[Marxism] Lessons from Trump’s win — more democracy is needed
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Re: [Marxism] Leonard Cohen Dead at 82
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Everybody knows the fight was fixed The poor stay poor, the rich get rich... Everybody knows that the boat is leaking Everybody knows that the captain lied Or, for darker prophesy, the Future: Give me back my broken night My mirrored room, my secret life It's lonely here There's no one left to torture Give me absolute control Over every living soul And lie beside me, baby That's an order! Give me crack and anal sex Take the only tree that's left And stuff it up the hole In your culture Give me back the Berlin Wall Give me back Stalin and St. Paul I've seen the future, brother It is murder Things are going to slide in all directions Won't be nothing Nothing you can measure anymore The blizzard of the world Has crossed the threshold And it's overturned The order of the soul Or from the same album as the Futjure, the more optimistic "Democracy", with the lines: >From the fires of the homeless >From the ashes of the gay Democracy is coming to the USA Note the tense. An optimistic statement democracy is *coming*. On 12 November 2016 at 02:20, Michael Yates via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > Here is a Leonard Cohen song I like a lot. Everybody Knows. "Everybody > knows that the dice are loaded." Except, I suppose those faux leftists who > continue to trod the lesser-evil path. One Ethan Young, who has been > berating me for many months over my principled critiques of the Sanders' > campaign, is now urging everyone to sign a petition urging the appointment > of someone or other to head the Democratic National Committee. All that > cultural capital he came into the world with, and he wastes his time doing > this. Just pathetic. > > > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lin-a2lTelg > > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/ > stuartmunckton%40gmail.com > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Trump's 'big victory'. . . with 26% support
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[Marxism] Fwd: Gianni Vattimo’s Weak Marxism - Los Angeles Review of Books
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[Marxism] Fwd: Sikh Transit Gloria Mundi - Los Angeles Review of Books
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Re: [Marxism] FW: Socialists and wars in the 21st century - The case of Syria
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[Marxism] Data that helps explain the Trump vote
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * America’s Divided Recovery: College Haves and Have-Nots JUNE 30, 2016 Over 95 percent of jobs created during the recovery have gone to college-educated workers, while those with a high school diploma or less are being left behind. This report reveals that those with at least some college education have captured 11.5 million of the 11.6 million jobs created during the recovery. https://cew.georgetown.edu/publications/reports/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Mike Davis on Trump, Buchanan and Nixon
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Re: [Marxism] FW: Socialists and wars in the 21st century - The case of Syria
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 11/11/16 2:31 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote: And remember Socialist Project/Bullet is the work of Panitch & Gindin, who've published some great stuff but also pro-Tsipras swill. Being mistaken about Syriza is not the same thing as being mistaken about the Baathists. It is the difference between supporting the Spanish Popular Front Government and supporting Franco. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] FW: Socialists and wars in the 21st century - The case of Syria
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2016-11-11 19:21, Richard Fidler via Marxism wrote: Full: http://tinyurl.com/zr8mq7f Thank you for this thoughtful article. I think one of the problems one faces in a discussion around how to be antiwar in practice, is that the discussion is crippled by the one-dimensional framework of pro-war versus anti-war. For all the antiwar movements I have supported or participated in, the actual content is never really limited to "opposing war." While the existence of war is a sad commentary on the backwardness of the human race, the solution to that backwardness is in removing the causes of war. Only strict pacifists always advise both sides in a war to simply put down their guns and stop fighting. In practice, one side following this advise only allows victory for the other power. Thus in Vietnam "antiwar" meant that the US and its allies should stop their war-making, NOT that the Vietnamese should stop their war of liberation. Opposition to the Contra war in Nicaragua, again, was in reference to the U.S. which created and supplied those forces, not a call for the Sandanistas to stop the defense of their country (anymore than we would have opposed the revolutionary war they had conducted against Somoza). When we had "antiwar" demonstrations against the impending Iraq war, we never meant that the Iraqis should abandon their military defenses. In all such examples, "antiwar" really meant opposing the war-making of one side, but in effect justifying the military efforts of the oppressed nation under attack. It was only because the main enemy in each case were our own imperialist ruling classes that the term "antiwar" was a convenient and popularly formulated slogan expressing that content, in which we were actually (and unashamedly!) taking sides. That is why an "antiwar" movement in the West in relation to Syria is an oxymoron. Obviously the revolution and civil war in Syria was not a result of any war-making on the part of Western imperialism (despite various fictions to the contrary). We should take the side of the oppressed in Syria every bit as much as we did in the above examples. But (unless you live in Russia or Iran) using the term "antiwar" doesn't really specify which side you are on. And using that term robotically can only increase confusion and promote the myth that their revolution was a Western imperialist plot. In other words, the discussion that Richard Fidler encroached upon was already distorted by the starting point: how to build an "antiwar" movement in the West. Rather we need to start with the concept of building a solidarity movement with the oppressed. Only from that starting point can we formulate popular slogans and demands, and determine if and how terms such as "antiwar" can be applied to those efforts. - Jeff _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] FW: Socialists and wars in the 21st century - The case of Syria
