RE: RE: oilism redux
Ian wrote: Not that I advocate a technocracy; just that there are still a lot of very smart people on our planet who reject fatalism in all its forms. Fatalism has nothing whatever to do with the Global Hubbert eak. Accusing people of fatalism who accept the geological evidence about the extremely limited original natural endowment of hydrocarbons is like calling someone a fatalist because they state that the sun will rise tomorrow. Mark
Militarization of foreign aid, Africa, Ivory Coast
If I had the energy I'd try to relate this batch of material to what's going on in Ivory Coast, but I don't really know much of anything that is going on there and I have no energy because of jet lag. A few things I've noticed: 1. Ivory Coast is the world's number one supplier of cocoa, right? Does it have oil like Nigeria, too? 2. If it is now experiencing a civil war, then one might expect that the fault lines might be between Muslims and Christians. I see the US Special Forces were wise enough this time to avoid another Black Hawk Down episode and let the French evacuate the Americans. 3. The idea that the US military ought to be dispensing aid to Africa and other parts of the world really took off under Clinton (the ACRI program). 4. Just look at some of the federal contract parasites that show up in this area. L-3 Communications (the one Buffet just put billions into) owns MPRI; there is Dyncorp's Vinnell; and also showing up is SAIC, the firm that used to employ Mark Hatfill, a possible anthrax suspect (and Hatfill's resume', whether faked or not, included entries claiming he did mercenary or covert ops work in Africa). And it's interesting that a firm like Airscan is HQ'd in Florida--though no surprise. Because of so many such activities as this, no doubt, it was a good place for 9-11 perps to train and prepare and just hang out unnoticed. Scattered excerpts follow: http://webnetarts.com/socialjustice/gurkha.html Veterans involved in the Cabinda venture work for an American company, AirScan, which has its headquarters in Titusville, FL. Most of the oil assets are American and belong to Chevron, whose wells pump about $1,5-billion worth of oil from a succession of offshore oil concessions. Remilitarizing Africa for corporate profit 10.00 John E. Peck 1 ACAS Z Magazine Unlike IMET which faced widespread criticism for training Indonesian troops responsible for East Timor genocide, JCET falls under a little known 1991 law, Section 2011 of Title 10, enabling it to sidestep Cong. oversight periodic review by State Dept HRts Office, thus making it Pentagon's preferred ACRI conduit. One infamous JCET trainee is Rwandan strongman, Maj.Gen. Paul Kagame, who allegedly handpicked Kabila to overthrow Mobutu. Back in 1990 he was enrolled in Command General Staff College at Ft Leavenworth KS when duty called and returned home to take charge of Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Kagame's sidekick, Lt.Col. Frank Rusagara, also got his JCET degree at the U.S. Naval School in Monterey CA. On the eve of the bloodbath that left half a million dead in central Africa Great Lakes region, Kagame put his U.S. expertise to work, ordering assassination of his rivals, Rwandan pres. Juvenal Habyarimana Burundi pres. Cyprien Ntaryamira, just as they were about to conclude multi-ethnic peace negotiations. Iraqi missiles, most likely captured by U.S forces during the Gulf War and then supplied to Kagame by a covert Pentagon contractor, were used to shoot down their plane in 1994. Testimony to this effect in Aug. 1997 before the UN chief war crimes prosecutor Louise Arbour was suppressed and only leaked to the media this year; see Steven Edward's 3.1.00 expose in Canada's National Post. Yet, to read Clinton apologists like David Shearer in Intl Insti. for Strategic Studies journal Survival (Summer 1999), one might think U.S. an innocent bystander rather than covert instigator of Africa's strife. Also kept under wraps is that for past 5 years, U.S. Green Berets armed coached Rwandan soldiers as well as their Ugandan allies to deadly effect. According to Wash.Post 7.12.98 investigation, Kagame's troops received low intensity conflict training in such areas as camouflage, small unit movement, marksmanship, patrolling, night navigation, and soldier team development, both at Ft. Bragg, SC and in Rwanda. Beyond $12 million in official govt-to-govt U.S. arms sales to Africa in 1998, the White House also approved $64 million in private commercial weapons transfers, incl M-16s, pistols, revolvers, rifles and 10million rounds of ammunition. How much of this arsenal ended up with chronic human rights abusers, like Kagame, no one will ever know. Critics pointed to Pentagon subcontractor Ronco, supposed de-mining company, as the major U.S. gun runner to Rwanda 1994 to 1996 in violation of UN sanctions. Florida-based Airscan also implicated in funneling Pentagon weapons for counter-insurgency operations of Uganda's People's Defense Force, as well as to rebels in southern Sudan fighting the Khartoum regime. AirScan founder retired Brig.Gen. Joe Stringham was responsible for secretive U.S. counter- insurgency activities against the FSLN during El Salvador's civil war. From the current conflicts in Sierra Leone Liberia to protracted hostility between Ethiopia Eritrea, U.S. military expertise weaponry is deployed across the continent. As already shown, ACRI poses no limits on Pentagon hiring of armed proxies to do dirty work
Re: Militarization of foreign aid, Africa, Ivory Coast
I should have said STEVEN Hatfill, not Mark, as the person some were fingering in the anthrax terror. ACRI is military and mercenary 'aid' specific to Africa but it is also, confusingly enough, an acronym for a cocoa research institute. This next link has stuff written up in more coherent fashion than the previous one. As you read this, remember that a Lockheed telecoms spinoff, L-3 Communications, apparently owns MPRI, the mercenary outfit raking in the bucks to administer ACRI. http://www.transnationale.org/anglais/forums/suprematie__suprematie/showmessage.asp?messageID=390 After having privatized in whole or in part nearly all other government functions, the U.S. government is now outsourcing the use of force. The latest stage in the privatization of military functions is the contracting out of training of Third World armies. The U.S. military establishment is relying not just on rag-tag groups of mercenaries, or front groups that do the bidding of the CIA or other intelligence agencies, but on genuinely independent corporations. The Department of State has turned to Arlington, Virginia-based Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI), a self-described corporation of former military professionals ... ranging from commanders to tank gunners to carry out its African Crisis Responsive Initiative (ACRI). At State Department prodding, seven nations, spanning the African continent, have already signed up for the program. The ostensible purpose of ACRI is to create an indigenous peacekeeping force in Africa. Military forces from nearly all of the seven nations currently participating -- Benin, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, Uganda and, most recently, the Ivory Coast -- have already received some training from the Fort Bragg, North Carolina-based 3rd Special Forces. In March 1999, Ghana received the first follow-on training of ACRI, with U.S. Special Forces overseeing the MPRI-conducted event. Senegal is to follow soon after. Why use a private corporation to conduct military trainings? Government officials say privatization can save taxpayers money. In the case of ACRI, the State Department says MPRI and LOGICON, a huge Arlington-based electronics company, can do the advanced training cheaper, and more effectively, than the Army. But whatever the cost savings, the privatization of military and quasi-military functions raises huge questions of accountability and the misuse of force that are sure to loom large as MPRI and other military service companies like South Africa's Executive Outcomes and the U.S. Dyncorp grow. PRIVITIZED PEACEKEEPING Some of the potential dangers even in a privatized peacekeeping training operation are foreseeable in the still-in-its-infancy ACRI program and in MPRI's former operations. The State Department is quick to emphasize that the ACRI program does not transfer lethal equipment, but quality training by definition builds a residual lethal force -- soldiers -- and can alter regional balances of power. MPRI, whose motto is The Greatest Corporate Military Expertise in the World, has provided clear illustration of the value of good teachers. Within months of receiving expert tutelage from MPRI, Croatia launched a series of intense, well-planned and successful offensives against ethnic Serbs. Military experts noted that the Croatian military machine was vastly improved in a just a few short months, an up-grade that likely contributed to its decision to go on the offensive. Before MPRI entered the picture, ACRI had already begun compiling a similar record. Uganda and Senegal, each of which received Special Forces trainers as part of ACRI's initial deployment in July 1996, have become deeply involved in wars with bordering nations. ACRI equipment has been found on Ugandan soldiers fighting against Kabila in the Congo. Human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have also linked ACRI-trained battalions to murders, rapes and beatings committed against Ugandan civilians in areas of the country contested by rebels. Senegal is supporting Guinea-Bissau rebels, against authoritarian General Asumane Mane. The quandaries posed by ACRI and MPRI are just the tip of the iceberg, for MPRI is at the top of the military training field. The U.S. government sees the firm's much-vaunted roots in the highest levels of the Pentagon as something like a stamp of purity. Committed to ethical business practices, is written prominently on the firm's promotional pamphlet. MPRI has been very careful to avoid connections to the violence it has facilitated. More hard-boiled mercenaries express disdain for the distance MPRI keeps from the guts and gristle of battle. MPRI is so desperate to avoid being called mercs that they just scratch the surface, says Tom Marks, a contributing writer to the quintessential mercenary magazine, Soldier of Fortune. They're a glorified transportation corps, as opposed to being a military outfit. They're almost like the FedEx of
Re: Militarization of foreign aid, Africa, Ivory Coast
The google cache helped me to recover the article that had been at this link. Considering what bizforward.com is, you can see the issue that I'm talking about here is hardly a figment of leftwing paranoiac imagination. In fact, it's a first-rate employment and investment opportunity! Here is the little connecting tidbit I had been looking for: But not all of the firm's clients have learned the lesson: In the Ivory Coast, the military seized power less than a week after MPRI concluded its instruction, though no one suggests there was a link between the coursework and the coup. http://www.bizforward.com/wdc/archives/2001-05/mercenary/ This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.bizforward.com/wdc/archives/2001-05/mercenary/. G o o g l e's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web. The page may have changed since that time. Click here for the current page without highlighting. To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:SMRdsPzclssC:www.bizforward.com/wdc/archives/2001-05/mercenary/+hl=jaie=UTF-8 Google is not affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content. Mercenary, Inc.? If You Ran a Third World Country and Your Military Needed Help, Who Would You Call? The U.S. Army? The UN? Try MPRI, an Alexandria, VA-Based Firm in the Vanguard of the Military Service Provider Movement. It's Big Business - And It Just May Be at the Cutting Edge of U.S. Foreign Policy. by Ken Silverstein - PHOTOGRAPHS BY WELTON DOBY III Ed Soyster is a retired three-star general and the former director of the super-secret Defense Intelligence Agency, but in his conservative brown business suit, he looks more like Willy Loman than James Bond. It's a chilly Tuesday morning in February, and Soyster has just greeted me at the door of Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI), a rapidly growing firm based in Alexandria, VA, for which he is the spokesperson. MPRI's headquarters - located in a five-story office building next to a Best Western motel off the George Washington Parkway - appears as nondescript as Soyster. The reception-area coffee table is covered with old issues of Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Traveler, Food Wine and other standard fare. The firm's name and corporate