[Marxism] Welcome to the Next Deadly AIDS Pandemic

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

 Welcome to the Next Deadly AIDS Pandemic The world thought it had fought
the HIV virus to a stalemate—but its strategy was flawed in ways that are
only now becoming clear.For years, humanity had the virus on the run, and
death tolls plunged to joyously low levels. But the disease is now poised,
for the first time in recent memory, to add massively to its global death
toll of 35 million since 1981. Three factors are contributing to its
runaway resurgence: flawed public health strategy, rapidly shifting
demography, and diminished resources.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/25/welcome-to-the-next-deadly-aids-pandemic/
_
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

[Marxism] How the Suffrage Movement Betrayed Black Women

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

 The suffragist heroes Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthonyseized
control of the feminist narrative of the 19th century. Their influential
history of the movement still governs popular understanding of the struggle
for women’s rights and will no doubt serve as a touchstone for
commemorations that will unfold across the United States around
the centennial of the 19th Amendment in 2020.

That narrative, in the six-volume “History of Women’s Suffrage,” betrays
more than a hint of vanity when it credits the Stanton-Anthony cohort with
starting a movement that actually had diverse origins and many mothers. Its
worst offenses may be that it rendered nearly invisible the black women who
labored in the suffragist vineyard and that it looked away from the racism
that tightened its grip on the fight for the women’s vote in the years
after the Civil War.

Historians who are not inclined to hero worship — including Elsa Barkley
Brown , Lori
Ginzberg

and Rosalyn
Terborg-Penn
 — have
recently provided an unsparing portrait of this once-neglected period.
Stripped of her halo, Stanton, the campaign’s principal philosopher, is
exposed as a classic liberal racist
 who
embraced fairness in the abstract while publicly enunciating bigoted views
of African-American men, whom she characterized as “Sambos” and incipient
rapists in the period just after the war. The suffrage struggle itself took
on a similar flavor, acquiescing to white supremacy — and selling out the
interests of African-American women — when it became politically expedient
to do so. This betrayal of trust opened a rift between black and white
feminists that persists to this day.

This toxic legacy looms especially large as cities, including New York
,
prepare monuments and educational programs to celebrate the centennial of
the 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, which barred the states from denying
voting rights based on gender. Black feminists in particular are eager to
see if these remembrances own up to the real history of the fight for the
vote — and whether black suffragists appear in them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opinion/sunday/suffrage-movement-racism-black-women.html
_
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

[Marxism] Mai Skaf, Syrian Actress Who Defied Assad Regime, Dies at 49

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Mai Skaf, a Syrian actress who fled to France to avoid arrest after defying
political suppression by President Bashar al-Assad, was found dead on
Monday in her apartment in Paris. She was 49.

Her death was confirmed by her cousin Dima Wannous, an author, who did not
specify a cause. A colleague, Faris al-Hilou, said she died of a heart
attack.

Ms. Skaf was jailed, accused of treason and repeatedly harassed after
joining peaceful demonstrations against the government beginning in 2011.
Fearing further retaliation — she received death threats — she escaped to
Jordan and then continued to Paris, where she had been living since 2013 in
self-imposed exile.

“I will not lose hope,” she wrote on her Facebook page two days before her
death. “It’s the great Syria, not Assad’s Syria.”

The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces
issued a statement after her death expressing confidence that her “hope
will continue to be a beacon for all free Syrians.”

A popular film and television actress, Ms. Skaf was among the first of
about 30 Syrian entertainers, artists and intellectuals to challenge the
government crackdown
on Arab
Spring dissidents in 2011 in what became a continuing civil war that has
claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced 12 million people

.

Supported by Russian air power and Iranian-backed troops, government forces
have reclaimed rebel-held territory after killing civilians with sieges,
airstrikes and chemical weapons.

In a 2013 interview that appeared in Al Quds Al Arabi, an Arabic-language
newspaper in London, Ms. Skaf spoke of the impact of the Assad government’s
constraints in broad terms.

“What about the lost dignity?” she said. “What about poverty, pain and
disease? What about marginalization? What about daily humiliation and the
daily enslavement of human beings? What about the loss of hope?”

When she was interrogated after one arrest, she said, an officer demanded:
“What do you want? Do you want freedom?” To which she said she replied, “My
wish is that my son will not be led by the son of Bashar al-Assad!”

Ms. Skaf was born on April 13, 1969, in Damascus to a Muslim father and
Christian mother. Survivors include her mother and her son, who was a
teenager when she fled and later joined her.

She studied French literature at Al-Sham Private University in Damascus.
Encouraged by an uncle, Saadallah Wannous, a well-known playwright, she
began acting while still a student.

In 1992, she starred in a Syrian television version of Agatha Christie’s
novel “Sleeping Murder.” She was cast in her first film, “Echoes of
Slides,” in 1993; appeared in the TV series “The Silk Bazaar” (1996) and
“The Last Days of Al Yamama” (2005); and in 2008 returned to film in
“Damascus: The Smile of Sadness” (2008). One of her last appearances was in
“Orchidia,” a 2017 Syrian soap opera shot in Tunisia and Romania.

Before Ms. Skaf left Syria, she also ran a theater group that gave
performances and acting classes.

She staged her first protest against the Assad regime in 2011 and was
detained. A few years later she was told to fear for her life.

“They dared not do anything to me,” she said in a 2016 interview in Paris
with
the website toutelaculture.com, “because they pretend to fight the
terrorists, and I am not one of them.”

Supporters drove her to Beirut, where she was reunited with her son. When
she reached Paris, she continued her political advocacy.

In 2016, Ms. Skaf symbolically offered herself as fodder for four Libyan
tigers at a demonstration in Berlin to protest the rejection faced by
refugees fleeing war.

Participating in that protest, staged by the Center for Political Beauty, a
German artist collective, she said that because European countries had
curtailed asylum, “thousands faced the choice between the inevitable death
of war and possible death at sea in unsafe ships, guided by charlatans.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/obituaries/mai-skaf-syrian-actress-who-defied-assad-regime-dies-at-49.html
_
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

[Marxism] New article responding to 'class-first' marxists

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

One of my favourite articles in the latest edition of the Marxist Left
Review  is this piece by Sarah Ganham. It is
an engaged and engaging critique of a set of economistic responses to the
failure of identity politics that are growing among sections of the broad
left.

"Overall the net effect of neoliberalism has been to accelerate the
oppression of the working class and women and racial minorities. Far from
social emancipation coming at the expense of workers’ rights, we’ve been
pushed back on all fronts. The co-option of members of oppressed groups
into the ranks of the middle and upper classes in no way diminishes this
fact. Those who have risen in this way have themselves experienced a
lessening of oppression, but their numbers are finite and, like every other
neoliberal venture, their gains do not trickle down.



...it is essential that the left understands oppression, relates to those
affected by it and actively strengthens movements against it. These
movements are necessary not only to challenge specific forms of oppression,
but also to rebuild a united and powerful working class movement. To this
end it is imperative to confront, rather than accept, racist and sexist
attitudes within the working class. But also, we need to understand that
this is not just a moral task. Rather it is an imperative that stems from a
theoretical and political approach that recognises the integration of
oppression and class within the totality of capitalism. A working class
perspective that prioritises mass action and builds in the direction of
politically engaged forms of class struggle is crucial in order for these
movements to win. Socialists have always played a role in orienting
movements against oppression in this way.

