Money Talk

“We have a gentleman that likes a very strong dollar at the Fed. I want a strong dollar, but I want a dollar that’s great for our country, not a dollar that is so strong that it is prohibitive for us to be dealing with other nations.”   — Donald Trump

President Donald Trump speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, on March 2, 2019.

Donald Trump has no idea what a “strong dollar” means. Trump has always been a privileged bully, who gets to borrow money for nothing and then default, so what does he know about economics?

The US dollar has been diluted by a decade of money printing (QE) for speculators, which has now been made permanent. The Fed & big banks have injected over $500 billion into the stock markets since their swoon in December 2018, which happened as soon as the Fed tried to end QE & raise interest rates.

“Quantitative tightening” has been abandoned, and it’s back to money printing, with sustained near-zero interest rates for the banks. That doesn’t help anyone who works for a living, but it keeps this financial house of cards from collapsing– for a little longer.

The US dollar has been inflated (ie- weakened) by financial parasites, which is why foreign governments are now buying gold, to hedge against the collapse of the greenback. If you are the average person with a few thousand dollars (or less) in the bank, you take comfort in knowing that it isn’t much to lose, when the banks collapse. The US dollar’s purchasing power, in real terms, is less than ever as housing, education, and even food cost more– in term of percentage of wages spent on these essentials.

Things forever changed economically in the early 1970’s for many reasons. US President Richard Nixon & his most-trusted advisor Henry Kissinger took the US off the gold standard in August of 1971. The reason was that the US could no longer afford to be the world bank, reimbursing gold at $35 an ounce. From there the US dollar was floated, and fiat speculation was born. This unbalanced the foundations of the post-war order under Bretton-Woods.

The rise of computers & globalization, along with a loss of economic preeminence by the US, which was reeling from the costs of the Vietnam War, led to the US ruling class launching an offensive against the working class, which has only been escalated up to today. In other countries it’s called “austerity.”

The lessons for working people are that they need to organize for themselves, as government & union “leaders” have sold them out. Governments are committees of the ruling class, which are the bourgeoisie under capitalism. Political independence of organized workers is the only way to redistribute wealth against this fascist current of late-stage capitalism. Liberal reformism is dead, as it died with the hopes & dreams of Barrack Obama.

In America there is now a sociopathic President of the United States, who openly speaks against socialism with lies & threats of violence, and no voice of opposition from the Democrats or the mass media. This only proves that the Democrats, along with MSNBC & CNN, are as much fascist as Trump & his core supporters.

The Democrat version of fascism is identity politics domestically, and anti-Russia (anti-socialism) in foreign policy. Trump is a racist, so he prefers China & Latin America as the main targets of US foreign aggression– diplomatically, covertly, and/or militarily. That’s the actual difference in politics between Republicans & Democrats, which is a fake debate.

There are many financial elites who support Trump on foreign policy, because they see China, with it’s rise as a technological superpower, as the primary threat to US economic hegemony. Russia doesn’t have that technology edge, but is still seen as a threat because of its history.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was the most defining event of the 20th century, with enduring lessons for the workers of the world. It was led by Lenin & Trotsky, whose Bolshevik party captured the trust of the masses, and organized an insurrection that toppled the hated tsar & it’s feudalist regime.

Instead of moving into capitalism, Lenin & Trotsky galvanized the workers of Russia, who organized a socialist government of workers’ councils. These workers’ councils were called “soviets.” After the October (November) Revolution, Russia became a “government of soviets,” with the Bolsheviks as the majority among the workers.

The imperialists who started the “Great War” (1914-1918) recoiled at these events & reacted with horror. By 1918, “the war to end all wars” was over, but every country turned its military might onto the incipient Soviet government. Trotsky organized & led the Red Army, which ultimately defeated the traitorous “Whites,” and their imperialist backers. By 1923, all foreign troops had been defeated and the revolution was saved, but Russia had been bled white.

