There is definitely a Burmese middle class in places like Yangon and Mandalay, even if every aspect of the society is held back and hampered by a severely dysfunctional and oppressive tyranny. The junta holds back development as a product of ideology and as a tactic in maintaining its own dominance through brutal authoritarianism. After the recent violent crackdown on peaceful human rights demonstrators-- a crackdown which included the military slaughtering hundreds of peaceful monks-- the regime suddenly increased the cost of satellite TV access to make it inaccessible to the middle class. I mentioned a few days ago that the junta had already banned the BBC and other western news sources, leaving people with nothing but the always inoffensive and tepid CNN-- cookie recipe shows and breathless news reports on Britney Spears latest foibles threaten no one-- on which to depend for outside news. But now, even that will be out of reach for the Burmese middle class.

I've written before about two of my friends living part time in China, usually for 3-4 months at a time. They readregularly-- or at least they used to. As of last week, you can no longer getin China. "Probably," wrote one of them, "has something to do with the title." I don't think so. The title has been there a long time. And I remember when I was in Myanmar early in 2008 I wrote this And the next day,was no longer accessible in Yangon. My website ceased to exist in Myanmar. It was an eerie feeling being there and feeling they might be watching me. Obviously I'm notChina, but lately I have been writing an awful lotChina, basically China's financing of the drive to make John Boehner Speaker and Miss McConnell Senate Majority Leader. My premise, which I've repeated at least a dozen times, is that China has poured money into the Chamber of Commerce (which then turns the money into attack ads against Democrats)-- through state-run industrial organizations-- because they want a weaker America and one that is dedicated to the GOP ideas regarding outsourcing jobs. Whenattacks China-puppets like Ron Johnson (R-WI), Pat Toomey (R-PA) and, of course, Boehner and Miss McConnell (R-KY), China feels threatened.And when authoritarians feel threatened, they respond exactly the way the Rand Paul campaign did when one of their operatives curbstomped a young woman, or the way the Joe Miller campaign did when it had thugs from a private security firm handcuff and kidnap a journalist for asking embarrassing questions about Miller's criminal record, or the way Sharron Angle thinks Americans should turn to "Second Amendment solutions" or the way Texas GOP candidate Stephen Broden talks about violence and armed rebellion being "on the table" if Republican teabaggers don't prevail next Tuesday. China understands this kind of talk; it'skind of talk. It's the sound of authoritarianism, the hallmark of the Chinese Communist mentality as well as the hallmark of the right-wing of the Republican Party.This week GOP thugs have tried physically intimidating Democratic candidates on behalf of rightist authoritarian like Rand Paul, Eric Cantor , and Brian Bilbray . God only knows what would happen if a liberal showed up at a neo-Nazi Rich Iott rally or, worse, an Allen West event.Yesterday NPR connected the dots on an insidious Republican Party web of influence funded by the wealthiest families in America (not just selfish and greedy but anti-social and fascist as well) plus America's foreign competitors who want to see the GOP in charge, knowing how they will weaken the U.S. The NPR site linked about is interactive, but this is what it looks like and, remember, China, is funding the U.S. Chamber and, probably American Crossroads:

Labels: authoritarianism, China, Myanmar, outsourcing, Toomey