[Marxism] New think tank with funding from Koch and Soros aims to shift US foreign policy away from penchant for war

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Koch and Soros? Here's one to confuse everyone ...

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/new-think-tank-with-funding-from-koch-and-soros-aims-to-shift-us-foreign-policy-away-from-penchant-for-war-1.589811
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Re: [Marxism] Syria, the YPG/SDF, and the concept of solidarity

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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Michael Karadjis says:

"So, in this context, I am asking for statements from the SDF, PYD etc of
solidarity with *the people* being massacred, as literally dozens of
hospitals and schools are being hit, by a global imperialist power
intervening in the affairs of an oppressed country

"So what excuse does it have for
not criticising Assad?"

I think the reason is that the SDF, facing the threat of a Turkish invasion of 
north-eastern Syria, does not want to antagonise Assad, possibly resulting in 
the need to fight on two fronts at the same time.

The SDF has a fragile agreement with the Assad regime to cooperate in deterring 
the further expansion of the Turkish-occupied area.  There is a small 
contingent of Assadist troops west of Manbij to deter an attempted invasion of 
that city.

I think the reason Assad agreed to this is that he is worried that the Turkish 
occupation of a large part of northern Syria may become permanent, like the 
Israeli occupation of  the Golan heights.

Of course Assad wants to regain control of northeastern Syria, so this 
agreement is very unstable.

Michael says:

"The political quality of leadership of the revolution in Syria has never
been a factor cited as a reason to support the people’s uprising. That’s a
pity, and part of the reason for their defeat, but that’s reality emerging
from decades of totalitarian rule. Hell, we supported the “Iranian
revolution” in 1978-79, in a case where the equivalent of Jabhat al-Nusra
(ie, the Khomeini forces) was the central, undisguised, unrivalled
leadership; predictably the result was disastrous, but I’ve never heard
anyone go all Spart on the actual overthrow of the Shah; and in contrast to
that situation, leadership in Syria was always much more contested; and the
Khomeini equivalent, Nusra,. Was never more than 10-15% of the armed
rebellion (but a bigger proportion now in Idlib)."

Jabhat al-Nusra was not the only "Khomeini equivalent".  There were other 
Islamist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham.

Such groups were backed by Turkey, the most powerful state in the Middle East 
apart from Israel.  This made them a powerful force, creating a danger that the 
Assad regime would be replaced by another dictatorship.

Chris Slee





From: Marxism  on behalf of mkaradjis . 
via Marxism 
Sent: Friday, 12 July 2019 3:18 PM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: [Marxism] Syria, the YPG/SDF, and the concept of solidarity

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I've given this its own thread because it was a bit off-topic where it was.

When Chris explained, not wrongly, that liberation movements sometimes have
to make deals with the devil for the purposes of survival, referring to the
SDF's alliance with US imperialism in Syria, I noted that while this is
true, it is even more important to build alliances with other people
struggling. Therefore, I asked if there had been any statement from the
PYD/YPG/SDF condemning the current Idlib-Hama massacre. Chris responded:


“I am not aware of any such statements. I am also not aware of any
statements by rebel groups in Idlib and Hama denouncing the Turkish
invasion and occupation of Afrin.  If such statements exist I would like to
see them.”



The context here is that the people of Idlib and Hama are being mass
murdered for months on end now, in a truly frightening round of barbarism,
while the world ignores it (if I go all conspiracist I might even suggest
that the theatrics in the Gulf which, as I predicted, have not led to a
shot being fired, are designed as a good cover for Putin and Assad
“finishing the job”, while the US has now even joined in
https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/us-targets-al-qaida-militants-northern-syria,
following the US-Russia-Israel summit in Jerusalem
https://www.albawaba.com/news/us-takes-calm-steps-contain-iran%E2%80%99s-presence-syria-1296303?fbclid=IwAR3HuUouso4Bvj9EnE83o00ZLQ9aISmH176vklF6RdqNgcNVQ7xMYvis-MQ,
but anyway …).



So, in this context, I am asking for statements from the SDF, PYD etc of
solidarity with *the people* being massacred, as literally dozens of
hospitals and schools are being hit, by a global imperialist power
intervening in the affairs of an oppressed country. I’m not expecting them
to express solidarity with the rebel groups defending the region, or their
politics. But never mind, I realise that’s asking a bit much.



Of course, 

Re: [Marxism] The Struggle Continues: From the ISO to Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists | Left Voice

[Mark Lause via Marxism]

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When I was urging socialists to support the Greens a few elections back, I
was told that they wouldn't back anyone but a socialist.  So, they backed
Bernie Sanders.

