#national liberation day of korea

[cokun]

230815 code kunst ig post

어릴 적에 태극기를 잘 그리는 사람이 되고 싶어 많이 그렸었는데 아직도 이렇게 못 그리네요. 오늘은 광복절 78주년이라고 해요, 항상 아름답고 멋진 것들을 보며 자유롭게 생각하고 표현하는 삶을 살 수 있게 해��셔서 감사합니다 #nationalliberationdayofkorea

When I was young, I wanted to become someone who draws the Taegeukgi (Korean flag) well, so I drew it a lot, but as you can see I still can't draw it well. Today is the 78th anniversary of Korea's Liberation Day. Thank you for allowing me to live a life where I can always think and express freely while looking at beautiful and wonderful things. #nationalliberationdayofkorea

Trans. cr. 🐰 @ cokun.tumblr.com

[goggledoddle]

[batboyblog]

I've seen this meme and the pop wisdom idea behind it a lot, that if Democrats just manned up like the South Koreans they could stop Trump. SO! its now my job to explain BASIC FUCKING facts to people because they're talking nonsense about easily googlable information.

This is South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol of the center-right, conservative, People Power Party. He was elected President in 2022. Like in the United States, South Korea has mid-term elections, where South Korea's Congress, the National Assembly is up for elections while the President isn't. Unlike America South Korea's National Assembly has only one House. Any ways they had their midterm in 2024:

The opposition center-left, liberal Democratic Party won, overwhelmingly. The election was April 10th, they took office May 30th. Soon the opposition was doing what an opposition given power does, it was fighting President Yoon about his disastrous budget plans and trying to hold the First Lady Kim Keon-hee to account for alleged corruption. If this all sounds a bit like Trump, good job Yoon has been called "South Korea's Trump".

any ways 6 months into having an opposition run National Assembly Yoon declared martial law and sent soldiers to try to shut down the National Assembly. Everyone watched Democratic Assembly Members bravely climb fences and barricade the chamber doors to vote to end martial law. Here's what you have to understand about that vote

190 National Assembly members voted, 172 of them? We're Democrats and their allies. The President's People Power Party mostly stood by him. They keep standing by him in the days that followed. Four Days after President Yoon tried to use the Military to throw out the elected National Assembly and make himself dictator, the first try to impeach him, failed

105 out of the 108 the President's PPP party in the Assembly stood by him, after he tried to coup the country. Only 7 days later after overwhelming public pressure and the arrest of many key Presidential aids did an impeachment vote pass (he still hasn't been convicted)

only 12 PPP members broke with their Party and its President, 12 was enough, but the overwhelming majority? voted to protect the President who just tried to overthrow the country.

SO! Much like Donald Trump President Yoon didn't need to overthrow the country for the first 2 years of his term because he had a puppet Congress willing to go along with his corruption. With-in 6 months of dealing with a National Assembly that stood up to him the wheels came off and he imploded. But even after the most spectacular implosion on the International stage I've ever seen his party stood by him. If the Democratic Party didn't have a majority? and most important a BIG majority, a majority where even a small number of PPP defections was enough to get the 2/3rds they needed Yoon would still be President right now, if Democrats had a 2-3 seat majority in the National Assembly? they would have never gotten the votes to impeach.

We can see overlap in the American experience. In Trump's first term his own party in Congress never challenged him and largely stayed united behind him. In 2018 he lost the midterm elections which meant he was held to account and in fairly short order impeached, it took 8 months from Democrats taking office to an impeachment inquire to get underway. Like President Yoon Trump was not able to function under any kind of pushback. But unlike the South Korean Democrats the American Democrats didn't have an overwhelming majority in the Senate (Koreans don't even have a Senate) so Trump was not convicted. And the second time he was impeached after like Yoon trying to overthrow the Congress and become dictator, there were like in South Korea a handful of defectors from his own party, but unlike Korea The Democratic majority in the 2021 Senate wasn't large enough to have those Republican votes matter

So brave displays are good and important, but they don't mean much without the power, the votes to back it up. Elect Democrats in 2026 and they will, in less than a year of taking office, impeach Trump. Trump can't function with an opposition, he can't do it, he'll do something and they will HAVE TO vote to remove him. But the key is they need to votes to do it, because most Republicans? will go down with the ship, there's no red lines for them, if Democrats don't have big majorities, Trump hanging onto 90% of his party in the Senate will save his ass, again.

[metamorphesque]

Monte Melqonyan/Մոնթե Մելքոնյան (1957-1993)

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. He's one of those extraordinary individuals about whom countless books could be written and numerous movies could be made, yet still, so much would remain untold. You might wonder, "He's a National Armenian Hero—cool, but why should I know about him?" My answer is simple: if the world had more people like him, especially in today's times, it would be a much better place. He fought for justice, embodied culture and education, and radiated a deep love for his people and humanity as a whole. I believe everyone should aspire to have a little bit of Monte's spirit within them, regardless of their nationality.

Now, it's important to note that some things written about him in the Western press can be questionable and inaccurate. So, I would advise taking most of the information from those sources with a grain of salt.

Monte was born on November 25, 1957, into an Armenian family in Visalia, California, that had survived the Armenian Genocide. From 1969 to 1970, his family traveled through Western Armenia, the birthplace of his ancestors. During this journey, Monte, at the age of twelve, began to realize his Armenian identity. While taking Spanish language courses in Spain, his teacher had posed him the question of where he was from. Dissatisfied with Melkonian's answer of "California", the teacher rephrased the question by asking "where did your ancestors come from?" His brother Markar Melqonyan remarked that "her image of us was not at all like our image of ourselves. She did not view us as the Americans we had always assumed we were." From this moment on, for days and months to come, Markar continues, "Monte pondered [their teacher Señorita] Blanca's question Where are you from?"

In high school, he excelled academically and struggled to find new challenges. Instead of graduating early, as suggested by his principal, Monte found an alternative - a study abroad program in East Asia. The decision to go to Japan was not random. He had been attending karate clubs and was the champion of the under-14 category in California. He also studied Japanese culture, including taking Japanese language courses. After completing his studies at a school in Osaka, Japan, he went to South Korea, where he studied under a Buddhist monk. He later traveled to Vietnam, witnessing the war and taking numerous photographs of the conflict. Upon returning to America, he had become proficient in Japanese and karate.

Having graduated from high school, Monte entered the University of California, Berkeley, with a Regents Scholarship, majoring in ancient Asian history and archaeology. In 1978, he helped organize an exhibition of Armenian cultural artifacts at one of the university's libraries. A section of the exhibit dealing with the Armenian Genocide was removed by university authorities at the request of the Turkish consul general in San Francisco, but it was eventually reinstalled following a campus protest movement. Monte completed his undergraduate work in under three years. During his time at the university, he founded the "Armenian Students' Union" and organized an exhibition dedicated to the Armenian Genocide in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey.

Upon graduating, he was accepted into the archaeology graduate program at the University of Oxford. However, Monte chose to forgo this opportunity and instead began his lifelong struggle for the Armenian Cause.

In the fall of 1978, Monte went to Iran and participated in demonstrations against the Shah. Later that year, he traveled to Lebanon, where the civil war was at its peak. In Beirut, he participated in the defense of the Armenian community. Here, he learned Arabic and, by the age of 22, was fluent in Armenian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Persian, Japanese, and Kurdish.

From 1980, Monte joined the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA – I promise to tell you more about them later) and quickly became one of its leaders. In 1981, he participated in the planning of the famous Van operation. In 1981, he was arrested at Orly Airport in France for carrying a false passport and a pistol. During his trial, Monte declared, "All Armenians carry false passports—French, American—they will remain false as long as they are not Armenian." Over the following years, he perfected his military skills at an ASALA training camp, eventually becoming one of the group's principal instructors.

Monte with his wife Seda

After being released from a French prison (once again) in 1989, Monte arrived in Armenia in 1991, where armed clashes between Armenians and azerbaijanis had already begun. He founded the "Patriots" unit and spent seven months in Yerevan working at the Academy of Sciences, writing and publishing the book "Armenia and its Neighbors." In September of the same year, he went to the Republic of Artsakh to fight for his fatherland and its people. Due to his military expertise, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Martuni defense district in 1992. His sincerity and purity quickly won the love and respect of the local population and the Armenian community as a whole.

Throughout his conscious life, Monte fought for the rights of Armenians, recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and the reclamation of Armenian homeland.

There are various versions of Monte Melqonyan's death circulating in both Armenian and azerbaijani media. According to official Armenian information, Monte was killed on June 12, 1993, by fire from an azerbaijani armored vehicle.

Monte remains a lasting testament to the incredible potential unleashed when the Armenian patriotic heart unites with sharp intellect.

In case you'd like to put a voice to the face and hear about the Artsakh struggle directly from Monte, here he is speaking about it in English.

