[Marxism] High temps, no water, no breaks for workers in FL, GA, TX construction booms – The Pump Handle

[Richard Sprout via Marxism]

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http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2017/05/09/high-temps-no-water-no-breaks-for-workers-in-fl-ga-tx-construction-booms/


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[Marxism] Open letter to President Trump from prison-released coal baron Blankenship – The Pump Handle

[Richard Sprout via Marxism]

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http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2017/05/16/open-letter-to-president-trump-from-prison-released-coal-baron-blankenship/


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[Marxism] Trump-Russia investiigation: Coverup is now part of it | McClatchy Washington Bureau

[MM via Marxism]

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"Investigators into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential elections are now 
also probing whether White House officials have engaged in a cover-up, 
according to members of Congress who were briefed Friday by Deputy Attorney 
General Rod Rosenstein.

"That avenue of investigation was added in recent weeks after assertions by 
former FBI Director James Comey that President Donald Trump had tried to 
dissuade him from pressing an investigation into the actions of Trump’s first 
national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, members of 
Congress said, though it was not clear whom that part of the probe might target.

"Even as members of Congress were mulling over the expansion of the case into 
possible cover-up, and its reclassification from counterintelligence to 
criminal, the scandal appeared to grow. The Washington Post reported Friday 
afternoon that federal investigators were looking at a senior White House 
official as a “significant person of interest.” The article did not identify 
the official, though it noted that the person was “someone close to the 
president.”"

Full: 
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article151565947.html
 


(NB: Clinton White House staffer Claude Taylor alleges that the “person of 
interest” is Jared K.)
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[Marxism] A Conservative Christian College Protest of Mike Pence

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times Op-Ed, May 19 2017
A Conservative Christian College Protest of Mike Pence
by Molly Wicker

GROVE CITY, Pa. — On Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence will give the 
commencement address at Grove City College, the small Christian 
institution in Western Pennsylvania where I am a junior. A few years 
ago, Mr. Pence would have been a noncontroversial choice. Other 
prominent Republicans, including Ben Carson, Jeb Bush and Laura Bush, 
have spoken here, and the school is known for its conservative values. 
Indeed, the phrase “conservative values” is in the Grove City mission 
statement.


But the announcement that Mr. Pence would be commencement speaker this 
year drew considerable backlash. Alumni and students flooded 
administrators’ inboxes with emails protesting the decision, and faculty 
members have called for boycotts. Many who oppose the decision say that 
hosting Mr. Pence will serve as an endorsement of the current president.


This is an interesting crossroads for the school. Grove City is proud of 
its image as a steadfastly conservative Christian oasis in the 
increasingly liberal landscape of higher education. On campus, 
conservative politics and conservative faith usually go hand in hand. 
Students study the politics of Ronald Reagan and the literature of C. S. 
Lewis as well as the Bible.


Most of us were raised in Protestant evangelical households, and more 
than 16 percent of the 2,500 students were home-schooled. Some students 
have had little exposure to popular culture or liberal politics. A few 
seem to see their conservative political affiliation as a ticket to 
eternal salvation.


But the 2017 election exposed a rift between ideological and political 
conservatism. Evangelical voters have long demanded that politicians 
exemplify Christian character and morality in the public sector. In 
Donald Trump, however, evangelicals were confronted with a candidate who 
pledged allegiance to conservative ideals, but embodied none of them.


Many of the issues evangelicals care about — marriage, abortion and 
religious liberty — are more dependent on a conservative Supreme Court 
than a conservative president. Divorced, disrespectful and domineering, 
Mr. Trump might not have been the first choice of many Christians, but 
he was certainly more likely than his Democratic opponent to advance 
cultural conservatism on the court.


Plenty of young evangelicals I know, however, were not persuaded by that 
argument. Claire Waugh, a senior from Woodbridge, Va., told me that she 
refused in November to have a Trump vote on her conscience, and that she 
hates to see the country being “led by a man who spews vitriol against 
anyone who is unlike him, a man who tries to invoke God’s name when he 
is acting utterly ungodly.”


