[Marxism] "Ukrainegate" - Treason or common sense?
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 WSJ's "World View". This article implies that it may be both. The reality is that what we're seeing is an increasingly fragmented capitalist world order. The "Atlantacists" argue for stability based on the allied efforts of the imperialist world; the others argue it's a matter of "every man (or nation) for itself. " This, incidentally, was debated in depth in "Foreign Affairs" some months ago. John Reimann ‘Ukrainegate’—Treason or Common Sense?Beneath the circus lies a real conflict of foreign-policy visions. “Ukrainegate,” like Russiagate before it, is more than a domestic scandal; it is also a foreign-policy showdown of historic proportions. Much of the American foreign-policy establishment, both inside and outside the government, is liberal internationalist and Atlanticist. They believe that America’s chief task is to build a world order on liberal principles and that America’s chief allies are the NATO and European Union countries that share our convictions. They see Russia as the primary opponent of this effort and therefore of the U.S. Moscow’s efforts to interfere in European and American domestic politics threaten the cohesion of the EU and the liberal democratic principles for which the West stands. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea are direct attacks on liberal order and the Atlantic world. From this perspective, the war in Ukraine matters to the whole world. To use Ukraine’s aid as a bargaining chip in a cynical domestic political ploy isn’t merely a political dirty trick. It’s collusion with the enemy. It’s like blocking Lend-Lease during the Blitz to make Winston Churchill investigate Thomas E. Dewey. President Trump’s exact feelings toward the Kremlin aren’t of great importance. It doesn’t matter if he is being blackmailed into it, sees the Russian president as a soul mate and fellow traveler on the road to destroying American democracy, or is a malignant clown bent on destroying a complex international system that he doesn’t understand. Donald Trump, his most determined opponents believe, has committed something very close to treason even as he shamelessly abuses his office to enrich himself. For most Republicans, the Ukrainegate question is much narrower: Was Mr. Trump’s attempt to hold back congressionally authorized aid to force Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden a constitutional crime that requires removal from office, or can the decision be left to the voters? Unless investigators can show that Mr. Trump pressed Ukraine to frame the Bidens, to concoct false evidence and make false charges to discredit them, the president’s hold on the White House through January 2021 looks secure. It isn’t that Republicans don’t care if Mr. Trump is a Russian agent. They approach Ukrainegate differently because many of them, uneasy as they may be about some aspects of his foreign policy, see some much-needed changes taking shape. Among the administration’s most consistent features is a belief that the U.S. should change the priority it gives to the different theaters in world politics. From this perspective, the center of gravity of American policy must move from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific. Latin America deserves more attention as a growing social and political crisis creates larger threats in the hemisphere—of which the chaos on the Southern border may be only a foretaste. After Latin America, the threats of jihadist violence and Iranian expansionism make the Middle East the next-highest priority for the Trump administration. Europe, America’s highest priority for much of the Cold War, has fallen to fourth place. For the Trump administration and many of its Republican allies, Russia, because it is weaker and poorer than China, comes after Beijing on America’s list of geopolitical concerns—an important disagreement with the liberal Atlanticist foreign-policy establishment and not the only one. Beyond geopolitics there is ideology. The rules-based world order means much less to Mr. Trump and to many Republican senators than it does to liberal Atlanticists. The president isn’t a believer in the application of the broken-windows theory of foreign policy—that a violation of one rule in one place materially increases the chance of other rules being broken in other places. A “realist” in the jargon of international relations, Mr. Trump thinks that national power matters much more than international law. Given these views, it is natural that Mr. Trump and some of his Senate defenders don’t believe Ukraine matters much to the U.S., or that a few weeks or months of delay in military aid would have a discernible impact on world events. Even Republican R
Re: [Marxism] [pen-l] » On Those Questionable Jobs Numbers….Again!
