On Sources – 1: Dear Russia and China haters….
August 13, 2021
Dear China and Russia haters, First, as you should know, you’ve been duped (again).
You keep falling for it, don’t you? Yes, yes, yes, in both countries there are problems, all round fuck-ups – it seems that where humans are involved – this is inevitable – you know, the old greed, lust, ambition, narcissitic stuff. But… you’re going to compare the problems in China with the disaster unfolding in the US of A on all levels? political crisis where the two main parties are slugging it out, the swollen military budget with its 800+ military bases around the world and rampant military intervention the world round? And racism, the rampant, ever expanding … U.S. is Number One in that category, etc, etc.
No the USA is not, as my in-laws suggest “the best place, next to heaven”, “God’s country,” etc… Trumpty-Dumpty’s reference to African nations as “shithole” countries, is an excellent example of what psychologists call “projection”..
Anyway… SOME OF YOU are genuinely interested in foreign policy… Good. in the end it IS one world and we are all connected in a myriad of ways that transcend narrow, nationalist considerations… You folks, the “internationalists” among us need to start diversifying your sources of information. You’re simply NOT going to get a clearer picture of the world by reading the Denver Post, NY Times, Wall Street Journal or watching CNN – or worse, FOX News. And for those of you who think that somehow the BBC is a more objective alternative — it’s the same cool aid, political pablum as we get here, only better written or more articulately presented. Those Brits do have a way with words… but the message is THE SAME, in the end, no more than sugar coated political or journalistic poison, or, as it used to be described – Yellow Journalism.
In some of the posts that follow, I am going to suggest other news sources for you to follow. OF COURSE, read them skeptically too. In time you’ll be able to separate what is news from what is propaganda, lies, exaggerations etc… Below are two sources on China worth reading:
1. Subscribe to the Qiao Collective publications on China on Facebook.. As it statement tells us – it is the work of diaspera Chinese who define themselves as Marxist. They have already put together impressive bibliographies on modern Chinese history, on Hong Kong, Xinjiang, the U.S. military build up in the S. China Sea
2. Here is another source: – https://dongshengnews.org/en/ – Dongsheng news from China. Yes it’s an official source – learn how to discern what is fact from what is something less, but that said, you’ll find it sober and for the most part, objective (whatever that means these days).
3. On reporting about Russia – again, there are many decent sources – I won’t overwhelm you with a bio – although overtime I will suggest many others. But for now, you could do a lot worse – and not much better – than following the reports of Fred Weir on Facebook, the Moscow correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor and a regular contributor to Facebook.
I am going to add to this post over time… slowly, surely. Hope you find it helpful.
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View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 
Rob, we love your writing! But Ron & I missed the specific “blame Russia/blame China” “news” cycle you allude to here. If you have a moment, clue us in, as we want to be able to follow your line of thought. Margy
On Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 7:58 AM View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince’s Blog wrote:
> Rob Prince posted: ” Dear China and Russia haters, First, as you should > know, you’ve been duped (again). You keep falling for it, don’t you? Yes, > yes, yes, in both countries there are problems, all round fuck-ups – it > seems that where humans are involved – this is i” >
Margy, Ron – there is nothing short of a blitzkrieg of news to vilify both Russia and China… based on exaggerations, in some cases (the Uyghur “concentration camps” – outright lies. As in the past, the goal is to soften up the American people for Washington’s increasingly bellicose policies towards Russia and China.. The narrative set in place for both countries – as with the Cold War – are difficult-to-impossible to deconstruct, The characterization of Putin as someone akin to Hitler, Stalin (both?) becomes a major barrier for speaking about common efforts on Climate Change, nuclear disarmament, etc. All I’m trying to do – I have a second piece I’m working on – is to provide sources that challenge these mainstream narratives. Perhaps it’s time for a Zoom in the next few days to clarify AND – on a moe important subject… smoozing at a Democratic fundraiser (I did hold my nose and go) I met two guys from W. Kansas, one from Goodland the other from Garden City both of whom got somewhat excited when I mentioned Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivera. Birding in Kansas – an opening to big time power politics! – easily the most interesting exchange of the evening…