logo, a golden sword, are embossed on the front door. Aside from the vaguely martial insignia, nothing otherwise distinguishes MPRI from the thousands of beltway bandit firms that ring Greater Washington. Given the nature of its business, MPRI's low profile probably is not a coincidence. Despite this bland facade, MPRI has emerged as the leading player in a controversial field that critics call Mercenary, Inc. Defenders prefer the more innocuous military service provider, arguing that these 21st-century exporters of war strategy are a far cry from the soldiers of fortune of the past. The firm's mission is to discreetly train foreign armies - often ones with atrocious human rights records - that are allied with the United States. The industry, though still in its infancy, is booming. So much so that last year MPRI was bought, on undisclosed terms, by L-3 Communications [ticker: LLL], a nearly $3-billion per year New York-based company that manufactures high-tech goods, primarily for the Pentagon. MPRI's corporate ranks are filled with dozens of retired officers. In fact, outside of the Pentagon, which is conveniently located just 10 minutes away, there are few places where you'll find such a gathering of high-powered military men. As we head back to his office, Soyster points out the office of MPRI's president, retired General Carl Vuono, U.S. Army chief of staff during the Gulf War, and introduces me to another retired general, Ron Griffiths, an executive vice president and a former Army vice chief of staff. Though he's not in on the day I arrive, Vuono's reputation precedes him: He's a meat-and-potatoes military man and former combat arms officer who commanded two battalions in Vietnam. To hear it from Soyster, MPRI sells a product that's utterly conventional. In fact, he jokes during my brief tour of the office, the parent firm L-3 is a publicly traded corporation, so anyone with a 401(k) retirement plan is probably an investor in our company. Of course, most companies don't go looking for business in countries rife with war and conflict. During the past few years, MPRI has worked with a group of countries that sounds like a casting call for next year's edition of Fielding's The World's Most Dangerous Places: Bosnia, Colombia, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. The incentive to join up with MPRI, industry watchers say, is money. Though the firm does not disclose the pay of its top officers, analysts say they expect all ranks make more than their U.S. military equivalents. But Soyster resists the notion that MPRI employees are rolling in cash - he says a colonel actually makes less if he teaches an ROTC course for MPRI than he made before
Re: bullying
I don't think your rant is mindless, Michael. I really do believe we are watching the rise of a kinder, sneakier fascism. It is just as racist and as violent as the old fascism, but more totalitarian and therefore more sublimated, couched in euphemisms about ending world hunger and such. Don't be depressed. Decide what resistance means to you and go do it. You might think that it is hopeless, but it's not. Not even the cops really want the world the fascists are building for us. Lisa S. on 10/01/2002 12:26 AM, Michael Perelman at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: When is the last time anyone stood up to the US? Castro in the 50s? The NYT says that the Europeans caved on the world court. The Dems cave on everything. Bush probably can buy the Russians and cow the French on the Security Council. It is all very depressing. I recall hearing how all the Germans left Hitler , but hell, I feel like a powerless German must have felt. Depressed and feeling the need to mindlessly rant. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Don't worry, we'll protect you from those Serbian gang rapists!
I know it's a bit old, but it's one of the better 'DynCorp' stories I know, since the rulings went against them. Note it would seem PimpCorp employees were directly involved. http://www.aviva.org/europe.htm UN Cover-Up of Trafficking Prostitution in Bosnia There is mounting evidence that the United Nations has carried out a cover-up of the role played by its personnel in human trafficking and prostitution in Bosnia?a trade that has grown astronomically since the establishment of the Western protectorate seven years ago. An American woman who served with the International Police Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia recently won a case of unfair dismissal against a US State Department sub-contractor, after she was sacked for reporting an alleged prostitution racket involving other serving officers. Kathryn Bolkovac was an employee of DynCorp Technical Services, one of the US governments top 25 service providers with 23,000 employees worldwide. In Bosnia, DynCorp provides maintenance support for the US military, as well as recruiting American officers for the international police force through its UK subsidiary, DynCorp Aerospace Operations Ltd. DynCorp has earned $1 billion since 1995 for providing maintenance to the US military worldwide. The contract to provide recruitment for the IPTF is valued at $15 million. The case against DynCorp Aerospace Operations Ltd was brought under the UK Public Interest Disclosure legislation, known as the whistleblowers charter, which protects employees who make disclosures about malpractice within their company. Bolkovac had been posted to Sarajevo in 1999 to investigate traffic in young women from Eastern Europe who were forced into prostitution. When I started collecting evidence from the victims of sex-trafficking, it was clear that a number of UN officers were involved from several different countries, including quite a few from Britain, she said. I was shocked, appalled and disgusted. They were supposed to be over there to help, but they were committing crimes themselves. But when I told the supervisors they didnt want to know. Bolkovac first drew attention to the abuses in October 2000 in an email to DynCorp management. She was first demoted and then six months later sacked. On August 2, in a 21-page judgement, the Southampton Employment Tribunal found in favour of Bolkovac and against DynCorp Aerospace Operations Ltd. The companys claim that her employment was terminated because of gross misconduct was firmly rejected. Evidence of falsifying time sheets was dismissed as sketchy to the point of being non-existent. The tribunal chairmen stated, We have considered DynCorps explanation of why they dismissed her and find it completely unbelievable. There is no doubt whatever that the reason for her dismissal was that she made a protected disclosure and was unfairly dismissed. Bolkovac is not the only employee of DynCorp to seek legal redress for unfair dismissal. An American aircraft maintenance technician, Ben Johnstone, filed a lawsuit against his sacking in 1999 after he also disclosed information about the involvement of co-workers and supervisors in the sex trade at the DynCorp hangar at Comanche Base, one of two US bases in Bosnia. The allegations included sex with minors, rape and buying and selling women for sex. His allegations led to a raid on the base by the 48th Military Police Detachment on June 2, 2000. The operation by the US Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) began to uncover evidence supporting the claims made by Johnstone. However, the investigation was wound up after the CID determined that, under the Dayton Agreement, UN officials and contractors enjoyed immunity. Two of the employees named by Johnstone and most heavily implicated in the abuses were sacked, but escaped criminal charges. Johnstone was sacked the day before the raid for disciplinary reasons that were unsubstantiated?he merely received a letter of discharge for bringing discredit to the company and the US Army while working in Tuzla, Bosnia-Hercegovina. Since 1998, eight DynCorp employees have been sent home from Bosnia, three have been dismissed for using prostitutes, and none have been prosecuted. Bolkovac made disclosures to the UN chief in Bosnia, Jacques Paul Klein, and the UNs police commissioner in Bosnia in November 2000, but IPTF Deputy Commissioner Mike Steirs described her as stressed and burned out and her contact with the UN was terminated following her sacking. The disclosures came at a very sensitive time. Bolkovacs memos coincided with a number of controversial raids on brothels in Prijedor by UN monitors and police. The owner of the brothels subsequently alleged that the raids were mounted after he refused to pay protection money to the officers. Six officers were sent back home on the grounds that they had exceeded their duties, but a charge of improper conduct was withdrawn. In a press statement in May 2001 Klein stated: During my tenure,
Re: Question to James Devine
Title: Re: Question to James Devine From: Hari Kumar Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine ...[W]hat is called globalisation is really another name for the dominant role of the United States. -- Henry Kissinger. QUESTION: James: Citation? alas, I have none. I'm pretty sure I got it from Doug, though. Jim
Re: Re: bullying
Lisa Stolarski wrote: I don't think your rant is mindless, Michael. I really do believe we are watching the rise of a kinder, sneakier fascism. It is just as racist and as violent as the old fascism, but more totalitarian and therefore more sublimated, couched in euphemisms about ending world hunger and such. Let's leave aside what was an aberration even for fascism, the Holocaust. Let's also get rid of that word totalitarianism, the primary reason for its use being to equate Stalin with Hitler. (I'm neither defending nor attacking Stalin, I'm just assuming that the equation is useless for purposes of understanding either regime.) So Fascism was just one of the many forms that capitalist repression of the working class has taken, and it was a form which, I think, was specific to the inter-war period. This tendency to simply call any repressive regime we don't like fascist is, substantively, a naive underestimation of the repressive powers of _all_ capitalist regimes, including good old parliamentary democracy. It was democracy (capitalist democracy but democracy nevertheless) that presided over the destruction of how many million lives of African slaves in the u.s. It was democracy which presided over the genocide of the Indians in the U.S. It was a democracy that conducted the brutal war to suppress the Philippine independence movement in the first decade of the 20th century. It was democracy that led France England and the U.S. into the mass slaughter of World War I. It was democracy which not only allowed the atrocities of Jim Crow. (I read _Black Boy_ when it came out during WW 2, and what struck me was the parallel between Wright's escape from the south and the movies and popular fiction of the time which centered on escapes from Germany or from occupied Europe.) And a kinder, sneakier fascism is, precisely, not fascism, for fascism was above all a mass movement which exulted in its lack of kindness, in its quite unsneaky brutality. The phrase blurs understanding of _both_ fascism and (for example) the police terror which has ruled over u.s. blacks for a century and a half or the atrocities committed by England in India, Sudan, Ireland, etc etc etc. So while I agree with the remainder of your post, I do not think that building a movement against u.s. imperialist aggression is aided by the endemic tendency of leftists over the last 50 years to throw the word fascism about. A minor but still worthwhile reason for a less incontinent use of fascism: While nothing can really be done to stop the ravings of such finks as Cooper, we needn't give them added ammunition -- and even among those who are ready now to respond positively to anti-war agitation, the reaction of many to the word fascism will be to contrast their dramatic image of fascism with their own personal experience in the U.S. and say, nonsense. This list, after all, could not have existed in Italy or Germany in 1938. Carrol Don't be depressed. Decide what resistance means to you and go do it. You might think that it is hopeless, but it's not. Not even the cops really want the world the fascists are building for us. Lisa S. on 10/01/2002 12:26 AM, Michael Perelman at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: When is the last time anyone stood up to the US? Castro in the 50s? The NYT says that the Europeans caved on the world court. The Dems cave on everything. Bush probably can buy the Russians and cow the French on the Security Council. It is all very depressing. I recall hearing how all the Germans left Hitler , but hell, I feel like a powerless German must have felt. Depressed and feeling the need to mindlessly rant.