When Lenin finally succumbed to a series of strokes in January 1924, a factional political battle raged between Leon Trotsky, the recognized leader (along with Lenin) of the Russian Revolution, and Joseph Stalin. Stalin was better at laying traps, and making ever-shifting alliances behind-the-scenes. This talent at intrigue led Stalin’s bureaucracy to take power, and become the fascist version of socialized property relations.

Socialism never existed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), because workers never had control over production, and allocation of resources. A Stalinist bureaucracy attached itself to the Revolution, and consumed it from within. Trotsky was defeated politically by an ever-expanding bureaucracy led by Stalin. Trotsky was isolated, exiled, and ultimately murdered by a GPU agent in Mexico City in 1940.

In 1991, the USSR suddenly collapsed, and bourgeois intellectuals of the world were all speechless as to what happened. Trotsky wrote (above) in 1936, that the Soviet Union would either have a workers’ revolution and overthrow the bureaucracy, or it would fall back into capitalism. Trotsky was proven right in the negative. Today, Russians have a much lower standard of living than they did as citizens of the USSR. Bourgeois historians & economists never mention any of these historical facts or lessons.

Stalin advocated for “Socialism in one country,” as opposed to Trotsky’s “Theory of Permanent Revolution.” Trotsky was an internationalist, in the tradition of Karl Marx, who understood at this point of capitalist development (20th century), there could be only global socialism. Any genuine socialist revolution would be permanent in nature. National Socialist is what the Nazi’s called themselves, and Stalin was the communist equivalent to Adolf Hitler under capitalism.

Donald Trump is the US version of Hitler/Stalin, but notice there is no resistance coming from the so-called “left.” Bernie Sanders & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have staked out the furthest left position under two-party US capitalism. It consists of unattainable reforms, green rhetoric, and a blind eye to militarism, the expanding police state, and a criminal detention policy for refugees & their children, etc.

The main “progressive” plank of the Democrats today is identity politics, which is #MeToo feminism, Black Lives Matter racialism, and LGBT rights. These identities are used as ideological weapons, to attack artists, socialists & workers who question this system of economic inequality.

The most foul of these has been the #MeToo campaign, which has a Hollywood face, but deep state roots. It’s ideology is to attack those who expose these political & economic terrorists for their crimes. Julian Assange was among the first victims of this internationally-coordinated campaign of sexual intimidation, in the name of imperialism.

Democrats, the deep state, and their supports will only continue to double down on the #MeToo campaign & racialism– as it’s all they’ve got. Each week the New York Times published another expose’ meant to take down an artist in entertainment, etc. Pretty soon there won’t be any good performers left, which means all the movies, television & music will be fake. We’re almost there already.

The Fed will print more fake money, while Trump and his fascist crowd will continue to provoke confrontations globally, exerting “maximum pressure,” in order to create flashpoints for war & crisis. This is the only way they can stay in power, which is what it’s all about.

None of this is in the interest of the workers who earn wages to live. A nuclear winter from a war between India & Pakistan is all it takes to wipe human civilization, and we’ve gotten far too close to that. The recklessness of our “leaders” must be checked with a mass intervention to avoid catastrophe for our planet.

There is no faction among the ruling elites which prefers socialism over world war, therefore they all must go. Revolutions happen in history, and we as a civilization are long overdue. The faster we learn these lessons & organize ourselves, the faster it will happen.

Fri 08 Mar 2019 09:50 AM EST : Keiser Report Update:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmsVgvczhg4

Max is correct in that the dollar is being inflated, not burned, by QE & 0% interest rates for big banks & financial speculators. His analogy of a Tomahawk missile for the US government burning money is more correct than Stacy’s. The US economy is war-based, as the military is now considered its primary strength, with the decline of the greenback. The Afghanistan War is now the longest running US war in history, and imperialism has lost again. But there is too much invested in the ideology of war for US elites to admit defeat, therefore the charade goes on for a bit longer…

War & police-state measures with mass censorship are seen as the only option for the ruling class in this late stage of capitalism. A Tomahawk missile built by Raytheon costs $1.4 million each. When it blows up, all its “value” is instantly exploded. By any reasonable measure, the cost of a Tomahawk missile exploding in a home, neighborhood, or business district would be recorded as a net loss for any nation’s economy.