There is another reason this integrated approach is important. It informs
but is also necessary to build a movement capable of overthrowing the
entire capitalist system. For the working class to fulfil its potential of
liberating itself and humanity from the horrors of capitalist society, it
must become the “universal” class, capable of “represent[ing] its interest
as the common interest of all the members of society”.[45] Both the
struggle for and the establishment of socialism can only be based on the
most radical form of democracy and equality. This means articulating the
demands of all the oppressed, in order to lead them in a united struggle
against the common enemy. Such an articulation can only stem from a
development of consciousness within the working class of the ways in which
the structures of specific forms of oppression are linked to the structures
of their own oppression and exploitation. With this understanding, it’s
clear that the interests of the oppressed are indivisible from those of the
working class as a whole."


http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php/no-16-summer-2018/161-against-reductionism-marxism-and-oppression


The edition also includes serious work on the crisis of neoliberalism
,
a political economy of the situation in Gaza

right now, trump's strategy for the US empire
,
Engels on the rise of women's oppression
,
and more.
_
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

[Marxism] [UCE] The Belly of the Revolution: Agriculture, Energy, , and the Future of Communism

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

The Belly of the Revolution: Agriculture, Energy,
and the Future of Communism
Jasper Bernes

In the days when man’s members did not all agree
amongst themselves, as is now the case, but had each
its own ideas and a voice of its own, the other parts
thought it unfair that they should have the worry and
the trouble and the labour of providing everything for
the belly, while the belly remained quietly in their midst
with nothing to do but to enjoy the good things which
they bestowed upon it; they therefore conspired together
that the hands should carry no food to the mouth, nor
the mouth accept anything that was given it, nor the
teeth grind up what they received. While they sought in
this angry spirit to starve the belly into submission, the
members themselves and the whole body were reduced
to the utmost weakness. Hence it had become clear that
even the belly had no idle task to perform, and was no
more nourished than it nourished the rest, by giving out
to all parts of the body that by which we live and thrive,
when it has been divided equally amongst the veins and
is enriched with digested food — that is, the blood.1

full: http://www.mcmprime.com/files/Materialism_Energy.pdf#page=373
_
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

Re: [Marxism] "We don't care"

[Mark Lause via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

 The Democrats will no more nominate a "dangerous leftists" than the
Republicans.

I was listening this morning to one of the MSNBC former Republicans whining
about how free market lunacy has no home any more other than the Democratic
Party.  This recalls the situation under Dubya when former Reagan
Republicans switched to get into Congress as Democrats.

Anyone, one of these sages suggested that there would be a major
realignment in which the rational capital worshippers could rally 'round
the Democratic standard and leave the GOP to the "white Populists," while
the Sanders people would start their own kinda leftish social democraticy
progressive-ish party.  Of course, in a duopoly there wouldn't be any room
for the latter.

. . . and if Sanders would actually lead a serious bolt.

Cheers,
Mark L.
_
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

[Marxism] He Made the Most Beautiful Films of All Time and They Put Him in Prison For It

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Georgian filmmaker hounded by bureaucrats.

http://www.messynessychic.com/2018/07/27/he-made-the-most-beautiful-films-of-all-time-and-they-put-him-in-prison-for-it/
_
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

[Marxism] Why Arizona Is Building Tiny Homes for School Teachers - CityLab

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

More housing outrages.

https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/07/a-tiny-fix-for-a-big-problem-affordable-teacher-housing/566033/
_
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

Re: [Marxism] "We don't care"

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

I think nothing would "unite" the capitalist class more than a "dangerous
leftist" getting the nomination ---

And I sure hope I'm wrong because I want one of those "dangerous leftists"
to get the nomination 

If the ruling class were smart they'd put their eggs in Deval Patrick's or
Cory Booker's basket --- both would be quite "safe" for them ---

(maybe throw our side a sop by nominating either Elizabeth Warren or --
more likely --- Kirsten Gillibrand for VP)

But who knows --- maybe an upsurge will surprise everyone as Obama did in
2008

On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 4:10 PM, John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com> wrote:

> What Michael Meerepol posted is an entirely different issue. I was writing
> about the crisis within the capitalist class, the lack of interest in this
> crisis among socialists, and why we should care.
>
> I'm looking forward to comments on this issue.
>
> John Reimann
>
> On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 12:42 PM, Michael Meeropol 
> wrote:
>
>> Thought experiment --
>>
>> (doubt this will happen but)
>>
>> The Democratic Party nominates Bernie Sanders for President ---
>>
>> What does the US ruling class do?
>>
>> --- we know what it did when the Repugs nominated Goldwater --- the US
>> Ruling class went hell bent to support Johnson ---
>>
>> When the Dems nominated McGovern, the US ruling class went hell bent for
>> Nixon 
>>
>> faced with Trump vs. Sanders, will they take a risk on Sanders but decide
>> Trump isn't "so bad"??
>>
>> Another possibility -- Biden gets the nomination and offers the VP to
>> Kasich as a "ticket of national unity" to defeat Trump ---
>>
>> --- what do all the "liberals" (and the miniscule group of leftists) do???
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 1:44 PM, John Reimann via Marxism <
>> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
>>> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
>>> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
>>> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
>>> *
>>>
>>> ‘“There was polite applause, but a lot of people didn’t clap,” said a
>>> club
>>> insider privy to the exchange. “There was a lot of talk that [Supreme
>>> Court
>>> Justice Anthony] Kennedy sold out,” allegedly having agreed to retire
>>> from
>>> the bench in exchange for President Trump’s picking his conservative
>>> former
>>> law clerk *Brett Kavanaugh* to succeed him.
>>>
>>> Who was saying this? Was it the “left” liberals who were saying that
>>> Kennedy sold out? Nope. It was the elite of the capitalist class at the
>>> Bohemian Club’s annual retreat in Sonoma County, California, according to
>>> SF Chronicle reporters Matier and Ross
>>> >> Bohemian-Club-retreat-conservative-crowd-13102110.php>
>>> .
>>>
>>> Matier and Ross continue: ‘In contrast, over at the Owl’s Nest
>>> encampment,
>>> we’re told TV pundits *Chris Matthews*, *David Gergen *and *David Brooks
>>> *lit
>>> up the crowd, especially when Brooks lamented the “loss of honesty, truth
>>> and civility” during the Trump era, calling it a “disaster and threat to
>>> democracy.”
>>>
>>> ‘“The entire camp erupted into applause,” says our spy.’
>>> This anecdote is a window into what is happening within the mainstream of
>>> the US capitalist class. They are in turmoil. Yet all too many socialists
>>> wilfully ignore this. They think what's happening is simply a continuum
>>> of
>>> what happened under Obama. They are greatly mistaken. They are also
>>> greatly
>>> mistaken that we should not be paying attention.
>>>
>>> The article contains links to the five news reports (that I know of) that
>>> document Trump's role as a money launderer for the Russian mafia.
>>>
>>> Full article: https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/07/28/we-dont-care/
>>>
>>> John Reimann
>>>
>>> --
>>> *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
>>> Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
>>> Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
>>> _
>>> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
>>> Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt
>>> ions/marxism/mameerop%40gmail.com
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
> Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
> Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
>
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your op

[Marxism] Would You Pay $1 Billion for This View? - The New York Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

This shows up the same day as the appalling report on Ben Carson 
authorizing billions of dollars in cuts to public housing.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/business/billion-dollar-property-beverly-hills.html
_
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

Re: [Marxism] "We don't care"

[Barbara Winslow via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

If Biden gets the nod and nominates anti-abortion, anti-birth control,
anti- union and everything else, Kasich, Trumpf will win. Does anyone
really think a ticket made up of two white men, one with a dubious past
history on women and a total garrulous-full-of-himself windbag combined
with everything Kasich is will gin up the base of the Democratic Party. I,
for one, would not vote and only concentrate on local elections.  Trumpf
would win in a landslide.