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * And remember Socialist Project/Bullet is the work of Panitch & Gindin, who've published some great stuff but also pro-Tsipras swill. On Fri, Nov 11, 2016 at 1:57 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > On 11/11/16 1:21 PM, Richard Fidler via Marxism wrote: > >> >> In a recent article, "Syria and the Antiwar Tradition," >> published in the Socialist Project's on-line bulletin The >> Bullet, David Bush discusses various positions taken by >> international left currents on issues raised by the current >> war in Syria and asks what, if anything, socialists can or >> should do about it. >> > > Bush's article also appeared in Canadian Dimension, where he serves as an > editor. > > My articles have appeared there over the years and I consider the founder > Cy Gonick a friend. > > But unfortunately, Cy and the other editors share the same messed up views > on Syria as Monthly Review, a magazine that obviously inspired Canadian > Dimension. A brief search on "Syria" will reveal articles that condemn the > White Helmets and other typically Assadist propaganda. They have also > published James Petras on Syria, who is a deranged anti-Semite and I don't > use that term lightly. > > This stuff is like a disease that has infected the left like a venereal > disease. Trotsky once called Stalinism the syphilis of the workers > movement. This Assadism is like AIDS. > > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt > ions/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] FW: Socialists and wars in the 21st century - The case of Syria
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 11/11/16 1:21 PM, Richard Fidler via Marxism wrote: In a recent article, "Syria and the Antiwar Tradition," published in the Socialist Project's on-line bulletin The Bullet, David Bush discusses various positions taken by international left currents on issues raised by the current war in Syria and asks what, if anything, socialists can or should do about it. Bush's article also appeared in Canadian Dimension, where he serves as an editor. My articles have appeared there over the years and I consider the founder Cy Gonick a friend. But unfortunately, Cy and the other editors share the same messed up views on Syria as Monthly Review, a magazine that obviously inspired Canadian Dimension. A brief search on "Syria" will reveal articles that condemn the White Helmets and other typically Assadist propaganda. They have also published James Petras on Syria, who is a deranged anti-Semite and I don't use that term lightly. This stuff is like a disease that has infected the left like a venereal disease. Trotsky once called Stalinism the syphilis of the workers movement. This Assadism is like AIDS. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] FW: Socialists and wars in the 21st century - The case of Syria
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * In a recent article, "Syria and the Antiwar Tradition," published in the Socialist Project's on-line bulletin The Bullet, David Bush discusses various positions taken by international left currents on issues raised by the current war in Syria and asks what, if anything, socialists can or should do about it. Bush advances many arguments, and I agree with much of what he writes. But since I had expressed a somewhat different approach in a members-only email discussion list of Socialist Project, the Bullet editors asked if I would like to comment on the article for publication. Pursuant to that invitation, I submitted a response to Bush's article to the editors on November 5. Since it has not yet been published I reproduce it below, as submitted together with a list of suggested readings and a short article by Gilbert Achcar that I considered apposite. As well, I use this opportunity to add some additional comments following that article on an aspect of the debate that I alluded to only briefly in my original text. Full: http://tinyurl.com/zr8mq7f _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Chris Hedges: Trump Will Crush Dissent With Even Greater Violence and Savagery
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Of course, legalities are important. Also important is the relationship of forces. Would Trump have broad support in American society for repressive measures against the left? I can't judge that from a distance. Of one thing I am certain. The determination of young people to stand up and loudly declare their willingness to fight is 100% right. Even if these demonstrations are still among a comparatively small layer of radical young people, they are important in determining what the relationship of forces will be. The gains that were made for civil rights, for women's rights and for gay rights were won not through elections, but in the streets. That's where they will be defended. As for undocumented workers, will they respond in the streets as they did on May Day in 2006? Many of you are better able to judge this. ken h _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The working class roots of the DP?