No one ever discusses these actual costs in the “authorized” media. In America, elite Republicans & Democrats manipulate the numbers & facts through the corporate media, to turn reality on its head. Every “issue” & “debate” is fake because of how it’s framed, which is always in the interest of the richest class.

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Internet Censorship

Once people are made aware of an idea, it can’t be taken back or erased. It’s already out there, as part of collective human knowledge. Censors never understand this elementary fact of social life.

The thing with censorship is, people instinctively are drawn towards what’s blacklisted, therefore it always backfires– in the long run. In politics today, there is no more “long run,” as everything is now measured in milli-second gains & losses. The political game is to keep everyone permanently distracted, until the reaction is ready to strike when the final economic collapse hits.

Therefore breaking through this political blacklist becomes a revolutionary task. There are definite interests, with specific names, who are behind this nefarious campaign. It began as Russian interference & fake news, and has now morphed into a right-wing feminist witch-hunt in the form of #MeToo.

The interest behind every one of these campaigns is the same: to stifle, intimidate & marginalize political dissent. Here’s the latest: Fakebook just announced it will favor cute & cuddly posts, over hard political content. Family values and all that…

Everything flows in the same direction, and it’s no accident. The media is owned by a handful of corporations, and the world is controlled by a few thousand wealthy people & families. That level of inequality is not justifiable, much less sustainable, yet everyone must keep dancing in denial until the music ends.

This time around expect massive wildcat strike action, as the unions can no longer claim to represent the rank-and-file. Everyone one of them has sold out in the name of “corporate partnership.” On campuses around the world there will be unprecedented protest & revolutionary action from dissatisfied students who largely see no future.

These stories are never broadcast or analyzed in the mainstream news. There is virtually no labor coverage in mass media. Workers and their jobs are discussed only abstractly by Wall Street analysts & talking heads, all of whom have no understanding, much less sympathy for the conditions of the great majority. The economy is only measured by the DJIA & NASDAQ.

As one who has been censored for a long time now, let me describe how the process typically unfolds. I publish an idea that is controversial & adversarial to major interests. Most people don’t respond to it, for one of two reasons: 1) They disagree, or 2) They are stunned, and now unsure. This latter group wrestles with it and then carries the idea, so censoring the source won’t contain this new concept. As more people rationalize the idea, the more it shows up in social media, and (eventually) has to be acknowledged in the mass media.

You can’t kill an idea. If you could, Marxism & Trotskyism would have perished decades ago. They live because of their power, in that they reveal social & economic truths which we must grasp and use, otherwise we are a doomed species. Fascism is preparing it’s coup d’état, and the deep state has it’s own designs on power– in the form of removing Donald Trump from office on the 25th amendment, citing mental incompetence.

Once again, no one denies Donald Trump is an imbecilic, racist sociopath. The point is, the two-party system, the banks & corporate America allowed him to win the Electoral College. Any system that does that is bankrupt. They only admit it now, because they realize what a disaster Trump is. The ruling establishment wants the public to forget their own dirty roles in aiding his electoral victory.

These ideas are out there, and the sentiment for them is only growing stronger. Hollywood’s hold on the population is also slipping, and the #MeToo campaign has revealed its hypocrisy. While claiming to represent the ideals of women everywhere, they only represent themselves. The problem for them is that people can now get on social media, and call them out in forums and on their Fakebook & Twitter pages. Other fans see this, and are thus influenced. The same is true for sports and the rest.

You can’t really censor the Internet, without shutting it down completely, and no one wants that. There’s too much sharing, which is happening very quickly. These fresh ideas and innovations are what keep us alive, and excited about living. The censors are always a step or two behind, but when their hammer comes down, it hurts.

The people controlling the Internet are those who own the social media platforms & online distribution: Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos are among the richest people in the world. They work with the NSA, FBI, CIA and any other government agencies, to give them whatever they demand. At this point, that means near-total blacklisting of any voices of dissent.