[mesetacadre]

In February, 1945, when the USSR agreed at Yalta to join the Allies in the war on Japan, it was decided to divide Korea into two zones for purposes of military action. The Russians took the north, the Americans the south. The following July, at Potsdam, the 38th parallel was chosen as the “great divide.” Korea was a victim of Japanese aggression, not an enemy. We would come as liberators, not as conquerors. The military occupation was to end within a year of victory, followed by about five years of civilian trusteeship in which all the Big Four Powers, America, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and China, should help Korea to her feet. That was the plan. The reality proved otherwise. The growing cold war against the Soviet Union made Korea also a base. The two zones solidified into two areas of military occupation. Friction continues to grow. When American troops landed in South Korea, September 7, 1945, thousands of Koreans danced and cheered and shouted: “Mansai,” or “Live a Thousand Years.” Within six months surly Koreans were demanding how soon the Americans would go home. Within a year great uprisings took place in eighty cities and in hundreds of farming villages against the “police state” that the American armed forces kept in power. When the Americans landed in Korea, the Koreans had already a de facto government. A “People’s Republic” had been declared a day earlier by a congress of Koreans themselves. General John R. Hodge, commander of the U. S. armed forces, dissolved this “People’s Republic,” and drove most of its members underground. Two days after landing, Hodge announced to the Koreans – who had waited a quarter of a century for liberation – that Japanese officials would temporarily continue to run Korea. Korean delegations waiting to greet Americans were fired on – by Japanese police! The Russians pursued an opposite policy. They recognized the “People’s Committees” that the Americans were suppressing. They encouraged Korean initiative when it took the form of ousting the Japanese-appointed puppets, dividing the landlords’ lands, and nationalizing the Japanese-owned industry as the “property of the Korean people.” They especially looked with favor on what they called “mass organizations,” – farmers’ unions, labor unions, women’s associations and unions of youth. The Russian zone in the north fairly blossomed with such organizations energetically building their country after their own desire. From time to time the Americans and Russians held conferences to determine Korea’s future. Nothing came of these talks but increasing bitterness for two years. The Americans insisted on including pro-Japanese quislings and returned exiles in the provisional government. The Russians refused. The Russians insisted on including representatives of the trade unions, the farmers’ union and other similar organizations. The USA would not hear of this.

In North Korea: First Eye-Witness Reports, Anna Louise Strong, 1949

[centrally-unplanned]

Was playing Vicky 3 again, a new Japan run with the VFM mod (which helps add more event depth) and I have definitely gotten the hang of the econ system even more, it has its flaws but the core works very well. I have advanced on getting the political system a bit too, can implement reforms and such. And I studied the military, learned where some opaque stuff in the UI is, etc.

So I go to invade Korea to liberate it off the Qing, declaring war while the UK is invading them to double team them. I try to naval invade Korea...and my attacks get "cancelled" because there are British troops in Korea, we aren't the same war. So I have to wait for that war to *finish* to attack, defeating the point of this strat.

I do, I naval invade Korea, but my attack gets blocked up by endless streams of Qing boats that I beat over and over but since they "exist" in the naval zone I can't progress. Meanwhile the Qing do naval landings in the North of Japan, and I beat them a dozen times, but one attack slips through and "lands" in Chubu.

This "shifts" the combat front system from "defend all of Japan from naval invasions" to "now there is a specific front" - and none of my units auto-deploy to it, so that lone invasion force sweeps a bunch of land before I notice it a few days later. I click my armies near Tokyo to deploy to the "front" near Kyoto to fight them off...at which point they all get on boats and try to autodeploy to Kyushu island - technically part of the same front - leaving the path to Tokyo completely empty and allowing the enemy to advance. And when they do reach Tokyo, that becomes a new "front" causing my units that sailed to Kyushu to sail *back*, which then gets cancelled again since sailing is slower than marching and the whole island is taken by the time they get there and since this is a "front redeploy" i guess it doesn't count as a naval invasion?

I pressed one button - deploy to Kansai front - in that entire sequence.

What problem was this system supposed to solve? What wasn't working with "click on army, have it move to territory, fight"? In Hearts of Iron 4, you have AI-managed fronts? But you don't have to do that, you can manually click them too. It just auto-controls the functional, intuitive system for you so you don't have to micro. Here the AI system is the only way anything functions, so if it breaks your military deletes itself and you can't intervene. And it isn't really less micro intensive! Because if you aren't like 24/7 hawk-eyed on the fronts you aren't going to notice when they just decide to Deploy to HQ because one battle was lost and you need to frantically reclick them which will maybe help but you can't be sure because you are only guessing where units will go.

I get btw that if you are fighting on a land border this system at least functions - but it does not function better than Hearts of Iron 4's system there. It is still annoying to have no control when the units path like madmen. But for now doing anything military with island nations is just insane. Maybe I can figure out cheat codes for auto-winning wars just to make the roleplay go smooth lol.

[without-ado]

l 데니 태극기 Denny's Taegeukgi (left): the oldest one among Taegeukgi flags found in Korea. This was given to O. N. Denny (1838-1900, an American diplomatic advisor) by King Gojong of Korean Empire (cr. 문화재청)

815 광복절 Happy National Liberation Day of Korea!

“I want our nation to be the most beautiful in the world. By this I do not mean the most powerful nation. Because I have felt the pain of being invaded by another nation, I do not want my nation to invade others. It is sufficient that our wealth makes our lives abundant; it is sufficient that our strength is able to prevent foreign invasions. The only thing that I desire in infinite quantity is the power of a noble culture. This is because the power of culture both makes ourselves happy and gives happiness to others.” —Kim Gu 백범 김구 cr.

l 광복(restoration of light) means the end of the darkness of Japan’s rule over the Korean peninsula

[allthegeopolitics]

President Donald Trump dumped the European Union in the worst category of America’s trade partners Wednesday, hitting the bloc with a 20 percent tariff on all imports.  Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement puts the 27-nation bloc in the trade sin bin along with major economies like China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. The move throws up U.S. trade barriers that haven’t been this high since the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

Continue Reading.

[treethymes]

With the exceptions of North Korea and Cuba, the communist world has merged onto the capitalist highway in a couple different ways during the twenty-first century. As you’ve read, free-trade imperialism and its cheap agricultural imports pushed farmers into the cities and into factory work, lowering the global price of manufacturing labor and glutting the world market with stuff. Forward-thinking states such as China and Vietnam invested in high-value-added production capacity and managed labor organizing, luring links from the global electronics supply chain and jump-starting capital investment. Combined with capital’s hesitancy to invest in North Atlantic production facilities, as well as a disinclination toward state-led investment in the region, Asian top-down planning erased much of the West’s technological edge. If two workers can do a single job, and one worker costs less, both in wages and state support, why pick the expensive one? Foxconn’s 2017 plan to build a U.S. taxpayer–subsidized $10 billion flat-panel display factory in Wisconsin was trumpeted by the president, but it was a fiasco that produced zero screens. The future cost of labor looks to be capped somewhere below the wage levels many people have enjoyed, and not just in the West.

The left-wing economist Joan Robinson used to tell a joke about poverty and investment, something to the effect of: The only thing worse than being exploited by capitalists is not being exploited by capitalists. It’s a cruel truism about the unipolar world, but shouldn’t second place count for something? When the Soviet project came to an end, in the early 1990s, the country had completed world history’s biggest, fastest modernization project, and that didn’t just disappear. Recall that Cisco was hyped to announce its buyout of the Evil Empire’s supercomputer team. Why wasn’t capitalist Russia able to, well, capitalize? You’re already familiar with one of the reasons: The United States absorbed a lot of human capital originally financed by the Soviet people. American immigration policy was based on draining technical talent in particular from the Second World. Sergey Brin is the best-known person in the Moscow-to-Palo-Alto pipeline, but he’s not the only one.

Look at the economic composition of China and Russia in the wake of Soviet dissolution: Both were headed toward capitalist social relations, but they took two different routes. The Russian transition happened rapidly. The state sold off public assets right away, and the natural monopolies such as telecommunications and energy were divided among a small number of skilled and connected businessmen, a category of guys lacking in a country that frowned on such characters but that grew in Gorbachev’s liberalizing perestroika era. Within five years, the country sold off an incredible 35 percent of its national wealth. Russia’s richest ended the century with a full counterrevolutionary reversal of their fortunes, propelling their income share above what it was before the Bolsheviks took over. To accomplish this, the country’s new capitalists fleeced the most vulnerable half of their society. “Over the 1989–2016 period, the top 1 percent captured more than two-thirds of the total growth in Russia,” found an international group of scholars, “while the bottom 50 percent actually saw a decline in its income.” Increases in energy prices encouraged the growth of an extractionist petro-centered economy. Blood-covered, teary, and writhing, infant Russian capital crowded into the gas and oil sectors. The small circle of oligarchs privatized unemployed KGB-trained killers to run “security,” and gangsters dominated politics at the local and national levels. They installed a not particularly well-known functionary—a former head of the new intelligence service FSB who also worked on the privatization of government assets—as president in a surprise move on the first day of the year 2000. He became the gangster in chief.

Vladimir Putin’s first term coincided with the energy boom, and billionaires gobbled up a ludicrous share of growth. If any individual oligarch got too big for his britches, Putin was not beyond imposing serious consequences. He reinserted the state into the natural monopolies, this time in collaboration with loyal capitalists, and his stranglehold on power remains tight for now, despite the outstandingly uneven distribution of growth. Between 1980 and 2015, the Russian top 1 percent grew its income an impressive 6.2 percent per year, but the top .001 percent has maintained a growth rate of 17 percent over the same period. To invest these profits, the Russian billionaires parked their money in real estate, bidding up housing prices, and stashed a large amount of their wealth offshore. Reinvestment in Russian production was not a priority—why go through the hassle when there were easier ways to keep getting richer?