Re: Re: Question to James Devine
Devine, James wrote: From: Hari Kumar Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine ...[W]hat is called globalisation is really another name for the dominant role of the United States. -- Henry Kissinger. QUESTION: James: Citation? alas, I have none. I'm pretty sure I got it from Doug, though. http://www.devmedia.org/documents/Overmarketing%20of%20Social%20Marketing%20web.htm#_ftn1 says: As someone said not long ago: What is called globalisation is really another name for the dominant role of the United States[1] ... [1] From the lecture Globalisation and World Order, delivered by Henry Kissinger, Nobel prizewinner and former United States Secretary of State, at the Independent Newspapers Annual Lecture at Trinity College, Dublin, 12 October 1999. --- --ravi
PK on dubya dip
Title: PK on dubya dip New York TIMES/October 1, 2002 Dealing With W By PAUL KRUGMAN TOKYO - I got obsessed with the Japanese economy after it was fashionable. Americans paid a lot of attention to Japan in the 1980's, when Japanese manufacturers were conquering the world. Remember when airport bookstores were filled with management tomes bearing samurai warriors on their covers? Then Japan's bubble burst, and most Americans concluded that we had nothing to learn from Japan - except how a country can stumble when it lacks adequate business and political leadership. And we, of course, don't have that problem. Or do we? Jack Welch's gut is starting to look as overrated as those business samurai. And our political leadership doesn't exactly inspire confidence. In fact, lately I've started to have a truly depressing thought: Bad as Japan's policy has been, it's possible that the United States will do even worse. It's hard to say anything good about how Japan has handled its post-bubble economy. But I've worried for years about how other countries would deal with similar problems. Sure enough, as America tries to cope with its own burst bubble, it's a lot easier to see how bad economic decisions get made. It's true that Alan Greenspan and his colleagues made a much better start than their counterparts in Japan. They knew that the Bank of Japan cut interest rates too slowly, and that by the time it realized the seriousness of the country's problems it was too late: even a zero interest rate wasn't enough to spark a recovery. So the Fed cut rates early and often; those 11 interest rate cuts in 2001 fueled a boom both in housing purchases and in mortgage refinancing, both of which helped keep the economy from experiencing a much more severe recession. But it's starting to look as if the interest rate cuts weren't enough. I don't need to tell you about the stock market. Economic indicators strongly suggest that the economy is either sliding into a double-dip, W-shaped recession - bet you thought I was talking about the guy in the White House - or close enough as makes no difference. Bond markets are clearly predicting that the Fed will have to cut interest rates again. What if the Fed, like the Bank of Japan, goes all the way to zero and finds that it still hasn't turned the economy around? Not many people realize that in some ways Japanese economic policy responded quite effectively to a sustained slump. It's easy to make fun of the country's enormous spending on public works - all those bridges to nowhere in particular, highways with no traffic, and so on. Without question enormous sums have been wasted. But it's also clear that all that spending pumped money into the economy, preventing what might otherwise have been a full-fledged depression. So what will be the U.S. equivalent? Right now we are in effect following the reverse policy: slashing domestic spending in the face of an economic slump. Some of this is taking place at the federal level; the Bush administration is nickel-and-diming public spending wherever it can, shaving a billion here, a billion there off everything from veterans' benefits and homeland security to Medicare payments. More important, the federal government is doing nothing to help as state and local governments, their revenues savaged by recession, make deep cuts in spending on everything that isn't urgently necessary, and many things that are. It's true that we haven't yet confronted head on the possibility that Uncle Alan may not be able to save us single-handedly. But last fall's debate over economic stimulus suggested that our political leadership cannot make a rational response to economic problems. Where economists saw danger, the White House and its Congressional allies saw opportunity - an opportunity to ram through more tax cuts for corporations and the affluent, measures that suited their political agenda but had almost no relevance to the economy's problems. Remember the proposal to give retroactive tax breaks to ChevronTexaco and Enron? In the end, the need for stimulus was less urgent than it seemed at the time, but there is no reason to think that we'll do better if, as now seems all too likely, the recovery stumbles. Of course, the worst thing of all would be if our leadership decides that economics is not its thing, if it simply tries to distract the public from rising unemployment and plunging stocks by going off and invading someone. But we don't have to worry about that, do we? JD
FED HEAD SAYS BUMF TRUMPS BUBBLE
My brother -- who is a real estate agent and was a high school buddy and water polo team mate of N.J. Republican senate candidate Doug Forrester -- says the most bubblicious part of the market is duplex to fourplex, which in Sacto are selling for as much as 300 times monthly net income. The benchmark is 100 times income. Jim says buying a fourplex would be like buying Enron at $90 a share. The below piece of bumf would, in my view, tend to confirm what he says. Any time Greenspan testimony refutes, once and for all the existence of anything, you have to be concerned. As if refuting the bubble once and for all was not enough, the bumf goes on to put this issue to rest, declare no such thing as a house price bubble and note that a pop of the bubble simply isn't in the cards. If the mixed metaphors don't get you, the repetition repetition repetition will. In other words, as my bro says DO NOT BUY an existing duplex, triplex or fourplex if they are selling at more than 100 times the monthly rent... Your entire investment could be wiped out. Rumor of Housing Bubble Pops WASHINGTON (July 19, 2002) Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony before Congress last week refutes, once and for all, the existence of an alleged housing market bubble, said chief economists of the National Association of Realtors® and the National Association of Home Builders, two trade groups that collectively represent more than 1 million professionals from all walks of the housing industry. The time has come to put this issue to rest, said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. The nation's home builders have said it, the Realtors have said it, and now Alan Greenspan has said it once again, in no uncertain terms: there is no such thing as a current or impending house price bubble. Asked about the issue during his testimony, Greenspan said, We've looked at the bubble question and we've concluded that it is most unlikely. He attributed recent sizeable gains in home prices to the effects on demand of low mortgage rates, immigration and shortages of buildable land. Given the local nature of real estate, NAR Chief Economist David Lereah said, it's possible for prices to deflate on a local basis, but a pop simply isn't in the cards. He noted that, even during recessions and periods of declining home sales, the national home price has risen every year. Over time, the typical home value appreciates at the general rate of inflation, plus one- to two-percentage points, he said. Acknowledging the stabilizing force for the overall economy that residential construction and related consumer outlays provided during last year's downturn, Greenspan noted in his testimony that the U.S. housing market continues to perform admirably in the evolving recovery period. Echoing the Greenspan's apparent confidence in the industry when he predicted reasonably strong housing demand, Seiders and Lereah affirmed, The housing market is fundamentally sound: we have a lean inventory of homes, historically low interest rates, good consumer confidence and strong demand from a growing population. The supply/demand situation means we can expect healthy price appreciation to continue. The housing groups applauded Greenspan's leadership of national monetary policy and his wisdom in lowering interest rates, which has unquestionably helped housing support the economy during the recession and the early stages of recovery. EDITOR'S NOTE: Housing is vital to local and state economies, creating jobs and generating taxes and wages that positively influence the quality of life. Find out more about this crucial component of the economy at http://www.nahb.com/news/housingjobs.htm . Also, NAHB's publication, Housing: The Key to Economic Recovery, explains just how housing has led the economy to recovery. This publication is available free of charge on NAHB's website, at http://www.NAHB.com/housing issues. The National Association of Home Builders is a Washington-based trade association representing more than 205,000 members involved in home building, remodeling, multifamily construction, property management, subcontracting, design, housing finance, building product manufacturing and other aspects of residential and light commercial construction. Known as the voice of the housing industry, NAHB is affiliated with more than 800 state and local home builders associations around the country. NAHB's builder members will construct about 80 percent of the almost 1.6 million new housing units projected for 2002, making housing one of the largest and most powerful engines of economic growth in the country. The National Association of Realtors, The Voice for Real Estate, is America's largest trade association, representing more than 800,000 members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries. Posted July 26, 2002 Tom Walker 604 255 4812
Re: Re: Re: Question to James Devine
It was also cited in: Gindin, Sam. 2002. Social Justice and Globalization: Are they Compatible? Monthly Review, 54: 2 (June): pp. 1-11. ravi wrote: Devine, James wrote: From: Hari Kumar Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine ...[W]hat is called globalisation is really another name for the dominant role of the United States. -- Henry Kissinger. QUESTION: James: Citation? alas, I have none. I'm pretty sure I got it from Doug, though. http://www.devmedia.org/documents/Overmarketing%20of%20Social%20Marketing%20web.htm#_ftn1 says: As someone said not long ago: What is called globalisation is really another name for the dominant role of the United States[1] ... [1] From the lecture Globalisation and World Order, delivered by Henry Kissinger, Nobel prizewinner and former United States Secretary of State, at the Independent Newspapers Annual Lecture at Trinity College, Dublin, 12 October 1999. --- --ravi -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