*Barbara Winslow*

*RESIST AND PERSIST!!!*

in Williamstown

cell and text: 212-8449447

Author: *Shirley Chisholm: Catalyst for Change*, Westview Press, NY 2014
available on Amazon in Kindle and book

Follow me on twitter: @bwpurplewins

instagram: @bwpurplewins





On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 3:42 PM, Michael Meeropol via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
> *
>
> Thought experiment --
>
> (doubt this will happen but)
>
> The Democratic Party nominates Bernie Sanders for President ---
>
> What does the US ruling class do?
>
> --- we know what it did when the Repugs nominated Goldwater --- the US
> Ruling class went hell bent to support Johnson ---
>
> When the Dems nominated McGovern, the US ruling class went hell bent for
> Nixon 
>
> faced with Trump vs. Sanders, will they take a risk on Sanders but decide
> Trump isn't "so bad"??
>
> Another possibility -- Biden gets the nomination and offers the VP to
> Kasich as a "ticket of national unity" to defeat Trump ---
>
> --- what do all the "liberals" (and the miniscule group of leftists) do???
>
> On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 1:44 PM, John Reimann via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
>
> >   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
> > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
> > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
> > *
> >
> > ‘“There was polite applause, but a lot of people didn’t clap,” said a
> club
> > insider privy to the exchange. “There was a lot of talk that [Supreme
> Court
> > Justice Anthony] Kennedy sold out,” allegedly having agreed to retire
> from
> > the bench in exchange for President Trump’s picking his conservative
> former
> > law clerk *Brett Kavanaugh* to succeed him.
> >
> > Who was saying this? Was it the “left” liberals who were saying that
> > Kennedy sold out? Nope. It was the elite of the capitalist class at the
> > Bohemian Club’s annual retreat in Sonoma County, California, according to
> > SF Chronicle reporters Matier and Ross
> >  > At-Bohemian-Club-retreat-conservative-crowd-13102110.php>
> > .
> >
> > Matier and Ross continue: ‘In contrast, over at the Owl’s Nest
> encampment,
> > we’re told TV pundits *Chris Matthews*, *David Gergen *and *David Brooks
> > *lit
> > up the crowd, especially when Brooks lamented the “loss of honesty, truth
> > and civility” during the Trump era, calling it a “disaster and threat to
> > democracy.”
> >
> > ‘“The entire camp erupted into applause,” says our spy.’
> > This anecdote is a window into what is happening within the mainstream of
> > the US capitalist class. They are in turmoil. Yet all too many socialists
> > wilfully ignore this. They think what's happening is simply a continuum
> of
> > what happened under Obama. They are greatly mistaken. They are also
> greatly
> > mistaken that we should not be paying attention.
> >
> > The article contains links to the five news reports (that I know of) that
> > document Trump's role as a money launderer for the Russian mafia.
> >
> > Full article: https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/07/28/we-dont-care/
> >
> > John Reimann
> >
> > --
> > *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
> > Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
> > Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
> > _
> > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/
> options/marxism/mameerop%
> > 40gmail.com
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at: http://list

Re: [Marxism] "We don't care"

[John Reimann via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

What Michael Meerepol posted is an entirely different issue. I was writing
about the crisis within the capitalist class, the lack of interest in this
crisis among socialists, and why we should care.

I'm looking forward to comments on this issue.

John Reimann

On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 12:42 PM, Michael Meeropol 
wrote:

> Thought experiment --
>
> (doubt this will happen but)
>
> The Democratic Party nominates Bernie Sanders for President ---
>
> What does the US ruling class do?
>
> --- we know what it did when the Repugs nominated Goldwater --- the US
> Ruling class went hell bent to support Johnson ---
>
> When the Dems nominated McGovern, the US ruling class went hell bent for
> Nixon 
>
> faced with Trump vs. Sanders, will they take a risk on Sanders but decide
> Trump isn't "so bad"??
>
> Another possibility -- Biden gets the nomination and offers the VP to
> Kasich as a "ticket of national unity" to defeat Trump ---
>
> --- what do all the "liberals" (and the miniscule group of leftists) do???
>
> On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 1:44 PM, John Reimann via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
>
>>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
>> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
>> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
>> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
>> *
>>
>> ‘“There was polite applause, but a lot of people didn’t clap,” said a club
>> insider privy to the exchange. “There was a lot of talk that [Supreme
>> Court
>> Justice Anthony] Kennedy sold out,” allegedly having agreed to retire from
>> the bench in exchange for President Trump’s picking his conservative
>> former
>> law clerk *Brett Kavanaugh* to succeed him.
>>
>> Who was saying this? Was it the “left” liberals who were saying that
>> Kennedy sold out? Nope. It was the elite of the capitalist class at the
>> Bohemian Club’s annual retreat in Sonoma County, California, according to
>> SF Chronicle reporters Matier and Ross
>> > Bohemian-Club-retreat-conservative-crowd-13102110.php>
>> .
>>
>> Matier and Ross continue: ‘In contrast, over at the Owl’s Nest encampment,
>> we’re told TV pundits *Chris Matthews*, *David Gergen *and *David Brooks
>> *lit
>> up the crowd, especially when Brooks lamented the “loss of honesty, truth
>> and civility” during the Trump era, calling it a “disaster and threat to
>> democracy.”
>>
>> ‘“The entire camp erupted into applause,” says our spy.’
>> This anecdote is a window into what is happening within the mainstream of
>> the US capitalist class. They are in turmoil. Yet all too many socialists
>> wilfully ignore this. They think what's happening is simply a continuum of
>> what happened under Obama. They are greatly mistaken. They are also
>> greatly
>> mistaken that we should not be paying attention.
>>
>> The article contains links to the five news reports (that I know of) that
>> document Trump's role as a money launderer for the Russian mafia.
>>
>> Full article: https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/07/28/we-dont-care/
>>
>> John Reimann
>>
>> --
>> *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
>> Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
>> Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
>> _
>> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
>> Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt
>> ions/marxism/mameerop%40gmail.com
>
>
>


-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
_
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

Re: [Marxism] "We don't care"

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Thought experiment --

(doubt this will happen but)

The Democratic Party nominates Bernie Sanders for President ---

What does the US ruling class do?

--- we know what it did when the Repugs nominated Goldwater --- the US
Ruling class went hell bent to support Johnson ---

When the Dems nominated McGovern, the US ruling class went hell bent for
Nixon 

faced with Trump vs. Sanders, will they take a risk on Sanders but decide
Trump isn't "so bad"??

Another possibility -- Biden gets the nomination and offers the VP to
Kasich as a "ticket of national unity" to defeat Trump ---

--- what do all the "liberals" (and the miniscule group of leftists) do???