While Russia grew billionaires instead of output, China saw a path to have both. As in the case of Terry Gou, the Chinese Communist Party tempered its transition by incorporating steadily increasing amounts of foreign direct investment through Hong Kong and Taiwan, picking partners and expanding outward from the special economic zones. State support for education and infrastructure combined with low wages to make the mainland too attractive to resist. (Russia’s population is stagnant, while China’s has grown quickly.) China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, in 2001, gave investors more confidence. Meanwhile, strong capital controls kept the country out of the offshore trap, and state development priorities took precedence over extraction and get-rich-quick schemes. Chinese private wealth was rechanneled into domestic financial assets—equity and bonds or other loan instruments—at a much higher rate than it was in Russia. The result has been a sustained high level of annual output growth compared to the rest of the world, the type that involves putting up an iPhone City in a matter of months. As it has everywhere else, that growth has been skewed: only an average of 4.5 percent for the bottom half of earners in the 1978–2015 period compared to more than 10 percent for the top .001 percent. But this ratio of just over 2–1 is incomparable to Russia’s 17–.5 ration during the same period.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, certain trends have been more or less unavoidable. The rich have gotten richer relative to the poor and working class—in Russia, in China, in the United States, and pretty much anywhere else you want to look. Capital has piled into property markets, driving up the cost of housing everywhere people want to live, especially in higher-wage cities and especially in the world’s financial centers. Capitalist and communist countries alike have disgorged public assets into private pockets. But by maintaining a level of control over the process and slowing its tendencies, the People’s Republic of China has built a massive and expanding postindustrial manufacturing base.

It’s important to understand both of these patterns as part of the same global system rather than as two opposed regimes. One might imagine, based on what I’ve written so far, that the Chinese model is useful, albeit perhaps threatening, in the long term for American tech companies while the Russian model is irrelevant. Some commentators have phrased this as the dilemma of middle-wage countries on the global market: Wages in China are going to be higher than wages in Russia because wages in Russia used to be higher than wages in China. But Russia’s counterrevolutionary hyper-bifurcation has been useful for Silicon Valley as well; they are two sides of the same coin. Think about it this way: If you’re a Russian billionaire in the first decades of the twenty-first century looking to invest a bunch of money you pulled out of the ground, where’s the best place you could put it? The answer is Palo Alto.

Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto

[darkmaga-returns]

From here:

Trump announces reciprocal tariffs at 'Liberation Day' event | Just The News

The key paragraph is this one:

“Trump further showed a chart to the crowd displaying the tariff rates he planned to apply to each nation.

China, which tariffs U.S. goods at a rate of 67%, will be tariffed 34%.

Countries in the European Union which tariff U.S. goods at a rate of 39%, will be tariffed 20%.

Vietnam will be tariff(ed) at 46%, Taiwan at 32%, Japan at 24%, India at 26% and South Korea at 25%.

The chart included more 20 nations. “

There is no specific mention of Canada, Mexico, Middle East, South America or Australia in the article.

We do have this for the UK, from here:

Trump tariffs latest: Donald Trump unveils 10% tariffs on UK imports amid fears of global trade war

“Donald Trump ignited fears of a global trade war on Wednesday as he unveiled tariffs on imports from dozens of countries, including a 10 per cent levy on UK imports.”

[reading-writing-revolution]

(via Week 22 - The Return - by Amy Siskind - The Weekly List)

The main theme of this week’swide list is Trump’s tariff war declaration and the global disruption that ensued, but before we get to that, I want to recognize the importance of the Hands Off protests which took place on Saturday. The media was not prepared to adequately cover the size and scope of this protest, which took even its organizers by surprise. I wrote more about why the protests really mattered on my Substack, but I also want to highlight, that as millions took to the streets at more than 1,600 locations, we passed an important hurdle. Many who protested were doing so for the first time, and got to see firsthand that they could do so safely and without incident. Ironically, it was Trump who preemptively erected a fence around the White House on Friday night. Protests have been remarkably effective: just ask Elon Musk who has seen his net worth crumble as Tesla stock continued to plummet following mass protests nationwide.

A federal judge ordered the White House to lift what had been a two-month ban on the AP, while a lawsuit plays out, saying the AP has “suffered significant, concrete harms.” The judge, a Trump appointee, cited AP was likely to win its case based on the First Amendment.

Pulitzer prize winning columnist Eugene Robinson left the Post, where he had worked since 1980 and been a columnist since 2005, citing owner Jeff Bezos’s new directive for editorial content.

On Wednesday after the market closed, in what Trump dubbed “Liberation Day,” he announced a baseline tariff of 10% on 190 countries, and shared a chart showing an additional “reciprocal” tariff on 57 countries, claiming trade deficits were a “national emergency.”

Analysts noted the reciprocal tariff percentages seemed to have applied a formula of dividing a country’s trade surplus by its total export value, then multiplying the figure by 0.5, a simplistic methodology that did not differentiate allies from adversaries, and punished some poor nations.

Trump put the highest tariff rate of 50% on Lesotho, a tiny African kingdom with a gross domestic product of just over $2 billion, and a country that Trump said recently “nobody has ever heard of.” Economists said Trump’s tariff would destroy their economy.

Also included in those targeted by reciprocal tariffs were uninhabited islands, islands with tiny populations of fewer than 2,000, and islands populated by penguins and seals. Notably, Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Cuba, and Iran were not hit with any tariffs.

Trump’s 10% baseline tariff also hit ally Australia, which has no tariffs on incoming U.S. goods, and is a net importer. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the measure “totally unwarranted,” and “not the act of a friend.”

The tariffs were in addition to the already imposed 25% tariffs on U.S. allies Canada and Mexico, with exceptions for items in the 2018 agreement, and an additional 20% on China. They were also in addition to tariffs on auto imports that went into effect this week.

WAPO’s fact checker noted that Trump’s speech at the Rose Garden was full of lies and claims that have been previously debunked, including citing a tariff by Canada on dairy products that is gone, a false claim that Americans are poorer, and lies about the origin of income tax.

WSJ reported Trump’s aim was to bring an end to the decades-long era of globalization, saying his Liberation Day was about having goods bought by American consumers to be built in American factories.

The scope and size of the tariffs shocked global markets, with many saying the move was far worse than their worst case scenario. Analysts called the move “a disaster,” and “ridiculous,” and “It shows no comprehension as to what he is doing to other countries.”

Trade experts at the conservative CATO institute said in a note, “With today’s announcement, U.S. tariffs will approach levels not seen since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which incited a global trade war and deepened the Great Depression.”

Economists at ra agency Fitch said Trump’s tariff rates were the highest since 1910, and “This is a game changer, not only for the U.S. economy but for the global economy,” adding, “Many countries will likely end up in a recession.”

Late Wednesday, four Senate Republicans joined with Democrats, voting 51–48 on a measure to undo some of the tariffs on Canada, a symbolic vote opposing Trump, despite his targeting them on social media. The resolution cited a “made-up” fentanyl emergency.

Global markets plunged, with the U.S. taking the biggest hit. The small-cap Russell 2000 benchmark plummeted more than 5%, becoming the first U.S. stock measure to enter bear market territory (down 20%).

On Thursday morning, layoffs surged to 275,240 in March, the highest level since the start of the pandemic in 2020, due to Musk’s DOGE cuts of 216,215 federal workers, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

On Thursday morning, car maker Stellantis Chrysler announced it would idle two assembly plants in Canada and Mexico, and laid off 900 workers as it tried to navigate Trump’s 25% automotive tariffs that went info effect last week.

Land Rover and Audi temporarily stopped exporting cars to the U.S. NYTreported if other auto manufacturers follow, it could lead to higher car prices and widespread layoffs. Car companies have had to deal with the sudden tariffs, and uncertainty of what Trump will do next.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers posted on X that he would have resigned in protest if “any administration of which I was a part had launched an economic policy so totally ungrounded in serious analysis or so dangerous and damaging.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters the tariffs were not negotiable. After the markets closed down by nearly 1,700 points, Trump told reporters on Air Force One he was negotiating with trade partners, saying, “Every country has called us.”

Trump claimed, “We put ourselves in the driver’s seat. If we would have asked these countries to do us a favor, they would have said no. Now they will do anything for us,” and adding, “The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.” It was unclear what he meant.

JPMorgan’s chief economist raised the odds of a U.S. recession from 40% to 60%, calling Trump’s tariffs the largest tax hike on U.S. households and businesses since 1968. Several other banks raised their odds for a recession.

Pro-Trump news networks Fox News and Newsmax removed their onscreen stock tickers. Fox News host Harris Faulkner likened Trump’s tariffs to a war, and said, “people in this country would support the war effort,” and “We gotta do 100 percent buy-in over this bumpy period.”

Overnight Thursday, China retaliated, imposing a 34% tariff on all imports from the U.S., matching the level of Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on Chinese products, as well as several other measures against U.S. companies, and called out “unilateral bullying.”

