Re: [Marxism] Trump Flies Into the Cuckoo’s Nests

[C. G. Estabrook via Marxism]

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https://consentfactory.org/2019/10/04/trumpenstein-must-be-destroyed/


> On Oct 10, 2019, at 9:34 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> 
> NY Times Op-Ed, Oct. 10, 2019
> Trump Flies Into the Cuckoo’s Nests
> By Gail Collins
> 
> Two ways to judge anything Donald Trump does these days: A) Is it a good 
> idea? And B) Is it further evidence he’s going nuts?
> 
> Think about Turkey. Over the weekend, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan 
> was preparing to attack our old Kurdish allies in northern Syria. The White 
> House announced late Sunday night that it was O.K. with the whole deal and 
> was pulling out the small American military contingent that’s been fighting 
> alongside the Kurds.
> 
> Nobody seemed to have run this by Defense Secretary Mark (Finally Confirmed!) 
> Esper, who sent out a tweet Monday morning opposing the Turkish operation. 
> Which was later deleted.
> 
> “If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider 
> to be off limits I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of 
> Turkey,” Trump reassured the nation.
> 
> Well, we’ve always known he suffers from delusions of grandeur. (“There are 
> those that think I’m a very stable genius.”) And although the way the 
> administration handled the whole Turkey thing was wildly inept, we’ve known 
> for a long time there’s no ept in this White House.
> 
> But here’s the other part: Donald Trump is in the middle of a super 
> impeachment crisis, and he’s surviving in office only through Senate 
> Republicans’ support. And he chose this time to create a foreign affairs 
> uproar guaranteed to outrage and offend the Republican senators.
> 
> “Pray for our Kurdish allies who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump 
> Administration. This move ensures the emergence of ISIS,” tweeted Lindsey 
> Graham.
> 
> This from a fervid supporter. If Graham were, say, a miniature poodle, he’d 
> be the one trotting along, carrying the master’s socks in his mouth.
> 
> The president’s sudden decision to give a shout-out to the Turkish government 
> came after a phone call with Erdogan. By now there have been so many 
> phone-related disasters you’d think the family would have taken away his 
> communication devices. But Trump believes he’s always very careful and 
> conscious that tons of people are listening in. “My knowledge — I know all 
> about it,” he told reporters at a press conference last week.
> 
> The gathering degenerated into a yelling meltdown, during which our president 
> declared that House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff “had some 
> kind of a mental breakdown.”
> 
> Nobody muttered “takes one to know one.”
> 
> Most of the Republicans are just sort of curled up under their beds, 
> quivering. Lately, the squad of across-the-board Trump defenders has dwindled 
> down to people like Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. Perhaps you 
> remember Gaetz having argued that violence in America was not due to guns but 
> to “illegal aliens.” This time he said that the impeachment process was “a 
> kangaroo court and chairman Schiff is acting like a malicious Captain 
> Kangaroo.”
> 
> Well, you take whoever you can get and Trump does not currently have a lot of 
> universally enthusiastic troops. Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming called 
> the American pullout from Syria a “catastrophic mistake.” Any daughter of 
> Dick Cheney is going to be a person who can overlook a whole lot. When you 
> lose her, you’re really down to … Matt Gaetz.
> 
> All this is going on while the White House is refusing to let Congress have 
> access to administration officials who have information on the whistle-blower 
> charges. Which, as of course you remember, stem from the time the man who 
> believes he knows all about being careful on phone calls tried to get the 
> Ukraine president to come up with some dirt on the foreign business dealings 
> of Joe Biden’s son.
> 
> The man who later demanded that China investigate Hunter Biden’s business 
> dealings there. Even China found that loony, a high standard for a country 
> that can’t even manage to have a reasonable relationship with basketball 
> teams.
> 
> And, of course, the president whose daughter and son-in-law have both been 
> working for the White House while raking in tens of millions of dollars from 
> their business dealings. Some came from the clothing Ivanka manufactured in 
> places like … China.
> 
> Why would he bring up children making money abroad? This isn’t just a guy who 
> makes stupid decisions. It’s a guy who’s off his rocker. Whose great pal is 
> Rudy Giuliani, the talking head whose TV appearances can terrify 

Re: [Marxism] "Putin Punches Above his Weight"

[C. G. Estabrook via Marxism]

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A remarkably right-wing account of careful Russian counter-moves against US 
imperialism - that of course misrepresents the situation in Venezuela, Ukraine, 
etc.