And for many on campus, Mr. Pence’s reputation for being a very 
faith-oriented politician does not make up for his being Mr. Trump’s 
vice president. “It baffles me that a Christian institution, that 
supposedly values every human life and facilitates Christian education 
and beliefs, would allow someone as divisive as Mike Pence to come 
speak,” said Megan Baak, 22, a senior from Lancaster, Pa. “In an age 
where hate, violence, divisiveness and partisanship are so prevalent, I 
am shocked that Grove City would bring one of the most controversial 
political figureheads to our campus for graduation.”


Long before Mr. Pence tied himself to Mr. Trump, he was a good friend of 
Paul McNulty, Grove City’s president. Mr. McNulty was deputy attorney 
general for three years under President George W. Bush, and he and Mr. 
Pence became particularly close after their wives met while working at 
the Christian school both couples’ children attended. In announcing that 
Mr. Pence would give the commencement address, Mr. McNulty told our 
school paper that when his son died four years ago, the Pences “offered 
amazing support” to his family.


Nobody doubts the strength of their friendship. But it is not a good 
enough reason to invite a member of the Trump White House to 
commencement. By being politically accommodating to the administration 
of a faithless man who enacts damaging policies, the school is sending 
graduates a message that undermines the intention of this institution.


Protest at Grove City looks a little different from that at colleges 
like Auburn or Berkeley. After the Pence announcement, students 
expressed their concerns in editorials for the school newspaper and in 
meetings with administrators and Mr. McNulty. Across campus, students 
are debating the merits of tying faith to politics — a subject that has 
always been taken for granted. A Facebook 

Re: [Marxism] The Chávez Hypothesis: Vicissitudes of a Strategic Project (Chris Gilbert)

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela
Ellner, Steve. NACLA Report on the Americas; New York49.1 (Spring 2017): 
118-120.


Building the Commune is a provocative and superbly written book with a 
well-defined thesis. Ciccariello-Maher argues that given the 
deficiencies and underperformance of established institutions in 
Venezuela-including the country's governing Partido Socialista Unido de 
Venezuela (United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV), the military, and 
the state's executive branch-the best hope for the political survival of 
the Chavista government and the achievement of its long-term socialist 
goals is the commune system. As the author succinctly states in the 
book's last paragraph: "The time has come to bet it all on the communes."


The communes were promoted by the government of Hugo Chávez through the 
Law of the Communes in 2010 in order to bring together adjoining 
community councils for the purpose of undertaking public works projects 
on a wider scale. The communes and community councils apply for state 
funding for projects, monitor their progress, and select their work 
lorce from members of the community. In addition, the communes are 
designed to encourage the formation of community enterprises known as 
"social production companies" (EPSs). For the Chavistas, the communes 
represent the germ of the new society they are trying to create.


The book's narrative about Venezuela's communes is rich in detail. 
Ciccariello-Maher provides a vivid account of the economic and cultural 
activities of various communes in both urban and non-urban areas. The 
economic and cultural focus is strengthened by conversations with 
Reinaldo Iturriza, who after heading the country's Communes Ministry, 
was appointed Minister of Culture in 2014. Communes described in the 
book include the El Maizal Commune in western Venezuela, whose 
agricultural output is allegedly twice the nation's average; the Ataroa 
Commune in Barquisimeto, which manages a cement block EPS and is 
committed to the "ethos of sustainability"; and the El Panal Commune in 
Caracas' famed 23 de Enero neighborhood, which runs a bakery, 
sugar-packaging plant, and supermarket.