On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 1:44 PM, John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
> *
>
> ‘“There was polite applause, but a lot of people didn’t clap,” said a club
> insider privy to the exchange. “There was a lot of talk that [Supreme Court
> Justice Anthony] Kennedy sold out,” allegedly having agreed to retire from
> the bench in exchange for President Trump’s picking his conservative former
> law clerk *Brett Kavanaugh* to succeed him.
>
> Who was saying this? Was it the “left” liberals who were saying that
> Kennedy sold out? Nope. It was the elite of the capitalist class at the
> Bohemian Club’s annual retreat in Sonoma County, California, according to
> SF Chronicle reporters Matier and Ross
>  At-Bohemian-Club-retreat-conservative-crowd-13102110.php>
> .
>
> Matier and Ross continue: ‘In contrast, over at the Owl’s Nest encampment,
> we’re told TV pundits *Chris Matthews*, *David Gergen *and *David Brooks
> *lit
> up the crowd, especially when Brooks lamented the “loss of honesty, truth
> and civility” during the Trump era, calling it a “disaster and threat to
> democracy.”
>
> ‘“The entire camp erupted into applause,” says our spy.’
> This anecdote is a window into what is happening within the mainstream of
> the US capitalist class. They are in turmoil. Yet all too many socialists
> wilfully ignore this. They think what's happening is simply a continuum of
> what happened under Obama. They are greatly mistaken. They are also greatly
> mistaken that we should not be paying attention.
>
> The article contains links to the five news reports (that I know of) that
> document Trump's role as a money launderer for the Russian mafia.
>
> Full article: https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/07/28/we-dont-care/
>
> John Reimann
>
> --
> *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
> Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
> Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mameerop%
> 40gmail.com
_
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

[Marxism] Fwd: re the Martin Wolf FT article

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

FYI, just received this.

---

This https://on.ft.com/2M17pM8 won't work for everyone. It didn't work 
for me.


But if you go 'Incognito' on Chrome and key in the title in the subject 
heading (not the link) , you will get to a Google Search, click on the 
article, and Bob's your uncle. It worked for me anyway. (There's the 
danger FT will get wise to this ruse. I don't know.)



  How we lost America to greed and envy | Financial Times


_
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

Re: [Marxism] As Affordable Housing Crisis Grows, HUD Sits on the Sidelines

[Ralph Johansen via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Louis Proyect wrote

NY Times, July 28, 2018
As Affordable Housing Crisis Grows, HUD Sits on the Sidelines
By Glenn Thrush

This past week I read this moving account of what it's like to be a poor 
person in the inner cities of America. It's graphic and compelling. The 
story is told by an expert, painstaking ethnographer named Matthew 
Desmond, who now teaches at Princeton. Desmond immersed himself for 
months in  a run-down trailer park and then a multiple dwelling house in 
inner-city Milwaukee. He gained the confidence of the people around him 
sufficiently to be able to follow them closely in the endless hunt for 
housing after multiple evictions, into the small claims rental courts, 
through the street culture of a large city, camped out on the streets 
with their meager belongings when the sheriffs showed up. He documented 
the ruinous, racking effects of the housing crisis as it is experienced 
by millions in the US.


This is the synopsis online:

Evicted


   Poverty and Profit in the American City

By Matthew Desmond
/
Evicted /(2016) tells the heartbreaking story of the individuals and 
families who struggle to get by in the United States’ poorest cities. 
Despite their best efforts, many of these people have fallen into a 
vicious cycle of poverty that has left them at the mercy of greedy 
property owners who don’t hesitate to evict families at the slightest 
provocation. To take a closer look at the details of their lives, we’ll 
focus on the inner city of Milwaukee and the tenants and landlords who 
populate this deeply segregated area.



---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
_
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

[Marxism] "We don't care"

[John Reimann via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

‘“There was polite applause, but a lot of people didn’t clap,” said a club
insider privy to the exchange. “There was a lot of talk that [Supreme Court
Justice Anthony] Kennedy sold out,” allegedly having agreed to retire from
the bench in exchange for President Trump’s picking his conservative former
law clerk *Brett Kavanaugh* to succeed him.

Who was saying this? Was it the “left” liberals who were saying that
Kennedy sold out? Nope. It was the elite of the capitalist class at the
Bohemian Club’s annual retreat in Sonoma County, California, according to
SF Chronicle reporters Matier and Ross

.

Matier and Ross continue: ‘In contrast, over at the Owl’s Nest encampment,
we’re told TV pundits *Chris Matthews*, *David Gergen *and *David Brooks *lit
up the crowd, especially when Brooks lamented the “loss of honesty, truth
and civility” during the Trump era, calling it a “disaster and threat to
democracy.”

‘“The entire camp erupted into applause,” says our spy.’
This anecdote is a window into what is happening within the mainstream of
the US capitalist class. They are in turmoil. Yet all too many socialists
wilfully ignore this. They think what's happening is simply a continuum of
what happened under Obama. They are greatly mistaken. They are also greatly
mistaken that we should not be paying attention.

The article contains links to the five news reports (that I know of) that
document Trump's role as a money launderer for the Russian mafia.

Full article: https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/07/28/we-dont-care/

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
_
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

[Marxism] Mai Skaf, Syrian Actress Who Defied Assad Regime, Dies at 49

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

NY Times, July 28, 2018
Mai Skaf, Syrian Actress Who Defied Assad Regime, Dies at 49
By Sam Roberts

Mai Skaf, a Syrian actress who fled to France to avoid arrest after 
defying political suppression by President Bashar al-Assad, was found 
dead on Monday in her apartment in Paris. She was 49.


Her death was confirmed by her cousin Dima Wannous, an author, who did 
not specify a cause. A colleague, Faris al-Hilou, said she died of a 
heart attack.


Ms. Skaf was jailed, accused of treason and repeatedly harassed after 
joining peaceful demonstrations against the government beginning in 
2011. Fearing further retaliation — she received death threats — she 
escaped to Jordan and then continued to Paris, where she had been living 
since 2013 in self-imposed exile.


“I will not lose hope,” she wrote on her Facebook page two days before 
her death. “It’s the great Syria, not Assad’s Syria.”


The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces 
issued a statement after her death expressing confidence that her “hope 
will continue to be a beacon for all free Syrians.”


A popular film and television actress, Ms. Skaf was among the first of 
about 30 Syrian entertainers, artists and intellectuals to challenge the 
government crackdown on Arab Spring dissidents in 2011 in what became a 
continuing civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and 
displaced 12 million people.


Supported by Russian air power and Iranian-backed troops, government 
forces have reclaimed rebel-held territory after killing civilians with 
sieges, airstrikes and chemical weapons.


In a 2013 interview that appeared in Al Quds Al Arabi, an 
Arabic-language newspaper in London, Ms. Skaf spoke of the impact of the 
Assad government’s constraints in broad terms.


“What about the lost dignity?” she said. “What about poverty, pain and 
disease? What about marginalization? What about daily humiliation and 
the daily enslavement of human beings? What about the loss of hope?”


When she was interrogated after one arrest, she said, an officer 
demanded: “What do you want? Do you want freedom?” To which she said she 
replied, “My wish is that my son will not be led by the son of Bashar 
al-Assad!”