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. * By Jack Rasmus. It’s important that readers understand that the monthly jobs numbers don’t represent actual jobs. They are a statistic. That means the raw actual number of jobs are not what’s reported. It’s a statistical manipulation–based on a series of complex assumptions and even more complex mathematical formula adjustments of the raw jobs data–that gets reported monthly as the job numbers. Moreover, the monthly numbers reflect jobs, not actual workers getting new employment. There may be workers adding second and third jobs, reflecting the jobs increase, but not actual new employment increase. The US Labor Dept. claims it captures added jobs by those already employed, but the numbers suggest its methodology may not be that accurate. The US labor markets have radically changed since the late 1990s and the BLS methods may no longer be accurate for picking up 2nd and 3rd jobs. The changes also suggest that maybe the government’s statistical adjustments for seasonality are not that accurate any more. full: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/on-those-questionable-jobs-numbers-again/ More on the disfunctional economy - homelessness The value of the wage must be reassessed when rents have grown at five times the wage rate in the last twenty years. We have a looming wage shortage, where working isn't working anymore. Moreover, with the developing trade war, the cushion to wages offered by cheaper imported goods is diminishing. As one of of the barometers of a dysfunctional economy,one in every ten children in NYC public schools is homeless, and given the skewed distribution in our communities, that puts a plurality of whole classrooms in that bracket. As to the underlying issue of poverty, one is told that those who don't work don't want work. that it's culpable addiction, failing to take advantage of the opportunities for education. There is no mention that jobs don't pay a living wage, with wages off-shored or replaced by robots, or reshaped into independent contractual status with no assured minimum time employed and no benefits; there's no jobs program, Trump is blaming local governments for homelessness, andneither political party pushes this as a major issue. You feel like a failure, you're either on the street or in a shelter or one paycheck away from it. Shelter is obviously no solution; it creates a stopgap and enables avoidance of the issue. Women, children and disabled people especially need not a shelter but a home, stable living space. Rental agencies don't want them: single parents are undependable rent-payers, children are vandals, a nuisance and extra expense, as are the disabled. The right to a home is basic, intrinsic to a humane society. So we put a billionaire real estate mogul in charge, and another one, a declared real estate development advocate, throwing vast funds into overcoming a Democratic Party candidate deadlock and replacing him. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] France's conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism
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. * These are some of my thoughts on this that I posted elsewhere. Paul F Have the initiators and supporters of this proposal thought it all through? France has quite strong laws against ‘hate speech’: the Wikipedia page starts: ‘Those laws protect individuals and groups from being defamed or insulted because they belong or do not belong, in fact or in fancy, to an ethnicity, a nation, a race, a religion, a sex, a sexual orientation, or a gender identity or because they have a handicap. The laws forbid any communication which is intended to incite discrimination against, hatred of, or harm to, anyone because of his belonging or not belonging, in fact or in fancy, to an ethnicity, a nation, a race, a religion, a sex, a sexual orientation, or a gender identity, or because he or she has a handicap.’ If, as this latest ruling states, anti-Zionism is considered as synonymous with anti-Semitism, then criticising a political philosophy — Zionism — and the actions of a nation-state — Israel — is liable to be considered in law an act of racial hatred towards the nationality or ethnic group associated with that philosophy and nation-state — that is, Jews. Therefore those making statements, issuing publications or organising activities that present a criticism of Zionism or of actions of the state of Israel are by so doing liable to be considered as contravening the ‘hate speech’ laws, and, if found guilty, they will be punished according to those laws. This sets up a significant precedent, by which political philosophies and public institutions are directly equated with a nationality or ethnicity, and are thereby protected by legislation that protects people on the grounds of nationality or ethnicity. If anti-Zionism is legally synonymous with anti-Semitism — that is, a political viewpoint is legally synonymous with a form of racial hatred — then criticism of Zionism and of actions of the state of Israel is in the eyes of the law ipso facto motivated by racial hatred of people associated with that philosophy and nation-state. Racial hatred on the part of the critic is thus assumed: the burden of guilt now falls upon the critic, who has to show that his criticisms of a particular political philosophy and actions of a nation-state are not motivated by racial hatred of the people associated with that philosophy and nation-state, rather than an accuser of the critic having to prove that the critic is thus motivated. This also sets up a significant precedent. Other things follow. Either this legislation means that criticism of Zionism and the state of Israel is to be treated in law in a different manner than any criticism of any other political philosophy and nation-state, or, if one is to avoid the unique treatment of Zionism and the state of Israel, the principle must be extended to cover all nationalist philosophies and nation-states. Either way, another significant precedent will have been set. However, if the second proposal is implemented and the precedent set by this new law is extended to all nationalist philosophies and nation-states, then politics becomes essentially impossible: anyone can assert that criticism of this or that nationalist agenda or policy of a nation-state is motivated by racial hatred and have the force of the law brought down upon the critic. (I can’t help thinking that some people have already been thinking along these lines: Modi’s supporters here are busy implementing this second proposal, condemning Corbyn as ‘anti-Indian’ because of Labour’s opposition to the Indian government’s nationalist policies in Kashmir; others will no doubt follow…) The only political philosophies that will be allowed to be criticised without the speaker or writer being likely to be up before the beak on racial ‘hate speech’ charges are ones that are not associated with any particular nationality or ethnicity. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Trump Slammed For Insisting 'Killer' Real Estate Jews Will Back Him To Save Their Wealth | HuffPost