Ciccariello-Maher writes in the tradition of bottomup historian E.P. 
Thompson, as can be deduced from the title of his previous book We 
Created Chávez: A People's History of the Venezuelan Revolution, 
published in 2013. Ciccariello-Maher argues that the 2010 Law of the 
Communes served to "legally recognize''-and help consolidate and 
expand-the communes, but notes that the commune movement had emerged 
from the grassroots in previous years. The author presents several 
examples of this pattern of initiative and innovation from below-for 
example, the case of a group of neighbors in Caracas whose houses were 
destroyed by a landslide and who seized an abandoned building "before 
pressuring the government to expropriate it.''


Ciccariello-Maher ends the book pointing out that the mainstream press 
got it wrong when they predicted the demise of the Chavista revolution 
following the death of Hugo Chávez in 2013. Chavismo was never "a 
one-man show," he argues, and "to suggest otherwise is an insult to 
those who were building the revolution decades before Chávez, and...to 
those who continue to build revolutionary state power today."


In this way, the author departs from orthodox Marxist thinking by 
defining socialism along political rather than economic lines. For 
Ciccariello-Maher, the essence of socialism in Venezuela is "radical 
democracy." Building the Commune says little, for instance, about the 
elimination of powerful monopolistic or semi-monopolistic economic 
groups-goals prioritized by the traditional Left. In accordance with the 
concept of "dual power" originally proposed by Lenin, Ciccariello-Maher 
envisions a new state that battles an old one. The former consists of 
communes and other institutions of direct popular participation 
underpinned by social movements, while the latter takes in 
representative institutions such as municipal and state governments. 
According to the author, himself a political theorist, the goal of 
twenty-first century socialism "was to transform political power 
itself." With regard to the economy, Ciccariello-Maher asserts that 
"production is only a means, not the end. The goal is selfgovernment." 
Elsewhere, Ciccariello-Maher points out that for Chávez, what he called 
"communal culture" was the most important aspect of the commune.


An alternative view of the state put forward by Marta Harnecker and 
Greek Marxist Nicos Poulantzas is that the old state is not enemy 

Re: [Marxism] The Chávez Hypothesis: Vicissitudes of a Strategic Project (Chris Gilbert)

[Fred Murphy via Marxism]

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If you haven't read this I suggest you do so before writing (whatever your
opinion of GCM).

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2337-building-the-commune

Not sure I want to reply to Gilbert but I find the notion of communes in
> Venezuela troubling. Were they supposed to be an expression of dual power?
> When the government in power has created them, it sounds much more like a
> single power. I haven't been paying close attention to Venezuela since
> Maduro took over. To some extent that has to do with Chavismo support for
> Assad that makes the notions of 21st century socialism sound hollow. I may
> write something about the communes if I get a chance.
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] [SocialistProject] The Chávez Hypothesis: Vicissitudes of a Strategic Project (Chris Gilbert)

[Art Young via Marxism]

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Use this URL: https://tinyurl.com/kxyqzr3

 

 

From: socialistproj...@yahoogroups.ca
[mailto:socialistproj...@yahoogroups.ca] 
Sent: May 19, 2017 1:25 PM
To: socialistproj...@yahoogroups.ca; Marxmail
Subject: [SocialistProject] The Chávez Hypothesis: Vicissitudes of a
Strategic Project (Chris Gilbert)

 

  

A truly exceptional article, with a compelling argument well grounded in
recent
experience:
 
strategic-project/>

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Re: [Marxism] The Chávez Hypothesis: Vicissitudes of a Strategic Project (Chris Gilbert)

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 5/19/17 1:24 PM, Richard Fidler via Marxism wrote:


A truly exceptional article, with a compelling argument well grounded in recent
experience:



Not sure I want to reply to Gilbert but I find the notion of communes in 
Venezuela troubling. Were they supposed to be an expression of dual 
power? When the government in power has created them, it sounds much 
more like a single power. I haven't been paying close attention to 
Venezuela since Maduro took over. To some extent that has to do with 
Chavismo support for Assad that makes the notions of 21st century 
socialism sound hollow. I may write something about the communes if I 
get a chance.