U.S. equities tumbled Friday morning. Trump posted on Truth Social, “CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED — THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!”

Trump also shared a video on Truth Social before the market opened, suggesting chaos was part of his strategy, and he was “purposely CRASHING” the markets in part to force the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates.

Trump also tried to cast blame on Powell after the Fed Chair’s speech, posting, “This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates. He is always “late,”” and adding, “CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!”

FT reported on the “speed and scale” of the American public souring on Trump’s economic agenda: just before his latest tariffs, 63% of Americans had a negative view of his economic policy, the highest figure since records began 50 years ago.

On Friday, the stock market plummeted for the second day, with the S&P 500 down 6%, down over 10% in two days, the biggest fall since the onset of the pandemic. The NASDAQ entered a bear market. Trump golfed at a Saudi-backed tournament at one of his clubs on Friday.

Trump was forced to give an additional 75 day reprieve to the TikTok ban, after being hours away from announcing a planned sale of its U.S. operations, and the Chinese government said it would not approve the deal without first discussing Trump’s tariffs and trade policy.

NBC News reported that retirees were “stunned” by the sudden market turmoil, and their shrinking 401(k)s. Some said they would pause big ticket purchases and put home renovations on hold, while others said their quality of life would be impacted.

Late Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social acknowledging the impact on Americans’ wallets, but added, “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” and later wrote, “ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL.”

Trump missed a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base on Friday for the return of the remains of four U.S. soldiers who died during a training exercise in Lithuania, as he was in Florida golfing and then a holding a political fundraising dinner.

On Wednesday, WSJ reported that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is lobbying Trump and regime members to agree to a settlement before the company’s April 14 Federal Trade Commission trial. Some Trump aides say the lobbying has been too aggressive.

On Wednesday, Politico reported national security adviser Mike Waltz’s team regularly used Signal groups to share information on crises around the world, including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa, and Europe. At least 20 groups were set up to communicate.

On Thursday, the Pentagon inspector general announced it had agreed to the request by top senators to launch an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sharing of military information on the Signal app. It was highly unusual for the IG to publicly announce a probe.

On Thursday, NYT reported that after a White House meeting Trump had with far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, where she laid out a list of people disloyal to Trump, he fired at least six members of his National Security Council overnight.

Waltz, who had tried to protect staffers, was brought into the meeting near the end, but no longer had strong standing with Trump to successfully defend them. Loomer is part of a group that has looked to disparage White House staffers they consider to be too hawkish.

Later Thursday, WAPO reported that Trump also fired two National Security Agency officials, Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also led the U.S. Cyber Command, and his civilian deputy, Wendy Noble.

Trump claimed Loomer was not involved in the firings; however on Friday morning, she posted on X that the two had been “disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired,” and thanked Trump for “firing these Biden holdovers.”

Reuters reported that the Trump regime fired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, who holds a senior position in NATO, as part of Trump’s continuing national security purge.

Chatfield joined a growing list of U.S. military leaders who are female and/or people of color and have been fired by the regime (all covered in The Weekly List). It was unclear whether Trump or Hegseth fired Chatfield.

WAPO reported on long lines at Social Security offices, after recipients mistakenly thought they needed to prove they are still alive, or their checks would stop. New rules that come after Musk’s claims of fraud require they come in person, not online, and phone lines are jammed.

WAPO also reported that Social Security’s website has crashed repeatedly in recent days, for periods of 20 minutes to almost a day, impacting retirees and disabled people. Many have also been unable to sign into their accounts, or if they do, find information is missing.

DOGE agents did not test new software they installed, resulting in crashes. DOGE and acting commissioner Leland Dudek are also pushingfor more layoffs in IT. Musk ally Scott Coulter, the newly named chief information officer, has demanded a 50% cut in staffing.

On Wednesday, the lawyer for Maryland man Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, expressed shock in a court filing over the Trump regime’s claim that it had little power to get him back, and urged the judge to intervene.

On Friday, Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the Trump regime had acted without “legal basis” when they arrested Abrego Garcia, and ordered that he be returned to the U.S. by the end of Monday.

On Saturday, Trump’s DOJ appealed the ruling, saying the judge did not have the authority to order the Trump regime to order the return of Abrego Garcia.

On Saturday, deputy AG Todd Blanche suspended Erez Reuveni, a senior DOJ immigration lawyer and respected 15-year veteran, for failing to follow orders on the case, after he conceded when asked by the judge that Abrego Garcia’s deportation should never have taken place.

NYT reported the thinned out DOJ staff are struggling to defend Trump’s policies in court. In the Jenner & Block case, DOJ lawyer Richard Lawson had a hard time defending why Andrew Weissmann, who left the firm four years ago, is a national security threat.

Some judges have expressed anger at the nonsensical answers and lies they are hearing, such as Judge Boasberg, Judge Edward Chen on the temporary protection of Venezuelans case, and Judge Amy Berman Jackson on the closing of the CFPB.

WAPO reported at least half of the front-line attorneys in the solicitor general’s office, an elite group within the DOJ who argue before the Supreme Court, have left or plan to leave, an usually high turnover. Many are uncomfortable with the directives from AG Pam Bondi.

On Sunday, Judge Xinis refused to pause her demand that Trump regime return Abrego Garcia by Monday night, saying the regime committed a “grievous error” that “shocks the conscience,” adding the regime had no legal authority to arrest, detain, and deport him.

On Monday, the appeals court unanimously rejected the DOJ’s request to pause Xinis’s order, saying it has “no legal authority to snatch” a person lawfully living in the U.S. and deport them without due process, and called the contention that the courts are powerless to intervene “unconscionable.”

Shortly after, Trump’s DOJ asked the Supreme Court to intervene, claiming Xinis had exceeded her authority by engaging in “district-court diplomacy,” saying it would require the regime to work with the government of El Salvador on the release.

Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary stay on the midnight deadline, to give the Supreme Court time to consider the case.

A judge in Boston held an ICE agent in contempt, after they detained Wilson Martell-Lebron, a suspect, last week as he was leaving court on an unrelated case, saying he had denied Martell-Lebron of his rights to due process and a fair trial by taking him into custody.

Reuters reported that more than 500 law professors and other legal groups submitted friends of the court briefs in support of Perkins Coie on Wednesday. One cited, “Today, Perkins Coie has fallen into the President’s disfavor. Tomorrow, it could be any one of us.”

Professors from several law schools also submitted briefs, saying Trump’s executive order against Perkins Coie is unconstitutional and threatens the integrity of the U.S. judicial system.

Scores of prominent former national security officials, of both Democratic and Republican administrations, filed a friend of the court brief, calling Trump’s executive order against Perkins Coie illegal.

On Wednesday, nearly 2,000 scientists, including elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, called on the Trump regime “to cease its wholesale assault on U.S. science,” adding, “we see real danger.”

On Wednesday, WAPO reported John Howard, the administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program, was among those fired in the Department of Health and Human Services’ mass firings last week. The firing could disrupt care for the more than 100,000 beneficiaries.

On Thursday, Judge James Boasberg said in a hearing that there was a “fair likelihood” that the Trump regime violated his order, after extensively questioning a DOJ lawyer about the timing of deporting the Venezuelans and not turning the plane around after being ordered to.

Boasberg asked who in the regime knew about his order and when. The DOJ attorney repeatedly said he did not know or was protected by attorney-client privilege. Boasberg said likely next week he would rule on whether the White House was in contempt for ignoring his order.

On Thursday, 19 attorneys general sued the Trump regime over his recent executive order on election administration, arguing that his order was unconstitutional.

On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the HHS from cutting $11 billion in Covid-19 related funds, after a lawsuit filed by 23 attorneys general who alleged it would upend programs including tracking infectious diseases, substance abuse services, and immunizations.

On Thursday, ABC News reported that as part of HHS cuts earlier in the week, the entire staff at the Centers for Disease Control studying outbreaks of sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis were fired.

NBC News reported that programs that help Americans stop smoking were also gutted by HHS. The Office on Smoking and Health at the CDC and the Center for Tobacco Products at the FDA both had mass layoffs, the impacts of which could be deadly.

On Thursday, WSJ reported that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would reinstate some programs and federal workers he had cut or fired days ago, including a CDC program that monitors blood lead levels for children and other programs.

Entire divisions and offices were haphazardly cut in the CDC, FDA, and National Institutes of Health, including groups focused on HIV prevention, violence prevention, injury prevention, and the Freedom of Information Act office.

On Friday, the Trump regime’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services dropped a Biden rule for Medicare to cover anti-obesity drugs. No reason was given.

On Friday, government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics sued the Trump regime for dismantling the CDC’s FOIA office, calling it “arbitrary and capricious” in a complaint.

On Friday, Bloomberg reported that U.S. measles cases rose 26% in the past week to reach 607 reported cases in 21 states, with 97% of the cases in people who were unvaccinated or unsure of their vaccination status.

NYT reported that a second child died of the measles in Texas on Thursday, the second confirmed measles death in the U.S. in a decade. The UMC Health System said the 8 year-old girl was unvaccinated and had no underlying health conditions.

