsement of illegal activity.

As far as I know, this was the first time such an explicit order had been given; nothing like this happened even in the darkest periods of the Cold War. One should also note the words used: a desire to end capitalism. Not an intention, a plan, a program, but simply a desire a term which can be applied to almost any statement (True, you didnt say it, but its what you desire").

Plus, of course, there was the (now usual) addition of anti-Semitism, as if a desire to end capitalism is in itself anti-Semitic. Are the authors aware that their prohibition is in itself anti-Semitic: it implies that Jews are in their essence capitalist?

Why this sudden panic reaction to communism? Is it fear that the pandemic, global warming and other social crises may provide an opportunity for China to assert itself as the only remaining superpower? No, China is not todays Soviet Union; the best way to prevent communism is to follow China. While the Soviet Union was the external enemy, the threat to liberal democracies today is internal, from the explosive mixture of crises that beset our societies.

Lets take an extreme but clear example of how the ongoing pandemic pushed our societies in the direction of what we associate with communism, and for some even the worst part of it.

In his Logiques des mondes, Alain Badiou elaborated on the idea of the politics of revolutionary justice at work from the ancient Chinese legists through Jacobins to Lenin and Mao. It consists of four moments: voluntarism (the belief that one can move mountains, ignoring objective laws and obstacles), terror (a ruthless will to crush the enemy), egalitarian justice (its immediate brutal imposition, with no understanding for the complex circumstances which allegedly compel us to proceed gradually), and, last but not least, trust in the people.

Does the ongoing pandemic not require us to invent a new version of these four features?

Voluntarism: Even in countries where conservative forces are in power, decisions are taken which clearly violate objective laws of the market, like the state directly intervening in industry, distributing billions to prevent hunger or for healthcare measures.

Terror: Liberals are correct in their fears. Not only are states forced to enact new modes of social control and regulation, but people are even solicited to report family members and neighbors who hide their infection to the authorities.

Egalitarian justice: It is commonly accepted that the eventual vaccine should be accessible to everybody, and that no part of the world population should be sacrificed to the virus the cure is either global or inefficient.

Trust in the people: We all know that most of the measures against the pandemic only work if people follow the recommendations. No state control can do the work here.

But much more important than this is the partial socialization of economy imposed by the pandemic. Such a socialization will become even more urgent with the ongoing rise in infections. This is how one should also interpret the fascist tendencies of Trump and other populists. As Walter Benjamin said long ago: Behind every fascism, there is a failed revolution.

These fascist tendencies signal that the establishment is silently aware of the radical social consequences of the pandemic. The establishment acts preventively by trying to quash them before they acquire full political form.

Although it is too simple to dismiss Trump as a fascist, the danger he embodies is even worse than outright fascism. From my youth, I remember a classic East German joke: Richard Nixon, Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker confront God, asking him about the future of their countries. To Nixon, he answers: In 2050, the US will be communist. Nixon turns around and starts to cry. To Brezhnev, he says: In 2050, the Soviet Union will be a Chinese province. After Brezhnev also turns around and starts to cry, Honecker finally asks: And how will it be in my beloved GDR? And God turns around, and starts to cry

We can easily imagine a version of the same joke if Trump and those similar to him prevail in our world. Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump confront God with the same question. To Putin, God answers: Russia will be controlled by China, so Putin turns around and starts to cry. To Xi, God answers: Mainland China will be dominated by Taiwan, so Xi does the same. When Trump finally asks the same question, God turns around and starts to cry

What we are getting today not only in China is the combination of strong authoritarian states with wild capitalist dynamics. The most efficient form of capitalism today is what Henry Farrell called networked authoritarianism: if a state spies on people enough and allows machine-learning systems to incorporate their behavior and respond to it, it is possible to provide for everyones needs better than a democracy could. Here, Xi, Putin and Trump are joining hands.

Two conclusions impose themselves here, a short-term one and a long-term one. The short-term one is that the task of (whatever remains of) the radical left is now, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out, to save our bourgeois democracy when the liberal center is too weak and indecisive to do it. Shame on them; we have now even to fight their battles!

Obsessed by Trumps provocative eccentricities, liberals miss the key point, developed byMichael Sandel: Trump is not a dictator, he only plays one on television, and we should not play along as his supporting cast. This is what we do when we criticize him as some kind of fascist, instead of focusing on his failures which he obfuscates by his dictatorial excesses and provocations. His typical strategy is to provoke the liberal ire which attracts wide attention and then, out of sight of the public at large, enforce measures which limit workers rights, etc.