Ms. Skaf was born on April 13, 1969, in Damascus to a Muslim father and 
Christian mother. Survivors include her mother and her son, who was a 
teenager when she fled and later joined her.


She studied French literature at Al-Sham Private University in Damascus. 
Encouraged by an uncle, Saadallah Wannous, a well-known playwright, she 
began acting while still a student.


In 1992, she starred in a Syrian television version of Agatha Christie’s 
novel “Sleeping Murder.” She was cast in her first film, “Echoes of 
Slides,” in 1993; appeared in the TV series “The Silk Bazaar” (1996) and 
“The Last Days of Al Yamama” (2005); and in 2008 returned to film in 
“Damascus: The Smile of Sadness” (2008). One of her last appearances was 
in “Orchidia,” a 2017 Syrian soap opera shot in Tunisia and Romania.


Before Ms. Skaf left Syria, she also ran a theater group that gave 
performances and acting classes.


She staged her first protest against the Assad regime in 2011 and was 
detained. A few years later she was told to fear for her life.


“They dared not do anything to me,” she said in a 2016 interview in 
Paris with the website toutelaculture.com, “because they pretend to 
fight the terrorists, and I am not one of them.”


Supporters drove her to Beirut, where she was reunited with her son. 
When she reached Paris, she continued her political advocacy.


In 2016, Ms. Skaf symbolically offered herself as fodder for four Libyan 
tigers at a demonstration in Berlin to protest the rejection faced by 
refugees fleeing war.


Participating in that protest, staged by the Center for Political 
Beauty, a German artist collective, she said that because European 
countries had curtailed asylum, “thousands faced the choice between the 
inevitable death of war and possible death at sea in unsafe ships, 
guided by charlatans.”

_
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

[Marxism] As Affordable Housing Crisis Grows, HUD Sits on the Sidelines

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

NY Times, July 28, 2018
As Affordable Housing Crisis Grows, HUD Sits on the Sidelines
By Glenn Thrush

WASHINGTON — The country is in the grips of an escalating housing 
affordability crisis. Millions of low-income Americans are paying 70 
percent or more of their incomes for shelter, while rents continue to 
rise and construction of affordable rental apartments lags far behind 
the need.


The Trump administration’s main policy response, unveiled this spring by 
Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development: a plan to 
triple rents for about 712,000 of the poorest tenants receiving federal 
housing aid and to loosen the cap on rents on 4.5 million households 
enrolled in federal voucher and public housing programs nationwide, with 
the goal of moving longtime tenants out of the system to make way for 
new ones.


As city and state officials and members of both parties clamor for the 
federal government to help, Mr. Carson has privately told aides that he 
views the shortage of affordable housing as regrettable, but as 
essentially a local problem.


A former presidential candidate who said last year that he did not want 
to give recipients of federal aid “a comfortable setting that would make 
somebody want to say, ‘I’ll just stay here; they will take care of me,’” 
he has made it a priority to reduce, rather than expand, assistance to 
the poor, to break what he sees as a cycle of dependency.


And when congressional Democrats and Republicans scrambled to save his 
department’s budget and rescue an endangered tax credit that accounts 
for nine out of 10 affordable housing developments built in the country, 
Mr. Carson sat on the sidelines, according to legislators and 
congressional staff members.


Local officials seem resigned to the fact that they will receive little 
or no help from the Trump administration.


“To be brutally honest, I think that we aren’t really getting any help 
right now out of Washington, and the situation has gotten really bad 
over the last two years,” said Chad Williams, executive director of the 
Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority, which oversees public 
housing developments and voucher programs that serve 16,000 people in 
the Las Vegas area.


Nevada, ground zero in the housing crisis a decade ago, is now the 
epicenter of the affordability crunch, with low-income residents 
squeezed out of once-affordable apartments by working-class refugees 
fleeing from California’s own rental crisis.


“I think Carson’s ideas, that public housing shouldn’t be 
multigenerational, are noble,” Mr. Williams said. “But right now these 
programs are a stable, Band-Aid fix, and we really need them.”


Underlying the conflict between Mr. Carson and officials like Mr. 
Williams are fundamental disagreements over the role the federal 
government should play.


Mr. Carson believes federal aid should be regarded only as a temporary 
crutch for families moving from dependency to work and sees the rent 
increases as a way to expand his agency’s budget. Low-income renters and 
many local officials who run housing programs see the federal assistance 
as a semi-permanent hedge against evictions and homelessness that needs 
to be expanded in times of crisis.


This year, the White House proposed to slash $8.8 billion from the 
Department of Housing and Urban Development’s most important housing 
programs. While aides say Mr. Carson privately pushed for a restoration 
in programs for seniors and disabled people, he publicly supported the 
gutting of his own department, reiterating to lawmakers last month that 
he felt as much responsibility toward taxpayers as tenants.


“I continue to advocate for fiscal responsibility as well as 
compassion,” Mr. Carson told a House committee in June. He declined to 
comment for this article.


Under Mr. Carson’s most significant policy proposal as secretary, 
so-called maximum rents paid by the poorest households in public housing 
would rise to $150 a month from $50.


His proposal has received little support from local housing operators. 
Over the past month, Mr. Carson has huddled with Representative Dennis 
A. Ross, Republican of Florida, who is drafting less stringent 
legislation that would allow, but not mandate, local housing authorities 
to raise rents and carry out reforms to streamline the process of 
verifying the poverty of applicants, aides said.


Still, both proposals represent a paradigm shift in federal housing 
policy, ending the requirement that low-income tenants spend no more 
than 30 percent of their net income on rent.


Tying rents to incomes has been a central part of the system since 1981, 
especially for 

[Marxism] How we lost America to greed and envy

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

I hope this works. As a subscriber by virtue of my access through 
Columbia, this link should give you access to the article including the 
charts.



https://on.ft.com/2M17pM8
_
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

Re: [Marxism] [pen-l] How we lost America to greed and envy | Financial Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On 7/28/18 12:14 PM, Michael Meeropol wrote:

so who is MARTIN WOLF??



From Wikipedia:


He became one of the more influential drivers of the 2008–2009 Keynesian 
resurgence, and in late 2008 and early 2009, he used his platform on the 
Financial Times to advocate a massive fiscal and monetary response to 
the financial crisis of 2007–2010. According to Julia Ioffe writing in 
2009 for The New Republic, he was "arguably the most widely trusted 
pundit" of the crisis.[1] Wolf is a supporter of a land value tax.[4]

_
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

Re: [Marxism] [pen-l] How we lost America to greed and envy | Financial Times

[Brian McKenna via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Lou,

Here it is (w/o the charts).

https://www.businessdayonline.com/opinion/analysis/article/lost-america-greed-envy/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Best,
Brian

On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 8:11 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> It is hit or miss whether you can get to this article behind the FT
> paywall but it is worth trying since it has some interesting charts on how
> shitty the status of American workers is.
>
>
> https://www.ft.com/content/3aea8668-88e2-11e8-bf9e-8771d5404543
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Progressive Economics" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to pen-l+unsubscr...@mail.csuchico.edu.
> To post to this group, send email to pe...@mail.csuchico.edu.
> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/a/ma
> il.csuchico.edu/group/pen-l/.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/ma
> il.csuchico.edu/d/msgid/pen-l/fb17d403-5e68-da4e-db3a-1275ba
> 310a23%40panix.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/a/ma
> il.csuchico.edu/d/optout.
>



-- 
Brian McKenna, Ph.D.
Anthropologist
Department of Behavioral Sciences
CASL 4025
University of Michigan-Dearborn
Dearborn, Michigan
_
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

[Marxism] You Say You Want a Revolution? The Anti-Capitalist Film “Sorry to Bother You” Shows the Way | Briahna Gray | The Intercept

[Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*


https://theintercept.com/2018/07/25/sorry-to-bother-you-review-boots-riley/


Sent from my iPhone
_
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

[Marxism] The Radical Left & A Strategy For Growth

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

(From the Socialist Workers network in Ireland.)