People stopped watching the evening news and buying newspapers long ago, and the reason is– they don’t believe in it anymore. The more any idea is blacklisted, the more exotic & alluring it becomes– especially when truth is no longer allowed in the official media. Once the revolutionary rubber meets the road, and the working class organizes against this treachery, the possibilities become limitless, as this is the last defense of a dying capitalist system. There are no more ideological barriers, once this blacklist is exposed. At that point it becomes an open fight to the death– socialism vs annihilation.

The job of socialists is to be as active as possible in learning, teaching and organizing. Once again the Internet provides many vehicles for this purpose, and is only limited by your imagination & time. Censorship can and will be defeated, by active & relentless exposure. This means tracing it all the way back to its sources, and holding everyone accountable to the end. That’s what is known as a socialist revolution, and the dialectics of censorship.

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Fascism Wins Election 2016

A political earthquake has just struck, as fascist billionaire and Republican candidate Donald Trump has won the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In what was supposed to be a victory party for long-time Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, turned into an exposure of what she truly is– the biggest loser in modern political history.  [1]  This is a woman who married for power, stood beside her President husband after he was impeached in 1998 for lying about his extramarital affairs, then lost the 2008 Democratic primary (in which she was heavily supported & supposed to easily to win) to up-and-comer Barack Obama. Hillary played it smart & surrendered gracefully in ’08, settling for Secretary of State from 2009-13, authorizing & condoning war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya & beyond…

This ‘2016 Election’ was to be hers, but it kept hitting snags from the start.  Bernie Sanders challenged Hillary from the left, and won 13+ million votes by identifying himself as socialist, meaning he stumped against the corruption of the Clinton’s & their like. Wikileaks dumps later revealed that high-ranking operatives in the Democratic party manipulated funding away from Sanders and towards Hillary Clinton in the primary. This may have been decisive for the Clinton campaign in outlasting Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination.

wikileaks-headaches

If Bernie Sanders had won, he likely would have easily defeated Donald Trump (by 12-15 points according to polling), or any other Republican candidate (Rubio, Cruz, Bush…) by a closer but comfortable margin. Sanders shilled for Hillary Clinton after his concession at the Democratic convention, but most of his supporters abandoned him and his ‘new’ message. Many of Sanders’ primary supporters switched to Donald Trump in the general election, on the basis of BOTH their appeals to the working poor, which acknowledged the bad economy for most laborers.

feel-the-bern

The most-cited reason for young & newly-registered voters in choosing Donald Trump was their intense hatred of Hillary Clinton. The message to the ruling class was, when you put every resource in politics (Wall Street, the military/intelligence apparatus, Hollywood, etc…) behind the most obvious phony ever, the American people say “Fuck you!” and ‘choose’ a fascist bigot instead.  Since there was no other choice, frustrated working people figured this would make a lot of rich people unhappy, and maybe feel some of their pain. It’s not so much stupidity, but class spite that motivated so many. The message has been received. Stock markets around the world have been sent roiling, as this is considered a disaster around the world.

der-spiegel_11-5-16

Americans should step outside of themselves for a moment and start considering this (and other matters) from an internationalist perspective. A dangerous person has just become President of the United States. Make no mistake, Trump’s fervid supporters are among the most ignorant & brazen forms of human scum. Racists, bigots & haters are about to be set loose under Trump’s mandate. This is equivalent to Adolf Hitler being appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Even a few days ago it didn’t seem possible, and yet the impossible has now happened. [2]

hitler-appointed-chancellor

The only positive that comes from this is that it is now obvious (to most) that human civilization has reached a crossroads. The necessity for organization, militancy and action among workers & youth everywhere just became much clearer. If Hillary Clinton had won, there would still be too many self-satisfied pseudo-intellectuals (feminists, black racialists, gay rights activists, etc…) posturing as progressives, while living as opportunists– protecting their own comfortable existence & nurturing their idealist fantasies. They have been a source of too much political confusion for too long, and in many ways they are most responsible for Donald Trump becoming president. Their blind support for Hillary Clinton (lesser-of-two-evils nonsense) in spite of her vast criminal record was unconscionable. These liberals ‘study’ the issues carefully before the election, check their ballots, then expect everything to be taken care of one way or another. Hillary was to be the answer to all their illusions, which have now been smashed on the rocks of sexist hypocrite Donald Trump.