There just aren't enough feet on the ground to provide the grounding for
them to tell left from right.
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Re: [Marxism] Amber A’Lee Frost and Anna Khachiyan: the two dingbats who bonded with Spiked Online | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Nick Fredman via Marxism]

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On Thu, Jul 11, 2019 at 4:38 AM A.R. G via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

> *
> Granted I'm not sure that CTH people (like Amber) are among those who are
> witch-hunting for anti-Semitism but it seems to be a running theme. People
> who complain about "snowflakes" are often the biggest ones.
>

Whatever else you think of them, they definitely don't do that, making
great sport of people like Bari Weiss and Meghan McCain for doing so, and
having guests from the UK Labour left talking about the smears against
Corbyn etc.

In general as I've noted here before if you've listened to the show to some
extent for some time it's obvious they've moved more towards interviews
with left activists and commentators and not coincidently moved away from
puerile irony/edginess. I certainly don't agree with all they say and note
a definite tendency to economism/workerism which seems to be a trend within
DSA.

This economism it seems is a partly understand reaction to, as black
feminist and now Sanders media chief Briahna Gray (and former CTH guest)
put it a couple of years ago, while being a lot more nuanced than the
subjects of this thread, "how identity became a weapon against the left"
wielded by powerful liberals,
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/09/how-identity-became-a-weapon-against-the-left.
Amber seems more economistic than the others, though usually far less
crassly than comes across in this article. The main problem seems to me to
be no differentiation between rich and powerful hardened liberals like
Clintons and Pelosi who *are* exactly like these "dingbats" say, and
millions of ordinary people with mixed consciousness. Perhaps they were
misrepresented to some extent though if so you've got to wonder what they
expected.

Anyway I find CTH entertaining and one interesting take on politics and
culture in the US (and elsewhere: e.g. I've never heard the reclusive and
eccentric graphic novel genius Alan Moore speak until his recent interview
on the show). I tried listening to Red Scare once and did find it tedious
edginess-for-the-sake-of-it.

Something else I find interesting about the comments about "hipster
Brooklyn" podcasts is that one important inspiration for them is a
long-running show by a pair of non-college educated, blue collar stoner
dads from Columbus, Ohio, called Street Fight Radio. CTH quite directly,
having "met" as online guests on this show. More specifically of interest
was a recent discussion they had with Patton Oswalt one focus of which was
more irony and edginess had become overused and was now often poisonous for
the left
https://soundcloud.com/streetfightwcrs/street-fight-with-patton-oswalt.

Also of relevance and of a bit more weight than these largely
comedy-oriented podcasts was this discussion with Doug Henwood about his
experiences in DSA, including criticism of economist tendencies such as
those influenced by Aldolph Reed, whom Henwood seems a lot more critical of
now https://www.blubrry.com/jacobin/44236868/the-dig-doug-henwood-on-dsa/
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[Marxism] Beyond Bernie – New Politics

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://newpol.org/issue_post/beyond-bernie/
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[Marxism] Against the GrayZone Slanders – New Politics

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://newpol.org/against-the-grayzone-slanders/
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Re: [Marxism] The Struggle Continues: From the ISO to Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists | Left Voice

[Erik Toren via Marxism]

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Very interesting article, but this made smirk:

"Meanwhile, at the base of the organization, two additional tendencies
formed. The first, the Socialist Tide Revolutionary Current, was comprised
of a layer of rightward-moving cadre, predominately in New York City, who
wanted to scrap the ISO’s categorical opposition to the Democratic Party. "

The idea of calling one's current revolutionary but at the same time
lending support to the DP.  Dios mio!

Erik
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[Marxism] Long Gone Wild; Sea of Shadows | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Two new documentaries share by pure coincidence the threat to sea 
mammals posed by venal Chinese consumerism.


“Long Gone Wild”, which is available across all VOD platforms on July 
16th, picks up where “Blackfish” left off. Made in 2013, “Blackfish” 
exposed the cruel exploitation of orcas at SeaWorld, where they were 
confined to unnatural, prison-like conditions and forced to perform 
circus-type tricks until the 12,500-pound Tilikum began to take 
vengeance on two of his trainers and a hapless trespasser. “Long Gone 
Wild” demonstrates that while SeaWorld made significant concessions to 
activists and scientists, it has continued to explore ways in which the 
killer whale can be commodified. Ironically, the nomenclature “killer 
whale” seems inappropriate since it is profit-seeking that is the real 
killer, especially as China has become the new SeaWorld colossus with 
Russia supplying most of the kidnapped creatures for big money.