Kennedy attended the funeral on Sunday, and made his first statement encouraging vaccinations, posting on X, “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.” Of the 642 confirmed cases, 499 were in Texas.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy posted on X, “Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no treatment for measles.” Cassidy also called on Kennedy to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which he chairs. Kennedy declined.

On Thursday, Trump’s Department of Veterans Affairs ended a mortgage rescue program that had helped more than 40,000 military veterans keep their homes after they were late on payments.

On Thursday, Attorney General Bondi signed off on a decision to reinstate gun rights for Trump ally Mel Gibson and nine others. The Trump regime fired pardon attorney, Elizabeth Oyer, in Week 18 for refusing to reinstate Gibson’s gun rights.

On Monday, NYT reported the Trump’s DOJ claimed executive privilege in its attempt to stop Oyer from testifying before Congress about her termination, saying in a letter to her that internal conversations are covered.

The DOJ had sent armed law enforcement to Oyer’s home to deliver the its letter on Friday, a highly unusual step for an employee who has not engaged in any misconduct. Oyer said she “will not be deterred by the intimidation tactics.”

On Thursday, the right-wing Daily Caller reported the Trump regime was set to pause $510 million in federal contracts and grants for Brown University. Brown was one of a handful of colleges to agree to a board vote on divesting from Israel, although the vote was against it.

Brown’s president said the threats “raise new and previously unthinkable questions about the future of academic freedom and self-governance” and said the school “would be compelled to vigorously exercise our legal rights to defend these freedoms.”

On Friday, former president Barack Obama called on colleges to stand up to Trump and push back against actions that violate academic freedom, saying in a speech, if “you’re just being intimidated, well, you should be able to say, that’s why we got this big endowment.”

Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber wrote in an article that Trump’s attacks on Columbia are “the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s,” adding, “Every American should be concerned.”

On Tuesday, the Trump regime froze $1 billion in funding for Cornell University and $790 million for Northwestern University, pending a civil rights investigation into both schools.

NBC News reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of more than three dozen students and alumni of Californiauniversities in the past week. UMass Amherst also said that five of their international students had their visas revoked, with no known connection to campus activity.

WAPO reported Trump’s National Park Service has removed Harriet Tubman’s image from a webpage about The Underground Railroad, and rewrote the description by removing “the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight” and replaced it without mentioning slavery.

Days after the Post report, the National Park Service restored Harriet Tubman and other materials that were removed, saying in a statement that changes to the page had been made “without approval” from the agency’s leadership.

On Thursday, 130 employees of the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan foreign policy think tank in Washington that Trump wants to shutter, were placed on leave, as Musk’s DOGE agents quickly shut down most of the center starting on Monday. Just five employees remained.

The Center was created in 1968 as a working memorial to honor president Woodrow Wilson. The center was funded 30% by Congress, with the rest from private donations, and has been run by Republicans and Democrats. It was unclear what would happen to its materials.

On Friday, a coalition of federal employee unions sued the Trump regime over Trump’s executive order for agencies to terminate their collective bargaining agreements with federal employee unions.

On Friday, 21 attorneys general sued the Trump regime over its efforts to dismantle The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the federal agency that is charged with supporting the country’s libraries.

On Friday, a federal judge barred the Trump regime from limiting funds to the NIH which support research at universities and academic medical centers. The Trump regime asked for a verdict to move ahead with an appeal.

On Friday, the New York State Education Department, in response to the Trump regime’s threat to pull federal funding, said it will not comply with Trump’s DEI order, saying, “there are no federal or state laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”

State leaders in Minnesota and New York said they would not comply with the Department of Education’s demand to gather signatures from local schools certifying their compliance. California and Vermont said they did not need to respond. Chicago’s mayor said it would sue over any cuts.

On Friday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump regime to temporarily freeze $65 million in teacher-training grants that the regime claimed would promote DEI. The grants go toward placing teachers in poor and rural areas and recruiting a diverse workforce, reflecting the communities served.

On Friday, a federal judge warned the Trump regime to comply with an order calling for the unfreezing of funds for emergency preparedness through FEMA and other federal agencies, saying a manual review was being used by the regime to “covertly” withhold funds.

On Friday, Trump, Vance, and Musk stood up for far-right French leader Marine Le Pen after she was found guilty of embezzlement and barred from running in 2027. Trump called it a “witch hunt;” Vance accused European leaders of “trying to throw opposition leaders in jail;” Musk wrote “Free LePen!”

On Friday, the Trump regime awarded multi-billion space launch contracts to Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. The SpaceX contract at $5.9 billion was the largest of three contracts awarded. Blue Origin received $2.4 billion.

On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service started a new round of firings, including the agency’s Office of Civil Rights and Compliance, which was expected to fire a quarter of its workforce.

On Saturday, WAPO reported federal immigration officials are asking the IRS to provide information on the locations of 7 million people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Previously, DHS officials had sought information on 700,000 people with subject to removal orders.

On Monday, the Trump regime said in a court filing that the IRS and ICE had reached an agreement on information sharing, and claimed the IRS had not turned over any information yet. For weeks, top IRS officials have told the Trump regime that sharing data is illegal.

Under the terms of the deal, ICE can request information from the IRS about people who have been ordered to leave the U.S., or people they are investigating. An advocate for taxpayers’ rights called the move “unprecedented.”

On Tuesday, Melanie Krause, the acting head of the IRS, stepped down, over the Trump regime’s plan to share undocumented migrants’ personal information with ICE. The move by Krause, who took the leading role two months ago, took the agency by surprise.

On Wednesday, more senior officials at the IRS resigned. The moves come as the country is in the midst of tax season. Experts estimate that undocumented workers pay $66 billion in taxes a year, which will now be lost revenue.

WAPO reported that in the haste of Trump’s mass deportations, U.S. citizens are also being picked up by ICE agents. At least seven peoplehave been wrongfully detained and deported.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Rubio revoked visas of all South Sudan passport holders, citing the country’s transitional government had failed to accept citizens who the Trump regime was trying to deport in a “timely manner.”

Detroit Free Press reported that Amir Makled, a lawyer representing a University of Michigan pro-Palestinian protestor, was detained at Detroit Metro Airport by federal agents, questioned about his clients, and told to hand over his cellphone.

Makled said what ensued was a 90-minute back and forth, after he refused to hand over his phone. He said, “I’m an American citizen. I’m not worried about being deported.” Ultimately they released him without taking his phone, but looked at his contacts instead.

On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security revoked temporary legal status for roughly 985,000 migrants who entered the U.S. using the Biden-era CBP One app at the border in order to seek asylum and be given temporary work authorization.

Reuters reported that the Trump regime appointed a junior level officer hired in 2021 to lead the U.S. Foreign Service Department’s Global Talent Management bureau, a role typically held by veteran foreign service officers with decades of experience.

AP reported after mass layoffs, nearly half of the National Weather Service offices have 20% vacancy rates, as severe weather was set to cross the nation’s heartland. Meteorologists at the Louisville office were unable to survey tornado damage as they used to due to shortages.

WAPO reported the Trump regime has also cut a preparedness grant program, known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, which had awarded more than $5 billion since 2020, leaving states unprepared for future disasters.

On Saturday, huge crowds gathered to protest at more than 1,200 “Hands Off” rallies nationwide to protest Trump, Musk, the regime’s funding cuts, and policies. In some cities, the crowd sizes were over 100,000, despite rainy conditions.

On Saturday, Navarro downplayed the turmoil from the tariffs, saying on CNN, “The market will find a bottom. It will be soon,” adding, “The S&P 500 is going to have a very broad based recovery…and life is going to be beautiful here in America.”

On Saturday, Bloomberg reported Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was not included in the small group of Trump’s inner circle that made the decision on the tariff strategy, a rude awakening for Wall Street investors who viewed him as a grounded voice.

On Saturday, Trump continued his long weekend of golfing at a Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament at his resort in Florida. Every room at the 643-room Trump Doral, including the $13,000-a-night presidential suite, was sold out through the weekend, as were the restaurants.

As the protests were taking place and amid the tariff uncertainty, the White House posted on social media, “The President won his second round matchup of the Senior Club Championship today in Jupiter, FL, and advances to the Championship Round tomorrow.”

Trump also enriched himself by holding a fundraising event at his Trump International Golf Club on Friday, and posted on Truth Social, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE.”

Washington City Paper reported that Trump is planning a military parade for his 79th birthday on Saturday, June 14, which coincides with the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. The parade would stretch for nearly four miles from the Pentagon in Arlington to the White House.

On Sunday, Trump aides sought to defend his tariffs on weekend shows. Bessent said, “I see no reason that we have to price in a recession,” claiming 50 countries have called the regime to negotiate and other countries “have been bad actors for a long time.”

Bessent, a centi-millionaire, claimed without evidence that “Americans who put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations,” adding, “most Americans don’t have everything in the market,” and “People have a long-term view.”

On Sunday, one of the biggest bulls on Tesla, Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities, slashed his target on the stock by 43%, citing a brand crisis caused by Musk and Trump’s trade policies.

On Sunday, returning from his weekend of golfing, after U.S. futures closed down 4.1%, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine.” Previous posts on social media suggested he welcomed the market fall.