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. * Literally all of the Jewish groups that responded to Trump (including Jewish Voice for Peace) missed the point (or purposely obscured it). The comments about Jews being disloyal had nothing to do with anti-Jewish bigotry -- and notably, they were about loyalty to Israel, not the United States. Accusing Jews of not being loyal to a *foreign state* is hardly playing into the trope of dual loyalty. These comments were aimed at Israel's victims. If anything they were appeals to Zionism and Islamophobia. They are analogous to white supremacist statements that whites who are insufficiently racist are "race traitors," etc. When a Nazi calls a white person a "race traitor" he is not engaging in anti-white bigotry. He is demeaning black and other non-white peoples. Same for this: Trump's comments were an appeal to the right-wing of the Jewish community that sees virtually any dissent on Israel as insufficient chauvinism. Every one of these Jewish liberal types basically erased Israel's victims from the discussion, even though they were the actual targets of Trump's rhetoric. Imagine someone perceiving accusations of race treason by white supremacists as an attack on white people. What nonsense. The stuff about people involved in the real estate business (including the guy who set up the organization, Sheldon Adelson) simply weren't tropes. They were more or less accurate statements about some of the people who support IAC and given Trump's own involvement in the same business he was probably referring to actual individuals in the audience. The Democrats did this last round as well with the Brietbart story about "Renegade Jews". They claimed it proved that Brietbart, Steve Bannon, and by extension, Trump were anti-Semitic. It was equally misplaced, because the Brietbart story was not aimed at Jews per se, but Israel's victims: https://forward.com/opinion/385599/calling-steve-bannon-an-anti-semite-isnt-just-false-its-dangerous/ They are basically doing the same thing this round. They know that talking about Trump's actual racism is not politically saavy and is "controversial" so instead they're manufacturing stories about anti-Semitism, which is safer because it's also used as a bludgeon against the Left, Muslims, etc. Amith R. Gupta On Mon, Dec 9, 2019 at 7:52 AM Louis Proyect 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. > * > > > https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jews-denounce-iac-wealth-stereotypes_n_5ded7f16e4b07f6835b4c534 > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/amithrgupta%40gmail.com > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] First Irish working-class poetry anthology published | Special to People’s World | People's World
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[Marxism] The importance of ecological economics: An interview, with Herman Daly
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[Marxism] As Water Runs Low, Can Life in the Outback Go On?
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, Dec. 9, 2019 As Water Runs Low, Can Life in the Outback Go On? By Livia Albeck-Ripka EUCHAREENA, Australia — Fleur Magick Dennis has stopped showering every day, allowed her vegetable patch to die and told her four sons to let the dishes pile up. Sometimes, all her family has is bottled water, and they have to preserve every drop. A year and a half ago, the reservoir in their town, Euchareena, went dry, leaving the family and some other residents without running water. “I didn’t think I’d be in this position, trying to fight for water for basic human needs in Australia,” Ms. Magick Dennis said. As a crippling drought and mismanagement have left more than a dozen Australian towns and villages without a reliable source of water, the country is beginning to confront a question that strikes at its very identity: Is life in Australia’s vast interior compatible with the age of climate change? In the outback — a landscape central to Australian lore, far removed in distance and spirit from the coastal metropolises — rivers and lakes are disappearing, amplifying fears that wide swaths of rural territory may eventually have to be abandoned. Euchareena and Australian towns like it are far from alone. A quarter of humanity lives in countries that are using almost all the water they have, according to data published by the World Resources Institute in August. Shortages have plagued places from California to Cape Town, South Africa, which narrowly escaped running out of water last year. But Australia, the most arid inhabited continent, is unique among developed nations in its vulnerability to the effects of climate change, scientists say. With the country’s driest spring on record just concluded and another hot, parched summer likely to be ahead, the challenge of keeping Australia hydrated is only becoming more urgent. “People think about climate change as this very faraway prospect, but in fact, it’s here now,” said Joelle Gergis, a senior lecturer in climate science at the Australian National University in Canberra and an author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “We’re starting to glimpse what the future is going to be like,” Dr. Gergis added. “It’s possible that parts of Australia will become uninhabitable.” Australia’s cities — which rely on expansive dams and, increasingly, plants that