RE: Re: RE: oilism redux
Title: RE: [PEN-L:30752] Re: RE: oilism redux Ian wrote: Not to quibble, but given what we know of physics, ecology etc. there can be no such thing as an energy crisis in our niche of the cosmos. But there can be an oil crisis, can't there? Probably that day is not tomorrow but, sooner or later, there will come a day when we will run out of oil or when it will be too expensive to extract what is left. And unless we can find an alternative energy source before then, wouldn't that be a crisis some sort? Sabri === Ian: A social and technological crisis, yes. Because we failed to adequately invest time, knowledge etc. in diversifying our exergy portfolio. Using up all the oil and crashing would be the effect of a failure to invest; it wouldn't be due to a shortage of energy available to sustain human societies. I follow Veblen somewhat on this score; the scientists-engineers will gain sufficient political influence over the current crop of morons. Not that I advocate a technocracy; just that there are still a lot of very smart people on our planet who reject fatalism in all its forms. We'll see... I don't think that the current bunch of morons (including their pet scientists engineers) will be replaced -- except by another bunch of morons -- unless there actually is an energy crisis. It was the 1970s that produced the relatively limited conservation efforts we have. And the post-1970s era, relatively low oil prices have encouraged back-sliding on conservation, expressed most explicitly by the Bush League's petrogarchy. Energy crises aren't due to natural scarcity as much as the tendency for capitalist accumulation to plow ahead, driven by the battle of competition. There may be a rational solution -- progressive moves toward conservation and the use of renewable sources of energy -- but capitalism isn't rational on the aggregate level. Thus capitalist demand shoots up the oil supply curve leading to price peaks that could (in theory) be avoided and lead to falling profit rates (cet. par.) This leads to recession, retrenchment, and retribution (against oil producing countries). As usual, every effort is made to shift the cost to working people... Jim
Re: Question to James Devine
At 8:11 AM -0700 10/1/02, Michael Perelman wrote: Gindin, Sam. 2002. Social Justice and Globalization: Are they Compatible? Monthly Review, 54: 2 (June): pp. 1-11. Available at http://www.monthlyreview.org/0602gindin.htm. -- Yoshie * Calendar of Events in Columbus: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html * Anti-War Activist Resources: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html * Student International Forum: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/
RE: FED HEAD SAYS BUMF TRUMPS BUBBLE
oh ye conservative Americans! 100 times monthly rent would be a rental yield of 12%, wouldn't it? Mug punters in London are still stepping up to the plate to buy investment properties at yields of 5-6%! dd As if refuting the bubble once and for all was not enough, the bumf goes on to put this issue to rest, declare no such thing as a house price bubble and note that a pop of the bubble simply isn't in the cards. If the mixed metaphors don't get you, the repetition repetition repetition will. In other words, as my bro says DO NOT BUY an existing duplex, triplex or fourplex if they are selling at more than 100 times the monthly rent... Your entire investment could be wiped out. ___ Email Disclaimer This communication may contain confidential or privileged information and is for the attention of the named recipient only. It should not be passed on to any other person. Information relating to any company or security, is for information purposes only and should not be interpreted as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any security. The information on which this communication is based has been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable, but we do not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice. All e-mail messages, and associated attachments, are subject to interception and monitoring for lawful business purposes. (c) 2002 Cazenove Service Company or affiliates. Cazenove Co. Ltd and Cazenove Fund Management Limited provide independent advice and are regulated by the Financial Services Authority and members of the London Stock Exchange. Cazenove Fund Management Jersey is a branch of Cazenove Fund Management Limited and is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Cazenove Investment Fund Management Limited, regulated by the Financial Services Authority and a member of IMA, promotes only its own products and services. ___
Re: Re: Question to James Devine
Devine, James wrote: From: Hari Kumar Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevinehttp://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine ...[W]hat is called globalisation is really another name for the dominant role of the United States. -- Henry Kissinger. QUESTION: James: Citation? alas, I have none. I'm pretty sure I got it from Doug, though. And I got it from Sid Shniad, who I think got it from a story in the Irish Independent. Doug
Re: Re: Re: Question to James Devine
ravi wrote: Devine, James wrote: From: Hari Kumar Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine ...[W]hat is called globalisation is really another name for the dominant role of the United States. -- Henry Kissinger. QUESTION: James: Citation? At the Marxism 2000 conference, David Harvey devoted his plenary talk to supporting the proposition that Globalism is a euphemism for U.S. imperialism. If that talk ever got published, it would be an excellent source for this. I suppose it's nice to quote the enemy giving himself away, but I think it's better to go by a solid analysis by a first-rate marxist thinker. Carrol
RE: The persistence of feudalism
Title: RE: [PEN-L:30724] The persistence of feudalism A great article! But even if the current situation in the U.S. workplace is _legally_ feudal, it is not so in a socio-economic way: it's capitalist. A lot of what's described below is similar to what Marx described in his chapter on the working day (in CAPITAL, vol. 1). What's happened is that capitalism (in its typically opportunistic style) has preserved those aspects of feudalism that serve the lust for profits. Then it adds on new types of oppression... Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine Boston Globe, 9/29/2002 Lavatory and Liberty The secret history of the bathroom break By Corey Robin IN HIS NEVER-ENDING quest for control of the workplace, Henry Ford confronted many foes, but none as wily or rebellious as the human digestive tract. Hoping to tame what he called the body's ''disassembly line,'' Ford wheeled lunch wagons into his auto plant in Highland Park, Mich., and forced workers to wolf down a 10-minute sandwich on the job. So industrialized was ingestion at the plant that workers growled about their ''Ford stomach.'' But where Ford sought to speed up the meal's entrance into the body, his successors - from store managers in the Midwest to fashion moguls in New York - have concentrated on slowing down its exit. Today's workplace can sometimes seem like a battlefield of the bladder. On the one side are workers who wanna go when they gotta go; on the other are employers who want to stop them, sometimes for hours on end. Just this past month, a Jim Beam bourbon distillery in Clermont, Ky., was forced to drop its strict bathroom-break policies after the plant's union focused negative international attention - from ABC News to Australia - on Jim Beam and its parent company, Fortune Brands, Inc. According to union officials, managers kept computer spreadsheets monitoring employee use of the bathroom, and 45 employees were disciplined for heeding nature's call outside company-approved breaks. Female workers were even told to report the beginning of their menstrual cycles to the human resources department, said one union leader. In their 1998 book ''Void Where Prohibited: Rest Breaks and the Right to Urinate on Company Time,'' Marc Linder and Ingrid Nygaard of the University of Iowa - he's a law professor, she's a urogynecologist - trace the long and ignoble history of the struggle for the right to pee on the job. In 1995, for instance, female employees at a Nabisco plant in Oxnard, Calif., maker of A-1 steak sauce and the world's supplier of Grey Poupon mustard, complained in a lawsuit that line supervisors had consistently prevented them from going to the bathroom. Instructed to urinate into their clothes or face three days' suspension for unauthorized expeditions to the toilet, the workers opted for adult diapers. But incontinence pads were expensive, so many employees downgraded to Kotex and toilet paper, which pose severe health risks when soaked in urine. Indeed, several workers eventually contracted bladder and urinary tract infections. Hearing of their plight, conservative commentator R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. advised the workers to wear special diapers used by horses in New York's Central Park carriage trade. How does a country that celebrates the joy of unfettered movement tolerate such restrictions on this most basic of bodily motions? Why do the freedoms that we take for granted outside the workplace suddenly disappear when we enter it? ''Belated Feudalism,'' a study by UCLA political scientist Karen Orren, suggests a surprising, and shocking, answer. According to Orren, long after the Bill of Rights was ratified and slavery abolished - well into the 20th century, in fact - the American workplace remained a feudal institution. Not metaphorically, but legally. Workers were governed by statutes originating in the common law of medieval England, with precedents extending as far back as the year 500. Like their counterparts in feudal Britain, judges exclusively administered these statutes, treating workers as the literal property of their employers. Not until 1937, when the Supreme Court upheld the Wagner Act, giving workers the right to organize unions, did the judiciary relinquish political control over the workplace to Congress. Prior to the '30s, Orren shows, American judges regularly applied the ''law of master and servant'' to quell the worker's independent will. According to one jurist, that law recognized only ''the superiority and power'' of the master, and the ''duty, subjection, and, as it were, allegiance'' of the worker. Medieval vagrancy statutes forced able-bodied males into the workplace, while ancient principles of ''entire'' contract kept them there.