Limits of Left Reformism

The context for this growth is twofold. First, the workers’ movement has 
experienced many defeats at the hands of a resurgent capitalist class. 
The older methods of adhering to the rules of ‘ industrial relations’ 
and seeking to use the state apparatus to pressurise capitalists to 
abide by legal obligations has been no match for employer strategies. 
The result is that workers feel they have little ability to effect 
change on their own—but want a left government to do it for them. 
Second, the networks of politicised working class activists that were 
shaped by communist or social democratic parties have weakened. The 
collapse of the USSR and the embrace of austerity by the social 
democrats have disorientated them. While such networks often exerted 
conservative restraints over working class radicalism, they also served 
as a ballast for more stable leftist attitudes. With the ballast 
removed, there is a greater volatility in working class outlooks. 
Electorally, this volatility can lead to a withdrawal of support for 
parties that embrace neoliberalism and in a swing to the radical left.


While shifts to the left can start with the politics described above, 
they cannot achieve their aims within this framework. Some of the 
leaders who articulate broad working class discontent with austerity are 
trapped within parties that brought about that austerity. Bernie Sanders 
was a voice for ‘socialism’ during the US Presidential elections but 
afterwards he mounted a unity tour to heal divisions in the Democratic 
Party with Tom Perez, a labour secretary under Obama. Jeremy Corbyn is a 
stronger advocate for left politics—and the British Labour party he 
leads has considerably deeper links to the organised working class than 
the US Democrats—but he is being held hostage by a parliamentary party 
that has systematically disappointed its working class supporters. More 
generally, the articulation of leftist sentiment occurs largely on the 
terrain of electoral politics. A failure to mobilise and encourage a 
sense of empowerment amongst workers limits its possibilities. The 
reason is that a key element in right wing ideologies today is a 
promotion of a fatalism which both recognises discontent but dissolves 
it in a rhetoric that ‘we are where we are’. A purely electoral 
strategy—or even a strategy that subordinates mobilisation to electoral 
considerations—will therefore only lead to limited advances.


More broadly, attempts to capture state power to manage late capitalism 
run into a number of contradictions. The installation of a left 
government can increase the aspirations of working people but the very 
structures of the state hinder any attempts to fulfil them. Bourgeois 
democracy separates the political from the economic so that a political 
move to encroach on capital will be met with sustained economic 
sabotage. In this context, elected governments find that they are unable 
to control the unelected officials inside the state apparatus. None of 
this is to suggest that reforms should not be attempted or that certain 
gains may not be won. It is rather to claim that the contradictions that 
arise from the establishment of a left government can only be resolved 
by breaking the power of capital. As the state machinery is structured 
to prop up the rule of capital it cannot be the vehicle for uprooting it.


full: 
http://www.rebelnews.ie/2018/07/27/the-radical-left-a-strategy-for-growth/

_
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

[Marxism] How the Obama administration watched the demise of Arab democracy — and paved the way for Trump’s embrace of dictators.

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

(Important article about how Islamophobia influenced Obama 
administration's support for Sisi's coup. Although it doesn't mention 
Syria, it is obvious the same calculations governed Washington's 
implicit support for Assad as a lesser evil.)


NY Times, July 28, 2018
The White House and the Strongman
How the Obama administration watched the demise of Arab democracy — and 
paved the way for Trump’s embrace of dictators.

By David D. Kirkpatrick

Mr. Kirkpatrick is a former Cairo bureau chief for The Times and the 
author of a new book about Egypt and the Middle East.


President Trump boasts that he has reversed American policies across the 
Middle East. Where his predecessor hoped to win hearts and minds, Mr. 
Trump champions the axiom that brute force is the only response to 
extremism — whether in Iran, Syria, Yemen or the Palestinian 
territories. He has embraced the hawks of the region, in Israel and the 
Persian Gulf, as his chief guides and allies.


But in many ways, this hard-line approach began to take hold under 
President Barack Obama, when those same regional allies backed the 2013 
military ouster of Egypt’s first elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the 
Muslim Brotherhood.


That coup was a watershed moment for the region, snuffing out dreams of 
democracy while emboldening both autocrats and jihadists. And American 
policy pivoted, too, empowering those inside the administration “who say 
you just have to crush these guys,” said Andrew Miller, who oversaw 
Egypt for the National Security Council under Mr. Obama, and who is now 
with the Project on Middle East Democracy. Some of the coup’s most vocal 
American advocates went on to top roles in the Trump administration, 
including Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Michael Flynn, Mr. 
Trump’s first national security adviser.


I was The New York Times Cairo bureau chief at the time of the coup, and 
I returned to the events years later in part to better understand 
Washington’s role. I learned that the Obama administration’s support for 
the Arab Spring uprisings had been hobbled from the start by internal 
disagreements over the same issues that now define Trump policy — about 
the nature of the threat from political Islam, about fidelity to 
autocratic allies like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and 
about the difficulty of achieving democratic change in Egypt and the region.


Mr. Obama and his closest advisers were often on one side of those 
debates. They hoped to shift established American policy and forge a new 
relationship with the Arab world in order to undermine the appeals of 
anti-Western extremism. Even in the final days before the takeover, Mr. 
Obama was urging respect for Egypt’s free elections. In an 11th--hour 
phone call he implored Mr. Morsi to make “bold gestures” to hold onto 
his office.


Most of his government, though, took the other side, reflecting 
longstanding worries about the intrinsic danger of political Islam and 
about the obstacles to Egyptian democracy.


In a White House meeting the day after Mr. Morsi’s ouster — two days 
after that last phone call — Mr. Obama yielded to those views when he 
accepted the military takeover. In doing so, he had taken a first step 
toward the policies that have become the overriding principles of the 
Trump administration.


‘He is the dumbest cluck I ever met.’

President Morsi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, took office on June 
30, 2012. He spent much of his energy struggling against resistance from 
an entrenched establishment — the soldiers, spies, police, judges and 
bureaucrats left in place from six decades of autocracy.


But he was an inept politician and he made his own mistakes, too. In 
November 2012, as part of a battle with the judiciary to push through a 
referendum on a new constitution, Mr. Morsi declared his own decrees 
above judicial review until it had passed. Many Egyptians, especially in 
Cairo, were angry at the new president for failing to fulfill the 
promises of the Tahrir Square uprising.


Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whose rulers feared elections 
and dreaded them even more if they were presented as Islamic, lobbied 
hard to convince Washington that Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood 
were a threat to American interests. And American officials later 
concluded that the United Arab Emirates were also providing covert 
financial support for protests against Mr. Morsi.