“Sea of Shadows”, which opens at The Landmark at 57 West and Quad Cinema 
in New York today, concerns the vaquita, the smallest porpoise in 
existence. It is poised on the edge of extinction largely as collateral 
damage created once again by China. It turns out that the swimming 
bladder of the totoaba, a member of the drum family, is prized by 
Chinese for its medicinal properties and that can command $40,000 on the 
black market just like rhinoceros horns and other animal organs taken 
from animals at the top of the food chain. The fisherman of San Felipe, 
a seacoast village in Baja California, have begun using gillnets to 
snare the totoaba but the vaquitas are caught as well. Except for a 
small minority of fishermen in the village who disavow such wasteful 
practices, the rest are willing to break the law as part of cartel run 
by local gangsters and their Chinese middle-men.


full: https://louisproyect.org/2019/07/12/long-gone-wild-sea-of-shadows/
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[Marxism] Goug Greene on The Democratic Socialist Cul-de-sac: A Critical Look at The Socialist Manifesto

[Jim Farmelant via Marxism]

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Writing in the preface to the 1888 English edition of the Communist Manifesto, 
Frederick Engels explained why he and Marx did not call their pamphlet the 
“Socialist Manifesto.” According to Engels, socialism was identified with 
utopian dreamers and reformers “who wanted to eliminate social abuses through 
their various universal panaceas and all kinds of patch-work, without hurting 
capital and profit in the least.” In contrast to socialists, communists were 
considered dangerous to the ruling class since they stood for working-class 
revolution and the “radical reconstruction of society” that would end all 
exploitation and oppression. In other words, Marx and Engels were completely 
justified in shying away from this “socialism.” Perhaps not realizing this, 
Bhaskar Sunkara, founder and editor of Jacobin Magazine and a prominent member 
of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has written The Socialist 
Manifesto as a primer on the history of socialism and how we can achieve it 
today.


More at:
https://tinyurl.com/y39tlt4q

Jim Farmelant
http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
http://www.foxymath.com 
Learn or Review Basic Math


All Natural CBD Oil Has Doctors Throwing Out Prescriptions
worldhealthlabs.com
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5d28fcc3682cd7cc345d7st04vuc

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[Marxism] Dialogue between Iranian Venezuelan and Syrian socialists

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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https://www.allianceofmesocialists.org/livestream-facebook-dialogue-between-venezuelan-syrian-and-iranian-socialists-on-the-challenges-of-offering-an-emancipatory-alternative-sunday-july-21-2019/
-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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[Marxism] The Sweet Requiem | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Opening today at the IFC Center in New York is “The Sweet Requiem”, a 
narrative film co-directed by Shrihari Sathe and Ritu Sarin, who are 
Tibetan husband and wife living in the USA. Sathe wrote a screenplay 
that can be described as a cri de coeur of the Tibetan exile community. 
According to the press notes, the film was inspired by an incident in 
September 2006 on the 3.6 mile high Nangpa-La Pass between Tibet-Nepal 
border when Chinese border guards opened fire on a group of fleeing 
Tibetans, leaving dead a 17-year-old nun.


full: https://louisproyect.org/2019/07/12/the-sweet-requiem/
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Re: [Marxism] Black Agenda Report: Sanders vs the Endless Austerity Regime

[J.B. Nicholson via Marxism]

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Andrew Stewart wrote:

It depends on how you look at things. In my view, Obama has made plenty of
statements since exiting office that he was a success and made great
achievements on behalf of his donors.
There's also the time he told Wall Street to thank him for making them so 
much money -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjVFfX4BtvI


Obama said:

I know we're an oil country, and we need American energy and, by the
way, American energy production. You wouldn't always know it but it went
up every year I was president. [light applause] And that whole suddenly
America's like the biggest oil producer and the biggest ga-- that was
me, people, I just want you to-- [laughter] So, so [Obama chuckles] It's
a little like, sometimes you go to Wall Street and folks be grumblin'
about anti-business. I said, "Have you checked where your stocks were
when I came into office and where they are now? What? What are you
talkin'-- What are you complainin' about? Just say 'Thank you' please.".
Because I wanna raise your taxes a couple percent to make sure, you
know, kids have a chance to go to school? 