And the second conclusion? During the protests thaterupted in Chile in October 2019, there was graffiti on a wall which read, Another end of the world is possible.. This should be our answer to an establishment obsessed by apocalyptic scenarios. Yes, your old world is coming to an end, but the options envisaged by you are not the only ones: another end of the world is possible.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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Zizek: Covid crisis sparked fear of communism & Chinas rise as superpower. But best way to prevent communism is to FOLLOW China - RT

I have some questions for the Idaho County Democrats.

What is an equal opportunity, compassionate, inclusive society look like; is rioting, looting, and burning our country as endorsed by current national Democrat leadership the beginning of this vision?

Does this include the endorsement of the Black Live Matters organization, whose founders declare they are trained in the ways of Marxism? For those who are not familiar with Marxism, here are some quotes from a couple of avowed Marxists.

Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis: it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical examples. -- Karl Marx.

Vladimir Lenin told his followers, Violence will be the inevitable accompaniment of the collapse of capitalism.

History records not only these revolutionary words, but also the fact that communism is responsible for the death of over 100 million people who would not comply to Marxist demands.

Communists wish to erase history and rewrite it with a narrative that undermines the foundation of our countrys founding principle that We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.

Todays national Democrat Party platform has removed the words Under God from the pledge of allegiance and is embracing the violence and destruction we are witnessing.

The Idaho County Democrats cannot hide behind the narrative that you are like me unless you denounce the violence these radicals are wishing to impose upon our nation.

We should all take the time to read our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution and also read Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream speech. These works remind us that our founding was a promise that needs to be kept and fought for. Kings example also reminds us that violence is not the solution.

The tearing down of these ideals that we are divinely created and replacing them with mans vision, is to live in an ever-changing society subject to the next tyrant and the destruction they will bring to enforce their vision of utopia.

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LETTER: Idaho County Democrats cannot hide behind the narrative - Idaho County Free Press

In a provocative decision the authorities of the illegal state entity of Northern Cyprus announced on Tuesday the opening of the coastal section of the long fenced-off occupied town of Varosha (Famagusta).

Speaking after a meeting in Ankara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Cypriot official Ersin Tatar told reporters that "the coast will open to the public from Thursday morning."

Erdogan welcomed Tatar's announcement as a "courageous decision" and added: "We hope Varosha will entirely open. We are ready to give any support on this issue".

"It is an undisputed fact that Varosha is a Turkish Cypriot territory. The decision about it rests with the Turkish Cypriot authorities," the Turkish President added.

The Turkish army has kept the town fenced off since its Greek Cypriot residents fled when it invaded Cyprus in 1974.

In a statement issued today, the Press Bureau of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) denounces the decision of Turkey, pointing out that this act reveals the hypocrisy of EU-USA-NATO.

The statement reads:

This decision is part of the perpetuation of the 46-year Turkish occupation of the 37% of Cyprus' territory and part of the dichotomous plans that have been hatching.

These developments reveal, once again, the hypocritical stance of the EU, the U.S. and NATO, who add grist to the mill of Turkish aggression, promoting strategic relations with Turkey's bourgeois class. At the same time, they [developments] expose the government of ND which entangles the country deeper in the euro-atlantic plans and cultivates dangerous complacency among the people.

Today, it becomes even more necessary to strengthen the demand for an independent Cyprus, one and not two states, with a single sovereignty, one citizenship and international personality, without foreign troops and bases, without guarantors and protectors, a common homeland of Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots, with the people being dominant in their place.

IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM

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KKE: Erdogan's decision to open Varosha in occupied Cyprus reveals the hypocrisy of EU-USA-NATO - In Defense of Communism

Oct 3rd 2020

The Quiet Americans. By Scott Anderson.Doubleday; 576 pages; $30. To be published in Britain by Picador in February 2021; 20.

THIS INTRIGUING book is an indictment. From its first page it argues that the CIA lost its way, in all senses, in the first decade of the cold war. Its witnesses are four courageous and initially idealistic patriots. Frank Wisner oversaw some of the earliest efforts to roll back communism in Europe. Michael Burke was a daredevil figure in the same game. Edward Lansdale was an minence grise in the Far East. Peter Sichel, a German-born Jewish wine-merchant and Wunderkindand the only one of the four still aliveheld his nose as he co-opted former Nazis into the agency, an initiative cited as one of its original sins.