The United States provides $1.3 billion a year in military aid to Egypt, 
more than to any other country besides Israel, and after the uprising in 
2011 the Pentagon boasted that its aid had helped convince the Egyptian 
generals

[Marxism] “We need new revolutionary tools to advance the struggle of the working class” – Peoples Dispatch

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Interview with NUMSA leader in South Africa.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2018/07/21/we-need-new-revolutionary-tools-to-advance-the-struggle-of-the-working-class/
_
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

Re: [Marxism] [pen-l] Jared Bernstein on latest GDP report

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Sober analysis -- note the use of the description "Goldilocks aspects"
of the report.

The last time we had a "Goldilocks" economy was just before the dot.com
crash  There has been some discussion about the inversion of the "yield
curve" which scares some forecasters 

Trump is surely a "wild card" in all this as is the "debt load" on
ordinary folks.

To be continued .

On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 7:57 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> Washington Post, July 27, 2018
> Q&As on this A.M.'s big GDP report; The good news: We got strong,
> above-trend GDP growth last quarter. The bad news: It's still not reaching
> people's paychecks
> by Jared Bernstein
>
> What's the top-line number? The most aggregate measure of the U.S. economy
> posted a strong 4.1 percent growth rate last quarter, the fastest clip
> since 2014, and a marked acceleration over the first quarter's growth rate
> of 2.2 percent. By the way, the gross domestic product now stands at about
> $20 trillion, which makes it easier to put billions in context. If someone
> says "$200 billion!" you say, "That's 1 percent of GDP."
>
> While not quite top-line, a few other numbers from Friday's release are
> especially important. The headline growth rate of 4.1 percent is an
> annualized quarterly growth rate, which makes it quite noisy. Other
> measures are more useful to pull out the trend, or the underlying,
> sustainable growth rate.
>
> - Year/year: Between Q2 last year and this year, real GDP was up 2.8
> percent, slightly up from 2.6 percent last quarter (the figure below shows
> that the annual rate is a smoother version of the quarterly rates). Since
> 2017, the average year/year growth rate has been about 2.5 percent, which
> is a reasonable estimate of the underlying trend. As you can see at the end
> of the figure, GDP has accelerated a bit in recent quarters, but it's about
> where it was in 2014-2015, so don't let anybody tell you that Friday's
> results are unprecedented.
>
> - As I'll note, temporary factors, including the trade war, pushed up
> growth last quarter, which boosted exports and government spending. Final
> sales to private, domestic purchasers takes out those components but leaves
> us with an even stronger growth rate of 4.3 percent, suggesting quite
> strong private sector demand. Here again, however, it's more revealing to
> look at year/year changes, and the figure below shows a trend growth rate
> in this measure of about 3 percent around a steady trend.
>
> Why the jump to 4.1 percent?  Growth in the spring was powered by consumer
> spending, which contributed 2.7 points to the 4.1 top-line number. Business
> investment was so-so in the quarter, so not much to see from the alleged
> tax-cut effects boosting business investment, though it's still early for
> that. Housing investment was a negative, and given softness in that sector,
> I'm putting housing on my watchlist going forward. Net exports added a
> point to growth, a big contribution that is largely a function of the trade
> war, as described below.
>
> Sounds like good news. Is it? That's a trickier question than you might
> think. At one level, of course it's good news. It signals that the economic
> expansion is still solidly on track, even amid a lot of worrisome noise
> around trade. Moreover, the faster pace of growth in the quarter does not
> appear to pose overheating risks: A key price gauge rose about 2 percent,
> and workers' wage gains are, if anything, behind the growth curve.
>
> In fact, there's a lot of evidence that GDP growth is not reaching middle-
> and low-income workers, at least not as much as we'd expect given the tight
> labor market. Moreover, GDP is not the be-all and end-all that we often
> make it out to be, especially on days like Friday. It doesn't account for
> either environmental degradation or the distribution of growth, nor does it
> measure well-being, which, in richer countries, is only weakly correlated
> with GDP.
>
> That said, the absence of GDP growth, as in recessions, is unequivocally
> negative. Thus, the key insight about GDP growth is to recognize not just
> its importance but its limitations.
>
> What impact does the trade war have on Friday's results? Exports are a
> plus to GDP, and in an effort to sell their products abroad before the
> tariffs took effect, farmers jammed a lot of produce, e.g., soybeans, into
> the global supply chain last quarter. Such time-shift factors - export more
> now, less later - should not be conflated with the underlying trend.
>
> Ultimately, most of us who scrutinize such things believe the trade war is
> likely to slow growth a bit, in part through a high

[Marxism] How we lost America to greed and envy | Financial Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

It is hit or miss whether you can get to this article behind the FT 
paywall but it is worth trying since it has some interesting charts on 
how shitty the status of American workers is.



https://www.ft.com/content/3aea8668-88e2-11e8-bf9e-8771d5404543
_
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

[Marxism] Jared Bernstein on latest GDP report

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Washington Post, July 27, 2018
Q&As on this A.M.'s big GDP report; The good news: We got strong, 
above-trend GDP growth last quarter. The bad news: It's still not 
reaching people's paychecks

by Jared Bernstein

What's the top-line number? The most aggregate measure of the U.S. 
economy posted a strong 4.1 percent growth rate last quarter, the 
fastest clip since 2014, and a marked acceleration over the first 
quarter's growth rate of 2.2 percent. By the way, the gross domestic 
product now stands at about $20 trillion, which makes it easier to put 
billions in context. If someone says "$200 billion!" you say, "That's 1 
percent of GDP."


While not quite top-line, a few other numbers from Friday's release are 
especially important. The headline growth rate of 4.1 percent is an 
annualized quarterly growth rate, which makes it quite noisy. Other 
measures are more useful to pull out the trend, or the underlying, 
sustainable growth rate.


- Year/year: Between Q2 last year and this year, real GDP was up 2.8 
percent, slightly up from 2.6 percent last quarter (the figure below 
shows that the annual rate is a smoother version of the quarterly 
rates). Since 2017, the average year/year growth rate has been about 2.5 
percent, which is a reasonable estimate of the underlying trend. As you 
can see at the end of the figure, GDP has accelerated a bit in recent 
quarters, but it's about where it was in 2014-2015, so don't let anybody 
tell you that Friday's results are unprecedented.


- As I'll note, temporary factors, including the trade war, pushed up 
growth last quarter, which boosted exports and government spending. 
Final sales to private, domestic purchasers takes out those components 
but leaves us with an even stronger growth rate of 4.3 percent, 
suggesting quite strong private sector demand. Here again, however, it's 
more revealing to look at year/year changes, and the figure below shows 
a trend growth rate in this measure of about 3 percent around a steady 
trend.


Why the jump to 4.1 percent?  Growth in the spring was powered by 
consumer spending, which contributed 2.7 points to the 4.1 top-line 
number. Business investment was so-so in the quarter, so not much to see 
from the alleged tax-cut effects boosting business investment, though 
it's still early for that. Housing investment was a negative, and given 
softness in that sector, I'm putting housing on my watchlist going 
forward. Net exports added a point to growth, a big contribution that is 
largely a function of the trade war, as described below.


