Remembrance of 50 Years Ago Today

[Moses]

1 hour ago, Keithambrose said:

I'm sur the the gulags are more comfortable

GULag was 95-75 years ago. Guantanamo exists right now.

The Gulag was closed 10 years BEFORE the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation by skin color. Incidentally, it should be recalled that the Ku Klux Klan is still not banned by law in the country that calls itself the "Leader of the Free World"?

[Tomtravel]

When Putinism will be banned? I see the criminal is still talking on the Red Square.

[Moses]

54 minutes ago, Tomtravel said:

When Putinism will be banned? I see the criminal is still talking on the Red Square.

You read too much propaganda.

Meanwhile so called "first world" is responsible for hundreds years of genocide of Africans via slavery, for genocide of indigenous people in both Americas, for genocide indigenous people in Australia.  And this is not propaganda, but facts.

[thaiophilus]

3 hours ago, Moses said:

This is written with such pathos, as if Guantanamo Bay prison was not founded in 2002, as if every "democratic" president - Obama and Biden - did not promise to close it, as if there were no UN and Amnesty International reports on torture in the CIA, as if the prison does not exist today...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

[Moses]

1 minute ago, thaiophilus said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

In my culture there is a saying: "He sees a speck in someone else's eye, but does not see a log in his own eye."

And when representatives of the world responsible for 90% of genocide in the history of human civilization begin to philosophize about the infringement of freedoms in other countries, it looks sanctimonious.

[vinapu]

3 hours ago, Moses said:

This is written with such pathos, as if Guantanamo Bay prison was not founded in 2002, as if every "democratic" president - Obama and Biden - did not promise to close it, as if there were no UN and Amnesty International reports on torture in the CIA, as if the prison does not exist today...

prisoner treatment in Russia should be closer to your heart and stronger object of your attention as you may be directly affected.

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, Moses said:

The Gulag was closed ....

or just renamed  'special penal colony"?

[vinapu]

10 minutes ago, Moses said:

 

And when representatives of the world responsible for 90% of genocide 

it's comforting that oppressed can always seek sanctuary in Russia greeted with bread , salt and tea laced with polonium

[PeterRS]

7 hours ago, Tomtravel said:

Refering to International Action Center - Marxist-Leninist organization - in the context of Vietnam post?

I think you miss my point, Vietnam government is now souvereign in its decisions and how it treats his past (nothing to do with US, the victim is his own nation).

You absolutely cannot divorce the present from the past when the present is dependent on what happened in the past!

[Tomtravel]

Here is one actionable item:

In advance of Vietnam Human Rights Day on May 11, a coalition of international human rights and free expression organizations—including PEN America, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV), PEN International, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Vietnamese Abroad PEN Centre, and Vietnamese Advocates for Change—released a joint letter urging U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to press the Vietnamese government for immediate reforms to protect freedom of expression and release imprisoned writers and journalists.

The letter highlights Việt Nam's ongoing crackdown on free expression, noting that the country is the third-largest jailer of writers, with 23 currently imprisoned—including Phạm Đoan Trang, the 2024 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award recipient.

https://www.thevietnamese.org/2025/05/global-coalition-urges-u-s-secretary-of-state-to-address-vietnams-human-rights-abuses/

 

 

[khaolakguy]

8 hours ago, Moses said:

In my culture there is a saying: "He sees a speck in someone else's eye, but does not see a log in his own eye."

Now you are claiming that the bible is based on Russian sayings!! I have heard it all now.

Try Matthew 7:3-5.........

[Moses]

3 hours ago, khaolakguy said:

Try Matthew 7:3-5.........

I don't read fantasy... 

[Moses]

6 hours ago, Tomtravel said:

including PEN America, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV), PEN International, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Vietnamese Abroad PEN Centre, and Vietnamese Advocates for Change

How many of them receiving grants from USAID and other US state agencies? Let me guess - all.

[PeterRS]

10 hours ago, Tomtravel said:

The letter highlights Việt Nam's ongoing crackdown on free expression, noting that the country is the third-largest jailer of writers, with 23 currently imprisoned—including Phạm Đoan Trang, the 2024 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award recipient.

You say this is actionable? I have no doubt it is. But as I have written you cannot divorce the present from the past, no matter how much it suits your agenda What about all the political prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, all in jail because the USA fought major wars against them, in the case of its one time ally Iraq on false pretences - just like Vietnam!. What about those in jail in Iran? Would they be there had the American CIA allied by its British helpers not wanted control of Iran's oil and engineered the deposing of the country's freely-elected Prime Minister, in his place replacing and then propping up the hated Shah with billions of $$ of cash and weaponry which he could and did use against his own people. Did you ever stop to think that if Iran had been allowed to develop its politics in a peaceful manner without massive interference from the USA and the UK, there almost certainly would have been no 1979 Islamic revolution which destabilised many countries in the world and an Iran, with its lovely people and gorgeous scenery, might now be at least a non-aligned country, even if not one alied to western powers.