He also kept all of G.W. Bush's wars going (despite calling the 2003 US-led 
Iraq invasion and occupation "A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on 
reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics." in which "weekend 
warriors [...] shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, 
irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne."[1]) which 
helped create the illusion that he was the peace candidate. Then in office 
he added more wars including sharply ramping up the drone war (Noam Chomsky 
called the Obama drone war "the most extreme terrorist campaign of modern 
times"[2]). Those choices enriched war profiteers.


[1] https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99591469
[2] 
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/19/noam-chomsky-obamas-drone-program-most-extreme-terrorist-campaign-modern-times


Andrew Stewart wrote:

It's a jaded and cynical look at his legacy, I cede that readily, but it
also seems pretty obvious given how miserable things were when he left
office.


These are important issues which people are right to enthusiastically 
examine. That examination helps us understand what motivates such lethal 
and impoverishing policy choices.

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[Marxism] Washington Babylon Podcast Episode 15: Dr. Johnny Eric Williams and Elliot Sperber

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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This week, Ken Silverstein is talking about his recent essay “Eight Reasons
the Left Should Root for Donald Trump in 2020 and Ilhan Omar in 2024” with
Dr. Johnny Eric Williams, Professor of Sociology at Trinity College, and
Elliot Sperber, the editor of our new Aesthetics and Anesthetics section.
The conversation orbits around what the Left needs to do strategically in
2020 and beyond in both electoral politics and, more importantly, the
streets.

https://washingtonbabylon.com/podcast/episode-15-dr-johnny-eric-williams-and-elliot-sperber/

-- 
Best regards,

Andrew Stewart
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Re: [Marxism] Orwell versus Hitler: Not That Much Difference | Washington Babylon

[DW via Marxism]

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Gives new meaning to term "Stalinist hack". Such a-historical crap. Trying
to blame Orwell as the progenitor of original sin. This pathetic waste of
band-width fails utterly to deal with a single fact on Homage to Catalonia!
Not ONE!!! The problem with the author is that he refuses to assign the
blame for anti-Communism where it belongs: with the Stalinists who
sabotaged the workers revolution in Spain during the Civil War, murdered
revolutionaries and Spanish (and international) Stalinists' utter contempt
for workers self organization and revolutionary direction...which they
openly opposed. Of course Orwell became an anti-communist...the lying sack
of shit who wrote this screed should looking in the fucking mirror.

David Walters
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Re: [Marxism] Orwell versus Hitler: Not That Much Difference | Washington Babylon

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 7/12/19 10:32 AM, Andrew Stewart via Marxism wrote:

https://washingtonbabylon.com/orwell-vs-hitler/




So, is your argument that Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" was Hitlerite 
because it was critical of the Popular Front government?

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[Marxism] Orwell versus Hitler: Not That Much Difference | Washington Babylon

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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https://washingtonbabylon.com/orwell-vs-hitler/


Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
- - -
Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via 
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[Marxism] Life in a City Without Water: Anxious, Exhausting and Sweaty

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, July 12, 2019
Life in a City Without Water: Anxious, Exhausting and Sweaty
By Somini Sengupta

CHENNAI, India — When the water’s gone, you bathe in what drips out of 
the air-conditioner. You no longer allow yourself the luxury of an 
evening shower at the end of a steamy summer’s day. You sprint down two 
flights of stairs with plastic pots as soon as a neighbor tells you the 
water tanker is coming.


Every day, 15,000 tankers ferry water from the countryside into the 
city. Everywhere you look, rows of bright neon plastic water pots are 
lined up along the lanes, waiting.


This is life in Chennai, a city of nearly five million on India’s 
southeastern coast.


Chennai has struggled with water for years. Either there’s not enough 
rain or there’s way too much rain, which floods in the streets before 
trickling out into the Bay of Bengal.


But the problem is not just the caprice of nature. Gone are the many 
lakes and fields that once swallowed the rains. They have since been 
filled in and built over. Land is too expensive to be left fallow.


Even groundwater is spent in many neighborhoods, over-extracted for 
years as a regular source of water, rather than replenished and stored 
as a backup.


And so now, little comes out of Bhanu Baskar’s taps at home, which is 
why she skips a shower on the days she doesn’t need to go out. She saves 
the water for her grown children, who both have office jobs and who both 
need a daily shower.


“It’s very uncomfortable,” said Ms. Baskar, 48, trying to hide her 
shame. “It’s very tough.”


“It’s not hygienic, also,” she said.