> On May 6, 2019, at 11:48 AM, John Reimann via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
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> 
> As if by magic, this column by Gerald Seib - who is probably the most
> important columnist for the WSJ - appears today. Seib makes clear that
> economic power is far from the only concern for US imperialism. He also
> makes clear that even the WSJ, normally so supportive of Trump nowadays, is
> unhappy with his recent comments about Russia and Venezuela. (More on this
> issue coming.)
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-punches-above-his-weight-1155715?mod=hp_lead_pos10
> 
> You’ve got to give Vladimir Putin his due: The man knows how to play a weak
> hand well.
> 
> With relatively little investment, the Russian leader is expanding his
> toehold in the Western Hemisphere and potentially getting access to giant
> oil and uranium supplies by backing a dictator in Venezuela
> 
> .
> 
> With relatively little investment, he has expanded his base of operations
> in the Middle East by propping up a dictator in Syria
> 
> and
> by trying to send some sophisticated Russian military equipment into
> Turkey. (For the latter effort, he’d actually turn a profit.)
> 
> And with relatively little investment, and little notice from a distracted
> international community, he has kept up a low-level war against those
> fighting a Russian takeover in eastern Ukraine
> ,
> holding on to a bargaining chip he might find useful someday.
> 
> He does all this while overseeing an economy roughly the size of South
> Korea’s, which produces little or nothing the world wants to buy, outside
> of oil and military gear.
> 
> It’s an audacious strategy—and it is working. Never was that more clear
> than last week, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security
> adviser John Boltoncited Russian support
> 
> as
> the only reason Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro remained in his country
> in the face of an organized uprising by his opponents and elements of his
> own military.
> 
> In return, Mr. Putin got not opprobrium from the U.S., which is openly
> backing the Maduro foes, but instead a phone call lasting more than an hour
> 
> with
> President Trump, in which they discussed Venezuela as well as other world
> hot spots.
> 
> In short, Mr. Putin appears to recognize the moment he is in, and what to
> do about it. After almost two decades of a focus on combating terrorism and
> Islamic extremism, the world is evolving into a new era of big-power
> competition. The U.S. and China are the two big competitors now, of course,
> but Mr. Putin is making sure Russia is the third.
> 
> His problem is that Russia doesn’t have the economic might of the U.S. and
> China. So he brings to the table what he can, which is basically the
> ability to make trouble and thereby insert himself into the global mix.
> 
> Thus, Russia became an early world leader in the 21st-century tool of
> unconventional combat—cyber warfare. The Kremlin combined that skill with
> its traditional willingness to engage in the dark arts of covert action to
> interfere with the 2016 election in the U.S., as well as other elections in
> the West.
> 
> As the U.S. tries to maintain economic pressure on North Korea, Russia
> provides just enough economic relief to Pyongyang
> 
> to
> ensure that Moscow has to be a player in how the standoff over North
> Korea’s nuclear program plays out.
> 
> Meanwhile, Mr. Putin is wedging himself into the space between East and
> West by offering to sell Russia’s 

Re: [Marxism] [UCE] What lies behind Trump's troop withdrawal from Syria and what it means

[C. G. Estabrook via Marxism]

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Whom the gods would destroy, they first drive mad. 

Be careful, John. The madness is showing.


> On Dec 20, 2018, at 4:35 PM, John Reimann via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
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> 
> The main reason for his withdrawal is that he got his marching orders from
> his paymaster, Putin. As I had predicted last night on Facebook, these
> orders apparently came through Erdogan, with whom he'd been on the phone
> just a couple of days earlier. This decision not only means a new stage in
> Syria, it threatens to force an all-out war by the mainstream of the US
> capitalist class against Trump, who has shown once again that he is Putin's
> agent. Even his closest foreign policy advisors - Bolton and Pompeo - are
> adamantly against this withdrawal. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is hinting at
> raising Trump's links with and dependence on the Russian oligarchy.
> 
> For international working class solidarity instead of relying on ANY
> capitalist/imperialist force be it the US, Russia, or any other!
> Read full article here:
> https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/12/20/trump-withdraws-troops-from-syria-what-does-it-mean/
> 
> -- 
> *“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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Re: [Marxism] Trans Ideology

[C. G. Estabrook via Marxism]

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Philip F.’s piece is a praiseworthy attempt to reject a false identity politics 
substitute for class politics. 

> On Nov 25, 2018, at 11:57 PM, MM via Marxism  
> wrote:
> 
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> 
>> On Nov 25, 2018, at 3:10 PM, Praxis Perhaps via Marxism 
>>  wrote:
>> 
>> What a reactionary piece!  What ever possessed you to post such a thing!
> 
> I’d like to echo Praxis Perhaps’ sentiment, and reiterate this question. I 
> recognize that anything touching on gender or sexuality can be a prickly 
> subject, and that we may have to grapple with uncomfortable questions in 
> order to accommodate the full range of consensual human self-expression, but 
> I’d also like to hear from Philip F. why he thought this vile, fear-baiting, 
> reactionary diatribe deserved to be shared to the list without any critical 
> introductory comment — or even why anyone might consider it to be any part of 
> left discourse at all.
> 
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