[Marxism] "Ukrainegate" - Treason or common sense?

2019-12-09 Thread John Reimann via Marxism
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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 

Re: [Marxism] [pen-l] » On Those Questionable Jobs Numbers….Again!

2019-12-09 Thread Ralph Johansen via Marxism

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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.

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Re: [Marxism] Trump Slammed For Insisting 'Killer' Real Estate Jews Will Back Him To Save Their Wealth | HuffPost

2019-12-09 Thread A.R. G via Marxism
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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:

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> https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jews-denounce-iac-wealth-stereotypes_n_5ded7f16e4b07f6835b4c534
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[Marxism] First Irish working-class poetry anthology published | Special to People’s World | People's World

2019-12-09 Thread Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism
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https://peoplesworld.org/article/first-irish-working-class-poetry-anthology-published/


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[Marxism] The importance of ecological economics: An interview, with Herman Daly

2019-12-09 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue90/DalyMorgan90.pdf
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[Marxism] As Water Runs Low, Can Life in the Outback Go On?

2019-12-09 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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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

2019-12-09 Thread Mark Lause via Marxism
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To quote Capt. Renault: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is
going on in here!"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/
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[Marxism] » On Those Questionable Jobs Numbers….Again!

2019-12-09 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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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/

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[Marxism] Dollar Meals and Diabetes

2019-12-09 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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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/
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[Marxism] A dissolving exoplanet prophesies our solar system's final days | Salon.com

2019-12-09 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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(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/
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[Marxism] Trump Slammed For Insisting 'Killer' Real Estate Jews Will Back Him To Save Their Wealth | HuffPost

2019-12-09 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jews-denounce-iac-wealth-stereotypes_n_5ded7f16e4b07f6835b4c534
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[Marxism] Bloomberg Condoned Sexual Assault by NYPD  - CounterPunch.org

2019-12-09 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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By Ishmael Reed.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/09/bloomberg-condoned-sexual-assault-by-nypd/
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[Marxism] Political Collapse: The Center Cannot Hold - CounterPunch.org

2019-12-09 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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By Kirkpatrick Sale

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/09/political-collapse-the-center-cannot-hold/
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[Marxism] Nina Simone: An Artist's Duty Is to Reflect the Times | Chris Guiton | Culture Matters

2019-12-09 Thread Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism
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https://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/arts/music/item/3208-nina-simone-an-artist-s-duty-is-to-reflect-the-times


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