On Monday morning, after global markets plunged overnight and U.S. opened down again, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid!” adding, “Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”

On Monday, CNBC reported 69% of CEOs expect a recession, with many worried there will be a boycott of American brands. One CEO said, “This is a Trump recession,” another called it “Disappointingly stupid and illogical.”

On Monday, Trump supporter billionaire Bill Ackman posted on X that Trump’s tariffs will cause irreparable damage to the U.S. economy, and the U.S. is “heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down.”

On Sunday, WSJ reported lawsuits are expected to be filed testing Trump’s authority to impose tariffs. No president has ever asserted such unilateral authority over trade flows. One small Florida company represented by a libertarian advocacy group has already filed a lawsuit.

On Monday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a right-wing group backed by Leonard Leo and Charles Koch, sued Trump to stop the tariffs, saying Trump’s invoking of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify tariffs on nearly all countries is unlawful.

On Monday, seven Republican senators signed on to a bipartisan bill which would require Trump to notify Congress within 28 hours of new or increased tariffs, and provide an explanation of the rationale and the potential impact on U.S. businesses and consumers.

The White House said in a statement that if the bill passes, Trump would veto it, claiming the bill would “dangerously hamper the President’s authority and duty to determine our foreign policy and protect our national security.”

On Monday, the Dow Jones saw its biggest point swing from low to high in history, opening down as low as 1,703 and rallying as high as 892 after rumors that Trump would put implementation of tariffs on hold for 90 days, which the White House later said was “fake news.”

Trump’s economic team continued to contradict each other. In the morning, Navarro told the media there would be no negotiations. Later in the day, Bessent said he told foreign officials to “come to us with your offers…And at a point, President Trump will be ready to negotiate.”

On Monday, Trump canceled a scheduled press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room, and moved it to the Oval Office, which can fit far fewer members of the media, and those will be handpicked by the regime.

The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt granted a journalist from Musk’s social media platform X a seat in the press briefing room. Leavitt also directed the first question to the X representative.

On Monday, in a 7–4 vote, an appeals court blocked the Trump regime’s firings of two federal board leaders, Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board, saying they must be reinstated.

Late Monday, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling, 5–4 saying for now the Trump regime could deport Venezuelan migrants using the Aliens Enemies Act. The narrow ruling found the migrants’ lawyers should have filed in Texas, where they were being held.

Immigration experts said the ruling would make it nearly impossible for migrants, many of whom do not speak English, to navigate the process. And for ones that do, their cases will be heard in some of the most conservative federal courts in the country.

The ruling was limited in scope, and did not address Trump’s invoking the Alien Enemies Act, or whether he followed several provisions in the act that were meant to limit how and when the law is used.

On Tuesday, the ACLU and Legal Aid Society brought another case on behalf of two Venezuelan migrants who were moved from Texas to a jail in New York in the past week. The case was brought in Manhattan to stop their removal by the Trump regime under the Alien Enemies Act.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court paused a ruling that required the regime to rehire 16,000 probationary workers, saying they had not suffered the kind of damages that would give them standing to sue. Another judge’s ruling requiring reinstatement remains in place.

WSJ reported that CEOs were breaking their silence, and publicly criticizing Trump and his trade wars. Many warned about the consequences to their business and of higher prices to consumers. CEOs have also pushed trade groups to speak out forcefully.

Bloomberg reported many of Trump’s biggest supporters in the business world are also criticizing his trade policy. Many were surprised he would upend the entire global economic order, or supported him for “selfish reasons” and now see their portfolio values plummeting.

At a Senate hearing, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis asked U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” pushing back on claims the regime made on the benefits of Trump’s tariffs.

On Tuesday, the stock market closed down again, and bond yields started to rise as concerns about U.S. treasuries remaining the main destination for flight to quality investors. Trump further escalated, threatening to raise tariffs against China by another 50%.

NYT reported that Trump’s inner circle did not have a clear strategy for how the global trade disruption would play out. They had not gamed out beyond the stock market diving and other countries retaliating, and so were left flat-footed for managing the complexity of what came next.

Later Tuesday, Trump struck a defiant tone in a speech to House Republicans, claiming some countries would “do anything” to strike a deal with the U.S., and saying, “They’ve ripped us off left and right,” and claiming “money is pouring in at a level that we’ve never seen before.”

Later Tuesday, Trump increased tariffs on China to 104%. China responded Wednesday, raising tariffs on the U.S. to 84%. The European Union also approved its first set of retaliatory tariffs on Wednesday. Trump’s tariffs were the highest since 1909.

On Wednesday, the Delta Air Lines CEO said Trump tariffs are “the wrong approach,” citing a “reduction in broad consumer confidence and corporate confidence.” Walmart pulled its first quarter guidance citing Trump’s tariffs. JPMorgan’s CEO said a recession is “likely.”

On Wednesday, in a troubling sign, U.S. Treasury yields continued to spike, as global investors seemed to pull away from a view of the U.S. as a safe haven. A treasury auction on Tuesday got a tepid response.

On Wednesday, as the market opened, Trump posted on Truth Social to “BE COOL!,” claiming, “The USA will be bigger and better than ever before,” and “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that based on a review of U.S. legal records, about 90% of Venezuelans deported to El Salvador by the Trump regime had no U.S. criminal record.

[mariacallous]

When South Korean legislator Kim Min-seok warned in August that President Yoon Suk-yeol might be plotting to declare martial law, even the most ardent critics of Yoon were skeptical. Of course, the right-wing president was increasingly displaying authoritarian tendencies. In response to his miserably low approval rating, hovering between the high teens and low 20s, as well as mounting corruption allegations against him and his wife, Yoon ordered indiscriminate raids of the offices and residences of liberal politicians and journalists, numerous thinly supported criminal charges against opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, and ostentatious military parades.

But still, the idea that Yoon might attempt martial law and a self-coup—where an existing leader seizes dictatorial power—seemed to be too outlandish. It was seen as partisan fodder, unbecoming of a lawmaker of Kim’s stature—a respected former youth leader of the South Korean democracy movement that ended the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan in 1987. South Korea had not seen martial law since its democratic transition, although a declaration of martial law remained a theoretical possibility in case of a wartime emergency in a hypothetical clash with North Korea.

Then it happened. At 10:23 p.m. local time on Dec. 3, Yoon called an unscheduled press conference. In a six-minute statement, Yoon announced that he was declaring an emergency martial law, claiming that the opposition Democratic Party made the National Assembly “a monster trying to destroy liberal democracy” because the liberal party had brought 22 impeachments against officials in his administration and threatened to slash its discretionary budget. Yoon branded his political opponents are “pro-Pyongyang anti-state forces,” in the same rhetoric that South Korea’s military dictators had used to justify their rule.

Within an hour, Gen. Park An-soo was appointed as the commander of the Martial Law Command, which decreed that all political activities in national and local legislatures were prohibited, all media were subject to the control of the Martial Law Command, and public gatherings and rallies were prohibited. Soon, armored cars and helicopters began emerging in the streets of Seoul.

South Korean news anchors reporting the announcements were visibly shaking because they knew, as did most South Koreans, what could be in store. The last time martial law was declared in South Korea was in 1979, in the waning days of Park Chung-hee’s dictatorship that later gave way to Chun’s. In that martial law period, from October 1979 to January 1981, Chun’s paratroopers massacred hundreds of protesters, perhaps thousands, in the southwestern city of Gwangju.

The mass murders in the aftermath of the Gwangju Uprising became one of the defining moments of modern South Korean history, memorialized in the novel Human Acts by Han Kang, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in October and is due to give her acceptance speech next week. But in 2024, most South Koreans had regarded the massacre as a distant historical event, a tragic but old incident that their country had put past. The public watched the news in shock as armored cars and helicopters were heading to the National Assembly, where lawmakers had the ability to end martial law by a majority vote.

Fortunately, history did not repeat itself—in part because, as with everything he has done, Yoon executed the autogolpe with clownish incompetence. Aspiring authoritarians around the world have long had an established playbook for coups: TV broadcast controlled, the internet jammed, opposition leaders arrested, and checkpoints set up around the city.

The martial law declaration aspired to all of these possibilities, especially control of the media. Yet none of those things happened on the night of Dec. 3. TV cameras roamed freely near the National Assembly Hall, while liberal leaders exhorted the public via social media to protest against Yoon’s power grab. Squads were reportedly deployed to arrest key opposition leaders but were too slow to stop them. Soldiers were reluctant to use force, letting themselves be pushed back by unarmed protesters.

Although details are still emerging as of this writing (around 24 hours since the martial law declaration), it appears that Yoon’s self-coup attempt was so clumsy because the president could not balance the need to keep his plan secret and the need to get the requite buy-ins from key players. Reportedly, it was Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun who suggested declaring martial law. But Kim could only muster a small segment of the military to follow his orders; most of the military and the police remained in their posts. Yoon apparently had no buy-in from conservatives either, as People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon quickly denounced the coup attempt.

Nevertheless, there were many moments where just one wrong turn could have resulted in chaos and bloodbath. Under the law, the National Assembly can end martial law with a majority vote—but of course, that assumes that the legislators are able to vote. The declaration, completely illegally, forbade the National Assembly from gathering, and armed soldiers were dispatched to patrol outside the Assembly Hall, as helicopters equipped with machine guns hovered over them.