RE: RE: oilism redux
Ian wrote: Not that I advocate a technocracy; just that there are still a lot of very smart people on our planet who reject fatalism in all its forms. Fatalism has nothing whatever to do with the Global Hubbert Peak. Accusing people of fatalism who accept the geological evidence about the extremely limited original natural endowment of hydrocarbons is like calling someone a fatalist because they state that the sun will rise tomorrow. Mark
Re: RE: RE: oilism redux
- Original Message - From: Mark Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fatalism has nothing whatever to do with the Global Hubbert eak. Accusing people of fatalism who accept the geological evidence about the extremely limited original natural endowment of hydrocarbons is like calling someone a fatalist because they state that the sun will rise tomorrow. Mark Please demonstrate where in my posts I connected fatalism with the Hubbert Peak. Please demonstrate where in my posts I *accused* anyone of anything. Ian
Re: FED HEAD SAYS BUMF TRUMPS BUBBLE
What did Cockburn's father say? Don't believe anything until it is officially denied. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
RE: oilism redux
Title: RE: oilism redux Has someone estimated the date of the Global Hubbert Peak? when is it? how does it change if people make an effort to conserve on the use of petroleum? (Also, some people may want the Global Hubbert Peak defined.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: Ian Murray [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 9:45 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:30779] Re: RE: RE: oilism redux - Original Message - From: Mark Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fatalism has nothing whatever to do with the Global Hubbert eak. Accusing people of fatalism who accept the geological evidence about the extremely limited original natural endowment of hydrocarbons is like calling someone a fatalist because they state that the sun will rise tomorrow. Mark Please demonstrate where in my posts I connected fatalism with the Hubbert Peak. Please demonstrate where in my posts I *accused* anyone of anything. Ian
RE: An exchange with Jonathan Alter (Newsweek editor)
Title: RE: [PEN-L:30782] An exchange with Jonathan Alter (Newsweek editor) One of these days I am going to collect all my crank letters to the liberal muck-a-mucks of the world--and their replies--and try to get it published as Crank Letters from a Marxist Upstart.) with _The Lazlo Letters_ and _Citizen Lazlo! The Lazlo Letters Volume 2_ by Don Novello (Workman Publishing Company, New York, 1977, 1992), it could make a triology. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 10:02 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:30782] An exchange with Jonathan Alter (Newsweek editor) (This was prompted by Alter's column at http://www.msnbc.com/news/814574.asp which states, among other things, that Divestment may be only a fall fad on college campuses, but it's political nitroglycerin. One of these days I am going to collect all my crank letters to the liberal muck-a-mucks of the world--and their replies--and try to get it published as Crank Letters from a Marxist Upstart.) To: 'Louis Proyect' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Anti-Semitism good points, except the suck up part (I guess you didn't hear me call him an easy lay last week after he turned tail and began kissing up to jack welch)...i'm jewish and i don't like his occasional comments about jews. i'm not black but i don't like his skits (he doesn't make racist comments himself) about blacks. if i was on the show when he made one of those comments, i would call him on it. but on balance, it doesn't seem worth a boycott, or suddenly going on the attack over something he might have broadcast weeks earlier. he makes fun of everyone--southerners, italians etc. it is a politically incorrect comedy show (often quite funny), intermittently informative (you obviously listen), and getting too bent out of shape doesn't seem to me to be worth the time. thanks for writing... -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 1:07 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Anti-Semitism It doesn't take a lot of guts to attack campus activists. Let's see you take Don Imus to task the next time you're on his show. Challenge his use of the epithet penis-nose for some Jew he doesn't like. While you're at it, you suck-up, ask him why all the black politicians he parodies sound like Amos n' Andy. Louis Proyect www.marxmail.org
Re: Brazil's Debt Menaces U.S. Markets
From: Sabri Oncu [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L [EMAIL PROTECTED], ALIST [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:30749] Brazil's Debt Menaces U.S. Markets Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 18:01:17 -0700 Brazil's Debt Menaces U.S. Markets It's important to keep in mind that although the pubilc debt/GDP ratio is most often mentioned, public debt service/Govt. Income seems to me to be most important. El Salvador's dept. as a portion of GDB is under 50% (and over 40%) _but_ annual debt service is 72% of annual taxes (and over 50% of total income). High debt service leads to low public investment thus less education, health, infrastructure etc.. If these standards drop it can cause significant social unrest as Argentina showed once draconian measures were taken to continue servicing the debt (public employee salary cuts, firings etc.). The same goes for military spending in Latin America. It might be lower as a percentage of GDP than in many other places, but still high as a part of the budget relative to social needs. (Published in the October issue of Bloomberg Markets.) -Frank G. _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
Re: Re: Re: Re: Bush Militarism- How manyDivisionsare there
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/27/02 08:06PM well the direction of US foreign policy need not necessarily change. All I am suggesting is that within the context of an overall agreement to screw the workers/peasants fo the USA/the world - there may be cause to disagree on some matters within the ruling class. I am trying to understand why there can be a lobby within the US ruling circles that might at this present juncture contradict the general agreement ot launch war. Hari problem of managing opinion differences between one side favoring focus on 'destroying terrorists' via mutlinational action other side urging focus on 'targetting iraq' through unilateral action (and if saddam hussein didn't exist, u.s. would create him!)... above 'debate' not so new - fdr hoped that u.n. would act as instrument of collective policing... may be lesser degree of elite consensus today than after ww2 but elites remain committed to u.s. policing world even as some seek to shift part of burden onto other countries/security council (never, of course, more democratically organized general assembly)... what some dems are now doing is divided gov't institutional 'combat'... even if prez feels compelled to validate policy with congress through resolution, relationship almost always involves congressional acquiescence... michael hoover
Re: bullying
--- Carrol Cox [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Let's leave aside what was an aberration even for fascism, the Holocaust. Let's also get rid of that word totalitarianism, the primary reason for its use being to equate Stalin with Hitler. (I'm neither defending nor attacking Stalin, I'm just assuming that the equation is useless for purposes of understanding either regime.) So Fascism was just one of the many forms that capitalist repression of the working class has taken, and it was a form which, I think, was specific to the inter-war period. This is almost like self-enforced 'political correctness' from concerned parties of the left. Don't use that word 'fascist', they'll just make us eat our words. Perhaps, instead, we could say there is the historic Fascism to which you refer (though again we could argue til the next world war occurs if Fascism, Nazism, Francoism, or even military rule of Japan, among other things, were more or less the same). So there is 'historic fascism' and there is 'semantic fascism'. Lexico-semantically speaking, the term has usefulness--such as when someone calls their tyrant of a boss a fascist. As for the current situation with the US national security-corporatist state (will 2001-? be seen as an aberration, the end of something, the beginning of something quite different, etc.?), I think we need to start coming historically to terms with it in and of itself. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: Question to James Devine
...[W]hat is called globalisation is really another name for the dominant role of the United States. -- Henry Kissinger. QUESTION: James: Citation? At the Marxism 2000 conference, David Harvey devoted his plenary talk to supporting the proposition that Globalism is a euphemism for U.S. imperialism. If that talk ever got published, it would be an excellent source for this. I suppose it's nice to quote the enemy giving himself away, but I think it's better to go by a solid analysis by a first-rate marxist thinker. Carrol The guy gives himself away everytime he manages a coherent statement about his ken--which is how to manage US ideological and economic dominance of the world, usually at the expense of other peoples. Such moments of self-revealing lucidity are actually more frequent now that he no longer challenges Nixon for most output pseudo-learned kitsch prose on the topic (Nixon is dead, and Kissinger is an old man). Was anyone ever naive enough to think when most Americans used the term 'globalization' they were referring to something else? Oh, right, Negri and Hardt. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
RE: Re: bullying
Title: RE: [PEN-L:30786] Re: bullying This is almost like self-enforced 'political correctness' from concerned parties of the left. Don't use that word 'fascist', they'll just make us eat our words. I think the problem is that the word fascism has been over-used. Back in the 1960s, it became a psychological concept (following the Frankfurt School's F-scale), which moves toward being meaningless. Perhaps, instead, we could say there is the historic Fascism to which you refer (though again we could argue til the next world war occurs if Fascism, Nazism, Francoism, or even military rule of Japan, among other things, were more or less the same). So there is 'historic fascism' and there is 'semantic fascism'. Lexico-semantically speaking, the term has usefulness--such as when someone calls their tyrant of a boss a fascist. That makes sense to me, but I think Carrol was talking about the _left_ using the word. As for the current situation with the US national security-corporatist state (will 2001-? be seen as an aberration, the end of something, the beginning of something quite different, etc.?), I think we need to start coming historically to terms with it in and of itself. at this stage, excessive rhetoric hurts an already very-weak left. It's probably best to be concrete on such things, rather than using an abstraction such as fascism. BTW, it used to be that warmonger was one of those words that had become totally rhetorical and thus meaningless to most. But the Bush administration has brought it back to relevance in everyday speech, by being warmongers in practice, every day. BTW2, after Saddam (and before him, Milosevic), who will be official US Hitler du jour? should pen-l start a pool on this question? JD
Re: RE: Re: bullying
Devine, James wrote: This is almost like self-enforced 'political correctness' from concerned parties of the left. Don't use that word 'fascist', they'll just make us eat our words. I think the problem is that the word fascism has been over-used. Back in the 1960s, it became a psychological concept (following the Frankfurt School's F-scale), which moves toward being meaningless. I haven't gotten to the original post, so I don't know who wrote that, but to start out with the point about rhetoric is to miss the point of my post almost entirely. The point is that it is plain inaccurate to call the Bush administration _fascist_: it is sloppy language whether or not it backfires rhetorically. And the reason it will backfire rhetorically is because it's a false label. It presupposes that there is an ideal capitalist democracy from which fascism is a departure. This is bullshit. Capitalist Democracy is Repressive. Capitalist Democracy regularly slaughters large numbers of people. To call the Bush administration fascist is capitalist apologetics. It pretends that capitalism is intrinsically a good system. And by focusing attention on a mere rhetorical boogy man it deflects attentions from real threats to the loss of what (real) freedoms we do have. ALSO: In the unlikely case that the future merely duplicates the past and fascism does reappear, calling current forms capitalist outrage fascist will make it difficult to recognize the new form of it. Jim is right that Fascism has been overused by leftists, but flour is used all the time to name that fluffy stuff we bake with and it hasn't become stale or overused. Fascism has been oversused because it has been used falsely, to describe things that may well be horrible (most things under capitalism are) but which are NOT fascism. Repression, killer cops, etc. have not been overused because they name aspects of our world accurately. But again, my central point is that incontinent use of the label fascist shows a naive faith in the goodness of simple capitalist democracy. Carrol
