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John Reiman has misquoted me and misunderstood what I said in my recent post (and probably what Mark Lause said as well). We can only guess why, but to be charitable, he was probably just overly hasty to make a good point. And that is too bad, because I agree with his good point. Here it is “One thing we have to realize is that in Russia, the "oligarchs" and the Russian mafia are more or less one and the same. And I don't think we really have to "guess" about Trump's connections: Trump IS connected with the Russian mafia, he HAS served as a money launderer for them for years, and there IS so much publicly known evidence that we don't have to "guess". This has been in the public record for at least a year, if not longer.” Just for the record, here is John’s unfortunate Bowdlerization: "Anthony Boynton quotes Mark Lause approvingly: "Although we can only guess based on what we know, Trump's behavior makes him look guilty as hell.... By guilty, I mean deep-rooted financial ties between Trump and his circle with the Russian oligarchs, among others." But I did not write anything like that! Here is what I wrote, “I agree with Mark Lause when he writes, ‘“I tend to think the entire issue (Russian intervention in the 2016 US elections) as much more important than we tend to credit it. (But I tended to think that we underestimated the importance of the impeachment question on Nixon, too.) Although we can only guess based on what we know, Trump's behavior makes him look guilty as hell, and I'd bet that Mueller has serious evidence against him . . . and is currently working to make the case watertight. By guilty, I mean deep-rooted financial ties between Trump and his circle with the Russian oligarchs, among others.” ‘“The Republicans have generally demonstrated a complete lack of party independence from the head of state . . . and the Democrats have shown a complete inability to tie their shoes and take the most rudimentary steps.”’ “But, I think he misses what is happening in the world when he continues, ‘“All of which underscores the opportunities of which we could be taking advantage, if we had genuinely independent social movements of any persistence and scale . . . or any organizations more substantial than social democratic bowling leagues.”’ “The fact of the matter is that a mass and multi-faceted social democratic movement is growing in the United States that includes the women’s rights movement (much more than #MeToo), Black Lives Matter, the immigrants’ rights movement, the $15/hour movement, the anti-gun movement and a much broader and deeper ferment. “That deeper ferment is in part centered on the issue of democracy and is deeply offended by the fact that Trump is in the White House despite having lost the popular vote and patently having manipulated the vote in illegal ways and with the aid of a foreign power. “However you define “we” –the very broad left, the revolutionary left, the Marxist left….- “we” are growing rapidly and are taking advantage of opportunities. IMHO “We” includes much more than the old codgers who graduated from the New Left of the 1960’s: “We” includes the new generation of the left that is just coming to grips with the struggle. “Rather than “Cheers”, I have to say, CHEER UP MARK, better days are coming.” Anthony _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