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The historic class roots of the Democratic Party were in the newly empowered cotton-growing slaveocracy. It emerged from the proverbial coalition of the South and West, hinged on the new cotton plantations of the lower Mississippi. The generation after the invention of the cotton gin--and the booming demand of Britain for cotton--created a new kind of superwealthy plantation system, vastly more profitable and exploitative than those which had earlier produced tobacco and other goods on the eastern seaboard. After the Civil War, it never had a solid base in the working class, except for ethnically stratified but always white skilled labor in select cities. Working class voters were more likely in most places to vote for pro-tariff Republicans. Wilson courted organized labor--again skilled and white and male--and the AFL rather than the hunted and persecuted IWW--looking for a role as respectable collaborators with the Progressive agenda. This briefly came to fruition under FDR . . . though never as much as claimed by the Democrats, union officialdom, and the Communists who favored the alliance. Given the choice of being allied to Southern Jim Crow industrialists and the organizers trying to reach their employees, FDR's administration happily looked the other way during the even violent repression of their workers. For a balanced view of how employers worked before and during, see the new collection http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/86xzx9kn9780252040818.html. For the official Democratic Party view, consult the New York Times . . . or reruns of the Howdy Doody Show. ML _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Chris Hedges: Trump Will Crush Dissent With Even Greater Violence and Savagery - TheRealNews
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Mark Lause wrote If we take what Trump and his supporters said and are saying on face value, they are more concerned about going after what they see as the privileged "liberal" elites who have gotten special privileges under the law--"crooked Hillary," etc. I think that even the officials of this incoming administration have to realize that that's a can of worms. Like most of Trump's more disturbing rhetoric, it was made for effect. Actually doing something to threaten the traditional structures of power or the now-traditional exemptions of ruling class people from prosecution for criminal activities would encourage sections of the ruling class itself to pull the plug. We have plenty of more tangible realities we need to worry about without borrowing troubles that haven't come up yet. In general, we should take the advice of General U.S. Grant and not worry what the enemy might do to us and start planning what we're going to do to them.. ML Dunno for sure, Mark, but there's much reason there. Consider the likelihood: have you ever heard John Bolton's rant? Did you see Gingrich calling for a new House on Un-American Activities Committee?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GU0JD7eKhY @ 153? Rudy Giuliani the Manhattan street sweeper for Attorney General? The chair of the House Home Security committee calling for shutdown of the internet, which other authoritarian regimes have been doing, citing security concerns? Or a rabid right born again v.p. who is a close Cheney associate? David Clarke the Black Milwaukee sheriff who furiously condemns Black Lives matter and advises that constituents arm themselves? What Trump's SCOTUS selection will mean for the further gutting of the Bill of Rights? What racism, tax cuts, climate denial and reversal, Springs springing globally, the probabilities of an unstable currency, a collapsing economy and a whole pile of intractable challenges will mean for an inexperienced president and his hastily-selected team in terms of global stability and the level of protests? The president's killer list? What he will face in the reaction to the US ringing Russia and China with bases and warships and missile sites and ratcheting tension with use of the currency, the tariff and market monopoly to destabilize? Assuming chaos ain't chicken little anymore. Not that anyone has what it takes to run an imperialist/capitalist regime with what faces us, but he's off to a most ominous start, It isn't whether he's reluctant to disturb the structures of power, it's what is beyond his power, or anyone's power, that should worry us. And if it was just his rhetoric that would be something else. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Tikkun Daily Blog » Blog Archive » The Great Comic Book Heroes
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Jules Feiffer. Used to turn him to him first in the Village Voice when it was 15 cents, the same as a subway token. http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2016/11/10/the-great-comic-book-heroes/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Obama and the Common Affairs of the Whole Bourgeoisie
