Re: [Marxism] The ISO has dissolved

[Greg McDonald via Marxism]

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>
> The ISO was a different current than my own and so there were irritants,
> even grievances, but I had a great deal of respect for them.
>

Yeah because you know, we all should have a great deal of respect for a
so-called revolutionary leadership that permits and covers up rape and
sexual abuse by a culture of shaming and gaslighting.

Fuck off.
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[Marxism] WA Post article on Trump money laundering Part II

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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part II of article:

After Trump World Tower opened in 2001, Trump began looking for buyers in
Russia through Sotheby’s International Realty, which teamed up with a
Russian real estate outfit. “I had contacts in Moscow looking to invest in
the United States,” real estate broker Dolly Lenz told USA Today
.
“They all wanted to meet Donald.” In the end, she said, she sold 65 units
to Russians in Trump World Tower alone.

The condo sales were just a part of it. In 2002, after Trump had racked up
$4 billion in debt from his disastrous ventures in Atlantic City, the
Russians again came to his rescue, by way of the Bayrock Group. At a time
when Trump found it almost impossible to get loans from Western banks
,
Bayrock offered him enormous fees

—
18 to 25 percent of the profits — simply to use his name on its
developments.

*[Putin wanted to interrogate me. Trump called it ‘an incredible offer.’
Why?
]*

So how did all this go unchallenged? According to Jonathan Winer, who
served as deputy assistant secretary of state for international law
enforcement in the Clinton administration, one answer may be lax
regulations. “If you are doing a transaction with no mortgage, there is no
financial institution that needs to know where the money came from,
particularly if it’s a wire transfer from overseas,” Winer told me in an
interview for my book
.
“The customer obligations that are imposed on all kinds of financial
institutions are not imposed on people selling real estate. They should
have been, but they weren’t.”

And without such regulations, prosecutors’ hands are tied.

All of which made it easier for the Russian Mafia to expand throughout the
United States. As it did so, it grew closer to Trump. Even though
Mogilevich had no known direct contacts with Trump, several of his
associates did. Among them was Bogatin, who took part in a massive gasoline
tax scam
,
and whose brother, Jacob (Yacov) Bogatin, was indicted with Mogilevich

in
2003 on 45 felony counts of stock fraud. (Because there is no extradition
treaty between the United States and Russia, they were never brought to
trial in the United States.)

Another Mogilevich associate in Trump’s orbit was the late Vyacheslav
Ivankov, a ruthless extortionist who became renowned as one of the most
brutal killers in the annals of Russian crime. Mogilevich had sent him to
New York in 1992 with a mandate to consolidate the Russian Mafia in the
United States and to form alliances with the Cosa Nostra and other Mafias.
Once he arrived, Ivankov became a regular at the Trump Taj Mahal in
Atlantic City, and was widely thought to be based in the Brighton Beach
area of Brooklyn, where many Russian mobsters lived. But when the FBI came
looking for him, it discovered that the head of the Russian Mafia in New
York owned a luxury condo

in
the glitziest part of Manhattan — at 721 Fifth Avenue, in fact — Trump
Tower. There is no evidence of personal interaction between Trump and
Ivankov.

Yet another Mogilevich associate with ties to Trump was Alimzhan
Tokhtakhounov, better known as Taiwanchik, whose relationship with
Mogilevich dates back more than three decades. Indicted in 2002 for bribing
Olympic figure skating judges, Tokhtakhounov was awarded the No. 5 position
on the FBI’s Most Wanted List
,
two slots behind Mogilevich. In April 2013, two gambling rings that he
allegedly ran were busted by the FBI on the 63rd floor of Trump Tower,
resulting in the indictments of 34 members and associates

of
Russian organized 

[Marxism] WA. Post article on Trump money laundering

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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(Entire article was too long to post to list. This is the first of 2 parts)

Craig Unger, author of "House of Trump, House of Putin", which is the most
exhaustive study of the Trump/Russia connection, has written an article on
Trump's money laundering for the Washington Post. I think what's happened
is that the Democrats are now realizing that one way or another the Mueller
Report is not going to save them so they're going to have to go to the
heart of the matter. Look for Felix Sater to be called before the House to
testify next.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trumps-businesses-are-full-of-dirty-russian-money-the-scandal-is-thats-legal/2019/03/29/11b812da-5171-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html?utm_term=.f26d9b07bd9d

For those who can't get past the paywall, here it is:

Collusion or not, President Trump and the Russians are thick as thieves.