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[Marxism] The Chávez Hypothesis: Vicissitudes of a Strategic Project (Chris Gilbert)

[Richard Fidler via Marxism]

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A truly exceptional article, with a compelling argument well grounded in recent
experience:




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[Marxism] Fwd: Modern History: Critiquing Frank Trentmann's Empire of Things – ADAM TOOZE

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.adamtooze.com/2017/05/18/modern-history-critiquing-frank-trentmanns-empire-things/
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[Marxism] Fwd: Documenting Discontent: Talking With Jamsheed Akrami About Iranian Cinema

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Three years ago Jeff St. Clair affixed the title “Is Abbas Kiarostami 
the World’s Most Talented Film-maker?” to my review of the Iranian 
director’s 1999 masterpiece “The Wind Will Carry Us”. I, of course, 
would not only answer yes to his rhetorical question but would go one 
step further and argue that Iranian filmmakers collectively have been 
making the greatest films for the past 30 years at least. They are the 
equivalent of the French nouvelle vague of the 1950s and early 60s but 
paradoxically produce great films under the heavy constraints of a 
clerical state that not only puts obstacles in their path but drives 
some of the elite figures into exile or in the case of Jafar Panahi kept 
under house arrest.


Recently I was fortunate enough to view four documentaries about Iranian 
film by Jamsheed Akrami, a Professor in the Communications Department of 
William Paterson University in New Jersey, that were made between 2000 
and 2013 and are now available from Arab Film Distribution, which 
markets DVDs to institutional customers such as university libraries and 
film departments.


full: 
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/19/documenting-discontent-talking-with-jamsheed-akrami-about-iranian-cinema/

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[Marxism] Fwd: Buy DVDs |Divided We Fall Movie (Twelfth House Films, Wisconsin)

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Terrific documentary on the Madison, Wisconsin labor struggle in 2011 
now available as DVD.


https://dividedwefall-movie.com/dvds/
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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Egypt: The New Dictatorship

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Review of Books, JUNE 8, 2017 ISSUE
Egypt: The New Dictatorship
Joshua Hammer

The Egyptians: A Radical History of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution
by Jack Shenker
New Press, 538 pp., $32.50

Egypt and the Contradictions of Liberalism: Illiberal Intelligentsia and 
the Future of Egyptian Democracy

edited by Dalia F. Fahmy and Daanish Faruqi
Oneworld, 388 pp., $35.00 (paper)

On July 3, 2013, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, chief of staff of the 
Egyptian Armed Forces, appeared on national television. Clad in a 
military uniform and black beret, he announced that he was acting on “a 
call for help by the Egyptian people” and seizing power from the Muslim 
Brotherhood. Since winning parliamentary elections in 2011 and the 
presidential election the following year, the Brotherhood—a grassroots 
movement founded in Egypt in the 1920s—had stacked the government with 
Islamists, failed to deliver on promises to improve the country’s 
deteriorating infrastructure, and attempted to rewrite Egypt’s 
constitution to reflect traditional religious values. These moves had 
provoked large demonstrations and violent clashes between supporters and 
secular opponents.


Sisi declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group and jailed its 
leadership—including the president he had deposed, Mohamed Morsi. Six 
weeks later, on August 13, he ordered the police to clear Brotherhood 
supporters from protest camps at two squares in Cairo: al-Nahda and 
Rabaa al-Adawiya. According to official health ministry statistics, 595 
civilians and forty-three police officers were killed in exceptionally 
violent confrontations with the protesters, but the Brotherhood claims 
that the number of victims was much higher.


That fall, Sisi launched a sweeping crackdown on civil society. Citing 
the need to restore security and stability, the regime banned protests, 
passed antiterrorism laws that mandated long prison terms for acts of 
civil disobedience, gave prosecutors broad powers to extend pretrial 
detention periods, purged liberal and pro-Islamist judges, and froze the 
bank accounts of NGOs and law firms that defend democracy activists. 
Human rights groups in Egypt estimate that between 40,000 and 60,000 
political prisoners, including both Muslim Brotherhood members and 
secular pro-democracy activists, now languish in the country’s jails. 
Twenty prisons have been built since Sisi took power.