Somehow, the South Korean legislators managed. The protesters led a tense standoff against the special forces deployed to the legislature, blocking the soldiers and armored cars while opening a path for lawmakers to enter the building. Democratic Party spokesperson Ahn Gwi-ryeong wrestled an armed soldier with her bare hands before going into the building. Lee, the Democratic leader, showed surprising athleticism for a 60-year-old as he hopped over the walls to avoid the soldiers in front of the building—while livestreaming a video of himself to boot. Thankfully, not a shot was fired.

Once in the building, the lawmakers and their aides barricaded the entrance and opened the legislative session at 12:49 a.m. Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik emphasized that proper parliamentary procedure must be followed to leave no doubt about the result, even as paratroopers broke a window to enter the building and legislative aides pushed them back with fire extinguishers and cellphone flashes.

At 1:01 a.m., after 12 agonizing minutes of typing up the bill and submitting it in accordance with the parliamentary procedure, the 190 out of 300 Assembly members who could manage to enter the hall, including 18 legislators of Yoon’s own party, unanimously voted to end martial law. After a few moments of hesitation, the helicopters and armored cars, then the soldiers, began leaving the hall. Even after the vote, there remained a question whether Yoon would honor the National Assembly vote. The legislators remained in the hall, fearing that Yoon might redeploy the military or declare martial law once again. But at 4:27 a.m., the defeated and humiliated Yoon held a press conference to announce that he would lift martial law.

As of this writing, the situation remains fluid. But it does not appear likely that Yoon will be able to finish out the remainder of his term, which runs until 2027. The Democratic Party demanded that Yoon resign immediately or face impeachment proceedings, which require a two-thirds majority of the 300-seat Assembly. Although Yoon’s party holds a slim buffer with 108 legislators, the president’s coup attempt is likely to be enough to peel off at least eight lawmakers, since 18 of them already voted to end martial law.

Yoon may choose to resign rather than to face the ignominy—though he might still be prosecuted. South Korea has an illustrious history of prosecuting and jailing its former presidents, including two out of the past three presidents, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, both conservatives.

However it ends, Yoon’s presidency will serve as a reminder of the resilience of South Korean democracy. South Korea’s first martial law situation in more than four decades ended in approximately six hours, based on a parliamentary vote, with no casualties and not a single shot fired. One errant bullet could have changed the course of history, but the overwhelming weight of democratic norms, physically manifest in a protesting public and the parliamentarians calmly voting in the face of ongoing assault, stayed the hands of the soldiers.

On the other hand, it is another embarrassment for South Korean conservatives, who miraculously came back from the impeachment of their last president, Park, in 2017 to recapture the presidency in a narrow win in 2022 based mostly on grievances about high housing costs. This latest episode will do little to help right-wing leaders shed their reputation as the descendants of military dictators with a streak of authoritarianism that could flare up at the first sign of trouble. The so-called reasonable conservatives, the smaller cadre of right-leaning moderates who think vainly that they can work within the system to change it, will once again have to impeach their own president.

[thoughtlessarse]

On July 13, just eight days before he announced the end of his presidential reelection bid, a besieged and testy Joe Biden defended himself from critics within his own party by boasting about his mastery of foreign policy. During Biden’s agitated Zoom call with moderate congressional Democrats, Colorado Representative Jason Crow—who as it happens voted with the president 100 percent of the time—cautioned him that voters were questioning his foreign policy leadership. Biden responded angrily: “Name me a foreign leader who thinks I’m not the most effective leader in the world on foreign policy. Tell me! Tell me who the hell that is! Tell me who put NATO back together! Tell me who enlarged NATO, tell me who did the Pacific Basin!… We’ve got Korea and Japan working together, I put AUKUS together, anyway!… Find me a world leader who’s an ally of ours who doesn’t think I’m the most respected person they’ve ever—” -“It’s not breaking through, Mr. President, to our voters,” Crow interjected respectfully. “You oughta talk about it!” Biden fired back, his bitterness intensifying. “On national security, nobody has been a better president than I’ve been. Name me one. Name me one! So I don’t want to hear that crap!” This scene distills, in brief, the nausea-inducing pathos of Biden’s presidency. Fending off an uprising inside his own party, Biden sounded less like a confident leader than a raving Captain Ahab (from Moby-Dick) or Captain Queeg (from The Caine Mutiny)—an unstable commander who needed to be removed from power immediately. Biden’s self-celebratory view wasn’t widely shared outside the White House: He had low approval ratings in general and particularly for his handling of foreign policy. Even among liberals and leftists who might otherwise give high marks to Biden’s domestic policy, there has been widespread criticism of his militarism, especially his near-unqualified support for Israel’s ferocious attacks on Palestinian civilians. For his allies among liberals and the left, Biden is a figure not just of pathos but of genuine tragedy. It’s hard to come to any easy judgment, because Biden’s ambitious domestic agenda was inextricable from his foreign policy. Both sprang from the same holistic vision of fusing together military spending and domestic policy to return America to the strength it enjoyed during its Cold War peak of global dominance. Biden was not an enemy like Donald Trump who could be easily disavowed, but a more complexly dangerous figure, a semi-friend who entangled us in his folly. But was Biden’s team right in thinking that its foreign and domestic policies were inseparable? Or is there a way to build on Biden’s domestic achievements while leaving behind his discredited foreign policy?

continue reading

[eretzyisrael]

by Moshe Phillips

Dozens of Palestinian Authority diplomats around the world celebrated the Oct. 7 massacres, according to a new study. The revelations have important implications for anybody concerned about the prospects for Middle East peace.

The study was undertaken by GnasherJew, a group of British Jewish investigative journalists, and reported by The Jewish Chronicle based in London. GnasherJew is best known for exposing the antisemitic remarks made by Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of Britain’s Labour Party.

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While the U.S. State Department, The New York Times, and J Street keep telling us that the P.A. opposes terrorism and wants to live in peace next to Israel, the statements made by the P.A.’s own representatives around the world say otherwise.

The investigators reviewed hundreds of social-media posts by more than 30 senior P.A. diplomats in the days following Oct. 7. Here’s a sampling of what these P.A. officials wrote about the most horrific mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust:

• Great Britain: Rana Abuayyash, consul at the P.A.’s mission to London, posted an image of an Israeli flag morphing into Adolf Hitler.

• France: Hala Abou-Hassira, the P.A. ambassador to Paris posted: “Israel bears full responsibility.” His colleague Nadine Abualheija tweeted: “A colonial state is not an innocent victim when its victims resist genocide.” Another P.A. diplomat in Paris, Jamila Hassan Eragat, wrote: “Don’t judge a group of people for rising up against their oppressors … violence is necessary for decolonisation.” 

• Spain: Khaldun Almassri of the P.A. mission in Spain shared a painting of people dancing with flags of the Palestinian Liberation Organization on Oct. 7. 

• Cyprus: “Palestinians broke through with so much excitement,” the official Facebook account for the P.A. embassy in Cyprus announced.

• Mozambique: The P.A. ambassador in Mozambique, Fayez Abduljawad, posted a graphic that read: “If you are silent when Israel kills Palestinians, remain silent when Palestinians defend themselves.”

• Guinea: Thaer Abubaker, the P.A. ambassador to Guinea and Sierra Leone, wrote on X (Twitter) that the Oct. 7 slaughter was “heroic” and that “liberation is the goal of every fighter who risks their life for the sake of freedom and jihad for God’s path.” He also accused America’s secretary of state of being “a Khazar Jew” and charged Jewish immigrants to Israel with bringing “scabies and contagious diseases to Palestine.”

• Zimbabwe: Manar Alagha, a P.A. diplomat in Zimbabwe, posted a video on Facebook of Israelis fleeing the Nova music festival concert grounds, adding the slogan: “Here to victory!”

• Ivory Coast: An official at the P.A.’s embassy in the Ivory Coast, Khattab Bayyari, showed a graphic of a terrorist paraglider and added the caption: “You are the soldiers of Allah in the field.” He also posted a photo of a man with a sign displaying an anti-Israel vulgarity.

• Japan and South Korea: The P.A.’s ambassador to Japan and South Korea, Waleed Siam, wrote on X/Twitter: “Zionism is really curse on all humanity,” and added, for good measure, that Israelis “have yet to find proof of their imaginary temple.” (Asked by the Jewish Chronicle about those messages, Siam replied: “I have Semitic origins myself.”)

• Turkey: The P.A.’s consul general in Istanbul, Hana Abu Ramadan, circulated a hate cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a devil with horns.

• United Nations: Khuloussi Bsaiso, a P.A. diplomat at the United Nations, distributed a Middle East map without Israel that had the slogan, “Palestine as it should be.” 

• European Union: Hassan Albalawi, the deputy head of the P.A. mission to the European Union, called the Hamas massacres “heroic.” Adel Atieh, the P.A. ambassador to the European Union, hailed the terrorists as “the people of the mighty,” who are fighting for “freedom and breaking tyranny.” Another P.A. diplomat at the European Union, Lema Nazeeh, wrote on X that the Hamas invasion was “decolonisation in tangible terms,” a day of “dignity and triumph.” 