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Around this time every year I begin to be deluged by DVD’s and Vimeo links geared to the sort of middle-brow films that Hollywood studios submit for consideration to members of New York Film Critics Online for our annual awards meeting in early December. If you’ve ever seen something by Merchant-Ivory, you’ll probably know the kind of movie I’m talking about. When Netflix sent me an email with a link to “Barry”, a biopic about Obama’s time at Columbia University that premieres on Friday, December 16, 2016, my first reaction was to put in the trash just like one of those solicitations I used to get from Nigerian generals before SpamAssassin kicked in. But since it was received so close to election day, I decided to watch the film and give it the spanking I am sure it would deserve as well as use it as a peg for some ruminations on the Obama presidency and the ascendancy of Donald Trump. Studio boss Sam Goldwyn once said “Just write me a comedy. Messages are for Western Union”. Although I don’t write films, I do like to review them and wouldn’t dream of not including a message while I am at it. full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/11/obama-and-the-common-affairs-of-the-whole-bourgeoisie/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] reviewer wanted
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Socialism and Democracy is looking for someone to review a very interesting new book. If you are interested in reviewing this book, write to me at george.snede...@verizon.net Here is the book and the publisher's blurb from Verso: Four Futures: Life After Capitalism by Peter Frase An exhilarating exploration into the utopias and dystopias that could develop from present society Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this post-capitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism, socialism and exterminism might actually entail. Could the current rise of real-life robocops usher in a world that resemblesEnder's Game? And sure, communism will bring an end to material scarcities and inequalities of wealth-but there's no guarantee that social hierarchies, governed by an economy of "likes," wouldn't rise to take their place. A whirlwind tour through science fiction, social theory and the new technologies already shaping our lives, Four Futures is a balance sheet of the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful, and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail. Paperback, 160 pages ISBN: 9781781688137 George Snedeker Book review Editor _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Trump Campaigned Against Lobbyists. Now They’re on His Transition Team.
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * NY Times, Nov. 11 2016 Trump Campaigned Against Lobbyists. Now They’re on His Transition Team. By ERIC LIPTON WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump, who campaigned against the corrupt power of special interests, is filling his transition team with some of the very sort of people who he has complained have too much clout in Washington: corporate consultants and lobbyists. Jeffrey Eisenach, a consultant who has worked for years on behalf of Verizon and other telecommunications clients, is the head of the team that is helping to pick staff members at the Federal Communications Commission. Michael Catanzaro, a lobbyist whose clients include Devon Energy and Encana Oil and Gas, holds the “energy independence” portfolio. Michael Torrey, a lobbyist who runs a firm that has earned millions of dollars helping food industry players such as the American Beverage Association and the dairy giant Dean Foods, is helping set up the new team at the Department of Agriculture. Mr. Trump was swept to power in large part by white working-class voters who responded to his vow to restore the voices of forgotten people, ones drowned out by big business and Wall Street. But in his transition to power, some of the most prominent voices will be those of advisers who come from the same industries for which they are being asked to help set the regulatory groundwork. The president-elect’s spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, declined a request for comment, as did nearly a dozen corporate executives, consultants and lobbyists serving on his transition team, which was outlined in a list distributed widely in Washington on Thursday. A number of the people on that list are well-established experts with no clear interest in helping private-sector clients. But to critics of Mr. Trump — both Democrats and Republicans — the inclusion of advisers with industry ties is a first sign that he may not follow through on all of his promises. “This whole idea that he was an outsider and going to destroy the political establishment and drain the swamp were the lines of a con man, and guess what — he is being exposed as just that,” said Peter Wehner, who served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush before becoming a speechwriter for George W. Bush. “He is failing the first test. And he should be held accountable for it.” Transition teams help new presidents pick the new cabinet, as well as up to 4,000 political appointees who will take over top posts in agencies across the government. President Obama, after he was first elected, instituted