What I mean is that for more than three decades, at least 13 people with
known or alleged links to the Russian Mafia held the deeds to, lived in or
ran criminal operations out of Trump Tower in New York or other Trump
properties. I mean that many of them used Trump-branded real estate to
launder vast amounts of money by buying multimillion-dollar condos through
anonymous shell companies. I mean that the Bayrock Group
,
a real estate development company that was based in Trump Tower and had
ties to the Kremlin, came up with a new business model to franchise Trump
condos after he lost billions of dollars in his Atlantic City casino
developments, and helped make him rich again.

Yet Trump’s relationship with the Russian underworld, a de facto state
actor, has barely surfaced in the uproar surrounding Russia’s interference
in the 2016 campaign. That oversight may be explained in part by journalist
Michael Kinsley’s long-held maxim: The real scandal isn’t what’s illegal;
it’s what *is* legal.

Robert S. Mueller III, of course, is a prosecutor. His job as special
counsel, now complete, was to decide whether to indict. But what if some of
the most egregious and corrupt offenses are not illegal? Russian President
Vladimir Putin has long insisted that American democracy itself is corrupt.
Under his aegis, the Russians have methodically studied various components
of the American body politic — campaign finance, our legal system, social
media and perhaps especially the real estate industry — and exploited every
loophole they could find.

As Oleg Kalugin, a former head of counterintelligence for the KGB, told me
in an interview for my book “House of Trump, House of Putin
:
The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia,” the Mafia amounts
to “one of the branches of the Russian government today.” Where Americans
cracked down on the Italian American Mafia, Putin dealt with the Russian
mob very differently. He co-opted it. He made it an integral part of his
Mafia state. Russian gangsters became, in effect, Putin’s enforcers. They
had long and deep relationships. According to a tape recording

made
by former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko a year before he was fatally
poisoned in London, Putin had close ties to Semion Mogilevich, a top
mobster, that dated to the early 1990s.

That criminals with ties to Russia bought Trump condos, partnered with
Trump and were based at Trump Tower — his home, his place of work, the
crown jewel of his empire — should be deeply concerning. It’s not hard to
conclude that, as a result, the president, wittingly or not, has long been
compromised by a hostile foreign power, even if Mueller did not conclude
that Trump colluded or conspired with the Russians.

*[One person the Mueller report didn’t ‘exonerate’? Vladimir Putin.
]*

Let’s go back to 1984, when David Bogatin
,
an alleged

Russian
gangster who arrived in the United States a few years earlier with $3 in
his pocket, sat down with Trump and bought not one but five condos, for a
total of $6 million — 

[Marxism] Fw: Say No to U.S. Media Lies on Venezuela! April 19-20

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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Say No to Media Lies on 
Venezuela
#HandsOffVenezuela
International call for local actions
Apr. 19-20.




The corporate media, far from being a venue of truth, is a tool to advance the 
interests of the United States government war machine. The vast majority of 
corporate media coverage of the US coup attempt in Venezuela has shown an 
appalling lack of impartiality, balance and fairness, consistently ignoring 
voices both inside the Bolivarian Republic, and throughout the world demanding 
peace. This corporate media narrative also omits mention of the significant 
social gains of the Bolivarian revolution over the past two decades. It 
cynically vilifies efforts by the Maduro administration, in concert with 
grassroots organizations and international agencies, to obtain and distribute 
sufficient food and medicine to blunt the impact of US sanctions that are aimed 
at inducing widespread hardship The sustained and ongoing disinformation 
campaign against Venezuela is designed to manufacture consent, in the United 
States and Canada, for a military intervention in the country.
"We'll know our disinformation campaign is complete when everything the 
American public believes is false."  William Casey, CIA Director 1981
We cannot remain silent in the face of such aggression against the Venezuelan 
people - organized and lead by the Trump administration.
We appeal to people across the United States, Canada, and the world, to 
remember past misinformation campaigns against countries and leaders, the 
result of which was widespread US mass bombings, regional and civil wars that 
have taken the lives of millions of innocent people.