And because no review of Palestinian Arab antisemitism is complete without a dose of old-fashioned religious bigotry, it’s worth noting that Salman El Herfi, the former P.A. ambassador to South Africa and France, who is now a top adviser to P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas, posted a medieval Christian image next to a photo of a mother and child in Gaza with the caption: “The pain of the Mother is the same as it was 2,000 years ago. The same killer.”

The P.A.’s diplomats around the world are the “best face” of the Palestinian Arab cause. They are the P.A.’s most articulate and urbane spokespeople. They wear suits and ties; they speak the best English. One would imagine they would be the most concerned about appearing “moderate” in the eyes of the wider world.

Yet here they are—the P.A.’s most sophisticated officials—openly celebrating the mass murder, gang rapes and baby-burnings of Oct. 7. That tells you all you need to know about their alleged interest in peace with Israel.

[b-else-writes]

The Great CLAMP Re-Read Part 8: Legend of Chunhyang

Part 1 (RG Veda) | Part 2 (Man of Many Faces) | Part 3 (Tokyo Babylon) | Part 4 (Duklyon) | Part 5 (Clamp Detectives)| Part 6 (Shirahime)| Part 7 (X)| Part 9 (Miyuki-chan)| Part 10 (Rayearth)| Part 11 (The One I Love)| Part 12 (Wish

The RG Veda historical epic that never was, or better off cancelled? While X is widely cited as CLAMP's first unfinished work, there is actually another 1992 stillborn CLAMP work, before we can finally move onto 1993 in the CLAMP timeline. To be a broken record, I had no idea this existed! It’s unsurprising: only 3 chapters were ever published (plus 1 drama CD), before the magazine folded and CLAMP decided to cancel the project (yeah yeah they said they’d love to finish it. They’re liars).

Unlike many of their other discontinued early works, this one actually got a tankoban release, and Tokyopop did the now out-of-print English translation in a single volume with no extra art. Plus, I was hesitant about approaching a work of Korean folklore written by 4 Japanese women, given the history, and my fears were not unfounded. So I’m content that I put off getting the physical release for my collection. Spoilers (?) ahead.

Synopsis: In Ancient Korea, a brave young maiden called Chunhyang, opposes the injustices of the corrupt governing Yangbans. When her mother, a magic-wielding mudang, is kidnapped by their town's Yangban, Chunhyang is aided by the lecherous Mongryong, the Amhaeng’eosa, a secret government agent. Together, the two set off on adventure that will take them across Korea to liberate towns and discover the truth of Chunhyang's father.

The Story: I wrote all of that out, but the reality is what actually exists of Legend of Chunhyang is two chapters and a flashback. It's very hard to judge a story that hasn't settled in or moved further than the set up for the adventure. What we got is entertaining enough - chapter 1 is the inciting incident where Chunhyang’s mother dies and she teams up with Mongryong, 2 has them liberate a mystical flower village with the help of a rain god and twin mudang, and 3 is a flashback that reveals Chunhyang’s dead father was important and killed for defying the Yangban. It’s very Robin Hood, and moves at a good pace despite being pretty standard YA fantasy. Speaking of, I don’t think CLAMP realises most Korean towns back then would have been agricultural. Why does Chunhyang live in a huge villa doing nothing all day? I want my peasant hero, not a disgruntled pseudo noble.

The skeleton for the entire story is pretty obvious (bring revolution to Korea) and I’d definitely be curious to see more of it. But I’m also not sad we got nothing more. It’s a pleasant afternoon distraction.

The Themes: Don’t be a bully and tyrannical governments are bad and must be resisted - as long as they’re Korean (side-eyes that Rising Sun flag in CLAMP Campus Detectives. Ah, Japanese nationalism). It’s 3 chapters, that’s all I can glean.

The Characters: Chunhyang fits heavily into the CLAMP stock heroine: young, spunky, strong, pure-hearted, and athletic, shojo ingenue. Still, while she’s nothing new, I enjoyed Chunhyang. CLAMP has the formula for the fun, palatable heroine we love to see win, and I’m hardly immune. Mongryong was more bland to me, falling hard into that 90s era shojo hero who gets comically beaten up by his love interest, but always suavely swoops in to save her. It’s nostalgic, he’s hot, but that’s it. Maybe with time they would have defined themselves like RG Veda’s cast did (also archetypes), but there’s just so little!

The crumbs of minor characters are equally stock - one dimensional cackling villains, and pure beyond belief good guys. Mongryong’s tiger spirit was my favourite because I love all cats. It’s really the charm of Chunhyang that carries us above - she’s a good balance of fierce and endearing.

The Art: Legend of Chunhyang is interesting in that chapter 1 was brush inked due to their experience on Shirahime, but the remaining art was done with marker pen. The result is chapter 1 feels a bit unpolished, with backgrounds being mostly chunky blobs and quick lines in a way I found distracting. 2 and 3 work much better, with thick swirls of soft magic and flowers, giving Chunhyang a slight distinction from their other early 90s work. The panel work is quite conservative unlike RG Veda, very rarely having dynamic spreads, but satisfactory and readable. Chapter 2 is a standout of circling dragons and flowers. Everyone is gorgeously dressed and pretty. It’s not the best of CLAMP, but it’s nice and elevates the material.

Questionable Elements: While certain CLAMP podcasts have praised CLAMP for essentially rewriting the folktale to make Chunhyang more active - why would you even choose to adapt that Korean folklore then, if your intention is to make a generic Robin Hood sword and fantasy series that has zero to do with the original culture? You could just set it in feudal Japan! It feels very distasteful to deliberately choose Korea as a setting of barbaric unending tyranny that needs correcting. Especially given Japan’s history in “modernising” Korea.

On top of that, there’s a clear lack of research done - a lot of the outfits and hair accessories are inaccurate. Chunhyang’s mother’s decision to kill herself than risk dishonour is also incredibly Japanese (and notably doesn’t exist in the original). I have to cry foul because if you’re going to actually set this in a real ancient Korea, you should do your research. I’m not saying CLAMP are anti-Korean but they show a disappointing lack of care and bias.

Also. How old is Mongryong if Chunhyang is 14. Answer quickly, CLAMP.

Overall: Listen, RG Veda 2.0 this is not. Rather than an imaginative, fantastical, sweeping epic, Legend of Chunhyang is built on very familiar tropes and stock characters with a dose of cultural insensitivity and bias. It doesn’t even have a proper narrative arc, existing more as a “what if” than an almost masterpiece. It’s alleviated by the sheer charm of Chunhyang herself, its brisk, entertaining pace, and the enjoyable art. But it’s no great literary tragedy that it was never finished, and I’d really only recommend it to diehard CLAMP fans who want a quick, pleasant escape on a fantasy adventure.

[mesetacadre]

When the Red Army entered Korea in early August, 1945, heavy battles took place in the north, but the Japanese rule remained tranquil in the south, for the Russians stopped by the Yalta agreement at the 38th parallel, while the Americans came several weeks after the surrender of Japan, and ruled at first through the Japanese and then through the Japanese-appointed Korean officials and police. So naturally all of the pro-Japanese Koreans – former police and officials, landlords and stockholders in Japanese companies – fled south to the American zone. The flight of all these right-wing elements amazingly simplified North Korean politics. The Russians did not have to set up any left-wing government, assuming that they wanted one. They merely set free some ten thousand political prisoners and said, by implication; “Go home, boys, you’re free to organize.” Under Japanese rule all natural political leaders either served Japan or went to jail. With the pro-Japanese gone, the ex-jailbirds became the vindicated heroes of their home towns. They were all radicals of sorts, including many Communists. Anyone who knows what a tremendous reception was given to Tom Mooney when he was released to come home to the workers of San Francisco, may imagine the effect on the small towns and villages when ten thousand of these political martyrs came home. North Korea just naturally took a great swing leftwards, and the Russians had only to recognize “the choice of the Korean people.” People’s Committees sprang up in villages, counties, and provinces and coalesced into a provisional government under the almost legendary guerrilla leader Kim Il Sung. Farmers organized, demanded the land from the landlords and got it in twenty-one days by a government decree. (Compared to the land reforms of other countries, this sounds like a tale of Aladdin’s lamp!) Ninety per cent of all big industry – it had belonged to Japanese concerns – was handed over by the Russians “to the Korean people” and nationalized by one more decree. Trade unions organized, demanded a modern labor code, and got it without any trouble from their new government, with the eight-hour day, abolition of child labor, and social insurance all complete. Another decree made women equal with men in all spheres of activity and another expanded schools. Then general elections were held and a “democratic front” of three parties swept unopposed to power. The natural opposition had all gone south, to be sheltered – and put in power – by the Americans. This is the, reason, I think, for the almost exaggerated sense of “people’s power” that the North Koreans express. Their real class struggle is coming; it hasn’t fully hit them yet. The reactionaries all fled south, where they are bloodily suppressing strikes. In North Korea the farmers are building new houses and buying radios because they no longer pay land rent, while the workers are taking vacations in former Japanese villas. The North Koreans assume that this is just what naturally happens when once you are a “liberated land.” “They aren’t yet liberated down south,” they told me. “The Americans let those pro-Japanese traitors stay in power.”

In North Korea: First Eye-Witness Reports, Anna Louise Strong, 1949