transform seawater into drinking water — may be able to sustain themselves even in the driest conditions, policy experts say. However, “as soon as you go inland and you don’t have the ocean, we’re not going to be fine, and I don’t think anyone knows what the solution is,” said Ian Wright, a senior lecturer in environmental science at Western Sydney University, who worked with Sydney’s water utility for more than a decade. “It is so dire right now; I’d say it’s an absolute crisis,” Dr. Wright added. “It’s beyond desperate.” Farming families and Indigenous communities, which in their different ways have carefully managed the land’s scarce resources, may have to relocate. Australia’s tourism industry, which has always heavily promoted the outback as a destination, could also suffer. And with fire season off to a ferocious start, towns like Euchareena live in fear that they might not be able to stop any blazes that ignite. We’re a “tinderbox waiting to go up,” Ms. Magick Dennis, 40, said as she waited on her porch for a water truck to reach the village, a dusty strip of homes in a region of fewer than 200 residents a four-hour drive from Sydney. Atop a hill sits a 20,000-gallon tank, the only resource residents have to fight a fire. Ms. Magick Dennis and her children used to enjoy swimming at the village dam in the summer. Now, though, the creek bed is littered with dead reeds and mussel shells; the surrounding eucalyptus trees are exposed at the roots. “It’s beyond going, ‘Oh, it’s going to rain soon and it will get better,’” said Ms. Magick Dennis, who has considered moving. “The ecosystem is really damaged.” In rural Australia, that damage often results from a complex interplay of mismanagement, drought and climate change. The conservative Australian government has approved water-intensive mining projects and made contentious deals with agribusiness — agreements that are often blamed for the degradation of the country’s waterways, which sustain dozens of communities and hundreds of native plant and animal species. A lack of investment has also put the country behind nations like the United States and China in its ability to model future climate and water scenarios, said Andy Pitman, the director of the
[Marxism] Breaking news: U.S. officials have been lying about Afghanistan
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. * To quote Capt. Renault: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" https://www.washingtonpost.com/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] » On Those Questionable Jobs Numbers….Again!
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. * By Jack Rasmus. It’s important that readers understand that the monthly jobs numbers don’t represent actual jobs. They are a statistic. That means the raw actual number of jobs are not what’s reported. It’s a statistical manipulation–based on a series of complex assumptions and even more complex mathematical formula adjustments of the raw jobs data–that gets reported monthly as the job numbers. Moreover, the monthly numbers reflect jobs, not actual workers getting new employment. There may be workers adding second and third jobs, reflecting the jobs increase, but not actual new employment increase. The US Labor Dept. claims it captures added jobs by those already employed, but the numbers suggest its methodology may not be that accurate. The US labor markets have radically changed since the late 1990s and the BLS methods may no longer be accurate for picking up 2nd and 3rd jobs. The changes also suggest that maybe the government’s statistical adjustments for seasonality are not that accurate any more. full: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/on-those-questionable-jobs-numbers-again/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Dollar Meals and Diabetes
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. * Logan County, West Virginia was the epicenter of the final battle of the “mine wars” of the 20th century: the Battle of Blair Mountain. In 1921, thousands of miners—white, black and immigrant—stood together and took up arms against the forces of state and corporate terror that held them hostage in coal country. They were proud workers and they knew they deserved better. To the defeated and discouraged working class of present-day Appalachia, the story of the Battle of Blair Mountain must sound like a fairy tale. Today, Logan County is ground zero for another battle—the struggle to survive in a region with the highest rates of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) in the country.[1] It is a place where all the risk factors for this global pandemic come together: chronic economic stress, broken communities, powerlessness, poverty, and toxic food. https://www.sustainlv.org/focus-on/dollar-meals-and-diabetes/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] A dissolving exoplanet prophesies our solar system's final days | Salon.com
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. * (Five billion years? Not to worry. We won't make it to the year 2300 at the rate things are going unless we've gone communist.) Our sun is categorized as a yellow dwarf star, and is still in the early phase of its life, generating excess energy by fusing hydrogen into helium. In about 5 billion years, the sun will run out of its supply of hydrogen, and, being too cool to fuse higher elements, will cease thermonuclear fusion. At that point, the sun will expand, transform into a red giant, growing hundreds of times larger and engulfing nearby planets, like Mercury, Venus and perhaps Earth. https://www.salon.com/2019/12/08/a-dissolving-exoplanet-prophesies-our-solar-systems-final-days/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Trump Slammed For Insisting 'Killer' Real Estate Jews Will Back Him To Save Their Wealth | HuffPost
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[Marxism] Bloomberg Condoned Sexual Assault by NYPD - CounterPunch.org
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[Marxism] Political Collapse: The Center Cannot Hold - CounterPunch.org
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[Marxism] Nina Simone: An Artist's Duty Is to Reflect the Times | Chris Guiton | Culture Matters
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