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Re: [Marxism] The ISO has dissolved

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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The ISO was a different current than my own and so there were irritants, even 
grievances, but I had a great deal of respect for them.
If you had asked me a month ago would the group dissolve, I would have 
confidently denied that.
So, clearly, there is something I have not grasped.

It brings to mind the quote from Marx and Engels, “All that is solid melts into 
air.”  That’s how this seems for me.

ken h
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[Marxism] The ISO has dissolved

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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So apparently the ISO voted to dissolve itself. I understand that for 
many people who have been long-time members, this can be traumatic. 
Unlike the post-"turn" SWP, I am under the impression that most of the 
ISO'ers felt like their membership was positive overall, including a 
colleague of mine who I have deep respect for as a writer and a tribune 
of the masses.


As I told Omar Hassan of the Socialist Alternative in Australia, another 
"Leninist" group of considerable merit, Marx and Engels dissolved the 
First International after it stopped serving a useful purpose. Bert 
Cochran and Harry Braverman created the Socialist Union in 1954 and 
brought to an end in 1959 when it became obvious that it had run its 
course. Peter Camejo launched the North Star Network in 1982 (or so) and 
it too came to an end.


Dissolving a group like the ISO is a different story obviously because 
members had much higher expectations and a much larger investment in a 
newspaper, publishing arm, full-time staff, etc. Be that as it may, none 
of these assets will have been built in vain. The hundreds of people who 
have been through this experience and who will certainly remain in 
contact with each other can play an important role in serving as a 
catalyst in the formation of a revolutionary organization that has 
learned from not only their own bitter experience but of others that 
have gone through such a trauma. In my case, the SWP was a disaster but 
the lessons I learned from building the antiwar movement have served me 
well over the years. I only wish that several hundred people who came 
out of our experience had cohered in some fashion.


I wish the comrades good luck in future endeavors.
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[Marxism] Arab Regimes Are the World’s Most Powerful Islamophobes – Foreign Policy

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/29/arab-regimes-are-the-worlds-most-powerful-islamophobes/
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[Marxism] Will Rachel Maddow face a reckoning for her Trump-Russia coverage? | Ross Barkan | Opinion | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/28/trump-russia-investigation-mueller-liberal-media-rachel-maddow
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[Marxism] Trump, Russia and the Mueller report: Is it really case closed? | USA | Al Jazeera

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Russiagate skeptic Aaron Mate and Trump biographer David Cay Johnston 
debate the conclusions of the Mueller report.


https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/upfront/2019/03/trump-russia-mueller-report-case-closed-190329081858733.html
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Re: [Marxism] Black Agenda Report joins the racists

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 3/30/19 9:18 AM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:

  BAR has a definite
editorial policy as should any political group/publication. In the absence
of any article differing from this one, and given that this article fits
perfectly with BAR's openly pro-Assad position, I think it's fair to say
that this is their position.


Oh, I get it. You are upset about BAR being pro-Assad. I thought the 
complaint was over backing a DP candidate. John, most of us are aware 
that BAR is pro-Assad. Your post falls into the dog bites man category.

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Re: [Marxism] Black Agenda Report joins the racists

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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Louis Proyect asks: "How is BAR "campaigning" for Tulsi Gabbard by
extending the courtesy to
Danny Haiphong to express his POV? Like Counterpunch, BAR is not a
typically "democratic centralist" outfit dispensing a line. Furthermore,
Bruce Dixon and Glen Ford are involved with the Green Party and I have
seen no evidence that they are for Gabbard."

It's not a matter of being "democratic centralist". BAR has a definite
editorial policy as should any political group/publication. In the absence
of any article differing from this one, and given that this article fits
perfectly with BAR's openly pro-Assad position, I think it's fair to say
that this is their position. As for Haiphong himself, he is a really
dishonest and demagogic character and the fact of his close association
with BAR does not put them in a positive light.