In October 2013, President Barack Obama demonstrated his disapproval of 
the violent crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters by suspending 
military aid to Egypt. The aid—including a dozen F-16 fighter jets, 
twenty Harpoon missiles, and up to 125 US Abrams M1A1 tank kits—was 
restored eight months later. By that point, Sisi had shed his military 
uniform and become Egypt’s civilian president, winning more than 95 
percent of the vote in a stage-managed May 2014 election. But Obama kept 
his distance, refusing to invite Sisi to the White House.


Donald Trump, who has spoken bluntly about “radical Islamic terrorism” 
and appears to share Sisi’s view that the Muslim Brotherhood is involved 
in such activity, quickly signaled his support for the military 
government. Sisi was the first Arab leader with whom Trump spoke after 
his inauguration, and in April the US president invited him to the White 
House for what was described as a cordial private meeting. According to 
reports, Trump did not broach the subject of human rights violations, 
and observers believe that his embrace may embolden the Egyptian leader 
to extend his repressive policies.


But recent events in Egypt have raised the question of whether the 
tradeoff Sisi has offered the Egyptian public—keeping them safe in 
exchange for an authoritarian state and far-reaching restrictions on 
civil society—is working. In the northern Sinai Peninsula, an Islamic 
State–affiliated group called Sinai Province has launched an alarming 
number of attacks on security forces in recent months. The group has 
claimed to have killed 1,500 people—including security forces and 
“collaborators”—since the beginning of 2016. (Egyptian military 
officials say that number is wildly exaggerated.)


International peacekeepers describe the fighting in Sinai as starting to 
resemble the conflict in Afghanistan, with a committed army of religious 
fundamentalists, rocket and sniper attacks on foreign military 
observers, and defections by government troops angered by the state’s 
persecution of Islamists. “They are globally inspired local insurgents,” 
Major-General Denis Thompson, the Canadian former commander of the 
peacekeeping force, said in a recent interview. “And their effort is 

[Marxism] Fwd: The End of an Artist | by J. Hoberman | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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As the Polish critic Michał Oleszczyk has noted, Wajda mastered the game 
that Strzemiński “proved incapable of grasping: that of making one’s art 
under the watchful eye of the Communist authorities.” Afterimage is a 
celebration of “unqualified resistance from a filmmaker who knew exactly 
how much subterfuge was needed to remain active in a state-approved 
system of production.” In a final powerful metaphor, Strzemiński finds a 
job dressing shop-window mannequins. He collapses under the effort and 
lies in the window on public display, but ignored. A bleak concluding 
sequence has Nika contemplating the hospital bed where her father 
died—all she has left of him.


Afterimage may well be the most critical and self-critical film of 
Wajda’s illustrious career. Strzemiński’s destruction would have made a 
great fiction feature; that Wajda adheres so closely to the historical 
record is a further reproach. Wajda, who once aspired to be a painter 
and studied film in Lodz in the early 1950s, was the same age as 
Strzemiński’s students. It is more than likely that he was aware of the 
artist’s suffering even while it was happening. Afterimage is a movie 
about what Wajda learned then about making art in Poland, as well as 
over the next six decades.


full: 
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/05/17/the-end-of-an-artist-afterimage-wajda/

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[Marxism] Constructing Workers' Power

[bonnieweinstein via Marxism]

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Constructing Workers’ Power
Capitalism is responsible for all the violence in the world—
only workers have the power to bring peace.
By Bonnie Weinstein
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org 

“That is what I want to urge upon the working class; to become so organized on 
the economic field that they can take and hold the industries in which they are 
employed. 

“Can you conceive of such a thing? Is it possible? What are the forces that 
prevent you from doing so? You have all the industries in your own hands at the 
present time. 