And what about the prisoners of conscience in neighbouring Myanmar? Mostly they are there because the USA, as the world's superpower, has sat on the sidelines for decades, done nothing and left the country to stew. 

There are many injustices in our world. What happened with war in Vietnam was the responsibility of the USA. What happened when they lost and ran away remains the USA's responsibiity - plain and simple.

[vinapu]

5 hours ago, Moses said:

How many of them receiving grants from USAID and other US state agencies? Let me guess - all.

nothing wrong with that and it's done in the open

[PeterRS]

12 minutes ago, vinapu said:

nothing wrong with that and it's done in the open

It WAS done in the open. It's now vanished up Musk's asshole. USAID does not at present exist as countries around the world, including our neighbour Myanmar, have had grants rescinded. At the same time blame litle Marco. Rubio is a prime example of an ass licker par excellence.

[Moses]

2 hours ago, vinapu said:

nothing wrong with that and it's done in the open

even AI knows:

[Raposa]

22 hours ago, Moses said:

You read too much propaganda.

Meanwhile so called "first world" is responsible for hundreds years of genocide of Africans via slavery, for genocide of indigenous people in both Americas, for genocide indigenous people in Australia.  And this is not propaganda, but facts.

Never mind the hyperbole of your post, and the wildly inaccurate use of the word genocide. I could chide you for the Russian imperialism in the Caucasus which was a violent, calculated, and deeply transformative process that reshaped the region’s political, cultural, and demographic realities. It combined military aggression with ideological pretence, drawing heavily on both pragmatic geopolitical aims and a self-righteous narrative of civilisation. The legacies of this imperialism—displacement, trauma, ethnic tension, and resistance—remain highly relevant to the region’s politics to this day.

I don’t overly moralize about this. Russia acted like one imperial power among many. The Poles rightly recognised the continuity of this imperialism under Bolshevik rule even though the ideological garbs were new.

2 hours ago, Moses said:

even AI knows:

It more accurately describes what US foreign aid is being transformed into. The purpose of having a relatively independent USAID was to keep direct political meddling at an arm lengths distance and keep the development focus (termed globalism by its detractors). Many other western countries have rolled back this model and subsumed their aid agencies directly under their foreign ministries. In that model aid becomes instrumentalised and transactional. 

[khaolakguy]

10 hours ago, Moses said:

I don't read fantasy... 

Not true! You even parrot back to us the Kremlin PR that you have read.

[Moses]

2 hours ago, Raposa said:

The purpose of having a relatively independent USAID was to keep direct political meddling at an arm lengths distance and keep the development focus

Oh, dear, even kid knows what all these agencies are used not only as a "soft power", but also as disguise for "looking as military men in civilian clothes".

[Moses]

2 hours ago, khaolakguy said:

Not true!

Well. Only I know whether I read fantasy or not. So now you know: I don't read fantasy. And I don't believe in old men with beards and halos.

P.S. Quoting a fantasy in which the words "Sodom" and "Gomorrah" are used quite often on a forum where the most popular topics are about buying young bodies of poor boys, also looks sanctimonious.

P.P.S. In my culture, there is also a saying on this topic: "Either take off your cross, or put on your underwear."

[Raposa]

2 minutes ago, Moses said:

Oh, dear, even kid knows what all these agencies are used not only as a "soft power", but also as disguise for "looking as military men in civilian clothes".

Please tell that to the patients at thai-Myanmar border who had their services cut away. 

[Moses]

11 minutes ago, Raposa said:

Please tell that to the patients at thai-Myanmar border who had their services cut away.

Why should I tell it to parents on "Thai-Myanmar" border? That region is controlled by rebels, so it is you, who should tell to rebels to start distribution of antiviral drugs for free, instead to selling them on black market.

On the "state side" antiviral drugs are distributed for free, as it is stated by UNAIDS in their docs.

[Raposa]

4 minutes ago, Moses said:

Why should I tell it to parents on "Thai-Myanmar" border? That region is controlled by rebels, so it is you, who should tell to rebels to start distribution of antiviral drugs for free, instead to selling them on black market.

On the "state side" antiviral drugs are distributed for free, as it is stated by UNAIDS in their docs.

I will not waste time discussing this with you.