Sounds like good news. Is it? That's a trickier question than you might 
think. At one level, of course it's good news. It signals that the 
economic expansion is still solidly on track, even amid a lot of 
worrisome noise around trade. Moreover, the faster pace of growth in the 
quarter does not appear to pose overheating risks: A key price gauge 
rose about 2 percent, and workers' wage gains are, if anything, behind 
the growth curve.


In fact, there's a lot of evidence that GDP growth is not reaching 
middle- and low-income workers, at least not as much as we'd expect 
given the tight labor market. Moreover, GDP is not the be-all and 
end-all that we often make it out to be, especially on days like Friday. 
It doesn't account for either environmental degradation or the 
distribution of growth, nor does it measure well-being, which, in richer 
countries, is only weakly correlated with GDP.


That said, the absence of GDP growth, as in recessions, is unequivocally 
negative. Thus, the key insight about GDP growth is to recognize not 
just its importance but its limitations.


What impact does the trade war have on Friday's results? Exports are a 
plus to GDP, and in an effort to sell their products abroad before the 
tariffs took effect, farmers jammed a lot of produce, e.g., soybeans, 
into the global supply chain last quarter. Such time-shift factors - 
export more now, less later - should not be conflated with the 
underlying trend.


Ultimately, most of us who scrutinize such things believe the trade war 
is likely to slow growth a bit, in part through a higher trade deficit 
(in fact, numerous factors are pushing up the dollar, which makes our 
exports less competitive). While its impact on overall GDP growth may be 
small - we're much less exposed to foreign trade than other advanced 
economies - its impact on specific industries, like agriculture 
exporters, are already being felt. Moreover, the extent of escalation is 
unknown at this point, so this, too, is worth watching.


Is the strong number due to the tax cuts? Not just the tax cuts, but 
billions in deficit

[Marxism] How “public” is New York’s flagship public radio station? WNYC’s transition to corporate behemoth | Salon.com

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Good investigative reporting.

https://www.salon.com/2018/07/28/how-public-is-new-yorks-flagship-public-radio-station-wnycs-transition-to-corporate-behemoth/
_
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

Re: [Marxism] Why the Russia-Trump Collusion Conspiracy Theory Isn’t Catching On

[Greg McDonald via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Did someone say something about no evidence of Russian hacking?


“The Intercept, an online news outlet that a prosecutor said Ms. Winner
admired,
published a copy of the top secret report

 shortly before Ms. Winner’s arrest was made public. The report described
two cyberattacks by Russia’s military intelligence unit, the G.R.U. — one
in August against a company that sells voter-registration-related software
and another, a few days before the election, against 122 local election
officials.“

Lifted from the NY Crimes
_
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

[Marxism] Massacres in Australia

[Gregory Adler via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

I think that this link will reach the article Gary referred to
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/27/evidence-of-250-massacres-of-indigenous-australians-mapped
_
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

Re: [Marxism] Real News Network: Cuba's New Draft Constitution: Institutionalizing Revolution and Reversing Personalization

[RKOB via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

The changes in the constitution rather reflect the ongoing political and 
economic changes which take place in Cuba since several years.


See e.g. the following book:

Cuba‘s Revolution Sold Out?

The Road from Revolution to the Restoration of Capitalism

https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/cuba-s-revolution-sold-out/


Am 28.07.2018 um 08:20 schrieb Andrew Stewart via Marxism:

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Discussion the constitution with Prof. Liz Dore and James Early

https://youtu.be/Xbkc2XmxEWA



--
Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG
(Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net)
www.rkob.net
ak...@rkob.net
Tel./SMS/WhatsApp/Telegram: +43-650-4068314



---
Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprüft.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
_
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

[Marxism] With a Loud Ovation, Baseball Shows Its Whiteness

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/26/sports/josh-hader-ovation.html
>
>
>
> We live in an age of unbridled white id.
>
> Many days it is anything goes, baby, from the White House to the baseball
> stands; objecting often draws a scornful wave of the hand and a lecture on
> political correctness.
>
> The latest eruption comes courtesy of Josh Hader
> , a
> 24-year-old white relief pitcher with a smoking fastball and a Twitter
> account filled with hideous thoughts typed when he was 17 and 18. A Hader
> sampler: “White Power, lol” (with an emoji of a clenched fist), “KKK,” and
> “I hate gay people.” He also used that vilest of words for black people.
>
> This all came to light as Hader pitched in the All-Star Game last week.
> After the game, he mumbled something about being influenced by rap lyrics.
> Then he abandoned that tack and began apologizing profusely. “I was 17
> years old, and as a child I was immature,” he said, “and obviously I said
> some things that were inexcusable.”
>
> Point of information: A 17-year-old can drive or serve in the military,
> and is a year away from voting. That does not describe a child. I’m not
> unforgiving of youthful stupidity, although it would have been swell if
> reporters had asked obvious questions: How was it that you attended an
> integrated high school in exurban Maryland and yet posted racist and
> homophobic comments? From what sewer line did those sentiments bubble up?
>
> The more breathtaking moment, however, came nights later when Hader walked
> to the mound in Milwaukee in his first appearance since the All-Star break.
> Thousands of fans, nearly all of them white, rose and gave him a standing
> ovation.
>
> Who knows precisely what was on the mind of each fan who stood?
> Intelligence often fails to march in step with fandom. Hometown players —
> including Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun
> 
>  —
> are applauded after they lie about steroid use and, in Braun’s case, try to
> ruin the life of a drug tester.
>
> This, however, is a white behavioral moment worth exploring, and I type
> these words as a lifelong member of that race.
>
> Let’s pose a counterfactual: Josh Hader is black, and an excavation of his
> Twitter account reveals that he called whites “crackers,” wrote of his
> hatred for them and endorsed an organization that engaged in genocidal
> violence against whites. One of his tweets included a picture of a clenched
> black fist. That black pitcher had also expressed hatred for gays and made
> graphic, misogynist statements.
>
> I’m trying to imagine thousands of white fans rising to their feet and
> giving him a standing ovation, even after he apologizes and blames youthful
> indiscretion. Or, rather, I’m trying and failing. We know what happened
> when a few black football players of good character took a knee to protest
> police violence against black Americans: They were pilloried by the
> president of the United States
> 
>  and
> received no standing ovations.
>
> Some are now unemployed.
>
> Billy Bean, a former player who is gay, is the league’s sensitivity and
> diversity firefighter. If a player says something recondite or distasteful,
> you can look for him to come walking through the clubhouse door. He talked
> to Hader and oozed empathy afterward. “I sympathize for him tremendously,”
> Bean said. “I was really proud of him today.”
>
> Proud?
>
> The Milwaukee news media did no better. As fans rose to clap, a writer
> from the Journal-Sentinel
>  posted on
> Twitter: “Josh Hader announced as new Brewers pitcher and gets a nice
> ovation.”
>
> Afterward, reporters gathered around Hader’s locker.
>
> “Josh, that was an overwhelmingly positive reaction,” one asked. Do you
> worry, Hader was asked, that maybe in “other parts of the country that
> could get misconstrued a little bit?”
>
> Ah, those less sympathetic precincts.
>
> Baseball, once a sport with so many black stars, has fallen into an
> uncomfortable racial ditch. It has fewer and fewer black players and its
> fan base is the oldest and whitest of the three major American sports.
> Nielsen reported in 2013 that baseball television viewers were, on average,
> in their mid-50s, and 83 percent of them were white. N.B.A. games, by