“There is this justification for political action, and that is, to control the 
forces of the capitalists that they use against us; to be in a position to 
control the power of government so as to make the work of the army ineffective, 
so as to abolish totally the secret service and the force of detectives. That 
is the reason that you want the power of government…

“…If I didn’t think that the general strike was leading on to the great 
revolution which will emancipate the working class I wouldn’t be here. I am 
with you because I believe that in this little meeting there is a nucleus here 
that will carry on the work and propagate the seed that will grow into the 
great revolution that will overthrow the capitalist class.” —Big Bill Haywood.1

The world capitalist system, commanded primarily by the U.S., is doing the only 
thing it can do to maintain its power a little longer—plunder the world back 
into barbarism. 

They have no hope of establishing permanent power over the world’s wealth 
because there is a limit to how much destruction they can carry out before the 
entire Earth is destroyed along with them. 

They can’t kill everyone. They still need workers to do their bidding in both 
industry and as cannon fodder for their military exploitations. The U.S. and 
its allies are on a military destabilization campaign in the hopes of 
paralyzing any and all opposition to their growing interventions across the 
globe. This is the only way they can hope to even temporarily maintain and 
increase their wealth, and the power it buys them. 

Their power seems insurmountable. Their accumulated wealth is incomprehensible. 
In fact, according to a January 15, 2017 Fortune article by Reuters, eight 
men—Microsoft’s Bill Gates; Inditex founder Amancio Ortega; investor Warren 
Buffett; Mexico’s Carlos Slim, business magnet (America Movil, Latin America’s 
biggest mobile telecom firm,) investor and philanthropist; Amazon 
 boss Jeff Bezos; Facebook’s Mark 
Zuckerberg; Oracle’s Larry Ellison; and former New York City mayor Michael 
Bloomberg—are now as wealthy as half the world’s population.2

This obscene fact has a two-fold reality. One, the commanders of capital have 
more money than anyone could possibly spend in a lifetime—or even a hundred 
lifetimes; and two, they are a tiny, miniscule portion of humanity—an 
infinitesimal despotic regime that could not stand on its own without the 
enslavement, both physically and mentally, of the masses of the working class 
to do their bidding. 

The statistics below illustrate that the terms, “capitalism” and “war,” are 
synonymous. They show that the need for a fundamental change from capitalism to 
socialism is necessary if we are to save the world for future generations. 

What the capitalists spend to maintain their power
Besides the accumulated wealth held by the capitalists, they spend trillions of 
our tax dollars on a massive military budget to protect their financial 
interests. In fact, the military industrial complex is the most lucrative 
business in the U.S.—and the world. 

They spare no expense on their weapons of mass destruction. Just last year, the 
U.S. dropped 26,171 bombs on the world.3

In a April 7, 2017 article in Fortune by Jen Wieczner titled, “Syria Airstrikes 
Instantly Added Nearly $5 Billion to Missile-Makers’ Stock Value:”

“Raytheon stock surged Friday morning, after 59 of the company’s Tomahawk 
missiles were used to strike Syria in Donald Trump’s first major military 
operation as President…. The Tomahawk missile used in the strike is made by 
Raytheon…whose stock opened 2.5 percent higher Friday, adding more than $1 
billion to the defense contractor’s market capitalization. The shares of other 
missile and weapons manufacturers, including Boeing…Lockheed Martin…Northrop 
Grumman…and General Dynamics…each rose as much as one percent, collectively 
gaining nearly $5 billion in market value as soon as they began trading, even 
as the broader market fell.” 

The top five military revenue earning corporations in 2016 

[Marxism] Fwd: Marjorie Cohn: Did Trump Commit High Crimes and Misdemeanors?