Scott Anderson, a veteran foreign correspondent and novelist, weaves a beguiling if sometimes puzzling narrative from their criss-crossing careers. He takes in the Philippines, Vietnam and the CIAs early venality in Central America. He traipses along the Iron Curtain to unveil a string of early disasters in eastern Europe. His verdict is damning, yet also imprecise.

All four agents had brave, brilliant starts in the Office of Strategic Services, the CIAs forerunner, during the second world war, and were driven largely by principle. The author shows how they were all laid low, in moral and career terms, by the wrong-headedness of their political overlords, which they only occasionally resisted. The villains include J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI boss who, jealous of the CIA, stoked paranoia among allies as well as enemies, and Senator Joseph McCarthy, who ruined hundreds of lives in his quest for reds under the bed; but also, less predictably, the Dulles brothers, John Foster as secretary of state and Allen as head of the CIA. Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower are castigated. Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and even Barack Obama take a few knocks.

Of the four spies, Lansdale and Burke ultimately left the CIA in despair, stricken by the moral compromises they had been asked to make. Wisner committed suicide. The agents whom he and Burke infiltrated into Romania, Poland, the Baltic states and East Germany all disappeared; most were probably killed. Worse, in Mr Andersons view, were the results of two early successes, the coups against democracy in Iran and Guatemala, which tarnished the CIA for ever in the eyes of many in the Middle East and Latin America.

Telling this tale of woe through the four men is a clever device, and Mr Anderson is a fine narrator. Each of the quartet had remarkable early achievements. Lansdale, a former adman in California with a gift for empathy, almost single-handedly steered Ramon Magsaysay into the presidency of the Philippines in 1953 (he died in an air crash). Lansdale then became the most trusted adviser to Vietnams president, Ngo Dinh Diem, who was ousted and killed in 1963. Many of the CIAs failures stemmed from familiar shortcomings. We all have this tendency to look for information that confirms our beliefs and to ignore what conflicts with them, explains Mr Sichel. Its very hard to give somebody information he doesnt want to hear, and the more senior they are, the worse it is.

Early in his own career Mr Anderson witnessed the murderous brutality of a right-wing regime in El Salvador that was backed by the CIA. The very phrase anti-communist, he writes, took on a squalid quality when I considered the crimes done in its name. He duly dismisses out of hand the cold war strategy of Truman, Eisenhower and their successorsbased on the threat of massive retaliation, including nuclear war, if the Soviets overstepped the mark, while the CIA undertook a constant lower-level pushback, including covert operations. He lambasts George Kennan, a fabled diplomat, for encouraging the CIAs policy of containment, which was designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counterforce. This anti-communist refrain, he complains, lasted until communism collapsed. Oddly, he ignores the possibility that this outcome was precipitated at least partly by relentless outside pressure from the CIA and others.

More questionable still is his assertion that Americas over-zealous leaders and submissive spooks undercut the moderate faction within the Kremlin and bolstered the militants, and thus, especially after Stalins death in 1953, missed a golden opportunity to dramatically alter the course of the cold war. He even implicates the CIA in the suppression of the Hungarian revolt of 1956: by egging it on but backing away, Mr Anderson charges, the agency encouraged Moscow to crack down. Hungarian rebels may have picked up mixed signals from the Americans. But it is surely fanciful to suggest that Nikita Khrushchev was poised to let Hungary go, before the CIAs machinations changed his mind.

Espionage, intelligence-gathering and covert operations are by definition dodgy trades, whatever the motives of their practitioners. Mr Anderson vigorously argues that his quartet epitomised Americas slide into moral ambiguity and strategic muddle. Intelligence officers like them provided the fuel for the nuclear arms race and drove nations into the orbits of East or West. Spies on both sides were the cold wars first frontline soldiers.

But then Mr Anderson switches his animus back against the presidents and policymakers. Virtually every major covert mission undertaken by the CIA from its inception until today, he says, has been done under the express, if unwritten, orders of presidents. The agency is doomed to be the ultimate fall-guy. So were the flawed four both culprits and victims? A puzzling conundrum.

This article appeared in the Books & arts section of the print edition under the headline "Original sins"

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An indictment of the CIA, through the lives of four spies - The Economist