John Reimann
-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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[Marxism] How can we prevent climate catastrophe? | International Socialist Review

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://isreview.org/issue/112/how-can-we-prevent-climate-catastrophe
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Re: [Marxism] Black Agenda Report joins the racists

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 3/30/19 8:06 AM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:

As for Gabbard herself, I'm surprised that BAR would actually go so far as
to campaign for her.


How is BAR "campaigning" for Tulsi Gabbard by extending the courtesy to 
Danny Haiphong to express his POV? Like Counterpunch, BAR is not a 
typically "democratic centralist" outfit dispensing a line. Furthermore, 
Bruce Dixon and Glen Ford are involved with the Green Party and I have 
seen no evidence that they are for Gabbard.

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[Marxism] Black Agenda Report joins the racists

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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Black Agenda Report used to have some excellent political commentary. No
more. They have descended into the deepest depths of the red brown
alliance. Take this article by Danny Haiphong, one of the worst of BAR:
https://blackagendareport.com/get-tulsi-gabbard-debate-stage?fbclid=IwAR3BlwcnZWRmLa-PIBfLwNPjjiJ0G6EWbfBu7onQ86NOV_UVwzzLGtxwucA
It's an open appeal for support for Tulsi Gabbard. It was previously
published in the American Herald Tribune, which also publishes material
from Caitlin Johnstone and, even worse, Philip Giraldi, who is an open
racist.
Yes, guilt by association is valid in politics!

As for Gabbard herself, I'm surprised that BAR would actually go so far as
to campaign for her. In the past, at least BAR took the principled stance
of opposing any Democrat! And now supporting the hard core Zionist, the
associate of the Addelson family, the Islamophobe who paraded around Syria
with the fascist NSSP and paraded around India with the fascist Sangh of
the party of India's version of Donald Trump? You can't fight racism and
fascism at home and support it abroad.

John Reimann
-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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[Marxism] The Disappointing Trump Novel • Commune

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Because conservatives don’t make serious art of any kind (this really 
isn’t an overgeneralization), 2008–2016 was mercifully free of writers 
of literary fiction trying to produce the quintessential Obama book. 
There was, of course, Ian McEwan’s baffling boomer animus toward campus 
political correctness in Nutshell, but otherwise, writers proceeded 
untroubled by Our Present Moment. We haven’t been so lucky in the two 
years since Donald Trump’s election: there have been Trump books.


There have been attempted Trump books.

https://communemag.com/the-disappointing-trump-novel/
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[Marxism] Communism and Climate Change: A Dual Power Approach

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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The use of the term "dual power" is problematic but the article still 
makes essential points about the technocratic tendencies in the Green 
New Deal.



https://regenerationmag.org/communism-and-climate-change-a-dual-power-approach/
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[Marxism] Cold War in the Land of Oil

[Ron Jacobs via Marxism]

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http://stillhomeron.blogspot.com/2019/03/cold-war-in-land-of-oil.html

-- 
Check out my newest books *Still Tripping in the Dark

*,* Capitalism
,
and Daydream Sunset:60s Counterculture in the 70s
 *
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[Marxism] Quarrying the stones of Palestine | Lefteast

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Andrew Ross is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York 
University, whose work combines scholarly inquiry, investigative 
reporting and activist perspectives. Much of his research concerns the 
built environment in sites as far afield as Phoenix, Arizona and Abu 
Dhabi. His latest book, Stone Men (Verso, 2019) looks at the stone 
industry in the West Bank and the complex role of this material in the 
Israeli colonization drive and Palestinian resistance. Matan Kaminer, a 
member of LeftEast’s editorial board and also a student of labor and 
colonization in Israel/Palestine, spoke to Prof. Ross about his book and 
its implications.


http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/qu%ef%bb%bfa%ef%bb%bfr%ef%bb%bfr%ef%bb%bfy%ef%bb%bfi%ef%bb%bfng%ef%bb%bf-%ef%bb%bft%ef%bb%bfh%ef%bb%bfe%ef%bb%bf-sto%ef%bb%bfn%ef%bb%bfe%ef%bb%bfs-o%ef%bb%bff%ef%bb%bf-%ef%bb%bfp%ef%bb%bfa%ef%bb%bfl/

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