rules that prohibited individuals who had served as a registered lobbyist in the prior year from serving as a transition adviser in the areas in which they represented private clients. They were also prohibited, after the administration took power, from lobbying in the parts of the government they helped set up. “They wanted to make sure that people were not putting their thumb on the scale, or even the perception of that,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, the director of a nonprofit group called the White House Transition Project, which has studied two decades of presidential transitions. Among the advisers assisting Mr. Trump who have no clear private-sector ties are Brian Johnson, a top lawyer for the House Financial Services Committee, who is helping to pick top staff members for the federal government’s many financial services agencies. Edwin Meese, who served as attorney general under Mr. Reagan and is now associated with the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank, is helping oversee management and budget issues, along with Kay Coles James, a Bush administration official who now runs an institute that trains future African-American leaders. Former Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan, who served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee until 2014 and was once a special agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is overseeing issues related to national security, including the intelligence agencies and the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Catanzaro’s client list is a who’s who of major corporate players — such as the Hess Corporation and Devon Energy — that have tried to challenge the Obama administration’s environmental and energy policies on issues such as how much methane gas can be released at oil and gas drilling sites, lobbying disclosure reports show. He also worked with oil industry players to help push through major legislation goals, such as allowing the export of crude oil. He will now help pick Mr. Trump’s energy team. Michael McKenna, another lobbyist helping
[Marxism] Fwd: Autocracy: Rules for Survival | by Masha Gessen | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * “Thank you, my friends. Thank you. Thank you. We have lost. We have lost, and this is the last day of my political career, so I will say what must be said. We are standing at the edge of the abyss. Our political system, our society, our country itself are in greater danger than at any time in the last century and a half. The president-elect has made his intentions clear, and it would be immoral to pretend otherwise. We must band together right now to defend the laws, the institutions, and the ideals on which our country is based.” That, or something like that, is what Hillary Clinton should have said on Wednesday. Instead, she said, resignedly, "We must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power. We don’t just respect that. We cherish it. It also enshrines the rule of law; the principle [that] we are all equal in rights and dignity; freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these values, too, and we must defend them." Hours later, President Barack Obama was even more conciliatory: "We are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country. The peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of our democracy. And over the next few months, we are going to show that to the world….We have to remember that we’re actually all on one team." The president added, “The point, though. is that we all go forward with a presumption of good faith in our fellow citizens, because that presumption of good faith is essential to a vibrant and functioning democracy.” As if Donald Trump had not conned his way into hours of free press coverage, as though he had released (and paid) his taxes, or not brazenly denigrated our system of government, from the courts and Congress, to the election process itself—as if, in other words, he had not won the election precisely by acting in bad faith. Similar refrains were heard from various members of the liberal commentariat, with Tom Friedman vowing, “I am not going to try to make my president fail,” to Nick Kristof calling on “the approximately 52 percent majority of voters who supported someone other than Donald Trump” to “give president Trump a chance.” Even the politicians who have in the past appealed to the less-establishment part of the Democratic electorate sounded the conciliatory note. Senator Elizabeth Warren promised to “put aside our differences.” Senator Bernie Sanders was only slightly more cautious, vowing to try to find the good in Trump: “To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him.” However well-intentioned, this talk assumes that Trump is prepared to find common ground with his many opponents, respect the institutions of government, and repudiate almost everything he has stood for during the campaign. In short, it is treating him as a “normal” politician. There has until now been little evidence that he can be one. full: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The working class roots of the DP?