[Ron Jacobs via Marxism]

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-- Forwarded message --
From: "Chuck Searcy" 
Date: May 18, 2017 3:28 AM
Subject: Marjorie Cohn: Did Trump Commit High Crimes and Misdemeanors?
To: "Chuck Searcy" 
Cc:

Legal scholar Marjorie Cohn can be counted on to provide clear and precise
explanations for unfolding legal dramas, in an accurate, complete, and
unbiased way.  The article below details considerations related to the
appointment of a special counsel yesterday.  CS



Essays and articles on a range of topics are shared with a select group of
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JURIST

Did Trump Commit High Crimes and Misdemeanors?
Wednesday 17 May 2017
edited by Dave Rodkey

JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn
, Professor Emerita at Thomas
Jefferson School of Law , discusses the legal
framework of a potential Trump impeachment...
[image: I'm not a crook, either]
*©  WikiMedia (Doug Coulter)
*

*D*eputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has responded to the crescendo of
outrage by appointing former FBI director Robert Mueller

as
special counsel to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the
Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of
President Donald Trump'' and "any matters that arose or may arise directly
from the investigation'' as well as any other matters within the scope of
the Department of Justice (DOJ) regulation on special counsel appointments.

"In my capacity as acting attorney general I determined that it is in the
public interest for me to exercise my authority and appoint a special
counsel to assume responsibility for this matter,'' Rosenstein stated.

"My decision is not a finding that crimes have been committed or that any
prosecution is warranted. I have made no such determination. What I have
determined is that based upon the unique circumstances the public interest
requires me to place this investigation under the authority of a person who
exercises a degree of independence from the normal chain of command,''
Rosenstein added.

Independent counsel Kenneth Starr thought he had "substantial and credible"
evidence

against
President Bill Clinton in 1998. Starr turned over the results of his
investigation to the House of Representatives, who then initiated
impeachment proceedings.

*Evidence of a Cover-up by Trump*

As evidence of President Donald Trump's malfeasance emerges, the old adage
that the cover-up is worse than the crime may once again prove true.

There is circumstantial evidence of improper contact between members of the
Trump administration and Russian operatives during the presidential
campaign. At this point, however, we have seen no concrete proof of
criminal conduct.

But evidence of a cover-up continues to mount. Trump has admitted

the
Russia investigation motivated him to fire FBI director James Comey.
Trump asked
Comey to end the investigation

of
former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Trump made veiled threats
to Comey
 about
possible tapes of their conversations. Trump demanded that Comey pledge
loyalty to him, but Comey refused. And Trump defensively fixated on Comey
telling him three times

[Marxism] Fwd: 'I could have died': how Erdoğan's bodyguards turned protest into brawl | World news | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/18/erdogan-bodyguards-clash-protesters-dc-lawmakers-respond
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[Marxism] Fwd: White Working-Class Voters and the Future of Progressive Politics – New Labor Forum

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2017/05/11/white-working-class-voters-and-the-future-of-progressive-politics/
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The FBI Takes Charge: The Establishment May be Done with Trump | New Politics

[Greg McDonald via Marxism]

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4th paragraph down, 2nd sentence--the author left out the noun
"impeachment".

On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 10:15 PM, Gary MacLennan via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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> *
>
> I agree with this blog.  Trump looks like he will be taken out from the
> Right. Sooner rather than later, I think
>
> ae
>
> Gary
>
> On Fri, May 19, 2017 at 10:19 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
>
> >   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
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> > *
> >
> > After nearly four months of President Donald Trump’s chaotic presidency
> > surrounded by controversies and scandals, the American establishment has
> > decided to take things in hand. That is the meaning of deputy attorney
> > general Rod J. Rosenstein’s appointment of Robert S. Mueller III to serve
> > as special counsel to investigate ties between the Trump administration
> and
> > Russia. Mueller, who had served as the FBI director from 2001 to 2013
> under
> > presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has both the confidence of
> the
> > establishment and the political independence that will allow him to
> pursue
> > the issue without fear of presidential interference.
> >
> > Mueller’s appointment suggests that the American corporate, political,
> and
> > military elite may have had enough of Trump’s unstable, unproductive, and
> > dangerous behavior and are prepared to drive him from office. Trump’s
> > thoughtless tweets, his off-hand remarks on the most important domestic
> and
> > foreign policy questions, and his erratic political behavior, all of
> which
> > have led to the paralysis of the Republican congressional agenda, stand
> in
> > the way both of the dominant neoliberal political establishment supported
> > by many Republican and Democratic politicians, and of the far-right
> Freedom
> > Caucus, which is anxious to destroy last remnants of the New Deal and the
> > Great Society social welfare programs of the Golden Years of 1939 to
> 1979.
> >
> > full: http://newpol.org/content/fbi-takes-charge-establishment-may
> > -be-done-trump
> > _
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[Marxism] US launches 32 strikes on ISIS May 17, kills dozens of civilians