Chennai was primed for this crisis. The city gets most of its water each 
year from the short, heavy monsoon that begins in October and a few 
pre-monsoon showers. The trick is to capture what comes and save it for 
the lean times.


Chennai requires every building to catch the rainwater from its rooftops 
and pour it back into the earth, but that has not been enough to stop 
either drought or flood. So the city spends huge amounts of money 
scooping water from the sea, churning it through expensive desalination 
plants and converting it into water that residents can use.


Sekhar Raghavan, 72, a lifelong Chennai resident and the city’s most 
outspoken supporter of better rainwater harvesting, finds this absurd.


“Some of us knew this crisis would come,” he said. “For us, in Chennai, 
harvesting means putting every drop of water back into the ground.”


And then there’s climate change. It doesn’t bear direct blame for 
Chennai’s water crisis, but it makes it worse.


The city is hotter than before. Maximum temperatures have on average 
gone up by 1.3 degrees Celsius (or over 2 degrees Fahrenheit) since 
1950, according to Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist with the Indian 
Institute of Tropical Meteorology. In an already hot tropical city — 
often above 90 degrees Fahrenheit and very humid in the summer — that 
means water evaporates faster and the demand for it rises.


The seeds of the crisis can be found in Velachery, a neighborhood named 
after one of Chennai’s many lakes. The lake was once deep and wide, but 
as the city grew, portions of it were filled in 20 years ago to make 
room for private homes.


P. Jeevantham was one of the first residents in Velachery when it was 
developed. He built a slender, three-story apartment building, and 
manages a tiny shop selling everyday provisions on the ground floor.


What remained of the lake was deep and clean back then. That didn’t last 
for long. Because the city’s water supply was erratic, Mr. Jeevantham 
drilled a bore well to draw up water from the aquifer beneath Chennai. 
So did all his neighbors, up and down the block.


Today, Mr. Jeevantham, 60, runs his motor seven hours a day to satisfy 
the needs of his own family of four and their tenants. It slurps water 
from 80 feet under the ground, slowly draining from the lake.


“The lake is God’s gift,” he marveled. But for how much longer? This, he 
didn't know. “Maybe five years,” he said, laughing uncomfortably.


Today the lake is a shallow, gray-green oasis, bordered on the edges by 
invasive weeds and trash, including, in one corner, a black and yellow, 
broken-down rickshaw.


Near the city center, the groundwater is nearly gone. Dev Anand, 30, 
still lives in his childhood home in the Anna Nagar area. For much of 
his life, his family relied on what city water came through the pipes. 
When that wasn’t enough, they drew water from under the ground. This 
summer, that dried up. For a few weeks, his neighbor shared his water. 
Then his groundwater dried up too.


Mr. Anand, who is active with a civil 

[Marxism] [UCE] Great David Montgomery podcast on restoring soil fertility (including the necessary element: cattle).

[DW via Marxism]

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*https://tinyurl.com/y4evy2gl *

Montgomery gives a good discussion on how to restore soil fertility and end
erosion. He takes on the vegan argument that we all have to stop eating
meat in order to effect climate change for the positive. It's only a small
part of his discussion but it's worth listening to.

David Walters
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[Marxism] Bernie Sanders’ Present Fight against Corporate Rule vs. the Bernie of 1989

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/12/bernie-sanders-present-fight-against-corporate-rule-vs-the-bernie-of-1989/
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[Marxism] Donald Trump’s Fake Isolationism

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/12/donald-trumps-fake-isolationism/
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Re: [Marxism] Black Agenda Report: Sanders vs the Endless Austerity Regime

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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Thanks, Andrew --- I meant of course "obama's failures" from the point of
view of the promises made in his campaign (and the promises "projected"
onto him by too many of us [!!] )  I am not so sure that all the
results of his actions were planned (the increased employment in the gig
economy, etc.) but your points about the Obama presidency are very well
taken.   (In fact, if I ever get my and Jared Ragusett;s book  "How we got
Trump" book finished, I will add to what Howard Sherman, Paul Sherman and I
already did in in our text  about the Obama economic policies the
information you have attached.



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[Marxism] Roundup of books from fall 2019 on U.S.-Mexico border crisis

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2019/07/12/roundup-books-fall-2019-us-mexico-border-crisis
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[Marxism] The Democratic Socialist Cul-de-sac: A Critical Look at The Socialist Manifesto - COSMONAUT

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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By Doug Greene

https://cosmonaut.blog/2019/07/12/the-democratic-socialist-cul-de-sac-a-critical-look-at-the-socialist-manifesto/
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