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I will be writing at length before too long about all these calls for the DP to return to its working class roots, with people like Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich leading the charge. But a close reading of DP history will reveal that except for FDR and the lingering effects of the New Deal in the Truman and LBJ administrations, the DP was always hostile to working class interests. The idea that you can adopt a pro-worker program when confronted by inertial forces going back 2 centuries is delusional. Furthermore, half-way measures against the "billionaire class" won't work unlike the 1930s when the American economy relied on Fordist manufacturing at its core. The bourgeoisie farmed out manufacturing long ago except for certain sectors such as aerospace long ago. Nothing will bring that back. Trump's words about Carrier Air Conditioning not being allowed to go to Mexico is pure demagogy. It is probably frightening to most people on the soft left to think about the prospects of a revolution against the most powerful capitalist class in world history but we have no choice. As Rosa Luxemburg said, it is socialism or barbarism. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Trump’s Economic Prescription. First: Do Harm.
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (Rattner is a neoliberal pig but he does identify some of the contradictions of Trumponomics.) NY Times Op-Ed, Nov. 11 2016 Trump’s Economic Prescription. First: Do Harm. by Steven Rattner Donald J. Trump is positioned to achieve the most radical reshaping of economic policy since Ronald Reagan. Even under Reagan, Republicans never controlled both houses of Congress. Since Mr. Trump has yet to provide many specifics, I can’t thoroughly assess the overall impact of his plan. But at the least, if he follows through on his ideas, we could face higher prices on imported goods, rising interest rates, substantial inflation and a further shift of wealth to the upper classes. For starters, Mr. Trump has promised an immediate attack on trade deals, at least with countries he views as manipulators. Presidents have significant authority to act unilaterally in this area, and Mr. Trump has insisted he would put 35 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and 45 percent on those from China. Trade, which has been proved to stimulate economic growth both here and abroad, has already been slowing, and Mr. Trump is determined to slow it further in an effort to protect blue-collar manufacturing workers, many of them his supporters. Mr. Trump’s tariffs would raise the prices of imported goods sharply, cutting the purchasing power of every American. Lower-income Americans — including Mr. Trump’s core supporters — would be hurt the most because they disproportionately buy less expensive imported items. For China, and particularly Mexico, the economic costs would be significant, which is why at one point on Wednesday the Mexican peso had plunged by more than 13 percent. While some manufacturing jobs might come back as a result of the tariffs, a greater number of domestic jobs would most likely be lost because Americans would have less spending power. A recent study by the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated that, rather than bringing jobs back to the United States, Mr. Trump’s tariffs could result in a trade war that would cost our economy five million jobs and possibly lead to a recession. The centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s plan is a huge $5.8 trillion tax cut unaccompanied by specificity around what expenses would be cut to pay for it. (Indeed, the president-elect has proposed more spending on defense and infrastructure.) As soon as Mr. Trump’s ascendancy became clear on Tuesday night, interest rates on Treasuries began to rise. Usually, an unexpected event causes a flight to the safety of government debt, pushing yields down. That the opposite occurred reflects fears that the deficit might balloon out of control. Mr. Trump has promised to keep Medicare and Social Security benefits unchanged, a commitment at odds with Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s own economic proposals. As a fiscal conservative, Mr. Ryan is unlikely to accept large tax cuts unaccompanied by major spending reductions. That could lead to the evisceration of many of the discretionary federal programs — think education or research and development — critical to putting our economy on a stronger footing. To be sure, a tax cut on its own would give Americans more cash to spend. But according to the Tax Policy Center, by 2025, 51 percent of Mr. Trump’s reductions would go to the top 1 percent, who both least need it and would be least likely to spend it. Then there’s the regulatory arena, where Mr. Trump also has a free hand to act unilaterally. And act he has promised to do, starting with a moratorium on new rules not required by Congress and a reversal of many executive orders. If Mr. Trump sticks to his pledge, it will be open season on regulations, as businesses go after their most disliked provisions and agencies. Industrial companies will take aim at the Environmental Protection Agency. Financial institutions, including the big banks, will push to repeal Dodd-Frank. That’s just for starters. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Ryan are united in opposition to the Affordable Care Act, potentially ending the free or subsidized coverage that 20 million Americans are now receiving. Those Americans would be facing higher costs or loss of coverage. Some of the efforts at dismantling government may face hurdles in the Senate, where 60 votes are required to break filibusters, more than the Republicans will have. But under a process known as “reconciliation,” matters relating to taxes and spending — and potentially the repeal of Obamacare — can be passed by a simple majority of 51. Last, Mr. Trump’s signal issue was immigration, where he promised stricter
[Marxism] Leonard Cohen Dead at 82
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Here is a Leonard Cohen song I like a lot. Everybody Knows. "Everybody knows that the dice are loaded." Except, I suppose those faux leftists who continue to trod the lesser-evil path. One Ethan Young, who has been berating me for many months over my principled critiques of the Sanders' campaign, is now urging everyone to sign a petition urging the appointment of someone or other to head the Democratic National Committee. All that cultural capital he came into the world with, and he wastes his time doing this. Just pathetic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lin-a2lTelg _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Trump & Woolsey: Was There a Bait-and-Switch?