Re: Re: RE: Re: bullying
Carrol Cox wrote: But again, my central point is that incontinent use of the label fascist shows a naive faith in the goodness of simple capitalist democracy. If capitalist democracy were such a total sham, how come you're not in jail? Is it just because you're so marginal? Or is the thing actually a little roommier than Germany in 1938? Doug
profitabililty down
Title: profitabililty down Note on the Profitability of Domestic Nonfinancial Corporations, 1960-2001 (by Daniel Larkins) The profitability of domestic nonfinancial corporations decreased in 2001, continuing a decline that began in 1998. The decrease was considerably more pronounced in before-tax measures than in after-tax measures. Before subtracting corporate profits taxes, property income's rate of return on capital dropped from 7.7 percent in 2000 to 6.9 percent in 2001, the lowest rate since 1960 (chart 1 and table 1).1 After subtracting profits taxes, the picture is different. Because taxes dropped sharply in 2001, the after-tax rate of return slipped only from 5.7 percent to 5.5 percent, only a little below its median value for the past 42 years. The drop in taxes partly reflected retroactive provisions of the 2002 economic stimulus bill. Before- and after-tax measures differ even more sharply in the case of property income's share of domestic income. The before-tax share dropped from 15.4 percent in 2000 to 14.5 percent in 2001, the lowest rate in more than 40 years. In contrast, the after-tax share increased slightly, from 11.3 percent to 11.5 percent. Over a longer period, however, the before- and aftertax measures of rate of return and of income share paint similar pictures. All rose steadily from 1992 to 1997 and then turned down; all then decreased for 4 years. In 2001, all were about 25 percent below their 1997 peaks. (from the SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS, Sept. 2002. http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/ARTICLES/2002/09September/0902CorpProfit.pdf) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: bullying
If capitalist democracy were such a total sham, how come you're not in jail? Is it just because you're so marginal? Or is the thing actually a little roommier than Germany in 1938? Doug Doesn't the US criminal justice system now encompass 2 million incarcerated and 1 million under court supervision? Carrol's purgatorio is more spiritual, I think. I agree with Carrol, but I wouldn't call the thing he is referring to 'capitalist democracy'. I just did call it a corporatist national security state. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: bullying
Stark alternatives -- those who don't have naive faith must believe the thing is a total sham. One could base a fundamentalism on such a dichotomy. It may sound like a pedantic distinction, but capitalist democracy is not a synonym for bourgeois democracy. Capitalist democracy or democratic capitalism is an Irving Kristol neo-logism, in spirit if not in strict etymological fact. The trajectory of its well-spun connotation is an inflection away from social democracy or democratic socialism and its moral claim is that ONLY capitalism and NOT socialism can be democratic. This moral has practical implications too. If only capitalism can be democratic, then it is perfectly democratic to not let socialists play at democracy. Whether or not one idealizes bourgeois democracy, democratic capitalism has no more to do with it than does, say, democratic centralism. Capitalist democracy is Americanism plus Free Enterprise plus the Right to Work. Perhaps the U.S. in 2002 is roommier than Germany in 1938 only to the extent that capitalist democracy hasn't entirely triumphed over bourgeois democracy. Carrol Cox wrote: But again, my central point is that incontinent use of the label fascist shows a naive faith in the goodness of simple capitalist democracy. Doug Henwood wrote, If capitalist democracy were such a total sham, how come you're not in jail? Is it just because you're so marginal? Or is the thing actually a little roommier than Germany in 1938? Tom Walker 604 255 4812
walkout
washingtonpost.com Longshore Union Walks Out of U.S. Mediation Talks Tuesday, October 1, 2002; 8:07 PM By Michael Kahn OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - Efforts to start federal mediation for a U.S. port dispute that has stranded mountains of cargo on West Coast docks collapsed Tuesday after the longshoremen's union stormed out of talks, accusing port employers of bringing gun-toting thugs to the meeting. International Longshore and Warehouse Union President James Spinosa accused port employers of intimidation as both sides dug in their heels, raising doubts over when they will return to the bargaining table. It is totally out of line. This is nothing more than intimidation, Spinosa said as he pulled his negotiating team out of the meeting with officials from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Oakland, California. The meeting was called short because of the armed men. It was unclear if or when the discussion of possible federal mediation -- urged by President Bush and a growing list of worried U.S. businesses -- would resume. Tuesday's meeting, following a brief negotiating session Monday, was aimed at outlining a suggested framework for mediation of a labor dispute which has idled virtually every major West Coast port and poses an increasingly grave threat to the U.S. economy. The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators at ports ranging from San Diego to Seattle, locked some 10,500 union workers out of the docks Sunday after accusing them of staging widespread work slowdowns as contract negotiations stalled. The ILWU's Spinosa said he was withdrawing from the preliminary talks after PMA representatives arrived at the meeting with two armed guards -- described as gun-toting thugs by one union spokesman. PMA officials confirmed that armed guards had been present at the meeting site but described them as a security precaution for lead PMA negotiator Joe Miniace, and said they had no bearing on the negotiations. Spinosa said he would consult with his negotiating committee Tuesday on whether or not they would go ahead with a planned meeting with PMA officials Wednesday. We feel that this set of negotiations has taken a turn for the worse, Spinosa said. We are very, very far apart. The union said it would insist that future negotiating meetings take place between the two group's executive committees, and that it had no intention of signing a contract extension -- a key PMA condition for unlocking the ports. PMA officials, for their part, said they would not change the negotiating team and that it appeared the talks scheduled for Wednesday would not happen. We have no idea if there is a meeting tomorrow, PMA negotiator Tom Edwards told a news conference. The talks right now are not going. GROWING RANCOR The collapse of Tuesday's mediation meeting marked a fresh setback in a port labor dispute, which has grown increasingly rancorous over the last several days. President Bush said Tuesday he was concerned that the dock lockout could hurt the economy and urged the parties to use federal mediation to resolve their problems. Port managers estimate the shutdown is costing the U.S. economy as much as $1 billion per day. We're worried about it, he told reporters at the White House. We're closely monitoring it. There's a federal mediator on the ground and I urge both parties to utilize the mediator, Bush said. We're just going to have to get these parties to work through it, get back to work, open these ports up. It's important for our economy to do so. Union officials said Tuesday they had no intention of going to Washington to continue discussions with federal mediators, although they did not permanently shut the door on possible mediation efforts. The West Coast port lockout has raised fears that shipping could remain paralyzed for days or even weeks in the crucial run-up to the Christmas shopping season. Labor analysts say any prolonged port disruption could force the administration to act. Bush has intervened or threatened to do so in several major labor disputes at major airlines, which eventually led to settlements. Under the Taft-Hartley act, the U.S. government has the authority to obtain an 80-day injunction against labor disruptions that could endanger the national health or safety. NEW TECHNOLOGY THE KEY STICKING POINT The U.S. port dispute hinges on the issue of new technology. Port employers say it is crucial to introduce innovations -- including such prosaic machinery as bar code scanners for cargo tracking -- to maintain competitiveness and keep pace with rising cargo volumes. The ILWU has resisted the technical changes as a possible threat to union jobs. On Monday it informed the employers' group that the technology issue was effectively off the table. The PMA has estimated that the port impasse could be costing the U.S. economy as much as $1 billion a day, but other trade analysts say this may be an overestimate.
Re: bullying
Tom wrote: Stark alternatives -- those who don't have naive faith must believe the thing is a total sham. One could base a fundamentalism on such a dichotomy. This has always been my problem with many a discussions on this and most other lists. It is as if people, not just the ones on this list, read stuff not with their eyes and brains but using some other organs. Or maybe, they say things that they don't really mean; or maybe, I am just too naive. Sabri
Re: bullying
--- Carrol Cox [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ; or maybe, I am just too naive. Sabri, you simply have to acknowledge that a maillist post, usually a fairly hastily written first draft, and almost always rather short for the topics being covered, is not an article in a scholarly journal. Doug's song-and-dance about binaries (except when _he_ commits them) is wholly founded on studiously not allowing for the generic limits of maillist communication. Even more, for certain maillist 'personalities', it's as if communication isn't even taking place with them. Little wonder then that their posts consist of ignoring the most substantive parts of real exchanges in order to try and make someone flounder in a digression of self-contradiction. Perhaps such people would do better to stick with an edited forum. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: bullying
Carrol Cox wrote: But again, my central point is that incontinent use of the label fascist shows a naive faith in the goodness of simple capitalist democracy. If capitalist democracy were such a total sham, how come you're not in jail? Is it just because you're so marginal? Or is the thing actually a little roommier than Germany in 1938? Doug Because we are very marginal, economy has yet to become a disaster, and nothing like 9.11 has happened here since then. -- Yoshie * Calendar of Events in Columbus: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html * Anti-War Activist Resources: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html * Student International Forum: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/
lumber and oranges
Florida Oranges,Canada Lumber Disputes To Go To WTO Panel Tue Oct 1,12:28 PM ET GENEVA (AP)--The World Trade Organization ( news - web sites) agreed Tuesday to investigate claims that the U.S. is acting illegally by imposing special taxes or duties on imports of orange juice and lumber. Panels of trade experts will look into the two cases, the organization's Dispute Settlement Body decided. Rulings usually take about a year. Brazil complained about a tax imposed by the state of Florida on orange and grapefruit juice, which it said was illegal because it isn't applied to juice produced in the state. For 32 years Florida has taxed imported orange juice concentrate, which is added to Florida orange juice to improve its color and make up for supply shortfalls. The current rate is about 3 cents per gallon. Foreign citrus producers like Costa Rica, Mexico and Brazil are required to pay the tax, while domestic producers have been exempt. Following a court ruling in July, the state started imposing the tax on other U.S. states that produce juice used in making Florida orange juice - including California, Arizona and Texas - but still exempted Florida producers. Brazil complained that the tax was unfair, especially as proceeds from the tax have been used to pay for ads promoting Florida orange juice over imported brands. In a separate dispute, Canada complained about U.S. duties averaging 27% imposed on imports of softwood lumber May 22. Most U.S. timber is harvested from private land at market prices, while in Canada the government owns 90% of timberlands and charges fees, called stumpage, for logging. The fee is based on the cost of maintaining and restoring the forest. U.S. timber companies contend that Canada's fees are artificially low and amount to subsidies that allow Canadian mills to sell wood below market value.