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

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(I know that isn't the news that most of us are reading, which is 
telling)


The International Coalition Carried Out A Massacre In Al-Bukamal Today, 
Killing Dozens Of Civilians

Date: 15 / 5 / 2017

The USA-led International Coalition carried out a horrific massacre in 
Al-Bukamal city during the dawn, after executing multiple strikes 
against the city, which targeted an area near Al-Rahman Mosque and the 
vicinity of Al-Russafa as well as Al-Iman Mosque and the Hajanah 
Barrack.


The civilian death toll from the airstrikes has risen to 25 civilians, 
including locals and displaced families. The death toll might increase 
since rescue operations to pull trapped civilians out of the rubble area 
still ongoing.


More than 15 civilian-owned homes were destroyed, and many other 
civilian properties were badly damaged.


http://en.deirezzor24.net/the-international-coalition-carried-out-a-massacre-in-al-bukamal-today-killing-dozens-of-civilians/



Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve

May 18, 2017

Release # 20170518-01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

http://www.inherentresolve.mil/Portals/14/Documents/Strike%20Releases/2017/05May/20170518%20Strike%20Release%20-%20Final.pdf?ver=2017-05-18-083823-800Military
Strikes Continue Against ISIS Terrorists in Syria and Iraq

SOUTHWEST ASIA – On May 17, Coalition military forces conducted 32
strikes consisting of 101 engagements against ISIS terrorists in Syria
and Iraq.

In Syria, Coalition military forces conducted 22 strikes consisting of
32 engagements against ISIS targets.

• Near Abu Kamal, seven strikes destroyed seven ISIS well heads, four
fighting positions, a front-end loader and a mortar system.

• Near Al Hawl, one strike destroyed a mortar system and a fighting 
position.


• Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes destroyed four ISIS fuel trucks and a 
vehicle.


• Near Raqqah, 11 strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units; destroyed
five fighting positions, three mortar systems, three vehicles, two
ISIS fuel trucks, and an ISIS headquarters; and damaged an ISIS supply
route.

• Near Tabqah, one strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed
a fighting position.

In Iraq, Coalition military forces conducted 10 strikes consisting of
69 engagements against ISIS targets.

• Near Mosul, six strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units; destroyed
eight fighting positions, four medium machine guns, four mortar
systems, four VBIEDs, four rocket systems, three vehicles, three
rocket-propelled grenade systems, two ISIS-held buildings, two heavy
machine guns, two ISIS staging areas, a supply cache, an anti-air
artillery system, an ISIS fuel truck, a VBIED facility, and a fighting
position; damaged 16 supply routes and four rocket systems; and
suppressed two mortar teams and an ISIS tactical unit.

• Near Sinjar, one strike destroyed a tank.

• Near Tal Afar, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and
destroyed a UAS factory, an IED factory, and an ISIS staging area.

Additionally, two strikes were conducted in Syria on May 16th that
closed within the last 24 hours.

• Near Abu Kamal, one strike destroyed four oil processing equipment 
items.


• Near Raqqah, one strike damaged an ISIS supply route 


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