Marxists remain objective in their assessment for the prospects of these liberal supporters, who have no explanation for what just happened. For many, their biggest disappointment in all this is the denial of their vicarious pleasure of this final feminist conquest. Many will be heartbroken for days over this.

For serious people, these are now serious times. The Clock on Humanity which was already been ticking, has now been sped up. A socialist revolution will be the objective task for the near-future, as there is nothing left resembling respectability in bourgeois politics. This ‘election’ was a disgrace on every level, as one fascist ego-maniac has smashed both political parties in 18 months time, proving the decrepitude of the existing U.S. two-party system.

It’s now the Wild West in Washington. The military, intelligence agencies and Wall Street will now begin to act more autonomously as President-elect Trump much resembles Hitler’s personality in his inability to think clearly and remain focused. Power vacuums will pop up like mushrooms everywhere, and power brokers will battle for political influence behind the scenes in an administration headed by an unstable, yet all-powerful individual.

Neither side was going to accept this ‘election’ result, so now the real war begins. For those interested in the fate of humanity, now is the time to strengthen political consciousness & resolve with Marxism. Socialism is the only solution, and anyone who says differently is a traitor to humanity. The traditional Republican party is now openly fascist, while Democratic liberalism is dead. Strikes, walk-outs, sit-downs and any other labor unrest needs to be wildcat in nature, meaning the trade union bureaucracy (controlled by the Democratic party and enforced by the mafia) must be cast aside & thrown out. Workplaces & factories need to begin organizing and uniting, as a massive police-state repression looms on the horizon. There is no running from this fight. The intention of Donald Trump and his supporters is clear, no respect for humanity or anything else. This must be met with resolve and physical force, as these people understand nothing else.

This become the fight for human survival: socialize or perish.

Final Update 2-25-17:

Whatever Donald Trump’s ego and unpredictability may bring, it’s no match for deeper class forces which are bearing down with full force upon his presidency. In his first month, Trump has proven himself highly sensitive to any criticism, which makes him extremely vulnerable to manipulation. His fascist aides (Sean Spicer in particular), now appear to have total influence on his decision-making. Trump’s only counter to this is the threat of their removal, which seems unlikely as he completely relies upon them. Remember, this is a president with no actual brains or scruples, only cunning avarice & delusions-of-grandeur, who is considered a ‘loose cannon’ by significant sections of the deep state. In this, he much resembles Adolf Hitler in that: 1) he can’t focus and is defined by his volatility; 2) he initiates high-level power struggles, then allows them to fester out-of-control at the cost of destabilizing the state; and 3) both were/are led-by-the-nose by their propaganda minister– Sean Spicer/Joseph Goebbels.

If we have fascism in America (and we certainly now do), then Donald Trump is obviously Adolf Hitler. The important Marxist theoretical question becomes, who is Joseph Goebbels? It is now clear that the propaganda-manipulating mastermind connecting Donald Trump to the deep state is White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

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Questions for U.S. Presidential Candidates

Since the spring of 2015, Democrats & Republicans have begun jockeying for the next US presidency, and there is still over a year before voting on November 8, 2016.  As of yet, nothing serious has been discussed by any of these hopefuls– call it a severe case of the Emperor’s New Clothes.

Here is a list of questions that people should ask, since they won’t ever be brought up by the corporate-controlled media which manages this deranged circus.  These queries are then answered with an honesty & directness that is unheard of in official political discourse.

Q: What is being done to end this bogus ‘war on terror?’

Nothing. The US military invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001, in response to 9/11; and has been ravaging & terrorizing this part of the world ever since. The latest highlighted atrocity is the willful bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan– killing 22, including 12 medical personnel.  This is a war crime by any definition.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Kunduz Trauma Center

Photo above by Andrew Quilty

Q: If you are a candidate who insists on maintaining (or increasing) troop levels in the Middle East, with the continued indiscriminate use of violence on the population as a whole; how do you not consider yourself a war criminal?