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * For voters hoping to ease global tensions and diminish the threat of World War III, Donald Trump seemed to be saying some sensible things on the campaign trail. He questioned the role of NATO, and the use of “regime change” by the U.S. against other nations. He asked why the U.S. and Russia couldn’t be partners rather than belligerents. He even questioned why the U.S. must always play the role of the world’s policeman and suggested that the U.S. should turn its attention to solving its own domestic problems. Such campaign rhetoric was unusual and likely struck a chord with some war-weary listeners. But in early September 2016, in a move that should have received far more attention than it did, Trump appointed former CIA director James Woolsey as his senior advisor on national security issues. Woolsey – a key member of the neoconservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC) – had been a strong advocate for invading Iraq in 2003 and for waging war throughout the Middle East. In its commentary about Trump’s appointment of Woolsey, The Intercept noted, “Woolsey’s selection either clashes with Trump’s noninterventionist rhetoric – or represents a pivot towards a more muscular, neoconservative approach to resolving international conflicts.” [1] full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/11/trump-woolsey-was-there-a-bait-and-switch/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Chris Hedges: Trump Will Crush Dissent With Even Greater Violence and Savagery - TheRealNews
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Hedges is almost surely jumping the gun on this. In response to the encouragement of the most crude and bare-faced racist rhetoric in years, enraged black, Latino, and Muslim youth are going to have to rediscover and redeploy the old lessons to minimize their vulnerability to victimization in making their responses. The organized left per se is far too irrelevant to concern the authorities . . . and this includes the 1.2 million Green voters who If we take what Trump and his supporters said and are saying on face value, they are more concerned about going after what they see as the privileged "liberal" elites who have gotten special privileges under the law--"crooked Hillary," etc. I think that even the officials of this incoming administration have to realize that that's a can of worms. Like most of Trump's more disturbing rhetoric, it was made for effect. Actually doing something to threaten the traditional structures of power or the now-traditional exemptions of ruling class people from prosecution for criminal activities would encourage sections of the ruling class itself to pull the plug. We have plenty of more tangible realities we need to worry about without borrowing troubles that haven't come up yet. In general, we should take the advice of General U.S. Grant and not worry what the enemy might do to us and start planning what we're going to do to them.. ML _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: What Trump's election means - bookforum.com / omnivore
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.bookforum.com/blog/16806 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Book review of Isaac Babel's Odessa Stories | Open Letters Monthly - an Arts and Literature Review
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/passion-rules-the-world/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Donald Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary may be JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * #DrainTheSwamp: Donald Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary may be JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon http://www.salon.com/2016/11/10/draintheswamp-donald-trumps-choice-for-treasury-secretary-may-be-j-p-morgan-ceo-jamie-dimon/ JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Donates Serious Cash to Democrats by Aaron Kiersh on July 21, 2009 Since Democrats swept into congressional power in the 2006 midterm elections, many industries — including some that traditionally back Republicans — have either begun to contribute to both parties equally or favor Democrats outright. The chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, however, never had to make any shift. Jamie Dimon happens to be a long-time Democratic donor. Dimon and his wife, Judy, have donated more than a half-million dollars to Democratic candidates and committees since 1989, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of his donations. That is nearly 12 times what the couple has given the GOP. full: https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/07/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-donat/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