Re: walkout
Here is a nice succint explanation from Chuck Grimes on LBO: Okay, the more realistic issue is that shipping clerks who run the computers for automated inventories and FOB manifests port-side, are at the moment, unionized under the ILWU. The PMA and shippers want to de-link these jobs from their unionization, and out-source the computer procedures to third party contractors. This outsourcing is technologically feasible since there is no concrete reason a computer monitor and database program have to be located inside the port of entry. Both can be exported anywhere in the world and the job can be performed by anybody, through remote links (with video feed). The union wants these jobs unionized no matter were they are located, and the shippers don't---for very obvious reasons. It is a whole lot cheaper to patch a live link to somewhere else and outsource the routine database entry jobs, than it is to pay ILWU wages to have these jobs done in the Port of Oakland. Ian Murray wrote: washingtonpost.com Longshore Union Walks Out of U.S. Mediation Talks Tuesday, October 1, 2002; 8:07 PM By Michael Kahn OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - Efforts to start federal mediation for a U.S. port dispute that has stranded mountains of cargo on West Coast docks collapsed Tuesday after the longshoremen's union stormed out of talks, accusing port employers of bringing gun-toting thugs to the meeting. International Longshore and Warehouse Union President James Spinosa accused port employers of intimidation as both sides dug in their heels, raising doubts over when they will return to the bargaining table. It is totally out of line. This is nothing more than intimidation, Spinosa said as he pulled his negotiating team out of the meeting with officials from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Oakland, California. The meeting was called short because of the armed men. It was unclear if or when the discussion of possible federal mediation -- urged by President Bush and a growing list of worried U.S. businesses -- would resume. Tuesday's meeting, following a brief negotiating session Monday, was aimed at outlining a suggested framework for mediation of a labor dispute which has idled virtually every major West Coast port and poses an increasingly grave threat to the U.S. economy. The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators at ports ranging from San Diego to Seattle, locked some 10,500 union workers out of the docks Sunday after accusing them of staging widespread work slowdowns as contract negotiations stalled. The ILWU's Spinosa said he was withdrawing from the preliminary talks after PMA representatives arrived at the meeting with two armed guards -- described as gun-toting thugs by one union spokesman. PMA officials confirmed that armed guards had been present at the meeting site but described them as a security precaution for lead PMA negotiator Joe Miniace, and said they had no bearing on the negotiations. Spinosa said he would consult with his negotiating committee Tuesday on whether or not they would go ahead with a planned meeting with PMA officials Wednesday. We feel that this set of negotiations has taken a turn for the worse, Spinosa said. We are very, very far apart. The union said it would insist that future negotiating meetings take place between the two group's executive committees, and that it had no intention of signing a contract extension -- a key PMA condition for unlocking the ports. PMA officials, for their part, said they would not change the negotiating team and that it appeared the talks scheduled for Wednesday would not happen. We have no idea if there is a meeting tomorrow, PMA negotiator Tom Edwards told a news conference. The talks right now are not going. GROWING RANCOR The collapse of Tuesday's mediation meeting marked a fresh setback in a port labor dispute, which has grown increasingly rancorous over the last several days. President Bush said Tuesday he was concerned that the dock lockout could hurt the economy and urged the parties to use federal mediation to resolve their problems. Port managers estimate the shutdown is costing the U.S. economy as much as $1 billion per day. We're worried about it, he told reporters at the White House. We're closely monitoring it. There's a federal mediator on the ground and I urge both parties to utilize the mediator, Bush said. We're just going to have to get these parties to work through it, get back to work, open these ports up. It's important for our economy to do so. Union officials said Tuesday they had no intention of going to Washington to continue discussions with federal mediators, although they did not permanently shut the door on possible mediation efforts. The West Coast port lockout has raised fears that shipping could remain paralyzed for days or even weeks in the crucial run-up to the Christmas
War Without End? Not In Our Name! (Oct. 4-31)
Friday, October 4 Women in Black's Vigil against War Time: 5:30-6 30 PM (Every Friday) Location: 15th Ave. High St, Columbus, OH Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sunday, October 6 War Without End? Not In Our Name! Demonstrate against Bush's Endless War! Time: 5-6 PM Location: 15th Ave. and High St., Columbus, OH Contact: 614-252-9255 Monday: October 7 Meet Julia Alvarez Time: 1:30-3 PM Location: Ohio Union Main Lounge, Second Floor, 1739 North High St., Columbus, OH A Special Invitation to the Columbus-Ohio Community to join us in welcoming to the OSU campus Julia Alvarez, the author of _How the García Girls Lost Their Accents_, _In the Time of the Butterflies_, _In the Name of Salomé_, _¡Yo!_ The author will be available to sign books. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Organized by Office of Hispanic Student Services, Women's Student Services, The Multicultural Center, and Latino/a Studies. For more information contact: Graciella Rennella [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Thursday, October 10 Oppose the War on Iraq (Workshop) Speakers: Connie Hammond, National Network to End the War Against Iraq; and Keith Kilty, Professor of Social Work, Ohio State University Come and develop strategies, tactics, talking points, etc. to help the anti-war movement grow! Time: 7:30 - 9:30 PM Location: 300 Journalism Building, Ohio State University, 242 West 18th Ave., Columbus, OH Campus Map: http://www.osu.edu/map/linkbuildings/journalismbuilding.html Sponsors: Student International Forum Social Welfare Action Alliance Contact: Yoshie Furuhashi, 614-668-6554 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Monday, October 14 Indigenous Peoples' Observance Time: 10 AM Location: Battelle Memorial Riverfront Park, Marconi Blvd. and West Broad St. (2 blocks west of the State House), Columbus, OH Contact: Mark Welsh or Carol Killian at 613-443-6120 (NAICCO); or Mark D. Stansbery, the Community Organizing Center, 614-252-9255. Wednesday, October 16 Kevin Danaher, veteran human rights Activist and co-founder of Global Exchange, will discuss long term responses to terrorism and grassroots ways to respond to global economic forces. Danaher not only provides a detailed analysis of what is wrong, but he also gives inspiring examples of what we can do to make things right. Kevin Danaher Bio: http://www.globalexchange.org/education/speakers/KevinDanaher.html A short video will precede Danaher's talk. Time: 7:00 - 9:30 PM Location: EA160, 209 W Eighteenth Building (the Math Annex), Ohio State University, 209 W. 18th, Columbus, OH Campus Map: http://www.osu.edu/map/linkbuildings/209w18th.html Contact: Evan Davis, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thursday, October 17 Screening: _Project Censored_ (Dir. Steve Keller) For the first time on video, stories ignored by the mainstream news media are reported and discussed by journalists and media scholars. For the past 20 years, Project Censored has compiled an annual list of the most significant news stories ignored or censored by the established media. In this new video by Off the Couch Productions, five of those stories are presented by narrator Martin Sheen: U.S. Arms Deals Flout the 'Arms Transfer Code of Conduct'; NASA Bets the World: Cassini's Deadly Payload; Personal Care and Cosmetic Products May Be Carcinogenic; Dark Alliance: The Contras, the CIA, and Crack Cocaine; and Milking the Public: The Bovine Growth Hormone Controversy. Commentary is offered by journalism scholars Ben Bagdikian, Peter Phillips, Carl Jensen, and Erna Smith, as well as Bruce Brugmann, publisher of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Cf. http://mediaed.org/videos/CommercialismPoliticsAndMedia/ProjectCensored Time: 7:30 - 9:30 PM Location: 300 Journalism Building, Ohio State University, 242 West 18th Ave., Columbus, OH Campus Map: http://www.osu.edu/map/linkbuildings/journalismbuilding.html Sponsors: Student International Forum Social Welfare Action Alliance Contact: Yoshie Furuhashi, 614-668-6554 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Saturday, October 19 Citizens' Grassroots Congress Harvey Wasserman, the internationally celebrated environmentalist, will speak about the proposed plan to dump 77,000 tons of radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain. If Yucca Mountain opens in 2010, as scheduled, all that waste must travel American highways or railroads to get there -- some 100,000 shipments over three decades through thousands of American communities. The potential for a serious accident or terrorist hijacking has opponents to the transport plan calling it Mobile Chernobyl. Find out if nuclear waste will be transported through your neighborhood and what you can do about it. Time: 9:30 AM - 1:00 PM Location: Eastminster Presbyterian Church, 3100 East Broad St. (on the COTA bus line), Columbus, OH Contact: Rick Wilhelm [EMAIL PROTECTED] or Connie Hammond [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Thursday, October 24 Palestine Truth Tour 2002 Featuring: * New Video From Palestine by Big Noise Films (the producer of Showdown in Seattle, Black
Demonizing Iraq
Yesterday we received good news on Marxmail that the two major antiwar coalitions have moved toward coalescing their forces, the first step being endorsement of each other's demonstrations in Washington. The October 26th action is spearheaded by the IAC (International Action Center), which is led by Ramsey Clark, who was Lyndon Johnson's Attorney General. Most of the organizers in the IAC, however, are drawn from the Workers World Party, a small Marxist-Leninist group that has been around for over 40 years. Clark and the forces aligned with him have been excoriated as apologists for Saddem Hussein by certain left-liberals in a mad march to the right, who shall remain unidentified here in order to placate my good and patient friend Michael Perelman. While I have little sympathy for the party-building methodology of the WWP, I do admire their determination to stand up to the sanctimonious bullshit of the left-liberal establishment in whose eyes all figures like Milosevic, Saddem, etc., amount to Ming the Merciless in the old Flash Gordon serials. Apparently the IAC has lined up another apologist, namely NY Times op-ed contributor Nicholas D. Kristof. === Iraq's Little Secret By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF BAGHDAD, Iraq The White House is right that Iraq is by far the most repressive country in the entire Middle East but that's true only if you're a man. To see how many Arab countries are in some ways even more repressive to women, consider how an invasion might play out. If American ground troops are allowed to storm across the desert from Saudi Arabia into Iraq, then American servicewomen will theoretically not be able to drive vehicles as long as they are in Saudi Arabia and will be advised to wear an abaya over their heads. As soon as they cross the border into enemy Iraq, they'll feel as if they are entering the free world: they can legally drive, uncover their heads, and even call men idiots. Iraqi women routinely boss men and serve in non-combat positions in the army. Indeed, if Iraq attacks us with smallpox, we'll have a woman to thank: Dr. Rihab Rashida Taha, the head of Iraq's biological warfare program, who is also known to weapons inspectors as Dr. Germ. A man can stop a woman on the street in Baghdad and ask for directions without causing a scandal. Men and women can pray at the mosque together, go to restaurants together, swim together, court together or quarrel together. Girls compete in after-school sports almost as often as boys, and Iraqi television broadcasts women's sports as well as men's. No one thinks that sports are just for men, said Nadia Yasser, the captain of the Iraqi national women's soccer team. It's true that my mother was a bit concerned at first when I took up soccer, but I insisted, and so she accepted it and just started praying for me. The point is not to be soft on Saddam Hussein, whose rash wars and policies have killed hundreds of thousands of women as well as men. Iraqi women would be much better off with Saddam gone, and in any case the relative equality of women in Iraq has little to do with his leadership. Iraq has been civilized more than twice as long as Britain, after all (it was old when Babylon arose), and Iraq got its first woman doctor back in 1922. Then the Iran-Iraq war boosted equality by sending men to the front lines and forced women to fill in as factory workers, bus drivers and government officials. Still, we shouldn't demonize all of Iraq just its demon of a ruler and it's worth pondering this contrast between an enemy that empowers women and allies that repress them. This gap should shame us as well as these allies, reminding us to use our political capital to nudge Arab countries to respect the human rights not just of Kurds or Shiites, but also of women. Full: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/01/opinion/01KRIS.html Louis Proyect www.marxmail.org