It is politically incorrect to compare today’s fascists with yesterday’s Nazis.  Violence abroad and attacks on democratic rights at home are two sides of the same coin.  Police violence against the poor of all races is the domestic extension of this foreign policy.

Q: Why do all Dems/Reps support law enforcement when they murder innocent civilians?

The truth is, Dems/Reps support police/military violence against the American workers because it has increasingly becoming the only way to maintain the current levels of social inequality.  The US social safety net has been shredded by decades of budget cuts, so the jackboot of the ruling class is now used to control mass discontent.

Q: How can a campaign that raises so much Super PAC money respond to the needs of ordinary working people who can’t afford to donate such sums?

To ask the question is to answer it.  Politicians are bought & paid for, long before the voters go to the polls.  The only representation that goes on in Washington is done by high-powered lobbying groups, representing big capital.

Q: What about global warming?

No capitalist candidate wants to seriously address this problem.  Unplanned industrialization has led mankind into the downward spiral of climate change, with potentially disastrous consequences.  Capitalists are only concerned with this quarter’s profits.  This important question, which affects the future of everyone on this planet is always ignored or marginalized by mainstream politicians.  They have no answer, because in fact, they represent the problem.

Q: What about the risk of nuclear war with Russia and/or China?

That’s a classified secret.  All foreign policy is strictly controlled & monitored by the Pentagon & CIA, with no public input.

Q: Why does Donald Trump get so much press?

Donald Trump is a reactionary bigot.  His role in this election cycle is to push all discourse to the right– and down into the muck.  The corporate media has fully participated in this degraded celebration of ignorance and personal wealth.

Q: Is there a candidate who can give a fair definition of socialism?

Bernie Sanders (Democrat) is the pseudo-socialist; he supports militarism abroad and an anti-immigration policy at home– which is the polar opposite of socialism.  Socialism is the revolutionary transformation of society from private ownership of wealth (capitalism), into public ownership of the means-of-production, via a worker’s revolution.  The major candidates and their philistine lapdogs in the media have likely never read Karl Marx, or any other classical Marxist– including V.I. Lenin or Leon Trotsky.

Q: Will my vote count?

Probably not.  Elections are manipulated by the puppet-masters who fund campaigns and control the media.  The election of a U.S. president can’t be left up to the population, as they may make the ‘wrong’ choice; therefore biased media coverage and electronic voting manipulation will be decisive in determining the next presidency.

Q: So who will get the nominations and eventually the presidency?

The candidates who raise the most money.  Hillary Clinton (Democrat) and Jeb Bush (Republican) have the most cash & machinery in place to win (or if necessary, steal) an election.

Q: That sounds like more of the same garbage, what other options are there for working people?

Socialism or barbarism.

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May Day: International Labor Day

Today is May Day, the great unknown American holiday.  It is unfortunate that here in the United States, we don’t know our history.

Outside the US, May Day is recognized in over 80 countries around the world as a day of international labor solidarity.

The first May Day of this kind was in Chicago in 1886, when organized workers energetically demonstrated on May 1st for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, along with other proletariat class demands.

Three days later, the demonstration was broken up by police force, in what is known as the Haymarket Affair. There is still a statue in Chicago commemorating this historical event.

THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.

THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.

The US history of worker militancy needs to be re-learned by its population, and drawn upon.  The war against capitalist exploitation needs history (with the invaluable lessons it contains), to guide the working masses fighting spirit.

Workers of the world, unite!!

Five Quick Reasons Why Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution is the Most Amazing Book Ever Written

Trotsky's Writings on the USSR

1. Beautiful narrative

2. Precise characterizations & magnificent portraits of significant historical figures

3. Masterful Marxist understanding of the materialism & dialectics

4. 1300+ pages

5. An authentic non-fiction historical masterpiece, written by one of the event’s central participants; which makes it unique

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If the current stand-off between the US & Russia in the Ukraine proves anything, it is this; people everywhere must understand the historical significance of the Soviet Union, or else we all will be annihilated. Mankind can not survive a Third World War, and we are far too close to that reality.