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Regarding what Glen Ford does or does not think, I would suggest emailing him, he is very responsive and I have had very fruitful exchanges with him in the past few years. You do, however, have one point that I would answer to directly because there's ample evidence that is easy to discover on the web from mainstream forums and media outlets: You write "Obama's failures" It depends on how you look at things. In my view, Obama has made plenty of statements since exiting office that he was a success and made great achievements on behalf of his donors. He and Arne Duncan busted the teachers union in Central Falls, RI, near where I live. They proliferated charter schools out the wazoo. They gave more infrastructure elements within education away to the tech oligarchy. That's an accomplishment in the eyes of the donors. He brought Social Security closer to privatization with his presidential appointments to the trustees board and nearly pulled it off as part of his Grand Bargain with Paul Ryan, something his economics guru Larry Summers had been advocating since the Clinton era < https://www.counterpunch.org/2004/10/30/how-monica-lewinsky-saved-social-security/ > The Affordable Care Act's structural design incentivized employers to only hire part-time workers in order to duck having to insure their workers, which in turn diminished union density, something shown by the study by economists at Harvard and Princeton that demonstrated 95% of job growth under Obama was in the gig economy < https://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/nearly-95-of-all-job-growth-during-obama-era-part-time,-contract-work-449057 > It's a jaded and cynical look at his legacy, I cede that readily, but it also seems pretty obvious given how miserable things were when he left office. -- Best regards, Andrew Stewart Just read the piece -- does the author really think that there is some "committee" of the ruling class that gave Harris "permission" to savage Biden in the debate?? Or was that just a writing rhetorical flourish that I'm too much of a philistine to understand? Does the writer think that there is no SIGNIFICANT difference between another four years of Trump or a capitalist Democrat --- for real effects on real people?? https://blackagendareport.com/sanders-vs-endless-austerity-regime-- It is hard to fight austerity --- but the ruling class is NOT completely united in support of austerity --- (witness the period between WW II and 1970 when austerity was NOT the rule ....true "prosperity" was bought via military Keynesianism and hot wars in Korea and Indochina --- but there was also a big expansion of the US version of Social Democracy --- and an immigration reform in 1965 and the end of Apartheid, US style --- ) Progress is possible even without a revolution --- and each step in the right direction creates space for REAL change ....just as the triumps of Bush II and Trump (and Obama's failures) moved us backwards .... _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