An exchange with Jonathan Alter (Newsweek editor)
(This was prompted by Alter's column at http://www.msnbc.com/news/814574.asp which states, among other things, that Divestment may be only a fall fad on college campuses, but it's political nitroglycerin. One of these days I am going to collect all my crank letters to the liberal muck-a-mucks of the world--and their replies--and try to get it published as Crank Letters from a Marxist Upstart.) To: 'Louis Proyect' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Anti-Semitism good points, except the suck up part (I guess you didn't hear me call him an easy lay last week after he turned tail and began kissing up to jack welch)...i'm jewish and i don't like his occasional comments about jews. i'm not black but i don't like his skits (he doesn't make racist comments himself) about blacks. if i was on the show when he made one of those comments, i would call him on it. but on balance, it doesn't seem worth a boycott, or suddenly going on the attack over something he might have broadcast weeks earlier. he makes fun of everyone--southerners, italians etc. it is a politically incorrect comedy show (often quite funny), intermittently informative (you obviously listen), and getting too bent out of shape doesn't seem to me to be worth the time. thanks for writing... -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 1:07 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Anti-Semitism It doesn't take a lot of guts to attack campus activists. Let's see you take Don Imus to task the next time you're on his show. Challenge his use of the epithet penis-nose for some Jew he doesn't like. While you're at it, you suck-up, ask him why all the black politicians he parodies sound like Amos n' Andy. Louis Proyect www.marxmail.org
Re: bullying
--- Tom Walker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Carrol Cox wrote, To call the Bush administration fascist is capitalist apologetics. It is also bad American history. The Bush administration's ideological extremism is as American as cherry pie. Fascism was European and too damned intellectual. Political opportunism at the top of a modern nationa state to the point of deadly ruthlessness isn't limited to historic period labels or circular culture-based arguments. Mussolini identified with intellectuals and even intellectualized himself, then betrayed the intellectuals. He supported socialism, then betrayed socialism. At least he never got the chance to ask ALL of Italy to go down in flames with him because it was not up to the task he had set for it. Luigi Barzini, an Italian conservative, said that the Americans are through and through Europeans. Looking at all that 'classical' architecture in the empire's capital seems to reveal some sort of fixation. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: Re: bullying
Tom Walker wrote: Stark alternatives -- those who don't have naive faith must believe the thing is a total sham. One could base a fundamentalism on such a dichotomy. It may sound like a pedantic distinction, but capitalist democracy is not a synonym for bourgeois democracy. And Doug talks about how horrible binaries are at least 3 times a week. From his perspective, all that is needed to condemn an argument is to identify it as posing a binary. :-) Tsk. Tsk. And in my preceding post on the same topic I had made quite a point of this list existing and of us not being in jail. Doug himself put the point rather nicely back in '97 or '98. He summarized a few achievements of the Clinton Administration, and commented, with this, who needs fascism. Carrol
Re: Re: bullying
Sabri Oncu wrote: Tom wrote: Stark alternatives -- those who don't have naive faith must believe the thing is a total sham. One could base a fundamentalism on such a dichotomy. This has always been my problem with many a discussions on this and most other lists. It is as if people, not just the ones on this list, read stuff not with their eyes and brains but using some other organs. Or maybe, they say things that they don't really mean; or maybe, I am just too naive. Sabri, you simply have to acknowledge that a maillist post, usually a fairly hastily written first draft, and almost always rather short for the topics being covered, is not an article in a scholarly journal. Doug's song-and-dance about binaries (except when _he_ commits them) is wholly founded on studiously not allowing for the generic limits of maillist communication. Sabri
the best we can do
Title: the best we can do Amerika v. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do) (Steve Earle) Look at ya Yeah, take a look in the mirror now tell me what you see Another satisfied customer in the front of the line for the American dream I remember when we was both out on the boulevard Talkin' revolution and singin' the blues Nowadays it's letters to the editor and cheatin' on our taxes Is the best that we can do Come on Look around There's doctors down on Wall Street Sharpenin' their scalpels and tryin' to cut a deal Meanwhile, back at the hospital We got accountants playin' God and countin' out the pills Yeah, I know, that sucks - that your HMO Ain't doin' what you thought it would do But everybody's gotta die sometime and we can't save everybody It's the best that we can do Four score and a hundred and fifty years ago Our forefathers made us equal as long as we can pay Yeah, well maybe that wasn't exactly what they was thinkin' Version six-point-oh of the American way But hey we can just build a great wall around the country club To keep the riff-raff out until the slump is through Yeah, I realize that ain't exactly democratic, but it's either them or us and And it's the best we can do Yeah, passionely conservative It's the best we can do Conservatively passionate It's the best we can do Meanwhile, still thinkin' Hey, let's wage a war on drugs It's the best we can do Well, I don't know you up I'm kinda... JD
Re: RE: Re: bullying
Title: Re: [PEN-L:30788] RE: Re: bullying Well perhaps it might be helpful to define what I mean when I use the word 'fascist' since I brought it up. I mean a military industrial complex which increasingly seeks control of its own people as well as other peoples and nations. I mean a political rationale which attempts to gain respect in the world forum through dominance, intimidation and dehumanization of anyone who protests its increasing grab for power or stands for a more equitable point of view. I mean a government of elites who, by decree or in practice, strip world citizens of civil liberties, human rights and self determination. Just as the basic concepts that signify 'socialism' or 'capitalism' or 'humanism' take many historical shapes, so does the basic concept 'fascism.' Fascism is 83 days of 24 hour curfew in Palestine under which a person can be shot for sneaking out to go to the market for food. Does this not recall to the mind the Warsaw ghettos. Fascism is a newly published 'doctrine' of justification for bombing and invading a country which has attacked no-one... a 'doctrine' of justification for potentially bombing and invading a string of countries. Fascism is the arrogance and rhetoric which attempts to justify in the name of freedom the prolonged starvation, radiation and denial of medicine to millions of Iraqi people. It is the totalitarian mentality which answers a call for peace with the simplistic words you're either with us or against us. There is nothing 'meaningless' about the Frankfurt School. In fact, I would say that Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer, Fromm, Benjamin, et. all, as intellectuals and Jews fleeing Germany, were intimately familiar with both the concept and the reality of fascism. Their critique is relevant. One cannot tacitly dismiss the first generation Frankfurt School in this discussion nor can you label and discount the left. We are not in a contest of sound bites and nobody is going to make me eat my words. Most people are far more intelligent than the media assumes. What should we care if the media decides that we have used a word that has historical context instead of a newer, more digestable, more postmodern word. The media has interests and people are beginning to understand this. When that German minister called it with the Hitler remark eight corporate media conglomerates gasped with indignation but billions of people around the world no doubt cried out at the news stand 'you tell it sister.' I had not thought about it, but perhaps I prefer this 'dated' word precisely because it *has* historical and conceptual meaning. It is an emotional word, a grave word, and I use it to describe a grave and emotional world situation. I am not for letting the media limit my discussion by declaring certain words off limits. If we allow this then they will keep taking away the words until we are left with horror devoid of expression. When I see evidence of the rise of a fascist government, my own government, it is my duty and my nature to say 'yep, looks like fascism to me.' When I hear a person express frustration at the lack of visible resistance to what is shaping up to be unchecked global military domination, the least I can do is offer my solidarity. Maybe this is oh-so-twentieth-century of me, but it is relevant. I really don't care what Reuters would think. I care what Michael thinks, and the rest of you because you are the people who matter in this discussion. Lisa S. on 10/01/2002 4:47 PM, Devine, James at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This is almost like self-enforced 'political correctness' from concerned parties of the left. Don't use that word 'fascist', they'll just make us eat our words. I think the problem is that the word fascism has been over-used. Back in the 1960s, it became a psychological concept (following the Frankfurt School's F-scale), which moves toward being meaningless. Perhaps, instead, we could say there is the historic Fascism to which you refer (though again we could argue til the next world war occurs if Fascism, Nazism, Francoism, or even military rule of Japan, among other things, were more or less the same). So there is 'historic fascism' and there is 'semantic fascism'. Lexico-semantically speaking, the term has usefulness--such as when someone calls their tyrant of a boss a fascist. That makes sense to me, but I think Carrol was talking about the _left_ using the word. As for the current situation with the US national security-corporatist state (will 2001-? be seen as an aberration, the end of something, the beginning of something quite different, etc.?), I think we need to start coming historically to terms with it in and of itself. at this stage, excessive rhetoric hurts an already very-weak left. It's probably best to be concrete on such things, rather than using an abstraction such as fascism. BTW, it used to be that warmonger was one of those words that had become totally
